Hey Lexi, you've been on Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast for a couple of months now, for a little while. Oh yeah. You've never been on one of our Buyers Picks episodes. Correct. I hate to admit this because it makes the buyers get fat heads, but people listen to this episode more than any other. No pressure, okay? No pressure. Folks, Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast, Buyers Picks for 2024. Kicking it off, Jeff, Liquor Buyer Jeff, thank you for jumping on. You have a pick for us. I do. My pick this year is the Bardstown Bourbon Company Origin Series Wheated. That's a lot of specificity on that. Is this available? It is. Oh, sweet. $49.99? My next question was, is it $180? Like everything I expect from Bardstown? It's available asterisks. It should be an everyday SKU. Currently, we can't get any for a little bit now. It's a six-year-old product, and they need to have a six-year-old product, so it's going to be early next year when we'll start to get more. So what we have now is what we have. We have some right now, the end of December, and we have more coming in early 25. Yes. I'm really stoked on this because I really like their bourbons. I love every single one I try, but they're always like $150. This Origin series is all very approachable price points, and it's good. The Weeder especially, the head distiller, Steve Nalley, spent 40 years at Maker's Mark, the last 20 of which he was, or 20-ish, last half, he was a head distiller there, so he knows his way around a Wheat Whiskey. I like that his retirement plan is to open a new distillery. Work for a new distillery. To work for a new distillery? Oh, man. Do doctors do that? Yeah, ran a practice for 40 years, and then a new practice started up, and I figured I'd just work there for five years. You need to work on your analogies. I think that they knew. That wasn't a very good analogy. I think that if they own a practice, then they take less responsibility elsewhere when they retire, after they retire. Okay, so anyway, the Bardstown Bourbon Company distiller, what's his name? Steve Dally. Came from Maker's Mark. But they're not that old, are they? Are they making their own juice? They've been around for six years? Yeah, that's why this Origin series, that's all of their distillate. They launched it a couple of years ago, and that's part of the reason why they are running short on it. It's been very successful, and they're running through it, and they need product to age before they can bottle it again and get it out. They can't make more six years ago. Exactly. That's a common issue in bourbon that we've seen. Yeah. Unless so coming up, we're going to run into a glut here in the next couple of years because we're 15 years into this bourbon boom. Looking forward to it. Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. There's going to be a lot of good product at good prices. And everybody can have fist fights over the rarest tequilas and we can just get the bourbons we want to drink. No. Please don't. All right. Can we try this? Origin Series Wheated. That smells good. It smells really soft and bubble gummy and spicy and honeyed. Yeah, a lot of vanilla. It's very tarry. It's got a tarry feel to it. Coconut, a little honey. It's extremely approachable, like almost dangerously. So you can almost just fill a glass with this and, you know, it's dangerously drinkable. It's really soft, dangerously drinkable indeed. It's like banana with clove, like banana bread with clove and vanilla cream frosting. What's the outcome here? Is it 45 percent? Fifty three percent. It hides that. Really does. Okay. A $50.00. How much was that? You did Heaven Hill 7 last year, right? Yes. How much is that? Like 35 bucks? Frontline 50, same 50. Oh. I bought a couple of bottles of that last year. I've got another guilty pleasure. Great. Thanks, Jeff. You're welcome. You want to do, you want to do your honorable mention? Do you have one? Yeah. I mean, I can't remember if I did this one last year, so we'll have to go back and check that. We'll check the tape. But if I did, I still stand by it. The Tip Top cocktails are one of my favorites. Excellent. They came out with a Whiskey Sour this year. The Jungle Bird is always just a mainstay. I have them drop me samples whenever they speak with me. I get some of Jeff's samples. I probably had more canned cocktails from Tip Top than anyone else this year. That Whiskey Sour is really good. It's tart, it's full proof. Well balanced. Well balanced. Not too sweet. They're also a really good gift. I got a variety pack and did a bunch of little ones. Make your own variety pack and gifted those to my friend and she's very excited. That's a great idea. They're cute little cans, little stocking stuffers, excellent cocktails. Absolutely. All right. Keep it coming Tip Top. We love this stuff. Jeff, thank you for sharing your pick of the year. Hey, we're back, Buyers Picks. Greg, Lexi in the room this time, and we have cigar buyer Jack. I'm here. Jack, what do you got for us? A lot of things. We saw a bunch of new companies come in this year, a bunch of new cigars, but easily my favorite of the year was Crux Epicure Habano. Crux Epicure, what's that the word for people who enjoy food? I, you know. That's Epicurean. Is that right? Yeah, Epicure, yeah, yeah. Oh, Jim's here too. The Epicure line was launched a couple of years ago by Crux, and this is the extension, the Habano, which has been highly rated and took our stores by storm. I mean, they've done a fantastic job rebranding the packaging. It's easy to read. You probably didn't have to bring a whole box. Can I smell one? Yes, absolutely. Oh, cool. I love the smell of cigars. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's glorious. OK, so how much are these? What's the story? OK, so this this is the Toro size. We have it in Toro and we also have it in Robusto. The Toro is going to run you $13.95 a stick or $2.50.95 a box of 20. And the Robusto is going to be $12.50 a stick, $2.24.95 for the entire box. But what I love about Crux and what they've done is they've provided easy grab-and-go five-packs. So if you want something for gifting, this right here is all set to go, easily wrappable, fantastic little selection. It's right in the box. It ships in the box with two five-packs and then eight loose cigars. Ten singles. Ten singles. Yeah. But one of the other things that I love that these guys did is they market focus, they checked on what they could present better to the customers. And on the inside of the lid, you can actually see the tasting notes for the cigar as well as the nicotine strength. Yeah. So you're not going to be caught off guard. So when you're looking at the Epic Cure, you're going to taste notes, cream, light pepper, a little bit of nuttiness, and that nicotine level is not going to overtake you because it's kind of a mild to medium balance. Everything here is sounding attractive. Yeah. Yeah. See, every time I talk to Jackie, he makes me want to smoke a cigar. That's what happens every time. That's why I avoid his episodes. I have long been known as a terrible influence. Yeah. My favorite thing to tell guests and customers when I walk