463. Sweet Rye, Cigar Blends, and Industry Buzz

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 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. All right, welcome back once again, roadies, to another show. It's Todd and I in the Bourbon Road Bar. We're both at the mics today. Todd has brought over a number of tasty treats. That's a great word. Yeah, tasty treats for tonight. But we're going to go through a number of whiskies tonight. We're going to have a little bit of bourbon industry news, just all around good time. Hopefully these are a few pours that our listeners haven't had yet.

Yeah, I believe so. We're going to do five pours tonight. And yeah, like you said, we've got a few to announce that hopefully our folks out there may get to see out on shelves or run across at a bar or something like that. So yeah, I'm pretty excited.

Awesome.

So what do we have in our first last time? So our first pour. And this will be kind of fun because I guess way back an episode 426, we tried their regenerative grain rye. So this is Brothers Bond regenerative grain bourbon. They were on episode 420, and that was one I missed. And I really regret that because you don't get to hang with celebrities very often. But so that was a great show. And I think they had a lot of fun being on the show. But so this is ninety ninety two proof, four years old, forty nine ninety nine MSRP. And like I said, regenerative grain. So that's basically all the grains that were made to or grew up in like about a 20 mile radius from the distillery. Ian Summerhalder and Paul Wesley hand selected 70 barrels and made this batch. So I think they were like, 16,000 bottles or so.

So it's a pretty good chunk. Yeah. Yeah. So the whole idea behind the regenerative grain is regenerative farming. And they talk a lot about that, how to preserve the end of the soil.

So gives about, yeah, biodiverse keeps the biodiversity going. So with this, there were like some of those barrels were a four year old weeded bourbon. And that was combined with a number of barrels that were four year high rye.

What's the mash bill?

So the final mash bill, since they're combining all of that, like I said, did some serious calculations because depending on the number of barrels you blend of each would move that up and down. But 73 corn, 10% rye, 8% wheat, and 9% malted barley.

Okay. Good deal. That's got a great nose to it. Cornbread. Yep. I agree with that completely. Yeah. Yep. Like sweet, sweet cornbread. So this one's definitely leaning a little bit more towards the kind of the buttery baking spice, uh, less fruity.

I don't know. I can get a little like a little maybe peachy pear.

Yeah, there's something there. Yeah.

So I don't want to throw out all the fruits out of the cabinet if you will, but. And it's kind of interesting. They went with 92 proof because I think the rye, they, they were at 95, if I'm not mistaken.

I think they were at 95 at the rye. And of course their, their bonded bourbon was a hundred. Yeah. Let's taste it. Indeed. Oh, that hits you pretty sweet.

Yes.

And that is a little fruit for it to me. It is. Where did that come from? the nose kind of hides it a little bit, I think. But yeah, it's definitely, um, a sweet honey glaze fruit. I like the honey.

Yes. And yeah, like, um, honey glaze, like peach pear kind of thing. There's a little bit of, despite it being 92, there's a little bit of, oaky spicy presence at the very tail end of it.

Yep. Which is nice. It's got a pretty hefty pack of sweet, sweetness upfront. Yeah.

It's got a great mouthfeel too. I mean, it doesn't come off as like super watered down.

49.99, 92 proof. Ultimately it's basically a four grain. Yes, I do. Yeah. Yeah. It tastes like these, uh, these, uh, whiskies are in here. Well aged. I mean, reasonably aged.

Yeah. I'd be curious to know if like all of them are four years or, you know, there might be some older five, six, maybe even seven.

Um, yeah. Cause I'm, I'm not getting too much in the way of youthful notes on this. So I feel like this is right in that, uh, four to seven year old saddle.

And what was nice is I didn't even, this one just kind of showed up yesterday. I wasn't even expecting it. I was like, oh, cool.

Yeah.

So we, we must be, uh, it must really like us. Which we appreciate. We do appreciate it. Absolutely.

Yeah. They're very, uh, they're very busy at their whiskey business. I notice when you're watching social media, these guys are on top of it all the time.

I was going to say they have some sort of traveling, like, I don't even know what you got, like a traveling vampire themed speakeasy almost. I don't know if you've ever seen that one that pops up on my Facebook thread. Sometimes it's like the Edgar Allan Poe one. I haven't seen that. Okay. Yeah. You know, Facebook reads our minds and listens to us. I'm pretty, and I'm pretty sure Google does too, but like, uh, Yeah, I've seen them doing some sort of like speakeasy thing, like where you buy tickets and you get to meet and obviously taste through some of their bottles.

I mean, they have a huge following of, you know, all of their series now have been watched by billions of people, you know, but I mean, there's still a market out there for reruns and watching that stuff. And they've just got this cult following of fans that will follow them wherever they go, whatever they do. But they make great whiskey. Yeah. It's really cool.

