59. East Meets West - Bourbon Road Whiskey Shootout

Is that why they got the mixture of an antelope and a jackrabbit on there? I would say that probably has a little something to do with it. That's a real animal too, a jackalope.

Well, they say that there's herds of them out west. They're hard to catch.

I don't know if you ever chase one down. They're hard to catch.

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts, Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Log Heads Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Find out more about their fine rustic furniture at logheadshomecenter.com. Hello everybody, I'm Jim Shannon.

I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is the Bourbon Road. And Mike, where are we today? Damn, you'd think by this weather we're getting this damn Alaska, but we're here in Kentucky for sure.

It's cold, isn't it? It might even have snow flurries tonight. I know. Well, this is supposed to be like the second coldest day late in the year of all time.

I know. They always say don't put your garden out until after Derby day, right?

Yeah.

So May 4th is the day, I guess, the cutoff day. And I'm out there putting hoops around my garden and putting plastic over them, trying to keep them from killing my garden off. Because I already put it out. It didn't happen, but Derby days over with. So, you know, we're here in Kentucky and it's going to freeze tonight and all my plants are going to die.

No, it'll be all right. I think it'll be all right, Mike. Well, I know most people have put away their, uh, put away their rise by now, right?

Yeah. But you knew it was going to be cold tonight. So you needed, you know, big chief needed to be warmed up. So what'd you bring?

So I tell you what, I brought three high west bottles tonight, three high west bottles. So we're going to talk about, well, actually the first half, Mike, I think we're going to talk about what you brought. But for the second half, we're going to do some high west. Some high west, mostly rye, rye bourbons or rye whiskey.

They're all going to have some rye in them because that's my jam. That's your jam. Well, that'll get you that old Kentucky hug going, right? Yep. So I did. Me and you had talked about some bourbons this week, and for people that don't know, me and Jim almost have a set time every day to talk to each other. It's usually about 4, 4.30 in the afternoon. I'll give you a call or you call me and we'll talk about the bourbon road or talk about our Instagram, talk about our Facebook, talk about all kinds of stuff. But we had a discussion about some bourbon and I was surprised about what you said, Jim. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to sneak one in on him and see what I can do here. So I got two bourbons and they're in sample bottles and I put number one and number two and I know what's in the bottles. And I wanted to see what you thought about these two bourbons and how close they are to each other. And then after we taste them and you tell me about each bourbon, then I'll reveal to you the two bourbons and the backstory behind these two bourbons in that story.

Well, I'm not worried about this. Because first of all, I'm a bourbon bullshitter, so I really don't know what I'm doing anyway. And second of all, the blind makes everybody look like a fool. So I'm not going to feel special in any way.

Once you drink it and I tell you, you're going to be like, God dang it. I can't believe I said that. Cause I was shocked that you said it. I was like, Hmm. Challenge accepted. Alright, so this first one, and you looked at both of these sample bottles before, they're in the same type of bottle, right?

Yeah, so these are little, what, two ounce, I don't know what they call them, like everybody uses to send samples around each other. And one of them is labeled number one. The other one is labeled number two. It's in clear glass. And when you hold them up next to each other, you cannot tell any difference at all. Same color, same everything.

Yeah. Yeah. And they're, I will tell you this. I'll give you this hint. They are from both from the same distillery. Okay.

Sorry.

Cheers. Cheers. What are you getting on that nose?

Definitely getting a little bit of caramel, a little bit of oak and leather, but not too much leather and like mostly like the oak. Not real sweet, a little more earthy. There's a little bit of fruit in there, but it's kind of subdued. I wouldn't call it a real fruity nose. Now I wouldn't expect that out of this. Let's go ahead and taste it. All right. It's got a little bit of malt in it.

A little bit of pepper on that back end. So I'd say that's a rye bourbon. What do you think?

I don't know. I can't tell if that's rye spice or barrel spice on it. Not a bad bourbon for what it is.

What do you think?

I mean, It's okay. It's, it wouldn't be like at the top of my list, but I think it's, um, it's got a little bit of, uh, it's got a little bit of bitterness on the back end. What do you think?

I don't know that second.

I mean, you know what it is. What do you think?

A second sip is a little bit big. I would say this is a good mix in bourbon right here. Um, all day long, but, um, it's a little spicy for me, but I know what it is. So I don't want to tell you too much. Um, Yeah. So you sat there and enjoy that. So we did do a giveaway the last couple of weeks and I think it did really good. It was our first giveaway. We had some people from our Roadies group that won. We had Jeremy Holloman, Frank Tattoo, and Christine Albro. She's a bourbon chick. She has these amazing photos on Instagram and she won a bottle. So we did, and I started thinking about, we gave away three Heaven Heel products. We did. And Heaven Hill hasn't had us out there as guests.

Well, we've had Heaven Hill on before. Yeah. But they haven't had us out to the distillery.

Yeah, I think it's about time. Once this is all over with, we can get out there and hopefully do a couple interviews out there at Heaven Hill. But we gave away three Heaven Hill products. We gave away the Henry McKenna 10 year, which is not so easy to find. You got to almost be there when it goes on the shelf and it just disappears. The Elijah Craig barrel proof that everybody loves. I think that's AC What does AC 110?

Is that well, no, I mean it would be a 118 or a 120 or a 119 Normally, it's normally it's the a is the first release of the year Normally, it's followed by a one which would be January the first month And then the year, like 20 or 19. So is it an A120? I think it is. Okay.

So an A120 would be this year's first release, January release of Elijah Craig Barrow proof. And then you went into your stock stock warehouse. You got in your basement of bourbon and pulled out a bottle of a heaven hill bottled bond six year. That's been discontinued. You can't find it anywhere anymore. People covet those things. I mean, you just so happen to have a couple bottles. Yeah, just a few. Tucked away. And I think that's a great giveaway. Each person gets a glass with that and we had a great response to it. I think we had right over 1200 comments on our Instagram page. That's pretty dang good.

