I happened to notice that we're all sitting in this room when we have Glen Caron glasses, which means this must be a spirits show, except mine's empty. Or everything else was dirty. And Roger's is empty, and Chris's is empty, and Pat's is full of a brownish amber liquid that he keeps swirling, like some kind of, like a rich shut-in maniac in front of the fire. Yeah, it's pretty good. Like it's a fireball or something. What do you got there, Pat? Maker's Mark Seller aged. Well, why don't you share? Mine's also dirty. Are we even doing this? We're going to sit here and watch Pat drink. No, because we're going from 20. We're going to start at number 20 and go to number 1. Oh, seriously? Oh. Maker's Mark Seller aged is much higher up. I just wanted something to drink. You just- Yeah, but like- Spoiler alerts, apparently, we're going to get to Maker's Mark Seller aged. At some point. Well, roll the music. Let's get this one started. You're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Up in your feed, I'm Greg. I do communications at Binny's. Hi, I'm Chris. I do wine and other s**t. Hey, I'm Pat. I slopped the pigs at Binny's. What? Was that slop or slap? Quit calling me a pig. Roger, beer. I remember when you slopped us with that goose breast recently. That was pretty good. Oh, that was so good. No goose breast today, sorry. Right, so you already teased number 20. How many of the 20 do you have today? I think I have 17. That's pretty high. I think it's about the most we've had. So listeners, this is our annual Tasting Through Whisky Advocates, top 20 whiskies of the year list, and giving it either a stamp of approval or loud disapproval. Thumbs up, thumbs down? Yeah. So we'll see how these go. Worth mentioning, in the last few years, they have taken so much about that their list was just a bunch of unobtanium. Yeah. Didn't they finagle the way they describe it now? It's like... Yeah. They're all highly rated things that they've had throughout the year, but there is an emphasis on stuff that is at least somewhat broadly available. There's not really any more single cask one-off type of things, or only sold to the membership list at Macallan, and there's 80 bottles for the world type of thing. Yeah. For the last couple of years, there's been a little bit of an emphasis on and how they and that seems to be in the top five almost every year. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see what happens when we get to the top five, all right? All right. I actually don't remember this. We've been really impressed with someone last year. wait, no, Garyon is on this list. Garyon is on this list. What's going on? What the hell are you talking about? I have no idea what he's talking about. Greg's jacked up for wood. Hey, so I'm going to count us down from 20 to 1, and we'll see what we think about these. I taste a lot of whiskeys throughout the year. You guys do too. If any of these are some of the top 20 best whiskeys I've had this year, I will make sure I say so. Number 20. This is Ezra Brooks 99 Proof Rye. You know it's rye because the label is green. Yep. Yep. That's it. All right. They couldn't hit 100, huh? Well, it smells like rye. You know, I don't know. I wonder if there's a certain tax implication or something at 100 that there isn't a 99. I don't know. It stands out, and you remember it. And so they have a few of them, 99 bourbon and 99 rye, and they've essentially replaced the lower proof Ezra's with this. This is Ezra Brooks going forward. Good. It's one fewer letter on the die cast that you have to make for the label. It smells solid. Yeah. Smells like rye. You're right. It smells like rye. This is minty, herbal. A little bit sweet. It's got that sweet grainy flavor to it. Little bit of dill in there, I'd say. Yeah. I agree. Just a dash of dill. How much corn is in this? Because I smell sweet corn too. Good Lord. Sorry. Dash of dill or dill. It smells young. That is a good question. This is a two-year-old rye, 24-month-old rye, and it is a Kentucky style. This is really sitting at about 51 percent rye. I was going to say it. But for a two-year-old, this would run circles around a two-year-old bourbon. For sure. I mean- As young rye always would. There's lots of spice on the finish. It's a bold mouthful. What do you think of that, Roger? I really enjoy it. You're going to enjoy the price too. That is what I was going to say. It depends on how much it costs. This is in stock at a Binny's near you for $22.99. That's fabulous. That's a good buy. This is a Manhattan rye right here. Yeah. There's lots and lots of spice. That's the thing. This is of the age and the proof that this is the perfect cocktail whiskey. That's great. They're taking their cues from Wild Turkey Rye, which once they started putting 101 in 750s, it is still the nice price. This was sourced, but it's their own stuff going forward here. Cool. I could be wrong, but I feel like the youth is actually doing this favors as a cocktail, because it's aggressive. It's lifted and fruity though too. But it's not harsh or rough. No, but it hasn't been aged to a mellow roundness. The finish is spicy and herbal. Yeah. It's the single ply toilet paper of Rise, is what you're saying. I don't get that at all. It's got a little grip to it. Oh, I understood. My New Year's Resolution is to laugh at my own jokes less. Have you been to this? Where did they build their distillery? Barge Town. In Barge Town, yeah. They have a big distillery. I want to say it's a 36 inch wide column. It's a big column, big fermenters, and they are actually in the process currently of putting a second column in. It may already be installed. I haven't been down there since probably August or so. I'm due for another trip this coming spring, and we'll see, but they're really doubling down on capacity with it. MGP bought the Luxco company, which owns the Luxro distillery, which makes Ezra and Rebel and other things. There's a lot of higher level expertise going on too. Not that they didn't have that before. Their master distiller, John Rempey, is a really smart dude. They won distiller of the year when he was here, so I mean, they definitely know what they're doing, especially when it comes to rye. It's a cool distillery to visit, and I do encourage a lot of employees that are asking me to set them up at various distilleries around Bardstown and stuff. It's definitely one worth visiting. It's kind of done up in the visitor center, but the whiskeys they make are really good and favorably priced. Okay, great value. Price to quality ratio, this belongs on the list. Whiskey, top 20? I don't know. I think it's fair at 20. If they were going to call this top 10, I'd be like, you know, it's really good, but I don't know about top 10. But I think top 20 is fair. In their description, are they emphasizing the value here? Because I think it's pretty exceptional for the money. That's my point, is like, I think it belongs in the top 20 just for the value proposition, because the quality is very high for the price. They say it punts as well above its attractive price point of $25. If you don't buy it at Binny's. Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, people are basically putting out their own, like, you know, invented brand rye for 40 bucks. Yeah. And this is better than those. So. Yeah. All right. Number 19 is one of the ones I don't have today. It is a Japanese whiskey called Fuji. That's water. Yeah. You know, I have not had it. They're calling it delicately soft and sweet. Ninety two points, 43% alcohol, 70 bucks. 