521. Rain, River & Rye: Behind the Scenes of Bourbon on the Banks

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 paid Amber light in a crystal glow A little burn Where the good times roll Passing bottles like a piece of soul Every pour'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 bourbon road Great listeners, roadies.

Long time roadies and new ones alike. We'd love to have you back again for another episode of the bourbon road podcast. We are hanging out at the corner Rick house in Frankfurt, Kentucky, our old a studio B and we've got a guest with us tonight. Todd, who do we have?

We've got Diane strong from bourbon on the banks. We're going to do a recap today. As always, welcome back to the show, Dan.

Thanks for having me back. Hopefully your listeners aren't getting tired of my voice.

No, I don't think they're ever going to get tired of your voice. You know, I think there's a large number of them that really want to come to Bourbon on the Banks every year and they probably listen to these episodes and go, okay, next year, next year we'll do it, right? But yeah, I think it's an enjoyable thing. It's always great to have a preview of what's coming and then sort of dissect and sort of deconstruct what happened and how it turned out. It seems to get better every year.

That's the goal. That's the goal.

So what are we drinking today, Todd?

Well, we're not going to have a whole bunch, but we do have a couple of the picks that we had there that were available at the Bourbon on the Banks Festival. And the first one's going to be Boondocks. This is their Kentucky straight rye whiskey. So this is sourced from Green River. This one was kind of surprising. You didn't get to make that one. So it was like Amzie and I and a few others. We did this at Capital Sellers with Luke, Luke Patrick. And yeah, I didn't know much about them honestly, cause you know, I've always, I've seen them on the, on stores and they make it to the shelf. Yeah. I mean, they're everywhere.

Yeah.

Obviously I knew it was source, but you know, kind of a quiet, quiet place kind of. So when the guy pulled out, I believe it was about nine sample. for a rye and they also did a bourbon as well. So there were about 18 samples. I'm like, oh, and it was lunchtime. I'm like, this is, I'm not going to make it back to work or not going to be able to function for work, but you know. So yeah, this is a 120.5 proof. And like I said, Green River, I believe they do a 95.5 rye. And yeah, this one blew me away.

I mean- Well, fantastic. Remember that old song down in the boondocks? Down in the boondocks. That's an oldie. That is an oldie, isn't it? Okay, Diane, you're too young for that.

But I had to- No, there's another Boondocks song.

Is there?

Yeah. I do know that one, but that's not the one that came to mind.

I mean, that's what you called the sticks. There's another word for the sticks, you know, the boondocks. Yeah, boondocks, the sticks. They don't become boondocks in Kentucky, don't we? I have lived out in the boondocks. I was going to say there was a wrestling tag team back in the day called the Boondogs or something like that. Yeah.

All right.

Well, let's check out this.

I had to bring a rye. Yeah. Let's check out this rye.

Diane is here.

All right. Well, it's very fruit forward. It is, but the nose is very light on it. It is fruity and a little bit of like pepper, but but also a little bit of baking spice like nutmeg and nutmeg and pepper and a peppery nutmeg.

Just a hint hair of mint. Not a big explosion.

Yeah, this doesn't scream 95.5 to me, does it? Not at all. Wow. And the colors kind of light on it too. I was surprised. It looks, it looks decent in the bottle. I don't recall the age.

I feel like five, six ish. Okay. So, where is Boondocks based out of? So, they're based out of Bardstown. So, it's probably one of those like LLC type places that doesn't have a storefront or anything like that. And I believe the guy we did our tasting with said at some point it was in the plans.

Yeah. I think a lot of those plans might be on momentary pause. I think so too. Todd Holder, is that here? Yes. Wow. So, um, the nose again, I'm going to go back to this. This is really good. It's like a peppery nutmeg with a little bit fruit forward on it, like you said, but the nose is kind of light. It's not screaming 95, five right at me.

You know what it kind of knows is like a little bit like a hard truth, right? Not quite that fruity that fruit medley, but it's close.

All right. All right.

Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

It bites like a 95-5. But it's good. That is really good. We were really impressed with this. I was going to say, Diane likey. Mommy like. Yeah, the nose comes across kind of light, faint a little bit. I know we're not drinking out of Glencairn's, we're drinking out of the good old... What do you call this, actually? I don't know.

Our new glasses are Kinsey's. I don't know what these are called.

I forget what this style is. These are beer sampling glasses, kind of.

Or wine sampling.

Wine sampling. I mean, they look a little like a Glencairn. They just don't have the tulip neck to them. Yeah, I was going to say like a fat tulip. Yeah.

Like the first year or two, this is what we had. But when they were... When Liquor Barn was willing to do this for us, I wasn't going to complain.

No, heck no.

It still knows it's pretty good.

I was going to say, the Bourbon Society is very lucky to have the Bourbon on the Banks sponsored glassware for our tastings and such, so we appreciate that.

With the old logo.

Yep, old logo.

I do enjoy this. This is a, this is a good ride. This is a very tasty ride. I think it, um, it kind of hit me all at once on the pallet, like everywhere. It didn't just like sizzle up front or settle in on the back. It just sort of nice, nice and level. Yeah. Fruits are still there.

I almost get like a little bit of like. Stone fruit. Yes. Yeah, stone fruit. Good call.

Yeah. A little melon almost. When you go back to the nose, it just reinforces that nose and makes you really get it better on the second time around. But yeah, they marry. The nose and the palate marry. They're very nice together. This is congruent. Congruent. Is that good? Works for me. Yeah, congruent nose and palate. I'm going to have to go home and look that up. You know what confluent means? Confluent? Confluent is when they come together.

Yeah, congruently.

Congruent is when they're parallel to each other, kind of, right?

