Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm so happy to have you back today. I'm Kristin, your host, with me, as always, Greg Versch. Hey. What's up? As always. Most of the darn time. Too much, actually. Pat Brophy. Yo. And Joe Maloney from the Whiskey Hotline. Howdy. We've got Johny Barbosa. Hey, Johny, how are you? I'm doing well, how are you? Where are you from? I'm from northwest minnesota. Oh man, I love to hear that. And what do you represent? I represent Far North Spirits. Very cool. Thanks for coming in today. My pleasure. Now, we had a chance to chat during World of Whiskeys. When I interviewed you, I asked you which of your whiskeys in your product range goes best with hot dish. And so one of the gentlemen here just asked... What the f**k is hot dish? yes. And I was like, what? How do you, of all people, not know? You look like you... Just because I'm a fat pale guy doesn't mean I know what hot dish is. That's what I'm saying. I'm like, what the hell? This guy should live on it. So I'm going to ask the question again. Which one goes best with hot dish? I'm going to have to say Rockner minnesota, and it goes well with tater tot hot dish. awesome. So hot dish is basically casserole, man. It's got tater tots, too? It can. Casserole comes in many permutations of the starch and Campbell soup. Campbell soup cans and melted cheese. Yeah. I want it now. People will do it. Didn't you say your aunt or somebody does a pizza hot dish that you love a lot? My mother-in-law makes this killer pepperoni hot dish. The base ingredient is cream mushroom soup, and it just goes in and it just everything else and it's perfect. Pepperoni hot dish, my friend. I've been living life wrong. And Far North Spirits. Yeah, you're in the wrong state. So, Johny, tell us a little bit about Far North Spirits. How you got started? Let's start there. Sure. So, Mike Swanson, Sherry reese, married couple from Hallock, minnesota. Hallock is 20 miles south of Canada, 10 miles east of North Dakota. So, in the northwest corner, Mike grew up on the farm, which we farm for the grains, for the spirits. And Sherry, her folks lived in town. They owned the flower shop. And they were about four or five years difference in school. So, she was a senior, he was a freshman. And they were living outside of Hallock. And on the way back for the holidays, they were taking a flight from Minneapolis to Grand Forks. They met each other, had a date on Christmas Day, got married a few years later. And Mike knew that he was going to inherit his family farm. It's been in the family over a hundred years. So, great-grandpa Gustav founded the farm and just farmed the land. And so, he knew that he was getting it. But he's like, what can I do? Crop prices are in the tank, you know, corn, soybeans, not doing so hot. And so, he's working on his grad project and he's sipping on whisky. He's like, wait a minute, whisky comes from grain. Let's look at this idea. And so, he put together a plan for his grad school. And all of a sudden, his professor's like, when you have your first case of whisky, I want a case. And so, that's how, in a nutshell, how it all came together. In November, we'll actually celebrate five years. And so, prior to that, you know, the distillery was built from scratch. It was actually a wheat field. And so, when they put together the plan, they approached, Mike approached his dad and said, hey, per acre, we can get this return on the grain versus if we did this. And so, the business plan came together, they built the building, and the first spirit off the line was Solvay, our new American style gin. Not Juniper Ford, more Citrus Floral Ford. Then the next thing off the line was Olander, the Nordic rum. And from there, then we built on to producing whiskey, then on to the vodka and to the Navy String gin. Very cool. So where should we start tasting today? We're going to start tasting with Siva. The reason we're going to start with Siva is because you're going to get a great sense of the grains that we grow. We grow a specific rye variety called AC. Hazlitt. It's a non-GMO heirloom variety out of Canada. And it's quite different than most rye varieties in the sense that there's actually some depth, some body to it. And it really is captured in this vodka. It's a character driven vodka. Yeah, very much. You know, it's definitely in the camp of vodka that tastes like something instead of just as blank alcohol. Right. Where do the names come from for these? So both Mike and Sherry have Scandinavian descent. As you can tell, I'm not Scandinavian. I'm darker toned skin, black hair, but it all comes from Scandinavia. Siva is actually a Finnish word for deep. And the reason we selected that is because there is that complexity to the vodka. It's not your typical college vodka. For 90 proof, it does not burn as you drink it. There's a wonderful mouthfeel. And this is fantastic. It's creamy. Yeah. And there's a subtle. Has a med palate actually. A subtle vanilla note. Yeah. Yeah. And that's specifically from the grain that we grow. That's incredible. This is. I'm really, really blown away. I can tell. We've done large scale blind vodka tastings with our staff before. And people generally get divided into the neutrality versus character kind of camp. And