408. August Sample Roundup Edition

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.

We've got a wide variety of stuff today to go over, and I think you guys are going to enjoy this because we're kind of hitting all the food groups here. Yeah, I was going to say, it's quite a spectrum. What are we starting with, Todd? We've got the basil Hayden malted rye. Okay, so I'm not sure how long this has been out, but I just personally, I just noticed it on the shelf about a month ago. And it's probably been out a little bit longer than that. There's probably been a few listeners out there that have put their hands on it. But, you know, Rob Carter's kind of the malted rye guy. Yeah, yeah. And I mentioned it to him and he was unaware. Oh, wow. So, so, yeah. But he's probably busy. Has he moved yet? He's getting ready to move, I think. And, you know, he's got to plan out that new Rare Eagle bar too.

I think it's what he's calling it, the Rare Eagle bar too. Maybe he's toned down his shopping so he doesn't have to pack so much up to the new place.

That very well could be. But I also am a big fan of Malted Rise. I love the category. It's not a true category yet, but I feel like it's kind of establishing itself as a profile that certain people kind of gravitate towards.

Yeah, and I think you'll hear a lot of bourbon drinkers that don't like rye. But I think malted rye might be a good way to maybe change their mind more so than just a straight rye.

Yeah, and we talk about it a lot. So I don't want to beaten our listeners over the head with the malted rye bottle here. But we're going to continue to bring them in front of you so that we can tell you what we think about them. And if you've tried a malted rye and it's not your thing, it's all right. We've got more good stuff today. So, again, the Basil Hayden malted rye, it is at 80 proof. Everybody knows Basil Hayden is always going to be at 80 proof. Yeah. And I know a lot of people have mentioned that it would be awful nice if some of the Basil Hayden releases could go above 80 proof, but straight from the horse's mouth. Not going to happen. Freddie said it will never happen. Yeah. Basil Hayden is an 80 proof whiskey. It will always be an 80 proof whiskey. But they continue to come out with these, and I'm not gonna call them special releases, but new expressions of Basil Hayden. Yeah, I mean, you've had subtle smoke, tinier. Dark rye. Dark rye, I mean. Been quite a few. Yeah. This particular one is 100% malted rye mash bill, which is- You'll see a lot of, we'll have percentages of that, but it's rare to see 100%.

I know like new riff, New Riff is one of those that's come out with a hundred percent. Right. New Riff had a hundred percent.

A few others. Yeah. Old Mays Field Club, Old Pogue, you know, theirs is a bonded version, but they've got a hundred percent malted rye. There's a number of them out there. Yeah. But the fraternity of malted rye manufacturers is growing by the day, just as is the single malt, the American single malt.

It'd be interesting to know, you know, you always hear those distillers talk about how rye, how hard it is to distill with rye. So is malted rye a little easier, I guess, probably?

It might be. Yeah, it does satisfy that extra enzyme is required to sort of give the extra boost to the fermenting process. So I'm ready to give it a shot. So 80-proof basil Hayden, 100% malted rye. This is the basil Hayden malted rye, and it is available in stores now. for right at $49. I think you can find it at Total Wine for $49. I think I bought this at Kroger for right around $50. So it's out there, folks. You can give it a shot. So let's hit that nose, Todd.

That's a really pal nose. Wow, that's really bright. Yeah, it is. It's floral. Floral little honey. A little bit of honey. I'd even go honeysuckle.

Yeah. And there's just this super light hint of like, um, somebody walked through the room with a dill pickle. A little bit of dill, a little bit of a, but, but not like, not a primary note.

That's a wonderful nose for an 80 proof. It is. It's a good nose. Yeah.

But you can, you can tell that this one's not going to pack a big punch, right? It's kind of soft. And does it scream right to you?

Actually, it kind of whispers right to you. A little, yeah, I mean. Very floral, very honey-like. This would definitely throw you a curb if you were having it blind, and somebody asked you what it was. At least on the nose. Well, cheers. Cheers.

Very, it's not very impactful. No. It's kind of light on the palate, kind of thirst quenching in a little bit of a way.

Second sip gives you just a hint of spice, which is interesting for, you know, an 80 proofer,

Yeah, this, this would definitely be something that this, this bottle would disappear rather quickly with a couple of good season bourbon drinkers or ride drinkers. Yeah. Very easy sipping. Very easy. The nose doesn't, doesn't oppose the palette. They kind of go one in one together. Um, still getting a little bit, that's that tickle the deal again.

Yeah. Yeah.

I would call it semi-sweet, soft. Very soft. It's got a light spice note with a hint of dill. I'm not getting a lot of citrus, but I feel like I've got citrus on my tongue, but I'm not getting the tang of it.

Yeah, it seems like once you get through it, that's where I get the citrus, the back, back end.

Yeah.

And there's just a little bit of spice.

Super easy drinker. Yeah, so I would say it's kind of hard to place this. Who would be the ideal person to drink this, do you think? Somebody that likes a little bit more of a, kind of, is a little bready. Yeah, I'd give you that.

