358. Chicken Cock Whiskey

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

We're very excited to have Blanton's bourbon shop.com is a new sponsor for the bourbon road podcast. In fact, this podcast is brought to you by Blanton's bourbon shop. Blanton's bourbon shop.com is the only official merchandiser for Blanton's original single barrel. Looking for a unique gift. Blanton's bourbon shop has got you covered. Blanton's bourbon shop.com is your home for all Blanton's gifts. You know friends, it's never too early. Start planning your trip to the Bourbon Trail for 2023. We hope you'll join the Bourbon Road crew 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 today Brian is once again with us in the house in the Bourbon Road Bar. Brian, welcome back. You've been a busy guy.

Been very busy. It is great to be back.

Yeah. We haven't sat down to sip on some whiskey in probably three or four weeks. Is that about right?

That's about right. Uh, yeah.

Fourth of July. Oh my goodness. It's been longer than that. Well, a little longer than that. Well, fantastic. Good to have you back. Great to be back in the bourbon road bar. We do have a guest with us today. We do, yes. We've got Greg Snyder from Chicken Cocktail brand of whiskeys, primarily bourbons and ryes and finished whiskeys, right? That's correct. Greg, welcome to the Bourbon Road.

Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you today.

So you brought more whiskeys than we can possibly taste in a given show, but we've picked four really good ones, I think, to talk about today.

I hope so. I think you'll enjoy them.

And Brian, you, you kind of got the ball rolling on this interview and what got you, what got your attention on chicken cock?

Uh, well, it, it's a brand that of course I've seen around quite a bit. I mean, there's, there's, uh, some good expressions out there and, uh, you know, the email was, was very welcoming and I was like, you know, we really do, we need to get them on. and just start reading a little bit more and everything. And when they said, do you want Greg to come hang out with you guys and do a podcast? I was like, yes, we do.

Yeah, it's kind of funny, and this happens a lot. So we have almost 360 episodes that we put out, Greg. So we've had an awful lot of distilleries on, an awful lot of great shows. But it always surprises me when someone like Chicken Cock hasn't been on. It's like, how did we miss these guys? Because I know last year at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, you guys were on fire down there. It was a fantastic event and you really made a huge impression.

Yeah, thanks. It was crazy. At our booth there, the line was probably, I don't know, 20, 30 yards long with people, nonstop. Friday, Saturday, I slowed down as the Sunday got towards the end, but it was packed. It was quite amazing.

So, we've kind of introduced you by name, but we haven't really talked about what you do for Chicken Cock. Can you tell our listeners kind of, you know, what you do there?

Officially, I serve in the role of their master distiller. That was hired to actually have a consulting company. In 2017, when I started my consulting business, Grain and Barrel Spirits, who owns Chicken Cock Whiskey, they hired my consulting services to help them with some of the issues, supply chain issues, some operational stuff. And one day the founder, Marty Antle, came to me and he shared his vision of wanting to resurrect Chicken Cock back to Kentucky and bring it back to the high quality prominence the brand was known for for many, many years. And so that's kind of what I've been focused on and working on for the last six years now.

That's awesome. Well, I think we probably ought to taste a little whiskey. What do you think, Brandon?

I'm ready.

Are you? Me too. I'm really ready.

I've had kind of a long day. I'm ready for a glass of whiskey. So, Greg, what do we have in our first glass? Okay. Well, the first rendition we're going to taste is our chicken cock Kentucky straight bourbon. Now, we started making bourbon back in Kentucky. The resurrection actually started in late 2017 and early 2018. We actually make it at Bardstown Bourbon Company. That's the home of chicken cock bourbon. But when Marty asked me to help him resurrect the brand and serve in the role of master distiller, I told them that one of the things we have to do is that everything we do for chicken cock is focused on bringing that brand back. The objective is to bring it back to the high quality prominence the brand knew many, many years ago and has a long storied history as well. So what we're drinking, this is going to be at least four years old. Every bourbon that we do is going to be at least four years old now. And this is 90 proof. Again, the objective of bringing back to its high-quality prominence, if we let the CFOs of the world decide what the bottling proof is going to be, it's going to be 80 proof because you get a lot more bottles out of a barrel at 80 proof. But again, this one, the sweet spot on this one, which I actually decide what the actual bottling proof is going to be for each of our products that we put out. But this one's 90 proof. You see, it's got some pretty good legs on the glasses, it is. And when I do tastings, I tell people across the country, It's not an exam. There is no wrong or right answer. What your nose smells and what your mouth tastes is going to be totally different than the other people in the room. And so when I do tastings, I really don't tell them what I get out of it. I want people to tell me what they smell and what they taste, because I don't want to put any thoughts in their head saying, oh yeah, I get that. I get that. No, I want you to tell me what you get. Because it's all different. It's not good or bad, right or wrong. It's all different.

Well, let's try it. Let's start with the nose. Here we go. Cheers. Oh, it does have a little bit of a funk to it, like a warehouse nose to it, doesn't it? Oh yeah. Wow. I love that. You don't always get that little fruity. Wow, the oak. A little bit of new oak, a little bit of, you know, aged oak. Kind of that nice balance between the two. as they get older, as they depart from four years and head towards six and 12, you start to lose that new oak. And I kind of like that sometimes.

Well, there's a story behind that as well that we'll get into probably in a little bit. But I actually not only have oversight for everything that they do at Bardstown Bourbon Company to make chicken cock whiskey, but I also have oversight, as we say, from the bark to the barrel to the bourbon to the bottle, all the way from, I select the logs. at the stave mill that we're going to use to cut in the staves and heading. And we quarter saw those logs and cut them into staves and heading, and then let them sit outside in natural air dry for nine to 12 months. Then about a week and a half before we're scheduled to make our whiskey down in Bardstown, I go out to West Virginia, where this cupridge is, and those staves and heading come into the cupridge. They're nine to 14% moisture where they need to be to machine them cleanly without tearing the wood. And then I'm there to ensure that every barrel is constructed properly, every barrel is toasted properly to a medium plus toast, and every barrel is charred properly to a number three level char. By doing that, with my experience in the industry, I can create as much flavor as that white oak barrel has to offer. I've been in this business 45 years. Twelve of my 45 years I actually worked for Brown Foreman. Well, nine of those 12 years I worked for Brown Foreman, I managed their cuprich operations. Back then it was called Bluegrass Cuprich, now it's called Brown Foreman Cuprich now. And so, you know, I've not only made whiskey, aged whiskey, bottle of ship whiskies, but I've also made barrels. 60 to 70% of the flavor in a good bottle of whiskey comes from that white oak barrel. It's a critical component.

