Hey Rob, does anybody ever tell you that you have a cool job? We have cool jobs. Does this ever strike you? Yes, and that's why I get excited about these things, because we have more flexibility to do these cool things than I think anyone that I could think of. Yes. I had some friends that were doing a 16 whiskey, like crazy rye whiskey off, but they were doing head to head. They were just doing it in a different way, and they were doing a blind, and they had some really cool results. Of course, they started talking about it, and then it was like, oh yeah, we should do a thing. We should do a thing. We should do a thing, and then it was, we should do like 32 or 30. I was like, well, why don't we do 64? 64, 64 bourbons in a blind tournament. Correct. We did a thing. We did a thing. We did a thing. I'm surprised we haven't done this before. You know, like bourbon's been such a thing for so long, and we like geeking out about anything we can geek out on. So yeah. Yes, we will geek out. You are listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast, back in your feed with something bourbon. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's, I'm Roger, I work in beer. Oh, Roger's here. Hey, Roger. I thought I already made that joke like a year ago. I'm Lexi, I'm on social media stuff. I'm Rob, I work on the Whiskey Hotline team. And you got people from every Binny's location to participate in a whiskey bourbon tournament. Yes. And that they just let you do that. Yeah. So we do education internally already. So we're already traveling down to different regions. So we have kind of four regions that we go to already. And it just so happened that we wanted to break it up into four regions to do this and to select a number of items broken down by proof. But I can go... By regions, you mean four regions of the Binny's verse. Correct. So a southern region, which was downstate, a western region, which was... Central Illinois. Central Illinois. They don't like downstate. They don't like being called down. My goodness. Where's Dan? We got to get Dan in here. Okay. It wasn't Edwardsville or Carbondale. We were in the middle of the state. Okay. Downstate for us here. Oh my God. You still went down on it. Whatever. We still had a good time. Central Illinois. So that was our southern region. Our western region, we organized a group in Naperville, and in our northern region, we organized a group in Arlington Heights, and in our eastern region, we organized a group in Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park. Eastern region being Chicago. Chicago. Chicago. Yes, right by the lake. And so you also had your Bitter 16 Bourbons in each of those regions. Yes. So to break it down even further, when we were going through this process, it was determined that we were only looking for things that were shelf items. So whether it was something that was always available, available on a regular enough basis that you see it quite often, or something that isn't an LTO and available at most, if not all of our stores. We're not here to tease you about bourbons you can't have. These are available items. We're here to talk about excellent bourbons that you can get. Exactly. On the shelf, nothing was a crazy price. I think the most expensive thing that was tasted out in any of the regions might have been $80, but the average price was anywhere between $30 to $50. So, affordable and every day. Correct. And each of the regions picked their four favorites. Yes. So, to even get it down to what the items were further, we selected about 80 items off of the shelf. We poured through our shelves to say, hey, what are these things that we see all the time that are available from legacy brands or some craft brands that are available pretty much at every one of our stores? When you say we, who's we? Our Whiskey Hotline team. So, it was a combination of me. I did the legwork on a lot of this, working with some of our teams at some of our other stores. I wanted to make sure that there were very few people that were involved to keep this as secretive as possible from the brands that we were utilizing. Oh, is this the disclaimer part? It was double, double blind. Yes, it was super, super double blind. As blind as it gets. It was double secret probation. That's important because for those of you who aren't involved in this on a daily basis, the bourbon trend is so mired in people thinking that this is the best or that's the best distillery. I think it's great that you did this because there are so many bourbons that are readily available, and I still get questions all the time like, what should I look for, what should I look for? As if there's, you have to get that rare thing, that thing that came out as a one-off, and it's such a shame that there's all these great bourbons that are around that people aren't picking up because they're easy to get. Yeah, and that was pretty much the goal also because us folks that work in the industry, we've been asked that question so many times, and it's always chasing the thing, this dragon, right? And we're always saying, well, we get an opportunity to try some of these things that are regular self-items, and they're actually really good. But I'm not going to lie, at a certain point when you're on the sales floor, you start to second-guess yourself, I'm like, am I the only one that likes this anymore? Yeah. Right? Am I crazy for liking this? So the Whiskey Hotline team and then a few select members from some of the stores that were sworn to secrecy, that also had a very good knowledge, was essentially a scan of our bourbon isles, and our biggest bourbon isle in the company at Lincoln Park, and then at a couple of our suburban stores to make sure it was a wide swath, and then numbers were checked against that to make sure that all the stores had it, make sure that the status of it was something that could be