97. Three Chord Whiskey Drummer - 15 Year 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 our friends at Premium Bar Products for sponsoring this episode. If you're ready to step up your game at your home bar, check out premiumbarproducts.com to choose from their wide selection of glassware, all of which can be custom engraved with your personal message or logo. And there's no minimum order. So after the episode, head over to premiumbarproducts.com and check out everything they have to offer. Now let's get on with the show. Hello everybody, I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is The Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, another Craft Distillery Monday at Jeff the Bin Farm. We've got a well-aged bourbon on our hands here. 15 years. 15-year bourbon. Sent to us by our friends at Three Cord. And kind of excited to try this one.

Yeah, they're a small, I would say craft distillery out of Chelsea, Michigan. That's just, just west of Ann Armor. They got a big old football team up there that you Ohioans don't like to mention the name of.

Now they're not making this, they're a blender. Yeah, they source this. They source their whiskeys from Kentucky and Indiana and Tennessee. And then they blend them, expertly blend them with a twist, right?

Yeah, there's always a twist to them.

Yeah. So tell me a little bit about their founder.

So Neil Geraldo. I don't know if I'm saying that right, but Neil is a musician. He's, I'd say he's world famous. He's Grammy nominated. Did a lot of music for Pat Benatar and Rick Springfield, Jesse's girl. You know that song?

Oh yeah. Yeah. Jesse's girl. Yeah.

So he's music for Pat Benatar. Um, that's kind of our era right there anyways. So yeah, I guess he wanted to get into bourbon. So away he goes with this and this is a way to start, start a distillery, right? Yep. You could either make it yourself and sell moonshine and vodka and gin, or he could source it.

Yeah, so I think, you know, pretty excited to get this one in. A 15-year bourbon always gets my attention, no doubt about it. This particular distillery has not been on the show yet. We haven't had one of their products yet. So yeah, they have three standard products of their own that are on the shelves normally. They have a blended bourbon whiskey, which is 81 proof, and that's kind of their entry level. And then they have a 107 proof, what they call their 12 bar reserve, and that's a blend of 12 year old bourbons from Kentucky and Tennessee. And then they have their Amplify rye whiskey, which is a 95 proof whiskey as well. Really three major products, but what we have today is not those. What we have today is a special release. It's a, it's a seasonal release and it's their 15 year old straight bourbon whiskey, straight Kentucky bourbon whiskey.

That's got a special name to it too, right?

It does. It's called Whiskey Drummer. And, you know, the Whiskey Drummer was kind of the, I think that it's a throwback to the, the, the ringing in, you know, the, the death to prohibition. Basically when the end of prohibition came, the Whiskey Drummer came out and sort of drummed in the new era.

I was thinking like Skid Row Drummer just hammered those drums while he's drinking whiskey.

All right. Well, anyway, Mike, I'm really looking forward to this. This is a non-chill filtered 15 year old Kentucky bourbon whiskey. And it is, there's only, there's two different batches to this. 2,500 bottles total. Batch one, the one we have right now is a 1,080 bottle batch. MSRP, $189. That's a big boy whiskey. It's a big boy whiskey. So I'm really expecting it to live up to that number.

Well, I'm sitting here nosing it already, Jim. And, uh, I'm trying to guess who, who this comes from. I'm getting a lot of peanuts off of this.

Oh, peanuts or just nuts in general?

Nuttiness, I guess.

I don't know. This could be. So what are you, you're leaning towards what you're leaning towards heaven hill.

I was thinking heaven hill. Cause they got that harmony.

Yeah, they do. Uh, beam has that sort of peanutty peanut shell kind of, but I'm not getting that on my nose. I'm getting a little bit more of a cherry note on the nose though.

Really getting the oakiness from it. Definitely that 15 years.

117.9 proof though, Mike, it's a little bit of a proof to this one.

Yeah, they haven't cut it down. So heck, I applaud them for that even before drinking it. You know, we had drank that rhetoric that was 25 years old and it had been proved out of 90 and to me, it almost had ruined that experience.

Well, this one, you know, has a definite, I mean, it's got an imposing oak barrel nose to it that, but you know what? It's not too much. And you kind of worry about that a little bit when you get up around 15 years or higher, you worry about, eh, get too much barrel. In this case, at least as far as the nose is concerned, I don't think so.

All right, let's taste it. Let's taste it.

Wow. That is, uh, that's chocolate.

I'm actually getting a little Dr. Pepper on that. Are you really? Yep. That spiciness, that sweetness. I get the chocolate too though. Yeah. If you had a chocolate Dr. Pepper, let's be right up my alley.

We had that toasted Elijah Craig a while back and it had that s'more kind of flavor to it. This definitely has that as well, in my opinion, but this one's got more of the chocolate, I think.

This one's got more of that campfire.

A lot more campfire, absolutely. Yeah, so these marshmallows are Well toasted. Probably let them catch fire and then blew them out. Yeah. What do you think?

