Hey, welcome back. This is your baby. This is my baby. It's not a crazy concept. Listen, man, we work in a store with thousands of things. We're walking the aisles and we're like, damn, what the hell does that taste like? And this is how we answer that question, Roger. Fair enough. When it doesn't involve us opening the 10th Eastern European Fusil alcohol bomb and going, yep, this is awful, and that's about what $1.79 can get you for your finest 9% alcohol lager. Spoiler alert for the spirits category today. Uh-oh. No, not really. Something that goes deep into the tails. All bad stuff. We've got one very special, exciting thing. Yes. Welcome back to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. We are answering the question today, what does that taste like? We have all kinds of interesting esoteric things in our stores, and we're gonna let you know what the hell they taste like. I'm Pat from the Whiskey Hotline. I'm Chris, I work in wine. And I'm Roger, I work in beer. Jim, Communications. Producer Jim on the mic today. See, he's willing to try exotic things, Roger. You know, you could learn a thing or two from Jim. Jim is so very open-minded, he's always. We're gonna start with beer because we're thirsty and it's cold. All right, so as I'm walking down the aisles, I am elated to see more and more lagers. Specifically Lithuanian high proof lagers. Yeah, the little neckers that let you know. 15% alcohol. This is a beer that many of you have had in the past. It disappeared for quite some time, but since more people are drinking lager, asking for lager, curious about it, it's an old Three Floyd's Mainstay that is back in circulation. This is Three Floyd's Jinx Proof Lager. Is this the first time in camp? Technically. Basically. It was in their variety pack that recently was released, and it was very well received. Part of the reason that I want to pour this is that Three Floyd's calls this a Continental Pilsner, which I get a kick out of. What the hell is a Continental Pilsner? It's from the Continent. All Pilsners from the Continent. It should be served with steak, diamond, cherries, jubilee. I thought it was a Dortmunder. I did too. I think maybe it was originally billed as a Dortmunder. I'm pretty sure it was. Back in the day on the 22-ounce bottle, I feel like it was. Well, I'll tell you what, it has six packs. Body like a Dortmunder. It definitely drinks like one, and again, I think these breweries are afraid to talk about Dortmunder because they figure nobody knows what it is. I would like to be the contrarian here and go, you're setting yourself up for a harder go of things if you bill something as a Pilsner. Pilsners confuse the shit out of people, especially people that aren't real crafty. They think you look at a Pilsner, it's pale in color. They're often given as the option to avoid drinking something hoppy. They'll walk into a place, I don't want an IPA. You hand them a craft Pilsner and they're like, oh my God, this is even hoppier than an IPA. Because they're so lean, they don't have those like caramely malts to support it. So many IPAs, hazy IPAs are like zero bitterness now. So that can be an uphill battle. Like some craft beer geeks are loving these hoppier Pilsners and Lagres I think because of all the lack of bitterness in beer, they're like a contrarian taste profile right now. We've gone through so many years of beers with like zero bitterness, that in a way, even if people can't articulate it, the bitterness is obviously part of the reason that it's refreshing to some degree. Right. When you cross over into very high bitterness, then it can become challenging. When I was talking to the folks at Three Floyd's, what was pretty funny was when I first tasted this again, I'm like, it's been years and this is, I forgot how hoppy that beer is. They're like, we dialed it back. I was going to say it's less hoppy than I remember it being, and it has more sweet bready malt up front. I think it's pretty respectably hoppy. I really like the body on it. Like Chris mentioned, Dortmunder style lagers are generally going to be a bit fuller bodied, and that definitely comes through here. I totally agree with that. It has the body of a Dortmunder. What are the hops here though? You don't know because they're cagey as usual. Yeah. Roger's canned response for three flakes. Not noble. You can't know this. You can't know this. No, they just put out something quippy. They have this cool can art, and you should just go buy their beer. Shut up and buy the beer. Jinx Proof, a reference to Jinx Proof Tattoo. But yeah, as far as what's in our glass, it's 5.7% ABV, it's 35 IBUs, and that's all you get to know. That's it. It's pretty awesome. It is a great beer. It is actually delicious. And again, at 5.7% and the body that we were talking about, the color, everything about this speaks Dortmunder export. 12 bucks a six pack, yeah? Yes. 11.99 a six pack. This is a great beer. You should go out and try it. It is available year round now. It's a core beer again. So this is essentially replaced Speed Castle. So Speed Castle didn't really work. Go figure the beer with like a weird space Revel model packaging that was a reference to the Speedway White Castle gas station. Yeah, didn't really resonate with consumers. So I think we traded up getting Jinx proof bags. So I mean, Speed Castle was where I used to go for my meth shooting gallery. I should just call it a special export lager because Chicago is a special export town. Yeah, that's a good point. We love the special export beer here. That is true. Only second to old style. Yeah, and I mean, that's literally, you know, Lone Wolf has that signage that makes you think of that and everything. They really still have the. Well, this baby is eminently drinkable. I mean, this is easy to drink. Mm-hmm. It's a great beer. The next beer, keeping the lager thing going, is from Hopewell, who's, as of late, been on a big lager streak. They're big believers in using decoction, the old school methodology for brewing lagers. So they've been doing some mainly Czech style lagers. For this one, they're not billing it as a zwickle, but it's essentially an unfiltered lager. So if you so chose, you could call this as zwickle, which since they're trying to make people think of drinking it right out of the tank, I think I'm kind of puzzled as to why there's no reference to that on here, but. What's it called, tank beer? Tank beer. This is Czech in its inspiration. Long lagering on this, around six to eight weeks. I had a chance to try this straight from the tank as well as out of the can, and I was pretty impressed. Very slight chill haze to it, like to see that. So is that a chill haze or is that the fact that it's unfiltered? It's unfiltered. Very cool. Although it could be both. Mine is relatively clear. If you stir this up like a hefeweis, do you get more cloud? I didn't really invert the can, so you probably should do that. That would be another thing that they should put and consider putting on the can. It's 4.4% alcohol, so it's nice and sessionable. It's naturally carbonated, which is pretty cool. For those of you unfamiliar, most beer is forced carbonated, kind of like think soda pop. But back in the day, it was obviously naturally carbonated. That's where you get some breweries like Art History did their Kroizen beer. I was going to say back to special export. Yeah, fully Kroizen, baby. But you can ferment under pressure with the help of assistance of a spooning valve and capture CO2 that way. So softer, creamier, fuller mouth, feel here. Hop profile. I don't think they disclose the hops. I know there's some sas in here. I think it's sas and then a different noble. Very nobly. Yeah, but pretty subtle. The weird thing that I'm getting, and tell me, I just had some taste and aroma issues. So does anybody get a distinct roasted peanut note out of this? Not really. I could kind of see where you're coming from with the earthiness of the, I get like a very distinctive noble hop, earthy. I like this. It's light. It's bitter. I kind of like the Jinx Proof a little more. It was just offering more beer for my taste. I think this is softer. They're not billing this as a Pilsner, which I like. In the Czech Republic, there's always that scenario of that only Pilsner or Cal can use the term Pilsner. I would say that the other Czech beer that gets a lot of attention is Czechvar. You wouldn't call that a Pilsner. It doesn't really feel appropriate, yet it's Pilsner-esque in some degree. It's a little darker in color and it's got a little hue to it. But if I had to guess, this would be more in the vein of a Czechvar versus a Pilsner or Cal. There's also no diacetyl, which is nice. I think it's a really good beer. I think the distinction here besides that it's obviously gentler hops, but still plenty hoppy, is that creamier, softer mouthfeel. It's very clean, fresh and bright and highly sessionable. What do you guys think of the package? Sometimes I feel like I'm the old man just kind of being like, nope, don't like it, don't like it. This color scheme and the font, I'm kind of like, I don't know about. I've never been a huge fan of Hopewell packaging, but I don't hate it. Normally I like their, this is kind of a departure. This actually looks very half-acre-esque