110. Single Barrel Picks from Wathens and Woodinville

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts, Jim and Mike. 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. We would like to thank our friends at Premium Bar Products for sponsoring this episode. If you're ready to step up your game at your home bar, check out premiumbarproducts.com to choose from their wide selection of glassware, all of which can be custom engraved with your personal message or logo. And there's no minimum order. So after the episode, head over to premiumbarproducts.com and check out everything they have to offer. Now let's get on with the show. Hello, everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is The Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, we're recording with a couple of single-barrel whiskies. We're doing it in your basement. Yeah. It's been kind of nice recording down here. It's a nice quiet place. Yeah. Well, today we're going to drink a couple of single barrels. And you've picked out a couple of bottles for us today. And the first one is, I want you to tell everybody about it.

So they're both single barrels, but they're also two store picks. Um, the first one, me and you, we've talked about it before, go big blue liquor over in Lawrenceburg. It's close enough to me and you so we can pop over there and check them out and stuff. And they, they got wall full of picks over there. Right. We've told everybody that I think they almost have 30 on the shelf. So everything will just kind of blow your mind when you walk in there.

And you know, they're pretty good prices over there. They're sort of right in the middle between like wild Turkey and Buffalo Trace and Four Roses right in that little. Quadrant, what do you want to call it? Triangle.

Triangle. The Bermuda Triangle of Bourbon is what it is, especially when you walk in there. I would warn people not to be overwhelmed when you walk in there because he has three aisles of bourbon in there and it can be overwhelming.

Yeah. So if you can't find a unicorn, you can definitely find a nice store pick in there.

Yeah. Everybody's always looking for those unicorns or driving everywhere. They're trying to trade up or trade down, trying to find that one unicorn, but why not just get a store pick? So today we have, you know, from a distance, it looks a little bit like an Elmer T. Lee. It does. And I've said that several times. It's the same exact bottle.

Yeah. It's got that little gold on there.

It will fool you for sure. But rest assured, this is not Elmer T. Lee. It's Waltham's Kentucky bourbon. It is a straight Kentucky bourbon single barrel. Don't be also be fooled about where it says eight on there. Read it a little bit. It's eight generations of a whiskey family. Not eight years old. Not eight years old. Okay. Rumored to be four to eight years old. Okay. So some people could be fooled by that. And you know, we talked on the last podcast, I mean, you were drinking 46 cast strength and I'd heard somebody say, this is 46 years old. So make sure if you're a new bourbon drinker, just read the bottle a little bit. And I'm not saying they're trying to do any tricks there because it says right under eight generations, 250 years and making bourbons. That's a long time.

That's a long time. That takes them right back to the beginning, doesn't it? Pretty close to it.

Now I would say that this is sourced. We do know that, right? It's they're not making it. That's right.

Well, why don't we, why don't we go ahead and get into it a little bit, Mike, get straight to that whiskey. And then afterwards we'll die. We'll talk a little bit more about Wathens and Medley and sourcing and single barrels and all that good stuff. And the Elmer T. Lee bottle. Let's taste this thing. All right. Or nose it.

Let's nose it.

Okay. Definitely. Definitely a little bit of a corn forward bourbon, I think. Not too much ethanol in the nose. It's actually kind of nice. You said it was a 94 proof. It is 94. It's got a decent nose on it. Not too much oak. It's got, it's got a fruity nose to it. I'm definitely getting the caramel and vanilla, the typical stuff on it there. You get a little something else though. can't, can't put my finger on it.

You know, I'd read some reviews on this and we've listened to some reviews on this and, um, that's a, can be a bad thing to do. I'd read a article from Steve Coombs saying about that, you know, that, um, watch what reviewers say cause it's their palette. But what I would say is almost every review said this had on the nose, some cereal on it. So I could, I could smell that a little bit.

Yeah, but I don't think it's like, um, it's not like a checks mix or, um, you know, Cheerios or anything like that. It's more like corn flakes, I think.

So yeah, I'm getting a hot cereal, like a malt oatmeal.

Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. I think Tony the tiger had something to do with this one. Do you eat cornflakes? I do like cornflakes.

Those are frosted flakes. Frosted flakes. That's right. Yeah.

Yeah. I have been known to eat frosted flakes. That's, that's like one of Vivian's favorite cereals. Yeah. I kind of stay away from all the sweet stuff. You know, the sugar smack homes and all those make your teeth hurt.

So this has a mash bill of 77% corn, 10% rye and 13% malted barley. Okay. That's a high corn content.

