451. From Ground to Glass: Inside Lost Lantern's Summer Collection Part 2

Oh 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 four 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 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, long time listeners and new listeners alike. Welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road Podcast. Todd and I are sitting down. Today is part two of our walk through Los Lantern.

Los Lantern summer collection, yeah. The good folks there, Adam Polanski, Nora Ganley-Roper were kind enough to send us eight samples to run through and we're going to the dark side today.

They knew we couldn't do it in one show.

Right. And you know, I say the dark side, but it's the side that I think you and I both kind of love the best and we're going to dive into some rise today.

Outstanding. I'm looking forward to it. So we already had the bourbons on in part one and that was a fun show. I really enjoyed it. All those whiskeys were great. I'm usually pretty surprised at lost lantern and particularly one distillery that keeps kind of bubbling up near the top that we'll probably mention again today, right? They're in the blend, but they don't have a single barrel rye this time.

And that was Whiskey Acres out of DeKalb, Illinois. And yes, it really, at Florida's, I think one of our listeners out there, Mike Dowler was such a big fan. He went out and ordered one and I was like, it's okay, Mike. I did too, because I really, really enjoyed it.

Well, glad to hear some people are getting some use out of our reviews. And they are trying a few things out there. That's always good to see.

It is. Like I said, I'm so happy to be a part of their mailing list. I mean, I even joined their monthly subscription service. We'll see how that goes. That can be a little pricey. I was kind of hoping to be quarterly like Jim Beam or something. But yeah, I've gotten a couple bottles from them already. Well, good deal. It's really fun.

Fantastic. Okay, so four whiskeys today, all rise, and then a bonus kicker at the end. A bonus kicker we'll try to get to.

Okay. Place your bets. Well, let's move on, please. All right. So the very first one we're going to step into is, it's a new one to me. It's called Far North, and it is in Minnesota. So I just found out it is the furthest north distillery in the United States, what do you say, contiguous? Really?

Yeah. Contiguous? Contiguous. So we had a far north expression during, oh, it was in a blend, wasn't it? During the Bourbons that we tried. Yes, yes. So we have heard of it before. Yes. But we haven't had to arrive for sure. Right. All right.

So this one comes in at 111.5 proof. It's a four year. There were 226 bottles. And this one retails for $100. Okay. And I actually did a little deeper dive on this. So, uh, 65% haslet rye, 25% heirloom corn. It didn't divulge what that heirloom corn was. And then that leaves 10% barley.

All right. Well, let's check her out. All right. Cheers. Cheers. We both had a warmup by the way. Yes, we did. And it was a rye. And it was a rye.

We started with a rye.

Oh, this is very grain forward.

Yeah. Grain forward. There's like a nice cooling kind of, it's a far north thing.

A little mintiness to it and refreshing those on it, but not overly spicy, but definitely a cereal, a heavy cereal note on it.

Kind of gives me like that spirits of French lick kind of vibe a little bit.

Kind of a melba toast thing. Right toast for sure.

Yeah. All right.

Great nose.

What did you say the proof was again? 111.5.

Okay. It definitely noses. It's nice.

Yeah, it's a nice soft nose.

All right. Cheers. Cheers. It's definitely sweet, candy-like. It's got a jelly belly kind of. Yeah, a little herbaceous. A little herbaceous. Yep. Kind of like one of those, like green jelly bellies that gives you kind of that, I don't know.

See, I would see like the green jelly belly with like about half a black licorice one maybe. Okay. And then, I don't know, they don't really have a mint jelly belly. Yeah, they don't. This is kind of like you put two or three jelly bellies in your mouth, you get that kind of merged flavor. Really kind of sweet though. Yeah, sweet. It does give a little spicy tingle in the mid palate.

It does just have that kind of familiar Leapers Fort kind of bite to it, you know? And maybe this is, I think I got a little bit of that in the blend we had that they were in on the last show. And I think we might even have called it out. It was kind of a spicy gumdrop kind of a note.

I think that's a good, that's like, yeah, that black spicy gumdrop with the sugar coating on it.

Yeah, sweet and yeah, kind of a licorice spice, but very nice and sweet. Not a toasted barrel. Didn't go into the barrel. Kind of comes off like one, maybe.

Like I said, it's got a nice spiciness. Like once you go through it a little bit, it gets really spicy on that middle and front palate.

It's very unique. Yeah. This, this definitely reminds me of like a Leber's fork for sure. I like it.

So while we're sitting here enjoying this, we've got some news to share. One of the things that recently just happened, and you weren't able to make it, but I got to go up for a preview before their grand opening, was Dark Arts new place in Whiskey Row in Lexington. Or the Whiskey, what do they call that in Lexington? It's like the Manchester area, but Distillery Row. So, they just opened their new place and they had a ribbon cutting this past week and the grand opening was like the Friday night. They also did really well in Fred Minnick's Ascot Awards and their barely legal bourbon took home Best in Show. Wow.

I know. It's fantastic, isn't it? Yeah. Well, McCauley does great things over there and he's got a tremendous palette.

Yes, he does and we've seen that at work in different Different barrel picks, and even when we went there and did a barrel pick with him.

