Oh, hi, it's Whiskey Hotline. Thanks for calling. This is Joe. How can I help you? Hi, my name is Sarah. I really need a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle. Can you help me out? Welcome to another edition of Barrel to Bottle with Binny's Beverage Depot. I'm Jeff Carlin, and as always, Kristen Ellis from Binny's is here. Hello. Hello, hello. Hi, everyone. Thanks for tuning in today. Excellent. What's on the docket this week? All things whiskey. I'm really excited for today. We've got the Whiskey Hotline in-house. Going to be great. A lot of fun. Love these guys. We've got someone else here in-house too. Well, why don't you guys introduce yourselves? Let's start with Mr. Pontoni here. I'm Brett Pontoni. I was one of the founders of the Whiskey Hotline, which started way back in 2003 at our Ivanhoe location and is now blown up into a worldwide phenomenon. Most certainly. And then of course, we've got Joe here. Joe, tell us about you. Yeah. My name is Joe Maloney. I work on the Whiskey Hotline. It's all things whiskey all the time. Love it. I think it's worth noting that the three of us share an office from time to time. And it's my favorite time of the week when we get to work together. And the phone on the Whiskey Hotline is ringing. What's that number, Joe? It's 888-817-5898. I like that you almost said Whiskey Hotline. Well, if you call for Pappy, it might be, right? A little bit risky. We do what we can. We have lots of options for hard to find. When you pick up the phone on the Whiskey Hotline, what's kind of the number one question you get? Oh, well, lately, it's typically been a lot about bourbon. Yeah. It's a lot of bourbon requests. And it's a lot of people calling for bourbon that we just simply don't get enough of. There's a real high demand for a lot of allocated items that just unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to take a list for and hand out. So it's been fun actually teaching people a little bit about mash bills. There's lots of options that we have available every day of the year that will fit in the same wheelhouse. So Kristen, I'm assuming this week is all things whiskey. All things whiskey. Yeah, I've got to say, I love it. I love bourbon especially. Love to sip on it and smell it. It's probably my favorite category within whiskey. I'm just happy to know these guys here at the Whiskey Hotline. I've learned so much from them in terms of just everyday drinking, what to collect, all of it, you name it. So really, really thankful that I could be on today. So yes, all things whiskey this week. So the Whiskey Hotline, you can actually also read about us online. And we have new and featured items that these gentlemen pick and taste and talk about every single week. So Whiskey Hotline online, what's new there? All kinds of new stuff coming in, right, Brett? What do you got rolling in this week? Rolling in this week, we have the just recently came in two single barrels of Bell Mead. We have both 10 years old, Indiana Juice sort of paying homage to Bell Mead, the right now the independent bottler, which is soon going to morph into Bell Mead, the distiller. They've actually got juice down a couple years before we see it. But some of the best value whiskeys that are coming in single barrel full proof over 10 years old. We have the Binny's hand picked barrels coming in of the Knob Creek 25th anniversary. Be made a lot of noise about this release within the last month or six weeks. General market came in. We were actually allowed to go down to Kentucky, work with Fred and I'll pick a couple of barrels that we thought sort of defined what Knob Creek franchise has been for the last 25 years. And those will be with us at Binny's. Well, I also saw actually something very interesting on the most recent release of the Whiskey Hotline online and that was something called Signatory. Joe, can you talk about Signatory and why it rocks? Oh, sure. Yeah. So Signatory is an independent bottler in Scotland. And it's our good friend, Mr. Simington and Des over there in Pitlockery, Scotland. And we actually get to go over and visit and taste through different barrels of whiskey. That being a whole warehouse of selections from different distilleries that we don't often see bottled by distilleries that actually make it over here to the United States. So we're lucky enough to have that friendship and ability to go through and find some really nice barrels that we can't really find anywhere else. And we have a bottle that casts strength because we decided that, you know, we'd rather sell whiskey instead of bottles of water. So you can probably figure out how to water your own whiskey down at home, unless you don't have water, in which case you can come visit and I can give you a bottle of water. That's it. I'll show you how to put it in there. So yeah, the signatory is really, really fantastic. And on top of finding really tasty whiskey, which is always key, we're always lucky enough to work out to get a good price on this stuff too. So the goal is to have really full flavor, wonderful, interesting whiskeys at a really fair price. So it's safe to say that you guys are the ones going out