404. Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Showdown

True destination was up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which is really close to Hershey, Pennsylvania. So we took the kids to Hershey Park and Chocolate World. Fantastic. But they loved that.

Yeah, yeah. Wore me out.

Let me tell you, riding some of those rides at my age is not a good idea anymore. You used to be able to spin and spin and the heights and all that stuff, but I always take ibuprofen now.

Hello 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.

Hey roadies, it's Diane Strong with Bourbon on the Banks Festival. We have got a great event planned for you this year. I can't wait to tell you all about it. Hang out for the half and I'll give you some more details. I hope to see you October 5th on the Banks in Frankfort, Kentucky.

All right, Todd, you ready to get to it? Yes, sir. Let's do it. All right. Well, we did get to warm up just a little bit before the show. You brought something that neither one of us had had before. Correct. And Amzie joined us.

Yeah. We're at the corner of Rick House. So he came down and shared a small one ounce sample that a friend of mine named Kelsey Dime from Hello Again Whiskey Friends was kind enough to send to me. It was the Russell's Reserve 15 year.

Yeah. And now how much is that a bottle if you can get it? I believe it retails for 250. Wow. Well, it was awful nice to get to taste that. What were your first impressions? It was...

really unique. We talked while we were sipping on it that, you know, usually you get that kind of warehouse funk and that was not a big, big part of the pour, but had like this candy cherry note, a lot of oak, obviously for a 15 year old product. I got like a burnt orange, you know, a lot of baking spice, cinnamon,

It had a good amount of cinnamon and a little bit of an exotic spice note to it. There's a lot of barrel there. Yeah, a lot of barrel. And I think the spice from the barrel was really kind of unique. It was a little dry.

Yeah, as we kept sipping, I noticed I was getting a little, that tongue was drying out a little bit.

But the more we sipped on it, the more the notes started to lean towards tobacco. I think Hamzy started to get some chocolate notes on it. They started to show up. In fact, he mentioned Mexican chocolate. Yeah, yeah. That spicy Mexican chocolate.

Yeah, but yeah, honored to get to try that.

So should everybody be on the lookout for it?

You should be on the lookout for it, for sure. But finding it, that's going to be one of those that's just going to be really hard to find. I know they dropped some at Walt Turkeys Gift Center. That was spent about three weeks ago. And yeah, they sold out before lunch, I think.

All right, here's the big question. 13 or 15?

I got to go 13. I like it. It doesn't have that huge oak presence that the 15 did. I mean, you know, someone's going to give me a bottle for my birthday. I wouldn't turn that.

No, it was definitely a great pour. It was definitely on the more oaky side. It showed its age more than 13 does.

Yeah, I just think 13 is that perfect wild turkey product to me. I mean, I've had some of the tributes and some of those older ones and, you know, No longer made.

Those don't count, but like modern day, yeah. And what's a 13 bottle going to run you?

I believe it's 150 ish. I mean, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So I mean, on the price scale, 13 on the flavor scale, it's a matter of preference. Some people like the older, oakier, drier whiskeys. And if that's the case, then the 15 would be right up your alley. For sure. For sure. But this is not a Wild Turkey or Russell's review show. Nope. This is actually Elijah Greg Barrett proof.

Can we call it a showdown or showdown or comparison?

Yeah. A walk through the years. Walk through the years. I like that. Yeah. I'm excited to try this. So you, you put this tasting together and that's something that you, uh, you, you do very well or put together tastings with kind of a theme.

Yeah. Like, I like theme pours. It's kind of fun.

So why don't you tell our listeners what you're thinking here tonight?

So what we have here today are four different Elijah Craig Barrel proofs. They are, I've got one from each of the past four years, including 2024. So we have an A124, a C923, C922 and an A121. So if you're very familiar with Elijah Craig's, you'll notice there are no B's, but that's just kind of the way I thought, let's just do some A's and C's.

Yeah, sure. And can we explain to the listeners how that Those numbers are derived what they mean. Sure.

The A and the one coincide with A will be the first release of each year and the one being January. So it's released in January. As I was talking, the B is the second release and it's usually has a five following it, which means it's usually released about May. And then the last one is usually a C and the nine, which sees the third release and the nine being September.

three releases a year, typically in January, May, and September. And they're all very carefully procured from the, I guess they're very careful about how they choose these bottles to put this together, the barrels, I mean, to put this together.

Yeah, and there's been some changes in the way they've done things in the past couple years. It used to be a 12-year age-stated product. And now these releases actually have the exact age statement. So there's been a 13-year release. There's been an 11-year, nine-month. There's been a, I think the A124, yeah, is a 10-year, nine-month. So they've kind of gone away from just a strict 12-year age.

Well, awesome.

So what's, what's, what's in our first class? So in our first class is the a 121 and it comes in at 123.6 proof. I'm just doing some. history stuff. I looked back, the first release of Elijah Craig barrel proof was in 2013. It was at their gift shop only. So I've been here, I guess, 11 years. Yeah.

And that was definitely a different bottle design back then. Yes.

I may try to throw on a photo of some of the, I've got a couple of the older bottles and they're known as the pirate bottle. Yeah. It's a very distinct bottle.

And they changed that bottle in 20, I was thinking 15, 16. It was 15 or 16? Yeah. And a lot of people were sad to see that go. Yeah, it's cute squat.

