405. Going Off-Road with Todd Ritter

And when you think back to your childhood, what was your favorite cereal? Captain Crunch Berry. Captain Crunch Berry.

Yes. Wow. But I would always eat the yellow ones first and that way I had all the berries last.

Yeah. I have to say that Apple Jacks was really close for me. It might've been my favorite. I liked Apple Jacks. I loved I like Captain Crunch too. Yeah.

I was a granola kid too. Raisin Bran.

I wasn't a big Trix kid. I wasn't a big, what's that? The little leprechaun with marshmallows. Lucky Charms. Lucky Charms. I wasn't a big Lucky Charms person. Yeah, they were alright. But I always liked the Apple Jacks. 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, folks, we got a really interesting show for you today. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to actually do something a little different today than we've ever done before, and that is we're actually going to have our warm-up pour to start off the show. Yeah. A lot of times we'll have that pour in advance of the show just to warm up our palate to make sure as we're tasting things, it's not on a virgin palate for the day.

I like it to think of my old sporting days. It's like palate stretching.

Yeah.

That's kind of the way I see it. It's a warm up exercise. Yeah. Instead of bending and touching my toes, I'm taking a sip of something and just getting the palate ready for the day.

Yeah. So forewarning, there are no bourbons on the show today. Even in the warm up here, there's not a bourbon. No, not today. Not today. But we do have some whiskeys and we have some other things that we won't let the cat out of the bag just yet. OK. But Todd, you had reached out to me and said, hey, why don't we do something off road. And I'm thinking to myself, wait, I already sold my Jeep.

hop in my four-wheel drive truck, let's go. So what did you mean by that? Just, you know, sometimes you're, you can get a little tired of bourbon or rise and that kind of thing. So like, you know, if you're looking for something a little different, that's kind of, you know, maybe give these a whirl. We've got some, got a wide variety of stuff that obviously some you'll, you'll have heard of and then others probably I'd expect might be the first time you've ever heard of it.

Now, we've done things on the show before that are not bourbons or rye. And we kind of always said, we'll take a side road once in a while, right? But I actually like off-road. I like that term a lot better. So we're going off-road today. Yeah, well off-road.

All right.

Well, in our warm-up glass is, in fact, a rye whiskey, though.

It is. I was lucky to be chosen to this is a Bardstown Rye that I helped mash and drum Jason Clory picked just this Thursday. So we got to take a little sample home with this and this is a 95.5 Rye. Came in, I believe, at 118 proof. And with their rise single barrels, they're also still doing that cherry wood that they get from, I believe it's from West Virginia. So they're still doing that process. And this one was actually used in a second use, that cherry wood barrel. The other three were in the first time you spent like real different. So this one really stuck out and it was aged in it for like 18 months. So this is about, yeah, like a six year rye. And it's really, it's really different.

Yeah. So this is literally fresh out of the barrel. You pulled it. It's currently Sunday. Three days ago, you pulled this out of the barrel. Yeah. Yeah. Fresh out of the barrel.

We had six of us on the pick and yeah, a lot of fun. All four, you know, you always love one of those outlier picks. I think I've talked about that. It's always nice when you get one, it's just like, you know, the angels singing, this is the one kind of thing. And this was really tough. I mean, we knocked two of the barrels out and they were all, you know, actually I thought the best nose was on the very first one we, we, took out of the running, but it just didn't have the palate. I mean, it was still a nice palate, but just didn't linger like that nose did. Well, let's try this.

And when we're done, we'll talk a little bit more about the pig. Sure.

So I expect you'll probably start to see these more often. I know some of their single barrel bourbons are hitting shelves out there a lot of places. I know Total Wines had some.

Okay, so we're dealing with a rye here that's at or above six years, just above six years old.

Yeah, I don't know if that included the actual aging and I think you can actually include that now. I believe they changed how that works.

So as long as it goes directly from barrel to barrel. I believe so. So this is a single barrel placed into another single barrel. So it wasn't bashed and then re-single barreled, right?

Like I said, this one was out of the, the rye was put into the cherry wood and then put in a second use cherry wood. Yeah. Got it.

But I'm just wondering if they maintain the integrity of the original single barrel or if it was a batch process back to a single barrel.

I would assume single barrel to batch them back to single barrel. Single barrel to single barrel.

Oh, wow. See, that's an expensive way to do it. And it's a risky way to do it too, but you can end up with a lot more variety.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Well, I love the nose on it. It does have a nice little bit of a smoky note to it. Yeah. That barrel char shines. So the barrel has definitely played a big part in the nose on this one. Darker fruits. Yeah. So, um, almost, uh, and I say this a lot, but when I get it on the nose, you're trying to imagine what it's going to be on the palate. I always think it's going to be like a fruit jam. It's going to be a little jammy. Here's to the palate. Cheers. Cheers. That's got a nice, nice texture to it. Yeah. Comes off a little root bearish.

A little bit. A little sassafrasy.

Yeah. And it really does kind of hit your whole palate at once. It doesn't kind of work its way back. It kind of just introduce itself everywhere.

Yeah. Spicy cinnamon kind of sits on the tongue a long time. I think that's why it did so well. It just had this finish. It just doesn't go away.

Yeah, it does. It does have a nice texture to it. And that always leads to like a finish that just lasts a little bit longer. I think anytime it's a little more sticky, a little bit more viscous, it'll tend to hang around a little bit longer. Yeah. The sentiment is probably for me the most prominent note on this. Um, but I think it's, it's almost like a, um, Like a cinnamon chalk candy kind of, I don't know. The Neko's you were talking about. Yeah, Neko candy. Why can't I ever remember that name? Sometimes I eat late and sometimes it's not the best food to eat late, like a taco or something. So, you know, Tums are kind of by my bedside. Gotcha. And Tums taste a heck of a lot better these days than they used to. Yeah, I actually have some of the chewy ones and they're like candy. Yeah. So yeah, that chalky kind of candy, Neko's, Neko wafers, I guess is what it is. But this has got like fireball poured all over them. Yeah. Yeah. Really good. Do you think this drinks higher than six year age or lower?

say, I think it drinks a little younger maybe. And that might just because, like we said, it's about a four plus year and then the 18, 19 months in the second might have.

So that secondary finishing is not really adding that depth of age to it. It's just adding that depth of flavor. Yeah, definitely. Well, fantastic. So tell me a little bit about this pick and what was the theme of the pick?

So this is a pic for Mashing Journeys going to have an event in late September. I think it's the 28th, 29th, and it's going to be in Bardstown. And the Bardstown Blitz is what they're calling it. And so we met and. this pick and this will be a part of like the through their patreon and now it's actually open to the public you can i believe it's 120 125 no maybe 175 for a ticket and they've got events lined up and a bottle share and then you if you pay for a ticket you'll also get a bottle bottle this uh this right we just pick here yeah so

It's a nice little deal. Well, $175 is probably a fair price for an event like that, a weekend event, without a bottle. So to get a bottle on top of it is a pretty good deal.

