9. Bourbon Releases and Listener Questions - Pours include Knob Creek Twice Barreled Rye and Old Maysville Club Rye

Yeah. So, you know, bourbon is just in my DNA. So when I first moved here, I, uh, I got the, I, you ain't from around here. And so over and over in East Kentucky, they did. Trust me. Um, you're not from around here.

And I go need some of those, need some of those Bubba teeth when you talk like that.

You ain't from around here. And so anyway, I said, but, uh, you know, my people were,

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts, Jim and Randy. 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.

All right, welcome to another episode of The Bourbon Road. I'm Randy Minnick. And I'm Jim Shannon. And I don't know what episode this is. We've done three or four of these by now, and I'm having a good time doing this kind of stuff.

Yeah, I think we've got eight on the books as it is right now, and got a couple recorded that we haven't released yet. Yeah, I'm having a great time.

Oh yeah, this is fun stuff. Anyway, just a PSA service announcement here. On the way over here, saw an overturned vehicle. Hope the people are okay. But a lot of rain. Yeah, we've had a lot of rain. Flash flooding around the central Kentucky area here. friends in Arkansas and Mississippi and Texas and take care of yourself out there. We can always get more bourbon, but we can't get another one of you. That's right. Absolutely. And so, you know, just stay off those phones while you're, especially on these skinny Kentucky roads.

Yeah. I mean, the one that runs over to your house from here is about one and a half cars wide. Yeah.

It's, it's, you know, usually, you know, a standard lane is 11 feet. These are only about nine. So, you know, good luck.

So, first pour. What do we have today for the first pour, Jim? Well, I have brought Old Maysville Club, and this is a four-year, well, I don't know if it's four-year, but it's a bottle and bond whiskey. So, it's at least four years old. Okay. 100 proof. It is a Kentucky straight rye malt whiskey. So, this is made with 100% rye malt.

Oh, something a little different. I don't know that I've had a malted rye.

And it's from the Old Pogue Distillery here in Kentucky, in Mason County, up in Maysville. You know, we've seen some Old Pogue products on the shelf. This one kind of caught my eye. As somebody mentioned in Instagram, I think, you know, the bottle kind of is a little bit BTAC-esque in design, kind of the wine bottle design. It kind of catches your eye on the shelf. Right. And it did catch my eye. And when I asked to look at it, because it was behind the counter, I noticed it was a bottled wine. I just had to have it.

Kind of like the Rowling Creek or whatever it is, the bourbon. It's more of a wine looking. But anyway.

But anyway, yeah, so I've already tasted this. You can see the bottles. I've drank it down just a little bit. But we're not going to hold that against you. But I wanted you to taste it. And I had put a review out on Instagram a couple of days ago on it. But yeah, I think it's good to have on a show and definitely good to talk about. It is a $60 bottle. So I have to warn everyone that that's a little pricey, but it is very unique. And why don't we take a taste of it?

Yeah, I was going to say, let's get to it. Cheers, Randy. Put all this jibber jabber and let's go. Really light nose on this, yeah.

Yeah, the nose is not real pronounced. And I get, I definitely get the, the rye on the nose, but it's different.

There's a twist to it.

Yeah.

It's not like the, okay. You know, I know I'm fairly new to the rise, but they still all have this. predictable stuff you smell. This one's a little different. Yeah. This one's definitely a little different. Maybe that malted.

Yeah. You can definitely tell that this is, has a little bit more of a delicate nose to it. It has a, you can, you, you pick up the, the, the toasted rye. Yeah. I get that. But there's some fruit in there.

I'd hate to say which one.

Yeah. I have trouble identifying it on the nose because it is a rather, rather light nose.

All right.

Go ahead and take a sip. Cheers. Now the palette on this is very viscous and creamy. Mouthfeel is not my favorite word, but it definitely is a creamy viscous liquid. Like a little oil residue almost. Absolutely. And if you look at it on the, if you look at it on the glass, the legs on there are- They hang around for a little bit. They do. Yeah. They do. It's a very light liquid. It's a light honey amber. Not very dark. Nope. But it's, you know, when you get it on the pallet, you start to pick up what that fruit is. At least I do.

Yeah. And what do you think?

For me, it's, it's a little bit of peach. Okay. Peach. And I guess there are some other, you know, fruits in the peach family.

Apricot or something like that. It could be one of those.

