439. Super Sample Sunday - JD 10, 12, 14 and more

Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road Podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon. And I'm your host, Todd Ritter.

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

Hey roadies, it's Diane Strong with Bourbon on the Banks Festival. We've got another amazing event coming your way this year. Be sure to join us at the half and I'll tell you a little bit more about the event taking place October 4th, 2025.

Todd and I are proud to have Smokies Lifestyle Cigars as the 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. Smoky's Lifestyle Cigars are where flavor and craftsmanship meet. Find out more during the halftime break and at smokyslifestylecigar.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 3 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 thehillhousekontucky.com. All right, roadies. Welcome back once again. Todd and I are hanging out in the bourbon road bar today. It is another, well, for us sample Sunday.

Yeah. Sample Sunday.

It'll be sample Wednesday. That's okay. Todd and they're sitting down with a number of samples. I think he said we're 16 or 17 samples behind. Is that right?

Yeah. We got to do some catching up. I like beg and plead, like, just send us free stuff. We'll tout it.

You've got a good lineup today, though.

Yeah, it's really cool. It's nice that, like I said, it's nice that these people reach out to us. And like I said, I'm not ashamed to go, hey, can we have a sample? And sometimes you hit pay dirt. We've hit pay dirt today, I think.

The only time you ever really get a no is when they're out.

Yeah, that's true.

I mean, they never tell you no if they've got more samples to send. It's like, if you're late to the dance, for whatever reason, and you get there and they've already sent out all the samples, and there's nothing left. But actually, we do pretty good. And you do a great job at that, Todd, I have to say. We have been inundated by samples. We're going to knock out five of those today. Yeah. And the first three of them are all from one distillery.

Yeah, all of three are from Jack Daniels. So we've got their 10 euro, which is their batch four of their 10 euro, their batch three of their 12 year, and then their first release of the 14 year. And yeah, well, do a little deeper dive into, actually, they have even greater plans for aging stuff beyond that, which is pretty exciting. Well, this stuff gets really, really tasty as it ages. Yeah. The odd thing with these three is you would expect maybe the proofs to come down as you go up the age ladder, but that's not the case with these. it actually goes up.

So that's really interesting. So, you know, Jack Daniels, this is Tennessee Whiskey. There are, I don't know if you want to call us kissing cousins or brothers from another mother or whatever it is, but, you know, Kentucky Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey have got this long relationship. It's sometimes confrontational or argumentative.

I think it used to be that way more so back in the day. Tennessee whiskey is better than Kentucky bourbon, but now I think everybody just loves both of them because Jack Daniels is putting out some really good stuff anymore.

I think it was a while when we would say, you're bourbon. They would say, no, we're not. Yeah. Yes, you are. And we all have our opinions on that too. Why not be both? That's right. That's one thing that the Jack Daniels can stand true about is that they actually qualify for both. Yeah. And we don't here in Kentucky. We just got Kentucky bourbon. It does not even come close to qualifying as Tennessee whiskey. Right.

And yet there's a few Kentucky... Bottles out there that go through the process, not quite as thorough as the Tennessee whiskey does, but yeah, that charcoal filter. Name one. Let's see. Something, Heaven Hill puts out. Oh, shoot. I know Ezra Brooks used to be back in the day.

Yeah. Um, so did the, um, so did the bottle and bond. Yeah. The Evan Williams, I'm not the Evan Williams, the heaven hill bottom of bottom used to be charcoal. And it still is charcoal filtered. Okay. Is it? Okay. Well, I don't know. I'd have to check the seven year bottle, but the six year bottle was certainly charcoal filtered. Yep. That's right. That's right. We just had, uh, the six year, uh,

We had that with Drew Hanisch.

That was fun. All right. So we've got five whiskeys today. The first three are going to be in the first half. There's no bonus pour. We just got to get through all five. Yeah. And the first three obviously are all JDs, but this first one, let's talk a little bit about it before we taste it. Just the bare minimum. And then we'll talk about it more after we taste it.

So this is the 10 year. The 10 year came out and started in like 2021. So like I said, this is batch four of that product. It comes out in a 700 milliliter bottle, which that's kind of the Brown Foreman thing. It was kind of funny. You heard a lot of the stories. We're going to start doing that. they're about the only ones still like popping those out. So I'm like, I mean, it may happen eventually. Maybe folks are like some of these bigger places are trying to get through their stocks of the seven fifties, just in, but.

It's kind of a tricky path to walk, right? Because on one hand, having a 700 mil bottle means that you're in tune with everybody outside the U S. Right, right. But also having a 700 mil rattle means you're stealing 50 mils from the rest of us. Yeah. So I don't know. And they're probably not decreasing that price at, you know, maybe. I think it will catch on. Yeah. I think it should probably catch on because it only makes sense in the long run. Right.

So this is 97 proof and like, yeah, let's see. Yeah, that's kind of the basic, like I said, batch four. I've heard good.

I've had, I think I had batch one and really impressive, but like I said, I was kind of a year old 97 proof batch four out of Jack Daniel's good old Tennessee whiskey. Cheers. Cheers.

