130. Lucky Seven Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

for me it was like oh my god like i couldn't feel my forehead like i was walking sideways i was like this is this is just amazing you know like later and then and the day after wasn't that great but um but i just remember being in this bar i was in bucktown in Chicago and just having this bartender serve us two or three of his picks. He might have been trying to punish us. I don't know. But I remember that time as the first time ever having bourbon, not whiskey, bourbon. After that, I really started leaning towards brown liquid and here we are today. But that was a while ago, but at that time your world upside down. Yeah, exactly. That's a good way to put it. It did.

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 and this is the bourbon road. And today, Mike, we are in stream yard. We've got some great people on with us today. I'm really excited because we've had their stuff in the past and it pretty much blew us away.

So we got lucky seven. We got JP and Mike from there. They're the owners operators. And then we also got, um, I like to call her the witchy woman of bourbon, uh, Ashley Barnes, their master blender on with us. Everybody welcome. Welcome to the bourbon road. Thank you for having us.

Thanks for having us.

Yeah. It's always a good day when you get to drink a little bit of bourbon. And it's always a good day when we get to revisit a distillery that we've had such a great show with in the past. So you guys, we like to kind of get straight to the bourbon. We don't want to waste a lot of time chit chatting up front. We want to get straight to that first expression. What did you guys bring for us here today for our first pour?

I'll take it. This is Mike. We brought you the jokester. It's our six-year expression that's been doing very well. I believe this one got double gold at ADI last year, right, John? It did. It did. I would consider, uh, like my daily drinker. Um, you know, it's our, uh, lowest proof expression. It's at 95 proof. And, uh, to me, I just, I just love drinking this on a daily basis. Um, it's, it's just smooth. It's got great notes. Um, and, uh, yeah, I really enjoy it. So we, we're going to start with that, I think. And, um, you know, let me know what you guys think.

All right. So everybody's got their glasses.

Check it out. Ooh, I'm getting cherry on that one, Mike.

I was going to say, I get a little bit of that rich, almost like Mexican vanilla. When you bring that back from Mexico, a real vanilla.

It's got a lot of vanilla bean. I can get the bean.

Right when you say vanilla, I taste it.

So I think that's what got me excited the first time. though we were testing out our six year old, it was immediate excitement because I think we started with three. And then right away, all three of them were amazing after Ashley did her work. And right away, it's like, wow, we This is good. We have a great product. And now it's going to be the painstaking process of which blend do we like the most. And like Mike said, it's my daily drink or two. And yeah, I'm biased. But at the same time, it's truly what I want. And when I come home from work, there's no question about it.

What I like about this one is that it really does change. So if you left your, if you poured a glass and you came back an hour later, if you poured a glass, took a sip and then came back an hour later, took a sip, it's different. If you let it sit out in the cold for some reason, it's different. It tastes completely, I don't know, just more substantial in my opinion. So the different flavors you can get out of it just by letting it sit out longer or sit in a different temperature is really, I thought was amazing. And every time I try it, it's better and better. So it's some of my favorite in general, not just because it's ours, but it is. I mean, you know, John does this too. We sit at home and we try different bourbons and we compare it to ours. And I'm not saying ours is the best. I'm just saying I like it. I, every time I go down a rabbit hole where I'm trying different bourbon and I go back to ours, I'm like, I like that. I just really like that. So that's why we're so, I guess, proud of the jokester and, um, you know, hopefully we'll keep it going as long as we can.

I get a little bit of a little bit of leather, just a slight hint of tobacco on this, like pipe tobacco that you could smell. You get that Jim?

Yeah. You know, I'm still, I'm still stuck on the cherry. I got cherry cobbler, a little bit of cinnamon on it.

It's cause it's dry fruit too.

I usually get, I'm not getting it as much today, but I had someone say green apple and I've been dying to taste that. I haven't, but I've been always trying to identify that as a, as a flavor note, like a lot of raisin and figgy notes on this one, which is really cool for.

Yeah.

The six year like free pudding.

Sure. Do you like figgy?

I don't even know what figgy. Isn't that like a nursery rhyme or something? I guess. Give me some figgy pudding. She said it. I had, she said figgy and I was like, I got to go with this. Well, let's, let's take, let's taste this thing.

All right. Cheers. Cheers. Oh yeah.

That nose and the palette is just so locked together for me. I mean, really spot on. That's like the same thing.

It's silky. Yeah.

It's a Kentucky straight bourbon, what you think of bourbon. When I was growing up, this is what I would have thought bourbon was. It's not a humongous punch in the mouth or anything, but that spice hits the tongue a little bit. That vanilla bean is there. Some of those rich leathers, it does slide right down.

You know, one thing I like, I've noticed, and I don't know if anyone else experiences this, but, you know, you feel it going down your, you know, you feel it going down. And I like, I know when it hit my stomach and I like that feeling for some reason, it's just a cool, I don't know, I just think it's a really cool thing to experience. And this is, like you said, so much flavor, just you kind of experience that finish all the way down.

