409. Some Like it Hot

I'm just, I'm trying to hold my own here. I'm not trying to drink it all, but it's hard not to when it's this tasty.

Yeah. How'd you do? You set mine down. Did you? I thought, yeah. You're the adult in the room then. I'm going to try to be.

All right. Well, when you're drinking five stags in a show, there needs to be an adult in the room. And my goodness, Todd, I'm glad it's you. Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon. And I'm your host, Todd Ritter.

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

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

All right, listeners, welcome back again. You know, we have finally made it back to Studio A once again, which I guess, Todd, you dubbed the corner Rick house Studio B. And I don't know if we call this Studio A, we call this a bourbon road bar studio. Yeah. Studio one a or whatever.

Yeah. Yeah. There it is.

But yeah, but so we're back here again and we managed to come up with another great show for our listeners today. Uh, another great idea from the mind of Todd, the scary mind of Todd, scary mind of Todd. I wonder if you do this sober, if you just, if you, if you're having a few pours and you come up with these great ideas.

Well, I mean, to be honest, you know, there's, I've come up with some good ideas for my friends on the whiskey, hello again, whiskey friend show. And, you know, there's. YouTubers out there doing things like this a lot. So it's pretty easy. And like I said, sometimes you just look at your collection and think, hey, what's going to be fun to like kind of compare against.

And we do tend to forget about some expressions. They kind of, they work their way back into the shadows and you don't think about them a lot when you're focusing on a lot of new releases and special releases and new distilleries.

Well, sometimes there's a reason for that. I mean, sometimes it's just really hard to get some of those things sometimes, and then other times, you know.

They're just nothing to talk about. That can happen too.

You see them at a bar and you're like, well, if I do four different pours here and try four of those, yeah, it'd be an expensive tab too, depending on what you're comparing.

Well, we're going to do another show today where we're going to cover a single expression over a number of years. And this would be like, this is like third in the series, right? We did, we did, uh, Elijah Craig, Elijah Craig Barrelproof.

And Bookers. And we did Bookers.

And today we're doing, Buffalo choices, Stagg, formerly Stagg Jr. Formerly Stagg Jr. So it's all grown up now. The first couple of bottles that we're going to have are from earlier releases when the name was Stagg Jr. Yeah, old school. Yeah, old school. And then the last three that we're going to have today. And yes, folks, I did say we're having five Stagg juniors today. So proof is up there. Yep. Little pores. But the last three will be from release 18 and beyond.

Yes, release 18 and then I got really lucky and I was able to get a 23C and then the newest release just came out this summer, 24A. Yay.

So I'm hoping that we've got some listeners out there that are either fans of Stagg or at the very least curious about it.

I think you've got to be curious. I mean, Buffalo Trace is the darling of the distillery world. I mean, it's got the mystique, and it's in my neck of the woods. And any time I go over there, it's a madhouse.

I guess if you were going to take one expression off the shelf that could be relabeled as fire water, This might be it. This might be it. Some of these, yes. And yet they've never had a hazmat release. No, they haven't. They've been up close. Well, not even really close.

Mid-130s, right? The first batch was 135.3, I think. 135.3. Yeah.

Well, anyway, for the first half folks, we've got three of these poured in our glass and in the very first glass is batch 10. And for historical purposes, Todd, batch 10 was released spring of 2018 and The expression of Stagg Jr. was introduced in spring of 2013. 2013, yes. And that would have been batch one. Correct.

And I was actually mistaken. It was 134.4 proof. That's been the highest proof. And oddly enough, it was the first batch.

Well, they typically stay in the high 20s and low 30s.

Yes. And then it's also a mash bill one apparently. Um, and from what you read age, there's no age statement on these, but they say eight to nine year rolls on this.

Well, it's, it's some, it's some dark stuff. Okay. Let's check out a batch number 10 from spring of 2018. That's one of what's in our glass now. So we're going to check it out. Yeah. Cheers. Cheers. Oh yeah. Yeah. That, that has a nice nose on it. Cinnamon.

Caramel. A lot of brown sugar.

Brown sugar. Zero fruit. Oak. Leather. Maybe a little cherry.

It could be a little cherry. Yeah.

Yeah. Cause if there is any fruit at all in there, it would be a cherry, a little bit darker cherry. Oh yeah. That's a good nose. More, more leather than like, there's not really a lot of tobacco. We kind of know it's more leathery leathery leather oak, like a saddle shop kind of.

Right.

But a good, good portion of that cinnamon spice has coming off of it. Ready for the taste. Oh yeah. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, that's really good. Yeah. One 26.4 is the proof, which is a little bit in the lower range for stack juniors. I guess it's at the lower end of the.

Yeah, we have the, the 23 C is the lowest proof they've put out and it's one 25.9. So yeah, pretty close. It's just barely over. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, so the oak steps forward. It definitely has a sizzle of a higher proof whiskey. I wouldn't call it thick and creamy at all. I would just say that it's stout.

That's a great word. Stout. I mean, it's warming.

Yeah.

Really coats the palate though. It's not viscous, but it's hitting everywhere on my tongue.

Yeah, it's got something for every taste bud in your mouth, so no doubt about that. It's almost a meaty bourbon, kind of has a, yeah, like a, it says, I was made for barbecue. I was made for brisket. Steak bourbon.

cherry still getting that cherry.

I think cherry is actually coming out from behind a little bit and stepping up. I was very early on. I was very, I was a little too early to say no fruit at all because, um, that cherry definitely is, is popping out now. The brown sugar, some all spice on the tail end. But man, it's got, it's got a pretty substantial hug. I'm feeling it right in my sternum. I mean, right date. I'd very deep in the chest.

It's kind of getting hit by a Buffalo. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Call this a, uh, we used to say that in the show a lot of years ago. I'm trying to remember what it was. Yeah. Instead of a Kentucky hug, it's like an Anaconda, right? It's definitely a compressing my chest and I feel it in my sternum. A lot of times you just feel that, that hug and that burn in the, in the sort of the bottom of your throat. But when it gets down, literally in the, in the core of your chest.

So when this came out in 2018, Jim, what did this run originally, I guess?