They're very involved in the process too, I think. I feel like sometimes you'll see like a celebrity brand come out and I'm sure they almost like hit a checkbox. Like, yeah, that's fine. You can put my name on that kind of, and they may have tasted it, but.

Just for, just for, to keep things straight, we're doing winter, winter chicken dinner tonight, right?

Yeah. I think we'll do our, like since we're doing five, I think we'll kind of top three again.

Okay. But that's a good start. Absolutely.

I think that going back to that regenerative rye, it was our winner that day and we went against some other fine offerings.

All right, Todd. Well, we've got a couple of recent releases that kind of we've, we've seen the, uh, the press releases for, and, uh, I want to make sure everybody knows they're, they're coming down to Pike, but, uh, Woodford reserve has announced it's 2025 masters collection. It's called sweet Oak bourbon. That sounds promising. I love that sweet oak. It's been, uh, aged in what they call rare chinkapin oak barrels. Now I've heard chinkapin before and I know it's just a North American oak, but it's, it's what they used to call chestnut oak and they're, they, they, they kind of don't get as tall as some of the other oak trees, but they get really wide and they've got this really beautiful canopy on them. So they, they're kind of a, a really. nice tree to have if you can wait. It's very slow growing.

Okay. Yeah.

And one of the reasons the barrels are probably really, really good. Slow growing trees have tighter rings, which make better, great barrels. So, uh, but it's 110.4 proof. MSRP is 179.99. Yeah.

$180.

And get this, it's 700 mils. Yeah. There's a few of those popping up here and there.

They've been doing that a while.

Yeah. So. Also, Barton has released their 1792 cognac finish. So it's a 95 proof, typical Barton bottle, 37.99, 38 bucks for the bottle. Great price. Great price. But cognac finish definitely is one of those things. I really like cognac finish. Yeah, they can get really, really good. But these are not, I mean, you know, they're, they're basically taking these and putting them in the ex conic barrels. And then they're wheeling them all the way to the top of the Rick house, the very top tier in a hot box of them for six months.

Yeah. And if they're in there right lately, that's been really hot. We've had a hot fall.

And then they've got some big, big Rick houses at Barton. Yeah.

I wish I'd gotten a tour of that place before they kind of closed that down. Did you ever?

I did. I did a few there. I did a few barrel picks there and it was, it was, it's old. It was, I just think it just exceeded its, uh, safety.

Yeah. Our good buddy Drew was there the day the one collapsed.

Drew Hanisch of whiskey lore. Yeah. Wow. That had to make a racket.

Yeah.

I couldn't imagine.

What was the proof on that, Woodford? I don't think you.

Yeah. Cause I think they went out there. It was a 110.4. So they kept the 0.4. Yep. And jumped her up 20. Jumped her up. Yeah. It's usually 90.4. 90.4. Yeah.

They're usually the jam. Yeah. Sadly, when we got that and you know, that said something about getting some samples on that one and we had reached out, of course. And, but they were out and so. It looks still good, but shout out.

Yeah, of course.

We'd like to keep you guys in the, in the no, no. All right. So we're moving on here. Yes. Poor two. And I'm pretty excited about this one. We just had a Buzzard's roost down at the, at the Frankfurt Burman society. It's probably been about a couple of months ago, a month and a half ago, and they've got some great products. So speaking of, this is their first go around with a cigar blend bourbon. They've been doing cigar blend rye. I'm not sure how many batches they're up to on that, but this is 105 proof, a double-oaked whiskey that went through secondary maturation in Buzzard Roos proprietary new oak barrels that were lightly charred and precision toasted to extract specific flavors intended to complement a fine cigar. MSRP on this is about $84.99. No age statement or anything like that, but I know they do some really interesting toasting on their barrels and things.

Yeah, they've always really been kind of leaders in the field for their toasted barrel releases.

It snows this. I kind of peeked in on this one before we started the show and this one got me really excited.

So in order to like, people call out cigar blends all the time. Like we're doing a cigar blend or you and I will taste a whiskey. We go, Oh, this would be good with cigar. Right. But have we ever taken the time to kind of tell people like why that is? You know, why does one whiskey get to be called a cigar blend or why would they call it? Yeah. Or why would we choose a whiskey during tasting and say that would make a good cigar whiskey? What makes a good cigar whiskey?

To me, I think it's that rich, rich character. Like the mouth feels very complex. I don't know. I think when I think cigar blends, I think like darker, darker notes. Um, and that, you know, in the world of cigar blends, there's no exact science to it. I mean, everybody's cigar blend is different. So there's no rules. Yeah. So it's kind of like the wild well west.

