315. The Story of Filmland Spirits

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.

Hey this is Big Chief and you're listening to The Bourbon Road. You know what I love to pour in my old fashions? Is a little maple syrup. It can't be just any maple syrup. It has to be from seldom seen farms up in Ohio. He takes bourbon barrels. pours his syrup in there and ages it for six to nine months making for some delicious just some delicious syrup that you could pour on pancakes you can pour it on waffles chicken and waffles like this fat guy likes but seriously you want to make a delicious cocktail with some maple syrup and not that old simple syrup check out seldom see maple.com pick up some stuff from there today we'd appreciate it Hey, this is Big Chief and you're listening to The Bourbon Road. Yes, we are on the road again and we're at Neat Bourbon Bar and Bottle Shop. Barstown Road in Louisville. You need to come check out this little bar. Quite quaint. They've got some old dusty pours that you just got to get your hands on and taste. But we're actually here with a new whiskey on the streets. It's here in Kentucky. You need to try it out. But we got them in house today. It's Filmland Spirits. out of LA. Welcome to the Bourbon Road. Thank you.

Great to be here.

Who do I got with me?

My name is Troy Blotnick. I'm the founder and CEO of Filmland Spirits. The man, the myth, the legend, right?

One day movie. Troy, how did you decide, let's talk about Filmland, You usually don't hear people from LA thinking, I'm going to start up a whiskey company.

How does that go about? So I've been into bourbon for a long time. And I got a really good friend who is one of my partners in this. We've known each other just almost 30 years. And I just got into bourbon. And we started making what I always call pilgrimages to Kentucky. So he's in Atlanta. I'm in LA. And we would meet in Kentucky and go visit distilleries like crazy people. We'd go five or six a day. And at this point in our lives, we've probably been to over 70 all over the country. And on one of those trips driving between Lexington and Louisville, which we did all the time, I was looking out the window, watching the cows go by and everything. And I just turned to him and I go, we got to do this. We got to do our own brand. And then flash forward a bunch of years, a few years ago, I was sitting with another friend. in LA and he was helping me, you know, get this off the ground and we were talking about ideas and we'd been banging our head against the wall, what we were going to do. And we always knew we wanted to do like a bright eye catching label, right? Something that we could be creative with and we could have fun with. and we'd gone through so many ideas that for one reason or another didn't work out, and we were like at that desperate place, and he just started interviewing me, and he's a podcast host also, and he started interviewing me, you know, not on mic or anything, and asking me, you know, what are you passionate about? And I started talking about movies and writing, because I used to be a writer, and he stopped me and he said, you know, the only thing you talk about passionately is whiskey, and now you're talking about this with that same passion. And he's like, you got to find a way to combine movies and whiskey. And the name Filmland just rolled out of us a few seconds later. And then the concept just snowballed immediately after that.

Well, I'm sure our listeners are like, hey, jokers, what's in your glass right now? We do got whiskey in front of us. We do. What's his first whiskey you poured for me?

Oh, absolutely. It's called Rise of the Robots, Serve the Drinks, Save the World. And each of our whiskeys, it's based on an original movie concept that we come up with, right? One that sort of pays homage to the B movies of the mid 20th century, like big over the top characters and plots, robots and monsters, sci-fi, that kind of thing, like Barbarella and Forbidden Planet and those kind of movies. And then we kind of pair each of those wild and crazy labels, which are, by the way, a movie poster for our original movie. And we pair that with award-winning high-quality liquids. So this first one is a rye whiskey. It actually won a gold medal at this year's San Francisco World Spirits competition. It's a 95-5 rye. We don't put an age statement on the label, but I'll tell you, it's almost five years old. And we blended this ourselves here in Kentucky. So our whiskeys, I'll say, produced on location in Kentucky. Now, they're not necessarily all distilled in Kentucky, but we do all our bottling here. I could probably take a guess where this is still from. It's not a secret. We're very open about it. We have no problem.

And I'm sure most of our listeners know, but for you new listeners out there that just have subscribed to the podcast, 95.5 is usually from one distillery, and it comes out of MGP. So right across Stone's Throw from Kentucky, I've actually been on the river right there protecting a facility right down the river from there.

Look, we don't hide the fact it says distilled in Indiana right on the bottle. We love MGP. We're big fans of other brands that have been using MGP for years. And we said, when we start, we want to start that way. And we're looking at it, and we've acquired whiskey from kind of all over for future labels as well. But this is sort of our core three products that we started with.

Well, let's talk about that for a minute. Any joker could go in there and just point at a barrel and say, hey, I'm going to buy that barrel right there. But it does take an artist to go in there and taste some barrels. And I'm sure you're buying it by a lot. So you're going there and tasting several barrels and saying, OK, I want this lot right here because this is what tastes the best to me. And I think this is what our consumers is. That's what how you guys do it.

You know what? It's a different process depending on who you're dealing with. In some cases, if it's if it's a smaller number of barrels, you get the opportunity to do that. In other cases, you get samples sent to you, you taste it, you say you want it, and you don't necessarily know which barrels are coming to you. you just know the samples you tasted came out of some of the barrels are coming to you. So for us, we look at it and we say, look, that's why we went with someone like MGP, because we know the level of quality that they make. Then we take it and we apply our spin to it. So when we blended these, we first did our first blend last November of these, even though we just released now. And we tasted, I think, from about 50 barrels in a little under two days. Wow. Right. And so that was our process is like, all right, this is, this is our barrels to choose from. And we had very specific flavor profiles in mind, things we wanted to achieve and accomplish with this. And we tasted and made notes and it's a group of four of us who do it. And, uh, and just found that right combination that met exactly what we wanted to do.

