Hello there, this is producer Jim with a programming note. For today's episode, the Barrel to Bottle crew will be tasting through 10 whiskies blind. Throughout the episode, Greg and Pat will be revealing the name of the whiskey they are tasting before they actually get to taste them, so that you, the listener at home, know what's going on before they do. And then at the end of the episode, they'll reveal each whiskey they tried and give a little more information about each one. Enjoy. You're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I am Greg. I do communications at Binny's. I'm Pat. I am Director of Spirit Sales here at Binny's. Hey, this is Roger. I work in beer. And we have two extra gas bags in the room with us today. Making his first time- Did you just call our guest bags or gas bags? Gas bags. Gas bags, that's fair. Could be either. Making his first appearance on Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast and taking his Bluetooth headset out long enough to record an episode. He's old. Mike Baba. Thank you, Greg. Mike Baba. What do you do at Binny's? I'm a buyer. I do buying mostly for private label, wine and spirits, but open to anything. You're out there hunting down the special stuff. I'm hunting. I'm hunting. Hunting down every day. How often do you run this thing? A few times a year. So Brett's back. I'm Brett. I am part of the Whiskey Hotline with Pat and Joe Maloney, and specialty spirits buyer. Okay. So we do have a quorum of Whiskey Hotline, plus a designated survivor somewhere else. Joe is here in spirit because he picked these whiskies that we're tasting blind to Jim's sports. Yeah. I asked Joe to pick these yesterday, and I have no idea what they are. Nobody else does either. So the cool thing about blind tasting is you're honest, right? You're honest, you're not preconceived notions, not loyalties. You're just offering your opinion as directly as you can. You're free of influence. Yeah. Right. And Pat, you do that a lot in the study groups where you have education for our staff. Yeah. Staff education, we do that a lot. I think it's the best way to taste anything is blind. But even if we're going to cover a broad category and we're going to taste a lot of stuff, we always start with at least maybe eight to 12 things that I would kind of consider the representative shelf set of that category blind every week. I remember talking to customers over the years and if you have a group of friends that are interested in bourbon, that's one of the best ways to build your bourbon palette is to get together with your buddies and do your own blind taste test. Absolutely. It forces you to taste critically. It forces you to find more things. You can't just be like, oh yeah, it's rich and oaky and it's got a spicy finish. Because you know what to expect from that brand based on the label. You really have to dissect it a little more, especially because we're going to try to guess finishing grain for all these bourbons today too, wheat or rye or maybe other or something. Maybe that's a foregrain. I don't know. Guessing, diving into the distillation, fermentation sugar source is one of the toughest things. When you do blind taste test though, it's great is that it'll show you bourbons that you overlook on the shelf and think this is readily available, but you might love it. Totally. Something that always shows up whenever we do staff training bourbon blind tasting, something that has never finished outside the top three is Makers Mark 46. And that's a bourbon that personally, like I usually dismiss, it's like, oh no, it's too woody, too spicy. You know, the French oak thing, blah, blah, blah. But tasting the brine, it forces me to eat crow every time. Every time. Every time. Here's Pat from the future. Old Forester Statesman. Right off the bat, this first pour that we have, this is a bourbon, we think, we know. It's dark brown, not golden. We know it's a bourbon. Method here, Joey picked out eight bourbons out of the Whiskey Hotline sample library, put them in brown paper bags. Producer Jim here is pouring them for us. We have no idea what they are, none of us do. And all I got from Joey is that these covered a range of prices on our shelves. That's it. So butterscotch and cherry, super classic nose right up front. Yeah, it's oak driven for sure. There's that vanilla and that bit of a coconut character. But probably cracklage, not small barrel oak driven. No, not small. Yeah, like this is mature bourbon. Oh, nice body on this. Very codeine. The fruit is absolutely there, that stone fruit. A lot of fruit up front. Buttery and bubble gum, which is either diacetyl or acetone. Is that another word I always mispronounced? No, it's diacetyl. Brett pronounced it wrong. No, diacetyl. If you talk to... There's a great argument. A chemist would call it diacetyl. A chemist would probably call it diacetyl. A British chemist? No, an American chemist or just a chemist. Aluminium. Yeah. No, there is a very strict pronunciation guides for chemical compounds in that community. So I suggest that we all guess what it is and then... We should give it a rating on scale of maybe one to three stars or one to five numerically and guess the price. Guess the price, guess the recipe, and guess the rough age. The price and the recipe. Like grain mash bill? Yeah, just let's keep it rye or wheat. Okay, so stars, price, and then dominant secondary grain. This is a pretty fantastic bourbon though, in my opinion. You think so? I agree with you. I do think so. I think this is fantastic. Yeah, I've got four stars. I've got four as well. This is a recipe and this is a $40 to $50 problem. Yeah, I put $40 bucks, rye, and four stars. $45, wheat, four stars. Wheat, eh? You think this is soft enough and fruity enough to be wheat? It's got that