229. Smoke Wagon Small Batch 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.

This is the Bourbon Road and today Mike we're doing another Craft Distillery Monday. Our first of 2022 That's weird to say. 2022 is here and I'm trying to imagine it without COVID. I like to say, yeah, but it's with us, Jim. You know, I just, I need to get past this. I really need to get by it. Bad dream. It's a bad dream. It's like, uh, you remember the movie Groundhog Day?

Yeah.

You know, uh, every morning he woke up and it was the same day over and over again. It just kept repeating over and over. He tried to make it better. But no matter what he did, it kept getting screwed up before the end of the day. And he'd wake up and try again. Eventually, by the end of the show, he got it. But I'm kind of feeling like Groundhog Day with this covid stuff.

Maybe it will be a 20 better 2022. It'll be a better year for us if people won't have to worry about covid so much.

Yeah, it's put a lot of stress on the nation and bourbon has done its best to relieve that stress. But, you know, there's only so much bourbon can do.

Well, it's doing a pretty damn good job for me. I haven't got COVID yet, so neither have you.

Yeah, I managed to avoid it so far. Now, I did get a little bit of a cough in the last couple of weeks, but I've done everything I can do to stay away from the mess, but if it eventually gets to me, I guess it will.

Well, let's let's get to this whiskey. Let's tell everybody this this bourbon has eluded us. It has for some reason we just haven't drank it yet on the show. We've got sample bottles of it. Yeah. And I think we did drink some of this with Randy one time. We drank some samples of this because we had a whole bunch of sample bottles. But we're going to give this a review and we're talking about smoke wagon. Um, some really beautiful bottles.

Yeah. About time it made it to the show. Yeah.

Uh, no doubt. Now this is the, uh, smoke wagons, small batch, straight bourbon, bourbon whiskey. Uh, everybody knows this is MGP. Uh, there's no doubt on it. Um, Yeah, I just wanted to make sure it said distilled in Indiana, which it says that. So we do know that it is MGP juice, right? Which is a good thing.

Yeah, it's a good thing. Sometimes it's looked at as a negative thing. It's sort of an indication that a whiskey company is not making their own liquid. But I think we're beyond that folks. I think we've gotten past that, right? I mean, we're to the point now where there are, a large number of distilleries that are contracting and sourcing liquids for their bottles. Now, some of them are preparing to build out their own distilleries to make their own juice, and some of them will never build out their own distilleries and make their own juice. They're just going to blend and bottle, which is fine.

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. At the end of the day, it's all about when you pour it in your glass, what you think about it. That's what does matter. You could have the most beautiful bottle and this is a stunning bottle.

It does. And you and I were talking earlier how this reminded me a little bit of the Bibb and Tucker bottle, not shape wise, but that dark and the dark with the filigree with a raised glass.

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not sure if this is sage sage brush on here. I'm not positive somebody wants to tell us exactly what that is. Now, it has their challenge corner, their seal with two cross revolvers on it. I really, really like this bottle.

I mean, the bottle itself tells a story, right? Yeah.

Yeah. When you think of high desert whiskey, you think of the old west smoke wagon. This is what I think of. Now, the match bill on this is 60% corn, 36%. rye and 4% malted barley coming in at 100 proof. I picked this bottle up for $54 at Total Wine. MSRP on it I think is around $50 right now. I was happy to get this and I told you how I got this bottle right. I walked in there and Chad from the Bourbon Live, he writes their reviews of what he works for Total Wine. He was over in Louisville working. So I went in there and Chad was working. He recognized me. And so I went and I was in there, bought a bottle of wine for your wife, actually, which is a rare bottle to find. Everybody was like, where did I get that bottle? I was like, it's the last bottle of this. But I get over in a bourbon aisle and I picked up a bottle of this and somebody was like, is it good? And I was like, well, if I'm picking it up, it's probably worth picking up. Said, hey, I got a bird podcast. We start talking. Next thing you know, I'm in there giving recommendations to everybody in there and they're selling whiskey by the case. And you're not getting any commissions for that? No. And I was really in a hurry because I was trying to buy my wife a gift. Um, and I stopped at a store near there and they said, well, a store like 15, 20 miles away. Has it what you want? You're gonna have to get over there for the run out. And I was, I'm a total wine, buying your wife a bottle of wine. Oh, and I was running out of time. I was like, I am. really running out of time. I'm at a time limit right now because I had to be back home to actually go hunting that night. Um, and it just didn't happen. I spent too much time in total wine. Um, but we ended up with a bottle of this smoke wagon, um, small batch.

I'm looking forward to it, Mike. Let's, let's not talk too much. Let's get into the whiskey a little bit. What do you say? Cheers. Cheers. Not a lot of sweetness on that.

There's a little bit, I think for me, um, a little bit of spice.

