400. A Big 400 Birthday Celebration

And my bottle selection did not get me the job as co-host. This was just purely, I was like- You didn't buy your way in.

I didn't buy my way in.

I was like, you've got your 400 episode. There's just not a whole lot of podcasts out there that get to 400. I mean, it's an achievement.

Oh friends, and welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon. And I'm your host, Todd Ritter.

We've got a great show for you today. So grab your favorite pour and join us.

Well friends, it's a really special day here at the Bourbon Road Bar and I'm really excited about it. I know I've been talking about this day coming for a while and it's finally here, episode 400. It's always been kind of a big mark for us to hit those hundreds. That first 100, that second 100, show 300, now 400. And in each time it just feels grander and grander and it's just a testament to our listeners and how much they support us in everything that we do. We've tasted through an awful lot of whiskeys over the years. We've had such a great time. But that's not the only reason this is going to be a monumental show. As you heard in the intro, we've got a new co-host now, Todd Ritter. Todd, welcome. I mean, literally welcome to the Bourbon Road.

Right, right. Thanks for bringing out the red carpet for me today. Yeah. Nice. It's nice and hot out there and the paparazzi wasn't too bad.

Well, I don't know that I'm bringing out the red carpet or you are because you kind of brought the whiskies today.

I did. With 400 episodes, like you said, that's a monumental number in my book. Anytime, like you said, you get to those hundreds and you bring out the big gun. So yeah, we've got some... I got my archives and all that stuff and brought out some big guns to try and sample. So looking forward to sharing these with you as always.

Well, it's going to be a fun show and I look forward to it. I think kind of the format of this show is we're going to drink through, you brought six whiskeys that you considered to be very important, whiskeys that are I guess you could consider each one of them a bit of a unicorn in itself, a little bit of a unicorn, a little bit harder to get, maybe available, maybe not anymore, probably not. But certainly whiskeys that people love to drink, love to try.

Yes. I mean, most of these, I've gotten lucky to find these out in the wild or friends have grabbed for me and that kind of thing. Most of these, if you see them somewhere, they're probably going to be at a bar and that's probably your best avenue for trying them.

I mean, would you say for the four that we're drinking today, and there may be a bonus port at the end if we have time, but for the four we're drinking today, would you say that every one of those is worth a bar pour? If the price is not crazy. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Well, you did bring six whiskies. You told me to pick four. I said, let's do all six. But we all know from experience that trying to fit six whiskies into a show can be a little tough sometimes.

Yeah. Especially when you start babbling about how good they are. You get lost. You get lost in the moment. You get lost in the moment. Or you know it too long and the next thing you know, like, oh, we've got to try this now.

Well, I'm excited to have you on as a new co-host. It's a big day for the show. I do want to say that it was a blessing to have Brian as a co-host for the time that he was able to give us. Brian was a true professional. He worked hard for us. He did a really good job. But, you know, at the end of the day for us, I feel like the podcast is more of a hobby than a job. We have more fun doing it. It's more of a pastime than it is, you know, a career. Brian has a very important career. It's very demanding for him. He also has young children at home and it was. It was difficult for him to balance everything at once, so we came to a mutual understanding that he would step back for a while. Now, he will be continuing to write blogs for the website. He's a tremendous writer and he'll do a great job at that. But Todd, thank you for stepping up. Our listeners already know you very well. You've been on the show many times in the past. You are not only known by our listeners, but you're known by... a lot of whiskey enthusiasts around the world through your other avenues that you get out. Yeah, for better or worse. For better or worse. You're infamous, let's say. That's right. More than famous. Well, anyway, I think people trust your palate. They certainly trust your opinions on the whiskies that you drink. And you're going to bring a lot of value to the show. So thank you for joining us. Thank you. It's an honor. All right. We always talk about getting straight to that whiskey. Let's go. What do we have in that first class?

We have a Four Roses Limited Edition. This is the 2021 version that came out, obviously, about three years ago. The 2024 version, I'm pretty sure that usually comes out in the fall, early fall or something. So always, always fun to see those come out. Always a different recipe using their Well, it used to be 10 recipes, but now they've increased those recipes. But the 2021 version, let's see, I think the breakdown was like a 16-year-old bourbon OBSV. This is for all the bourbon nerds out there. A 14-year-old OBSQ, 12-year-old OESK, and a 16-year-old OESV. Wow. That OESV is, you don't see those very often.

This is the limited edition and it is, uh, what was the proof on this again? 114.2. 114.2. I tell you, bring it to your nose and it's all about four roses. Yes. I mean, there's just no doubt. Sweet, sweet, sweet floral at that wonderful Oak, that very unique Oak, as you mentioned earlier. I mean, many of us have stood in line at Four Roses to try and acquire one of these. I can remember the day when the line would go all the way out that access road. Yeah. And I'm not sure how it goes anymore out there. I haven't been in a while. Have you been to one?

The last time I was out there was for one of their Mellow Moments events, which was a lot of fun. I actually got to try the 2023 version that night. Got it. And they had a few special single barrel releases for the Mellow Moments Club.

And things are kind of handled a little bit differently now than they used to be. the ways of releasing product kind of changed a little bit.

Yeah, I've noticed Buffalo Trace has kind of changed up their game a little bit. I know they've dropped some Daniel Weller, which is that experimental wheat recipe. They also dropped some OFC's, which is a very pricey It's an old, I mean, this was a 1995 release is what dropped there the other day. So, you know, usually you go there, you can expect Blanton's and Eagle Rare, your Yeats Taylor small batch. But things are changing. Yeah. They even dropped some single projects last week. I mean, I have friends there and they're like, Hey, they dropped this here. And I'm like, cool. It is cool because I mean, I don't know. I think when you show up to the story, I think that's, you know, you've spent money and time to get there, so I think if at all, you should be rewarded. That's kind of how Heaven Hill did. Yeah, Heaven Hill. Very good about that. Always A-plus on that game, yeah.

Yeah, and downtown, you know, when you... Old Forester and Michter's. Old Forester and Michter's, I was going to say the Elijah Craig, but it's actually the... Oh, the Heaven Hill experience. The Heaven Hill experience, yeah.

Oh, man.

Man, that's just, I could just nose it. We don't have to drink this, but... Well, I'd hate to.

It's poured. It's hard to go to waste. but just that's rich vanilla. Yeah. Some berry like some raspberry type thing going on.

