278. Leipers Fork Cask Strength Single Barrel 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?

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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, purchase from this guy, veteran owned, veteran operated, making a veteran built product.

Hello everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. This is the bourbon road. And today, Mike, it's another craft distillery Monday. You and I are avoiding the heat. We're inside air conditioning. Kind of relaxing with a good pour from one of our favorite distilleries.

Yeah. I don't think I can drink this outside right now. I think the heat index is 101 today. That's pretty hot.

I know Melody sent me the other day to go buy a fan to put in the garage to keep our dogs cool. This is so hot outside. Can't even let Woodrow outside. He's got his winter coat on. And today she came in and said, well, that one fan is just not getting it. I'm going to go buy another one. So now there's two fans over there. pouring wind on the dogs from two directions and they're all laying on the floor in a garage just in a crosswinds. It's pretty damn hot. Yeah, it is. Yeah.

Uh, well today you're right. This is one of our favorite distilleries. Uh, and we love them to death and we were down in Tennessee at Leapers fork and, um, our good buddy, Matt King, Forrest Gump, a whiskey handed us a bottle and said, Hey, I'd like you guys to try this. Uh, it's going to be in our gift shop on 4th July weekend, but he's like, I really want to know what you guys think. So Matt, if you're listening to this, we're going to let you know what we think. Uh, listeners, this is a single barrel cast strength whiskey. Um, it's 70% corn, 15% wheat and 15% barley. Um, this one comes in, at a 110. That's got some kick to it, Jim, I think.

This is not hot weather whiskey.

No, and this is actually one of their oldest barrels, listener. This is five years and three months old. I'm looking at the juice, Jim, and this sucker is dark. It is. For listeners out there, if you haven't been Leapers Fork, they don't have a bunch of rick houses and stuff right inside their steel house. And I mean, it does get cooking up inside there. You can go to sweating pretty fast up in there, but that's where they keep all their barrels at. Jim and I have spent plenty of time up in there, right Jim?

Right. It's one of our favorite places to go because it's just, it's just downright beautiful there. I mean, it's just a gorgeous spot. I mean, the buildings, the property, the, that old dog run cabin that you always talk about. Yeah. It's just, it's just a, it's just a great place. Music playing on the front porch with cocktails and the nicest people you ever meet.

Yeah, I don't think many people would match them in hospitality across the whiskey community. If you're a new distillery and you want to know how to start a craft distillery and what it should be like and how the hospitality should be, I'd tell you to reach out to Lee Kennedy and his team at Leapers Fork. Pay them a visit. and really see what it's all about. I mean, it is, like Jim said, it's a stunning property, amazing team, and their whiskey is not half bad either, Jim. I'm going to say this is probably going to be a pretty nice barrel. Heck, we got a barrel that's down there, aging. And I think it's over six months old now.

Yeah.

Well, we just got to wait, Mike, be patient. I'd like to taste some of that just to see what it tastes like. But, you know, I'm really happy we got this, Jim, you know, leapers fork does hold a special place in both of our hearts. Um, but heck, let's give it a fair review. Let's do it.

Let's do it. So this is a five and a half year old, 70, 15, 15, Lepers fork whiskey. This is a bourbon or a Tennessee whiskey. This is a bourbon, a weeded bourbon at that. Okay. This is a weeded bourbon near and dear to Mike's heart.

Man, has that got a rich nose on it?

Yeah, it does. It does. It's, it's definitely sweet. It's a little sticky. It's sticky outside, but inside it's nice and cool in this air conditioning, but the nose on this is a little sticky.

Yeah, I'd say that too. I, you know, that not the Fig Newton cookie itself, but the pace they make out of the figs and Fig Newton. I get that, that with a fig on there, maybe some Hershey kisses.

Do you think it's 110 proof? Yeah. 110 proof. But not a whole lot of alcohol in the nose. Yeah. It's not attacking my nose at all with that alcohol.

I'm getting a lot of rich honey on this. Like if you ever opened up a jar of honey and smelt that honey, um, some rich, warm leather.