ordered, or it was coming in often enough, that it was almost as if as soon as it went out of stock, it would come right back into stock. Then taking all of that information, whittling it down further, so taking about 80 to 90 items, and then selecting 64 that met all of that criteria, because there were items that we thought were pretty standard or regular items that weren't as widespread and available as we originally thought. And then, and then, so each region, to get back to that, each region, the easiest way to break it down into 16 items per region was by proof. So the southern region, our central state stores, those whiskies were 80 to 90 proof. Then the second region or the western region in Naperville, this, and again, so let me back up. When I say each one of these regions, this is an educational thing that we were doing. So we have standard education. So we have our Whiskey Hotline study group, and we have a category. So the category could be rum, it could be Irish whiskey, it could be a number of things. This was part of one of those groups. These teams sign up for these things, and that's how each one of our teams across our 46 stores were represented. This is all volunteer army. Exactly. Militia. In each one of our regions, this is a group of people that represent that whole swath of stores. So, our central state stores, our western suburb stores, our northern suburb stores, and then our city stores, or close to city on the eastern side of our stores. That's where 46 stores in one way or another were represented in each region. Then we'll get to our final 16 items where they were allowed to sign up and be nominated across each one of our stores all over again for one big 60 person plus event where Lexi and Maddie were there to cover that had everyone represented to whittle Top four, and we have right here on the table in front of us, those four. What are they? Spoiler alert. We're going to do this Christopher Nolan style because I'm not waiting to talk about fricking 12 bourbons before I have one. We're going to pour out number four. We'll talk about number four and then I'll break it down again, or I'll just break it down by region. Yeah, region, south. So what finished fourth out of the final or the top four items? Yeah, wait. Number four. Number four. Oh my God, he's better at it than me. Yeah. Oh, no. He's just killing Clarkson, do you? Can we just after this, can we just have him just say all the numbers so we have it on tape forever? In a world. All right. All right. So number four or what took fourth place out of the 64, Angel's Envy Bourbon. Classic. A regular one, right? The OG. The OG. And there is going to be something that comes up when we're talking about Angel's Envy. This was out of all of the items that were tasted, the only thing that was finished. We were looking for classic bourbon as much as possible. Angel's Envy is so prevalent and so widespread and so synonymous with bourbon that it could not have been excluded. Fair enough. It still has kind of a cheat code. It is finished in Port Barrels. Nothing else was considered a finish. So the second region, the Western region Naperville was 90 to 99 proof. The third region, which was Arlington Heights, that was all 100 proofers. I love that. All 100, because there's so damn many of them. There's so many. So, Barrel and Bond, obviously, always 100 proof. But there's so many that are 100 proof that there was no way around it. And then beyond that, the final one, the final region in Licken Park, the Eastern region was all 101 plus. So 101 plus proof. Indeed. All right, number four, Angel's Envy. We got it in the glass right now. I love this bourbon. It smells like cherry ludens. Well, some people would say that's off-putting. I mean, it is in a good way. Cherry ludens, I enjoy, but you could be getting that Robitussin. No, that is. Cherry ludens are the candy cough drop that really doesn't help your throat at all. But you get to eat candy. But it's just candy. In class. Teachers are like, are you eating candy? And you're like, no, they're cough drops. And they're like, okay. It's like when you have chapped lips and you use Carmex, and then it just makes your lips more chapped. And oily. Roger, how do you like the Angel's Envy? I mean, this hugely influential in the bourbon world being that it's port finished. So I think that is definitely part of why so many people fall in love with it. There's kind of the staple descriptors when you're tasting bourbon, these things like caramel, honey, maple. And this brings more diverse amount of descriptors to the palate. You get those cherry notes, like you said, there's like a little bit of dark fruit there. The wood is still really prevalent. Yeah. Especially on the palate, it smells really fruity, but then it is more structured than the most. Let's all in. What was the proof on that one? 86.6 proof. I think it's worth mentioning too that the port finishing is subtle still. It's not like it's overbearing. I think they stalled it down over time. Yeah. Having just tasted this now, I think it is a little bit softer and more nuanced than it was in the past. Each one of the teams that we went through for the finals, I had them write down their notes for each item also. I tallied those notes and we can go through a couple of things. But one of the things that was described the most for Angel's Envy was oak, and then spice, and nuttiness, and vanilla. Those are descriptors from blind tasters? And we were talking about blind, so the process to make sure that this was so far beyond something that someone could just guess, but it couldn't be because of the bottle shape or anything else. What occurred is the bottles, each bottle that was poured was always a fresh bottle, that was then poured into a neutral glass vessel that had nothing to do with the item at all. It was all rinsed with the neutral agent