So I've heard. Critical component. Yeah, I mean, that's great that you have both of those backgrounds because they really could... When you're working with a company like Bardstown Bourbon Company, what a great partner to have, by the way. They are. They're fantastic people. But to come to the table with Bardstown Bourbon Company and bring all that experience and knowledge with you, you can have a real high-level conversation with them about the whiskey you want to make.

Yeah, absolutely. And again, I've been blessed. I have been able to work in so many different facets of the business. But it's fun. I can take my 45 years now and focus and channel it on chicken cock whiskey and provide as good whiskey as I think you're going to find on the market. All right. Ready to taste it. Let's do it. Cheers.

Oh, that's wonderful. I've waited way too long today to have my first class. I think today was a day I probably could have had that first bourbon around 2 p.m. What do you think?

I definitely could have.

Some days, you know, some days you just get meeting after meeting and you're just in the grind and you got no time to think and there's not enough time to get everything done. And then the end of the day comes and you kind of, you wonder where the day went and you're looking for that, that class to have that. So it's something to wind down with, right?

Well, that's, that's the beauty when you get my age. See, I'm retired. I work, I don't know, 40 to 60 hours a month maybe. And, and, uh, and get to enjoy life and, you know, get to do what I love. My passion is whiskey, of course. And so, yeah, it's great. But it's one of the reasons I got started my consulting company. I want to get out of the corporate rat race and really kind of keep contributing to the industry. We made a new friend today, Brian, and he brought us whiskey.

That's right. So it doesn't get any better than that.

It does not get any better than that. And some of the stories we've already heard, you know, and just the wealth of knowledge that you have. It took us a little longer to get set up than normal, but I really love getting to hear some of the stories that you share and your background. It's super awesome. It's one of the things that I love about being on the Bourbon Road is getting to learn and hear all the stories from back in the good old days, you know, before I was allowed to drink bourbon all the way through now. It's a lot of fun.

I think I said, you know, again, I've been very blessed. I worked for a lot of different companies of various capacities, but I grew up in there with the Jimmy Russells and the Booker No's and the Elmer T. Lees and Parker Beam and all those guys were dear friends of mine. So yeah, we could probably do an eight-hour segment on just stories alone.

We might have to have a part two at one point.

When are you going to write your book? It's funny. So many people say, oh, you've got to write a book. You've got to write a book. Because I've actually did a podcast just on the stories, industry stories of different people that I've worked with and got to be friends with. But I'm not a writer. I may run into somebody who's got the skill sets that can write the book, and I'll just start talking. So we'll see.

So can I ask you what the mash bill is on this?

Yeah, absolutely. So our bourbon mash bill is 70% corn, 21 rye, and 9% malted barley. Again, it's 90 proof. And I don't know if you remember the look of the bottle. We have two bottle styles, actually. Both those bottles are actually replicas of pre-prohibition bottles that chicken cock used many, many years ago. And the bourbon bottle and the rye bottle are the same bottle. Back then, they were pint-sized. We just blew it up to a 750 milliliter. But you see that honeycomb embossing on the glass? So many people look at this and say, oh, does that got honey in it? I said, no. Maybe it's chicken wire. Ah, there you go.

Well, you've got more than one embossed design.

Right. The other one, that's what we call a starburst pattern. The glass embossing is called a starburst pattern. But the unique thing about it, it has actually the old jigger cap on it where you can unscrew it and use it as a shot glass.

I remember seeing these bottles in Bardstown at the Getz Museum. The original ones. They still have liquid in them, I think. Have you managed to get your hands on some old pours of this and be able to taste what the original is like?

I have, and I think the founder did early on when he was looking at acquiring the brand. That's what a lot of people say, are you using the original Mash Bill? Unfortunately, when Mahdi acquired the brand in, I believe it was 2011, the brand actually sat idle for almost 60 years. The original distillery that was making chicken cock actually had a fire in the 1950s and burned to the ground, so the company owned it, decided not to rebuild. And so the brand just sat idle. So Mahdi was able to acquire the brand in 2011. But when he acquired it, he did a lot of research, went down to Paris, Kentucky, where it originated, and looked through the archives, and couldn't find the original mash bill. So when he asked me to serve in the role of master distiller and help him resurrect it, I just tried to come up with a high-ride mash bill that would be indicative of that error.

That's good. I mean, I'm totally convinced that the whiskeys today are superior to what we had back then, even though I'm sure the whiskey back then was very good. And would love to sit down at a bar and have a pour of some original chicken cotton out of an original chicken cock dusty bottle. I would love to do that. and be able to compare the two. But even then, after that many years in the bottle, you're not sure you're getting exactly what it was back then. We often find with those dusty bottles that they don't age well.

That can happen. That can happen.

That's true. That's true. Yeah. I've had, I've had a few bottles from the past that have been less than impressive, but I've had a couple that have just, yeah, made me very happy. I got the bottle. So, but this is a beautiful thing and I love the way you've brought back the, you know, the history of the brand and the bottle design and all of that. And it, like I said, if you go to the museum, you're going to look at this on the shelf and other than the label, it's going to look pretty much the same. That's correct. That's pretty cool.

Yeah.

Well, Brian, what do you think about the whiskey?

I really like it. And something that I get kind of on the backend, I feel like it's sweet, but I get a little bit of spice, so I like that.

The nuttiness, I get a little bit of like cinnamon on it, but it's kind of a light cinnamon, but the oak on the palate is there. So on the nose, I was getting that new and the more mature oak on the nose, but on the palate, I'm getting that nutty bourbon flavor a little bit. The fruit notes are a little bit there, and there's some sweetness, but the spice does come through on the bag, but it's not like a heavy cinnamon or a heavy black pepper. It's kind of light.

Yeah, I've heard all those comments and toastings I've done throughout the country, over the world, actually. Yeah, I mean, some people talk a little bit about the fruit, but it's more about the nuttiness, the oak lactones that come through pretty dominant, and then the sweetness of the caramel and vanilla that you're getting straight from the hemicellulose and lignin of the white oak itself.

So you're doing a medium toast followed by a number three char.

