Yeah, so, Kessler. Pretty classic American blended whiskey here. It doesn't smell like anything. Also known as Brown Vodka. I think it's pretty acetone-y. Yes, it is kind of acetone-y, but it is 72.5% grain neutral spirit blended with 27.5% whiskey. It smells like pear. Plastic bottle. Plastic cup. It doesn't really smell like much. I mean, it's really just very light and easy. Something in the back, oak and banana. Yeah. It tastes like graham cracker and a little bit of banana, a little bit of fruit, and that's it. It's easy drinking and frankly, it's not offensive. You mix it with Coke or something, right? Yeah. I mean, you mix it with Coke. Kestrel and Coke, yeah. You drink it out back by a bonfire in the middle of the country. And that way you don't have to buy vodka to put in your Coke. Yeah. You're just paying more for vodka because it's brown. This leaves a just lingering gross. Listen, Rudy. I think the listeners, we're not doing people a service here if we don't tell them, you're deep-seated disdain for Kestler's going into this. Yeah. So even if we blinded him, I think he would know it because he's like, this is the **** that Nightmares is made of. To pretend his opinion is objective. So we're actually just going to wrap. Orange wedge and some squirt, right? And you got your old-fashioned. Look at how angry he looks when he has to taste it. He just gets angry. Listen, I would crush this with Seven Up all night. So that's Kestler. So bottom shelf whiskeys tend to taste bottom shelf-y, but not always. There are absolutely some hidden gems down there to be found and that's what we're going to talk about in seriousness today. Welcome back to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm your host, Pat, along with Kristen and Roger and Greg, as always. Pat, you brought a lot of hidden gems I've always enjoyed over the years, trying to convince people that they should ignore the price of some whiskeys and give them a chance. There are some excellent bottles here. Yeah, you know, something has to go on the bottom shelf. You know, we can't have a store without putting something on the bottom shelf. Yes, there is some kind of all-purpose, mixing type of cheap spirits down there, like Kessler, for example, for an American whisky. But there are gems to be found as well. And there are some fantastic straight bourbons and ryes down there that are well worth the price. I love the search, you know, in the less expensive category for the stuff that really you can kind of get behind. In respect of what people think about those of us that are in the drinks business, everyone kind of has this idea that we're snobs. We aren't apart from Roger, obviously. But we like to save a buck, right? So if I can find a $10, whatever it is, I'm all about it, man. I mean, come on. I drank hams all weekend this past weekend. Amen, because hams is the best. It is. Liquid gold. It is. So what I think is kind of interesting is that rye and bourbon right now are so hot and so on fire that a lot of the newest releases just keep going up and up in price. So it's creating this gap between what people think is the in whiskey and then these bottom shelfers where people go, wait, this is 15 bucks. I inherently will not like this. There's no way. Yeah, there's like, I was just talking about this with one of our other spirits buyers. Things can be suspiciously cheap. And he was talking about, yeah, this vodka is good. It's very clean. It's neutral. And it's going to be $11.99 on the shelf. And I said, well, that's kind of I think you're losing some people there because people are like, what's wrong with this that that's so cheap? So yeah, I agree though, we have this huge ever growing price gap with premium American whiskeys and this bottom shelf stuff. And people don't bat an eye spending $60 on a ride just because some blog wrote it up, but there are some really great finds on the shelf that are a lot cheaper. And have been there for a long time. Yeah. And that don't have a super awesome brand new workshop label. No, it's just these heritage labels, these heritage brands, old timey. You know, I always, when I'm talking to them with customers a lot, I always say, you know, yes, it's got this grandpa type of label, but the liquid inside the bottle is really what we need to focus on. When you say heritage brands, which one of these bottom shelf brands we're talking about today paved the way for the $60 release, this and that. I mean, a lot of these were what everybody drank. Yeah, we're paying $70 for High West Rye Releases now because Old Overholt and Jim Beam Rye were the only ryes available for 25 years. When you look at a label like this, it looks retro because it's just the same label. They're not trying to be