Did you count them, Pat? What did you do? Why did you do this? Listen, for the second Friday in a row, you guys asked me to throw a Spirits podcast together last minute. Yeah, not four Spirits podcasts. Well, listen, I'm following in Wyn's footsteps, and we wanted a little refresher on what's new to the shelves. So, I just started frantically throwing things in boxes. And we don't have to taste all of this. We can take some highlights out of this if you wish. But I thought it would be fun since I always catch a ton of s*** for just bringing too much stuff here. You brought everything, everything. You poked the bear, so here it is. It's Friday night, it's time to go home. Okay, so we've got tequila, mezcal, amari, Irish whiskeys, bourbon, brandy, vodka. We've got a lot of stuff here. All right, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna set the timer at 50 minutes. Oh yeah. And we're gonna see what we can get through. Speed taste. All right, here we go, roll it. You're listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. Hey, I'm Pat. I had a small Cheval burger for lunch today, and I'm feeling great. Ooh, nice. Oh yeah, it is, it is car. Why are you so sweaty? It was from the small Cheval, but there was nothing small about it. I'm so sweaty because I'm fat and it's hot in here. God, why you gotta point it out? You know what? It's an audio medium. They can't see us, they don't know. You could paint any kind of beautiful picture you want. Pat is svelte as can be. Yeah. Wait, where's Svelte Gregg by the way? He's not here. Answering phone calls privately. Yeah. Hey everybody, I'm on the phone with Svelte Gregg. Just thought I'd let you know. You're on speakerphone actually. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. Occasionally take people's phone calls by answering on speaker and not telling them. And humiliating them in front of their audience. Just putting it out there. Okay, sorry, Gregg. That's the last time I'll bring it up. Actually, why am I apologizing? I know. Good question. Because I'm so damn polite, that's why. That's what I'm really known for in this world. He brought 24 bottles of liquor and we're going to get through four. Nobody's going to be polite after this one. All right, so we're tasting new stuff. Let's start with some Irish whisky. All right. Did you guys get through who you are? No, we don't even know who we are. I'm Alicia, I do wine. I'm Chris, I read legal disclaimers on commercials really fast. Trapped in a room with 21 bottles of spirits. Let me out. Help. Yeah, we should be here. I'll be against your will right now. A hot room. And we're tasting them all neat, so it's going to be great. Thank you. Okay. And we're tasting them all neat. That's okay. That's what it's called being a professional in this industry. Yes. Yes. All right. So first couple of things that went around here are the two latest releases from the Keepers Heart Whiskey brand. So Keepers Heart is coming out of the O'Shaughnessy distillery up in the Minneapolis area. So the- Wait, what? It's Irish. I'm getting there. So the O'Shaughnessy family started a Irish style triple pot still distillation, traditional Irish style distillery in, I don't know, I'm sure if it's St. Paul or Minneapolis, you might say on the bottle there. But somehow these people with no industry experience hired away Bryan Nation at the time the master distiller at Middleton to move to Minnesota to move to Minnesota and run this distillery. That's better than hiring Kerry Nation. Okay, yeah. Minneapolis St. Paul is what it's, they're in Minneapolis proper, 600 Malcolm Avenue, Southeast Minneapolis, Minnesota. And now somehow they've brought David Perkins into the fold, David Perkins, founder of High West Whiskey and blender, and for years the blender of High West. And so these total new people, new family, new money in the business have Brian Nation and David Perkins blending their whisky. That's like an indie band that gets like John Paul Jones and, wow, now I'm doing it. That's like a new winery in the Finger Lakes, getting like Thomas Rivers Brown to come and make the wine. Wow, what a relatable reference. Well, John Paul Jones did produce Butthole Surfers. Oh yeah, I know. So, a worm, independent worm swan. Yeah. Jimmy Page. And Jimmy Page, yeah. Yeah, right. Like a couple of rock stars and they're like, we'd like to join your band. And the corpse of John Bonham. So it says it's an Irish single malt. So that's the second one. Where's Bonham for my rim shot? That one says Irish bourbon. That's even more so. Okay, so Irish and bourbon, and then it says produced by O'Shaughnessy Distillery in Minneapolis. I'm very confused. This is insane. We're definitely only going to get through four of them now. Jeez. So the first release was called Irish and American, which we have on the shelves. It's like 33 bucks, and that's Irish whiskey blended with rye, I believe. Now they have Irish and bourbon, which is what you're tasting with the black label there. That's 40 bucks, and it's a blend of Irish whiskey and bourbon. Now the second one I gave you is their just 10-year-old Irish single malt, which is on the shelves in most Binny's, and that's 100 bucks. Whoa. A hundred dollars for a Minneapolis. No, for a 10-year-old Irish single malt. I really like the 10-year-old. I'm just going to say that it's loaded with pear, and it's delicious. The other one has a more present nose. I like the blended ones, man. These guys have been really impressive, and they're doing all kinds of interesting stuff. Like when we first met with them, they brought us all these experiments they have going on. It's like, well, we're probably not going to release these, but we thought it was fun to taste, so you guys would too, and there's one in a surly darkness barrel and stuff like that. Both good. The bourbon and Irish blend is weird, but I like it. Yeah, it is, right? But it's weird. It's really fruity from the Irish whiskey. I was going to say that it's dominated by the Irish whiskey fruitiness for sure, but then you get that richness on the back. But it's well-integrated, it's well-structured, it's a fat, chewy whiskey, it's not lacking in anything. These are great. So is it just the fruitiness that we're getting with that bourbon edition that's giving it just like a sweeter? The