134. Inside the Nashville Barrel Company

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 I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is The Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, we are not in Kentucky. We are. We traveled south of Tennessee. Yeah. So we are in Nashville, Tennessee. We're at the west end of Nashville, right?

Yeah. We're actually, we invaded a dad's drinking bourbon's territory. We're actually in Zeke Baker's Airbnb. All right. Well, he's got a nice place here. So we got some special guests with us today, as obviously everybody knows. We came down to Tennessee to see them. We got Nashville Barrel Company. We got Mike and James on with us.

Thanks for having us on, guys. All right.

NBC in the house, right? Yeah. You guys have been all over social media. Your whiskey's been all over social media, right? Everybody's loving on you. So we come down and we wanted to find out what the big hoopla is about. But first, James, hey, let me thank you for your service. James is a bubble head from the Navy. So him and Jim were geeking out together about submarines and stuff. I don't know what the big deal is. Mike, do you know?

I have no idea. I mean, it's a fraternity. I heard the chief of the front.

It's pretty simple. If you know, you know.

If you don't know, we just don't want to talk to you about it. But we'll let everybody know. In case anybody's curious, what's a bubble head mean, right?

What's a bubble head mean?

Submariner, on a submarine.

Submariner. Under the, under the water. You like to go under the water with other men?

Yeah.

Jim's speechless.

Yeah. I've been trying to figure out how to get out of that. Just don't. Just don't. Yeah, just don't. It is us.

Steely eye killers of the deep.

Hey, everything else is a target.

So you guys poured us some of your whiskey and we like to get straight to the whiskey, right? So what do we have in our glasses right now?

So right now, guys, you have our Nashville Barrel Company small batch rye whiskey. This is a blend of four-year-old and seven-year-old barrels. This is batch 1.1. It's a blend of four-year-old and seven-year-old barrels from Indiana at a hunter proof. It's going to be a little sweeter on the front side. You get the rye spice on the back.

I'm pretty excited about this, Mike, because you know what? The weeded bourbons have been taken over the show lately. Surprise, surprise.

And now we're in Ryland. Well, this is from Indiana, so I mean, but you guys blended this, right? We did. We did that here. It was designed in Nashville. In this batch, how many barrels are in that batch?

So 1.1, probably 10 to 12, 10 to 12 barrels in 1.1.

Yeah, there was actually a total of 12 total barrels in 1.1.

All right.

And then batch one, we had 19.

And this is starting to hit, this is going to hit the shelves pretty soon here.

This is actually sold out at the distributor, but batch two is going to be hitting in probably the next six weeks.

Yeah. So clarify for me here. We do want to get to the whiskey, Mike, but I need to understand this one versus 1.1 versus two. How does that work?

So when we initially made Small Batch 1, it did really well, kind of sold out very quickly. And when we blended those barrels, we were kicking off special barrels that were going to be part of our single barrel program. It didn't take very long for the distributor to say, we need more of small batch. There's a lot of demand. So the only barrels we had left were like the cherry barrels that we thought we would keep. So we went ahead and blended them at the same recipe because they were from the same run.

Supply and demand.

Yeah, it really was. So it's very similar to one, but we called it 1.1 because it's the same wheelhouse, just has a little more going for it. And that's kind of what happened. It was the same group of barrels, but just the better ones. OK. I understand. I say that, but some people actually like one better than 1.1.

Yeah, it's up in there. Depends on what you like. You know, batch two is going to be a blend of eight-year-old and four-year-old barrels. So it's going to definitely have a different profile than what you see here. This is sweeter on the front side. It's going to have a little more rye spice to it, a little more boldness, which this is a little on the sweeter side.

So $59.99 on the shelf for this right here. And what states can our listeners find it in?

Right now, you can find it in Kentucky, you can find it in Tennessee, a few stores in Florida, and probably Georgia in the next week or two. But you can find it online and there's- Yeah, you can go to Sealbox or Shared Poor. There's a few online sites that you can actually order this from right now.

All right, Mike, I'm getting awful thirsty here.

Let's try this.

Let's nose it up. Cheers, fellas. Cheers. Cheers.

It's got that rye bubble gum on the nose, right?

Yeah. Yeah, I like that. That's- Big chew bubble gum. It's sweet. Get a little bit of citrus, but it's got a more, like you said, like kind of like a sweet bubble gum up front, a little bit of a candy nose to it.

I was that guy that I, you know, you gave me a pouch of that big league chewing gum. I just put the whole thing in there.

It's the best 45 seconds of your life. Well, almost.

Now this, this, this is kind of a, kind of a medium amber color, a hundred proof.

If you look at the glass, even after you drink it, it really just sticks.

So it's a mixture of four-year and some odd month barrels and seven-year barrels. So you get kind of the best of both worlds there. You get a little bit of that wonderful aromatics that come out of a youthful barrel, and then you get a little bit more of that depth that you get off the older barrels.

So the seven-year that we put in here was about 25-ish percent. So this wasn't like, we'll just put one barrel in so we can say that. It was a good amount of it. And we kept adding until we were real happy in our blending process.

It's actually got some aromatic, like almost a sage a little bit to me.

