407. Getting to Noe Bookers

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.

Well, well listeners, we got a great show for you tonight. As usual, Todd has put together quite an agenda for us. He had a great idea and, uh, I'm pretty excited about it because I had stashed a couple of bottles for an event just like this. And, uh, so what are we doing tonight, Todd? We're going to throw the book at them. We're going to throw the book at them. Kind of. We're going to go through a couple of old bookers tonight, and actually one that just came out. Awesome. So we've got some bookers from back in the 20 teens. Yeah, 2016, 2017. And then we've got what?

I have a 2023 and a 2024 that, like I said, just came out.

OK, good. So we're going to round out about eight years of bookers there.

Yeah.

But we can't drink eight of them because we'd never walk away from the podcast. No, we can't go all the way back to when it began.

And when did it begin? That was in 1988. Sales were kind of declining at that time. You know, you hear this often that, you know, just bourbon just wasn't the thing it is today, you know, that that hot commodity. And so Booker decided to come out with Booker, no, decided to come out with his bookers and it's, you know, he wanted to drink it like his granddaddy did like at cash strength. There was what he considered the sweet part of the rick houses, which was kind of the middle of the fourth and fifth floors on some of those rick houses. Yeah, with that he kind of coined the term small batch too.

Yeah, so the 80s were kind of the birth of the single barrels and of these small batch urbans as well, right? Were single barrels closer to the 90s? I want to say, Blanton's is called the original single barrel.

Right. It was a little bit before 88, maybe 84.

Well, they were getting real creative in the 80s to try and recover the bourbon industry from what had been quite a slump through the 70s and 80s, and where vodka was king, I guess.

Yeah, vodka, tequila, gin, and clear liquors were pretty big back then.

And Bourbon suffered, distilleries suffered. A lot of distilleries changed hands during that time. A lot just closed. Closed, yeah. And so there was some consolidation. But some of the big boys got very creative. They even banded up like brothers and went out to battle in marketing together.

Yeah, yeah. You hear stories of them being kind of like road warriors and just Jimmy and Booker would be out there beating the street together. Almost like door-to-door salesmen, but they were going to liquor stores, I guess.

It's pretty cool stuff.

I know Elmer T was another road warrior back in those days.

That's right. I forgot all about Elmer T. So yeah, those guys were out there. Well, because as we said before, rising tide raises all ships. So when they band together, they were quite a force. And eventually they did get the market back through, I don't know, whether through invention or persistence or just making damn good whiskey.

Yeah, I think it's a ladder.

Yeah, I do. I do, too.

I mean, that just people just finally stood up and took notice, maybe.

All right. So we're going to drink four. pretty heavy-duty whiskeys tonight we're gonna drink two of the the older bottles in the first half and I guess we should probably get straight to it what do you think ah let's go okay so the first bottle is the 2016-06 now over the years the Booker's bottles have followed numerous different numbering schemes and lettering schemes to define the batches. I think in the beginning they even had letters in them to define whether or not they came from Claremont or wherever they were distilled and produced at. But I'm pretty sure that the the dash 06 on this 2016 06 is relative to the batch number of the release. Okay. If I'm wrong, folks, let me know.

It may make sense that because it started in 2015, they started naming the batches like this. So maybe that was it was 2015 0123. And like I said earlier, they used to do just three batches per year. So maybe that was the last batch of 2016, which, you know, four or five and six would have came out in 2016.

And then they maybe changed that up again.

I know. Yeah. Yeah.

So there's no rhyme or reason to how it's been over the years. I'm sure there's a website somewhere that breaks it down and tells you exactly what it means, but this is the 2016-06. right at about eight years old now, since it was bottled. This was called No Hard Times. All the bottles starting in 2015 actually had a name to them. And some of them are pretty cool. Yeah, there's some really fun ones. But this is No Hard Times, N-O-E for Booker No, Hard Times. And this is a 63.9% alcohol. It's a small batch. It's 127.8 proof. It is aged 6 years and 10 months. Now that is the age of the youngest barrel that entered into this bottle. But usually they have quite a nice card that defines for that release what all the barrel ages were that went into it. But old Jim Shannon doesn't keep his boxes and his tags from the old bottle. So without looking it up, I can't tell you what the individuals are.

Yeah, they go into great detail, percentage-wise and even floor and what Rick has and all that stuff. But you've got it for your bottle. I do.

So when we get around to it, we'll do that.

Yeah, we'll get nerdy with those two.

So if a roadie out there wants to post the makeup of the first two bottles in the show today in the roadies channel, their breakdown of what ages and barrels went into the bottle, we'll make sure you get a pour of each. Sounds good. All right.

Sounds good.

All right. So 2016 06 bookers, hundred twenty seven point eight fruit proof. They're all pretty high test. Yeah.

I think proofs I've always ranged about one 20 to one 30 is what I, I read.

And boy, it's, it's just, uh, surpy on the nose. Very, very got a little bit of a bite to it too. I'm getting this. I'm getting some nose hair singe.

Typical, um, sort of woody knob Creek kind of nose to it. This is a Booker's.

Yeah, it's kind of nice. It's got a little bit of kind of a leather note to it. Yeah. You know, I kind of wonder what some of the older barrels might have been in this. Because it does have a bit of a more aged note to it.

