503. Little Book, Big Flavors: Five Barrel-Strength Showdowns

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 whether it knows 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 burning Where the good times roll Passing bottles like a piece of soul Every pore's a memory, every sip a spark Lighting up the night in the Kentucky dirt Ain't no mail, just the ties we've sewn On the long winding burb

All right, listeners, welcome back once again to the Bourbon Road Bar. Todd and I are hanging out. We've got five really great bottles on today's show. Todd, as usual, has laid out quite, I don't know, we call it the tasting mat. Has laid out quite a tasting mat today. A tasting mat, I like that.

Yeah, some bangers today. I think that's what the kids call them, bangers. We've got some nice LTOs today. But I think a couple of those should be pretty easy to find. And I'm very excited to, I mean, this is probably going to be a really fun chicken. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Yeah.

Cause there's some really good pours here. All right. Well we got, what do we got? One, two, three different distilleries, five bottles. Starting out with something that should be a little interesting and kind of new for everybody.

Yeah, this is the 2026 version of Makers Mark Star Hill Farms Wheat Whiskey. So the undisclosed blend of whiskeys aged 7 to 8 years old. The proof is 116.4. Mash Bill is different. So they actually did it a little different than the 2025 version, which we were lucky enough to try last year. Just a sample. Don't recall who gave us that pour, but thank you to them. But I did luck into this bottle at Evergreen Cox's Liquor, the one down town. I had to go pick up a single barrel pick that the Frankfurt Bourbon Society chose with the Louisville Bourbon Society, which is in Louisville. It was a logic bag barrel, or not barrel proof, it was just the old 94 proof. The 2025 edition featured a mash bill of 51% soft red winter wheat, 27% malted soft red winter wheat, and 22% malted barley. The 2026 edition has 62% malted wheat, 27% wheat, and 11% malted barley. So the 2026 edition also includes undisclosed amounts of hard red wheat and hard white wheat in its mash bill and also includes limited amounts of undisclosed experimental barrels in its blend. Barrels were pulled from three warehouses that saw a 20-point swing in proof. The proof on this is, like I said, 116.4. It is a 700-milliliter bottle, and MSRP was $100.

Well, I expect this to be altogether different than what we had last year.

Yeah. It'd be fun to compare, but. Yeah.

All right. Let's check it out.

Oh. What was the proof again? 116.4. 116.4. OK. There's a little bit of. can sense the fire just a little bit.

Yeah. But it's not okay.

It's not like the Bernheim, you know what I mean? No, there's some darker stuff going on here. If I recall correctly, the 2025 version was a little lighter and expression. Yeah.

This is like a kind of like a little bit of an earthy cherry earthy cherry earthy cherry. Yeah.

Like a, I love that band back in the day, the earthy cherry or really? No, I'm kidding. Oh, you're joking.

I was like, I don't remember that.

Yeah.

It's, it's got this earthy note to it. Um, see I'm getting your figs and like some dark fruits. Yeah. But these are the light colored figs. What do they call them? Um, Turkey figs, Turkey figs, sweet little, little bit of heat behind there. You can sort of feel that there's something like just waiting to release itself on the, on your palate.

It does smells like, it smells like it's going to be decadent, like really sweet or poor, but it's going to be good.

Let's check it out. Cheers. Cheers. Nice. Oh yeah. Yeah. Very nice texture. Very smooth, oily.

There's some grain in there too though, which is not off putting at all. It's nice. It's nice.

It does hit you with this initial fire, but it goes away.

It kind of settles a little bit. I don't know if our warm up pour helped me get ready for that. Cause yeah, I just felt it was a nice, Velvety pour to me. This is really good, Todd.

I like it. Going back to the nose. I mean, it's, it's, for me, it's drinking a little above, above its proof.

Spice picked up a little on that second sip. Back to the nose, back to the palate. Getting some like a bit of molasses. It's like that, you remember the heart release? Had kind of that maple syrup a little bit. Lots of vanilla.

Yeah, this has got a lot of the things you love about, you know, a rich maker's mark cast-strength whiskey, but it's toned down a little bit on the sweetness. It's still a sweet whiskey, but it's, A lot of those baking spices are there. Yeah. It's not as, not as caramelly. It's more vanilla and that earthy cherry has come through. But for me, it does have that little bit of wheat whiskey sting to it, which you kind of, you kind of expect, right?

Yeah. I mean, wheat whiskeys, uh, There's not a whole lot of them, but it seems like there's more coming out. But there's something very unique about it, for sure. And we've often talked about how some folks think of wheat as being quotation marks smooth, but I think it has a spice in of its own that can be like, yeah, it can be a spicy, spicy sip for sure.

