171. Navigator Kentucky Straight Bourbon Finished in Cabernet Sauvignon Barrels

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.

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Hello everybody, I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt.

And this is The Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, we are reviewing a whiskey with a little bit of a nautical background to it, right?

Yeah. You know, the weird thing was I got this message from a wine company, Precision Wine Company out in California to be exact. And I was thinking, why is this wine company keep, like, poking at us? Hey, can we send you a bottle? Can you send me a bottle? You know me, I drink some red wine, won't I?

Yeah.

Well, turns out that they bought some barrels of bourbon and they finished them in their red wine barrels. So this is the Navigator straight bourbon whiskey we got from them. And that caught your attention. Most definitely, because I love it. I was a navigator on the Mackinac. That's one of my jobs on there. Besides driving the ship, I did all the chart work, which you know being in the Navy, some of that stuff is very detailed. Sure it is. Especially when you're on a icebreaker and you're in shallow water, you want to make sure you know where you're going. I'm sure that's the way it was in a submarine, right?

A lot of times you didn't know it that well. If you weren't navigating, if you weren't the navigator, you had no idea where you were, right? That's a scary thought.

especially under the water. But I'd be more scared to see what's underneath the water than you don't know at all. And that's what the navigator's job is to make sure you get where you're going safely. So it's not just about where you are in the world, it's about what's under you.

Especially when there's big rocks under there.

Yeah, so they reached out to us. They sent us a bottle. I'm quite impressed with the bottle. Very beautiful, elegant looking bottle. I don't know if I've seen another bottle like this shape right here. Maybe the Baker's, the new Baker's bottle. I was thinking that. So it's kind of big shoulders, narrow hips. Kind of a bottle, right?

Yeah.

It kind of tapers down at the bottom. Old world, kind of a map on it or a nautical chart. It's very, I think it's elegant looking. I like it. Now, the liquid inside was, it's kind of brownish more than it would be, you know, when you get a bourbon, it's more of a golden amber. But, you know, we pour it in the glass. That's bourbon. Looks like bourbon. Looks like bourbon. Smells like bourbon. Got a pretty heavy cork on that bottle too. Yeah. Yeah. So let me read out what they got here. So this is a 100% Kentucky straight bourbon, three years old, aged in 100% new American white oak barrels finished in Cabernet Sauvon wine barrels.

Cabernet Sauvignon barrels from California, from the Navigator... No, from the... Precision wine company.

Okay. And then it's 86.6 proof, a little lower proof than what you'd usually see on a finished bourbon. But the bourbon itself is 75% corn, 21% rye. I know you like that. I like that. Yeehaw. Yeah. And then 4% malted barley. So that's what they sent us. I'm hoping.

So how long did it stay in those secondary barrels? Did they say? They didn't tell us that. Okay. So it is three to four years when it went into the barrels, the secondary barrels.

Okay. But they've been making wine for a long time. I've seen their wines on the shelves before, like octopuses and just all kinds of nautical themes, mermaids and stuff like that. I dig that, anything's nautical. It's kind of like if I saw something that has a buffalo on it, I'm just drawn to it for some reason. So, that's what we got.

Let's know this thing. Let's check it out. I mean, that's bourbon.

It's definitely got a little bit of a deeper, darker fruit nose to it.

That's actually, you know, remember those old swister sweet little cigars? I get a little bit of that tobacco on that sweet cherry.

Yeah, I mean, it does kind of remind you a little bit of like a, like if you open a pouch of chewing tobacco, the old chewing tobacco like Redman or something, you take a whiff of it. But on top of that, I am getting the fruitiness from it. I'm getting that darker fruit from that bold cab that they used to make it, to finish it in the bold cab barrels. But the oak's prevalent. It definitely knows it's like something that's older than three years old. I'm not getting any real youthful notes on it.

I'm getting some kind of like a banana oil or maybe some that maybe that's that deep vanilla in there. It's a great nose. I like it. Yeah, I like it.

I'll say cheers. Let's try this. Cheers.

Wasn't get a lot of sweetness on the nose, but on the palate, I get that sweetness right up front.

So as it comes across, I'll tell you what's coming across right now is that Kentucky hug kicking me in the chest, that 21% rye. It's there.

Yeah. Yeah. The rise there. And it gives you a little bit of that sort of rye mintiness, a little bit of that rye mintiness from it. Um, kind of like it. The, uh, the fruitiness is more on the nose than it is on the palate. I think. For me. Yeah.

