173. Three Chord Strange Collaboration Bourbon Review

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. I'm Mike Hyatt.

This is The Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, it's another craft distillery Monday. But today we've got kind of a special bottle on the show.

Yeah, it's a collaboration between a winery and a bourbon company. So this is a tribute bottle to a fine young man. It passed away way too soon. But I think we're going to really love this. This is three-cord straight Kentucky bourbon finished in a strange vineyard, family vineyard wine barrel. Pinot noir barrel. Yeah.

And there's some ties between, we've had Three Quarter on the show several times in the past and we've always been very impressed with their whiskeys. And they sent us this bottle, this particular bottle is called Strange Collaboration and they did collaborate with the Strange Vineyards. to create this whiskey, to finish this whiskey in their Pinot Noir barrels. But they had a relationship with Johnny Strange, which he was an adventurer. He was a mountain climber and a thrill seeker who died in 2015, way too young. But this particular bottle is dedicated to both his life and also to raising money and awareness for Parkinson's. Yeah.

He was big into philanthropy and giving back to communities and stuff. And three quarters continued that given part of their proceeds for this back to Parkinson's foundation. making sure that his legacy lives on and what a great cost.

Absolutely. We love it when people give back. Three Cord in particular is, like I said before, a distillery that we've got great respect for. We've reviewed their stuff on a number of occasions and it's always top-notch whiskey. I can't wait to try this one. We just cracked the bottle And really excited to give it a try.

Now 99 proof, right? That's right up there as a finished bourbon. We're kind of that number we like on those, right?

Yeah, this is a 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley. So high corn content, good amount of rye. The color on it, I would say, is medium amber. And I'm ready to dive in and find out what it knows is like. What about you?

Yeah, I'm ready for it.

Wow, that's a that's an overwhelming nose. It's got a lot of impact right off the bat. Some stone fruit in there. I'm getting berries, cherries.

That's what I was going to say. Cherries. I get a little hint of tobacco, which I seem to always get on these finished bourbons that have been finished in a wine barrel. That's just a pleasing nose. Maybe this old pipe tobacco.

Just a little bit of oak on that.

Not going to be said before, you're going to get some of those standard nose that oak, the vanilla caramel.

Now, they don't state the age on this. It's a straight bourbon, so we know it's at least two years old. A little bit of corn on the nose, not too much, but definitely picking up a little bit of that fruitiness. Like I said, the cherries and the berries coming across, picking up from that, you know, noir barrels. Sort of a bold, a more bold red wine.

Yeah, the more you say that, I'm just getting that kind of a dryness of a red wine that knows of it.

Do you almost taste this thing? Just taste it. Cheers. Cheers.

Okay, now this one definitely has a significant richness to it that reminds me of a bold wine. Those berries are deeply in that first taste. I can get it. I mean, I definitely get it. Rich, sweet, not overly sweet, but impressive, definitely impressive. Just a tad bit of spice on that back end.

A little bit of, I get just a little bit of bitterness on the back end too. So Jim, this was aged two to six years. And then it's finished three months in the wine barrels.

How many years? Two to six years. Okay. So it's a blend of barrels in that range. Got it. That makes sense.

This has got just that little bit of tingly spice to it. Almost clove. That's spot on right there. That clove. I don't know. That's nice. This would go with a good Italian meal. Perfect.

Yeah, this is a balanced whiskey. It's got a lot going on. It's not single note. It's multi-note. It's layered. I would say that you could sit... This is a thinking whiskey, Mike. This is one you can sit and think about. Just that tad bit of sweetness.

overly sweet. Some people say they put sugar in spaghetti sauce to cut that acidic taste. I almost get that. Just that little bit of sweetness you'd get in a spaghetti sauce. I know that might sound weird, but

I'd seen that lately. I'm definitely still getting those cherries in this. Yep. And on the back, on the finish on this, it's mild, but it kind of reminds me a little bit of leather and pepper. A little bit of leather and pepper.

I'm getting this super silky. This is just like real, real silky. It's got a nice Kentucky hug, not kicking me in the chest or nothing, but it slides right down. It's as nice as letting me know it's there. It's warming me up right now. This is definitely not our first pour today, but I know it's there. So that's nice. And what did you say the rye content on this was? I think I believe it's 21%.

21% rye, 4% malted barley, and 75% corn.

It's got a pretty good ride content to it. Hangs around for a long time for me. So I'd say this has that medium to long finish on it. Complexity on this is just amazing. It just keeps opening up to me as it sets in the glass.

Yeah. I'm going to say it in general. We'll talk about this bottle specifically, but in general, if you see a bottle of three-quart whiskey on the shelf, I want to say pick one up because you can't go wrong. We've had a number of their expressions and I don't think we've had anything bad to say about any of them.

Well, somebody sent me a private message and said, hey, what's the deal with all these celebrities coming out with their own whiskeys and stuff? And I had this to say. They've never approached us about Neil being a celebrity. He's married to Pat Benatar, right? She's got her own thing going on. But never have they pushed his music or anything on us. Yeah, he named it after music. But never, I mean, you never looked at this as a celebrity whiskey. Yeah, because they're not using their notoriety to push the whiskey. No, they're just saying it's good whiskey. I like it. They're doing something different. This is definitely something different and they're using it to help out a worthy cause. And there's something to be said for that right there. Yeah.