I mean, I'm not real good at distinguishing between families of fruits, but yeah, for me it's a peach. It's a stone fruit.

Yeah.

Yeah. The finish on this is very lengthy. I think it's a long finish.

It stays, but it's not real pronounced though. You know, it's like delicate. That was the word you used, I think.

Yeah, so there's a reason my bottle has only been open two days and it's down a third. And I've been alone with it. So it's because I really enjoy this whiskey. It's very good.

Well, you know, like we say here at the Bourbon Road, we only drink on two occasions. when we're by ourselves or with somebody. So, cheers.

And today is rye day, by the way.

Rye day, yeah. There's Thursday and then rye day Friday.

So we're both bringing ryes today. This is a very unique rye. I don't think I've ever tasted anything like it. No, it is.

And not that I've had a lot of ryes, you have, but this one is definitely different than any of the others I've had.

Well, you know, I kind of like anything that brings something new to the table. And this is unlike anything I've had before.

Well, I appreciate that about you keeping me right there in the new, you know, because I'd go back and sample some of my older stuff or something. But you know, you go, hey, try this. And you go, wow. Wow. You turned me on to some really cool stuff out there, Jim.

Appreciate it. Well, you're certainly welcome, Randy. And you know, it's no fun to drink alone. Like I said, I've polished off the first third of this bottle by myself. But I like to see where a bottle goes. as you drink it down, because it changes a little bit. This one's pretty consistent. I haven't noticed this one change a whole lot since it's been opened up, and I really enjoy it.

Well, let's get to something that somebody mentioned to us. They wanted to talk to us, you know, why the headphones, the mics, you know, the stands and that kind of stuff there. When we go to record, you want some of the best quality you can get out there. And when you're doing a podcast, I mean, that's all you've got, right? Yeah. And so the sound is what you have. So we don't make them, but we ask people to wear headphones. And you can kind of judge your distance from the mic. If I'm way back here, you can tell it sounds a little thinner, but when you get up here, of course you don't want to be up here and then peg the dial and it would sound like you're frying bacon, you know? And so the headphones kind of help us and our guests give a, let's say consistent sound.

Yeah, because you can notice when we have guests on the show, you see them autocorrect all the time. They'll turn their head away from the mic to talk to you. And they'll autocorrect. And that makes a big difference.

So for those of you that asked, that's why we do things the way we do here at the Bourbon Road. We try to give you the best we can as far as quality.

And of course, Randy's all about appearances. So he's wearing monitor earphones.

Oh, my in-ear monitors.

Musicians wear these things.

Yeah, these were my older set, you know. Well, if it's good enough for American Idol and The Voice, it's good enough for me, right?

Yeah, and for me, you know, just over the years, fine. I guess, you know, I'm not too concerned about it, but maybe at some point I'll have a little extra cash and buy one of the set of those that you have.

There you go. It's not as expensive as you would think. Well, let's get on to the program here. Last Saturday, we were with the Commonwealth Bash with the Lexington Bourbon Society, and it was Kentucky's 227th birthday. 227th birthday.

If I'm off by a year, guys, I apologize, but I believe that's correct.

No, I think it was because it was an odd year. I remember that for sure. And so we went over there and hung out with Lexington Bourbon Society and some of the vendors that were there. And like I had said on that particular episode, one of the things that I appreciate about the Lexington Bourbon Society is compared to maybe some others, is they're all about giving back to the community. And so this bash and the money that they raised, I think it was near $12,000. And I'm sure it's still coming in. Yeah, I'm sure it is. All goes to the Ronald McDonald House. Kentucky Ronald McDonald House, so it stays in state. We want to give them a shout out and say thanks for giving back to the community. That's something that the Bourbon Road wants to do a little bit down the road. You may find us popping up at a fundraiser or two.

That's right. We were actually invited to be there and we were happy to be there. We did tool around a little bit with our microphones and did a few interviews. Now, whether or not we can put out an episode from this or not, we'll see as we get into the studio and start editing this stuff.

But some great contacts, Mike making his Urban Barrel guitars out of Urban Barrels. I didn't get a chance to play one. I told him I can't give my professional opinion until I get to actually play one of these things.

But if he would donate one of those guitars to your music efforts, you'd probably have him on the show, wouldn't you?

Five and ten grand. I don't think I'd mind too much. Anyway, a great time last Saturday night. We want to give a shout out to them. Congratulations and the kids at the Ronald McDonald House, I'm sure will appreciate it.

