I'm excited to try this. I read in one of our emails that this was worth the wait. Indeed. Was it really worth the wait? And what was that process like? Well, it involved a lot of waiting. All right. Well, you have pores of the brand new Clark & Sheffield XO Cognac. Yeah. A Binny's Beverage Depot exclusive. The Yak. And a project that Pat and Brett have been focused on for a real long time. Yeah, Clark & Sheffield XO Cognac. This is made at the Tassandier & Fies, Tassandier & Sons Distillery. Friend of Binny's, Jerome Tassandier, owns this large distillery. The thing with Cognac production is you are limited by the size of the still. Your main still is the size of, think of it as a very average size single malt scotch distillery. So most of these large producers that your classic Big Four, your Hennessy, your Remy, your Martel, your Cravasier, because the stills are so small, they don't own all their stills. They contract out with a lot of small producers who happen to own multiple stills to make a lot of their liquid. And then it's blended to create a house profile. Cognac is the blender's art. So Tassandier makes a lot of liquid for a lot of big brands. And they also keep some of what they consider their best stuff for their own label. Their top of the line label is Cognac Park. We've done single barrels of Cognac Park in the past. We've tasted them on this podcast. You can go into a Binny's near you and find a Cognac Park VSOP or a Borderee or a Mizunara finish, things like that. And so we partnered with Jerome to get this Cognac made. And this is a minimum 12-year-old XO, which is two years more actually than the legal minimum for XO. Yeah, I was going to say. In 2018, XO moved from a minimum six-year to a minimum 10-year. This is minimum 12, but there are some older liquid in here for sure. Wow. And it's a really nice, plush, fruity, tons of like that sweet stewed stone fruit kind of character. I get a lot of apricot personally. That's kind of one of my personal calling cards I look for in a lot of good cognac. Can we get you a calling card that has an apricot on it? I'd love one. For those who have only had some main brand kind of cognacs before, I think it's a nice in-between for the sweetness of a Hennessy and then the just overt fruitiness of a Pierre Ferrand. It's got a little bit of both. It's not as sweet as Hennessy for sure. It's a little bit chewy. Yeah, it's got a nice round mouthfeel. This is a really nice XO cognac. My concern with it is it might even be suspiciously cheap because XO cognac pricing has gotten outrageous. When I first started working at Binny's, Crevasse XO was $90, Hennessy XO was $120. These things are between $190 and $270 now for XO cognacs from the big producers. And this is on the shelf at Binny's near you for $59.99. And depending on when this airs, maybe it's on sale for $49.99. Yeah. Yeah. That's an incredible price. Incredible, dude. Absolutely incredible. Tasting is believing with this. I get it. People are like, NXL, come on, how good could it be for 60 bucks? This stuff is stunning. It's very good. Really nice. Now I want to try the VSOP too. The VSOP is really good. The VSOP is $29.99. It's going to be on sale for less at times. Which is a great price for a VSOP. VSOP minimum eight years, so legal minimum, that's a four-year product. We're using six to eight-year-old stuff in there. VSOP is a little more brighter and riper in its fruitiness, a little softer in mouthfeel. It's not quite as robust and broad as this is on the palate, not as creamy. Really great cocktail brandy too for that. I mean, keep in mind listeners, all your classic cocktails that you make now with whiskey, at one time were made with cognac because it was the reliable age spirit that you could get globally. I say this every time we try cognac and armagnac and it's even more true with this one, this bottle in particular, this XO. Whiskey fans need to try this. Whiskey fans will go bonkers for this. It's fabulous. It's like if you like a big gooey bourbon, this has all of those qualities just naturally effortlessly because of what it is. Yeah. Really, really great stuff. To the point about cocktails normally, it's always made me laugh that because Cognac has this luxury pricing in the US, people will drink a VS in a Snifter as if it's an XO, and it's like that's mixing brandy. Yeah. I mean, that's for cocktails. So the fact that you can get the VSOP from us at almost VS prices. Cocktail price. I mean, make cocktails with a better Cognac and your cocktails can be better. Cognac is a minimum two-year age, and a lot of those big brands, they're using two-year-old liquor. Very light. Very light. And they're adding oak and sugar, essentially. So what's something that doesn't get talked about a lot with Cognac is two of the classic four ingredients in Cognac are Boise and sugar. So most Cognac does have some sugar added to it, and Boise is essentially an oak extract that they make by boiling down oak into this extract syrup thing. Sometimes that might get watered down a bit and aged as well. Wow. What do you do with a Cognac, the story? Oh, I'm the wood boiler. Yeah. I forgot about that. That's like ringing a bell. That's in most... Listen, man, that's just very, very, very, very, very few Cognacs don't have that in it. And it's just how Cognac's made. That's how you put out two-year-old brandies and make them not taste like complete shit. All right. Whiskey Nerds, you got to try this. When you come into Binny's to buy one of the things we're about to talk about, pick up a bottle of this too. You're not going to regret that. Yeah. Hey, you're listening to another episode of Barrel, To Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Pat showed up with a case and a half of handpicks again. Yeah. Which is fine. That's good. We're gonna try some handpicks. Yep, lot of handpicks. Who wants you to buy all these handpicks? We have very little oversight here. All right, guys and gals, you gotta get some of these so that we can keep doing them. I'm Greg. I do communications at Binny's. I'm Jonah. I do communications at Binny's. Roger, I do beer. Hey, I'm Pat. I sniff the casks. The cask holes. Pat, I'm the real cask hole here. How much cask sniffing have you done lately? because you've been on a lot of trips. You've been on a lot of distilleries lately. I've been to a lot of distilleries the last couple of weeks. I'm going to Kentucky tomorrow. This guy. What a job. Yeah. Do we need two cups for this? Where were you at last week? No, not really. I was in Kentucky last week as well. Last week we were at Buffalo Trace and Pin Hook and Bullet. Who else was with you? Couple managers from the suburbs, Joe and Brett. This week we're just doing Angel's Envy. All right. You passed around a bottle from Starlight Huber. Yep. Starlight Distillery at the Huber Winery. This is an old Rick house Rye Whiskey finished in our old friend VDN, Vino de Noronja. Orange wine? Yep. Orange wine. The Orange Sherry. When we go down there, we pick like six or eight months worth of barrels at a time. We have a couple bottled each month. And the