to me. Kind of reminds me of like Tome and Fader, like it's minimalist. It's weird colors. I don't know. I'm not in love with the design, but well, each hope well. The beer is great. I mean, I love the beer, so. Cheers What's this odd ball looking thing you got? Right. So, I grabbed something that caught my eye because of its nice goofy bottle design, and then it's old school, which will- Is this that English Trappist beer? Dang, I love it. See, when Brophy's honest with himself, he can get excited about this old man beer. It's like, what mood is he in? If Greg was here, he'd probably be like, oh, God, we got to drink this English Trappist beer. Of course, he brought this. Well, two options come with that bottle shape. Either the English Trappist beer or Fentimans or one of those disgusting Scottish grutes. The historic ales of Scotland. Have kelp and heather in them and stuff. Do those have been around forever? They don't go so far as to label it that, which is odd. You would think they would want to. They're just calling it a, well, they don't even really call it anything. It's a strong dark ale. Tint Meadow, English Trappist ale, strong ale brewed by the monks of Mount St. Bernard Abbey, Sharnwood Forest. Yes. This I think is interesting because it is Belgian-esque, but also English-esque. It's not just pure Belgian double, it's more of a English old ale meets Belgium. It's got a fruity ester thing from the yeast that really screams English. Spicy and phenolic. Definitely, I would guess English ale yeast, right? I mean, not Belgian yeast. I think so, yes. Seems like it. I mean, this reminds me of some of the old school barley wines we drank. Very fine carbonation. Jim, get the horn ready. Roger, is this bottle conditioned? Why, yes, Pat. Re-ferments in the bottle. So you got it. Bottle conditioned. Nice. It really does. It does remind me of a barley wine. When I first smelled it, I thought it was maybe more of a barley wine. Very fruity, very malty. It has way more hops than any Belgian. It does and the finish. But I think the malt body needs it. Well, plus they're English hops. What do we sell this for? What size bottle is this? Believe it or not, it looks so much bigger than this. It's an 11.2. It's just a weird fat boy. Must be very thick glass. Are they using East Kent Goldings or you don't know? No, it doesn't say. Everything about it tastes like English. $6.99 a bottle for Tint Meadow. What's odd is that they did not give it a long shelf life, which is not going to help this beer. It's June 2024. We've only had this brand for a year. 7.4 ABV 34 IBU. I was going to say. This has got some lasting power. You could age this thing. That hop bitterness lays on the palate for a long time on the finish, but it's really, really slightly sweet and very fruity up front. Very beige head too, which I like. It's striking to look at. A brewing tactic that there's some crossover between England and Belgium is the use of sugar, and they do list sugar as one of the ingredients. So that definitely is, you know, adding to the alcohol without adding body. All right, now settle in, boys. When there's three of something, it's a trend. Oh my god, what is this? Oh, I've had one of those. Did you bring any pickle back so we could just really go for it? Roger has three cans of pickle beer on the table. Donna's Pickle Beer, Best Made Sour Pickle Beer, and Distill Dill Pickle Sour Ale. The Sucker Pouch collab. Sour beer. This is gonna be horrible. Pickleback is the name of my Nickelback Polka cover band. I've had the distill at Fobed this year and I didn't hate it. We'll see what these are. All right, so let me read you the ridiculous backstory in this. Donna was backstage at the garden, eating pickles from a jar. In a flash of light, she was pushed on stage and kissed full on the mouth by a beer drinking Mick Jagger. It was electric. No, not the kiss, the taste in her mouth of beer and pickles. So bad. God, that sounds gross. It just tastes like pickle juice. This is not a subtle flavor. How do you make this not taste one dimensional? Anyone I've had, it's over the top. It's salty. What smells too garlicky. What's worth mentioning on this one. So the other two that we are going to try are sour beers. Whereas this is an American lager with pickle juice topped with Sazan middle fruit. So Donna's. Why would they do that? Who makes this? Donna's is transparent about their hops three fluids. Because they have the confidence and then we flavor blast it with. You really want to grow up as a brewery. Just look to Donna's Pickle Beer. Where is Donna's Pickle Beer made? No way they have a whole brewery just for this. Donna's is contract brewed at Pilot Project. So they have the Chicago location, but then they have the bigger one is in Milwaukee. Yeah. So how would you spend on those noble hops though? Yeah, it's kind of funny. Well, they probably brew some other lager there and then just add, instead of crafting a new recipe for the base. It's probably something. We got an extra tank of this, we can just dump some pickle juice in. Yeah. That'll work for you, right? Yeah, sure. I mean, I like the nose. It smells like prickle brine. I think it smells like meaty. It's got like a ham character, like a garlic sausage or a ham character. Ham on rye with pickles. Yeah. Beef with like a garlicky marinade. It's the garlic that's making you think of meat. Yeah. It's like kind of corned beef pastrami. All right. Well, what's the next one? I mean, I don't like it, but I mean, they kind of- I mean, they nailed the aroma. Yeah, they got it. I don't hate it, but it's like, how could I? I don't think I could drink a whole can. Right. Much less a six pack. Maybe if I was eating a corned beef sandwich with it, it might be good. Or a hot dog without a hot dog. Donna's Pickle Beer is a six pack for $13.99. $13.99. Well, it's that brine, I guess, and it's contract brewed, so that's always going to cost more. My thoughts on this in part, it's not overly salty, which when you try these other ones, ooh boy. That's interesting, because there is brine to it, for sure. Yeah, but nothing like what you're about to taste. I totally think drinking it either with food, or obviously the wildly popular thing right now to do is to take pickle back shots after you're drinking whiskey, which a lot of the times it's after Jameson, which I find hysterical, because it's like The whole point of Jameson is you're taking shots of water. Yeah, it tastes like nothing, but- Well, maybe they're just trying to enhance that lack of flavor. So, anyway- Look at Roger rinsing his friends' pickle beers. I mean, you gotta have pure pickle potency. The next one is from Martin House Brewing, which is a brewery in Fort Worth, Texas. I'm pretty excited for this brewery to hit our market. They make some really solid beers. They have some beautiful artwork. This is a collaboration with Best Made Pickles, which is a Fort Worth local company that's been around for 100 years this year, 1924. Best Made. So, a very well-known pickle brand. Wow, this smells just like the pickles at McDonald's. I was going to say, just the words made me think of Made Right sandwiches, which always have pickles on them, too. Loose meat. It's freaky. It smells like the Utz fried pickle potato chips that we sell at Binny's. It tastes like, we really need a potato chip episode. It tastes like dill pickle potato chips. Wow. You're not joking. That is salty. So salty. Whoa. I could see, so I've had several, I've made several people try this beer and the reactions are usually like, oh my God, too much. I could almost see cutting this beer in half with the light lager of your choosing. With Jameson. Yeah. Equal parts Jameson. Equal parts Jameson. It's just a little too much. I can't picture drinking a whole glass of this, but the flavors are nice. I mean, it's salty, but all right, I'm coming around to it. I might actually be able to drink this. Yeah, I actually agree. I think it's good for what it is. It is so salty. I know it's hard to believe I'm someone who enjoys salt and carbohydrates. I think one of the reasons I didn't like the Donna's is because it wasn't salty and I need that saltiness. This one overcorrected a bit. Yeah, but it's still like if I'm thinking pickles, I need that saltiness in there. I got to say, I kind of like it, but I don't know when I would drink it. It's a lot. This would be great with some fresh cut fries and a hot dog. You need, maybe don't salt the fries. Head on down to the Red Hot Ranch. Yeah, like, oh yeah. Our third in the Pickle Triumvirate here, from Distill down in Bloomington, Illinois. They're famous for sour beer. Make a lot of Berliner and Goze style beers. So this is a Goze, which is a German style sour beer made with coriander and salt, with the Sucker Punch Pickle Brine added to it. My initial reaction when I first tried this was, all right, so did you take your Goze with salt in it and then put brine on top of that? Because to me, this is like off the charts salty. I don't know that it's saltier than the last one. The coriander really comes through though. It's got that sweet floral spice component. Coriander and very dilly too, even more dilly than the other ones. The smell of all of these is, even though I love pickles, I just can't get