32. A New Blend of Bourbon Makers - Bardstown Bourbon Company

To me, again, it's drink bourbon. I don't care. I don't care how you like it.

Drink it. I think Jim always, he says it best. It's your bourbon, your way. You know, once it's in your hand, it's your bourbon. You do what you want with it. If you bought it, that's your bourbon. And that's the same. I've had people tell me, are you going to put something in that? I'm like, it's my bourbon. I'm going to drink it the way I want it. I'll pour you a glass and you drink it the way you want it.

Oh, you want a little of this Al-Aid in there? Yeah.

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

We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Log Heads Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Find out more about their fine rustic furniture at logheadshomecenter.com. We were all saddened this past week by the news of Peter Lofton's passing. Peter was the founding member and chairman of the Bardstown Bourbon Company. It was his bold vision that led to the creation of the first Napa-style destination on the Bourbon Trail. Following his death, the company's CEO, Mark Irwin, announced his commitment to carry out the mission he was originally given in his honor. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family, as well as the Bardstown Bourbon Company team for their loss. Peter Lofton was a great man, and he will be missed. In this episode, we interview Mark Irwin, Chief Executive Officer of the Bardstown Bourbon Company, as well as Dan Calloway, the company's Assistant Vice President of Customer Relations. We recorded this interview at the Bottle and Bond Kitchen and Bar at the Bardstown Bourbon Company just days before Peter's death. Please understand the timing as we talk about the company's chairman with admiration and respect. in the present tense. Let's get on to the show. Hello, I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is The Bourbon Road. And today we are in Bardstown, Kentucky. Where are we at, Mike? Bardstown Bourbon Company. Who we got with us? We got Danny and we got Mark. Or Dan, is it?

Uh, either one is good with me.

Big Dan. Big Dan. I'll go with Big Dan. So, Dan and Mark, welcome to the show. It's good to have you guys here. Thank you very much. And, uh, we, uh, would like to get straight to the first drink if we're good.

Fantastic. Yeah. I brought a great one for us today. This is our Fusion Series number two. So this is the second release in the series. The Fusion combines our product, With a source kentucky bourbon and it's a blend. So we've been distilling since 2016 and that time we started 1.5 million proof gallons Doubled uh above three and then we'll hit 6.9 million proof gallons this year So incredible production, but our oldest whiskey is only three years old So to introduce that to you guys into the market. We blend it with sourced bourbon So we started at two years with fusion one now. We're up to three years our part And we put exactly what goes on. So if you see the bottle right in front of you, we list the mash bill right on the side. So fusion number two is a blend of our rye bourbon, 36% rye bourbon, a weeded bourbon, and the source. And we put the percentages right on the label so you can see exactly what's in it.

That's a pretty sexy bottle. Yeah, it is. Now, I've had the Fusion One. It's been a while since I've tried it, but I've had the Fusion One and I have fond memories of it. I haven't had the two. It's not been out very long, though.

It's just releasing this week. So the cool thing about this, though, you know, we just came to marketing march with Fusion One. So what you're going to be able to do is see the bourbon age inside of the product. So if you have Fusion One, you had the experience of our two-year product inside of the same mash bill. Now you got the exact same mash bill with our product being three years inside of it. So just to see our product age as it comes into the market.

That's great. Well, Mike, I can see your fidgety here. We need to get to this bourbon note. I'm some heavy pours, though.

Look at that. It's like Andre the giant drink right here.

Yeah. And the coolest thing with these being blended in house is we have a full culinary team here, amazing beverage team, along with our incredible distilling team. We all work together on these products. We have different blending options. We work as a team to develop the best possible blend.

So when you guys are panel tasting these bourbons as you're blending them, you've got the whole team involved. Exactly.

There's no master blender. It's representatives from the beverage, the culinary, and the distilling all working together. So it's that team aspect.

Absolutely. I like that. It's not just one person in there deciding what the company's doing. It's that whole team getting together and saying, hey, this is what we're going to put out this year.

Yeah and different perspectives, you know, uh chef castor our wonderful chef He may see whiskey in a different way than steve nally our master distiller and and with them working together on these blends you get Uh, just an incredible product.

Well, let's check it out. Cheers. Cheers.

Cheers I really like the nose on that. Yeah, you get a lot of complexity. So it's got, you know, a three-year-old weeded bourbon and a rye bourbon distilled here blended with the age. So that fusion, you get all kinds of new notes, the bright young whiskey with the age 12-year-old bourbon. So a nice complex nose.

It kind of equally presents itself as sweet on the front and a little bit fiery on the back right at the same time. But it's not overly peppery, I don't think. No, we were going for balance.

That was the word we kept coming back to is balance with this one.

I guess I get the oak in there and I get that floral taste. You know, that floral scent I'm getting too out of it.

Yeah, you get the you know the soft fruit coming from the wheat, you know with the spice coming from the rye And then you get all that oak and age from the 12 years all kinds of notes in there.

That's a great blend Yeah, it's really good. I get a little bit of raisin and plum too. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah cool Mark, what's your background?

