426. Whiskey Review Kickoff 2025

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.

But happy new year to everyone out there.

Yeah, happy new year to everyone. And I'm sure there are a few of you who might be challenging yourselves with a dry January. It's kind of a thing. I will let you know that I am on a dry January, but I'm on a modified dry January. That modified dry January is... Only having something to drink when I'm recording an episode. Yeah, so recordings don't count recordings don't count. So let's let's record all month I'm joking, of course. No melody is also doing a dry January. So it's it's a good thing for Husband and wife to do together. So it's it's a good thing. It makes it easier on her if I'm not sitting next to her with a poor, right So anybody out there is doing it, be proud about the fact that you're doing it. Stand strong. You can make it for a month. Ours is actually 40 days, so a little bit longer. And also, January is a big month for American single malt whiskeys.

Yeah. I guess the new standards for all single malts has come out. I was kind of interested to see that coloring is going to be allowed, which I know not a lot of them were doing that anyway, so it'll be interesting to see who uses that and who doesn't.

Somebody might say no colors added or all natural or something.

But it's very exciting.

Yeah. And we'll talk more about that. I think the effective date for all of this is January the 17th, I think, or 18th.

It takes a while for it to get codified, I guess is the good word.

So the new designation of American single malt whiskey was announced and approved on December the 18th. And I think it had a 30 day window to wait. So it'd be like January 17th when it releases. And we're going to do an episode on American single malt. So we've done a couple in the past. Yep. Could do another one here. Rob, you've been warned. We're coming. I've already told Rob to stand by. And he's up to his ears in rebuilding the Rare Eagle bar.

So if we go to his house, we got to bring hammer and nails or something?

I think he's going to be on the fast track to get it done. He has so many roadies that love to visit the Rare Eagle Bar.

That's right.

All right. All right. So we, today in the show we have, and this is another one of Todd's things he's put together. Todd interfaces primarily with our distillery partners and organizes reviews and schedules, episode interviews and those kinds of things. So he has put together today's episode for reviewing a number of whiskeys that we've received recently. What will you say in the next, last month and a half?

The Wyoming's been here for a little bit, but I think the last time we did kind of a review of what we had, it just didn't fit everything else. Yeah, we'd gotten some, I think the bangers, like the widow's Jane, and we were kind of worried it just get kind of like drowned out. And so, yeah, we've got a nice little lineup. Shout out to the distilleries that send us these things and the PR folks that send us these things. Yeah, it's always an honor to get these kinds of things in. Yeah.

And we both warmed up our palates a little bit before the... Yeah. It's a sweet perk. Oh, it is a sweet perk. No doubt about it. Yeah. No, we don't take that lightly with what they send us. We take it... Actually, we respect it with a great deal and we try to make sure we give every product its due... Diligence, yeah.

Yeah, due diligence.

So we have four whiskies today and five if time permits. And today we're going to go in the order of proof. We're going to work our way up. And I'll tell you folks right now, it's not a real high proof day. I think we're going to end up at around 118. I believe so.

And we're going to start where? We are starting, and this actually just came in today, the Brothers Bond American blended rye whiskey. Awesome. You just had those guys on, and I was unable to being in that chat. And I really, really regret that because it was a lot of fun. And those guys seem really down to earth. But this is their blended rye, distilled in Indiana. And it is a 77% rye, 16% corn, 7% wheat, and 7% barley. And 95 proof. And an MSRP of about 47 bucks. Wow.

These guys are really pricing their whiskeys at a fair, at a fair place. Yeah. And I haven't tasted this yet, but if it's anything like the other two we had on the show, I'm pretty happy to try it.

Yeah. So four grain, four grain rye, which you don't see very often. I mean, here and there, Lerkin, I think, you know, I think they've got a.

All right. Well, let's check it out.

Okay. Cheers. Cheers. Your nose is going to be like. Yeah.

Like super sensitive.

I was going to say, I'm just going to let you talk about things because your nose doesn't smell. So yeah, I haven't had a drink of anything in say the seventh. Today is the seventh. Seven days. So I haven't had a drink of anything in seven days. So. Oh, there's a nice like cool mint. Yeah. It's fresh.

It's fresh. It's a, it's like a forest. mint and just a hint of like floral, just a little floral note, but it's not, there's not a heavy nose on it. It's kind of light. It doesn't, it doesn't bite at all. Let's take a sip. Cheers. Yeah. Cheers. Oh, that's easy. That's super easy.

Oh yeah.

Nice little sweetness.

Nice little spice for a 95.

A little spice too. It's kind of really, it's well balanced on the palate. It's even got just a hair of like an oily texture to it.

It does. Wow.

And what was the proof again?

95. 95. Way to go guys.

This is, and like my senses are ultra heightened right now, like you were saying, from not having anything in a week, but it is very pleasing on the palate. I did have a warmup pour before this, so it's not like this is my first tonight.

Right. Mint carries over for sure. Nice caramel notes, brown sugar. That is such an easy sipper.

Yeah. I really like it. This is delicious.

Wow.

So four grain rye out of MGP, because these guys are super transparent. Their labels are all telling. And their prices are fair. They just want to be in the whiskey business. They actually want to be in the regenerative grain whiskey business. So it's really cool.

