26. Third Pour - Basement Bottle Kill and Private Bourbon Blend

If you had to put an age on this, if you had to say, Hey, this is six year, this is eight year, this is 10 year. What would you think? I don't know if I'd put an age on it.

I'd probably give it a. give it a name. I'd call it the Hank, Hank Jr. bourbon or something like that. You know, like, you know, I think that Henry McKenna is like a Johnny Cash. Um, but then you got Hank Jr. that just kicked the stage lights out and must let her rip. That's, that's this bourbon right here.

It's pretty good bourbon.

Maybe I'll just start giving bourbons that drink country names.

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.

We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Log Heads Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Find out more about their fine rustic furniture at logheadshomecenter.com. Hey Mike, how you doing today?

I'm doing pretty good. Well, let's introduce ourselves to our listeners.

Do you think we need to?

I don't know. Do they really, do they know us? We might have some new listeners.

We might. So I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is the Bourbon Road. And today we're just kicking back in my basement, just hanging out. It's a good day.

It's a good day to hide down in the basement. I think it's the last day, it's October, but it's the last day of I'd say summer it's 90 something degrees out there.

Yeah. Now I did work today, but you on the other hand, you did not work today.

I didn't. I went into Louisville with my wife and she took me to Zegs there off of Shelbyville Road.

And somebody doesn't know what Zegs is. What's Zegs?

It's a breakfast place. I guess you can get some stuff besides breakfast, but they have some monster mimosas there. Yeah. I know, you know, we're on a bourbon show and you don't think mimosa, but and we got another story on down the line for that, but they got some 22 ounce mimosas and they were delicious. And then I had a, uh, an omelet and Vivian, I don't, she had this, a pretty nice dish there. So if you're in Louisville and you know, great place to eat breakfast and have a giant mimosa for breakfast any day of the week, um, go to Zegs and try them out.

Well, why don't we talk a little bit about why we've decided just to hang out today and have a few drinks and chit chat in the basement, uh, not go out and visit anybody or, or have an interview, just, just you and I just hanging out. Um, what's our plan here?

Well, I think you got a couple bottles that needed to be emptied.

When my bottles get down really low, I mean, when I say really low, I mean about, you know, a shot or two left in the bottom. I might just toss them in the in the infinity bottle. But I did that the other day. I went through my bottles and I found a few that needed to be gotten rid of and I put them in the infinity bottle. But then I got a few that, you know, they got a few pours left. You know, just a few pours left and then maybe they're going to be ready for the infinity bottle. So today we're cleaning out the bar.

Cleaning out. We started with this. We're starting with this already. I already started. I nosed a little bit. This Jim Beam Black. It's pretty good.

Yeah, it's been a, it's been a minute since I had Jim Beam black, but the last Jim Beam expression that I had was the repeal batch. And, uh, yeah, I thought that was really good. I've had black before and what do they say about the black? It's extra aged.

Yeah, that's what they say. They don't, they don't tell you the age on it. Um, which to me would be a little bit odd, but, um, It's definitely full bodied and like they, they, that's what they say. And it's smooth, caramel, warm oak notes. I think that's a pretty correct on this. Wouldn't you agree?

Yeah. So what's the proof on it?

It's a 83 proof or 86 proof bourbon.

Now it's definitely got a good amount of caramel, but I would say more oak and caramel on the nose. I'd agree with you at 83 proof. Let's go ahead and taste it and see if it's a bit thin or not. Let's do it. Yeah. Okay. So it, uh, I mean, it's good. It's, it, it's very tasty.

Not a whole lot of pepper on the back end there. Just a slight hint of pepper. I get, I do to get that Oak.

Yeah. It's a little drying on the center palette. It is. Uh, but I don't, I would say the finish is, um, short to medium. And, uh, you know, I don't know. I think it's a, I think it's enjoyable.

I don't know about the extra age, you know, you look at it, it's not that, it's really not that dark in the glass. Now we're sitting down here in the basement and the lights are pretty bright down in here, but, uh, it's still to me is not that dark rich color to it.

But I will say this, I definitely like this better than their standard offering. I think this is, uh, it's a step above the black is definitely got a little more character to it.

Yeah. I think the good thing about this bourbon is it's not going to hurt your wallet too bad.

Have you seen it in the store lately?

I have. I think it was $21.97 is what they were offering it for. Not a bad price for this bourbon. You know, they say it's world's highest rated bourbon on here. I guess they're pretty proud of that.

Well, they sell a few bottles, don't they?

Yeah, they, I'd say they sell a little bit. You know, I kind of feel like that. You know, you, everybody puts stickers and branding on their stuff. And, um, to me, I always like the, just let the bourbon speak for itself. If it's a good bourbon, then it's, then it's a good bourbon. And my idea of a good bourbon, it might be different than yours or our listeners out there.

Well, another reason I think it was good for us to, to, to sit down and just chit chat a bit. You know, we've, we've had a few distillers on lately. We've got another one that's releasing here shortly, but it seems like we were getting into a habit of interviewing a lot of industry people and it just seemed like a good time for us just to sit down and chit chat and drink a little bourbon together and maybe get away from that for a minute and talk about some different bourbons.

Yeah, I think, you know, we were kind of, it pulled off that bourbon road where we're saying, you know, we're experiencing the bourbon culture and we just were, we were doing some, just industry. But we're trying to get back on that bourbon road and, and let our listeners hear some different stuff and hear us just talk, talk to each other and kind of chew the, chew the fat a little bit, I guess you'd say. Right. And we would like some listeners to send some questions into us or Send some ideas into us. We want to hear your Bourbon Road.

We've mentioned it before. We've got this Facebook group. It's a closed group, but anybody can join. It's called the Bourbon Roadies. It's just a place where we hang out. Mike, you're in there a lot of times.

