425. Ranking the Top Six Bourbons of 2024

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. The Hill House Bed and Breakfast, located in Loretto, Kentucky, is ready to be your bourbon country home away from home. Located less than three miles from Maker's Mark, the Hill House is convenient to Bardstown and the rest of the Bourbon Trail. The next time you visit bourbon country, choose comfort and convenience. Choose the Hill House Bed and Breakfast. Listen in at the break for more details or visit their website at thehillhousekentucky.com. Hello everyone and welcome to the New Year's special. This is the show where Todd and I break down our best bourbons of 2024 as we're celebrating January 1st of 2025, the date of the release of this show. And at the end of the show, we're going to announce our Bourbon of the Year for 2024. Todd, are you excited? I am. We're decked out in our tuxedos and everything. We're ready for this. We're at the Corner Rick House. We're sitting in the Corner Rick House. The Corner Rick House is actually... So this, obviously, folks, since it's coming out on January 1st, was recorded a few days early anyway. So, the Corner Rick House is decorated in all the Christmas regalia. Yes. And ready for the Christmas event here at the Rick House. Yep, here in a few days. For the Frankfurt Bourbon Society. So, we're hanging out in here on a Saturday afternoon. And we've got six wonderful whiskeys that we're going to taste through today. All of them have appeared on the show this year. All of them got our attention. Todd, you want to sort of go over kind of what the, sort of what were the requirements for a bourbon to be in this top six?

Well, since I kind of joined late, you know, I joined July, I believe it was third was my first official episode and that was 400. So we kind of decided things that you had tried on the show and that I had tried personally as well. Actually, most of these came on after I joined, luckily. I think the Amroot spoilers was before, but you had actually, we had met up and you had brought me a sample of that to try. And I really, really loved it so much that I actually went out and Got to bottle that. But some of the more finer criteria, no single barrels. Right. So if you just listen to a recent episode, the Borchetta or Borchetta single barrel we had probably would have been a big contender in this, but so limited. Obviously a little higher price, but man, it was. That was a knockout pour for 2024 for me, for sure. Also, no unicorns. We want our bourbon to be readily found. And I think what we've got here, every one of these should be on the shelf somewhere.

At or near retail price. Yeah. If anything's a little higher, I'd be surprised. Yeah. So I think those are some pretty good rules. Have we had better bourbons on the show this year? Absolutely. We've had some fantastic stuff. We've had some amazing bourbons. But for us to shout from the rooftops that this is our bourbon of the year and for you to have to go pay $500 for it or not be able to find it at all doesn't do anybody any good. So these are all going to be bourbons that If you put your nose to the grindstone, you should be able to find them. You should be able to find them at or near retail, and they should be bourbons that I think you'll enjoy. So. And spoilers again, we don't have a rye in the mix. We do not have a rye this year. That's right. So emphasis on bourbons. This is, this is a big bourbon year and there are a couple of finished bourbons and you sort of spoiled the Amroot. There is at least one more. There is a bottled in bond. Um, there, I mean, there's, there's some, uh, high proof expressions.

So we're going to go in order of proof today. Yeah. We're going to see how that works out.

Yeah. We'll see how it goes. All right. So what do you say we get to that first pour? We got six whiskeys to get through and I can tell you from experience that six whiskeys can make a long show. Yeah. All right. So. number one and just because it's number one doesn't mean it doesn't mean anything we just put these in order of proof so if we're starting at 100 proof you could imagine what follows all right so our very first bourbon is one we've had on the show not too long ago And it is the Brothers Bond straight bourbon whiskey. This is the bottled in Bond. This is a seven year bottled in Bond that has basically garnered all kinds of awards. It's gained a lot of notoriety. We had it on the show. We had both owners on the show and we had just such a great time. We had a really good time with this and we did like the whiskey. Yeah. So, why don't we take a second, Todd, and tell them how we decided the final six. What decided the final six?

Um, we just kind of looked, I kind of looked back at what you'd had. And like I said, I compared, you know, if I'd had those things, I'm, you know, not every episode is something where it's review, you know, something like that. So like, you know, you have your music episodes with like the pretty goods and you have your, you had one with the the Pig Beach Barbecue, Chris McBride there, and things like that.

But we just kind of looked back.

And in those review shows lately, we've been kind of given kind of our rankings. Sure. No losers, but sometimes things just stand out a little above the others that you try. So I kind of looked at that, and you kind of looked at your list. I think we both kind of picked a top six. And surprisingly, there was a lot of intermingling. There was. I think I had one bottle that was not in your mix. And yeah, kind of the same thing.

Yeah, we agreed on most. Our lists overlapped tremendously. Pretty good. But there were a couple outliers. But then you went back and retasted and made the final decision. Yeah. So congratulations, Todd. I think you summed up our list. basically took our two lists of six and turned it into one list of six. And I couldn't be prouder of what we're sitting down with today. Starts off, like I said, with the Brothers Bond, straight bourbon whiskey, bottled in Bond, seven year old. And like I said, this is a whiskey we really enjoyed. It is a 100 proof bourbon, obviously, since it's bottled in bond. It is a mash bill of 51% corn, 39% rye, and 10% malted rye. So this is a very high rye, barely legal bourbon. So you don't see this kind of mash bill too often, 51% corn, and certainly 39% rye is up there. It's stratosphere rye. Right, right. Yeah.

So at least we got, as rye levers, at least we got that going for us.

We got a really high rye here. Yeah. Yeah. If we'd have swapped 1% of rye for 1% of corn, we'd be drinking a rye here. Right. Anyway, so what do you say? We, we checked this one out and oh, by the way, this is a, right at a $60 bottle. Yeah. So it should be readily found. Yes. Okay.

MGP source, so right off the nose, I get, there's always like that gingery snap cookie type thing.