vodka. Then- You rinsed the bottles with vodka? With vodka to neutralize. Okay. Make sure they're neutralized, then rinse them with the whiskey that was going into it. Oh my. Just dump that and then pour the item in, so that there was nothing that could be perceptive at all. Geez. To make sure that this was as blind as possible. Man, I was worried we were going to get mired in the process in the conversation here. And then they were numbered. And then they were numbered. Yeah. So as blind as can be and the bottle doesn't even know it's there, you rinsed it with vodka and the bourbon that goes into the bottle before putting the bourbon in the bottle. Yes. And then every time they were being poured, I had Dan, one of my cohorts, verify what I was pouring into bottle and pictures were taken to ensure that there was nothing that was being fudged along the way. We're still on the disclaimer part of this thing. I just need to make sure that it's very known that I went through every effort to make sure that this was as blind as possible. Because I really don't like the idea of what some other people have done that started or that was impetus for this. It's not a head to head. This was 16 items. You're tasting them all blind. You only know them by what number you're tasting. I didn't even memorize what was in each bottle. I had to go back to my notes every time. The notes have been shared with Greg and team. Yes, I have access to his spreadsheets. Everyone sees spreadsheets. Well, I totally get it from having, we've always emphasized on Barrel to Bottle how important blind taste testing is, and especially with things like Barrel and Bottle, so many of them are so iconic with these weird shapes, wax coatings and everything, that if you didn't go through this, people would be able to tell several of them for sure. That's cool that you did that. That's a lot of work. Having been the kind of person that's covering up bottles and doing stuff like that, congrats to the extra effort. I salute you. Which I appreciate. It did take a lot of work, but it was very much well worth it. So Angel's Envy was what made it out of the first round. The first round was the Central State Stores, our southern region. And the top four items in that, that ended up in the final 16, were Jim Beam White Label, Angel's Envy Bourbon, Old Forester 86 Proof, and Jack Daniel's Black Label. Oh, that's not a bourbon. Technically is a bourbon. Oh. It is a bourbon mashbill. It has everything it just sees a charcoal finishing. A charcoal. Many Heaven Hill items also see a charcoal finish. So they call it Tennessee Whiskey because that is something that occurs, but you can only, that's only something in Tennessee that you can call Tennessee Whiskey. But the mashbill everything else, the first fill or the first char casks, everything else equates to bourbon. Interesting. They just have the additional Tennessee Whiskey on top of it. So you're saying Jack Daniels and Jim Beam both advanced to the championship round. The two top American whiskeys. That's amazing. Blind. And it's not, that's not even shocking actually. They know how to make whisky. There's, you'll see a few items as I give you the kind of the four winners of each region. You'll start to see a theme of some legacy brands or at least one legacy brand that pops up. I'll let you figure that one out. Old Faux and Jack Daniels, both Brown Form and Products. And we got a Bacardi product and a Bean product. Correct. I'm also glad that this one made these top four because I was worried that the high proof ones would just blow them out of the water for being more concentrated. And to see something that's still, you know, an accessible low proof, pretty cool. And that's the hard thing. I mean, ultimately if we go back and do this all over again, we're not going to find 6401 plus proof readily available bourbons necessarily because then it's just like, can we just do a hand pick off? Yeah, right. You know, like we'd pick all of our old hand picks that have already sold. It's just, it's nearly impossible. This was the easiest way to do it. And it's hard because proof ends up shining, as you'll see in the final three items. But number three, number three, number three, number three, Noah's Mill. Noah's Mill. Noah's Mill. I've never heard of that. Remember loving Ms. Pervin. That tasting. You haven't tried this, huh? We have pictures of this too, right? Maddie took some pictures. If you're not listening to this on the Binny's blog, check out the Binny's blog where we'll have photographic proof that nobody can tell what these bottles were. Or you can look at our socials. Or you can look at our socials. This is KBD. Willit is the easiest way. The same company that puts out Willit puts this out. This used to be a little less accessible. I mean, a little less harder to come by. Yeah, so Noah's Mill and what's always next to it that you would usually see is Rowan's Creek and a lower proof. Two Buck Chuck Chardonnay bottle right here. Yeah. Sorry, Rob. But it does look nice and old timey. These guys are really ahead of the game. This was always a sleeper for the old school bourbon nerds like myself. These guys are essentially rectifiers who are sourcing whiskey, sometimes new make and then aging it entirely themselves, or they were buying a mixture, some stuff that was already aged. I remember drinking this 15 years ago, and goes to show you how much the bourbon world's changed because they were sourcing really old juice because the demand just wasn't there. I always thought that this whiskey was almost too dry, too old, used to carry a 15 years of age statements, I mean, really old bourbon. I actually think it's a great tale of how people have this misconception that older equals better. I enjoy it more now that it's not such an old bourbon. There's a complexity to be had in bourbon that's older than just say like