Not a little bit of age on this. You get that now. Now I always say Leapers Forks got that special spicy profile. That's kind of unique to them. You don't really get that anywhere else. If you haven't had a leapers fork whiskey, I think once you try it the first time, you'll find out how special it really is. Their profile is unique in the business. It is a little bit kind of on the spicy side, a little bit kind of, uh, almost a Christmas spice in a way, but you get a nice, deep, rich sort of candy sweetness from their whiskies. And that's so true in this right here.

Well, beautiful nose. I'm hoping the taste match it.

Cheers, Jim. Cheers. I'm like, you're drinking from a Glen Karen. I've got a, uh, a tulip glass that had a little bit of spice to it.

It's all of 110 proof for sure.

Yeah, Mike, there's definitely a little bit of spice in this and you know, it's surprising because, uh, being a weeded bourbon, you know, all that you'd think all that spice has got to come from the barrel.

Yeah, that must be a magical barrel right there. Cause it's got some pepper in it for sure. If you like a spicy whiskey, this will be it right here. It's got some sweetness. It's sticky. Like you said, Jim, even on the palette, that fig is there for me, um, without the seeds though, you know, you get those little fig seeds, but this doesn't have that. Um, but I'm getting all that, that honey, you know, if you, you ever took a spoonful of honey and just ate it, um, I've did that several times. Uh, that's what I'm getting from this.

Yep. And I'm getting a little bit of like kind of a scorched molasses, you know, it's, it's kind of a molasses has been cooked to the point where it's maybe a little bit of it stuck a little bit of it scorched. Um, it's that barrel influence, I think.

Do you think that could be part of that, uh, that pot still that they have down there too? I mean, they've got a beautiful pot still.

Yeah. I think one of the beautiful things about a pot still is the fact that it lets a lot of those, uh, Those components pass through, they get stripped out on a column, right? And a lot of that extra body and texture and, uh, some of those extra flavors that kind of don't make it through on a column still can make it through on a pot still. And it just makes a beautiful whiskey. Yeah.

Just the, just that molasses on this, that rich, dark honey flavor. Um, the figs in this right here, I'm getting all that even, you know, that creaminess, uh, because it's so, there's no drying on this at all. There's no bitterness. Um, I really like it.

Yeah. They've got something special and you know, Mike, we've talked about this. If, if you go to Lieberts fork and.

You take a visit there and they're, they're just about what 20 to 30 minutes outside of Nashville, 20 minutes. Yeah.

And, uh, so if you go down to Nashville for a nice weekend and what a great drive it is to head down to Franklin area, uh, head out to Leapers Fork was just outside of Franklin and maybe get yourself a sandwich over at Puckets and then head into Leapers Fork and, and do a distillery tour. And, and, and when you're in their shop there. Pick yourself up a single barrel bottle, right? Cause it's extra special.

Yeah. I mean, single barrels are, they're, they're one of a kind. This is going to be one of a kind, but. I think Jim, what you said before was true. All their whiskies have that, that Christmasy flavor, you know, of a nice fruit cake, rich and delicious with some spice on it and stuff. And the team down there hats off to the team down there from Kendra, Greg, Matt, Lee, April, Mackenzie, the whole team down there. It is a labor of love. They handwrite their labels and stuff. You won't see a frown down there at that place for sure, will you?

That's for sure. I've said a couple of times in the past, Mike, that I felt like the Leper's Fork whiskeys were Willett-esque, which meaning they kind of remind me a little bit of Willett, you know, and the spiciness of a Willett bourbon. And they're not the same. Don't get me wrong. They're not the same as Willett, but they remind me of them. And they're very unique. And I think that If you're looking for that uniqueness, if you're looking for that something special, if you're a big fan of Willets, you like that spiciness, I think you'll love Liebers Fort.

Well, Jim, I'd tell you something this reminds me of right here, this bottle. Um, you know, I got a bottle of foolproof Weller up on my shelf up there. Mm hmm. And I would say this would compete with it all day long. Um, that's, that's some high praise for leapers for, um, but for a weeded, weeded bourbon, if you can't get your hands on a well, our foolproof well, our 12 year old, uh, antique, um, go out there and find a craft distillery that's making weeded bourbon and try that. Um, you can't get your hands on a bottle of Pappy. Uh, I don't know if there's a Pappy out there that tastes as good as this.