and doing the legwork for us, whiskey favorists, because I love whiskey. It's my absolute favorite thing to drink. So you guys are out there visiting with the No family, obviously, making all sorts of varietals and different types of whiskey. What do you look for? What should I look for from you guys beyond anything special coming up this year? Lots of special stuff. We actually were just down in Kentucky, what, a couple months ago, I think, when we picked out a total of 12 barrels from four roses. We actually may have heard of the Al Young anniversary bottling that came out that was here and gone before it ever made it. It was just really high in demand. But we actually got to hang out with Al Young and pick 12 barrels of bourbon. Al Young is coming in October for Continuing Education. It's our consumer seminar that we have. We're going to have him actually for two nights. We have him end of October. You'll see him out in Downers Grove. And then at our Lakeview location, I think the 23rd and 24th of October. So if you didn't get a chance to taste the Al Young 50th Anniversary Small Batch, you can taste it there with Al Young himself. Oh, that's fantastic. I know. We're getting more information on that. And you can get information on the schedule for Continuing Education at binnys.com/events. So talking about your handpicks, your handpick program. So Brett, I mean, if we're talking to our customers about a great way to find something that's interesting, maybe that you can only get in Chicago, just if you can't do anything else, stick to your handpick program. So you look for Binny's handpick. Where do I find it? Generally that we try to have a side sticker to indicate because the handpick program kind of goes in a couple of different directions. When it started, it was a way to customize existing brands. So the genesis of it was really working with a lot of the Buffalo Trace Distillery Whiskies, Buffalo Trace, Elmer T. Lee, Eagle Rare, 10 year old. At the time we could get Weller 12. And in the case of those brands, it was we were selling a lot of the whiskey, but it was the opportunity to go down and actually pick what we thought were the best versions of these things and offer them parallel to what was on the shelf. When we got into the signatory and the scotches, it changed a little bit because that allowed us to do more unique takes on, you know, people have a mindset of what certain things are going to taste like, whether Glen Levitt or McCallan or any of these distillers are going to taste like. We were then able to to there's a lot of variance or can be a lot of variance in what what the what comes out of these different distilleries based on the wood regimen. So that allowed us the opportunity to say we have got this stunning fill in the blank, regardless of what it is. And sometimes it was in distillery style, sometimes it wasn't. The third thing which has really evolved with the explosion of craft distilling and availability of aged whiskey, which shrunk and is now getting better, was the ability to do things that were really unique. In other words, if we were dealing with a brand, Bell Mead being a good example we mentioned earlier, we're dealing with a brand that has a little bit less of a brand identity outside of the perception of quality, and in that case, we just, whether or not it's exactly in style of things we've had in the past, we get a cask that is just stunning, and we're like, yes, that's ours. And then these things show up on our shelves. So if it's awesome, it's amazing, it's unique, you guys have it. Yes, we make every single effort, and we might, we, you know, sometimes we run into a gold mine, sometimes we might have to taste 25 barrels, and we pick two. Oh, that's a tough life. They're really kind of dedicated. Interesting spitters, these guys. Dedicated, I like that. You can always refer to it. Sometimes they're on the road, they're in Scotland picking barrels there. Other times the samples will get shipped to us from distilleries and then they pick them in house. So that's kind of how the Whiskey Hotline picks those tasty barrels. Girls just lucky to be a spectator, tell you that. You mentioned that Whistle Pig cast coming too, right? Yeah, we have two Whistle Pig. I mean, there's a lot. This is there's a lot coming. We have two two single packs. Gregory Peckery, our two single casks of and we'll leave the reference to those people who are music fans. But we have Gregory and Peckery coming from Whistle Pig, which are 100 percent unmalted rise made in Canada, actually, but then delivered to Vermont and then further aged in a in a cold climate on the Whistle Pig farm in Vermont. Those were incredible. We could have taken 10, unfortunately, they only would let us have two. So we had to pick the two best out of a lot of wonderful whiskies. It's a hard life. Yeah, we've got Whistle Pig Marriage coming. I mean, there's there's a lot. We have signatory casks coming. I did Joe mention signatory earlier. We have our whole wave of the new malts coming. A couple of wonderful versions of Edgerdauer, one aged in a Madeira barrel, one aged in a Refill Sherry butt. So wonderful distillery, two