Yeah, there's something in this that I just can't put my finger on and I'm not going to try and guess at it. It's just a, maybe I'll think of it later as I drink it, but, um, it's definitely got, um, I think a reasonably good nose for what it is.

Yeah, it's, it's, I wouldn't call that a Amber, like a dark gold. Yes. It's a little on the light side. Yeah. Yeah. But like I said, you said, um, I don't think it, the nose is that bad. It's a lot of corn, 77% corn. And I think that's quite a bit of actually malt, um, at 13%. I think let's taste this.

Oh, I know what it is now.

Oh, go ahead. Twizzler.

Twizzler. What flavor? You know, It's a cherry twizzler, but not a real cherry, cherry twizzler. Kind of just a little bit that fruit net, that fruit note that I'm getting from it kind of reminds me a little bit of cherry, but twizzler is that, that smell I'm getting. I may not taste like it when I get around to tasting it, but it certainly got a little bit of smell to it. So some chopped up twizzlers in your cornflakes. All right, let's taste it. All right. Cheers. All right. So it's got a little bit of sting to it for me anyway. Really? Yeah. Just a little bit.

See, I had, I don't get no like real heat on it. What I'm getting, it just was like watery.

Yeah. It's a bitterness sting is what I'm getting. Bitterness.

Yeah. It is a, there's no viscosity in there at all. It's just a,

It's, it's, it's definitely light. It's thin. That's the word, right? Thin. It's definitely a thin bourbon. It's got a little, it's got a little bit of bitterness to it. Now this is not the first bourbon I've had today, so I'm not going to blame it on that, but let's see how it develops as we continue to sip on it. I am getting that corn note still on my palate. Uh, not real overly sweet, but, um, not getting the, The Twizzlers at all?

Nah, I don't get no Twizzlers in this at all. I'm getting what you'd expect out of a bourbon. More corn forward on this one right here, obviously because it's 77%. I'm definitely getting that Kentucky hug. So I'm thinking this is definitely a sour mash. I read in some other reviews, but I'm getting some peanuts on this, like those cheap bag of 99 cent peanuts you get from the store.

Yep. I'm getting, I'm getting that nutty kind of flavor as well. Uh, I wasn't picking it up on the nose, but, um, I am getting that nutty flavor, but I don't know that I would say peanuts, um, for me, somewhere between almonds and walnuts, probably. I would even lean towards walnut more, I think. Now we know this is, we know this is a source whiskey. We know it's a Kentucky sourced whiskey. So having that sort of a nutty, peanutty, almondy kind of palette there kind of opens up my ideas a little bit about who might've made this. So you're thinking probably heaven hill. I'm thinking of heaven hill because that little bit of cherry note I'm getting from it. That little bit of cherry note and that a little more almondy than peanut for me makes me think that I could be wrong.

It almost makes me want to run upstairs, grab a bottle of Elijah Craig, which is 94 proof.

Yeah, this is not, this is not aged as long as a, as a Elijah Craig. I don't think. I think this might be a little bit closer to five to six.

It's also, you know, a logic. Craig has that a little bit more oil to it. It's a little thicker or this is almost to me like old tub. Could be. I'm not saying it is, but I'm saying it, it kind of tastes like that. Whereas, you know, we had talked about on that episode where we reviewed old tub and it to me, it was a little on the light side.

Now I've had the Wathens before I've owned a few bottles. I've actually had a bottle of their barrel proof, which I thought was really good. Now I've been a minute since I've owned a bottle of it. It's long gone, but I do have fond memories of it. Have you got other Wathens?

No, and that was the reason I bought this because I didn't have one. I saw it and I was like, you know, I don't remember what you picked up that day. And we actually had Adam with us that day. And I don't remember what either one of you guys got, but I saw this and I don't know. I was like, I want to buy a bottle today. And I think it was like $44. And I was like, that's not too much spend on a store pick. So.

Well, you see them out there. They're, I mean, they're on the shelves. You're not going to go into a liquor store anywhere, anywhere near us and not see a bottle of Wathens on the shelf. And at a good price, right? Around $35 normally, picked it as a little bit more.

I didn't think it was bad or pulled the trigger on it. And I could be wrong on what I paid for it. It could have been less than that or more. I don't, I don't even remember what I paid for it. Cause it has been back in the early fall, September, I think we had, we were out there and I just wanted to have a bottle. I mean, at the time I didn't have an Elmer T. Lee. So this was as close to that bottle as I was going to get.

You can just close your eyes and hold the bottle and imagine it's an Elmer T. Right?

