Sonoma Cherry Wood Smoked Bourbon!

SPEAKER_04 0:09

Welcome to the Whiskey Chasers, where we talk about our passion for whiskey and its history, either amongst ourselves or while interviewing distilleries. Hello while enjoying a glass. I'm Steve. I'm Nick, and I'm Chris. Please enjoy responsibly while enjoying this week's episode of the Whiskey Chasers.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Back for another exciting episode.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Back for another exciting episode. No Steve tonight, but we have two guests on. One brand new guest on the podcast. We got Bob with us, who's a part of the second chapter of the club. So welcome, Bob. Say hello, Bob.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Hello. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

And we've got a fan favorite. Herm is back, people.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

And we are actually having a bottle right now that we've never had. I don't know. You guys have never seen it.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

You mean a brand we've never had, even. Yeah, brand bottle, whatever. It's all new.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Yeah. It's a brand new bottle. Brand new bottle. Brand new bottle. We've got Sonoma Distilling Company out of California. So out of Sonoma, California.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

I kind of figured that with the name.

SPEAKER_03 1:11

Yep. But it's actually one of the few California distilleries or California bottles that is their own. Like this is theirs. Interesting company. Interesting products they put out. I think that they try to draw from Scottish Heritage, given the fact that they uh smoke their barley in-house. And this one's a cherry wood smoked barley bourbon. So I don't I don't know what the flavor's gonna be like on this guy. I have not a clue.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

But so cherrywood smoked barley. Yes. Bourbon. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Okay. It's interesting that a company from Sonoma would go for more of the scotch type of feel versus more of like the wine finishing or what you would expect from the Sonoma.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Maybe it's in my mind, but there's kind of like some wine on the nose, though. You get that?

SPEAKER_03 2:00

There could be there could be some reason for that. Could be some of this company is usually so the reason I found this bottle, it was on sale. So where uh this would have been Chris will know the store, Belmont Beverage in Belmont, classic spot. It's like the chain up in Indiana, right? Northern Indiana, Belmont beverage is everywhere. But they had this on sale for I think maybe 30 bucks.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Oh, okay. So it's it was a steal.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

It was a steal. And so I had a hard time passing it up because of how inexpensive it was. I was like, this has got to be for 30 bucks.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Right. It's gotta be low proof, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:35

I want to say it's 92 proof. No way, really? Yeah, it is 90. So it's 92 proof. The bottle reminds me of almost like a um, like a cognac bottle, maybe like a like a crevassier bottle. It's got some flare to it.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

Yeah, definitely has some, yeah, some uniqueness to the I like where the uh what do you call that? The head of the bottle or the where the cork at where the cork goes, yeah. The net with the where the very tip where you shove the cork in.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah, how it flares out. It's got a flared base. You like that the best, right?

unknown 3:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

You like a flared tip. Got it.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

Reminds me of like a like a like a wine bottle that like a pirate would be drinking out of.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Yeah, a rum bottle. Yeah, I can see it.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

Like a rum bottle, yeah. Yeah, maybe rum. Maybe rum. But yeah, it's that, yeah, it looks good. I like it. We're gonna smoke too with it. Me and Herm are gonna do you you don't smoke, do you, Bob? Or do you smoke? I do. Do you smoke? I do. This one is we're going light English first and then we're gonna go dark English. So this one's daybreak. Are these old school? They don't make them anymore. Yeah. Those were uh Hearth and Home. Russell Lett was the one that was pioneering that brand. It was his brand, out of pipes and cigars. Uh and this one is fairly dry.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

You said fairly dry. How old is this guy? How old is his tin?

SPEAKER_02 3:49

Uh, I think I bought this back in like 2014, 15, something like that. So probably a good amount of good amount of age on it.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

So it should be really dry at this point, right? 10 to 12.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Well, sometimes they're not when they're sealed in there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Depending on how wet they're in the body.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

That was sealed pretty good. So, well, we're gonna give it a try. I mean, his blends usually do come on the drier's side, but this is this is pretty dry even for me. So but basically, this was his take on this was his match blend for Dunhill early morning pipe. So it's a light English, and it's been sitting on the shelf for so long and staring me in the face. I figured today was the day.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

Why not? Yeah. Have you had this before? Oh, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

Yeah, yeah. But when it was fresh, yeah. I I I smoked a few tins and then I put this one away and kind of forgot all about it. And because I could get Dunhill early morning pipe again, or Peterson's, I guess, you know, whatever, but now whatever they're calling it now. So I've been smoking that instead. I do like early morning pipe.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Yeah, it's a good, good, good blend.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Yeah. And this ribbon cut is kind of similar. It's kind of got some chunks in it.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

You know, call me slacken, but I didn't I didn't know you could get those in tens, and I'm a little, I'm a little jealous right now. I don't have any. I'm I'm gonna have to look into that.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Tobacco tins. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, do you do like uh like just like the bags, like bulk and stuff? Oh yeah, yeah, nothing you should check out. These are all sealed up. It's got uh just a few tens, just a couple, yes. No, oh yeah, we're back in the pipe room, everybody. Yes, we've been recording at Nick's house, but we're back. The boys are back in town.

SPEAKER_03 5:17

The boys are back in town. We had to come back for the pipes. It was kind of hard to try to find one that paired when you weren't here.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

I loaded up this, but I didn't replace the flint.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

That does a lot of good. Let me find out later here. So while Herm's loading that guy up, this guy, this company, Sonoma, got started in 2010. So they're relatively new. Well, new er, but they started around that time, new ish. I mean, it's one of those that started around that bourbon boom time. A lot of craft distilleries are starting in 2010. This guy actually came from finance, the owner of this guy in 2008. I don't know if you guys remember 2020 or 2008 and the the wonderful crash, the market crash and fun. He uh he decided that finance was a bit unpredictable. Yeah, so he went for bourbon. Makes perfect sense. I don't know why I never thought of that. Like, finance is a bit unpredictable. Let's go into distilling, that'll be perfect. But he actually started before distilling, and Chris, I think this kind of might play into what you smell wine-wise. He started with beer, okay, then went into wine and then grappa before he went into whiskey. So yeah, a bit extreme. He is very particular. This this guy, uh Adam is the guy's name, very particular about what they use as far as equipment and grain. It's all locally sourced, but he also does a double pot still, pulls from the Scottish traditions and does a double pot still, but also claims that um he uh utilizes traditional cognac and Scottish pot stills alongside pre-industrial American stills. So no column stills, it's all very earthy. A lot of the the pot stills, the ways that he does it, the traditional ways of doing that kind of encompasses that earthy flavor still. So I'm very curious on what that will do for this. Also, the barley that they smoke with that cherry wood is all in-house, so they do all the in-house smoking themselves. It's all cherry wood. They've got like three or four other products they put out, but if they smoke the barley, it's always cherry wood. And I don't know why. He doesn't necessarily hint towards that.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

Okay, so I'm kind of interested that there's not a whole lot of distilleries like in California doing like actual distilleries that's actually doing their own.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

It's actually doing that stuff, yeah. And this is all locally sourced grain, and he was part of the first 200 distilleries uh that was able to claim the name Kraft Distillery. So there's over like 2,000 some now, but even one of the first 200. Can they even grow those crops there? I don't know. I mean, probably I mean, if they can do you gotta think if they could do wine, like grapes for wine up north in California, they've gotta have like the culture and climate for rye and wheat and barley. Well, maybe barley barley might be a bit harder.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

That's what I was thinking. Well, I mean, I don't know, it's different. I'm trying to wrap my head around it a little bit. I I can't get over how low-proof it tastes.