There's kind of a general feeling what it is though, right? It's usually something with a broad spectrum of flavors, very intense, kind of concentrated, something that can stand up to the tobacco and shine through.

But we just had that Penelope and they actually said it was for a lighter cigar, which was a totally different take. And it was a really enjoyable whiskey, too. It was, it was. So, but I don't know, me, when I think something cigar blend, I think like, you know, cognac finish, armagnac finish, you know, maybe even a little port, just some to give it like that darker vibe. But that's, you know, your darker or heavier, heavier cigars, I think is what Yeah.

Yeah. Rich, full flavored complex. Typically higher proof. Yeah. But not always.

I'm trying to think of a low proof cigar blend. I mean, I'm sure that, you know, Low one hundreds, but I mean proof on this. This one is one Oh five, one Oh five. Yeah.

So a little that's yeah.

Something in like 101, 10, one 15. I see, but you could see some that are in one 21. I'm sure. I mean, you think of Joseph Magnus cigar blend. Those are all over the place. I've seen like lower one tens to one 30. So, all right, well let's check the, the, this one, this nose.

Yeah. And it's, it definitely is delivering on that, uh, rich. That's got like a fresh leather. Like it does. It does have kind of a leathery note to it. Yeah. Like new leather though.

Yeah. Like almost like new car, which is really interesting.

Kind of a little bit of cinnamon though. Um, cinnamon toast, like cinnamon sugar, you know, you would make, take toast and put butter on it and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on it.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

That was one of my favorite breakfast things back when I was a kid, lots of butter, lots of cinnamon and toasted in the oven. Oh, in the oven. Yeah. All right.

Cheers. Cheers. Oh, another really sweet one. That's good. Oh, that's really good.

The sweetness hits you first though, but it gets like toasted marshmallow, like a really kind of like almost near burnt one. Well, yeah, kind of like getting that little bit of that char.

I am getting that a little bit of toasted marshmallow. Yeah.

It's like a wisp of smoke and like, I'm getting like your, your sarsaparilla on the tail end of that too. It's sweet way back.

The sweetness goes way back in the palate.

And then it gets like really almost like black licorice.

This is really good. These, these, these are the diverse flavor profiles that you want with a cigar. This is that broad spectrum of flavors that just, that just give you something to really chew on and think on while you're having a cigar.

Yeah, I'm still getting like this, just this hand of anise and black licorice. That's fun.

Yeah. So I think this would be fine. This would probably be fine with a wide variety of cigars. I would tend to lean more, I think with this one, a little bit more towards a Maduro leaf wrapper and something. I mean, it just, it can handle that extra boldness in the cigar, I think.

Now, do you tend to enjoy like a richer, darker, like, say a cigar rye or a cigar bourbon with the cigar for me?

Or is it kind of like I'm good with either? I'm good with either, but I normally drink bourbon. OK, yeah. And there's a few, you know, just regular sipping bourbons, I think, are great with cigars. You don't have to go spend the big bucks on a cigar blends.

Yeah.

But if you get one, and there may be an actual pairing with this. I don't know if they've paired with this.

I didn't, you know, I did my research on it and dug in. It didn't say, give it like a, I thought that was cool. Like I said, with that Penelope, it kind of said it was like a light, Maduro or something like that. Whereas this one, I guess you're.

Well, that would have been more like a Connecticut on that one. Yeah, that's right. I would think, but, um, yeah, this is, this is good. All right. I'm keeping track in my head here. I've kind of. Kind of lining things up a little bit, trying to figure out who's who.

Yeah. I like this one because I keep getting a little something different too.

This is, I always liked that.

Like there was a little orange marmalade type thing.

That's great. And I love the sizzle effect on this. It's got a little bit of a sizzle effect. You were talking about it kind of on the back. Man, really good. I like that a lot. Yeah. Kudos. Great job, Jason. All right.

We're ready for to move on to poor three. Let's move on to three. All right. Cut. This is a thanks to my good buddy, Luke Reed, bourbon roadie listener. We got a sample of Bardstown discovery series. Number 13. This just released a probably about two, two, three weeks ago, I think. This is their first double barreled expression. It's a blend of four different Kentucky bourbons with ages ranging from eight to 15 years old. And as usual, they give you the percentages of all of that and the match bills, which is always nice. They over-provide.

Yeah, right.

They let the sleuths go out and figure out what's in there, which is kind of nice. They're like, well, we have an NDA, but you can still kind of Let's go around that. So 45% is a nine year, 74 corn, 18 rye, eight malted barley. 22% of a nine year, and these are all Kentucky Bourbons, 22% of a nine year, 78 corn, 10 rye, 12 malted barley. 20% of the 15 year, 75 corn, 13 rye, 12 malted barley. And 13% of an eight year, which is a 70 corn, 21 rye, 12 malted barley. and nine Malta Barley. Is that the youngest whiskey, eight? Yes, the eight, which I would probably wager that might be their own. I forget their mash bills. I wish I had like one of those steel trap mines that just knew everybody's mash bill. I might run away a long time ago.