Oh yeah. Well, I just love seeing the excitement. I love seeing the excitement. People get excited over giveaways. It kind of raises the energy in the room a little bit, right? And people get kind of, it's competitive. Trust me, it does.

Some people went on there and put like 50 entries into stuff. And I had fun learning about how to do a giveaway. I'd never did one before. I usually don't try to enter into them too much. But I'm excited for the next one. I think our next one, I haven't talked to you about this yet, but I would like to do a barrel head giveaway with a bottle. Oh, okay. There you go. For one person. So a bourbon row barrel head. Yeah. What do you think? You think that'd be a pretty nice gift?

Yeah. We haven't done a barrel head before. We've done a serving tray made out of a barrel head.

And that was not a giveaway, but that was for a prize. Yeah. And then we've, we did a prize that I actually won at a bourbon. Uh, we did that bourbon blind over New Year's Eve and I won that one. So what's your thoughts on that, that bourbon right there?

Okay. So, um, yeah, this would not be something that I would reach for on a daily basis in my opinion. Um, I think it's a little bit, um, one note, Um, it's got a little bit of a bitter note on the backend, uh, right up front, not too bad. I mean, a little bit soft up front. Um, I think that, uh, I don't know, I don't know. This would not be, uh, this would not be something that I would call my daily jam.

So what would you call it? Would you call it share with friends or something, a sipper, or would you say, Hey, I'd make some Kentucky meal out of this or make an old fashioned or.

Yeah, if somebody poured it for me, I would drink it. I would probably say it'd be better as a mixer.

Yeah, I think so too.

Um, but yeah, I wonder if the second bottle number two here, I'm going to go ahead and pour this.

All right. You better, you better get that sip down there, Jim. All right. You know how I do it, everybody. I just, I like to take and just drink the whole glass.

Well, how about Haley the other day when you said we're moving on to the next bottle, she still had like a two ounces in her Glencairn. She's turned it up. She did turn it, but she's a lot younger than we are though.

That's true. She don't have that old raspy voice yet from drinking bourbon. So like I said, both of these are from the same distillery. That's a well-respected distillery. And I know you've been to this distillery before and did a barrel pick. So.

You've been a, how many barrel picks have you done? I don't know. It's not a lot. I mean, I haven't done a huge number of them, but I don't, I don't remember how many.

So we're trying to work on our barrel pick right now, our first one and trying to decide. And it's hard to decide to which distillery to go with. And there's a lot to put together.

Well, let's just say this much. Each of the distilleries that we've considered for our first barrel pick, they all make great stuff. Sure. They're all good. But we have to consider when you pick a barrel and you commit to a barrel, you need to make sure that the people that are in it with you are perfectly happy with what they receive, right? Yeah. You want to make sure you do a good pick, you get a good barrel, that the proof is there for the time of year, that you're going to actually get the bottles, that everything is just right. You don't want that first pick to be less than perfect.

I'm, I'm almost thinking I have in my mind kind of what I'd almost want to do a finished bourbon that's been finished off in a rum barrel since we're both sailors.

Yeah.

And I think that would be a pretty dang good pick for us, but not everybody's into the whole finished bourbon thing. They better get into it. We had, it seems like we had enough interest. We had about 68 people on our, uh, Facebook roadies group that said they would want a bottle and I'm sure we have more than that that would want a bottle. Some people might want two or three. Yeah.

And we've had some, uh, user groups, some, some, you know, bourbon groups reach out to us and say they want, they want bottles too.

Yeah. And if that, if that you're talking about 200 bottles of bourbon, me and Jim cannot bring 200 bottles of bourbon, a hundred bottles each home with us. We really could. We'd both be in trouble, Jim. I know for a fact. I'm pretty sure you'd get murdered before I would. Um, cause I can outrun Vivian.

I cannot outrun melody. There was no way. At least I think I can outrun her. All right, Mike on the nose. Number two here. So this is number two. Yes. Number two. Um, I'm liking number two a little bit more. All right. The number two has got a little more depth to the nose. I'm picking up a little bit of baking spice on it. But there's some ethanol there. Yeah. A little sweeter. There's more body to it. Um, this overall, in my opinion, is a better whiskey than the first one. Maybe a little more age on it. This might be, uh, are they both the same proof?

No, one's actually that first one is a lower proof. Uh, one's like 90 and the other one's 95.

Okay. So yeah, there's a little bit of difference there on that. This one's got a little bit of ethanol in the nose, a little bit more than the other one did.

Surprising amount of spice on that back end though, I think.

Yeah, this one's got a little more body to it. Um, you know, it, it treats my palate a little bit, a little bit better than the other one did. Again, I don't know that this is. I don't know. It's not bad. I mean, I was sitting here saying, I'm not sure this would be something that I would want to sip on on a daily basis, but it's actually a little bit better than the other one. And it's pretty good. Number two, I would probably say could pass as a sipper. Whereas the other one is more of a more of a mixer. All right, go ahead and do drum roll.

Drum roll.

So now you're going to make me look like a bourbon bullshitter.

Well, we are. We are bourbon bullshitters. We're not experts. We don't pretend to be experts. We're just two guys sitting in my front room right now, just shooting the shit. So these are both Barton products. One is a 1792 single barrel. That's number two. And the first one is actually that flat boat. I've had Flat Boat before. And so Flat Boat, you had said, man, I don't know, man, I don't know about that one. And I was like, man, I looked it up and it's like, it came from Barton. The difference is, I think, is a single barrel is right around eight or nine years old. And that Flat Boat's a four year old bourbon. Yeah. So if that Flat Boat stayed in the barrel for another, let's say four years, would it taste the same? And then they had the same color though. You know, and they did the same deal. And I still think that flat boat for what it is, it's, it's Barton's $25 bottle. Yeah. You know, what else comes from there?

