470. Jim Returns for a Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

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

We've got a great show for you today, so grab your favorite four and join us. All right, listeners, welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road. We're going to do a little review show. Jim, where are we at today?

Well, we're at the Cornrick House in Frankfort, Kentucky. It's good to be back together once again, Todd. Last week I was traveling, and you put out a fantastic episode, sort of an essay read.

Yeah, it was new news and old news, kind of.

Yeah, kind of. Really good. I enjoyed it a lot. It was a lot of fun.

It's hard to read an old PDF. Well, it was a PDF that is literally copied off of the actual document that I read. I apologize if there were a few stumbles or goofballs or yeah, some run on sentences, you know, Hey, somebody else's words, not yours.

And quite a notable character anyway.

So yeah, I think what was neat about that is, you know, you hear him, Eh Taylor being described as the PT Barnum. bourbon. And I think that's true. That literally was like a love letter and this is Kentucky bourbon.

You know, it was- Yeah. It's almost like, and you think about it, it's almost like he was promoting Kentucky bourbon to the world. He was P.T. Barnum selling a circus to the world.

I mean, it was- Comparing it to the Irish whiskey, comparing it to German beer, comparing it to scotch. And although he did like That Regens thing, like he brought some of the best beers are made in Germany. And I think many folks I think.

He gave credit where credit was due, but he was sure to bring home the bourbon.

That's right, right.

He wanted to make that money. And he was all about quality. There's no doubt about it. Yes, for sure. Quality was his job number one, it seemed like.

And there were a couple other things. Seeing that name, I think it was Lester Easter Day. And I was like, that's a name I've never heard in like Frankfurt in Kentucky. I went and looked at Chester Zoller's book. I texted Drew. I texted Brian Hara. I texted all these bourbon historians. They're like very little. I mean, I found his grave was like in Carroll County, Kentucky. But I just thought it was odd that that was a name he brought up. And then James Crow, although you'll notice, there was no Dr. James Crow. It was just James Crow. So I've been doing a little deep dive on that guy just to find out who he is. How about that?

Well, you'll have to let us know what you find out.

I know. I'm becoming Drew Hannes Jr., I guess.

Cause he was like, let me know what you find out. It's a lot of fun digging into that old information and uncovering something maybe new that somebody else hasn't really talked about. So it's always good. All right. So we have four whiskies. Once again, Todd, you have put together a tasting panel for our show here today. And why don't you tell us a little bit about, well, do you want to talk about them all as a group or do you just want to talk about number one?

Let's start with number one. That's usually what we do and then we'll have our Kentucky Derby, our win places show at the end. As we warned you a couple episodes back, we have a lot of samples to go through and we'd like to get through them before the end of the year so they might have a chance at that claim to fame.

The Bourbon Road Bourbon of the Year. I hope everybody's taking notes for their Christmas list. When everybody asks them, what do they want for Christmas? They can say, I'd really like to have that whatever bottle. Why not?

Yeah. So we're bringing it a little bit back down to earth. That last tasting we did, that was some top notch stuff. Yeah. And a little better values today. OK, good deal. So up first is Burnt Tavern, Bourbon. And these folks were there at Bourbon on the banks. And, you know, we were just swamped. Yeah. And we didn't get to go out very much. No. And it was one of those I was like, huh, what's that about? And so I'm thinking we probably need to go check them out, but I did grab their bourbon a couple of weeks ago, I think, at Capital Cellars here in town. So a little bit about this. Of course, it's in Kentucky. I believe it's eight years old and it's got history behind it. So the tavern's origin, the burnt tavern we're talking about, was in Garrett County, known as Bryantfield, Kentucky. Due to two separate fires, the tavern was twice burnt and rebuilt, earning its legendary name, Burnt Tavern. So William Berkeley, was the first to, I guess he had a distillery near this tavern and it was called the William Berkeley Distilling. And so they've decided to reestablish it in 2023. And if you recall, During the Bluegrass episode, the name Chip Tate was called up by Sam Rock. We were talking about just names and just cool sounding names and he said something about Chip Tate and I was like, yours is pretty cool too, Sam. And so Chip Tate originally started at Balcones and he's working with these folks now. So what they do and what they're looking for is a whisper of smoke. The bourbon's unique flavor is a direct result of the production method overseen by master distiller Chip Tate, a famed wood finishing expert. It's a seven-year-old Kentucky straight bourbon balled 105 proof, double barreled, Um, so after aging traditional barrels, the bourbon is double barreled in two unique, slowly toasted and charred secondary barrels. The process is key to giving it signature taste. Wow. And, um, I'm kind of looking forward to it. I previewed this one.