I think you're spot on there. The sweetness is there. You ever had a Cinnabon that had too much cinnamon on it? You take that bite, it's almost a little bit.

Is that possible?

It is possible. You know, it's just decoded in it and it just kind of bites your tongue a little bit. That's what this has right here. A little bit of that heavy Cinnabon. But the sweetness is there with that stickiness. Speaking of cinnamon, have you ever done a cinnamon challenge? I used to make my son's high school buddies do that when they came over to our house. Did anybody ever actually complete it? Yeah, a couple of them kids, they're tougher than nails. Oh my goodness. They're all wrestlers and they just wanted to be impressive.

I thought it was impossible to consume a teaspoon of cinnamon without anything to drink.

I think some of them, maybe I don't know how they did it, but every once in a while you come across somebody that can do it until you find out people were getting sick from it. Yeah. And they were getting that stuff down their lungs. And I can remember being up in Maine and the Coast Guard kids doing that too. They challenged any challenges back then that came out because they had that milk challenge. They had that cinnamon challenge and they're all trying to do that stuff. And I'm like, what are you doing? Quit wasting all this stuff. We need that.

Going back to the nose, I'm going back and I'm getting that same fruity red man kind of tobacco nose on it. But going back to the palate again, sweet up front, not so much fruitiness, a little bit of sizzle on the middle.

Yeah.

I haven't got too much of the HUD yet because I've been taking pretty small sips. Gotta say for 86 proof.

pretty viscous. And I don't know if it's that wine barrel coming through. It's more viscous than I thought it would be.

Well, this is very pleasant for a three-year-old Finnish bourbon. I would have to say that this was ranked right up there with the better Finnish bourbons that I've had, especially with this younger age on it. It's kind of going down real easy too. I'm feeling like you could really make a bottle of this disappear pretty quick.

Yeah, I'd say in the fall time, it'd be very good after dinner or even before dinner. I think it's a porch bottle right there. Right on the porch in the evening. Yeah. Fire pit going. Yeah. So Jim, what would you think a price on this would be?

Um, well, it's a, it's a California winery. It's a small operation as far as bourbon goes, I would say. Um, they're, they probably don't have a lot of expressions at this point. I would say probably 50 to $70 range.

So you can buy this online right now, right now. If you check out a website called BevMo.com for right now, if you're one of their club members, you could buy it for $39.99.

Wow. I'd say that's a value because this is, like I said earlier, this competes with other finished bourbons that I've had recently. I'd say it's right up there with the rest of them.

Now, if you're not a club member, it's going to run you a $50 steel for $50 for a finished bourbon like this. beautiful bottle. You know, you could set this right next to a wine bottle and most people probably would not even blink an eye. A little bit different than a wine bottle. Not that long neck on it, but still it's kind of a chop down wine bottle actually.

Yeah. Like I said, it's got big shoulders, skinny, skinny hips, slender body, you know, but big shoulders.

It drinks fine. I tell you what, the sweetness, that dark, that dark fruit you were talking about, cherries, the cinnamon's there for me. Like I said, that over cinnamons, cinnamon bun. Cinnabon. Cinnabon. Cinnabon. That you see in every airport, right? Yeah. And at the pilot gas station right next to me here. Right next to you, right down the road from you. Yeah, it's all there. I love it, man. This is some good stuff in the price there. Under 50 bucks, that's respectable.

Yeah, I'd say you can pick up a really nice looking bottle here that drinks well that I think across the board would please most people. I think that this is kind of a I don't know, kind of a crossover bottle for like you and me. We both like it. I like the high rye. You like the sweetness on the palate. That introduction of that Cabernet Sauvignon, you know, sweetness into it. I mean, when you nose it, you get that tobacco and that dark fruit. You start thinking, this sure doesn't smell three years old.

I think what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to have some roadies over the house. I'm going to have to cook some usobuko. and I'm going to drink this before we eat that. There you go. And I kind of pair that together. So what do you, what wine do you use in your Asabuka? So I use a cab in there. Some people would probably shame me for doing that. I don't go out and buy the most expensive bottle, you know, something that's in the seven, eight dollar range. And I just pour away. Yeah. I got my recipe. I throw it together. To me, it's more about the preparation of the meat and the hunt for that meat and respecting that animal that you harvested. You know that about me that I take a lot of pride in that process, but I also like to eat it well. That's one of the finest dishes I think I could make out of a deer is usho buko. If you haven't had it before and somebody invites you over, Turn that nose up. You might just be shocked. And if they offer you some of this bourbon right here, don't turn that nose up.