Yeah, definitely a little bit of spice. This is more of a savory whiskey for me.

Um, that, that would be, to me, that spice would be like a light pepper, um, maybe white, a white pepper.

No, you know, I'd say it's like a dark jam. Um, I mentioned, uh, before, like, uh, like a rum cake kind of, it's kind of like a rum cake a little bit, uh, savory, but at the same time, it's kind of like a rum cake with some, uh, darker fruits. Like, uh, you know, I'm not going to say darker dark fruits. It's not the right thing. Cause dark, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to say apple butter, kind of apple butter.

I'm getting a little bit of vanilla bean on this. Most people say vanilla, but if you ever got a vanilla bean and you took a knife and scraped it and smelt that, it's so pure. It's just got this super nice aroma to it.

It's got a great nose to it. It's not, um, overpowering with ethanol. What did you say the proof was? 100 proof?

100 proof. Yeah. I think it's right for this. Exactly. It's got that little bit of tinge I think you'd get, but not overpowering. It's got that spice to it. Like I said, that white pepper spice.

I'm not ever going to say stewed fruit again to you because every time I say stewed fruit, you come out, you come after me.

So stewed tomatoes. Every time I go into tomato, I say stewed fruit because tomato is a fruit, right? Yeah. Then you say stewed prunes and I'm like, who's,

Yeah, but this one's more apple butter, I think. I think this one, you know, it's not light. I don't think this is light. I don't think it's, I think it's more dark, but not super sweet for me, a little more savory. But yeah, I'm trying to, I've got this picture in my mind of what a smoke wagon ought to be. But, uh, yeah, it's not there. It's just, uh, but it's got a lot more body to it that I expected for a hundred proof.

Well, I say cheers. Let's taste this thing, Jim. Cheers. Yeah.

I mean, it's spot on for the nose. It didn't like a surprise me with something different than I smelled.

I like that. Yeah. It's got a little bit of sweetness to it. Um, almost like it's, it's almost to me, it's so sweet. It's like a date.

Okay. So I'll go with that. I'll say it's one of those sweetnesses that's kind of the sweetness is masked by the darkness of the fruit, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Let's ask dude that stewed fruit. I'm talking about a dry date. Uh, you know, you get those dried dates or even so much as a Turkey fig, a Turkey fig. Okay. All right.

Yeah. So this one for me is a little bit more. This is not a super sweet whiskey, but it's got that sweetness that is sort of, it's sort of, uh, buried in the fruitiness of it. I like it a lot. It's a, it's, it's kind of that rum cake where the, where the, the fruits are kind of in the rum cake, but you don't really get the fruit. You get the, the rum and the darkness of the rum cake to get that spice cooking spices in it.

Right. Yeah. Um, some cinnamon. Um, and this thing is nice and viscous for a hunter proof. Yeah. really showing out. I'm quite shocked by this.

Yeah, I think it's pretty good. This kind of reminds me of a bourbon version of Midwinter Nights Dram, kind of, in a way.

Very, very nice. going to be fair. We drank some really nice bourbons before this show started. Uh, so we're both feeling really good, not a whole lot of bourbons, but we drank a really, really good bourbon. Um, but this, this is shocking.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I'm going to say this the next time I went to total wine, I'll be looking for this bottle on the shelf. Um, this is just their standard offering, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean for 50 bucks. Yeah. How can you beat this? Pretty beautiful bottle I'm running out of. So on my bar, I've got a two tier shelf. I've got three shelves on my bar and each one is two tiers. So there's a back row and a front rear row on each shelf. The back row takes a shorter bottle and the front row takes the full height bottle like a, Like this right here. I like this one right here. It'll be tack or whatever I'm running out of front row space is my problem. So I had to find something to go under the bar

Jim, I'm just sitting here in awe on this thing. This thing is so complex for a hundred proof bourbon. You keep going back to that rum cake. You know, I'm thinking like a really, really, really good oatmeal raisin cookie. Yeah. That's got lots of raisins in it. Maybe even a ginger snap cookie. with that, you know how ginger snaps will have that little bit of spice to it.

Yeah, I like the, I'm getting a little bit of that burnt aspect of a ginger snap cookie, you know, where you maybe leave in the oven just two minutes too long. That's a perfect frat there for me.

I like that.

Yeah. Is that how you like cookies? Yeah, I kind of do.

I don't like gooey cookies that are just crumbly. Yeah. I want that sucker crisps and when I drink it with my milk, I can, it'll just dissolve in my mouth.

Well, I hope these notes were given folks, bring home with them, right? I mean, cause these are not bourbon notes, right? These are grown man notes.

These are truly us in what we like to eat and, you know, just have a good time with. It's like painting a picture with your word. We're open, we're painting that picture for you. Even this has some creaminess to it is so viscous. I'm just in shock. And I can see if you haven't checked out Smoke Wagon on Instagram or on Facebook, Aaron is, he's quite the character.