bourbon's giving it some sweetness. The fruit's coming from the Irish whiskey. The fruit's being like pears and green apples. Those orchard fruits, but then that sweetness that I feel with the blend. The vanilla sweetness is the bourbon. The fruit is all the Irish whiskey. And sometimes Irish whiskey can be tropical in character. All you have to do is taste the 10-year-old alone to know where that fruit is coming from, because it's there. So if someone hasn't had a lot of Irish whiskey and they are bourbon drinkers, would you recommend this then? Absolutely. As your segue into the Irish whiskey camp? Absolutely. What aisle do you put this in? We have it in the Irish whiskey aisle currently. I'm open to discussion on that, I suppose. That's a hard one because it should be at the American aisle, right? Well, it should be in the generic world declassified aisle. Next to the Indian scotch and Japanese. It's certainly going to see more foot traffic in the Irish section than the world single malt. Yeah. But the world whiskey section is really for malt whiskeys. Yeah. I guess Irish makes sense, but it's not really Irish, but you want to put it in the bourbon section. Yeah. I don't know. It's another one of those, like they just have to name it like spirit or like, it's not even like Irish spirit. I don't even know what it is. American whiskey. Well, I mean, the TTB has to call it something. It's a DSS then from the TTB. It's a Distilled Spirit Specialty. That. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, on the shelf if you're local Binny's now. Say the prices again, the bourbon blend. 40 bucks. The 10-year is 100 bucks. And then their Irish and Rye blend we've had on the shelf now for maybe two months and that's 33 bucks, I believe. I wish that was new. I'd like to try that. Yeah. Absolutely a surprise. I've never even considered something like this. Pretty cool. But the talent they have doing this is absurd. I think that must account for how good they are. Yeah, it's got to be. Do you know where they got their money? How they got into this industry? The family was successful in some kind of industry before, and essentially would just want it to be like, well, we have an Irish heritage, so it seems like you can make some money making whiskey. A classic story. How do you make a small fortune in the whiskey business? You start with an even larger one, and I think that's what's going on here. Where are we going next? You have a complete crazy assortment of stuff. I got another Irish whiskey we can taste. Okay. All right. Next up, we're trying Grey Coast Irish Whiskey. Grey Coast Irish Whiskey is 32.99. This is a new blended Irish whiskey on the shelves, pro golfer Graham McDowell. Anyway, he's part of this somehow because it's like from his hometown, something like that. Well, at least it's not a tequila. Yes, correct. Graham McDowell from Northern Ireland. Graham McDowell. He's only won four times on the PGA Tour. Loser. He did win 2010 Pebble Beach. I played a tournament with him once in Glenview. At the same tournament as him or you had to drive him around? It was like an outing. It was the Harp Open. Kyle Fornick and I played. We had a four caddy. Do you know what a four caddy is? No. It's literally a caddy that on foot chases your ball after you hit the ball and like waits at your ball for you and flags you down while you're driving in a car. It's some real- Is there any other way to play? He beats you and you're driving in a car? Yeah, that's kind of gross. Real aristocratic. And he like flags you down and he waits and then he gives you advice on all this. All right, Irish whiskey. All right, Grey Coast Irish whiskey, 32.99. Yeah, nice bottle. This is fine. It's like bitter. It's like bitter and cheesy. I think it's like fake caramel flavored. That's just very soft. So, when I have to drop and pick my son up from daycare, I have to pass Garrett's Popcorn and it kind of has a little bit of that smell when I walk by it, that caramel popcorn thing. I'm going to agree with everyone because it is bitter. It's bitter. It's bitter, but it also is popcorn caramel corny. Yeah. And cheesy corny. Does it really, does it drop off at the end? Yeah, I don't like it. Except for the bitterness. Do we want to talk about this? Sure, we do. New item, whatever. Well, honestly, back Pat. Grand McDowell. Maybe you should have stuck with gold. Dude, it's just a blend. It's a light blended Irish whiskey. How much is it? Thirty-three bucks. Pat, you brought vodka and this is weird and stupid. Why did you bring this particular vodka? I brought it just because it's called Sausage Tree Vodka. And I'm very disappointed it's not sausage flavored. But this is from Drum Shanbo, the shed distillery in Ireland. They make Drum Shanbo, gunpowder gin. We sell a lot of their gin. It's great gin. When Jeff and I were over in Ireland earlier in the year, we saw this behind a bar and we're laughing about it. And then it was only better time before it made its way over. And so it's distilled from grains and Irish nettle. It's not actually distilled from anything having to do with the sausage tree. The goofball who owns the place was in Africa, saw a sausage tree and it reminded him of Irish nettles. So then they made a vodka distilled from grain and Irish nettle. That's weird. How does the sausage tree remind you of nettles? I don't know. They have an image of the sausage tree. I want to say it has a grape cluster of pods. Let's say it has some pods. Yeah, but it's like... Okay, let's try it. It looks like it's got corn dogs hanging from the tree. And is that a jackalope on there? That is a jackalope on their label, yes. It does smell very herbal. They have a jackalope and a honey badger on their label. Yeah, it almost smells like gin. It smells like a real good gin. I think this is a pretty nice vodka. It's round and it's a little sweet. It's fuller. It's 43% alcohol, which is kind of nice. Sausage is my favorite aromatic addition to gin. This is not bad. It's on the spicy side for vodka. Except I would never buy it because it's sausage tree vodka. And it's a shockingly red bottle. