476. New Year's Eve Sample Blowout: Calvados Casks to Mesquite Smoke

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.

Hello there, this is Drew Hanisch of Whiskey Lore and I'm so happy that the Bourbon Road guys are going to let me promote a little bit about my new book coming out called Experiencing American Whiskey. It is a travel guide to whiskey distilleries in the entire United States. Lots of details in this book to help the traveler along the way and I'll tell you more about it at the break.

All right, listeners, welcome to another show, and happy new year, because this will be releasing on New Year's Eve.

New Year's Eve, and we're coming to you from the Bourbon Road Bar. That's right. And we've been going through some samples pretty quick. Yep, we have, and we've got four more ready. Let's go. All right, let's do it, because guess what? Once we get through these, we've got all the contestants for the 2025 Whiskey of the Year, which comes out next week.

I was going to say, and I've compiled stats and all kinds of fun stuff. And we're going to do an end of the year show.

You're quite the whiskey geek.

Yeah. I was always one of those stat guys. My favorite thing on a baseball card was the stats. You had a great pitcher in the front, but I'd like to see their stats, like how many doubles and triples they had. So what's our first pour today? We've got, well, let me jump back. We've got four pours we're going to taste through to, like you said, get them into the possible end of the year. Maybe could be bourbon of the year in this. We don't know.

We have no clue. Not until we taste them, but you haven't tasted. Well, you, you peeked at a couple of these. Yeah, I had to check. All right. But anyway, so first on our list is the Bardstown Bourbon Company Distillery Reserve. This is the Normandy Calvados Brandy Barrel Finish Release. This is something that came out recently, November 2025, so this would have been within the last 30 days or so. This is something that is recently in our hands.

Yes. And it's a brandy finish and I am excited because that might be one of my favorite finishes these days.

And I didn't really know a whole lot about, and I still don't know a whole lot about Calvados and all of that, but I do know that I think last week we talked a little bit about during our Hardin's Creek episode how Some of the distilleries anywhere are going over the top in their samples that they send out in terms of how their presentation is, their marketing, the materials they send out with it. Barstown Bourbon Company is no exception. They've always done a really, really, really good job. of sending out the samples and giving us the tools we need to let the listeners know exactly what we're tasting and what it's all about, what their story is behind it.

Right. And this is the third of their distillers, what they call it, distillers collection, I believe. If you recall, we got lucky enough to try the cathedral thanks to our good buddy, Jason Colori, which had some of the oak from the Notre Dame Cathedral, which Who would think of like using that first of all. And then the second was they had the double oak, which I think we were both pretty impressed with, but yeah. So I'm excited about this third and final release. Yeah.

So this is, this is the third release in 2025. I don't know if that's something that's going to like be an ongoing thing or not, but yeah. So we've had three this year, 2025, ending up with the November release of this new Normandy Calvados Brandy Varro finish. And, uh, I hope it's continuous cause they've been,

You know, the first two, like I said, if we had a big bottle of that Cathedral, I almost think it would have a chance in our top five, 10 kind of thing. I really enjoyed it.

Okay. So this, like always with the Barstown Bourbon releases, they give you basically everything you ever wanted to know about the whiskey in the bottle. But let's just talk about what went into it. We have 76% Indiana, 13 year bourbon with a match bill of 75, 21, zero and four. They say zero on here because I think, I don't know, they're just telling you one of the grains is at zero, right? That's interesting, yeah. Yeah. How about that?

That's the first time I've seen that.

Yeah.

And then, uh, and then the, uh, 24%. So the first was 76% and then 24% of an Indiana 12 year, 75, 21, zero and four. So 75, 21 and four.

Okay, that's the low rye MGB.

Yeah, the low rye, low rye. Anyway, so two whiskies in here. The lowest age statement is 12 year. This was, so 12 to 13 year old bourbons, primarily high rye sourced likely from Indiana, of course, not likely from India, definitely from Indiana. Finished for 28 months in five season, 59 gallon Calvados casks from the renowned Christian Druen house in Normandy, France. Normandy, it's where the invasion took place in World War II. Whiskey rest an additional four months, a new medium toasted oak, white oak barrels, medium toast white oak barrels. So they have spared no expense on this. They've really put the money into it in terms of barrels. 104.2 proof, 375 milliliter bottle at 99.99. And gonna be hard to find. And hard to find, yeah. They produced about 3,000 bottles. It hit the tasting room on November the 28th, 2025. So literally two weeks ago, three, four weeks ago, I'm sorry, four weeks ago.