in is, are you here for a cigar? I don't smoke. Well, today is a perfect day to start. Yeah. What I'm hearing about the Crux Epicure Toro from you is, this is an approachable beginner to medium experience cigar that is not going to blow you away but is a luxury. The flavor profile is good for any seasoned smoker. What's nice is that they balance. They work with the Plasencia Factory, one of the oldest growing families in Nicaragua. They really fine-tune the balance. If you're brand new to cigars, this is approachable. If you've been smoking for years, this is going to hit some different flavor notes, maybe a light citrus, things like that, that you weren't expecting from, especially such a light wrapper cigar. Yeah. But it really plays to the strengths of your habano seed. Damn it. I'm going to smoke a cigar, another one. I'm going to get you a cigar. All right. Also, Jack, you brought a table full of toys. What are we looking at here? I did. Usually, I pick one cigar and then one accessory, but this year I had to bring a couple different types of accessories. So we're hitting a couple different price points for gifting. But I actually want to start off with the Cojiba Weller Ash Tray, because it's one of the prettiest ash trays I've ever seen in my life. This is a box that looks like a 12 record vinyl set. Yes. They make record players smaller than this box. This box alone could convince me to buy it. Look at this thing. Without even knowing what's on the inside, you could see it and be like, wow, that's really cool. This is a beast of an ash tray and it is gilded. And it's got the big Weller W right in the middle. Weller W, collaboration with Cojiba. It is one of the prettiest ash trays I think I've ever seen in my life. And I never thought I'd be talking about pretty ash trays, but here we are. That royal blue of the full proof mixed with the gold highlights on the edge, it really is a popping wow for a gifting item. So Jack, I have to ask, you got any Weller? Oh, God. You and everyone else. We did just get in the cigar that goes with that, so I always have Weller in the human world. Okay. So this is definitely an excellent gift for my uncle. It is. Now, this is going to be the highest end of our price point for gifting at $94.50. But it also does come in black for the 12 year. Oh, that's even better. Yeah. So we have black and we have blue. This is a rich Navy with gold accents. And limited edition. When they're gone, they're gone. Don't miss out on this one. If you're into Weller and cigars, this is cool. I think there's a big audience there. Just a perfect circle in the old Venn diagram. Yeah. The next thing I brought you guys is a variety of things. It hit that middle range price point. We started working together closely with Zippo and bringing in a whole bunch of the traditional Zippo lighters made in America out in Bradford. Price points on the Zippo lighters themselves go from about $20.95 up to about $48.95 depending on what print or what style that you're getting. Oh, yeah. Each one of them is going to come with a traditional flint wheel. And you can use that for cigars if you want to. Just let the gas burn off. That's the one with the wad of cotton and the stinky air flue. Yes, yes. But we also have the option now that Zippo's come out with their own dual torch butane insert. I'm looking, I'm holding the insert right now. This is badass. It has no butane in it, so I can just go. Yes, you can click away without fear of setting the studio on fire. Burning off my beard. You have butane around here somewhere. We definitely do. Oh, yeah. And there's nothing that makes me smile more than just hearing a Zippo click. Oh, man. It's so classic. So we've got Zippos now, a variety of designs, and then the insert to convert the old school Zippo, the authentic old school Zippo, into a modern butane clean torch. Yes. Which is great. The insert will work with any of the Zippos you have at home. If you have a hand-me-down piece from a relative that you want to carry around, you can do that and still light your cigars just fine. If you're looking for something that more is your style, we have a variety from Jim Beam, Crown Royal, Jack Daniels, all the classic liquors to things as crazy as a space print. What's that gold one? Is that Patron? The gold one is actually Crown Royal. Crown Royal. That's pretty cool. That's very cool. It's etched with a pattern. Very classic. Then what they did with the new Jack Daniels for this year is a glossy barrel style fit. Oh, that's cool. That's pretty cool. And the white one. Jim is salivating over this Homer Simpson donut. Donut Zippo. It is such a Simpsons. I love it. One of my favorite little details because I'm all about the details is at the bottom of the Zippo, the Zippo is printed vertically on the side of it. At the very bottom you can see the little sprinkles have fallen off of the donut. Oh, cool. The O in Zippo is a Simpsons pink donut. Pink frosted sprinkle donut. With one bite taken out. You ever had one of those? Yes, I had voodoo donuts. No, it's universal. Oh, yes, I have had that also, yes. That's giant. It's the size of my children's head. Yeah, he was sleeping that off while he was trying to make his lightsaber at the same time. Right, yeah. I want that Zippo. I got to buy that. All right, cool. The last thing that I brought is super affordable. It's just kind of stocking stuffer type thing. But frequently what we see is people who are having problems with their butane lighters, they'll come in and it's not firing, it's not working perfectly well. And a lot of that happens because air bubbles get trapped in the fuel line. So Vertigo has made a quick fix lighter tool. It goes on your keychain and it has a bleeding tool that when you push the bottom of the valve on a butane lighter, it will spew out the butane on either side so you can purge it to fill it again, as well as two small screwdrivers so you won't Oh, that's like a pocket-sized mini screwdriver that's sized for the butane torches. It's perfect for butane torches, a little keyring, it'll go on your keys, you can have it with you at any time, but the purging tools I found to be so helpful when repairing lighters for customers at every location I stop at. That is pretty sweet. And this is a little $7.95. TSA is not going to stop you if you've got it in your pocket. It kind of looks like a lockpick set. Your EDC guys are going to be all over this one too. Oh man. Yeah. All right. Cool. Last question. What's your favorite soda to go with that cigar, the Crux? My favorite soda to go with the Crux? Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper. He's a Dr. Pepper on the cigar. Oh yeah. The sugar goes really well with the drying effects of a cigar. Yeah. So when you're smoking, sometimes the nicotine will get to be a little bit too much. And when you do that, sugar binds the same receptors in the brain as nicotine. So I jokingly call it the nicotine ants, when you feel like you're just being overwhelmed. Anything with natural sugar will help push that through your system. Versus Cognac or Scotch, which just makes it worse. He says natural sugar. So that means you need to buy the Mexican Coke or the cane sugar, Dr. Pepper. Yes. All right. Which is always good anyways. So that's a hint for while you're trying to escape the family this holiday season. Without turning green. Yeah, right. Exactly. Come back inside and still be a human being. All right. Awesome. Thank you, Jack. We learned a lot today. Yeah. Good picks. Buyers picks. More of them coming up after this music break. I hope it's a good music break. All right. Back in a minute. Hey, we're back, and now Alicia is in the room. Hey. Okay. Okay, for them, like 16 seconds ago, we were talking about Jack Spethman or somebody, but now we're talking to Bill Newton, wine buyer. Way better. Wow. Hello again, everybody. I like you, Jack. Hey, Bill. You have your buyer pick for us this year. I do, and I've decided to go with a winery instead of a wine, so we're actually going to be zipping through three wines here. Oh, good. I was afraid it was going to be like 16. No. Here's the entry tier. When does the winery's check hit your account? Yes. Well, so actually, since you mentioned that, in April, I actually went on a trip to Victoria, Australia, which was really cool and really interesting, and this was my favorite winery on that trip. So first-hand experience. So this is first-hand experience. Australia is a beautiful place. I recommend everybody go there. Wait. Before we get into the line though, you have to tell our listeners about your altercation with the kangaroo. Bill almost got beat up by a kangaroo. What? You're giving him side-eye? First, I just want to say these kangaroos, they're not like nice fluffy creatures. But anyway, so I was staying in a motel and we were at the bar. You were in a motel? Well, it was... You agreed to this trip? No, it was one of those places where you have to walk from the bar to your room outside. Maybe a gin or tonic or two. I was walking back to my room and a kangaroo just hopped right in front of me. Okay. Probably five feet away from me. It looked at me and it was side-eiding me a little bit. Actually, it's so funny. It looked at me and I looked at him and I was just like, this could be really bad. Then he just turned around and hopped away. But it was very, very cool seeing a kangaroo in the wild five feet away from you. Yeah. So that was a lot of fun. Okay. I lived to tell the tale, which was good. But they're everywhere. They're like deer in Northern Wisconsin. That's how many kangaroos hop around. Wow. So. Okay. Yeah. So I got that going for me. Did you just stand there with a dumb look on your face? I know I would squeak and I would dive away, but I want to think that I would have the clarity. I don't think dive and roll was the way to go on this. I really don't. Wouldn't the coolest move. Imagine Greg diving to the side of the bed. Actually, no, not really. Actually, I'm kind of slow in my reaction, so... It would have been just been kind of a plop. Yeah, falling, I think is what would come in. I think you would have just been like, oh, look, a kangaroo. I would want to give the kangaroo a sup nod, you know? A what? Like this, like you're the kangaroo and just be like... I don't know how that would have worked out. The kangaroo is like, well, **** this guy. Isn't that a very natural reaction for Bill to have? I think the kangaroo would have really read through that. I think the thing you want to do is just make it so the kangaroo just is like, well, this isn't really worth my time. Did they tell you what kangaroos do? They did. They said that you have to be careful with kangaroos because they will kick you and destroy your life. Because they're scared of you or they want to eat you? No, they don't want to eat you, but it could be fear or they don't take stuff. Kangaroos just don't f*** around. Right. That's well put. And they can kill you with their kick to the chest. I mean, they're very powerful animals. Okay. I mean, they jump really high, so I imagine their legs are strong. Right. And they have these claws on their feet and they can kick really hard. So, I don't think I need to go too much farther for you to imagine what could happen. Yeah. Craig's face. Gruesome. Yeah. So, and they told me that we went to the zoo that day before, so all the warnings were going through my mind. Do they have kangaroos in the zoo in Australia? They did. Okay. They did. And koala bears. You know, like, why have them in the zoo? I can step outside. Right. It'd be like a deer in a zoo. But they also had some really good wines. I'm glad you survived your kangaroo encounter. Yes. It was touch and go, but it worked out okay. And for Bill to commit to this Australia trip, it was a big deal. It was a long trip. I was really happy you went. Yeah. It was fun. And just real quick as an introduction, Australia wine has this rep from back in the 90s that it's all big, gloppy, high octane, high alcohol stuff. And it's not. They've really dialed back on it. This is a really good example of it, this winery, especially because it is in a cool weather area of Australia. So you're not getting the Barossa heat. Totally. And so if you're familiar with the geography of Australia, if you can locate kind of Melbourne on the map here, we're in the south. So the south coast of Australia, the eastern side. All right. So we're further east than Barossa, McLaren Vale, those areas. And to Bill's point, due to some elevation and its location just on the water there, it is a cool climate site. And so broadly, you do see, this is where you find like cool climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, in addition to the wines we're going to taste today. So some really elegant wines coming from Victoria. And what's the winery? It's called Mount Langi. They're known as one of the really, really good cool weather Shiraz winemakers. They last a long time too. You can age them 10 years, you know. But we're going to start with one that is, it's called Billy Billy. Is that why you picked it? No, no, no. It's an introductory Shiraz. It's about $13, somewhere around there, maybe $14. It'll give you an idea of the style of Victoria. Now Mount Langi is located in Grampians. This first wine, the grapes don't all come from that area, but they do all come from Victoria. So when I teach Wine 101 and we learn about the grape variety of Shiraz and the style of the grape Shiraz in Australia, you share that very 40,000 foot expression of like, oh Shiraz, it's boozier, it's more extracted, it's spicy, it's high alcohol, all those things. Anyone in the Australian wine scene would just hate that generalization because to Bill's point, and to this wine's credit, there's so much beautiful, cool climate, cool to moderate climate Shiraz produced that's so much more That is true. And I will say that this winery does have a little bit of influence from the Rhone, which is you do get a lot of peppery and spice from this winery's wines. And it's really interesting. It's not just the pure fruit that a lot of- And like milk chocolate, this is like a cinnamon Mexican milk chocolate with like a hint of mint or something like that. Yeah, there's an herbal quality, a ton of black fruit, a little bit of like dark red fruit, slightly student quality. And then there's, yeah, that black pepper, not as much kind of like olive brine or smoked meat that you'd get, you know, in Shiraz in the Northern Rhone. But certainly that black pepper Shiraz quality. Neat. And it's pretty, pretty good mouthful of wine for, you know, 14 bucks or whatever it is. Yeah. Packed with fruit, even like a fruit punch quality that we were talking about kind of earlier. Brambly dark fruits. Yeah. Brambly. I love that word. Brambly. Brambly. Yes. Okay. Are we ready for the next one? Yeah. 13 bucks. I think 13 bucks well spent. So now this is Cliff Edge Shiraz, which comes from one of their actual vineyards, the estate. 