419. Unicorn Reviews

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.

Todd and I are proud to have Smokey's Lifestyle Cigars as a sponsor of this episode and as the official cigar of the Bourbon Road Podcast. Our hosts and listeners alike enjoy the ultimate experience of premium cigars. Smokey's Lifestyle Cigars are where flavor and craftsmanship meet. Find out more during the halftime break and at Smokey's Lifestyle Cigar dot com. The Surgeon General warns that cigar smoking can cause lung cancer and heart disease and is not a safe alternative to cigarettes. All right, Todd, well, it's a damn fine day in the Bourbon Road bar. Glad for us to get together again. Yeah, it's been a minute. It has been a minute. Now, you've been off traipsing through the South with the family. Yep. You're back and well-rested. Nice tan. Nice tan. And I'm envious. I am a little bit.

Yeah, it was really nice. It's always good to get away and recharge the battery sometimes. And I don't know, there's something particularly rechargeable, I guess, about the beach. It just, I don't know. I love it.

I kind of need a shot of it about every three or four months. Otherwise I start to have issues.

Yeah.

Maybe I just, I don't know. It's a vitamin D or just the total disconnect from life in general. Yeah.

Just leave the phone back in the hotel or condo and just. Don't worry about anything for a little bit. It's nice.

Well, we have been piling up some shows into our, let's call it our inventory. Yeah. We've managed to record quite a number of episodes and have them in the bank so that we can, so one of the things that that does for us is it takes a little bit of pressure off you and I.

Yeah, rather than recording, dropping, recording, dropping, it gives us a little leeway to, you know, take a week off or something like that, which is kind of nice.

But one of the things, one of the sort of negative points to it is it's hard for us to talk about news because we're not sure exactly when this episode, like this one for example, is going to air. Right. You know, I would say it will probably happen before Christmas. Yeah, I think so.

I'm looking at maybe end of November, so we'll see. But this is going to be a great show.

Let's apologize to the listeners in advance. We're probably going to call this the unicorn show or something like that because we're drinking some rare and expensive whiskeys on this show.

I've learned that if you reach out sometimes to PR folks and things like that, that they will send you samples of some really good stuff. And then, yeah, we've kind of struck it rich recently.

So we're not going to say to everybody that you're going to be able to find these bottles or that you're going to, even if you do find them, want to pay the price for them. but you may get inspired to have a pour at a bar. Right. For sure. Or maybe, or maybe talk to some buddies and split a bottle or something, you know? So it opens up some other opportunities. At least you're going to get a sort of our view on, because a lot of times it's hard to, it's hard to look at a bottle that costs hundreds of dollars and honestly tell somebody they should go out and spend the money on it. It's gotta be like life changing. Right?

I mean, there are those that, you know, that the folks will love to hunt. I mean, I think of the Russells 15 is definitely one of those that lots of folks wanted to get a bottle of. But sometimes when they hit that 200, 300, even higher markets, you got to weigh the goods and the cons. I think that's why we talk about them a little bit, to give the folks a better idea of what they can expect.

Well, we try not to do too many shows like this because again, we love to review whiskies that people can easily put their hands on and enjoy it. And in this case, um, I think all four of these whiskies we're going to talk about today are, uh, I think they qualify as unicorns.

Yeah.

And sort of, sort of. I mean, they're not like, uh, sought off, sought after, uh, Fobo bottles, right? Right. But they're, they're definitely expensive and fine and rare pours. Yes. All right. Well, let's get straight to that whiskey, I say. And so in the first bottle today, we've got the Widow Jane, the Vaults. This is the 2024 release, dropped in October. Again, we're not entirely sure when this episode is going to release, but Todd, you and I are still in October for the moment. Yes. And this is a 15-year blend of straight bourbon whiskey. So no whiskey in this particular bottle is going to be less than 15 years. It's a blend of whiskeys from Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky, all three states. So, nailing down a Nashville is not going to happen. Nailing down percentages and distilleries is probably not going to happen. I think we can make some fair assumptions that there's probably some Heaven Hill Juice in here, there's probably some Dickel Juice in here, and there's probably some MGP. That's just the best guess.

That would be my wager, yes.

Right. But in any case, what's really important is what's in the bottle. And, uh, this is a 49 and a half percent or 99 proof whiskey. It is a blend of bourbons. Uh, it is, uh, SRP right around $250. Uh, and, uh, you know, you're probably going to find it at 250. Maybe you're going to find it at 275. Uh, maybe you'll find a little higher. It all depends on how hard and how rare it is in your particular market. Uh, but they have a pretty good distribution on it. And, uh, this is a New York distillery and, uh, they, they have a, this is actually batch five of the vaults. So this is the fifth year they've been doing this and they do it with an annual release. This is the 2024 release. And again, like I said, this is an October, 2024 bottle that just got out there. So, uh, if this episode is airing sometime in late November, early December, uh, the bottles will still be more than likely available. Uh, if, if you can get your hands on them. But this is a very dark whiskey, and I'm going to say that in order to put together a whiskey that's a minimum of 15 years, there's a good chance that there's some higher-aged whiskies in here.

Yeah, I think I even read maybe like any barrels from 15 to 20 years may have been using this. Perfect. With 15 being the youngest.

And one of the things that makes this kind of unique in this case is this is an Ambarana finished whiskey. So this did spend some time in some Brazilian Ambarana barrels. And it does give it that sort of exotic note. So there's another no-no we're doing. We're starting a podcast with an amber on a Finnish whiskey, which can tend to be a palate killer sometimes.

Yeah. We're going to have to probably follow it up with some water. I would think so, but we're going to break a lot of rules today because we're not following proof rules.

We're not following anything like that. So.

There's kind of a method to our madness here. Why we're tasting the way we're tasting today.

