Oh, friends, and welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon, and I'm your host, Todd Ritter. We've got a great show for you today. So grab your favorite po and join us. Hey roadies, it's Diane Strong with Bourbon on the Banks Festival. We've got another amazing event coming your way this year. Be sure to join us at the Half and I'll tell you a little bit more about the event taking place October 4th, 2025.
Todd and I are proud to have Smokey's Lifestyle Cigars as sponsor of this episode and as the official cigar of the Bourbon Road podcast. Our hosts and listeners alike enjoy the ultimate experience of premium cigars. Smokey's lifestyle cigars are where flavor and craftsmanship meet. Find out more during the halftime break and at Smokey's Lifestyle Cigar.com. The surgeon general warns that cigar smoking can cause lung cancer and heart disease and is not a safe alternative to cigarettes.
The Hill House Bed and Breakfast, located in Loretto, Kentucky is ready to be your bourbon country home away from home. Located less than 3 miles from Maker's Mark, the Hill House is convenient to Bardstown and the rest of the Bourbon Trail. The next time you visit bourbon country choose comfort and convenience. Choose the Hill House bed and breakfast. Listen in at the break for more details or visit their website at the Hillhouse Kentucky.com. Welcome back, long time listeners and new roadies.
We're glad to have you on the show again tonight. Todd and I are hanging out in the Bourbon Road bar. Uh, we've had kind of a busy week. We've been out on the road. Uh, we have, uh, recorded a few episodes, we've had a lot of samples come in. Todd, you've been collecting them like crazy.
Yeah, I try to, you know, I reach out and they reach out and so we got a nice little collection of things and And we're gonna actually split this up into two shows, so, uh, and we'll do a little deeper dive into what these are here in a little bit, but I think we got some news to share. Yeah, definitely. So everybody's always interested to find out when the next little book is coming out. A little book, Chapter 9 is released. It's called None for Granted.
It blends uh Kentucky whiskeys age 7 to 11 years, including some brown rice and rye, so. Uh, kind of interesting. It's uh MSRP 160, but Todd, I think you might have a hook on one of those bottles, right? Yeah, right, uh, I just got my bottle from the beamed barrel and box set, it's one of the releases that came in that one, and uh I did let Jasson Clory borrow that one for his Mash and Drum podcast. We, you know, sometimes he wants to review something.
I'm like, hey, you know, I got this in, so it's kind of a he shares with us sometimes, so I share back and uh yeah, so it should be uh should be coming up in uh probably I've got a kind of an interesting idea for a uh another review set that we'll do soon. Uh, this one is. It's kind of similar to Chapter 8, but not because chapter 8 was it's a bourbon and rye blend and a little heavier on the rye side, whereas Chapter 9 is a bourbon and rye blend but it's a little heavier on the bourbon side.
I think the percentages are way on one side a whole lot more and this one kind of features uh one of Freddie knows things which is uh. Extending the fermentation time out just a little bit longer, letting it continue in the vats just a little bit longer than normal. Yeah, which uh they did for one of those distiller shares.
I think we tried once that was kind of, I think it brings out a little more esters and kind of I think we tried it in spray like a fruity knob Creek pick like a fruitier I guess. It's great to see that kind of innovation coming out of the next generation out there. And uh little book is just, it's it's been very, very experimental, very on the edge, cutting edge out of the box.
I think it's a fun playground for him for sure barrelled and box they call it, but it's barrelling out of the box really is what it is. I'm always excited to get one. Also, uh, the Russell's Reserve 13 year. As has returned. I'm so excited. Next next issue is uh the 2025 release and it's clocks in at 123.8 proof, which is The highest proof ever.
Yeah, it's about 7 proof points higher than the original releases and yeah, that one's sadly gonna be hard to find, but I'm, you know, us being turkey guys, I gotta find one. Yeah, I mean MSRP is at 200. I mean, unless you can get it at MSRP. I'm gonna expect you to pay a little bit more probably. Yeah, I may have to do some wheeling in Dillon, but they're saying cola and brown sugar notes. I haven't tried it yet, so. You know, we're a turkey guys, so we gotta try it.
Uh, Old Foresters's President's Choice now has released nationwide, so keep your eyes out, folks, if you can get your hands on it, uh, it is, uh, Very limited and it's at $225 a bottle so it's not a cheap one and if you recall I think correctly, we just talked about how they are also doing the present choice rye so also suburban and the new rye expression so you get both of those. I know you got some more Todd. What do you got going on?
So one of the cool things about Kentucky is we have the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame, and there were 4 new inductees and uh the Craig Beam. I think it's like an excellence type thing. Went to Chris Morris. He is the master distiller emeritus for Woodford Reserve. Uh, the other inductees include Larry Ebersold. He worked at MGP.
Yeah, a lot of those barrels that Larry was sold distilled and filled back in his time at uh Seagram's and MGP, uh, those barrels ended up at some startup distilleries and then uh the those startup distilleries released those under there.
Name. One good example is uh Boone County, Boone County, New riff, Rabbit hole, Bardstown, like it says he kind of helped shape facilities for 31 different like 31 different facilities, but then he would then he after they released those those MGP barrels under their name, he came in and and consulted with them to help them.
Uh, distill their own, which would continue on, you know, after those barrels were gone, right, right, so, and then lastly is Damon Thayer, probably not a big name outside of Kentucky, but he is a the Senate majority leader at uh the Kentucky General Assembly. He's from Georgetown, Kentucky. He also, if you've ever seen. Been in a Kentucky retail, you know, liquor store, you might have seen Kentucky Senator, that's his brand and it's named after senators from the past in Kentucky's history.