70 bucks is kind of high. Can't speak to that one. Moving on. Number 18. Number 18 is the Tealene Wonders of Wood Second Edition, which is a pot still whiskey aged in Virgin Portuguese oak. Didn't we have this one before? The first one was Chincapin Oak, Virgin Chincapin Oak. So they're doing, it's all pot still style and their pot still is 50% unmalted barley, the most you can do. 50% unmalted, 50% malted. It's big, it's oily, it's spicy. So they are putting it in new virgin wood for this Wonders of Wood series to try to suss out the differences between these different woods. The Wonders of Wood sounds like some sort of PBS special. Wow. It's not what I was thinking. Yeah, we definitely have done this bit before. Then Pat said it was like Wild America and he started doing the- That's what I was thinking, yeah. Marty Stouffer? Oh, this smells awesome. They are bottling these at 100 Proof too. So 100 Proof, Single Pot Still, Virgin Portuguese Oak. I guess I am all about the wood. Smells like an antique store. Fabulous. Now, Portuguese Oak is still Quercus robor, I believe. But it's just a different- same species, technically, as a lot of French oak. But it's Portuguese. Yeah, exactly. Supposedly, there's some small difference. I don't know. It's the terroir. Yeah. It's a very earthy, kind of like savory quality to it. Yeah. I mean, it wears the wood straight up. I mean, it lives- Especially on the finish. It is a woody whiskey on the finish. I'm going to give this the sideways thumb. Yeah. I think it's a good whiskey, but I don't know about top 20. This is brooding and heady, but it's not like alive. Yeah. It's kind of- Brooding is good. It's like grassy bitterness way at the back. Is that just alcohol? What does this set you back? I imagine this is a secret. This is 100 bucks. I'm not with this. Not sold on this one. I like the smell. Too much wood. I like it. It's got a lot of earthiness in the wood, and there's some mineral character, and it still has hints of that kind of like pineapple-y, more tropical Irish whiskey fruit note to it, but it's a little wood-forward for my taste. If it's so heavy on the wood, does it do a good job of illustrating that one kind of quirkous? Yeah, I would say so. I mean, it tastes like European oak. It's got that richness and spice, more spiciness than you would expect from European oak. Yeah, definitely so. Chris, a little bit of nutmeg on there for you? Yeah, a little nutmeg, and some really super fine woody tannins, I think, on the finish. I think it's a little- there's a weird kind of florality there that seems almost jarring. That's why perfume and old wood. It was this episode last year, number 19, was the chinko pin edition when we did the same bit before. I feel like- Somebody over there is all in on the wonders of wood. Like, yes, they did another one. Which oak is it this year? I feel like I like that one better than this though. Do you recall liking that? I don't. I just remember doing the bits. Someone is crazy for Quercus. Crazy for feeling so woody. Nobody really wants the tealing, I suppose. I liked it. I thought it was an interesting whiskey. A hundred bucks is a bit tough on that though. Nice cork pop. Moving on to number 17. It's lacking in vivacity. Well, we are talking about number 17. We are going to the Grey White North. Coo-loo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo! What? Take off, eh? Coo-loo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo! Yeah. Are we doing strange brew? Yes. Roger is doing that because number 17 is a Crown Royal Whiskey. We are at the seventh release of the Crown Royal Noble Collection, and this they are calling the Barley Edition. This is a blended Canadian whiskey made from malted and unmalted barley. So maybe not that dissimilar to what we just tasted. We'll see. I mean like in genetic makeup, but not in practice. Not in flavor at all. What a crazy fruity nose. The nose is really interesting. Of note, it's a 90 proof Crown Royal, which is always welcome. Matchstick and caramel, like blackened caramelized caramel. Matchstick is interesting because this is only used American oak in here. No. Nothing. No. This is my first time tasting this. It's definitely a much more delicate whiskey than the Tealings, I think. Yeah, very Canadian. Soft spice, lots of vivid fruit like pear and cherry. But then it turns into that sweet bready granola kind of thing. Banana bread. Banana bread. Yeah. A lot of cherry though. Cherry. This whiskey is pretty kick ass. Yeah. That's good. I like this. Let's see. It's so mellow. This is almost sold out. I didn't think I was going to be able to get a sample of this, but Lincoln Park still had it. So this is $79.99, sparsely available, but there are a few cases left floating around Binny's. I think they handled the wood well here. I just thought the last one was just way too over. Well, this is used wood, used American oak. We've heard Brett say it how many times, malt really doesn't like new wood. Right. This was a smart choice, obviously. My other question is, so Canadian whiskeys generally mashed separately for grains, but do they mash the two Barleys together? I don't think so. I think they made unmalted Barley whisky and malted Barley whisky because they refer to it as a blend of those. Okay. That makes sense. Interesting concept. It's something I think most people wouldn't know about Canadian whisky. The way it was explained in the podcast episode we did, I thought was clever was, well, if we have to forecast in 15 years from now what people are going to want, why would we want to take a gamble on a mixed match bill at the get-go, whereas I can That is pretty smart and allows you a lot of room to make maneuvers that you wouldn't be able to make otherwise. I, however, think I'd be paralyzed by choice. When you were talking about going there, it's like 200 different options. Now, at Crown Royal, I know they have 52 unique distillates coming off the various stills at Crown Royal, that they then age and can use to blend all the various Crown Royal marks. Age uniquely in Barrel, so thus fractally multiplying the number of possibilities and outcomes. Yep. The only Canadian whiskeys that are blended before they are aged are Black Velvet and Canadian Club. Every other Canadian whiskey is aged individual grains and then blended at the end. I think it's, how much is it? $79.99 is what you said? $80, barely available. It's sweet and easy. I think it's on borderline top 20, so at number 17, I think that's fair. I'm not crying that I can't get it. Yeah. I like it for the price. I think this is a really nice whiskey that, again, we often talk about what it is that people like about bourbon. When you have people describe what they like about bourbon, it's funny because it doesn't always match up with what they're looking for. Yeah. Because they say they want, they're looking for this really old stuff and really high proof. Then you're like, what flavors do you like? Like caramel, vanilla, soft, sweet, maple. It's all the stuff from like- I like it dried out and spicy. Yeah. So this, I think since so many people are into whiskey right now, but for the most part, it's people into bourbon, I think bourbon drinkers would enjoy this whiskey. Yeah, I think so too. It's really approachable. I think it's really good. I think it's really helped that it's 90 proof, and I do think it shows a little more older character in there, which I like. Number 16. 16. One of the ones I don't have, it is Greenspot quails Gate. That was a limited, which is a, well, that's some winery, I think, right? Wine people? Some sort of hunting conspiracy. Green, winery where? Scotland. Right? It was 100- Canada, Ireland. Yeah, quails Gate Pinot Noir. Is that when Chaney shot someone in the face? quail Gate? This Green Spot single pot cell Irish whiskey that was finished in quails Gate Pinot Noir casks. It was American Oak and then 16 months in the Pinot Noir casks. It was $150. We barely got any. It is gone, maybe deserve in the top 20. $150 for Green Spot, I think, is pretty high because Green Spot is usually around an eight-year-old whiskey. So come on, you're charging for air. Irish whiskey is really getting full of itself. It seems like price point wise. Oh yeah. Number 15. Number 15. This stopper is awesome. Is that a piece of Elkhorn? No, that would be cruel. It's a piece of, I'm sure, completely environmentally degradable petroleum-based something. Elkhorn. Modeled to look like an Elkhorn. Number 15. We're at number 15. Number 15. This is Old Elk Portkask Finish Bourbon. Old Elk is a high malt bourbon, so they use a high malt mass bill. Greg Metz, former master still at MGP, is their blender now. This is 108.1 proof. Seems like after a couple of Canadian whiskies, after a Canadian whiskey, you would think that Old Elk would be Canadian, but it ain't. USA. This is On the Shelf at a Binny's Near You for 89.99. I like the bottle. Weighty, distinguished looking. We've had a lot of Old Elks before. Are you describing me? That have been very good. You guys have done several Old Elk hand picks like me, right? We have done Old Elk hand picks in the past. There's nothing Barrel finished though. Anybody else getting a grapefruit on the nose here? There's a weird dark red citrusy thing. Getting like cinnamon and popery. Vanilla