502. Five Pours, Zero Bad Choices

It's been a week of Mondays, but the weekend's here Dust on my boots and a smile with my beard Neons humming low where the nose our name Same old bar stools, but it never feels the same We raise a glass to the miles we've made To the stories told and the dues we've paid Amber light in a crystal glow A little burnin' up Where the good times roll Passin' bottles like a piece of soul Every pore's a memory, every sip a spark Lightin' up the night in the Kentucky dirt Ain't no mail, just the ties we've sewn On the long windin' bird

All right, listeners, welcome back to another episode of The Bourbon Road. We're here at The Bourbon Road Bar in Simpsonville, Kentucky, down in Jim's basement. And as usual, we've got more samples. I mean, they just keep coming in droves, like we are inundated again. It's a bad problem to have. What do you think?

It's not a bad problem to have. It is. You get buried every now and then and you got to get out from under them all by properly reviewing them and giving them their due. So there's a, you feel a little overwhelmed by how many samples you have, but by the same token, it's kind of a good job. Yeah. It's a nice perk to the biz, if you will. It is, it is. Well, we've got, what do we got? Five whiskeys today, but one of them is a bonus pour. Yeah. but we've got five whiskeys we're gonna sip through today, and then the bonus pour is kind of a fun one. We'll have a good time with that. Yeah, I'm looking forward to this. So Todd and I get packages from time to time. Sometimes they're nothing more than a brown cardboard box with some peanuts and a bottle in there, and sometimes they are just crazy out of this world marketing packages with all kinds of goodies in it. And our first whisky was one of those. It was, I think I sent Todd a picture of it and you're like, wow. All out for a new brand. Yeah, absolutely. So we got a new bottle in and I would say a lot of our listeners haven't heard of this one yet. But this is Wooler Whiskey. It's a straight bourbon. It's distilled in Bardstown. It's a four grain. and it's about a five year old and it's a small batch. So all the good things about a bourbon, but this is a long time beverage industry expert who was involved in a big brand, a brand buildup. And then he suffered sort of a life changing event in his life. He had a stroke and it's kind of setting back for a little bit, but coming out of that, this is how you measure somebody's resolve resolve their grit, you know after that he came back and bigger than ever starting war whiskey and This is a family led spirit kind of thing. So this is it's called war family and so they are They're grounded in resilience, like, you know, coming back after a life-changing stroke like that, authenticity and a shared passion of the craft. So let me talk a little bit about their logo. It's a sheep wearing a tilted crown. It's a nod to the family's English farming heritage. And it captures the brand's personality that it's approachable, a little irreverent, you know, kind of fun, and not taking itself too seriously. The brand's tagline, Take a sip of the good life. It's an invitation to slow down, enjoy the moment and share a drink with good company. It is a 72% corn, 18% rye, 5% wheat and 5% malted barley, Kentucky straight bourbon. Like I said earlier, it's a five-year-old. It spent time in a number three char, new American Oak barrel. It's bottled 90 proof for $39.99. So this is a $40 bottle. I think we got a 375 of it. It was a sample bottle, but Kind of looking forward to it. Yeah.

And from what I read, they seem to be distributed big in Georgia. So I'm guessing that's where the family's based in California right now. And this may be one you could find at Bardstown since it's sourced there. They tend to like a lot of their partnerships that they have, they will have for sale in their gift shop there. Have you been to the Bardstown one in Louisville? Like the Tasting Room?

I haven't.

I haven't either.

Yeah, it's time ago.

Yeah. I was just curious if they kind of did the same thing there, if it was all their stuff, you know what I'm saying? Because you've been to Bardstown, in Bardstown. And like I said, you can find First West is usually on the shelf there. Like they have little bottles to sell. I remember Fourgate bottles are there for sale because they, yeah, and certain things like that. So I'd be curious to know if this is there as well. But another, another 90 proofer, another new, new label. So, and another source label too.

Yeah. And I think they fully expect you to, uh, to, to use this whiskey as you wish. It's not just for straight sipping. It's not necessarily over ice. They in fact have, have a nice little, um, drink of their own called the Wooler. And it's two ounces of their water whiskey, uh, filled with ice cubes and topped with diet Coke. So it's a,

It's fancy.

Love it. All right. Nose. Nose. A little bit of graininess. Yeah, it is. But I mean, a good graininess. I think it's kind of like...

It's not off-putting.

It's not. It's not too straw-like. It's a little bit more... It's not chaff. It's more grain, part of the grain.

Yeah, like a little like granola, I guess. Or like, was it muesli cereal or something?