Now I did hear something about like what they do with these is it'll stay at the top. tiers, the top floors of the rick houses for about six to seven years. And then they'll move them down to the bottom for that remaining three, you know, even as, as you can tell, they're getting up to 14 years. So some of these others are sitting down there for six, seven.

So they bake for six years and then they, they chill out for four, at least in this case.

Yeah, literally, literally. Yeah.

All right. Oh, this nose. Yeah, it's really good. I know it's only maple charcoal filtered, but you know, I'm getting like a little bit of maple on the nose. Maple brown sugar.

It's got a great nose to it. Cherry banana. I'm getting the banana.

Yeah, I'm getting the cherry. It's like the fruit. It's definitely a floral nose and a fruity floral nose, but it's, it's, I would say that the floral notes are, um, I don't know more. So less like flowery floral, more fruity floral kind of nice oak. Yeah. The color's pretty good on it. Yeah. All right. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, that's really good.

Still getting that cherry cherry banana.

A little bit of cinnamon. Little cinnamon. Yep. Definitely. Um, cherry oak cinnamon. You say you're getting banana. I believe you. Um, I don't get it, but that's okay. I'm missing those receptors. It's really delicious though. That's great texture.

Yeah. I was going to say it's really soft texture because that 97 proof you can but it's still packs a nice little spice at that tail end.

It does. And it's, it's got this really nice, like, um, um, well-aged mature palette. I mean, it reminds me a lot of like, um, I know it's, it's not a weeder, but it reminds me a lot of like a weller 12 kind of, uh, sort of that cherry ish, okay.

It kind of reminds me of like a really, you know, you see those like, Jack Daniels single barrels, even like the, was it 90 proof or 94 proof? I mean, if you can find a good one of those, you could probably get some similar notes. Now this retails for 85 bucks.

Okay. Yeah.

So less than 10 bucks a year. So that's, that's a win. And the, and the proof's decent.

A little lower. Yeah.

But I think this is, if you're a Jack Daniels fan, I think this is one you obviously need to try because Jack Daniel's goal is to get up to like an 18 and a 21 year old. Cause this is something they used to do back in the 1900s pre-prohibition. So.

So are we going to see some, some really fine well-aged whiskeys coming out?

Well, somebody might, we might see it in a sample bottle. That's the thing. These, these are going to be kind of hard to find for folks. I would imagine. It is what it is, but you know, if you've got a good rapport with some of your stores or things like that.

And the good thing is with the 14 coming out and I think there was like 20, 24,000 bottles, which is pretty good.

That's pretty good. I mean, granted Brown Foreman is a Jack Daniels is it's a big, big place. So maybe it'll be a little easier to find the 10 and 12 year this time. Good deal. I'm going to save a little cause I want to think I want to do like a 10, 12 and 14 blend when maybe just for afters.

Sounds good. That was delish. Now I'm just expecting these to get increasingly more complex and deep.

Yeah. And like I said, oddly enough, the proof goes up, which. You wouldn't have thought that if you said, hey, Jack Daniels is putting a 10, 12, 14 out. Tell me how the proofs go. You'd probably be like, eh, the 14 would be the lowest just to get more volume out of it. But not the case. I wonder why that is. Some sort of marking it. I don't know. Yeah, I guess so. We'll have to ask our PR person. Maybe she knows. All right. So the 12-year-old. is 107 proof, which I believe that's kind of like the proof of a lot of their distillery release series. You'll see those kind of experimentals come out. So that kind of makes a little sense. This is, like I said, batch three, and this one retails for 95. So two years, 10 bucks. That's fair. That's a pretty good deal. Yeah. And this one started out in 2022. And for those that might not recall Jack Daniel's smash bill is 80% corn, 12% rye and 8% multi-barley. Okay. The nose is similar. I was going to say it is a little similar. I'm actually going to pull one. I feel like I'm getting a little more Oak on the junior.

Yeah. Going back and forth between the two I do, but it's, but the base is the same. The base notes of it is very similar.

Maybe just a little like chocolate, like just a hint.

I was going to say it's got a little bit of like a, like a sour note to the nose. I don't know.

It's kind of weird, but I'm going to do the coverup technique you've, you've taught me. See what happens here. Give it a few seconds. Oh, there you go. Yeah. Yeah. It's a nice trick, but yeah, kind of some similarities there, I think. Good deal. Cheers. Cheers. And it does kind of go up in the color scale.

Oh my goodness. The creaminess factor has gone up for sure.

I'm excited. Cheers. I was comparing colors.

Oh wow. And the finish. Something has changed in the last two years of the stuff in aging. It's gained a depth of flavor. It's gained some texture. It sweetness. It's a little sweet, a little sweeter, but it's like, uh, it really sticks to the back of the palette, like sticky. So I said the last one's good, really good. This is also really, really good. So the next one needs to be really, really, really good.

Like I said, I had the first batches of 10 and 12, and I think 12 kind of steals the show. And it might be just do that proof thing. You're going up 10 proofs in two years.

Yeah. And that could be a lot of it.

And like we've often said, I've kind of gotten that sweet spot, like 105 to 115 is a really nice proof.

Yeah, a little bit of a kind of a, I don't know. It's, I'm saying a sour note, but I think it's like, uh, now in beer, you would say it was kind of like lactobacillus, you know, but this is not beer obviously. Um, but it's, I'm getting a little bit of that kind of, uh, an interesting sour nose on it. Wonderful.