And yeah, I don't know why people get the pirate vibe from it. I don't know. When I think pirates, I think rums.

I think it was the font on the label was a pirate font. And they actually changed. I mean, it still has a little bit of a pirate font to the, to the label, don't you think? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just think that label, the way they did it with the with the background and the I think I had barrels on it or something. I believe so. Yeah. It just looked piratey. Yeah. OK. Arg. Arg. All right. So C, no, A121. A121. Cheers. Cheers. Well, this is totally different from our warm-up bourbon, the Russell's 15. This has an altogether different nose as it should.

And what was the age on this again? This is one of the older ones. So this is 12 year age stated. So the youngest bird in there is 12 years. They changed that in B523, which was last year's May release was the first one to be released as younger than 12. Okay.

A lot of spice to it. Kind of a barrel spice note. Yeah.

Not too much ethanol in the nose. No. 123.6. This one's not a nose puncher like some of them can be.

Nice caramel waft to it. Cheers. Cheers. It's like a honey nut thing going on there.

Hmm. Taking a cheers. Honey nut Cheerios on the nose a little bit. Oh my goodness.

It has been a minute since I, uh, since I had an ice cream barrel proof and that brings back some wonderful memories there. Good amount of oak to it. Yep. It's got sort of a burnt sugar caramel nose to it. I'm not getting a tremendous amount of fruit. It's more baking spice, a little bit of a nuttiness from the barrel.

Yeah, that's a lot of rich caramel on that.

Yeah, it definitely tempts you on the sides of your tongue a little bit. And you know, you get those... those bourbons that have those very savory notes to them, the sweet and savory mix that kind of make you drip a little bit. Yeah, yeah. I like that. Wow. Well, how did the 21, the A121 rate when it was released? Was it a higher rated? Do you remember or is it just, it's nothing that stuck out in your memory? No, I mean, Not super well received, but yeah.

These are, if you see one of these, these usually retail for about 75, 80 bucks. It's a good value. Yeah, for that age statement. And yeah, I mean, but like, this is coming off the 20s. The year of the 20 was a really good year. Both A120, B520, and C920 were all just really, really great bottles and releases. So why do you think that is? Why do you think they just, you think they just, luck of the draw? I think so. I mean, you think of like some of the other high-proof Releases like stag.

I mean, yeah, not every stag is or I should say stag jr But it's now just stag, but you know, those aren't always well received and then some are you know, I just I can always remember there being at least one Really good release in a year like and and I brought in some some some older ones for this show But we're focusing on 21 through 24 You know the c917 was really hugely popular, and then the B518 was big. And then I don't remember 19 that too much.

I think I've tried maybe one or maybe two 19. I don't know if there was a real standout in 19. My 17 and 18, I think I've tried maybe one. So I'm going to have to snag a poor of those that you brought.

Well, I've always enjoyed these and they are a bargain. I seem to remember they've always been sort of in the 50 to 70 range, even going back five to eight years. So they've always been in the $50 to $75 range.

Yeah, I think they've climbed up a little bit though.

A little bit, but still it's 75-ish. Even under 80, it's a bargain.

Like I talk about sometimes that 10 a year kind of thing. So it's below that 10 a year.

And they put out a lot of bottles, so it's something that everybody can get their hands on. So even in the times when things were highly allocated, it was hard to get anything, you could almost always expect to find one of these in the wild.

That's nice.

Now, are these always available in the gift shop, pretty much?

I haven't been there in a while, but I'd say on your day, you could probably grab this more often than obviously like the old Fitzgerald releases and some of that, was it Heaven Hills stock?

Well, it used to be that when you went to the gift shop at the distillery, you know, you always had your fingers crossed. You always hoped you could pick up one of the more rare bottles, but when you could, you could always get one of these. Yeah.

So, and then it's also a part of that kind of bottle your own experience. Now you can either, I think you do a Bernheim, a larceny and Elijah Craig. And then you, you sample those three and then you can bother your own kind of a barrel proof version of those now, which is kind of really interesting, unique.

I like all three of those, but I would probably lean towards the Elijah Craig. Yeah.

What about you? You know, I've tried some recent larcenies and I think they're really starting to hit their stride. So I don't know. I think it's just going to be one of those days where I'd have to try all three. I mean, I might go in thinking Elijah Craig, but you know. I mean, they're different animals.

Yeah, they're totally different.

Yeah. And then Bernheim's a, it's a really interesting wheat whiskey.

It can sizzle a little bit for me. I mean, I like it. And we've had it on the show a couple of times. But for me, it's a little bit, it drinks a little hot, usually, and doesn't have that softer aspect you might expect. But anyway.

I think that was kind of the gripe with the early larceny barrel picks. They were kind of spicy, but I think They've gotten letting those getting some age on those. So there's some. Yeah.

Yeah.

I think we'll do a larceny.

Yeah. The younger barrel picks can tend to be like that. Yeah. You know, the barrel picks, younger barrel proofs can tend to be like that. So yeah, my wife's a big fan of larceny. I've always been a fan of larceny just for like a, a kind of an average daily drinker kind of thing. Uh, but yeah.

I remember when it came out, I was actually working on a liquor store part-time. So we get to try that before it even hit the shelves. Yeah, I know.

I think it started out somewhere around $20 a bottle, didn't it?

Yeah.