Absolutely. Well, Mike, on August the 6th in Franklin, Kentucky at the factory, You and I are going to be there.

Yes, sir. We are. We're going to be there for the Southern whiskey society. Now we won't be in tuxes or anything for that.

No, we're going to be in shorts and sandals probably. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Uh, but we're going to be down there with our good friend, uh, from maids South, Chris Thomas.

Yes, sir. He throws out all the stops, right? He's going to have chefs there. He's going to have distilleries there. Uh, it's going to be a grand time. Uh, go to maidsouth.com. Get your tickets before they sell out because yeah, tickets come with a bottle, right? And guess what?

There's going to be some pretty epic bottles there. Well, if you show up, you get a ticket, um, you're going to get a bottle, but there's going to be another, uh, pick there too, for sale. Uh, not going to tell you what it is, but you're going to want to go to this place and get that pick. I tell you what, if you, um, buy that bottle, if you're going to Southern whiskey side, you buy that bottle and stuff. Um, me and Jim will sign it for you. We were on that pick. Um, I'm sure Chris would sign it too. Just an amazing bottle of whiskey. I can't tell you what it is yet. So, um, Jim, I don't know if you get enough whiskey in me that night, the big bad booty daddy might show up.

Well, I think we'll probably be hanging out there. We might even record an episode. So we've talked about it. We've thought about it. There may be an opportunity there for us to actually record an episode on stage during that event. We'd love to see the roadies come out. We'd love to see our listeners come out. If you're not doing anything that weekend, that weekend of August 6th, you want to go to a very fine, well-done event with good food, good whiskey, great people, Definitely go to madesouth.com and find your way to get a ticket to the Southern Whiskey Societies event down there at the factory. You won't be sad. That's for sure.

No, I don't know how you would be sad if you showed up and you get to hang out with Jim and I. You get to hang out with Chris. There'll be other fine folks there from across the nation. you know, celebrating a whiskey. Jim, I can't think of a better whiskey than this Leapers Fork Distillery Single Barrel to be released on 4 July there at Leapers Fork. America's native spirit. It shows that you know, American made American true. There are still people that believe in that dream, right? Absolutely.

And what a good friend there. Uh, Matt, he gave us a bottle of this sort of snuck it over to you and said, go review this, my friend. Uh, I'm glad he did because I really enjoyed this one a lot.

So Jim, I'd say this has a long finish on it to me, medium to long, long. It sticks with my palette for some reason. Maybe it's just the viscosity of it and those oily bourbons always get to me. Those non-chill filters like Bruce Russell was talking about. I'm going to start looking for those even more now. Non-chill filter to me really does mean something. I know this is non-chill filter because we've, we've sat there and watched it go into the barrel, right? There's no, there's no chilling going on.

That's absolutely true. And this is, this is a pretty dark whiskey. So I'm holding it next to a very well-respected bottle of bourbon here and holding it right next to it. And I've got this sample bottle, which is one 10th the size and they're the same color. And that's just amazing. Just amazing to me that a sample bottle of four ounces can have the deep, dark, rich color of a full 750 milliliter bottle of some very fine whiskey. Oh yeah. So yeah, pretty amazing.

Well, we talked about being in black ties, Jim. I mean, you're going to be at that USA Cares gala July 23rd. And our good friend, Rhett, he makes furniture out of bourbon barrels. He's actually donated one of his rocking chairs to USA Cares and they're going to auction that rocking chair off at the gala. You want to check out usacares.org and check out that event so you can see that rocking chair. You can also find Rhett on Rhett Barrett Burbin on Etsy if you want to check him out, check out his work. I'm telling you, I've seen a lot of Burbin furniture, Jim, and it is the finest I've ever seen.

It's really good. It's very heavy. So, I mean, if you're going to get a piece of that, you want to make sure you bring a truck to take it home because it's not light, right? It's very heavy furniture. It's going to last a lifetime.

Yeah, there's no doubt about it. Folks, I'm telling you, if you really want this chair, Rhett went out of his way. He's actually delivering it to USA Cares this Friday. They'll put it up on their website. I'd really be glad. This guy had just started his company last year when we were burning on the banks. He needs your support out there. American made furniture out of a American product that sometimes just goes to waste. You want to talk about something to have on your front porch, Jim, this would be it right here.