Wheat typically comes across the front of the tongue soft, but it can burn on the back a little bit. It can have a bite to it. A lot of people wonder why we did bourbon sometimes. a little more bite to them. I don't know, wheat just kind of does it. Wheat is a much more expensive grain to distill with. So typically it's only used as a flavoring grain, not as the primary grain. But in a wheat whiskey, you have no choice. It has to be at least 51%. In this case, it's 80 some percent, right? Right. 61% malt, 62% malted wheat.

62. Yes. 62%. Yeah. I think, I think that's where that earthiness is coming from that. And then you kick in that 27% that's not malted wheat.

Yeah. So we were at 89 and then 11% barley, right?

There's almost like a shortbread thing going on there, like shortbread cookies. I still love those that come in the scotch-looking package.

Oh, are these the ones that are stamped? No, not the stamped ones. Not like the Danish butter cookies kind of things.

No, but close. They just have that tartan package. It's like red and black. I forget what the brand is, but I'm getting that shortbread vibe. So Jim, how was your fourth? It was really good.

So, you know, Simpsonville, Kentucky is pretty small. And we have an outlet mall here where they let off the fireworks just so happens to be just on the other side of the tree line from me. So we sat in our back patio. Did they get up over the trees? This year they didn't get a great deal over the trees. It seemed like the fireworks weren't. didn't go as high this year as they normally do.

That's pretty cool they did that though. Yeah, it's nice.

It's nice. We got to see the fireworks, had some kids over and everybody had a good time. Snacked and drank and watched the fireworks and those who couldn't handle the heat got to sit in the sunroom and watch them. I was gonna say, we've had a hot, hot week. It has been hot. All right, I'm gonna save just a little bit of that time. Same. I think it's a very good pour and worthy of a competition here. So yeah. All right.

We're ready to move on to the next pour. And this is the new Riff 10-year-old bourbon. This is the 2026 version. Listeners may remember that we were head over heels about that 2025 version and actually the same person sent us this. Shout out to Jeff Wack of Hello Again Whiskey Friends. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Jeff. Also a supporting roadie, thank you. Yes, thank you. Mashable is 65 corn, 30 rye and five malted barley. Proof is 116.9. It was available to New Rift whiskey club members and available at the New Rift distillery. So pretty limited. I'd say probably in that Newport Cincinnati area, there may be some bottles to be found. MSRP is 89.99. Okay.

Well, we just had a New Rift take a winter, winter chicken dinner a show ago, right? The Silver Grove? Yes. Yeah. Excellent pour. Oh, that's good. Oh, it's got a little bit of a, Kind of a root bearish note on the nose. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. I can, I can sense a little bit of heat. Nice color. Nice. Nice color.

Cheers. I still smell and I was trying to get like, yeah, but that's like a classic nose, a lot of caramel vanilla baking spices.

OK, this one is for me, not as sweet, a little more down licorice lane. More oaky.

I'm getting a weird little honey peach thing going, though. Honey peach. Yeah. Just a little, maybe like dried apricot, but there's like a cherry apricot. There's like a cherry, the cherries there as well. It's a little darker cherry compared to that maker or excuse me, the star Hill.

But I kind of get the apricot, the, um, you know, apricots have a little bit more of a, um, sort of an acid bite to them than like a peach does.

I'm getting that. I know. It's just got this like peachy apricot vibe that we kind of got on that dragon's milk, which is kind of interesting. Now I'm getting a little bit of tobacco. This is very from the tongue though, oddly enough. You get much on the back?

Yeah, that's where I'm getting the tobacco. On the back? Okay. I'm getting tobacco and a little bit of dryness from it. It's a little, Little dry, not as sweet, but I'm getting this tobacco note, this, oddly enough, maybe this apricot tobacco note. Making my mouth water a little bit though. Yeah, it's really good. This is very interesting.

Hair drying.

Nice wood spice, oak spice on it. Yeah. This, this was definitely more mature oak, a little bit of tobacco and leather. I, I, I, I'm a hundred percent bought in on your apricot or you said peach, which is fine. But apricots for me have a little bit more of this acid bite to them. Okay. And I'm kind of getting that, uh, not a tremendous amount of sweetness across the front of the palette. No. Um, it's drying. It's got a wonderful finish though. It just sits there. It kind of sticks. And I didn't really pay much attention to the texture before I'm going to do it again. Yeah. I mean, just kind of an average tech porter for texture pork, nothing too oily or slick or velvety.

Yeah. Kind of middle of the road oiliness. But wow, these 10 years continue to impress. That's for sure.

Yeah. They make some good whiskey there.

