378. Bourbon Playoffs - Head to Head with College Football

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 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 lovers. Hello, listeners, and welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road Podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon, and tonight it's Brian and Jim in the Bourbon Road Bar watching football. Playoff time. It is playoff time. And, and I know this episode's going to come out a couple of days after the games, but I thought it was, this is, this is going to be fun, right? Oh yeah. So this is going to be fun. Brian and I are picking opposing teams for the two games tonight, the Rose bowl and the sugar bowl. And we're actually sitting here watching the Alabama, Michigan game at the Rose bowl right now, but it's so early in the game yet. It's, it's close enough where we can say you can't pick a winner. Well, you can't be guaranteed a winner. That's right. It's, it's close. It's close. So, but we're going to drink a couple of whiskeys tonight to match the games. We're going to do both games tonight and, uh, the game that's on now, Michigan and Alabama at the Rose bowl. Brian, you chose Alabama. I did as he see. And, and you brought an Alabama whiskey. That's right. All right. So tell us a little bit about what's in our first class tonight.

So we have the flat maze straight bourbon, and this is, uh, like Jim said, an Alabama bourbon. Um, and it's, uh, five maze was a guy that was a moonshiner back in the day. And Apple Pills was kind of how I got started, or apple slices, not pills, apple slices. And just he wanted to have really clean stills. He wanted to produce amazing moonshine and moved on to whiskey. And here we are.

And here we are. And so Alabama style whiskey is an actual whiskey style, just like Tennessee whiskey or Indiana rye or Kentucky bourbon or whatever. But these are all. styles of whiskey, and Alabama has their own style, and their style kind of falls back on the apple peels added in the barrel, right? That's right. Or apple slices. Apple slices.

Apple slices, apple peels, all that.

And Clyde Mays kind of blazed the trail on that one. Well, I've had it before. It's been a minute since I did. And in fact, our liquor store here in Simpsonville did a pick of Clyde Mays and they've got a barrel proof version over there and I haven't pulled the trigger on it yet, but let's see what happens tonight.

Well, we may have to do that.

Yeah.

Cheers. Cheers.

I don't get the apple. I mean, I get a little bit of a fruity note, but I can't say that's Apple.

I really don't. I feel like I get, uh, I get more of the rye spice.

So this is, uh, this is a bourbon. Now we all know that you can't flavor bourbons and Apple peels tend to do that just a little bit. So this is, uh, this is kind of on the edge, right? It's kind of pushing the lines about what's legal or not, but. I would say this has a lot of the serious bourbon notes. It's got the caramel notes, a little bit of vanilla. Um, you can, you can get that kind of a rye, a little bit of a rye bite on it. So it's a rye bourbon, right? Do you know the mash bill by chance?

The mash bill is undisclosed.

Undisclosed. Well, a lot of people are doing that.

And it's sourced out of Indiana.

Yeah. So this is an MGP, MGP bourbon. So we can guess one of two mash bills on that anyway. But, but this is a, this is definitely a rye mash bill, rye bourbon. This is not their weeded mash bill as far as I can tell.

I don't think so.

I think it's a good drink and whiskey. It's, it's kind of a, what'd you pay for this bottle Brian?

$40. $40.

Well, I think it's this kind of a, You know, kind of a mid-level, mid-shelf bourbon. Uh, it's, it's got a nice flavor to it. It drinks good. It's kind of what's the proof? 92. 92. Kind of sessionable, right? You mean you can sit down and drink through a bottle of this with, with a friend or two.

I think so. And it's, uh, I don't think it's, you know, all that viscous or anything.

Yeah.

You know, I feel like it's a little, a little more on the watery side.

Well, I like your Alabama whiskey, but let me ask you a question. Why is Alabama going to win tonight? I understand their SEC, but.

Yeah. I mean, I just, I think that they have a good quarterback. I feel like the defense is always dependable for the most part for Alabama. They're not the Alabama that they were. four or five years ago, but that it beat Georgia and Georgia is pretty daggone good. They are.

Oh yeah. I think they peaked in September and you want to really peak in November, right? I mean, you really want to peak a little bit later in the game, but you know, schedules are everything.