I used to have a steel trap mine. At least I like, I thought I did.

Yeah. I forget where I put my keys all the time. So that's where I'm at. So keeping up with mash bills is just, yeah, I don't even try. So what was fun about this is after the blending process, the whiskey was split into two batches and it was aged for four months. 60% of that batch went into new American white oak and 40% of that went into, we're going to another oak, Hungarian oak barrels. And then it was married back together. It's 110.8 proof and it retails for about $139.99.

And we did learn that Hungarian oak is a different species from European oak.

That was the one. Yeah. Cause I was like, I think I asked something about Spanish oak. He's like, well, it's all European oak, just wherever you, wherever it's planted this kind of thing. Hungary is a different beast.

Oh, that is a great nose. Man, three great noses tonight. Yeah, really good. These guys are artists.

I mean, they're saying Danny is, oh my God, they're just so good. You know, you actually have a friend that sent me a bunch of the old, I hadn't tried a bunch of the old discoveries and you know, they kind of went through like a bunch of Kentucky blends. And now I'm kind of, I've tried discovery one and two and actually sipped on a little three earlier today to get ready for today. And, um, It's kind of interesting how it's evolved in there. Like he's really playing with a lot of different stuff now.

Yeah. Yeah. This is, this is great. Yeah. This, this is an extra. These are extra age bourbons. They're, they're blended masterfully.

This has got a lot of vanilla on those, like a big, like toasty vanilla.

Yeah. Yeah. Creme brulee. It's not really burnt though, you know, burnt. So you're not getting that, uh, you know, that, that marshmallow toasted marshmallow or the burnt cream smell.

A little bit of cherry going on. Yeah. Wow. That's just a good bourbon. Yeah. I'm ready to sip. I think I saw you cheat by the way. Always. Always. Cheers. Cheers. Not as sweet. That's the least sweet of the three we've had so far.

Yeah. So it was the nose led me to believe it might be a little sweeter, but it wasn't. And, um, it's almost a little drying on the back. Okay. I'm going to take a second sip. Yeah. This thing is level. It's like, it's perfectly hitting all points of the pallet. Like tap dancing on your tongue.

Yeah. It was like a honeycomb, like cereal vibe to me. Like, um, I liked it. The cherry is still there, but it's like, yeah, like, uh, honeycomb, honeycomb, honeycomb, or just trying to think it's been a while since I had honeycomb, but I think, I think you're onto something there. I like my cereals. I'm an old cereal kid. Yeah. I was one of those that used to, uh, eat all the regular stuff from my lucky charms, you know, the regular like cereal bits and save all my marshmallows till the end.

Oh my gosh.

You're, you're like, I was methodical. That's wild. That are weird. So most kids are just the opposite.

They're eating all the marshmallows and they throw the rest of it away. Savor the best for last. Right. That is delicious. That is really good. That is good. Yeah. A little drying, just a hair. Yep.

But I'm not, I'm not hating that.

No, no, it's, it's skillfully done. This is very balanced. As far as I'm concerned, extremely balanced. Well done. It's almost when you say, Hey, this is really a mid palette bourbon. It's because it's balanced so well that it hits the front. It hits the back. Everybody gets their tingling sensation, but it just sits in the middle and it sits. This one's sitting a long time. Yeah. Yeah. I would say the, the finish on this is extra lengthy because holding onto his flavor too, the dryness I think tends to help that a little bit.

Yeah. Man. This is going to be tough today and we've only gone through three of them. It's got a great mouth field too. Like it's.

Yeah. Really good. Um, yeah, it's going to be tough because two of the three in this first half are kind of close for me. Yeah, same. Um, and so it's going to be hard in the second half when we get the next one stuff. Yeah.

And we kind of know what's coming up too. So, but, uh, I'm trying to remember, you know, what's coming up. I know what's coming up.

All right. I could see the bottle, but I don't remember what it says.

So I guess the folks probably need to stick around and yeah. All right.

Well, I've got a little bit left in my glass too.

Let's, uh, I think I'm going to save a little bit this time because I think this is going to be a.

It's going to be tough today. Yeah. I didn't save any of my first pour. I saved a little of the second, a little of the third. So I might need to get a little bit more of that first one just to sit back here. Yep. And, uh, yeah, folks stick around. We've got two more pours in the second half. Todd's got some industry news for us. Uh, and of course at the end, winter, winter chicken dinner, you want to know who wins tonight. So 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 Frankfurt, Kentucky on the banks of the amazing Kentucky River.