It does have a little bit of a Rick House floor note to it. It's got that old wood, old Rick House aging bourbon smell to it. As you like to say, the baking cabinets in there too. Yep, absolutely. It's a very gentle and sort of, you know, it's one of those, and I say this a lot, but this is one of those bourbons that just sort of checks the box, but it's a little bit more, it's got a little bit more bite on the back of the nose. I'm going to taste it here in a second, but I would expect it at least based on my memory to have a little bit bite on the back of the palate as well.

It's a nice nose. Cheers. Cheers.

Wow, yeah, full of flavor, full of, it's got the baking spice. I actually just got like a flash of coconut. It's kind of weird. What did I have before this? Oh, our warm up bourbon tonight. We won't tell you what it was, but we did have a warm up bourbon before we started tasting these, so.

Cherry ginger, it's like a sweet cherry though,

Definitely has a cherry note to it. It's rich. It has depth to it. It seems a bit well balanced. It has a little bit of bite on the back.

Yeah, there's a little spice kick at the tail end, which is nice. I'd be curious to know how much they had to proof this down.

Yeah, it would be kind of neat to know. That's a question I don't think came up in the interview. But Ian and Paul were tremendous, you know, they're obviously huge stars. I mean, huge. I mean, I think on the show they mentioned that their episodes of Vampire Diaries have been watched by over a billion people. That's a lot of people. Yeah, we don't have that many followers, but that's okay. Anyway, I'm certainly glad to see a brand that has sort of notable people behind it that is really good. There's been a few.

Yeah, and they're really hands-on, which is really cool. I mean, it's not just their name on the bottle, you know.

And they have real-world ambitions about making change. I mean, they're very interested in this regenerative

Yeah, that was amazing that Ian was really, really into that.

Which is cool. I think it's important that companies have a sort of a vision for themselves and what they want to try to achieve outside of just the product itself, right? What do they want to achieve in this world? And I think it's great that they've taken on that challenge of regenerative agriculture.

Yeah. And I think you'll see more environmentally conscious things like that. Miley Hartsook on from Brown Foreman. Right. That was really nice, really cool, in-depth look at what Brown Foreman's doing to cut down their energy costs and that kind of thing.

This is a really good bourbon. Yeah, it's really nice. Really good. So this has won a number of awards. I do know for a fact that it picked up a double platinum at the Ascotts. It also got double gold at New York and it got double gold in San Francisco. So not too bad for a new company with new releases. They were obviously able to source some high quality barrels out of MGP. We do know that they're working on contract distilling with Southern Distilling, at least on their regenerative grain series that just came out. So, and then, you know, they're not tied to a particular distillery. They, um, you know, they want to, they don't want to make their own, at least not for the moment, but they do want to keep their options open for who they partner with on a release to release kind of basis. That's cool.

That is cool.

I didn't save any, Todd. I should be saving just a little bit, shouldn't I?

Well, that way we can always pour a little more.

Yeah, we'll have to do that. I have the bottle. Let me just do it now. All right. All right, so I guess we need to keep on moving down the road. I'm really pleased with that. It is exactly what I remember. Definitely a quality spirit. Yeah. All right, so second on our list is one that we picked up at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival and we were, I mean, I was quite taken by it. And it's a, it's the barrel bourbon cask finish series. It's the ice wine finished. from Barrel Bourbon.

Yeah, you brought that and we had that on the recap of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival.

Absolutely. So this is a Barrel Craft Spirits. I mean, they do some amazing work. But Barrel Craft Spirits has released edition 001 of the Ice Wine Finished. It's a five-year-old And it's 106.52 proof. So basically 106 and a half proof. Okay.

And ice wine, what do you know about ice wine? Ice wine is one of those wines that they allowed the grapes to freeze, I believe, and it condenses the sugars and thus you get a sweeter product. So typically kind of on a dessert wine, wine, yeah, I guess. Seems like it's more popular like in the European countries, I think, like Germany. Kind of a German thing, right? Ice fine. Ice fine, yeah. But does it go into details about what grapes or anything, I guess, for that particular ice wine?

No, I guess. I mean, are the grapes for ice wine basically ice wine grapes? No, I know.

And I have a little knowledge of wine. In a lot of cases, they use Gewürztraminer.

Gewürztraminer.

Yeah. Yep. I know that's one of the more popular choices. At least, I mean, that might not even be a Germanized wine either, though. So there's that. I mean, that could be something from California or who knows.

Well, there is a, let me tell you a little bit about what goes into this blend of bourbons that was then finished in ice wine barrels, but this has Kentucky five and eight year old in it, has Indiana five, six, seven, eight, nine, and 11 year old in it, has Tennessee nine and 15, and it has Wyoming nine. Well, I mean nine, okay. Yeah. And so they have this, what they call a derived mash bill on here. So they take all the things and they sort of put them together and they say, what's the derived mash bill? At the end of the day, 71% corn, 24% rye, 4% mild barley, and only 1% wheat.

1% weight. Yeah. Just a tickle.

Yeah. These guys are true craftsmen. I mean, they don't spare the labor and effort in putting together these bottles. Let's check it out.

All right. I've been dozing it already. And the first thing that popped in my head was like, you're in your car on a nice spring, warm spring day, and you've got the windows down, and you're not in any kind of hurry.

fresh blooms. Yeah. The nose is, is lightly floral, but almost hard to, hard to pick up. It's very like, um, it's not a very, um, aromatic nose. It's very light and floral, but very light. I mean, you definitely don't pick up a whole bunch of barrel or anything like that. It smells sweet though.

And I think if you go back and listen to the episode we actually tried this on, I think that was like, it smells sweet. It's like sweet honeysuckle type thing, but.

It's a fresh, floral, light, sort of very unassuming. It wouldn't catch your attention on the nose. It would just be like, okay, very light. But for 106 proof, it does not nose like 106. If I was noticing this, I would think 80 proof.