past. Making you retch. I can't get past the smell. The dill is flirting with being minty. It's so dilly. Yes. I will say, this is an interesting example of batches change, and this is a lot different from the initial batch. Because I actually think the salt has dialed back. Yeah. There's not as much salt in this. It was so salty in the first batch. I literally, my initial feedback was, do you measure the sodium in this? They went, why? I go, because I'm concerned it's not safe. For like human consumption. So this is way different. So you guys had Grillo's Pickles, the salt of Mariano's. Their dill gets a little minty. And it reminds me of that. But then there's the refrigerated ones and the plastic. But those are like so, so tart and so like so vinegary. Those are good. This is really floral. Yeah. I feel like it has- That's the coriander, I think. Or like you think some of the dill was processed with the flowers. It reminds me of like dill when it blooms. Dillweed. I don't spend as much time in dill fields as you. Well, it is- The past dill fields of Roger's backyard. It's the host plant for the swallowtail butterfly, which they just tear them to pieces. Yeah. Beautiful swallowtail. I eat the damn cilantro. I got plenty of that. Don't eat my dill. No, they don't like it. It tastes like soap to them. They don't like it. Damn caterpillars. All right. Three pickle beers. Which was the winner? I actually think the middle one. The Texas one, the best made. Yeah. That was good. Yeah. I don't dislike any of these, but I do not. The distill has a sharpness in acidity that I don't think I could drink a ton of it. I was ready to dislike every last one of them, and I actually find something good about each of them somehow. Yeah, I agree. The distill one, they corrected it some. The first reiteration of this was too much, but or maybe some of it also is that I eased my way into a tube beforehand, but I remember this being distinctly saltier. I will say the Martin House is the best value. Martin House is coming in at a six-pack for $12.99. This distill is $10.99 for a four-pack. How's the spicy version of this distill? Still, I haven't had it. I know that's a thing. Again, I can't imagine drinking much of it. Maybe it would be fun as I could see that as being like a pickle-back shot or a sidecar to a Bloody Mary or something. These could be, some people like to pour beer in their bloodies. This could be all that would be good for that. Yeah. I could totally see like a Michelada. Or make a Michelada with it. That makes perfect sense to me. Your sodium content is going to go off the charts if you're mixing like a Michelada. Low sodium tomato juice. Yeah. You'd have to use that or the Michelada mixes or Clamado is off the charts. You know what I would do is I'd go buy some nice just tomato, Italian tomato puree. There you go. Yeah. In the jar. Good call. Exactly. Or some passata. Exactly. I think these are a fun thing in the summer to give a try. If it's too much for you to just like drink it, well, A, don't drink anything out of the can. Pour it in a glass. I need to smell everything I drink. Come on. Especially this. But try mixing this with other stuff. Being it, cutting it with some tomato juice and making a michellata, cutting it with light lager, pouring it on top of a Jameson shot. Go a couple of different ways with it. But it's a thing. Pickle beers. The old pickle beer and Jameson Boilermaker. Don't know if you notice where this bottle is from, Roger, and that's why it's shaped like this. Italy? Try a far less discernible language. Austria, they love those giant tall bottles. Very close. Part of a- The Germans? A historical empire. Hungary. Yes. Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian Empire. So my approach today, I know that you guys remember in the past when we've done this, I've really picked around the edges and found some super obscure things. My approach today- I have Riva's salt at home because of one of his episodes. Beautiful wine, as we all recall. My theory today was to pick wines that are probably obscure to most people, but have something that you can hang your hat on, right? Something that's familiar about them, but still weird. And when Chris says probably obscure to most people, that means 99.5%. Yes, true. You will not know about these wines. Very true, which is cool. But there's some mainstream connection to most of them. And we're going to start out with Evolusio Ferment from Hungary. It's a 2022. I haven't tasted it yet, but I've had this many times in the past. This is made with the grape ferment. And this is the main grape that goes into Tokai. So, yeah. So here's your hook. If you know the sweet, botryticized, famous wines of royalty of Hungary, this is a totally bone dry wine made out of ferment. And it has a little bit of Hervéla Salu, which is one of the other grapes that can go into Tokai. Also in the name of their gymnastics coach. The color on this is stunning. It's like this platinum, yes, yeah, that's a good point. It's really clear and bright. It is platinum. It's shiny. The pronunciation there is Harzlevalu. It's like, as you say, Hungarian is not my first language. There's like a white peach going on on this thing. I like it. Just a little, like a little bit of acidity. Yeah, it should be bright. I haven't tasted yet. It should be bright, fresh. In fact, Harzlevalu, sorry, Harzlevalu actually is a reference to lime leaf in the Hungarian language. So there should be some lifted citrus character. And in fact, ferment is thought to be descended from that grape along with Gouet Blanc, which we mentioned not that long ago as a parent grape to Chardonnay and a few other things. Gouet Blanc is like the root of so many European whites, it's kind of an ancestral grape. So anyway, what do you guys think? Really nice. I love the fruit character so forward that it tricks you at first. You like expect it to be sweet and it's not at all. I absolutely agree. It's really neat. They get like kiwi and pear. Yeah. Holy this wine is cheap. That was the surprise. This is a fantastic wine. You can serve this at any party you want. It'd be great with a wide array of foods. Well, it'd be great with fish, salads, anything you need bright fresh acidity for. I do think it's quite limey, but it has richer fruit character. It's so much better than Sauvignon Blanc. Right. So Sauvignon Blanc drinkers, exactly perfect. Anyone who likes these dry, crisp, but somewhat fruit forward wines is going to love this. And guess what, people, $8.99 a bottle. That is my price, baby. Right? $10. You say, I say $10 bottles to get that look sometimes. Like, it's a perfect example if you can have a great wine. I totally agree. I like this wine for vintage after vintage. The 2022 is not a disappointment in the slightest. It just gives you so much beyond that price point. I mean, if you were buying a wine of this quality from, you know, name your country, it's not going to be $8.99. Oh, awesome wine, Chris. Thanks for bringing this. Warm weather. This is a must try. Porch Pounder. Gazebo Guzzler. Yeah. Perfect for picnics. Perfect for barbecues, whatever. Anyway, great wine and inexpensive. I love it. Everybody should buy this. Agreed. We're going next to a grape variety that is pretty widely planted, but doesn't always get a ton of respect, and that is Sylvanner. What? Sylvanner. The Rodney Dangerfield of grapes. So this is a grape variety that is grown in places like Switzerland, widely planted in Germany, all over Eastern Europe. And it's kind of a workhorse. I know Roger, you always love to refer to the German wines of the 70s as Zuckerwasser. Zuckerwasser. Yeah, such a great name, sugar water. This is a grape that was largely responsible for the ocean of Liebfrau milk and stuff like that that flooded the American market post-World War II, that didn't always have a lot of balance and definitely lean too sweet. However, some people treat this with a great deal of respect. So I've got a wine from Domaine Ostertag, very Germanic name. However, they're located in France in Alsace. What? Nice. So this is their Old Vine Sylvanner. This fruit is from 55 plus year old vines, which is very mature. This is a company that Kermit Lynch imports. I think we've mentioned him before, kind of an unimpeachable source for great wines. I saw the Kermit Lynch on the back label. I was like, no matter what this is, it's going to be good. Always a good sign when you see Kermit Lynch on the back of the label. He generally very unaffected wines, naturally made, things that want to express terroir. Although Ostertag interestingly has only been around since 1966, and they're biodynamic, but he kind of works outside. There's a very limited but strict hierarchy in Alsace. You have Grand Cru vineyards or 51 Grand Cru vineyards, and then everything else other than Cremont just gets broad Alsace AOC. So you can have a vineyard name on it if you want, but it doesn't mean anything other than the source. Interestingly, in 2001, Sylvanner got props by being allowed into one Grand Cru vineyard in northern Alsace where it really does the best. It's called Grand Cru Zotsenberg. The only producer I know of is Bokl. I don't know. Probably somebody else makes one. Also in Alsace, they're very, very intense about what can