Yeah. Really, to start with the Pepsi? Yeah, just a little. Okay, fine. You want it, like, as it cold open? Or the Mountain Dew, so I think we should be able to. I thought we were gonna do a half fruitcake, half port drink. Oh, well, the good thing is I forgot the fruitcake, man. You did? You forgot? Are you kidding? Are you kidding? No, I'm not kidding. I'm leaving. I had a lot of shit on my mind today. I had to stop at three of them stores before I got here. I'm not going to be back in the office all week. I have six tastings worth of product in my car right now. None of this says excuses for forgetting. I have eight open bottles in my car and it's the one I forgot. I don't care. I don't care about any of that. I never wanted to try fruitcake mountain dew. Oh, you're going to try it still. I did. I mean, I don't, but I do. You're going to do that dew, boy. But also, wasn't that the point? That is the point, yes. That was the point. Then we got Peeps. Now we have Peeps. I don't know. I f***ed up. Listen, I was driving all last night. I was like, I better not forget that mountain dew in the morning. Pork sausage. Okay. Oh, this smells like a candle. Hey, Jenna, what the hell does that taste like? Oh, right. Like a vanilla candle. All right. All right. Blind. Here we go. How is it? It smells like a vanilla candle. I think it smells like a coconut. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's got the suntan lotion character. Chris, you have no standing in a conversation about a soft drink. It just tastes like vanilla Pepsi. It's like vanilla Pepsi. No, it's got a marshmallow fluff character to it. It has a little more of a candle-y. It smells like Bed Bath and Beyond. Yeah, but overall. I mean, it's absolutely vile. No, the other one, not Bed Bath and Beyond, the other one. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is. Yankee Battery Barks? An abomination and it's, oh my god. There's much more of a perfume-y quality, but if I had to compare it to anything. This is a 7.5 ounce cannon and it's 26 grams of added sugar. And it's for any one person to ever drink. That is awful. That is really bad. Now that everybody has already shut off this episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast, we are tasting Peepsy. Peeps flavored Pepsi. Yeah. Do we carry this? It's f***ing gross. No, no, we do not. Yeah, really gross. Why are we tasting this? Why not? It was supposed to be a companion to the fruitcake. We want to know what it tastes like. The fruitcake not and do, which we also don't carry. Hey, hey, hey, yeah, we don't carry the fruitcake Mountain Dew either. But at least people on this podcast like fruitcake. Some of us. Is there anyone who likes Peeps? Not me. I don't like marshmallows. Universally despised. Yeah, nope, don't like Peeps. Yeah. Ew, why do we try this? I only want marshmallows if they're dehydrated and they're shaped in rainbows and stuff. We buy special marshmallows that don't have hooves in them. Orange moons. Green covers. So what the hell does that taste like? Volume 3? Yankee Candle. We've really done this twice before? I thought you guys got so annoyed with me for bringing a case of random bullsh** once that we've never done it again. We've done it at least twice. I think this is the fourth. Well, joke's on you. I got a case of random bullsh**. If we stopped recording episodes because we were annoyed with you, we wouldn't have a podcast. If all this wouldn't be the 300th episode spectacular. Hey, it's Barrel to Bottle, back in your feed and ear holes. Trying to answer the world's oldest question. What the hell does that taste like? It is the oldest question. Yeah, like before fire, they were like, what the hell does that taste like? Truly, we are connecting you to your ancient forebears. Only one way to find out. Yeah, so we're gonna ask that question today. We're gonna answer that question today. Roger's gonna complain. Pretty standard fare for Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Pat, I'm from the Spirits Department. Roger, from Beer. Chris, I do wine and I also engage in the world's oldest profession. Jenna, I do communications. Greg, communications. At least Jenna thought it was funny. Yeah. Shut up. Roger, take it over. So I think we've played out the whole, let's try things that taste terrible angle to this. So also in an effort just to aggravate Brophy, I'm using both his own logic against him and his hatred of what he likes to call old man beer. Got to wake up pretty early in the morning and outsmart me, buddy. Jokes on you, I like killer vice. In an effort to talk about what everybody's brewing as of late, I happen to notice it's pretty strange that multiple people have released Doppelbox. No they haven't. This is a lie. Yes. It's lent. It gets even weirder. Two of the Doppelbox that were recently submitted were fooder aged. Fooder aged Doppelbox. Come now. Wait, like local guys, right? We're talking about what local craft is doing right now. These are for people that wear artisanally crafted felt pants or something, right? Unironically wearing, what's the German one? Lederhosen. Lederhosen. That they made themselves. Well, you know, it's really a practical garment. It really is. I think really what happened was that it took amazingly long for this to happen, but in a way that people like checking things in and trying new things, they maybe ran out of adjuncts, so people finally opened their eyes to, maybe we should start That's an amazing theory that they just eventually evolved to get to where beer makers were 500 years ago. Yeah. It's like, oh wait, there's a million different beers we can try that aren't just a different hop or a different adjunct dumped into a beer. So that and just how drinkable lagers are. Lagers are finally, after all these years of me hoping like, a lot of people are making lagers. Wait, are you tricking us into making this a Doppelbach episode? What comes around goes around. I'll tell you why. Roger, how many Doppelbachs did you bring? Four. Okay. So I've got two. Greg's never been so disappointed. It's liquid bread. It's dinner time. This is fine. Let's carbo load. The other thing that I thought was hysterical is not only are people making Doppelbachs, not only people making fooder aged ones, they're making Doppeldunkelweizen. Yeah. So wheat Doppelbachs. Who is making that? We have WarPigs. So it's essentially Three Floyds just released Divine Huntress. So we are going to taste that. Then our friends over at Art History just released one as well. Really? Their Doppeldeviner. I was literally there yesterday. I was there a week ago. They're out of it now, but I mean- I should have called a homie. What the hell? Within recent pasts, they released it. I'll forgive you. Roger, I have one question for you. Yes. With as weird as what you just described, what the hell does that taste like? So what we're going to start with here is what I felt would be helpful with this episode is to kind of, let me pass out cups. I'm surprised you're starting with the Vitus first instead of the Corbinian. I'm sorry, Vitus, is that Weihenstephaner? Yes. Ja. Ja, ja. It's the only German word I can say. In a, what the hell does that mean in respect to this? I was going to give you the, all of you some cups so you don't have to pour everyone beer. You can pour yourself some beer. Wow, thanks for nothing. Thank you. All right. Well, he gave you the cups, so it's not thanks for nothing. When you pick up these beers, there's some words to decode here unless you're German-speaking. Including the, the Heinstefaner? Yeah. Weizen Doppelbach. Weizen means wheat. That's giving you a sense that this is going to be a wheat beer. Doppel is double and then Bach is the beer style. What we're starting with here is actually a Helles Doppelbach. Weizen, so Helles means light. Dünkel means dark. So this is going to be the lightest of the styles today. So I started with this one. Wait, wait, wait. Say what it is again? A Helles? This is a Helles Weizen Doppelbach. Okay. Or Weizenbach. So amazingly grainy in the nose. It smells like creamed corn. Yeah. Well, I don't think so. No, not corn. That's a brewing flaw. That's like your opinion, man. It tastes and smells like wheat. Yeah. That's what it tastes like. It does. It's not creamed corn, which is a classic flaw in beer. So what's famous with these Weizenbachs and Weis beers in general are the esters from the yeast. So first and foremost, part of what you're getting here is those famous bubblegum clove. Banana clove. Yeah. But this thing is hefty. So Greg, you should be able to get behind this. This is 7.7% alcohol and it's pretty easy to drink. Being typecast here a little bit. I like some flavors too. I mean, this is soft, smooth, creamy. I'm not saying I don't like this. What are you saying? It's pretty good. It's actually pretty good. It's like cream of wheat with bananas in it. Most of the time, when you see a Weizenbach, Doppel-Dunkle-Weizen, it's gonna be dunkle, it's gonna be dark. So, that's what WarPigs made here. And what's neat about these is that the darker malts are gonna provide some of that caramel flavor. So, I think one of the most common descriptors you're gonna get from this is think like banana bread, banana muffins. I always think of the classic Schneider Oven, Tina's, which is... Yeah, it's a classic for sure. Mind-blowing beer. We'll see how the world... I knew I would get yelled at if I opened three German Doppelbox, so I skipped opening that. But again, this is another reason I think maybe these are taking off and people think they're neat is that they do have so much flavor, it's not adjuncted, but I mean, this is banana-y. I mean, there's banana there, there's caramel there. There's a lot of the building blocks of what people are attracted to in recent craft styles, and there's some residual sweetness here, there's some fruitiness, but it's again, coming from the building blocks of beer. Right, this is pastry style before that existed. This is like bananas fostering a glass. Yes. It smells like stinky cheese though. I think compared, you know, going back and forth between the Vitus and whatever the hell this Three Floyds is called, what's it called? Divine Huntress. Divine Huntress. This is from WarPigs technically, but yeah, Three Floyds, actually. The Huntress, you get more of the caramelized, like toffee kind of character with the banana, but you still have the banana and clove going on back and forth. But you can definitely, like, if I was literally blindfolded, I would guess this as the darker beer of the two, you know? Yeah. This is surprisingly lean for the style. So usually I feel like you'd get a little more sweetness to this. So kind of in what's making you think of, like, stinky cheese or whatever, like, you're tasting, it's very grainy and there's like no residual sweetness at all, which is almost kind of strange. This is the first time I'm trying this beer. Like I said, this is brand new on the shelves, but I just found it really interesting that it's like a new release. They've leaned into the style of all styles. I'm not complaining about the stinky taste either. No, no, I get you. I see what you're saying. It's not brie, it's the stronger smellier. Camembert? Yes, thank you. The first time I ever had that was in Paris, and that's what it smells like. My wife opened the Camembert last night. Yeah, and? It's two weeks before ripeness, and it's sterile. It's really upsetting. Well, number one, what brand did you buy? Presidente. Well, it will never progress past that. I was standing at Jules' scratching my belly, and I was like, oh, they were talking about Camembert. I'm going to give them some of that. There are precious few versions of Camembert in this country. We were talking about how you can't get real Camembert here. I know. So, that is a big factory made one that is going to be relatively clean no matter how long you age it. It'll turn ammonia-ated before it gets properly stinky. Well, I'm going to eat the rest of it tonight. Yeah, you should. You really had to talk them in eating a wheel of cheese tonight. Roger, last question about the Three Floyds WarPigs. Yeah. Is it traditionally that opaque because it poured real hazy? I'm wondering if that's a modern stylistic choice or if they are always like that. No, it's appropriate since it's a Weizen Doppelbach. So, yeah, the wheat is going to incorporate that haziness. It's not so much as that they want the haze, like they actually would filter some Weisbeers to make them look more beautiful. Those are like Kretzel Weizens. The haze there is what the use of wheat is going to produce that nice creamy mouthfeel. So, the OG hazy pastry boys. Yeah, OG. I do believe you get more of that banana clove character with the yeast in there than you do when they filter it out in the crystal place. Yeah. What's next? So now we're gonna try one of the OG traditional doppel box. So again, from Binny's Gift Card. Binny's Gift Card, if you're curious about beer styles, is essentially like, it's the gold standard. They