213. Luca Mariano Single Barrel 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. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is The Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, we've got a brand new distillery we've never had on before. Kind of exciting. We know it's from Kentucky.

Yeah, and it is a craft one. It is. Now, to be fair with everybody, this is contract distilled. It's contract distilled at Wilderness Trail Distillery for Luca Mariano. Right.

So this is actually made for them on their mash bill under contract. And they're actually building a distillery here in Kentucky though, right?

Yeah, on a historic site too. The Crow House is the oldest known stone structure in the state of Kentucky in Danville. Pretty neat.

I think that's really neat. Got a little bit of history behind it. And so does the family that's starting this brand. And they started back in 2010. But before we get into all that detail, What do you say we introduce the bottle? Yeah. And talk a little bit about the whiskey and maybe give it a taste.

So this is their single barrel. It's 103 proof. It says not age stated, but we do know that this is over six years old. It says six plus on it. And we don't know their mass bill. And we don't want to assume that it's wilderness trails because they go in there and say, hey, we want this mash bill. This is exactly how we want to do it. Right. Right. That's how contract is still. Well, this is our recipe. This is how we want it cooked. So I would assume, though, that this is a sweet mash, because that's what they do there at wilderness trail. and I think that it's a high rye. More than likely. More than likely.

But it's a beautiful bottle, great presentation. So they've got a number of expressions that they produce. This is their single barrel bourbon, so it's a little bit It's in a little bit elevated bottle, a little bit nicer design.

Yeah, $69.95 for this. Pretty fair price for something like this. This is a really, really nice bottle to have on your shelf. It's got a family seal on the back. I like the name. The name is for his son. That's what they named it after. Now, his name plus his father's name.

Right. Yeah, so Mariano was the grandfather. Yep. who envisioned a life for his family in the United States, starting a business. And he didn't get to realize that, but his son is realizing that through this brand. And, you know, happily named the bottle after his son. Kind of a neat story.

Yeah. So we were at Urban on the Banks, and who walked down and talked to us?

Jennifer Brandt.

and what she do for that company.

You know, I don't know her exact title, but let's just call her brand ambassador. Yeah. She represented the brand that weekend and we actually talked to her about having this on the show and we were actually going to try and record there. That was not going to happen.

Well there was a band across from us and he said he would turn the music down but then the wave of people came and there was it wasn't gonna happen.

There was no way we could have broken away for 10 minutes to record or 15 minutes to record an episode so we stuffed it in our saddlebag and packed it on back to Shelby County and now we're getting sitting down and do a review of it.

Yeah. This, that was the second time that we had ran into them. I actually ran them down at the Kentucky bourbon festival and they, they were like, come over the tent and we'll get you a bottle. And every time I'd go over there, um, It was like nobody was there that they just had some hired people. I think the servant and stuff and they were like, who are you? And I said, Oh, I'll just wait and I'll come back. And it just never worked out, but it worked out this time. We got a bottle on our hand. We got it in our glasses. Um, we know the story. We know the history, right? We know what we got in our glass here. Well, I say, let's know this thing. Let's do it. Cheers. Cheers. Wow. That's a, Fruity. Get some nectarines on that. Maybe some peach. Yeah.

Fruity pebbles, huh?

Fruity pebbles. Yeah. Yeah. I could get that.

It's got a bit, it's got a bit of spice to it as well. You know, for 103, it doesn't really attack the nose though, does it?

A little bit of cinnamon spice, maybe, you know, if you, maybe you were making a peach cobbler, I don't even know if you could make a nectarine cobbler, can you? You probably, well, I don't know.

I don't think citrus works very well for that, does it? Need a real sugary fruit, right? With some pulp to it.

Nice and caramely there. Maybe a little bit of honey in there.

Yeah, I'd say honey's true. Definitely fruity. I'm picking up a great oak aroma off of it. It's got some nice, some nice barrel spice. I want to try it. Let's taste it. Cheers. Cheers. Yeah, that's very tasty. The fruit doesn't come across on the palate that much though. Really on the nose, more spice on the palate.

A little bit more spice. I do get that sweetness, but not a fruit sweetness. I get more of that honey sweetness to it.

It definitely turns into kind of like a honey syrup, but a spicy honey syrup.

That second taste, even more sweetness. almost like a spearmint gum, maybe minty gum with a little bit of bite to it.

Yeah. And this one's really sitting heavily on the back of the palette. I mean, it's got a lot of texture to it. It's, um, it's very creamy. Um, the spice kind of works its way back gives you a night in the hugs building. It is definitely building.