Yeah, I'm getting like, It's going to sound odd, like a, almost like a peanut brittle, like a little nuttiness too, which is kind of odd for Jack Daniel's. Wow.

That's really nice. Yeah. So for $10 more, I think, I think you're getting, you're getting your value. No doubt. For sure. That's good. Yeah. I think it, I think with the 10 year old, the price that they've got it at is Stiff, but fair.

Yeah. I've spoken about that 10 a year.

Yeah.

I mean, if you could keep it under that. Yeah, it's right.

It's right there. I mean, yeah. I mean, it's hard for those guys to do that, but. The big boys. But then you take this one and you bump it up two more years and you give it 10 proof points and then you only charge $10 more.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, we're not going to give away our end results here. I was going to say, right. And who can understand the math behind how they decide what to proof at and charge and all that stuff? They're trying to make us see you buy all three. That's pretty much. Cause I actually just, what was nice was I only asked for the, uh, 14 year. And so this was bonus. Wow. This is some good stuff.

Hey, the finish on this definitely hangs in there.

So be good with a cigar. I think so.

I'm kind of really looking forward to the 14th. I'm thinking it could be a really good surprise.

All right.

Shall we Sally forth? And this one gets a bit darker. Yeah. It's definitely darkened on this one.

It's that's like, I don't know. That's like the perfect color for me. Like it just draw the colors. Like this excites me.

Yeah. This is like Walnut mahogany. Yeah. So let's talk about the proof on this one.

So this one is one 26.3. Okay.

So we've gone up another big jump, big jump.

Yeah. So, uh, 19.3 proof, uh, retails for 150. Okay. Uh, only went up what two years, but again, yeah, whiskey math.

It's a logarithmic scale. It's not a linear scale. It's their scale.

It's like, what do you want to put on this one? I don't know. But, uh,

Yeah. The cherry is dropping off a little bit. It is getting a little more like oak and leather. Yep. Um, it's getting darker. It's getting richer. It's getting, uh, baking cabinets in there.

Yep.

But the oak's taken over a bit. You're right. Cheers. Cheers. Hmm. Yeah. That's, that's big boy whiskey right there. Oh man. That's big boy whiskey. Now there's cherry on that palette. That's like a darker. It's super ripe cherry. Yeah. It kind of left the nose a little bit, but it's definitely still on the palette. A little butterscotch now. It's a little drier. Yep.

It's making, as you say, the sides of the tongue. Yeah. Maple. I'm getting like. some black strap molasses kind of thing. Wow.

You got to put on your big boy pants to drink this one.

This is a, this is a real whiskey. Chocolate on the nose too. Like more pronounced. I think I said, I got some on the 10 year, but like, it's like a darker nose on this 14 for sure.

So on the 10 year, it was delicious. I mean, I could sit and drink that over the course of an evening and just keep drinking it, keep sipping on it. The 12 year was a departure from a sort of sessionable whiskey and into something a little more intense. Like you said, a cigar whiskey, maybe. And then the 14 is, uh, put down your cigar. Focus on the whiskey. This is, uh,

Sitting around with some friends. Yeah. If it gets quiet, it's okay. It's just because you're enjoying the whiskey.

It's the dryness of it though has caused me to lose track of the texture a little bit. Um, but it's good. It's just, this is definitely a, um, it's a full throttle whiskey.

The bananas. I'm not getting any banana.

No, no.

I think the okay to eat the banana just to survive. Yeah. This is like darker fruits, man. That's a yeah. I'm like you though. I think it does get a little dry on the back of the tongue.

Like, but it's not unpleasant, but I think it's transitioning. I I'll be honest with you. I think the whiskey transition, assuming these barrels were similarly treated. Right. And I think they are. Right. Yeah. I think so. I think between 12 and 14 years, it transitions in a different direction. And maybe that, uh, cause we've always talked about that saddle being like eight to 12 year, right? So when you get past 12, you start to, it changes and becomes something else. And I think this is it. I mean, it's a, it's a high proof, high intensity, a little bit drier. The sweetness is all but gone. And not, not completely, but. It has started to depart a little bit.

Yeah. And I'd say it's like, it's almost like a coin toss, whether it's going to get that way. Cause I mean, you know, there's not a lot of bottles that are coming out that are 14 or older. I mean, yeah, you could.

It's a, it's a very small list. So like, if you think about the knob creeks, you know, the, uh, the 12 and then the 15 and the 18, right. Um, and you, you notice that, uh, the 12 was delicious. The 15 started to take on a lot of oak, but it wasn't over-oaked. But then the, was it, or was it the other way around the 18, the 15 was over-oaked and then the 18 came back a little bit.

I felt like the 15 was like. I hate to say it, but barky a little bit. But yeah, I guess they'd learned a lesson from it maybe.

Maybe on the 18, they decided to pull back a little bit and find barrels from another level in the rick house.

I know Chris Flesher, the master distiller at Jack Daniel's, this is something they wanted to do. Like I said, this is something back in the 1900s that Jack Daniels had an 18 and 21 year old age statement and you could buy a barrel of it for like $3.

