514. Picking the Perfect Barrel: Jackson Purchase Live on the Mat

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 Lighten up the night in the Kentucky dirt Ain't no mail, just the ties we've sewn On the long winding berg

All right, listeners, welcome back to another episode of The Bourbon Road. This is Todd Ritter. I'm without Jim tonight, but I've got two good friends with me tonight. AMSY winning returns, and our good friend from the House of Commons bar, David Salin. Welcome to the show, guys.

Thanks for having me.

Yep, happy to be here again. I was going to say, AMSY, it's been a while. You're kind of like our Alec Baldwin, but if you're not careful, you may lose that to Drew, because whenever he comes in town, we drag him on.

Yeah, I saw your old tally sheet the other day. He's catching up to me.

Yeah, but for you, this is episode 10 if we did the math right. And for David, this is number three. So two more and you get to bring us in on the second half day. It's a great honor. It's kind of like a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood. It's the best we can do.

It's one of the most stressful moments of my life when I did that.

But we've got kind of a fun, unique episode we're going to do today. We are going to do a barrel pick. Yeah, just a barrel pick with Jackson Purchase Distillery. And we've actually got one of their pours that they recently sent us a bottle of. And we're going to kind of review it as well as kind of a warm up. And then we've got three different barrels to go through. And I'm kind of looking forward to this. But let's get to this first pour.

Sounds great.

So what we're gonna dive into right now is their newest release. This is their Kentucky Select. This is 108 proof, so 54% alcohol by volume. I think it's 70, 20, 10, is the mash bill on that? 70, 20, 10, yeah, 70 corn, 20 rye, 10% malted barley. But we had the foolproof batch one, which really wowed us back on episode 476. And I know both of you guys have tried that, correct? Mm-hmm. What do you guys get on the nose? Nice little brown sugar component.

Yeah. Do you get something spicy, like a little cinnamon or something like that? Yeah.

It's it's almost like a cereal in nature or like a bread, like it almost reminds me of like a. Breakfast bread, you know. Mm hmm.

So my nose is a little off today. I don't know if it's from mowing the grass the other day. So I did, I used a neti pot and some stuff earlier, but I'll tell you, so I don't know if my nose is off a little bit because of that, but. When I first nosed it, it actually almost made me think of Amberana. And that's where I'm asking you guys, if you guys got cinnamon or if I'm just kind of off today.

It's not quite that cinnamon toast crunch like Amberana, but I can get a nice cinnamon component for sure.

It almost reminds me of like a coffee cake.

Yeah. Morning bun kind of thing.

Yeah. Brown sugary, almost orange zesty, slight cinnamon. making spices, sort of.

All right, let's take a sip. It's my first sip of the day. Take a second one. It's kind of shocked to the palate.

We forgot to have a little warm-up sip first. And we did. That first sip is always so good.

That's a nice little spicy punch for 108. Yeah, it does. That cinnamon carries over.

You know, I have to say everything I've had from them, I have really liked. I thought it was really well done. And maybe I'm just partial, but this is the one that I reach for out of their lineup. Probably the most when people ask me, hey, which one do you recommend? I'm like, hey, every person's palette's different, but this is the one that I prefer. The Kentucky Select? Mm-hmm. OK.

They've also just recently used a Baldwin Bond product, correct?

Correct. We have that one at HOC as well. OK. And I think the foolproof is great, but I like this one the most.

This one runs about probably $70, I think. It says $60 to $75 is what I'm seeing right now. We don't have it on here, but the bottle and bond runs about $50, which is a pretty good price for a four-year-old hunter proof. And I feel like this Kentucky Select, this probably contains some of their older stuff, but just looking at the barrel picks, those are all about four and a half, it looks like. So I'm guessing this is probably four to five. just to give a little background on these guys. So they are in Hickman, which is in Fulton County, way down in Washington, Kentucky. I mean, it's probably a four hour drive.

Oh, no, when I looked into going down there, so I had them send the samples. It was five, five and a half hours or something like that from here.

They're producing about 60,000 barrels a year. And they're one of those that was more of kind of a contract distilling, but people were loving their products so much with another brand's name on there that they decided to bottle their own and make some of their own labels. And so this distillery features a powerful pedigree. It's got Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Famer Craig Beam and master distiller Terry Ballard. So that's kind of the duo running the show there. This is really nice. Oh, yeah. I mean, for, like we said, four and a half, five year old product.

Yeah. And that color on it's great. I mean, based on what they've released and how long they've been around, I have no reason to think that there's older product, but the color that they're getting on something that's maybe four and a half, five is crazy.

Yeah. And I will say this, don't drive down there just yet. They don't have any kind of touring or anything like that.

So it's my understanding. I talked to Craig's wife the other day, and their visitor experience, I believe they expect to have it open this fall. So they will have something. Just check before you go. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Because that's all. Well, there's a few other places that... I'm putting quotation marks up in my fingers nearby. You've got Embi rolling down that way, and Casey Jones. Yeah. I wonder how far you would be from, like, say, Old Glory.

Yeah, not down in what?

Clarksville? Clarksville, yeah.

Is that? And honestly, probably not too far from Paducah to go up to, like, abstraction. Yeah. Spirits, some of those places. What about building grounds?