Well, and I always say this, being a Kentucky fan, you know, we're kind of this stepping stone. So it seems like when you play Kentucky, you peak when you play them and you continue on. Alabama had struggled all year. went into Lexington and it was not pretty. And then they never looked back. Right.

You need that little boost, that little shot of adrenaline.

Big blue tends to give that to everybody.

Well, what we've seen in the game tonight so far between Alabama and Michigan is, is that Michigan seems to be playing, you know, part of their game and Alabama seems to be struggling a little bit. It's just happening. However. Alabama just scored again. And well, let's see. I mean, it's not looking good for Michigan at the moment. But at moments, moments can change. It can change quick. It can change really quick.

Just need one, one deep pass, one big run, fumble interception, something like that. And you can turn.

So Kentucky's a sports betting state now and we're in Kentucky. So Brian, you got some money on it at Alabama.

That's right. Yep. I took a Alabama money line. So they would have been depending on when, you know, probably plus one and a half plus two and a half, something like that. Um, so yeah, we'll, we'll see what happens.

All right. Well, I took Michigan. Actually, it's kind of a funny story. I, I, I used DraftKings and I couldn't remember my password and it was, uh, it was Michigan minus a point and a half. And I was trying to log in. I couldn't remember my password and it came up and told me I had one more try or was going to lock me out. So I went to my one password and looked it up. I was like, okay, now I know what to do. And I went back and logged in. It popped up to two and a half. So remember your passwords folks.

It can really get in the way of things.

But you know, right now it's 1713 Alabama. Uh, you know, we're in the fourth quarter. I don't know. Let's see what happens. Not a lot of yards in the second half here. I like the Clyde Bay's. I think it's a little bit different. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's got a little bit of a different flavor profile, but it's a good solid whiskey.

I feel like I do get the apple a little bit more now after a few sips.

You start to dial in that fruit. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I get it.

Well, Brian, you weren't on the last show. We had Stanton the Holder on from Pints and Barrels. We had a really good time. Great guy. He is a great guy. He's a lot of fun. And he came up to our area up here and we just had him on an episode that we'll put out here real soon, but, um, when he had him up to the area here, he had to pick up some bare wood. And so we got to spend a couple of days with him. It was a lot of fun. And, uh, we got to visit a few distilleries. And one of the things that really caught me off guard is. We went to Buffalo trace on a Thursday, right? I didn't know what the pick was going to be. There's all these sites anticipating what the pick might be, but it was just well or special reserve that day. But when we went in, they told us that the limit on Buffalo trace bourbon is a case. Oh, wow. Yeah. How about that? So if you're a fan of Buffalo trace. bourbon, you can go to the distillery now when they're, you know, when they're open in the gift shop and you can buy a case at a time. That's awesome. That is pretty awesome.

I would recommend doing that because I can't imagine that that's going to be the case for too terribly much longer, you know, maybe, maybe it will be, but. And $27 isn't bad, right? Oh my gosh. $27 a bottle. It's a great, great, great purchase. Absolutely. So I, uh, one of the things that I've been doing and I get, I think it's once a quarter, uh, they do have a barrel pick. option that comes out and it's a point system. So when you sign up, you get points and you can be entered into the drawing and they send out these really cool videos and all that good stuff. Um, but I was looking, they just released it a week and a half, two weeks ago, something like that. And I'm sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for my number to be pulled. I'm like, man, this is going to be awesome. And the bottles, I believe you can do well or foolproof, stag, and then a bunch of other ones. I'm trying to pull up the email right now. But yeah, it's a pretty cool experience. Sazerac Barrel Select is what you would go to.

Is that the website?

That is. Yeah. Wow. Cool. Yep. And so they have Blanton's, Buffalo Trace, Stag, Well or Foolproof. And then there's a couple other ones in there as well. That is pretty awesome. And I'm just really hoping one of these days they pull my number. Now. Leslie probably won't be too happy if they pull my number.

Yeah. Cause you're stuck to buy it.

Well, you're not giving you the bottle. Right. When you say, when you enter in each drawing, you're saying that you, that you're going to buy the barrel. It's not like a, do you want it or do you not want it? You're saying you do. Yeah. So you're looking anywhere from a seven to $12,000 investment. to, uh, to purchase that barrel.

