93 Huling Station Straight Wheat Whiskey

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.

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Yeah, we got a craft store that I've been to. You haven't got to go down there. Have not been there yet. But a beautiful new distillery, a couple of years old down in Memphis, Tennessee. Our friend, Alex Castle, she works there at Old Dominic.

Old Dominic Distillery. Now I remember when you went on Big Chief Southern Road trip and this was one of your stops. Yeah. And well, you went there, you recorded an episode with Alex. And then you brought back some bottles for me too. So that was kind of nice. Oh yeah.

So I'd actually, one of our roadies knows I love some weeded whiskey, weeded bourbon, weeded anything pretty much. Um, but Alex at the same time sent me some samples of what we're going to drink today. But Adam, he brought me this entire bottle up cause he knows I'm such a, I don't know what's the good word for it. Weedy King of Kentucky. Weedy King of Kentucky.

You don't specify it has to be a bourbon, but you prefer bourbons, but you like wheat whiskies too. I do.

I think wheat whiskies are a good gateway whiskey for some people. They've got that sweetness and make a great cocktail. Yeah.

All right, so tell me a little bit about this bottle, a little more specifics about it before we taste it.

So this is a straight wheat whiskey. I mean, you've talked about that before. A straight whiskey would be anything that's over two years old. You could be from different distilleries. to be blended together. Nothing can be mixed in there. It has to be that pure whiskey, right?

But those distilleries must be from the same state. Same state, yeah.

This right here was contract distilled, meaning that it was distilled at a distillery under the supervision of Alex, which this is, says Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Everybody knows where that's at, right? MGP means she went up there, she took a recipe and said, hey, this is what I want. before they got everything set up and run.

Which is quite a bit different from going in and choosing barrels and selecting whiskey that you didn't have a hand in making. She actually went up with a recipe with a plan in place and said, I want you guys to make this for us while we build our Our place down here in Memphis. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, even if they got their place built and they started running, it's going to take a while to get everything in motion. So yeah. So we do know this is over two years old. This has a mash bill of 83% wheat, 12% corn, 5% malted barley. Okay. So what she was trying to do is what she was saying was get back to what the original owner Dominic, uh, Dominico, I think is how he says it. Yeah. In 1866, that was what they were trying to get back to his original recipes. Beautiful square bottle, heavy. Um, I like the old labeling. It actually has Hewling station was a rail station there in Memphis, Tennessee. I'm not sure if it's still around today. But a beautiful bottle, beautiful label, old school. So, Huling Station or Huling Station?

Well, I don't know. You know, I'm not good with that. All right. So, Huling Station maybe or Huling. Okay. Well, nevertheless, let's see what it tastes like, Mike, or let's nose it first.

It's got a real sweet nose, but it's soft. To me, it's very tricky. So, it's got that 83% wheat. If I didn't know any better, this would be 100% rye. It's got that nose on it and maybe that's that malted barley in it.

I'm getting the spice, but I'm not getting like a rye spice. I'm getting more of a, I don't know, more of a cinnamon spice maybe.

I get that floral notes coming out. Maybe that big red chewing gum that smell you get from that. Sure. Sure.

You know, you could breath, but it's not, it's not a real aggressive nose. I don't think it like comes in. I mean, it's kind of soft. Like you would expect a wheat, a weeded whiskey or weeded bourbon to be a little soft nose, but it, uh, it's definitely revealing itself as having a little bit more than just sweetness. Sure. Can we taste it? Let's do it. Cheers. This is killing me. Oh, wow. That's a pretty sweet wheat.

It is definitely sweet. I think both of us would agree. This is that cinnamon red hot candy. Absolutely. Meats.

I hate to say fireball but somewhere in the middle between those two. I think that if I tasted this blind and nobody said anything to me, I would Almost. It's not powerful enough to be a fireball, but I would be thinking fireball a little bit because of the cinnamon. It's got a very, very cinnamon, very sweet, very cinnamon kind of flavor to it, almost as if it might be artificially created.

I mean, it's good. Yeah. Don't get me wrong, but- I've drank a lot of fireball. Yeah. Me and Vivian used to go through a lot of that. So, it doesn't have that syrupy feel in your mouth. This doesn't. And this has definitely, it's a whiskey. I think it's a, I'd call this dessert whiskey. If you're looking for that little bit of a spice in your dessert, in your dessert whiskey, this is a great, great one.

