516. Cigar Batches, Blends, and Rum Finishes with Adam Dorman

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 berg

Welcome back, Roadies, longtime listeners and new listeners alike. It's another episode of the Bourbon Road podcast and Todd and I are joined with a guest today and we're going to have a great time. Todd, you put together quite a lineup of four whiskeys for us.

Yeah, we've got our good buddy Adam Dorman. He's been a longtime fan and he is one of our inner circles. So as we've warned a lot of folks, we've drug him on the show to help us do some reviews. And yeah, I've got a What I hope are four really good pours. I'm very excited for you guys to try my, may have previewed a few of them myself, but Adam, welcome to the show.

Yeah, I'm glad to be here, Jim and Todd. Thank you guys very much for having me on.

Well, it's a good night to drink some whiskey, and Todd, you put four really, really good ones in front of us tonight, so we're gonna have a grand old time. And you've got us all over the board here. It's not just like, you're not, there's no real theme, right?

I mean, we've got like three finishes here tonight. And then there's an interesting blend that will be our second pour that we'll get into once we get there. But yeah, I kind of sent pictures to, Adam and I have been friends for some time now. We've been able to meet up a few times and have dinner and have pours and things like that. So I knew I wanted to have him on since he helped us out financially. So I sent him pictures and these are, like I said, he picked four out and there was one I was kind of like, that might be a little too low proof and might not hold with the other ones. So I just made one suggestion, sending pours and here we are.

All right, so what's first on the list tonight? We'd like to get to that first pour pretty quick.

Yep, so our first pour is from our good friends, that short barrel. And this is their cigar batch number four. This is non-age stated, 107 proof, MSRP is 89.99. This is available through select retail markets and directly from Short Barrel, although it might be hard to find from Short Barrel because it seems like cigar batches are kind of a hot, hot ticket right now. There's a lot of places coming out with those. But the foundation of Cigar Batch number four is built from mature bourbon components and whiskeys from Kentucky and Indiana with mash bills of 60 corn, 36 rye, and 4% multi-barley, 70% corn, 21% rye, and 9% multi-barley, 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% multi-barley, and then a 91% corn and 9% multi-barley. So those components were then finished in Armagnac, Cognac, Rum, Tawny Port and Cherry casks.

Wow.

So if you were taking notes, that's a whole lot of M.G.P. and some Green River blended, I believe.

I expect great things from Short Bear. I think Todd, we've had them on a number of times over the past couple of months and they've always impressed. Yep. And it seems I end up with the bottle, so I get to really enjoy them. But thank you for leaving those short barrel bottles with me.

You're very welcome. Well, the nose on this is very nice. Yeah.

It's a little like your figs are on there, Jim.

Figs, but I'm getting like a juicy fruit kind of juicy fruit kind of note too.

I thought it was really fruity. I didn't say there's a little light, just a hint of like leather and chocolate.

Well, you're locking in on the darker notes tonight, Todd.

Yeah, it's colder, Jim. It's finally cold down here in Kentucky. So I'm feeling darker and, you know, it's just, you know, fall is in the air. Maybe I say that and then we'll have a 95 degree day next week or something.

That's a big play to smoke brisket. So I think I'm thinking I might have a little impact on this.

I'm picking up a lot more of the fruity side right off the bat. A lot more of the like Jim said, the juicy fruit, almost like strawberry almost. Yeah, it does lean strawberry.

But yeah, I kind of. And there's something else going on there that like a little bit of a bubblegum note, maybe.

Interesting. Let's try it out. See what see what that palette does.

All right. Cheers.

Cheers, guys.

Oh yeah. That's really good. Now I'm getting that little bit of that leather and fig.

I was going to say that all everything Todd was describing is coming through on the palate to me. A lot less than the fruit.

I think he snuck up early sip and didn't tell us.

I may have previewed this a few days ago, yeah. Sometimes you can't wait to try something, you know. It's called quality control, right? That's right.

That's a wonderful turn from the nose to the palate. I mean, it really takes you on a journey.

There's a lot going on. You're exactly right, Jim.

Now, Adam, you're out in Houstonia, Missouri, correct?

I am. I live right between Sweet Springs and Houstonia, Missouri. I actually had a Sweet Springs address almost my entire life and I moved a mile south. And what do you know? Now I've got a Houstonia address. So it, yeah, I live out in the country. I farm for a living.

Yeah, he was a little worried about not making the show. Try to help us locate that a little bit. I'm not familiar with either of those places.

Well, you know where Kansas City and Columbia, Missouri are, so I'm about halfway between Kansas City and Columbia and about five miles, six miles south of I-70, so not very far off the highway. just about six miles south of I-70. So it takes me about an hour to get to Kansas City, an hour to get to Columbia, and 20 minutes from Sedalia.