It's actually a medium plus toast, a little bit heavier. One of the things, you know, I helped these guys in West Virginia, West Virginia Great Barrel Company is where we've been making our barrels, but I helped them design this toasting carousel is called. And the old style of tofu, for those bourbon distilleries that actually toast their barrel, I'd say 80% plus in Kentucky anyway, their barrel specifications are no natural air drying, no toasting, and a number four level char, which is the heaviest char level. But when you do that, and they're making great whiskeys, don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking anybody, but what I'm trying to do, since we're so small, is really pay attention to detail and create as much flavor as that barrel has to offer. If I have more flavor, as much flavor as that barrel has to offer, I can extract that amount of flavor in comparable time. I don't believe in accelerated maturation, but I believe that in four years plus, I can pull out so much more flavor. I taste our whiskey every six months. And in my opinion, our four-year-old is comparable to most six-year-olds. Because I've created that flavor, I'm able to extract it in that time frame. So, I was talking about the specifications of no natural air drying, no toasting, number four level charm. When you do that, you get about an eighth of an inch of char on the inner surface of the barrel. Then just inside that char layer, you get about a sixteenth of an inch of what they call the red layer. It's the conversion of the hemicellulose and lignin that exists in white oak into the caramel and vanilla flavors. Essentially, they've utilized three sixteenths of an inch of that wood. Well, that whiskey is going to soak at least a half inch into that stave, into that barrel. So this is five sixteenths of an inch. They haven't done anything with the flavor. So by natural air drying it, opening up the grain, allowing the tannic acid and bitter phenolic compounds to leach out of it during the natural air drying process. It opens up that grain to where when I heat it up and toast it, I can get that heat much deeper into the wood and convert as much of that hemicellulose and lignin there is to offer into the caramel and vanilla flavors. And then when I char it, a number three level char, I just created all this great flavor. The last thing I want to do is burn it away. And so I'm only giving it just enough char to still. serve its purpose. The char, a lot of people think the char gives it its flavor and color. It may enhance the color a little bit, but its primary purpose to work like a charcoal filter. When you taste that whiskey, when it goes right into the barrel, you taste the grain, you taste the corn and the rye and the malted barley and the yeast. I mean, you can tell it's very dominant in the moonshine itself. But through the years of maturation, that whiskey pushing into the wood and back out and pushing into the wood and back out through the heat and the cold of the seasons and day and night, When it passes through that char layer, it strips that graininess flavor out and then starts picking up all those nice sweet caramel, vanilla flavors, yolk, lactones, and so forth, all the great flavors that that barrel has to offer.

That's good stuff.

That is good stuff right there. Yes.

I love it. Well, my glass is empty, Brian. How are you doing?

You know how I am. I always say a little sip after everybody else is done, I'm getting my last one.

Well, that was a delightful bourbon. I really enjoyed it. I like it at 90 proof. I think you had the benefit of the knowledge of what it tasted like coming out of the barrel and you made that choice as the master distiller and nobody should second guess you. I would love to try it at Barrel Proof though someday.

Absolutely. Yeah. Someday if you've got time, we'll run down to Bartstown and I'll let you sample. That's what I do. When I do VIP tours down there and when we have like important customers in town or people looking to do barrel picks, which you're trying to do more and more of now, I give them the behind the scenes kind of VIP tour, which I'd love to take you guys someday. And then I let him taste a progressional tasting. I let him taste the distillate when it's cut to 125 proof right before it goes into the barrel, and then taste it after it's a year old, after two years old, after three years old, and then four years old. So you can understand and fully taste the transformation that whiskey takes when it's in the barrel. That would be so much fun.

Oh yeah. That would be amazing. And that would be a phenomenal show. So let's think about that in the future. That would be really, really good. We'd love to meet you down there one day. I'm not pushing it on you, but if it sounds like fun, let's do it.

Well, that's a beauty. You guys are my backyard, sir. I'm in your backyard one of the two, but we're close and it all works good.

I do love some good distillate. I don't know what it is about it, but If I get a chance to taste any distillate, I get excited. Yeah.

All right. So we're moving on to our next glass here. Okay. And why don't you tell us a little bit about it.

So this is our chicken cock Kentucky straight rye whiskey. Now, um, I think I mentioned you guys previously. For 10 years of my 45 years, I was the vice president of Austin Nichols and the managing director at Wild Turkey Distillery. We made a rye whiskey back then. Didn't make a lot of it. It had a bitterness, a harshness that I didn't care for. It had like 35% corn in the mash bill. And so when we decided to come out with a rye for chicken cock, I started doing some research. And some of these 95 fives out there, 95 rye, 5% multi-barley, I thought were fantastic. So I kind of adopted that mash bill. And then I kind of tweaked some of the working structure as far as time and temperatures of cooking and And the enzymes in yeast and of course the barrels are unique in themselves. But I think we came out with a fantastic rye. We get so many accolades from this rye. And I do tastings all over the country and so many people come up to me, I'm a bourbon drinker, I don't drink rye. And I say, well, try a sample, it's free. I guarantee 80% of them are bought and sold over. I said, wow, I didn't think rye could taste like that. And so it's kind of unique, but it's fun to see people react the way they do and actually kind of turn on the rye a little bit. All right. Well, let's check it out.

Jim knows it's always a challenge to get me going on the rise.

He's coming over to the dark side.

I'm getting there.

So yeah, I mean give it a nose, it is there. I mean the spicy and peppery notes really come out in the nose.

Oh yeah, nice and fresh, nice and very floral and herbaceous kind of a, I'm trying to think what the prominent, I mean it's clearly a rye. I'm going to say anise with a little bit of like juniper berry.

I've heard both those terms and tastings I've done. My nose, I don't really pick up the anus, because I'm not really anus type of lover, I guess. So I've tried to stick away from that. But yeah, I get a little bit, again, the spicy, the peppery notes is really, I think, dominant in this rye that actually shines through on the palate as well.

It's very clean, very crisp. Oh, yeah. I like that. I think it's definitely clean.

Some people say citrus. They make a little citrus out of it. I can see that.

I can see that more of a, not so much of like an orange citrus, but more of like a lime or lemon citrus. Yeah. All right. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, that's a sweet wash. Wow.

On the palate. I mean, it's just really the caramel and you really get the flavors from the barrel really on the back end of the tongue. It's a nice sweet long finish. Yeah.

First impression is very nice. Almost candy sweetness that comes across. Not quite candy yet, but it's getting there. This is going to be, they say this is about a four-year-old as well, right? Or a little bit older.

No. People ask me, I said, how old is this? And I said, well, you tell me how old you think it is. And so many people say, oh, it's 46 years old. This rye, if you look at the back of the label on the back label by the UPC, it says aged at least two years. This was actually a two and a half year old when it was dumped. But That's uniqueness. When you prepare the barrel properly and create as much extractable, the rye grain will tend to extract the flavor and absorb the flavor much quicker than bourbon, say, predominantly corn grain.

Yeah. We know that ryes can reach that, let's just call it drinkable state, much faster than a rye bourbon can and even much more faster than a wheat bourbon can. Absolutely. But yeah, for a two and a half year old rye, this definitely drinks like something over four years. So very nice. I think it does come back and give you a little bit of that dry spice on the back end. I like that. The freshness that you get on the nose doesn't really translate a lot. You get more pepper, I think, on the palate than, well, I do. I get more pepper on the palate where I got a little bit different on the nose.

I tend to agree with you. Yeah. You pick up the pepper a little bit on the nose, but in the mouth, it really has a nice mouth feel, but it has that little bit of peppery heat to it.