2021 Shiraz. This is around $25. This is you're going to get a little more of the winemaking style of the actual winery. Mount Langi Cliff Edge Shiraz, 2021. Yeah. So as Bill mentioned, all of this is from Grampians. Grampians is in the western part of Victoria, and has this extension of the Great Dividing Range. It gives it some beautiful elevation up near about 1,000 feet. So when you talked about kind of this cooler climate expression thanks to the altitude, we can kind of preserve that acidity and purity of fruit. In this area by this winery, so in certain places, I went in Victoria, you know, the summer right by the water, and then there were other places, it was almost like, you know, you might think of Sonoma where you're driving down and you can see on each side, you can see wineries and stuff, and it feels very much like the wine country. Well, this area was very outback-y. I mean, really, it was like, you didn't see wineries from the highway, it was gorgeous, it was beautiful, and it was sort of what you would picture Australian outback to look like. This is pretty, it's really pretty. This is like pretty much what Sera is in my mind. It has like, you know, the red raspberry fruit, and then like blueberry confit and orange liqueur, and then this like sausage spice or like game meat. Which is a little bit meaty. Which is kind of like the Northern Rhone. Yes, 100%. Greg, another great tasty note from Greg Verche. You're welcome. Yeah, you've grown, you've grown so over the years. Three so far this year. Sweet. I think there's a good, there's a florality to the wine, a really good lift aromatically. It's kind of these, there's some sandy soils here as well, so that helping that aromatic lift in the wine. This is really good, isn't it? Yes, it is. Yes, it is. For 25 bucks? Yeah. It's big, but it's not overpowering. It's so sad, Australian wine and just kind of the reputation. I mean, you've seen this category over the years. You've been with Binny's for a while, and you've seen how unfortunately Americans have kind of turned away from Australian wine because of the influx of some of these really kind of cheap mass-produced expressions, and they miss all the beautiful wine that comes from Australia. And to think that you know the style, well, it'd be like someone being like, oh, well, tell me about American wine. It's like, well, where do I start? Right? There's so many different great varieties and climates, et cetera, and it's the same for Australia. So don't throw the baby out the bathroom. And it's been like 15 years. So they're really due for another check-in, I would say. I mean, it was the late 90s, early 2000s when Australia was really popular. Those big Parker wines that got all those high ratings. People bought them and were disappointed. And then they just never went back. But the wines being made now in a lot of cases, and this is an example, they're just not like those old wines. All right. We got the big boy. So far the step up in quality is a pretty solid increase. Yeah. And that's not to say anything bad about this wine. So I've had this wine too before. And so this is- I hope so. It's your pick of the year. Well, actually the one we just had is my official pick of the year. This one's gravy. This is about 50 bucks. And the only thing I would say about this is the last time I tried it, which was a while ago, it was six months ago, but it definitely needed time. You know? So this is- So this is Talas Shiraz. This is 2022 also. So this is going to be a kind of a monster. All right. I just don't try this kind of wine that often anymore. By the way, I'm guilty of everything you're saying. I don't get this anymore. All these wines are twist offs, so you don't have to worry about them being corked. Wow. So packed, dense, and just a savory expression that is on steroids compared to what we've had before. That smoked meat, some sausage quality that was like an underpinning of the last one, but delicate, is so prominent. And it is like that smoked meat sausage. And it goes on in the finish. Yeah, it's super long. This is built to age for sure. And it's pretty silky too, actually. It's fleshy without being too sweet or too fruity. Really packed. Lighter on the tannins, it has like a little bit of lift at the end, like herbal lift, but it's like green herbs, whereas on the front of the palate, it's like more aromatic, like autumnal spice. I don't know what you call that Greek, I guess. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, it is autumnal, I would say, from the herbs to the spices to the savory kind of smoked meat quality to the wine. It's absolutely autumnal. So give them a shot. The Billy Billy, I think, is in all of our stores. The other two are in sporadically. We're going to be getting the new vintage of the Cliff Edge, I believe, fairly soon. Okay. Yeah. Check it out. Check out some other stuff from Australia these days. They're making good stuff. It's not your father's Australian wine. Mount Langi Winery. Cliff Edge is your pick. But don't miss the Billy Billy and the Talos. Talos. Yeah. Which is a little pricey, but especially if you put something away for a few years and open it up. Totally. This is going to be there for you. Thanks, Bill. Thank you, Greg. Yeah, buddy. Have a happy holiday, everybody. Thanks, Bill. And we're back with more Buyers Picks. Wine people in the room right now. Wine people in the room. Greg's favorite. I mean, yeah, true. Absolutely not. I'm Alicia. I do wine education. I'm Barbara. I'm the wine director. I'm Mark. I'm one of the wine buyers. And I'm Chris. I do wine for Binny's. Greg. In various capacities. I've been on the show for a while. You guys both brought picks for us for 2024, your favorites of 2024. Yeah, I did. It was hard to kind of focus in on just one. But, you know, I think I picked something that's good. And you guys will enjoy. Excellent. Next episode, Mark Sinel's Top 100. No spitting. Let's start with Barb. Barb, what is in the glass right now? It smells classy. Well, it is a classy wine. It's a great wine. It's the Costanti 2019 Brunello di Montalcino. And I brought this for a whole bunch of reasons, besides the fact that it is a terrific wine. But since this wine was imported in the United States in the late 1980s, it's probably been my favorite, personal favorite Brunello. To me, it's sort of like quintessential, elegant, taut, refined style of wine. And also 2019, it's a great wine to show, I think, at this time, because 2019 was a terrific, terrific vintage in Brunello. It was large. It was very homogenous. There's a lot of