Absolutely. It was a well-run event. We had a good time.

Oh, so what's happening as far as the bourbon industry goes? I think there's a couple of releases coming up.

We do have a couple of releases coming out. We've got, well, we talked to Mark and Sherry Carter. That episode is out, though we already aired that episode. Wasn't that laid back?

That was just like... Really enjoyable. Yeah. That whole, the Oak Room and just kicking back and, you know, nobody really messed with us. All that ornate wood and just the setting was right and it was very comfortable and relaxed.

It was really good. We really had a good time. And yeah, and they're releasing their bourbon batch too, which releases this month.

You know, Jim, I still can't get that number three rye out of my head.

That stuff is good.

Lilac and cedar and just a bouquet that I don't ever remember trying. And I was right. I was right. You like the four and I like the three. Absolutely.

Yeah, I still wish I had some of the Carter Rye 1 and 2 for you to try because they were just as different and just as amazing. They were some good Ryes as well.

So what other, you know, we're now working on trying to get to that number 10, where they say once you pass number 10 episode, you might actually make it in this world. Yeah. Which ones did you actually like?

You know, I've enjoyed them all. What I like is the fact that we jump around and we're not just talking to bourbon industry people. Right. You know, I get it. If you're listening to this episode and you say, guys, stick to the bourbon, I understand where you're coming from. Don't get me wrong, but there's just as many people that want to hear a story.

Maybe we need to put out, you know, this, hey, this is for bourbon French. This is culture piece. This is bourbon geek piece, you know, that kind of, I had a lady yesterday, um, tell me that, uh, she goes, you know, thank you for, for working on stories. She goes, people get into the bourbon and they forget about the people.

Yeah, we've got a lot of people to send us messages and compliments and to say that they really appreciate the fact that, you know, we're trying to appeal to both sides of the fence, both the Bourbon Aficionados, that's probably a good word, as well as the bourbon curious. I'm sure there's a greater number of bourbon curious people out there than there are bourbon aficionados. And hey, they're both our friends.

Well, speaking of the bourbon curious, let's talk about the peerless release. And you can kind of maybe help some of those on the fringe. You know, I kind of knew, but you, when we had been talking about it, you know, a while back, um, you had a great explanation for sour mash versus sweet mash.

You know, you learn a lot when you listen to stuff on either YouTube or other podcasts, uh, you read blog articles, you know, if you immerse yourself in this world. And for me, I'm kind of a little bit geeky on this stuff. I like the history.

We would expect no less.

But Scott from My Bourbon Journey, and Jason from The Mashin' Drum.

That was a great episode by the way, just asterisk, parentheses, and Dusty Dan.

Oh yeah, so we've recorded with these guys, and we haven't released that yet. And the reason we haven't released that yet is because We're doing video.

That was our first shot at trying to do some video.

So yeah, we got a little bit of work to do. So that'll come out in due time. But in the meantime, you know, they have released Scott and Jason, Mash and Drum, My Bourbon Journey together, have released an interview with Caleb Kilburn from Peerless Distillery.

He's young.

Young guy. Young. And, you know, where they talk about the distillery and kind of what their vision is, what they do differently than other people. And let's just say, to start with, they're making all their own stuff. And they always will.

Based out of Louisville, purely. This is based out of Louisville.

Yeah, I always feel like, you know, whatever in the bottle needs to speak for itself, but I have a lot of respect for a distillery who makes their own juice and, you know, designs their own mash bill and their own maturing processes to try and come out with something that's uniquely them.

And that distillery lay dormant for decades, decades.

Well, you know, they've had their share of naysayers. You know, their whiskies, their rye whiskies, which is all they've had to this point, are, they're expensive. You know, they're $100 bottles. There's a lot of people out there that just aren't going to pay $100 for a bottle of rye. But by the same token, you know, there's a lot of people out there that will. So, you know, you're bourbon, you're whey. Yeah. Or you're rye, you're whey in that case. Well, I guess so. They are now going to release their first bourbon. And my understanding is it will be available at the gift shop there at the distillery in downtown Louisville. on the 22nd.

And for those interested, where is the distillery located?

It's just off Main Street in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. So I don't know the exact address, but yeah, quick Google and you can come up with it. Anyway, they'll be releasing that and you know, I would expect that there'll be some people traveling in from out of town to get a bottle.

