10. Third Pour - Blind Bourbon Bottle Share with Our Whiskey Tube Friends

And if I review something that's a little bit hard to find, then what I'll do is I'll give you recommendations on stuff that might be a little bit similar. So I do my research on that too. Good deal.

Awesome. And like I said, after having a few pours with Jim and the hotter stuff, when he first mentioned you, Jason, I thought it was smashed and drunk.

And I said, if you go back to my early episodes and watch my bowel-proof lights, probably getting close to smashed and drunk.

So we try a few samples with you.

So we want a fun show called Smashed and Drunk. I'll work on that one.

The third pour with Bourbon Road here.

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts, Jim and Randy. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Log Heads Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Find out more about their fine rustic furniture at logheadshomecenter.com. It was a bit of a rough night last night, wasn't it?

I don't know. We got a little off the chain.

A lot of pours there, Jim. It was. This is our first ever third pour episode. I think I'm going to like these. Yeah, this is a lot of fun. They're a little more laid back. Just for those who are not familiar with what we're talking about, third pour episode is an episode where we don't do an interview. We don't talk to a guest and ask them, about their history and what they do and all that kind of stuff. This is just about enjoying some fine pours with friends.

And to me, that's what the bourbon culture is all about, really, is that whole camaraderie, sharing some good times.

Absolutely. And you know, I think we call it the third pour because our normal interview episodes have a first and a second pour associated with them. Which sometimes goes out the window. But third pour is just a play on that. It just basically means we don't know how many pours we're going to have. We're just going to have a good time. And in this particular episode. Yeah, this one was special. It was. You know, we got to sit down with some friends who have YouTube channels with whiskey. a double blind. Did a double blind bottle share. Yeah. So we had on the show, we had Jason from the Mashed and Drunk Whiskey Room. Mashed and drunk, yeah. We had Scott from My Bourbon Journey. Right. And then we had Dusty, Dan, Trout from Dusty Dan's Whiskey Reviews.

His podcast, I'm not podcast, but YouTube show is coming up.

I know it. So he's actually pulling the trigger on that. Anyway, we had a great time. This episode is running about twice as long as a normal episode.

Yeah, so get ready.

Get ready. You're getting both barrels here. That's right. Well, we've got a nice little break in between each bottle. We have five bottles that we do in this Blind Bottle Share. And anyway, we'll go over the rules when we do the episode. But just to let everybody know, you definitely need to stick it out. Don't tune in and tune out. You definitely want to come back for each of the pours and then at the end, it's a great reveal. And it was a lot of fun. And we all agreed that Roadmap wasn't the best. That's right. Now I have to listen to find out what Roadmap was. There you go. All right. Let's get to it. All right. Sounds good. Hey, Randy, how you doing tonight?

I'm doing well and about to be doing better.

Yeah, we are in Simpsonville, Kentucky tonight, and we've got some great guests with us. Who do we have?

Scott. So, Randy, Jim, thanks for having me on. Appreciate it very much. I've been looking forward to this since you kind of reached out. So thank you again. Again, my name is Scott Page. I run the My Bruin Journey Whiskey Review Channel. So, yeah, again, thanks, guys.

Yeah, it's good to have you here, Scott. Jim Ranney, thanks again for having me on. I am Jason C. Jason Kalori from the Mashinger and Whiskey Room, also a YouTube review channel. Thank you so much for the support. Well, you know, since I started, Jim and Ranney, thanks again for having me on. Yeah, Jim and Ranney, thank you.

I'm Dan Trout or Dusty Dan Trout. I don't currently have a YouTube review channel, but I'm looking to do one. here in the near future. We're looking forward to it.

Dusty Dan. All right. Got some heavy hitters here tonight.

So we're actually doing something we haven't done before, Randy. So tonight we're going to have a blind bottle share. I guess you would call this a double blind bottle share.

And it's double blind because we don't know who brought what, and we don't know what it is.

That's right. So our wives, Randy's wife, Julia, and my wife, Melody, sent us all downstairs. And then they took the five bottles that we brought and they divided them into 375 milliliter flasks labeled A, B, C, D, and E. So each one of us has our bourbon in one of those flasks. Now, we don't know which one is which, but the ladies were kind enough to put a key in a sealed envelope over there. And we're going to taste each one of these tonight, and we're going to talk about them, and we're going to pick a winner. And I guess whoever's bottle wins gets the grand prize tonight, which was donated by Bourbon Barrel Rehab. They're a barrel art company here in Louisville, Kentucky, and they have made a very nice flight serving tray.

Yeah, I think it would be great when you take my picture with that, with the serving tray there.

How the confidence starts off early and so it begins. So we have already poured bottle A. So each of us have a Glencairn and we already have bottle A in our glass. And I guess the best thing to do here guys is just to start the tasting process. Nose them, taste them, talk about them. Rate them and we'll move on. Sound good? Sounds good. Sounds good, Jim. All right.

Is it OK if I answer what this is immediately?

Well, you're going to spoil it for the rest of us.

You might feel real proud of yourself. I don't even think it's mine.

Anybody calling that any notes on the nose? I'm getting right off the bat. A ton of caramel, caramelized sugars and oak. First thing I get, it's a really nice dark color here.

It is kind of dark. It's a, it's a dark amber. Yeah, it's very dark amber. So this one probably has spent just a little bit of time in the, in the wood. I would guess. Yeah, it's got a, I think we're, we're dealing with something here with a little bit of rye in it. Not a rye.

Yeah, definitely not a rye, but could possibly be a high rye.

I'm not going to call it the standard notes, because it definitely has the caramel vanilla note to it. Yeah, my first sip on the palate, I got a huge burst of citrus here.

Just delicious. I guess the other thing we didn't mention for the people watching or listening live, the way this coats the glass, fantastic. So maybe something that you'll filter potentially.

It's got some proof to it, I think. The rice spice that you mentioned, Jim, that pepperiness, I'm getting right on the front of the palate and it's kind of staying on the tip of my tongue. As it works its way back, you get some of that oak and then all of a sudden on the finish, I'm just getting a whole burst of citrus and caramel. Just really great from front to back.

Yeah, I mean like like he said, you know right off the bat that that nice spiciness hits the front Made it continues and then in the end you get the that that lemony orange zest that goes down, but i'm also picking up Just say it go ahead.

It's all right.

I'm actually i'm getting like a little bit of like a Strawberry jam. Oh, really?

Oh interesting interesting.

I thought you were gonna say on the finish I thought you were gonna say marzipan No marzipan Now is he wearing an ascot? The thing is starting to shape up for me like a baked apple pie. Ton of baking spices on the palate. cinnamon spice, but that black pepper, this is, I would guess this is a high rye, high rye bourbon. Definitely a lot of spice. I agree. And I'm not saying spice in the sense of it definitely tastes like a high proof, but I think it's not coming across as a high proof. It's coming across as a rye spice. Really beautiful peppery notes here.

And how about that finish? I mean, it just kind of, it's really given me this nice, warm, welcoming, There's a hug there, but I mean, my mouth just, I'm just sitting here waiting for that next sip. I really want that next sip.

Yeah. It's a really, really nice long finish on this.

And I mean, it really does coat the palette though. I mean, it's just, it's just there. It's not going, it's not going away. It's literally on the sides of my tongue, on the tip of my tongue, and then all through the, I mean, the finish of it. It's really nice.

Anybody want to try and just, just for the fun, guest distillery? No, we're not going to know until the end, but just for fun.

Four roses. That was my guess of four roses. I don't know.

I don't think this is a four roses.

Say maybe... The rye kind of takes you in that direction, right? The spice?

It does a little bit, yeah.

But Four Roses is the one thing I will say. Four Roses has never given me that much spice on the front of the palette, which has thrown me off a bit. We usually get it on the back, not so much the front end.

And it did hit you with quite a bit of heat right away. But for me, what triggered that was a little bit Four Roses when you start getting into those. you know, barrel strength type. The private barrel selects? Well, maybe not even private barrel, but just, yeah, I mean, I guess it would be, I guess it would be that, but.

I'm actually starting to pick up some earthy, a little bit of earthy notes now.

Yeah, the pepperyness on this has blown my mind. I thought it was going to dry out much more than it did. I was expecting it to dry out based on the profile that it had with the high rye and just where it was going. I thought it would have dried out more than it did and it never really did that.

I'll tell you what guys, let's keep sipping on this for a minute. And what I'd like to do is just get you guys, you guys watch the Derby this year? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. What are your thoughts on that finish and what happened there?

Well, I guess I would say initially upfront, I don't know if many people outside of the professionals who are used to watching that noticed it. I, we didn't, you know, now we were watching it in a bar and We never really saw the interference that they were talking about. So until they started kind of breaking it down and what they were looking for, you could see the argument that they were making, that the judges or officials were making. I don't know, my opinion is that, I mean, I think they made a very bold decision in what they did, but looking back at the official decision that they made, I think based on that, it was probably the right decision. I mean, he moved... a fair amount out of his lane to block that guy that forced him to have to essentially shut his horse down a little bit to prevent injury. Because had he not maybe done what he did, that could have been an absolute disaster.

Right. Yeah, I think, you know, I think people around the world have an opinion on this, certainly. I think everybody in Louisville, Kentucky is talking about it. Certainly, we all have very strong opinions about it. But Randy, what do you think?

Let me pull out my pistol here. Look, folks, you got to keep in mind the factors that go into this. It's like NASCAR in a sense. There's a certain amount of luck that goes with this. And if you're going to call interference, you need to call it all the way through. There were five horses mugged out of the gate. Okay. So when you take a two year old horse, you got a very inexperienced horse. Thoroughbreds are known to be a little bit skittish, especially at a young age. You've got a track where there's mud puddles all over the track because they were supposed to seal the track and now they didn't do it. And now we have mud puddles all over the place. You've got more noise than they've ever heard in their entire life. And you've got 20 horses on a track that in my opinion should only hold 14. And you don't want anybody to touch each other. Oh, now we're playing NFL folks. We can't touch the quarterback. Well, we can't do it. Don't go back there and smash it.

Well, speaking of speaking of NFL, I, you know, Jim, you had mentioned that this had never happened before. I'm like, what a time for, you know, if you're doing that referee, the referee's throwing the flag on the last play of the Super Bowl. Right. And that just never happened before in racing. One thing that did bother me about it is the stewards, the the three the three stewards that made the call.

Three stooges.

What do you think? Yeah, so Larry Moe and Shemp, they were reviewing it and they wanted to be questioned afterwards. They were very, very short with everyone, didn't really want to talk to anybody about it. Really, really didn't offer any real explanation what just happened. I thought that in itself made it look even worse than already what the controversial call meant.

Was it the right call? I mean, I don't know. I think they've set a precedent now to where it may be a couple of years before we get past this onto some other things.

And how is it going to affect other races upcoming? Are people going to be looking for that aha moment? Like, you know, is this actually, is this going to happen again? Are they going to call it? I heard there was a big announcement right after, you know, the winner has not been posted. People were kind of gasping. Don't turn in your tickets. They're not valid yet.

And I really, I really do agree with the fact that there should not be 20 horses racing in that race.

Yeah, that's a great point. It's a greed thing. And if you notice that things always go better in the Preakness and the Belmont because there's fewer horses. But then I'm the kind that would really make the racing world upset when I go, look, Horses isn't really fully developed until about four years old, and yet we're out here asking them to do things at two and three years old that they're not even really ready to do yet. I love it. Don't get me wrong. I love horses, enjoy horses, but there may be some other factors they need to take a look at.

They may be having trouble finding a steward for next year. I don't know, but you know, typically the chief steward, you know, you always see it every year when they have the race. The chief steward comes in the jockey's room and she goes, okay guys, let's be good out there. You know, let's have good sportsmanship. Let's have fun, blah, blah, blah. And that's it. And it's done. Now, you know, now they're in the limelight.

