513. Mizunara Madness: Four Very Different Japanese Oak Finishes Compared

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' 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 bird

Hello listeners, welcome back to another episode of The Bourbon Road. This is Todd Ritter and with me as always is my good buddy Jim Shannon.

Hey Todd, glad to be back. Glad to be hanging out again at the Corner Rick House. All beautiful and repainted and looking top notch. We had an event here.

Yeah, the dust has settled and it was a lot of fun. It was. Had some roadies come in town and then we actually got a bunch of Frankfort Bourbon Society members to Join that evening, too, which is a lot. That's great.

Yes, our numbers are climbing on the bourbonroad.com. We have a great member list now. Now we just got to get them posts flowing. That's right.

We got a few. We got a few. I posted one yesterday of that comparison I wanted to do after we tried the Bardstown. Yeah. So the two Garriana finish. We had the one that was called Cascadia, which was one of their smaller releases, and then the Discovery. Both are good. I mean, I like them both and it's really tough to kind of pick a favorite because it's like they were a little different. One was a little brighter. The other was like, so it's all about mood. So, and I just really struggled. I just liked them both. So yeah, sounds good.

Well, you, you, you probably ought to do one of the, uh, personal tasting things on the website. I kind of looking forward to people do it. Doug Keller did one. I did one. Nobody's really taking advantage of that little personal tasting notebook that's on there. I would love to see it. I'll start. Yeah. Maybe we can encourage a few roadies to jump in there and make some reviews. No doubt.

But we're going to dive into smoke today. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to go with like a whole Mizunara theme. We've lucked into four different samples that have Mizunara and then all four different places. And I think it should be fun. I think our proof ranges are going to be about 104 to 118. So pretty evenly balanced there.

And I've got a saying for the day. Oh, you do? Yeah. It's Mizunara is not Ambarana. Yes. So just so we don't confuse people.

That's right. Mizunari. And I'll do a little quick dive. It's a Quercus crispula. Okay. And we've talked a little bit about it when we've had these on. So it's a rare slow growing white oak native to Japan. It means water oak. So apparently like it's really porous at first, but I guess as it ages that porosity, is that a word? If not, I'm going to make it up. Kind of starts to shrink. So the grains tighten up. Yeah. But you see them, the only time they harvest these are when they're over 200 years old, which is pretty crazy. 200 to 500 years old. Wow.

That probably is why the Mizunara barrels are just so expensive.

Let's just say, from what it said on AI and doing a little dive into it, it says a Mizunara cask can cost anywhere from four to six grand. Wow. That's just for the barrel. That's just for the barrel.

Then you've got to put liquid in it.

It doesn't include shipping either. Oh my gosh.

Yeah, and I guess they're multi. You can use them multiple times, which is fine.

We've had a few in the past, and it's one of those that's becoming a little more popular. Maybe the price of those casks are going down a little bit, who knows? But some just did a little nice dive with your website, where it pulls information like nobody's business. So, the Pursuit Kodama Mizunara finish, which we both really enjoyed. That was episode 470, if you want to go back. The Bardstown Hokkaido episode 460. We had the event, or not the event, but the recording with the RD-1 Sister Cities. That was the French oak, and that was a bourbon rye blend that was finished in French oak and Mizunara. That was episode 458. The Widow Jane Black Opal, that was a 20-year bourbon that was finished in Mizunara. Couldn't find the episode, and that may have just been me doing the search. But that was delightful.

Yeah, that was delightful. The review's on there, so it was on an episode.

And then lastly, a long time ago, episode 162, you guys got to go through a whole bunch of rabbit holes. So I think one of the founders' collection was a 15-year Kentucky bourbon finished in Mizunara.

Wow. So we've done a few. We've visited this a few times, but we haven't had like a Mizunara show. Right.

So without further ado, Let's dive into some. Let's do it. All right. Newly released, this is the Four Roses experimental series number 001, the Mizunari cast finish. It's a six-year OBSK, which is kind of fun. We just had that little Four Roses with four roses and five friends, kind of. So yeah, this is their first ever experimental cash release. So they're kind of catching up, don't you think?

Yeah. And that's great. And when you think about Mizunara and you think about Four Roses, it's kind of a match made in heaven, I think. We're going to see, for sure. I would think so, anyway.