Asking questions and posting a little bit here and there and chatting with people and we've got about 40 about 40 members now Yeah, we got 40 40 members and we'd like them to comment a little bit more in there interact a little bit more We do we got some folks in there that they'll start a conversation for us and you know ver and I think he's up in Ohio He'll throw it out there for us sometimes

Well, it's a nice place for you guys to come in and ask us a few questions. Maybe we'll get to it on a show. That'd be nice. Or if you've got an idea on something you'd like us to review, or maybe somebody you'd like us to talk to. It's easy to get to. You can go to our Facebook page, The Bourbon Road, and on there, where it mentions our group, you can go to the group, The Bourbon Roadies, and if you ask to join, it'll ask you a couple of questions. And folks, I'm gonna be honest, these are questions you know the answers to. Are you 21, for example, things like that. So join up, we'll get you approved, get you in there, and you can start chat with us a little bit. We'd like to see some more people in there. 40 is great. Don't get me wrong. That's a good number of people, I think, for as short as we've been doing this.

I'd like to see somewhere around like 20, 30,000, I guess. I want questions from everywhere across the world. If you're not a member of that roadies group, like Jim said, go in there and ask to join. I know we got listeners in Japan and we got listeners over in Europe right now.

And Australia is blowing up right now for us.

Yeah. Hey, if you're out in one of those countries and you want to ask us a question, hit us up and join that group. And that's a good way to get a hold of us.

I mean, once we get enough people interacting,

then we'll look at doing some live stuff maybe, you know, maybe even give away some, uh, from some free, uh, swag, some swag, some bourbon road swag in the future.

There you go. Right now we're just giving away, giving away business cards.

So it was a busy month in September for, uh, for Kentucky and Louisville and a barstown, wasn't it?

Yeah. I mean, we were real busy. I know that we were bouncing around trying to do a lot of things and, um, we didn't get to bourbon and beyond this year, even though we wanted to, but we had, uh, we had some other stuff going on that we had to take care of, but we did get down to Bardstown to the bourbon festival and, uh, that was a blast. Had a good time there.

It was a great time. I got introduced to a bourbon mimosas down there. Yeah. And I'll tell you, we're about to take a trip down to Nashville. And I think in a car ride down there, we're going to have some bourbon mimosas for my birthday. So I'm pretty, I'm pretty excited about it.

Oh, we had bourbon mimosas on the show. This was, uh, pre-Mike, this was probably back, you came on around episode 18, is that right?

I came on as a guest, I think episode 18.

Okay, so I think it was maybe episode three or four we had Jeff Irish on, and he actually brought bourbon mimosas uh, for the second pour, I guess, second pour part B because he brought two, but, uh, and he made those with a written house fry. I remember that.

So, man, that's, that's some good stuff. I was, I was surprised that the city leaders were there at the breakfast and, uh, we're sitting down with them and just talking and, um, looked over there, big old jug of juice over there. And they come over here and get a bourbon mimosa with your breakfast.

That was, that was great. $10 breakfast, all you could eat. Sausage, eggs, biscuits, gravy.

You couldn't go wrong there.

And bourbon mimosas. I thought I was getting orange juice for sure.

It was a great festival down there. And then we went over and had lunch. Uh, that same day, we, uh, the, uh, barstown bourbon.

First time bourbon company, right?

Yeah. They're a bottle and bond kitchen and, uh, with two other, uh, another podcast and a YouTube channel.

Yeah. So we, we, we met up with, uh, with the bourbon lens podcast and we met up with the mash and drum whiskey room, which is a YouTube channel. And, uh, is that around drink? dusty, dusty bourbons and, and ate good food. It was really nice.

With, with a little bitty ketchup. I had fries and they brought me this. I tell you folks it barely fit in my palm of my hand. It's, it's tiny and I'd rather just had a couple ketchup packets. It was super small. It's kind of funny. We laughed over it a lot that day. Um, it was good fries, good food there. Um, you won't go wrong visiting them.

Yeah, so we got to attend a seminar on bourbon maturation with the Moonshine University people, the people from the Staventis Society, and that was really nice. We got to tour the Getz Museum, which was really kind of cool. Uh, we got to, what else did we do down there? We got to listen to, uh, Fred and Freddie know chat on the stage of Steve Coombs.

I was quite enjoyable to listen to the nose, uh, talk about bourbon and, um, listen to Fred give Freddie a pretty hard time on stage. He is, he is as, uh, straightforward as you can come. I guess it was the way to tell you about Fred. Um, the way I saw it anyways, he, he was quite funny.

Now, we've had Steve on the show just for a short interview before, but I think, you know, he's a heck of an interviewer. I mean, he did a great job that day, I thought. He's laughing a lot.

He couldn't stop laughing up there.

Well, Fred, Fred Noll will make you bust your gut with laughing, so he's a very funny guy. But yeah, I'd love to get Steve on again. And maybe next time we can sit down with him for an hour and really dive into what he does. And pretty cool guy.

Yeah. He's another guy that was just straightforward. And I like that about the bourbon industry, the bourbon culture, that most people will just sit down and talk to you. They're not, to me, too big for their britches. They don't think too much of themselves. And I love that. Maybe that's just Kentucky.

Well, we're sitting here talking about Fred and Freddie, no, and, and, and Jim beam and while we're drinking on this Jim beam black. And I just kind of want to summarize my feelings on it a little bit. Let's do it. I think it's definitely a step up from their standard offering. I think it's a little oaky. It's kind of drying on the mid-palate. It doesn't have a long finish, but what it does have is it's good. It's enjoyable. This is for the price. I think it's a good value. I think it's a good bourbon. I think you can sip this or you can mix it. Personally, I don't see a reason why I wouldn't keep a bottle of this on my bar. I mean, I have a bottle on my bar. I don't see a reason why I wouldn't have another bottle, you know?