nice fruit. Yeah, I'm not getting a tremendous amount of spice. Well, bear in mind there's an argument in wheat. Does wheat itself impart flavor? Does wheat just impart body and then otherwise stay out of the way of the corn? Because there's a lot of argument about having had wheat distillate on its own. Does wheat distillate contribute that much to anything but body? Yeah, totally. I'm with you on that. Wheat is a softness. Wheat is a mouthfeel, not exactly a flavor. It is a mild tasting grain. I'm not getting high spiciness. No, if this is rye, I wouldn't think it was more than 12% or so rye. I think this is pretty high corn. Number one, rye recipe, around 40 bucks, probably four stars. I'm going to call it wheat recipe, 45 bucks, four out of five stars. Roger, what do you think? Rye recipe, around $40, three and a half stars. What a critic. It's a little hot. I don't know if maybe it's a higher proof. It's no VOB. Please. I was back and forth, but I am leaning towards rye. I gave it four stars, $50. And Whiskey Hotline in alignment, four stars, $40. Rye recipe. Wow, you guys are going to make this one interesting, huh? Everyone agrees it's the most interesting audio ever. All right. Another dark one. What about age statement? Parosimation. Oh, I would guess six to eight. High single digits. Yeah. Wait, you think it's stated on the label six to eight? I don't think it's stated on the label. Yeah, I don't think so either. If nothing is stated on the label, then we know it's usually six to eight. Yeah, right. There is a metric in marketing where no age is stated on the label. You make a guess that it's like four to six to four to eight. Because four, you don't have to state the age. Once you hit six, seven, eight, then it becomes sexy enough that you might want to think about putting it on the label. I think older than eight years, they usually bother putting the age. Ten year, you want to put it right on the label. Exactly. You got double digit age, you put it on the label. Pat from the future again. Kareem of Kentucky, 11 and a half year old. So, Whiskey No. 2. This one's kind of funky. It seems more musty. It's lean, a lot. Well, it's lean and a part of that leanness because I've already sort of gone through it. There is something in there that tells me it might be new wood. It might be relatively young or potentially a smaller barrel. So, this could be something a little craftier. I'm getting Pinewood Derby Car. Yeah, a lot of wood. What's a Pinewood Derby Car? I mean, I know what a car is. It smells like pine or it smells like paint. Were you ever in the Boy Scouts? Yeah. I made one every year. They sucked every year. Roger, did you make tricked out Pinewood Derby Cars? My initial one was one of those boring cars ever. I think I just smoothed out the block and gave it some fins. I mean, there's still some fruit on the nose. Yeah, there's some cherries in there. There's definitely more fruit on the nose and then there's very little after that. For seeming so astringent as it is, it's really pretty round on the palate too. It's not overwhelmingly alcoholic. But it does lean out a little bit and leans and drives. Okay, so I wouldn't be shocked if this was wheat or four grain. But I might be wrong on that. I'm going to guess $35. I'm giving it three stars. Two stars, $35 rye. Two star rye, $30. Two star wheat, $35. I'm going to say this is one of those nice little expensive craft whiskeys. 50, two stars, mixed grain or something unconventional maybe. I don't think this is showing well. No, it's not. I think we featured it on the podcast before. Well, it's just lean wood. I believe. It's funny that the longer something stays in wood, it can actually lose wood character if things happen correctly because you lose all the astringent elements of the wood over time until the wood starts to kick in again towards the end. Future Pat, what are we tasting? Evan Williams, plain old Evan Williams. Number three. This is the lightest we have seen so far. Coming in more of a straw tan than the hearty brown of the first one. Yeah. I think the nose on this is a touch more austere. Yep. And it's a little more grain forward, I would say. Yeah. There's definitely like a corn. Yeah. Almost malty. So younger and less expensive for sure. Well, not necessarily because you can get some, you can get things that are still ready. Definitely corn forward, but it's got some fruit too, but there's that dusty grainy corn note. You don't get a little bit of two by four on there? Like it doesn't have the graceful wood qualities, it's like kind of the young obvious wood. Is that kind of lactone-y? There's a little bit. It's, I think it's kind of soft and easy on the palate. Yeah. There's some tropical fruit in the middle of that. I don't, I wouldn't say this is young. I bet this is at least six years old. Yeah. That's not aggressive wood at all. Not that young, green aggressive. It's not like super toasty. Brett mentioned lactone. That's what really comes out of oak when you toast it, toast a barrel heavily. And that's like the coconut tropical kind of notes come out. Yeah. And this is flirting with it, but it's not totally there. Super, super soft finish. It's more on the buttery and vanilla side. Very easy on the palate. Very easy on the palate. Yeah. Somebody comes in the store and asks for, says that, you know, extols the virtues of Basil Hayden. I would probably say you would really like this. Pretty light body. I'm guessing four to six. It says like a brandy character to it, kind of. I'm guessing, I'm going to give this one three stars. I'm going to guess $45. I think this one is going to be more expensive than we think. But like soft and easy, though. I don't mind this at all. I'm going to say rye on this. Three stars. I think it's wheat and I