Well, and we have TV now. You can see everything instantly. You know, back in the day, the whole term, get the lead out, came from the jockeys throwing the lead on the backside because nobody was watching them, throwing them out of their back so they could go faster, you know. It's been like been her out there. in the past, you know? And all I would say is let's be consistent because Tacitus probably could have had a very good point because he was impeded at the beginning. You know, when everybody's trying to find their lane, all that's just racing. Well, OK. A horse spooks and jumps. Is that not race? You know, so it could go both ways.

Do you think they partially factored in as to where it happened in the race? I think it had to be that.

Yeah.

So.

Anyway, I thought it was kind of interesting.

So being here in Louisville or close to it, what you guys had said pretty much had split down the middle.

Yeah.

Are you seeing it now that a little bit of time has passed? Is it leaning more towards one way or the other?

I don't know that it's leaning leaning one way or the other too much because you know, I think that all the rhetoric has died down a little bit. I think that it's starting to like, okay, it's over. Let's move on. Right.

You know, one thing I did, I was thinking about was what if the way it happened, if you flip flop the two horses in terms of how it finished originally, if you, how would they have made that kind of decision? Maybe. Yeah. Who knows? You know,

You know, next year is a new year. I guess we'll find out. You know, the racing industry is under a microscope right now. You know, with what's going on at Santa Anita and the horse deaths and everything. I think that some things might change. Let's see how it goes next year. Does everybody have plenty of time to evaluate A? Absolutely. Yeah.

going over it and writing down some notes, and I'm just gonna review them really quick. Okay, that'd be fine. I get a fruity jam, okay. I get a sweet vanilla right off the bat with some sweet spice, peppery towards the finish, and then a little bit of light earthy notes. Those are some good notes. Yeah, and I would agree, this might be a Fort Rose now that I'm thinking

Okay, we're gonna mark you down for four rows.

Yeah, and I'm gonna I'm gonna mark it down for four roses All right, that's that's what I would go with for this one. Yeah. All right delicious bourbon All right.

Well, let's move on We'll go ahead and move on to bourbon letter B and everybody's palates are reset.

As best as can be possible.

So we've got a new bourbon here. Everybody, let's see what we think. Cheers. Now this one's a little bit lighter in color than what we just had. Really sweet on the nose.

Yeah. Yeah. This is candy on the nose. Oh my goodness. It is. Yeah. Yeah. This is beautiful. Vanilla butterscotch or there's original candies as I always like to say. Oh, that's smooth. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a very, very nose worthy nose worthy bourbon there.

Oh, like you just stepped into the Rick house.

Yeah. Definitely has a Rick house type sent to it. That angel share coming out. And the palette doesn't disappoint.

Well, that's, that's really unique. It's buttery.

Yeah. Very buttery. Very buttery.

Yeah. And I get a, um, kind of a chocolate raspberry note on this with the dark fruit, but very more, a little more pronounced than just dark fruit. Raspberry seems to come to mind.

Is this one a little more honey maybe?

Yeah, I can see that. Definitely getting some honey here. Even when you're nosing it, as weird as this may sound, it smells like it would be creamy.

For me, I can't get creme brulee out of my head. It's coming in like a vanilla custard, just pure vanilla extract. As it comes through, you get some hints of some fruitiness there. I would agree with I would agree with Scott there. There's kind of a burst of a little bit of a raspberry, maybe a strawberry. But then when it finishes, you get these rich, almost like those torched dark sugars on top of the sweetness.

So not quite a burnt marshmallow.

This side of burnt marshmallow. Yeah, correct. It seems like it's a lot of sweetness up front. And then mid to the back of the palate is when the oak and spice really starts to kind of kick in.

Now, this to me is not a, this is not a super proofer here. I think we're going a little bit lower. from what we had from letter A when you compare it, but it's still offering a nice warming finish here.

Anybody want to take a shot at what they think the proof might be?

100 to 110.

So Dan says 102 to 110. Well, if I had to guess, I would say, I would average that I would say 105. Maybe even lower, maybe 100 to 105 for me.

I think it's, I think it's somewhere a bit lower than that. Really? I think I would go like 95 to a hundred. Oh wow. Somewhere in there. Get a honey graham crackers.

Randy, you like to live in the lower proof world. What do you think?

Yeah, it's definitely lower than the first one was. I don't know. I could see it being around the hundred range actually.

How was it for your, for your palate there? You like the, uh, the sweetness of this one?

Yeah. But I get something a little different. You know, you guys were saying raspberry when it rounds the corner, but it rounds the corner. I got berry, but I don't know if it was raspberry, you know? So I'm sitting here pondering. Oh, I guess I had to have another sip.

Yeah, there's a honey, there's a deep rich honey and maple aspect to this that I'm getting as well. Maple, maybe that's... Yeah, the more I'm sipping on it, I think I'm getting a little bit more of a maple that's coming through as well. It's really kind of taking me in some different directions with each sip. It's a beautiful bourbon for, I'm thinking it's a little bit of a lower proof, but the mouthfeel and the way it's kind of sticking around is pretty impressive. Age? It's a little bit lighter. It's a little bit lighter. I would say anywhere between six and eight years. Yeah.

I was going to say there.

Good call.

Yeah.

I would agree. That marshmallow effect starts to kick in on this too.

Yeah. But normally when you get the burnt sugars, the, you know, the, and again, it's not too charred marshmallow for sure. Yeah. But when you get those burnt sugars, it's usually a little bit higher, right?

It's just interesting. And I'm wondering if, um, Sometimes that, depending on where this is aging in the warehouse, some of that oak maturation, you could get some of those spiky notes from the oak. I'm wondering if that's playing a part too in the spiciness of it, because it doesn't seem like I should be getting that much of it. But it's really...

There might be a decent amount of rye in this one. Yeah.

It's leaving a peppery kick to it.

There's a spike to it. There's definitely a little bit of spiciness and it covers, for me anyway, it covers the whole palate. I mean, really, I mean, if you really swish it around and chew it up, it just leaves that nice burn on your tongue and it just stays there.

But I don't get it at first. It's got it around that corner before I can get it.

The honey graham cracker sweetness is just, this is really, really good.

It's really good. It's off the sweetness factor here and the flavors coming out are just, I'm really enjoying this.

Yeah, I'm going to save a little bit more of this for my... For your infinity blend? For my infinity blend.

I might drink all this. I'm really enjoying this one. I wanted to bring up a topic really quick, guys, just to get your opinion on things. Maybe your guys' top bottom shelf bourbons. Does anybody have anything that they really go to, like a go-to bottom shelf bourbon when you're really looking for something? Mine would be the JTS, if you can find it. I can't really find it back home. I've had it, but... And what's home for you, Dan? Baltimore. Baltimore. Okay.

Yeah. Baltimore, what Wisconsin, Ohio, man, you guys are here from all over.

Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. JTS Brown, uh, bottled and bond. Yeah. I mean, it's a widely available here in Kentucky. You can usually find it just about anywhere you go. Yeah. What about Ohio?

Ohio a bottom shell for that. I like there's not many You can't qualify it as a bottom shell for but the cheapest bourbon I like to go to all the time is while turkey 101 I wouldn't really call it a bottom shell for though because it's not it's usually at the chest level right usually about yeah in Ohio It's about like rib level for me. It's like right here. I can just kind of reach a little bit lower for it but if I'm going bottom shell for probably Probably the regular Heaven Hill white label. It's not the bottom bond, but I can get it. I could get a handle of it for really cheap. Decent proof. I like it. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I'd probably go with. I like the old granddad bottle and bond. I like that sweetness up front. Nice spicy kick to it. 100 proof. Randy's range. Old granddad bottle and bond. It just sits there on the shelf and it's maybe I don't know, 15 bucks, something like that.

One of the local stores we actually stopped at the other day had the old Grandad, it had the JTS, it had the Heaven Hill white label, the green label. Old Fitz, I think was on the bottom, if I'm not mistaken.

The Prime. That's another good one. And speaking of bottom shelf, I know the Heaven Hill bottle and bottom has gone away or nearly gone. but a good replacement could still be the Heaven Hill six-year 90 proof. I mean, it's still a green label.

I should know. I take my selection back because I just remembered what else is on the bottom shelf. Yeah, but I just remember what else is on the bottom shelf where I am and that's the Edmund Williams bottom and bond. The white label. That bourbon to me, I can get for about 15, 14 bucks. And would you call that a suitable replacement for our lost favorite? For the lost, beloved, Heaven Hill bottle and bond. For me, for what my selection is, absolutely. You know, Evan Williams is, you know, it's a Heaven Hill product, but there is a little bit of that nuttiness character that I do miss in that Heavenhill bottom bond that I still get a little bit in that Evan Williams. So for me, it is a suitable replacement until somehow maybe it resurrects one year, or it comes back as a $150 12-year bourbon somewhere along the line. And that may happen.

That could happen, yeah. For me, I'm kind of with you, Jason. I drink Wild Turkey 101 all the time, but I have to be honest in saying, I don't think it's a bottom shelf bourbon. I think it's a middle shelf bourbon.

Yeah. I think the price hurts it with the, you know, people's view of it. You know, the price is so affordable that people may view it that way, but it's so much more.

Well, I guess the marketing people at Wild Turkey have managed to get it on that middle shelf. And it's newfound popularity amongst the bourbon lovers. I think it's always had that mystique, that biker, bad boy kind of, I don't know what it is, mystique. But I think it's found its way to the middle shelf.

Out of all the amazing things that have happened in this bourbon boom, one thing that I'm truly proud of is that Wild Turkey 101, now among bourbon enthusiasts and people even just getting into bourbon, they are seeing Wild Turkey 101 as a quality, amazing bourbon for the price.

And it's really always been.

And it's always been. It's always been, yeah.

So for me, if I have to pick from the bottom shelf, I'm going to go with a handle of T.W. Samuels. It comes in a plastic jug and it is 100 proof bottled in bond. You can get it right here at Total Wine in Louisville, Kentucky for $18 to $20 for a handle. Good stuff. Very tasty. Have you guys had it?

No. No? You gave me a pour of it. It was very impressive. If that was available along with the JTS Brown in Ohio, I'd be buying that every week.

Yeah, so it's a good pour. It's a good pick. It's a Heaven Hill product. And it is bottle and bond, so good stuff. Yeah, okay. It comes in a plastic jug.

That's okay. Mine's ancient age and it comes in a plastic jar. Take it home and I put it in a decanter. And when I do tastings, you'd be surprised how many times that sucker wins over some others. And what I've found is if I stay low proof, you guys laugh at me about low proof, but it keeps my palate to where when I'm hitting something a little hotter. I can actually taste it a little better in my opinion. So if I'm my daily drinker or something, bottom shelf stuff is something a little high proof, like, you know, that ancient age. And when I get around good stuff like you guys bring, I go, you know, really nice treat. And I feel like I'm able to taste it just a little bit better because I don't have the interference that you high proof guys have.

Warming up, warming up.

All right. Does everybody feel like they've had an opportunity to evaluate this last bourbon? Bourbon B. Bourbon B. Does anybody have any guesses as to the distillery?

I don't know. I thought right away like Buffalo Trace for some reason. I was going to actually say the same thing. As sweet as it was upfront, I get a lot of that. Usually with a lot of Buffalo Tray stuff is a lot of sweetness, you know up up front like that It was just very it was very well rounded I mean it wasn't it wasn't hot like I mean the first one had some heat to it, but it was a really really Well rounded, you know bourbon.

I thought I don't know if if that bottle is in this selection But this reminded me a lot of Blanton's gold

I was going to say just a Blanton's a nice Blanton single-barrel.