Yeah, I don't think it's got the love that Cathedral did. Cathedral is blowing up like as far as like, On those markets that don't exist kind of thing.

Well, but I've heard that this one's hitting $500 on the secondary. Just, just saying. We cracked the seal though.

Yeah.

Done deal. That's right.

We're going to drink it. That's what we do with them. That's right. All right. Well, let's check it out. I'm excited. Cause I've been over here nosing while you've been chatting. It is just, Oh my God. I know it just makes you stop.

Oh my gosh. Fruity honey, crisp apple.

vanilla cream, spicy with brown sugar, brown sugar, sweetness, caramel. You get a little like orange on it, like orange slice, orange peel.

Yeah. A hair, a hair citrus on there, but mostly I'm getting these like not this nutty. Are you getting nutty? I'm getting a nutty note. Okay.

Getting that baked apple pie again.

That is wonderful.

This is a candle. This is a candle nose.

Yep. I'm going to taste it. Same. Cheers. Cheers. Oh my. Oh wow. Flavor explosion. Oh, these guys are magicians. They're absolute magicians. Wow. That's good. This is, this is like a fruit jam, a compote just deep and rich and sweet. Apple compote. Apple compote. Yeah. For sure. But it's got it like, they got the nuts in there though. I'm getting the almonds. Still getting them. Okay. Toasted almond. I'm not getting those nuttiness.

I'm getting like, uh, There's a bit of cherry on there too, to me, like cherry apple puff pastry.

I'm saying the brandy has, has really impressed heavily on this. Yeah. Did you say how long it would set in those brandy? Let's see. Let me double check. Okay. It was, uh, 28 months in the calvados casks. Two years, four months. And four more months in medium toasted American oak barrels. So the toasted oak barrels added even more sweetness and more complexity. Sure. Right. Man, this is great. Really, really good. Wow.

Starting off with a bang.

Yeah. When we got this bottle in, we had a, um, an embargo on it. We couldn't talk about it right away. We had to wait for the embargo to lift. We've had a few of those, usually a week or two, but we waited too long. I'm sure some others have already reported on it. We're so behind on our samples, but we're caught up now. Yeah.

And good things come to those who wait. We're really enjoying this. This is really delicious.

Oh my gosh.

We may have a new contender.

So I'm assuming with secondary prices around 500 on this, there's nothing left in Barstown. I doubt it.

I wouldn't. Wow. Maybe if you've got relatives there and could visit, maybe they got one.

500 for a 375. That's craziness. It is crazy. It's good stuff.

Oh, that's good.

I almost hate to move on. But we must, but we must, and this time I'm going to be a good boy. I'm going to save a little bit of that.

All right. Our second poor, this is an interesting one because this one just showed up out of the blue. I don't know. I'm sure one of our PR people. Remember, Todd has an address and- Yeah, you're right. Just, hey, send them this. And I don't know if I'd ever got the email about it, but this is from Sespe Creek Distillery, which is in California. And this is their Warbringer.

It's a Mesquite smoked Southwest bourbon. Oh my goodness. And we're having this early on in the Porsche, so.

Yeah, we had to cleanse the palate after this one. This is one of those I knew nothing about. So, you know, like we often do and, you know, you've gotten samples for years and years and not all samples and pores are created equal. Let's say that. So they don't all make the show. Yeah. I mean, so I tried this one beforehand and I was like, OK, yeah, I can deal with that. I mean, Just reading on this, it's a polarizing pour. I mean, mesquite smoked, and it's not a kiss of mesquite. It's mesquite smoke. So what they do with this one is they mesquite smoke the corn and malted rye, both.

That's interesting. And B. Rowland does something with their dark-fired corn the same way, don't they? Yeah.