And he's also done a great deal with like bourbon legislation, like I'm sure he's helped with like Distilleries being able to pour at the bins and things like that, yeah, so, uh, yeah, so I can't remember when exactly that that inductee Hall of Fame thing is, but yeah, I just want to share.
Oh, and one more, Mary Dowling, who we just Had a big episode that'll be dropping at some point, where we talk about her extensively and it's, it was a lot of fun and we won't throw a whole lot of spoilers but uh she is the mother of bourbon, the mother of bourbon yeah that's all you need to know. And Buffalo Trace did release a new eagle rare expression, the twelve-year eagle rare. And uh it is available and it's gonna be out there um. Uh, it's gonna be out there pretty much nationwide.
It's gonna be, uh, released on a regular basis. This, the ability to, uh, uh, for them to create the secret of 12 is because of their large distillery expansion. The $1.2 billion distillery expansion that they, they put out. Listen in, folks. If you can get your hands on a retail bottle, 4999, great price. Yeah, uh, the release at the Buffalo Trace Distillery was crazy though. It was crazy. I think I sent you some pictures and you know I have friends that are tour guides over there.
My good friend Jeremy James is over there doing tours and he's uh doing some reviews on his barstools and Burman's show. Uh, he sent pictures and yeah, it was just crazy. I. Thought about going for about a half a second and then saw the pictures and I'm like, nope, don't do that. I can't waste half a day standing in line. But uh yeah, uh, he uh I believe is gonna send us a nice sample of that though. So, so we'll do a review on the show. Let everybody know what we think.
There's a number of reviews out there. I know that our friend, good friend Jason Cloy from Mash and Drum just recently dropped a review on that and uh he compared. Uh, he did a full review of the 12 year, then he compared it 1 to 1 to the 10 year, and he kind of gave his, his view on it, so. Um, check that out.
Yeah, that was on a straight review, but he also on his live show, he took a bunch of different 12 years and compared them, which is Weller 12, that 12, you know, Eagle Rare 12, see, uh, I don't know if he threw in the Jack Daniel's 12, which we both really love, but do you do the lot B? Uh, I don't recall. There's a couple more I'm actually missing, but I can't. Yeah, I would love to see it against the lot B. What do you think? Hm, yeah, that would be interesting.
That's we we did versus, yeah, I mean, it's a different animal, but OK. All right, Todd, so we have 4 whiskeys on the show tonight. These are, uh, whiskeys that were sent to us. Actually, we were sent 8 whiskeys. Yes, 8, and like I said, we will be doing 2 different shows because, well, 8 ports is a lot for one show, so we're gonna do 4 today with hopefully a bonus pours, you know, hang on, everybody's like, oh, they have a bonus port. Will they make it or why don't, you know, won't they?
So but no promises, no promises. I'm not sure what our batting average is on those, so we'd have to go back. It is getting better because I think we've gotten to a few.
But yes, our good friends, Adam Polanski and Norah Gainley Roper at Los Lantern sent us their latest releases and it's their summer collection and so this is when they put together to kind of celebrate estate distilleries where you know, distilleries are growing their own grains on their own land and making whiskeys that truly reflect where they're made, which I think is really, really cool. I mean you've even seen Heaven Hill now has. In a state this, you know.
They have 3 different estate releases and Woodford's growing corn too, so I mean, they're all working on it. I know. I think it's kind of that new thing, you know, to kind of show off the char and things like that. Well, not only that, but I think that that commercial grain growing, the genetics of the grain has tend to drifted a little bit more towards GMO, right?
And uh I I think that it's important in order to get back to the true and And uh amazing flavors that whiskey once was to get back to heirloom grains. Or at least grains that have not been genetically modified to the point where uh they can be mass produced, but they lose that, that intrinsic flavor. So today we're gonna focus on, there are 3 bourbons we're gonna try and then 1 wheat whiskey. So and then our separate show we're gonna focus on the rise. Perfect. So you ready to start?
Yeah, what do we have in our first class? Our first class is Whiskey Acres, which is based in DeKalb, Illinois. Oh, we had them on before. Yes, we have. We were surprised to find out that it was one of the blind barrels. Samples that we got from uh those guys and yeah we were I believe their 100 proof bottle and blind and we were both really impressed. Yeah, I I have this fond memory of a very good Whiskey Acres whiskey. I don't remember the details, but I do remember enjoying it.
I believe it may have been our favorite that day. Oh yeah, well, maybe the mythology. I think the mythology edged it out. That was the blend with the young stuff and high like an older, yes, but excellent. So Whiskey Acres is based in DeKalb, Illinois. This is a 5 year, 75% yellow dent corn, 15% wheat, 15% malted barley, clocks in at 118.1 proof, and there were 176 bottles of this available. With, uh, I believe the price all these prices were about $100 a bottle, which you know yeah OK. Oh wow.
Very, uh, very nice grain forward serial notes on it. Cornbread, cornbread, like sweet, sweet cornbread. Definitely with. Soaked in something. I was gonna say, could you put a little cherry jam on some cornbread? Does that work? Yeah. Oh, that's really good. That is an amazing nose. Actually, you know what, you ever had bread pudding? I mean sure you like, not the, you know, just the base. But that was like, yeah, like cherry jam on it. My mom used to make one that was in a like a round flat.
I pan that she fixed and like literally you would slice it like a pie, and my favorite thing to do would be like to go get whatever jam or jelly and just Put a put a layer of jam or jelly on it. Wow, yeah, this is really good. That that was a fat kid thing I used to do. It has kind of a light sweetness to it. It's not overly sweet, uh, but it does have a nice, like you said, like a cherry note, um, but yeah, the, the grain just pops on this, um.