Yeah. I think when you're drinking Fireball or Sinful or any of those cinnamon based whiskies, You can always tell that what's behind it is like a cane sugar, alcohol or ethanol. This is clearly a whiskey. There's some body and breath to the flavor that say, hey, there's something definitely behind this. It just has got this natural red hot cinnamon note that just, wow. It sticks with you too.

Yeah, it does. It is still like chewing on that big red bubble gum. And if you, if listeners, if you don't know what big red chewing gum, it's a cinnamon chewing gum sticks of it. Um, I love to chew on that all the time. It's, I think this is a good whiskey right here. I'm trying to think some other notes, not a whole lot of oak on this.

Uh, not a lot of oak. It's got a decent color to it though. I mean, it's a, it's a light, it's a light amber. But I do get some corn sweetness there. I do pick up a little bit of the corn. How much corn did you say was in it? 12% corn. 12% corn. So you can definitely taste a little bit of the corn. Any idea on the age here?

Well, we know it's over two years old. Other than that, I'm not sure. I would say somewhere in the two to four range, growing their age. I think it should be a four-year-old, but I would think they would have stated that on there.

Well, it doesn't have a whole lot of youthful taste to it. It seems like it's spent enough time in the barrel.

Yeah, it's got a nice rich color to it, like you said before. 90 proof. You know, I'm always looking for that higher proof. I'm wondering how this would taste as a cast strength. or even a single barrel.

I'm wondering if it wouldn't really, really get close to the fireball at that point. I mean, it might, it might.

Well, that could be why they proved it down to 90. Or to even stretch it. I, I still think this is a good, I'm just trying to get some other notes out of here. Like I said, light, real light on the oak, that sweetness from the corn is coming through, but that softness of the wheat and the florals, that cinnamon,

Yeah, it's a mid-palette. I'll call it a mid-palette bomb. It kind of sits right on the middle of your palate and gives you a great impression. It sticks with you. A little bit of hug.

Tiny, very, very light on the hug and stuff. I'd agree with you. It does stick right there. It does call you to say, hey, let's fill this glass up again. Let's do this over again. This is a great little sipper right here, I think.

Yeah, I think so too. So Mike, you spent a little time down at Old Dominic Distillery. They've got other expressions that you've had or that they've recently released. Can you talk a little bit about those?

Yeah. So they have their healing stations straight bourbon. We've both had that a couple of times. They have their Hewling Station blend, which is a blend of all their whiskeys. They have this wheat. You could actually pick up a couple bottles of vodka down there. They have their Honey Bell Citrus vodka, their Memphis vodka, and they actually have a number 10 gin. And I know you're a fan of gin. I do like gin.

It's my second, it's my other bourbon, I say.

Is that your other bourbon? That's my other bourbon. Yeah. I don't even know how to... respond to that. I don't know.

Can you call the other bourbon?

I would say my rum is my other bourbon.

Yeah. I mean, I like rum too. I think I have a lot of other bourbons.

They also have a, it's called a Memphis Totti. It's a pre-prohibition drink they make up. So, they've got all those expressions.

It's like lemon and honey and bourbon in it or something like that.

Well, it's a blend of their signature high rye bourbon and I think it's like more of like a cocktail drink. Okay.

All right. Well, it sounds like we've got a lot going on. People love to go to Memphis when this COVID thing is over. I'm sure the traveling will resume and people will get back to Memphis and do a little bit of touring.

Well, if you're in Memphis, great place. Bass Pro Shops down the road that looks like a giant pyramid. And then right across the street from Old Dominic. I mean, everybody likes fried chicken, right? Oh, yeah. So they got Gus's world famous fried chicken down there to eat. It's Absolutely delicious. Every time I get a chance to eat it, I'll just tear it up. And then bill streets a couple blocks away. Yeah. Listen, some blues down there. Get yourself some whiskey, get yourself chicken and just have a great time. And you can't miss old Dominic either because they got a giant rooster on the roof. So, you know, I think it's a throwback brand. I love what they're doing down there. Alex. Obviously she cut her teeth at Wild Turkey, right? One of your favorite places under Jimmy and Eddie. So how can you go wrong? I think it shows when we're doing these craft distillery reviews that we need to support those craft distilleries, especially in the times we're at right now. where I think they're down 44% in sales because they're used to that tourism. So as soon as you can get in their doors, you're in Memphis, stop by, help these small crafts still really stay alive. I think it's something great for our economy. It's great for them. And you're going to get to try some stuff that you've never tried before.