Yeah, like a little bit of honey on it and just the slightest, just the dusting of cinnamon, like almost just as you pass by, just throw the cinnamon in the air. What little bit lands on the whiskey. It's a little bit sweet. Yeah, that smells sweet.

Let's taste it. Cheers. Cheers.

Sweet whole palette experience. Wow. The Oak is really there. Yep. Well, um, a little tinge on the front of the tongue, a little bit on the sides, definitely a rush down the middle. So I mean it covered the entire palette.

That was nice.

Going back to the nose. Little bit of citrus.

Yeah, that palette is like sweet honey tea almost. Yep.

But the caramel's getting me on the sides of the tongue. Caramel, vanilla, other classic notes. This is a, this is a good whiskey. Um, this is, um, and I assume you and I are assuming it's parts of a bourbon company whiskey. I would assume yes. Um, which would be a great company to partner with if you're starting a family whiskey business and you don't want to make your own to start with. I think it's a good whiskey. I think this is, um, well priced to $40. The finish is medium, but it's still there. It gives a little bit of a chest tug. This is classic bourbon.

I'm not getting like the four grain of it, but I think that there's that like little bit of a honeyed spice that I think Might be that wheat. It's just a five. Cause we've talked about it. Yeah. But wheat, I don't know. You hear a lot of folks say the wheat's smooth, but I think it's, it's got an interesting spice to it to me. We can bring the fire. No doubt. And there's that little, it leaves a little tingle and I don't think that's necessarily the oak spice. I think that's that just that 5% wheat spice maybe.

They call this batch 054. I don't know if that means they've had 54 batches. Yeah, I don't know. Um, but. Uh, this is a good one. This is, uh, for the first time and you haven't heard of it before this, right? So for both of it, it's a first, um, great debut here on the bourbon road. I think it's a, it's solid. Yeah. And it's not a top shelf whiskey, but it's a solid mid shelf $40 bottle. Which we're seeing a lot of.

Yeah. Yeah. We just went through the Kentucky or Kentucky expressions and you know, sometimes you get bottles in the thirties and 40.

Well, let's say in the sub 40 range that, um, they, you can sip them. They're fine. Uh, but they're probably better in a cocktail.

Yeah.

This is fine to sip standalone little ice cube. Yeah. Yep.

plays well with everything, I think.

Yep.

I want to try the Wooler. I was going to say, I kind of want some Diet Coke to put in there now. Yeah. Try the Wooler, right?

All right. Well, Jason and family, we appreciate you sending us this sample. It was a, it was nice to taste your whiskey for the first time and we look forward to great things to come.

Yeah. I think they have one other product out right now. It's a vodka called JP vodka, I think, which I'm not sure what the JP stood for, but well, Jason, Peter Waller.

So probably JP.

There you go.

All right. I'm going to save a little bit of that so we can revisit.

Okay.

All right.

Next up for us, we've got the Whiskey Acres seven-year bourbon. Whiskey Acres is located in DeKalb, Illinois. It's an estate distillery that we've actually featured on the show, I think, twice. We had their bottled in bond with Bobby DeMars at Blind Barrels that one time, and we were really impressed. And then we had a single barrel from Lost Lantern that really floored us because they were our craft beer They were our craft distillery of the year for 2025. And I tried like the Dickens to get with Nick. And I don't want to say his last name because I would butcher it because I never really talked to him on the phone. But we just never could work it out. But he sent some samples. And I thought we'd start featuring them because we were, like I said, really impressed with their stuff. Whiskey Acres is a true seed-to-spirit operation that is committed to not just making but growing authentic whiskey. From the spirits distilled on site to the grain grown in the fields surrounding the distillery, Whiskey Acres ages and bottles everything themselves and prides themselves on never using sourced whiskey for their products. This release of a blend of 12 carefully selected barrels aged between 7 and 8 years of age The match bill is 75% yellow dent corn, 15% soft red winter wheat, and 10% multi-barley and has an MSRP of $74.99. Let's check it out.

Oh wow. Green apples. Yep. And the nose has got caramel. Yeah. Caramel over green apple. Uh-huh. Wow. I think I know this or taste this before, but it is different this time following that war.

Yeah.

We had that four year, but that's been some time ago. Oh, okay.

Yeah. I remember the, uh, that single barrel, the lost liner folks, it came out as like this cherry Cola. So it's be curious to know if that's the, that's how the palette kind of changes as they get older or leave them at a higher proof. Maybe this is a 107 proof by the way.

Yeah, it's kind of, it's got a nice little bit of a buttery nose to it. It's, um, Caramel. Oh, you said a green apple. I'm going for it. Yeah. I buy into that 100%.

