480. Bonjour Bourbon: A Deep Dive into French Oak Finishing

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

And I'm your host, Todd Ritter. We've got a great show for you today. So grab your favorite pour and join us.

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.

Bonjour and welcome to another episode of the Bourbon Road and I've drug a couple friends in today because Jim's still on his dry January and we're gonna do a deep dive into French oak. So today I've got with me Amzie Winning. He's kind of like our Alec Baldwin of the Bourbon Road these days. He's been on here quite a bit. And I'm also drug in David Sandlin from the House of Commons bar, who's also been he's making his third appearance. Howdy.

So welcome to the show, guys. Yeah. Wish I knew how to say glad to be back in French, but you already used Bonjour Todd. So yeah, that's that's all I got about as French as I get to.

So I just thought this would be kind of a fun dive in to, you know, the French hook is kind of I don't know if you'd say it's the most popular You know, finishing these days, I mean, double barrel is probably, probably the top dog, I would say. Wouldn't you guys agree?

Yeah, I would say like toasted or secondary chard is probably most prevalent and followed close second by French oak. Right.

So French oak also known as Quercus rober or Quercus patria, um, And we're going to dive right into that first pour because it's kind of like the OG of French oak. And Dave, you want to talk about it a little bit?

Absolutely. I would love to. All right. So for our first pour, we have Maker's Mark 46. The 46 from Maker's Mark is probably the first predominantly available core skew from a distillery that utilized French oak. They introduced that around 2010. and they're doing staves. So this is kind of like the predecessor to the, not only the regular French oak, or this is the 46, this is a predecessor to the cast string. And then we see this kind of bleed over a lot into their private barrel selections, which they're, you know, they're going to utilize several different staves as well as the French oak staves themselves.

It gets that number 46 from, that was like their 46th experiment with the staves. It's really cool. Actually, I'm not even sure I knew that. Maybe I did and just kind of forgot it, but yeah. What's the proof on that, Dave?

94 proof. And it retails? About $40. You can get the cash strength for about $10 more.

Yeah, I was thinking 50 to 55, something like that, but let's nose it. You know, you hate to say it, but like the first, you know, you get that vanilla and then, you know, being French. So you start thinking French vanilla, Francois Vinilla.

What makes French vanilla, French vanilla?

It's a mix with hazelnut. That's why I was laughing. Austin would have your hat because people would always be like your French vanilla simple syrup. But he's like, there's no hazelnut. It's not French vanilla.

So I learned something tonight.

I don't know what the difference is between regular. I mean, it's got to be the, I mean, regular Madagascar vanilla beans. Did you say that?

Is it?

It's the hazelnut, right? Yeah. Austin told me it was a mixture of vanilla and hazelnut. Oh, and okay. So still the vanilla beans with a little hazelnut, huh? Yeah.

Cause I doubt they can grow vanilla in France anywhere.

Right, right. I mean, it's a...

Remember the orchid family or something like that? It's the seed pods.

Kind of a bean. We actually make our own extract at the house. You know, you take a little neutral grain spirits and mash kind of like, I guess mash up some, the vanilla pods and beans and it's a pretty, a pretty neat little trick.

And I think you can also use bourbon or rum to do it. Right.

Yeah, I think we've actually got a second one going where we're using some, some vanilla or no, some honey, honey bourbon and adding added that to some vanilla beans.

I may have completely lied. Google told me that it uses an, uh, an egg custard base. Oh, okay. Richard, this is probably just ice cream though. Just full disclosure. All right, what else are you guys getting on this? It almost has, you know, when you get into creme brulee, those like burnt sugars on top of the creme brulee. I mean, obviously it makes sense. You've got wood sugars that are going to be contributing factors, the flavor and the aroma. But I do get some of that like creme brulee, creamy burnt sugar top, top hard part of the creme brulee. Right.