I like chewing on it a little bit too in the back of the mouth and I really feel like it opens up some more. When we were getting into this, people asked me, what do you want to taste like? We want a bourbon that we like, you know, and I know that sounds like, of course, that's what you do, but we didn't want necessarily what the experts, like, let's say, Ashley, let's say we were totally weren't on the same page. I don't know how that would have worked out, you know, but Of course, what she came up with was amazing. And that's one of the first things we said to each other, like, we like this personally.

And to your point, John, I mean, we were asked by, you know, just when we're trying to get on market and talk to distributors and sell this product that like, why didn't you just leave it barrel strength? Why didn't you do a higher proof? That's the thing nowadays. People are getting a lot of money for those high proof expressions. And I said to her or them, it's not what we like. This was not going to be like a cast strength bourbon so we can get the most money out of it. We really wanted it to taste good. We wanted it to be something you can go to on a daily basis and be delicious. And so you know, luckily, when we met Ashley, her taste and flavor profiling and, you know, the way she approaches things really synced up with John and I's preferences, like John and I that's we bonded over bourbon, right? So John and I like drinking the same things. And thankfully, Ashley sort of got that and her, you know, her her style of blending and her palette really matches what John and I really like. And I think we made the right decision by not listening to other people and just going with what we really like. And so this is where we're at with the jokester right now. It's like something that's really accessible and delicious and Absolutely. We knew the barrel strength was to come. We were, we were absolutely going to do that. But this first one here.

Um, and, and we weren't alone because yeah, we've, it's really decorated bourbon and we're proud of it.

That's for sure. Well, if it, if it wasn't, uh, good, you know, only thing Ashley has to do is wiggle her nose and it fixes it like that. Right. Right.

You know, I know. Speaking of Ashley, one thing I always love, you know, we, The few times we've all been together, it's like, oh, this is Ashley, this is Ashley. And then you can see her face transform into a different person or to taste it. You know, it's like, okay, this is Ashley, the whiskey guru. You can see it in her face.

Yeah. When Ashley picks up a glass, you could tell she means business. There's a lot going on there. It's a deep exchange between her and that bourbon she's holding.

Do you think her past employers regret missing out on her? I think they do. They probably should in her magic. Yeah. Well, no question.

We used to call before we knew Ashley really well. John and I would just call her Magic Hands. And that was our that was our code. Like, no, Magic Hands is going to, you know, she's going to do something good with this. Don't worry about it.

But now we can call her Ashley because we've known her so long and we're like, you know, let's talk about the name and the bottle and the movie ticket on the front of it. Let's get into that a little bit.

Yeah. I'll start, but Mike was Mike found here. Let's say found the lucky seven, lucky seven spirits, a company name and lucky, lucky seven. I think it was one of those things like you would never imagine we could have that name. You know, you start searching and it's, uh, and boy, there's a lot of lucky stuff. There's a lot of seven things and, um, This is after pages and pages and pages, the pages of what is our name going to be? And some of them we would plant, you know, Mike might plant, you know, a funny one in the middle, you know, you're reading down, you're like, wait, no, no. Like in the one movie, what was it called? Yeah, it's like, no, we're not doing that. But it's you think it's not. like an easy thing to come up with a name, but it's painstaking because what's right? What's going to connect? I mean, something so simple can be the right thing. But the studio aspect of it, which connects us to the movie theme, I'll let Mike take it from there because this was his find and it was.

Well, to John's point, John and I had this idea. We wanted to do this. We wanted to get in the bourbon because we just loved it. And we loved the crap that went behind it and everything about it. But it didn't really feel like a real thing unless it had an identity or had a name. And we had worked on this project, I would say, close to a year without a name. And it just didn't feel... And it was something that would keep me up at night and probably JP too. that we didn't have a name. And we wrote down hundreds of names, cool names, great names, but nothing that really resonated well with John and I and what we were trying to do. So I'll make this shorter. But one night I was at home and I had access to the TV by myself, which is a rare thing. And I was drinking. And so sipping on some lucky seven, I think, or I'm not really sure what maybe it was like. And I came across the old film. I'm blanking. Why am I blanking? Casablanca. Casablanca. There you go. I was flipping through the channels and Casablanca came on and I hadn't seen that movie in a while and I do I do really like it. So I just watched it. I watched the whole thing. And at the end, I started just Googling, like, where'd this movie get filmed? You know, how long ago was it made? And I came across an NPR article about that stage that was the lucky seven stage in Warner Brothers and that the Casablanca film was made there and how the stage is 75 years old and there was an anniversary party there and it came to be known as lucky seven because so many films came out of there that were Oscar nominated or one wards or one Oscars. And so that name lucky and then the stage name just became lucky seven after a while.

And it was just seven. It was stage. It was stage seven.

Lucky stage seven. And then it just became lucky seven because they were just like, oh, but throw it in lucky seven. We'll win an Oscar out of there. You know, so I don't know. I just thought it was such a cool name. And I wrote it down. I called John the next morning, first thing in the morning. And I read him the article. I didn't tell him the name. I said, listen to this article. It was the NPR article about Lucky Safe 7. And once I said the name, John cut me off and said, that's the name. That's our name. That's our name. I'm like, yep. And so I didn't even have to tell him this is the name I was thinking about. He knew immediately what I was doing and how it resonated so well with him. And so that's how we... And then we had to get the trademark, which was a whole other can of worms just to try to get Lucky 7. As you can imagine, it's probably... It was one of the most difficult things we had to do. But we were so hell bent on that name that we kept going, kept going, kept going. And we did get it. We have a registered trademark for Lucky 7. And we're very happy about

We don't want to be the brand that came up with the hundredth person who really started bourbon, who's really the first person to come, or a president, or a famous creek. Those are all, I'm not saying anything bad, they're phenomenal names, but that's not who we are. We're sourcing. You know, it's not our our distillery. So for us to kind of come up with something like that, it just it wasn't us.

