231. Mr. and Mrs. Kentucky Straight 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 are reviewing another craft distillery whiskey. It's our Crafty Story Monday episode. Snow is coming down like crazy out there.

Yeah, I kind of went back to being a kid today, Jim. Me and Vivian, we got a sled. You know, over here at Jeff to Ben farm, we got those big hills. So like a giant kid, I got on that sled and went down that hill a couple of times. Then we have our side by side.

So we drug each other around on that sled behind the side by side.

Kind of, kind of fun. Woodrow was having a great time in the snow. Um, it was nice to see us a little bit of snow.

I was kind of, I was kind of thinking about you told me you're going to do a little bit of fun in the snow today. And, and I was a little worried, you know, out there, cause that's quite a hill behind your house. And I was thinking, you know, you go down that hill and you got the trees and then you got the creek. And I'm thinking with it, with it being like 12 degrees outside right now, I would just pray to hit a tree because I would not want to end up in that Creek.

Well, I'm a big man. And once I got moving, it didn't seem like I was going to stop. So what I did was I put my feet off the sled and came to a abrupt stop, which was good. It was good. It was fun to get out there, kind of act like a kid, laugh and giggle a little bit and, uh, you know, have some fun. Um, but. I'm glad we're getting to drink some bourbon and I kind of warm me up, right?

Oh yeah. I didn't get out in the cold too much. I went out and did a few tasks around the house, but Melody and I kind of stayed in tonight a little bit and just, uh, oh, we just stayed out of the cold because it's, it's, it might be 12 degrees now, but it's supposed to be six by morning. So yeah, that's, that's cold, cold right there. That's cold.

Well, today, Jim, we got a Louisville legends bourbon on our show, right?

Yeah. So I'm kind of excited about this. This is kind of a local thing, right? This is a university of Louisville star kind of started this, right?

Yeah, Russ Smith, he was a player at the University of Louisville from 2010 to 2014, won the 2013 national basketball champion, which is a big thing, right? 64 teams go in, one team comes out, his team ones. He is not a big guy. He's only six foot tall. I mean, for some people that's a big guy, but he's six foot tall. He's still playing basketball today. Um, kind of a B leaguer right now, but he he's played in the NBA. He was an NBA player for a while. Um, but now he's got this bourbon.

Yeah. He was a point guard. So point guards aren't always really tall, right? Six foot. Kind of right in the middle somewhere, I guess. Well, maybe not in the middle at the low end.

Maybe. Yeah. I'd say six foot to six foot three, six foot four is what your normal point guard would be. Um, But he, I mean, he's got all kinds of awards and stuff. He, he's been, uh, a great basketball player. Um, and you know, he stayed, he's not from Louisville. He, uh, but he stayed here, right. Um, which is a good thing. He's, and he's come back here to bring us some bourbon, um, which is a nice thing. Now we don't have their standard bottle. This is their kind of step up of a bottle. Um, which I was glad to buy and stuff. Um, but you said that he's about to, uh, be in his Jersey's about to be retired, right?

Yeah, it's actually a pretty big deal right now. It's been on the news for the past couple of weeks. I guess there's a. Uh, there's a, uh, I think on January the 22nd, they're going to retire his Jersey to the rafters there at, uh, the, uh, stadium in downtown Louisville. And, uh, they've got a game, uh, that, you know, they're going to do that at, and it's kind of a big deal. They've been advertising it. So yeah, Louisville boy, maybe not born here, but, uh, certainly a hometown kid and, uh, did well still, I guess he's still playing ball in China right now. Right.

Well, he's actually up at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I think that's the Indiana Pacers like team.

All right.

But he's playing up there right now. He came back from China. He played in China for a long time. played it over in the European league, I think a little bit. He's bounced around here or there in the NBA. But really what we're here to talk about is his bourbon. So what we got here is we don't know the match bill of this. We don't know the distillery. We took a guess thinking it might be contract distilled out or sourced out of Wilderness Trail because it's bottled in Harrisburg, which is right down the road, right? or right up the road. But that's just taking a stab at it. Does say aged a minimum of three years, 110 proof, kind of a square squatty bottle, kind of like a Wilderness Trails bottle a little bit. I've actually got a whole bunch of bottles here and it's pretty close to their bottle. Now they call this the Green Label or the Louisville Legend bottle. Kind of a golden honey golden in there, maybe.

So this is right in the middle of their offerings. They've got a, they've got what they call their blue label, which is, uh, I think it's a 90 proofer, uh, and it's a bright at about $40. Uh, and then they've got this, uh, green label, which is their a hundred proofer, uh, which is they call the legend. And this is right around 55 bucks. And then they got that $200 bottle, the 12 year standard, gold standard, they call it. You see that one in the store?

