431. Jack, Jim, Milam and Greene

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. All right, roadies, welcome back once again. Todd and I are hanging out today in the Bourbon Road Bar. We had a nice little trip last week out to Garrett County and it really enjoyed that visit there and thought today would be a great day to sit down and actually try some whiskeys that have been backing up in the queue.

Yep.

What do we have?

We've got four expressions today, three that were sent to us by our PR folks or the Disories themselves. And then one kind of out there that I will just say I got, but I'll explain how I got it when we get to that point, because it's going to be the last one of the day, because it's It does not fit in the typical box of what we review, that's for sure.

So in other words, if sometimes you listen to the Better Wind Road podcast and you don't quite make it to the last pour, today might be a day where you want to stick around until that last pour because it's both odd and exciting, and I'm looking forward to it. And it's certainly something that is crafted by people who know what they're doing, but have stepped out of the box just a little bit. So that's about all the clues we're gonna give them.

Yeah, and then, you know, a lot of times we'll try things before we have them, but this one we're blind enough. Seat of our pants on this one. So it could be a train wreck, who knows.

Could be very, very interesting. So what do we have in our first class today? And actually, maybe just first couple of glasses, right? Because they're tied together.

So the first thing we got is the Milam and Green, very small batch, number three. This is out of Blanco, Texas, or it might even be Blanco. Uh, it comes in a hundred eight proof retails for 69 99. It is a straight bourbon finish with charred French oak staves distilled in Kentucky and Tennessee. And before you get a frown on your face, if you're not a dickle fan, this is not dickle juice.

Okay. It's Tennessee. That's some Tennessee whiskey in it, but it's not necessarily from dickle.

Right. Uh, the mash bills on the Kentucky is a 70 corn, 22 malted rye. which that should make your ears perk up, Jim, and 8% malted barley. Then the Tennessee distillate, and there's doesn't give like the percentages, so only they know. The Tennessee distillate is 80 corn, 10 rye, and 10 malted barley. So obviously that's not a dickle thing.

Yep, it's not a dickle thing. And there's good amount of barley in these.

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, the folks there, we're kind enough to send this. And the second pour we'll have is also from them. And we'll go into a little more detail on that when we get there.

Yeah, in fact, I'm looking at the back of the bottle here and it does have a tag from the distillery on it that says My Lemon Green Whiskey Distillery and Tasting Room commemorative bottle from October of 2024. So this is straight from their in-house reserves.

Yes, I'm sure, you know, they probably set some back for their tasting rooms and, you know, for media purposes like this, but.

Batch 308 proof, Milam and Green, Tennessee, Kentucky, Burmans. Cheers.

Cheers. Oh yeah.

Oh, that's got a nice rich nose to it. Yeah. It's got that caramelized brown sugar going on. Very much so. Kind of reminds me a little bit of like a baking spice turkey.

It's like a nice like, I'm sure it's the oak, but it doesn't come off as like oak. It's almost like a mahogany wood type thing or something.

It's got good color to it. Yeah. So 108 proof is nothing to laugh at.

It's like some dried fruits going on, like the pruney raisin, plummy thing.

It's not super aromatic, floral, but it does have a nice nose to it. Yep. A bit of spice to it. Yep. I'm getting the earthy notes as well, but it's kind of a nice balance between earthy and fruity.

Yeah. Yeah. Now they've got a really good team down there of like, uh, you know, they're, Blender and Distiller and, you know, they're CEO. So it's kind of run by the ladies, if you will.

Yes. I think it, um, I don't know if it's a hundred percent women, but, uh, it certainly is a female owned and operated distillery. Um, both, uh, founders are females, the master distillers of female and, uh, They make some pretty good stuff. They've been around a while.

Yeah. I know you guys have had them on some previous shows back.

We had. It's been a minute since we had them on. And I think Mike actually traveled down to Texas and visited the distillery down there and had a great show, really good show. But this is a kind of Texas meets Kentucky, Tennessee. They've got this symbiotic relationship between the distillery in Texas and the distilleries here in Kentucky. And they do a lot of collaboration.

Right. But these barrels would have been housed there in Texas for some time. Yeah, for however many years.

I'm ready to taste it too. rich, deep, bold flavor. Very, very all over the palette. Kind of well balanced.

We've had some really good like 105 to 110 proof. We have. Urban slightly.

This is really good. The nose is very nice. Just not overly aromatic, but the palette is, um, very, um, attention getting. It kind of, it kind of, you get it on the front, you get it on the middle, the back, the sides, it hits everywhere. It's kind of nice balanced between this, uh, kind of spicy fruity caramel mix.

It's just, it's really, I was going to say it's like a spicy, you nailed it. Spicy fruity caramel. I mean, a lot of the classic notes that you expect in Burman. Yeah, this is.

And this is their small batch number three. And if you were to go find this bottle in a store, what are you paying for it?

This retails for about $69.99. $69.

Yeah. 108 proof, 750 milliliter bottle, Kentucky, Tennessee blended bourbon.

Um, rounded bottle shape, kind of a squat bottle.

Yeah. I, you know, I think, I think the price is fair. Yeah. For me, it's a, it's kind of a buy. And when you look at it and you say, Oh, this is, this is their small batch.

And they actually call it the very small batch. Um, is, uh, quite dark. Yeah, so you got to think those barrels that they use had a little bit of age on them, I would say. Yeah. With that kind of color, I'm thinking like six, seven-year-old stuff.

Six, seven-year-old Kentucky time? Yeah, maybe. Texas, that'd be two years. Yeah, right.

