129. Penelope Barrel Strength Bourbon

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 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. I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is The Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, we are sitting in front of your fire, Jeff the Bend Farm. We're actually going to be recording another episode tonight after this one.

Yeah.

Got a special guest coming. Yeah. Actually, this episode should release before that episode. So, should we say it or not?

Yeah, it'll be I think that episode will be in two weeks from now. Yeah. So we're going to have Josh Michael Bogard. He is Josh Bogard and the Dirty South. That's his band. He's going to come over here and play some music for us and we're going to sip on some whiskey, two Kentucky weeded whiskeys. You know, I'm excited.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

He's a Taylor'sville boy right down the road from me and you. So. Kind of a hometown guy for us. We've watched him play at a couple of venues and stuff before. We think he'll be a good artist for us. He's up and coming in Nashville, Lexington, Louisville. So we hope all of our listeners like what he sounds like. Kind of Southern rock country, I'd say. I mean, you've had that discussion before where you start talking about music. And if country today was played in the early 70s, late 60s probably, it would have been Southern rock, I think.

Yeah. Yeah. I kind of drew close to that in my youth, I think. That was kind of my thing. That's what I really liked. Some Led Zeppelin.

That's heavy rock.

That's a little more heavy rock. Credence. Credence. I loved Credence. I loved Molly Hatchett. Now there's a little bit more rock, but that has gotten a little bit of Southern to it. Allman Brothers. Allman Brothers without a doubt. So Josh is going to come on and play for us over here at the farm. It's snowing outside right now.

Like you said, I got the fire going. Woodrow, you know, Vivian just took him outside to play. Leave me and you alone to sip on this bourbon we're about to drink. We got a pretty special one, I think. Beautiful bottle. It's got a flower on it. Really nice looking, that typical tall whiskey bottle. I don't know what else you'd call it.

Kind of a tall whiskey bottle, tall white, kind of in the style of a BTAC style bottle, right? For those who don't know what BTAC is, and some of you don't, maybe, I don't know. It's the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. It's kind of the tall, slender bottle. A beautiful bottle, absolutely gorgeous. What a great way to warm up for the night, but sitting down with this bourbon here.

So yeah, we're going to sit down and drink some of Penelope's barrel strength tonight is what we're going to review for them. They were kind enough to send us a couple bottles and I'm excited.

Yeah, me too. So this is actually before we get into the specifics of this, what do you say we just go ahead and nose it and taste it? Yeah, let's do that. All right. Wow, that's a rich, sweet nose. Very syrupy.

It's got some little bit of floral notes on it, and I can get that syrup from you. What's the mash bill on this thing, Jim?

Well, it's a four-grain mashbill. I mean, I don't know the exact mashbill on it because it's a blend of three different bourbons. So at the end of the day, this is a four-grain bourbon. But that's because it's a blend of three bourbons, all of which are comprised of either a weeded bourbon, a rye bourbon. Obviously, the third and fourth grains will be corn and then barley.

We've, we've had a bunch of four grains on the show and stuff now to just so everybody out there knows it Penelope, they sent us a spreadsheet on their bourbon. Um, they do source this from MGP up there in Indiana. It's bottled right here in Kentucky though.

It is bottled in Kentucky. This is a three to four year bourbon in that range.

I'm getting that steel, getting that sweet floral notes coming off of this.

Yeah, it's kind of a little, for me, a little reminiscent of a Four Roses. It's got that kind of that Four Roses nose to it, but that subtle richness, that syrupy richness that I get on there, it's just, I really like that. I like it a lot. This is a bourbon that is presenting itself on the nose really well for a three to four year old bourbon.

Are you getting any vanilla on that? I get a tad bit of vanilla on that.

A little bit, a little bit. And I know that the tasting notes that were provided on it mentioned citrus notes. Personally, I'm not getting those. I don't get those either.

I maybe fresh cut strawberries on this one a little bit. I know that sounds weird, but it's got a bit of fruit on it.

And I, if I could lean towards strawberries, absolutely.

All right, let's taste it. Fruity pebbles.

All right, let's do it. Cheers. Cheers. Wow, that is a very sweet upfront. Um, again, that syrup kind of carries over for me a little bit. Um, but I get that initial pop rocks on the tongue.

I was going to say the exact same thing was that pop rocks. It just like popping all over the place. Um, sweetness is there. Like you just ate some of that candy. It's, it's quite pleasant, not too spicy. Uh, that Kentucky hug hasn't even started yet. Um, if, if at all, it's very light, um, not too much spice, just enough. Not very viscous though, right?

No, I think it is syrupy in flavor, but not in texture for me. But this is an unfiltered whiskey. This is a barrel strength, a cast strength, and an un-chill filtered whiskey, so you would think it would have a little bit more viscous nature to it. Oily, yeah. Oily. I think maybe that'll come with a little more age, but at three to four years, it's still pretty daggone good on the palate.

It's a little lighter amber and I was trying to figure that out, the color of it. You know, it's a lot of amber than I would have expected out of this, but still, and it might be just a bottle, but in the glass it's still kind of light too.