Yeah, one of the events they're going to have is actually at Bardstown where you can pick up your bottle and there'll be tours and all that.

Well that's a couple of weeks after, well not quite a couple of weeks, almost a couple of weeks after the Bardstown Bourbon Festival and then like the week before Bourbon on the Banks.

Yeah, that was kind of a bad part because Scott and Jason both came to Bourbon on the Banks last year. And so with this going on, they're obviously not going to come back the next week and do it all over again. But yeah.

Yeah, we'll miss them there. But we'll be there. We'll be there this year. Yes, yes.

With our bells on.

Bells on.

Big 30-foot tent and all the goodies. Yeah, representing the hometown. We just learned recently from Diane Strong that all the general mission tickets are sold out. And if you're wanting to come, there are still some Twilight tickets left, and they may open a few more of those up to folks.

The crowd can tend to thin a little bit after a couple hours simply because people are starting to fill up on their bourbon, and they're wise enough to say, I need a little break.

Yeah, yeah. You know, you have that early, early rush and then yeah, a couple of hours later you start seeing.

Yeah. I would definitely say folks, if, uh, if you hadn't picked up your tickets for bourbon on the banks this year, um, I'm not going to say shame on you. But I will say we've mentioned it enough on the show. You should have been aware that it's something you need to get on board for, but a Twilight ticket is a perfect answer to that problem.

Yeah.

I mean, you'll get, I think you get to come in at four and it's like four to six, maybe. Four to six. And then the rest of the evening events as well. Plus you can come in on Thursday before it and then do all the other stuff.

Right. There'll be a after party there real close to where all of the, uh, the distilleries are pouring and yeah, there's also tickets for some of the other special events like the I believe there's a few left for the Peggy Nell Stevens bourbon tasting and food pairing. And then there's also a few tickets left for a boat trip with Miss Wibbles. Heather Wibbles. Heather Wibbles, yes.

Cocktail Contessa. Cocktail Contessa.

And you actually get a free book with that. And you get to try like three or four different cocktails, I believe, and appetizers.

Well, just listen in, folks, to the halftime spot we have for Bourbon on the Banks. You'll get all those details, but I highly suggest if you had any... Any idea about showing up this year for the event? Don't consider yourself out of the running just because you didn't get a general admission ticket. You can still pick up a twilight admission ticket and still attend all the other events that are happening, uh, along with this. And it starts Thursday actually, I think with an event and then the kickoff party at whiskey, whiskey thief. Yeah.

I mean, even if you weren't going to do the whole Saturday, Sunday thing, I mean, You can do that for sure. Come out to a whiskey thief. I mean, it's going to be a lot of fun. We'll be there. I mean, I'll be there. You don't either? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a good deal. Love those guys. Looking forward to it. Well, this is a great rye whiskey. I think I'd like to own a bottle of this. Pretty nice stuff. Yeah. Good. They say they ended up with like 150, 160 bottles out of that barrel.

Um, I think that it's going to be more like probably in that 180, 200 probably. I mean, the sixth year.

Okay. Well, I was just reading one of Jason's posts and he got like 160. Maybe I'm confusing it. Uh, that might've been the other pick they just finished up. Not this one.

Yeah. The copper and cast.

The copper and cast. That's right.

Yeah, Jason's notorious for, he and Scott sometimes get really short barrels and that's just, it's kind of the luck of the draw. You can get an outstanding pick and it could roll out 50 or 60 bottles is all you'll get out of it sometimes.

I think more times than not, a short barrel can turn out to be really good, really delicious. And that's why you end up picking them, not realizing how short the barrel is. You win on one hand, you lose on another. At the end of the day, it's all a wash. Yeah. All right. Well, in addition to keeping a mind open to attending Bourbon on the Banks, even with a Twilight ticket, if you didn't get your general admission, Jason and Scott still have some tickets available for their event.

Yes, they do. And you can probably find those on, probably their best place would be to find it would be on their Mashin journey. Facebook page, I would say.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're, they're crazy, crazy guys. They pick like whiskey a week almost. I mean, they're just so busy.

I'm not sure what they're up to, but I've been on three or four with them easy.

Yeah. Yeah.

But they're definitely in 70, 80, a hundred. Yeah. Great. Great palates. Yeah. All right.

So it's time to let the cat out of the bag. I feel warmed up. What about you?

Yeah.

Yeah.

get off road, so to speak.

All right. As we take a turn off the pavement here, and we sort of head off road.

I'm going to head south there. Oh, we're heading south. Yeah, way south. So are we crossing the border? Yes, we're going to go south into Mexico. Awesome. And this is a product called Sotol, and Sotol is derived from Shrub in the genus and I might might murder this because I don't know my Latin very well, but deceleron and it's also it's better known as the desert spoon and While it's probably related to agave It's not it's not agave. Okay, so So this cannot be called tequila. This cannot be called tequila.

All right Well, that's so tall is spelled s o t o l. Yes, and I

It's hard to find. I went to Total Wine recently and a friend of mine that's formerly in the Bourbon Society Board, he's the one that kind of introduced me to this and I was really really taken aback because, you know, since it's a Mexican product, I thought, well, it's going to be similar to tequila or mezcal. But yeah, I think this is, it's got some subtle nuances and differences from those two. Awesome. Let's check it out.

I could tell by the, the look of it, it, it looks like a, like a, a silver tequila or a vodka. Yes.

So this is, this is kind of runs that same way. There's, there's a Banco or Plata version. There's a Reposado and there's a Nejo and The Plata or Blanco versions are unaged. The Reposado are aged anywhere from I think it said a couple months to

almost a year, whereas the Anejo's are a year older. So anytime you hear the word Anejo, you know it's spent the minimum of one year in a barrel. Right. This is quite clear. This is a, this is white dog basically. Yeah. This is straight distill it.

So this is 80 proof and it, uh, $42 out the door. Um, this brand is actually called Kazoo 100. Okay. Yeah.

Wow. It, it smells like a Cristalino tequila. Okay. Sort of a filtered or filtered reposado.

I get like this lightly smoked, like lime.

Yeah. Lemon. It does have a lime note to it on the nose.

Already.

Yep. And does that, in your opinion, is that where it differs is from that, that little light citrusy fruit note?

Yeah. And that's what I really, really enjoyed about it. Yeah. This is like a pool sipper and I've yet to try it in any kind of cocktails, but I think I'm going to give it a whirl soon.

The reason I brought the Cristalino, cause I was just wondering, is this, is this truly, so this, this atoll has not entered a barrel ever.

this particular one? No.