great wine there. And I think if you're looking for a wine, again, in this very pure, elegant style, not a lot of, you know, doesn't have a lot of new oak. It's not overly extracted. It's a very, very refined style. I think you wouldn't, you wouldn't find anything better than this. But the other reason I bought it is that since the 1980s, it was imported by a man named Neil Epson, who was a New Zealander who, starting actually in the 1970s, became an importer of a lot of what are now a lot of the great, great classic wines of Italy into the United States. A lot of people don't really have no history of like what the wine selections were like 30, 40, 50 years ago. But he was really one of the pioneers to, I mean, he was the first guy to bring in Gaia. He brought in this. A lot of other really top producers, Ziermann from the north. And the reason I brought it up is that he passed away earlier this year. So I thought that was a really fitting tribute to really represent, show, suggest his great wine. Barb, you always put the most thought into these picks. Good luck, Mark. Yeah. Good luck following that. We may have to take a pause between tastes. I think, Barb, you make such a good point that perhaps those newer to the wine industry or just younger do not fully appreciate the steps that were taken by individuals in the past to really bring us in the United States to the point we are now, which is that we ultimately, speaking generally here, but like have the best wine of the world, that we consume the best, we pay the most for it. And so this is such an important export market, but it has taken pioneers and a lot of time and work to achieve that. So I appreciate you highlighting that because I think we lose sight of it. A little bit before these importers, they already had individual importers, we had some of the really important companies that had already started out. So you had Cobran, you had Wildman and others like that. And they were already bringing in a pretty good selection of wine. But it really wasn't until, you know, whether it was like Neil Epson and Kermit Lynch and Bobby Ketcher and Peter Wigandt and a number of others, that you all of a sudden started to see this huge, much, much larger assortment of really top quality estates. And now some of them, you know, obviously are no longer here, they're retired and a few of them are still going, you know, very strongly in that. So it's, you know, in the old days, it was really easy to tell somebody, you know, if they didn't really know very much about, you know, you imported wines, but they really wanted to try something to look for the importer. It's a little bit harder now because there are so many importers out there. But I mean, when you went to that original core group, they, you know, they really got a lot of the top wines that were available. Neil was the first guy to bring in like Angelo Gaya. And back in the 1980s, we had Gaya did a tasting in the basement of the Clark Street store when it was the old Ivanhoe. I mean, you know, you wouldn't think that, you know, so you would get someone like that today, you know. This is a little bit of Inside Baseball, but these are the legends within the industry that are unsung heroes to the wine buying public, you know. People don't know the role of the importer. And also, I don't think people fully appreciate, as you were saying, Alicia, the breadth and depth of availability of wine in the US and particularly at a store like Binny's. If you grew up in Illinois and you're younger and this is what you know, I think you're lucky stars that you live here because you can have almost anything and it's not like that around the world. It's true. Let's talk about this Brunello. Yeah, fantastic. It's pretty crazy. Yeah. It's great. It is a style that I know Barb loves and it has a beautiful silky texture. The fruit is restrained. There's so much kind of dried flower, dried earth quality to it. The body is round but still precise in your mouth. It's not kind of flamboyant or opulent. As she was saying, because of the style of winemaking here, but it is a very, very pretty but yet very focused wine. Racy acidity. Yeah. It's quintessential Sangiovese. I mean, it's focused and there's a hint of dried herb on the finish that brings a lift to it. Yeah. I mean, this is just a subtle yet layered wine of immense beauty that will age nicely. Sanguine and herbaceous. Indeed. Yeah. Just like you. Okay. This is great, Barb. Okay. Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thank you. Yeah. We'll shall toast Neil Empson. Yep. It's a great wine for an icon. To Neil Epson. Here's to Neil. Yep. All right. Mark, what do you have? Pol Roger, non-vintage. I'll be right back. Oh, no Winston Churchill. No Winston Churchill for you. I know. It doesn't matter. All right. All right. Let me get this thing open here. Let's get it on tape. I love this sound. All right. Here's your excuse to just do it loudly. Don't point it towards me. All right. Hopefully, I don't spray this everywhere. All right. That wasn't bad. It was very nice. It was with haste, but to quiet. Right. That would pass in a quiet dining room. You really expertly manage that thing with your big mitts. Look at the foil. Your big old mitts. He just manhandled that foil. You showed that bottle. Who's boss, Mark Cental? For my pick this year, I picked Pol Roger Non-Vintage. It's always been, I mean, since I've started with Binny's and started getting into wine, and this has been one of my favorite champagne houses. It's well-balanced. It's elegant. They use the three main varietals and equal parts. Aged in stainless steel tanks. It's bright. It's fresh. It's got all the components of a good champagne. Mark, I'm so glad you picked Pol Roger. I also just love this house's wines. But when I first started studying wine, if you poured me a flight of champagne, I probably couldn't really determine maybe the $40 to $100, whatever. It was all pretty new to me until I tasted 2004 Pol Roger. And so this was my A-ha, not the specific wine, but the 04 was my A-ha champagne wine when I was studying. And so I've loved Pol Roger ever since. I think for the dollar, for some of these big houses now that we've seen kind of prices creep up, this one just has stayed steady and consistent and is one of the best pies at sub $60. Yeah, not just consistently priced, but it's everything you want from a non-vintage brute, right? It's consistent iteration after iteration. It's always beautiful. It's reliable. And it's just always a delicious choice. You can't go wrong, I don't think. Yeah, I just think it's really well balanced. I mean, it's got it's it's got the fruitiness from the mougnet. It's got the body from the pinot noir. It's well rounded. It's got it runs the gamut like right in the center of all the different things that you're looking for. It has like everything you just said the fruit but plus toastiness too without getting too flamboyant or spicy. Yeah, it's gonna unite all champagne drinkers here for all those reasons. You know, sometimes when you when you get shard heavy, the autolytic qualities can kind of shine too much for some people or all pinot noir and it's just so red-fruited, so