Well, I've been to Columbia, I've been to Sedalia, I've been to Herman and... Herman's a great place. Oh my goodness. Well, I rode the Katy Trail, so I went to all them places.

Yeah, Katy Trail goes right through Sedalia. My wife rides it every now and again, so...

The KD Trail?

Yeah, it's an old railroad. It's an old railroad that they turned into a like a walking trail or a bike riding trail. So they picked up the railroad tracks and they maintain it as a as a park kind of. And so it yeah, you can you can actually ride your bicycle on a railroad track all the way from Kansas City to St. Louis. So you can. Yeah, the old trail through there and it's pretty neat.

It's a good trail, good place for bike riders. Yeah, I know from Sedalia, I got on a Clinton and went all the way to St. Charles.

Oh, you pretty much covered the Katy Trail from Clinton to Kansas City is another spur that's just opened up lately. But yeah. Yeah, that's impressive. I don't know a whole lot of people that have covered the whole thing, Jim.

Yeah, my son and I did it and then my wife and I went back and did it. So yeah, but that area between Sedalia and what's the next big city? Is it Booneville? Booneville is just like slightly Inclined like yeah, just a few degrees just enough.

Yeah, you can't coast No, you were you were within 15 20 miles my house when you took on the Katy trail So, yep. Well darn that would have been a nice little detour So I've really thought several times about, I think we need a, there used to be a, like a bar just south of Rochefort. Why, when you get on past Booneville, why there was a bar on the Katy trail there. And I've always thought there needed to be another whiskey bar here on this, on this part of the Katy trail. But it'd be pretty seasonal though.

Yeah, it would be seasonal. Well, I'm really enjoying this, Todd. This is a fantastic whiskey. And like I said, Shoke Barrel has really been killing it. I'm trying to see the cigar blend aspects of this. And I think it's going to need a lighter cigar.

I like it's very rich, despite it's like 107 proof. I feel like I don't know if they just had some moderately proved barrels to work with in the first place, but it's very viscous.

I think so too, yeah. That's a very nice pour.

I should also add, Adam's actually one of the Franklin Barber Society members since he comes into the state every once in a while.

Yeah, I wish I could get there more often. I have plans. One of these days I'm going to show up at a Frankfort at a Bourbon Society meeting, but one of these days it'll happen. But I enjoy the pics that you guys do and definitely want to have an opportunity to get all of those. So there are some good ones.

Well, we got an event coming up here. What is it? A week? Two weeks? Is it a week or two weeks? Two weeks. Two weeks. It's two weeks for us now. By the time this airs, it'll probably be just a few days. But where we're breaking out the roadie bar and basically all the bottles that have been on the show for the year are going to be available to our roadies who come into town and join us at the for a rick house, it's going to be a grand time. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited. Yeah. No, bourbon on the banks is coming up too, isn't it? That's right. That'll be the day after that. So this is kind of our gathering beforehand.

Yeah, I'd love to make it out for that sometime. It's always right in the middle of harvest. That's like about a half hour ago, I was helping work on a combine. So it got home just in time.

So what are you getting ready to bring in?

We're bringing in soybeans today. We, uh, we started, uh, we switched over from corn to soybeans. We've been harvesting corn for about four weeks and kind of caught up on the moisture and we've got some soybeans ready. And so we switched over and started, uh, started cutting soybeans today and they're, they're doing pretty good. Uh, but, uh, you always have a few glitches on your first day with every different thing. We had a, had an oil leak on the combine and that ended up, uh, got some oil in a fan which clicked dust and then chokes up and you know it all one thing leads to another. How many acres do you farm? So I farm with my dad, my uncle, and my cousin, and we farm about 4,000 acres of corn, soybeans, and wheat. We raise some cattle as well, and pasture and hay grounds. But yeah, it's enough to keep us busy. I would think so.

4,000 acres. That's a good bunch of ground there. Now, what is it? I was trying to remember. Is a square mile 600 acres? 640, I believe. Is it 640? Yep. Yep. So you've got about seven square miles there.

Well, yeah, but we're scattered out. The farthest piece we farm to the southernmost piece we farm is 30 miles in between. So we're 30 miles from one end to the other and only about five miles the other direction each side. But yeah, we farm some ground from here to there.

All right, gents, we've got our good notes on this because we're going to have to rank these at the end.

Yep. Well, this one's my number one so far.

Number one so far. Hard to beat so far, isn't it?

That's right.

All right. Ready for pour two? You bet. All right. Our next pour is the Redwood Empire Hyperion. So components for this range from seven to 14 years old. It's 110 proof, $99. It's a precise four-grain multi-style blend consisting of 32% bourbon, 30% rye, 25% wheat whiskey, and 13% American single malt. So the single malt component is their own house distilled grain to glass. and Redwood Empires in Vallejo, California, while the other components were distilled in Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee. Hyperion is named after the 380-foot coastal Redwood National Park the tallest known living tree there. That's the name of it. That is Hyperion. So I know our listeners can't see it, but I can show you guys this top of this cork. It's kind of cool. It's like a crown. Oh, wow. Look at that. It kind of looks like the hard truth a little bit, but.