Yeah. It's definitely got a fruity nose to it. And you know, that's typical of a, of a, some of those recipes, some of the recipes they bring it, but the, the floral nature of a four roses. I mean, it's kind of, it's kind of synonymous with its name. Rose, right? You see not, don't necessarily get roses on the nose, but you get the very floral aspects of the whiskey. Cheers. Cheers. This is a real treat. It's kind of like a birthday today. It's not my birthday. This is the bourbon Rhodes birthday, but I kind of feel like I'm having a birthday party here just a little bit. Wow. And I'm getting a little bit of like cake icing on that. Wow. What a bonus. Oh my goodness, we could just drink this all night. And I know we got some other great ones coming, but I would not be opposed to just sipping on this one.

I got to do like a top 10 with a friend of mine who has a small YouTube show. And I guess this would have been back in 2021. And it came down to this one and another one, which we'll have here shortly. as to like my top, they were my top two, so. Yeah. So we won't spoil what's coming up next.

Is that show still around?

I think he does it on a small. Smaller scale. Smaller scale, yeah.

Okay. Well, I know you do a number of YouTube shows. You're guests on, you've been a guest on several. You also do an awful lot of picks out there in the market.

Yeah, just got lucky to do one this past week at Wild Turkey. Our Bourbon Society got to do a Russell's pick and that was pretty amazing. I mean, just there wasn't a whole lot of pomp and circumstance with this pick. I mean, usually you'll go and they treat you, I mean, kind of, I can't say royalty, but like, you know, they'll treat you to dinner or, you know, like on hard truth, we went out for a four wheel ATB experience and certain things, but you go to Wild Turkey, they're like, come on, let's go in this Rick house and let's try some bourbon.

Well, there's been a change in how Turkey does their picks because sheer volume of picks they're doing now. I think they've got one of the largest single bear experience programs on the planet.

I believe 300 a month is what our guide was saying.

So there's 30 days in a month, 300 picks in a month. You know they're not working weekends. So they're doing 15 a day probably. That's busy. Used to be just a couple of picks a day. Eddie and Bruce were out there. Probably a lot different treatment. You guys were presented with five barrels. Eddie used to let you drink until you were falling over. And then of course, if you asked Eddie which one he would recommend, he'd just say they're all good. They're all good. They're all good.

Yeah, and we were pretty honored to, after we came out, we took a few pictures in front of the Rick house there. I guess it's a Tyrone and up rolls a car and we're all kind of like, who's that? And it was Jimmy Russell and his wife, Jerretta. Fantastic. Yeah, and he stopped and said, hey, I saw the Frankfurt Bourbon Society was here and just wanted to come down and we knew some of our members. And so that was, I mean, it's always a treat see bourbon roll, too. That's what we've often spoken about. So that was pretty amazing.

Well, I'm looking forward to possibly getting my hands on one of those bottles. I mean, I'm going to let the membership proper get their orders in first and I'm going to jump in there and try to get one.

Yeah, it was Camp Nelson F. That's what we ended up picking. really fun, a little off profile, but yeah, it was a pretty much a unanimous pick, which is always a good sign.

Well, I'm telling you folks, if you're not a member of the Frankfurt Murder Society, you might want to consider it. These guys are killing it on picks. You also have quite a few barrels of your own put away.

Yeah. We've got some at Whiskey Thief that we've distilled our own. I'm not sure what the timetable was on those. I know Probably getting close to six years, probably later this fall on some of those. We have a couple barrels of the weeded bourbon at Castle & Key that are hitting six years, seven years this fall as well, which It's time. We tried them last fall and one of them was knockout good. Just needed a little softening up a little bit. No hurry. Yeah, no hurry. That's got to be right. That's right. That's the great thing about bourbon. It's not ready.

That's pretty fantastic. Well, you guys are, your society is so immersed in whiskey. I mean, a lot of times it's just the social aspect, but you guys are actually, you have a tremendous social aspect. But you also are so immersed in the craft of the whiskey too and actually involved in making your own and partnering with distilleries. That's fantastic.

And I also think we do a good job of being not just ambassadors of Bourbon, but ambassadors of Frankfurt too.

Yeah.

So.

Absolutely.

I mean, when we've talked many times when some of the Bourbon roadies come in, if I know they're coming in and I can meet them, I'll go have a meet them for a pour. I'll, you know, meet them at the corner Rick house, whatever I can do to make their their visit something special.

We had a group of roadies coming in here real soon. I just met one of our roadies a couple of weeks back. We went over and had a few cigars together. Well, I didn't have a cigar. I went to the cigar bar. We had a few drinks together. He had a cigar. But we got some more coming in in July. And so yeah, definitely if you are planning a trip this way, it's always nice to check out and see what your fellow roadies are doing here. We're just fellow roadies, right? That's right. How long have you been a roadie, Todd? I mean, they were started in early 2018.

I think I've found out. I think I've talked about this. I think I found out about you guys when you interviewed my friend Drew Hanisch at Whiskey Lore. I'd have to go dig episodes. I want to say that was in the low 40s, maybe?

Yeah, 40s, probably. I mean, in the first 100 episodes, we had some very memorable type of episodes, things that really established us, I think.

Right. looking and I was like, these guys are in Shelbyville and Simpsonville. I'm like, right next door. I'm like.

I mean, we're neighbors. I mean, our counties are neighbors.

So I guess I joined the roadies Facebook group and, you know, I tried to be pretty active. I posted some pictures I took of the McBrayer interview you just did. And, you know, so.

Like those McBrayers, why they're really doing it right. It's it's hard to imagine somebody like that, having such an out of the box marketing concept to do things the way they've done. I mean, everybody kind of follows that same path of, all right, we're going to, we're going to get a distributor. We're going to find the, we're going to find ourselves some whiskey. We're going to get it on the shelves and we're going to build our still. Then we're going to do all that kind of stuff. These guys are like, Nope, we're going to do direct market.

It's definitely a different, different path for sure.

Yeah.

And great guys.

Great guys. I'm loving this. I know. Loving this. Again, folks, if you've drifted off, we're sitting here, the 2021 LE from Four Roses. What do these things cost typically? I mean, you can't hardly get them. So we won't talk about secondary market prices, but let's just say you find your way to the distillery and you get your hands on one.

I think they're fairly priced. They may have even gone up more.

Yeah. I seem to remember them being fairly priced, but they do hit the secondary and they go up from there. Yes.

version, it's one there, much like this, it was an anniversary, I think 135th anniversary. Possibly.

Yeah, I've got the 130th sitting over there.

Yeah, which was excellent. You shared a pour with that. You can't go wrong with this if you ever find one out in the wild. It's always a special pour and Brett Elliott does an amazing job of blending these.

Yeah, really good stuff.

I was going to say, save that glass. This is like one of those. I love going back to like an empty Four Roses Glencairn and digging in it later.

