242. Fighting 69th Irish 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 and this is the Bourbon Road of today. Mike, it's another craft distillery Monday. Kind of going down a different road today. We haven't been down this road in a while but I'm always glad to revisit it. It's a happy trail.

Yeah, especially for you. You're Irish. You got the Irish ancestry, right? Heritage, which is kind of cool. But this is kind of an Irish whiskey with an American take or an American name for it, right?

It is. So the whiskey is, well, in order to be an Irish whiskey, it needs to be produced in Ireland. We're going to tell everybody the story. Well, you're going to tell everybody the story and how it has its American roots.

Yeah, so what we're going to be drinking today and reviewing is the Fighting 69th Regiment. It's an Irish whiskey, but Fighting 69 National Guard unit now, but it was a very historical. infantry regiment founded in 1849 in like downtown New York and they fought in lots and lots and lots of major battles in the Civil War especially but they have seven Medal of Honor winners in their regiment and all seven of those were survivors so that's a super rare thing for one regiment to have seven Medal of Honor winners and then have all of them survive is, is super just weird. Um, but they are still, still kicking today. That regiment is they were on all Irish regiment, obviously, um, back in 1849. That's changed a little bit now, but they fought up into the modern day into Iraq. Um, which is, uh, hats off to them for keeping it going and serving our nation and stuff.

So they, they were in the civil war. They were on world war one, world war two, the Iraq war, Afghanistan war, and a whole bunch of other stuff, right?

Yeah, they pretty much did it all. I mean, the, the battles they were in the civil war is just super impressive. They were at bull run adenium, Fredericksburg chance, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and automatics. Um, and then they, uh, we're in france and eighteen eighteen they were in okinawa there desert storm iraq freedom and afghanistan super just to me hats off this i've seen a couple different movies where they're being honored or portrayed in I like it. I like it a lot. A big thing from this, Jim, is a dollar from each bottle goes to the 69th Regiment Historical Trust, which is a nonprofit. So that's always nice to see too when whiskey is helping out history and save that stuff. You know, if we don't save it, it just kind of gets lost, right?

It does. It does. So it's always nice to preserve history. It's always nice when some money is set aside to help things like that, help preserve history. And when you can make a purchase and you know part of that purchase will go to preserve the memory of something important, I think it's always easier to make that purchase, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, like any traditional Irish whiskey, this is 100% malted barley. We know that's, that's what you got to do to make an Irish whiskey, right? Uh, but then they age it for a minimum of three years and a used, you know, what we're going to fix to say a bourbon barrel, right? Age three years. That's a good age for an Irish whiskey. I would think.

Yeah. I think that we're going to get a chance here to try it out and hopefully pretty soon, because we've been talking a bit and see what we think about it.

And what's the proof on this, Jim?

Yeah. This is a 40% alcohol by volume or 80 proof, pretty much a standard proof for an Irish whiskey.

Yeah. We've had some cast strength Irish whiskeys. Um, you know, they're real, real tasty, but heck, let's, let's get to this thing, Jim.

All right. Let's check it out. Wow. It's got a light fruit nose. I always get pear or peach or white grapes.

I get a little bit of it. You ever had smelt banana oil? Well, I'm a little banana oil, but I, I can imagine or banana taffy maybe on this. I don't know if I get that on all Irish whiskeys or not. Not a lot of oak in this a little bit of sweetness. Like you were saying that fruit, maybe some grape, that sweetness. Yeah, lots and lots of floral though.

Yeah, definitely. I'm surprised though. It does have a little bit of that white grape. I like that Welch's white grape juice. Just kind of, just a little bit of that. Morrie knows it here. I do get that banana. Was that just because I said it? probably wouldn't have picked it up if you hadn't.

You know, I was thinking, Jim, that this thing's aged in a bourbon barrel and it's got its military kind of LinkedIn right there. You know what also LinkedIn with bourbon barrels and military?

We got a great sponsor.

Yeah, our great friend, Chris Cruz, with Cruz Customs Flags, he's making beautiful art out of bourbon barrels, making these beautiful flags that you could display at your house, at your office, in your large corporation. He's got the one called the General. That's what you need if you have a large corporation so your employees can see your patriotism displayed there and your love for bourbon.

