377. Blind Bottle Challenge - Bourbon of the Year

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.

We're very excited to have Blanton's bourbon shop.com is a new sponsor for the bourbon road podcast. In fact, this podcast was 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. The Bourbon Road is excited to have pintsandbarrels.com as a sponsor of this episode as well as our official custom apparel provider. Be sure to check out pintsandbarrels.com and browse their ultimate online store for bourbon loggers. Welcome back, listeners, for another episode of the Bourbon Road Podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon, and today we're once again in Frankfurt, Kentucky. We're hanging out at the Corner Rick House, home of the Frankfurt Bourbon Society. It's kind of a special show. This is our fifth annual Blind Bottle Challenge. I don't think we've missed a year yet. It was inaugurated in 2018 just before the New Year's. I think every year we've kind of held it right around the time between Christmas and New Year. It's a time when both us and our guests bring a bottle to the show and we've got someone in the back room. Today it's Melody. She's in the back. She's going to take the bottles that are all hidden, we don't know what they are, and she's going to pour them out as A, B, C. In this case, we've got three people on the show today, myself, Todd Ritter, Amzie Winning, and we're going to challenge each other to see whose bottle wins. None of us know what's being poured in our glass. But Todd, this is not your first time on the show?

Correct. This is time number three. I was just on recently around Thanksgiving, and we got to enjoy some nice wild turkey pours.

That was a great show. And we certainly appreciate you breaking out the turkeys for us. That was awesome. I don't mind at all. It's a good time. And Amzie, you as well. You've been on the show probably three or four times now.

Yep. I think this is my first time for something other than promoting Bourbon on the Banks, though. So excited, glad to be here, looking forward to this challenge before us tonight.

It'll be a lot of fun. Well, I'm certainly happy to be a member of the Frankfurt Bourbon Society myself. And I'm glad that both of you are also Roadies and love to hang out with our friends from time to time in the Bourbon Roadies group. But tonight, let's get straight to this first pour. Each of us have a glass in front of us. Melody has taken the time to pour us each about, say about an ounce. And these tonight are single barrel craft bourbons. All bourbons. Yes. All bourbons. All bourbons. Yes, me too. So these are all going to be single barrel craft bourbons. Some of them may be store picks. Some of these may be otherwise picked separately as a single barrel. But they certainly originate from a single barrel of whiskey. This one's got a nice kind of a Amber hue to it. A little on the dark side. Like a honey. A honey, dark honey, amber honey.

Yeah.

It's nice for vanilla notes. Yeah.

Yeah, really strong vanilla nose.

and I'm getting a little bit of heat on the nose. I'm going to say it's probably north of 105, maybe 110.

Off the nose, that's impressive. I don't know. It's only a guess, right? I can't proof well with my nose.

I tend to proof pretty good with my palate. Yeah, it's probably true because some whiskies in the 90s can come off a little hot on the nose, and you can't very well guess. I say it would be typical for something in the 105 to 110 range, but I could be fooled.

Yeah, this is like a vanilla cupcake.

Yeah. It's very, it's almost got a cream sweetness to it too. Like a vanilla cream. Yeah, I like that. Really nice.

Almost gets some kind of a little spice to it. It's vanilla, but almost a little, I don't know if I want to say it's clove or something. There's a little something besides vanilla that I can't, I can't quite place it.

There's a little spice there. I'm ready to taste it though. Same. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, that's satiny smooth. Very creamy. The oak showing up. Yup. Turns a little bit more spicy on the palate.

Yeah. A little more darker notes, like dark fruit. Some really rich caramel.

Yeah, I'd say the vanilla has sort of stepped back just a little bit. The caramel's coming forward and there's a little more spice on it. That's really nice. The nose and the palette aren't, you know, one in the same. They're kind of surprised a little bit by the palette, but it's a good palette.

Yeah, which is fun. I mean, I've had some single barrels where the nose and the palate kind of stayed true to form. And this one's, yeah, this one, the nose is a little... different than the palate. It's really nice. It's chewy.

Yeah, it is. It really is. You know, sometimes you hear people talk about whiskies that differ in the nose and the palate. They call them like Jekyll and Hyde or Frankenstein or Roller Coaster. But this is a nice transition, I think.

It's really good. I like that. Yeah, Roller Coaster makes for an exciting ride. It does. It does. It's not boring.

No, I've gotten up in that age where a roller coaster kinda hurts me now. I don't ride them anymore to be honest with you.

I did a stint at Six Flags with my granddaughter and she's a roller coaster fanatic. She must have been about 10 years old and she wanted to hit them all. And I think after that I was done. That was just it for me. I loved them as a kid. And you couldn't keep me off them, but I don't know, some changes. We get older, we get wiser, maybe that's what it is. Yeah, I think it's the wisdom.

Either that or on the internet, now you can see too many things gone wrong, you know?

I just think, yeah, I don't know. Your body's just not used to that speed and jostling.

Does this bourbon remind you guys of any particular distillery? Now, if it's your distillery, keep your mouth shut. But does this remind you of any particular distillery? I get a wilderness trail vibe, maybe. I would tend to agree with you except for that, sort of that note I think you're hitting on there that I can't put my finger on either. It's something else going on there that's, it's almost like a fennel or something, I don't know.

Maybe whiskey thief?

I just know AMSE pretty well. Or it almost even makes me think of a, and it could be a little bit of vanilla in there as well. like a sarsaparilla or something, almost like a little root beer note that I think I picked up on the nose too. And then some of that comes through with a little of the vanilla on the palate too. That's really good. Yeah.