Yeah. I, you know, when I go to the spice cabinet, I have a real, I'm, I'm not real good at that. I've never been real good at that, but I, I'm getting, I'm getting, I'm getting your bubble gum, Mike.

I'm a big guy likes cook and eat. So, you know, you better know some spices if you want to eat right. Well, let's, let's taste this thing. Cheers fellas.

That's my jam right there. And you know, this is a daily sipping whiskey. There's no doubt about it. This has got just enough spice to it. Kind of a kind of hangs on the mid palette a little bit visits the back end, but it kind of hangs in the middle. It's a little sweet upfront.

To us, it drinks more like a bourbon up front. It's got that sweetness up front. So we actually call this a bourbon lover's rye. It's a good intro if people say, I don't like rye whiskey. So which ones have you had? Have you tried this? So this is actually a great intro to people that are straight up hardcore bourbon and really haven't had much experience. This is a good one to let them know. There's some great qualities in that spice you kind of get.

Almost like you ever chewed on fresh mint before Jim. Oh, yeah, and you get a little bit of spice from that I'm getting that fresh chewed on mint and still get that big league chewing gum that sweetness of sugar and their stuff Get a tiny bit of oak on that It's a this is lovely. I think you can sip on this all day long.

This is really good I would I would definitely call this kind of a year-round kind of daily sipping rye whiskey and You mentioned that this is kind of a bourbon lover's rye in a way. A lot of people like to think that Kentucky ryes are that, that high corn content rye, but there's no corn in this. This is 95.5. This is all about rye. Just a little bit of malt to kick off the fermentation process, but other than that, this is all about rye.

That sticky sweetness.

Yeah. Yeah. It's balanced though. For me, it's definitely got that upfront sweetness. It's definitely got, but it kind of, it visits the back end, like I said, kind of hangs on the mid palette for me. I call that balance.

I think it's a great sipper year round. I could do this year round. Uh, just pick it up. It's not, it's not so powerful that it's going to put you to sleep or anything like that, but a great whiskey, um, on the shelves, even at 59 99, I for craft. I think this is great. What you guys are doing. How did a Nashville barrel company, how'd you guys come up with Nashville barrel code? Come on, James, open up to me, man. We're going to draw you out, my friend.

Yeah, so I'm from the retail side of things. And I did that for over a decade after the military, like we talked about earlier. And Mike and I met through whiskey a while back.

So what does it mean to meet through whiskey?

So I had my retail store, I picked some barrels and Mike came in and It just went from there. We would taste. You carry the story, you'd be able to taste stuff. So we'll pour you a sample back in the day when I was in retail. So we met a lot of people through whiskey just because of that. But Mike and I met and kind of kicked it off and we talked. when we were hanging out a couple of times talking about how accessible barrels are and how they're not that accessible, vice versa, so on and so forth. And we tried to come up with a solution to make it easier on both sides because he's picked a ton of barrels. He's done a bunch of stuff for charity, a bunch of private group picks and stuff like that. So it kind of meshed very well together. It's a short thing on my side from it. I'm sure he can tell you something different.

That's pretty accurate, James. So just to expand on that a tad, barrels as whiskey got real popular and bourbon got popular, it kind of got harder. You used to be able to walk into a store and say, hey, I want a barrel of Russell's. And they weren't using their allocation, so they'd go perfect. Well, I'll call up the distributor. So after you kind of get spoiled on that, then you'd walk into your local store and say, hey, I want to do a barrel pick of X. And they're like, yeah. Everybody does now. So it came to a point where, you know, we were picking barrels for groups and for charity and just it realized real quick, it was getting a lot harder. So we kind of did this as a hobby. We're like, we'll get some barrels and let our friends pick. We'll pick. We can kind of go through it and just do it internally. And then it kind of just overnight took off.

Now, I think a lot of people out there who are kind of in the bourbon craze or in the whiskey craze right now, they're all in the back of their mind. They're all thinking about, boy, wouldn't it be neat if I owned a whiskey company? Would it be neat if, you know, if my friend Joe and I could start something up? I mean, what's involved in that? I mean, how big of a deal is that? I mean, how hard is that to do?

You know, everyone that drinks bourbon, that's like what you want to do, right? Because it's a lot of fun. And it is a lot of fun, but it's also a lot more work than I ever thought it would be. Beyond the legal side and the attorneys and then just the capital, then it's the nonstop of every day. It's definitely a job, and it's a job that doesn't stop eight to five. It keeps going. But James and I and Casey have been working on this for a couple of years. Before we actually sold our first barrel, we were already knee deep in buying barrels and the legalities of it. So it's definitely a fun business. How's this not fun? We're drinking with two great guys and it's a hard day at the office. But on the other hand, when these mics go off, We'll be at the laptop till 10 o'clock tonight just, you know, just getting work done.

Sure. So you guys were actually writing labels today.

Yeah, you actually, I think you met one of the volunteers that walked out as you guys were walking in. We started at eight this morning, handwriting the proof, the age, the barrel on our label. So if you have one of our single barrels and you can't read it, I probably wrote it. My handwriting, I should have been a doctor. But yeah, so until you guys walked in, we actually were handwriting labels.

You guys wrote like 3,000 labels. Is that right? Is that what you said?

Yeah, a little over 3,000.

So Mike and I signed... I don't know. A few hundred bottles.