Yeah, Blanton's goal to me is a little bit sweeter than the regular Blanton single-barrel offering and This reminded me of that. Yeah, it brought me to that super sweetness. I can see that for sure. He mentioned gingerbread cookie. I was just thinking kind of a Christmas cookie type aspect to it and then that Again, on the very end, something I do get in Buffalo Trace products is, for me personally, I get this bright, toasted pecan note. And I'm starting to get that the more I sip on it, so I would probably guess Buffalo Trace along those lines.

Okay, well, we have a guess here. We have some tasting notes too, so. All right, so everybody, let's tally up what we think about this one, and then we'll move on to Bourbon Sea here. Sound good? Sounds good. Sounds good, right? We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Loghead's Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Loghead's Home Center, nestled in the hills of Kentucky, is an industry leader in building handcrafted rustic furniture. Family owned and operated, they take pride in offering only the very best for their customers. The Logheads, and that's what they like to call themselves, are skilled wood crafters who are passionate about creating rustic furniture for people who appreciate the beauty of natural wood. Owners Tommy and Gwen don't just sell the rustic lifestyle, they live it. And you can be sure that Loghead's furniture will always be handcrafted in Kentucky by artisans who embrace the simple way of life. Loghead's rustic furniture is made from northern white cedar, a sustainable wood that's naturally rot and termite resistant. Its beauty and quality will add warmth to your earthy lifestyle for generations to come. Be sure to check out everything they have to offer at LogHeadsHomeCenter.com. And while you're at it, give Tommy and Gwen a shout on Facebook or Instagram at LogHeadsHomeCenter. Okay guys, so we have bourbon C in our glass now, and who wants to start off talking about it? Randy, why don't you lead this one off, buddy?

You know me. I'm getting a lot of vanilla and caramel and a little butterscotch in this.

Well, you know what? You would be right.

No, it's a great nose on this one.

Getting a nice burst of cinnamon on this nose. Yeah, this one is cinnamon. And this one does have a lot of cinnamon.

But there's something in the background too. There's a spice in the background. I don't know what it is.

But you know, this one... Now, Randy always does this. He goes, There's a spice in there. Now, Jim, what is that spice? I'm smelling. I'm like, Granny, I don't know. Now Jim's on the spot.

There's something behind that cinnamon. Apple.

Yeah, there's apple.

There's apple in that. Definitely. I knew there was something. Sometimes you just can't put your finger on it.

Yeah, it's got some nice darkness. How's the legs?

Yeah, there's some nice legs. You know, I, I'm trying to get the proof. I haven't put it to my lips yet. I'm still on the nose.

Wow. The, the more I, the more you spin it around. Well, that apple is just really popping through now.

Oh yeah.

It's got a bite.

But cinnamon's bold on this one.

Oh my goodness. It's, it's, it's, it, it, it tells you it's there on the palate. Oh yeah. As I always say, it tells you it's there.

It says, I'm here. It's like the whole Bill Cosby dental thing.

But man, that just covers the palate though. Man, nice spiciness. That's a cinnamon pie right there.

Yep. That is apple cinnamon dusted with cayenne pepper. Wow. It's hot. Yeah.

I think it's definitely a higher proof. I don't think it's the it's like too much. I think this is above 120 without a doubt.

It's Dragon's breath for sure.

Getting a beautiful corn mash sweetness here to go back to the nose. There's a hint of a cherry man.

Dark fruit anyway. Yeah. Dark fruits. Yeah.

Yeah. However you want to.

How do you want to say that? Pick a dark fruit. Yep. There you go.

Get a lot of sweetness though too.

It's very, it's very sweet.

Very vanilla forward. Super.

Like a sweet tart. Yeah.

But you know what? It's, it's not like, it's not like a vanilla extract. It's not. No. It's more of a, like a, I don't know, like a creamy vanilla, I don't know, like custard.

Instead of grandma's closet, it's grandma's open window with the pie sitting in the sink.

Yeah, the cinnamon apple note in here, maybe a hint of cherry, is just completely coating my palate. And then the finish just hanging on with that spice. It just lingers. This is really nice pour.

You know, this thing screams buffalo trace to me. What about you guys?

I can see that. The cinnamon spice to it indicates wild turkey to me. Oh, OK.

Yeah, that's cinnamony spiciness to it. I don't think it's either.

But but while Turkey to me doesn't is never this Apple cinnamon forward or hot or yeah, seems like maybe maybe if you got up into some of the rare breeds.

No, I like rare breed. I don't know that it's ever done this to me. Yeah, exactly.

This is really hot and spicy.

That's for sure.

You know, this would it wouldn't surprise me entirely if this were a really off profile Russell's pick. It could be, could be, yeah.

A lot of the Russell's picks, and I love Russell's picks, and I know Jason, you love Russell's picks too, but this is drinking hotter than any, if this was a Russell's, it's drinking way hotter than any Russell's I've had. I agree.

Would you guess this was Colonel Taylor Bowelproof in that arena?

I don't get that on the nose.

I'd be able to pick that up. It's never been. The cinnamon apple aspect to it is what's thrown me off where I'm trying. I can't really guess.

I've never got cinnamon apple this strong. Exactly. Even with that. No, not even that.

It's got that much cinnamon after it. Yeah, there's so much flavor in here. Who was it that said there was a corn sweetness? I did. Yeah, there's definitely corn sweetness. There's a corn mash, like a fresh... It's almost like it's a young whiskey, but a well-aged sweet whiskey at the same time. It's kind of bizarre. Man, I don't know if this is young.

Somebody mentioned in one of the prior bourbons that we tried, a Rick House smell. That's what I get on this right here. This smells like the air at a distillery.

Yep. I have to tell you guys, we are having some phenomenal bourbons tonight. Oh, absolutely. We will be. Yeah. You guys brought your game, no doubt.

That's why I'm glad they let me even though I was picked last for the team I was not glad to be here just because I knew there'd be some killer stuff tonight This may be Finished in something or is it just me?

I'm not getting that I'm not getting a finish

This reminds me of A, but more savory than sweet.

The spice covered up some stuff in A that it's not doing here.

Exactly. It's, it's just, man, that apple cinnamon, there's a lot of baking spices in here that, Fresh corn sweetness. I mean it is it's really throwing me for a loop that apple cinnamon.

No brandy that you love is just really This finish is just It's like never-ending. It's stuck.

Yeah that mid is really solid that that spice and sweetness. That's all they're combined. It's Yeah, it's kind of a glorious finish right here.

It is saying allergens be gone.

I

Well, I mean saying thinking that this is not Saying this might be a new distillery. I know guys we were chatting a little bit What's your favorite new distilleries that have that have kind of popped up? and new still could be kind of old because you know new distilleries take a little time to to bring out some product, but if you could pick out something in the recent past that's been bringing out some good juice, what do you guys call out? What do you think? New Riff.

Yeah, I mean, that's a good call. I would have said New Riff.

Blom Brothers. There you go. Third time's a charm.

Blom Brothers is, I mean the stuff they've been putting out is an MGP. Now are they making their own?

They are. I think they actually have a two year out right now. And if you had it, I have, I mean, it's, it's not on par with what they've sourced. And I think it's going to take some time clearly. Cause the competition is, it's just not fair. So can you see through the youth and yes, I think they're really doing a nice job. So I think it's, it's got the potential with a little more age. Um, I think they're, they're doing a really nice job.

I mean, there's a lot of people that rave about some of their picks that they're doing over there. You know, Cork & Bottle has done one. No, this is of their juice. Of the Blom, yeah. They got the 11-year and the 12-year.

No, these are MGP-sourced picks. Correct.

The MGP-sourced is all the nother stuff. Yeah, the nother, yeah. Yep. So there's people that rave about those things. And Secondary Market, those things are, there's people asking for $1,000 for a bottle of it.

No, I know that the OKI from New Ref, when they were sourcing, that stuff is really skyrocketed on the secondary. And I think that, you know, Boone County is another one sourced that has really like skyrocketed.

Yeah, absolutely. Especially the picks, those 12, 13, 14 year old picks out of Boone County are some of the most sought after picks.

I'm on their mailing list and they send me an email and they say, hey, we're releasing a 14 tomorrow. And I'm like, do I really want to drive? But, you know, it's probably worth it if you want one. I've got one over there now. I've got a ghost collection. I had a pick for a while back. I don't think it was a prescription strength, but it was...

I have a ghost collection too, and it's really good stuff.

The one thing I love about Blom Brothers, going back to them, is how they named Nader Berbin, the cast ring. I have a 12-year bottle myself. And they took, they were very transparent about it and they even put it into the name. So you have not our bourbon became not a bourbon. That's perfect. So which is a perfect way to kind of let everybody know right on the label transparent wise and kind of a pun type of way. It's really, really cool. I really like that.

So I definitely appreciate when a company is transparent about those things because that's what it's all about. I mean, if a company is going to release a two year bourbon, You know, let's talk about it. Let's let's talk about it being a two-year bourbon and it is what it is And you know, I think a lot of us who drink a lot of bourbon can see through that youth And sort of take a picture in our mind of what it might be at four years or six years the potential down the road Absolutely But I would have said new riff Okay, Dan took your answer.

No.

No, I would have said that until I The Wilderness Trail. Oh my goodness. We had with the Lexington Roman Society.

And Randy, that's my pick. Wilderness Trail I think is making some incredible. So far, I mean, they impressed me off the bat. Their first bourbon that they released was a single barrel. We did. We did. Bottled and bond. Urban. That was our first release that came out with four years old. I would put that up against any weeder.

And as long as it has the corn, they can do what they want to.

I would. I would include. I would put that weeder up against a weller. I mean, it's that good. Especially some of the single barrels that you get. Being a single barrel, they do vary as you know with single barrels. But the quality and the consistency that you're getting out of that distillery already is amazing. I cannot wait to see what's coming down the pike with them. They're rye. is one of the better new rides that I've had. I mean in a time now where the bartenders are using a lot of rides, a lot of cocktails, Wilderness Trail, that ride in a cocktail is just absolutely stellar. I mean it's I cannot wait. I mean, I know Patrick Heist over there is doing some incredible things. Those guys have been working on working with different distilleries over the years, you know, touching. They have a touch point pretty much on every distillery within arm's length in any store you go to. So those guys know what they're doing. The yeast strains that they've created over, I think they have over 200 in their library.

So they created their own.

Yeah, just stuff that they're creating on their own. The cleaning process that they use, the way that they just do things. It's incredible and I cannot wait to finally get over there, visit there and talk to them more and see what's coming down the pike.

I can tell you this much, we had in our last episode, I don't know if last is the correct word because we don't know what order this is going to come out in, but When we had our episode with the Lexington Bourbon Society, they allowed us to taste some things that they had sampled down there out of the barrels. And there was one bottle that just absolutely blew my mind. And I think I told you that, Jason. So I don't want to talk about what it is. I don't want to talk about what we tasted.

All I can say is I dreamed about it.

But I tell you guys, be ready for some blow your mind picks from Wilderness Trail. There are going to be some good stuff coming.

I would imagine that coming from them with the way they're producing stuff. I know, Jason, you talk about that a lot, how excited you are to get some of that stuff.

Unfortunately, we don't have in Ohio yet. I've been fortunate enough to make some trips out of Kentucky. I've grabbed some some weeded bourbon bottles. I have the rye, so I do sip on that often. I don't sip on it too often because I can't get it so easily. I'm searching for their for their rye bourbon. But yeah, I am super excited for what they're producing.

So the picks are not available yet. And so we can talk about them all day long, but nobody can get them. But coming September, all right, they're going to start showing up. So keep your eyes open. And if you know some people that are on some picks at Wilderness Trail, get on the list, get some bottles, because I think you're going to be surprised at what's coming out. You know, particularly with a rye bourbon, you know, I have to be honest in saying that I, you know, first of all, I love their weeded bourbon. I thought it was delicious. It was honey. It was just so, so delicious. Such a good bourbon. Bottled in Bond, right? But the rye bourbon, that rye has caused it, and we talked about this, caused it to act a little older than the weeded bourbon. So it has this appearance of a little bit older bourbon. Old soul, I like that.