Obviously, you'd think that there's those folks that just love Basil Haytons. I mean, they're out there, and they're going to get this. But yeah, easy drinking, light rye. Good for cocktails, I would think.

Yeah, I would think that it could be hidden well in a cocktail. I don't think it would shine through. I don't think it would overpower, no, not at all. But it would complement a drink that is not spirit forward, I think. If you want something to sort of hide in the drink a little bit, this might do it.

Getting a little honey now, that honey, honey, floral honey.

Yeah, definitely. Um, I mean, you go back to the nose after having a sip or two of it, you start to pick up that, that, so you get an extra sense of that floral nose that it has. And it kinda, it definitely, it's nice to, it's nice to nose. It's a very nice, uh, aroma coming off this whiskey. So of the, uh, recent releases of the past couple of years of the basal Haydn's or is there a particular favorite years?

I would say this one might be, I mean, I'm not a crazy basal guys. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm kind of a upper proof kind of guy. So, you know, did you like the toast with the brown brown rice? I actually got to try, I want to say probably a higher proof version of that because they came out with a distiller's share that had that basically that same toasted brown rice mash bill. So that was really good. Yeah. Again, I don't know. The 80 proofers just seem... I don't know, I just really get that water, thinner texture on the bourbon. Yeah. And it's, I mean, this is a great for somebody, but it's not quite my jam, I guess.

Yeah. I would say this is probably okay for the hotter days. It's definitely good for somebody who doesn't like the bite of whiskey, you know? Yeah, for sure. You wouldn't even need to put a cube in this if you were one of those people, I think. You could just drink it straight. Be fine. Yeah. I think a cube might even like just make it disappear a little bit.

Yeah. Yeah. Be interesting.

All right, well, Basil Hayden malted rye, about 50 bucks where you can find it and you should be able to find it just about anywhere. We got this bottle at Kroger, but I've seen it on the shelf at Total Wine and it's out there and about, so keep your eye open for it. If you're a malted rye fan, this is one to add to your collection. And I would be surprised if Rob hasn't already picked one up since he's such a big fan.

Well, we know he'll want to try it for sure. Yeah, absolutely. If he hasn't. All right. So what do we have next on our list here? Well, we're going to stay in the Jim Beam family here. So we're going to do the... the A. Overholt straight rye whiskey. And it's been out quite a while now, probably six, eight months or so. And this is the Monongahela mash. And it is 80% rye and 20% malted barley. And this one comes in at 95 proof.

So, Monongahela is a river in Pennsylvania. It's one of the two rivers that form the headwaters of the Ohio, right? Right. Right there in Pittsburgh. And I guess Monongahela region is an area of Pennsylvania where rye is kind of originated from. Right, right. A certain style of rye. Yeah, we actually just kind of drove through some of that area, so that was pretty cool. Well, awesome. It does have quite a light color. It's not as light as the Basil Hayden, but it is a lighter whiskey. It comes in a dark bottle, though.

It does say aged four years. Yeah, it's a really nice bottle. Is it a bonded? It is not bonded, though. What's the proof on it? This is 95. OK. So the Overholt line has the bonded. 80 proof, and then even to have like a 115 now, I believe. I'm not mistaken. And then they also have that cask-proof tenure, which was really nice.

Yeah, it was good. Yeah, it was good. So it comes in a darker bottle. It looks like one of the, it almost looks like an Irish whiskey bottle.

Yeah, it almost looks like the Slane. The Slane bottle. Yeah, interesting. And it's interesting that they, you know, obviously the 10 years, in kind of like that old granddad shaped bottle, 114 bottle, the kind of rounded and then, but, you know, the Overholt's tend to have that, just that label and the look and Mr. Overholt's mug on there.

So where did you pick this one up at?

I got this one at Kroger. Okay. Yeah. Good old Kroger. I like their discount shelf.

Yeah.

Yeah. You can catch some some buttes there. You never know. This only retails for 40 bucks too, which is, which is interesting following up the, you know, malted rye, lower proof.

Fantastic. It'd be interesting to know, is the basil age stated at all? It is not age stated. Now there may, they may release more on the internet, but this is, you know, just sipping on it, it tastes like it might be three to four years. Yeah. You know, it's not,

Extra age by any means. Yeah. And in the glass, we have all five that we're going to sip on today sitting out. There was a very prominent color difference for sure. Yeah.

All right. Well, the nose on this has got sort of a spice drop, a little bit of a spice drop nose to it. I like that. A little more earthy? Earthy, but at the same time, it's got sort of a kind of a minty back note on it. A little bit of sweetness too. So that, I think that's where I'm getting that, um, that spice drop, but the earthiness is carrying it a little bit more towards like, uh, like a birch beer root beer or something like that.

Really picking up that mint now. Wow. That is a great nose. That's really good. Two good noses today. So I'm ready to jump in. Cheers. Cheers.