Yeah. Definitely under a hundred. Yeah. All right. I'm ready to go in. Cheers. Cheers.

But then the flavor.

Yeah.

Sweet, buttery, buttery for sure. In fact, not just buttery texture, but a little bit of butter flavor on it, I think.

Very little spice, but it really lingers right there in the mid palette. Like that sweetness is just lingering and lingering and lingering.

Yep. I'm getting a little bit of like orange peel on it, but it's causing the sides of my palate to salivate. Yep. And whenever I get the dripping off this left and right sides of my tongue, I know I've got something that's really tickling me. It's really like something that I like. So if you want to get my attention on a bottle, caused my salivating glands to kick in on the sides of my palate. Did it say how long it sat in the ice wine? I didn't look that up. It didn't say on here. I would say a moderate amount of time, just based on the flavors. I mean, ice wine has, and they even say this on the label, ice wine has an intense sweetness to it. So to have that impart itself on the bourbon, I don't know that I get an intense sweetness on this. I get sort of a, maybe an impression of a interaction with something that had more sweetness in it. I don't know.

Yeah. Be interesting to smell like the stave of like an ice wine barrel. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, this is a very approachable whiskey. This is something that I would say just about anyone new to the bourbon scene could probably sip on and not be taken aback by the 106 proof of it.

And obviously as a finished bourbon, I mean, we have two finished bourbons, so I think that says something about the bourbon itself and the finish. It's well-made. Bright, light, floral. Easy sipping. Spring day cruiser. Spring day cruiser.

Definitely below it, drinking below its proof. Very well crafted whiskey. Something that a lot of care and thought went into crafting this. I think they did a good job. I think with barrels that sweet, you have to be extremely careful.

I was going to say, it could probably get really cloying if you left it in there too long.

All right. So Todd, what is our third pour in this series?

So this is the one I kind of ruined the surprise on. This is the Bardstown Amroot collaborative series. This one comes in at 110 proof. MSRP was about $160. This is one that you actually had with Danny Callaway at Bardstown. And then I think we came here and recorded an episode not too long after that. It may have been myself and AMZ and what have you. But you brought me the rest of the sample. So I tried it a couple of days later and was floored. So the next thing you know, I think I just happened to be cruising through Bardstown. And yeah, so I went and grabbed this bottle. So yeah, I'm a big fan. At Root is an Indian single malt. And oddly enough, we actually have an Indian single malt to hopefully review soon. So that'll be fine. But yeah, so this has a Another blend, kind of like the barrel. So this is 43%, nine-year Indiana, which corn 45, rye 51, barley four. So eight-year Indiana, 20% of 95.5. A 14-year Kentucky, 75, 13, 12. That's about 17%. 15% of it was a 10-year Kentucky, 78, 10, 12. And then a 5% Kentucky 11 year, 78, 13, 9. Okay, cool. So kind of all across the board on that.

So this is part of their collaborative series. So we've talked before on the show where we have the Fusion series, which has been discontinued. It's no longer in production, but the collaborative series, which is where they go out and collaborate with outside brands. And then the Discovery series, which we just did a show on the Discovery series. where we compared four of the most recent releases of that. Yep. So this is the Discovery Series Amroot.

Yeah, they don't do any kind of numbering on this, I don't think. But they've done others with, I think we had the Silver Oak earlier this year. Yep. They've done a collaboration with actually with Ryan Cecil or Berber Pursuit. They've done one with the, I believe it's the Virginia Barrel Company, like a Cherrywood collaboration thing. So, oh, and then obviously the prisoner wine. Oh, yeah. Oh, and then probably one of the big favorites and there've been two renditions. So, the first one is probably the most highly sought after and that's the Chateau du Labade. And I could be wrecking that French word because I took Spanish. So, but yeah, it's It's another one of like Danny's playgrounds. I mean, it's Goose Island. It's another one. So it's this playground where you could play mad chemist with the bourbon itself. And then, you know, they do the really interesting finish. So let's dive into this. Like I said, I'm excited. Cheers. It's been a while since I've had this.

Well, actually, I'm going to hit that nose. All right, so. That's a damn, damn fine nose. Yeah. Wow. A little more savory.

We're coming down off that sweet. It's got some savory notes.

It's added some, that Amroot has added some depth to it and given it kind of a, sort of a deep, rich effect on the nose.

But there's also some really nice like orchard fruits going on. Like I'm getting like peach and nectarine. Like overripe.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. I'm going to taste it. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, that's wonderful. That's so good.

That's really good.

Yeah. This is, uh, this is a tug of war between the Oak and the Amroot. Yeah. That savory thing keeps going. Like, yeah, it's got a little bit of a, like a, a light anise Indian spice note to it, sort of on the mid palette.

I like this because it seems like every time you take a sip, there's something a little new about it. Yeah, that's good. It's been a while since I've had this, like I said. Nice to come back to.

Well, you've got like a 90% fill in that bottle, so you're still doing pretty good. Yeah.

I first cracked this one. Like I said, you gave me the rest of the sample, which was probably maybe a 200 ml or something like that.

Yeah, it was a big, but it was enough for us to make a decision on it. Enough for me to go get a big one. Wow. It's really good. I, you know, I'm torn between these three because each one brings a little bit, something a little bit different to the table. They're not even in the same class with each other. They're different, totally different whiskeys, right? I mean, they're all bourbons or finished bourbons, but they're, It's not like comparing two apples or two oranges. We're comparing apples, oranges, and peaches here. I like that. All right. I'm excited about this. This is going to be great. We have three more whiskeys coming up. We just went through three. By great, you mean tough. I agree. Tough. This is going to be tough. Great means that when we come with an answer at the end, it will be our honest thoughts on these six. And, you know, Todd, you and I have, we've been right on par with each other before. We've differed on occasions as well. So I think it shows our listeners that we don't always just agree to be agreeing. Yeah.