Like old, I should've got old Barton or something. I mean, there's no substitute Mike for a little bit more age. So like on the first one, you said, uh, you said that was flat boat. Right. And that one, it was a little thin up front. It had a little bit better on the finish. It was kind of one note. It didn't really have that depth and body. It didn't like tell you any kind of a story. It was just kind of a one note thin, you know, great mixer. I'm sure that I'm sure Flat Boat is wonderful. in, uh, in a high ball is probably great, you know, in a mixed drink. But for me, some L a one in there, not a, not, not a sipper for me.

Yeah. I don't, I don't think it is either Becky Breshear. She's one of our roadies and she had bought a bottle of it and ask about it. And I just thought it'd be cool to get that. And I could kind of see in my mind, um, that bourbon being on a flat boat and being taken down to Orleans, not that old of a bourbon and it's on a flat boat and leaving there and stuff. So what's a flat boat?

Educate me.

Educate you. Educate me. Educate you and stuff. So back in like 1790, a guy named Yoder up in Pennsylvania, he built the first flat boat. And obviously the Amish, they're very good at building stuff. So it was actually 1781, his name is Jacob Yoder. And he built his first flat boat at the old Redstone Fort there on the Manga Hela River.

Well, Monongahale, that's Pennsylvania. That is Pennsylvania.

Okay. It's kind of up there in the hills too. Yeah. Um, so around then it costs about $75 to construct a flat boat and they could loan load up about 3000 pounds on those flat boats. They're 20 foot by 40 foot wide or 20 foot wide by 40 foot long. It take about two to three people to take it down a river. They, they take it all the way down to the Mississippi and then take it down to new Orleans. Um,

So they have a gunnel or were they just like a raft?

It's just like a big raft. If it would have had a keel, it would have been called a keel boat. And that's what Lewis and Clark went on and stuff. But back then they were loading up whiskey and they were taking it down the river and they would trade that whiskey along the way. just kind of barter with it and sell other stuff. Chickens, grain, taking their crops along. Abraham Lincoln actually did two of those trips. In 1828 and 1831, he took those trips. His first one was at 19 years old. He left out of Indiana. Um, right near a place called horseshoe been in the Ohio river, really beautiful scenic place on the Ohio big cliffs and stuff. He left from there and he actually held some whiskey down on his boat too.

They don't know how much or, but I think I've always heard that Abraham Lincoln, you know, there's a lot of evidence that he, um, He sold or bought whiskey, but not so much evidence that he ever drank it.

Yeah. I don't, I don't know if he was drinking it and he was actually just a kid working for another farmer and taking their family goods down in New Orleans to sell. And it would usually take two to three weeks or sometimes up to three months to get all the way back depending on where they're going. So that's something pretty cool. Back then, a person would drink 5.8 gallons of whiskey or spirits a year. Now, when was this? That was in 1790. That's how much a person...

So that's 5.8. And we've heard other numbers thrown around, right? By 1830, it was up to 7.1.

Yeah. And one of the reasons for that was because people didn't trust the water or make them sick. Well, if you've distilled a spirit, you could trust that stuff. So that was one of the reasons. Today, which surprised me, is down to 2.5, and that's from the World Health Organization.

You know, I've watched something. I'm trying to remember. I've watched a couple of whiskey historical whiskey shows and they've talked about in the late 1800s up leading up to prohibition but in the late 1800s at the heyday you know 1890 about the time um eh taylor you know was doing his thing that was up to 18 gallons a year for a male 15 years and older yeah i don't i think the numbers i put out there is pretty 7.1 gallon seems that's that seems right to me but

the average age of a person back then was a lot younger. You know, a man was considered 15 or 16 up to, you know, 45 or 50. Um, so that's, and a woman was 12, right? Well, I don't know. I don't know.

I don't want to get into the controversy.

Yeah. Uh, so yeah, that's some cool stuff about that flat boat, you know, bourbon and that kind of, I've heard people talk about Dusty's and stuff, and I just kind of wondered in my mind, what did that bourbon taste like that Elijah Craig first made or W.L. Weller made when he first started making it? Those guys first started making bourbon. Um, what did it taste like? Did it taste as good as today's stuff? And we've, we've talked about that in the past. Yeah. What kind of whiskey were they drinking and stuff? I went so far as looking up Lewis and Clark and seeing how much whiskey they took on. Now they didn't take on whiskey until they got all the way to a St. Louis and they took on 120 gallons and they didn't last them that long. Um, and they were drinking a dram. was actually two thimbles full was what a dram is.

Is that what a dram is?

Can you imagine a thimble? That's what you get as a little, I'll give you two thimbles of whiskey Jim.

And then went through 120 gallons of thimbles.

Yeah. Some nights they would get more than that, but They didn't get whiskey until then. I think they drink brandy or it is called sweet wine on their trip from Pennsylvania down to over, down to Ohio and, and back up to Mississippi when they got to St. Louis. And I forgot what that camp there they called outside of St. Louis. And really people always think that Lewis and Clark expedition was the Ohio and the Mississippi river. We already knew about the Ohio river in the Mississippi, but we didn't know. was the Missouri River. And that was really what they were trying to find. If there was a way to go all the way to the Pacific Ocean, if the Missouri River went all the way to Pacific and it doesn't. But once you get up there in the headwaters, there's another river that goes down. There's something called the continental divide. Yeah. Hard to build a canal across that. That's right.

Well, Mike, I'll tell you what the, I think in general, you know, the, the 1792 of the Barton, I kind of like it at a hundred proof and above, below. What's it, you say this was 94? I think it's 95.5 as a single barrel. Yeah. I love their bottled and bond. I mean, I like their 125 proof too. It's a little hot, but you can get some good bottles of that on picks.