Now, Chris doesn't just make flags, although they are the centerpiece of his operation there. He also makes some, uh, some other nice things out of bourbon barrels. You want to definitely get on his website and check him out. But keep in mind, Chris is putting veterans to work to make these great products. He's repurposing bourbon barrels and he's also repurposing our wonderful veterans who have served this country so well. Make sure you check out cruise customs flags.com. Check out his website, place an order online, help out one of our sponsors. We'd really appreciate it.

Yeah. Well, heck, let's, let's, uh, what do you say? Is it slante? How can I get that wrong? I've heard it so many times. I just gotta say cheers. You know, I just, just cheers.

Basically it just means to your health, just to your health.

Yep.

Wow. That goes down real easy. I mean, almost too easy.

Yeah. You can get yourself in trouble with this thing. Yep.

A little bit of a little bit of a hug going on there.

Um, not too much on that sweetness to it. That banana is almost there with it though. That banana taffy, um, that sweetness, that, that grape that you're talking about, you know, when you bite into a crisp grape, that's nice and cold. That's what I'm getting right here. Yeah.

I kind of like the, um, it's kind of refreshing. It's, uh, you do get a little bit of that great, like we're talking about kind of, but you get a little bit of that great pill hint of bitterness off that great kind of that grape skin. I was like, I don't know if you can peel a grape.

Can you, I don't know if you can or not.

You'd be all, I'd be all day with my big old monkey hands, but I still get a little bit of that pear peach. I'm going to go with pear.

Yeah, I like it. It's very light on the palate though. Kind of just washes over the palate. Very short finish. I get short to medium, I guess. It's still there a little bit. Like I said, the first drink of it had a little bit of a hug, but not a whole lot now. It's just, like I said, and you said, that you could get yourself in trouble with this. It goes down way too easy, right?

Yeah. I'm afraid that you can almost, uh, you take too big a drink, too big a sip of it because it's so easy on the palette kind of washes over. Doesn't have, it doesn't have like almost zero spice to it. Kind of refreshing and cool, fruity. Yeah. I mean, this, this would be an easy drinker. This would go real well in something light and like a light cocktail too, if you wanted to mix it.

Well, I'll tell you what, they did send us a cocktail card with this gym and they got four different cocktails on here and I'll go ahead and. and tell everybody about those four cocktails. They got the Fighting 69 Irish Wolfhound. I've never heard of that before. It's a one and a half ounces of Fighting Irish whiskey, two ounces of ginger beer, ginger ale, two ounces of lime juice or sweet and sour and garnished with a lime wedge. They also have the Fighting 69 Irish coffee. Everybody loves one of those, right? You got an ounce and a half of a Fighting Irish whiskey, half tablespoon of sugar, filled with coffee, topped with Irish cream liqueur, garnished with whipped cream. I love those. And then you got the Fighting 69 Irish Lemonade. Man, summertime all day long, probably great with this. One and a half ounces of Fighting 69 Irish whiskey, half ounce triple sec, two ounces of lemonade or sweet and sour, two ounces of Sprite or 7-Up if you go that route. uh, and garnish with lime wedge. And then you got the, I think you would like this one, Jim, the fighting 69 Irish Manhattan, two ounces of fighting 69th Irish whiskey, three quarters of an ounce of sweet Bermuth dash of bitters and garnish with a cherry or orange pill.

Yeah. I kind of think that for me anyway, and yeah, I do like the idea of that Manhattan, but, uh, the one you mentioned just before that with the triple sec. And, uh, the other citrus in it. And then what they say with a Sprite. Yep. Fighting 69 Irish lemonade. Yep. And lemonade. Yeah. I think that that one would be kind of special. This is light. It's kind of, uh, it's easy. Sipper. I think it would go well with the lemonade. Be pretty good.

Yeah. I like this, this, uh, Irish whiskey. It's definitely something I'd like to have on the shelf and keep on the shelf. Um, Definitely worth buying. You can buy this at Total Wine for $32.99. That's not bad for a nice Irish whiskey. And you can guarantee the dollar that goes to that historical society.