It's had a little bit of an old soul, yeah.

And it's absolutely delicious. So you've had the rye. Well, thanks, Jim.

You wanted me to want the other one more. Hopefully I could find it.

I don't know. Regardless, there's some good things coming from down the tube from some of these new distilleries, I think.

You can even kind of factor Peerless in there. I mean, they're not super old. I mean, they're just now beginning to release four year stuff. I mean, they're If we really want to lump them in, we were talking about, you know, wilderness trail like they're a few months old. But I mean, really, you know, pureless is in the same the same category and they're doing absolutely fantastic stuff. And we witnessed some great stuff, some great stuff. I mean, you you hear a lot of people talk about. two, three, four-year stuff as being super young, and I would never pay high prices for things, but I think at times a lot of people may not be tasting those things. Like, you know, you hear a lot of, oh, three-year rye whiskey for, let's say, 100, 125 bucks. I would never pay that. My question to you would be, have you ever even tasted it? I don't know if some of these people have tasted it, but it does not taste like a two, three-year rye whiskey.

Now, what is their ride match bill? I mean, is it 95?

That's a really good question. We didn't get into match bills as far as what they were.

Yeah, we were fortunate enough to sit down with Caleb Kilburn, the recently named master distiller since December of Peerless. And he went into some amazing details of what they do. If anyone's wondering why their their peerless bottles maybe cost a little bit too much for them If you saw the process and the passion of what they're doing that goes into each and every bottle I don't think anyone would question it. I think people look at it. They see an age statement They see a price and they judge it immediately These guys are creating a sweet mash which is more expensive to do because the cleaning process more manpower They're doing a low entry proof, which is more expensive to do hot still It's a column still. But everything that they're doing costs a little bit more to produce, even down to their bottle design, which was designed by the team in-house. It's a very family-oriented type of workflow there. And it's very impressive to see. There's a lot of passion, people very proud of what they're doing. The picks that we had the single barrel peerless rye picks that we had are like are unlike anything other Unlike anything I've ever tasted so their picks are wide-ranging. They really like it's unbelievable We had we had three picks one was called orange blossom one was called rye tie and the other one was a double-oaked mm-hmm so the orange blossom off of there. And so we tried their regular small batch rye first and it was very, you know, there's that typical rye notes, but definitely more rounded flavors. It would not taste like a three or four year. Yeah, it definitely feels older as Scott alluded to. Then we went to the orange blossom, more floral, definitely some cinnamon orange spice in there. Botanical, definitely different than any other rye we've tasted. Then we got to this rye tie. Which and Dan you could tell the flavor profile cuz he was he was flipping out.

I mean like Going even from just the front of the pallets of the back you pick up just rum notes. It's notes of just really yeah brown sugars the deep brown sugars nice rum notes oily and molasses it was it was fantastic and these were toffee these were sister barrels if i'm not mistaken correct these were these were barrels that were right next to one another that's what he said yeah and just came off completely different wow on the profile completely different and then we finished off with this double oaked where they were able to

Basically, the barrel that they were using was kind of breaking and they had to put it into a new barrel. So if you've had Woodford Reserve Double Oaked, it kind of had that profile a little bit, kind of more of a chocolatey, more of a caramel-driven type flavor profile for a rye. But then on the end, you got this really, that beautiful, peerless rye spice kick right on the end. And chocolate. ton of chocolate. I mean, it was remarkable to see what they're doing. The flavors that they're getting out of their younger rise, and they're up to a four-year, as Scott alluded to. They have a bourbon coming out. June 22nd. June 22nd. It's four years old. Caleb still said he was working on the blend for it, getting the barrels together, trying to get that flavor profile right. It's an amazing operation. I know people knock the pricing a little bit for them. Even when we were sitting down with Bill at dinner, he said he has no idea how they get those flavors.

from whiskey that's that.

That was one of the things I thought was most interesting. Yes, we all think the same thing. And a lot of people want to kind of poo poo to three year anything. And Bill, he couldn't believe it. And they taste a lot of things as well. I mean, they're picking stuff for their new their new bourbon. And he had no idea how in the world they were pulling those flavors.

I would honestly say if you guys could ever get a chance to go over there and grab one of those rye tie picks, you will not be disappointed.

Well, you know, we live 20 minutes from there, so it's a shame that we haven't been there already. I know that's right. But, you know, so there's two things that cause bourbon to appear or age a little bit better. One is a higher rye content. I think it tends to help a bourbon, well, or rye. appear to be a little bit older than it is. The other thing is, you know, the weather. And we all know, we've all heard about the Texas whiskeys, right? Jason, you've reviewed a few Texas whiskeys.

Yeah, recently. Yeah, Josh Galladay over at Cast Strength out in Texas. They're actually doing something very pretty, pretty unique. They have three different three different members of their gang kind of doing a different location and reviews, but they're all part of one channel. It's kind of cool. But they sent me a balconies tasting kit, which I got to do a blind on my channel. Did pretty good on the blind, but some really unique flavors. I recently reviewed iron root harbinger, which is an absolutely probably the best Texas bourbon I've tried so far out of a core range. But the balcony is some of their Some of their special offerings were absolutely unreal, but I equate a Texas whiskey to the modern dusty. It's got this dusty musty funk to it that just has a very unique flavor profile that I really like dusty.

So there is a corn must and there is a warehouse must. Yes. So which one are we talking about? Warehouse must warehouse must. OK, got it. Yeah. Sort of like that, that bottle and bond pick. Correct.

OK, got it.

Grandma's grandma's closet.

Yeah, but but it's a little bit more elevated. But there's a sweetness to it that carries through each and every Texas whiskey I've tried. And, you know, it's you know, all the different ones I've tried, the different the different types of flavor profiles that things are doing. You know, people are saying and that's another thing. People are knocking Texas whiskey. Oh, it's only two, three years old, four years old. Why am I paying 50, 60, 70, 80 bucks for it? You don't want them to age it any longer than that in that Texas heat, because then you're going to end up with licking a barrel. Nobody wants that in their bourbon.

Angel's going to get a lot of share of that one.

Going back to this bourbon here. So this is bourbon C. When you guys go back and taste this, two things. When I went back and tasted it, I got a lot more oak than I did before. Second thing is, what would you say the H statement is on this here? On C?

Yes. But I think it's I think it's older with the profile that it's that it's got. I still think it's I think it could be seven, eight years. Seven to eleven. Yeah. I was going to say seven to ten, but I could. Yeah, definitely.

I mean, I'm going to constrain it. I'm going to say eight to ten.

Eight to ten.

I'm going to say ten to twelve. Oh, really? You're going up to 12. I went back and tasted it, and I got a lot more oak presence on it. More of a creme brulee oak presence on there. It was a fantastic finish. Really, really nice finish.

All right, guys. So has everybody had a chance to really evaluate the bourbon C?

You feel pretty good about it? I thought I'd really love B, but C was pretty damn amazing.

Let's take our notes, and then we'll come back and we'll move on to D. Sound good? Sounds good. All right, so guys, we have a bourbon D now. So, four of five. We're at the fourth bourbon of five. We got bourbon D in our glass. Let's try it and see what we think. I'm gonna make it a five.

Honestly, right away, I've smelled something like this before. Yeah. Yeah.

This does have a familiar ring. I mean, a smell to it. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm getting a good amount of alcohol in the nose here. Yeah. Haven't tasted it yet, but that's super amount of sweetness.

It's got a little bit of a, a little bit of a red fruit or bright fruit. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm getting a mango, mango, tropical fruit, tropical fruit. You know, I, I agree with you. I think you're right. Yeah. A little bit. Now I was thinking a little bit of cherry, but I think the cherry does lean a little tropical. There's a tropical note to this that's kind of blown my mind, you know, I got coconut in in a in a pick in a Brussels pick and David Jennings said, you know, I've heard people get coconut before I've never gotten it and I'm thinking to myself Oh, this is David Jennings telling me he's never gotten coconut, but I'm getting it. I'm way out in left field. So This is so subjective.

Yeah. Scott, what are you getting? You got you have a nose for these things.

Yeah, I've got like right away I was the fruitiness of it kind of came on. And then something I've been getting a lot with with bourbons lately is is this chocolate, this dusty like cocoa powder type of chocolate to it.

Powdered, yes, but not necessarily Hershey's syrup chocolate.

Yeah, I would say it's more of a powdered chocolate, you know, like a, you know, something you'd mix in, you know, milk or something like that or whatever it would be. But yeah, not like necessarily baker's chocolate or anything. And then that nice oak and that that rye spice balance really started to kind of, you know, come out in it. A little bit of vanilla, you know, there as well. And maybe even a little bit of, maybe even a little bit of nuttiness kind of came out there. There was a little tinge of some nuttiness to it.

I'm almost like nutmeg.

The finish on this is a little sneaky because It smells so fruity and light and bright on the nose. You feel like you're going to get this really big burst of sweetness, but the sweetness does come through. But the surprising thing is that's getting me on this one is the finish on it. It's got this sneaky finish at the very, very end that just kind of gets you with some beautiful pepper, a little bit of an orange spice, and some of that tropical fruitness still comes. Is fruitness a word? No. Fruitness fruitiness fruit still comes in this literally tastes like my breakfast this morning.

Just Froot Loops This has Froot Loops written all over if you were making a label for a pig This will be the Froot Loops without a doubt the Froot Loops.

Yeah.

Yeah without a doubt.

I would I would get on that I'm gonna call this I'm gonna call this as a turkey product. I think turkey.

I think so I really do Are you getting any like orange zest with this at all?

On the finish I am. Yeah, but it's mixed in with so many other. Yeah, that's that mango pineapples.

You said cherry and that's kind of sticking with me there. Yeah, yeah. At the end, especially for me.

But you know, this is probably I'm going to guess this 105 to 110. Really? Yeah, I would. I would agree with that. Yeah.

I would say more, though. You think as high as 110. I would say as more as 100. Yeah, I wouldn't think.

I don't think it's that high. You guys could be right. I mean, it's hard to pick apart proof points that are so close, but I think if we just said 105, we'd be pretty close.

As I taste more whiskeys, when I review them, I'm finding more and more, the more stuff I taste, I'm getting more confused with, rice spice over proof. I feel like if I get a lingering rice spice that stays on my palate, sometimes people can confuse that with being a higher proof. That's not always necessarily the case. So I feel like as you taste more and more, really try to look at the aspects of the finish. If I feel it down deep in my chest, I could feel like it's a higher proof. And I'm not getting that here. I'm really getting more of a rise spice, which I think some people can confuse with a higher proof. So that's why I'm saying it's maybe a hundred or even below.

So the hug is not happening. No Anaconda for you.

You should you get a rice place my rice place. I pick up is a citrus, but it's not that type of citrus that sits on the tongue and Burns it I guess you would say but I do get that fruity like I said that fruit loop citrus Goodness, yeah, this is this is probably

I mean, C was pretty, C was pretty unique, but D is really making a run on the uniqueness here.

You know what this, I mean, honestly, I hate to say it, but I mean, this is something that kind of reminds me of like Blanton's. Blanton's. It's really kind of falling into that category. I mean, I know Blanton's is what, 94 proof?

Yeah. 93. I've just never had a Blanton's this fruit forward.

I'm going to say, you know, this is, I mean, for me, this is, I mean, it's for me, this is like very, when I started tasting and everyone's describing it, it's everything I've always heard about blends. Yeah. But I want to pick a distillery.