Yeah, so at that time, Stagg was right at $50 a bottle. $50. And so any of the older bottles that you can still, because it was a pretty, There were a lot produced. There's a lot of this produced. So there's a lot of bottles out there. I'm going to say there's still a lot of these older bottles that still haven't been opened. People were buying them up. They became in 2018, things were sort of catching fire a little bit and getting You know, bourbon was becoming the thing. People were standing in lines. And in 2018, people, if they saw a bottle of this on the shelf, they would buy it. If they saw three, they'd buy all three. If they saw a case, they'd pick up the case. So it was the beginning of that time when things got really hard to find.

And I'm sure there's some of those folks out there that are Sazerac or Buffalo Trace collection. It's just like, there's those folks that have every Weller, minus the Millennium probably, but there's those guys out there that wanted all the stags. So they probably have batch one all the way up to the newest one.

And if you're trying to pick up one of these on the secondary, it's going to cost you anywhere between, let's say, $250 and $350. Is that a fair number? Yeah, probably so. So originally $50, but most of these stags that are no longer available in circulation and you're going to pick them up on the secondary, they're going to cost you several hundred dollars. So just find a friend and share a pour with them. Right. You might find some bars, some of the nicer high-end bars. I like this one. This one had a higher secondary price for some reason, uh, then that the batch nine and batch 11, one on either side of it. I'm not sure why. I mean, it tastes okay, good, but it's not like, I don't think it's like this next one we're going to drink.

We'll see. Like I said, batch 12 is supposed to be the darling of them all. So it's really good though. So.

Yeah, this is a good bourbon. I would say if you can put your hands on a bottle of batch 10, uh, grab it for a hundred or less. Is that fair? Is that fair?

I mean, like I said, this is like a definite bar tribe. If your bar has a, just have an older batch, then heck yeah. At a reasonable price.

Yeah. I guess if you really got to put the collection together and there's a hole at batch 10, you can pay whatever you want to pay. But. I probably wouldn't do it. I would probably say, uh, I wouldn't, I mean, if, if I saw a bottle out there, a batch 10 for under a hundred dollars, I'd probably snap it up.

Oh, I definitely wouldn't.

Yeah.

So it's hard to find even the new batches under a hundred dollars anymore. Sadly.

I hate to encourage the purchase of bottles over, over retail price, but sometimes if you got to have it, you got to have it.

So this is, uh, Buffalo traces mash bill.

Number one, which. They're considered their low rye mashbill. They're low rye, uh, rye bourbon mashbill. Right.

Uh, other things that are made in a secret vault and all kinds of things. Yeah.

So other whiskies that are made under rye, rye mashbill one, uh, Eagle rare, I believe is Eagle rare. Uh, obviously the big daddy stag. Yep. Stag, um, George T. Um, let's see.

I think those are kind of like the big three of that aren't the big three.

We have to. Oh yeah. And, uh, Buffalo trace itself.

Oh, that's right.

The actual Buffalo trace brand.

So, so, uh, Buffalo trace Eagle rare benchmark. That's why they call that benchmark. Yeah. Little proof, uh, baby stag. Um, yeah. And on mash bill one, um, most say that's probably, it's like you said, that's their low rise. So they must folks ponder that it's, I guess, below 10% dry content on the right.

So like I said, is it going to guess, you know, I don't know. As somebody knows, actually a lot of people know it's just, you don't know official, right? You know what I mean?

It's just, it's one of those things where, uh, all speculation, but it's, it's probably pretty close.

Until somebody actually puts it out in official Buffalo Trace print, it's just hearsay.

Yeah. And I think that just adds to the mystique because we just don't know.

I don't know. Not that it's going to make a huge bit of difference if somebody knows what your match bill is. Right.

If you've got a match bill and you're putting out good bourbon. I'm, I'm, I'm there for you, you know?

Well, I like this. I'm just, uh, I'm, I'm trying to hold my own here. I'm not trying to drink at all, but it's hard not to when it's this tasty.

Yeah. How'd you do? I set mine down. Did you? I thought. You're the adult in the room then. I'm going to try to be.

All right. Well, when you're drinking five stags in a show, there needs to be an adult in the room. And my goodness, Todd, I'm glad it's you.

All right. What's in our next class? This is batch 12. And like I said, this is supposed to be the darling of all of them. This is, uh, Yeah. This is tends to be a lot of, a lot of folks's favorite. And this would be a spring release as well. So stack 12 came out the summer of 2019 rather than the spring. Yeah. That if you look on some websites, like the way they drop these is just kind of no rhyme or reason. Yeah. Some came out in spring of a year. Some came out in winter. Some came out in fall and I wonder what happened because you know,

They established the spring and summer twice a year release back in 2013, not unlike the old Fitz spring and fall releases that Evinil has for their bottle and bond special release, old Fitzgeralds. But somewhere along the line, something happens.

Yeah, but I don't know if you look closer, maybe stag does a let's see a spring fall one year and then follows it up with a summer winter. We have to look a little closer at that now. And I think I'm like, maybe that's what they went for. But then that all went out the window when 2023 came out because they, they dropped three, three different batches.

Yeah. And then, yeah. And then it quit being stag junior and batch 19, which really wasn't batch nine, no batch 18, but then batch 19 really wasn't batch 19. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Who's on first.

What's on second.

Anyway. Great looking whiskey here. This has, I like the, even though I don't know if this is as dark as the 2010, maybe it is. Um, but I love the color of it. I think it's got this golden mahogany kind of a hue to it. Very clean, very bourbon like almost crystal, crystal look to it. Maybe, maybe my glass is just really clean.

It looks great.

This is awesome. Oh, the nose on that is really wonderful. I would not, I would not say this is a stag. This is, this can't be a stag junior. Oh, there's a little stag junior coming off on the back end of the nose.

A lot of vanilla.

Yeah, this is, this is a little more creamy kind of, uh, They found a few barrels to bring out more of the vanilla notes in this, I think. Yeah.

A little softer. I mean, not that the other one was abrasive, but this one just, yeah, it's just, it's pleasant on the nose. It's not punching you in the nose.

I don't think it knows is as old as the 10th. No, I think it knows it's a little bit younger. Maybe it has some, some less, uh, less aged.

But barrels in it, maybe, maybe. So this one's one 32.3. So it is a bit of a jump. The proof is higher proof, which like I said, it's a little softer on the nose. I think that.

Yeah.

Cheers. Cheers.

This is so far. This is the king of texture. This has a much better mouthfeel to it.

Oh yeah.