SPEAKER_03 8:37

It is so it's already low proof to begin with. We're talking 92 proof.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Well, for a lot of people, that's higher proof, you know what I mean? Like not for us, but but if you told me this was 80 proof, I would have believed you. But I think that leaves all the room for the flavors to come through. Because that's what you're getting mostly. And they're interesting flavors. What do you think, Bob?

SPEAKER_00 8:57

I really like this for it being a lower proof. Yeah, this is don't wanna steal your word, but very smooth.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

So I'm glad somebody said it because smooth is kind of what it is. I hate that, like you know, air quote smooth. Yeah, but that is what it is. It's unoffensive. That's what it is. It's very friendly, it's welcoming. It's a welcome mat.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

So what's interesting is this guy is corn rye and cherry with smoked barley. Three-year-old. But the way they describe it on their website, and what I saw a lot of people describing this as, is he very the owner very much goes after the scotch, not just scotch tradition for the double pot stills, but also marrying casts together. So this is a marriage of a high wheat bourbon and a high rye bourbon, which is also interesting because I feel like that helps mellow. I I could be wrong. I feel like that helps mellow this out even more.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Yeah, there's something that's there's something that's working, there it's all working together, but there's something that's almost like working to force this into being mellow. It's not trying to be like a flavor bomb, it's not trying to be like standing out of the crowd, but in its but it's unique in it, what flavors it does have is unique to itself. I don't think it's any like anything we've tried. It's different. It's got this really strange, I wouldn't call it an aftertaste, but like middle taste. You get what I'm saying? You can definitely get the get the barley on it for sure.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

What part of the barley?

SPEAKER_03 10:35

Like the smoked barley aspect or just barley barley? Like barley as a flavor.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Just that, like that almost like that, the the kind of like the funk that you get off of uh like a single malt. Like that little bit of grain forward kind of funk.

unknown 10:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

I like it a lot actually. Um, especially the flavor for a 92 proof is it's exciting for a 92 proof.

unknown 10:58

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Definitely not something that you would just, you know, like not sit and think about a little bit. It goes, it's pairing really well with the tobacco too. I feel like with the tobacco, the the English that we've got is kind of muting down some of the spice flavor, I guess. And it's really pulling a lot of sweet out of yeah, there's a lot of sweetness out of the out of the whiskey. So I think that is definitely different.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

There's something interesting happening in California with bottles coming out of California, even if they source. It's got this like wine-esque feel to it. Like it almost drinks most of the stuff that I've had coming out of California has this like red wine finish, or like a red wine feel to it, even if it's not a finished product. It still has that like maybe it's a mental thing of thinking of wine coming out of California, but it could be something to do with the soil and the climate and the culture.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

Maybe all that. I just don't know if I've ever even seen like corn growing in California. Maybe they do that.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

And I just never seen California's got a lot of agriculture, surprisingly.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

Does it really?

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Yeah, they're big for like tomatoes too.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

Is it more up north?

SPEAKER_01 12:06

So my brother used to live in um Lamore, which is kind of like pretty much the desert. It's like the Fresno area, so more like kind of central California. There's a lot of agriculture in that in that area, really across California, because I mean you gotta think the climate is vastly different from Southern California to northern. So somewhere in the middle, they're gonna have, you know, a little bit more temperate climate. Um, especially the closer to the coast you get, you're gonna get a lot more rain and things like that. So it's not quite as dry as like your Southern California, probably. Still pretty dry, but um, it is a big agriho agriculture hub, which I didn't I didn't know until you know he had lived out there for a while. So it was I thought that was interesting.

SPEAKER_03 12:50

I feel like California's been advertised as movie entertainment, celebrities, and beach. Like nothing else.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

And maybe well, maybe I was gonna say maybe technology, maybe Silicon Valley and things like that. Art, very much art forward. But that goes along with movies and uh things like that too.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

It's not as artsy fartsy as like Seattle. No, but it is artsy, yeah. It is a very artsy place.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

But Seattle's just a city, California's a whole state.

SPEAKER_03 13:25

What's interesting is I uh whenever I hear California, I don't think of the city. You think of it as a yeah, I think of a city, not a state.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Yeah, there's a whole lot to California that people don't think about, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Tons of tons of wilderness. I mean, you think about how many national parks are out there and John Muer Trail and Sierra Nevada Mountains. So it's it's a lot more than the city. The city there, I mean, yeah, the cities are massive. Yeah. Um, and that's what people think of. They think you think of Hollywood or you think of San Francisco.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

Um so do they have the culture to do like age whiskey out there, like kind of like Kentucky, or would it be more like Kentucky or more like um Texas? Because Texas is gonna be hot. Kentucky's gonna kind of be more.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

It's probably, I mean, depending on where they're where they're at, you know, you're gonna get different climates. I mean, you could be in the desert, honestly. Like, so you think about like the heat in the desert at nighttime, it drops, and then you get those big ebbs and flows, like yeah, those big changes. It's gotta do something that could do something interesting stuff, like things like that. Um, obviously, if you go up north, like it's a lot more like you can go up in the mountains and be up at a higher altitude, and it'd be a lot more like Montana, yeah. Um, in that regard, I guess, in terms of whiskey.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Out west, they have even whole cities that are underground, so they can and they live down there year-round because it's like 65 degrees year-round or something, somewhere or winter. And that would be an interesting place to actually age whiskey.

SPEAKER_03 14:50

Yeah, it'd be more like climate control.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Yeah. Well, natural, naturally, climate control, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Well, it's like you're seller-aged, you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Yeah, they'd be like cellar-aged. Yeah, yeah. There's a whole interesting like documentary on that. There's like a there's like this one city, and you walk, you like you go there, and there's like a big sign, and then it's got stairs. Literally, the whole city is under underground. Barbershop, grocery store, people's houses. They have all these little streets and stuff, and it's all it's all underground. It's really cool. It's in Arizona.

SPEAKER_03 15:16

I just picture like Lord of the Rings.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

We think of like a mine and stuff, yeah. Well, yeah, they just support it, you know, brick, bricks and everything, and you should watch it sometimes. It's really interesting, it's like fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

And I'm I'm pretty sure in Arizona, that's like when you dig down, that's that's hard rock, right? Rock, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

So I mean a lot of times, yeah. It's probably rock. You're just chiseled out.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Yeah. Um, it was good knowing you guys. I'm moving there.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Yeah, that would be cool. Sounds amazing. It would be awesome because if you really want to get outside, you know, it's gonna be nice. And then if you want to cool down, you just go back home. It's great. You just go up or down. I like it.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

I feel like that'd be a great tour spot. Like, why is that not like advertised for like tours?