essentially are affiliated with one of the world's most prestigious brewing colleges, is part of the brewery. So a lot of times when American breweries make a Hefeweizen, for example, not only do they aim to produce something like Weinstefaner's, they use the Weinstefaner yeast to make the beer. That is the classic strain for wheat beers that gives you that bananen glow. So like how there's a physical thing, it's not true anymore, but it used to be like a gram. They had like, this is the gram and it's like a chunk of metal. Right. Like that's the... This is the measure. So, yeah, like Iingers Doppelbockets used a lot for the measure, but I think Weinstephaner's is just as good, if not better. This is kind of the hidden gem of their portfolio. It's only available in single bottles, whereas like the Vitus, you can get in a six pack. Vitus was actually just a like one off seasonal experiment type thing, and it became so beloved that now you can get it year round. Corbinian, you'll see once in a while on draft. It is even more incredible in draft. But again, this is just sort of, I wanted to give you a taste of an iconic German produced Doppelbach, that is one of the things that local brewers are probably looking towards for inspiration. From a brewery that dates to the 1040s, if you can even believe that, is that not right? Oldest brewery in the world. Unbelievably mind-blowingly old. I bet their beers sucked. It smells like fried food. The market has spoken. It smells like fried food. Like fried chicken. It definitely has some umami to it. I think it pairs beautifully with a lot of different Asian dishes. Anything that has soy or fermented bean components to it. I could just be really hungry right now. Corn oil? Yeah. No, you're absolutely right. This is umami bomb. I would say if you look for some classic descriptors for Doppelbox, Toffee and Caramel get thrown out a lot. This German one though is a nice example and again the WarPigs one was pretty dry too. Like this is not overly sweet. Some American interpretations of the style can get very sweet. Know that you might like that and that might be something that you want. But as far as when you're trying them from different breweries, trying them from a local brewery that's putting one out. Here in Chicago, Goldfinger just released one. Metropolitan does their generator every year. Phase 3 has done it in the past. Art History has one that hopefully we're going to see in cans sometime soon. That's their conservator. So, it's really interesting that these are becoming more prevalent. So, Maplewood has made one in the past and I wouldn't be surprised in the future. They'll actually call this out on the can in bigger print. It's kind of humorous that it's the word Doppelbock's and like Microfiche on the side of the can. Microfiche. They instead just kind of called it a winter lager. It's become one of their more requested beers. They've had to re-brew a batch because so many people enjoy their Doppelbock. Well, you just mentioned a beer called conservator. You want to talk about the naming. Vator. Yeah, because Corbinian kind of bucks that trend. It does, yeah. So originally, it's kind of interesting. This was one of the first kind of trademark dispute type things was Polliner Brewery, the monks that founded that brewery, came up with this idea of a Doppelbock style being the beer that they could brew to drink during Lent and that it was essentially a liquid bread so it wouldn't break the fast. And because of that, they felt that this beverage was their savior. So in honor of that, they called it Selvader. So for years, a lot of breweries would make a Doppelbock and just call it that. And then eventually when the brewery became privatized, I think they thought, stop using our name, we're going to sue you. So only Polliner can use Selvader now. So then everyone started naming their Doppelbock something that ended in ATOR, Selvader. Ianger's Classic. Yeah, so Ianger's. Just grace, try that. Spotton's, Optimator. All of these beers are... Maximator. In the category of my first bad hangover. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I imagine those mugs who were like, all right, you know box, but like double box. Hey, if you can't eat much for 40 days, you're going to want to nourish your beer. Yeah, well, that's what I always thought was funny was, you know, if you drink on an empty stomach, you get intoxicated way faster. So these mugs are only drinking really high proof beer. Yeah, it was a real 40 days of sacrifice. 40 days ago, let's do it again. Woohoo. You know, by day three you'd be like, oh God, let's for breakfast. No. I gave a regular buck for Lent. There was some guy recently that tried to just drink Doppelbach for all of Lent and he had to go to the hospital, I think. Thank you, Morlins, for your luck. You're a national treasure. Yeah, so this is what we're trying now is Maplewood's Silver Mountain. Silver Mountain. It's right next to you. Silver Morning, sorry. Oh, I was all ready to make a Dio reference and s***. Boy, it looks like a South Park mountain. They put a mountain on it, so you can play Dio while you're listening to this. Rainbow, sorry. You don't have to, though. But you can. You should. Yeah, I will, for sure. Clocking in at 6.8, again, this is well fermented, not a ton of residual sugar. I could just see people. This is pretty dangerously easy to drink. It tastes like as light as Guinness. It does. This is dangerously drinkable. We should mention you're making Greg yawn with these beers. I mean, he's being a good sport, though. And like I said before, I mean, who doesn't like a really nice drinkable, super strong beer? Because that's what Doppelbach's all about. So again, this is a trend right now. They just sneak up on you. I'm really surprised. But it also feels like two bowls of Wheaties in every can. That's nothing to complain about. Breakfast of champions, baby. Again, I think what's kind of interesting is a lot of breweries in the past when they were doing more styles, they tended to release Doppelbach's around the fall and tail beginning of the winter. But stylistically, from the heritage of the brewing style, it's more of a lent beer. So, maybe that's part of why we're seeing them out now. People used to do My Box instead. They would kind of like forgo Doppelbach for Lent and then just do a My Box for the May celebrations. But spring seasonals have basically disappeared. Yeah, fallen off the map. Yeah, they disappeared. Nobody makes My Box anymore. But anyway, so yeah, Bach beer in general is something to check out. Some of these breweries that I mentioned, people like Goldfinger Art History, Phase 3, they're also making other Bach beers. So if you like this and you want one that won't necessarily put you down immediately at almost 8% alcohol, some of these people are making just normal strength Bachs. Sipes, for instance, is brewed through Metropolitan. They're Colombiana. Bach is coming back. So as you see more curiosity for lagers, you're going to see more curiosity for Bach. I mean, they do have to clean the tanks at some point, right? Don't go into that stupid myth. Half the room is too young to even know what that means. That was this pervasive bullsh** thing that like Doppelbach was the end of the tanks. People especially who drank Leinenkugel, remember Big Butt Doppelbach? Yeah, I remember that. So Bach beer is associated with goats. So they had two goats like butting heads and called it Big Butt. That was always, oh yeah, the Leinenkugel were to the end of the tank, kind of crap. Anyway, that's where it's going to hibernate through the rest of the month. From the world of juice and cookies that is craft beer, there's a resurgence in interesting classic styles and especially lagers. So this is your recent update of what's going on. All right, now we know. You smartly kept it to a minimum because you know I got a lot of stuff. Yep. But bring it on. Wine. I've got five, do you want all five? Yeah, show us what they are. Or do it, run us through all five, we might as well. All right, yeah, let's do it. We only have, what, five wines and 12 different liquors? Yeah, what the hell does this taste like? It should not be a two-parter. All right. Well, you can keep some of them or all of them. This is mostly a Clips show. We'll make this fast. I kind of thought Alicia was gonna be here, so I didn't prepare for this, but I did run out on the floor and- Me and you both, buddy. Roger and I both ran out on the floor and picked up some things. Chris, the point is we're all gonna discover together. We are. What the hell does that taste like? What the hell does this taste like? Will you pass the bottles? I thought I did. You did? Okay. Wine number one is a Spanish wine from León, which is in kind of northwestern Spain. If you know your Spanish map, it's a little bit east of Galicia and maybe a little northwest of Rubira del Buero. And this is Pardevalles Albarin 2021. Is it albarino, Chris? No. Really? I literally drank this last night. Did you really? Yes. Really? My wife bought it without me knowing. How weird. Okay, so you can't answer because you know what it tastes like. I know what the hell this tastes like. So, but that's amazing. I thought it was albarino though. What is it? It is albarin blanco. Oh, this is gross. No, it's good. I think it's really good. It's salty. Yeah. It is a little salty. And what does it remind you of any other varietal because it screams something to me. It kind of, if I was blind tasting, I'd probably think New Zealand sauvignon blanc. Exactly, sauvignon blanc. That's exactly what I said last night. Yeah. That's why I like this one. The only wines I know. It is albarin. It is indigenous to this area. Well, what the hell? And it's hardly grown anywhere else. This is made by a winery who is trying to preserve the traditions here. And they also make Prieto Picudo, which is the local red grape. I think it's really fascinating. And I think most people who pick it up are going to think it's albarino, because it's only one letter off. But it is a genetically distinct varietal that is probably closely related to sauvignon from Jura, not sauvignon blanc, sauvignon. He's doing it again. This would be a sick joke in a blind taste. It would be very hard. This is a big little finger in a blind taste. It's like a warm climate sauvignon blanc in a vice. It's crimped down. It has the melon and it has the grass, but it's just crimped down into this like salinic more structured kind of thing. And it's affordable too, right? Next. It is definitely affordable. This is great. This wine is awesome. This is $16.99 a bottle and it's fantastic. Pat, the citric acidity on the finish absolutely like screams for cheese and stanchion. The words of Roger Adamson, why is it so salty? Sushi, this would be so good with sea cheese. Fresh cheeses, sushi. I can see what you're really good with fresh cheese. Any kind of seafood, grilled octopus, come on. All right, I relent, I relent. All right, next one. If Alicia was in the room and I said this, she would say no, but maybe you won't correct me. This is like a poor man's Chablis, right? No. Okay. No. No, it has some aspects of that. I actually drank a Premier Crew Chablis the other night. As one does on a Monday. What day is it? Tuesday. It was actually Wednesday. It was on a Saturday, okay? I had it with oysters and I also had it with sturgeon, which was fantastic, which is really- Sturgeon? Where the hell are you getting sturgeon? He hunted himself in British Columbia. That's right. Chris hangs with a certain set. All right. To me, the two predominant flavors are, tell me if you can say- Now, you need to name the common names for these two things. I mean, he's doing fruit. Carambola and Chinese gooseberry. Starfruit and kiwi. Damn. Wow. Wong, Wong. I don't know starfruit and kiwis in here. Carambola. Yeah. Pat, you're not wrong. It's salty. It's strange, but it's nice. That's throwing me off. There are good flavors there and I totally get the starfruit and the kiwi. I've had kiwi a ton. I've actually tried a starfruit too and I totally get that. That's spot on. Just think about it in the context of seafood or fresh cheeses. Yeah. You're going to be happy with that wine. Fish tacos. Some really toothy pasta in a cream sauce. One of these Croatian wines, huh? I like the last one we tried. Yeah. Next up is a Croatian wine. What the hell does this one taste like? What the hell does this taste like? This is Pošip. Zlatan Pošip. I've never seen this wine. Zlatan Otok Pošip. So Pošip is a native- This is delightful. Native riddle to the Dalmatian coast of Croatia originally from an island right off the coast. That's where they grow Dalmatians on trees. Yeah. That's right. That's right. 