Yeah, I think it's a good bottle to go out there and get, you know, and just keep on your shelf for guests or, like you said, mixing. It is a little oakier than their standard and it does have a That still has a caramel goodness to it, I think.

It might stand out in a mule, I think, you know? Oh, yeah. Yeah. All right. So I finished off my Jim Beam Black now. What do we got next here, Mike?

It's my old Forester, 1910. All right.

Let's pour a little bit.

Some of that old fine whiskey.

Yeah. So this is something that they came out with. Uh, last year and, uh, kind of underestimated the market on it just a little bit and didn't last on the shelves too long.

No, I'd say it's not easy to find. You can find it. You can find it at Churchill Downs. We know that for a fact.

That's right. That's right. So we went to Churchill Downs for an event one day and we were in one of the suites upstairs and the lady came in and said, what do you fellas want to drink? And we looked at the menu and they're not cheap. The bottles are not cheap there. You know, and they had that old Forester, I think the signature on there and it was, I don't know, the bottle of it was like $70 or $80, which was reasonable, you know, for getting it at the Churchill Downs. But she came back and said, uh, we don't have any of that in stock right now. Would you take a 1910 in its place for the same price? And we're like, yeah. Oh yeah. Absolutely. I don't, was there a drop left in that bottle? No, we finished it off and I think there was only four or five of us drinking it.

Yeah. Some good stuff. It was good. Let's, let's try this bottle right here and we'll see how it tastes. All right.

Now this is the, This is the second release of old Forester 1910. So, you know, last year, like I said, they released it and it, it really caught on quick and they sold out of stocks almost everywhere pretty fast and people were kind of upset. They couldn't get their hands on it. So this is this year's release and they promise that there's a lot more stock this time. Now this is an oaky, this is definitely an oaky, smoky barrel finished kind of bourbon.

A little less pepper on this one, but it's 93 proof. So you would expect a little less pepper.

Now the story behind the 1910 is there was some sort of a factory event, a fire, something took place back in 1910 at the old Forrester distillery and they had to tank and re-barrel some whiskey. And in that process, I guess the claim there is it was the first double-barreled whiskey, right?

I got a little story on the front about it.

Well, this is a very dark liquid compared to what we just finished, the Jim Beam Black. This is much darker, but that's because it's spent a little time in a second jarred barrel.

I'd say this is even a little sweeter than that Jim Beam.

It is. I think it's picking up those wood sugars from that second barrel. It's definitely got a little bit more caramel to it. Um, it's a little more syrupy kind of, I think, but it's definitely got that charred oak punch, I would say to it.

Yeah. I, uh, it's got some legs on it.

And the proof on this is what? 93. 93. About 10 proof higher than the last one.

Yeah. The last one was 86.

86 or 83.

No, it was 86. We now we're bumped it up to 90. 93. So just a little under 10, but still to me, it's not hot. It's a still good drinking whiskey.

Getting a little fruit and a little honey on it too. But I would say that the, the caramel, the vanilla and the oak just are very prominent on it.

I get that, that when I was a little kid, I'd, you know, you're walking along a fence row and you see some of that honeysuckle and you chew on some of that honeysuckle. I get a little bit of that. Yeah. Bring me back to my childhood there.

I, you know, this is, this is a good bourbon. I would like to do it. I'd like to do a blind side by side sometime with the 1920. The only problem for me is that the 1920 is 115 proof or 110 proof. I don't remember what it is. 110, 115 proof. And this is 93. So the proof would probably give it away, but I think it'd make a good, good blind.

I'd like to take a like four or five of their products and do a blind, like just to see how much of a difference there really is. And I think you're right. The proof is probably going to set them apart, but I bet you there's not a whole lot of difference in them.

Well, I've heard, I've heard that a few people that have taken the 1920 in the 1910 and they've mixed them 50 50 and they call it a 1915. So that's kind of a personal blend, you know, with the two. I haven't done that yet. I'd like to try it. I think it might be good.

You might have enough left in this bottle to do that.

Yeah. Yeah. I think I might have some 1920 over there too.

So we're going down to Nashville this weekend, right? Absolutely. Do a little honky tonking.

Taking the ladies with us.

You got your boots cleaned up?

My boots don't clean up. They're just rough. Just rough, huh? They're just rough.

Yeah.

So I don't have dress boots.

But you don't, but you don't wear boots every day. I don't. I'm a, every day I'm probably, except for days, 90 degrees outside, but usually every day I have a pair of boots on. I got my Birkenstocks on. Man, don't tell listeners that now. They're like, this bourbon drinker is wearing a pair of Birkenstocks. Little hippie.

I am in my basement.

So while we're down in Nashville, what are we going to do? What else are we going to do down there? Are we going to try to see a distillery or two?

Well, you know, you did reach out to Heaven's Door and they're not ready to receive people yet.

Man, but how awesome would that be to try to get Bob Dylan on and talk to Bob Dylan about bourbon?

But he's not there, right? I mean, is he?

I think he lives down there in Nashville. I mean, he's an artist. He's pretty famous for him and Johnny Cash collaborating together.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know a whole lot about that, but yeah, that'd be kind of cool. But, uh, Nelson's green bar distillery is down there.

Yeah. We should try them out for sure.

and they've got quite an operation down there. So yeah, that'd be a good place to go. They've got a lot of history behind the place. That is one gift shop that I'd love to go to because I think the history is told kind of in the gift shop and maybe a little bit on the tour there, but we might not have time for a tour. We might not be able to drag the ladies along with us, but I think that that'd be a good thing to do.

