266. Basil Hayden Subtle Smoke Bourbon Review

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

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 got to 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. 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, it 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 a beautiful day outside. Yeah. Derby's over though. Post-derby, right? Post-derby. First post-derby day today. So today's actually Sunday after the derby. Yeah, everybody's relaxing today. We get a chance to take a breather and enjoy a little bit of the weather, the good weather, which didn't happen during derby.

It was nice and like 55 degrees yesterday.

Yeah, it was chilly and But we had a great time. We went to a derby party and you drank a few cases of beer.

Yeah, just a little bit. I was having a good time. Sipped on a little bit of bourbon. Yeah. Two good, really, really good bourbons. It was a good night last night. I broke even on money. Well, I made $3 off the Derby.

Well, anybody that goes home with more than they came with, it's a win, right?

Well, I didn't come home with more than I went with because my ice chest was empty. Oh, okay.

That's true. That's true. You had a whole lot of beer in there and we didn't leave until you drank that last one.

I had to have that last one.

Well, today, Mike, we get to relax a little bit, enjoy the weather. We're out at Jephthubin Farm kicking back in here. Viv's out of town. We've got a pretty interesting bottle today for our review. I think there's going to be a little bit of excitement about this one.

Yeah. So what we got today to review is the Basil Hayden Subtle Smoke. Now this thing is, they did a little bit different. You know, it goes into a secondary barrel, but what they did was they took in toasted it and lightly charred that secondary barrel. And then they took hickory chips, lit them on fire, got them smoking, and they pumped that smoke into that barrel. So they smoked the barrel. Yeah. With hickory. With hickory.

Now this is a little bit of Freddie No. You know, Freddie's gotten behind this bottle here. He played a little bit with the Basil Hayden toast, right? In general, I think Jim Beam was playing with his line just a little bit, right?

I think so. You know, they rebranded it really. You know, it doesn't have that. What would you call that? It was on the old Basil Hayden bottles. Like an apron. Yeah, it just kind of was dangling there. It just looked bad. This new one, it looks really nice. And they've got a lot of information on this bottle. Now, we got to be upfront and honest, Jim Beam sent us this bottle right here.

Yeah. And before you get too excited, folks, it's still 80 proof. Yeah, that's all it is. And it probably will always be 80 proof.

Yeah, I think this is their standard Basil Hayden, you know, there's nothing special about this mash bill or anything. It is what it is, right? I like it. I like the bottle.

Now we haven't tasted it yet.

This is supposed to make it a little bit smoother. So they're pretty happy about that 80 proof still. And people were probably wondering about that. Why, why, why?

Well, there's not a lot of smoky bourbons out there. I think there's been a few people that have played with it a little bit, but I'm kind of excited to try this. And I think, you know, our listeners are always looking for something new and interesting to try. So, You know, Scotches typically are, uh, some of them anyway, are smoky and peated and, um, Hey, let's get ready to drink a smoky bourbon. What do you say? Let's do it.

You getting that smoke? Little bit. Not overwhelming though. Some caramel in this sucker.

Yeah, very much. A lot of caramel, a lot of sweetness on the nose. I'm getting a little bit of smoke, a little bit of, um, kind of a fresh minty, a little bit of a minty note.

And that's been a minute since I've really smelled a bourbon and thought, man, this is all vanilla, but this is that almost that Mexican vanilla you'd bring home for vacation.

Well, it's checking the right boxes for bourbon right now. And it's not, it's not, um, it's not blowing me away. Like they, they really pumped a lot of smoke in there, right?

There's there. It's there. It's it's oaky. You know, it's got that toasted marshmallow nose to it. I'd say it's subtle. Smoke is subtle on the nose. That's what they wanted though. Yeah. Well heck, let's let's cheers. Cheers.

Not a huge amount of sweetness when you, when you taste it.

A little butterscotch-y there. A little bit of butterscotch. Like that old butterscotch that's on your grandma's table.

Yeah.

Been there forever. Yeah, antique butterscotch, whatever you want to call it. It's light.

It's, it's, it's a little watery, but, but not, well, it's, it's no different than any other basil I've eaten as far as that goes.

Yeah. It's going to be that with that 80 proof, right? Um, but it's got a hug on it.

It does have a hug on it. And there's a little bit of sizzle on the tongue.