Now, asabuco is a dish that has been around for a lot of years, but it's designed to use the less desirable parts.

Yeah.

The front and rear shanks of a deer, most people would take.

Or of a beef. Or even beef. They would take and grind that in a burger. Where is, if you cook it right and cook it down, it's so tender and it takes on the flavor of what you're cooking in it and stuff. And that's a braise, right? That's a long braise. You use a cast iron pot. We have, you know, you've been over our house. You see how much cast iron we have. We, I don't think we have enough, but every Christmas Vivian gets a new piece. So we, me and her talked about that. We got some of those pieces that are lacrosse, I think is how you say it properly. We've got some pieces that are over 22 years old now. Yeah. That's getting respectable ages and we still use it all the time. She's going to use it tonight. So, you know, I like it. I love to pair something like this with it. I think this goes fine with it or set down the porch. Like you said, I'm definitely think we'll save this bottle for this fall. A great fall sipper, 50 bucks. Um, that's caught a medium to long finish.

Yeah. Actually. Yeah. I'm sitting here. It's been a while since I had a sip of it because mine's gone. Yeah. We both finished our glasses and, uh, and, and, but I still want more and I still want more because that finish is calling me back. And, uh, I'll tell you what. Folks over at Navigator, if you want to send another bottle out, Jim would be happy to take it.

So Jim, before the episode, me and you, you know, we're trying to get everything together, right? And we're talking about future episodes and stuff we'd like to do. And you brought up a great idea for our roadies. Now our roadies, almost 2,000 people. We're at 1,938. Probably by the time this releases, we might be hitting that 2,000 number. Rody's what Jim came up with was this remarkable idea. I think it's great. So what's the idea, Jim?

Well, so I blend my own bourbon here. So I've got my own, I'll call it brand or whatever. It's my house brand and I make about six bottles at a time. I got my own labels. I had labels made for it and everything. And I really enjoyed the process of going through and designing my own blend. And I just take off the shelf whiskies that you and I can go to the store and buy. And I try to pick this one and that one and put them together at different percentages and come up with what I consider to be a great blend. So it just seemed like the right thing to do was to have a contest and see among the roadies if we could maybe try to have a blending contest. That seems pretty fair.

Now to have a blending contest, we would have to bring in some guest judges besides herself, I think.

Well, you know, if we want to blend and be part of the challenge, then yes, we'd have to bring in some other judges, because that wouldn't quite be fair, now would it? Well, it wouldn't be fair. I don't know.

Maybe me and you'll just judge them and we'll pick a roadie and we'll do the show with another roadie. We'll bring a roadie. So three judges. Three judges. A roadie. An ace. Yeah. Bring somebody else in as three judges. We'll go through it. We'll have to make sure we have some designated drivers for ourselves. So if you're roadie, we want you to send us your sample. I'd say a four ounce sample bottle.

Yeah, two, two ounces or a four ounce. Yeah, it was kind of hard to do a proper review with only two ounces when you got three judges. So, I think we honestly would need four ounces to do it and we don't want you to go out and buy a special four ounce bottle. So, everybody's using the two ounce sample bottles now, I think, right?

Well, I think I've changed people's minds on those. I don't know. You know how I send stuff out. I like to send it out in four ounce bottles. I actually dropped some samples off at somebody's house. drop them off five samples. That's a whole bottle of bourbon, pretty close to it. And that's what I get. But if that's what you have is two ounce samples, send us two of them, make sure they're the same. Pour your blend in there.

So we'd like to have the blend In other words, you're going to have to tell us what it is. You can't keep it a secret. So if you've got a blend that you don't want to share with other people, then don't send it in to us. But if you're willing to share what went into it, send it on in. Give it a name. Call it something fun. What's your blend called?

Old Hoot. Old Hoot like an owl. Yeah, like an owl. I could see that. I can see you sitting upon a tree branch wise and all, just sitting up there like an old owl.

But I'm not going to enter old hoot because I'm not willing to give away its recipe because I give it away as gifts. So I actually had labels made. I ordered in the bottles. I fill it up and then I give it away as gifts.

I got one of those bottles at home.

