250. Blackland Rye 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.

Congratulations to you. I mean, three years. Most podcasts only last less than a year.

A lot more work than people think that is, right? It's a lot of work. And you carry a big load, Mike. And I want to thank you as well, because I tell you what, without you, the Bourbon Road wouldn't be what it is today.

Yeah, it takes a team, right? Most people say a village. But we're at our 250th episode, too, Jim.

Great time. 250 episodes. So excited. Can't wait for another 250 episodes. 250 episodes. Three years. That's saying something. Yeah. I mean, if you like bourbon and you like to hear people talk about bourbon and you want to hear some reviews and some fun conversation with people, 250 episodes. I think we can keep you busy for just a few hours. Well, probably around 200 hours.

I'd say somewhere around there. But yeah, 250 episodes, three years. We thought we would do a giveaway to our listeners, but we're going to do this one, not on Instagram. We're going to do this one on our bourbon roadies page on Facebook, right?

Right, so let's start out. Those people who are roadies, who are already a roadie, know exactly what we're talking about. But if you're listening to this episode and you're like, what's a roadie? Why don't we tell them how you become a roadie?

Yeah, it's pretty simple. You go onto Facebook, you can type in either the bourbon road or the bourbon roadies. Type that in to your little search link there. It'll bring our group up. Join that group. Three easy questions you'll hear at the end of this episode too, but go ahead and answer those three easy questions. Are you 21? Do you like bourbon? And do you agree to play nice because, you know, we don't tolerate any Rooters, right, Jim?

Yeah, they're just a bunch of good people, good friends. Nobody's tearing each other down.

Yeah. So join that group. That's the only way you're going to get this giveaway is in our Bourbon Rootery group. Join it. We're going to give this one away. Let's say, Jim, right around like six o'clock in the afternoon. That gives everybody plenty of time. So that's dinner time, six p.m. Dinner time. OK. That gives everybody a chance to join the group. Listen to the podcast. Listen to this episode and then get home and join the group and make sure you're able to answer that question. Fair enough.

Yes, our moderators will be watching. Anybody that pops in early with an answer too early before 6 p.m., that answer will get deleted. And you'll be telling somebody else how to win the prize. That's right. So you definitely don't want to answer early. Starting at 6 p.m. on the Bourbon Road, Roadies private Facebook group posts.

Yeah, simple and easy. Now, what do we got to give away to them, Jim? I mean, you've talked about this. Yeah. What do we got to give away for them?

Well, Mike, first of all, our friends at Blacklands have donated a bottle of their rye and a hat as part of this giveaway. Thank you very much, Blacklands, for donating some of your amazing whiskey to this great cause.

Yeah, these whiskey companies are just doing it right with us. Hannah over there, Hannah, I can't thank you enough. Jim can't thank you enough for helping our listeners out. Awesome. Delicious rye whiskey that we both loved. Ended up at your house. But one of your listeners are going to get the same experience that Jim's getting on a daily basis with this bottle, right? And we got something else for him too, right, Jim?

Yeah, we do. Now, you know, a lot of times people are like, yeah, okay, so the distilleries supporting this giveaway. But this time, you know, it's coming out of our pockets, right? A little bit. Yes, sir. And we want to make sure we got some skin in the game, Mike. So what bottle are we giving them? A Russell's Reserve 10 year, which is one of our favorites, right? That 10 years are really nice. It's some good stuff. Yeah.

That and a bourbon road shirt. You just got to let us know your size if you win That's that's a pretty dang good giveaway two bottles of whiskey a hat and a shirt now wasn't two weeks ago, we had our first Craft distillery Monday episode giveaway.

Yeah, and now we're doing our biggest giveaway ever on a Crafty Story Monday episode. Pays to listen. Pays to listen. You never know when it's going to really, really happen. Jim, what do our listeners have to do to get this giveaway? All right. So very early after Mike joined the podcast, we had an episode and we won't say who the episode was with. But Mike made a faux pas in the episode and got two presidents mixed up. And this would have been very, very, very early in his career at the Bourbon Road.