retro. Like this is what Dant has always looked like. JW. Dant Bourbon has had that same label as long as there's been JW. Dant Bourbon. You guys want to dive in with JW. Dant Bourbon? Yeah, so the first couple we should try, let's actually try them side by side, is the JW. Dant Bottle and Bond. How much is this on the shelf there? Dant is $22.99 for a one liter, which in equivalency is about $16 for a $7.50. I like the one liter bottles. I really do, especially in wine. That's just the perfect size. So we're going to be tasting this JW. Dant Bottle and Bond side by side with JTS. Brown Bottle and Bond. We're doing this because they are both bottled in Bond bourbon from the Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. JTS. 1799 on the shelf, ladies and gentlemen. So these two bourbons side by side, I have a favorite. I'm curious to see what you guys think. Again, really the same bourbon. They're probably pulling them out of different warehouses or maybe they're looking for a bit of a different character with one versus the other. But technically speaking, I mean, these are the same mash, same distillery, all that jazz. On the nose, I like that dant. Off the bat, I like that dant. I 100% agree with you on that. I haven't tasted it yet, but yeah. I vote JTS Brown. It's more caramel and fruit. Dant's like more limestone and clean. I agree with that assessment. I think the JTS Brown tends to be a little sweeter and a little fatter. Yeah. But I think it's also a touch flabbier and it's not as well balanced and, for lack of a better word, kind of structured and layered. I think the dant does it for me. I think it brings a little more to the table. It's broader complexity there, for sure. Yeah, it is more viscous. But the JTS is good, too. It's pretty. JTS is fantastic. Yeah. I'm just very preferable to the dant. I like the JTS is like a drier, a little spicier. It is. Yeah. This would be better for an old-fashioned, the JTS. Spicier and fatter, right? I don't think it's fatter, but I definitely think it's spicier. What's the proof on these guys? They're both 100. They're bottom to bottom. So they're each at least four years old and 100 proof. Those are both really good. And we're belly aching about missing out on a $70 bourbon that comes out once every six months or something. And these are just chilling. Important to remember too with these, try these whiskeys different ways. So these being 100 proof, you might think it's a little hot, but throw an ice cube in there. Yep. They definitely are hot. That's for sure. Well, but that also means you're getting more bang for your buck because you got a 100 proof bottle there for 18 bucks, right? Yeah. Going dant, final answer. You guys, what do you think, Roger? Dant or JTS if you had to choose? It's kind of tough, probably dant. Gregorius? JTS, but we're splitting hairs. Yeah, yeah. I'm dant, but it's by a fraction. All right. Okay, what's next? Let's try Benchmark Bourbon and David Nicholson 1843 Bourbon. So the Benchmark is $10.99 on the shelf, and the Nicholson we sell for $21.99. Yeah, so Benchmark is coming from the Buffalo Trace Distillery. For a long time, it had an age statement of eight years old, which essentially made it Buffalo Trace, just cheaper. And there were handle size half-gallon bottles available for like 17 bucks, and they were on tight allocation. So we only got, you know, X amount of cases a month. Pretty funny to see that, you know, a $17 bottle get that kind of treatment. But this is another one that's always been a staff favorite here at Binny's. They kept the number eight on the bottle now, but it no longer has an eight-year-old age statement on it. But it's at least four years old, because it does not have an age statement, and any bourbon or rye that doesn't have an age statement on it means it is at least four years old. But it is lower proof. It's not, you know, we say it's Buffalo Trace, but it's 80 proof or Buffalo Trace is 86 or 90, something like that. These smell pretty good. So the benchmark is three, the Nicholson is four. No, no, no, these are both four. Four. These are both at least four. Can you give it undisclosed? The stats on the Nicholson. So Nicholson is a 100 proof straight bourbon, at least four years old, there's no age statement on it. Where is it from? This is made at Heaven Hill, and this is a weeded bourbon. This is David Nicholson 1843. So there are two David Nicholson's, they can both be found on the bottom shelf. A little higher, a few bucks premium to this with a black label, it's a David Nicholson Reserve. It is not a weeded bourbon. If you want the weeded David Nicholson, you need the 1843. And this is 100 proof weeded bourbon from Heaven Hill. So. You've taken the usual, I need