81. Post Quarantine - Old Fitz 9 year and Rhetoric 25 Year

But the biggest thing she brought me was two gallons of milk and two gallons of milk last me about six days. Um, those things were gone.

Well, I don't know if any of our listeners are old enough to remember or maybe they're on replay. Who knows, but old enough to remember the Beverly hillbillies. There's a son on there, his name was Jethro, and he would drink a gallon of milk and a box of cereal in a big giant bowl for breakfast.

Yeah, but he doesn't make me eat cereal anymore. I don't get cereal anymore at all. He tells me it's bad for me, but I do get to drink skim milk and I still, I don't know, I love milk almost as much as I love bourbon.

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 today, Mike, we are back at Jephthubin Farm.

It's open back. We're open back for business. Back for business. Yeah. It's been a while. It has. We were so, you know, for all of our listeners out there, my wife, Vivian, She's a nurse here in Louisville, Kentucky. She takes care of COVID patients and she got COVID from a patient at work. And so we were quarantined to this farm for 14 days.

Yeah. And she did okay. So everybody out there, Vivian fought the battle. I mean, it was, it was not fun.

It wasn't, well, it wasn't fun for her. I just was home for 14 days with her. The health department said you can't leave and my work said don't come to work. So, you know, what do you do for 14 days on a farm?

So she didn't need to go to the hospital or anything. She just felt really poor, like a really bad flu, right?

Yeah. There was a couple of times where I thought I was going to take her out in the pasture and give her some lead poisoning.

But we didn't get to that point. That's part of quarantine.

I'm sure everybody out there that's been quarantined through this whole ordeal has experienced that to where you can get on each other's nerves a little bit. And the nice thing is that we do live on a farm. We got 10 acres and we could ride our side by side up and down the road and take photos and do other stuff. And you know, we could run our dog around and you know, it's nice. It's like having your own park, I guess.

We're definitely glad to have you guys back and we do appreciate Viv fighting the battle on the front lines with the COVID patients. That's a, you got to love our nurses and doctors that are out there doing that. I mean, you know, somebody's got to do it and you know, they do it with pride.

Yeah. So today was our first day. It was at midnight last night, really. So we were actually up at midnight last night, but we didn't, we didn't leave.

Where do you go at midnight? Yeah, there's, I mean, it's, it's hard to find something to do during the daytime during COVID much less at midnight.

Well, especially in Shelbyville, Kentucky, they didn't roll the street up. So there's nothing to go on.

All right, Mike. So today is not only our first show. Now, you and I are actually at Jephthubin Farm. We're in your living room. We're probably six to eight feet apart. Yeah. But we're recording at the same location post quarantine. And it's kind of a celebration.

Yeah. I mean, Hey, Vivian's not sick. And, um, we got to go out and we actually went out in town today and did some shopping and bought some stuff that we, you know, when you don't get to buy things, you get all excited and like, I got to go shopping. We definitely saved some money. Thank God for Amazon. And, um, the FedEx delivery guy has showed up several times.

Okay. We're going to talk about all the projects you worked on. But right now, Mike, what do we have for the first bourbon today?

So, uh, our great friend, our moderator of the bourbon roadies, Adam Boothby, he actually sent me a bottle of old Fitzgerald cause he said the weeding King of Kentucky can't not have a bottle of Old Fitzgerald.

So it's pretty awesome. I mean, I mean, it's a, it's a, it's kind of a unicorn bottle, right?

It is. And you know, me and you, we could jump right down to a bars town any day, but every time you go down there, there's nothing there. You gotta get there. You gotta be Johnny on the spot and,

You got to be early bird, right? Get the worm.

Yeah, the early bird gets that worm. So, but I'm just not that lucky. I don't have luck like that, but he did. And luckily enough, we've built some great listeners, a great group that shares whiskey. And he shared this bottle with me and I'm ever so grateful. That guy has just been awesome to us.

And I'm grateful too. Thank you, Adam, because Mike's sharing it with me now. So this is the, so every year, Heaven Hill releases two different expressions of the old Fitzgerald. It's a weeded bottled and bond bourbon whiskey. They vary in age and years, but this is the spring release for 2020.

And it's a nine year.

And it's a nine year and it's a nine year and they're all bottled and bond. They're all hundred proof and they're all weeded whiskey.

And it's a, it's a beautiful bottle. It's that old school decanter style, uh, kind of, you know, you think genie in a bottle.

Yeah, they're beautiful. I mean, a lot of people do turn these into decanters. So, And there's no reason why not to, it makes, it makes a fine decanter.