It's kind of gone up. It's more like $27 now, I think. Not for the barrel proof, for just the standard. Right, just the regular standard. What is the barrel-proof L'Arsene at now for price? I want to say it's probably similar to this, but I could be wrong.

I should know this. I just got a C923. Yeah. I want to say about 70, 80. Yeah. Somewhere in there.

All right. Well, 21 was a good year. It's good. I want to hit a little bit of water here. Same here. Yeah. We're, we're hydrating folks. We're drinking barrel proofs here. Four in a row. The things we do for you guys. I know.

Sacrifices we make.

All right, so now we're moving to the C922. Correct.

And it is going to take a slight jump up in proof. It's 124.8. That's not too much different, but it has a little more darkness to it. It did look a little darker. I was noticing, I've got these sitting on some white paper and yeah, just a hair darker.

Yeah. Now when they say 12 years, that just means that that's the youngest bourbon in there. That doesn't mean they haven't snuck a few older, more mature barrels in.

Yeah, I think one of the things that people are so fascinated with those older pirate bottles is because, I mean, word is there's like 19, 20 year old Heaven Hill products in those. And I think that just gives it some serious richness. And somehow the oak's not overpowering on those. I've yet to find.

Yeah. Well, we'll see about C922. So this is the third release of, uh, 2022 released in September.

Let me keep this 21 close so I can do some.

Back and forth. Yep. Okay. This one doesn't have as much sweetness on the nose. It does smell a little. A little more on the dry side. Yeah. But a little less oak. Yep.

Not quite as spicy, but, um, more, more of the shell. Like we always talk, there's a bit of that, like peanut shell. Going to do the cover up. Okay. Let's see what happens here.

Actually, the nose is not as, uh, bold as the 8121 beats it in that category for sure. I'm expecting the palette on this to be a little more timid, but let's see. Yeah. Cheers. Cheers. It is just a just a tad less aggressive. Yeah. A little more nutty. Definitely more nutty. Yeah. This definitely has taken on those nuttier aspects of the barrel. And it has not, again, there's really not much fruit on this. I'm not getting a lot of any kind of cherry or anything like that. Less of that burnt sugar caramel. A little dry.

A little dry, brighter, brighter, like, I mean, there's a citrus thing going on, like citrus and. Yeah, I can see that.

It is a little more aromatic. but it is sort of that lightness that I'm getting from it. And I wonder if that might just be just a tad bit of citrus or mint in there that's just lightening it up a little bit. I'm gonna go back to, you're going back to the 121 again. I'm gonna.

Yeah, it's totally, so much more oak. This is Rick House. And oak really shines when you take a little sip. Yeah. That's what's fun about like these comparisons. If you can, you know, hang on to a few Bookers or Lodger Craigs or Staggs. Just kind of do a side by side. You'll be amazed at the differences you can get.

Wow, really different whiskies. This one here for me is It's a little more enjoyable. And the only reason I'm saying that is not from the nose. The nose on the first one was better, but on the pallet on this, I feel like it's more rounded, a little less, it doesn't jut out at all, kind of hits all parts of the pallet at once. It's not making me drip from the sides the way that 121 did, but this one's got a little bit more of a balanced pallet to it. You may not agree with me because number one was obviously very good. It got those salivating glands going. This tastes more like the classic barrel proof though, I think.

Like I said, I didn't really get a whole lot of nuttiness on that first one. Yeah. But yeah.

A little less sweetness for me. Not as soft, but more airy and light, but dry. I don't know. I think all in all, it's just a matter of preference at this point.

They're both excellent whiskeys. Yeah. You may have to combine them all at the end, see what happens. Ooh, that'll be good. The blend. All right.

All right, so. In all, what do you, when you talk about Elijah Craig Barrel proofs as kind of an obtainable high end quality whiskey that you can get your hands on, where does this rank? Like, like when you think about some other whiskies that are like, like Booker, you mentioned Booker's a minute ago. Booker's a little higher end. A little bit higher.

It's about at a hundred now, I guess. Yeah. So I would say finding either is probably about the same because there's probably more of the Elijah Craig released, I would say, maybe. I'm not, I would say. Yeah. So based on that fact, it should be, you know, a pretty good coin toss that you could find either. I know Bookers is readily available. I mean, it's, I mean, it's a seven year, six year kind of thing and it's 120. So I think that's kind of turned a lot of bourbon folks off. It's just kind of, you know, we talked about the 10 year price or 10 a year price value is, I mean, it's a nice goal, but it doesn't always happen.

I think it's a great value. I would tend to lean this direction. I love bookers.

I do too. I mean, I, if I see one, I usually grab one. Just, it's just, it's always good.

How far back do you have bookers going?

Probably 2020. Okay.

Well, we do our bookers episode. Let's reach back in time a little bit further. I think I have a 2016 unopened. Ooh, ooh, ooh. That sounds fun.

Yeah, I actually have Freddie picked a bookers specifically for the Beamed, Barreled and Boxed Club. So maybe we'll try that one too. There you go.

We could do like a 16 and 18, a 20, 22 and a 24. Six of them. We just better get a hotel room or something. I mean, it's going to be a long night. Yeah. Or double show.

Double show.

Part one and part two.

Part one and part two.