101 grapes go into every bottle. How do you like this, but you didn't like the last one? Yeah. This one's not salty. They're not that far- Pat, I think your wine tastes are kind of basic. Yeah. They're so basic. I've never said otherwise. They're so basic. I mean, speaking of wine and my tastes, I got an email from a winery I visited while I was on vacation in Italy. Oh, wait. You went to Italy? Yeah, I did. I went to Italy last fall and I actually bought some wine and it's in the mail now. FedEx. I have a FedEx tracking number and everything. You traitor. I told them to not ship it until March because I was afraid we were going to have a shitty winter and then we had the world's mildest winter and it's been totally boring and they could have shipped it at any time. But anyway, so I've got some Brunello de Montalcino, some San Giovese is coming. You're going to have us over? Yes. All right. Chris is going to tell us the story behind this varietal. Yeah. So this is a classic white varietal from Croatia. It's from a small island off the coast and it's spread around a little bit to a couple other islands and- A lot of parallels with Tony Kukoc so far. How far is that from Greece? It's pretty close. It's really, I mean, right across the Adriatic from Italy. If you're understanding, you're looking right across the sea at Italy. I think it's very interesting. It's full of rich apricotty flavors. I mean, we've got limestone soils here, like you find where a lot of crisp whites. So speaking of Chibolet, I think it's delightful. Another wine for seafood and something that most people probably have never tried. Is this one salty too or is this just he put that idea in our head? No, there's a little bit of salinity in there, which is why I'm surprised that Pat likes this one so much. I'm not picking up. I hated the other one. The other one, it was really pronounced for my taste. Yeah, definitely. This is more mild, but it's similar enough. This is like a little concrete cinder block. Well, it says Sea View, right? Is this on the coast? It is. So this wine has actually grown in a couple different vineyards. One of the vineyards is actually on an island called Hvar with H-V-A-R, Hvar, which is just north of the original island, the island of origin for this grape variety, which you said Tony Cucco, which is called Cortula. There's grapes from the mainland too. It's all structured. It doesn't have that much voluptuous fruit on top and the acidity. It's neat and I bet it goes great with food, but on its own, it's kind of like clipped on the front and the back. Again, think in the context of like a grilled sea bass, like a branzino or something like that. It would be delightful. I just imagined that and I'm like, why did they leave the head on there? Yeah. To remind you you're a bad guy for eating animals. Yeah. All right. What the hell is this? Babbage? This is, yes. This is babbage. More importantly, what the hell does this taste like? Yeah. What the hell does this is a lot? Pilizota babbage tastes like? 2016 too on the shelf. It's got some age on it. Barnyardy. Yeah. It smells like the chemicals that they used to treat leather. It smells like Britannomyces. It smells like the farm. I'll freaking tan your hide. No, this is definitely Britannomyces in here. Yeah. All right. So why did you get us horse poop in a bottle? Well, because it's, have you ever had babbage before? No. And way to, nice pronunciation by the way. How did you know? I'm not certain I've had babbage before, but it's been so long. I was a bulls fan in the 90s. We know how to pronounce Croatian Cicis. You're right. You're right. So this is Croatian also? Also Croatian. You couldn't tell that I was in a hurry, and I just looked at the Croatian Cicis. Way to prep. This is what we should have featured during the World Cup at Ta Vito. Yeah. Their team was a joy to watch. Okay. So along with Britannomyces, it smells like there's some cherry confit in there. There's a little bit of mint. Cherry confit. Would that be like cooked in the fat of other cherries? Yeah. Exactly. I think he means compote, but I was going to let it slide. Is that what I said? You mean compote. Correct me, because I'm a blonde. You mean compote. Confit is like duck confit. Okay, then compote. Yep. I meant it smells like cherry jelly. This does not comport with my sensibilities. This is interesting. This is austere. I like this. This is what I would call a challenging wine. I think if you like Belgian beers. Super interesting, right? And you want a red wine to have with some food, like this will do the trick. This is not a wine for people just getting into wine or who don't like really dry wines by any means. This is a really funky wine. I love, I think this is delicious, but it is not for someone just getting into wine. This is the kind of wine you want to pair with like- Just to warn people. Go ahead. Oh, just to warn, I don't want you to jump into it thinking, oh, that's going to be great because they loved it and then they hate it. Pair it with a gamey lamb dish or even- I was just going to say, rack of lamb, lamb chops. Exactly. Roger, I think it tastes like root beer. It does have, it has a sarsaparilla-like kind of- Damn it. I think we should get some Jägermeister and put it in here. There's a little smoke from the bread. It's very- I've got several options for anisla cores here. Of course you do. It's very interesting. This is a, there's a more widely planned grid called- You could do a Rack-o-Lan with a Jaeger reduction. Yes. That could be good. I don't know if I've ever seen Roger so hungry. Am I the only one that ate lunch? I've seen this man at a brew pub with a direct fire boil kettle too. Half a can of vegetable soup for lunch. I had cashews for lunch. I was like, we're going to do podcasts and Brophy's not going to show up for two and a half hours, so I better eat something. See, that was my mistake. I was like, oh, Brophy will be here on time. And I had half a can of vegetable soup. Why would you ever think that? Yeah, what happened to the other half of the can? I got busy. I started working again and it got cold. And I just was like, fuck it. Do I do this to people? Was that the abandon? Talk about a food that can't be reheated, like a half a bowl of soup. She had to go to a brand new bank some years before. Well, I saved the other half for tomorrow. Anyway, not that this is going to mean anything to you, but this is an offshoot of a more widely planted Croatian grape called Dubročić and is related to Plavac Mali, which is close. We've had the Plavac Mali before, yeah. Related to Surilniac, which is related to Zinfandel. It all is related to Zinfandel. Yeah, and all those Croatian grapes, they boiled on the Zinfandel of America. So, here we go. Wow, it's funky. It's funky. I like it a lot. I'm actually kind of delighted that I'm getting a non-commercial, really interesting and weird kind of wine experience that I can't experience. I think brewers and beer nerds who are listening ought to seek this out. Yes, yeah, yeah, totally. Belgian beer fans, check it out. Babac. Spelled B-A-B-I-C. With an accent. With an accent. Chris, that was really cool. What else you got? Okay, so I'm gonna take you from the exotic Dalmatian Coast, the beautiful Dalmatian Coast, to Northern Missouri. Sounds like a punishment. Northern Missouri, not to be confused with Southern Iowa. Nope. Very closely related. Chris, you know the joke, that if the bottom row of counties in Iowa ceded to Missouri, both states would get smarter. Niki ya cuck. Take that, Goldring County. I initially was thinking Minnesota, and I was like, what are you talking about, Greg? That is not the right geography, but yeah. Oh yeah, I think drier and less interesting. Yeah. Actually, this part of Missouri is not dry. It has a beautiful river running through it. This is Herman, Herman, Missouri, and this is- This winery goes all the way back to 1847. Wait, where is Herman, Missouri? Herman, Missouri is kind of just- Paging Dr. Herman. Just east of Kansas City by several miles along the Cady Trail, if you guys know the Cady Trail, which is really cool, old- No, we do our best to avoid that area. Well, the Cady was an old railroad line that ran from Missouri down to Texas and- Also an area we avoid. She left me a mule to ride. They turned it into a bike path, which is really nice. That's cool, rails to trails. Exactly. Herman, Missouri was settled mostly by Germans a long time ago. They thought it looked like the Rhine River Valley or something like that. Shocking with a name like Herman, spelled with two N's. It is a beautiful river valley town. Just so you know, the first AVA ever in the Americas was St. Augusta, Missouri. You got to give props to Missouri for being a wine producing state. At one point, they produced more wine there than anywhere else in the nation. Huge wine producing state and you got St. Augusta and Herman as your two major hubs. Herman definitely leading German. They have a giant Wurstfest, which is fantastic. This is American O'Kays wine, right? This is vanilla out the wazoo. Yeah. So, what this is is Norton. So, this is one of the French-American hybrids that goes way, way back. It's one of the few that doesn't give you that weird, what they call Foxy flavor, Roger. Yeah. Scuppernog. Yeah. So, if you're looking at Concord, Scuppernog, Muscadine, all of these give you what is known as Foxy notes. LaCrosse. LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Home of old style. Is it grape? Another one of those grapes? Yeah. Yes. There are a ton of them. All the traditional North American varietals. Right. Well, they're North American varietals crossed with traditional French varietals mostly. Although this precedes the big push for that, which happened in the late 1800s due to phylloxera. Right. But this grape variety popped up as probably a natural cross in the early 1800s, like 1820s, 1830s, and it does not have... Most of the crosses that they made during phylloxera time were with vitus labrusca, which definitely leads to that foxy flavor. This is not that. It's one of the few widely grown American varietals that does not present that way, and it's quite age-worthy too. The nose here is very interesting and super unique. I almost get a smokiness to it. Pat just looked at me because he knows that you triggered one of my pet peeves. You conditioned unique, but it is unique. Let the man finish his god-fucking thought. So again, I was going to make a joke about forest fires and smoke taint, but why am I detecting smoke on this? It is smoky. It's definitely smoky. So this is Vitus astivalis cross with Vitus vinifera. The smoke, I'm guessing is from a barrel rather than anything else. It's really interesting. To your point about aging, this is a 2017 vintage. This is a 2017. I don't point this out to be snobby because I eat most of my meals from Taco Bell in bed, but it says a state bottle that I just think that's cute. Come on. Don't guess Herman. Let me tell you a brief story about the Norton grape, and this is 100 percent true. I bought probably a case of 1992 Herman Hoff Norton. Why? I tasted it. It was the first American. Because you're a complete nut job mixed with weirdo. I mean, we're talking way back in the 90s, right? Also because it was $6 a bottle. And so if we're talking back then, throw in a little psychoactive drugs as well. No. I mean, come on. Are you not on those right now? Yeah. We don't have to time travel for that. Anyway, I tasted this wine. It was the first French-American hybrid. And I tasted a lot of Missouri wines at this point that actually tasted like real actual wine. And it was remarkable. This particular bottling, right? So I brought it home. I aged it. I drank it over the years. And I feel like I might have told you guys the story before, but I was invited to a wine dinner by a customer. And it was for Dearburg Winery, which is located in Santa Barbara. And I happened to know that the owners of Dearburg owned Hermanhoff. And so I had one bottle of 1992 Hermanhoff Norton left. And I also, it was at a restaurant where I knew the chef. So I call him up. I'm like, would it be cool if I brought this bottle that I know they made and nobody's gonna like know what this is other than the owners who are gonna be there? And we opened it just for kicks. He's like, sure. And their thing in Santa Barbara is Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. So it was like all Chardonnay and Pinot Noir dinner. And at some point during the entree, I had the guy and I had one bottle and like everybody got like an ounce pour. And it literally was the wine of the night. And it was 20 plus years old at the time. And from Missouri. And from Missouri. And the guy came up to me afterward and he said, I can't believe you had that wine. That was the best wine I've ever made, including the California stuff. And I served that at my daughter's wedding. I said, well, you know, it was the best Missouri wine I ever tasted, the best American, quote unquote, American wine I've ever had. And it ages like a mother-fucker. And then you showed him your tattoo. Yeah, my Herman Hoff. Anyway, props to Herman Hoff. And this is Stone Hill, which is another really old, both of these are really old wineries in Herman, Missouri. And it just goes to show you there are really interesting things happening in places that you wouldn't imagine. Totally. Oh, yeah. This is delicious. I'm not shitting on it at all. I just thought that was adorable. It is adorable. And this is why they grown like in Virginia, like it originated in Virginia. And it's Missouri's state grape, in case you were wondering. Missouri has a state grape. I'd be interested in tasting this wine without American OKG. Yeah. What's the price point on this? $20.99 a bottle. Not bad. It's a bit steep for a Midwestern wine. Because people don't know what's in the bottle. Because it's a serious wine. Right. People don't know. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you go down and tour these areas, they will tell you, lay this bottle down for 10 years. It has structure, it has power. Typically, some similar red wines from Midwestern wines taste like Concord grapes. I'm sure a lot of people are assuming that when they see this on the shelf. They come in red glass bottles. Yeah. Yeah. This is not that- This is very good. Interesting. Has tannin, has acid, has cherry, blackberry fruit. Chris, do you have one more? I do have one more. One more for my boys, who I know love fortified wines. Yeah, look what he's got. What is it? What is it? It's a Reeva Salt. Yes. A what? Reeva Salt. I've only ever had it as a finishing barrel. Oh no, I think I might have tried one of them, but we've had finishing barrels of like High West and a couple other whiskeys and Reeva Salt barrels over the years. He's so excited. His tail's wagging about this Reeva Salt. Right. So this is the kind of wine that- Southeast France, Southeast Coast of France. Southwest. Southwest. Southeast, sorry. Right on the border with Spain and- Okay. I'm assuming what's the one that's on the Mediterranean coast? There's a couple there. It's right on the Mediterranean coast, but it's really a butted up against the Pyrenees. Oh, okay. So I had the right coast. I just think of Southwest France as Atlantic, but that's more like West Central. No, it's still, I mean, you've got Spain and- Yeah, you think of Spain. And Gibraltar, I guess. All of Iberia. I don't- I think of a straight border and I shouldn't and it's a- Like, are we thinking of the same country or something? Imagine the border between Spain and France. It is right on the border with Spain, where the Pyrenees Mountains run through. Yeah, but there's like three or four different styles of fortified dessert wine up the Mediterranean coast there. That is correct. And this is one of them. You've got things like Moree and Banuel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, the interesting... Well, who knows what he's talking about? I have one question. I have one question. Yes. What the hell does that taste like? Yeah, what the hell does this taste like? This is really an oddball. So, a lot of the fortified wines are kind of Port or Madeiran style along the Mediterranean coast here. And there are several Appalachians. And these days, a lot of these areas have moved toward making table wine. You know it's a dessert wine when Roger gives himself the Evergreen Park pour. So, these days, you can get Dry Red Moris, which historically was always a fortified wine category, Port-like category. But because people are so used to rich, over-the-top, high-alcohol wines, and they grow Grenache, it's becoming like some people's darlings for unknown Grenache. Like, Michel Choupoutier is exploring all these areas. He makes some traditional banuel, but also there are dry, full-bodied wines. In this case, we're looking at Grenache. This is an amber style, okay? This is Grenache? This is Grenache, but it's Grenache Blanc. Oh, it's Grenache Blanc. Yeah. So, this is 100- Now, it's giving it the chef's kiss, by the way. 100% Grenache Blanc made in the amber style. Basically- What is that? Like the Tawny Port of Rivasalt? Right. So, this is long-aged, 12 years old. Yeah, but it's white, so it seems more like a sherry, way more like a sherry, like a really nutty sherry. Sure. Roger, are you paying attention? This is Roger City. Yeah, this is Roger City. I am very excited. Or maybe even more precisely- I'm reading the Necker tag. I'm so fascinated. Even more precisely, you might equate it to a drier Madeira like a Cerceal or something like that. Because this is in fact not just oxidized, it is matterized. They put this wine outside generally in glass demijohns to be exposed to the weather. There's heat and there's oxidation. Is it fully oxidized like Madeira is, where you can cork this back up and it's good forever? Absolutely. Really, it's fully oxidized. This isn't going to change. Matterized on top of it. No, everything changed. Not if it's fully oxidized. Does whiskey change? No. Yeah, but it's not fully oxidized. Madeira literally is like, it does not change. It's in perfect. Once you open it three years later, it will taste like exactly the same. It's crazy. It's inert. Yes. This is at that point. There are even older examples of this style. This is the bomb. This is incredible. It's nutty, but it's spicy too. Put this over a vanilla ice cream. So like with Madeira- Stop trying to get Roger. Is the sugar- Too excited, okay? Is the sugar content high here matched with some acidity though? Yeah, absolutely. It seems like it has that search, not even maybe like Verdello. Yeah, I would say the closest corollary in Madeira is Verdello. You're absolutely correct, Roger. There's good counterpoint from acidity. This is natural sugar. This is a category of wine, the French call it Vins du Naturel. It's natural sugar. It's done kind of like Portes. They ferment it for a little bit, get it up to about 5% alcohol, and then they dose it with your neutral spirit, your grape spirit. With your brandy, yeah. That stops fermentation, preserves the residual sugar, and then it's all about the aging process. So the elk here is like 5%? No, it's like 17% because it's got neutral spirit from a grape base added to it. Uni Blanc? Probably. Whatever bulk distilling grape, Uni Blanc, Colambard, whatever was grown cheap in the area. Yeah. So just like the Aguardiente would be added to port, you partially ferment it, brings it up to a high alcohol level and then you age. And in this case, just like Madeira, it's exposed to heat and oxidation. It's probably white granache. That's why it can just be in a clear bottle with a cork like this. It's probably Grenache Blanc. They're like, what are we going to do with the rest of this Grenache Blanc? Yeah, it could be. We need to talk about all the aromas and flavors. Oh, it's so complex. It's real good. I mean, you can just keep listing them. I mean, it has that, like the best Madeira, is this combination of nuts and fruit that are just like apricot, walnut, orange peel. It's crazy. And autumn leaves and tea and a little bit of that cheese rind. It's all over the place. All true. This reminds me of the Roger Poole party that we never get invited to. This is tremendous. Yeah, this club soda and a lemon wedge. Yeah. If you like this, it's very interesting because Reevesal is one of the few areas, unlike Banuel, which is pretty much all about Grenache Noir. They grow several grape varieties here. You have Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, also Grenache Noir so you can get a red version of this. One of the main products is also made out of Moscato or Muscat grapes. You get a real aromatic floral version of this. Have we even said which bottle this is, which producer or anything yet? Oh yeah. Good point. This is Tarasu Reef Salt Amber 12 Year. What's this going to hit you in the old wallet for? This will set you back a mirror. I mean, are you ready for this? 29.99. Holy **** you. Why is nobody drinking this? Because they don't know what it is. If this was a Madeira, it would cost $70. It looks like a fancy bottle of scotch. I was going to say, what does it taste like? It looks like a bottle of scotch. It does not look like a bottle of wine. Yeah, I was just going to say the same. I mean, as someone who buys every Madeira I get my hands on, this is on par with Madeira's that cost $70. If this is a Madeira, this is $70. Okay, all of you guys, listen to me right now. My year pick next year for the end of the year, this is mine, I called it. Yeah, that's fine. This is what happens with forgotten regions and forgotten styles. Nobody drinks this anymore and they should, but they don't. And so you get the most amazing value you can imagine. Holy cow. Yeah, this is so good. This is unbelievable. $30? I know. Man. How many producers do we, is this like the only person we carry who makes this? Right, exactly. There are a handful and they come and go slowly. The good thing is that they do last on the shelf because we buy some things in and then sometimes we have vintage dated stuff that is like from the 70s. Vintage dated, you say. Only the finest one. So, you know how like a tawny port could be a coheta. Right. So, it's a vintage dated tawny. You get vintage dated Reevesault and they can be very, very old. Probably the most expensive one I've ever seen on our shelves was 100 bucks, but it was for like something that was 40 some years old. But this is 12 years old. Yeah. So, the Necker says they have an 18 year. What's that one? Do we have that one? I don't think we do. Well, get the Necker's off the bottles. Whoever orders this. This is a Newton. Get the 18. Yeah, that would be Newton and yeah, it's remarkable. Oh man. So good. Wow, mic drop. All right. Well, that's the gem of this. These other wines are interesting. Roger, thanks for bringing the Golf channel of beers. I'm kidding. They're fine. And we have to call it there. Pat brought a case of liquor. So I guess this is a two part episode where- I mean, we don't taste all of it, but we have taste most of it. And there's some timely things. A couple of our favorites, you can't get any more. So I've got good alternatives. You can't have this. Well, you can have this. What the hell does that taste like? You can't have it. So thanks for hanging with us. Seriously, buy this Reevesalt. Seriously. Roger is Reevesalt giddy right now, and you, listener, could be as well. And I hope Pat has some scotches aged in this kind of cask, because I want to see what that has to do with it. I'm working on it. Hey, hey, hey. I've got a 18-year-old Irish single malt hitting the stores next week. And that was aged in a lupiac cask. What? Hell, yeah. I wonder what that tastes like. Lupus cask? Lupiac. It's another one of those lost French dessert wines. Lupins? I'm sick of these bloody Lupins. Knock it off. So, back in your feed next week with part two. Thank you for listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Greg. I'm Jenna. I'm Chris. I'm Roger. And I'm Pat. Keep tasting. I can't believe you guys left me for last on What The Hell Does This Taste Like. I mean, I never bring a lot of stuff. I never bring hype-proof stuff. I only bring the most interesting stuff. And you guys are just complete dicks. Who invited him? Can someone check my eyes? Because they might be stuck in the back of my head from rolling them so hard. Someone call my eye doctor. I'm passing two rums around the table. He doesn't even know what to say, because he's still burning. Feel that sizzle. Let me wipe all the chip crumbs off of me, because I don't know how to eat like an adult. You should get a little black bib. I need a bib with a crumb catcher. Let it be known that everyone in this room is starving like we've been on a desert island for two years. I'm fine. I eat lunch. How are we telling these apart? On the back label, there's two different barrel numbers. Are you joking? No, I'm not. Listen, man, they're artisanal Japanese. Cut them some slack. Hey, man. Listen, man, stop bringing them down. Why are you trying to narc on our good time? These are two- Why are you trying to destroy us? Well, the ABV is different. Yeah, the cast number is different. Back label. Back label. Well, yeah, I know. 3094 and 3098. She's trying to defend your buying. The front label is what the customers are going to be looking at. So what's the difference? The ABV. The ABV. We do have people who ask us about scotches and the reference ABV. These are two different cask selections of Japanese nine-year-old rums. Correct. What the hell does that taste like? More importantly, why the hell do we have it? Yeah. This sounds like a Bontani special. It definitely is. So we're doing part two. It's the same day. What does that taste like boogaloo? For you, it's been a week of anticipation, but for us, it was a restroom break and we're back. So what the hell does that taste like? You're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. I'm Jenna, I don't know what I do with my life. I'm Chris, I want to destroy you. Oh boy. I'm Roger, I work in beer. Hey, I'm Pat, I brought too many samples. Japanese rum. Yeah, What Does That Taste Like? What does that taste like? So story behind this, this is labeled as Honkaku Reserve Special Selection. Honkaku is a label of different shochu, especially shochus that we bring in, which are broadly