Yeah. New porn on the river. Right. You know, since they're putting on these 10s, you got to think there's probably a few barrels they're letting go on beyond 10. 12, right? I know. It would be kind of cool to see something 12 or here in a couple of years, 15.

Now, they put out a lot of barrels up there. They have quite the capacity. So I would imagine that they've been able to stockpile a few older barrels. Well, obviously, for the 10s.

Have you been there to do a tour or anything?

I've been in their front room. I haven't done a tour. I've been in the shop in the front room there. Yeah.

I was curious. I kind of wonder where their rick houses are. Let's say out in the surrounding county somewhere or something. Yeah, I'm not sure. Cool place to check out though. Absolutely.

Yeah. I drive by quite a bit on my way up to up through Cincinnati and I stop when I can, but I don't always go into new ref. I'm usually over party source. Right.

Which is a great stop. That is a great stop. That's one of those, if you're looking for a. One of the better stores in that area, it's definitely on your list. They kind of need to put a limit on your wallet before you walk through the door because they've got a lot to choose from. Agreed.

They don't have to really, there they don't really have to decide what gets put on the shelf and what doesn't. They've got enough shelf space. I was going to say, that place is huge. They've got a hundred yards of bourbon there. At least.

It's been a while since I've been there, but they had like lots of picks too. And that's, I think that's, well, that's a Traverse City that you had. My friend, Jeff, actually, I think I told you, he sent me a, grabbed me a bottle after you raved about it. I guess.

Well, I didn't just rave about it. We voted it. That's true. That's right. You, I, and Danzie voted it winner of the day.

It was. We'll have to do that again. I'll bring out the big guns. All right. I didn't save much of that one though. Oh, you didn't. That could be telling. Yeah. All right. We're ready to move on. Let's do it. Number three, number three, we're going to stay in the same family. This is the new rift 10 year old rye from 2026. It's a 95 five. So 95% rye, 5% malted barley proof up a little bit 118.8. And once again, 89.99 available there at New Riff or if you're in that whiskey club, which is funny because I am in that whiskey club, but it's just.

I don't know.

I wonder if they, they would probably hold a bottle. I should probably start doing that more often.

Yeah. You have to pick them up. Yeah. Yeah. Theirs is not a shipping club, right? Right. Right. Yeah. Keep that in mind folks. If you, if you join the whiskey club at New Riff, you have to actually go and pick them up. I, you would think they would have changed that by now, but I think they want to control everything.

And I also, yeah. Which, you know, we've talked about this. They're kind of keeping it local. Yeah. And you know, expansion's nice, but nothing wrong with keeping it local.

In fact, I expect over the next couple of years to probably see some of that more localization happen. So for sure. All right. Well, I think it's been a minute Todd, since we had a well-eased dry on the show.

It has.

I was just thinking that on my drive here. I was like, Jim should be happy.

We got a ride. Yeah. Get out with the nose.

Oh, spear mint. Oh yeah, that's nice. Oh, that's reminiscent. What's that? Oh wow. That reminds me a little bit of the old Kentucky owls.

Ooh, that's high praise. Yeah. That's a nice nose. It's a little citrus zest to it.

Yeah, this has all the good things. A little bit of a pine nut, citrus, um, Some clove, a little bit of, you know, the citrus is like a candied citrus a little bit, like a, Oh, I know what it is. You know, you can buy those dried orange slices for your old fashions. Have you ever gotten those? No. Oh yeah. So you can actually, a lot of liquor stores will carry them now. They're actually sliced oranges, but they've been dehydrated. Okay. And you drop them down in your old fashioned or you drop them down in your cocktail. It doesn't have to be an old fashioned and it rehydrates and adds it's they're wonderful. They're really good.

Trader Joe's has them.

Okay. You can get big bags on the Trader Joe's, but

I'm digging this nose. Kind of reminds me of that. Cheers.

Cheers. Okay. This is, uh, Oh yeah. Very nice.

Um, that's, uh, the most viscous thing we've had yet. It is very thick.

Thick is a great word for that. And you know, it doesn't carry a tremendous sweetness, but it does have a really nice representation of the nose we got. It's got the, I think I called out pine nuts, but it's pine forest, whatever you want to call it.

A little bit of that, a little bit of- That mint carries over for sure. It's like almost cooling. That orange zest. It's one of those where the nose matches the palette pretty well. I expected it to be sweeter though.

Did you? I like it where it sits. I'm not saying it needs to be sweeter. I like it right where it is.

Yep. There's that zest. That zest really pops up on that second sip. That's good stuff. Yep. Clean, refreshing. Little peppery spice at the end.