Yeah, and if you're trying to do the Tennessee Whiskey Trail, you know, the Tennessee is kind of a not a real tall state, but a very wide state. Yeah, it's a long ways across there. East to West. But, you know, Nashville is kind of in the middle. And then you've got the Western part of the trail, which would be around Memphis. Yep. And you've got the Eastern part of the trail, which is over near Chattanooga and Chattanooga Knoxville area. Knoxville area. Yeah. So make sure when you're knocking out that trail, you hit the West end and check out Old Dominic.

Yeah. I think you'll see more and more distilleries pop up as time goes on. Once we get out of this COVID stuff, I think they'll do just fine. I think Alex's, uh, She'd make some wonderful juice down there. I can't see what else she comes out with. You know, I think that it's awesome.

All right, Mike. Well, another good choice. I really appreciate you bringing the wheat. I'll try to bring the rye as often as possible. But yeah, a great one to try. I love drinking a little bit of wheat whiskey and I think this was a good choice. Something that I have not had before is something with this like intense red hot sweetness, kind of naturally derived. I mean, it's just very unique.

Yeah, you got to say, hey, she's doing her own thing. She's trying to not recreate the wheel like everybody else is doing, stepping out of the box a little bit. She said she went back to the roots. If this was a recipe that they had good on her for digging it up and recreating it. Absolutely.

Well Mike, another Distillery Monday, check it off.

Yeah. So if you're listening to this and you're liking what you hear, just scroll all the way to the top, hit that subscribe button, then scroll back down, you know, because we love those reviews, right Jim? We love the reviews. So go ahead and leave us a review. If you want to leave us a one-star, go ahead. Please, if you're going to do that, write what you want to hear, what we can do better.

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Jim, where can you find us at? Well, we are on all social medias at The Bourbon Road. You can also find us on our website, thebourbonroad.com. We have our podcast on there. You can listen on the website. You can also read our blog that comes out every week. You can buy some swag. We've got some glassware on there. And Mike, we have a private Facebook group as well, don't we? The Bourbon Roadies.

They're like a family to us. We're at about a thousand people right down there. What you're going to find different about our group than other groups, though, is there's no rudeness in there and they love to share their whiskey. We don't tolerate any rudeness. Yeah. There's three questions you got to ask. Are you 21? Do you like bourbon and do you agree to play nice? Come in there. You'll find master distillers. You'll found distillery owners in there. All kinds of people through the bourbon culture that'll discuss whiskey, whether you're just starting on your bourbon road. or you're well on your way.

Sometimes we have giveaways and contests. We've always got something fun going on there in conversation. It's a great time to come in and share your bottles as far as pictures go and share your bottles with others as far as samples go. We love to sample whiskey. Yeah. No selling whiskey in there though. Nope. We can't sell it, but we can't give it away. But we're getting close to having our own pick coming out. Yeah. It won't be long.

Pick coming out here in a few weeks. Me and Jim are working hard on it. We're discussing it all the time about our next pick. I would say get in there and be active if you're going to join the group. You'll find, like Jim said, that we do give away a lot of whiskey. We just gave a bottle of Elijah Craig barrel proof away. Adam gave that away. And I gave away a bottle of Stagg Junior Batch 14. almost gave up another entire bottle way of stag junior batch 13 and another bottle of stag junior 12. And then because I wanted more people to play with me and send me photos, I said, Hey, I thought a bottle of Weller special reserve. Wow. Mike, you are a generous guy. I think that's what our group's about. I want to show that whiskey love out there. Me and Jim, we both get plenty of bottles of whiskey. So if we, one of us send you some whiskey, we're turning that favor to another roadie, send them some whiskey. Me and Jim will always have whiskey. Yeah. Tis the season too. It's almost the season, right? Well, I think it is. I've had a pretty good, uh, hunting season. So. All right.

Well, Mike, I think it's been a good show. And, uh, like I said, check another one off and, uh, we'll see everybody next Wednesday. Well, two days from now with a full episode. won't want to miss. We'll see you on down the bourbon. 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.