I've sipped off that thing quite often.

My blend would be totally different than yours because I'm a weeded guy. I don't really blend, I guess. I just keep pouring whiskey into my infinity bottle. I have a little bit left of some TX bourbon, right? And just a little bit, not enough to drink. I didn't think so. I just poured it on in there because that's a weeded bourbon. Speaking of TX bourbon. Yeah. Coming on soon. We're going to have Dr. Rob Arnold, their master stiller is going to be on the bourbon road with us. You know, I'm damn excited about that because they got this weird yeast strain they captured for a native Texas pecan. So Roadies, you want to make sure listeners out there, you want to make sure you don't miss that episode.

All right. So if you do want to send us in a sample. They just need to reach out to us, get an address, and we'll give it to them. Tell them where to send it. If you have any questions about how to submit, we'll answer it at that time. Basically, it's simple. Fill four ounces worth of bottles up, put a label on them, give it a fun name, let us know what your mix is, and send it on in. Then we'll specify a date and we'll have a big challenge. There's going to be a prize. What do you think the prize should be? I don't know. I think we got to chew on that a little bit. It'd be substantial.

Yeah. I think that you'll definitely, it'll be worth your while to enter this. We'll come up with something really nice for you. Um, and you know, go at us.

Let's see what you got. Absolutely. All right, Mike. Well, we're, uh, we're running up on the episode here. What do you think if we tell everybody where they can find us on the internet?

So you can find us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. Twitter, I don't know where all you can find us. You can find us in our private Facebook group, the Bergman Roadies. You got to answer three questions to get in there. Are you a 21? Do you like bourbon? And do you agree to play nice? Because we don't tolerate any rudeness. We want everybody to play fair in there. We don't do politics. We don't do social issues. We don't do religion in there. Not in the roadies we don't. We do birthdays, celebrations. We even do people's deaths in there. We celebrate their life and stuff. Raise a glass. Raise a glass to them. Whatever you got going on in life, we want you to show that in there. What bottle you got. We don't care if it's the bottom of the shelf, if you grabbed it from underneath the shelf, or if you reaching all the way to the top. I've seen everything in there. So show us what you got. The one thing we would ask you to do is don't post photos of bottles that you have and open those bottles up.

Hashtag OTDB. What's that stand for, Jim? Open the damn bottles.

Because we both open our bottles.

We do. Yeah. And it's a problem. I mean, you've got a bigger problem than me, Mike. But yeah, all our bottles are open, not all of them, but probably 98% of them. That's because we drink our whiskey and we hope you do the same.

So make sure you check out our website too, the bourbonroad.com. You can check out our reviews, our articles in there. You can also buy our swag in there, our bourbon bullshitter t-shirt, our hats and our glasses. Check that website out. You can leave us some comments on there. We'd like to see that our buddy Adam is writing reviews for us in there. So check those reviews out. We'd appreciate it if you visit that site.

Absolutely. We do two shows a week. We do a short episode like today's where we take a review on a bottle and we'll chit chat a little bit, but we're trying to tell you whether or not you should go out and get it because in a navigator, I'm giving it a thumbs up. It's definitely something I want on my bar. That's a by all day long. All right. But we do a second show every week on Wednesdays, a little bit longer, where we'll do a deep dive with a guest. We'll talk about a series of bottles. We'll explore a topic like bottle and bond bourbons. We'll do something. We'll have a really interesting person on or we'll visit a distillery. But we do that. So every week two shows. We'd love to have you listen to both. We'd also like to hear a little bit about what you think about what we do. And Mike, what can they do if they want to give us feedback?

Well, first you want to go up there and hit that subscribe button. That way, you know, you know, you're going to get here the next week. Secondly, scroll on down and you hit that five-star review. Tell us what you think about us. Tell us what you'd like to hear in that review. It helps us open doors. It helps places like Precision Wine Company send us their Navigator bourbon. They're reaching out to us saying, hey, these guys, they got it going on. There's two dudes sitting down shooting the shit. So please hit that subscribe button. Give us a five-star

Yeah, that's it. All right. Well, in the meantime, if you have something to let Mike and I know that somebody you'd like to have on the show, a bottle you'd like to review, maybe your local distillery hasn't got the word out yet and you'd like us to give them a try, reach out to us on Instagram. You can find me at jshannon63. I'm One Big Chief. And we'll see you down the Bourbon Road. 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.