340. Exploring RD1 Spirits with Barry Brinegar

Welcome to another great episode of the Bourbon Road with your host, Jim and Brian, where they talk bourbon and of course, drink bourbon. Grab yourself a pour, kick back and enjoy another trip down the Bourbon Road.

You know friends, it's never too early to start planning your trip to the Bourbon Trail for 2023. We hope you'll join the Bourbon Road crews as we pull out all the stops this year at Bourbon on the Banks. So mark your calendars for October 6th and 7th and we'll plan on seeing you in Frankfort, Kentucky. Be sure to listen in during the halftime break for all the details on Bourbon on the Banks. Hello, listeners, and welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road Podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon. And in the studio with me tonight is our co-host, Brian Hyatt. Brian, welcome to the show. Thank you, Jim. It's great to be back. And Brian, you have brought a guest to us today, haven't you?

That's right. We have a good friend of mine from years in the past, Barry Brinegar. And he has been in the bourbon industry for a while. And we're going to talk about his new venture now, RD1.

RD1. Barry, RD1.

Yes, thank you guys. It's such a pleasure to get together. Anytime we can get together and talk bourbon and drink, it's always a good day. RD1 Spirits, it's Lexington, Kentucky's first federal registered distillery. And so what we did is we established the company RD1 Spirits really just to pay honor to that historic distillery that was founded back in 1865. So we didn't resume But what we did is we formed the company, a group of entrepreneurs with that entrepreneurial spirit. And we're going to be tasting some of the things today to show you guys and showcase what our flagship core four products are.

Good. So we've got four whiskeys that we're going to have on the show today. So you're going to sort of take us through your expressions and show us what you're doing. We'll get to that first expression first. That's what's in our glass right now. And after that, we'll talk a little bit about the history of RD1.

Great. Love it. So this first expression, it's a Kentucky straight bourbon. It is the Mashbill 70% corn, 21% rye and 9% malted barley. And every one of our expressions and our finishes are that same mashbill. So you're going to get to be able to see what wood finishing does and how it impacts the flavor of this particular mashbill. So this is just pure Kentucky bluegrass. What you get here is a bourbon, and it is at 98 proof. You're going to get that sweet note on the palate. I tell you what, I'm not going to tell you what I get until we taste it and talk about it, but if you want me to just lead you through, I'm happy to do that.

Well, I'll tell you what, let's have you lead us through your first expression here, and then you've got another one that's very similar but different. On the second, and then we'll, we'll sort of take our own road on that one as well.

Love it. Love it. And so make sure to save a little bit so we can kind of go back and forth between the two. So, um, on the nose on this one, um, it, you can, you can get the hint of spiciness, um, with sweet, um, high corn percentage. So it's going to be sweet on the nose. Um, I get a little bit of cinnamon and I get some spice. on the nose, but I also get a hint of orange citrus that is going to come through the mid palate and the finish. So on the nose, that's kind of what I'm getting here. Very approachable. You don't get a whole lot of proof on the nose. 98 is one of those that really accentuates the rye. As you proof down mashbills that have a rye flavoring grain, that rye really opens up under 100 proofs. So that's kind of what I'm getting on the nose is the spiciness of the rye in that bourbon mashbill. Cheers.

Cheers.

So the spice definitely comes through on the palette on the nose. I have to agree with you. I got that freshness of the citrus. It was, it was very light, but it was nice. I also got a little bit of a buttery aspect to it. There was a, there was spice there, but it was almost like, um, it was just enough to let you know what's coming on the palette, right? I mean, it's not overly too much on the nose, but I, uh, I like that, that light buttery note it has.

I can, I can see that, that buttery note. Um, for me on that mid palette, the, the cracked peppercorn, you know, it's just right there on that, on that mid palette. And then in the back of the, um, of the palette and on the finish, um, that, that orange citrus kind of comes back and, um, and finishes with a little bit of sweet spice.

Yeah. The first impression is a, is a, is a nice sweet. introduction to your palate, but it settles in with a good amount of spice on the back. And that citrus does come through. That's a nice presentation as it crosses. It's kind of nice and balanced. It does have an extra note of sweetness to it, I think. And that's that large corn content.

It is. It is. Yeah. Yeah. Once you get up there, certainly above 65 to 70%, you're having a whole lot of influence of that sweetness from the corn.

Absolutely. Well, you said this was a 98 proof whiskey and any indication on the age?

So it's a small batch. Each one of these are small batches and they're going to range anywhere from four to six year in the small batch.

Which is a nice saddle to be set and sitting in, right? Four to six year saddle.

And how many barrels are in a batch? We, we do fairly small batches and I know that's a ill-defined term. Um, but we're looking at anywhere from 12 to 20 barrels.

Well, I think that's reasonable. And honestly, you shouldn't have to defend your position of what is or isn't a small batch, but certainly 10 to 20 barrels would qualify, right? There are people doing hundreds of barrels and calling it a small batch, right? Which I guess in the terms of the big boys, that is a small batch.

Yeah, for them.

Yeah.

Yeah. Brian, what'd you think of that? You know, I really, really liked this and, and I'm one of those people that I really liked the sweet. Um, I do like really high proof, uh, but I really love the sweet notes that I get off of this. And, and I, I agree, like it's buttery and it's nice. And then after it settles a little bit, you get that spice and when it really settles in and man, it's just, I enjoy that quite a bit.

So where's this bottle price that on the shelves? I know it might vary a little bit, but yeah.

So, uh, MSRP is going to be, um, 59 95, uh, for the straight bourbon. And, um, and you know, we, we, we were trying to make sure that we get it in there. Unfortunately. At that price point, you see the on-premise locations become a little bit squeamish depending on if you're at a Jeff Rubies, no problem with a cocktail or a pour that's going to be in that $15 range. But we do offer some opportunities to get in the on-premise because that's an important place for us to be. Consumers, they need to try you. They need to be able to get a pour of it. And so, really, across the state of Kentucky, you can find us in a lot of on-premise locations, both in Lexington and Louisville and northern Kentucky. That's really been our initial effort, was to get out there and make sure that the stores, on-premise locations that can afford us and can afford that price point, we get point of distribution in those locations.

We're going to sip on your whiskey, but while we are, I'd like you to kind of tell us a little bit about Barry Brenniger and how you came up in the bourbon industry. Now, you've been on our show before.