I'm definitely one that tends to champion neutrality in vodka, because a lot of times the vodka with character tends to taste briny or it just grows. And this is beautiful. It's just like just enough of a little bit of a grainy and vanilla and that plush body to it. But this is awesome. Smash cut back to our blind vodka tasting episode. And one of our favorites was the Journeyman. And this has a lot of similar characteristics to that. It's nice to have a vodka with a little structure. Isn't it? Yeah, and a pleasant surprise. That's, no, this is great. We normally don't rant and rave about vodka here on the B2B, you know. I've got a big smile on my face. I guess you do. I can't believe it. You're kind of, you actually have color to your face. That's amazing. It's not just sunburn, which is, it really is amazing. You know, that's a low blow. Thankfully, I vodka to drown my sorrows in. Apart from Vodka, on the whites here, we've got Gin. Now, Gin was the first. That was the first, correct. Okay, so to take us through, is it Solvayg? Solvayg. Solvayg. Yep, it's a Scandinavian woman's name, and what Mike was trying to capture was the essence of what it's like after it rains in northwest minnesota. The area used to be Lake Agassiz, which is this great glacial lake that had a lot of deposits in the ground, so much so it's as black as Joe's t-shirt. That's how dark the soil is. So super nutrient rich, and we were just trying to capture what it was like after it had rained. So a little bit of citrus, a little bit of floral, and it's an easy drink in the gin. I'd say there's a fair amount of citrus on this gin. does that dark color of the soil aid in the ripening of the grain or the production of the grain because you're in such a northerly cold climate? I suppose that that would help for heat retention and reflection. Absolutely. And so it does wonders for our grains. Lovely. Nutrient rich. It's very subtle, very delicate on the nose. Definitely, like you said, Greg, citrus forward, but I like it because it's not so crazy in your face, like a lot of gins can be. There's a nice little savory touch to it underneath too that I like. The botanicals are juniper, grapefruit, thyme, lavender, cucumber, gentian, orice root, and angelica. It is so fresh and so clean. Yeah. Ain't nobody dope as this. Wow. What's this bottle that? 87. Wow. That's a fantastic gin. Yeah. It's great. All right. Cool. Now, are you making all these different spirits on one single still? So we have two stills. We have a 500 gallon Vendome Pot still, a column plate, and so that's the main where we do most of our grain neutral spirit, as well as the whisky, as well as the rums. But we also have a 50 gallon dedicated Vendome still for the gins. Very cool. And does it have a basket hanging in it or is it a basket in line up? Basket on top. Okay, cool. Yeah. So we put all the botanicals up there and it distills through. What's the base you're using for doing this, the corn? No, the rye. The rye. The rye is the base for the gin too. Oh, right. Fantastic. Tell me a little bit more about the work you're doing with U of M for your rye. Oh, absolutely. Great question. So we partnered with the University of minnesota three years ago. We partnered with them. We got $188,000 grant to grow 18 different varieties of rye. And the ultimate goal is to have a flavor matrix based on the different rye varieties. Because what we want to do, as we noticed with the AC Hazlitt, has that subtle vanilla note to it. What other varieties have different notes? Very cool. You know, it's been done for corn, it's been done for barley, it's been done for wheat, but it hasn't been done for rye that we know of, that we sought out and just couldn't find anything. And so we worked with them. There's the University of minnesota extension about an hour south of us, and there's a small grains professor who's helping us out. And so we just actually harvested the last six varieties about a month ago. But coming in July, we'll actually be pulling 12 barrels of the different varieties. So we're going to call it the Seed Vault series. Same barrel manufacturer, same process distilling. And so we're going to see what the differences are. We did it with... We had a survey with a lot of distillers, a lot of just regular folks to see what the flavor profiles were. And so we're just doing this big survey so that we can input that data, long term have that flavor matrix profile for the different varieties and make it available to distillers and brewers. So that way, if they're looking for something specific, they can say, hey, we want this kind of rye. And so that way, we can grow it. Because ultimately, when we sell our rye to a distiller or a brewer, we can sell it anywhere from $12 to $15 a bushel. They buy it at a lower cost. And so it's a win-win for the both of us. That's really cool. You're kind of doing a service for the whole industry. Yeah. Correct. Next, we've got, ooh, I love this name, Gustav Navy Strength Gin. And Gustav is actually great-grandpa Gustav, who founded the farm over 100 years ago. Apparently, he was an ornery SOB, and so... Sounds like my kind of guy. Yeah, and so... Don't know anything about that, do you, Pat? No comment. And so, we wanted a London Dry style, so about 14, 