You can tell it's high octane. It's, it's got a great age on it. The yolk sort of blossoms on the back of the palate. Yep. Yeah, this is a great ride. Yeah, I like this. This really does remind me of an old Kentucky. Oh, a lot. A lot of this reminds me of an old Kentucky. You heard it here, folks. Wow. Whatever happened in Kentucky, I mean, I know what happened in Kentucky, but how could you let that go away? That was so awesome.

Just one of those things. I know it. It made it got high praise and bought out by a bigger I mean, we've seen it in beer. We've talked about ballast point. I'm not blaming Dixon. I mean, he did what he needed to do. You throw big dollar signs at somebody. It's hard to say no. I mean, we've talked about ballast point though. They were bought by what? Constellation. Great beer is one of those you could find everywhere. And I haven't seen that for 900 million.

And then, and then what? Two years later, they sold for 400 million.

Yeah. And I haven't seen that beer in years.

Amazing beer. I've been to the, I've been to the brewery in San Diego, right there by where Topkin flies out of Miramar.

But had some of the best IPAs in the game and I don't know. Yes, Manta Ray.

Oh, wow.

Sculpin'.

Sculpin'. Yeah, yeah. Oh my goodness, you remember. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you hate when that happens, but you know, that's what the big boys do. They buy it up. They sometimes build it up. Sometimes they tone it down. I mean, look what happened to the old crow.

Yeah, but it seems to happen more in beer.

Well, I think beer, honestly, I'm just saying. You can look at what happens in beer, and a few years later, it's going to happen in spirits, kind of.

See, I actually brought that. Kenny Coleman at Pursuit United, they have those round tables, and I brought that up. I said, and you probably remember this, why isn't there as much blowback when a big guy comes in to buy something smaller in distilling? Because you thought, I mean, we were just down in Asheville. Wicked Weed caught all kinds of crap when Um, and as a Bush bought them, but you know, in most scenarios, when a bigger place came in, like MGP buying Penelope, right? Nothing wrong with air. In fact, they're still flying high, you know? So I don't know, but I think case in point, uh, when I could say it was Stoli that bought, um, the owl, and yeah, it just went kaput.

And they had big plans. They were going to build the Kentucky owl-like theme park in Bartstown. Whatever happened with that? I don't know. I think they did buy the land, didn't they? I don't know.

I don't know what happened. There were a lot of places that had grand plans. I mean, you think of what's the Blue Rhine?

Yep.

Another one that was supposed to be on Georgetown, and they're still out there.

Horsesoles are dead open in Somerset. I know. And we had invitations to go, but we both had, had busy lives and we couldn't make it. But, um, I'm, I'm kind of wanting to get down there. I'd like to check it out too. Yeah, definitely. Well, maybe we'll reach out to those fellows and see if we can't get, get a opportunity to come down and check it out. Yeah, that'd be cool.

It'd be nice to spend a weekend in Somerset, wouldn't it? Uh, yeah, I could even take the kids cause there's that, uh, summer, summer splash water park. That's pretty awesome.

Three good pours, Jim. This is really, really good.

There's some, Oh my goodness. I think we're going to have five winners, but we still have to rank them. We'll do it. All right.

All right. Well folks stick around. Todd and they're going to continue sipping on this rye. We both have a little bit more in our glass. When we come back, we've got, uh, Two really good pours in the second half. You really saved some good ones for the second half. It's all proof. It's all in the proof.

We went proof. But yeah, I'm looking forward to these two. All right, don't go away.

We'll be right back. 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 whiskies. They're all on there. Todd and I, 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 the show. In the first half, we had some grape pours. We started off with the Makers Mark Star Hill Farms Wheat Whiskey from 2026. We followed that up with the 2026 version of the 10-year New Rift Bourbon. And we followed that with the 10-year 2026 version of the rye from New Rift. Nice to have an East Rye. Yeah. So 2026, we're bringing it. But speaking of 2026, this is the Little Book, Chapter 10, All the Wiser. It's an undisclosed blend of four, nine, 11 and 14 year old bourbons. The proof is 122.6. The master bill is an undisclosed blend of 63% corn, 27% rye, 10% rye and 77% corn, 13% rye and 10% malted barley. MSRP is $160 for a 750. And basically, what Freddie set out to do was kind of bring back, yeah, he kind of paid respect to Little Book Chapter 3, which is, I mean, you ask most Little Book fans out there what their favorite is, and it's Chapter 3. And that was called The Road Home. So basically, Chapter 3 was a blend of Bourbons. It had a nine-year-old Knob Creek, It had nine-year-old Basil Haydn's, 11-year-old Booker's, and 12-year-old Baker's. Like chapter 10, that blend was bottled uncut at 122.6 proof, so he kept it right on proof, which is pretty amazing. He probably had to play with that to get it just perfect. Uncut at that proof, yeah. So Master Distiller Freddie Noe takes the same approach for all that, but shuffles the age of each component, while also throwing in a finished component this time. The end result is a blend of 11-year-old Knob Creek, 14-year-old Basil Hayden, 10-year-old Bookers, nine-year-old Bakers, and a four-year-old Jim Beam finishing sherry and toasted casks. Just to give it a little, I guess a sherry kick, if you will. Wow. Interesting. Yeah. So this is one I actually tried. When I did the pick with, uh, Scott and Jason up there, we just recently did a knob Creek pick that'll be available for their patron members and folks that attend their Bardstown blitz. So that was fun, fun day. Always good to hang with those guys.