It reminds me of like being like, I think we talked about being in a, at a fair or expo or something like that and get one of those. Yep. Cheers. Cheers. Nice little spicy. Yeah.

Oh, and it is like soft. I don't know if it's just because you hear that soft winter wheat. Yeah. I mean, it's, is it soft or hard winter wheat? Soft, soft, soft. So, um, definitely stung a little bit on the back of the pallet. Um, nice. It's got a little bit of a bite to it. Um,

I think that green apple carries over to the, the palette a little bit. There's a little clove cinnamon on the finish, a little oakiness.

Yeah. I mentioned, I should mention that I'm getting a little bit of a, like a light sulfur note, but it's, um, kind of like, um, like a spent shell casing from a long time ago, a little bit. I don't know. It's funny how things get pulled out of your memory. Is it a bad note? No, it's actually a really good note, but that's the only thing I can equate to it. And I'm sorry, whiskey acres, if you think that's a bad note for your whiskey, but it makes it unique. I picture you like skeet shooting in the shell popping out, that kind of thing. Well, it's not a fresh spent shell. It's something that's been, Yeah, it's just a little bit of a sulfury note, which is actually not bad. You get it sometimes with wine too. You get that with wine sometimes too. Yeah, the caramel still there, vanilla. Nice. This is a good whiskey. This really settles in on the chest. And what was the proof again? 107. 107, okay. I think it drinks a little hotter than 107. Maybe just a hair, yeah.

Being a state distilled, you think the graininess would show, but I would agree that the 90 proof. Willard has a little more graininess. Yeah, it was seven to eight. Some of those grannies often start to disappear. Right.

Well, Whiskey Acres, you continue to impress us with your whiskies. I think that there's a reason they hit our radar early on, why we kind of leaned into them as our craft distillery of the year last year, because the whiskies they put out are unique. They're good, but mostly they're unique. They're different. You're not getting just a textbook bourbon from them. You're getting something that's uniquely theirs.

And I like that estate thing. We're both big Frey Ranch fans. I think it's a testament to them that they are keeping it all in-house. I wonder if they ever worry if the weather goes south. I wonder if that ever happens to them like that.

Well, I mean, you can always If you're part of the club, I guess you can always buy. Yeah.

So, I mean, I think estate rules, it has to be within a certain amount of miles. I think we learned, didn't we? Maybe from, uh, Joe from, uh, Mendenmil maybe. Pretty impressive.

Yeah. Good stuff.

And I want to give you a shout out, uh, real quick, speaking of Los Lantern, you just wrote a great blog on the, United States of Bourbon that we just recently tried. I highly recommend our listeners go out there and check our website, check the newest blog. I've sent it to the Los Iron folks. I sent it to them, I guess that was a couple of days ago. They've not responded yet, but yeah, it was a great read.

Well, thank you, Todd. I appreciate that. It's certainly an epic thing they undertook, and I think it deserves its accolades. Agreed, no doubt. And if you haven't listened to episode 501 yet, you should definitely go back and listen to that. It's a great show. And it goes head to head with some other 250th anniversary bottles. Yeah, that was fun.

All right. What do you think? Take a break and come back. And we've got two more to go through and a bonus from some friends in Ohio. All right, folks, stick around.

We'll be back.

We argue notes, vanilla or smoke, but it's all just part of

All right, Roadies, we finally, finally released our brand new website. We hope you get a chance to check it out at TheBurbanRoad.com. It is a total rewrite, remake, revamped. We've done it for you. We have all 500 or so episodes on there with all the details, searchable, all the show notes, everything. You can search by it. You want to go find out what we talked about on an episode way back when you can do it. We've also got our tasting notes, our reviews of over 1,320 whiskeys. They're all on there. Our tasting notes, our rating for the whiskey. We even cue up the episode on the tasting notes to where we tasted it on the show. So as you're reading our tasting notes, you can play it and listen to us talk about it. So I think we're the only podcast that does that. That's pretty cool. So another thing we have on there is our blog articles. We've got over 250 blog articles on there. We're putting new ones out all the time. And the all new Roadie Bar is now on the Bourbon Road website. So if you're a Roadie, come on, sign up, get in there. We have a chat room. We've got a place where you can post what's going on in your Bourbon world. We have a calendar of all the events that are coming up. We'll be posting in there our drawings, so as we're giving things away, you'll be able to come in there and sign up for the randomizer to get picked. You'll also be able to sign up on lists to come to something that we're sponsoring. Todd's got a great event that we're putting on in the fall, and everybody can come in and sign up for that. And we've also got coupons from our vendors for percentages off on stuff. Definitely take the time to come to the website. Check it out. We do want you to come in and sign up and join in. It's a lot of fun. It's free. It doesn't cost you anything. You're certainly welcome to donate if you want to, but it's free for all roadies. So come check it out.