three, four years old, but the alternative to that and people chasing things like the pappies and whatnot, you have to like that kind of flavor of super old bourbon. Yeah. I think a lot of people, if they tasted things blind, would not. Yes. I freaking love this bourbon and it tastes like it needs to be made into an old-fashioned to me. It's like such a good cocktail bourbon. It's got a nice spice to it. Yeah. It would be nice for an old-fashioned. It still has this maple syrup thickness too. Which is interesting because spice, cinnamon, caramel, vanilla, oak, and cherry were all the things that were called out. But one of the major things that was called out also, especially for a pretty select group, maple syrup. Maple syrup. He's got the descriptors spreadsheet. He's reading stats here. I freaking love this bourbon, man. Yeah. It's lovely. And it's again, like it just, this is classic bourbon. This checks boxes, this hits those notes, and the spice on the entry and the finish, it's still going. And the nose. The nose is crazy. It's like almost like a potpourri kind of baked apples. Just add a little cinnamon and clove and an orange peel and some cheddar. There is some citrus in here. I mean cherry. I said cherry. Cheddar. It's as if you were thinking of apple pie. It's because I was thinking of that Velveeta infused Malort. Gross. I do have a bottle of Malort's giving and pumpkin spice Malort at home. Oh my. Oh yeah. Is this still 50 bucks? Noah's Mill currently, it should be right around there. Let me double check, but this is 114.3 proof. Pretty accessible drinking wise for something that's that high. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this is 59.99 on our shelves. That's still a great value for this bottle right here. Yup. So okay, this one came from the high proof region, but so did the other two. So what were the high proofers? Okay. So we might as well talk about the top four that came out of the next region, the West region. So that was the 90 to 99 proof, and the top four for that were Michter Small Batch, Jim Beam Black Label 7 Year, Old Forrester 1870, and regular maker Mark Bourbon. Oh my. Nice. Oh my. These makes me so happy. These, you know, this is just all these brands have been trying to beat the drum for so many years. And I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again. Makers Mark, when it came out, they used to run ads that said, it's not too expensive. You're too cheap. It went from being this bourbon that everyone's like, oh, this bourbon is pretentious. It's super expensive. They would do blind taste tests head to head between normal Makers Mark and Blanton's. I mean, when Buffalo Trace was trying to announce the idea of a single barrel bourbon, it was like something they had to sell people on. Yeah. But yeah, the Makers Mark is such an under-appreciated bourbon. Old Forrester just kills it. Like this is Jim Beam Black, seven years old. The amount of quality you get for that price point. Yeah. I'm loving this. Good. Good. This is exactly what Roger wanted. Well, and that's what's great about this too, because there were a couple of things that you called out in there. There are some more limited things that have now become more available. There's one in particular that's pretty synonymous with something that people are chasing, and that was in this 16 that didn't make it out for the top four. So, we won't go into too much detail with that, but we did make an effort for as much as we could. I love to hear that. I love to hear that. It's really cool that, what was it, Jim Beam's just up there? Just everyone chill out, try something. This is your wheelhouse being, like, watching social every day. I mean, bourbon's been kind of commandeered by this, like, braggadocio of look what I have and I have the thing everyone's chasing just because it's like, you know, a phenomenon. It's clear that it becomes a certain, at a certain point, if you're unsure of something, you just go to the thing, like, the lowest hanging fruit, and that's the thing that your neighbor has or your neighbor is looking for. And you see, like, whether or not you have access to all this information online, you're still paying attention to what your family says or your neighbor says. And it's, it's, well, they're known as, like, the subject matter expert. So I'm going to listen to them. And it happens with wine, beer, everything. So it's kind of like why doing blinds is even cooler. And that's why I think a lot of these bourbon groups that I've talked to, they're starting to do more of these blind taste tests because they're like, I have 400 bottles at home. I need to do something with them other than just lord over them. And it cuts through any preconception. Yes. So for all those listeners, if your significant other is complaining about how many bottles you have, just remember, there's another guy that has 400. Maybe that hundred that I have doesn't look so bad. Yeah. All right. Before we do number two, you want to give another disclaimer? What other disclaimer have I not gone over? It was blind. We really didn't know what we were tasting here. Promise, promise, promise. Roger's going to love this choice for two reasons. So number two. Yes. So number two. And again, we did vet all this and we made sure everything had a shot. What came out is our number two overall. Number two. You stole his thunder right back. As soon as I hear the deep voice, I'm like, I got to do something. So number two overall is Clark and Sheffield Barrel proof. Thanks. Where's Jeff? We need him running. But is Jeff paying you to do that? All right. Clark and Sheffield Barrel proof from the Barton 1792 Distillery. Yes. So, yeah, this was a top performer out of its region. And then obviously in the final 16 to then determine the top four. And this is yet another reminder that the Binny's buyers are out there basically acting