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All right, welcome back listeners. We are getting ready to dive into two more pours today and another review show. We've had a lot of fun with the first three. We had the Brothers Bond Regenerative Grain Straight Bourbon. The second pour we had was the Buzzard's Roost Cigar Blend Bourbon. And lastly, the third pour we had was the Bardstown Discovery Batch 13, or Series 13, I should say.

Got your tallies in your head. Yeah, but they're all pretty close right now.

I think two outshine one, but those two are, yeah. We live in Kentucky, so if this is a horse race, right now they're kind of like neck and neck.

All right, well, so what do we have in our list? fourth glass.

Our fourth glass is from Cedar Ridge and this is their barrel proof bourbon. Yay. Yeah. 116 proof, the most popular bourbon in Iowa. It is. I read that it is the only state that It outshines Kentucky bourbon, which is just kind of like, you know, it's a Kentucky and it's kind of mindful.

Well, Iowans at their core are extremely loyal. They're very loyal people. It's kind of in their, it's in their blood. It's in their bones. And, you know, it certainly helps that Cedar Ridge bourbon is really good. It's really good, yes. It's really good. Single malts, bourbons, their eyes. And, you know, it is a big corn state. They make an awful lot of corn there. So, you know, even though Cedar Ridge has got some amazing single malt whiskeys, I mean, they're at the top of the game on single malts. Yes. Their bourbons are solid. And if you're in a state that's one big cornfield like Iowa, honestly, it is. It's huge.

Shipping the corn is probably not much of a cost for them. It's everywhere.

You've got to make bourbon. I mean, you just have to. Yeah, very loyal people. It's the only state in the country where a local craft distillery sells more than the big ones. Yeah. So I think.

Retails for 48.99. So that's a great price for 116 proof of urban, a mash bill of 74 corn, 14 malted rye, which is, that's kind of exciting. I know we are, we've become big malted rye fans and then 14 malted barley, aged char three barrels. And like I said, crafted, it's all Iowa corn.

Oh, I love that nose. And the prices are very approachable.

Yes. I mean, very approachable prices. I mean, that's almost right there with, uh, what green rivers foolproof, which we both love. I love it. Yeah. That's the baking spice.

Yeah, this is a, this is, yeah, this is a, uh, another one of those baking cabinet bourbons. It's really, it's really good. All right. Cheers. Cheers. barley kick something in there.

Oh, isn't that nice? It is. But it's like almost peachy.

Yeah. That's where that we're getting that stone fruit contribution.

Oh, that's fun. I like that. What else is going on with this?

I'm like, what are they doing to this thing? What's making it so interesting? You know,

It's so wild that, you know, malting the rye does that.

It gives it a whole different... It just changes the rye altogether. I mean, the rye just comes in more like, I don't know, sweeter, softer. Yes, this is sweet.

We're back to sweet. Yeah, we're definitely back to sweet. We kind of dropped down on the sweet level with that discovery, but this is like sweet peaches and there's a bit of spice.

All right, distilleries, I'm just telling you, if you're not working with malted rise, you ought to be. Yeah, I was going to say, play around a little. Play around a little bit because they really... And then send us samples. They really do contribute amazing flavored profiles to whisky. So even in small quantities.

Yeah. I've got a couple more releases that we'll let you folks know about. One of them is the Rabbit Hole has introduced Regalia, and you'll know why I said it that way as well. It's their newest limited edition distillery series, only available there at Rabbit Hole, so if you're coming in for bourbon on the banks, might stop in there if you're a big French Oak gang, because that's what Regalier is, a Kentucky straight bourbon, aged in French Oak cask. It's 108.5 proof and $49.99. Wow. Yeah.

Good deal. Another nice price. Yeah. So when you come into Louisville folks, you know, or you come into Lexington, it doesn't matter, but Rabbit Hole is, is, is in basically whiskey row.

So they're the downtown Louisville part of the trail. And a really nice spot. We got to visit there recently. That was my first time going there and really, really modern. Spare no expense. Yeah. Very nice. I was really impressed. And then one other quick one. Our good friends at Hard Truth have released a Mizunara finished sweet mash rye. We do love that sweet mash rye. Yes, we do. It's 124.7 proof. Wow. Yeah. They use 21 barrels. Their mash bill on those sweet mash ryes is 94% rye and 6% malted barley. That one retails for about $84.99. About 21 barrels at You got to figure what? 200. Maybe 4,000 bottles or so, give or take. Doing our bourbon math, or rye math in this case.

But yeah, keep a lookout. I love everything from Hard Truth. I do too. I don't think I've ever had a bottle of anything from there. Now their Sipes whiskey was just, it was a good average.