Did you? Yeah. So I'm interested in seeing what you think. All right. I'm on the nose. Oh, yeah. Definitely.

Definitely got like a burnt cherries.

Smoky cherries. Smoky cherries. Yeah. What's a cherries flambé? Is that what that is? Yeah. The dessert. Oh, where they catch them on fire and bring it to the table. Yeah. Oh yeah. Maybe. A lot of caramel. Yeah. A little bit of leather.

Oak. Yeah.

It's got a little bit of everything. This was a year, you said?

Seven years. I apologize. Yes.

105 proof. All right. Cheers. Cheers. Really kind of sweet. Yes. Very sweet. Nice bite. Okie. Okie, yes.

Little wisp of that like lechar.

Yeah, so it is on the palate as well, but not as much as it was on the nose, I think. But it definitely, it matches. It has a great flavor. I know. It's kind of an interesting like quick impression of sweetness that it gives you. It's like, wow.

And then the O says, Oh, here I come. Yep. Definitely. It's chewy. It's got a nice viscosity despite being 105. The color's nice and dark too.

I'm sitting here looking at the bottle and at my glass and they're both like once chocolate, the bottle is chocolate dark and the glass is like a near mahogany.

A lot of caramel brown sugar. It's classic notes, but I think the one thing that signs shines is that like little bit of sweet smoke. That's a nice touch.

It's almost like sweet barbecue, like KC barbecue a little bit. I could get that. Yeah. Sort of a, take it down the barbecue line here. Now it's got a little bit of sweetness to it. Now you start to get a little brown sugar and molasses in my brain anyway. You know, not so much on the palate, but I'm thinking about the things that mean barbecue here.

Right. Things that would go great with, by the way. We don't want to scare you off. Like we're saying smoke, but it's nothing. It's a whisper. Yeah. It is truly a whisper. Yeah.

What is it about burnt taverns? Didn't the Talbot Tavern burn twice, too, in Bradstown? Oh, I'm not sure. I think it did. I mean, I've been doing a lot of research lately in Kentucky, and I keep coming across taverns burning. It just seems to be a thing, and I just wonder what it was. Drunk people smoking? Is that what it was?

Maybe. I mean, I know distilleries back in the day used to burn like, yeah, the rick house would go up.

Yeah. I mean, I guess, you know, everything was flammable because, you know, candles everywhere and somebody gets a little tipsy and knocks one over.

I was going to say that was one of the things that put E.H. Taylor into a financial bind was, I think. One or two of his deserters caught fire. There's also the Burnt Church, which I've yet to have anything from them. The one in South Carolina. Yeah. I've heard really good things about it.

Yeah, I've had the Johnny Fever. OK. It's really good. Yeah. I mean, I liked it. It actually came out of Jeff The Creed.

Oh, OK. That's right. I think I did know that. But yeah, I was pleasantly surprised. It's kind of fun. $69.99.

Yeah, I think it's a fair price. This is a good whiskey. It has something new, something interesting. I mean, I'm not saying we haven't had smoked, Whisper Smoke whiskies before we have.

We recently had that holiday.

But this one has just kind of this real off-balance sweetness with that smoke. It's kind of interesting. It definitely does go down the kind of the barbecue line a little bit, I think.

So yeah, we may have to reach out to them. Yeah, absolutely. I thought that was kind of fun.

All right. Got your notes locked in? Yeah, I think I'm good. I'm going to save a little bit this time. OK, yeah. A couple of reasons. I want to revisit, because I get the feeling today that these are all going to be contenders. And if they are, I want to be able to go back and check my notes. And I also want to do the big mix at the end, too, so.

