179. David Nicholson 1843 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.

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 Hyde. And this is the Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, we are recording a Craft Distillery Monday episode. And we, you know, I feel a little remiss that we haven't had a lot of Lexico Bourbons on Craft Distillery Monday.

Yeah, we really haven't. We, I think we had that distillers collection, the Rebel on here. We haven't, that's, We did Ezra Brooks, but that wasn't on the craft distillery. We have it. We didn't review it. Right, right.

I mean, it just, we got to make our rounds. Yeah. And there's a lot of bourbons out there. So we try to give everybody a fair shake, but it doesn't always happen, does it?

No, no, it doesn't. Well, I tell you what, this past week I was down in Barstown. went down there just to get a lawnmower part really and had some time to kill. So I was like, Hey, I asked an old friend and said, Hey, you just like to check out some distilleries with me. And he's a cat. I said, well, let's go ahead and go to Lux row first. And I walked in there and Mr. Vincent Clark, their lead ambassador recognized me and me and him got to talk in and he was like, well, what would you guys come in here for? And I was like, well, I was going to pick up some of this 1843 up down here. It was $25 at the distillery. He was like, well, I'll just give you a bottle. I was like, well, we'll review it. So true to our word, Vincent, we're going to review your, uh, David Nicholson, 1843 whiskey.

Yeah. So the David Nicholson line of whiskeys, there's more than one expression. There's two of them.

Yeah. There's the David Nicholson reserve. And then there's this 1843. The difference in the two is the 1843 is a weeded bourbon.

Aha. Now I see the method to your madness.

Like a mad scientist. Yeah. So you were after the wheat. Yeah.

I didn't have a bottle of this at home.

Yeah. And I'd read different things and, you know, people were like, oh, it's not weeded bourbon, but this is a weeded bourbon. And the brand's actually pretty old. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about that. So David Nicholson was in a grocery store in St. Louis and created this brand in 1843, created his own weeded bourbon. Um, Julian van Winkle bought it in 2000. Um, and then somewhere after that Lux Robe bought it from him. Um, so I could kind of see how the van Winkle's wanted to buy some weeded bourbon up.

Yeah. Now you see this bottle on the shelves, at least here in Kentucky, just about everywhere you go.

Yeah. $25. Yeah.

That's not a bad price for a weeded bourbon. So the reserve is a black label. Yup.

And the 1843 is a white label. Yup. Now here's the thing is we know for a fact, this is distilled at heaven hill.

Yeah.

Um, so could it be the same juice as larceny?

Um, well, I would say it can't be too far off, but we all know how much barrels can differ based on location in the Rick house and age. Um, so even if the mash bill is the same, that doesn't mean it's going to taste the same.

Yeah. And this has an undisclosed match, but this is 100 proof. Um, there might be where the difference lies. Um, I don't, I don't know, but I still like it. This is a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, 100 proof coming out of Lux row, which was recently bought by who? MGP. Yeah. I hope they keep it the same. I really liked this bottle too.

Yeah. And it's said that this is somewhere between four and six years. Yep.

That's not a bad age. Yeah. We've had some really nice Weeders at that price, but for $25, I can only thank one other Weeder at that price and that is Larseny.

So this bottle, does it remind you of anything? kind of close to maybe the old Fitz bottle shape. Yeah. I mean, it's got that long neck on it and kind of a short square kind of rant. Well, it's round round, but squatty squatting. Yeah.

Yeah. Now that you say it, besides that decanter neck on it, you know, that the cork and stuff, but this is court. Um, I like the, I like how they had it packaged. You know, I'm we, the king of the Kentucky has to have everything that's wheat. Um, and I had to have this bottle and luckily enough, he was, uh, gracious enough to, to gift us a bottle and said, Hey, I'd be, be glad if you guys. We're not going to hold any punches. No, we won't hold no punches. All right. Yeah.

You may be predestined to drink wheat bourbons, but that doesn't mean they're all good. So let's, let's see what this was like. All right. Oh my goodness. So that really does have that kind of, uh, almondy nutty nose on it. That, that nuttiness, that heaven hill nuttiness.

You always say nuttiness. I always say, you know, what peanuts aren't really a nut, but I always say peanut brittle. Yeah. For me, it's like almonds. I get like almonds with heaven hill. I guess that's that sweetness, that floral of, of that coming through.

but it's still got a little bit of a darkness to it. Just a tad bit of dark fruit, kind of a, an oakiness, a dark fruit oakiness that's coming through. And what'd you call that color? Like a golden amber?

Yeah.

I would say it's a, it's a little on the lighter side, but respectable. It's really kind of a good nose. I like that.

Yeah. A little bit sweet that floral coming through. I don't get any chocolates on there. Little, just a hint of oak on there. The vanilla is coming through though.

It's a little bit aromatic. I mean, it's got those, uh, that floral effect to it, but the, but I have to say that the fruits are a little dark for me.

All right, let's taste this thing, Jim. Cheers. A little thin, but, um, it's got a bite to it.

What sunk right down there and that Kentucky hug has taken effect. Now that peanut brittle I spoke of, I got it right on the front of the palette, rolls back like that bite you said, not like pop rocks.

This is not larceny. I'm going to say that right now because I had larceny last night. This is not larceny. It may be the same mash bill. It may be the same distillery, but it's not the same profile.