You know, I haven't been back to the distillery at Four Roses for probably a year and I need to go back. Now I usually have a single barrel around the house somewhere. I don't know that I do right now. Maybe I do, but, It's such a, such a unique and floral. That's something that just, uh, it always, for me, it's always like, uh, the floral fruity aspects of it. And it depends on the recipe, of course, but the floral fruity aspects of it and the rich oak together gives it this, uh, just this, this nose that is unique, very unique. The flavor is always good on a four roses pour, but the nose is unmistakable. I think in the same way that the palette is unmistakable on a Willet, I think the nose is unmistakable on a Four Roses.

Must be a Larnsberg thing, because I would add Wild Turkey.

Yeah, I tend to agree.

Turkey has those certain characteristics on their older stuff that really, really shone that if we've talked about the funk.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't think that, you know, I think that Four Roses and Wild Turkey both, they have kind of a narrow lane on their profiles, even though, even though they do all these things to try and vary with recipes. They don't have this wide range on their profiles. They're kind of narrow.

And for that reason, they're very recognizable.

And I think that lends something to being recognizable is when it doesn't very tremendously like that. But then you get somebody like Heaven Hill, a little bit harder to identify. I think you can. The nutty nature of a Heaven Hill can sometimes give it away.

And then Jim Beam's got a lot going on. But then again, there's that the nutty at heaven hill, but there's like the peanut, peanut shell at Jim beam. I don't know. It's kind of odd how those, uh, play out. I didn't even give this like, uh, it's got a little bit of like that citrus. You might get in a wild Turkey.

Yeah, I would say so. Um, like an orange, a little bit of orange. I was gonna say it.

It's, it's definitely like a sweet orange, really sweet.

Wow.

That's so good. I know. Fantastic. Poor.

Love it. Love it. Love it. Well, thank you for bringing this one. Uh, the 2021 L E from four roses. Definitely something I hadn't had yet. I don't know how I missed it, but it's special. You said the 23 was pretty special.

I didn't get to do it side by side. I had it, uh, at the four roses bar. Um, you know, now I'm standing poor in its own, but I mean, I'm kind of one of those that likes to, uh, try to do a side-by-side, but I just was not able to get a 2023 bottle. I do have a 2022 and I've tried it with 2021. It's good, but I just think this 21 is, it's a knockout of the ones I've tried. Which I mean, not a whole lot of them. I think I've had, you shared your one 30th with me, which I guess that would have been, 18, probably. Probably 18. And then 15 before that was really good, I think, if I remember. It was like that. I had, I think, a 2020 version. But a 21. I may even have a backup on that one. I love it so much.

Fantastic. All right. So let's move on here a little bit. Let's talk about what's in our next class. This is something that So we're working our way up in proof, right? Yes. Okay. So the first one was what? 114 you said?

114 and some change. Yeah. 114.2. And this is just a small step up also in the same, same County. So this is a wild turkeys, Russell's 13.

Oh my gosh. This is such good stuff.

And this is 114.5. Yeah.

I think every time I go to the distillery, they always had this in the sample room where you can have a pour of it. They usually have it there. And I try not to miss having a pour of this every time I go. If I remember correctly, it's a pretty fair price on the pour there.

About 20. Yeah.

I don't remember exactly, but I do know I didn't balk at it when they told me how much.

I tried the Triumph, and it was 30 there, the Master's Keep. And then they also had generations there, and I think it was maybe 50, but that's a $500 bottle, so still not... Too bad.

I can't form an opinion on the generations. The only thing I can say is, man, that's a lot of money for a bottle is a lot of money.

Um, I also tried the single barrel Rick house, the camp Nelson F. Okay. And then I think it was about 30 bucks too.

Yeah. Oh my goodness. This is, uh, this is really good. Yes. Rich cherries. Yeah. Cherries are like standing out on it. Cherries and cream. There's a little hint of citrus in there.

Yeah. It's, I think it shows up more on the younger, like those Russell's reserves and wild Turkey itself 101.

I'm not getting any chocolate notes really, but I am getting kind of a, kind of a toffee, like a little bit of burnt sugar. Cheers. Cheers. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So that just settles in and it's, I don't know.

It's almost like, it's almost like I got spilled on the Rick house floor and like, they're like, Oh, we dropped it.

It's almost like, a champion baseball player getting up to bat and you just know he's going to deliver. Right?

I mean, this is just like the Babe Ruth point.

Yeah. This is just like, you just know it's going to be good. But when, when the pitch comes and the hit comes, you're absolutely satisfied. Yeah. This is, this delivers a hundred percent delivers. There's, I mean, the hype's real folks. If you haven't had the Russells 13, the hype is real. This is a fantastic pour. And if you're a turkey fan, this is a, I'm not going to call it Mount Rushmore. This is Mount Rainier anyway.

Yeah.

Oh man.

That's really good.

And we talked about that Oak on the four roses, but I think this one's even sweeter and like, like you get a little more of that char note.

Yeah, I think Four Roses takes, kind of takes the gold medal for the floral aspects. This has a great nose too, don't get me wrong. But this one gives your palate a punch, not a bad punch, gives your palate a punch of just intense flavor that is unreal. These are some great whiskies we're drinking tonight, folks. And we have a lot of really good whiskies on the show. You know, we've had a number of distilleries on over the last month or two and, and all their stuff is really good, but you reach a point in your, in your whiskey crafting business where you've got such a large inventory of stocks that you can put things together like this Four Roses and this Russell's that the younger distilleries, they just don't have the breadth of inventory to do that yet. I mean, they'll get there.

Yeah, I mean, there's plenty of these craft distilleries that have been around, you know, double digits that are getting like eight year, eight year old barrels and.

But when you get those barrels in the 13 to 16 to 18-year-old range, they become contributors that can be used to just accentuate flavors and bring things to the table that just other people can't do yet.

For sure. I was, you know, there's always talk and speculation, like, but I know there's like some 19 year old I've heard in some of these Russell's reserve 13 year old. I mean, and I think it shows, I think there's just some like, yeah, that leathery, there's a bit of a leathery thing going on and some cardamom and it's a,

It's a baking cabinet for sure. Oh yeah, definitely. I think, uh, I think it's always got that, those baking spices in it. A lot of times you get that, that rich toffee, that, uh, that caramel that's been taken over the edge a little bit. This, this has a little bit of that cream, sort of that birthday cream note to it too. That's sweet, sweet cream, not to the level that the four roses had, but still. I could drink this again. I know when I was drinking the four roses, I was saying, oh, I could just, we could just sip on this one all night. But now when you have this, you're like, okay, I'm glad we changed, but we can sip on this one all night.

You'll just probably keep saying that. I hope you say that to the rest of them too.

I think we probably will.

And we did. And my bottle selection had no, um, It did not get me the job as co-host. This was just purely, I was like.