That's a little more south of Bowling Green, so you're like Franklin area. That makes sense. Yeah.

I mean, they are over there. Yeah. So Todd, I'm going to go ahead and share my trivia. I looked up earlier. OK. So it is two and a half miles from Tennessee, five miles from Missouri, and 30 miles from Illinois. Wow. So it is way over there.

Try to get like some nice cherry, like maple. There's like a maple syrup kind of thing, not like a black strap.

You know, when they first came out, I hadn't seen it anywhere, and then I finally saw it at House of Commons. And I tried it, and I've tried a few of their expressions, and I've really been impressed with everything from them. And for the age, I don't really get a youthful note.

There is a slight green note, but it's not an off-putting at all. I mean, I get like, Sweet corn sweetness is really big. But other than that, no, this is I feel like this is one to pour blind to folks and ask them how they think it is. And I think they're probably going to say seven or eight.

To your point earlier, you're talking about some black strap. I do kind of taste like a cane sugar kind of sweetness, but not on something that's like a, it's like a well-aged rum sort of taste profile. And maybe it's like just residual sugars on the backend or something. but it's definitely not like cloying sweet. No, no, no. It's got enough backbone to, that I think it balances well with the sweetness that's there. I've been swirling this, holding it, you know, I love to warm them up and I'm getting some herbal notes now. Yeah, nice. That I didn't get before.

So, and they just started, I don't know if I said this, started distilling in 2021. So like their stuff is probably just now hitting some of those hitting like five years. So this is probably more like four, four and a half, just some of the main, you know, probably went through a rigorous barrel selection program just for this. Yeah, it's really impressive. Yeah. All right. That's a good start. Shall we move on to the first barrel that they sent us?

Yeah. And so, uh, We are doing the barrel pick today. This is the barrel pick that'll be available at Bourbon on the Banks Festival this year. So they sent us three samples. The first one we're gonna start with is barrel number 345. These are all gonna be the same mash bill, that 70-20-10 mash bill, four and a half years old. And I think they all range from about 125 to a little over 126 proof, so.

I think I saw one was 128-ish. Oh, was it?

Yeah, so. You think it's safe to assume they're doing a 125 barrel and tree proof? Yeah, probably.

I would think so. I mean, it's possible they could be a little lower and you just get those proofs up a little, you know.

You know, in four and a half years, you don't expect too much change. And then, you know, they're a little farther south, so I would kind of expect them to gain a little proof, maybe.

Now, there for a while, they were only available in Kentucky. But now I believe they are shipping directly to some states. But I highly recommend folks check them out. They might be one of my surprises of the year.

120. Okay. So, I mean, that's... That's about right. Well, yeah. I mean, it's pretty impressive, though, to gain eight proof. Yeah, most of what we see in the markets, usually like three.

Like I said, I think their climate's a little different, a little warmer down there and I can see that Southwestern Kentucky.

But this is coming off a little brighter than the select. I still get the cinnamon note.

Yeah, it smells like sugar cookie dough.

Now, when this episode releases, it will probably be about the week before Rubbin' on the Banks, I think. We're actually kinda staying ahead of the game a little bit. It's kinda nice, gives us some leeway. All right, obviously knows this. I was going to ask you guys, you guys have done quite a few barrel picks. I know, Dave, you've been on quite a few. I think I'm up in the 20 plus. I'd have to go look. Amzie, I'm sure you're in that range. What do you guys look for in a single barrel? And does it matter where you're at? This was pretty new to us. I mean, I think both of us, this is the second time I've had this product. I mean, I've got a bottle of the full proof. So this one's, You know, I'm not knowing what to expect, but like, say, when you go to, you know, your wild turkey or buffalo trace or something like that, do a pick. Do you? Yeah. What are you guys looking for?

I think first and foremost, something that I enjoy, honestly. And if it can be something that's off profile, you know, stands stands out from the normal profile of that distillery. And I like it. That's a plus as well. Right.

When I'm on a pick, it all depends on who the pick is for and what the purpose of the pick is. I have the great privilege of picking with other organizations. Very few times do I get to actually do barrel picks for House of Commons. When I'm picking for other organizations, it's like,

That's an expansion plan, right?

When you go chain, like they're all over the US. Maybe one day when we are selling bottles, then we can start doing barrel picks for House of Commons on the reg. But when we're doing picks for other organizations, it's like, we're most of the time looking for something that's a really clean buttoned up bow on an example of the standard product, or we're looking for something that's very approachable, that's not gonna be off-putting to people. And I say off-putting, I don't mean that in a negative way, but something that someone could find offensive to them, but we find it to be amazing. When I'm doing picks for HOC, it's like, hey, A lot of times, as long as it's good, the weirder the better, you know? Because it's like, we want stuff because we're constantly pulling things that have a unique flavor profile. We want stuff that people are going to taste that they're like, I've never had anything like this before, right? And it's like, exactly. Because you're looking to add bottles to your collect, especially if you're looking for a single barrel, you're looking to add bottles to your collection that represent a taste profile that you or your buddies have not had before.