SPEAKER_02 15:52

Well, I think it's because people really live there, and it's probably limited. I really live here, but limited limited space, and they're not trying to make it look cool, they just lit like that's their way of life, kind of a thing. If anything, it's probably kind of like they don't want outsiders, you know? It's probably really tight-knit community.

unknown 16:08

Fair.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

Yeah, it'd be cool to visit. I would love that. I think that's super cool. I'm sad because I live there and I didn't know about this place. Oh, yeah. So yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're all gonna go watch the video now. It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

I don't know where this video's at. It's fine. You're gonna go watch it. If you're gonna go look for it, it'll be fine.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Uh Underground City, it's like Underground City of Arizona or something. I don't know. It's something crazy, yeah. But I don't know, it's cool.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

So, okay, let's start off with this. I really like this bottle. I don't understand why it was on uh discount, other than it wasn't selling, people can push it, but it's a no-namer, no one really knows about it. But after trying it and having other things coming out of California, so Redwood Empire is out of California, but they don't make their own.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

They do now, they do now, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

They have their own distillant now, and they're pushing out a lot of new iterations, they're doing a lot of barrel.

SPEAKER_03 16:59

They're doing a lot now, yeah. So, I mean, you've got you've got distilleries coming out of California now, making their way over here. Is does that mean there's potential for more distilleries out of California that we don't know about? That just are there? Like they can't just they can't get out, there's not enough product. Because this is really good. I don't know because there's just not a demand for it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Is there not a demand there in California? The boom is kind of busted, you know. Like the bourbon boom is obviously over.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

The people that are doing it now, it's because they have a either a history in it still or or they they've grown to love it and they enjoy doing it. They're they're not, I don't think the people that are in it for the money are still in it.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Well, I also also think like somebody who would pick up this bottle is probably either A gonna be somebody who's just looking for something that's cheap and it's on the shelf and it's 30 bucks, right? And it's something different and it sounds cool. Or it's B, it's somebody like us who is interested in trying different stuff that we've not heard of that you know, you look at it, like, oh apple would smoke, cherry wood smoked, you know, barley, whatever. That sounds interesting. I'll give it a shot. It's not something that somebody's gonna chase after. That's a traditional bourbon lover. Yeah, like it doesn't fit that mold of like it's not that sweet, kind of easygoing type of bourbon that most people look for. We're, I mean, we, the three of us, I don't know about Bob, but we're we like ries. And so that's fairly kind of off the beaten path for the most part. And then you think about like most people are really after those, like those quintessential bourbon flavors. This is not that at all. But somebody who enjoys a scotch, somebody who enjoys a rye, somebody who might like single malt, I think this kind of fills in all those gaps a little bit. It definitely has some of that bourbon sweetness to it as well. But I don't, I wouldn't say this tastes like a bourbon, like a quintessential bourbon.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

I wouldn't say it's it's more of a whiskey to me. And I don't think that this would be it. There might be a few people that would be like this is a something I would drink on the daily. I think for most people, this is not a shelter, though. This is something to try that, and it's a good thing that it is different because if this tasted like anything random, like a random bottle of bourbon, like a dime a dozen kind of a thing, it wouldn't do well at all because it's just a it would just be like another nondescript bourbon. It just it's from California, big whoop. You know what I mean? I think people would see that as a kind of a gimmick.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

You don't have the brand awareness that a wild turkey or uh Jack Daniels or some other type of bigger brand's gonna have. So they're like, Well, why would I pay $30 for this when I can get a fifth of wild turkey for $22?

SPEAKER_02 19:21

I mean, it it behooves somebody in that position in California to do something different. And that's what this is. It is different. And I think that like I think this what I would say is like, hey, should try that. Like if somebody was ever like, What do you think about this bottle? Oh, I tried it, it was different, it was unique. You should try it. That's what they're gonna try. That's how they're gonna make money. They're not gonna make money like this is my favorite bottle. I'm gonna buy it, and it's always gonna be on the shelf and I'm gonna pour it for people. I don't think that's what it is. I think it's just a different, unique bottle. It's it's nice to have some variation, and that's what it is. It's a it's a variation on something that out of California, which is different. At least this bottle. I don't know about the other stuff.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

So after trying this, I hear you guys keep talking about and hinting towards what sounds like quality within the bottle, within the glass. Would that would that is that accurate? Is that fair? That you're getting you feel like it it is quality, quality whiskey, quality bourbon. It's something different, but is it is well? I mean, you said it was 30 bucks, so it's hard to say you know quality for 30 bucks.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

Pretty damn quality for 30 bucks, but uh, I don't know. I mean, I'm it tastes like there's some quality to it. Did we ever say how old it was or anything? Three years. It was three years old.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

So most of their stuff is gonna be at three years. I believe it says at least two years on on the back.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

So I mean you can tell it's quality just based on what they're doing to it. Yeah, they're doing some extra things, they're going to extra lengths and stuff to kind of make it special. I don't know. It'll be hard to put a price on it now that we've had this for $30. Right. It'd be hard to try to do for you.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Yeah, I mean, I think I think easily this is gonna compete with the $50, a lot of $50. Under $50 or under that $40 to $50 range, I think is gonna be different. This would be great somewhere in the $50. It's not super high proof, so you're not gonna have your proof hounds chasing it. Um, it doesn't really fall into a specific category. So if like somebody's like, oh, I'm I only like rise or I only like this or only like single malts. But yeah, I would buy this. Absolutely, I would buy this. 45, 45 bucks for sure. Which I'm I'm guessing it was probably $49 discounted to 30. 49 is probably about the the going rate on that thing. And I I think that's a fair, that's a fair number for this. I think you think about a like any kind of like, you know, you think about a blended scotch or um even like a single malt, you're gonna be looking at, especially for a craft distillery.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

Yeah, that's a 50 to 70.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

50 to 70 is gonna be your yeah, your normal, everyday good kind of run of the mill craft distillery bottle. This is on the low end of that. I think it's definitely worthwhile.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

I completely agree. Yeah, I I was gonna say uh around 50 bucks myself. So it's probably something I would buy. Going back to your uh question about the rye, um, I thanks to the club, I am now getting into the Their eyes. Yeah. Loving them.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

That's kind of how I got started too.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Welcome to the dark side.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

I was like, I had been, I think I don't, I don't even think I had no, I don't even know if I had joined the club yet, but Nick and I had kind of interacted a little bit and he had kind of put me onto some different stuff. He's like, You should try this, you should try that. And then I'm trying different things. And I remember messaging him, like, I think I'm a rye guy. I don't know. Like this, I didn't know. I just like initially I thought I didn't like rice. And I was like, Oh, yeah, I don't really like rise. I'm more of a bourbon guy. And like, but the the problem with that was my first rye I ever tried was the Willet Rye, which I still don't care for, but I don't hate it. I appreciate it for what it is. I just don't love it. It's not something I go to very often, but I revisit it from time to time to see if it's like changed for me. It's kind of like you know, like it's like Brussels sprouts, right? Like you, you're like, maybe I'll try this again in a year or two and see if I like them, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Not decided on them yet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

So rye's kind of fell in, you know, and it was like, oh, I really like this one. Oh, it's a rye. Oh, I like this one better. Which one's that? Oh, it's the rye. I'm like, I think I'm a rye guy. You're afraid of coming out. I'm a rye guy.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

I like rye. What's officially happened? It it's it's leans this leaning more towards like an American single malt for me.