And it is predominantly corn, I think, yeah, 75%, so good and then that malted barley, 15, 15% wheat, you know, I think it noses anyway. I haven't tasted it yet, but I think it noses. it's proof. Oh, OK. So I was gonna say also notices is like kind of bright, like a little brighter. I'm ready to sip. Cheers, cheers. Oh, that's different. That's um sweet and syrupy and rich. Dessert, oh, that's good, really good. Still the cornbread, still the cherry.
Cherry pie, like cherry pie, little vanilla, like a scoop of vanilla ice cream on it or something. Kind of like the hand pies that you used to get as a kid, uh, in the wax paper wrapper that had the kind of the, the ones, yeah, the hostess ones that had kind of the, uh, sugar glaze on the outside. Yeah, good call. Oh, this is very good. You do not get this in Scotch whiskey. You just never, I'm just telling you folks, you gotta be drinking bourbon to get this kind of taste.
I don't know if I've ever had a scotch with like like that cherry notes you get in a lot of bourbons. Yeah, I mean, you get, you get some nice flavors in scotch and I do enjoy them, but you never get this like overwhelming like. baking cabinet or like. I don't know, just deep cherry compote kind of sweetness. It's just because you can get cherry notes in a lot of, lot of different bottles, I think, yeah, so. I, I guess it's a corn, corn meets oak thing maybe whiskey acres, you're on my GPS map.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna stop there next time I'm on my way to Iowa. There you go. Take the recording. I really want a bottle of this. I know that's delicious. That is really good. This is a little bit more desserty though. Yeah, so I mean this is definitely not gonna go well with a cigar for as far as I'm concerned. But uh it's definitely would be good after dinner. Um, sitting down in the, uh, on the couch in the living room after dinner with a few friends, sipping on this, it'd be pretty good.
I enjoy it. It's really nice. It's a good start, but we gotta move on. Alright, so what do we have in our 2nd class? Our 2nd glass is the highest proof we'll have today. This is from Fre Ranch. 01 of my faves. Yeah, Kobe and Ashley Frere, have been on the show in the past. I didn't do a dive to see what episode, but if you go back in that catalog, you can find it.
Um, and I think you even said, uh, when I told you we got these in, you were like, oh, I bet Freranch is a part of this because they're in a state distillery and I was like, nailed it. Yeah, I, I think, you know, whenever I think of a state distilleries, I think the name at the top of my list, the one that first comes to mind is is Fre Ranch. Yeah, what's funny is now that, you know, we just had Min Mill on, so that's two estate distilleries that we know about in Nevada.
So it seems to be their jam. So this bourbon is 67% corn, 12% barley, 11% rye, and 10% wheat, and it clocks in at 125.3%. Uh, I don't recall the bottle count on this one. I'll try to find that real quick. Uh, but once again, I believe it's $100. All right. Well, on the nose, I think it's uh It tends to be a little bit more uh fresh. Um, the color is darker though. Yeah, it is a little bit darker. 1 year older, you said, 1 year older, 6 year.
All right, so this is a higher proof, it's one year older. On the nose, I'm getting a bit of a fresher nose on it. And very nice. A little bit of darker notes going on, like brown sugar. Cinnamon Yeah, I think the, I think the uh more spicy side of the of the spice cabinets coming in here. Very nice. A lot more barrel influence on this. I would I would put this one in the more mature uh stack. Res? Yeah, let's do it. Cheers, cheers. OK, so this was does not carry the sweetness.
That uh the whiskey Acres did. This is definitely a more mature whiskey, a bit higher proof. Has a great, great palette to it. I would say that the palate and the nose match very nicely. It's well balanced. Um, it drinks very nice. It does have a little bit more of a, uh, grain forward. I, you know, I kind of get that from Western whiskey. They got that kind of um their grains really speak and you drink the so did find out 200 bottles of this.
All these are gonna be released June 25th, so we're this episode should be dropping. The day before and then our ride will be a little late, but we'll we'll let you know what to expect with the rise and what to look for and typically you can find if you're in Vermont you might be able to find them in some of the nicer stores there and things like that, but you can order directly from or excuse me. You can order directly from Lost Lantern or you can also find them on sealbox.com. Perfect.
I did look back, Todd, and we had uh Colby on. Uh, back in episode 86, it's been a minute. It's been a minute. We did have the whiskeys in on again in episode 117, so we've been kind of neglecting these guys for 300 episodes, 300 plus, but it's the thing is I, I get it like there are so many. There's new ones popping up, there's just, there's a lot to cover. Yeah, great stuff. I, I love what these guys are doing. I really do.
Uh, we did have M and Mill on recently and you know, the, the awareness that comes from a state distilling is just tremendous. And I, I think it, it's not necessarily that they Grow their own grains, but they're they're in control of their own grain. Agriculture. Yeah, yeah, it's got to be. There's probably a good point to it and a bad point.
The bad point being if you don't get a whole lot of rain, well, your, your crop production is gonna be a little lower, but you're also not reliant on other farmers and things like that, probably a little, well, I'm sure they have other farms that are involved with them, but you know, rather than buying in bulk and things like that, it's probably a little easier just not to. Have to pay for that I guess is what I'm saying. But now, now, uh, for ranch, they actually, they are the farmers.
I mean, they're actually literally farming their own grains, right? Yeah, and actually, I mean, so was Whiskey Acres. I mean, I think that's everybody's like these farms are like I think whiskey, uh Whiskey Acres is like 4 generations Fray ranch is 5 or 6 or something like that, so you're talking. Been on that land a while. I'll tell you what, I've driven across Illinois. This is kind of north uh northern Illinois, it's uh Uh, let's see.