I couldn't, whatever I did this, I poured the bottles before he came over and I was like, I'm looking at all the bottles and there's no way the full proof would even come close. Right. It's so much darker and richer than the other two. And a single barrel was as close as I could get to it. And I have four or five bottles of, of Barton 1792, and that's not one of my jams. I just have them up there for other people to drink. I do have those sweetweed up there.

Do you own any of the very old Barton, the bottle and bond? No, I don't have one. I should have got one of those.

That might be kind of close. 100 proof though, right? Yeah, I think they have it. Isn't there an old Barton that's like 80 or 90 proof?

Yeah, there's a very old Barton I don't know what you call it, standard. And then you have the bottle and bond as well. So there's, you know, the different, I don't, I don't remember what the, but the Vario Barton's standard release, the proof is on, it's probably 90 or 80 or something like that.

Hmm.

Yeah. I was looking back through my notes and stuff. Oh, uh, Lewis and Clark, that, that whiskey barely lasted them a year, that 120 gallons, which think about that. That's really two barrels of bourbon.

Yeah.

A little bit more than that, but that, that is crazy. And they didn't have that many guys, but they were given thimble fools.

Right.

I don't know how. I mean, I got a big thumb. If you imagine my thumb, that's like a, that's like a giant thimble. That's like, oh, see you right there, poor man.

So Mike, so what was your, you were, you were, you were wanting, you heard me say something and you wanted to find out how this tasting went based on what I said.

You're like, what did I say? Cause me and you were talking about, I was like, Hey man, I think I'm gonna pick a bottle of that up so we can drink it. Oh, try it out. You were like, I don't know about that, man. I don't know. I've tasted it before. It's not that good. And I was like, well, I might see if I can catch him.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it's not bad whiskey by any means. I don't know that I've ever drank. Well, I've probably had a bad whiskey, but one doesn't come to mind. But I've had ones like, like that flat boat where I was like, you know, this is not a sipper. This is not a sipping whiskey.

I'm kind of keen on that is, people, you know, somebody said the other day to me, that's garbage. That's a drain pour. And we talked about that in the last episode, the episode before that, where people saying they're going to drain pour something. And I'm like, why would you do that? Why don't you just mix it? Mix it with something.

Look, if we were on the ship and it went down on a deserted Island and three cases of flat boat, float it up on shore. You're going to drink the hell out of it. We're going to drink it every day. Just chop a coconut up and make some coconut juice.

Absolutely.

And bourbon. Yeah. I mean, it's not my, it wouldn't be what I'd go to, but I'm not going to turn it down. And I think it's, it's respectable. Look, somebody has to make mixing whiskeys because it's too important. It's too important because not everybody drinks their bourbon straight. In fact, a lot of people don't drink their bourbon straight.

I get people tell me that all the time. I can't believe I see you pictures of big glasses of whiskey and how are you drinking that stuff straight? And I'm like, Hey, we're, but we are bourbon boosters, but we're probably at a different level than most people are at their whiskey experience where we just like it neat, no icing and no nothing. We're just, you know, to me that's good. I'm not saying the middle of summer when it's a hundred degrees outside, I'm going to be drinking neat whiskey though. I'm probably going to be having a Kentucky meal or something. Yeah. Or for breakfast a bourbon mimosas.

All right. So in the first half you brought Barton.

Yeah. The second half I'm bringing High West. Let's do it.

We'll get to the High West when we get back. What do you think? Let's do it. All right. Take a break. And when we come back, we'll visit High West. We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Loghead's Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Loghead's Home Center, nestled in the hills of Kentucky, is an industry leader in building handcrafted rustic furniture. Family-owned and operated, they take pride in offering only the very best for their customers. The Logheads, and that's what they like to call themselves, are skilled woodcrafters who are passionate about creating rustic furniture for people who appreciate the beauty of natural wood. Owners Tommy and Gwen don't just sell the rustic lifestyle, they live it. And you can be sure that Loghead's furniture will always be handcrafted in Kentucky by artisans who embrace the simple way of life. Loghead's rustic furniture is made from northern white cedar, a sustainable wood that's naturally rotten termite resistant. Its beauty and quality will add warmth to your earthy lifestyle for generations to come. Be sure to check out everything they have to offer at LogHeadsHomeCenter.com and while you're at it, give Tommy and Gwen a shout on Facebook or Instagram at LogHeadsHomeCenter. All right, Mike, we're back and I want to take you on a journey west of the Mississippi. This is pretty far west from Mississippi.

We're going to Park City, Utah. What do you think? Oh man, I've been there. That's a good town, man.

I guarantee you the majority of our listeners are familiar with High West.

What do you think? I think so. Very distinctive bottle. The bottle is that harkens back to the days when blown glass could be perfect. It's got those kind of bubbles in the glass. Um, very beautiful bottle, different cork on top. Um, they're labeling. I like it. Yeah. You know, I could see John Wayne.

It's kind of, it's kind of in those wild west letters, right? Like you see on a wanted poster.

Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. Except for the midnight winters trail.

That's a different story.

And we'll talk about that when we get to it.

But what we're drinking right now is that burr eye. So in our glass right now for the first drink is the High West Boo Rye. Boo Rye. And so Boo Rye, B-O-U-R-Y-E is a mixture of bourbon and rye.

Is that why they got the mixture of a antelope and a jackrabbit on there? I would say that probably has a little something to do with it. That's a real animal too, a jackalope.

Well, they say that there's herds of them out west. They're hard to catch.

I don't know if you ever chase one down, they're hard to catch.

So this is a blend of straight whiskies. It's a blend of, uh, both bourbon and rye whiskies and, uh, it, and it's aged a minimum of 10 years. Let me think about that.

That's a, that's a good year for a bourbon, you know, Jimmy Russell would approve of that, wouldn't he?