Well, I really like that. That's really good. It has been a while since I sat down with a bottle of Elijah Craig Barrelproof. When our collections, I don't know if I like to call them collections, when our bars get as big as they do, you kind of miss going back to a few labels that you might have frequented years back. you just don't get a taste of it as often.

Right, right. It's kind of nice to, like I said, I look at my collection sometimes I'm like, what do I feel like, you know, putting together and, you know, like I said, my friends and I share pours all the time. So like they'll send me, you know, a 17 or 18 Elijah Craig barrel proof, I'll compare it to some of the other ones. So it's always, Always fun.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, last week, was it last week we had the roadies come in from Ohio? Yeah. And I know we both met up with them, but we did it on different days. We did. So on Friday, we met them at Jephthah Creed. We had some cocktails at Jephthah Creed and tried a few whiskeys there. And then we were off to the dinner at the Bell House in Shelbyville.

Yet to go there. How is that?

It's really good. We had a great time. They treated us very well there and the food is just fantastic. The chef came out and hung out with us for a bit. Nice. It was really nice. So, yeah, folks, if you're traveling and you find yourself in... in Shelbyville, Kentucky, and it's a good place to start your trip from. It's kind of centralized. The bell house is a good place to have dinner now. It can get a little pricey. I mean, it's not super high end, but you're going to spend... 25 to 35 on a plate. Plus, if you have wine or cocktails, it'll add to it. But anyway, it's definitely a good place to go. But after that, I think we're 10 of us, we retired to the Rare Eagle Bar. The Rare Eagle Bar. With Rob Carter's place, which is getting ready to move, by the way. Yes. No. Yes. So the Rare Eagle Bar 2 is going to be under construction. Okay. And we'll all have to go out and help him christen it. That's right. Yeah. I think it'll be in the fall though. Maybe he needs some help with some of those bottles.

Maybe he wants to empty a few or something.

He told us when we came in, he said, help me drink some of these so we don't have to move them. Well, that's not going to happen. Right. But it was a great time to have our roadies in from from Ohio, good friends, definitely a lot of fun. Then on Saturday, you guys had a little outing, didn't you?

Yeah, so I met them at Castle & Key Distillery. They had taken a tour and I met them there. After that, we were going to go down, we ended up going down to Glens Creek Distilling because Doug wanted to take some photos down there and kind of walk the grounds. But talking to Distilling John, who's one of the, he's the distiller down there and that's what he goes by, Distilling John, quite a character. I asked him and he said they were just kind of busy and they hadn't really taken care of the grounds much and it was getting a little Sadly, it's getting a little more deteriorated every day because it's a- It's an unrestored place. Yeah. I mean, it's like tale of two cities almost. You go to Castle & Key where they've put a lot of money into it and restored as much as they can and probably still continue to restore things. Whereas Glen Creek's a much smaller operation. Obviously don't have the funds to fix it the way it would be amazing to see, but. It's more of an archeology site. Yeah, yeah. It kind of looks like the back set for a Walking Dead episode or something. And then you guys came back here and? Yeah, then we came back here and I poured some special stuff for them. I think we cracked open a Stagg C923. I owed Doug for that old Hunter the sixth year because he had figured out what the yards was, speaking of pirate balls, yards. Oh, yeah. He figured that out. And yeah, so I got to meet, you know, I'd only met he and Lara, right? Yeah. So I got to meet the rest of the crew. So that was a lot of fun. And, you know, talked to history and they're just good people. And then they actually, I cleaned up and they walked down to Porter's, which is one of our newer places where you kind of, it's a beer place, but you pay by the ounce, which is really unique.

Just go over to the wall and pour your own, and it clicks off the ounces for you. Yeah, so you can buy a 42-cent beer, maybe. All right. Well, it sounds like you guys had a good time, and then they stayed through till the following Tuesday and made a good trip out of it. So roadies, if you're coming this way, if you're going to come hang out in Bourbon country, make sure you let us know. We'd love to share a pour with you at some point. We can't always go out and do the big tour, but we can always have a pour with you somewhere. So we'd love to meet up with you. Well, it's been a great first half. We've had two really good whiskeys here. I'm looking forward to the second half. We're going to have two more Elijah Craig barrel proofs that you've set aside for us here. We're going to go up in years, not up in age, but up in 23 and 24.

Yeah.

So, all right, folks, we'll stick around. We'll be right back.

Hey roadies, it's Diane Strong again with Bourbon on the Banks Festival. Thanks for waitin' to hear the details about our event this year. I'm so excited. I want you to come into Frankfort, Kentucky on October 5th. We're gonna celebrate along the banks of the Kentucky River. We've got over 70 distilleries this year. You get your sample glass and you get to go to town. Here's a real quick rundown of the events we've got goin' on. Thursday we've got Mixology on the River with O.H. Ingram and Heather Wibbles. After that event, you can head out to Whiskey Thief Distilling for our official kickoff party. Friday, you can indulge in a bourbon pairing with no other than Peggy No Stevens. Freddie Johnson's gonna join her for the fun and you're gonna be tasting some Buffalo Trice. Then get dressed up for our VIP reception and bourbon auction, courtesy of Whiskey Thief Distilling. You have a chance to bid on your very own barrel pick experience from both Whiskey Thief and Four Roses Distillery. And don't forget, if you're bringing your family, you need to head downtown on Friday night at about six o'clock because we have got an amazing free family-friendly event brought to you by X-Free Credit Union. We've got fire performers, acrobats, street performers, music, food, tons of free activities for the kids. The main event, of course, is on Saturday, October 5th. This year we've got over 70 distilleries to sample from, which is included in your ticket price. We've got bourbon-themed merchants, live music, delectable food, and the event promises to be unforgettable. I want you to go to bourbononthebanks.org to get all the details for all the events we've got going on. Some are ticketed, some are free, but I guarantee you're going to have a great time here in historic downtown Frankfort, Kentucky. Bourbon on the Banks Festival brought to you by Limestone Farms.