So this is a blended American whiskey.

Yeah, blend of straight whiskeys. Like I said, 32. The biggest component is the the bourbon and then the rye and then 25% whiskey and 13% American single malt.

Well, this is going to be interesting.

Like I said, the tallest living tree on earth, which I'd love to see. I've yet to see a Redwood. I've been out to some of those national parks, but.

I'd like to get out there too sometime.

Well, another really good nose.

Yeah, a little apricot, like dried apricot.

Yeah, this one has kind of equal parts of fruitiness and sort of a little bit of like the baking cabinet and rich oak notes.

I was going to say I get the fruit notes in it, but not near as vibrant as the last four.

Little lighter fruits too. I'm getting like some apricot, maybe a little peach. Yeah.

I think apricot's a good call out. It kind of stands out for me. Yeah. And it's got a little bit more of like an ethanol burn on the nose. I'm going to say it's that wheat whiskey component, but who knows? 110 proof, you'd expect a little bit. Yes, sir. Yeah. All right. Great nose, though. I love it. Yep. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers, guys. Oh, that's really good.

Baking spice cabinet still there, but there's like a little breadiness, a little breadiness, a little butteriness, too.

This one's hanging around a lot longer too.

It's leaning a little bit cinnamon, it's got a little bit of that wheat whiskey fire on it.

Speaking of wheat whiskey, I think Adam's the one that gave us that 1832 sample, or he actually gave me a bottle of it. Their wheat whiskey that we tried, I believe that was with Drew Hanisch on one of our shows not too long ago.

Yep. Yeah, I really like their, their, that, that barrel of wheat whiskey that 1832 put out is, is really good. And I'm, I'm waiting for them to barrel another one. They don't, they don't, it's a small distillery, so they don't, don't put out a whole lot very often.

But, uh, What are some other distilleries there in Missouri that you're a fan of, Adam?

Oh, um, Definitely a fan of holiday. Holiday is about an hour and a half away. They're by far one of my favorite distilleries. You mentioned 1832. I really enjoy those guys. Those guys that have 1832 there in Concordia, they're both farmers and they raise their grain that they're using right there in the county they live in. It's a pretty neat process watching those guys. Their still is actually a a milk tank that's got a hybrid column on top of the milk tank. They pretty much use stuff. There used to be a lot of dairy industry there at Concordia, and so they use a lot of milk tanks for what they're doing, and it's a really neat distillery. You know, Jay Rieger has got some... I really like the location Jay Rieger has. When you go there, they've got several bars and a great outdoor area. It's a great stop, no doubt about that. Now, is Wood Hat in Missouri? Wood Hat is. Wood Hat's down about an hour and a half east of me. They're right north of Herman, so they're right there at the Herman exit if you were going to Herman. He does some interesting things. Definitely is not afraid to experiment with things and does some really interesting things and different types of pours, no doubt.

So what do you guys think is carrying the most weight here, even despite the percentages? You think that Wheat Whisky is the one that's kind of shining the most?

I think it is.

Yeah. Between it and the bourbon, I really don't get much of the maltiness at all.

I think that may have been where that apricot came on the nose, maybe. Could be.

That could be. It's a good one, though. It's really nice.

Yeah, it's a nice little tingle.

Yeah, it's definitely got some spice to it. There's no doubt about that.

When you go back to the nose, it just holds it steady. The nose and the palate are well matched.

The nose is the only place I get any of the fruit though. I really don't get much fruit on the palate.

It's got a pretty big stick. It's sticky enough. It's, you know, the finishes is lasting a bit and yeah, I'd say it's a little like little pepper.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I completely agree with that. Another good one, Todd. That's another good one. Hey.

I was pretty excited to get this one. Does any of your corn make it into whiskey?

Well, not into whiskey, but most of it does make it into ethanol. Okay. So most of it goes, my brother's actually the merchandiser at the local ethanol plant here, about 20 miles north of us. So my most of our corn goes to to the ethanol plant and is made into ethanol. And so it's not whiskey per se, but alcohol.

Yes.

And then we do send some to some to a mill that ends up being making into chicken feed. So feed some chickens. So but.

Yep, a lot of it goes that direction. So have you been farming since you were a youngster?

Yeah, I think I got put on a tractor when I was two and took off and ran over an auger and made a mess. But yeah, I've been farming and riding on tractors since I was born, pretty much.

So do you like the old ones at all? Do you have any old tractors around?