Yeah. So and the reason the name Lucky Seven and and, you know, resonated with us so well, because John and I, as long as I can remember, have quoted movies to each other. him and I watch movies and we remember the lines and I can quote a line to John and he will know exactly what movie it's from and he'll go on with the line that continues on through that scene in that movie. So, you know, we've always enjoyed old movies or even contemporary movies and we've quoted lines to each other throughout our whole friendship and it's one of those things where You know, you have to be close enough with the person to kind of understand them and, and, you know, know what the hell they're saying. Because I can go to a movie line to someone else and they'll be like, what are you, what are you doing?

Most people use that. Most people use that time to become smarter. Me and Mike chose to become dumber, you know, with that extra time. So that's, that's, that's all.

And so that really like the whole thing just kind of came together for us. And we're like, okay, we're lucky seven. And this is why. And to take it further, we wanted to have our story. We're a brand new company. We don't have a 200 year old distillery where our granddad had an old recipe or something like that. So we had to have our story. And so our story was that we were going to make a short film for every release that we do. And I live in California. I have access to directors and writers and production companies. And so I said, well, why don't we just do these limited releases and make a short film that goes along with each release? And that film will name the release. So the bottle that you're sipping on right now, the jokester, was actually a film that we made called The Jokester, which is in the label itself. It peels back and you can scan a QR code. It'll take you right to the film. So we named the bottle and the release after the film. And the film that we made was basically an homage to the scene in Goodfellas, where Joe Pesci is telling Ray Liotta, hey, you think I'm funny? Funny like a clown? Funny how? So we recreated that scene with our own script, so we don't get sued or anything. And so we thought that'd be a really cool thing for our brand. It opens up, yeah. A lot of people really like it and a lot of people don't know anything about it. So, you know, that's something that we got to do a better job of as brand owners to sort of talk about more and get out there more. This is really like, you know, each release has a cool film attached. It's limited release bottle, excellent bourbon, masterfully blended, you know, all those things.

And those films are what, about two minutes in length?

Yeah, we wanted to keep them short. Because I think what we envisioned was before COVID, obviously, you're sitting at a bar and the bartender will give you the bottle and you can scan the code and drink your Lucky 7 and watch the little film with Lucky 7 on it. And that was the real... So we didn't want to do like a 20-minute film or anything like that. We wanted to keep it short and sweet and get the point across. And have fun with it. We really did have fun with it, and that was our goal when we got into this video.

We also didn't want people to think, oh, look at a bunch of smoke and mirrors here, a beautiful bottle, a film, but the whiskey's garbage. Well, It starts with us with having amazing bourbon and with our team. I think we really nailed it. And just first and foremost, that's what it's all about for us. But we're really proud of our bottle, though. Yeah. And really painstaking for for Mike. I was more of the Out of these three choices, I like this one the best, but we couldn't be happier with it. And just the way the cork even sounds when you pull it off, a big chunky cork and the Harlequin design in the back. We're really, really proud of it.

Yeah. Did Ashley help you guys with that also?

With the bottle design? No, that's another thing. Yeah, that was that was another pain point, I guess you'd call it. So we didn't have a name and we didn't have a bottle. And so originally, John and I wanted to design our own bottle. And we went down that path of making a custom bottle. And how would you describe that, John? I wouldn't call it a nightmare. But I mean, it was It was just, I guess we had too much creative freedom.

I would imagine it's also quite expensive to do that, right?

Yes, it is. Yeah, it is. And now knowing, you know, we didn't know a whole lot when we started. Now, I'm not saying we know a lot more. I'm just saying we know more than we did. I'm so glad we didn't do that bottle because the minimum quantities you have to order and where it comes from and the standard. It would have been a nightmare had we done that route. So we spent a good, I don't know, six months on that and just walked away from that project designing our own bottle. And we were at a convention and we were fortunate to find the bottle that we found. And we had a design team that we met on that same convention that really crushed it for us. They took all our crazy ideas and they made it a reality. And so every little piece of that bottle is thought of and basically custom. To John's point, that corkshank, there's a reason why you get that noise out of that bottle when you open it because we made sure we had the right cork to make that noise. And just everything about the bottle itself, like the decoration on it, it's 22 karat gold front and back. We didn't want it that way. It was just that was the gold that we liked on the bottle. And it just happened to be real gold. And when I got the quote for it, it was much higher than the other golds. So we were like, why is this gold so much more? And they're like, well, that's because it's real gold. Do we put an ugly gold on the bottle and save some money? So nothing we did was to save money. I mean, we put no expense spared on everything. The juice, the bottle, everything you could think of in making these films. Those obviously aren't cheap either. But Um, it's just something John and I love to do. And, and, and we're really proud of this brand and we want it to show it in the best light possible. And this is, this is how we know how to do that.