Now for people that know about sweet mash and sour mash, a sweet mash is not supposed to have that much. Um, but I've drank plenty of Wilderness Trail, both their, their high rye and their wheat. And both of them will give you a hug. Especially their high rye.

But it's not an overwhelming. It's not overwhelming.

It's not punching a mouth or anything. Bowel constrictor or anything like that.

Yeah, it's not overly sweet. It kind of finishes a little bit drier. Spice is sticking with it. The oak sort of hangs around. It's nice. It's got a little bit of a nutty finish on it. I would say... medium dryness on the back.

Yeah. I think that finish right there too, is that medium to almost long is getting in there and stuff. You know, I think a couple more proof on this that will get you into that long finish, but to that 103, you're right there just teeter tottered back and forth, right? Mm hmm.

Yeah. And as you keep sipping on it, you know, it starts to introduce that pop rock a little bit on the front of the palette. As it goes in, you get that little wash of sweetness upfront, that honey sweetness, a little bit of pop rock and then goes to the back and sits there and sizzles.

Now I haven't said this, but I'm getting a little root beer candy on this one. You know, those root beer candies that look like a little barrels.

Well folks, just, just the fact that we're sitting here, continuing to call out notes on this tells you that it's got some layers to it. It definitely has a, it's an experience to, to explore. You're not just going to get one note on this bourbon.

Yeah. Super beautiful, right? Um, I'm thoroughly impressed with it. Uh, well worth the money to me at this price. That's right there with wilderness trails, six year anyways in price.

Right. I think there are both in the sixties, right? Yeah.

So that makes sense to me. I got to give them, they got the nicer bottle here though.

It is a beautiful bottle.

I like it. It's kind of cut on the bottom and stuff. You know, I can't say enough good things about this bottle. I'm glad we got to taste this.

Yeah, me too. I'd like to try their other expressions, particularly their entry level bourbon. They have a bourbon for $45. It's called the Luca Mariano Old Americana Bourbon. It's an 83 proof bottle. It's actually a small batch bourbon. pretty much available and you know, I'm getting the prices off a total wine. So it might be different in your area, but I'm looking forward to trying that one. We haven't had it yet.

Now, if you haven't met, uh, Francisco, the founder owner, um, you know, if you go to whiskey festival, he's that guy that's out there pushing this stuff. Last photo I saw of him, he was standing on the, uh, foundation that was just a port of their new distillery in their Rick houses over there, Danville. I, it's just neat to see something come from the ground up. And something like this that they decided to contract to steal was somebody that really be their competing distillery there in Danville, but it's always neat to watch distilleries work together.

Yeah. I kind of like what's happening in Danville, right? Danville's kind of, uh, and hats off to wilderness trail for getting the ball rolling over there. But yeah, some great things happening in Danville. It's a nice place to visit. There's some great restaurants there. It's downtown.

Yeah. I mean, you can't beat it. Downtown Danville right there. Um, copper and Oak right there. Great place to eat. Just a little great town to visit in the middle of Kentucky is really right down there. I think it's dead center, right? Yeah. Um, this, this, uh, distillery they're building, You know, we said it's at the old William Crow house there. Now that's, it was pretty much fallen down and they're saving history by they put a roof on it. They're going to restore it. And I think that's where their tasting room is going to be. And the guy that lived there was guiding guy Jones. Uh, he was cooking a little moonshine, so there had been whiskey cooked there before.

That's not the first time.

No, no. To me, that's pretty neat. And we do know that this corn, this rye, uh, is coming from here in Kentucky.

Cause this is farm to glass, right? Pretty cool stuff. All right, Mike, well, my recommendation is, listeners, is to not to pass this one up. If you see it on a shelf, it's a quality pour. It is $69 a bottle, so there are some other things out there for less money. But my gauge on it is it's worth the money. It's a good solid bourbon, great at six plus years old. It'll hang with the big boys, I think.

nice looking bottle, you could gift this to somebody easily.

This would make a nice gift, a beautiful gift for somebody. If you've got a friend or a family member who's looking for a bourbon bottle for Christmas, they're not going to be unhappy at all if you get them this one.

I would say they better have a sweeter, be on the sweeter side on this one. Cause it is on the sweeter side of bourbons for me, especially for a ride.

But I like that, you know me. It's fruity. It reminded me a little bit of some other things I've had from wilderness trail. It does. It does remind me a little bit of it, but I think it's its own animal. Uh, I don't think that they're sharing a mash bill here. That's my, that's my guess on it.

