205. Wheat Penny 1958 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.

Hello everybody, I'm Jim Shannon. I'm Mike Hyatt. This is the Bourbon Road and today, Mike, it's another Craft Distillery Monday and we've got another non-big boy. I like big boys too, but I think I like to mix it up a little bit.

Well, you got to give love across the nation, right? There's a lot of distilleries out there that are popping up or they've been around for quite some time and their whiskey's coming of age. You know, some of it's super delicious so we can find some diamonds really out there. Absolutely. What do you have for us today? Well, from the Cleveland Whiskey Company, your home state, right? That's right. My good friend, Steve Johnson, he gave me this bottle a couple months ago, I think. I saw it in his truck. Me and him were hanging out down in Barstown and he showed it to me and I was like, hmm, you got a weed of bourbon. I got to have that thing, man. He's like, well, I'll just give it to you. And I actually was cleaning up around the house and I pushed it back inside the cabinet and it kind of got lost for a little bit. So I kind of owe Steve because he kept asking me, what do you think? What do you think? What do you think? And I was like, I think I lost that bottle. But the other day I went in the cabinet peeking around and I found it. I was like, okay, we got to get this thing on the show. This is Cleveland Whiskey Companies. It's called Wheat Penny. It's got a big 1958 Wheat Penny on it. And it's actually, if you look at the top of the cork, Jim, what's on the top of the cork?

It's a real Wheat Penny. Wheat's facing up. Yeah. That is pretty cool. That is really cool.

Now the last year that the Wheat Penny came out was 1958. That was the first year that NASA was formed that year. Oh, really? Yeah.

A lot of stuff was happening in America in 1958. Sure. Well, the first wheat penny came out in 1909, and before that it was the Indian head penny, and you've probably seen a few of those.

Sure.

Yeah. 1909, Abraham Lincoln finally made it on a coin. Probably one of the more valuable wheat pennies, if you're a coin collector, is to get that 1909 with designer's initials on the back. It's called a VDB. You think this is 1909 on here? I'm doubting that they're going to stick a valuable wheat penny on this. There's a number of years that are extremely valuable. And yeah, you're going to have a hard time. So the date's going to be obscured because it's on the face of the penny. You've got the tail showing.

But it would be VDB right at the bottom, the three letters. Very hard to see. We might have dig this thing off. So every bottle gets a wheat penny. They said until the pennies run out. Yeah, that's pretty neat. I think it's cool. Now this is a 94 proof bourbon right here. And of course, Jim, what do you think? I like this thing so much. Got a lot of wheat in it. It does got a lot of wheat. We said the other day that we thought that old elk might've had the highest wheat content, but this right here, if I don't know if there's was 44% This one's 51% corn, 45% rye, and 4% malted barley. You can't go much lower on the malted barley and still get that enzyme action. Yeah, that's a lot of wheat. It is. Now this is a finished bourbon. So it's bourbon whiskey finished with black cherry and toasted oak wood.

Now, without having the full description here, I'm going to assume that they're probably putting toasted oak staves in the finishing tank, maybe, and black cherries of wood, if I'm correct. So, they're probably just putting black cherry wood in there. And that's the way I read it too.

This is non-agestated and this non-disclosed distillery. I'm not positive that Cleveland Whiskey Company is making them some sales. It's some awful dark whiskey though.

It does say bottled and finished by them. Finished and bottled by them. And it doesn't say straight bourbon whiskey on it. It just says bourbon whiskey. So with all the legality and everything that goes into labeling, this could be In and out of Oak in a day for all we know.

It's dark.

I don't know how they get that day. It's a dark, dark whiskey. This is every bit as dark as, I would say it's as dark as an old Forster 1910 or close to it. Maybe not quite. Pretty close. Yeah. But close. Well, heck, let's check it out.

Let's check it out. All right. It's got a pretty decent nose on it.

Little bit of sort of a subtle chemical note to it. It might be the youth, a little bit of the youth of the whiskey showing through.

I'm wondering if that's that 45% wheat. It just gives that nose and I was thinking a couple other weeded bourbons that I've had that have that type of nose on it and stuff. Nice though. It's got a little bit of richness to it. I'm getting a lot of oak in this, especially knowing that it's finished in that toasted oak.

I'm going to say that I'm feeling like this might be a bit sweet on the palate. Probably. Only one way to find out.

A little hints of a little smoke coming off of that, right? And a little bit of fruit on that, maybe some dark fruit. I know you always like to stay stewed fruit.

Oh man, here we go.

I do get that though. Maybe some cooked down plums or something on this.

It is a little bit darker, a little bit richer. I think so far I'm intrigued by it. I'm kind of looking forward to the taste and see if it is as sweet as I think it might be.

Now this thing costs $37.99 is what the retail price goes for.

So we'll see. Pretty reasonable. Well, cheers. Cheers. That sweetness, you're right. Spot on.