So I got a bit of a different story for most in the industry here. I'm actually 26 years in the US Army, straight out of college. Got out in September of 10 and tried to take my experience in our special operations world into the commercial market and try to figure out how to transition those experiences that we had. And so my focus was helping commercial entities operate in challenging environments. That's basically what I did for a number of years. And somewhere along the way, a friend of mine was asked to be a board member here at Bardstown Bourbon Company. And to my luck, he asked me about the bourbon, because he didn't know a lot about bourbon, but he knew I liked bourbon. So I got to look at what was going on here at Bardstown Bourbon Company. And through that, I was fortunate enough to invest. And I bought 50 barrels here at Bardstown Bourbon Company. started learning about the people, the great business that they have here. And you guys can see it today and you'll feel it. You don't come in here without noticing the vibe and the energy that's in this place. And it makes you want to be around it. So fortunately, I wound up a year and a half later coming on the board. And then when a transition was made, I got the call and Took about an hour discussion with my wife about a big life change and there we came. I'm fortunate enough to be the CEO of Barstown Bourbon Company and try to grow this thing to the next level. What I ran into is a incredibly high-performing team. a business that's firing on all cylinders and the challenge to try to take this to the next level and do a couple things. We've got multiple businesses going on here, but I'll tell you a little bit about the history of it if you'd like to hear kind of how this thing started. So our chairman, Pete Lofton, invested in bourbon in 2011. He bought a bunch of bourbon, actually MGP, Indiana Bourbon. And he saw that being a really healthy investment for him, and he tried to go back in and invest more heavily, and he couldn't find more bourbon. So he decided to go at it on his own. Came here to Kentucky, he made his first hire, was our now master distiller, Steve Nalley. And together, they brought in my predecessor to to grow this business and out of a cornfield that it still is partially still sitting out out front there. This thing grew here in Bardstown into one of the most successful businesses and something that, frankly, the whole town of Bardstown is proud that it sits here. I told you I left the military in 2010. 26 years in the military, the best thing about it is the team environment you get in everything that you do. In the nine years since, I haven't been on that kind of team until I walked in here. And this is the kind of place where you're proud to come to work every day. You see the energy in the people that are here, and you can tell very clearly that everybody's proud to be on this team and excited about where the company's going. It is a good place to hang out. It feels good. It feels good to be part of a team like that. You know, there's a lot of people who say they're the luckiest guy out there. I'll tell you, I've been lucky a lot of times in my life and this is definitely high on that list of good luck for me. So, good luck for my family. This has been One of the most exciting things that's happened to me lately and to be a part of this team, you know, we just celebrated Veterans Day. We've got 10 vets here. We've got just amazing people from every different type of background coming into the bourbon world here. Dan should tell you a little bit bit about his background. He's not the typical bourbon guy either, but it's the collective that frankly brings the power and the energy here that you can see every day when you're here at work.

Well, Mark, first, let's say thanks for your service, man. We really appreciate that here at the Bourbon Road. I appreciate that. Carolina boy here coming here to Kentucky. It's probably a whole different aspect for you.

Been in Carolina most of my life, but you know. People talk about the same way here as they do in Carolina, and the weather's similar. You just get it a couple days here early than you did in North Carolina. So it's a big life change for us just because of the timing of it, but it's a perfect life change for us right now. We're excited about being here, part of Bardstown Bourbon Company. This company has amazing opportunity in front of it, and we're excited to be a part of it.

Well, we probably ought to let our listeners. I'm sure they hear a little bit of stuff going on in the background. We're we're actually at a dining table in the bottle and bond kitchen here at Barstown Bourbon Company.

Yeah.

And we're sitting here. It's a beautiful place. We're looking outside of the cornfields of corn that's been cut and just a beautiful place. But this is a functioning restaurant. There are people walking through here and probably wondering what the heck we're doing over here, I think.

Yeah, and it goes with our whole mission of providing a complete experience and part of that is bottle and bond kitchen and bar led by chef john castro It's been running for about a year, full service, lunch, dinner, incredible whiskey menu, over 400 vintage spirits all the way back to 1892 curated by Fred Minnick, awesome cocktail program. It's really just a place where you can come and enjoy Bourbon and just be a part of this community of Bardstown. It's an incredible restaurant.

Now Danny, you have a special name, right? Everybody calls you Danny Bardstown.

Danny Bardstown, yeah.

So tell us something about you, man.

Like Mark said, I came into the bourbon industry from a unique angle. I bounced around a lot and was in Louisiana. I have a classical music background, so I was playing in the orchestra in New Orleans. I did that for about eight years and then met a girl in China. He used to do music tours over in China. We met over there and she lived in Louisville. And they say, you know, Kentucky girls don't want to leave Kentucky. And that was the case. So I was commuting. I'd finish the concert Saturday night, drive through the night, get here in Kentucky, then get back for rehearsal on Tuesday. And it was working for me, but it wasn't working for her.

So that's a that's what is that, an 11 hour drive?

Yeah, about, yeah, 10. Well, it depends if you hit traffic. If you do it well, you can do it in 10 and a half. All for a girl. All for a girl. And, you know, best decision I made was to move up to Kentucky and got into, I was always into cocktails and wine, had that background and really got deep into wine and the restaurant industry, ran a restaurant called Deca. in Louisville, and then through some connections, heard about Barstown Bourbon Company, came down, saw what was happening here. When I came down, this room we're sitting in was just an empty cavernous room, and we built this restaurant and bar and created the first of its kind, this Napa Valley experience in a distillery. It's only recently that you could pour by the drink at a distillery, so this is A very new concept, but it's an incredible way to experience bourbon.