Of course you do. And yeah, like I said, I try to, my goal each time I do this is to kind of, you know, sometimes there's a superstar. Like when we did that beacon, I knew that was just gonna. You know, you are a turkey guy. So I knew that was going to floor you because it had already floored me.

I keep looking at that sample. You left me thinking, what special occasion am I going to sit down and drink this sample bottle?

I can always give you more.

It's fine. I can also go out and find a bottle, I hope. Good luck. Really? Yeah. What's the secondary on that now?

I think it's dropping. I think it's down to 450. OK, wow. Which it was running around 600 at one point.

Maybe I can trade a couple of those Starbucks bears for it. No.

A Starbucks bear.

I didn't know that was a thing. Yeah. Starbucks has got this little glass bear with a cap on it. You could buy a glass of cold brew in or something. It's a seasonal thing, but apparently there's been a run on them and they're selling for hundreds of dollars online now.

So it's kind of the new, what is it, Stanley Cup, I guess? Kind of. Yeah, a little bit. I didn't get that whole, I'm like, why are those? I don't know. Isn't it weird?

People just want to say, I got one. I got one. Which I guess kind of follows suit with bourbon. You're like, I got one.

You know, if you get like a beacon, you're like, I got one. I got one. It's so true.

Very proud.

All right, so we ready to dive in the pore tube? Let's move on. I'm going to rinse my palate a little bit, get that... Yeah, I did a couple of times already.

I need to clean up and get ready for this next one here.

All right, so this is Gypsy. So another Eric Church. Another Eric Church. If you recall, we... We had their double barrel not too long ago, nice, and that was a little lower price, but this is one of their legacy batches. This is 003, and we had batch 002, I want to say last year, towards the end of the year as well. I believe it had some Canadian rye, the Indian single malt, and some Kentucky bourbon. Yeah, I remember now. It was kind of Amroot, Bardstown Amroot-esque, if I can say that or not. And we were really, really wowed. We were really impressed by it, I remember. Yeah, really, really good. So this, like I said, this is their third limited edition release, The Declaration. It's a brand, as you said, co-founded by country music star Eric Church and entrepreneur Raj Alva. This expression is a unique, high-proof blend of source whiskeys that pays tribute to America's history and the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Wow. So, their goal with this was to reimagine a colonial era, Maryland-style rye, which when we hear the blend, I'm kind of like, I'm not really seeing that, but- Reimagine says they're going to play with it a little bit. Yes. I think they took a lot of liberties. So, three distinct age whiskey components. 60% of this is a blend of 8 to 12-year-old 95-5 rye from Indiana. which was finished in Apple brandy barrels, sourced from George Washington's Mount Vernon Distillery. Oh, cool. So a little slice of history. 30% is a corn whiskey, 20 to 25 year old blend of Canadian, sorry, Canadian corn whiskey, re-barreled in new American oak for two and a half years to add depth vanilla and all that kind of thing.

20 to 25 year?

Yeah.

Wow, this is some ancient corn whiskey.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that was 30%. And then the last 10% is an eight year old American single malt from Virginia. Huh. I'm just trying to think who that might be. I think I have a few guesses.

I mean, not really old Scouts thing, but what's that one?

Anyway, 115.74 proof, and this retails for $199.99. And just a reminder, we did have that batch O2, it was called the Alchemist.

Okay. Now we told everybody at the beginning of the show, there's a more moderately priced whiskey.

Well, this one, yeah.

Yeah, this one's a little bit higher. A little bit higher. Quite a bit higher, but yeah. Oh, it's got a great nose. Love it. I am definitely picking up that 10% malt. See, I was thinking I'm getting like that sweetness from the corn whiskey, I think. I think we're getting that too. Just a little bit of mint from the rye. Yeah, it's got that fresh nose to it.

This one's not as expressive as the first one, though.

But how much corn sweetness is left in a 25-year-old corn whiskey?

I guess we'll find out what 30% of it does.

Okay. So what was the proof again? 115.74. Definitely not on the nose 115. This is very subtle. There's no big giant notes jumping out. It's got a really well-balanced nose to it. The ethanol for 115 is just not there.

I'm ready to sip. Cheers. Cheers.

That's got some depth. Oh wow. Oh yeah. There's a lot of barrel on the mid palette.