sweet potato and rice distillates from Japan. We can get into that another day. Because I meant to bring one of them and I forgot it, because I was so hung up with these crazy rums. So one of the distilleries that Honkaku Spirits, the importer works with, brewed an experimental batch of rum and made eight barrels of rum. They put the barrels in the attic of the distillery and essentially forgot about them. The importer was there and like, hey, what are you doing with these eight barrels of rum? And the distiller was like, we don't know. And they said, well, can we buy them all? And they're like, yeah, sure, but we're never going to make anymore. And they're like, yeah, that doesn't matter. So one time only this one distillery in the Fukuoka prefecture of Japan made eight barrels of rum. It is rum made from fresh pressed sugar cane, a la an agri-cola or something. I assume that's in the south because I know that some of the southern islands are- It is in the south, yes. Yeah, grow sugar cane. It is made from a specific kind of sugar cane called Kokuto, which was processed at a sugar mill collective co-op. Now no longer exists and this local Kokuto sugar is especially high in minerals that give it an intense aromatic character. This is one of the most rare things we've ever carried. Eight barrels on the planet. The importer took all eight barrels. They said, we'll buy all the barrels. They brought samples. They flew back home. A week later, they were in Chicago and we at Binny's were the first people to taste all eight of these barrels. And we said, okay, we'll take this one and this one. Okay, okay, question. I understand why we bought one. Why did we buy two? Because the yields are very small. Because it was a one-time deal. Because hey man, we have 45 stores now. Like if I bought one of these and we've got like 17 cases of it, it's not even enough stores to- we can't even send an email. We can't put it on social media. All we'll do is make more people upset that their local Binny's doesn't have it than does have it. So we bought two. I think the question is did you buy for volume or did you find distinction between the two barrels? These were our favorite of the two barrels. And now if you Google- fun fact, if you Google this brand online, you might find links to other retailers' websites that claim that they have the only four barrels that came to the United States, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. In truth, they got our scraps. Nice. All right, let's try them. What the hell does this taste like? So we have Barrel 3094 and 3097. 3094 is 63.9% alcohol, 3097 is 64.4. Roger, what drink are you making over there? You're like crushing ice. I just wanted some ice to try this with. I got some out for Chris, Chris got the ice and then I put some- I know, but he was body slamming the bag into the floor to break it up. We're collaborating. You know we're recording audio, right? What? No. Yeah, this is live action as the turtle man would say. Listen, live action. Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay, yay, yay. What do you guys think of this Japanese rum? I think they're delicious. This incredibly strong Japanese rum. Yeah, it's a little intense, but the flavors are delicious. Yes. It is not overly barnyardy, funky, agri-colish. It's got some of that estuary overripe fruit character, but I don't think it has any of the stewed vegetable character. It's got a little bit of grassiness to it. There's definitely some grassiness, but there's also some... Let's bring in the heat. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think the ice was a smart move. As usual, we believe in selling you distilled spirits and not water. You can water it down yourself. You should water it down yourself. Yes. I just got a bruise on my tongue. I think that probably everybody is going to agree, this needs a little water or ice. Yes. That said, it's intense. They're so cool and they're so flavorful. I think a great example of- Chris, can you pass that cork over? The aging potential of agri-coal is off the charts for transforming the spirit. You can age traditional rums and they become complex and nuance and everything, but young agri-coals are such an acquired taste. I mean, to be brutally honest, they never usually resonate with many customers and we see them, unfortunately, get closed out a lot. But rum agri-coal, once it's aged for a while, especially in the Caribbean stuff, aged in French oak, what oak was this aged in, did you say? I'm not sure. I have to double-check on that. But I mean, the Japanese are usually very on point with amazing oak. So this is a tremendous step to character here. The color is beautiful. These are serious rums. Yeah. They just need a little water. I totally agree. One thing I would say is that you mentioned the mineral character of the sugarcane itself. That is just, on this second example, really mineral driven. Remember when we were talking about birds? It doesn't even say what kind of cask on their website. So Alaskan did a beer, a porter. It was a 15-day fermentation. I saw that. Ludicrously long. I don't know what that means. That's really long. Most rums, most commercially made rums distill in about- They ferment in about 24 hours. So do you think this was a really cold ferment? I mean, is that what they're doing here? How did they extend it? I don't think it was particularly cold. It's just, the longer you let it sit, there's a lot of Jamaican rum that goes through several week ferments. I would imagine since it was the first and last rum they ever made, that they were like, I don't know, let it ride. Yep. Yet, it's not particularly estery. Right. You know? And you would think of a long, slow fermentation would produce a lot of esters. Well, again, besides just letting, alleviating the heat, putting some water in this is bringing out even more character. I think you're getting more ester and funk with the water. Well, I don't want to put water in there. So you probably don't want that at all, Greg. No. These are really interesting. You are correct, Roger. Absolutely. I just tasted number one after a little dilution. Funky Town, that plantain thing. Yeah. It's like a fried plantain. Jim sample it. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Wait a minute. I think I got it. Yeah. That's the man we need at Funky Town. Funky Town. Tally, you are the worst. I love Tally. I know. I know. All right. What's next? All right. What did that taste like? Really delicious aged agri-cola. Weirdly intense rum. Yeah. I'm down for this. I'm a tater, but I'm down for this. I happen to have these, and I hadn't tasted them. So we're going to try both of Smokewagon's rye whiskies. Yes. So they've got a bottled in Bond, which is going around first, and they have what they call a malted rye. How does that mean? Okay. So both of these are sourced from MGP., just like all other Smokewagon. The bottled in Bond mashbill is 51% rye, 49% corn. So it's Cesarac? Yeah, kind of, but even more corn, because any other Kentucky rye is normally going to have some malted barley in there. I love that mashbill when we've tasted Rossville single barrels for Binny's handpicks. We taste 100% blind even between mashbills, and most of what we picked is not the 95% rye mashbill. They're famous nerds chase a 95% rye mashbill, but low-key the best mashbills MGP makes are not that. Then the malted rye is 51% rye, 49% malted barley. Oh my God. Nice. Yeah. Of all the Rossville barrels we've picked over the last several years, 80% have been the 51-49 malt mashbill, and I think it's the best mashbill MGP makes. Aaron, who runs Smokewagon, agrees with me. What he told me when this first launched is, if this mashbill was available when he started Smokewagon, there wouldn't be Smokewagon bourbon, it would only be malted rye. Which is interesting because we tasted the Smokewagon bourbon on the prior podcasts and I thought it was amazing. Yeah, it's great. Anyway, I happened to have these. I hadn't tasted them until this morning here, so I brought them by. Of note though, the malted rye is cast strength. So the bottle I have here is 58.16, whereas the 51 rye, 49 corn, the bottled and bond, of course, being bottled and bond, it's 100 proof. Is anybody getting that classic Flintstones vitamin note out of the number one, the bottled and bond? I was just thinking that and I was like, what is this flavor that I'm trying to think of? It smells just like that minerally fruity Flintstones. God, I'm just going to add ice to everything I bring today. What the hell? Well, this is what our listeners should do too, if you try. I tried it first. Okay, good. I forgive you. Wow. The bottled and bond is good. So the bottled and bond is, I want to say 80 bucks and the malted is 90 bucks. They're a little on the high side. But rye whiskies are expensive. People will get in fist fights over these bottles in the aisles. You don't think so? Well, I'm pouring them because we have them. We are starting to finally see decent amounts of smokewagon. You can walk into almost any binny's now and they're going to have smokewagon, smokewagon small batch and even smokewagon uncut unfiltered. Within a couple of weeks, we're going to have a whole lot of uncut the younger on the shelves too. So they're at a point now production wise where they're really ramping things up and we can actually start talking about this brand and promoting it. In a couple of weeks is now. Yeah. So that's good news for you who want to drink this and the people who just want to buy stuff and lord over their nerd friends. They'll find something else. Yeah. Okay. So answer, what the hell does this taste like? Really good. What do you guys find in between the malted and the corn here? So both 51 percent rye. I think the malted has, I think it's too young. I think it has like an aniset kind of herbaceousness that I think will age out over time. And if you like really young rye or really young whiskeys, then you might like it, but I don't know. I think neither are over the top in their rye heaviness. I like that malted barley generally brings a lot of fruit to the party and rye can bring a lot of fruit as well. And I think the malted rye, you have this like big orchard fruit bramble berry kind of balance with the more herbal rye character. On the bottled and bonned rye, I think it's a little more straightforward. It tastes like a real spicy bourbon that is four years old. I like that one more for that reason. Yeah, I agree. It's Flintstones vitamins fruity. It is winter green. It is peppery spice on the finish. The malted barley, surprisingly, is a little hotter and a little more intense. It's fruity, but in a different way than the other ones. It's also 116 proof, 117 proof. It's kind of grainy. I mean, it definitely has more of a grain, less of a barrel character, which some people love that. I don't dislike it by any means, but I feel like people who like grain forward whiskies are going to enjoy the malted rye one. What's the youngest will it that we've had? It reminds me of really young will it? Like four-year rye. Yeah. So perhaps more of a complimentary than like Flintstone vitamin. The first one, the other rye, to me has these big apple pear flavors to it, to the point that it almost reminds me of American brandies, like some of the Copper and King kind of baggage better. Yeah, I get that for sure. I really enjoy it. It's pretty interesting. Great aromatics. Lots of apple and vanilla and pear. I mean, to be noted, I think the most interesting thing to me is that it cuts its own path between ryes that are bourbon-esque and ryes that are very herbaceous and dry, to the point of the more challenging ryes. This is almost like brandy-esque to me and less bourbon, less earthy. It really is in its own class. Well, I recall the smoke wagon bourbon being particularly fruity too. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if that's from the yeast or- They go for amplified fruit character in the bourbons. That's straight from the horse's mouth. Okay. Well, that makes sense. What's his name? Aaron. Aaron the horse. That's really good. That's interesting. Wilbur. If they're going to be more available, that's awesome news. Agreed. Good whiskey is great. Good whiskeys. Great whiskey is good. There's a chili pepper in the bottom. There's like a Thai chili pepper in the bottom. What is this? I didn't even pay attention. We are drinking Lafayette Spicy Bourbon from Alpine Distilling. Alpine Distilling is in Park City, Utah. We've got a few of their products coming in. We've got gin, we've got this. We have an actual bourbon that's like triple cast matured and sold exclusively originally at Michael Jordan's private golf club in Florida. Park City, Utah. That's like outside of Salt Lake City, correct? Yeah, it is. It's High West. High West is also a- Do you know why I know that? Because of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. This is a 70 proof bourbon. It's unreal. I initially, I was like, come on, this can't be good. And then I tried it and I was like, you know what, this is the right amount of spice and added sugar. It's like- Okay, you said this is bourbon. It's flavored bourbon. With a huge asterisk of that it tastes like a melted candle. That's what it smells like. Pat, I wanna say that before I smell or taste this, anytime I've ever had a spirit with a pepper floating in it has been the grossest experience of my life and it's happened more than once. I don't think this is, I think the grossest experience of life is far from this. I either am going to love this or I'm going to fight you like my dad after several shots of Malort. This is not Fireball. Like Fireball is just super gross. This has cinnamon, this has actual kind of chili pepper flavor to it. I was gonna say, there's hot cinnamon here. Yeah, and I don't think this is bad. I really don't. Like flavored whiskey, I don't defend flavored whiskeys often, but I think I tried this and I was like, you know what, that's pretty fun. And it's not like so disgusting that it stays with you for an hour. I like the heat level, but a combination of candles and soaps. Again, we're back at Bed Bath and Beyond. No, Bath and Body Works. Bath and Body Works, yeah. I'm not defending Fireball because it's not great, but I would probably take a shot of Fireball over this. Whoa, that's crazy. Pat, you know what? Chris, what do you think? Well, I think absolutely in the nose, it is very, very aromatically bizarre. Candle, candle light. Candle-y. But I don't mind it on the palate. I saw the pepper in there and I did not know there would be cinnamon. And the first thing I thought was cinnamon red hots, spicy, spicy cinnamon. When I first smelled it, I was like, this is going to be totally gross. And then I tasted it, I was like, you know what? It's not that bad. I agree, the nose isn't the best. Pat, I share that experience. I like it. I think it's a nice, it's a nice, fun little guy. It's $26.99 on sale. It's kind of fun. It tastes like elderflower liqueur if you put a little bit of heat on it. See. Yeah, where's the floral? I'm with Roger. I like the heat level, but it does not taste good to me. And doing a shot of that would give me acid reflux. So I'll just do a shot of fireball if I want something. It doesn't come off as particularly syrupy even though it seems very sweet. It's very sweet, but it's light on its feet, just like St. Germain. Thank you both. I think it's fun. Yeah, it is fun. It is fun. I mean, zero fun Adamsons here. Fun in the way that if you're sitting at your friend's coffee table, you know, you're eating some like Fritos and you accidentally reach Fritos at a coffee table. I reached into the potpourri bowl by mistake and sat at the Fritos. This is a singularly Roger Nix killian, is what he's describing. Who are you hanging out with in 2023 with potpourri bowls? No, what Netflix were you binging when that happened? Dude, this is potpourri. This is no way. Who doesn't love potpourri Frito pie? All right, we're trying some, I've never tried this before. We are trying Viceray, Ginginha, it's a Portuguese, how would I pronounce that? Ginginha. Do we sell that? We do. Is this safe? Is the J a Y? It's Ginginha. I have never seen that. So for many, many years, like as long as I've worked in the buying office, we would get requests for Ginginha. Stop saying it like that. I don't know. Let me see it. You f***ing tell me why, guys. Ginginha. Ginginha. Yeah, that's probably more accurate. So as long as I've worked in the buying office, we would get requests for this kind of the court. People go on vacation to Portugal, and I don't know if it's like the Fireball of Portugal or what, but everyone who goes on vacation to Portugal comes back and asks their local Binny's for this. I could be wrong, but I feel like in Portugal, they have little stands like on the street where you can just walk up and buy this stuff, buy the shot. So it's huge. It's by far like the best selling liquor in the country of Portugal. This is the biggest brand of it. Zero of them were imported to the US forever. This finally came in like maybe three years ago or so, and still never tried it. It trickles along at a few stores and... Do they mix it in a Coke? They love their Coke cocktails. I bet it's delicious just based on the cherries on the lid. Yeah, with mixing wine with Coke, with Coke, or it sometimes is called Ginja is a Portuguese liqueur made by infusing Ginja berries, which are sour cherries, the Morello cherry in just alcohol and sugar. Then they usually get some cinnamon and clove added to it, but not always. It's very brown. I was not expecting this color. Brown? Yeah, just very brown. It's like really intense cola. It smells like cherries. Remember that time we did this episode two years ago and we had cherry kiaffa? We're right there. Oh, no. No. Yeah. I still haven't tasted it. Cherry cough syrup. I disagree. I think it tastes like hazelnuts. Oh, yeah, it does. It's very nutty. Cherry hazelnuts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't get past the cherry cough syrup though at the beginning there. The finish is really nice though. The finish is very hazelnut forward. Solely imported and distributed by Sarmento's Imports and Exports Incorporated. Massachusetts. I'm an importer-exporter. Yeah, this almost has like a cola note to it. Yeah. It's interesting to see people putting this in coke. It's not as sweet as I thought it would be. No, yeah. It's not as intense as I thought it would be. I thought it would be even more medicinal than it is. It's traditionally served as a shot with fruit like in the glass. Oh, okay. Sangrier. It's sangrier in a shot glass. I'm trying to figure out what you would do with this. I guess just shoot it. You know, now that I've had like three more sips, it reminds me of like the cherry thumb print cookies you make around Christmas time. Because it's got a little bit of this baking spice. It's cherry and almond extract. It's cherry marzipan. Yeah. Yeah. I like this. I know. I wouldn't buy it because I'm not just going to rip chilled shots of it at home. Yeah. I don't know how. You get that almond flavor. Yeah. I wonder if it's all cherries or if they put some other stuff in there. I bet it's all cherries. Interesting. Weird. Morello cherries. It's a little cinnamony. It tastes kind of flat. It needs something to lift. I agree. I agree. It needs a little more depth and a little more lift. Do you want a gin highball? It tastes like old sh**ty candy. It needs a lemon wedge. You carry the banner of old sh**ty candy everywhere you go. No, I mean like, put really sh**ty, like those sticks in the jar. Don't s**t with a bit of honey, okay? Bit of honey is delicious. Honey sucks. Next. You're really letting us down here, Pat. We want to know what these taste like. I didn't, it wasn't, What Do You Taste Like, Bring Only The Finest Single Cast Single Bottle. Yeah. Oh man. This is weird though. This is an experience, huh? Are we doing select next? Yeah. Guys, the Peeps Pepsi feels like so long ago. Yeah. I don't like centuries ago. A lifetime ago. Ooh, that's sticky. Didn't you guys already pregame with this one? Yeah, we pregame with this one. I didn't try it, I smelled it. So next up is Select Aperitivo. Select is the biggest brand of Italian red aperitivo in the Naples, or the Venice area, excuse me, in Venice. The traditional Venetian spritz with this is actually garnished with green olives, which Greg should like. Were you cannonballing some of this on a gondola when you were there? I was not in Venice, unfortunately. Next time. So I'm imagining- I did talk to that one restaurant and they're selling me their decorative old Amari that was on the shelf on the walls and letting me taste it. They're like, we don't know if it's any good. I was like, it'll be fine. They're also like- We don't know if it's like furniture polisher in here. It couldn't have even been the product. Yeah. Could have been pure poison. Am I wrong, buddy? In imagining an Art Nouveau oil painting poster of a green devil sneaking off with this bottle. Yeah. That's this, right? I really like this. We are getting rid of this. We bought these big spritz kits with this last year because they were a great deal, and it's really hard to get people to buy a red bitter that's not Aperol. Yeah, as we've learned. This whips Aperol with a belt. So I think this is a good halfway between Aperol and Campari. Exactly. It's not as bitter as Campari. It's not as strong as Campari, but it's got way more character in bitterness and alcohol strength than Aperol. This is 17.5% alcohol. Aperol is only like 11% alcohol. And it tastes like oranges. But this tastes like real bitter. This is lovely. You can get this at a Binny's near you right now in a kit. You got a 750 of this and a 750 of LaMarca Prosecco and a spritz glass for $19.99. Regularly, a 750 of this is like $26 or $27. Pat, you are getting this and a LaMarca for $20. Pat, the show is not an infomercial. Why are we doing it then? Isn't it though? That said, I didn't know this was so good. It is so good. It has superb balance between sweetness, bitterness, fruitiness. It is very, very nice. If the Whiskey Highline didn't think it was such an outstanding red bitter, we wouldn't have bought as much as we did of that pack. I'm imagining it's a $20 bottle of Campari alternative that comes with a free bottle of Prosecco and a plastic glass of Campari. It should be a $30 bottle of Campari. LaMarca, one of our best-selling Prosecco. The best-selling Prosecco. Yeah, definitely. That was just stupid. Stupid. This would make a hell of a spaghet. It would make a hell of a spaghet. Maybe we should make some spaghets on its own though. Yeah, yeah. We need a lemon though. A 30-racket hams and pour off a pour and then fill up a can. Oh, Highlife on its own. Pat, where's your ham sack? You can do it with hams. It's in the car. My tolerance and appreciation for bitterness has exponentially grown since taking this position, and I have you guys to thank you for that. Well, do I have a treat for you? Wait, does that mean next? Last week when we took a shot of Malort before the Hawks game, I was like, this doesn't even faze me anymore. It doesn't. No. Yeah, Pat. First of all, thank you. Second of all, f*** you. Every time I've had Malort, which has been four or five times since you gave us that extract, it's always been like, what a delightful little treat. I know. It's a shadow of what it used to be, right? You have stripped away any potency that Malort had. Yeah. This label looks like a fever dream, so I can't wait to taste this. Oh. It's like an advertisement for Hitchhiking Vertigo. Okay, this is actually terrific. This label is either like a classic alcohol brand or a brand of laundry soap. Yeah. There you go. The pores, it looks like Pepsi, flat Pepsi. Oh, buddy. Yeah. All right, the bottle's still making its way around. So we are passing around Opal. It is a Icelandic liqueur, O-P-A-L. Beer was outlawed in Iceland forever, but the spirits weren't. That makes sense. So people, everybody in Iceland grew up drinking Opal and Topis, which are T-O-P-A-S, which are the spirit-based versions of the childhood candies that are popular there. Oh my God. Which are salted licorice candies. Dude, it must be so brutal. You grow up in Iceland. What's the dish they're famous for that's- Fermented shark. Yes, thank you. I thought it was shark. Sorry, fermented shark? Yes, and it's like the George St. Haribol. Salted liquor stuff is always great with fermented fish. All right, so adult men in Iceland are basically werewolves. Yeah. So, like- Dude, this smells like hydrogen peroxide. Oh my God. It tastes like hydrogen peroxide. This is their candy. It's like licorice-flavored hydrogen peroxide. So they'll refer to this as like grandpa's candy. Whatever their word is for candy, like fluvohots and flosinvosin or whatever, they refer to this as grandpa's candy, right? It's so salty. It's so salty. It's like, oh my God. How funny is this? The finish is actually decent. Like I don't mind the finish, but oh God. It's insane. It's so salty. Have you tried it? Should I do this like last? So you and me, buddy, I am holding out because I'm terrified. Just do it, just do it. It's not that bad. It's salty, but it finishes pleasant. Dude, it smells like salty armpit. Medicine cabinet. No, it smells like, what's the lozenge that I love? The fisherman's friend lozenge. Roger's taking this so personally, like I'm about to get him. I hadn't tried this until a week ago, so I was like, wow, that'd be perfect for this episode. Opal. Yeah, opal. Like lick your lips afterwards. Like all the salts on your lips. Yeah, yeah it is, yeah. It's like you took a McDonald's salt packet and put it on a fisherman's friend. It's so intense. I love this, but I also want to vomit right now. This is so good. That is absolutely fascinating. Isn't that cool? Where are you at, Roger? Okay, so a fisherman's friend has this mint, but it's also like really black strapped molasses at the same time, and this nails it. It is so gross and weird and