Yeah. I don't remember if it's mesquite smoke, but they do smoke it kind of thing. Yeah. So distillery emphasizes that the corn is smoked for multiple days in a custom cold smoke box, which I'm not familiar with what that is using natural mesquite firewood. And some batches also include fire roasted corn, which I guess that's more along the lines of, like you said, MB Rowland. Right. This is 98 proof. And let's see. I thought I had the, uh, mash bill, but I am not finding it. 98 proof. Okay. Yeah, we dropped him proof, but I wanted to put this second because if you're nosing it, which looks like you are, she's a smoky beast.

It is a smoky beast. It's, it, it is smoky, but, um, it, it doesn't like it's different. It's a different smoke. It's not, it's not like this Pete smoke of a Scotch.

It's a savory smoke.

Yeah. A little bit different.

We've had stuff with like a sweet smoke, obviously. PD can come off as like, like you like to say iodiney. Yeah. Can I say iodiney? I'm thinking we like to invent new words on here sometimes. Medicinal. Yeah, medicinal. So this is batch 22. So they've released this a few times and this was released this year. And yeah, I can't find any, I thought I had the mash bill, but I guess I do not.

It's okay.

I know. It's all right. Hey, We just appreciate them sending it to us.

All right. So they smoked both the corn and the right, the right. Okay. Fantastic. All right. I've, my nose is completely inundated by mesquite smoke.

Yeah. It's like, uh, what'd you say? Like walking into a barbecue place a little bit, maybe.

Absolutely. Yeah. Yep. All right. I'm ready to taste it. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh, a key ingredient. This one's finished in Sherry too. Finished in what? Sherry. Oh, okay.

Yeah. Sweet. It is. It does have a nice sweet taste to it. Uh, smoky, sweet. Yeah. Cherry. I get, I mean Sherry. Sherry. When I say cherry. Sherry. Sherry and cherry. Sherry and cherry. The smokiness is. is a, it's a little heavy. You think it's too much? Well, I don't know if it's too much because that's a, that's a, you know, that's a preferential thing, right? Um, it is, uh, it's right in your face.

Yeah, this is one of those. It's low proof. So I don't know if you want to call it your nightcap, but it's gonna like, if you have a poor, this, you're probably just going to want one for its uniqueness. And then second, you're probably going to have to cleanse your palette a little while.

Yeah. I think before we go on to the third pour, it's a good thing you had this right before the break.

Yeah.

Because we're going to need to clean our palette just a little bit.

But it was such low proof. I didn't want to throw it at the tail tail end, which I don't know. I just thought it might get lost in the proof.

But man, I'm getting like, um, overly charred, like almost burnt, like all beef hot dogs.

Oh, that's good. That's you're going to go with like burnt ends.

No, no, no. I'm going with the hot dogs because it really does remind me of, and I love my hot dogs that way, by the way. I love them like black. It's just, I always have, don't ask me why. I think it's, I think it's because I cook them and I feel so guilty about burning them all, burning some of the, I should say, I feel so guilty about burning some of them that I always take the burnt ones for myself so that the people that are there to eat with me don't have to eat the burnt ones. And I've just, I've just gained, I've gained this like love for them. I like them.

Like I said, I enjoy it.

Is this a younger whiskey? I feel like it's four years. Okay. Well, it, you know, it, it's got a few notes in there that lead me to believe it might be under four, but it's not bad. It's not off-putting.

I think it's very unique. I think that's why, like, and it wasn't off-putting. Not at all. To us, this is probably not going to be everybody's jam.

I would say this will be a little polarizing. I would think there'll be those that just love it to death. I think you're heavily Pete-smoked whiskey lovers, you're LaFloy lovers. Yeah, I think there's definitely a market for this and I think it's well done.

Yeah.

Yeah. I go back to the nose.

I'm getting like pumpernickel, like the rye. There's a nice rye thing going on.

It does have a kind of an earthy note to it.

Walnuts.

Yeah, I'll go for it. I mean, I can sit and drink this. You know what's funny is like one of the things on their bottle.

It says. The result is a heavy hitting flavor with a deep and smoky taste that will surely ruffle your feathers.

Yeah, and it does. It does. And it's doing exactly what it's designed to do, which is to cause us to think and wonder if we like it or not. And so yeah, it's ruffling our feathers. Why the name Warbringer?

I didn't do a deep dive into that, I don't know.

That's not the name of the company, that's just the name of the expression.

Cespi, and I'm assuming I'm saying that right.

Now what part of California are they from? Oxnard.