It's not Elmer T. Cause I've had Elmer T. Lee before plenty of times, but never owned a bottle. Now I have a bottle and it's just sitting up there begging me to open it. But I keep looking at other bottles that I have open. which are way too many, definitely way too many bottles open. And I'm trying to force myself not to open more bottles. Um, but you have a bourbon podcast, you know, maybe one of these days we'll compare Rock Hill Farms and Elmer T. Lee. There you go. We should do that.

Well, you know, this is, uh, this is a decent bourbon. Um, for me, it's a sipper, but just kind of barely, you know, um, I would definitely be okay with mixing it. Uh, probably are not going to buy a bottle of this and give it to somebody, but, um,

Yeah, I'd probably be the same with you. I wouldn't call a sipper really. I'd probably mix it. Um, it's, it's not overpowering where it would overpower an old fashioned, um, or a Manhattan. So, or a meal. This would probably be perfect in the meal right here.

Well, you just hate to take a $35, $40 single barrel bottle and pour it into a mule, right? You can do it. I don't hate it at all. I quite enjoy it. I'd much rather take an $18 bottle of Evan Williams bottle and bond. That would be a little bit better.

Yeah. I mean, to each their own, I'd, you know, this bottle might get mixed up quickly. I don't know. It might even get poured in some hot tea.

Well, maybe what we need to do is some blending, get ourselves one of them aging barrels and do some blending with all this stuff we got open. Just pour a whole bunch into one barrel and let it rip to air chip. We've had somebody on in the past who actually had a birthday party. And their wife bought them one of those 15 gallon barrels. You know, you get them, you can get them from places on the internet, but he got a 15 gallon barrel and his wife invited all his friends and asked them to bring a bottle of their favorite bourbon. You know, nothing top shelf, just sure. And the idea there was, was everybody would bring a bottle and they would pour it in to his 15 gallon cask. And then, you know, they would seal it up and five years later on his next birthday, they'd pop that baby open and see what it tastes like. 15 gallons. That's a lot of bourbon.

How many years are they going to do this for? I think five years, I think is what they said. I don't know. You know, for me, life has changed dramatically in the last four years where I, we moved around every three to four years and, and now we're going on our fifth year here in Kentucky. So I'd probably do something like that now, but heck, five years ago, there'd been no way I'd have done something like that. Cause I don't, I could probably couldn't get that many friends to come over and pour whiskey in a barrel. I tell you what, I'm gonna take this with me and wherever we land, you guys are invited to come see me now. Now, you know, we made more and more and more friends here in Kentucky. That'd be a pretty good idea. I think.

Yeah.

How many people are going to bring a store pick and pour it in there though?

Yeah, probably not a store pick. Just no, no peanut butter whiskey, no fireball, no nothing like that. You know, it's gotta just be straight bourbon, straight Kentucky bourbon. JTS Brown. JTS, that would work.

JTS Brown would work. T.W. Samuels, J.W. Dan.

All Heaven Hill products here. All Heaven Hill products.

Bottle of Jim Beam, you know, just a bottle of wild turkeys, some Buffalo Trace. I'll name out a couple other ones. Four roses. Four yeller. Just pour that in there too. Just go to town on it. Yeah. So store picks, we've talked about store picks before, Jim. Um, would you recommend people try to get on a store pick? Absolutely.

Absolutely. Yeah. I think the distilleries do a pretty good job of setting aside some unique barrels, you know, for people to, uh, to select from. I mean, if you can pick a barrel that's just like something you can buy on the shelf, then, uh,

What's the point?

What's the point? You want to pick something that's different, right? You don't want something like what you can get on the shelf. You want something that stands out, it's a little bit different. And that's the exciting part about going on a barrel pick, is that you get to taste through some unique barrels. And at that time, you really get to see side by side how things differ in a distillery. You might get something from a different rick level, a different rick, a different warehouse, and you can just taste those differences.

Now, what I would say about this and where I made the mistake at was right beside this was the cast strength. And I should have grabbed the cast strength, but I think it was a lot more.

Sure.

And I was like, eh.

Yeah. Wathen's barrel proof is pretty darn popular. It's good stuff. Historically. You should have come over there and kicked me in the butt and said, Mike, just buy that other one. I think we've probably talked about it. If you had me there next to you, I would have said something about it. I think. I don't know why I did it. I don't know.

This is going to get drink. It'll, uh, you know, I don't know. Might even send some out to some people just so they can try it and experience it. And, um, yeah, I'm not ashamed that I bought it, but Hey, what are you going to do?

So if somebody out there has a bottle of barrel-proof Wathens, you're going to trade bottles with them, right?