I'm going to throw this out there. Yeah. Because you know, we always talk about there's a bit of a nuttiness to your beam anyway. But like Snickers? So caramel? nuttiness and just a little bit of like chocolate going on. Yeah. I mean, I definitely get the nut about it.

The caramel's there for sure.

Yeah, I can say it.

It's not, it wouldn't be like a dark chocolate though.

Yeah. Just, uh, maybe a dusting, a dusting of it. Yeah.

Like a chocolate powder. Yeah.

Maybe.

Have you ever had a cupcake or a cake that has the chocolate powder on it? Yeah, it's kind of like that. I'm a fat guy.

Of course, I've had all kinds of cakes. Well, cheers. Yeah, cheers.

That's good. It's it's dry. That one is a dryer. Yep. It's dry. It's a little on the tannic side. Yep. A lot of oak. A lot of oak. This has got some older stuff in it. Yeah.

I would say so. But one of them roadies out there are going to let us know exactly what's in it.

But I think they've got, they picked a few older ones here. I'd be some 11 year old barrels in there. What do you think?

Probably so. Oh yeah. Second sip is, tell the tape on that second sip. Now we'll note that on the cards, they don't tell you age. So it's just where the barrels came from.

Oh my goodness.

Keeping that, keeping that close to the vest, I guess.

Well, if some of them are from the higher floors, well, these are from typically from the higher floors.

Yeah.

Um, how many floors are in the, in the Rick houses there?

Well, just looking at these, there are Z three, And Q and H, three of those are seven story warehouses and H is a nine story. And there's an I that's a seven story, a G that's a seven story.

So it looks like most of theirs are seven stories except for that H. I think the bunkers tend to come from the higher floors, right? Yeah, there's nothing bottom. No.

Fifth, like fifth, seventh, so kind of upper middle. So you'd expect these to be hotter.

Yeah, a little intense. A little bit more intense, a little bit more Angel Share lost on them. I'm thinking about Booker drinking this, and it's not a daily sipper, right?

Yeah, this is a, they always talk about him in barbecue and ham, so I figured like this is like, yeah, I just kind of see him like, You see pictures of him. I would have liked to have met the man. He's one of those icons of whiskey that have been neat to meet.

I think, now, when you go down to the kitchen table, and you were down there recently, when you go down to the kitchen table restaurant, there's a big picture over there by the Beam family table that has Booker and his wife sitting at the breakfast table. And there's a bottle of something in the middle of the table. They're eating breakfast, by the way.

Is that Booker's in the middle of the town? You know, I didn't even see that. It was pretty crowded that day.

It was just there. Well, that's one of the neat things about the kitchen table restaurant down there is they have a corner set aside that represents the Booker family table. Well, no family table, basically. And there's a picture of Booker there on the wall where they're sitting at that table. I can check that next time.

It's kind of cool. It did go in there neat, but it was pretty busy.

Yeah.

I'll go into a little detail about that later.

Yeah. Okay. So for me, this one is, um, it's a little on the hot side. It's a little spicy and dry. Yeah. A little spice. Cinnamon. Yup. Yup. Cinnamon. Um, definitely dry. It's almost, I don't know if pucker's the right word, but it dries out your tongue where your tongue wants to stick to the roof of your mouth. Kind of.

Yeah. Kind of. I'm gonna have to get some water before we start the second pour. I'm pretty sure.

And it gets you numb too.

Yeah.

It's like, yeah, a little bit of medicinal whiskey here. Yeah, not a daily drinker, but definitely something you could sit out on the rocker chair on the porch and have one big pour of and just say, I'm good for the night. Yeah, probably so.

Yeah. Not a sessionable bottle here.

You know, these vary a lot. I've had some very different bookers.

Took a little sip of water and now I'm getting a little more fruit. Are you? Yep. Did you? I'm gonna try adding a little water after I take a sip of water.

Just a little bit in the cap here. Two drops. Two drops. Just to see what it does. Oh, it softened it a lot. I got to do it now. It softened it a lot. It brought out a little bit of a bitter note on the back end, but it softened it up front. It sort of released, almost like it released some oils in it. Oh yeah. I love that experiment. It's interesting. I don't know that it made it better.

It's still pretty dry.

Yeah. I changed it, but I don't know that it made it better. I would say I'm glad to have had it. Yeah. It's interesting. Not my favorite. No, not my favorite. Although it is the oldest one we've had, we're going to have today. Yeah. It's not necessarily the best. Do you remember when you had your first bookers? Oh, wow. Um, no.

And I probably couldn't name the ones, I could name a few, because I've had Country Ham, one we're actually getting ready to trash second, and a lot of the newer ones. I've actually had Booker's batch. Maybe. I've had Booker's rye. I've had a pour of Booker's rye, which, fantastic. That's one of those top five pours. There you go. My friend, Derail, actually sent me a pour of that. And I cherished it.

I had a Booker's 30th. And yeah, I gave it to Jason Glory. Oh, wow. And then in Jason Glory fashion, turned around and gave me like two bottles of something. So it was, I would call it a trade.

And that's actually, if you hear his like, I guess his journey into bourbon, it started with bookers. Like he went, I've heard it a couple of times. He went into a bar and he had kind of dabbled with a few things and someone said, here, try bookers. And that was his epiphany, I guess.