Another thing is, Heaven Hill just announced the second edition of its highly anticipated grain to glass Kentucky straight rye whiskey. This is something that we've all been looking forward to. We do not have our hands on it yet.

Not a second batch. I do have a first batch of that. First batch. Which one we had to jump into. Not this year's, right?

Right. It's another opportunity for us to give it a shot and I really look forward to it. Also, both, speaking of Heaven Hill, both Elisha Craig and Larson E barrel-proof editions are out. The B925s. 525s. B525s. Yeah. Gets a little confusing.

Yeah.

And so, definitely keep your eyes out for those. I have noticed that the prices on those and the availability is through the roof. I mean, it's really good. You can get them. You get them at a fair price. When I say through the roof, I don't want to make it sound like they're expensive. I think they're at around $69. Yeah, about $70. $70. And readily available at many places when you go in the store. So if you're looking for that high-proof Heaven Hill, Elijah Craig, or Larseny, they're out there.

Yeah. That's one of those though, if the hype hits it big, they go quick. Right. Like we had that comparison and we had the B523 and, oh no, excuse me, the C923. And we were like, yeah, that was one of those that everybody scarfed up. So don't dilly-dally if you see it.

I mean, it's always a goodbye.

Yeah, you can't beat it. It's a solid, solid bottle. Our good friends at Old Forrester reach out to us and just wanted to let the folks know that they actually have their own cherries now, which we share everything. And so I thought that was pretty interesting. You can find them there at their Old Forrester gift shop for $19.99 and through bourbonbarrelfoods.com, which I didn't Were they one of your sponsors at one point? Not Burrow and Barrel Foods. You've gone through a few, and that one just kind of rung a bell. So I've definitely heard of them.

And one last note, and then we'll get on to tasting here. The Jacob's Pardon, the new release of the Cass Collective series is out. So it's a 16-year old American whiskey. Basically, it's a unique spirit that was finished in 50-year-old Ororoso Sherry Cass, which I can imagine would give it some really interesting and unique flavors. Yeah, and hopefully they'll reach out to us and we might get a sample of that. I would love to get a little bit of that. That would be nice. All right, so first pour, pretty nice. Yeah, I like it. Like I said, it's a little bit gum-droppy, kind of jelly-belly, sweet and spicy. It's a nice pour. It's definitely a unique profile.

So the second one we're going to dive into is Frey Ranch. They're back again. This is their Nevada Straight Rye, 230 bottles. They're a fifth generation farm, which that's pretty impressive. And this is a six year, 118.5 proof.

How do you convince five or six generations of kids to keep it going? It's got to be tough.

It's got to be tough because you see these farms go up for sale.

When you grow up on a farm, you're like, I don't want to be a farmer. And it's tough. I know. Yeah. But I guess they make it fun for the kids. Yeah. I mean, he's made it real fun. He's distilling now.

Absolutely.

All right. 118.6 proof fray ranch.

Darker nose. Oh yeah. It's like a mint chocolate chip.

Oh, I'm getting a little bit of like a, yeah, I do get kind of the mint chocolate chip note to it. I'm also getting a little bit of like a, I don't know, like a, Like a sour peach or something on it. Sour peach, okay.

I'm a big fan of their rye. Yeah. Cheers. Cheers.

It's definitely fruity. Fruity and sweet. Almost like a... Yeah, I see what I'm getting. It's brandy-like a little bit. Oh, okay. Oh wow, that made them.

This is really good. This like just turned up like the, the, the flow works in my side of my mouth. Like it just really got. Wow. It just like, it pushed all the buttons in my, on my tongue. Oh, that's good.

Oh man. Fruity sweet. Um, still getting a little bit of that chocolate. The chocolate's actually started like it's on the finish, right? The chocolate's sitting there on the finish. Quite a bit, but I'm getting the fruit, a little bit of fruit and it's kind of, when you go back and forth between your palate and your nose, just bounce back and forth. You get this nice balance of fruit, spice, chocolate. A little warming effect too. Yeah. Oh, that's really good.

Colby, dude. I'm pretty sure they use like some sort of winter rye, I think. Like in their wheat whiskey, they use like that winter. That hard red winter. I think so. Yeah, that chocolate is just like, like you said, it's like fruit and then you get like dipped in chocolate.

Yeah, it's definitely like a chocolate covered some piece of fruit. I don't know, but almost true.

I want to say like pineapple and like it's a little bit of like a tropical pineapple.

I was saying like sour peach. I don't know. I think I'm just trying to pick at things cause I'm not sure exactly what the flavor is, but it's definitely fruity, chocolatey. It has a very nice, very nice flavor on the palate and a nice nose. Yeah, that's a good bottle right there. So did Mike get on the subscription or did he just buy the one bottle? I think he just bought the one bottle.

OK. And I think my friend, Adam Dorman, was thinking about getting that one too. Yeah. Yeah. Good deal. We're doing our work, I guess. Fantastic. Some other news we got recently was that Michter's distillery is going to release their 2025 Shinx and Bombergers declaration very soon. These are annual limited releases and are renowned for their exceptional quality and unique characteristics.