And that makes it fun. Yeah.

All right, well, we're going to continue to sip on these three into the half and sort of take our notes because coming up in the second half, folks, we have three more whiskeys that made it into our final six for 2024's Bourbon of the Year. Stick around, hear the results. 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. When you're traveling the Bourbon Trail, location and comfort is everything. That's why I recommend making the Hill House Bed and Breakfast your home away from home. Located in the heart of Bourbon Country, the Hill House Bed and Breakfast is less than five minutes from the Maker's Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky, giving you easy access to the Bardstown Distilleries and all points of the Bourbon Trail. The owners, Cheryl and Jim, offer four comfortable and cozy rooms along with a gourmet hot-plated breakfast every single morning. And, when you return from a long day of fun, it's time to enjoy a bit of the Bourbon Trail nightlife. Relax on the large outdoor patio, complete with a blazing chiminea and solo stove, or curl up on the sofa and chairs, put a record on the turntable, and relax with snacks and fruit in front of the gas fireplace. An evening at the Hill House is a perfect time to raise a bourbon glass full of cheer in the company of family and friends. We know you'll enjoy your stay at the Hill House Bed and Breakfast as much as we did. Find out more at thehillhousekentucky.com.

Welcome back to The Bourbon Road. We are trying to determine our 2024 Bourbon of the Year. So far, wow, tough. Yeah, first half was great.

We had three great Bourbons. Two of them were finished. One of them was a bottle and bond. And we continued sipping on those during the break. And we had a few notes. I think we added to our own journals what we thought about them. We'll find out at the end of the show how those three fared. But what do we have in the first class for the second half? This is the maker's mark, the heart release.

So this was filed in April of 2024. MSRP on this is about $75 and 111.7 proof.

And I can tell you right now, I've been out to a number of liquor stores in the last couple of weeks, and the heart release is still on the shelves when I go out there. So guys, this is available.

And Todd, what's the price point on this one? It's about $75. About $75.

And that's typical of their special releases. And this is out there. It's sitting on the shelf. It's ready to be purchased. Soon enough, you're going to know what we think about it, yet again.

Interesting enough, it says volume one of five, so I'm not sure if that's just one of five for the next wood finishing series, because it's been around a while. They've done a lot of other versions of this. I can think of like BRT, FAEs, the Fays, fatty acid esters.

Fatty acid esters. I call them the fairy whiskers.

Yeah, all right, the Faye. But this one, they use 10 virgin toasted French oak staves.

Which is similar to the 46, right? When we did that episode at the Hill House Bed and Breakfast, we had to choose what whiskey to take there for our part of it. We took Maker's 46, which is fine. It's good. It's a more affordable bottle. but it follows the same sort of stave mash bill as this one here. This is the heart though.

Yeah. This used to be a more rounded bottle, those wood finishings. So they kind of went to like, It's almost like they took the regular maker's bottle and just kind of pulled on the neck a little bit and made it a little taller.

But these are always very impressive. They're well-crafted. They're delicious. They're always good whiskeys. And there's no surprise to me that this made it on our list of the final six. All right, it's nose. Let's check it out. Maple. Yep, definitely. Maple and a little bit darker fruits. Yep. Like a fig, plum fig. Could do the plum, yeah. Plum.

I mean, getting a little bit of like chocolate, sweet chocolate.

This is a weeded bourbon, obviously. That's what Maker's does. Probably will till the end of time. Till the end of time, that's what they do. It's called the heart release. This is a 2024 release that can be had just about anywhere in the U S and, um, I think you're going to find folks that Todd and I both, uh, I don't appreciate this.

Apple too. What's the proof? What's the proof on it? 111.7. Okay.

A little bit of ethanol in the nose.

Yeah.

I'm ready to dive in. I'm ready. Cheers. Cheers. Yeah. Sort of thick jam, a little bit of like cocoa powder and maple maple kind of slides on. I mean, the color on this is actually kind of dark, medium dark amber. Yeah. Word is like most of those releases you figure about six, five to eight years probably.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, obviously the seller ones are 13 years, but those are really hard to find.

This is an excellent bourbon. This is a delicious bourbon.

Very soft mouth feel, very little like spicy kick on the end. Yeah.

It's not settling in for this huge, like chest anaconda boa constrictor hug, you know, that you can get sometimes. It's kind of gentle. It is darker than I'm used to from makers, but it's, um, it's delicious. It's still got that sort of soft touch to it.

I think it's one of those things like, you know, they, if you've ever heard anyone from their talk, they talk about their taste vision and like, It's that one thing that they are very proud about. I mean, this is obviously a variant of that taste vision, but like kind of always, makers always kind of stays in that nice spot. It's all the way you can describe it. Just like they do what they do. They are proud of what they do and they do it well.

Yeah, I think that if they have barrels that are significantly outside their profile. They tend to hide them in batches somehow. Yeah, probably so. They're very careful about that. I don't think you ever, with Baker's Mark, you never get something that's like this unicorn kind of new.

The sellers? A little bit. Yeah. A little bit. It's hard to find.

Yeah. But I mean, in their in their traditional offerings and the stuff that you see, you're like, yeah, I mean, even the single barrels for makers, they don't typically veer too crazy. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It's like I said, you know, if you've done single barrels and things like that, sometimes you could get something that's very off profile. But I'm like you, it's probably hard to find something for makers off profile.

Yeah. All right, well, what do you say we move on to our next whiskey? And this one is one that I am, I'll be honest with you, I'm a bit surprised to find on our table. It's the most reasonably priced one, so that's cool. This is our bargain.