think that it's $35. I'm going opposite of Pat each time. I'm going to get creamed on this. I was kind of in your camp, but I'm going to raise the retail of $40. And I'm going to go and outbid both of you as if this were a charity auction and say three stars. I think it's a weeder and I think it's $50. High five. Team Wheat. Of course, now I'm starting to rack my brain for wheaters that are $50 and I'm not coming up with a lot. So that expensive maker's mark one. Wilderness Trails Wheaters, about $50, I think. I do this is really nice and round and lush though. Is it wilderness? Is it wheat? The single Barrel Wilderness Trail is wheat, the small batch Wilderness Trail is rye. And they're high, high wheat and high rye. They're 24% of the finish. Really long though. People might not go crazy about this. This is like a perfect three-star. Yeah. Because I don't think anybody's going to go crazy and say it's the best, but I doubt that anybody's going to. No one's sending this back. Nobody will not like this. I don't like it. Pat, from the future. Makers Mark Private Select, the latest Whiskey Hotline batch. All right. Bourbon number four. Another dark. I think that's because it got poured healthy. I think this is just slightly darker than number three. Now, you're probably getting into something older. There's like that burnished wood, the wood arms of a sofa. There's like the baked fruit leathery thing going on. Right. Leathery tobacco older. This is a gorgeous nose. Yeah. Loads of baking spice. This guy screams right. You know what's funny on the palate? There's some wood there. This might definitely younger. Really? I don't know. See, this is where I always. Like if it's fresh wood and a lot of rye, there is a grilled meat on the finish. There's like grilled meat character that I identify is green wood, which is why I'm wondering that this isn't a small barrel. It wouldn't surprise me if this was younger, but it also wouldn't surprise me if this was like middle of the road age. I'm giving it four stars. I bet this is 60 bucks. I think it's. And I think it's rye. You think it's 12 years old? I think it's 12 years old. I don't know that it has enough body to be 12 years old, but it's but it's not. It's not low proof though. It has that cherry and orange peel quality too. It's so good. This is so good. This reminds me of some of the Knob Creek Single Barrel picks. Yeah, that's a good one, Roger. This is fantastic. Yep. I don't want to give it five stars because that seems like a lot of stars. You don't want to give it 4.75 stars, but I'm going to give it five stars. I think it's 70 bucks and I think it's a rye recipe. Four stars, 50 bucks, rye, older. I'm overly sensitive to the wood, so I'm going to give it three stars. This is a personal rating, not a professional rating. Three stars, I think it's a small barrel. I think it's younger and $60. This will be interesting. I do agree on the single barrel. I give it three and a half stars, rye for the mash bill and $60. All right. We got a nice little range there. The ones with really extreme character and flavor is always the most fun because they're going to be the most polarizing by a lot. Brett, what is the most samples you've tasted in a session? We just set the record on Monday. We just set the record on Monday. We were doing at a large, very, very highly sought after distillery on Monday and we did a round- Round trail. We did a round 100 barrel samples to select 48 barrels. One solid, 100 barrels tasting at barrel proof. Well, only one set, about half of them were barrel proof. The other half were proofed down to 90. To the bottling proof. Do you get to the point where you're literally going off the aroma? Yes. You should be doing that anyway. A lot of your assessment should be off the aroma and then work the palate from there. We also, because two of the sets that we were doing were actually batched, it changes your mindset so you're not getting as in-depth, nitpicky about each individual one. You're looking more for a broad character and how well that particular barrel might play and interact with a whole bunch of other barrels. Because two of the things we did were a 25 barrel small batch and a 10 barrel small batch. Cool. Of two different very highly sought after brands and then the remainder, the other five, six and two were all single barrels under different names. Yeah. Yeah. So previous record for at least when I've been with Brett has been in the low 70s. 78. 78. We did at Signatory once. We did, I want to say 71 at Buffalo Trace before. We did 76 maybe. I think you there Mike? Mike was there for the 70s. You were there for one of the big ones. I remember just getting it when we got to that other room, I asked you, I can't taste anything anymore. You said go by the aroma. Yeah, go by smell. We did 70 at one of the Scotch handpicked way back at South Loop. Those were coming in at a buck 20. Those were all barrel proof. Yeah, that's a drag. But I must have eaten two loaves of bread during that testing. One little coin size cut of bread. But when we do Signatory, so we will do minimum of 50 each time when we do Signatory. But when we do Signatory, bear in mind, that is more of a pre-screening than it is a hard selection. Because what we're doing in Signatory is trying 50 to 70 Scotches, which can be widely variant because you will bring 20, 25 back and then narrow it down. And then narrow down the six to eight we pick. We start with 70. And since they're all so different, you can find the ones that really jump out at you right away. As opposed to the shades of variation across the same barrels. You eliminate flawed. You eliminate all the flawed and you keep a bunch of samples. Then you get the cost list and you have to make the unfortunate decision as to whether or not, no