Jack’s back! Binny’s cigar buyer Jack Spethman makes his annual visit to the Barrel to Bottle studios to talk sticks with Pat and Roger. Roger wanted to focus on golf course cigars, even though he doesn’t really golf. But it is warm out and that’s when Roger smokes cigars (and pipes). Check out this guide to some great cigars for summer, along with new accessories and a pairing with Calumet Farms 16-Year-Old Bourbon . If you have a question for the Barrel to Bottle Crew, email us at comments@bin...
Jul 15, 2022•1 hr
Welcome to part two of Old Ales and Barleywines. In part one, we covered old ales, this week, we’re exploring the American side of these styles. Barleywine used to be huge among craft beer nerds, it was the hot beer style and was often viewed as a thank you from breweries to their hardcore fans. Drink along at home or start your own vertical with the following beers: Anchor Old Foghorn Barleywine Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Three Floyds Barrel Aged Behemoth If you have a question for the Barrel to Bot...
Jul 08, 2022•54 min
Pat considers himself an adventurous guy. Drinking a bunch of old ale and barleywine when it’s 100º is not his idea of adventurous though. Luckily the studio is cold, and the fan is on so he should be quite comfortable drinking all these heavy, high alcohol beers. Roger has been planning this episode for a very long time. He has verticals, he has barrel-aged variants. He even has a beer that he had to hunt down and bring into our Willowbrook location. Chris is a barleywine aficionado, who had th...
Jul 01, 2022•51 min
Canned cocktails are all the rage right now, but Dogfish Head has been perfecting their own recipes for the last twenty years. In part 2 of our interview with Sam Calagione we’re sampling through some of their vodka-based cocktails. When we first started tasting cocktails at Barrel to Bottle, we asked the question “if you were served this at a bar, would you order another one?” But now that the category has exploded, we have different parameters for how to judge them. Some beers in the Dogfish l...
Jun 24, 2022•42 min
Roger has been working on getting Sam Calagione for an in-person podcast basically since the last time he was on, several years ago. We made the most of this in-person opportunity and ended up with a two-part podcast. In part one, the Barrel to Bottle crew samples through some of Dogfish Head's most well-known beers, and discusses innovation in craft beer. Drink along at home with the following beers: Dogfish Head SeaQuench Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA Dogfish Head Utopi...
Jun 17, 2022•52 min
Summer is the time for white wines, rosés and Beaujolais. That’s right, you don’t need to drink Beaujolais in late November because they’re also great summer wines that you can drink chilled on a hot day. Beaujolais is technically part of Burgundy, and it’s made up of three categories. Today we’re focusing on the 2020 vintage. Drink along at home with the following wines: Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Villages 2020 Jean Marc Burgaud Beaujolais Villages 2020 Janodet Les Fines Graves Moulin a Vent 20...
Jun 10, 2022•50 min
Lexie Phillips, assistant distiller at Jack Daniel’s, stops by the Lincoln Park tasting room to sample a line-up of the famous Tennessee Whiskey with the Barrel to Bottle Crew. There’s a lot of innovation coming out of Lynchburg these days, but there’s still the classic Old No. 7 Drink along at home with the following: Gentleman Jack Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Select Jack Daniel's Bonded Jack Daniel's Triple Mash If you have a question for the Barrel to Bottle Crew, emai...
Jun 03, 2022•1 hr
Rosés are popular, in fact they’re one of our most popular items. They’re often gone before you know it. Some people drink Rosés year-round, while some prefer to drink them when they weather gets warmer. Lincoln Park wine manager Gabe is back with four bottles of Rosé and a box. Drink along at home with the following Rosés Quadrum Rosé 2021 Cuvelier los Andes Rosé of Malbec 2021 Guigal Cotes du Rhone Rosé 2021 Ravines Rosé of Pinot Noir 2021 Domaines Ott Cotes de Provence Rosé 2021 If you have a...
May 27, 2022•56 min
Cue the Meatballs theme song…are you ready for the summer? It’s a Roger episode, specifically summer beers. And while it’s still spring, we record this episode when it’s swelteringly hot. Seasonality means almost nothing in beer now, which means we have summer beers already (and we’ll have Oktoberfest beers in July). Summer beers should be-as a guest once said- “CRUSHABLE”. That means they’re very drinkable, which is probably why breweries love summer beers so much. After sneaking in an 8.5% har...
May 20, 2022•54 min
Joining us all the way from Down Under are Stu and Cam, co-founders of Australian gin distillery Four Pillars. After working in the Australian wine industry for about twenty years they decided that they could make a bigger impact in spirits. They landed on gin because they were drinking a lot of gin. Drink along at home with the following gins: Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin Four Pillars Olive Leaf Gin Four Pillars Navy Strength Gin Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz Flavored Gin If you have a question for t...