Well, why don't you, for those that are on the French and maybe new to it, talk about the difference between the sweet mash and the sour mash.

Okay. A little bit. Um, I, I don't, I don't have a firsthand knowledge of this.

I know what I've heard listening to the how many chemi, chemi, you know, chemi, you know, chemistry, the geeks are out there waiting for you to say something. Yeah. You know, just give us the, the layman's terms here and we'll be, we'll be happy.

Well, okay, so everybody knows that you ferment your mash using a yeast strain. And a sour mash whiskey uses a yeast strain that incorporates a sample from the prior batch. Sort of like making sourdough bread. So when you make sourdough bread, you save a little bit of yesterday's sourdough bread batch and use it and you knead it into today's batch.

And it acts like a catalyst to get things going in the next batch.

Yeah, so a sweet mash is basically introducing a pristine cultured yeast each and every batch. And not only that, the cleaning that has to take place on the equipment to rid the prior batch from the lines from the. Oh, so the cleaning process probably takes quite a bit of time and energy. So you could imagine that it's not the most inexpensive way to produce a whiskey because of all the effort that's involved.

So that's the reason for a hundred dollar bottle with a fairly new

Well, that and the fact that craft distilleries tend to have to charge a little bit more because they don't make as much.

Exactly. They're not as widespread.

But, you know, a sour mash versus a sweet mash, when it's coming off the still, you've heard everybody talk about heads, hearts and tails. So, you know, you've got to take that cut right out of the middle there somewhere. That's the good stuff. That's the good stuff. My understanding, at least listening to Caleb, if I understood correctly, is that those cuts take place a little bit differently On a sour mash than they do on a sweet mash and therefore Maybe the cuts a little bit smaller on a sour mash a little bit larger on a sweet mash Maybe there's some things they have to watch out for on a sour mash But when you cut out those parts that you're not going to put in the barrel, you're also taking away some things that you would like to enter the barrel as well, but they're having to be cut away because they're in width. So they're kind of hidden or suppressed compared to maybe... That's it on my knowledge. In fact, secondhand, recently attained, I'm not an expert on this, but my understanding is basically in a nutshell that the sweet mash process is a more expensive process, but it has an opportunity to introduce a whiskey that's... Some notes that you might not normally get.

Yeah, sure. Okay.

Exactly.

So, okay. Peerless, Old Carter having releases here this month. So there you go for all the bourbon geeks. Let's move on to the fringe just a little bit, another culture piece. Well, you know what tomorrow is? Belmont. And so my feed has been filled up with video of Secretariat and his 31 and a half link victory in the Belmont and 73 and then Seattle slew comes through and what 77, I think, and then affirmed. So, you know, everybody's looking at the Belmont and I'm sure what's after the controversy of the Derby. Yeah. So, Tacitus is... Is it Tacitus or Tacitus? Tacitus. Let's just call him Tac. Tac. So, Tac, I actually watched at dawn at the Downs and I go, man, that is a very big, smooth horse. He's happening. And he got mugged out of the gate at the Kentucky Derby. And we talked about that with the guys in the round here that evening. And he still came on and was in the mix at the end. You know, I think he was fourth and ended up third. War of wills was all up in the controversy, but war of wills, excuse me. Um, but ended up winning the Preakness. Yeah. So, you know, you've got tack there at nine to five odds, nine, five and, uh, or will at two to one.

And what's the next closest to you? Um, so those are, those are roughly two to one odds, both of them.

Um, Bourbon Moor, I think is like 12 to 1, one of Pletcher's horses. And they're saying that's one of the ones to watch as well. Oh, Intrepid Heart, 10 to 1. And so, you know, and then of course, what's the Japanese horse? You know, got the mask, got that little X on his mask there. So, I don't know. It's a mile and a half. We'll see what happens. The longest race, you know, and so there you go.

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Some of the shows we liked we've done so far. Cause you know, we're kind of at a point where we take a look at what's happened so far and go, Hey, let's do this. Let's do this and try to get some, some things in there. Uh, so one of our first culture pieces was on Pit Barrel Barbecue. Yeah. And, uh, their time of year is coming up. Yeah. And then, uh, you know, Rare Bird 101, that was a great episode as well.

Yeah. Um, you know, David Jennings, if I could say where I would like my palette to be, you know, I'd love to have an appreciation for a product the way he does and be able to pick it apart. Um, so carefully that he's able to almost tell the Rick house.

