Neil Giraldo was writing a screenplay when the idea to start a whiskey brand hit him. That’s usually how it works for him. He wasn’t chasing a trend or looking for a second act. He was just doing what he’s always done: following a feeling wherever it leads. “The flow of creative moments happens when you’re not thinking too hard on one particular thing,” says Giraldo, the guitarist, producer and songwriter who spent decades shaping the music of his wife, four-time Grammy winner Pat Benatar.
The screenplay was a hybrid documentary about musicians in Giraldo’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, who never quite fulfilled their dreams. While he was looking for seed money, a friend suggested approaching spirits companies for funding. Giraldo had a different idea: “Why don’t we start our own company?”
Three Chord Bourbon was born in May 2016. The screenplay remains unfinished.
Why Neil Giraldo Chose Bourbon Over Vodka or Tequila
Giraldo was specifically interested in starting a bourbon company, but his business manager pushed back immediately. Vodka would be easier, and tequila would be cheaper. So, why bourbon? “I’ve challenged people in music my whole life,” he says. “I challenged myself, and I wanted to pick one of the toughest ones.”
There’s a through line there that runs from Giraldo’s Sicilian upbringing in Cleveland all the way to Three Chord. Growing up, his family made wine in the garage from grapes his neighbor grew in their urban backyard. His mother stretched every ingredient across four days of meals. “Sicilian cooking is really peasant cooking,” he says. “We didn’t necessarily have the best of ingredients. We just took what we had available, and the craftsmanship of it is where the important part comes.”
That ethos translated directly to how he approaches bourbon.
With Three Chord Bourbon, Giraldo’s goal was to make something you sit with. Something you sip while listening to music or catching up with a friend. “I wanted a whiskey where people could sit and talk and have conversation, feel good, relax, talk about stuff,” he says. “Be in the moment. Respect the moment.”
That phrase, respect the moment, became the brand’s North Star.
How a Producer’s Ear Shaped Three Chord’s “Perfectly Tuned Taste”
Three Chord’s proprietary blending process—what Giraldo calls “Perfectly Tuned Taste”—came together through his collaboration with the brand’s whiskey maker, Ari Sussman. Sussman is based out of Michigan’s Ugly Dog Distillery, where Three Chord is co-packed, and his relationship with Giraldo mirrors the producer-artist dynamic that Giraldo has known for decades.
Early in the partnership, Sussman brought Giraldo to a bar in Ann Arbor to blind taste 17 different whiskeys. Near the end of the session, one whiskey stopped him cold. “I took a sip from it, and I just go, ‘That’s it. That’s exactly what I want,’” he says.
The bartender revealed it was an A.H. Hirsch Reserve 16-Year-Old, one of the most coveted bourbons in the world. That experience clarified something important: Giraldo’s discerning palate translated directly from the recording studio to the blending room. “Maybe your snare drum’s a little too loud in your mix or the EQ’s a little off or the vocals need to be a little quieter around the track to make it sound bigger,” he says. “Those little tiny details are very, very important.”
Those tiny details also matter when blending whiskey.
Building a Brave, Unpolished Brand Identity
Three Chord’s brand pillars of being bold, unpolished and unapologetic didn’t arrive fully formed. They evolved the same way some of Giraldo’s best songs did: through bravery.
“I was brave. I didn’t care what anyone thought,” he says of his early years in music. “When somebody at the record company said they didn’t like a song, I said, ‘Too bad. I’m not going to change it.’ And they became hits after that.”
He brought that same conviction to Three Chord. When team members looked to him for direction, his answer was always the same: Stop trying to be a polite whiskey company. Be brave. Stand for something.
Why Three Chord Chose a Co-Packing Model
Giraldo says one of his sharpest early decisions was choosing not to build his own distillery. By adopting a co-packing model with Ugly Dog, Three Chord’s resources stay focused on what matters most.
“It enables the creativity of the juice itself to be the priority,” Giraldo says. “It really helped us. We were able to spend more time making whiskeys rather than economically draining us to pieces.”
In a crowded and increasingly consolidated premium spirits market—one littered with flawed and fading celebrity brands, at that—that discipline has become one of Three Chord’s greatest advantages.
Why Music and Whiskey Pair So Well
If you ask Giraldo about how Three Chord plans to stay relevant for its second decade, he doesn’t turn to market data or sales figures or demographics. Instead, he reaches for something far more fundamental: the overlap between people’s love of music and whiskey.
“Everybody loves music,” he says. “If I say to a crowd of 500 people, ‘How many of you have ever played an instrument in your lives?’ It’s probably 95% of people. They all play. They’re all ingrained in music. They love music. So what’s better to listen to and to sip whiskey: Three Chord bourbon and music.”
The awards have validated the approach. To date, Three Chord has enjoyed a Whiskey Maker of the Year award in 2023, inclusion on multiple top American whiskey lists and a 93-point rating for its Amplify Rye. Giraldo appreciates the recognition the way a music producer appreciates a good chart position: briefly, then moves on. “People say your greatest work is the next work you’re going to do,” he says. “I just always lean forward rather than backward.”
This article was first published in the November/December 2026 issue of SUCCESS® magazine. Get your copy here.
Photos courtesy of Neil Giraldo