And then I know the Tennessee distillery, which I'm sure they're under an NDA, but it's been It's one of those that featured by Heaven's Door and I know Pursuit United uses some of their distillate. But like I said, they can't talk about it. I don't know if we can, so we'll just leave it at that. If you do some research, you can figure it out.

Yeah, I think they've been open enough in their labeling of their product to let everybody know that, hey, we're a Texas company, but this bottle does contain Tennessee and Kentucky distilled spirits. And exactly where it comes from, yeah, I mean, we kind of know, right?

Yeah, this particular distillery is just really quiet. That's all they do is distill. They don't have their own brand. And like I said, They do good stuff. I've had a seven year singer brother of theirs. That was fantastic. But nice start.

Great start to the day. I can, I can actually sit with this one for a while. It, um, it's given me a bit of a hug. Yep. And it's kind of building as I sip on it a little bit. The finish on it is it's kind of a medium finish, but the chest hug is kind of settling in for me.

Yeah, and the spice seems to sit mid palette. Like it coats the tongue really well, but like, as you said, the finish and the spice is like kind of like that peppery, just a hint of peppery spice, white pepper, a little lighter than the black pepper.

You get a little singe on there, but not too much. It's kind of funny though. I mean, it has a great, as far as the finish, the flavor of the finish, it's very pleasant. It just doesn't stick around for like a long time. Right. But it's certainly medium amount of time. But it just, it leaves this hug behind for me. This kind of deep chest hug that. It's cause it came from Texas. Is that what it is? It's got that, that Texas Yahoo in my chest.

The distillery, I mean, the distillate might not have been from there, but it's still got that Texas.

Yeah. Good stuff. I know that is good. So, uh, what else do we have from my lemon green today?

So the second pour we have is called their unabridged and it says volume three. We have, uh, we have that going on the small batch, the very small batch was batch three, and this is volume three of the unabridged. This one clocks in at 118 proof. So we're going to climb the ladder a little bit. Retails for about 94, 99. And that's what I saw on their website. So it could be variants out there, depending on what store you go to and such. And so the word on a bridge means unedited. So I'm assuming they just took these barrels and didn't play around with them too much and just kind of came up with this. So it's quite a list of, uh, what's in here and here we go. So there are four cask of a 10 year Kentucky bourbon and did not give mash bills. So we couldn't, I couldn't do a deep dive into figuring out who it was, but I mean, it's probably not a whole lot of 10 year out there. So. Yeah. I mean, it's gotta be one of the big boys I would expect 13 cask of a nine year Kentucky bourbon, seven cask of a six year Kentucky bourbon. Five cask of a four year Texas bourbon, which I'm assuming that might be their own. Five cask of a four year Tennessee, again, might be the Tennessee distillate we just had in the previous pour. And then 15 cask of a three and a half year Kentucky. Okay. So heavy on the nine year and heavy on the three and a half.

And they're working with a barrel management team out of Kentucky. Are they? I would imagine. Yeah. And I think I, I think I heard something about that, but yeah, they do have their collaborations that they do. And it sounds to me like they've got access to some pretty interesting inventories.

Yeah. I mean, that's a, it's a playground of playground.

It's going to be hard to sort of nail any one thing down here because what's the total number of barrels? If you did a quick math. So let's see.

49 different casts at varying ages, three and a half to 10. I'm sure we could do some math to figure out about how many bottles might've come out of that.

Yeah, let's say the average of 150 times 50. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's 75, maybe what? 7,500. Is that what it is? Yeah.

That's, that's our math though. Yeah.

Our math. 7,500.

Let's, let's give them a little bit.

Maybe somewhere between, you know, five and 10,000 bottles. That's good though. We might be off one decimal place. Yeah, that's right. Oh, okay.

This is a little darker than the first pour.

It is, but let's go back and say that that first one was pretty dark to start with. So that makes this one chocolatey. Yeah. The nose is a little bit lighter on this one for me.

Yeah. It's the floral component that we didn't really get in that first one. There's a little more floral thing going on here, like a.

And less, less sort of ethanol impact on the nose that we're dealing. Yeah. But we're not dealing with a, we're dealing with more proof, but less like ethanol on the nose. So they've been able to suppress that ethanol a little bit.

There's some older, that nine year, I think there's some nice oaky notes, a little bit of leather.

I think the, the last pour had two or three overwhelming notes as court has sort of stood out. This one's going to be a lot of smaller notes. I think you have to pick it apart a little bit more.

That many components. All right. Cheers. Cheers.

Okay. The nose and the palate are different. It's, um, It's a little more racy and spicy on the palette than it was on the nose. Got my tongue dripping.

Yep.

It's, uh, in a good way. It's a good way. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's kind of dry on the back. We've got a little sweetness up front. I think as you roll across the palette and you go from sweet to dry, it just tingles those, those salivary glands. It's not like it's this, uh, overly like. You know, meaty or earthy kind of flavor, but it's, it's just got this, uh, this rush from sweet to dry across the palette that kind of tricks your palette a little bit.

I think finishes a little bit longer.

Yep. Definitely.

Yeah, that's pleasant.

This plays and dances a little bit more on the tongue than the last one did. The nose, um, fakes you out a little bit, I think, because it's not like.

It makes you look left and comes in the right.

Yeah. This is good. This is, um, so it's a little bit more of a rich, more, um, mature.

Despite having that three and a half. Yeah.

Yeah. This is like, uh, a very, uh, well-developed, deep, rich kind of spicy. Yeah. Camel brulee. Yeah. Just nice. Yep. You forget about the sweetness by the time it hits the back, but I'm not getting the deep hug I was getting on the last one. Yeah.