I'm trying to think when you're driving across, uh, is it 74? Now you're talking whiskey Acres, right? Yeah, I'm talking whiskey Acres now. When you're driving across 74 across the northern part of Illinois, um, you cross DeKalb. I, I've yet to stop there, but I'm ready to do it. So, and, and who, who doesn't want to go out to Nevada and visit Fre ranch and I know M and Mill and the others out there. I'm ready to do that too. I was gonna say if you are traveling.
I mean Do a little Google searching and see what's around you. I went out to Pennsylvania and sadly that was gonna go to, it's called Stolen Wolf, it's uh in Pennsylvania and they're doing a Ross and ye, which was apparently the the big ride back in the days.
That kind of made Pennsylvania Pennsylvania rye and uh yeah they were closed the day we were around that area so well we were there a little longer but you know we had like Hershey Park and that whole thing and kids and so did you get to ride off the trip anyway? What does that even mean? if I ride off my trip? Yeah, I mean, it's business, right? It's business taking my kids to Hershey Park and eating chocolate riding rides.
All right, well, let's, let's keep sipping on these whiskeys and uh we're gonna chit chat a little bit more about about these first two pours when we get back in the second half. We have 2 more coming up that we, uh, we honestly, I don't even know what they are. You're gonna tell me. I'm all right, folks, stick around. There's a good chance. That we'll have a bonus part at the end. We're definitely gonna rate the ones that we're drinking tonight and pick a winner. Winner winner chicken dinner.
Winner winner chicken dinner. All right, stick around, folks. We'll be right back. Hey roadies, it's Diane Strong with Bourbon on the Banks Festival again. We have another amazing event this year, but we want you to come early because we've got a lot of events leading up to the festival. Starting on Thursday, we've got another mixology with master mixologist Heather W Wibbles on the Bourbon Bell and OH Ingram. Leading into Friday we have got Peggy No Stevens.
She's back with another bourbon pairing and a lesson called The Stave is the rage. It's gonna be amazing. Limestone Heritage distilling is gonna be bringing in 3 single barrels. You're gonna learn a lot. We've got the VIP coming back and this year we are celebrating women in bourbon. This. year Bourbon on the Banks Festival promises to be even better than ever. We've already got more than 70 distilleries that are going to be there.
More than anything, I need to encourage you to get your tickets as soon as possible. They're selling fast. Some of them are already sold out. If you want to come this year, please get your tickets. We don't want to miss you on October 4th in Frankfurt, Kentucky on the banks of the amazing Kentucky River. Few things pair better together than a fine whiskey and a premium cigar, and Smokey's lifestyle cigars are where flavor and craftsmanship meet.
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When you're traveling the Bourbon Trail, location and comfort is everything. That's why I recommend making the Hill House Bed and Breakfast your home away from home. Located in the heart of Bourbon country, the Hill House Bed and Breakfast is less than 5 minutes from the Maker's Mark distillery in Loretto, Kentucky, giving you easy access to the Bardstown distilleries and all points of the Bourbon Trail.
The owners, Cheryl and Jim, offer 4 comfortable and cozy rooms along with a gourmet hot plated breakfast every single morning. And when you return from a long day of fun, it's time to enjoy a bit of the bourbon Trail nightlife. Relax on the large outdoor patio complete with a blazing chimpania and solo stove, or curl up on the sofa and chairs, put a record on the turntable, and relax with snacks and fruit in front of the gas fireplace.
An evening at the Hill House is a perfect time to raise a bourbon glass full of cheer in the company of family and friends. We know you'll enjoy your stay at the Hill House Bed and Breakfast as much as we did. Find out more at the Hillhouse Kentucky.com. Alright, welcome back Roadies. We are diving into the Lost Lantern Summer Estate collection. Which the very first po we had was the whiskey acres out of DeKalb, Illinois. The bourbon, really, really impressive.
Definitely a uh a desserty bourbon, yeah, it's so good that Jim's gonna stop by there on his way out there to visit relatives. In fact, I'm gonna call ahead and see if I can't like pop in and And maybe even do a quick little sesh, right, right, and then you can't have, you know, as expected.
Estate distilling, you think of if you know anything about craft distillers out there, you think Fray ranch and we had their bourbon, a 6 year bourbon from them and it was Night and day from the from the whiskey acres but also just as good. I mean I was really impressed. It's a little bit more of a well aged bourbon, had a little bit more barrel influence on it, wasn't as sweet, definitely was not desserty. It was almost like light and dark a little bit, yes, both great expressions, both, uh.
Good representation of what Los Leonard's trying to do here. So our next port is their farmers' fields bourbon. So what they did here is I know Adam Plonski is kind of like, it's his playground, so he picks the barrels, but then he also takes some of those barrels sometimes and. Kind of blends them. So what we have here is some bourbons from Fray Ranch, like I'm sure it's probably just a barrel or so.
Barrel from Whiskey Acres and then a new one to the mix is one from Far North Distilling in Halleck, Minnesota. Oh, what's it called? Far west north, far north. OK. So yeah, that's a new one to me too, I hadn't heard of that, which I'm, you know, I always love uh trying new stuff, so I'm kind of interested in this blend.
Now, it doesn't go into great details like what the percentages are, but This one has a 5 year age statement because the components range from 5 to 6 years, so I'm guessing probably that 6 year might be another 6-year barrel from Fre Ranch. That's just me kind of guessing, so 11799 proof, 428 bottles of this blend. So 117.9, 117.9, yeah, so with 428 bottles you gotta think that was probably one barrel of each that he kind of blended together, yeah.