Yeah, but that's the one I think, isn't it, sourced from MGP? That could be. I think that was the one that kind of started their game rolling, if you will. And again, one of the coolest places you could ever check out. I mean, that place is so cool. It's worth a weekend. Yeah.

Well, not, you won't spend the whole weekend there with that little town is worth a weekend.

Agreed. I mean, you could say a hard truth for the weekend for sure. I mean, they'll probably have some music. There's beer. If you're not, if bourbon's not your thing.

Yeah, they've got, they've got Airbnb's right on site. So it's a neat place. Pretty cool.

Can anything else on this one?

It's got a little bit of a freshness to it. A little bit of tea, maybe. I like that. Yeah. Like a sweet tea. Like a, yeah. Um, like not a real dark tea, like a light tea. Yeah. Sweet tea kind of goes, I like that. Okay.

Cause I don't know what, like, you know, I've seen like Pico and things like that, but I'm not a big tea.

It's not a Chinese tea.

My tea is either sweet or unsweet.

This is more of an English sometimes, sometimes green. You like green tea every once in a while.

Change of pace.

That's good. That's good stuff.

Are you ready to move on to number five? Let's move on. All right. So shout out to our friends at Hello Again Whiskey Friends. That would be Jeff Wack, who's been on an episode. We ran him through all the Four Roses limited editions there and we had a great time. Super great guy. Love Jeff. But he and Darrell, one of his other co-hosts have been raving about this and he sent me a bottle out of the blue. So I was very thankful. So it's called Silver Spring Sweet Rye and it's from J.W. Kelly out of Chattanooga, Tennessee. So it's source, it's Kentucky rye, and it is 65 rye, 15 corn, 20% malted barley.

Heavy malted barley content.

And retails get this, $39.99.

So here we got a Kentucky rye. This is a Kentucky rye out of Tennessee.

And I want to say this is 122 proof. And this is a single barrel. These are all kind of single barrels. So I've seen them varying from like 112 to 122 proof. So this is kind of a new place. And so apparently J.W. Kelly was kind of a grocer back in the 1860s. Started in Chattanooga and I guess started a distillery there. And he was kind of a pioneer for his use for pot distillation there in Chattanooga. and custom mixtures of corn, malted rye and barley. And the funny thing is that the Silver Springs label has been around for a long time, but back in those days, it was a corn whiskey. So I'm not sure why they decided to go with the rye, but. All right. So the rumor is this might be new riff.

Oh, okay.

I know.

Oh, that's got a,

I could have brought another bourbon for us to try, but I was like, Jim and I need some rye.

I'm trying to nail that, that, that aroma I'm getting. It's a, it's really like, uh, not rye like.

No. And I would, yeah, I would totally agree with that.

It's a, it's like a fig. Ooh, a fig. Definitely a fig. And I'm wondering if the rye in this isn't, Malted it's not though, is it?

It didn't say that the ride was malted. There's plenty of malted barley in it though. Get in there deep. I'm getting like this almost like Sprite, like lemon lime. I remember my friend Jeff calling that out and I'm getting that like a lemon lime combo.

Yeah, I'm getting a little bit of that. I think it's a, there's a bit of freshness on it. And yes, it's almost effervescent. Yeah. Yeah. Effervescent.

All right. Check it out. Cheers. Cheers.

That's good. That's good whiskey. That's really good whiskey.

Yeah.

Man, I would not say this is a rye.

I know.

No way.

I would never have guessed it. This would be like the best blind for like someone who thinks they know everything. This is a change of pace for sure on a rye. Yeah.

You can fool some people with this one for sure.

There's like cherry strawberries. It's very fruity. It's got a pretty good color to it. It's a big part. I think he said this particular single barrel, they did some digging of some sort, maybe about eight years.

So, okay. That's a good whiskey. I think it's, um, it's kind of an outlier though.

It's got kind of a cotton candy vibe too. Whereas a lot of times you'll get like that rock candy, but this is almost like, like I said, like light and airy, but now I'm getting a little darker notes too. I'm getting darker, like cacao, like getting none in the chocolate. And there's that little like white pepper and rye spice at the tail end now. That second sip kind of brought that out.

It's really good. I mean, this is a good whiskey. No doubt about it. And I can see why they rave about it. It's, it's good. It's just like, um, it's kind of a dark horse though. It's like, it really doesn't like fit. It doesn't fit what it is.

Yeah.

Like it's like, nah.

Yeah. If you poured that for somebody and said, tell me if this is a bourbon or rye, I think you would probably get a lot of bourbon. Answers, don't you?

Yeah, I mean, I might go high right bourbon. I would never say rye though. And this isn't secondary barrel finished or anything like that.