Cause you would never know with Cristalino that it had been in a barrel by the time they get done filtering it's back to its clear nature, but it had spent time in a barrel. So when I first got that smoky note on, I'm thinking, so you hadn't gotten in a barrel at one point or another.

Not that it said, but it's not overly smoky. It's just a light hint. No, it's almost like, like I said, like grill marks a little bit.

Yeah.

Like I want to say grill pineapple, but

My nose tells me it's going to be on a sweeter side, but let's taste it. Cheers. Cheers. And it's not overly sweet. It's kind of really balanced. Wow.

Well, herbaceous, vegetal.

Herby. Yeah. Definitely. Definitely herby. Not getting a lot of citrus on the palate. I am getting that herbal note. Still has that smoky kind of nature to it. It's very pleasant. It has a little bit of medicinal band-aid-y on the back end.

I think that second sip is where I start getting the citrus. I probably need to rinse my palate after that rind. Well, failed at that.

Yeah. Yeah. And this is similar. You get this on some, uh, uh, some, some time on smoky, uh, single bolts. You know, you get, you get that, um, that medicinal note, it kind of reminds you of when you were a kid. I don't know if you're in the older generations like we are, I'm a little bit older than you, but when we would get a toothache as a child, you'd have these little cotton things that were soaked in this. I remember those, but. I can't remember what it was called. It was some, they put a dropper and they put it on these little cotton things and you'd push it back in your jaw next to your tooth and it would numb you. Camp. Camp for? No. Something cane, Nova cane or something like that. Yeah. Well, anyway, it reminds me of that horrible note because when you're a kid and you got a toothache, everything's horrible.

Right.

But it's very light. And so it's that light medicinal note. If you're a scotch drinker and you like peated scotches and you like some of them that are a little bit more on the smoky side, you'll be familiar with this note. But interesting that's coming from a very clear, unaged spirit.

Yeah. What's pretty fascinating about this is like the plants they use, it takes 15 to 25 years for them to grow into maturity to use. And one plant usually yields one bottle. It kind of works.

Can you imagine the first guy living in the desert, right? Cause it's, it's, it's pretty much desert out there. Let's just be fair. Um, the first guy that, finally figured out how to make a spirit out of some desert plant. He's like, yes.

Yeah, right, right. It still fascinates me, just like, I don't know, the history, like, who decided let's try this and you drink it first kind of thing, you know? It's like, I made this. You try it, though.

I could drink this. I could drink this. I could spend a day with this. No problem. I really like it. It does. It is totally out of the box of a tequila. Yeah. I mean, when you drink it, when you first taste it, you're like, okay, yeah, this is in the tequila family, mezcal family, right?

There are some similarities, but I think there are also some differences that make it stand out.

Yeah.

But yeah.

Well, if tequila is kind of your, um, something you like and you enjoy from time to time, I would say give Sotol a chance. You might really go off road if you will go off road. Fantastic. Okay. So you mentioned it was not easy to find, but when you did find it, what was the price on a bottle? This was $42.99 total wine. Very approachable price.

And they had one that I'm talking to the Lexden one. So they had one other brand. And I want to say it was even cheaper, maybe like $34.99.

What's the brand on this one?

This is called Kazool 100. Kazool 100.

100 means not proof or?

No, I said it's 80 proof. It actually confused me as well. When I first saw it, I was like, oh, because usually your tequilas and mezcal, there's no true cask proof or, you know, high proof. So it's usually 80, 86 is what I think tends to maybe a 90 proof out there. But.

Well, I think you picked a good one to start with. And the reason is, is because what follows is going to be a little bit more, I don't know, a little bit more palette disrupting, I would say. And so when you're drinking whiskeys like these, it's very important to have them in a good order, right?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, you don't want to say jump on a smoky scotch and then straight to something like this. Right, exactly.

Well, I like it a lot. I think I'm going to go find me a bottle of it.

Yeah, I thought you might enjoy that because I knew you kind of like some nice tequilas and things.

Yeah. I'm actually heading to Mexico. Tomorrow morning at 730, I'll be flying out to Puerto Vallarta. Very nice. Yeah, spending an entire week on the west coast of Mexico. So many times in the past, Melody and I and our friends have found our way to the east coast, Cancun and Playa del Carmen and all those places and never been to the west coast. Have you?

No, I've never been to Mexico, period. Oh.

As yet. Well, it's in your future, I'm sure. It's a great trip. Of course, you got little ones at home. And I don't know. I don't know that Mexico is the right vacation spot.

Not yet.

We'll see. One of these days.

Maybe they visit Disney Mexico or something. Maybe we'll get down there. Who knows?

Oh, what a great way to start out the show. So we've had a great, great rye whiskey from the Mashing Journey's barrel pick for their big event in Bardstown here coming up at the end of September. We just had a soltal, which is a Mexican spirit made out of what's the plant, the spoon plant? Yeah, desert spoon. Desert spoon. Not a tequila, legally can't be called a tequila because it's not made from an agave.

No, but it actually has its own appellation of origin, which There are three areas it's supposed to come from, and that's Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Durango there. And then it's actually called, when it's distilled elsewhere, it's called anywhere from Pamilla or Cucharillo. And there's even a Texas version of Soltel too, because it can be fine, can be distilled and found there. I think you worked on your accent a little bit. I've been told I have a nice, Yeah, my Spanish, I took really well, I mean, to that language and I can show my R's and, you know, the eels, you know, the double L's where you have.

Yeah, good deal. Yeah. So I was always told out of good pronunciation. All right. So we're going to move on. Our second pour of the off-road is, I brought this one, and this is a Mezcal, and this is a Mezcal from a company called Illegal, or if you were to pronounce it in English, illegal. Spelled I-L-E-G-A-L. This is a Añejo Mezcal, which means it has spent at least one year in a barrel. And you can tell by looking at it, it has the color of a lightly aged whiskey. Yeah.

So it looks like it's been about a year in a barrel. I would say, yeah, a year, maybe year and a half, yeah.

And mezcal is different from tequila, slightly different. I mean, they're not altogether different, not like sotol and tequila, but mezcal, they're still in the same family, right?

Yeah. Tequila is actually mezcal. It just happens to come from the blue agave plant.

Right.

Whereas mezcal, I believe you said this particular version you have is- Espadin. Espadin.

Espadin agave. So definitely a different agave plant. and how they treat the piñas. Yeah, which is the heart or the core of the plant. So if you've seen agave plant, it looks a lot like a pineapple. more or less kind of like a very spiky one, very spiky pineapple. And if you, if you cut off all the leaves, you end up with this little ball thing and that's the pina where all the leaves have been cut off. It's really the core of the plant. It's the heart of the plant and harvesting an agave plant is killing the plant. Yes. So it is the end of the life of that plant. But on Mezcal, they, and Tequila's made many different ways in how they roast the piñas. But with Mezcal, it's typically done over an open fire pit.