Welcome back to the Bourbon Road. We're having a Elijah Craig barrel-proof taste-off kind of thing. If you've got some Elijah Craig handy, grab some and join us.

We had two great ones in the first half. We had the A121. And we had the C922, both great pours. I let the cat out of the bag a little early and said I preferred one over the other, but maybe we'll wait till the end and give our grand surprise. That sounds good. All right.

So let's move on to... Our 2023 representative, if you will, this is a C923. This actually has an age statement of 13 years and seven months. It's a little bit older. A little bit older. Is it a little bit better? That's the question. Is it? We'll find out. And came in at 133 proof.

Whoa. So we're bumping up the proof here just a little bit. Yeah.

This is the big boy of the four. Okay. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays into it.

And the Elijah Craig Bell proofs typically range anywhere from about Actually, I have that information. Oh, you do? OK. I did a little homework. Why don't you fill us in here?

Yeah. 118.2 was the lowest. I believe that was in 21. But then the highest ever was the only hazmat they released was 140.2. And that was like, I think, maybe 14 or 15, something like that. OK. Wow. Yeah.

All right. C, 923, going to the nose. Oh my goodness. That's rich. Yes, it is. I'm getting a little sting on the nose, but you know, we jumped up a good 10 to 12. I'm definitely getting a little bit more ethanol on the nose.

That's about nine, right? Yeah. I think it's 124.

Oh, that's right. Yeah. But a lot more richness to it. A little more concentrated.

It's like a butter pecan thing going on. Yeah, it is buttery. You'd like to say pralines. This has got a praline thing going on there.

And pralines are sort of burnt sugar over pecans? Pecans. Pecans, yeah. Wow. This definitely made an early impression on me here.

Yeah, I'm also getting a little berry, like a raspberry.

It has a little bit of that character, that light character that came off of 922, that sort of lightened it up a little bit. This has a little bit of that too. But there is a little bit of fruitiness to it. A little bit lighter on the spice, a little bit lighter.

Cheers. Cheers.

Oh, wow. So this is different. This one's definitely amped up. Yeah. It kind of, for me, it's got the best of the previous two that we had. I would agree with that, yes. It kind of, I can feel it. I'm starting to salivate down the sides of my tongue. What I really liked about 121 and what I really liked about 922. They. It's got both and it's wow.

Not a big. Oak presence like you like you'd expect. Yeah, I mean, it's about ideal, I guess. I mean, it's there, but it's not. It's not the star of the show.

The nuttiness is there, but it's not as prevalent. It almost has like a little bit of juicy fruit kinda to it. I can see that.

Wow. That one's coating the whole town too.

Yeah. I really like this one. Yeah. This is a- Spoilers. Yeah, spoilers. Well, I hadn't, I don't think I've had the C923. Or if I had, I don't remember.

This is one you might find difficult to find. This one, big fan of the bourbon nerds, if you will.

Yeah, I would say so.

Had that age statements a little higher.

Yeah.

Pretty good proof.

Got some good reviews. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

That's a really good bourbon. That's a good one. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I'm going to stick with the whole juicy fruit on this. I kind of get that now that it's on my brain. I think if I remember correctly, I do like barrel proofs that tend to find themselves in the thirties, typically. I think that's a good place for an Elisha Craig barrel proof. Yeah, I would say or high one twenties or high one twenties. Yeah, absolutely.

What's crazy is some of those pirates are, I mean, one thirty four and higher. Yeah. I've got a couple of their one thirty eight, one thirty six and man, they drink so well.

Yeah. It kind of same holds true for bookers, right? They kind of fall in that same range. I think it seems like most of there's

122 to 128. Yeah. It seems like, I mean, sometimes you'll see them, probably those odor bottles, maybe.

Yeah.

I'm not sure what your 16 is. Yeah. But some of those odor releases I've had like country ham and. Yep.

Sip a while. Remember sip a while? That was always a real popular one.

Man, that's good.

Yeah, it is really good. Did you get the the midyear release on this? From May trying to think.

I don't believe I did. I think I may have an A123. Yeah, yeah, I've kind of missed here and there. I mean, yeah, same here. It's a. It's a matter of like, you know, if you go out and you see one, I don't know.

I've got a nice, healthy collection, so I'm trying to tone it down a little bit. I've kind of felt the same way. We haven't had Elijah Craig Barrowproof on the show for a while because we have focused on a lot of new releases of new brands and new expressions from well-known distilleries, and we just haven't gone back and done a lot of the tried and true things like we're doing today. You look at yourself and you see, you know, five Elijah Craig barrel proofs lined up or five or six of them lined up on your shelf. Like, I don't need to buy another one of those right now.

Yeah, that's kind of the where, where I'm at. I mean, of course I say that if I go into Kroger and see one, if I see B, B 524, okay. It's B 524 out.