SPEAKER_03 23:12

Like in a bad way or a good way? Because you you've started getting into this American single malt thing.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Whether you like it or not, I think you're I've had a couple that have gotten me. Yeah, I don't know if I would say in a bad way or a good way. I just think that it's that's what it reminds me of. I would it's for me, it's leaning more towards that than it is a bourbon.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

And I think it's that cherrywood bar like smoked barley. It's gotta be what they're doing with the barley. No one else is doing. I mean, other than American single malt bottles or companies, smoking the barley is not a like with a cherry wood or applewood or some kind of wood is not normal.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

We had a bottle recently at the club, maybe, that had it was uh, I want to say a cherry wood or applewood smoked barley. For rye? Was it the malted rye? Maybe it maybe it was malted rye.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

Yeah, from um uh something fox. It wasn't cherry fox, it was copper fox. Copper fox. Was it cherry? I thought it was like an apple or it might have it might have been some, it was some type of wood that it was smoked with, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

But I think pomegranate. I mean, with barley, we and I and we I think Blake and I were talking about this at one of our meetings recently. It was like, I feel like barley softens up. If it just a little bit of barley in in a blend is going to soften it up just a little bit um and kind of give it a little bit more of approach. But then if you up that barley or like smoked barley or different types of barley, it's going to change that profile so much. Drastically. Which is why I think this is probably. Does it do you have a percentage or no?

SPEAKER_03 24:35

No, no, I'd be curious.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

This is probably I would say this is probably closer to 20% barley versus like a that's a very astute observation. Yeah, I would say eight, nine, tens that like are more hey, we threw some barley in this, and you're like, okay, well, it'll be a little softer.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

A little bit can soften, but a little bit more can all of a sudden overpower to dial it up to a whole nother area. Yeah, it just changes that profile so much. Yeah, yeah. I never really thought about it that way, but it's kind of one of those fickle things.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Like that's why I've I found that like if it has a little, I like to see like a bottle that says a little it's got a little bit of barley in it.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Just seasoned.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Yeah, it just it just adds that little bit of like just kind of a pinch of salt. Yeah, exactly. It just kind of mellows it out, it just kind of softens it up a little bit. And so it takes I think I feel like for me, it takes away a lot of like the um like the quintessential like sting or like that burn. Um, and it just kind of makes it a little bit more approachable, and it can be a higher proof and it and it kind of softens it up like a sponge still, yeah. I I really wish I could remember what we were drinking. Um, and I was like, I was like, that's got barley in it for sure. There's no way it's a higher proof when we were looking at it.

SPEAKER_02 25:36

I know what you're talking about, but I can't think of what it was. It was like nine or ten. It wasn't copper fox, it was something there was another one.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Well, this is really interesting.

SPEAKER_03 25:43

So they're uh online, like in their their website, the city website, they say it's locally sourced. I like to proudly say it's locally sourced grain. Everywhere else I can find it, mashville is 67% corn from California and Canada.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

Well, that's not much so northern California. 20% is Canada north of California?

SPEAKER_03 26:02

Canada's north of California. Yes. Canada's north of all of the U.S.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

I didn't realize it's all of it. I thought there was like a cutoff somewhere with like it rounded off or something. Alaska. Alaska. It's the outlier. Hawaii.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

I don't know about Hawaii, but Hawaii is way out there in the middle of nowhere. So locally sourced. That seems weird to say that most of it is locally sourced. Well, maybe this is on the is this on the line of California and Canada? California doesn't meet Canada. So you've got Washington and Oregon in between.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

That's why I was like, north of it.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

I mean, technically it is, but it's not adjacent to it. I'm I could be wrong. Is Sonoma and Canada north of us?

SPEAKER_02 26:39

I wouldn't say Canada is north of California, because that's like saying Canada is north of Tennessee. Well, no shit.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Well, yeah, it is. No, you've got California.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

And then you've got Oregon, Washington.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

So you can't say Canada's north of California.

SPEAKER_03 26:53

Can you say Canada's north of Ohio?

SPEAKER_02 26:55

Yeah, it's the same thing. The way they made it sound was it was just north.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Well, yeah, that's what I was when I'm in thinking. I was like, oh, maybe they're in northern California. But then I'm like, well, that's still not really locally. There's two states in between.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

That's that's a cheat. That was a cheat.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

That's like saying most of their grains, not all of their grains.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

Locally sourced from Florida and Canada, just north of Florida. No, no, thank you. No, thank you. That's not correct. That's that's that's a little sly. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

Okay, okay, so 67% corn from California and Canada.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

How much are they getting from Canada?

SPEAKER_03 27:27

20% all of it. 20% rye from California and Canada.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

They're getting all but like two percent.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

And then 13% malted barley from Wyoming, but smoked in California.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

No, okay. So this is this brings me back to this brings me back to my that's what I was wondering. I don't think California's doing as much agriculture with this stuff as we thought. I think they're adding like like a bag of their own crap and calling it locally sourced.

SPEAKER_03 27:53

Well, I guess is there a chance that when they first started they were doing that and now they can source it locally?

SPEAKER_02 27:58

I don't know. Uh here's the thing. I I don't think as a company you prove me if I'm wrong, okay? But I really don't think it's the you know I actually don't really give a crap about the whole locally sourced crap. Like, okay, there are some distilleries I like it, like Liberty Pole, because that makes sense, because the type of rye that they use, that's what I like. Right. But do I really care about the fact that you get what I'm saying? Or am I wrong?

SPEAKER_01 28:24

I think it's a little bit stupid. It's like a marketing thing. It's kind of like saying, like, it's oh, it's organic. And it's like, am I gonna buy that because it says organic? Probably not. Do I care that it says organic? Probably not. Not probably not. But then if you but like, I guess if you really cared about it, like you might, but like that's such a small niche of the population. And then it's like, oh, oh, you find out it's actually not completely organic, it's just mostly organic. It's semi-organic. So then it feels like you're why are you lying about that? Yeah, quasi organic. It's like I wear a size 15 shoe.

SPEAKER_02 28:54

It's like you wear 13 and a half. Yeah, that's not close. It's just north of 13 and a half. Yeah. I my thing is we've gone to a lot of distilleries, and that is something that they kind of crammed on your throat, and it's all of them locally sourced, locally sourced. Look, I really don't care about sustaining the environment. I say litter it up. We're all going up in flames. I don't know that it's so much about that. When God comes back, he comes back. We don't have to worry about it. Let's just use what we got. I'm not worried. Actually, like, let's hasten the day, okay? Like maybe we should be throwing some stuff out, you know. Maybe it'll be a little quicker, you know. Like, you get what I'm saying? Like, I don't know. Locally sourced, I don't care.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Like, I just don't. Like for me, I think the locally sourced is more meant to show that they are supporting local farmers, local agriculture. Versus like uh, you know, like literal competition print or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

We're all Americans, you know. I I'd rather get look, if I if we had a distillery in in uh in 10 buck two, but the best grain you could get was from Kentucky, I'd be like, we get our grain from Kentucky because it's better than the grain in 10 buck two. It is what it is, like yeah. I mean, at least look, just put on the bottle. We're supporting American agri agriculture. That's fine. Here's the thing it doesn't have to be cali. I don't care about California.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Yeah, I don't see all of our grains come from America.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

Yeah, as long as it's American people making American products and it's being sold in America and America, right? Like, I'm fine with that, but it doesn't have to be locally sourced. Like this, that is totally a workaround. They wanted to put on the bottle locally sourced from Canada. Mostly. That's worse than like get it from somewhere in America.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

I mean to go for Canada with mostly. So if 51% of their grains come from California, then that is mostly percentages that didn't seem like that was the case.