Now there's a lot more to that than the basil Hayden. Yes, sir. So this one has a little bit more, um, ability to sort of coat your palette. Yep. I love that, that, that sort of minty spice. Yep. Sweet minty sweet spice it's got. It's, um, yeah, it's spice drops all day long. Is that what they call those things? The little bell shaped, uh, gummies with the sugar, the sugar ones. Yeah. Well, they had different colors, but they usually put them out in the holidays and they, they kind of have a minty, spearminty flavor to them, but they're, they just call them spice drops. Yeah. It's got a nice long finish too for 95 proof. Wow.

Really good. That's some bang for your buck there.

They're putting out some quality rye. No doubt about it. I guess I'm a fan of the whole over line. I would say that the younger, I don't know if it's younger, the more affordable bottle that you get, which is what it's like, there's a 90 proof version and there's a hundred proof version, right? Right. And the hundred proof version is the bonded, it's a four years, pretty reasonable rye. Yeah. I don't think I've had the 90 proof.

I don't think I have either. I've had the bonded and I'm not even sure I've had that. It's 115 proof. I think it's like their higher proof version and then yeah.

Well, this is an excellent whiskey. And you said this was how much? 40 bucks. 40 bucks. I would say it's a good choice. Screw cap, though.

No, actually, it looks like a screw cap. Oh, it's a cork. They're faking us out.

Who would do that? Well, Jim Beamwood. That's weird to make a cap that looks like a screw cap, but it's actually a cork. I know. Joke's on us. Joke's on us. Wow. I would definitely have this around. I think that this would play well in cocktails. This would be, this would make a great, um, rye old fashioned, I think. Yeah. Uh, what, what was the corn content in this? Um, no corn, no corn.

Yeah. 20% barley, 80% rye.

So 20% barley, 80% rye. That is considered the Monongahela mash. Is that what that is?

Yeah.

Wow. Sweet. I don't know why I was thinking that the, why am I thinking that some of the Kentucky rise originated, the original mashbills originated in Pennsylvania. I'm sorely mistaken, I'm sure, but I had it in the back of my mind that kind of Kentucky got their, kind of their rise out of Pennsylvania, but they just added corn to Pennsylvania mashbills. Yeah, that's a winner. Winter, winter, chicken dinner. So actually, I think both of these are pretty decent. After having this one, looking back to the basil Hayden, as with the basil Hayden, it's a little light on substance, right? It sort of falls short because it's so thin. It is good and it has its place, but this fills the bill for me.

Yeah, this makes me happy.

Wow. This is one you could also like,

You know, some people don't like neat pours when it's really hot, but I think this would be fine.

Yeah, I think it would be too. Yeah, I think it would make a, it would make, and if you like, for example, mules or anything like that, it would be fine. Again, typically when you're mixing it like that, you don't want to be throwing $40 and $50 bottles at it. But we're just talking to sort of give you the full view of what we think about the, about the whiskeys.

Yeah. And this may make an appearance at the Bourbon Road bar.

There we go. We're getting dangerously close to 50 bottles for the roadie bar.

I think this would be a good one to add to that. Excellent.

Well, we might just have this basil hay molten right there too. So we're going to round this out with about 50 bottles, folks, when you're at Bourbon on the banks and you come see us at the Bourbon Road tent. We'll basically have all the whiskeys that we've spotlighted on the show over the years. So you'll get to try them firsthand and make the decision for yourself. And maybe even a few surprises.

Who knows? There'll be a few surprises. I'm sure.

All right. Well, we're doing real good here, Todd. What do we think about this next one?

Well, I'm excited about this one because it just dropped, I think, two Fridays ago, or maybe even last Friday, I think.

Yeah, we got the bottle a little early. There was an embargo on it, where we couldn't really talk about it until the day of. But we've seen a number of folks come out with their reviews on it. And folks, you may have seen it as well. But we're just getting around to it. And so we're going to be reviewing the Bardstown Bourbon Company newest release of the Origin series. It is the high wheat. High wheat and bourbon. And this is a 106 proof high wheat mash bill. They already had a weeded bourbon mash bill, but this particular one is going to be weeded at 39%. So this is a 53 corn, 39% wheat, and 8% malted barley. I'd say 39 is high.

Yeah, yeah. I had actually heard Jason talk about this one a little bit beforehand, and he said the original idea was to even come out with 100% wheat, so a wheat whiskey, but I guess they backtracked on that. it went with the smash bill instead and Steve Nowley approved. So, yeah.

Yeah. Well, he knows what he's doing. I was going to say known as the king of wheat. I'm sure the decision was wisely made and, and we'll be the beneficiary of it here, but they sent us this bottle. It was in a great little package. They do it so, so right. When they send out the media samples, this one had a lighted box, like a lighted box that you push the button and it would light up the bottle. It was beautiful. Almost like a little disco light. It could flash and do all kinds of tricks. Yeah, it had several modes of operation. But yeah, and this is all Bardstown bourbon company distillate. Yep. And it is six years old. And like I said, it's a 35, I mean, I'm sorry, it's a 53, 39 and eight corn wheat and multi-barley mashbill.