ones that we think could get really extracted and really fun, we have them bottled at the end of that schedule. So this is like our last couple barrels of the year. We've got, I've got four here that just came in. It's our last Starlight Picks of the year. And these ones have been in their finishing barrels for the longest period of time. So wacky. I mean, from a distillery that already gives this kind of wacky stuff, wacky barrel choices and stuff. So these are all, you know, cast rank. They are blends of whiskeys. They blend certain whiskeys for specific barrels. So they don't just take the same bourbon and put it in vidya and tokay, whatever. They are blending batches of bourbon specifically for those barrel finish, those finishing barrels to marry the flavors. They use full size cooperage. Oh yeah, only full size cooperage, only ever. They get some from Canton. They get some stuff from Space Eye. They get some stuff from Independence Dave. They get some stuff from, what's the one in Louisville that I have been to? Louisville Barrel Company. It's like, I wish we had computers. I mean, what's the main one that says the two ones? That's Independence Dave. You're right. Okay. All those other places you're listing, are those just for finishing? I thought the whole point was that- And Calvin Cooperage in Louisville. Oh yeah, Calvin. I always thought it was basically just Calvin and Independent and that was it. Yeah, it's big. Space Eye is pretty damn big too. Space Eye Cooperage, they have operations in Ohio and I think Kentucky. Brown Forman's Cooperage is huge, but they're just supplying Brown Forman. Right. But- Okay, let's talk about this one. Rye Whiskey, NVIDIA and I have a bourbon in the same type of barrel. The taste next. I'm very much looking forward to that. I would have guessed this as bourbon, but that's because I'm a plebe. The spice is there, but it's so fruity and round. I think you get the rye. It tastes more like a ginger sweetened candied orange, like a spiced candied orange. It's pretty sweet for a rye. Oh, yeah. Drinks more like a high rye bourbon. Yeah. Yeah. It's more in that Kentucky style of Mashville, that lower rye content would still be in a rye. Oh, God. I got rice bits splash back in my eye. You spit in your own eye? It's these bedpan cups that we have to use. Nothing's ever good enough for Roger. No, it's not. Okay, so the bourbon, same barrel treatment, same finishing time. And this is going to be even sweeter and bigger and rounder. Yep. These guys are no additives, right? Correct. These are gorgeous. Pretty dark. You say that. Yeah, these are gorgeous colors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're not messing with anything there. I mean, this is as authentic as it gets with these guys. I hold these guys in the highest regard amongst craft distillers, for sure. Oh, this bourbon is amazing. Isn't that fun? I love these barrels and they're kind of getting like, I don't know, maybe they're getting played out a bit. These are $79.99 at your local Binny's. Oh, these are great. That is that really rich peanut brittle. I was going to say it's got a very distinct caramelized coffee nuttiness to it, like a real nuttiness. You know the burnt marshmallows on top of your mom's Thanksgiving yams and potatoes? Yeah. That's a big note of that. Yeah. Toasted marshmallow. Poppycock, one of my favorite popcorn blends. What of? There's multiple favorite popcorn blends. I mean, did you know that Werther's Original makes caramel corn now? I almost fainted when I saw them. That feels like an exercise in co-branding. I bet they don't make it. I almost fainted when I saw that. There are different popcorn blends? We're not going to get into it, Tadget. I don't need to open the door. Cracker Jack is for suckers. All right. There you go. I was going to tell you to stay away from Cracker Jack. Crunch and Munch and Poppycock are what you need your entry. All right. Yeah. You get really deep into it and you're like ordering gray market popcorn mixes from Croatia. The fanciest idea is popping my own popcorn in a pot, but it's like Orville Redd locker. Then you can go to those popcorn stores where they make their own kettle corn and caramel corn. But of just the stuff that you buy in stores, Cracker Jack's garbage tastes like molasses and there's two peanuts in it. But some of these other ones have other like legit nuts in them, like pecans and walnuts and almonds. Not to mention that their toy prizes are now legit nuts. Like you, bro. Oh, anyway, 80 bucks is about $30 cheaper than I was expecting you to say for those two bottles. Yeah, I mean, these are phenomenal and they're cast-strength, right? All cast-strength. Every single one of these is natural cast-strength, natural filter, all that jazz. I have two more Starlights, and then we're gonna get into some other brands. This one is a bourbon in a Tokai cask. Oh, nice. I'm still mad I missed that podcast. I wanted to try the one with the- Lashlo, Lazlo. Are you still salty about missing the Lashlo Messeresh? I really just wanted to- Mesero, Mesero or Messeresh? Dude, that was four years ago, and it was not fun. That was more than four years ago. It was, it was. It was me, it was me, you and Kristen. It was like six years ago. I just wanna try, we can remedy this very easily. And the next, what the hell does it taste like? I want to try the one that you have to literally drink with a spoon. The one that you- Yeah, you get a spoonful at a time. That people- The Royal Honey One. The Royal Honey Weddings and- It's like 100% alcohol. You've never heard this? Yeah. It's real fancy. They have it at weddings and special occasions, anniversaries. It's like a miracle that it ferments it all because there's so much sugar that no yeast can even operate in that. It's only like 2% alcohol then because the yeast basically can't function. I'm like, well, how is it not just a bottle of mold? It's some sort of interesting anomaly that it even works. Okay. Downshifting from Tokai episode back to- How many pitonios is that? How many pitonios is that? Pitonios. Yeah, all the pitonios. Speaking of pitonios, Tokai finished Starlight. This smells like if you aged honey in a barrel full of peanut brittle. It smells like flowers. Heather honey, Tupelo honey, the good stuff. Important thing to note here, all these Starlights have an age statement on the front. A lot of them are four and a half years, five and a half years. Keep in mind, I said they were blends of whiskeys designed for these finishing barrels. So that's the youngest thing in that blend. So it says four and a half year old, there could be six and a half, seven year old bourbon in there as well. They're making these blends just for these barrels. This is awesome. It's light and fresh. It's way brighter than I expected, especially with the color. It looks as dark as the orange wine casks, but it's so light and fresh. And there's this cracked black pepper pop right at the finish. That's just so uplifting and structured. Really nice. It's 113 proof, so it's high, but it's not a throat ripper high. There's this very subtle