And I'll just sort of list some other new releases. These are ones you can keep your eye out for. Barrel Foundation's Double Barrel Bourbon, the Doc Holliday Bottle and Bond Straight, the World Whiskey Society's Doc Holliday Bottle and Bond Straight. Chattanooga Whiskey, they come out with those experimental batches. Batch 42, the Amaro barrel-finished rye is released. Dragon's Milk, there you go. They've released their Origin Bonded for 2025. Speaking of peaches, I've had a few of those. I get peaches. Do you? Yeah, it's really interesting. Lerkin has a Decade Rye Cognac Cask.

Have you had it? No, but we've been talking about reaching out to Greg. So that's more of a reason to do so soon. So maybe we'll get up there and he'll let us try that. That sounds delicious. And New Riffs 2025 by Bowari.

And anything else here? Let's see. Boone County, did you say? Yeah, Boone County definitely has a release there. What was it that they released? Lewis Loader 15-year bourbon.

Yeah, the 15-year bourbon. I was going to say, that'll be highly sought after. Age statements are becoming a big thing. And I think it's just going to continue. People are going to throw numbers on those bottles. And that draws the collectors. And when even the new people see something like that, it's an instant draw. Older age means good is typically, you know, the thinking.

Do you feel like releases have increased in pace a little bit?

Your LTOs, I mean, those are still, I mean, you're starting to see a lot of other, like even the smaller craft distillers doing some like really small LTOs. And I think it works because when something's hard to find, people are going to want it, obviously, if it's a good product.

Well, we can't get them all on here, but we'll try to get a few of them anyway. We do our best. Yes, we do. All right. What do you think of this one?

What's the final notes on it? It's really, really good. I mean, I'll go ahead and say it's a leader in my clubhouse right now. Far North was excellent.

Yeah, it was good. For me, it's a very unique profile, so it's hard to compare one-to-one with something else. That, Fray Ranch kind of checks the boxes. Like I was saying, it was pushing all the buttons on my tongue. It's got a lot going on. It does. Well, in other news, you've got some word for us on Burping on the Banks.

Yeah. If you don't have a ticket, it's sold out. But there are still some Twilight tickets left. So yeah.

Snap those up.

Yeah. I think it's like four to six on the Twilight.

Which is still a pretty good deal. Yeah. Because a lot of the fun even happens afterwards. So once it's over, there's...

It kind of clears out the streets, right? It also kind of clears out, you know, you start seeing the people that may have had maybe a few too many pours, you know, start to stagger on out. But yeah, and on an October day, let's hope we get some of that nice October weather and it'll be nice and hopefully like sunny, but like sweatshirty kind of.

I mean, Friday night's kind of the night we let it all loose, you know. So in the morning we get there and we set up the tent, we get everything set up and everything, and you're out there obviously working too, Todd. Yeah, I do some volunteer, so yeah. But that evening, it's a grand party down in Frankfurt. It's a lot of fun. It's a great place to be, and there's no tickets required for that.

Right.

Just show up in Frankfurt, do the pub crawl with us and just enjoy and have a good time. Yeah.

I would even say come out Thursday night to Whiskey Thief. That was great last year, wasn't it? Yeah. They usually have like a fire going and music and a whole lot of people out there. It's just a... It's like being at a field party, but there happens to be a still there, which is nice.

Another thing is I just did a barrel pick with some friends. They call themselves the Simpsonville Cigar and Bourbon Club, which is kind of cool. Just a great group of guys. But they picked a barrel from down home. of some eight-year MGP rye, which was in a toasted barrel. It's really good. And it was only a group of about a dozen of us that split the barrel. So I've got 10 bottles, Todd. I brought you one today. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. You're welcome. Let me know what you think about it.

I definitely will. So we also heard from Amzie Winning. He let us know that the, he had a small group went to Bespoken on spirits, I believe. And they just picked another single barrel for the bourbon on the banks. And it was a nine and a half year Barton finished in Riesling ice wine barrel. I was going to say that made, that makes you, we had that barrel, which was really good. And get this. 142.3. Whoa. Can you say hazmat? Hazmat with ice wine. You need the ice wine to cool down the hazmat, right? You may need some ice for sure. But yeah, that'll be at the bespoken. booth there at the Bourbon on the Banks, and they'll have a flag. And yeah, you can buy that. No idea on prices. And once we get closer, I'm sure Amzie and Diane will let us know the prices on those different single barrels that we've been lucky enough to be on a few of those picks.

And I think this is the first pick that neither you or I went on.

Yeah. I think we've been on all the picks. Could be the best one. Who knows? Could have been the best one. Who knows? Who knows? But no. Yeah, there's still a few more to go. And I think, like I said, we're hoping to do it in a little, you know, obviously it's, hopefully if you're going to be in town that time, you might try to take a crack at it, but we're going to give a couple more barrel pick chances to our listeners. Yeah.

So join the Bourbon Roadies. That's where we do that. Join the roadies on Facebook. All right, Todd. Well, we've got two down, two to go, and a bonus pour. Two plus. So I think we've talked about these in a good amount. We'll kind of rehash them when we come in for the second half. We're going to take a short break, folks. We're going to kind of sip on our first two a little bit and talk amongst ourselves. When we come back, two more expressions from the summer collection from Los Lantern and then a bonus pour at the end. Don't go away. Stick around. We'll be right back.