You didn't buy your way in. I didn't buy my way in.

I was like, you've got your 400 episode. There's just not a whole lot of podcasts out there that get to 400. I mean, it's an achievement. It's an undertaking. As you say, it's a hobby. But I mean, I know how hard you work at your hobby. And I've tried to been helping with that. And my friend, AMZ, and you know, and others have tried to step in and alleviate some of that for you.

Oh, by the way, I told Rob Carter that he's up for the next second half intro.

I actually thought he'd be here today, so I'm a little disappointed.

Well, I didn't reach out to him. I thought that we had enough on our plate today to celebrate the 400th and to announce you as new co-host. I didn't want to complicate things too much. Rob's tremendous. He's a great guest. The next time he is on he is definitely going to introduce the second half. So I had to prep him a little bit He's I don't know once I come up with a good episode for that I think so. Yeah, he's been on this malt malt trip lately though. He's really on this malt trip So we might want to keep that in mind. Okay There's a lot of great malts coming out great I'm trying to remember when we had Bruce on It's been a while. I don't know if it was in the first 100 episodes or not, but he did come out to Mike's house and we had an episode there. We drank through all kinds of good stuff. We had some great episodes in the first 100. Let me just kind of think about a few that were. kind of standouts for me. I would have to say our very first blind bottle share with Dusty Dan. Dusty Dan and Scott Page. Scott Page from My Bourbon Journey and Jason Clory from Mash and Drum.

And if I remember correctly, I think... And then obviously Randy, that was... Randy was a co-host back then, that's right.

I don't remember what episode that was, but that was in the first dozen or so episodes we had. And we did it right here at the Bourbon Road bar in the basement. And if I remember correctly, Dusty Dan won the day with a four roses.

There you go.

Yep. Sure enough. And I don't remember what it was. I think it was something like. Flintstones or Pebbles or something. I don't remember some pick that he was on. But it was really cool because at the end of the night, he gifted that bottle to my wife. That's awesome. She loved it. She really enjoyed that.

He's a great one. He shares a lot. He's got a great whiskey tube channel. He's always sending out boards to folks. It's pretty amazing.

All right. So let's give him a shout out. So if you do listen to or watch YouTube whiskey podcasts, whiskey casts, video casks, whatever you want to call them, there's three shows that you should definitely check out if you haven't already. as we mentioned, Dusty Dan's Whiskey Reviews. He's called Dusty Dan because he likes to focus on dusty bottles. Not 100%.

Right, yeah. I mean, he's getting a lot of bottles to review. And I know he just reviewed the Amroot, which you were a big fan of. We tried that. You let me try that not too long ago. Really interesting, unique bottle from Bardstown. And you tried that with Danny. Yeah, Danny from Bardstown. And yeah, he's just a great guy. I mean, his YouTube live channel events are always fun. It's a great community. I mean, even if you're new, I, you know, you might want to pop on and there's always a live chat going on and everyone's really, uh, really into bourbon. They'll say what they're drinking and chime in about certain things, but, uh, it's like, it's really tight community. And I think it really blossomed during the, um, during the pandemic. Um, you know, people were stuck at home and. what better way to talk, you know? That was why Zoom was born, but that was also kind of like when WhiskeyTube really took off. It's like, you know, just having live chats so people can talk about things because we couldn't go anywhere.

And Scott Page, My Bourbon Journey. And Scott has a review show that's been around. He's one of the old boys. He's one of the old boys. He's an OG. OG. Great guy. Great guy. So My Bourbon Journey on YouTube. Check him out. And then Jason Clory, The Mashin' Drum. The Mashin' Drum. Another OG. Been around for a while. I guess Dan's an OG too. I guess they're all three kind of OGs. But all three of them have phenomenal palates and they do review whiskeys on a regular basis and I highly suggest that you check them out. We're going to have one or more of them on the show during the year and we'll have a great time.

Yeah, I know some of them are coming down. Jason's going to... They're having a... a mashing journey, uh, an event in, uh, Bardstown, like actually the weekend before, uh, bourbon on the bank. So you might want to pencil that in, Jim.

Fantastic. I might just do that. All right. Well, listen, we're, we're going to continue sipping on this one. We might have a long break here because I'm going to take my time with this poor when we come back. All kinds of good stuff. Great talk, great fun, great memories, and two more unicorn pours from Todd Ritter. 400 baby. Stick around.

Welcome back roadies. We're here and we're celebrating the 400th episode of the Bourbon Road and we're having some outstanding pours. We started off with the Four Roses limited edition for 2021. And follow that up with a Russell's 13 year old that we didn't mention the MSRP, but it runs about 120. So, and welcome back.

I mean, I would, I would open my wallet so fast. If I, if I ran across those. My goodness. It wouldn't, it wouldn't, it wouldn't even take consideration. Yeah.

Sadly that MSRP is always the recommended price. Yeah, sure. Not always what you see it for.

I get it. I mean, how often do you think it gets put on the shelf at the distillery?

I know it's happened. That's actually where I got a couple. Yeah.

Just luck of the draw.

Luck of the draw and then knowing folks that are going there and like, hey, this is happening, but you got to be quick.

I tell you what, those first two pours in the first half, what a great way to celebrate the birthday, the 400th birthday of the Bourbon Road. I guess you could call it a 400th birthday. I think that works. Yeah. 400 episodes. My goodness. It really doesn't seem, because I know what it takes to do an episode. It's a lot of work. I mean, you have to plan and you have to record and you have to edit and you have to put it out and then you have to do social media posts and whatever, blog articles and all that kind of stuff. A lot goes into one episode. So when you talk about there being 400, you're like... How in the heck did we do that? It's just tremendous amount of effort has gone into it. And I rely heavily on my co-hosts. And all of them have been fantastic in their own way. And Todd, I'm so excited to have you on board now as the new co-host, carrying us from 400 onward. Thank you. I hope to man the position well. Well, I say co-hosts, but we don't have co-hosts here. We have hosts. Co-drinkers. Co-drinkers. Yeah, we'll co one of these bottles together and make it disappear.

But what's in our glass? So this is porphyry and this is a Parker's Heritage double Beryl Blend. So this bad boy came in at 132.2 proof. It's dark and pretty and it's...

I mean, it's chocolate dark.

Yeah. Yeah. And this is a Heaven Hill product. Usually you can get lucky and find these at Heaven Hill a lot of times and you will find it out in the wild a lot of times.

So this is a, this is a namesake. A Parker beam. A Parker beam who was a master distiller at heaven hill for.

I don't know how long.

I don't know the years either.

There's a number of years, yeah.

But he loved the Dietzville rick houses. And a lot of his stuff and a lot of his releases come out of Dietzville, which is, I think they're still using those.