Yeah, Tequila's typically kind of like a, I guess you think of it as like a large conventional oven type, type deal where they roast it or.

They have to cook it down. They have to get it to the point where it converts its sugars. But the espadina agave, in this case, is done so over lava and hot coals.

Yeah, we sell lava rocks and wood and yeah.

Now Illegal is considered one of the upper level Mezcal's. Not that it's horribly expensive, but that it is considered a finer Mezcal. So you can certainly buy Mezcal. for $20 a bottle if you want, or you can get Mezcal for $2,000 a bottle if you want.

And on my shelf.

Or more. This one, the Illegal Agnejo comes in somewhere between $90 and $110 a bottle. Okay. And that's actually a $375. This is a $375, but the $750 is going to cost you about $90 to $110. Okay.

That's not, the grand scheme of things, that's not too bad.

What do you think about that nose?

I'm getting the herbal thing again, but it's like. There's like a big vanilla, which I'm expecting is coming from those barrels that they used here.

Yeah, I think it does have a little bit of a vanilla cream note to it. The smokiness is there, although because there was smokiness in the last pour we had, it's not as pronounced this one down just a little bit, which I was kind of surprised.

Yeah, I've had a few other mezcal's and they always seem to be. a little more smoky, so I thought this might...

This has a little bit more of a cleaner nose to it. I'm not getting the medicinal note that we got off the sotol.

And that might be, again, that barrel age taking some of that sting out of it. I'm going to taste it. Cheers. Cheers.

Yeah, so a little more texture with that, definitely. Yes, for sure. Um, I don't know if the barrel added texture or the distillation process was more likely my guess. Uh, it is, um, satiny creamy a little bit added to that little bit of vanilla note. It has really makes it nice. Yeah. There's some caramel, light caramel. I'm getting a slight hint of that medicinal note.

It's on the, on the very tail end.

When it comes to tequila or mezcal, this is, I would consider this very smooth, very evenly balanced as it crosses the ballot.

Yes, very much so. And this one's 80 proof you said? Yeah, this is an 80 proof as well. Yeah, like I said, typically that's what you find your tequilas, mezcals, and apparently soto app.

And this is a handmade tequila. A lot of, I know a little bit about Illegal because they just so happen to be my favorite Mezcal distillery, but they're truly made by hand. There are a lot of places that claim made by hand, like, Well, let's not even talk about tequila for a moment. Tito's handmade vodka. Yeah. Are we serious, folks? Do we really think Tito's is made by hand? As many bottles as you see, that's a lot of hands. I mean, I would definitely raise concern about that claim that, what do they mean by hand?

Are there hands somewhere in the process? Yes. Hands on the buttons of the computers and things maybe.

But Illegal Mezcal is handmade. This is a handmade process. This is still, are you going to pay more for these bottles? It's more crafted. It's more painstakingly. The plants themselves are selected more carefully. It's truly a farm to bottle kind of product. It's really cool. And this is the Inyeho, they also have a Reposado, a little bit less, you'll pay about $15 less for the Reposado.

The way those things work, it's, yeah, like you start with the silver or plateau or Blanco. It starts at a price and tends to go like Reposado will be 10, 15, $20 more. And Ajo will be 10, $15 more.

I haven't looked these up and I apologize folks, I'm off by a little bit. I would expect the silver to be somewhere around $65, $60, $75 or so for the Reposado and then around 90. Plus it just depends on how hard it's, they don't have a huge production there. I mean, a batch of their product yields about 4,800 bottles. So the grand scheme of things is not, not, not huge, but they are available nationwide. You can't find them. And, and thankfully, you know, total wine stocks illegal. So if it's something you find you like, you can get it.

I like it because you can still get the distillate notes a little bit, but there's like these little hits of barrel character. Like I said, the caramel in them.

Well, I'm thinking we're going to be drinking in the second half here in a few minutes. I think our breaks going to have to be just a little bit longer than just a quick one.

Possible as they say. Possible. Yes, it's possible. It's possible.

Uh, because, uh, these smoky notes off these are going to be, you're going to have to wash them off her palate. They're going to linger. Yep. They're going to linger. What do you think about the finish on this and the length of the finish?

It's really nice. Like you said, this is, yeah, this is a beach pour.

Man, I'm looking forward to it.

I could, I could just sit in the sunset and sip on this for, for a while.

Well, I'm kind of hoping, you know, with my trip tomorrow that I'll be able to have a few decent pours of tequila. I'm probably not going to get them at our resort. We're staying at the Secrets in Puerto Vallarta, which is a nice resort, but they're all-inclusive.

Okay.

Which usually means if you want something super top shelf, you still have to pay for it. Right. Right. And they'll probably have a tequila bar there where you can buy, especially tequilas. And we did that the last time. I had a little a Classe Azul. Very nice. when we were in Playa del Carmen last year. But yeah, I think I may have to find something. I love it. I'm glad we're taking this off-road trip. It's so amazing. I encourage our roadies, our listeners to to explore other spirits.

Yeah, step out of your comfort zone every once in a while.

You never know. Your palate can get tired, like you mentioned early on in the show. Your palate can get a little tired of bourbon after a while. Not that you don't love bourbon and enjoy it, but it's nice to have a break.

Right. We even talked about it on the last episode. Both you and I went on some vacations, and you said you tried some craft beer, and that was kind of my jam for most of my week of vacation, was trying just some different different craft beers out there, I had hoppy stuff, I had dark stuff, you know.

Rode some roller coasters.

Rode some roller coasters. Survived some roller coasters, I think.

All right, folks, we're gonna take a quick break. I don't know if it'll be super quick, but check out what Diane has to say about bourbon on the banks, and we'll be back after, and we've got a couple more grape pours, not bourbons, not tequilas this time. Not tequilas. Definitely not rice. We've got a fun second half coming up, so stick around.

Hey roadies, it's Diane Strong again with Bourbon on the Banks Festival. Thanks for waiting 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 going to 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 going 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 is going to join her for the fun and you're going to be tasting some buffalo trace. 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 6 o'clock because we have got an amazing free, family-friendly event brought to you by XPRE 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.

All right. So we were back. We had a nice little break there. Time enough to sort of clear our palance just a little bit. But I have to be honest, I still have a little bit of a smoky note.

I do too. Yeah. So it's going to be interesting how that plays out.

I'm wondering if we did this and maybe we should flip flop the first and second halves. Keep this in mind, folks. If you're if you're drinking smoked whiskeys, they definitely need to be at the end of your flight.

But maybe the flavors of what we're getting ready to drink next will be so different than it won't, won't play.

Yeah. I feel like I just ate a piece of smoke. That's about the amount of smoke in my mouth. It's not like I drank a mezcal.

Right. Right. Yeah. I drink a lot of water and to try to get to move it on down.