Yeah, I'm ready to try this one.

106 proof. Let's check it out.

I was very excited when you said you had gotten this in.

Oh, I like that nose. Yeah. Man, three winter noses today so far.

Oh, yeah.

I'll let you go first, Todd.

I'm getting a little citrus on this one, like brighter citrus, like almost a bit of lemon, brown sugar.

It seems like the three whiskies we've had so far today have been kind of light and refreshing on the nose. Yeah. Yeah, definitely a lighter sickness, citrus, a brighter citrus. I don't know if I would go all the way to lemon, but, um, lemon bar, lemon bar, maybe. There you go. There's a little sweetness on the nose, but I'm getting overwhelmed by that, uh, that floral kind of a citrusy floral aroma on it. Really nice. I might even call it soft, but it's soft and bright kind of at the same time. I don't know.

And I believe we're not mistaken. This one goes in, this goes in the barrel at a little lower proof than, you know, the 125 that seems to be the popular trend.

We might be, we might get, we get the sweet upfront. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Cheers. Cheers. Oh my goodness. Full of body. Oh wow. Very, um, very rich.

Not as sweet as I was expecting.

No, but thicker. Yeah. Very, there's a very heavy. Really nice mouth fill on this. Not heavy. Heavy is the wrong word. Very, um, yeah, viscous. I mean, very nice texture on this. Go back to the nose.

This actually lets the grain shine through a little bit, which is surprising for a six year.

Super well balanced. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it just sorta, if your tongue were a teeter totter, it would just be right in the middle right now. It just sorta, it's not as soft upfront as I thought it might be for having such a high wheat content. A bit spicy on the tail. A bit spicy on the tail. But I think that's what lends to the balance a little bit is that you've got a little bit of a prickliness upfront as well. Not much, just a tinge of it. Enough to help balance out the impact on the palate. You go back to the nose and it's just solid. It holds right where it was before we took the first sip. This is a well-crafted whiskey. Yeah, that's good. If I had to say it leans one way or another, it might lean a little dry on the back. Yeah. And the finish medium? Yeah. Medium finish. I like it though. Yeah. And this is a relatively inexpensive bottle, I think, right?

I believe I've seen like 50 bucks again. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I think that they're trying to, to come out with bottles that aren't overly priced. I think, you know, one of the things that tends to happen with these special releases are as they can be, a lot of people can see these special releases come out and the prices just keep, you know, elevating and elevating. But I think Parchestown bourbon company is doing a good job of keeping those, keeping those reasonable.

Part of the origin series, right? So this is, joins the other, the other three, the wheat, wheat to bourbon, the rye and the

I love seeing these releases like this. Well, both the Basil Hayden and this one, you know, releasing out at the $50 range, I think that that's a fair price. It's going to be, you know, it's going to capture the attention of the people out there. I would definitely suggest people grab a bottle of this. This is an exceptional whiskey for the price.

And especially if you're a fan of the other three bottles, and just Bardsound in general. I know some of those discoveries get up there in the price range. It's about $140 or so. And Fusion's no longer around, but some of their other special collaborative series can run a little high. But this is a great price.

I'm glad to see that they're keeping the origin at a place where your everyday drinker can afford to buy bottles. For sure. So that's great. Beautiful bottle. I'm sure the bottle that we have is an exact miniature of the 750. This is a 200 ml bottle. It's a beautiful bottle. Yeah. It has more of a gold tone to the label, gold top. As always, with PartsTown Bourbon Company, they're extremely transparent with their stats, so you're going to know everything about it. Six years, 106 proof. We did Mash Bill out of a reputable place like Barstown Bourbon Company for 50 bucks.

It's less than that 10 a year thing that I always talk about. I think it's a buy. Yeah, me too. I think it's a buy. All right.

Well, we are going to choose our favorite today, even though they're all very different. I think at the end, we might. Oh, no, we won't call it our favorite.

The standout. Biggest standout, biggest surprise. Yeah.

It doesn't necessarily have to be the best whiskey, just the one that sort of stood out the most to us.

That sounds good. All right.

I love it. All right. Well, Todd, why don't we take a short break? We've got, both of us have a bit of this, uh, Bardstown, uh, high wheat bourbon in our glass. We'll finish that up over the break. We'll come back. Savor it over the break. Yeah. We've got a couple more great whiskeys to talk to you about. So stick around folks.

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.

Welcome back, Roadies. We're here going through some new bottles that we've gotten to review or picked up in various places. And yeah, it's been a lot of fun. We had three great expressions that first half, and we've got two more to go through.

So what were the prices on the three bottles in the first half? So the Basin Hay and Malted Rye was right at $50. Then the A. Overholt Rye was about $40. And then the Bardstown High Wheat Bourbon was $50. So we're right in that. 50, 40, 50 range, I think. It's a comfortable spot for me.