Yeah. I think you take the stickers off and you could probably take and go get it. It's just stuff and be super beautiful. It might be even to be an infinity bottle for somebody. There you go.

All right. Well, as usual, Mike, we need to get straight to the whiskey. I'm, I'm I know you are, but I need to get this thing into my nose.

This is some, I haven't had this yet. I haven't tasted this yet. So earlier we were sipping on some, some Russell's reserve 10 year. That was our warmup warmup. Yeah. Right.

All right. Well, let's check it out.

Oh wow.

The nose is a little subtle on this.

It's got all kinds of floral going on there. That honeysuckle that I always talk about.

Um, yeah, I'm getting a little bit of oak in the, you know, age oak do it. Um, I'm getting a, it's kind of a very sweet nose, just a hint of butterscotch.

leather.

So definitely got some of that age barrel, aged notes to the, to the aroma, but it's kind of subtle. It's not like overpowering on the nose. Not a lot of alcohol in the nose and ethanol is not there at all.

Right. You could stick your nose in this all day long. Maybe that's cause it's a hundred proof. You know, we're not drinking 138. This is a bottled bond.

So a little bit of apple.

And why'd you say that? Now I smell apples.

Well, remember power suggestion. Just let, it just helps you to find what's already there.

It's not, it's not creating those apple gummy worms. Yeah. Oh, the green apple and sour one. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't smell sour, but you get that apple flavor.

No, this, this is a great nose on it. It's kind of subtle though. It's not like a really, it's not like a real rich, powerful nose. It's kind of a subtle nose. It's, it's delicate. All right. I'm going to taste it. Cheers. Cheers. Now there's syrupy. I'm getting some buttery.

Just coach your mouth.

Yeah. Yeah. I think buttery is probably a very good word to describe that palette. Very buttery, um, and butterscotch.

I'd say God dang diggity dog. This is some good bourbon right here. Mm.

Sorry for the mouth noises, everybody.

Still the oak, still the leather.

I'm going in for a second one.

I'm getting that just, I'm getting some honey in it. Um, not any cereal on this one, more of just like honey that you'd put in your tea, maybe a little bit of citrus in there.

And I'm still getting a little bit of apple just on the back of it a little bit and a little bit of hay or grass, but in a good way, in a really good way. Yeah. This is a, this mouth, the mouth feel on this is tremendous.

Definitely a great bourbon. It's got a little bit of that barrel spice on the back end.

Yeah. So cinnamon on the back end, I'm starting to pick up that cinnamon on the back end, that oak and that cinnamon on the finish. And it kind of hangs around. It keeps hanging around.

Remember when you talked one time about those cinnamon toothpicks you could get? Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting a little bit of that right there. Yeah. The finish on this is really nice.

And you know, it's, it's a little bit of hug to it, but it's high in the chest, high in the chest. It doesn't, it's not like a deep hug.

See, I don't, I don't get that right there. I'm getting that just on the back of my tongue, that just a little bit of spice left right there. Maybe I just haven't drank enough. Let me drink a little bit more.

So as I continue to drink it, it doesn't develop further, but what it does do is really shoves home all the flavors that it does have. It's like really putting an impression on you. It's saying, this is my profile and you're going to like it. This is really good stuff.

Yeah.

This is a, I mean, I've had the 14 and the 11. I've had a prior nine. I think there was a prior nine of this too, year old. And it's been a while and it's kind of hard to go back in your memory and say, hey, I like this one better than that one. But right now, today, drinking this, I'm feeling like this might be, one of the best Old Fitz bottling bonds I've had.

Really?

Yeah, it's really good.

So this was my first pour ever, not this pour, but this bottle out of here of Old Fitzgerald ever I'd ever had. And I was just shocked at how good it was. and you know what I have on my shelf, you know what I got under my cabinets and I've got a lot of weeded bourbons. Sure you do. I try to pick up everything if I could, if it's new, if it's out there and a lot of the Texas guys are doing this and I would compare this. It would be hard for one of the Texas bourbons to beat this and that's saying a lot.

Mike, this is a fine bourbon. We don't use number scores here on the bourbon road. We don't, we don't call out crazy notes. We just, you know, whatever memories are brought up by what we're tasting. But I will tell you this, I would score this bourbon Well up in the top.

So if we did, if we said it's a 100, it was our top score, then this, I think this would be in our nineties or something. Yeah.