Right, and I think that works for you more so because you can bring out like, say a Russell's for instance. You got that Russell's pick and it's gonna have, we'll say the amplified notes that you usually get like in a Russell's. You know, the cherry, maybe a little bit of peanut, that orange slice kind of thing. And then that allows you to say, well, check out our pick. It's a little off-profile. It's a little different. To highlight those differences, I think it works for a bar a lot better. I'm like you. What I'm looking for, especially since we're doing this for Brennan on the Banks, is I have things I really, really like in a pick. A long finish and things like that. I'm sure people there, but I'm also trying to keep in mind What are these folks that aren't as nerdy as we are? What are they into? They like sweet. They might not be as proofy, so I keep that in mind.

Yeah, I agree with that. And I think for all the roadies listening out there, when you first started, what did you like compared to what you like now? And more than likely that's changed a bit. And I do think proof's a big one, although I think that's another thing is people think you have to drink it neat.

If the proof is too high for you, you can add water to it.

That's what the distilleries do. And so I wish more people were okay with that. Then you can do the higher proof offerings and people can adjust to what they like.

To that point though, what I do tell people all the time, I'm like, hey, try it neat. Make sure you warm it up. Make sure you're pushing the top of your tongue to roof your mouth when you're tasting it. That's going to help tame some of that burn. Don't automatically add water just because you add water with other bourbons, because sometimes you'd be surprised when you go to taste something that you like something just the way it is. Always feel comfortable to add the water. Just don't do it on the front until you know what you need.

People who are also a little newer to bourbon, You might want to do earmuffs. You might not want to listen to this story. But when we first moved to Frankfurt, I guess about 16 years ago, I really like, I was probably drinking more scotch. I realized you were going to stand out if you drank scotch in Frankfurt, Kentucky. So I was like, I've got to start drinking some bourbon. And I saw something online. wasn't even a bourbon site, but they said, hey, you know, George T. Stagg's out. Okay. So I went down to liquor store and just bought a bottle of George T. Stagg because you could do that 16 years ago. And so it was probably a 2010 release. It was something like 143 proof, 146 proof, something like that. It was for a newbie. When that touched my tongue, my head looked like a mushroom cloud, probably. And then a couple years ago, I still had some of that. And my wife and I tried it again. And I'm like, oh, suddenly it didn't seem so hot. I could handle that proof. But I did try to add a little bit of water to it. And actually, I didn't enjoy it with water. I do think your palette is going to change over time. For sure. Also, I wish I would have bought a lot more of those bottles that were easy to find 60 years ago.

All right. That is one thing that people I think automatically assume a lot of times they think adding water will make a whiskey more palatable or you know like easier for them to drink and I have been in the distilleries working on projects where we're trying to offer a lower proof version and we've tested it in multiple proofs and that that whiskey may be fine at 105 proof but when it hits 103 proof it falls apart and and that's no knock on the people that distilled it or the people that you know we're blending it or stay finishing it or whatever it is but some whiskies just don't hold up with water and astringencies and bitterness come out of nowhere. So that's where I'm like, hey, taste it the way it is, add a little bit of time. find that sweet spot for you.

Right. Have either one of you done a barrel pick at, um, uh, oh goodness, Yellowstone? No. Yes. Yeah. So see, I didn't, but I was a designated driver and got to witness it. And there you tried the three barrels at three different proofs. It's now four actually. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Oh, that's cool. Added, cause one of, 109, 112, 115, I believe. And I think they added a 118.

And it was interesting to see how people preferred different barrels at different proofs. Yeah. And they're the only place I've seen that does that. And I think it's actually a really smart, really smart thing.

There's a few that will cut it down for you sometimes. Like, I know a lot of folks that are doing old Forrester picks are asking them to, you know, do the hunter proof because Some of those foolproofs a little hot, but all right, let's what are we getting? Have you guys set? Cheers, by the way. Cheers. This one's a little kind of a spicy meatball. It's got that cinnamon. A little more grain flavor than that first one. Clove. You know, a little clove. Yeah, I can see that.

And orange.

This is kind of turkey-esque, like young turkey-esque.

It's kind of like the, you know, you get the, was it mulled cider and you put the orange slices and the cloves and some cinnamon in there. It's a, this is a holiday drink. Yeah. Yeah. It is a little holiday.

What was the proof I got on this one again? 126.2. 126.2. Okay.

Yeah, you could.

Everybody taking good notes?

Not that I would ever want to mix this, but this with some mulled cider would be dangerous.

You know, you could do some sort of a holiday old fashioned with this one. Some some kind of like mulled spice bitters or something like that. Needs leaves a nice front mid pallet sizzle.

Little bit of black tea on the back. A little like black and white pepper. It's like spicier in the back of the tongue than it is on the front, but it's still like, it's like two different spices, spicy hits that are going on there. All right, while we mull this over, I got one more question for you guys about single barrels. So what are some of the, Dave, what are some of your favorite barrel picks you've done? Just maybe a couple at the top of your head. Man. I know, it's like picking your favorite child, right?