Yeah. But on this next one, we're going to jump up a little bit. And the folks at Outsider Spirits were kind enough to send us a sample of this. And it's called Whiskey Gypsy. And this is batch 002. And it's called The Alchemist. The Alchemist, oh my goodness. I love alchemy. Yeah, I'm kind of wondering what Alan Bishop thinks of their calling it the Alchemist. So a little details on this Gypsy. Gypsy with a J. Gypsy, it's J-Y-P-S-I. OK. This is a blend. And 60% of the blend is 11-year-old corn whiskey from Tennessee, aged in recharred American oak barrels for sweetness, it says. 36% of the blend is Canadian rye aged in ex bourbon cask for 18 years. And then it says it's segmented into thirds and finished for six months in either port, Spanish vermouth, or sherry barrels to add the little like layers of dark red berries and fruits and that type of stuff. And then the last 4%, is a blend of rare 10-year-old 100% Indian single malt. Wow. So as soon as I saw that, I was like, huh, wonder if that's amroot. It could be amroot. Yeah, it could be amroot. I'm wondering what a recharred barrel is. I think it's where they actually will go in, and I can't Google it to check out, but go in and they will scour the inside of the barrel, like scrape all the char off and re-toast it. So it's a used barrel? I think, I mean, this is a whiskey.

OK. So I mean. So they've taken they've taken a barrel that has been used before. And this is an assumption. They've taken a barrel that's been used before and they're basically scraping all the old char out and recharging it, which burns off any residues and creates a new char layer. That's that's my take. OK. Never heard of it before.

But hey, when this episode drops, I'll check and I'll put a post out.

Sounds good, but it sounds to me like this was a very complicated blend with a lot of steps to it.

Yeah, and someone was brave enough to try it too.

All right. Well, let's check it out one more time. This is the Gypsy Alchemist.

Gypsy Alchemist. It's batch 002. I'm not sure what the first batch was called. And the name of the company? Outsider Spirits. Outsider Spirits. And this one retails, like I said, this is a a top shelf type-ish bottle, $1.99.

OK, so expensive. Where is outsider spirits?

I'm not sure where they're based out of. It's actually tied into Eric Church, the country singer.

Oh, it is? This is his brand. Oh, OK, cool.

Where he's one of their.

Well, I like Eric Church. Yeah. Let's see what I think about his whiskey. Right. All right. Oh. That is a deep nose. Yeah. That's some dark fruits. Oh, so we're getting into definitely a different level of whiskey here. There's dark fruits, deep and rich. There's a depth to this that we haven't had in the other three whiskies on the show today. It's like a vanilla custard, too. Yeah. What was the proof? Oh, I'm sorry. I don't even think I said. It's 114.3. 114. OK, so we're working our way up.

And that's kind of the way we usually do things. Hope, we always hope it works out.

It's funny though. We started, we're working our way up in proof, but we started with a rise today. So rise were the lowest proofs. That's not always the case. But yeah, this has a, a, definitely a, a sweet, um, I mean, almost a fig or like a, I mean, just a, a tense. Desserty. Desserty kind of. Yeah. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh yeah, that's a top shelf whiskey right there.

Very, um, interesting note.

Yes.

Assuming that's 4%.

Could be. Could be, or could the older rye, Canadian rye is really interesting.

I mean, it tastes like fig Newtons today.

It really does.

I've got figs on my brain right now, but man, that palette, I'm like, I picked up figs on the nose and when it hit my palate, I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm sitting here sucking on the inside of a fig Newton.

Yeah. Oh, wow. I'm getting something else that I can't. Can't pinpoint it. It's got the little spice.

Spicy. The proof is spot on. I mean, I love it at this level. Sweet. It is a sweet. Like we said, that deserty thing continues on the palate. I might even call this an after dinner.

Cigar? I wonder what a cigar would do.

A cigar would be good with this. This would be definitely eat a meal, all done. Somebody else might be drinking port. Somebody else might be drinking grappa. You're grabbing gypsy. You're drinking this. Yeah. This is a great after dinner drink. This is a great sipper. This is after dinner, slippers on, in the easy chair.

And to be honest, this is one, somebody had reached out to us and said, hey, do you want a sample of this? And I think you may have been on your trip or something. So I was like, sure. And I got my first sample in the mail, which was very exciting. Good for you, Todd. Free stuff. Who doesn't love it? But you're always a little wary, skeptical. There are no bad whiskeys, but let's just say some are better than others. And then seeing the match bill on this, I was like, oh, wow. Yeah. But it works.

Yeah, I'm skeptical only because I have been fooled so many times.

Right.

And I just want to make sure that the whiskeys we present to our listeners are ones that we can stand behind and say, Darn fine job. You know, that it's just, for me, it's just not a good show if I have to tell somebody how bad a whiskey is. Right. Right. It's just not my, it's not my thing.

Yeah. I much rather tell you what to buy instead of what not to buy. Yeah. Agreed. I mean, your hope is those that we may not be fans of now gets a little age on it and it improves.