So if, if 100 was like the perfect bourbon that you could possibly ever taste, it just blew you away. This would definitely be 90 or a little better. So yeah, this is a great bourbon.

It wouldn't be fair for me to judge it because I love weeded bourbon. And the more I sip on this, the more I fall in love with it. And now I probably will go out and try to find another bottle of it, just so I can have a second one.

Yeah, I think I'm probably going to go try and find a bottle as well. This is really good bourbon. So yeah, you know, a few times in your life you get to taste bourbons that really impress themselves on you. You're like, wow, that's really good. I need to have another bottle of that sitting in my bar that I can go to once in a while, especially when I have a good friend over, family member, somebody that really appreciates bourbon and wants to try some fine bourbon. this would be something that I would pull up.

Yeah, I'd put that up against Weller 12 every day, all day.

Yeah, it's good. So Mike, you know, Old Fitz is, it's an old brand. It's been around since, I mean, it's been around since the late 1800s. But of course, you know, Heaven Hill owns it now, but it's got kind of a long history. You know, it started out, in the old Judge Distillery in Frankfurt being made. It was a popular brand pre-prohibition. It was actually owned by a Chicago merchant, owned that distillery. But old Fitzgerald, it's kind of a play on a name of, it was a old treasury agent that used to hold the keys to the warehouses. Everybody knows the bottle and bond warehouses are government inspected warehouses. And the treasury agent held a key to that and his name was John Fitzgerald. I think he actually had another surname, but at the end of the day, John Fitzgerald is who will call him. He was thieving a little bourbon. Thieving a little bourbon. He'd use his keys to get into the warehouse there and he would hit a few of the barrels and steal some bourbon and take it home and maybe share it with his family and friends. And then, uh, the employees at the old, old judge distillery would, would know which barrels he'd been dipping into. And they would call those Fitzgerald barrels. He knew what a good bourbon was, right?

And his legacy lives on today, right? It does. Not only this bourbon, but it lives on in larceny also.

That's right. So that key on the larceny bottle is Johnny Fitzgerald's key that used to let him into that warehouse.

That's, that's pretty cool. You know, you not, I'm sure that's not the way he wanted to be remembered in history, but it's pretty bad ass way to be remembered. Probably not.

So, you know, the, it was probably one, old Fitzgerald was probably one of the more popular brands. As the 18th amendment was passed, prohibition started and the old judge's jury kind of ceased to exist, but the brand itself was sold off. Mr. Pappy Van Winkle, Julian Van Winkle Senior, and Stitzel Weller ended up with the brand and started producing it post prohibition. And before prohibition, it was actually not a weeded whiskey, but you know old Pappy, and you got a hold of it. It had to be a wheat whiskey, right?

Well, so you would think that would be all, due to William LaRue Weller, right? Because he's the one that taught Pappy, and so the story goes. But yeah, I'm glad that it's a weeded bourbon now.

I mean, the Stitzel Weller distillery now is just a warehouse. There's just storm barrels there now. There's no more production there. It's in Louisville. It's in South Louisville. And even today, when you drive by the distillery, you can still see old Fitzgerald on the smokestacks on the building. You've been there, so you know. Yeah. So, I mean, history lives on, right?

Now the second bourbon we're going to drink on the second half, there's quite the possibility, quite the possibility that it came from that distillery. Oh really? Well, we'll get into that.

So you're going to educate us on that in the second half.

You know, I can't imagine where else it came from.

I mean, I just say, let loose the bourbon bullshitter.

I'm telling you, man, I'm tired. I'm a tired guy. This two weeks here at this farm has worn me out. I don't know if I've ever worked this hard in my life.

Yeah. Yeah. I got to see some of your projects that you worked on while you were on quarantine. It's, it's pretty impressive what you're able to get done.

Well, we were going to pay somebody to paint our front columns on our house and we got eight of them. And, uh, they're, they're not round or square. Um, but we got a bid for that. That was like $3,000. And I was like, you know, you get something like that for $3,000 and you're like, that's a lot of money.

Yeah. There's a lot of bourbon. Yeah. That's a lot of bourbon I could buy.

So I was like, I can probably paint those things myself. I got the paint brushes already. I got the rollers already. Um, I just needed to go buy the paint.

And you're on quarantine.

So. So the paint cost me, I think like $50. And I think it took me three, if I totaled up my time on those, probably took me three full days to paint the entire thing. Um, so it would have cost me a thousand dollars a day to do that. That's a no way. Yeah.

And I saw your college, you did a,

damn fine job. I took my time at it.

You probably did a better job than a hired on painter would have done.