Well, it will, it will unveil itself as we move forward, but Todd, let's get to it. Let's see what, let's see what our notes are on that. I'm excited. Yeah. So this is a deep mahogany color. It has a real dark color to it. Um, it's been sitting in our glasses about 10 to 15 minutes now sitting in link errands. First thing that hits me is like that chai, cinnamon spice. In this case though, they didn't step on it too hard though. No, it's light and airy. Sometimes Ambarana finishes can be overpowering. I think lack of experience in working with Ambarana barrels, sometimes people don't realize how quick they can act on the juice. And in this particular case, this was expertly done, at least as far as the nose goes.

Yeah, this is like one of those candle smells you let, you know, when a bourbon gives off like a smell of a candle that you'd love like burning in your house or something during the fall.

But you get like, and in addition to the Ambarana notes, like you said, with a kind of a, a potpourri kind of note to it. It's got a cherry and a cinnamon note to it as well. Like a.

You said maybe that heaven hill chatter you said is kind of give me like this little bit of a peanut shell type thing too. Just a hint.

I love that spice note. It's, it's not, it's not overpowering. It's, uh, it's tastefully done. So I'm ready to taste it. Cheers. Oh, wow. Okay. There's much more Ambarana on the palette, but it's accompanied with black licorice. Like some black strap molasses.

It's like really. Yeah. Not like super molasses.

Cinnamon raisin toast.

Yeah. Wow.

It does have a little bit of a buttery note to it. So the Ambarana is the first thing. I think what happened is we were nosing it and then we took a sip and that floral notes in our nosing combined with it hitting the palate. The first thing to come to mind was that Ambarana, that spiciness, that chai tea or whatever you want to call it.

And wow, does that linger.

Yeah.

There's like a ginger vibe, I guess, really spiced ginger.

Yeah. So, uh, you know, when you do the brown sugar and the cinnamon on the sweet potatoes in the, like for Thanksgiving, those really kind of syrupy spicy sweet potatoes kind of reminds me of that a little bit. Um, I would say that the, the cinnamon toast kind of falls off a little bit. It's a bit drying.

It is dry. Like I'm really feeling on the backside, the back of my tongue on the sides.

I am going to say that I could probably sit here and pick out a dozen more notes on this as I continue to think about it. It's very layered. It has a lot going on, but the pallet is a little bit heavier of a footprint of the Ambarana finish than on the nose. On the nose.

Yeah, I agree.

Now they made, uh, 4,006 packs of this. So there's the, what is that? The 24,000 bottles. Okay. 24,000 bottles in circulation out there. They have a fairly wide distribution. So, um, it should hit most markets.

Yeah. Um, they were, I guess maybe a year ago they were purchased by heaven hill. Correct. Yeah. Or maybe a little longer. I'm terrible with times like that, but so their footprints probably kind of.

Well, yeah, they certainly have been able to open up into new markets and 24,000 bottles is a decent number. I mean, if you're trying to hit a good number of markets with at least a couple of cases or so.

I'm like you, I'm getting some different stuff now, like some darker fruits. It's kind of nice. The Ambarana is kind of taking a back seat now a little bit. I mean, it's still there, but now I'm getting some other things going on, which is kind of nice.

Yeah. I'm getting like more spices, more odd spice notes that I haven't quite put my finger on yet, but they're not like, not, um, dessert spices. They're like more like savory spices.

This is very, very savory pour.

Yeah. I was going to say something like thyme or rosemary is kind of a little bit in there.

I could see the rosemary for sure.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Interesting. Going back to the nose, uh, after, after tasting it, going back to the nose, the Ambarana is almost hard to pick up again. I think because the pallets been overwhelmed by it a little bit.

I mean, it's there, but yeah, you're right. It's kind of taking a back seat on the Roma too. Isn't it?

So I would expect this to be a little drying. I mean, at 15 years, at minimum 15 years, you're going to get a heavy footprint of oak char and influence on it. So you're going to pick up some of those tannic notes. Um, but I think it's in, it's an indicator of the age and you know, the maturation has taken place here. Uh, the addition of the Ambarano barrels just finished the whiskey. I'm not sure how long it's been in those barrels, but it wasn't a long time.

I don't think so.

Yeah.

It'd be interesting to see.

$250, 99 proof. Um, Widow Jane, the vaults 2024 edition. It's always nice to have their vaults. I think I've got a few of the additions here, at least some samples left of them.

I've had one other, and I want to say that might have been the 2023 edition. Someone brought that into maybe one of our Frankfurt Bourbon Society.

Well, this would be a nice one to share with the group at Frankfurt Bourbon Society, because I think we've got some fans. Well, you've got fans and you've got people who have had enough amber on it, right? Right. We had a episode we recorded, it hasn't released yet, but we had an episode we recorded where we were talking about how so many Ambarana bottles are, they're basically a neck pour gone and that's it. They're sitting on your shelf. They've got like a neck pour gone out of them because you just, it's just not something you need all the time.

Yeah. It's a, it's a one pour every once in a while. Kind of like, maybe like that nightcap dessert kind of vibe.

Speaking of that, Peerless has released another Absent Finished Rye. Oh, that's exciting. They had it at an event this past week and I'll talk more off the show about it, but folks keep your eye out. You've heard us talk about that. My goodness.

Oddly enough, by the time this airs, John Weddle from Peerless will have been in Frankfurt for a little event. So he's a great guy and great palette.

Fantastic. All right. So what do you think, Todd? Is this, is this a, uh, is this a unicorn bottle or just a, a top shelf, um, really hard to think about it if you're going to part with that much money?

I think it's a top shelf heart. Think about it. Um, it's got a lot of good things going on.

I mean,

That's one of those, like I might flip a coin if I saw it somewhere.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean it, uh, it's, it's $250. It's not just a little bit of money. I guess if you could split it with a group of four friends, it's not too bad. And then divide it up and just enjoy. That's one way to do it.

Definitely worth trying at a bar. If you can find it, I think, I mean, This would be one of those higher-end pours that probably wouldn't break the bank. They kind of go overboard at bars on certain unicorns, let's say. This one would probably be priced moderately, I would think.