Now, this is basically the same mash bill as regular makers with the red wheat, the winter red wheat. It does, sits in the limestone cellar for about nine to 10 weeks, aging with that secondary, those French staves.

which is, you know, if you've ever been on the tour and you've gone in the area where they are selling these and where they do these, um, private selects, it is such a cool spot.

I am sad to say I've yet to go to maker's mark. Isn't that, I know, isn't that one?

My first trip was last year, about a year ago. So right there with you. I can't say I've ever actually really just like, taken this much time with Makers 46 before, but that nose is phenomenal.

Yeah. Yeah. There's a, I mean, that's like a candle to me.

I wish it was a candle and a cologne.

Right. I'm ready to sip gentlemen. Cheers.

Cheers.

It's sweet, but then it kind of, uh, tones down quick. Yeah, I agree with that. It's like the baking spice cabinet a little bit. There's a little bit of cinnamon too.

I was just thinking on the palate, it's like quintessential bourbon flavor. When you think of any ingredient in food, whether it's like baking or cooking, when you think of like bourbon flavor that is infused into the food you're making, this is like what I envision is the bourbon flavor.

Yeah. But I do think it lets that wheat shine through though. There's still that Oh yeah, I agree. Weedy spice. I hate to say weedy spice, but I always get a little, I tend to find weeded bourbon spicier than most folk, I think. I don't know.

Well, I agree with you a hundred percent. And I've had this conversation at length with Jim Murray A lot of times people think rye equals spicy, wheat equals soft. The magicians over at Buffalo Trace have used Weller Special Reserve and Weller 12-Year to create incredibly soft, approachable, really just easy drinking whiskies, and everyone expects weeded bourbons to taste like that. So when a weeded bourbon comes through with this kind of baking spices or the little bit of spice that you get on the finish of this, that's, that's what I expect out of a weeded bourbon. Um, and I feel like the Weller 90 proof skews are kind of like the anomaly to that.

Yeah. You know, I, I get a, um, it's kind of that vanilla carrying through, but it, but it's light, like a, like a honey sweetness. Um, and I think maybe it is that little bit of wheat and corn that makes me think of, uh, almost like honeycomb cereal or like corn pops or something like that, a light sweetness with that little vanilla note. But then there's that touch of cinnamon that I don't think those cereals have.

Yeah, I would agree with that. If I focus really hard on the mid-palate, I almost get like a honeysuckle, like a floral note. It's almost like an elderflower honeysuckle.

Just gonna say a little bit of florality to it, yeah, for sure.

And then, you know, when you let it give way, then it comes through with that cinnamon-y kind of like baking spice finish.

Like a cinnamon toast kind of thing.

Mm-hmm. One thing I'd love to mention about this one, Todd, is this bottle is one that when I went on a tour with my wife, they have this really cool experience where you can dip your own bottle. Now, they're already bottled. You're not filling the bottle yourself, but just being able to dip the bottle in the signature maker's mark wax, you get to choose which expression you're going to do the wax. And that's just cool. We all have those things that when we look at that glass or we look at that shirt or we look at that bottle that we picked up on a distillery tour that's connected to a memory. And I love the fact that they allow you to connect with their brand in that way. And it's a lot of fun.

Plus you get to dress up kind of like a mad scientist a little bit with the gloves and the goggles and lab coat.

Is that correct? Yeah. Goggles, apron and gloves. Now I will warn you, they have a shallow pool so you can't do any slam dunks.

Right. They're very specific. I've heard on how you dip, like there's a technique they prefer you to do so it doesn't like, I guess, go overboard or go too light. Right.

Now, have you been to Makers? Yeah, so I went. I think about a year ago, I think it was last spring, maybe the fall before they had a Makers Mark Ambassador event there, which if anyone listening hasn't done that, I think you just go to Makersmark.com, whatever their website is, and and you can sign up for to be a Maker's Mark ambassador. And then at some point they, you know, they fill some barrels. There's a plaque that has your name on it. When that barrel's ready, you can go and get a bottle of it. Well, they had that event and it was, if they have another one and anyone sees that go, it was 100% worth it. Free samples of, you know, products from international markets, food. They had a little market area set up with bourbon-themed products. It was a great event. That's really cool. And also if you've never been to Maker's Mark, when you go your first time, that's not a cow path. You're on the road to Maker's Mark. It is, you think you are going to the wrong place. Like, yeah.