I did. I actually took two of the columns apart and rebuilt them and there was a rot in the base and I wanted to make sure that they were done right. And they got two great coats on them and I sanded them down, you know, that preparation is key to everything. I think, you know, then I wiped them back down and then I went back and looked at them again. So that project in the second week, I have a lower garage in our basement and I needed a workshop and for three years we've lived on this farm and I haven't had a workshop. I have. used everything here for work, bitch. Sometimes the kitchen counter, uh, from the dining room table, I've used everything for work.

Be careful, Mike. You know, our listeners are going to think you got eight columns on the front of the house. You got a lower garage. They're going to think this isn't Jephthubin Farm. This is Jephthubin Mansion. It's definitely not a mansion.

It's just a, it's not really a farmhouse. It's a ranch style house, I guess, with a full basement.

Well, you're, you're built on the side of a hill. So the back of the house actually opens up on the hill as it goes down. So you can see from the front of the house, you see a single level ranch from the back of the house. You see a two story.

Well, you see, it seems like 50 windows back there. So we did that. We washed our house and then I built that work bench downstairs and I actually started building a little studio downstairs too. So I've, you know, I've had all this time. Might as well. And I bugged you and I got to say thanks. You and Mel brought me and Vivian food over here, care package, and you brought us some other stuff. And then you actually made a Lowe's run for me and said, Hey, there it is, Mike, unload it. I went and got it for you. But you know, without you and Mel and our other friends and neighbors, it would have been a difficult two weeks here. Yeah. The health department said that there was some kind of thing set up to where they could go get us groceries, but The health department didn't call us until like week two. So we're just, and you were eating cat food by then, right?

Yeah. We're not here dog food, right? Yeah. I got a whole story for that, but yeah, yeah.

Um, yeah, we, we, we didn't, didn't starve. And if people saw my Instagram post or my Facebook post for my personal stuff, Um, you'd see that me and Vivian, we, we ate pretty good while we were here at home. And, um, and that's thanks to our friends and, you know, it's nice and we're transplants here. So we didn't grow up here. We're not from here. So it's nice to have friends like that and made friends and, That kind of shows that people actually do care about you. Even though one of our friends that are on the town council here in Shelbyville, Pam Carter, her husband Rob, they brought us quiche one day, but the biggest thing she brought me was two gallons of milk. And two gallons of milk lasts me about six days. Those things were gone.

Well, I don't know if any of our listeners are old enough to remember, or maybe they're on replay, who knows, but old enough to remember the Beverly Hillbillies. There's a, there's a son on there. His name was Jethro and he would, he would drink a gallon of milk and a box of cereal in a big giant bowl for breakfast.

Yeah. Vivian doesn't make me eat cereal anymore. I don't, I don't get cereal anymore at all. Um, tells me it's bad for me, but I do get to drink skim milk and I still, I don't know. I love milk almost as much as I love bourbon.

Well, Mike, I'm starting to remember now that in the prior releases of the old fits, again, I'm mentioning an 11 year, a 14 year and another nine year that was out a while back. And again, remember they, they release both a spring and a fall release every year. The spring release usually comes out with a green label and the fall release comes out with like, kind of like a burgundy label, burgundy or red. I'm saying that fall burgundy color. Yeah. But from the ones I remember, I seem to remember really liking that nine year the last time, really. And I remember the 14 particularly, because I did have two bottles of that. And I remember the 14 was, I mean, it was good, but it was not as good as the nine I had had before or the 11. I think the 11 was the first one they released. And those didn't last very long at your house. Yeah, they don't, they don't last. I mean, I drink my bourbon. I really do.

Well, I can attest to that cause I sent a bottle of bourbon home with you to take a photo of cause I particularly didn't like the bourbon. I said, well, you can have this bottle, Jim. Um, it was, um, we won't talk about it.

We won't talk about it, but I particularly didn't. Mike, we did a show on it. We did a recording. We did a review on it. Mike said, this is not for me, but you take it home. I took it home and, uh, okay, let's be fair. I'm not going to mention it with the bourbon is, but you know, it ended up at a family weekend with a lot of people there and it got mixed in with this, that, and the other, and it's gone. I mean, it's gone. And rather than keep the bottle and take a photo to support our episode, it went in the trash can and went out to the street and it's gone. So, and we can't get another one. So Mike is not happy with me because he's Mr. Instagram and he doesn't have a picture.