But a little more details on this. It's 104 proof. It came out in a 375 milliliter bottle, so that's kind of new from them. MSRP is $55. Once again, I said the match bill was their OBSK recipe, which is 65 corn, high rye, 35%, 5% malted barley, and the K yeast strain is kind of extra spicy. It was released July 30th of 2026, and yeah. All right. Let's check it out. Ooh, I love that nose.

Now this is my first sip of the day. Same. Okay, so. If you're new to the show and you've heard us talk about the first, and you haven't heard us talk about the first sip of the day, introducing your palate to bourbon for the first time in the day can get you a little bit of bitter on the back of the palate. So just, you gotta be aware of that and not over judge what you're tasting. Yeah, a little shock value.

Yeah. It's bright on the nose.

I love it. I mean, it's, it's, it's got that nice four roses, um, floral woody spiciness to it. Um, it's like a citrus. Yeah. A deep barrel effect. And it's the wood is, um, the wood is forward on this more than you would expect from a typical four roses, but it's, um, It's more sandalwood-y. Yeah, I can see that. Okay, I'm ready to taste it. Yeah, cheers. Cheers.

There's where it blossoms, right there. It's kind of interesting they went with the six-year. Yeah. Other single barrels are a little older, so I don't know if they just wanted to kind of rush it to market a little bit.

This has a nice sweetness to it. It definitely gets after the side of my palate and starts me dripping. And I didn't get the bitterness off of it. And I'm starting to get an early hug too. Wow. Go back to the nose. Wonderful. That's one thing about Four Roses. All their expressions, including the limited ones like this, are just wonderful. They're great.

Citrus is really carrying over. I want to give a shout out to my friends at the Mashup Podcast who gave me this sample. That's Jason Hill, Anthony Lomperos, Kenny Mills, and Stephen LaDuluccia. I was up in Lexington for a conference, and I knew they were recording. I was able to slip out, well, not slip out, but after we were done, I went over there and actually popped on. They recorded like three episodes that evening and I kind of chimed in on two. So that was a lot of fun.

I get kind of silly after the second one. I'm good for two sometimes, but man, that third one's going to be rough sometimes.

Start slurring a little bit.

Ah, this is really great. And I am picking up notes of that citrus that you mentioned. Todd, this one's got me salivating. It's got me dripping, like a dripping palette. You know, we talk about that sometimes. But man, it settles in for a good hug. Yeah. Nice hug. Lots of baking spices.

Yeah, that citrus is almost like green apples, like with like lemon slice kind of. Yeah. I'm, you know, I'm what, what did you say the price on the 375 was? 55. So 110 for a bottle. Yeah.

Okay. Well, there's a common to 750, but so 55 for a 375.

Okay.

But just trying to put things on a level playing field, $110 bottle, you know, It's good. It's definitely unique from other Four Roses, but it's, I mean, would I be able to pick it out and say this is Four Roses if I tried it? It's probably different enough where I wouldn't be able to pick it out and name the distillery. But since I know the distillery, I'm able to see through it and see that, yeah, this has got some definite Four Roses attributes. Really good.

I think if I had a bone to pick, it would be, I wish it was maybe like eight or nine years old. It'd see a little more character to the bourbon itself.

Yeah, it would probably benefit from that. However, I think it's nice to see them playing with bourbons that are kind of in that five to eight saddle too. Honestly, I mean, there's going to be a lot more better aged barrels out there, right? For sure. Just the way things are going. you do lose some things as they grow older. And sometimes when you get those slightly younger barrels, six years, five years, four years, they have a little bit of brightness to them that I like. So yeah, it's just a matter of what they're trying to achieve. And I think they achieve something nice here. It would benefit from our age as we sit and talk about it though.

I don't know, I just want something a little, Darker. Kind of the rye spice doesn't really jump out. Right.

You would think with both the high rye mashbill and the spicy yeast strain that you would be getting more, but it's not. It's got a little more sweetness on the mid-palate. I agree. And doesn't really settle in on the back. So yeah, I like it though. Good. Yeah, it's solid.

We're going to do winter winter chicken dinner at the end. Of course we are. I'm saving just a sip. Same. All right, moving on. So these folks reached out to us and they sent us three samples, but after some conversations, I didn't hear anything for a while. And then I was like, okay. So I was like, hey, what's going on? And still haven't heard anything back. So I brought it on the show because it is a Mizunari finish. And this is the Starlight Mizunari Reserve. This is their annual small batch. This particular one is batch 0003. This is their flagship annual limited release. It's carefully blended to balance traditional bourbon sweetness with the heavy incense notes of Japanese oak. It has finished roughly six to 18 months, which is a pretty big span. It's probably constant checking once it gets to about six. Typically, this was a 110 proof. with a retail price of $150, and I couldn't find their match bill on this one.