a decoder ring to figure out bourbon situation and made it even worse. Well, OK. Let me try to streamline this a bit. It is 100 proof weeded mash bourbon from Heaven Hill, which essentially makes it young larceny. There you go. And larceny is one of my favorite, moderately priced, inexpensive bourbons. Totally. Mine too. Yep. It wasn't physically on the bottom shelf, so I didn't pull it for this segment. But if it were, it would be here. It would have to be, because it's, yeah. So different styles though here. obviously, a weeded versus a rye mash, but this Buffalo Trace mash, number one is what they're using for this benchmark here. So same mash as Buffalo Trace, Blanton's, the lower rye content, Buffalo Trace bourbon mash. Benchmark is really light on the palate. It's a good whiskey for people who don't want something breezy. I think a big function of that is the proof, where it's cut down 80 proof. But it still has that kind of cherry and anise, like Buffalo Trace kind of signature taste to it. Just dialed back. Yeah. It's really easy drinking. It's like totally just nothing wrong with that at all. Nope. I was expecting more spirit and it's not hot at all. Some of it's probably from that we had 200 proofers prior. Yeah. Well, let's go back to the 100 proof year with the David Nicholson 1843. Soft, little sweet wheat character to it. It's nice. A little bit bitter on the finish. A little bit. It doesn't really, yeah, it kind of clips at the end there, but other than that, I think it's really great. Pleasant. It's a lot more viscous than the benchmark. A lot more going on. Part of that is the wheat too. Yeah. I don't think that you're going to find life-affirming bourbons on the bottom shelf, but nothing that's going to change your opinion about bourbon, but there are some great deals down there. That's fine. How much did you say that is? That's on sale right now for $21.99. Yeah. It's definitely a nice sweeter bourbon if you're looking for a sweeter flavor. Yeah. If you're going to buy Maker's Mark or something like that, and you're just going to make old fashions at a party out of it for a bunch of people, this is a slightly more affordable option. Okay. I like both of these. They both hold their merits differently. Good, easy sippers. Yeah. It's fine. Yeah, those are kind of weak. You're kind of weak. The benchmark, I'd say it's the next worst one after Kessler, because it reminds me more on the body and the insipid nature. More like Kessler, it's fine. But I really prefer the Nicholson just because I'm inclined to like a weeded bourbon more, just my style. Well, it's got more body and more proof. So I think most people who have some experience drinking bourbon are probably going to swing toward the Nicholson. If you're comparing those two strictly. You know, the real key with the benchmark, honestly, is that price. I mean, where else are you going to find a bourbon that good for $11? Not the taste like that. All right, time to change gears and drink some rye whiskey. Old Overholt and the Beam. And you can pour the Rittenhouse too, I mean, we can do three of them. So the Overholt is $17.99. The JB Rye, $21.99. And the Rittenhouse, $26.99. So the Rittenhouse being the most expensive expression that we're trying for the bottom shelf tasting today. Correct. Something has to go on the bottom shelf. So flavor-wise, I don't think any of these belong down there. Rittenhouse has gone up a little bit in price. Rittenhouse has. Rittenhouse used to only be like $17. As Rye whiskey boomed, it became scarcer and scarcer. It was the Weller Rye for a long, long time, and now it's sort of stepped up. Along with Beam, and Beam also took a price increase two or three years ago. One of the Rye's ran out of stock. All right. So, Rye's. Okay. Overholt. Overholt here and Jim Beam Rye both made at the Jim Beam Distillery. They make one Rye whiskey. So, the mash on these is the same. The big difference here, Overholt is 80 proof and three years old, and the Jim Beam Rye is 90 proof, and it has no age statement, so it is at least four years old. But other than that, these technically are the same whiskey. Now, when they're blending something like this, that's more their commodity style. And they, you know, if it's a mandatory minimum of four years, is it safe to say that the majority of the barrels are like just around four years? They're not going to blend any six or seven-year-old in here to give a little bit more, are they? Just to... They might, if they have six or seven-year-old that's out of character for something else they're doing. Okay. In my experience, usually it's pretty consistent. They also could sell that to somebody else. Yeah. Or if it's so out of character for their older rye brands and they think it would throw off the younger rye brands like Overhold, they'll sell the bros. They mix it into your rum. Yeah. All right. Three-year versus four-year, I guess, is interesting. But what this is a really good example of is 80 versus 90 proof. And it's kind of nice that since these both are on the bottom shelf, it's affordable enough. This could be a fun tasting for anybody who wants to taste along at home. The difference in power and in intensity between these two is night and day. Oh yeah, absolutely. The 90 proof makes all the difference, especially if these things are going to go into a cocktail. Yeah. I much prefer the JB to the Overholt. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Overholt is dry. I mean, it's rye. You know you're tasting rye with that Overholt. It's got a dry, lean spice to it. The minty, all that. Yeah. It's serviceable. I mean, you could use it in a lot of like softer cocktails, but it just doesn't have the intensity of the other one. No. Yeah. So, which is a shame, because Overholt was one of those classic Pennsylvania rye brands. You know, that Pennsylvania or Menongahela style rye was known for being in-your-face rye. Like those rye whiskies were made with 90, 100 percent rye sometimes. And now it's a Kentucky style rye. So both of these are the bare minimum 51 percent rye. So it is not at all like the classic historical old Overholt would be. And the Rittenhouse is kind of the same story. It used to be a Pennsylvania style. Yeah. So Rittenhouse, which we're going to taste next year, was another classic Pennsylvania brand. Big, powerful, snappy, spicy rye. And now is a Kentucky style rye, where it drinks kind of fatter and sweeter like a bourbon. So a lot of times if someone is going to ask me where they would start drinking rye whiskey, I tend to serum toward Rittenhouse because it is a little softer and easier. It's got a little sweeter balance to it. If they're used to drinking bourbon, this is where you start with rye. You get an intro to the rye flavor without being driven away by a lean spice or anything like that. But also at 100 proof, you can't go wrong because again, it's going to hold up in a cocktail. In my opinion, the star of any whiskey cocktail should always be the whiskey. If you're starting with an 80 proof whiskey in a cocktail, you're just going to water it down to nothing. Plus with the rye explosion and a lot of it was from Templeton, and I consider Templeton more of a bourbon-esque rye, softer. Templeton very much drinks more like a bourbon. This Rittenhouse is fantastic. Yeah, so this Rittenhouse is fantastic. It's made at Heaven Hill now. It's just great, great rye. Really dialed up spice, a lot of backbone. Yeah. You can see how it'd be a great cornerstone for a cocktail. Doesn't drink 100 proof either. You know, I would say this drink's very similar to the Bean, which is 10 lower proof. This doesn't belong on the bottom shelf. No, not at all. But again, something's got to go on the bottom shelf. Right. And in a category where every new one is $6 or $7. $6 or $7. This would be cool to do a blind taste test and sneak in Rittenhouse with a lot of these new high-end ryes, a lot of which are, you know, from smaller craft guys, they're pretty young. A lot of grain forward, but I think just on taste alone, what people think, like, this is the one I'd want to buy. But I think that's, part of that, though, is if you're going to do a blind tasting like that, people are going to, they're naturally going to gravitate toward the sweeter one. Yeah. Especially bourbon drinkers. What are the one with the bells and the whistles, the pork cast finish or whatever they do? I know, I would. Yeah. Yeah. But if you're looking for just a solid rye, if you're just looking for a solid rye, any of these three will certainly do the job. For something more cocktail centric, the Redden House is definitely a way to go just because of the proof. But you can also save yourself a few bucks, get that Jim Beam rye, and it's classic. Stop drinking Moscow mules, start mixing ginger beer with rye whiskey. It's one of my favorite cocktails. What do you call that cocktail? I mean, sometimes you'll see it pitched as a Kentucky mule, but a lot of times that's bourbon, not rye. You know, you had a chance to say the Adamson and you didn't take it, so... No, I already have many other cocktails that I consider... Many other cocktails you consider the Adamson? You know what Best intentions, Brian Krieger has a cocktail? They named one after him. Really? Yeah. There's a flight of whisky at a local watering hall by me called the Brophy Hate Hate Hate. And it's a flight of whiskeys I notoriously hate on. That's awesome. Hate, hate, hate. The hater's ball. Oh, man, that