extract. Cherry Coke? Yeah, maybe Cherry Coke. If there's a deeper, richer spice, it might be root beer. Sarsaparilla? Yeah, sarsaparilla. Waco, Texas, Dr. Pepper. Oh, this is nice. A lot of spiced fruit. Yeah. It's big and broad. Lots of spice. It goes from fruit to then a whole bunch of spice and wood in the finish. That's a chewy one. It's chewy and I think front to back, it's pretty well balanced. The red cherry candy is the kind of cherry up front. It's almost Ludens and then it broadens out to spice as it goes. It's very spicy on the finish. Ludens. Yeah. Ludens. I like this. This might be good with a little ice to kind of open it up a little in a little water. Yeah, it's 108, right? The Whisky Advocate review suggests adding water. Yeah, it's a bit indulgent. And chocolate and cinnamon becomes more vibrant, they say. Even more cinnamon? I don't know. Tame that cinnamon. I'm getting a fair amount of chocolate on the finish too. Yeah. I like this. This would be a really nice pairing with dessert with a piece of chocolate cake or something. Yeah, like ganache. This is really good. I think top 20 is fair. I wouldn't put a top 10 where it sits at 15. I get it. It's understandable. How old is it? Does not say. It seems a little bit fresh. Oh, excuse me. Five years. Oh, wow. Where's our branch water? I want to try a little water in this. What? I'm pretty sure I was reading Roger also when he was like, sure would be good with some ice. I mean, it's good to taste this way, but we should do a real world scenario. Yeah. All right. I'll try it with some water. Just a splash. Oh, I mean, the nose just opens wide up. It smells more grainy now. I was picking some more coffee and caramel. It's got a really more caramel and like butterscotch comes out of the water. Yeah. That's a nice whiskey. Very dessert like. But it has like also I find on the finish, it has like almost like a chalky minerality and a little texture. So it doesn't. Yeah, it's not overly sweet. It's not cloying anyway. No, no, no, not sweet. But I mean, the finish is pretty dry, actually. Number 14 is Glenn Fittick, 12-year-old. Budweight, not the regular. This is a special edition 12. It has the ABV bumped up from 40 to 43, and it is in a Monteato Sherry cask finish. So a Monteato is partially biologically aged and then oxidatively aged, right? You are correct, sir. So it's under floor until for some reason the floor collapses, and then it starts getting those oxidative nutty notes. So that's kind of cool. It's got that combination of fresh sherry and aged sherry. That's always fun. You got that real aldehydic tang and the nutty richness at the same time. Damn, Raj, get it. Why don't you pour yourself a pour there, buddy? That's called a gentleman's measure. I'm usually the one who does that. That was a brand new bottle, so it was intentional. Comes glugging out. To give myself the Evergreen Park pour. It's also known as the Evergreen Park pour, yes. This better be 70 bucks. It smells like Christmas. No way. Really? All right. Then my opinion of it is getting better. This is available at your friendly neighborhood Binny's for $54.99. That's an outstanding price. Yes. I mean, it's higher than regular Glen Fittick 12, but even regular Glen Fittick 12 is like $42 now. This smells special. I like this quite a bit. I poured this when I was doing some Scotch classes with the staff earlier in the year. This has been around for months now. Yeah. I really like this whiskey. Glen Fittick is an overlooked value in single malt anyway, but I really like this. Glen Fittick has direct fired wash stills at their distillery. So there are literally gas powered heat jets cooking the bottom of the wash still, the first of the two pot still distillations. So they have to have a mechanism in there called a rummager that drags it like a chain mail mesh around the bottom of it to try to keep it from scorching. But you still get some caramelization of your wash. It's like a precarious proposition. So not a lot of distilleries do that. Springbank does, Glen Farclis does, a lot of other whiskeys we like a lot that tend to have that kind of oily or meatier character to them. And so even though Glen Fittick is the second, it still might be the number one selling case count wise single malt brand globally. I think it's number two in America. It's a great whisky man, especially 55 bucks. It's very good and it kind of seems like a sleeper. Like it's understated and it's round. And even with that extra 3% ABV, it's not jumping out of the glass at you. But then it just lives forever and it's a thinker. I think that really got that that finish. It just sits. It just sits with that fruit. Yeah. I was going to say there's a surprising amount of stone fruit. It's like the fruit cake aspect of this one. I mean, I know someone who does. The amount of, I mean, obviously I'm going to love this. I think the amount of complexity that it delivers for the price is phenomenal. Also, this brings me back to just how anybody that's asked me about bourbon, pretty much my initial response is like, have you tried any scotches lately? They're always like, no, I don't like smoky scotches. They're not all smoky. Come on. People need to give single malt a chance and this would be an excellent place. I think a lot of people can think of earthy flavors as smoky and also think of dried fruit, like heavy sherry flavors as smoky. They need to re-taste this. That was when their palate was younger. You've tasted through all these other whiskies and you spend good money and you think critically about these other whiskies, you ought to treat scotch the same way and really sit there and digest it and think about the layers that you're tasting here. And not just be like, oh, earthy, I don't like it. Yeah. I mean, so many of them, though, I think are very approachable. I mean, there's nothing in this that's- Yeah, there is no Pete character whatsoever here. And- Unpeated whiskey, yeah. Yeah. I mean, and it's really pretty. And that finish just pumps and pumps out flavor, like, endlessly. I think sometimes it behooves people in the industry to just take a couple of steps back and remember that it's almost seemingly funny to us that people would think of all Scotch as smokey, but I think to a lot of people it is. So, a reminder, plenty of delicious, you know, completely unpeated single malts out there. And at a price like this, which people have to pay for like entry level bourbon, this is delivering such a magnificent level of complexity and drinkability that you need to give a whiskey like this a try. Yeah, this is great. Happy to say that this deserves a spot in the top 20. If not the top 10, and it's sitting in number 14. Number 13. Nice job. Lucky 13. This one's got Roger written all over it. This is Hemingway Rye. Nice. It is a blend of Indiana distilled and Kentucky distilled ryes that were then finished in rum seasoned Oloroso sherry casks. What does that mean? We have a rum brand on the shelves that's owned by the same company that ages in sherry barrels. They took sherry barrels, they aged a rum in it, and then this is the third thing to go in there. Who is that, Diplomatico? No, it's the other Hemingway, the Papa's Pee Larf. Oh, Papa's Pee Larf. Oh, they're really milking that Hemingway. Oh, yeah. This is 90 percent Indiana, 95 percent rye, 10 percent Kentucky made 95 percent rye. What? Yeah. What percent Kentucky made 95 percent rye? 10. 