But you said batch zero, zero, zero, three. Yeah, I'm guessing they're hoping to get to the thousand. That's pretty ambitious. Well, no, zero, zero, zero, three would be nine, nine, nine, nine, which would be 10,000. That's a lot of batches. That is a lot of batches. Well, anyway. All right, let's check it out. Ooh, yeah, different.

A little darker, a little richer smelling.

Different and less aromatic than the Four Roses for sure. It's actually subtle. Yeah, the nose is sort of hiding from me a little bit. A little. It just smells richer. You really have to jam your nose into the glass.

That sandalwood's kind of there.

Yep. The sandalwoods there kind of reminds me a little bit of the, is that, those are like the, the old incense sticks from the seventies, right? I think they're still around, but they're still, okay.

It was like sandalwood, patchouli. Yeah.

I haven't messed with them since I was a young, so it's not like I'm lighting incense all the time in my home, but. Yeah, the nose is extremely subtle. It's, you've got to dig for it. You have to really put your nose into the glass. It is, it is deeper. It's more, a little more rich, but it does have that sandalwood note. It's going to open up a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. And I'm swarming too to try to get it to do a little more, but it smells older.

Now, folks that don't know, Starlight was originally a winery over in Indiana.

It was originally just a family farm, right? Where people went to pick pumpkins and pick apples and fish in the pond and eat. They had a dinner restaurant there. It was kind of a, it was Huber Farms. Right. Have you been there? Oh, yeah. Many times. Yeah. Yeah. From way back. I mean, I was in Louisville starting back in the early nineties. So, um, but anyway, it was, uh, it was a great destination for your family. And then somewhere along the way they said, Hey, let's do wine. Right. And, uh, which made sense. I think they started with cider and then they did wine and then hard cider, then wine, and then, you know, the normal path. and eventually spun out into distillery. Then the family kind of split between Starlight and Huber, so it's two different operations now, two different family members.

Oh, I did find out some more information on this blend, and I'm assuming this is up to date. It's an eight-barrel blend composed of eight-year-old signature three-grain corn rye malt mash bill and their four-grain corn rye malt and wheat. And those are both sweet mash recipes.

Okay. I'm hoping after I get a sip of it, it'll start to open up the nose a little bit. Yeah. Let's try it. Cheers. Oh, I like it. It's, um, it's definitely has a great flavor. Yep. Um, a little richer going back to the nose with my mouth open now after a sip. It's more, um, more caramely, a darker, maybe some darker fruit notes. Still got a bit of the baking spice. There's almost some tropical things going on there. I'm getting like a little bit of like coconut-y to it.

Are you? Yep. I'm glad you said that. Cause yes, just like a little light toasted coconut, almost like a,

Pina Colada. Yes, like a Pina Colada. Man, I got this on a barrel at Casey Jones and I went through the roof. I wanted, I wanted to pick it, but nobody else did. Because I think coconut turns off a lot of people.

That's when you ask, and I have just a little large sample of that to take home.

I really like that one. I remember that pick. AMSE and I both wanted that barrel, and everybody else went against us. And so while it was, it actually ended up 50-50 on that barrel, Casey Jones. And so we let Casey Jones pick it. And then they picked the right barrel. It was like, OK, well, we missed that coconut bourbon barrel. It's funny, because that's one of the samples I brought here, was that Casey Jones that had that coconut in it.

Oh, OK. I don't know what happened to all the samples. You took them away. They're at the house, and maybe we'll save them for another round or something. And we're going to try to plan another one, I think. I mean, like I said, we had a blast. We had roadies in from Ohio, Florida, Georgia. And yeah, I mean, we probably had, I don't know, 30, 35 people here.

Yeah, it was a pretty good turnout. It was a fun time. I mean, it was not just, it was not just our, you know, the event and the things that we did. I mean, the group just mashed and everybody had a good time. There were conversations going on everywhere. It was just a good meetup. Yeah. Really good meetup. And of course the members from Frankfurt Bourbon Society are super welcoming.

Yes. That is like, That's what I love about our group. I mean, it truly is like you can bring somebody in and they'll just start talking up. Cause I mean, this is a great, like a warming, you know, makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and gets the conversations flowing sometimes.