It's hard to, it's, it's almost like drinking the, the absinthe finished bear, you know, stuff. You just, it has to be your last pour of the day. The frog similar kind of stuff. Right. Cap night cap. That's right. So what do we have in our glass? This half, we're departing Mexico.

But we're not really going too far north. No, we're staying in the south. This is a Louisiana rice whiskey, and it's from J.T. Malick. This particular version is a single barrel, again, from my friends. I hope they're going to send us some, some love, but from Mash and Journey, and this is 119 proof, 100% distilled from rice. This family has been farming and rice in Louisiana for since 1896. So. Long, long time.

So it is a whiskey. So it is a whiskey. A whiskey has to be distilled from grains and it has to be aged in a barrel or aged in wood. Yes.

And this is four plus years. Okay.

And it's got a pretty good color to it.

Yeah. It's got a nice, uh, like golden number.

Now rice whiskey. itself does have a lot of rules associated with it, but only if it's made in Japan. Japanese rice whiskeys are very regulated, very much protected by Japanese law. But this has no claims as such. It's just a rice whisky made in Louisiana.

Yeah. I'm starting to see a few others. I believe I saw one from Arkansas that did pretty well in some awards recently. So maybe it could become a small, small trend.

I'm wondering if anybody's going to make a whiskey out of the South Carolina gold rice, which is like, That's at the heart of the South, right? That was the crop that launched South Carolina into the agricultural beast it was pre-Civil War. And of course, it's the same thing that almost disappeared following emancipation of our black population. It's got good points and bad to it. Carolina gold rice is pretty darn good, but I don't think they make a whiskey out of it yet. Or if they do, I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know. Something to check out.

It's got a nice clean nose on it. I'm not picking up a whole lot of nuttiness.

But I think the fascinating nose is like a bourbon. It kind of does. The very first time I tried this, I have friends and they sent me, you know, they'll send blind pores and they'll be like, here, check this out and we'll, you know, have our own little personal zoom or something like that and we'll talk about things. Do I have the best palette in the world? No, but I've learned to recognize certain things and I can usually maybe guess at a story and they're like, you'll never guess at a story on this. And I was like, the very first one I tried came off like Buffalo Trace. It was just so, yeah, just those Buffalo Trace notes I get.

Yeah. I would say that I would have a hard time. Uh, if somebody asked me what the mash bill was on this, let's say that was the only question. What's the mash bill on what you're drinking. You didn't know anything else about it. I might go weeded bourbon. I might tend to lean towards a little bit towards a weeded bourbon.

You get a lot of vanilla. Like it's like almost like vanilla pudding.

Yeah. Yeah, it's light. It's sweet. It's got a nice bourbon nose to it.

It does have like a sweet, very sweet note.

But the oak is there. The oak is very present. What was the age? Four years on this? Four plus. Four plus.

All right. Love the nose. Let's try the palate. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh my goodness. That's like drinking silk. Oh my goodness. That's so good.

Yeah. It's sweet.

It is. It is. So that's the first indication that we're not drinking bourbon here. Not that it's sweet, but that silky sweetness that sort of drifts away from bourbon.

Yes. And I'm going to go back in for a second for just to see if it's changed a little bit more because like, like you said, we still had a little bit of that smoke flavor going on.

This is kind of, it kind of drifts towards syrupy pancake. away from like bourbon and more towards like a syrupy pancake. That is amazing.

Isn't that fun? That is really good stuff. Like this is my. I guess I have gone through. Two other single barrels of this and I have this one open right now and then I just got another one from bourbon outfitter. Well, tell us what you know about JT Miller. Not a great deal, but I think. I may reach out to them soon because I think I would love to have them on the show for sure.

I think after, after tasting this and I think I have had one of their, uh, whiskies before. Maybe on another show, maybe as a sample from a listener or maybe even with you at one point or another, I don't know. But it wasn't this one. This one's.

Yeah. Maybe I had to bring, I think brought some to a Frankfurt Barber Society bottle share. Just could have been. And I think that was. I think it was a pick a friend of mine. Like he was the one that sent me the JT malec for the first time he's in Arkansas. And he sent that to me blind. I was like, this is amazing. I was like, tastes like Buffalo trace. And he's like, I'll grab you a single barrel.

Yeah. Really, really. I know.

So are these guys in new Orleans? They are branch Louisiana branch. Yeah. Yeah, no clue. I'm not.

Okay.

Well, They also raise crawfish, I found, so might be a good place to visit because you got crawfish, you got this whiskey. Oh, could you imagine sitting back? I was going to say, you got to think maybe a little restaurant on the campus, if you will.

Well, maybe we'll get down for the New Orleans Bourbon Festival next year. Not this year, of course, but maybe next year and we can have some crawfish and some Melick rice whiskey. Wow.

It does say distilled from Louisiana rice Providence style, which that'd be a great, like what is Providence style? Yeah. Yeah. But I think this ran about $65 for the single barrel. They just released a high-proof small batch, and it runs about the same, about $60, $65. And then out there, I'm not sure how big of a distribution they have, but I know their small batch is about $40, $45. And do you know if they sell online? I believe you could order direct. I mean, you know, certain states you can order direct, but I'm pretty sure just checking out their website a few days ago. Yeah. I think you can order directly from them. Like I said, Bourbon Outfitter has a couple of their single barrels. I've seen single barrels offered on a seal box.

Was this one in particular available on Shared Poor?

This was Jason Scott's pick. I can't remember if they went through shared, you know, they do so many. It's either shared poured or keg and bottle or seal box or yeah. So.

Yeah. I mean, this is a great pour of whiskey. It's really, really good. A question I would have is, are they all this good or is this just an exceptional pick?

I've not had the base. I think it's a 90 proof product. Yeah. But so far I'm like three for three. Wow. Yeah.

I tell you what, there's some, there's some smaller distilleries out there that are holding to the guns and doing their thing and making some great whiskey.

Yeah. And I think this is one of those fun ones. Like you have one of those friends that kind of thinks, They know it, not quite all, not in a bad way, but this is a good curve ball. Just pour them and say, try this and tell me what you think. And then be like, ah, it's rice whiskey, my friend.

It's rice whiskey. I would never have guessed it. But I do know that once it hit my palate and it started going, it started departing from bourbon after it hit my palate. I mean, the nose and the first impression on the palate was bourbon and then all of a sudden it started to depart a little bit. I'm like, okay, yeah, this is another animal, but it's got that... I don't know. I'm going to say it's that, uh, that cereal note. Yeah. A little bit that, that, that made me say, uh, syrupy pancakes.

Yeah. And for a four and a half, four plus, whatever that means, it's just, it's so soft too. And I'm guessing that's just the rice whiskey distill it itself. Yeah.

What was the proof again on this? This one was 119.