as consumer advocates finding the best stuff that we can put in bottles. This is one of the things that we're out of the spirits, on the spirit side of things by far the most proud of. We have a very good relationship obviously, but it's also 1792 isn't necessarily the hotness. People aren't clearing shelves on it unless it's one of their LTOs, but even their LTOs, it's not going at the same rate as some other LTOs. Sure. They're just, it's just great stuff. We've had their team on the podcast. We've enjoyed the distillery. They don't have- Best distillery tour I've ever been on. Which is hilarious because it's almost impossible to even get a distillery tour there because they don't want that. They don't do the Disney World thing. When you do get an opportunity because whether it's industry or whatever, it's cool because- It's a real factory. It's not people in like polos in an air-conditioned control room hitting buttons. Yes. It's like being on a submarine. Like it's loud, it's hot. You can get injured at any point. Yeah. I got yelled at. We went to Buffalo Trace last week. I was on vacation. I went to Kentucky. We went to Buffalo Trace and there was a tour group coming out of the bottling facility. Yeah. I'm like, I got to get on in this. So I'm like, tried to get to the door before the tour guide closed it. But he closed it and he started walking away and he was like, sir, you need a tour guide. I was like, all right, thanks. Then he turned on his little microphone thing for the loud parts of the tour and he was like, sir, you need a tour guide. There's 70 people looking at me and I'm like, you don't know me, you don't know what I need. Anyway. But I'm Binny's. I don't pull that card. A guy inside was like, what the hell? He opens the door, I stick my foot in, I stick my head in and they're bottling plain ass Blanton's. Yeah. Okay. All right, cool. Well, but that's the little Blanton's hut that they're doing Blanton's in. They were doing Blanton's in the Blanton's hut. You're right. It's the Blanton's bottling room. That's always a part of the tour because they're really not going into the other parts for the rest of the bottling. But that one specifically is one that they're always hitting. And it's funny because- It's human beings. It is human beings. And they're in hair nets. That's just this human beings in hair nets. They're hand doing every single aspect. And it's funny because that used to be so small that it was, I mean, the building was the same size, but the footprint was only a quarter of that. And this was like less than 10 years ago. And now it's just, they can't get enough people in that small room. That's true, it was very cluttered. Shoulder to shoulder. It's probably why they were trying to keep some a**hole out. It's like, this guy's gonna steal some blends. Code red. Anyway. Where's the apostrophe? I need my letter. I wanna say one other thing, there's my other insight from this. We actually went into a few distilleries, and I didn't see any active fermentation. Yes. No active fermentation. That's all I'm saying. I'm not gonna comment about it more. Oh, a lot of whiskey that was laid down, and there's a lot still aging. Yep. It's called those bourbon taters only want the LTOs, and you know, everybody else is drinking white claws. Well, and I mean, now you're starting to see just age statements on things because they've got older juice that's sitting around, and it's like, well, we gotta bottle this at some point. It's a great time to drink old Grandad. Oh, OGD. Okay. All right. So anyway, Clark and Sheffield, Barrel Proof. Clock's in at 125 proof. A little spicy for me. A little spicy. I love the nose though. Like spicy like cinnamon, like heat. Because there's like plush clove too, like banana and clove. That was the number one tasting. If you're a fan of the 1792 series, this would be similar to the full proof offering, which is the entry level proof that stuff gets put in at, right, Rob? Yes. And so then, if they need to water it down back to 25, that's kind of what you're getting out of this. Yeah, so max that you can enter Barrel at is 125, and that's what, even if it increases in proof, which usually it does, depending on, it's just in Kentucky, most of it's going to gain proof. So they'll bring this back down to the Barrel entry proof of 125. What were the common descriptors? Number one was spice, caramel was number two, then cinnamon, vanilla and oak. This is the perfect Manhattan bourbon. It's spicy and lean. And when you put in however much sweet vermouth that you want, a drip or a bunch should make a perfect Manhattan. And it stands up to it. Well, there's a really cool tasting note that came out blind. Chocolate. Chocolate? Chocolate came out on this one that was really fun because when you get that, that chocolatey, spicy, cinnamon-y characteristic, it really just shines. I get like a big gingerbread note from this. Oh yeah. Those warm baking spices and almost kind of that depth of deep caramelization that's borderline like molasses. Yeah, man. All right. So what were the North Region picks? So North Region picks, so this was all the 100 proofers. Exactly 100 proof. Because there's a lot of them, which is great because I think, for me at least, my favorite proof is 100 proof. It's great in a cocktail, and I don't want to necessarily just be drinking cask strength whiskey all the time. Yeah. It should be said with this Clark and Sheffield, I used to recommend over proof bourbons all the time. And again, it's just worth saying for the 100th time on this podcast, you should try this bourbon with some ice. You should try it with some water. You should dial it in to your liking. Yeah, let it open up. You know, when you give people just 125 and they're like, oh man, it was too hot. I can't do that bourbon. It's like, well, did you put some ice in it? Like, no, I don't drink