I wouldn't trade them. I'd just say, yeah, send some samples out and stuff. You know, we like doing that. So me and you actually, uh, we took our wives on a day drinking trip, I guess I was the DD for the day and we went to four different wineries and it was actually got to see some surprising stuff. You know, uh, we went to place turtle run winery over in Indiana and uh, the owner there actually had a bottle of 1912 barreled and um, 1933, but it was actually distilled in 1912. And, uh, he, he pulls it out and I was like, man, what a surprise to get to see that.

Right. 1912. Wasn't that the year the Titanic sunk?

I don't know. I think about that time frame. Yeah.

Amazing, huh? History.

Yeah. I was super amazed that he had a bottle. The tax stamp was good. The wax, the wax was almost gone off, but you kind of expect that something from the thirties. How long is that wax going to last?

The liquid was still at the shoulder. Yeah. And it was clear.

It's super clear. There was nothing inside of it. No, Like sediment. Like the four roses we looked at that day.

You just not going to drink that. No. We had our four roses from the sixties and it just, oh, broke my heart. Broke my heart.

But I think that's how awesome that is, is to see that. And then we actually ended up at Huber's winery, which is a, I don't know. We discussed it over there, what that place had become. It's a winery and then you got Starlight Distillery that's still owned by the Hubers, right? And we actually got treated pretty special over there.

It was really nice. Yeah, I had a good time.

There was a wine club there that day of 800 people and they were going through the winery and tasting wines aged in bourbon barrels. And, uh, I tried to sneak in there and get in one of those groups and he's like, Hey, who are you? And I was like, ah, you know, I'm just checking stuff out. She's like, well, this is for a private group and you can't taste any of these. Well, come and find out. We did get to taste some.

Yeah, we got walked through the whole thing with the owner, didn't we?

Yeah, we got to sit down with Ted and just kind of talk and not do an episode, but we just got to talk about the distillery and talk about what he's doing at the winery. And Christian, his son, actually took us back in one of the warehouses and we tried a couple of barrels that he actually distilled. And so we'll actually have them on in the future. and that'll be episode, but you got treated pretty special. And that lady actually saw us come through there and sample several, several ones did not kick you out of here a few minutes ago.

Yeah. So it was a pretty good day.

You know, get to see that bottle of bourbon that's from the, from 1933 and then get to experience that and stuff. And you know, that's one of the things I love about this podcast is that people, I mean, Ted didn't have to do that at all. There were, There were over 800 people, there's thousands of people there at Hubers. And he didn't know me from Adam, I just went up and started talking to him and he's like, hey, come on with me, you two. And we had a pretty good time.

Oh yeah, it was really good. Well, Mike, let's continue sipping on this Wathens here. And when we come back, there's another single barrel we're going to dive into. Yeah, let's do it. All 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. All right. Well, we are back and we've got a new bottle here in front of us. Mike, you chose Woodinville's cast drink.

That's a pig from Westport whiskey and wine. And I didn't go to buy this, um, but our good friend early on, she's their national brand ambassador. She actually lives here in Kentucky and she, she hit me up the other day and said, Hey, uh, why don't you swing by my apartment? And I got something for you and Jim. So I swung by and, She'd come out carrying two little bags and, uh, what'd you know? She, she had two bottles of this for us. And I, we told her before we'd like, really like try their cast drink stuff and she gave me two bottles of it.

So this is, this is what they call their private select. This is their barrel program.

Yeah.

And this particular bottle was chosen by, um, the folks over at Westport whiskey and wine and it's 120.7 proof. So nice upgrade from what we had in the first half. What'd you say?

Oh, we definitely jumped up there. Just a, just a tad bit. Um, and I'm pretty sure Chris over there probably is the guy that selected this.

I would say definitely he did. And you know, one thing I can say about Chris is that he can pick a good barrel. So if you're ever in Louisville and you're looking for a liquor store that has a great selection of single barrel picks, uh, that were chosen by a really qualified palette. I would say go to Westport whiskey and wine.

The nice thing about Westport whiskey and wine before you even buy that bottle, you can go over there and taste it. They'll, they'll have it out there right by the cash register. Actually they'll have like five or six of them out there and not say he usually has. six to eight picks in there at a time for bourbon.

Just right at the cash register. They also have a tasting bar in the back and there's no limit to how many picks they've got on site at any one given time. I think he mentioned when we had him on the show that they did something like 40 picks in a year. That's pretty darn good.