All right, listeners, welcome back to the second half of show. In the first half, we tasted through a couple of new expressions to us, the Wooler Whiskey Kentucky Straight Bourbon, which was founded by Jason Wooler. Great story. That's pretty awesome. had a little travails and decided, all right. True grit. Yeah, right. Came back and started his own label. It was a 90 proof, five year old, probably Bardstown source. I think as I say, four grain. Yep. And then we followed that up with the Whiskey Acres seven year bourbon from our 2025 craft distillery of the year. And a nice two solid pours right there.

Absolutely. Great way to start a show. Yeah. But now we are ready.

to up the proof a little. And yeah, change gears. So this is the new Rift Silver Grow bourbon. This is the 2026 release. This is the first release under this label, aged at least six years. The barrel select for this blend stood out for flavors and characteristics we don't typically see in our four and six year old bourbon. So this is kind of like the off profiles, I guess. Profiles that, yeah, in fact, profiles that immediately excited us from first tasting. We built this blend around the barrels that showed the most character and as a result, this year's Silver Grove release offers a profile that is clearly distinctive from past releases. This is available exclusively on the new Riff gift shop or can be purchased online for an in-store pickup. A portion of the proceeds from Silver Grove Release directly supports the Silver Grove Community Foundation funding local initiatives that enhance the city's quality of life. This has an MSRP of $59.99, and it's 116.4 proof. All right. Stepping up a little bit. Yeah. And I think New Riff's one of those that's just catching the whiskey nerds

Yeah, I think they do. I think, you know, they've got that, uh, that release club that they do. They, uh, they're in a great, great part of Kentucky, which is the, the, the right across from Cincinnati.

It's a stone's throw if you can throw a stone pretty far.

So they get to pick up all that, uh, that Cincinnati traffic and great location. Probably one of the best, uh, package stores I've ever been to right next to them there. Right.

And going back to that, that club, I mean, you must be doing really well if you don't have to have members from out of state or don't want to fool with it. Yeah. I think. And like I said, shout out to speaking of someone up in that area, my good friend, Jeff Wack, who lives in Cincinnati. He was kind enough to send us a couple ounces of this pour to nose through. Thank you, Jeff. And I'll go ahead and spoilers, we've got the new 10 year releases that I think that bourbon really wowed us last year and the rye was really, really solid. So the newest 2026 editions of those, which we'll be tasting probably sooner rather than later, hopefully.

Yeah. And the new riff made it into the, uh, lost later in 50 states bottle.

That was the, that was the Kentucky, uh, distillery that was in it.

Great nose on this.

Yeah, I'm loving this.

Uh, spice cake, a little bit of, uh, yes.

It's almost like a, uh, morning bun kind of.

Yeah. Really, really a good nose. I liked that a lot. Um, sweet, spicy, nice. Okay. No cherry.

I was definitely gonna say that cherries there too. Kind of like a nice bright one. Let's taste it. Yeah. Cheers. Cheers.

That's good. Wow. I don't even got any, I don't even have any notes yet. Just the impact on the palette and the texture and the, the feel of it crossing my palate, let out that wow. Yeah. It's really good. We cleanse the palette a little bit, drink some water. Yeah, definitely a whole palette experience. A little bit more on the back than the front. It's, um, still that spice cake.

Spice cake, cherry still there and spades. I would even throw in like a little blackberry.

Yeah, I could go with that. Some berry.

Caramel, rich caramel.

Yeah, the sweetness is almost like a honey caramel kind of drizzle put over it. Really good. Again, nice hug. Nice finish. This is a little bit on the longer side for finish. This is really sticking around. That's just rich. Yeah.

I think our buddy Scott Page was really high on this one too. If I'm not mistaken, I believe he viewed this on his YouTube.

This is a well-crafted whiskey. This is really, really good. And you said it was sub 60, right? So 59.99. Yeah. All right.

So a pretty good price for a six-year bourbon. That's a $10 mark.

Yeah. Good stuff.

Yep.

I like that one a lot. Way to go New Riff. But if you want this one, you're not going to find it on a shelf, right? You've got to either order it online or visit the gift shop.

Yeah. Or have a friend that lives there. Or have a friend that lives there, right? Might send you a pour or bring you a pour. But I'm driving by there on Monday. Twice. I don't remember. This has been out a little bit. So I don't know what the chances are it'll still be there, but.

I still may stop. That's such a great packing store there.