be grown and be called Grand Cru. So within these vineyards, it was always the four noble varieties as they saw it. Pat, Muscat, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, and Riesling. So this guy finally got some dew, and Ostertag makes a really good one. They tend to be really, I mean, he always makes dry wines. I haven't tasted it yet. It should be very crisp, very dry, but have some weight to it. What do you think? Yeah, it does. There's a little bit of butteriness on the back. It has a really interesting horn ready. This fruit character is singular in its taste. Like you can tap dance around it or you can just go, this is gooseberry. Like totally American gooseberry. Yeah. Yeah. We've never had to try one of these gooseberries because I've never handled them before. You've never had a real gooseberry? I've never had a real gooseberry or a death gooseberry. I look for them all the time. You never had it. Well, this pretty soon should be the time we can see them in the store. You'll see green ones and sometimes you can find them riper, but not always. Bro, I can barely find barbecue rub at the grocery store in Elburn. But Cape Gooseberries are relatively easy to find. Let's not bring up that. Those aren't true gooseberries. I agree. I agree. I purchased four different gooseberry plants, so I'm going to try to grow them. That's how much I love these. Do you have any currants too? No. I've not been a big fan of the currants I've tasted. Anyway, this has a beautiful, really interesting fruit character. The acidity is there, the gooseberry kind of. But it's not just light and crisp like you might expect. It's got a creamy body. But yeah, there's richness to it. It's rich in mouth filling, but it still has this crispness to the flavor. This is a weird wine. This is really weird. People would argue that this is the result of those old vines. As vines get older, they tend to yield less fruit. So naturally, a lot of times when you have young vines, you're literally, if you're a quality-minded producer, you're going through and doing a green harvest, dropping excess fruit. When vines get old enough, and this is a big cropper on top of it, this is why it was so popular in Germany because it produces a large crop. But as they get older, they tend to produce less fruit. Theoretically, the vine is putting more energy into that fruit and the quality goes up. You get better balance, richer, deeper, more sapid wines as a result. So really interesting stuff, 2021 Ostertag Sylvaner Old Vines, 27.99. Not bad. Roger will take three ferments, please. True. I mean, the fruit character here is very unique to the point that it's worth that extra money to experience that complexity. For sure. But it's a very interesting wine, beautiful color as well. Next, we have this. And this is a really interesting story too. So again, working along the theme of obscure yet familiar. This is a line from Burgundy by Domaine Robert Chevillon, really top-notch producer in the Nuit-Saint-Georges area. So if you guys recall from Burgundy podcasts, you might, this is from the very southern end of the Côte d'Ivoire. And the Côte d'Ivoire is the northern part of the Côte d'Or. So it's the last village before you get to the Côte d'Ivoire. So. Nuit is that word that looks like nuts, but it hasn't. Right. Right. Exactly. Now I know how to pronounce it. Côte d'Ivoire. Nuit-Saint-Georges is a really interesting area in the Côte d'Ivoire, largely because there are no Grand Cruises here, yet the quality of wine is very, very high. There are many Premier Cruises, but nothing has been designated as Grand Cruises. This is a top producer. Now, what makes this interesting? This is something called Bourgogne Passe-du-Gran, OK? And what Passe-du-Gran means is that all grains or all grapes pass. So this is a very rare instance where we're not talking about a single varietal burgundy. Everybody says... Shut the front door. It's all about Pinot Noir. It's all about Chardonnay. But we know there's Alagoté, right, in the white side. And on this side, there is still Gamay Grone. Most of it in Burgundy Proper is in the Côte Chalonnais, which is way, way down south, south of the Côte de Bonne, and getting close to Beaujolais, which is also part of Burgundy, historically, although it does go into the Rhone department. But that's being said, the interesting thing about this wine is it's sourced all from vineyards in Nuit-Saint-Georges. Three single vineyard, leu-d's, as they call them, single vineyard sites. It's one third Pinot Noir and two thirds Gamay. Okay, so really oddball thing. Now, the other weird thing is Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Blanc are also allowed in Pas du Grand. Wow, this is weird. Anything goes type of place. It reminds Roger of a certain vacation he took once. It's got an herbaceousness to it that I would expect out of some burgundy, but it's kind of gamey. It's weird. This is a weird taste in wine. I like it. It's very interesting. There's really bright fresh acidity, lots of bright red fruit. It's got that kind of joyous Beaujolais kind of fruit, but it's made a little bit more serious by Pinot Noir, I think. Yeah. It's got a huge plum and the acidity really enlivens the palate. It really rips. Yeah. I don't know of another Pasteur Grand. I mean, Favely makes one, but I don't know where they source it. I don't know of another one where it's grown up in the Côte de Nuit. I mean, that makes it really, really, really weird. And anyway, this is 2021 Domaine Chevillon Bourgogne Pasteur Grand. Basically, this appellation overlaps all basic Bourgogne. It's the same thing, but it's just that Gamay has not grown very much anymore. Also a Kermit Lynch wine, just by chance. The other interesting thing this winery does, they make a white in Nuit Saint-Georges, which is super weird. And it's made out of Pinot Blanc instead of Chardonnay. And it's a cutting from their neighbor Henri Gouger. Because Pinot Noir is so mutable, and we know that Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, these are just mutations of Pinot Noir that will just pop up on vines in the vineyard. Yeah. And so you might have one cane that's giving you white grapes on a Pinot Noir vine. Well, Gouger took a cutting from this anomaly in his vineyard and propagated it, and they call it Pinot Gouger because it's basically Pinot Blanc, but it's a particular- Gouger. It's actually not as pronounced as Gouger, Henri Gouger, but also an excellent- Excellent producer in- One of our classic Robert Goulet bits, George. How we do. But yeah, this winery makes a couple barrels of that every year. So some really weird stuff from these guys and also great premier crew. And Pass-It Out Grain is pronounced Passe- Passe-tout-Gran. Passe-tout-Gran. Okay. Nice acidity, big fruit. How much does this cost, Chris? Well, this is, I mean, you have to keep in perspective. This is not going to get to Roger Adams in Nice Price Guarantee. This is Burgundy from the Nuit Saint-Georges, despite its odd sepage, it's not cheap. It's $37.99. This is their entry level. What's a serious wine? Yeah, it is. And think about that. So, $37.99 is their cheapest one. So, Roger, I mean, we had your Ferment, which is a used car dealership somewhere between 51st and 65th on Western Avenue. And our posse to Grange here is the Audi dealership up on Division Street. I mean, it has some structure. There's very fine tannin on the end. There's bright, fresh acidity. You've got a great car on Western Avenue. Don't get me wrong. Yeah. I mean, it's really well made. There's no doubt about it. Tons of complexity. And that acidity is something else. As someone who doesn't know much about wine, to me, it just tastes like a really fancy French wine, you know. Right. Well, I mean, that's a compliment given that it's Gamay and that it's not... It tastes like a high end. Here we go again with familiar but different. So in the last few years, people, and this has been a famous and popular wine forever. However, people have gone, rediscovered it and gone absolutely nuts for Sans Serre Blanc, which is 100% Sauvignon Blanc. I mean, we couldn't even, can barely even keep it in stock. And there was a- Really? Yeah, there was a poor vintage in 2021 where there's frost and almost no wine was made to speak of. So it kind of put a crimp in the craze, but people are crazy for this stuff. And it is the iconic example of Sauvignon Blanc. Interestingly on the same soils as you find in Champagne and Burgundy, very chalky soils that they call Terre Blanche there or white soil or white earth. But there are also other soil types. There are rocks. There's a quartz based soil called Selex. There's clay and calcareous clay, which is where Hina Nawar is grown in Sancerre. So a lot of people have no idea that there is anything but white Sancerre. But there is also pink Sancerre and there is also red Sancerre. Yeah, I didn't know there was red Sancerre. Well, this is this is the thing is like people are guzzling white Sancerre like there's no tomorrow. Yet there is this completely other side to the coin. It's like on Seinfeld when they learned about the cinnamon babka. Yeah, exactly. Right. It's exactly like that. So this is Domaine Fleurier, Bernard Fleurier and Sons 2020. I actually visited this