Oxnard, okay. Yup, Oxnard, California. And like I said, this came out of the blue.

Funny, because it just doesn't strike me as a California whiskey.

No, but it's kind of that look of the bottle kind of looks like something, I don't know, you'd see it like in a saloon.

Yeah, it's got that Wild West saloon bottle look to it. Yeah, a little bit. And break it over somebody's head or something.

It's a good looking bottle. Yeah, and like I said, I just thought it was fun. And you know, it passed my tasting test.

All right. Well, we had two very different whiskies in the first half and we've got a couple of more in the second half. It's going to be, it's going to be fun. Yep. All right. So folks stick around. We've got two more coming and you won't want to miss them. Be right back.

Hello there, Drew Hanisch, Whiskey Lore, and I am excited to announce that I have a brand new book coming out called Experiencing American Whiskey. If you have checked out my travel guide to Experiencing Kentucky Bourbon, you'll know that I go deep into the details of Kentucky Bourbon. Well, imagine that I've spread this out across the entire United States now, and I'm covering a thousand distilleries, coast to coast, and even Alaska and Hawaii, I have 227 detailed profiles in there from the distilleries that I've had firsthand contact with. I give you all the details that you need to know, like when they have tours, if they do tastings, cocktails, and everything is in a state by state format so that you can roll through, find your particular state that you're traveling to, and have all that information at your fingertips. On top of that, I have a website resource where you can bookmark and actually create a wish list of the distilleries that you'd like to visit. I cover state regulations so you know how many bottles of whiskey you can walk out with from a store, from a distillery and so on. So it is an exciting book. It is the biggest thing that I've put together to this point. And right now it is going to be going on sale on January the 13th. It is actually available for pre-order right now at whiskylore.org slash shop. That's Whiskey Lore's travel guide to experiencing American whiskey.

Welcome back. We, uh, Todd and I had a great break. Uh, we spent time clearing our plate from that last, that last sample we had for sure. Uh, but, uh, just to recap, you know, we had two whiskies in the first half. The first one was a Bartstown bourbon company distillery reserve, the Normandy Calvados brandy barrel finish. It was delightful. I enjoyed it.

And all caps.

All caps.

Yeah. And then I brought the Sespe Creek, and again, I apologize if I'm saying that wrong, Distillery Warbringer and Mesquite Smoke Southwest Bourbon. Unique. It delivered on everything it said on the bottle.

Yes. It did. Oxnard, California. Oxnard, California. $45, $49 is what I saw. Fair price. Yeah, not bad. So if you're a smoked whiskey person, you should probably put this one on your list. It's definitely one to get your attention. In fact, it says on the bottle, this one will ruffle your feathers. Yeah. And it definitely does. It does cover that warning. All right, so we got two more in this half. And what's up first, Mr. Todd?

So first up is a new release from the Jackson Purchase Distillery. This is their batch number one foolproof. the inaugural release from Jackson Purchase Distillery, which is located in Hickman, Kentucky, and that is in far, far Western Kentucky.

Yeah, so we have not had a Jackson Purchase whiskey on the show yet. Right.

This is the first. So that distillery is led by master distiller, Craig Beam, familiar sounding name. And the assistant master distiller, Terry Ballard, who was the former head distiller at Willett, no less. Okay. Proof is 117.8, age four years. And the mash bill is 70 corn, 20 rye, 10 malted barley. It is aged new white, new white oak barrels with the number four char. Uh, this was released, actually this, the Naga release was dropped at the Kentucky bourbon festival of all places. So that was, you know, early, early September, right?

So a four year old 70, 20, 10, right? Bourbon from some well-known distillers, um, produced in Western Kentucky.

Yeah. Retails for about 60 bucks.

Hey, okay.

And check it out.

Oh yeah. Typical bourbon notes. Yep. Vanilla caramel, brown sugar, brown sugar, a little bit of butter. This is a, this is definitive bourbon nose right here. It's nice and light. I think buttery caramel is a good word for this. Yes. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, that's nice. That is nice. That's really good. Back of the palette bourbon.

It's got a nice viscosity too, which I really like.

It's very oily.

It is very oily.

Wow.

And that's what, you know, just reading up on it, like, It's a four-year bourbon. I didn't see that. Boy, I would guess it to be. But they were saying it drinks a little beyond that four, like a seven, eight-year.