If it is, I've not seen it. I mean, they call it B 524, but it comes a month or two later.

It seems like it's a, yeah. I mean, we're just. Getting ready to jump into August, so I don't know.

Well, I'll tell you what, this really has a tremendous finish on it. It really sticks with you. I think you mentioned it's very coating. I think it coats your palate and you really, you could sit with this one for quite a while. Yeah. And not a big pour, a small pour. You could sit with a small pour of this for 30, 40 minutes, maybe longer and be just fine. Yeah.

It's, um, it's, it's an excellent, excellent. I mean, spoilers. It's a leader in the clubhouse for me. Is it?

Yeah. All right. Well, we're going to find out at the end here. We still have another one left folks. Don't let us sway your, uh, your decision early if you're just going off our tasting notes. Yeah.

So there's a lot of talk that a barrel, you know, Elijah Craig also has a rye. So there's been a little chatter and, you know, in the bourbon world about them doing some barrel proof rye. So be interesting to see if that happens. I mean, give the people what they want kind of thing. That's what I would say.

I would say that would be not, how long have they had the rye out? Five or six years. Four or five years?

I wanna say five or six sounds more.

Five or six. So, and I'm gonna say it was probably four-year-old rye, five-year-old rye, typically.

Yeah, I would say so.

So we're looking at having some 10-year-old stocks.

I mean, the closest thing you would have to the barrel-proof rye from them right now, I guess, would be, what, Pikesville?

The 115 pixel. Yeah.

Yeah. Which is an excellent, excellent portfolio.

But that's its own mash bill, right?

Actually, in talking to Bernie Lubbers, I thought all three of those mash bills were the same, just from different tiers of the Rick house. And obviously the proofs are different because you have, what's their, Oh, Rittenhouse.

Rittenhouse would be there. And these are all Kentucky rides. Yeah. Well, Rittenhouse is supposed to be a Pennsylvania ride.

Yeah. I don't remember the Mashville on that, but yeah, I got the chance to kind of hang out with Bernie Lubbers and Jason Caloria, the mashing drum one time and it was, We were talking about like The Rise. Yeah, Jason was interviewing. It was really cool.

Did he break out his guitar?

No, nothing like that.

He's a great guy.

Lots of fun. Yeah, quite a character.

Well, that's one for the books right there. I'll tell you, that is an excellent pour. All three of them up to this point have been really good. And I'm not going to tip my hat and let you know what it is just yet. All right, so what do we have next?

The last one on our menu, if you will, is A124. This is a 10-year nine month. So big drop in age and a big drop in proof. This one's wine 19 proof.

OK, so we've dropped the age and we've dropped the proof down almost to the low point of history, but not quite.

Yeah, just I guess what I say, 118.2 was the lowest. Again, I think that was in 21, but don't hold that against me.

So if you go out and you're looking for an Elijah Craig barrel proof on the shelf, it's very likely that this will be the one that you find right now. Yeah, I would think so.

It's not gotten rave reviews, but yeah, I mean, again, it's hard to go wrong with one of these if you find it.

But I mean, it does work that way, though, with the proof, right? When a high proof version comes out, it gets a lot of fanfare.

Yeah, a lot of times for sure. And the age as well.

Yeah. Yeah. So when it came out with a shorter age and a lower proof, everybody's like, eh, eh.

Skip this one, yeah, maybe.

Skip it. If I got to skip one, this would be the one kind of deal. I don't know. Let's wait for B.

It's really interesting how all the big boys handle their barrel proofs, though. There's no age statement on stag. The proofs vary, but those tend to be in the 130s most of the time. Maybe a slight dip in the high 120s. And then you have like we were talking boogers 120 to 128 ish age statements are like six years and a few months to seven and a few months now seems like most of the time. Let's see who else. Anyone else that really puts out like a try in your and I even know like stag is larceny. I mean, yeah, it's kind of just those those big three in that. Yeah, I think so. But I mean, even Stag's gone to like using a little letter like to. differentiate, so they have an A, B, and C now.

It used to just be like the proof. Yeah. You know, I mean, you've got rare breed, but that's kind of a different animal because they make so much of it in each release that the releases last for like four or five years or six years.

Yeah, we talked about when we had the wild turkey tasting, how that batch proof has been at this proof for quite a while, or this batch has been at that proof for quite a while.

It has been. Nothing I'm complaining. No. Oh, it's fantastic. Yeah. But I'm ready for something fresh and new and exciting.

Yeah, I think the label may be changing, you know, while Turkey is probably the one of those that changes their label more than anybody.

Yeah. But they don't change their whiskeys very often. That's one thing that they hold tried and true to is their mash bills and they're in their. Yeah, I mean, they do come out with some fun stuff, but.

They stick to their guns.

Well, I'm liking this. I am going to say this, though. It does have a little bit of that ethanol bite on the nose like the higher proof one does. That's really interesting considering it's the lowest. I know. Yeah. I know. It does have that fresher note to it.

Oh, wow.

It's really fun to go back and nose the other ones as you nose.

Yeah. I remember 922 had such an unassuming nose to it, but the palette I thought was good.

And again, 121.

121. Nice, really nice nose. Nice nose.

We may have to rate these on nose and then overall.