If you recall, he sent us another in-house release, the 375 milliliters. They're doing some interesting small releases. And it's kind of funny, you're starting to see this rise of the 375 milliliter. Bardstown kind of kicked that off. We actually got another, our next pour is a 375 milliliter bottle. So I'm kind of curious, what do you think? Is that four, is...

More people to get it or is it more just, I don't know. I think you can capture more margin on a 375 bottle. Yeah. And yes, and you can just get it in the hands of more people. So I think it works out best for everybody. You can get a bottle a little bit less and you get to get it out in more hands. So both sides kind of benefit from it. And you don't always need a 750 or a liter bottle. Sometimes I need a 1.75, but it's just one of those weekends, right?

Yeah, sometimes for us, I'm kind of like, I like to see the smaller ones, because I don't know. I have a lot of bottles open. If I get a full bottle of something, I'm like, oof. That was good. Yeah, I like that one a lot. I like it a lot. What's up next? All right. Speaking of that 375 milliliter bottle. This is the Green River Distillery Select. This is their new toasted double oak bourbon. This is the oldest expression leased by Green River Distilling Company in Owensboro, Kentucky as yet. The mash bill is 70% corn, 21% rye, 9% malted barley, and it was aged for eight years in the distillery's signature clay tile rick houses, specifically warehouse B, followed by a six-month secondary finish and lightly charred medium toast new American oak barrels. It can only be purchased at the distillery gift shop or at the Louisville tasting room. This was re bottled at a robust one 15.1 proof and runs 49 99 for a 375, 375 millimeter bottle, which makes it basically a hundred dollar bottle. Right. Right.

Well, I'll tell you what, this is not only double oak, this double dark, double dark. Yeah. So they said eight years. So their oldest whiskey to date.

All right. Wow. That nose is nice. Toasted marshmallows. Yep.

I'm missing the chocolate or I'd say s'mores. Yeah. The chocolate's not really there.

Maybe it'll be on the palette to give it that s'mores, but there's like the little bit of camp fire-ish.

Yeah. But I can tell by the nose that this is going to be a sweet wash. It's a great nose to it. Great look to it as well. I can, I'm kind of hoping for some, uh, some nice texture and viscous.

And since it's from green river, they were kind enough to send both of us one. So sign up on our website. Yeah. Might be a giveaway. Yeah, do it.

All right. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh, that's good. Yeah. Sweetest one yet.

Sweet. It's not, um, like Woodford double oak dark. Right. Um, this is a little bit more oaky in a good way, but it does have a really nice sweetness to it. It's all marshmallow. It's definitely all campfire marshmallow. It's really good. Sweet. It's not as textured as I thought it might be, but it's good.

Still trying to figure out like, you know, their, what their palate is. Cause it seems like every time I try it, there's always something a little different, especially obviously with this toasted, you're talking, yeah, the sweet barrel char. Yeah, this is a, this is a good, like I said, the toasted marshmallow and I would say like toasted, not burnt. Right. Like definitely not burnt. Got that nice little brand light brown coating on it. Yeah.

Bubbly bubbly, but not like, um, charcoal on the outside. Right. Right. We've had, we've had some that were like that though. Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's good. That's going to be very popular. It is. And, and it's only available at the gift shop. Yeah. That's kind of surprising. I wonder why. Maybe that was an experimental and they just trying to figure out if it's something they want to put out long term. So they ran a small run and put it out in the gift shop. Yeah.

I expect you'll see this year round, maybe like annual releases or something. I'm half tempted to pop into the downtown down there and see what they got.

Yeah.

They do take care of us. Yeah. And they're right beside Kenny. I didn't get to walk in there. Um, last time I was in that area, I think I told you, I stopped and got to talk to Kenny Coleman there at pursuit for a little bit. Wow. It's almost a full day now to like kind of check out all the places, hit the gift shops. And I mean,

Yeah, Louisville's up, yeah. I mean, you can spend a weekend. I think you can do that. You can do a full weekend in all three, or all four cities, really. Yeah. I think it's gotten to the point now where you can go to Louisville, Bardstown, Lexington, Frankfurt. That's the four. Yeah. And spend an entire weekend in any one of those places. You're not going to hit them all. You can't do it. You need a week. You can do it in a week. You can hit them all in a week. Yeah. Just those areas. And that's not even including like the new ref, like that's a, you're going up that way.

There's a few others like Augusta, not too far from there. Right.

I forgot you got hit Lawrenceburg. Lawrenceburg has to be part of the, the Frankfurt trip.

But yeah, it's a lot. You could probably spend a month in Kentucky to get them all.

You should spend a month in Kentucky.

Yeah.