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, it was too goofy of a name not to- Okay. Have you tried it? It's pretty good. Not to taste today. It is very gin-like. It's not neutral. It's real spicy. It's gin-like. That's the nettle, I think. Then so his whole thing was like the sausage tree is known for medicinal purifying properties and the Irish nettle is too wet. My only experience with nettle is in the Pacific Northwest where you get stinging nettle. And actually the best way to alleviate it is to find a banana slug and rub a banana slug on your nettle burn. I've never heard that before. And it totally neutralizes stinging nettle. Where did you learn that? At school. That's the kind of thing they teach you in- In the Pacific Northwest. Have you ever seen a banana slug? Where in Seattle did you live? I lived out in the Cascade Mountains in Enum Claw, Washington. Initially, I was learning that. But banana slugs out there, they get up to like almost a foot long. I mean, they're crazy. They're everywhere. Like they'd be all over the porch in the morning and stuff when you're leaving for school. Have you ever eaten a stinging nettle though? No, I've not. You can. Yeah. And they're good. But they're horrifying if you walk through a patch of them. Okay. Unless you have a banana slug around. I don't know. If you like neutral vodka, it's not for you. But if you're looking for something weird and interesting. So are they doing a column still or a pot still? Oh, it's certainly column still. It's like not- I'm just trying to wrap my head around what I can actually- It's not economically feasible to pot the still vodka. Okay. Just because you have to get it to neutrality to call it a vodka. Oh, sure. So it's just you can- Just that herbal- It's technically possible, but it's like just really- How many distillations would you have to do to do it? Yeah. I mean, it depends on the still. If you have one of those hybrid stills, you could theoretically do it if you run it hot enough. But again, you're talking about a hybrid still with plates in it. Exactly. Whiskey Acres vodka is made on their still, which is a 500 gallon Vendome pot, but it's got eight rectification plates in the neck. They don't keep them all closed when they're running whiskey, but when they make their corn vodka, they're all closed. Guys are talking a lot about vodka. Yeah. Next thing. Well, this is very far from your average vodka or neutral in any way. True. Completely agree. Yeah. All right. We have the new limited edition Trace Henaraciones. Nice. This is La Colonial Reposado. That's Spanish for three Henaraciones. So, Trace Henaraciones is higher to your stuff from Sousa. Always been 100% agave. It's wearing a leather bustier. It is. It's leather across the neck of the bottle. So, last year they had one called Sinobios Batch which was a Blanco that was their limited edition was 70 bucks. This is $89.99. Who owns Trace Henaraciones? Beam. La Colonial Reposado is a tribute to the second Don of Familia Sousa, Don Iladio. The new expression is inspired by Guadalajara's first nightclub, La Colonial Club, which Don Iladio founded to lift the spirits of the Mexican people after the end of the Mexican Revolution. Because what lifts the spirits of the Mexican people more than reminding them of colonialism? Yeah, right. So this is Tohono ground, agaves, traditional reposado. Fantastic agave nose. White oak barrels. What's the wood in a sauna? Cedar. Cedar. The nose here, it has the pencil shaving that I first picked up on Corvo. It always reminds me of Corvo. The Bodeos. Do you smell cedar? Cedar, pencil, same thing. Yeah? Yeah. Are you just being kind? No. All right. That's what I smell. I smell like I'm walking into a sauna. It's delightful. It's good, right? Yeah. But it's not fruity and it's not like vanilla and woody. No. It's a serious tequila kind of nose. It doesn't bring me back to college. Yeah. Right. It's herbal, it's woody, but not in an oaky way. You said 90 bucks. 90 bucks. It's super spicy on the palate too. I really like it. It's a really good tequila. I think they're awfully proud of it. I don't think I even own a tequila at home that would be a sipping tequila. Wow. Really? Yeah. It's not my thing. Oh, she didn't do the celeb one. We did all the celeb tequilas. I did with the women of Binny's. Oh, yeah, you did. Yeah. Not all of them though. Yeah. Not all of them. Actually, we didn't, I don't know, whatever. Most of them were not very good. But my point is here that I actually could imagine as a non-tequila drinker other than in cocktails, I would love to sit down with this. Yeah, this is seriously good. I mean, it's complicated too. Of note, it's 90 proof too, which you rarely see in tequila. The finish is really, really long. It's high for tequila. Yeah. Tequila's always like minimum 80. The finish is long. The finish is long and spicy. It's long and very spicy. It's like white pepper and mint. Exactly. So this is not, at the time of recording, this is not in stores yet, but I would assume it should be sometime soon. Tequila fans, keep your eyes peeled. Because this is, and it's dry. There's no sweetness to this. It is delicious. Yeah, it's real good, buddy. It's real good. All right. Staying on Agave then. Okay. Uh-oh, that means mezcal. Uh-oh. Is there any indication of the provenance of this mezcal on it? Yes. Yeah, it's from Puebla. It's not from Oaxaca. I mean the guy who owns it. No. The guy who is their global ambassador is not on this. Quote celeb. But we're going to buy, buy, buy. This is Jim Cramer's mezcal. Are you serious? You need me to turn you down or just Pat? Just Pat. Is that how you read our emails when we put buy now in all caps? Yeah. Okay. So this is Fosforo mezcal. It is from Puebla. It is made from Tobalá, which agave potatorium, of course. And Tobalá mezcal cannot be cultivated. It's only grown wild, grows on rocky outcrops, takes notoriously long to mature. So normally it takes like 20 years to mature. Supposedly these guys are harvesting Tobalá very young. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Okay. So what's the clear one and what's the other one? So the clear one is the regular Tobalá. It is 89.99. Actually then that's, yeah, typical Tobalá price. It stinks. What's the other one? The one with some color to it is the Penca Tobalá, which is 120. Can you pass it around? Now, this is really unique. Sorry, sorry. The Penca rests in glass demijohns for up to three months with a cooked agave leaf in it. The bladed leaf of the agave is a penca. And it gives it some of that caramelization agave nectar kind of character. Is the glass demijohn in a cool temperature controlled place or is it out in the sun? I'm sure it's just in a, no, it's not out in the sun. It's in a blazing sun. Well, it stinks. And then the one with age, it's like the same thing but it's tempered. And so the really stinky parts get smooshed down in there along with some vanilla and smoothness. The second one kind of smells like a dirty diaper. The first one, you know when you go to a shoe store and they make you put on those like nylon-y things over your feet to dry your shoes? No, we're men and we wear socks. That's what the first one smells like. I think that I would totally guess these both as rum, because they smell like dunderkits to me. They smell stinking of the bruised bread and cream. Rum agri-col? Yes. Yeah. Not without the freshness. They're a little, they're like flirting with being on the cheesy side of mezcal. They're not smoky. Oh my gosh. Is this the first time you've tried a mezcal? No, I love mezcal, but the first time I tried this one. Yeah, that was a look of horror on Alicia's face just now. I think these are solid mezcals. They are cheesy. They're cheesy. They're cheesy. Of the two, I think it would have to lean towards the second one. Yeah. Oh, God though, it too. The rubber, woof. Yeah. It's interesting though. When I think of mezcal, I think of my very limited understanding, but just this very spectrum of smokiness. But here, there's this whole other element that I don't typically get when I buy my Del Maguay mezcal. Is that such a bad thing? La Luna mezcal. I don't get this cheesiness. Some people will make the argument that a smoky mezcal is a bad mezcal. I like smoke as a flavor, so I don't. But even cleaner ones like La Luna, right? That's not super smokey. Yeah. No, not at all. But it's not cheesy and funky like this. Is this the agave, the type of agave that's giving them? That's the fermentation probably more than anything. So the esters and- Because Tobalá mezcals are known for being rounder and plush and a little fat. I've had some that are particularly funky, but I've had some that aren't at all. Okay. This is like your absinthe in the cocktail drink, a little bit is going to go a long way. It's true. Yeah. Do you want to try more mezcal or should we skip it? More mezcal. All right, cool. We have a new line called Raíz Oaxaca. Whoops. I have four of them. I'm getting my mezcal drag back out. Can we do two at a time? Yeah, we're going to do two at a time. So first, I'm going to pass around an Espadín, 100% Espadín, and then an Ensemble of Espadín and Tobalá. Those are different. Different magways, magays. I switched my plastic cups. Magay. These are cleaner. Well, the first one's cleaner. That's cool that it's another label that's bringing a range to the shelf. Yeah. So I mean, Espadín is the most commonly cultivated agave form mezcal, certainly in Oaxaca. So it's easily farmable. It's predictable. It has good yield and good flavor. So that's why you do see most mezcal lineups that have an entry level is going to be an Espadín. This one is $59.99, so pretty fair price. I mean, by comparison to the last one, it's like soft and fruity. A lot of tropical fruit, a lot of minerality in it, little bit of that metallic, smoky- I like this. Herbal smoke. Like aloe. Yeah. There's a lot going on here. These are really nice mezcal. How much is that one? 60 bucks. These are slowly, we're trying to get the distributor to bring in more stock because what they had, they only had like 10 cases each or something, and we bought pretty much most of it. They've been a little slow to back it up, but it is going to be available in more Binny's than it is now, just as stock is available. So the next one. The next one is Espadín and Tobalá. You get that same fruitiness, like Espadín is known for having all that fruit, but then Tobalá should give it a little more weight and heft. It's a little bit funky and cheesy. And this one is $89.99. Yeah, I think the palette is more reflective of the Tobalá and then the nose more of the Espadín. Yeah, I agree. It really rounds it out and makes it softer. This is a gorgeous Mezcal. I like this one a lot. I think they're both good. That first one has got some really subtle smoke note to it, which I like. It's there, but it's like really in the background. Mezcal plays really great with a lot of different fruit juices. This can be an intimidating spirit to work with as a home mixologist just because it's like, okay, you have the Oaxacan old-fashioned and stuff and you see what's out there on the Internet. But you follow a good agave bar like Astereo or something, their basic Mezcal cocktails is going to use like a pineapple juice and then a little bit of lime juice for some cut. It's going to really rely on fresh seasonal juices and then this can integrate well. That sounds just about perfect to me. In that way, its complexities aren't that far off from rum. Yeah. So, cool. You got two more of these, Tram? Yeah, two more. We also have a tapas tate and a quiche. That's the thing that you make with eggs. Oh, yeah. I love a nice flaky crust on my quiche. The way it just so casually came out of your mouth. When you're talking the truth, it flows out easily. I'm edging back away from hostile work environment here. So, Karwinski agaves are also called quiche. The tapas tate is, that's an agave with a very long maturation period, sometimes over 20 years. So, tapas tate agaves, you don't see a lot of tapas tate mezcal. When you do, they're a little expensive. This one's $120 and the quiche is 90. I like the quiche the most. It actually kind of has a similar agave presence on the nose as the really good tequila that we tried a couple of minutes ago. The quiche is so soft and round. Wow. It has the smell of bacon lardons and Gruyère cheese. I think that I'd call this... Hold on, are you doing the quiche? He's just doing a bit. He's just doing a bit. He made a quiche Lorraine joke. Okay. We've been doing this too long, clearly. Quiche Lorraine. Are we tasting the quiche first or the other one? I pass the tempestate around first. You can taste whichever one first you like. I think the quiche is softer and more presenting. It's