No, I don't know. Kind of odd, but it's good. It's really delicious. Must be that. I mean, that malted barley, that heavy malted barley content is kind of like taking it to a new place, if you will.

Yeah, it kind of morphed a little bit. It did. It started out with a kind of a, a darker fig note. And then, uh, I think you drew that, uh, that sort of fresh citrus out for me there in a little bit. The sweetness is good. It's, um, a little dry on the back and not too bad. The, the finish. It turns a little, like it's good, but it turns a little to the bitter side. Do you think? Okay.

You getting that? Okay.

A little bit.

It lingers though. That spice really lingers a lot. It does.

Yep.

But at 40 bucks, yeah, I think. What a value. Yeah.

Yeah. Great value. Yeah, I think this, uh, as much as this has changed, just in the few minutes we've been sipping, I think this is worthy of a longer time. Uh, you spend more time with us, I think. I think so too. The other ones kind of revealed themselves pretty quick and they were sort of hung out there.

This one, dare we say it might go well with a cigar.

It might go well with a cigar.

That's right.

All right. So we have five whiskeys down the hatch.

This is going to be tough today.

Is it?

I think so. I'm going to go back to this one real quick.

I'm zipping back through them too.

Wow. That's changed. And I'm sure it's because we're falling out with that rye. All right.

Oh yeah.

I think I'm ready. You're still debating.

I'm still debating.

You got your thinking cap on. I can see it.

I mean, one and two are pretty clear for me. The three's not. All right. Shall I start? Yeah.

Okay. My number three. Drum roll. It's going to be that Silver Springs Rye. I like it. I like that it's really different. It's not a normal rye, which is kind of fun. It's not that candied orange you get sometimes. It's not that minty rye spice. It's got something else going on. It's kind of fun.

I mean, I really have a tie for third. I really have a tie for third and I'm having a hard time figuring out which is which. Well, you can say both. We'll allow it this one time. All right. Well, I'll tell you what, I will definitely go with your, um, your pick for number three silver spring. Um, I thought it was very unique and it was out of the box and it was really good. But at the same time that Cedar Ridge bourbon was, I thought it was pretty tasty.

You know, it's funny as I would almost agree. Like it was really close between those two. Yeah.

So close between those. I hated to pick one over the other, but I think I should still pick, and I think I'll go with the silver spring simply because out of the box different.

Yeah.

Totally different. Although I would say that the, the bourbon from Cedar Ridge would probably be what I would reach for.

Yeah. It also had that unique thing that the peach. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, very close, very close there. I would even add like they're all close to night.

Yeah.

I don't know. This has been a fun tasting, but yeah.

My number two, my number two is going to be the cigar blend.

Oh, we're going to vary tonight. Okay. I'm spoilers.

Okay.

My number two is going to be the discovery.

Okay.

I liked it. I feel like I'd like some of the past ones a little better and it's delicious. You get a chance, try it, buy it. Yeah, that kind of thing. But it's going to be my number two.

Your number two is the? Discovery 13.

Because my number one is going to be the cigar blend.

My number one is the Discovery. So we're just flip-flopped on one and two. But for me, these guys at Bardstown Bourbon can do no wrong. I mean, they're just masters at what they do. Really good. And, but I, you know, I really liked the cigar blend and it had a really good finish on it. And it had a lot going on and a lot of flavors kind of revealed themselves early on. I think, I think he did, they did a great job for me at a little sweet, but that's okay. That's all right. I think it's.

That new, like new leather nose really intrigued me. This is something I have, like you'll get like the old leather, you know, darker notes. So this was like, just popping this like new, like I said, that get into a car, like for the first time kind of thing. And that's what that's what sealed it for me today.

Yeah.

Yeah. Great whiskeys.

I'm going to I want to combine them, though.

Oh, I'm going to do it. All right. It never works. It must.

It never works. It always turns out worse. But we'll see.

And I'll add, like, if you see that brother's bond restored of Graham Bourbon, I mean, at that price at 49.99, it's a good, it's a good buy. I think it just got a little out complex tonight.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, there was some complex bourbons. Definitely for sure.

But it's hard to like, you know, when we get stuff, I try to like, you know, sometimes I'll have something set aside for one of these and I'll get something else. And I'm like, you know, I want to kind of keep it balanced without like, You know, sometimes there's always like, if we get a King of Kentucky, like I wouldn't want to throw up with this. It's just going to dominate more than likely. So it's, it's hard to put them all together sometimes. I mean, sometimes they get out proof, but I mean, again, if you recall that, that rye, it was the lowest proof that we had that time with the restorative grain rye. blew us both away. So you see this.

Yeah. I mean, if you say anything with brother's bond on it, grab it. It's all good stuff. It's all fairly priced. So they've priced their whiskeys to move. They want to sell whiskey. You know, they do like, um, playing around and having fun by the same token. They like moving bottles. So they price them fairly.