I can remember being in Chicago. I don't know, staying at some downtown hotel in Chicago with my wife and just having a Chicago long weekend or something, and we stayed in a very nice hotel, and they had a tremendous bar there, and I remember them having a bottle of Bookers there, and this was probably 10 years ago. So I would say that was probably my first Bookers. It was probably 10 years ago. But I've owned a number of bottles. This is certainly not the oldest bottle I've owned, but they're all gone now. It just so happened I had a couple of these sticking around. Yeah, I've got

I've got a couple more still sitting. I had one I still had open. And then like I think I told you on one show, I have a special limited bookers that came out with the Berylton box set that Fred No put together, Fred and Freddie maybe.

Yeah, that one I have to save because it's a little older. So I'm trying to remember back to purchasing Booker's back in 2015, 2016, 2017 timeframe, back when I purchased these bottles. And I'm going to say it was about $50, maybe $59. I was wondering if it was like $60, $70.

$50 to $60 range, $59 maybe. Where are we at now? Um, I got my 2024 02 for 99 bucks here in Frankfurt, but I've seen them, you know, they'll creep up to about one 20 depends on, you know, yeah, where you go.

It's good stuff. I just, uh, I don't think I've paid more than 70, $80 for a bottle cause I haven't bought a bottle in a while.

It's one of those, I don't know. I just, I've grabbed one.

Yeah. And you make it disappear. Yeah. Or I share it, you know. Awesome. All right. So that was the 2016-06. And we're going to rank these at the end. Yeah, I think so. We should. Absolutely. Okay. So that was the 2016-06. And next on the list is the 2017-04. And this one comes in at 128.1 proof. It's six years and eight months and 14 days.

It's interesting that both of yours are under seven because both of mine are over seven just a bit.

Wow.

Aging stocks. Aging stocks, yeah.

And this is Sip-A-Wile. And I can remember with a great deal of positive thought on drinking Sip-A-Wile. I remember this as being either my favorite or one of my two favorites of all time in bookers.

Yeah. Someone sent me a pour of this one recently. And I literally just opened this, so I haven't had it.

I probably haven't had this in four or five years. But I'm looking forward to it.

Me too.

Oh yeah. So definitely the, the singe factors turned down a little bit on it.

Yep.

Not as spicy and not as nutty and not as nutty.

This is just like the classic notes.

Yeah, this is, I'm not getting like these, these deep, um, like leather tobacco notes on it. It's not as deep and dark as the brighter.

Yeah. A little brighter. Yep. I'm ready to dig in. Cheers. Cheers.

Okay. There we go. That's velvet smooth. Yep. And it kind of just passed right down. Yeah, I'm dripping. Are you dripping? Yes, sir. Maybe they should rename it to Drip-A-Wild.

Or Drip-A-Wild, yeah. This is really good stuff. That's good because my tongue was dry and now this one's, that's like, yeah.

This one makes you salivate. That's really crazy. And that is, I don't know what that reflex is, but it's got to be some sort of a savory note that just gets you salivating when you start thinking about like, you know, garlic butter steak and all them good things. I don't know.

Well, we also talked this one up a lot, so maybe that was it too.

Well, I do have fond memories of this. Yeah, this is good. I can remember this timeframe, too. This was back in the days before the Bourbon Road, actually.

Oh, that's a good one. That one's going to be tough to beat.

It is really smooth and silky. It does have a little bit of a bite to it. Heat on the end, yeah. Yep.

But it's just because it's lingering a long time.

This is a great gentleman's whiskey. This is something that this is sitting at the club with the guys having a cigar. This is good whiskey. Yeah.

I also think what's cool about these two bottles right here is I'm sure if you went to a nice a nice bourbon bar, there's a good chance they're probably going to have one or both of those. Sure. And you know, maybe 30, 40, 50 a pour.

I mean. Could be, or you can just tell us what's contained in it. You know, what, what individual barrels went into making this batch and then we'll send you a pour.

Right. But you got to be first. Got to be first. If you ain't first, you last.

So let's talk about where we think Booker's is in popularity today compared to where it was. It's kind of held a pretty steady role over the years, hasn't it?

Yeah, I'd say steady. Obviously, anything Buffalo Trace puts out is going to be top dog in pretty much any race. The LTOs and I guess you would compare this to probably Stag. Hard to find those tags anymore. But I think we talked about it when we did the Elijah Craig comparison. I'd put those similar, but maybe the edge might go to Elijah Craig, depending on the batch.

If it's a hot batch, then everybody jumps on the Elijah Craig. I think the Bookers is for a different drinker than the Elijah Craig. They're very different people.

And then you've got the whole age factor. And I mean, the Elijah Craig's, you know, typically, I mean, they've dropped down to 11 years now for some of those releases, but older stuff, probably less releases or less bottles released as, you know, with the seven year, six year, it's probably a lot more product, I'd say too.

Well, Booker was, he was a man's man. So he picked out a whiskey that, you know, kind of, I mean, this is, this is no joke stuff. This is fine.

This seems like a little bit larger than life. Yeah. I don't know.

This is a, you know, this, this whiskey is not for the faint of heart. You're not going to drink this if you, uh, like a softer whiskey, although sip while is soft as far as a Booker's goes, it's not soft. It's good though. It's delicious. Yeah. It's really good. I bet you can get us some good bourbon bars, people that hold collections of things. Oh yeah, sure. And find, I'll probably find both of these. Interesting to see.