like menthol minty aspect that's nice. But yeah, the honey is obviously at the forefront, but it's not overly sweet. This is amazingly layered and dangerously easy to drink for the proof. Jenna, what would you foolishly overpay for this? I would think this would be about like 110, 115, would be my guess. $79.99. $99.99. Damn, seriously. If you think this is good. So do you remember when our wine department did two handpicked single barrels of Tokai? Yes. Yes. One of those barrels has been aging rye whiskey in it for like over a year at Whiskey Hakers, and I got to try a sample of that just a week or two ago. It should be getting bottled like any week now. Okay. Unbelievable. You're sneak previewing. Sneak preview. There is a Binny's- Whiskey Hakers, Clark & Sheffield Tokai Finish. Whiskey Hakers, rye, Binny's handpicked Tokai Finish. Binny's handpicked, handpicked Tokai Finish. Yes. Yeah. Handpicks on handpicks. Yeah. It's coming this fall to Binny's near you. It's truly, truly ridiculous. Well, I'll obviously bring a bottle and we'll taste it on a podcast as soon as it's available. I'm feeling cheated that I don't have some right now. I know. I only had a tiny little. But a wee sample. You like how our friend Stuart Buchanan referred to? I was like, yeah, it's got that, what did I say? Coin thing on the front. He goes, oh, and he referred to it as a wee medallion. This is bourbon or rye? Bourbon. It's spicy. It definitely has some of those sweet spices you often equate with rye. I think part of that is, keep in mind that this oak high barrel is going to be Hungarian oak. So it's going to be more French in its DNA. It's not as, generally not as spicy as French oak, but it still has that European oak spiciness to it versus the big sloppy American oak vanilla. Dills and vanilla. It's not as, it's nowhere near as insane as these, but it almost, it seems like everybody's gushing over on Burano wood lately, and that presents with that crazy cinnamony character. But it has a wisp of that, but not as obnoxious as I can get. I agree. And it's fresher and brighter. That on Burano tends to make things darker, like orange marmalade. And this is more on the lemon cream pie end of things. It's really nice. So, next up on our Huber Starlight Podcast episode. Hey, there's only these four, but trust me. That was one third of the things. Yeah, exactly. I saved the most outrageous for last, which is a bourbon finished in a state blueberry port barrels. Whoa, whoa. That's called a tease. Stick around, kids. Stick around for that. because typical of any southern Indiana winery, they make a lot of gloppy fruit wine. I've had some of their fruit bourbons though because of the podcast. And they're really good. They're really good. It's so good. But blueberry port barrel. Whoa. It smells pretty normal. But do we get to try the blueberry port? No. Huh. I don't know what to make of this. It's not overly gloppy and sweet. No, it's like a pop tart with too much bread. A little bit. It's there, but I like that it's not dominated by the port, but it was in that port barrel for like eight months. I don't know why they don't just frost the whole pop tart. Yeah, that's a good point. We have all frosting cereal, but they still leave the blandest side of the pop tart. Roger, we're giving you an opportunity to talk about that lame weird local pop tart that you forced on Noon Whistle. They're not even frosted the entire thing anymore. So A, you're suggesting you want icing on both sides of the pop tart? You're suggesting you wouldn't? No. I want at least end-to-end coverage on one side. The unfrosted pop tart is like, don't bother. If you're trying to cut on calories or whatever, just don't eat a pop tart. Don't choose a pop tart, yeah. This gives me an opportunity to talk about toast and pop-ups, which are original toaster pastry, which unfortunately is much like the Hydrox Oreo scenario. They've been hiding in the shadows the whole time. The best thing about toast-ems is that they're available at the nice price of $1.25 a box. They taste- because they're a garbage food only available at Dollar General. But they're exactly the same as pop tarts. Pop tarts taste exactly like toast-ems. Shattering misconceptions, people, through the looking glass of heavily frosted breakfast. I don't know how we got there. That would imply that this has an artificial blueberry flavor, which it doesn't. It's like the combination of blueberry preserves and a graham cracker. I almost think they kind of undersold the blueberry note on this. I feel that's going to be the struggle is that when people hear blueberry pork, they're going to think- It's not ridiculous. It's very subtle. Yeah, it's not ridiculous. And I'm glad we kept it in that long, because imagine if it was only in there for a month or two. But- It's there. And maybe I do think that the frosting part of the Pop-Tart note is there too, because there's this like bright sweetness right across the top. Yeah, there's some sweetness for sure. I just was hoping for a little more blueberry, as I usually am. But, it's nice. I like the Graham Cracker-y character. There's like that sweet, Grammy, sweet, sweet bread kind of character in there. Mr. Teddy Graham over here. What's next up on the Hit Parade? I got three single barrels of rye whiskey from the same producer, but there are really interesting differences in age, so I did want to bring all three, okay? So these are from our friends. Why do I feel like he's being defensive? Yeah, yeah. Well, because I'm gonna be accused of, it's in these two brands. Yeah, we are about to try seven items from two brands. From two producers, yeah. Hey, but this is how we do things, all right? If I bought one barrel, it would only get to like half the store, so we have to buy three, four at a time. So, Old Petrero. Old Petrero Rye, we had our friend Bruce on, master distiller at Old Petrero. They make a 100% malted rye whiskey that ages and toasted in charred barrels. 100% malted rye. Malted rye. Weird. When we talk about MLAs for a second, how do they get that to go? Well, that's why they malted. They're using the anchor brewing yeast. Came out with that, right? Nobody was doing anything like this. So, Roger, you want to- Bottle redesign for hipsters. No, the bottle's way better than it used to be. That's way in your wheelhouse, man. It looks like Dry Creek Vineyards labels. Really? It used to be like an old school onion bottle. That's my style. Oh, yeah, you're right. It was terrible. Well, this is cool. It's like a medicine bottle. It's heavy. I do, yeah, and it's like a Pothecary-esque, I guess. One of the biggest punts I've ever seen. Look at this punts. This is just- Dude, you could use that as a cigar ashtray if you put it upside down. Yeah, where are the little cigarette divots? I almost thought there was one. Oh, there is a little divot. Bear facts on all three of these, and I want to taste them consecutively here. They're all cast-strength, non-chill filtered, of course, 100% malted rye, 100% pot distilled, and these tiny, weirdo pot stills. These are all on the shelf at a local