delicious. It's methylated too. It's like drinking head and shoulders. In Iceland, this comes pre-mixed in six packs with soda water. And little glass bottles. Roger, imagine if you're at the ballpark, and they made like a head and shoulders soft pretzel. With these big chunks of salt. Oh my god. It is like unbelievably salty. I think this is in Iceland. In Iceland, it comes in different flavors, including pepper. It's like anchovy and berry, somehow. This is why prohibition is a bad thing. Because somehow, right, someone probably okayed this, because they're like, no one will ever drink this. Yeah, what else are we going to do? Like, they won't drink this to get drunk. Well, this is, this can be had at your local Binny's for a cool $42.99. Oh my god. What a joke. Are you kidding me? This, that is a small price to pay. Anybody comes to my house and wants to drink my rarest bourbons, you've got to do a shot of this first. If you ever wanted to taste your dad's aftershave on a salt lick. Right? Salty black licorice. How awesome is that? Yes. Here we go. Cap that. Where'd the cap to that go? I was just looking over at that beautiful product. I know. It's less money than this. Seriously. It's so good though. It is absolutely Fisherman's Friend. It's not good at all, but I'm happy to have tasted it. Dear famous spirits producers of the world, please send your best to Iceland so they know what they've been missing out on. Dear Iceland, knock it off. Yeah. There's a world of pleasures out there. You don't need to drink your medicine cabinet. Imagine this with Fermented Shark. Why do you hate yourselves, Iceland? Come on, though. I'm imagining Ingmar Bergman's death in a bottle. When you lose that chess game, you need to drink this. This is what happens when you break the seventh seal. You just have to drink this. It's so good. Bro, have you burped since you took that shot? Oh, no. It is a messed up experience. It's a flashback of a burp. Oh, God. Well, my beard is still tingling. So please, God, let this be better. What number is this? Are we like on number four right now? So on a more useful note, I have two alternatives to green chartreuse here with me today. You can't get green chartreuse. It's been a problem for a long time. Came out in the news recently that the monks quietly put it on allocation, sent a letter to their importers, distributors, et cetera. Those lazy, goddamned monks. They're like, we shall only make four cubits. Yeah, exactly. So is it supply chain? One of the world's the herbs? They want to focus on being monks instead of being global, a global spirit brand. Forget your vows. Give us chartreuse, damn it. Yeah, right. You name the color after your damn liquor. They don't talk much and they pray a lot. Yeah, and they garden, probably. And they garden, they garden. Someone needs to send them a little reminder that all those prophets help people. And while I'm doing this, they're being real selfish. They got the memo from the monks at Westville Letteran. Exactly. The hipsters are going to fight each other for this. Yeah. Anyway, another poor kid in France is like, man, have some more. Chartreuse is now on tight enough allocation that I'm honestly not sure that we will ever get bottles of Chartreuse Binny's again. Because it is allocated to on-premise sales, to bar sales. Because it was a bar staple long before it was hipsters bringing it home from the liquor store staple. I got three quarters of a bottle of green at home. Yeah, you need to nurse that down. You got that green? You got that green? I got that green. We need to do a side-by-side then if you actually have some. I do. Because it's good, but it's always been overpriced. Yeah. I brought two alternatives. One is close as far as proof goes. I think the other is going to be closer as far as flavor goes. The first thing I think of is Dolan-Genepi. Dolan-Genepi is what I had been telling the staff to do early in the holiday season. But Dolan-Genepi is only 40 percent alcohol, and it has much more added sugar than chartreuse. So, Dolan-Genepi is great. We've had it before. We had it in that cocktail with hot cocoa once on, was that a virtual tasting or was that a podcast? What's his name was on it? When Jake was on it. Dolan-Genepi is great. We've had two new things, one returning pop up since. You're about to break Jake Parrott's heart. Maybe. Quit parroting what Jake would say. The first one I'm going to pass around is from Elixir Spirits in Oregon. This is like some Italian family that moved over, started making a lot of different traditional liqueurs here, including Calaçaia, which is like a cinnamon. That's an old cocktail ingredient. Yeah. Hardly find anymore. We'll taste that at some point, Chris. I'd like to maybe do a cocktail with some of that. I'm passing around the Vier, V-E-R. That's the Latin word for spring. I brought it one because it's- I like the label. It's more pastyce-like. What's the label? It's more pastyce-like. It's more anise-forward and gentian, but it's a hundred proof. Green chartreuse being, I want to say green chartreuse is 55 percent alcohol, 110 proof. That sounds about right. This is going to be a little closer. It's green, it's herbal, but it's got a little more anise than chartreuse. Will this give you that opalescence if you put water in it? He has not put water in it. Will it, Looch? But more importantly, we're all wondering, what the hell does that taste like? Oh yeah, this is super close. It's pretty close. Now, Avere is a different style of liqueur altogether. It's more of like Italian, French border, alpine type thing. But it's pretty delicious though. But it's really good. For people, again, that aren't aficionados, I know some mixologists that pines for their chartreuse, maybe not. But why did you say pines? Because this tastes like wintergreen and pine. Herbs, spices, seeds, barks, mint. This has a strong minty. It is very minty. It's not quite as... It's really nice. Syrupy, sweet, and a little bit more bitter than chartreuse. Yeah. You think it's more bitter than chartreuse? I do. No. No? Chris, I think your memory is clouded. Yeah. This is great. I think that my memory is... Chris, I think the sharpness of the mint... I'm sure the louch. The louch. I think the sharpness of the mint is giving a false sense of bitterness here. Agreed. Well, we got to see if it does something. Oh, he's getting some more. Maybe it's that your palate was destroyed from the Icelandic bad joke. Well, that could be. Bad joke. I thought that was totally fake. How dare you shit on their culture like that, Roger? Pat, it was good, but it should have been the last thing we had. How much does this cost? This is fantastic. That's the cool thing here. This is currently on sale at your local Binny's for $34.99. Sure, I'd buy that. Bingo. We're short for the price of chargers. Exactly, like half the price of chargers. Roger, can I get a bing bong? Bing bong. Yeah, this is really good. This is the other one, Pat? Yeah, this one, I think, might be closer in flavor profile, but it's not quite as high proof. Is that bowls? No. No. It's mostly bitter liqueurs, right? This is Boomsma Claire Campster Cluster Bitter. Oh, is it Dutch? Oh, yes. Yeah. It's in the goofy Geneveres. It's in the Genever bottle. Yeah, see, I saw that B-O and that goofy bottle. And the ceramic bottle, yeah. Look at this goofy ass monk. What's he doing? So, working. Not making chargers apparently. This one is very good. Very good. We've moved on from now that, but. Lazy carthusian. So, as you guys are passing this Boomsma around, let's talk about it a bit here. So, this Boomsma is 40% ABV, so it's lower proof. It's down with the Dolan Geneppe. However, this is based on a 15th century recipe from the Claircamp Monastery, and this was a recipe based for herbodigestive type elixirs. This was passed along now from third to fifth generation of the Boomsma family, and the idea behind it includes herbs and plants found in the Friesian meadows of Holland during the month of May. Sick. Yes. Local aromatic botanicals, gentian root, juniper berry, clove, mint, dandelion, anise, fennel, blessed thistle, more. All these different botanicals are macerated and aged individually, and then they construct the blend, and that's closer to what chartreuse actually does. Isn't that what our buddy from like North Minnesota did? What was his name? Oh, from- The Nordsk distillery. Tommy something, it don't matter. Yeah. So, they distill all of them separately or just macerate them separately? They macerate it separately, and then it's blended into this. As a mixing substitute, I think it's probably the closest to green chartreuse, but green chartreuse tends to be a little stronger in licorice. I think this is a little more minty, right? Yeah, this is less. This is way sweeter. This is so good, though. This is pretty sweet. It's got some ginger in the finish, interestingly. Yeah, there's some ginger heat. Yeah, little more sugar than the veer, a little less proof. Way more sugar. Yeah, but it's really good. But not as much sugar as Dolan Geneppe, I think. We'd have to try them side by side. It's pretty delicious. It's pretty delicious. It's really good, yeah. I think for, considering most chartreuse applications are like a quarter ounce, either of these are gonna do you well. I just wanna drink this on its own. The weird thing is I don't get a lot of aroma out of it. I smell it and I don't smell much, but it's very explosively flavorful. Now, here's the kicker with this. What do you think this costs? I'm hoping like $29.99. $27.99. That is our regular price on this. That is freaking delicious. So for what chartreuse cost and what it offered, this is closer to the sugar. Chartreuse had some sugar in it. I think the veer has less sugar than chartreuse. This has maybe very slightly more, maybe about the same. I like how he's speaking in the past tense of chartreuse. No, you're not getting chartreuse. So this is really herbal, but it's so well-rounded and so contained. Very well-balanced. It's so balanced. Like, Jagermeister is kind of herbal and gross. Yeah. There's all of these different bitters that are like herbal and gross. This is really good. Yeah, it's good, right? Really good. Delightful. It's one, I'm going to be contrarian, which will shock everyone here. You like the veer? Yeah, I think it's much more one-dimensional besides being much sweeter. I think there's that that je ne sais quoi that's very chartreuse-ian is in the first one and not in this. Interesting. I think the first one is a bit minty, winter green. There's a woodsy character to the first one, almost like a tiny- That's a gentian root in the first one. Alpine influence for sure. That's missing in the second one. That's fair. I think the first one, whether it's perceived or not, brings enough, quote-unquote, bitterness to the party to more effectively maybe make up for sharp truth. I agree. The first one is definitely more bitter. This one is lacking in bitterness. It's all about sweet mint and herbs. Let me ask you a question. Which one would you rather have in your hot chocolate? The second one. I mean, that would be great with chocolate. You could mix it with cream. How much was the first one? First one is on sale for $34.99. Okay. I think the Boomstick would be good with some cream. Yeah. Yeah. Cream? This is my Boomstick. Yeah, evil dead joke. That would be a good St. Patrick's Day drink. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty good, right? Pretty solid. I was just going to say the Lion, the Witch and the audacity of this bitch, of that Iceland drink to cost that much when you have these two delicious things for under $40. Are you kidding me right now? Are you kidding me right now? That salty son of a bitch is like, cost an arm and a leg. No, it's just like peeking in your windows just to be like, hey, it's me. Hey. I was referred to CS. Lewis as that salty son of a bitch. I cannot believe that. Wow. All right. Here we are. Yeah, you could make like an adult shamrock shake at that second. Yeah, for sure. Wow, that would be really good. The booziest shamrock shake. I have one more delightful treat for you guys. Drink a little bit of water before we taste this. Who has water? Can I have water? I'm still dehydrated from my salty liqueur. Here, take my scraps. No. I drink some of this Doppelbach, actually. Also, I don't need the golf channel of liquids in me again. The golf channel of liquids. Take that, Roger. Them's fighting words. It's fine. It don't matter. It's fine. It don't matter. Hey, everybody gets to enjoy what they enjoy. The golf channel of liquids is Bodington's, not Doppelbach. Bodington's. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I drank a lot of Bodington's in an incurious phase in my late 20s. Oh, yeah. Oh, the cream of Manchester. Oh, man. This stinks. It's right next to my face and it stinks. Yeah. It's a Laphroaig. It sure is. What condition is your condition in? Nice. I just walked in. In a recent Barrel to Bottle episode, we talked about the arms race between Brook Lottie and Ardbeg, and how Laphroaig just stood there like, okay. Yeah, pretty much. And now that there's no- Look at these octomorons fighting it out. Exactly. And now that there's no cork in this bottle, this whole room stinks. Yep. Yeah. Smells like a fine, fine band-aid. It smells like a Sharpie permanent marker. Like those big ones that we use in stores to mark dummy boxes. This is the latest Whiskey Hotline hand-picked single malt scotch. Oh, it's OB. This is an OB single-cast Laphroaig. This is an eight-year-old Laphroaig. This is a get. Matured wholly in a PX Sherry Hogshead. Hogshead, you may recall from previous episodes, is a 250-liter barrel. Oh, we do. Yes. And- The celebrated Mr. Kite. This, of course, is bottled in natural color, non-chill filtered, at cast strength, at 62.2% alcohol. So why did they put it in a Mountain Dew bottle? Because that's Laphroaig. This is available at your local Binny's for $250 currently. What the hell does that taste like? What does that taste like? $250. Laphroaig bleeds their cult for all it's worth. People pay out the nose for this hot dog water. Hey, you remember when you were a kid and you're in this craft time and you needed to make something with rubber cement? Yes. It's better than that. It's more like iodine. So if you talk to some Laphroaig nerds about this- Nerds, for sure. I was talking to- We have a great spirits guy at the Evans store named Jay, and I was talking to him earlier today about this. Shout out to Jay. Podcast listener. He was saying, he expects room-filling, expansive, peaty character from Laphroaig. That is this. On the nose, he thought, man, it's kind of shy, and I said, well, and he said it's lacking the iodine, that medicinal note that's a Laphroaig calling card. And I said, what it lacks in that, it kind of makes up for in the less well-celebrated Laphroaig calling card, which is a distinct citrus character. And of the nine distillers on Isla, both Laphroaig and Beaumont tend to have a little bit of citrus oil in their house character. And I think it comes through in this. Now, maybe it's the PX bringing it out or whatnot. Now, the PX for sure tempers the iodine, but you still have that earthy peat, and you have a bit of smoke, but it's not over-the-top Laphroaig. Listen, both of you guys are, you're correct, one, you're correct on the citrus. That's all I needed to hear. And two, you have grown nose-blind to the explosive iodine nature of this. Yeah. You think this is medicinal and iodiney? Dude, it's all over the place. Yes. I don't think it's that sense. It's so earthy too, like when you, it's awesome. When you have a bunch of pile of wet leaves, and there's the part that's like decaying underneath, that's like becoming soil, the part only you and the dog love to roll in. You made October even more goth. I'm into it. Of course. This is absolutely that smoldering leaf, that desiccating, drying. People, when you burn leaves, and it has that very distinct smell to it. That's a point I try to get over to staff when we taste and train on single malt scotch, is there's not all smoky Isla malts are the same, and people are like, it's just that burnt vegetal blah, blah, blah, but some of them have a real clean, meaty smoke, like a Koehler or a Buna Havan, and some have this tarry rope kind of character, like an Ard Bag, and some of them have this. The fuck is a tarry rope? Like a seaside shit. Yeah. Some of them are like woolen sweaters. Fine. I give up. Whatever. No. I'm going to actually say that I come down on Pat's side of the equation here. I am surprised at the subtlety of the iodine, the richness of the smoldering leaf and decaying leaf aroma, and that citrus is definitely there. Right? It's fun. It's a fun whiskey. As explosive as these flavors are, they are also super intricate and subtle. You have to pick this part. Yeah. So, we got first crack at this round of Laphroa cass, and so Brett and Joe and I sat in the office for an entire day. We were there 12, 14 hours or so, and we had- 12, 14 hours or so. Well, we worked slower than most. Most of it was talk about baseball. Not untrue. So, we had- it was first fill and second fill cass of all types, bourbon, sherry, Oloros sherry, PX sherry, port even, and we got to try all these, and we sampled and resampled and sampled again, and went back and forth on these things as they breathed and oxidized throughout the day, and this was the cass we landed on. When you first crack a bottle, it might seem a little tight, but give it some time to breathe. I've had this open now for like two weeks now, maybe three, taken around a couple of my weekly classes and stuff. A lot of staff have tried it, and it's really opened up and it's big and broad. I think it's fascinating because sometimes I think of like bacon or smoked pork, but here I get like an actual deep, like roasted pork aroma of this. It's fascinating. It's shockingly good. It's really good. It's really complex. Very rarely does the- Sponferkel. Sponferkel, yes. What is that? Some kind of s'more? No, it's a pork dish. It's a German pork dish. It's a s'more. Yeah, it's a s'more. It's pork s'more. Very rarely will the whiskey hotline break a conscious rule of about $10 per year of age on the shelf, on a handpick cask. But sometimes an exceptional barrel comes along that warrants breaking that. This is expensive and this isn't for everybody. We ran it at $200 for a few weeks when it launched. It's back to its regular price at $250 now. It may come down at some point in the future, but it's selling out and selling out fairly quickly. So if you're into really cool cast-strength Isla single malts, you ought to be checking this out. It's absolutely fascinating. I have to admit that I've never been a huge fan of Isla, really strong peated flavors. He says he's not a super taster. I'm not, at all. I would lean way toward fruitier Highland expressions, but I think I've been dragged in this direction at some point. I don't know how. Because of this son of a bitch right here. I mean, this is fascinating. Isn't it good? Yeah. It's really cool. Again, it's a really fun whiskey to digest and contemplate over several hours. This isn't like I'm coming home from work, I'm going to have a dram and go to bed. That's not what this whiskey is for. This is like if you have a few hours, you're watching March Madness or something on a Saturday afternoon, like just have this whiskey in a glass next to you and go back and forth to it over the course of multiple hours. You're going to find your kids to go to the backyard. You're going to find a lot of cool shit to uncover. It's incredibly complex. I kid you not, I just put the smallest possible drink of this in my mouth, and it is endlessly fascinating. And it is potent enough to puzzle over when you put just a milliliter in your mouth. Yeah, and now actually putting a couple of drops of water in this drastically changes to we haven't even got, we didn't even bother with that. It's a fun whiskey. It's expensive. It's a treat for sure, but if you're into awesome single malt scotch and weird, unique expressions, this is for you. Raj, you in? You know, it's not for me. I know that full disclosure, I've never been huge on heavily peated whiskeys, so it's just not really my thing. I can appreciate that it's multidimensional. The Pete character to me, again, this is probably another funny thing. I've burnt Pete quite a bit in the fireplace. Like you can buy Pete logs, so. What do you wear when you do that? A woolen sweater. Yeah, a woolen sweater. I mean, this to me, it just really takes you to that, which again, when people think of the smoke and describe the smoke in a lot of smoky, peaty whiskeys, they often, it evokes more other smoke they're used to. This smoke is so true to Pete and that earthy, decayed matter. You're getting the truest expression that I've tasted in a long time of Pete's smoke. LaFrogue is one of the few distilleries left in Scotland with a floor maltings on site. They have malting floors there. They have a kiln there. The way they malt their barley there is with Pete that's only cut by hand, very traditional with these big metal blades on poles and there's these guys out there on the bogs. You're doing the paper cutter gesture. Oh no, it's like, because it's like a stamp down thing. It almost looks like the same thing like a himadori would use to to trim an agave, but they cut a piece of flat blade sharpened spade. Yeah, but they cut Pete out of the bogs that way. And the whole idea is most Pete nowadays is harvested by this big machine that like it rolls along and it scrapes the top layer of soil off and it like bricks it up behind it kind of, then it sits out there to dry and cutting it by hand. And you're putting less pressure on the Pete itself as you're going through all this process and it's almost like being gentler on pressing a wine. And so you're extracting like less of the unwanted compounds in LeFroy's words. And then you get a wetter Pete and you get a smoke. All right, all right. But this is real. One time Jason Alexander made a show about Star Trek and that was less nerdy than what you're doing right now. Screw you. We bought a whole cast of this. Hey, when you cut it by hand, you also get the chance to find some bog butter. Gross. Yeah. Yeah. It's true. Bog butter. Okay. All right. You familiar with this, Jenna? You guys have lost me a long time ago. People bury butter to preserve it in bogs. Because bogs have no oxygen in them. Yeah. So then they find it. I'm well aware of the bodies that they can find in bogs. So you can find dairy products and eat those as well. Yeah. They don't remember where they buried it or they die or whatever. And people dig up this butter that's hundreds of years old and then eat it. I would try it. I mean, I'd probably try it too, but that's pretty insane. You'd try it too. I would try it though. Yeah, I would try it. I wouldn't try a body, but I would try the butter I found in a bog. Has Brett tried that yet? That seems like something he would be all about. That definitely seems like something he would try. I don't think so. He really knows a seller on Amazon. All right, I learned a couple of things today. I learned that you can make herbal liqueurs even more salty than I thought. I learned that if you're looking for an affordable... After the price increases of Campari... Oh my God, yeah. It's like $30, what, $32,000? $33. $33. This select aperitif liqueur is $28, a solid stand-in, and you get a bottle of prosecco. Yeah. Yeah. That's a must buy. The people that are lamenting the disappearance of chartreuse, I really think they're going to enjoy that ver. There's some solid stand-ins, yeah. Yeah. A lot of good stuff. Also, Opal. Yeah. No, Opal was actually kind of rad. I don't know how they got that much salt in there. I've had salt and it's saltier. This is saltier than salt. They rang out gym towels over the tanks. Saltier than salt. Yeah. It's a ham sack liqueur. Now, there was another thing I've learned today, but I forgot already. Well, we need to leave so Roger can drink some Reeva salt, apparently. I'm already drinking some. No, I already cleansed after the LaFrog with that. The LaFrog is really interesting. It's really multi-dimensional. It's too much for me. I don't like it. But experience, man. Oh, totally. It's very interesting. You're right. It's like the David Lynch films of liqueurs. People into- Hey, I'm a big David Lynch fan, that ain't my jam. I'm not denying the quality of that and that people will enjoy it. It is personally not for me. I can't get over that permanent marker like that Sharpie. I can't get over that. You will eventually. Yeah, you totally will. You already broke me with theirs and everything else. Yeah. Yeah. It's only a matter of time. City-colored clown they called the Sandmen. I don't know what he's talking about. Outside of that, this has been a lot of fun. That's a word for it. Quite a line up there, guy. Yeah, no problem. Oh, no. My pleasure. Do we have to do part three? We're done, right? I mean, I got more if you want to say more. We're done. Looks like a future episode. It is nearly 8 o'clock at night. It's not nearly 8 o'clock at night. It's halfway there. Pat, thanks for bringing so damn much liquor. My pleasure. And everybody else, thank you for sticking around. I know that this was a little bit of a death march. We're speaking to our co-hosts, not you listeners. Yeah. This has been a delight of an episode. Oh, no. Super terrific. And there are some gems here that people need to try. What the hell does that taste like? It tastes like fun and experience. It does. Yeah. It is. It's a very little waltz through the landmines. Truly, yeah. Some great gems amongst some very... Of wartime Europe. Okay. That's dark, but this is good stuff. So... What an episode. So thanks for sticking with us. We'll be back next week with like Chablis or something. Chablis. The claymore mine of wine. Until next time, I'm Greg. I'm Jenna. I'm Chris. I'm Roger. And I'm Pat. Keep tasting. Can we wrap this up and leave already?