I'll tell you what I'm looking forward to is a place called Robert's Western Ware right there on the strip. And they have a fried bologna sandwich that is to die for. You get that and a bag of Lay's chips and a PBR and I think now for $6. And I know PBR is not really high on a bourbon community right now because they came out with their own little product there, right? Right. But still for, for $6 a bag of Lays chips, a fried bologna sandwich and the PBR at the end of the night, it just sets the mood.

So fried bologna, that's kind of a, it's if you've never had a fried bologna sandwich, you're thinking, are these guys crazy?

Man, you're missing out if you've never had a fried bologna sandwich.

Yeah.

You've never, you've never lived on the high horse.

That's a fine cut of meat. Yeah.

It's just, you know, I grew up with that. That's something I grew up with. There's nothing wrong with that. You know, I think, uh, some people might turn their nose up to it, but like I said, you're missing out if you've never had one.

Well, I've heard you talk all week about, uh, your fried bologna sandwich at Western wear. And then of course, uh, biscuit love, right?

Biscuit love. We're going to try to get some biscuit love. We might even try to have some Hattie B's fried chicken, some old Nashville hot chicken.

Now I mentioned Holler and Dash, but I don't know, we're going to make it over there. We can't do two biscuit places.

It's only, it's only going to be one night. Tomorrow night, actually we're going to another distillery. We're going to Jephthah Creed, jamming at the Jephthah tomorrow night. Yep. Tonight we're, we're going over to the barrel room here in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Have a couple beers, I think maybe even another bourbon.

And last night we were at JT's eating pizza and drinking beer.

Yeah.

You know, this is a four day, five day weekend for us.

I am big chief deserves a big weekend.

Well, what do you think about this old Forester 1910? Won't you give me the rundown on it?

No, it's a, it's very smooth. Like I said, not over peppery. It's got that not burnt caramel, but a dark caramel, a little bit of chocolate in there.

Maybe get a little toasted marshmallow.

Yeah, I'm not a big, I guess I am a, I'm not a burnt marshmallow guy when I'm sitting around a fire. I'm a, I'm gonna eat a marshmallow. I like to sit there and try to get it as toasted as possible, you know? So yeah, I could taste that. Um, the oakiness on this is not overpowering and a still a great bottle. If you can find this, try to pick it up, but we still say, Hey, if you can't afford it, you know, don't, don't grab it.

You know, I think I've seen, I've seen the old Forester 1910, at least on the second release. anywhere between 55 and $65. So it seems like the price is a little bit higher this time because people realize that, hey, you know, got a little scarce the last time. And they, you know, so I would say pick it up. I think it's worth it. It's good.

That might be over somebody's price. So like you said before, your money, your bourbon, your way, you know, you know, but we're saying if you, if you can afford it, then You know, you say, Hey, I want to go buy a bottle of whiskey in around that 50, $60 range. And you see this. I wouldn't, I wouldn't skip a beat by buying it.

Yeah. I don't think you'll be too upset about it. And certainly if you like the 1920, this is different. This is not the same by any means as the 1920 release. Uh, but they're both quality bourbons. And I think they both in that, for me in that $50 range or so, whatever the price is seems like it's, it's decent. I mean, it seems like a good pickup. So yeah.

Let's uh, cheers. Let's finish this.

We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Loghead's Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Loghead's Home Center, nestled in the hills of Kentucky, is an industry leader in building hand-crafted rustic furniture. Family-owned and operated, they take pride in offering only the very best for their customers. The Logheads, and that's what they like to call themselves, are skilled woodcrafters who are passionate about creating rustic furniture for people who appreciate the beauty of natural wood. Owners Tommy and Gwen don't just sell the rustic lifestyle, they live it. And you can be sure that Loghead's furniture will always be handcrafted in Kentucky by artisans who embrace the simple way of life. Loghead's rustic furniture is made from northern white cedar, a sustainable wood that's naturally rot and termite resistant. Its beauty and quality will add warmth to your earthy lifestyle for generations to come. Be sure to check out everything they have to offer at log heads, home center.com. And while you're at it, give Tommy and Gwen a shout on Facebook or Instagram at log heads home center.

All right. So we've got, um,

Finished off our little glass here of the 1910 and got another glass here sitting with the Henry McKenna bottle and bond tenure. Man. This is actually an older bottle. It's been around for a while. It's about time we finish it off, but this particular bottle here was barreled on June 6th of 07. So that would make it a 2017 hitting the shelves bottle. So it's a couple of years old, not too old, but a couple of years on the shelves. So rightly so, it's getting a little low. Barrel number 4648. For being low, you poured a heavy pour.

I'm awful sorry about that, big chief. Oh man. I'll tell you what, I already sipped on it. Oh my God, this is some good bourbon.

So I spilled a little bit on my hands when I was pouring it and then it dries up and I bring my hands up to my nose. My hands are dry now, but I bring it up to my nose. And man, it's 100% over the top, cinnamon toast crunch, granola, just cinnamon sugar, butter, brown sugar. But that's just my hands. Let's see what the actual bourbon smells like.

Man, I'm telling you it's good.

Man, I'm getting a little bit of warehouse, kind of musty, dusty kind of smell to it.

In the glass, it definitely smells a little bit different. Yeah, in the Glencairn, right? The nose on it will definitely fool you in thinking, well, I don't know if I'm going to like this or not.

But you know, that's the great thing about single barrels and the Henry McKenna Bottle and Bond is a single barrel Bottle and Bond. The great thing about that is, It's good and it's bad. I mean, the good thing is you never know what you're going to get. So it's kind of like opening a present on Christmas morning when you open a bottle of this stuff. Uh, the other thing is every now and then you'll get one that's not quite up to par, you know, but most of the time they're pretty darn good.

I haven't had one that's bad yet. Maybe I'm just like, maybe I got lucky every time.