10 percent Kentucky made 95 percent rye. Yeah. It's a lot of percentages to be thrown here. It is bottled at 102 proof, 51 percent alcohol. Chris, you surely know what kind of typewriter has those dumb little round keys. Show Chris. Yeah, I see. No? Have you ever watched me type? No. It's a hunter and pecker. Don't. You're a hunter and pecker? Oh, God. Yeah. It's the blend of the two ryes, both 95 percent rye though, and then in the rum barrel that was previously and all the Rosso Sherry barrel. So in theory, we've got a lot of contrasting character here. I'm curious to see if you guys think this works. Right off the bat, is this really fruity too? Or is the scotch actually trouncing this rye? I feel like this is fruity and it doesn't have a lot of a spicy complexity in the nose. It does in the finish though, holy cow. On the nose, there's more sweet molasses, caramel, dried fruit character, fruit leather type of thing early in the palate, but then it turns more toward the mint and the herbal grass and the spice of the rye. For sure. Wow. It's interesting. It actually tells a decent story front to back as it goes. It really starts plush and the spice just builds and builds. It slowly builds. I like that sometimes those things are too contrasting and they fight, but this is a good transition. I think there's a journey here that you go on because you smell it and it smells all that. I actually like this. I don't want to like this because I don't like this stupid look. It's Hemingway packaging. How many cocktails are associated with Hemingway? He did like to drink. Can you think of a rye cocktail he liked though? Because I'm struggling to come up with one. I don't know. I just know all the rum stuff. I'm sure he drank rye. If you go on their website, they talk about how he drank rye. Can you imagine somebody was like, hey, Mr. Hemingway, would you like a snifter of rye? He's like, oh, no thanks. No. Don't do that. Of our components here, the Indiana rye, so 90 percent is six years old, and 10 percent of it, the Kentucky rye is four years old. I'm getting a little more herbaceousness in the nose now when I revisit it. But I think, yeah. I'm getting citrus. I'm getting like a clove to orange. Yeah, for sure. I think it's super cool the way this has, the sweetness, I think, offsets the spice in a way. It's an Underwood typewriter. Underwood. Sorry, Roger. That was really, really important. I get that you, in one breath, you can say this is a little pandering or whatever, but I do think it's, in a way, a fun homage. I think it is somewhat clever. And I really like the liquid. I think it's really well put together. You're a noted lover of Angel's Envy Rye, which is the rum barrel rye. How do you feel this compares? I feel this is actually less sweet. I think this conveys itself as more rye forward and less rum finish, but the sweetness here really lifts the, it helps the rye spice make this ludicrously drinkable for 102. I think it's helped by that higher proof. What really does it for me is that higher proof really gives this some stratified layers that I think would kind of get like lost and just blobed out of there if it was bottled at 86 or 90 proof. Yeah, it gives it a spine. Yeah. So this is available at Binny's for $74.99. Pretty good price. It's comparable price to the Angel's Envy rye. Angel's Envy is higher, but it's often on sale for less. I think this is on par with it, to be honest. I also think this is quite good. My first sniff of it, I thought it doesn't convey rye a lot to me. It smelled sweeter, more bourbon-y, but now that I've had it in my mouth, and it's literally like a journey. It starts one place and smoothly takes you on this winding ride to the spice finish. I think Pat put it best when he said it was a story. It tells a story. It really does. He really snuck that in there. I like this a lot. I think the longer it sits in the glass, the more it becomes rye to me and that more citrus comes out. I get a lot of darker citrus character out of a lot of different ryes. The longer this is sat, the more of that baking spice and orange characters come through. I agree. I feel it's very different than when I first took a sniff. I get a bottle of this from my sister. My sister bought me a typewriter. Really? Pretty good. I'll give this a thumbs up for top 20. I'll drink this in a teacup in a diner late at night. All right. Moving along. I'll drive an ambulance in World War I. Ooh, Blue Run. Is this number 12? Number 12. This is Blue Run Trifecta Blend. This was a limited release of 6, 8, and 9-year-old Kentucky Bourbons. I got to check Blue Run's website, but I'm pretty sure the 9-year was only from the top floors of the Rick House because they were looking specifically for a richer, oakier character. They left out the 7-year because 7, 8, 9. Jim also has kids. The door is over there. So, different match bills too. So, 32 percent of this is 9 years old, that's 10 percent rye, 22 percent is 8 years old, that's 21 percent rye, 46 percent of it is 6 years old, that's 12 percent rye. You're doing it again. I know. I'm imagining this grid of numbers. That's essentially what I'm looking at. Yeah. This is 117.1 proof. Whoa, it doesn't smell that hot. Doesn't smell that hot at all. Getting a lot of proof-free money here. So Blue Run was purchased this past year by Molson Coors, and it's now part of their spirits thing, which they have a couple. They are building, this is shortly after Blue Run announced, they were building this ludicrously futurist Kentucky Distillery, because there was all these tech bros that owned it before and then sold it. So their whiskey has always been high priced, but very good. This one is very high priced, and I find it annoyingly good. I really do like this bourbon a lot. I think the nose is really young. The nose is really interesting. Tons of that bitto honey. Oh, I got some bitto honey because I bought a guitar pedal from Sweetwater, Don't Tell My Wife, and they ship candy with music gear when you buy it. I had the bitto honey and it was softer than you sell it. It was pretty good. Well, it depends on how fresh they are. Well, it came from a music retailer in the mail. Was it twisty wrapped or actually sealed? No, it was wax paper wrapped. I mean, obviously, it's ancient and not a lot of people know what it is, so depending on if you get it when it's actually fresh versus like three years. Yeah. It'd be like eating toppers. That's true. There's a big difference. I complimented this obscure candy. It's delicious. You think bitto honey is a youthful flavor in britain. Oh, yeah. See, I think it's more developed kind of character. Like cooked, like a cooked honey, a nutty honey, I think is usually an older character for me. Huh. So what do you guys think this costs? $120. $180. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's annoyingly good. I really do think this is a good bourbon. I wouldn't pay $180 because I get to try these things for free, but I've bought expensive Blue Run bottles by the pour at local bars before and really enjoyed them. One pour at a time, the whole bottle. Yeah. This is dwindling stock at Binny's, but it is available at most stores, I would say. There's a few bottles left here and there. You said 117 proof? 117.1. I think it pops. The proof smacks you at the back of the mid-palate, and then it drops out again before the finish, which is strange. Bit of honey, citrus, caramel, that's a lot of money. It's a lot of money for similar flavors you can find in bourbons for $100. Yeah. For 50 bucks. I mean, I get a lot of pear fruit out of this one. Yeah, that too. Definitely a bit of honey for sure. Like underripe green pear fruit. I thought the nose was relatively compelling. I get it like just the barest hint of smoldering campfire out of this. Rod, you're right. It tastes pretty young. It's floral. I think it's got some chocolatey character on the palate that's generally a little bit older. I very badly want to taste this next to old Granddad 114. That can be arranged. Because I think they're very similar in a lot of ways. This would be more refined, have a little more older character on the back end. Old Granddad 114 is going to be nuttier. Old Granddad 114 has also been on sale at a Binny's New Year for like 26 bucks for a while. And like 40 years old, right? Yep. Consensus is everyone like the flavor, but not top 20 on price. No. No, can't be. Got to drink the bottom shelf, kids. No. Don't be a snob. I could make an old-fashioned out of this with some maple syrup that would be pretty kick-ass. Well, yeah. It does have a bit of a maple character in the finish, which I like a lot. Yeah, you're right. It would be, but it would be good. All right. Greg's favorite brand up next. Oh, none, I'll tell you that. We're on a nice run here. See how many of these I have this year? This is great. Yeah, this is actually pretty stunning. Number 11, Barrel Craft Spirits, Batch 35 Bourbon. Wow, they even have an un-Googleable batch name. How many people? I remember in early spirits tasting, it seemed like it was just one guy that was this entity. Do you know? Is it a lot of people? Yeah. So they opened a giant new facility recently. They've got a master blender, they've got the owner. Did it start as just like one guy? Pretty much, but he got a big team pretty much right away. He's a businessman. This guy, Joe Beatrice, who founded it. Did you say batch 37? Thirty-five. I already