Well, I know the Bourbon Road podcast picked up a few financial supporters and that's great. And, and also the Frankfurt Bourbon's body picked up some new members, annual memberships. Yep. So it worked out pretty good all the way around. Yep. So we had a few picks, so bottles and yeah. For anybody who's listening who doesn't know exactly what we're talking about, we have events from time to time. We have gatherings from time to time. We schedule them on the bourbonroad.com. They're on our events calendar, so if you sign up and go into the Bourbon Road bar, you'll see our events calendar on there. This is just called calendar. You click on it and it'll tell you what's coming up. This was one of those and we basically shared out all of our samples Bottles, a hundred, 200. It was a lot. I don't know.

I found some in the back of the corner Rick house here. Cause you know, we have all kinds of random strange stuff back there too.

So it was always to try and empty them and you had a watch bucket out that people could throw them in when they finished them off. So it was fun. We literally had like a, one of those fold up tables just covered. And there was a 21-year-old whiskey in there, a 20-year-old whiskey in there. There was a Pappy in there. There was all kinds. There was Four Roses L.E. 's in there. There was all kinds of unicorns. People had to search for them because there was a big giant table full of them.

I threw some gems in there. Did you post a picture of that on the roadies? No, in hindsight. Yeah, next time. Probably should. But I think we've got the one coming up. soon. That'll be more of a bottle share, I think our plan is to bring some of the bottles we reviewed and let folks try. That would be the Friday night before Brevin on the Banks. I'm thinking maybe Next spring, we try to go ahead and pin down a date and do this again. Maybe with a little more time, some of our other roadies can plan ahead and maybe get down here and join us. That'd be really great. It was a lot of fun. We gave away tons of stuff. Yeah. We gave, I think, seven bottles away. We had some glasses and hip flasks. All kinds of good stuff. There's a lot of fun.

All right, well, I think two great whiskeys so far. I like them both.

They're very different. Very different. Despite having the same finish. Yeah, despite having the same finish.

I think we continue sipping, take a little break.

Yeah, sounds great. All right. Be right back, folks. Don't go away.

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 queue 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 we've been doing a deep dive into mizunara finished

Whiskies. And a lot of fun. Yeah.

Two great ones in the first half.

Two north and south. Yeah. Yeah, totally different.

One brighter, one a little darker.

Yep. And we've got two more to go into. And one of them looks really dark, right? Almost coffee. It does. And that's our third pour. So are we ready to dive in? I'm ready. Or should I recap real quick? Yeah, let's recap a little bit. All right. So our first pour was the Four Roses experimental series number 001, the Mizunara cast finish. That was a six-year-old OBSK, Kentucky straight bourbon finished in rare Japanese Mizunara oak. It didn't say how long they finished. I couldn't find anything on that. And then second was the Starlight small batch, 0003. We're all about these big, these crazy numbers now. which was an eight-year blend of their three-grain mashbill, which it doesn't give, and their four-grain mashbill, which has a little bit of wheat. But yeah. And I'm going to go ahead and let folks know this is a little bit of news. But the second, I did see this, Fort Rose's second cast, experimental cast finish, is going to be a honey one. Oh, OK. Yeah, so.

Is it going to be a true honey cast, or are they going to pour honey on it? I don't know.

Gloves are off anymore. Run it across Brent. Maybe I'll have to ask him. It's kind of interesting, they're kind of playing catch up. Because I mean, they've always been, their recipes, they're limited, they're small batch. So I think you're starting to see them like, hey, we need to hop on the bus a little bit.

I think that Wild Turkey and Four Roses are, they have an exceptional overseas market that maybe hasn't know, receded as much as the US market has. Right. And maybe they don't feel the need yet as much, maybe. No, I'm just guessing. I mean, I don't know. But, you know, they both are super popular overseas, especially in Asia.

Right. I mean, you had that, what was it, the Master's Keep voyage, which was their rum finished. That was from oil and turkey, but yeah, they don't. They don't do a lot.

They don't do a lot. And they finished up with their last Master's Keep, right? So.

So they said. So they said. I think you'll see some more of that archive series, which I'm kind of looking forward to. OK, back to. Back to the Mizunara. Mizunara. All right. So this is the Hard Truth barrel finish reserve series. This is their Mizunara finished weeded bourbon. So their match bill on that is 69% corn, 19% wheat, 12% malted barley. 116 proofs, so we've upped the proof just a hair. This is, runs, says about $75 for a 750 milliliter bottle. Does not dive into how long it aged, you know, some keep that.