slightly different takes on it. The really fun thing about having new signatories coming is that we have a sale on the signatories that we have to make room for the ones coming. And there are some amazing ones out there. Specifically, I think that the Linkwood was pretty amazing. The Linkwood, the Edgerdauer, the Edgerdauer Sautern, we could go on and on and on about these things. But you just kind of have to stop in, I guess, and try them. And we try to have them open and available for sample in certain locations. We can't do it everywhere, but we do it as many places as we can. Yeah. Come in and try to find something new that you like. The Adventures of Gregory Peckery. So today, though, we're going to switch and talk about American whiskey. We're going to kind of inaugurate whiskey on the Barrel to Bottle with Binny's Beverage Depot with Americans. Let's stick to what we make more or less in-house. What do we need to know about American whiskey? Well, I think, first and foremost, American whiskey is such a broad category, and I think probably the most famous would be bourbon. Do you guys agree? Hands down. So can you give us a very simple kind of short definition of what bourbon is? Bourbon has to be made with 51% corn in the Mashville. There are some technical specifications about alcohol levels at distillation. The most important being is that when it is distilled, it can't be distilled to too high of an alcohol level because that eliminates all the flavor, basically designed to make sure that it's characteristic of the grain, which is primarily corn, has to be aged for a period of time, doesn't specify length. There are other rules about it further as to other things put on the label, in a charred white oak barrel. And that's bourbon at its simplest. And a fresh oak, I'm assuming? It has to be a brand new barrel and it has to be made, it has to be charred and it has to be white oak. It can be any of a number of different strains. It's interesting, there is a misnomer or two things that bourbon has to be made in Kentucky, while certainly the genesis of the business would have started primarily in the Kentucky, in the Virginia Commonwealth in Kentucky. It has to be made in the United States, not specifically in Kentucky. And number two, interestingly enough, there is nothing in the regulation that says it has to be American oak. But because we have millions of acres of American white oak, it doesn't seem to be a point to import oak from somewhere else when we have millions of acres. Yeah. Cool. Made in America. Through and through. I like it. Anything to add there, Joe? No, it's pretty solid. Yeah, I know. Isn't it good? It's fantastic. So that's all I have for bourbon. So then within bourbon, people oftentimes confuse bourbon and rye, right? So they have some similarities. But Joe, what makes rye different from bourbon? Rye is typically going to be a little bit spicier. It can kind of vary, though, because there are the basis of it here. When we talk about making bourbon, bourbon's got to be a minimum of 51% corn in the mash bill. And when we say mash bill, we're basically making a beer from grain. So we're going to start with 51% minimum corn, and then we're going to probably have 5% to 10% malted barley for enzymes. And then we typically will use rye as the flavoring grain. Some people use wheat. So we're talking just about the rye-based bourbon here. Yet what happens when you go to make a rye whiskey, we're going to switch it over and do 51% rye. So on the sweeter, I kind of consider them sweeter Kentucky ryes. You can get a little bit of the wintergreen spice, which is the typical thing that I'll pick up from a rye, and still get some of the sweet brown sugars and vanillas that you would get in a bourbon. There are other ryes that are going to be 95% to 100% rye, which will be much more spicy. Big wintergreen, clove, sometimes I get a little bit of like a red rope licorice sort of flavor that can come through on some of the ryes. Dill Fennel. Yeah, yeah, dill. So those are kind of the main differences for me. I really wish that there were multiple classifications of rye, because it's so, for me, tasting-wise, sometimes it can be kind of confusing if I'm tasting a rye that is got only 51% rye and then, you know, 5% barley and then a lot of corn, it can start to taste a little bit like a high rye bourbon to me. And I would rather, I'd rather have a much more dramatic, spicy version of a rye, but that's just me. You would get, it would be something more along what they kind of refer to as either Pennsylvania style or Maryland style, because really, the rye business started there. People, bourbon is always associated with Kentucky. In reality, rye really started Pennsylvania and Maryland way back when. I mean, george Washington was a rye distiller on his estate in Virginia. And those are characterized by, as Joe said, a much, much higher rye content where that forward baking spice, dill, winter green mint sort of character comes out. Even though it's not from the East Coast, a great example of a hundred percent rye that you would see that's that is very much used to the American tradition are the old Potrero whiskies. 