And again, I believe all these were priced at about $100. Fantastic, so this is a blended bourbon from multiple distilleries. Uh, that Adam has uh. Procured and played curated and blended himself and you know, you see a lot of blends out there. And, you know, the big boys, you're like other brands do like MGP in Tennessee, obviously one of our favorites is the 15 Stars. They play with Tennessee, they play with Illinois, so it's kind of interesting to me to.
That they're taking some craft stuff and kind of playing around with it too, so, so we've had some Nevada whiskey, we've had some Iowa whiskey, and now we've got some Minnesota whiskey. I think I love it. My first Minnesota whiskey, I'm pretty sure. Alright, let's check it out. OK, what was the age on this one? Uh, 5 years because there's some 6 in it, yeah, got it. OK. Picking up a, a little bit of grassy note in there. Just and and a nice serial note, so.
So there are some details here about how the far north bourbon. Uh, it's, it is a 5 year, 60% heirloom corn, 30% hazlet rye, which I don't know, yeah, I've heard of, you know, Ross and rye and was it a bruisy and, you know, a lot of others, but that's the first one for that and then 10% malted barley. The barley is playing a bigger bigger part in this, I think. Yeah, and then it goes on to say the Fray ranch is actually, yes, 6-year barrel and the whiskey Acres is a 6-year barrel it.
It's kind of bringing all these together. I think that uh the far north is uh imparting some uh I wanna say more youthful notes, but some uh some a little bit of grassy note there, a little bit of uh. Um, A little more new oak. New oak, OK, see I'm getting like just a hint of mint too, a little bit of mint bourbon is kind of interesting. Yeah, I'm getting that too, I agree. OK. So, we're not gonna get to try this, this far north by itself, right? I mean, this is, uh, well.
They do have 11 of the estate rises from them, so, um, and I'll go ahead and we'll go ahead and talk about those so well like I said, we're separating these shows we're gonna do the rise for another show because, well, 8 pours is a lot to try and do the show. I think we've done it before and we don't have time for tasting 4, taking a nap and then tasting 4 that's kind of what. boils down to it, yeah, uh, so Fre Ranch has a rye in there.
Corbin Cash out of California has a rye in there and then kind of like they've done here, they took barrels from each of those three and I believe blended them to make like a what they call it the farmer's blend. fantastic, yeah, this is uh this is definitely nuanced a little bit um the the the new player here that's coming in has brought uh some different notes that the other two didn't have, so. Uh, I would say it broadened the spectrum of flavors on this.
Yeah, it's earthy, yeah, a little earthy. So we've gone light, dark, and earthy. I like it. Alright, sip it. Cheers, cheers. Oh, that is savory, wow. That's a good call, that is. Wow, we have like 3 different, yeah, very different. This is dripping. Uh, I'm getting this real salivating effect on the sides of my tongue. Um, it's amazing that these components come together and, and just bring this, uh. This wash of flavor that just excites the palate. Yeah, I'm getting that cooling mint is there.
We had that on something else recently that was really unique. The cherry from like maybe that Whiskey Acres is there. The funny thing is I would have liked to have tried the uh the whiskey Acres, the Fre ranch, and the Far North, all three separately and then tried them together. We didn't get to try the far north by itself. I'm not that curious to know why they didn't have that in there, but you know, they maybe they didn't have enough barrels or something.
But the end result is a very good whiskey, very tasty blend, yeah. I like this a lot. Adam, good job. Your team did a great job on this one, no doubt. Mm, I'm actually getting a little bit of leather note on that and it's surprising because there's really nothing here extra aged. No, I mean, they're all pretty close. A little bit of tobacco and leather. No, so Todd, savor on that for a minute and see if you don't get a little like red man on it, like a little chewing tobacco.
Yeah, I can see that, wow. It's funny how the flavors play together. They kind of uh enhance each other. Yeah, I'm definitely getting like a I said red man, but I'm gonna go beech nut. What's cool about this was They sent me a link to a Zoom that they did with Kobe, with the, the, the head guy from.
Whiskey Acres, the head guy from far north, but I, I think that was the night we were recording with Mendon Mill oddly enough, so I only got, I didn't really get to pop on and watch much but I mean, I'm sure that was a pretty they actually sent me, I've watched a little bit of uh the kind of the replay, but it was interesting to hear them talk about like where they're from and you know like the Corbin Cash guy was there as well so.
You know, their challenges and like Nora and Adam are kind of on their, you know, like being the moderators for it, so, um, I love what they're doing. I, I love, you know, like they say their motto is shining the light on craft distillery, so. And well, apparently it's also blending craft distilleries too, so yeah, this is fantastic. This is gonna be tough, uh, it's gonna be a tough one tonight.
It's definitely gonna be a tough one because they're, they're kind of, uh, I mean, they, they're, they're different enough, like, you know, the whiskey Acres was kind of more desserty for me. Uh, the fur ranch was a little bit more refined, bold, but also a little more well aged. The oak had a bigger influence on it and it kind of would be a little bit more of a Would pair better with a cigar.
This one here, uh, it kind of brings all those together, but then introduces this nuance from the far north. That um it kind of has a little more youthful effect to it, but I've always said that whiskeys that have Some of those youthful notes, some of those 4-year notes that disappear later on. They're they're nice. Yeah, I mean sometimes you know I've had some things that are a little off-putting, but Sometimes, yeah, I, I don't mind that.
Yeah, and they bring something but they that those those nuances that they can bring disappear after 5 or 6 or 7 years in the barrel and you never get those again. So altogether I think this makes a great blend. Yeah, and you got to come and do it with a different mindset. You don't want to think, well, I want this to taste like a Buffalo Trace product. I want this to taste like a heaven Hi product. It's not going to.