I would say so. Yeah. So this is, uh, this is a well-aged bourbon and rye mixture and, uh, they call it boo rye and, uh, yeah, let's, let's check it out. That's got a little bit of a sweet nose on it. A little bit. That was my second drink of it.

And it's, uh, it's got spice on it, but there's something there.

Yeah.

You ever stuck your tongue on the end of a battery? Oh, it's not fun. It's, uh, it's got that acidy taste to me, to it, I guess.

It does a little bit now. What is that? Well, there's more than one release of this. And I will tell you this much. This particular release of the Burai is not my favorite. So they had another release and you know, I don't know how to tell them apart. I guess they got batch numbers on the front, but there's one that has like a smaller version of the Jackalope Rabbit on it. Not as big as this one. And I enjoyed that a little bit more than this one.

Tastes like it's got cactus needles in it. I'm going to say that as a, you were right, a prickly pear, uh, before and it's, it's got that, I don't know what fruit I'm looking at that, you know, that prickly pear cactus fruit, it's not bitter, but it's, it dusting your tongue a little bit.

Yeah. So there, this has got a little bit of, there's some tannins coming through on it. I think maybe a little bit of little drying citrus there. Maybe that's what I'm getting a citrus. Yeah. I don't know. It, it's a little sandpapery on the tongue. I don't know. Does that make sense?

Yeah. Like sticking a cactus on your tongue. I've never stuck a cactus on my tongue, but yeah, it's a, it's a little different. So not, not, uh, not great. They're mixing their bourbon in their rye though.

What's the, what's the mix there? Let's see what we can find out here. See what they talk about. I don't think they're releasing the actual amounts.

So Park City was the home of the 2002 Olympics, if people don't know. Very beautiful up there. There's a bunch of houses up there that are built in for the hobbits. Lord of the Rings series. There's a couple of houses up there that are built like that. Look, just, just amazing looking houses and the town there is very, very small. I think they got two or three ski resorts right there. And, uh, they also have the Sundance film festival there.

I'm going to read the sensory notes to you. Are you ready? Let's hear it. All right. So here's the sensory notes as published by high west distillery for the nose. We've got brown butter caramel, vanilla cola, grilled pineapple. I could get that a little bit. I think I get a little bit of pineapple in it. No doubt. Boysenberry jam. What the hell is a boysenberry? I don't know, but I think about that. When I think of boysenberry, I think about, uh, that berry syrup that goes on your pancakes. You know what I mean?

I've never had a boysenberry. I don't even know what it is.

Somebody, somebody could tell us. Sage violets in wet weather. Violets in wet weather.

I don't get none of those tasting notes. I don't know who's picking this.

Yeah, I get, I get the pineapple. No doubt about it. I get, I get a little bit of the caramel. Brown butter, caramel. I don't know. Caramel pineapple. I get that. It's a little bit, uh, drying a little bit of sandpaper on the tongue.

I'll tell you, they damn sure didn't have Clint Eastwood, uh, write their tasting notes for that.

All right. So that was the nose and I'm sitting here talking about the palette, but let's move on to the tasting notes. Are you ready? Masala chai. What's that? Indian is masala, right? Chai is that chai tea, like chai latte. A little bit sweet, spicy kind of. All right. Just old country boy from Texas. I don't know about that.

Cinnamon candy. I get that a little bit.

You get a little bit of cinnamon bears in that. I get a little bit of cinnamon bear. Yeah, I don't know. Butterscotch. No, I don't get any butterscotch. Orange chocolate. You did get some citrus. Gingerbread.

Yeah, maybe a little ginger cookie.

Yeah. Here you go, wallets doused in dark caramel. I damn sure don't get that. I don't get that. All right. So, Mike, what do you think about the Boo Rye?

I'm glad that you got a bottle and I didn't get a bottle. I'm glad I saved my money on that one. I'll probably mix that, but I don't know how much that bottle cost. 70, 80 bucks. Yeah. Usually most of these are around $70 or so. Yeah. That is definitely not one of my favorites of all time.

Yeah. So I've had the, you remember the big, you ever had the big level? What'd you think about that one? You know, that's a little bit different. Yeah, wasn't my jam.

Yeah, it's got a lot of malt in it.

Yeah. I will tell you this much. There is another buri, like I mentioned earlier, that has a smaller picture of the rabbit on the front. It's a different batch. It's much better. That's a jackalope. Jackalope. I'm sorry. Jackalope. Jackalope. Jackalope. You'll know if you catch one. Yeah. You'll damn sure know. He'll ram you, right? Horn you or whatever. Yeah. All right. All right. Well, you know, we've got two more, Mike. Well, let's do it. So what's the next one we're drinking here, Jim? So the next one we're drinking is the High West Double Rye. The Double Rye.

Double rye. It's like, is a double rye doesn't mean it's been barreled twice? Double rye means it's a blend of two ryes. So two ryes, it's a, it's not double like a doubled bourbon.

No, no. So this, this, let me, let me tell you a little bit about it. So the double rye from high west is a blend of two ryes. The first rye is a, and then we'll tell you how much of each, but basically it's a blend of a 95, five rye from MGP. And it's blended with their own 80-20 rye from high west. So it's an 80% rye, 20% malted rye. So there's a little bit of malted rye in that, but I don't know the percentage of each that's in there.

So let me go reflect a little bit before we get into this, this double. Reflect or deflect deflection, deflection. Um, I'd probably call that the white Yocum are out there since it's a mixture, right? The, the bull ride, the bull ride. Yeah. Because you got a little bit of Kentucky, but it's Baker, Baker fields. They met in the middle up there in park city. And I came out with that right there. Yeah. But, So, boo rye is a Dwight Yocum. The Dwight Yocum of whiskey. There you go. With his little bitty cowboy hat and his tight jeans.