I don't know if I'd go to seven or eight. I would definitely say it's above four. I would go with six. I would buy into six real quick. I would say this is a six-year bourbon. If somebody said this was a six-year bourbon, I wouldn't doubt it a bit. Brown sugar still. A big component.

Apple, that Apple thing is, I'm, we've had a few things lately that like Apple. It's sweet. Very sweet.

Yeah. It is sweet, but it's just, this is traditional good, solid, delicious bourbon. Really good. And a nice proof. Yeah.

117.8. of this. I know.

I do. This is really good. Well there's no doubt that the people who are making this whiskey know exactly what they're doing. To be able to craft something like this at four years is pretty damn good.

Yeah, they're one of those places that's been contracted and distilling for a while, but this is their first own release. So I'm excited. I'm like, what's next?

I would think if I was trying to start up an NDP and I was looking for a place to make my whiskey, I would not hesitate to talk to these people. I would talk to quite a few, but I would, I would put these, I would put these guys on the list. We just had Southern on and wow, that was amazing.

Yeah. Maybe you get barrels from both and you blend and make some magic. Wow.

Yeah, it's got a great finish. Uh, it does stick around a while. It's good medium finish. It definitely hangs on the back of the palette. Once you're done with it, do the sip. And I would say that you could go. five minutes without having to take another sip of this. It's really good.

It sticks. It does stick.

That's why I'm surprised. I wonder if it's a pastel. It really does stick. Yeah. You don't have to look it up. It's good Todd. We're fine. It drinks like a pastel whiskey. So, okay.

Which well, Mr. Ballard's from Willett. So maybe, maybe, maybe so we'll do our homework next time. But for a first release, I think that's fantastic.

Yeah. I would say if, uh, if, if, uh, bourbon needed a bottle next to it in the dictionary, this would be the one that tastes just like bourbon. And it's a Wikipedia picture, the Wikipedia picture. This would work. I mean, it's, uh, it's definitely right on the nose. Good stuff.

Yeah. I'm not sure about the distribution on that, but yeah, it's one to definitely keep an eye on Jackson purchase. What's the price? 60 bucks.

60 bucks. Yeah. I mean at one 17 proof. Yeah. Yeah. Four years. I, yeah, I would buy six years. I would say it's six years old. I don't know if I'd go to eight, but I would say six.

I'm just going by what the, the internet say, you know, good stuff.

All right.

What's next? So next up is the new riff high note, 100% wheat whiskey. This is the confluence project volume one. This is a true weeded whiskey that is approximately six years old. The first release the six, and I think they're going to keep doing it. It's part of the, um, certain collection that if you recall, we had the 10 year rye and the 10 year bourbon, which the rye, I think we both liked pretty well, but I think the bourbon was the one that really blew us away.

So this is just a hundred percent wheat. This is a hundred percent. This is a wheat whiskey.

So these were released at the distillery. I'm not sure if they were They're probably in the Ohio area for sure. But apparently these were released as single barrels. So there are proofs ranging from 116.9 to 122.8. Ours happens to be, oddly enough, the same proof as our last pour, 117.8, which is kind of interesting. Mashbill obviously is 100% wheat. It's 60% red turkey wheat, 24% Appalachian malted wheat. 8% dark malted wheat and 8% caramel malted wheat. Wow. And it retails for, I believe it was 70 bucks. Oh, yay. These guys are good. Yeah. I think new riff is really starting to hit their stride. Yeah. Yeah. So cause they're getting in that six and like our bourbons are 10 and this is dark.

This is dark for wheat whiskey. Wow. I'm ready for, I'm ready for some fire. Cause sometimes wheat whiskey brings the fire. Right. So let's check it out. Yeah, no on the nose. I'm not getting like a blown away by this, like this, um, like I said, fire.

It's got a nice nose though.

That's, uh, Oh, wow. I'm getting the, uh, cotton candy on this one too.

Oh yeah.

Yep. Refined sugar, honey, tea, toffee, get some toffee notes. Oh, you're getting the darker notes. Just a little.

I'm definitely get that honey. Wow. Shout out to my good buddy, Jeff Wack, for grabbing this bottle for me. He lives in the area. Thank you, Jeff.