That was my very first episode. Like we said, we're not going to tell you who it was with. Or the episode number. I'm not going to tell you that either, but that was my first episode. The bourbon was flowing, Jim. It was. We were drinking lots of bourbon that day. Lots of other liquor too. But I was feeling so good. I kind of lost track of my place. I was so excited. I did make a faux pas there mixed up two presidents. Tell us that mistake. Tell us that distillery. Tell us the episode and follow us both and follow us both and follow Blacklands.

Blacklands, of course, because this is their episode. Yeah. All right, Mike. Well, it's been a great run. 250 episodes. Pretty excited. Everybody be watching out. The day of the release of this episode, 6 p.m., there'll be a post in the Bourbon Roadies Facebook group about this episode. That's where you want to make your post to the answer after 6 p.m. Yes, sir. But it better not be 6.01. It better be 6.00 or you're not going to win, right? Yes, sir. All right.

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, uh, 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. Um, 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 of these neat little cups that are charred inside, made out of oak that you can put a cocktail in.

They call those the whiskey grail, don't they?

Yeah, that is, they kind of remind 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. Yeah. Loving these Mondays. Yeah. Loving these rye Mondays.

You're getting a couple in a row on me.

I am. And I appreciate that.

I really do. Well, we went with a bunch of weeded bourbons and, you know, always got to get you back. You know, we got to be equal here, right? Yeah. It's not just a weeded bourbon show. It's not just a rye bourbon show. It's not just a rye whiskey show or a wheat whiskey show. We love all whiskeys.

Yeah, we do. And we even had a whiskey on from Australia. So it's not just American whiskeys either. We need to make sure that we respect our listeners and what they're drinking. And today, I think we got just a few people in Texas drinking this whiskey. What do you think?

I believe so. Jim, I went to Texas, did five distilleries, and everybody's heard this episode for these guys where I went into Blackland Distillery in Fort Worth, Texas, and I actually got to eat some Smokaholics barbecue and stuff. But I was so impressed with their rye whiskey. And I was like, Jim's got to have some of this. You got to have a bottle on your shelf. You got to taste it. And I thought we'd do justice and say, hey, let's review this whiskey for him. Let's break it down.

Well, I'm glad, because I really enjoyed that episode. It was one of my favorites. And certainly enjoyed editing it, because it sounded like you were having a lot of fun. Yeah. I was a little sorry I wasn't there.

I can't be everywhere all the time. It is tough getting all over the place and stuff. I just had some extra time to use up and I said, man, why not take my baby brother on a little whiskey trip with me and live life a little bit and kind of hang out with family and meet people. sisters that I'd never met before but it was a great trip. I like trips like that and hopefully we both get to get on trips like that. I know you like to get out to Iowa every once in a while. There's some Iowa distilleries we need to go to. Absolutely. One of the places we're gonna try to go to this year is Colorado. Heck, we'd like to go to Ireland if somebody wants to fund that trip because it takes some dollars to get over there.

Yeah. And you know, I don't want to just go for a couple of days. Yeah. So we were going to bring Ireland to our listeners. Absolutely.

But what I have for us today, Jim, is the Blackland rye whiskey. Now what's so special about their whiskey? I know all of our listeners wondering, Hey, why, why their rye whiskey? Well, let me tell you, let me tell you, this is a blend of 80% four year old craft whiskey from Minnesota. 20% of the young rye whiskey made from the grain to glass at Blackland Distillery in Fort Worth, Texas. Now what's so special about that rye whiskey is that it's 80% Texas rye grain and 20% Triticalia. Now, Triticale is a wheat, but it's a spicy wheat. It's kind of a rye and a wheat. It's like a hybrid grain. And from what I understand, in the next 20 years, it might take over rye and wheat. So listeners, pay attention. This could change whiskey altogether.