He's definitely selling some whiskey over there. Prices are great. Right up there with the box stores, he's competing with them. You're going to help a small businessman, some great places to eat right there. If you want to go eat shop at the same time, there's bourbon and steak. Um, there's Napa Valley grill right there. There's, uh, there's all kinds of stuff to their comfy cows right there. I think the ice cream place, Tony Boombas and yeah, you can go wrong going in that, that Westport villages. But the very back, back there is Westport whiskey and wine.

Well, anyway, definitely knows his bourbon, definitely has a good selection of it, and we get over there every chance we can. But anyway, this particular bottle came to us from Ariel, and Ariel, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. You got a bottle for me and for Mike, so it's perfect timing because I just finished off that bottle of rye.

What I would say if you're listening to this and you listen to us and you follow us on Instagram, pop over to Ariel's Instagram page, Ariel, yawn, give her a follow, give Westport whiskey and wine a follow and give Woodinville whiskey a follow.

Absolutely. Well, Mike, let's check this thing out.

I'm already nosing this sucker. It smells so good.

Oh my goodness. I am definitely getting more syrup, more sweetness. Almost a pancake syrup.

Bourbon pancake syrup. Yep. Yeah. We just did that. Some, some bourbon syrup.

All I'm getting on this is that deep, rich sweetness, that caramel sweetness, that, uh, I don't want to say maple, but definitely a, uh, an oaky or woody syrupy sweetness on the nose. Very nice.

I'm definitely getting that oak on there for sure.

Um, a little bit more vanilla, I think that I normally get. So they've really pulled that, uh, that vanilla out of the barrel. Let's taste it. Let's do it. Oh yeah. Yeah. Right up front. First thing you get is that nice hit of sweetness on the front of the tongue travels back a little bit. Nice syrup, but this one's got a little bit of oak power to it, doesn't it?

I'll tell you what, if you're a person that says bourbon can only be made in Kentucky, you got to get a bottle of this and see that there's some great bourbons outside of the bluegrass state. Um, such a beautiful expression right here.

Yeah, aniseed for sure. I'm getting that anise on it.

I was actually going to say a little bit of black licorice for me.

Now, let me ask you this, Mike. I'm not real familiar with what candies are made of, but isn't black licorice made from like anise or what's licorice? I mean, they taste kind of the same, don't they?

So licorice is actually a plant.

Yeah.

And you take that root and abstract that juice out of that root and that's where it's made from.

Okay.

And I guess you'd boil it down. Like you would boil down maple syrup or something or crush it, I guess, extract that out of there and you get that, that funky place. Some people don't like that taste of licorice. I personally, I think it's an old school thing and you know, yeah, I like it.

Yeah, this, this to me is like a very nice, sweet, um, you know, probably a cane sugar licorice candy, um, old school candy, hard candy. Very nice.

So some other things that would taste like that, even though this is not related to, um, anise or star anise or fennel, it has that same kind of pickups. I could see where you would say, Hey, um, it tastes like anise a little bit, but to me I get that licorice.

Yeah, I think there's, there's similar flavors. I know fennel seeds like that. Wow, this is really, really nice. Very full bodied. As it moves back on the pallet, I start to get more of that oak intenseness. I get a little bit more of that spice coming out. Gives me a little bit of that heat on the back end. Now this is 120.7 proof compared to what we had in the first half. Definitely a step up in proof for us.

Well, I want to tell you some stuff about licorice that I didn't know. Excessive consumption of licorice. can have side effects such as increased blood pressure and muscle weakness. Really? Rethink my licorice game right there. I don't think there's enough of it in this though. And it's not real licorice anyway. Well, I think this will cause muscle weakness though. Bourbon? Yeah. If you drink enough of it.

Yeah. It makes you not want to get up. know that's muscle weakness or laziness. I call it muscle weakness. Wow. What a fine whiskey, Mike. This is really good.

Yeah. Ariel, I can't thank you enough. I know you, you listen to us. Um, you know, that's the great thing about the whiskey culture. Bourbon culture is, is people like Ariel and that's, that's her job to get on these things, but she didn't have to reach out to me. She didn't have to say, Hey, swing by my apartment. And I still can't think of enough.

Well, I don't know what the price on this bottle is and we probably should have asked Ariel or we should probably have done a little bit of research before we recorded this show. But let me just say this, if you're in Louisville or you're coming to Louisville or you're looking for a nice single barrel bottle to put on your shelf or in your bar, Stop by Westport whiskey and wine and pick up this single barrel pick. Does this have a particular bottle number, barrel number, pick number on it, anything to identify it in case they have more than one?