Yes, yeah. I think we've been together a couple of different times already. And initially, I came on the podcast with the Lexington Bourbon Society. And I think it was Ben McWhorter was one of my partners on the board. And so really, who is Barry Brinegar, a native of Lexington? I'm a proud Kentuckian. I think that if you live in the state or you move to the state, bourbon is in your blood somehow, either physically or you should have a sense of pride because the bourbon tourism represents a $9 billion a year industry to the state. So it's important for us, we should all be ambassadors for Bourbon. And so I am an ambassador for Bourbon. So I grew up, I was a nurse, I worked in the operating room, and I found that I enjoy talking to people better. And so I left the nursing field and went into medical device sales and pharmaceutical sales. And then I worked in senior living. That's how Brian and I met. And I started following this bourbon group, Lexington Bourbon Society, around because one of the rooms we're building, this senior living community in Lexington, And one of the rooms, we're logo-ing with the Woodford Reserve logo. So here I am, just this boy from Lexington, going to meet with a marketing team from Brown Foreman to get their blessing to use the logo. Because you've got to get their blessing in order to reproduce that logo. And then you remember when they were producing Neat, The Story of Bourbon. Oh yeah. I met those guys in Midway when they were looking for funding and I went up to them so green and I was like, oh man, I love what you guys are doing, love to be a part of it. And they're like, well, how much money you got?

I'm like, oh, that's this kind of conversation.

So I'm like, no, I don't have any money, but I'm looking forward to your show when you bring it out. Yeah. So, you know, just continue to love Bourbon and love my community. And I started a digital marketing company and I started meeting these Lexington business owners and I met enough of them and we finally said, let's start a brand. You know, bourbon is something that we all know and we all love and we did. We wrote a business plan and the first person we pitched it to was Mark Stoops, the University of Kentucky football coach. And Mark loves bourbon. He absolutely loves red wine. He loves coaching. And so the story captured his attention. But we had a 12 year Kentucky straight bourbon that we had bought a few barrels. You know, we had about 10, 12 barrels. And we're like, Mark, we're going to launch with this bourbon. He's like, I'm in. I absolutely am in. Of course, at that time, he had to go back and ask his wife, Chantel. And then, of course, JMI owns the rights to coach. So we had to navigate a little bit there. But he was the first investor. And we started the company. in January of 2020. So we know what happens in late February, early March, a global pandemic ensues.

Well, hopefully you got off to a quick start and got something done in the first three months.

We were very fortunate that Our legal attorney was Steve Amato. So Steve Amato is with the McBrayer Group, and he's the attorney for the Kentucky Distillers Association. So he knows if you're a supplier, if you're a distributor, if you are a liquor store, you probably dealt with Steve or someone in his firm. They absolutely know the liquor law and you need an attorney that keeps up with that because the laws change every year and you're responsible for understanding those changes. So Steve surrounded us with recommended some bourbon consultants and so within January to October when we had bottles on the shelf, we bought liquid We purchased a still, we got a lease, we installed the still, and we got bottles and corks and labels and had it all filled and on store shelves by late October. And so I tell people that the brand willed itself to come back to life, you know, because during a global pandemic, we're meeting on Zoom with local city officials and we got all our license, you know, by Zoom because you couldn't meet in person.

And you found bottles.

That was before the supply chain was really significantly impacted, but thank goodness we over purchased and had a lot of bottles in our inventory.

Well, what a great story. I mean, you guys really were full steam ahead. Yeah. Or through a period of time when people were just basically saying, whoa, it's me. You were pushing ahead. That's awesome. Good thing you did that. You took advantage of that time to really make sure you're prepared when we came out of it.

You know, everybody has really pivoted. There's a few terms that we've kind of coined. And being nimble, being able to understand the changing dynamic of consumer consumption is radically changed from pre-COVID. So the thing that is important to understand is meeting that customer wherever they are in marketing and digital marketing. There's an online persona and you have to be able to understand the persona and understand when they're in that moment of decision making that you're right there to meet them. And so it really helped to have a brand that was available online and then available locally. So we launched just in the Kentucky market in October of 2020.

So when you say online, define online for us.

Yeah, so direct to consumer. You know, the direct to consumer market, if you look at any of the projections, From now until late 2020s, that market is looking to increase. I want to say that the last projection I saw was at least a 17% increase in that direct-to-consumer shipping. So, Sealbox is an example. I think most of us know if we're ordering bottles online, But, you know, it's the convenience factor. Look at what GoPuff has done by purchasing Liquor Barn. They have these micro-fulfillment centers in all of the Liquor Bars. So, if a consumer gets on Drizzly, their app, and is looking to place an order for spirits, they can have it within 30 minutes. You know, so that changing dynamic of consumer consumption and purchase is really something to keep in touch with, especially with the direct-to-consumer opportunities, which the state of Kentucky just recently, I think a year and a half ago, made it legal. Right, that's right.

And so, as a distillery, you're able to participate in that.

That's right. So as a supplier level. And so supplier level is a distillery that produces and then brings it to market. It's only the supplier. So I think we've all heard of other folks that have gotten into some legal issues because of that shipping piece or acquisition piece. The federal government really looks very critically at where these spirits are coming from, and they made it very clear that it used to be that you could get spirits shipped from a point of sale, from an off-premise, that's no longer legal, so only the supplier level.

So the law was originally written so that retailers could ship, and then it was less than eight months later, it was changed. It was changed. So it was a very short period of time there.

And they loved it while it happened because it increased their market.

Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I think some do and some don't. I think the smaller stores are concerned that if they didn't choose to go that path, if they didn't choose to be a shipping store, then they're going to get taken out by Amazon. Amazon's the concern. Somebody's going to come in and somebody's going to have their license and they're going to ship out of Whole Foods and it's done. So my guess is that it was the small retail outlets that were lobbying against it, I would think.

Is that true? It is true. There was significant lobbying on both sides. And the concern on the part of the retail owner is that they were going to lose some of that market. And then the suppliers were going to be able to fulfill a lot more of that consumer demand. And so there was a balance. So there was a give and take balance that made sure that the liquor stores were okay in letting that change in the law happen.

Now, does RD1 ship directly to their customers?

We do. So on the supplier level, you have to be licensed in every state that you ship to. So it's not as simple as I've got my Kentucky license. I can ship across the country. We right now we're in. We just launched the Indiana market about six weeks ago. And so we are licensed in Indiana. As long as that state has a reciprocal license to allow you to ship, then it's legal. There's about 35, 37 states that do allow direct to consumer shipping.

And that's a pretty good portion.

That's a pretty good portion. But think about it from the perspective of how is someone going to find you? Let's just use Illinois, or Iowa. How are they going to find you? Well, you've got to market. You've got to make sure that you're online when that consumer is in that purchase decision. And so that takes money. That takes effort. And you've got to be successful at doing that. So awareness branding takes time, and it takes money. And so what we found in our short lifespan of being a brand is that having people on the street, having good distillery distributor partners are critical to get that branding and that awareness. And so we're not really going full bore online just because we're focused on building a brand and building the infrastructure.