I like it a lot. It's going to be a good night.

It's going to be a good night.

It's kind of unique for me. I don't think I've had this combination ever before. So I don't feel like I've had this whiskey. I'm always, I can get surprised though. Right, right. So are there some distilleries this year, guys, that have surprised you, that have done some things that you feel like really set them apart in 2023? Craft distilleries.

You know, I'll mention one that I think I tried for the first time. My wife and I went up to Indianapolis. We were up there for something else, but Big Red Liquors in Indiana has an event every year at the state fairgrounds. I think the cost of your admission tickets donated to charity, and then they have a raffle for the chance to buy the allocated bottles. I stopped at, I think it was called 18th Street Distillery up in maybe Hammond, Indiana up towards Gary, that region not far from Chicago.

Yeah.

And they had a single barrel of their malt whiskey that I thought was just phenomenal. Absolutely amazing. So that was one that really stood out to me. I hadn't had their stuff before, but that was a fine malt whiskey. Yeah. What you thought?

You know, Get a lot of craft stuff. I'm in a couple of Patreon groups, Mashing Journeys Patreon groups. So they're always getting a lot of craft expressions. So like Driftless Glen out of Wisconsin has really, really, really wilded me. One of those, both their rye picks and their bourbon picks have just been fantastic. Heart Truth, it's just... I got to do a barrel pick there myself and that was a great experience. If you've done a barrel pick, depending on the number of barrels you get to try, there's usually an outlier or a couple of outliers that are just really good. And there, we actually only tried three, but I mean, it was, all three were just phenomenal and just, just outstanding. Just, and they just different. It had their rye, you know, mash bill, but they do like some different cuts on their barrel. Like the one we had up choosing is like a spiral cut and just gives different flavors. And it's really, really amazing.

Yeah, I have to second you on Heart Truth. I think that's a place that kind of just happened, right? I mean, it just happened. They were a beer brewery, right? Right. A pizza place and a beer brewery, and it just sort of happened that they started a distillery. It wasn't their initial plan, but today they have one of the largest craft distilleries in the country now. And I think, if I'm not wrong, probably the highest-grossing touring distillery in the country, a bourbon or rye whiskey distillery. I think some of the moonshine distilleries probably outpace them a bit. But they said they had 500,000 visitors last year. That's amazing.

It's a beautiful place.

Yeah, it's gorgeous. Highly recommend if you're in that area. a little off the beaten path, but it's just really, really neat. And the tours are fantastic. And it's a good group of guys and gals that are working there, too, that seem to love it.

The tours are kind of out of the box, aren't they?

Yeah. I mean, we did the barrel pick and got to ride in a four-wheeler on some rough terrain. And it was just very unique. The get-loss tour, I think they call it.

Yeah, very unique, very unique. But it's a lot of fun. Especially considering the age of their rye whiskey, How is it so good?

You know, I wish I knew their secret, but they really hit a home run with the ride. They have, I mean, I can remember. going up there, and that's a place that Melody and I have gone to, I would say, probably once a year, maybe not quite, but we try to go to once a year, since before they opened. And I can remember us going into the pizza place and seeing the hard truth rye up on the shelf. And I said, oh, what's that? And the guy said, oh, that's our rye whiskey. I said, I'll take a pour of it. He poured it. I immediately thought, how is this possible? This is a five-year riot. No, it is. It wasn't. It was like two years old. And that's when I just knew something right was being done there.

Absolutely amazing. Most of their rides you see are two and a half, three years. So you're like, what's this going to be like if they let it sit six, seven, eight? I mean, ooh. Yeah, I don't know.

But it's going to change around seven or eight. I know it's going to change.

It's going to become this candy nightmare.

It's just going to be beautiful. All right, guys. Last few comments on this before we move on. What do you think? Do you think this is a high ride mash bill? Do you think this is a weeded mash bill? Do you think it's over 110 proof? I'm just trying to stir some conversation or some guessing.

I'll say another thing on the finish. I haven't had a drink in a while. And I've even had some water in that the vanilla actually, I think, is there on the finish for a while.

I just got to clean my palate and took a sip. And now the vanilla is popping a little more. It's kind of interesting. I'm going to go, pardon me if I want to say a high rye, I'll stick with it, higher rye. It's got a little bit of spice.

I think it's a rye bourbon. I don't know how much rye is in it, but I think it's a rye bourbon. I don't think it's a weeded bourbon. It's not soft enough up front for me. It does have that really nice, whatever that note is, it's a spicy note, but it's kind of a little unique note. I think that's kind of a trigger for me. I like it a lot. It is different. I honestly can't guess who it is in my own mind.

It's become very hard to do with so many distilleries and NDPs out there anymore.

Yeah, there's a few that I think I've said on the shows in the past. There's a few I can nail real quick. Like, will it, right? That's easy. Anybody can do that. I think Barton, really. Barton's another one. Barton, usually. Dickle. Dickle. Dickle's easy.

Dickle's quick.

I think in the last show I said I could do that with my hands tied behind my back. But that really matters, right?

Jack Daniels, I would say, also. It's got that kind of banana runt kind of vibe.

But all right. Everybody got the scores in their head. Kind of know where we are. That was good. All right. Was it, was it, was it for me, it was a medium to long kind of medium finish. Yeah. I would say medium. Yeah. All right. We'll move on to B. This was just a hair darker.