Yep. Got some spice to it though. It does have some spice and it's got a little bit of that that sort of tannic, a little bit of tannic like a dryness to it. Like you touch your tongue to a penny? Yeah, like you touch your tongue.

Yeah, like you touch your tongue to a penny.

But not the copper part of it. Pretty nice. It kind of mellows as it goes back. It introduces a nice little hug, not too overpowering.

I am getting that tannic coming out now, that dryness, that just a tad bit of bitterness like a Granny Smith apple. I get a lot of toffee on this is what I get.

Yeah, it's got a very nice mid palette on it. I like it. The second sip, a little bit more, a little bit of sizzle. You start seeing it's got a little bit of depth to it, sort of the finishing woods on it. I think I've had a big effect on it. Not a lot up front, but that initial sweetness was nice. I think that's that toasted oak. Sure. I think a Heath candy bar with that toffee. This is an interesting bourbon for a wheat with an undisclosed age. If I had to guess what the age of this was. I would probably say three years. You think so? Maybe four. Yeah. I would hope it would be something like that and it's not like... But if not, they've done a wonderful job and they're finishing to hide the age of this whiskey.

You know what? That's the only thing I could dig on this thing on is that they didn't put an age on here.

That would be nice to know. It would be nice, but the fact that they didn't call it straight means that they're telling you it's under two years old. So I would say the blending and the finishing of this whiskey was, it's well crafted because if it is under two years old, they've done a darn good job of making it enjoyable.

Well, I got to say it is not too bad. I'm quite shocked by it. I think it has that medium finish that I'm looking for. Is this the best weeded bourbon I've ever had in my life? No way. No way. Not even close. No. Would I buy it again? If I'm from that Cleveland area, if I'm from Ohio, if I'm a penny collector, I'd probably buy it. If I just, the guy that has to have every weeded bourbon on the face of the earth, which I am, yeah, I'm going to buy it.

I'd like to see that sweetness prevail a little bit more in it, I think. Like it's very soft up front, which is what you expect from a wheat, and you do get that initial wash of sweetness across the front, but then it kind of goes away and it becomes a back-of-the-mouth whiskey. I would expect a little bit more on the front. So I would say for a wheat or it's probably a little unbalanced. What do you think?

I think you're right on that. I would want that more caramel, that more maple syrup coming through. I would like to see that. That's kind of what I'm looking for. Like when I drink Weller 107, I'm thinking that in my mind, hey, this is the greatest weeded bourbon on the face of the earth. Or we're drinking Maker's Mark cast strength. still $20 cheaper than the cast ring. I think it drinks a little hotter than 94 proof. It seems to. It does.

And I think that, you know, it's that backend that kind of, but the hug doesn't continue to get worse and worse. It just sort of settles in. I think that if they could find a little bit more for us up front, maybe that'll come with a little bit more age. If this is truly under two years, which we have to assume at the moment because the way it's labeled, I would say fantastic job finishing this whiskey and blending it because you have managed to mask much of the youth.

Yeah, yeah. I can't find a whole lot wrong with this bottle. I'd probably like to because it's a weeder and I expect a lot out of wheat, but hats off to you guys for trying something new, being innovative. I've never seen a black cherry wood before in a bourbon. I don't know about you.

I'd like to know. No, I haven't. I'd like to see the before and after comparison of with and without black cherry to see what the contribution is from that wood. I'm not familiar enough with that. I know it's great to cook with, right? Well, I think so.

Cherry wood is great to cook with. It's great to smoke with is what we're talking about. It gives that more of a soft smoke out is what it gives. I like to use it for like smoking pork or smoking fish or something like that. How does it fare in bourbon? I might pause it. Like you said, we'd have to find out. Maybe we'll have to reach out to the Cleveland Whiskey Company and check them out. I still got to say thanks Steve for giving me this bottle right here. Thanks Steve. We appreciate it. We do appreciate it. And we're going to share it with you when you come back. And you know, hey, you can always come over to our house and share bourbon with us. All right. Well, Mike, where can people find us on the internet? You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, all over the place. Heck, if you can't find us on the internet, just come to Shelby County. You'll find us. I mean, I know for a fact, when you go to Google and type the bourbon road, you get four or five pages of us, at least just popping up all over something. Good Lord. That's a whole bunch of us.

We also have a private Facebook group called the Bourbon Roadies. It's 2,300 like-minded people, friends, good people, like hanging out, drinking whiskey, talking about whiskey, taking pictures of whiskey, announcing family events, life events. Yeah. Pretty great group of people.

Yeah, the only thing we don't do in there, we don't talk about politics. We don't talk about religion. We don't talk about social issues. You got to be 21 to enter. You got to love bourbon. That's a must right there, right? And who doesn't love bourbon?

Because if they say they don't like bourbon, does it let them in? It still lets them in. I don't think it does.

It does automatically.

We get to review those answers, right?

If you just drink White Claw, I don't know.