And if our folks out there have been listening, I mean, MGP's been in the news a little bit. Their CEO has stepped down. They're kind of cutting back on production, which I find kind of interesting. Because I mean, there's still a lot of brands out there that still use them. But I wonder if the loss of some of those brands that are like, OK, our own distillate is ready now. I mean, or maybe some of the companies that were purchasing barrels from them just don't need as much.

I mean, the heat of growth in the whiskey business has cooled a little bit. I won't say it's not still vibrant. It's just not over the top crazy like it was. And I think companies are pulling back a little bit to manage their inventories and not let them get too overdone and not too full. I think that companies that put barrels on the market for others to buy, other distilleries to buy, really are the ones that control the barrel pricing, right? Because the companies that are making their own, putting in their own bottles and selling by the bottle, not really paying attention to barrel pricing, bulk pricing, not like crude old buy the barrel kind of deal, right? So I think that the places like MGP and Bardstown Bourbon Company and others. Yeah, there's a lot more players in the game for sure. Midwest. Green river, green river. Yep. Um, you know, they, they, if they flood the market with barrels, barrel prices are going to drop. Whiskey prices are going to drop. Then, you know, their inventory values drop along with that. So it's very careful business. Yeah. Should I let it age another year or should I, should I get it out there because I'm afraid somebody else is going to release theirs. I bet there's a lot of people, a lot of accountants sitting on the edge of their chairs right now.

I really, really, really like that. This might be the best under 100 proof rye I've had in quite some time.

Yeah, it's really good. I am so surprised. I've not heard of that mash bill before. Is that a common mash bill? I don't know.

We'll have to see if we can contact those guys and find out. Because yeah, I want to be like, hey, that was amazing.

I remember one of the things that they said when they were on the show was that they weren't going to tie themselves or marry themselves to one particular distillery. They obviously have done some things with MGP. This one is one of them. They've always worked with Southern Distilling in North Carolina. I think they made their regenerative grain release that they had. Their bonded whiskey was out of MGP, so they're trying to spread the wealth a little bit on who they buy from. They don't want to make whiskey yet. But they also don't want to be tied to a particular manufacturer. So two of the three are from MGP. One of them is from North Carolina. Let's see what happens with the next few releases.

Yeah, for sure. Getting a little citrus on that now. It's like citrus, mint. Like I said, I think that wheat's imparting just a hint of like that floral honeysuckle kind of thing. Man, that is seriously one of the best things I've had under hotter proof in a long time. Yeah, it's really good.

And I'm just, I get this after I taste it, I get this, you know how you move the vapors around in your palate. And I'm, I'm really picking up the, um, like some subtle Scotch notes in it.

Okay. Little, little like fruit fruits.

Yeah.

So pretty good. That is impressive. Wow. Fantastic. Let's see. Yep. Here's some more information actually I just found. So it does say minimum age, four years. Okay. Um, barrel staves were a deep char four barrel heads were char two. Then copper column and pot doubler distillation. And it does say they select about, I guess this is, I think it said batch three. And they select about 70 to 135 barrels for each batch.

These guys are going big time. They're going big time as far as distribution goes.

And it just says limited release. I thought there was a number on it. Not this one.

I think they want to be everywhere and really fast and they want to be, you know, cause they are, they are building on the fact that people know them from their acting careers. And, uh, you know, they want to take it to that next level, obviously before that stuff starts to fizzle away. And it does fizzle away. Well, especially since Ian's retired now, he's no longer acting, but who knows? Maybe he'll come up with something else. Right. Right. Bravo. Yeah, I love it. I love it. I think I'm going to go get another bottle for sure. You hang on to that one. I'll get another one.

Really?

Yeah. It's like you can take that one. No. I might just get a big healthy pour out of it. That's entirely up to you, but I am offering for you to take the bottle this time because Brothers Bond are good to us. They send full bottles.

that we might offer this up in another random draw. And I'm having a lot of fun with that. Yeah. I mean, postage gets me a little bit, but that's OK. It's kind of fun to share what we get. So don't be surprised if you see a Facebook post and get a chance to win a pour of this and a couple of the other things we're going to try.

Are we grading these by the end of the show?

I think we got to.

Yeah, it's kind of become expected, right? Yeah. Okay. Let's do it.

And I think we're going to have some good stuff. So, I mean, once again, it's just what's going to stand out.

All right. So what is next on our list here? That was an amazing start, by the way.

We set the bar high.

Yes, we have.

I'm going to cleanse the old pallet here. So our next pour is Wyoming Whiskey's National Parks Number 4. small batch. It's number four because I guess each batch has been in honor of a national park or some part of a national park. This one is for the Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone, which I've actually seen. Amazing. It's aged five years. This is 98 proof. Retails for about $74.99, $75. Mash bill is 68% corn, 20% rye, 12% barley. Did they give you an age statement on that?

Yeah. Five years. Five years. Okay.

So this is a bourbon. So we've changed gears. All right. On the nose. Light. Light, airy, like light fruits, caramel, like almost like a caramel apple. You getting that?

Yeah, a little bit. I'm getting some sort of a candy note on it. I don't know if it's like a bubble gum note or a... Oh, I like that.