Yeah, I've had, I've had them that have, So I think I did a review a while back, and I think I mentioned this on an earlier podcast, but you know, I did a review on the Henry McKenna bottle and bond and I said, you know, sometimes they're good, sometimes they're great, and sometimes they'll bring a tear to your eye. And I haven't tasted this one yet, at least today, but let's see what...

I beat you to the punch. Heaven Hill, they always seem to put out some great stuff, right? Yeah.

They've got a lot of labels. A lot of labels.

Do you know the story about Henry McKenna?

You know, I really don't, honestly. I think that it's probably worth a blog article. What do you think, Mike?

Maybe. We'll have to talk about Henry a little bit.

Yeah, the Henry McKenna is a bottom shelf offering. You can find it in just about any store in the country. But the Bottle and Bond is something that you have a hard time finding anymore since it's won so many awards.

You better make a relationship with your local store owner or manager. And make sure if you can get a bottle of this, I'll tell you for the price. And I think you can find anywhere from 35 up to, you know, I think $45. I think some places a little higher.

It just depends on the scarcity of it and how much demand, but you know, honestly, I think what happened with me was I had, um, I had a store owner, local store owner that bought 20 or 30 cases of this stuff a few years ago. That would have been probably 2017. And I got a bottle of it and I thought, wow, that's some delicious stuff. There was two or three different barrels that he had in that 20 cases. And I asked him if I could build a couple of cases out of those different barrels. And he said, yeah, sure, no problem. So I went ahead and went through the cases and I picked out three or four different barrels and built me a couple cases of it. And I stuck it in my storeroom down here in the basement. And I've been pulling from that for the last two years.

Well, you're pretty lucky because you ain't going to go find a bunch of cases of it now.

Not anymore, not anymore. But you know, it's still, it's still a good pick when you can get your hands on it.

What I, I guess the thing that kind of angers me about, uh, about this bourbon and it's not the bourbon itself, but it somewhat takes a beating on social media from people saying, Oh, that's not good bourbon. It's don't waste your money on it. Um, once again, hey, your money, your bourbon, your way. Right. I don't think I've ever went on social media. It's like, oh, that's, that's trash bourbon or that's, I don't like it. Or, you know, there's a, there's a better way to say that, you know, to me, um, you know, both me and Jim drink bourbon and we both like it. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, there's some bourbons that aren't in my profile. There's some things that drink where I'm like, you know, Not really my thing, but I can understand where somebody else might really, that might be the jam. You know, um, you know, I'm not a big fan of younger bourbons, but I've had some younger bourbons that are really good. The heaven hill bottle and bond is something that, you know, you can always count on being pretty solid. I think it's, uh, It's always kind of a caramel, baking spice, rich, all-spice butter, cinnamon kind of notes to it, but sometimes a little bit more towards the baking spice, other times a little more towards the oak. But there's always, uh, there's always a bit of a surprise with each bottle.

A little creme brulee. Yeah. Man, that whenever I drink that, it is so this especially this bottle right here. It's super smooth. Nice drinking. Nope. Very little pepper on it at all. I could sit here and just sit and drink this all day long. Yeah.

Yeah, I think I'm down to a little bit less than a case now of it. And I've got two or three different barrels left. And I think maybe three different barrels left. My favorite so far is barrel 4416. This is barrel 4648. Good stuff.

I got a couple of bottles at home. I'm, I'm, I'm pretty excited to go see my son in December. He's a station with the air force down in Shreveport, Louisiana. And, um, he loves some plans, but I want to introduce him to some different bourbons and I'm not taking one of these bottles right here. And, um, hopefully he'll, he'll have a great respect for it and enjoy it.

You know, when we were, um, When we were down in Bargetown, we got to see a lot of the old labels, old bottles. I think the old Henry McKenna bottles were a couple we saw up on the shelves there. I really would like to know kind of the history behind it. I think that would be kind of neat to find out a little bit about old Mr. Henry McKenna, who he was and what he did.

I think that's a cool thing about bourbon and the bourbon culture. learning about bourbon lore and stuff. And I'm always, as you know, I'm always digging on, on a bourbon history and trying to find out about things. This past week, I spent a lot of time reading about T.W. Samuels and you know, that is most probably some of our listeners have heard. That's one of my unicorns to get as a glass bottle brand new T.W. Samuels, which is hard to find here in Kentucky, even though it's made right here. You could find it in the bigger plastic jug, right?

You know, Scott from, uh, bourbon lens, he found a bottle of it, but that was, that was a dusty bottle, wasn't it?

Yeah. He, they, they, they got me a little bit there. They were like, Oh, just, this is just for you, big chief. And man, I got all excited. I was like, these guys are all right. You even told them, thank you. I did. They definitely got me. So little payback in the future guys, a little bit, just a little bit of payback.

Yeah. So I'm enjoying this a lot. I think that, you know, as we work our way up in proof, you know, my personal preference is higher proof bourbons. So as we work our way up in proof, I think I'm going to enjoy these a little bit more and more. This is our third one. We've got another one after this.

This right here is for me, this is it, you know, 100 proof. And this isn't a weeder, you know, this isn't a wheat bourbon, right?

No, this is a, this is a normal, a rye bourbon, but it is sweet.

Or maybe that's cause we had a couple of boards already, but not, I usually have a pretty happy person when I start drinking a little bit of bourbon. Um,

Well, what's left in this bottle right here, after we have these pours, is going to be perfect to add to my infinity bottle.

Now, for our listeners that are newer to drinking bourbon and they might not know, they might have bought themselves one or two, because I know we got some new listeners that haven't drink bourbon before and they're just trying to ease their way into it, right? Yeah, new bourbon drinkers. What exactly are we talking about? Infinity bottle.