Triticale.

Yeah.

I'm ready.

It's easier to work with.

Not the first time we had a whiskey with Triticale in the match bill here on the show. Yeah, we've actually had a couple of them. Now this is 100 proof, goes for about $35 a bottle.

Wow. And that's a beautiful bottle, Mike. It is. That's a great looking bottle. It reminds me of a giant old grain silo. And the other thing nice about this is the whiskey inside is nice and dark. Yeah, it is. Something nice about that Texas whiskey, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's usually has pretty good color to it. Yeah, but And I don't know which distillery in Minnesota is distilling this. I really don't. But they're bringing that whiskey down there and they have it sitting inside their warehouse down there. And it's 9 o'clock climate controlled warehouse. They have it sitting in. So that was nice to see. And they're upfront about it. There's no... Nothing's shocking about that. The one thing I had thought was really neat about their facility is they have those ice steels. Um, and it makes the cuts and everything for them.

Yeah. That's high tech stuff there. It was high dollar stuff. High dollar stuff. Yeah. Well, you know, when it boils down to, I mean, all of that's great. And we, people love to have information. What it boils down to is what's in the bottle, right? Yeah. So let's talk about what's in the bottle here. Let's check it out. Oh, I love that nose. That is a very inviting nose. Definitely like a Werther's, a spicy Werther's. A little bit of a, oh my gosh, like a little bit of a cherry, like a spicy Werther's cherry.

I don't know. I was thinking Swedish fish.

Yeah.

Yeah. You got a little bit of that. That's a little bit of cinnamon, right?

Yeah. Okay. Now Swedish fish. No, Swedish fisher that are the sweet ones. They're not the spice. Yeah.

They're like gummies, but they get a little spice to them.

I think the cherry tasting, I think. Yeah. That's a cherry rye.

That's kind of new for me.

I love the nose on that. Very, very inviting. Let's taste it. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, that is so good. Bam with that spice, right? Yeah, it is. That is a really good right whiskey. Now, Mike, you and I, we've been recording a few shows in a row here, so we've had a number of whiskies, but that's really good.

Pretty special.

It is. I wonder if it's that Triticale.

Or is that Texas heat? Well, I think it might be a little bit of both. You know, it's got that Minnesota whiskey in there too though. So, um, eventually they will go completely to their own whiskey as we've talked to in many shows previous to this. But, um, yeah. And I'm listeners, I'm letting Jim give the notes on this one because I've drank this before. So I don't want to influence his taste on this.

Yeah. So it's, it's definitely got a nice, deep caramel. It's like that. What I, what I say was a Werther's cherry Werther's, the more it visits the back of the pallet, the spices there, it's got a little bit of heat to it. Not too bad. I think, Mike, you might've hit it with that Swedish fish. I think you might've got it there.

Well, hopefully. I shouldn't have said that to you. Yeah.

Kind of influenced me just a little bit. It is buttery. It does have a nice viscosity to it. So this is a blended rye, a little bit of Minnesota whiskey, a little bit of Texas whiskey. little bit of a maturation in the Texas heat. Yeah. And, uh, and introduction, at least in a minor percentage with a Triticale. Yeah. Kind of nice.

I mean, when you break it down, it's probably a minute Triticale in there. Once you add the 80, 20, and then you break that.

down to 80, another 20. So what is that? What's that's one fifth of one fifth. I don't even know.

I ain't going there. It was like one, one 50th or something.

Yeah, that's 4%. There's 4% triticale in this. Okay. Listeners correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's 4%.

We have done a few shows in a row here. So what do you, uh, what would you think the finish on this is?

It's a, it's a lengthy medium, lengthy medium. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I've never heard you say lengthy medium. Well, you know, we always say short, medium or long, right? And, uh, I think sometimes you just, you're kind of bouncing between two. So I guess a lengthy medium or a short long, pretty good though.