But I'm getting this longer finish. Yep.

That's entirely interesting.

But well-crafted.

Yeah, they definitely know what they're doing there. And what's their master distiller's name?

Marlene Holmes, she's a 30 year whiskey veteran. Yeah.

Been in the game a while. Well known in the industry. Yep. And she was the one who Mike had on the show during his visit down there. It'd be nice to get out there again someday. But they are showing their face here in, you know, bourbon country from time to time. They've had a few events here in the Louisville area where they've invited media to come out to some releases that they've had.

And I think that's a, I think it's a good thing.

I think it's this, this kind of cooperation they have between Texas and Kentucky is, is pretty strong and they're able to exploit that for, for their market. And of course for the national market as well.

Yeah. It's pretty unique too.

Yep.

It's kind of fun to see what barrels made in Kentucky and Tennessee do out there. I mean, you're obviously, it's going to be a little different than what you, you know, something you find here in Kentucky and or Tennessee. Right. Yeah. I really like this.

All right. Well, I would say that, you know, my word of wisdom to bourbon lovers everywhere is that if you haven't tried a Milam and Green, that you ought to give them a shot. They have a very high quality whiskey and it is well crafted, fairly priced and available. Yeah. So all those are pluses.

All those are pluses for sure. won a few awards down the way. They've had Master Distillery of the Year and Master Blender of the Year and the Ascot Awards.

Fantastic. Well-known distillery, well-known principals working at the distillery, and they garner a lot of respect in the industry. Yep. All right. Well, what do you say we keep sipping on this one?

I'm in because like it's just a spice bomb now. It's gotten even spicier, I think.

Yeah, and we'll look forward to a couple of interesting ports in the second half. Yeah, some fun stuff coming. So stick around folks. Don't go away. 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 Smoky's Lifestyle Cigars, an experience truly beyond compare. Find out more at Smoky's Lifestyle Cigar dot 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 5 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 an urban 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, Roadies, welcome back to the second half. We had a great little break there. Todd actually combined the two into a blend at the end of the show and enjoyed that during the half. What do you think about the blend?

I think it did all right. I mean, you know, sometimes you mix two things and it just doesn't work, but that was pretty solid. Yeah. Kind of like, it kind of made the nose and palette match a little better.

It did, but I don't know that the result was greater than the individuals. Agreed. But it was, it was fine. Yeah. It was good. It's always fun to kind of... It's fun to play with blending, right? Yes it is. Sometimes you get surprised and things are just... outstanding another time and you can't reproduce them because you didn't pay attention to quantities and and other times you put them together and it's like holy crap that's nasty but it's also great if you get a bottle that you're not a great fan of you know if you've got you know two bottles you're not a fan of try them together maybe maybe you might make some magic or you know add a little something that you really like and yeah you know Or maybe you've, yeah, maybe you've got that infinity bottle. You could just add a little bit to every now and then to make that bottle disappear, right?

You don't want to overdo it. Or just always bring it out when company's over.

Typically the rule is don't add anything to your infinity bottle that you're not a fan of, right? Cause it could destroy it.

It can get ugly.

It can get ugly. Have you been maintaining an infinity bottle recently?

I have not, but funny enough, I've been able to procure all my components that I won mashing drums 2021 blend again. So I am going to at some point soon recreate that because

And you never published the contents.

No, I know exactly. I mean, yeah, that was, that was one of the things like you had to let folks know your, know your blend. And that was kind of why he changed the rule a little bit because like one of my components is really hard to find. It was a dusty heaven hill, um, 10 year old. And so like now, and I get it. He's gone to more of a. readily available bottles. So, I mean, no single barrels, no dusties, no unicorns, but stuff that. That way his listeners can, Oh, that's a really good blend. So they can go to see if they can do it. Yeah. Kind of things, which makes a lot of sense. And he's also got a, another version called the Frankenblend, which kind of anything goes.

Yeah. But that's cool. Yeah. I did submit for that one year. I, I don't think I make it. I made it into the last four.

Yeah.

But it was fine. It was fun to play with. Yeah. I bought me a thousand ML graduated cylinder and I did all the geeky stuff. Yeah.

I had that geeky stuff now. I just like pour it like, but I've also learned to like let it sit. The funny thing is I actually did one for this year. And I went and tried it. I think I started about a month out before it was ready. And I went and tried it. You're your own worst critic sometimes. And I just wasn't impressed. I did three different variants of kind of what I chose. And you know what? I guess maybe two or three months after that, I went back to those and wow.

They were so much better. So much better.

Sometimes it just takes some time to, to mesh.

Yeah.

But there's also, you know, I've heard him talk about, you know, some of his like, it's, I think he got like 32 different blends from folks this year, which is pretty good. Yeah. Uh, maybe even more, but any who. So like he said, you know, sometimes something that moves on from round one, come back to it.

later and it's had some more air time and things can change like things can change like especially like that go will sell so anybody who's listening who doesn't know anything about blend again or what we're talking about here uh it's an annual ritual held by uh jason kalori kalori who runs the mash and drum uh whiskey room which is on youtube on youtube yes and

He does great reviews. I highly recommend it. We, you're good friends with him. I'm very good friends with him. He's just, I mean, he's got an outstanding palette and just, he knows his stuff. A lot of fun.

Yeah. Part of the inspiration. He's part of the inspiration behind the Bourbon Road. So kind of inspired me to start my own podcast.

So been on a couple good friend episodes, I think, right?

He has been on a few episodes. I've been on his show. We've toured distilleries together. We've had a great time and, And we haven't done anything recently, but maybe we'll do something about that.