You will see a dog in the road and that is the correct road.

Yeah. Yeah.

Is there one specific dog?

There is a specific dog that is in the road. We were coming in and we got there and we're like, Hey, we had to have taken like some kind of back road. And we're like, there was even a dog that was sitting in the middle of the road. And the guy was like, no, that's the right one. And knew the name of the dog and everything. I was like, wow. Okay. Yeah.

That's awesome. Yeah, it's like there's almost grass between the tire tracks and the road.

I've heard it's narrow.

Yeah, it is.

I've actually been in that area and I've seen some of their, they have rick houses kind of all over that area a little bit. So I've seen some of the rick houses, but I've not been there. I will have to put that on my bucket list, I guess. All right. Shall we move on to poor two?

Yeah.

All right. Let's do it. So poor two is blue note crossroads, crossroads, excuse me, from BR blue river distilling company in Memphis, Tennessee. It is a toasted French oak. So the first one may have been toasted, but they don't really. Announce those. Yeah.

Disclose that.

So, um, this one is sourced from a Kentucky bourbon and They're probably under NDA, but let's just say it might be a Nolensboro. Can we be coy about it? So it uses a high rye mash bill. Often cited as 36% rye. And then it actually says the newer version, which this is probably the older version. I've had this bottle for a while. Newer version has 21% rye version. So that might be where previously they sourced, I'm guessing. And then their newer version might be their own distillate.

So the newer one has 21 Ra. Does it say how much corn? Is it 75 corn?

It does not say.

My notes don't have that. That is also a mash bill that's used out of that area of the state.

Oh, okay. So it's named after the devil's crossroads, which Mississippi bluesman Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil. It is finished with two distinct types of toasted French oak staves. Uh, these staves are sourced from a artisan cooperage in central France. And this one's borrowed a hundred proof. It retails for about, I believe 55 bucks. So, uh, yeah, let's dive in. Sweet. There's a little more barrel character on this. Probably that toasted note. It's a bit of like a little bit of toasted marshmallow kind of thing.

Yeah, I agree with that. It's kind of almost O-D, but like creamy at the same time, almost like an oat milk.

I was wondering where you were going with the O-D. O-D. Oat-ish.

Yeah, it's not like, you know, it's not grained forward like some of these pots still that we get that smell like cracked oats. It's like kind of creamy and reminiscent of oat.

Now, basically this is their juke joint. It's their regular bourbon release and yeah, just with toasted and I believe the juke joints about an, I think it's a 90 proofer. This comes off a little spicier than the, and a little like less vanilla than that makers 46 for sure.

I don't really get any vanilla on this. So I'm trying to figure out if I get some kind of a, like a light fruit on there as well. I see that. Like a apricot, something like that.

It's, it's almost, shall I say brandy esque.

Yeah. It's like, it's a little hard to kind of pick the fruit out, but I, there's a perceived fruitiness there, nectarine, something like that. It's not quite peachy, but it's a light fruit.

Yeah. Agreed. And then more tannins. That's another thing that seems to be popping that, which gives it just a little bit of bitterness sometimes. All right. I'm ready to dive in. Cheers.

Cheers. Cheers. I do get grape on this by the way, MC.

It's really rich. I mean, you're only up in about six proof, but this has got a nice mouth feel to it. A little more richer, fuller. Obviously we're going from a weeded bourbon to a bourbon. So there's that. It's a whole mouth experience.

Yep. I feel like it like made me like salivate sort of.

But it still seems to amplify those baking spices. I think that's what kind of French oak kind of does a little bit. Like it takes the typical baking spices you can get from a barrel and kind of takes them up to another level a little bit.