Absolutely. The building is super modern, right?

Yeah, and that goes with our whole thing. You see a ton of glass that goes with our transparency and openness and the whole theme of celebration and meals and dining and really enjoying this spirit.

And the modern nature of everything we do. Dan mentioned the way we select our blends. It's the same way with everything we're doing. It's a modern approach. We honor the tradition of make it bourbon, but we push innovation in everything we do. And that whole modern piece you can see displayed here in everything you see. So real proud of this place, again. It sticks out a bit in Bardstown, in the cornfield, and I think people love it and they're real proud that it's sitting there.

Mark, we always talk about the bourbon culture on the Bourbon Road and being in the military, I'm sure you had your first drink of bourbon at some point. When was that?

Yeah, you know, there is a bourbon culture in the military and it's, you know, American whiskey has been part of military tradition forever. Everything from medical reasons to liquid courage and having a sip and whatever. I can't tell you the first time, but I can tell you there's countless times where I was sitting in places where we probably weren't supposed to have whiskey that we might have had a toast just to. to friendship and the things that we we went through and the things that we did you you guys are both military vets you understand it you have unique experiences and the way you share them with people sticks with you and i can remember numerous times sitting in different places where someone was fortunate enough to come up with a bottle and get to share it with your buddies and so There's been numerous times where that's happened in places where I probably wasn't supposed to be drinking alcohol, but it's just part of part of the way things go. Part of life, right?

That military morale. What about you, Dan?

Like anyone else, I came up on the cheaper side of things, first sips. But it was later on that I learned to truly enjoy it and see the process that went into it, the variations and what bourbon could be. And that's when I really started to appreciate it.

Now, when you first started drinking bourbon, were you a sipper or were you a highball guy?

Nothing to be proud of. Oh my goodness. No, I think that comes with time.

This is a place to tell them secrets.

Your parents can't whoop you for it now. Dan's a wine guy is how he started.

You think about the way you think about wine and then

That's why he's saying, you know, think about the way he thinks about whiskey today and then the way he breaks it down. It's the same way that it came from the wine world, I'm sure, for him.

Exactly.

For me, I've always, you know, it's been you don't have a lot of flexibility. You got a bottle. So you try to figure out the best way. And so for me, it was always starting out neat. And now I've learned a lot of different ways to enjoy it. But neat has been the way that most often it broke open for me.

I think both me and Jim are that same way, as neat. We like a good cocktail, you know, an old-fashioned or a Manhattan here or there, but, you know, probably almost any day in front of a fire, I'm gonna have a neat bourbon.

The one thing that I've learned here, and this is, you know, as I see more and more and learn more and more about the whiskey world, what I love is seeing Everybody enjoys it their own way. I love being with my master distiller, Steve Nalley. Everybody tells you how you got to drink bourbon this way or that way. And he puts a few drops of water in it or he puts a few drops of ice in our fusion and loves it that way. So to me, again, it's it's drink bourbon. I don't care. I don't care how you like it. Drink it.

I think Jim always, he says it best. It's your bourbon, your way. You know, once it's in your hand, that's it's your bourbon. You, you do what you want with it. If you bought it, that's your bourbon. And that's the same. I've had people tell me, are you going to put something in that? I'm like, it's my bourbon. I'm going to drink it to hell. I'll pour you a glass and you drink it the way you want.

Or you want a little of this Al-8 in there? So this is the Fusion number two. So Fusion One released about a year ago.

Yeah, actually less than a year ago. March of this year.

Okay. It sold so quickly we kind of had to speed up and

So this is not necessarily a timed release. This is a release that's going to happen based on need and necessity.

I shouldn't say it was always in the plan to release Fusion 2.

Just moved up a bit. Yeah, I mean, look, we're in an amazing stage where You know, we've got a great groundswell. We're only selling in six states right now. You know, we focus on our what we call our home turf, which is we consider everywhere from Tennessee to Kentucky to Indiana to Illinois. And then we're in Florida and California as well right now. So we've got a great groundswell with the things that our products are doing. And we're going to open up in probably six more states next year. So we're We're guessing on, like everybody, where's the buzz going to take the product, and how can we get it out there and make sure we have enough of the product at the right time. We're going through that every day, and we're excited about where we're going to go over the next few years. You're going to see in 2022, most likely, That's when our bourbon is going to hit six years. We think that's probably going to be about the right time. We'll release it when it's ready, whether that's five, seven, whatever. But right now, we're kind of guessing that 22 is going to be the year you're going to see 100 percent of our product come out. And so that's when we think we'll really open up to. Big business.

So does the fusion at that point kind of just go away? It's a great question.

Yeah, we've we've had a lot of discussion on that. And look, we we think we think the fusion probably will go away at that point. We think our art of blending, which we'll talk about after the break here with Discovery Series, is where we'll keep going with our blended products and fusion will probably phase out. And so you better get your bottles while you while we go in here because In 2022, you may not be able to get Fusion anymore, but you're going to get our core product.

Now, is it fair to say that batch two batch size is probably larger than batch one batch size based on demand?

I think that's fair to say. OK.

And you'll just do what you need on the next batch to see that, especially with the expanding of more states, I would say.

A lot more expansion. We're going to keep going. By 2022, we'll probably be in 30 states. We'll keep growing and be ready to launch that core product.

What about overseas?