Two hundred bottles.

It was a lot of work. I can't imagine filling out labels for 3000. Yeah.

And there was, there was three of us and we didn't finish. You got writer's cramp some point. That's it is Friday though.

That is true. Cheers. Well, you still hold a whiskey glass, James.

Oh yeah.

Yeah. No, it happens. I mean, this isn't the first time we're getting a little used to it.

You guys are going to grow out of that at some point though, right? Where are you going to have to just print everything?

If you look at one of our bottles, one thing we want everyone to know is we didn't take shortcuts. If you look at everything from the glass to the embossment, even the UPC, we've thought about everything and you can tell this wasn't just a, let's just throw something in a bottle and hope it sells. But I can't say that for the rest of our career, we're going to be handwriting at Ziggs B&B. Automation's great as well.

So you embraced, who come up with the Nashville Barrel Company name?

That was the three of us.

Yeah, it was a group thing. I mean, we had a lot of time that we went back and forth and just talking.

You embraced your city. You embraced your state to the three stars, right? Nashville is known for that three stars and stuff. I gotta say it's just a classic design. You got your own typical whiskey. It's got that nice slender bottle and then at the neck it's got somewhat of a bulb. So you got changed. What made you change for this small batch?

So the name of that bottle is called the Tennessee. Oh, it is. It's the true name of that. So there's a few other people that use it. It's a pretty common bottle, but it's called the Tennessee bottle. And that's, you know, if you're in California and you order it, if you're a distillery in New York, it's still called the Tennessee bottle. So it almost felt right.

I mean, we're in Tennessee, right? Tennessee, proud and true.

And one thing too is we actually, when we designed Small Batch, we actually had some bartenders come over to help kind of, you know, intrigued with the proof and the taste. Cause you know, what can they use it to mix it? And they were like, you know, you need a good neck if you want to be in the off-premise. So the bartenders can easily grab it.

Yeah, I like necks like that are long and stuff. You don't spill some on the side. It doesn't get over your label and stuff. Uh, you know, some of those short, uh, fat square bottles that have a short neck on there. Usually you can try to pour it, but it's still going to run down the side of the bottle.

And that, and that little bulb in the neck that that's there for a reason, right? That it helps it pour clean, right?

I think that's, we've talked about that on the podcast. That, that is what that design is for. It helps it pour cleaner. But still, two classic designs. I like your standard bottle. Everybody knows that. Nice, clear label. Not too much on there and stuff. You know, I don't like it when there's just too much. It almost overwhelms you and stuff. You can tell what you guys' stuff is.

Yeah, so it's grown on me definitely. Mike, I'm feeling the hug is kind of growing over time here a little bit. It's a little light in the beginning as far as the hug goes. I mean, I get a little bit when I started sipping on it, but as I continue to sip, that hug kind of builds a little bit. That finish kind of grows on me a little bit. Yeah, it makes me want to reach for it.

So this right here, you said your stuff is starting to show up at restaurants here in Nashville, some of the high-end restaurants like Bourbon and Steak.

404 Kitchen, E3. So if you're in Nashville and you want to try any of our products without buying a bottle, you can go to Red Foam Booth, grab a cigar and go to 404 Kitchen. They've got a great, the biggest and best whiskey selection.

And we need to get to 404.

Chef Bolas over there, he works magic. The guy is super talented.

If our listeners are up in Louisville, downtown, there's Justice House of Bourbon, they want to try something, you can go to their bar, too, and they'll have it on the shelf there, and they can try it out there, too, right?

That's correct. Also, Merrick Inn should have it. Local feed and seed should have it. Obviously, your Total Wines and some of your other stores. But if you just want to go and belly up at a bar, Once again, I think there's a few places you can find it. Yeah.

Yeah. Justin's House of Bourbons is a great place to go in there and try something and set up their bar. They got a little speakeasy back there that a lot of people don't know about.

Justin Sloan and Travis Hill, great guys up there. Yeah.

Louisville's bringing your stuff north up there and we love that stuff. So your two partners, you blend together. Whenever you blend together, There's one way over the other one on how the taste is going to go there.

That's all James. James is the golden pallet here.

We try to find something we like. I mean, it's super simple. Coming from retail side, I never picked to Satisfy my customer, should I say. I picked what I like. At the end of the day, if I'm going to put my name on it, it's something that I'm going to drink or I'm going to like. And, you know, working with Mike and doing all this, it kind of works out pretty well. You know, there's certain things like, you know, we're talking about batch two, you know, we sat around, we're sitting at his condo, going back and forth, trying to figure out what we're going to do. And, you know, we blended some sevens and, did all this and then it's like, well, hey, let's throw eight year in there and see what it does. So it's a good balance at the end of the day because he's got a profile that he really, really likes. And I know his profile and vice versa. He knows what I really, really like, but we mesh together very well.

So when you were blending the small batch and you started out with a base of the four, four years, some odd month base, right? And you're adding in the seven year, to try and get to that point where you say, it's just right. Did you guys both look at each other at one moment and say, that's it? Or was it like, no, let's, we went a little too far. Let's back up. I mean, how does that work? Cause I mean, a lot of people wonder how that whole blending process works. Did you?