Maybe? Like a juicy fruit gum kind of thing? Yeah, something starch-coated and chewable. Like the old Topps baseball. Used to ruin that one card it was stuck to. Yeah. The kids these days that buy these baseball cards don't even know. It's not a lot of spice on it, more floral and fruity and light. I like the nose. It is a little lighter than, of course, I mean, that rye really.

I mean, you said juicy fruit. And now that I keep going back to it, I'm thinking, yeah, maybe it is juicy fruit.

It's not what I was expecting. Yeah, so it'd be interesting to know if Nancy Fraley put this together. I didn't do a super deep dive. Yeah. She is a master blender. Absolutely. I mean, if you know her work, you know she's worked at Still Austin. And she's put together all those pretty much a huge proportion of the Joseph Magnus cigar blends, which those are amazing.

Yeah, she's definitely left her print on the industry. Yeah. I'm going to taste it. Cheers. Same. Okay, so definitely the nose and the palate are not like perfectly aligned. No. But I do like the palate. I do too. Soft?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it was, again, I was surprised by the nose because I don't know, in my brain I was expecting something different than what I got. It was nice. The nose was nice on it. But then I took a sip and I'm like, hmm, that doesn't match the nose, but I like this.

There's a little bit of graininess to it, surprisingly, for five years. You can taste the corn a little bit. It's almost like sweet cornbread.

Yeah, it's got a little bit of a bite to it, too. Yeah. So what are the particulars on this bottle as far as price?

Like I said, it goes for $74.99. So $75. Five years, 98 proof. And I do think part of the proceeds go back to the national parks is kind of, you know, one of those type things.

And so they have a pretty big footprint in the U.S. I mean, they have pretty wide distribution. I don't know what the states are. I don't know if you've written those down in your notes, but Wyoming has pretty much everywhere I go, I seem to be able to find it on the shelves.

Yeah. You see they're another... We did a bourbon gets a lot of love. It's a bit of a toffee thing going on too.

Yeah, it reminds me of something. It reminds me of something that I've had recently and I'm trying to think what it might be.

This would be a good like springtime once it starts to warm up a little bit poor.

I think the same for the Brothers Bond Rye. I think it's kind of an all seasons, but more Warm weather.

Considering all the snow we've gotten this past week, that's a good pour to start it off with. But yeah, another good pour.

I like it.

Yeah, I like it a lot.

So this is the one we've had sitting in our hands or a shelf for a little bit longer than the others, right? Yeah.

This one, they sent a small 100 ML, which is a good size for us if they don't want to send a big bottle, of course. I mean, sometimes we are blessed with a big bottle, but so. They've asked me a few times if we reviewed it. I'm like, you know, it's just one of those things where, like I said, we pushed it once because I was just afraid it would really get lost against some of the last pours. I think we- I think we eventually get around to all of them.

So, I mean, if you're a distillery and you have Sinus whiskey, believe me, we'll get around to it. And if we don't, for whatever reason, decide to have it on a show, we'll let you know.

Yeah. But this is definitely a good pour.

It's nice. You know, I'm trying to think of that whiskey that I've had recently that has the same kind of similar profile, and I'm just not coming up with it. It might be Brush Creek, maybe. Okay. Remember that one.

Maybe some slight similarities to the Borchetta, small batch, just a little bit.

Yeah, that might be it too. Maybe that's ringing a bell. Yeah. I called it a picnic pour.

A picnic pour.

Of course, that was 80 proof. That was a good whiskey. Their race car bottle was fantastic. But there's another distillery just killing it, doing a great job.

Yeah. And under the radar. Definitely under the radar.

So had we entertained limited releases in single barrels in our Whiskey of the Year, they would have been right up there, I think. Oh, yeah. But we're just being good to the folks. That's right. We want you to be able to buy what we tout. Yeah.

If we did like 10 unicorns, yeah, sure. I mean. Yeah. But there's only a small few people that would be like, yeah, I've got all 10 of those, you know? So it's kind of like, what's the point?

Yeah. Listen to that Bourbon Road show today. And they reviewed seven whiskeys and named their bourbon a year. And I can't buy any of them. Right. They would be pissed.

Yeah.

So we just got to do our best.

Yeah. And we hope you appreciate that.

OK. I drank it all. That's a good whiskey. It's got a little bit of a extra bite on it when it hits kind of the back of the palate. Oh, it's a spice bite. Slightly tannic, maybe.

There's just a little bit of, like, bitter. I think it's just bitterness. Is it a bitterness note? Yeah, not off-putting. Yeah. but it's almost like a sharp butterscotchie. Yeah.

I don't know. All right. Well, um, 75 bucks, a special release tied to, uh, the national parks and their support of the national parks. Yeah.

And I'm assuming these probably come out once a year. Cause I feel like Wyoming's one of those that's been around probably eight, nine, 10 years, I'm guessing. There's a lot of those now. I know.

Surprising.

Yeah.

What has changed?

Spoilers, we're going to have another that just celebrated their 10th anniversary here in a minute. Unbelievable.

Yep. Unbelievable. All right. Well, what do you think? You think it's time to... I want to have a little bit more of that rye.

Yeah, I've got a little bit left too.

All right, so we'll go into the break here. Todd and I will continue sipping on the two from the first half. The second half, we're going to reward you all with two more and possibly a third if time permits. And yeah, stick around. We'll be right back. Yeah. 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 thehillhousekontucky.com.