I always tell, I always tell people to send us whiskeys if they don't make a show is to come on, come on back. Right. Cause we know it's going to get better. But yeah, this is fun. This is great. $199. That's a big price tag, though. That is a big price tag. Now, do you know anything about distribution?

I have like, they sent like, you know, kind of a press release, but I don't think it's very widely spread. I mean, yeah, I didn't look that up. And maybe when we post some info about this, I'll try to look it up if anybody's interested. Yeah.

Well, I would suggest anybody who is interested in this review, um, get their hands on a pour of it. Cause it's a delightful whiskey. It's really good. It is definitely not a, you're not going to pound this one down. You're going to sip on it after dinner. You're going to sip on it. Um, just a small pour of it from time to time.

But I'm glad you like it because like I said, I previewed this one a little bit, you know, because did not know what to expect looking at that match.

It has some extra age whiskies in it. It's had some creative finishing done on it. Yeah. And I think it's well, my hat's off to the blender on this. He did a great job. The mattress or whatever you call your name that you do with this, but you've done a good job of it. I think this is an excellent release and very unique for sure. Yeah, I don't know that I'll race out and spend $200 on a bottle, but I might. I mean, I certainly wouldn't be amiss of getting my hands on at least a partial bottle. Right, right.

Maybe go halfers on it. You want to go half on one of these?

I could do half, I think. I could do half. I'm just not that guy that drops that kind of money anymore. It seems like there's a lot of really good whiskey at that price though. There is. But there's also plenty more that's not. We've had a number of $100 to $200 bottles on the show in the last six months. And I would say the majority of them are fantastic whiskeys. But the choice to pull the wallet out and peel back the Benjamin's in this case is a personal decision. For sure. And for me, they come few and far between.

Yeah.

Such great whiskey out there, though. This is so good. Do they have anything else that you know of?

Like I said, this is batch two. I didn't do a super deep dive. I was just appreciative that they reached out to us.

Well, my eyes on them for sure. I would say that they definitely know their craft. Yeah.

I mean, There's obviously a niche out there for a bottle like this. I mean, you saw what? Sweeten's Cove. Yeah. Another brand with a celebrity behind it a little bit. Yeah. Those came out with a big price tag.

Well, Eric Church, you done good. Yeah. I think he did good. I think it's a good whiskey. You know, not all the time when you get a celebrity backed whiskey, do you get something that's actually good? I would say it's about a 50-50 shot. And well, Eric, you did good. I know that's I'm glad you like that. Yeah.

All right. So so what do we have next on the list? So our last pour is something we actually kind of talked about during our Elijah Craig barrel proof showdown kind of. And we talked about B524. Wasn't out yet. Wasn't out yet. Or well, we hadn't seen it yet. And well, lo and behold, I found one. It was at Kroger for $75. You took one for the team. Took one for the team, yeah. So things I do.

All right. So, um, we had, um, an Elijah Craig barrel proof showdown and we had a number of, and this was what, two episodes back, I think three episodes back, something like that. I think three, three. And, uh, C, C nine 23 was the, the top dog that day, but C one 24 held up really well. Yeah. But 524B 524 hadn't released yet, at least as far as we know. Yeah. And I think you sort of made the promise that you'd see if you can't find one and we'd report on it. And I try to keep my promises. You do try to keep your promises. Here we go. This is by far the darkest whiskey in all five glasses across from us. And there's a reason for that. Yeah. It's 11 years, two months.

And this is a big boy. It's 130.6.

130.6.

We've climbed about 16 proof points.

Yeah. So typically now the Elijah Craig barrel proofs are saddling in around 11 years, 11 to 12 years.

It's kind of been, well, if you recall, the C923 was 13. Oh, it was 13. Yeah.

Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah.

Yeah. A124 may have been a hair over 12, but B523 was under 12. So yeah, they're kind of hovering around that 12 and up a little, down a little.

So we've worked our way up the ladder here and we have reached 130 proof. This is definitely darker by a long shot than anything else we had. Also, so far, all great whiskeys, I think. Yeah. All good. But, uh, this, this one's going to be, uh, this one's going to make a major impression on the tongue, I think.

Yeah. And I think, um, those again, uh, the gypsy on the nose, another really good nose for outstanding noses today, which is fun.

Nosing on this one is smelling a little oaky.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, woody oaky, um, a little sweetness.

Not the burn I was expecting. There might be at 130.6 at that might.

Yeah. I'm not, I'm not getting singed nose hairs by any means. And at 130, I thought I might, but typical, you know, caramel, vanilla, brown sugar, brown sugar notes.

Cheers. Cheers.

Very nice. Nice, but a bit of a bite of dryness on the back end.

It's got a bit of a punch. Yeah.

I'd say it's in line with other releases of Elijah Craig Barrelproof. I would say that it's a good pour. A little over the top, maybe.

Yeah. We'll have to pull the A124 back out and maybe you and I just privately. Sure. I feel like it's getting a little hot.