bourbon with ice. Did you put some vermouth in it? It's 125 proof, like, you can put some ice in it. The Feet Brothers Old Fashioned Aromatic Bitters in it? No, and I mean, like, we've been saying this forever, but like, when you get served a glass of whiskey in Scotland, you're also served a pitcher of water. And it's been, we've talked about ad nauseum, but the water molecules help bring out the nose. They bring out the palate. They bring out a lot of characteristics in the whiskey. It's worthwhile, and at currently $35 a bottle, you can add a little bit of water or ice if you really want to, and you're not, it's not going to be the worst time of the week. It's crazy, yeah. I mean, it all stems from, it's all, again, prohibitions fall. We never used to have 80 proof whiskey in this country. And then after prohibition, they hemmed and hawed and bitched and moaned and allowed the proof to drop from 100 to 80. So yeah, if you put water, ice and 80 proof bourbon, it tastes washed out. But again, if you're above 100, put some water in there, it's fine. And you know what's the most fun also on a hot day? Just make any of those into a highball. Yes. And it's so tasty. For sure. Yeah, I love this whiskey. And I mean, and it does drink different than 1792 full proof. 1792 full proof to me wears the oak and spice a lot heavier. This has an oiliness to it and a roundness that's gentler. The vanilla shines a lot better. Well put, yeah. I think it's fun. So the top four that came out of the northern region, Arlington Heights, was the northern batch of stores that came to that. Wild Turkey gets the snub here for adding one extra proof number. It was included in the next round. In the next round, yeah. But New Riff bottled in Bond. Great Whiskey. Clark and Sheffield bottled in Bond. It was blind, right? Let me make sure I emphasize again, every effort was taken. I think it's interesting that this one beat out the bottle in the bond ultimately. Spoiler alert, Clark and Sheffield bottle in the bond is not the number one. No, it is not. We'll run back through all the top 16 that were tasted for the final round. But another item in this, so it was New Riff bottled in Bond, Clark and Sheffield bottled in Bond, EH. Taylor Small Batch and Nob Creek 100 Proof. Oh, yeah. So, so far, we're seeing and you hear EH. Taylor Small Batch in there, that is something that as soon as it, I mean, even in a year or two years ago, as soon as it hit the shelf, if it hit the shelf and we encouraged folks to put it on the shelf, but if it didn't, it would get gobbled up right away. Because it was one of those things, you saw the canister and you would grab it. Now, it's a situation where there's enough of it that when it comes in, there's a floor stack. It lasts about the entire time until it gets replenished. So, it's in often enough and in enough quantity that it's something that we can easily feel comfortable talking about and discussing as one of the top 16 items. We're allowed to talk about Taylor again. Hooray. All right. Number one and number one overall that came out of the final round and what came out of the final round is Clark and Sheffield Barrel Proof and this was at Lincoln Park for the Eastern region. Clark and Sheffield Barrel Proof, Russell's Reserve Single Barrel, Noah's Mill and Maker's Mark Cask Strength. And the item that came out number one overall, our number one Bourbon Tasted Blind Tournament Pick. Tasted Blind is Maker's Mark Cask Strength. Man, the Beam Suntory is pretty well represented on this list. So I'm glad that you saw the theme there. It wasn't purposeful, obviously. It was blind, right? It was fully blind. Super blind, double, triple secret probation blind. But these are, like I said, so a lot of items that made it into the initial tastings were obviously legacy brands because legacy brands are something that are on all of our shelves. They're also on anywhere you can find them throughout the US. There was some craft included, as you can see, or some smaller brands included. You know, from a craft perspective, you see New Rift that made it out, but legacy kind of shown throughout. And many Beam products ended up doing pretty well blind. How about this Maker's Mark? Oh, man, it's like dessert. Yeah, it's like a brown sugar note. That drinks way softer than it actually is, which is 109.4 proof. I guess it does have a heated lift at the finish, but this is just really good. Cookies taste like not ginger snaps, but you know, the oatmeal raisin cookie, if it didn't have the raisins in it, would be better. That finishes like pure Jerry though. Yeah. There's so much Jerry in that finish. Oh, you're right. And that's one of the descriptors that teams called out. Cinnamon, cherry, oak, caramel, vanilla, spice. And then there were some fun things, like some folks were getting apples and pears in there, so some nice orchard fruit. We got a decent amount of folks calling out honey. Yup. Honey. What's always stood out to me for the maker's mark that's higher proof, being a weeded bourbon when we often describe to people, okay, what's the difference if you have a weeded bourbon? Like, well, wheat is taking the place of rye. The classic descriptor for rye is that it's adding spice. So if you have the higher proof, you're adding a little bit of alcohol spice that might otherwise be absent from not having the rye. So clearly, with the descriptors, you still get some of that spice here. But it's softer, more rounded, more plush from wheat, really not incorporating much flavor, but it's the absence of the rye that makes it softer. It doesn't have any of the green herbs like mint or basil. None of that is here at all. Yeah. It's not as earthy. But this is, I mean, when everyone chases the what used to be readily available Weller 107, I just always telling people, maker's mark has strength, is what you want. If you love Weller 107, you