I don't know what David's got in the way of Booker's down at House of Commons. Have you been to Watch Hill Proper?

I haven't. I've been invited out there a couple of times. I just haven't made it there. I know.

I can't believe I haven't been.

Well, let's do it. Let's just make a plan and go there. Let's go hit some golf balls and then go over to Watch Hill Proper. They just opened up the Glen Oaks golf course. Well, it's been open for a little while, but it's open to the public now, so you can go in and I know you haven't played in a while. Long time. Yeah. It's been a while. Well, I'm, I'm not a low shoot. Maybe I'll putt putt. Top golf and play a game, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a, it's, it's a good, it's a good spot over there. I like going over to, to Norton commons. There's a couple of, um, like craft beer places over there that are like the atrium. And then there's one right next door to watch show proper is another one. I can't remember. That is atrium, I think.

I definitely need to get over there.

Yeah. Yeah. There's, there's, it's definitely worthwhile to head over that way.

Yeah. I think it is atrium right next to Watch Hill proper. And I've, you know, I've seen pictures and my friends have gone and Bill Straub has gone over there to do four gate tastings and things like that. It just looks really neat too. And speaking of neat, that's another great bar and level.

Another great bourbon bar.

That I have been to. And some amazing stuff there. Really cool. And it might be a good place to find these bookers.

Well, I wouldn't be surprised if they're right down the street here. We never told her, but we're just, we're sitting in the corner, Rick house again, studio B. Well, that's great. I think that, uh, I'm not going to give anything away, but I, I, I'm going to say that listeners probably know where we stand.

I was going to say between those two, probably.

All right. Well, on the second half, Todd, I definitely want to hear about your adventure at James B. Beam Distilling since we're drinking their products today. Yeah. You can tell us a little bit about your trip down there. You got invited down and, well, we'll talk about it in the second half. We'll continue drinking on this 2017-04. And folks, when we come back, we've got two more bookers and a great story by Todd. So stick around. All right.

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 Fawns.

All right, welcome back to the second half of the show. We're getting ready to dive into the two bookers I brought tonight. And the first one is a 202301. It's known as Charlie's Batch. And the story behind this one is it's named for Charlie Hutchins and Charlie Hutchins used to work at Jim Beam for years and I guess decided to step away from that and start kind of a wood furniture type deal. The reason it's named for him is he's also the one who's made the infamous Booker's box that, uh, that you see the Booker's in all over the shelves. So there's no telling how many, how many he's made of those. Well, I mean, what's, what's the typical size of a Booker's batch today? You know, I don't actually know the numbers. That's a good question for like Fred and Freddie. If we ever get them back on, I would, I mean, like thousands of cases, right? For sure. I mean, like the first, the first in,

let's say 1988 was a thousand cases, so 6,000 bottles.

And you know it's more popular now.

Well yeah, so let's say that they've doubled and then doubled again. So this guy's making 24,000 bookers boxes. That's, that's sports company, I think.

Yeah. And then I'm pretty sure he does the little book one. Yeah. Oh yeah. And from what I've read, he, he does some others. It'd be interesting to know if he does the blood oath out there, which is a really neat box and sure kind of, and maybe even some, maybe he just doesn't do only beam.

Maybe he does some, Cause everybody's got their buddy, you know? And I can see Fred saying, Hey, I got a guy. I got a guy who makes boxes. Let me tell you about him. Cause you know, they're all friends at the end of the day. It's business, but they're also friends.

All right.

I'm looking at this 2023 here and I'm thinking it's got a little bit of darkness to it.

It is a little darker, seven years, uh, one month and eight days. They even put the days on there. So, uh, and it came in at 63.3%. 126.2626. All right. Yeah. It looks darker.

Oh, and it's a Caramelier. It is Caramelier. Wow. Wow. They're all just so different from each other.

Yeah. I didn't get a big nuttiness on Sip A While. Yeah. And this one, caramel and nuts. Caramel and nuts again.

This is bringing that cracker jacks back, you know, a little bit.

I just went to that event recently and I was thinking, I was thinking ahead cause I'm pretty sure the last pour is the bookers we had there for this special event.

But yeah. Okay. So I, again, you know, the 2016 had like a little bit of singe on the nose hairs. Uh, the Sip of Wild didn't this 2023 brings a little bit more than Sip of Wild, but not, not enough to,

It's got a really nice nose. I like that nose.

But it's a little more light, it's a little more light and aromatic too. It's kind of a little minty. Maybe.

Okay.

It's got a freshness to it. It's a big departure from the, you know, from the tobacco leather of 2016.

I like this nose a lot. What about like roasted peanut a little bit? Like, yeah. It's like a roastiness note.

Yeah. But you know, it's almost got a little bit of sugar to it too. Yeah.

Like those roasted candy nuts. Yeah.

Roasted candy peanuts. Yeah. With a little bit of sugar and honey, honey sugar, crystallized honey on them. Yeah. Yep. Really good.

All right. I'm ready for a sip. I'm going to be impressed.

I think this seems pretty good so far. Cheers. Cheers. OK. Again, a little bit soft. Yeah. Nice texture. Makes a big impression on the back of the palette.

It's all back, but the finish is a little quick. Yeah, very quick. I'm going to go in for a second just to check, but yeah, it's kind of there and gone.