Yeah. A little bit. And that was just fun.

Yeah. Very interesting. Yeah. On that one.

Candy. Yep. It is candy like. Almost like butterscotch. I was going to say caramel fudge.

It is kind of butterscotch-y, but it also has like a little, a little bit of like those, remember those little hard candy root beer? They look like a barrel.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's kind of got just a hint of that in it too. I don't know. Even like a buttered rum.

Oh, that's actually, that's actually closer I think. Yeah. Like a buttered rum.

It's not worthers, but you talked about that hard candy. It's like the little yellow butterscotch candies that were in the, you know, just the plain see-through yellow wrapper that my grandmother used to like, there'd be like a bowl of them.

Yeah, this is a, this is a really nice nose. I like it a lot. It's fun. It's almost, it's almost got a salt, a little bit of salt to it. A little bit of a, like a salty caramel. Salty caramel. Yep. All that on the nose. How about that? Not as much ethanol in the nose on this one though.

Had two very interesting noses in a row on these two. Yeah.

Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. That's sweet. Yeah.

And it's right on the side of the tongue. Right. Go in for a second zip.

I feel like this is one where the nose and the palate kind of match. At least for me, it really carries through. Yeah, I think they do.

It's funny how some whiskeys that you drink really, really, um, settle on the sides of your tongue. That's gotta be something that you could describe scientifically, but I don't know what it is. Get those glands going.

Rich caramel there. Am I getting like chocolate?

Yep. Yep. Actually, as I nosed it again, I was getting ready to say that.

Yeah, this one has more of a deep character to it. I think it's a richer flavor. The other one had that unique note that we were getting from it. And it was kind of different on the nose and the palate. This one kind of, like you said, matches kind of the nose kind of transitions into the palate really nicely.

Now I will say the nose belies the proof. Yes. It's got some pop to it.

Yeah.

I think the palette reveals that.

So this is one of those ones where you can't nose it and say, I know what that proof is. Right. It'd be totally wrong. I would have probably guessed this one by nose. Probably guessed it in the 90s, maybe. High 90s. What's a fun pour? We've got a couple of really good single barrels here so far.

I expected nothing less.

This is awesome. There's a lot of great stuff out there.

It's really like a dark chocolate too. Um, can't wait to find out what this one is.

Yeah. I'm kind of excited to find out myself. So is there a particular single barrel that you didn't bring tonight that would be your second choice?

It's like asking me my favorite pizza. I like them all. I've got to think about that one. Okay.

Well, I brought you and Brian a little something extra to enjoy at your leisure, if you will. So I talked about that hard truth barrel pick. So that's it. Awesome.

Spoilers, but I'd like to see what you think of it. Has this been a wry show? Maybe you'd have brought that one.

You know, since it was kind of wide open, I thought about it, but.

And it was wide open because I asked you, I said, you want to narrow this thing down? Maybe go with, you know, a certain proof range. You're like, let's keep it open. But yeah, I brought something pretty unique. Yeah.

Awesome.

I'll just say that. I guess I would say some Spirits of French Lick picks, especially something they've been releasing more here lately, which is the Hindostan Falls. I love that. The Amanda Palmer heirloom corn. I love the note that it brings out. Frankfurt Bourbon Society, we do kind of an advent sampler every year and we do multiple groups usually. We have enough interest and I try and buy most of those groups and try through them. And one of the bottles was a bottle that I had actually donated and it was an Iron Root Republic. not necessarily a single barrel pick, but it was one that on the back, it tells you which barrel it was from. So it's kind of their own single barrel. And the interesting thing is if you ever go down there and talk to like Robert Licrish or one of them, like I could probably send him the back of that and he would say, oh, that's barrel, whatever. And tell me which heirloom corn was used in that. But I donated that one. And then as my wife and I were tasting through, we're like, man, this is really good. And I kind of regretted, throwing that bottle in the sampler. So I think they do some really interesting stuff.

Yeah. I've had a number of bottles that I hated to see go away. Certainly, our pick this year from Bourbon on the Banks from Lawrenceburg Bourbon Company, I loved it. I thought it was great. I wish I had it. I might have brought it tonight, but that might have been a giveaway. I don't think I should have done that. Nevertheless, that was a great bottle. I hate to see them go. That's one nature of single barrels is that when they're gone, that's it. They're gone. And I think all three of these, we'll probably savor them and we'll pick a winner. But then at some point in the very near future, you won't be able to get them anymore. Right.

Now, I think I've done like seven single barrel picks in my bourbon career, I guess. And the only one I'm missing is a Buffalo Trace pick that I did, but I do have like one bottle of at least each pick that I was on. And I thought maybe, you know, that's something my kids can enjoy later on. So, you know, they'll be Dusty's by then. So there's like a Yellowstone, a couple old elk, a Knob Creek, The hard truth, of course, a Down Home, which they bottle their stuff out here at Whiskey Thief. So, he's an NDP and sources a lot of different stuff. It was a very unique single barrel that I helped. I kind of like pre-picked for Mash and Journey. So, and then I sent them samples and then it was oddly enough since we three were the only ones that tried it, we all picked the same barrel. So.

Now you guys have quite the barrel collection stored up for future picks within your group. And those will all end up being single barrels, right? For the most part. or small batches.