Well, it certainly makes sense. I'm ready for another whiskey.

Yeah, so I'm super excited about this next one. So remember, same mash bill. This is a French oak finish. And what you're going to find with the French oak is that it And let's make sure we'll just nose both of them together here. So we start with a French oak and notice some sweetness. And what I find, and I'm sorry, I'm just going right into what I find, but it is softening that nose. So you're not really getting the... the bold, spicy notes on the nose, it is more complex, is what I'm getting here.

Yeah, it's not as focused. It's a little more broad. And it has a, maybe that's softening. That's what softening means, right? I guess that it takes off that kind of peak and you get a little bit more of a broad. Yeah. I'm getting a little bit more of a nutty aspect to it.

Cheers. Cheers.

Yeah, and the impression of that French oak felt a little bit more on the sides of the palate, like on the sides of the tongue. I know when I get that dripping on the side of my tongue, that feeling from it, that I've got a good whiskey in my mouth.

It's pretty good. Thank you, I appreciate that. It's called salivating, right? Yeah, it's like, oh, more, give me more. What I get on this is I get a baker's chocolate, a baking chocolate, you know, so it's not really super rich like you would notice a sweet chocolate, but it also, you know, you'd mentioned a kind of an earthy note there, a nutty flavor profile. I can get that too. I get a little cherry. So the fruit has switched from orange citrus with the straight bourbon for me to a chocolate covered cherry, if you will. There it is. Yeah.

I was wondering what I was getting there. And as soon as you said chocolate covered cherry, I was like, that's it. Yeah.

And then interestingly enough for me is that rye kind of comes in on the back end. So it comes back to let you know, Hey, I'm still here. I might, I might be muted in the nose and in the mid palette, but I'm still here on that finish.

Yeah. It feels like it's a little bit thicker as well. I know we're really talking about a few proof points here, but there is a little bit more whiskey here. There's a little more viscosity.

And when you guys do tastings, have you ever done like an advanced sensory tasting? And of course, we got some foods over there that can really help accentuate some of the flavors. But if you add like a pecan or a nut to this, it will really help drive forward the wood tannins from the French oak. in a good way. It really helps to identify some of those richer complexities that are maybe a little muted if you're not really used to pulling some of those characteristics out.

Yeah, I think I would like to try this with a little bit of high cacao chocolate. Maybe a pecan would be good. I don't know. I'm not a big cherry person and the note of cherry has to be pretty prominent for me to pick it up. So I'm not, you guys are picking it up. But for me, it's a little bit more subtle.

I mean, I think the chocolate for me definitely is a little bit more there than the cherry, but as soon as Barry said chocolate covered cherry, I was like, yep, that's a, you know, they're, they're both really good whiskies.

Uh, this to me is a little bit more exciting. It has, uh, that little something extra, something special and, and they are not tremendously different. They're just enough different where you can say. That one or that one, right?

Well, and what I see some people when they're doing the tasting with folks is they run through them one at a time. And I think, I think this is the, the, when you're comparing the straight bourbon with the, um, with the French oak, this is the time where I really like to go back and forth because, um, when you, when you taste the straight bourbon, um, it, it, that rye is so predominant. And then go back to the French oak again, it helps understand how that softening occurs with the wood finish with the French oak.

Yeah. I think one of the things that stands out to me is that. I don't really like, I can't say I don't like it. If you had me choose between something that was a little bit more on the dry side, as opposed to the buttery feel on the tongue, I really love the buttery feel. And so with this, I definitely get more of that smooth buttery feel on my tongue, which that makes me happy. I like that.

Well, you know, we're all different when, when, when I pull folks that are doing tastings and these people are from all walks of life. Um, it's about 50, 50, you know, some people are, I like the straight bourbon and others are like, you know, I kind of like the, um, French oak finish. So we have something for everyone.

So Barry, do you drink, um, a lot of whiskey from your colleagues?

I'm a consumer. I'll tell you, when we get together, we're all pulling out our favorite models. I mean, Freddie Johnson is a super friend of mine, and I pinch myself when I have him over at my house. I'm like, this is a bourbon Hall of Famer that's sitting at my kitchen table, and we're drinking. And he's brought a special E.H. Taylor single barrel from his stash, from his bunker. We're at Lisa Wicker. Lisa Wicker is the new CEO and master distiller of the Lexington Distilling Company. And I didn't know her. I reached out to her on social media and said, hey, Lisa, welcome to Lexington. Would love to take you out to lunch and talk with you about Lexington. my visions for tourism. And she's like, sure, Barry, let's do. So here I am. I've got Lisa Wicker, who is, you know, I think she's an industry icon. Definitely a legend. For herself. Yeah, definitely a legend. So we're all very, very much consumers from, you know, Stephen Fonte with Limestone Branch Distillery. Love that guy.

Such a character.

Foghorn Leghorn, and I've told him this to his face too. I mean, when he's in character, I can't help but just smile and laugh and love his history. I mean, he's a brand historian, you know, great ambassador. So yeah, I'm a consumer.

Let me tell you, let me tell you. You know, I get the comment a lot of times from listeners when we're out and about, they'll say, you know, it seems like everybody who comes on your show is a friend. Like, you know them from somewhere or, you know. And the fact of the matter is, in this business, it kind of is that way, right? I mean, you came on here, you've been on the show a couple of times before, you just so happened to be a friend of Brian's already from way back when. But this industry is totally different like that. And you were talking a little bit about that before the show.

Yeah, the industry is very unique. And you mentioned it. Even the KDA says this, Eric Gregory, a rising tide raises all ships. And when looking at global consumption, Kentucky bourbon and American bourbon is only 1% of consumption globally. So when people ask, are we overbuilding? Are we building too many distilleries? Are we increasing capacity? No, we're not building enough because the premium and super premium bourbons are what's in demand globally. So most distilleries are making sure that they're producing that premium and super premium brands along with their everyday on-the-shelf bourbons. the we're not making enough. And so the global outside the U.S. market is a black hole of opportunity. When you look at the cyclical nature of the bourbon industry, you know, let's look at it over the last two centuries. It is about a 30, 35 year cycle. of increasing consumption and demand and then peak and then a little bit of downward curve on the bell curve, but that's about a 35-year trend. If we just look at when do you think bourbon started taking off? you could argue that the Bourbon Trail started in early 2000. Consumers were interested. Consumers wanted to see what's going on in these distilleries. So I would say somewhere between early 2000 to 2010, 2012 is when we started seeing some increase in interest and consumption. So we're on a 35-year cycle.

We're good to 2050, I think.