Well, let's, let's taste this whiskey. Then we're going to talk about the art on the bottle. Cheers. Cheers. Definitely have that 95 Five Nose, that sweet honeysuckle, sweet candy. A little bit of licorice. I don't know if, I don't think they make licorice Twizzlers, but if they did, that's what it would be. Man, Jim, you're missing out today. This is why I love ryes right here. Jim's probably shocked that I just said that, but I'm a weeded bourbon guy, so rye bourbon is a totally different thing, but rye whiskey hits that sweet spot for me. This is like drinking that, you know, that licorice, that sweetness that just comes raw with a little bit of peppery spice to it. It hits everything you would want in a rye whiskey.

So one of the reasons we chose this particular rye in the Mash Bill, it tends to be very minty. Some people get peppermint, some people get spearmint, but we just love minty rice. And so we very much targeted something that would have that sort of mint flavor to it.

I get all that right there. It is perfect. 94 proof. It's very viscous for 94 proof. Right. be pretty badass in a cocktail. It is. I've had it. Oh, man. You know, you got to have that whiskey that is viscous, that doesn't get watered down for a nice cocktail. Right. And I think this is, I hate to say, sometimes I hate to say that to a whiskey maker about their whiskey. I'm like, Oh, let's make a great cocktail. And some of them are like, man, why would you do that to my whiskey?

Right. Look, I learned to drink bourbon in Kentucky, right? Coming here.

Yeah.

The thing you hear everybody here say, all the greats say you drink it however you like to drink it, right? I don't care what you pour it in. Right. And so if you want to take ours and make a cocktail out of it, great. If you want it neat on the rocks, I support it. It's a personal choice, whatever you want to do. Now, what's the price point on this right here? The rye is $59.99. $59.99. You'll find that the stores determine the price, but that's our SRP. Yeah. That makes sense.

Some stores will jack it all the way up, and our listeners make sure you stay out of those stores.

Right. Now, we sell it on our website, so it's available. And that's the price we listed for on our website, is $59.99. You can actually buy it in about 40 states from our website, orbreservebar.com.

Now your bottle is, it's very tall, but it's not like a wine bottle. Is this a custom bottle for just you guys?

Yeah, it's a fully custom bottle. Took a long time to design and get produced. But it basically, the whole idea for the bottle is it's It's sort of inspired by like 1930s art deco theaters. So it's meant to be almost like, you know, when you go to a movie theater, there's the proscenium, right? Which is everything that surrounds the movie, which is, you know, the, the meat of what you're there for. So this bottle is the proscenium for our movie, which is the poster of the label and the liquid that's inside. And it's meant to bring forth that sort of sense of art deco, elegance and seriousness. Cause we're, we're very, you know, we're whiskey nerds, we care about the quality of the product more than anything. But we know, you know, our labels are wild and they're crazy and people might say, is that serious whiskey? And aside from the fact that we have, you know, metals hanging on them, we want the bottle to let you know, yeah, we're serious about this. We like to make fun of ourselves and don't take ourselves too seriously, but our product we're really serious about.

I would take this bottle seriously. Number one, you know, when you go into a liquor store in Kentucky, And it's not like this everywhere in the country. But when you go into a liquor store in Kentucky, you can be overwhelmed with bourbon and rye whiskies. And hopefully most of the time they have a two separated. Some places they're not separated though. It's the Rise and the Bourbon together. And you can just get lost in there and not know what to pick out. You know, the bigger brands will have overshadowed everything else. So it's hard to find that little diamond in the rough, right? Like this bottle right here is, it's a diamond in the rough. I'd pay $50 all day long for that every day, any day. It's that perfect. point for me that I want something that's viscous. I don't want a non-oily bourbon or whiskey. That nice mouthfeel, it's good to drink a whiskey like that.

When we're blending, we're always targeting the certain flavor profiles that we're looking for, but mouthfeel is huge. We're finding barrels that have exactly what you're talking about. We describe it as creamy mouthfeel, but that's what we want, that viscous. We don't want it to be loose and watery.

It's almost like I got myself a big old piece of carrot cake and I ate on it a little bit, right? A lovely, lovely feel, lovely taste. It's nice to see that. I love the labels on these, though, because it takes me back to being five, six, seven, eight years old. And we're around the same age, probably. And you know. You're 29 also?

Yeah, yeah. In my mind. In my mind.

I can remember those movies coming on TV, you know, and giant robots, or there was a giant woman or something, you know, she's walking around. Right, Attack of the 50-foot Woman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And those kinds of movies resonate with my childhood, kind of like whenever you drink whiskey, like I said, getting a mouthful of carrot cake. Well, my favorite cake is carrot cake. That's just, and when I grew up, that's what I got for my birthday. So that resonates that taste. And tasting whiskey should resonate with what you're drinking out of your whiskey glass. But I love these labels. It definitely sticks out in a liquor store. Like I said, when the shelves are all crowded and I see these, I'm like, Wow, that was attract attention so I can get that right there. And it tells a story even on the back. You guys have put so much information on here.