But we're not drinking boo rye right now, are we?

Well, we're going to reach onto this double rye, which I keep wrapping my mind around like a double oat, but it's two burps, two ryes.

The idea is that it's, I think the idea here is that, hey, they're making a rye, but they're mixing some of their stuff with some of NGP's stuff, and they're going to call it a double rye because it has two ryes in it. So it's got some 95 5 MGP, which everybody loves. It's good stuff, right? And they're mixed up with some high West 80 20 right? But the high West rye is a mixture of 80% regular rye and then a 20% malted rye. All right. So this is a lot lighter in color though.

And maybe that's right. Right.

Whiskey though is probably a little bit younger. Maybe cause that the blue ride was a tenure product, right? And I'm not sure that this double rye has got an age statement on it.

Now I'm going to tell you right now, just by my nose on this, what do you think I'm going to say?

I think you're going to say, um, mint or whore hound or Dell or something. I'm going to say old Maysville old Maysville. So you're getting the malted rye. Yeah. I get that super malty. Yeah, but there's definitely, um, uh, cedar plank.

Jim went out there and chewed on that, chewed on that cedar stick. Cedar plank, huh?

Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, what this is. This is a, uh, very spicy. They call it a very spicy rye whiskey. It's got a 93 point rating on tasting.com. What's the, what's the proof on it, Mike?

I'm already over here sipping on it, but I've got to do the math. They say it's a $35 bottle.

This is a $35 bottle. According to their info sheet, it's a $35 bottle at suggested retail price. So the proof on is 92. So it's a 92 proof bottle. It is a bit lighter than the Burai and that would be understandable. It's a little bit younger. I think you can, you can pick that up.

Now, I'll tell you what, on the taste, I didn't get a whole lot of spice on it like they were saying, but on the finish, there's a whole lot of spice. It's that spice deep down in your chest.

For me, this is actually pretty decent.

I like this. I kind of figured this would be your jam.

I like this because I'm getting a little bit of the mint and the dill and the and the cedar and a little bit of a pine cone, if you want to call it that. Yeah, I like it. It's very spicy. Let's talk a little bit about their notes. Did you taste it already? What do you think? That's what I was saying.

I'm saying it's spicy. It doesn't have that spice on the front end, but on the back end, deep down in your chest, it's got a different kind of spice warming. I could tell it's a rye. It's definitely not my jam. It's that kind of old Maysville to me. I wonder how much malted, is it malted rye or is it malted barley? Malted rye. Yeah, I can get that. Maybe that's just not my thing. Sometimes some things surprise me, but that's not my jam at all.

Yeah, so this has got a lot of anise in it. It's got a little bit of chocolate. It's kind of a chocolatey anise, kind of licorice, but with chocolate. Do you get that? A little bit of licorice chocolate? Yeah, I don't get that at all.

There's no candy in this to me.

No, there's no candy. Licorice. Wasn't licorice candy? Yeah, I guess licorice is a candy, but licorice without the sugar.

When I think of licorice, I think of black licorice. Like before Twillers ever came out, you know, then you get that black licorice candy your grandfather would have in his candy dish. Grandmother would put out and you'd eat it and you're like, good God, that stuff's nasty. All right.

You ready for the published notes?

Yeah. All right.

Here we go. On the nose. And you're nosing it, Mike. So I'm going to call them out and you tell me what you think. Mint. Yeah, no. Clove. Maybe a little bit of clove. I can get that. Yeah. I think I do too. Cinnamon? A little bit of cinnamon in there, yeah. Liquorice?

Yeah, that. licorice candy that's been sitting on a candy dish for five years and it's hard as a rock. There you go. Yep.

And pine nuts. I don't know. I don't know that I've ever eaten pine. What about pine cones?

I've never eaten a pine cone either. You know that people have eaten pine cones before? Pine cones are a food, I think. Pine nuts are a food. You ever seen a chipmunk or a squirrel grab a pine cone and rip it apart before they fall and eat on it? No. I have all the time. Those suckers, they store them things up. All right. Oh, here you go, Mike. There you go.

Dark chocolate. I got a little dark chocolate, but I got, yeah, but I got dark chocolate mixed with, you know, so and a surprising dose of gin botanicals throughout. I could get that. Yeah.

I do get a little bit of Jenny flavor to it. And you like Jen. I do. I'm not a big Jen. Jen is my other bourbon. That's your other bourbon. Yeah. I think bourbon is my other bourbon. I'm pretty fine. I like Jen. Actually, I've got some single malts lately that I really like. So I'm a venturing out there a little bit.

All right. Here we go for the taste. Rice spices up front. Most definitely. Then menthol and mint, eucalyptus. I don't know what I would go to eucalyptus. I think there's a little bit of mint to it. And herbal tea with a wildflower honey and allspice. Yeah, that's going a little bit far. I like it though. I mean, for me, this is a, this is a tasty dram. I could drink this.

I don't even know what to call this one right here. I'm thinking of a country singer, but I, I might call this the Justin Bieber.

He's not spicy at all.

Maybe the spice girls or something. So I know I say that I would name something a country singer, but this is more Shakira Shakira. That's got some spice to it. Yeah, it does. Shaking up and down. Yeah, Shakira. This has got that Latin spice to it.

I'm with you all the way. This is Shakira. So, boon rye was Dwight Yoakam. The high west double rye is Shakira. And now Mike, next on the plate is?

Well, we got a Midnight, Midwinter Nights dram, which is a play off of of what is a playoff of a Shakespeare Shakespeare. Yeah.

So this is kind of a, this is a little bit more of a sought after release from them.

This is act six scene six, right? Not quite a hundred proof on this bottle right here. It's like a 98.6.