Yeah. I know some of the, you'll see some Elijah Craig barrel picks that specifically say, oh, we know this game from Dietzville. I know part of the money that from these bottles goes to, I believe, ALS.

Yes. And the release happens, am I right, annually? I believe so, yeah. And there have been some phenomenal standouts and there have been some, eh, okay stuff.

This one's from 22. Last year's was a 10-year rye. This one Like I said, it's a double barrel blend. So 67% straight bourbon whiskey aged 13 years, and then 33% of a straight bourbon aged 15 years.

Well, I think it's a good thing to be there. I think they do an annual release party for it, and they invite media and people there. And of course, the money goes to a good cause, ALS. And it's a terrible disease that hopefully we're able to overcome one day. But it's always nice to give back. And the Bourbon community does such a great job of doing that. The Puckers editions, I think some of them have been outstanding in their own right. And some of them, unfortunately, have been a little out of the box and haven't really stood tall, but they sold well.

Right. And I think it's kind of like maybe a bit of a playground. They try some things. And like you said, obviously, a lot of older products, that type of thing. But some interesting finishes on some. They've done some single malts, which I've not, I don't think I've tried any of those myself.

I haven't had any of them.

But I, on the list to try at some point, maybe if you run across them somewhere, but this one retails for about 185. If you can find it again.

Again, most of that money going to, to the cause. Well, fantastic. Let's, let's check it out. Wow. Sweet. Yeah. More sweet oak.

We could have called it the sweet oak theme.

Yeah, definitely sweet oak.

Yeah.

I'm kind of a, I want to say it's got a little bit of a chocolate note to it, but it's kind of a, it's not a dark chocolate. Semi-sweet. Semi-sweet. Yep. Some traditional notes there. I mean, there, there are some, some baking spices and caramel notes.

Yeah. I get a lot of that rich, rich caramel.

Let's taste it. Cheers. Yeah. Cheers. Oh, that's really good. That's got a nice syrup consistency to it.

Yeah, that's mouth coating. Yes. Very thick, very dark, extremely dark whiskey. I'd apply that to that double barrel. I mean, obviously it's an odor, a blend of odor bourbons anyway.

It kind of reminds me of the color of the 1910 from Brown Foreman, the old Forester 1910. Very dark, very deep dark, but this one has just a tint of red to it, kind of a richness. Garnet? Garnet. Yeah. Oh, good word. Yeah. Oh, this is fantastic whiskey. This is really good time.

Yeah.

So you really did. You really did like put this little collection together for the show.

Yeah.

Bringing out the big guns. Yes, you did.

Yeah, I tried this somewhere and I was like blown away. I mean. It's something special and I may have overpaid for this one. I was actually in Somerset, Kentucky of all places. So ran across it and a little bit over MSRP, but I was like, yeah.

That's all right. I think you did well. If you paid just a little bit more than MSRP, I think you did good. Actually, whatever you paid for it, everybody's wallet is their own. It's hard to say what somebody should and should not spend on a whiskey.

Wallets are owned, but they're common sense as well, who knows.

I don't know if I won the Kentucky lottery. I'd probably throw common sense out the window. Probably just buy what I wanted.

I was going to say, I've seen the Willard Millennium has been, I've seen it out and about, and I'm like, $7,500 for a bottle bourbon.

Yeah.

That thing better like the angels should sing and you know.

Yeah, I get it. I understand. There comes a point where like, for example, $7,500 a bottle. I would rather, if I had unlimited funds, let's say that I did win some billion dollar lottery in my daily you know, interest on my investments was $25,000. I would rather take $7,500 out of my wallet and give it to a charity.

Agreed. Yeah. Would I like to try a pour? I mean, who wouldn't? Sure, absolutely. Probably maybe scoff. I don't know.

I don't blame them for doing it. I think there's a market out there for those higher priced whiskeys. I think the exclusivity of it draws certain people in. I just don't know that I'd be that guy.

Yeah, I think, you know, I don't know, it's like they're putting almost putting out trophies for anymore. And in some of these cases, I mean, it is when you're up in four figures. Is that something you're going to? I mean, maybe on your deathbed, you're like, finally, I'm going to share this today because I'm going there. I don't know. It's just.

Or I could buy a Russell's 13 for all my friends. Right. So what would I do? Right. I don't know. Anyway, everybody gets to manage their own funds. And if that $7,500 bottle is something that you want to drop, you go right ahead. Go right ahead.

That's your prerogative. If you need help sipping on it, give me a call. Give us a call. Yeah. We'll bring some stuff with us, too. Not quite that cost. But there's no shame there. There's no shame. Wow, this is so good. So Jim, it's probably been a while since you've talked about like, you know, how did you get to episode one? And now that you're at episode 400, I mean, what kind of, what kind of led you down that road?

So what, I think I've probably mentioned it on a few episodes, but it may have been a while. And we've probably got some new listeners who haven't heard this before, but last half of this show, we talked a little bit about Jason, Glory and the Mashin Drum. There were actually two YouTube channels that I was very interested in and I used to watch YouTubes. Right, I still do from time to time. But most of my time listening to whiskey stuff now seems to be podcasts, simply because it's like I tune in when I drive, and I tune in when I cut grass, and I tune in when my wife and I are cleaning the house. That's kind of what I do. I don't necessarily sit down and turn on. I certainly can't do it during the day when I'm writing software. Right, it's kind of like background music when you're walking the wall kind of thing.

Exactly. It's kind of like you're listening, You're also focused on some other things.

Yeah, the nature of my job just doesn't let me have that kind of distraction. But anyway, so between Jason's Mash and Drum show and Chad and Sarah on his bourbon night, I really got into whiskey and really had a great time listening to these episodes and becoming educated and learning about the whiskey. And at some point along the way, I think Jason had come down to visit in Kentucky and he spent the night here at the house and we sort of hung out together and we went on a couple of barrel picks together and just generally had a good time. I think I told him out in our sunroom in the back, I said, I think I'm going to start a podcast. I don't want to do a YouTube channel because video kind of scares me a little bit, but I think I'm going to start a podcast. Of course, he was very encouraging on it. The great thing about this business is how everybody lifts each other up. Agreed. There's no real competition to it. I'm not going to say there isn't a little competition there is, but everybody is so supportive of each other. And I see that not only in the podcasts and whiskey tubes and all that kind of stuff, but I see it in the distilleries as well.

Very supportive of each other.

Anyway, that's kind of what got me started. I talked to Randy. He was a good friend of mine. He's a whiskey lover as well and a bourbon lover. And the two of us decided just to do it. We pulled the trigger, recorded a few episodes, kind of caught on. It was different back then. There were just a few, right? I think there was Dad's Drinking Bourbon and Bourbon Pursuit and the ABV Network. I never even heard of that one.