Yeah, I talked to him quite a bit because I help him with occasional picks, which I am blessed to be a part of. But he did say the next time he gets in, he's going to try to get over here and record with us. Good deal. I know that'd be awesome.

Lots of fun. All right, so it is the second half. We enjoyed a couple of pours from My Lemon Green in the first half. They were both fantastic pours. And they were good together as well. blended, but that's not what we're here for. That's right. Now we're starting the second half and these are a couple of new pours that we're dealing with. What is in our glass now Todd?

So this is the Jack Daniel's distillery series number 14. This is, I apologize, but this is, they sent us this to review and it is only available in Tennessee. So Maybe you have a, you have a friend that lives there that could pick you one up or you can get one. You know, if you happen to be there touring the Jack Daniel's distillery, this came out like towards the end of 2024. So about December time, it's a 375 milliliter bottle and it runs at 43.99. So with this one, this is a Tennessee straight rye whiskey made by them, of course, finished in high toast maple barrels. 70% rye, 18% corn, 12% barley. So what they did with this is they had a previous release of this that they released I think in 2022. And those were the rye that they had let mature for so many years. Then they put them into the no char maple barrels and let them sit for three years. Okay.

That's a long time in a maple barrel.

Yeah. But then, so they released some of those in 2022. So they let these age another, I guess a year and eight months. So these have been in maple barrels for four years and eight months. It started out as a fully matured rye. So it's been in maple a long time.

Yeah. All right. I know.

So this is, this is, you say this is Tennessee only or distillery only? Distillery only. I think, you know, it said the story only, but I don't know. I see a lot of people getting these, but I'm like, I don't know.

Maybe they're leaking a few out through a distributor in Tennessee.

Yeah. Maybe somewhere around there or something.

I don't know. Find them in Nashville. Maybe. Maybe.

All right. What to ask there. Tennessee friends. Yeah.

Yeah, definitely a nice maple syrup nose on it.

It's just like making me think of like some sort of maple cereal honeycomb thingy that I had like, yeah.

Yeah. Maple pancakes.

Oh, that's it.

Maple pancakes. And then you put a little bit of syrup on it. Doesn't, uh, I hop have a maple pancake, like a maple. They, yeah. Kind of a whole wheat maple pancake kind of deal.

I'm a waffle house pecan waffle guy. You could still get that rye though. There's just a hint of that like fresh mint.

So when you nose this right off the bat, when you first put this to your nose, if you didn't know it was a rye, would you call it a rye?

Yeah, just it's subtle. Yes. I mean, there's like the maple was predominant and that thing, but there's enough corn in this to almost trick you, but not quite. Yeah. There's just a little touch of like, it's like, if you went into like a garden center and like accidentally brushed of like, you know, the mint that they sell, like, you know, how sometimes when you brush something like that, you get that, like just that little whiff.

Kind of nice freshness to it.

Yeah.

Freshness maple.

Really nice nose.

Yep. All right. Cheers. Cheers. Very sweet. Very, um, well really now it's a bakery kind of sweet, almost Cinnabon ish, like a maple Cinnabon maple glazed donuts.

It's a little like a green apple. It does have like a baked apple type thing.

Like almost like a, it's kind of a, a tart fruitiness. Um, even almost borderline citrus, but not quite. It does remind me of like, um, Like a baked good, something like a maple glazed donut.

There's a bakery right next to me that has like a maple glazed croissant.

Yeah. It has sort of a sweet cream, cream sweetness to it as well, almost like an icing.

And I expect this was probably cut pretty good because if you've ever seen single barrel rise of Jack Daniel's out there, They're like typically 130 to 138 proof. So you've cut this to 107. It's a, I mean, it's got a nice viscosity still, but you can tell it's cut a little bit.

I think it's a little deserty.

Yeah. This would be like a good after dinner. Yeah. Finish the night pour.

Finish the night pour after dinner drink. It could follow just about any meal, I think, but it would, uh, it would bring this nice sort of, uh, yeah, this maple glazed. I wonder how well it go with one of a cigar. I bet it would. I bet it would.

I think if it may be a little more proof to it, maybe.

Yeah, but it would have to be, it couldn't be like a Maduro. It would have to be more like a Connecticut wrapper, kind of a more mild kind of cigar.

Yeah, that's nice. Three for three.

This might, this might go well with like the Toro barber pole from, uh, Smokies lifestyle cigars. It's, it's got, it's sort of got a mixed wrapper on it, but it's a little bit milder and they've got a short stubby. They just released, um, which is a nice, uh, short smoke, 20 minutes smoke, 25 minutes smoke.

This might be good for that. It reminds me, I still need to smoke this and slacking.

Well, it's a little bit more difficult in the winter time.

Uh, if you're not like going to the cigar bar, I was going to say, if I do this, I have to go outside. It's been pretty cold. Although it's warming up finally here in Kentucky.

Yeah. So do you guys have a nice cigar bar in, uh, in, uh, Frankfurt? No, actually we don't. Yeah. It's that one thing where that one thing you're missing kind of missing. Hmm. Yeah. We've got a nice one here. That's cool.

You guys still have a brewery here that I haven't hit. Um, what's it called? The last or the last stop, last stop. I did have one of their beers. I guess they keg some things and one of our locals had it on tap and it was, I was impressed.

Yeah. They've got some, they've, they've got some skill there. No doubt about it. I think a couple of their early ones were a little for me, a little rough, but, but only because it wasn't, they weren't in my profile. Yeah. Like, so I was trying something outside my profile cause I wanted to try the new distillery, but Aaron from, uh, JT Mattingly, Aaron Malali, he's been kind of partnering with them a little bit.