Binny's for $89.99. just came in. This one is... That's not much of a markup from their normal stuff, right? This one is seven years and ten months old. Is that the youngest or the oldest? It is the youngest. I can't handle how amazing this smells. So, malted rye is weird. You know, you got a Kentucky rye, it smells like sweet corn with a lot of spice. You get a Pennsylvania rye, it is just like mint and dill and herbal. Yeah. Malted rye brings all kinds of weird, like dried fruit and chocolate character. This is like peach rings. Yeah. It's crazy the kind of like stone fruit and dried fruit and candy fruit character that comes out when you malt rye. It's wild. And there's very few of these out there. It's expensive. Malting is expensive. Rye is already the most expensive grain per pound. Like nobody bothers doing this. It's like tropical fruit on the palate. And then it has the wave of spice that comes across the back. Yeah. There's still like a ton of malt, like agricultural. Like I get kind of a husky grain aroma from it too. I mean, I wouldn't say it's just peach rings. No. But I get that. I only deal with one tasting note at a time. I only taste one thing at a time. It's weird. It's kind of potpourri-y, but I don't say that in a negative way. Floral spice, I would say. Yeah. I think you nailed that, and I say it in a negative way. What? You don't like this? It's potpourri-y, I think. Yeah. Are you saying potpourri-y? Potpourri-y. Potpourriesque. Yeah. Or potpourri-y. This is fabulous. It's really good. This is phenomenal. These are really good. And these are, of note, these three barrels are some of the oldest liquid we have ever seen from this distillery. Clearly, Oakey. Is it full-size Cooperage? Oh, yeah. Not for me. Not digging it. Well, it gets the Greg Seale of approval. Sorry. Well, everybody's not the same. I like when we disagree. Next one, nine years and three months old. There's even like a toasted marshmallow plush finish. Let me say that again. This is a craft distillery with full-size barrel of whiskey that is nine years and three months old. That is unheard of. Hopefully, it doesn't taste like Joanne Fabrics. Damn. Dropping that obscure reference. All right. The old one. Interesting difference in mouth feel here, I think. It smells a lot better. I like this one quite a bit. I think you get more toasted oak on the nose. It's got like a roast cocoa kind of character. Yeah, there's more wood notes. There's dill and there's a little bit of mint, more rye notes. This is way closer to what I would expect. I get like the wood stands out so much. It's really like, it's oilier on the palate and it's just more viscous and it's coating. Holy cow, it sure is. It's chewy. There's tannins, like big old tannins. A lot of spice. A lot of spice. White pepper, black pepper. All three of these are also like 130 proof. Whoa. Oh, all right. I don't think they drink 130. I think they drink 120. 130 is pretty high. Yeah, I wouldn't have guessed it. It's a little bit of a bruiser. I wouldn't have guessed it though. I really like this one. I love the mouthfeel on this one. How come if you're pouring this, you aren't trying it with some water or ice? Are you telling people to sit at home with 130 proof liquor and drink it straight? I'm not telling people how to drink anything, Roger. But I mean, are you drinking this straight at home? Yeah. I mean, this is how I taste. This is the environment and the style in which I taste everything. I get trying it straight, but that's all we're doing. You get that red berry, that chocolate covered red berry thing on the finish on that one? I'm just saying it's a completely different experience if you put a little water in it. Okay. Next time on Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast, we just sit back with the rocks glass and let it melt. just go real slow. Okay. just conversely, you could add some water to this right now and just see how you think it tastes. The next one is about eight years old, seven years, 11 months old. I'm curious what you guys think. 7-Eleven, Cas. Before moving on, I chocolate covered cherries. I think this one's my favorite. Yeah, chocolate covered cherries. Yeah, and the last one. That, for me, I would just call it that nebulous, like chocolate covered red fruit. But yeah, I totally get that. Right. I know you're not big on mixing cocktails, but this is a completely different whiskey if you put some water in it. So can I talk for just a minute about that? I like it now. It's not like. Oh, yeah. It's not like licking a piece of furniture in an antique shop. We've come out to Roger now. Now the show can continue. Yeah, well, on its own, it was like licking a piece of furniture in an antique store. And now it has all this glorious, like soft citrus and chocolate. And this is why you add a little bit of water to your whiskey, listeners. Nice. It's really good. Do you want to go back and have the last one with a little bit of water? Maybe. I don't know. Try this third one first. Try this third one first. This is the 7-Eleven bottle. I really like this one. Roller meat edition? Yeah, out of these three. What's a roller meat? Roller meat? Like hot dogs, like at 7-Eleven? Yeah. Oh, roller grill. Oh, taquitos. All right. So our third old Portrero cask here, slightly different. This one is also old for the distillery, 7 years, 11 months, but it was finished in a port cask. Port cask. So you're kind of doubling down on some of that dark dried fruit character that we've seen from the malted rye and the others. Well, that makes a lot of sense. The cherry here is bountiful. Now, if you remember when we recorded with Bruce Joseph's, the master distiller, the one barrel we had in stock at the time was a port cask finish that we tasted on that podcast. It was a hand pick at the time. The last hand pick we did, we just did one and it was a port cask finish. So this is probably my favorite of the bunch. I hate to just be a lay up with them. Like I loved the last two and I really love the older one. The older one, it's everything I'm looking for in Roller Spirit as far as that body and the viscosity goes. But this one just has that layer of red fruit to it that the previous didn't. All right. You ever get a chocolate coated mix and you're like, oh, this is definitely an almond and you bite into it, but it's smooshy instead. It has a cherry. Or whatever's in there. Whatever fruit's in there. Right there. That's what this is. Yeah. It's like the pink raspberry ganache or whatever it is. Oh, and in the mixed chocolate. In the Fannie Mae box of butter creams is the one with the fruit flavor instead of just vanilla or chocolate. I hated it as a kid, but now I love. Really? The pink one? I hated it as a kid and now I'm like, okay, well, I won't throw it out. I'll finish chewing it. I bet if you would split a box of chocolates with Superman, you would have all the worst ones. Yeah, probably. Yeah. He'd use his X-ray vision to find the ones without the cherries and nuts in it. Okay. That went over my head. I get a lot of sweet baking spice on this, so clove, allspice, nutmeg. Now, you love the last two with some water in it. You appreciate that on this one, too? Yeah. I think all of them benefit from a tiny bit of water. Malted rye. Malted rye, man. This one almost gets a little more viscous with water, as counterintuitive as that sounds. The water releases alcohol. Alcohol evaporates off and it concentrates some of the character. Nice. I like the citrus on it, too. Yeah. Orangey. It's nice. It's beautiful. These are beautiful whiskies. Grab these old portrayals before they're gone, because we're starting to really sell through these when they come in. Did you say these were 80 bucks? 