forgot. Barrel Craft. Then I'm going to try it and it's going to be stunning. You know what? They kind of always are. Right? Yeah. I've never had a bad whiskey from these guys, and I can't remember any of them. Their name is Goofy. I still think it was a weird decision. But they release really good products. So batch 35 here is a blend of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana Bourbons of 6, 7, 8, and 13 years old. And this is 117.5 proof. I'm all about that kind of like sprinkling in a little of the older flavor. But because again, I think all these people that say they want old s***, they don't. It's the seasoning. It's not the sauce. Some of those really old Knob Creek's, like they're fun to try every once in a while. But a lot of times I literally do. It's a lumber yard. I'll mix them in with other bourbons. OGD 114. This beautiful bottle, this beautiful package has the little award sticker on the top that's just like the one on Barefoot. Oh yeah. Double gold. They're big fans. You can read all their various awards on this on their website. Number 11 on Whisky Advocate Top 20. Fred Minick, the ascot himself gave it number seven on his top 100 this year. Yeah, the ascot himself. Greg, you're really vana-whiting that bottle there. I enjoyed that. I would like a gif of you just- Expressively waving my open palm toward it. Like sensually, but not in a gross way. Well, that's really good. Dude, it smells like orange marmalade, and it smells great. Yeah, it does smell like orange marmalade, and it tastes fantastic. How much is this? The texture of this thing. Roulette Vos Couches. I was like, moi. This is a pretty good bottle. Big, grippy limestone, like a stone room full of fruit. This is available at Binny's near you for $79.99. That's awesome. That's a great price for this. Yeah. I'm surprised this has been for quite a while. Can we rewind for a minute? What was your descriptor there? A stone room? A limestone walled basement room full of fruits, macerating, full of bananas and papayas and cherries and strawberries and melons. Sounds like a place I want to hang. I don't see that guy on Reddit. It sounds like Roger's basement. I don't see that guy on Reddit who's got a basement that's lined with stone and he turned it into an eel farm and he farms eels for sushi in his basement. You guys are on a different subreddit than I am. Love that. It occasionally pops up on mildly interesting or something. I love that barbecued eel though. Let's not talk about that. Let's talk about this whiskey. This whiskey is awesome. It's really good. It's so good. The texture, man, the grip of this thing. I don't know if you guys have had many of our handpicks from them recently, but they do these micro blends that you can get as handpicks, and then they do single barrels as well. And because everything's uncut, unfiltered, the single barrels that we get 10, 11 years old, they might only yield like 12 cases or something. So they are a little harder to come by, but everything they have is just so damn good. Went a little heavy on that loop of water. I mean, it's hard to splash. Chris needs another shot of whiskey because he put too much water in there. They really know what they're doing in creating these. I mean, the balance here is, I mean, again, this is pretty high proof, right? I usually don't enjoy drinking stuff that's this hot over like 110 neat, and I could. Oh yeah. This carries the alcohol so well. It's ridiculous. I haven't had their whiskeys number 10 through 1 yet, but this is in my top 10 for the year right now. Yeah. Easily earns a spot at number 11. Yeah. If not higher. Yeah. This is one of the better bourbons I've had recently. Now that we're clean, dude, that compared to that trifecta blend, it's head and shoulders better. It's worth twice as much money as trifecta blend. Yeah. Well, nothing now, because you're implying it's worth $360, which it is not. No, I'm implying the trifecta blend is worth $30. The trifecta blend is worth $30. Yeah. Yeah. This runs circles around trifecta. Yeah. It really does. Well, I find it hard to believe that that's not better than several of the ones to come. The next ones to come? That's so good. Bro, I got some bangers coming up here. Pat does know the spoilers here. Yeah. Pat, you brought 17 bottles of whiskey, and somehow we thought we could do it in a single episode. Yeah, that was aspirational. Yeah. So... We didn't taste them in a single sitting, though. That is true. So, listeners, for you, we'll be back in a week. For us, we'll be back in like 45 seconds. See you then. See you then. Hey, you're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I am Greg, and this is part two. Pat? Part two of Whisky Advocate's top 20 of the year. We tasted 17 of the 20. Hope you hung out for the first one. Enjoy this next one. This is the rest. There's a lot of good whiskeys on this list. We get really excited in this one. Yeah, yeah. You know what? To my chagrin, they did a pretty good job this year. All right, here we go. Best whiskeys of 2023. Barrel to Bottle, Binny's Podcast. Let's go. Number 10, are we in the top 10? Was that an extra long music break? Extra long music break. Welcome to the top 10, the final countdown. Although he's tearing this one open clean. This one I haven't tasted yet. Glendronach what? This is Glendronach. So number 10 is Glendronach Cask Strength, Batch 12. So Glendronach, pretty famous Highland Scotch Distillery, known for tons of big, heavy sherry barrel aging. This guy was matured in PX and Oloroso casks and bottled at 58.2%. So it was run by a man named Billy Walker, who we know and love for various cask finishing expertise. And now it is owned by Brown Foreman. We have lots of their guests on our podcasts and they tend to put things in 700 ml bottles instead of 750s, which is the default 9% price increase, which we are not fans of. Nope. They also tend to put things in barrels where they scrape out rings of char for more wood exposure. Did they do that here? No, they did not. All right. Glendronach Cask Strength Batch 12. This is like a roasted peanut character on the nose. That's really weird. It is richly Sherried. The Amantia, the Glenthetic 12, in the Sherry aspect of things, that spray paint aerosol quality that they get, that had a little of it. This does not. No biological aging here. Is that what it is? Mm-hmm. Oh, okay. Well, there you go. It's the floor. This has some savory qualities. Or lack thereof. Savory qualities that I'm not too crazy about here, like tomato, olive. I love those things. I want some pizza. You guys want to get some pizza? Yep. We should go to Sbarro's. I could have stopped on the tollway on my way back from Rockford. Rod, you're right. It's like a kind of a wilted spinach quality in there. It's like some kind of heavy vegetable. Strange. It's like right underneath. Is there some peateness or something? The orange peel. No peateness. Huh. Oilyness from them. A little bit. I'm getting a lot of like oiled leather, but there's still like a lot of sherry fruit, like real like stewed plum, stewed fig. Stewed tomato. I don't know. That's stewed tomato. Oiled kale. This is- But there's also like a creme brulee burnt sugar. Yeah. Yeah. I can see that. This is somewhat available. Most Binny's stores have a couple bottles left. We've sold through most of our allocation, but it is available in most stores still. And this is a 109.99. That's a little expensive. I think I like it though. I think I like this one. I like it. It probably sings with some water. I like it on the palate better than I did on the nose. I think there's a lot going on here. There's sweet fruit up front and it's very leathery. But that's not to say it's heavy. It has that depth and richness. It's pretty chewy with some water. Once you've got the alcohol blast off, it actually gets a little broader on the palate. I like this a lot. I think this is worth the price of admission. I don't know that it's top 10. I think top 20 is fair, but I don't know about top 10. I wouldn't hesitate to pay $110 for this bottle of Scotch. I agree. Well, I agree with the placement within the top 20. I don't know about that. What do you think the age is? Likely a blend of 8 to 12. Not a fan. Really? I mean, it's nice. It's, I don't know. Big Sherry Bomb. Raji No Likey. No. He wants more fruit and less olive, I guess. Yeah, less savory. I think there is a fair amount of fruit, though. I don't think we want to say there's. Fruit and confection. Well, there's some, but I don't know. Maybe that, I guess leather is probably a nice descriptor. It's... It is. I don't know. It starts out fruity, but it moves into savory things quickly. Numero Nueve. Tanned Hide. Numero Nueve. Number nine, Bardstown Bourbon Company Collaborative Series. And this is the four square release. So this is a blend of straight whiskeys finished in four square rum barrels. And in this case, it is 90% seven-year-old Indiana rye. Okay, I like that temptation. But only 51% rye. 45% corn. So Kentucky style rye made in Indiana, seven years old. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. 90% of it. Numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers. This time you actually have to wonder what's in the bottle. So it's 90%, 51% rye. So then what's the rest of it? The rest of it, 10% is 17-year-old Tennessee bourbon. There could be more corn than rye in this bottle. Yes. There could be. Especially because the Tennessee bourbon is 84% corn. And what are they calling it? I don't know how the math works out. That's really not that hard. They're calling it a blend of straight whiskeys finished in four square rum barrels. 8.4% corn from the old Tennessee whisky bourbon and by volume plus, I don't know what the back half of the 51% is. 45% corn. So that's 4% multi-barley. 40.5. So that's only 46. It's 48%. 46. This isn't a math podcast. This is a math podcast. There's a whole bunch of people listening and they're like, you idiots. Exactly why I don't want to do this. Talk about what you think the type of rum, I don't know if they say, but- Well, the type of rum, Foursquare blends all of their rums of column and pot still. So they're taking lighter style, blending it with heavier style, and then maturing it. So the type of rum is GFY. It's from Foursquare. I was alluding to, do you think it'll be more like pot still character? Probably not. It really depends what mark they got these barrels from Foursquare, which is hard to say. So Bardstown, no doubt, probably wanted Foursquare because they are the darling of the rum world. For sure. The rum geeks are all about Foursquare. This was finished for 23 months in the rum cask, which is nothing to shake a stick at. And to Bardstown's defense, they have a pretty good history of collabs that make a lot of sense. And the shake your swizzle stick at. Now that said, this is like 200 bucks, huh? Not quite. It is 159.99, 160 bucks. Let's try it. So dust off your seersucker suit and grab yourself a bottle. Interesting. It's so herbal on the finish. You really taste that old component. It's got that super old. It's got the super old Tennessee character that isn't Flintstone vitamin, but it does have a minerality to it. And then the finish has this herbal green pepper purezine rye thing. Get your bingo cards out. Amylase. Yeah. No, I know what you're talking about there. It has that crunchy back edge. It finishes like young rye. But all the front end is fricking old bourbon. I can see people liking this because it's so different than a lot of things that they've probably tasted. But I don't know. I don't know. This to me is kind of that old bourbon is not necessarily better bourbon, and it really dominates even though it's like 10%. 10%. I think that they did a really good job of blending them actually. I like this a lot. Instead of dominating because of the freshness of the rye still pops through too. I think it's a really intriguing balance. And to know that it's 90-10 shows you that a lot of thought went into that decision or a lot of trial. I also, I think it is delicious. I think this is delicious. Top 20, I would sign off on. Top 10, I'm on the fence. I think it's in mind based on what we've tried so far. Yeah, it might be. This is kind of lean though. I don't know that it can support the flavor profile. So this is 107 proof. I'm going to give it a taste with a little water. If there's a criticism here, it's that it's really not showing that much rum character. I disagree. You think it is? In the fruit? Yeah. I mean, the aroma, I feel like the aroma is... Sweetened rum really come out with some water. Like, it gets a notable brown sugar character when you add a little bit of water to it. I think it's pretty good. Like all Bardstowns, it's kind of, at least on this end of the spectrum, it's a little overpriced. If somebody gave me this, I would happily accept the gift and drink it all. Would I spring for it at 160? I think I'm on the fence. That's like the Bardstown story though. Yeah. I'm a huge fan of rum, obviously, and I feel like, I don't know, this feels disjointed to me. I feel like it's, you get the sweetness and the fruitiness of the rum, but that there's just this specter of that really old, tired bourbon that I don't care for. It definitely is an older bourbon character. If you like older bourbon and you like a wood-forward bourbon profile, you ought to check this out. It is available at Binny's Near You, although we are, what we have is what we have. It's interesting. Super interesting. All right. Moving on. This one's going to be interesting. This is number eight, Glenmorangie A Tale of the Forest. Ooh, I read about this one. So, they killed some barley over, quote, woodland botanicals. Play some flute. Some pan pipes. What were those botanicals? Juniper berries, birch bark, and heather blossoms, and kind of aromatized their malted barley with that. And what international herb supplier did they get those forest botanicals from? Who knows? Those are native. Like all of the Glenmorangie limited releases, this is 46% Sonanchil filter. Yeah, all those are in Scotland. I bet they are. Very broadly available. Just because they're in the backyard doesn't mean they went out there and picked them. No, no, I'm not saying that, but they are native. No, but they are on a big estate that they grow their own barley on and stuff. So they do have a big chunk of forest on the property. Heather has played a big role in spirits and beer in the British Isles. When they say kilned with, how do you think this process was? Do you think they- So it's floor malted barley that the kiln was fed with some of those botanicals. So they burnt them? Or- Did they mix them with the barley as they dried it? Balvini did this with a 19-year-old limited release a couple years ago, where they took wet botanicals and put it on top of and underneath the wet barley in the kiln. Yeah. So I'd like to know which, but either way, I was just going to ask if you'd ever heard of anyone doing anything like this before. Balvini's the only one I know. Okay. They took Heather and did it. It was a limited release 19-year-old. What'd you think of that one? I liked that Balvini a lot. Remember those historic ales of Scotland that they used to make with the Heather ale? I think this sucks. What do you really think though? Hey-oh. It smells like ham. I'm a guy that likes smoky, hammy whiskies. I think this is just thin and bland with a weird smoke and a bit of an... There is some interesting complexity to it. I don't want to completely trash it, but this is absolutely not a top 20 whisky. Yeah I find that to be a big stretch. The concentration in body is just not there. No, not at all. It makes it down to- Even as it's non-chill filtered too. That's amazing. Is it 40? It's 46. Why, no way. Non-chill filtered, yeah. It does not show that much alcohol. Now I will say the next tale release that came out after this one, that came out in November or December of 2023, A Tale of Tokyo, much better whiskey. That one I liked. Yeah, I'm going to stay with Suggs. I want to defend this. Is there a peated element in here or is that smokiness coming from the botanicals? It's only from those. Yeah, because it's got some smoke. It is present, yes, I agree. It's wispy, but it's present and I think it's a nice complexity. In defense of this, I think it's fine. I think it's fine. How much is it? We're not talking about whether it's fine or not. We're talking about whether it's the top 20 of the year. Well, you said it sucks. And this is number eight. Oh, well. That's right. There's no way this is number eight. It's fine. Get us out of here. It's fine. No, it's not fine. It wears the smoke on its sleeve. There's too much. I don't know if there's too much smoke. I think there's not enough other to back up the smoke. That's what I'm saying. I think the smoke overall, in the