I was going to say, regardless, it would be the bargain bourbon of the year for me, if there's a subcategory, if you will.

So this whiskey caught me by surprise when I first received it, and I did get a bottle shipped to me. It caught me by surprise. I was like, wow, I've had Green River before, and I liked it. I mean, it was good. but this is exceptional and this is the Green River foolproof and it caught me by surprise. And I think then you tasted it and you thought, wow, what's going on here? How is this so much better? I think, I think the barrels that went into this were selected very carefully by the team at Artstown Bourbon, who have a great experience in this area. I'm going to take a guess. I want to say they exerted their influence on Green River after acquiring them. and something changed.

Yeah, I would say so. Is that fair to say? Probably so.

And there's some deliciousness here. It's really good. But the number one point I want to get across to people is You've got a foolproof whiskey here at $40 a bottle.

Yeah. I think they're one of those distilleries that is one to look out for in upcoming years as their barrels get older and older. I mean, I can't wait to see something like eight or 10 years from them, you know, on down the road. It's going to be something special.

And we've talked about, we talked, I think during the episode when we had this on, what is foolproof? What's foolproof mean? What's cast strength versus foolproof versus barrel strength? You know, really what does that mean? And I think we came to the, to the agreement that foolproof is returning a bourbon to its barrel entry proof more or less, right? So if you, And we haven't confirmed this with Green River, so we don't know if that's what they're actually doing. And with a proof of 117.3, sounds unlikely. Right.

I mean, the one case we could say it does sound right is Barton 1792. Right. It's 125, their full proof. Yeah.

And then with Buffalo Trace and the full proof Weller, It's returned to one Oh seven. Okay. Right. So yeah, you kind of, you kind of wonder if green rivers following that sort of. thought process, but at 117.3, it kind of throws you off a little bit.

Benchmark, another one that has a foolproof at 125. Right, exactly.

I think foolproof should be returning the barrel to its barrel entry proof after it's experienced evaporation during aging.

There you go.

You heard it here, folks. Jim's definition.

Jim ruled the world.

Well, anyway, this is $117.3 and $40 a bottle, five to seven year old whiskey. And it's a 70, 21 and nine mash bill. And again, 40 bucks. 40 bucks. Bartstown bourbon, but the distillery is Green River.

If this doesn't win, you should still go buy one of these.

Yeah, I mean, you should never be without a bottle of Green River full proof on your bar. There's no reason, there's no excuse not to have this sitting on your bar.

And there's starting to be some single barrels that are popping out there. So if you are a high proof fan like ourselves, I recommend giving it a whirl, because I think they're running about 60-ish, which Five or six year old single barrel. It's not a bad price.

It is typical like $10 more on a single barrel pick versus a, you know, a standard run. All right. Checking it out. Yep.

Man, just good stuff. Just good bourbon. Rich caramel. Yeah.

Caramel, vanilla, aged oak, a little bit of brown sugar. Yep. Typical notes, notes you normally don't call out because they're in most bourbons, but this has it in spades. In spades and it's done well.

I see you took a sip. I took a sip. Couldn't wait. Couldn't wait. Post cheers. Cheers. Yeah, that's really good.

It drinks 110 plus. It drinks his proof. It is rich and thick. It's got a nice texture to it for what it is. It has all the standard bourbon notes and spades. So yes, caramel, a little bit of like butterscotch-y notes. A little vanilla, but not cream sweet vanilla, just sort of a nice vanilla note. The proof is there, but it's not a mouth punch.

Yeah. I mean, it lets you know after the sip is gone that, you know, it lingers with a little spice on the tongue. But it's like all over, like front. I'm getting, like you say, this one's really making the sides of my tongue drip.

Yeah. It is really good. It's really good.

If we did one based on price, this would... Yeah.

I mean, if you just look at price versus flavor, this would run away with it by far. This would be the George T. Stack of low price bourbon. This is an excellent value. This is a great value bourbon. Hopefully it's in your area and you can find it. You know, Bardstown, Bourbon and Green River have a great footprint across the country. So I would hope that you can find it in your area. If you can, this is a no-brainer. Drop the 40, drop the 50, whatever it is in your town, 40 to $50, just drop it.

And I'm not sure when we talked about this, like, you know, When people think of Kentucky and Bourbon, I mean, there's obviously some outliers and things like that. But it's kind of like that central Kentucky area. But this is actually in Western Kentucky in Owensboro.

Yeah.

So right there at the edge of the Kentucky River across from Tell City. Yeah, Tell City.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, this is a, I mean, it's a very historic Bourbon production area. Yeah, there's a Livermore, or Glenmore was there for years.

There for a while, this was actually known as the OZ Tyler distillery, correct?

OZ Tyler, and I mean, it's a big distillery, and it's been around for a very long time under one name or another. Right. But definitely a tremendous capacity to distill lots and lots of bourbon. And it's a state-of-the-art distillery now. It's been upgraded. It's in excellent shape. We went and did a visit there. in 2023 and had the full tour. This was pre purchased by Parched on Bourbon. Okay. But yeah, when you walk, when you drive through that town, you just realize that what, what a rich distilling history they have there because the river front is consumed by distillery property. Big. Yeah. Big distillery. All right. I love that one. I do too. And I'm ready to move on to number six. What do we have, Todd? Number six.

So you and I did an Elijah Craig Braille proof comparison. And in that one, we had some older bottles. And then we also, I think we had A124, which was nice, but I don't think it really stood out. But when we recorded that, I think this bottle was actually just starting to hit shelves. And this is a Elijah Craig barrel proof B524. So we actually, I picked up this bottle and I feel like we may have just tried it on a random review show or something like that. So this is 11 years, two months. Comes in, this is the big boy, 130.6 proof. Woo hoo. Yeah. And you know, this is, lots of Craig Barrel proofs are one of those. If you see them, they run about 75 bucks, 75, 80, 70 to 80. It's always worth it to get one. I mean, you can't go wrong. I mean, obviously there are always standouts, but yeah, it's a, always buy it to me.