All right. Well, Mike, let's, let's talk a little bit about the finish on this whiskey and we'll, we'll break for our first half. And when we come back, uh, you know, we'll talk about, uh, some other things they've got.

Yeah. I'm curious of where you gas source this from trade secrets. Look at Ashley's like, Hmm. Um, but I think the finish on it to me is a little bit medium. That hug is not super deep. It does lay on the tongue a little bit, but medium, maybe into that long is getting into there in that six year, the Oak's still there. But, uh, that's where I'm at, Jim, what about you?

Yeah, I would agree with that, Mike. I would say we're at a medium, maybe a little bit longer than a medium finish on it. It kind of hangs with me a little bit. I'm getting that sort of buttery, silky kind of finish on a little bit more caramel. Actually, I am picking up the raisins. I don't know if they're figs or not, but it's something in that raisin plum family that's sort of coming through on the finish for me. But it's, it's matched with a little bit of caramel and. I mean, I like the, I like the texture of it. I like the fact that it keeps making me reach over and grab that glass. You know, I just keep having to go back to it.

Exactly.

Yeah. Great sipping whiskey. Um, yeah.

Daily drinker.

Absolutely.

You know, Mike and JP both talked about, you know, the blends, we went through a couple blends and even on the proof, we did a couple, you know, Alfred, some different blends and took their direction as to what they wanted. their blend to be. And then we took that and then interpreted it into the proof too. So there was there was a whole lot of thought put into this and the finish and everything. And I for a daily drinker, I really like it too. I have to hide the lucky seven bottles in my house.

All right. Well, I'm a neat drinker, but with a cube, Mike is referring to the profile chain. It changes a lot. And I have a lot of friends that love it with a cube. And I don't know, I just can't do it. I'm a neat drinker, though, in general. So what can I say? Is that gone? Oh, nice.

So for those, for those who are listening only and not watching the video, Mike just raised an empty bottle.

There's a lot of those in my house too. A lot of empty luck.

I have a hard time. I have a hard time throwing them away. Cause I think, cause it's one, it's our own brand and I just, it looks good, you know, so maybe it could be a stick, a couple of flowers in it and put it out on the picnic table in the, uh, in the summertime.

It's a beautiful bottle. I take those little actually micro light things. You can get them on Amazon, like a 12 pack for 10 bucks and stick them down in there and make nightlights. Oh, I've got a two year old. So we have whiskey bottle nightlights.

Why didn't you tell me? Yeah.

You should put those on. You should put those on. What's it called? Etsy. Etsy. All right. So let's take a break. And when we come back, we'll taste another expression from lucky seven and we'll chit chat a little bit more about the company.

All right. Thanks guys.

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All right, listeners, we are back and we're here with Lucky 7, JP, Mike and their master blender, the witchy woman, Ashley Barnes. So in our second half, you guys brought another special bourbon for us. We're, we're doubling the age though. JP, what do we got?

So we have our 12-year-old expression, which is called the Hold Up. 100 proof, absolutely love it. For being 100 proof, it's very smooth. It still has that nice, rich vanilla. Now, let's take a sip, and then we'll judge from there. But this is just something, once again, we were blown away with when we started sampling it.

I'm going to take a sip and tell you what I think. So I get a lot of that vanilla that we were talking about earlier, but I love the 100 proof.

I didn't realize I would like the higher proof bourbon as much as I did once we started sampling everything. because I kind of look at it like if if something's this high proof and can be so smooth, which I find in this in our 12 year old, it really made me proud of it and the work that Ashley did on it. And yeah, Mike referred to it in the last segment. We do a lot of testing on the phone and saying, I mean, there was many times of like, wow, I can't believe I think it's better than this brand, which we really respect it, you know, and still respect. So I had that many times with with our 12 year olds and the hold up. It's a fun little film. There's no question about it. A little spoof on a Quentin Tarantino movie called Pulp Fiction. So another thing, who knows? I'm sure Quentin would appreciate that. But it is a parody, just to be clear. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we had a lot of fun making it. Oh yeah.

Yeah. And this also, um, won a lot of awards. Um, I can't, I know for sure it's one gold at 80. I gold at 80. I won. Um, it won at San Francisco. It won in Las Vegas. It won. Uh, and these are all gold or double golds when I, when I'm saying one and, um, it's been, uh, I think this one scored 92 and whiskey advocate.

That's what I was just going to say.

I think 92. I think it was 92. We got 90, by the way, for the jokester.

I think it was 94, guys.

90 for the jokester, 92 for the holdup, and 94 for the proprietor on whiskey advocate.

So the six and the 12 were in the spring edition. And then the the single barrel was just now in the winter. And I mean, there's not that many that are reviewed, as you guys know, in the buyer's guide. And we're pretty proud that already three of them happened. So. Yeah. And to get everything above 90 were and you know how strict they can be. We're pretty pumped. Sure. Yeah. Sure.

Well, Mike, let's dive in. What do you say?