Yes, we're talking graphs, right?

I guess, no. I'm too far out of that stuff. I forget it all, but that word just came to mind. Well, this is really good.

So Diane, let's start with Thursday, right? Sure. Yeah, tell the folks what they missed.

Well, the bourbon bell went out with Ingram and Heather Wibbles did a great, it was kind of a chemistry type class this year. Normally it's like a mixology class, but she was kind of playing with water, pH, water sources and how it affects the bourbon in your glass. And it sounds like that was just a lovely event. Of course, that event sold out in the first day and looking at possibly adding another tour, boat tour this year, since it looks like there's enough demand for it.

You mean 2027, you're jumping the...

Sorry, I've been thinking 2027. She's already moved on. That's right.

She's like, 2026 is over for me.

Well, I mean... I'm working on 2027 based on 2026, obviously. So yeah, so that was Thursday, too. And then the Whiskey Thief kickoff. Did you guys make it out there?

I did. Jim didn't. I didn't, you know, get soccer. And by the time we got out of there, I mean, I was getting pictures from friends like, Oh, where are you at? And it looked like a madhouse. So I'm like, I had to feed my children and I'm very sorry I missed it. But I mean, that thing has blown up.

It was, it was crazy. I mean, it was, it was huge and we had a ton of roadies there too. And then the Frankfurt Bourbon Society was there. Were you there for the big photo?

No, no.

Oh, we took a big, huge photo. I've seen it. Oh, you've seen it. And it was like, oh my gosh, we're half the people. That's awesome. It was amazing.

Yeah, it seems like it does really well. And I already talked to Whiskey Thief and they're coming back for 2027. So that's.

I was going to say, it seems like it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I don't know how to do some sort of like, Tent outside or something? I don't know, like shuttle service from the top parking. I don't know if they did that anyway.

I suppose they run out of parking, don't they?

Maybe they could do like a hayride.

Ooh. That would be cool. But then you got to wait for the ride back there. I was going to say. I don't know.

And then you got to smell that diesel.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.

Maybe goat rides. Man, the goat pictures are awesome. I was going to say, the goat pictures are awesome.

They're going to have to figure out something. Or maybe they just keep it small and quaint. And if you don't know where to park, you turn around and go home. It's paved.

What fun, it's small and quaint.

It's not paved. They didn't pave it. They just added... something to the gravel. They did something. Paved in quotation marks. It's better than it was. It was a little rough going through there. It's not a dust storm anymore. Anyway, it was great. We had a really good time there. and they burned another barrel and they had a great band playing bluegrass and great food. The food truck is A plus and the cocktails are good.

Do you know what food truck they get out there?

It's their own little food truck, right? Oh, sweet. They got the chef out there, I forget his name, but I don't know, but it's really good food. And yeah, it was just really great. We sat in those little Chesapeake chairs around the fire pit and just drank whiskey all night.

Angie walking around with a sample bottle. Yeah, we're pretty excited. We just chose a barrel of our own that we distilled to bottle soon.

Oh, finally.

And it's a rye, Diane.

Oh, yay.

Yeah. So yeah, the one thing I just noticed from pictures is, like I said, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I'm worried, yeah, some people will get out there and just can't find parking and have to turn around. But, you know, because I remember the first time It may even have been the first year they did that, that it was kind of a misty night and just wasn't a whole lot of people. But if you get there late, yeah, it's a good luck trying to find parking. I mean, that'd be a big deal. Last year, a lot of people.

So I mean, I would stress that people need to find a way to get here on Thursday. Because that really sets the mood for the whole event. It really does.

Right. Well, we've got the shuttle service too. And I think if people could coordinate with them, I mean, they'll take, pick you up at your hotel and take you out there. And I know he was shuttling some people, so that's an option too. Then you don't have to park and, you know, he'll pick you up at whatever time you want to get going.

Yeah. And I think the other thing that causes that big crowd is, you know, whiskey thief used to be a, like a hidden gem. Yeah. I think the word is finally started to get out there. I got the tour awards. They've got the place in Louisville. And they just moved to a new place. Yeah.

And the event space in Louisville. Did you already mention that?

I did not. I saw something about that in the, you know, we get a lot of whiskey news and I did see that or something on Facebook.

They're doing a great job.

That's pretty cool. Yeah.

Very proud of them.

Yeah. So Friday.

Friday.

Yeah.

Friday. Yeah. Well, we, of course we started the pub stroll on Thursday. The Four Roses pub stroll goes Thursday, Friday, Saturday, but so.

Hold up, hold up, hold up. Go back. Tell folks what like pub stroll, what I mean, what's that until there's there's some prizes and things to be had.

Yeah, you you participate by you pick up, go into any participating restaurant or restaurant bar downtown. They have the passports there and you go to any of them that are participating. You buy a Four Roses special cocktail that they create. And as long as you get five within that three day period, Turn it into one of those locations at the end of your stay. You have a chance to win tickets for next year's event Awesome. So and I've already drawn the winners for next year. They get two tickets So so that's fun.

Cool. Do you have quite a few people turning in or yeah.

Yeah Last year we had a few more than this year. But you know the first year it's like Sometimes I think people just get into it and they just forget. Last year, two people shipped them to me because they forgot.

Fun cocktails.