interesting. To me, the tempestate has almost a salty note to it. Yeah, I agree. The tepestate compared to the quiche is milder. The tepestate is nice, but I think the other three have more flavor. It has a bigger nose. The quiche has a spicy razor blade at the finish. There's a savory component to the quiche. I like that one. Yeah, but the quiche is a little lacking on the nose. It makes me want to giggle. It's actually nutty on the nose, like almost peanutty. Or as the Mexicans say, cacahuate. I think I like the quiche. Quiche is good. Raíz Oaxaca. These are pretty good mezcal. Check them out at your local Binny's. They also have done a fantastic job on the branding of it. I think the labels are down then. I want to look at that label wearing the red and blue 3D glasses from the 50s, just to see what it does. Or the 90s. Yeah. How old are you? I just think they are cool and retro, but I'm not sure. Next up, we have got the newest release from Whistle Pig, which is Smoke Stock Whiskey, which they did in collaboration with Traeger. Yes, the pellet smoker barbecue company. Wait a minute, don't we respect Whistle Pig? We do. That doesn't mean they are immune from critique, because no one is. So Whistle Pig Smoke Stock, the way they made this, this is regular Whistle Pig Rye Whiskey, but when they proof it down, the proofing water was what was smoked in the Traeger grills. No. The Traeger smoked water. They smoked water and they proofed the whiskey down. I hope it was a water pan full of fat, too. You know how you put a water pan under the... We should be so lucky. Right? That way you don't have to fat wash your rye for cocktails. When you proof it down, can you give me a ballpark of what percentage of total of the volume will end up being the water that you've added to proof down? Oh, that is a good question. We're not a math pod. He's going to do some restaurant napkin math real quick. Well, you have to start with a proof. What is it coming out of the barrel? It's coming out of the barrel probably around 120. Right. And if it's, I don't know how old this is. If it was roughly seven years old, at this bottling proof, you'd get around 38 six-pack cases. So you'd have about 40 gallons of whiskey bottled at 90 proof. So what was that before? I don't know their evaporation rate. I can't do this. That's okay. And also, I don't know that this particular spirit justifies that much thought. Whistle Pig, I love you dearly, not loving this dearly. I mean, I'm trying to look at the bright side. As a gimmick whiskey, it's not really wacky. There's a huge demographic of people that wear cargo shorts and white New Balance or Nike Monarch sneakers and love silver oak cab and have an expensive grill and are going to eat this up. Not for me though. Although, I do love all those other things individually. Cargo pants and New Balances? Yeah. Pat's famous New Balance kicks collection. All pristine. I got a new pair of Jordan 1s the other day. What display case are you keeping them in? No, we're there for wearing. I buy shoes to wear. Did you say the Jordan jersey? Every pair of Jordan's I have, I wear. Did you say that Jordan jersey that sold at auction for like, I don't know how much. Yeah. All right, next. Let's try something better. Thank you. I'm afraid this one might be wasted on me. You're crazy. This is one of the best whiskeys I've had this year. So going around next is Calumet Farm 16-year-old. We haven't talked about this on podcast, have we? I don't think so. I've brought it in the office before, I swear. Chris, can you hold it up? Calumet Farm from Calumet, Illinois. So Calumet Farm's famous horse breeding farm. So we have a couple of different Calumets on the shelf. There's like a small batch. There was an eight-year-old and 12-year-old. Then they had a 14-year-old, which I was completely disappointed by. It was lower in proof. It was like 93 or 94 proof and it was just flabby as hell and really boring. Then they came out with a 15-year and they up the proof to 105, and it just completely transformed that whisky. It gave it structure and body and it just gave it this frame that all these flavors are draped around. Now, all that whisky is 16 years old and they've up the proof to 106. I love this. It's starting to show a lot of wood, but there's still a lot of bright fruit to balance it out. It smells like a fruit cocktail. It smells like Nyquil. I know it tastes like Nyquil, like this cherry Nyquil medicinal thing. There's an almond in it. There is. Yeah. I think it's just awesome. This is a lot of great flavor you look for in old bourbon. It's wood and it's pretty spirited to too. What's the proof? Okay. I don't think this is for me. Like cherry Ludens with butterscotch at the same time. Yeah. I'm a big fan. This is 150 bucks, but we run it on sale occasionally. I think it's great. Chris, you down? It's very rich and nutty. I do like it. My mouth is on fire. My spit cup stinks like Mezcal. We have a lot of people who are always looking for old bourbons to give as gifts. I mean, this is like the perfect thing. The finish is super, I mean, it's just lingering with that cherry almond thing on my palate forever. I think I prefer my whiskeys with less honey. I mean, they do. I think generally, yeah. A lot of wood can dry your whiskey out. But corn holds up to it pretty well. If anything. We're going to open that pin hook. I'm pretty stoked since we tried that handpick. You want to try that next? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Going around next, this is coming probably the day we record coming next week. By the time this is on, we should have this. This is Pin Hooks Vertical Series seven-year-old. They started with this huge lot of, it was like 1,500 barrels or something of MGP a few years ago, that they're releasing the same lot, a small amount of barrels every year as a vertical series starting at five years old. It is cool. Yeah. You have to have a lot of patience. The idea is that they're going to release one every year until they're 12 years old, and you can look at the same distillation lot as it's bottled off year after year. People have gotten wise to this. First, it would sit around all year, and that's great, and that's a fun thing to have on the shelf, but now people are getting wise and you can find the older ones at auctions still pretty reasonably. You're talking maybe like 200 bucks, but this is going to be on the shelf for 80, I believe. Let me check. Are we going to hold any back to then release the full set? We have not held any back thus far. 115 proof. 