We're in discussions on that. We've got a whole separate business that we hadn't talked about yet. It's our collaborative partner program where we make bulk bourbon for others. So we're looking at a number of ways we can get into the international market. Right now, it's not our core focus, certainly not for our product. We're going to focus our product in the States at this point. But I can see us doing some international work in the near future with our bulk product.

And what about in military exchanges and stuff?

So it's interesting. We're we're having discussions about that. You know, all of those high volume opportunities like that are something that that we've got to be careful of right now and thoughtful about how we go into those. You know, some of them being in controlled states where we might not be playing so. We're having a thought of that right now, as a matter of fact. As you mentioned, I'm from North Carolina. I've got a lot of friends that are asking me for my bourbon right now, as you could imagine. I'd rather sell it to some of them. We're looking at all kinds of ways to get in there. The Class 6 stores are definitely the place I want to see our bourbon.

Not a lot of people know what a classic store is though, right?

Yeah. So there's your liquor store on military installations.

Yeah.

So classics items are non-essential items, right, basically? I think it's pretty essential. Morale builder right there. That's a morale builder.

Usually, right after payday, you can see that classic store. You better get in there and get your stuff, because it'll be sold out.

It's interesting. The military, they live on cash a lot. It's an interesting market. They sell high-end products in the military installations, for sure. definitely a market there for folks who want great products. A lot of people think the military is just going for low-priced stuff. That's not the case. They have a taste for good products, just like everybody else. And I've seen some very expensive products going out of classic stores over the years.

Hilliard Now, sitting behind us here, this room in here, and I think people, when they walk in here, they would be almost shocked to see some of the products Not only in here, but at your bar too. But you don't only just sell Barstown Bourbon Company bourbon.

Yeah. So look, we talked about the transparency piece. Really, the three things we talk about are remaining this modern approach to everything we do. We talk about the transparency from our label to the way we run our distributor. the way we run our distillery, to the guest experience that you'll see, everything about our place is transparent. And then finally, it's the collaborative nature in everything that we do. We've got, I think it's 28 partners now that we actually make bourbon for them. Some of those come in and, you know, give us a mash bill and say, this is what we want you to make. Others, it's even more custom where we together with them help develop their mash bill and come up with their product. So we're proud that that our partners that we have a collaborative business with, make their bourbon, and then we're proud to sell it in our gift shop. So it's interesting to see because some of these great partners we have like Jefferson's, High West, Kentucky Owl, BellMe, the number of folks here, they like bringing their folks here to see their distillery. They see this as their distillery. We love that. The partnership we have with those folks who don't want to go build their own distillery, they love the fact that they can come here, get their full service, and then see their products sell off of our shelves. We love it. They sell their products elsewhere, but they love seeing it here as well as they bring their clients into their distillery. And the full service bar, nobody else does that, right? The thing the thing we like is that you can come in here and get what you like. You know, we certainly sell our products. We want you to buy our products. That's why we got a retail shop sitting here and we love Bardstown Bourbon. But we want people to have an experience here and feel welcome and get what they want out of it as well. So we're real proud of that.

Now, when distilleries are coming here, I mean, you're going to have a mix of non-distilling producers, I assume, that are contracting with you, and as well as distilling producers who are just ramping up their operation, right? We do a little bit of both and we do some capacity for other folks. So if a guy is starting a distillery and he has an idea of the mash bill he wants to make, he can contract you guys to start off right away making that, working with him to develop that mash bill. as he builds out his distillery and puts in his equipment and all of that stuff and then you can begin by selling what you're producing for him and then at some point transition to his own equipment. Is that kind of a model that happens a lot?

Absolutely. I mean if you think about it, that's what we did. We bought other bourbon and as we were building our distillery and as we were growing our product. Look, the good thing about this business, they sold out the first 25,000 barrels before the distillery was even completed. So great partnership to get that going. As Dan mentioned, within the first year, doubled in size, went to 50,000 barrels. And then the following year, increased capacity to do almost 120,000 barrels. So the growth of that in that business of all these collaborative partners has been, frankly, where most bourbon companies, you got to either sell gin or you got to sell vodka or you got to go raise capital. We've been in the fortunate spot of not having to do that. We've got a great successful business going on with our partners, allowing us the time to release our bourbon to the market in the right timeframe that we think we ought to be releasing it. not having to come out with a product before it's ready, bottom line.

That's awesome. Well, I think we'd like to get into a lot of that, a little more detail in the second half. Why don't we go ahead and continue drinking on our glass here and then we'll come back after the break and we'll try something else from you guys. Sound good? Great, guys. Cheers. We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Loghead's Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Loghead's Home Center, nestled in the hills of Kentucky, is an industry leader in building handcrafted rustic furniture. Family-owned and operated, they take pride in offering only the very best for their customers. The Logheads, and that's what they like to call themselves, are skilled woodcrafters who are passionate about creating rustic furniture for people who appreciate the beauty of natural wood. Owners Tommy and Gwen don't just sell the rustic lifestyle, they live it. And you can be sure that Loghead's furniture will always be handcrafted in Kentucky by artisans who embrace the simple way of life. Loghead's rustic furniture is made from northern white cedar, a sustainable wood that's naturally rot and termite resistant. Its beauty and quality will add warmth to your earthy lifestyle for generations to come. Be sure to check out everything they have to offer at LogHeadsHomeCenter.com. And while you're at it, give Tommy and Gwen a shout on Facebook or Instagram at LogHeads Home Center. All right, we were back and dan, what do you have for us for our second pour?