With the brewery.

In the brewery. That's kind of fun. Yeah.

Which makes sense. I mean, cause if you want to do like anything barrel aged, well, you're gonna need barrels and cozy up to somebody who's got barrels.

Might as well cozy up to old Mr. Aaron there. He knows what he's doing for sure. He can put together some blends. We're going to have him on a show here in the near future. So. We've always been big fans of Jay Mattingly and what they're doing. And then now they're directly across the street from Buffalo Trace.

Yeah. And they've been doing some neat stuff around Frankfurt. Like I know our good friend David Sandlin at the House of Commons bar who you've had on the show. He was able to do kind of like his own little blend and he's featuring those bottles there at his bar. And then we just had another, speaking of bakeries, another bakery opened up downtown area. It's really close to House of Commons and they did like a little special bottling for them too. So it's kind of neat. They're kind of like reaching out to some of the local places in Frankfurt.

Yeah, I like the way they partner with different businesses. That's really cool.

And then they obviously have that big, you know, teaming up with the military, you know, raising money for that.

That's one bottle. Did we have it on the show already? The one military rye bottle that we had? We haven't. I don't think I've had that. Oh.

But I have a buddy that's in Texas that I, he's crazy about Jay Manley. So they had a Pearl Harbor release and I went and I guess he's got, and yeah, I went and procured him a few bottles of that. Good stuff.

All right.

Well, this is a great whiskey.

This is really good. And did they talk about any special treatments of this rye? Was this rye, did it go through the Lincoln County process at all? Did it?

I did go through the, uh, the, the, the maple charcoal. So that's good. Maple, maple kind of thing.

Not that it needed more maple, but, but that's before it enters the barrel.

But you know, I'm sure have you ever had Jack Daniel's distill it? You mean the white dog? Yeah. No, I haven't. I'd be curious to know if that charcoal imparts much. I mean, everybody filters their distillate.

Well, I think it subtracts, right? And what does it take out? It takes out some of the sharp edges.

Those things us Kentuckians love, because that's the one thing that makes it different.

I kind of like the sharp edges, to be honest with you. But that's all right. That's pre-barrel entry. So we all know that the word on the street is that 60% to 70% of the flavor comes from the barrel. But with that said, 30 to 40% comes from distillation and pretreatment.

But it's also one of the biggest arguments is Tennessee, you know, it's Jack Daniels.

But we know how much chill filtration can affect flavor, right? Or at least texture.

Yeah. Well, anyway, Jack Daniel's being bourbon is a, it's like a right to X, left to X thing.

It'll be that way forever. We'll be, we'll, we'll be giving hell to Tennessee forever.

Even my good buddy, Drew Hanish came out and he's, he says it's its own thing.

So yeah, it should be, you know, I think tennis, I think Tennessee whiskey is a, it's definitely a thing. It does undergo its own process and it does change the profile.

Okay.

And I think that, I think Texas aged whiskeys have their own thing going on down there too.

Yeah. They just haven't tried to ratify it or anything, I guess. But now we've got Indiana Rise, you know, now as a thing and. the Monogahela rise are kind of coming back to.

And then you've got the Empire Rise out of New York.

New York, that's right. So I mean, I like it.

I like those developments. I like those new categories that can be fun and exciting and bring tourism and travelers and build up the whiskey world.

Yeah. And it kind of brings it back to place. I guess. Does that make sense? You know, like this is us. This is like our empire rise. Not going to be like a Kentucky ride. Not going to be like a Pennsylvania ride. Not going to be like, you know, any other ride. So.

And now American single malts is a real thing. It is fully established. It's nationwide and it's coming at a perfect time as things are cooling a little bit with bourbons and rice. It offers a possible ignition to the fire. Let's hope.

Yeah. Yeah.

We hope. Because, you know, I think malt, malt whiskies have always been able to maintain, uh, sort of a, uh, a more stable market presence over time for whatever reason. Uh, and maybe American single malts can join in.

Yeah. It'd be nice. Find its niche. This is a great whiskey.

I like it. I like it a lot. You've been, you've brought in a few Jack Daniel's whiskies that have been pretty surprising.

Um, yeah, they were kind enough to send us one of the Koi Hill samples, I think last time in, hard to go wrong there. Um, but I think, I think Jack Daniels is one of those distilleries that is really killing it with their LTOs. Like they put out the 10 year, the 12 year, I think this year is a 15 year coming out. So that's exciting. Um, they do these distillery series, which. people clamor for. Their single barrels are highly sought after.

Do you think as the sort of brown spirits world goes through a little bit of a consolidation or cooling period that we're seeing right now that innovation is going to spark like it did in the 80s with You know, things really, they've really fired up and did a lot of interesting out of the box things to try to maintain a mature market.

It's funny you say that because I just saw they're going to do a Jim Beam eight year pin bowling pin release, I think. Oh, really?

Yeah. So, there you go. I know. It can be, it can be that we're coming to that time.

There's an Instagram guy called coming whiskey. He follows the TTB and. It's a really fun place to like or watch his like he's one of my favorite Instagrammers because like. gets all these labels. So you like, you know well before they hit the shelves that something's coming down the line. And yeah. Yeah. So this is that, I believe it was an eight year bowling pin. So decanter and I've always thought, and I thought decanters were dead.

I'm like, bring them back, bring them back. So should we start collecting?

If they come back out with chess pieces, would you imagine if Jim beam did that with like, Oh, Oh my gosh.

Please find some very select barrels and let's, let's try to do some chess pieces. Try to recreate those.

