124. 2020 Blind Bottle Challenge and Bourbon of the Year

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 are once again at Jephthubin Farm. That's right. We're out here in the country.

But we are not alone. No, we got a whole bunch of our roadies from Facebook. They magically just popped up in here tonight. Just knocked on your door and said, we want a drink. Yeah. So I think we put out right around 50 to 100 bottles for them to taste on. Put a spread on for them. We're going to do a little blind challenge tonight.

It's good to be a roadie. Yeah. So blind bottle challenge. We do this. We've done a couple of them now, but we did one for the New Year's last year. It just seemed like a really good thing.

Yeah. I think it's always a good thing to get everybody together in the year with, talk about our whiskies of the year, our craft distillery of the year. Kind of thank our roadies. Thank everybody for supporting the podcast, but also get to drink some good whiskey. All right. So we've got two guests on with us tonight. Yeah. We got the funny man, Rob Carter from Shelbyville, Kentucky. He's really from Baghdad, Kentucky. I don't know. Is that Baghdad, Iraq or is it? No, that's right here. Central Kentucky, Shelby County, Baghdad. And then we got Jordan Riley. He's over there across the Ohio river and over in Indiana.

Yeah, about 20 minutes across the bridge into southern Indiana, so just outside of bourbon country. So what's the town you're from? Charlestown. Charlestown.

So you're representing southern Indiana and Charlestown. That's right. But you drink a lot of Louisville bourbon. Oh, absolutely. A little bit of Indiana bourbon.

A little bit, yeah, a little bit.

All right, so tonight, guys, we've got four bottles. Mike has sort of put together a nice scoring sheet for us and he'll go over that. But we each brought a bottle. Each one of us knows what our bottle is that we brought, but we don't know what anybody else brought. But the rule is that they had to be cask strength.

So, did you bring a cast rank?

Yes, I sure did. I did.

Okay.

Well, is it high proof? 84.

84, I think.

84%. 84%. From 1984. 168.

So yeah, we'll do one through four first two pours in the first half, second two pours in the second half. We actually got Jordan Walbridge. He's going to actually pour them for us. He knows what we have out there. And hopefully he thinks they're four good bourbons. So I think this is gonna be fun. So we're gonna do aroma or nose, taste and finish. You'll score each bourbon of one through 10 on those right there. We'll add up the total score at the end of every, at the first half we'll add up the first two and then the second half we'll add up the second two and then we'll see who wins, which is gonna be mine.

And there was a big prize, right?

We do have a prize. So we had Greg Robinson, a roadie. He actually made people seen it on our website. They've seen it on our Instagram and Facebook. It's a stave that has the bourbon road cut out of a piece of plate steel screwed onto there. Super nice, super beautiful. Grave made that for us. I don't think it gets much better. And then we got some gifts to give away to the roadies in the room tonight.

So we're going to do that.

Absolutely.

Yeah. All right. Well, Jordan, Rob, Mike, should we get right to the whiskey? Let's do it. Let's get to it. Let's get to it.

So we've got bottle number one here. A lot of brown sugar and cinnamon on that nose.

I agree with you on that. A little bit of fruit coming through. The oak is playing a big part.

That's a, it's a beautiful nose on here. Yeah.

A little bit of dried fruit. A little bit of dried cherries.

Dark cherries. Yep. What'd you get over there, funny man?

I caught that cinnamon brown sugar. That was, that's pretty good.

So this has got some butterscotch in there. Um, that maple syrupy on there on that nose. Yeah. Beautiful.

I'm actually getting like walnuts, a little bit of Rick house. I'm getting that Rick house. That's a little bit of proof to it, I think. Little bit of proof.

Yeah, the more I kind of swirl it and sniff a little more, that proof's definitely coming through on that.

Now, I would expect all these whiskeys to be a little dark tonight because they are cask strength. This one's a dark amber. It's definitely sticking to the glass.

Oh, yeah. As we say, it's got some legs on her.

Yeah. Should we dive in and take a taste? Let's taste this thing. Cheers. Cheers.

That's got a burst of flavor to it. It does.

Very rich. A lot of caramel up front. It is a little hot, but you would expect that out of probably 120 plus proof on this. What do you think, Mike? It's hot.

It's got some heat to it. That dry fruit really kind of comes through on the palate for me too.

That's what I call definitely. That's like me coming up and giving you a big bear hug right there to punch you right in the chest.

They call it a Kentucky hug or a Kentucky boa constrictor, right?

Oh yeah, it's hugging pretty tight.

Still got that sweetness when it first hits your tongue. That caramel, sugary taste. Not so much butterscotch, but just that, just some, you ever had sugar in a raw? You ever stuck your finger and tasted it? That's what I'm getting on this right here. And then that spice, just super spicy on this right here on the, just when it first hits the tongue. That's not a bad thing. It's a good thing, I think.

That's something I'm starting to appreciate, that peppery spice. I like that.

Yeah, there's a bit of spice to this. I think when you go back to the nose, if you go back to the nose on it, it just reinforces about it. They're so linked. They're so together. It's just a very nice... And there's kind of a lot going on there, I think. As you sit there, the finish does stick with you. Oh yeah, absolutely. But as you sit there and you just analyze it, you start to notice other things like a little bit of tobacco coming out on the back end for me now.

I got the tobacco leaf in there.

Yeah.

But like you said, it's a lot going on where you want to say like, well, the fruit's coming in more. Well then, then the proof comes in more. It's kind of just, you don't know which one's kind of taking prominence over the other one.

What I'm not getting on this is a whole lot of oak though. You know, you don't get that oakiness out of this. There's a lot of complexity in there, but just not the oak I would expect it with this dark color.

Yeah, it's there, but it's not, it's not taken over by any means.

That's a beautiful whiskey. That is really good. I could, I could sip on this. No problem.

Jim, what do you think the age on that would be?

If I had to guess the age on this one, I would put it six to eight. Maybe, I mean, it could push a little bit higher, but the oak, you know, the oak is not overpowering on it. So I would say probably right around eight years. I think the proof on this is probably around 114.

I'd put the proof right there, kind of the mid-teen range right there with you.

I kind of already let the cat out of the bag on mine. I had already said it was probably north of 120, but. So you think this is a weed or a rye?

The way those on the pallet where it just comes in real strong with that spice, I'd say it's more of a high rye mashbill.

What about you, Rob?

Man, I'm not sure.

You got me on this one. I think he's falling in love.

I just sucked it all down, man. Can we start over?

So Rob, how did you, you know, you, you're the told everybody, you're the oldest guy here. Elder Statesman. Elder Statesman. Is that a quant kind way to say that? I think so. Right. Elder Statesman. How long you been drinking bourbon?

Hmm. Not long. Maybe, um, 10 years, probably 10 years. And I didn't get serious about and start really appreciating the actual flavors until maybe the last five. And, you know, crazy as it sounds, being a runner, I decided bourbon was my diet drink of choice. Sounds crazy, but I didn't have to drink a 12 pack of beer. I didn't have to, you know, drink a Coke with something. I didn't have to put, you know, fruit juice with something. I started drinking, you know, bourbon on the rocks and a little bit of bourbon with water and then down to bourbon neat. Now I enjoy it neat, and I can taste all these flavors and spices.