You know what I was thinking when we were talking to him? There's a book out called The Talent Code. This book talks about how there's hot pockets of the Russian women, a lot of times tear up the tennis for a while, and the Korean women with golf. And then, you know, you got the Caribbean down there, Caribbean, however you want to say it, with some of the baseball stuff. And they, you know, you take Peyton Manning, you know, as far as these great quarterbacks. And what they say is in the talent code is that in order to become good at something, you need to have done 10,000 hours of deep practice. What they call deep practices at the edge of your ability. You don't think Dave did 10,000 hours of deep practice. 10,000 hours of turkey. It was just a random thought, but he's good, he's tasted a lot, and he's done it quite a bit.

I think David probably takes a lot of notes, and he revisits his library of turkey bourbons. I think he just knows them very well. They're his babies. Yeah. And he shares it. So I think once you write something down, it kind of cements it in a little bit, you know, and he writes everything down. He's got a blog. But yeah, it was great to have him on. It was great to hang out with his fan base there in Lexington.

It was a lot of fun. Great time with those guys. Lexington Bourbon Society. I mean, we've had some good people on so far. We want to get to some more culture pieces. People are saying they want to hear some of that. So, you know, we'll talk about some of that here in a minute down the road. But I heard something. You know what, Randy? I need some bourbon.

Oh, is it time for second pour? Okay. I'm ready for some bourbon. Well, let's do it. Okay.

Knob Creek, twice barreled rye, hunter proof, right around my range. You know, you know me. And, uh, I kind of like stuff that's finished in another barrel. And as long as it's not a used barrel, if it's a new barrel, you know, maybe you get a little something out of the wood.

So I guess sometimes when you're using a used barrel, you, you, well, you're going to pick up whatever was in it before. Right. And not only that, that prior product would have taken some things out of the wood. Right. That are not going to be there. That won't be there. Right. So, so the reaction is different. Sure.

But I'm okay. You know, there's a big controversy out now about finished bourbons or they should be the bourbons or the whiskeys, you know, depending on whatever. But as long as it's a new barrel, I'm pretty good with it. And I think it adds in a little twist to a really great product that's already there.

So, regardless of where you stand on that issue, it's not the fault of the liquid in the bottle, right?

No, it's not. And there can be some great stuff. And we're about to see if this is some great stuff here.

And what other double-barreled products do you like?

The first I was turned on to was Woodford double-oaked and I liked it because regular Woodford's okay to me. I don't have a problem with regular Woodford. But the twist that came about with that extra year of aged in a new barrel to me, just, uh, it gave it a little sweeter, definitely a little sweeter on the finish to me. And, uh, I've been a fan ever since.

Now that's the double oak. Double oak. Now what about the double double?

Now the double double means that it's been aged in that second barrel a little bit longer, a little bit longer. And, uh, you know, we, we talked about, um, And that double double doesn't stay in stock much because it all of a sudden it's a little higher proof and brings out some really good, good notes in that second barrel finish. But anyway, I kind of want to see what you think about this. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

Now you can definitely, that's an Ob Creek Rye. You get the citrus on it. What citrus? A little bit of orange.

Cinnamon or clove, maybe? I'm getting a little more cinnamon. Peppery cinnamon? Yeah. Yeah. Something like that.

And I get a little bit of evergreen, conifer, cedar, maybe a little bit of cedar. I don't know if it's cedar. Some nut, maybe?

No.

As you mentioned it, maybe, but I didn't pick that up. Oh, but the nut's there on the palate. Yeah. No doubt about it. You can taste it. That is not as sweet as I thought it would be. Coming into a barrel, in contact with a barrel twice, you'd think it'd pick up a little more sweetness.

Well, compared to the wood for double oak, it's not quite as sweet. But still a very, you know, pretty bold taste still.

Yeah, the oak is definitely present there. I'm getting a lot of tannins though. And that mid-palate for sure. And the mid-palate. Just before it rounds that corner. Kind of like a really bold cab. See what I did there?

Round that corner there.

I think the nut and I'm not real good at picking out what nut, but you know what?