Yeah. Hey, on that nose, I got, this is weird. And I don't think I ever got this on a bourbon before, but the sweetness is there, but it's like blueberry pie or something.

You're a little sad surprise on this one.

I actually talked about that the other day at work and these young kids are like 20, 21, 22. They are like, what, what is that?

You gotta know what you're describing for, you know, like for sure.

Yeah, in Whiskey Advocate, what was it, Mike?

The dusty floorboards is actually a good thing. That was a write-up on the proprietor in Whiskey Advocate. We're like, dusty floorboards. I never thought to use that as a description of a flavor note, but they must have liked it because they scored it at 94.

I've never taken my tongue and drug it across the bed.

I just can't imagine that.

Yeah, but I've, I've gotten this note before and I am getting that now that you mentioned it, you know, sometimes when somebody mentions a note, you kind of identify yourself.

Yeah.

Yeah. And it is kind of that, that warehouse. I don't, I don't like to use the word must cause months must has a, a bad connotation to it, but this has that antique warehouse, the old mill kind of smell to it. Um, which I, I love it. I, for me, that's a, that's a, that's an antiquey. Yeah. Grandma's basement, Mike. We've said that from time to time. This is a little bit more like a dusty musty warehouse kind of an old smell. Yeah. All right, let's, let's taste this thing. Cheers. Cheers.

Cheers.

Okay.

That one's got a lot on this one too.

A lot more body to this one. A lot more boldness and depth.

I'd actually say this is a little bit smoother, even at a hundred proof. It's nice expression. And this is a Kentucky straight bourbon too. So for all of our listeners out there, both of these Kentucky straight bourbons that mean it was made in Kentucky, it by distillery in Kentucky over two years old. So everybody knows that, but this one's 12 years old.

So a few, a few extra proof points here. So we're talking about five more proof points, but the spice is amped up a little bit in this one for me, a little more black pepper.

What was that Ashley?

Just, just a quick note. One thing I know me and Mike are pretty happy about is I don't think. We realize how much we fall in love with Kentucky, you know, on our trips there. You know, we were going there for work to meet with Ashley and others. And then, you know, go into some of the classic Louisville restaurants like Jack Fries and Jeff Ruby Steakhouse and all that kind of stuff. We really, and then just go into different neighborhoods. We fell in love with Louisville and then just driving into the country to go to different distilleries when we were first meeting about sourcing and stuff like that. That was probably something that we would both say was a perk that we didn't realize would be a perk. We fell in love with the state. There's no question about it.

I think that's what kind of sealed the deal for John and I, too, just going to Louisville. We did fall in love with that city and the people there. You know, we got a funny story about Michter's. John, remember that story? Yeah, let's say it. I mean, on our I think it was on our earlier trips, the first or second time, you know, this is the one where we we had bought some barrels.

Yeah. Enough where it hurt the pocketbook personally for both of us. but let's really see if we're, if we're going to do this.

We were still, I don't know. I don't know what the word is. We were still like not a hundred percent in, like we were kind of looking for a sign if you will. So anyway, John and I were on a trip to Louisville. Um, we went to this really cool speakeasy called Mr. Lee's. I don't know if it's still there anymore, but um, It closed down. We were drinking. We walked in. We were having a great night. It was crowded in there. And John said, first round's on me. And he goes, what do you want? And I was feeling good. I said, let's do a Michter's tenure. Let's make it a Michter's tenure tonight. And so I because I saw it up on the bar. And so John goes and orders us 10-year mickters. And we're sitting around drinking that all night. Or I don't know how long we were drinking for. But it was time for us to leave, put it that way. And we go to get the bill. And we said, OK, can we settle up with you guys? And they're like, yeah, there's no bill. And we're like, well, what are you talking about? And they're like, don't worry about it. The bill has been taken care of already. And we're me and John are looking at each other like, what are you talking about? Like, why was our bill taken care of? And they're like, well, the gentleman that was sitting at the bar was the vice president of Victor's. and he had heard you order Michters and he got your tab for tonight. I'm like, wow.

Even the cocktails. Everything.

Yeah. We had no bill. And we're like, that is the coolest thing we've ever heard. And if that wasn't assigned to want to get into this business, we don't know what was. So that's sort of the thing that really escalated that for us. We're like, no, that's fine. We're doing this. We were looking for anything to get into the business. That was definitely the sign for us to like, okay, this is it. You know, this is a good sign.

If he hasn't heard that story, I'm sure he would be proud to hear it.

We hope so. We hope so. I don't know if he's heard that story. I think you're the first people that's ever heard that story to be honest, outside of me and Jack.

I'll tell you about Kentucky because I... I was only moved here. This is my fifth year in Kentucky. And I'd lived up in Cincinnati before and I knew people from Kentucky were just as friendly as can be. But then we moved to Louisville and then we moved out to Shelbyville. But I think you'd be surprised at how many stories out there in the bourbon community are like that. Me and Jim are in Louisville and eaten at one of our favorite places to eat at is the Village Anchor. And, um, the bourbon, the, uh, the bourbon queen pretty much, I would call her, uh, to me, she's the definition of Southern charm. Um, the bartender walks up our right waitress, just like, uh, that lady over there bought your drinks. Um, and it was Peggy, no Stevens in there eating, eating with us and stuff. And then, then she brought us our wife's cookbooks. And, uh, so it's just, it's just awesome to be part of that community. There are hundreds of stories like that, that we've heard, uh, about people, old Carter's that they're, they'll be in a bar and see somebody order their stuff and pay for their whole round. So we love it. You know, that's, that's the speed. Yeah.