Yeah, I like it. I think you guys are starting to convert me over a little bit. It almost drinks like it's chilled. It does.

I really like that.

I don't know that I've called that out on a whiskey before that it drinks like it's chilled, but this one does. That's really good. Well, congratulations on a very interesting rye, a very interesting young rye. My goodness.

That is crazy. I'll agree. It is like this, uh, what'd you just say? Fresh, uh, chilled.

Yeah. I would, I would totally agree. Well, we know it's the same temperature as the bourbon. They came in the same box and yeah. So it's not going to be even one degree difference.

It's impressive. Yeah. I like it. So you've told us a little bit about,

the history of the company. You've told us a little bit about your history and the founder's vision and your vision when you started the company. In the second half, we definitely like to talk a little bit more about kind of the things you have going on and kind of the new things you might have coming up. We're going to take a short break here, but as we sip on the remainder of this whiskey, we'll have our listeners stick around because in the second half, we're going to talk about the new stuff that's coming out of Chicken Cotton. We're going to hit on some other, two more expressions, and we'll talk about some events you're going to be at. We're going to talk about all kinds of great stuff. Looking for a unique gift? Blanton's bourbon shop has got you covered. All of their handcrafted wood products are made in their in-house wood shop with authentic bourbon barrels. Specializing in barrel-age potent treats, they use Blanton's barrels to age their own maple syrup, honey, and coffee. Find the most unique gift ideas for your golf lover, cigar connoisseur, avid coffee drinker, and Blanton's fan. Want to win an authentic Blanton's barrel head? Make sure you sign up for the giveaway on the home page of their website. Blanton's bourbon shop dot com is your home for all Blanton's gifts. 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 p.m. on October 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. They'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, so we are back. We managed to get through the last of that rye whiskey. Definitely a special rye, an interesting rye, a rye that is beyond its years just a little bit. Wouldn't you say, Brian?

I would agree. I really enjoyed it.

And for both those bottles we tried in the first half, what's the price point on the shelf for those, the bourbon and the rye?

So yeah, it'll vary depending state to state and market to market. But typically, the suggested retail price on the bourbon for years was, well, when we came out with it, was $59.99. And the rye was always $10 more, $69.99. But just here recently in the last week or so, actually, the company had a price realignment. And so both of them price line. Both of them now retail, including the rye at $59.99.

Well, that's good news for the rye drinkers, right?

Absolutely.

Absolutely. And bourbon drinkers as well, because they can probably grab them both, right? Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. So we've got another whiskey in our glass, and this is our third whiskey of the show.

Why don't you tell us a little bit about it? Okay. So this next one we're going to taste, this is our chicken cock, eight-year-old double oak whiskey. Now, a little backstory to this one. In 2014, this was actually made in 2014, in 2014 there was a barrel shortage. And so, a lot of people, I mean today's whiskey drinkers are so much more knowledgeable, so a lot of people know this, but if they don't, our government defines what a bourbon whiskey is. Number one, it has to have 51% corn in the mash bill. Number two, it can't be distilled higher than 160 proof. Number three, it has to be aged in a new charred oak barrel. It actually says container, but they mean barrel, oak barrel. And number four, it can't go into a barrel higher than 125 proof. So if it meets those four criteria and is made in the United States of America, not just Kentucky, anywhere in the United States of America, you can call it bourbon whiskey. This whiskey was made in 2014 and there was a barrel shortage. What happened was in the fall of 2013, the winter of 2013 and 2014, and then in the spring of 2014, we had so much rain east of the Mississippi, the ground was saturated. So the loggers had a heck of a time getting in the woods to harvest enough white oak to supply the industry. So long about September of 2014, there were no more new barrels to be had. The cuprages were sold out. I mean, they had customers that had orders and they were still supplying those orders. But a lot of distilleries still needed barrels and they couldn't buy new barrels. So they had made all this bourbon sitting in tanks. They had all their grain silos full of grain. They had the supply chain of trucks coming with grain. They had employees that had to work. And so they kept making whiskey, which they thought was going to be bourbon whiskey. But since they didn't have new barrels, they had to put it in a used barrel. So they couldn't call it bourbon whiskey. Well, in 2021, seven years later, this whiskey was seven years old, Marty, our founder, he was able to acquire a couple of truckloads of this whiskey, and he was going to come out with another rendition and give us a wider presence on the shelf. He was going to call it Chicken-Cott Kentucky Straight Whiskey, seven years old. And so he bought them and he asked me to taste it. And I tasted it. I said, you know, I'm sorry, Marty, this does not meet our criteria for bringing the brand back to its high quality prominence. It's just too green, needs more flavor. So we discussed the options and what we decided on, we bought some new barrels. This is in 2021 now. So we bought some new barrels and we put the seven-year-old whiskey back into a new barrel. Where it should have gone in the first place.

Well, it was intended to go in the first place.

Things happened and it didn't quite get there, unfortunately, because of market conditions. So we put it in a new barrel and then we put those barrels on the top floor, the seventh floor of the warehouses there in Bardstown where we age our whiskey. Last summer, if you recall, we had a hot summer. We had 85 days where the temperatures exceeded 90 degrees Fahrenheit in Kentucky. A lot of people said, man, it's just been an extremely hot, miserable, hot summer. I said, no, it's a great summer. It's aging whiskey like crazy. I mean, it's pushing that whiskey deep into that wood and pulling out as much flavor. Well, this whiskey actually sat in those barrels right at 18 months, a year and a half. And so, I would taste it periodically. After a year and a half, I said, it's ready. So, we picked up so much more flavor. And so, we dumped those barrels and actually started bottling it last December. Didn't really hit the shelf until early this year, but it's selling like crazy. I mean, it's so popular. Now it's our chicken cock, eight-year-old double oak whiskey.

So, bourbons that are finished in a secondary barrel, double barreled, whatever you want to call it, 18 months seems like a long time.

You know, it's all relative. Depending on the whiskey, because again, this had a lot of grape base and a lot of flavor, but it just didn't have the flavor, in my opinion, to really qualify as a high quality whiskey.

These were medium plus toasted.

No, unfortunately, these barrels that we had to buy for the double oak were just some that we were able to purchase off the open market. Were they toasted barrels? They weren't. They were actually standard... Like number four char? Number four char. Okay. Exactly.

All right. Exactly. Well, you know, that probably... Actually, I'm thinking that was probably a good thing.

It could have been. Yeah. The fact that the whiskey already had some oak, seven years of oak touching it for a while, may have softened it a little bit just to kind of take a lot of the flavors that the oak elements would provide to begin with.

How long has this been available?

Actually, earlier this year is when it actually hit the market.

We've got some listeners out there that have had this already.