923 is something special. No doubt. But this one has a little bit more of a sort of a sugary note to it. OK. Right. I'm going to hit the palette. You go ahead and do your do your nose trick there. Nose trick. Oh, this one wins texture all day long. That is soft. Yeah. Yeah, this one has a very nice texture. Little bitter note to it though. Yeah. But I love that creaminess that that soft silky texture it has. I didn't get that in either of the other three. It does have a nice, I'm going back to the nose. I'm getting that freshness that A little bit of a ethanol bite on the nose. More sugary.

This one's more sweet and sugary. This might be the sweetest of the four. Yep.

I like it. I do too. Yeah. I like it a lot. It's got the nutty notes coming back on this one a little bit. A little bit of almond. Definitely almond. Almond extract almost. I like that. Yeah.

Yeah, that's nice.

Yeah. You know, sometimes when you get something like this that has something that the other ones don't, like that texture, you're like, oh, well, maybe this is in the running.

I don't know. It really stands out. Yeah. Yeah.

All right, folks. You thought you had us all figured out there. By the time we finished with C923, they had already figured out who the winner was going to be. But I don't know. I think it's still up in the air. Yeah, it's got a little bit more of that icing kind of cream, cream sugar icing. Buttercream. Buttercream, is that what it is? Yeah, buttercream icing.

A lot of vanilla, yeah.

Yeah, very, very silky, very smooth. Nice finish on it.

The other thing you folks might see out there at some of your private stores, your total wines and your liquor barns and things like that is, I guess it was probably about Three or four years ago, they started doing some barrel picks. So I know those are usually age-stated. And then, yeah, I've seen proofs all over the place, of course.

They're going to be very, I would imagine, they're going to be very different from the batches. Yes, for sure.

Because I've had some that have been stellar and some, yeah, fine.

Yeah.

You know, as with all things sometimes. Sure. Some shine a little brighter.

Really liking the finish on this one. So for me, the finish on this one isn't quite as long as the 923. But for me, it's a little more pleasant. And that could just be the fact that the viscosity of it makes it hang on to your paddle a little bit longer.

This is the one I might grab for if I'm sitting outside and it's really hot. Yeah. And I'm like, eh, sit there. I don't want something low proof. Yeah.

It does have a little freshness to it too.

Yeah, it does. Whereas the C923, I think that's one of those like, It's dark, it's a little cooler kind of vibe. But yeah, that A124 is nice. I like.

Man, I don't want to say I forgot about Elijah Craig Barrelproof, but I did sort of put it on the back shelf.

It's hard to forget the man who invented bourbon, they say.

I know it. I know it. There's a lot to pick from out there. There's a lot to choose from. There's a lot of new releases, a lot of new exciting whiskeys. And you have to draw your attention to what's in front of you at the moment. And sometimes these, these bottles like the Elijah Craig barrel proof just sort of drift into your memory for awhile. Yeah.

I mean, I get on craft kick sometimes. I mean, I've got a really interesting, um, rye from a new place called Liberty Pole and it's a Monongahela rye. And, you know, it's just, I don't know, just every once in a while you're like, oh, let's go back to the classics. Kind of, it's kind of the way I look at it.

Yeah, I was just in, Iowa this last week and we went up for the Bix race. My wife actually was in the Bix race. It's called the Bix 7. It's an Iowa thing. Our Iowa listeners out there going, yeah, Jim came to Iowa. Yeah, my wife was in the Bix and we went out and sat and watched the race and had a good time, but I did get a bottle of... What kind of race? It is a seven mile race. They had 20,000, 22,000 people show up, I think. 17,000. I don't know. Like almost 20,000 people showed up to run this race. And as with most of these races, I think the prize was taken by a Nigerian probably. But yeah, it's a seven mile serious elevation race. Oh, wow. That's cool. Well, serious Midwest elevation. So Colorado people are going, that's not elevation. That's right. Yeah. But anyway, it's a very, very popular race. It's been around for a lot of years. A lot of people show up for it. That's cool. Yeah, she did it with her girlfriends from high school because my wife graduated in Iowa. But we went out and did that. But the store I'm trying to get to here is I went to Iowa and I got a bottle of the Field of Dreams. Ooh. And so we were drinking on that field of dreams just a little bit. And we'll do a review later on it, but there's a whiskey out there, folks, where the corn was grown in the field of dreams, which is the field from the movie with Kevin Costner, where Shoeless Joe comes out of the, well, they all come out of the corn fields.

Ray Liotta.

Yep, and great movie, great story. The corn comes out of that field, they grow it, and then they ship that corn off to, I guess, Minnesota, have it actually distilled, or Wisconsin, maybe Wisconsin have it distilled. So, it's not distilled in Iowa, but the corn comes from the field of dreams, which is kind of a neat story, right?

It is interesting, yeah.

But I had a little bit of that and drank through a few whiskeys while I was out there. But mostly I would say that we had, it was a beer drinking trip.

I like those two. Yeah, so I was telling you before we get on, I took my fam on the whirlwind tour of, I guess we stopped in Morgantown, West Virginia for one night. And that was entirely just to let the, for kind of like halfway to where we were going and let the kids swim and went to a brewery and had a really nice pizza there. And then our true destination was up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which is really close to Hershey, Pennsylvania. So, we took the kids to Hershey Park and Chocolate World. Fantastic.

Bet they loved that. Yeah, yeah. wore me out.