Well, it's not pecan. I can tell you that much now, but, um, maybe some people would get pecan. I don't know. What do you get? A peanut, peanut, but not, um, okay. Hey, you know, what's interesting about this one compared to the first one, the snob Creek, um, It's not roasted peanut. No, no, definitely not. With this toasted malt, you know, the, the little crackers that you get it that have that, that are toasted malt. I could taste that a little bit in that, but when I get to this, this is more raw peanut, boiled peanut, as compared to, um, a toasted

And you know, sometimes, and you're from Georgia. Oh boy, here we go. So when you get those boiled peanuts, sometimes you get them, they were a little green. Yeah. That's kind of what I'm, it's just a little green boiled peanut.

Okay.

I can see that. Okay. Hey. Not much Finnish to speak of. No, not as much as I would expect from a regular, well, the Knopf Creek bourbon anyway.

I mean, it's a good rye. Yeah. But, um, Rye Day Friday, ladies and gentlemen.

Here you go. I'm not sure I'll chase another bottle of this, but it's good. I'm enjoying it. I would finish the bottle. Well, I finish every bottle. I don't think I've ever poured anything out.

I don't know that I have either. There are some that may not have been my speed that I try to pawn off to my friends when they come over.

Well, you know, I don't give anyone bad whiskey. But is there such a thing? I don't know that I've ever had bad whiskey, but I've had some that I don't want to drink straight.

Yeah. And we can make a cocktail with them. Right. So I get you, I get you there. So last time we talked. Yeah. Oh, and I'll bring, I'll bring it up this way. I I've been hearing a couple of people talk about it's in my DNA. Yeah. So, you know, bourbon is just in my DNA. So when I first moved here, I got the, I, you ain't from around here easy. And so over and over in East Kentucky, they did trust me. You're not from around here.

And I go need some of those, need some of those Bubba teeth when you talk like that.

You ain't from around here easy. And so anyway, I said, but, uh, you know, my people were. And the last episode that you and I had, I said I would tell the story. When it was just you and I. Just you and I. Got it. I said I would tell the story of this whole big circle back to Kentucky kind of thing. So if you head down I-65 South from Louisville, Kentucky, headed towards Bowling Green, you come across a town named Upton before you get to Mammoth Cave. I've seen it on the sign. OK, Upton was my grandmother's maiden name. Okay. Okay. So that means, who knows? I might be related to Kate Upton. Wouldn't that be nice? Oh, there you go. There you go. So anyway, they were from Trigg County, Kentucky. So my grandmother and her people were from Trigg County, Kentucky. And she used to tell me a story when I was younger about my great grandfather, her dad. He was a moonshiner. And when you talk to people about the moonshine business in Kentucky, in the Western part, you know, especially during Prohibition, a lot of runs to Chicago, evidently. My great grandfather was a moonshiner in Western Kentucky, probably was making runs to Chicago. And his brother, I want to say it's George. My great grandfather's name was Fay H. Upton. And I think his brother was named George. I got to go back on that. the DNA thing and do a little research. Um, so he was the sheriff of the town. So he didn't like the idea of his brother embarrassing him by not being able to get caught by the feds. So, uh, evidently they, him and the feds had been trying to do a sting, couldn't catch him. And, uh, one day they came, came a calling on a Sunday and old great grandpa Faye had thrown his half pint of moonshine. in the potbelly stove and it didn't dissipate before they got in there. So he got locked up for possession of an illegal substance over in Trigg County. Now my great grandmother, Queen Anne Cunningham. You've done a little research here. Just a little bit. She came and she talked to her brother-in-law and she said, look, Faye's been with the family for Sunday dinner for decades. And so out of the goodness of his heart, I guess, brother George let, I think it's George, we'll just call him brother George. Brother George lets brother Faye out to go have Sunday dinner with the family. And he in turn packs up the family and sends them to Florida. And you can't extradite over two state lines. It's not worth the trouble for possession. At that time anyway. Yeah. Possession of an illegal substance. And so that is how my grandmother's people ended up in Florida. So I have made my way back from Florida all the way to the bourbon trail here in Kentucky. Isn't that enough?

No, I think, I think he'd be very proud of you Rick.

I don't, I don't know. So maybe it's in my DNA too. Yeah, there you go. Great story. You never know. Great story. So you're from a Shiner family. I guess, you know, and talking to people, they go, the family records that I, at least the ones I've seen, says migrated to Florida. 1925. We all know he had to run the state, and evidently he wasn't the only one from the western part of Kentucky. Everybody thinks about the eastern part and the central part, but there was a lot of, in the western part, prohibition going on too.