But wow, that's a really, really cool barrel of what are foolproof. You're going to end up with a 200 bottles of what are full proof. Yep. Brian's pick. That's right.

I shared with Jim. So they actually, uh, they had Freddie Johnson on there, uh, doing the pick this last time. And, and that was pretty cool. And he had his nice little spin on it and everything. And, uh, but it was, it was a super cool video that they put out cause it's not a live drawing. So that's prerecorded all those types of things, but, uh, They, uh, they know what they're doing and they're doing a good job with it.

Yeah, absolutely. That's awesome. So some final notes on this, uh, Alabama whiskey here. I still don't nail the apples. I can, I can lean in on your decision there, Brian, that the fruit is an apple, but, uh, kind of, kind of, it doesn't come across as real appellee, right? So you think, yeah.

But I mean, I, more than anything I do, the, the rye spices jumped out as the first note to me. Yeah.

Yeah. It's, uh, it's subtle if anything. All right. So we're switching over now because we all know Michigan's actually going to win. So, uh, you know, I, I had a choice between two Michigan whiskies. They were both from Traverse city whiskey, and I had a choice between a barrel proof rye. and the single barrel bourbon that just was on the episode a couple of weeks ago, actually a week ago, and that actually won the blind bottle challenge. So I'm gonna have that one today because I like winning. I haven't won that in five years. That's the first time I've won the blind bottle challenge in five years. So I'm gonna play this bottle for everything it's worth. I'm bringing it in to represent, uh, Michigan today because I do believe they're going to win. Now, Brian, I know you bet big money when you go, when you play, but man, I'm, I'm sorry. I just, I've got five bucks on this. Yeah.

No. And, and I'll tell you this. I, uh, I grew up and I've loved Michigan, loved them. Yeah. And the first thing, one of the, probably the first reason why I fell in love with them was the fight song. And the fight song is awesome.

Yeah. I tell you what, I grew up in Ohio and you weren't allowed to like Michigan. You had to like Ohio State. But then I moved to Northwestern Ohio, about an hour from the Michigan border, and it's kind of like 50-50 up there.

Wow.

Yeah, it's surprising, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. You get up near Lima, Ohio, Toledo, Ohio, and it's amazing how many people defect from Ohio State.

That's so crazy. The, the thing that I love about that Ohio state, uh, Michigan rivalry is I can remember probably five or six years ago when they were getting ready to play each other, the Ohio, Ohio state players would not say Michigan. It wouldn't say the word. They would say the team up there. That, that, that is a rivalry.

Yeah. I would go visit my grandmother and I think I've said this on past episodes, but I would go visit my grandmother who lived in Columbus and if her boys were playing Ohio state, it didn't matter to the sport. It didn't matter the sport. It could be basketball or football or she didn't care. Baseball doesn't matter as long as her boys were playing. You didn't get her attention and I hadn't seen her in six months, but if I came there on a day when Ohio state was playing.

You had to wait. I had to watch game with her at least, right? That's awesome.

Yeah. But she was a big fan and, but I lived in Lima for a while and I had family members who cheered Michigan and cheered Ohio state both. So it was one of those things like, you know, Mason Dixon line, north and south. It was gonna, yeah.

Well, you see, you know, but it's different here, here in Louisville. You know, you, you have people that believe it or not, they root for both.

Yeah.

You know, they do. And, and it's, uh, You get down to Lexington, that doesn't happen, but here in Louisville, it's kind of a thing, you know, house divided.

Yep. So we're sipping on a six year single barrel, Traverse City straight bourbon whiskey, very transparent. So even though they do make their own whiskey, this particular expression is sourced from MGP. So totally honest, totally open source from NGP. I do believe it's contract distilled, uh, but I gotta, I gotta verify that, but I'm pretty sure it's a contract distilled whiskey, but, uh, this is going to be a little bit stronger than what we had before. And I liked that. So cheers. Cheers. Got a little bit more ethanol in the nose for sure.

Hmm.

That's just a full body.

And that's good.

Full blown. It's Brian, this, this whiskey is going to sack your quarterback.

I do believe it will. Absolutely. But there is such a, such a big departure from what we just had. And, uh, you know, one of the things I was going to ask you, Jim is, is how do you feel? about transparency. There's a lot of decillaries out there that don't disclose what's in the Mash Bill, and then others that print it right there on the label, they say exactly what's in it.