I know I won't probably see 2050, but I am super excited to see it right now and be a part of it, just as we all are. We love bourbon so much that we're talking about it online and people are listening and making purchase decisions based on what we say and what we like, and everybody's different. But that's why there's so many different brands that have different flavor profiles. There's something out there for just about anyone.

You heard it right here, folks. Don't buy gold, buy bourbon, right?

That's right. Well, one of the things Barry that I love, and I know you do as well, that I love about the bourbon industry and about the way we all look at bourbon, it is such a cool community. And it's a great way to get to know folks. It's a great way to build relationships and, and share, you know, of course we know the folks that collect bottles and they hang onto them and they're not letting go and they don't want anybody to drink it, touch it, breathe on it. But for the most part, it's a great way to share and say, Barry, Hey, have you had this? I've got something cool. What do you think? And it just brings folks together. And I think it's special.

It makes people feel good, and I think that's really the key, is that you're hitting their heart, you're hitting their emotions. And Freddie Johnson says it best, is creating memory moments. So we're creating a memory moment here tonight. and drinking and talking about bourbon. But I can tell you when we get together as the Lexington Bourbon Society or friends, we're opening up our very special bottles. And you guys opened up special bottles here tonight. It's that camaraderie. It's that now we're connected and we're drinking this history in a bottle. that we have a story to tell about it, and then we have a story to tell about, I remember the last time I drank this with friends, and if Freddie does something that is so unique, you should add it to your list of things to do, is when you open up a bottle, and you're sharing it with people and it's one of those special bottles get you a signature pin out date it and have everyone sign it and and then when you when that bottle is empty you you'll be able to go back to it and and look at all those dates and all those signatures and have a conversation piece that's pretty cool idea yeah all right we're going to keep sipping on our whiskies we're going to take a short break listeners don't go away when we come back

We've got more Berry, more RD1, and two more whiskeys to drink, so stick around. As we mentioned earlier in the show, we hope you'll join us this fall on October 6th and 7th for Bourbon on the Banks. The festival itself is from 2 to 6 PM on October the 7th, and you can pick those tickets up at bourbononthebanks.org for $65. They also have an early access ticket for $75. It'll get you in an hour early and definitely get you access to some special pores. But if you always like that VIP access, this year they're bringing in the VIP access tickets. We'll give you access to their VIP tent and all the great things that go along with that for $175. Be sure to check out bourbononthebanks.org. You'll get all the details on this year's event. All right, we are back. It's after the break. We did get a chance to finish off that French oak finished bourbon from the first half. Barry's been kind enough to fill up our glasses for the second half. Barry Brenniger, RD1. Yes. Sticking around for two halves of the show, we have two glasses for this half of the episode. The first glass, what do we have?

So the first glass that we're going to sample is, again, the same mash bill of what we sampled with our straight bourbon and the French oak finish. This one is a Brazilian Ambarana wood finish. And we've seen some Ambarana Finish bottles out there for barrel picks, some wood finishing. This one we like to call it Wild Adventure. This one has such unique flavors that are way outside the flavor wheel. prepare you guys in advance here. This one is very unique. We're going to go on a little bit of an adventure, adventure talking about this. And, you know, so I'll kind of tell you what I get here, but these were now into our wood finishes with the start of the French Oak and then the Ambarana. So, so these three different wood finishes are part of our core four products. They'll always be on the shelf. and we're very excited about this one. This one is probably my second favorite of all the Core 4. So what you're tasting here is something that is a little bit of magic.

I'm ready.

Alright, so as we're nosing here, There's some very unique aromas and some of the aromas that I get are, they're kind of, they're a spearmint. There's a very, very pleasant spice notes on it and some of the spices, it could be a myriad of Cinnamon, it can be nutmeg, it can be clove. There's just so many different, depends on where it hits you and what you're picking up, what your memory has allowed you to pick up on.

I'm getting bread pudding. This is bread pudding with cinnamon and clove on it.

I'm getting clove. Yeah. But overall, the first little nose on it. Wow. You're right. It's an adventure.

It's almost like walking into a Cinnabon shop.

Right. I've heard you're the second person that has said Cinnabon. In fact, Brad Bonds up at revival, he, uh, that was the one thing he's like, this is Cinnabon, you know, you, you're on the nose, cinnamon, you're very rich. Um, there's some tropical fruit notes and you probably have to, you're probably to take a taste of it in order to pull those out. But, um, I'm getting it only because I'm, You know, I've had this a couple of times before and, um, probably some of my most favorite notes are in that tropical fruit line.

It's mace. I'm getting mace. And this, this reminds me a lot of smells that you experience in the islands in the Caribbean or in, uh, well anywhere in that, in that area of the world down there. I guess this is a Brazilian wood, but so it really doesn't appear in those places, but those, those smells I'm getting seem to remind me a little bit of like island smells.

I think this is one of those times for me where initially the tropical fruits, like that's what I picked up. And as soon as we started talking about the nutmeg and the clove, the clove jumped out at me, but initially I did get the tropical fruit and then it's, it's just changed a little bit for me.

Yeah, that's, that's a special.

And the proof again, one more time. 110 proof. 110 proof. All right. So we did add a, just a drop of water.

Just to drop a dropper to a water.

All right. Cheers guys.

Cheers. Oh, that is lovely. That is absolutely lovely.

It's, it is super rich. Yeah, it is super rich. Yeah. This This is a cigar whiskey.

This is absolutely a great cigar whiskey. Yeah. Cause you're going to, I mean, you could, you could have a, a bold cigar. It's going to hold up very well to, to that, to that stick.

You could put this in coffee and it would be amazing. Yeah. Not that I would want to do that, but I'm just saying if you had somebody who wanted to put something in their coffee, this would be Bailey's any day.

This is definitely outside the flavor wheel. So on the palate, I pick up a little coconut. I pick up a little bit. I didn't pick this up until someone else said they got it, but there's a pineapple flavor here. So there's definitely some tropical fruits, but it is unlike anything that you've had Typically, in a wood finish.

The pineapple, the coconut, no doubt. It's there. It's there. Oh, wow. Wow, that's so good. Yeah, this is a slow sipper thinker. You don't want to go too quick on this. Yeah, yeah. But you could make it disappear, I think.

Wow. I do. I really love that pineapple.

No, the funny thing about this is, you're basically, you're bourbon finished in Ambarana barrels. I mean, it's good stuff. I mean, you're not adding artificial flavors to it. You're not doing anything like that. But boy, oh boy, are you getting some flavors.

It is all coming from that wood. And we do things a little bit different. The way that we get the Ambarana wood is it comes in a a plank and then it's honeycomb drilled so that we increase the surface area. And it only takes eight weeks to get to this point. And we certainly don't want to over finish it. So there's a point where it's like it is finished enough and we pull those staves out so that it doesn't continue to increase the amount of Flavor and then we let it set in the barrel for another four weeks just to kind of equalize after that That plank has been pulled out Wow, that is a tremendous whiskey folks.