Really good. A little bit of a buttery kind of. call it a buttery note, but a buttery texture to it. A little silkier. It's not sizzling me like a stag junior would. It's just a little more pleasing, more well-rounded bourbon. Yeah. A little darker thing going on like darker notes. Man. Yeah. This is really nice. I wonder if I had a 12 and just drank it all up. It's possible. Yeah. Very possible. This is really good. Summer of 2019, the stag would have been priced closer to $60 at that time. Once things started to become more scarce, harder to put your hands on, we started to see prices start to climb just a little bit. And that's back when we started to see the bookers come up in price a little bit. The stag juniors rose from 50 to 60. And well, things just became harder to get. It became more scarce. So the distillery started to capitalize on it a little bit more. This one probably could have fetched a lot more money based on a single releases flavor profile.

And this is like so mouth coding. Like we talked about that one, the first one, coding the tongue, like my whole mouth. It's just radiating this boards. Does that make sense?

Yeah, it does. So the deep chest hug that I had from 10 is gone. Yeah. And now it's back up in the high chair. It's up here. So definitely a less, um, less stag burn on this one than on batch 10. This is more of a, um, an excellent bourbon. This would be more of a sipper's bourbon.

Yeah. It obviously earns its accolades.

Yeah. It's good stuff. Again, according to the list we're looking at, I would expect this one to fetch higher prices on the secondary.

And from what I, I mean, let's be honest, I have my finger on the pulse, if you will. So it, it does tend to cause everyone knows it's really good. So it's more than a 300 to 350 range.

So you can't always trust the websites. Yeah.

I mean, something can be dated a little bit. That's true.

Yeah. Yeah. So you get your finger on the pulse. Uh, 12 is like the big daddy Kahuna for the stag juniors, huh?

Yes. Yeah. It is the, uh, the top dog.

I can see why we haven't had the other three yet, but this is really good. Still got a nice cinnamon sort of after palate on it. Yeah.

And it's, I mean, that's the thing about stags is it's like, you know, you hear the baking spice cabinet. Stag has all that in spades, I think. Sure. I mean, it's, it's rare where you get like, you know, it seems like it stays kind of on point more than the Elijah crags, the bookers bookers are a little on point, but it seems like stag is always like.

Have you ever tried proofing down a stag?

I thought that was sacrilegious. I think it is. I think it is probably, but you know, we do add water. I have friends that work at Buffalo Trace. They would shame me.

But I mean, I'm just wondering what it would be with a little water added, you know? Proofing it down was probably the wrong terminology. Have you ever tried adding water to your stag to see if you could open it up?

Not yet.

Not yet.

Good stuff. Maybe I'll have to do that for, for science, as they say.

Well, every now and then Todd, you just have to take one for the team. Yeah.

Probably not on batch 12 though. I might do it on another.

Yeah.

My 12 is getting low.

Well, I got plenty of that 10 left. Why don't we try to see if we can tame that team?

Yeah.

Yeah. I like this a lot. I'm just wondering if we're going to top it.

I'm interested in trying, because 18 is unopened. Yeah. OK, so yeah, I opened this 23C when some of our good roadie friends, Doug Keller, Rhett Francis, and Mark Ratliff were in town. I guess that's probably been about three weeks, four, maybe a month ago.

Oh, they stopped it at the corner of Rick House. Yeah, so yeah, I shared a pour of the 23C with them.

Funny enough, Doug had gotten lucky and gotten a bottle of this. And I think he had opened it, too, to share.

If not, I'm sure you did. Yeah, good deal.

So, but it'll be, it'd be interesting to see if in these new boys can knock off the old classic here.

Well, that would be something, wouldn't it? Wow. Fantastic pour.

All right. Well, if we're going to get through a third whiskey in the first half, we'd better get on it. We got to keep moving.

All right. So, uh, now we're moving on to something that. Officially is not a stag junior. Yeah, it grew up. They grew up. So in, uh, batch 18 was the first bottle to drop the junior tag.

So, and there was, you thought the world was ending or something. It was so funny. Yeah, it was.

So how are we going to tell this from big daddy stag? Well, cause big daddy stag is George T stag.

Well, I think was the way they determined batches for stag was by proofs. So that even got thrown a curve when they came out with a batch that had the same proof of another proof that was, you know, much prior, but still it's just blown mind. So I guess the fine folks at Sazerac heard all this and that's why they started with the 23 A's and B's and C's and so. They're being kind to us collectors and things like that.

So it's kind of funny. So they came out with batch 18, which is what's in our glass now, batch 18, another great, um, deep mahogany, great color bourbon.

About what you'd expect of an eight, nine year.

Yeah. And I'm looking at the legs and they just, they sort of, they sort of just run in a parallel streams, not like it's sticking and cheating on the glass, but a little bit more of a individual legs. But this is the last batch that was sequential, I guess. Yeah. Sequentially numbered.

Cheers. And this was a winter of 22 is when this one dropped.

All right. And it's 131 proof. 131 proof. Well, on the nose, I'm getting more of a peppermint spice, a little bit of cinnamon. Something odd, a little bit of a different note there. A little. I'm not sure what that is. I can't pull it either.

We'll do the coverup technique and see if something pops out.

Yeah. It's, um, it's kind of, uh, it's a little bit of like a minty kind of note. I said Spearman at first, first thing that came to mind, but yeah, I think maybe a sassafras or something. I don't know.

So from a low rise seems, uh, interesting. Yeah.

All right. Well, cheers. Cheers. So first impression is, uh, sort of a buttery flow over the tongue for me. Uh, no real fruit or anything like that. Um, a little bit of dryness on the back. Kind of not a lot in the middle.

Yeah. It's all back palette. It's all back. I mean, there's a initial hit of some nice, you know, like I said, some of those classic flavors and then it really like zings the back of the palette.

Okay. It washes over the front. You get this little buttery effect. It sort of skips the whole mid palette goes to the back and settles in with a pretty good both feet on the ground. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Kind of a little interesting, confusing in a way.

Yeah. Disjointed. Yeah. I was going to say disjointed for sure. Um, and then coming off 12, it's kind of like, which was just like a perfect flow. This is kind of a shocker, I guess. It's still not bad.

I'm sure 18 is always saying, why in the hell do I have to follow 12?