Yeah.

But that was about it. That's all there was. And now there's hundreds and hundreds of them, which is fine. It's all good. I think it's lifted everybody up. Yeah. Yeah. I guess we're, I guess we're an OG. I guess. 400 episodes. Yeah. I think there's only a couple of us over 400 episodes, three of us now over 400 episodes. And one of us put down the microphones about a year ago. So, uh, Yeah, just two of us now over 400 episodes, so it's a big deal.

A few behind, but yeah.

Yeah, there's some great shows out there. I mean, obviously, Bourbon Pursuit has the most episodes of everybody. These guys are killing it, and they always have. They've got their own whiskey company now, Pursuit United. Dad's Drinking Bourbon is the other one that was over 400 episodes, but they have since put down their microphones. got on with life and that's okay.

Nothing wrong with that. There's been some whiskey tubers that have done that too. It just decided it's not for me. It's a, like you say, it's a hobby, but sometimes you can put a lot of work into a hobby.

Yeah. Well, when it comes to, you know, podcasts, we've got our friends out there. Some people we've done some podcasts with like, uh, bourbon lens. We've had those guys on the show before and, uh, yeah, they're just, there's great people out there.

Everybody's Drew Hanish, whiskey lore, whiskey lore, Drew Hanish.

Yeah, absolutely. Just, just great people all the way around. And, uh, Yeah. I mean, we don't have any immediate plans on what we're going to do long-term, but certainly celebrating 400 and already have a number of shows already recorded and plans to record even more. So I'm looking forward to your contribution there, Todd.

Keep on chugging down the road.

Yeah.

All right. So Russell's 13 was your favorite of those first two. Does this surpass that or still Russell's 13 for you?

This is really good, but I'm still going to stick with 13. I thought you might.

You're a Turkey guy. So it's going to, it's going to be hard to tap on top of that for you.

I mean, I would not balk at just sitting with this bottle all day. I really wouldn't. This one has a little more sweetness to it. It's probably the sweeter of the three.

At 132.2, I might point out, it would be a short day.

It would be a very short day. I'm ready for a nap. This definitely doesn't fit into the crushable category, does it? It's sessionable.

But it's not overly, I mean, the aged whiskeys seem to, I mean, it's a high proof, but the aged whiskeys seem to like tone down, tone it down a little bit. I mean, this, it could get you in trouble on a nice, cool night. I mean, I think they tend to slow you down. Yeah.

Right. When you're sipping on these, they're so full of flavor and the finishes are so long on them that you just naturally slow down. Yeah.

And you go back and get a little something different each time. Yeah. Yeah.

Fantastic. Great pour. Wow. So what, which year did you say this was you thought? I'm pretty sure this came out in 2022. Okay.

I mean, they may have even upgraded to like dropping two. Cause I know they had a 10 year ride was the last one I saw. And then I know. Actually, that was 2023. There's something new out, but yeah. I see these so rare, but I just happened to be in Somerset, or actually Monticello, I apologize, for work. And there was a store nearby and curiosity killed the cat kind of thing. So I was like, I'll go check. And that was one of the things they had. And I tried it and I was like, okay, you got me.

Well, Todd, speaking of, uh, work, normally I don't like, you know, cause those guys were always like, every time we meet, we're like, so what do you do? So what do you do? Right. You know, and I kind of like to avoid that question most of the time, but I think it's important for our listeners to know a little bit about you. And, uh, you know, can you tell our listeners a little bit about what you do when you're not on the podcast? I mean, obviously you're a member of the Frankfurt Bourbon Society Board of Directors. Yes. And you have a job though. You got to pay the bills.

Yes. I work for Kentucky Rural Water Association. We are based out of Bowling Green, Kentucky, and we've got our hands on a lot of things. So kind of what I do is try to help smaller water systems and out there in the state of Kentucky, state and regulatory compliance, there's a lot of regulations and rules they have to follow and certain sampling they have to do. So I kind of like try to do my best to keep them out of trouble. And if they should get in trouble due to how high their results may be for certain things, yeah, I'll take care of that too.

Because you're kind of a little bit of a science guy then.

Yeah. Science, biology nerd, I guess. Yeah. You travel a lot. Around the state, yeah. And then the occasional conference and things. And we work with the state, the Division of Water, a lot, and EPA, Region 4, which is out of Atlanta. We have our own conferences where we actually do a lot of training for wastewater and drinking water operators in the state of Kentucky. We have an apprenticeship program, which has really taken off. because it's one of those jobs that's not like, it's not a high paying job, but we're kind of like trying to make it more presentable, like for kids that have no desire to go to college or or maybe going to go look at plumbing apprenticeships or electrical or HVAC type thing. So, I mean, that's kind of what we're trying to, you know, share those type of, you know, there's just some kids that just have no desire to go to college and, you know, maybe that's where they're going to go. So.

Well, clean drinking water is a very important thing. No doubt about it. And every municipality has to provide it to their people.

Yeah.

And it's good to have somebody like you running around keeping everybody on the straight and narrow.

Yeah. It's, you know, we all go to our water faucet and turn it on and trust that it's good. Trust it's coming on and trust it's good. I mean, usually the only time you gripe when it's not working, that's usually due to a line break somewhere.

I guess it's good to work on the clean water side rather than the dirty water side. Sorry. No offense to you sewer guys.

No offense to the sewer guys. Although, you know, they do, it's, It's very amazing they take that dirty water and they turn it into better water.

It's pretty amazing. I've seen that too.

But yeah, I've been there on my sixth year. I actually retired from the state from the division of water where I regulated things. And now I'm kind of on the other side trying to help. my folks to stay out of regulation problems.

And you live in Frankfurt. You're kind of born and raised in that area, right? Yeah.

So in Frankfurt, it's the capital area, so a lot of state government agencies there. Yeah. I lived in Louisville and Lexington a little bit. I was born, actually, here in Shelby County. Or, well, born in the Frankfort Hospital, but I lived in Shelby County for the first four and a half years of my life. Actually, not too far from where Rob lives, funny enough.

I mean, we're neighbors. I mean, Shelby County and what's your county? Franklin. Franklin, that's right. Franklin County. Sorry about that, folks. But Franklin County and Shelby County, we're neighbors, our counties touch each other. And we have a US 60 that runs cleanly between the two. Yeah. And I 64 as well.

Yes. So Jim gets the weather first is the way it works. Works for me a lot.

I'm like, Oh, Jim. So back down the hatches. Oh my goodness. This is amazing. I love this stuff. This is so good. Todd, you hit it out of the park today.

Fantastic.