I'm excited about this one. This is our discovery series release number two. So discovery celebrates the art of blending Something we're very high on Often in the bourbon community in the past. It's been about the highest number, you know, is this a 15 years? Is this an 18 year? and we're taking the approach that you would with champagne or or Often you'll see it in other countries doing whiskey, but not so much in bourbon. And it's taking different flavor profiles, different components at different ages and putting them together using the same teams we talked about before, the same process and finding a blend that's better than the individual parts. And we're really excited about this discovery. Number two, three different bourbons went into this. The highest being a 14 year and then it's got some 12 year and it's got some 10 year in there Okay, so at each of those age points it brings something different to the table Absolutely, and and not only that they're they're different bourbons as well. So they're different man different different Different flavor profiles. So, you know the 14 year you really start to see the oak influence the age and It's really rounded out at that point. The 10-year still has some of that cinnamon, some of that brightness to it. So it's cool. Let's check it out. Yeah, so right away you're getting a lot of those oak notes of caramel roundness. There's leather on it.

You get some baking spices in there.

Definitely. The 10-year that went into this had a good amount of that baking spice on it.

Brings a lot of it to it.

And then we saw, uh, all this discovery series is cast drank. We talked about, you know, drinking bourbon. It's your bourbon drink, drink how you want to drink it. This puts you in control of your, of proofing it down, how you want to, how you want to enjoy it.

Now, what was the proof of this?

It comes in about 122. Wow.

I love when you can nose a bourbon and you just don't get that giant whiff of alcohol. You know, in this, this, you definitely don't get that. You get all that oak and the vanilla and caramel.

That's what's most impressive to me about this. It's one 22 proof, but it definitely sips a lot smoother than what you would think from that. Cheers. Cheers guys.

So as the guy with 26 years in the military drinks smooth, the guy that went to John Wayne high school. Wow. That is, um, pow pow.

That's really good. That's, that's, that's got a, um,

I don't know just sort of uh everywhere at once kind of yeah, yeah massive finish too just just Stays with you in an awesome way. I put it up against Annie bourbon out right now That's pretty amazing yeah

I can't there's so much going on in that that's really good. Yeah, it's uh, I'm trying to pick notes out, but it's just um, it's it's Uh overwhelming my palate with flavor. Uh-huh. It's kind of an explosion. Yeah me too It's it just rings I call it a church bell finish because it's just going I think this is something you got to kind of sit with for a while and and it will just start to unveil itself to you over time.

Yeah, it opens up wonderfully and as you sit with it, put a tiny drop of water and you'll get new flavors.

It's an awesome, awesome product.

We talked about what we drink at home. This is one I enjoy at the house currently. Sometimes I'll drink the blends that didn't make it or something a little younger. As we're in the process, something doesn't work out. Instead of dumping it down the sink, there might be a little orbit left.

Dan's got his secret stash. I'm still working on building up my... I haven't been here long enough to build up my collection of throwaways.

One monster infinity bottle, right?

Right. Working on it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think my Discovery One still has probably two-thirds in it. I just visit it. I just go back and I visit it.

And I do that with a lot of bottles.

You know, it just takes me a while to get through something.

Currently on our flight, we're pouring our exclusive flight here. We pour Fusion Two, Discovery One, and Discovery Two. We're serving them concurrently, just so you can see different profiles you can make in blending. They're very, very different approaches.

That's pretty amazing. So you brought it up. So what are you besides? Barstown bourbon companies Bourbon, what else are you drinking?

Like I said, a lot of what I'm drinking right now are I just because I'm interested in the aging and the blending I've been drinking a lot of blends that didn't make it to see, you know what where an issue was or You know just to compare it to the to the one that won out of the blind tasting and then I also have some finishes In our collaborative series, say we have an Apple brandy finish, we'll pull a sample at 10 months and there'll be a little leftover. And I like to see the progression through time. We can hit it at six months and 10 months and see how it develops. This last month, I've been just sipping on things that almost became products and comparing them to what I taste during the day, which are the finished products.

Now you have a finished product on the shelf in the gift shop right now, right?

Yes. Got a few of them. Yeah. Yeah. One that's, we have our premium, our collaboration with Copper and Kings.

While we're waiting for this finish to go away on this one, you can tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah, so this is a distillery only release. So you have to come here to try it, purchase it, enjoy it. It's just sold here. It's a collaboration, so a finishing product with Copper and Kings. Their name's right on the label with us. We celebrate both companies. It's a 10-year bourbon that went into a Mostel barrel. Mostel being grape juice and brandy put together. So it's got some sweetness. It's got some sweet grape notes to it. Was in that barrel for 18 months. took it out. So it was a used Mostel barrel. Ten-year bourbon went into that barrel, aged for 18 months. Then we took that product and put it into New American Oak for an additional, I think it hit 19 months, and it picked up all this smoke and complexity. So it's a triple-barreled product.

And think about the commitment there. I mean, most folks when they're finishing products, they're doing six months. Our products are 19 months in barrels. And what's been cool for me to see is it's really an assessment of when it's ready. It's not about a timeline of when we're trying to take it to market. It's an assessment of when that's ready. I think it's interesting, you know, that whole process of is it. 16, 17, 18, 19 months on this one. I just, I love that. We're doing it when it's ready, not when we're trying to sell something. So you're not rushing nothing out there.