Yeah, so the Midwinter's Night's Dram, MWND, as they call them, is typically a very sought after bottle. Yeah, that's what it sounds like when you pull the cork out of one of these, right? It's tight. Usually a pretty sought after bottle. They are a blend of straight rye whiskies, usually some well chosen whiskies. And they usually score pretty high, pretty high.

Yeah. And you know, I've passed on this bottle several times. And I don't know why, probably because it's a rye whiskey. I'm hard pressed to always pick up a rye whiskey, especially when I can pick up something from right here in Kentucky. Like you were drinking last week, um, from wilderness trail, which was all candy, but then is that thing darker? What? Oh, it's very dark. So yeah.

So the M the mid winter night's tram are typically very well respected. Um, usually, um, uh, older rye whiskies, usually well crafted, well blended. And, uh, and yeah, usually pretty surprising that they are each one named after an act in a scene of, uh, I'll say now it's act six, scene six, six is what we're drinking right now. And, uh, yeah, so let's, let's try it and see what we think.

More pleasing to the nose, the nose on this a lot better for me.

Yeah, these are typically more of a kind of a winter dram, right? Something you would drink in the cold of winter. And we're right back there, aren't we?

Yeah, we got that art of blast coming down here in the Kentucky and stuff. And, um, you know, it was a disappointment was that the Kentucky Derby didn't happen. And that might've been one of the nicest days that they could have had a Kentucky Derby.

I mean, I've, I've stood at the Derby and pouring down rain, freezing weather,

And, uh, well, made the best of it. And that's, that's May in Kentucky. Um, no doubt, you know, late April, early May is it's going to rain in Kentucky for a week's on end. The river is going to flood. You're going to have some mud. Um, can't cut your grass all the time. Um, that's just, that's just life here in Kentucky. Everything's green and beautiful.

So the difference between this and the other two that we have tried is, well, this is a blend of rye whiskies. This is also aged in French oak port barrels. So a little bit different. This is a finished rye.

Really? Yeah. Now I'm going to tell you, I had nosed a little bit and then I went straight, straight for it. And I liked this. Yeah. This is some good juice. Very rich, very, um, I think that whenever, I mean, you were talking about people liking finished whiskeys. Um, I think if you're a red wine drinker, um, you'd probably like finished whiskeys.

So if you like bold cabs and Pinos and You know, those pinot noir. Yeah, like we had dinner over the other night. Yeah, absolutely. Tore all that wine up.

Of course we were social distancing. Social distancing, but we were having dinner. This is to us people. We drank a couple bottles of wine that night.

Not me, you guys drink wine. I drink, what the hell did I drink? I drank mules all night, I think. You definitely drank some mules all night. Just a few. So Mike, I think that this is definitely high on my list of favorites. It's a good one.

You know, if I see another bottle of it, I probably wouldn't pass it up because now that I know what it is, it'd be a good ride for me to have on the shelf. Um, and it's probably a rile a drink from. I like that. It's got that sweetness. That's got some dark chocolate in it. Um, yeah, the chocolate definitely comes through on this one.

Yeah. I'm trying to think what else is in there. I'm trying to think about candy, but I'm getting an, uh, like a nutty flavor to it. Like a real nutty kind of nutty Christmas, deserty kind of like a Christmas. Um, what, what are those cakes called that you get that have rum in them?

The, I don't know.

I know though, the cakes, the, um, fruit that the jellied fruit in a minute. Yeah. What's it called fruit cake fruit cake. Yeah. So this is, this is fruit cake.

Um, but definitely with like, um, or spicy fruits kind of, uh, Vivian makes us, uh, this bread pudding at Christmas time and it's made with, uh, either brandy or rum show or, or whiskey. It's like one of my favorite things that she makes a bourbon cream and pours on top of it. Oh my God. Yeah. All day long.

Yeah. If you were to take a, if you were to take a spice cake and mix it with a fruit cake, that's kind of what I'm getting here. Kind of a fruity spice cake. Yeah, I get that with chocolate in it though. Definitely some chocolate in it. No doubt. Well, you ready to hear the published notes on it? Let's do it. All right. It's always fun to, to, to get your own notes and then go back and look and see what they said. And I have to tell you, Mike, there's no chocolate anywhere in their notes, but it's very prevalent for me. Yeah.

I'm getting, I'm getting some of that dark rich chocolate, almost Baker's chocolate.

Yeah. All right. Here we go. On the nose, cinnamon rhubarb and plum pie.

I've never had a, I've had rhubarb before, but I've never had plum pie nor will I ever have plum pie.

Orange Jaffa cake. I'm trying to think of ever had that before. Have you? No. Is it like a coffee orange cake? Well, let's just say orange. I'm not, I'm not getting any orange in it.

I don't know what Jaffa cake is. Maybe a little bit of that. Uh, you ever had orange jelly? Yeah. Marmalade.

Marmalade. Yeah. Yeah. Get a little bit of that. I'm not getting the orange though. I'm getting the sweetness, but not the star anise. What's star anise? It's a spice. I don't even know what it is. Okay. Cedar box.

Oh my God. Yeah, I could get that. You know, you, you, you ever went to a cedar line closet or a open up a, this is old school right here. Yeah. Or, you know, you didn't, you didn't have a sister, did you? No. Well, my sister's had this hope chest and they were made from cedar chest out of cedar. And, uh, that's what it's kind of like a dowry and you'd fill it with stuff. And whenever they get married off, they, that's their, that's stuff they would have in life. But that smell when you open up that cedar chest.

Yeah. Okay. I buy that. I buy that. And the last note on the nose is toasted, we kind of dates. Dates. I got the nutty flavor, but I, I, I'm not very good at picking out different nuts. I can get that dates on this.

I got some dates. After we're done, we're going to have to take, give them dates and taste it.

All right. Sounds good. All right. On the taste. Here we go. Black cherry reduction. Black cherry reduction. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not getting that. Yeah.