So this is, they're saying on the bottle is distilled in Kentucky, fine tuned in Michigan.

There's nothing wrong with that. Very open about what they have, transparency. Me and you are big about transparency, right? Some models try to hide some stuff. They didn't hide anything on there. You look on their website, they'll tell you how old it is. That's not where they got it from. They're not saying, hey, we bought it from this distillery, but It'd be hard pressed for me to take a guess with this after they finished it though. Yeah, it kind of changes the profile. But still a good sip. But like you said, this is a thinking man's whiskey out here.

Well, Neil, you're rocking and rolling. There's no doubt about it. This is another check mark on your, or notching your belt, I should say, of good whiskeys you've produced. We definitely appreciate the opportunity to review it. We like the cause it supports. If you don't currently contribute to a worthy cause, I would highly recommend the Parkinson's Foundation. It's a great cause. There's a lot of people that struggle as a result of that disease and they can all use your support. So Jim, what's this thing cost? So this bottle is right at $45, which I think is a tremendous value considering the flavor profile and the fine line of expressions that it extends and the great care that's taken in preparing it. So they are a craft distillery. You know, they are producing much smaller volumes and you're going to get out of the big boys. So they have to charge just a little bit more, but $45 is not that much more.

You're going to pay more than that for a bottle of Angel's Envy. I agree. You are. You know, and that's to me, that's the standard for a finished bourbon is Angel's Envy. It probably always will be for me. We're big fans. Yeah. No doubt that Wes and his dad Lincoln, they had in his Wes's sons have got it figured out there. They got it going on. But when it comes to a finished bourbon, I think of that. And I kind of compare everything to that. So if you're really into finished bourbons, this is one to definitely pick up. Try it out. What do you have to lose? Some people can't afford $45. Don't get me wrong on that. Some people don't like the finished bourbons at all.

If that's you, go on to the next show. We'll have one. We'll have one on non-finished bourbons. Yeah.

But I'd say that if you're not into finished bourbons, give something else a try, you know, and eventually one might hit with you. Maybe not. I could be totally wrong, but there's a lot of people out there that are right on that verge of, man, I could like whiskey or I couldn't like whiskey. This is definitely a gateway to open up that door for people. You sip on this for a while, Vivian's one of those people. She's a finished bourbon person. Every finished bourbon I've given her, she's like, oh man, I got to get some more of that. So I know what she likes. So people that like to drink that wine, this might be right up their alley.

Absolutely. Well, great whiskey, in my opinion. Definitely something to add to your bar. This one's on my bar, Mike. I wish you had an extra bottle. I'd give it to you, but thank you, Neil, for sending this one to us. They did provide us with a bottle for review. Make sure you check out Strange Family Vineyards. Make sure you check out johnnystrange.com. Johnny is the young man who passed away in 2015 as a result of live in his life. Exciting, thrill-seeking individual who died way too young. But we would definitely encourage you to invest in a bottle of this. If you get a chance, you'll certainly enjoy it. Sit out on your porch. Sit out on your patio. Let the sun go down. Build a bonfire. Relax in the backyard. Sip on this. Good stuff. That's a photo I might expect from you, Jim. Oh, am I taking this picture? I've got no skills where that comes in, but I'll do my best.

A bonfire outside. That's the picture I want from you. So if you were looking for us on social media, you can find us on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. Heck, I don't even know what else is out there. You can find us. If you really look for us, you can Google us, the Bourbon Road. You're going to find us. Heck, you might even find some photos of us on there. So check those things out. We also have a private Facebook group. Over 2,000 people now. Got to answer three questions to get in there. Are you 21? Do you like bourbon? Do you agree to play nice? We just don't tolerate any rudeness. We want everybody to get along in there. Post photos up of bourbons like this right here with good causes. We love good causes. So post your photos up there. Join our family. We do some great giveaways in there. Check those out.

You're gonna want to be part of our group. Absolutely. We do two shows a week. We do a short episode like this one where we just We talk about an expression we taste that we tell you whether or not we think it's worth your investment And in this case today with three chords Strange collaboration. I think we think it's worth your investment now It's $45 that may be not in your price range and that's okay You don't need to buy it. Go get a port-a-bar

Yeah. Two or three bucks, maybe four bucks, maybe five bucks, maybe 10 bucks. Depends on where you're at, but it's definitely worth a try. Try it out. You come by Jim's bar and probably let you try some of it.

Oh, absolutely. I've got a bottle that's 90% full here and every roadie is welcome to give it a try. No doubt. Come on to Louisville. You better hurry up because Jim likes it. It'll be 50% full. All right. Well, we definitely love to hear what you think about the show, whether or not we should have a particular expression on or we should have an individual on for an interview. If you're from a small town USA, small town anywhere for that matter, and there's a hometown distiller who's doing it right. You'd love to shine a light on them. Let us know who they are. You can always find me on Instagram at jshaden63. 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 are for the absolute finest trending and handmade classes, 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.