Yeah, I think I have bottles going back to 2017. Yeah, I've got a couple of pirates left. Yeah, it's kind of nice to go, oh, you've got a few pirates. I do have a few pirates.

Yeah, I don't.

But anyway, it's always nice to go back and revisit those older ones. And we did that a little bit in that show. And it always delivers. There are a few. serious standouts over the years. I think this is one. Yeah.

I think C923 was actually our winner that day. But like I said, this was not in that contest that day. But yeah, like you said, there are some standouts I can think of like the whole 2020. series. And there's always three. They come out January, A, May, B, and then September nine or nine.

So C. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a, yeah, it's a, it's a great tradition and it's always a great pour and the values there. And you can find them in Costco. You can find them in your local liquor store there. They, they've got, they make a lot. Yeah. They put out a lot of this stuff. So there's plenty of it out there and you can usually pick it up, like I said, around 70 bucks or so.

Now there was a bit of a hullabaloo when they dropped their age statement. So it always used to be over 12, which meant, you know, it had at least 12 year old barrels in there, but now they've gone to a more like throwing some younger barrels in. Like I said, this one's 11 years, two months, and then the C923 that was a big favorite was actually 13 years.

Yeah.

But yeah, let's dive in.

Oh yeah. So that nose is amped up. Yeah. Amped up.

Most prevalent oak nose, I think, of the six, but that would... That would follow suit with the age of this.

Yep. Sort of a nutty, deep, rich, high proof.

But didn't burn my nostrils. No, no, no. Now I've had some that when, as soon as you put that nose in there, you, you know, you're getting ready to get something big.

They've had these into the 140s. So what is this? 130? 130.6. So right at the, just over 130. Great nose on it.

Yeah.

Sweet oak.

Brown sugar. Little bit of leather. Yep. Let's do this. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh, concentrated flavor.

Oh, wow.

Very concentrated.

Now there's that peanut shell. Almost toffee-esque. Yep. Yep. Rich caramels. A little almond and- Like an amaretto type thing?

Amaretto.

Yeah. That's a good call.

Yeah. Definitely.

Look at that now.

I mean, it could be like an almond extract, but amaretto is in fact, that's what it is kind of, right?

I mean, it's really good. Very dark. Yeah. That's probably the darkest of the six. Hands down, again, you can contribute that to the age.

This is gonna be tough. This is gonna be really tough.

Yeah, coats of tongue, lovely. So what are some other pores that you had this year that just really stood out?

Ones that could not make the cut for whiskey of the year for us because they're not really available. I remember you being a big fan of the Middle West dark pumpernickel rye.

The dark pumpernickel rye from Middle West was, it really is good. Those guys are killing it up there.

And you know, how many people are making a pumpernickel rye? Right. I mean, there you go. What a delicious whiskey. Well, distillery-wise. Yeah, distillery-wise.

I'm sure you'd go to any deli.

I, you know, we should probably pair that with a pumpernickel rye, a Reuben or something. Okay.

I've got a good night, nice cast strength version that actually, um, mass and journey picked. So maybe we'll do that.

Yeah. Sounds good.

The Widow Jane, Black Opal.

Black Opal, yeah. Big for me. And then you had some stuff that came out of Jim Beam that was like wowsers.

The Hardin's Creek, yeah. Yeah. Those were probably more 2023, but that was a fun comparison. Yeah, it was really good. Well, they were on this year's show. Yeah, that's true. I can think of some others like Never Say Die. It was good. A nice product. Yep. Filmland. Filmland Spirits. Doing some fun stuff and probably some of the best labels in bourbon, I think.

Yeah, I just love the way they have fun with whiskey. They just have such a good time just putting out. You know, they, they not only put out a whiskey and, and, you know, uh, lucky sevens kind of the same way. Yeah. You know, they, they come out with a little short and it's, it's just a neat thing. I mean, just have fun with it.

They have a good time. Limestone farms. Yep. Another source NDP, but not some nice stuff and their batches are always changing. So that's kind of a. Yeah.

And they're there. They have, you know, sort of the mid shelf. releases and then they have the top shelf releases. And I'll be honest with you, they belong, those belong on the top shelf. They're really good. It's expensive. The same with 15 stars. High and Wicked is another one.

High and Wicked, yeah. Their bourbon was like right on the cusp. That was their small batch bourbon. We both really loved it that day. but I don't know, just got kind of edged out, I think.

Well, you know, you have to, I mean, it seems like when we're in the moment and when we're recording an episode and we're drinking someone's whiskey and they're in the room with us, you kind of get caught up in the excitement, right? You do, you get caught up in it. maybe you enjoy the whiskey just a little bit more when you're in that situation than you do privately with a glass analyzing to see who's going to be bourbon of the year, right? And that's just honesty, right? I mean, it's just the way it is. I mean, when you have when you have a couple of guests on that are just phenomenal people and they bring their whiskey and you really get into the story and the vision of the company and you can just taste it in the whiskey.

Yeah, that moment's hard to recreate. Yeah, I'd agree. I just did that, having just done that interview with Adam at Lost Lantern. Sure. That was so much fun and some great, again, those are single braille, so could not be in the running. But man, it's also really cool. He's just really shining the light on craft stuff. So I like that a lot. And, you know, I think we do a good job of that as well. You had 10th Mountain. Yep. You had the folks at Southern Distilling, correct?

Yep, Southern Distilling, who actually are producing the regenerative grain bourbon for Brothers Bond. Yeah, a lot of interrelationships here in the teams that we've interviewed.

You had the folks from McBrayer on. They were a lot of fun. And they actually just released some single barrels. So that's kind of neat. 291, you were out there.