matter how much you love it, you can sell something based on how much we would have to charge. And that narrows it down a bit and then they come back. Now, we did kind of break our rule the other day. We are happy to announce that we have a hand-picked single barrel of 12-year-old Highland Park coming that's being bottled by the distillery. They're awfully proud of it. It's probably going to be on the shelf for around 150 to 180 bucks. But it's cast-strength and Brett and I absolutely loved it. And it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, this might be around for a while. It's a little tougher sell, but the barrel was too good to pass up. Get on the forums, nerds. Let everybody know. But this is for Highland Park, for Highland, for Sherry lovers and for Highland Park lovers, people are going to lose their minds. Yeah, it's a phenomenal, phenomenal barrel, Whiskey. And it is Highland Park written all over. It was an experienced drinker. We could guess Highland Park. And that was an easy one to just, you know, regardless of cost, almost like Binny's. The name Binny's belongs on this barrel. It was fantastic. Future Pat, what do we got? Clark and Sheffield. All right. Number five. Kind of dark again. I think I know what this is. There's some banana. There's like banana in this one. And I got it. I got immediately. I got Cherry and Anise, which is a calling card for me to us to very particular bourbon. That's Buffalo Trace. But then Brett says banana and banana is definitely Old Forester. I would have thought the same thing, Pat, because I get a little bit of. I get the chocolate cherry a lot in both Woodford and Old Forester as well. Not as pronounced as the best BTs, especially Elm RT Lee, which is like an ice cream cone. I always pick up strawberry from that, but I totally agree with what you're saying. This is fruity. It's really just like slick and round on the palate. This is a gorgeous bourbon. My guess is that this is just totally, properly, professionally made, properly aged bourbon, and I bet it's under 40 bucks. From one of the big houses. Yeah, big house. It's been doing it forever and it's not so sexy because you can get it every day. Yeah, it's oily. It's good though. A little less spicy than some of the others we've seen. Definitely more fruit forward. Okay. I might be on the old Forrester bandwagon with this off Buffalo Trace. Buffalo Trace would show a little more spice. I'm going to go in and I guess it's from a, I'm going to give it a four star and I'm going to guess it could be a potential from the Stillers Row series, but I'm guessing that it's an old Forrester of some sort. So that's 50 to 55 bucks. I'm giving it three stars saying it's a rye grain, and I'm going to guess three stars. I don't think it was as good as the last, I don't think it's as good as number four. Yeah, I gave number four, four stars. See, now you're doing this relative thing. Yeah. Well, that's how you got to taste them. Figure skating. So I'm going to guess that this guy is $30. I also am going to guess $30. I'm giving it four stars because I like it a lot, and I'm guessing wheat. Four stars, they're on 30 bucks. It's probably not wheat, but it's not high rye by any means. I would just say traditional. It's interesting. There's a lot of science point in Old Forester right now. To get the perspective, and this is something, there is a study group session that we do called How to Taste, and this is something that Pat drives home a lot. We always do a blind in the study group at the beginning where you don't tell them what it is at all. The whole purpose of doing the blind is to just get people to guess, is it made from grape? Is it made from grain? Is it made from cane? Is it made from a succulent? What is the base spirit? If somebody says, I think this is a Grappa or a Pisco or a Singani, they are almost all acceptable answers because they are making the guess that it is unaged grape or from pumice. So that would be a correct answer even if you don't get it. What do you, like individually, does anybody have a strong opinion about what they look for if they are trying to distinguish, like Pat, when you are trying to distinguish between wheat and rye as the dominant small grain in a mash bill, what are you looking for? What sort is, what is the process that you go through? Rye is the easy one because it is going to show, you know, usually baking spice like a sharper baking spice, cinnamon clove, a little less on the nutmeg softer sweeter side. It is going to almost always show an herbal or herbal slash minty slash dill, winter green type of character. I think rye is one of the easier ones to get when you're talking from just like a base white distillate wine. Wheat is tough. Wheat is really tough. Like you alluded to earlier, there's not a whole lot of flavor in wheat. I mean, I get some like soft red berry a bit out of wheat and just an overall softer mouth feel. But there's not a lot of distinctiveness, I think, in wheat. Well, wheat usually just gets out of the way, right? So the corn should be coming through more. So, I would say there's a perceived sweetness that should be more pronounced than the weeded bourbons. That's fair. Future Pat. Redemption Hi-Rai Bourbon, Binny's Handpicked Barrel No. 11. Sample number, what is this, number 6? Corn Puddin. This is where we need Joe Maloney. Yeah, this is- Corn Puddin. This is just sweet baked corn. And I'm with Roger, the same thing that Moonshine University is even starting to talk and kind of teach that a little bit, that if you're looking for a weeded bourbon, you're almost looking for a corn style that's like fat and lush and a little bit sweet. Characteristics that you would typically expect out of corn without being 100 percent completely over the top corn. Which, by