All right, folks. Welcome back to the second half of the show. We're going to dive into a couple more samples that we've gotten in the mail recently, and we may even throw in a third. Let's get to it.

All right. I'm excited about this first one. Yeah. We've got some good friends at this distillery. We've had a great episode with them and this is a bottle that they've sent us since that time to review. Yeah.

It's kind of an unusual classification. It is. Funny enough, you had their interview here at the Corner Rick House. I opened it up to you and Jessica Martin from Casey Jones' story, episode 380. I did my homework.

Yeah. Yeah. And then Melody and I went down to their distillery in Hopkinsville. and did their very first weeded bourbon barrel pick.

That was fun.

We got to hang out with the crew down there. It was really nice. Great people, great distillery. Got a lot of good things going on. A lot of upgrades to their facility. Just an amazing investment they're making there.

Yeah, so if you're way down in Western Kentucky, check it out. There's also MB Rowlands down in that area. Yeah. So needless to say, this is the Casey Jones Founders 10th Anniversary Blend. 10 years. 10 years. You too. I know. That's probably one of the older craft ones out there. So what this is, and if you recall episode 380, Jim tried their barrel cut, which is a basically a aged moonshine, right? So a little bit of corn and a little bit of cane sugar.

And their history and their founder, their original founder, is steeped in moonshine. Moonshine is what it was. Steeped in, was sent to jail for. Was sent to jail for, did time. Yeah, did time. Did time, came back and said, enough's enough, I can't spend any more time in jail. Yeah, great story. But since then has gained a lot of notoriety for being one of the early distillers in that area.

So this is 75% of a five-year barrel cut. And then it's also 25% of their bourbon mash bill number one. And it's also a five-year.

Now, I've seen some things online. And they're kind of calling this a blended bourbon. But you and I know it's not a blended bourbon.

This is a blend. And I believe the word Jessica used was distillery special or distilled specialty. Spirit. Spirit, yeah.

So it is blended with bourbon. Yeah. But unfortunately, it has cane sugar whiskies in there. So yeah, but that's OK. We know we've had some pretty amazing stuff that comes from aging sugar whiskey.

And it's kind of nice to step out of the box sometimes. And this is definitely one for stepping out of the box a little bit. MSRP is $99.99 on this.

So this is a limited release. There's not like a ton of this stuff out there. Right. Oh, all right. Let's nose this. Oh, buttery.

It's just sweet. It smells sweet, buttery. Like cotton candy, marshmallow. Marshmallow.

Like fruit, like stewed fruit, cooked fruit, compote, like a fruit compote. It just smells sweet. I used to say stewed fruit in the past. I would get jumped all over for it, but that's okay. It basically means a compote, right?

Oh, you took a sip. I took a sip. I couldn't help it. All right. Going in. Cheers. Cheers.

The barrel has done a nice job on this whiskey.

Okay. That's not as sweet as I thought it was going to be though. There's a nice like oaky note that goes along with it. I mean, there's still a little bit of sweetness. What is that flavor I'm getting? There's almost a little bit of the savory note.

That's interesting. I'm getting like a super small amount of root beer and Burana kind of note to it.

Are you getting that? I do get the root beer.

Is it root beer? I was leaning towards Ambarana because it's something I know recently, but I think it's more root beer-ish.

Yeah.

Wow. Good call.

That second sip got a little sweeter. Yeah, that's really interesting. Actually, it's really good. Yeah. Almondy? Almond? I can see that, like an amaretto-ish.

Amaretto, almond, root beer, kind of. Yeah, that's really wild. Earthy, though. On the back of the palate, it kind of settles in. It's very earthy. But a lot of oak influence on this.

And I don't think I've mentioned the proof. This is 103.6, so 51.8%.

That's an odd number. I wonder how they came up with that, because they did proof it down, I think, right? Or is it just what it ended up?

I don't know. I mean, I know their bourbon was a little higher proof, but it wasn't the barrel cut maybe about 100 proof. So maybe it's just the way. With 75% of it being the barrel cut,

It's got a little bit of Christmas spice to it, I think.

I know. This has been a great Christmas holiday pour.

Kind of reminds me of that kind of... Now, it's not at the same level of like a midwinter night's dram, but it's got that kind of a wintery mix. Festive? Festive.

Tastes festive.

Yeah. Festivus for the rest of us. That's right. I'm expecting some great things out of Casey Jones. They really have done a good job over this last, especially over this last year, I think, to sort of step out of the shadows and become a more prominent distillery in the world of bourbon.

This is one of those fun ones to pour for somebody and be like, hey, tell me what this is. Yeah. Because no one would ever guess.

No, and we're not all out there shopping for specialty spirit. But still, I mean, to take bourbon and mix it with a cane sugar spirit, not just a cane sugar spirit, but a cane and corn spirit. Cane and corn spirit, yeah.

And they're very unique in that they have that square pot distill.

Yeah. Impressive. It is impressive. It is impressive.

What a great story. I'd be intrigued to know, like, Let's try 75% of this and a little bit of bourbon and see what happens. I'm like, what went through their minds to be like, hey, let's do this for the 10th anniversary? Yeah, I think it's a good idea.

I think it's a good idea to take what you have in your inventories and do blends and do samples and do your own little blending contest in-house and see what wins.