I was like, Hey, where's that, where's that bottle? You gotta take a photo. Oh, it's, it's a drink at all. And through the bottle way and he can't, we can't find that bottle. So we'll find a bottle and we'll get a photo and stuff. We'll do it.

It'll be all right. But anyway, the review will get out to our listeners so they can make up their own mind. Eventually. Yeah. But they may not be able to find it. It's tough to find.

So the story of this old Fitzgerald is if you want to be, get your name dropped on this show, like Adam does, send me a bottle.

I will.

I would definitely share you my address. Or if you look at my infinity bottle, if you can find a photo of my infinity bottle, the latitude and longitude are on there.

So you don't even need an address.

Just look at the infinity bottle and Google it, I guess. I would tell you this. Adam is this good of a guy. He texted me last night and he said, in the middle of COVID, he was hoping that Vivian was all right. And he said, he tried to get us takeout and sent to us. And he's like, you must really live out in the country because nobody, nobody will deliver to your house. I said, yup, that's right. Ain't nobody driving out here. Yeah.

Well, I'm really looking forward to the day when Adam could come up here and hang out with us and, um, spend some time in, in, on the bourbon trail.

We're going to show him definitely a great time.

Yeah, absolutely. All right, Mike. Well, I think we should continue to enjoy what's left in our glass here. Woodrow's joined us now.

Yeah.

Um, we'll take a short break. And when we come back, we've got an extra special bottle for the second half and another story for our listeners in today's celebration of Mike's return from quarantine. Yeah. All right. 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 rot and 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. We are back. And, uh, again, everybody, we're at Mike's place, Jeff, the bin farm. Mike's now off quarantine and we are drinking some fine bourbons. First half we had the nine year old Fitzgerald, the 2020 spring release. Amazing bourbon.

Yeah. I can't say you enough to Adam. And, um, that's a bourbon. I'm going to cherish for the rest of my, well, until that bottle's empty. Yeah.

Well, hopefully I'm here every time you cherish it. All right. So Mike, what do we have in the second half?

So the second half is orphan barrel and it's rhetoric 25 year old.

The 25 now rhetoric has more than just the 25 release, right?

They do. They, the rhetoric has 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25.

Right. And so this is kind of the pinnacle of the aging process for the, for the rhetoric.

We thank it. I mean, I don't know if they're going to keep going or not. They know they're going to do a 26 and 27 and 28. Hopefully. Yeah. I don't know how old can you get a bourbon until, you know, what's left in a 25 year old barrel in Kentucky? Cause this is Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, 91 proof. Um, so it is a Kentucky bourbon, but it was bottled down in their plant in Tallahoma, which is, Yeah. In Tennessee, right? Yeah. Yeah. But what distilleries down there? George Dickel. So Diageo owns them. They also own Bullet here. They own a lot of stuff. Big, big, big company. But the orphan barrels are as a whole series.

All right. So let's do this. Let's start tasting. We'll talk about it a little bit. Then we can go into this whole orphan barrel project and talk about it a little bit. All right. Cause I'm kind of anxious to try something 25 years old.

Well, I was telling you in the break, this is the oldest bourbon I've ever tasted before.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember mine. So, um, yeah, 25 is probably up there.

I guess I have had a sip of 25 year old, uh, Pappy. Um, but that would be right with this, but this is a rye. So, okay. Rye bourbon. All right.

Well, I'm checking it out, Mike. Oh, it's got that, uh, that butterscotch-y kind of old dusty nose to it. I mean, really, really like hits me right, right away. Right in your chest, right? No, I like it. I mean, I really do like it. I kind of, a lot of people don't like that nose, but I kind of like that nose. Well, I shouldn't say that. I don't know what other people like. I would imagine some people might not like that, but I love that. That's sort of that dusty, um, baking spice oak forward kind of well-aged butterscotch. It's got that funk to it that, that you get from an older bourbon.

I get some sweet corn on that.

Now the mash bill says high corn, right?

86% corn, 6% rye and 8% malted barley.

Okay. So this is definitely way up there. High corn mash bill. Yeah. So what's distillery do you think this is from?

You're over there sipping on this too. I just sipped on it.

I'm breaking ranks here. Yeah. So definitely butterscotch, butterscotch bomb, um, baking spices, nutmeg. Um, but you know what? Not much on the back. Not a lot on the back end. Not a lot of spice at all. Yeah.

Not much at all on the back end. Maybe that's cause it's high corn. That could be not a little, not too much. Right. And not as much oak as I thought it would be.

