207. Leiper's Fork Straight Rye Whiskey 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. And I'm Mike Hyatt. This is The Bourbon Road. And today Mike, The Bourbon Road has us in Franklin, Tennessee. Leapers Fort.

Leapers Fort, Tennessee. Leapers Fort, a pretty special place in our hearts, right?

It is. And this is another session in our Stillhouse Sessions. Yeah. We got five episodes that come together to form our Stillhouse Sessions. We've got two Crafty Story Mondays and three full-length episodes all recorded right here at Leapers Fort.

Because of our great friends, Lee Kennedy, the owner here, April Weller-Cantrell, you got Matt, you got Kendra, you got Greg, you got the whole crew here that has opened their arms for the last two days for us. Opened a distillery for us. Let us sit back here in the steel house.

It was some great guests I can't imagine a better weekend than we've had this weekend sitting here Right in the midst of all these barrels drinking whiskey with some pretty great folks.

Yeah, I'll tell you You know, we had Taylor Austin down and she's saying that last song and you know, what a huge nut of fan I am of Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks and she sang a Stevie Nicks song and man I started tearing up almost it she was that good it resonates you know.

Absolutely, absolutely. We've had Chris Thomas on, we've had Josiah Siska, we've had Taylor Austin die, we've got a couple of craft distillery episodes that we want to crank out and today we're very very happy to have the Leapers Fork Distillery straight rye whiskey. Yeah. And I'm a rye man, but I want you to tell me about this rye.

So this is a 55% rye, 30% corn and 15% malted barley. It's been aged three years and 10 months and it's 95 proof, aged in one of their new barrels, right? It's been charred. Super beautiful.

Yeah. And this is a Southern rye whiskey. So Southern or, you know, we sometimes say Kentucky rye, but actually we're in Tennessee. This is a Southern rye whiskey. Southern rye whiskies are typically going to have a lower rye content somewhere in the fifties, like you said, and they're going to have a compliment of corn and a compliment of barley to fill out that mash bill. And what we end up with is pretty sweet rye, right? Yeah. And I'm excited to try this again today. I've had it, but it's been a minute. The good thing, and good for Leiper's Fork, is it's hard for them to keep this in stock.

Yeah, but you can go. Me and you would stop this morning at a couple liquor stores, and I saw this on the shelf in there, $85.99. Now, that's a Kraft distillery price right there. You can come here to the distillery. You can come to the shops around Tennessee, anywhere in Tennessee, really. They're distributed. They're starting to get out to other states. I understand now they're in Alabama, fixing to be over in Georgia. We're trying to get them up in Kentucky.

Yeah. I really love to see this on the shelves in Kentucky because I'm a big fan. You know, but they, they are struggling to keep it, keep up with demand.

This is true small batch whiskey right here. It doesn't get no more small batch than this right here. Um, you know, you can watch how they make it. We've watched their grain get milled. We've watched it been delivered from a farmer where there's dually pickup. All that stuff is neat to see as a person. They had tours coming through here and we got to see them. Somebody asked me, he's like, what's all that white stuff all over the ground? And I was like, well, that's corn. That's what corn looks like when it's milled out. This is the real deal. It don't get no more real. This is real. Yeah.

Well, Mike, we've got it in our glass. I think it's time for us to tip it up, take a nose, take a taste and tell everybody what we think about it. Let's do that. It's got that, uh, candy. Yeah.

It's a little bit of licorice.

Maybe. Yeah. A little bit of candy, a little bit of licorice. I'm getting a little bit of like candied orange, but not like a real deep citrus, but I get that hint of orange on it.

Marmalade more orange marmalade. Yes, sir. That's a Southern thing, right?

Yeah. And it's got that signature spice drop from Lever's Fork on it. So that's the barrel spice, right? Cause we taste that in the weeded whiskey as well, weeded bourbon, I'm sorry, as well. And we're getting it on the rye as well. And that's complimenting that spice that's coming from the rye. So boy, what a nice combination.