13, 14, all of those guys are like, 12 just sort of rendered us into oblivion, you know,

It's a good bourbon. I mean, there's nothing bad to say about it except that it's not 12. It doesn't...

I mean, if you see a stag out there at cost, or have a good relationship with your store, your local stores, and it's offered.

Yeah, 18's kind of walking over the back of my pallet. I kind of skipped right over the front, the middle, there was nothing there. It does settle in for a little bit of a good lengthy finish. Yeah, I mean, it lingers quite a while.

A little dry.

Not a deep chest hug, but man, 10 had that in spades.

This might be that one to drop a little water in.

Yeah, this could be it. This could be the one to add water to and see what happens. And there's definitely some room in the proof. You said 131 and change. 131 straight up. Straight up. So this would definitely handle a few drops. No problem. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Not my favorite. No.

Um, I think it's, I have my mental placement going on here. Of course for the end show. You're already doing it. Yeah.

Yeah. I think so. I just wonder, how do you score that deep chest hug of batch 10? I mean, is that like a good thing or is that a bad thing?

I don't know. I don't know if it's good or bad. It's definitely different. I was going to say, I think we talked about having like something hearty with batch 12, right? Yeah. So if you had something hearty with batch 10, It could be in for some Rolades or Toms at some point.

Yeah. I think, I think batch 10 would pair well with Prilosec.

How's that? I love it. Some chewy Rolades. Yeah.

Oh Todd, we got a great month coming up here. So, uh, you know, it is bourbon heritage month, by the way. We're actually recording on September the first, which is day one of bourbon heritage month. I know. This episode won't actually release until the 4th. But folks, we are recording on a Sunday. It's September 1st. It is the inauguration of 2024, Bourbon Heritage Month. We've got a lot of great stuff planned.

A lot of stuff going on and yeah, a lot of the big drops will be happening. You've got festivals. This is kind of like festival kickoff season.

Festival kickoff season. Oh my goodness. So it's only, I mean, we're literally 13 days out from Kentucky Bourbon Festival.

Right. And then. a little over a month from Bourbon on the Banks.

Bourbon on the Banks and a lot of people descending on Kentucky in this next 30 to 35 to 40 days. So this is going to be a fun time and I'm ready for it.

Yeah, I'm excited. There's just, I mean, like I said, the releases that come out now, you know, if you get lucky and find some of those.

Yeah.

And then a lot of your bars have really cool events going on and yeah, it's just something's always going on.

It seems like everybody wants to do interviews in September too.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's like, wait guys, we can't do all our interviews in September. We're busy. Right.

Right.

But it's great that we've been able to do a lot of these side by side tasting shows in the meantime, because I think we had some pent up demand for that kind of stuff.

Yeah. I mean, like I said, it's, it's fun to go out and compare some of these, man. Still got a few up my sleeve too, so.

All right. So folks, if you are listening to this and it is September the 4th or days after, after the episode releases, I hope to see you in Bardstown on the 13th, 14th and 15th. I think the dates are for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. I believe so. Todd, you're not going to make it this year.

I'm not. I'm going to go to Savannah. I guess it'll actually be a week from today for work. I won't get back till like Thursday morning. And I just hate to put all of that on my better half, like two kids and like a week of soccer practices and dance classes and gymnastics class.

So all things in moderation. Yeah. So you gotta, you gotta, you gotta have a balanced life.

So, you know, a couple of weeks later, we're going to do bourbon on the banks, which I will be full throttle on. Cause that's my hometown. I liked, I liked, I mean, that's, that's my one. I, I'd like it, you know, I hope to get to Kentucky Bourbon Festival at some point, but I just hear it's such a big, big thing that I don't know. I don't know if it's my cup of tea, I just like the quaintness of Bourbon on the Banks. I know, I'm playing favorites. I was on the board for a while, so I'm playing favorites.

I mean, they're so very different. They're really different. So the Kentucky Bourbon Festival is more of a production. There's a lot more people playing on waiting in line to get samples. It seems hotter. warmer outside.

Luckily they moved it like a few weeks, right? Yeah. I mean, that's towards the end of August at one point or something.

Yeah. And well, it has been moved several times. I think that, I think it's at a good spot, uh, cause weather's unpredictable in any case. I mean, you can't predict it. And, But you know, it does seem like the last couple of years it's been toasty hot down there. And you know, there's a lot of people. Friday is a busy day. Saturday is crazy. Anyway, come have fun. I hope I see you there. I'll be walking around trying to meet as many people as possible and hope to see a lot of you roadies down there. We'll be making the most of it. Um, I, it's hard to make it all day long though. It's so hot. And once you, once you add tasting bourbon to it. So the bourbon and the heat, thank goodness for the air conditioned media tent.

So, so like how long is like, what time do they start pouring and things on like say Saturday, I guess, you know, I don't know exactly what the times are.

Uh, I think it's pretty much all day. Let's say 10, uh, four or five, I think.

Unfortunately, I don't have my notes with me, but it's a full day.

It's a full day Friday. It's a full day Saturday. And, you know, there's things going on Sunday as well, but you can. You can pretty much, I mean, you can pretty much wear yourself out. I mean, there's, and this is true with bourbon on the banks or Kentucky bourbon festival that there's way more whiskey than you need to drink in a single day. So you've got to kind of pace yourself and be careful about it and be, be smart.

Yeah. And what I would recommend is trying some of the, the ones that you don't see. I mean, try one. It's not your jam. Well, maybe move on down. I mean, there's, there's going to be like 70 plus distilleries at Bourbon on the banks.

I'm sure 60 plus distilleries and I think over 300 expressions at Kentucky Bourbon Festival.

Yeah. And I know there's a lot of special drops and like, yeah, there'll be single barrel picks and all kinds of stuff and at both places.

So, so you're not going to drink them all. Don't make that your goal. Right. So, all right. Well, folks, we're going to take a quick break here. Todd and they're going to continue sipping on this batch 18. When we come back, we have two more amazing expressions of stag. And who knows? We might find a winner in the second half. Stick around.