115 proof. This is, yeah, this is going to be, it's not even in the system yet, but it's going to be 70 bucks or 80 bucks. It smells great. It's awesome. It smells so good. It's awesome. Cherry, strawberry, banana, and graham cracker. Also fun piece. We have a handpicked single barrow for this coming as well. Woo. Yeah. I mean, despite that high alcohol, it's so soft and plush and beautiful. But not too flabby or fat. No, it's not flabby at all. It's soft, but it's not weighty on the palate at all. I think it's going to be 70 bucks. There is still a few bottles floating around of the six-year vertical from last year. That's pretty solid. Yeah. Fun, cool collectible series. Great whiskey. Yeah. Cool. I thought we were doing another good one. What is this? We've been getting requests for these for quite a while, so I figured we ought to try them. These are Stella Rosa brandies. Stella Rosa is a wine brand known for being cheap and sweet, right? Yes. I wonder what these are going to taste like then. But very popular. I mean, they're largely Moscato-based. I mean, you can go to most of our stores and you can see the full rainbow of Stella Rosa offerings. It's a rainbow? Well, these aren't in most stores yet. There's three flavors. They're $32. And we're going to start with Smooth Black, which is berry-flavored brandy. Why doesn't it say berry? Does it? Oh, it does. Sorry. And the origin of the brandy is? Oh, woof. It's from Dan Farber, obviously. Right. Produced by a distillery in Turin. Oh, well, Italian at least. We're doing these one at a time. You don't want to do all the fruit melange side by side. I'm getting there. Second one is Tropical Passion. I'm not doing for this melange. And the third is Honey Peach. And these bottles are sticky. And they're mostly full. So, okay. I mean, it's got the stupid pourer lip, where you always get some on your pants. It is a stupid pourer lip. This is what cloying tastes like. It's going to do the expert tasting nosing side by side for comparison. Wow, that passion is a... Chris, I'm curious to see how you feel the authenticity of passion fruit is. Pog brandy. Oh, man. Wait, what was number one? Black. The berry one. Black. The berry flavored. And then it was tropical passion. Yep. And then the last one. Honey peach. Honey peach. Okay. Oh, tropical passion. So weird. Well, at least the peach smells like peaches. The middle one just smells like juice from concentrate. Yeah. Or frozen popsicle. Frozen treat kind of thing. Yeah. I think the last one is the least offensive on the nose. Yeah. Honey peach. Yeah. It's pretty... They did actually manage to get an actual honey aroma on there. I mean, shouldn't these be liqueurs, technically? Are these classified as brandies? They're bottled at 35% alcohol. So their label approval would be Distilled Spirits Specialty, which flavored spirits falls under. So that's why I like flavored rum, flavored rums, flavored whiskeys, flavored brandies, none of these things are ever the full 80 proof that technically a brandy, rum or whisky has to be. What about the sugar content? Yeah. Have you tasted the middle one? Yeah. Oh yeah. Look, somebody's going to like this. A lot of people are going to like this. We've been getting requests for over a year on these. Ain't me though. Totally agree. People will be all over this. I'm sweet enough. I need a couple more cups if we still have some of those plastic. Right. Palate cleanser. Wow. Those are something else. 3199. I think I'll just buy a bottle of 1792 bourbon for that price. I don't know. I drop a shot of this into some Stella Rosa Moscato. Delicious. Chef's kiss. Right. Next, I'm sending around a new permanent skew to the Craig Ellickey single malt lineup. Oh, that's rare. Oh, this is exciting. Which is pretty cool. Regular Craig Ellickey is on the shelf. It's a 13-year-old. This is a 13-year-old finished in Armagnac barrels. A permanent nyack cask. Permanent nyack cask. Nyack of the yak. So this is on the shelf. It's a $5 premium to the regular. This is $69.99. Craig Ellickey, famously big, meaty malt, very sulfuric in character. So they still have these huge pot stills, and they still run on traditional worm tub condensers. A worm tub condenses the spirit incredibly fast. So even though it's made of copper, it takes it from vapor to water, just boom. That's what I was going to ask. These are copper stills and they're not still not pulling all that sulfur. Yeah. So because they're condensed so fast, even though the worm is copper, it's just racing out of the thing, so it doesn't have a lot of time. So that maintains some of the copper, the sulfur character. On top of that, Craig Ellicott is made with a very special malt. Their malt stir forever, like all malt stirs, the kilns were fired with fuel oil. When the malt stirs were switching over to just forced hot air in the 60s or whatever, or 70s, they called their malt stir up and they were like, whoa, this is going to fundamentally change our whiskey. You got to keep one of these kilns, this old kiln is just for us. They get all their malt from one single kiln at one single malt stir that's still fired with fuel oil. The malt gets a bit of a sulfuric character before it's even fermented. From petroleum products. Yes. Great. Where in Scotland are they? Space hide. With all that sulfur explanation, I'm glad you said that. I was going to guess that it's still sherryed. The base could be the regular 13 sees some sherry action. I don't know what they call out on the label as the cask before the Armagnac. I think they just say it's finished an Armagnac. So I agree with you. My guess would be both American oak and sherry oak and then this Armagnac finish. I kind of like that sulfuric element to it. Oh, it's great. This is one of my favorite distillers. I think it's delicious. I've never gotten it. I guess the way some people feel about smoke, I feel about that. I think it's subtle and well done. I've had far more sulfuric single malts normally from just overly sherryed casks. I like the pop of fruit at the end. Yeah. It really explodes with ester fruit. You're right. This was a malt nerd favorite for many, many years before they finally brought it to the States. I think I really like this. So, so far, this I think is a standout and that tequila. I'm a two-favorite. That's it, huh? No. Well, I can't have five favorites. How about the Wacky Vodka? Oh, that was good. Yeah. That was good. Okay. You guys want to try another tequila or just go to the- Yeah, tequila. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How many times are we going? Four more. Then we're there. Going around next. We've carried Mejenta Blanco Tequila for quite a while, and then we added Mejenta Reposado Tequila, both made by the first master tequilera, Ana Maria Romero. This one's a little fruitier. Yeah. The big thing with this. We've carried the Blanco for quite a while. They're highland grown agaves, so it's going to have that rich agave, nectar, honey character. The Blanco is 50 bucks, the Reposado is 70 bucks, so they are on the premium side. This in Yeho though, $160. Okay, but it is texturally so beautiful. Oh my gosh, it's like satin sheets. Soft as a pillow. Absolutely. It's really subtle on the nose. Yeah. Boy, it's gorgeous on the palate though. It's so much like real roasted agave character. This is fantastic tequila. Our initial allocation was very small. This was in like six stores or something. More is on the way though. Hopefully by the time this airs, we'll have it in more stores. But right now, it's a pretty limited source. Super deftly made enllejo because they do not allow the wood to dominate this in any way. It's well balanced though. Yeah. It's got the wood character, but that agave still shines through. So often, I find that it's just dominated by wood sometimes, and you just lose all of that vaginal character. You like it, Alicia? I do. I do. It's gorgeous. Do you like it, Greg? Well, I'm not gushing the way that these two are. It's very soft, and I think I like a little more like spirit and life versus texture. But there's nothing wrong with this. It is only 80 proof. Yeah. I mean, that's most tequila. This is an 18-month-aged in Yeho. So it is six months longer than it has to be. What type of oak are they using? Or is it common with tequila? Bourbon barrels. Bourbon barrels? They don't say on their website, judging by the flavor, I would say bourbon barrels. But that's the common barrel choice. Yeah. Just because it's everywhere. They must have low output. Yeah. I mean, they're a pretty new distillery, a pretty new brand. Man, I'm like, do I want this tequila? Do I want the other tequila? She's going to steal more of your tequila. Okay. Yeah, no kidding. God. Next. Okay. Are we finally talking about these? Yeah. Because we finally have them? We do finally have them. This is terrific. We couldn't talk about the Amaro when we did the Amaro thing. Right. Yeah. These are really good. This is exciting. We've finally got some St. Agrestes Amari in the stores. Looks like we only have two of the three right now. So there's an Apparativo, a Bitter, and a True Amaro. So we should probably start with the Apparativo. Cool. Shout out to these guys. They also do the best pre-packaged Negroni I've ever tasted. Yeah. I'm inclined to call these Amari with training wheels because they're very sweet and easy to drink and don't lean strongly into the Bitter. But that sells them so short because they're so delicious. These are so good. These are really good. I didn't realize this was a pin before. Yeah. There's a lapel pin on each of the bottles. This is super, super hip. All right. So what are they calling this? This is not Inferno Paradiso. Paradiso. Paradiso. Just another chapter in Dante's. Yeah. Is this their take on like an Aperol style? Yeah. So this would be the Apparativo. Little lower in alcohol, lower in bitterness, like still a respectable bitterness here, but it's very well balanced. There's a good dose of sugar, but it's well integrated. It's not cloying. This is $37.99. So delightful. I mean, it's all about citrus fruits, ripe oranges. Yeah. Delicious. Yeah. And there is significant bitterness on the end. Yeah. But that fresh citrus oil, it's awesome. I think you're at a way elevated level of complexity compared to many of the less expensive options. Yeah. So obviously we have our beloved Capoletti that's under 20 bucks and is doing the same thing. But unlike that, this is in wine base, so you can have this bottle open and it's going to stay good for quite a while. I quit buying Capoletti. I think it's kind of boring. Oh, wow. Really? Jim and Roger aren't here, so they can't gang up on me. In all seriousness, the finish on this, it is just as intense a minute after you swallow it as when it was in your mouth. Right. Right. The longevity is insane. And on the palate, the perception is sweet and citrus. And as it goes away, the bitterness lingers. That's very good. It's got a little bit of spice on the nose too. That's very good. Yeah. It's like, you know what it reminds me of is an orange Tootsie Pop, then with this incredible like, Genshin like finish. Yeah. Right. I can see that. That's very relatable. It is. All right. So up next is the Inferno Bitter. This is just gorgeous garnet colored bitter. So this is going more bitterness here. I would not say it's quite as bitter as a Campari, but it's a good halfway. You know what it's close to is that selective Peritivo that we have, that we brought in those spritz packs this summer. The Venetian one, yeah. So nice bitterness. But it's got more of that woodsy bitter, more I would guess gentian root, maybe a little bit of wormwood in there. It's not as citrus forward as the aperitivo. The men's cologne kind of spice. Yeah, there's a little old spice. Yeah. There's definitely a little old spice in there. I would say it's not as straight up like orange juice-like as the other one or candy orange, but there's significant orange zest in the nose here. I think it's a more bitter orange. It's like a curacao orange in here. It smells wonderful. I want this for Negronis. Yeah, this is really good. What's the proof on that? It's so good. The red bitter. Oh, Lord. I got to put the triggers back on. It's a peculiar spice. It's like clove, the clove spice. Yeah. You are correct, sir. It's cloves, but like over like a blood orange. 