Well, not necessarily all in the same night. This year I had a lady call and she's like, I was just unpacking my bags. This is three weeks after the event, so I was kind of curious what took her so long. She's like, and I found the passport. Is it too late? I'm sorry, we've already drawn, but yeah, it's good. I'm glad that people participate and they enjoy it and it doesn't cost you anything except for the price of the drink. So that's fun. And Four Roses has confirmed that they will be coming back, which is great. And you know, There's nothing you can do about the R word. And we always, Eric and I especially, we're not allowed to say the R word, but the forecast was looking like it may be a possibility. And so, in the past, I think we had a hurricane two years ago that was threatening to dampen our events and that was fine. It turned out completely uncalled for. And this year, when you plan for an event, an entire year, and then it threatens to get damp, it's like, I can't explain to you how stressful that is, but I didn't let it stress me out. I kept telling everybody, it's really important that at some point we have to deal with it so we know how to deal with it and make sure that we can handle it. So on Friday, course, we have our free community event. We spend a ton of money on the circus and the performers and all of this stuff. And these people are going to show up whether it's raining or not. And if they don't show up, they still get paid. So there's no point in canceling this event. We had KSU Marching Band coming. And they hadn't been there in three years. People were super excited. And so the show must go on. that event started off drizzly to begin with, but people were still there. Most of them were inside the businesses. So the businesses A Bourbon Library had the best night ever that night. That's what I was told. It was a record for him. And all of the downtown businesses were thrilled at the fact that everybody started off inside. And then I guess maybe an hour into it, it just turned into the most beautiful night. And it went off really well, I think. The turnout wasn't as much as it would have been, obviously, but it was still a great turnout. And then the VIP, What you guys have been to the VIP, normally the sampling is outside in the garden and had to make a call on that event earlier in the week, you know, before we knew what was going to happen, whether we were going to move it inside for the sampling. So that was a decision that I made probably on Wednesday. And so it took some reorganization and deciding where people should enter, trying to avoid as much confusion as possible because normally they come in through the garden. And I wanted to keep that because that's where they're used to coming in. So they came in through the garden, entered in the baron form or room. And then the sampling was in the main gallery, which is actually through the front door. You know what I'm talking about?

We've had it there before.

Right. Well, we had the entire event there.

The entire event, right.

But this year, the Brown Forum had the auction and the food and the check-in, but the sampling, you had to walk through the Hall of Governors, which you're not allowed to bring food or drink through, by the way, and sample in there. And so it was... It was kind of tricky, but I think for, you know, last minute changes, it went really well. And it's that location inside that gallery, the main gallery there is it's beautiful. It's beautiful.

Yeah, it's a great spot.

And there's this grand staircase and the musicians were playing on the staircase. And it was it was really it went really nice.

It's good to have that option to quickly divert to.

That's been the backup plan for two years. We've not had to use it. Now that we've used it, we know how to hustle and make sure There and there was confusion coming in with people like not getting drink tickets and not knowing where the bar was and things like that. But I think those were people were very understandable due to the last minute changes.

So I described a work conference. There's always there's always issues.

Yeah. I think it went well and people enjoyed it. The survey responses were good. They loved the food. The same caterer who does the special access tent did that food that night. Normally, we have a lot of food left over. It was the exact amount of food. I think it was just so good. Everybody wanted it. So it went well.

Yeah. Do you know how much the auction raised this year? Do you have off the top of your head? The total? Oh, that's a good question.

I know that the Leriken barrel brought $14,000. I'm very happy with that. And those proceeds go to Bourbon on the Bank. So then the whiskey thief their create your own mash experience goes to us as well.

I think that went for 3,500, which was very nice.

That's where you have to wait five years to get your 48 bottles, but I think that's how many you get. But still, you get to create your own mash and go check it out every year and see how it's aging.

That's a pretty unique idea. I like that.

It is. It's very unique. And this is the second year they did that. But yeah, I think DFI was very happy with the results. I could get on my phone and look up that number, but then I'd be very distracted. I can certainly do it if you want to pause.

No, it's okay. We'll probably drag Amzie on. He can give us some stats on our review.

He won't know those numbers until I give him those numbers.

Well, that's what I'm saying. He'll pop up on a review show at some point.

Well, he loves to talk about bourbon.

I mean, I donated a couple of bottles, so I...

Oh, did you hear about how those did?

I did, but I don't recall. I mean, it was well over a grand for two bottles. Excellent. So I always try to give a little, you know.

Yeah. All right. Great. Well, we've gotten through Friday night. We still have Saturday to talk about, but we'll do that after the break. We got another whiskey to taste and it's another single barrel. It is from the event. And so folks stick around. We will be right back.

We argue notes, vanilla or smoke, but it's all just part of the bond we both own.

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 you know 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 1320 whiskies. They're all on there Todd nice our tasting notes our rating for the whiskey We even cue up the episode on the tasting notes To where we tasted on the show. So as you're reading our tasting notes, you can play it 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 with the executive of the Bourbon on the Banks Festival, Diane Strong. She's here for, geez, you've been on your, getting close to 10, I would wager.

I didn't look it up this time, but. Yeah, she's made that ride disappear from the first half.

Yeah. Mine has gone too. We need to come up with more tiers, like, you know, I don't know what we can do. You know, we do, when you've done five, you come on and bring them on the second half of the show. I don't know. Maybe sing a song if they do 10 or 20. I would like that. Yeah.

I'm not sure your listeners would though.

Maybe they could sing the theme song. Yeah.

Oh yeah.

I know it's in your playlist, right? Thank you. All right, so let's get to the big day, Saturday.

Man, so we had a little bit of rain on Friday, which made for an amazing Saturday, I've got to tell you. The weather, we couldn't have asked for anything better. One of the survey responses in 2025 was, it's a little too hot. And so I like to tell people that I took care of that this year. Turned on the air conditioning. Yep. And when I sent out the surveys for this year, I said, you asked for cooler weather and I delivered. So that's a good reason to fill out the survey so that I can answer, you know, deal with all the other issues that you bring up.

So it was great weather. It was a great day. Yeah.