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 listeners. We're gonna dive into two more of these incredible ryes from the Summer State Collection from Los Lantern. They are known for shining the light on craft distilleries, and this time their focus is on estate distilleries, which I think is really cool. So our very first pour was from Minnesota, far north, their estate grown rye, which was a four year, 111.5. proof rye. There were 226 bottles of that and retails for about 100 bucks, which we'll divulge where they can get those towards the end of the show. And then second, one that really wowed us and As expected, it's a fray ranch. Really wildest. Yeah. Nevada straight rye, 230 bottles, six years, 118.5. And now we are ready for, actually, I think this is going to be my dark horse.

Yeah? You think so? Yeah.

I've had some Corbin Cash single barrels, and I don't know if you've had any, but I think this is- It doesn't ring a bell. Yeah. They're out of Merced, California. This is a seven year, 133 proof. So this is the top, top dog of the proof, a proof battle, if you will, 108 bottles. This one actually goes for $130. So funny story about this place is it's been known as a sweet potato farm. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, so you go from sweet potatoes to bourbon. All right.

Let's check it out. Yeah. Oh, it's got a little bit of singe factor, just a little bit. A little heat in there. But it's also rich and kind of caramelly.

Darker fruits, not a whole lot of mint, like honey drizzled fruits.

Honey, I think I like that.

Honey and fruit. Now they also, let's say no. They actually use 100% Merced Rye, which that's where they're out of Merced, California, I believe.

Now, this is Northern California.

I didn't do my Google mapping thing. Well, they're growing rye, so probably. I mean, if you're growing rye. I would think so. You've got to think up in the northern part. You know, if you get back in there, there is a little bit of mint.

Yeah. Yeah, you don't want to jam your nose down in this glass because it can be a little bit that, you know, at 130, what was it, 133, 132.

133 exactly, yes.

Yeah, it can overwhelm your nostrils just a little bit.

We talked about that candied orange that we got on the Minden Mill from Nevada recently. A little bit of that maybe.

It does have that candy note to it. Cheers. Cheers. Oh. Bingo. Bingo. Very, very nice. She warms you up though. Warms you up, but I'm trying to figure out what is that?

There's rye. I mean, it's rye for sure. It's rye. But there's like also like, Toasted almonds and?

Oh, it's nutty. It's a little chocolatey. It's definitely rice spicy. There's a little bit of a serial note to it. I'm trying to figure out. I recognize, well, recognize means I can name it. I can't name it. There's a flavor there that I get a flash in my mind. I know what it is, but I can't tell you what it is. Chewy. It's also very chewy.

So good. Yeah. I've yet to have something, a rye of theirs that didn't blow me away. That's a great rye. I've only had their bourbon, I think maybe once. It was okay. I think that's one of those, you know, we've often said that ryes tend to age a little quicker. And then like a seven is like, that's a seven, eight years on a rise, a sweet, sweet spot. They got this big flip they take late in life.

And late in life are rise seven to 10, seven to eight, seven to nine in that range. They kind of flip, become candy-like. They sort of, they go in a different direction. They lose those youthful notes. They lose a lot of those overly spicy notes and get a little bit more sweet candy notes. This one's still pretty spicy at seven.

She let you know she's there. That's for sure.

Yeah, this is really good. I'm going to come up with it. I'm going to tell you what it is. I want to keep sipping on this. I want to figure out exactly what that flavor is. I'm nailing.

Jim, you've always said you were a big rye guy. Do you just like that candy note? Is that what it is?

I don't know that it's just candy. I just think I like things that have a bite. I've always liked spicier foods. I've always liked things that get your attention. Yeah. You know, mild palate I don't have. Yeah.

So I just, that's it. But also think of like hard truth, which you are also a big fan of. It's very soft. It's very fruit forward. I mean, but they're fantastic too.

I mean, I can appreciate a ride that doesn't punch you in the face for sure, but I also can appreciate one that does.

So of the three we've had so far, you know, A lot of people won't drink rice because they are spicy. Which do you think would appeal to like, well, I don't like rice because they're spicy. Which of these three?

So for me, the far north was spicy gumdrop spicy. The Fray Ranch was well-balanced, chocolatey, I think really wide appeal on the Fray Ranch. I think so too, yeah. This one, again, because of its high proof, brings that big bite, which it has, and plus, a lot of people knows their bourbon before they taste it, and that little bit of ethanol that comes off that can really get your attention, so it might... Could shock the senses if you... Could shock the senses. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. But it's really good. The free ranch has some proof to it, but I think if it's going to appeal to someone that's not crazy about Ryde, that would be the one too.

Yeah. I need to have my eyes on Corbin Cash. They're making some good stuff. Yeah.

Jason Calori and Scott Page have done a couple of picks with them.

And we didn't have anything from Corbin Cash in the first episode with the Burbins, right?

No, but they may have been a part of the blend. Okay. Like I said, I tried one of their bourbons.