And now you're moving up the proof scale.

Exactly, exactly. As I've gotten older, especially.

By the time you hit 70, 80, you'll be at hazmat. I know, exactly. White dog.

Now Jordan, what about you? How long you been drinking bourbon?

Probably a good, I'd say seven or eight years, starting off just like bourbon and Coke. A lot of people start off really only enjoying the true flavors and exploring more than just the bourbon and Coke world probably the last year, two years maybe. So not too long actually diving into it.

So how many bourbons do you have on your bar? Just curious.

Probably about 35, 36. So decent little starting collection.

Mostly Kentucky bourbons for you?

Mostly. I've got a few Texas, a couple from Washington. I'm always trying to broaden my horizons.

What about you, Robin?

Well, you know, I sort of had a little goal when I turned 60 to have 60 bottles of bourbon on my bar. And I hit that, and then my buddies all brought in bourbon. Ended up the night, before the night was over, I had 80. And then over the last little bit, I've, you know, added to that. And now I'm, I like to think I'm up to maybe 110 or so, 110, 120. And I chose, I've made a conscious decision to promote Kentucky bourbons. And I only purchased Kentucky bourbons.

Even though we all understand that bourbon can be made in all 50 states. Absolutely.

I just want to be a proponent of Kentucky. Look, I could drink scotch, I could drink a lot of different things, and all those are great products. I have no qualms against them. I just made a conscious choice. love Shelbyville, love Kentucky, love bourbon, you know, just what I chose to do.

So I know what I'm coming to your house from now on. I'm gonna bring something for other than Kentucky then.

I'll drink it. That's what I like to say, free bourbons is the best bourbon.

No bottle left behind. Exactly. But if your money's going to be spent, you're going to spend it in Kentucky. Yeah, for the most part.

There you go. I got a few pieces out there, but yeah, exactly.

So Jim, it's been a hell of a year for us, right? It has been a hell of a year. We've had to kind of fight through this year with COVID, and it's just been rough getting out on the road trying to go to distilleries. Some of them are closed or they don't want have anybody into this delirium for podcasts and stuff. We have to be really creative, get online, which we didn't do before, had some learning curves there and stuff.

But what would you say our bourbon of the year was? So every year we'd like to sit down and talk about what was our favorite bourbon. It had to be something that was on the show.

Yeah.

It had to be something that we both thought very highly of. But most importantly, it has to be something that you and I both agree on. And that's hard. We have two different people doing something. We're about as polar opposite as you can get with pallets. So you're the weeded king of Kentucky. You like that soft, sweet upfront flavor. I'm the right guy. I kind of like that spicy finish, that pout on the back of the palate. But we do come together. Last year we came together and we chose Old Forester's 1910.

Yeah, which a beautiful double-oaked bourbon. A lot of people don't know what it's even double-oaked, but it is. It was a beautiful expression. But this year's...

This year, the Weed of King Kentucky has won out.

So we picked Makers Mark 46 Cast Strength is our Whiskey of the Year, Bourbon of the Year. I got to say Makers Mark did a great job. 46 was already pretty good, right? Yeah. But to kind of mark the 10th anniversary of that, they put it in Cast Strength and it was just a special bottle.

Which was the right choice. It was absolutely the right choice. I mean, it was amazing the difference in that. And you know, Makers 46, like you said, was a good move by Makers Mark to start with. Oh yeah. Because the flavors that they get out of that experiment that they've done are just tremendous. And then they bumped it up to half strength and it was just phenomenal, really good.

So yeah, it was something that you and I could agree on. And yeah. Well, you know, I love my weeded bourbon. I'm already on my second bottle of that since it's come out. And every time I go in a store and I see a bottle, I want to reach for it and buy another bottle. But I got to tell myself, hey, slow down there, hero. We want to try some other stuff. Have either one of you guys had a 46 cast strength?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

What do you guys think about it? Yeah, it was good stuff. Did we make a good selection there?

Absolutely. I bought a bottle of it back in November for a Christmas bottle exchange that me and a few friends did. And it was the hardest decision not to open that and keep it for myself and try to find something else for them.

Has any of the roadies in the room, have any of you guys had the Makers Mark 46 cast strength? Well, I got some left up there in that bottle. We'll break it out here after we're done and we'll finish that bottle off. We'll do a cheers to the end of the year for us. Sounds good.

So later in the show, we're going to talk about what was our craft distillery of the year. And this is not necessarily a particular expression, but this is a distillery as a whole, right? Yeah, so we added our review this year.

And to pay homage to that, we're on the second half. We'll talk about craft distilleries and why they're so special to us. And we'll name our craft distillery of the year. And it was close. Yeah, it was close. We had a tough time deciding.

In fact, we just came to our decision tonight. So guys, everybody got their notes on this bourbon here? Yep. All right. Got your numbers? Scores are down? All right. We're ready to move on here. Let's get to bourbon number two. So guys, we have bottle number two in our glass right now. And I'll be honest with you, this one's looking to me like about the same, maybe just a hair lighter than the last one. Just a little bit, maybe. Yeah. I'm drinking out of the coasty glass here, Mike.

Go Coast Guard. I don't have any Army glasses. Otherwise, I'll tell you, go Army, be Navy.

Give me a Navy glass. You guys stole the anchors from the Navy, though. We were first. Listen to him.

Or actually, they disbanded the Navy. Do you know that? Do they? And so the Coast Guard is really the oldest CEO in service. Yeah.

Do you know that, Rob?

Were you around when they disbanded the Navy?

Yeah, I remember that distinctly.

Yeah, it was about seven.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I didn't know about the disbanding.

Yeah, they disbanded the Navy because they didn't want to fund the Navy. So they disbanded them and then they started back up.

Yeah. OK.

I like to tell people that, you know, just to let them know who's older. We're the professional Mariners. You never hear a coastie getting rescued by some Navy guys, but you hear all kinds of Navy guys getting rescued by Coast Guard men. So I got a whole bunch of other jokes, but we're cleaning podcasts. We're going to move on here. Clean it up.

Clean it up. So the nose on this, what do you get on this nose? Somebody go first because I'm just now getting to it. I was defending the Navy over here.

This is super light on the nose. I don't get a whole lot on it. A little bit of floral notes on there. Maybe a little bit of honey.

I should have gone first. A little bit of honeysuckle. That's exactly what I was going to say. Yeah.

Very sweet. I can't tell if it's a sweet just in the mash bill or if it's like a finished, a finished cash drink.

Yeah, it's definitely lighter on the nose than the last one. It's got a little bit less, a little bit less, quite a bit less spice on it, I think. The fruits there, a little bit lighter this time. It's got a nice floral note. I don't know about honeysuckle. I'm not real good with flowers. I can't. I get some type, like you said, some type of floral note, but I can't narrow it down. It's a flower.

Yeah. Have you ever walked through?

It was just fresh. That might be a hint to you guys to buy your ladies more flowers. Stop buying your flowers at Kroger's and go to like a traditional flower shop and buy your honey or your man. I found out tonight Jordan is engaged to Jordan.