48 proof. Okay, 48 proofs. That's really good. That's about on par with Campari. Yeah. I'm sorry. Other than a Negroni, what am I doing with this? You're perfect. What's the- Making a spritz. I would just mix it up with some other fortified aromatized wines. I mix these up with something like a Coke Americano. He drinks this on and put it in soda and a pint glass on the rocks. I was going to say, I drink this on the rocks with an orange slice. You can make a Bird of Paradise with this actually. Yeah, for sure. Bird of Paradise is a tiki cocktail with Campari generally and pineapple juice. So anywhere it calls for Campari. Yes, use this. I went through a phase of mixing this with whiskey as a cocktail on its own. Yeah. So are they making on- Boulevardier. You can make a Boulevardier out of this. It's a very good Boulevardier. Yeah. So they're making this in Brooklyn. Which is really just a Negroni with whiskey. Or is this like- Yeah, they're making this in Brooklyn. I think I'm absolutely in love with this line of Amaro. Right? They're just incredible. It's pretentious because the bottle is this big stupid cone. It's Brooklyn. With a heavy metal bracelet. It's hipster. It's silly, but it's so good. They're so good. They are so good. So next up, we are going to try the classic Amaro. This is 30% alcohol. We have it on the shelf for $42, $41.99. Chris, what did you tell me to pair this with? Wow, this is herbal and minty. Is that like coriander or cardamom? Cardamom for sure. So much cardamom. This one was the one that Chris said, you have to try this with hot sauce. It's so good with hot sauce. Like mixed? No, like try something with a lot of hot sauce and then this at the same time. Mixed with hot sauce, isn't that Roger's favorite cocktail, the bone? The bone. Hey, don't smudge the bone. The bone is a good shooter. We had our sausage tree vodka. We don't need to go down this path again. Seriously though, I love the bone. This is so good. It's herbal, it's floral, it's spicy, it's woody, it's minty. It's bitter, it's minty. That is so good. Oh my gosh. There's so much going on here. I just want that. Your Christmas cocktail. Put this with your stupid pork. Now you know why I just drink this stuff in a big glass with a big ice cube. What's the alcohol? Absolutely. It's 30 percent. 30 percent, 60 proof. That's dangerous. Absolutely. It is absolutely. I thought it was going to be like 13. Dude, there's vanilla in there. Wow. Yeah. There is so much to think about. I am in love with this. Yeah. There's no two ways about it. All the Christmas spices. This would go great in your Tiki cocktails to bring that whole nutmeg and clove spice thing too. Absolutely. It's soft and round and has this tonnied wine quality. Can I just say that if Chris and I showed three wines from one producer and we gushed over them as much as you were gushing over these, Amari, you would say- What do you want, the payroll? Yes. No. Listen, if I use this as my pick of the year, then yeah, that's a like analogy. But we still got a ways to go before we're in your territory. If I have one criticism against these and I like them for it, but they're on the sweet side, all of them are on the sweet side. There is no doubt. That's why I said at the outset that you're tempted to- What is the lingering finish? The finish is all mint and- Is it cardamom? Mint and cardamom, yeah. Yeah, on the way out of an Indian restaurant where you get the little pinch of stuff. Absolutely. The little stuff there, you know? And you put your hands in? A little. I'm still tasting the Santa Gras's Amaral. I am in love with these. It is- Can we not segue from that? How long can I keep these? Oh, God. Endlessly. In my fridge, how long will it last? Oh, a long time. They're spirit based. I thought you were going to steal them. Oh, well, maybe. How long can I keep them? You can have them. Thanks. Yeah. Hey, so that was everything I brought. Maybe it all makes it into this podcast? We really finished at a high point. Also, this one was shorter than that wine one that we recorded. We had three times as many bottles as what? Power taste. This is professionally done. Take note over there, other side of the table. Oh, yeah. Sorry. This is a good mix of stuff. I could have done without some of the fruit-flavored brandies. Yeah, whatever. Do we personally love every single thing that comes through the doors? No. Does it all... Does somebody love it? Yeah. Well, I don't know who's going to love that hot dog-flavored whistle pig. We already covered this. Cargo shorts and New Balance here. Just pull the Home Depot parking lot at 7.30 in the morning on any given Saturday. They're going to all be wanting this. Looking for the straightest two-by-fours they can find. It always shocks me. The amount of stuff that we get in, we get so many new items in, and in the marketing department, communications, we try to talk about as much as we can, but we can't. You can't talk about everything. There's too much. There is a fire hose of new spirits and wine and beer all the time. I don't know how you guys at the Whiskey Hotline keep up with it. We barely do. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, good. I'm glad you guys found new stuff you liked. Raíz Oaxaca Mezcal is where it stand out for me. Santa Grestis, I already knew was just great. That new Craig Ellicott, awesome. Seven-year pin hook. We got a lot of good stuff. These Keepers Heart Whiskeys, I'm really curious to see where this brand goes, because they've got some solid liquid in bottles right now, and they are a year old. That is crazy. That is the biggest surprise of the day for me, I think. It's so weird and so good. I'm going to tour the distillery next time I'm up in my parents' house, because it's right there in Minneapolis. And again, they have a triple Forsythes Pot stills. It looks like a distillery in Scotland or Ireland. It's three Forsythes Pot stills. They're doing it right, that's for sure. Amaro fans, Santa Grestis. Seriously, check it out. This shit rules. We always say keep tasting, but seriously, keep tasting. Yeah, keep tasting. All right. Well, thanks for listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast back in your feed next week with something new. Until next time, I'm Greg. I'm Chris. I'm Alisha. And I'm Pat. Keep tasting.