I've always been a fan of the vaults. I've had a number of them. I don't think I've had all five releases, but I've certainly had at least three of them. And I have to say that I've always enjoyed the vaults releases when I've had them. This one takes it a little bit of a different turn. And you just have to be that person that likes, you know, amber unfinished whiskies. Expertly done, very well crafted. a lot of good years on it. Great whiskeys went into it.

And never changing. Like I just took another sip and I'm getting something different. So it's very complex, which might explain the price tag.

Yeah, this will be hard to do in a pairing. This would be hard to pair with anything. I mean, maybe a cigar, but you know, certainly, The spiciness of it, the, the, the layered flavors, some of those flavors might get muted by a cigar and you might lose that depth of flavor that you're getting from this. Sometimes when you get something that's has a lot of impact and a lot of flavor, you think, Oh, this will go good with a cigar, but sometimes not the, not the way it works. Yeah. Sometimes you're going to, you're going to mute a lot of those flavors and you're not going to get the, the true benefit of sipping on the whiskey. All right, well, I'm ready to move on. What about you?

Yeah, same.

All right, Todd. Well, what do we have in our next class?

OK, so the second pour we have is the Widow Jane Black Opal, which is aged 20 years. So we've moved up five years. We've also moved up in price, because this one retails for about $4.99. Oh my goodness. Yeah, we are in rarefied air, if you will. So this one is finished in Mizunara barrels, which that might explain part of the price. Cause I, I know for a fact that Mizunara barrels can run anywhere to five to $6,000 a barrel.

So a Mizunara cask is a, it's a Japanese oak. Japanese oak. Yes. And being such a small country and having limited forest resources. Right. Yeah. It's kind of rare.

Yeah. And this is like one of those, I think it's Mizunari has aged before it even gets put into a barrel for like season for like two years or something like that. A year or two years easy. So the proof on this is also along the lines of the vault. So it's 49.5% ABVs, which makes it 99 proof. For this one, though, there were only 5,000 bottles. So that's about 1,700 cases of six, give or take.

OK, so we are entering unicorn status here.

Yeah, 5,000 bottles. Yeah, that's really limited.

OK, so 20-year-old whiskey. That means 20 years minimum. And finishing Mizunari Cast, 99 proof, $500 a bottle or thereabouts. Yeah.

So, and I would assume, take this for granted, that you have the same blend of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana. Now, don't hold that. I couldn't really find a whole lot about this one, per se.

Well, certainly since being acquired by Heaven Hill, Widow Jane now has access to inventories far superior to what they had access to before. And they can sort of reach into the deep. I'm going to throw a pun here at the deep vaults of Heaven Hill and pull barrels as needed. I'm sure.

Wow.

On the nose. It has this, uh, this old whiskey note like this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's got like, uh, if you dropped a little whiskey on a Rick house floor or something and then you're like, Oh no. And you got really low to sniff the floor or something.

It's smells smells like, um, like you've opened a dusty from the past.

But there's also a little bit like floral note, floral savory. Yeah. And this is the second savory we know Jane, but yeah, it's, it's got a savory nose, a little bit of cherry. Nice big whiff of vanilla too.

Yeah. It does have, it is, it is a little bit more of it, like a traditional bourbon notes, a little bit less. So we came off that and folks, when we, when we came off drinking that Ambarana finished 15 year vaults, you didn't notice because of all the amazing editing I did on the episode. And I took a pretty good break there to rinse the pallet because we wanted to be prepared for this because this is such an important pour. And this review that we're doing right now, I think is equally important and we want to do it justice. So we made sure we had clean, refreshed pallets going into this pour. It just, it just gives me this, this wonderful feeling that I'm, I'm, I'm nosing something from the past, like something that has a history to it. Something that has a certainly a lot of age at 20 years, but I'm not just talking about the age of the whiskey. I'm talking about the, maybe the techniques that went into making it. Right.

But you should know if like, you know how the vaults had 15 to 20 year whiskey, if like, is this 20 to 25 or something like that? I'm ready to go in. Cheers. Cheers.

Getting the cherry, the cherry and vanilla. Sweet cream. Yeah, like creme brulee creme brulee. Yep. The oak is there. This has been in the barrel a very long time. You can tell that. But it's not, um, like crazy drying better. Um, it's, it's got this sweet cream and Tiki kind of flavor to it.

I love the cherry note. That savory note, like on the nose is kind of carrying over like sage. Wow.

There's a real depth on the mid palette. When it reaches the back, it kind of just settles in for like for a very lengthy finish. It's almost like you can't swallow away the flavor. It's just, it's just sticking around. It's like very sticky and long lasting.

And not nearly as drying as the vaults. Yeah.

Surprisingly.

I mean, this is really a really soft pour.

Yeah, this is a superb whiskey. This is very carefully prepared. A lot of thought went into this, a lot of careful planning, probably many, many samples and blends to put this together.

I was going to say, if you're going to put out something at $500, you better... Bring your a game for sure.

You go back to the nose and you get that same, you know, antiquey dusty sort of a high quality bourbon nose to it. Heavy on the vanilla. It's just, it's a creamy cherry savory. Yeah. It's just hard to, hard to explain. I've got this gentle, but deep Kentucky hug. It's just sort of, just warming, just very warming. This one's really soft to me. But I've got this warmth in my chest from it that just, it's not like I've had fire. It's like I've had a properly proofed whiskey.

Yeah. And then another one, I think the more you let this sit and sip on it, I think it's one of those you're going to get some different stuff. Every time you go back to, I'm getting a little more nutmeg now. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah. It does spice up the more you sip on it, just tends to spice up a little bit more and a little bit more. It does sort of build, but the finishes. Whoa. Very, very long.