I do. I grew up with Alice Chalmers and so I've got, I really like the older Alice Chalmers. Unfortunately, they don't make Alice anymore, but I've got a couple of old ones out here that I actually hear about. six or seven years ago, I actually got a hold of the first tractor my dad bought, but it had gone through a couple of owners and I got it bought back. And so I've been working on trying to restore it back to what it was when I was a kid and I used to ride on the fender of it. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, it's pretty cool. The guy that sold it to me had owned about 150 tractors and he had only sold one in his life. So he said, the only reason I'm selling it to you is because your dad had owned it. So that was pretty cool. But

Yep. Yeah, I was a red tractor guy, so I had farm hauls.

Yep.

Yep. But my favorite was an old M. And then my dad was a John Deere guy. He had a fully restored 43D John Deere. And I ended up with that. And then I don't have any of them anymore, but just ran out of places to keep them. I know I had seven tractors at one time and then now I'm down to one.

All right, what do you think? Take a break.

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

All right, listeners. Welcome back to the second half of the show. We're here with one of our awesome roadies. He's an Inner Circle member, Adam Dorman. He and Jim and I have been trying some fun stuff that we've gotten in recently. The first pour we had was a short barrel cigar batch number four. That's 107 proof. That was a blend of Indiana and Kentucky whiskeys finished in Armagnac, Cognac, Rum, Sherry, and Tawny Port. We followed that up with Redwood Empires, the Hyperion, which was a blend of bourbon, rye, wheat, and single malt whiskeys. The single malt being their own, the rest being from Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee. But now we're ready to move on to our third pour. But first of all, what'd you guys think of those first two?

Yeah, they were both really good. I do have something in my mind that's sort of standing out, but I think they both were very unique and very different. They both brought The Broke-Bot intense flavor and kind of a broad palate appeal. It was kind of, in that way they were similar, but everywhere else they were different.

Yeah, I mean, I really, I really liked them both. They're both very quality pours and the noses were very, very good on both of them. So yeah, I really, really like them.

Great. Yeah. When Adam chose these, I was like, this is going to be, you know, I tried a few of them because the last one I'll tell about how I got that one. But that was going to be a tough competition. It's going to come down to personal preference. Let's get to that third pour. It's called Scattered Castles Limited Release Batch 1. So a fella named Chris Walls emailed us out of the blue and he said, you don't have to have this on the show or anything like that. I just want your honest opinion. I'm like, sure, send a sample and we'll try it. And I tried it and was really wild. But Chris has got a pretty unique story. So this is not age stated. It's 117.2 proof. The price is $74.99. Only about 860 bottles were made. And you can order directly from his website, scatteredcastles.com. So Chris was a big bourbon fan who ran into one of those bottles that, well, he just wasn't a big fan of. And instead of drain pouring it, he decided to play around and started blending and doing some things with that and really got into that. He started doing it so much he would share with friends and family and they loved it. So he decided to take another step up. So he reached out to every distillery in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia. looking for like barrels from them and he said he received a lot of no's but he stuck with it and he kind of got a break when he teamed up with Max and Eli at Baltimore Spirits Company and that's where he houses his barrels and his products are barreled. So what we have here is some Indiana bourbon and Baltimore Spirits bourbon finished in rum barrels and so this is his first release he's got a ride it should be coming out soon but yeah looks rather impressive I hope you guys like it too.

Scattered castles. I like that name.

Mm hmm. Yeah, that's that's unique.

Dark fruits are back.

Yeah, did you?

Did you get a pine pine or cedar?

Mm hmm. There's a bit of a freshness to it. I don't know if it's.

See, I was going to say I'm getting like a little mint, actually, which is kind of odd.

Yeah. That kind of leads right into the pine with me. Mint and pine all kind of go together.

You know, I'm not really getting the rum, but I am getting kind of like brown sugar, darker fruits, maybe. Not quite like, yeah, maybe plum.

I'm getting a little ethanol on this one.

You should know ethanol, right? Yeah.

All right. The color's nice. I mean, it's got a, it's got a nice. Oh, it's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Nice looking whiskey. Yeah. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, that's good.

Yeah.

A little chocolate on the palate.

Yeah, it does go chocolate. It's also got like a. Like a dry leather. Yeah, like a dry leather, a little bit of a. Fall kind of a fall note to it.

Yeah, I think so too.

It's like dark and sweet too. Fallen leaves, dry forest, fall forest, you know, kind of nice. Texture is good. It really hits the whole palette. I mean, I'm getting something everywhere. I'm getting it up front. I'm getting it on the middle of my palette. I'm getting it on the sides. I'm getting it on the back. It's like this nice, well-balanced impression.

I'm getting a little, like, spearmint, too. That mint that was on the nose is kind of like... Yeah. It's sticky. Which is interesting.

You're right about that. It's sticky.

Yep.

I still don't get, there's not much rum to it though. Do you get much rum on the, on the pallet at all? I really don't get, you know, I wouldn't have known this is the rum finish. Yeah.