I'm a Hard Truth fanboy. I am too, so. And my wife Melody loves Hard Truth, so.

And we were big fans of that toasted one we just had recently with the, actually had that with Drew, didn't we?

Yeah, you know, Hard Truth has really gained early notoriety for the rise. The rise were just off the charts great. Agreed. Then they built that amazing distillery and people started going there and having a great time. It's like it's a destination distillery anymore. Did you know that they have over 500,000 visitors a year to their distillery?

I'm going to make it 500,000 in one because I think, well, Let's see, six, because I think the weekend coming up from where we're recording this, I'm taking the family up there.

Oh, they'll enjoy it. You've been to Nashville before. So they'll love it. Are you guys staying over in the park? Are you doing a cabin?

I think I'm probably just doing a day. I'm taking my folks. So probably head up early, take that scenic drive through, I guess, the Indiana National Forest. It's the only curvy road I've ever seen in Indiana.

Yeah, it's beautiful up there. All right.

So let's dive in.

All right. Cheers. Well, cheers. Let's nose it. Let's nose it. Oh, the nose on that is, oh, fruit medley. Super, super fruit medley. Yeah. Oh, wow. But lighter, not darker.

Oh, go back to the starlight. Okay. We're going backwards here. Let's see. I know. I just wanted you to see if you pick up like that insency, like that sandalwood seems to pop more on that one. Now to me. Yeah. Oh, I can already tell I'm going to like this.

Then you know, the ethanol is a little bit, what'd you say the proof was? 116. Okay. So I thought it was a little bit more apparent on this one on the nose, but man, you can pick up the nose real easy on this one. You don't have to dig for it. I like it. This is a little more, um, when I think of a Mizunara, this is a little more Mizunara on the nose for me. Yeah.

See, I think of some of those in the past that sometimes can get a little more savory nose and things, but this has got some like nice caramel nougat kind of thing.

It's kind of, it's like, it's like checking a lot of boxes. Yeah.

Yeah.

All right. Cheers. Cheers.

Man.

Wow.

Whoa. When it gets to the back.

That got spicy.

Yeah, it did. Wow. That's like a super surprise on the back end. It really rolls across the palate nicely. It impresses everything. Front, middle, sides and back. But when it hits the back, it's like, hello. And so it's a weeded bourbon.

Yeah. Yeah. which I'm glad to see their bourbons have kind of hit that like seven, eight, six kind of age. Wow. This is really nice. Yes. You getting a little coconut again?

I am just a hair. It's kind of towards the tail end. I probably wouldn't have picked up on it if you hadn't mentioned it, but yes. And it's nothing like the last one.

There's a nice, It's got like a berry medley kind of thing, like ripe berries.

Yeah. This one sort of stays in that berry range. It's like a lighter fruit. It's like raspberry, strawberry. Um, yeah, it's lighter. There's a little bit of cream note to it. So it's a little creamy.

Yeah. That's a great one.

It's got a lot going on. Like I said, it's checking a lot of boxes on the nose. It's checking a lot of boxes on the palate, too. They do some fantastic things with their barrels there. Did it say whether this was like a spiral barrel or anything like that?

I couldn't find anything about that, but they do some really neat stuff. That's a great whiskey. I want a bottle of that. I'm starting to get a little peach now.

Yeah. I can see that, but at least a nice little. It does sizzle like it's. I think this one was proofed to perfection. This is right where it needs to be. Yeah, it's a little on the hot side. Maybe maybe not for everybody, but for me it's right where it needs to be. Wow, that is so good. I enjoy that one. We never give away which we're leaning towards, do we?

We doing top three or all four? You know, we've been doing, since we've been doing kind of dropped it to four, which I think is a little more reasonable, manageable, and that way you can kind of cover your rankings. So I think we'll do all four. Okay. All right. This one's kind of a, Last on the tasting. Yeah, last one on the tasting. This is a seven and a half year high-rai MGP Mizunari finished bourbon. So this one's kind of fun because our good friend, Amzie Winning, just stopped by and met us here. Delivered it right before the show. Yeah, that's right. He's like UPS. He wasn't wearing brown, though, but he was actually going to a soccer game. So this will be one of the upcoming picks at Bourbon on the Banks. So this is the seven and a half year Mizunari finished bourbon from Dark Arts. What's special about this one was you guys chose it for Bourbon on the Banks. It's an MGP 60 36 4, so 60 corn 36, they're high ride mash bill, four malted barley. Only 72 bottles of this will be dropped and I'm sure gone in no time at Bourbon on the Banks. And my colleague doing doing his thing with these barrels. He is the barrel swami, I believe. Yeah.

