272. James Ownby Reserve Tennesse 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?

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.

Well, we hope everybody's having a wonderful Monday, the Memorial Day, and finishing up that wonderful Memorial Day weekend and enjoying yourselves, spending time with family, friends, enjoying a few pours. But make sure you take a few minutes to remember what Memorial Day is all about. It's all about those service members who have sacrificed the ultimate sacrifice and given their life in service to their country. It begins back in the Revolutionary War as we earned our independence from England up until today and the fighting that's going on around the world. Please remember our service members and the sacrifices they give and enjoy your time, but remember what it's truly about.

Hello, everybody.

I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is the Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, it's another craft distillery Monday. But on this craft distillery Monday, we've got kind of a I would say a pretty well known distillery that is not necessarily known for bourbon.

Yeah, they're known for making some of that shine. I think, uh, old smoky, you know, they're out of Tennessee. You can get it up there in that Gatlinburg area, or you can go to Nashville and check them out. They have another shop down there, I think in a Civerville and we're going to get to that. But before we get to the whiskey gym, I got to give some shout outs here, man. Um, to our listeners around the world, we are always giving a shout out to our USA listeners, but. I thought it'd be nice to give a shout out to Hong Kong. You guys are rocking it for us. Keep us high in the charts over there. And then our listeners in Australia, we really appreciate you listening to keeping us high in the charts. I thought I'd give those two places a shout out, Jim. You know, it's always amazing to me that we got people around the world listening to us.

Yeah, we're in, we're in over 40 countries and, uh, pretty much all 50 states, but yeah, it does. It blows me away that we've got with listeners around the world that like to, like to tune into you and me, just chewing the fat, drink a little bit of whiskey, but Hey, I mean, everybody loves bourbon, right? Everybody likes whiskey, not everybody, but the good people do.

The good people do most certainly. Um, so, you know, we got July 23rd, we got USA cares gala coming up. Uh, if you want to help us out with that, we're trying to get bourbon for the bourbon pool that that's for veterans, uh, when they're in need or even a service member. We actually had one of our listeners, Gary Hiles, uh, actually sent us two single barrel picks. from Smoke Wagon Jim for USA Cares. Humongous gift that he gave to USA Cares. Gary, we really appreciate it. Two other events, Jim, that I want to throw out there. You know, me and you're going to be down at the Southern Whiskey Society on August 6th. If you want to get your tickets for that, Jim and I went down and we did this amazing pick. I've already put it on social media. We went down and picked one barrel. that will be part of your ticket, but there's a second special barrel, right Jim?

That's right. Absolutely. And we're not going to talk too much about that second barrel because it is a bit of a surprise, but Chris Thomas and his crew and us got together and did this pick.

And I think if you miss this event, you're going to be sorry. I think so. That's a pretty amazing second barrel that we tasted and picked. You want to check that out. Go to madesouth.com. You can buy your tickets on there. Also, we have bourbon on the banks. That's our big blowout of the year, really. I think next week we'll be able to announce our sponsor. October 1st, you can go to Bourbon on the banks to pick up your tickets for that. And we're going to have some giveaways for that shortly. I promise you that there'll be some tickets and some other items. So look for those. But Jim, you know, this whiskey is calling my name, man. It's calling my name. What do you know about old James Owenby?

Well, I know that James Ombee, the namesake of this particular whiskey was a revolutionary war. Let's just call him a hero, a countryman fought for our nation's independence. He was one of the over mountain men that fought under Colonel, was it Colonel Severe, I think. Might have been Colonel Sevier. Most likely, I would say, who Sevierville is named after. But I'm not 100% sure about that, but I can draw my conclusions anyway. But he was a family member of those from Old Smoky and certainly somebody that they want to celebrate. And what better way to celebrate somebody's amazing life and great sacrifice for our nation than to name a whiskey after them?

That's a, that's a pretty big honor. Now, people that are scrunching your nose right now about old smokey, I want to give you a little knowledge. Uh, and this is off the old Google net right here, but, and this will shock some people. Most people would probably think the Kentucky bourbon trail, um, or the, a distillery in Kentucky, or maybe another distillery in Tennessee, or maybe one of the distilleries over there in Scotland would be the most visited. a distillery in the world. It is not. I'm reading this straight off the internet people now. You know, some stuff is false in there, Jim. You got to believe it though. But Old Smokey Distillery is the most visited distillery in 2021. They had 5.7 million people visit. That is, that's crazy.