John and I want to pay it forward. We hope one day we're in a position to do that soon.

Yeah, so that was really... Anytime we get a chance to go back and even leaving Louisville and driving out to the country, it's been awesome. And we want to... We're not going to fake like we're from here, but we want to certainly be a part of a Kentucky lifestyle.

Well, if you're not from Kentucky and you start a whiskey company, a bourbon company, and you make straight Kentucky whiskey, or you procure it and blend it, I think that makes you a first cousin.

I will take it.

Yeah. I didn't know where Jim was going with that first cousin thing. So where's the, where's the future of lucky seven going? You know, where do you guys see yourselves?

You want to start John or you want me to start?

So I just, I want to throw out one little thing that kind of ties in with the other segment too is I think when me and Mike started looking at this, we're saying how cool to be a craft a bourbon company, but at the same time, guys like us and you guys, I mean, just look at behind you, big chief, you know, we're not looking to replace our clients aren't looking to buy lucky seven to say, I'm going to stop buying this, right? We're looking for that next good bourbon to add to what we drink. And personally, I love that. I love that. You know, let's keep adding to our collection and keep buying more of it. And we found that at the one convention where there's people at, you know, there's kind of that spirit of rooting for each other, potentially. I'm not saying doing business together, but you're going to have your probably issues with other companies. But for the most part, it seems like every craft Whiskey bourbon, we're all looking for the same clients and we're not necessarily brutal competitors. There's certainly that aspect to it. But I like the fact that the bourbon people are kind of collectors. They have that collector mentality. And that excites me big time. So I guess what I'm saying is into the future, we want to do what we do best. And we're not looking to cut the throat of our competition. Obviously we're a small craft distiller, but we want to do what we do best.

Yeah. You hit the nail on the head and that's kind of, you know, where me and Jim have taken our podcast is, you know, we are, loyal to the brands that we love. Jim's a wild turkey guy in his heart. I know that. He's a rad spice guy. I am the AK, weeded king of Kentucky. And I love some weller passionately. Love weeded whiskeys, weeded bourbons, right? But Every time we get a bottle of craft whiskey from anywhere in the United States, it's bourbon and me and Jim crack it open. And we said, man, this is, this is pretty damn spectacular. It's finding that new surprise out there that nobody knows about because they won't drink it. And it's, we're able to tell our listeners, to tell our fans, tell our Facebook group, Hey, if you're up in this area or in the state, this is where this is available. You need to try it. And so many people have said, thank you so much for opening our eyes on this brand or this brand or that brand, where they were just stuck in that kind of groove. Hey, this is my whiskey and this is where I'm going. But now they're drinking all kinds of stuff. So we love it.

Yeah. Some wise person, some wise person once said, and it might've been a man or a woman, I don't know, that variety is the spice of life.

And Mike and I get to experience that very often.

as we receive whiskeys from craft distilleries around the country. And, you know, every now and then, no, I wouldn't say every now and then, more times than not, we are pleasantly surprised by what we get.

To add on to what John started, that was early on, you know, we got a lot of like, what are you, you crazy? You know, look at, look at, look at how many bottles are on this bar. Like, what are you thinking? Like, and, and John and I always looked at it through a different lens. We always wanted to be part of the club. We never wanted to be replacing anything, you know? So me personally, I couldn't tell you how many bottles of bourbon I have. I mean, on my bar on display, I probably have 50 bottles, you know, and this is before we even started Lucky 7. This is like, I'd always like, oh, I have to get this, I have to get this, I read about this, I heard about this, I have to get this. And so, you know, it's a fun thing that I think the bourbon community does, is that they identify, you know, new and exciting brands and new and exciting flavors, new and exciting releases that they have to get in their bar. And it could sit there for a year or two years. And that's all we want. I think the biggest flattery John and I can get is if we're in a picture, if Lucky 7 is in a picture with all the other great bourbons. If we're in a picture with Weller, Elijah Craig, old Fitzgerald, whatever you have it, that to us would be the biggest form of flattery that you can give us because we feel like we did something good to get there. You don't just get to be on that podium with all those other bourbon if you don't do something right. For the future though, I know we're going off on a tangent I mean, John and I, I think from the beginning wanted to be known as a brand that is premium and anything in our bottle is going to be good. You can trust us blindly with it. And I think we're getting there. I wouldn't say we're there yet. But we really, really truly in our hearts want to be known and be the brand that whatever's in that bottle that we busted our humps to get is going to be amazing. And you should try it. And you should try it soon because it may not be around in a week or two. Because we never know how much we're going to get of it. We're sourcing. So we may only get 10 barrels of something. We may only get 20 barrels of something. And when Ashley gets her hands on it, Depending on what she thinks or she's you know, she might have had a you know She might have woke up in the middle night and thought it was do this with it, you know then that's the route we're probably gonna go and so you never know what you're gonna get but um Whatever it is in the bottle. It's going to be amazing and and John and I would have it no less we would sacrifice every bit of profit to offer a good bourbon. It wouldn't matter. No expense spared. If Ashley said, we need to put this in 10 different barrels, and we need to age it for 3 years, and you're probably not going to see any return on that investment for another 6 years, whatever. We'll do it because we know that everyone's going to appreciate it. And along to that holiday toast, that was That was a very good surprise for us. We really didn't know what to expect out of that barrel. When Ashley sampled it, when we said, we're thinking about doing a holiday release, she came back so enthusiastic and how good it is and how her grandmother can't stop drinking it. And so we got so excited. We're like, OK, we got to go with this right now. This is the Christmas we're doing it. And we filled those bottles with with the holiday toast, and it was a success. Everyone loves it. And so that's what we want to do.