119. I've seen them range. Yeah, 116 to 125. It kind of drinks right around there, I think. Yeah.

You know, anywhere in the 110 to 120 range.

Their new high proof, I believe, is at 117 proof, I think.

OK.

So yeah, I've yet to see that in a while, but I definitely want to give it a whirl.

All right. Rice whiskey. Now, I had had some rice whiskies in the past. The only one that comes to mind is Alchemy, but it's also out of Louisiana. And I had it early on. I think it was an early release of it. And for me, it seemed a little young. It wasn't quite ready, but it was clear too. So it was unaged. But I think that this sells me on rice as a grain for distilling, no doubt. Of course, Japanese have been doing it for a long time. We talked about that. There's some fantastic rice whiskeys out of Japan. But all the rice whiskies out of Japan, they don't have these kind of notes to them. They have more of that single malt.

It does come off as very malty.

Yeah. I might, I might almost say that this could be a category in its own rice whiskey.

Hopefully if more American rice whisky, more distillers get into it, maybe it will be. It's just a lot of fun.

Well, I know. It would have to be a lot more, because it took quite a bit of big push to get American single malt to move in that direction.

I was going to say, I just saw where that's getting close to ratification, I believe.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's exciting.

It is very exciting. I think it deserves to be a category. There's enough producers out there now and enough consumers searching it out where it makes sense. I don't think Rice Whisky is there yet, but boy, if they all tasted like this, it wouldn't take long. What do you think?

Yeah. Yeah. And this really lingers like it's still sitting there. The smoke is gone. That's for sure.

It was like drinking silk. I mean, it was really very, very smooth. Do you know anything about the distillery at all? Like, are they pot stilled or are they hybrid or column still? I do not know. No. I would guess pot stilled. Just, I'm just guessing. Yeah, because of the silkiness.

I want a bottle. Can I get a bottle of this, or is it gone? I think that one's gone. Oh, darn. I could probably. Like I said, I just picked up another one from Justin's House of Bourbon, so they always have some. So I haven't opened it yet, but I expect it. Like I said, their single barrels have been very hit.

Very hit, yes. Admitted Justin's in a while.

How are they doing down there? Yeah, they're doing well. I mean, they're still rolling out single barrels. It's always a fun place to go have some pours. Um, the Lexan, like someone's a little smaller.

Yeah.

Um, but I'm actually going to be up that area for a conference and, um, and at the end of August. So, and it's right there at that area. I'll be staying at the Hyatt. And, um, so I bet, uh, maybe slide over there for a poor, if I get a chance, this is our own conference. So I'll be, I'll be doing some long days and yeah.

Wow. All right, folks, you never know. You just got to try them. You just got to try them. And having somebody on the team like Todd here to introduce us to some new stuff is fantastic. He's brought some whiskeys to my attention already in just the past few weeks that have just blown me away.

And that's the thing, we talk about, we obviously had some really big unicorns. Those are great and all, but sometimes it's just so hard to find those that, you know, that's, it's nice to find surprises like this. I mean, one more time price on this bottle. This single barrel run about 65 bucks.

Yeah. I mean, how awesome is that? I mean, how amazing is that? I don't know. Almost 120 proof.

Yeah.

Wow. Good stuff. All right. I hate to set this one down. You know, I'm, I'm sort of, I'm just hee haw and moving on to the next glass because this is so good, but I'm sure what you brought for us in the next class is fantastic as well.

I'll be sure to leave you some of this.

Just a little bit. I ought to throw a little bit in the backpack and take it to, no, not backpack in the check bag. Check bag. Take it down there. Fantastic. Cleanse the pallet a little bit. Yeah, not to mention it's always important to hydrate folks. In fact, I should be hydrating like 10 times more than normal because starting tomorrow, I'm going to be consuming just a little bit of alcohol.

It'll be interesting to know if like it's going to sell where tomorrow here in Kentucky is going to be like 96 and that's without the heat index. So it's going to be interesting to see if you're going to be in a hotter temper.

Actually, I looked at that. Melody and I were sitting on the couch last night watching the Olympics, and we decided to sort of Google the whole weather forecast for Puerto Vallarta next week. And it looks like 91 and raining every day. But I think my guess is it's not really raining every day. It's a rainstorm comes in every day. And that's typical on the west coast of anywhere.

It's also typical of Scotland. It rains and sunshine's like every 15 minutes.

It's kind of interesting. Well, I hope it doesn't do it every 15 minutes. I hope we get this one or two p.m. shower that comes through, which is very typical, like West Coast of Florida happens a lot. You get this one or two p.m. shower that comes through and then it's beautiful before and it's beautiful after. So I'm hoping for that.

All right, so.

Our fourth pour of the show,

is about as close to bourbon as we're gonna get today. This is a rum from Foursquare, and this particular version is called Detente. So it's a single blended rum, and what they did was they took a 10-year rum that they aged in bourbon barrels and combined it with another barrel of rum that was aged in bourbon barrels for four years and then poured for six years. So it's basically 10-year age-stated, And this one's 102 proof it's Barbados from Barbados. So, uh, still saying that staying South and, uh, yeah. So. All right.

Wow. This has a pretty intense nose on it.

Like dark molasses.

Yeah.

Very much. Um, burnt caramel, like dark, dark fruits.

deep dark fruits and heavy sugar, burnt sugar. But it's not like this traditional rum nose on it though. Not at all. It's a little bit more of a sort of a complex nose because what's been done to it.

After trying this, I dubbed it brum, because it's so, when we taste it, I think there's a lot of bourbon characteristics that go into it for sure. You'll see like they come each year, they'll release like a particular Um, it's called the exceptional cast selection and they'll have like, they have actually vintages. So like, I think the latest one they just released was like a 2009. So you're talking to 15 year rum. Four square. Four square. Cheers. Cheers.

Now comes the rum. Yep. Very nice rum. Definitely like a molasses. Sweet molasses.

There's a smoky note to it. Yes, very much so.

That's not just the mezcal hanging around. This is new.

This is different. Yeah. It's like a subtle sweet smoke.

This is a blended rum, um, Barbados, a mixture of various blend, uh, finishing styles, but basically everything's 10 years. This is a 10 year old rum. Yes. Yeah.

And this runs about 70 bucks. It did. This one might be a little harder to find.

Now I'm wondering, you know, rums are pretty much the wild, wild west of rules. So you can do just about anything you want to a rum. I wonder if there are any flavors added because this is very flavorful.

It is very flavorful.

But I'm going to assume, I'm just going to assume a quality rum does not have added flavors.

But hopefully at one of that age.

Yeah. Yeah. 10 years, we should have enough barrel influence and enough, uh, yeah, aging notes to, to, to not have to add anything to it. But you have to be aware of that. You have to, I mean, with rums, you have to understand they're not as heavily guarded and regulated as other spirits.