I did. So pick this up at Liquor Barn. I think that's the Springhurst Liquor Barn. So I looked at the, you know, the 90 proofer and then I saw this 110 proof and then I saw that 12 year and I was like, we're going to go stick this midway because we're buying this ourselves. I bought a bottle. Um, but I'd heard a lot of stuff about these bottles flying off the shelf and maybe it is just a little thing, but I'm always excited to see a new brand out there. So, but Jim, Hey, we talked enough about this thing. Let's nose it.

Let's, let's check it out. All right.

You know, I'm getting a little bit of honey on that. You know, we said it was kind of honey amber, golden amber, maybe a little honeysuckle.

Yeah. The nose has got a little bit of a bite to it. You get that spice, not too much sweetness, but it does have that sort of subdued honey sweetness.

Like you're saying maybe a jalapeno honey that with that spice.

Yeah. There you go. Sort of a hot pepper jelly, kind of a hot pepper honey or honey jelly. Yeah.

Getting a little bit of vanilla on it. Just that tad whiff of oak. Not very much, not very much at all.

But not, not, not a lot of sweetness on the nose.

Nope. It's more, you get more spice, I think, out of this thing than anything. Maybe a root beer candy. That's another thing I'm getting at. I don't know why.

Well, that's a lot to say about a, a whiskey we haven't tried before. There's a few notes there on the nose. They say we taste it.

Well, I say cheers, Jim.

Cheers. Definitely not much sweetness upfront on that.

No, it's got that pepper spice though. It does spices there. A little bit of that youthfulness is coming out, I think. And there's that Kentucky hug just popped me right in the chest.

So it's under four, but it's, I mean, it's not super youthful. It's just got a hint of it, I think. And you could tell that it's, it could have spent just a little more time in the barrel, but it is a little dry.

Yeah. For 110 proof. I think the proofs there, like you said, it is very drying, almost like a dry red wine you would get. The Oak is there for sure. I was thinking a little bit of mint on there, maybe just a tad bit.

Yeah. The sizzle, the sizzle of the spice sticks around for a while. I'm not getting a whole bunch of hug. It's kind of staying in my mouth. I'm getting a little bit 110 proof. I'd expect a little bit more. Yeah. This is kind of a spicy cough, dropy a little bit. I don't know if you agree with me on that Mike, but kind of reminds me a little bit of like a, a eucalyptus cough drop.

I was going to say something like that. I'm getting a little bit of a hint of cinnamon on there now with just a tad bit of sweetness, something that's more. We haven't talked about this in a while, Jim. Maybe over a year we haven't talked about this, but let's bring this back up. Those cinnamon toothpicks.

Yeah.

Yeah. From our youth. I'm getting that on this right here, that cinnamon toothpick, because the cinnamon toothpicks weren't super sweet, but you'd get that bite of cinnamon.

You get the bite of the cinnamon, but not the sweetness. Right. Yeah, I agree with you on that. So if this is not a, this is not a, uh, a bourbon for, uh, for somebody who likes a sweeter bourbon, this is something a little more spicy. It's got, uh, it's like I said, it's a little bit drying the proof, you know, might be a little high. Maybe it could have been proofed down a little bit more. I'm not going to complain about 110 proof because I've, I kind of, a lot of times I'm asking for that. Right. But, uh, I think that in this particular case, it probably would have been. a little more appealing at 105 or 100? I'm not sure, but.

Well, this would play nice in a cocktail, Jim. Really, really good. And you know, when I'm thinking about cocktails, you know, I got to think about our good friend over there at Cruz Customs Flags. He's got those whiskey girls, right? And I wondered what a cocktail would taste like in one of those.

I haven't put a cocktail in one of them. I did have a pour of bourbon in one the other day, and it's got that nice feel to it, right? It's got that sort of solid wood feel. You feel kind of rustic when you're drinking your bourbon out of it. I don't say that the charcoal on the inside of the grail has a lot of effect on the flavor of the bourbon. I think it might even be sealed, but it's fun to drink out of, that's for sure.

It is fun to drink out of. The great thing about Chris is that he also has these amazing American flags made out of bourbon barrels, made by veterans, veteran owned and operated. I mean, how much better can he get, Jim? He's taking and reusing those bourbon barrels. You know, we got a couple of those on our property that they're just used as planters, but I like to see them as made as a piece of art. You know, I got one, you got one. We know several friends that have bought one from Chris listeners. If you're going to buy a product, this is it right here. American made, veteran owned, veteran operated. Just a beautiful piece of art to hang in your office, to hang in your business, to hang in your home above your fireplace. Uh, to show your patriotism, we'd appreciate you to go on over to cruise, customs, flags, put in an order today. Tell them the Bourbon road sent you.

Yeah. It's kind of fun. You know, when you own one of these flags, uh, you start to notice them when you go other places or you see things on television. And I was watching, I was watching the news in the past couple of days and There was somebody being interviewed and they had the flag up on the wall behind them. I thought that's one of Chris's flags right there. That was pretty cool.