It really is. I'm a huge fan of the Whiskey Thief experience. I've had the great privilege to do multiple barrel picks over there. Hannah that helps with their barrel program is awesome. Their whole experience is so fun, so cool. It feels like they've slipped out a lot of things. Any of those I've done, we just recently did our own barrel pick with them. where you can taste it with HOC. You can buy the bottles over at Whiskey Thief, which is a really unique relationship that we have with them. So I think that was really fun to pick. We got to also pick the Bourbon Week barrel that they sold for Bourbon Week here in Frankfurt, which was really cool. And that'll go down as one of my favorite. Another one of my favorite experiences was When Big Luke and Dusty were in with the guys from Henry Liquor over in Hiawatha, Kansas, they approached me the night before their barrel pick of Weller foolproof. And they said, hey, what are you doing tomorrow? And I was like, I'm running some errands. And like, we have a spot on our pick if you want to go. I'm like, looks like my schedule just opened. And they're a great crew. And they invited me along. And I was so humbled that they kind of brought me in the fold and I got to be on that pick. That was that was really cool to see how Buffalo Trace did it because they do it. They do it a little different than a lot of other distilleries. Yeah.

So, Andy, what about you?

I've been on a few. Yeah, just a few. I think I have not counting this one. I have three more barrel picks this week. So I think I've probably been on 60 plus barrel picks at this point. I've really enjoyed a lot of them. I love Four Roses. I think it is one of the hardest barrel picks because you're trying 10 different recipes and that's different when you're trying three, four, five, six of the same thing. So I really enjoy that, but it can be challenging. As far as some of my favorites that really stand out, Wilderness Trail that we did for bourbon on the banks a few years ago, it was a real vanilla bomb of a weeded bourbon. And then we also liked one of their traditional bourbons. And that's when McCully from Dark Arts was still running the single barrel program there. And he said, well, what if we blend these and make a four grain? And we did that. And I absolutely loved that one. We were on it, what, last year or two years ago for Frankfort Bourbon Society, the Russell's Reserve pick. That was one of those that was kind of off profile and I absolutely loved that bottle. That was fun. Yeah. I wish I had a lot more of those. We have both those bottles on the bar and they're both phenomenal.

Yeah.

But in general, I think barrel picks were great. I mean, they're fun. They're worth taking a day off work if you ever get invited to one, I promise. Right. And I've never been on a barrel pick that I thought was a bad experience.

Say my two favorite, or probably my first one, that was, I used to work at Red Dot and we did one at Buffalo Trace. It was my first one. And I was, you know, I'd always dabbled in bourbon, but I was more of a craft beer guy and things like that. But so I was a little nervous and I had invited Bill Straub, my cousin's husband, who's the master blender for Fourgate. And we drove over there and I was like, man, I'm a nervous wreck. I'm not going to be able to tell any kind of difference on this. you know, the sad thing was they cut it down because the barrel we chose was like, I don't remember what proof it was, but it was just fantastic at the proof it was. But then it got cut down to 90. It was nice and all, but you know, that was when I realized I'm like, there are differences in the, you know, like you're like, wow, you know, there was one that was just like a tannic mess and another, you know, so it was really cool. And then my second, I'm going to go a little smaller. I'm the hard to pick. We went up there, we had dinner at their cool restaurant, brewery thing. And then they took us out on the ATV ride. And it is so fun. And that is a cool place to visit if you're ever up that way.

Yeah, such a great distillery. I mean, and all of their stuff has just been terrific. Yeah, I agree. Their stuff's good.

All right, well, stick around. We're gonna mull this first one over and then we've got two more barrel samples to go through. And yeah, we're gonna, you're gonna listen to us, hopefully pick something that some of you might get to try. And hopefully you're like, hey, you guys picked a great barrel or hey, you guys don't know what you're doing. So stick around and find out what we come up with. We'll be right back.

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All right, listeners, welcome back to the second half of the show. We've been doing a little barrel picking here. We went through one sample from Jackson Purchase and we also tried their recently released Kentucky Select, which that was very impressive. I thought about you guys. I liked it. Yeah. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Yeah, I was kind of surprised. I believe the foolproof was about 117 proof. That's correct. So when I first saw that, I figured it's going to be about close with that kind of just like a foolproof select kind of thing. But no, that was a little lower. But that's still a nice little spice going on and everything. I think we're ready to try barrel number two.

What do you got for us? All right, barrel number two, this one is barrel number three, six, three, same mash bill, 70 corn, 20 rye, 10 malted barley. This one also four and a half years old. This one comes in at 128.6 proof. So the biggest proof.

This has got a little bit of a floral, Nose this time. Yes, I'm digging it like. The first one I was seeing the little knight on the nose, but this one's kind of. Give me a nice little nose punches of like sage, maybe. Yeah, I can see that little like butterscotch going on to maybe. Yeah. I'm kind of excited about this one.

I get a little a little grain on the nose on this one. OK, also. Again, I get black tea.

Like I said, there's like a caramel corn thing. Is that kind of the grain notes you're getting to? Or kettle corn, like a caramel, you know?

I get a little more... It's kind of weird. Somebody the other day gave a description of something. Well, this tastes like the smells, you know? So I think it smells a little bit like a younger, more grain forward whiskey tastes, if that makes sense.

It smells a little malty to me.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's it. Yeah. Yeah. Like if you smell a little bit of like fresh milled malt or grain or something. Yeah.