Yeah. I think it's punching a little hard on the back end. It's got a little bit of dryness back there. When I said over the top, I mean, I think it probably could have come out of the barrel a little bit earlier, maybe. I know it's 11 years. Uh, maybe some of the barrels they chose were just, um, a little bit on the hot side.

Probably upper, upper tiers of the Rick house. Yeah. Yeah.

Not disappointing by any means.

No, I think 75 bucks for that almost 12 year. Yeah.

I mean, I would certainly, I would certainly buy it. Yeah. There's no doubt about it. Uh, it just, there's, there are others out there that are more finely tuned than this one.

I'd say the nose and palate compliment, although I'd give it a little like berry, like a blackberry, raspberry type thing a little bit.

Yeah, I can see that.

And it's kind of funny, I'm not getting like that, you know, we often talk about the peanut and bean, but the peanut shell and Elijah Craig barrel proof sometimes.

Right.

Not really there this time. No.

No. Now, and it does have a little bit of that sort of Yeah. Blackberry, I think is probably the best thing. Old berry, blackberry, whatever it is. That's a good whiskey. I mean, I'm not going to put it down by any means. I'm just going to say it's not overwhelming for me. It's a little over the top as far as like proof and, and, uh, dryness on the back of the pad, a little bit of a bite back there. Um, sometimes. Yeah. I think as you sip on this, it'll tame a little bit probably. Yeah. It makes some air time. Yeah. Yeah. Probably so. Certainly good though. Yeah. All right. So what do you think? How do you want to score these? Do you want to score or you just want to say what your most surprising pour was?

Let's do most surprising.

And then second most surprising.

Yes. Let's do two most surprising. Second most surprising. I like that idea because I have two that are kind of like. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. I'll let you go first, huh? All right. My first surprising. First or second?

You're least of the two. I'm going to go my second surprising is going to go to the Gypsy. OK. I absolutely knew not what to expect. Yeah. I did preview this one. You were kind of like, don't check it out first and see if it's, you know, meets the credentials, because you just don't know. You don't know. And I was like, oh, wow, this is a fun little ride. I kind of want to try it side by side with the Bardstown Amroot now. I mean, I know it's only got 4% of that Indian single malt, but I don't know. There's a lot going on in both those pours, I think. Sure. But yeah, big price. I mean, it's big price. Big price, but yeah, it's an interesting pour. If you're looking for unique, which I mean, who isn't, if you're a bourbon or rye or whiskey fan, it's, it's up there for sure. And the uniqueness.

Well, my second most surprising will go to the Bardstown High Wheat. I think it's an excellent pour, but you know why it's not. super surprising for me because I expect greatness from those guys every time. They really do good. I was going to say, it's not even on my list, but that's because I knew it was going to be good. But no, I really like it a lot. I think that it... It definitely holds a place in the weeded bourbons. I don't know if you should say the finer weeded bourbons, but it holds a very solid spot in the well-respected weeded bourbons.

It'd be interesting to throw it up against like Maker's Mark Cast Strength and some other

Yeah, something in similar, similar proof range maybe. This is 106, but you know, side by side, I think you mentioned somebody side by side with a, with a Weller Antique. I think it can hold its own against the Weller Antique. I don't know that it would come out on top.

Yeah. I think the Weller Antique is probably a little more well rounded, softer. And there was some. Unsoftness on that high wheat, but it was still a great pour.

But at $49 for a weeded bourbon, for those people out there that love their weeded bourbons, this is a solid bottle.

And unlike Antique 107, you should be able to find this on the shelf.

You should be able to find this. So it's a definite buy. For me, anyway, it's a definite buy suggestion for those who enjoy that type of bottle. And it's a quality distillery. They put out great stuff. And it's all their stuff. They make it all. Yep. As with all the Origin series. Yes. And great place to visit. Yep. Yep. All right. So your number one pick for most surprising whiskey. I'm going to go with the A Overholt.

Was really good. Yeah. You know, it's lower proof. I'm usually a 100-proofer high kind of guy, and that's at 95. And it packs a nice punch. It works well on its own. Like you said, probably will do well in some cocktails and such, but man, yeah.

There's a lot of reasons why the A over Holt should be on this list, no doubt about it. For me though, I chose the Gypsy Alchemist. Okay. And the reason I did is because I truly was most surprised by it. I didn't get a preview of it. You did not get a preview. And when I tasted it, I was very much overwhelmed by the flavor profile. I think it's a The person that blended this and matured this product is a true craftsman. No doubt about it. They did a good job. It's a great whiskey. The price takes me back a little bit, $199 for a bottle. I'm not going to say it's not worth it. I'm just not that guy. I'm just not that guy that's going to go out and typically spend $200 on a bottle. If I were,

If money were no object? Well, not if money were no object.

If I received a birthday gift from somebody of $200 bills and they said, I want you to take this and go buy yourself a bottle of whiskey, I would say the gypsy alchemist would be on that list.