Well, I think it's okay to not say anything, like don't say anything, right? Print on the label what you're required to. Don't say anything and let people do a little bit of guessing. And we do that all the time, right? It happens all the time. I think that's okay. It's not okay to lead people to believe one thing and then have it be another. So that's where, you know, you read the label or you You listen to a podcast or you, or you look at some marketing information on social media or wherever it may be and you get delivered one and one bit of information and then you come to find out another that's a problem. Yep. So I always like, I don't always like full transparency. I love people to just fill their label up with all kinds of details. You know, you got to print a label. There's all kinds of space on it. Give us some deep, give us something to chew on while we're. Yeah.

Well, and if you're not going to give us the details, give us a good story. Tell us, tell us a little bit. And that's one of the things on the Clyde Mays bottle. You know, they, they have a lot of information on there and it's good information. Like it's, I like it, but they're not going to tell you much.

Yeah.

I know some people that truly believe that they don't want to buy anything if they don't know what they're buying. And they want it, they want the full transparency. I'm not really that way. I'm, I'm good.

I mean, if I've tasted something and I know it's good and the label is, don't tell me anything. In other words, it just says the legal minimum. I'm all about what's in the bottle. I really like that. And honestly, and there's going to be some listeners that disagree with me. I don't care if it comes from MGP. I like to see that the distillery has some craft involved in what they're doing, not just buying barrels and putting them in bottles. I like to think that they're selecting barrels based on some amazing capability in their palate, their ability to pick really good barrels, or they're blending small batches using the right choices of two or three barrels, or they're finishing whiskeys expertly using wine barrels or honey barrels or whatever it might be. So I like to see some craft in it. But as long as they're honest with me and they tell me what's in the bottle and where it came from, I'm fine. Yep. Even if they can't tell me where it came from, don't tell me it came from you. That's right. Yeah.

That's right. Yeah. And, and you're right. Some people, they really are turned off by the M, MGP and all those different things, but. MGP makes some amazing whiskey. Like I've always said, if you like it, drink it.

And they're turning. tens of thousands of barrels, guys. So some of them are in the bottom floor of this Rick house. Some of them are in the top floor of that Rick house. Some of them are five years. Some of them are eight years. When you go in there as a distillery to pick a barrel or you negotiate with them for a barrel that you want to pick, you're the one tasting that barrel and saying, that's representative of what I want to put out of my bottle. There's some craft in that already. There's craft in that. If you're doing some blending or some finishing, that even adds to the craft. So I'm a true believer in that. Well, it's 17-13 Alabama right now. Michigan managed to get a field goal when they should have got a touchdown, but that's all right. They're within four points. Let's see what happens. We've got 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter. But let's, let's pretend for a moment, Brian, that whiskey is football. Who's winning this game?

Well, definitely not the sec. I think that I would give the edge to Michigan. I really liked the Clyde maze. Yeah, it's good. I like it. Like for $40, man, go pick that up. Like there is no reason not to get that. Um, But yeah, this Driver City, I got to give them the nod tonight.

Yeah, it's pretty good stuff. It's pretty good. There's a good reason why it won the blind challenge the other night. It's just a good style of whiskey. I think it checks, I think Amzie hit it right when he said it checks all the bourbon boxes, right? It's balanced, but it's a true bourbon. It's got that caramel, it's got that wonderful vanilla note. There's a little bit of spice on it. It's kind of, it kind of the nose matches the palette. Just a, just a great all around whiskey. And, uh, and you know, MGP does that and, and Traverse city was able to zero in on these particular barrels for their single barrel release. You know, I'm sure these are all differing a little bit from one barrel to the next. But this particular barrel is really good.

And what's the proof on this? 115.6 I think it is.

So, uh, definitely, uh, well, I mean, I don't know if it was a fair matchup with the Clyde maze.

Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, it packs a punch and that's solid. The, uh, I will say, you know, there's Clyde maze does have some different releases out there. And there was one that I was really wanting to go pick up today and I just didn't have the time to do it. But I know that five Mays is a good brand. They put out good stuff and, uh, you know, this is, this is the, the $40 version.