Cause they've got They've got their distilling process down to a serious science where everything's gonna taste. Spot on. There's not a whole lot of variety. Sure, you're single barrels and but to get like we said we had the buffalo Trace, just the basic to kind of kick off our uh Kick off our palate if you will. I mean, every time they bottle that buffalo Trace, there is a flavor they're looking for and that's what it's gonna try to be as close to when they put out put out batches if you will.
All right, shall we move on? Let's move on. Alright, so gonna change a little course here. There were only 3 bourbons. But now we're gonna stick with one of the ones we've had, uh, kind of, uh, this is a Fray ranch wheat whiskey. All right, wheat whiskey. And so I can expect a little fire and ice on this one. Fire and ice is that what you say? Yeah. I mean, wheat whiskeys can be peppery and they can be spicy. Yeah, surprisingly so. Yes, agreed.
Uh, and it seems like you're starting to see more and more. Makerpark just came out with their Star Hill Farm. And it's getting rave rave reviews, getting rave reviews. I haven't had it. I haven't either. I mean, come on guys, we need to get, I mean we need to get busy here. We need to be reviewing this uh. Yeah, but we whiskeys are catching some attention. I think so. It's, uh, you know, Bernheim's been out there. I remember you and Brian actually did kind of like a small dive into them.
You had Bernheim and a couple others um but but the makers Mark actually won gold outstanding at IWSC so. I mean, it's not, it's not just a few reviewers saying it's good. I I some reviews that have been very positive. But a little bit about this 1, 121.3 proof, 6 years, 233 bottles, and again, I believe it's that $100 MSRP. All right, let's check it out right now. Here we go. Oh. Baked bread. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I feel like I'm in uh I'm in an old. Stone wall house kitchen.
With bread baking, yeah, definitely baking bread. Oh, I love this nose. Yeah, it does have a little bit of a freshness to it though. You were talking about the distinctive like like ray ranches like there's something very distinctive about it like there is something like that says this is re ranch. I don't. I'm guessing it's something their yeast imparts maybe. It's gotta be the yeast, I would think it is.
I mean, certainly we have noted in the past that these western distilleries tend to be very grain forward in their expressions and, you know, they really, it's for us to get this baked bread note or or sort of, you know, but the the yeasty note from them, I think it I think they have a great yeast and and it's been a long, like I, I think. I'm trying to remember when it was we had free ranch on. We had Kobe on.
Uh, but it's been a while and I think that, um, I think you said like 68 or something? Yeah, it's been, and we had him on a couple of times, I think we had, um, We had Colby on as a guest on the show, uh, in episode 86, but then we had their um We had their barrel-proof single barrels on on an episode in episode 117, but we're in episode like 450 something now so. Uh, I think we've neglected Colby and the free Ranch team there for just 300 episodes or so.
Well, there's so many, so many places to talk to and so many new faces. It's hard to, I could see where it's hard to kind of go back sometimes. This is good. Uh, let's, there's a little bit of florality to it as well. It's floral for sure, no doubt. Alright, cheers. Yeah, I mean, wheat whiskeys could have this little bite and and and fire that comes off of them a little bit. I think Bernheim does it too. Um they just have this, um.
Surprising, uh, spiciness that you don't expect from a wheat whiskey, but wheat whiskeys, they just have it. I think so too. Wow, you always think about wheats being soft, and they do tend to soften a whiskey a little bit. A proofing them down does that maybe maybe it does. Yeah, who knows what the the chemistry is behind it, but Oh, strawberries? Like a strawberries and cream is what I'm getting. Yeah, let me go back at it, OK. The spice is actually pretty gentle. Yeah, man.
Can we do like a 1 A, 1 B, 1 C, 1 D? When we rank these? I'm actually getting a little bit of uh anise on it too. Again, surprising for a whiskey. I don't know if it's subliminal messaging, but yeah, I'm starting to get it now. It's, yeah, I think it's a little bit of a surprise. Wheat whiskeys can tend to be. They firewater, I mean they they can be particularly like the barrel-proof Bernheim. It's it's pretty spicy meatball. Oh yeah it is it is this is good, this is really good.
It still carries this nice um Kind of bready note to it. Now this is 100% soft winter wheat, which a lot of folks have. I don't even know what the difference is between a soft winter wheat and a hard wheat. If we get Kobe back on, we'll have to ask. Yeah, we'll have to ask. I'm not the grain specialist, but this is good. This is really good. It's gonna be tough. So we did have a A weeded whiskey, a wheat whiskey special. You said that was with Brian?
Yeah, that was with Brian yeah and uh I can't remember what episode I don't remember so many, so many, but um I can't remember who came out on top on that either. Well, I just remember you obviously you guys Burham is one of those that it's been around a long time. That's like the iconic wheat whiskey I think, um, but I feel like you guys maybe pulled a few more, maybe. Hm, we have one from Woodford maybe? Oh, that's right, I think Woodford on there, that's right.
They do you often forget they make one. It's, you know, everybody, when you think of Woodford, you think of like, you know, just their basic or their double oak, you know, so. Now we all know that um In the whiskey biz, things have been softening a little bit in the market. Um, it's just, you know, hey, in the world of bourbon and and and whiskey, things go up and down.
It's kind of a cyclical market, but, uh, the funny thing is is that Woodford is killing it in a in a little bit of a down market. Yeah, that's really crazy. I mean, so what does that say? Their sister company, well, sister brand I guess, Jack Daniel's. Is not doing well. Yeah, yeah, not doing well, but they're still the big guy.