Yeah. So the front of the label is a poster. And in fact, you can download the posters on our website if you want to. And pretty soon you'll be able to buy a set of posters on our website. But it's a full on same aspect ratios movie poster can be framed all that but it's one big continuous label that wraps almost completely around the bottle and it's meant to be extremely immersive so the left side of label it's all about the movie. Right if there's a synopsis of the story there's the main characters and their bios. And then the right side of the label is all about the high quality liquid that's inside, like who's bringing it to you, what it's made from, what it tastes like, that kind of thing. So we want to, you know, you can tell there's a theme going here. Everything is about that duality between high quality, you know, attention to detail, really making sure this is the best it can possibly be and then having a ton of fun with it and getting really into it. And we want people, you know, on our website, you can come watch trailers for the movies. We have script pages with storyboards you can read. I mean, we're serious about the movies part of it too and the stories part of it.

Well, I love it. I think this, this right here is, uh, If you're looking for a rye that's on that sweeter note, this right here was perfect for that bourbon drinker that might be looking for something. If they're in the sweet bourbons, if you're not in the sweet bourbons, then this probably is not for you. You probably want to find yourself another rye. But this right here is for that sweet tooth guy or gal that's like, man. Or if you want a nice cocktail, my goal in life is to find the best whiskey sour in the world. And this would play good in a whiskey sour, I think. That's interesting. The right whiskey sour is good.

I'm gonna have to try that. I've made old-fashioned some Manhattan's with it, but I have not made a whiskey sour with it because I typically only use bourbon in whiskey sour.

Yeah, but it's not a bourbon sour, it's a whiskey sour. That's true. No, I do usually call that my bourbon margarita though. But this is lovely. So you got three bottles here for us.

What's the second bottle you're going to let us taste today? Sure, absolutely. The second bottle is our bourbon. It's our 94 proof bourbon. And it's called Moonlight Mayhem, a saga of werewolves and bourbon. That's perfect for right now because next week's Halloween, right? Yes. And we have dubbed this the official bourbon of Halloween. I love it.

That pairs right to this time of year.

Yeah. Right? Right. And the label actually has a lot of Halloween colors to it, although I'll be honest, that wasn't the intention. We were going for a certain mood, but it turned out to have that orange feel in it. So the story of Moonlight Mayhem, it's all about a world where werewolves have become the dominant species on the planet. And humans are pushed aside into little neighborhoods where, you know, they're only human neighborhoods. And, you know, they have to sort of serve the werewolves and the werewolves run everything. And this human boy is just in love with the werewolf nightlife culture. And so he's working at a bourbon bar where the werewolves all love to hang out. And he sees this beautiful woman at the bar drinking bourbon and he just falls immediately in love with her. But she's the younger sister of Slate, the kind of leader of the pack, you know, leather jacket wearing, that kind of thing. And immediately it just becomes Romeo and Juliet. You know, you can't date a human, you can't date a werewolf, the parents are involved, Slate wants him gone, you know, and the whole story is about them falling in love and whether she's really in love with him or she's just looking at him like it's her next delicious snack. Didn't they just make a movie about that? Or is that about vampires? It's probably a vampire movie like that. Twilight. Twilight's sort of like that, yeah.

No, but I love that. To me, I'm such a nerd of werewolves and vampires and that kind of stuff. And some of the best, like, werewolf movies and vampire movies have come out in the past 20 years, but those old school ones are just so good. Yeah. And you know, when you're a little kid, you look at that and you're like, man, this scares the crap out of me. Terrified.

Yeah. Terrified when I was younger of those kind of movies, right? And then you look at it now and it's like, You know, you go, oh, that's a guy wearing a rubber mask.

When I was a little kid, my stepdad had this bulldozer and he would have to put, it didn't have a flap on the muffler, right? And so he would put a can, like an old vegetable can on top of it for nighttime so rain didn't get down in there. And he would, one night, we'd watched one of those old scary movies like that with vampires and werewolves. And he said, Hey, I need you. I was probably nine or 10 years old. We live out in the middle of nowhere. So it's dark out there. He's like, I forgot to put that can on the buffer. So go out there and put that can on there. So I go out there and he'd got a Halloween mask. with either, it was like a Chewbacca or a werewolf or something. And I got up there on that bulldozer. You know, for a little kid, it's a climb to get up there and get a can up there. So I get up there and put that can up there and he comes up over that bulldozer with that mask on. Oh my gosh. I'm scared listening to this story. Probably the first cuss word I ever said in my life. This brings back memories of that. Being scared to death in those movies from the 70s, the 60s, and the 50s. The Art Deco time. Even those older ones that were black and white.

Yep absolutely and the labels we created the labels in that sort of mid 20th century retro art style like very pulp. The pulp novels to bring back that feeling because we looked at it and we said look there's a lot of you know people of drinking age in their 20s and 30s who know nothing about these movies but there's also people in their drinking age. I'm sorry in their like 70s right or 60s who remember these movies and it's going to be nostalgic for them But those younger people they're into Marvel and Star Wars, right? And this is this is a whole new world to immerse yourself in with characters tied to this great whiskey I think some of these movies are are coming back though

Yeah, you know some of the filmmakers today or They're seeing people our age that aren't in the marvel. They're not in the in the DC comics that style of Superheroes and stuff, but they knew we were into this and I think they're coming back out with those and stuff And I think your your whiskey is it should be marketed towards guys anyways and gals. They remember those movies You know, I'd say Quentin Tarantino is He kind of dabbles in that realm, right?