Yeah. I think that's kind of consistent with what I've had so far. I'm very interested to see if we see that as a trend. This is kind of surprising to me that it's a hundred proof. You saying it drinks lower or a little warmer? I think it drinks a little warmer. Do you? Yeah.

I mean, I think that's the tannins maybe from the French oak. That kind of drying gives a little more tingle, a little more kind of burn on the tongue.

Still getting a little of that fruit. It's kind of turned into almost like a apple a little bit. Maybe like a green apple almost.

I think that's cause of the rye and the mash bill.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, just holding it this whole time, like going back and nosing again, it is very fruity.

Now, I got to say, like the Makers 46 knows.

I think wins this race right here, but who are we going to rate top three and knows now?

We'll just we'll keep it simple.

It's over. It's overall. It's overall. OK, vanilla is just such a pleasing aroma, you know, so, you know, it's kind of hard to hard to beat that.

I think that's what's so pleasant in Dusty's. I feel like vanilla and caramel and oak are so prevalent in vintages.

Yeah. Let's go say Dusty's keep it, keep it simple. It's just so accentuated, I guess.

All right. Going back to the nose, I almost get a little banana now, like a green banana.

Okay. A little plantain.

I do see more plantain than I do banana and almost like a fried plantain for me. Yeah.

That's why I said kind of green banana.

It's not getting that JD Jack Daniel's thing here, but solid solid. Yeah. Is this your, uh, you guys first go around with this particular with this expression?

Yes. No, I've had blue note before, but I'm not certain which blue note I've had.

All right. Well, that's pretty solid. So I'm going to say we sit here and kind of finish this off and mull our thoughts and so we can rank and we'll come back in the second half when we have a couple more expressions to dive into in the our French oak foray, if you will.

We'll 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. Now, 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 and so on. So it is an exciting book. It is the biggest thing that I put together to this point. And right now it is going to be going on sale on January the 13th. But 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.

All right. Welcome back to the second half of the show. We've been doing a deep dive into French oak. Our first pour we had the classic Makers Mark 46 94 proof. It is It was the first French oak product out for everyone to try. And I did a little deep dive on French oak and there were some releases back in the nineties. I mentioned Jim Beam. I'm sure that was some sort of maybe one-off or something like that. But Makers Mark 46 is the classic. And then our second pour was the Blue Note Crossroads from Memphis, Tennessee. And yeah, both solid pours. And I think we got some of the same notes, but I think there was also a lot of difference. Obviously the weeded bourbon as compared to just a straight high rye bourbon. So there's definitely going to be some subtle differences, but I thought that was kind of a That was kind of a fun, fun start to our French oak die. So Emsi, I think you've got the info on our third pour. What do we got?

Yeah, from our old friend, Barry Brinniger, the person who makes me feel insecure about my beard. Not a lot of people do that. So we have RD1, their French oak finished bourbon. This is a high rye Kentucky straight bourbon, and they say it undergoes a unique finishing process to add old world elegance to a classic American spirit. So it's produced by RD1 Spirits in Lexington, and this is part of their mission to explore what else bourbon can do through innovative wood finishing. They really do some interesting stuff. For sure. They even had a sassafras finished bourbon at some point, which... Very cool. I think apparently you can no longer do that.

I was going to say, had to table that one because apparently there are some things that come from sassafras that aren't good for us.

So, you know, some people make sassafras tea and apparently it has carcinogens in it, which, yeah, so... Don't drink too much. If you ever see that, there were a few single barrels of that out there. I recommend you take your chances and try it. It's really interesting. So this is the French oak finish, you know, just like Blue Note Makers 46. You know, they're not using whole barrels. Now, they're not using staves. They actually have kind of little small squares of French oak that they string together and then those are lowered through the bunghole into the barrel.

I think they called them chains. Yeah. Yeah. Really neat. Yeah. Looks like a, I don't know, like a wooden necklace. Yeah.