Okay, so as you drink down your bottles of bourbon, as the amount of air in the bottle gets to be a significantly larger portion than the amount of liquid left in the bottle, let's say that the bottle gets down to about an inch in the bottom, you start to risk the possibility of oxidizing the bourbon or getting some off flavors in it as it ages. A lot of people will take the small amount left in the bottom of the bottle and they'll pour it into another bottle and they take the various bottles that they're finishing off and they just keep adding to that other bottle and they keep that other bottle near full. And that's called your infinity bottle. It basically is just a concoction of all the bourbons you've been drinking.

whatever's left in the bottom of the bottles. And most people put the infinity symbol on that bottle, right?

Or they'll label it their infinity bottle or whatever it is. Yeah, I've got a big infinity symbol, which is like a sideways eight on the front of my bottle. And, you know, right now my infinity bottle is so tasty that I've actually been drinking it down a little bit.

Man, I've drank from that infinity bottle and it's, it's pretty dang good. I might be personally, um, I saw a bottle the other day on Amazon and I'm like, man, I'm probably going to get that bottle right there. Cause I can get an infinity, the infinity symbol, uh, with an anchor in it. It's kind of symbolized, uh, coast guard, coast guard and being a chief. And, uh, that'd be my infinity bottle. I'm not quite where Jim is on his collection. I think is the man has a store room full of bourbon.

Well, we have an understanding in the house here. I have two shelves on my bar cart and when there's room, I can put more bourbon on it. When there's no room, I need to stop buying. If I'm able to pull a few bottles out and pour them into my infinity, that opens up some room. It does.

You got some pretty nice bottles over there, I guarantee. I always feel bad if I take something, but I'd tell you, if you ever get a chance to sit down with Jim and come over to his house and he says, hey, let's go down to the basement and have a pour, you will not be disappointed because he's going to let you pour from anything on that cart.

Open or not. I mean, if it's not open, we're going to open it.

Yeah. It's a, to me, that's what it's all about. Pretty, this stuff right here is, I can't say enough about heaven hill and, and you know, so they, they discontinued a heaven hill bottle and bought, right? They did the six year. Right. But they're re releasing this, this, uh, coming up month.

Yeah, in October, so it is now October that you and I are sitting here. Now, I'm not sure when this episode will come out, but yeah, so the Heaven Hill Bottom and Bond, the seven year is released. I don't know all the states that it's released in. I can tell you this much, Kentucky is not one of them.

Maybe Tennessee was one of them. We'd get lucky enough to pick up a bottle.

I do know that they released in New York. They did release in Colorado. It just so happens that my son lives in Colorado. I could probably reach out to him and have a bottle hidden this way pretty quick, but we've got a lot more releases that are happening during the month too, though. You've got Buffalo Trace's antique collection coming out, right? All the antique collections, so the William LaRue Weller, the Eagle Rare 17, the Thomas H. Handy, the George T. Stagg, You know, the Sazerac, Rye, all of those are releasing this month.

You got old big boy coming out too this month, right? You got the Pappy.

Well, it's scheduled to come out this month. Usually it's kind of late in October when it comes out. Let's see what happens.

Well, they want this weather to cool down, I think. Tomorrow's supposed to be pretty nice though. It's supposed to be in the seventies and a low of 52. So I think that's gonna be pretty good.

Yeah, and Fort Gate just released their Outer Loop Orbit last month. And then this month, they're supposed to release their foundation, which is a 10-year Kentucky straight bourbon. So I'm kind of looking forward to that too. Their offerings have been pretty darn good.

Now, I'm excited about November's releases. You got Elijah Craig coming out with both their 18 and 23 year. I'm super excited about that.

And those are, you can get those. I mean, you just need to go down. If you can't find them in your local store, you can definitely get them at the gift shop.

At their gift shop. And folks, if you haven't been down there, they have a great gift shop, great tour. Probably one of the best tours I've ever been on at a distillery.

Now, also in the month of October, we've got the little book Number three, which is coming out as well, which is chapter three, I guess, is what you would call it. And this time, it's a blend of their favorites. So this year, it's going to be a blend of some nine-year-old Knopp Creek, some nine-year-old Basil Haydens, and a little bit of 11-year-old Bookers, and some 12-year-old Bakers. Bookers, bakers, basil, and knob Creek, all going into this year's little book. It's not going to last on the shelves. I'm telling you chapter three, little book. You better, if you see it, you might want to grab it.

So what you're saying is, is, you know, September's bourbon heritage month. Yeah. But really October's the big boy release month.

It is. October is the big month for releases and you know, that'll bleed into November. You know, a lot of the stores will get that stuff and then they'll, they'll have, uh, you know, lotteries and release parties and other stuff to, to let that stuff go out in November and even, even into December as well. So that stuff will, it's going to be coming available throughout you know, the rest of the year. Another thing that's coming out, and this is pretty cool, I can't talk too much about it, but in November, Woodford Reserve is releasing their Masters collection, their next issue of the Masters collection, and I'll tell you this much, I've already had it. You know, I had an opportunity to go into the Rick House with Elizabeth, and we got to drill some barrels, and one of the barrels we drilled was what is going into the bottle this year for the master's collection. And it is absolutely phenomenal.

It's going to knock your socks off. You better not say too much. Elizabeth should put a whooping on you now.

Yeah, I'm not going to say anything else, but I will say this much. Look forward to this year's master's collection release. It's going to be something else.

Well, Mike.

So this is our last pour of the episode. What do you, what do you got for me today? All right. So this is not something that you can just go out and buy at the store. This is something a little special. So this is a blend that I developed for myself. It was good. Let's call it Jim's house blend.

I'd probably call it, you know, you got a little age on you, you know, wise, like a little old wow.