All right. Well, Brian, I appreciate you going head to head with me tonight. It was a lot of fun. We don't know who's actually winning the ball game yet. That's right. We do know who won the whiskey game though. Michigan won the whiskey game.

That's right.

So somebody wins. Somebody does win. Let's see what happens at the game. We'll find out after this episode releases, but that's, that's all right. Folks stick around in the second half. We've got two more whiskies in another ball. That's right. 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. Pytesandbarrels.com, the ultimate bourbon lovers gift shop and branding specialist. All right folks. So we are back. We're, uh, we're drinking college football tonight. And, uh, in the first half, Brian had Alabama had the Alabama Clyde Mays. Yep. And I had, uh, Michigan Traverse city. I think we kind of agreed that the Traverse city kind of won the whiskey game. We're looking at the ball game now. There's a couple of minutes left in the game and, uh, it is Alabama out front. Michigan's trying like hell to, to score. They're making their move. They're making their move. We will, we will find out what happens. Well, we won't find out what happens probably until a Wednesday when everybody looks back and sees if Jim or Brian won the game. Right. That's right. All right. Well, this is the second half of the show folks. We got two new whiskies and this is, this is sugar ball.

This sugar bowl.

So we did the, we did the, because of the order of the games that were being played on new year's day was, uh, Rose bowl, then sugar bowl. We went in that order, but, uh, the, the whiskeys from this particular half come from the sugar bowl and Brian is a big, uh, I don't know if you're a Texas fan, but you chose Texas.

That's right. I'm not necessarily hook them horns, but, uh, I don't have any issue with them.

Yeah. You're not like anti hook them horns.

No, no, no, no.

All right. But, but Washington is not your team today.

Not today. All right. I do like Pennex junior, but not today.

All right. So this is going to be a great game tonight. Uh, we're in advance of that. We're drinking whiskey in our first glass here. We have some Texas whiskey.

What do we have Brian? We have TX. straight bourbon whiskey finished in sherry cask.

Oh my goodness. You brought a sherry cask finished Texas whiskey. And what's the proof on this one? The proof on this is 101.6. Okay. So we've got an above 100 proof. Some Sherry cast finished Texas whiskey. We all know that Texas whiskey kind of ages just a little bit faster than the rest of us. Got that heat. Yeah. It's got that heat, that cold at night, man. Perfect. Perfect combination. Oh yeah. All right. Well, let's check this one out. Man, this is like mahogany color. It is so dark. So dark as typical with Texas whiskeys, you usually get this, this deep wood mahogany, right? I mean, it's always a darker whiskey. It definitely picks up those, uh, those char colors from the, from the barrel.

Wow. That is all Sherry on the nose.

Yeah. It's, it's definitely got a huge grape note on it. Doesn't it? It does. Little bit of tobacco too. So that's that. Man. I mean, normally you don't get tobacco until the later years, but I'm getting a little bit on this one.

Grape and red man a little bit kind of mixed. Cheers. Cheers.

Wow. That's a scrumptious whiskey. Got a little bit of a medicinal note on it, but not too much.

Barrow play a huge part in this. Yes, it did.

All right. Give me a little more background here. Why'd you, why'd you choose the horns?

So I am, I like Sarkeesian. Yeah. I think he's a pretty cool guy. Of course. You know, one of the cool things about him outside of everything that he's done up to this point in his career was he had open heart surgery. didn't miss a beat, just kept going and his team's here. Uh, pretty cool. But my brother also went to graduate school down there. So spend a little time, beautiful campus, fun place, hot as all get out. Yeah, it is. Uh, I think I went, uh, in mid July to hang out and, uh, we played golf, slightly miserable playing golf, but just a little miserable. But it, you know, it's a, it's a beautiful place down there. A lot of cool things. Um, we, we drove up to round rock, uh, down that area and my buddy was playing minor league baseball. And so that was a lot of fun, uh, to hang out, but you know, and then they're going to be in the SEC next year. So welcome.

Welcome to the sec life's good in the sec.

Not, not always for everybody, but for some teams it is, it is, it is a tough class, a tough class of teams.