90 bucks. Which one is the favorite? The second one with water. This is really different. I like that this gets more of that herbal classic rye character to it, and less of the crazy weird fruit. This one's bigger. Way bigger. I love this one. There's a ton of sweet spices. There's a lot of cinnamon, but not candy, like legit cinnamon, clove. I don't know. Makes me think of creamy caramels like Cow Tales. Love Cow Tales. So good. I do not expect that reaction from either of you. Roger, if you said Cow Tales, they would accuse you of enjoying old man candy? I know. Yeah. When I was a kid, I would go to Ace Hardware with my dad all the time, and I would always get a Cow Tale at the checkout. My dad was a big Cow Tale guy too. My dad took me over to the coffee station and gave me a sugar cube. That was like a cherished childhood memory, you guys. Yeah, it's laughable. I remember how it cut up the roof of my mouth. It was more like the way you delivered it. It's like, yeah, your dad bought you candy, yeah, I got a free sugar cube. Greg's depression candy. I mean, it was good. When you wanted a cookie, you were given a sugar putty. I did have a cat. You ever had a sugar putty? My depression era grandma, they're like, oh, you want a treat? Yeah, you have a sugar putty. She literally takes a piece of white bread, covers it in butter, and then just pours on tons of white table sugar. Yeah, I had that too, except it was cinnamon sugar. Yes, cinnamon sugar, and it was toast. Plain table sugar. Instead of just regular bread. We would toast it first. Your grandma was too poor to get a toaster? Probably too guilty to spend the money on the electricity. This last one, this is big. This is big. It's fun. It's big, chewy, bold, spicy. Sweet and spicy. I think these are really good whiskies, personally. I think they're just not my style, but they're well made, and they need water, and the pain in the ass of adding water, like to the last one, I just added too much, so then it's like great. Learn how to pour water. Yeah, well, give me some of the right, you know, set up. Pouring it out of a Yeti mug. You're the one who's supposed to be making the cocktails for us. How often do we get these Knob Creek handpicks? Couple times a year, but we'll get like eight or ten at a time. I just bought one of these. So I just grabbed a random one off the shelf that had a somewhat favorable review note that looked like it was one of the ones I would like. Did Joe write dangerously Drinkable? No, that is Joe Code for a Joe favorite. You put that on Greg. This one had like something about great balance of like fruit and caramel and stuff. Did they change the label? They did, slightly. Changed the bottle. The bottle is textured now. Yeah, so Knob Creek Handpicks on the Shelf at Your Local Binny's for $59.99. We just got like seven in or something. So most stores have some, very few stores have all. These are all bottled at $120 proof, so they're cut down a little bit. Most Knob Creeks, when we taste them, are around $123, $124 proof, so they're getting very, very little water here. Why do you think they want to bother them if it's not a huge... Why don't they just give you the... Why don't they just give it $4... I know, I know. They have some accounting reason where, well, we have to write in a different proof on the label, so it costs pennies more. Tax label. Yeah, it's stupid. They're not the only ones to do that. Not that it counts for much, but the old portrayal residue in this glass trounced any note of this... That's why I rinsed mine first. Yeah, it just kind of rinsed it. This, holy cow. This Knob Creek smells like the most classic Jim Beam made distillate I have ever smelled. This is Roast Peanuts Turned Into Bourbon. Sure is. But it's rich in fill and it's got a lot of very specifically milk chocolate character on the palate and the finish. Nothing wrong with a chocolatey bourbon. Love a chocolatey bourbon. Like milk chocolate, caramel. Are you dissing Mr. Goodbar right now? Peanut. No, this is Snickers and Mr. Goodbar had a baby, and we distilled it and turned it into a bourbon. That's what I think this is. Mr. Snickbar. Mr. Snickbar. What are you eliminating or adding to those two things? One, Snickers brings caramel to the party. Yeah. Goodbar brings more peanuts? Yeah. You already have the chocolate and the peanuts in the Snickers. Yeah, I know. Yeah. So what's their baby made of? Honestly, you're like- The baby has more overall chocolate, less overall caramel. No nougat? Barely any nougat. That's a little nougat. Double chocolate, double peanuts, just a little bit of more. The main is that it's very chocolate and peanut-forward. Not overthink this too much. With some caramel. It's delicious. With some caramel. Right. You're describing a shade of color between caramel. But a wee ribbon of purple and blurple. Yeah. Yeah. So these are all nine, nine and a half years old. So back in the day, they didn't really pay attention to what they were doing, I guess, and a lot of our Knob Creek single barrels were between 12 and 15 years old. So people would always, whatever was oldest, sold out first because people are idiots. Then so we stopped putting the age on our descriptions on the website and just made. Pull that quote out for the, I guess. Well, hey man, I don't care. People are whale hunters and they want to hunt age. You ask somebody what they want in a bourbon, they're like, oh, I love karma and vanilla. So which one do you want to buy first? The oldest one. It's like, you moron, that's not what you're getting. You're getting dry wood. You want leather and wood, you're going to buy the oldest one. Yeah, if the spice comes way more forward. So when we would taste all these knobcreeks blind, we'd taste 30 samples blind. Most of what we would pick would be nine and 10-year-old, 11-year-old juice, and we would pick a couple 15s because a couple of them are really good. But we would leave a lot of 15, 14, 15-year-old stuff on the table because it wasn't the best one, and that's why you taste blind. But now they've wised up and they keep all that stuff for higher price, either distillery release or limited release, broad market stuff. Or like I used to always say to you, it was silly that they did it because the brand is still Nob Creek. So to let you pick Nob Creek that's lost all of its Nob Creek is silly. Regular Nob Creek is nine years old, and so now all the stuff they're offering for the Barrel program for the last couple of years has