Oh my goodness. $3.

So I know he's, you know, there's some, there's gotta be some trepidation because you know, you've got some good barrels and they're good now at say 14, 12. There's always probably that little bit of fear that They get a little older, you're going to maybe lose that specialness. I don't know.

Yeah. I was wondering what $3 in 1900 is in 20, $25. I'm just curious. Probably something, maybe something for discussion in the roadies. Yeah. You know, I think back to when I was, I can remember when I was the youngster and I had one of those mini bikes, remember the little mini bikes with the little small tires on them and the little like lawnmower engines? Yeah. I had one of those. I remember riding it to the gas station to fill up and paying 30 cents a gallon.

30 cents a gallon.

But I'm sure there's some people out there listening to this that probably paid 10 cents a gallon for gas or I don't know. I can remember 265 minimum wage. What about you, Todd?

I mean, I remember like comic books. I was a big comic book guy as a kid. So, you know, you paid, go and you could buy 10 comic books for $2 and 50 cents.

No. Yep.

25 cent comic books, baseball cards guy. I did that as a kid.

Yeah. You know, those were like 30, 50 cents a pack. You're saying you still have quite a box of those up in the closet or something, don't you? The baseball cards?

Yeah.

You should probably break those out sometime and just have fun.

Go through them with the kids. This money are for me just to... I'm not a bottle of Pappy. I might be like, here, you can have these. I'm kidding. I'm not crazy. I like Pappy, but I'm not crazy about Pappy.

You really just opened up the floodgates. You're going to get tons of emails now. I'm going to need a George C. Stag.

Pappy's okay, but it's not my damn.

You probably got a few rookie cards in there. People love to put their hands on. Yeah, I know I got some good.

I had actually moved a bunch of my baseball cards a long time ago for decent value, but I know I've got like Jerry Rice, his rookie card, stuff like that.

But yeah, you see that that chest over there in the corner. It's completely full of 1910, 1920, 1930 Coca Cola trays.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

That was my thing.

That was my jam. So collecting cold trays.

But anyway, isn't it funny how you kind of get into certain things like that? Like I was a comic book guy, baseball card guy, football card guy. And now. Bourbon and actually Bourbon memorabilia.

I've got a lot of strange signs. You donate a lot of that to the quarter Rick house. Quite a display on show there.

Yeah. It's a lot of fun stuff and I've got some cool stuff at home too. So I've got like an old crow clock that's right over my desk, my work desk kind of thing.

Well, rather than waiting until the second half, having two more pours and then picking an overall winner for the show, what do you say we just talk about these three JDs in the first half and we'll close out by saying basically what we think of these three and which is our favorite.

Okay. I like that idea. I do.

All right.

Cause that kind of like come as a package deal. So I like that.

So for me,

Number three, I'm actually going to blend all three real quick while we're discussing. Okay. All right. I've got a little bit of each.

There you go. We'll hear about the blend too. Uh, for me, I'll be honest with you. I think that, um, And I'm taking price into consideration here as well. I'm just putting it all out there. I feel like my third place is going to be the 14.

Is it?

It is. It is. Not that I didn't love it. I really did like it a lot. But I think that it got a little dry and I missed some things that were in the others.

Oh, okay.

All right.

My third place is probably going to be the 10.

Okay.

It's a great 10 year. Don't get me wrong, but there's certain things I like in the 12 and 14 a little better.

Okay. Yeah. Good deal.

And let me tell you real quick, this nose on this, I guess we'll call it 12 2.0 or something.

Yeah.

It's fantastic.

Is it really good? Yeah. You may have to do the same. All right. I'm going to do the same. I've already got my three picks, so putting these together doesn't hurt a thing.

My second place of the JDs is going to be the 14 though. Okay. Um, it's complex. It's got a lot going on. I think it's a, will be like, if you manage to get a bottle, it's going to be a great pour to like that kind of last pour where, you know, like things are winding down with your friends or it's been one of those days you're like, I need a really good pour, something to sit with for a while. Let it just kind of sit along with you to maybe take 30, 45 minutes to drink it kind of thing. But yeah, so the 14 is my second place.

My second place is the 10. And the reason for that is I think that, I just think that for me, the 14 ended up in a place where I thought that maybe it was a little too dry. The 10 was delicious. It was also fairly priced. It was also delicious. And, uh, at a proof level, which is much lower. So sometimes we get fooled by proof, right? Like you were talking about, sometimes you drink that higher proof, you're like, Whoa, that's great. But you've, you fail to realize the reason you're jumping out of your seat is because of 10 proof points higher or 20 proof points higher. I think the tenure is really good. And I think it, for me anyway, it deserves a second place spot.

Yeah.

But we both agree on one thing.

Yeah. That 12 really shines. Okay.

I mean, here's the thing.

I mean, if you see one of these and you have the, the wallet for it, all three of these are buying, I think they're good. I mean, these are great, great expressions.

These are not, these are not your college Dave Jack Daniels.

This is, this is good stuff. This is numbers. Oh, number seven to a higher degree, if you will.

Yeah. The nose is really good on the mix. I didn't have equal parts of it. Neither did you. I would imagine it was pretty close. I tried to, yeah. I tried to keep it close. That's really good. That works well. Yeah, it does. Actually, that's my favorite of the three.