There was a California bourbon in one of the blends. Yeah.

I think, I'm pretty sure that they were trying to say estate. I'm pretty sure they did have a bourbon there. But like I said, I've only had like one single barrel bourbon, a pour that I want to say my buddy Vic Galindo sent me. He's out in California and he's actually one of the ones that kind of turned me onto them. And yeah. Just felt like it needed a little more age to it. I mean, this is probably the darkest of the four.

I don't know. My class is empty. Oh, whoops. But maybe not of the five. I'm looking at number five there, the bonus board. As I said, the bonus board could have a cheat code.

It depends on if they used a small braille for that, maybe. All right.

Well, I enjoy this. I definitely do. Carbon cash, thumbs up from me.

I thought you would like that. I figured that was right up your alley. I definitely want to keep your eye out. This is the third single barrel I've had and maybe even four or five friends send pours, but all just excellent, excellent, excellent.

So talking about what's on the shelves, have you been to the liquor store lately and seen anything that's priced to sell, anything that really gets your attention? Because there are a few... Kroger's is real big. They've usually got a... Right.

I've not been in a while. Let's see. I guess most recent, I went to Capital Sellers and that was to grab the old Fitzgerald seven-year Baldwin & Bond weeded bourbon, which will be... We've got something lined up for that, kind of an age statement review show for that. Yeah, I've not been out too much lately.

For example, I haven't seen the wild turkey eight, one on one eight year in the wild. I haven't seen it. I think I might have mentioned that I found the benchmark foolproof at like, was it $17 on sale?

Crazy. I am seeing those. Kroger, my Kroger here, or we have two here. One's on the East side, West side, and they always have all of those now.

It's like a $40 bottle normally, and I saw it on sale for $17. I was like, what the heck? Is that a mistake? Got to move it, I guess. Well, maybe they're making room for more stuff. I don't know.

It's interesting.

Lots of fun, though. Keep your eyes open, folks. There are some great deals out there happening.

I was going to say, if you come to Frankfurt, You can message me and ask where to go, and I'm going to either tell you A, capital sellers, which is one of our local places, that their prices, they don't have a huge selection, but their prices are pretty reasonable. A lot of the other, we have a lot of little gas station liquor stores, prices are going to be crazy. They'll be at or above secondary. But go to our Kroger's. Kroger, sometimes they'll have closeouts. And like you said, you picked up a foolproof from Green River recently, which- Whoa. 17 bucks.

I mean, that's cheaper than- That was one of our favorite pours of 2024. I know. I think it's just that for whatever reason, people aren't grabbing it. And so they have to clear it out. But I'll be honest with you, that's a great pour for me. I love that one. Yeah. I should have bought them all, but- You're being nice.

I'm being nice. That's right. All right. So we are ready to move on to our pour number four. So pour number four is kind of similar to what they did with the Bourbons and they called it the farmer's fields where they took barrels from Corbin Cash, Frey Ranch, Far North and Whiskey Acres and blended to make a farmer's fields rye blend. So this is all four components. There were 538 bottles of this one, retails for a hundred bucks. It has a Corbin cash Looks like a eight-year in this one. Far North had a four-year blend in this, blended into this. Fray Ranch had a six-year blended into this. And then Whiskey Acres, a three-year. Oh, OK. Yeah. And funny enough, though, Whiskey Acres uses that hazlet rye, which we talked about, for Far North. So 75%. and 25% corn.

And what was the other rye that was used by Corbin Cash?

They use the Merced. Merced.

Yeah.

And then, sorry, yeah. And then Frey Ranch uses, it's called winter rye. Yeah. And that's a hundred percent rye.

Fantastic.

No, I'm off to Barley, which I've always, you know, we talked to, the guy from Minden Mill and he was talking about oats really gumming up, but I've always heard rye can be a little tricky too. So like, it seems like a hundred percent rye would be. Rye is foamy, not gummy.

Okay. So rye tends to foam a lot, but yeah, I think that in the case where they're not using malted grains in their mash bill, they've got to add some, some enzymes or to kick things over. But I'm ready to try this Farmer's Fields 117.4 proof. And the price on this bottle? $100. $100. All right. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, OK. So this actually noses like a mixture of those. Yep. It's like a cool mint.

Like a cool mint, a little bit of chocolate in the background. Yeah. The grain from like the far north and then with the Whiskey Acres three year rye, you got to think there's probably some grain coming from that too.

I would think so because if I remember, they were quite grain forward. Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, this is nice. This is nice.

Now you can find these on Lost Lantern. You can order directly from them. I don't remember. There's quite a few states. Sealbox gets a few. And then you could also, if you're at their Vermont tasting room, you can buy them there. All right. I'm going to taste it. Yep. Oh. Oh, nice. That's nice. Is that buttery? That is buttery.

Oily? Yep. Yep. What's bringing that to the table?

Man, he's got some blending skills. He does. That first, the bourbon farmer's fields was excellent. And then we also tried the far-flung, didn't we? The far-flung bourbon, which had like five or six different craft things in there. Hats off to Adam.