Yeah. So you're talking about the stuff at whiskey thief. Yeah. Yeah. So we, um, for five years now, probably February, March will be six years for us. We have worked with Whiskey Thief Distillery here in Frankfurt and have developed a proprietary mash bill each year. It's different and have them distill that for us. We actually do two mash bills every year. And so we really swing for the fences. We take some chances. Some are very unique mash bills. We also use heirloom grains. We use caramel malts, we use strange yeasts. Fun. So hopefully here in a few years we have good whiskey and not bad whiskey.

You've got some barrels in the six-year-old range?

Five, we just hit five years. Getting close. Yeah, and so I think we've got 24 barrels aging, full 53 gallon barrels right now.

And what was the ride, the bourbon breakdown, do you remember?

I don't.

I know it's heavier on the bourbon side. We've got a weeder, a couple of weeder, and typically we'll take those two barrels of that one distillate and we'll put one in a two-char and one in a four-char. still going to be a little different. And actually, we just got together recently out there and sampled some of our, sampled some of them. We got a George Washington rye knockoff.

Oh, wow.

Really, I guess that's about two years. We've got to, you know, we had to do a 95-5.

That's fantastic. So you're still laying down more barrels. So your plan is to continue to lay down barrels. Yeah.

Yeah. And then, you know, so what we may do is when those come of age, We'll probably try the two-char and the four-char separately. We'll try them blended. Maybe we like the blend better. Maybe we like the two-char, not the four, and let it sit a few more years. We kind of have some time to think there. This year, we are going to do another rye whiskey. This will be our third rye whiskey. Our members are Huge rye fans. I love rye, so I try and give it as many of those.

So that's why we distill it, because we love it.

So our grain, the heirloom grains we've been getting come from a farmer in Pennsylvania. Robert McDonald is his name, Dancing Star Farms, and he also grows rose and rye. Rose and rye is one of those heirloom varieties that was nearly lost. A woman named Laura Petruzzio resurrected it and he grows it. He did let me know this year there was extra, but she controls it. I talked to her. She has agreed to let us have some Rosen rye this year. They will only ship it ground out of Pennsylvania, so we can't plant it. So I'm really looking forward to doing a Rosen rye whiskey.

Well, fantastic. You got to watch it. You're going to end up with more than a barrel per member if you're not careful.

That's a good goal, I think, so yeah. I'm kind of like, I don't have a problem with that, I don't think.

All right, well, on this whiskey, do you guys kind of have your scores in your head, or what about the finish? Sits there quite a while, but I think a lot of that's the proof.

It's a warm pour. But it lingers quite a while.

Yeah, I'm still going to go back to your comment on salted caramel. I think it does have that salted caramel note to it. After a drink of water and coming back to it, it just reinforces that.

So, pretty cool stuff. Fun pour. Awesome.

All right. We've had A and B. We've got our scores kind of in our heads. All right, folks. Don't go away. This is the episode where we announce this year's Kraft Bourbon of the Year. So, we definitely want to announce that in the second half. So, don't tune out now. We're going to take a short break when we come back. We've got one more pour for the challenge. And then we'll chitchat a bit more. Looking for a unique gift? Blanton's bourbon shop has got you covered. All of their hand-crafted 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'sBourbonShop.com is your home for all Blanton's gifts. If you're a bourbon drinker, and I bet you are if you're listening to this podcast, you need to head over to pintsandbarrels.com and check out the ultimate online store for bourbon lovers. Pints and Barrels Company was started by bourbon lovers for bourbon lovers. From spices to t-shirts, you'll find the perfect bourbon gift. Pints and Barrels proudly supports the bourbon road and invites you to visit pintsandbarrels.com. You need a custom apparel or swag for your bar, distillery, maybe even your bourbon society. They can do that too. As a matter of fact, they print our apparel. We're so happy with the quality and fast turnaround. Pitesandbarrels.com, the ultimate bourbon lovers gift shop and branding specialist. All right, listeners, so we are back. We had a chance during the half to chit chat a bit and talk about bottles A and B, which we tasted in the first half. Both of them, I think, were great examples of single barrels. They each had their own traits that set them apart from the other. We'll give away anything at this point about what we think, but I'm happy to say that both of them were fine whiskies. What do you think, guys?

Yeah, I'd agree. Yeah.

All right. So, uh, Melody has graciously brought out a glass that contains bottle C in it. And, uh, so this is what we're going to have during the second half. Remember folks, like I told you, heading out of the first half, we're going to announce our craft bourbon of the year tonight. So stick around for that. Uh, but let's check out this, uh, bottle C. Again, this one's a dark, like probably B a little bit. I think A was the lighter of the three, maybe.

It might actually fit in right between A and B. Yeah. Like color-wise.

I agree. My glasses are empty. My goodness, you guys are being so good.

May have to have like a final taste off though. Yeah, that's what I did. Yeah. In case I need to do a final side by side. This time I'm getting a little citrus.

Anyone? Yeah. I think this one is a little bit brighter. Brighter. Yeah.

Yep. Like orange, orange peel. I was going to go really fancy and say bergamot. What is that? Whoa. Oh my goodness. I've seen that in candles. What's that mean? What is bergamot? I think it's an Italian citrus. Yeah, I thought. And there is a, A newer, I don't know, it's not even a liqueur. I've lost the name of it. It's Italian, but it's a bergamot liqueur. And it actually, it really made me think of that. So, but I think it's some sort of Italian or Sicilian citrus or something like that. I could be completely wrong.