Yeah, I would say that because of that sort of pop rock effect that you get on your tongue, it kind of prickles your tongue everywhere when it comes across. You get that sweetness up front, then the fireworks start going off on the tongue. I love it. I think it's great. but it doesn't hang on the back of the palette very long with the heavier oaky notes, right? I think when that happens, if they allow this bourbon to age a little bit longer, I think those more oaky, more oak forward notes will sort of fill in that back of the palette and you'll have a fully rounded bourbon.

Yeah, I could see that. Everything you're saying is exactly right, I think. And then you'd probably get a little bit darker amber, you know, it's bringing out that wood into the bourbon and stuff. I'm still a beautiful bourbon all together. Pop rocks hit it on the head. That spice, it's like a, I don't know, it's pop rocks, but more of a cinnamon spice to me, like cinnamon chewing gum is always a big red chewing gum.

Yeah. I would say for me, you know, it finishes with a little bit of black pepper. but nothing like I get on the mid palette that sort of the robust tingling effect that I get on the mid palettes kind of interesting. It's unique. It's different. There's no doubt about it. And, uh, I could sip on this thing just a little bit.

Well, perfect place to sip on in front of the fire, uh, with a good friend. You know, Penelope started back in 2018 and, uh, Mike and Kelly, um, They were trying to figure out a name for their bourbon and they found out that Kelly was pregnant. Uh, so they wanted to name their daughter Penelope and that's where the name comes from. If anybody wants to know, um, and I can see the flower on there is a, is a Penelope a flower?

Boy, you're, you're, you're really making me reach here. I'm not a flower guy, but we're the wrong two guys to be asking that.

but still a beautiful name for a bourbon. The bottles like we talked about as a beautiful bottle. And then they, they partnered with Mike's best friend, Danny, and that's where the company started was in 2018. And they started sourcing from MGP.

Now those guys were actually childhood friends who were like next door neighbors, weren't they? I believe so.

Um, you know, they, what a great way we've, we've met a lot of people that started their bourbon company that way that were friends in college or, or old high school buddies or, or Hey, two people that met in a bar.

Absolutely. Well, I mean, this bourbon, in addition to being on the Bourbon Road and getting what seems to be so far pretty decent reviews from us, they've also got some pretty big accolades themselves. For 2020, they did win double gold at the San Francisco Spirits Competition. Wow, that's high praise, right? Yep, and they won a platinum at the 2020 SIP Awards. They've even been rated a 93 by wine enthusiast, so pretty good credentials for a younger bourbon and a newer company. I would say they're definitely headed in the right direction.

Well, for all my Coast Guard buddies out there, alumni, whatever you want to call us, veterans, Penelope is based out of New Jersey. New Jersey to me is kind of somewhat the home of the Coast Guard enlisted side, which is in Cape May, New Jersey. Make sure you pick up a bottle of this. I say it's a buy, Jim.

Yeah, it's definitely for me. So this is a sipper. If I had somebody that was really into craft distilleries and somebody that I thought loved to try something that's a little bit new and a little bit different while still being a quality whiskey and a good sipping whiskey, I'd give this bottle to them.

Not a bad price either. $58.99 at Total Wine. That's not bad at all. How are you going to go wrong with that right there?

I think that's a fair price. They also have the non-cast-drink release of this same four-grain whiskey, right?

Yeah. We're going to have that on a future show with them. We'll have Mike and Danny come on. They're going to come to Kentucky, obviously, to visit their bourbon. Once they come here, we'll have them on. Hopefully, however, either we'll be at Castle & Key with them because that's who they're working with now. or we'll have them over to the house or your house and they can talk about their 80, it's 80 proof. It's an 80 proofer, right?

Well, again, Mike, beautiful bottle. Great presentation. I'm impressed with the flavor. I think they're bringing something new to the table. It's a great sipper. Price is right.

Medium to long finish on this too. I'm still sticking with my palette.

It is. And there's a little bit of hug there.

But it doesn't compete with that Pop Rocks on the tongue, does it? No, nothing. That's one of the things that presses me with this. It's not like a punch in the mouth. Don't get us wrong. It's not one of those overpowering spicy bourbons. It's just enough tingle to let you know, hey, I'm a bourbon and you need to appreciate me. Yeah. Pretty delicious. I'm always surprised about all these bourbons that mean you get to try, all these whiskies mean you get to try, and you get to see the smile on your face when it hits your lips and you're like, this is pretty dang good.

Yeah, because it really does make me proud to know that all these wonderful craft distilleries in the United States are staying true to the bourbon craft and they're raising up whiskies that are just flat out delicious. The big boys, they're still making great whiskey and they always have. But these new guys, they surprise me every single day. And today's no exception.

Well, I'd say this about their price range. $58.99. You know, a bottle of the Maker's Mark Cast Strength, $46 Cast Strength is around that same price, $61.99, unless you can find it on sale somewhere. But, you know, and they're around the same proof. I would tell you that that's, that's pretty good if they can keep up with those big boys for a cast rank barrel strength or something like that. Um, I, it's a, definitely a buy for me, a gift to a friend. I'd give this bottle.