May 13, 2022•1 hr
Jason Lede (LAY-DEE) grew up around wine. Living in Canada, his father Cliff was a Bordeaux collector. Eventually Cliff’s collecting turned into opening a winery in Napa. Soon Jason was visiting the winery during summer breaks, then he was taking semesters off school to work the harvest. At that point, he was fully in on working in wine and that led him around the world before settling back at Lede Family Wines as Director of Communications. Drink along at home with the following wines: Cliff Le...
May 06, 2022•55 min
The last time Binny’s wine consultant Emily visited the Barrel to Bottle studios, she brought snacks. Her pitch for that episode was pairing wine with junk food, which eventually spun off into a second episode with classier wine pairings and popular Asian takeout foods. Today’s episode pitch from Emily is pairing wine and music. It might seem like it’s too abstract to make any sense, but the more we thought about how music and wine are made and experienced, the more it made sense to tackle this ...
Apr 29, 2022•59 min
Chris Cottrell is the partner/consigliere at Bedrock Wine Company, where they’re dedicated seeking out and preserving vineyards all over California. He met future owner/winemaker Morgan Twain-Peterson while working at a wine shop in New York. Morgan eventually opened Bedrock in a converted chicken coop in California. Chris joined Morgan in 2012 officially, after being an unofficial advisor for him. Drink along with the following wines: Bedrock Old Vine Zinfandel 2020 Bedrock Wine Co Heritage Red...
Apr 22, 2022•53 min
One episode just wasn’t enough to cram in all the flavor-blasted products on Binny’s shelves. So we’re back with part two, focusing on spirits. Drink along at home with the following spirits: Cathead Honeysuckle Vodka Yu Gin Apologoue Persimmon Liqueur Tempus Fugit Crème de Noyaux Plantation Stiggins' Fancy Pineapple Rum Chinola Passion Fruit Liqueur Jameson Orange Whiskey Leopold Bros. New York Apple Flavored Whiskey Dead Drop American Pecan Whiskey Huber's Starlight Distillery Blackberry Whisk...
Apr 15, 2022•54 min
We use the phrase “Flavor Blasted” a lot, usually in jest. But more and more, we are seeing products that are catering to fans of candy and desserts. Basically, almost everything is flavor blasted these days from beer to seltzers to ciders and meads. So many beers, ciders and meads have fruit in them; to the point where a “plain” beverage is the oddity. Drink along at home: Revolution Freedom of Speach Revolution Freedom of Expression Noon Whistle Passionfruit Face Smack Noon Whistle Guava Gose ...
Apr 08, 2022•50 min
We’ve assembled our wine, beer and spirits experts for another Q&A episode. No, we aren't out of ideas! We still get questions from listeners all the time, but our episodes always run too long and we can never fit them in. So we're dedicating an entire episode to getting to the bottom of some of your queries. If you have a question for the Barrel to Bottle Crew, email us at comments@binnys.com , or reach out to us on Facebook , Twitter or Instagram . If we answer your question during a podca...
Apr 01, 2022•59 min
Greg. Loves. Manhattans. That should be clear to most Barrel to Bottle listeners. Two years ago we did an episode called Vermouths and Manhattans where we tried a bunch of different vermouths and a few bitters, then we mixed up some Manhattans. The episode devolved into mixing and matching bitters and vermouths in whiskey. We promised to follow that up with a bitters tasting and we’re finally getting around to it. Greg pulled nineteen bitters from our shelves, then batched up Manhattans in adora...
Mar 25, 2022•58 min
Boxed wines have been around for decades, and they’ve always been popular without ever completely taking off. Boxed wines have long been associated with cheaper wines, and there are a lot of bargains still be had, but higher end wines are ending up in boxes now. Taste along at home with the following wines: Franzia Pinot Grigio GameBox Pinot Grigio 2020 Folonari Pinot Grigio Peter Vella Delicious Red Bota Box Redvolution Chateau Maris Red Blend La Vieille Ferme Red box and bottle If you have a q...
Mar 18, 2022•46 min
IPAs can be a bit polarizing. Some people love them, some people hate them. Some people miss the classic bitter IPAs, while some people love searching out the latest hazy IPA with some new, experimental hop combo they’ve never had before. The good news is there’s still plenty of IPA out there for all tastes. Drink along at home with the following beers: Lagunitas Stereohopic vol. 4 3 Floyd's 50 Million Dollar Man Oskar Blues Western Mutant Goose Island Tropical Beer Hug Noon Whistle Your Gummy v...
Mar 11, 2022•50 min
It’s March, which means it’s once again time to talk about all things Irish, the new and the old. Last year we talked about some Irish whiskies and Irish creams and there have been even more innovations in the category. Will Roger be able to find something to replace his beloved Declan’s Irish Cream? Drink along at home with the following: Guinness Draught Guinness Draught Zero Murphy's Irish Stout Three Floyd's Brian Boru Kilbeggan Single Grain 16-year-old Single Grain Select Batch #K05/218 Bin...
