Whenever Stephen Curry’s wife, Ayesha, visited with renowned vintner John Schwartz to discuss her line of wines, Curry—the Golden State Warriors NBA superstar—gravitated toward Schwartz’s bourbon collection. “She would drink all my wines, and he’d drink all my bourbons,” Schwartz recalls. “I said, ‘Dude, we ought to just make bourbon together. That’s what you drink.’”
Curry, the greatest three-point shooter in NBA history, four-time NBA champion, two-time MVP, and Olympic gold medalist, was in, eyeing the prospect like he focuses on the rim on his three-point shot.
“We started talking about the opportunity to do something curated and special based on my tastes and flavor profiles,” Curry says. “It was a passion of getting something in a bottle that I was proud of and that could hopefully bring new energy to the bourbon category, especially for the younger demographic.”
The collaboration led to Curry’s Gentleman’s Cut, a five-to-seven-year-old, 90-proof Kentucky straight bourbon, as well as special-edition bourbons and a rye whiskey under the Player Exclusive label. For the venture, Curry, who was raised in North Carolina and attended Davidson College, partnered with Kentucky’s Boone County Distilling Co.
As Curry looks ahead to his eighteenth NBA season, we caught up with him on a video call to discuss his foray into bourbon, what first drew him to the spirit, and which player surprised him with his home bar.
What sparked your interest in bourbon?
Creating memories and learning the world through different offerings in the whiskey-bourbon category. Golf has been a big part of how I got exposed to bourbon. Basically what happened, you get introduced to different labels and try stuff. For me, it was Weller that became the hook, line, and sinker for my bourbon interest and to start really understanding the history of bourbon.
There are bourbon aficionados out there. I don’t claim to be one. I’m a bourbon fan and drinker and was just curious about it. That’s what got me into this space. I’m proud of what’s in our Gentleman’s Cut bottle and wanted to grow with it.
I’ve heard that when you first started digging deep, you asked all the right questions. What did you want to know and why?
Just the integrity of what was going into the bottle and that with our distillery process we weren’t going to cut any corners, and the team behind the distillery. Then it came to all the different choices that you can make for a finished product, whether it’s the proofing or the mash bill, and we have an ability to fine tune and tweak based on what I prefer.
It was also a community experience, bringing all of my friends and family who were interested in it with me to the tasting sessions and getting everybody’s opinion on it. That’s the part of what makes it fun because as you know, with bourbon you want to be in one place, enjoying it, sipping it, enjoying the sights and sounds of the moment and creating memories around that.
What else did you want to learn about?
The mash bill questions were the biggest ones and understanding what happens to the liquid if you raise the profile of the rye versus [aging in] the oak barrel, and what changes from five to seven years and seven to ten years, the temperature changes, the things that happen over the course of the process and what goes into the barrel and what comes out.
Going to our distillery in Boone County, I wanted to understand why bourbon has been a part of American history the way it has and why that region matters so much. Watching the documentary Neat was also a good intro to how bourbon history and American history are intertwined.
You have the Gentleman’s Cut label, which is your five-to-seven-year bourbon. You also have the Player Exclusive bottles, including a bourbon with chef José Andrés using Spanish sherry casks. What’s the story behind that?
This is where I think we can differentiate ourselves. The idea came from having a signature [basketball] shoe for a long time. You have your retail or baseline label—the shoe that you see on the shelves all the time, and that’s our five-to-seven-year bourbon. But to have these different iterations and energy plays that can allow us to celebrate special milestones or be able to broaden the brand into other cultural connections that matter, the Player Exclusive line gave us the ability to do that.
It started with our sixteen-year bourbon, which was a nod, the father to son, because my dad [Dell Curry] played sixteen years in the NBA. For me, when I hit that sixteen-year milestone, it was a great celebration of that moment. Then we had a rye that was aged around 4,000 days, which was tied into the 4,000 three-point record that I eclipsed last year.
We’ve brought in cultural ideas that speak to my journey—even with the Shacho Player Exclusive bourbon [finished in] Japanese Mizunara barrels that bring a totally different flavor profile. That’s based on a principle of Japanese culture that speaks to leadership and integrity. One, they’re conversation starters. Two, they’re different tasting experiences. It just speaks to community, which is a huge part of the important things that I see in life, too.
How do you like to drink it? Giant rock? Straight? Do you have a favorite bourbon cocktail?
I do love it neat—even up to 100 proof, which has a little more heat on the front end. When it comes to mixed drinks, it’s crazy how versatile bourbon can be. You can’t go wrong with the Manhattan or old-fashioned and all the different ways that you could put those together.
I’ll drink it no matter what way it is, but I do prefer it neat, sitting down preferably by a fire and preferably with a cigar next to it. That would be my A-plus, 10-out-of-10 ideal night.
Why did you decide to open a bourbon bar, the Eighth Rule, in San Francisco?
All good things have come from my wife. Chef Michael Mina was her culinary partner in their restaurant, International Smoke, and they’ve just been super tight friends for a long time. And obviously I’ve gotten to know Michael over the last decade-plus. He was reinvigorating a restaurant concept in San Francisco called Bourbon Steak right there in Union Square. He said, “Hey, there’s a space below my restaurant that I don’t know if you’re interested in, but I think it could be a great speakeasy that could be a nice complement to this restaurant upstairs.”
That was a no-brainer. It made so much sense. It’s been great to curate an experience there. We have a bourbon flight tasting, and it’s paired with a bunch of different bite-size dishes.
Given your North Carolina connection, besides playing the Charlotte Hornets once a year, how often do you get back?
We probably go back once in the summer, depending on family schedule and events. It is one of the things I miss the most because Charlotte is still home. I still love when I get to go there. I’ve been super impressed by how much it’s grown and the energy there. And so I don’t have a specific place that I like to visit other than my parents’ house that brings back all the nostalgia. It has been great learning the city again through my dad and my brother [Seth] and sister [Sydel], who live there now, and the new hotspots and new things that they’re doing.
Are there any players or some of your celebrity friends you talk bourbon with?
Now, pretty much everybody who knows I have a label, they want to chat. I went to Draymond’s [Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green] house for a party that we have for our team, and he has a little bar in his house. And when I walked in, it still almost caught me off guard because he had two of my Gentleman’s Cut bottles among all the other stuff that he had. Those moments are the best. When your teammate, your friend, your guy you’ve been rocking with for over a decade, you go to his house and it’s sitting right on his bar mantel, it’s pretty special.