Yeah. They do some fun YouTube videos and things too.

Actually, the blend today was good. Oh, it's good. It actually, it rarely turns out, but this time I think it turned out. I don't think it's better than the best of the five, but it's somewhere nicely in the middle. So I took five really good whiskeys and made one really good whiskey.

You're a master blender now.

Yeah.

That's been a lot of fun, Todd. Yeah. So it was a great tasting. I mean, we always have great tastings, but this one really stood out like some really unique flavors today, I thought. And yeah, some, and some fairly affordable ones. Like I said, that's Silver Springs at 39.99 for 122 proof rye.

So we're looking forward to seeing everybody at bourbon on the banks here in a couple of days. Coming soon.

I've got my, I actually, you are wearing a shirt. That's right. It's a good looking shirt this year. Yep. They have some black ones and I'm actually wearing, I guess it would maybe it's not quite Royal blue, a little, I don't know. What would you call that, Jim? It's kind of a, uh, just a blue.

I don't know.

It's not Kentucky. I was going to say, I should go, we should go to Lowe's after this and we can figure it out because I can stand and we can figure out the, uh, by the paint.

Well, I think when this episode releases, I think it'll be the week of bourbon on the banks. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I'm taking a stab at it here. So, um, that would mean that if you're listening to this episode now and it's freshly released, This weekend is bourbon on the banks.

Hopefully we're seeing you and shaking hands. I hope so.

I hope everybody shows up.

We've got some really neat stuff planned this year. Going to have a lot of fun. Yeah. It's going to be some great single barrels. to be had, and I mean, it's going to be a lot of fun. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.

Yeah, like the day before. Like, start hydrating. Like, if you're coming to the Bourbon on the Banks Festival on Saturday, you need to be drinking lots of water on Friday. Yeah. It's a marathon, not a race.

Yep. That's a big wise lesson. And have fun. And thank you for coming to my town. and just have fun. I mean. Yeah.

And if you didn't get tickets, please come anyway. I mean, come anyway. So you can't get to the tasting event. Big deal. The town is on fire that weekend. Yeah. It's a great time. There's a lot going on. And you don't need tickets for the rest of it.

Right. And apparently, like, I forget his name, the singer that's doing the free concert after the event, he's got quite a following. So it's going to be, I don't know. That parking lot may be swarmed. I'm not sure. Yeah. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of our roadies. I know I'm actually going to probably put a post out here soon, which it'll be going on, but we're going to find out who's coming. I may have a kind of a fun welcome to welcome to the bourbon on the banks prize or giveaway kind of thing. Yeah.

Well, we'll get some pores for sure. That's definitely on the menu. All right. Well, it's been a great show, Todd. Really appreciate you lining up the bottles for us tonight and thank you to the distilleries and friends who provided those bottles. Yes. And it's always great to have a great lineup of pours so we can get through a number of expressions. Hopefully, you know, add some knowledge to your, uh, to your buying power. So if you're out there buying whiskies, hopefully you're listening to the show and you've got a few ideas today. And not all these whiskies are expensive. Some of them are fairly priced. So in fact, most of them are fairly priced.

What was our range? Maybe like 39 to 80. Oh, that's one 40. Yeah. The bar sounds one 40. So.

And what was the wood? Oh, the Woodford. We just talked about Woodford. We just talked about, but yeah. Yeah.

But it sounds amazing. It does sound I'm intrigued.

All right. All right folks. We 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 single week. Todd and I get together. Sometimes we'll have a guest on sometimes it's just Todd and I like tonight. We will definitely be having fun, lots of laughs, drinking whiskey. It's always a good time. And hopefully by the end of each show, we've, uh, brighten your day just a little bit and introduce you to some whiskies that you may want to try either as a pour in a bar, or are you going to go get a bottle? So, uh, we hope you'll listen to us every single week. The best way not to miss a show is to scroll to the top of the app you're on. You're already listening to us. So just scroll up there, hit that subscribe button, and then you don't have to worry about it anymore. Every week when we drop an episode, you'll get that notification that we've done it. You can throw them headphones on and do what you do and enjoy another show from the Bourbon Road. We'd love you to join the roadies. Go to the Facebook group called the bourbon roadies and join up a couple of quick questions to get in there and, and you'll be part of the crew in there. Just talking about bourbon pictures of bourbon friends, family outings, paintings, paintings, just good, good wholesome fun around people, you know, people that just enjoy whiskey. We hope you go to our website to the bourbon road.com. our t-shirts are on their glass, where all the things that if you pick something up from there, that money will help Todd and I get down the road and do that next interview. So we always appreciate it when somebody places an order online. But until the next time, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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