Well, I definitely, I think we definitely need to take smoke wagon to the next level on the bourbon road, right? I think we need to have them on. We need to explore a little bit further. Uh, we'll schedule that in, in 2022. Some people say this was a drying whiskey. I had to get nothing. It's a little drying for me. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, I think it is. You know, dry is the opposite of sweet. And I've been saying all along, this is not a real sweet whiskey for me. There's some sweetness there, but it's kind of subdued by the fact that it's like laying below that darker fruit.

Man, this is such a good, I'm so happy I bought this. I was kind of scared about this bottle.

I was like, hmm.

You know, I hope this is not going to be a letdown for me, but for 50 bucks, this is a good buy. Yeah. Um, I'd say the finish on this is a medium to long lingering to that long because it is just so viscous and stuff.

Yeah, I find myself having to bring my glass back to my mouth over and over again. So that tells me that it's not hanging around long enough to let me just sit there with it. So medium to medium to long. Yeah, you're right on that. I think you hit it on the nose. The hug on this ain't overpowering me. Not at all.

Super beautiful hug on it though. Oh, that rice spice is just playing right in. Yeah, man, this is a buy all day long. I'm with you. If I can go back and find another bottle, I'll get it.

What do you know about Smoke Wagon? It's from Las Vegas and it's MGP. Okay, so this is a Las Vegas distillery that is sourcing the whiskey from MGP. Their brand is Smoke Wagon. So talk a little bit about the brand.

Nevada H&C Distilling Company is a real name. Smoke Wagon. Aaron is one of the founder's owners. Jonathan is the other founder. Aaron always wears that cowboy hat. Yeah. Yeah.

He's seen many times. He's a character.

Yeah. Doing great giveaways all the time and stuff. Super promoter of their whiskey. Do they need podcasts? Do they need other stuff? They really don't. They've got it going on. Yeah. They just hit Kentucky. Um, all their bottles are beautiful. Their bottles are coveted out there. Um, the matter of fact, when I bought this bottle, there were, 11 bottles left on the shelf. And they also like right then. Well, cause you picked it up. Yeah. And that's true. Cause I was picking up other things or they said, what else would you pick up? And I, I started naming off bourbons that I saw right there that I love. And I said, Hey, that horse soldier right there. I said, if there's any iron root in the store at all, pick it up. Um, obviously makers mark fail to, um, which we named our bourbon of the year. I said, people grab that right now. And they sold more of that. I think they sold, uh, like 10 cases right then and there. Wow.

Yeah. I mean, they, they should pay commissions. I'm just going to say that every time you go to total wine, they should be like, uh, throwing out the red carpet.

Even if me or you walk into a bourbon store like James at Paradise Spirits and Wine and stuff, you've seen it firsthand whenever I start talking to somebody about bourbon.

It's over with. They just need to get a cart and follow you around. Yeah.

I love talking about bourbon. I love talking about whiskey. And I could talk about this one right here all day long. What about for you? What's your overall thought on it?

Yeah, it's a buy for me. So I'm going to definitely look forward on the shelf. I was just at Total Wine, by the way. So we exchanged Christmas gifts this year. Mike, you outdid yourself. You got me a 19, what, 84? I think it's a 1980, uh, 80, 1980 wild turkey, eight year, one-on-one decanter.

Yeah.

And man, it's beautiful. It's absolutely gorgeous. It's the centerpiece on my bar now. And to beat that it's full of liquid.

It's missing a little bit. And I, I would assume it's safe to drink. Um, it would probably be some court down in there. So we might have to run it through a, coffee filter or something. We're going to decant it and we're going to drink it together. That's for sure. But the decanter itself will always have a place in my bar. It's beautiful. I just wanted you to have something like that. I know you didn't have a decanter like that. I knew you didn't have anything that old right now. So to me, it just kind of fell in my lap. I was in a liquor store in Paradise Beards and Wine and I walked in there and a guy was like, Hey, you're that bourbon guy. And I was like, yeah, that's me, man. And, I want to get in and out of the store quickly. Sometimes it's that regular guy shopping, right? I know what I'm going in there for. I know what I'm getting. I'm going to walk in there, get it, get out. Um, but when I go to a liquor store, that doesn't always happen. If somebody recognizes me, it definitely doesn't happen. And he had found 65 decanters in a, in a garage sale for $200. Wow. Um, so I had, with my contacts, with our contacts, I reached out to some people and said, Hey, this guy needs to get rid of these. Uh, I don't want him to get ripped off. And, um, I said, the only deal is, is I would like to buy that from you. We set a price and, um, I felt.

Yeah, you didn't contact Dusty Dan, did you? I did. He's kind of know it all when it comes to that, isn't he?