SPEAKER_02 30:37

Those percentages did not seem like that was the case.

SPEAKER_03 30:40

Well, it didn't say like two percent from America, you know.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

Uh, if you're getting stuff, look, if you're getting stuff trucked all the way from Canada, it's gonna be a lot. That's fair. You're leaning heavily on that. Like, you're not like we're getting 89% from California and we're only getting amazingly uh 11% from uh Canada. No, no, no, no. It's the other way around.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

I think it's interesting they're getting corn from Canada. Like, I could see if they were doing like if they were getting rye, like Canadian rye brought in, that makes sense, right? Rye doesn't really grow that great, like in America generally, especially in most, at least in most of America. So it's like, oh, we're gonna get Canadian rye. Like, that's that's Canadian, but like do we have the whole entire Midwest is nothing but corn? Like, bring bring it in from Iowa.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

That's what I'm saying. They're they're going to like a little farther. At least keep it in America. They're like, we're locally sourced from Canada.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

Like, come on, guys. At least at least go somewhere. Do they make other whiskeys, other bourbons, like other styles? Do they do anything different?

SPEAKER_03 31:38

Yeah, so they actually do a wheat whiskey. So they did two limited releases. One was a wheat whiskey and one was a truffle rye. Interesting. That sounds bougie. The truffle rye. Sounds like some I want to have with my steak. There wasn't much of there wasn't much of a truffle aspect of it. Like if I hear truffle rye, I'm thinking, okay, I think truffle fry truffles. Right. But so it's black truffle rye. But truffle fries have truffle, like shaped truffles, yeah. Or truffle oil. Truffle butter. No, that's something else. This one is just rye and malted rye, and it's made by hand selecting rye whiskey barrels and infusing them for up to a year with imported French truffles.

SPEAKER_02 32:25

We got truffles in America. You you really are hung up on this thing.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

I mean, to be fair, it is a California right on the coastline area.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

I expect anything other than, but just don't say you're locally sourced. But anyway, I digress.

SPEAKER_03 32:41

Like that, that's a fair thing. I think it's a fair statement to talk about because a lot of distillers, to your point, a lot of distillers are like, oh, we're locally sourced. Oh, we locally source these things.

SPEAKER_02 32:50

I expect somebody from California to be like, we're getting it from you know, wherever, and we're and you'd be lucky we're doing it in California. I'd be like, Yeah, I'm lucky. I'm glad you guys are doing your own thing. You know, piecemeal all the products. I don't care. Like, I I'm fine with people sourcing from other locations. Just don't like be like that.

SPEAKER_03 33:09

Don't just describe, just say that.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

And you don't have to say that you're sourcing from other places, but don't say that you're not, you know what I mean? Don't say like locally when you're not. Like just leave it at we get stuff and we make things, and that's why they say that Chris is not a fan of marketing in any way, shape, or form. Not not on this marketing.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

Yeah, not on this marketing. I will say, up to a year in truffle, that's a long time.

SPEAKER_03 33:32

Well, friends, you know, so that's gotta go with truffle. So they pull the rye whiskey, straight rye whiskey barrels and infuse them once they're aged, infuse them once.

SPEAKER_02 33:43

They throw truffles in there, then they take the truffles out, and then they put the but it's oil, right? Yeah. Truffle, truffle work. Just truffle.

SPEAKER_01 33:49

Uh truffles or truffle oil. That's very different. It is very different. It is very different. I believe they can't be doing it. Soaked into the wood kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03 33:58

And it's infusing them up to a year with imported French truffles.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Can't be oil, then just truffles. But those truffles eventually are gonna degrade into a gelatinous mess. For a year, yeah. I mean that's a long time. Like that's gonna like shave them down. Yeah, that thing would be very truffle forward, whatever that is. Like, imagine garlic. Imagine throwing garlic in a barrel, and then actually, kind of an interesting thing.

unknown 34:22

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

All right, Mr. Pickle Whiskey.

SPEAKER_03 34:25

I don't know, burrow. Get myself a garlic garlic vodka. We've had a we've had a garlic-infused vodka.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

Yeah, but they actually threw like garlic in the vodka, but like aging garlic or vodka in garlic would be kind of different.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

Can you age garlic in vodka or in a it would just disintegrate?

SPEAKER_02 34:40

It would just be mush. No, I mean like throw garlic in a barrel and then take it out and then put the vodka in that barrel. Just smash up some garlic. Yeah, just minced garlic. I would try that. Yeah. No, sell the minced garlic too, and and sell the garlic too as uh bourbon-aged minced garlic. I'd be putting that on everything. Like a black pepper bourbon, yeah. It looks like black garlic, throwing this on everything. Carcinogens going anywhere, you know, like carcinogens, that's it. I'd be curious.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

I'd be curious if anybody has tried the truffle, the the truffle one.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

It was a limited one that they did. That's gotta be limited.

SPEAKER_02 35:20

I mean, how many French truffles are you getting?

SPEAKER_03 35:23

Very expensive, I would I would assume that. Oh, yeah, gotta be. Gotta be. But it's a hundred bucks for the bottle. Okay. Well, not as much as it's not. Well, they're also everything that they do is about 92 proof. So they're all proofing it down. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:35

I mean, I like this brand. I just I'm not I'm not a huge fan of obviously we talked about it, you know. I I don't care if you guys are so it was interesting. We talked about it. That's what I don't like about it, I guess. Not to go back into the tangent, but we did talk about like, oh wow, like California is actually making the ingredients. That's pretty interesting. Come to find out, no. So actually, I like it when they don't put it on there because we had a whole conversation that wasn't true until we did some digging. That just don't put it on there because it's all it's like false.

SPEAKER_03 36:01

I'm gonna argue that again, most distilleries that we've gone to, been to, bought from, they like to when you're there for a tour, they like to boast. We we locally source our grain.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

But sometimes they can tell you where, and that's how you know they're really good.

SPEAKER_03 36:15

Here's the thing I think it's a big marketing. I think it's not a marketing. Right. It's one of those, like, okay, if we're if we're big bourbon guys, let's let's be honest and real. We don't care where you get your grain from, we care about what the product tastes like at the end, right?

SPEAKER_02 36:30

I mean, it is cool when they say, like, you know, in 20 22 miles from here, there's a farm and that's where we get the stuff. I'm always like, cool, that's great. That's an added bonus, but I really don't give a rip.

unknown 36:39

Right.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

Like, I I I would I do expect the ingredients to come from America. I will say that.