Now, as far as Mizunara goes, I've had a few scotches and Irish whiskeys finished on Mizunara. And then the one other product I've had was a Fourgate that was finished in Mizunara. And that was a real savory, savory pour too.

And do you think that that's the contribution that Mizunara makes to a whiskey is it brings in that sort of that depth, that savory depth to the note to it?

Yeah. The funny thing is with the Irish whiskey, it like really highlighted the bright tropical fruits of it. So maybe it wasn't aged as long or something, but like with the foregate, yeah, like these darker savory notes and sandalwood, you know, like incense-y type, type of notes. Yeah.

So if you've got a few finer whiskies on your bar, some whiskies that you pull out for very special occasions, for very special friends, for family members you don't get to see very often that are true connoisseurs of fine whiskies, I think that this is one that you want to have on your bar. I know it's very expensive. I know it's $500 and that's a lot of money, but this is a very special pour.

Agreed.

And wow. It's amazing to have the two together, to have the vaults 15 and then follow it by having this and just see. how they can craft something completely different with just a whiskey five more years older. But treating it, you know, the Ambarana is, it is what it is. I mean, people have their opinions on that. But Mizunara, I think, doesn't have the same stigma around it as Ambarana does. I think people respect Mizunara finishes to the very end because they're It is so expensive that you're very, very careful with it. And yeah, you're going to spend that much on a barrel. Yeah, exactly. You gotta be, uh, well, you think about it, you know, how many bottles do you get out of that barrel? You get, you know, 200 bottles out of that barrel and, uh, that barrel costs you five grand.

You know, divide that out. That's. We'll have to ask some folks how many uses you can get out of that.

That adds, that adds roughly $25 to every bottle just for that barrel cost.

Right.

Yeah. How many uses you get? Well, I mean, I don't know if this is a first use Mizunari barrel. Right. Bravo. Yay. Well done. Well, well done. So widow Jane's head blender now, and I'm probably going to butcher this name, uh, is, uh, Sienna Jevromoff. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly. Uh, but, uh, you know, I, my hats off to Sienna. I think, uh, this is a job well done. And, uh, I'll be looking for this, I think. Oh, wow. I'm thinking I might, I don't do it very often. This, but this is, it's got my attention.

I see that. Yeah. You've got a twinkle in your eye.

I've got a twinkle in my, usually I reserve that kind of money for like some crazy dusty, I really want or something. But I don't know. This is really good.

It's a Christmas bonus bottle here. Yeah, exactly.

That's right. I should be getting one. There's never a guarantee, but if I do, it would be nice. What about you, Todd? What's your final thoughts on this one?

I really like that, yeah. It'll be interesting to see if it's out there somewhere, you know, in Kentucky. I couldn't really find a whole lot. It did say limited availability, so it'll be interesting to see where that pops up. Yeah.

I'd like to, I'd like to hear what, uh, Amzie has to think about this one.

Yeah. Yeah.

We got a little bit there. Maybe we can let him try it.

Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. If we don't split the rest. He's a good boy.

Yeah. If he's good. He's always good. He's pretty good. All right. All right, folks. Well, we got two under our belt. We've got two more fantastic whiskies coming up in the second half. Stick around. Don't go away. This is The Unicorn Show with Bourbon Reviews. So we'll be right back. Few things pair better together than a fine whiskey and a premium cigar. And Smokey's Lifestyle Cigars are where flavor and craftsmanship meet. Their exclusive collection is meticulously hand-rolled from aged tobacco sourced from the Dominican Republic. Revel in the artistry that only decades of experience can bring. The owner, with over 10 years of cigar mastery, curates blends that capture the essence of family tradition and innovation. Embrace the journey and indulge in a harmonious symphony of Smokey's Lifestyle Cigars, an experience truly beyond compare. Find out more at SmokeysLifestyleCigar.com.

So welcome back to the second half of the Bourbon Road Show. We are diving into unicorn land, if you will. Jim, are you ready to jump into this third pour?

So this is our third pour, first half. We had a couple of great ones, both from Widow Jane. I think we made our opinions on each very clear, but it was a great first half. And I think I went a little overboard on the 20 year. Oh, well, that's all right.

But here we are, second half. What do we have? We have the new Jack Daniel special release. This is a Coy Hill, which is, I guess that's the area of the Rick houses. And these all come from barrel house eight. These are single barrels. And the particular one we have is 134.7 proof. It's a mash bill of 80 corn, 12 rye and eight malted barley. This The MSRP for this is only $80, but this comes with the caveat that this is going to be hard to find.

Yeah.

The Koi Hill has been released two other times and yeah, it's...

So what happens when you have an $80 bottle like this is, and it's much anticipated, is people going by cases, right?

Oh yeah, if they can.

Yeah, if they can. And supplies basically dry up real fast. Yeah.

Now I do know Jack Daniels themselves, cause this dropped actually while I was in Florida. So Jack Daniels had a drop where you could come in and buy these, you know, one bottle. And so. If you live around that area, lucky you, because I guess that might be one to go stand in line for, you know? Yeah.

But who knows what goes on in the back rooms of bottle shops, right? I mean, we all know that there's a lot of handshaking and backroom deals and bottles don't always make it to the public. That's true. So, but anyway, so this one's not necessarily unicorn because it's a high priced whiskey, but because it's a highly sought after whiskey that may be hard to find.

Yeah, for sure. Let's get into this nose.

Oh, wow.

I'm not getting my Jack Daniel's banana node I get sometimes.

Yeah, I normally don't pick those up. I think I've told you guys before.

I'm like a baked apple pie kind of thing going on.

It does have kind of a good apple note to it.

Now, what was the proof? Uh, 134.7.

Not even nosing close to 134.

No, I didn't blow the top of my Glen care now, which I normally do with something high proof. just to kind of get that ethanol out. But yeah, I've, I've gone nose deep and no burn.

Yeah. This is, this reminds me of like a, an Alabama whiskey, you know, with that, that apple peel note to it.