It kind of washed back real quick, went down, getting a little bit of like licorice on it, too. Okay, second sip. I like it. Hanging a little better, yep. Yeah, I like it. The finish is not super long on it, but it's got a nice mid-pallet flavor.

Yeah, little cinnamon spice, but not as prevailing as that first one we had.

I like this actually. And I was talking about the short finish, but as I sit here and talk about it, it's still sticking around a little bit. The flavor is. Yeah. Um, it does have a peanut shell kind of lingering peanut shell to it.

That's one of those things like, I think, you know, you take, I always take like just a little small sip, just to acclimate. And that even goes, even if I've had a few pours before, because you need to kind of wash away the pours before. And then that second sip is kind of what usually tells the tale.

Go back to the nose on it. It kind of matches the paddle a little bit.

Little citrus.

Yeah, I like this one. I like this one. It's different. You know, I'm not sure I would say it's a Bookers. I would say it's a bean product, but I'm not sure I would say it's a Bookers. Yeah. I could fool me, I think.

It's got a bit of a, yeah, I mean, Knob Creek vibe, I mean.

Yeah. I'm sure. Yeah, like a Knob Creek vibe. Yeah. But not a, like not a 12 or 15 knob Creek. This is more like eight or nine. Yeah.

Like a single barrel knob Creek. Right. Right.

Yeah. A little bit of a kind of a light fresh note on the nose and then a little bit of citrus. Yeah. I wish I could, it's almost like a Danish butter cookie a little bit.

Yeah. I went to go get a Danish butter cookie. You know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, I do. Yeah, I love those things. Yeah. I could, I got to stay away from them because I could eat a whole, I can eat a whole box. I'm also a big shortbread cookie guy too. Yeah. Yeah. Me too. So let's get to my adventure. I'm looking forward to hearing all about this, because you've been back now a couple of weeks. I was on vacation. I did a vacation.

You did a vacation. And then this past Saturday, we were invited to the 90th celebration of the Claremont distillery, or the distillery in Claremont. And you had, I believe, friends or family in or something? I did. Yeah. So we're a neighborhood of 10. I took a friend of mine and so we got there at about at 11 right on point, checked in like you would. And so they had kind of like a canopy tent, one of those big canopy tents set up and had kind of like two chairs set up and you automatically knew those were for Freddie and Fred, no. And basically, yeah, it was just kind of a really cool experience where you could kind of meander around with your little, I guess, passport kind of thing is what basically what we had. They gave us a book and we went to the tent first and they gave us a cocktail highball, which I'm not a big highball guy. I have learned I am not a big highball guy. I guess it was just soda, club soda and maybe Jim Beam or something and yeah, not my jam. But then every 30 minutes they would have a tasting and Fred and Freddie and actually Baker Beam also came along and they would talk about kind of what each pour was about and how it came about and things like that. So we started off with the nine-year Knob Creek classic. Um, that was followed by a little book chapter eight, which probably my favorite pour of the bunch.

Um, I followed the little books and you've had all of them.

I. I've not had one. I've had, I think, two, two, two, three, eight. OK. Yeah. Your favorite? Probably two, although seven and eight are pretty good. Pretty good. I mean.

So is he honing his craft?

You know, it's, I mean, it's like he said, it's like it's his playground. Yeah. I mean, he has a lot of fun. I mean, if you look at the blend on those, it's crazy. Yeah. usually seven or eight components from ages from four to 18 year. And like, you got rye, malted rye. You've got just an older rye. You've got, yeah.

He's got such a playground to mess with, you know?

But that was followed by, oh, the little book chapter eight, it's called The Path Not Taken.

Yeah.

And it's very rye based. So, but man, fantastic pour. Um, the next was the new Jim being black, which is a new age statement on that used to be eight year and now it's, it's gone back to being seven. And surprisingly, um, yeah, it was, it was nice. Not a pallet buster by any mean, but yeah, it's a nice pour. Yeah, it's sweet. So has its profile changed much on it or just marginal change? The funny thing is we're here at the corner Rick house and I'm pretty sure there's an old eight year back there. So I have to pour the rest of that out and save it and do a side by side because it'd be interesting.

Yeah, save a sample of it for that day.

Yeah, yeah. And then that was followed by Baker's 13, which I had never tried. It's a fairly new release. I think it just came out maybe last year, maybe. It runs about 150 a bottle. And it was good. But when I think of like, we talked about the Knob Creek single barrels, some of those Those are usually like nine, eight and nine year old now. And there used to be a lot of 10, even in 13 year old, but value wise, I mean, like kind of, you know, give the edge to the Knob Creek pit, I think, you know, but still fantastic, worth a try. Then we, my friend and I, we went and grabbed lunch at the restaurant there, the kitchen table. I had the brisket on top of some grits. Fantastic. Highly recommend. I also had a poor, they have a Bartstown collection that all the kind of the big Bardstown does stories there, all put out a special release for this one-time event where folks can line up and try to get all the bottles is kind of what it boils down to. And theirs this year was a 20-year Jim Beam product.

Wow.

I don't remember the proof right off the top of my head, but man. Was it good? That was fantastic. I was kind of surprised because I'm one of those like, you know, we talked about that wild turkey 15. The nose was flat out incredible, but I don't know. Sometimes you get jumped the shark on oak on me.