Yeah. Bourbon heritage month. That's right. You should spend September. Make your own bourbon heritage month. But when September's over, don't go home yet. Cause you still got bourbon on the banks. Right. Good whiskey. If this became a standard expression on the shelf, I'd pick it up for sure. You go back to the nose. Little more caramel.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Maybe this is a, like you said, maybe this is an experimental type thing. And then you'll see like a younger version, maybe a little cheaper price. So just wanted to see kind of how this would do. And I think it's new. It'll do gangbusters. I think. Yeah. I mean, as far as toasted bourbons, that's a, yeah, that one's a special one.

Wow. I'm trying to put these in my brain because I know we're going to do winter, winter chicken dinner. I'm just trying to. So it was pretty clear after the first half, then it got a little muddled after the Silver Grove. And then now, with this this is going to come down to what makes your palate happy yeah i know this is going to be a preference this is definitely going to be a preference today uh this was actually a pretty good mishmash of whiskies here yeah sometimes

Things can be overproofed. I mean, well, you have, it's a pretty wide range of what 90 to 116. So, you know, things can overproof, but I mean, I think the key is we're talking about all these expressions. I mean, obviously when we do these rankings, it's basically, yeah, what we really enjoy. Great.

Shall we move on? Yeah. Rachel, the bonus. Yeah, so this is a bonus pour and a shout out to Mark Radliff and his wonderful wife Amy for gifting the bottle to us. We really enjoyed our visit into Northern Ohio. I think it was episode 383 to hang out with the Northern Ohio Roadies. And to record an episode up there, we had such a great time. And after that recording was over, Mark was kind enough to hand a bottle to me. And it is the... Dragon's Milk Origins, small batch bourbon whiskey. And it is a product of the New Holland Brewing Company. So kind of interesting. New Holland is a well-known beer brewer and they have gained a huge following of people for their beers. And Todd, I know you've named off a few other spirits that they've produced in the past as well.

Yeah, they were one of those early breweries that kind of played around with distilling in the early days. Cause I remember they had something called hopquila, which was yeah, like a hop agave blend. They did some early, Single malts. I think it was called zeppelin that they aged in their bourbon barrel stouts, which Dragon's milk was the name of that stout an excellent bourbon barrel aged out And yeah, they were always a good brewer. I remember I think they're one of my favorites of theirs was that scarecrow I believe it was their October beer like their pumpkin beer. It was really solid and Good stuff.

I mean, yeah, so you know, they start by aging some beers in bourbon barrels. And then of course, once they're done doing that, then they've got these bourbon barrels that had aged beer in them that they then can put whiskey back into. So Dragon's Milk Origin, small batch bourbon whiskey, it's 95 proof. It's five-year-old whiskey that spent time in those stout barrels. And let me read a little bit from the back of the bottle, and this is really interesting. Long ago, the phrase, heis savant draconis, was used to denote mysterious and uncharted territories. This ominous warning kept many weary travelers at bay. To us, it became an invitation. The story of Dragon's Milk began by venturing into the unknown as one of the first innovators to age beer in bourbon casks. Now we travel further, exploring the spirit that crafted the legend. In a modern world dominated by column-steel bourbon, we again opted for the road less traveled, distilling on a prohibition Arapot still, The traditional method always bottled at the pinnacle of flavor in batches of 100 barrels or less. The result is a whiskey that offers a rich body and complex flavor that made to be savored. Every legend has an origin. This is ours. Here be dragons. Here be dragons. I like it. Here be dragons. All right, here we go.

This is going to be unique. Cue the Game of Thrones soundtrack. Yeah.

Oh, this is a wonderful nose. Yeah.

And I've been lucky to have a couple of their single braille rise. And there's always this distinctive like peach gummy ring thing that I get from them.

Now, if you guys did the math, when I mentioned when I was handed this bottle, it was on episode 383. This is probably 502. So sorry, Mark and Amy that I took so long to get this bottle on the show, but I did take very good care of it in the meantime. Yeah. I made him drag it out. I was like, Hey, we can put that on the show.

Oh, wonderful nose. Yeah. Really, really good. You know, we didn't get that chocolate. We were kind of expecting on the toasted, but I'm getting a little bit that style too.

I'm almost getting like a.

It's like chocolate covered pizzas to me.

Oh my goodness. Yeah.

Like a chocolate covered pizza. Chocolate covered pizza. No, I said peaches.

Peaches. I was like pizza.

They do have dessert pizzas now. Yeah. Great nose. Great nose. Cheers. Cheers.

Yeah. And the peaches kind of peaches definitely carry over to the palette. This is really peaches. Not just a little bit. It's like peach pie. Yeah. Amazing. Are you sure this wasn't like a peach stout or something?