Same goes for a lot of other spirits. Canadian whiskey can have coloring. Exactly. So Scotches.

It has a nice texture too. We've had several, um, pores today where the texture was really good. And I kind of hope that distilleries start paying a lot more attention to that because it makes a big impact on me.

Yeah. I think, um, I think you'll start seeing some of the distilleries maybe just for giggles, kind of maybe lower that barrel entry proof. I think that has a big plays a lot on that. At least I kind of hope so. I mean, I think that's what makes Dusty so fun sometimes because they went in at a lower barrel proof, so they weren't cut as much. So you get a lot of flavor, a softer mouthfeel rather than that kind of like big, bold, maybe sometimes some burn from those 125 barrel proof.

I don't drink rums as often as I probably should.

I am not a rum guy until I tried this, honestly. But again, I call it brum because it's almost like a blend of bourbon and rum. It's so bourbon-esque, I guess, but it's a little different.

I've had some rums from the Nashville Barrel Company that have been phenomenal. Much older rums. um, rums that have been carefully selected for bottling. I mean, there's, there's some pretty amazing stuff out there if you can get your hands on and it does, it can get to a very high proof.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, rolling fork is another one I've seen some high, high proof stuff. Um,

And four gate actually uses a lot of rum barrels in their aging process as well, right? From time to time.

Yeah. They, I'm sure they're on an NDA. I think they usually call it Barbadian dark casks or something like that. But if you recall, not too long ago, Bardstown did a, collaboration with Foursquare where they took one of their blended fusion type things or discoveries and aged it in some Foursquare barrels.

Fantastic. This is so good. Oh man, you can find yourself in a slump every now and then where you're constantly checking the box and trying new bourbons and trying new ryes and trying new distilleries and new expressions and you just sort of get Then every now and then you get a chance to just step back, go off-road.

Yeah, go off-road.

Have something that's a little out of the ordinary, out of the usual. And wow, it can really put you in a good mood. This has really put me in a great mood.

I was going to say, you should be ready for the beach. I'm ready for the beach.

This is really good. I'm just going to live vicariously through you, I guess. Take lots of pictures. You had actually brought a bonus pour if we had time today. I did. And I'm going to say at this point, we have time. Oh, okay. If you want.

I'm game. I mean, it's definitely the closer of the pores for sure.

Yeah.

And there's a reason for that.

Well, I'm interested to try it. We didn't pre-pour this, but I'm interested to try it, sort of to close out the show today. And I think our listeners deserve a bonus pour. And certainly you and I deserve a bonus pour.

So let's do it.

Let's do it. Okay. Well, we'll just say that this one is going to be, uh, it should be a little bit of a surprise because of the proof, right?

Yes, for sure. Cause I have another single barrel that I got cause he brought this one to the tasting and ended up leaving, leaving it. But the other one I have is like 128. Okay.

Well, this is well beyond 128. Yes. Like very much beyond it. So what's the proof of the, what's in our poor right now?

What's the proof? 147.9.

Not just hazmat, but almost to the point of auto ignition. You've got to be worried about spontaneous combustion. Wow. All right. Well, tell us what's in our glass.

OK. So this is Old Clifty. Who's your Apple brandy? This is a single barrel that Their former distiller, Alan Bishop, brought to the Frankfurt Barber Society to share with us, and it's 147.9 proof.

So this is an Apple brandy?

This is an Apple brandy.

Okay, so brandies can be very powerful.

Brandies are? This actually, I believe it goes in at like 130, they distill it at 135. Yeah. So, and into the barrel at 135.

Wow. Into the barrel at 135 and then it climbs up to 147 point something. At that proof, how much apple remains? Oh, some remains. I'm getting the nose.

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I mean, it's apple Jacks.

I hate to say like a cereal, but yeah. Apple Jack cereal. Oh, what's the, what's the, um, what's the mascot of Apple Jacks? Come on, come on, you can do it. Dig deep, dig deep to that youthful, sitting at the kitchen table, pouring milk over cereal.

I can remember the sugar smacks bear and the frog and Tony the tiger, but Jacks.

I don't remember Apple Jacks either, but the sugar smacks was that.

Sugar smacks, there was the frog, but there was also the very similar, cause Kellogg and Post, they both kind of had those similar, similar cereals. And the other was a bear, if you recall. I don't remember if that was Post or I think Kellogg was the frog and Post was the bear.

And when you think back to your childhood, what was your favorite cereal?

Captain Crunch Berry.

Captain Crunch Berry.

Yes. Wow. But I would always eat the yellow ones first and that way I had all the berries last.

Yeah. I have to say that Apple Jacks was really close for me. It might've been my favorite. I liked Apple Jacks. I loved, uh, I like Captain Crunch too. I was a granola kid too. I wasn't a big tricks kid. I wasn't a big, what's that? The little leprechaun with marshmallows. Lucky Charms. I wasn't a big Lucky Charms person. But I always liked the Apple Jacks. Always a big fan.

Yeah. Raisin brand. I was a raisin brand kid. Like those.

Yeah. Um, well, I tell you the nose on this is great. It does not nose 147.

It's you'd think the nose, the hairs in your nose would just like evaporate, but.

All right, folks, we got the bonus pour here. This is a, an Indiana Apple brandy and 147 proof. Out of spirits of French lick.

Yeah. So if you're up there, you can find single barrels of this.

Yeah.

This was a single barrel or maybe even like a small release. I think he used to do like two or three barrels sometimes. Um, but they also have like a 90 proof version.

How long has Alan been gone from there?

Um, he'd left about maybe six, eight months ago.

Okay. Well, he was definitely a, uh, uh, a, a master distiller that had, uh, all the chops.

All the chops loved his history. Yeah. I mean, especially Indiana distilling history, but yeah.

Well, wherever he lands, I'm sure will be an amazing thing.

He's at, I believe it's Patoka Lake distilling or something similar area. Yeah. But I'm very excited. I know he's very excited.

Well, we'll all see what happens to spirits of French lick in his absence. Uh, he's a, he's a big vacuum to fill. Right.

I mean, for sure. I mean, he was definitely the face and voice for that brand for sure. I mean, he, I mean, he's fun. Like if you follow anybody on Instagram, he's a fun one to follow. He distills in the wild. Like I've seen him use mushrooms and yeah, just like, yeah.

All right. I'm ready to taste it. This is a, this is a, I love apple brandy by the way. I'm a big fan. Cheers. Oh, super buttery. Yeah. Oh my goodness.

It's got a little heft, but not as much as you would think. Like I was, when we tried this, I was like, Oh gosh, this is gonna taste like gasoline and it's,

Okay. It's, it's definitely approaching gasoline. It's got its kick, but I think it's still approachable, but it has a great buttery palette to it. And, um, I can just imagine, you know, Late 1700s, early 1800s, England, brandies were all the rage, right? I mean, that, that was it.