People mention his name all the time when they look at our product, right? Somebody did a review that said somebody get Quentin Tarantino on the phone. We found a whiskey for him and he likes whiskey. He includes whiskey in a lot of his movies.

Yeah, he does that. He likes to have spirits in there. You know, I always thought the first part of Dust Tale Dawn was like a great movie right up until the vampire part. Right.

He actually, when I first went to Hollywood to be a screenwriter, that's when he was getting started as well. He was still working in the video store in Manhattan Beach, but just getting started. And I was working at a trailer house. We ended up doing part of the international trailer for Reservoir Dogs. And then he and his writing partner at the time, a guy named Roger Avery, did True Romance, which Tony Scott had directed. So we did the international trailer for True Romance as well back then.

Wow. So you really are cut into film. And so film just makes sense.

Yeah. Yeah. I have a background as a screenwriter. And when I first went out to California from New York, right after I graduated from college, that's what I did. And it was like, I always say to people, it was like I was in film school, even though I wasn't, I worked every job you could possibly imagine. I was cutting film, like literally the film material still existed then that we were splicing together. line producing shoots and production assistant, writing promos, writing scripts. I mean, I did it all. So I kind of got a, like, you know, in the field education in film. But you weren't drinking whiskey back then. Back then? No, I probably wasn't drinking whiskey. The first time I had whiskey, I was probably too young to be having it, but it was probably scotch. And my dad gave it to me because he was more of a scotch guy. Yeah. But no, I don't even remember what I was drinking. I probably gin and tonics and beer. back then because I was you know I was 22.

So back in the late eight late eighties early nineties yeah yeah where vodka was really big really people drinking vodka drinks all day long back then. Yeah. Yeah. I just can't even imagine being in that film industry and seeing the stuff that went on. And, and then, you know, you grow up a little bit and you get out here and you come to your pilgrimage to Kentucky. And we say that all the time, come on your bourbon pilgrimage to Kentucky, you know, and, um, I've had those car rides where you're talking about and having those long discussions of, man, we could probably do this or have these brilliant ideas, probably bad ideas because we're drinking bourbon, but they aren't really good ideas every time.

Charlie, who's one of my partners who I've mentioned, he was a screenwriter also and involved in different aspects of the film business, very creative, and we do these trips together. And it just kind of started to make sense that the thing I love about whiskey is also the thing I love about the movies, right? It's a science, there's absolutely science involved and there's rules and things you can and can't do, but then it's absolutely an art. Two different people can take these same ingredients and end up with something that tastes completely different. And I love the combination where you have art and science and passion and creativity and that's what you need to make a movie and that's what you need to make a great whiskey.

Now, I'm almost positive that we poured the barrel proof. Yeah, I think we poured the barrel proof.

That's why I hesitated. Man, do I have a good tongue or what? Yeah, you do. All right, well, we're going in the wrong order, but that's okay.

We're going to do it now. We're locked in. I've already sipped on this sucker. Okay. Because I was like, man, for 94 proof, this thing is kicking.

This is OK. So we'll jump to this. This is Moonlight Mayhem extended cut. So just like the movies where you get deleted scenes and extra footage, this is an extended cut bourbon and you get more, which is more proof. Right. So so it's it's 115 proof. Although we've never actually had anybody taste it and really say it tastes hot. There's just a ton of flavor and not a ton of heat on it.

I don't think there's a ton of heat to it, but it definitely has that Kentucky Wildcat in the bottle. It'll grab you back your palate and say, hey, I'm a spicy bourbon. I don't think it's overly spicy. I think this is the perfect spice because it's 115 proof. It's nice and viscous. I'm sitting here the whole time thinking, hmm, 94 proof. There's no way this is 94 proof.

I was like, she's messing with me over here. Look, the 94 proof, which I guess we'll taste in a moment, the 94 proof, we very specifically, I wanted it to be a bourbon that I would love, right? But I wanted it to be a bourbon that would appeal to newer bourbon drinkers as well. So it had to have a balance between, hey, this is accessible. This isn't going to scare people away if this is the first bourbon you have. But if you're a seasoned bourbon drinker, you're like, you know what? I wouldn't mind sipping on this. This is pretty good. This has got great flavor. Makes a great old-fashioned, that kind of thing. So let's talk about that label.

What's this label all about right here, the story behind this one? The extended cut.

So it's the same story. So it's Moonlight Mayhem Extended Cut. Same story as regular Moonlight Mayhem. But, you know, like the metaphor is in film, there's more footage and there's more scenes. In this, there's more proof. So our little saying is we've bottled this at full moon proof. And it's got a darker label.

It's not orange. It's almost black with a silver writing on it.

Yeah, so it's a different label. It's meant to sort of say, hey, this is kind of a step up. That thing's got the silver bullet in it to kill the werewolf is what it has. I'll tell you all day long.

A great whiskey. What's the price point on this one? This is $79.99. $79.99 for 115 proof. Do you guys have an age statement on this one?