Now, per the internet, Chris Morris has said most of the barrels that were chosen were 11 years or more.

Okay.

It's not age stated, I think on the, um, the label, except with, this is a media sample that we were lucky enough to get.

Well, fantastic. I really liked the nose on it. This one doesn't take me down traditional bourbon kind of notes. This is more Tennessee kind of, um, I think it's just overtaken by the apple peel nose on it is very much.

Still getting some oak notes and vanilla, you know, some classic stuff, but yeah, it's like baked apple pie to me right now.

Yep. All right. Let's taste it.

Cheers. Cheers.

Oh, warm and buttery.

Oh man.

Oh, wow. It's like a silky wash across the palate with this buttery warm, very delicious whiskey. a little bit of a bitterness on the bag, but it's all about the texture and the feel. The warming effect of this whiskey is amazing.

Still getting that apple pie vibe a little bit.

Man. This is really good. Yeah.

My only other experience with a Coyhill was I got lucky and a friend and roadie Andy Exum got me a bottle of their first release. That was like, I want to say 142 proof, but man, that thing was just like so viscous and did not even come close to drinking 142 proof.

Yeah. Now I'm trying to look at the legs on this and I've just, it's like, it's like a sheet on the side of the Glencairn. Yep. Just, it just sheets it very viscous, very, uh, silky, buttery, warm, smooth, cinnamon, oak, vanilla, just bombarding you with it. Wow. This is really good stuff.

Jack Daniels is one of those that has really, you know, that they're one of the most popular whiskeys in the world, but they. In the past few years are just dropping some amazing stuff. They've got those testers series or something where they drop some experimental type stuff. I think of the 10 year, the 12 year, you know, they had the, um, some of those special releases like a rye. I mean, just killing it.

If you will get a little, a little mineral kind of note to it.

Yeah.

Just a little bit.

So brown sugars. I mean, yeah.

I mean, my goodness. $80 buy it today. Yes.

If you do find this on the MSRP, you buy this and then buy Gemini one.

Yeah.

I like that idea.

Yeah. And we will reimburse you. We will. If you find this and you're so inclined to help us out and take one for the team. That's right.

This is really good stuff.

All right. Calling all roadies. Go find yourself a bottle of the Koi, the 2024 Koi Hill release. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I think price plays a big part in that, um, recommendation.

We know it's going to be tough to put your hand on a bottle, but if you do, if you should know if like Tennessee, like there's a lot of stores that get great products here in Kentucky, but they'll mark it up to. crazy prices looking for like, you know, those tours that happen to pop in there like, well, I got to have it and they'll pay anything for it. So I'm curious to know if that's the kind of thing that goes on in Tennessee.

Yeah. Wow.

Good stuff. Are we going to, are we going to rate these at the end?

I think we should.

Oh man, this is going to be tough. I think standby folks, this is going to be a tough one. Can we do one, one A, one B?

Yeah, I think whenever we do these review shows like this, it's nice to let people know where each one stands because sometimes, you know, as we're tasting them, we get kind of caught up in the moment. But at the end, you get to sort of look back at the four that you had and you get to make kind of a decision.

Okay. I got that like cherry banana, sweet cherry banana on that sip. I know. You hate it when I say banana.

I wish I could pick it up. I just can't.

Do you get it on like the younger Jack Daniels, just the regular, like a banana type thing?

I get it. I get it when I'm in, when I'm in the distillery and I'm at the, at the fermenters.

At Jack Daniels? Yeah.

I could, well, at anywhere that has like a banana note to it. Okay. And I can pick it up there a little bit, but I just don't seem to get it after distillation.

That's interesting.

Yeah. I must be missing that receptor, you know, that, that I just don't have that one. As I continue to sip on it, I keep getting that warm buttery wash across my palate. It's like drinking silk. It's very smooth, very delicious. Still got that kind of that apple peel. Yep. It does remind me of like an Alabama style whiskey a little bit. much higher quality, of course. This is just a very good example of a bottle that's priced fairly at $80 that you should go out and buy.

Yeah. Yeah, that's delicious.

And we're just sitting here looking at each other.

You say something, no, you say something, but I don't want to say anything because I'm

Um, so I am getting a very deep chest hug from this.

Yeah. That one's, that one's there. It lets you know. It does.

It does. This, this has got every right to, to take over your chest because it's at 134. You said 134 proof. Very good stuff. Uh, yeah. Keep her out for it. I guess that's my final word. If you, if you see it.

Yeah. If you're lucky enough, that's a buy at 80 bucks. That's buy, buy, buy.

Yep. All right. Well, I mean, I need just a minute. We're having such a great session here. I need just a minute to move on. It's been a while since I've had like two over the top exceptional whiskeys in one show.

Episode 500.

That's true. Episode 500. We're not there yet. Sorry, 400. Yeah, that was that. We did have. Yes. That was good.

Yeah. Couldn't be hard to top 500, I guess.

Yeah.

All right. Moving on down the road. Moving on down the road, but we're keeping it in the same family, so to speak. So this is another Brown Forman product.

This is another Brown Forman product.

This is the King of Kentucky 2024 release. So these are all 16 years. Obviously Brown Forman distillery. Mashbill is 79 corn, 11 rye, 10 malted barley. Uh, the particular barrel we have is barrel 10, which I think a lot of the other social media folks and reviewers and things like that, that seems to be like the barrel that was sent out to everybody. And the ranges on the proof for these are 125 to 135. Our particular barrel is 130.4. There were 63 barrels chosen for this. with the average yield being about 31%. So. Wow. Yeah.

60, 60 bottles, 60, 70 bottles.

Yeah, I'm sure there's probably some that are 40 and some that are 80, that type of thing. And once again, the number of bottles produced is right there along those lines of the Opal. So there's 5,100 bottles of this.

Wow.

MSRP. $349.99.

$350 a bottle and 130.4 proof, King of Kentucky, 2024. These are all single barrels.