And it's crazy because it's on, like I said, it's on the rye too. I mean, you still get that kind of minty rye, but it's fun. And at second sip, I was like, you know, we just came off a one, what 15 proof. So this is so pizza peaches.

So is the bonus port in the winter, winter chicken dinner too?

Oh, I don't care.

Yeah. It might make it in the top three. I don't know.

I know they do release some specials. You know how like a lot of your beer producers do these, they do stout releases where they'll take their Imperial stout and usually like barrel age them and they'll give them like cocoa flavors and, or they'll put it, you know, bourbon barrels and like, like West six does that. Was it German chocolate cake version? Yeah. So like I've seen where, these, the, they do like some other batches where it's kind of like that. So they do some like different finishes on the, on the dragon's milk bourbons too. So.

Good whiskey. Yeah. Really good. I'm not a huge barrel aged beer person. I mean, I will drink one from time to time, but I am a huge beer barrel aged bourbon person. I love beer barrel aged bourbons.

Wow. And not a whole lot of new riff funny enough. I've seen they did one, um, but not a whole lot of them that do that, which is interesting. Uh, I think Bardstown did one, but something, I don't remember what brewery they used.

Yeah, I don't know, but it's rare to find, but rare to find. Well, because they can go so wrong. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. Particularly with the hops. But something like a stout or a milk porter or a horchata milk porter or something like that is going to make good whiskey.

It's funny. We just had bourbon week in Frankfurt, and Porter's had an event with one of the West Six barrel, bourbon barrel guys. And that's my question. I mean, I was kind of like, do you have to keep tabs on them quite often? Because in a bourbon barrel, things can go south, and it doesn't take much. I think you said, didn't you used to be homebrew a little? You know, and sometimes, yeah, you were a state fair. Yeah, it's right there. See the ribbon. Yeah.

Yeah. I proudly display it. But did you ever have a batch go south?

Oh yeah. Yeah. It just happens. Yeah. And there's nothing more heartbreaking though. Yeah. Cause you get it and you do all the things and like you wait. And then like a couple of weeks later and like, I remember my friend, Matt, he was like, yeah, uh, this went south. So, you know, it just down the drain, but. I'd say with barrels, you got to be careful. I mean, you get a little, you know, that was a Brett or a lactobacillus. And if you don't want that in there, well, it can get ugly. Yeah. It doesn't take much. All right. I'm, I think I'm good to go. Okay. I've been going first a few times, so let's hear you. You're going first.

Are we going to do number three?

Let's just do top three. Top three. Yeah. Okay.

I hate it because really the one in my mind that's number four, I hate that it's not in the top three, but it's, I'm sorry. It's just not. It's three B. It's three B. Yeah. So my number three is going to be the green river. Double Oat. Okay. And again, qualifying this by saying tonight is a night of preference. Yes. It's not so much quality of whiskey tonight because I would say the top I'd say they're all high quality whiskeys. Yes.

This is a matter of preference because they are different. Narrow margins. Yeah. So my number three is actually going to be this New Holland Origins. It's fun. I've had some variations of this. I think even Mark was kind enough to give me some single barrel samples. And yeah, I really enjoy it. I like that. That peach is just like a whole new flavor. for whiskey to me. So it's kind of fun. I like peaches. You know, it's peach season. The peach truck will be traveling around, I think. Right.

Yeah. It won't take long. It'll be parked right over here across the highway.

So, and everybody knows about the peach truck.

All right. So my number two is the dragon's milk. So we just flip flopped on two and three.

All right. My number two is going to be the green river. We're a flip. All right. And I think we might have a consensus number one.

Silver Grove. Silver Grove. Yeah, it was really good. Yeah. And I kind of knew it in the first 500 milliseconds after it hit my palate. Yeah. It like wowed me so fast.

It's one of those that's just right up, I think, both of our alleys. It's got a lot going on. It's complex. The proof is perfect on it, I think.

Well, let's see if we each had the same 3B. Mine was Wooler.

See, I didn't think that far. Both of those were really good. I would almost say that's like two, three B's.

I mean, I like the Wooler and I also liked the seven year. And there were some nice things going on with that seven year. I will say this. The value bottle tonight was probably the Wooler. Yes, for sure. And I think that it's a great one to pick up. If you see it on the shelf, it is a solid $39.99 bottle of whiskey. Definitely worth picking up.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to... They were actually talking about coming on the show and we were kind of like, you've only got one expression, so maybe if you release some more things.