I contacted him and I contacted Adam Boothby because Adam is a great person for secondary market. And I wanted to kind of know, pick some people's brains. And I had a good idea of what I should pay for it, but I really didn't know on an open bottle or almost full. And, uh, to me, it was more about the Canada and you're such a nut about one on one and a wild Turkey. I was like this, and it's super beautiful to Canada. Um, but no, I don't think I out did you. You, you got me 18 year old Singleton, uh, Scotch whiskey. Uh, and some people were probably jaw just dropped, right? Um, so. But Singleton is kind of part of us. It's a nautical thing. And if you don't know who Singleton is, go out there and check him out. He was a man amongst men, right? Absolutely.

You know, the funny thing is you talk about how you go into the Bourbon Isle and everybody recognizes you and they want you to help them pick out whiskeys. In this case, I was trying to pick out a Scotch for you. And why did I choose a Scotch for Mike? Well, there's a couple of reasons, right? One is we've had four or five single malts on the show this year and in every case you've said, wow, that's delicious. I love that. So I'm thinking Mike's really liking these single malt whiskeys. The other reason was, is you don't need another bottle of bourbon, right? I mean, you, you don't need it. You want it, but you don't necessarily need it. So I thought if I want to get him a Christmas present, I'm going to get him something that's, uh, something he's not going to go out and buy for himself.

Yeah, I probably wouldn't go out and buy for myself. And I drink scotch as a really, really young man. My ex-wife's grandfather lived down in North Carolina. He loved to play golf and we traveled down to New Bern, North Carolina and see them. And I remember pulling up there the first time and they knew we were coming, but He was in his eighties and he would like to sit out in his garage and drink scotch. smoke a cigar and he'd live to play golf. Um, so he's out there waiting for me and he was like, you drink scotch young man. And I was, Oh, sir, I don't. And he's like, well, you're going to drink scotch at this house. And he's kind of the guy that introduced me to scotch and, um, kind of got to say thank you to him. He taught me a lot about whiskey at a young age that I really wasn't prepared for at that time.

So I was that guy in the scotch aisle. that really didn't know a lot about what I was looking at. I mean, I, I, I know a little bit about scotches, but not enough to really choose the perfect bottle for my cohost. So all these scotch guys are around me, you know what I'm saying? I'm like, help me out here guys. Help me pick a bottle for my cohost and then we'll go over to the bourbon aisle and I'll help you out over there. And it worked out pretty good. So we ended up with this one because you know, if you're picking a scotch, for a bourbon drinker, you gotta be careful, right? You better be real careful. Yeah, you gotta be careful.

You picked the right one. I mean, you drink some Singleton. We got just little samples of it. Yeah. This year we drank some other, uh, Scotch this year that we only got little samples of 18 year olds. And, um, so it's nice to have a full bottle and, um, I'm, I'm very thankful.

Well, back to the smoke wagon. I have to say, Mike, that I'm so glad we had it on the show today. It's definitely a surprise. I'm going to be looking forward on the shelf when I go back to total wine again, uh, or when I go back to liquor barn, Those are the two places here in our hometown. Yep. The big places. I like it. I like it a lot.

Well, Jim, where can people find us on social media?

Well, you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube. You can find us on TikTok. We actually do have some videos now. You will not, you will not ever find us on Discord and you won't find us on Twitch. We just don't have enough time in our day to do all of that. At least now we don't. Let's wait and see in the future. You will obviously want to check out our private Facebook group called The Bourbon Roadies. We got a lot of friends in that group, a lot of great people, um, come in, check us out, search the bourbon roadies on facebook.com. And when, when that group comes up, asked to join, you'll get asked a couple of questions. We want to make sure you're 21 that you like bourbon and that once you get in the group, you're, you're going to play nice because we do not accept any rudeness from our members. Right.

That's a correct. I mean, it's all about sharing your whiskey. It's all about camaraderie, lifting others up, celebration of life. And we had that this past year. We had a couple of roadies that passed away and we celebrated their life in there. We had a couple of roadies that had babies and we celebrated that. So that's what it's about is lifting your fellow bourbon drinker up. We love it. If you want to keep listening to us, you want to know about our show, you want to know when we come out with episode, go hit that subscribe button, that check sign, that check mark at the top of your screen there. That'll make sure that you are subscribed to our podcast and you're getting told, Hey, these two guys just came out with a new episode. After that, go ahead and scroll on down, hit that five star review because you know what happens if you don't. We're going to get all serious. I'm going to grab my big friend, the big bad booty daddy of bourbon. We're going to bring this smoke wagon over there. Your head will be smoking by the end of the night. You're going to give us that five star review. But seriously, really, those five star reviews, those comments in there, they help us open doors. They help us give you great content. They get us great guests on. And that's what we love to do.

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You can do it