And it was really interesting because usually people start you'll see the crowd start leaving around four. That's why we kind of created the Twilight Ticket. We knew that it was going to free up space. But nobody left this year. It was the craziest thing. We went from having a normal flow of people leaving starting at four and they just weren't leaving. It was just great weather. Of course, we added more seating this year, so Eric says that's good for them, but they won't leave. No, but it's good.

I was going to say, I use that seating a lot. The blue picnic tables, I think some of them were blue maybe.

Yeah.

Wow. I kept sitting down at those tables. people get recognized and they come over and sit down and we'd sit there and chit chat for a while. It was very, uh, it changed the day for me. It really did. Well, it changed the day being an attendee rather than a, um, you know, running in a booth or a tent. But wow, being able to sit down like that, save my sciatica. There you go.

Yeah. And it's, I mean, it's still, you know, the surveys, that was one thing they would like more seating, especially in the food court. So I've already talked to Eric and Eric has kind of requested this in the past. So they've just be actual food trucks instead of trailers. Because due to logistics, it really makes more sense for Eric to have them stay attached to their truck.

Yeah.

So they take up more space.

And this would be Eric Northcutt.

Eric Northcutt. He's a logistics director.

I thought you could say a legend. He is a legend. He is a bit of a legend.

He's been doing it since the beginning. And he's gotten better every year. But that is one thing. You know, because I told him, I'm like, we need more picnic tables in the food court. And he's like, there's not room. And I said, well, if there's people sitting on the ground, there's room for a seat where they're sitting on the ground, right? But I said, I really think that we should go to regular food trucks so we can get the same number of food trucks in their food sources. And that clears up more space for picnic tables and seating. So we're definitely going to do that. Parks does not have They don't have room to store more picnic tables down there. It's a, that is one thing that is kind of a problem, but we're going to look into renting some picnic tables or getting some that will fold up and go into storage. And so, but yeah.

I like the round ones, you know, cause it really did create like a chat session with people.

Are you talking about in the hospitality lounge?

No, no, just up and down the, weren't they round?

The blue ones are square.

They're square. Okay, they're square. They seemed round because when you sat down, everybody's facing each other.

And we purchased those two years ago.

So normal picnic tables have two bench seats across from each other, but these have four. So you were kind of sitting in a circle of people and it really, it was great.

And of course this year we purchased the 15 umbrellas for those tables as well to help with sun. And I think that made a big difference.

And they were strategically placed just along the way. And it was great. You would go a little ways and you'd find another one.

Yep.

See, it was great for me. I missed the whole show. And I was so excited to hear about all this. I forgot our pour. Oh, our pour. I know. Gee, folks. We've got the most, well, not the most important part, but a vital part. So what we have here is the Jephthah Creed pick for this year. They did one last year. And this is the 2026 Bourbon on the Banks from Jephthah Creed. Jim and I were both on that, as was Rodie Dan Mattingly, Amzie Wenning, good friend of the show, and Frankfurt Bourbon Society board member, Pam Marshall. Who else was on that? Oh. We had six or eight people there, didn't we? I was thinking six, and I might be forgetting somebody.

Was Dave there? Dave has spent a few this year.

Was Dave Samlin there? Yes.

Oh, yeah. Was he? I don't remember.

All these barrel picks, they kind of run together. I was going to say, They came fast and hard. MC tries to schedule them, and he's like, can you do this one? And I was like, Jim, this time, I couldn't miss it.

Because I was thinking we had already had this on the show, because it seemed like not too long ago, we had the single barrel on the show. But that was the 2020s. That was 2025s. 2025s, yeah. But we raved.

We did rave about this one and how impressive their stuff's getting. So this one came in at 124. 0.81 proof.

Slightly higher than last year. Last year's was 119, I think you said.

And this was somewhere around seven, almost eight years, right? Depending on when they barreled it, it could have broke eight years when they bottled it.

You were talking about social media. There were people mentioning this one as well.

I know. I think this is one I want to share with some of those friends that are like, you know, You say Jephthah Creed and they kind of make a face. Yeah. Memories are long. Maybe this will change some minds, but it's got a very like decadent nose.

It is really good. It's, it's, uh, it has a depth to it. It just has a, an amazing depth to it. And you know, the, the bloody butcher corn is very unique and it does give a certain, um, earthiness, earthiness that maybe it's not for everybody.

I don't think it says here as much, uh, as normal either. And maybe that age kind of tones it down.

Could be. Yeah, it's not as much of that as I've had in the past. But for me, it's delicious. I love it.

But anyway. I know you liked one other, but that was a tough choice. There were three outstanding barrels we had that day. Cheers.

It's like juicy fruit gum. Is that the yellow one? That's the yellow one, right?

Yep.

Just on the nose. I don't know what it tastes like yet.

That is a really good whiskey. Wow, delicious. It is so rich. The nose is rich. The pallets rich. Um, it's not as earthy as what we've had in the past, but you still get the bloody butcher contribution to it.

It's very sweet. Yeah. Like a little bit of like, um, leather. There's a nice little sizzle on the front of the tongue.

Yeah, it's really kind of really come into its own with age. It's, uh, I think it's a good place. An eight year, seven to eight year barrel from them is really, it's really nice. I don't know how old they are now. I want to say they built their distillery in maybe 17, 16, 17, something like that. So they're just now at 10 years. So. probably didn't get anything put in a barrel for at least a year or two. So they're just, I guess their oldest stuff is probably eight years.

That's good stuff.

Yeah, delicious.

All right, so back to Saturday.

Yeah, so Eric has already got an idea for putting another hospitality lounge type area of seating with a tent. I think that's a great idea. Yeah, under the tent, which is nice. It keeps the sun off of you and stuff.