been nine years old. Did they add the age statement back? On the core stuff, yeah, a couple of years ago, they did. For a while, Nob Creek had taken off the age statement of nine years. Since its inception as part of the Jim Beam Small Batch Collection, it was a nine-year-hundred proof bourbon. Yeah, I remember that big kerfuffle when they put out a bunch of statements about how they had to either take the age statement off or make less of it. Yeah. Or just charge a little more. I'm sure that was the only thing that they're actually- Well, now they're, and then they doubled the price of bookers. Yeah, well, I used to say that about some of our really old Nob Creek was that it reminded me more of bookers. But it was usually crazy dry. So I totally agree with you. I was just saying that. But yeah, people should appreciate that what they think they like about really old bourbon is not always what they're describing. Yeah. I mean, listen, we buy probably more barrels than anybody, right? And we truly taste through every single one of these, and we taste through every single one of them blind. And there are three people with very disparate palates doing most of the barrel picking, and we all taste independently, blind, don't discuss it, and only then get together at the end and discuss it and try to come to some kind of consensus. You say three disparate palates, but you have three very similar tastes for spicy chicken sandwiches. That's true. And pimento dip. More of a spread than a dip, first of all. Pimento cheese spread. Yeah. Is that what it's... What is it? Pimento cheese. Pimento cheese. And also salt-cured and smoked Central Kentucky style hams. Yeah, keep going. And Sports Talk Radio. I'm feeling attacked. What, you're not feeling seen? Ah, right. What are you pulling out of the bag now? Two Uncle Nearests. Two Uncle Nearests. Uncle's Nearest. Uncle's Nearest. I asked Joe which one was his favorite, and I pulled that one, and I was like, well, if it's Joe's favorite, it's probably gonna be pretty woody. I should get the other, I should get another one too. So I grabbed two of the four that came in. So we have the first four Uncle Nearest handpicks, really anywhere, maybe a store in DC got one barrel before our four barrels showed up like a month ago. Yeah, I know, it happens sometimes. But we got our pick of the litter, though. We went down there and we tasted like over a dozen things, and these are what we ended up with. Barrel number 888. No, no, no, look on the UPC. That's barrel number 12. This is barrel number 13. These bottles were what we got filled straight from the casks at the distillery. So there's barrel char floating around on the bottom. Man, I haven't seen this since like a blackout. Yeah, that's not what it's going to look like on the shelf at your Binny's. They did filter the char out at least. Oh, okay. So these are the barrel samples we brought back from the distillery in Tennessee. Nice. Got it. Is this the actual packaging or is this just a placeholder? This is the actual packaging. The packaging store has like a Binny's sticker above the main logo there. Did you use the right logo? Yes. Did you? I really do think I did. I do like their packaging. They're at this proof? Yeah, they're at this proof, yeah. Sucker for black and gold. They're not adulterating anything on these. I love their whiskey. It's not as bubblegummy as some other famous Tennessee whiskeys. I really like these. I know there are different tiers by the year. So, how does this relate to their other bottlings? This is like which year is it? 1856, the Uncle Nearest Premium. Uncle Nearest 1884 is the one with like the pale label. That's like kind of the mixer, the lower end one that's like 40 bucks, 45 bucks. Uncle Nearest 1856 is the original Uncle Nearest, the premium that's like $55. These are single barrels of that. Of that, okay, good. They are more expensive. They are cast strength. They are $89.99. There is some left kicking around. Most of these barrels now have, we've sold more than half of them at this point. So, if you're interested, head into local Binny's by you. They might be on sale. Hurry. Maple. For sure. Way amped up spice at the finish too. I love the maple character on this first one. Love it. Is this Joe's pick or is this your pick? This was mine. Maybe this was Joe's. 12? For people that are familiar, maybe you should mention that this is Tennessee Whiskey. This is Tennessee Whiskey. So, it goes through the Lincoln County process. So, after it's distilled, it has a very slow drip through sugar maple charcoal before it goes into the barrel for aging. And that kind of removes some of the heavier, oilier compounds formed during fermentation and distillation. It just makes for a lighter, fruitier style of whiskey, generally. That's subtractive. Yes, subtractive aging. So, that charcoal acts as a filter. So, it filters out some character, for sure. But everybody, you know, beloved Tennessee Whiskey brand of Jack Daniels has, you know, millions of fans and followers for a reason. Yeah. And then, also, I think- It makes for a very friendly whiskey. What's kind of neat about this is that similar process, different yeast, you don't have that crazy bubblegum character that you do on Jack. Jack tends to have that bubblegum banana kind of character to it. This does not. George Dickel, another big Tennessee distiller, they tend to have what commonly gets kind of derided as like a minerally Flintstone vitamin kind of character to it. Not here at all either. Are they distilling all their own stuff now? They are distilling their own stuff at a facility they do not own. So this is all made by them at a facility called TDG, Tennessee Distilling Group, I think it's called. They're essentially the MGP of Tennessee Whiskey. MGP of Tennessee? So they're a big faceless contract only distiller. They're not making their own brands. They're just making Tennessee Whiskey for people. Yeah. Well, we all know that MGP is top of the pack when it comes to rye. So, I mean, that's not a slight, you know. No, not at all. I like this much better with a little water in it. Old wimpy Raj, watering down everything I bring. Can't win with this guy. Gives me **** about that I like hunter-proof bourbon and I can't drink anything less than that. I tell him that this needs a little water. I'm wimpy as rat. Wow, what a wimp. Right. Classic bro feed. All right. You guys are even, you're phoning in your disagreement right now. Can't win. Phoning in your disagreement. Yeah, kind of. All right. One more Uncle New Year's Barrel. So something a little different. This is barrel 13. Also it's 13. How can we not try 13? Got to. 12 and 13. Man, that was really good with some water. I brought out, again, it's not just the heat. I'm adding some water to it, all right? Shut up. Adds more complexity. I get more peach. I get like a lot of stone fruit. Yeah, a lot of stone fruit. All right. This one's really good with water. I think this one might be Joe's. This is all spice. That's all this one was, Joe's. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Super framed and structured too. Yeah, it's really nice. This is good. You know what it has on the very end? One of my favorite descriptors, bit o honey. Oh, God. Bit o honey city, kids. Have you eaten one of those yet? I've eaten them plenty of times, and yes, it has bit o honey on the finish. I agree with that. He's like, God. He's so angry. I don't want to admit it, but yes. Am I the only one who puts cow tails and bit o honey in the same camp? No, not at all the same camp. Bit o honey is like burned, reduced honey. It's like honey, not molasses, but it's honey that's boiled down almost. It's got a concentrated honey character. With a little bit of caramel? Peanut brittle, but more honey and less sugar. Do you have any fillings? I'll bring you some as long as you don't have dental work. See, I've got a lot of fillings, so I'm not going to eat it anymore. But I remember very fondly what it's like. When you cut it into tiny little pieces and suck on them. Yeah, you could give the discipline, but it's very easily to just forget for a second, and then it will rip your fillings out. Also, it's like maybe when it happens, it won't happen. But then you got to peel it off the sides of the knife. It's terrible. It's really a garbage food. It has a singular flavor. Which is fine. Yeah, it's pretty interesting. But I mean, it's not worth wrecking dental work or having to handle blades of knives. It's spot on for the descriptor is why it's not like, oh, this is like Biddle Honey. It's Biddle Honey. Like it's just boom. So it's there. Next. What is this? Oh, we're at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. We got Tequila and Yeho, El Tesoro. This year, we got two El Tesoro and Yeho single barrels. Both of them were finished in 10-year-old LaFroyge barrels. Whoa. This is barrel number 21. There were only 30 barrels available for the states. This is barrel number 21. The other one, I think, is barrel number 11. I'll double check. Barrel number 10, I'll double check. You're playing with fire here, man. I'm really not. What do you taste? I wish that I could convey without even having tasted it, just my initial frown over the airwaves here. I'm sorry, over this medium. I think you're in for a surprise. I hope so. I just don't. These are expensive. What's the proof on that thing, Greg? 40.6% alc by volume. Okay, so cut down a bit. These are, we have two barrels in the stores. There's not a ton left, but they are spread around. They are 139.99, a little expensive. Damn. Yeah. I'm curious to see what you guys think. They hand wrote Binny's Beverage Depot on the label and they hand wrote Beverage and Depot, which I appreciate. That's the name of the store. Smells funky. Very bubbly, good penmanship. 40.6, kind of weak. Where are we on that one, bro? Pretty standard for tequila, bro. I mean. But as you showed me in our delightful agave event that we put on, the big new thing is to do the higher proof tequila. Yeah. People are doing them, man. We struggle to sell them. But they don't sell. Yeah. So this is the Mundial, the LaFrog edition. Jenna's making a huh-uh face. Where's the beef? Where's the LaFrog? There's a hint of it there. There's a little bit of peaty earthiness in there. But honestly, I think they did a pretty good job. It's not that very LaFrog-y at all. Not really pick it up at all. So, it's almost like this is- But then what's the benefit? The marketing. No, don't say fair enough. I think you had an excellent question. And if it doesn't taste like LaFrog, then the LaFrog fans are going to be pissed off. And then people like me wouldn't buy it because they'd be like, I hate LaFrog. Or I don't. Maybe that's why we still have some. I mean- Yeah, it's like Barrel-aged Mallort. It's there. Yeah. I mean, well, let's not compare it to Barrel-aged Mallort. There's whiffs of the LaFrog DNA here. There's earthiness. There's a little tiny bit of smokiness. Some of that's native to tequila. El Tesoro is additive-free, high elevation agave tequila. It's normally rich and honeyed and agave nectar. There's just a ribbon of earthiness through it, from the nose through the palate through the finish, that isn't normally there with El Tesoro. But this is an elegant, it's you got to really unpack it kind of tequila. I think I'm picking up LeFrog. I think like a minute and a half into the finish, I'm picking up the LeFrog. And the more it sits in the glass too, like when I first tasted these, when they came in, once they were bottled goods, with the barrel samples, it was still subtle. Like in the barrel samples they sent up, I was like, okay, I can see it. Like, these are the two best, we'll take these. And then when bottled goods came in, I opened up the bottles and I just had a glass like this sitting on my desk for over the course of like a whole afternoon. Like I'm talking like four or five hours. And as the longer it sat, I kept going back to it and just nosing it and it got smokier and smokier. Well, you know, what's funny is normally I equate Laphroaig with more smoke than medicinal, but probably what I pick up on more here is medicinal versus smoke. A little bit of iodine character. Yeah. Which this is really nice and it's very complex and layered. It's a really nice sipping tequila. Is it just the lower oak? But it just seems so graceful compared to everything else. Very graceful. It is lower oak. Maybe we should have started with this. Maybe we're not picking. I was like, we should finish with it because it's tequila. But I think maybe we can't maybe we also can't pick up some of the subtleties because it's the last thing we've tried. Yeah. With all those tongue burners. I've got it. It's fine. It's super interesting. They're fun. They're really fun. We're talking there's like eight cases of each left or something. So that's spread around like 45 stores. So if your local Binny's has it, they have like one or two bottles left. I like the label with the this guy looks like he's not happy working the Tohono. Like, enough of this. He's like, why couldn't they have drawn me on break? That's pretty good. Yeah, I like that fun little thing, like the Mundial collection here is in like that Laphroaig Hunter Green. Nice little Easter eggs on this label. High West Double Rye. High West Double Rye. 15 months in a... 15 months in a Cognac Barrel. So one of the few opportunities you get to get a cast strength High West product, this thing's what, 52% or 56%, I think, Rog? 52.8%. 