I mean, I'm getting the oak, I'm getting the leather notes to it. It's not as drying as I thought it was going to be being a 25 year old merman. I thought it would be, oh, this is going to be a pretty drying, you know, tannins and everything, but not so much.

Not overly so.

I think if somebody likes, a woody, definitely a woody bourbon, something that's got a lot of age on it. I think they're gonna like this one a lot. It doesn't have too much tannins, it doesn't have too much drying on the back end. I'll be honest with you, there's not much of a finish to it. I'm surprised.

Cause I thought, wow, you know, some of this old, what's the proof on it? Just 91 proof proof.

You know, I thought we would see a little bit of a lingering finish on it here.

I'm sure they had to proof it down to get more out of that barrel too. Cause I can't imagine there was too much in the barrel to begin with.

So this bourbon is, is, uh, for me, it's impressive on the nose. It's got a great upfront palette to it. Uh, it's, it's got that nice baking spice, nutmeg, uh, butterscotch, but when it hits the back end, it kind of just, it just falls off a little bit for me. It doesn't really grab a holdy and say, you need another drink.

It's not like that on Fitzgerald.

Right. I mean, it's good. This is a good bourbon, no doubt about it, but it's, it's for a special kind of people. I think people that like that.

Yeah, it is a great bourbon, no doubt, at 25 years. It definitely would be a special pour and something you'll definitely just break every once in a while and say, Hey, I got a special bottle that everybody needs to try, but doesn't blow my socks off.

So let's talk about bourbons that are in that 20 to 30 year old range. You know, we're talking bourbons that you're going to pay thousands of dollars for, right? And bourbons that cost a lot of money. And this one retails at 140-ish?

140. And you'd be hard pressed to find another bourbon at that. age point. Um, I actually bought the wild turkey 17 year bottle and bond and that was out the door 190 at the distillery. Yeah. Now lucky dog gets a bone every once in a while and I walked into a store today looked around. Sometimes I can just walk straight out cause I'm like, probably you have everything in here. Um, but today behind the counter, they had this on the shelf and I was like, well, I gotta get, I gotta get that bottle right there. I said, is that age right? Let me, let me see that bottle. So I grabbed the bottle, I looked at it and uh, he's like, yeah, we just got this in today. And um, we got a case of it was six of them. And I said, well, I'll go ahead and take that bottle. And I actually thought about it because it wasn't one per customer. I almost thought about just said, you know what? I'll just take that whole case of that because I know we have some roadies that would want them. But then he reached down to the case and he brought out a 20 year. And I don't know if they just shipped different ones and everything, but he then he pulled out another 20 year.

And he went through the rest of the case for you. No, that was all he had left. Oh, okay. So we had three bottles, three bottles left.

And I was like, well, he was like, well, they must have made a mistake or something. And I was like, he was like, you better get out of here before I take that back from you.

But you've got a good relationship with that store.

Um, yeah, I think any store I go into, you, you know how I can, I could gather a crowd around and I'd went into another store today and people were like, people recognize me even with my mask on. Um, they're like, Hey, aren't you that big chief guy from bourbon road podcast? And I was like, yeah, that's me.

Oh yeah. It's like a, like that all state commercial where they go, that's the guy, that's totally the guy.

They're looking at you going, Hey honey, that's big chief from the bourbon road. Well, that this lady, she like ran and got her husband and stuff. So, um, Yeah, it in the, the manager, he actually listens to the podcast and, um, he knew who I was. And so he's the one that said, Hey, you're, you're big chief. I was like, yeah, yeah, that's me.

Yeah. So if you guys see us out there in public, don't just come up and hang out with us, man. Let's talk bourbon, right? That couple was awesome.

They, they were like, I said, Hey, would you, I saw what they had in their hands and I'm not going to say what they had in their hands. I said, They were like, yeah, we're going to a bourbon blind challenge tonight. And I was like, you want me to show you some bourbons that will blow people's socks off and just shock them? And they were like, yeah. So I walked around the store and showed them a couple of things. And I said, here's what I would pick up. And this is what I would pick up. And I pointed them in the right direction. And they said the guy's house they were going was a big rye guy. And I said, pick this bottom shelf right here and it'll just, it'll floor them. And they actually got a wilderness trail rye and they got a. Wow. And that's some great stuff. Excellent. Right. Yeah. And I'm not a rye drinker, but it is sweet candy. And then, uh, they picked up an old overhaul bottled bond. So, Very solid. Very solid. Yeah. I think it was 12 bucks or something.