There's still the gorilla in the room, but, but their sales are down while Woodford's and actually Old Forster too is up at the moment, um, surprisingly, but they did decide, uh, Brown and Foreman did decide to, uh, part with making barrels. I believe I saw some news on who bought that, but I don't recall who it was, probably one of the, you know, one of those bigger cooperages I'm sure, but um. There's a lot of things changing.
We've had some uh shake up a little bit in the market and, uh, and it's, it's, we'll try to keep you abreast of what's going on, but, um, yeah, just let it be known that Woodford is uh doing very good at the moment. And well, we were both big fans of that, uh, chocolate redux. That thing was crazy good it was good that. It's a very good distinct possibility that might show up on our uh end of the year best of. Just floored by how good that was. All right, so shall we?
Maybe start pondering our rankings and uh can we get to this uh extra po? Can we do it? I think we can. So yeah, let's let's score our 4 while we have the bonus pour. How's that sound? That sounds great. All right. All right, well, let's, let's start off by talking about this bonus, poor Todd. What do we have in our class? So this is another Los liner product. This is their far-flung bourbon 3.
And what's cool about this one, once again, Adam P Polonski showing off his blending skills, took some bourbons from Fre Ranch, from Still Austin. 00, new player, player, rich grain distilling, which I hadn't heard of but that made your ears. Yeah, we had them on the show before, so Rich grain is a very small operation in Mississippi, Mississippi yeah. Wallersheim out of Wisconsin I've heard of, but I don't think I've ever had anything I have Rocktown out of Arkansas.
I've had them, yes, you have a rye over there. I did have a Rocke yeah, that is delicious and smooth ambler out of West Virginia, yeah. So, uh, yeah, age 4 years, so I'd expect the youngest being 4 years if you're playing with that many types of barrels, and, uh, folks, heritage distilleries cannot do this.
No, let me just tell you, you love your heritage distilleries, you love uh Buffalo Trace and uh Heaven Hill and Wild Turkey and and all the big greats out there, Jim Beam, but they're not allowed to do what we're getting what what Adam Plonsky is doing. At Los Lantern, which is to blend between distilleries, a bunch this time, wow, fantastic I know I'm intrigued. Alright, but shall we nose and then we'll start uh ranking. OK, great.
Oh, we're not scoring this one in the final though, this is just a bonus point. This is, uh, like I said, I've become a big fan of theirs, so um. I actually joined their monthly club, so this was kind of like a bonus thing for kind of joining, so yeah. Oh, nice nose, nice nose. Um, it's the proof is up a little bit, is it? Uh, it's 124, yeah, we're up there. I was gonna say we've stayed in a really good range of like 115 to 1, was it 125-ish? Yeah, so a little bit more ethanol in this one.
OK. Lemon bars. I'm getting like lemon bars like there's it, yeah, like powdered sugar on top. There's a bit of like Chocolate too. I'm not getting the darker notes on it, but I'm definitely getting the citrus, the elevated ethanol. I'm gonna I think I've said this on one other pour we've had, maybe two, like an amaretto, like an almond type thing. I'm not like peanut, not like walnut, but like it's a little like that sweet amaretto-ish type thing. Right, or you taste it, cheers.
Oh, that's the best texture of the night, right there. Oh, very buttery, creamy, silky. Nice. I'm getting the chocolate still a little bit. The chocolate is now. I didn't get it on the nose, but I'm definitely getting it on the palette. A little bit um Toasted marshmallowy. OK, yeah, I can see that. Nice, nice, nice like. When you're playing with that many barrels from that many distilleries.
Like Did he go like full barrel or did he go like 3/4 of 1 barrel and like a, you know, 2 barrels from here to reach out to Adam and ask him, have him back on, put him under the gun. That's right. All right. I think we should start writing. All right. It's gonna be tough. It is going to be tough. So, for me. Oh, you're going first. I'll go for it gives me even like extra time that's right. My number 4. Oh, this is gonna be hard.
So you've got the whiskey acres, the Fray ranch, bourbon, the Fre ranch wheat whiskey, and the farmer's blend, we'll call. So I'm my number 4, I'm gonna go. And it's really close on 3 and 4, OK, but I'm gonna go the wheat whiskey at my number 4. OK, I'm gonna go with the fray ranch bourbon. Oh really? I am. I enjoyed it. And you said it's close on 3 and 4, but I would say it's close on 123 and 4. I mean, yeah, I loved all these. Yeah, they were, they were all good, no doubt.
Um, I think the wheat whiskey for me just didn't hit home and that it could be a profile thing for me. It could be a personal preference. I was intrigued by, well, I'm not gonna, no, I shouldn't go there because I'll give away my next pick. So let me just say that the, I, I carefully considered this and I think the wheat whiskey fell in 4th place for me. OK. All right. My 3rd place is going to be the farmer's blend. And I'm gonna agree with that. OK, so I'm with you on the farmer's plan.
I think that um. That far north brought something to the table that I liked. Yes, yes, it definitely took the other two and just kind of rounded them out and brought it. It definitely brought something else that they didn't have. It also makes me want to check out a farmer's North bourbon, like, I mean. For whatever reason, it wasn't a part of this series, but I'm intrigued now because like you said, there was something. Added to it that I think was from that far north.
All right, my number 2 was the free ranch bourbon. OK. And uh and I you know, it's just again, these things fall back to. Kind of what you prefer as an individual, what your palate prefers. What makes you happy that day? What makes you happy? That's correct. So the 3 inch bourbon for me was, uh, yeah, was, was that for me, so. How about you? My #2 was the wheat whiskey. Oh, OK. All right. pretty high for you. Yeah, it, uh. That's one of the better ones I've had.