So on the original small batch one, we actually, at this B&B we're at now, we actually got the national community involved. So we reached out to groups, to stores, to on-premise bartenders. And we actually had like 12 people over here. And we had two different sections and tables. And we both had them blend off their samples what they liked. And then we kind of married them together. We're like, that's really good. And then it was like the midnight hour. I don't remember what it was.

Midnight hour. You guys are thinking very clear.

Yeah. And all of a sudden, someone, it could have been James, or someone goes, you know, let's do this instead. And right then we looked at it and that's like, we knew at that point that, you know, you know, we came from the, I say, Burma community, you know, we've, you know, James said a decade in retail and, uh, so we, you know, we embraced national. So we actually had the national groups and everyone kind of helped design one. Uh, but when, when the second part came and we did it, we knew instantly that was, that was it.

Awesome. I liked that you guys are. You're blending stuff that you're going to drink that you love and stuff. People ask me if you had a whiskey to make, if it was going to be the big chief's bourbon, what would it be? And I'm like, well, damn it would be weeded bourbon. No doubt, 100%. And they were like, why? And I was like, because that's what I like to drink. I couldn't imagine my name on a rye bourbon.

Until you drank this? I could.

Well, it'd still be Big Chief's weighted bourbon after you.

I couldn't imagine it any other way. That's what I would think. And I'm glad you guys are honest about that and say, hey, we're making whiskey that we'll drink too. Because some people out there are not doing that. They're just putting stuff out that it's whiskey.

Well, they're hoping they're blending something and hoping that somebody else will like it. If you make what you like, then whoever comes on board, they're great.

Well, also at the end of the day, if nobody likes it and we do, we'll just drink it. Yeah, that's a lot. How many barrels?

That's a lot of whiskey to drink over your lifetime.

Have you seen us on a weekend?

So you guys, you do got some big, big news coming up for the second half, but James, when was your first sip of whiskey? Do you remember those days?

Yeah, yeah, I remember our first sip. It wasn't the most, pleasurable thing. I didn't enjoy it too much, but I was pretty young. I wasn't old enough to drink legally. It was something I got from my dad's friend's house and I snuck around with his son and we drank his dad's whiskey.

You remember what it was?

Yeah, I do. It was early times. And this was, you know, 90s, you know, early 90s.

No, looking back, I wish I had, I wish I had a lot more.

You know, but at that point in time, it's like, just like my first sip of beer. It's like, I tasted, oh, there's no way I can ever drink this, but your palate, you know, changes over time. But no, it was early times and I think I was like 14, 15, something like that.

What did we have? Mike, we had like a 64 or 63 early times on the show. Oh man, it was, oh my goodness. It was pretty good.

It's pretty amazing. Mike, do you remember your first sips?

I do. And it was actually a really high end brand called Kessler. It was like three bucks.

A lot of people up in the UP of Michigan drink that was squirt.

Yeah, it was high school and it was Kessler. Boy, I'm surprised I still drink whiskey after that.

I mean, you can say what you want about Kessler, but they sell a hell of a lot of bottles.

There are a lot of people that drink that. That's kind of that Minnesota, UP of Michigan, Wisconsin, you know, Canadian whiskey, I guess. Drinking region. Can you even find that in Nashville?

Yeah, yeah, actually, Kessler, you still can. Really? Yeah, I buy that all the time.

Retail, retail. I really feel like I need to go get a bottle tonight and relive the glory days. Relive those memories? The whole bottle? Yeah, that and Goldschlager.

Oh my goodness.

Didn't know we were going that deep.

So Mike, I think it's about time we close out this half. We've had a great experience here with their small batch rye whiskey. It's been amazing. What a, what a great daily drinker.

Yeah, I think perfect. Uh, driving to Nashville and try some other, uh, rye. Small batch, 100 proof. It could be a daily drinker. It's not going to overpower you if you're in that 90 to 100 proof range.

Well, if you're a bourbon drinker.

Yeah, if you're a bourbon drinker, I think it's perfect for a bourbon drinker to get this. It's not going to surprise you or anything. The sweetness on it to me is what it is. I wouldn't call it a dessert whiskey, but no, it's there.

No, I think it's kind of balanced. I don't think it's too sweet up front. I think it's kind of well balanced. Like I said, it kind of sits on the mid palette for me. And I get a little bit on the back end. I get that nice sweet up front, but it kind of hangs out in the mid. That's balanced for me. So yeah, great, great, great whiskey.

Well, in the second half, they got something special for us too. So, and then they said they, at the end of the show, we get to drink something really special.

All right, I'm ready. So let's take a break. And when we come back, we'll hit it. But 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.

So we're back listeners. We were with Nashville Barrel Company. We got James and Mike in here and we're gonna draw some more information out from them. We'll see if we can get James to talk to us about the future of Nashville Barrel Company. But first, they poured us another pour of whiskey. What do we got this time?

So right now we actually, we're drinking one of our single barrel selections that a local store did here in Nashville. Frugal McDougal teamed up with a local podcast, Dad's Drinking Bourbon, and they did this barrel. So this is a cash-strength, seven-plus-year-old Indiana rye barrel.

Now, they're not local podcasts. They're like the bourbon podcast. To us, they are. They're the big boy out there right now.

And that's all because of John because Zeke doesn't work.