Cause that's probably, I have been lucky enough to have a poor that probably top five poor. It was just other worldly. I mean, I'm an old crow guy because my grandfather worked there, but man, it was, and that's kind of why I wanted to try it and well worth the money.

Do you remember the night where I brought in all the dusty samples from Dan?

Yes.

And we had, what did we have, five or six samples?

Yeah.

They were able to A, B, C, D, and E or something like that. And we lost the index card that came with them. And one of them, they were all dusties. They were all from the seventies or sixties. But one of them we knew was the 69 Old Crow chess piece.

Yeah.

Chessman series.

And I do remember one really shining.

And I think we were able to identify it. I think it was pretty obvious. It's just rich. Yeah.

I just remember the oak, that chessman being so rich, classic flavors.

All right, Jack Daniels, well done. I was going to say, you finished that one. I did finish it.

Might be the front runner in your, if we rate these.

It might be, but you know, the thing is sometimes we try to hold back a little bit, but I think that as we're drinking through these, at least this time I feel a little bit more, uh, like I'm tallying in my head as we go.

Yeah, I've got mine.

I don't have to, like the last time we did this, I was, I was, I was at a loss. We got to the end cause they were all so like evenly split.

Yeah.

This time a little bit more difference with them.

I think so too. This is going to be tough. All right. So Todd, what are we moving on to now? Okay. This is, this is the wild card, if you will. This is Jim Beam Distiller Share number seven. This came, thanks to you guys, like I guess a few years back, uh, Big Chief, Michael Hyatt, gave out some promo codes for the Jim Beam Barrel to Boxed. I guess subscription service is basically what it is. And I was like, OK, let's do this. So I've been a part of that ever since the first one. There's been some really fun drops, some very unique drops, and then other things that you can find on the shelf. So this one is very unique. This is a straight bourbon whiskey finished in scotch barrels, but those scotch barrels contained staves that were soaked in Worcestershire sauce.

So that would be like Lee and Perrins, right?

They didn't put Lee and Perrins, maybe that was like, they couldn't get the rights or something, but this came out about the fall of 2024. Probably, I'm pretty sure either you either got it through the barrel to box set or there at the distillery. It's a 375 milliliter bottle, $70. They're calling it their kitchen table. collaboration. So, uh, Freddie teamed up with, I guess, one of his, the master chef there at the restaurant to kind of come up with this. So.

Well, that's fantastic because, you know, the idea of it, uh, being, uh, treated with staves from Worcestershire barrels leads you to think that it would be more like a foodie whiskey, right? Right. Kind of sorta.

Somebody's pouring your steak.

And the fellas at, uh, at the kitchen table restaurant, they're, you know, they're Outstanding. Yeah. The chefs there are just amazing. It's a great place to eat. And, you know, they're out of, actually the group that runs the restaurant there at Jim Beam is out of Jack Roses in New Orleans. Okay. And the Punch Train Hotel as well. Punch Train, okay. So definitely, uh, some people who know about the foods and flavors and all those kinds of things to partner with them on a, on a whiskey that contains was sharp staves. Oh my goodness. This, this could be pretty amazing.

This could be something.

We're glad folks. We're glad you stuck around to this point.

So, uh, Mashable on beam, of course, is 77 corn, 13 rye, 12 barley. All right. Let's nose this.

Yeah, you can, you can pick it up. Sort of that smoky, but it's not like meaty punch you in the nose. No, definitely not. It's like a light touch.

111.8 proof.

I don't know if I said that, but just in case it does have that sort of a nice, uh, smoky, meaty kind of flavor to it. Definitely. Barbecue ish.

Like you're standing just outside of like a bar, like they've got like the big Uh, cooking pit things and like, you're just standing to kind of on the outside, smell that like barbecue cooking a little bit.

Yeah.

You're getting any of that peanut from, uh, yeah, I think I do because just a hint.

Yeah. Just a hint of it. It's, uh, it definitely has that sort of nutty aspect, which always comes off on the Jim Beam products. You always get it. But it's got this, uh, this nice mellow, um, sort of, uh, it was just sort of a meaty richness to it for me. I was just, I say meaty. It's, it's not like it's meat, but it's cause we're talking barbecue.

All right. Cheers. I know. Cheers. Here we go.

Wow. Sweet. Okay. Oh, wow. Very sweet, very, um, rich decadent.

It's almost like if you could put grill marks on a bourbon, does that make sense?

Yeah. Um, I, I trying to put my finger on it, but it's, this is odd. I can't really narrow this one down a little bit. It's like, uh, Savory. Wow. Wow. Savory, but sweet.

That second sip really like lets you know.

Um, almost like a, like a sweet rich. It kind of reminds me of, have you ever had Stubbs barbecue sauce? Stubbs? No. It kind of reminds me a little bit of a, like a Stubbs barbecue sauce. Okay. Um, This is wow. This is, it's, it's really like it.

It's really good. I like it. Yeah. I was worried about this because I thought we both might look at each other when we sit this in like, uh, but no, this is, I mean, it's not something that I'd want like poor after poor.

No, but wow. Could you imagine having a glass of this after a big slice, a couple of big slices of brisket? It would be perfect.

I'd be curious to know like, the Scotch barrels they use were, you know, one of those peated ones, or if it was, you know, just from, you know, something like the Freud or something like that.

It's, it's definitely has a little bit more of the peanut shell to it than the peanut itself. So it is nutty, but it's sort of a shell nuttiness for me. but it has a great amount of sweetness and earthiness at the same time. I'm trying to think of what is, uh, what's sweet and meaty at the same time, kind of like a barbecue, like a, maybe a teriyaki beef jerky. Okay. You've gone there. Okay. Um,

There's just no, I'm just so glad this works. I was like, I'm serious.