You've come through before. That's right.

Be sure to check his YouTube show, the Hello Again Whiskey Friends YouTube show. I pop up on their show every once in a while.

It's got a little bit of a, like a fresh mint note to it. Yeah, I could see that. That's interesting, isn't it?

That you would get a mint note.

I know. From wheat. Crazy. All right. We'll taste it.

Yeah.

Cheers. Cheers.

Okay.

Oh, that's good.

I got dark though.

It did. Where's that coming from?

Appalachian. It's a holler. It's holler wheat. That's what it is. I'm getting a little bit of a nice note too. I can see that.

Where's that coming from? This is crazy. This is an interesting one. So you're drinking a hundred percent wheat whiskey and you're like, where are these notes coming from? Yeah.

It's almost like a medicinal cherry. Yeah. Like a nice, I definitely, definitely get and almost even go like even like black licorice.

Yeah. Yeah.

Cause, cause the knees could go to that level. Right. I think it's pushing them. What's the good and plenty was that the white and black candy?

So the pink and black and white and black and white candies. Yeah. It's definitely got some, a good and plenty note to it. This is reminiscent of some, uh, of some of the higher proof, older light whiskies out of Canada too. Okay. I'm getting that. This is, this is craft gold right here.

This is really good. I think, like I said, new riff had a great year.

Yeah. There's some great stuff. These guys are just on top of it. Wow. I think wheat whiskeys can be a bit polarizing. Sometimes they're very hot and fiery. They just, for whatever reason, you know. Bernheim, especially the barrel-proof Bernheim, can get a little hot.

I think I've only tried one of those though. It's one I didn't see much of. Yeah. You don't think it was like, you hear them say wheat softens things sometimes when they put it in a mash bill. But sometimes I think it, to me, it comes off, can come off a little spicy.

It does.

Like they just had a big drop of antique Weller at Buffalo Trace. And apparently the line was like, it was all day.

Yeah.

And AMZ God love Amzie got in line. He went later that day and said he still stood for like 30 minutes before he got up, but he did get a bottle. And that's probably the first time I've tried that in. Oh wow. Six, seven years.

Yeah.

And yeah, it, you know, 107 proof, but it had a nice spicy kick to it.

I had the fire.

Yeah. That antique fire, antique fire.

I've always liked 107.

I've always liked the red label. I think that's probably. I think that's my favorite. I mean, sure. William LaRue. Well, the 12 is my favorite. The ones that you might actually see at a bar and you could buy a pour.

Oh, the 12 is? Okay. Yeah. The 12 is kind of my jam because it's like definitive, well-aged, extra-aged bourbon. It's just really good. And it used to be had at $60 back in the day, $50 back in the day. You can't get it for that. You know, you can't get it now. So, well, they dropped some of that recently.

Yeah, of course. The word gets out fast. You got to be fast.

Yeah. Are there leaks? Are there leaks in the, in the info tell?

Well, actually they'll drop it. They'll say sometimes what they're doing on their website these days. Oh yeah. And then other times, like when I was able to grab the Eagle rare, it was a little more quiet. And, but I have, you know, there are folks in the bourbon society. that are tour guides there and they may have slipped the word to me.

Well, if they ever slip the word, the 12 is coming. Let me know. I'll take the day off work. I love the Weller 12 and I'm down to about a half inch in my bottle. I may have two more pours. So yeah, I like to have it here because it's one of my faves. Um, but you know, everybody likes what they like. That's right. That's right. Oh, this is really good. I know I'm impressed. We're getting off topic here. New riff. You're awesome. It's a great place to visit too. You know why? Because when you go to New Riff, you're right next door to Party Source.

Party Source, yeah, which has a great selection.

So whatever you don't get at New Riff, when you go there, you go to next door to Party Source and pick it up.

And for those that don't know, New Riff is in Florence, Kentucky. No, it's in Newport, Kentucky. Newport, that's right. It's kind of that whole same sprawl. It's kind of like the Kentucky sprawl of Cincinnati is basically what it boils down to.

It basically, yeah. Newport on the river, they call it. But yeah, right around the Kentucky side facing Cincinnati. And, uh, when you're in the parking lot, you just look at the building and see their, their big still right there in the big glass window.