Well, we're still trying to figure out if Zeke's real person. I didn't see no photos in this.

So right now listeners, we're actually at Zeke's B&B. We've got the bourbon road looking around. There's not a single picture of Zeke. They don't think he exists.

Yeah. So we think it's, um, actually John's alter ego, right?

Yeah, maybe. So it's like when you get a wallet from Walmart, right? It already has a picture in it. Yeah. That's what's up.

That's Zeke. So we got this, this frugal McDougal pick from Daz drinking bourbon. Um, see if you really exist. Um, we've already sipped on this before the show, so I'd know what's in the glass, but let's nose it again and let's, uh, let's see what we check it out.

Yeah, so this is definitely a step up in depth and richness from the Small Batch. Small Batch is great whiskey, no doubt about it. But this is what brings that wonderful extra age notes to the Small Batch.

I think it's got more earth tones in it. It's what I would think of a rye. The sweetness is still there. I get a little bit of citrus on this, almost grapefruit citrus.

Floral on the nose.

Yes, definitely. So some people might be wondering, we've always stuck to we don't do single barrels or we don't do store picks. That's what Nashville Barrel Company really does. You guys have a single barrel program and that's, you know, people can come in and get a single barrel from you. So we want to showcase that. And, you know, Zeke was a good example of that. Dad's drinking bourbon with his store. I think on this nose, it's beautiful. I had to get the floral notes almost like a real, I always say honeysuckle because that's a real floral note you'd get. That nose of freshness of spring.

The sweetness has kind of dropped off a little bit. I think there's a little bit more of a sort of a citrusy, you said grapefruit. I can't pinpoint it, but definitely I'm getting that citrus note here. It's got a little bit more of a kind of a There's a little fruit there, but it's kind of a more of a darker fruit, I think a little bit, but not so much sweetness as I got on that small batch.

So this is a seven year old barrel. How many bottles did this one produce?

This yielded right around 180 bottles.

All right. So that's pretty standard right there on that six to seven year old.

So when you guys were cracking open these barrels, did you have some that kind of disappointed you in volume?

When we first did this, we were like, we're going to be greedy. We're going to go through, we're going to taste every barrel, and the good ones, like the epic ones, or the ones that we thought were better, we're going to keep for ourselves. That was the pie in the sky. Our first group of barrels that we ever got in, James and I go through them, and we looked over at our keep stash. And we realized our keep stash was a lot bigger, and it was almost every bottle. And we looked at each other, and that's when we realized it doesn't even matter. We're not keeping, it's all the same in that sense that each one was different, but good. So, um, you know, each one has its own profile and we'll pour up another single barrel pick and you'll see, it might be the same wheelhouse, but you know, the finish might be different or the, the nosing might be different. It's kind of fun.

Well, let's, let's taste this sucker. Let's do it. Cheers.

Yeah, it's a different world here. It's definitely different than the first half of the show. This is a lot more bold whiskey flavor. There's more depth to it. There's a little more oak influence. Actually, quite a bit more oak influence, I think. But some of those lighter nuances have kind of gone away. Those things that that younger whiskey brought to that small batch aren't evident here. But this is certainly expresses itself in a whole new way. It's a wonderful whiskey.

I just think the layers of complexity on this, where you go through that chocolate note to the dark fruit, that caramel goodness, and then you start to get that, as it slides down, you start to get that, I guess, Tennessee hug, since we're down here in Tennessee. It's not really an overpowering hug. It's just kind of warming. Yeah.

It's not like a boa constrictor, but it's, but it's, it's there. Yeah. Yeah. It's there.

Well that probably, so most of these proofs, I think this one is 114 and some change. So, so the proof on these is let you know it's there, but it's, it's not going to, you know, put you under a butt.

Well, definitely, you know, I gotta say Zeke and even you guys picked a magical barrel here. And if this is what people can get from you guys, then damn.

I hate to say anything good about Zeke.

He's got a great, he's got a great pad here though.

Yeah, actually the best thing I can say about Zeke is he lets me use his place. His palate is suspect. No, he actually, he did a great job here where, where, you know,

So we're drinking this and you guys, how does somebody get a barrel of this? How do they select that?

So right now, if you go to our website, you can fill out a form on there and then contact us and we'll reach out, get you on the list and in the system to pick a barrel.

So you're on the list. You get on the list.

That sounds really bad to say on the list, but we've had a little bit of a demand and we can't just fulfill everything.

So there's more customers than barrels.

No, no, there's, there's, there's no, there's, there's a lot of customers wanting barrels and we're just trying to, you know, walk before we run.

So this is a lot of work, right? You guys, you know, you have to do labels, you have to support the pick. You have to bottle this stuff. You have to do, you know, all the paperwork that's behind it. It's not as simple as saying, Hey, I've got 10 barrels and I've got 10 customers. Let's make it happen. There's a lot of work that goes into it.

No, you're 1000% right. There's so much on the backside that people don't see. The handwriting, like you just said, or any of that. We spent a lot of time on these.

Yeah. Well, there's some pride that goes into that. That must feel good that you've Now that you have a list, you know, if somebody's not just showing up here one day, they pick a barrel, you've got a list and you've got some security in that, right? That's gotta be something that you walk around with like a little badge of pride for yourself and say, man, we're actually doing this.