A little bit. Yeah. That, that pop rocks is just a, They're just a hint of it. Um, I'm still getting that. I'm getting just a tad bit of smoke and that subtle smoke, you know, they hit the nail on the head with the label.

You know, it kind of reminds me a little bit, not the flavor profile is totally different, but the amount of smoke in this kind of reminds me a little bit of Long Branch. You remember how that mesquite kind of charcoal kind of just laid in the back a little bit on Long Branch? I could get that.

I'm getting that, uh, them cinnamon toothpicks again on this right here. You know, that just that wood and the cinnamon together. Um, maybe that's that sizzle I'm getting from this.

Well, I am so glad that they didn't go overboard on it because it could have gone, I think it could have gone wrong had they put too much smoke in there. This is, this is the right amount as far as I'm concerned. It's really kind of dark though. When you look at the liquid in the bottle, I'm surprised, you know, that it has that much darkness, but I guess that secondary bearer finish added a lot of color to it.

Yeah, you would think that, you know, it would bring it to the table and stuff. Now for this bottle, it's not bad, Jim. You can get this around $50 to $60. Okay. That's not a bad price for a basil Hayden. I know people either love it or they hate it. It seems like it.

Well, you know, I think it is a love-hate kind of thing with Basil Hayden. And one of the reasons obviously is the 80 proof, you know, and rightly so. I mean, we're bourbon drinkers. We appreciate bourbon. And in order to get bourbon down to 80 proof, you have to add just a little bit of water to it. And it's diluting it down a little bit. So some of those flavors, some of those textures, some of those things are going to get can get watered down a little bit, but I'll be honest with you, this one seems about right to me. This seems right because I'm drinking it and analyzing it for what it is. It is an 80 proof bourbon. It is an extension of the Bezel Hayden line. We've come to expect those 80 proof bourbons to have a certain mouth feeling texture.

This is a little smooth though, isn't it? Yeah, it's, I mean, it's a really nice drinker. I'm totally shocked by it. This might be one of my favorites so far, besides the Knob Creek's out there. But if it was just the regular lineup of Jim Beam stuff, this might be, it hit the nail on the head for me.

Now you like this one better than the Toast?

That's tough. That's a very unique.

They're very different.

They're very different. This one's got that darkness to it, to me. And you pointed that out with the juice. It just brings something different to me.

You know, I would say on this one, you know, just my take on it is this, this is something very unique. You haven't had anything like this before. Uh, if you're totally against Basil Hayden for some reason, if you've always, if you've already made up your mind that an 80 proof bourbon is not going to be in your closet, then there's nothing I can say to you here. Yeah. But if you're open to this experience, I would highly recommend you give it a shot. This is something that, uh, you know, I would say add it to your bar. But don't, I mean, if it ends up on the secondary, don't go pay an extra money for it.

No, I wouldn't pay extra money for it. This is a limited release, so it's not going to be out there long from what we understand. I would go buy a bottle of this just to have it. I think if you're a new bourbon drinker, you're looking for something that's not going to just blow your palate out of the water. This right here is that.

And the smokiness is just, it's not a smoky bourbon. It's just got a hint.

You know that it just feels like that campfire, you know, when you're breathing that campfire in, or if you walk into somebody's house that has a wood burning fire, that smell, that aroma that you get from a wood burning fire, you get it with this right here. And I burn a little bit of hickory. I know you do too. So you'd know what I'm talking about. If you have that wood burning fire, you're going to get it in this right here, get it in the glass. It's not overpowering, but it's there.

Well, it'd be nice to sit down with Freddie and just get, you know, pick his brain on what he was thinking here. And well, you know, kind of what brought him to hit this, this expression.

Yeah. Well, another great review, Jim. I think this has a, uh, I wouldn't call it a medium. You know, this is, uh, slow to medium, you know, um, it's not, it doesn't sit on the pallet very long, right?

No, it's, it's, it's not, uh, it's not a long thinker. You need to get another set pretty quick, but, uh, it drinks easy and, uh, it would be great for, uh, somebody who's not, um, Not into the more bolder bourbons and high-proof stuff. Somebody just wants, give me something that's not going to set me on fire. Give me something that's good. Give me something that's unique. Let me try something that I can find if I want to get it.

Yeah. I would have liked to seen this in a real early fall. It would have been a great bourbon to have. you know, September, early October when that dew is starting to form, even early spring, you know, you got to kind of worry about that dew in the fall and stuff. But this right here would be perfect for that time of year.