I don't know. I still think this is a great whiskey. Um, was that all the notes on it? No. You ready?

I think a lot of notes. Uh, yeah, they do. Uh, molasses, birch root, fig jam and gingerbread.

I could get that molasses or sorghum. People don't know what molasses or what sorghum is. It's just a rich, almost like a honey, but it's a sorghum made out of... Sorghum is made from...

I mean, it's a sugar plant, right? It's kind of a sorghum grass or whatever they call it. The finish on this is like, goes on forever. I mean, it just keeps going and keeps going. It's a very long finish for me.

He's talking to me saying, Hey, pour, pour some more on me.

Yeah. Um, but you know, it's kind of a, it's kind of a woody finish, I think kind of an oaky finish.

Yeah. I could see that, especially as dark as that is, it's, it sucks smoke out of that, uh, out of that barrel, you know, it's very well put together whiskey.

Yeah. I would have to say that a midwinter's night's dram, act six, scene six is, um, Definitely a buy.

Yeah. This is something mean you can set by the fire on a cold winter's night and just probably.

And coming from the weeded King of Kentucky, I think that's, that's pretty darn good. That's high praise. That's high praise. Yeah. Definitely.

So yeah, that'd be my jam out of them. You know, now I'll search it out. I'd tell you, if you see it on the shelf, I don't know what your pocket book is, but if you, you have the means to buy it and it's in your range, I would don't, pass it up. Definitely get one and I think they're doing good stuff out there.

Yeah. Yeah. I would say if you're, if you're scanning the shelves and you see a boo rye, pass it up. If you see the double rye, it's not, I don't think you're making a big mistake by buying it. I think I'll be the opposite of that. I'd say just skip it. Skip it.

That's me though. That's so big.

So I would probably, I would probably pick it up. I did all you didn't pick it up. I did pick it up. And then the midwinter's night's dram is a bye bye bye all day long. Yeah.

Now the name for that one right there.

Yeah.

I've been sitting here thinking about it and thinking about it. That's Shania Twain all day long. Shania Twain. That is great voice. Great. Just classic, um, sweetness notes and stuff. Shania Twain.

There you go. I think that these, uh, these high West whiskeys, they're all kind of a spicy on the spicy end of the spectrum. Yeah. Right. I think that the Midwinter's Night's Dram is appropriately named. I think it's a great choice for a cold December day or January day.

or evening or may in Kentucky or make Mike, it's been a great time.

I've enjoyed it.

I think, uh, you brought, you brought your game today, tried to trip me up a little bit. I should have, I should have thought about a little bit more and, um, probably did old Barton and I bet you old Barton would have been about the same.

Yeah. I think if you had brought in the, what are, I don't know the proof 80 90 proof old Barton non, uh, Baden-Baden. Yeah. Probably would have been a tough call. You would probably would have known the difference.

I don't know that I would have known the difference. Yeah. If you looked at those two, I just, I just thought I was curious, you know, when I hear people say, Hey, I wouldn't drink that or I don't like that. And, um, they come to find out it's from the same distillery. Make sure you educate yourself on your bourbons and where they're coming from. I'm not saying that about you. Um, cause you knew where Flatbow came from, but make sure you educate yourself on where stuff comes from. Um, because it could come from your same distillery, could be contracted for them. A lot of distilleries contract more than most people know. Um, MGP gets a bad name, but MGP puts out a lot of whiskey. Um, and it's, I wouldn't say it's not in Kentucky, but it's right across the river from Kentucky. I'm not a big fan of the eight and sand though. But it made some good mules. Yeah. Hey, it's, it's good cocktail maker, right? That's right. So, well, Jim, thanks for coming over, man.

I appreciate it. Mike has been a blast. And, uh, I think, uh, hopefully we've put out some information here. People can go out and pick up a couple of bottles and maybe make a good choice. Yeah. And, uh, Yeah. So Mike, why don't you take a minute here and tell everybody how they can find us.

So you can find us on Instagram and on Facebook at the bourbon road. You can send us an email info at the bourbon road.com. Um, you can find me at one big chief and I'm Jake Shannon 63. You can also join our private Facebook group. It's the Bourbon Roadies. Come in there. A lot of distillers in there. A lot of people in the business inside of our group and stuff. You'll find some great people in there and we're starting to do giveaways. We're doing some great things. We'll do some barrel picks and you can only be on those barrel picks by being in that group. That's right.

You need to be part of the team.

Yeah, that group's building. We're right about 450 right now, and it's getting bigger every day. It will be in the thousands. Everybody in there is just putting out great comments and stuff, putting up great photos. I like seeing those every day and stuff, especially from people I know. It's family.

Right? Yeah.

Yeah.

All right. Well, Mike, it's been a pleasure. I've enjoyed the day. You tried to trip me up. I think you did a little bit. I didn't know exactly what we were drinking, but I think I threw out the wild card there. But anyway, hi, West. Thank you guys very much for making some fantastic whiskies. I think you guys are, are killing it. I know in 2016, you guys were a whiskey advocates distiller of the year. Keep doing good stuff. We'd love to have you on the show someday. I think maybe we'll reach out to him. We'll get you on the show and Hey, a lot of good stuff coming out of that park city, Utah. What do you think, Mike? Oh, most definitely. All right, Mike, till the next time. See you on down. We do appreciate all of our listeners, and we'd like to thank you for taking time out of your day to hang out with us here on the Bourbon Road. We hope you enjoyed today's show, and if so, we would appreciate it if you'd subscribe and rate us a 5-star with a review on iTunes. Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, at The Bourbon Road. That way you'll be kept in the loop in all the Bourbon Road happenings. You can also visit our website at thebourbonroad.com to read our blog, listen to the show, or reach out to us directly. We always welcome comments or suggestions. And if you have an idea for a particular guest or topic, be sure to let us know. And again, thanks for hanging out with us.