It was a fun pick. We had a whole tasting panel of people there. And it was led by Sarah. Algram, yeah. Yeah, Sarah Algram. Yep. Great, great tasting. And they've got a lot of velvet around there. It's just, we call these things.

Yeah, it's not your typical tasting room where there's something like that, like a place to visit. I know he puts a lot of like bottles, you know, puts them on sale. So you can go there and get like a 12 year old bourbon sometimes for like 50 bucks.

She kept pulling out bottles and put, we probably tried six or seven that day.

It was, it was, it was a fun time. Well, if you recall, I guess it was the year before we, or two years ago, we tried like It was eight or 12 different finishes. He didn't tell us any what they were, and then we all kind of agreed on one. So you get your money's worth on that pick for sure.

It's a great place to go. I mean, if you're in the Lexington area or you're visiting Lexington or the Bourbon Trail in general and you have a chance to get to Lexington, and stop in at Dark Arts. There's a couple of distilleries there, so it's not just there, but you can get some good pizza nearby and drink some great whiskeys. It's a fun place that he's set up there. He's really got his own style of decor, and it's interesting. For sure.

I don't have a price on this, but I'm going to wager, it's probably going to be closer to that $100 mark, maybe $110. My guess. And like I said, this is going to be a bourbon on the banks pick. So obviously going to be hard for most of our listeners to find. But I mean, if you have Dark Arts, it's kind of his thing. He does have some straight bourbons and straight rise and things like that. Usually double digit ages too. But I would expect if any of your stores do picks, check out the Dark Arts. Because I mean, he does all kinds of finishes. He has good stuff. Yeah.

I'm hitting the nose on it and it's kind of freshness to it. It does. Uh, not a brightness of freshness, sort of a, sort of a little bit of a minty overtone. It's a little hard to pick up.

Yeah. After coming off that really.

Yeah. This has got more of a, like a, not a, I mean, this Missinara is coming across as, um, Like this probably was the first entry in the barrel. That's kind of what I'm getting. Kind of a fresh, a little bit more sandalwood, all saw dusty. My guess is this was the first time he used this Mizunari barrel. So you're really getting it. Yeah. The nose is tremendous on that. Really, really good.

It's kind of coming off as bright. Apples. Yeah. Apples. Yeah. Apples. Maybe like cooked. Okay. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh man. Full mouth, full mouth experience. Really good. Got a great texture to it. Kind of sticky on the palate a little bit. More on the back than the front. Getting that coconut. Sit with it for a second, see if it shows up. Yeah, a little bit. I wonder if that's a Mizunara thing. The coconut, I would say so. Because it is showing up in three of the four. Three of the four, yeah, for sure. Sandalwood and coconut, huh?

That's velvety too. Nice texture. Thick whiskey. Whereas the hard truth left a nice sizzle. This leaves just a little like white pepper, like front mid.

Yeah. The notes between the nose and the palate are different. They're connected, but they're different. So the nose starts out a little more. You called it bright. I called it minty. kind of fresh, but it had this kind of apple note to it. You go onto the palette, it gets darker, it gets thicker, but it transitions a little bit. That coconut settles in on the back.

I'm still getting those apples too. I actually think of like being at an orchard and like, you've got a big basket, like wooden basket of apples.

Yeah.

Ooh, that's great whiskey. That is a great whiskey.

Wow. We got some good ones today. This is going to be tough, tough, tough, tough. But I am going to go back and revisit each one because they're all four very, very different. Agreed.

All four. Super solid pores. Yes, once again.

We are blessed. I'm chewing on this one a little more than I did the others. It's sticking to my palate more. I need to move it around. The finish on that is. It's interesting. We have like two craft versus two big boys basically, which is kind of fun too. The, the, the finish on that one is like crazy. Yeah. Yeah.

Like very long. It's a good, like that Mizunari, I just went back to that. It's really long too. It just leaves that like- Which one? Sorry, the hard truth. Hard truth.

Just leaves that sizzle.

Yeah. I mean, it's still going. Yeah.

Oh, maybe the hard truth is still finishing while I'm drinking the Dark Arts. I don't know which one it is, but yeah, it's really good. I wonder if that does have an effect. I've never really isolated that before as we drink through whiskeys, if one might carry on a little bit more as you move further in this tasting.