Old hoot, maybe. Yeah. That's the name of it. Old hoot. Old hoot. Old hoot. So this is old hoot. And, uh, I honestly don't know how many blends I did before I came up with this, but at some point I arrived at this blend and I called it blend five a and, uh, I've got. I've probably done a couple of cases of this so far. So I buy bottles from a bottle supplier, and they're the same bottle as the Stag Junior. If you ever looked at these bottles, you can see they're the same as the Stag Junior bottle. And then I had a buddy of mine who used to design labels for Blanton's. the Blanton's bottles. He designed this label for me and he made a label that I could write on and everything. It's really, really sharp. So this is kind of a thing that I do. I blend this up a couple of times a year and I give it out as gifts. And you know, because I gave you one of these bottles for your birthday.

I can't thank you enough. I thought that was pretty special. You know, I came over here the other night to just shoot the crap of Jim and we start talking. He's like, Hey man, I got something for you. And he ran downstairs, the basement comes back and he has this bottle of, I'm telling you, it's golden darkness. I don't know. Nice amber to it.

So it is, uh, yeah. So I, so this particular bottle is Blend 5A. It's batch number two, bottle seven of batch number two, and it's 100 proof.

How do you know it's 100 proof?

Because when I put it together, I calculate very carefully based on the volumes that I add together what the proof is going to be at the end. So this is a blend of It's a private blend of Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. So everything that's in this is Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. But Mike, no matter how much you ask me, I'm not going to tell you what the parts are in it. And the reason is it's not because I'm trying to protect it or anything like that. I'm trying to make it, I want it to be special. When I hand a bottle out to y'all, I want you to just wonder forever what the heck's in it. I don't want you to know what's in it.

I bet I could guess a couple of things that are in there.

All right. Well, you're welcome to guess all day long, but I'm not going to give you a nod of acknowledgement.

It might have a little wild turkey 101 in there.

Well, Wild Turkey 101 is my go-to, but that doesn't mean it's in here.

I think I can taste it in there.

So why don't we go ahead and treat this like something we're tasting on air. Let's do it. And see what we come up with. Now I'm going for the nose first. I get sweet cherry, caramel, a little bit of oak.

I get that cherry to it. Yeah.

A little bit of something a little bit darker, like raisins or something, but it's, um, it's not overly sweet, but it's got a fruit sweetness to it.

Yeah, I wouldn't. Whenever you, you taste it and I'm sure you have tasted this cause you planted it, but I tasted it and man, it's got a punch in the back on the back end. It's got a punch. And that's why I said it's probably got a little bit of that wild Turkey in it.

Now it is. Yeah. So it's peppery on the back end a little bit. Got a little bit of a, um, it carries that Oak back there too. And that, that kind of tannins a little bit, but it doesn't dry you out.

No, I wouldn't. Your mouth still, you know, you still got that. Hey, I can, it lingers there for a while with you. So what do you think about Jim's blend? I think Jim's blend. Let me, let me think about this for a second. I can taste the honey in it a little bit, a little caramel-y goodness and stuff. That back end, you know, real peppery. It'll definitely punch you in the mouth, as I like to say.

So does it taste like it's a hundred proof or above or below? I'd say it's like a 110. Yeah. It drinks a little bit warmer than it is, doesn't it? Yeah. That's one of the things I was surprised about. And it, and for me, you know, I'll be honest with you, I'm, I'm a high proof kind of guy. I like the higher proof stuff. So when I was able to create a blend of my own liking that was only a hundred proof, but drank like 110 or 105 or 108 or whatever, I was pretty, pretty pleased with it. I think it's got a good oak flavor to it. I think it feels like it tastes, you know, it tastes like it's, If you had to put an age on this, if you had to say, Hey, this is six year, this is eight year, this is 10 year. What would you think? I don't know if I'd put age on it.

I'd probably give it a. give it a name. I'd call it the Hank, Hank Jr. bourbon or something like that. You know, like, you know, I think that Henry McKenna is like a Johnny Cash. Um, but then you got Hank Jr. that just kicked the stage lights out and let us let her rip. That's, that's this bourbon right here.

It's pretty good bourbon.

Maybe I'll just start giving bourbons that drink country names.

Well, guess what? You know, as long as you are my good friend and you're in my good graces, you're going to get a bottle of this every year. So be good.

Just be good, huh?

Be good.

Man, Jim, I think, uh, you did, you did fine job on blending some whiskeys and try to squeeze some of these out of you and see what, uh, see what you blended, you know, over the years, you'll do it. Something slip. I don't think so. I think I already got one of them.

Yeah.

Well, that's good.

I mean, I would highly encourage Mike, I would highly encourage you to play a little bit with this. It's really fun to do. And the same to any of our listeners. It's really fun to do because this is something that the distilleries cannot do. For example, and this has nothing to do with what we're drinking, but Knob Creek and Heaven Hill, Bottled and Bond and Wild Turkey 101 are never going to release a mix, right? It's never going to happen.

Don't ever say never now.

Well, they're not going to do it.

But you might see a master mix between Woodford Reserve and Old Forrester.

Well, they are owned by the same company, a little bit of Jack Daniel's too, right? Well, you put a little bit of that in there. But we're able to do some things in our personal blending at home that the distilleries can't do. We can bring together the positive notes of a Heaven Hill mash bill and a Knob Creek or Jim Beam mash bill in a Buffalo Trace mash bill, we can bring those together into a personal blend and make something that's totally ours. And you know, throw it in a decanter. And when people come to your house, you pour it out and you say, hey, this is my blend. And you're, you know, you're more than welcome to talk about what's in it. The only reason that I don't say what's in mine is so that that mystique is there when I hand it out as a gift. That's the reason I want, I want you to wonder what's in it. I don't want you to know what's in it. I'm not trying to protect it. Honestly, I could care less. I just, I just want you to feel like you're, you're always searching for what those components are.