Well, this has got a really deep and rich flavor to it. You can almost taste like, uh, the dark grape notes on it. Kind of a little bit of a grape skin Sherry. I love it. It, uh, it adds such a character to bourbon when you had a bourbon that's. Got a little bit of proof on it and it has this, this deep, rich, dark color. A lot of barrel influence.

Yeah. I can say I really, I haven't always been a big fan of Sherry cast. I like this one.

Yeah. So neither one of us have had this bottle before you crack the seal on this one tonight is a brand new bottle. Good stuff. TX distillery. You don't, you don't see them a lot, do you?

You really don't.

Yeah. But that, but they're out there and it's good whiskey and you don't want to, you don't want to pass it up if you see it on the shelf.

I absolutely believe that. I enjoy this one.

All right. You ready to move on to some real whiskey now? I'm just kidding.

This is good stuff, but.

So I chose Washington in the sugar bowl and the game hasn't started yet. It should start here any minute. Uh, once we see Michigan put away Alabama, it's 2020 right now, by the way, folks who knows what's going to happen. It's very, very close. Very close. Of course, in order for me to be in the money, I got to win by three because I got two and a half. So let's see. I got to overcome two and a half points in this game.

I played it safe. I went money line.

Yeah. Good deal. Awesome. Well, it's 52 seconds left. It's fourth and four. Alabama has the ball, but they got to choose what to do here.

I am ESPN analytics says fourth and four or lower. You go for it.

Yeah. I just, I I'm not feeling good about my prospects right now, Brian. I'm not feeling good about mine either. Are you? No. So it's that close, huh? It is. They're going to punt. So there we go. And if, uh, in 54 seconds, if we could turn around a field goal, Jim, Jim's in the money. That's right. All right. So we've got, uh, in our glass right now, we've got a, a Washington state whiskey. This is. I don't know, I'm guessing people can figure out who I'm choosing here. There's a couple of really good distilleries. Well, there's a number of really good distilleries in Washington state, but one that I've, you know, it's kind of near and dear to my heart is Woodinville. And we've got a Woodinville private select single barrel bourbon today. And it is at 120 proof. Holy cow.

What just happened? What did I miss? Muffed punt, but Michigan recovered it on their own one yard line. Oh my gosh.

Well, let's see what happens. I'm not sure. I'm not sure the results will be available by the end of the podcast, but okay. So we're drinking 120 proof Woodinville whiskey, single barrel select. Good stuff. Wow. That nose is solid. It is solid, but you know, we're putting it up against a good solid TX whiskey as well. Texas versus Washington. I'm not biased, but this has got a little more true bourbon to it. As far as I'm concerned, it's got a little bit more, uh, what you might expect. However, bourbon whiskey and TX was a little off note. I had a little bit of a medicinal note to it, but that's my call. What do you say?

I agree with that. A hundred percent.

Do you really? I do. Okay. Just making sure I'm not favoring my team here.

I mean, as far as Sherry cast goes, that was one of the better ones that I've had.

Yeah. It was really good. And there's such a deep. flavor to that whiskey. The TX whiskey is phenomenal. They really make good stuff. It's overtime and you know what? All right. We'll, we'll announce that, but we're not going to tell you anymore. That's right. We're done. We're done. If there's, there might be some cheers in a little bit, but who knows? All right. So the Michigan Alabama game, 2020 at the end of the fourth quarter, it's going into overtime and the only time we'll tell who walks away with it. But as far as the whiskey goes, Brian, what do you think?

Well,

We're waiting for Brian. He's got all these real deep thought looks on his face.

You know, honestly, maybe it's becoming, because it's coming after the Sherry cask. I'm kind of worried that the TX with the palette and everything that it's hard to follow that up.

Yeah.

So Woodinville is very, very good. No question.

Let me, let me chew on this for another, so I'm going back and forth. I've got liquid in both my Washington glass and my Texas glass. I've got my TX whiskey from Texas. I've got my Woodinville whiskey, bourbon whiskey from Washington state. They're almost 20 proof points apart. The TX is so much darker than the way it is.

Yeah.

But there's that little medicinal note. I'm getting off the, the TX. I love the grape and the tart. I'm not going to say tartness that, that dryness of the grape, but that medicinal note has got me like scratching my head just a little bit.