Whoa.

Which one?

Going back to the Four Roses. I went in reverse order this time, went proof high. It got really lemony, like almost like.

I'm getting like Arnold Palmer on it, like tea and lemonade. Take a sip. Oh yeah. They almost got a little pledgey. Yeah. Yeah. Almost. Um, yeah, that's interesting pledge, but I'm thinking like, uh, yeah.

Like lemon heads.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Wow. It kind of thinned out though too.

Yes. Thinner 14 different, like I said, it's pretty good proof range. All right.

So let me, let me, I'm sipping water in between each one now. They are all so different. The Starlight.

Starlight's a little...

I think I said when I tasted it the first time, I sensed it was a little bit older whiskey than what Four Roses has. Right.

It was six and then the Starlight was eight. We don't know the hard truth, but... All right. Back to the hard truth. This might be the longest we debated it.

Yeah, I think it's good though. Well, they're all Mizunara finishes, so it takes a minute to make sure you get it right.

And this is all, like you often say, it's all gonna be preference. It is gonna be preference.

I think I've got it. I think I know what I like. I think we're gonna bury today. We probably will. You wanna go first? Or shall I? I can go first. My number four is gonna be the Four Roses. Ding, ding, ding. Yeah. I'm gonna agree. And when I tasted it at first without having the others, I had a very high opinion of it. Yeah. And I still do, but as I tasted the others, it's my opinion of the Four Roses started to drop on the ladder.

100%. When I went back going high proof to low, It changed big time.

Do you think that 104 is just too low for that? I mean, you kind of mentioned it when you tasted it the first time. You wished it had been a little bit higher, right? Actually, not really higher.

I just wish it had a little older.

More aged.

Yeah. I don't know. Might have brought something a little different. Could be. A little heavier.

But I think that barrel, I think you could sort of see how the different expressions We don't know how many times that barrel had been used in each of these cases.

It could have been on the third fill.

It could have been on the fifth fill. It could have been on the 10th fill. I get a feeling that the, uh, the one from McCauley from dark arts was first cell.

Kind of tastes like it.

Only he knows though. Only he knows. All right, third place? Third place. The third place is going to be the Starlight.

I'm going to agree with you. OK. Yeah, I really like that one, though.

Yeah, it was good. That's where the coconut sort of popped for us, wasn't it?

I like it. I wish the palette had kind of matched nose a little bit. It came off as like a little darker to me. But that's a solid. That might be one of my, like, more favorite Starlight products I've had.

It's good. I think I agree with you on that. And again, if you're in the sort of the bourbon territory here in Kentucky and you want to check out an Indiana distillery that's not too far from Louisville, It's a great place to go. It's a good day. It's sort of a family farm atmosphere. The Huber's farm is real close and starlit. They're not too far from each other. And they both have great experiences. Like I said, I think they're owned by different branches of the family now. The original parents, I think, passed on and the children inherited and they sort of went different directions. But it's a great area. It's out in the country. It's a good day. And man, you really get in to dig deep into the wines and the distilling out there. I love it.

All right, good. So number two, tell the tape here.

Yeah, for me, number two is gonna be, this is so hard. I am gonna go with Dark Arts. And there's a reason for that. Okay. They are neck and neck. For me, they're neck and neck. What I got a little more of on the Dark Arts that I didn't get on The Hard Truth was the Dark Arts had a little more sawdusty kind of note to it. Interesting. And I think that's from the first film as an art. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe McCauley will come in and say, Jim, you don't know what you're talking about. That was the 10th Phil. That's right. I don't really know what I'm talking about, but that's kind of my take on it.

Well, I'm going to agree with you. Really? Yeah. I mean, those are both great. Yeah. I mean, it was, like you said, that's a tight race. There's some similarities.

But yeah, that hard truth. Hard truth is, I couldn't find anything wrong with it.

No.

I couldn't find anything wrong with it. And honestly, I had to dig on the dark arts. And you know, that sawdusty kind of note, for some people, may not be off-putting. For me, it's just like, it's too... It's too fresh oaky kind of a little bit, but it's still good. I bet if you, and again, I'm assuming this was the first fill on that mural. I'm probably wrong like crazy, but if it was, the next one's going to be out of this world. Right.