All single barrels. And so is the, I don't know if we mentioned it, but the Koi Hill is all single barrels as well.

So we're looking around 5,000 bottles in circulation. We all know how hard it is to find and to purchase a bottle of King of Kentucky. It's always been very elusive. They go on the secondary for very high dollar amounts. Yes. And because of that, they get stamped up really quick and they move to the secondary market. But we're here to review it. We're here to tell you what we think. This is barrel number 10 and there have been a number of reviews done on barrel 10 already.

Yes.

This is this one in particular is one that I think Brown and Foreman selected this barrel as the barrel they would send out to a lot of reviewers. Right, right. So that's why we got it. Their feature barrel, I guess. Their feature barrel. Maybe they chose it because it was one of the better ones. Maybe they chose it just because it was the one they reached for.

It was there. Right.

So a lot of times I hear when there are events, uh, you know, whiskey, uh, competitions that, you know, they just grab bottles off the shelf. You know, they don't necessarily, they're not worried to try and find the very best representation. They're just pulling bottles off the shelf. So we're probably just getting something here that is just an average barrel of King of Kentucky.

Snows. I've already put my nostrils in here. Wow. Vanilla. I'm getting some like chocolate chocolate. Yeah.

Yeah. Chocolatey vanilla.

Like barrel charcoal.

Like, yeah, like, yeah, it's, it's, it's, uh, it's very intense. It has a very, um, impressive flavor to it. So the, the vanilla is very intense and the chocolate is very intense and the barrel char is very intense. Everything is very bold and in your face. It's a, it's a very, um, um, striking whiskey. But again, at 130.4, this is a high proofer. Um, the nose is reasonable. It's not like singeing my nose hairs or anything like that.

But it's, you could smell there's, there's age in the nose for sure. I mean, you know, this is, you know, with that 20 year old, you knew that was an older bourbon.

This is kind of a dark red mahogany. Yeah. Very, very dark color here. 16 year barrels.

Some really nice legs again.

Yeah.

Oh, another great nose. We've had some outstanding noses today on these bourbons.

All right, I'm ready to taste it. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, wow. OK, it's powerful on the palate. It's also like, um, bourbon balls.

Yeah. So I was going to say the chocolate chocolate carries over and yeah, the cherry, the cherry.

And you know, if, if, if, if bourbon balls had like a coconut kind of fit, you know what I'm saying? It's almost like a.

It's funny. You should say that.

Yeah.

Amber, my wife, she adds a little, uh, diced coconut to her bourbon balls and it works so well. It's almost like a bourbon ball. Almond joy.

Wow. Yeah. Almond joy. That's it. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. This is like, um, I remember the old, the old, the old tune that went with Mounds and Almond Joy. Mounds bar and Almond Joy. Oh yeah.

That's a. Mounds don't. I just remember that part. Almond Joy has nuts.

Mounds don't. Yeah. So the same bar, they have that, that, um, that, um, vanilla cream center with the coconut and, uh, and then, but Almond Joy has the almonds in it. Wow. This is really good. Yeah. And it better be for what, you know, for what they sell it for. $350. But by the time you, um, it makes it to the secondary, it's probably going for 15.

I would say 1500. Probably in its early days, it's starts high and then kind of trickles down. So this might even be like 18, maybe 2k.

Yeah. Really good. Well, thank you Brown and Foreman for sending Todd and I a sample of, uh, both of these.

Yeah.

Yeah. Both of these we are honored. Very good. Very delicious.

Now I'm going to say the finish kind of tapers off a little quicker than I expected.

Surprisingly.

Yeah. I mean, the warmth stays if that makes sense, but like the flavors kind of dissipate. I mean, I would say medium. to short, short, long. Can I say a short long finish? That would be a medium finish, right? Medium well. Can we do it like stakes? Yeah.

I think this is solidly in the medium finish arena somewhere. Um, yeah, not like the, the, uh, the 20 year, uh, widow Jane, which had like that finish went on forever. Yeah. Um, but this is, this is very pleasant finish. Very delicious. Yeah. Luxardo cherry sweet. Wow. So good. This is a, um, this is definitely, and I've had a number of Kentucky's in the past. Uh, I would say, um, they're all suitably good. They're all kind of along the same. level of quality and age. I don't know how this one, it's been so long since I've had one.

Yeah. I've had a few others. Yeah. Luckily enough, the country club that Bill Straub is a part of, We kind of had like an after wake. I had a cousin kind of pass sort of prematurely. And so that was kind of our, we went, they had like kind of an after wake there at the country club and they happened to have King of Kentucky at the bar there at the country club. So, you know, what better place to kind of like raise a glass to my cousin, Josh, and it was reasonable. And we ended up We ended up getting a little carried away and he and I and a couple others finished that bottle. Wow. But yeah, it's a, it's one of those magical pours. I mean, you know, I'd put it right up there with like Pappy 23 with George Eastag. I mean, it's, it's an upper echelon if you can find a pour of it for sure.

I guess the, that kind of the, well, this, as this settles in on my palate, I'm just getting this, this nice chocolate, coconut, vanilla, caramel, um, but, but rich oak influence. Yeah.

Really nice sweet oak notes.

Yep. Um, it's a, it's a great whiskey. Yeah. Another great whiskey, $350 for a bottle. 16 years old, single barrels.

Go ahead and ask me, this is on the shelf and I see at three 50. Yeah, you're going to, you're going to get it.

I mean, I think I would too. I mean, if you see it at retail, you got to pick it up. Well, this is going to be a tough one at the end here, Todd. Uh, yeah, we, we may, like I said, this might be one a one B one C. No, we need to do a clear one, two, three, and four first place, second place, third place. Well, but you know, you and I are usually pretty close to each other, but we do differ a little sometimes. Like we'll flip flop on who's number one.

Okay. I think I don't know who your number one's going to be, but did I give it away?