Um, yeah, I, I'm becoming a fan like like we talked there seems to be a few more coming out and now, you know, I've had some single barrels of, uh, some MGP wheat whiskey which are really, really good too, so, but I think we have a consensus on our number 10 my God, whiskey acres, what's up? Shut the front door. Shut the front door. Well done. I am definitely gonna talk Melody into figuring out how we can make our next drive to Iowa include a stop and decal.
I was gonna say we gotta get gas and we gotta get gas and decal for 3 hours for 3. I like it. Wow, good, great job, Adam. I mean, he's picking some great barrels, no doubt. Like I said, I, I root for these guys because I mean. As you said, the market's slowing down a little bit. It's gonna be tougher on these smaller guys than it is for the bigger guys, I think. So, hats off. You guys did a great job and we will uh Be Reviewing the rise here shortly.
So, uh, I don't know if it'll be the next show, folks, or it'll be the show after that, but we're gonna follow up with the rice here real soon. Yeah, um, like I said, these will be released, uh, the 25th, which, um, yeah, the 25th of June 2025, because we never know when somebody's gonna listen to an episode. It could be like 3 years later, so, but anyway, yeah, I think it's uh go check their website, go to seal box. If you're in Vermont, go to a store that carries them, but uh.
Yeah. I really like what they do. I've become, like I said, I joined their monthly, uh, monthly club. And we'll see. So I'm kind of excited about that because every month is gonna be like a different different uh distillery. I think uh I got something from JR Rieger out of Kansas. Yeah, um, and you know, we've had some fantastic single malts from them too, so. You've been warned when the malt me goes right again, there's probably gonna be a good chance it's gonna be something from Los Leonard.
I am looking forward to it. Yeah, we had a, we had an episode recently we were drinking some single malt and, you know, um, I think I mentioned on the show that there was a particular distillery in Iowa that made a single malt I really liked and they're like, oh yeah, we know who you're talking about because uh there are some great single malt distilleries out there and people championing it. It's been a blast today. I've had so much fun. And uh we went through a number of whiskeys.
Uh, I, I, we need to go back and look, but I think that, I think you're right. I think Whiskey Acres might have either taken the day or 2nd place the last time. I like 2nd place because I think that mythology, which They kind of have a cheat code. They had like a 15 year MGP blended with some 3 year stuff, I think. Don't quote me on that, but I think that's what there was something about it, but so good, so much fun.
We got some great shows coming up, people, you need to to stick around and listen to every episode. Make sure you subscribe to us because uh you will not want to miss. The episode about the mother of bourbon. I know. We had a really fun interview. That was really cool. My goodness. Mary Dowling is uh. A tremendous character from. Uh, the 19th and 20th century that just, uh, rocked bourbon. And, uh, and you gotta, you gotta hear this story.
So if you're, if you're kind of a history nut, and you're a bourbon nut and uh you love hearing uh True history of bourbon, a little bit of fiction put in there. I was gonna say, and if you're waiting on the next Bourbon Road episode and you can't find anything to listen to, you might want to check out that book for sure it's coming soon. Uh, Bourbon on the Banks, almost sold out, 75 tickets, yep, 75 tickets left.
Uh, probably some twilights, it seems to be the one people are slow on, but I think it's more for the locals like the late locals like tend to come and I will be there. We will have the Bourbon Road bar. We'll have the Bourbon Road tent, we'll be hanging out. We'll have all the swag there. We'll be, uh, whiskey Thief the Thursday night. Yeah, we'll, we're, we're doing it upright. Yeah, well we always do. We have a big huge tent, we have a lot of fun. It's, uh, it's a big deal for us.
It's kind of our Annual gathering of roadies. We're kind of the bells of the ball. All right, it's been another great show, Todd. Lots of fun. Thank you so much for, uh, working with Adam to put together this show and and the lineup that we had tonight. Cheers to Lost Lar. Yeah, cheers to Lost Lantern, no doubt. Check them out. And do you know the website? Just search Lost Lantern.
I was gonna say it's not Loser.com because I like was trying to do a quick search and apparently there's a Lost Lantern brewery so I don't I didn't even look where that was. I was like shucks, wrong one but uh I'm sure it's like Lostlantern Whiskey.com, but Adam Polanski, Lost Lantern, do a couple of searches, they'll come up for sure. Check them out, uh, definitely get on there, uh. On their normal, like what's it called?
The mailing newsletter, newsletter and see what's going on and they've got some great stuff. I was gonna say get them, you know, there's a distillery out there, everybody has a newsletter. It's kind of fun to like keep you in the loop and sometimes you get lucky and I think uh I just signed up we were talking about that you 12, uh Buffalo Traces.
That's what's funny, they sold 1800 bottles, but then they have a little contest where they're giving away 5. 5 bottles and I'm sure 1 million people have signed up for that so it's kind of like when if I win that, it's kind of like win the lottery I guess. I just wanted to show up at Kroger's. All right, folks. It's been another fun show. We had a great time tonight. Thanks for listening to us. Thanks for joining in.
You can find the Bourbon Road on all social medias, you can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, threads, all those places, every single week. Todd and I strive to put together a great show for y'all. We'll have guests on from distilleries, uh, people in the industry, authors, musicians, poets. Comedians, uh, just listen, if they'll drink whiskey and join us and have a good time, we're gonna have some laughs, and drink through some whiskey.
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Definitely check out the bourbon Road.com and the Bourbon Road and the Roadie yeah page on Facebook, yeah, we give away pores sadly these are small samples so I won't have anything but maybe I'll just I've got a few lost Latern bottles so maybe I'll do something along those lines but it's a it's a great group we have a a nice little group of like-minded folks that I love bourbon, love talking about bourbon, love showing what they, what they're drinking and yeah.
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