So this is a barrel number three, three one six. This is bottle number 77. Not, they didn't tell you how many bottles were in that pick. I'd say probably right out of 200 range. Probably that 120 proof. That's, that's my knowledge of that. So I'd say 200 bottles, but that's, I don't know. I'd think probably in the $60 range, maybe a little bit more.

Yeah, it's a fine bottle. It's a good expression. Uh, you know, you only get quality from, uh, Woodinville. I don't think I've had a bottle from them. I didn't think it was top notch to start with. Um, they're really making some good whiskey out there. Washington state is doing it right. They're not the only distillery out there. We've had a few on, but, uh, definitely one to keep your eye on as their stocks continue to age and they continue to. step out of the box and do new things.

So Jim, I came over your house the other day and as soon as you pull in your driveway, I see wood stacked up. This looks like, Paul Bunyan's been out there just chopping down trees.

Yeah.

You've been splitting a little bit of wood?

I have been splitting some wood, but I've been doing it the easy way. Well, you're splitting it with a log splitter, right?

That's right. Yeah. So that's a smart way, not the easy way.

I think you're probably right. I've got plenty of wood on my property that is falling or ready to fall that needs to be cut up and split. And I knew that this needed to be the year to sort of get a hold of it and get that stuff cleaned up. Plus my wife, she loves a fire.

Yeah.

And, uh, you know, we've got an outside fire pit and we've got a nice fireplace in the house and you've got a couple of fireplaces in your house.

Yeah, we got, we got a fireplace, a gas one burning in our bedroom. Um, you know, for those magical times, and then we got a wood burning up in our, I guess, a great room and then down here in the basement in studio two, a studio two, a we're going to actually, we'll have a fire here. Um, probably next. three episodes when it gets a little colder right now it's 70 degrees outside or it was today a little warm for that but that's what I was doing yesterday and today as I cut a bunch of firewood off a neighbor's property that he's got a lot of trees that need to come down and I'm he's in his 70s so He asked me, he's like, Hey, would you be able to come pull those trees down for me before they fall down or damage anything? So I went over there and cut them down. And luckily enough, he's like, Hey, have firewood. Well, I appreciate that. You know, that saves me a Vivian.

Were these dead standing trees? They are dead standing. So the woods dry, you know, how easier can you get it?

Right. I won't say it's dry drive because some of them are so big. One of them was, I'd say it's a foot half two foot diameter. That's pretty good size tree.

Yeah. But even though with that, if you get them, you get them, you know, cut up and logs and get them split out, you'd be able to burn them. Um, maybe not the first thing into the fire, but they'll be fine after.

Yeah. I mean, it's, well, I let it sit over there for a day and today I'm picking all that stuff up and then there's no, you know, you pick up a green piece of wood. Sometimes you can almost feel it's just wet. This stuff is dry. It is, it's ash. Um, so you gotta burn it. You can't transport it. Yeah. So I just, I'll just keep over there, keep cutting all winter and stuff. And, um, have plenty of wood and then I'll have wood for the fire pit down by the creek. And, um, yeah.

Yeah. I've got probably 20 ash trees and you know, there's going to come a day here in the next probably five to 10 years here in, in, in the Midwest where you're not going to be able to find an ash tree. They're just all going to be gone because of the ash borers. They've pretty much killed them out.

Yeah. I'm glad I have that, but. after the last two days, my back's hurting. I tried to pick up a log where I'm getting a little older and I probably picked up, you know, that thing's two foot in diameter at the base. And I took and tried to pick a log up and put it up on the log splitter and I should have tipped over the log splitter. That vertical. Yeah. Probably not the wisest idea for myself, but you know, I could feel my age there a little bit and this liquid painkiller right here is a awful, awful good for that. Yep.

Well, Mike, I want to say it one more time. Um, you know, Woodinville's got some great stuff. This particular bottle here, I would definitely sip on any chance I can get. I would absolutely have a bottle in my bar. Um, and would be very proud to give a bottle of this to somebody who likes a higher proof whiskey.

Yeah, I'm there with you. It's a buy. Yeah, I'd probably gift it. What I would say about this, and this is a lesson learned from Big Chief to everybody out there, is if you're going to buy a store pick, ensure that it's cast strength. Um, I'll probably never buy a store pick. It's not cast. Drink again. How, you know, cause this is blowing the socks off that.

It is, but you know, that's our preference. You know, there are some people out there who haven't quite reached that level of wanting to drink high proof whiskeys all the time. So. If you're, if you're still in that, uh, 90 to one 10 range or 90 to a hundred range, and that's your comfort zone. Uh, I can remember having this conversation with Randy, you know, he just didn't want that high proof stuff when we started drinking, but after a while he sort of got the taste for it.