So yeah, I mean, it's but I mean, that was one of the things I heard, you know, after the event, I started hitting the YouTube. So, you know, looking for reviews, you know, recaps and that kind of thing. And, you know, obviously, for the most part, you don't hear a lot of gripes. I mean, it's too short. They want two days, which we'll get into a little bit later. The future of we'll see. But seeding, which I was kind of surprised because I'm, you know, every year they want more seeding. I know.

Which is fine. And I completely understand. This is, you know, this, especially if you're going to be drinking for- Maybe we could put bar stools around every- Oh yeah, that's safe. On the ground.

Every tasting booth gets like 10 bar stools or something.

The ground is not good for bar stools. We need four feet planted on the ground, just about a foot and a half up is all.

Well, Bourbon women had plenty of seating.

Yeah. And I agree with that. There was seating for 50-ish, but from what I understand, people did not feel comfortable going in there when there was not stuff going on. sure whether they were allowed to go utilize that. Which, you know, now that we know, we'll either- Maybe they can share it, yeah. We will make it obvious or have the volunteers there encourage them to go ahead and sit down between classes. And speaking of which, those classes were very well attended. I know that the ladies were, I mean, Bourbon women were really happy with that. Great. And they are coming back next year.

That was the old Bourbon road tent. Well, where we were. Yes, that's correct.

Eric was like, I know exactly where I'm going to put them. So thank you for saving that spot.

No problem.

And we may have had lots of responses about how people had gone there, but there was not any spots left. So we may be able to go to a larger tent and more seating and fill those. hit, you know, for it to be that successful and people want more. So I think that'd be good if Eric can squeeze it in.

Very nice. One of the other things I caught was, like I said, to you off air, one of the things a lot of these places will do is they'll go up to just random people and kind of ask, what's been your favorite pour at the event? And wow, varied. Yeah. Like, I mean, copper and cask. I heard silk velvet. I heard new era. 1620, I believe it is.

Yeah.

That was one that I think I've seen, but never tried.

They've been there for several years. There were probably 20, I think 20, but probably more like 10, I'd never heard of.

Yeah.

Like, and you know, we get around a little bit. Right. And still there were probably 10 places I was not familiar with. Oh, Colpick. Colpick was another one.

They're really popular.

Oh, they kind of blew up after Kentucky Bourbon Festival. So I was excited to, see that they were there. But, you know, I think also the big guys kind of upped their game. Heaven Hill did a pick this time. I mean, I think it was kind of chosen for the event itself.

They brought grenades. They did. Yes, they were selling grenades.

That's cool. I mean, it's always been kind of their basics. So it's kind of nice to see, oh, the suburban on the banks is kind of turning into something. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, they hadn't been. This is their first year.

I thought they always set out like Elijah Craig and things like just some of the common things, but maybe I'm thinking of Jim Beam, which... No, Jim Beam only goes with the VIP. Okay. which they should be a bigger part. They're here.

I mean, yes, it's not their big place. I'll talk to Karen. We'll talk to some people. We know some people. One of the things that really surprised me was it seemed at one point that everybody at the event was in line at McCauley's.

I was going to say Dark Arts.

Yeah, that's a whole different. Unreal.

Yeah. Yep. And on the videos, people are like, yeah, the lines, there was no lines unless you went to Dark Arts.

Yeah.

So yeah, they were the only one where you really had to wait if you wanted to get in there. But that's a good problem to have for them. But luckily, we've got another 75 distilleries you can choose from. And you don't have to.

Yeah, I mean, if anybody doesn't think that blending and finishing is an art and a skill, they haven't been to Dark Arts, because he takes it to the next level. And it is. I mean, we've come to the realization now that that is as important as the making of the whiskey, and sometimes maybe even a little more. And just to see the following he has and the respect he gets for what he does, his pallets out of this world is just amazing. He settles that question once and for all. Yeah.

Yeah. And he was, they were at the VIP this year, so he was a featured guest, which is fun to have him there.

Yeah. He's an interesting guy.

Yeah, his photo that they sent in, I asked for, you know, a bio and headshot and I can't remember what he was doing, but it was like, it's a good photo. It's McCulley.

Yeah. So Jim, who else did you see that kind of

You know, I'm trying to think, Rob and I were on a mission to get through there and try as many things as possible. You could not try them all.

Probably should not try them all.

Should not try them all. And I taught Rob about pouring whiskey out. He didn't realize that, you know...

It's okay.

It's okay. You really need to pour it out. Give it back to the earth.

And really, the distilleries should try to keep your pours small.

Even so, even with a quarter ounce pour. It gets to be a lot. You just need just enough to make that decision. Do I like it or do I not like it? And what's special about it? Should I pick up a bottle? But, um, I, you know, I don't, I don't know if there was one in particular. Uh, there was one that I bought. I bought, uh, a 22 year old whiskey.

Oh, from Extract, Extraction out of Paducah, Kentucky.

And the reason I bought that was because I went to the Frankfurt Bourbon Society to get off my feet again. And I got a pour of it from Jacob. And he said, it's the best whiskey in the place.

Wow.

And I said, oh. Have you tried it yet? I mean, did you? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I bought it. I went back and tasted it because I had skipped them. And then I bought the 22-year-old and took it home. It was really good.

Now did their label on that one also have the artist's stuff?

Yeah. And I don't remember what it was. Honestly, I can't remember. It was something

That's kind of their schtick. I guess their location is also an art gallery, and all of their labels are designed by the same artists. So, it's kind of cool.

Do you typically hear from the new folks? I'm pretty sure that was the first year they've been there, right? Abstraction? Yeah. I'm sure there are a few others. Do they tend to respond more than the old hats, if you will, like the ones that have come year after year? I know you are always asking for responses and ideas and things like that.