Yeah. The one thing I miss at party sources. Do you remember when Braxton brewery had their lab there? Yes. Braxton labs was that down and that was such a neat little place. It was like just a little tap room, but they had a lot of fun stuff on there, but still a cool place to visit.

All right. Well, Todd, we've gone through four whiskies. Are we going to do winter, winter chicken dinner? It's our thing.

I mean, we could probably do all four.

Well, let's, let's go back through one through four and remind the listeners what we had in the show. What was first on the show?

First was the Bardstown Normandy, the Apple brandy or Calvados finish. bourbon. And surprisingly, I was meant to say this earlier, only two mashbills in that. Yeah.

That's a different- 12 and 13 year old bourbon from Indiana.

You say it's been about four or five on some of those others. So that was kind of interesting. Second was the Sespe Creek Warbringer Mesquite Smoke Southern Bourbon.

Which delivered on every point they named on the label.

And the label is full of information. Yeah. There's a lot going on. A lot going on in that label. Our third pour was the Jackson Purchase, Foolproof, their first release ever. Very nice. And then lastly was the New Riff, Wheat Whiskey, and Confluence.

So I'm interested in seeing what, this is volume one, so that means you gotta- Confluence, so confluence is like when two flows of liquid come together. Right. Right, that's confluence.

You think of rivers, yeah.

Like if two rivers come and make one river, that's called the confluence.

I believe so, yes. So I'm intrigued by what volume two or where they go from here, I guess.

Yeah. Okay.

But yeah.

Winter, winter, chicken dinner.

All right. Well, I am going to do a fourth place. And like I said, it was a surprise sample. And I think for the novelty of it, and if you are into different kind of pores, the Mesquite Smoked.

Yeah.

Yeah. The Sesame Creek. I enjoy it. but it's definitely not going to be everybody. Probably a very small portions jam.

Yeah. I think there's a, I would say it's an 80, 20 whiskey and probably 20% and nothing against Warbringer because honestly, you know, they, um, They a hundred percent called it out on their own label, right? Very polarizing, very, um, not everybody's going to like it. It's going to ruffle some feathers. They even say it right there. And it does. This is an 80 20 whiskey and 20% of the public is going to eat it up and love it. And 80% are saying, not for me.

I wish we had like, that'd be a fun one to compare to long branch because that's the wild Turkey. I have tried that. It's really light compared to that one.

There's no doubt there's Mesquite Smoke in this one.

But the second one is the Old Forrester, is it the Ranch? It's a Mesquite Smoke that's only found in Texas, an Old Forrester product. And I've yet to try it. And I think it goes about 100 proof, but I'd be curious to know how much Mesquite.

It's got maybe we should do a Mesquite smoke show. Yeah. Maybe that's, maybe that's something we can do next year. 2026. Let's look forward to it. All right. All right. So number three, uh, I'm going to go with the Jackson purchase. And the reason is, is because, I mean, it checks every single bourbon box. I mean, great whiskey, well crafted. Nice proof, nice flavors, well balanced. It does everything. But it doesn't like step out of the box.

Agreed. And I'm going to agree with you. That's my number three as well.

All right.

I have a feeling we're lock stock today.

I think we're going to be. All right. What's your number two?

My number two is going to be the new riff high note, confluence whiskey, wheat whiskey. Excuse me.

I'm going to go with you on that. I agree with that completely. So yeah, the wheat whiskey is really good. Probably one of the best wheat whiskies at barrel proof. I would wholeheartedly agree.

I would agree.

Um, great job. New riff.

Yes. Awesome. I look forward to confluence to or whatever is down the pipeline.

Yeah, it was really good and I enjoyed it and I would highly. And what was the price on that? It's like 70 bucks. Okay. I would highly suggest if you're crossing the Ohio, Kentucky border at Cincinnati and you've got a chance to veer off there on the Kentucky side and head over to Newport literally five minutes off the interstate, uh, pop into new riff, take a tour, buy a bottle and when you're done, go next door to party source and look at the mile of whiskey on their wall. Yeah.

Yeah. They've got some good single barrel picks. Oh yeah. Didn't you, I think you got it like a Trevor city.

Got a Trevor city from there that won the day.

That's right.

Yep. Yeah.

You know, funny enough, my friend Jeff picked me up one of those bottles and sent it to me. Yeah.