In all fairness, it wasn't this Jordan. Oh, it's not this Jordan. Well, he put his arm around him.

He put his arm around him, so I just thought, you know, I don't know what I was thinking. They've got close and they're drinking out of the same whiskey glass.

Get that hand out there now. with a, with a better florist. My mom used to work at the Kroger. So that'd be blasphemy to go into a florist in my house.

Well, heck, let's get, let's get to the tasting on this. Cheers. Cheers.

Got a little bit of proof to it.

A little bit of proof, but that sweetness really carries over for me.

Now, is the sweetness up front or is it in the back? Oh, up front. Up front. It's all up front. Is it kind of soft?

Yeah, I'm not like... I mean it is, but then that proof comes through right as soon as that hits it. So it's a good balance.

I'm getting a little bit of nuttiness on it. The sweetness is up front. It's a little soft, a little bitterness on the sides. Not much. A drying effect on the sides. More than a bitterness, more of a drying effect on the side.

Right. I wouldn't say bitter, but definitely that little bit drying effect.

But it's almost like an almond. I get to get that right there. It's like if you ever tasted like your used almond extract when you're cooking and you get that, you know, get a little too much in something. I've done it before. Put a little too much almond extract.

You know, my mother-in-law, she, the other night she called me up. She's like, I was like, what are you doing? She's like, well, I'm cooking mashed potatoes. And she's like, let me tell you what I did. She's like, I went to put a little nutmeg in my mashed potatoes. I never heard anybody put nutmeg in mashed potatoes. But I guess the cap wasn't on there. So the whole thing dumped into there. Which is funny because one time she cooked ham with a brown paper underneath it. But she ate the mashed potatoes anyway. She said, it's not bad. But I don't know if I could have did it.

Yeah. You know, we talked about when you need to know when to pour something out. Yeah. Not, not, not a bottle of bourbon. I'm talking about if you're making beer or you're making bourbon or you're making wine and you're a manufacturer and something doesn't quite turn out right. You got to know when to pour it out rather than serve it.

Right.

And try to say something.

Your mom doesn't know that. Well, that's my mother-in-law. I wouldn't say that about my mother. She only cooks fried chicken. Texas style. Texas style. Yeah.

Well, this is a good one. I like it a lot. But it's still got that, it's getting me with that nutty kind of almond flavor there.

So that's coming through a lot more now after I've had a couple of good drinks of it.

Sometimes when I get that, I want to call out the distillery, but I'm not going to do it. Real light on the pepper on this, not a whole bunch of hug on this one at all.

I say this is like a white pepper, you know, it just hits the tip of your tongue a little bit. Right, just that little hint. But not a whole lot. And Jordan over here, he knows what this is. I'm hoping this is not what I brought right here.

ashamed of myself. You ought to be embarrassed.

The blinds are the great equalizer. You absolutely can bring your own bottle to a blind, having drank it a day before, bring it to a blind challenge, go into the blind challenge, taste it, not recognize your own bourbon, and score it low. It happens all the time. It's happened to me. That's the great thing about blinds. They are the great equalizer.

So I'd say this is around 107 proof. It's not a super high proof cast strength right here. Probably a three-year-old on my books. It's got a medium finish on it. As far as a cast strength goes, this is a little bit of a letdown for me. I would expect a little bit more complexity out of this. It is what you would think of a bourbon though.

Right, yeah.

Hopefully, nobody brought a rye tonight. Like a rye whiskey. Because that's happened to us before, right Jim? Somebody brought a war rye whiskey one time?

They have brought a rye. Yeah, that was... Was that in last year's? No, no, that wasn't.

No, that was the show I first came on was with Brian Hyatt and he brought, I think it was Old Overhold. That's right. I remember that. Bottled and Bond. Which if you haven't had that, that's a great bottle, bottom shelf for to buy. Great price on it. I would suggest people go out there and get that.

Yeah, I'll check that out. I haven't tried that one yet.

Old Overhold, very old, very legendary brand. Been around a lot of years. Bottled and Bond?

Yeah. How can you beat that, right? Right, can't go wrong with that. 100 proof, not a bad whiskey at all.

Yeah, I mean, this is a good sipper. I would be happy to have this one in my glass anytime sitting on a back porch. This is a porch whiskey right here, no doubt about it. Back porch sipping. Back porch sipping.

That's a t-shirt idea, Jim. Write that down?

Write that down. For me, you know, I think I think the nose is the winner on this one, more than the palate. The finish is medium, but the nose is kind of the winner as far as the three scoring points for me on this one.

Yeah, I'm with you on that because I really do enjoy the palate, but like Mike said, for a cast strength, you would kind of expect a little bit more in there.

Well, as it's set in the glass a little bit and it's opened up a little bit more, I took another sip. You know, I won't take back what I said, but it's gaining a little confidence for me. You know, not a bad whiskey. No, not at all. That first one.

Now, I would imagine that most of these cast-strength whiskeys are not chill-filtered. Would you say that's probably true?

I agree with you on that.

Do you think that most of the craft distilleries are now moving in that direction?

I think they are because that equipment is super expensive, right? If you go into, me and you went over and visited Michter's and we went into their chill filtering process and stuff, how much money did they have tied up in that one room?

I mean, that's a big deal the way they do it. I mean, they do it a little differently than other people. And yeah, that's a lot of work.

I'd say there was millions of dollars in that room by itself, how they had it set up. And this is, most people don't get to see the place me and Jim went into. We're back in their Shaveley facility, their distillery, the real distillery and their, their finishing room, I guess you would call it.

Yeah. Where they put it in the settling tanks and they bottle it. It's about the size of my house. They call them gaging tanks, right? Yeah. So filtering, I guess there's a different kinds of filtering. Obviously when you pour whiskey out of a barrel that is charred on the inside, one of the things you can certainly expect to get is chunks of charcoal in the whiskey as it's poured. So I think regardless of whether or not a whiskey is chill filtered or not, it's probably always filtered through a mechanical filter to remove the chunks. Right, just getting the big chunks out of there. Get the big chunks out. But chill filtering, on the other hand, is designed to remove the fatty oils, the fatty acids, those things that tend to come out of solution when the whiskey gets cold and make it cloudy. Bartenders don't like that. Whiskey manufacturers don't like that. They don't want their bottles to get chilled and turn cloudy. They think people won't buy it. They filter it. But above 94 proof, that does not happen. And we're all drinking high proof whiskey tonight. So I think there's probably a pretty good chance we're drinking unfiltered, un-chill filtered whiskey. What do you think?

I'd say so.

All right. So Jim, I say let's give away something right now.

Let's see if these roadies in here are paying attention. So I have a Buffalo Tray store picked, given to us by James, the owner of Paradise Spirits and Wine here in Shelbyville, Kentucky. He's off exit 35. You can't miss him. He's right off the exit. So if you're traveling down the Bourbon Road, you're visiting Bullitt. You're going from Lexington over to Louisville. Stop at X 35 C James. Uh, he will hook you up. He's a great guy and he's veteran owned and operated. How much more can you love that?

I mean, he's about as central on the bourbon trail as you can get. Yeah.

And a great guy. So my question for everybody in here, roadies, you paying attention? I can't hear you.