I wouldn't guess it to be a rum finish whiskey.

Yeah. I didn't catch how long it sat in the rum barrels.

Oh, Bernie wants in on the tasting guys. I got a St. Bernard over here. There he is. Hey Bernie.

Yeah, this is nice. This sits really nice on the finish. I like it. It's a little dry. There's a little bit of tannins to it, and that's that fall leaves kind of thing that I was mentioning. This is a great, uh, cool weather pour for sure. Yeah. It hangs in there. This is, this is, this is, you know, fire pit on the back patio on a cool night. And I think it would go with a cigar too. It would hold up to a cigar.

I think so. I think honestly, more so probably this one than the cigar batch would be. more towards the cigar than you asked.

Yeah, that's the first cigar batch, the first one we had, the cigar batch from Short Barrel. I felt like that would need like just a fairly light cigar, Connecticut wrapper, light filler, something Dominican maybe. This would hold up to something a little more substantial. Yeah, this one, the more I sip it, the more I like it. I do like this. I think he's got a future in the whiskey business. He should keep doing it.

Yeah, it's impressive, isn't it? Because we're always kind of like, you know, Jim, you've talked about it. You've gotten some stuff in years past that they were like, hey, we want to send you something to try. You know, not all not all bourbons or whiskeys are created equal, that's for sure.

That's right. We do get whiskeys in that don't make the show, and you hate to do that, but you know what you hate worse is having something on the show that you can't appreciate. So it's better just to give them more time, let them have another round, send you a different bottle, a different expression the next time, than to have a negative impact on their business. Not everybody makes a good one every time.

You're right. And I would say we've turned down a lot less. I feel like we've not turned down much. You and I haven't. And I mean, probably those early days, but I think a lot of those places that were sending you probably two, three-year-old stuff. I mean, you're talking six, seven-year-old stuff now, so.

Sure.

I mean, yeah.

We just did that pick a Jeff the Creed, and I think I think folks that may say that a little bit probably need to go revisit that one.

Yeah, the Jeff the Creed whiskey is a different animal today than it was four years ago, three years ago. They've come into their own right now and the whiskey is solid. It's good. It's still unique. It's still Bloody Butcher. So you gotta expect what comes along with that, but it's Yeah. And not just Jephthah, but a lot of distilleries have come out of the fog, you know, and they're quite like shining on them now.

So you get, you get out of that two year range and gets more into that four or five, six year range and things all of a sudden start turning around, you know, and it makes a big difference.

Yes, it does. Yes, it does. So Adam, you said you don't get to a bourbon country very often, but how often do you get here?

I was there in March. I generally try to get out there. Oh, lately, it's been about once a year, but maybe not quite that often. But I try to get there once a year if I can figure out a way to do it. But got to this year, we made a vacation out of it. So my brother lives in Indianapolis or Pendleton right out of Indianapolis. And so we went to see him for a couple of days and then made a made a vacation there out of it. Last summer, I got to go be a part of a pick at Jack Daniels, so I got out that direction there last year too. I try to get there as much as I can because it's a wonderful place. There's no doubt about it.

I'm glad you brought up that Jack Daniels because I'm going to get you to post a picture on our website and then on the Roadies page. You're from Missouri, but you have a very extensive Jack Daniels collection. You've got glasses and all kinds of bottles. What was it about Jack Daniels that drew you to them?

Well, you sent me a picture of a bottle the other day there that you found, and that was actually the bottle that started all of it for me. When I turned 21 back in 1996 or a few moons ago, my wife gave me a bicentennial bottle that Jack Daniels put out that year for my 21st birthday. And I got it and I said, boy, that's too pretty of a bottle to drink. And so I put it on the shelf and lo and behold, ever since then, I started collecting Jack Daniels bottles. And, you know, I especially you know, things just started going from one to another. And before you know it, you got a couple of hundred different jack bottles and you got shelves and you got mirrors and you've got things. I try not to collect too many of the knickknacks. You gotta set your limits somewhere. You know, you just can't do everything. But I really like different bottles and been fortunate to get into some dusty jack and I've gotten several 75s and 76s. I really like those. getting some older single barrels and it's kind of interesting to explore the life of Jack Whiskey as you know at least back 50 years or more you can kind of go through it and see the differences in the way it's evolved and you know the whole barrel proof whenever they started coming out with barrel proof versions of single barrels why that was a whole new whole new world for Jack Daniels then so But yeah, I really enjoy collecting those and I can blame my wife every time that I see the wall. I said, well, you started it. So, you know, that's what happens.

Yeah. You know, a lot of people think it's a milestone to get their bourbon collection or whiskey collection to 200 bottles. You've got 200 bottles of just Jack.