property. It's relatively new. Started in 1991. It's family run. They bought some really good vineyard sites and they have a state of the art winery. Really amazing. I watched the grapes just come right in from the vineyard and go straight into fermenters. I mean, they've got quite an operation. Well, this is a very different wine from what we had tasted earlier. I think it's, you know, it's muted fruit character. It's much more like mushroomy, earthy. I like it a lot. Yeah. I just be nice with food. Sometimes these kind of wines are I lean more towards the fruit forward stuff versus. Well, you know, it's interesting is like so many people just guzzle Sancerre. And there are modern Sancerre's that are very peachy and forward. And if you grow them more on the clay type soils, you get more fruit. But classic Sancerre grown on Terre Blanche or Selex is really, really bright and minerally and intense. And it is a food wine. There's just no two ways about it. But people have definitely, with global warming and changing taste, Sancerre doesn't always, white Sancerre doesn't always taste the way it used to. Now it's round and peachy and still has some brisk acidity. But you can find all the styles still. I think maybe I did it a disservice. I thought the Gamay might make this wine a little lighter. However, the acidity was so brisk in the Pastu Grande that I think this seems a little dialed back. But I do think there's a rich core of fruit here. There's definitely earthiness to it, mineraliness. And there is some decent acidity on the finish, which there definitely should be. Yeah, it might be hard to suss that out after the last one was so like in your face. It was. Yeah, it really was. This is really, really well made though. I mean, historically, you look at Pinot Noir from places other than Burgundy, and a lot of times they're very, very light in color like from Alsace or the Loire. But in recent years, I've tasted Alsatian Pinot that is dark and fruity because it's getting warmer. It's getting warmer and they're literally playing around with the idea and probably are going to make... Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir is the next grape to be allowed into Alsatian Grand Cru vineyards. Since we were talking about the Sylvaner, that's going to happen for sure. And nobody would have dreamed of that 20 years ago. Nobody would ever have dreamed of it. From a German standpoint, a lot of these, now that Americans are getting really into lagers, they're having trouble sourcing some of the old noble hop varieties because the crop harvest has been terrible in Germany. Because it's too hot for some of these old school hop varieties. Yeah. Well, we're going to address that with the next wine, which is a super interesting tale as well. Bye. Next up, we have a wine from the Oddball Place, although becoming less so these days, of Uruguay. This is Bodega Garzon, Marcelon, M-A-R-S-E-L-A-N. So most people, when they think of South America. I don't think I've ever had an Uruguayan wine. Yeah. So when you think of South America, you're generally thinking Chile, Argentina, right? Uruguay is on the same parallel as places like South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, pretty close to that. However, you know, pretty warm down there. This winery, Bodega Garzon, is located right on the Atlantic Ocean. It has some elevation right away. So a lot of vineyards are up to 160 meters. So you've got that cool ocean influence. Interesting wines there is pretty good. And this winery in particular has been really making some interesting stuff. Just like Argentina hung its hat on Malbec, the main grape variety that you see for export is something called Tanat, which is- Yeah. So this is a Southwest France grape that made its way over there. It's mainly grown in a village called Maderon. You've had this? I've had Tanat grown in Southern Indiana at the Starlight Winery and Distillery. That's interesting. So Tanat is a very powerful wine, very grippy, tons of it, very dark. But what this is, is Marcellin. So Marcellin is a pretty obscure grape. It's grown mostly in the Languedoc area of France, so along the Mediterranean. It's allowed as an auxiliary grape in Côte-Rhone. It was only crossed in the 60s. So this is new, and the cross is Cabernet and Grenache. So Cabernet Sauvignon crossed with Grenache. Can you suss out any characteristics of either of those grapes? Grenache for sure with that bright red fruit. I mean, the color is dark like Cabernet. Yeah, really Cabernet. But I think you're right. I think it expresses more like Grenache. I think it does. At least the Grenaches I've had. It's not as delicate in texture as like Spanish Grenache, but it's still very bright and fruity. There's definitely some rusticity to this wine. By opinion, there's some coarse tannin on the finish. It's not shy. There's lots of rich fruit. Is nuttiness ever expressed in? Absolutely. Yeah, because I'm getting that. I wasn't sure if it was just because of the tannin made me think of like walnut skin. No, no. Walnut is a solid descriptor for a lot of wines. A lot of people pass that up because they're thinking about what is bitter that this tastes like, right? But walnuts are kind of a bitter nut. And a lot of times in red wine, you find like a walnut type of bitterness, but people tend to pass over that looking for what? You know, like bitter chocolate, something like that. But I think you're right. Here it is. Yeah, it's interesting. Now, how this fits into the global warming discussion is that just a few years ago in 2019, Bordeaux, the staunch conservatives of Bordeaux allowed many new varietals to be allowed in the area, specifically for the purpose of combating global warming. Now, this is a late ripening grape that is heat tolerant. You can tell by where it's grown in the Languedoc and the Rhône. This, along with a Portuguese variety, Toriga Nacional, which we know is responsible for big, bold ports and some whites. There are seven, I think, new grape varieties allowed. Most of them are kind of- You can grow Toriga Nacional in Bordeaux. Yeah. I know. Can you believe it? Well, they're- Sacri-bleu. Right? It does seem kind of sacrilege, but your kids or your kid's kids might think of Bordeaux as Toriga Nacional and Marcellin at some point and not Cabernet and Merlot. Crazy. Merlot may go the way of a Dodo in that area because it's going to get too hot. But they grow a ton of Merlot in Eastern Washington. Isn't it hotter there? Yeah, but you get really, really super cool nights. I'm not saying that it's not possible, but there's also the question of balance. You know, ripening grapes is a tricky thing. The bigger, I know you're going to love this, the bigger your diurnal shift. And in being a desert, diurnal shifts are almost always huge in desert areas. So really hot during the day, but gets really, really cool at night. And that helps retain acidity as the sugars mount from the heat. So Bordeaux is in between an estuary and the Atlantic Ocean. It's often kind of gray and overcast, but things may change dramatically. And they're just trying to be ready for that change, which I mean, I think every wine region has to be forward thinking. And Europe has handcuffed themselves, unlike the US or the rest of the new world, where, you know, in Napa Valley, you can plant whatever the hell you want. So you're saying that France is surrendering to climate change instead of fighting it? The core identity of our wine to the AOC system is out the window. Can you say the full name of this again? Bodega Garzon, Marcellon, M-A-R-S-E-L-A-N, it's named for a city, Marcellon, spelled slightly differently, that it was developed near, you know, this was like a French Institute of Viticulture thing from the early 60s, widely ignored, but now Favorably priced. Indeed, favorably priced. 1799? 1599. Wow, this is a serious wine for that amount of money. It's the Roger Adamson Knight's Prize guarantee. What's the ABV on this? It had some legs. Yeah, 14.5. Good legs. All right, what are we finishing up with? Okay. So this may not have the same kind of connection to the things you know, but this is a really interesting grape varietal from North Eastern Italy. Oh, have I ever talked about how? So this is a grape that is grown right on the border with Austria. So it has a very Germanic sounding name. It's called Lagrein, and it makes very bold, chunky, fruit driven wines with good tannic structure. You definitely want to pair this with, you know, game meats or something big, which is interesting because this area, Altau Adige, or if you're Austrian, you'd call this the Sud Tyrol, South Tyrol. Yeah, exactly. The South Tyrolean region where, you know, you go there and people are just as likely to be wearing, you know, like Lederhosen as they are anything else. I mean, the name of the wine is Walch, right? Yeah, Elena Walch. So this is a really great winery, female owned, female run. Elena Walch, the matriarch and her two daughters make this stuff. We sometimes carry their Pinot Grigio, which is really typical of the area. But they make this, which is really different. It's hearty. It's rich. The nose is really unique. What do you guys get on this? This is a weird one. The other thing that... Really interesting. So we're talking about how Bach is used in those bottles and for beer. Well, here for beer drinkers, this grape variety is sometimes called Dark Lagrein or Lagrein Dunkel. I think it has a weird juxtaposition of blue and purple fruits with green, vegetal peppery notes. It's almost like I'm eating blueberries but with the leaves still attached. I don't disagree with that. I think it definitely has a vegetal note, but the fruit is very rich. Oh yeah, it's there and it's ripened. It's definitely resonating in that purple vein. Blueberry, blackberry, plum. Exactly. This is good. Yeah, it's pretty nice. Definitely for hearty dishes. If you are, say you're a hunter and you have venison, I would definitely think this would be great. It's a mountain goat. Yeah. Yeah, mountain goat, sure. Little birria. I think you could do this with some German fare. A chamois. Sauerbraten. Some schweinhocks. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's big enough to stand up to those really fatty things. Schweinhocks, for sure. It always goes back to schweinhocks with you two. Well, it's a delicious dish. Guys love a good crispy knuckle. We do. We do. The other thing that we may try sometime, one of the parent grapes here is Tiroldigo, which is another kind of hearty red wine. I thought he retired after they didn't find anything behind that wall. That's right. Tiroldigo, Rivera. We'll have to alter all the go there sometime. Well, thanks, Chris. That was an awesome lineup of super interesting stuff. Did we say the price point on this last one? The last one also recently priced at $17.99. Another excellent wine for under $20. Well, get ready to try expensive. You don't want to buy, Roger. I can't wait. You too, ready? Very exciting. What could it be? I promise you, it's going to be awesome. This is- The tension is palpable. Of the many things I brought, one thing is a very exciting day here for Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. It is a new handpicked single barrel by Barrel to Bottle. It's going to have the Barrel to Bottle logo slapped on it. Shut up. How is it going to have that when I didn't handpick it? You're giving it your seal of approval now. What if I hate it? You won't. So this is great. This is a banner day. Wait till you taste this. See if you can guess what it is. It is strange. It is strange. It's a bourbon. Oh, man. This is my first time actually trying it. Oh, man. I love it. Well, it's definitely barrel proof. It is barrel proof. Well, it's not that strong. It's 115. 115. Well, I mean, that's not shy. Does it have a higher proportion of rye? It is a rye bourbon. I don't know about higher. The trick here is the barrel treatment. I was going to say, there's definitely some mintiness on the finish here. I think there's some sweet baking spice. For sure. Yeah, I mean, it's not as obnoxious as ombarana, but it's got an ombarana character. Now, do you feel that there's a certain tropical fruit note along with that ombarana? Ombarana. Oh, jackfruit. Is this the jackfruit wood? Two barrels of jackfruit wood barrel finished, Koval Bourbon Exist. We are taking this one as a barrel to bottle handpick. This is great. What is a jackfruit barrel? It is made out of jackfruit wood. I looked up jackfruit wood after, I was like, come on now, seriously? And apparently, it is quite a versatile wood. It is aromatic. I think this tastes, maybe it is my brain tricking me, but I think this tastes like a combination of ombarana and juicy fruit. Wow, this is cool. Wait, who is making this? Koval. What? This is awesome. They have two barrels. We are taking one of them. I love the spice component. Like, I mean, it is so gentle and not in your face. Like, the ombarana stuff, everyone is so gushy over, just turns into like cinnamon-y, you know, messy. But there is cinnamon here for sure. Yeah, but there is also, there is like a floral component. This is fascinating. I give it a thumbs up. Yep. I have no problem with this. Two thumbs up with this. This is the one barrel. They said we have two. They brought me a sample of one. I was like, this one is totally fine. Where did they even get the idea? It's going to stay in barrel a little bit longer, but not much longer. Did they know for our constant passion of jackfruit? They were not aware that we were aficionados of the world's largest tree-born fruit. We actually got a shout out to Pee Sunbird 92. We got to give this guy 20 bucks. This counts as a question. What do the Whiskey Hotline boys and girls have to say about this cobalt jackfruit finish? I know there's much discussion about this magical fruit and its flavor notes. I pass that along to Pat. Pat sprung into action. A few days later we had a new barrel pick. Hoovered up 50% of the allocation. Pee Sunbird 82. Pee Sunbird, yeah. We're going to hook you up with the Pee Sunbird. There's a 20 dollar Binny's gift card coming your way. I mean there is definitely. Put it towards your purchase of this because this is a fascinating whiskey. Yeah, it definitely has that Ombarana stuff, but it's like, yeah, the jackfruit's there. How does the fruit come through in the wood? Why is it coming through the wood? You know, it's hysterical. I don't know if you guys remember from my talking about jackfruit, but it's hard to get them when they're ripe but not spoiled, so sometimes you have them underripe, so people cook the underripe ones. Again, I decided to make jackfruit, no, that's the pulpy part, which I think you have to process to get all the latex or break down the latex, but just the fruit itself, I ended up taking all that and it was like crunchy underripe, so I cooked it down and made it into like jackfruit froster, and I put some spices, the kind of cinnamon allspice, this reminds me of that. I ate that like over ice cream and it was unreal, and this totally brings back that memory. This is really cool. Awesome. So exciting. How could, I mean, how could anything be more perfect for Barrel to Bottle? How is this possible? This is a Barrel to Bottle Handpicked Single Barrel. Yep. That's wild. It's truly interesting. Yeah, that's really good. And you don't know the exact match bill on this? I don't, but I will find out for future reference. Well done, Colville. Well done. It's so exciting. Bye All right, spirits time. There's no shortage of needless esoterica in the spirits departments in our stores. So, I'm gonna start you guys off with something as mainstream as I felt appropriate, which is a bottled in bond single malt made by a brewery named after their most famous beer. So, this is Three Floyd's Bubble Gum Head bottled in bond straight malt whiskey. Huh. This is distilled gumball head, aged four years and bottled at 100 proof. So, Three Floyd's Bubble Gum Head bottled in bond. So, just straight up gumball head distilled. Yep. Hops and all. I don't believe the hops, no. Oh, so not gumball head distilled, just the mash. Four years and new oak. Yeah, it's bottled in bond. Yeah, man. True that, yeah. So, I know Floyd's spirits are a little on the higher end side. I hear rumors that they're going to be a little more affordable. What's this one going to come in at? This one is already here. This was taken off of the closeout rack at the Lincoln Park Binny's. So you can get you a bottle there right now for $69.97. That's the closeout price. Off of $89.99. Oh my God. You saved that extra two cents. Well, I like it a lot. This reminds me of being in a brewery. It reminds me of a Brewhouse smell. Like that fresh, juicy malt. Yeah. Hey, you going to sit in for the rest of this? Yeah. Are you? Yeah. I've always wanted to do this, so now I finally can. Hey, welcome, Greg. Yeah, I'm interrupting because I can't not try the jackfruit. It's not a jackfruit whiskey. It's a jackfruit barrel finished bourbon. I've always wanted to interrupt an episode where you chumps are doing something without me. Chumps. What the hell? Are you leaving now? Yeah, I got to go. Why do you got to go? Because I got a thing. Everyone's got a thing, huh? I got a thing. This is amazing. Snacks are really good. I mean, we're a little impartial, I guess. It's like Looney Tunes. It's like juicy fruit. And Ambarana. It's what Ambarana could, you know, what people think they like about Ambarana. This is like dialed back to. But the fascinating thing is it's the wood. So that jackfruit character is coming through. What's the base spirit here? Bourbon. It's bourbon. Oh my God, it steps all over the vanilla. It is. It's like carrot cake and juicy fruit at the same time. Why would they do that? Why wouldn't we? How has this never happened before? Right. I feel like you're probably not harvesting jackfruit wood that much. It must have been done kind of like a novelty. If jackfruit is the biggest tree-born fruit, then what does that say about jackfruit wood? It must be gigantic. Yeah, they grow really high. People who harvest them have to wear helmets because if one falls on you, it can kill you. That's horrible. I'm sorry. They've got helmets. But it also doesn't really... I don't think there's much of a... It's not really planted anywhere around here. It's all really coming from Southeast Asia, so they're probably not... They don't age much whiskey over there. Gets used in musical instruments a lot, too. That's awesome. That would be the best smelling