Yeah, this is really good. This is a little softer than I expected. oily, buttery, not a lot of sweetness on it. Not a lot of spice on it. Just kind of subdued a little bit. The everything kind of blends together to bring down the, the temperature overall.

I'm getting a lot of that cooling mint note. Well done, Adam. Yeah, I like it.

Yeah. So as we talked before, there were, um, you know, what do we think your, what has the largest appeal across the board? And I think that this might play hardball with the Frey Ranch a little bit.

So you say the blend would shine for bourbon drinkers?

For people who are maybe, yeah. So for people who maybe shy away from rice a little bit, I'm thinking the fray ranch and the farmer's fields are probably the best choices for them, is what I'm saying.

So I would think the mint, that minty spice thing might throw them off on this one. I'm not getting a lot of that chocolate note that we got from the fray ranch.

Wow, that is really good. That's a nice blend. Well, Todd, we're going to have to figure this out. We're going to have to figure out what our order is. Yeah. Come up with a winner winner chicken dinner. 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D. Well, I think, you know, why don't we, how did we do this in the past? Did we start sipping on the bonus pour while we graded the other ones?

Yes, it gave us time to, you know, just deep dive into our thinking and like our whole like go back and think about what each poor did for us.

Yeah. I get this feeling that you and I are not going to agree completely today. Ooh.

I don't know. See, I kind of thought we would. You think so? I don't know. I'm intrigued.

Sometimes we're right in alignment with each other, and sometimes we differ a little bit because we have our own personal profiles that we would prefer.

Yeah, but that's what makes it fun. All right. So this is the dark horse. And literally, we call it the dark horse because it is dark. It is very dark. So this is another single. This was when they're single cash series. This is from Kings County distillery out of Brooklyn, New York. It was released in 2024, and this is 126.4 proof.

But just to be clear, this is not part of their summer collection. And I kind of flipped through just to see if it was still available. It was not, but. OK.

But it's our bonus pour. Yeah, it's our bonus pour, and I just thought it's last liner, and we'll sip it, and it'll obviously just clarify everything we just had, and we'll just be like, OK, this is 1, 2, 3, 4.

So this is our thinking bonus pour. This is our thinking whiskey. Okay. Let's try it.

Okay. It's kind of traditional. There's a little darker notes going on there. What was the proof again? 126.4. Okay. So it's a hefty, it's a hefty whiskey. I'd also be curious to know, I know in the past they've used some smaller, smaller barrels, but.

Who actually distilled this?

Kings County.

Kings County. I've had some Kings County in the past. They've sent us stuff and I'm interested to try this. I don't think that I've had anything at this proof level.

I mean, they're one of those I've seen like Hazmat single barrel releases, which is kind of... Odd when you think it's coming from, you know, you think hazmat, you think something that's going to be like in and out of the barrel a lot. And then that proof goes up, but. All right. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, wow.

Oh, got a second act. She's dark. Yeah, that's like. Oh, that is really good. So, see if I can put this in the words. It definitely has that initial syrupy wash and a lot of sweetness that comes in. Feels like you're almost like you're sipping on a maple syrup, but it's not maple flavored. It's just that consistency, that deepness of sugar. But then it comes back at you with this nice spice punch that comes off of it. So sweet, spicy. It is very sweet. That might be the sweetest of the five. It is.

This also has a little bit of a nutty note to it. Yeah. A lot of char, like barrel char. Yeah. There's mint.

This is a complex, bold, deep whiskey.

got a lot going on. So 80% New York grown rye, 20% malted barley. Is this an Empire rye? I don't know my match bill on that Empire rye, but it's New York, so maybe that's what they were going for. Maybe it is. Yeah.

I mean, I think, I don't remember what the rules are exactly for Empire rye, but they have to source them within New York state, right? Right. So I would think it would fit right in that bill.

Starting to get a little bit of chocolate. So there's like a little darker chocolate, I guess.

Oh, that's a nice whiskey. That's a cigar whiskey right there.

Yeah. That's the end of the night rye.

It works well. All right. So let's talk about what we have here. So last week on episode part one on the Bourbons, I led off with my first choice. By your first choice, you mean your... I told you what my number four was first. Yes. Okay. Right. So, this week, you get to tell us what your number four is first.

Okay. My number four is going to be the far north. Okay. And I'm going to agree with you completely. I like it. Yeah. It just didn't click my rye bells. And like you said, we've said we're both big rye guys and some good stuff going on.

It does have that, like I mentioned, that leapers fork, spiced gumdrop flavor to it, but also that spiced gumdrop flavor at 111 proof. Kind of, it's a little bit more towards a four year whiskey, right? Yeah, it was four, yeah.

Three or four year whiskey here. I'd like to revisit that at like six or seven.

I think it needs a little more time. This is not going to get it because it's already been bottled. But I think this whiskey in particular could use another year, maybe. But that's just me being a snob, I think.

Want to keep an eye out for, I think.

Yeah, definitely. For sure. All right. So we agree there. We agree there. My number three is the Corbin Cash. I know, I know, but it's just, I just think it's great flavor, no doubt. But I just think that those extra proof points just made it a little hot. A little hot for you?