Isn't it awesome how different regions, will have a different barrel spice to it. You know, and I always, we talk about that all the time. You and I do about the different regions we go to and the different whiskies that come out of those regions. Uh, so that nose on there, like you said, licorice, uh, marmalade, jelly, that spice in there, that spicy candy you would get. That's pretty awesome.

Yeah. You know, I actually, you and I, uh, we drink a good amount of bourbon cause we're always tasting bourbons and giving our opinions on them. But last night we were at a brewery here in Franklin, Tennessee, and I had a citrus pepper beer. It was a Go's. And you know, this kind of tells that same story. It's got that pepper and that orange on it, that peppery orange. That smell, yeah. You said candied orange. Marmalade. I get that. There's a dose of pepper on the back.

Sure. There sure is. It's super beautiful nose. Um, if you were going to have a ride, that's what we'd have. Well, heck, Jim, let's, let's taste this thing. Let's do it.

Well, that's full of flavor. It excites the entire palate. I'm not just getting it on the front or the back or the middle. I'm getting it in my cheeks. I'm getting it under my tongue. It's everywhere, man. It's a nice explosion of flavor.

I got some toasted rye bread with that marmalade jelly spread on it. Yeah. Maybe a little bit of butter. Yeah.

Yeah. Now is it, is this pumpernickel rye? Is this a swirled rye?

I think you're right about that pumpernickel. Yeah. A little dark, isn't it? And that, that jelly your grandmother would make with those orange rinds into that jelly just be beautiful. How about that? And then that butter, some salted butter on that bread.

They make a beautiful rye here, and if you're a big fan of ryes, I would definitely say give Leapers Fork a try. They do it right. They do it right here.

It's got a little bit of floral note on it, too, coming out. I can't say how beautiful this is. Nice and dark in the glass, too. It is dark.

And for three years and 10 months, I mean, that's a good age for a rye, right? We talk about that. Ryes tend to age significantly faster than ripe urbans and a lot faster than weeded urbans.

Oh, most definitely. You could get something beautiful in your glass that's a lot younger. People would think you have to have a 10 or 12 year. That is not the case at all. on that rye. And this guy has some rye at 55%. It's not that 95.5, like Maryland style rye or MGP rye. This is that southern style. And we are in the south right here. Yeah, it's good stuff.

I will say that the texture is good on this. The viscosity and the legs on the glass, like granddaddy long legs, right? Just sticks to the glass a little bit. So they're doing it right here. I think this is a pot still, right?

Well, it's a pot still with a goose neck on it. Yeah. And it's, I don't know what the angle on that goose neck is, but if you come down here inside this building and this is a post and beam construction building right here, their steel is in the center of the room. Most people would have it off to the side, right? That's the showcase.

That's the showcase. And this building is, and yeah, you said post and beam. This is how they built barns or large buildings a hundred years ago. Yeah.

Pretty cool. It is super beautiful. They got their mashing tanks over there, big old cypress tanks over there where they mash their stuff in. They got some stuff in there mashing right now. The bubbles are brewing.

In addition to that, there's a barrel laying on its side about 20 feet from us that we're preparing to fill. We haven't filled it yet. It's the Bourbon Road barrel. What kind of whiskey are we going to be putting in there, Mike? Come on, tell me.

We're going to, of course, put some weeded bourbon in there, but it'll be some spicy weeded bourbon.

It will be because that's what they do here.

That's what they do. We did have to come all the way to Tennessee to get some weeded bourbon pumped into a barrel for us.

But they did it.

The barrel head is black, our classic black and silver and white. Back in black. Yeah, that's us, man. Old school.

So we've had, like we said earlier in the show, we've had five episodes that we've recorded here during this Steel House sessions. of those five episodes, all the artists have stopped by to sign the barrel, the barrel head that's being filled during the session. And Mike, I would expect that you and I will probably come back here on a regular basis to taste our bourbon as it ages. That's our baby. That's our baby. We got right around my birthday too. I mean, I've seen some, you know, I've seen some barrels around here, you know, when you, when you taste a barrel that is, uh, Now these barrels are palleted here. They're not in ricks on their sides. They're actually palleted on end. So when you taste a barrel that's palleted, normally the way you do that is by drilling a hole in the barrel, collecting what spews out in the glass, and then plugging that hole. Yeah. And they've got a few barrels around here.

with some plugs in them. Yeah, there's one over there, like 20 or 30 holes in that thing. It looks like, yeah, it looks like somebody shot it with a 22.