And everybody listening, there's a lot more holidays throughout the year, so you can keep trying.

You don't have to stop at New Year's. Yeah, you don't think we have to stop buying the holiday toast now. It's still available and there's no shame in drinking it in July.

Read our review. I mean, we definitely reviewed this one and I don't think Mike, you and I didn't differ a bit on this one, did we?

No, we didn't. The holiday toast was a very special bourbon. You know, I had, I think I let about eight to nine people drink it. It all said the same thing. It is a special bottle. That's why I have an empty bottle now. There's actually a little left in there. I might sit on it.

I've done that myself.

Talking about profits, can you tell our listeners, what's the MSRP on a six year and then on the 12 year?

Our MSRP for the sixth year, we'd like to see it at, what is it, 59 or 69, John?

I've seen it. It's 59.99. We have seen other people post it for a little less and a little more, but our MSRP is 59.99. And the 12-year-old, 99.99. And then our single barrel will be, or is, higher than that. 129.

That's where we, we see the MSRP and, and the holiday clothes is 74.99.

So your single barrel called the proprietor, um, is a barrel strength single barrel, right? Right. And, and this is something that is, uh, is, is your newest release, right?

Technically the holiday toast is the newest release.

Okay.

Um, the proprietor is essentially Ashley sampling all of our 12 year old barrels, identifying the honey barrels in that. inventory and pulling those aside and not allowing us to blend those with anything else. So what that ends up being is the proprietor and barrel it. I mean, we bottle it at barrel strength. And now what we're doing is we're offering private barrel picks, which a lot of bourbon clubs around the country have stake their claim on certain barrels that we offer. So you'll start to see the proprietor with just the lucky seven proprietor, but you'll also start to see some proprietor with private barrel clubs putting their sticker on it and offering that to their members and friends and family and whatnot. But the ones that are selected by Ashley as identified as single barrel those are the cream of the crop you know those are the best of the best and we don't touch those we just we put those right in a bottle so what do we do we have any single barrel any proprietor that was released in kentucky i can't remember not yet

No, it was. Well, are you guys familiar with Benny's, the retailer in Chicago, one of the biggest retailers in the country? They had most of the the first single barrel release.

Yeah. So besides Kentucky working our listeners fine, which states can our listeners finally six year and a 12 year in?

Just to touch on the future a little bit more, we are going to sell on our website within five weeks. So hopefully everyone in five weeks should be able to go to lucky7spirits.com and they'd be able to buy a bottle right from our website. It's been a lot of work trying to get that going, obviously with all the different laws in different states and whatnot, but that's one place you can go. But the states that we're in currently, we're in Illinois. We're in Michigan. We're in Kentucky. We're in Tennessee. We're in New York. We're in New Jersey. We're in Colorado. Florida? Newly? We are in Florida. We're able to sell in Florida. We haven't worked with a retailer yet, but we are able to sell in Florida. And There's one other state that I'm missing, and that's it. Oh, we are. We're we're almost in Massachusetts.

California, California, too. Did you say California? Yeah, sorry. That's a state. Yeah. So, you know, we recently, honestly, we recently added Massachusetts, Colorado, able to sell in Florida. So it's it's really happening fast for us. So you're growing fast.

The place John and I are dying to get into is Las Vegas because of our name. I mean, we just think Lucky 7 casinos, it just goes well. So if anyone out there is a distributor in Las Vegas, we'd love to talk to you. That's one place we really want to get into because it's just kind of a cool marriage right there between our name and our brand.

Well, if our listeners are looking for it in Kentucky, the 100% place that I know that carries it is our friends over at Westport Whiskey and Wine and the Westport Village of Louisville. If you're on the Bourbon Trail, make sure you stop over there, see Chris and his team and pick up some bottles of Lucky 7.

Yeah, we've been doing really well.

Next time we're in town for sure.

Oh yeah, for sure. And Kentucky's received the brand really well. Like our distributor in Kentucky has made multiple orders back to back because it's just, you know, Kentucky, I don't know, it's such a good market for us and they just love the brand. And so we're really happy and proud to be in Kentucky. And hopefully it'll just grow from there.

And we are a Kentucky brand. Yeah. Well, that's what else.

Yeah. Well, you got the witchy woman of Kentucky. Yeah.

And your partner, can we say your partner? Monica. Yeah.

Yeah.

Monica.