Yeah, a little hot. Okay. My number three is going to be the farmer's fields. Okay. Blend of four different ryes. Excellent blend. I mean, you know, I think, We've seen a lot of blends out there where they take your Bartons, your MGPs, your Tennessees. That seems like it's a lot easier than taking some craft distilleries and making magic out of it. And that's a magical craft blend, I think. Like I said, hats off to Adam Polanski for putting that together. That's my number three.

Yep. And my number three is the farmers fields. Okay. So I just feel like, uh, it's, I think it's a great blend for me. I think it, it was, It scored higher than the Corbin Cash because I think the Corbin Cash came off to me as a little on the hot side. Maybe in my old years, I'm starting to become a wimp. I don't know, but I just felt better at 117 proof than I did at 133. Gotcha. So yeah, my number three is the Farmer's Fields. Okay.

So my number two is going to be the Corbin Cash. I know that was my dark horse, but today it did not win. I liked a lot of the things going on with it. But yeah, in fact, I've had some single barrels that I think would come out a winner if I threw them in here. But I mean, that's an excellent, excellent rye. I mean, it's proofy. It's a big, big, big drink. Big boy. Yeah. I'm telling you folks, if you see one out there, give it a whirl if you like rye. They're putting out some great stuff.

So you and I are going to flip flop on two and three. So I'm definitely the farmer's fields on my number two. So I was farmer's fields to Corbin cash three. You were just the opposite, just the opposite. So I think that, but that leaves us at the number one in agreement. Yeah. which is the Fray Ranch 118.6.

Yeah, which is kind of crazy. Usually you'll see those up in that 120 plus. Yeah. But that was a special, special rye.

I think the barrel count on that was pretty big, wasn't it?

Yeah, it was like 200 plus. Yeah.

I mean, it's always nice when you can get a barrel proof rye out of the barrel at 220, 230 bottles. That's a six year too. Oh yeah. How do you do that in Nevada? I don't know. I mean, isn't that like dry northern desert kind of stuff? Maybe they're good friends with our friends at Menden Mills and they like put it in the Scotland, the Scotland rick house for a little while. So the Fray Ranch ride took the day at 118.6 proof. All these bottles are right around $100.

Yeah, the only ones not would be the Corbin. The Corbin cash was 130. And I think that was, it was only 108 bottles. That was kind of a low, low bottle count. And it was a big proof jump too. Yeah.

And we, you know, I didn't match again this time, but I think we both agree on the number one and the number four. We just kind of flip-flopped on two and three. Different day. We might have flip-flopped all over the place. But I'm loving this bonus pour.

Kings County is, uh,

I have to say that the last time I had a King's County, I wasn't as impressed as this time. This is really good.

A lot of those craft things that you tried years ago are starting to hit that four, five, six, seven. And that's when things start to get magical, I think, especially for craft distilleries. Absolutely.

Really good. Maybe, maybe not. We don't know Empire Ride, but we think so.

Yeah.

We're going to say. It is.

Most likely. All right. Yeah. Great show, Todd. Yeah, this was fun. Cheers to Adam and Nora for being fans of our show and sending us these pores. I can't wait till the next, like, the winter collection or something.

I feel like this is our first part one and part two show. Have we had one before? Not that I remember. Ooh.

to do a deep dive into the archives.

Yeah, I don't think we have done a part one and part two before.

When you guys did the blend, was that just one show? I think it was just one show.

Yeah, we brought Ashley in and she scored it. So 450, episode 450 was the Bourbon and Lost Land, Oh, that's right. 450. Cheers to 450, by the way. Cheers to 450. We're getting there. And then this will be episode 451. So we'll run them back to back. So if you managed to listen to this episode first and you didn't pick up episode 450, we suggest you go back and listen to that one as well. So we broke down the eight expressions that were sent to us out of the Summer Collection into two separate shows because we can't do it.

Yeah. One, it just seemed... Like it'd be hard to, I don't know. I just liked comparing the, yes, we had three bourbons and one wheat whiskey, but I just felt that worked. And then of course, four different ryes, that just kind of worked that way.

So to all you whiskey companies out there that want two episodes on the bourbon road, just send us a case. Just send us a mixed case. Just send what you will.

Overwhelm us. And we'll sort it out.

All right. Lots of fun. So great. I really enjoyed this, Todd. We've got another great episode coming out after this one.

Yes. I feel like that was our best dual interview that we've ever had. When we do, usually, I mean, it was in person, which helps, because you can quickly see you know, facial expressions to where like, yeah, well, not, not that, but just like the flow was so good. Like you would ask and I mean, cave spoilers was great. And yeah, I, I'd love that show. It's going to be my favorite. It was like I'd never met him, but I felt like I was just sitting around with someone I've known for a long time. I read that book quick. I let you borrow it.

We got through the book and we've already read the next book for the next show of an author we're going to have on. We love our bourbon books. Yeah, Cave was great. He had been on once before, like episode 100 or so, back in the day. And then we had his whiskies on again, maybe 30 or 40 episodes later. But this is, we really neglected Rabbit Hole for probably 300 episodes. So it was nice to have him on again. Yeah, it was fun.