It works well. Like I said, there's a little spice for 103.6. All three of these pours have, I mean, nothing super proofy, but like they've all had a nice little spicy tail in.

Yeah.

Nice finishes.

Well, I'm really enjoying this. Yep. It's got a lot going on. Yeah. Have you been to Hopkinsville?

Uh, only for work like years ago.

Okay.

Yeah.

I knew you got out to the smaller towns in Kentucky from time to time. I didn't know if you had recently been to Hopkinsville.

No, we've got. Other folks I work with kind of handle the west side, kind of like central, and then I had like south and east.

Well, it's a nice place to go. For me, there were a couple of highlights while we were there. Obviously, doing the barrel pick at Casey Jones was fun. Melody had a blast. She actually chose the winning barrel that was their very first one. So we had a really good time there and they've got a couple of restaurants in town that are just dynamite fun. It's a smaller kind of western Kentucky town. Western Kentucky, yeah. About an hour from Paducah. That sounds about right. Maybe a little less 40, I don't know.

Maybe an hour from Bowling Green. Yeah, that sounds about right. So sort of in between the two. In between, yeah.

Not too far off the Tennessee border on the southern.

I mean, it's a good three hours from here.

Yeah, it's a good chug down the road from here. but a nice little town, nice place to visit. And when you get down there, there's a number of distilleries both in Kentucky and Western Kentucky, the Paducah area along the land between the lakes and Hopkinsville. And then when you go south of the border into Tennessee, there's a number of distilleries in that Tennessee area just on the other side. So it's really rich in that area, smaller craft distilleries and a lot of fun. Cool. A lot of fun. So if you're traveling folks and you find yourself in Western Kentucky or Northwestern Tennessee, there's stuff to do. There's places to go.

So Jim, it's 2025. That's a new bourbon year, if you will. Yeah. I mean. You know, there's obviously with MGP kind of cutting production and there's some things going on. I mean, like, what do you kind of maybe see going on with like bourbon, like anything out of the ordinary for 2025? You know, everybody's always like, I hope prices drop, but I don't think that'll happen.

Well, I will say this, this, this last year, 2024 was the year where you started to see the bottles on the shelves, even though they were still priced high. So not so many bottles being hid behind the counter anymore. Now they're sort of put up on the shelves. You have to ask yourself, why is that? It's still the same price. So let's say, let's take Weller 12. Go to a store that's hiking up prices and selling Weller 12 at secondary price. They're still selling Weller 12 around 250. Wow. That's about right.

250, 200. I haven't seen it on a shelf a long time, but yeah. It's on the shelf.

I've seen it a few places. Okay. But normally that Weller 12 was not on the shelf. It was behind the counter. It was in the back room. It was somewhere where you couldn't visibly see it. You had to ask the person at the counter, you know, have you got any Weller 12? Well, now the bottle's actually on the shelf. You can see it. You look up on the shelf, you see the Weller 12, but it's still got the same $250 price tag on it. So what does that say? Does that say that, uh, They moved them out of the back room and onto the shelf because they weren't getting asked as much anymore. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. But they weren't ready to drop the price down yet because people are still willing to pay the $250.

I was going to say, maybe shoppers have gotten a little smarter. They're like, I know that's not supposed to be that price. So that's what I would like to hope.

Yeah, so here's what I think. I think that there was a little bit of cooling in 2024. I think 2025 will be a continuation of that. I don't know that prices will drop a lot. I think they'll drop some on the secondary. I think that two things contribute to that. One, the It's kind of the flippers, the bottle flippers, the people who are buying and selling bottles have realized that the things have cooled off a bit and there's other things out there, cryptocurrency, whatever it is that they want to do today, it's out there. Maybe we'll see a continuation of cooling and bottles prices on the shelf will start to drop down and there'll be more, more allocated things available for you to get your hands on. Yeah. At reasonable price.

I don't know. That's just my guess. Yeah. I'll say this. I, I am in some secondary groups. It's just, yeah, there's sometimes there's something if I want it, I'll work my way and try to get it at a reasonable price. I mean, not a whole lot, but I do kind of keep up with it. And the one thing I've noticed is they're doing the true peak of bourbon. It seemed like secondary guys were buying all the Russell's Reserve picks, all the Knob Creek picks, all the old Forester picks. And, you know, they were making 40, $50 a bottle on those. And that seems to have kind of like, I guess people are like, eh, I don't know about your pick. I'm not sure it's good. Is that like, everybody says their pick is the best, you know, that mentality. And, you know, granted some are and some aren't, but I think that's, I think that's a, Oddly enough, a big factor in why there's like, because I've been to some stores and I've seen Knott Creek picks, I've seen Russell's picks now. I mean, they're for a while, like Jack Daniel's picks. And therefore, like, like 22 to 2022, 2023. I never saw Russell's pick. I never saw Jack Daniel's pick. I never saw no Forrester pick. But I don't know. I think maybe those guys are like, well, it's not worth my effort to box this up and ship it across country to make $20.

So the population of bottle flippers has decreased. Yeah. I think so.

Yeah. I truly believe that. I mean, you still see the hot ticket items. Sure. I mean. Yeah, you're still not going to get a Pappy under 2K. This is not going to happen.