You've heard you've heard about amber on a before on the show It's been it's been back on another episode go back and listen in the library But if you haven't tried an amber on a finished whiskey yet and you're coming to the Bourbon Trail, you need to get some RD-1 Ambarana. This is fantastic. Thank you.

And you know, people, if they're looking for, where can I pick up this RD-1 Ambarana finish? We have a store locator on our website, so RD-1spirits.com. you can just type in your zip code and it will take you to every store that has an Ambarana on the shelves. We update that. We try to update it at least, you know, two, twice a month just because we know this one, I believe we're going to have a hard time keeping up with demand. And so we're going to have to increase our amount of inventory, especially, I believe, on the Ambarana just because it's so unique. And I think once people taste it and identify it as, okay, this is a very special pour, you got to get a backup.

Well, when we finish up this episode, we'll have to break out that ad. You'll have to tell me the one closest to Simpsonville, Kentucky, so I can go and get me a bottle of it real quick.

Yes, this is good stuff. And I love that. I mean, it makes it so much easier for everybody that's trying to find the bottle, look for it when you're updating. I mean, it goes back to that customer experience and making sure that folks understand and they know where can they get it, when can they get it, all that good stuff. So this is one I agree. People should get this one.

So do you think you'll be able to reuse those since they have such a short exposure? Will you be able to reuse those staves?

That's a very good question. And what we don't want to do is we don't want to sacrifice the finishing that we've got with that first pass. I can tell you the staves that we use really use up a lot of their effectiveness after that first time. So I would venture to guess probably not going to use them just because we want to make sure that we're giving each barrel the proper finishing that it needs.

That can't be cheap.

Well, I'll tell you, it is cheaper than a whole barrel. Yeah. If we did a whole another barrel finish, the thing about some of these other wood finishes is that they're more porous. That's why we use white oak. You don't have to use white oak in order to be a bourbon. It has to be new oak. But the white oak is so much more denser, and so we don't have the leakage that you would get with some of the other oak finishes.

Right. So you've got these barrel finishes, these different finished products that you're doing. Are there other things that are in development right now that you didn't bring today that you might be able to mention?

I can, I can. So we have in our inventory, you know, we've been buying barrels and then of course we're contract distilling and we're building a distillery, the Western Kentucky Distilling Company. Jacob Call, eighth generation master distiller who came from Green River, actually was the master distiller who produced these barrels that you're tasting. And so Jacob is going to be continuing to produce our mash bill at the Western Kentucky Distilling Company. We're partners in that distillery. So we're very soon going to be able to continue the brand as it is now and then come out with new exciting mash bills. But what I can tell you is that we're still experimenting with wood. So we do barrel picks. And when you come in and do a barrel pick, I'll help lead that with any team that comes in, whether it's a consumer, a bourbon club, or a liquor store. And we will sample our straight bourbon whiskey. And then I'll pull, I'll let most consumers, I'll let them know these are the experimental woods that we've got. If you want to pull a couple of those into the mix. And for example, we're doing a sarsaparilla finish. We're doing a yellow birch. We're doing a pecan wood. So we're really trying to see which ones work well with these particular mash bills. And we may have another wood finish that's going to be in our flagship products like the four that we've got here. Super exciting. So our barrel picks you can do at barrel proof or you can do them at 101 proof. We give you the option. We'll proof down each barrel pick down to 101 and then at cask proof.

gift shop barrel picks or are these partners with, um, you know, like retail outlets in the state of Kentucky or in Indiana?

So both. We'll, we'll do, we'll do, um, we'll do certainly gift shop releases, but we will do, um, You know, like we've done barrel picks with Kroger and Liquor Mart here with Liquor Mart and a host of other liquor stores across the state of Kentucky. And then in Indiana, the state manager in Indiana has an allocation of what our national sales manager said is, I'll give you as many barrels as you can sell. Our requirement is that if it's a liquor store, they gotta support us. They've gotta have our skews on their shelf and be supporters of the brand, but absolutely, we would wanna do barrel picks with as many people as we can because it really highlights the unique nature. We all know a single barrel is, It's like a snowflake. Everyone's different. And depending on where it's located in the rick house, it's going to take up different flavors. And then finishing with the wood is going to have an impact differently on each one of those barrels.

So Barry, I'm going to jump ahead a little bit to something we're going to talk about at the very end, but you know, when you're talking about these releases and the barrel picks, what's the best way, I think it's going to be awesome for the folks to hear this twice, but what's the best way for them to know that you, you have a barrel pick that's coming out and you can find that at liquor barn. You can find that at wherever it may be.

Each store is going to be different. Some stores will probably have it pre-sold. you know, so as they're working through that barrel pick, but we will, when we partner with a liquor store, we're promoting them on our website to make sure that when consumers look, you know, what's in my zip code for RD-1, it'll give a list of, you know, which ones are on the shelf and where. The barrel picks are so special because it highlights what that owner, what that buyer, what their profile is. And so I know, you know, you guys, when you go to different liquor stores, you go to special ones because they have your palate and they pick for your palate. Everybody's different. You know, everybody picks differently. So I think that, you know, as I'm looking across Lexington and Louisville and Elizabetown and some of these smaller communities. We've got Bob's Steakhouse up in Louisville, Kentucky at the Omni. They picked out two barrels. They loved the straight bourbon and then we had a cherry wood finish that was absolutely fabulous, so they picked out one of those too. It's going to be difficult to name them all, but I think, like I just mentioned, some are already pre-sold when they're purchased.

That's awesome. And one of the other things I'm looking right now, I have a bottle sitting next to me and it's a beautiful bottle. It's very cool.