Okay. We can tell the proofs climbing, but it's, uh, the nose is, uh, I would say Beamish.

You getting that sherry? I think I am a little bit, like it's. Yeah, maybe.

Like almost like an extra nuttiness. I'm wondering, you know, if it wasn't, if I would, if I didn't know it was there, would I be getting it? I don't know. It's, it's kind of a light touch. Right. Yeah, it's good. Nice. This is a mature bourbon. This is something that has got, uh, on average, pretty good age in it. Uh, there's been some, uh, significant oak influence shared across the different whiskeys that have been put in here. Yep. Lots of vanilla on this. Yeah.

A little bit of nuttiness. I mean, I think it's like I said, Beamish is good. Beamish. That's a great beer too, by the way. Beamish.

I'm kind of looking forward to the palette. This is a dark whiskey. I was going to say, very dark. It's gorgeous. Yeah. I mean, it's, oh, it's mahogany. It's definitely mahogany whiskey. Let's taste it. That's great.

Vibrant nose, too.

Cheers. Oh, baby, baby.

Yeah. That is really good. That's perfect beam, almost. That nuttiness.

Yeah. So this is, um, this is right. This is after dinner. This is, this is a great after dinner pour. Yep. Um, tremendous flavor on that. Excites the palette. I've been getting that from the little books lately. Just a little bit of chocolate.

Chocolate must go snicker ish. Oh yeah. Snickers. It's so satisfying.

They have a cherry on it. Like, you know, dark Luxardo. Yeah. Dark Luxardo is a great call. Vanilla. I mean, it's, it's, it's a great representation of being whiskeys and, and how, and the craft of putting together different things that, you know, it must be so much fun to be Freddie. I mean, to be able to sit there with those kinds of inventories and just imagine the next little book release and what he can do, what kind of crazy stuff he can do to make it amazing.

It leaves a nice spicy like, I mean, my tongue is a sizzling.

This is a super long finish. Really good. Nice hug. Flavor sticks with you. It's stuck. It's like, you know, it's like throwing spaghetti at the wall. It just sticks. That flavor just sticks on your palate. It's not going anywhere fast. If you want this finished to go away, you're going to have to drink some water.

Do not add water. Do not add water. No, I'm kidding. You drink your way. It's a little drying kind of reminds me of that, uh, that 10 year bourbon from new riff. Yeah. It's a little drying a little bit, but that's spices.

Yeah, this is, um, this is, this is absolutely an after dinner sipper. Um, finish off a great meal with this. I mean, I'm thinking steak, um, which I grilled ribeyes last night. Oh, Cebuco maybe. I mean, anything along those lines, any rich sort of- Probably pair well with a cigar too. I think it would. Yeah, this is a decadent whiskey. This is not to be toyed with. It carries its weight. It'll finish a dinner for you. I don't think it will compliment the dinner. It will transition. you from the dinner into your after dinner drink. And then that's all you're going to be thinking about from that point forward is what you're drinking here.

I'm sitting here trying to, like you said, after dinner, now I'm like, what kind of dessert would this go well with? I know this fair with like a pecan pie with like a big old dollop of whipped cream on it or something. Yeah, I don't know.

I'm kind of picturing like a dark German tort. Okay. Like you're going chocolate. Okay. So I was thinking like, keep that nuttiness kind of thing. Actually, you know, it could go with like baklava. It could go with so much stuff. I don't know, but I'm just, when I drink this, I'm thinking, okay, eating's over now sipping time. There's been some really good, he's done some great little books, but this one, I think he's brought his A game. Nine was really good. Yeah. And so was the, uh, what was the name of the. Oh, wow.

I can't remember all those names. That information in my fingertips. It was like, uh, yeah, unfortunately. Just go back. We've reviewed most of those in the past.

Wow. Yep. I mean, if you just go onto the website and type a little book that are reviews, it'll probably come up with, well, at the very least 10 whiskies because we've had them all. All right.

You look like you don't want to put that one down.