I know it can go a little too far. I think so.

So somehow they did it on a 20 year old. It was fantastic.

Wow.

They've got a lot of stocks to pick from there. They might have some lower, some lower Rick house magic.

Yeah. Yeah.

Little less harsh. Um, So, you know, we kind of after that, we kind of walked around because I think they were doing the Claremont steep, which I'd had before. So we kind of skipped that. But they kind of had like areas you could walk to. There was music playing the entire time. I think there were three different bands that played all day. But one of the really cool things was we went to the Knob Creek Lounge, which they have these little lounges and like pseudo bars, I guess a little smaller bar, buildings set up, but they had free tastings of Dusty's in there. So, you know, they had like some old beam bonded and there was, I don't think I saw any old bookers, but maybe we'd missed that horse. But I actually tried one of the old label bakers. Okay. Typically, it was a seven-year, and man, another great pour, yeah.

Baker's was always good. Peggy No Stevens used to always love to pair Baker's 7 with certain foods because it was such a great whiskey to have with food pairings, and Baker's was always wonderful.

Yeah, well, it made me really excited because I was able to procure an older baker's label for a pretty reasonable price. Yeah, good deal. So after that, next. was the Bookers. And like I said, I'm pretty sure that was the 2024-02. I kind of missed, I don't know. I think I was trying, Fred Mosenter, another famous Fred from Buffalo Trace. He does a lot. He's been a tour guide there for many, many years. He was there and we started talking and kind of phased out what was going on elsewhere. But so I missed, but, and then the next was, I forget anything. Oh, and then just classic Jim Beam, which after the bookers, we were kind of like, eh, we've had Jim Beam a few times. So we kind of, you know, headed out early.

Well, good deal. I'm glad you got to enjoy it.

Really cool experience. They do it right. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. I was expecting a little quainer, I guess, you know, smaller, maybe a little smaller, like maybe 50 people, but I would, I'd say easily on 50, 200.

Yeah.

And like I said, but you know, you can go around to the booths or like different tents and they, yeah, there's a lot going on. And then you just had regular people there for tours and everything else. So it was, there's a lot of people there.

Yeah. I think it, I think it varies depending on the event. I think when we went down for the opening of the kitchen table, there might've been 30 of us. Oh, wow. And, you know, it was the fellows from Burr Pursuit and a few other media people. Right. And it was, Freddie was out there with us. Fred didn't come out. We didn't see him. But, you know, it was a more of a quaint event there, but it was for a restaurant opening. So they had to keep it within the seating capacity of the restaurant there. Okay. Which is not huge.

No, no, um, they had set up some chairs or like tables outside in front of it too. So great food there though.

Yeah.

Excellent. I mean, it was quick. I'm like, I don't know what kind of magic they did, but we weren't in there long.

Yeah. I think, I think they have. to be. I think their fair is designed to be a quick turnaround because people are there for a distillery tour and gift shop to just have a quick time and they want to grab a bite to eat. They don't want to spend an hour eating, two hours eating at a restaurant, even though you can. They've got plenty to choose from there. I would definitely say that if you're planning on visiting the James B. Beam Distilling Company in Claremont, plan on making a meal part of your visit and go to the kitchen table restaurant on site.

Yeah.

Well worth it.

Well worth it. Yeah. And I would honestly say if you're there for three days, you could pretty much choose Bardstown as a restaurant as another place to eat. Absolutely. And then I've heard great things about Willett.

I've yet to go up there. The upstairs at Willett's really good too, so. Yeah. Yeah. You can dine like kings and drink like kings. There's three great restaurants.

And then, you know. That doesn't include the city.

Yeah.

I mean, Mammy's. Yeah, Mammy's. Shut the door. Shut the front door.

Last time I was there was for breakfast and I had one of the best omelets I've ever had. Absolutely. Yeah. Definitely plan breakfast at Mammy's and then go do something else. But I think lunch at Bardstown Bourbon Company or Willett is great. And then an early dinner at the kitchen table. That's all good stuff. And plus the restaurant at Maker's Mark is great.

I know it's a little bit further down the road, but well worth the trip. Sad, sad truth. Yeah. I've never been to Maker's Mark.

Oh, you haven't.

I have not.

Okay. Well, we need to do that. I know.

We're just start making a list. We need to make a list. That's right. Absolutely. But it was, it was a great event. I mean, it was a lot of fun. Surprisingly, not a whole lot of folks. I thought I might see some other podcasters or influence, those kind of people, influencers, but no, it was just regular day, everyday people. I did get to pop in a question and I was asking, they have the distiller share. that they released in 375 milliliter bottles. And so obviously, they were talking about their playground distillery, which is down at the, it's called the, is it James B. Bean distillery? It's got a name.

It's got another name. Yeah, I know what you're talking about.

But yeah, so that's pretty much all their experimentation. That's where Claremont Steep came out of. It's like they said, they wanted to try something on, be experimental on the smaller thing rather than do a big run on some of the big story where, if it's a mess, well, it's easier to do something with, I think he said 60 barrels or something like that rather than 6,000 or something like that. But it was a great experience.

I'm glad you got to enjoy it and share it with our listeners. So good deal. So you mentioned that you had a Bookers there. You think it might've been the 2024 02. I would say so since it's the newest one. So that's what we're drinking next.