Come on guys. Let's hear it.

So. Buffalo Trace. Why is it called Buffalo Trace? That's easy, right? Who can tell me? First person tell me. You're going to get that bottle. There we go. So it is actually the Trace, Buffalo Trace was actually a giant pathway through central Kentucky and stuff. And they said it looked like an interstate where the buffalo would just trample the grounds down and stuff. And you could follow that and made it easier for hunters to follow that. And somebody said, well, there's a river out there. They've traveled us down. I probably can plant me some corn here. I'll have to chop no trees down. I'm just going to build myself a distillery right here on the banks.

Is that where the Buffalo crossed the river at? I don't know.

The banks there are pretty steep, but I could imagine they would. Well, Buffalo can swim, right? I would imagine they could. A cow can swim. A cow can swim. A horse can swim. Can Big Cheese swim? Hell yeah. I'm a coast guard man.

Swim like a killer whale. All right, guys. So who was that that won that bottle right there?

Ralph Burgess, one of our roadies answered up. He got himself a store pick from James. I think that's pretty awesome. A lot of people love those Buffalo Trace store picks. If you're out there, you see one of them. Don't shy away from it. Grab that bottle.

All right. Congratulations. Thank you, James, so much for the gift. We appreciate it. And our roadies appreciate it for sure. All right, guys, any last words on this one here?

It was a good one. It was, it was just smooth, a little smoother than the first, which. I'm not sure I actually like. You know, I like it hot.

You're like me. You like it hot. You like it spicy. You like it to disrupt your palate a little bit. Your digestive system.

There you go.

It would depend on, I guess, the time of year and just the mood that I'm in, whether I prefer something a little more smoother like this one or with a little bit more heat and kick to it. Yeah, I could drink this one all day. I wouldn't need a Prada sec.

There you go. Hey, back to paradise. Don't forget Chris, brother Chris, also a veteran. Dad, Tommy, also a veteran.

Yeah, you can't beat that family, right?

I mean, and local. Come on, shop local.

Yeah. Well, on the second half, we're going to come back. We're going to drink two other two bourbons that people brought. And then we're going to name our craft distillery of the year and we'll finish up. So stay tuned in. We'll be right back. Be right back.

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 rotten 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, everybody, we are back.

This is the Bourbon Road and we're having our blind bottle share of 2020. It's almost New Year's. We've got a couple of great guys here with us. Somebody's going to win tonight. So I think I already feel like a winner. I could hear it in your voice that you've already won, Jim. You can. I don't know. I already sniffed. We got number three in the glass right now. I already took a quick sniff of it. You put your sniffer in there?

It's already a good one. So we've had three really good bourbons so far. I haven't even tasted this one yet. Yeah. I think you can't go wrong with these cast-strengths. If you're sleeping on cast-strength whiskeys, it's not your thing. I say, go out there, get yourself a cast-strength whiskey. You know, it shouldn't pay over 66 to a hundred bucks for it. If you're paying over a hundred bucks for the cast strength, you know, I'm not saying you're overpaying, but you get somewhere in that $60 to a hundred dollar range.

Yeah. Some people say the rule is $10 per point of 10 point of proof or something like that. What is it like? 120 proof is $120. I don't believe that. It doesn't have to be that way, right? Not at all. Well, so, uh, Rob and Jordan, we've got number three in the glass here. I'm looking at it and I'm seeing another one that's kind of similar to number three in color.

Number two. I'm sorry, number one.

Number three is similar to number two in color.

Right. Could be a tad darker, but definitely similar.

When he brought it out in that glass, it looked like black coffee. It did.

It was very dark.

It's just those glasses. Now Rob, why is your glass filled up so much?

Well, you know, I don't know how that happens. Probably the ice in it makes it look that way.

I think it's good that you got a tinier glass.

I do have a tinier glass. He's got what's called a copita.

Is that what that glass is called?

It's called a copita.

Now where's that glass from? Does it have a name on there?

It does. This is from Leapers Fork Distillery, an awesome place.

Yeah, they got a dog run cabin down there. Some of my favorite guys. You got Forrest Gump down there. You got Lee Kennedy. You got April Weller Cantrell. It's not with an S. It's not Wellers. It's Weller. Weller. A lot of people make that mistake, right, Jim? Yeah, absolutely. Great team down there. One of my favorite distilleries of all time. They didn't make the cut this year because they had a labeling problem and they weren't able to release their bottle of bond until late. Oh. We're going to get to those craft distilleries here in a minute. Let's get to this thing. How's that nose on this thing?

Yeah, I'm liking it right off the bat. Yeah.

Number three, what do you think Jordan?

So it's got the, and I hate to say it because I don't mean any disrespect by it, but it's got kind of like what I would call almost like a varnish note to it, which I've smelled before and it always, it's always on a a bourbon or a rye that tastes amazing, but it's just on the first smell, like it's just a very, very strong, and once again, I hate to say almost like a chemical smell, but that's, I don't mean that in any disrespect, but- Medicinal?

Maybe, yeah, maybe that'd be a better word for it, medicinal. There you go. Chemical is kind of a broad term, medicinal is kind of like, yeah, it's got that antiseptic kind of smell to it.

Which medicinal puts this in a whole new category. I like that. Yeah. I see where you're going with it and I'm liking it.

It's a cure for something, right? I didn't get COVID yet, so it must be the urban.

Hey, I've been saying that from day one.

Now, listeners, as you can hear, our roadies have loosened up a little bit. I actually broke out another bottle of my infinity weeded bottle and it's now half empty. There's a lot of smiles. We done lost some people though. They couldn't hang with the true whiskey drinkers. LaHannah, the half of the bourbon barstools, she quit on us.

But Mike, they were circling the Chacuti Rebord there for a while, and then all of a sudden they dove in. They dove in, they did.

They're tearing it up over there now. Got a little whiskey in their belly. You get a little, that redneck prosciutto, as Steve Coombs likes to call it, that ham, that Kentucky ham. This is a very complex bourbon, I think. Caramel and butterscotch on it. I get a little sugar smack them cereal on this. That sweetness is coming out. I smell a little bit of spice. I don't get that medicinal whiskey on this. I get the layers, but that's just me. Yeah, I think this is a beautiful nose on this. I just can't wait to dive into it. I say let's go ahead and dive into it. All right. Cheers. Man, this is heavy on the oak right here for me. Yep. Um, you could taste that oak in there. Is, is it a double got some spice on this? I don't, we don't know yet, do we?

Oh, good point. I thought maybe you'd cheated or something. I was, I was actually testing your ass.

Now this has got a Kentucky hub that's down deep right here, man. It's a punch.

For me, this is a mid-pallet bourbon. It really sits on the middle and it kind of makes a big impression. It's got a lot of proof to it. I don't know what, I can't nail what it is. I'd say 130 plus. It's up there.

It definitely hits you. It's got that deep hug to it, but it's not overpowering at all. It's not one that I would taste it and turn away from at all.

It's got a little bit of chocolatey. It's a little chocolatey for me. More of a cocoa, kind of a dry cocoa powder.