I don't know if you're going to be able to come on in with us.

I don't know if you're going to fit in. So do those things. The other thing we do is it says, do you agree to play nice? Because we don't tolerate any rudeness. We just want everybody to, from the bottom of the shelf to the top of the shelf, if somebody wants to pick up a craft distillery bottle, like Wheat Penny here from Cleveland Whiskey Company, we want them to be able to do that and post that photo and be proud of their their success and their bourbon journey. So come on in and join us.

And if you're from Cleveland, Ohio and you haven't had Wheat Penny, Grab a bottle, jump on the bourbon roadies, take a picture of it. Let us know you're around.

Yeah, most definitely. So Jim, we're going to be at two events coming up, right? Right after this right here. Matter of fact, we will be at the TB RIPI house in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky on the 21st of October at six 30 tickets for that are $35. You can go to the TB RIPI home.com. Buy your tickets for that event. Come listen to us talk. We're going to be talking about the bourbon boom and how social media and new media formats like podcasts have affected that bourbon boom. They have affected it without a doubt. Most certainly. You can come drink some whiskey with us. We're going to have two of our favorites. Wild Turkey 101 will be there. Weller will be there. They put W.L. Weller. Oh, if that's the case, we're going to have a full house. We'll have a full house. We'll also have whiskeys from Wilderness Trail, their high rye bourbon, and their weeded bourbon. Come out, listen to me and Jim talk. It'll be a great night.

Eat some hors d'oeuvres. Eat some hors d'oeuvres, spend a good night, and then go back to your hotel room. And the next day, we'll see you out at...

the VIP auction in Frankfort, Kentucky for Bourbon on the Banks. You can go to bourbononthebanks.org. Check out that. Tickets for that night is $100, but you get an opportunity to bid on special bottles from Buffalo Trays. Who knows what's going to be there?

Yeah, and there's going to be a lot of big names in the crowd wandering around shaking hands. It'd be a great place to meet a few distillery owners, a few master distillers. Brent Elliott from Four Roses will be there.

I know for a fact, he told me he'd see me that night and Shane Baker from Willerness Trail will be there. So come check us out for that event. We'll also be at Bourbon on the Banks in the Bourbon Road Lounge sponsored by Woodinville Whiskey Company on the 2030. Buy your tickets for that event. Like I said, on bourbononthebanks.org, tickets are $65. Come hang out with us. If you're ready that wants to hang out with us, help us out, help us set up, do whatever. Get a hold of me. Probably the easiest way, like Jim has always said, is on Instagram. So come hang out with us.

All right. Well, we do two shows a week. We do a short episode like we're doing today, about 15 to 20 minutes where we dive into an expression like we did today with Wheat Penny finished bourbon. We also have a longer episode every Wednesday where we'll spend about an hour. We'll dive a little bit deeper into a subject, a few expressions. We'll have a guest on the show. It'll last about an hour. It'll get you to work and home. We hope you listen to both episodes every week. We also wanna make sure that you know when a new episode's coming out and how do they know?

Well, you gotta scroll on up to the top of your app. You'll see a check mark, a plus mark, a subscribe. Whatever app you're using, hit that button on there It'll tell you, hey, these two jokers got a new show coming out. You'll hear that ding. You can even tell Alexa, hey, play the Bourbon Road and subscribe to that. Amazon Music on there. You can listen to podcasts on there. I'd like to remind people that Amazon Music does have podcasts on there. You go to podcasts, type in the Bourbon Road and subscribe to that. That'd be awesome if you could do that. We'd love to have some Amazon subscribers. So make sure you go and check that out. Apple Podcasts, Spotify. We're on everything. We're on everything. Yeah. The next thing you want to do is screw on down them to help us out and hit that five star review.

We're starting to get some of those. They're flowing on a regular basis. We appreciate our listeners taking time out of their day to come in and lift us up and let everybody know what they think about the bourbon road. Believe me, it makes a difference.

It does. We get great guests on. We get great bourbon sent to us. Like my great friend Steve gave us this bottle. He knows that we're going to do justice to it. So yeah. But if you don't, what's going to happen? I'm going to unleash the big, bad booty daddy of bourbon to come to your house. Heck with him, he's going to bring the Weedy King of Kentucky. We're going to bring some Weedy bourbon. We're going to drink it like this wheat penny right here. We'll set up all night discussing bourbon and how much you love the bourbon road. By the end of the night, you're going to give us that five-star review. They'll know what to write at that point. Yeah, most certainly.

All right. Well, we always want to know what you think. Like Mike said, leave us a review. But if you've got an idea for a show, you've got a comment about a particular show, whether you liked it or not, it's fine. We would love to have the feedback. You can always send us an email. I'm jim at the bourbonroad.com. He's mike at the bourbonroad.com. But you can always hit up our DM on Instagram. I'm jshannon63. I'm One Big Chief. And we'll see you down the bourbon road.

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