Yeah. And I would even add, say you had $200 to spend on a bourbon or whiskey or rye. You know, there's a lot of those $200 bottles you can't find because everybody buys them. This might be one you might find.

Might be. Yeah. So, yay. I mean, so we've got three, let's just say three winners today, you know, the Gypsy Alchemist.

No losers. I would say three winners, no losers, two also rants. Yeah. It's kind of like win place show and then fourth and fifth horse, I guess.

Yeah. The big takeaway is that, you know, you can go out and spend $40 or $50 on a pretty darn good whiskey. Or you can go spend $200 on a damn fine whiskey and feel just as good about both purchases. So yeah, so the Bardstown bourbon company, high wheat bourbon, a definite thumbs up. The Gypsy Alchemist. What was the name of the company it comes from again? Outsider Spirits. Outsider Spirits, definitely a recommendation there. But with a caveat that you have to be willing to drop $200 bills to pick it up. Two Benjamins. Two Benjamins. And then third, and Todd's number one most surprising choice, the A over Holt, 95 proof rye whiskey. 95 proof, 40 bucks. Fantastic. I think that this whiskey is probably would, for me, would win the overall approval. You could use it for anything, right? Yeah. You could sip on it. You can make cocktails out of it. And for the money, you're not going to feel bad about mixing it with something. Right. So you can even make a highball with it, and it would be all right. Wow. Well.

I'm not a highball guy, so found that out recently.

Yeah. Well, great show, Todd. I love doing these kind of catch-up shows, right? Catch up on some bottles.

Yeah. I mean, you know, we're lucky enough and some fine folks out there send us some sample bottles to try. And it's nice to get a nice little grouping of them. And, you know, we obviously complemented with a few that we purchased ourselves. So, yeah.

Fantastic. So we worked our ways all the way from 80 proof to 130 proof today. We had five whiskeys along the trail. We went from 80 to 95 to 106 to 114 to 130. Yeah. Wow. And let's see, what?

Malted rye? Rye. High-wheated bourbon. a whiskey with all kinds of crazy components and then just a big old bourbon. Yeah.

Well, I think it's a well-rounded show. I think we gave everybody a couple of whiskies to look at today and we'd love to hear your thoughts in the bourbon roadies. Make sure you take a moment to go onto Facebook and search us out, The Bourbon Roadies. It's a private Facebook group with Oh, 3,000, 3,500 members that just like to chit chat about the whiskeys, talk about the show, hang out, playing gatherings. We share whiskeys with each other. It's just a fun place. They'll show what they're drinking that night or celebrating. If you've got a couple of those private Facebook groups that you like to be a part of that are on the topic of bourbon and rye whiskeys and such, make sure you add the bourbon road to your collection. We'd love to hear from you sometimes. But, you know, Todd, you and I are going to be at Bourbon on the Banks October 5th this year. I think we've made the announcement numerous times about tickets and get your tickets and make sure you don't miss your tickets. And I think there's probably, if we're lucky, a couple of Twilight tickets left, but maybe not.

Yeah. It's probably tight. Probably, probably tight.

You haven't made your plans to come. Don't waste any more time. It's almost September, folks. October's right around the corner. It's a great event. We're going to have a great time. Todd and I are making final preparations for that event. We're getting our tent. We're getting our partner who's going to pour from the tent. We're not ready to announce that yet, but we'll have somebody inside our tent pouring. We'll have our bourbon roadie bar. We'll have all the bourbon road swag there. Todd and I will be there. Even our original co-host, Randy, will be coming in for the weekend.

He likes to make it in every year for this. He should bring his guitar. Maybe play some music. He should.

I tried. Now, Randy has released a couple of singles this last year, so maybe he will come out and play a little bit. Maybe we talk to Diane and get him on the stage or something.

That would be good.

He's just a little bit shy. He's not shy at all when he gets on social media. But in person, he can be a little shy. But we look forward to seeing Randy again for sure. It's been a great show, Todd. Lots of fun. Always glad to hang out in the Corner Rick house here in Frankfort. It's a great, oh, you call it Studio B. Studio B. It's a great place to hang out. You can find the Bourbon Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, threads. We're a little bit everywhere. Not a lot everywhere, a little bit everywhere, but every week we do release an episode every Wednesday. And, you know, more and more lately, it's been Todd and I getting around to reviewing some whiskeys that so desperately needed to be included in our show. So we'll be getting back to getting a few guests on here. We've got some great events coming up. Make sure you stay tuned. The best place to follow us is obviously, jump to the top of the app you're on and subscribe so you get a notification every week when we release an episode. Get onto the bourbonroad.com. That's where our swag is, that's where our articles are. Find that podcast episodes there too, but you can sign up there for our newsletter. And, uh, we'll keep you up to date and everything that's going on. And, uh, of course, the Facebook roadies we'd love to have you as a member there. We sure enjoyed the show today. We're glad you were able to join us, but until the next time we'll see you down the bourbon road.

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