much body and structure and here you have something for everyone. So it is such a safe buy to serve for anyone regardless of their individual champagne preferences. And it gets my stamp of approval because I have an open bottle in my refrigerator right now. Did you know? Are you sucking up to Barb? Well, that I didn't know. I do know Barb loves her champagne, so. I mean, Barbara, am I wrong? This is the perfect champagne after a long day of Bordeaux tasting. Absolutely. And they do drink a lot of champagne in Bordeaux, yes. Yeah. I noticed when we were there together that a lot of Chateau that we visited, if there was a reception or something, they often were serving Pol Roger, which I found interesting but pleasant. So a fun fact that I had just confirmed about Pol Roger is that they still hand riddle most of their production, which is crazy. Madness. That's a job. I bet you get a backache from that job. Yep. Carpal tunnels? They have four riddlers on staff and they move about 50,000 bottles a day. Wow. Holy cow. That's four times what Batman had to contend with. So, yeah, they each have about 200,000 bottles that they kind of look after. From everything I've read, there is no benefit to hand riddling over using the federal palette. You know the reason to do this. Outside of like you help out the employment numbers. Or punishment. Are these like criminals or something? Those like Sisyphus, Sisyphus Junior, Sisyphus the Third. No, they're keeping Jacques in work. They claim to be the last doing mostly all of it by hand. Okay. So, yeah. All right, cool. Both of you, thank you for these excellent picks. People need to check them out. And thank you for what you do at Binny's Beverage Depot. You guys keep us humming along. Yeah. Appreciate it. Well, thank you. And also the Pol Roger is $59.99. I don't think we brought up the retail price on that, $59.99 on sale. How much is this Pol Roger? $59.99. Sweet. It was so like Bob Barker. $59.99. Come on down. All right. Back with more soon. Thank you guys. Okay. All right, we're back and excited to do another buyer's pick. We are joined here with Douglas Fornick, beer buyer for Binny's Beverage Depot. Douglas, how are you doing? Doing great. Happy to be here. Good to hear from you. Excited that our year is almost to an end here. We've had a lot of cool things come down the pipe this year, but I think this year I'm going to go with what happens to be our latest Binny's Collab. This was three years in the making. We brewed it with a brewery more. Barrel aged and a Binny select vanilla caviar. It's a mouthful. It was a delicious beer. So is the beer. The beer is quite a mouthful. It was a big boy too. 15.5 percent alcohol. That's always nice when it's cold outside. Yes, very much so. We're always talking about how barrels are such an important part of the Barrel Age beer process. They might get kind of overlooked, especially where a lot of breweries do these pastry stouts and they're adding a bunch of adjuncts. But we always like to highlight these barrels since they're the hand selections of our whiskey hotline. This was made with hand picks from a couple of different distilleries, Rebel Bourbon, Ezra Brooks Bourbon, and Yellowstone Bourbon. You know, these barrels were fresh too, and you could really, you could really taste it. You know, it's got vanilla in there. And vanilla is always pungent, and you can definitely taste the vanilla. But with how fresh those barrels are, it is so balanced between keeping the vanilla sweetness down with a little heat from the from the fresh barrels. It is it is just delicious. I think doesn't this one have more than one type of vanilla? Yes, it does. Glad you brought that up. For all the vanilla nerds out there. That's me. We should. We should do a podcast just on vanilla. It would be a nice excuse to blind taste test some vanilla. This was made with whole vanilla beans too. So that's the reference to the vanilla caviar. So no fish eggs are in this. It's the little specks. So if you've eaten vanilla ice cream and you see all the little specks in there, that's the vanilla caviar. So those little teeny tiny beans within the bean. They used vanilla beans from Pawpaw, New Guinea, Uganda, and then probably the most revered or well-known vanilla bean source, Madagascar. Nice. Another thing about this beer is it's really a treat because normally you can only get a more beer like this by being a member or winning a lottery or directly from the brewery. It's pretty crazy that we have this on our shelf right now. Yeah, absolutely. We're always trying to make it. It's super fun to go visit breweries at the source and to go to, they have a great big festival every year that's cool. But sometimes you just don't have the time, you're not able to make it that day. So we're really excited to be able to do this project with more and then make it so that people can walk into our stores and buy something like this. This is a perfect thing for the holidays to be sharing with friends that you haven't seen in a while with your family. Great beer. Anything else? Yeah. This is a big deal because this is one that people go crazy for when they release it. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. There were definitely a lot of questions that came in on socials about this beer when it was released. So lots of people are excited about it. I really enjoyed the mouthfeel on this beer too. It was pretty thick and you could tell it's there. You need that with the extra ABV, but vanilla and chocolate and like you said, just the perfect beer to share during the holidays. Yeah. I think this would go really well for as rich and dessert-like as it is, it's not overly sweet, which was nice. But it would pair really well with all sorts of desserts like this alongside some cheesecakes, some ice cream. It would really be next world. You can put it on your ice cream. Yeah. No kidding. It reminded me in a way of PX Sherry, which they do take PX Sherry in Spain, and they'll pour it over ice cream, put some nuts on top. You could for sure do that with this beer, it's so thick and rich. Douglas mentioned at the beginning, but just to reiterate, three years in the making, this spent 35 months in Barrel. That's something you do not come across much. When I'm talking about PX Sherry, that oxidative character that you get from this, I think that really does set this apart from just some of your other big rich pastry stouts. That oxidative character adds that level of complexity here that just makes this a next level beer. Good choice, man. Just a great beer. Thank you. Good work on that. It was fun. Spoiler alert, we have another beer aging in barrels with them. We have their Barley Wine, which is a roaming elephant, is a killer beer from them, super rich in caramelly. We've got that aging in some pretty special barrels, including some stuff from the good old Buffalo Trace distillery. Keep an eye out for that, keep an eye out on the beer buzz. It still needs some more time. They do, again, really like to let these beers rest for quite a bit of time in these barrels, but it will eventually be also available to Binny's near you. With how well this one turned out, I think we