When people are calling and asking for your product, that's just a good feeling, right? That you're doing something right that somebody else wants to be involved in. Back to the handwriting, the national community and the bourbon community is so strong. that fans and people that just love our product are willing to come over and help for free, just handwrite and help us. They want us to succeed. We do pay him in booze. So you actually guys talk to a few on the way out. I'm not sure if they smell like alcohol or not. But the local community, there's several guys that volunteer and will message us and go, hey, if you need help handwriting labels, we'd love to help. And some of these guys are people that we personally don't have a real good relationship with or a lack of relationship, but it's been really cool just to see everyone rally behind us.

So what kind of people, what kind of groups, what kind of businesses buy barrels from you? Like what's the, is it, is it liquor stores? Is it, uh, bourbon groups like the bourbon roadies? Is it, uh, you know, local, um, clubs?

I see what's going on here. This is a sly way for you to ask for a barrel. I mean, I see what's going on here. We're too poor Kentucky gentlemen. No, so, you know, private groups is kind of where we started. You know, retail stores, you know, we're expanding to a few states. So, you know, we're kind of just trying to walk before we run, just trying to give everyone as much love as we can. Spread the love. It's the natural way.

Well, that's a good thing. I mean, you guys are a social media darling right now, I think. You see your whiskey all over Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter. You're all over the place. I mean, that's what people are talking about. Do you ever watch some of that stuff and say, damn, we're doing pretty good?

I'll be honest, I had no clue about YouTube, Twitter or anything. I've seen a few things, you know, people posting groups on Facebook, you know, predominantly, but it's surreal to walk into a store and see the product on the shelf. It's pretty neat and gratifying considering that's what I used to do was sell that product.

And now you walk into a store and you don't say, probably say nothing to anybody. You just say, well, that's mine right there.

Oh, it's just fun to walk around, see. Yeah. Love to see the placement, you know, stuff like that. It's just the backside things that I'm never going to say a word about when walking in, but it's fun to just see.

Yeah, I don't think it's all the talk and the hoopla that gets things going in the market. I think it's the actual juice. You know, people are tasting your product. They're happy with what they're trying. They want to tell their friends about it. That kind of builds over time and eventually, you know, you've got a fan following. You guys have a fan following. That's not bad, right?

That's not bad. Once again, this, as James said, uh, it's, it's so real in that, in that sense. I mean, all day long, you know, you've, you've been with us for the last two hours and barely looked at our phones. I mean, we went from all day to hand handwriting labels to this. I mean, so the time for, for just even, even if you wanted to check on yourself, it's kind of, you know, uh, the time dwindle. So it's definitely a cool thing.

I'll be honest with you, Mike and I've done an awful lot of interviews and we've been. We've interviewed some whiskey companies that we walked in and go, guys, we have loved your whiskey for a long time now. It's crazy on the market. People love it.

I think that's high praise. I think that's where you guys are. You're picking out some great barrels and it takes a craft to blend or even to pick out a barrel. You just don't go in there blind and say, well, I was drinking vodka yesterday. I'm going to go in today and pick me some whiskey out. It takes some time. You guys got the knowledge. You've built a brand up. You built a brand following. How long did it take Jim Beam to build their brand following? That took 200 years and you guys have, I wouldn't say overnight, but in a time spectrum, really it's overnight.

You know, it's, as I said, this went from zero to a hundred. pretty quickly. I wouldn't say 100, 0 to 60. We're still in stride, but just trying to take it day by day. This is a good segue here because we talked about the blending, we talked about the barrel picking. We brought something special to also try that will be out in the next few months in very limited quantity, but now might be a good time to mention it. Yeah. So one thing, one of our first projects we did is we actually did a rum that we've been aging in freshly dumped whiskey barrels. So before we even sold our first rye or anything, we actually laid this down a couple of years ago. And these samples were pulled a few months ago and actually our fan group will be the first one to pick this, but it's a treat. So let's cheers. Let's finish the glasses if we have it and I'll pour it up. Man, you got a big glass there to finish.

I'm empty. Good Lord. Jim's got his hat backwards. He's been feeling pretty good this whole episode. I have been. So we just finished up your guy's single barrel, right? We drink the frugal McDougal pick by dad's drinking bourbon. Oh my God, it was so good. Spectacular rye whiskey. I got to say, it's very complex, very awesome. But this is going to be a first for the Bourbon Road podcast. We're taking a detour here into a sailor's drink. And you guys got something that hasn't been released yet. You got a submariner as part of your team, a sailor. So no surprise, you got a rum for us. A rum.

This is not the bourbon road. This is the rum road. Yeah. Nothing wrong with that, right? Detour. Detour.

No, nothing wrong at all. I mean, road less traveled. I mean, we're, we're working into that road.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, we'll have more and more coming out, but yeah.

We got this rum in our glass right here. Um, you guys have, uh, aged it in whiskey barrels. How long did it age for?

So this has been in, it's been re-barreled for almost two years now coming up on two years towards the end of this month. So two years in a whiskey barrel.

That was already aged for.

Yeah. Oh, previously it was, it was right at five years. So really it could be by new standards, it could be seven years old.