But that just tells you that whatever's in that barrel is something special, right?

Well, here's what it tells me that Lee and his staff are tasting their whiskey. They're sampling it to make sure that a good product's coming out. They got our good friends. uh, Monica and Ashley over at the spirits group right up there in Kentucky, Ashley Barnes, they're coming down here, working with them and making sure that that spirit comes out beautiful. Um, They're doing it right here. Yeah. And they kind of keep it in the family. You know, we went over last night, had barbecue at April's house, drank some whiskey over there. Yeah, it was really good.

It was awesome. They pulled out all the stops for us and, you know, we can't thank them enough for the hospitality they've shown. I think this is true Tennessee hospitality. Yeah. Great friends, great people, a great company. I'm telling you folks, if you're in the Nashville area and we know a lot of you come to Nashville, right? This is a place to come. If you come to Nashville, take the time to visit Leapers Fork Distillery. Not only is their whiskey really darn good, but the people are fantastic.

Well, you can come out here and listen to music. You can drink some cocktails. You could drive down the road to get some lunch or eat at the food trucks here. Puckets is very famous in Leapers Fork. You could hear some people pick some music in the evening in there. They have music out here on the front porch. I remember the first time I drove up here. I was looking for grandpa with his two coon dogs sitting on the front porch and the banjos playing and stuff, but there was none of that. But the steel was running that day. Final notes on this, this rye whiskey right here, Jim.

Yeah. So this is, and so I'm a rye guy and uh, you know, when I get a chance to drink a good one, I got to spout it out. This is a great rye. This is a really good rye. They're doing it right here. Um, so this is something that, um, if you're a fan, if you're a fan of spicy rise, if you're a fan of a little bit of sweetness, but a little more spice, this one actually brings it from both directions. You get the spice from the rye. and you get the spice from the barrel. They both come in, they kinda compliment each other. There's a lot going on in this whiskey, and I think as this distillery matures, and this is at three years and 10 months, and they're sold out, right? I mean, they're doing the best they can to keep up. As this distillery matures, as it grows its production, and it's able to get those years out there a little bit further, I think we're gonna be looking at some candied sweetness that'll just blow you away.

Yeah, I think this right here has that medium to long finish for me. It's that marmalade still lingering on my tongue, really. That sweetness, those candied gum drops, the spicy ones, spice drops.

It's in everything they make. Everything they make here has got a little bit of that spice drop to it.

That sweetness and stuff. There's no bitter aftertaste with it. It's not drying. I just couldn't say enough about this and I'm not a ride guy. Yeah. This is not my jam.

I'm getting you there though. Well, I'm working on you.

These whiskeys are getting me there. And I love my rye bourbon and I love rye whiskey. I'll always be that Weedy King of Kentucky. Hell, I might be become the Weedy King of Tennessee now.

Well, you probably got a better chance of being the Weedy King of Tennessee than Kentucky, because in Kentucky, you got to deal with... Well, you got to deal with the Wellers, you got to deal with Sazerac, you got to deal with Maker's Mark. There's some competition in Kentucky.

Yeah. I don't, I don't know. I'm still, you know, they're drinking their own whiskeys probably, but I'm drinking it all.

Yeah. You know, you make a point there, Mike. I mean, you're kind of, you're kind of playing, you're playing the whole field. So they're, they're kind of one sided. You're kind of playing the whole field. People could trust what you say when it comes to weeded whiskey.