Well, I think last year's numbers, the 2021 numbers for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail were about 615,000. So Think about that. 600,000 or so in a year to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail or 5 million to Old Smokey. That's pretty amazing. Now it is a destination. It is a place that people go on vacation. It is teaming with people all the time.

Yeah, you got Gatlinburg, uh, which is a destination. And then you got Nash Vegas, which is another destination. We've, we spent some time up in that old smoky distillery in Nash Vegas and we had a great time. They also have their beer there too. Uh, I just, I love it. Um, but I was lucky enough to run into these guys over at the, uh, Tennessee whiskey trail experience gym, uh, two weekends ago. And, uh, seeing Garrett there, big old guy. I mean, he is, I'm six foot three and he's a, he has to be seven foot tall. He's every bit of seven foot.

He towered over you in that photo, Mike. Hopefully you're going to post that photo with this, uh, with this episode.

Yeah, probably will. Uh, I, I really liked those guys. Uh, they both got him and his wife got a t-shirt from me, a bourbon bullshitter t-shirt. Um, but I really liked them, but this whiskey right here, 4.7 years old, Jim, 94 proof. Um, not that's still, they've been making whiskey for awhile.

Yeah. So they've been making whiskey since, what was it? 2009. I think it is. So they've got a little bit of experience turning grain into liquor.

Yeah. That undisclosed mash bill. Um, I tried to get the mash bill out of them. Um, I was hoping they would send that to me. Look real fast as just to make sure that this is a Tennessee whiskey.

This is a whiskey that is a charcoal filtered just like they do use in the Lincoln County process. And, uh, I tell you what, I I'm already hitting it, Mike, because you're just talking too much. So I decided to go ahead and take a nose on it. Well, tell me about it. I don't want to steal your thunder. I want you to have a chance to taste it before I talk about it.

Well, let's talk about the nose. Tell me about the nose.

The nose is real light. So, um, it doesn't have an overwhelming nose. There's not a lot going on there. It's kind of a light and airy nose. It's definitely has a sweetness to it. A corn sweetness, a grain sweetness, sort of a cereal note. It doesn't have any kind of youthful note to it. It's not off putting it all at four years, seven months. I think that's a good age for a whiskey. But it definitely does not burn the nose at all. So there's no ethanol at all on it. So this is going to be, in my, in my opinion, a very easy drinking whiskey, something you could sit down with and have a session.

Now on this right here, I get a little bit of oak, um, a little bit of leather in there, but also get some sassafras or root beer or that, that other old school candy we like, um, that whore hound.

Yeah. I get a little bit of new Oak. I get a little bit of chart Oak in there too. You're right.

What about a, I get a little bit of a burnt caramel, you know, that's maybe just a little bit too much. You know, I'm always saying that kettle cornea get in front of, uh, like Cabela's or something or to fair.

I'm just saying we're getting an awful lot of notes for something that I said was a little light on the nose. But when I mean light, I mean, there's no bite to it, right?

It's a nice, no, there's no, that's not the ethanol that you were talking about. It is light on the nose. It just has, you know, as it's set in the glass for a little bit while we were talking, it opened up a little bit. Um, very beautiful. Well, heck cheers, Jim.

Cheers. Yeah, it's nice. It's not overly sweet. It's got a nice middle of the palette, uh, presentation, a little dry, got a little bit of spice, a little bit of burnt caramel. Like you were talking about. The oak's not overpowering, but it is dry. It does have a little bit of that tannic note to it. A little bit of spice, more of a white pepper, maybe a little bit of black pepper.

Yeah, it's got a little bit more spice than I thought it would have for 94 proof. It's drinking more like a hundred proofer. I still get that oak in there, you know, and maybe that's that color we're getting right there. And I'm kind of surprised if this is, if this is aged up near Gatlinburg or not, that would have been nice to see where their rick houses were. If it's up in the mountains, does that change everything a little bit?

Well, I would, I would be pretty sure that you get into those, uh, those smoky mountains over there and, and that, that climate and, and the altitude, especially if you're storing it up in the mountains, right? Definitely those cool breezes in the night. I bet it, I bet it definitely affects the aging process.

I get a little bit of toasted marshmallow on this. Um, quite, quite shocking on that.

Yeah, this is an easy drinking whiskey. I definitely going to say that this is sessionable. This is something you could sit down with a three 75 bottle all by yourself and just spend the night at the fire and you'd be just fine.