I think so. Quite a few, actually. I've been doing a lot of traveling, promoting the brand in various markets, various states, and it's extremely popular. This is 92 proof. This is 92 proof. That's correct. As we talked earlier, I try to find the sweet spot before we actually bottle it to where the alcohol burn subsides and really allows the flavors to overtake the profile.

Are you ready? I am ready. My friend, are you ready? I am ready. Cheers, folks. Cheers.

Wow. So what are you getting on that nose?

a little bit like a baking spice, a nutty baking spice nose to it. I never can like pick out specific ones like nutmeg or mace or things. I guess I can if I really wanted to, but I always get mixed up in my head a little bit.

Yeah, I mean, I think definitely a little bit of the nuttiness for me.

But it does have a little bit of that rye popping through, a little rye muffin, I would say.

Dark fruits. Yeah, I've heard that comment quite often, actually.

Nothing real specific for me. I don't, I don't, I can't like put my finger on one little thing.

It's got a little bit, a little complexity of a lot of different things, actually.

I was going to say rich. I mean, I feel like there's a lot going on there. I mean, it's. Very pleasing. It's inviting.

Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes you'll say it's a cereal. It's, it's, it's, it's raisin bread. No, no, it's special K with red berries.

Kind of Jim's go-to. We haven't hit it today is the whore hound.

Yeah. Candy. That's the. Well, this is definitely not that. But the nose is very, very interesting. This is a, this is something, this is a Sherlock Holmes kind of nose, you know, you got to really search for it. You got to uncover what it is.

Well, that's what it can be kind of, um, I don't know. Um, of a mystery because your nose and your palate don't always speak the same language sometimes, especially on whiskey.

Yeah, and I'm getting a little bit older. I mean, I'm starting to lose a little bit of that. I'm just being honest with you folks. You don't keep that stuff forever.

Watch the age thing. Easy now. Come on.

You don't keep that stuff forever. I was telling a story. I played softball about six or seven years ago and this was well after I should have been stopped playing softball. I played softball and I actually hit the ball and I actually got a hit. I was like, wow. I threw the bat down, I took off running and I went straight down and hit the ground. The reason I went down and hit the ground was because my brain remembered how to run, but my legs didn't. It's kind of the same with this whiskey. My brain is telling me I'm getting all these notes, but am I really? This is good. I want to taste it. Cheers. Cheers.

Now that's a sweet surprise. Yes. What'd I tell you? It's kind of, you know, conceiving a little bit. It just, it doesn't, it just, the nose doesn't always talk the same language as the pallet. When it hits the pallet, wow, the flavors just pop. My goodness. I'm just going to say cherry. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard that many, many times.

Yeah. I think, I think I would go along with that and definitely a nice, super sweet wash on the pallet. Oh yeah. It's, um, and you get a little bit of that kind of, A little bit of that campfire marshmallow. I've heard that. Just a little bit though.

Let me go back.

Kind of s'mores, but cherry for sure. You nailed that one, Brian.

That is very good. Very good.

I like that a lot. So where does this bottle sit price point? So, this one actually is $99. Okay.

And I would imagine, I would expect this one to be a little more expensive.

It cost you a lot more to produce. It did. I mean, to buy as many new barrels to remature it in, you know, to give it the second oak aging, that's not cheap.

Whereas that old general rule, you know, $10 a year, right? You've heard that a million times, haven't you? plus the secondary barrel, right? So there you go. Now you're at a hundred bucks. So that's, I think it's a fair price. An eight year old whiskey that has gone through a process like that. And, and so this is, this is an American whiskey.

Absolutely.

And it's, uh, yeah. If it weren't for that original barrel, it would be qualified as a bourbon.

Well, you know, that's an interesting question because I had a conversation here about three weeks ago. There was another podcaster out of Chicago who I've got to be good friends with and we were chatting one day via text message. And his comment was that actually the TTB, the Tax and Trade Bureau changed the rule or I guess clarified the rule that this could be considered a bourbon. If you look at the criteria, remember I said, you know, the four criteria and the one being it has to be aged in a new charred barrel or new charred oak container, basically what it says, if you read it verbatim. Well, it doesn't say does it have to be aged in that new charred barrel the first time or the second time. And a lot of companies, I guess, were pushing back against the TTB. And he was telling me that the TTB came around and clarified that this actually could be called a bourbon. Now, that's not the way I grew up. I'm sorry. I started when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms were still in charge of things. And the rules were the rules. And so I guess there's been enough pushback from other companies to get them to second-guess it. Now, whether that's true or not, I don't know. I haven't personally looked up or seen the change. But he was telling me that based on the latest regulations that we could actually call this a bourbon. But it doesn't say that on labor.

That's an interesting, very interesting piece. And listeners, I hope you caught that. That's just really cool. So yeah, it still entered a new oak barrel. It just didn't enter that barrel first. it went into a used barrel. I applaud you for calling it an American whiskey, because I think that was probably the best default position to take.

Well, again, I've been doing this over 45 years, and that's the way I was brought up. If it's going to be bourbon whiskey, once it comes off the still, it has to go in a new barrel. Now, that's not the way it clearly states it in the regs, but that's the way the regs are always determined. You know, as, as time goes on, we have so many new people and new distilleries in this industry. And, and so, uh, you know, there's, there's people that like to push the envelope as far as they can. And so, uh, you know, good luck, more power, but I know.

As long as you state it on the bottle and make it clear to the consumer so that they can make up their own mind. As long as you like it, that's right. As long as you like it. Exactly.

You just hate to buy something and feel misled, right? That's the real problem. I guarantee you. That's something I am very adamant about. I believe in transparency. There's a lot of times where I have to sign a non-disclosure agreement where I can't really answer questions of people because I signed an NDA, but I'll be as transparent today as long as I can legally do it.

So these three whiskeys we've tried, your bourbon, your rye and your double up, these, these three constitute your core line of products that are on the shelf. Well, we currently have on the shelf. That is correct.

That's our core line.

Yeah. So we, I know one of the things we talked about a little bit earlier, of course was the bottle. It's something we didn't touch on was the name. So where did the name come from?