Yeah. Yeah. So my Jack, you know, and for most of, you know, obviously there's some different, a lot of different expressions of Jack that I have. And any of them that I want to drink, I always try to get two. I try to get one that I want to drink and one that I can put on the shelf. And, and some of them are just so good that you got to drink them and you can put the empty bottle on the shelf, you know, but, uh, They always just look prettier when they got whiskey in them. I always, in one of those, they say, well, you can't just sit that whiskey on the shelf. And I said, I agree. I tried to get one to drink, one to sit on the shelf. Somebody would drink it one of these days.

That's for sure. I guess you could always just put tea in there, right? Probably could. Probably could. You're right, Jim. Just keep it looking good. But I don't think tea would last, does it? Wouldn't it spoil?

I think it'll settle out. I think it'll settle out, you know, it'll clear up over time. But no, that... I really enjoy everything about Jack. I grew up drinking. Once I got into my 20s and 30s, of course, I drank Jack and diets a lot. Before you know it, I met a guy about Oh, been 15 years ago now. I met a guy that was getting started into whiskey and he kind of led me more and said, you know, that Jack's all right, but you you ought to try some of this other stuff we've got around here. And I started really exploring bourbon and really explore an Irish whiskey more with him. And he really opened my eyes and got my feet running. And so now I've now I've got to figure out how to slow down on the whole other collection as well, you know, that the drinking collection. So. All right.

All right. Well, everybody made their notes. Yep. Yep.

It's a tight race.

Yeah, it is a tight race.

All right. But we got one more. And this one I picked up while I was there. This is Hard Truth up in Brown County, Indiana, Nashville. This is their barrel finish reserve sweet mash rye finished in cognac, sauternes, PX sherry, and PX brandy cask. And it laid on, rested on some jupil. I don't speak French. French oak from the jupil forest. So they use a mash bill of 94% rye, 6% malted barley. This was an 11 barrel blend. 31% rye finished in cognac, 26% rye. 26% Rye finished in Sauteurs, 26% Rye PX Sherry, and 17% Rye PX Brandy. So age of three years, this is one of those exceptions where they do put out some really good two and three year olds. This is 116.8 proof and an MSRP of 90 bucks.

So we went to Hard Truth in March, then when we were out there this last trip, while we, my brother, I took my brother, we went there for lunch one day with his family, and the last day we got to see him there, and boy, that is a beautiful place. Yes, it is. Absolutely beautiful place. Jim and I raged about that a few times. Did you go on the get lost tour? No, we weren't able to. That gave me a good reason to go back. I've got to go do that sometime. We do that kind of tour around here on my farm quite a bit. It's a fun tour to do. You get lost and you find some whiskey in weird places.

I was gonna say, Adam could just put four bottles of Jack Daniels and do his own ATV tour, probably.

Yeah, between here and my dad's house, we've got 40 acres of timber that's a great hunting spot and a great spot to explore. So it's a lot of fun.

Are you a hunter?

I've hunted quite a bit in my life. I would not say that I'm an avid hunter, but I do when I have time. But my wife, more of a hunter than I am, actually, she really enjoys deer hunting. She's got a rack on the wall that's scored like 154. So it's a nice 11 point, I think, 12 point buck. It was really nice.

So this is like fruit medley.

I'm trying to think of what this reminds me of. You know, I think it reminds me of Heart and Truth, actually, but no, they're right. They had a release that this reminds me of once before, but this is a lot more fruit.

Yeah, they did a similar release, Jim, but they didn't finish it on French oak. So that might be what you're recalling.

That could be.

I really love the nose. Really nice. But we're getting up there in proof or do we drop back down? Well, we're right at 117 still, right? 117.8, yeah.

So the range was pretty tight this time.

You're right. I'm ready to taste it. Same. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, wow. That's really good.

Yeah, now we're talking.

Man, Todd, you're making it tough on us tonight. Man, these are four really good pours.

No doubt about that.

The fruits are definitely back on this one. This is like fruit medley, but there's like that grapiness a little bit.

There is, I think those, those Armagnac and Cognac finishes that are, they kind of give you a little bit of that grapiness. Like grapevine.

Oh, this is rich and deep. And, and, um, I'm, I've got the dripping, dripping palette, you know, it's just sort of making me salivate.

Exactly. So I was exactly going to say, Jim, it's, this is making your mouth water. It makes you want to drink more.

Mm hmm. So good.

The fun thing is, Jim, I got another one from from hard truth that we'll have to try, but I haven't even told you about. So.

We had another hard truth on.

We had their double load recently in their Mizunari.

Yeah, that was very impressive. Yeah.

I mean, they're one of those that I have yet to have a anything off putting from them. All their rides are super solid.

Oh, their rides, I really enjoy the ride from Hard Truth, no doubt about it. Their bottle to bond bourbon is another one that really was a fruity one for me that I really enjoyed.

Yeah, they do a lot of interesting stuff with their barrels too. They've got that spiral, whatever it is, that cut they do.

Spiral cut, yeah.