Yeah. If you visit the distillery down there, a wonderful place to go visit their new location in Lexington, you'll see some of those. So they are actually using French oak from the five great forests of central France. So some places may specify one certain region, but they're using all five. Kind of rounds things out a little bit. This is 101 proof. Aged at least four years in New Chart American Oak before finishing. The finishing French oak is in there for about two to four months. MSRP on this is about $70.

We should add that Barry just came to one of our Frankfurt Bourbon Society events and actually brought us a couple of fun single barrels. One was a French oak, I think it was like 120 proof plus. So Barry's a longtime friend of the show and for the Frankfurt Bourbon Society and a great ambassador for them. And he does have a beard that kicks your beard's butt. It does, it does. I can say that because I have zero beard. I have some stubble. My daughter tells me to shave. So all right, let's dive in. Oh, that nose. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. Now, they don't tell where they're sourced from, but I'm pretty sure that is Kentucky straight bourbon, right? Yeah.

Yeah.

Kentucky straight bourbon.

Hi, Rhyme Ashbill.

I should have saved some of that blue note to nose side by side. Any similarities?

Some. Yeah. I mean, they're both pretty oak forward. You can see the raw grain kind of showing through in both. They both have a little fruity characteristics to them.

And we did a show with them not too long ago and we got to try their sister cities, which was basically a bourbon rye blend, but it had been aged in French Oak and Mizanara. And that was, that's a really, really great pour. I'm a big fan of that one.

When we got the opportunity to get that one for House of Commons, I made sure to get a few so that we could have that one for a while. This is a big fan of that.

Again, I think it's just amplifying. I mean, there's nothing like new or shocking to this nose.

It's still kind of amplifying those nice baking spices, like classic, you know, especially around the edge of the glass kind of, I almost get a little more of, uh, I don't know if it's quite cherry or more like, um, an almond almonds, almond extract type note on this.

I see that. Would you say amaretto-esque?

Yeah.

Yeah.

This is real weird guys, but I'm getting like fruit tape, you know, like the, uh, pressed fruit, like kind of like jellies.

I like that. That's a good shout out.

What were those called?

Uh, fruit roll-ups, right? Yeah. Fruit roll-ups. Yeah.

Yeah. But like the, like the real ones, not the, you know, the ones that are like more natural or whatever. They're like real fruit or whatever.

Right. Who needs that? All right. Let's dive in. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh, that's good.

We're stunned into silence or savoring the moment. Take your pick.

You know, I didn't get a ton of vanilla or caramel on the aroma, but I do, or on the nose, but I do get it on the palate.

Is that a little bit of bitterness from the tannins from that French Oak, but it's, it's very well like, I guess layered with the other flavors. Yeah. It's pretty balanced. Yeah. This is good.

Yeah. A little caramel in there. I almost get like a little, I felt like I said that the other day, like a candied orange peel thing. You did. And I do. Yeah. Yep.

Now they're wood guy. His name is Jared. That guy's like knows his trees and his finishes. Like he's the one that's been coming up, um, with all these awesome finishes. I know they've got some Spanish Oaks and Colombian Oak. And it's one of those places where they've got to fill your own bottle experience up there now. And they have like the different finishes that you can thieve out of and fill up. So.

I wonder, do they rotate the finishes? I believe so.

It's been a while since we've been, we've been talking to Barry about getting a bunch of our members to come up there one night because yeah, it's definitely, if you're in that Lexan area, there are a couple of places you need to go check out. I would also, mentioned James Pepper, the barrel houses in that area. You've also got Dark Arts. The Lexington Distillery scene has really picked up. And then right in between Frankfurt and Lexington, you've got Bluegrass, which they've been sourcing some great stuff. And also, I think they do some really good bourbons themselves. That blue corn is always fun that they do.

Yeah. And they've got a, they've got a really nice bar there. Um, and a few of the Frankfurt Burma society members went and did a cocktail class there a couple of weekends ago. That was a nice experience.

That's right.

