248. The Gospel Straight Rye Whiskey Review
Jim & Mike taste The Gospel Straight Rye from Melbourne, Australia — the show's first-ever Australian whiskey, recommended by roadie James Ewen.
Tasting Notes
Show Notes
Jim Shannon and Mike Hyatt welcome listeners to another Craft Distillery Monday on The Bourbon Road, this time venturing all the way to Melbourne, Australia. Inspired by a suggestion from longtime roadie and Australian listener James Ewen, the guys crack open a bottle from The Gospel Distillery — a craft producer whose motto declares that whiskey is religion, but rye is the gospel. It is a milestone episode for the show, marking the first Australian whiskey ever featured on the tasting mat.
On the Tasting Mat:
- The Gospel Straight Rye Whiskey (90 Proof): A 100% Australian rye whiskey from Melbourne, aged two years in heavily toasted new American oak barrels. On the nose, expect spice drops and gumdrops, citrus brightness, a touch of candied fruit, and a light caramel sweetness from the barrel. The palate delivers that same gumdrop spice with orange citrus, candied fruit notes reminiscent of a spiced fruit cake, and a satisfying thickness that coats the palate without washing over it. The finish is medium length with a lingering spice. The whiskey presents a medium amber color with impressive legs for a 90-proof expression, and drinks bolder than its proof would suggest. Available in 29 U.S. states at a suggested retail of $50. (00:06:58)
The Gospel arrives in a striking square green glass bottle with a long neck, accompanied by creative marketing collateral including a cassette tape featuring Australian artists, a Hugh Jackman poster, and a letter printed on oil skin paper. Jim and Mike both call it a buy, praising its unique place on any whiskey shelf and its versatility as both a sipper and a cocktail ingredient. If your local distillery or a whiskey from your corner of the world deserves a spotlight, reach out — the guys are always listening.
Full Transcript
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.
Well, you know who likes to give back to their community is one of our sponsors, Jim. Chris Cruz from Cruz Customs Flags. He does custom flags out of bourbon barrels. Not only does that, he do that, but he's also using veterans to build those flags with. I've got one right behind me, Jim. I know you got one on your bar. Beautifully handcrafted, repurposing a bourbon barrel, not throwing it away, not making it into smoking chips, making a piece of Americana, right?
It's something that'll last probably quite a few years longer than a bourbon barrel would, right?
Not only that, but he's using veterans to build those pieces of art with, you know, you gotta love that. But he's also giving back to his community at all times, helping veterans out like ourselves. He is really in tune to that. Go check his site out. Uh, cruise customs flags.com. You can buy his flags on their key holders. Heck. Jim's got some, uh, these neat little cups that are chart inside made out of oak that you can put a cocktail in.
They call those the whiskey grail, don't they?
Yeah, that is kind of reminds you, you know, when you think of a grail, but truly a whiskey grail right there. Go check those out at Cruz Customs Flags. Purchased from this guy, veteran owned, veteran operated, making a veteran built product.
Hello, everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. I'm Mike Hyatt. This is The Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, it's another Craft Distillery Monday. And we're getting all over the place now. Last week, we were in Florida. This week, Australia. It's probably the first Australian whiskey we've had on the show, is it? It is. And it's about time because we've got a huge listenership in Australia.
Just a few people down there like to listen to us. And I don't really think you have a Southern accent, but I got a Southern accent.
Texas accent.
Texas, Virginia, Kentucky. It's all mixed in together. That blend of maybe that's what's wrong with my voice.
Well, I mean, you can really tell you got a Texas accent when you're recording in Texas. Oh really? Yeah. I think you go back in time a little bit talking about them ranch style beans.
Well, this was suggested to us by our good friend James Ewen. He's been a longtime listener, longtime roadie. We've talked to him on FaceTime a couple of times and it's nice to have listeners outside the US that enjoy bourbon as much as we do.
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it is a worldwide spirit. Everybody knows about bourbon. It does get all over the, we've got listeners all over the world, Mike, 40 countries, 40 countries. Isn't that amazing? Do you even think about that?
That is, that's monstrous and stuff. Well, what James suggested to us is that we reach out to this distillery. It's called The Gospel. We're recording here on Sunday, right, for a Monday review. We're recording on Sunday, and we're going to drink some stuff called The Gospel. And I kind of like that. And one of their sayings for The Gospel says, whiskey is religion. But Rye is the gospel. I know you love some Rye. I do love some Rye. So what we got here is 100% Australian Rye. It is a straight Rye whiskey. It's been aged in a barrel for two years.