All right. So I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm definitely. Yeah. I'm going to go out on a limb and I'm going to definitely say that I think that this is a wild turkey product. You know what? Blind just puts everybody on a level playing field. And you know what? You could be totally wrong. You could be totally right. Who knows? It's so subjective. But this just reminds me so much of like, an off-profile, really, really good Russell's pick.

But even a Kentucky Spirit? Possibly.

But you know what? That would be a 101. To me, I feel like this is a little bit higher.

See, I'm struggling. I almost think it's below 100. That's the problem I'm having. It doesn't taste good.

But is that because we've had so many? Could be. It could be. We're acclimated to it.

It could be. Because of course, when we told the ladies to divide the bottles, we didn't say put them in the order of proof, which would have been maybe next time we do this, we say, hey girls, order them in the proof order.

I just know our two wives and I'm not so sure they're not up there throwing curve balls.

When I went upstairs to say goodbye to them as they headed out for the night, they said, we've written down our picks and we've put them here. When you guys get done, you can come get our picks.

So they were trying this stuff before we even worked.

They've judged these and they've got their results upstairs.

That'll be interesting. I'll get kicked off the show and my wife will take my place.

I'm gonna say this may be a Buffalo Trace. Welcome to the Jim and Julie show.

Yeah, that probably, it's got a ring to it, you gotta admit. Double J. Engineered by Randy.

You know, I mean, Jim, you had me thinking about this one with Wild Turkey, but yeah, I'm gonna go with my gut and say this is some kind of Buffalo Trace as well.

Well, that's two out of five so far. You notice I don't say much. You just sit there and enjoy. I do. You know, I've got two ears and one mouth, so I'm supposed to listen more than I talk supposedly. But, um, how do you, I don't know. It was kind of interesting listening to Dave try to figure out which Rick house it was from. He's ridiculous when it comes to picking out the Rick house. He was too off.

While Turkey's working on some crazy stuff. So yeah, so here's an interesting question I'll pose to you guys regarding Finnish bourbons and the labeling part of that. And, you know, all of the controversy behind how a Finnish bourbon is is labeled and why and what category it fits into. So I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on on that.

So any particular recent releases that kind of stick out at you at all, guys?

Well, one for me would be the, you know, the barrel dovetail that doesn't have, I don't believe it was even labeled whiskey or anything even on the bottle. It was just released as whatever that finished spirit category was.

Yeah, so Scott, we both reviewed that. Yeah. And when we did the review, we were doing the research, we saw that I think it exceeded so much of what they did as far as finishing the whiskey. It had no specific type of profile you could put it under. So they said, you can't call it a bourbon. You can't call it a whiskey. It's dovetail. Yeah.

Excuse me? Dovetail.

Dovetail is what they call it. It's finished in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels, also port pipes. They ran it through some port pipes to get that port influence, and rum casks.

And this was their Christmas release, right? Or what do they call it, their New Year's release or something like that?

That's their New Year's release they do. This was another release that came out at the beginning of the year. Me and Scott, we loved it. It's delicious, but the fact that they couldn't really name it an actual bourbon or whiskey kind of raised some eyebrows for me, which caused me to do a little bit more research on it. The TTB is kind of going through some different changes in what they're trying to do as far as You know, the rules and laws for finishing whiskey. So it's really interesting.

Yeah. And that's that's one of the issues now, though. It's kind of a a hot subject. And it's one of those issues where, you know, people who are purists, once you finish a a whiskey or a bourbon specifically, they don't want it to even have bourbon on the label because as everybody knows, you can't add anything to bourbon and still call it bourbon.

So what about double oak stuff?

So that's still finished in a secondary barrel. There's no additive to it. It's just another new, I believe it's a new charred oak barrel.

But the stuff we had with Chef that day was finished in a rum barrel.

So yeah, so that was a Jefferson's old rum cask finish.

Old rum cask. Yeah.

So what they, what they typically say on these, on these bourbons, as they say, Kentucky straight bourbon finished in blah, blah, blah. But you know, sometimes what you find is that the, the Kentucky straight bourbon is in these really big fonts and the finished in is in the smaller fonts. And so. I mean obviously that there's a reason for that is to mislead the consumer into thinking that it's a Kentucky straight bourbon or a Kentucky, you know, bourbon whiskey when in fact it's not, right? Because once you put it in that secondary finishing container, it's done, it's done. And I guess a good example of that is the Jim Beam product, the Legion.

So in doing some research, Legent is kind of the one that caused all this kerfuffle within the TTB. That is a bourbon blend from Jim Beam that was then given to the master blender for Santori and finished in, what is it, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sherry Cast. Was that the two blends, I believe? His name was Shinji Fukuyu. Yeah, Shinji Fukuyu. Let me see that bottle here. Yeah, partially finished in wine and Sherry Cast. So it had that double And there was there was a note on here that said it's a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, partially finished in wine and sherry casks. And that kind of blew up the, you know, kind of where we're going to go with the labeling and if it should be able to even say something like that. I know the law right now is you could say Kentucky straight bourbon, but you have to denote what the finish is. But now they're thinking of taking that into a whole other category of just a finished bourbon. Not saying it's a bourbon or Kentucky straight bourbon, but it's got to be bourbon finished in something.

Wasn't a little bit of the turmoil around what it said near Fred No's signature? What did it say near Fred No's signature?

Bold Kentucky bourbon by master distiller Fred No.

Okay. So actually the bold Kentucky bourbon by Kentucky master distiller Fred No was what was introduced into the finishing process, but it wasn't the final product that appears in the bottle. So at the end of the day, is that misleading or is it not? To an extent, I would say.

I mean, it's not a bourbon at the end.

Guys, if we go back to the late 1800s and we look at what Colonel E. H. Taylor tried to achieve with his Bottled and Bond Act, it was to stop this this process of rectifiers introducing flavorings or modifications into whiskeys in order to try to make them feel more flavorful, older, whatever. And isn't that in fact what we're doing now?

Amazing. Yeah. It's like it's flipped.

But again, but then you go into the argument that's an additive. The rectifiers were adding stuff to the bourbon. This is you're adding flavor, but you're not literally taking sherry and adding it to the bourbon. You're finishing it in a barrel. And I think that's where the argument is the back and forth. Here's a really good point.

So when people are finishing bourbons, What a lot of people don't always think is these bourbons are not always going into barrels that are air quote dry. Some of these are very wet barrels, meaning there could be a significant amount of sherry, Cabernet, whatever it may be in there. Now the influence of that onto another barrel, can be very significant. So when you're adding, you know, whatever the amount of the product is in that original barrel is going to be a huge influence on what that bourbon is. If anybody tells you that that's not an additive and you still want to call that a bourbon, in the traditional sense, it's no longer that. It can't be that.

By the way, somebody sends you a barrel and there's still five gallons of Capri in the bottom of it. And then you add your bourbon to it. There's no regulations there to say, you know, that's hard to control, isn't it? Very hard to control.

The devil is the only one that can control it, right?

I mean, Scott and I, we've talked to some sorcerers who have picked up some very rare barrels, and the barrels, like you mentioned, are extremely wet inside. There's fresh juice in there of whatever the hell was in there. The devil was sleeping that night. Yeah. Rum, gin, wine, take your pick. If the rule of law is that you can't add anything other than the barrel than what Mother Nature provides, being color, weather, everything that goes into a fine bourbon in one barrel, then a wet barrel to me, If I'm going by the rule of law here, what the federal government provides, what needs to be bourbon, that would change it from not being called a bourbon.

So let's ask the question here. What would, if Colonel E.H. Taylor showed up today and saw what was going on in the industry, what do you think he would say?

Colonel Taylor, the way I know his history and the way that he was such a, I mean, he fought for that bottom bond act. He got it passed. He was a purist, did everything first class. I think he would say that's not a bourbon.

Yeah. So I think some things are going to change here in the future. I do believe that. You know, I like Legion. I think it's a fine tasting whiskey. I really enjoy it. It's not a bourbon. But it is a whiskey, and I think it's a delicious whiskey, and I enjoyed it. And I'll continue drinking that bottle down until it's gone. But things change. Dan, what do you think?

I agree with you. I do not think that it would be considered a bourbon in my opinion.

So in terms of the labeling, I think the changes have to come through the TTB, right? And what's able to be labeled as a bourbon?

I'm wondering if it's gonna be bourbon finished in something as it is now, or if they're gonna just literally call it finished bourbon. Does that become another category, or do they take the word bourbon out of it?

Yeah, that's the hot button right there, is that there's so many people that just don't want that term bourbon on there because it changes the whole aspect of things. But I mean, I'm in the camp of, you know, hey, if you're OK calling it what it is, if you want to still call it, it starts out as a bourbon, as we all know, finished in whatever. I'm perfectly fine with that. It tells everybody. I'm speaking from the standpoint of understanding that. If a lot of people walk up to a shelf and have no idea what the whole background and what bourbon is and why it has to be considered bourbon, there's the education part of it. for most consumers or a lot of consumers who do kind of understand that, as long as that's there and they understand here's the base, now here's what you got it finished in, I think people are okay with that. You're being a bit transparent, which a lot of people really appreciate nowadays.

Well, sometimes they don't appreciate it. So I told my wife's boss, he's a Scotch drinker. I said, well, all that is is leftover bourbon. Because we shipped the used bourbon barrels over to Scotland and they make whatever correct that they make bourbon and cherry Yeah, and so it offended him that he was drinking leftover bourbon in his scotch So, you know Maybe they don't all How much does that bourbon affect the taste of the scotch?

I'll tell you what, this is definitely a subject that has a line in the sand and people on both sides. There's no doubt about it.

I have two distillers I'd actually like to call out that have, in my opinion, I think have done a fantastic job with finished product. One of them being Belmead. The stuff that they've done with their, for me especially, the cognac finish. phenomenal, phenomenal product. And the other one being a fairly new distillery, which is Sagamore, which is from my hometown of Baltimore. Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, some of the stuff that they've done with the Wittner's finish and the Port finish.

I actually got you a bottle of the Castrain.

I'm still looking for the blueberries. Yeah. I think those blueberries are there.

I think both those distilleries have done a fantastic job with the way that they finish their products. So I'm really looking forward to seeing what else they do.

And they're pushing everybody else because I actually have had some Woodford finished in a Cognac barrel.

Yeah, that was phenomenal. Cognac to me poses one of the best attributes to finish a bourbon. I agree 100%.

But what I was told when I first started getting into bourbon is one of the reasons for the big bourbon explosion is Cognac started getting too expensive and they were looking for an alternative. And bourbon happened to be that alternative for a lot of cognac drinkers. And whoops, Rutrow. Yeah. It took off.

Except we're not an after dinner drink. We're a before, during, and after. That's a great group to be in. Alright, so has everybody had a chance to really evaluate Bourbon D? Yeah, I am set. You guys are all set? I love it. Notes of good. Alright, well let's finish off what we have here and then we'll come back and we'll try number E. Let's do it. Letter E, I guess is the best way to say it. Sound good? Sounds good. Alright, cheers. Okay, so we've moved on to bottle E here. Bottle Echo. Are we ready to try it? Let's do it. Going in. I can already tell you it has a fantastic nose. Man, everybody brought their game today. This is finished. This is the last, this is the last. You're wrong.

I'm right.

This is chocolate covered cherries. Wait, this could be... Scott's saying this is finished because he brought this one and he knows it. No. No, I don't.

Yeah, it's... We did discuss our choices at some point, so we kind of knew what we were kind of teetering on, but this was like a choice of a very large amount of bottles. I don't think any of them were finished.

Wow. This is chocolate covered cherries. Now you say that. Now you've got me convinced that maybe it's not.

I don't know that it's chocolate covered cherries, but I'm definitely getting the Christmas Whitman's box. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? It's like, okay, when I get behind the chocolate, what am I going to get in there? There's some cherry chocolate.