15 botanicals in there, similar to Solvibe, but this one is much more juniper forward. There's cuba berries, grains of paradise, Meyer lemon, cinnamon sticks, and it's just really, really nice. Normally, when I let people try it, I don't let them know that it's Navy strength until they've tried it. The reason I do that is because it doesn't drink like a Navy strength gin. And is this still the AC. Hazlitt? That's correct. Because it still has this little underpinning of vanilla to it. It's awesome. awesome gin. I like that it still has a citrus core to it. It's not totally different than the new American gin. I mean, like you said, a little more juniper-heavy to it. The cinnamon is there. But I think the grain almost shows more in this one than the other. And it's surprising considering the proof, too. And how strong is this gin? 114. The least juniper-forward for juniper-forward style gin I've had. I mean, you know what I'm saying? I don't mean that to be a slam. What I'm saying is I still can taste the other aromatics on the botanicals that you put inside. For being juniper-forward, it really plays well with the rest. The cinnamon comes through, and you don't get the cinnamon a lot, I find. I mean, it's really uncommon. I mean, it's in the background. It's playing well with the others. Yeah, yeah, you're right. All right. Well, great gin. What's next on the docket here? Next on the docket is Rockner minnesota Rye. Scotland has scotch, Kentucky has bourbon, minnesota is going to own rye. As mentioned, we grow AC. Haslett. This blend is 80% rye, 10% corn, 10% malt barley, aged in new American oak. The barrels that we work with are from minnesota Coopers who are using minnesota oak. And so all within 150 miles of the distillery. In layperson's terms, what is the big difference you're going to see between a minnesota oak and something more typical like an Ozark? Is it going to be a tighter grain? It's going to be a tighter grain because we get those really, really cold winters. And so the tighter the grain, it's really nice. And the other thing, too, is our barrel room is a non-insulated room on the north end of the distillery. I was going to ask if the barrel room was temperature controlled at all. It is not. And we will see temperature fluctuations between during the summer, our hottest day was about 105 with lots of humidity. And the coldest that I've seen is 40 below without the wind chill. Yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't need that. Yeah, nobody does. And so, the minnesota Rye, we're currently in 15-gallon barrel format. So we age it just over 15 months. And once it's done, we finish it in cognac. How many times will you use those cognac barrels? We max out at five. And considering it coming out of a smaller barrel first, too, I think that makes sense. I know Belmead Cognac finest Bourbon, they use those cognac barrels three times. And those are full-sized barrels going into them, too. So this still maintains a lot of the youthful vibrancy of a younger rye, which is not a slam. I mean, I like that energy. I just love that it's not, you know, yes, rye drinks well young, but this isn't overly woody or overly grainy or raw. I mean, I've always thought that these whiskeys, you know, from Far North drink far mature beyond their years. I mean, you taste them blind, they hold up with any rye whiskey on the shelf. I think that Cognac Finish really adds a roundness and a dried fruit sweetness that really plays well with the spicy kind of mintier rye here. A lot of backbone. Yeah. There is a difference in this rye versus ryes from other ones I've tasted whether they're Pennsylvania or Kentucky. I mean, the vanilla character that softer grain. Finer grain, like grit, finer grit. Yeah, but it's not as over the top menthol-y or dill or mint, like you get with some other ryes. I mean, this is a very, it's still a rye, like you're not going to mistake this taste into blind, but it's just more subdued and balanced. It's really, really nicely done. Thank you. Yeah, I like it a lot. The mint is a good call, but it's not dominating like some of the other ones are. And that vanilla is still popping too. Yeah. And up next is Rockner, that's been finished in soft turn cask. So it's the same mashbill, the same process in the barrels. The difference is instead of being finished in cognac, it's finished in soft turn cask. Neat. I love your labels. They're really clean and just really, really pleasing. So when we tasted through your spirits a few months back, this was my favorite. So I'm excited to see if it still holds true. I hope so. But it really made a lasting impression on me when I tasted it the first time. Wonderful. So how long is the finishing period on this one? Four weeks as well. Four weeks as well. The cinnamon, Christmas cake, kind of there's a little potpourri kind of floral essence here that I get at the top of the glass. Man, I like the notes. And more butterscotch. More butterscotch, more honey. Nutty butterscotch underneath almost for me. Nutty buddy? Yeah. I mean, not quite nutty buddy. Oh, I love you, nutty buddy. Yeah, is that good? But no, it's not quite like that, but a little nutty, a little spice. I like the Christmas cake, Carl. This is one of the best craft distilled rye whiskies