Yeah. I think we've hit on something with that, with these long finishes. When you compare our our wine finishes, our, you know, anything we're doing on the Goodwood honey ale finish. That length of time really lets it interact. And I think we've landed on something really strong there.

Yeah. So this is without a doubt one of the better bourbons I've ever had. There's no doubt.

It's amazing. It is really good. Thanks.

It's amazing. And this also just came out, I believe last week was the official release, so we're excited. I might have to take over a bottle of that, man.

And this one, like the Fusion series, is something that you release from time to time as needed to fill the market. So when your shelves are dry out there, you're probably thinking about the next batch.

The discovery is going to be something we're going to keep doing. Again, that's our art of blending. We're real proud of that. We're always looking for just blending a great bourbon. We will continue having a discovery series in the future. We like it. We like the idea of doing it, and we're going to keep putting great products out there.

So when we're driving down the Bluegrass Parkway here and we're passing by to get off the accident stuff, I notice a gigantic crane out there and it looks like a new rick house is going up. And I'm sure there's all kinds of other projects you guys are fixing to do being a young company. Sure.

Take us through some of those. Sure. So you saw our sixth Rick house going up. We've got four Rick houses right now with about twenty four thousand barrels in them. We've got our fifth Rick house is fifty eight thousand barrels and we're building our sixth Rick house at fifty eight thousand as well. We've we've got three more on the books. We'll probably wind up with three hundred thousand barrel capacity is what what we're looking towards. We've got a lot of other people's barrels in our warehouses, and we don't have an exact timeline of when those barrels are going to be taken out. It's that process of trying to sort out what's the right volume, how much do we need storage capacity, and we're continuing to think about that on a regular basis. Eventually, that's going to be more and more of our bourbon as we grow our brands. But we're excited about where that's going and you know, we've got a hundred acres here We're filling it up and we're we're gonna keep filling it up But ultimately the plan probably is about 300,000 barrel capacity here on site. How did that go from?

I notice it looks like a traditional Rick house and not a warehouse. How did that decision make him go with? Hey, we're not gonna go, you know, cuz some companies are using climate control warehouses, but you guys have a traditional rick house out there.

Absolutely. And we work with Busek Construction, who's just been an incredible partner for them. We've actually had a weekly construction meeting for five years every week, meeting with them, sitting down, talking through our developments.

It's almost like having our personal construction company in-house, although we know Busek, you know, obviously works for tons of companies around, but they've been an amazing partnership that's literally enabled us to do things in a very economical way and in a rapid fashion that probably couldn't be done if we didn't have the relationship we do with music.

Now, does it get kind of, so with these traditional rick houses, you've got how many levels in them?

Well, the smaller ones that you see is kind of six and a half. The big ones, the 58,000 goes up to seven floors. And the reason we don't do because you will see palletized and climate control to speak to both of those points. Airflow when you palatize you lose some airflow that natural aging we love and that goes with the climate control I mean this Ohio River Valley This area of Tennessee, Kentucky, especially Indiana is where you want to celebrate the ups and downs of the climate. You know, it's snowed here What two days ago and a week before that, you know, yeah, so that, that natural aging, the, the pushing and pulling of the wood and the, and the spirit moving into the wood is, is what we want. So we, we want, let mother nature do it. And we want the airflow through the Rick house.

It's interesting, we talk about all of the technology and the science that goes into the distilling process, and then we put them in these dumb warehouses. And it becomes, you know, something that just sits there for six years.

It definitely looks, when you drive by and you just see all this wood out there, we're in a very modern building, concrete and steel, and then right outside, it almost looks like you're building Noah's Ark out there.

It's just a big pile of wood out there, right? It's amazing. I actually went last week and watched some of the process, I mean, just to see. They've got it down to the science and, you know, music construction's been doing them for a long time and they've got it right.

So it's awesome to see those things go up. It does make you scratch your head a little bit when you think about, you know, Steve in there, he's focused on consistency and a very accurate process to produce these whiskeys that are going in the barrels. And then you're going to send it out here to unknown weather. Barrels that from one barrel to the next, they're not the same. So that very controlled white dog is entering into an unknown world.

It's amazing to watch. We truly have one of the most technologically advanced distilleries anywhere. No question about it. We've got some of the latest equipment. Steve Nalley as you mentioned, master distiller and then John Hargrove who brought a lot of his food and beverage experience into this and some of the technology from that world into our distillery and we've got an amazing art and science going on back here. And then out there, it's all about Mother Nature taking control of it.

So your stills in there are from here in Kentucky, too, right? Yeah, we worked with Vendome. Great relationship with them. Custom stills, custom doublers.

Cool to see a business like Vendome, I think, is about 99% of the stills around the world. And it's a family-owned business still. I think that's a cool

Yeah, it's amazing to hear that a company that takes up a full city block in Louisville has only 75 employees. It just blows my mind. And they're everywhere. I mean, they're just, they're everywhere. Everywhere.

We actually, we actually know the girl that she's the purchasing agent for Vindome. She was on as one of our guests. She's a veteran also. And, um, So it's almost neat to see, Hey, we're actually drinking stuff that, that come out of the steals that she, she purses.

She was very clear. She said all bourbon starts with me. Cause I guess she's buying the copper. So there you go.