Yep. You know, I love traveling for the Bourbon Road. That's probably my favorite thing.

If only we could win a large sum of money and just fly around in our Bourbon Road jet, wouldn't the world be a lovely place? So we should just start buying lottery tickets, right?

Yeah, I'm sure. And then Todd and I will travel the world drinking whiskeys.

Go to India and drink some amrutes, you know, straight at the source.

That'd be amazing.

But I just want to say thank you, Jim. It's been an honor to join the Bourbon Road. It's been a lot of fun. There are obviously times where I can't always be there. And well, it's worked out. Sometimes you can't be there as well. So I think we're doing a nice job of when we get together, we have fun and we have great interviews. And when one of us is flying solo, well, that's how we roll sometimes. It's just the way it works out because, well, this is our This is our fun thing, I guess.

It's a passion. The Bourbon Road has always been a hobby and a passion. It's never been a money thing. I always want to keep it that way, to be honest with you. I just enjoy that. We've never done Patreon or anything like that. Not that, you know, it's a bad thing. I think it's a good thing. I'm certainly supporting a lot of other artists. Yeah, I am as well. But it's just not, you know, I didn't want this to be a thing that we do because we're trying to make a few extra dollars. Yeah.

And I think if you jump in that boat, you're going to be doing a lot more material and things like that.

Yep. You absolutely do. Cause you have to perform for your listeners and your Patreon followers. Not that we don't enjoy performing for you people, but we have lives too.

Lives and wives. Lives and wives.

That doesn't mean we won't get into a little whiskey business sometime in the future, but at least for now, we're just happy to have this as a,

Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

What do you think, Todd? Do we have enough information to put together a consensus?

I think so. I definitely have my two winners for like each round. So I think I'm going to, actually I have, well, I have one that really stood out in the first round and I think I have two. So now I'm going to. I'm going to try those three again.

So when you're voting in your head for these, is it a hundred percent flavor or is it flavor and price or is it flavor and price and availability?

You know, I'm going with flavor and experience. Flavor and what? And experience, like the whole experience. Okay. Got it.

So it's really about what's in the bottle. Yes. Okay. All right. So we're throwing the, like, for example, the, the green river is a $40 price tag and you know, the ice wine is a $90 price tag. So we're kind of throwing that out the window. That's not part of our decision making process. Right.

Okay. I mean, again, you see any of these six, You know, bow. I mean, these are six great offerings, I think. They're really good. Yeah. Awesome.

Can't go wrong. All right, so let's move on. Todd, what is your number six? Oh, we're going to go that.

Yeah, let's do it. Your number six. OK, my number six, the Brothers Bond. I think it just got out-proofed. I would love to try this in a cash-proof version, or maybe even a little higher. And I get it. It's a bottle and a bond. So that hunter-proof is where you're going to sit. But great, great bottle, but it just doesn't hold up to the others.

And I'm going to agree with you there, and I'm going to join in and say that the Brothers Bond Bourbon is 100% deserving of all the awards that it's won. It's a fantastic whiskey. My hat is off to Ian and Paul for putting together a celebrity brand that deserves to be purchased at the price it's released at and on the shelf where it's at, because so many times we taste celebrity whiskies that are just not quite there. And these guys have really, really put together a tasty whiskey. I'm going to say, even though it's our number six, the reason that it got, like you said, the reason that it ends up at the bottom is because of proof. Because some of these are some, proof brings flavor, right? Yeah.

And maybe if we start doing some sort of under 100 proof, well, that would probably be the winner.

Yeah, if we just drink bonded whiskeys. I mean, there's some good ones out there, but it might fare really well. I think so. And I'm going to back and take another sip of it just now. That's my memory of it, is that sort of Rick House wooden floor flavor that comes out in that bonded whiskey from Brothers Bond. Congratulations, Ian and Paul, you did a great job. There's no shame in being number six on our list. We had an awful lot of whiskies that were in the running this year. If you'd have finished at number six, there's definitely no shame at that. All right, so number five, moving on to number five.

What's your number five, Jim?

Man, I'm toying with it here.

It's tough. You want me to jump ahead? I'm ready. Are you ready? I literally just jotted them all down.

Oh, you've already written your...

I did. Well, I thought we were going to like confer a little bit and mull things over, but you threw it in my lap. So I got busy and I've got it. All right, Todd, what's your number five? So my number five is the maker's the heart.

Oh, okay. I don't know that I concur.

Okay.

I'm going to go with Green River foolproof. Are you really? Yeah. Okay. Yep. Yep. Green River, full proof for me. And again, I think that the proof has something to do with it. Green River is a fantastic whiskey and it is delicious. It's full-bodied. It has all those tastings that you expect. It could work in a cocktail. You can drink it straight. It's 40 bucks. Go figure. I don't know how they do it. But for me, I think that Green River is a solid fifth for me. And for you, it is? The Maker's The Heart. Maker's The Heart. And this is a $75 bottle, more or less, right? Yeah.

And I literally just tried those together.

Yeah.

And the Green River really dominates it. It did? Yeah. Like, if you take a sip of the Green River and go back to the Maker's, The makers gets kind of lost, but that's just me.

Oh my gosh, I'm doing exactly what you just suggested. You may be right. You may be right.

OK, but I've already made my call. That's right.

You've already made my call.

All right, so even though I did fifth first, you made me do sixth first and fifth first. Well, I jumped the gun. I'm jumping ahead now.

Okay, you ready? So for me, number four is going to be the makers of the heart. Okay. So this is my number four. And so they were really close, but when I went back and retasted like you suggested, I saw the difference. I did.

Wow. My number four is the barrel ice. Okay. All right. And great pour, but maybe just a little too sweet for my palate. Like, I mean, it's like, that's a great like nightcap or, you know, like, yeah, you know, you have a dessert wine. Well, that's finished in dessert wine. So it's kind of like the dessert bourbon, if you will.