And it's a great story. It's a great, uh, it's a great benefit. Uh, if you don't own a bottle of Irish whiskey on your bar, if you're a bourbon guy, like we, like me or like Mike, and you don't have a bottle of Irish whiskey on your bar, I think you should. I'm not saying it has to be the fighting 69th, but why not? Why not pick up a bottle with a little bit of history behind it? Something that, you know, uh, you get to pull it off the bar. You got to talk a little bit about it. You got to talk a little bit about the fighting 69th and, and their accomplishments and the fact that, you know, money from this bottle goes back to a good cause. And it's, it's an easy drinker. If you've got a non whiskey person sitting at your bar at home, they just never had whiskey before. this would be an easy, easy gateway.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and to me at 80 proof, um, I've had wines that would, uh, be rougher than this right here. Uh, so great gateway whiskey, like you were saying, Jim. So it sounds like it's a buy for both of us. Um, make sure you check them out. Fighting 69th, you can find them on Instagram and all that's the good stuff. So yeah, great, great whiskey to pick up. I don't think this bottle is going to last long at your house, Jim, is it? No, it's not going to last long at all.

Yeah. If you go to the fighting 69th whiskey.com, they've got a really good website that tells kind of the whole backstory and they've got a dealer locator there where you can find their products. Got a lot of great pictures, a lot of great historical pictures on there. And, um, yeah, I suggest you go there and check that out too. Well, Jim, where can they find us on our social media? Well, you can find us at the bourbon road on all social medias. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, find us on YouTube. You can even find us on tick tock. We're tick tocking it. Aren't we Mike? We're trying.

We're trying.

We're not doing any dancing though. No dancing. Nope. Just whiskey. Just a voiceover of a video. You can also find us on our website, the bourbon road.com on the bourbon road.com. We've got our episodes. You can actually. Connect to our website and listen to our episodes if you want. If you don't have a player of preference, you can always play them directly from the website. You can read our articles, our blog that's written there. We've got probably 150 or 200 articles on there at least. Great stuff, great recommendations. It's a great place to search. If you're at the liquor store, And you want to know what you need to buy? Just jump on the bourbon road and do a quick search. You'll come up with something. I'm sure of it. Uh, you can also find her swag on there. Our T-shirts, our hats, our Glen Cairns, our decanters, our hip flasks. We got it all. And, uh, those kinds of things, when you purchase them, they help us get down the road.

Yeah, listeners, if you want to check us out on your app, we want to make sure that you're finding out about our shows. So what we need to do is scroll on up, hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe sign, that way that app will tell you these two jokers got episodes released. Then we need you to scroll on down, hit that five star review. If you don't, you will hear the bulls or the regiment rolling. Announcing the big bad booty daddy of bourbon is, it's your door with some Irish whiskey. We're going to make some Irish coffee, drink it all night, have a good time. By the end of the night, you're going to give us that five star review and some comments, I guarantee. But seriously, those comments, those five star reviews, open doors for us. It's great whiskey like the 5069th Regiment in our hands. So we can do great reviews for you. Opens those doors to distilleries. We get in there and Get to interview some great guests and we have some big guests coming up, I guarantee you. So we appreciate it.

So we do two shows a week. Every Monday we do a craft distillery episode like today's episode, about 15 or 20 minutes where we'll review a single expression like we did today with the Fighting 69th Irish Whiskey. On every Wednesday, we'll do a full-length episode about an hour and like two 30 minute haves. I will go a little bit deeper into a subject. We'll have a guest on. We'll drink a few different bottles. We give you those two shows every week. You can always reach out to Mike and I, if you've got an idea for a show. If you've got a distillery in your neighborhood that's doing good work, we want to know about it. Let us know. We'll reach out to them. If you've got a guest, you think could make a good guest on the bourbon road. Let us know who they are.

We'll reach out to them as well.

Mike and I are very approachable. You can reach us on email. I'm Jim at the bourbon road.com. He's Mike at the bourbon road.com. But like we always say, probably the best way is to hit up our DMs on Instagram. I'm jshan63. I'm big bourbon chief. And we'll see you down. The Bourbon Rogue.