definitely need to get them some more really nice barrels. I agree for sure. We're going to be reaching out to the Whiskey Hotline, seeing what's coming down. Thanks again, Douglas, for joining us and look forward to- Thanks for having me. Yeah. Happy New Year and we'll talk to you later. All right. See you. See you, Douglas. Thanks. Bye. All right, and we're back with Binny's Barrel to Bottle Podcast, right? Is that what we're calling it? Wait, what do we call this thing? Barrel to Bottle. Barrel to Bottle. We've got Babba up here, Mr. Mike Babba. Hey, we got Babba in the house. That's a good intro. It's fun, it's fun. It's like a caricature, right? Yeah, yeah. Babba Fett. Babba? Oh, that's a good one. Anyways, we've got Mike Babba here, wine buyer for Binny's Beverage Depot. And Intergalactic Bounty Hunter. Yes, yes, part-time only. And we're back with the buyer's pick. Tell us what you have today. Well, since you asked. Wait, I'm not very interested, forget it. Okay. Come on. Over and out. Today we have a Willamette Pinot Noir from Hyland Estates, that was made especially for Binny's, for our Vineyard Direct program. It is the Hyland Estates Binny's Reserve Pinot Noir 2022 Wine Maker Series. Really excited about this one. We have been in search of a Willamette Pinot Noir for a few years now. We had introduced a Oregon Pinot Noir, one of our first private labels that had come out a few years ago. Knowing that we wanted to have a valued Oregon Pinot Noir and then add a Willamette Pinot Noir at a very reasonable price, which at that time was very difficult to find the right wine, the right price kind of ratio. So after years of searching, we were approached by the Hyland Estates people with a proposal to work a label with them directly. They brought some samples. First round was a little rough, and we rejected them. We rejected the samples. Said you had to go back. We're really looking for, we want the quality value ratio. So they came back. And so Bill Newton and I sat down with them on our second round of samples, and we were very impressed with everything they had brought that day. So we narrowed it down to two, and then we narrowed it down to one, and they took that back. We spent a lot of time on a label design. They actually proposed to do a special bottling, which they were going to call the Binny's Reserve, which we thought was great, because that's usually, with a lot of the wineries we work with, they kind of, they don't mind sticking their name on products. Obviously, we'll stand behind. Just for more, I think it's more like semi-legal reasons. They usually won't put Binny's on a lot of these labels, but they did for this one, and the design came out fantastic. The wine is great. We sell it for $17.99. Very hard to find Willamette, Pinot Noir under $20. We think this is our best value in the department, and I hope everybody enjoys it. And like I said, you're not going to find, you really won't find a Willamette, Pinot Noir, really you don't find them under $20. And we think there's a good value here, and it makes it affordable, gets people into it, get some, you know, get some exposed to Oregon, if you haven't had it before, and which we all love. We all think that the best Pinot Noirs are coming from Oregon, as we know. But that's my pick. We hope you all enjoy it. From my point of view, this is quite a coup. This is a very old winery. It would be hard to find in a Willamette Valley winery with deeper roots. I mean, their vineyard was planted in 1971, and you know, they go way back, very high quality. And I think it says a lot about our Vineyard Direct program that such a great winery brought us samples that we said, go back to the drawing board, baby. I mean, that says something. The whole program was based on finding good wine at a valuable price. It's that simple. It wasn't about just having private label and just slapping, you know, whatever labels we had and just putting stuff out there. We determined very early on that the wines that we're going to put out there had to be vetted and had to pass a lot of tests, you know, where it's not just like myself making a decision, but getting the buying team together, which, as everyone knows, we have a very experienced buying team. You know, I don't know how many years you combine it. It's got to be 100 years. Easy. Easy. And those meetings are not easy. Usually it's a lot of harsh opinions. And so when you do find something, you have to say, well, that was, you know, this did pass. I mean, and if it got through that committee, you know you got something there. So, you know, again, this one was, this has been the most elusive one for me personally, because, you know, like I said, we've wanted one for many years now. It's just been very difficult to find. I give credit to the Hyland Estates people. They were very patient with us and they understood. I mean, when we when we rejected that first group of samples, they weren't, they didn't take it personally. They weren't, you know, there was no pushback. They said, absolutely, we will go back. We'll find the wines that you want. And they did. And on top of it, they did work with us, you know, very closely on design. Design was important, just as important to them as it was to us. So I give them a lot of credit on all ends. I think the packaging came out great. We're very pleased. We're very happy with this selection and expect, we'll hope we can do more, you know, even expand it even further, especially under the Binny's Reserve. Very happy to put the Binny's name on this product. Yeah, it's classy looking. Yeah. It's got a nice old vine on it, which is appropriate because as we said, some of their vines are, you know, 50 plus years old at this point. So pretty cool. Yeah. Very cool. Let's try it. Yeah. Yeah. Come on, Baba. Here you go. Baba's waiting. So what I like about it, you get some good up front fruit, little spice. I wouldn't say it's a very approachable Pinot Noir in my opinion. It's soft. It's going to pair well with food. And, you know, like I said, for $17.99, you're not really going to find a better value. Yeah. I mean, I think it represents the value well, especially at this price point. I mean, it's nicely aromatic, floral, little herbal. And yeah, it's it's medium bodied and silky. And that's what you want your Pinot Noir to be, I think. Yes. So for that last minute shopper for Christmas, when you're bringing out that turkey or that ham, I think you got the you got the right wine with the Hyland Binny's Reserve. Absolutely. This is something I drink in the winter. It's a Pinot Noir from Oregon. So yeah. Excellent pairing suggestions. This would be perfect with ham. It's kind of, you know, it's got that fruity aspect to counterbalance the saltiness of ham. Yeah. It's great with turkey. I just have to figure out, I have to figure out when I go to my aunts, who's Italian, and she lays out her lasagna and shrimp scampi. Not sure. Yeah. There is a ham. There is a ham there, but this is- This would be a very interesting pairing with shrimp scampi. I think we'll have a couple options, but yes, I agree with you on the ham for sure. Well, nice job, Mike. Thank you. I love the fact that we are not just