What it kind of reminds me of is, um, I got to go on this experience over at Whiskey Thief where they were deciding the mash bill of the product that would be made. And Lisa brought out some malted barley and rye and wheat and corn. And we got to look at it and I got to eat some of that malted barley and kind of smells to me how that tasted.

And just so everyone knows, that was an item that was auctioned off at the Friday night VIP and rare bourbon that was at the VIP reception and rare bourbon auction last year. And that was the chance to develop within some certain parameters, your own mash bill, have it distilled that whiskey thief. And then we were lucky enough, the person who won that invited us out for that. And that was a very, very interesting experience.

That's very unique. Yeah. All right, I'm ready to dive in. You guys? Yep. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

It kind of tastes how I expected it to taste. This is one of those that- The barley is just really popping in that. It's like honey, honey bread. It kind of tastes to me like that honey multi-barley flavor you get out of the Safai product.

Okay, I was gonna say like honey, was it honey bunches of oats? Oats or oats? Oats.

Yeah, that one. Is that the Aldi brand? I don't eat that cereal much anymore.

I have to eat like really healthy stuff like muesli. Muesli or whatever it is, muesli. And my granola keeps me right here. Wow, that's interesting. So if I'm not mistaken, Amzie, you pointed out like these final two barrels are kind of the same lot, I believe, same lot numbers, which we don't really know what that means, so that's kind of interesting.

Yeah, that's correct. The last two are lot, looks like 21J15. Well, and so that's probably a date code is what that is.

This one's really interesting because it comes on really strong. with that malta barley flavor. And then it kind of has this punch of spice in the mid palette. And then the finish is real quick. It's not as much sizzle as that first barrel. It's more of a wave. It's like ramps up with the flavor. Boom. And then you kind of feel the tingle on the tongue, but in the mid and back of the palate, it kind of waves through and then you're just left with the tingle on the tongue.

I like that initial. It's very sweet. That barley is like, like I said, that's just like, showering in honey almost.

Do you also get like a little herbal thing? Like let's say if that if that bread had like rosemary or lavender or something like that.

Yeah it's less rosemary or lavender more like sagey. Yeah. Gosh I can't really put my finger on it. It's not cardamom but it's it's something that is not I don't think it's time. It could be time like, but it's not as strong. Like Rosemary and Lavender are both really strong.

It's almost like a little like blend or like, uh, what's that word? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm fancy every once in a while.

Are you guys getting a little citrus too? Like a little like lemon, like I do get a little bit of lemon, like lemon juice, almost like, uh, Like lemon rind. Lemon zest.

The lemon oil.

It's not quite that super bright, but there is this nice citrus. I've taken this. I do wish the finish was the hair longer. That's just me. But I think that sweetness and that honey could be pleasing for a lot of folks.

It does kind of leave a little bit of a essence of lemon, black tea, kind of on the palette. Like where's the last one left to me, like a clove, orange citrus, kind of brown sugar, this one's more herbal, black tea and that like lemon, which is to me, lemon and bourbon, I don't come across that very often.

Sometimes those older MGP rise will start getting a little like lemon bar. Yeah, I do see that. To me. Yeah, I agree. Okay, so I dig that one.

Yeah, so again, I did a little looking at the lot numbers. I think that's really just the date code. So 21J15, I think J, if I'm counting right, that's the 10th letter. So this would be October 15th of 21 would be the last two. And then the first one would have been October 13th of 21. So just two days earlier that it was distilled or filled.

The Da Vinci code over there, just interpreted that. That's impressive. Yeah. All right, Anthony, just real quick. You want to run down some of the... We've got a regular Nicolas Cage over here. That's right. You want to run down some of the other picks that are going to be available for folks that are... Hopefully they'll listen to this on the way into town and they can be ready.

Yeah. So this year we have grown the number of single barrel selects. So this year, abstraction spirits. And I think they're also a first time visitor. Two bourbon on the banks. And we just did that pick last week. I was very impressed. They also came and visited the Frankfurt Bourbon Society last week. And I think abstraction gained a lot of fans. Everybody was very impressed. And they're new. They're sourcing. They don't hide behind that. Really neat place, though. You should go check that out. Angel's Envy. Boondocks. Boondocks has been at the festival every year. That's awesome. Dave Shurick, if you're familiar with him. You know, I believe he's Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Famer. Knows what he's doing, puts out a really good product. Copper and Kings. We have done a brandy with them this year, so I'm really looking forward to that one. Is that the first year that we've ever picked a non-whiskey?

Yes. Yes, that's really cool. Yep.

Though it was finished in a bourbon barrel. Very unique.

I think people are going to enjoy it. Yeah, it really stands out. Dark Arts is going to have two this year, a bourbon finished in an Oloroso Sherry cask and a bourbon. Which we actually just tried on the show recently. Let's see, Hartford and Company. They're out of Paris, Kentucky. Heaven Hill this year is going to be doing a pick. Bravo. Well, Jackson. I'm reading down my list. Jackson Purchase, which we're doing right now. Jeptha Creed. They did one last year as well. Leapers Fork out of Franklin, Tennessee. Love that one. We did those blind. They gave us two bourbons, two Tennessee whiskeys, and we picked a Tennessee whiskey, which also seems fitting, I think, for a Tennessee distillery. Pursuit bourbon, short barrel bourbon, and Whiskey Thief this year. That's pretty awesome.