I was going to say as a, I'm a master gardener. Shocking. But I thought bergamot was, isn't that related to like b-bomb? I don't know. The plant? The flower? All these words. No, that's monarda. Never mind. All these words.

I have no idea what you guys are talking about.

He's like, hush nerds. If you ask my wife, I just make up things and act like I know what I'm talking about. But when I get questioned, things really fall apart for me.

Yeah.

This is really bright. Yeah, it's got a nice nose to it. And it has like a super faint, almost not there cinnamon roll to it. Look at that, yeah. Like in the background. Maybe that's bergamot. I don't know. I wouldn't know. But again, very different from the other two. But the nose is a little bit lighter. It's brighter.

I'll tell you what, with the cinnamon or cinnamon roll you said, it is cinnamon roll because I was trying to figure out this sugary thing that I smelled and it would be the icing on. So it's really, it's the whole cinnamon roll picture there, I think.

We're going Pillsbury on that? Yeah, when you start to- Cinnabon. Cinnabon.

Cinnabon, okay. Yeah, maybe. Cinnabon's definitely a very characteristic smell that you can almost name.

Actually, you talked about Andy's, our local bakery. There's a lot of citrus. I get a lot of citrus when I eat his croissants and things. I'm sure it's something he adds. Cheers, bro. Cheers. I'm excited about this one. It's inviting.

That one, I get it on the palate. Wow. Buttery. Oh, that's fun. This one is very unique. Nose and the palate align very nicely. It's almost like an extension and amplification of the nose. I like that a lot. But it is kind of buttery, and I'm going to say cinnamon roll-y, maybe. I think that's it.

It's like the buttercream frosting is there, too, with the cinnamon roll.

That citrus is still lingering, too, nicely on the finish. That complex.

I mean, it's definitely complex, because those are very polar kind of things, right? One's very sweet and savory kind of, and the other's bright and citrusy.

Gotta be honest, three great pours. Yeah. I mean. Really good.

All unique. I would not be disappointed if I purchased any of these bottles. Yeah. Same here.

See, I was thinking, my next question was going to be, where did you guys purchase your tube? Because I know where mine came from. So I'm like, are there any left?

So if we, all three of us, if we named where we got them, that wouldn't give them away, right?

You mean, oh, no. Yeah. Cause it was like a group that mine's from. It was a group.

Okay. And yours was? Mine, a friend picked up after he had sent me a pour. Okay. So we're trying to figure out if we can still get them or not.

I'm pretty sure mine would be a no. Okay. Yeah. Mine's sold out as well. Mine's on the shelf at Party Source. So just saying.

Road trip. Mine was a single barrel pick for a group called the Single Barrel Project.

When was the last time you guys were at Party Source?

It's been a minute.

Yeah, long time for me.

If I go looking, it's usually at a liquor barn or I'll hit a total wine. Yeah. I don't get up to Louisville. And actually, I'll go to Evergreen if I go to Louisville.

Yeah. So Party Source is in Newport, right on the river. Oh, that's right. Right next door. Actually, they share a parking lot with New Riff. That's right.

I forgot.

I was thinking, isn't there a Party Source on Louisville, too? There probably is. Party Source is a very common name. And I think there probably is. I think it's up on. It's up. Waterson and 42, maybe, right up there. I think there used to be one up there called the Party Source.

I think Liquor Barn owns it.

This is the party source in Newport, Kentucky that shares a parking lot with New Rift Distillery, right across from Cincinnati, across the Ohio River. Their claim to fame is the largest liquor store in the United States. Yes.

Funny enough, I just blanked when you said that because I was at a conference in September. And then on my way home, I made sure to swing by there and see. It's a great place. Yeah, it's really neat.

The Wall of Bourbon is just phenomenal.

And they have some nice single barrels. I'm trying to think what I'd grab from there. But yeah.

Yeah, I was actually selecting a bottle for this show. And because I wanted to bring a bottle that hadn't been opened yet, just thought, hey, I'm going to bring a bottle that hasn't been opened yet. And it was hard to choose because they had so many single barrels there. They're kind of like both Liquor Barn and Total Wine. I mean, they do a lot of picks, right? A lot of single barrel picks. So a lot to choose from.

I do miss the Braxton Lab that used to be attached to that, that had the brewery that was attached in the back.

Isn't it still there? The sign's still there.

I saw the sign.

Yeah, that was fun. Oh, that's a shame. In fact, when Mellie and I were driving around the building, we saw the Braxton Lab sign. I was like, maybe we should do that.

So it was like a brewery, liquor store, distillery. I'm like, what more do you need?

Pretty cool place. This is an exceptional bourbon in my mind. This is something that checks all the boxes for me. The finish on it is eluding me though. I mean, it's there, but it's still hanging on the mid palette for me. Yes.

I'm definitely glad I have a little bit more of the first two pours because yeah, we're going to go, I'm going to have to do all three again.

You know, and another thing is, is that first bottle, A, was my first bourbon of the day. Likewise, for you guys too?

No, actually when I got here to warm my palate up, I had probably a quarter of an ounce.

Smart man. Yep. For those listening, it's what you want to do, right? You don't want that first pour to be in your tasting, right?

You know, I was thinking like, so I've been on some barrel picks as well and, um, I almost hate it when that first one I try is one of my favorites, because I'm like, is it because it's the first thing I've had?

I think that I get kind of a bitter note typically off the first one. It's a little more bitter and it has a little more bite to it for me.