We do not, but it's a similar age. This is just under five years. And is this a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey? This is actually also Indiana straight. Okay. But all of our products are bottled in blended and bottled in Kentucky. Yeah. And we will have, like I said, we've sourced all kinds of barrels and so we will have other products that will have been distilled in Kentucky as well as other places. It's just like the movies. You go to the best location to shoot the movie. Right. We're going for a particular whiskey that we're looking for. We're going to go to the best location for that particular whiskey. So if we decide to do Canadian, we're getting it from Canada, right?

I'm one of those guys that watches movie and let's say it's a Western or it's a TV show and they say it's in like Georgia. But I can tell that it's been shot in California. I look at it and I'm like, that's California right there all day, every day. They don't have those type of trees in Georgia. That's not Georgia. And it just messes my mind up. The whole time I'm sitting there thinking, this is Georgia right here. This is Georgia. This is Georgia.

You know after it's one of the things I used to say working in the movie business it can spoil the movies for you and So there was a time where like, you know I'm staring at a scene in a movie that's supposed to be taking place in the Wild West or whatever and I know it's on the back lot at Universal where I was working the day before right because I You just recognize it even though it's dressed differently, but that you know, it's sort of like inside baseball at that point Yeah, it's the craziest thing.

Oh Westerns are the ones that get me the most I They'll show the scenery and I'm like, that's definitely not Texas right there. There's not a mesquite tree, there's not a live oak, it's just not Texas. There's no pecan trees. It's just, I don't know, that's just something I pick out and stuff. Growing up in the 70s and early 80s as a kid, a lot of people asked me and my brother, you know, why are you two in the movies so much? And that's all we had, right? I remember my mom showing up with a VCR and we were so excited about having a VCR in our house. And we would get to go to the movie store and she would let my sisters pick out a movie and let us pick it out a movie. And that was our entertainment.

Right. It's amazing. You'd get, pick out a couple of movies for the entire weekend and that's what you get to watch. And I was thinking about that the other night as I was like scanning through 10,000 titles on every streaming service that I subscribed to and still couldn't find something I wanted to watch. And I'm like, times have changed. Yeah. You would have died for that back in the day. Oh my gosh. Absolutely. Because they said you could have streamed something. Yeah. When I was a kid, I went to the movies as much as possible. Even when I moved out to California, you know, I didn't really know anybody. And so until I got to know people, I'd go on the weekends and I would go watch four or five movies a weekend in the theater. Cause I just, I loved it. I couldn't get enough.

Well, we're going to take a quick break listeners. When we come back, we're going to go back and we're going to drink the moonlight mayhem. And we're going to talk about what a film and spirits has for us in the future. We'll be right back. Man, you know what I've really been enjoying lately? Oh, you're going to tell me. Some of that seldom seen farms maple syrup that's been aged in bourbon barrels. It is absolutely delicious. Not only in a cocktail, but you can cook with it, right?

You can, you absolutely can. Now Mike, Kevin just sent me a new shipment. So I got a little bit more and I've been making some beef jerky lately. Really? Yeah. Now I know you're the meat master, but I tried my hand at it. I said, you know, I want to make some beef jerky and I've got a pretty decent beef jerky recipe and it's got a little bit of soy sauce, a little bit of Worcestershire, a little bit of, you know, onion powder, garlic powder, those kinds of things. But I always put brown sugar in it. Well, this time Kevin sent me a bottle of his granulated maple sugar. Wow. And I decided that I was going to substitute the maple sugar for the brown sugar. Oh, game changer. Let me tell you. Total game changer. Total game changer. Some of the best beef jerky you've ever had. So I'm going to make another batch here in about a week and I'll be sure to get you some.

Man, that sounds delicious. Vivian took and we just got an air fryer like most people got these days, right? And she took and soaked fresh pineapple in that maple syrup and then put it in the air fryer and it kind of crisp up a little bit. Sounds good. It was just magically delicious. And people probably wonder why we love it so much. Kevin competed in the Maple Festival last year, 2021, and he was named grand champion. That's saying something.

So Salem Seam Farms. grand champion of the 2021 Maple Syrup Festival.

Yeah. Wow. That's saying something. Yeah. You're going up against some heavy hitters in Maple Syrup. And I know we're talking about just the syrup, but that's something to be proud of. Hats off to you, Kevin, for winning that. Kevin's also competing in a couple of other competitions. Make sure you check out his website. Check out his social media on Instagram and Facebook. You won't be disappointed. If you want to buy something, from him. Where can they go, Jim?

You can go to seldomseenmaple.com and Kevin and his crew, they've got a great website, very easy to navigate. They've got all their products on there. You can buy their maple syrup by the bottle. You can buy it by the case. You can buy that sugar. Oh my goodness, Mike, that stuff is so good. And they've got some other gift sets there too, so you definitely want to check it out.

Well, he's also going to be in some distilleries pretty shortly here. Some distilleries that I love and I know you love. He's going to be down Leapers Fork. You could find a syrup down there aged in their barrels. Trudy Oak down in Dripping Springs, Texas. I was just out there. His syrup's going to be there. Awesome. And at Garrison Brothers in Texas, if you think you love some maple syrup, make sure you go to Garrison Brothers and pick up a bottle from them also. Kevin appreciated. I know he loves people. You're supporting a local farmer, a local product, a small family. This is no factory place that's putting out maple syrup, right Jim? This is a good man doing good work. Yeah. Gotta love it. Well, make sure you check out his site. Like Jim said, seldom see maple.com. Pick up a bottle today. All right, listeners, we are back. We got film land spirits in the house. We're still sipping on this extended cut of your bourbon. I got to say that wildcat still in the glass, but I like it. It's not overly aggressive. It's everything sweet. And, you know, for 79 bucks, that's not bad. I think that's still a fair price for a 115 proof bottle.