will love this whiskey. Again, it's just always there. I think that almost hurts it. It's like, oh, I can just walk in and buy it. Can't be as good. Well, it has the word limited on the label. Yeah. It's like half the price of the Weller. Yeah, well, buy two bottles. I don't know what to tell you. You win. That's good. Yeah. How much is the cast strength anyway? It's $44.99. Holy cow. Holy cow. So, like, it got to a point, you know, like peak of bourbon, like, around, like, four or five years ago that if you could get a bourbon on the shelf that was cast strength or high proof at $10 a year, yeah, you were like, okay, that's reasonable. So this is seven years, and you're looking at $44.99. That's incredible. You know, it's available. It's, every one of our stores will have it. And if they don't have it, it's because someone ran and cleared them out. But guess what? They're going to be able to order more. More is on the way. I'll say it again. This right now is a peak time to be a bourbon drinker. Maybe not a collector, but a drinker, yeah. There's so much good affordable stuff. Yeah. So we took, so these were some of the items that obviously were the top four, but out of each region. So then the regions came together for one big final. And that's where the teams from all of our different stores all gathered together on a day. It took a lot of work on the operation side to make sure that that was something that could occur. But once it came together, we got a cool group photo. We got some social media out of it. But the teams are very engaged and they tasted through these final 16 items. Noah's Mill, Angel's Envy, Maker's Mark Cask Strength, Clark and Sheffield Barrel Proof, EH. Taylor Small Batch, Knob Creek Hundred Proof, New Riff, Bottle and Bond, Russell's Reserve Single Barrel, Maker's Mark Bourbon, Clark and Sheffield Bottle and Bond, Old Forrester 86 Proof, Jim Beam Seven Year Black Label, Mikder Small Batch, Jim Beam If you didn't just keep hitting the pause button and writing those down. They'll be listed. They're listed on our blog. They're listed on our website. If you're standing in the Bourbon Isle at Binny's, at least through September, Happy Bourbon Heritage Month, there's going to be signs, there's going to be tags on these items. Don't sleep on them. They're all great. Yeah. The way that worked out is the teams tasted through those 16 items, determined their top four items, and those were randomized and the whole process all done in a private room separately, with no one able to see besides Dan and one of our district managers that was assisting, Katie. So it was even blind to you. Then those numbers were then changed on the bottles so that that wasn't also determined. Then those final four items were tasted again to determine your number one, which ended up being Makers Mark Ask Strength. All right. Does everybody believe him that this isn't crooked? I watched it happen. You watched it happen. Yeah, it was cool. It was really cool. It was really cool to see to some of these people on our teams who, oh, I know for a fact that's this. Then you watched as Rob's reading the list and you see him like, yes, it's not what that is. Yes. It's really cool. The key to blind tasting is to be honest and describe what you're tasting and drop any pretense of pride. Yeah. That's the important thing because one of the best things about our teams is that we have such a passionate base. The fact that they can be so excited and passionate about this and really have maybe their own preconceived notions, but even those teams that had an open mind to this, kind of getting in their lane and then being surprised. It's really cool. It was fun. Rob, did you make a bunch of money on Cal Sheet with Makers Mart Casper Street? But yeah, I don't know if, I mean, Lexi, obviously you saw the process. Is there anything that you guys were surprised by by these four items? How good they are. They're great, right? I still just think it's so funny to see in the top 16, all of these bottles and then the top 16 is Jim Beam, Jack Daniels. You're not Jack Daniels. No, Jack was in there. Jack Black Label was in there. All of these that you sometimes get on your high horse about and you're like, I'm not drinking that. That's for this type of person. That's when I drink when I was 21 and then actually it is good. Just give it a chance. Just relax. You know what I started doing? At bars and at concerts. I'll get the shot and a beer, make their life easy and they say, what shot? I say, rail bourbon and that's it. It turns out that it's almost always good. Yeah. I've never been horrified by rail bourbon. One time I was given an American whiskey and I said, that's not bourbon and she was like, I'm so sorry and then gave me that shot for free. He still won. He still won. You still got booze. Yes, I did. Especially if you're ripping a shot, you're not really tasting the ton anyway. You're going to enjoy it for a minute. I don't know. You switch it around in your mouth. I avoided a rail tequila. I didn't say rail tequila. Oh, that's scary territory. That's not for me. That's scary. Or just like, hey, surprise me. Nope. Yeah, they don't like that. Okay, here's double mullord. See, that's a surprise me with specific instructions. They don't have to do anything. It's going to be a surprise for me. Yeah. It's also like, Jack Daniels was drank by Sinatra. He was good at singing and stuff. But when he was drinking it, it was higher proof. They started watering it down. You are correct. I'm not surprised that some overproof ones did really well. Again, I want to emphasize if you believe, holy cow, they went into ludicrous amount of efforts to do this. I want to go pick some of these up. When you're just trying little samples of things, it can be easy to be wowed by the mega flavor bomb of overproof. When you try to drink a glass of it, you might think