ukulele. Fruit luthier. Yeah. Okay. Nuts to you guys. I'm out. I'm Greg. Keep tasting. Nuts to you? What are you, from the 1940s or something? We got everything from soup to nuts at Binny's. When I revisit this, I like it a little more, but holy cow, the price of emission is way out of whack. Well, it's craft whiskey and it's Three Floyd, so it's expensive. But it's really, really fruity. I love that creamy strawberry vanilla thing that's going on. This is a malt whiskey, unlike most other malt whiskies we have, and a big part of that is there's some wheat. Some of it might be that once I read Bottle and Bond, my mind goes to bourbon and this is not bourbon, so maybe that's part of it, was just to wrap my mind around. And I totally believe in this push for American malt whiskey to cut its own path and be its own category and not just be, oh, well, this is our version of Scotch, like it's not. Right. Well, I think you nailed it, though. There's definitely strawberries and cream in there. It's awesome, right? If I ordered a whiskey at a bar and was served this, I would enjoy the shit out of it. It's kind of like a strawberry shortcake, including the little mint garnish. Brofie loves strawberry, strawberries and cream. Love it. He's got the bright red hair, the pale skin. Yeah, that's true. Well, behold, what's getting passed around next. Look at the color on this. Roger, to take you to a category you're more familiar and interested in, we're gonna have a rum. That's bright green. That's like Hulk blood green. I thought it was a Midori knockoff. That color is... No, this is... Is that natural? This is Pandan rum. I think I've had this at one point. Pandan is a palm-like plant. Wow. Native to Southeast Asia with very fragrant leaves, and it's widely used in Southeast Asian cuisine. Are you sure you didn't do this on a previous episode? That would be kind of hilarious. You know what it smells like? Is a corn chip. I might have. Like a Frito. Yeah, it totally does. What does that look like? You think this smells like Fritos? Well, you tasted distilled Doritos. I got coming up. Well, that's interesting. Similar alert. Dude, this smells exactly like Fritos. I think it's vanilla and floral and sweet and grassy. I can't get past the Fritos in the nose. That's interesting. I think it's got more vanilla on the palate. A little like hazelnutty. Yeah, like tortilla, like fresh tortilla. Fresh tortilla. Totally. Totally. But there is, on the palate, you get more of that array of things you're talking about. Yeah. But the tortilla is still there, which is weird. So what's this? It's distilled from molasses? This is distilled from sugar cane. Juice or molasses? I don't think juice. Believe it or not, when your rum is neon green colored, you're not that transparent about your ingredients. I was gonna say, that cannot be natural color. So that's just not labeled with dye. It's not labeled with a coloring. Really? So, I mean, it's a green leaf, but that is some intense chlorophyll that they've been able to... There's no way this is natural. That's the kind of thing you'd expect from post distillation maceration. This looks like green river. Yeah. I mean, it is. Yeah, it's crazy, right? It looks straight up like green river, exactly. And it smells like tacos. This is super weird. How much does this cost? This can be had for $29.99 at a Binny's near you. Yeah, that's super weird. It's definitely got all those things, though, grassy, vanilla flavors, but I don't get that in the nose. Let's see. All I can taste is tortilla. Pandan leaves are a true treasure of Southeast Asia, appreciated for their delightful flavor, medicinal benefits and various other uses. From adding a splash of green to desserts, pandan leaves continue to amaze and delight people across the globe. Yeah, I've seen cakes made with pandan and coconut rice with pandan leaves. The vibrant green hue of pandan leaves is often extracted and used as a natural food coloring, replacing artificial additives. So could it be this is the real color? I'm under the impression that even with alcohol, when you have FD&C color, number, whatever, you have to label it as such. Look at, Roger can't even sit through my stuff. He's just going straight for the money musk. I mean, this is so weird. I cannot get past this Frito. Yeah, there's nothing else to say about it. What's next? It smells like Fritos. Okay. You really want to taste Fritos? It's much lighter in body on the palette knife. I thought you said you were going to do that last. You only have three things? That's impossible. No, I have more things. But you're getting this. I would use plastic for this. Well, this is a good follow up, I guess. Yes. Okay, up next, Empirical Doritos Spirit. This is empirically bizarre. Yeah, so Empirical bills themselves as a flavor company, not a distillery. They vacuum distilled real Doritos here. And now there's two things on this. I've tasted this a bunch with a whole bunch of different staff members. I would suggest tasting it once. Dude, this smells terrible. I know, I know, I know. Hear me out. It's a novelty, OK? So sue me. I'm going to argue it smells more like Cool Ranch than Nacho though. So here's the thing. I would take this in, take a sip, and then wait a minute, then go back for a second sip. I think the second sip tastes and smells much different than the first. And I'll explain what I feel is the difference there. No. Oh my God. This is atrocious. What kind of earth? Why? Now, they suggest making a margarita with it. I'd like to hear what you guys have to say. Or a Bloody Mary. We are mostly sold out. This is a very limited thing. $59.99 if you can find it. What a joke. Horrifying. So here's the thing. Now take a second sip. So, the first sip, I feel it just tastes like heavily processed corn and corn oil. I think it tastes and smells more like a Frito than a Dorito. On the second sip, I got more of the nacho cheese character. Well, you know what I get is like on the back of my tongue, MSG. Yeah. Umami. Umami. It's just laying there. Just tons of umami and salt. Wow. That is too disgusting. The weird thing is I do get that nacho cheese, but in the nose, I smell cool ranch Doritos. Like almost that. Yeah. I think it's more corn chip on the first taste and more nacho on the second taste. It's like you liquefied the dust. That's what they did. And concentrated it. You know, like it's so over the top and offensive. So they run a vacuum still. In a vacuum, things, boiling temperature is lower, right? So you can distill at much lower temperature. So in theory, you're maintaining more delicate aromas and whatnot. Pretty gross. Yeah. No matter. Usually people call out other people's disgusted faces when they make them. But I'm going to talk about my own because I can't wipe it off my face since I tasted this. I am just, my, my face is crinkled up and. Oh, you guys are such wimps. I mean, I, I just can't fathom why is all I'm saying. Okay, fine, fine. So you guys don't like the distilled Doritos. I'd rather drink the Pandan. It tastes more like a corn chip. The Pandan's awesome. Yeah, you're much better served drinking that other, the Pandan flavor. Yeah, what's the alcohol in the Pandan anyway? 33%. Mm-hmm. That makes sense. So here's the next thing I have for you. And this is one I've considered bringing several times. More grass. Widely known by all employees at Binny's, because we sell this and we sell a sneaky amount of it everywhere. I know Zubrovka. Yeah. Zubrovka Bison Grass Vodka. When's the last time you had this? Bison grass. Ooh, shout out to my buddy Will. I drank this for the first time with him probably 20 years ago. So Zubrovka Bison Grass, there is some species of grass. No. That's the preferred method of imbibing this. I had no idea. It's a vodka that is distilled with a bit of this bison grass and it's bottled with a single blade of grass in each bottle. It's got a big European bison on the label. Technically the largest species of bison. Not to be confused with the American bison. No, of course not. And certainly not to be confused with anything called a buffalo. Correct. I think this smells and tastes just like coconut. Yeah, it's delightfully herbal and coconutty. A little bit of herbal pepper kind of kick to it. It's 40% alcohol. I know this gets chilled and ripped as shots and apparently mixed with apple juice as well. This is absolutely delightful. It's nice how you hit it. It definitely has those coconut black tone. You know, where's its heat on its sleeve? Definitely. You know, I could see this like out of the freezer as a shot. Yeah. You know, you are made, you know, mixed as a cocktail. Yeah, cocktail. I mean, it has nice flavors, but it is a little little bit. Roll around the edges. Well, I mean, come on, it's a Polish vodka with a blade of grass in the bottle. It's not the most refined thing you're going to drink. It's super interesting. It's super affordable too, right? Yeah. What's our price there? The nose is really cool. You know what? You know what I'm getting in this, mate? You might think I'm crazy, but it's reminding me of some of the pickle beers. $23.99. Smell it. For a bottle of this bison grass goodness. Yeah, it's a little dilly. The last one, yeah, especially the distill that was super dilly. Mm-hmm. How do