I hate when they don't label what's in each chocolate. And you bite it and you go, oh my goodness. Son of a, what is, I don't want orange. I'm like, sorry.

Talking loud. Yeah. So, um, you know, I don't know about chocolate covered cherries, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's not cherries with chocolate inside.

It's definitely cherry chocolate.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

This is one of those, uh, the Nocello chocolates that my mother eats.

Yeah, I think we had a few seconds there where guys were, we were probably just pinging the mics. They were just going crazy, but he was funny. Oh, it was funny.

So that's, that's as close as you can get to a dessert bourbons. I've ever had some brown sugars too.

You guys get any brown sugar for sure.

This is just all, this is just an onslaught of sweetness and dessert type aspects to it. Pretty incredible.

Yeah, this is, this is definitely a, um, a very creamy, sugary, chocolatey, cherry.

Oh, let me get all the words in there, but not a high proof and a man, a long finish on this.

I feel like this is a high proof, but doesn't drink like one because of all that sweetness. I can see that. Yeah.

Has anybody tasted it yet? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.

So usually Scott, I'm the one that's following up. I'm the one that's usually still on the nose when everybody else has had the third taste.

I get a cherry apple pie on mine. Cherry apple pie finished with chocolate mousse.

Chocolate mousse. This thing is an attack on the sides of the tongue. You feel that? Absolutely. Yeah. Now, what is it you taste on the sides of your tongue?

I get a lot of citrus on the side of my tongue. Do you? Yeah. Not necessarily in this one, but I pick up a lot of citrus on the sides.

I know that the front of your tongue is one thing and the center of your tongue is another. The sides are another. The rear is another. Bitter is here. Bitter is usually on the finish, right? So it's on the back of the tongue.

I believe, I think- Educate me, guys. I think sours are on the sides, if I'm not mistaken.

I don't know now. Now I gotta go Google Yeah, this is one of those this is one of those bourbons again where you get that nice sweetness up front and boom like this is so So much of a mid palate I was gonna say that it is the mid part that what I call that round in the corner It's that is where the best part of this particular.

Absolutely you guys don't get any

For me, I can't I can't get past the chocolate in this yeah, this is one of you would figure that this is like finishing a Hershey's barrel Here that there was such a thing.

There's a little bit of atomic fireball here. I just a little bit Yeah, you can get a little bit of some cinnamon there.

That's for sure Some cinnamon aspect too, and yeah, I could get that

But on the sides of my palate, I'm getting a tartness. This is definitely not a well-rounded bourbon. This is a bourbon that juts out in a few very specific areas, I think. And it's very prominent on chocolate. I think a little bit on the spicy cinnamon aspect. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

When you said fireball, and I took another sip, maybe that's where I'm getting that cinnamon apple.

Cinnamon Red Hots. Red Hots.

Yeah, absolutely. I don't know that I would categorize this as a hot bourbon but I think it's definitely a spicy bourbon.

It's spicy but yeah again I still think that this is I think it's a higher proof, but I think that chocolatey aspect to it, that cherry, that cinnamon is making it. It tones it down just a tad. Yeah, it does.

The legs are ridiculous. I mean, that legs are long.

Which is another reason why I'm saying it's probably a high proof.

Are you guys all getting a nice long finish though with this?

Oh yeah, it lasts quite a bit. It's a cinnamon that just lingers.

But the flavor bomb for me is on the mid-palate, like Jim was saying.

And that's what we were saying. The mid is where it's at on this one.

It's not the most balanced that I've had, but the flavor explosion on the mid palette is really remarkable.

So do you use the word balanced and rounded sort of interchangeably? Yeah, kind of.

Yeah, if I say rounded to me, I kind of look more for, yeah, it's more of a balanced aspect to it. It's got the sweet notes, the spiky notes, the sweetness that you love in a bourbon, but also the finish. You get that really nice rounded effect, you know, to a really good poor. And, you know, so when I say rounded, But rounded to me also means sometimes a fuller flavor profile. It's not just cinnamon, or I'm sorry, it's not just vanilla, caramel, oak. It has cinnamon, caramel, a fruitiness aspect, maybe a chocolate aspect to it, and then the finish.

So are you guys kind of organizing your picks so far in the order you feel like they're coming in? I think so.

Yeah, I really enjoy this. Something that it kind of missed out on for me was the front of the palette. Cause it feels like it hits that mid so fast that it just completely skips the front of the palette.

The initial, the mid and the finish are all about the same. And that's what real round it means to me. And this one is not, it hits that mid quick.

It does. And you know what? It kind of attacks the sides of my tongue pretty quickly. And it sits there on the back of the palate and lingers. So it's got a good finish. Yeah. It's got a good finish. But it's kind of a cinnamon, spicy, red hot kind of, yeah. I mean, it's a good bourbon. Yeah. It's a delicious bourbon. Yeah, it's delicious.

I don't know if there's any subpar to here tonight, actually.

No, out of all of these, this is going to be pretty tough to pick. It's really kind of, and you know, if you reverse the orders of these, any of these other whiskeys, any of these other bourbons could have affected the other one. I do feel like there's stuff that I've tried in here before, though, without a doubt.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. More than one, I would say.

This, to me, is the most unique. This, to me, is something, if I had to guess, I'm not sure.

Yeah, I think this is appropriately the last pour because, you know, if you were arranging these in the order of how they would attack your palate, this one would be. I like that idea. Yeah. Yeah.

Appropriately the last pour. Yeah.

To me, if I had the only thing that I would come close to guessing this as that would be close to a flavor profile that I've tasted would be a Woodford or maybe an Old Forester. I do get a lot of chocolatey aspect to those brands in particular. But, you know, I could be wrong. I don't, I've never tasted anything like this from an old forest or a Woodford. So I don't think it's that.

That salami you just had didn't influence this at all, right?

An older old Fitz? Yeah, no, this is not a weeded bourbon. This is definitely not weeded. Old Fitz is definitely way more at ease in this. I know sometimes weeded bourbons can exhibit a little bit of a spicy flavor. They do that. But yeah, I don't think this is Old Fitz like in my opinion.

I still think there's more upfront than you guys are saying. I do get more of a balance. I still do get stuff forward, mid, and finished for me.

So when you first, Scott, when you first, after your nose, when you first took that initial sip, what was that initial impression on the front of your tongue?

I got a really nice, like, kind of vanilla, crumbly note. Okay. Yeah. Initially.

Wow. So what do you guys think about some of the new releases that have come out recently?

New reasons that have come out recently releases that are upcoming. Well either one let's talk about both. I'll chime in on this Yeah, I'm a huge fan of the new four roses small batch select. Oh, yeah, I think it's just a fantastic You know bourbon and and maybe it was a little bit when you heard Brent Elliott talk about how they wanted this to be a combo of their limited edition and maybe Al Young that you start to think, oh my God, I love both of those. But when you start really drinking it, it gives you that really well-rounded everything that I think people really enjoy from Four Roses.

To your point, and I think I had talked to you about this before, was When you give that time to open up and sit, you pull so many different flavors out from that bourbon. I mean, you get some of the mint and you get some of the fruity sweetness. But I mean, you let it sit for a little while and the profile completely changed for me anyway. And I think I told you that.

Did anybody bring any? I don't know.

I didn't get that little just tinge of bitterness on the back end that I got from that. Did you guys get the same thing when you were drinking it?

The the more I sifted the better the finish got for me personally. I the more I sift on it the the finish for me almost got effervescent almost like a Tingling like a tingling. Yeah, I got the same thing. Yeah, maybe I might have taken that as a bitterness, but maybe it wasn't a bitterness Maybe more of a more tingling kind of it was it's kind of the same finish where you were you were you brought up the the cream it's a Kentucky earlier, right and that to me had a very effervescent finish to it

The cream of Kentucky cream of Kentucky.

Yeah, and that kind of reminded me of that finish a little bit Not as bright as the cream of Kentucky not as long But similar, okay.

All right. Well, I tell you what I really like that bourbon. We had that in I think episode Oh three or something like that where we were yeah, we had that we had that oh with Jeff Irish rehab and You know, I really like that bourbon. I think it's L E ish. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree. But it definitely falls short. If you have it side by side with like the one thirtieth or now young, I haven't had it with the young, but I had it with the one thirtieth. You could you could definitely tell it's not there. Yeah.

Yeah. The nose when I did my review on it and I think I said in my review, the nose reminded me of the one thirtieth. OK, the flavor profile did not. The the the mouth feel and everything was definitely different. But I think what it offers You know, you have to pay 140, 150, 160 bucks for one 30th. That's retail. what it offers for you at 60-ish dollars, you can get pretty close to it. And I think that's a remarkable product.

So you guys happy it's on the shelf at 50, 60, and you can get it just about any time you want? Yes.

Yeah, we don't get it. I was able to pick up a bottle while I was down here. I got one from Jason before. And I think for 55, $60, I mean, non-chill filtered, good proof, 104 proof. It fits fall or falls right into that category of something I really, really enjoy.

So close enough for the price, basically.

Yes.

I would think so. I think for what others are offering out there, you're getting a quality bourbon from a quality distillery at a good proof, non-chill filtered. It's really everything a bourbon lover would really want. I think I drank my first bottle in the first few days.

And then I did an Instagram glamour shot. And then I drank my second bottle in the next few days. And then here I am without any four roses, you know, small batch select.

But that's all right. For me, I would think the... Trying to think. A small batch select definitely falls in there. Four Gate is another one I absolutely freaked out over. I have not had it yet. Yeah, foregate, you know, listen, it's a source whiskey, but what they did with it is they took, they found these very kind of unique sherry barrels, these Oloroso sherry casks that held rum. And then they dumped that and then they aged this 11 year bourbon in those casks. So it has a George T stag and tea collection type nose. front of the palette, but the finish is just a whole nother animal. There's sweetness, there's molasses, there's brown sugar. I mean, it really blew me away.

And the good thing is it's it's on the shelves.

Yeah, you can get it here in Kentucky and Tennessee. Yeah. And it's and it's a steep price point. I mean, it's two hundred dollars, two hundred bucks, unfortunately.

But if you I mean, if you're a collector or if you really like if you don't mind paying the price for something that unique, then it's definitely a pick up for your friend. Jason has a bottle. And one other one I'm looking forward to is the wild turkey cornerstone, the rye.

I cannot wait for that one to hit the market. So this is a rye coming from wild turkey. Yep. And this is something that Bruce is kind of behind, right? Correct. Yeah. So I guess Jimmy and Eddie are not rye guys, but Bruce on the other hand is

Yeah, this release, it's something that actually David and I have been talking about. We've been really looking forward to it. It's supposed to release on Father's Day, apparently. So I cannot wait to get my hands on that and try that. I'm a huge fan of Wild Turkey. We were just there today. So you're going to be calling me on the day before Father's Day and saying, Jim, are you running down to Wild Turkey? I don't know about that. I have a couple contacts working on getting a bottle as soon as possible, so we'll see what happens.

Speaking of Father's Day, Jason, you know, when your mother and I were talking.

You're going to really love that cornerstone, by the way.

It's going to be good for me, you think? I'll get you a bottle of that. There you go. But speaking of about to be released, and I don't know how you guys are, when I've had some good stuff the day before, it still lingers the day after. So when old Carter puts out that bourbon June 14th, their bourbon, it's pretty good stuff. I have to say, I don't know for the price, depending on who you are, Looking forward to that. That's going to be a good one to you. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. A lot of these new releases are talking about if you take price out of the aspect. Yeah. These are really nice part.

I mean, the other night I know you guys had just recorded recently a podcast with with Mark and Sherry. Carter. We also had a nice time with him the other night. That's what the bartenders were saying. Got to taste a lot of stuff as you both did and the passion that they have behind their product. I mean, it really translates into into that whiskey. And again, aside from price point, it's just one of those those brands you really love to support.