After coming off C, I didn't cleanse my palate. But wow, the vanilla just like, a vanilla bomb on that initial, like that, going back to it. And that's what's really, that's also, that's why I kind of saved. Cause like, it's amazing when you have like, you know, like we said, these are all three very different. You've got bright kind of chocolate caramel, the vanilla. So like when you go back and then revisit, it's a, it's a new ball game a little bit. So I'm getting ready to try B again.

So Jim, if you actually want more, I think I've got, I brought my entire bottle. I don't know if Todd's got more of his.

That's okay. I think, I think I can go at least go back on the nose and that'll bring back my memory of the tasting. Wow. Three was amazing too. So one, A, B and C, one, two and three, all great bottles.

Now the chocolate shining on B for me. So it's like vanilla chocolate, like really pronounced. So I'm guessing the citrus is just going to be like, that citrus really popped for you, didn't it? Yeah.

Oh, you know, something else I want to, I thought about when Todd was talking earlier and mentioned the Down Home pick that he did. And something that surprised me, Walter Zausch, the owner out at Whiskey Thief, gave the Frankfurt Bourbon Society a bottle and it was a bottle of Down Home that he had picked for their gift shop. And, It was actually sourced from MGP. It was a wheat whiskey that they had finished in a toasted barrel. Yeah. But a 95-5, 95 wheat, 5% malt. And that was a really good whiskey. So I haven't had that many wheat whiskies, you know, other than like bar time. Especially toasted. Yeah.

It was really unique. Yeah, that's really cool. Yeah. We did a wheat whiskey show. Yeah, just recently. Yeah, just recently, a couple months ago or so. It's amazing that, uh, and there's a lot more of them out there that we didn't get to put in the mix while we were tasting through wheat whiskeys.

But yeah, you guys did the Bernheim and now they've, they're starting to do a barrel proof. They're doing a barrel proof now.

So I wanted to have the laws on the show. The laws, uh, wheat whiskey, but we didn't have that available, but, and I didn't have time to reach out or I could have reached out to him and said, Hey, we'd really like to have your wheat whiskey on the show. But. things are really mixing up a little bit. I mean, American single malts are starting to come out of the woodwork, like a lot. With the TTB paying really close attention to that particular group and getting ready to really open the floodgates on American single malts, I think it's all the distilleries are playing with it right now because they know that's a huge space, right? Because even though bourbon is extremely popular in the US, it's still felt pales to what Scotch whiskey sales are, right? And it's just that way. And the way that American whiskeys can chip away at Scotch whiskey sales is with the American single malls. So that's a huge space for them and they obviously want to be in that space. I've tasted some American single malts in the last six months that are just phenomenal. Agreed. I have too. You have too. Yeah.

Well, up at the thing in Indianapolis, we had that 18th Street and then we went to the booth for St. George spirits out of California and they had a single malt there. I don't remember which one and what it was called. We really liked it. And then actually also they had a whiskey called B&E, which I have seen in liquor stores for years and toward marketing is important. The label just looks so ridiculous that I've always been like that has to be garbage, but it was actually very good. And I think it was a blend of maybe a malt whiskey and a bourbon or something like that. And I really liked it.

Wow. Fantastic. Yeah, it's going to open up a lot of opportunities with American Single Malts. I mean, there are a lot of them out there now. I mean, there's some real players in that game, right? I mean, obviously some of the Texas distilleries are killing it. They have been killing it for a while with American Single Malts.

Cedar Ridge out of Iowa.

Cedar Ridge out of Iowa. They've got some stuff, and they loaded me up when I left there. So I've got some great stuff we're going to have on the show.

Westland, that's another one I've had.

Westland, yep, absolutely.

Old line out of Pennsylvania.

Yeah, just some great opportunities out there and some people really blazing the trail, which is cool. I love it. I just love this whiskey business.

It's so exciting.

All right, guys. Well, have you got your notes? Are you sort of set in your, or do you need to think on it just a little bit more? I think I'm good. Are you? So you're gonna pick your top, middle, and bottom choice. So this would be like, for example, we got three whiskeys, A, B, and C. You're gonna say C, B, and A are your choices, for example. All right, while you're thinking about it, I do wanna announce this year's Bourbon Road Craft Bourbon of the Year. And, uh, if you have been listening to our shows and you get to hear Jim's excitement when he drinks a particular whiskey, you know, this is probably three or four whiskies that really got me, uh, going big time during the show. But, uh, you know, the one that we chose this year, the one that was kind of over the top, far and above the others was from 13th Colony. And it was the 13th Colony Double Oat. But guys, I'm sorry to say in the past, we've always tried to make it whiskeys that you can get. Unfortunately, this time it's not going to be a whiskey you can put your hands on, but you can sit by and wait for their next release of a Double Oat. It was a 10-year-old straight bourbon whiskey out of a Georgia distillery called 13th Colony, America's Georgia, actually, which is really darn close to Plains, Georgia, which is where Jimmy Carter's from. And it was just a phenomenal whiskey that blew us away.

And I guess it wasn't just us, right, Todd? Yes, I got lucky enough to, since I know what it is now, and I got to try it. Wow, it's just complex. Every time you go back and sip it, you get something new. It's just rich. It's dark, sweet oak. Yeah, it was It was something special for sure.