that is available on our shelf. This is delicious. Yeah. It is. Oh, man. Again, I would challenge anybody to try this rye and the other one, but this one specifically, taste this blind against any other rye and tell me it is not as good or better. Is this a smaller run? What we do is we just portion some of the run off. Yeah. We fill one. So we get a smaller batch. Yeah. That's terrific. Yeah. I wish we could get more. We got our fair share of it and we're fans of it and we have a lot of our employees in the stores are fans of this particular bottling too. So we get as much as we can but buy as much as we can. I'm talking like at best, maybe like 12 cases at a time every, I don't know, quarter or something like that. So yeah, this is a knockout though. Absolute knockout. So if you see it and you're a fan of rye, like you're doing yourself a favor by checking this out. I mean, you got to check this out. Yeah, I can't go wrong getting this. This is a must have for me at the house. Owning that rye up there in minnesota. So, what challenges have you had with aging up there in that climate? The challenges have been the expansion and contraction of the wood during the cold and the heat. We're seeing a lot of leakage through the barrels because it's such extreme weather in a short period of time. And so, there's quite a bit of angels' share from that. But beyond that, you know, it's not so bad. It's just something you got to deal with. I mean, it's just lower yields. It was about a year ago. I just took a Sazol to a barrel just because I was bored at work. But it was kind of fascinating in the sense that you could see how deep the penetration of the whiskey into the oak was versus, you know, some of our friends that are down in the Twin cities, six hours away, they don't have that penetration of the Right. Okay. So there's a big benefit to it. After a negative 40 degree winter, how long does it take for that liquid to start to warm up? Do you notice that the Riquel stays cool for a long time? Oh, absolutely. Oh, absolutely. You know, one of the things that what I do, once I get the still going, I'll open up the barrel room just because that room is so cold and they'll just cool down to the ciliary and it's just, you just sit in that garage door and just let that cold How many barrels do you have aging at any given time now? Currently, we have over 250 barrels. We got 15 gallon barrels, 23s, 30s, as well as 53s. And so we're transitioning out of the 15s into the 30s as well as putting away 53s. And so ultimately, we'd love to be just at 53s. Yeah, it's just going to take a couple of years transitioning type of thing. Very cool. There's two 53s that are currently aging that I personally am very excited about. yes. The Maryland style. The Maryland style rye, which is George Washington's original recipe at Mount Vernon, which is 60 rye, 20 corn, 30 malt barley. Are there logistical challenges you guys have to face being where you are in the world? I mean, like, how far away is the closest major airport, for example? Our closest airport is in Winnipeg, Canada. So actually, we drive an hour and a half north, and that's the closest airport. Wow. And so, I mean, that's not that bad then. I mean, so is it still pretty easy for you to get your hands on things like Saturn barrels and get them to the distillery in a reasonable amount of time? You know, it is a little bit of a challenge. We work with a barrel broker out of Duluth. They're five hours east of us. And so, it's just logistics, you know, because truck drivers are like, oh, you guys are just north of the cities. No, we're not north of the cities. We're six hours north of the cities. One time we talked to a distiller who runs a distillery in Hawaii, and that was the only worst situation I've ever had. So what's next? What's next is our rum section. Obviously, sugar cane doesn't grow in northwest minnesota, but Mike has a cousin who has a sugar plantation in Louisiana. So we source demerara and trebinado sugar. And what I do is I distill it as a white rum, and then separate it into three tanks. One is, the first tank is just for the white rum. We actually just launched the white and the aged in Chicago in June, so you guys get to try it. The second barrel, second tank goes in to our used whiskey barrels, and it will age anywhere from six to eight months. And the third tank, then I'll separate it into five smaller tanks, where I infuse cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice, and vanilla. All whole beans, allspice will infuse for six days, the vanilla will infuse for four weeks. Then I blend it all back together, take a locally roasted espresso bean, dip it in there, and it brings all the flavors together. How many vanilla beans do you put in? Because vanilla is like insanely potent, right? It is insanely potent. We use Madagascar and Tahitian beans. Well, Tahitian, very expensive. Yeah. We'll use about four pounds for about 500 gallon batch. What's the rhyme and reason between separating all the macerations of these different spices? Think about it Thanksgiving wise. You don't want to throw the turkey, the stuffing, the pie, the mashed potatoes all in the oven at the same time, because they're not going to cook all the same time. And so we noticed that