We are looking at some sign side of the warehouse. We're working with a company to try to figure out some way to look at it. We've got a futures barrel select program that we're working on and trying to find a way that we can really display what goes on in the warehouse. So a real real bourbon guy buys his barrel. You know, our bourbon is still three years old. So our program is a select program where with our team you're picking a barrel and then it's going back in the warehouse and you come back and taste it every year. And over time you see where it goes and together we select when the right time for that to come out. But we're trying to develop some technology to where they can literally watch their barrel thing, sit there wherever they are and they can see the temperature. They can see what's going on with their barrel in our warehouse. So we're trying to bring a bit of technology into that world of lack of technology in the warehouses.

That's almost as bad as watching your stocks.

Well, you know, some people actually like to. We think it's going to be a hit.

We'll see. Yeah.

So who's your customer there with that barrel selection? Who are the people that are coming in and making those early selections?

We're making it a select program right now, right? We want it to be a select program. We want it to be for special people who really care about and understand what's going on with their product. And we're being kind of selective about how we go about that right now.

Awesome, I tell you this this discovery series is it's really got my attention I know and you know you set you set your glass down for a little bit and That finish just keeps going and going it's great, but it draws you right back to that glass absolutely really good

And you know using these different mash bills and seeing how the flavors work together I don't know if we mentioned it, but we make 41 different mash bills in that distillery and turn them over individual unique recipes It actually goes up to 65 recipes off 41 mash bills that we pull off, you know, most Most distilleries may do between one and five So really digging into what the grain does to influence a bourbon is something

We love to explore the logistics of that just just blow my mind. I mean it must be very difficult to manage Yeah, it's that many batches now.

Are you doing a mixture of sweet and sour mash or that's that's interesting because when you turn them over you You know, you kind of lose that ability, right? The sour mash being putting back it back in so we can we can store in a separate location that recipe and and create a salad mash that way.

So you don't necessarily get the energy conservation part of it, but you do get that pH control.

Right. And we try to line up, you know, these are mapped out a year at a time, you know, so the production, these mash bills, how we run them, when we run them, because they're different amounts for different companies is a year in advance, which is just incredible how they pull that off the planning. And think about procuring the different grains. The amounts, the storage, it's just an amazing thing they pull off back there, but part of it is storing that.

So you mentioned a little while ago that you have some other Finished projects that are underway. Do you have a lot of stuff going on a lot of R&D?

Yeah, yeah a lot of you know, we're we're we're digging into potential finishes You know, we've got some things coming in the in the single malt category. We have a great finished product We're so excited about which is the prisoner wine collaboration, which will be out Very soon in January. So awesome wine company long finish with with prisoner wine long barrel finish sure ageing time Yeah, the cool thing about it as we talked about these barrels are put up for 18 19 months.

We had a great release of Fight for Pavit same a Cabernet out of out of California and We've already got more barrels over there of that ready, you know, they'll be ready in, I don't know, 11 months or something. I mean, literally, it's that kind of process that we're going through. We've already got the next level out there.

So it was a big enough hit that you're going back now and you're making another release of it. That's awesome.

So we and we'll do the same thing with prisoner. Well, we're we're coming out with prisoner now, but we've already got the next prisoner barrels getting ready to come in. So we're focused on keeping those going because they're great hits. You got it.

You almost have to seem like you'd have your team here has to be pretty dang amazing. You guys are managing a lot, like Jim said, of 41 different match bills.

Thinking about keeping all the 28 clients happy.

Yeah, your team here has to just be working their tails off to make sure everything's running right.

It's amazing to see the operations back there. I mean, it's 24-7. It's nonstop process. I think Hargrove gets the team 17 days off for a real thorough cleaning of the equipment. It's the only time we're not nonstop distilling. And even on those days, we've got fermenting going on. So it's an interesting process that goes on back there. And like you said, a real science.

Computers play a big part as well, I would think.

We've got some of, like I said, the latest technology. We brought in a new tool called ignition into the process that helps see every single piece of everything going on from the grain coming in, what's happening in the fermenters, the distilling process, every piece of it. They can see it. They can control it. Whether they're on site or looking at it on their computer at home.

So yeah and speaking to that Our head distiller Nick Smith came over from Jim Beam. He's been here since the very beginning We're just Starting a tour with him It's gonna start running in December where if you wanted to dig into this process if you were really interested in how we pull that off he's gonna personally lead a tour through the distillery where you'll see each part of it and you can really dig into it and see it and

Yeah, well, let's talk a little bit about your tours here What you know, what can somebody comes in here off a tour bus or they come off the highway? And they walk in the door and say I kind of want to tour tour this place. What can they expect? What are the options?

Yeah, we've got some awesome packages So the visitor's experience which is adjacent to the restaurant has been running for two months now So we just started rolling Our core tour we call the main event and you can you can view the information sign up for these on our website right online barstownbourbon.com Main event is is just an awesome tour where you start with the distillate you start tasting Distillate to match your it to blends right off the bat and you see how we make our fusion blend Then we talk about kind of what we do here We dig into the education side. We've got a really cool video that shows distillation. You see our facility, then we take you out to our Rick house where you can view the barrels and actually thief right out of a barrel and taste our product aging.

So your tours are allowing guests to thief out of a barrel. I believe we're the only place that does that.

Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

It's pretty amazing.