the way, on the nose at least, this is like holy corn. I'm guessing that this is younger. I think based on mouth feel, the woodiness, this to me shows a younger woodiness. I think it's a weeder. I'm going to guess it's 50 bucks. I'm giving it two stars. Ouch. Yeah. I'm a little harsher on this one. It's a nice bourbon. But we've had better. I think it's young and I think it's cheap. And I think it's industrial at a place that doesn't get it right. So I'm giving it two stars. I think it's rye. And I think it's 20 bucks. I think this is a craft offering. I'm in between you two guys. I definitely get the corn, but I'm getting a lot of wood, a little bit of alcohol, a little more alcohol than I want. But I still think it's probably around 35 bucks, two stars. I think this is a craft offering. But ironically, if you like the way this tastes, I think this is reminiscent of some like bottom shelf or bourbons that you could get for real cheap. That's what I'm saying. You know what? I like this bourbon. It does have that like on small barrel, youthful. I don't think it's small barrel. But I just think it's young. I just think that this is like a three to four and a half year old bourbon. I like this a lot. I just think the last two kind of outshone it. What do you think, Roger? I'm going to say two and a half. Two and a half starters? Yeah. I don't know. I'm really torn on this. I think I could see it either being inexpensive or it's probably in the craft category though. So like 40. Those basically start at 40. Actually, I'm agreeing with you on that. I initially, now I'm not on thinking about it. It's actually a little better than I thought it was initially, but. Yeah. I'm giving it three stars and I think this might be just a young offering from a big distiller that's not in Small Barrel. It's just very young. It is if somebody paid 20 bucks for this, I'm going to say 20 to 30. And I guess I'm hedging a little bit on the range, but I think it's under 30 from a big producer. The only reason I'm not guessing craft is that the two things, I'm not guessing craft. I'm guessing you guys are guessing craft because of its relative youth. I'm not guessing craft because it doesn't have that green grilled meat, wood greenness that is for me a marker of Small Barrel. I don't think it's Small Barrel. I just, but it's got like a plushness to it too. Like it's a pleasant bourbon. Here's what I think is cool about this. We're all literally describing the same thing. We're tasting exactly the same things. We're just reaching different conclusions. 100%. I think this, there's a chance, even if it probably isn't this, but if you like this, this reminds me of Old Fitz. 80 proof Old Fitz. So you're guessing wheat. Yeah. See, it's funny. I think I'm guessing. Wow. But see, there's so much corn. I'm going to stick with rye. Really? Okay. Because of the youth. Future Pat. Sam Houston, 12-year-old. All right. Number seven. How about the rye on this one? Boy, does that nose. Awesome. And the age? This is gorgeous. This is cherry. Old, classy. But the question is, Pat, tell us about Basement Cherry. Basement Cherry is a new descriptor we came up with this week on one of our Barrel to Bottle. Certified by the Whiskey Hotline. Some older barrels from certain warehouses are going to have a bit of a musty note, but it's almost like a musty fruit, like a fruit that may have gotten a bit overripe and it's got this, I don't know, just that heavier, watery character to it. It's just like a moldy fruit. Guys, you are acting like wine critics right now. You have invented a descriptor that you're going to fall back on a bunch of times that no one has ever experienced. We immediately did. Basement cherry. This isn't the first one. I think that the first one we have to certify, trademark number one, is corn pudding. Yeah. As long as you don't bring cat pee into the conversation. We're not tasting it. So it's a fruitiness, like a ripe orchard, like a ripe stone fruity orchard fruit, but it still has this musty, dank wood to it that's a Basement character, Basement cherry. So Basement and cherry. Yeah. This is rich and caramelized and spicy and oaky, but still balanced by a nice rich brown sugar note. I think I'm giving this five stars. I'm guessing rye grain and I bet this costs at least 60 bucks. I agree with Pat. I think that this is the prototypical classic, classy what aged bourbon is supposed to taste like. But I don't think that anything particularly stands out. I always want a little bit more, so I'm giving it four stars. I think it's rye and I think it's 60 bucks. It's got a lot of fruit. This is good. I'm really liking this. It's rich, it's round. I give it four stars, 60 bucks. You think rye or wheat? Oh, rye. I am torn. It's definitely rye. I think it's definitely has some solid barrel age and I'm fluttering between. I might pull a Roger and go four and a half because I'm fluttering between four and five. You know what? I probably would have put it at four and a half if I was a cheater. Roger the Waffle Adamson. But because I agree with Pat, this is absolutely outstanding, but I'm also aligned with Greg. I'm wondering if this isn't a very solid, well-made product of a large distiller. It's consistent. It's not going to blow anybody away, but everybody's going to say this is fantastic. It's like classic and prototypical. But if it had, you take that and you finish it in a pork cask? This would be pretty nice in a pork cask. Why take such a beautiful thing and make it sloppy? Because you have a slice of cheesecake, right? You're like, you know what we need to put on here? Jelly. That's a great analogy. This is like making the perfect steak and feeling like you have to dump like fish roe on top of it. A1. Or bone marrow. Or ketchup. Right. Four and a half, 