Actually now on the empty glass as I knows it, cause it's gone. I had drank every last bit of another's dropped just a second. Oh, yum. Yum.

I have the same.

I am getting just a hint of chocolate on it. Just a hint. No, more like a, like a s'more, a bit of a s'more.

It's a good pour though.

It is a really good pour. Yum. Yum. Ready for pour four? I'm ready. All right. So we've been working our way up in proof and that, what was that heritage that Parker's heritage you can? 132.2. Oh, I'm scared to ask. I know.

Where are we at now? We are at 135. Okay. And this is the infamous George T. Stag. George T. Stag. Buffalo trace distillery. This is the 2023 version. And yeah, another case where I was out in the road and happened to stop by a place in London, Kentucky, of all places.

So you really get out to some places in rural Kentucky and you're able to maybe get to a little bottle shop that doesn't have a hundred people standing in line. Yeah. Those are my lunch breaks. Are they? Yeah.

In case anybody from work's listening. No, but they're, I mean, you know, they're, They're really cool about things. So yeah, some other things I've done is actually we've been working. We get a lot of grant money that we team up with where I used to work at the Division of Water. And I've been going around and sampling at some of the older Head Start and elementary schools in Kentucky and just checking for lead because lead is obviously bad and probably even worse, you know, where it is worse for children. So the younger children. So there's, it's just never been really tested. So we've been going out, like I've been getting up at like 4 a.m. and going to like Hazard, Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky and way up in Northeast, Kentucky, Garrison, Kentucky. I mean, I've seen them, I've seen a lot of the state recently. So, um. Is that where you're getting all your dusty puddles? No, that's from certain groups.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, anyway, so that's good work you're doing. Yeah. It's absolutely good work you're doing. So do we have anything to worry about in Kentucky about lead?

No, there's a new regulation coming along where basically all the water systems have to check both sides of the meter. And this is every state in the United States. every water system has to know what's on their side of the meter and on the other side of the meter.

So out of the tap.

Yes. Uh, well at the meter box. Oh, so you, everybody has a meter box and that's where it's tabulating how much water you use and all that. So, uh, now indoor plumbing is a whole, it's a whole different ball game. And that's usually a lot of where like you can have like lead solder. I mean, I saw a recent, um, webinar where they were saying like, maybe like 10% of Kentucky still has some like lead solder-ish type things.

But not the pipes. The pipes are gone. Most of the case.

And then it's been the practice for years. If there was a lead service line, you know, and something was going on and the water slips, they get it out and replace it. Good deal. Yeah.

That's good, because we know lead definitely slows down the progress of our children. It definitely affects their mental capacity and their ability to process, and it's not a good thing.

I just actually did leave when I took a sip.

Oh, you took a sip. So let's talk about this whiskey. So Mike co-host for a lot of shows used to have a love hate relationship with George C. Stagg and he called it gasoline because it's typically very high proof, but it always has this tremendous power punch of flavor as well. And I'm telling you, as I'm nosing this right now, I am not. I don't feel like I'm getting a hundred. Would you say 135, 136?

I know. I was just really surprised. I don't know if it was because we had a sitting in the Glen Karens for a sec. Like I was expecting to go nose in and like, yeah, get that punch. But yeah, there's no gasoline effect on that. So bad.

But I can tell we're going to get a real punch of flavor on the palate.

This is the Jason Glory in me, but he spoiled me like, It took me a while to like recognize my palette and like, you know, you just listened to other things. You're like, Oh, okay. Now I do get that. But like Jason always says there's like a grape jelly thing on a lot of Buffalo Tricell. Stag, Stag Jr. I can get that. Smuckers. Yeah. Yeah. It's like smuckers, a lot of like deep, like brown sugar, like a little, yeah.

Yeah, anytime you really concentrate the fruit and the sugars, like deeply concentrate them, you get that kind of jam, jelly jam kind of note at 135 proof. These are, these stags are typically barrels which have seen a little bit more evaporation, I would say.

Yeah. And if there's like, um, websites out there that will tell you where they chose the barrels. And they're kind of all over the place too, which is kind of interesting.

Wanna taste it? Yeah. Bottoms up. Well, not bottoms up, but tip it up. Sip it up. Sip it up. Oh my goodness. That is really good. That's a mid palette bomb. You're repeating yourself. I am. I'm repeating myself. That's four out of four. That's really good. Yeah. No, this is a mid palette bomb. This is, um, all the sides of my tongue are dripping. Oh my goodness. I know when it's hit the right spot. Cause you start salivating. Oh my goodness. I'm wondering if this one might knock out the 13. I don't know.

I mean, it's like 1A and 1B.

Possibly so. Oh, I just love bourbons that just concentrate on the center of the palate. They don't have that up front impact or the back impact, but they just concentrate on the center of the palate. And then you start getting that dripping of your salivary glands on the side. Oh my goodness. This is really good. I've got a 2017 stag up on the shelf here and this is better. This is definitely better. I mean, a lot of people say that 2017 is something to be had, but this is really good.

This is a, yeah, I'm very honored to have been able to find a bottle.

And it reminds me a little bit of the 13 with the, uh, with the Oak and yeah.

Yeah. This is like, like they've all had like this really, I mean, the double barrel, obviously that's going to have a lot of oak influence and a richer, but like all three, the other three, like the sweet oak same, but not same, I guess is the best way to describe it. I mean, you got the funk of the Turk, Turkey, the, um, the floralness of the four roses. And this is just, yeah, I don't know. It's,

It sounds like a t-shirt to me, the funk of the Turk.

Funk of the Turk.

Yeah.

And all four of these, you could just know for a long time. Wow.

Well, congratulations, Bourbon Road on 400 episodes. My goodness.

I don't know what we're going to do for 500.

It'll be a bigger party, I'm sure.

We'll have to figure it out.

It's chewy. Yeah. There's a lot of texture to this. There's a lot to it. Um, I've always been a fan of George T. Stag. I, I can kind of understand, uh, Mike's perspective. They tend to be a little hot. This is not, not hot. I mean, it, it does have some heat to it, but I mean, you're going to get a little bit of that one at 135. You kind of got to expect it. Yeah. Um, but man, it carries so much flavor along with it. You just need to slow down a little bit. Just savor it.

Well, we've had four big boy distilleries.

Yeah. So heaven hill, Buffalo trace, uh, wild turkey and four roses. Yeah. My goodness. Well, I have to say that I could literally sit on my back porch with any one of these four and just watch an evening go away.

Pass the day. Pass the day.

For sure. And all four of these would stand up to a cigar, to barbecue, to... I mean, I would never let any of these touch a mixer, but if they did, they would make it the best I've ever had, I think.

It'd be interesting to try. Yeah.