Right. I think I had eight survey responses from distilleries. So that kind of feedback, not so much. When I reach out to them, I do talk to them via email and get feedback and stuff that way. Yeah, I mean, usually if they are jumping to get on board for the next year, you know that they must have been happy. And it's not very often that they don't want to come back. All right.

So let's talk about the future. 2027, you're already there, right? You already talked about some changes with food trucks.

Yeah, changes with food trucks.

So one of the things people are clamoring for is a second day. Is there any chance? That's a lot on your, your volunteers.

It's a lot on a lot of things. There's a lot of, and Chris Garcia, he, he put out a video that was the first one that was published. And, you know, after the event I'm Googling.

That'd be Carlos.

Carlos. Chris is the photography. I'm sorry, photographer. Carlos Garcia. Yeah. I was Googling just to see if there was anything that came out on YouTube and stuff and he was one of the first YouTubers and he interviewed a bunch of people and, you know, great event. But then he say, there's one thing that you could change, what would it be? And there was a lot of responses, wish it was longer, wish it was two days. I, he emailed me and sent me the link and I said, I've already watched it, you know, let's have a phone call. And so he was surprised about that, but I just wanted to be able to, you know, with you guys, I can sit and talk about, you know, why we aren't two days and things like that. But on a YouTube channel, it's not really an option, especially with the format where they're not interviewing people.

I commented for you on his video. I was like, it's just, It's just hard to, like I said, it's a, I mean, it really is a three day event.

You just got to look at it like that. Walking around tasting the whiskey is just one day, but the event itself is three days long.

What's interesting is we had a long conversation. I called him, I set it up and he recorded the conversation. I did not realize that. But he did it because he told me, I'm going to have a follow up video and I'll let the viewers know what you said. And then he sent me an email and there's a link and he's like, by the way, instead of me saying what you said, I just kind of went with you saying what you said. So it was the video was him listening to my conversation. And it's interesting because I've never been interviewed where I wasn't planning for it or I didn't realize I was being interviewed. So everything is very off the cuff and straight from the heart. And this is the way it is. But it really answers a lot of the questions about why we're not two days. But you got to think about it. Sunday events do not do well. People are heading home. Some people are working on Monday. They're just exiting. So a Sunday event is not going to be well attended. Ideally, it would be Friday, Saturday. Right now, our VIP event is on on Friday, our downtown event. I'm not going to move. stop those events. I'm not going to put them all at the same time either competing with each other. And so that would be really difficult. But I will tell you, you mentioned the volunteers. It's, they work so hard. It's so unbelievable. And Saturday night when, you know, we've got people that come in at 7 a.m. and they did the day before too, 7 a.m. and they work all day. And on Saturday night after the event, you know who was standing? Eric and I are there. We're both paid to be there. My daughter, my husband and my daughter's boyfriend who are there because they feel obligated. Brian Hicks, who's on our board and is just kick ass, like works his butt off and one volunteer. That's all that were left and we still had work to do. And so, oh, and Maddie from the city. Oh my God, she's at powerhouse. She's running around on those gators. And, you know, my daughter, she was so exhausted that when she drove off, she didn't have her lights on. I couldn't form a sentence because I was exhausted. And so like it's, to say, hey, let's do it one more day. So we could potentially hire people, right? make us a little more corporate, I think, because our volunteers love doing it. They're proud of it. They're proud to support the event. They love doing it. And for us to be like, OK, we're going to bring in a bunch of paid people. And they're not going to be passionate. They're not going to care about the attendees like our volunteers.

They're not going to own our town.

Right. And so it just changed the atmosphere. And so there's that. But what I will say, I think also part of the magic of Bourbon on the Banks is that it's one day. I think having two days and it like being a bang up hit and then the next day for the people who really want to keep going, the next day is just not going to be as magical, I don't think. It's just the people who really want more and your numbers are going to be less and so I don't know. I do plan to make a longer event available to more people next year. And I think this is going to solve a lot of the problems. The surveys, I know that the people they talk to, these are also diehard people, they want it, but the survey says only about 20% want it to be longer or another day. So that's... We're 2,900 people, right? So you're looking at just under 600 people who really want more. And the other thing that's interesting about the conversation that I had with Carlos was he came in 2025. He had an early access, so he got in at one. got to stay till six, he had five hours. And he said, you know, last year I felt like I had enough time, but this year, you know, he had an early access, but he didn't realize it and didn't show up till two. And he felt like he didn't have enough time. I'm like, that's perfect. Because what we're gonna do next year, is I'm going to take some of the numbers out of general admission and put it into early admission. Because right now, really, the special access is the special people. They're the ones where our numbers need to stay small. And that'll remain 300. And then we'll just increase the number of people who can come in at 1 o'clock.

And that'll also balance it out better.

Instead of at two o'clock, you just have this just, I can't remember, 1,500 people or whatever that came in. I think it'll balance it out and we'll have the people who are wanting more time, give them an extra hour and we'll see how it goes.

Yeah, I was in the two o'clock line. It was long, but it moved quick.

Yeah. Once you get going.

I was going to say, everyone says the lines move quick. It's an efficient process. And I will say this, also in Carlos's video, a lot of folks said, would you change anything? There were a few that said nothing. They said it's perfect as is. That's cool.

His comment was just really sweet.

I mean, take that to heart. I mean, I don't think you can't please them all.

It's just the way the world is.