I'm trying to see what else I'm getting off of there. It's more oaky. It does have a little bit more oak, a little bit more spice to it.

Yep. Um, I would say it's, uh, you know, it's definitely got, um, it's, it's, it's drier than larceny, not as sweet. kind of surprised by that. It's not so soft upfront. It's a little bit more, um, it's got a little bit more of a bite to it, a little bit darker. Uh, you know, it's a, it's a different animal than larceny. It's a different animal than, um, old fits.

This is a, that spices just like coach your tongue and you know, I guess I do get the pop rocks right there on that second sip.

It's enjoyable bourbon. I mean, it's good. It's a little on the thin side for me, but I do like it. I do like it.

I do agree with you about the, the cost of this is not super oily. It doesn't have great legs in the glass, but like you said, man, what a Kentucky hug this thing has. For a hunter-proofer, this thing has taken hold.

I just wonder if this is not from a very specific warehouse location that generates barrels that really have this profile, that have this kind of a barrel bite to it, this darker with a barrel bite. I mean, I guess you get that with more exposure to the heat, right?

So do you think they're taking and putting those bottles or barrels over at LuxRoe?

You know, I honestly don't know. I just think that the, you know, if, if, if Heaven Hill has one weeded match bill, uh, and this is that much different than larceny and old fits, something different is happening with the maturity process.

Yeah, it'd be nice to take a bottle of rebel, a bottle of this, a bottle of larceny, a bottle of old fits and set them up against each other and see how it rolls. Yeah. And do it in the blind.

Yeah, I think this would fare fairly well. I don't think that this is a, you know, this has got a little bit more bite. Larceny is a little bit more of a sweeter, softer bourbon. My wife loves larceny. That's her bourbon of choice. That's why I had it last night, because it just happened to be on the same floor of the house as me. So I didn't have to go down to the bar. I just had to grab it out of the cabinet. So it's different. It's definitely different.

I would say this, if you're a rye bourbon drinker and you're looking to kind of venture into that wheat world,

Yeah, this still carries that spiciness. It's a little bit of a delayed effect between what you taste on the front end and what you get on the back end. It's kind of funny. A lot of times we talk about those bourbons that wash across the palate, like racetrack bourbons. You take a sip and boom, it hits the front, hits the middle, hits the back, finish, done. And you've got kind of a full picture of what it is. This kind of has a delay between the front and the back a little bit. It kind of pauses on the mid palette a little bit. Maybe because the mid just doesn't really impress me that much. It is a little thin, but this is all about the front and the back of the palette. not so much in the middle.

It's definitely got a long finish to it. For as thin as it is, it sticks with you and it just keeps giving you those notes of spice and oak and very oaky for as light color. I didn't expect that out of this at all.

Yeah, I would say the oak plays a big part of this whiskey and however they're maturing the barrels, whatever they're doing to mature these barrels, they're accentuating the barrel effect on them, no doubt.

Well, I think it's a pretty good, for me, it's a buy all day long at $25. This would be a great sipper. I was thinking it would be more of a summer sipper, but man, this thing has some spice to it.

It's a little hot. This bourbon is a little hot. And, you know, for a weeder, this is showing This is showing how much a barrel can affect the spiciness of a whiskey that's made with wheat. Yeah. Right. We always talk about that. How does that weeder get that spice? You know, it has no rye in it. It comes from the barrel. This comes from the barrel.

Well, I can, I think this would be, like I said, if you're a rye drinker and you're looking for to get in that wheat world, I recommend that you go out there and get a bottle. This is $25. How can you go wrong?

Yeah. So this is, uh, this is on the shelf and readily available in our area. I would imagine Mike that it's, it's pretty, pretty available just about everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a, it's a big, they have a big distribution and it's a great looking bottle. Uh, I wouldn't hesitate to put it on your bar for $25. I would not hesitate a moment. it will be a poor that you revisit from time to time. And you're surprised by, because it doesn't follow those traditional weeded rules, right?

It kind of steps outside the box just a little bit. Yeah, most definitely. This would be really good in old fashioned, I think. Yeah, I think it would. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, Jim, another great review.

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Well, you go to the People's Choice Awards for podcasting.

You can go into two- It's called podcastawards.com, right?

Yeah, yeah. You can go vote for us in two places on there. They have the People's Choice Awards and in Arts. Look under the Bourbon Road. We're not the Bourbon Road. We're the Bourbon Road. Make sure you scroll all the way down. You got to enter in there. You got to log in to vote. Go in there and vote. We really appreciate that. It's something big for us.

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Yeah. So Jim, we also would like people to subscribe. So scrolling up listeners, hit that subscribe button, scrolling down and give us that five star review. We'd really appreciate that. That helps us open doors out there to distilleries, to guests. And it helps us want to put out great material. And what happens, Mike, if they don't? Give us a review. Well, my big old dark side, the big bad booty daddy of bourbon will come find you. I'll come to your house with my big bottle of bourbon. Never can tell what will happen after we drink that thing.

All right. Well, we definitely love to hear what you guys think. Comments are always appreciated. Uh, we have an open mind and we don't get upset if you tell us we did something wrong. Uh, we'd also like to know if, uh, if there's a particular guest, a bottle or distillery you'd like to have on the show, we'd love to give them a review or give them a talk. You can always find us on Instagram. I'm Jay Shannon 63. I'm one big chief and we will see you down. 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 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.