Yeah. I love it. Well, let me tell you a little bit about this bottle. So the bottle, it's a custom-made bottle. And I'm the co-founder. I'm also the brand historian. And if you look right now on my bar and in my inventory, I have an archive of different bottles and jugs and memorabilia from Registered Distillery Number 1 back in the 1800s. And one of the pieces that I've got is a sample bottle. And it's a little 50ml sample bottle, but it's in this shape. Of course, listeners are listening and they're like, well, where can I see it? Go online, go to our website. RD1spirits.com you can see this bottle, but on the neck label you see a tree that's there, and that is to give Nod and homage to the Ashland label. So the Ashland distillery was the first Registered distillery 1865 and they had what was called the Ashland label and Ashland distillery was named after the Ashland estate in Lexington and they had these trees that were on the label. So that's kind of a nod to the very first bottle that we had. Embossed at the very top of the bottle is Kentucky Born and Raised. We're very much proud to be from Lexington, Kentucky, and we do believe Lexington has a lot of history, and not only that, Lexington has a lot to offer for people that are coming in to visit the Bourbon Trail. We've got Keeneland. We all love Keeneland. The spring and fall mead is really one of the unique experiences there. And so if you look at the bottom of the bottle, it has a four plank fence that circles the bottle. And if you're into thoroughbreds, you know that that four plank fence means that there's a million dollar horses on that property. And so that's kind of a nod to our horse industry in central Kentucky. And then it's the entrepreneurial spirit. There's always got to be a first. RD-1 was the first registered distillery. And in every tax district in 1860s, there was an RD-1. So there were seven RD-1s, one in each tax district. We happen to be in the seventh tax district, even currently. And so, you know, we paved the way the brand did back in 1865. And so when we established RD1 Spirits, we established it with entrepreneurs. And so entrepreneurs now, if you look at what we're doing, we're doing something very unique. We're finishing bourbon and we're creating it so that these are going to be forever products. It's not a one and done. It's not a barrel pick. This is a product that will be on the shelf and we have four different products. Three of them are wood finish.

Talking about being the historian and, and, and having all these cool bottles and all this awesome information to share. Obviously we're friends on Facebook and I see the things that you share and Barry will put things out there and it's like, Oh my gosh. Like look at that. That is beyond cool. So, you know, I can definitely appreciate all of the history that comes behind it and all of the things that you share out. Um, but if you're comfortable with it, folks, friend Barry on, on Facebook, check out these things that he's sharing. It will blow your mind.

What I really love about that part of the working with RD-1 is that I have people that are descendants of the Stolls. So the Stolls were owners back in 1902 to 1908. William Tarr, I've got descendants that have reached out to me from New England, from Cleveland, from Illinois, and they're calling me saying, oh, I love that we have our name on a bottle. And once we start talking about the history, I had one person send me an image of William Tarr that was in their garage. And it had Grandpa Tarr on the image. And it's so funny, you know, because they're excited about it, and it excites me. I had someone that emailed through our website contact form, and, you know, I get all those emails, so I have eyeballs on them. And when they sent that in, they said, hey, we're just looking to see where we had a product that we first came out to market called WM TAR, William TAR. And it was a limited release product. There's no longer those bottles in distribution. There are some on store shelves. So if you see that, pick it up because it's limited release.

Not going to be around for much longer.

So they were driving through from the northern US to Tennessee. And they said, we're going to be in Lexington on this past Wednesday. And I'm like, great, I'll clear my schedule. I'll meet with you down at the brand destination in Lexington. We're in the distillery district in Lexington, Kentucky on Manchester Street. So you should definitely check out our gift shop because right now, these new products that we're sampling, you can only find them at our gift shop. So if you hear what we're saying about this Ambarana finish, go to the gift shop and pick up one. So, I met them there on Wednesday, and I had all the history, and I'm downloading it, and poor Pam, she was overwhelmed. Her grandfather was William Tarr, a different William Tarr down the line. And I overwhelmed her. And I mean, I did a whole PowerPoint presentation. I had like a 37 page PDF document that highlighted all the history. And she's just like, oh my gosh, I wasn't really expecting this. And I'm like, well, listen, I am super excited that you're here. And anytime that I get a chance to talk about the history, I might get a little what we call long in the tooth, and I think I did. I think I overwhelmed her, but they went away with three bottles and they were happy customers.

Sounds good. That's so cool. So when somebody comes to your destination, what can they expect?

So when you come to the brand destination, it's a temporary location. And I'll talk a little bit about what's in the future here in just a minute. But when you come there, we have a gift shop manager, and then we have a mixologist. and they will pour you a flight of each one of these expressions. It's only 12 bucks to sample a flight of what we're tasting right now. And I've downloaded the history to them. You'll get an abbreviated version of the history and then we'll walk you through the tasting. We actually have a barrel on site there that you get the thief from straight from the barrel.

Now that's always a thing. That's always cool.

That's always cool. My favorite bourbon is free bourbon, number one. And I have a second favorite. My second favorite is the one I'm drinking. So if I'm drinking straight from the barrel, oh my goodness, that is a very good day. And so you can, at that point, you know, it's our current location and we have a nice merchandise gift shop. The distillery district off of Manchester Street. is growing. There is a new social club there called District 7 Social. They have duck pin bowling. Have y'all seen duck pin bowling? It's pretty popular up in Cincinnati. It's like skee-ball only, so it's a smaller version of bowling. But they have a golf simulator. They have a bar. They have a beer wall. You get a RFID card and you can pour your own beer and then they charge you for it. But they have a beer garden out in the outside.

Brian, let's go. Let's go. When are we going down?

The wives would love that. They would have such a good time.

Do they have a wine wall too? They don't have a wine wall, but they have wine behind the bar and they make really good cocktails too, so they're a wonderful place. They have German-ish food, so you can get a good burger, you can get brats, you can get pierogies. Have y'all been to the Stave restaurant in Millville? So the owners, Rebecca and Eric Burnworth own the Stave restaurant. They own district seven socials. So their food is kind of elevated. It is a step above what most other places. I love the Stave restaurant. I go there anytime that I get a chance to. And so they wonderful place that location there, the distillery district is continuing to grow. Now, let me tell you, can I tell you a little bit about our what's coming in the future here.

You can, can we, can we sample whiskey?

Let's, let's sample the last one. And I'm really excited about this one. So let's, let's give this one a little bit of a nose and tell me what you're picking up. Oh, let me guess.

That is, uh, That's breakfast pancakes right there.

You know what we call this one? We call this one campfire brunch. Campfire brunch. Campfire brunch. This is a, it's a double barreled finish in oak. and bourbon maple, bourbon wood soaked in, seeped in maple. So you're getting maple on the nose. It is a very much dessert nose. I mean, I'm thinking right now in my mind, you mentioned bread pudding with the Ambarana. This one, I'm getting chicken and waffles.

Yeah. I can do chicken and waffles. I can do chicken and waffles. Especially on this diet I'm on, I'm ready for some chicken and waffles. That is phenomenal. Isn't that delicious? You know what I like about it is the maple's not overdone, because you can overdo maple.

So let's taste this and then we'll reconvene here.

Cheers.

It's got an elevated sweetness, but the maple's not overdone.

Which is really important. You can have a flavored whiskey and you taste that sweet flavor. With this one, you know those nuts that you have like at Christmas time, the maple nuts? That's right here. What are they?

You get them in the little bags and they're roasted and they've got that crystalline sugar on the outside. I don't know what they are, but this reminds me. It does.