SPEAKER_03 36:44

But I feel like there was a time, I feel like there was a time and era where we didn't care about locally sourced or non, and then organic became a big thing. Organic. And now people are like small bad. Everyone's like, oh, we have to figure out locally sourced. Now we gotta we gotta speak to that crowd. Yeah, I don't know that I I don't know that I care. Where do you get your I care that the product tastes good if it's different in flavor? Okay, tell me that it's a grain from somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

Yeah, but yeah, you know, like my thing is it's transparency. Fair. It's not being transparent to to boast about locally sourced from I would agree. Just north of California. You know, that's my thing.

SPEAKER_03 37:23

Just north of just a couple states north of California in a different country.

SPEAKER_02 37:27

Yeah, that's my only thing.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

In a whole different country, yeah. I would like to know what um legally what the percentage is that it would have to be to be able to put that it's locally sourced on a bottle. And also, I get super excited when I go into a place and see if something is locally sourced. I want to know that farmer Joe over here with a picture on the wall is the one providing the the stuff for my bourbon. See, there's a market for that.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

So do you feel slighted now finding out that a little bit because I actually like this? Pretty much a lot of it's not coming from America.

SPEAKER_03 38:00

Pretty much a lot of it, all of it, pretty much all of it.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

Pretty much all of it. Hey, you know, yeah. Fair, fair, okay. Something to say. I think I think it's a knock against the bottle because I didn't have anything bad to say until then. And no, which is a pretty small thing. It's a small thing, it's a caveat, and it's probably not an issue for most people. It's a non-it's a non-issue, but it's a it's a me issue. Yeah, I'm gonna make it an issue because we try so many things, and like you know, I've got this whole I'm gonna give it my honesty thing.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

There's something to be said about just pure transparent marketing, I think. Like that's what we talk about all the time. Like, we would love to see like you can go online and find their their mash bill. Why not just put it on the bottle?

SPEAKER_02 38:40

And I like that they actually put that information on their website.

SPEAKER_03 38:43

So that's not on their website, that was on a different distiller. Oh, so they didn't even do it. They don't even do it on their website. That's that's the issue.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

So I would much rather you like share your mash bill or just say, like, hey, we, you know, we here's how here's the story about how we smoke how this is why we decided to smoke it in this wood. Put that on there. I would be much more interested.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

Like, we're not gonna share a mash bill because it's secret. But guess what? It has corn and this and that and the other, and those are the ingredients we use, but you're not gonna know the percentages because go screw yourself. I'd like that. Literally, put that on there. Go screw yourself. I'd be like, yes, yes, I will go screw myself.

SPEAKER_03 39:17

Tell us if you have an issue, we'll we'll talk.

SPEAKER_02 39:19

Yeah, call us and we won't answer the phone. Yeah, I'd be like, yeah, that's great. Um, thank you for being real, just north of California.

unknown 39:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 39:27

Noh actually said just north of California, it was just us.

SPEAKER_02 39:30

It said north of California. No, no, it was us to us.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

But I love that you caught on to that. You said it. I mean Canada is north of California. I said that Canada is north of California, but it's not anywhere here.

SPEAKER_02 39:41

Oh, I thought you said it said on the thing that they source everything from go back to that thing when you said it was it was from California, California and California.

SPEAKER_03 39:49

So it says the mash bill is 67% corn from California and Canada. 20% rye from California and Canada, and then 13% barley from Wyoming smoked in California.

SPEAKER_02 40:01

Oh, okay. So who came up with the just north of?

SPEAKER_03 40:04

You asked where California was compared to Canada. And we said Canada's just north of California.

SPEAKER_02 40:09

Oh, so you guys were wrong. No, it really is just north of California. It's not just north, though.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

There is two states in between.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

There's two states in between. That's like saying, you know, well, I won't go there. But anyway, it's not just north of.

SPEAKER_01 40:23

Well, but relative to the size of California, it is kind of just north of California.

SPEAKER_03 40:27

Right. Now I get that you can't say anything is just west of California is just water.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

East is just west of Maine. California. No. Well, technically it's Canada.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

If you want to get real specific. Geography. Geography. Boom, buddy.

unknown 40:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

And any Americans in their geography. At any rate.

SPEAKER_03 40:50

What's interesting is we have another bottle of theirs that we're going to have here soon. That's their rye, their cherry smoked ryt.

SPEAKER_02 40:56

Oh, we're doing a series on these guys. We got two bottles. I didn't realize that. Okay. Let's trap in. Yeah, I know, right? I might have more things to say. I'm very curious. I will say, going back to it, it is good. Like I'm finishing up the monster pour that I had, and it's it's actually rounding out, it's better now than it was when I first started.

SPEAKER_03 41:15

I think I appreciate the fact that I'm liking it more now. It's their own distillant. Yes, the grains aren't technically locally sourced, but the fact that it's their own distillant and cherrywood smoked something, I feel like that changes. That's a game changer in flavor. Because I we've had correct me if I'm wrong, I feel like we've had some kind of smoked bourbon or rye or some kind of whiskey. It was a smoked whiskey that wasn't that was sourced. It wasn't their own distillant. And they did something to it.

SPEAKER_02 41:44

Source, like the whole product was sourced?

SPEAKER_03 41:47

Maybe they finished it and something like that.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

And then they took it and they did something to it. Recently.

SPEAKER_03 41:52

Maybe.

SPEAKER_02 41:53

Yeah, I can't think of what it was. We yeah, we had some. It does sound fun, but it was like cherry wood. Yeah, they sourced a whiskey, but then they they smoked it.

SPEAKER_01 42:00

And it had this weird flavor, this weird was it a scotch that you guys like it was like or like a like a single malt that was like cherry wood smoked uh like pizza type stuff, or what?

SPEAKER_03 42:11

The more that it sat, the more it got this like I could be thinking of the wrong thing, but I feel like what I'm thinking of, whatever it was that we had, the more it sat, the more that it it became disconnected. Yeah, yeah. Like it was you could taste the separate parts of it. You could taste it separate and it wasn't good.

SPEAKER_02 42:26

It really, it was it was it was one of those things by the end of your last, you're like, I actually hate it. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:31

Like at first, you're like, okay, no, it does ring a bell, and then Steve would know.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

I can't think of what it was though. Steve would know exactly what that is. He's probably listening, like, I know what that is.

SPEAKER_03 42:40

I do find it.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

It's a consistent idiots.

SPEAKER_03 42:42

You say it out loud. I do find it interesting there about the cherry wood smoked. All their stuff is that they smoke is cherry wood smoked barley. Don't understand why, but I do find that very interesting. Cherry wood is probably locally sourced.

SPEAKER_02 42:56

I think the idea of pulling, like tugging at a specific ingredient in there that already kind of plays, like really plays, um, is an interesting concept. Because uh barley is one of those ingredients that you really pick, you only need like five percent and you really pick up on it. So it's one of those things that's kind of a you know, like a aggressive kind of silent partner, you know. And to so to do something with that specific small, very impactful ingredient, leaving, you know, you know, 92% of the other spirits alone or the other ingredients alone, that's kind of an interesting thing. And I think that that's why it's subtle, but it's making this a unique flavor. But this is also high, this is a 13% barley. Yeah, this is a lot, this is a lot of barley. Yeah, when's the last time we had something that high? That was a lot of some kind, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:49

Oh, bourbon?