So that's a great question. I get that question asked so many times when I do tastings. And a lot of people find it humorous, some not so humorous, some are offended by it. But the name is what it is. I didn't create it. The brand originated in Paris, Kentucky in 1856. A gentleman by the name of James A. Miller built this distillery in Paris. And as the story goes, he was making a whiskey he was so proud of, he felt it was worth crying about. So that's why he called it chicken cock whiskey. Well, you got to remember 1856, Americans were still using the old English language. And the term for a male chicken was a cock. The term rooster didn't come about to the late 1800s, early 1900s. So that's where the brand actually got its name. But it had a high quality reputation. The brand flourished and was doing well up until 1920. And when 1920 hit, so did Prohibition. And like so many other distilleries, they shut it down, shut the distillery down, and they sold the brand to a company up in Montreal, Canada, who made a Canadian rye whiskey. And they would bottle that rye whiskey under the chicken cock label, but then they would take that bottle and they sealed it in a tin can. that tin can protected the bottle when they bootlegged it back across the border. It showed up in a lot of speakeasies, but one of chicken cock whiskey's claims to fame, it was the actual house whiskey at the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York during the Roaring Twenties. A lot of the big band air, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, there was a book written about Duke Ellington in his memoirs. He talks about his favorite whiskey being chicken cock whiskey. They called it the tin can whiskey back then. Well, to get an appreciation for how serious prohibition was, and if you had the means and could enjoy a glass of good whiskey, at the Cotton Club, a pint of chicken cock at the Cotton Club sold for $14 back in the 1920s.

And have you done the math?

That's equivalent to $140 today for a pint of whiskey. Wow.

Yeah.

So it gives you an appreciation for what it took to enjoy a glass of whiskey back during Prohibition. But the brand did great, was well known as the Cotton Club. And then about two years before Prohibition was repealed, national distillers bought the brand back. They owned a subsidiary that actually had the financial means to own a medicinal alcohol permit. So, they started the story back up in Paris and they were making medicinal alcohol the last two years of Prohibition. Of course, 1933 hits, Prohibition was repealed and the brand flourished. It did great. It flourished up until the 1950s. It had a high-quality name, and in the 1950s, Distillery suffered a fire, burnt to the ground, and the company that owned it decided not to rebuild, so the brand just sat idle. Fast forward 60 years later, in 2011, Mahdi Antla, who we talked about earlier, Mahdi is the founder of Grain and Barrel Spirits, a small company. They don't own a distillery, don't own any operational assets. They needed cash flow. So when he was able to acquire Chicken Cock Whiskey, he was researching for whiskey and found the story and history interesting. So he bought the brand rights. And in 2012, Chickencock was back on the shelf. But what he was able to do, he was able to source some young whiskey, six-month-old whiskey. He put it in an aluminum bottle and he flavored it. They had a root beer flavor, they had cinnamon flavor, had several different flavors. It served its purpose. It created cash flow, but it didn't help the quality reputation the brand was known for for many, many years. A couple of years later, he came out with Chicken Cock Heritage, which was a bourbon, and Chicken Cock Bootlegger, which was a bourbon rye blend. But again, it was six-month-old whiskey. If you wanted to mix it, drink with it, it was fine. But it wasn't the high-quality whiskey that the chicken cock was known for for so many years. So again, I've been in the business 45 years, 2017. I started my consulting company. And as I mentioned earlier, Grain and Barrel was one of my first clients. Then Marty came to me that one day and said, hey, I'd like to resurrect chicken cock back to Kentucky and bring it back to its high quality promise. Would you help me do that and serve in the role of master distiller? That's when I told him, sure, I'll do it on one condition. You stop buying this young crap and everything we do our objective is focused on bringing this brand back to its high-quality promise. Again, we touched on that a little bit earlier in the first half, but I think it's important because the brand is resurrected back to Kentucky now. I think we're well on our way with some very high-quality products. Paying attention to detail. Giving I guess consumers the quality of whiskey they deserve. So pretty proud about that. And I think you touched on the detail earlier, just your process.

I mean, all the way from the cupboards, all the way down. I mean, you definitely watch every step and you're there to make sure that it's going to be the quality that you're looking for. So very cool that you have that opportunity to see it start to finish and make sure that it hits the vision that you have.

Yeah, you're right. It's a great opportunity. I'm very thankful for it. But again, this industry has been awfully good to me and my family over the years. You try to pay back a little bit along the way, and hopefully consumers are getting to enjoy some of that payback right now.

Well, fellas, what do you say we try? that number four bottle. I'm looking forward to this. So this is something special. Very special. This is really special. And you told us before the show that we're kind of a first.

You are. This is the first time that we've tasted this whiskey on a podcast. It's not even bottled yet. So, I actually had a sample there when we set this up for me. Come over and chat with you guys and do this podcast. I said, you know what? I'm going to take something special I think they might like. And so, this is actually being bottled towards the end of this month, actually. This is going to be our third in a line of a series of three 10 series. In 2021, early 22, we came out with the first in a line of what we call our collectors 10 series. It was a chicken cock cotton club. The founder of the company, this was his baby actually, I didn't have much to do with it. He wanted to pay homage to the brand back 100 years ago during the 1920s when the brand was the house whiskey at the Cotton Club. So he did some research. He found some 20-year-old Canadian rye whiskey and he was able to acquire that whiskey. It wasn't cheap, which kind of pushes the price up a little bit. But He was able to acquire it. And so we bottled it at 100 proof, the same proof as it was served back in the 1920s. And we put it in a commemorative tin can, very similar, same color scheme as the original tin can. And then in 2022, last year, we came out with our second in the series of three. It was called our Chicken Coq Chantecler. Chantecler is French for rooster. But this is our bourbon that I finished in French cognac barrels. Amazing. It actually won a double gold at San Francisco Whiskey Competition this year. The one that we just tried, actually, the chicken cock eight-year-old double oak, it won a double platinum at the American Spirits Award and the Ascot Awards here recently. So, I'm very proud about the accolades that they've achieved as well. But the Chicken Coq Chanteclair, it's actually 112 proof. And again, I'm very careful about finishing whiskeys in a secondary barrel. I don't want the finishing barrel to really overpower the integrity and the character of the base whisky. So I'm very cautious about that. And so with cognac especially, man, you got to be real careful. Cognac is so powerful, so overpowering. So when we bought the French cognac barrels, the broker we bought them through shipped up some 225 liters, but also shipped up some 300 liters. So that just totally screwed up my calculation of liquid to wood ratio. And so I had to kind of do a little more trial and error, a little more tasting than I would have normally planned. But that's a tough part of the job that you don't complain about too much. But actually, truth be known, it stayed in those cognac barrels anywhere from a month and a half up to four months and got the right amount of flavor when we blended it all together and bottled it 112 proof. Fantastic. It's so good. Now, this one that we're about to taste. This is a third. We're coming out with this fall. It should hit the market, O&D, October, November, December. But this is called our chicken cock red stave. Now, this is our bourbon that I finished in Petite Syrah barrels. This Petite Syrah, it's actually the Miller Winery in Central Coast, California. They have a fantastic Petite Syrah. I don't know if you guys are into wines much at all, but their Petite Syrah is phenomenal. So we were able to, we swapped some bourbon barrels for some Petite Syrah barrels. And you can look at the color alone. It's got that little reddish hue to it already. Got a nice, rich color to it. But this is actually being bottled. Again, it's going to be bottled later this month. So this is the first time anybody's tasted it on a podcast. And I'm glad I could bring it tonight. But it's 102.4 proof was a sweet spot on this one. And so- That's a nice viewpoint. Yeah, that's- You know, again, we did a lot of lab samples to come up with the final proof, but this was the sweet spot I felt that really, you know, again, that allowed the flavors to really I guess, mandate the profile without over diluting it. You know, and we could have knocked it down and got a lot more bottles out of the same barrels. But no, again, our objective is to bring the brand back to its high quality prominence. And so it's important to find the sweet spot. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh, wow. The nose is definitely, it can definitely get the impact of those barrels. The color is like a deep red amber. It's beautiful. Looks like almost like a red Irish ale, you know? Yes.