It's a beautiful bottle. You're exactly right. And you know, ladies out there, if you're wanting to give a bottle to another, another lady, This is a great bottle.

Yeah, I'd say that for sure. So Jim, I noticed today you're wearing one of our new hats.

I am. You know, I had one of the originals, Mike, and there's really no difference between our original batch and the ones that just came in, but I wanted to wear one of the new hats just because it's nice to put on a crisp new hat every now and then.

That's nice. So you can find that on our website for how much? It's $20. $20 plus shipping to handle.

Right. Yeah. And we do flat rate shipping. So it doesn't matter what you buy from us. You could buy a hundred things off the website and it's still only going to be eight bucks to ship it. So we do flat rate.

So make sure you go on our website, check that out. We got our bourbon bullshit, sugar t-shirt on there. Um, we have our caps on there now and we have our Glen Karens and soon we're going to do a special order for our t-shirts, just the bourbon road t-shirt. If you, you don't want to wear that bourbon bullshitter's t-shirt, we understand that. Yeah, it's a little edgy, a little edgy. You've got the edgy person. Um, we'll have that t-shirt and we're working on another t-shirt design. You just gotta be patient with us two old souls. Uh, it takes, it takes a little bit for us to get going. So we move slow. Everything's going good for us this year so far, right?

And it has been going good. We've been keeping busy, even though we've been keeping busy in isolation. We've still been trying to keep busy and move forward with the Bourbon Road. Got a lot of things going on. We're still on all the social medias.

So we're on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. And Jim told me today that we're on TikTok. I don't even know what TikTok is.

We don't have our first video yet. But we do have an account.

Well, maybe we'll get a TikTok video tonight when we go out. So yeah, great review, Jim.

Absolutely. So like Mike mentioned, you know, we've got, we've got our website. We'd love you to visit there. We'd love to have you guys follow us on all our social medias. We also do two shows a week, a short one like today's. This is a craft distillery review episode, normally lasting about 15 to 20 minutes. We do a long version show every week. Usually with an interview and we're gonna do that. We're actually gonna do one right after this. Yeah, and two shows a week love to have you tune in to both of those We also have a private Facebook group called the bourbon roadies like-minded folks like Mike and I who get together in a private Facebook group, talk about bourbon, take pictures of bourbon, share bourbon carefully. Carefully.

Carefully. So from now on, we were doing angel shares. Now we're just going to go, thanks for the pour. That's it. Thanks for the pour. That'll keep us, keep Facebook off of us. Three easy ways to get into that group. You got to answer three questions. Are you 21? Do you like bourbon? And do you agree to play nice because we don't tolerate any rudeness in there? We don't talk about politics. We don't talk about religion. And we don't talk about social issues. It just, we talk about whiskey in there because that's what we know about, right?

Whiskey is good times. And food.

And food. We'll talk about food. And we do talk about food. You want to talk about retirement. You want to talk about anything in your life that, you know, people discuss happy times. You're getting married. You had a kid. and you're celebrating with some bourbon, hey, put it up on there. We want to see it. We want to see your great life. Um, we just don't talk about those other things. Um, and I think that's something you can all agree with. So, yeah.

And Mike, if they like this show, what should they do?

Well, you want to go on there and subscribe to it. First off, subscribe to us. It gets us more subscribers and then that your, your phone or however you're telling it to, to play our podcast. Um, it'll tell you back, Hey, bourbon roads got another show for you. Make sure you go down and hit that review button. Give us a five star if you could, if you really like what you're hearing, if you don't, Hey, I'll tell people this every time. Give us a one star if that's what you want to give us, but please tell us how we can improve. That's the only way we get better.

Yeah. And if you've got some ideas and you've got somebody you would like to see on the show, you've got a particular bourbon you would like to see reviewed. Maybe you're from New Mexico and there's a local distillery there that's got a great bourbon that you'd love to give a shout out on the show. We'd love to review that bourbon. So let us know about it. And if you're a distillery that has a product that you'd like to hear reviewed on our show, just reach out to us. You can always find me on Instagram at jshannon63. I'm one big chief. And we will see you down. You know you can't drink whiskey without glassware and Mike and I are extremely pleased to have a sponsor like Premium Bar Products. Premium Bar Products offers direct to consumer the finest whiskey glasses, cocktail glasses, and bar tools with your own personal engraving. I mean, you can write anything you want on these glasses, anything from a company logo to a personal statement. And there are no minimum orders. Their direct consumer platform offers you the opportunity to purchase small quantities of your favorite glass shapes that enhance the pleasure of enjoyment and drinking a whiskey and make it all very positive. They offer the absolute finest trending and handmade glasses as well as a comprehensive range of styles and all of their items have been designed with purpose, practicality and longevity in mind. So if you're a bourbon or whiskey group and you need custom logos, you need to reach out to premium bar products. If you're an individual, you just want a few for your bar to impress your friends, to give out as gifts, you need to call Premium Bar Products. They need to be your one and only source for custom glassware. I can tell you right now, the Bourbon Road, that's who we use. Janie and Carson and the team there at Premium Bar Products will take care of you. They'll treat you like family and they'll take care of you with every order.