It reminds me of it too. So I was meeting with the a very elevated in the spirits world guy yesterday at Watch Hill Proper. And the one thing that he said, and I'm like, man, I'm going to go do that as soon as I get the opportunity, I am going to go to Lexington restaurants and Louisville restaurants I'm going to seek out the chefs and I'm going to taste them with this maple and try to figure out either a bread pudding with a maple bourbon finish glaze, or there's so many different things that you can do from that sweet category, from that dessert category with this particular spirit.

That is really good. I think my wife would really like this. She would. She likes that brown maple sugar, whatever it's called. You know what I'm talking about? I can't find it on the shelves, hardly at all.

It's hard to find.

But it reminds me a little bit of that. Not that it's a flavored whiskey, it's not, but it reminds me of it, which means, which makes me think that she might really like this.

And so what we've done and tried to do is to provide a flavor profile for a lot of different ranges of people. You know, for me, I enjoy sweet. I don't enjoy cocktails. because I don't like that added external sweetener. And most cocktails, you know, you get a lot of simple syrup, you get something that kind of adds that sweetener. And I struggle with that. With this one, I really do believe, like what you just mentioned, the fastest growth demographic of consumption of bourbon is female. And when you look at that female demographic, they either start with cocktails or they start with a very sweet finish, which is what this is. But what I've found is a lot of the girls that I hang out with, along with my wife, is that they like higher proof. They actually like the rise. They like the bold and spicy. So I think once you start elevating your palate and tasting, you really start to gravitate toward what's bold and spicy and high proof. You don't get there immediately, but A lot of the women that I'm interacting with in the bourbon society, they like higher proof and they like the rye flavoring grain. So this one is good for the introductory consumer, but I can tell you at our gift shop, We have a mixologist that makes a smoked maple fashion. It is incredible.

Mix it with this?

Yes. Yeah. It is incredible. Really good. But it makes a good one. Yeah. I bet it does.

We really need to go, Brian. We do. Let's just plan it.

Yeah, let me know. I'll meet you down there. All right. Sounds good to me. Barry, I really love that you do get a lot of that sweetness on the nose. And you've already said this, but just to second it, I love how sweet it smells on the nose, but then when you taste it's not overpowering like a cocktail. I mean, when you have that really sweet cocktail, the first thing I think of is headache.

Yeah. I mean, I can't, I can't drink personally. I mean, a lot of people love them and there's nothing wrong with them. I can't drink, uh, the honeys and the, and the, you know, the Evan Williams peach and the. You know, and the brown sugar benchmark, I just can't drink these. They're not for me because it's too much. But when you have a whiskey that has influences that get it there, and so it's still all whiskey, 100% whiskey, and you just get these influences, that really, that's the ticket for me.

I'm right there with you, Jim. When you look at a bourbon aisle and, you know, you go into any liquor store and they have a large selection, if you're leaning toward that flavored category, most of those are going to hit my palate, you know, very sweet, but it's the finished bourbon. So, you know, the bourbons that have the influence. This one is a great influence. It may not be for everybody. You know, there may be some that I just like the straight bourbon. And so we've got an expression to meet that person. Um, I do have a bonus pour for us. Um, and it's, uh, it's a, uh, it's a barrel strength of our, um, mash bill. So you're going to get to taste it right at that cask proof. So we have to finish on that one.

Yeah, we can do that. All right. So we're going to blip right here and we'll blip back in a second. And when we come back, we'll have a new pour. Sounds great. All right. So pop, we're back and we've got a full glass of whiskey.

What do we have here? What we've got here is our straight bourbon whiskey. This is at barrel strength. And so you can look at the color. If our listeners could see, it is a deep, rich amber color. And if you just let it swirl around in your glass, you're going to see non-chill filtered barrel strength. It's very thick and viscous, very thick legs on the glass. So you know this is going to be It's going to coat your mouth. It's going to have flavor upon flavor. It's at a cask proof, so about 122 proof. And I wanted you all to taste this at barrel strength because I want you to get a feel for what is it coming right out of that barrel.

All right, cool.

little bit more on the nose there, a little bit more of a, an ethyl imprint. Yeah. You would expect that.

You would expect it. And you know, so the difference between, um, between high proof and, and, and spicy, um, you can definitely get the, um, the, the proof, uh, on the end. And the other thing I like to do, a lot of people, you guys, I'm sure you probably know this, but, When you nose your glass, nose it at the bottom and nose it at the top of the rim, because those alcohol vapors are different weights. And so you're going to get a different flavor at the bottom than you are at the top. You know, I get a very strong, earthy, tobacco, leather. You know, the essence of that barrel is on that nose.

Yeah, this is a little bit more of a kind of a savory whiskey. You said earthy. I get the leather, not so much tobacco, but I definitely get the leather for sure.

Yep. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, that's silky.

It's deceptive. It doesn't drink like 120 proof. Now, of course, we've been drinking for a while here. We've acclimated our chemical receptors, but it does not drink like 120. It really doesn't.

But it really snuck right across my palate and hit the back. It's kind of funny how it did that. And it is silky, it has that nice texture to it, but it's not overly sweet up front. It's got a nice sweetness to it, but it kind of just snuck through the front door, went straight to the back and stomped on my tongue.

I definitely, I get this, the little bit of sweet there, which I really, really like, but I love the leather. You know, that's, that's awesome. Um, but it is silky like it, it is deceptive. This is one that would get me in trouble.

There's no sizzle or pop rock to it though. You know, it's not like, uh, it's not like a prickly spice. It's not biting at your tongue at all. It's just a. I don't know, what would you call that, a little bit more of a kind of a baking spice?

I think you would put it in that category. And what I enjoy about the mash bilm, here we're experiencing it at its true flavor right from the barrel. And it's very approachable. This is about four and a half, five and a half years. So we've got two different barrels that I've blended together, both at cast proof and really easily approachable. There's a little stone fruit on there you can pick up on. There is some sweetness, but it handles itself at that higher proof. It mutes the rye, so you're getting more of the sweet category at this 120 proof.

Did you have two different barrels that were different, and then maybe one was a little more fruity, one was a little more dry on the back end, and you put the two together?

I wish that I was able to really tell you about those two barrels. It was more a convenience. When I tasted them, I was like, okay, these are good and let's just see what they're like together. And I put them together and really it was a consolidation of the two. One did not stand out over the other. Um, but they both got picked. Um, the one thing I can tell you, we've done 26 barrel picks, um, to date, and we have never had anybody come in and do a barrel pick that said, I really don't like what any of the ones that you had to offer. Um, there's been something for everyone.