I was, I was, they were probably the same way when they were making this skeptical. Yeah. Skeptical guys. We're going to do this, but this could be a, it could blow out.

It's like, when you see some of those flavored whiskeys, you're like, that's not going to work.

Yeah. So this is definitely a great pour to have. Um, After meal or grilling, grilling or yeah. Sip on this when you're, when you're smoking meats and you're tasting in between, you know, this is like your barbecue after you've put the apple juice on it.

Yeah.

You made your burn ends when you added the apple juice and making me hungry.

That's fun.

Yeah.

Hats off. I mean, you talk about thinking outside the box.

Yeah.

Let's, let's go in there.

All right. I think I've got my, my decisions made. What about you?

I think I'm ready.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Is there any, uh, anything else you need to go back and taste again, or you think you've kind of got it in your head?

I think it's in my head. Yeah.

Yeah, me too. I'm good to go.

Okay.

All right, folks. Well, as usual, when we have multiple pours on the show, we're going to go through and rank them as far as our preferences go. And it's kind of funny because we've had a couple of shows where we've been right on the money with each other. We've had others where we've been tit for tat opposites. Yeah. And we've had, I think most recently, we were close but not aligned. So it's like we flip flopped like the last two or something. Something like that. Then AMSE came in. Yeah. But you know, this time, who knows what's going to happen.

I know it's tough. It's tough. Again, four winners.

Four great whiskeys. Let's go back through the four whiskeys that we had on the show. Let's talk about the, let's just talk about price and availability and what the whiskey is.

Uh, the Mylam and Green, we started with the Mylam and Green, very small batch number three, 108 proof, 69.99 out the door. Um, I didn't really look up their distributorship, but I think it's pretty healthy. I know you can find them here, but this being a very small batch, it might be a little harder to find in places.

Yeah. But they've got fairly decent distribution. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, The second one was their unabridged volume three, 118 proof, 94, 99. Probably a little harder to find than the very small batch, I would think. Then we started the second half of the show with the Jack Daniel's distillery series, number 14, distillery only. And that's a 375 milliliter rather than the 750 ml. And that's 43.99. At the distillery. At the distillery. And then the Jim Beam distiller's share. Oh seven or I don't know if it's like chapter seven or version seven, but 111.8 proof. It's a 375 milliliter bottle once again, and 70 bucks and distillery only, or the barreled and boxed sets that go out quarterly.

They probably available as a pour at the kitchen table. I would say since they partnered with, you've got to have this there. Yeah, absolutely.

And you know, order something hearty to go.

What was the price again on this?

70 bucks. Yeah, a little pricey, but it's experimental. I know they do a lot of this stuff there at the, they have that small playground distillery, I think is what Fred know called it a little bit.

So go back and nose it again. And I'm thinking, yep, the smokiness comes off. All right. So for me, my number four, my number four, Is the Milam and green small batch version three.

I'm going to agree.

Okay.

Great pour. It's another good one at that one Oh yeah. One Oh eight proof kind of that one five one 10 proof. So yeah, but. Just didn't hang with the other three today.

Yeah. Cause even when we, well, we'll, we'll go to the next one in the list, but even when you compared the two of theirs, I think their, uh, their under bridge sort of beat it out.

Stood out. There's a little more oomph that was really nice. And I think the finish, the finish on the under bridge, like the very small was a little short.

But the nose on the very small batch was really good.

I was going to say, We had some very good noses today. I mean, we had very good bourbon period, but there were also some really good noses.

Okay, Todd. So let's hear, what's your number three?

My number three is going to be the Jack Daniel's Distillery Series number 14. Love the nose. The nose should be a candle. If it's not, get on it Jack Daniel's because it's delicious. I think the one thing that kind of kept it from the top two would be again, the finish. Uh, it's a nice finish, but it's not as robust. I think if this came in a little higher proof, it could have probably ran away maybe with this tasting. Yeah.

And maple finishes are kind of, uh, I don't know, they're kind of. wearing out a little bit. Yeah. And does that kind of make sense?

Yeah, it does. And, and I think finishes in general a little bit.

Yeah. Um, extreme flavor finishes like maple is one of those and, and certainly another, yeah. I mean, those kinds of finishes kind of, you kind of, Not that they're not delicious and wonderful and great. It's just that after a while you get kind of a fatigued by them a little bit. You know, you just keep having maple finishes. You're like, yeah, another maple finish was well done, well crafted, no doubt. I agree with you there. So I'll, I'll definitely take the number three as my Jack Daniels as well. Um, and we, look, the two that were closest for me were my number three and my number two picks. So. My number two is the Milan McGreen Unabridged.

That's awesome. I'm going to agree.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. But they were closest for me, those two. Two and three? Two and three. Okay. They were, I mean, it wasn't clear for me, but enough clear where I could call it out without going back and retasting. Yeah.

That Unabridged is really, really good. There's a lot going on with it. It's, I mean, 94 bucks. Yeah. It's, it's up there, but it's, but it's really, really good.

So pick it up, share a bottle with friends, find it at a bar. Try it. Yeah. Try it. If you're in Texas, I'm sure it's available. If you're in Kentucky, guaranteed it's available. Uh, but states in between, I'm sure there's enough bottles out there where you could probably put your hands on it.

But. My number one goes to the Beam Worcestershire.