You know, guys, once I get a few sips in on this, I actually get a little bit of chocolate. I could see that. Yep.

Excellent. Excellent. Poor.

Yeah, this, uh, you know, as it changes and you get different things, it's one of those little, uh, Valentine's, uh, Russell Stover's candy boxes. There's an assortment of fruit flavors and some chocolate and things. Yeah. I'm still getting like that. I'm keep picturing the fruit roll-up thing.

I'm sure it'll get taken back to my childhood, which was a long time ago.

Sure. To get some Marzipan here in a moment.

That's right. All right. Shall we move on to our last one, gentlemen?

Yeah, let's do it. I mean, we could sit here and savor this forever, but- That was great. Yeah. I'm just glad I went back and poured a little more in my glass. So when Jim listens to this, he'll know I got a Todd pour. A Todd pour, that's right. He and Rob, they'll get a chuckle out of that.

All right, our last one, and we're gonna go different path with this one. Now just, that's why I wanted to kind of keep it mixed up. So, and this one, you can no longer, it's no longer being bottled, but there should be bottles out there in the wild, I would think. And that's the Pursuit United Rye finished with Sherry French Revere Oak. It was a part of the oak collection for Pursuit Spirits. It's a small batch influenced by Sherry Season French Oak. So Pursuit Spirits, obviously that's Kenny and Ryan from the Pursuit podcast. And they source their rye. It's a blend of, and they will tell you, which is, I think it's awesome. Sagamore Spirits, their 95.5 rye. And Bardstown Bourbon Company, which is a 52 rye, 43% corn. And then like I said, it's used using revere oak, which is a French oak that has been air dried for 36 months. Holy moly. Yeah. It's a long time. And previously seasoned with Sherry rather than a traditional secondary barrel finish. They use a specialized process to precisely control the flavor extraction. This retails for about $75. The proof is 108. So this is our highest proof of, uh, the pores we're going through today. But I thought it was a nice fun addition to this. So I'm very excited. I was kind of sad to hear them say It was no longer going to be bottled, but I don't know. They've gotten really good at like kind of adapting to the market.

They have. You know, I just saw on my feed yesterday or today that Kenny was out in Vegas, which, yeah, some mutual people that I know out there. And I was like, man, I'm ecstatic to see that he's out in Vegas because they're just doing really cool stuff. And I think that they're really genuine dudes that are doing doing it all for the right reasons. And they're just out there hustling and they're doing really cool things. Um, so I'm glad to see them making their rounds across the nation because I'm excited for more people to discover their brand.

And they just got some, um, I guess some backing from the guy behind meat church. I forget his name, but yeah, that's pretty cool. So, I'm not sure where, maybe they'll come out with the first barbecue bourbon, maybe something like that. Maybe. All right. Let's dive into this nose. I'm kind of excited because I do love Rye.

Yeah. That Rye, the nose kind of screams Rye. Yeah. A little bit of mint.

It's pretty, pretty dynamic. Pretty fruity. It's like candy. Yeah.

There's a little bit of tropical nose to that. But I think that that kind of rye nose and, you know, for me, rye, I absolutely love rye. I love minty rye. There's a fine line between the kind of mint and dill that you can get a little bit. And there's something where, and I don't want it to sound bad, like I get almost a little more dill than mint on the nose on this.

See, I'm getting more mint.

That's, but yeah. Well, and you know, I've actually tried some things where one day I get dill, next day I get mint. Right. But I think it integrates so well into the oak and maybe part of it's kind of the oak and the mint that makes me get a little more of a dill nose, but, um, smells great.

I also think Rye is one of those that not, I don't know, like Sometimes it doesn't play well with other finishes. Like rum kind of works, but sometimes, I mean, I mean, I've never had anything that's very off putting, but I just think, you know, bourbon finishes better.

I think there's definitely some things that finish with bourbon that do not finish with rye. Right. But I will say on the flip side of that, I find that a lot of things, I think they're complimentary. A lot of things that finish well with rye, I don't feel like finish that great with bourbon.