They're on the shelves now. You can see them. They're just still priced high. I don't know. Well, we can only hope. I know.

It's interesting times.

Yeah.

I mean, I think LTOs might slow down a little bit. I mean, I know Beam put out a bunch of good ones last year. You had your Booker's Infinite, your Booker's Reserves, which I got to try that. recently and that was fantastic. I think I liked it more than the Infinite. But I don't know. I think you're just kind of seeing like less than a hundred dollars is kind of like that's a better spot for Bourbons to be in. And then sure, you can throw out something that better be good. to 250, something like that, but interesting times.

It is, it is. And things are changing. And I just hope it doesn't dive bomb. I hope it continues to be elevated and strong and all our distillery partners are able to continue to make a living and build their businesses. And I think we build a generation of bourbon drinkers who otherwise would have been drinking vodka and tequila and gin. And now they're drinking bourbon. And even though they might not be flipping bottles anymore, they're still drinking bourbon. And they're still interested to see what comes on the shelf, even though they are not, you know, in the bottle trading business. You know, they're still interested in bourbon and finding quality pours at a reasonable price. So I think it's gonna, I think it's great. I think it's awesome. I think there's a future for bourbon probably for the next 10 to 20 years, based on this generation of bourbon drinkers we've created in the last 15 years. Yeah.

So. The one thing I will say, you and I have both been out to Whiskey Thief recently and I think bourbon tourism is still huge. There's a lot going on Whiskey Row. I know the There's always new things popping up down there. Whiskey Thief just opened a place down in that Whiskey Row area. Pursuit United is actually going to have an area down there where they're going to record their podcasts that you can watch live and things like that. I'm hoping the tourism stays hot because it's great for folks to come in and check out our distilleries. Hopefully support the little guys too, because they need some love.

Well, I mean, the true bourbon fans, the ones that love to drink and share bourbon and visit the Bourbon Trail and visit distilleries are not the same people that are typically flipping bottles on a regular basis. So I mean, yeah, I think they'll continue to come. And like I said, I think we've created a generation of bourbon drinkers that will continue to support the industry for some time. So, all right. So what is in our next glass? That is up to me, right? That is on you. Oh my goodness. So we have, at the highest proof today so far, we have the Angels Envy 2024 cask strength This is their Castrake for release for 2024, and it is a straight bourbon finished and port wine barrels. Little bit of difference in this one. So, you know, in the past it's primarily been either a tawny port finished whiskey or a ruby port finished whiskey. This time it's kind of a mixture. So they've decided to take both tawny port barrels and

Ruby port barrels, blend them and come up with a release for this year as a mixture of the two.

Okay. So kind of interesting. We are looking at 118.8 proof. This is something that was released.

Nice little jump.

Yeah. Nice, nice little jump.

Something that was released fairly recently and yeah, it's got a great color to it. I know that is pretty. So shall we check it out? Yeah, let's do it. Cheers. Cheers.

Baking spice cabinet all the way around. Yeah. What's the best cherry called that you use in old fashions?

Luxardo? Luxardo.

Yeah. A little bit of Luxardo cherry in that.

Not a big strong nose, though. No, it's not. I'm kind of struggling to get some, I mean, I get those, but it's not really like emanating out of the glass like these other three have been. So as I nose this, I don't get this like, oh yeah, this is like finished in port barrels kind of thing, right?

I get the, just a good, Deep, rich bourbon.

Maybe just a hint of like that grapey, whiny note a little bit.

Just a hint. Yeah. Yeah, but it's a little more on the cherry side than the grape side, so.

All right.

Let's hit the taste buds. Let's do it. Cheers. Wow. Okay. That's a step up. We have, we've, we're in the big boys room now.

Again, the pallet is not what I expected on that. Now, a while ago we said something about Amaretto, but I'm getting like this intense almond thing going on. Yeah, I'm getting an almond extract.

Is it almond extract?

Or something like that.

Yeah, I'm getting a little bit more of like a, a leather and kind of tobacco-y kind of deeper notes on the back end of it, kind of a little bit darker and richer. Savory.

There's like a savory thing going on for sure. That spice is sitting right in the middle of the tongue. This is not a light and sweet whiskey.

This is a, a dry oak influenced leathery. This is, This is cherry chewing tobacco kind of cherry flavored chewing tobacco. Red man.

Did they make a red man cherry or anything? Or are we a beach nut? Cause we were talking about the almond. I'm a beach nut nut. I think that's what that commercial used to go.

I literally haven't had a water chewing tobacco in my mouth since I was like 18 or something.

I haven't had one since my softball days. Maybe it was a long time ago.

That's really good. Now, let me double check just to make sure. I want to make sure I don't misquote the price on this. This is a $230 bottle out of Angel's Envy. I think you and I were talking before the show and I said, I feel like Angel's Envy has sort of stepped back into the shadows a little bit since Bacardi purchased them. They're not as out front and obvious as they were prior to the purchase. Do you think that's true?

I'm going to be honest, they've never really been on my radar, but this pour really excites me. I've had the basics and things like that. Considering the big six and things like that, you feel like they would be in the top 10 kind of thing. Yeah. They're kind of quiet and they come out with some really interesting finishes. I mean, that's kind of their thing is, you know, the ice wine finishes, the port, the sherry and things like that. So, I mean, they definitely have their followers in our niche. I'm getting like a cherry cola thing now. Are you? Yeah.