you guys feel about Amaro? Ooh, well, it really depends on which one. That one looks bitter. How about a white Amaro made from a cabbage species? I was gonna say it looks worm woody. No, this is North Shore Bakamaro made with bok choy. I mean, as if we don't have enough sulfur compounds in our belly. So this is a white style Amaro made with bok choy, bitter melon, Damiana, Roger, get the horn ready, sarsaparilla. Nice. Citrus and spices. Interesting, so no wormwood. I mean, they don't list it. Have you consumed bitter melon? Mm-mm. So bitter melon's very popular in Chinese cuisine and it is bitter as f***. This is respectably bitter. I don't know. Smells nice, smells interesting. The aroma is almost like lime and grass. Lime jello, lemongrass. Lemongrass. Yeah. Lime jello. Yeah. The nose is nice. Yeah. Anyway, if you go to a really traditional Chinese restaurant and order a bitter melon dish, you'll, you might like it. You'll know what I'm talking about. I would definitely like it. Bitter as hell. And they're beautiful. It's the green, real bumpy. Yeah, it's green on the outside, but white flesh. It's surprisingly sweet. That's pretty delicious. This is awesome. Wow. I can make a white Negroni with this. Hell yeah. Very sweet. Yeah, it's way sweeter than I was expecting. That sarsaparilla really comes around the nose. Yeah. I mean, on the palate. It reminds me of like sarsaparilla candies. Yeah, exactly. This was the 2023 North Shore Limited Edition thing. They do a weird Limited Edition thing once a year, and this was 2023. Yeah, if you get an old timey stick candy, sarsaparilla stick candy, this is sweet, just as sweet too. This is not shy on the sugar at all. This also reminds me of when I gave you some of those whore hound candies. This is a lot like that. True. I am really surprised by this. It's pretty good. I like this quite a bit. I'm searching a little bit for the bok choy, but I think I get it. There's just a slight bitter herbal. Wet cabbage note. Wet cabbage-y. I think you're doing a disservice though. That sounds unappealing. Bok choy? Wet cabbage. Oh, wet cabbage. Bone dry cabbage, desiccated cabbage. This has the biggest takeaway for me with this is a cocktail potential. Because it's really sweet. It is inordinately sweet. So I would need to bring some acidity to the party. It's definitely a bitter on training wheels because of that level of sweetness. I mean, there's bitterness to it, but sugar dominates. I mean, I think the natural thing here that comes to mind immediately is to introduce grapefruit since it's an amaro and needs some of that acidity to cut the sweetness. This is on sale for $36.99. It is sporadically available. So, our allocation on something like this isn't huge, but it's around Binny's. Chances are it's at a Binny's somewhat near you. That was pretty interesting. Very different. I mean, big props for being- Bacchimaro. Not your average amaro. 60 proof. Pretty color too. Yeah, the color made me think it was going to be wormwoody as hell, but- No, there's not. Fascinating. Yeah, this is a neat one. I do like bok choy. Yeah, bok choy is delicious. And it's not as, probably not as aromatic or sulfury as most cabbages. Yeah Well, this one's going to be weird. This looks like an Odeau V. It is. From Alsace. I can smell it already. Oh my God. This is an Alsatian- I nailed it! Style Odeau V. I don't know why. From a classic Alsatian producer. Holy cow, this is aromatic. What is the fruit though? Joke's on you, this is a garlic Odeau V. Oh damn. So this is Jean Paul Mette. Jean Paul Mette has been making Odeau V, I want to say for 60, 70 years or so. He is no longer with us, but several generations of family since are still doing this. So they are traditional Alsatian Odeau V producer. They distill whole fruits. In this case, this is a grape Odeau V that was redistilled with garlic. I have a dangerous suspicion that Jean Paul Mette is going to make me feel like I'm in Jean Paul Sartre's play No Exit because this may be my own version of how. Oh, God. I have not had this, but I've wanted to try it for quite a while. And what does it taste like? What the hell does this taste like? So a little background on Mette. Like I said, they have been around for a long time. They started as a Mar de Alsace producer. So, Mar being the kind of must distill it, post Alsatian wine, similar to Mar de Borgogne. And akin to Grappa. Yes. And then they have since branched out. And today, they make 87 different eaux de vie as well as 28 different liqueurs. Now, a big thing with the meta os de vi are that they are intended more for a culinary use than a drinking use. Because what the hell do you do with this? Right. I mean, this doesn't smell like you mix it with oil. This doesn't smell like soft, sweet roasted garlic. This smells like raw garlic. This is, I don't know. Yes and no. There's a sharp edge to the nose. This is over the top. As soon as I took the foil off of this bottle, before I removed the cork, it smelled like garlic in here. Yeah, I wish we had some tomatoes. I was thinking of the day when you were like, we did the tapas thing. Mm-hmm. Oh, this is too much. Rubbing the garlic on the bread. Do they expect anyone to drink this versus just cooking with it? I don't think they expect anybody to drink this. Alsatian Eau de Vies, or Eau's de Vie rather, are quite expensive. If we look at the Meta Eau de Vie stuff, we've got a basil version, we've got a garlic, we've got a ginger. They're all this intense. We carry them essentially at two stores. These are $55 for a 375. Well, they're very expensive. You're talking whole distilled ingredients and whole fruit distillation. If you have their apricot Eau de Vie, that's a whole fruit fermentation and distillation. There's no doubt that- Very expensive. Yields are very small. These producers and Alsats are not messing around when it comes to Eau de Vie, but this is just so singular and bizarre. I was going to say- I just feel like, or it's like, okay, so the proposition is spend $55, really $100, because it's like that would be the equivalent of a $750, or just put a garlic bulb in a press and press it in whatever it is. I mean, it is that, to me, again- Well, they get more expensive. We have an Austrian producer called Riesebauer- It's not a good excuse. That's considered one of the best Eau de Vie producers. They have a Rowanberry and a Raspberry. You're talking $130 for that size of a bottle. They're not $130. They also have a garlic. They also have a carrot that's 80. I can only assume that was the last item because you couldn't possibly expect us to drink something after that. No, this is my last item of the day. You know what I was thinking? It's expensive, and you're right. Why not just use garlic? You know how bouillabaisse will take per node, you know, licorice thing. I could imagine splashing this into bouillabaisse, tomatoey, brothy fish soup or something like that. But yeah, why would you ever drink this? Out of curiosity. I could see adding like the tiniest, tiniest, tiniest splash to a dry martini. I was going to say a dirty martini. Yeah. That was the other thing I was thinking. A little splash in a dirty martini might. Like not even like half a bar spoon's worth, like barely anything. I don't think you need a lot. Get out of here with your $55 garlic juice. Oh, come on. This was great. You could have walked by this at the Binny's Beverage Depot in Lincoln Park and been like, man, what the hell does that taste like? And now you know, overpowering garlic. I'm sure in a hot cuisine restaurant where you need something that remains like perfect clarity but want to capture garlic flavor, maybe that's of value. I just can't, even in culinary perspective, see the- I have to agree. I mean, I was trying to stretch and figure out something that I would do with it, but- We tried it, so it brought in my horizons to know that there are people making these savory- Maybe a splash and a Bloody Mary, but again- The whole room stinks now. Yeah, the whole room stinks like dude sweat and garlic. So did we answer some questions today, guys? Do you know what these things taste like? Garlic is all I taste and smell now, so yeah, so we know what that tastes like. Very wise maneuver making that the last thing we do. You want to go get some pizza? I feel like I already ate one. It was a really, I mean, overall, it was a very interesting lineup. It's interesting to try the Dorito thing. I enjoyed quite a few of the wines and some of these spirits, a couple of them. I'll take that as a compliment. Listeners, if you're curious about what something in our store tastes like, send us an email. Send us a note. Hit us up on the social media of your choice. We are at Binny's Bev, everywhere bevs are found. Let us know. Let us know what you want to know about the products in our stores. We'll give you 20 bucks. Just like what's his face with this jackfruit thing. That was the redeeming. Yeah. Oh, okay. You had us try a lot of weird stuff, but that jackfruit was the bomb. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jackfruit horn, brimbrimbrim. Listeners, do us a favor, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Tell your mom we said hi. We'll talk to you next week. I'm Pat. I'm Chris. I'm Jim. And I'm Roger. Keep tasting.