I might, yeah, we might have to spread the word on that. We'll do a, I don't do TikTok, but. Wow.

That is really good. Yeah. It's kind of well rounded whiskey. It's really delicious. The finish is crazy long and it doesn't have that. It's still a little drying, but not nearly as much. Yeah, but it's got, it's got, it's got a reasonable amount of dryness to it. I think you can live with that because you still have the sweetness to counterbalance it. It's also more balanced palette. Well, it's not really a whiskey. It's just us throwing some things together. Just being creative. Blend again. There you go. There you go. 10, 12, 14 winner winner. All right. Well, fantastic. Okay. So our big winner was the 12 year, uh, JD.

So, and then kind of a tie between, yeah, since we kind of flip-flopped.

And plus, you know, I, I did want to include price in this particular pick because I thought that the prices of the 10 and the 12 were very close together and the 14 was way out there. It was much higher.

Yeah. It'll be interesting to see what that 18 comes out at since the 14 is at. 150, you got to think, what do you think? 250.

Yeah, they're already pulling these off the lower racks though. So I don't know. Do you think maybe they can tone it down a little bit?

Well, I'm kind of curious. I mean, these are just being released now. So maybe you've got three years till we see this 18 year. I don't know.

I'm just wondering though, because it's already dry and getting a little tannic. What's going to happen in a few more years? They can't go to the basement, Rex.

I would wager that they'll. Proof it down. I think they'll bring it down on the four teams will be the cap and they'll kind of maybe bring it down. I could be wrong, but it'll be interesting to see.

This is delicious. Really good. The blend takes the cake. All right, folks, we're going to take a quick break. Todd and I are going to sip on this three, three bottle blend. When we come back, we have a two great pours in the second half and lots more to talk about. So stick around.

Hey roadies, it's Diane Strong with Bourbon on the Banks Festival again. We have another amazing event this year, but we want you to come early because we've got a lot of events leading up to the festival. Starting on Thursday, we've got another mixology with master mixologist Heather Wibbles on the Bourbon Bell and O.H. Ingram. Leading into Friday, we have got Peggy No Stevens. She's back with another bourbon pairing and a lesson called The Stave is the Rage. It's going to be amazing. Limestone Heritage Distilling is going to be bringing in three single barrels. You're going to learn a lot. We've got the VIP coming back and this year we are celebrating women in bourbon. This year, Bourbon on the Banks Festival promises to be even better than ever. We've already got more than 70 distilleries that are going to be there. More than anything, I need to encourage you to get your tickets as soon as possible. They're selling fast. Some of them are already sold out. If you want to come this year, please get your tickets. We don't want to miss you on October 4th in Frankfort, Kentucky on the banks of the amazing Kentucky River.

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All right, welcome back, Roadies. We're diving into the second half. We're doing a little review show today. The first half, we went through the Jack Daniels 10, 12, and 14 year, and we kind of kept those separate and kind of ranked them as they were. So yeah, we're getting ready to dive into the second half with a couple more really fun Yeah.

Bottles that we've gotten to, uh, pretty, pretty good bottles. I mean, these are great bottles actually.

Yeah. I'll be nothing. They're both pints. So we, we have a theme in the first half and this is a kind of a theme in the second half. So we're going to start out with the Bardstown cathedral. French oak barrel finish. So shout out to Jason Collori. He had reviewed this and this is actually one I had asked about through email. I was like, hey, we didn't get this. Is there anything left? And our PR lady was like, no, I'm sorry. But he was kind enough to give us his leftovers, which, yeah. is pretty awesome. I mean, he's a great guy. And I'm like, maybe there'll be a few things else he's reviewing. I'm like, hey, can we borrow that kind of thing?

Jason has a great show, The Nation Drum on YouTube. Check it out.

And I do a lot of things for him too. So, but, uh, we have a symbiotic relationship.

Yeah.

Yeah. We, uh, we take care of each other when we can. But, um, so the story with this one is it comes in a pint and I apologize. It's going to be another hard one to find, but hopefully maybe at a bar or something like that, you can try it. And it is 45% 14 year old Kentucky bourbon, 75, 13, 12, which is. Gobble gobble, right? Wild turkey? Yeah, I believe so. The 12%. Right. Okay. 37.5%, 18-year Kentucky Bourbon, 74, 18, 8. Maybe Barton?

Uh, 74, 18, eight. I don't know. That seems wrong for Barton, but it does. I think so.

I didn't do my deep dive. Normally the mash bills, but anyway, we'll keep going. 10% of 11 year, 78, 13, nine. I know that one sounds odd. That one did sound on to me. 5% of a nine year Kentucky bourbon, 75, 13, 12. Okay. And then 2.5% of a 17 year Kentucky bourbon, that's 78, 10, 12. Okay. Yeah. I mean, my brain's not working fast enough, so. Right. French oak they used comes from a legendary forest, the Bersay. Bersay? It's actually B-E-R-C-E.

So I'm going to go. Bersay. Bersay. I don't know.

Sorry, I had to expand.

Yeah, I'm no good at French.