I could get that on there. A little bit of almonds in this so you get maybe a chocolate covered almond. Some kind of nuttiness on this with that cocoa he's talking about. One of my favorite things to make with that is the no-bake cookies. Oh, yes, sir. Oh, man. It's a fat man's dream right there with a big glass of milk or some whiskey if you like drinking whiskey with your cookies.

You don't even have to wait for them to dry either. Just eat them right out the pot.

So this one really isn't going all the way to the back for me. It's kind of sitting in the middle. I'm getting, so it's hard for me to put a number on the, on the finish because I'm sitting on the mid palette. It's got a good, it's got a nice good spice on the middle palette though.

Yeah. You'd ask if this was a double oak. I don't know, but I would, I wouldn't think it could be, but you'd rarely find a double oak cast strength. I think they're not a whole lot of those out there.

No reason for it, I guess.

I do think this in the number one might be a weeded bourbon and the spices coming out of that barrel. Man, this is beautiful.

So complex. That is good. Yeah. So this really isn't reaching the back of the palate for me. So I would tend to think that probably it's not. I think it's probably barrel spice that I'm getting. That'd be my guess. Yeah. It's not real sweet though up front. It's a little bit there, but by the time it reaches the mid, it gets a little drying for me. Really? So yeah, just a little bit, Mike. Not bad. Not off-putting at all. It's a good pour. No doubt about it. I get hot honey smackums on the back of this right here.

Hot honey smackums. Yeah, I'd say this has that long finish on it that you're looking for. A great whiskey. I'm getting that Kentucky hug right down in the center of my chest. It could be that I ate some of that charcuterie board over there, but no, this whiskey's hitting home.

Oh yeah, it's a good one. I'd say this is everything you would look for in a cast strength. It's got that extra punch to it, but at the same time, it's one you could drink a couple of and not be turned off by it.

Makes me forget about those green beans. The green beans, so I really, really like pickled green beans. One of my favorites.

Yeah. I ate one of those that ruined my taste buds there for a minute. They were awesome, but I was screwed.

I think it takes a good whiskey like this to make you forget about something like that though. Jordan, what was your favorite thing over there on that, on that board?

Definitely that trail baloney that you said you made.

Yes, homemade venison trail baloney. That's my wife's favorite. She'll probably beat me for making it because I don't make that too often. But I love making it for her. You know, you got a good wife that you've had for 20 years. You kind of want to... What's that old saying? Happy wife, happy life, right? Absolutely.

Unhappy wife, unhappy life. So it works both ways, right? Yeah.

Yeah boy.

I kind of like that that that boar sausage you had and that was good too. And I always enjoy your your deer sausages you make. Mike you you make that that jalapeno deer sausage and oh man.

I made the boards tonight and I have a roll that I was going to put out and then I was like well the board was filled up and I was like well that's enough probably for tonight. And then everybody came in and didn't eat anything first. And I was like, well, they were circling the board, circling the board. And we have an island here that's probably, um, four foot across, almost eight foot long. And it's completely filled up with meats, cheeses, uh, some pickled veggies, uh, cheese, just, you name it. It's up there.

Any kind of little finger food you'd think. Yeah. Figs, dates, good stuff.

Yeah.

Boyle Woodro just keeps circling. He's waiting for something to drop on the floor.

And many of those offset some of the tastings of the of the Bourbons, the dates, the figs, the fruit. Man, that was crazy. It's good stuff.

So Mike, we had a lot of craft distilleries on the show this year.

We did. We started our craft distillery reviews. Every once in a while, like we always say, we throw in a big boy in there, a major distillery. But most of the time, we like to take and a distillery will send us their bourbon or their whiskey, and we'll try it and we'll review it. And we both really love that, to get to try stuff from across the United States.

There's some surprising stuff out there. Yeah, so as these young distilleries are coming of age and their stocks are starting to age out a little bit and get a little bit of time in the Rick house, some pretty amazing stuff is coming out of these guys. It hasn't been a full year, but I would say probably 30 weeks of this year we've had shows Featuring small distilleries, craft distilleries.

Yeah. Most of those guys are local businesses. Sometimes they only sell at their distillery. Sometimes they're out to about six to 12 states. They're growing. It takes a lot of money to get into each state. I don't know if people know that. One distillery told me that it takes about $100,000 per state to get into that state because you have to hire a marketing company to market your whiskey, or some people call them national brand ambassadors, to go into that state and sell that whiskey. So you've got that person's time. You've got to pay distributors. There's a lot to it, more than people think, and that's why those craft distilleries have such a hard time getting into states. Man, what some great whiskeys. And it came down to the last minute. We decided tonight. Who do we pick, Jim?

So we have had, like we said, a lot of craft distilleries on. And we didn't just pick on a particular expression. We didn't just say, hey, we're going to pick this bottle as our craft whiskey of the year. What we decided to do is pick our craft distillery of the year. And it had to be something that Mike and I both agreed on. It had to be something that we could come together. Because we like different things. Mike likes the sweeter bourbons. I like the more spicier bourbons. Some of these distilleries have a little bit of both. We looked at everything, their marketing, their bottle, what expressions they have out on the market, our interactions with them played a big part as well. And it came down to two. And at the end of the day, we chose Mike.

Well, I'd say honorable mention first. Honorable mention. Honorable mention is Frey Ranch out of Fallon, Nevada. Treated us really well. Worked with us great. Their whiskey was phenomenal. Great people. Kobe and his wife and his family out there farmed a, you know, ground to glass pretty much.

Yeah. And not just their bourbon, but their rye. They really across the board have great expressions of whiskey.

Yeah, so audible mention from them. Woodinville whiskey, though, is our craft distillery of the year. Ariel, our whiskey slinger from here in Kentucky. Ariel, if you're listening to this, thank you so much for coming on the show and being with us. Woodinville whiskey, phenomenal across the board. Absolutely. They just got launched nationwide in Kentucky this year. I can't say nothing about them from their ride to their straight up bourbon that's 90 proof. If you can get one of their single barrels, absolutely knock your socks off. Yeah. And then they have their finished series. That stuff too is just amazing. You'll actually hear us review one of those in the future. I just can't say enough about that whiskey company and what they're doing and they're trying to compete with the big boys out there.

so wouldn't be a whiskey congratulations on being our craft distillery of the year congratulations absolutely nice and uh you know we're gonna do our best this year mike we're gonna try and find our way out to washington state to give them a visit what do you think i'd love to and uh actually pick a uh do a pick out there and bring that back to kentucky absolutely absolutely All right, guys. Well, back to bottle number three. Any last words there, Rob? What do you think?

It's a nice one. A little bit spicy. Not too hot on the end for me. Pretty smooth. I am. Yeah. Manchester, find out what it is. Jordan?

Like we said to begin with, it had a little bit of a medicinal nose on it for me. But as far as the taste and finish goes, I think it's exactly what you would look for in a cast strength. At least my personal opinion, when I want something just a little bit more than the average bourbon you would get, I'd reach for a cast strength. It's got every bit of that, just that extra little bit of something you're looking for in that bottle.