And I mean, it's delicious bourbon and I'll say it is a solid product is anything out there. Yeah.

Now, you know, a lot of our listeners are not in Kentucky. You know, they're around the world, certainly throughout throughout the United States and around the world. But, you know, Carter is Kentucky only release. So it's really hard for people to get that.

It was the first I'd ever had.

But we fully expect all bourbon aficionados to get on an airplane and come to Louisville at least once a year and tour the distilleries, right?

It's part of coming to Kentucky. You can make your plans, get to Kentucky, hunt out some foregate and hunt down some Carter. That's right.

What about you, Dan? What's your favorite upcoming release or something coming up? Honestly, you had mentioned Fourgate and that stuff is fantastic. I have a little less than half a bottle left at home.

You heathen.

And you didn't bring it. I know. Well, maybe.

I might have a sample in the car. But Dan did bring a Dusty.

I did. I did. Yeah. Dan was kind enough to share his old Taylor bourbon from 1944. Yeah. For what it was, it hit me harder than what I thought it was.

So one last new release that we'll talk about here, and it's not out yet, but it will be very soon, is the 114 from Buffalo Trace, right?

The antique? The well or foolproof? Everybody looking forward to that? Yeah. I am. I'm kind of holding back my enthusiasm until I try it. I mean, Antique 107, I am one of the lucky ones that I can get Antique any day of the week in Ohio. For some reason, Weller Antique, Weller Special Reserve comes in extremely often, especially every Tuesday I go to my store and it's usually there every morning. It sells out fast, but if I'm there early, I can get it. Is it going to be that much better than the Weller Antique? That's what I really want to know.

Well, I know one thing. You and I are going to find out early. Yes, we are. Because we're going on a 114 pick. Oh, I am so looking forward to it. On my birthday, by the way. Your birthday. What day is your birthday? July 9th. July 9th. Oh my goodness, guys. Big birthday present for Jason.

Did I ever say you guys were my friends? He's your son. There you go.

Well, we'll give a shout out to the Liquor Outlet here in Louisville, Kentucky, who we pick for. Yes. And, you know, we're going to go on that pick and we're going to pick a darn good barrel, I guarantee you. Yeah, absolutely. And you folks out there, just line up because this is going to be a good one.

So one of these days when you guys going to pick, pick me, okay? Pick me to go to.

We will, Randy. All right, thanks. Absolutely. So everybody, Bourbon E, you got your notes? Got the notes.

Is it possible to go back and try some of these side by side again? So here's what we're gonna do, guys.

Here's what we're gonna do. Because we have gone through five Bourbons, and we've all taken notes, but we've also retained samples of each of the five Bourbons, each one of us has. We're going to take, we're going to go off air here for a minute. We're going to take a break and we're going to sample each one of these again, but we'll do them side by side and we'll come to our own individual conclusions about what we think about these.

And then the reveal is going to happen. And then we'll do the reveal.

And the ladies have put the key in a sealed envelope over there. So we're going to go grab it. All right.

Gary has been protecting that envelope over there. I'm sure.

Yeah. Gary's been watching that envelope. He's not letting anybody get near it. Right. All right. So let's let's take a break here and we'll come back. Sounds good. Sounds good. Okay guys, so we have all tabulated all of our scores. I think we all know where we sit, right? Scott, you know where you sit? Yes. Dan? I do. Jason? I'm ready. Randy?

In amongst the mist and confusion, yes, I think I have some semblance of order.

Okay. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to go around the table here and we're going to talk about who's number one, what you got your number one for. And then, you know, just, just sort of mention your other ones in order, but we're going to focus on what your number one was because by the time we get through five guys, five bourbons for five guys, it's going to get kind of confusing till midnight. And what everybody wants to know is what are they and what order did they come in? So we'll get to that after we do our reveal. Sound good? Sounds good. All right. Randy, what do we got?

I went with B as my, well, my number one was actually the infinity cause I poured them all into one. We can confirm it was fantastic. That's the winner tonight, but we can't do that. So I went with B because it had to me the best all around. I got a good beginning. I got a good mid around that corner and a good finish on that, on that, B. And so I rated them B, C, E, D, and A. B, C, E, D, and A. A because the pepper just basically canceled out any vanilla, caramel, and anything I got on A. So I had to put that at the bottom of the list because it was great. Don't get me wrong, but I'm looking for the best all around. I'm looking for the winner and B was it for me.

Be Randy. What's crazy about that, Randy, is looking at what you picked and looking at mine, it's almost the exact opposite order.

So can we all agree that blind is the great equalizer?

Absolutely. And that we all have different palettes and it's all very subjective. This really is what it's all about when you come to pick something blind.

Everybody's palette is different. Absolutely. Scott, where are we at with you, buddy? So, like Randy, I actually went with C. However, I chose C because of what he described, the full experience. It's beginning, middle, finish. Everything that I think I love in a bourbon. Nice long finish, you get a nice forward pallet profile. Mid was nice and spicy and still sweet. Nice long finish, hit you with that rye with still some final sweetness. So I went with C as my winner and my order was C-E-B-A-D. C-E-B-A-D.

Correct.

But C was number two for me. So this, you know, that one keeps popping up, doesn't it?

Yeah. So we got B-Randy and C-Scott. All right, Dan. It keeps popping up until you get to me, okay?

All right. So for me, I went with A, to be honest with you. My number one pick again, you get that fruity sweetness, the jam, a little bit of the earthy notes, the sweet spice and the peppery finish on the end. For me, that's what I like. It almost reminds me of the spiciness that you get from a turkey. Or maybe sometimes some of those those Russell's reserve picks I like that peppery finish toward the end but that that sweet styled jam and that uh Those there's a little bit of earthy notes that that really really caught on to me. So My my order was a E D C B a E D C B correct, so it's

Well, we can't help it.

It's okay to be wrong. So to recap here, we've got B. Randy, C. Scott, A. Dan. All right, so I think I have a little bit of everyone will be happy here. So my first pick was actually letter C as well, just like Scott.

I love the apple cinnamon aspect to this bourbon, the corn sweetness, that fresh mash scent that I got to it on the nose, but the apple cinnamon spiciness. I think when I was describing it, it was apple cinnamon pie or or like a Granny Smith apple pie with some cayenne pepper on it, because the finish just kept going and going and going. And for me, finish is a really big aspect of a bourbon. You can get all the sweetness you want, but if I'm not still kind of getting that pepperiness on the end and that really nice finish, you know, it just falls flat for me. And between the flavor profile, the mid palette, that cinnamon sweetness, and then the finish that just lingered, that one really did it for me. So my final lineup was C, B, A, D, E. C, B, A, D, E. Yes.

So C. Jason. C. Jason. C. Jason. So we've got B. Randy, C. Scott, A. Dan, C. Jason. Oh, I'm seeing a little bit of a trend here. All right, Jim.

All right, it's my turn. You're the tiebreaker, buddy.

All right. So for me, I mean, it was really close between A and C. I really kind of gravitated towards both of those. But at the end of the day, I went with C. C. Jim. So mine were, the reason I chose C is because I thought it was definitely bold, it was spicy. It had an amazing finish. And Jason, just like you, I got that apple cinnamon kind of wonderfulness, if that's a word. It is now. It is now and I really enjoyed it. So, you know, it was really close with A. A was an amazing bourbon for me. But, you know, I think C just won out by a point or two. It was just a little bit better. Yeah. So mine was C, A, D, B, E. C, A, D, B, E. So it's B, Randy, C, Scott, A, Dan, C, Jason, C, Jim. So we got three C's in there. Sounds like the C's are correct. But you know what? Guys, as we add up the points, as we add up the points, we may find that it doesn't work out that way. That's correct. All right.

All right. So we're going to take a little break now, right? That's right. Do the scores, tally up, and then we'll be back with the scores and the reveals. Stay tuned.

And I can't wait to get my little tray.

Oh my gosh, it is results time. I'm so excited about this. What do you guys think?

Well, let's get this out of the way first. One thing we all agreed on is the infinity was awesome. I'm telling you I want some of this.

Yeah, we can now consider ourselves master one thing I do want to say though, and I think everybody's disagree with me here is there's a Heaven Hill product in here I'll be surprised All right

I'm so, I'm so ready. Gary Scott's dad is here and he's kind of the master of ceremonies. He is going to, he has already opened the sealed envelope and he is going to let us know what the last place bottle was. And this would be bottle D. Gary, can you read at this point? sampling all this are you still are you still all right so this would be the last place would be bottle D which had 11 points bottle D D as in David. Dog. Dog. Delta. Delta.

He's pointing it out.

Wait, I wasn't in the military. Delta. So who brought this bottle? Oh, what is that? Oh, my gosh. It was a 375 to start with. Oh, yeah. Who brought this bottle?

That is my bottle. My goodness, I can't see it. That is a Buffalo Trace single oak project. Oh my gosh. Is that the 149?

Oh my good crazy. I know that's That's insane, but you know what though how many of us said that there was Buffalo Trace product in here Yeah, several of these tastings.

We said that there's about this product in here.

I feel so ashamed I thought this was a WB saffle Yeah, that is the Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project line that they've released. We actually had a sip of this not too long ago, and I wasn't sure if I was going to throw this in the blind or not.

Yeah.

I figured it had such a unique flavor profile. I would. And I'm glad everybody got to try it. It was. It's a very unique flavor. You would never think that this was a Buffalo Trace. So it was really good. Really good.

Really good. In fact, all the burdens. Yeah, I was just going to say that Jim is I mean, there was nothing here that wasn't good. You know, everything was really tasty. These are all like, you know, we're we're splitting hands. Yeah, absolutely.

I could have taken the last place bourbon here and just sit down in a chair. There's no shame in it whatsoever. Yeah.

All right.

So next on our list, actually what we had was Bottle E. Bottle E had 13 points, and Bottle E was the fourth place bottle. So what we have here is, and the reveal is out,

Oh, oh, the John Henry, John Henry. That's so that's the J. Henry. So this is the bottom of Scott so he can tell us about it. Yeah. So this is a so this is a Wisconsin bourbon and this was actually chosen by Nancy Fraley. Oh, OK. And she did a pick and pulled this barrel aside and told them to bottle this. Do not blend it with anything. And it's bottle at cast strength at, uh, just under 120 proof and it's aged seven years.

And this is the one that we've, well, at least you and I, Dan, maybe, maybe Jason as well thought we got like a fireball on kind of a little bit. Yeah. It's a little bit of a hot bourbon, but it's a delicious.

What was the proof on that again Scott? Just shy of 120. Doesn't have the proof. It's like 59.94% ABV. Yeah, 120.

For all of you on the fringe, it'll still bring a new one, always.

That's right. All right. So our next two bourbons and we can't, we're not going to take the time to figure out which one is third and which one is second or whatever. But basically the next bourbon I'm just going to say is, um, B and B had 15 points bourbon B. This is my guess at a heaven hill.

Oh, right.

Wow. Very interesting. Wow. What barrel is that? Because that is really good, man.

6105. This is the 10-year Henry McKenna.

Bottle and Bond. Bottle and Bond.

My word. And it won international whiskey.

And my bourbon cousin, Fred Minnick, was involved in all this. World Whiskey of the Year.

And I said to myself, you know what? Let's see what these guys really have. if this is supposed to be considered one of the top, let's see what they have. And the reason, and like I said, it came out to me, I did not actually know that this was mine, but it had the overall, you know, it, it hits you at the front, it hits you at the mid palette and it hits you at the end. It was delicious. Well rounded, well rounded bourbon. It's only 100 proof, but I wanted to see basically how you heavy hitters would take something that wasn't 190 proof golden grain crap. But yeah, that's that's what B was.

So I tell you what, if you want to score well in the competition, you bring Henry McKenna a bottle.