Hey roadies, it's Diane Strong again with Bourbon on the Banks Festival. Thanks for waiting to hear the details about our event this year. I'm so excited. I want you to come into Frankfort, Kentucky on October 5th. We're going to celebrate along the banks of the Kentucky River. We've got over 70 distilleries this year. You get your sample glass and you get to go to town. Here's a real quick rundown of the events we've got going on. Thursday we've got Mixology on the River with O.H. Ingram and Heather Wibbles. After that event, you can head out to Whiskey Thief Distilling for our official kickoff party. Friday, you can indulge in a bourbon pairing with no other than Peggy No Stevens. Freddie Johnson's gonna join her for the fun, and you're gonna 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 six o'clock because we have got an amazing free, family-friendly event brought to you by X-Free Credit Union. We've got fire performers, acrobats, street performers, music, food, tons of free activities for the kids. The main event, of course, is on Saturday, October 5th. This year we've got over 70 distilleries to sample from, which is included in your ticket price. We've got bourbon-themed merchants, live music, delectable food, and the event promises to be unforgettable. I want you to go to bourbononthebanks.org to get all the details for all the events we've got going on. Some are ticketed, some are free, but I guarantee you're going to have a great time here in historic downtown Frankfort, Kentucky. Bourbon on the Banks Festival brought to you by Limestone Farms.

All right, welcome back, roadies. We're here trying some stags today and we're getting ready to try out this 23C and we hope you've enjoyed the first half. What did we have in the first half? We had a batch 10, batch 12, and 18. So all over the place on that first three, but these next two are like the latest two releases.

So it does that mean they can find them or is they still pretty hard to put their hands on?

I'd say Probably the latter sadly, but you know, like it's It's still very popular. It's like you said if people find this on the shelf it close to MSRP They're probably gonna grab more than one. Yeah

And MSRP is actually about $70 now, um, on most of these, but we talked in the first half batch 10 was at $50 batch 12 and batch 18 were both around 60 or so. Yeah. And now we're up near 70. So the price has increased 20%. Yeah. Which compared to some other stuff, that's not too bad. Right. So some of them have doubled or more or more or more. All right, so batch 23C and what was the proof? On 23C, this is the lowest proof, 125.9. 125.9. It is very dark though in color compared to the others.

Yeah, just a hair darker, yeah. Okay. I'm going to throw this out there.

Yeah.

Cause Jason's the one that Jason, Gloria, the mashing drums, the one that got me thinking about this. Sometimes, sometimes when I have Buffalo trace products, I get, get like a grape jelly. Okay. Yeah. Are you getting the grape jelly? I am on this one a little bit. It seems a little more prominent, like on your Eagle rares. Yeah. I think. I'm getting a little bit more serial note on this. Oh yeah.

Yeah. Wow. Just a little bit. That's interesting because normally those kinds of notes are dead gone by the time eight or nine years. For sure. A little bit of singeing of the nose hairs there, but not super hot. Yeah, I'm going to stick with that. I'm going to say this one's got a little bit more of a kind of a serial note to it or a husky serial note, sort of the chafe for the, uh, the, um, I don't know what you call it. What do you call that on the outside of a kernel? Um, the whole, the whole, a little bit more like the, the whole of a rye grain or the whole of a, a barley grain. Some people call it a hay note. A hay note. Wow. Okay. Nice.

And the brown sugar. That's the one thing that's like been prominent on all these. They all have it.

Yeah, they do. They do. This was a little bit lighter on the vanilla though.

Yeah. Yeah. I wish I could pick up that grape jelly note. It just sounds so awesome.

I wouldn't have to pick it up. I'm just not. I'm sure it's there. My nose is just, uh, after we're on our fourth stag junior, my nose is probably shot by now. Cheers. Cheers. I like it. It's, um, it's got a bite up front in the middle and in the back.

So it bites all the way across the palate. I'm going to go in for a second set, but that kind of went away quick.

Yep.

Like it just came and went pretty fast, which I'm surprised with compared to those other three, those other three, if anything, they all had some really long finishes.

And I'm, I'm getting that kind of, um, still getting the toasted like, um, almost the PB and J without the J. So, I mean, it's like, I'm getting, I'm getting it like I can taste it. It's like right there. Like the aftertaste of taking a bite of peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but not so much. I know you said grape jelly. I'm not, I'm not getting the grape jelly part, but it may be hidden in that note that I'm getting. Maybe why I'm getting that is from that jelly note that I'm just not picking up independently, but I'm getting the PB and J kind of thing. That is so interesting.

Yeah. So different. And we had a few snacks, so.

Wait a minute. I did have a chocolate covered almond.

Oh, that's probably what's going on here. All right. Maybe principle a little water.

Yeah. I've probably destroyed myself. Normally you can eat charcuterie and it won't mess you up too bad. We're having, by the way, folks, Todd and I are having, um, ripe cheeses with, uh, baguette slices and some soap risotto, which is basically kind of a sort of salami. Yeah. Normally you can eat those things when you're drinking whiskeys and they don't overly impact the palate too much.

Right. I'm usually like, yeah, I like a little bread or a little crackers or almonds. And I just did a tasting where they had some cashews, which can kind of tone down your palate again, I think.

But I set out roasted almonds covered in chocolate and that may be what just happened to me because I literally just had those.

I'm like, wait a minute, what's going on here? And for the, for the record, I did not have any, you did not. So he's looking at me like, what the hell are you talking about? Peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I will have some after this. Wow. All right. Well, if you're going to trust your palate, you've got to be careful what you eat before. This one has got a little bit of bite to it. Yeah. Front, middle and back. So, I mean, it's, um, I like it though. Yeah. I think it's, um, it plays better across the palette than 18 did as far as it's not disjointed, I guess.

Right.

So it's holding itself together a little bit. It's not falling apart on the palette. And it's not a big chest burner at all.

Yeah. It's a little, but probably the least of the first three. Yeah.

It is numbing me a little bit on the back of the palette though.

Just a hair.

Yeah.

But if I had to complain about this, it might be the finish. Just kind of on the short side. I was going to say medium short for sure. Yeah. But still it's a good whiskey.

Yeah. I'm trying to, I'm putting them in my head Todd so that I can rank them at the end. And I kind of have it. Do you have yours kind of so far? We have one more to try. So I'm not going to jump the gun, but.

Yes. Yeah. I think I just placed that one. Yeah.

Are there a couple of them in a tug of war or is it pretty clear?

I mean, there's been a standout and there's been probably a last place. The second and third right now are, it's pretty close. I tend to agree with you. Yeah.