I know how to say adieu and things like that. Yeah, certain things. But yeah, in the Lower Valley, So apparently this plot of giant trees was planted during the reign of Louis XIV, so 1715. Wow. Some of these trees were harvested to restore the Notre Dame Cathedral. Okay. Yeah. So they finished these French oaks for 14 months. And obviously some, I mean, the youngest bourbon here is 5% of a nine year. Yeah.

There's some history in this class.

So yeah, this is, uh, they're calling this the distillery reserve rather than, you know, they have the, Oh, the collaborations, which we've tried a few of. So this is distillery reserve where they're kind of. playing with, obviously, some oak in this case. Sure. Yeah. But yeah, I'm ready to dive in.

To have whiskey touch 300-year-old oak. Yeah. That's pretty wild.

Probably used to happen back in the 1900s. Oh, yeah. Yeah. With all the old growth, I mean, you can't find old growth anymore. This nose.

Yeah, it's really good.

I'm not going to lie. I cheated because when I was doing a pick with Jason when he was like, here, you and Jim review this. And I was like, oh, thank you. But there were some other folks with us. I was like, all right, we got members plenty. So everybody tried a little. And so I've cheated on this one. This nose is just.

Yeah, it's got a little bit of a freshness to it.

Yeah.

That's odd. I wouldn't expect that. I'm thinking 300 year old. But no, no, it's got like a fresh, no, it's a little bright. Uh, Oh, it's really a nice nose.

It comes off a little like, like a savory nose a little bit like, and, but there's also some, some floral components too.

Really good. Right. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, that is really good. Yeah.

Uh, 110.1 proof. Okay. And this retails, like I said, it's a pint, 375 milliliters, a hundred bucks. So you, for, if you're going to pay that, you better bring your egg in.

I thought this thing was going to head into the oaky dryness, but it just put on the brakes right before it got there and just stopped. It's like, no, no, I'm well done. This is, this is really good.

And you expect a lot of like, I mean, there's some oak notes to it, but like I'm getting like some nice berry, like raspberry thing going on.

And I mean, on one hand, I'm getting a little like tobacco notes, but on the other hand, I'm getting this freshness and this brightness to it. So it's, it's got some contrast in it.

It's really good.

And, uh, it's like cream, brulee, a lot of caramel. Yep. Sweet, creamy, um, a little bit of dryness, but a little bit of sweetness, well balanced. This is a, this is a great, this is a well-crafted whiskey.

Yeah.

This is really good. And the color is kind of reddish amber. Yeah.

This has got a little bit, quite as dark as that, uh, JD 14, but it's still pretty.

And you take it away and you bring it back and you get this, you get this nice waft of just this freshness, this fruity and, and, and, and, uh, savory kind of mix. Yeah. I don't know.

It smells like, like, you know, usually you say like a foot, like it tastes rich, but this nose smells like rich too though. I love this.

This is really good. I wish I could, I wish I could think of what all those match bills are and know what they are. I unfortunately I don't, but these guys were able to lay their hands on some barrels that the rest of the world just can't touch. They're just very good at what they do.

I do good to keep up with two, two kids. So like, remember match bill is way down the line of my things I need to do. Oh, this is so good. This is a sit and sip for a while.

Yeah, I would love to have some, not podcast time with this, just personal time with this board and just spend time just analyzing it and thinking about it and making some notes.

Well, there's not a whole lot of it left, so we'll make sure you get an ounce or two. That's really good. I know. Jason, thank you, sir. Yes, we are in your debt.

So why did we just sit on the email announcing this too long? I know there's been some times where I looked at an email and went, oh my God, I didn't send that to Todd. I sent it to you late.

Actually, they didn't send us anything about this one. There's always transitioning. And it seemed like there for a while, they'd just send you things. They wouldn't even be like, Hey, you were instant sample. They sent you the silver oak, I believe. They sent you the new weeded one. Was it high weeded?

Yeah, they were sending me. I didn't even talk to them. They would just show up at my door. So maybe there was a transition that took place when you started reaching out and maybe they, oh, we need to take Jim off the list, put Todd on the list.

But I reached and she was very, you know, yeah, very apologetic and said, we'll make sure you get the next thing. So there you go. And, you know.

It's definitely a perk.

It doesn't hurt. I understand. We're not the only ones looking for these things to review. So it's awesome when they come through for us and they thank us for reviewing. And they're always eager to hear what we have to say too, which is nice. We're actually going to have, I think at some point we're going to have one of our PR folks on, which They don't get a whole lot of love. I mean, you would think these are coming from people that literally work at the Distillery, but they work for the Distillery in a whole different way, I guess.

And we know, then we communicate with them all the time, but you know, they're sort of the unsung heroes of the business, right? They're the people who reach out and play the middleman. The agents, if you will.

Yeah, it's really cool.

Well, this is, this is great, Todd. This is wonderful. This is a, this is a really good way to get, this is a true Testament to master craftery. Yeah. This is well blended, well balanced. Um, they took five components, was it? Or yes, five, five components, different ages, different agents, different mash bills, blend them together. Wow. And then threw in some 300 year old from 14 months, 300 year old oak out of the. That would have normally went into the Notre Dame cathedral, which I'll be there in September, by the way. Bonjour. Yeah. Looking forward to it.