Maybe. Wow. I'm starting as the more I sip on this King of Kentucky, the more I start to like salivate. I'm salivating and it's really doing the same. Yeah.

This is like, this is a great whiskey.

Well, we, we promised folks, we won't do this to you too often. We won't bring all the heavy hitters on one show.

We have some other stuff in the pipeline that should be more readily available and won't put a huge dent in your pocket. But you know, when you get these opportunities, you know, they want us to review them. So that's what we do. And we are very lucky to do so.

Well, you know, these, these whiskeys are sitting on the bourbon road bar. So if you're in town and you want to hook up a Todd and I, I don't know how long these are.

It's going to say very small sample bottles.

It'll be a rush of people.

We should caveat this with most of these bottles are 200 mils or 200 mils or less. Yeah. So sample media bottles, they don't.

So that's all right. No, I mean, I can't tell you how many people have visited the bourbon road bar and drank out of a sample bottle.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, how many people have had that two 91, uh, the single malt single. Yeah.

I mean, it's like, that was a four four ounce bottle. Yeah.

And I bet I've served 10 people.

It's well worth it. It was amazing. Yeah.

Yeah. I think I would really love to have. An ample pour of this on my patio with a solo stove kicking out the heat on a chilly night in October, November.

Yeah. I don't have a solo stove, but I've got like kind of a. mobile fire pit, if you will, that I've got at Lowe's and something. But one really fun thing that I have that I burned in that fire pit is some old barrel staves. Oh, okay. Yeah. kind of gives it a nice bourbon ambiance, if you will. So that's really nice.

Yeah, it's really neat. So you were there the night that Whiskey Thief was burning the barrels. It's amazing how wonderful a bonfire you get from burning a barrel. And you just basically, you, you knock the, the head and the tail off the barrel and you put it over the coals and you let it burn from the inside out. It is a great fire. They don't last a good long time though.

No, it's pretty quick.

30, 45 minutes. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Tell the tape. Tell the tape. All right. Well. All right, folks.

So Todd and I are going to rate these four whiskies that we've had on the show today. And let's just kind of go back over them. We had the, uh, we had the vaults 15 year, uh, chain widow chain. It was the fifth release of that series. And, uh, it was a Mizanara. I mean, I'm sorry. It was an Amber on a finished 15 year bourbon blend of bourbons, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Then we had the Black Opal. Which was the Mizanara finish.

Which was the Mizanara finish. 20 years. 20 years. Both of these whiskeys were both at 99 proof.

Right.

Yep. That was our number two. And then coming into the second half, we had the Koi Hill.

The Coyote, barrel house eight, I believe is what it's called.

It was about 134 proof.

134.7, yeah.

And then of course, what's in our glass right now.

King of Kentucky 16 year old, 130.4. 0.4.

This barrel number 10.

That 0.4 is important.

It's a single barrel. This and the Koi Hill were both single barrels. Yeah.

So what you may see out there- Could differ. Could differ. Well, I would say most likely differ if you do happen to see this. All right. So let's start with- I see you just finished that old- I did. King of Kentucky. I did. I keep wanting to say old Forrester, but it is kind of like old Forrester's King of Kentucky.

I did, but I saved enough of my Koi Hill to go back and have a last pour of that.

Okay.

So the, the, the, um, King Kentucky is firmly in my mind where I think it stands. I'm going back to the Koi Hill.

You're a man of great ideas.

And you know what? I do get that mineral note on that. Okay. I do.

The nose on it's really changed now that I've come away from that, that King of Kentucky. Wow. Isn't that crazy?

Wouldn't it be nice if we had saved our glasses from the first half with a little bit in them? We could have went over all four of them again. Maybe next time. Next time. Yeah.

Wow. That nose on that Coy Hill has really changed since I came to Kentucky. Okay. All right. So Todd, what is your number four? My number four is the Widow Jane Balz. I mean, I've kind of outgrown that Emperor on a love, I guess a little bit, but I want to say. That is a good rendition. It's not overly ember on them. I mean, you will get those notes of like the cinnamon, the ginger, the chai, that type of thing, but well put together, solid, solid bottle.

I'm with you on that. I'm exactly the same. So the 15 year vaults from Widow Jane, the Ambarana finished. I think for me, I kind of follow your same comments there that, you know, Ambarana is not at the top of the list of things that I'm searching out right now.

Right. If I'm looking for something finished, I mean, I have my finishes. I really like you.

But in terms of an Ambarana finished whiskey, I think it was extremely well done. Um, I think it was, uh, I don't know, just, it had a lot of notes on it, a lot of flavors. It was a superior whiskey.

Yeah, I think it's an interesting approach because usually you see these younger products like seven, eight, nine being an Ambarana. So. Something at 15 year or even older, older whiskeys in there. It's, it's a different take and I, yeah.

Yeah. And I think it was well done. I think, I think, I think it was properly proved. It was a solid whiskey and yeah, well done to the team at widow Jane. I think they did a good job on it, at least for tonight. I think it was up against some pretty heavy hitters, one of which is their own whiskey. So, um, but yeah. I agree with you completely. I think both of us have the little Jane 15 volts. At least number five is our number four pick. Right.

Your turn.

My number three. This is so hard. I know. This is so hard. My number three is going to be the King of Kentucky, believe it or not. Okay. Surprise. And the reason, well, I'm not going to give you the reason cause then I'll tell you what my next pick is. But the reason the King of Kentucky is my number three pick is because other whiskeys showed very layered flavors, a lot of depth. So tickled your fancy more tickled my face and look, it's a great whiskey again. Well, these are all phenomenal whiskeys and it's so hard. This I knew today picking number three and number two, we're going to be the hardest.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cause I'm going to differentiate.

Yeah.

That's good. Yeah.

I'm good.

So my number three and I based this upon, like I said, I had one of the early releases of the Jack Daniels coil when it first came out. It was, it was hazmat, but I mean, just so those, these flavors were even more intense. So I think that's what makes me think the Jack Daniels Coyhill this time is my third place pit.