making these decisions based on economics, we're making them based on quality. Yes. Yeah. That's what we're in the business for, to deliver high quality to you for a reasonable price. Find it at Binny's. Yeah. If you can't find it at Binny's. It's probably not worth drinking. Hey, next up, next pick, we have a spirits buyer and whiskey hotline alum. That's dumb. Alum, founder, founder man. Stallwart, buyer Brett. Brett, how are you? I'm fantastic. Thank you for joining us in the room here. Just kidding. Okay. He's joining us. He's joining us. And what's your pick? So as always, because I get to be involved in all of our fantastic handpicks, it is an incredibly difficult task for me to pick just one. And some of the things that didn't make the cut, but we're close to making the cut, where we had the opportunity to do a bunch of fantastic barrels of tequila this year with both Sazerac Company and with Cascanius and with El Pandejo Distillery G4. So those were very, very close. A lot of folks didn't get to see those barrels, because they came and went. We had a 10-year-old Raysoul from Sazerac, which had never been done at that age before. We got the first single barrels ever done with Cascanius Distillery including a couple of experimental, the last barrels they had of their older, traditional brick oven cooking method. They've switched over to low-pressure autoclave. But what really struck for me was our 21-year-old doers double-double blending project we did with Stephanie McLeod a couple of years ago when we started it. The product finally came last year. It was 21-year-old doers which had been constructed as purposely as a blend, which was then mirrored into sweet Marsala casks. Yeah, we tried this. Yeah, and then allowed to age and finish for a period of time. They begin the better part of a year because that's how long these things take, which we then dumped, remarried, re-barreled to be evened out and then bottled for us. That's the doubling of double barrel. That's the double of doubling barrels because they've already taken. When they dump the blend together, if they think they need to enhance, they might change the wood slightly that it goes into, maybe add some new wood if they want to spice it up a little bit, or put it in some sherry to give a little bit of dark note, or maybe put it into some used bourbon if they want to make it rounder and get some vanilla character. But this one really struck it for us. The other part of it, not just that it turned out so well, a lot of people think the Dewar's sort of Dewar's, some people, your grandfather's scotch, we sell a lot of it in handle, and it's probably one of our best-selling regular blends, but people Yeah. This absolutely was something that was very innovative. I like the fact that a number of us, the Whiskey Hotline and one of our other buyers, Billy, were involved, and Jeff, we're all Jeff, our other buyer, other streets buyer, Jeff, we're all involved in this. So it was really a true Binny's collaboration. Yeah. Besides the fact that what the output was, was incredible. I agree with you in the last couple of years, Dewar's has really been crushing it with innovation. Their 12-year from two years ago, the reformulation of it, it rocks, and it's totally affordable still. Yeah, it is absolutely one in which people fall asleep on that. And in the realm of the drinkers who are drinking things like Chavez-Rickel and Johnny Walker Black Label, which would be the analogs. Yeah. I mean, I think that it's personal preferences, it's a better whiskey than both of those. Yeah, it's really good. And then there's just the regular double-double. You have even special edition. What are we sitting 150 bucks on that? We are 150, but we're running it for the holidays, and we do periodically pulse it for good gift-giving times, so 130. So folks want to give it away for any of the holidays that we celebrate all together in December, or Father's Day, Mother's Day, for that matter, or any other day that you want to gift. I think it's a good idea. And this is a hand pick, so it's not infinite, right? This one's going to run dry. Correct. It was a little bit bigger than a barrel because it was a blend, but so there are more bottles in the typical barrel. But yes, this is a one-off. I don't know that Dewar's repeated this particular blend or barrel finishing regimen. So it was pretty unique. Cool. We did try this. It was really good. Hey, Brett, what's that taste like? Tasting notes should be on my tasting notes? Yeah. Give me a little sentence or two. Well, I mean, I just love it because of the complexity. And it's not that people don't normally think of complexity when you think of a blended whiskey. You just think of light and benign. A lot of people, that's not correct normally. But in this case, it's just the depth of flavor. There's a tremendous amount. I mean, it has a really, really good, sort of the classic backbone. A lot of flavor is coming from wood, sort of baking spice and that you'd expect from sherry wood, which I'm sure some of the components were aged in that nice sort of sweet vanilla white frosting sort of body that you might get from ex-Burban wood, Awesome. Yeah. And it is supported by the sweetness from the casks too. Yeah. Delicious. I mean, I've come to, I've sort of come to a little bit in the scotch world, and I've thought more about this, that as I think that there is more ability to create more flavors, a broader palate, a more robust palate in the malt whiskey world than there is in any other whiskey category. And I've kind of been drawn back to malt in the last couple of years. Like, it's more of a canvas for expression? Yeah, because there's just so much variation, and because it's more delicate, there's just more ability for complexity, because malt distillate, of all the grain distillates, I think that malt distillate is the most delicate, and it thus allows the most complexity, rather than just very forward aggressive characteristics that are going to be similar if you get, especially with distillate from corn and distillate from rye. You know, I think it's tougher to get a lot of complexity just because the forward characteristics are so rich and robust and aggressive. It's just so much more delicate, so so much more can go on with malt. So, the guy that I know who has tasted more whiskey than any other human being that I've ever met, this is his favorite of the year. So, this is one to look for before it's gone. Check it out. Brett, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. We will talk to you soon, and folks will be right back. All right, what do you think? Any of those gonna stick with you? Yeah, definitely. Beer of the Year is great. Love that one. I'm also really excited about a couple of those wines. Oh wait, maybe I'm just listening to everything. Every single thing. Every single thing. Don't tell Jeff that I like this bourbon so much. Yeah, or his Tip Tops. Or his Tip Tops, yeah. Okay. Well, this is a great way to recap 2024, and we've got a bunch more coming for 2025. Backing your feed pretty soon with something great. Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Until then, I'm Greg. I'm Lexi. Keep tasting.