And there's a lot of great palates out there and people that know what they're doing. And we weren't the only ones to say that this was kind of whiskey of the year for us or bourbon of the year for us. But it did gain popularity really fast. I think they only had around 3,500 bottles. This is the tenure that we received. Anyhow, they did send it to us. We did get to review it on the show. Go back a few episodes, guys. You can find that particular episode where we drank through that. I think you'll be surprised. That's our bourbon of the year. It's a great craft distillery. Georgia really did good on the bourbon road this year between the ASW Distillery and 13th Colony and Legends Distillery.

Speaking of single malts, ASW.

Yeah. Fantastic. Really good. Their Georgia Heartwood bourbon at ASW is just, I love it. It's fun. It's a core whiskey for me.

I'd like to always have it on my bar.

So yeah, for those of you who are looking for whiskeys and bourbons from other states, there's a lot of them out there. Indiana, Colorado, Washington state, Georgia, Alabama. There's even some Florida whiskies now, some great ones. So reach out and figure it out and find some places out there that are putting out some good stuff. Georgia just seems to be hot this year for me, but we're ready.

You could almost cue the Ray Charles song.

It is time to score them and see where we are in a B and C. So I'll start with you.

I think I would say B a C.

Me up. I actually I really like C and then I'm going to CBA. So yeah, I'm going to go see.

AB. What have we got?

So I said BAC, you said said CBA. A CAB. See a.

So if you give first place three points. So one, two, three.

So three, two, one.

All right, guys. So yeah, so we did some crazy math here. And there's no tie. So Melody, you. you don't get to break the tie, but who was your pick? B? B was your pick. So Melody's pick was B. Nice. All right. And so for the total, who did we get?

So C, right, was first. B was second. A was third.

All right, for C. So let's look at A was third. So what was A?

OK, A was mine. A was a wilderness trail like Todd. Good, good job, Todd. Todd kills me on this. I know the time like he's very good at picking out the distillery. Yeah, it is there. Practice makes perfect. Traditional rye recipe bourbon. I think you want to grab the little hand bag in the corner over there. I think it's 111 proof. Yeah, 111.28 proof, five years, one month old. Okay, so that's third place.

And awesome, fantastic.

Yeah. So sometimes the reason I picked this one is sometimes at Wilderness Trail on single barrels, you get that crazy vanilla note. I don't know what it is. They don't all have it, but that's why I threw this one in there.

And it had it in spades, right? I mean, this was definitely a very vanilla forward pick. Yeah. It was a great whiskey. Fantastic. All right.

So I think that vanilla is what kind of triggered me because the bourbon on the banks pick from two years ago was like vanilla. Yeah.

You know, and the interesting thing on that one- Wedding cake or something. It was really- Was that pick from Bourbon on the Banks was a blend of a weeded bourbon and a traditional rye recipe bourbon. And it was the weeded bourbon component of that, that had the vanilla note. So it's something you'll see across all three of their mashmills. So I don't know if it's the barrel, if it's, I mean, this is FP1 yeast, Firm Pro 1 yeast. It's got to be the barrel, the aging somewhere. I don't know where they get that vanilla. All right.

So third place was a Wilderness Trail bourbon single barrel pick from Wilderness Trail. Congratulations, Amzie for third place. Congrats. Awesome. I beat you. I'm glad. I'm bringing something with bergamot next year. All right. So second place was which bottle? That was mine, I believe. And it was what? Todd's. Oh my goodness, Todd. And which was this? A, B or C? This was B. B.

And a very similar bottle shape, if you'll look. And that was a Devil's River.

The Devil's River. That was a fantastic whiskey.

Really neat. It was really good. And it's actually, you know, sometimes they'll let you, uh, You know, dub it a name and it's called caramel fudge.

Yeah. It was all about the caramel, wasn't it? Yeah. It was really good. So we had a really big vanilla whiskey in, uh, in third place. We had a really big caramel whiskey in second place. And this is going to be, you guys are going to be really surprised at this. I've never won one of these things, by the way.

This is awesome. I'd like to say we let you win, so you'll invite us back on. Is that what it was? It was really good.

And it's Kraft as well?

Oh, it's Kraft. Yeah.

I'm excited about this.

Yeah. So let's get the big reveal.

Traverse City. Traverse City whiskey.

This is their barrel proof single barrel pick. It's a six year old bourbon out of Traverse City. Now Traverse City does contract distilled with MGP. So this is actually an Indiana distilled whiskey, but it is theirs. There is some craft in this. And, uh, you know, one of the reasons, like I told you, when I was at, um, party source in Newport and trying to pick out a single barrel, there were a number to choose from and I could have gone a lot of different directions, but we were on vacation this year in Puttacana and we had it, we've recorded an episode there and we put it out on the website of the resort that we're going to host an episode, right? There were roadies staying there. It was unreal. That's crazy. It was really cool. And they brought whiskies with them on the trip. They packed them so that they could come there and be on the episode. And one of the people, actually it was a couple from Michigan. They were from the Traverse City area. brought a whiskey in, and it was really cool that they were able to show up and be on that show in a resort in Punta Cana, a million miles from nowhere. Yeah. And we did an episode there. So when I saw that whiskey, I said, let's do it. And it's a six-year-old barrel-proof whiskey. It is a Party Source pick. So hats off to the crew there at Party Source that did the pick. I'm looking at the back label. Wow, short barrel, 90 bottles. Yeah, it was a short barrel. Yeah. Traverse city whiskey company barrel proof, no barrel number guys.

So I don't think we talked about the proof. So 57.8 is what, uh, one 15.6. Um, my devil's river was one 23 exactly 111.28 on the water.