Now the proof is there on the palette too.

It is, it is.

That was his first sip. I'm going back in. Oh yeah. That's unique.

Mexican chocolate.

Are you getting that?

Yep. A little bit of pepper.

Yes. The pepper like white peppers there for sure.

It's really good. It's got kind of a, not a really dark color, nice color to it, but not super dark.

The rye sticks out to me a lot now. That second step seemed to bring it more into play. Okay. I'm kind of losing the single malt in this. I'm kind of, maybe just kind of. Soften it up a little.

Yeah, 10%. I think it just, it gives you that sort of that malt component. Yeah, a little more depth maybe. I think that there's some richness coming off that corn whiskey, some really Okay. I mean that's at 30%. It's, it's probably contributed quite a bit. Plus it hit that new oak. Was it true?

Yeah.

Um, we're just new oak toasted.

It's the new American oak. They don't say what the char was or toast. And that was two and a half years though, to add some depth. And I think it worked. Yeah. This is a spicy little meatball.

I'm not really getting the 95.5 gist of it. A great bit.

It's there. It's more like a citrusy rye. I mean, you know, 95.5 from MGP can have a lot of big citrus notes, I think.

This is fun. Yeah. Yeah. This is one to sit with for a while. I guess at the end of the day, when you look at this, it's sitting 40% other greens. So I would say it's a little more along the lines of what you might get with a well-aged Kentucky rye, but not the 90, not 95, five. You're not getting that. You're not getting any like clove or dill or I'm not anyway.

No, no.

That sits on the tongue for a long time. This is a really good whiskey. I think I would like to sit down with this for a bit.

Yeah, I agree. Um, I've been very impressed with this and that, that, um, the alchemist as well.

But is this supposed to like evoke, I mean, they said re-imagining a Maryland rye.

Are you getting that apple brandy finish? I'm not. It's kind of there. Because I'm thinking of those lost lantern apple brandy finishes we had. And there's just this, apple brandy isn't as apple-y as you think it would be.

I just think that the oak component of this is so impressive. It really does command the palate. It's really good. Another really good whiskey. This would be a good porch whiskey. I think it would stand up to a cigar. I certainly think it's something for a slow sipping evening. You're not going to pound these down. You don't want to pound these down. You just want to enjoy it, relax with it, think about it. Um, yeah. And all alone by yourself on the back porch whiskey. I mean, of course you can share it with friends. I'm just saying, that's the memory I'm getting. That's the thought I'm getting in my head is just sitting out there by myself, just appreciating a whiskey like this. Yeah. When you're trying to hide from the wife, instead of drying dishes or something.

What are you doing?

Work, work reviewing whiskeys. That's right. Thinking.

Yeah, this is impressive. It's getting a little sweeter the more I sip it. And I think that's, like you said, that corn whiskey component.

There's an interesting spice note on it. Um, and I just think it, to me, it just comes across as like, uh, cacao and cayenne kind of, kind of like a Mexican chocolate kind of thing.

I liked it.

I liked this pour. Yeah. Two winners. Really good. So what is that now from Gypsy? Their legacy batches, that's the third one.

Did you try their first one way back when? Like I said, I got the second one in for us to try. I didn't try their first one. I don't recall the name of it, but well done. I'm curious to know what it was like. If I could find it somewhere in a bar, I'd love to try it just because Yeah, I was supposed to be saving a little bit. Both of these two that we've had have been really interesting. Absolutely. And I like the approach of doing something a little different. It's kind of neat, kind of interesting.

Well, I think I want to get just a little bit more of that as we move into the break here. That sounds like a plan. So I can sip on it and still have some leftover for a second look. That's right. Sounds great.

All right.

We'll be right back, folks. All right. All right, listeners, welcome back. We had a nice little break there. I did manage to get a little bit more of that gypsy declaration that I could sip on during the break. So not only did I get a second look at it, but I also got to keep just a little bit here for later as we get down to the wire. We start thinking about winter, winter chicken dinner. I also really appreciated the smoky, the whisper on that burnt tavern in the first half.

Yeah, I like that. Really unique. Actually, those are two really unique pours. I mean, not your normal... Bourbon or whiskey, I don't think.