Rittenhouse. I'm just excited to go home and drink some whisky now. I love this Rittenhouse. That would be the punchline of it. That's the punchline, right? That's the apogee of this whole podcast episode. Rittenhouse and Dance are calling my name. Why am I still a worker? Those are the two best here for sure. Yeah. Dance, JTS, and Rittenhouse. I have. The Nicholson was also very good, though. I have good notes on that. So have we successfully demystified the bottom shelf of American whiskey here? I'm not sure if we have. I think we need to, you know, we could do this a couple more times. I think there's so much. Oh, yeah. But this is a great place to start. I think again, too, I've recommended some of these whiskeys before, and sometimes, you know, they don't blow people away. But again, then I ask, all right, so how did you drink it? And they're like, well, I drink it neat. That's the only way I drink whiskey. So A, don't just drink whiskey one way. That's ridiculous. But a lot of these whiskeys are going to open up or change or they're great in a cocktail. They might not be, you know, mind blowing neat. But again, I don't think a bottom shelf whiskey, the intent isn't to change your perception on what whiskey can be. Right. I know. It's, you know, it's there because, you know, that bottle you wait all year for that isn't available, you know, 20 out of the 23 times you visit a store, you know, I assume you're still going to drink whiskey at some other times. And these are all great options. Except Kessler. So now it's time for our customer Q&A segment here at Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Write in with your question at Binny's Bev on Twitter or comments at binnys.com via email for your chance to win a $20 Binny's gift card. Good for pretty much anything on the bottom shelf. Pretty much, yeah, I mean, you could take home almost any one of these boxes. Dude, that overholt is yours. The JTS is yours. The Kessler is yours if you have a little bit extra. The benchmark is yours almost twice. Yeah. Kristin, who's our question from this week? Our question is from Sandy Roche. Sandy asks, what's your favorite bourbon not from Kentucky? Which is awesome because a lot of people think that only Kentucky can produce bourbon, but really it's an American spirit, can come from any of the 50 states. Concentrated in Kentucky, more popularly done in Kentucky, obviously, it's kind of the home, but we've got other expressions from around the country. We're happy to share, Sandy. I'll start because I really enjoy J. Henry out of Dane, Wisconsin, which is close to Madison, Wisconsin. Young farmer family that just sort of started sourcing some juice and putting them in barrels, and man, what they came up with is some magic. That's really good bourbon. Very good. Yeah, it's probably the age too. They use full-sized barrels. All their bourbons are about five years old or more now. They're making really nice juice. Yeah. Raj? I like Wyoming whiskey, the weeded bourbon out of Wyoming, of course. Nice and soft, but still has some good character to it. Yeah, it's really good stuff. I have to go local. Our buddy Paul over here in Evanston, at Few, makes a really small barrel bourbon, but Binny's has done a couple of handpicks of Few bourbon, and they've been terrific. I am also keeping it local. I'm going to go out to our farm crafting friends out at Whiskey Acres in the Kalb. I think their bourbon is showing great promise for its age, and it's switching over to straight bourbon now. So they have two-year-old juice. Has Opadon made a bourbon? Opadon makes several bourbons. Yeah, they make a Solera bourbon. That they use some chocolate malted rye and malted rye in it. Is that a bourbon? Yeah. I got to change my vote. Well, the malted rye is not a bourbon. No. But they use malted rye and chocolate rye in the bourbon mashbill. That stuff's terrific. Yeah, the Solera bourbon. The Solera, yeah. Yeah, change yours. It's great. So anyway, that's not all. We've seen great bourbon from California. We've seen great bourbon from ohio. Michigan. Michigan. Yeah, definitely Michigan. Colorado. Colorado. So, I mean, it's everywhere. It's coming from everywhere. So anyway, Sandy, thanks so much. We hope that you spend your $20 wisely on something delicious that you enjoy. So thanks for writing in. Folks, don't forget, every week we do a customer Q&A for your chance to buy whatever the heck you want, but it could be two bottles of benchmark. That's okay. So write us with your questions, you know where. At Binny's Bev on Twitter or at comments at binnys.com via email. Absolutely. Wrapping up another Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Greg. I'm Pat. I'm Roger. I'm Kristin. Keep Tasting.