Cause that does happen.

sometimes. And I've talked to several people that have done a lot of barrel picks and they have come back, you know, they said, well, I've done, I've done a pick and I really, I just wasn't impressed with what they had to offer. The key to doing barrel selects is that there's an allocation every year, every distillery has an allocation. And so you want to be early in the year so that you get to pick through the best of the best. Now, if you're fortunate to do a wild turkey barrel pick and have Eddie Russell as your guide to doing the pick, Eddie will continue to pull barrels until you say uncle. There's no rules. There's no rules. And that's why you should always drink responsibly, make sure that you have a tour guide that's driving you back and forth to doing a barrel pick. I've got an interesting Eddie Russell story that we'll have to tell offline here because it's colorful and I probably can't use some of the language.

Well, I can say that I've been on a number of picks with Eddie and he always says, they're all good. And then he also says, You guys have had so many barrels now, you can't taste them anymore anyway, so just pick one.

He does it like it is. I love Eddie. I love hearing him. He's a great ambassador for bourbon and he definitely is the go-to person at Wild Turkey right now. Absolutely.

Well, this is a fine whiskey. It's really good and it's a great... whiskey to sip on while you're telling us some crazy new stuff that's happening at RD1.

Yeah, super excited. I just got this story or got this information a week ago. And so our majority owner and CEO, Mike Tedderton, you may know Mike Tedderton, he used to own Creative Lodging Solutions in Lexington. He sold that company, and then he had an investment company. And Mike and Marcia Couch, we presented to them after we talked to Mark Stoops. They were our second investors. And Mike is a smart guy. He's the right person to run our company. We have a liquid strategy that is taking us out to the national market. Within a year to two years, we'll be all across the US market. And it's only because we've got the ability to support the shelves. You can't continue to open up new markets. without being able to support that demand. So once you open up a market, you have to be committed. And so in the meeting, He told us that we have inked the deal. It is a done deal. And we're just waiting to have a couple more I's dotted and T's crossed. But we are building a brand destination in Lexington, Kentucky. So if you know where Turner Commons is, and I'm going to describe it to you because some listeners may not know, is you're going out Main Street and you pass the Lexington Cemetery and then you go on that viaduct where there's the train track and then there used to be a bunch of tobacco barns back in that area. So there's 30 acres back there. Right now, Battle Axes used to be at the distillery district. They have a 60,000 square foot entertainment complex. So we're going to build from the ground up a brand destination in Turner Commons. And we're going to be right as you turn into Turner Commons, we're going to be that first destination on the left-hand side. And one of the other locations or businesses is Goodwood. So Goodwood is coming in right next door to us. Yes.

So people love to drink beer, follow that with whiskey and then throw axes. Is that true?

fulfilled day that you would have. Probably throw the axes first. It never works that way. It never does. It never does. So there'll be a little courtyard there. And then there's going to be an indoor, outdoor amphitheater. There's going to be Airbnbs. So we'll support the bourbon tourism. There will be ample parking. You know, one of the problems that we have at the distillery district is it's just on Friday, Saturday nights, it's hard to find a parking place. And it's an in-demand location. So we're working to figure that out. But at Turner Commons, we'll have a lot more parking places there. And then there's going to be a anchor restaurant. And right now, I've heard Carson's being thrown out. I've heard Malone's being thrown out. So there's going to be a very nice restaurant.

I think Eddie Montgomery needs to come in and open another one.

Come on, Eddie. Come on, Eddie. You can do it. You can perform at the indoor-outdoor amphitheater and have your restaurant.

Let's put a bug in Bo Garrett's ear. Maybe he'll make it happen. Let's do.

I'll tell you, that's exciting. Being from Lexington and growing up driving all through that area my whole life, knowing that there's going to be something really cool that's going in there, it's going to elevate it and it's going to be a lot of fun to see.

Well, that is exciting news. And Barry, when you get to that point, when you guys are ready to open up, let's have a show. Let's do a show on site.

You guys will be invited. I'll make sure that, and it's about a year out. So once we break ground, it's about 12 months out. So I would love to have you guys come on and we will do the first podcast there on location. Sounds great.

Awesome. Well, Barry, it's been a pleasure to have you on the show today. Sharing your whiskey with us, it was all fantastic. Really good whiskey. I guess I can go right out my door, get in my car and drive probably within five miles here and you're on the shelf.

We are on the shelf.

Yeah, I'm so excited to hear that. Melanie is going to be very excited when she tastes a few of these. So it's been a pleasure to have you on. It's been very exciting. And you're an old friend. I mean, we've certainly had you on the show before. We want to have you on again in the future. And what wonderful whiskies. And you guys have done great. You've really done good. Thanks, Jim. So it's always nice to see somebody really push through and succeed. A lot of hard work went into that, though.

Absolutely. It's a labor of love, and I absolutely enjoy doing it. If you're looking for us, you know, you mentioned social media, you can find us on Facebook, rd1spirits. You can find us on Instagram, rd1spirits. Barry Brenniger, follow me. I would love to have, you know, new followers and, you know, reach out, share poor and let's be friends. Not yet. I have a limited amount of time and TikTok is one of those platforms. It's like, okay, I'm going to have to learn a little bit more. I've got a marketing company or a marketing department that will manage that for us right now.

Oh, that's so good. It's good to have that, right? Awesome. Well, again, thanks so much. We really appreciate it. Well, you can find The Bourbon Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook. We even have a private Facebook group called The Bourbon Roadies. We've got about 3,500 members on there, all whiskey lovers, all people that like to drink and share whiskey and tell stories. Make sure you get onto Facebook and search out The Bourbon Roadies and join that group. I think you'll have a great time. We do a show every single week. Ryan, every Wednesday. They'll hear from us, won't they? That's right. Every Wednesday, you'll hear from us. You'll get an episode. We'll have a distiller on. We'll have somebody like Barry on to tell a story about their operation. Sometimes we'll have a music artist on. Sometimes we'll have an author or a chef. It's always fun. We're always drinking whiskey, and we're always having a good time. So make sure you check us out every single week. The best way not to miss a show, what do they need to do, Brian?

Just got to click subscribe and that can be on Spotify, YouTube. Apple podcast.

Find us on all of them. You know, you can even tell Alexa, Alexa play the bourbon road podcast and she'll find our latest episode and let you hear it. So. It's definitely a fun time. If you've got an idea for a show, if you've got an idea for a guest, if in your hometown there's a distillery that's doing it right and you want to shine a little light on them, make sure to let us know about it. We'll get them on the show. Just go to the website, the bourbonroad.com. We've got a contact us page, hop in there, send us a message. We're very responsive. You can always send us an email to Brian, Tyler, me, hit us up at team at the bourbonroad.com. We'll get back with you, but until then we'll see you down. The bourbon road.

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