Absolutely. Well, Mike, I just want to close out the show and say that this is just an amazing bourbon. They continue to impress me every single time I end up with one of their bottles. They continue to be a, a show favorite. A lot of it has to do with how unique their profile is, right? I mean, it's just unique. Yeah.

You know, we always talk about. People say, hey, Jim, what's your favorite bourbon? Mike, what's your favorite bourbon? And both of us always say, it's something we haven't had yet. That's that new thing we're always searching for. But sometimes you keep going back to the same place for a reason. It's why I go to Weller. It's why you go to Wild Turkey. And it's, but the reason we both go down to Leapers Fork is because there's something very unique about their whiskey. Folks, I'm telling you, telling you, you're missing out if you're not going to visit this place right here and getting a bottle of their whiskey. It's well worth the price on it. I think this is going to go anywhere from 75 to a hundred dollars. I'm not positive on the price, Jim. But before our post, I'll make sure I have the price on there for you. Awesome.

You know, as I, as I continue to sip on it, I'm starting to pick up a little bit of a chocolate note and, uh, wow, that's just, uh, very nice, very nice whiskey. Well, Mike, where can people find us on the internet?

Well, Jim, you can find us at tech talk, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. Uh, our main place is on Facebook. We have a private Facebook group called the bourbon roadies. We wish you would join that. You got to be 21. You got to like bourbon and you got to agree to play nice because we don't tolerate any rudeness. You know how we do it. If you drink from the very bottom of the shelf like that old tin high that I drink all the way to the top of this shelf like Jim drinks, old George T. Stag if he can get a bottle. Hard to get these days, but that's what he likes. But what we like is that you not knock what people are drinking. What our group is for, is for people to celebrate life, birthdays, graduations, even deaths. Celebrate somebody's life, raising glass to their life, and say what a great life they lived. That's what we like to do, don't we Jim?

Absolutely. We do two shows every week. We do a craft distillery Monday episode every Monday. Surprise, surprise. Just like today, you know, we're taking a look at this Leapers Fork single barrel bottle here, five and a half years old, 70, 15 and 15 on the mash bill. They felt this was pretty special. I have to agree that it is. Uh, you know, it's funny, you know, the longer you drink on a bourbon, Mike, the more notes you can pull out. And at the very end, I started pulling out some chocolate off this. How about, how about that? Well, well, Mike, we do two shows every week, one on Monday, one on Wednesday or Wednesday episodes full length. We usually have a guest on, or we'll have a series of bottles that we'll go through. We'll have a topic that we deep dive on. Mike, what do they have to do to make sure they don't miss a single episode of the bourbon road?

So listeners, you want to scroll on up to the very top of that app, hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe sign, whatever you got to do to subscribe, hit it. Um, I'll let you know, we have a show coming out. Then what you want to do is you want to scroll on down and hit that five star review. Go ahead and leave us some comments. We'd appreciate that. But you know what's going to happen if you don't, the big bad booty daddy of bourbon is going to come over to your house. He's going to bring some of this Leapers Fort Nostillery single barrel cask strength with him. You'll drink it all night long. By the end of the night, you'll almost be talking like the big chief. You'll leave us that five star review and some comments, but seriously, those comments, those reviews, open up distilleries, doors to Jim and I like Leapers Fork, gets great guests on our show, gets great whiskey in our hands like this Leapers Fork single barrel. We'd really appreciate it.

We'd love to hear from our listeners. Like we've already said, it's pretty awesome when somebody has an idea for a show or they've got a, a guest they'd like to have us bring on, or they've got a bottle from their local distillery that they'd like us to try. We'd love to hear from you. We're very approachable. Hop onto our website, go to that contact us page, send us a note. Mike and I'll jump all over it. We'll get things going. You can always send us an email. I'm Jim at the bourbonroad.com. He's Mike at the bourbonroad.com. Like we always say. Yep. Our DMS on Instagram. I'm Jay Shannon 63. I'm big bourbon chief and we'll see you down the bourbon road.