I mean, I really love Bourbon on the Bank. I have a great time there. It's always wonderful to see all of our friends come down and visit, but we didn't get to actually go out and do our thing, to do the thing, to visit like Burton Tavern and talk to them and see what they're all about. But nevertheless, we had a great time. And so you've got two more for us here in the second half, Todd. What are we starting out with?

So these two are coming from the same place and that's the Pursuit Night of guys, Kenny and Ryan, Kenny Coleman and Ryan Cecil. They started out as a podcast, the Pursuit, and they are awesome and they are friendly. And, you know, I reached out to them. to get some information on these. And sometimes you're like, when you email somebody that, I don't want to say it's a celebrity or anything like that. I remember emailing Drew Hanisch and I was like, he probably won't email back. But in the whiskey world, they usually get back to you. And it was like an hour later. He sent me all these specs. So the funny thing is about some of the notes and info about these bottles is directly from his texting lips, if you will.

Fantastic.

So this is a Pursuit United Kodama Mizunara, a limited edition bourbon pursuit spirits that blends a Japanese Mizunara oak finish with an infrared toasted American oak finish. So per Kenny. 80% of this is the Mizunara and then 20% is their regular blend.

Is blend the right word?

Yeah. Like I said, they take Virginia, Bardstown, and New York on their bourbon and blend it to make their bourbon. Then they use Maryland and Kentucky for their rye. So Kodama, I heard from Kenny, means spirit of the trees in Japanese. Ah, OK. So I thought it was my, you know, if you recall, we had the Hokkaido from Bardstown, which is a region. So I thought Kodama might be a region as well. But nope, Kenny was kind enough to say that is the spirit of the trees. Let's see, barrel proof. So 117 proof, $89.99. and only available at the gift shop.

Okay. So 89.99. That's pretty nice to hear. Yeah. Especially for Mizunara. Yeah. Mizunara is not a cheap finish to play around with. Yeah. Mizunara barrels are, they're very expensive barrels.

Because they're very hard to come by and make.

Yeah. Well you might pay upwards of $500 for an oak barrel. Yeah. You could pay many thousands of dollars for a Mizunara barrel depending on which one you get. So.

And shout out to Mike Dollar. He was the kind cell that sent us a couple of samples of this. Fantastic. Thank you, Mike. He's a roadie and great guy. Long time roadie, great guy.

Fantastic. Oh, the nose. Fresh, fresh nose.

That's like walking into a forest.

Yeah, walking into a forest, but there are, there are, there are floral aspects to it. Like, uh,

Since it's Japanese, would you say cherry blossoms?

Cherry blossoms maybe?

I'd like to envision that now they're all like fresh and in a forest.

Yeah, I'd like to say I smell Japanese things, lotus and all that kind of stuff. Is lotus Chinese?

They're playing the like plinky, you know, you're just strolling in a garden.

It's amazing the visions that come to life when you're sipping on Mizunara.

Fantastic.

Great nose. Very respectful of the Mizunara finish. Not overly done.

You said the reason they added the 20% of their regular blend is just kind of, just kind of tweak it and make it a little different than everybody else's Mizunara. Sure. Oh, I love this nose.

And another one that's not, you know, not nosing its proof. Not one. Yeah, I'd agree.

All right. I'm ready to sip this garden walk. Garden walk. That's really good. That is really good. gives things a different, it's hard to describe. Yeah. It's a little bit savory, but it's hard to put into words.

Yeah. It's like a less, uh, tannic oak. It's like a more, um, yeah. Savory I think is a good word. It doesn't take you down that dry path as much. And I've had some that give it a little, almost like a light Ambarana, but I'm not getting that at all.

Like a little bit of that cinnamon, like churro kind of thing.

Mmm. This would go, go with a little Shabu Shabu. Just saying. There's a little bit of like green apple going on for me. Caramel. It does have a nice.

It's really rich and got a great mouth. Yeah.

Right. It's got a great, like fresh nose to it. I'd almost say a fresh palette too.

Fresh palette. It's very like bright and Bright and savory.

Very balanced, very well put together. The notes in the palette really do match well. It drinks below its proof, but it's got plenty of bold, deep, rich flavor to it. The finish is hanging in there. It's sticky.