Yeah. I had some great notes on this one. And it's very it's unbelievable.

There's nothing wrong with that bottle.

Spiciness, fruitiness, cookies, pecans. I mean, it was all honey. I like honey. Yeah, it was.

All right. Well, you know, there was a tie for that that place and the the next one was a which had also 15 points and we have a four roses. Yeah. Four roses.

This is eight. We called A.

We said A was Four Roses.

We called it. It's a Four Roses. It's a nine-year, three-month OESV Brent Elliott select pick. So that's the 20% rye mashbill, the delicate fruitiness and the creamy, fruity pick.

Really good and it came in at sixty two point six percent ABV so the funny thing is is when I was when I was drinking these samples I Thought that was mine I Was like that's when I brought it was so good.

Yeah Yeah, we called it out as four roses for that for that rice spice and yeah, that was I can't believe absolutely not all now We hit we hit that one.

Yeah And of course with 21 points was the letter C bourbon. And it is.

It's something that I've tasted, too. I think Jason called it out. Should I call that one out, too?

Oh, yeah. Taylor. Taylor. I knew it. Wow. So good.

So this is the twenty eighteen H Taylor. This is the one twenty nine point seven. Seven.

I knew it. Oh, my God. I can't believe it. Oh, my God.

Your palate is amazing. Okay, we might know that that it's that pecan that apple cinnamon that is Colonel Taylor bow proof 2018 all day Yeah, wow, so it's a good bourbon, but I tell you what guys all these bourbons were just absolutely fantastic fantastic delicious bourbons and You know what? I haven't even heard of your Scott. Yeah hadn't heard of it yet.

Yeah, they're doing they're doing some neat things and stuff up there, so Hopefully they'll maybe get down here and you guys can try it but

You know, if the price is right, I'll, I'll ship some lime water up there.

So what we're going to do is we're going to take, um, what's remaining. So we felt in order to prepare for this blind, we filled five, three 75 flasks with our bottles. And I'm looking here at those five flasks and they all have about a quarter fill left in them. Yep. We're going to mix them all together. We're blinding.

I'm telling you the infinity on this. beat everything. Hands down, it was, I've been sipping on this right here. And I'm like, you know.

So we'll all take one of these home with a little bit in it and enjoy it. Remember this day. Absolutely. It'll be a great reminder. Great memories. Yeah. Yep. So let's take a minute here and talk a little bit about what you guys have going on. Cause we've got Jason with the mashing drum. We've got Scott with my bourbon journey. We've got Dan, who's getting ready to start a channel. Let's talk a little bit about what you guys have going on here and what your listeners and your viewers can expect for the future.

I would say for me, as much as I love doing reviews, I've been focusing lately on doing some of these head-to-heads. I call them a special series called Double Base, where I take two whiskeys, I think, if I'm going into a liquor store and thinking, man, should I get that one or should I get that one? I've gotten some really great suggestions from viewers and people that are watching. I've gotten so many suggestions, that's incredible. Besides my normal reviews, which if you guys don't know, visit The Mashing Drum on YouTube. You can find me on Instagram, The Master Drum as well, and on Twitter at MASHND. Contact me, let me know what you're drinking, what you're thinking about, if there's anything you want me to review. The thing with my reviews is not only will you get to know what I think of the bourbon, you will also get some history behind the distillery and also some history behind the bottle. If it's a new distillery, you'll know where it's coming from. I like to get into all that really bourbon geeky stuff. It's really what I love about bourbon, the stories and the people behind that's making the bourbon. So I do my regular reviews. I do a little bit of everything. I do some scotch every now and then as well, but mostly bourbon and mostly rye. I'll throw in a little Irish whiskey in there too, every now and then. Between the reviews I have my double bass. I do my double bass. I do the head-to-head series. I do a I do some special series I did the March Madness the 32 a lot of fun Yeah, that was a lot of fun between 20 to 30 dollar bourbon brackets sure that showdown which was a lot of fun as well And I also do we have an upcoming episode that I collaborated with Scott called off the still Which which I got to meet my first episode is with Elizabeth McCall over at Woodford Reserve I get to sit down with a master distiller and go through their process what they do and so we I can learn So the second ones coming out soon will also be available on Scott's channel off the still which will be with Caleb Kilburn over it peerless Looking forward to that. So we got a lot of good stuff coming up.

Yeah, great. And when you do your reviews, you don't just pop a bottle and taste it. You visit that bottle over a period of days, right? Yeah.

So what I learned, as I mentioned to you before, I will pour the bottle maybe When I choose to, okay, I'm gonna review this. I will actually open it and pour it over the course of two to three days to see how it is from the first pour to the third pour. Then once I get into the review after a day of rest, I see how it's reacted, how it still tastes. Consistency for me is a huge part of a good bourbon. I like to see if the first sip is the same as the fourth, fifth sip or if it's evolved or changed for the better. change. So for me, I don't think you could really judge a bourbon, scotch, whatever it may be on a neck pour. I really think you have to sit with it, give it time. And that's the only way I can provide an accurate review for the reviewers. And we go into price and stuff and the value. And if I review something that's a little bit hard to find, then what I'll do is I'll give you recommendations on stuff that might be a little bit similar. So I do my research on that too. Good deal.

Awesome. And like I said, after having a few pours with Jim and the hotter stuff, when he first mentioned you, Jason, I thought it was smashed and drunk.

And I said, if you go back to my earlier episodes and watch my bowel-proof lights, probably getting close to smashed and drunk.

So we try a few samples with you.

Anyway, so we want a fun show called Smashed and Drunk. I'll work on that one.

The third pour with Bourbon Road here.

Dan, you've got some things in your future. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what you might do?

I do. After spending a lot of time here in Kentucky with these guys. And really just, I've talked to both of them about, you know, maybe starting up a channel and what to call it and what to review. And I mean, talking to, you know, both these guys, I really want to pick their brains because they both have really great channels and I've supported both of them the whole time. So, but yeah, I think, you know, maybe coming out with a channel called, you know, Dusty Dan's Bourbon and Whiskey Reviews.

Taste of Proud is out.

You know going to taste in some of the Some of the dusty stuff that I have, you know, maybe Once a month and doings, you know, maybe three other reviews of something that's easily, you know accessible to to the you know the outside world and Um, I'm really looking forward to doing it. I've wanted to do it. And, um, you know, I would hope I would get the same support that, that, you know, both these, you know, these guys have on their channels.

So I think, I think you already get a lot of love on online. So yeah, that's pretty good.

You're located, you're located in Baltimore.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm located out of Baltimore, about about 15 minutes outside the city. So.

So why don't we let everybody know where they can follow you at so that when the time comes, they already know. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, you can really find me on Instagram at TheDanTrout and then just on Facebook at DanTrout. So I'll probably do a lot of my stuff on Instagram more than Facebook, but we'll see what happens. I might make that transition.

So if they follow you, they'll know when it's coming. Absolutely.

Absolutely. I'll make sure it's posted and we'll have everything ready.

I'm looking forward to those testies, buddy.

Scott, you have the floor. Thank you very much. And thanks for having us on today's podcast. It was a great time and very, very appreciative. So yeah, my channel, My Bourbon Journey, similar to Jason. So I think it's now going through and having a channel for roughly two and a half years. I've kind of come to the conclusion that Yeah, doing reviews are a lot of fun individually. And fortunately, I've been very lucky to have had a lot of things sent to me from different distilleries, a lot of times craft stuff. I really enjoy tasting a lot of different whiskeys, similar to how we did it tonight. But tasting these different profiles, whether it's young, old, whatever it may be, And really getting these the the nuance of of where some of these these whiskeys are coming from kind of around the country was was something for me that that really intrigued me to the point where I wanted to reach out to to people and do these reviews Outside of that, I guess a couple of other things the the head-to-heads like Jason does on his channel, I think doing these for people that are new to whiskey or just wanting to know a little bit more. Doing head-to-heads versus just an individual review gives people a nice perspective of what it is they're tasting. profiles, and when you describe something up against something else, now that may sway them one way or another as to what it is that they really prefer. Hot, spicy, sweet, whatever it may be, and really allowing people to understand that was something that I Recently kind of started doing and I did it with Elijah Craig and what was the other I matched it up with Elijah Craig and. Boy, I've drawn a blank, but that other whiskey, the other whiskey, correct? I feel that those are important videos to do for people. And then the other thing I really have a good time doing is a lot of the live streams where I'm able to interact with people within the whiskey industry, whether it's masters, stillers, blenders, whatever it may be, even collaborating with other channels like Jason and hopefully someday Dan. It allows us to do the podcast and things. Being able to do those things are a lot of fun. I'll continue to do a lot of the same types of things and just really be more of a Mix bag and mix in some different things, you know here and there but all still surrounded mostly Involving, you know bourbons and rise. I don't really venture out into the the Scotches and things like that So Scott, how do we get in touch with you?

So the best way social media?

So obviously my bourbon journey on on YouTube also have Instagram my bourbon journey there as well same thing through Twitter my bourbon journey, and there's also a Facebook page dedicated just to that we're all upload videos and things like that so

That's awesome. I tell you what, I really appreciate Scott. When I tune into your channel, I'm able to find out about bourbons and other whiskeys that, you know, are not in the limelight. Yeah, thank you very much.

And again, I get, you know, going back, I've had a lot of support from a lot of, you know, the people, you know, channels, you know, Jason specifically, Dan, they've all been supporters yourself. All I've gotten a lot of, you know, just good feedback, you know, all that kind of stuff. So I'm I'm very thankful for for everybody with that.

Yeah, to echo Scott's comments on live streams, I do a live stream usually every Wednesday night at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. And that's the time that we get to interact with the viewers, talk to them, you know, kind of do a live production of what we love to do, talk about bourbon, talk about whiskey, whatever it may be. And, you know, your support, you know, Randy, Dan is always in the chat room, everybody who watches. That's the time we really get to those. The people that watch, the viewers that show up for the live streams are the ones that really drive, basically drive the content for what we're doing. They drive the drive within us, if that makes sense.

It's a great community, because the interaction between them. And when I bounce between your channel and Scott's channel, I see a lot of the same people. A lot of the same people there. So this is a community that is supporting you guys across the board.

Hey, Jason, don't you think B was the best actually?

I don't have to get on this chat thing, man. Colonel, Colonel Taylor Brownproof was my bourbon of the year last year. Oh, wow.

That's absolutely fantastic. Now, I want to say I knew that so you'd pick it.

Not only did I pick it, but I called it. Yeah, you did.

You did. Hey, shout out. Dan, you were right on, bud, with the heaven harvester. I knew it.

Oh, we're not worthy, brother.

I tell you what, guys, we've got a fine room of palates here and everybody brought great bourbons tonight. We had an awesome time. What an amazing, amazing time to sit around with friends, drink bourbon, talk about industry related stuff and maybe some things that aren't, you know, so much in the industry, but just a lot of fun hanging out. Glad you guys could come to Louisville. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you for having us, Jim. Yeah, it was a pleasure.

My bourbon journey. Dan, we're looking forward to Dusty Dan's, you know, taste of trout. Anyway, guys, we enjoyed it. A lot of fun. It was a great time, man. Thank you very much.

Let's do this again real soon. Absolutely. Sounds good. We do appreciate all of our listeners and we'd like to thank you for taking time out of your day to hang out with us here on the Bourbon Road. We hope you enjoyed today's show and if so, we would appreciate if you'd subscribe and rate us a five star with a review on iTunes. Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at The Bourbon Road. That way you'll be kept in the loop in all the Bourbon Road happenings. You can also visit our website at thebourbonroad.com to read our blog, listen to the show, or reach out to us directly. We always welcome comments or suggestions. And if you have an idea for a particular guest or topic, be sure to let us know. And again, thanks for hanging out with us.