Yes. And it is the Beam House batch. It is seven years, two months and 22 days. So that makes it the oldest that we've had. And then it is 62.3, which is 124.6. Which is the lowest proof we've had, which is interesting.

The oldest and lowest proof.

And speaking of, if you've ever been to Jim Beam, the Beam house is right smack pretty much in the heart of things. And you can sit in a rocking chair, which we did for a while, and had our pours. That's where Freddie's office is. Yeah. And it's where the family lived for years and years. And now it's just kind of an office. Yeah, like a focal point. It's almost like the cracker barrel of Jim Beam, I guess. Like I said, there's a bunch of rocking chairs all the way around it.

All right. I'm ready to nose this thing. Well, this has a little bit of a lighter nose to it, a little bit of ethanol on it.

Yeah. Which is surprising, considering it's the lowest proof.

Yeah. I'm picking up some of the oak on the nose. I think it's going to have a little bit more of an oak impression on it. I think so too. Not much fruit. I mean, these Jim Beam products, they don't exhibit a lot of fruit.

I will say this. Yeah. When we did the Lodger Craig barrel proofs, those were really buried. Yeah. Kind of staying close, but still different.

Still different, but in that kind of, I wouldn't say the Knob Creek lane. Yeah.

The Booker's lane.

The Booker's lane, yeah. Which is interesting. A lot of vanilla on this. A lot of vanilla, less caramel. Yeah. Kind of more vanilla, less caramel. It does have a light aspect to it, sort of an airy nose to it. Ready to taste it. Cheers.

Tasty notes say a lot of vanilla.

Oh, buttery.

Okay.

Buttery with a hint of cherry.

Yeah. I didn't get any of that on the nose. And that one's front. I'm going to like the tingle on the front of the palate. Wow. Now the palate, where it's hit has been all over the place. That's really interesting. All right, second sip.

So this reminds me of like a breakfast pastry. Oh wow. Mildly drying though. It is. Little. I think all of them can be to different levels, not like the 2016. Right. Yeah, this kind of reminds me of a kind of a, a breakfast pastry. I like a pinwheel with, um, like a vanilla cream on it and, um, just a little bit of a smear of cherry preserves. Yeah. Yeah. Um, that is good. Really good. And buttery like maybe a croissant kind of buttery.

Ooh. Yeah.

There's a bakery down the street. You're gonna let me go there in the morning. Yeah. This, this reminds me of kind of, this would really pair well with a, with a breakfast pastry. Yeah, that's nice. All right, folks, this one's actually on the shelf. Yep. You can go buy this right now. I'm going to go buy this right now. If I can find it. Yeah.

You should be able to. Like I said, it's one of those, I mean, I picked up the, I knew the 24 was at a store, local store today, and I went and grabbed it, or this one today. And there were actually some, the Elijah Craig, Um, B 5 24 still there. So I think things are slowing down.

Remind me. How did that fair? Oh, we didn't have it. We didn't have the fire 24 right now yet. When we did our pledge. Oh, that's right. We did the eight one 24. We're like wondering if it was out there yet. That's right. It just dropped. Cause I actually picked up a bottle. Yeah. Okay. All right. Maybe a future review. All right. This is, uh, this is good. I really, really, really want to sip on this one in the morning with a breakfast pastry. Sip a while in the morning. Start to open up on the nose.

It was a little tight at first.

It's got a good medium finish on it. It does stick around. Go back to the nose.

I mean, it's just a balanced whiskey.

It does present on the front, the middle and the back of the palate, which is good. It doesn't make me drip like simple while does. Had a little drink of water and I'm getting a little more nuttiness. Do you?

Yep. Like I said, I found it for 99 bucks. And I think that's about MSRP. But like I said, depends on where you go.

I mean, a bottle like this, 120 to 130 proof whiskey is not meant to disappear in a week or two. It's meant to sip on for some time.

And it's a pretty, like we've talked about the box. It's a nice presentation. It looks good on the shelf. have plenty of room, I mean, all those boxes can add up and then, yeah, the next thing you know, you're like, I don't have your room.

So what do you think? Do you think you've got your, do you have your order in mind?

I do, I think.

Yeah. All right, so I'll let you go first. You say you're, what are we doing? Four to one? Yeah, we'll do last. Last to first?

Yep. My last place was the first pour, the 2016 06, which was the...

No hard times.

No hard times.

No hard times. Um, yeah. So for me, uh, I would say is also my number four. Yeah.

Oh, just not bad.

Just overly dry, overly dry and tannic. And it did have quite a bit of singe on the nose. So for me, it was kind of really hot on the nose and kind of dry on the back end and it had a good flavor. Yeah, I mean, but I wouldn't throw it out of my bar. Oh, it's no, it's not.

Nor would you.

No, that's right. All right. So my number three. My number three is the 2020 301. That is my number three as well. That is Charlie's batch. Charlie's batch. Yes.

Very nice. Very nice.

Yes. It was good. Had a little bit of a citrus note to it. A little more caramel and citrus, I think, if I remember correctly. Overall, pretty good. Really kind of not a very long finish on it. Yeah, a little short. A little short finish. Compared to our two others. Right.

All right. Your number two is the 2024 02. Wow. That is the beam house.

Well, you know what? I'm there too.