Yeah, I feel like this one's a little bit closer than the Traverse and the Quiet Maze. But I think I... hate to be a two-time loser, but, uh, you know, in all fairness to everybody, I do agree that there's a little bit of that medicinal note and, uh, but is it off putting to you? Cause I mean that, that, that, I mean, it, it, to me, it, it is typically a little bit. Um, but you know, again, as far as Sherry caskos, this is, and I'm not a big Sherry cast guy. So keep that in mind that I don't run to anything that Sherry cask. Um, but this is one of the better ones that I've had. Uh, but I think Woodville takes it.

I do. I think, uh, TX is a wild card. It's good stuff.

Yeah. I mean, I, and I love the wild card.

Yeah.

I think that is, that's why we do this.

All right. So, um, folks for this show, we're watching football. We're drinking whiskey that matches the state in the, uh, Rose bowl. We had Michigan, we have Alabama. So for Michigan, we had Traverse city whiskey for Alabama. We had Clyde Bayes and in the whiskey world. Who won Brian Traverse city.

I wish I had a little sip left, but yes, I do believe Traverse city. All right. I'm going to Michigan.

Yeah. So we'll see who wins the game folks, but cause it's going into overtime, but on the whiskey front, Traverse city whiskey won the day. And it did win the day a couple of episodes back or one or two episodes back with the blind bottle challenge. So.

Awesome. Yes.

Good stuff. All right. So. Second half sugar bowl, Texas, Washington. What do we think Brian? Come horns. Hook them horns. All right. Hook them horns. I'm going with, uh, Washington state, but on the whiskey front, we're drinking Woodinville from Washington and we're drinking TX from Texas. Who takes the whiskey game?

Woodville.

I tend to agree with you.

And I think it's closer than probably what we thought it would be.

Yeah. Yeah, I think it is. I think the TX brings a lot of really cool stuff to the table. I think for me, it was just that little medicinal note that sort of threw me off. But honestly, it was deeper, darker, richer, and had more depth of character. But it had that little medicinal note that kind of threw me off.

And it was so dark.

Yeah.

Woodville whiskey, single barrel, 120 proof, good stuff.

You know, there's great whiskeys all across this country and we're getting out there this year to see a few of them. Brian, we've got a lot of plans for 2024, hit the road, visit some distilleries, go to some hometowns for some of our listeners. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be fun. All right, folks. Well, we'll all find out on Wednesday when this show releases, how close Jim and Brian were to figuring out who's going to win the sugar bowl and the Rose bowl at this point. I honestly don't know the answer to either one. Do you? I do not. All right. Do not. Thanks for listening to us again, folks. We're having a great time here tonight. It's always fun on the bourbon road. Every single week we put out an episode on Wednesdays. Make sure you set your app to alert you when the bourbon road puts out an episode. Just go to the top, hit that subscribe button. You'll get a notification saying Jim and Brian to put out another episode. And you can find us on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook threads, tech talk. We're on them all absolutely every single week. Make sure if you're on one of those social media outlets, you follow the bourbon road, you like us, you jump in and then raise our ranking, help us get more listeners. We'd love to have new listeners to the bourbon road. We also have a Facebook page, private Facebook group called the bourbon roadies. Brian, what do they have to do?

Well, you just want to answer three questions. Are you 21? Do you like bourbon and do you agree to play nice?

Cause we don't let any ruckus happen in the bourbon road. You can't chop them off of the knees for what they're drinking. Respect each person for what they like to drink, right? That's right. And how thick their wallet is, right? Cause some of these bourbons get pretty expensive. They do. And some of us just can't afford them. So we buy what we can afford. That's right. Absolutely. Well, hop onto the bourbonroad.com if you've got an idea for a show, if you've got an idea for a bottle, if you've got an idea for a distillery that Jim and Brian need to go to. Make sure to let us know about it. on the Contact Us page on our website, TheBurbanRoad.com. You can send Brian and I a message. We'll read it. We'll get back with you. We'd love to hear back from our listeners. You can always email us. I'm Jim at The Bourbon Road. He's Brian at The Bourbon Road. Together, we are a team at TheBourbonRoad.com. We put out an episode every single week. We hope you tune in. But until the next time, we'll see you down. The Bourbon Road.