60 bucks, right? This is awesome. Yeah. All right. We're all pretty much on the same page on that. And I bet it's readily available. Right? Yeah. Pat from the future. IW Harper. Number eight. Compared to that last one, this seems kind of meek. A leaner nose, for sure. This was like the lightweight. Well, that's why this is one where this is the whole problem with going blind and without going in any sort of order, because make sure. Did Joe put this in order? He had them ordered, I believe, by price, and I told him, no, they have to be totally random. Oh, random. Yeah. But bear in mind, don't, again, it's the figure skating dilemma. Don't damn this because it's not as forward and robust. If it's a little bit more subtle, that doesn't make it worse. Get like some green banana. Like it seems like kind of youthful. Absolutely, like a banana that you probably should have eaten tomorrow instead of today. Yep. Yep. Like a little bit astringent and a little bit bound up. I mean, otherwise, it still has like kind of a butterscotch quality. It still has kind of like when you peel the banana and there's the little threads on it and you eat the thread and you're like, yes, 100 percent. It's got some nice kind of brown sugar, caramelized notes on the finish. Yeah, it's not bad. It softens up. Yeah, it is a little bit lean on the finish. There's some really nice, nice round fruit, but it's like blah, it's done. I think this one is your slightly off craft example that cost too much. I'm going to guess 35 bucks rye and I'm giving it three stars. I think I might be underpriced on the 35, but we'll see. I'm right there with you. I think rye, I think 40 bucks, I'm giving it two stars. But that could be your figure skating level. Yeah. I've got three stars. I'm guessing 60, but it drinks like 30. Yeah. Could be craft that could use another year to get a little bit more body and structure. Yeah. Three stars. I mean, I wouldn't be pissed if I were drinking this. Three stars. Yeah. I think this is tight. I'm getting some of those fruit notes in there, but just not feeling it on this one, kind of light. $30, two stars and a rye mashbill. Two and a half, 50 bones, rye. Bonus round. You were talking about all the different things that you can learn from Tasting Blind, especially in the world of whiskey. There's so many sharing of batches, so much sourcing of juice. And if you could taste something from the same distilleries or the same or different distilleries. All right. So I'm calling these nine and ten. Just on the nose, ten is like rich and decadent, and nine is kind of shy. Yep. Yeah, ten is awesome. Ten is like pear's fruit cocktail, like that sort of pear pulp, apple pulp. With one half of one neon cherry in there somewhere. Yeah, they're not picking up much on nine. Indiana maraschinos. Indiana maraschinos. Attic. Attic maraschinos. Number nine, I'm saying it's light. It's got a bit of cream though, rye, three stars, 30 bucks. I think it's pretty simple, straightforward, price to be an everyday smooth sipper type of thing. But overall, I think it's boring. Ten though. There's a lot of fruit on ten. Three stars on nine, basically three stars not. There's nothing particularly great going on, but I don't think anybody would be mad getting it. It's round, it's sweet, it's a little soft. Ten on the other hand is that sort of jumping between four and five. Yeah. I gave it four because I don't want to give it five. I'm guessing rye and mostly because I'm getting some really nice mint, like that sort of sweet spear minty, especially mid palate on the finish. Yeah. I'm really loving the nose on number 10. I agree with the mint, the spear mint flavors. Four and a half stars. I'm going to pull Roger. I'd say 70 bucks. Yeah, I'm guessing 60 and I think I might be a little low. See, it's funny because we're kind of, bourbon is so impossible to guess pricing. I'm guessing that psychologically, this is like a Robert Thayer behavioral economics test and experiment, because I'm guessing we're guessing price based on more what we think it would sell for rather than what we think it does sell for. Yeah. Yeah, this could be a $100 bottle. Could be. Or it could be a $40 bottle from a big producer. That's true. I'm always surprised when I'm, you know, I'll buy a bottle. I'll think it's, wow, what a value. And then I'll buy another bottle. Does anyone think this might be barrel finished in a Fortify wine cask? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I'm thinking this is in a port cask, maybe. It's got a lot of fruit. It's got a weird amount of fruit. And it's that European oak fruit, right? That's a little bit softer, like less buttery, less buttery, less toasty. I'm sure we're wrong, but. You guys want the reveal on the last two and then we'll go back and do the others? Yeah. Okay. The one is a Dant 100. Number nine. And then the other one is a Dusty Dant 10-year from way back. The price of that bottle is $4.99 from Spirit World in Omaha, probably from the 80s, but who knows? You've had Dusty Dant this whole time and you're holding out on us? I've told you this like three times. Mrs. Versh let you spend $500 on a bottle of bourbon? No, it was a gift from Paula. Thanks Paula. That is, you know, we just this weekend when we were on our latest Barrel Picking Excursion, Pat had a Dusty Dant that was phenomenal. An eight-year from bottled in 1969, a cool bird decanter. But this is that that older, that Dusty Dant was fantastic. Now we had a discussion and I'm wondering how much of that, how much of the character that we really liked and the softness of that dant came from the fact that it sat in a bottle, oxidation and oxidized a little bit and softened up a little bit. We had a great debate over whether, unlike wine, wine can gain age in a bottle, so