Now in Upton, and if I remember correctly where Upton is, as you go south, the terrain starts to change a little bit and we start to shift from being limestone, a lot of limestone exposed, and you start to get into that little bit redder soil as you get closer to the Tennessee border. Right. So Upton's still in that good limestone water area.

Not too far out of the, you know, I guess it's what an hour and a half, Just past Fort Knox. So, you know, yeah, so definitely still down and a half to Mammoth Cave. So, you know, you're still kind of in the region, but that's the town of Upton. He was way over in Trigg County, which is over. Is it Cadiz? Cadiz? Cadiz? You got me. I don't know, folks. I've heard that name said four different ways. So anyway, so I guess it's in my DNA and I had promised to tell that story last time. So I'm not from around here, but my people are.

You're welcome here, Randy.

Well, I guess what we need to do is talk about hearing from some of our people. You and I have discussed this, hearing from some of our listeners. We know that there are people out there from as far away as Australia, Alaska.

Yeah, we've got listeners all over the world. I guess our popularity grows with every episode. So I'm extremely happy with it. I mean, it's going really well for us and I'm very happy with it. We get to hear from some of them. They tell us what they like and what they want to hear. But not enough. I'm not getting enough feedback.

It'd be nice to hear from some people. What is it you want to hear in episodes? You may have some, hey, this would be a really cool person for your podcast. Want to talk to a guy who does, believe it or not, it's called Bourbon Air Tours. So he takes you up in a plane out of Bardstown and you get to fly over three of your whatever distilleries around that area. You know, you want to fly over and get aerial shots. Kind of neat stuff. That's different. The whole bourbon industry has kind of just exploded and the French stuff is really good stuff.

And we're going to bring people distillers and whiskey professionals and people in the world. But if all we ever did was talk to master distillers, we'd have a very short-lived podcast.

Well, I mean, I know there's... It's limited.

Yeah. You can only have so many shows. And there's a lot of great channels out there doing a lot of great work. And there are channels doing interviews, there's channels doing on-site interviews, there's channels doing urban reviews. And you know what? I watch them all. I try to anyway. There's so many. But I think what we're trying to do is a little bit more about the story.

And that's what that lady yesterday said. She goes, thank you for trying to bring a story. Yeah. You know, because what good is bourbon without the people? Yeah. You're bourbon your way. Absolutely. And speaking of people, How about that 97 year old bet from World War II?

Oh my gosh. You know, I don't know. I don't know if I would do that. I mean, I'd like to think that I could.

Well, he did it in tandem, but you see, you know, I've jumped, I've skydived in tandem. Yeah. And the landing is still. You know, you talk about smooth. Depending on the day, it may not be.

Well, when he came in, even with his partner with him, you know, they took a roll on the ground.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, it's a hard thing to come down.

But at 97 years old. My goodness. Cheers to him, because I'll tell you what. Well, cheers to all veterans. Absolutely. And cheers to those who, you know, Normandy, hit the beaches of Omaha and Juneau and all those places there. And Jim, thank you for your service in the military as well. And speaking of which, we're talking about, and we don't know if maybe you all would be interested, but for Veterans Day back in November, having some veterans on and actually talking about some things.

We've got some friends who are some vets who enjoy a poor bourbon. They enjoy a good story. They like to hang out and talk with other vets and talk about their service. There are some people that like to keep that part of their life private, but there are others that would like to have the general public understand kind of what they do. and what they have done.

It's interesting about that, because I guess some of my earlier experiences with that, you know, maybe I should save that for that show. Just, you know, because I was an Air Force brat. And so I'm around it, but I'm not in it, if that makes sense. And you get some fringe stories there. But anyway, thank you for your service because June 6 was the anniversary of D-Day and stuff. And so I just wanted to throw that in there.

Absolutely.

But as far as our listeners go, We'd love to hear from you. Absolutely. Australia. Man, you're drinking bourbon Australia. What is that like? Tell us.

Yeah, so we've got listeners and I'll just name a few countries, but they're all over the world, but certainly Sweden, India, Australia. Sweden, India? Get out of here. What are they drinking in India? Whiskey. You know, we've got listeners in Spain and England and the Netherlands and Scandinavia. Yeah, so we appreciate all the listeners. We like the fact that our message, I don't know if it's a message, that our voices are getting out there and that people are enjoying what we're doing. And, you know, obviously our biggest following is here in the United States. Um, but not necessarily in Kentucky. Not necessarily in Kentucky. No. Um, you know, we do get some, some feedback on, you know, where our, um, our shows are being downloaded the most. Right. And I will say this that, you know, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Colorado, Arizona, Texas, California, New York, these are the big ones.