I just not in the habit of taking, you know, highly sought after expensive exceptional whiskies and doing anything to them. Not that I don't know, but there's that. What would an old fashioned be like with one of these, you know? I mean, if I had to pick one of these four to have an old fashioned...

If you have a good mixologist, it could be like mind blowing, I guess.

Yeah. If I had to pick one of these four to have an old fashioned made with, I'd pick the stag, I think. Yep. That's pretty amazing. It would be good with that. I would feel so guilty. I shouldn't, but I would.

Yeah. I think the thing about these four pours is like, I mean, They just make you stop and like, like time seems to stop. You might get reminiscent, you know, think about what's happened in the past year or so in your life and just, I don't know. It just takes you somewhere else sometimes.

Well, I, I, I would highly encourage our listeners to have one bottle on your shelf that is at this level. And it doesn't have to be an antique collection bottle. I would say have one bottle on your shelf that is exceptional, memorable, got a story behind it, something that you really enjoy, something that, and when you do have people over to your house and they can appreciate, they can truly appreciate a good whiskey, share it with them, Nothing like sharing an exceptional, mind-blowing whiskey with somebody who's excited about whiskey as you are. Right. And it's so good. And I don't have a lot of those whiskies at that level. I have a few. And I know you have a little bit more than a few. Todd, your collection is very good, I'm sure. It's okay. It's okay. It could be better. Probably.

It could always be better, sure. It could always be better. Right.

But I always think there's something on my shelf that I can share with somebody and just give them an experience that makes their night. You've definitely made my night.

Again, I've enjoyed listening, and now I'm going to be a part of it. So it's, yeah, like I said, we've been talking about this. I was like, you've got to do something special for 400. I mean, it's just. Yeah. you know, something you got to do. So yeah, I brought out the bangers.

You did. You absolutely did. Well, we've got some great shows down the road, no doubt about it. We've got some great things coming up. We are constantly talking with distilleries and media outlets, and we've got bottles arriving at our doorstep on a regular pace. So we definitely have some great stuff coming up, folks. You definitely want to check us out. Always. I mean, always. You should definitely have us on Subscribe. Agreed. Yeah. You can always choose if you're going to play it or not, if you're going to cut the grass or take a drive or put the headphones on at night because your spouse is snoring. I mean, who knows?

Yeah, we can send you to sleep if you want.

Rob always tells, Rob Carter. often a guest on the show, he usually doesn't get past minute 10. You'll listen to it at night when he's going to bed and I think he just drifts off and goes, yeah, I listened to that episode.

Did you really, buddy? It's that soft NPR voices we have. I'm going to be honest, Jim's probably going to have to edit out a lot of quiet times because we both just kind of lick each other and smile about these pours.

That is a problem with having exceptional pours on the show. A lot of times you're just thinking, staring at the wall. You've got that dazed stare at the wall as you're sipping on the whiskey and you're just thinking about, oh my gosh, am I ever going to get to have this one again? Yeah. Yeah.

And again, the cost of these is, It's pricey. I mean, if you can find them at MSRP, jump on them, maybe. You know, like Jim was saying, like, you want a special bottle.

Yeah.

But, you know, otherwise, you know, if you're out on the Bourbon Trail or at a nice bar, I mean, there's a lot of nice bourbon bars out there in the United States. And, you know, if it's you're celebrating something, this would be a great celebration for with some friends that appreciate bourbon. And I mean, yeah, it's

Well, I'm going to go back to what I was saying a few minutes ago, and that is everybody needs to have that bottle on their bar, at least one, that you can share with your friends when they come over. That is an exceptional experience. I've got a number of them, not a lot, but I've got a few. Let me just pick one out. I've got a 2017 stag. that's still half full. And I share that with an awful lot of people. I had a sample of some 291, 146 proof single malt whiskey that was a four ounce sample, and I've probably shared it with 10 people. So keep in mind folks, if you do invest in one of these bottles that's expensive, hard to get, unicornish a little bit, and you have one on your bar, think how many people you can make their day. You can just have such a wonderful time with your friends when they come over and they do really last because you have to pour a reasonable pour. Half ounce, three quarters of an ounce.

Yeah, I think half ounce is a good size for something like this because these are four big old bourbons.

Yeah. I mean, when you're, when you're taking a 25 ounce bottle and that's what a fifth of whiskey is, if you take a 25 ounce bottle and you divide it to half ounce pours, that's 50 fun moments you get to have with that bottle. So have one in your bar. Just, just invest in one.

Yeah.

And just have a great time. Well, Todd, it's been fantastic. It's been a great 400th. I've had such an amazing time. Thank you for supplying the Bourbons for this show.

My pleasure. As you, I think I, I did fresh crack one of these, so it wasn't open, but the rest were open as you could tell. So, I mean, that's what I've done. I mean, that towards these tags about, about half, like you said, um, I shared that with some friends the other day. Um, actually a couple of days ago, one of them actually worked, works for Sazerac and is getting ready to move over to Switzerland and work at their lab over there.

Wow. Fantastic. Yeah.

So, um, we had a nice little bourbon share and may have stayed up too late and all that kind of stuff.

So that would be like a pretty cool job to be like working in the Sazerac lab in Switzerland.

Yeah. Except he's got three kids, so it's going to... The kids will adjust. They'll adjust, but it's been, I know he's... He's adapted well, but like, I'm not sure. Yeah. I don't, you know, I don't know. I take my kids over there and I'd be like, sounds great on paper. So, but it's a role changing, but we had a great night. Had a little cookout and. Um, we actually had a 2022 at George C. Stag that another friend of mine brought in the 2023. So nice comparison. Yeah. Lots of fun.

Yeah. Well folks, it's been a great 400th episode. It's been a great, uh, what is it now? Six years, almost six years of, uh, Putting out podcasts.

March 2019.

Yeah. We just keep doing it. We're just going to keep cranking them out. So make sure you hop up to the top of that podcast that you're listening to us on and hit that subscribe button. That way every single week when we come out with a new episode, you will get the. notification letting you know that in this case Jim and Todd have put another one out we do one every single week every single week we put out a new episode sometimes we got you know a whiskey business person on sometimes we got a You know, sometimes it's musicians, sometimes it's just Todd and I sitting around chatting. AMC likes to join us sometimes. Rob likes to join us sometimes. Sometimes we have some roadies on. It's always fun. We're always laughing. We're always drinking great whiskeys. Make sure you make time for us every single week. If you have time, check out the bourbonroad.com, our website. We've got all our podcasts on there. We've got our swag on there. You can get our t-shirts and our glassware and all those good things that a little bit of money coming in helps us get down the road. Do that next interview. We hope you listen to us every week, but until the next time, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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