wine can gain a certain kind of age in a bottle. We had somebody arguing that because it's changing the bottle, that it's aging and Brett and I argued that that age adds flavors and time in that bottle, it was only things were only coming out. It was purely subtractive aging at that point when it's sitting there, oxidizing the bottle. Sure, you're going to find new flavors and aromas, but in the grand scheme of things, things are blowing off, I think more than being added to it. Well, depending on what's evaporating. Yeah. I mean, is that same bottle sitting in a warehouse in Scotland going to age differently than that same bottle sitting in a warehouse in Kentucky? Heat, light, oxygen. Has it been opened or has it not been opened? Your enemies are heat, light and oxygen. Those are your enemies, just like wine. All right. Cool. Thanks for the dance. And number nine, I gave three stars, guess 30 bucks. In reality, that's 16 bucks, because it's a $22 one liter. So I think that works out to $16.99 or something for $7.50. So you guys were underwhelmed, but that's still a shocking value. I gave it three stars. That's awesome. It's great. And it certainly didn't drink like it was 100 proof. Again, three stars, nobody's going to be pissed about buying that bottle. Yeah, totally. All right, let's reveal these other ones, huh? Yeah. Number one, big reveal is Old Forester Statesman. This is 95 proof, Old Forester Statesman, I believe, is $55, $54.99 every day. Let's see, I gave that one four stars and guess 40 bucks, rye grain, that is correct on the rye, although it's very little rye, Old Forester is very high corn recipe. Old Forester Statesman is aged only on the top floor of warehouses. It has been our go-to suggestion for people looking for Blanton's, because like Blanton's, it has a very extractive oak-forward character, and that's really because it's on the top floor of all their warehouses. Which means that our strong old faux guesses on what number four, are probably going to be wrong unless Joe did a crappy job and gave us multiple old foresters. Are you guys keeping score here? How much did that cost? That cost 55 bucks. Yeah, right, good. Is it rye? Yeah. How many points you got? Four. Four stars. I gave it four stars in rye. I was off on the price though. No, I mean, yeah, like rye and price range within five bucks. Yeah, I only got rye. I undercut it by 15 bucks, but I do think it's worth 55. All right, number two. Cream of Kentucky, 11 and a half year old. This is 102 proof. I guessed, I said funk. This was the basement, Jerry, right? Funk basement. I guess maybe a four grain. I gave it three stars and $35. This bottle is 150 bucks. Really? I gave it two stars and bitched about the wood. Same. What's the mash? Yeah. It is very high corn. It's sourced from Barton. So it's, I believe they're like, what, 8% rye or 8 to 12% rye. Wow. Okay. Didn't show great. That was a shocker. What is it called? Cream of Kentucky. That's Jim Rutledge's new project. Jim Rutledge was the retired master of stiller from Four Roses. All right. Number three, Evan Williams. Holy cow. Cheapo Evan Williams. This is what, 12 bucks, 750 or something. I said this was grainy, gave it three stars, rye grain, right on that. I guess 45 bucks though. I guess 35 bucks. I'm going to buy a bottle of this. This is, Evan Williams is always sneakily punched up up its weight. You can get a handle of that for 20 bucks. Yeah. Wow. I guess, yeah. Drink Evan Williams, everybody. Three stars. When I had three stars, I had the age right. I had four to six. Yeah, that's true. Evan Williams' 100 proof is a sneaky good buy. That's like a $20 bottle. That's pretty nice. I was thinking about buying that also yesterday, but then I bought the Dant. Dant is great. All right. Number four. This was my favorite. This was your favorite. This was really good. Oh yeah. This is the newest Makers Mark Private Select batch. Four of them came in and this is the one that the Whiskey Hotline made. So this is Binny's Whiskey Hotline, Makers Mark Private Select. This is 112.3 proof. How much does it cost? $70. Nailed it. So I guess 60. I said rye and this is a wheat. This is a weeder and I gave it four stars. Which one was this? The fifth one? This is the fourth one. Fourth. Oh. So hey, Brett, you said that that one tasted like small barrels and you thought it was going to be earth. The wood came through for me. French oak. Yeah. Interesting. Of the 10 additional staves, nine of them are French oak. I think that's where the proof can come into play because I thought that was pretty spicy, but I was probably just getting obviously. Right. I had fruity and then spice, but it was the proof. All right. Number five, Clark and Sheffield. Hey, this showed really well. I also liked this one a lot. I said cherries and a hennis. I thought this one might have been buffalo trace. I said rye mash, which this is three stars and 30 bucks. This is, what do we sell this for? $15? That's actually $1,199. $1,199 right now? By Clark and Sheffield. Yeah, I had four stars and 50 bucks and that was the one, was that the one that we were guessing our old foe? Yeah. Barton, right? So that, so number five. Same juices, Cream of Kentucky, which was- It was the same juices number two at four years old instead of 11 and a half. 11.99, wow. I thought it showed better. I gave it four and I gave Cream of Kentucky two. There you have it. Boom. Barton Distillery, baby, continues to kill it. For all those listening, Clark and Sheffield, Small Batch, 11.99. So proud of yourself out there. I think that Mike Baba just peed himself. All right. Not often. Number six. This is an odd shaped bottle in this bag. What is this? This is a Redemption High Rye Bourbon Binny's Pick. This is barrel number 11. I said corn, young wood, wheat, not