I also get their side. I mean, because if you've got 70 distilleries, I mean, Some guys I was listening to at just the other day. They literally made a list So they had 18 one guy had 18 he wanted to check out and another guy 19 and he said most of us just to introduce himself and say thank you and you know make contacts and that kind of thing, but you know, I You know, I think the best way to do it If you don't go two days is you know pick 10 15 one year come back the next year pick 10 15 different ones or you know, I Mean I came in at 2

Rob and I had 615 reservations at the Ashbrook. So we stayed basically that four hours. We did walk past every booth, at least. We didn't stop at all. You couldn't drink that many whiskeys. But I felt like in four hours, I got to see everybody.

And a lot of people do.

Yeah. And I get to spend time with people in between, either at the Frankfurt Burden Society, Tent or at the picnic tables with roadies or stopping in to see Doug Keller and his painting booth and talk to him for a while I mean, he's a neat guy. Yeah, he's a neat guy. We had we had a great time, you know, we we we were able to Comfortably walk the event and see everything in four hours and I I don't know That I would have come back a second day because I saw it all I really did now maybe if I hit everybody or maybe I made a list of who I missed and maybe I want to come back. I don't know. It's, it's a lot when you're in your sixties and it gets harder, you know, that kind of stuff. But we had a, we had a blast. We had a great time. It was, uh, it was wonderful. We got to talk to a lot of people and uh, yeah, it was just phenomenal. I was gonna say the fact they want more. I mean, that's good.

And you really want them to leave wanting more. Um, I think the magic is in it being one day and us being able to offer things Thursday and Friday to make it worth the trip. There's other things to really make a vacation out of it. And so the special access, which we had 300, that line, that surprised me. It didn't move like it was supposed to. Did you hear anybody talk about that? So the special access this year went from 200 to 300, but they also got the tasting glass lanyard. And We have Kinsey glasses instead of the Glencairn class, and I knew that they're tricky to fit on these lanyards. My volunteers, Emma and one of her friends, preset all of these 300 tasting glasses, my son helped with this too, and put them in the boxes so that there would be, there was no learning curve with having to fit it on there and they could just grab the glasses. And then they also needed to have a ticket for the sample that they get in the special access tent. And I didn't tell anyone in advance what the tickets were for. I just put them in their glass. And so people, as they were going to get the glass, they're like, what's the ticket for? And they were wanting to have a conversation with the people up top. So anyway, that was lessons learned.

But I have exciting news about the- I was going to ask, was there anything you tried that you're like, that didn't work? So just found that out.

Yeah. Well, I mean, next year they will be notified that that's what the ticket's for. And a lot of them will purchase that ticket again, I think, or like the special access so they'll know. And they'll be able to tell other people, oh, that's for your tasting. But we did have some people mention that those glasses don't fit well in the lanyard. Buffalo Trace is going to, I'm like, you know what I need is a sponsor that's going to foot the bill for tasting glasses that are Glen Caron specifically for the special access to fit the lanyards properly. So Buffalo Trace is going to do that. Oh, fantastic. I know. So they are the ones who sponsored the lanyards last year. And so they're going to supply enough of those glasses to do the special access for at least three years, which is awesome.

That is awesome. Good deal. Awesome.

So I'm excited about that. No more broken glasses. I'm like, all of the issues, I'm just checking them off. I've got them figured out so far.

Got it down to a science. Diane, I think, is there anything else? What about Sunday? Sunday?

Nothing on Sunday, but we had the... The concert afterwards, sorry? Afterwards, yeah. We've got the Hauser Tavern after party, the Zack Attack. They're a pretty fun band. They really get down on the ground and dance around. But boy, Creekwater, they've got quite a fan club.

Nice. New location work a little better, you think?

This is the... Second or third year we've been on this location. Yeah, it's the second time. Yeah. And this is definitely the right location. So yeah, that turned out good. Still surprised me. I had some comments that people didn't know about the after party, which, you know, if you don't read the emails.

You have to walk right by it when you exit it. I mean, how do you miss it?

There's music blaring.

How did you miss it?

Yeah, it was good. Musicians were good. I'm trying to think of anything else that came up. Oh, have we talked about the odor from the sewer tower in the past? I know I have. People think it's the porta potties, but there's a sewer tower.

I remember that from a couple years ago.

When there's a drought beforehand, it can be bad. And then last year, the sewer company, not company, They treated it. And so instead of smelling like sewerie, it smelled like more like a porta potty. And so people complained about the porta potty smell. But with it raining on Friday night, that's another thing that was just kind of a gift, is it didn't create that problem. This is the first year we didn't get any complaints about that. Good deal. So yay. It was a great year.

Yeah. Porta Potty's water and seating, right?

Yeah.

Those have been sort of past issues.

Well, I mean, I think water, especially in the years past where it's been so hot, like we have a ton of water available.

I was going to say, people said there's so much water to drink, it's awesome.

Right.

Because that was a gripe about KBF, no offense, but they were like, it's hard to find water.

And they definitely don't have anywhere to sit down except if you go to watch one of the speakers or speakers or something. Yeah.

Well, we have water monsters and we've got the water trailer. So you're not gonna run out of water, but you may, the key is to hang on to your water bottle that we give you so you can refill it. I think we ran out of water bottles at about 530. So it was, if you really needed one, you could just grab a recycling bin and fill it. Or put it in your tasting glass. There was still plenty of water flowing. So meeting with Highbridge Springs. they would like us to incorporate like a reusable aluminum water bottle of some sort possibly next year. We'll see. That sounds expensive.

So people who have been to Bourbon on the banks and have purchased tickets in the past will get an email. letting them know that... And those who subscribe. And those who subscribe. But those who haven't been, maybe listening to this show and said, well, I haven't been, but maybe next year is the year. When do tickets go on sale?

So the last two years, they've gone on sale on March 17th, which is St. Patrick's Day. And I hate to give that date because you just don't know if we decide to change. So if you follow us on social media, if you subscribe, which you can go to the website and just subscribe, you'll know in advance. You will not be surprised.