I don't want it in the summer time or the late spring time, but I crave it this time of year that, that deer season, you know, I'm, I don't know, maybe I'm getting in that rut and I just want that high-proof bourbon in me.

You're getting a rut. That means you're going to go fire up the gas fireplace in the bedroom, right? Yeah.

Maybe it'll kill me. So what do you got? You got something coming up here. You're going to go take a trip to Virginia up to the mountains and you're going to see old Randy. That's right.

So our, uh, our original cohost, Randy, uh, did, did move to, uh, to Virginia and he lives up on a mountain in the middle of nowhere. You're familiar with Crabtree Falls in the area that he's in.

Yeah, that's Afton area. There's a nice little winery right there. There's some distilleries right there. Crabtree Falls, which you mentioned, I think that's the tallest waterfall on the East coast. I actually hiked up that waterfall, the trail there, with my three-year-old daughter on my shoulders the entire way, because she made it about a hundred yards. Nope, I ain't doing it. So back then I was a younger man. I was 23 years ago, I think 22 years ago. Put her on my shoulders and it, you don't think that's very impressive until you go over there and see that it's straight up a mountain. Quite a feat, I think, but a beautiful area. There's apples there. If you're going to Virginia and you're going to the Blue Ridge Parkway, Skyline Parkway, I guess. Check that out. Absolutely.

Yeah, we're actually going to say, now, Randy and his wife, they live and work. Well, Randy doesn't work. Randy's retired. But he and his wife live on a campus of a camp up in the mountains. And, you know, we're going to stay in one of the lodges there, or one of the guest lodges, and actually sort of do the whole campground thing with them. you know, spend some time with our good friends and hopefully we'll get a chance to see a few things while we're there. But I just told Randy, you know, there's no agenda here. We just want to come hang out with you guys. So I think we'll record an episode.

We'll try to anyway. So look for that episode out there in the near future and stuff that same weekend. I'm doing a Weller's tasting here in Shelbyville, Kentucky. If you haven't bought your tickets yet, it's not too late. It's going to be at the barrel room in downtown Shelbyville. Um, you're going to get four tastings. You're going to get a Weller special reserve, the old green label, my favorite. You're going to get a Weller antique, a Weller foolproof, the blue label, and you're going to get a 12 year, which is one of our both well reports for how much $35.

If you can hop in your car, And then come visit Shelbyville, which is basically halfway between Louisville and Frankfurt, right? Yeah. Yeah. So halfway between Buffalo trace and, uh, angels envy.

Yeah. It's so some people complain it is open and day of gun season in Kentucky for deer, but kind of buddies deer hunter. But if you tag out that morning, You're like, Hey, I could still see big chief drinks of bourbon. Come on down $35. If you don't like bourbon or if your spouse doesn't like bourbon, they got some great beers there. You can try. They got a great selection of bourbon on the shelf and me and Jim are actually helping them curate that collection to where people could get some stuff that you're not going to see on every bourbon shelf.

Yeah, that's a lot of fun. And you know, one thing I like about the barrel room is that their prices are very reasonable and they have bourbons from, I mean, you can get a purple top will it if you want, you can get a weller, you can get some big bottles, but you can also get some stuff that's $4 a pour. I mean, you can get yourself a, Um, and early times bottling bond, you know, they've got, uh, each Taylor there for a reasonable price. So, um, yeah, it's a great place to go to. No, no need to stop after the four that you've had during your taste. Sure. Go to the bar and have a couple others. So I think our.

tastings probably feel a little bit different because I'm going to talk to you about just the common guy, the bourbon bullshitter that just likes to talk about bourbon and the way I taste it and that there's billions of different palates on the face of the earth and everybody's a little bit different. And I take mine from personal experience and my knowledge of drinking bourbon in the past year has grown. I mean, just my, I'd like to say my storehouse of knowledge has just opened up and I'm getting all these different notes and, um, I don't get the same notes everybody else gets, you know, and I, we kind of pride ourselves in that as saying, Hey, it tastes like this or tastes like that. But that's my personal experience and I'm going to talk about that. So, and I'll give you a little history lesson on welders, um, why I like it so much. I weeded bourbons and I think it'll be a great, a great event for $35.

Absolutely.

And you get four good pours.

Yep. It was a lot of fun at the Blanton's event. I think this one will be just like it, probably actually better, I think, because not only are you leading the tasting, but you're a Weller fan. I mean, that's your, that's your thing, right?