Now Australia is home to a lot of, uh, agricultural grain production.
They make a lot of grain in Australia. Just a little bit. Yeah. A lot of people think kangaroos and, um, you know, sheep maybe, um, but they're a big, big country. Big country. Yeah.
Now this is from Melbourne. Yeah, Jim, it is from, uh, Melbourne, Australia. Um, You ever been there before? I have. I've been to Melbourne a few times and it's a big city. I mean, it's a big place.
I've been there one time. We flew in, stayed a couple of weeks and picked up a army landing craft and we came back. That was a long time ago.
Yeah, and one of the neat things about going to Australia as an American, okay, is that it's probably the place in the world that you can go that's closest to being here, right? But boy, I tell you what, it's a little bit different once you start talking to them, isn't it? Just a little bit, just a little bit.
Now, these barrels, they're aging, they need this whiskey in. These are actually new American oak barrels, heavily toasted. So that's something nice to see that they're using a cupridge here in Kentucky to do that. Um, you know, a little Kentucky love with these Australian rye whiskey. Well, that's gotta be quite an investment to get a barrel to Australia. Yeah, I would think so. You get a 40 foot, uh, container probably and fill it up. Now I know a 53 foot truck will hold like 286 barrels. So I think like two 40 maybe in there.
Yeah.
Barrels. in a container. There you go.
That's still quite a bit of money.
That's a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The bottle on this is, I told you Jim, this is one of my favorite bottles of all time. It's a green bottle. Um, square it, I just, I just love it. So it looked like a Yeager bottle a little bit. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. Shaped like one, right? Yeah. Yeah. You're right. Uh, I just like it. That green, the green glass, something that just calls to me.
Yeah.
Well, let's get to this whiskey. Let's do it. I'm excited.
I love it when a rye comes in. Wow. There's no mistake. And that's a right nose.
Now you said a little bit of gumdrops. Yeah.
A little bit of spice drops, right? The little sugar, sugar coated spice drops. Kind of reminds me a little bit of like a spicy West six. I get a little bit of citrus on this. Yeah. Little sweet, little bit of candy sweetness on the tail end of the nose. Picking up the barrel. Definitely a little bit of caramel. Not a whole lot of barrel there though. No, just a little bit. Let's taste it. Cheers. Cheers. Wow. Yeah. That's a hundred percent rye whiskey right there.
Wow. I like that. Yeah. Oh, a little bit of that, that gumdrop spice to it. Yeah. That orange citrus is there.
Um, not too spicy. No, it's not. There's, there's no, there's no burn to it, right? There's just that, that aromatic spice that sort of gumdrop spice in the, We've mentioned those, um, spice cakes, like a fruit cake, fruit cake, a little bit of that in there, but more, more candied fruit, like kind of a candied fruit.
Man, I can't say gumdrop enough on this right here. It is just that it's thick enough to where it kind of tastes like that gummy too. You know? Um, it doesn't wash over your palate, which is I really like that. Yeah.
Yeah. Now what's the proof on this whiskey again, Mike?
It's a 90 proof, Jim.
Okay. Which is super great at this right here, right? Right now. Australian whiskies are typically proofed a little bit lower than here in the U S right?
Yeah, but that would be 90 proof would be here, but I think this drinks a little bit hotter than 90 proof.
It drinks a little bit bolder than 90 proof.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bolder. Definitely. Now $50 for this bottle, Jim. Um, it can be found in 29 States in America. Okay. So 50 us dollars, not 50 Australian dollars, 50 us dollars. Got it. That's not bad at all. Right. Right. I mean, for a nice rye whiskey that's from Australia, um, if you don't have an Australian whiskey on your shelf, um, you want to add to your collection, a nice rye that, um, man, this would stand up nice in a cocktail with 90 proof.
Yeah. I can tell you, you won't have anything else on your bar like it.
Yeah, maybe it's that dry air over there and stuff. I do know they have a drier climate.
I really, really like it. I mean, it's just dripping down the sides of the glass. For a 90 proof whiskey, it's amazing to see those legs. I'd say it's a medium amber color. Not real dark, but... respectable color to it. Yeah.