Yeah. Even I would even add colonial, colonial U S in the same time. Cause it took a while for them to figure out, you know, barley and rye and obviously corn took a while to.

And, uh, the, uh, brandies were not cheap at that time. They were definitely, uh, a drink of aristocracy. I mean, the common folk drank beer, they drank mead, and the aristocracy drank brandies. And they would drink brandies that were, well, very much like today, very fine to average. This would be considered in my mind a very fine aristocrat brandy. This would be something that you would be in a big parlor in a mansion in England in the late 1700s sipping on this. And you would be like, oh my gosh, this is really good stuff.

Because you know they are, how do you think this is high proof though, back then?

You think? I mean, I don't know.

Probably not. I wouldn't think so. No, probably not.

Maybe, maybe Benjamin Franklin.

Now, for those of you that don't know, Brandy is cognac, but it's called Brandy because it's not from the cognac region.

That's correct.

And this is double pot distilled. I don't know if I said that already, but just in case. And yeah, Michigan apples. And yeah, I was like stunned. It just kind of, it takes your breath away in two different ways. One because it's so good and two because it's got that out.

I've had some brandies from copper and Kings and they don't really get to where this is. The ones I've had so far, there's some good ones.

This makes me want to explore brandies a little more. I've had a few of the French ones, lower proof ones, but Wow, what a great way to finish up the show. Yeah, this is one of those, a little drop of water will soften it a little bit.

I'm gonna try it, but you gotta be careful, just a tad, right?

I don't know, you could probably go, if you went half and half, it's gonna cut it to 70. 70, what a 75 proof or 73 proof.

I put, I put, uh, yeah, I probably went half and half on it. So I'm probably around 80 proof right now. Okay.

And this would be a typical 80 proof brandy off the shelf. I went, uh, maybe a couple of drops down to 120. Okay. Oh, the nose really opens up. Yeah.

I'm going to say my nose really opened up a lot. Gotten bitter for me.

Bitter.

Yeah. So I took it too far, I think. Still good.

Yeah. Still nice, but I've got a little bit of a bitter note to it.

And I don't think that's something you want in a brandy.

I may not have put enough water because I'm still kind of like, that's still got the apple smash.

Oh, my goodness. Well, I hope we have opened the eyes a little bit of our listeners, that they go out and try some brandies, some rice whiskies. So tall. So tall in Mezcal. And man, we should do this again, because there literally are hundreds of regional spirits that we could present.

Yeah, you could even fellow by the name of Tony Manicello recently had, we had a little tasting event with him and he's kind of known for his, he's a big world whiskey. connoisseur, so he had a little small tasting for some of us. And we tried a British rye, an English rye, which was very interesting. We had an older version of a 12 year Scotch non-peated. So that was, I mean, it was probably a 20 year old bottle that he had just a little bit left that he shared. We had a Japanese whiskey, also very interesting and very Scotch like. And yeah, it's kind of fun to step out of your comfort zone every once in a while.

Well, we'd love to hear from you, Roadies. If you've got an idea for a show, if you've tasted some whiskies of the world that you think are deserving of an episode, let us know.

Jump into the Roadies. Yeah, and after trying Amroot, the Amroot Barts Town, I want to try Amroot on its own. Yeah, absolutely. I think that'd be interesting.

You know, we really haven't done like a Japanese whiskey show either. Taiwanese, the Taiwanese have some great whiskeys.

I was going to say, I've never had baijiu, which is the most popular, I believe it's the most popular liquor in the world.

Yeah.

The Chinese liquor, baijiu.

We really need to do it. So.

The baijiu road. Well, the baijiu road. Absolutely.

But yeah, this was fun. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Todd, thank you for, again, another idea for a great show. You've brought some inspiration and freshness to the show. And we're so glad to have you on board. Thank you.

Like I said, it's my pleasure. And yeah, it's fun to always get with you, Jim.

We've got some great shows coming up. We've been talking to some distilleries. We've got some things in the works, so we'll have some good shows here coming up in the future. Of course, the Bourbon Heritage Month is not that far into our distant future. We are in August now. September is Bourbon Heritage Month. That's when everyone makes their pilgrimage to Kentucky.

It'd be nice if we got a little, not quite. An Indian summer would be nice.

It would be.

Rather than a blazing late fall or early fall.

I know that Bourbon on the Banks is the first week in October. For purposes of Whiskey Heritage Month, we're just going to extend that a week. It's five weeks.

I think so too.

It includes Bourbon on the Banks. We hope you get to make it this year into our area and visit us. We're going to be at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. I think Todd, are you attending the Mashin Journeys event?

I am. That's the, like I said, the week before 28th, 29th. I'll probably go up that Friday. I don't think I'll stay the night, but just go visit those guys, grab a couple bottles of the barrel I picked, and yeah, see a lot of whiskey friends.

Sounds good.

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to make it this year. I've been a longstanding Patreon member for Mash and Drum. And now, do they have a separate Patreon account for Mash and Journey?

They have two. separate accounts, separate accounts, but when they do barrel picks, like, yeah, like, so they're the higher tier you are, you get the announcement or you get the first divs of purchasing and it kind of works its way down. It's the way it works.

Those guys are killing it. If you haven't listened to The Mashing Drum or My Bourbon Journey on YouTube, I highly suggest that you check them out, put them onto your watch list. They both have great palettes and they do a lot of barrel picks and it's always a lot of fun. So I've been a member since almost since the beginning. Yeah. So lots of fun. All right, folks, we had a great time. Shall we do this again? Shall we go off-road once in a while? Yeah.

I'm going to come in the aisles of the liquor stores looking for weird and interesting things. We might have to pull Amzie and... Amzie and Robin on that one, maybe.

Yeah, that would be good.

Yeah. Because I know Amzie's got some interesting stuff.

So China and India, two of the countries with the largest populations in the world, I think a show highlighting whiskeys from China and India might be a great show. OK. One or the other or both together, I don't know. India's killing it. Right. I mean, yeah, good stuff. Yep. Definitely. All right, folks. Well, you can find the bourbon road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok threads. We're on all of them every single week. We put out an episode on Wednesdays, usually drops Tuesday night at, well, actually Wednesday morning at 1 a.m. Sometimes I'm a little late. We have a long night. Well, whatever. It'll always come out on Wednesday, so just be ready for it. The way you won't miss an episode is to scroll on to the top of that app you're on and hit that subscribe button. That way you don't have to worry about it. You'll get that notification every week when we release an episode saying that Jim and Todd have dropped another one. It's time to relax and enjoy another episode of the bourbon road on that long drive to work or while you're cutting your grass or, or whatever you're doing. It's always a lot of fun. Or having a pour. Or having a pour. We do hope you'll join us every single week, but until the next time we'll see you down the bourbon road.

you