I didn't think we had that many people listening to you.

You're probably wondering why would somebody listen to this banter, right?

Really, you know, and when we first talked about doing this show, I was like, listen to this, we'll just have a good time, you know, but more than I thought.

Well, you know, we're not highly technical in what we do. We're not putting out information that has to be paid close attention to.

You wouldn't do research notes off of what we do.

That's right. So, you know, easy listening.

Yeah.

Easy listening. Listen while you work, listen while you cut the grass, listen while you sweep the floors, listen while you, you know, whatever, whatever you're doing. You know, I cut grass four and a half hours a week. Wow. Yeah. Especially during the season. I can tell you what, I can knock out some podcast episodes while I'm cutting grass.

I don't do bad where I'm at, actually. And you've got me listening to more and more podcasts. I enjoy them. I do. So if you have something you want to hear about, suggestions for the show, feedback on the show.

And you can reach out to us on any of the social media channels. Well, let's just say Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And on all three of those, we are at The Bourbon Road. just all together no spaces no underscores just at the bourbon road not the bourbon trail at being the at symbol right the bourbon road yeah and so email if you want to talk to jim jim at the bourbon road randy at the bourbon road dot com so you know and we have a website the bourbon road dot com Uh, and there's a contact form on there you can fill out. We love to hear from people. We do hear from people already and it's all very positive, but we would also like to hear the negative guys. Yeah.

You know, if you want to say, Hey, Randy, Jim, you guys are so full of it. Your eyes are brown.

You know, go ahead and say that if that's what you feel like, you know, I can't believe you said you got charred hot dog on that burger. Yeah. And peanuts, really, why are you guys talking about peanuts? You know, so whatever. And Randy gets butterscotch on every bourbon. But you know why that is.

Before we go, I've got to tell this story. Yeah. So I have musician friends, and one of them is playing with a group called Confederate Railroad. He wasn't our founding member, original member, but I played with him in a group, a country group years ago. And he's the one that actually would say, hey, and it was Crown Royal, He'd go, look, before we go out there to clear, kind of clear some things up, just take a shot of crown. And then what you would do is after you took that shot of crown, you probably had 15 minutes before you went on. He'd say here, and I don't know what it was. And I, and I want to talk to him. We, maybe we should try to get him on the show at some point and go, why a butter rum lifesaver? there was some kind of glycerin or something about that butter rum lifesaver that a lot of musicians were using. And I hate butterscotch. I used to anyway. I hate butterscotch. And that's where it amazes me how I get butterscotch so much. And it has to be because I had to suck on those butter rum lifesavers before going out there and trying to sing. So I just wanted you to know that. There's another story for you right there folks. Why is Randy all about the butterscotch?

That's why you can pick up butterscotch from down the bar, right? Yeah, I guess. There you go. Anyway, well this has been fun. Yeah, it's good. I think we should do this once in a while, you know, just you and I. It's a good chance for us to sit down and talk and You know, maybe what we do is once every now and then we sit down and go over some listener questions, talk about some of the things that people have brought up in communication with us, and talk about what we got coming up, some events we're going to be at, things we're going to be doing. I know we're going to be over at the Bourbon Brotherhood event over at the Old Stone Inn on the 26th. We were just at the Lexington Bourbon Society event, the Commonwealth Bash, We've got a number of things that we're going to do and let everybody know what we're doing.

We'd really like to get down to Nash Vegas sometime to do a couple interviews down there with some friends.

Yeah, we do have some friends down there. And you know what? There's some places I'd like to visit and have a few pours too.

There you go. Yeah.

Sounds good. So I'm actually going to be going to the Southern Whiskey Society event on August the 3rd down in Franklin, Tennessee. Oh, okay. I know you can't make that one, Randy. You're going to be on vacation. Well, it's my mother's 80th. You know, I think I better show up for that. You should probably do that. Well, Melody and I are going to go down to Franklin on August the 3rd. We're going to hang out, you know, with the guys from the podcast. And I think Perry will probably be down there as well from This Is My Bourbon Podcast. And there'll be some other people there, and we'll have a good time. Sounds good.

Sounds good. Well, love to hear from you. You're bourbon your way. Cheers. Cheers.

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 on 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.