Yeah. And look, we put a lot into this. This won a gold medal at San Francisco this year. And we really focused on the finish. I don't know if you noticed, but like when we were blending this, we kind of came up with the blend and we tasted and we all really liked it. And then we started doing something else. And I turned to my team and I was like, like a minute, minute and a half later, it's like, are you guys still tasting new things right now? And everybody's like, yeah, it just kind of goes on. forever and keeps going and it kind of it's really intricate and it moves from like a kind of a chocolatey finish to a more oaky finish and it just kind of moves through all that flavor over the course. You get a hot or there's candy on this. That's interesting.

Yeah I mean if it was warmed up maybe a little bit of cinnamon in there it would be perfect. You know, that Werther's original with some spice. That's a very nice taste, very nice expression you guys have. Now, you talked about the Moonlight Mayhem on the first half. I'm going to go ahead and pour some of that now. I'm not going to be tricked this time. So what's this bottle right here run? That's $54.99. $54.99 for 94 proof. Really nice nose on this. Obviously, it's not as viscous. But like you said, this is that everyday drinking bourbon right here.

Right. It's designed as an everyday drinking bourbon as well as for new bourbon drinkers.

So you could sit down and sip on this for quite a while. Yeah. And I feel like it's not overpowering. Like that extended cut, that's a couple pours and you're done for the night. Yeah, I think so. Your legs are out from underneath.

Even if, even though you don't get that heat, I mean, still 115 proof, you're going to feel it.

It's not set down. Let's drink that whole bottle. This right here, this is one of those things we call a session whiskey where you can, Sit down, have a great conversation about a werewolf movie. Talk about Halloween, what kind of candies you're going to give out at Halloween. Or watch a scary movie while you're sipping it too. Yeah, watch a scary movie. So let's talk about that. You're from that age where you went trick-or-treating, I'm guessing. Absolutely, yeah. And what was your favorite candy growing up?

Oh my gosh. My favorite candy growing up, I've got to think about that. I just loved all the Hershey's mini chocolate bars, like the Mr. Good bar and Crackle and those. When you get a whole handful of those, that was always my favorite. yeah i think mine was like whatchamacallit uh-huh i remember that or getting a tootsie roll that's never a big tootsie roll guy not the little bitty thing that just irritates you it had to be the whole thing the big one okay yeah the big one or half size one those tootsie rolls right there tear one of those up right but i you know i remember candy necklaces they must still have those and um

And the dots, they had the dots on the paper and you'd eat them off the paper. Yeah, Halloween used to be that thing where you weren't scared that your parents just dropped you off in the neighborhood and we'll see you in two hours. Right, right. Especially when we were growing up and it was a little bit different.

And I grew up in the suburbs on Long Island in New York. And it was just like, it was that, you know, like when you watch stranger things and the kids are all riding their bikes everywhere and they're doing their own thing, it was like that.

That definitely wasn't us. You weren't riding your bicycle anywhere where I lived. That's 25 miles from town. But what we would do is we would ride in the back of the pickup all the way 30 miles to town, get dropped off in the best neighborhood because they had the best candy. People still made those big old popcorn balls back then. And that was one of the things you wanted to go to the house with homemade popcorn balls. You ever had a popcorn bowl? Yeah, it's just, they're just something from my childhood that those flavors I can get in these whiskies today, you know, that hot caramel poured over popcorn.

Right. That's what you want to get anyways. Right. And we, look, I'm a big fan of like dark chocolate and I love if I can get something either on the taste or the nose or the finish, something chocolatey in there as well. Cause I love, I'm really big into pairing great whiskey with certain kinds of foods. I don't necessarily mean a meal. But I mean, like, people think I'm strange for this, but one day I stumbled upon bourbon with green apples with peanut butter. That sounds perfect to me. And it was just it was just amazing. And then I love pairing different kinds of nuts and dark chocolate with bourbon also.

Yeah, I think making a charcuterie tray with all kinds of dates and candied fruits or dried fruits and some chocolate on there, different types of chocolate, some meats and some pickled vegetables, like maybe some pickled onions. You're making me hungry. I know. If you would have been to the farm today, that's what you would have got. It was a famous whole big island full of charcuterie. But that's the kind of stuff that I like to do with whiskey. And I was saying, this whiskey right here, the Moonlight Mayhem, bourbon, It kind of does still brings back that memory of you know, some people didn't like that when people would make their homemade stuff Rice krispie treats or no right cookies but I always cherish that because I knew that that Usually it was a lady of the house that made it. That's the house I wanted to go to. Because to me, that tasted best. But today you couldn't do that.

No, even when I was a kid, if it was my parents made it like we were not allowed to eat the candy as we were trick or treating, we had to bring it all home because our parents didn't trick or treat with us, like you said. My kids, when they were young, I went with them to every house. But we'd have to bring it home and my parents would have to inspect it. and make sure there was nothing wrong with it, and it was OK. And if anything was not wrapped, like factory wrapped, they wouldn't let us eat it.