Yeah. Well, Jim, man, we got a new sponsor on board for our craft distilleries, right? We do. We got Chris Cruz from Cruz customs flags. The ink is dry. Um, I can't say enough about that guy. We've had him on the show as a guest, right?

So a veteran, an entrepreneur, a business owner, crews, classroom plagues. I mean, they're making excellent products out of bourbon barrels. So they're repurposing bourbon barrels and making things that are just awesome. I love it.

I mean, it's a veteran also that's helping veterans. He employs combat veterans at his shop. he's given back that way. And he's always given back to the community. The guy's always writing giant checks on giving back to Norton healthcare, to the nurses there, to different charities, to other veterans, USA cares. You can't say enough good stuff about this guy. And I mean, you're always cautious about who we kind of do business with ourselves. And so Chris, welcome to the bourbon road family.

Absolutely. I proudly display one of your flags on my bar. I love it.

So make sure you go to Cruz Customs Flags, check out their stuff, order some of their gear. You can get all kinds of stuff on there. He's got a cool little cup that's charred inside that you can pour whiskey inside. That's pretty cool. That is pretty cool.

All right. Well, Mike, where can people find us?

Well, you could find us on tick tock, Instagram, Facebook, heck. I don't know where else. Twitter, YouTube, all kinds of places you can find us. You find us out on the road.

Sometimes you can find us at bourbon festivals.

There's bourbon festivals. Probably the best place is Instagram and Facebook. We also have a bourbon Facebook group called the Bourbon Roadies. Jim, what do you got to do to be part of that?

Well, it is a private group, so you've got to become a member. And to become a member, just search for the Bourbon Roadies. It'll come up. R-O-A-D-I-E-S. Search for the Bourbon Roadies. We'll come up. Ask to join. When you're asked to join, you'll get three questions. They're pretty simple. I want to make sure you're 21. We want to make sure that you like bourbon. And we want you to know that once you're in our bourbon group, you got to play nice because we will not put up with any rudeness. If you are unfair or unkind to other members, you'll get booted pretty quick.

Yeah, it's a place to celebrate. Uh, whiskey is what we like to say life. Um, you're buying a bottle for somebody. You got a bottle gifted to you celebrating a retirement, a birth, um, celebrating somebody's life when they passed away. We'll raise the glass to them. We'll say, uh, cheers to them. We'll go on down to bourbon road.

Absolutely. Well, we do two shows a week, Mike. We do a short episode every Monday where we talk about a craft product, a craft distillery, a new bottle like Luca Mariano single barrel. We'll explore it. We'll taste it. We'll tell you what we think about it, let you know whether or not you ought to pick it up if you're out at the store. Every Wednesday we do a long episodes. We dive in a little bit deeper. We give you about an hour long show where we do two 30 minute segments. usually an interview with somebody, but sometimes it's just exploration on a topic, right? We talk about something that's on our minds at the moment, but it's always related to bourbon. It's always good and it's always fun. So we hope you catch both shows every week.

So to catch those shows, you want to make sure you go to the top of our page right there. Go to the top of your app, whatever you're listening to us on. Hit that plus that check that subscribe button. Hit it. It'll remind you to make sure that you're following us. So the next thing you want to do is scroll on down, hit that five star review because you know what's going to happen, right? I'm going to bring some of this Danville whiskey with me. I'm going to release my big bad friend, the big bad booty daddy of bourbon. We're going to drink some bourbon all night. Jim will just sit there on the couch and laugh at you as you try to keep up with me. By the end of the night, we're going to get that five star review though. That five star review is important to us because it gets us into distilleries. It gets us a great guest on our show and make sure that you're getting good content out of us.

And we always want to know what you think. We do love the reviews, but we also like your ideas. If you've got an idea for a show or you have an idea for a guest, let us know about it. If there's something that you would like to see, maybe your hometown has got a small distillery that nobody knows about and you've tried their stuff and you think, well, it's pretty amazing. Let's let the world know about it. Let us know about it. We'll figure it out for you. We'll taste it. We'll bring it on the show. We'll introduce it to all our listeners. There's multiple ways to reach us. You can go on our website, TheBurbanRoad.com, and you can fill out the Contact Us page, and that'll get to us. You can send us an email. Mike and I are pretty accessible. He's mike at TheBurbanRoad.com. I'm Jim at TheBurbanRoad.com. But like we always say, the best way is probably just to hit up our DM on Instagram. I'm jshannon63. I'm Big Burba Chief. And we'll see you down.

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