wheat at all. This is high rye. I said rye. Totally wrong on that. I only gave this two stars and I guessed 50 bucks. This is 40 bucks. I gave it two stars and I guessed 20. I'm not. I gave it three stars, 20 to 30. I had two stars, 40, but I had wheat. This is the one that we all said like corn pudding about, number six. Yeah. Wow. Sweet corn, stone fruit. That's surprising. It's a high rye bourbon. Interesting. Okay. Number seven, Sam Houston, 12-year-old. Joe got really tricky with this. This is our third Barton Whiskey in the tasting so far. This is about the same age as Cream of Kentucky, number two. It is virtually identical juice. This was so good. This was so good. I gave this five stars. I said it was a rye grain at 60 bucks. This is a hundred dollar bottle. So it is more expensive than I thought. But this was what I probably thought was best out of everything I tasted. I had four and a half. Sam Houston, 12 year old. That is truly the exact same juice as the Cream of Kentucky, because there were about a thousand barrels of 11, 10 to 12 year old Barton that were floating around a couple years ago. Come on, there's got to be some difference here. No. Ninety-eight proof? It's not literally the same bottle. We do those two side by side. A different lot of barrels. Same age, same distiller. Cream of Kentucky was 11 and a half? 11 and a half. So they're virtually the same? Virtually the same. 74 corn, 18 rye, 8 malted barley. I guess. I thought this was outstanding. Yeah, it was outstanding. It was outstanding. I don't remember thinking it was this outstanding when we first bought this in. We did an email offer on it, sale price. I tasted it then and I didn't think it was outstanding as I did today. Maybe it softened in the bottle a little bit though. Mr. Maloney did a very good job of randomizing this. Number eight, IW Harper. Oh, weird. Now, this one, you caught me. I'm not sure the retail on this. I think it's 35 bucks, maybe 40. 40. It's $39.99. All right. I gave it three stars. I like this one. Leaner nose, but some nice fruit and brown sugar, rye grain, which is true. I guessed 35 bucks, so I was off by five bucks, not bad. I guessed 40. I got that right. I gave it two stars. I didn't care for it. Is it rye mesh bill? Yeah. And that's MGP. It is MGP. I'm guessing it's MGP. I had two stars, $30. I thought it was tight. Hang on. No, it's MGP or Dickel. Yeah, it's Dickel. Well, it's bottled at Dickel. No, it's Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Only 82 proof. A DiGio label? It's not. They can't label it Kentucky if it's not made in Kentucky. Then it's probably Four Roses. It might be Four Roses, yeah. All right. There was another one, it's Three Stars. Nobody's going to be pissed off if they buy it. Okay. Let's wrap this. Here's what we learned today. Blind tasting completely blows away all preconceptions. The cheapest whiskey on the table was one of our favorites, and virtually the same juice tasted differently. You guys would have called them closer if you knew what they were, but you were just honest and described what you tasted. Yeah. That's absolutely correct. Big props to Clark and Sheffield and Sam Houston. And Evan Williams. And Evan Williams. And Ben and Makers. That Makers was fantastic. I might have to buy one of those too, but this is too special. We do a lot of these blinds in the wine managers meetings, and it's always interesting when you do it this way, because you'll always get surprised every time. You know, what you think or what you know to throw it out the window. But this was great. This was fantastic. Especially with bourbon, it brings it back to what bourbon, I feel, used to be and should be is just about enjoying something, and you don't have to spend a ton of money to enjoy a good bourbon. Now, it's getting a little too, people are a little too hypersensitive about worrying about bragging. This whole episode is just justifying Roger's old man bourbon. Yeah, exactly. I don't know, man. I think that Sam Houston, I'd lay down the 100 for it. Yeah. I mean, that was a great bottle. That was fantastic. Great bottle. Again, that's all the more reason to start looking at some of the other Barton whiskies. Wouldn't surprise me if that Sam Houston is going to be on close out of some stores. We can buy some of those barrels. They're expensive now, but we could actually buy some of those barrels for Clark and Sheffield. I like that. We need to do that. He just wants a couple of sample bottles under his desk. Yeah. I need to evaluate day by day just to see the progression. Well, thanks for joining, guys. This was enlightening and fun. As always, best to taste blind. For sure. Great to have the hotline in the house. Yeah. And Mr. Baba. Thanks for having me. Do you mind if I take the samples back for some further evaluation? You know what? Everybody else you talked to in the industry says, yes, keep it. But these guys are going to fight for them. No, no, no. It has to go back to the Whiskey Hotline cave of wonders, sample cave. Cave of wonders. If you ever want to lose a whole afternoon and perhaps a night, you can come in and tip into our sample bank. Maybe today would be a good day. There you go. It is Friday. Open invitation to all of our listeners. Call Brett Pontoni's personal cell phone, 312- All right. Well, anyway, that was an opportunity to taste some corn pudding and eat some humble pie. We learned some really expensive bottles, not worth the money at all. Some really cheap bottles, far, far out of class their price points. Don't ever fall asleep on Clark and Sheffield. There we go. Cool. All right. We'll be back in your feed next week with something fun. Until next time, I'm Greg, I'm Pat, I'm Roger, I'm Brett, I'm Mike. Keep tasting. In the year 2000, in the year 2000.