Right. And see, so I would probably tend to go the other way. I think bourbon's much more delicate than rye is, you know, rye is much more assertive. And I think a lot of places sort of overfinish their bourbons. And I think rye can stand up a little better to a finish.

I would agree with that. I think, I think the likelihood that a finished bourbon is going to be for me too sweet is pretty good. The vast majority of bourbons that I have had that are finished, there's a greater chance that it's going to be more sweet than I would prefer than it is not.

All right. Sip it. Cheers gents. Thanks for joining me on this. Definitely get that right. It's not overpowered by the French Oak. You guys getting the Sherry influence at all though? I didn't get it on that first sip, are you? Okay.

It comes through for me and I mean this in all the best way possible, slightly medicinal. I'm a big fan of medicinal and whiskey and, and I get a little bit up.

Still getting that mint, less dill. How about you, Ams? Is the dill kind of gone? You're getting the mint or?

Yeah, it's more minty on the palate. Minty on the palate. I got dill on the nose. It's kind of cherry.

Maybe it's my older nose. You guys are younger than me, so.

I don't get the dill. I think it was the oak and to me it had a fresh cut oak nose. And I think that's what kind of made it a little more like dill, like kind of fresh cut oak with the mintiness.

I don't think I've ever had a whiskey that's this, this kind of like polarizing like to where I get that much dill on the nose and that much mint on the palate. It's usually pretty consistent for me through and through. Um, Man.

That's good. It's really good. Yeah. Like I said, I was kind of, I'm hoping, you know, they do like some, they're doing some one-off type things and here and there like special releases. So maybe this will be something they revisit every once in a while. I would love that.

And I think this is something where that finish that Sherry is in the background as it should be. The finish is like clove and nutmeg.

I feel like for $75 bottle, that's a steal.

Yeah. And like I said, it's been out a while, so it might even be, you know, might be one of those things they've dropped their price on here and there. It's like I said, it's discontinued.

So one of y'all said clove. I definitely get that. And it almost reminds me of like, You know, we talk about how bourbon connects with memories and stuff. I grew up East Tennessee. So I grew up around these places that had like the old country candy, like the whorehound type candy and those like kind of more, I guess you'd say medicinal style of candy with a little bit of bitterness to them. Kind of reminds me of that on the finish. And I love that, except better. You know, a lot of those candies aren't that great.

Yeah, I would always try those weird flavors or like when I was a kid, you know, like Cracker Barrel was a treat because they were, we had to be on a road trip to find one and the little candy cane sticks they had of all the different flavors and the clove there also.

Now, do you guys feel like this drinks? It's the highest proof. Do you feel like it's the highest proof one? Or do you, I think what was the, uh, you thought the crossroads was a little hard, drank a little warmer than you? Yeah.

I thought it drank a little warmer. And I don't mean that in a bad way. It's like, I think I don't necessarily love a 125 proof that shrinks like a 135, but if it's sub, you know, 110 or something and drinks a little warmer, I'm, I'm good with that.

What was the proof on this?

108. I think it drinks nice from 108.

I do too. Yeah. If you are a fan of Rye, you would be a fan of this. Yeah.

All right. So you guys need a moment to think about your ranking. Are we ready to go?

I think I can, I can start. I think, yeah, I could go too. Yeah.

I could be ready. Okay.

Do you want me to start?

Yes, please.

All right. My number three tonight's going to be the blue note. Really enjoyable, but yeah, just my third place tonight. I'd be interested to know, like I said, I think I have, that's the older version. So maybe if we run across the newer version, maybe we'll have to try that and see how it compares since I still have a little bit of that left. All right, Emsi, what's your number three? I would also have to say Blue Note. Okay. Dave?

I would probably say the RD-1. Okay. I think it's a phenomenal whiskey. I'm a big fan of theirs. Um, and it's a little more familiar to me because I'm familiar to, to their French oak finish. Um, and that may have been part of the factor in there, but I think, I think it's a great whiskey.