Okay. So let's sort of recap again. We both picked the vaults. Is there a number four? I picked the King of Kentucky as my number three. You picked as your number three.

Excellent pour. I mean, no losers. We always say this, there's no losers today. And what's your number two? So my number two, and I think we're going to vary on this one. is going to be the Oak black Opal. Wow. Yeah. I think it is crazy complex. I think, and this is strictly on value. I would rather pay the three 50 for the gig in Kentucky and get those flavors than the 500 for the black Opal. I mean, If I see that black Opal somewhere, which is more likely than seeing a King of Kentucky yet at MSRP, I might, might pull the trigger, but it's, it's like, yeah, it's like, it's like when you go to the, the, like a horse race and there's like that photo finish. So like, it's a nose. I mean, great, great. Great, great whiskeys.

Well, for me, the number two is going to be the Koi Hill. And I think you saw that coming, but I thought it was a fantastic whiskey. And it just impressed me because I had not had a prior release of the Koi Hill before. That was my first experience.

Right. The funny thing is I actually brought one the day we recorded episode 400, but we didn't even get around to it.

We didn't get around to it. Wow.

So I do have a, I have two ounces left.

Okay.

I usually set aside two ounces of some of those special ones and with the grand scheme of, you know, I don't know. I have, I have an idea of what I might do with those at some point. Yeah. But so with that one, I only have two ounces. So maybe you and I will. We'll split that one.

That sounds good. And I'd be, to be honest, my choice of the Koi Hill is my number two for the day had nothing to do with its $80 price tag. It just had to do with the fact that I felt that its flavor fell firmly in that second place position for me. Yeah. Yeah. We're different people. You know, a lot of times Todd, you and I are pretty aligned. Right. Today we're differing a little bit.

I think it's just because, I mean, A different day. I think we could get, we, we might agree. Yeah. Another day we might be far apart. It's just one of those.

We've seen that at barrel pegs, haven't we?

Yeah. All right. It's just, I mean, these are four great, four great bottles. And I was glad to, like I said, we apologize. You know, they're going to be hard to find out there, but you know, All right. Well, we do what we got to do sometimes.

Those who are doing math, I guess they know where we're at on our number one. So my number one is the, um, black Opal from widow Jane. I felt like it was, um, well, it just, it just bowled me over.

Yeah.

It really took me by surprise. I loved the retro flavors that I got out of that pour. And I just think that, uh, As Sienna did, just an amazing job at blending that particular whiskey. Yeah, hats off for sure. It's a lot of money. Again, I didn't really pay as much attention to value or cost this time. I think I've paid more attention to, in my mind, the flavors that were being presented. So yeah, unfortunately guys, my number one choice is the most expensive. It's going to cost you a few dollars.

What do you got, Todd? So yeah, my number one was the King of Kentucky. It just, yeah. It's always good.

On a different day, like you said, we could flip-flop on it.

Maybe instead of like a blind would have been fun with these four for sure.

Yeah. Blinds make you look real like inadequate at what you do. It doesn't take long. I've been, uh, I have been totally embarrassed by some, some blinds. Well, not really because I know how they go, but not, not being embarrassed, but totally, um, I guess put in my place is probably the best, best way to say it. You're definitely putting your place by blind tasting.

Yeah, but again, like we said, you could have that blind and do that same blind two weeks from now, and you might have different results.

If you have a burrito right before that, it could be, who knows what's going to happen.

A burrito.

All right, guys. Well, I think we kind of a little all over the board today, but I think the only thing we agreed on was that the Widow Jane vaults 15 year was probably our fourth place. So beyond that, I think we kind of bounced around a little bit.

Yeah.

Yeah. All great whiskeys. What a great show. It's fun to collect these samples, Todd, and get a chance to sit down and review them for our listeners so that they can make, make their own decisions on what they want to do.

Yeah. But we're truly blessed. I mean, hats off to the folks that sent them to us. I mean, they're like, like I said, I'll just, somebody says we got something. I'm like, can we have a sample? Sometimes they say yes. Sometimes they say no.

So yeah. All right. Well, it's been a fun show time.

Yep, always.

Lots of fun. Good to be back in the groove if you want. Yeah, back in the groove. Thanks for hanging out at the Bourbon Road bar again. I think, you know, we had all these bottles lining up across the bar throughout the year as they were sent to us. And we do that. We have the bottles that kind of fill up the bar top throughout the year. And we end up with, okay, now these all go to Bourbon on the banks, right? But now the top of the bar is empty and we're starting to fill it up again. A few of these from tonight will be on there and we'll see.

Yeah.

We've got a few more.

Yep. We've got a few more in stock and we'll have another little review show, hopefully. somewhere down the road, if you will.

We'll sit down with a distillery or musician. We'll just have a good time. Sometimes it's just Todd and I like today where we're sipping through some samples and let you know what we think. We promise we won't always do these unicorns. Sometimes they'll be very affordable bottles that you can put your hands on. Uh, but we have fun every week when we, uh, put out a show, the best way to not miss one is to scroll up to the top of that app. You're on hit that subscribe button that way every single week, your podcast app will let you know that Jim and Todd have dropped another episode of the bourbon road and we will get you down your, uh, your drive to work. You're cutting grass, you're sweeping the house, whatever it is that you do with your headphones on. We'd love to be a part of that. We're out at events. We've been at a few recently. We've got more in our future. If you hear that we're going to be out somewhere, make sure you walk up to us. If you see us in a liquor store, walk up to us and shake our hand. We'd love to meet you. If you're in our area, we always like to meet up with our roadies. We just recently recorded an episode with a few roadies that popped into town. We absolutely do it. Let us know, reach out to us. If you're going to be in town, let us know. And if we can make it happen, we will make it happen. But until the next time, we will see you down the Bourbon Road.

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