I don't want to put it down. I'm kind of in the moment. And like I said, I kind of hate to go on to the next one. I don't have water next to me, but, and I'm afraid that it just, that little book's just not going to go away. I'm going to have to wash it away with this next one, which I think old Booker could probably make that happen. What do you think?

Right. So Booker's comes out four times a month. So I've kind of slowed and I was one of those that I've got a bunch. I was getting them every, every, you know, like basically come out quarterly. So. And with most of those, you get what you expect. Just a good representation of Jim Beam at that like, what, six and a half to seven and a half, eight year old mark. From the hot racks. Yeah. Hot racks. Usually running about 123 to 129 proof. So I kind of backed off and Then Jason, and I'm going to blame Jason Corey for this, came out with his review for this one and said this one went a little different than most of the Bookers. This is the Bookers 202601. This is called the Big Easy Batch. Big easy. That's like New Orleans. Yeah. Seven years, two months, 15 days. I always like how they, they even give you the days. So why don't they don't do the hours and the minutes, but big proof on this one. 129.1. Like I said, that tends to run in that 125, 127, 77% corn, 13% rye, 10% malted barley. MSRP is a hundred bucks for a 750 ML. Of course you get the fabulous box on actually this and the little book. The first batch release of Booker's 2026 is titled The Big Easy Batch and is dedicated to Booker No's love for New Orleans and its food and especially the hot dog street cart. According to the company, he made his first trips down there as a young man, friends like Bill Roby by his side, the two of them eating and drinking their way around town. These trips would become a staple of Booker-Know's life, often returning to the famous Bourbon Street and in one special occasion, the city temporarily renamed Bourbon Street to Jim Beam Bourbon Street for a day in his honor, which is pretty cool. So I'm kind of excited. Like I said, apparently he's a little off profile from that nuttiness maybe. Oh, more caramel notes on there. Where is it? Got a little fruitier.

Yeah, caramel apple. Yeah. With the nuts on it. Oh, I like that.

That's a classic nose.

Yeah, it is. You know, for $129, it's not singeing the hairs in the nose. No. All right. A little bit of pie crust too. Ooh. Cheers. It's like a fair. Wow.

Powerful whiskey. And not as nutty. Not as nutty, but, um. That green apple thing's going on still. The apple, the caramel, the, um, Yeah, it's like a perfectly cooked apple pie with caramel on it. Pie crust for sure.

This is really good. It's definitely swinging for the fence. It's a big proof. It's got a lot of power to it. It's got a little zip, yeah. I would say this would be among some of my favorite bookers. That's really good. Agreed. I mean, there are, let's just be fair. Bookers are all over the place. Yes. They're good, but some of them, I mean, they just, like I said, they really, they're the hot rack with, I mean, they're the barrels that that just undergoes significant maturation. Right.

One thing also, if you recall, like if you, I'm sure we could look at that tag and it talks about what floors and warehouses and all that, like there are from all over the place.

This is really good. Yeah. This is, uh, for 129 ish proof. Yeah. Yeah. This is, this is the strengths. Well, really good. Yeah.

I would definitely say pick up a bottle of, uh, 2601.

Yep. Yep. It's out there. It's on the shelves right now. Grab it.

It's worth it.

I think a Bookers comes along once every couple of years that you need to just snatch.

Yeah. Always solid. I'm not saying don't. There's some others out there.

You can get any one and be happy with it.

Right. Yeah. For like a special pour when friends come over and things like that. But this one, I think is, you put an asterisk by it. I see you looking at the bottles over there on the bar. Are you contemplating contemplating order?

No, you got your order already. I got my order.

Yeah. Winner winner chicken dinner.

Oh, oh, I see what you're saying.

Yeah. Look like you're contemplating like the bottles over there. Yeah. I think are we going to do three of them? What do you feel like doing tonight? I mean, again, we've had five outstanding pours, so it's kind of like... We have.

It can get confusing for the listeners because there's no visual to this if we jump around between five different pours. So I think three is... I think we should go with our top three. I agree. And it's five great whiskeys tonight. I think for me, three of them stood out. And I'm just, I'm worried about what number three is. I've got my one and two. I got my one and two, that's funny. Yeah, three is my question mark right now. Yeah, I think I'm good. It's really hard. It is hard. I think we'll differ on number three, maybe. But let's do it. Let's do it.

You're going back. Maybe I should go back too. I'm trying to determine my third place.

I know what number one is.

It's clear in my mind. I've got my one and two for sure. And in that order, and it's the three I'm struggling with. I mean, we're talking fine, fine lines here. Oh, man. Switching up the order a little bit. Yeah. Going back to that is really interesting. Shoot, man. Oh, OK. Wow. Maybe one of these times we'll have to do a, we'll start the high pores and go backwards. Oh, wow.