Yeah. I'm getting a little grainy Smith apples on that. You know, that granny Smith apples that got that little bit of bite to it. Um, that we were talking about that dryness.

Now, looking at the bottle for this, Mike, it's a pretty impressive package they put together for this.

Yeah, I was looking at some other bottles on my shelves and it mimics the orphan barrel bottles from Luxro. It's almost the same bottle, or I think it is the same bottle. Nice embossed label, very beautiful. They put a lot of work into it. Um, they got Gatlinburg, Tennessee on there. This is a Tennessee straight bourbon whiskey, 94 proof. Like we said, $40, Jim. Um, you can actually find it for 39 99, but MSRP is $40. Um, that's not a shabby price for this.

It's interesting to have a whiskey that, that is both that you're saying it says on the bottle, Tennessee straight bourbon whiskey.

Yes, sir.

And then at the same time, it is produced using the Lincoln County process, so it's also a Tennessee whiskey.

Man, there's some controversy coming up there.

There's some controversy there, isn't it? Actually, I think that's truth in labeling right there, right? Because all things are true, right? That's all true. It's just certain Tennessee distilleries choose not to call their Tennessee whiskey bourbon, even though it qualifies. It qualifies.

I actually heard a master's that are super respected. I had to walk away because it was just driving me insane, but he said, I'm not going to say who it is, but, and this is down in Tennessee, said that Tennessee whiskey is a flavored whiskey. because it takes on some of that natural characters of the charcoal maple that they use in that Lincoln County process. And I was like, I better just walk away. I don't have time for this discussion right now. I mean, he's the master stiller at his place. Um, good on him, but this does, you know, they're very upfront about their whiskey here. Um, it does use that Lincoln County process. And I point out there are several, uh, Kentucky bourbons that also use, uh, charcoal maple, uh, to filter their whiskey with one of them being Edra Brooks. Um, so would that be considered the Lincoln County process here in Kentucky?

Yeah, I would say for the most part, all bourbons are charcoal filtered to some extent, right? Because they're, they're in a charred barrel and they're going in and out of that charcoal all the time. But in the Lincoln County process. they're filtering the white dog before it enters the barrel.

But once it goes in there, right, Jim? Once it goes in there, it's going in and out of the woods. So it is, like you said, the barrel is what mellows it out at the same time, depending on the char. That's what that Lincoln County process does. But like I said, there's Kentucky distilleries that do the same thing. And I could say that the distilleries that are using, let's say, mixtures, we've been inside their distillery, right? And we saw their filtering process.

Now they're using filter pads. They don't use charcoal to filter, but anybody that's ever seen a barrel dumped has seen the bed of charcoal that lays in that dump tub and how that whiskey is filtered through that charcoal all the time. So charcoal and whiskey are, well, they're good friends. They're always good friends. The question here is whether it's done before it goes in the barrel. While it's in the barrel or after it's out of the barrel, uh, it's all coming into contact with charcoal.

I would say this, uh, mean you were down on leapers fork, um, before and they use, they have a Lincoln County process there also. And mean you got to taste some of that, that white dog had it run through that. And I didn't taste nothing maple-y in that. Did you?

No, absolutely not. I think it just, it just knocks the sharp edges off the white dog. I think is all it does. I don't think it really adds any flavor. If anything, it strips out some flavor. So.

You know, the only thing about this bottle right here that I can knock them for, and I really can't knock them for, is it's kind of probably gets overlooked because everybody else is reaching for, you know, pineapple moonshine or apple pie or the pickle moonshine that they sell or cherries or any other flavor that they have. Now there's so many different ones. It's kind of sad for this one because it probably gets overlooked by a lot of people unless you're a a whiskey nerd, I would believe.

Yeah. I would, I would say that's probably true, Mike. Um, but you know, old Smoky, not only can you find it in Nashville and in the, uh, Gatlinburg, Sevierville, Pigeon Forge area, but you know what? We go right down the road to Total Wine. They got it there. Most of our liquor stores in the area have old Smoky products on the shelf. Uh, I don't know what the distribution yet is of the OMB, the James OMB whiskey, but I would say it's probably going to make its way around to all their normal stops.