That's going to be, we're going to match on this one. Again.

Yeah. So the 2020-20402 is definitely my number two choice. I will say that it was a standout as far as my brain working to thinking about what I was going to pair it with, because it really impressed on me. I needed to have this pastry in my hand eating it while I was drinking this whiskey. I might just make that happen.

Yeah. And I would say like I've had some of the more recent ones and that one really stands out. Yeah. I mean, the Charlie's batch was was really nice and it's gotten a little bit of love, but that might be That'd be the better one I've had in the past couple of years, you know, 2022 included.

It's definitely a good one. No doubt about it. That's a great whiskey. Yeah. My number one, obviously the only one that's left, the 2017-04, which is the Sip-A-Wild. Sip-A-Wild. and drip a while. It definitely makes your palette, it gives you that saliva dripping trigger effect. It just makes it happen. It's got a great silky smooth palette to it. Great nose. Great nose. A very smooth, nice finish on it. It just hangs around for a while. Just overall a really good whiskey.

I've gone back to it. A deserved champion of the night. Yeah.

But I will say that the 2020 402 isn't far behind this. It's a good pour. Four winners here, but just, you know. So you're probably not going to find a simple aisle out there, except if you go to a bar with a collection. Probably the same for both. You might find a Charlie's batch out there. Maybe. You might. Yeah, you might. But you're definitely going to be able to find What was the name of the beam house? The beam house batch. The beam house batch 2024-02. Write that one down. If you've got an extra Benjamin Despair. That's a Benjamin. I would say pick it up. If not, go out and find a pour somewhere. It'll definitely be on the shelf somewhere. Or maybe get one from us.

Maybe get one from us. I was going to say, we might just send all four.

Yeah, it could happen. Could happen. It could happen.

We're like that.

Well, Todd, a great show. Yeah. Lots of fun.

I love these comparisons. It's fun.

I mean, you know, Bookers has got a long history. It's got a lot of fans. It's gathered over the years, people that have collected these bottles in there. You can probably find a bottle of Bookers on every bar of every bourbon lover in the world. For sure. My guess is. And you're not going to find a bad one. You'll find some y'all like better than others. You'll find a few that are not your favorites. 2016, no hard times. I mean, I hate the fact that that was like named after Booker, but Booker's no hard times.

But it's not bad.

It's just of the four, it's the least of these.

Who knows if we did this again?

Could be different.

Could be different. Let them open up, maybe?

I don't think so.

Okay.

It was pretty dry.

Yeah.

But you know, I guess some people might like that. Yeah. Not for me, typically. Anyway, great show. Love these shows you're putting together, Todd. Great idea. You really brought a fresh, kind of a fresh idea to the table here. And we've had some really good shows. It's real easy. Pick four bourbons and drink them. Yeah, I guess that's true. I guess that's true.

Just happened to be the same brand. So yeah, look out. Maybe we'll do some stag.

Well, we've got some great things coming up. We've got some more shows. We've got some more guests coming on. We're working all the time to try and get some distilleries on and do some reviews. We have a number of bottles that are lining up that need to be reviewed that have been sent to us. We'll definitely get those on and get them reviewed and let you know what we think about them. Also bourbon on the banks coming up, sold out. There might be just a few tickets left.

um for the uh the twilight access twilight yeah i believe last time it was maybe 10 yeah or less probably so hop on that website check it out i mean it's not a bad idea to get in on the on the twilight the party is much more is that something if something has to one has to back out they could put it on stub hub i wonder i wonder if you can do stub hub on this

We also have the the Bardstown Bourbon Festival coming up in September. So that's another event that's going to be coming up. And I imagine Todd and I'll bounce around a little bit down there if we're able to get away. It's a lot going on in September.

Yeah, I'm doing a special announcement. I'm going to do a Elijah Craig barrel pick. barrel proof pick and a larceny barrel proof pick with Jason Glory. He just asked me to do that soon.

Fantastic.

So that's pretty exciting.

Yeah. Those are two great picks to go on.

The larceny just started being picked. So I guess he's going to be one of the first groups to do it. So that's pretty cool. So I'm looking forward to that.

All right. Great show. Yep. All right. We'll do it again soon. Yes, sir. All right. Well, you can find The Bourbon Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, threads. We try to do them all, but we definitely do a podcast episode every single week. Make sure you check us out. On Wednesdays, we will drop. Some review of whiskeys, a guest, some trip we're taking, something. We'll get out there. We'll give you a great show to listen to. We'll help you pass an hour on the tractor or driving down the road. It's always a great show. You don't want to miss it. Check out the bourbonroad.com website. You'll find our articles on there. You'll find our podcasts on there. You'll also find our swag, our glasses and t-shirts and hats and all our goodies. Anytime you buy one of those things, you help get us down the road. Make sure you plan on being in Frankfurt, October 5th to see us at Bourbon on the Banks. I'm sure many of you already have your tickets. If you don't, try to pick up a couple of those Twilight tickets that are left over. But even if you don't get ticket to Bourbon on the Banks, that whole week is action packed. There's all kinds of good stuff going on. There's distilleries everywhere. You can definitely come in and have a great time. We definitely love to see it. And if you're ever in our neck of the woods, make sure you reach out to us. We are known to have people out for a few pours. Yep. It has happened, but until the next time we'll see you down the bourbon road.

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