I've actually been there too.

Yeah, I've been there. It's been a while though. It's been a while for me, but it's beautiful. All right. Shall we move on? All right. Let's do it.

Our last pour. is the Woodford Reserve Chocolate Whisper Redux. 12 years old, 139.4 proof. Oh man, just a hair shy. Yeah, just a hair. Yeah. Just a hair shy. Couldn't have found a couple of more bigger barrels to put in there. So the story behind this one is in 2019, Woodford distilled a bourbon with chocolate malted rye in the mash bill. And I guess they didn't kind of like. They didn't clean the lines good enough. Clean it well. Yeah. They ran another batch. Ran another batch.

And had 60 barrels that got contaminated.

Yeah. Well, contaminated with like that chocolatey now. So I guess they set some of those back and yeah, lay Like I said, that was 2019, we're at 2025. So it sounds like they may have gone to totes for a little bit. And yeah, the next thing you know, they're like, we have some almost hazmat. I mean, this is a limited release. Again, apologize. Some things are hard to find, but I will be sharing a pour of this with the roadies or maybe even two. We'll see. 72% corn, 18% rye, 10% malted barley. Again, this came in a pint. I know they released some at the distillery and may release some more as they are want to do. And then probably went out at a few places here and there. But yeah, I mean, I'm intrigued.

We were talking about Jason earlier, and I can remember in 2019 when I took Jason to Woodford. Elizabeth McCall took us on a tour. Oh, wow. We drove barrels. And she goes, I got something special to show you guys. And she drilled into a barrel, and we got a chance to taste the Whisper. The first whisper.

First whisper.

Which was the mistake. And she explained it to us and what happened and everything. But that was way back when, you know, the original whisper happened. And there were 60 barrels. She said it, it's kind of came in strong and then went out, you know, with a whisper. But anyway, it was, it was interesting. So yeah, that was fun.

That would have been a barrel proof too, right?

That was barrel proof because we were, we were, we were actually drilling barrels. Yeah. So, yeah. Wow.

So you may have had some of this, uh, what we've got in our glass, maybe. Yeah.

All right. No. So what do you think? Coco puffs.

Yeah. I almost get like a coffee bean type thing too.

I went though. Count Chocula. You remember Count Chocula? Yes. But, but it is a whisper. It is just a whisper.

I'm going to throw a weird one at you. I don't think I've said it since I've been on the show. Coconut, like a little toasted coconut.

Yeah, I can see that. Chocolate and coconut. What is that? Mounds bar? Yeah. Mounds. Almond Joy. If we could get a little almond. Yeah. All right. So we've got the cereal and candy bars in this one. As you should.

Yes.

Cheers. It's our fondest memories. Oh my gosh. Okay. The palette is amazing. Oh, amazing. The nose doesn't give you a, a hint as to the impact you're going to get from the palette.

And it's so, dare I say soft? I mean, I was expecting like a punch to the mouth.

Yeah, this is a you who.

You who, Yahoo, Yahoo, the milk, the glass bottle with the, with the chocolate milk in it.

Yes.

Like are malted milk, those whoppers kind of thing. Oh my gosh. Oh, this is so good. That's fine. Can I drink it all day every day?

No, but it's really good right now.

Again, night cap. Yeah.

Wow.

Dessert whiskey for sure. Oh man. I go from you-hoo to like chocolate milk to it still has like a- So what does redux mean?

Redux?

Reduced? Does it mean like a second, like the second version kind of thing?

Like we're doing it again? Like replay?

Yeah, I think so. Okay.

I'm sorry, my English vocabulary is limited, but yeah, it must mean like the second act.

It'll give them somebody either, they'll either know or they'll be like, I need to look that up too. It's your word for the day, folks. Find out where you redux means.

Oh, that's really good. So, uh, so no longer is, uh, Elizabeth McCall, the assistant master distiller. She is the master distiller there. So she's in charge of all this. Well done, Elizabeth. Good job.

Okay. Now just took my second sip. Got a little less chocolate and there's some other stuff going on now. Like. A little ginger, like a little zippy ginger in there.

I got to recover from that one. I tell you what, sorry folks, when you're drinking 139 proof whiskey, it can not go down the wrong pipe. It is not allowed to go down the wrong pipe. Wow. That was something else. Made his eyes water. It did. I'm recovered though. I'm good. Wow. It is good though. It's really good. Yeah. I can remember drinking the, uh, the chocolate malted rye and, um, Which was the original batch that they made that ended up contaminating the rest of it. And I get, I get a little tired of it after a while. There's a little much.

It's one of those things. And I was skeptical of this. Uh, luckily I have a friend that works at Woodford's distillery and I was like, Hey, I would love for you to grab me one. And you know, there she was kind enough to do so, but like, I think I tried the whisper and I've had some other chocolate malt. I don't know. It just. Even like the hard truth chocolate malt, it just kind of like, it doesn't mesh well to me. It tastes like, yeah, somebody dropped some cocoa powder in your, in your bourbon or your rye, but this is working.

Yeah, this is good. Well, Elizabeth has a tremendous palette and I think she's crafted this well. She's done a good job. I'll tell you what, that'll, uh, that'll wake you up when it goes down, it goes down your lung. Oh my gosh.