Hey, I get that. You know, that's kind of like doing a blind taste. You're searching for what it, what it truly is. And you know, you get a little respect for out of it and Hey, hopefully one day I will create a blended, a weeded bourbon. Well, I would, I would expect that from you. Yeah. There's going to be some weed in there somewhere. Always, always some weed. I'm always searching for that next weeded bourbon or next weeded whiskey that just, just will blow my socks off, you know? And Hey, we, you got some ship to us, right? That's right. We do. I cannot wait to taste it. Everybody look for a view in the future on that, that bourbon. I'm not going to tell you what it is. Um, but, I'm hoping it is good as it's sister and brother's products there.

Yeah. So we don't, we don't normally do reviews on the podcast. We drink bourbon, we talk about it a little bit, but we don't necessarily review it as, you know, we're not giving it a points or a thumb up or saying, go buy this or.

I wouldn't say we do that on the podcast itself. We're not, you know, we're not other podcasts. We're not, not bourbon experts or anything like that. But I will write a review every once in a while and it's not your typical review. It's a little bit different. You know, it's cut to the chase. Cut to the chase. Let's talk about it. I always like to talk a little bit about history or, um, There's always a story behind bourbon. And if I think the bourbon tastes good, and if it's a great bourbon, I'm going to make that bourbon sound sexy. I'm going to make you want to drink it. And that's the art of, I guess, writing or something.

Yeah. So I mean, if anybody that listens to our podcasts have not gone to our web page and read our articles, Mike writes some pretty darn good articles. I appreciate that. You know, he kind of dives into each one of our guests a little bit and kind of explores and talks about, you know, because there are people, honestly, let's face it, there are people who do not listen to our podcast that do read our blogs. So, you know, it's another outlet for us.

I think what I'd like for us is, and me and Jim have talked about this, There's bourbon drinkers. There's people that just, they'll focus on out drinking neat, but I'm looking for that fringe person. That person that's like, you know, I'd like to try that, but I've probably been burnt by whiskey in the past or I didn't drink it properly in the past. And that's that person we want to bring back into our, our culture. You know, and that's how I think that's how bourbon survives, you know, cause are we riding a wave right now? Are we at the top of that wave? Um, is it, you know, is it the boom going to bust pretty soon here or can we bring in those French people and let them taste what we're tasting?

All right, so Mike, we've been drinking a few bourbons here tonight, and this has been an episode that's just been about you and me hanging out as pals, sitting in the basement. This is something that just you and I are doing, and I think we'd like to implore our listeners to do a couple of things. We'd love for you guys to check out the Bourbon Roadies. Come on to our closed Facebook group, ask to join. Come on in, say hi, introduce yourself, and tell us what you've been drinking lately. We'll interact with you. We'll have a good time. The second thing we'd like you to do, if you enjoy the podcast and you think we're doing a good job, is to go into the review section of your podcast app and give us a review. We'd just like to hear from you. We'd like to know what you think about what The Bourbon Road is doing. You know, if you, if you like the direction we're going and you enjoy our shows, if it's something that you think, uh, you can support, we'd love to hear it from you. Tell us, tell us, let us know. Good feedback, bad feedback. I'll tell you what, if you got bad feedback, go on our website, send us a contact form. Let us know what you'd like to change. You've got good feedback. put it on iTunes for us, put it on your podcast app, let them know that you enjoy what we're doing and that will let other people know. that we're out here and we're doing a good thing.

Follow us on Instagram too. You know, go to at the bourbon road or find me at one big chief or jshannon63. Follow us, leave us comments. You see our episodes or you see our, usually a daily post on there or find one of our stories. Leave us a comment. Tell us what you think. You'll see some pretty interesting stuff on there. Sometimes you'll see me talking. on a live video of where we might be out on the Bourbon Road and we're finding something new that you might be interested in doing while you're out doing distillery tours or we're out eating somewhere and having a great old fashioned or something.

We're very approachable. So if you're in Louisville, you're down here and you're visiting the town, We'd love to hear from you. You know, we'd love to share a dram with you out in town if that's possible. We're trying to build a very close relationship with our listeners. So if you guys will take that first step and reach out to us, I think you'd be surprised.

I think the other thing I'd like to throw out there is if you like our podcast and you like our blogs and our reviews on Instagram and you like that kind of stuff and you have a friend, uh, that's listens to podcasts and likes to drink bourbon or fixing to take a trip to Kentucky. So, Hey, I got a podcast. You might want to listen to these two fellows right here. Uh, they just sit down and shoot it straight. That's right.

Well, Mike, we've had four great bourbons tonight. The last one, kind of special, a little bit. Oh yeah. But all good, all good. From the start to the finish, I've enjoyed them all. And I hope we get to do this. At least every month or two be fun.

Oh yeah. Well, Hey, let's uh, let's finish this bourbon up. We'll go eat some wings there in Shelbyville and drink a couple beers or drink some bourbon there at the barrel room and uh, enjoy our evening with our wives. What'd you say? That sounds good. Let's do it. All right. Cheers buddy. Cheers.

We do appreciate all of our listeners and we'd like to thank you for taking time out of your day to hang out with us here on the Bourbon Road. We hope you enjoyed today's show and if so, we would appreciate if you'd subscribe and rate us a five star with a review on iTunes. Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at The Bourbon Road. That way you'll be kept in the loop on all the Bourbon Road happenings. You can also visit our website at thebourbonroad.com to read our blog, listen to the show, or reach out to us directly. We always welcome comments or suggestions, and if you have an idea for a particular guest or topic, be sure to let us know. And again, thanks for hanging out with us.