Mar 04, 2022•57 min
Geneviève Janssens and Chrissy Whittmann started in different places on their journey to becoming winemakers at Robert Mondavi and The Prisoner, respectively. They did both take similar paths to get there though, starting in the lab. Drink along at home with the following wines: Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2019 Unshackled Red Blend 2019 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2016 The Prisoner 2019...
Feb 25, 2022•48 min
Barrel to Bottle is your weekly dose of alcohol esoterica, and the Long Drink is a very deep dive into esoterica. The Long Drink, or Lonkero, was invented for the 1952 Summer Olympics in Finland. This simple, two-ingredient cocktail is easy to make, but you can now get them as a canned cocktail, or as a malt-based beverage. Drink along at home with the following: Kyro Gin Fever Tree Grapefruit Sparkling Water Squirt The Long Drink Company Traditional The Long Drink Company Zero Sugar The Long Dr...
Feb 18, 2022•51 min
Flagship February is a yearly opportunity to revisit some craft beer classics. These are the beers that keep the lights on for their respective breweries. They often reflect the period of craft beer history during which they were conceived. Some of these are relatively new flagship beers, while others have been going strong for decades. Flagship February started as a viral tweet and has grown into one of Roger’s favorite times of year. These beers are classics for a reason, and they’re also grea...
Feb 11, 2022•49 min
Maybe Dry January wasn’t your thing, but you still want to cut back a little on the alcohol? Luckily, there have always been wines that were naturally low in alcohol, and infrequent contributor Jason brought five wines that are packed with flavor but not high too high in ABV. These are wines you can drink a couple of and not need to take a nap. These aren’t gimmicky wines, they’ve always existed at this lower alcohol level. If you have a question for the Barrel to Bottle Crew about wine, spirirt...
Feb 04, 2022•48 min
Just how much more do you want to learn about the Barrel to Bottle Crew? If the answer is "lots" then this episode is for you. This is a Greg Episode, so he has compiled the list of questions both shallow and deep, alcohol-related and not. If you have a question for the Barrel to Bottle Crew, email us at comments@binnys.com , or reach out to us on Facebook , Twitter or Instagram . If we answer your question during a podcast, you’ll get a $20 Binny’s Gift Card! If you like our podcast, subscribe ...
Jan 28, 2022•59 min
The temperatures are plummeting after a relatively warm start to the winter season. There’s no better time to whip up some hot cocktails to get you through the grey winter days and long, dark winter nights. It's Quarantoddy Time! While many cocktail recipes have so many origin stories, riffs and variants but with Toddies, it really can be any spirit mixed with some sort of hot liquid. If you have a question for the Barrel to Bottle Crew, email us at comments@binnys.com , or reach out to us on Fa...
Jan 21, 2022•54 min
Every year, Whisky Advocate releases their list of the Top 20 Whiskies of the Year. Invariably, we get many customers coming in looking for bottles on the list and unfortunately, we have to tell them “You can’t have this”, because we never had the bottle, or had six bottles months ago. This year is different, because you can get more than half of the Whisky Advocate Top 20 whiskies at a Binny’s near you. If you have a question for the Barrel to Bottle Crew, email us at comments@binnys.com , or r...
Jan 14, 2022•59 min
Pat is constantly extolling the virtues of aromatized wines. Finally, we have a guest who will actually agree with him and won’t just make fun of him. Jake Parrott is a friend of the pod and the Whiskey Hotline and is also the national sales director of Haus Alpenz. What Jake sells, and Pat loves, is woefully esoteric. But Binny’s customers, and Barrel to Bottle listeners, are enthusiasts. If you have a question for the Barrel to Bottle Crew, email us at comments@binnys.com , or reach out to us ...
Jan 07, 2022•48 min
The end of the year means year-end lists. You’ve heard from the Binny’s buyers over the last two weeks, now it’s Barrel to Bottle’s turn. The entire team has assembled with their favorites of 2021. Everyone was supposed to pick two, but of course that didn’t happen. So thanks for listening to all these long episodes lately. If you have a question for the Barrel to Bottle Crew, email us at comments@binnys.com , or reach out to us on Facebook , Twitter or Instagram . If we answer your question dur...
Dec 31, 2021•1 hr 1 min
We’re back for part two of Binny’s Buyer’s Picks for 2021. This week, we welcome wine buyer Bill, beer buyer Kyle, cigar buyer Jack and specialty spirits buyer Brett. If you have a question for the Barrel to Bottle Crew, email us at comments@binnys.com , or reach out to us on Facebook , Twitter or Instagram . If we answer your question during a podcast, you’ll get a $20 Binny’s Gift Card! If you like our podcast, subscribe wherever you download podcasts. Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts ....
Dec 24, 2021•39 min