Yeah, so we both have like remainders in all six of our glasses. Yes. As you call out the barrel-wise ice wine, I went back and retasted it. Okay. And I'm thinking, It is light, and it is bright, and it is floral, and it just doesn't have the oomph.

But I'd be curious to know if we try this in spring when it's getting a little warmer, because it's winter.

So maybe we're just wanting something a little more hardy, too.

That could be. But outstanding, outstanding bottle.

All right. So what do we have so far? Let's recap.

So my sixth place was the Brothers Bond. My fifth place was the Makers, the Heart. My fourth place was the Barrel Ice One. And mine? Yours, you started with the Brothers Bond in sixth as well. Your fifth place was the Green River. And your fourth place was the Makers, the Heart.

Makers, the Heart.

So now we're down to number three. Yes, but we both chose two horses that are kind of out of the picture, and then we both differed on one.

So I'm going to come in now with my third place, which would be the barrel ice wine. So I think that puts barrel ice wine and makers and brothers at the end, right?

Yes.

Yes. So they're, yeah.

And then I'm actually going to say my third place is Green River. Okay. Sorry. Our top two. are going to match. Sounds like it.

Wow. OK, so that's good. So we do differ, but we differ on very minor points, kind of just a little bit. As you would expect, I mean, a different day, who knows.

But if we had a category for the best foolproof bourbon under $50. Yep. This is like the double, this is definitely double flat. All right. Just an outstanding pour.

So, you know what's going to happen? We're going to end up in a, in a duel at the end here. Are we going to thumb wrestle for it? Yeah. No, what we're going to do is we're going to blind it. We're going to blind it. Okay. I hate to say that because one of the ones that's going to be in the blind is so discernible that we'll know what it is. So maybe that's not such a good idea.

All right. So let's move on to number two. All right. Am I going first? Sure. My number two is going to be the ECBP B524. And I agree with you.

I agree with you completely.

Outstanding, outstanding, outstanding. The C is out. I've heard it's out. I think AMSE even offered to grab me one. And I was kind of like, I'll run across one at some point. But that's a really nice version.

Yeah. So it is Flavortown, intense.

It's the biggest boy of the six we had today.

The biggest boy, no doubt. It's got everything in spades. It's really good, but it is, I don't know, a little predictable. Yeah, I could see that. Yeah, a little predictable. I mean, you know what to expect out of it. You get those same kind of like almody kind of notes out of it.

I'd be curious to put it up against our Elijah Crick barrel proof winner that day. That's C923.

So are we going to award bourbon of the year to a finished bourbon this year?

We are. Yeah. And I don't mind that. Because it's one of those pours that every time you go to nose it, there's something new. Every time you taste it, there's something new. And yeah, it just floored me. Like I said, you gave me the last of a small sample bottle they sent you. I was like, wow. All right.

Hats off to Danny. The announcement comes now. The winner of the Bourbon Road 2024 Bourbon of the Year is the Bardstown Collaborative Series Amroot. Amroot finished, yep. Very, very good. Delicious. I have it in my glass still. Taking another sip now.

Just wonderful.

Yep. All right. So I'm going to combine all these together. Oh my goodness. Because I want to taste the 2026. A taste of 2024. 2024. Did I say 26? Oh my gosh. I just fast forwarded it two years. Wow. I think I had about the same in each of all six and I put them into a glass. I finished off my Amroot, so I can't do this. Can't do it? No.

I feel like that's one of those where the parts are greater than the sum.

The parts are greater than the sum. No, you're right. Right. Yeah. And I'll drink it because it's in my glass, but yeah, congratulations to Danny and Steve and the Bartstown bourbon company team for their collaborative series Amroot release. It is the bourbon road, 2024 bourbon of the year. Yeah. Fantastic. All great whiskeys. Yes. All really good. You and I differed a little bit, but I think the general theme was we arrived at the same decision.

Yep.

Wow.

Really good. Indeed. Had a blast this year, Todd. I did too. Like I said, I appreciate you bringing me on. It's been a lot of fun. Hats off to all the roadies who have welcomed me with open arms and, you know, It's a learning experience I feel more confident about. the things we're doing on here.

The interviews, I'm still a little, eh, about. No, you're good. I think you've brought a very fresh and excited energy to the team. And you definitely, I mean, your palette is phenomenal.

Yeah, I think that's one thing that's definitely improved since my first time being on here, episode 150, I was kind of like in awe. I was sitting around with Hollywood stars kind of thing. Yeah, it's not that. And Matt Simons.

Yeah, we're just regular guys drinking whiskey. You know, one of the things that you realize really quick when you get into the business and you start drinking, you know, lots and lots of whiskies and comparing them and making notes on them is that You know, it's so, it's such an individual thing. Like it's so much about what you like, what you had to eat today, what, what time you brushed your teeth, but you know, all the things that affect your palate. And, uh, yeah, I mean, it's, uh, you just, you just learned to trust your senses and you know, what's good and you know, what's not good. And. Hey.

Yeah, and you may not even be able to express that in words, but I mean, if you like it, you like it.

All right. Well, you can find the bourbon road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Tik Tok threads, all those places. We do an episode every single week on Wednesdays. Todd and I will get together. We'll have a guest on sometimes not sometimes we'll just have whiskeys on, but we'll let you know what we think. We're always drinking. We're always having a good time. This is the place you want to be. to find out what it is that needs to be on your bar. So we hope in 2025, you'll continue to listen to the Bourbon Road podcast, continue to join in on the Bourbon Roadies on our Facebook account and just be an active listener and an active member of the Roadies. We hope to see you again at Bourbon on the Banks in Frankfort, Kentucky. But until the next time, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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