Spiral cut, yeah.

That's the Jack Daniel Sinatra cuts, what that is. That's what they do for all the Sinatra barrels is that spiral cut.

Oh yeah? Huh.

Yeah.

Ooh, this is going to be tough.

It is going to be tough.

This one is definitely making things interesting.

Yeah. I want to start putting my bottles in order of my opinion.

I've got my pad of paper here. So Adam, I know one other thing you do is you do a lot of tastings there in that area and you were or still are an ambassador for Pursuit.

I'm not anymore. So I was one of the first brand ambassadors for Pursuit actually and really enjoyed doing that. I just didn't have the time. to commit to it and do it enough. Ryan and Kenny do some great things. I'm a big Pursuit fan. I really enjoy the blends that they come up with. And definitely I really enjoyed that. And, you know, we had the idea. They had the idea of doing tastings and stuff. And I did several of those to start. I just didn't have the time to commit. to doing those as much as I needed to. But yeah, I know they're a great couple of guys.

But no, they're your second favorite podcast more importantly, right?

Yeah, exactly. Yep, exactly. There's the Bourbon Road and then there's Bourbon Pursuit. So yeah, I listen to them both and try to listen to them both on a regular, every weekly basis. Um, I do enjoy this week in bourbon. That's my favorite part of their podcast. No doubt about it every Friday morning. But, uh, no, um, I do those and I do tastings too. I've got a side business. It's, uh, it's called a whiskey uncorked. Uh, I've got a website, whiskey uncorked.com that, uh, I do tastings for parties, birthday parties for, uh, gatherings. all kinds of different event functions, work functions that they have, work parties and so forth. I've got a tasting whole bunch of glasses tasting kit that I'm mobile and I come to you and do the tasting and so it's a fun time. I had a a friend over here one night that was actually in charge of the State Fair Foundation here in Missouri. And she she was over and she goes, you know, we're trying to raise money for the state fair. And every year we have an auction. And she goes, would you be interested in putting a tasting on our auction? And I said, well, I could probably do something, you know, and I hadn't really thought about it too much. And she put it on the auction. And lo and behold, it sold for fifty five hundred dollars. And so then I thought, well, this is going to be a pretty nice tasting, you know. So then kind of geared up for doing that, got everything I needed to make a pretty nice tasting and started doing that more. And I donated a lot of them to different scholarships and fundraising deals. And I think I'm up over about $60,000 that I've raised for different things by donating those tastings. So I really enjoy doing that, but do it for hire as well, but not near as often as I just don't have the time to commit to it as well either, you know, so.

Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome.

All right. Do we have our top three? I figured we'll just do top three tonight, Jim. Does that sound good?

We can do the top three. Yep.

Okay. You know what? I'm going to go first. Okay. My third place is going to be the scattered castles. I really enjoy that. Like I didn't know what to expect. And when I, I tried it before, you know, came on the show and I was like, you know, that's really good. That might be one of the better rum finishes I've had, although it might be because it's not super rummy.

True. Yeah. And, uh, you know, I've got my, I've got my four tasting bottles here lined up by my, my order. And my number three is scattered castles.

Very nice.

My number three is the Redwood Hyperion.

Okay.

I really, really enjoy it. I like Redwood stuff. I really like Redwood Grizzly Beast. They're, they're bald and bond bourbon. That is a really fruity whiskey that I really enjoy that they make themselves. But this one is a very nice blend.

Yeah, I think they're one to keep your eye on. They're starting to release some of their own juice now. They've been kind of blending their own with kind of like this with Indiana and Kentucky stuff. My number two, and I'm going to say something real quick. I mean, there's one that really stood out to me. But the other three were like, Like the three Amigos, they were all really close. So my number two is going to be the Hyperion, the Redwood Empire. I like that blend. It's different and rich and complex and it's kind of fun. Jim?

All right. My number two is going to be the short barrel. So it might be surprising you a little bit. It did lose a few points. I said it was close. It was. The nose and the palate were different, very different. It was fruity and then not so much fruity. But for me, I thought it had just this really interesting profile. Is it a really a cigar blend? I don't know, maybe, but for a very light cigar. But the flavor was good and I enjoyed it and it's my number two.

Me as well, Jim, that the short barrel is my number two as well. I really enjoy it. As I'm going back to it right now, the nose is a little less fruity, more of those leather notes and stuff Todd was talking about earlier are coming out more now, but the longer it sits out. But it's something that's a very complex pour that I really enjoy. It's got a nice long finish. Definitely enjoyed the nose. You get those fruit notes that come out of it.

Now we know Todd snuck in early said because you're basically describing what happened to him, which which was after he tasted it, his nose changed on it. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Todd, what's your number one?

My number one are truth. It's that's a complex. It's rich. It's it's delicious. Like I said, they They've got ryes down to a tee. Finish them, double-loak them. It doesn't matter. They can throw popcorn in a minute. It would still be a good rye, I bet.