Oh, I can almost guarantee it will. Man, I can't say enough good stuff about this whiskey, Jim. I'm super impressed with it. For $40, if you're in the Gatlinburg area, Nashville area, you want to pick up some authentic Tennessee straight bourbon whiskey, this is the bottle you need to grab right here for $40. It's a buy for me, Jim.

All right. Well, I, you gave me a nice four ounce sample and, uh, half of it I use for this, uh, recording this episode, the other half, I'm going to go out and finish my, uh, pork, but I got in the smoker tonight and sip on the other half of that. So it's, I'm going to have a real session with it.

I'll have to drop off the whole bottle for you, Jim. We'll do that. I've been lucky lately. We need a fire is what we need. We need to have a fire. Well, Jim, another great episode of, we can't call this place a craft distillery because they have 5.7 million visitors, but A really nice distillery that has a couple locations. Check them out. I'd say you call that crafty.

They're crafty.

Crafty.

If you can get five million people into your shop in a year, you're pretty crafty.

Yeah. You're doing something right. Heck. They actually had one of the nicest booths down there and they treated me and Viv super nice. I can't say enough thank yous to Garrett and then his wife also. They're both rocking that bourbon bullshitter t-shirt. Speaking of that, Jim, where can our listeners find us at?

Well, you can find us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter. You can find us on Facebook. You can find us on our private Facebook group, the Bourbon Roadies. You can also find us on TikTok. We got a website. I mean, you're going to trip over the internet. We're everywhere. I mean, we're everywhere. So if you just type in the Bourbon Road, you're going to find all kinds of stuff. We put out two episodes every week and As a result of that, we got a tremendous amount of content out there. We got a ton of blogs on our website. Mike is killing it on Instagram and Tik Tok. We got a great Tik Tok video. He just recently put out where he's drinking straight from a barrel. I mean, literally folks drinking straight from the barrel. First time I ever saw that. That's pretty, I have never seen anybody do that.

And I asked them if I could do it and they're like, Hey, do whatever you want to do. Uh, I had thought I would get more whiskey out of that thief and I didn't know how to use a whiskey thief, being honest, very well. So I didn't get that much whiskey in there for people that are worried about how much whiskey I was consuming. There wasn't that much in that thing. Jim would attest to that.

All right. Well, we do two shows every week. Every Monday we do a craft distillery episode like today's, where we shine the light on a craft distillery doing good work. Well, I think the crew down at Old Smoky is doing a fine job. They're putting out some great products. They're getting some penetration into the market. Now they've got a Tennessee straight bourbon whiskey that, in our opinion, I think is one to add to your bar. Every Wednesday we do a full-length episode. We'll have a guest on. We'll drink several expressions. We'll go for about an hour. We'll get you two working back. We hope you listen to both shows every week, but just to be sure that you don't miss one of those shows, Mike, what can they do?

Well, they need to scroll on up the top of that app, whatever you're listening on, whether it's, uh, Amazon, whether it's, um, on our website, whether it's on, Apple, whether it's on Spotify, you want to scroll on up to the top, hit that plus sign, that subscribe sign, that check sign. That app will tell you, hey, these two jokers had a show just came out. Then we need you to scroll on down, hit that five star review. You know, we'd really appreciate it. Leave some comments for us. We love those comments. Tell us what you liked about the show. If you didn't like something, tell us. I'd rather get a personal email about that though, but you know what's going to happen if you don't. The big bad booty daddy of bourbon is going to come to your house with his James O and B. Hell, he'll probably even be carrying some of the old smoky moonshine with him. You guys will drink it all night long. Heck, me and Jim might even show up. We'll have a good time. By the end of the night, you will leave us a five star review. Leave us some comments, I guarantee. But seriously, those comments, those reviews, open up doors to distilleries for us. It gets great whiskey in our hands like this James O and B. We would really appreciate it.

Well, we love hearing from our listeners. Mike told you how to leave a review for us. And we always appreciate that. But, uh, if you just want to shout out to us, if you just want to let us know about a distillery in your hometown is doing it right. Or a person you think might be a great guest on the bourbon road show, uh, hop onto our website, go to a contact us page, fill out a comment box and send it to us. Mike and I are very approachable. We'll get back to you. If you don't like those websites and you like to send emails. I'm Jim at the bourbonroad.com. He's Mike at the bourbonroad.com. Kind of like we always say, probably the easiest way to reach us is to hit up our DMs on Instagram. I'm jshannon63. I'm Big Bourbon Chief. And we'll see you down the bourbon road.