Yeah, it does. That's a good analogy, actually. Yeah. I don't know. To me, that's, that's a mahogany if ever was.

That's a great word. That's right on the button. Yeah. You know, we've had some lower compared to this. We've had some lower proof whiskeys tonight. We've been in the 90 proof range, right? And now we're, we're at 102.4 and you can definitely, you definitely get the impact a little bit from the higher proof there. Yeah. I mean, the nose is phenomenal. It is really, really good. Phenomenal. It definitely, I mean, I'm not a wine drinker. I do drink wine, but I don't know a lot about wines. And I can definitely, I get the wine on the nose. I get the richness from the wine, that bold, deep richness you get from a wine. Now, tell us about a Shirah wine for those of us who are not wine people. What characteristics are in a Syrah? So this is actually a Petite Syrah.

Petite Syrah and Syrah are actually two different grape varietals. A lot of people get those confused. But this is a Petite Syrah. It's a little smaller grape versus a Syrah. But the flavors are similar. Definitely a bold red wine, but not as bold as, say, a red Zinfandel or a Cabernet Sauvignon. A little milder, softer flavor. I think definitely bolder than a Merlot, let's say, for those people that are wine drinkers and understand the comparison. When I was in the barrel industry working for Brown Form, we not only made whiskey barrels, we made a lot of wine barrels. I spent quite a bit of time in Napa and Sonoma and California and Australia and a few other wine regions. I got a fond appreciation for the different wines and the variations of wines. That helps when you're trying to do some innovative things about, okay, how can we pair this whiskey with this product to really come up with something unique. And so, you know, I wanted to get a little fruitiness into it, a little jamminess maybe on the finish and so.

I was going to say preserves, jam. It definitely has that fruit preserve jam kind of nose to it. I'm ready to taste it though. I'm ready to taste it. Cheers. Wow, that is, that's deep, rich. Viscous. Definitely not overly sweet, but it has like a really nice darker fruit and a palette to it. It's almost a little drying on the back, But like you might get from a bold red wine, like a little bit more of a, I'm not gonna call it tannic, because it's not tannic, but it kind of reminds you that that might be coming, but it doesn't.

The dryness a little bit. Yeah, just a little bit dry, but not too dry. You still get the sweetness coming through as well of the fruit itself and the wine.

So the one thing that I'll say, I just watched Jim taste this.

Oh, I'm in trouble.

And we all know what the Kentucky chew is. We all kind of get that. I've never seen it more pronounced from you tasting something until we did this.

I think, I think the amount of chewing is triggered by the viscosity, right? The thicker it feels on the palate, the more you tend to want to chew on it.

It's got that thicker mouth feel and like you said, the chewiness of it, really the viscosity is definitely there.

Yeah, this is a premium to ultra premium whiskey. No doubt. Definitely, I taste this and I say, you're not gonna find this on the middle shelf, you're not gonna find this on the top shelf, you're gonna find this in the glass case.

It is so unique.

Yeah.

So unique, different than anything I've ever had.

Oh, I could, yeah, I could definitely. Brian, we need, we need a bottle of the sit out on the back porch and just.

If you like wine and you like whiskey and this is it.

It is a great compliment to both. I'm telling you, it really shines through. And again, not overpowering with the wine, but you can still, you know, maintain the integrity and character of the bourbon that's in it, but just enough flavor to enhance it to a different level.

Man, I can almost get like the, the grape skins.

I mean, I was going to say the same, like I'm really reaching for it. And it's, I mean, because it's just,

You know, when you finish eating the grape and you start with the grape skin and you're sort of chewing on it a little bit and you get that. Yeah, this is really nice.

This is a treat. Thank you. My pleasure.

This is not something you're going to experience every day. This is something that you're going to break out and enjoy with friends on a rare occasion.

I'm excited about it. Again, I think it actually sat in those barrels right out of year, actually, in the Petite Seurat. So it took a while. And again, unlike the French cognac finish, cognac being such a powerful spirit, it didn't stay in the barrels near as long. And this one, it definitely took a little time to pull out enough flavor to enhance the characters of the bourbon itself. But I'm so pleased with it. Again, being the third rendition of our 310 series, I think for collectors who are out there, there's a few of the Cotton Club left. They're going fast. But if there's collectors out there that don't have them yet, I think they need to start looking around and get it. This one here, I'm expecting high marks in a lot of the award competitions across the country, so we'll see.

Well, folks, if you're listening to this podcast and you're just curious about these tins, they'll be in our social media posts, but you can also go to the chicken cock website. I'm sure there's plenty of photos of them there. But the tins themselves were introduced during prohibition to sort of help the bottle survive

Bootlegging that was initially 10. Yeah. Yeah, they were a little bit sturdier 10 than what we have today. But yeah, they were definitely served a purpose.

So 10, 10, 10 whiskies were kind of very common during bootlegging days. I think so. During Prohibition days. And Brian, you've been able to play around with a few of those, haven't you?

I have. Fortunately, I have over the years. I'll share a video with you later, Craig, that you'll really appreciate within.

Well, I'm pleasantly surprised by this. I'm delighted by it. I'm glad I got to try it. For these premium whiskeys, people should expect a premium price. For sure. And again, these things are going to be different depending on where you are, but where might our listeners expect to find these bottles?

So, where can they find it? I'm sorry, not where, but what price range? So, yeah. So, the Chanticleer, I think it's currently priced at $299. We actually had a price reduction to try to help the market. I think we had some high pricing that kind of prohibited sales because people love the whiskey, but sometimes, you know, it's not for everybody. You can't afford that kind of whiskey. So, we kind of had a recent price adjustment here within the last week or so. So, the Chantecler is now priced at $2.99 and then the Red Stave, I believe, is coming out at $1.99.

Well, at $1.99, I think this might be a bottle I'll pick up because I really, really like this. Absolutely. I don't think I would share it with just anybody. I think I would share it with somebody who could really appreciate it. I certainly wouldn't want to go through a bottle in a night or a weekend. I'd want to make it last as long as possible. You know, when you pay that kind of money for a bottle, and not everybody can, but when you're able to pay for a bottle that costs, you know, hundreds of dollars, you want to enjoy it. You want to enjoy it over time. You want to share it with as many people as possible. And I think real whiskey connoisseurs will appreciate this one for sure.