I think the thing that, uh, sorry, the hard truth edge did out on was a nose. That hard truth nose was vibrant and changing. I know for whatever reason, I mean, I kind of struggled getting a lot from the, uh, dark arts, but, uh, yeah, I was wrong. Yeah. We were locked step.

Wow. How about that? We do that from time to time, not all the time, but from time to time we did. Yeah. To see what percentage we're at, like when we totally agree on everything. I want a bottle of this. So it's pretty much available everywhere. The hard truth I'm talking about.

I didn't look that up. I know it's one of their limited releases because they've done like the cream brulee and the brandy finish, which I have a bottle of that, which is outstanding. It's the rye finished in brandy. Well, if you get up there on your family trip and you see- Grab a bottle for Jim? Grab a bottle for Jim.

We'll grab a bottle for Melody and Jim because she likes it too.

Wow, great show, Todd. Great lineup.

Yeah, that was fun. Mizunara is not Ambarata. I'll just say that again. So those of you who have had your fill of Ambarata pours, I would say, and you haven't had a Mizunara, don't think that's what you're getting. It's totally different. This is not a crazy, perfumey, rootbeery kind of thing that you get from Ambarata. This is totally different. I did the gym. I've mixed them all. Oh, you've mixed them all. I'm waiting to hear.

Oh, I know it's got funky. One sweet mash, three sour mashes in there too, I guess.

Yeah. The world awaits. What will Todd think of the mashup?

Not bad.

Not bad. Yeah. It works a little bit this time. Yeah. Is it better than any one of the three? I don't know about that. So what did it score like in the middle somewhere?

Probably.

Yeah. And there were different amounts of each. I should say definitely. I think my starlight was about out. Yeah. I'm going back to this one from Dark Arts and it's like the nose is coconut now. The palette is coconut. It's just got that that extra kind of fresh oaky kind of flavor with the sawdust, I think is just the only thing. It's just, it's a preference for me.

Wow. And who knows, you know, if I blind them for you, say on another time, you might pick that with a little air time.

Yeah. I think I brushed my teeth not too long before I came over here. So probably that could have something to do with it too.

It's not always fair to every poor, but we do the best we can. That's right.

All right. Well, great show, Todd. Thank you so much for putting this together, grabbing the bottles. My pleasure. Another fun day at the Corner Rick House here in Frankfort, Kentucky. Folks, you can find the Bourbon Road on all social media outlets, but the place you really wanna find us is the bourbonroad.com. That's where we hang out. We do have a private Facebook group on Facebook called the Bourbon Roadies. You're welcome to go in there and check us out. But we'd like to have a place that welcomes all. Not everybody does Facebook, and if you don't, We got a place for you at the bourbon road.com join up, come in there and come to the bourbon road bar, talk to Cooper, talk to Todd, talk to Jim, hang out, see our event schedule. It's discounts from our vendors. Get your ID badge and come to events drawings drawings. giving away something new here soon, I'm sure, Todd. Yeah, I think I'm gonna start trying to do it like the first of each month. Okay, excellent. So there's always giveaways, there's always things going on in there, great posts coming out. We want to increase that. We'd love to have some more chatty people in there chatting up those posts. We also give every single member on there a private tasting notebook. and you can share out any page in that notebook to the world with a link. So that would be great if you did that. We're trying to get people to do that, but it's free. You don't have to pay anything. We love our non-supporting members or basically our fans or ones that just clap. We love you too, but we especially like our ones that give us a few bucks a month that helps us out. It helps Todd and I get down the road, helps us buy some bottles, helps us pay for equipment. That's our only source of income for this podcast and it helps us do what we do every single week. So if you can help us out, we'd appreciate it. We do an episode every single week on Wednesday. Every Wednesday we put out an episode. It's Todd and I, like today, sometimes. Sometimes it's Todd and I and guests. Sometimes it's online. Sometimes it's in person. Sometimes we hit the road and travel. and go to distilleries and talk to fun folks. We're trying to mix it up as much as possible, but we always have fun. We're always drinking bourbon, rice, and American whiskeys. Always having a good... Sometimes we take a side road. Sometimes we'll have Irish whiskey on or something, but it's always fun. We hope you'll join us every week. The best way not to miss an episode, scroll up to the top of the app you're on, hit that subscribe button. We get the credit for it. You get the notifications. We'd also like a review from you online. If you guys leave a review for the show, that helps everybody else know it's a great place to be. But until the next time, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

Let the worries go, find a little truth in the afterglow Ain't no man, just the ties we've sewn On the long winding berth 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