Oh, wow. That was awesome. What just happened? I'm, I'm zipping through them and I hit one of them and it just like, wowed me. I won't tell you which one it was.

Is it because it changed a little bit?

Because it just, it just like blew my mind, stood out. Okay.

I think I may have that epiphany too.

Man. Okay. I am ready. I am ready. My number three. I'll go first this time. Usually go first.

Okay.

My number three is going to be the Bookers 2601.

Oh, okay. You're right. My number three is going to be the Starhill Farms. Okay. The Wheat Whiskey. Going back to that one, there was something really cool and unique about that. Like just quick sipping. Yeah. Yeah. What I tried before that made it like some other flavors come in there. That was really interesting. Like I got like this Amaretto type thing. That's kind of cool.

So we got in the number three spot, we got the Bookers 2601 and the Starhill Farms 2026. Yep. So we're not, we're not in tune here, Todd. We're calling our own shots. Not yet. My number two, the new riff rye.

My number two is going to be the new riff rye. Okay. Cool. Yeah. Okay. We're going to match up there. Which is interesting. I mean, we were such big fans of the bourbon last year and the rye was good, but this year's rye, it makes my palate happy. Yeah. It's, uh, You're a right guy. So I kind of thought you might, I figured we'd agree on that one. It was really good.

And if you couldn't tell from my review of it, I mean, come on, I was all but obvious there. But anyway.

And will we agree on number one?

I think we might. Little Book Chapter 10. Little Book Chapter 10. Yeah. And that's the one that wowed me on the sip through is I went through them real quick again. It hit my pal and I was like, no doubt. No doubt whatsoever.

I didn't even need the sip through.

That's really, really good. Great job, Freddie.

No.

So, um, the one that didn't make the cut, which is also very good was the new riff 10 year, new riff bourbon bourbon, fantastic whiskey. All these whiskies are great. Um, the, the little book chapter 10 is exceptional, maybe even, uh, slightly higher than exceptional. I think it's, I think we, we couldn't remember the name of the other little book expression that we scored really high. It was something like ultimatum or something like that. What was it called? It was like, uh, I can't remember either anyway, but the little books have really impressed me a lot, which tells you that, uh, Freddie is, uh, is in the groove.

He's got his egg game on. He's, he's doing great. And by our criteria, I'm thinking it might have a chance to be bourbon of the year. It could, it's really good.

It's that good. The rye though, the rye from New Riff just, it just captured my imagination. It took me back to 2019, 2018, whatever it was, sitting in line, at three o'clock in the morning at a total wine, waiting to see what I can get and sipping on, um, oh, Kentucky owls while we were out there, you know.

So you did the camping thing?

Oh, I've done it. Really? I did it early on. Oh, that's, yeah. I had never camped. Me and Brian Hyatt did, uh, did, did one where we sat there. We had, uh, We brought, I can't remember what it was like, owls one, two, and three. We were sitting there sipping on these Kentucky owls all night. Yeah, it was great. I heard it's a bit of a party when, I'd be curious to know if that's time, I bet it hasn't toned down at all. Yeah, I think it's toned down. I can remember guys getting the, getting the pappy and chugging it in the parking lot. And it's like, okay, this is a crazy group. I've seen Kenny at those too, and Ryan, they, you know, they used to do it too. Everybody did it back in the day.

I did it for one thing, and that was, Fourgate did a foundation bottle. It was a 14-year-old MGP that they had sourced, and it was hazmat. And it was pretty special. But they had two barrels, and combining them, it only came out to something like crazy, like 60 bottles. Really low. Wow. Yeah. But fantastic. This was fun. It was fun. We had a really good time. I seriously like some great stuff here.

And these are all bottles that you can...

I was going to say, the new riff might be, unless you're in that area, might be tough to find, but I feel like... I mean, thanks for sitting on the shelf a little more. So Star Hill Farms, like I said, I got lucky, happened to go pick up our boxes of the single barrel and it was sitting there on the shelf. I was like, sweet. Yeah. And then, you know, the Bookers and Little Book, if you're definitely a Jim Beam, they always have them on the shelf and those should be. Right. I mean, funny enough, I just ordered an Old Glory pick that Mash and Drum did, or Mash and Journey did, and Stu Sharipour, which is one of those that ships pretty much all over the place. And they have this mystery thing for like $59.99, right? a mystery bottle that you can tack on. So I was like, eh, let's try it. I got the 2025-04 Bookers, which I don't remember the name of, but that was for 59 bucks. Well, there you go. Yeah. Bargain. Bargain. Yeah.