SPEAKER_02 43:50

Um never. Maybe it's normally not a big five percent about the bow and rate on on that.

SPEAKER_03 43:58

Maybe 10? Yeah, maybe. Maybe, maybe. I mean, if you really want to push it, maybe 10. But I American single malts are about the only thing that I've seen like high barley, and that's all barley.

SPEAKER_02 44:09

Yep. I like it. I do like it.

unknown 44:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:14

Um I like that they're not it's not super artsy farty coming out of Canada. Or can uh California.

SPEAKER_03 44:20

Just just south of the sorry, I had to get that last I had to get that last dig in there.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

Um but you know what I mean. I I I do think it's good. I think it's unique. I think it's something that I would be glad I tried it, especially at this price. But even say 50, 45, 50 bucks.

SPEAKER_03 44:35

So MSRP is about 50.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

I think if I paid 50 bucks for this and we tried it, I'd be like, I'm glad I got it and tried it. I don't think I'd buy it. But you want to replace it. I wouldn't replace it. But I think if I was in a liquor store with somebody and they were looking at it and I'd be like, it's different, you know. Right. Are you looking for something different? And like, yeah, I'm kind of tired of the same old, same old. I'd be like, yeah, get it. You know, get it, and you'll like it and you won't get it again. But you might recommend it. I think people will recommend this bottle to people for the first time.

SPEAKER_01 45:01

Because it's so different.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

Yeah. People will recommend it. They won't be like, they're not gonna rave about it, but they'll recommend this.

SPEAKER_01 45:08

This is a bottle that you'd have at the house if you had it on your shelf, and you'd be like, Something comes over, I'm like, Oh, yeah, you know, I like this, I like that, I like a little bit of everything. But you know, I'm just kind of looking, but try this, yeah, see what you think about that. I'm curious to see what your thoughts are on this. It's a it's a unique enough bottle that it does that and it doesn't break the bank. And if they hate it, they can pour it down the drain.

SPEAKER_03 45:27

Yeah, it's off the beaten path for sure. Could you could you see yourself recommending this to someone that's relatively new to bourbon, but kind of wants that like special, that like specialty glass. Like, okay, I'm I'm I'm a Buffalo Trace guy, or you know, I I like my blends, or maybe I like my I don't think so, but I I kind of want something else.

SPEAKER_02 45:48

Like I think this this bottle uh you appreciate this bottle more with time in in spirits. I think with somebody who is fairly new to bourbon, they wouldn't really appreciate it for what it is.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

I think somebody who likes rye, it would be a good jumping off point, more so than bourbon. I feel like this has a lot more in common with a rye, because it's unique tasting, because it's yeah, it's got like a lot. It does. I do uh the more I drink, the more I get some of that rye sweetness to it. It's got a little bit of that spice, but it's not really it definitely has some of that, like that very much like that sweet rye kind of flavor to it and kind of that middle of the palate. I think it's challenging your palate.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

Is that what you're getting for?

SPEAKER_01 46:26

For sure, yeah. Like initially, when you you the first few drinks, it's like poo, it's barley. Like that's all I taste is smoked barley. Like that's clear as that. I know there's barley in there, I can smell it, I can taste it, it's there. Um, and then the more we've drank, and obviously we've had you know the pipe tobacco as well, it seems to have mellowed down quite a bit. And I get more of I'm getting more of that rye sweetness coming through. Um, and I don't know if that's the tobacco. It's probably the Canada rye. Yeah, it's probably that Canadian.

SPEAKER_02 46:52

I do think that we have an unfair advantage because I think this tobacco is making it, it's this tobacco is giving it what it's lacking, and it's actually adding almost like a mapley syrupy kind of yeah, very sweet, yeah, very sweet.

SPEAKER_01 47:06

Yeah, I yeah, it's interesting. I would, you know, I kind of want to like come back and revisit when I'm not smoking to see how much different it is. We might hate it. Yeah, probably not. Yeah, no. We are probably getting a different experience than you guys are getting, I think. Especially because I had a couple of drinks beforehand, it was like that's barley, like very much like that American single malt kind of flavor, not overpowering, but it was uh, you know, prevalent. Yeah. Um, and then the more we've we've smoked um of this English blend, it's kind of I think it's kind of muted that barley out a little bit and it's allowed some of that sweetness to come through. But it's very, I mean, yeah, like I said, that that maple syrup, like rye with a little bit of spice in there. Um, but for the most part, very, very sweet. Uh it's interesting. I mean, if this is one I would like, this would be a good to pair with a cigar, go with a pipe.

SPEAKER_02 47:53

Um, I feel like this is a good, I mean, I hate to say like it sounds weird, but this is an early morning like tobacco. Like, this is great in the morning with like coffee, like tea or coffee. Uh, but like this, like it sounds weird, but like I actually think this is like an early morning whiskey. Oh, a thousand percent. Like nobody's sitting there drinking whiskey in the morning, but maybe us Easter day off.

unknown 48:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:14

But I think that it goes so well with this tobacco, but because it's kind of easygoing, but it's also kind of like fresh and kind of like interesting, you know what I mean? I do think that that kind of lends itself to like an early morning dram, you know.

SPEAKER_03 48:27

I do find it interesting that there's this idea that we can't have whiskey in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 48:32

Not yeah, not till five o'clock. Not until five o'clock.

SPEAKER_03 48:34

Yeah. Because I I look at it and I go, the reason I sit here and I go, this would be great for morning, like a morning breakfast whiskey, or Wathin's is the same way. Yeah, Wathin's is because of the flavors that come off of it. It's like, oh man, this is great for breakfast. Like this would pair so well with you just gotta take a nap. Yeah, like right. Because it does tucker yeah, Thanksgiving morning kind of Christmas morning. It's more of that idea that uh it's not necessarily the alcohol that I'm looking for, but the flavors that it presents. I was like, wow, this would go really well with this, that, the other, which tends to be a breakfast meal or a breakfast thing.

SPEAKER_02 49:10

Like this would go great with a frittata, right? Like you ever had a frittata?

SPEAKER_03 49:15

Yes, I haven't. I have not, I've not had a fritata. It sounds awesome. It's egg.

SPEAKER_02 49:21

It's like a quiche, but it's different.

SPEAKER_03 49:24

It's imagine like almost like an omelet mixed between an omelet and a quiche, and that's frittata.

SPEAKER_02 49:29

We should get one, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:31

It's it's good.

SPEAKER_02 49:32

I I like quiche sometimes. So ultimately, what do you think, Bob?

SPEAKER_03 49:35

Yeah, I was gonna say, as a relatively new the idea of being a new drinker, but I want to put you out of this present well for someone new or no.

SPEAKER_00 49:44

Um so let me say you guys uh you guys killed it on the description uh and like talking about the taste and everything. Um no, it's so it's uh it's all right. I like you know, I I I like it. Um I would say that, and I think I heard you guys talking about this earlier, but my first sip of it kind of gave me, kind of reminded me of a little bit of a red wine. So okay, so I uh I heard you guys say that I'm like, my god, I can taste it. And I'm a wine drinker, so I do do like my reds. And uh no, so I I did like that. I like the smoothness of it. Um I would say you're probably right. As a beginning drinker, I would not offer this to somebody who's relatively new.