Nice selection. So keep your eyes open. The places that are doing these single barrels, some of them will have a pennant that designates them as a single barrel participant, and then the rest will be available.

Yeah, when you come in, if they're doing an official single barrel selection, you get your map that shows where all the distilleries are. They will be marked specially, so they stand out a little bit. They'll all have one of those flags in front of their location as well, signifying their Single barrel. Awesome. Select. And if you think you can't carry all of these, once again, the local Capital City Shrine Club will be doing a bottle check. The entrance, when you first come in, you get an armload of bottles, go back up there, give it to them. They will give you sort of the receipt. They'll put those in a case for you. Keep bringing those bottles back at the end of the day. Pick those up to take them back to your car. That's pretty cool. And Shriners do good things. So give them a tip. They will put that money to a good cause. It's a great amenity.

I'm gonna have to have somebody buy me some bottles and I'll have to, because our condo opened up on that Saturday and it's just the way that fell for fall break. So I will not be at Bourbon on the Banks on Saturday, but I will be at our Friday function here at the corner rec house.

Yeah. Sadly, I had to miss the last one, but I'm looking forward to that one. I look forward to it every year.

All right. Ready for barrel three. All right. A little similarity in the one of that maltiness.

So on on barrel number three, this one is barrel number three, seven, three, same mashbill, 70 corn, 20 rye, 10% malted barley, four and a half years old. This one is one twenty five point eight proof. The lowest proof.

While we're noticing this, you're talking about the fact that we're going to have a hard-held in company barrel pick this year. You know, I got to visit there a couple of years ago and one thing that blew my mind was there in Bourbon County, Prohibition killed all the distilleries. and Heartfield and Co. I think they opened in 2014, if I'm not mistaken. They're kind of an older one, yeah. They were the first distillery to open since Prohibition in Bourbon County. And there was like 26 distilleries prior to Prohibition.

I'm going to grab this. That last one. Again, a little similarities.

I don't necessarily get the grain as much on this one.

No. everything being a Scotch drinker. Do you get some phenols on this one?

Yeah, maybe a little. I'd be curious how their Rick house is kind of set up. I did see a few images of their place, but. Like where these set on, you know, and because, like you said, the Jackson purchase, Kentucky Select we have here, it's. It's quite a bit darker than these single barrels, but.

Yeah, it is. Yeah, I get more, so I get some of the clove from one. I get a little bit of the malt off of two, a little bit of that lemon off of two. I get a little touch of smokiness and salinity on the nose and a little bit of phenols on the nose, which I mean, I'm, I'm stretching and trying hard to pick those things up, but those are things that I don't normally pick up on. And black tea.

I think you found a theme. Black tea. Yeah. All right. I'm ready to sip. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. There are some similarities between two and three on the palate. Finish. Going back to the second sip. So last night, see that? Kind of breeze past me, but I'm going to take the second sip.

I just don't get the grain or the malt as much on this one. But some of those other flavors are still there.

There it is. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was interesting. Like the first, my first sip through just kind of cruised on through some nice flavors hit and then it kind of, but that's why you always take a second sip and recheck yourself kind of. It's more proof, right? Yeah. Now, Dave. Obviously, bourbon on the banks is probably, that whole week's probably just crazy for you.

Yeah. It's our biggest weekend of the year. Yeah. We see more people and do more business that weekend, really, than the entire month of January. And I say, you know, it's big for business, but it's really, it's become more of a homecoming for us. You know, all of our friends are in the suburban community that have become like family or they come, as I like to say, come home for the event. And so it's like that night. Thursday night before and after the kickoff at Whiskey Thief, Friday night before the event, and some even come in after the event on Saturday. But it's, man, it's like everybody you want to see, everybody you want to be around as in at some point during that weekend, whether it's podcasters, YouTubers, distillers, master blenders. and just friends, friends from out of town, enthusiasts. It's a ball.

And have you guys ever done any kind of poll to see like when folks come in, like if it's their first time, second, that kind of thing? I'd be curious to know if like, yeah.

So yeah, you know, I've never really, we send out a questionnaire to everyone, volunteers, distilleries, attendees, and they're different questionnaires and I don't recall the questions they ask.

I'd be curious to know like what kind of number, like what percentage It's the one they come to, you know?

Well, and we probably also get some of that from, you mean if they're a first-timer here or first festival in general?

No, first time coming to Bourbon on the Banks. I mean, this is what, year six?

And I think that the Eventbrite data will probably tell us that if they're a repeat customer or not.

Yeah, I'm just curious to know, you know, because when the bourbon road had their tent, we obviously had a lot of folks that, you know, a lot of local, well, not local, but roadies close by like Ohio and Tennessee and things like that would come in. So obviously that kind of skews it a little bit. So I just kind of wondered if there was any kind of numbers to know. how many first timers you get each year and if that increases some or like how many, you know, second timers, third timers, like.

I'll have to ask Diane about that. I'm sure we have that data. I just, I was probably daydreaming at the board meeting when they were talking about that. I was thinking about the next barrel pick.

Yeah. So what are we thinking guys?