This is about six to seven years of true barrel age. The last two years were in freshly dumped barrels from Kentucky.

Yeah. I think whiskey barrel finished rum is right up my alley.

So a lot of people are doing bourbons finished in rum barrels, right? So let's just flip that around, right? Let's, let's do some rum fish and bourbon barrels.

Well, let's go with this joker. All right. Oh yeah. Now that's got some sweetness on it right there. It does. It's a, there's some, that sugar cane sweetness that you expect out of rum, but even more intensified and maybe that's from that whiskey barrel. I'm not sure.

Yeah, but there's, there's definitely a toffee there. I mean, there's, there's like a, a toffee burnt sugar, but yeah. Is that what toffee is? I don't even know what, what is toffee? I mean, I love English toffee. It's one of my favorite candies.

Is that a vegetable?

It's kind of a caramel. It's kind of a caramel, brittle caramel or something, but it's got a different flavor to it. Peanut brittle. Peanut brittle.

That's a vegetable. Peanut brittle? Peanut's a vegetable. It is a vegetable I think. Heath bar. Heath bar. Yeah, I could get that in this. Let's, let's taste this thing. Oh, that's all kinds of flavor right there. And we drank some rum before the show too, that you guys love to taste. And this is a different barrel.

This is. So we didn't want to surprise you, you know, live on radio, if you will. So we gave you one of them. This is a completely different one. Now this one's a little bit different.

It's got some more earthy tones to it.

So this has definitely got an aged flavor to it. You can definitely tell that this is an older product. This is a product that spends some time in a barrel. It's got a nice sweetness, a nice boldness to it. But at the same time, it's got that, you're picking up, I'm picking up that oak. I'm picking up that barrel influence.

One of my most prized possessions is a bottle of 1995 Haiti five-star rum that I got when I was down there. And I still have that bottle today. Not unopened. I don't know why I'm waiting to open it.

You waiting for me to come over? Just holding on to it. I already told you I'll be there Monday.

That's how much I like rum. We do have a bunch of rum in our house.

So would you buy this rum? Yeah. What proof do you think this rum is? Well, we knew what the other bottle was. So this one's different. Really?

Yeah.

So I guess the other one in the 100 to 110 range and I was off.

I was off just a little bit. I said 90, 90, 90 to a hundred.

So, so just for the 110 and 140. 140.

So this is just under hazmat.

This is like, this is flirting with it.

The flirting with hazmat.

This is making me want to take my boots off right now.

We already have a deal.

The boots come off, the shirts come off. We're, we're going to be drinking a birch style. Well, I think, you know, uh, and is this going to be something, is this going to be a standard that you guys can release? This can be a single barrel where people can pick it.

So all of these right now are single barrels. The first one, there's a fan group that formed on social media that we're not admins of. We're not part of it. But we wanted to do something special because it was a fan group, right? Let's give something the opportunity. So they'll have the first one ever. We didn't do a whole lot of these at first. So this will be a slow roll. They'll all be private barrel picks, but not very many.

And they're going to be at this proof. Whatever it comes out of, whatever it comes out of, but at foolproof.

Yeah. So we've actually, we, we proved five or six of them and we had 130 to 142. Uh, these things are, they play.

I just got to go on record right now and say that, uh, what breaks my heart is when somebody says, well, we've got a single barrel. but it's at 90 proof. It just breaks my heart. It breaks my heart. Cause Jim always says, man, you, you always say this would probably taste better cast strength. And I'm like, well, of course it would.

So, so we want to share this with you because besides our Bergman's coming out and the rise we've already done, it's a, you know, we're not a one trick pony.

Yeah. So it's okay to drink rum. It's okay to drink gin. It's okay to drink. I hate to say this vodka, but, But anyway, it's okay to reach out a little bit and jump across the aisle and try some other things. It's good to diversify.

Well, these rums though have a bourbon finish to it, right? Because there's been, you know, most rum is actually aged in ex bourbon casks. I mean, right? Because you have the sugar cane, so they have to age it. So we then just took one that was already aged and an ex one and aged it in another freshly dumped one.

So really, this is a double-oaked rum.

Correct, of a whiskey. So this is in that wheelhouse. As you can tell by the color, minutes.

It's nice and dark. So one of the things that kind of makes bourbon people think twice about rum is the fact that rum is kind of the wild, wild west, right? They can do just about anything they want to. The colorings, flavorings, all that kind of stuff. Let's talk a little bit about your rum. Colorings, flavorings. Absolutely not.

Whatever comes out of the barrel, that's what's in it. So as you said, you can actually put a drop of something that's higher aged and the rules don't apply, but that's not this. By the time we bottle it, it's six or seven, but that's what's going to be on the label. We're as transparent as we possibly can be as far as whatever we're allowed to say.

So you're kind of following kind of the bourbon rules with respect to rum, with the exception of the mash bill, of course. But you're kind of following the rules there. You're not going to add any colorings, flavorings, or otherwise. You're not doing any kind of special aging process. What do they call that? Where you introduce older rums and you call it. Solera method. Solera method.

No, no. This is, you know, guys, it's, if it has the National Barrel Company logo on it, you know that we're drinking it. Cheers to you guys. This isn't a money grab. This isn't, let's just pump, you know, stuff. This is quality that we would drink.