Really? Yeah. Yeah. I don't even know if that stuff made it home. There would have been no one inspecting it. Right. It would have been already eaten on the way. But hours and hours and hours just of trick or treating. Sometimes different towns had different days, too. So you'd get two or three times. And those days are gone from us.

Yeah, you know, now in Los Angeles, my kids grew up in Los Angeles, obviously. And then there are neighborhoods or blocks that go crazy. The whole block is like known to like the neighbors are all competing with each other for crazy decorations. And so everybody flocks to those areas to trick or treat. So even though you live in a, you know, 15 minutes away, you go to one of the neighborhoods. You know, you were saying your parents would bring you to someplace, but it's where all the decorations are. Like entire, you know, four or five blocks at a time and you just go up and down them and you know, that's, you know, the best place to trick or treat.

Yeah, it's a shame that, you know, we can't feel safe letting our kids or our grandkids go like we did, you know, riding your bicycle down a street or just go, I'm going to go skateboard for the day by myself or I'm going to go trick or treating and with my buddies. Yeah, it's different. And you got to go with your kids today. you don't have that two hours of free time for kids.

My kids now are either in high school or college, so they can trick or treat on their own. I don't have to go with them anymore. Eventually you're going to have some grandkids though. That's a little ways off. That's a little ways off.

Eventually you'll have them and then you're going to go trick or treating again.

Probably, but that'll be okay.

Then the parents get that two hours again. Well, hey, you could sit and drink this whiskey for two hours. That's what I want people to do. For Halloween this year, I want everybody to grab a bottle of the Moonlight Mayhem and sip on it. And think about those, reminisce about those days of the years gone by when we could go out and just trick or treat and have a great time. And think about those candy notes that you're going to get. We're going to have one of these reviews of one of these whiskies next week. So you're going to want to tune in for that too. It'll be a little bit of a surprise for you. I'm not going to tell you which one, but look for that review. It'll be perfect for Halloween for you.

That's great. Appreciate it. We designed this for people to really enjoy and immerse themselves in. So what does Filmland Spirits have in the future for us? Well, I can't talk about the specific concepts, but know that we consider ourselves a whiskey company, but also we're into whiskey-inspired spirits. So there may be some stuff coming maybe next spring that's a little bit still whiskey related, but maybe not whiskey. And then next summer or fall, some, some new whiskey products as well. And I really like a barrel HGN. That's a, it's not what we're doing, but I do too. But a good guess. No, that's not what we're doing, but you'll be shocked and surprised at what we're doing. I don't think anybody's done it before. I'll definitely be looking for it.

See, I'm not telling you so you'll have to have me back in the spring. Yeah, most certainly. I'm always up for drinking some whiskey. People that love whiskey, that's the whiskey community, the bourbon community, that's what it's all about.

It's one of the things I love about this is the culture and how cool everybody is and how much everybody helps each other out. It's like a giant family and I love it. Now, how many different states are you guys in right now? We're available to order online in just about 40 states. We're available in select stores here in Kentucky. We're in about 25 stores and growing. And then we're also in California in stores. So you're got a pretty good size reach there. Yeah. And we're, you know, we're just, we literally launched on September 15th. So just, you know, just over a month ago and we're just getting going. Just in time for Halloween. Exactly.

So you got your price points here, 49, 59, and 79.

50, 55, essentially. OK. 60 and 80. OK. Yeah.

So you're in 40-plus states. You got a great price point. We can expect some great things out of you guys in the near future. Yeah, we got all kinds of ideas cooking, all kinds of things coming. You got those liquid assets, though. They got to pay for those ideas, right? Yes, we do. So are you guys going to branch out or more states going into as many states as possible?

Yeah, but we're doing it in a very careful planned sort of way because we don't want to overreach too quickly and overextend ourselves. We want to make sure that we can really serve the market. We decided to start with Kentucky and California very specifically because one is the home of film and one is the home of bourbon. And that's, you know, we're the intersection of the two and we wanted to be in both of these places.

And what about internationally? Is it going to take a while for that?

Hopefully not too long of a while, but that's always been part of our plan as well, especially because if you think about it, film and entertainment is still the biggest export of our country. And this type of movie and this type of characters and everything are very popular overseas, particularly in Asian markets. I spent a lot of time in China, as has Charlie, and we have friends there who've seen this and they're just like going crazy for it. They're like, we want this here, we want this here.

Well, for our listeners in Hong Kong, because that's one of our big areas, look for Finland to be coming to you shortly. Australia, our listeners over there, hopefully you'll end up getting some of this. I know you guys have some difficulties over there. But I'd love to see our listeners over there, especially Hong Kong, lift up a bottle of your whiskey.

We got a request from Israel two days ago. Wow. Yeah. So we're getting there. It'll probably be a year or two at least before we're there, but we've definitely got our eyes focused on it.

Awesome. Awesome. So, you guys, one of the things that struck me about you guys is your social media. And you guys go over the top on it. It's like watching a mini movie.

Yeah, so some people think I just started this whiskey company, so I have a place to write and be creative. So I make about half of our social media posts myself.

Really?