I like the finish on this one. Yeah. I do, I will say, In the three years we've been open, we saw more first-time visitors this past year than we have seen in years past. There were several people that were at the bar that I was like, hey, have you been before? And they're like, no, this is the first year. We just heard about it. So there was a lot of people that were discovering the awesomeness of Bourbon on the Banks for the first time this year.

I mean, because my favorite roadies, the Robin and Eric, I mean, they've been coming. This will be their fourth, fourth time, maybe fifth.

Yeah, I mean, they. Definitely what we're here for the second one, I don't know if they came first time or not. I don't think so.

Yeah, but.

So. Not to speak out of turn, but I feel like the mouth feel, the finish on three is probably my favorite. I really like the uniqueness of the viscosity and the complexity and the maltiness of two. Agreed. But the flavor on one is probably my favorite. So I'm really struggling.

Okay. I'm going to go back to one.

Well, it's always good when they don't make it too easy on you when they sent the three really good samples. Coming back to one, I'm smelling vanilla.

Mm hmm.

Yeah, I did not smell that before.

Wow, that's interesting. Re-sipping that, it's kind of like these other two have been so barley dominated, it seems like, that that's a different beast now. Yeah. It's just coming off as sweet to me. And it's so easy drinking. Spicy finish is kind of gone too. Yeah. That's really interesting.

That's super easy drinking. It's like sugar cookie. That's I can't remember which one it was. Maybe two. It smelled like cookie dough to me. It's a snickerdoodle cookie.

That's what it is. That's one that has like some cinnamon and stuff in it, too. Yeah.

All right, folks, so we took a little break again just to kind of mull these barrels over. All were quite interesting in their own way, different finish lengths and different, obviously some different notes. I felt like two and three had some similarities, but then, you know, we talked and talked and talked for probably, what, maybe 10, 15 minutes off air. But we've kind of decided what we decide on, guys. And why? Well, I would say it wasn't easy.

And I'm still sitting here going back and forth between the glasses. But number one, which was barrel number 345, coming back to it, those kind of vanilla, the sugar cookie, snickerdoodle type notes on it seemed just so approachable and just really good. There wasn't. a wrong one in this bunch, though.

No, there was three good barrels. Yeah. And like I said, there were some similarities in two and three. I kind of wish you could put them together and get the best out of both of them, because like I said, I really liked two. This was lacking a little on the finish, whereas three had a whole lot of finish. But I think one's going to do well.

And hopefully the age didn't influence this being two days older than number two and three.

Right. We can tap that. Now, do you have any idea about what price will be on this, Bradley? I don't. Like I said. I don't. You figure the Select is, Kentucky Select's about 65. I figure, I mean, it's got to be around that area. But definitely one, two, keep your eye on it. Obviously, you'll be able to try it there before you buy it, which is always nice. And again, if you don't like it, David and AMC will both be there. Please be sure to tell them that they stink. Yeah, please let me know how bad I did. Yeah.

But if you enjoy it, please tell them again. And like I said, I've been a huge fan of everything I've tried from Jackson Purchase. Yeah. And this is no different.

Yeah, but I definitely think, you know, even if you don't like the single barrel, if it's a little hot for you, if you're not, you know, what was the final proof on the first one?

126. Yeah, 126.2.

So that's not your thing. Go try their bottle to bond. Go try their foolproof and go try their Kentucky Select. I think you're going to be really, really pleased. I think they're one to definitely keep an eye out for in the future because, I mean, their stuff's only going to get older. And like I said, that foolproof, a lot of folks, YouTubers and folks like that were really, really impressed with that. So, I mean, it's definitely one to keep an eye out for.

One thing I did want to mention on the full proof, like MZ was saying, we bought pretty early on. So the first one was labeled batch one.

So is there a batch two out now?

No, it's now called select batch.

Oh, OK.

So they decided to go away from batch numbers, kind of like what we've seen in the market with preservation. OK. But now you'll just see it's called full proof select batch. So that's what you want to be looking for in the market.

And there's no designation to know which batch it is?

No. If you get crafty with it, you can probably figure it out by codes. But I would assume the batch that we currently are selling that's currently in the market is batch two, but it's labeled select batch.

All right, well, we've got a bonus pour. Thanks to Amzie, he brought a sample bottle of something else.

What have we got? Well, we were talking about some of the other single barrel picks, and I just happened to have with me a sample of the Copper and Kings brandy that we picked. So if you're familiar with Copper and Kings, you know, I think they kind of try to be the the whiskey drinkers brandy. A lot of their stuff goes into new oak barrels. The one we ended up picking, this actually spent its entire life in a used barrel. So this is a 10 year old grape brandy from their their standard blend. It's three different grapes. I don't recall all full, full Blanche. Oh, it's not Catawba, it's the Muscat. And I don't remember the third brandy. But anyway, so they're a great brandy distillate, the blend of those three grapes. It's a Cullombard. Yeah, that's the third one. This one spent its entire 10 years in a used weller barrel. Yeah. Yeah. Now, proof on this, this is 140.4 proof. Not the highest proof we tried that day.

We were in the 150s, right? We maybe even had something that was like 160.

But they started bringing out some just fun stuff for us to try.