Took a little while to get us into a nice room to record. He's having some security card issues, which was kind of funny. But yeah, I'm looking forward to folks' reaction to that show. I thought it was a lot of fun. And I tell you what, we had some of their, I mean, we went through the Mary Dowling line. We'll go ahead and tell you that. Yeah, I think so too. I think they're starting to hit their sweet spot too.

Yeah. And so many distilleries are. So many distilleries are really, their whiskey is starting to hit that really nice range of age and revealing the craft that went into it. You know, early on, a lot of the soldiers had to make the choice to put stuff out before it was ready.

Yeah.

And my hat is not off to them for doing that, but I know they had to. Right.

You got to keep the lights on.

Unfortunately, a lot of that resulted in bad reviews and so forth. But if you've got patience, if you can stick around, if you can wait until whiskeys come of age, You really get to see the variety in craft and what some of these guys are doing. Yeah. And you know, lost lantern definitely shows that off.

Yeah. And I think, you know, sometimes go back and revisit if it's been a while and you were, you know, you were like, eh, there's something there, but. Well, maybe it's time to go check them back, check them again. And yeah, I think in some cases, I think you'll be really, really impressed with it.

Here's our problem, Todd. There's 3,500 distilleries in the United States. We have 450 episodes, so we've kind of gotten around a little bit. For us to actually have had somebody on more than one time, that's a bonus for them.

Yeah, we do have to do a daily podcast, which I don't have time for that.

Yeah, I mean, for me, like the last time, and this, King's County is wonderful. I'm enjoying it. It's wonderful. But the last time I had King's County on, I wasn't so impressed. Yeah. Unfortunately, we just can't immediately come back to somebody. So if you've got a whiskey that's reaching that ripe old age and you think it's ready for an honest review by Todd and I, make sure you get it to us. We'll check it out. If you're due for a review on the Bourbon Road, if your whiskey hasn't made it on our show for a while, Squeaky Wheel gets the grease. Right? I love it. All right. Love it, Todd. Cheers. Cheers. I did the old blend of all the classes. Did you?

I didn't have enough in three of mine to even warrant that, so. All right.

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, all those places. Every week, Todd and I get together. We put out an episode we hope you'll like. We're always drinking whiskey. We're always, not always have a guest on, but sometimes it's just Todd and I like today. But we're always having fun. We're always laughing. We're always telling you what whiskies we feel might be good additions to your bar. We hope you're paying attention to it. We know a few are. Mike Daler, we appreciate you, buddy. Go out and buy the whiskies that we think that are good and give them a try and then let us know, did we miss our mark? Or did we hit it on the nose?

Yeah, we might have to start some sort of buyback program, but I know he didn't complain about it. So there's that.

All right. Well, we'd love you to check out the bourbonroad.com. That's our web page. All our articles are on there, blog articles, our podcasts are on there, all our swag is on there, our hats and shirts and all the good stuff we like to sell.

Yeah, I just want to add, Jim just wrote a glowing blog about the Frankfurt Bourbon documentary. And yeah, thank you for the kind words. It was, like I said, I was like 0.5% and Beau was 99.5%. But yeah, it was awesome to be a part of. And we're actually going to try to work with him on some fun stuff in the future. But again, thank you. I think it turned out really well. I mean, we did a premiere of that, and it was a little Just needed a little bit of fine tuning, so we got some really good feedback from Frankfurt Bourbon Society members, yourself, Drew Hanish at Whiskey Lure, and some other folks. But again, thank you for the kind words about that documentary.

Well, if you want to hear Todd's prowess in narrating a documentary, a one-hour documentary, I definitely suggest you go to thebourbonroad.com, go to our latest articles, and look at the article on the heart of Bourbon. where we take a review of that documentary. It is definitely up there, in my opinion, with NEET. Thank you. You did a great job. I think that in your narration, you positioned yourself as our best friend going through the show with us. It was really cool. I really think you did a good job just comforting and walking us through the history of Frankfurt and all the things here. I know that Bo, he created this documentary, but you voiced it. Yeah. So, good job. Thanks. All right. We're proud of you, Todd. So, check it out, folks. Check out... And you can find it on YouTube. It is called... Frankfurt? Frankfurt, Kentucky, The Heart of Bourbon. And just search it out, Bo Cumberland. and you'll find his feed on there. I think he's my journey through American whiskey or something like that. Anyway, give it a like, give it a watch.

Yeah, definitely check it out. Give it a comment, yeah.

In the meantime, we would love for you to join up and subscribe and make sure that you get a notification each time that Todd and I put out a new episode. That way, you don't have to get surprised by it. I mean, you shouldn't get surprised by it. We put it out every Wednesday, but we'd love for you to to get that notification telling you that we just put out another episode. The way to do that is to scroll to the top of that app here and hit that subscribe button. And you won't have to worry about it anymore. You don't have to worry about putting it in your schedule, checking to see if we have new episodes. You'll just get that notification telling you that we've dropped another one. And then we'll get you through that next sales call drive, that next trip to Florida, that next cut in the grass, whatever it is that you do with your headset on or in the car with your speakers on. We'd love to be part of your day. But until the next time, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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