I say one five to one 10. Yeah. Yeah.

I was close on it. That was on the nose though. Yeah. Hey, that's not too bad on the nose.

Well, this has been a lot of fun and my goodness, I have never won this in five years. I've never won this, so I'm pretty pleased. And I certainly didn't buy this bottle with the expectation to win. I was sure Todd, and Namzy, nothing against you, but I was pretty sure Todd was going to walk away with this. Todd pulls out some crazy stuff. He does.

No, I did vote yours first. So I helped your cause. I mean, I knew what mine was, but I really liked, C was, it hit my, like, I just really liked it. It's,

I'm kind of sad I didn't pick out that it had a little MGP, because yeah. Are you able to pick that out usually? Sometimes.

It's kind of like a ginger snap citrusy thing, but I didn't really get the ginger I get sometimes. I mean, they've got a few different mash bills, so I'm not sure what that particular mash bill is.

I thought that was MGP. Did you? I did. Did you? And so to me, it is a- Maybe it was their own stuff that kind of- wonderful bourbon that really hits all the bourbon notes and it tells you it's a bourbon on the nose, on the palate. And I don't know, I probably leaned a little towards A and B just because they were very off profile sort of, very unique and different. But that is, C is the poster child for a bourbon.

Yeah. And then, you know, these things are very subjective to your profile. Like if you like a particular type of whiskey, you're going to lean towards that when you're voting. Well, yeah, I think, you know, a lot of times the more people you have in the tasting that are voting, the more chance you have for like a good average vote with three people. We just got to take what we get.

And MGP makes very good whiskey. They do.

They have always made really good whiskey. They have a very long history of making great whiskey. I think we've gotten to the point as urban drinkers, connoisseurs of the craft, that we're well beyond judging people whether they're an NDP or an actual producer. Well, congratulations to Traverse City for taking this one home. They definitely went up against a couple of legends in the business. Devil's River has been putting out some great stuff and have gotten my attention in the past, and Wilderness Trail has always had my attention. They're fantastic. Gentlemen, it's been a fun. It's been a blast. Great. It's a lot of fun. We're sitting in that saddle right now between Christmas and New Year. Hope you had a great Christmas.

Survived.

You got the young ones at home. Still looks like a tornado kind of went through the house. We managed to get cleaned up, but we haven't put everything back to normal. We've got New Year's coming up. Any plans?

You know, I used to be a big New Year's person, but now with the kids and you stay home, probably have a few nice pours and bring it in with the family.

We've kind of been talking about what to do. We don't have any plans this year either, but we'll figure something out. I'm sure we've done a number of things in the past. One of the things we did was go to Jephthah Creed. They had it near, but they're not doing it this year and they just happened to be our neighbor. So. Thank you, gentlemen. It's been a wonderful time. It's always great to have you on the show. Frankfurt Bourbon Society has my heart. You guys are such a great organization and you do such good work here. Always nice to have you on. It's always a pleasure to be here. Awesome. So great. How can people find the Frankfurt Bourbon Society on social media, the internet? Is your membership open? You know, all that stuff.

Yeah, so membership is open. You can go to frankfortbourbonsociety.com and you can actually just go in there and join. Also, we are on Facebook, Frankfurt Bourbon Society. Twitter and TikTok and all those things and Instagram are a little bit too much for us. So right now, just the website and Facebook. All right, you guys have events.

pretty much every couple of weeks, once a month.

I would say we average three to four a month. Yeah. Sometimes a little fewer, but then we also have those months where we have five or six events. So we have a standing event on the first Tuesday of every month, our Tuesday night social at a local establishment here in Frankfurt. We also have our third Monday member meetup, which sometimes is an informal bottle share. Sometimes it's a cocktail class. Sometimes we have a theme to that. Blind tasting. Yeah, blind tasting sometimes. We probably do a blind tasting, I would say about quarterly. And those are a true just double blind tasting. You don't know anything about what we're trying. And then the other events are filled in with distilleries and distillers visiting.

And you got some stories coming in January and February. Correct.

Yeah. On January 15th, we, uh, we have Casey Jones distilling and then, uh, I believe it's February 9th. We have a broken barrel coming to visit.

Well, we love both those two stories. So hopefully you can get up here and check them out with you. Yeah, we hope to see you there. Yeah, awesome. Thanks, guys. All right, well, you can find the Bourbon Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, X, I guess you call it, threads. You can find us on TikTok even. And we try to do them all. But like you said, Amzie, it's hard to keep up with all of them. It really is. It's getting to be quite a load. But we hope you listen to our show every single week. On Wednesdays, we do an episode. You can count on it every single Wednesday. We release that episode and we usually have a guest on, maybe somebody like Todd Namzee. Maybe we'll have a musician on or an author. We'll have a distillery on. We get on the road every now and then. We get out there and we visit some people. We hope you'll join us every single week. In order not to miss an episode, just scroll to the top of that app you're on, hit that subscribe button, and every week you'll get a notification saying, Jim and Brian have put out another episode, and you'll get to listen to us, and hopefully we'll entertain you. If you've got some idea for a show, if you've got an idea for a bottle, if you've got an idea for a place out on the road for us to hit, make sure you let us know. Hop onto our website, TheBurbanRoad.com. hit that contact us page and let us know what you're thinking. We'd be happy to accommodate. We hope you listen to us every single week, but in the meantime, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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