Yeah, it is nice to see those. There's a couple of stores in the Louisville area. Troutman's kind of a hardware store where you can buy blue jeans and boots and Carhartt. That kind of stuff. They got a big, giant cruise customs flag inside there. It's nice to see that kind of stuff. It's nice to see businesses supporting other businesses like his. Back to this whiskey gem. Overall, I'm happy I bought it. It would grow great, great in a cocktail. You know, we did the cocktails with our wives the other day. This will be perfect for something like this right here.

Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. Absolutely. And also, I think I'd like to try the 90 proof. I'm kind of looking forward to trying that 90 proof. I'm thinking. I might like that a lot because this has a, uh, kind of a unique profile to it, something we haven't had before. And I always get excited when I get to try something that has a profile that I haven't tasted before. I personally, I'm feeling like the proof's a little high in this one for, for what it is. Uh, but that 90 proofer that might be the, that might be the ticket. So I look forward to trying that one.

Yeah, pretty awesome. I'm glad I bought it. I'm glad to support somebody that's coming back and supporting Louisville, Kentucky, helping rebuild this town, bringing a product to us. And they said it's flying off the shelves on some stores like, Oh, we were out of it. So I was glad to see it. Glad to get a bottle of it. So eat me and you could try it. To me, it'd still be a buy. I liked the 110 proof myself. Like I said, it's great for cocktails. I don't know. We've been on this cocktail kick lately of drinking some cocktails. Um, just, just, it's just fun. You know, if you stuck at home, um, trying to stay home, making those cocktails, a whiskey like this will stand up great in that. So that's my take on it. Um, I would say a short to medium finish on this though, that drying effect doesn't lend itself to a longer finish. So.

But the hug does build a little bit over time. I feel like, well, Russ, I have to say, uh, you know, son of Louisville, um, basketball star, somebody that has a lot of. Uh, fame in our local town here. Uh, good job on, uh, your career. Congratulations on having your Jersey retired here in the next couple of weeks here at the U of L and, uh, Hey, good job on the whiskey. Absolutely.

Well, Jim, where can our listeners find us at?

Well, you can find us on YouTube. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. You can actually find us on TikTok. We have quite a few videos now. Mike's been kicking it. And we also have a private Facebook group called the bourbon roadies. And that's where all our good friends hang out. If you want to find your way there, you just go onto Facebook and search for the bourbon roadies. It'll come up. I asked to join three questions. Do you like bourbon? Are you 21? And do you agree to play nice? Cause once you're in there, we expect you to be one of the team, right? Mike.

Yeah, it's all about the celebration of whiskey, the celebration of life, just having a good time and enjoying each other's company. That's what that group is about. We would appreciate it if you would scroll on up, so you make sure that you don't miss any of our episodes. Hit that plus sign, that check sign, that subscribe sign. That'll let you know that, hey, these two jokers have just recorded a show and have released it for you. The next thing we'd like for you to do is scroll on down, hit that five star review, because you know what I'm about to say. I'm going to bring this bottle of Mrs. Smith. I'm going to get my buddy, the big bad booty daddy of bourbon to tag along with me. He even made an appearance today in the snow gym. Some people might have seen that photo, but seriously, Give us that five star review. It opens up doors. It gets great bourbon in our hands. Um, it gets great guests on the show. It helps us keep kicking down the bourbon road. All right.

We do two shows a week. We do a short episode every Monday like today's show where we, uh, highlight a single expression from a single distillery. Mike and I'll taste it. We'll talk about it. We'll let you know whether or not we think you ought to add it to your bar. We also do a longer episode once a week on Wednesdays. or we have a guest on, we kind of deep dive a topic. Maybe we'll have two or three bottles of bourbon or whiskey or rye on and go into a little bit more detail. We try to get you to work and get you home. We'd love to have you listen to both episodes every week. Mike has already told you how you make sure that you don't miss one of those episodes. We'd also like you to check out our website, TheBurmanRoad.com on there. You'll find our podcast episodes and you'll find articles on reviews. If you're in the liquor store and you're trying to figure out what to buy, it never hurts to go to TheBurmanRoad.com and check out our blogs, do a search in there. I'm sure you'll find something to pick up off the shelf. We also have our store in there where you can pick up our swag. If you buy our swag, our t-shirts, our glasses, our hats are decanters and hip flasks and all the things that we have in our store. When you buy those, you help to fund the bourbon road to help us get down the road to visit that next distillery. It really does make a difference. We'd love to have you reach out to us. Mike and I are very open to conversations with our listeners. We'd love to hear what your thoughts are on the show. Mike has already told you how to. how to give us a review, but we would love to hear if you've got any ideas for a show. If you think that you've got somebody that would make a good guest or you think there's a distillery in your hometown that deserves a leg up, we'd love to talk to them. Reach out to us. You can go on our website. The contact us page, reach out to us there. You can send us an email. I'm Jim at the bourbon road.com. He's Mike at the bourbon road.com. But like we always say, the best way is to hit up our DM on Instagram. I'm Jay Shannon 63. I'm big bourbon chief and we'll see you down.