Well, when it comes to that, yeah, and they got some great whiskey here. Read a bourbon. This right here, I buy it all day long. Matter of fact, I think it'll make a beautiful cocktail. Yeah. And I say on our next review, we'll probably make a cocktail. I think we should. We got something special. All right. Well, Jim, where can people find us on social media?

or you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, run all the social medias. I mean, you're not gonna find us on Discord. We just don't have enough time in our day to do them all, but we do what we can. We try to reach out to as many people as possible. We do have a private Facebook group called the bourbon roadies. And on that group, we've got about 2300 good core followers that love what we do that love whiskey, that love to drink it, talk about it, share it, share pictures of it and share life experiences. So, you know, in order to be a member of that group, you gotta, you gotta be 21 because we don't want any underage drinking. We don't support that. You gotta love bourbon because the 95% of what we do is bourbon. The other 5% could be who knows what, but 95% of it's bourbon. And we need you to play nice because we want to accept any rudeness in our group. We got three moderators that will make you disappear really quick. If you come down on somebody for what they're drinking.

Yeah. Good for it. Adam, Jason, and Drew. They, they'd make sure they take care of this. Yeah, they do.

So it's always a good time in there. They're good people, good friends. They're practically family. And we share life events, we share whiskey, and that's what we call the angle share, right, Mike? If you've got a bottle, there's nothing like that feeling when you crack a bottle open to make a pour for a friend. Let him try something that he can't get his hands on. Always fun. I get more, I tell you what, I get more pleasure out of that than I do drinking it myself.

Yeah, I mean, we gave away some whiskey that day to friends. Uh, some of our guests we gave whiskey away to. Um, and I was glad to give those bottles away from the bourbon road to them. Um, if you want to find out when we're having episodes come up, you want to make sure you scroll on up, hit that subscribe button, hit that check mark, hit that. plus button, whatever you got to do to listen to us. So your app tells you, hey, these two jokers have a show coming on. Then we need you to scroll on down, hit that five star review. That's five star review will help us out. Get get us in the door of distilleries, get bottles in our hands to review like this Leapers Fort distillery, straight rye whiskey, ninety five proof. It gets that in our hands. If you don't, you know what's going to happen. The big bad booty daddy of bourbon is going to come to your house carrying a barrel of Leapers Fort whiskey with him, but I'll carry that. We'll drink it. We'll have smiles. We'll tell some lies. Um, we'll have a great time. So, uh, Make sure you leave us that five-star review. Come pay this distillery a visit. Give them some love. They depend on tourism. You have a great tour, so do that for us.

Absolutely. We do two shows a week. We do a short episode every Monday, like today's episode, where we focus on a single bottle, a single expression, like the Liebers Fork straight rye whiskey. We try to give a little bit of love to a craft distillery doing good things, trying to step out in the light and let everybody know what's going on. We'll taste it. We'll tell you what we think about it. We'll let you know whether or not it's worth putting on your bar, whether or not it's worth jumping in and taking a tour at their distillery. And in this case, I think Mike, without a doubt, I got thumbs up all the way around. Yeah.

I mean, uh, there's nothing bad to say about it. Their bottles, uh, their bottle is going to change. Uh, you'll notice the label is going to kind of the paperwork label go away cause there is a shortage on bottles and that kind of leads into other things. Uh, they'll have a printed on label. Um, but it probably will be better. I think. Yeah, I think it's going to be all good.

You know, all things come to a good end, at least in this case, You know, we also do a long episode every Wednesday where we do a deep dive where we kind of talk about a couple of expressions, but the main focus for Wednesdays is on a single subject. Uh, in the case of this, uh, still house sessions, you know, we've had a couple of artists on where we've talked about them. We kind of focus on what they got going on. We try to bring you a really cool story, a cool story that'll take you to work and get you home. 30 minutes to work, 30 minutes home. We hope you listen to both episodes every week. Mike and I really work hard to give our listeners access to content that's fun and exciting and engaging. You know, we always want to hear what you have to say. And Mike, how do we hear from our listeners? How do they get a hold of us?

Well, you can always reach us on our email. It's Jim at the Bourbon Road and I'm Mike at the Bourbon Road. But the best way to reach out to us is on our Instagram handles. I'm Jay Shannon, sixty three.

I'm one big chief and we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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