Little rich caramels coming out now.

I'm not getting a lot of late spice on it. No, it's on the front of the tongue though. Yeah. You know, I think it's great. I think it's wonderful. It's well-crafted.

Really good. It's a really good mezzanine.

My goodness. What a great price. Yes. Five years ago, we would have said $89, but you know, things have changed. We are where we are. We are where we are.

And they're, you know, they're small operation, although they're doing great things.

Well, I think they've kept the majority of their expressions in a very approachable range on price, which is good. They're available to the masses. They're available to their listeners and their followers. And they've done a great job of making sure that they've stayed very marketable, very relative in today's market.

Right. And they've just opened their new spot downtown. It's in between, I believe, Green River and Bardstown. I know it's beside Green River. I can't remember the other one. So if you're down that way, check them out. And they may have some bottles of this. I've heard really good things. They've invited us up, but things are slowing down. So maybe I can get up there soon. Sun's no longer in soccer games and soccer practices. No winter sports? No. I mean, he's going to have some soccer workout type things eventually, which will be good for him, because otherwise, he'll just sit around and play video games all day.

A little bit of that went down the wrong pipe.

That's right. Love when that happens. So you're wanting to get everything out of it and you're kind of like, like you try to do the inhale through the nose and mouth at the same time and it just goes south.

I'm not coordinated like that.

It just goes south and you're like, I've been there and done that.

All right. So wow. Three for three. Yeah. This is going to be a tough, this is going to be a tough night. Um, I think. Yeah, it's going to be hard.

But we'll have to do it. All right. All right. As I said, we've got two of their products. So this is their old anvil. This is 11 summers old. This is in a 375 bottle. Very similar, if you recall, we had the Melwood bottled and blind and the Derby town, which Florida's that was our, that was our winner for the day. Right. It was good. And I believe that was an eight year product of theirs. So this is 119.4 proof, Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. And this is straight from straight from Kenny's mouth. So the mash bill is 70, 21, nine. Okay. A Heaven Hill one-off mash bill run. He said they acquired the barrels when they were five years old and they sucked. And that is a straight quote from him. So they waited six years and they were magical. A one-time thing and we can't recreate it. And that is a pint and it's 99.99, but that is, you know.

It's one of those things. It's wild that they could take something that was a net loss maybe and turn it into something that they could sell pints at a hundred bucks.

Yeah. Wow. So I'm excited to try this. I've heard great things. All right.

Let's check it out. Okay.

I could get the kind of heaven hill thing, but it's a little different. It doesn't quite have that.

Yeah.

Peanut shell.

Yeah. I'm not, I'm not like zeroing in on heaven hill here, but. But I am getting like a rich fruity caramel. There's something else going on there though. A little mineral sting to it. Mineral sting. That's a new one. Yeah. It's an interesting nose though. I love when I pick up that kind of Kind of like a wet stone.

Like after a rain or something?

Yeah. But like if you take a limestone and you know, you just sort of after a rain, you smell it. It's just, yeah, it's kind of like that.

Okay.

I like it. A little bit of leather.

Eleven years old, so it should. Yeah. Yep. All right. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh, wow. That's very, Oh, rich. Um, Serpy. Yeah.

It's very, um, it comes off more heaven hillish on the palette.

Yeah.

A little vanilla cream and it tastes like a really good ECBP a little bit, but it's a little, there's something else kind of going on there too.

Yeah, it's definitely a little bit of icing, a little bit of vanilla cream, kind of creme brulee. A little coconut.

Coconut, ooh, I didn't catch that. As he said, it was kind of a one-off. So they're having Hills regular match bill is 78, 12, 10.

Okay. So that's the 20, no 70, 21, nine, right? Yes. Yeah. So just a slight tweak.

Yeah. But it's odd. I'm not getting that peanut, peanut shell at all. Once again, this is going to be available. I think he said he had like four cases left, which means about 24 bottles at their place in Louisville. And that's the only place you can get that gift shop. That's not a whole lot. Nope. Glad we got one.

All right, glad I got one. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I think it's really good. You know, those guys, again, they really know what they're doing. They really do.