Yeah. I'm still getting this like, I'm just wondering if there was like a cherry tobacco. I know there's a cherry pipe tobacco, right? That's always been a thing, but is there a cherry chewing tobacco? That's kind of what I'm feeling right now.

I don't know if it was flavored tobacco, but I mean, I'm sure, you know, you could get cherry tobacco, like pipe tobacco for sure, but it doesn't come off as like the pipe tobacco, there's definitely a difference between pipe tobacco and chewing tobacco.

It is, it's more of a chewing tobacco. It's more like a cherry version of chewing tobacco. The oak has a tremendous influence here. It doesn't taste super grapey to me. No? I think that's the tawny. The tawny is a little more removed from, like the ruby's a little more grapey. I think the tawny's a little less grapey.

Yeah, that's kind of like savory thing going on there with the Johnny. Wow. It's great. Great mahogany color.

Very deep. And I'm going to almost say it's a dark mahogany. It's a light mahogany, but great color.

That's really good.

I like that. I have been down to the Angel's Envy distillery probably once or twice every year. I go down there. Their cocktails are just out of this world. Their bartenders are well selected. Nice. They do a great job. So I think once in a while when we find ourselves downtown, Melody and I, and we're, sometimes it's just we're hitting breweries, right? Right. We love, we love craft beer. But sometimes when we're downtown Louisville, I look over and I see the angels have a distillery and I'm like, oh, yeah, maybe we need to go there. They have great cocktails. The same thing with Copper and Kings and Rabbit Hole, both of those places.

The sad thing is I've seen them all. It's just, you know, sad. We're Kentucky guys and you've been to a bunch, but like myself, it's just... It's hard for me to get out and do things like that unless I'm like, like you said, like I've been lucky enough. Like actually our conference this year, our big conference is in August and we'll be right in the heart of Louisville. So I'm hoping like if I get to go off the day early, to go have some fun. But like last year or two years ago, we kind of alternate ours between Lex and Louisville. I I went to the West Six Nulu place and had dinner at the Cuban place, which is really fantastic.

Oh, yeah. La Bogadita de Mimi.

Yeah. La Bogadiga. Yeah. But delicious. But I've been to Evan Williams. Great place. I've been to.

The tours there are fantastic, by the way.

Obviously, I've been to Oak Carter. And yeah. I mean, there's going to be so many. It's like you could literally probably spend four or five days just like hitting those places and yeah.

Speaking of old Carter, Mark Carter et al has secured the rights to the old Carter distillery name. Yeah. And they will continue to produce. Yeah.

That's very exciting.

Very exciting. Mark's a great guy. Looking forward to it. Oh, this is really good stuff. I like it a lot. I think that I have had some cast strength releases in the past that I liked equally as well. This one just exhibits a little less of the grapey notes to it. A little bit more kind of just well, he's bourbon.

Yeah. And it looks charto, cherry note is like, yeah, it's like a cherry cola and yeah.

Yeah, I'm going to go see if there's like a chewing tobacco cherry flavor because that's really what it is.

Are you going to get a plug of tobacco?

Yeah, probably not. Yeah. It's really cool. So what do you think? Do we have time for extra pour on the show? Should we entertain that for our listeners or are we ready to wrap up and vote? Because we're at about almost 30 minutes on this half. So what do you think?

Well, maybe we save this then. OK. Yeah.

All right. Well, folks, we have one more whiskey that's fantastic. Todd and I will make sure to get it into a show here real soon. But we're going to kind of rank the ones that we've had so far.

And it's going to be tough.

I think so. I think so.

All right.

Well, so we have four whiskeys. Well, we have one, two, two bourbons, a specialty whiskey and a rye. Let's just go in the order they appeared on the show.

OK, so we started out with the Brothers Bond American blended rye. Yep. Follow that with the Wyoming National Parks small batch number four. Yep. And the second half of the show, we had the Casey Jones Founders Anniversary Blend, the 10th Anniversary Blend. Yeah. And then lastly, the Angels Envy Cask Proof, and it was finished in port. A combination of both Pony Port and Ruby Port. Yep. And proofs range, we started at 95 proof, 98. 103 and some change, 103.6 and then last 118.8.

And you know it's a lot of times when you have both low proof whiskies and high proof whiskies in the same show and they get graded, kind of the edge goes to the higher proof whiskies because they contain more flavor, more pow factor, whatever you want to call it. All right, I usually reach out and say, Todd, what's your number four? But I'm gonna do it this time.

I'm gonna say, what's my number four?

So my number four is the Wyoming whiskey.

I'm gonna agree. I love it. Solid, solid pour. but today it ran up against some other, some big boys. Yeah, just some other things like, I don't know, if it was a warm day and it's definitely not a warm day today, it might've stood out more.

And you know, it was a lower proof expression and you know, It's hard in these shows when we do anything between 95 and 118. It's hard to compare the two. It's not a fair comparison. It was a great whiskey. It's a buy. I think it's a buy. Yeah, 75 bucks, go for it. Yeah.

All right, Todd, what do you got for number three? Number three, and this is where it starts to get a little bit tough, As unique as it is, I'm going to go with the Casey Jones 10th anniversary. And you know what? I'm going to agree with you there.