And I'll tell you what, if you're a roadie and you show up, I'm going to bring some bourbon with me. And if you come to that event and you're paying for it, I'll probably give you a little bit of bourbon. Um, bonus bonus. I bring a couple of sample bottles with me. I haven't filled up. So if you're roadie, I'll bring four samples with me of some special stuff off my shelf. Um, you know, and Jim, you can attest to that. I've, I've got some pretty special bottles up there.

So let's, let's reiterate here. This is November 14th, 4 PM on main street in Shelbyville, Kentucky at the barrel room.

Most definitely. And if you want to get here early and go shopping downtown, Shelbyville supports some local businesses and stuff. It is, it's mainstream USA. There's some antique shops, which you'd expect in a smaller town. There's a lavender store there with local honey and stuff. And you buy all kinds of lavender stuff. Like I even have some beard shampoo and beard cream from there. So you can go to them shopping. There's coffee shops. There's a lot to do in Shelbyville. You wouldn't think so, but great little Mexican restaurant right downtown. that we like eating that come down there, shop, eat lunch. Um, and then come over there and listen to me talk about some bourbon. All right.

Well, Mike, we have a Facebook group called the bourbon roadies. We're up to about almost 1200 people now, aren't we? I think we're getting ready to tip the scale at 1200. 1200 roadies in there. We'd love to have our listeners join up. If you're not a member of the roadies, go to our Facebook page, The Bourbon Road. You'll see our group there called The Bourbon Roadies. Ask to join. You get three questions. We want to make sure you're 21. I want to make sure you like bourbon. And we want to make sure that you're going to play nice because Mike, what do we not support? Well, we don't tolerate any rudeness. That's right. Well, we're just some good people. We like to drink bourbon. We like to talk about bourbon. We'd like to review it and share it. And we don't want to be jumped all over because we have a particular opinion about a bottle or something.

Yeah. I just think we want everybody to play nice in there. We want them to, be able to come in there and talk about bourbon, even if they're brand new and they bought a bottle of Jim Beam. Hey, let that person be excited about their first bottle of bourbon and not beat them up about it. Let them do their review. Yeah, let them do their review or talk about it and say, hey, this is why I wanted to buy it or I'm just starting out. And if they ask, Hey, I'd like to opinion about some of the bourbons. I would like to buy. Remember that that's a new bourbon drinker. They don't try to blow their socks off with $200 bottles of bourbon. Right.

Well, we love $200 bottles of bourbon. We do. I got to tell you the story, Mike. I went home last night and Melody was like, we got a friend staying with us right now. And she goes, I needed to make a bourbon and Coke for her. And all I could find was this Carter stuff. And she goes, she thinks it's too powerful. I said, which one? She goes, the American. Oh my goodness. That's a $200 bottle. So I had some old Carter American enter into some bourbon and Coke there at the house. That's tough. That's tough. And she liked it though. She drank it a little strong for her, but she drank it. You don't need a whole lot of that in the Coke too. I thought I had three quarters of a bottle. It looked like I only had a quarter of a bottle left. I think they had more than one.

Well, to finish up, some great bourbon. Ariel, once again, thank you. So you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube at The Bourbon Road. Give us a follow if you're really liking what we're talking about, you like the interviews we're doing with people. Scroll up, hit that subscribe button. That way, weekly, your phone will go ahead and tell you, hey, these Bourbon Road dudes, they're actually on again. Scroll on down. If you really like what you're listening to, scroll down and give us a five-star review. Leave us what you want to hear, what you've liked. Give us a one-star if you want to. Just tell us what you didn't like, though. We'd really appreciate it. Helps us out. Helps us open those doors. It gets us in some awesome distilleries. We do two shows a week. We do that first show on Mondays. Craft distilleries most of the time, but sometimes we'll do a review on a big boy. We like doing that. And then on Wednesdays, we try to have a guest on. We'll sit down like we're doing tonight and we're just talking about bourbon. And that's right.

And if you're on that computer and you're just surfing the web and you just don't know what's next on your list, go to thebourbonroad.com. We've got a great place there. You can listen to our episodes. You can read Mike's blog. Mike writes a blog every week. You can read his blog. It's usually not a recap of an episode. It's a little bit more of his take on a particular episode or a bourbon expression. You can also buy our Glen Caron glasses on there. And, uh, you can also contact us on there. You can also fill out that contact form and say, Hey guys, love your show. Would love to hear something about cast, drink, fry whiskey or something like that. Sure. And I'll be one things for sure. I'll be on that for you. I'll get you some cast, drink, fry whiskey. Ever, every week you try. All right. Well, I'm Jay Shannon, 63. I'm one big chief. And we will see you down the Bourbon road. 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 it 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.