I think so. Again, there's a lot of tender loving care that went into all these products. It's hard to put a price tag on that sometimes, but I think competitively speaking, comparatively speaking, I think they're priced right now and I think hopefully more people can enjoy them.

Yeah, this is a very impressive release here. I can't wait. I'll definitely pick it up as well. I know you have different types of drinkers out there and collectors. We kind of believe in something here in the Bourbon Road, open the damn bottle. We don't have any bottles that we don't open. And this is one of those that I agree with Jim. I will share it with a lot of folks. but definitely not one that I will rush through in a weekend.

Yeah, that's funny. I do bottle signing events, and people say, oh, I'll never open that bottle. I say, you know what? Whiskey's made to drink. That's signature. 20 years from now, that signature and a $20 bill will get you a small cup of coffee at Starbucks. So enjoy the whiskey. Drink the whiskey. And if you want to save the bottle, great. But drink the whiskey. Go it up with iced tea and put it back on the shelf. Whatever. Yeah.

Greg, tell us a little bit about the distribution and where people can expect to find a chicken card.

Well, yeah, it's you know, it's been moving so fast. Around the time that the COVID hit, we were selling in about 12 to 14 states, southeastern states primarily. A year and a half later, we were in 42 states, and I think right now we're in all but maybe two states. We're still working on those two. So it's across the country, literally. Here locally in the Kentucky region, I know liquor barns definitely have it. Total Wine has it. All the Cox Liquors stores have it. I've done numerous tastings and bottle signings with the folks at Cox Liquors, which is also Evergreen, so I've got a couple more lined up very soon. I'm going to do some with liquor barns. So yeah, it's spread throughout Kentucky and Southern Indiana as well.

You're not sold internationally yet? Internationally, no.

Actually, there are some products that are going over international, but not the core products that we're doing right here.

Okay. Well listeners, that kind of means if you're here in this podcast and you're here in the US, you can probably get it in your state. There might be a couple locations that are difficult, but pretty much nationwide.

or you can go online too. If you can, if you can, if your state allows, you know, shipments, then you can go online as well to buy the, you know, www.chickencockwhiskey.com.

So you've got some events coming up.

I know you're going to be at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Kentucky Bourbon Festival, for sure. Yeah, we got involved with that three years ago. So this will be the third year in a row that we're involved with that. And of course, me personally, I went to the very first bourbon festival back in in the early 90s, actually, when they first started. It's a great event. It's changed over the years. The current format is much different than it used to be, but very high quality. They do a great job. It's a whiskey lover, a bourbon lover. That's a place to be mid-September. I mean, you can taste just about Well, just about every whiskey is made in Kentucky anyway.

Like I said earlier, I mean, it was a pretty amazing event for you guys last year. People were lined up across the event center there just to try your whiskey and for good reason, for absolutely good reason. And so I encourage people who are coming to the Kentucky Burden Festival this year to search you out at the festival and try your whiskies. We're going to be at Bourbon on the Banks this year, which is a festival in Frankfort, Kentucky. I hope you can make it.

I hope so. Yeah. I I've spoken with our regional manager, uh, who has handles actually Kentucky and Indiana. And he, I think he's planning on being there. Hopefully we'll have a presence there. It's just a matter of how logistics work out and whether or not we can get the people to kind of, um, you know, service the event. So, but, uh, yeah. And, uh, personally I'd love to go.

People can find you on the internet. social media?

Yeah, me personally, I'm on social media, different events. I'm on Instagram, actually, CC Master Distiller.

CC Master Distiller, okay.

Yeah, on Instagram, so Facebook. But yeah, if you want to, if you're interested in the brands or any of the point of sale stuff, you know, we do have the website, as I mentioned, www.chickencockwhiskey.com, so they can go there and buy some product or A few point of sale eyes we have. We're not a big company. Grand Barrel, like I said, is a very, very small company and they're growing though. They're growing.

So I would imagine if you go on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or any of those places, you just search Chicken Cock and you guys are going to come up. You're going to find it.

Awesome.

Well, Greg, we really appreciate you being on the show today. We've had such a wonderful time here drinking these great whiskeys. Folks, I'm sorry we couldn't taste through the rest of the 10 series with you, but we're going to have it after the show. So we'll tell you about it when we see you out in town. And, you know, I think it's only reasonable to get through four whiskeys in a show. We've done five before, but then it starts to get a little silly. So we got to be kind of careful. Brian, did you have a good time today?

I had a great time. It is awesome to be back and looking forward to being a little more consistent as things slow down as we get into the fall.

Absolutely. Well, you can find The Bourbon Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. You can find us on TikTok. You can even find us on threads. Now we actually have a couple of threads posts. I got out there and did it finally.

Unbelievable.

Yeah, I know. Well, it's really easy. You just share your Instagram posts over threads.

This world moves so fast.

We do. a show every single week. Every Wednesday you'll hear a show from the Bourbon Road Podcast. We'll usually have a great guest on like Greg and Chickencock, and we'll drink through some whiskeys and talk about some fun stuff. But sometimes, you know, we get, we get off the road a little bit. We'll have a music guest on, we'll have an author or chef or somebody like that, but be sure they're drinking whiskey when they come on the show. We have a great time here and we hope you join us every single week. Brian, where can they find out more about the Bourbon Road and our swag and our blogs and all that kind of stuff?

Yeah. You just want to go to the bourbonroad.com and there's some good swag on there. I feel like we're paying attention to the women. We need to make sure we have some good bourbonistas t-shirts out there for them to get.

Absolutely. The bourbonistas are taking over. I know they're descending on Daytona Beach later this month. I've heard.

Nice.

Daytona Beach, watch out. The Bourbonistas are coming down there. There's a big yacht bourbon event down there. The Bourbonistas are going. We'd love you to come to the website and check out the things we have to offer. The sale of those items, the t-shirts, the hats, the glasses, the decanters, all that kind of stuff just helps us get down the road for that next interview. So when you're buying a piece of that stuff, you're helping us get down the road. We don't do a Patreon. We don't have any kind of memberships or anything like that. The way we fund the bourbon road is through our sponsorships. and through sales of items on our website. So we hope you'll check it out. TheBurbonRoad.com. Hop on there. If you've got an idea for a show, if you've got an idea for a guest, if you've got a bottle you've tasted recently, maybe from your hometown distillery and you want to shine a little light on them, make sure you get on our contact us page and send us a note. You can also send us an email. I'm Jim at The Bourbon Road. He's Brian at The Bourbon Road. Together we're team at TheBourbonRoad.com. Reach out to us. We'll be sure to get back with you. But until the next time, We'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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