Yeah, I know they have had, they've stockpiled some like, you know, that was, they started stockpiling some other stuff for their like, they have a series called the episode series where they, they've like bought barrels from years. So they actually just released a 20 year old dickle, I believe in one of their episodes and they've had some other things come out recently. So.

Fantastic.

We will not be going that route. We are not going to start a whiskey company.

No.

We just like to drink.

I keep thinking, you know, I mean, not that I wasn't tempted over the past five or six years, but I'm glad I didn't.

I mean, it'd be cool to have a few barrels somewhere to bottle with a bourbon. I mean, there are opportunities that you could do that. I mean, whiskey thief now kind of puts your own label on there now.

And you know, Frankfurt Bourbon Society has 20 some odd barrels there. So if you're part of a group that has barrels, you're there anyway, right? Yeah. Maybe we pick up a few extras. Really good. This is going to be tough. Yeah, I think so too. I'm going to have a hard time nailing this one down.

Do you have a definite number one today?

Maybe. The problem is there's some unique things going on here that I don't want to discount, right? Yes. I don't want to give too much credit to just a great idea. It's really about the flavor and how much the drinking experience. But yeah, I think I got it. I think I got it.

These are all worth a try. We'll say that. If you run across these, try and buy. I mean, I understand the Gypsy's a little pricey for folks, but it's definitely one. If you see it on a bar, give it a crack for its originality and its uniqueness. The Burton Tavern, I think that's one to definitely check out for folks. I'm really bad about finding out where these are distributed. So Google's a wonderful thing, so I apologize for that. And then, like I said, if you're in Louisville on Whiskey Row, which is becoming, I mean, there are so many places to stop there.

Yeah, it's great.

I mean, you could literally probably make a full weekend, like get there early Friday and go through, I don't know if they're open on Sunday, but you could probably make it happen. All right, so Todd.

I knew this was coming. I'm going to go first.

Oh, sweet.

And I do, I always say this, but I truly believe it today, we're going to be all over the board because they're so close. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Okay.

You say that and then sometimes we lock stop.

Yeah, my number three is burnt tavern. Oh, okay. That's a surprise. Yeah, I thought it might be. And I did give a little credit where credit is due with the kind of, what a great idea. Okay. What a great idea.

My number three is going to be the old anvil, the one we just tried.

Okay. Got it. Well, the old anvil is my number two, so we're not far off there, but I'm going to leave one out because we're only doing three. I'm going to leave one out that certainly deserves to be in the group, but we're going to pick three, right?

Right.

Okay.

Yep. Like I said, we do the Derby, win place and show. So what's your? My number two is going to be the Gypsy. Ah, okay. I like that a lot. It really surprised me. Actually, that's two surprises. Like I said, the first one we had was Very interesting, and this one, gotta say it again, it's cool. It's a different kind of pour. So I'm gonna bring in number one, my number one. My number one's gonna be the Mizunara today. Wow, how about that? I like that garden walk, like I said. Yeah, that might be one of the best Mizunara finishes I've had. Oh, fantastic. I've not had a long list of them. I'm talking like five, six, seven expressions, but that was, It hit today for me.

Yeah. Well, my number one's going to be the Gypsy. OK. So we were all over the place today. There we are. So everybody got a mention in the top three. Yeah. And I don't know how to derive from that who maybe combined would be the number one. I would say somewhere.

If you did like a point system, I'd say the Gypsy, because first and second.

Yeah. It had got a first and second. And then I didn't vote for the Mizunari, not because I didn't like it. But I just felt between the two, I liked the old Envo a little bit better. OK. But four Gray Pores. Yeah. Excellent. Can't go wrong with any of these again. Can we go back over one more time, Todd, call them out in order that they were on the show and tell everybody what the prices were?

Sure. First up, we had the Burnt Tavern, bourbon. Fairly new product. Those guys were, like I said, at Bourbon on the Banks, and we're going to have to go check them out, I think. $69.99. Second was the gypsy declaration. This is their batch 003 of their legacy series. $199.99. Big price on that one. But like I said, definitely want to check out if you can run across it. Thirdly was the Pursuit Mizunara. Pursuit Mizunara finish. That was $89.99. Yep. Fair price. And then the Old Anvil was a $375. And it's a 11-year-old barrel-proof straight whiskey. And it was $99.99 for a pint. For a pint. $375. Yes. So yeah. So it's another $200 bottle.