And let me tell you, riding some of those rides at my age is not a good idea anymore. Like, you know, you used to be able to spin and spin and the heights and all that stuff, but it kind of like, I always take ibuprofen now.

But we went to Amish country one day and

Check, you know, went to some really neat places. Uh, burden, burden hand, um, Pennsylvania. And then on our way back, we stopped at a little place called Bentleyville and then, um, just stayed the night swam because my kids have both learned to swim. So they, they are pool fanatics now. And then, um, the last couple of nights we stopped in Columbus. So we went to the Columbus zoo, did that. We went to a Lego land discovery.

Oh yeah. I know about that place. So you get to Cosi. The Columbus Science Museum? Oh, no, no. That's a neat place. And when you go back, next time.

We stayed there at the downtown Hilton and really nice pool. And that one had a hot tub, so I was especially fond of that one.

I kind of take my pains away from the entire week, but we had a great time.

That's fantastic. As you said, that was kind of my... Took a few pours with me. I've got a nice little carrying case that I can put some stuff in, but more craft beer. I had a lot of Pennsylvania stuff and Ohio stuff.

And I mean, I love it. I really like it a lot. My wife's a big fan and we'll hit those places together. And well, you know, I'm always looking for local whiskeys, always. But it seems like when her and I are hitting the town, we're hitting the breweries. Yeah.

And, you know, typically if you can find a good brewery, you can find, I mean, you know, that's a good place for us to eat because my kids are a little picky. They're like mac and cheese and cheeseburgers and chicken tenders. You know, it's kind of hard to get them to go to, you know, something really unique and obviously I saw the Ruth's Chris steakhouse there, but I'm like, no, not for me and the kids. No, probably not.

I agree with you there. We'll save that for the wife and I, right? Yeah. Well, I went back and drank just a little bit I had left of the 924. And I thought, well, I'm going to sip on that 923 and compare it. I've got just a drop of it. And man, it's close. And are we to that point now where we can talk about it, you think? Yeah, I'm going through just taking on a small sip of each. Yeah, I think I'll do the same. I just went back to the 923, had just a little bit left and I'm on the 922. Really good for me. But it is drier, a little bit more of a little bit of a tannin to it. Okay. You got your, you got it?

I got my palate. Yeah. I mean, nose I think is a little different. But yeah.

All right. Man, it's close for me, but I think I know what I want. All right. You tell me your number one, then I'll tell you my number one. Oh, you want to start at the bottom? You want to start at the bottom? Oh, so number four?

My fourth place is going to be A121.

Mine too. OK. All right. My third place is 922, C922. My third place is C922. OK, so we're spot on with each other now. What's your second place?

Can you add a drum roll? My second place is a 124. OK. And I'm going to agree with you on that, but just barely. Just barely. Just barely. It's not getting the love, and I'm not sure why. I mean, I guess it's that lower proof thing, but man, it's. I just think that. Go find this.

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. It's on the shelf today. This is the one you're going to find if you go out.

If B524 is out, go ahead and grab that and let us know what you think. Yeah.

But today's winner, I think by unanimous decision, is C923. Yeah. And I have to say, if you can get your hands on that one, if it's still out there in the wild and you can get your hands on it, or you have a buddy with it and you can have a pour together, I think you'll really enjoy it. It is packed with flavor. But man, this year's release, this year's first release, A124, has a tremendous texture to it.

Silky, smooth. Best texture of the four, I would say.

Yeah, absolutely.

Wow.

Well, this has been awesome for me because I haven't revisited these in quite some time. And I'm glad to do it. Yeah. The funny thing is, I'm sure we could round up four more different ones. I bet we could. The problem with going, like I said, I brought some older ones. Going back, people just can't get them. Just can't get them, yeah. Just can't get them. And people are like, well, why are you reviewing that? Because I can't put my hands on it. But can they get a hand on the 121 or 922? Maybe not.

Maybe not. But that A124 should be out there somewhere.

Yeah. Yeah, I would definitely say that if you have an opportunity to go out to a store and search for Analogy of Craig Barrelproof and you can get your hands on the A124 from this year, that it is a definite buy recommendation for both of us. Agreed.

Been a great show, Todd. Yeah, it's fun. Like I said, it's always fun to take a look at your collection and see what you can do with, you know, just kind of play around. Yeah, I got some more. They're all up here. Oh my goodness. I'm warning my head folks. Stay tuned, folks. I mean, he's going to turn out some good shows.

Well, it's been a lot of fun, Todd. I appreciate the invite out to the Corner Rick House again. It's always fun to come here and hang out. This is a great spot. Studio B. Studio B. Yeah, I like it.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, we do have a couple of older ones we might try here once we get off the air. In the meantime, I had a wonderful time. I really enjoyed it. Same here.

All right. It's always good to have some great boards with you.

All right. Well, you can find the Bourbon Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, threads, pretty much all of them. We do a show every single week on Wednesdays. Todd and I get together. We'll review some whiskeys like we did today. We'll have a guest on sometimes. We try to mix it up a little bit. We're always having fun. Always drinking whisky. And you don't want to miss it. So the best way to not miss it is to climb up to the top of that app you're on, hit that subscribe button. That way every week you'll get a notification that Todd and I have dropped another episode. We'll make your day, we promise. So check us out every week, but until the next time, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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