Yeah. So I've had a long career in Photoshop and editing and film and all that and writing. We also work with, we have an agency that helps us as well. I'll just sit down on the weekend and I'm like, all right, well, I don't want to think about business today. And I'm just going to come up with some ideas and I'll just start editing and making posts and putting things together and say, oh, that'll work. And I send it to them and say, you know, find a place to use this.

Wow. I thought you had like this whole team that does it for you.

Yeah, no, we have a team, but I just I love doing it. So, you know, I can't do it all day long because I got to run the company. But on my weekends and nights, it just inspiration strikes. And I'll just like sit up in bed one night and go, oh, I just had an idea. I'll go to the computer and just start making something. Well, I tell you, my friend, you are doing a great job.

It's definitely a tension getting and I think today that's what social media is about. It's very hard to beat out other things that will get your attention. You're doing an excellent job. Thank you.

Appreciate it. So October was very focused around Moonlight Mayhem and Halloween, obviously. In November, we're going to have a slightly different focus and we're going to spend a little more attention on Rise. So I've got some stuff coming on social media on Rise that's really, really fun. It's going to be like Charlie Brown drinking rye whiskey. No, but it's really tied into the story.

Look, I see you say it's a good idea, though.

I should have a notepad, yeah.

Well, it's been great talking to you. You got some great whiskeys. I think people are just going to be shocked if they can get it in a glass. Grab yourself a bottle. Where can we find you on social media?

We're at Filmland Spirits on Instagram and Facebook.

And can they reach out to you if they want to talk to somebody there?

Yeah, absolutely. So if you DM us on Instagram, we respond really quickly. I've had conversations with some of our early customers and great conversations with them. And then on our website, there's a Contact Us link. And whatever you're interested in, if you're in the trade and you're looking to carry us, or if you're in the media and looking to contact us, a place to reach out to all of us.

And you guys have any events you plan on doing in the future? Yeah, well, we're doing a tasting tonight. Well, yeah, but that'll be in the past.

Yes.

So anything in the future that you guys are going to be doing?

We don't have anything specific that we're going to announce right now, but we have all kinds of plans in the works for local in-store events and tastings here in Kentucky and in California as well. And you're going to put that on your social media? Of course, absolutely.

Well, Troy, once again, thank you so much for being on. I appreciate it. Listeners, I'd also like to point out that they are veteran-owned and operated. Your partner is a veteran. Yes. That's always important to us as two veterans that we point out that you guys are veteran-owned and operated. If you want to support a veteran company, Filmland Spirits is your whiskey company today. Go out there and purchase a bottle. I'm sure they would appreciate it. Yes, very much. Thank you so much for having me. Really, really great to talk to you and to be here. Yeah. Man, what a great conversation about film and taking me back to my childhood. I totally love it. I haven't thought about Halloween in a long time. Since probably my kids graduated from high school, I haven't thought about having to keep them out of trouble or taking anybody trick-or-treating in a long time. So I appreciate that. It's always fun to look back on those memories. Well, listeners, once again, we are at Neat Bourbon Bar and Bottle Shop recording here today. It is at 1139 Barstown Road in Louisville, Kentucky. Come check them out today. As for Dante, the bar manager, he will hook you up with an amazing cocktail or even an old Dusty. They've got lots of them here. You can even come here and buy some amazing whiskey. One of the whiskeys I advise you to grab before you leave Kentucky is JTS Brown Bottled in Bond for $12. You can't beat it. It makes a great cocktail. You're not going to break the bank with it. Or if maybe they might just have this Filmland Spirits in here, you never can tell. So we do two shows a week every week. We do a review of a bourbon on Mondays, 20 to 30 minutes. It'll get you to work. And then on Wednesdays, we do a little show like today with film land spirits for an hour. It'll get you to work and home, hopefully. just some great shows if you want to check us out on social media we are on twitter tiktok instagram facebook youtube we're all over the place the main place you can find us though is on our private facebook group the bourbon roadies You gotta answer three questions to get in there. Are you 21? Do you like bourbon? Hell, everybody likes bourbon, right? And do you agree to play nice because we don't tolerate rudeness in that group? Meaning if you drink from the very bottom of the shelf like I used to with 10 high whiskey all the way to the top of the shelf where you might Just grab a bottle of that Moonlight Mayhem Extended Cut. We want you to enjoy it in there and tell us about it and share your stories, your memories, whether you're having a retirement, a birthday, even a death in your family of a family member that might have drank whiskey. Share that story with us. We'll all raise a glass and enjoy that conversation. So to make sure you don't miss one of our shows, make sure you scroll to the top of that app, hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe sign. The app will let you know, hey, these two jokers have a show that was released today and you need to listen to it. Then we need you to scroll on down, hit that five star review. make sure you leave us some of those comments because you know what will happen if you don't the big bad booty daddy a bourbon will come to your house dragging a wagon full of this moonlight mayhem with him we'll drink it all night long by the end of the night you're going to give us that five star review in those comments i guarantee but seriously those comments those five star reviews they open up doors to distilleries they get great whiskey in our hands like film land spirits we'd really appreciate it We're very approachable. You can shoot us an email at our emails. I'm Mike at the Bourbon Row. He's Jim at the Bourbon Row. But the best place to find us is probably on our Instagram handles. He's jshannon63. I'm Big Bourbon Chief and we'll see you on down the Bourbon Road.