Have you ever taken one of those things and accidentally flung it and it just flies off the end of your stick?

The worst thing in the world is when it lands on like your girlfriend's leg, your wife's leg, she screams out in pain.

Yeah. You can, there's no way to that out there. You're, you're an evil person.

Yeah, I can't pick the distillery. Um, I will say that, um, I would tend to lean towards Heaven Hill. I, who knows, but I guess it could be a Barton product. I wouldn't be surprised by that, but that little bit of nuttiness that's in there has me thinking Heaven Hill.

Man, that Kentucky hug is there all day long with this one.

Yeah, this one, this one's hugging me and it's 117 proof, but it's got a very nice back into it. Not overly oaky, not too dry. I'm surprised by that. And the finish is quite long on this. Yeah.

You could almost, you could almost chew on this a little bit. When I say chew it, it's a little bit thicker, which you would expect out of that 117 proof. still getting those nuts coming through on this and that spice. And like you said, that chocolate little bit of cherry there, not overpowering or anything. Um, and like you said, the oak is, it's not there. What you would think.

Yeah. The oak did not take over this, this, this, this whiskey. The s'more that I'm getting from it, it's definitely a more of a drier chocolate. The marshmallow has been thoroughly charred and the graham cracker is not one of those boxed graham crackers you get at the store. This would be a homemade graham cracker with a great deal of like fresh baked flavor in it. It's a very, very kind of an all spicy kind of, uh,

Yeah. Now what's their master blender's name?

Ari Sussman.

So Ari, I'd say Ari did a great job at this. Um, I would put this right up against one of the old Carter bottles.

I would do. I would say that this is reminiscent of a well, Well crafted old Carter release.

No doubt about it. And what'd you say the price was $189?

$189 a bottle. Um, yeah. So this is, like I said, there's only a thousand and 80 bottles in this batch. Number one. And you know, The time that this episode releases is about the same time that this particular product is going to release. So you're hearing this, it's about time to start looking for it. If this is something that it sounds like you want to get your hands on, don't waste any time because a thousand bottles won't last long in the market.

Now the bottle they sent us is a smaller 375 bottle, but if you look at the bottle, it's actually the bottle we have is actually the label that goes on a 750 bottle.

Yeah, it's very kind of a retro label, like a hand sketched retro label. I think they did a great job on it. I mean, the bottle stopper has a faux tax stamp on it. And very nice. I think it's a very nice presentation.

You know what I mean? You've talked about this before. I love those throwback labels like that. Hand sketchings, not cartoony so much, but more just I'm not sure what the word to use that is. Vintage. I like that vintage look to a bottle. Especially if you have a lot of low oak and leather in your house or wooden leather in your house. Fits up on the shelf perfectly. Fits right in the place here at Jeff's Bend Farm.

Absolutely. Well, Mike, you know, one of the things that three chord is known for is their kind of music background. You know, we talked a little bit about that, but they believe that a whiskey can be crafted the same way music can be crafted. You know, Dustin Collins likes to say, three chords in the truth, right? Oh, yeah. Three chords in the truth. Well, I think three chord probably kind of dips into that just a little bit. One of the things that they do is they use tonal, I won't call it agitation, sound wave agitation of the barrels. So they're expertly choosing barrels, expertly blending barrels, subjecting them to some tonal interference or whatever to help get the most out of the barrel. And in addition to that, they do some barrel heating to sort of bring out the best in the barrel as well. So they're doing some kind of new stuff here. They're not making their own juice, but they are taking what's out there and trying to make the best of it. Most of their stuff is anywhere between four and 12 years. This one's a 15.

They're honest about that though. There's transparency there. They're saying, Hey, this is what we're doing. I don't, I don't mind that at all. And for a 15 year old bourbon pretty dang good. Sometimes you, you can get a older bourbon and it can be a miss for you. For me, one of those bottles was that Knob Creek 15 that was just the nine and the 12 year old were better. But what are this? And even the rhetoric 25, I was like, man, why did they proof this down? I get it. You got to make your money back. You got to make a profit. But on this right here, they didn't proof it down. I didn't miss the mark. It is a great 15 year old bourbon.

Well, you know, they say on their promo materials on this that it's a It's well balanced considering its age. I'm going to say that it is surprisingly not over oat considering its age. Um, I don't know that I would call this a well balanced bourbon. I think it does jut out a little bit in that area, but, um, I like it. I mean, I kind of like that. Um, you know, I like a bourbon that, that kind of tells a story and this bourbon definitely tells a story about the 15 years that spent in the barrel. I think they did a good job blending it. $189, probably not going to give it away.

No, that would be a really nice gift.

But this is a very special bourbon to share with a friend.

If somebody wants to gift us, to gift us a bottle, Jim, we'll take it. We'll take it.