All right. Mike? I think it's a great bottle. So far, it's my highest score. On the nose, I had butterscotch and caramel. I thought maybe it could be a double-oked, heavy oak on that first taste, that first sip. And I said it was hot honey or hot sugar smackums. Right. A long finish on this with a great Kentucky hug. Everything that I'm looking for in a cast strength. I'm hoping this is a weeder right here. I don't know. You know, like you said, Jim, these blind challenges are the great equalizer when it comes to whiskey drinking.

They are. Yeah, you can sit right there and sip your own bottle and not even know it.

Right. And whether this is a weeder or whatever it is, if it's something that's not on my bar, it's definitely going to try to make an appearance on there before long.

Now for all three of you, did you try your whiskey before you brought it? Yes. Jordan? Yep.

I didn't, I did not.

You never had it before? Nope. And Jim? I mean, I've had mine before. Yeah. I'd never had mine before. I'd actually read about it and I searched it out and I found a bottle of it, a liquor barn, uh, had some in the back room back there. Luckily, uh, no, I, it, The nice thing about being on podcasts is some people recognize us now and are starting and they'll say, Hey, you're a big chief of the bourbon road. What you doing up in liquor barn? Well, I'm, uh, I'm in here looking for some whiskey.

So I need to get a bourbon road name tag next time I go.

So I was at paradise in Shelbyville and talking to James and he's like, who in the hell are you? He didn't even recognize me.

Oh, he knows who you are.

Now he's going to say, aren't you that guy that was on the Bourbon Road the other night? James, come on, dude. Hook me up. He did hook me up because I said, James, I want something a little bit different. I don't want something out on the shelf. What'd he got in the back? A little bit different. And he hooked me up.

Jim, what'd you think about this?

This one here? Yes. So for me, this one is a little bit more kind of a mid-pallet whiskey. Not too sweet up front. A little bit more hanging on the mid-pallet. I didn't get the long finish with it. I got sort of the medium finish with it, but I love the flavor. I could sip on this all weekend, no doubt about it. I think it's a great whiskey. I just think that for me, this is a little bit more... your profile. I don't know. Kind of, you know, that's just the way it works between us. We're so different.

This is all about me right here. I love this sucker. Watch it. This won't be me. Watch it be a high ride. This could be what I brought. Well, we'll go ahead and get our other, our last pour.

I hope I don't get a mediocre pour like I've been getting, but

So while we're doing that, we'll see if the roadies want to win anything tonight. They're over there just talking away. All right. So roadies, you better pay attention right now. So our friends and Ralph, I'm sorry, but you done run twice tonight. So, uh, and my hand and then left, uh, but our good friend over at knows your bourbon, he sent us a couple of his kits. There we go.

So talk a little bit about Knows Your Bourbon. What's Knows Your Bourbon?

So Knows Your Bourbon, he put together a sensory kit so you could smell like spices, baking spices, stuff like that. And it gets you to understand your sensory a little bit better. Did I explain that pretty well?

Yeah. It trains your palate.

So he put together a kit. He sent us a couple. We got to say thank you to Knows Your Bourbon. What a great guy. So we're gonna give that away. So, cause this comes up on the show every once in a while and Jim always, he always has to thank this out. But everybody in here should know the answer to this. What year was Kentucky founded? 1792. Bam. Oh my gosh. So Rob done won a Nosier bourbon kit.

I don't need nothing, man.

Said it right away. 1792.

I just thought it was a history class, man. I'm old. I told you I'm old, bro.

He's like, he's like, if I want to spend all my money in Kentucky, I'm sure it's how I'm going to know when it was founded.

So if you don't know, uh, Kentucky was a part of Virginia back then, right around the same time bourbon camp became bourbon and stuff. So is bourbon from Kentucky? Is it really from Virginia? You know, that's the great debate. Was it made down in New Orleans? Was it made in Kentucky? Nobody really knows the true answer. There's a bunch of bourbon bullshitters out there like try to tell you different, right? Who the first guy was, was it a preacher that made the first bourbon? I don't know, but they need a t-shirt. They do need a t-shirt. So if you don't, what Jim's saying out there, if you want a t-shirt, go on our website. We made our bourbon bullshitter t-shirts up. We actually have two other t-shirt ideas that we're going to put up out there. We're going to make some other t-shirts, but we want to see people wearing that bourbon bullshitter t-shirt. So go on our website, buy that t-shirt. It's $25 plus shipping and handling. Buy it. It supports our podcast. We are a veteran owned and operated company. I don't think you can get much better than that.

No, we're just good people.

Just good old, two good old boys out here in the country living, living life.

I mean, doesn't everybody think they're good people? Everybody thinks they're good people. I mean, I guess, I guess it's not unusual for us to think we're good people, but.

Well, I know here's how I, here's how I, here's how I judge myself, right? When I get naked and I go in my bathroom and look at a mirror. Oh man. I'm not liking this picture. When I look in the mirror every night, I think to myself, was I a better man tonight? And that's the way I kind of live life. Was I a better man today? Did I do a good job day as a man, as an American? And that's what I think. It really doesn't matter what anybody else thinks. It's what I do with my private life, what I think of myself. And that's how I kind of judge myself. If you can look at yourself butt naked in the mirror and say, man, I'm a good man. If you look in the mirror and say, I could have done better today. Well, you probably could have.

It's not my job to run the train. You heard that one.

It's always big cheese job to run the train.

Tell me if you want to hear the rest. I want to hear it. Not my job to run the train to whistle. I can't blow. Not my job to say how far the train's allowed to go. Not my job to shoot off steam or even clang the bell, but let the damn thing jump the track and see you catch as hell.

We're definitely in Kentucky tonight.

Firewalling. Oh my gosh, we got a dag on fireplace. We got cool guys from all over the freaking Central America and we're drinking bourbon.

And we got Woodrow, the whiskey dog.

Woodrow is a beautiful specimen of an animal. Isn't he? No, he absolutely is.

You know, I had a guy tell me the other night that he was like, you ever beat your dog? I was like, how about I beat you?

One thing's for sure. If there's a podcast going on, being recorded, and there's a fire going, Woodrow's going to be in here on the carpet. There's no doubt about it. Yeah. He's loving life.

He's why I live life. He's a good companion. I couldn't ask for this year, why everybody says rough. I wrote a blog on our last episodes and said, you know, we were talking about Valley Forge and the great Americans that gave us our independence from those people over across the pond. but it realizes how good you have life. And I'm with some great friends in here right now drinking some great American whiskey, bourbon, the American spirit, right? That's right. And I think we've got a pretty damn good life here. So I say cheers to that. We'll get onto this fourth pour. Jordan's been trying to pour that whiskey in my glass. I'm just here yapping my gums as I do so well.

So you got a little bit in your glass now? No, it's not that. So let me finish this up real fast.

Do I need to white-claw this Jim? Proof it down. Proof it down.

No, no, don't white-claw it. Just suck it down.

You got a drink you won't finish. Be a man, Mike. And you got a cigar looking thing in your left hand. I mean, come on, where's the, do we have cigars tonight? That's the question.

All right, fellas. So we got poor number four. Poor number four. Poor number four.

So has everybody scored their first three already? Oh yeah.

So you know where you stand coming up on this one, right? All right.

Oh my. Wow. I got a lot of caramel right off the bat. Holy crap. No, man. I'm getting this bar. This is the one I brought. This is my baby. Number four is my baby.