The crazy thing is the past couple of times we've done these, we've kind of been pretty close to each other or flip-flopped very close. Um, like, like I pick one in second, you'd pick it as your third. I might. Yeah. Flip-flop or something like that. I thought the, uh, the bookers, I think we were spot on together. I think it was the,

Take that, take that for what it's worth.

I think we were just really close, but not exactly matched.

I like this one. Yeah. 23 C 23 C. Um, that was, came out in the winter, 20, 23. And like I said, one 25.9 proof.

All right. So you, you just did a barrel pick, uh, within the past few days.

I did. Um, so the, as many of you know, the bourbon on the banks this past year, um, the year before, I should say, um, did a couple of barrel picks. There was a, uh, lost river from the spirits of French lick and a knob Creek, um, bourbon that they did last year. And they sell those bottles, um, They're at the festival. So this time around, we're kind of teaming up with more places and we're just kind of like picking a barrel. Just for the event. So like we went to the dark arts, which is there in Lexington, McCauley Minton is their owner and barrel, barrel, Swami who used to be at wilderness trail. He was the barrel manager there at wilderness trail. So yeah, he's gotten a lot of acclaim lately, tore it up at the escort awards and San Francisco, a lot of really interesting finishes. And so we tried seven different barrels all were finished, ranging from Port, Red Port, Madeira, Tokai, Sauteurs, which the Sauteurs had the Most amazing nose, one of the most amazing noses I've ever smelled.

Yeah.

But the palette got really weird on that one. There was also Oloroso Sherry and I'm forgetting maybe one or two, but Fun experience. Macaulay is always an interesting guy to like hang out and talk to. And so spoilers, we actually blindly chose the Tokai. So yeah, there should be some bottles that he will have there in his area that he will be selling that were chosen by some members for the Bourbon on the Bank Festival. That's a smart way to do it.

I mean, it's such a smart way to do it that you have these, uh, event specific picks that each, um, producer is able to showcase.

What a great way to do it. Yeah. And then, you know, when you usually do a barrel pick, it can vary on your bottle size. So rather than have 240 barrels, you really hope or excuse me, 240 bottles to sell. you, you know, he's going to work, he's going to sell what he can and I'm definitely going to buy a few. And then whatever he has left, he can sell at his little shop, you know, or some other.

Well, we're going to be crazy busy there, but I hope I can steal away real quick and get me a couple bottles of that as well. Yeah.

Yeah.

It's sounds great.

A lot of fun. And yeah, we had a good time. All right. And there's a few other, few others lined up to do that. Uh, I know peerless is one Lawrenceburg bourbon company and they're like said, there's, Look, there's one more, maybe four roses.

Yeah.

Don't hold me to that one though. I can't remember.

Oh, I know that could be good.

That could be amazing.

Yeah.

I know that's going to be a big, a hot ticket at the auction. They're doing a barrel pick experience with four roses, which I've heard is amazing. Fantastic. All 10 recipes. You talk about a full day.

Yeah.

Wow.

Man, we're going to have so much fun over the next six weeks.

I just can't wait. It's going to be a blast. A lot of good friends coming in. I'm very excited.

Well, I like this one a lot. I think it's a great whiskey. It's a full palette experience. That's for sure.

This is the lowest proof stag ever released. 125.9.

Lowest proof, darkest color, I think that we've seen tonight and, um, a contemporary release very recent. Yeah.

Which maybe the dark color color has maybe they threw in some older barrels perhaps. Okay, Todd, we worked our way through four stags so far. And we're still standing. We're still standing. We're sitting.

We're sitting. We're sitting, folks.

We're sitting straight though.

But I think we could stand if we needed to. I think so. If we were called upon to stand, I think we could stand. Yes.

I think so.

All right. Well, I'm going to hydrate here just a little bit, folks. I need to clear my palate. That way I don't get another peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the next pour. Get rid of that chocolate. Oh my goodness. That's almost embarrassing. I should be more qualified than that.

Well, I mean, there's a lot of folks, uh, that we'll have things and like almonds and we'll do tasting with an almond and tasting with raisins.

Well, maybe someone's going to say, Jim, in his error of his ways, taught me during one episode that don't trust your notes on the tasting if you just ate chocolate covered almonds. I think you're safe with pretzels, crackers, cheese, typically. Sometimes meats are okay. Yeah.

The big question is, did it pair well?

Yeah, I think it did. I think, yeah, batch 23A and chocolate almonds pair as well. You'll be surprised to get peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

All right. So we're ready to move on. This is the contemporary release. This is contemporary release just dropped this past summer. I guess we're eking into fall or almost into fall. So, and it's 24A. I'm assuming there might be one more maybe in the winter, but it came in at 127.6 proof. So kind of a mid range proof. Yeah. A lot of vanilla.

Yeah. On this vanilla, not, not a lot of burn on the nose, but vanilla, like almost like vanilla custard. Yeah.

Might even say French.

It kind of reminds me of a Buffalo trace, uh, bourbon cream a little bit. Oh, wow. I haven't had a Buffalo's Trace bourbon cream in a while. Have you? Are you a fan?

I do. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like one of those things. So we'll get around the holidays and yeah. You know, spice up to spice up that coffee.

Somebody was telling me to take, um, Buffalo trace bourbon cream, Freddy's root beer and Buffalo trace bourbon and mix the three together.

Now I've heard those first two, but, um, not the adding the bourbon in. Yeah. But I mean, I mean, if you need to spice it up, right. Fun fact. Yeah. One of our board members on the Frankfurt bourbon society was the brainchild behind The bourbon cream. Oh, really? Yes.

Oh, fantastic.

Candy charters. Yes. Fantastic.

Well, I'm liking this nose already. It doesn't have any singe effect at all. It is vanilla forward.

It does have the baking. It does have the baking spices that you would expect from a stag. The vanilla is very prominent. Vanilla is prominent.

Cheers. Cheers. A bit sweeter on the palate. Ooh, vanilla. It is creamy. I like it. This is a little chewier. Yes, it is. It has more texture. Yeah. Wow. It's like, I was, I was wondering if I was going to get sort of that buttery note with it, but I don't get the buttery note, but I do get this like heavy. So this one really reminds me of bourbon cream a little bit.

And the finish much longer than that than one 20 or 23 C. Yeah, this is a good one.