52.8%. They have gone up in price. These used to be like 45 bucks, they are now 69.99, which is why we still have a couple around. Cognac Casts are big barrels. You can find this, probably find this at your neighborhood Binny's. It's starting to be scarce, but... You gotta love that they're sticking with the bit. The foil punch and the micro bubbles, the flaw, that's how you know it's handmade. I like the bottles. They're charming. Hi, West. Bringing you the old timey glass. Ooh. You would drink it at a bar that has the horse saddles as bar seats. They have saloon doors on the front. I feel like those are underutilized in bars. You need to bring saloon doors. Saloon doors? What? It's snow. Can we put some saloon doors on Roger's cubicle? I have a picture of me somewhere. Charlie, I know you listen every once in a while. Where's the picture of me blasting through saloon doors? I have a very vivid image of that in my head right now. This is awesome. It's so good. It's pleasant. It's got this lovely mix of orchard fruits. There's peach, apple, pear. It's got a little bit of spice from the rye. I mean, so much balance here. It's like the old fashioned, the orange peel and the bitter spices right there. A lot of spiced orange peel, for sure. Spiced orange peel, yeah. You can drink this neat, no problem at all. For an overproof rye, that's saying something. Yeah, for sure. This is not overly spicy. Their stuff's great, man. Underappreciated. You sound a lot like me when you were talking about the price. Yeah, it used to be cheap. It's probably underpriced. I mean, $69 is nothing now. $69, well, that's what everything costs now. And for a calf strength rye that sees that kind of finishing time in that kind of barrel, this thing's a bargain still. This is a really good whiskey. This is very good. Dude, their whiskeys are phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. It's drinkable compared to so much on the table right now. This next whiskey is my favorite from our last round of picks from Barrelcraft Spirits, the last one I'm going to pour today. This is part of their private blend whiskey, so they do a blend of whiskeys, aged a variety of years. What's the label say? The year range is on there. Did you guys roll in on your choppers? What are you talking about? The logo looks like the Harley Davidson logo. That's their default logo, I don't know. It's sweet, it's nice. This is barrel whiskey. It's a blend of different whiskeys of different ages. This was finished in a Ruby Port Barrel, so port barrels are very large. That's why we still have this around at Binny's near you. Pipes. You got a whole port pipe of it? There's 20 cases left spread around the 45 stores. When you picked it, did you ask to ride on it like Dr. Strangelove's though? No, it was not there. It was just a sample and a bottle, Roger. He signed this as, please do not ride the port pipe. This is 62.07% alcohol, so it's up there. I remember going through all the dozens and dozens of barrels we tasted through that day. This was my favorite of the whole day. This is bottled that high? Yeah. It does not drink it at all. This is amazing. This is unreal how good this is. Yeah. This was $100 that have been used near you. Maybe it's on sale for 89.99 depending on when this airs. Whoa. Isn't that good? Yes. I don't know how to describe it. Honey, peach, apricot, strawberry. Strawberry. The grain is way down underneath and it supports everything instead of being right up front. The spice is integrated into everything. It's melted slightly. Everything's melted into the whole form. Integrated, is that the word? I'd say it's pretty well integrated. Buttery, like butterscotch. Yeah. Buttery, butterscotch, like butter toffee, bright red fruit, vanilla, it's got it all. The whole Spumoni range of ice cream flavors. Yeah. This reminds me of those buttercream candies that have the like bits of cherry and walnut in them. This is awesome. Not to reduce it. It has like a little bit of cocoa and a little bit of vanilla too. It's got coconut. It's got a lot of stuff. Coconut, yeah. A lot going on here. I wouldn't even know what to do with this. You went to town on the Fannie Mae box. Or seas, whatever your poison. Wow. This is so good. 100 bucks? 100 bucks. Worth every penny. Yeah. That's actually cheap for their stuff, isn't it? Aren't you glad I saved the best thing for last? No, it's pretty standard for this. Most of their stuff is on our box. How much was that grass one that we had a couple of years ago? Like 70. Oh, really? Yeah. We set my dial. Yeah. Seagrass is good. Seagrass. They have that left an impression. Yeah. I love everything that these guys do. I just can't find them on the internet. Sorry, I didn't want to do it. You have to. So good. What do you think, Jenna? It's very good. I love it. They really know what they're doing. I think it's sad that their name is confusing and people, it's hard to tell people about it and they're like, what are you saying? because they really deliver, they over deliver comparatively. Pat, you have a cool job. There's worse jobs. Yeah. Man, a lot of handpicks here, real lineup of handpicks. Another week, another dozen or so handpicks. I was going to say, I feel like I'm having deja vu. You know that part of your job is to sell these too, right? They're selling, man. I'm feeling attacked. Well, some of these are actually in pretty low stock around and people need to grab them if they want them. Are they all on our website? Yeah, they should be. So you can figure out what stores have them. It's worth the drive. Yeah. In almost all places. If you got a question about them, just email spirits at binnys.com and either Joe or I will get back to you. We'll let you know where they're at. You know, if they're at wherever the closest store to you is. Or they can call the Batphone. They could call The Whiskey Hotline, but we're not always at our desks. Or you could call your store too. If you're planning a long drive, I recommend calling the store to confirm stock before you make that drive. Literally, the website tells you where it is. You call the store first before driving 200 miles. And let's not sleep on this XO cognac is really good. Phenomenal. Really amazing. It's ridiculously good. You know, it's not technically a single barrel, but it's so good. I wanted to show it today as long as we're talking about exclusive to Binny's type things. Oh, it's so cool that we can do this. We can find something that is of stellar quality and offer it at a suspiciously low price. Yeah. We went back and forth a lot with this blend. And even longer with the label. And we're happy to have this. So, Thesandier, really known for that combination of Bordere's Crew Fruit and Grand Champagne Fruit. And it's a nice balance of robust brandies and elegant fruity brandies. Yep. Get out there. Get your Binny's Whiskey Hotline Hand Pick casks and grab a bottle of the Clark & Sheffield XO Cognac. Let us know what you think of it. Hit us up on social media. Binny's Bev, Instagram, Twitter, X, Facebook still. TikTok threads. I think that's it. Mastodon? Grindr. Okay. Yeah, no, absolutely. Let us know what you think. And thank you for listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Back in your feed with something like... What? Wine needs to get on this, right? Maybe. Maybe eventually we'll have a wine episode. Wherever they are, they all just went on vacation with the rest of Europe at the end of the summer. Anyway, back in your feed next week with another Barrel to Bottle, Fun Time, Happy Hour. Until then, I'm Greg. I'm Roger. I'm Jenna. Barrel to Buntime? Barrel to Buntime. Happy Hour. I'm Pat. Keep Tasting. I love that, you guys all went, It's a long time in this little hot room. God, my job is to drink whiskey in a hot room.