Unbelievable. I know. Jim Beam Worcestershire Stave Finished Whiskey. So unique. Yeah, it is. So this is a Jim Beam Whiskey that has made its way into barrels that were used for scotch that had staves in them from Worcestershire barrels. And we're jumping down a limb and saying probably Lee and Perron's, but maybe not. I mean, I'm not a Worcestershire expert. That's probably the only name I know. Or am I?

I'm just a salt and pepper guy on my steak anymore. Maybe a little marinated every once in a while.

Well, Todd, we were tit for tat on this one. We agree completely. I think there was enough difference between the different expressions that we were able to come to clear conclusions. Number two and number three were kind of, for me, the Jack Daniels and the Mile in the Green unabraised were very close. What a different day they could have flopped, yeah. I feel like the Jim Beam Worcestershire finished was far, far and above the others because of its uniqueness. Yeah, it tends to do that. Right. When you try something like that, that's like, I have never tasted anything like that before.

Yeah.

Get your attention.

And it's, it's brave. Yeah. I mean, it truly is. Cause I remember when they announced that being released and people were like, say what?

Yeah.

I mean. But it works for me and then might not be everybody's jam. I'm not going to lie.

Yeah. I mean, I think it can rub a few people the wrong way, just due to the flavor. I think that, um, it, it takes you in a direction that's a little bit different from other finishes. This takes you more in like, you know, things finished in Tabasco barrels or things finished in Worcestershire barrels or things finished in, uh, you know, whatever, you know, you know, honey and maple has been so overdone that it's nice to have these other barrels. If you had a Tabasco finished spirit before.

The only one I've ever seen is that Dickel, but I've never had it. And I don't know. That doesn't sound pleasant. I like Tabasco and I don't mind Dickel. I'm not one of those anti-Dickel guys, but that does just damn.

Has there been a Japanese finished in soy barrels? I wonder. I don't know. That would be interesting.

You know what's actually, that might be like something you kind of like, it's like a salty soy.

Yeah.

On this.

Could be.

Yeah. Yeah.

All right, folks. Well, you heard it here. Um, that's the, that's our top four. And, uh, certainly the, uh, the Jim beam took the day. Yep. It's always fun. We have Jack and Jim on the show.

I know it's kind of fun though. It works out.

Jack, Jim and Milam and Milam and green and green. Great show, Todd.

Yeah, this was fun. Be on the lookout, roadies. I'm a little behind on getting some of the, like I said, I've taken to sharing with you guys. So a lot of these were sent to us. So be on the lookout. We might do a little random drawing and I'll send you some pores. You never know.

All right. Got to be a roadie. Got to be a roadie. All right.

Well, how do you become a roadie, Todd? You need to go to Facebook and look up the bourbon roadies and Try to get in and there's no selling. It's just more about celebrating what we're drinking and where we're at. Sometimes at a distillery, you'll see photos and things like that, cocktails. It's just a really great group of bourbon lovers that like to share what they're doing, what they're into. I've made a lot of good friends with some of those roadies and you know.

It's a small group. We're about 3,000, 3,500 members or so. And you know how it goes with groups. You got 20% are active and 80% just sort of look every now and then.

We might cross their thread every once in a while.

That's a great group of people. And Todd and I try to accommodate when we can, when somebody comes to town. We love to have pours with roadies when we can. We certainly are happy to engage with roadies through email and social media and Facebook messaging, whatever it is. And if you're coming to town, give you a few ideas of where we think you ought to check out and have fun. And we've had roadies in our house. We've had roadies meet up with us out on the trail. It's, it's always fun.

Yeah. I just met up with a good buddy of mine who's now a roadie, Adam Dorman. He was in from Missouri. We had a lunch at the Brown Barrel in Frankfort, Kentucky. And I had fixed him a, like a to-go package of pours cause he drove and was going to Elizabeth town for a conference and He was kind enough to bring me a bottle and I saw some pours. So, you know, it's just kind of cool.

Yeah.

Cause he got some stuff that, you know, actually he brought me some wood hat stuff that we have not tried. So that was kind of funny.

Oh, I'm ready. I'm loving wood hat. Yeah. Wood hat. And what's the other one?

It's Hazelwood Distilling, but it's Smoke Eye.

Smoke Eye.

Smoke Eye Hill.

I kept saying Smoke Hat or something.

Smoke Hill. Smokey Hat.

Wood Eye and Smoke Hill.

Regardless, it's good.

It was good. We had a great show. All right, folks, well, you can find the Bourbon Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook threads. Yeah, we do all of those. But one thing you can be sure of is that Todd and I will put out an episode every single week on Wednesday. And sometimes she'll have some guests on, sometimes just Todd and I hanging out in the Bourbon Road bar drinking through some samples like we did today. Sometimes we're out on the road, we do a little bit of a trip and we go visit a distillery and sort of give you an inside look on something new that's going on out there. But every single week we're drinking whiskey, we're having fun. We're letting you know those things we think would make a good place on your bar. You don't have to take all of our recommendations and go out and purchase, but a few here and a few there, you might put together quite a collection. It's a lot of fun. All right. Well, the best way to not miss a show is to scroll up to the top of that app you're listening to us on. Hit that subscribe button. That helps because every week when we put out an episode, you'll get this notification saying that there's a new Bourbon Road episode available for download. And no matter what you're doing, you know, driving around for your job, traveling, going on vacation, cutting grass, shoveling snow, whatever it is you do, cleaning house, whatever it is that you do with your headset on, your ear pods in. We'd love to be part of that day. Man, if you come to town, we'd love to see you. We'd love to hang out with you. Ty and I are both active in our communities. We're active with our roadies. We try to get involved with them as much as we can. And we just look forward to interactions with our fans. So check us out, listen to us, share us with your friends. But in the meantime, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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