Yes. Basically, should you buy two of these to equivalent $750. So we'll start a little bit on the high end. It's funny they said 11 summers old. I'm thinking, are they trying to channel a little bit of Morgan Wallen there seven summers ago or something like that?

Well, if I'm not mistaken, the Old Amble is an old label that was still about, I think it was made at the Millwood Distillery.

So that's, it's kind of a homage to that, if you will. There you go. All right. Well, Todd, it's been great. Lots and lots of fun. He's going to mix them. I'm putting them together and I had a little bit of each one this time. I think for the most part, this doesn't work, but it has a couple of times.

I think it will work really well. Like I think we've discussed if you're like doing a comparison of like Elijah Craig barrel proofs. Oh, he's making a face.

Is it? It's really good. Okay. Now I'm, yeah, I got a, you're about equal all the way around. Go for it. All right. Wow. This time it did turn out good. All right. Taking your word for it.

What do you got to lose, Todd? What do you got to lose? It's whiskey. It all goes down.

It usually doesn't work, but once in a while you get lucky. And we really haven't had much time for it to marry. Oh, that nose is crazy. Yeah. Wow.

Okay.

Yeah. That's really good. I'm getting a Latin burnt church. I am too. That kiss of smoke. I think it carries through a lot. Wow.

But there's some other...

I was going to say sweetness from the... Was it from the gypsy? Probably, yes. That sweetness from the gypsy is just shining. I mean, the four together might have taken the day. I mean, is that good? It is good. It is really good. Wow. I mean, it's a fun thing to do. I mean, it has no value, but it's fun to do. I enjoy doing that. Let's see. I don't think I could... That could almost be a good blend again. Don't tell anybody. Keep it secret.

That's right.

Because now if you went back and you took these four and you did some experiments, or different percentages of each, you might really come up with something. Because they do all bring something very interesting to the game.

And the funny thing is two bottles, two of them had like percentages within percentages. Sure. Mizunara finish was 80% of that, 20% of that. And then the gypsy was a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and then just a little bit of that. Yeah.

So I'm actually getting a little bit of that Mizunara. Yep. The savoriness of it. A little savory on the front tongue. And I'm getting that washed sweetness from the gypsy. I'm getting a little bit of the smoke from the tavern. I'm trying to remember what stuck out the most in the old anvil. Ooh, that's just kind of giving that nice big base flavor there. Yeah, that's fun.

Wow. That might be your greatest creation. Who knows? As far as blending goes. That's right.

Might replace what's old hoot? Old hoot, yeah. Do you still have some of that somewhere? I can make it again. I've got my notes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, it was good stuff. I enjoyed it always. No, there's no more old hoot. I think I drank it all. I gave quite a few bottles away.

Well, Todd, it's been another great show.

Yeah, fun today. We're actually recording two today. So once we hang up our headsets here in a minute, we're going to sit back down and record another one. So good thing we didn't fill the glasses up too high. That's true.

All right. And it's not going to be a review show. It's going to be a chat.

Yeah. All right. Well, thank you again, Todd, for constructing quite a show here, putting together a lineup that was very challenging. Was challenging.

I mean, obviously, like you said, we're all over the place sometimes.

We were.

Yeah. That's kind of interesting to see.

All right, folks, 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 single week on Wednesday, Todd and I get together. We put together an episode for you guys. We'll have a guest on. Sometimes it's industry people. Sometimes it's just a couple of friends. We got another Montmigos coming up soon. I know we keep saying that, but we keep pushing it down the road, but we're going to do one for you here real soon. We hope you listen to us every single week. The best way not to miss one is to go to the top of that app you're on, hit that subscribe button. That way every week when we drop an episode, you'll get that notification letting you know that Joe and Todd has dropped another one and we'll help you get through that day with your headphones on. We hope you'll check out our Bourbon Roadies group on the Facebook. We also hope you'll check out our website, thebourbonroad.com. Great stuff in both places. But until the next time, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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