Are you saying this is the winner?

This is not, well, and, and the one I brought. So did anybody notice that the first pour we did Rob's over there in his senior citizen slumber.

You said slumber, I think stupor.

So he, uh, he's done, he's done woke up. Papas Murphy is in the house right now.

You guys intimidated the shit out of me. You guys are professional at Jordan walks in and acts like he owns the place. And I'm scared to shit. And all I want is a, another piece of deer jerky.

Now, to be fair, there was a night over here a couple of weeks ago, right? I wasn't here where some people were drinking a little bit of whiskey. Okay. I was here and Jordan, didn't you have to drive somebody home? Thank you, Jordan.

You're very welcome.

Yeah, I was here. Rob, I think we're going to name this one the Powerball Whiskey. This is your Powerball Whiskey. Oh, nice. Right?

Yep.

Because you're going to win the Powerball in there, right?

LoveShelbyville.com.

I'd say this is a high ride, I think. High ride. It's got a pungent nose on it to me a little bit. A little bit of spice on it, like you said, Jim.

Yeah, this one's got a little more of that deep, licorice, kind of, I don't know, spiciness, that little front of the palate, lack of sweetness, a little bit of spice up front.

See, I'm getting more of a, like a spice, almost like some type of a spice cake, like a spice dessert to it.

I'd go for that, yeah. Like a ginger spice?

Yeah, you could say the ginger, yeah.

Not like the person, but...

Oh, ginger, like on Gilligan's Island ginger? No, not that ginger. That's the right kind of ginger. I'm talking like Andy Gifford, like Opie Taylor ginger. Let's go back to ginger on the island.

Yeah. I'm thinking, yeah.

Let's try this thing. Let's taste it.

All right. There we go. Yeah. I'm thinking ginger, cardiac erection.

Man, I'll tell you what, I'm definitely getting like a spice stick, like a spicy potpourri, like yeah, spice cake, whatever you want to call it. I mean, Jordan, I think you kind of nailed it with that. I don't know that I can top that note.

That's definitely carrying it over to the palate as well.

Yeah.

You know, if it was a little bit sweeter, I would call it like a, um, uh, what are those, those cakes that have all the jelly candies in them at Christmas time and everything. The fruit cake, fruit cake, kind of a fruit cake, but it doesn't have the sweetness of the rum. It's a little too sweet.

Right.

This is, this is less sweet.

That's the fruit cake that nobody eats or they use it as a doorstopper by July. sucked all the moisture out of that thing and it's just, it's a brick.

But this is, you know, this kind of reminds me a little bit of like a Midwest rye, a little bit. Oh shit, absolutely. Yeah.

So this has a little bit of a, you know, he was saying ginger cake. I get a little bit of bread pudding on this, um, with a, with maybe some rum in it, just a tad bit, um, really flavorful on this complex, which you want out of a cast drink. You want it to be super complex anyways. You want all those layers and stuff. This has got it right here. Oh yeah, absolutely.

So can we all agree on seasonal fruitcake?

Yeah.

Seasonal fruitcake. I think for me it's a little more spicy and a little less sweet for you. I don't know, Mike, you think it's got a little bit of sweetness on it?

It definitely has that raisin characteristic to it, sweetness to it. Like I said, bread pudding for me.

Raising bread pudding. So if we were voting for which whiskey is most Christmas-like, I would choose this one. Right off the bat.

That's probably fair.

Is that your rocking chair over there?

Did you hear it?

This is going to be an editing nightmare.

So I'd say the finish on this, it has a long finish and once again, a great finish on this one for me. Um, it, it begs you to just drink some more. Um, when I think of a long finish, that's what I'm thinking of. Yeah, does it sit on your tongue? Leave those flavors sit on the back of your palate? Do you want to drink more of it? And I get all that with this. Just a slight Kentucky hug on this.

So, yeah, this all good. And and I literally accidentally got my nose too deep into it. And yes, I was sneezing my ass off. Thank you, Jordan, for a deep pour. But, however, this must be the one I brought because this is, no, this is good stuff.

This is, this is the cat's meow.

It's the cat's meow. Did you say that's the last four too?

What? You said that's the last four too.

Well, I changed my mind. This is the one I brought. I would not have brought a mediocre

Why? I usually don't think any cast strength bourbon is a mediocre bourbon.

Um, I don't normally, but the one you brought was, Oh, now, now, now Rob's going for the win.

All right, fellas. So we've had four bourbons tonight. This one is definitely has made an impression on me. No doubt about it. It's different than the other three. I agree with that. Color. Color is a little bit lighter, but the spiciness is up there. It's a little bit more of a holiday cheer, I would say. Yeah. Yeah. What do you think, Jordan? Give us your summary on it.

So this, honestly, this is going to take it for me. The number three was very, very good. It had everything you want, I think, in a cast strength. But this just having that little bit of more sweetness into it. I do like sweeter bourbons or sweeter rice. I think that's going to tip it over the edge for me. I think this is going to be my pick for the night.

Yeah.

So tally your scores up and then I'll get the main sheet and we'll come up with a, we'll get a calculator out because everybody's gonna drink too much bourbon right now. Thank you. And we'll tally our scores up and see who has the highest score on each bourbon. All right. We'll be right back.

All right, so we have tallied up the votes here and we've got totals on all four bottles that we had in the blind challenge tonight. And of the four bottles, Mike, you have the results in front of you. You know the results. We don't know the results yet. Are you going to tell us what they are? Heck yeah, I'm going to tell you.

All right. So bottle number one, Colonel E.H. Taylor's Barrel Proof. That is the big boy bourbon in the room. Impossible to find. What would that bottle cost you?

That's a $60 bottle. So if you go to buy it, right, $60 to $80, right? Is that right? It's right in that range should be a 60 to 80. I think more like 80 probably, if you get your hands on it. But you know, it is hard to find because of the Buffalo trace effect, right?

Yeah.

Buffalo trace effect.

So I'd say that, what you say 300, 400 for that bottle?

About 225.

Is that, am I about right secondary on that? It should be right in that range. It's kind of give or take a little bit. Yeah.

I say disqualified.

No, no, not disqualified. No, because you know what I paid for that bottle? He probably paid 60 bucks retail price.

So bottle number two was our bourbon of the year. Um, maker's mark, 46 cast strength.

I say disqualified.

Rob's like, I'm going to just qualify everything until my bourbon comes up. Well, that's his bourbon, I think. Was it? Yeah.

No, no. Maker's mark. Oh, that was, that was Jordan's. Yeah, that was mine. Um, bottle number three was Elijah Craig Barrelproof. Yay. What, uh, what is the bottle on that?

Uh, Jordan. All right. We need to know which Elijah Craig Barrelproof this is. B520. So that is the fifth month of 2020. So that's the May, 2020 bottle.

So I just want to point out, we got three big boy distilleries there. You got Buffalo Trace, Maker's Mark and Heaven Hill. And here comes the ringer right here. We got bottle number four was Horse Soldier Barrel Strength.

Yeah.