This is really good, Todd. The oak plays a very nice role in this, a sort of a heavy after finish note, heavy oaky note at the end. It's not drying though. It is creamy, sweet up front, not so sweet on the back end. but a full bodied textures there, uh, sort of plays all the notes you want it to play on the palette. Well balanced. Yeah.

Isn't it funny how like we, you know, when we have been going through some of these comparisons, like we'll say they're sweet oak on the bookers, they're sweet oak on the stags or sweet oak on the lads of Craig Barrow proofs, but like, It's each brand's sweet oak, which, and even if we do like, you know, if we went through some single barrels or four roses or some of the limited editions, you're going to get like, I think their sweet go might be my favorite four roses, but like they're all so different. Like that sweet oak note.

Wow. I really like this one. And this is, this is what, if it's on the shelf, this is what is on the shelf. Should be. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I'm thinking this one might score pretty decent.

It's a nice one.

Yep.

Vanilla still there. Rich, sweet caramel. Like, yeah.

Um, it is good. It is good. It, it is a full palate pleaser. No doubt about it. Um, It's kind of sweet. Yeah. It's, I think a lot of times that, uh, the stags because of their proof have sort of departed the sweetness just a little bit, but this has got a nice sweetness to it. It finishes well. It does have a nice texture to it. Chewy. Yeah. Yeah. This is a, this is a really good bourbon. Okay. This is not George T stag like, but of the four that we've had so far, this is closest to being George T stag.

Like I could see that. Yeah. Yeah. Very much so. It almost like I got lucky and got a 23 George C stag and there are some similarities. Now I'm going to have to try these side by side.

Yeah, I would definitely say that that would be, that's probably a topic for another show is, uh, is to try and do a side-by-side between what we feel is the most George T. Stag like stag and a George T. Stag, because even the stag, George T. Stags themselves differ a great deal.

Oh, for sure.

Um, but I think I've got one up on the shelf. There's around 129. This is 127. We could do a quick taste. I don't know. Yeah. Should we? Nah, let's save it for another day. But just to be able to have that conversation is, uh, is interesting. Yeah. So what do you think? Do you want to go back through the five or you, or you got already got it in your head?

I think I got it locked up.

All right. I think I am going to do, I am going to combine my five and see what it tastes like just for fun at the end. But yeah, I think I've got it in my mind too. So how do you want to do this? Let's start at the bottom. Start at the bottom.

Take it to the top.

And I will give you... Like Casey Kasem did back then.

Yeah.

I will give you my... Do you just want to do a top three or you want to go through all five? No, let's go through all five because the folks have listened to us talk about all five. So I'm going to let you start off with your, with your bottom, Your bottom pick. Okay. That would probably be the 2018. The 2018. And I'm going to, I want to side with you on that. I want to say the 2018 was my bottom two. That one just felt like it was broken.

Yeah.

Like. It wasn't, it was disconnected. It was disjointed, whatever word you want to use to describe something that's not cohesive. Right.

Just didn't play well. as a unit.

And I'm wondering what they were thinking when they blended that and they tasted it, if they felt the same way we did, you know, and they said, well, that's it. That's this year's.

I don't know. I know a few people on the tasting panel. So I'm going to ask them about that. That's interesting. Yeah. So I know that the tasting panel is the reason that they didn't release a George C. Stagg. What was it? just a couple of years ago.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It did not, it did not measure up. That's right.

So, and my hat's off to them for that. I think that's a wise decision. You shouldn't do that. Uh, like if you make a whiskey and it's not good, and I'm not saying to do this with a stag, but if you're a young craft distillery and you've made a batch of whiskey and it's just not right, do not release it.

Make vodka out of it, do something else, but don't release the whiskey. Maybe a secondary finish or something.

I mean, if it means closing the doors or keeping them open, do what you got to do. Right. I mean, it's hardly ever the right move to release something that's not correct. Yeah. All right. So, uh, yeah, so my, uh, fourth pick would be the, uh, 23a. 23 C, sorry, 23 C the fall, the fall or winter of 23. Well, we agree on two in a row then. Oh, we do. Okay. Yeah. Great. Yeah. So, uh, what was my problem with that? I don't know. It just, again, I just think that it wasn't, um, it just didn't measure up. What about you have specific notes on that ton?

Um, yeah, it just I don't know, just the other three outshined it, I think is the way I mean. It's great to have that bottle. Yeah. Great one to share and a great bourbon, but just didn't hold the candle to the other three. I think the top three, or at least my top three and well, apparently your top three. We'll see. We'll see how that pans out.

So, so far we've got the 18 at the bottom of the heap. Then we've got the 23C, which is in the fourth place. Now we're talking about third place. Yes. And I'm going to go with batch 10. And I'm with you on that. Even though that's the bottle I brought for this particular tasting, I think that batch 10, uh, just didn't quite measure up. Now we did have that. We talked about that deep chest hug.

Deep chest hug, a little hot. Yeah. It was the, I guess it was the highest proof of... 126.4.

Oh wait. No, it was the second lowest proof.

But I guess it drank hotter than... Yeah, it did.

It drank hotter than it's proof. It left this deep chest hug, I mean, literally sternum, in the sternum.

And I was trying to determine if that was... It's like getting hit by a stag.

I was trying to determine if it was a good thing or a bad thing. And I think when you're drinking a stag, maybe it's not a bad thing because you know you're drinking a stag. But, um, yeah, if you, if we're ranking these on, uh, truthful feelings about how we feel about the bourbon as a whole, I think, I think number 10 definitely sits there in the third place solid.

Yeah.

All right. All right. Number two, man, these two are close, but there's a clear winner for me. Okay. So I'm going to, I'm going to just say it right now. The 24 is my number two pick and I'm going to agree with you. Yeah, I know. Wow. I know. So, uh, great minds, right? Yeah. Great whiskey though. Yeah. 20, 24, what? Uh, 24 a, a 24 a, which is what folks, which is what you'll find on the shelf today. If you can manage to walk into a liquor store and they've got a stag on the shelf, it's very likely going to be the 24.

And I would say, you know, we talked about some of these odor stags being that. some of your top shelf bars, but this one should be, if they get a stack, this should be the one that they have. Like any local bar, fairly nice bar. If they get lucky enough to get a stack, this should probably be the one that's on the shelf.

If you go to a bourbon bar, they're going to have 24 ACE sitting on the shelf. Yeah, maybe even 23 C2. And that's our number two tonight. Yeah. And Todd, we are.