So yeah, Bookers are not 25 bucks, 59 bucks anymore.

No. Well, I mixed them all together, Todd. Did you really? It's underwhelming. It's...

He sounded like a movie critic there. It's underwhelming. It's underwhelming. Well, anyway, I think we did a good job of going through these five whiskeys. Hopefully Cooper has been taking notes. That's right. He's going to get them posted up for us when we're done. If you haven't checked out the bourbonroad.com website, now's the time to do it. All of our reviews, 100% of the whiskeys we review on the show get posted on the website. with tasting notes, with scores, and with an excerpt of the audio from the podcast when we tasted it. So not a lot of podcasts out there doing that, but the great thing about it is you get to actually experience us tasting the whiskey in the tasting note. which is, I think, pretty cool. It is cool.

I mean, I think you've done an amazing job with this website, man, because it's totally been revamped. I mean, it was nice before, but now it's a piece of art.

It's all for the users. It's all for the roadies. We just want them to experience whiskey as as best as, as good as we do anyway, and get to, you know, listen to what we think about a particular whiskey. And when you're, when you're out shopping and when you're in town and you're, you're going through the shelves and you're looking at them, you're scratching your head, trying to figure out which bottle to buy. Cause let's be honest. We're not all buying every bottle on the shelf. We're buying what our wallet will support. Right. When you're trying to make that decision on what to buy, it's nice to be able to pull something up real quick on your phone and hear somebody talk about it. Hear somebody say, eh, it's all right. Right. Right. Or life changing or whatever it might be, you know?

Yeah. And case in point, that Booker's tonight, Jason was very high on it. And he's one of those that probably reviews a lot of them, kind of like we've done in the past. But this one really stood out to him. So I thought, I'll grab this one. And I'm glad I did. Well, it's been a great night, Todd.

Amazing tasting mat you put together. Tasting mat. That's what we call it on the description on the podcast is the tasting mat.

Sounds like somebody that's like in the background helping us out. His name's Matt and he sets up our tasting thing. Tasting Matt. Yeah. But now it's just us.

It's just us, just Todd and I, well and Cooper. Cooper does a lot of the work actually. But anyway, lots of fun. We had a great time tonight. A lot of great pours. We hope you enjoyed the evening. Uh, we've got a lot more coming because I think if I remember from Todd's description, we are, we still backlogged just a little bit. A little bit, but there's worse problems to have, right? Well, what do we have coming up? We've got, um, certainly a single malt show coming up.

Yes. We're going to try to get the malt Migos back together again. Let us ride. Yep. We need to do a cigar show. We've got a cigar show, hopefully coming up with our good friend, Scott Page, who we haven't had on for a while. His, you can find him at my bourbon journey. on YouTube. Yeah. Long time friend to both of us.

We've got a few Inner Circle supporters that haven't yet been on the podcast.

Yeah. We may send them some pours and we'll taste along with them.

That'd be kind of fun. All right. So if you're an Inner Circle supporter on the Bourbon Road, if you have stepped up at that top level to help us get down the road, we're going to get you on a show here soon. So we definitely invite you to go to thebourbonroad.com, check out the website, check out everything we have to offer. Make sure you sign up. It's free. It doesn't cost you anything. We're not going to send you a ton of emails. We're going to give you an update every week to let you know what's been posted, what's going on, but that's about it. We're just not into spam and emails to people and we're not into taking your money if you're not willing to give it up. So we do like your support. If you can help us out, we appreciate it. Make sure you go onto the bourbonroad.com sign up, become a roadie, become one of the club, come in there and hang out with us in the bourbon road bar. We've got a post section and a chat section and all kinds of good things going on there. Todd runs. Giveaways in there from time to time.

You got some new ones coming up? Should have another one. I'm trying to kind of space them out, so we'll probably have another one in a couple of weeks.

All right. Good deal. Always giving stuff away. The distilleries and the guests on our show are very generous with what they send our way. So we like to turn around and offer it back out to our listeners. So get on there, join up. We've got randomizer drawings that go off from time to time. Love to have you join up on that. Every week, Todd and I put out an episode on Wednesdays. Sometimes we've got guests. It seems recently it's been mostly just you and I trying to get through samples and that's okay. We're always having fun. We're always drinking whiskey, but it's for your benefit. Every week when we release, we get a show out. We hope you can put on your headset and join us. The best way not to miss it. scroll to the top of that app you're on, hit that subscribe button. That way, when we do release, you get that notification. You won't miss it. You can put on your headset. You can get down the road to that next sales call or cut the grass or sweep the house or whatever it is that you do with your headset on. We'd love to be a part of your day, 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-leaf song On the long winding bourbon road 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