Yeah. Another great bottle, Mike. I think people ought to keep their eyes out open for it. And if you don't plan on putting a bottle on your bar, at least belly up somewhere and have a pour.

Yeah. You know where there's going to be some great bottles at, Jim? On July 23rd, we're going to be at USA Cares Gallup, dressed to the nines.

Dressed to the nines. I've heard dressed to the tees and dressed to the nines. What's the difference? I'm not sure. I'm not either. Okay. But this time we're going to be dressed to the nines.

We are. We're going to be in Texas. We'll be dressed up. We'll be there. We are actually helping them curate for a bourbon pool. There's a lot of nice bottles in there. And then they have a silent auction too with a bunch of nice items. Rhett, the barrel maker up in Northern Kentucky, he's donated a a bourbon rocking chair, some of the best bourbon furnitures I've ever seen. Um, we actually have one of our listeners, Doug, if you're listening out there, buddy, he is actually taking a photo. I took, um, I called it riders in the sky. It was three Blanton's bottles and there was a storm in the background. It looked like they were riding across the sky. He is actually painting that. Um, and we're going to pair that with a bottle of Blanton's. Um, so you could, auction that. Now you're asking, what does USA Cares do? So what we're trying to do is help our federal veterans out, service members that actually need that hand up. Not a handout, but a hand up. Times have gotten rough and everybody knows what we're talking about out there right now. They have a mortgage payment they can't quite make. They have a car payment they might not be able to make, electric payment, medical bills. That's a big one. And not all veterans have medical insurance. So the USA Cares will step in and help out for that. It's a great cause. You want to donate some bottles for that bourbon pool for the Salon Auction? Just hit me up in the DMs. Like we always say, I will get your address. Whether on Facebook, Instagram, you can reach out to me. You can find me. We would appreciate your help. That's July 23rd. So we still got a lot of time left to get bottles to us.

All right. Well, Mike, where can people find us on the internet?

Man, you can find us on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter every once in a while. We'll put our episodes on there and stuff. Heck, we might have to do that a little bit more. Put a little bit more on there. Facebook and Instagram, that's our two main hangouts and stuff. You can also look out for us on our private Facebook group, the Bourbon Roadies. A lot of people in there. Three easy rules. What are those rules, Jim?

Yeah, you got to be 21, no underage drinking. You got to acknowledge the fact that you're entering a bourbon group and you will play nice because we won't accept any rudeness in that group. We've got three moderators in there that keep a close eye on things. If you get out of control, if you say negative things to people, if you start chopping somebody off at the knees for what they're drinking, chances are good they're going to tap you on the shoulder and ask you to leave. We'd love to have you in there. Come and share your pictures, share your drinks, share your bottles, share your stories, life events. We just love it. It's a great group of people. It's somewhere around 3000 people in the group having a great time and celebrating the spirit we love so much.

Yeah. Well, we got a couple of shows a week. The way you find out about those shows is make sure that you go up to the top of that app, hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe sign. That app will let you know, hey, these two guys got a show that has come out. Then you know what I'm going to say. Go ahead. Scroll on down, hit that five star review, leave us some comments either on Spotify, on Apple podcast. You can even leave us a review on Amazon. It's pretty easy. Leave us those reviews. If you don't, you know what's going to happen. The big bad booty daddy bourbon, he's going to come to your house. He's going to be dragging Woodrow the whiskey dog with some of this Basil Hayden in his hand by the end of the night. You're going to give us that five star view. I guarantee. But seriously, those reviews, those comments help open up doors to distilleries. It gets great bourbon like Basil Hayden, subtle smoke in our hands. I know me and Jim love it when them FedEx trucks roll up. Oh, yes, trucks roll up. dropping whiskey off to us.

Definitely do. We'd love to hear what you think about the show. Like Mike said, leave us a review. But if you've got an idea for a show, if you've got an idea for a guest or a bottle that you would like to see hit one of our episodes, make sure you drop us a line. You can go on our website. There's contact us page there. You can also send us an email. I'm jim at the bourbonroad.com. He's mike at the bourbonroad.com. But like he said a few minutes ago, and like we always say, probably the best way is to hit up our DMs on Instagram. I'm Jay Shannon, 63. I'm Big Bourbon, Chief. And we'll see you down.