we get the best flavor of all spice at day six. To get the best infusion of vanilla, we got to go the whole four weeks. They still get added back in the same equal parts they got separated out. And this is just purely a flavor extraction thing, not a blending thing. Correct. Okay. That's really cool. I would never have thought of that. No, I mean, I'm way too lazy. I would have just thrown all that shit in there. I'd be like, this will be fine. But that really does explain why my thanksgivings have not gone so well. Right. This is surprisingly spirited rum. It's lively and more spicy than I would usually expect from a rum. It's just a simple demerara or trebinado. Run it through the still twice. Second time off the still, it's in between 165 and 170 proof. How long is the fermentation for this versus the whiskeys? So whiskeys generally anywhere from 3 to 5 days, the rum is generally 12 to 14 days. 12 to 14 day fermentation, that's really long for rum. It's cold up there. Yeah, it's cold up there. Usually those times would be reversed, I think. I mean, 12 to 14 days for whiskeys is crazy too, unless you're distilling a traditional beer. There's a local brewery here that has a distillery too, and they just do modified mash bills to their beer recipes. So they distill and they ferment with an AL yeast. So it takes them 7 to 14 days. But I mean, normally, like a Scottish Mall whisky is 45 to 72 hours or something. And most rum fermentation in the Caribbean is usually 24 hours. I mean, you go more than one day down there, they're like, well, you're wasting your time. Do you ferment in glycol jacket and stainless steel? No. We just use open air totes and just let it go. This is nice, very, very clean, fresh, well-balanced rum. It's not over the sweet or anything like that. Super light on its feet, super lean, which I like, you know what I mean? It doesn't really have a really fat mid palate at all and just kind of lifts. In terms of flavor, it's only a little bit dialed up compared to the vodka. What's the funny Norse name of this rum? Olander. Olander. The Oland Islands is the area of Scandinavia where Mike's ancestry is from. Very cool. Everything comes back to family. I can't believe that the family is in the sugar cane business too. Yeah. So what are we tasting next here? So this is Olander H. So once again, it's the white and what I do is just fill the empty whiskey barrels and it ages for six to eight months. It takes a lot of color for only six to eight months, I think. This smells lovely. You guys just do such good work up there. This is great. Super bright and vibrant and light on its feet. But it's got a creaminess to it though. It's definitely rounder and creamier. It's picked up enough vanilla and body from the barrel, but it's not a heavy rum by any stretch. I really like this. This is good. This is the first time I've tried this. Yeah. As mentioned, we just launched in June here in Chicago with it. Picks up some tannin from the wood too, because it has this quite crisp cross-cutting finish that's just structured. Yeah. I may have found a new favorite. Yeah, this is good. This is really good. Seriously good. I'm not a big rum fan. Craft rum is tough. There's not a lot of people making much of them, certainly, but this is outstanding. Who's your customer for this? Who do you sell this to? Look, I have this rum and it's super light and fresh and structured, and it's not sweet and it doesn't have a lot of fruit notes. It has a vibrancy to it. I think you sell it to somebody who's looking to do something to make gin style cocktails, but without gin. I think substituting the white rum specifically, substitute that into vodka or gin cocktails. I think you could have, because it had that bit of vanilla character, but it's got this almost like a bit of a spicy savory note to it too. I think that could be really interesting. This, I think, would be really good in an old fashion. Really good in an old fashion. Good idea. What's it called again? Olander? Olander Aged. Olander Aged. Important note, it's spelled Allander. All right. Sadly, we're coming to the end of our tasting today. So what do we got here? So this is our Olander Nordic Rum, and you're wondering what the devil is a Nordic Rum. The essential five baking spices for Nordic baking is the cinnamon, the clove, the nutmeg, the allspice, and the vanilla bean. And so anytime you look at a Swedish bakery, cookbook, whatnot, those five important ingredients, what we did is put it into a rum. It smells like pumpkin pie. It's pretty nice. It doesn't smell like pumpkin pie? She says no. I think Christmas in a bottle. Christmas cookies. It's more gingerbread. Yeah, more gingerbread-y, cinnamon-y than that clove-y, nutmeg-y, I think. This is a really well balanced spiced rum. I mean, what proof is this bottled at? This one is at 86. I've never smelled a rum like this. I've never smelled a spiced rum like this. Yeah, neither have I. Dude, hot toddies with this. Oh, man. Oh, my God. Dude, winter with this. This is going to literally get me through winter. Yeah. Oh, man. Hot butter rums. Yeah. Yeah. Put in an apple cider. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. I'm so happy you came today. Yeah, like make a stone fence, but instead of using rye whiskey, use this. Oh, sure. Yeah. I love the cinnamon on the finish. Just hangs out. It just, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Spiced rum, it's not got like the sickly sweet sugar. I had this in there. Because, you know, you always think, or at least I always think, all the sugars in here to hide a bitterness component or whatever it is, but I like that this is still, for me, considerably drier than other rums that would fit in this category. You know, if I was building a cocktail with this, I might even use it as like the flavoring component instead of as the foundation of the cocktail. It's not sweet like a liqueur, but it would add a spicy quality to something like, I mean, name your classic cocktail. Very good. I'm very impressed. For five years, you know, since the beginning of Far North, you guys have come a long way. Thank you. Oh, yeah. This quality really is what I've noticed through tasting out the whole line. It's just from top to bottom. There's not really anything to knock, you know. There's a lot of small distillers that do certain things really well. Like somebody makes a really great white whiskey in the bourbon, you know, the bourbon is fine, the vodka is fine or whatever. But I mean, across the board, to have a portfolio of products this strong, that are this well done and versatile too. I mean, these are just awesome, awesome products. I think a couple of key words I would use as sort of threads to link all of these expressions are, they're all very silky, they're all round and soft. Subtle. You know what I mean? They all sort of have those things going on to them, even though one is a gin or a spiced rum or so on and so forth. And I think that commonality in this range, for me, it really works because it's kind of what I gravitate towards. So, awesome. Killer. It's the gentle, welcoming nature of the Far North. Exactly. Come on in for spiced rum and hot dish, you know. I can see that because I'm from there. Thanks again for coming here today. I mean, this is a criminally underappreciated portfolio of just awesome craft spirits. I mean, people get a little too hung up on locality when it comes to craft stuff, and they need to branch out even just a little bit farther than the midwest, because there are some true hidden gems here. Thank you. And that brings us to the Q&A portion of the podcast. Write your question to us, comments at binnys.com, or hit us up on social media, at Binny's Bev on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, for your chance at a $20 Binny's gift card. Our question this week comes from Colton M. He asks, what is the best alcohol to cook with? Should I use a regular larger IPA, a bourbon, a wine? What will give me the best flavor added to my dish universally? What the hell kind of question is that? That totally depends on what you're making, man. What's your favorite color? What is the best color of car? Well, no. If you're making something, a sweeter dish like sweet potatoes and brown sugar, like a bourbon works great in that. When cooking with alcohol, you're trying to highlight the flavor of the alcohol, not the strength of the alcohol. Generally speaking, you're going to go for whatever has the most intense flavor that is complementary to your dish. Whether that is a nicely aged big chewy rum, a bourbon, a flavorful, sweet and still spicy rye whiskey, like a sautéed finished rye from minnesota, for example, or a more intensely flavored IPA, if you're looking for some hop character in a dish. But more importantly is the intensity of the flavor, not the strength of the spirit. When you're cooking with alcohol, more often than not, you want to taste that as a component, as a chorus member to your particular dish. So if it's red wine with a beef dish, you definitely know that the sauce, the reduction has red wine in it, but it doesn't take away from the actual protein itself and how it's cooked. So enough flavor to, like I said, be a supporting cast member but not take it over is very, very important. And if Roger were here, he would tell us, people buy the finest ingredients to cook the stuff that they're cooking, but then they kind of cheap out on the wine or the spirit that they're cooking with. And he would say, like, you want the best ingredient, buy the good stuff and then drink some of it while you cook too. Absolutely. Yeah, don't buy the $3 Marsala if you want to make chicken or something. I mean, nobody's going to cook, make a red wine reduction with Chateau Palmer. You're just not going to do it. So we're not saying spend $300, but $15, $20, $30 is a good price point for a good quality wine to drink with. Colton M, thanks for your inquisitive question. We always like to wax poetic about what to do with booze and food. If you have a question for the Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast team, email us, comments at binnys.com or hit us up on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, at Binny's Bev for your chance at a $20 Binny's gift card. Thanks again for tuning in to this week's episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Thanks again to Johny Barbosa, our special guest from Far North Spirits way up there in minnesota. I'm Pat. I'm Joe. I'm Greg. I'm Kristin. And I'm Johny. Keep tasting.