Fantastic.

He's a great guy.

All right the number one Wow by isolation and yeah Wow Wow Bardstown bourbon company You've done it again with your Normandy Cavados barrel brandy finish. You may have to send me home with some of that You definitely you can take it. Yep. No doubt. This is probably one of my favorite whiskies of the year

I was going to say, does it enter the equation, you think?

I would say keep your eye out on January 7th. This might be in the running. No doubt.

I just worry it's a little, what was the proof? 104? 104.2. Could get drowned out.

Yeah. There's some higher proof options there, but this is like concentrated flavor. Yeah. So I don't know. It definitely won the day. For sure. We'll see what happens at the end of the year here because there's a lot of great whiskeys in the running. And I mean, we've shouted out, oh my God, how great is this? This is amazing. How many times have we done that during the year?

I didn't take note of that, but I know how many pours we've had and how many guests and things like that, but quite a lot.

Quite a lot. We've touted whiskeys all year long that have been amazing, but it comes down to the end of the year when you have to decide exactly what Is the best of the best. And you know, it's always tough. It's always hard, but January 7th will be the day. So definitely, definitely make sure you hit that subscribe button so that you, you know, when that events coming out, I was going to say some of them already, I saw whiskey advocates already dropped their, uh, whiskey of the year.

And so we're running a little behind, but that's, you know, it's all right.

You know, some years we match what the others say and some years were years were totally different with what the others say.

It's all subjective, right?

Yeah.

Is it subjective or objective?

I think it's subjective. It's subjective. That's correct. Yeah. I, you know, I would say we'll mix these together, but I'm not going to do it today because we've got that, that smoked whiskey. Yeah. It was just, I don't know, maybe it won't. Oh, he's going to do it. I hate to put that with that barstown, but I'm going to do it anyway. I did it. It hurts my heart a little. It does.

But on behalf of myself, I just want to wish everyone a fantastic new year. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for laughing along. And yeah, it's it's been a lot of fun this year. This was my first full year of the Bourbon Road podcast. So I know I started in August, but we're. Yeah, this is. Did you just start in August? Well, August of 24, but yeah, it was my first full year.

So yeah, you've been around more than a year. So I was going to say, yeah, you're, you're an institution here now.

So we've got a lot of fun things planned. We've got some fun chats and the stories to talk to and. As always, thank you to our PR folks and distilleries that send us pours. I mean, we are blessed to get to try some of these for sure.

Oh yeah, it's always fun to receive. It's always fun when FedEx or UPS shows up at the door and they've got this package that you need to sign for. Lots of fun.

They look at you like, you again? You again? Yeah. But I take care of my UPS guy. I always send him home with a bottle. Actually, yeah, I need to give him his Christmas present for the year.

There you go.

I mean, he comes by a lot. And I've known him for years. I think I've said that.

Well, I'm just going to tell you right now, Todd, don't blend these together. Okay, noted. Because at the end of the day, they're all going to be war bringer.

It's a hundred percent war bringer. Feathers are ruffled.

That's the thing about with peated whiskies or smoked whiskies, you know, they overtake. So don't, don't put them in your infinity bottle. If you, if you have a little bit leftover in your smoked whiskey bottle, don't, don't add it to your. Infinity bottle.

It'll make a turn. A far right turn, right?

All right, well you can find The Bourbon Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, threads. We do all those every week. Todd and I get together, we do a show. Man, it seems like we've gone through a lot of samples lately and thank goodness we have because now we've got a great lineup for the whiskey of the year show coming up next week. Make sure you tune in for that. Also check out the bourbon roadies are probably the Facebook group. Just get onto Facebook, search the bourbon roadies. Uh, it'll pop up.

You can join, select the join button, pop in there.

You don't have to answer three questions to get in simple questions. We just want to make sure you're interested in bourbon and, uh, join the discussion in there. Share some pictures, share some whiskey, make some new friends. It's lots of fun. Also check out the bourbon road website at the bourbon road.com. We got all our swag on there. T-shirts, glasses, hats, all the good stuff. Whenever you buy something helps Todd and I get down the road to that next interview. It helps us buy a few bottles that we can't otherwise get by having them sent to us. So, uh, make sure you check that out. But until the next time we will see you down the bourbon road.

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