It is really unique. It is really good. It's unique. There's this thing in the back of my mind that says, it's not a rye. It's not a bourbon. It's not American whiskey. It's this other thing.

Should that matter? And in dog terms, it would be a mutt.

But really, should that matter? I don't know that it should matter. It's delicious. It's really good. It just don't know where to stack it on your shelf. You don't know where to, so if you have an organized bar and you're putting your bourbons in your rye, where do you put this?

See, I'm alphabetical, so it wouldn't matter. I'm like, yeah, scotches, whatever it is. But bravo. That's, you know, Hats off to whoever decided, hey, let's try 75% of our barrel cut. Let's basically call it a barrel aged moonshine and throw a little bourbon in it. So it's a lot of fun.

I mean, that just goes to show that cane spirits, They're okay, especially if they're barrel-aged. There's not a problem with those. The color on that is just... Yeah, it's quite dark.

I mean, compared to the... It's probably maybe the second darkest spirit of the four we have, I would say. I didn't look that close, but...

If you end up Casey Jones and they have this 10th anniversary bottle on the shelf, I highly suggest you pick it up. It's really good.

At least try it, because it's fun. All right, Jim.

Number two. for me is going to be the Angels Envy 2024 Cast Strength. Okay. I'm going to agree. Are you really? Yeah. Are we in tune this time? We're in tune this time. Wow. It was, it was, I mean, it was a tight battle between the Brothers Bondrai and the Angels Envy.

Agreed. Which is amazing because that was our lowest proof tonight. So we were talking about that proof. Did not apply tonight.

Yeah.

So the number one is? The Brothers Bind blended rye. Yeah.

Absolutely wonderful. A great, great expression of rye. And $46. $46 for green rye. That was total wines price actually, so. Wow. Phenomenal price had nothing to do with this. This was all about flavor. It's not like we chose the brothers bond ride because it was 40 some dollars versus the $220 bottle of angels in me cast. They're both great.

Yeah.

I mean, they're both for me. They're both a buy.

I always like to say there's no, there were no losers tonight. Right.

All four, but you can't get five bottles of that ride for one bottle.

Okay, buy some for your friends. That's right.

Yeah, really good. The Brothers Bond, straight rye whiskey. 95 proof. 95 proof. Four years, she said, right? Yeah, it said at least four years.

Four or five.

Yeah. I think Ian said on the show that they wouldn't bottle anything under four years. That's their... That's their agreement between the two brothers. Right.

You've got to assume there's probably, you know, with they doing those, I think I said like 70 to 130 barrels that it's a nice blend of probably some four or five, six, maybe even a little bit older.

Yeah. I did get out of them that the bonded whiskey that they put out, which is phenomenal, double platinum Ascot Awards, They bought 500 barrels. So they have 500 barrels of that in inventory. So they don't have a ton, but at 500 barrels, at this release scale, it's four releases.

Yeah.

Yeah. They're into it. They're into it big. Yep.

Wow. Fantastic. Some fun pours. I mean, like a nice broad spectrum of notes, flavors. That definitely styles tonight.

Yeah. All right. Well, we have a number of bottles that haven't made it on the show yet that still need to be reviewed. We've got some other distilleries coming on real soon. Lots of great stuff coming.

Yeah. A lot of fun things to, and fun people to talk to.

Yeah.

So always. Absolutely. something different and yeah, we'll see.

Well, we hope you all enjoyed this show. It was a lot of fun for Todd and I. It was especially a lot of fun for me since I haven't had a pour of bourbon in seven days. I was like, oh my goodness. But I will say this, try the dry January thing or the dry February thing or whatever it is you want to do. You might surprise yourself. I actually haven't missed it for seven days. So I think that's a good sign, right, Todd? Yeah. It means that I'm not like totally hooked or I'm in trouble.

Sometimes it's nice to take a break. I get it.

Sometimes it's nice to take a break. My wife is on her own personal journey to spend 40 days away from alcoholic products and You know what? What a supportive husband does is he joins her in that effort. So, unfortunately, I still have to record a podcast, so we're still going to do the show here. But yeah, it's a lot of fun and it definitely is something that you should consider if you feel like the alcohol has gotten a hold of you, if it has you under its control. And it's something you need to deal with. I suggest you deal with it promptly and start by taking a month, a year, a week, a month, and a day a week and, uh, take a vacation from it. So yeah.

Lots of fun, Todd.

Yep. Always. All right. So you can find the bourbon road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok threads, all of those things. We, uh, we put out a show every single week on Wednesday. You'll hear us interviewing distilleries and fun people and authors and musicians and all kinds of great stuff. We're always drinking whiskey and always having fun. definitely want to check us out. The way you don't miss an episode, you're listening to us now. So scroll up to the top of that app you're on and hit that subscribe button. That way every week you'll get a notification, a text message, a bell notification, whatever it is telling you that the Bourbon Road, Jim and Todd have dropped another episode of the Bourbon Road podcast and it's available for you to listen. hop on your tractor, hop on your mower, sweep the house, drive to that next sales call. Shovel the snow. Shovel the snow. Whatever it is that you do with headphones on, do it with us. You'll really enjoy your day. But until the next time, we'll see you down the burn road.

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