But yeah, I would, I would definitely crack a bottle of this open with, uh, best of my friends and, uh, and enjoy it. I think it's, uh, yeah. Reminiscent of a really good old Carter, I think.

Yeah, this is definitely a great sipper to sit down by a fire, uh, late in the winter time and just sip away and put a little Pat Benatar to drink with it.

Alright, so if you're out there looking for a great fall bottle, you're looking for something that you think would really dress up your bar a little bit, and you're not scared to put down a little bit of cash, just a little under $200 a bottle, I would say this is not a bad choice. It won't disappoint. I think that if you are somebody who does not gravitate towards the older whiskies, the heavier oak whiskies, the whiskies that have more of the campfire and smoke and that sort of thing, probably not for you. But if that's your jam, It's a good choice, I think.

Almost definitely. Well, Jim, where can people find us on social media?

Well, we are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube at The Bourbon Road. You can also find us at our website.

It's www.thebourbonroad.com.

the bourbonroad.com. And Mike, on that website, not only do we have our podcast, but we also have our blog.

We got some blogs. You can go in there and shop. I try to do the best I can as an old country boy writing those blogs, but it's just, it's my words. That's how I write, you know, kind of like three chords and the truth, right? There's just the truth about what I feel or what I'm feeling that day. It's not always about the whiskey. I used to write about the entire episode and I kind of got away from that.

So we also have a private Facebook group called the Bourbon Roadies. And on the Bourbon Roadies, we ask you three questions to become a member. We want to know, are you 21? Are you old enough to drink bourbon? If so, do you know you're getting yourself into a bourbon group? And will you play nice? We want people that are nice. Yeah, we want people who are kind. We don't want people in our group that are going to come down on somebody because of what they like or what they don't like in whiskey.

Yeah. Somebody stuck a bottle of Jim Beam up there and they're just starting on their bourbon road and they're excited about being a roadie. Hey, we want to say cheers to those people. If they ask what else they could buy, we're not going to down that Jim Beam. or whatever they're drinking, but give them honest opinions. Say, hey, you know, you might like these, you might like that. Depending on what you like, what your flavor profile is, I guess, the roadies will do that for you. That's right.

I mean, if you come on there and you reveal whiskey in the roadies and you don't like it and you're honest about it and you've done a good solid review of it and your palate tells you this is not my jam, all the respect in the world for you. Most definitely. Well, you don't have a problem with that. In fact, we appreciate and welcome that review. But if you're just slamming something because of its price, if you're slamming something because you think that it's unattainable and you're just mad, we're probably not the group for you.

Probably not. So if you're a distillery out there and you like the way we do our reviews, we're just honest people, Go ahead and give us a call, send us an email, hit us up on Instagram or on Facebook, and we'll get with you and we'll do a review of your whiskey. If you're listening to this and you really like these episodes we're doing, our main episode or our whiskey review episode, scroll all the way up top, hit that subscribe button. It helps us out, helps us with our numbers. It's not going to cost you anything. Then scroll on back down. hit that review for us. Hopefully it's a five-star. We'll take a one-star, but if you do leave a review, leave us some words, tell us what we can do better. We'll always try. We definitely appreciate the five-stars though. It helps open those doors, gets us in the stilleries, gets us some great guests on, and it keeps me and Jim driving on down that bourbon road.

You know, people say we probably shouldn't constantly tell people to leave us a five star or one star, but you know what? All this time we've been doing this, Mike, as honest as we've been about wanting reviews and getting people to tell us how we're doing, we've only had a single one star review.

Yeah, that's my fault.

But that's okay. You know, we're by far five star reviews. People, people do like what they hear and they give us good reviews. So pretty happy about that.

Yeah. I, I, I love reading those. I know you do. And, um, it, it makes you feel good that we're trying to put out a good product. We know that we're, we are putting out a good product. People were like, and listen to us. Um, and our group is growing every day. So yeah. I'm having a great time. I know you're having a good time. That's all that matters when it really boils down to it.

Absolutely. Two shows a week, Mondays we do one of these craft distillery reviews. On Wednesdays we do a full length episode. It's either Mike and I sitting around chatting or we have somebody on the show and we visit a distillery, they come on the show, whatever it is. Sometimes it's a musician, sometimes an author, just somebody interesting that wants to drink some bourbon with us. It's a lot of fun. Uh, we hope you'll check out both shows every week and, uh, you know, we do this because we love it. We do it because we appreciate all of our listeners out there.

You can find me at one big chief.

I'm Jay Shannon 63 and we'll see you 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 it if you'd subscribe and rate us a 5-star with a review on iTunes. Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, at The Bourbon Road. That way you'll be kept in the loop in all the Bourbon Road happenings. You can also visit our website at thebourbonroad.com to read our blog, listen to the show, or reach out to us directly. We always welcome comments or suggestions. And if you have an idea for a particular guest or topic, be sure to let us know. And again, thanks for hanging out with us.