Wow. Really good.

I think this is my favorite of the three from the chocolate malted rye to the original, uh, whisper to the whisper Redux. I think I like this one the best, but where in the world did they get 140 proof from?

I don't know. I'm like, cause you know, if, Oh, Forester, I've seen some of their single barrels and you'll see them in the 135s, 136s, but I don't know how this got that so high.

That'll- Normally the high end Woodfords are in the 120s, like 125, 126, 128.

Because all those are temperature controlled too.

Yeah. That's what's crazy. So- I don't know what happened there. It's a question to ask Elizabeth or somebody- It's stuck a few up in the attic.

or left them outside or something. I don't know. But yeah, that's special.

Well, I tell you what, if we got to pick a winner out of these two, I don't, I don't know what I can do. They're both good. They're both really good. They're very different. It's almost like you can't compare them. I mean, it would be unfair to, I think we shouldn't. I think they're just so polar different from each other that to compare them and say one's a winner and one's not would just be a travesty.

If you can, try them both. That's what it boils down to. Try them both for sure. Now I will say this, my tongue is starting to like, like get a little like, what's a good word. I guess like I'm starting to feel that proof.

Like the more I sip on this, but man, this is some high end juice. No doubt about it. Both the barge town in this are both delicious. They're great. This is just such a proof overload. But the chocolate is just a, it is still a whisper. It's not overwhelming.

Yeah.

A little more than the whisper.

Yeah, that's it.

But, but not as much as the Chocomalted Rye. That was, that was a bit too much.

I think this is more like normal voice tone or something. It's not a scream. It's not screaming. It's not whispering. It's not whispering. But this is just like, this is just MPR voice. Yeah.

MPR, normal level. Well, Todd, this has been a blast. This has been so much fun. I know.

And kudos to, like I said, our PR folks and to Jason today.

So yeah, we were blessed for sure.

Jason had the whisper redux on his chest and he was really impressed with it too because he was a little skeptical and I may have helped him procure that bottle. I scratch your back, you scratch mine kind of thing. That's right. That's right.

That's the way it works. I forgot about that.

I actually did get it, help him get his bottle of that.

All right. Well, five great whiskeys, a wonderful show, lots of fun. I hope our listeners have gotten some value out of this and, uh, hopefully you had an opportunity to pick out at least one or two bottles you might want to pick up out there and be on the lookout. I'll do another giveaway.

I'm slowly catching up. It's, uh, It's hard to be motivated to do the pours, packaging, and all that stuff safely and make sure things don't spill and all that. But I appreciate everybody being involved. I hope you guys appreciate it and that kind of thing, but it's, I, I want to share.

Yep. And the same word out to the roadies. If you come to town, we'd love to meet up with you. I think we just had a couple of roadies that came into town within the past couple of weeks and Todd, you've had some people come in. I've had some people come in. We've, we've made an effort to meet up with them. And, uh, so if you are coming to town, if you're coming to the bourbon trail, if you have a chance to. To reach out to us and let us know you're coming and we are our schedules a lot. We'd love to have a pour with you and hang out. It's always fun. We definitely love to see it bourbon on the banks this year. Yeah. Just listen to the commercials.

Yep. There'll be some, we always have some really fun stuff there to try and. I mean, 60, 70 distilleries, you can't beat that. And like I said, no super long lines is what I think really makes it stand out.

You know, one of the things that surprised me with our interview with Diane last week, or two weeks ago actually, was that when we talked about the number of distilleries that are at the Bourbon on the Banks, it is actually more distilleries than are at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. That's interesting.

It is interesting.

Because that Kentucky Bourbon Festival just seems so big and so huge. But I think it's mostly because of the number of people that attend. The number of distilleries are actually more at Bourbon on the Banks. Yeah. Craziness. Wow.

I feel like a lot more NDPs probably show up for the Bourbon on the Banks, maybe. I think so.

I think they do.

It's more, seems like more. I'm definitely going to plan to go this year. I've never been, so.

But the big, the big producers are there too. Buffalo trace is there and you know, they're the big guys are bourbon on the banks as well. It's just, we get a lot of smaller distilleries. It's fun. It's a good time. Yeah. All right. Well, another one bites the dust.

Or bites the chocolate redux.

Chocolate redux. Yeah. All right. Well, you can find the bourbon road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, tick tock, Facebook threads. We do all those things every week. Todd and I will sit down and record an episode. Sometimes it's just Todd and I hanging out in the bourbon road, down to the corner Rick house, recording an episode, going through some expressions, having a good time like we did today. Other times we've got guests on the show. We've got a distillery, uh, um, professionals. We've got industry people. We've got, uh, Musicians and artists and authors. It's always fun. We're always drinking whiskey. Make sure you check out every episode we put out the best way to make sure you don't miss one scroll to the top of that app. You're on hit that subscribe button that way. Every time we put out a new episode, you'll get a notification saying Jim and Todd have dropped another one. And we'll get you through your day. We'll help you. And next time you put those headphones on, we'll be, we'll be there waiting on you and telling you what we think you ought to add to your bar. So just make it a habit. Listen to the bourbon road every week, but until the next time we'll see you down the bourbon road.

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