It's a small little distillery made up of guys that made, they made a move about those guys. Just a bunch of bad asses really, a bit hardened battled and they made a bourbon company and they're actually moving down to Somerset, Kentucky. Oh wow. Building a distillery down there. So they're bringing business to Kentucky. The stamp they've made for their label and stuff. It's, it's actually a piece of like aluminum or something on there, but the stamp that does those is actually made out of original stat. piece of metal from the uh the towers twin towers at 9 11 and stuff and then those guys they they do everything right a nice beautiful bottle is it pricey bourbon it is john edward from dad's drinking bourbon said it is pricey so i'm going to tell you how these came in and i'm going to go from uh last score to the highest score and i'll tell you who won this this big this big bottle challenge here this blind challenge um so coming in at Number four?

Don't say number four, say fourth place.

Fourth place is Makers Mark Cast Strength with an average score of 20.6. Jordan, I know that's our bourbon of the year, a weeder, but still respectable, I think.

Yeah, but let's be fair about this. This is absolutely blind. We had no idea what we were tasting. This is just reality, guys. Right.

This is probably the third or fourth blind tasting that I've done. It's really a way to kind of see past the label, if you will. A lot of people Will or won't drink a certain spirit just because of the label or what they've heard of it And it's just a really good chance for you to to get that 100% honesty out of it.

So yeah now coming in at third place was the old Elijah Craig's barrel proof drugs or what?

Rob, it was, it was a fan tastic whiskey.

I'm just telling you right now, I remember number three, Rob, I want to tell you this, your own whiskey, you gave it the lowest score out of all of those. We'll do some course correction on this.

This blind challenge is the great equalizer. So you spanked me.

Thanks a lot. We're going to get to that, right? So coming in at number two. was the Colonel E. H. Taylor barrel proof. All right.

Okay. That's respectable. You know, it's, it's a great whiskey. It's probably one of my favorites of all time, but the reality of it is, is it's a spicy hot whiskey and not everybody likes that. Right. Right. So when you bring a spicy hot whiskey to a bottle challenge, you're going to get 50% of the people that just don't buy into it. That's just the way it works.

Now, Jim, you, to give you fairness on this, that was the highest scoring bourbon for you. Um, because I think probably the spice and stuff.

Well, that's a good, that's, I mean, that's pretty, pretty cool.

So I actually, I actually liked my own whiskey. That's, that's rare in a blind challenge.

Place my last, right? What the hell?

So coming in at number one, first place. brought to you by the Weedy King of Kentucky, AKA Big Chief. Mike Hyatt, the big chief, comes in with horse soldier barrel strength bourbon with an overall score of 25.25.

All right, Mike.

And I tell you what, I'm telling you what took you over the top, Mike. What took you over the top was that was the right bourbon for the season.

Yep. Yeah. I read a lot of reviews on their barrel strength is a weeded bourbon. No surprise for me. Um, last year I came with Woodford double-oaked. I thought a double-oak could win it. Um, this year I was like, you know what? I'm going to stay approved to my true to myself and I'm going to bring a weeded bourbon and I'm going to whip these boys' asses. Um, as a true bourbon bullshit or should. That's what I brought. A great bourbon. I'm glad that it did went out because it is a craft distillery. It went up against three legendary bourbons now. I think 46 Cast Strength has already become a legend in itself. The other two, everybody's looking for Elijah Craig barrel proof. Everybody's looking for that D.H. Taylor barrel proof. But I'm telling you, if you can get your hands on that horse soldier bourbon, that's the weeded bourbon, grab it up.

Yeah. So fair exchange. We all, we all had an equal chance coming into this. Uh, the whole sort of horse soldier wanted out at the end of the day. Like I said, for me, I think it's because, you know, it's the right bourbon at the right time. Absolutely delicious. My great choice. Congratulations on winning the bourbon road 2020 challenge. Well, two time champion. Wow.

I'm like, I'm like America. So time world war. So are you saying people ought to like listen to you, right? I don't know about that. It pays off every now and then. It does pay off. I don't think anybody's come back to me and said, Hey, the bourbon you recommended was bad or anything. I hadn't tasted that before. I read a lot of stuff about it. I did my homework. I would tell you, if you're doing a blind challenge, and this is kind of my theory in it, try to get something everybody else hasn't drank before. Because I've had all three of the other bourbons and stuff before, that horse soldier. And I would tell you, that didn't get my highest score, I don't believe. 25.5.

What'd you score the highest, Mike? Since you're the winner, we want to know what you scored the highest. Elijah Craig Barrel Proof got a 26 from me. Very good. Awesome.

Out of the four whiskeys, I would say all four of them are great whiskeys. If you can get your hands on, especially the EH Taylor Barrel Proof, you're going to want to do it. Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, I'm going to tell you, if you go down south, that stuff is all over the shelves down there.

All right. So you fellows have brought four great bourbons today. We have chose the winner. No doubt about it. Horse soldier wins out the night. Absolutely. Without a doubt. We can't dispute the results because they are absolutely guaranteed and fair, but we've got four bourbons here. When it's all said and done guys, we're going to pull these four bottles up on the counter here and we'll all take a sip and see what we think about each one of them. Mike, we love to do this. This is what we do because we love it, right?

Yeah, hopefully all the roadies that came tonight had a great time, a great event. I think we always want to do these more, but COVID has kind of shut that down for this past year. We'd hope to do it every month or so, do one of these. If you're looking for The Bourbon Road, you can find us on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at The Bourbon Road.

We actually have a website. We do. TheBourbonRoad.com. And on our website, you can find our podcast. We release two podcasts a week. We do a short episode every Monday where we talk about a craft distillery. And on every Wednesday, we usually have a guest on, sometimes not, sometimes just Mike and I chit chatting about whiskey, but it's always fun and it lasts an hour.

Yeah, we brought these two bourbon bullshitters on here tonight and had a great time with it. So we also have a Facebook group, private Facebook group. You heard about the roadies tonight. I'm sure all of them could tell you that it's a great group. Three rules to join. Are you 21? Do you like bourbon? And do you agree to play nice because we don't tolerate what?

no rudeness on the bourbon roadies because everybody likes what they like. And if you like Jim Beam Black, that's your whiskey. Nobody should jump on you for it.

That's, that's the God's honest truth right there. So, uh, Jordan and Rob, thank you so much for coming on tonight. Thanks for having us. Thank you so much. If you're listening to the show tonight, make sure you scroll up. You like what you're hearing. Hit that subscribe button. Scroll on back down. I know James is going to kill him, but hit that review button. Leave us a review. If you want to leave us a one-star review, that's what you do. We want your honest opinion, but don't do that. Leave us a one star or a five star. If you want to just make sure you write something, tell us where we can get better, how we can improve our podcast. We take all opinions. Um, we'll listen to you.

We'll definitely try it. Right. Absolutely. We appreciate all the roadies who are here tonight. It's great to have a big crowd sitting around us tonight, eating good charcuterie board food and drinking good bourbons and, and, uh, just having generally good fellowship. We appreciate it. We love, this was what bourbon drinking is all about, right guys? All right. So. If you have an idea for a show and you think that you might know who needs to be our next guest or what the topic is that we need to talk about, we want you to reach out to us. You can reach me at jshannon63 on Instagram. I'm OneBigChief. 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 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.