it's too big. Again, I can't emphasize enough that when you have something that's overproof, a huge part of the point is that you can adjust it to your liking. Please play around with it, make cocktail with it, try it with ice, try it with different types of ice, try it with crushed ice, with a giant cube, try just putting teeny amounts of water in it. You could be as geeky as an eyedropper, or you could do a little pitcher like Rob was talking about. They do a scotch. But again, I think the biggest thing that's hurting this category, besides the whole hype thing, is this misconception of that you have to drink good bourbon neat. It's such a pervasive myth. Again, when we have all these overproof bourbons, we just want to make sure that having recommended a lot of those to the past of people and heard the customer response of, yeah, man, it's too strong. Did you try with ice? No. I don't drink bourbon with ice. Is the straw man in the room with us right now? Someone told me when I was bartending once that your palate is your palate. So if it's too strong, who cares? Yeah. Yeah. Water it down. It's fine. And I will say, so some of these higher proof items, like three of the higher proof items ended up in the top four. But in the next set that would have been top eight, you have three things that were 100 proof, one thing that was 86 proof. Like there were some things that were still in there that were lower proof. You have one thing that was 86 proof, huh? Well, I don't remember the exact proof. Maybe it's 94 proof. I don't know. What is it? No, I think it's 90 proof. Maker's Mark? Maker's Mark. 90 proof? I don't know. Great example of how people don't necessarily understand how bourbon works. You all remember when makers decided they were going to water it down by two proof points and everyone went nuts and they're like, I don't want any water in my bourbon. It's like, spoiler alert, they're putting quite a bit of water in your bourbon. They're putting in a miniscule amount that none of their blind taste testers could even notice the difference. It was social media that it blew up. It was an example of like they could have done this in the past and they had with other products like Jack Daniels are slowly get lower and lower. People went so insane that they literally had to roll it back for like this in minuscule change from like 94 to 92 or something. Yeah. Makers is 90, so 90 proof. Hey, there's not any 700 milliliter bottles on the table. That's good. All right. So yeah, get out there, try all 16, especially if you haven't in a while. Give them another chance. And feel free to throw us your tasting notes. Like as you're tasting these things, like we obviously called out like the predominance because you're, I mean, depending on which one of us you ask and what mood we're in, but we'll tell you there's basically 10 tasting notes for bourbon or more. But calling out like the major ones is easy. If you are finding some nuance with some of these and you're getting a tasting note that we didn't call out or isn't something that you see very often or is your distinguisher, let us know because I tasted these four out to a couple of our operations people after everything was said and done and our director of operations immediately called out Maker's Cask Strength. He's like, I drink this a lot or often enough that I know this blind every time. Hilarious. Yeah, right away, just knew it. You know how you get extra descriptors by adding a little bit of water? True. Very true. Jesus Christ. It's a dead horse made out of straw men. No, no, no. Make sure it's not going to well water. Make sure it's not your well water. Yeah, don't put well water in there. Some level of nice spring water or good filtered water. You can throw some distilled water in there so there's no minerals. When you've been down there, have you ever been served branch water? Branch water? Branch water? Yeah. It's like the water that they used to water it down. Oh, well. It's like creek, like local limestone water. Yeah, it's the limestone. Yeah. I don't remember if it was branch or limestone branch because obviously we've done a bunch with limestone branch. But we have been given things that were very specifically like, here's limestone water. Yeah. Then one of us will usually go on some level of rant on like. Someone tried to bottle it once and the problem is they're trying to sell it for some ludicrous amount of money. I'm like, someone should bottle this for just a normal amount of money and it would sell. It's just your regular tap water at that point. Like down there, that's their tap water. It was like a dollar a bottle. I think it would actually sell as a cocktail mixer, but they were like, yeah, this is $7. It was like $17. $17. Oh, wow. For a bottle of water, but special water. Well, because of special water, that's what you can use to water down your whiskey, water down your bourbon. All right. All right. We got to get out of here. Email the WhiskeyHotline at spirits.binnys.com, and there's a higher than 50% chance that Rob will get back to you. Or hit us up on social, and there's higher than 50% chance that I'll get back to you. Let us know what your preferred type of ice is. Do you like crushed? Do you like cubed? Do you like big cube? Oh, the big globe. Pebble ice. That slowly melts. Hit us up on social media and tell Roger what you water down your bourbon with. And none of that tap water. Get out of here with that. Get out of here with the tap water. No tap water. All right. Get out of here. These cubes are hazy. Thank you for listening. They smell like garlic. Thank you for listening to us tell you how to drink on Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. We are back in your feed really soon with something outstanding and probably less double blind than this. Until then, I'm Greg. I'm Roger. I'm Lexi. I'm Rob. Keep tasting.