18th century rye and then American straight rye. They malt it so they don't have to add barley for the enzymatic catalyst, which is kind of for chemists out there. I don't know what we're talking about. Over my head. So they malt the rye, but you get that character. And then they do 18th century, which is aged in a toasted barrel. And their straight rye, which is aged in a charred barrel. The Leopold brothers do it. The Rittenhouse, which actually is produced in Kentucky, is very much in that Pennsylvania style because the Rittenhouse Distillery was originally there. So those are probably the two distinctions between Kentucky and that Maryland style. Bourbon, rye, probably the two biggest, right? Most popular styles of whiskey from America. We have more to talk about within this general category. What do you think kind of is a number three? Would you say is it Tennessee whiskey? Is it blended? What do you think you guys hear most of apart from bourbon and rye from the states? The main thing that you would differentiate with Tennessee whiskey is this wonderful thing called the Lincoln County Process which involves making your whiskey everything is I think basically similar to making a bourbon and then you get to a part What does that maple charcoal filtration do as far as aroma and flavor of Tennessee whiskey? It cleans it up really if you think about it one of the ways the vodka is made vodka is generally charcoal filtered and so you use it it's just one more way if you're gonna be snarky about it you'd say it's one more way to start to strip out So Jack Daniels is probably the most famous example but after Jack Daniels then what do you think is another good example of Tennessee Whiskey maybe one that's not so well known. Oh well there's george Dickel. We talked about Bell Meade. And Bell Meade's funny because the it's interesting the ones that actually strictly hue to the Lincoln County process there's been a fight in both with the TTB on a federal level and with the Tennessee state government on the definition of Tennessee Whiskey and is does it whether or not can you can you make something in Tennessee and not run it through charcoal filter and not go through the Lincoln County process and still call it Tennessee Whiskey. And there's been a lot of fight with some of their craft distillers because Sazerac has has purchased a stillery down there. The two that we would know by far Jack Daniels and george Dickel and Jack Daniels like three-quarters of that just because of the sales volume of the product. But you have Bell Meade down there, Corsair is making whiskey down there, Collier and McKeel is making whiskey down there. Old Smoky is starting to make whiskey down there. I mean, it's not necessarily there. There's a couple other producers too that aren't here yet. Right. You know, there's no song going around here that's one of the top pop tunes in the nation that my grandmother taught me when the first songs I ever remember singing. What's that? The thing called On Top of Old Smoky. Old Smoky. Remember that thing? On Top of Old Smoky, huh? We wrap another edition of Barrel to Bottle with Binny's Beverage Depot. It's All Things Whiskey this week, and of course, it's not a Binny's Beverage Depot podcast without a question and an answer from Twitter at Binny's Bev. And who do we got this week, Kristen? We have Nick from Orland Park. And it was a perfect question, Nick, so very happy to ask Joe and Brett. Nick writes, well, I'm looking for bourbon, highly allocated like Pappy. I already know I can't get it. So what's a good bourbon that I can get instead? Well, thanks for writing in, Nick. We really appreciate the question. You're not alone on this. You're looking for a weeded bourbon, is what Pappy Van Winkle is. And luckily we do have plenty of weeded bourbon available. We even have some handpicked casks from Wyoming and Kirby. And those are weeded, similar style. We have a wonderful weeded bourbon from J. Henry, which is actually distilled in Wisconsin. It's delicious. It's really pretty amazing. I do like J. Henry a lot. It's a good alternative. And then we also have handpicked Maker's Mark casks, if you want to go with a bigger brand, that are bottled at cast strength and offer a wonderful option to the Pappy. Great. Thanks for that. Very knowledgeable. Well, Brett, Joe, Whiskey Hotline, thanks for coming in today. Always a great time. Look forward to having you guys back again. All right. We'll come back. Thanks for having us. As long as you provide tea. And where do we go for the Whiskey Hotline? You go to, you can either call the Whiskey Hotline at 888-817-5898 or you can email us at spirits at binnys.com. And all of us that handle the Whiskey Hotline will get that email and we'll respond quickly. Excellent. Thanks to Nick who's got a $20 gift card to Binny's coming his way. Yes, you do. And if you want one, go ahead and send us your questions on Twitter at Binny's Bev. For your chance to win a $20 gift card to Binny's Beverage Depot. All right, Jeff, it's been a pleasure. We'll see you next week for All Things Beer. I'm there. Thanks for listening. Keep tasting. We'll see you next time.