Also, another cool place to check out. It's a beautiful building. They've been doing it for a while. They've got some lower proof stuff. They've got some bourbons finished in Brandy, which was, we tried a couple of those, which were really fun. But I mean, we were like, Hey, you're a Brandy producer.

And they even had some, what, some like 15 year, uh, Burton, like, uh, sorry, bourbon, maybe Barton finished in some Brandy barrels. And I think they may have a few bottles of that. Um, they've got some interesting stuff. Yeah. those on this is just grape candy, man.

Oh, yeah. It's like grape heads.

Yeah. You know, the we're nerds, the tea by tea, like green tea with lemon here by the bottles of that, like, The Lipton's yeah, yeah, like lip green tea lemon or whatever There's a blast.

That's what I kind of get on the nose. Yeah, I do get a lot of lemon on this All right. So there's a t-note Cheers. What I love about this is sometimes at House Commons. We sometimes get a Grapey note on stuff from Buffalo Trace.

Oh, I do.

Yes, so we sometimes get bubblegummy sometimes we get grapey and I love that this has that kind of grapey note knowing that it came out of a Weller barrel. I don't know if it's attributed from the Weller barrel, or the grapes. It might be the grapes. It might be the grapes.

But I get that. That's like a grape grape jelly sometimes on Eagle Rare. Stags can do that. It'll go from grape to cherry. Yeah, that's really unique.

Yeah, this is probably the, like, I'm most excited about this, probably.

I'm just gonna leave a credit card with you while I'm gone. With a cap. With a cap. Yeah.

What do you think, Dave?

You weren't on this one with us, so. No. Have you had much brandy?

Yes, not like this.

Yeah.

Yeah, I've had some. All kinds of different stuff, right? But this is this is in a class hotel and this is completely different.

I think I even mentioned that I was like, I hope Dave gets a bottle list for the Hawk and just kind of I know it's distilled in Kentucky. Yeah, it's Kentucky spirit. Right. But I was thinking what you could do with us, like playing around with us for some fun cocktails.

What I will say, I think this was funny for me this past week. Just this past week, we had some guests in from Wisconsin. If you don't know, Wisconsin loves a brandy old fashioned. Right. And they were like, can we get a brandy old fashioned? I was like, well, I don't have Corbel. Like, you don't have any brandy. I said, well, I didn't have brandy. It's probably not what you're expecting. And so I tried it, and they're like, this is brandy? I'm like, yeah, it's brandy in a whole new light. Like, this is a completely different kind of brandy than probably what you're used to, because, you know. Corveal has sugar added to it. Yeah, it's super sweet. It's really, really light. It's not as complex. And it was like, they were like, this kind of reminds me of a bourbon. I'm like, well, yeah, makes sense.

Right. Definitely go to the Copper and Kings booth. If you haven't tried their standard offerings, try those. And then I also can't recommend enough that if you like old fashions, make an old fashion with the standard Copper and Kings brandy. And I think it's great.

It's like getting like a grapevine a little bit. Like the vine of the grape? And then it's like Apple Jacks.

Yeah, I taste that for sure.

But yeah, really cool. Well, I want to thank you guys for doing this. I just thought it would be a fun, unique, you know, experience to bring to a podcast. And I hope our listeners enjoyed it. But I want to give you each a chance to kind of let the folks know where they can find you.

He can always find me just on Facebook. That's most of my social media. Of course, frankfortbourbonsociety.com, bourbononthebanks.org. Hopefully, I will see a bunch of you here in a few weeks at Bourbon on the Banks. Come up and say hello. Dave?

Yeah, you can, pardon me, at House of Commons. You can also find our socials on Instagram at the error HOC underscore bourbon underscore library or HOC colon of bourbon library on Facebook. We look forward to seeing those of you that are coming to bourbon on banks for that event. That'll be great.

Yeah, stop in and say hi today. Again, I thank you guys for both popping on. And thank you guys for listening. So we'd appreciate if you go up to that podcast platform that you listen to. Hit that Subscribe button. It helps us get our words out to as many people as possible. We'd also love it if you gave us a review. We have a very large Facebook group called the Bourbon Roadies, which these two guys are members of. And it's a good place to post things and events and things like that and what you're drinking and celebrate things. But we're also trying to move a lot of our folks to our website, thebourbonroad.com. And on there, it's great. There's a chat. There's kind of similar to Facebook. You can post what you're drinking. People can comment. I do giveaways. Yeah, by the time this airs, I will just have given away a book by Clay Risen, the Bourbon book that he put out some time ago. And so, yeah, like once a month, usually at the first of the month, I'm going to be giving something away and it's pretty easy. Just go to the calendar and you can click on. Take a chance on that. You can sign up for free. You can sign up for $5. You can sign up for $10. You can sign up for $20. And if you sign up for some money, that's great. It just gets us on down the road a little bit. Sometimes we have good friends. I have my good friends Aaron, like Amzie and David, to join me on something. Like I said, this is pretty unique, doing a barrel pick live. Well, not live, but on a podcast. And then sometimes we just have a distillery come in and talk about their products. But the one good thing we always do is we're always having a good time and good fun and having some good bourbon or good whiskey, and in this case, a good brandy. But until the next time, we'll see you down the bourbon road.

On the bourbon road 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 dark Yeah, we laugh too loud, 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 bourbon 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