12 bucks or something like that. Yeah. It's a, it's a solid rye and it's a bottle and bond, right? Yup. Yup. Been a while since I had a bottle of that, that, and, uh, you know, there's, there's usually a few, um, gyms on the bottom shelf.

I think that, uh, Brian Hyatt had brought that on that bottle challenge.

Yeah, I think it was old overhauled.

And, uh, so let's go, let's get back to this, this orphan barrel and, um, where this came from, like where, what distillery we were talking to before the episode and in our break and stuff, what distillery this came from. And I, I was speculating that it probably came from the Stitz Weller distillery because Diageo from what I understand they bought when they bought that, they bought some of the stock in the, it was in the warehouses, but I was wrong. Oh yeah. This is actually Heaven Hill. Is it? Yeah. So I didn't know they had a 86% corn mash bill there at all, but they've got all kinds of stuff.

Yeah, they do. They've got a, they've got a wide variety of stuff. And what they had 25 years ago.

So this is Heaven Hill show. Yeah. It just kind of tied together.

Well, Mike, let me just say about this rhetoric 25 that it's definitely something that could be the talk of your gathering. You can get some people together and sample something that's extra aged, like a 25-year-old bourbon, and enjoy it for what it is. I'm not saying it'll stand toe to toe with some of the best. But it's solid and it's good and it's surprisingly not too over-oaked and not too drying. I'm really surprised by that. I think it's actually held together fairly well after all that time in the barrel.

You know, after I set my glass for a little bit and opened up, you know, it has opened up a little bit at taste. I can taste a little bit of butterscotch opening up in there, so maybe it just needs to set. And to be fair, we just cracked this thing open. That was a neck pour.

Yeah.

So maybe it just gets better, you know, who knows, but I'm hoping it's definitely going to get better. I'm still shocked that I found it. I, you know, I never find anything. Now we did look it up and see what it's kind of go on the secondary market and what it's going for like online.

So if you're listening to the show and you just have to have a bottle, $600.

Wow. And I actually was over in Frankfurt last night, getting a COVID test myself. So I could go back to work and just let everybody know I've had two negative tests now. So me and Vivian did our proper social distancing at our house. Like we were told to, she slept in different bedrooms and stuff.

I'm just being honest with you, Mike. If you didn't have a negative test, we wouldn't be six feet apart. We'd be 12 feet apart.

25 feet, 25 feet, Mike. But I went over there and then I was like, man, I'm over here. Me and her are going to get some Vietnamese food. So I picked up some Vietnamese food and then I, you know, you put the old. Yeah, I got some pho. Yeah. And then I was like, I'm going to check out a liquor store right here. and they have a Red Dot Liquor there. And I just want to tell our listeners there, I normally wouldn't say don't go in the store, but if you're over at Buffalo Trace and you're just got to have something and it's not at Buffalo Trace and you see one of the closest liquor stores is Red Dot Liquor, just drive on past that place. because they wanted $600 for a bottle of that in there. And then, you know, you look down the line at everything they have and everything is like triple or quadruple the price. So just save yourself some heartache and time unless you absolutely have to have a bottle. The series of this over there was 3,800 bucks. Yeah. Um,

Well, they're kind of taking advantage of the people on the trail a little bit, but also, you know, you got to look at it this way. You know, some people just have to have it. They know where to get it, right?

They definitely have some stuff over there. They have some old Carter, I think for $350, which you can, it depends on the bottle from 189 to like 229. It was just, I was flabbergasted, I guess, at the prices over there. But like you said, some people just have to have it, you know, if you just have to have it, you know, swing by there. But if you're that person that has some time and you can search it out, you can drive somewhere in the Lexington or somewhere else and probably Frankfurt down the road, Shelbyville.

I mean, you buy all Carter's all day long in Shelbyville for one 90.

Yeah.

Yep.

Um, just I'd say take a drive.

Yeah.

There's nothing wrong with that. People gotta make money, but you know, I don't know that $600. That's a lot. That's a lot. If I see another bottle of this, I will pick up another bottle of it. And, uh, we got a friend of the show that actually sent us at old Fitzgerald and I'm going to try to find him a bottle of this. Cause I think he definitely deserves that from us.

Good deal. Well, Mike, we just had a tasting. You were supposed to lead that tasting. Yeah. And so we had a tasting of four different Blanton's, right? Or three, four?

Could be four, the standard.