And the site, they do it. They literally are right there in our Rick House. We've got a beautiful site there that's probably going to turn into some type of members club down the road here. It's Rick House Bar. And it's an amazing site. You guys got to come see it.

A Rick House Bar. I'm ready. You could have started us off over there.

How exclusive is that? We're still deciding how exclusive. We'll see.

What about how those tours cost money? It's a $20 tour currently, but it includes a ton of pores. Not a ton of poor a state state legal amount But it's they're very interesting and we leave right out of the barrel bring your designated driver Yeah, any discounts for like military, of course. Yes discounts for military discounts for seniors. Awesome That's great.

So you said you got a hundred acres here and you're gonna try to fill it up What else we're gonna try to fill this place up with?

We'll see. We're real excited about a bottling facility we're working on. We want to be a one-stop shop for our customers, and that'll really help not only them but us as we take that on, and we hope to see that. process moving forward here. We're working on everything from working with the city, working with the county, working with the state, trying to make sure we're doing it all the right way. But we're excited about that thing coming on board in the in the new year. A hotel has always been in the discussion here. Look, we want a Napa Valley experience. That was the whole concept when this place was developed. You know, to be able to come here, experience this place, and you guys have seen it, it's just a place you want to hang out. So to have a hotel right here on our property would be pretty priceless for us. We have brought in a bunch of consultants. We're looking at it as a business. We're trying to figure out the best way to do that. But there's a need here in Bardstown. There's a need here in the community. You know, when these events, Bourbon Festival, Bourbon and Beyond, Bourbon Chase Run, all these different events go on, you can't get a hotel around here. So there's definitely a need. And we're assessing that right now because we'd love to see one sitting right here on our property.

I'd like to see the Barstown Bourbon Festival move out here and be here. To me, that would be amazing and take it to that next level.

The town may fight us on that. All the other folks may fight us on that. We welcome them out here and look, we've had it was literally our best day ever here at the restaurant, I think. And when the Bourbon Festival went on this year, Danny Bardstown was down there handing out, you know, handing out our menu and people came running.

I think we came over here and ate that day. We came down here to the to the festival. and hung out for a little bit.

We had breakfast with the town fathers first and then we came out here and had lunch, so it was a good day.

We started out with bourbon mimosas and then ended up here with some old fashions. Very good, very good. Drinks and dusties out of you guys' collection.

Talk a bit about our barrel age. He brought up old fashion, talk a bit about our barrel age. So we have

My understanding, my research, the largest barrel cocktail program in the world. So we do our barreling. Often you'll see it in a little barrel on the bar top. We do ours 53 gallon full size barrels. We have seven of them currently in our Rick house aging. They're Manhattan's, they're old fashions. The cool thing we do, not only do we build Unique cocktail in them. So we'll do different recipes different blends for each one and see how they age But we'll put different ingredients in there with it. We'll put orange peels in there. We'll put eucalyptus in one put a little dash of something else in there a little different bitters and just see how they go and Everyone gets involved in it. The distillery guys help us procure the barrel char levels and It's really a representation of the collaboration here at the company through that barrel cocktail program. It's one of the best things you can get here.

So these are ready for cocktail. So what's in the barrel is the bourbon, the sugar, and the bitters. That all, and whatever else you decide.

and it all ages together. You know, some of them, one of them's going to hit 10 months pretty soon sitting there. And these are new charto barrels.

And so you might have a barrel old fashioned here now, come back a month from now, you're going to get a completely different flavored barrel old fashioned. So it's really unique the way, the way we've got that program. That's amazing. How long has that program been going for? Probably, I'd say it's almost a year now.

And it's just been a hit and we love making them and we love enjoying them with people. And we've had fans from the beginning that know what batch we're on, you know?

Okay, we're switching the batch, different barrel, completely different batch, different flavor.

You know, one will be really deep and rich and one will be kind of herbal. It's fun.

I'll tell you what, the day we came over here for the Barstown Bourbon Festival and I had one of those and I was like, this is one of the best old fashions I've ever had in my life.

And I've drank just a couple in my life.

Today, you'll get a different flavor. Absolutely.

Cool. Well, Dan, Mark, it's been a blast. We would like to give you the opportunity to let all our listeners know how to reach out to you. Most of them probably know you already, but just in case, that fringe drinker out there, that fringe bourbon fan out there would like to go out and check you guys out on Instagram or the web. Can you tell them how to reach you?

Absolutely. BardstownBurban.com. And then on Instagram, you've got Bardstown Bourbon Company. You've got Bottle and Bond. You've got Danny Bardstown and Bardstown Bourbon Company CEO.

And BardstownBourbon underscore chairman. Our chairman, Pete Lofton, is passionate about our business. He's a regular Instagrammer and you can interact with him on a regular basis.

And we can confirm that. He's a busy guy.

He is a busy guy.

Show me another chairman that you can just, you know, he messaged you right back. It's crazy.

So we appreciate you guys coming. I mean, we're as you can see, we're extremely proud of this place. I mentioned to you the passion you can feel in every person you run into around here. For us, this is one of the most amazing places to be able to hang out. So we appreciate you guys coming and spending some time with us here.

Well, thank you for your hospitality and thank you for sharing your whiskey with us. We appreciate it.

You guys should be proud of what you've built here and what you're providing to the community. Cheers. Thank you guys.

Cheers.

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