Yeah. For the price point they're at and hit. They really said that they wanted to get this whiskey into everybody's hands. Sometimes people can price you out of a whiskey. We know several brands out there do that, that some whiskey drinkers can't afford that. You know, as soon as they see the price, their eyeballs like, wow, that's, you know, $200 for a bottle of whiskey is a lot of money.

It's a lot of money. It has to be a bottle that you bring out on special occasions. One that you want to introduce your very best friends to. Uh, one that you save for, uh, shared pores with buddies who bring bottles as well, right?

Yeah. I, I, I'm glad I brought this back for you, Jim. I'm gonna leave this here for your shelf. You know, your shelf is, uh, it's got some whiskey on it these days.

Yeah, I'm now storing bottles in the bottom bar. I haven't put any in the back bar yet, but I'm getting ready to do it.

I'm afraid that whole wall will just fall over.

I can handle it. It can handle it.

Well, Jim, where can our listeners find us on social media?

So you can find us on YouTube. You can find us on Twitter. You can find us on Instagram and Facebook. And find us on our website, thebourbonroad.com. And on the bourbonroad.com, you will find our episodes. You can listen to them there. You will find our blog articles. You can read them there. And you will find our products that we like to sell, our swag, the things that help get us down the road. Every sale of a Bourbon Road swag item puts a little bit of money in the travel tin for Mike and I. Let's us get down that road a little bit. We sure appreciate it. We'd love to see those shirts in photos. People send them to us all the time. They share them on social media. We'd love to see it. Even that bourbon bullshitter shirt, it gets around, doesn't it? It does.

I saw it at a barstown bourbon company the other day. Somebody's wearing it. That's cool. I was really proud to see that shirt. It's nice to see those things. Our logo's out there. People run across us and say, hey, I know who you are. That's a nice thing. You know somebody's listening.

Absolutely. Well, Mike, we do two shows a week. We do a short episode every Monday, like today's episode, about 15 or 20 minutes long, where we look at a single expression today, the Black Man's Rye. But every Wednesday we do a long episode. We have a guest on. We travel around. You have been traveling around. We spend a little time at a distillery. We talk about a few expressions, but two episodes every week. How can people be sure that they won't miss one of those episodes?

Well, you want to go on that app that you're listening to us on, hit that subscribe sign, that plus sign, whatever's there, check sign. It'll make sure that your app tells you, hey, these guys got a show on. The next thing you want to do is scroll on down, hit that five star review and leave some comments. If you don't, you know what will happen. The big bad booty daddy of bourbon will come over to your house carrying some black land rye whiskey. We'll drink that all night long. It'll put a smile on your face. By the end of the night, you'll hit that five-star review, leave some comments. But really, it really will open up doors to distilleries. It opens up distilleries to sending us whiskey, making us give you a great product in our podcast. And me and Jim really appreciate those. This is a hobby for us. It's a pleasure to tell you guys about whiskey and give you our thoughts on it. So, Jim, you know a really good place that everybody can find us at is on our Facebook group, The Bourbon Roadies. 2,600 people strong right now. It has grown.

Yeah, it's pretty cool. And, you know, there are good people in there. Great people. A lot of posts every day, right?

There are a lot of posts in there every day. Three rules to get in there. Are you 21? Do you love bourbon? Yeah, everybody loves bourbon. Come on now. And do you agree to play nice because we don't tolerate any rudeness in there? We'd appreciate if you'd join that group, hang out with us in there. And I'll just give you a little hint. We're about to have something else coming down the pike called Patreon. Give it a look. I know we're going to be excited about it. I know Jim was excited about it, but you want a little extra content in life from us, check that out when we put it out.

Well, Mike, we would love to hear from our listeners. We would love to have them write us a note, uh, send us an email, get up our DM. You can, you can send us an email. I'm Jim at the bourbonroad.com. You're Mike at the bourbonroad.com. You can hit our DM on Instagram. I'm jshan63. I'm big bourbon chief. And we'll see you down.