The standard. Special reserve. Special reserve, the gold, and then the straight from the barrel. Straight from the barrel, yeah. And yeah, so you ended up, you were going to lead that tasting. You weren't able to go because you were quarantined. So I went and led it in your place. I walked in the door with a bottle of Ancient Age. And I said, guys, we got to put this one out on the table too, because there's a story there. There is a story. There is a story there. And it actually turned out really well. It was a great tasting. It was a lot of fun. You know, we actually had a lot of people stick around afterwards. And, you know, I think that's something that you and I plan on doing a little bit more of.

Yeah, I'd say if you, if you're a group out there or if, even if it's two people and you want to do a tasting at your private home, or if you want to do a tasting for a group of people, anywhere up to a hundred people, me and Jim are willing to do that. Pretty soon you'll be able to check out our website, give us a call. We'll set it up. It will cost you.

But it was a lot of fun. It was, it was so much fun. And you know what? I think what made our tastings so much fun for everybody was it was kind of two way. You know, people in the audience were, we were definitely going back and forth. We had a lot of people calling stuff out, calling out notes in the audience that they were getting when they were, it was wonderful. We had some listeners there too. So, but it was great. And, you know, we got some invitations out there, some, some other places want us to come do some tastings. And I think that, uh, that's a lot of fun for you and I, but probably the most fun is to meet people, right?

Oh, I, you know, you know, me, I want to meet everybody. I was super disappointed. I couldn't go, I was all prepped and. You know, you'd call me that day and say, hey, Mikey, I know you got notes put together for this. And I was like, yeah, I'll put my notes back together for you and send them to you. That way you're, you're up. And so we actually have a bonus episode and hopefully we'll release it. If you're listening to this today, it's Wednesday and Jim will release it on Friday. You'll hear me and my son. drinking Blanton's. It was right at Father's Day and I'd said I'd had all those bottles. So, and he is like the biggest Blanton's fan. Some people might beat him up for it, but that's his bourbon, you know, his bourbon his way. That's right. Absolutely. But I got to sit down with him and drink all those and it was a special time. He just knew dad and he talks about, you know, what it is to be a new dad. And, Um, that he has so much to learn, but he, he sat down and drank him and gave me notes and stuff and he was super nervous, but I didn't know afterwards. He told me, um, he was like, I stayed up almost all night and looked up stuff. So I thought that was great.

Roadies is, is, is doing great. A lot of activity in there, a lot of camaraderie between the, uh, the members, a lot of fun.

We, we did, I think we booted up one member, um, out of there. And I would say this, um, if you think you were a person that's going to join the roadies and come in there and take advantage of people, um, it's probably not going to happen. We've got enough people watching and knowing who those are.

I mean, if, if the, if your conversation makes you look better and make somebody else look bad, yeah, probably not going to fly.

Well, this person was trying to sell bourbon and, um, I think he's trying to sell it at a high price. Sure. So, Hey, it happens. It's happens in every group, but we are trying to keep that group as a family. And I think we're doing a great job at it. Roadies are doing a great job of, of communicate when sharing each other's whiskey. Um, I can't say enough good things about our group of people in there and our listeners out there that have joined the roadies. They're having a great time at it.

If you're listening to this podcast, you know, you can find us on social media. Mike is a social media giant. No, I don't know about all that. Social media madman.

Yeah. Mad man's more like it.

You can find the bourbon road on social medias on all the social medias, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Uh, at the bourbon road, we have a website, the bourbon road.com, uh, where you can listen to our podcasts. You can, uh, read our blogs, most of which Mike has written. Mike does a great job writing our blogs. You can also buy our Glen Karen glasses on there. We have our Glen Karen's up. We keep saying this, we keep saying, we're going to add more items to the. to the website for you to buy, but we haven't done it yet. We promise. We really do promise we're going to do it. But we hope you'll take a few minutes out of your day and you'll visit our website. You'll follow us on all the different social medias. Mike, we would like to have some people give us some reviews, right?

Listen, those reviews are what gets the door open for us. It lets us walk into distilleries. Once the distilleries talk to us, they look at those reviews and see what we're talking about. Give us a review on there. Even if it's a bad review, give us a review. I'll take it. Um, doesn't mean I like it, but we'll take it. Jim, Hey, two great bourbons here. Great, great show. I'm glad I got to sit down with you and share these two, these two bourbons as everybody in the bourbon culture should do is share your whiskey. Absolutely.

Um, you can find me at one big chief. I'm Jay Shannon 63 and you will hear us twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. Short episode on Monday, longer episode on Wednesday. We're going to review a craft distillery every week.

We'll see you on down the bourbon road.

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 if you'd subscribe and rate us a five 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.