Yeah, we need... Just for any distilleries that are listening out there, I mean, we love sampling your whiskeys on the show. And we do something like this when you only have one or two expressions, we'll get you will get you on one of these review shows. And it's great because you're going head against your competition, your friends out there, right? And just making the cut. I mean, because let's be honest, not all whiskey makes a show. That's right. We've got an awful lot of bottles that don't even make air. But anyway. If you've got two, preferably three or four expressions, if you've got a bourbon, a rye, a single barrel, and maybe some finished release, perfect. We'll get you on the show. We'd love to do it. As long as it meets our quality standards, we do not want to review whiskeys that we have to... No, we just don't want to have whiskeys we have to say bad things about.

Yeah. And you probably agree to this. You've been doing this for quite some time. I feel like the bar has been raised. Like a lot of that stuff that was a little rough. three, four years ago is, it's come to, it's come to turn case in point. I mean, solid stuff at four years, but some of this six year and then he's 10 years. Good, good stuff can hang with the big boys.

No doubt. And there's been a few. And in fact, you know, one of the things we probably had to do is look at some of these bottles that we have that we never brought on the show and just look at them and say, I wonder if these distilleries are still around and if they are, maybe it's time to talk to them. Yeah. I mean, they were doing what they had to do. But unfortunately, that's not always the right answer. It's just not. It's just not. At least not forgetting on a podcast. Right. Todd, great show. Wonderful. Congratulations to New Riff. I think they've topped the charts on several shows for us. Yes. And same to New Holland and to Green River for making the top three. I'd say, right? Yes. And then Wilder Whiskey, what a great start. You guys are off for... I expect great things from you because the first one was really good. So keep doing what you're doing. Right. And Whiskey Acres. You're near and dear to our hearts. Agreed. I don't think we've ever gotten anything from you that didn't impress us. And it's uniquely you. Yeah.

And we've got a couple other things of theirs that we'll taste on down the line. All right. Sounds good.

All right, folks. Well, definitely take a moment. Get that Google browser or that Safari browser or that Chrome, whatever it is that you use. Go to the bourbonroad.com. Make sure you see in the top right corner, you'll see where it says sign in. Go there and click sign in. Create an account. Become a roadie. We really want you to join our crew. It would be nice to have you join in. The site by itself is great. All our episodes are on there. Our reviews are all there. They're all searchable. It is a corpus of everything we've ever done. It's all searchable. We're approaching 1,350 tasting notes on there. So definitely it's worthwhile to come there and use that as kind of your sounding board if you're looking for something to go purchase. But we'd love to have you join up. Come on in. Come to the roadie bar. Create your account. Upload your picture. Make your bio and become one of us hanging out in there. Todd's doing giveaways all the time now. Our vendors are coming in and setting up discounts. It's a great place to hang out, chit chat and have a good time. We have always historically been on Facebook and we love Facebook. Our Facebook group, The Bourbon Roadies has been a dream for us, but you know, only about half are. listeners even go on Facebook. So we needed something that could appeal to everybody. Right. And that's why we did this. So if you get a chance, come check it out, the bourbonroad.com. We'd love to have you. It is free. You don't have to pay anything to be a part of it. You're certainly welcome to donate if you like, but it's certainly not a requirement. And I will say that the majority of our roadies are just encouragers. They're just there to cheers on.

Yeah. I might add our PR folks, any of you guys listening, or even some of the folks that we have, like we taste their whiskey, go on there, set up a little account. What better place to announce new releases and things like that? We want it to be used. Hopefully it's turns into as big as our bourbon roadie page, but you know, we got to have people getting in there. Absolutely.

It's slowly building. It is, it is. Well, Todd and I will put a show together every single week. We release it on Wednesday. We hope that you scroll to the top of that app you're on. You hit that subscribe button. That way you get that notification every week. You can put those headphones on and join us for an hour of fun. Listen to us drinking whiskey, chit chat, and having a good time. Our guests are always great. It's Always fun. We hope to see you out in town. We hope to see you at events. We get out as much as we can. Make sure you hop into the roadies there and send us a message if you get a chance. But until the next time, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

Where the good times roll Passing bottles like a piece of soul Every pore's a memory, every sip a spark Lighten up the night in the Kentucky dark Yeah, we laugh too loud, let the worries go Find a little truth in the afterglow Ain't no man, just a ties leave song On the long winding bourbon line Here's to the nights that turned into dawn To the friends who stayed when the rest moved on To the clink of glass and the stories spun And the quiet peace when the night is done On a bourbon road we ain't alone Every mile's marked by the love we've known From barrel to bottle to the hearts we hold there's a fire that never gets old so pour it up let the moment slow a little bit of life in every glow yeah forever we'll call this home on the long winding