Right. Amzie, you want to start off with our number two?

Yeah. Um, and so I would say a lot of this is, uh, You threw that rye in Todd and made this more difficult for me. So I would say number two, my favorite of the Bourbons is going to be the RD one.

Okay. Dave?

Mine would be the Blue Note. And I think I'm probably influenced because of the fact that like, I hadn't had much experience with that brand. So I kind of was like surprised by that. So it kind of took me off guard.

OK, I'm going to agree with Amzie. My number two is going to be that RD-1. I think they do that one really well. And kind of seeing a consensus here.

Yeah.

So David, you want to bring us in on your number one?

Yep. The Pursuit.

Yep. It's a tasty thing. Like I said, I'm sorry to see that go. Amzie, I'm assuming you are in agreement on that one?

Yeah. I love rye. And that is a monster of a rye. It's great. I think I actually have a bottle of it. I hope I do. If not, I'm going to go out and scour the shelves and find one.

That's right. That's right. Well. You know, this was a lot of fun. And, uh, you know, like I said, I just kind of, I'm always trying to think of kind of fun ways to do dives into different stuff. And I just thought the French Oak might be a, might be a good one to go into. And, you know, who knows, maybe we'll do toasted or double barreled or something like that soon.

But, you know, and I think the other thing that, that maker's 46. Oh, I mean, it's classic.

I'd almost like to have like brought in the cast proof to throw in against that. But I mean, I just wanted to, you know, it's, that's a classic. I mean, it's been around for what? I guess 16 years now.

Yeah.

It's, it's the OG and that's kind of why I want to have it. And I thought, you know, sometimes things just get kind of over outproofed, I guess. But yeah, then I would still maybe wager it might've had the best nose. I did love that nose. Yeah. That nose is like I said, bourbon candle, something like that.

I'd say that best nose on that. And even though I said Dill, that Pursuit Rye had a really good nose to it. I mean, I loved it.

All right. Well, I want to give you guys each a chance to kind of tell the folks where they can find you. You know, Dave's the proprietor of the House of Commons bar. So Dave, we'll start with you.

Yeah, absolutely. So you can find House of Commons on your social media platforms or HOC, colon, a bourbon library on Instagram or HOC. I'm sorry. I said that wrong. It's H O C colon of bourbon library on Facebook or the underscore bourbon underscore library on Instagram. And, uh, we're located to 45 West main street here in the heart of Frankfurt. We're open seven days a week.

All right. You can find me at the Frankfurt Bourbon Society when we have an event. Bourbon roadies are always welcome at the corner Rick house here. You can also, when I'm not playing my supporting role on the Malten Migos, you can usually find me hanging out at House of Commons. You're a very great support.

We appreciate it.

All right. Well, thanks guys. I appreciate you guys joining me on this. You know, when Jim decided to do a dry January, I was like, you know, I had one show kind of lined up and that was with Jerry and Drew. And I thought, Hey, I'll get my good buddies and I to come along on this ride, if you will. So. All right, well, you can find The Burberry Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube. We do all of those. Jim and I try to get together every single week to do an episode. Sometimes it's just Jim and I sitting down with a few friends like Amzie and David, tasting through some whiskey. But the key ingredient, it's always fun. And we're always drinking whiskey. We hope you'll join us every week. The best way not to miss an episode is to scroll to the top of that app you're on, hit that subscribe button. That way you'll get that notification when we've dropped the next episode and you can put your headphones on and join us for another fun ride. We hope you'll check out the Bourbon Roadies, our Facebook group. Amzie and David are both members of that. Absolutely. A lot of folks drop some fun stuff on there. You know, kind of what they're sipping on or where they're at or what they're celebrating. Always a fun group. And you can also check out our website, TheBurbanRoad.com. We've got some swag on there, which helps us get on down the road. And we certainly enjoy talking to you every week. But until the next time, we'll see you down the bourbon road.

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