SPEAKER_03 50:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

Um, maybe the within the first six months of drinking bourbon, I would not offer this to them. But uh, you know, being into the bourbon drinking now about a year and a half, um, I can taste the difference between this and um something like Rittenhouse.

unknown 50:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:47

And I do like, I do like the Rittenhouse, but I can I would you better watch your mouth talking about the Rittenhouse now.

SPEAKER_01 50:54

There are some Rittenhouse fans in the house.

SPEAKER_03 50:56

I haven't told you guys about his Rittenhouse obsession.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

Um I do like Rittenhouse myself. I might have a couple bottles. Um I want to get a Rittenhouse tattoo 18. Um but uh okay, good enough. Um but I I would say I'd probably add this to my collection. Okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I do like this.

SPEAKER_03 51:18

So being a member of the second chapter and knowing those guys, would you bring this bottle around them?

SPEAKER_00 51:25

Well, I do know a couple of them are not rye guys, right? Um, but I think they would actually enjoy this. Okay. Yes. Why is that? Um, it's so a couple of those guys that that I've heard that are not rye guys do not like the strongness of the taste. Um, but this ain't that they don't don't have a very big bite to it. So uh it's again, I'm say this word a hundred times after cursed. It's it's you plant, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:57

You planted and it says it is easy to drink. Yeah, I mean it's very easy to drink. Yeah, it's it's friendly, it's very friendly, it's friendly while also being interesting um and very different. So I could see, like, for instance, I could see Ryan really liking this potentially. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Uh, this would be one that he would I think he would gravitate towards. I think Ryan would like it. I think Steve would probably like this bottle. Um, Blake and Cody, maybe not. Mike, this I don't I don't think being in that borderline now, he's like kind of liking Scotch, but I don't really want to dip my toe into the super.

SPEAKER_02 52:28

I don't think Cody or Blake would like this very much. Yeah, I don't think they would appreciate it, but I don't think that they would like it as far as like it's just off that kind of beaten path. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 52:38

You know whose opinion I would really like to hear on this wee Prince? Oh, oh yeah, yeah, just to kind of get hit because he's got that such a different palette, right?

SPEAKER_02 52:46

Actually, I mean maybe not pairing necessarily, but like what heck kind of meal would he make around it. Yeah, like what would you put around? Like just to ask his opinion.

SPEAKER_01 52:55

Like, what would you do with this?

SPEAKER_02 52:56

Yeah, he's probably like furtada.

SPEAKER_03 53:00

What's a furtada?

SPEAKER_01 53:01

Somebody would listen to the podcast. Furtada. Furtada. I think. I think his opinion would be I would be really curious to see what his thoughts were. Because he is not really a whiskey drinker. No, um, there's been a few that he likes, but he's not a drinker by any means. He does enjoy the some of the flavor profiles and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 53:17

But something like this is so just like I don't think our curiosity is gonna be satisfied when Nick gives him some.

SPEAKER_03 53:24

I'll give him some. That's fine.

SPEAKER_02 53:25

That's he'll we gotta figure it out. He might love it because it's not like you said, it's not offensive, and it's very friendly, like and it's more it's very flavorful, just in a different type of parameter.

SPEAKER_03 53:36

Yeah, you know what's interesting. The other day I poured myself a glass. I have a bottle of uh 1792 bottle de Bond store pick. And when I first opened it, I was like, man, this is actually something special, like compared to what normal bottle de Bond is. Yeah. And I had a sip of it the other day, and I sat there and went, I'm disappointed right now. Like it's it's an everyday drinker no thinker.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

Like, I I can't get the 1792 store pick? Yeah, those bottles photos, those store picks are usually out of this world. Well, oh, I mean, I'm thinking of the foolproof.

SPEAKER_03 54:07

Right. This is just the bottle to bond. Oh, so like that makes sense, yeah. I tried it and I was like, I tried it on Saturday alongside of a uh Heaven Hill bottle to Bond store pick that Tipsy did. That was good. I was like, those two. I had I had one of the normal. Uh uh, you weren't there yet? I have the bottle still, so but the the so I tried just the normal and then his for the Heaven Hill, and I was like, wow, there's such a drastic difference between the two. Um, but then I grabbed the 1792 one and I tried it, and I just sat there and thought, like, this is so disappointing to me right now. Because it not that it's bad. Well, you tried it after trying the other one, but it it just reminded me and just kind of reiterated the idea in my head of an everyday drinker, no thinker.

SPEAKER_02 54:52

There's nothing wrong with it. Nondescript, but it's nondescript, there's no challenge in there, which I've never said I've been disappointed with 1792 anything, but I I get what you're saying.

SPEAKER_03 55:02

Like it's it's it's good.

SPEAKER_02 55:03

I think it's it's like following it's following up anything after something amazing is tough, right? Like, yeah, and that's what you really have to kind of plan out like a meal or like even with like tobaccos, like you don't want to smoke the most powerful one first, you know, things like that, or whatever it is, because if you don't build up to it, you're yeah, yeah, you're gonna be disappointed.

SPEAKER_03 55:22

Disappointed, yeah. But it also made me think just now of like, okay, this is not this is this does not fit that idea of an everyday drinker, no thinker that normally guys that are getting into whiskey are gonna go after. Yeah, the ones that aren't that's not necessarily nondescript, like there's no I'm not gonna be challenged. I'm not gonna have to sit there and be and challenge myself or be challenged of what I'm trying to what I'm drinking. This is very much like it's friendly, it's good, it's approachable. After a couple sips, you're gonna go, Well, what am I what I'm getting something else? Like there's something else going on. Let's think about this a little bit more. I don't know that uh a new guy would want that. I don't know that a new person would really go after that.

SPEAKER_02 56:03

Well, I think you'd have to get past the initial like first couple sips too, because it is like it's so friendly, it's almost nondescript, but it's but it's so got so many different flavors that it keeps it from from being in that category. And it pulls out and it's like its own kind of weird kind of wild spirit kind of category. You know what I mean? And I think that that's cool, and it does creep a little bit the flavor-wise. Like I I really enjoyed the end of my glass. It's kind of like a cigar. I've had some cigars before that, like the first third, okay. And then, you know, all of a sudden, like the second third, or even like the last third, all of a sudden the flavors are ramping up. Like, gosh, why wasn't this cigar like the whole way through? Yeah, but it just took like that first third to get there, you know. And I think that's kind of how this glass was because it was good, but like it got really good, you know, halfway to like the last third, really.

SPEAKER_03 56:56

Yeah. It'll be uh very interesting to see how this bottle pairs to the one we're about ready to have. Because again, we're having bottles we've never had before. Back to back. So we're gonna see how it goes. We're gonna see how this goes because this guy is gonna be very interesting. We're we're gonna see how this goes.

SPEAKER_02 57:13

But stay tuned. Stay tuned. Herm and Bob are gonna be joining us.

SPEAKER_03 57:17

Another pipe tobacco. It'll be great. Yep. We'll see you then.

SPEAKER_04 57:26

Thank you for listening to the podcast. If you want more great content and other perks, be sure to support the show by clicking the link in the show notes. We can be reached on our website, whiskeychasterspumet.com, with any ideas for the show. Thanks again.