Monica, she's...

This team, they've been amazing. We just... from I'll say I was gonna say day one from second one, we were all four of us just on the same page. And what a what a I mean, the knowledge that those two have is unbelievable. And we couldn't be prouder to be partners with them.

Well, I'll tell you what, um, if you're not paying her enough, you probably give her a raise and, you know, she said, Hey, she texted me and she was like, Hey, I want you to try this, uh, this, this brand out. And she drove down I 64 and she said, I just want you to stand on that side. I 64 and I'll chuck all three bottles to you. Um, you catch them.

Almost exactly what happened to.

we would have it no other way like that's how we want that that's exactly what we want just passing off bottles on the side of a freeway you know that's well mike

JP Ashley. It's, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on the show today. You guys, you know, you kind of epitomize, uh, the craft distillery industry. You kind of represent exactly what Mike and I are looking for when we're, when we're wanting to do a show and taste a little bit of whiskey. We love what you guys have going on. We've had three of your expressions now on two different shows. And in every case, I think Mike, we've been pretty bowled over, haven't we?

Yeah. I mean, you're doing it right. You hired the right people to help you out. I'd say just keep doing what you're doing and you're going to have a monster success. And, uh, just being not that slick oil snake, snake oil salesman back into 1800s, but you're doing it the right way.

We'd like to give you guys a chance to let our listeners know where they can find you on the web, on social media, how they can reach out to you, how they can find out more about what's going on at your company. Take a minute and let everybody know what's going on.

Oh, sure. Um, on Instagram and Facebook, we're at lucky, the number seven spirits, plural. Our website is lucky seven spirits, all spelled out, um, dot com. I think that's it. Right, John. Is there anything else? Yeah. John's cell phone number is, I actually don't even care. But anyway, six, seven, five.

Yeah, reach out.

We get a lot of email. The email. Sorry, John, to cut you up. Hi at lucky seven spirits dot com. All spelled out. That's our email. Say hi to us. We get a lot of people asking us questions all the time and you know, whatever where to find it, you know, things like that. So don't be shy. Go ahead, John. Sorry.

No, that's it. I mean, we're So happy that you invited us on the show. You guys are class act and we're looking forward to being back on as we grow as a company.

Ashley, where can we find you on social media?

You find me on Instagram at Ashley underscore Barnes TSG. Uh, this or at the spirits group is our company, Instagram, Facebook, as Ashley Barnes or the spirits group. And our website is the spirits group.com and appreciate you guys having us on there. I love working with lucky seven. Love the liquid, love the guys. We've really, like you said, we hit it off early on and just like we did big chief. Jim, I haven't got to hang out with you in person yet, but. Look forward to it.

Yeah. I'm looking forward to the day. No doubt about it. Same here.

We'd love to meet you guys in person one day.

Ashley won't share. No provocative photos with Santa Claus and lucky seven bottles on our own page. So she's a mom.

All right. Well, you can find the Bourbon Road on all social medias at the Bourbon Road. We also have a website, thebourbonroad.com. Mike, what do we have on that website?

So you can find our swag on there. We got our Bourbon Bullshitter t-shirt. Check it out. We've got our Glen Caron glasses that we're drinking out right now that were provided for us from Distillery Products. If you're a company out there and you're looking for that glassware, check them out, Distillery Products. If you're looking for some private barware, they also have that at Premium Bar Products. You can get some engraved glasses for your website. I write a blog on there. Sometimes I get jammed to write it. Pull him a little bit to get him to write, but you'll write the blog too. We got those on there. Our reviews should be up on there, but I was promised this week sometime. I'm so excited about it. So you'll be able to find our reviews of brands like lucky seven. Check that out. We also have a Facebook group called the bourbon roadies. Who's all in there, Jim?

Oh my goodness. The bourbon roadies, 1300 plus individuals who love bourbon, love to talk about bourbon, share bourbon, take pictures of bourbon. Review bourbon. Let's just say it. They're just bourbon addicts, right, Mike?

They are. Three questions to get into that group. Are you 21? Do you like bourbon and do you agree to play nice? We just don't tolerate any rudeness in there like some other groups. We want everybody to play friendly. We've got some great moderators that take care of that kind of stuff in there for us. We want everybody to feel welcome in that group, not be pressured. If you're just drinking straight up regular old Jim Beam or Wild Turkey, post that. That's your first bourbon. We want to see that kind of stuff. Nobody's going to give you a hard time. You're drinking Lucky 7. Post a photo of that up there and tell people about it. Tell people about your local craft distilleries. That's what that group's about.

Absolutely. So we do two shows a week. We do a short episode every Monday. We focus on a craft distillery. We try to shine a little bit of light on the people doing good work out there. It usually runs about 15 to 20 minutes. We'll do a view of their whiskey. On Wednesdays, we do a full-length episode like today's episode where we actually have some folks on and we interview them and we talk to them about what they do. We'd love to have you listen to both shows every week. We'd also like to know what you guys think about, you know, what should be next? Who should we have on? What should we talk about? So if you have an idea, I certainly invite you to reach out to Mike or I, and you can reach me on Instagram at jshannon63. I'm one big chief. And we will see you down the bourbon road.

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