If you listen to our podcast, you'll know as well.

If you listen to the podcast, they get me on hearing.

I'm trying to remember when the... The last time was it was right as tickets were coming out. We had the show, I think episode four. That was May. Yeah.

We were, we were sold out.

That's right. You already sold out. That's right. So we'll do better this time. St. Patty's day. Put it in your calendars. Go on the website and subscribe. That way you get that email and you know, and yeah.

Yeah.

Because you don't want to miss it. You don't want to miss it. You definitely do not want to miss it. There's not enough tickets to go around, unfortunately.

And we are not, we are not changing our numbers from last year. Last year we had 2,900. Eric said, I like the sounds of 3,000 more. And I said, I don't want another hundred people in there. This is, we need to stick with what we're at.

A river has two banks.

Well, and there is that railroad bridge that we could, you know, send them across.

You got to have a ferry going across or something. Stand by me. Get one of those barrel trains. That doesn't sound like a hot mess.

Can you imagine? Kentucky River tours, just taking people back and forth.

Life jacket on. Yeah.

Like 60 people at a time.

But hey, tip of the hat. I mean, you do a great job. Get some help. Someday you should like throw it in somebody else's hand just so you could enjoy it yourself one time.

I walked through the event this year. I did not. It's been years since I was back there, but I really felt strongly that I needed to know what it felt like with that number. I wanted to see if it was crowded and it was. There was a lot of people, but I never had to wait. I was able to walk straight through and straight back. I think that's a good number.

Agreed. Well, Diane, thank you for what you do. Thank you for spearheading this every year. I know you've got a great team of volunteers and people that help. that make it happen, but it takes a leader and you're that leader and it sure does work and gets better every year. Not a lot of events can claim that they get better every year. Sometimes they sag in the middle just a little bit.

I feel very fortunate that we have and we're fortunate to have people like you guys to help us spread the word and have people enjoy it enough to tell their friends and it's the most genuine form of marketing as far as I'm concerned.

Well, we're definitely going to have you on again. Like Todd said, I don't know how many it is now. We can go back and figure it out, but it's an awful lot. You're a regular. Get that singing voice ready.

We're going to come up with something really fun.

Have a little practice. All right. Two great whiskeys on the show today. Those bottles are... Maybe, maybe. The Jeptha might be there at Jeptha Cree.

There's always that possibility. I'm not sure about the Boondocks. I don't know.

Well, if they don't have that one, they'll have another one. Yeah. Yeah, definitely check out the distilleries that were previewed, or previewed, that were elevated to single barrel picks this year, because they were all excellent and really, really good.

I'd also add, like I said, I popped on YouTube just to see if you're wanting to know a little more about it. And those are video podcasts. They're walking through, talking to random people. Gives you an idea what to expect.

On our website, there is a video right on the front page if you scroll down. I think it's the front page or the festival page. And it's so you think you might want to go to Bourbon on the Banks. And it's a really good video. Bo went through in 2025 and interviewed people to talk about what they like about it and what makes it different and why they come. It was really good.

Awesome.

Gives you an idea of what it's like.

Well, again, thank you, Diane, and we look forward to having you on the show again real soon.

Thanks for having me.

Our pleasure. All right, well, you can find the Bourbon Road at thebourbonroad.com. It's kind of your bourbon home, away from home, I should say. We've set up the Bourbon Roadie Bar on there for everybody. You can make your account, come in, hang out with all the other roadies, chit chat, share stories, pictures, talk about tastings. Todd's always giving something fun away. You got another one on right now? Yeah, just dropped one of our Castle & Keep single barrel picks that we did for here.

Oh, fantastic.

So Todd runs a randomizer on there, folks. You come on, you join, you become a bourbon roadie, you get your ID card, you get your personal tasting journal that you can keep online and you can share those tastings with other people. We've got a chat and we've got a posting, very similar to Facebook, but it's our place. The reason we did this, to be honest with you, is not everybody has a Facebook account these days. About half of our listeners don't even use Facebook, so we needed a way to make this happen. So this is for everybody. We hope you come and join. We'd love to have you there. We've even got a Bartender in there that'll chat with you if nobody else is around. Cooper, he's a great guy. But yeah, definitely check it out. We would appreciate it if you come in and introduce yourself and just become another roadie. It's lots of fun. Todd and I do an episode every single week on Wednesdays. We get together. Sometimes we get a guest like Diana on talking about something great like bourbon on the bank. Sometimes it's just a few pours and Winner, winner, chicken dinner. We like to compare what we're having on the show and pick a winner. We didn't do that today, but we usually do, it seems like. Yeah, a lot of samples coming in. A lot of samples coming in. So if you're looking for something else to add to your bar, something else to try at a bar, the Burn Road is a great place to go. And everything we taste on this show, gets a review on the website, and those reviews are both written and vocal. So if you go to one of our reviews, you can see how we rank that particular whiskey, and you can click a little button that says listen to the review, and it will play just that excerpt from the show, letting you know what we talked about. So lots of fun. We hope you listen to us every week when we put out an episode. The best way not to miss it is scroll to the top of that app here on hit that subscribe button. That way you get that notification and you can join us for another hour of fun, drinking whiskey, chit chat and laugh and having a great time. We hope you'll join us every single week, but in the meantime, we'll see you down the bourbon road.

Where the good times roll Passing bottles like a piece of soul Every pore's a memory, every sip a spark Lighten up the night in the Kentucky dark Yeah, we laugh too loud, let the worries go Find a little truth in the afterglow Ain't no man, just a ties-leaf song On the long winding bourbon 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