I gotta say cheers to you guys for stepping outside the box diversifying and coming up with something that a whiskey sailor might want to drink. I'd say this is big chief approved sailor approved right Jim? Absolutely. If you're a sailor out there you want to support a small company two guys that truly love the spirits world and they're drinking what they're putting out. You want to try to find a bottle of this. I would say cheers guys. Cheers. Awesome. Cheers. So we'll give you guys a chance to, where can our listeners find you guys on social media?

You can follow us on Instagram at Nashville Barrel Co. I believe that's the same on Facebook at Nashville Barrel Co. Our website's the best way to get ahold of us if you're interested in a barrel or your store. The biggest thing we can actually tell you is we're going to the states slowly. So if you want us, if you want to see our product in your state, have your store, ask the distributor, have them reach out. Word of mouth is how we've done everything so far. It's really grassroots.

You guys have just purchased some land and you have a rendering of your new facility. Congratulations on that, by the way. We're excited. That was a big deal for you guys.

It kind of shows that we're here for the long game. This isn't just buy a few barrels and try to sell a few barrels. This is our future. We really want to give Nashville and actually the whole world something that we're proud of and you can get behind.

Well, thanks for having me and Jim down here. Thanks for having the Bourbon Road down here to Nashville. You definitely poured some whiskey and some rum in our glasses to enjoy. Very hospitable. It was nice stepping out of my pickup and seeing a guy on the street and he recognized me right away. I never met the man in my life before said, Hey, big chief. Yeah, that was pretty cool. But I knew Thomas from, uh, from social media or Facebook friends. And, uh, but he recognized exactly who I was. Um, and I knew who he was as soon as I saw him.

The bourbon community is actually pretty tight-knit, right?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely.

I'm sure your wife, when you got out of the truck, your wife looked over. Some guy's like, hey, it's Big G. You're smiling. I'm sure she rolled her eyes before she busted down the door. She did.

She probably did. She did. She definitely rolled her eyes and stuff. I think she gets a little irritated sometimes if I'm in a liquor store in Louisville and somebody walks up to me and I'll have a mascot and they'll be like, are you, I hear you talking, are you that guy? And I'm like, I don't know what guy you're talking about.

You're that big chief. You're that big guy.

Dude, if we looked out the window right now, I would expect to see posters.

I don't know about all that.

You're like the Justin Bieber.

Oh, good Lord. That's a little bit offensive. The Justin Bieber of Bourbon. Well, well, Jim, man, what a great trip down to Nashville so far.

Absolutely.

We're just getting started, right, Mike? Yeah, yeah. This is going to be a good trip for us. So if you're looking for the Bourbon Road out there on social media, we're on all those social media platforms. We are on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Give us a follow at the Bourbon Road. Um, we also have a Facebook private group called the bourbon roadies. Jim, what do you got to do to be part of that?

So the bourbon roadies, you know, private Facebook group, we need you to answer three questions to join up. We want to make sure that you're 21 because you got to be 21 to drink here in the U S want to make sure that you understand you're getting yourself into a bourbon group. And we also want to make sure that you understand that we expect you to play nice. We don't talk about politics, social issues, religion. And we also don't slam somebody else's reviews on bourbon, right Mike?

No, if you want to talk about Jim Beam, you want to talk about Nashville Barrel Company, you want to talk about anything out there in the spirits community, the bourbon roadies is a place where you can feel that nobody's going to Bust on you and stuff. We got a great group of moderators that take care of that kind of stuff. We're open up to everybody and stuff. We just don't talk about those kinds of things. So, uh, you know, let everybody drink what they like to drink. We always like to say your bourbon your way or your rum your way, um, your rye whiskey your way, whatever you drinking, come on in our group. Um, join the family and stuff.

We also have a website, the bourbon road.com and on, on the bourbon road.com, you'll find our swag. We've got glasses, shirts, hats, all the good stuff. Right, Mike?

Yeah. We got all our swag on there. We got that bourbon bullshitter t-shirt on there that you're starting to see people wear from hell. Even in Australia right now, somebody's wearing that t-shirt. You want to wear that t-shirt, be a model for us. Help promote our brand out there across the United States across the world. We want to see you in it and stuff We got our blogs and reviews on there that are not so much about the episode It's just kind of what I'm feeling that day. It might be about a whiskey songs It might be about craft distilleries. It could be about anything whatever I feel like riding that day I'll put it up there and we hope you enjoy it.

So Mike we do two shows a week we do a short episode every Monday where we kind of spotlight of craft distillery. We talk about an expression that they've got out. And then every Wednesday we do a full episode like today's episode where we interview somebody, we bring them in, we try to deep dive and get them to talk about things they shouldn't. These guys have been pretty good today though. They haven't spilled the beans too much, have they?

Not too much, but in March you can look for one of those reviews. We are going to review a future release from them. You want to look for that. I'm holding them to it. They said they're going to bring us a bottle. We're going to review that sucker, put it up there, check it out. You're going to want to buy a bottle after we review it. I think it's going to be that good of a whiskey.

Absolutely. So we want to know what you think. We want to know who you want to see on the show, what bottles you want to see reviewed. Reach out to us. You can reach me at jshannon63. I'm one big chief. And we will see you down.

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