Yeah, so I'm the same. It's a superior finished whiskey. It's really good. It checks all the boxes for me. Definitely the hard truth, number one.

Yeah, for me, the same. Hard truth is definitely my number one. And this is one that I need to find a bottle of. This is an excellent pour. I really enjoy this. definitely want to find it. The fruitiness and then the different finishes that come off of it. I mean, like you said earlier, Jim, it just, it's one of those that makes your mouth water that you really, this is a pour that's very enjoyable.

Yeah.

Well, great job, Todd. That's magic in a glass. What a nice lineup. It was a great lineup. All very different, but equally matched. I think the hard truth is, like you said, it sort of stood out. The other three were more closely matched. But I think all four of these whiskeys ended up in somebody's top three. Yes. Yep.

Oh, they're all no complaints about any of them for me. I mean, they're they're all for quality pores. You know, just not everybody can win. You guys battle that all the time, right? You guys try to when you rank these, it's not everybody can be first. So that's right. You got to pick one.

That's right.

I think the winners are us. That's what we like to say. The winners are definitely winning tonight. There's no doubt about it.

Their hard truth is there's something that's definitely got me winning tonight.

Well, it's been a fun show. Right. Adam, thanks for being a supporter. And we look forward to, like, yeah, you have to let me know when you get back down here again. You usually do. Oh, yeah. We usually try to get together for a pour and swap some bottles and all kinds of stuff.

Yeah, Todd, I always enjoy getting together with you and I know Mindy surprised me one time we were out there, Mindy surprised me and had talked to you and had you meet us for dinner in Louisville there. I sure enjoyed that. But you always give me good advice on where I should go, where I need to go. And I really enjoy that. And I definitely enjoy getting together with you. And Jim, I got to meet you in person sometime, Jim. Next time I'm out there a while, we got to get together and have a drink.

Well, let's make it happen for sure. Love to do that. Who knows? I may get to Missouri and look you up. Please do. It's been a while. My wife and I both love Herman. We love that little place, that little town. Yeah.

There's some good distilleries in Herman now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I have to do it. I don't think we're beyond the riding the bike on the Katy Trail. We don't do that anymore. But I think we do like to get out to Missouri and have a good time.

So maybe we'll look you up to.

Yeah. Thanks for thanks for being on the show. It's been a pleasure having you. Thank you for supporting the Bourbon Road podcast. We appreciate what you do. Give you another chance to shout out your tasting in case anybody out there is listening from your area.

Yep. Whiskey uncorked. So whiskey uncorked.com. So if you go to that and that's whiskey underscore uncorked on Instagram, but whiskey uncorked.com is, uh, is my, my tasting website and you can contact me there. Um, but, uh, yeah, if you're anywhere in Missouri and you're interested in a tasting, why definitely give me a call and I'd be happy to set something up.

All right. Well, thanks again. Alright folks, well you can find the Bourbon Road on all social media outlets but we hope you'll take the time to come to thebourbonroad.com. That's our website and it's built especially for you. So yes, we do have a private Facebook group with 3,000 plus members on it and that's a great place for you to show up but not everybody does Facebook. and that's why we built the bourbonroad.com. So come in there, we've got the Bourbon Road Bar. We've got the same sort of setup as Facebook has. You can get on there and you can post about what you're drinking and share pictures and there's a live chat. There's a calendar of our events on there. Todd's always posting something in the calendar, something great going on, some giveaway or something. We do randomizers, great stuff giving away on there. We also have an opportunity for you to keep your own tasting journal on there. Everybody has their own tasting journal. You can record your tasting notes, and you can share them out to the world if you want, or you can keep them private. There's also, our vendors give discounts to roadies. You get your own ID card. Like when you go to the House of Commons in Frankfurt, you show them your little ID card, your roadie ID card off the app, and they'll give you 10% off. You can get cigars at 15% off. You can get free books. Not free books. You get discounts on books. There's a lot of great stuff. So definitely take the time to check that out. Sign up. You can sign up for a free account. You can sign up for an account where you can donate a small amount to help get us down the road. We certainly appreciate it. Every Wednesday, Todd and I put out an episode. Sometimes we'll have guests on like Adam. Sometimes it's just Todd and I. Sometimes it's the Malt Amigos. We're always having fun. We're always drinking whiskey. We hope you'll join us every week. But until the next time, we'll see you down.

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 a ties-leaf song On the long winding bourbon road Here's to the nights that turned into dawn To the friends who stayed when the rest moved on To the clink of glass and the stories spun And the quiet peace when the night is done On a bourbon road we ain't alone Every mile's marked by the love we've known From barrel to bottle to the hearts we hold there's a fire that never gets old so pour it up let the moment slow a little bit of life in every glow yeah forever we'll call this home on the long winding