Synchronized.

Synchronized on this because our number one choice for the night is the 12. And I think we have the support of the internet community on that because 2012 tends to be the one that gains most. Batch 12, not 2012. What year is that? 2019? 2019, yeah. 2019. 2019 summer batch, batch 12 is our pick as the number one stag out of five stags tasted tonight.

That one was the highest proof.

And that one was the highest proof.

May say something about our palates. Damn fine.

Yeah. Wow. Really good stuff. It was. Lots of fun.

At all the components you want, I'm really a bourbon. All right.

So Todd, take what you have. You didn't drink all of every one, did you?

I have a little of 24 and 23. And then I think that is just a hair of probably the 10, I think.

Yeah. Okay. So I'm going to, I'm going to add all mine together here.

Gonna get all blendy. I'm going to do a blendy. Jason's competition will be coming up soon. And I've actually been playing around some things.

I haven't been in a Blendageddon since Blendageddon one or two. I can't remember what number it was, but I think I might be ready to get back in one. I didn't enter one last year. I didn't enter one last year.

I don't know. busy and, but I've got three different versions of something going on. I had, I chose about three different bourbons and different proportions. And I guess they've been going about a week now. So just going to let them sit for a little bit and then check them out and then either be like, that was not a good idea.

I have to try this again. All right. So for those who are listening, who have no idea what Todd and I are talking about, Um, Jason, uh, glory, uh, has a show on YouTube called the mash and drum and every season, every year, actually, he has a, uh, a challenge called blend again, where listeners can create their own blends of whiskeys off their bar. And, uh, I assume he puts out some rules.

There are some rules, no single barrels. Um, but he also has two different, there's a Frankenblend, which that's anything goes. You could blend scotch with rye and what have you and rum and whatever. If it turns out amazing, you maybe have a chance. The other one is like, he's. He's kind of turned it like when I want it, it was, I had a little bit of a dusty and a couple of logic Craig batches and, but, so he's kind of turned into more like he wants the people that are listening to be able to try to duplicate the blend. So, which is a great idea. Right. Right. So no single barrels, barrel picks type thing like that. Um, so true unicorns. Yeah. In fact, my friend, Darrell Stewart, who was one of the Hello Again Whiskey friends, a guest that we just recently had, he just won this past year. So I know he had a couple of different four gates and a couple other things, but. Yeah. So that's pretty cool.

Fantastic.

Yeah. So we actually have individual shirts. Like I have a shirt that says I'm the 2021 champion and it says my blend is better than yours on the back. So I guess hopefully, uh, when I see him soon, well, he'll be wearing his shirt too.

All right. Well, I have made a pour here, which is, uh, all five blended together. I think you're close. Yeah.

I got a three bottle blend.

All right. So we're going to try it and see if what, you know, heck, this is one way to close the show, right? That's right. Oh, the nose is good. Yeah, a little weird. The nose was really good, but the, but the palette's a little weird.

Isn't that crazy?

Yeah.

You think since, like I said, Buffalo traces stag, you know, there's sometimes certain things are accentuated more, but this, yeah, that doesn't come off.

Guy is making a small batch. It's not an easy thing. You can't just take three good things and put them together and expect it to be good. Right. Definitely. Sometimes what sounds good on paper does not work in the glass. I mean, I'm not going to pour this out. I'm going to drink this after the show, but it's, uh, it's not as good as any of the top three. Agreed.

Yeah.

All right. Well, another fun show time. Yeah. Looking forward to, uh, the rest of bourbon heritage month and into October, we're going to have a great time this year. Hopefully a lot of our roadies will be able to make it to, uh, our neck of the woods this year and say, Hey, You and I are going to be in the bourbon road tent at bourbon on the banks. We're going to be shaking hands and sharing pours and all the good stuff. Going to have all the, all the bourbon road. Well, I don't know, 50 or so bottles of at least 50 or so bottles that appeared on the show this year are going to be at the bourbon road bar. So we hope you make it out this year. Uh, if you do come to the Kentucky bourbon, the festival this year, and I hope you can spot me. I'll be wearing a bourbon road shirt, probably, or a. or a big flag shirt from the Bourbon Road or something. Be hanging out and we'd love to meet up with you and have a pour or hang out. We hope you'll come down this year for Bourbon Heritage Month and enjoy one of the events. But anytime, if you're in our neck of the woods, we hope you'll reach out to us online and let us know. Sometimes we'll just do a meetup, have dinner together, have a few pours, meet at the Corner Rick house. It's always fun.

Yep. Plenty of bourbon here. So plenty of bourbon. Lots of bourbon guys. All right. Fun show, Todd. Yes. And this is like two weeks or two tries in a row. We've matched pallets. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

I mean, I guess it means that there's some confirmation in our skill.

Yeah. I mean, we've been close every time. Yeah. Back to back.

Yeah. So. All right, folks, where you can catch the bourbon road every single week on Wednesday, we put out an episode. Uh, you know, lately it's been Todd and I just doing these fantastic comparison shows, these combination shows where we're bringing in whiskeys and, and talking about them, letting, letting you know what, uh, what you ought to pay attention to, I guess, or, or try from your back bar. Uh, we have been pulling from the back bar lately, haven't we?

Yeah.

Yeah. It's, uh, And the top shelf too. And the top shelf too. That's so true. But we hope you'll listen to us every single week. We are on all social media outlets. We're on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok threads. We're on all of them. But we definitely hope you'll plug into our podcast. Whatever you're listening to us on right now, just go to the top of that app, hit that subscribe button. That way every single week when Todd and I drop an episode, you'll get that bell notification letting you know that The guys at the Bourbon Road have dropped another episode and the heck will get you down the road. That's right. So make sure you check us out every single week. If you get a chance, stop on our website, thebourbonroad.com, check out our swag or t-shirts. You know, now that I started mentioning this on the show again, we've had a lot of orders coming in the past few weeks. So I'd stop mentioning it just because I'm, well, I just, I don't feel like pandering a whole lot, but the fact of the matter is we've got tons of Bourbon Road shirts, including Karen's and all kinds of great stuff on there for you to check out. We also have our articles and our shows are on there. You can actually listen to the website right there. You can also tell Alexis to just play the darn thing. So check us out every single week. But until the next time, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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