It's got that nice finish on it that leaves a little bit of spice on your tongue. I call it a medium finish. You're right about the legs on the glass or the color. This is a buy for me, Jim, 50 bucks, beautiful bottle. Um, you know, it, it was going to stand out on your, on your shelf. I even liked the neck on this one. It's got a little bit like a three inch neck on it. Um, so you don't spill it out and stuff. We poured our glasses, no spillage or anything. Um, yeah, how could you not like this right here, especially with the rye whiskeys coming on and rye whiskeys can be made anywhere. That's right. Well, Jim, a, a beautiful whiskey that, that James, uh, you and, uh, recommended to us, uh, it shows that people are paying attention to our last part of our podcast there where we recommend people recommend, um, their hometown bourbons to us or hometown whiskeys or hometown distilleries. Uh, thank you. Uh, the gospel for sending this bottle, a neat little box gym. I was telling you about, uh, they sent a cassette tape with Australian musical artists on there, but I don't know that I have a cassette player anywhere. Um, I don't think I've had a cassette player for, A long time. A long time. Yeah, it's been a while. I might have to go to a thrift shop or something to find one. You'd probably get one at Goodwill. They also had a poster of Hugh Jackman without a shirt on in there. And it said he may or may not have endorsed this whiskey. But they enclosed a photo of him anyways. That's cool. A couple other little cool things they sent. I like when a whiskey company reaches out like that and pulls you in with their marketing. I thought of some cool marketing. Their bottle's beautiful. Beautiful whiskey inside. It's a buy all day long. What about you, Jim?
Definitely. Absolutely. 100%. I was just wondering, is this one going to find its way to my bar? By chance? We could probably do that. Could we? Okay, that'd be kind of cool.
I think we got more Australian whiskey coming our way, so we could probably do that.
The thing I noticed in that package they sent you, and I haven't seen this a lot, but they sent you a letter typed on oil skin, and that was pretty cool. Well, I didn't know that's what that was. Yeah, anytime you get that paper that looks like it's translucent like that,
It's kind of neat. Yeah. They, they really put some thought into their, to their marketing. Um, and I didn't even realize this bottle was coming. It was kind of surprised to me that they found my address and worked with us. And, um, I really, really liked that. Go ahead.
Well, I was just going to say that, you know, it's kind of great that not only can we bring an Australian rye whiskey to the show. But we can also bring an Australian rye whiskey to the show that can be found here in the U.S. many, many places.
Yeah, 29 states. You're getting up there in some whiskey sales.
So, yeah, I mean, it's great. Pay attention, folks. If you have a whiskey being made in your hometown or in an area near you and you're kind of proud of it, let Mike and I know. We'll search them out. We'll get it on the show.
I would say, listeners, that one of the things we'd like them to do is they have a social media following. The Gospel does have a great following. You can check out their website. Check them out on Instagram and Facebook.
Wherever you can find them, check them out.
Um, we would appreciate it. Jim, where can our listeners find us?
Well, you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, find us on Twitter. You find us on tech talk. We're doing them all. and we're doing them daily. So definitely check it out. You can also find us on our website, the bourbonroad.com. You'll find our episodes on there. You can listen to them on there. You can download them for later. You can also read our articles we have on there. So check it out. You won't be disappointed. There's a lot of tidbits in there that you won't want to miss. We also have our swag on the website. You can buy our t-shirts and our hats and Those things that represent the bourbon road. If you're a roadie, you got to have a piece of our swag. You got to have a glass or something. It definitely helps us get down the road and make that next interview. We really appreciate it. So Mike, we do two shows a week. How can people be absolutely certain that they won't miss one of those shows?
What you want to do listeners is scroll up on your app that you're listening to us on. Hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe sign. That'll let you know that that episode has come out and you want to listen to it. Give your phone a little update if you can't remember. That's a good way to remember right there. Then you're going to scroll on down, hit that five star review. leave some comments in there we really need those but if you don't you know what will happen the big bad booty daddy of bourbon will come your way dragging some of this gospel rye whiskey with me We'll drink all night long. By the end of the night, you'll have a big smile on your face and feel just indulged to leave that five star review. Um, at least some comments. If, if you could do that, that's what opens those doors to distilleries gets great whiskey in our hands. Um, gives us a chance to give you a great product here on this podcast.
Well, definitely reach out to us. If you've got something to say, if you'd like to comment to us or make a suggestion or, or just, just want to chit chat with us, we'd love to hear it. Reach out to us on email. I'm Jim at the bourbonroad.com. He's Mike at the bourbonroad.com. But like we always say, probably the best way, just hit up our DMS on Instagram. I'm jshan63. I'm big bourbon chief. And we'll see you down the bourbon road.