grand scheme of smoke, it's a fairly subtle smoke, but there's just nothing else there. But it's like a honey floral with smoke. Yeah, honey floral is classic Glenmorangie, especially them. But they're not famous for smoky whiskeys, so I'm saying it's disjointed. Hey man, I'm not defending it. As a person who doesn't know what they're famous for, I think it's fine. It's just fine. Yeah, it's just fine. You're famous for all kinds of things. There is barely any of this left. Notorious, in fact. We're talking single digit amount of cases across the chain. Check it out on our website. It may or may not be at your neighborhood Binny's. This is 100 bucks. It's a no from me at 100. No, I'd expect it to be 60. If you dig smoky stuff, I mean, it's not terrible, but I'm not a fan. Yeah, it doesn't taste bad or anything. If you've got a Scotch Tasting Group, this is an interesting bottle they have that everybody's splitting in and trying a bunch of stuff. Yeah. Why not? This is a shaggy dog story. If you're a fan of smoke, you're going to be like, well, it's not that smoky. For sure. And that's why I was quantifying. I don't typically like smoky whiskies. I mean, if you wanted to just drop this into a ralp beer, maybe I'd be down with it. And bringing up our obligatory Dewar's entry in the top 20 list. Hey, we loved our Dewar's entry in the top 20 last year. Oh, because it was 12 year? 20, 25 year? No. No, it was 12 year and it was $23. $25. That was a- For $25. Do you remember that, Roger? That is a killer buy. Yeah. It was a great, it wasn't $25. No, it was, it was $23.99. Yeah, it was $22.99. Yeah, that's why, I mean, it was mind-blowing. It's a very good bottle and it was that price. This on the other hand is $349. Is it? No, not quite. The shoe box that came in says otherwise. How much does this cost? Let me double check our price just to make sure. Oh yeah, so that Dewar's was like a higher proof Dewar's? Is that what it was? It was a 12 year. It was the reformulation of the 12 year. Oh, okay. Yeah, that was excellent. I forgot it was that cheap. Yeah. That's bonkers. This one is 150 bucks. So well, I noticed that it has a reference to Japan. So right there, just the price goes up. So let me guess, is it some of their fancy oak? What we are tasting here, number seven is Dewar's Double Double 21 year old Mizunara Oak. That's like. The blessed oak. Yeah. That's the mad libs of whiskey guy talk. Attention nerds. It is a 750 ml, other double doubles have been three seven fives. I'm saying double double, I want a cheeseburger now. That's their, yeah, me too. I even settle for a spiral pizza. It is 46% alcohol. It's a 750 ml, all good things. I like that they position the label to make it, well, I guess the glass is not a square either, but when you took it out of the box, I thought it was a square. All right, this is my first time trying this. So, the way this works is malt whiskies and grain whiskies are each individually aged to 21 years old. Then they are blended by master blender Stephanie McLeod. Then they are returned to the barrel for further aging. And then they are put into these finishing casks. This is probably benefiting from the fact that it's car chilled. It is car chilled. Do this right here. Woo. It's a blended scotch. It's going to be a little sweet. I didn't say little, son. Oh, I don't think it's a lot of sweet. I think it's a lot of sweet. This is little sweet. I think it's wonderful. The Mizunara character, I'm not sure that there's a lot of it there. Mizunara, I generally tend to describe personally as an incense kind of character. There's like a woodsy spice, incense-y thing. This has a little bit of that, but it doesn't taste that appreciably different than I think the regular Dewar's does, which has tons of apples and honey and pears and a little bit of floral character. Floral spice, also a good way to describe Mizunara. I really like that aspect of it. That is very prominent. You don't have to search for it for me. I get it on the finish and it's very unique. I like this a lot. It lives up to its rep. This whole lineup, I think, kills it. The regular double-double lineup is a 21, 27 and 32 year that are different sherry barrels. For my taste, generally, I think they're a bit heavy on the sherry, but sneak peek, we have coming this spring, a custom Binny's batch of Dewar's 21 year old double double that was in Marsala casks. Oh, even more fun. That they put a bunch of different finishing barrels down as a test. And then this past May when we were over there, we went to Dewar's blending facility in Glasgow and we tasted through all the test barrels to determine which finishing barrel we wanted for our main batch. Do you know where the Marsala barrels from sweet or dry Marsala? It was sweet Marsala. We tasted sweet, dry and a different kind of Marsala. There was some other third one that they had. I'd have to go back and check the notes. There are a lot of different tiers. OK, I don't know that much about Marsala. When it is available, we're going to have Stephanie McLeod over doing some events and stuff and we'll probably have her on an episode of Barrel to Bottle too. Keeping an eye out for it. I mean, I think this is really pretty. I think that we're back to a very elegant style of whiskey. Elegant scotch. This is, I wear French cuff shirts. Exactly. And put on a jacket to go to work. A lot of these have been pretty big and chewy. This is definitely a refined fruity. The finish is quite beautiful. Yeah, this is really pretty. You're paying for age and cuprich here, which I get. There's not a lot of us that stretch for $150 bottles every day. I think having this in the top 10 is fair. It is really good. I worry with the snobbery that maybe people would push you off and it's doers, but how would you say it stacks up with other scotches that you've had aged that would? I haven't had a lot of scotch in Mizunara. I've had some. I've had a Glenfidic and some others. I'm sorry, Japanese Whisky. I had some of those too. A lot of them, it's used very sparingly because it's not an efficient wood for aging. It doesn't. We talked about it when Byron Copeland, I think, was on the podcast. The wood doesn't have the, that oak doesn't have the Tyloses that American oak has, so it's very poor. It doesn't clog its pores. So you lose a lot. I've had the 55-year-old Yamazaki that was Mizunara aged, and it was one of the worst whiskeys I've had. And it was really not good. It was all xylem and phloem. It was just, it was just all dry and wood. Well, 55 years is a bonker. Yeah. We've done some single casts of Kayo Japanese whisky that were Mizunara that are really good. And they tend to be a little heavier handed on the Mizunara. I like that this is a balanced touch, because Mizunara can be an intense flavor if it's, if you're using a lot of it. In general, if you want to experience that though, you got to pay a lot to attend the party, right? So, generally speaking, 150, this is not that much. Yields for Mizunara are very low. And there is one groupage in Japan, to my knowledge, making Mizunara barrels. So it's just, you start with an expensive barrel and then you finish with a low yield. You're not exactly teeing yourself up for a reasonably priced spirit. And this is, I would say, a very beautiful expression. So, I think it's worth it. Yeah, this is really interesting. Greg, what do you think of this? I don't have very much to say about this. It's pretty. It's really expensive. I don't know, it's like a nice interplay. It's kind of expensive. Of like a citric frosting quality against a bready backbone. And when I'm kind of lost in thought on something like this, then it's hard for me to get super jazzed. I think this delivers at 150 bucks because you get a pretty eye-catching age statement and arguably one of the most eye-catching wood regimens in whiskey. So if you want to have a good bottle to pull out and impress some people with amongst a whiskey collection, 21 years old in Mizunara Wood is checking a couple boxes there. Again, I picture this as like a dessert course. So this served with like berries and cream. Like it has this lovely honeyed sweetness with florality to it that... I could even see this playing well with cheese. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Number seven. Okay, pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. You just, Greg, you just like more horsepower. It's such a stupid comparison. But there have been a couple of times where Pat and Brett come up with some really insanely amazing older single barrel scotches and even older blends. And like there's an elegance that I think is lost on me and I get a little humbled when I'm trying it, you know? And I would say that your comment about getting lost and thought in a whiskey and not getting jazzed, I think for me, that's one of the beauties of whiskey is to sit and contemplate. This is too floral for Greg. Maybe, maybe, honestly. Greg's the pine resin kind of guy. Guzzles Bombay Sapphire by The Gallant. Also true, but it's not the florality that's not floral enough for me. Then he's got what? Tonic with it? Number six. Number six. Is the Maker's Mark Seller Aged 2023. So this is a new release from Maker's Mark. Seller Aged implies that it was aged in that cave they dug in a hill behind the distillery, which is what they needed to do when they started aging stuff in French oak. So colder, less in and out. Cold and very humid. So when they first launched Maker's 46- Oh yeah, many times. They have a whole visitor experience in this dumb cave. So when they first launched Maker's 46, it was in their minds very famously the first new thing Maker's ever did, because Maker's is Maker's, and they're the only ones that rotate the barrels in the rick house. So every barrel in theory has a very similar flavor profile. So when they did Maker's 46, which was finished on French oak staves, it turned out great. But they put the whiskey into those barrels in October and bottled it in April, and it was great. And then they immediately tried to do it again, and it totally sucked. And it was way over extracted and woody and gross. And then so they thought, okay, this is because we did it when it was hot. We can only do this when it's cool, but there's too much demand for this. So they dug a big cave into the side of a hill, and it's like a legit kind of cave, but it's got a big rick house structure in it. And so anything they do with French oak now or older is in there. So all the private select barrels with the four different French oak staves, Maker's 46 is all aged in this cave. And then so they had a few barrels that were getting long in the tooth that were in there too. And then this is going to be a yearly thing. And so this is 11 and 12 year old barrels are what went into this here. Okay, you just described the leftovers batch. Yeah, pretty much. And the age statement is 11 years. And this is interesting. Whisky Advocate is describing it as a specialty built limestone cellar. It's because everything's limestone in Kentucky. It's really cool. It's the oldest Maker's Mark I've had. I've had some nine year old Maker's Mark before where at some time we've been down there for picks. And they're like, oh, we found this old barrel. Are you guys interested in trying it? And those have always been good. But standard Maker's Mark is six year old product. And it was really never intended to be more than six year old product. I went on one of the original tours where they would have you do a tasting experience at the end. I was there with Stu. And they had you try an older Maker's Mark to try to show you that it was over extracted. And we just looked at each other like, this is pretty good, isn't it? Where the hell are they talking about? So then I asked somebody who recently went there like, no, they didn't do anything like that. They had you stop doing that. So yeah, they did. But I get what they're saying. They're trying to convey that everybody, again, is too obsessed with age and that in general, a lot of the best Bourbons are younger. They're not older. But kind of funny that they tried to show you, this sucks, right? And they're like, no, it's good. So they're adding staves of- They're not adding- No, this is regular barrels. Regular barrels that were back there. French oak barrels. No, American oak. Okay. But they put them in the French oak cave to essentially arrest some of the- The temperature shifts. Yeah, the rotational suck in, breathe out of the barrel. Because again, they don't believe in the older stuff. So this, well, they make a pretty soft style of whiskey. So I could see them, like, I don't think a Maker's at 18 years old would taste like anything except the older. So you really think that now that it's Beam slash Sanatori Project, will they not try to chase the Weller and Pappy thing and have older expressions? Maybe. So Beam has done a really good job of letting Makers be Makers. And the Samuels family still runs Makers and all that. And Beam has injected capital and they've increased production, but they've kept things the same. And if you go visit today, yeah, the new fermenters are stainless, but they still have 18 or whatever Cypress fermenters. You know, it's still the same old distillery it was with the same two Vendome columns that are only like 36 inch columns. Or if you go to Buffalo Trace, it's a 72 inch wide column. And they added another. It's Makers is its own little thing. And it's one of two distilleries in Kentucky that's actually on its own water source. Where you go to every distillery and talk about, oh, we have this Kentucky limestone water. That's because all water in Kentucky is limestone filtered because it was all coming from an aquifer underground and it all gets filtered through limestone. Is Barton the other one? No, New Riff. You can't have a distillery the size of Barton or Wild Turkey or Buffalo Trace without being on a city water main. And so all these places are on their local municipal water supply, which happens to be limestone filtered water. But the only ones in Kentucky with their own water source are Maker's Mark and New Riff. And New Riff has a well that they drilled in the parking lot of the liquor store. Is it like right next to the river anyway? Yeah, it's right next to the Ohio River anyway. But it's tapping into an aquifer because they're like on a bluff or whatever. And then Maker's Mark has their own lakes. They have two or three lakes that all their water is drawn from. And they're like these spring-fried lakes on their property because they have a couple hundred acres or whatever. If you're on the city water supply, the water is being treated. Yeah, and you're treating it again in the still house too. Well, that's what I'm wondering. What do these people do with their own wells? Yeah. I'm sure they're treating it somewhat, but they're really looking for harder water with their own wells, more mineral content. I think this is great. It's one of the better makers I've had. It's 57.85% alcohol, kind of an odd proof. I'm a big fan of the Cask Strength, and a lot of them are around 56, 57. Yeah, I'd say so. This is gone. You can't have it. It came out early fall or whatever. We got a fair chunk, but it was allocated. It wasn't something we had on our website or anything. It was 170 bucks. We'll try again next year. But it's good. It's really good. A once a year fall bourbon release, 170 bucks is pretty on the low end of average. What I like about it in the mouth is that it's kind of oily and unctuous up front, but it's not heavy or chewy. I think all the classic maker's fruit kind of comes up back in the finish. And it's got this red berry and red apple type of character. So you guys talked forever about that, which meant I just went through my entire sample while you were talking. And what did you think? The first time I tried it on the finish, I thought I picked up a distinct, funky, aged, musty cork quality. And then the second time I tried it after you guys kept talking for I don't know how long, it had blown off. It had blown off and it was a delicious graham cracker like sweetness. It's delicious. I like this a lot. I like higher proof makers. Regular makers is a classic for a reason, but it's never something I reach for. I will defend till I'm blue in the face, Maker's 46 and the private selects and Cask Strength and 101 proof. They're so good and so overlooked. And whenever I do blind bourbon tastings in my staff trainings, Maker's 46 is never finished outside the top five. The higher proof Maker's stuff are underappreciated by people who chase labels with bourbon. I will say that. I think another standout thing that is worth mentioning for this is someone who has always believed in Makers and enjoyed it quite a bit. I drink a lot of the Cask Strength. The character here is unique. So I think if you're going to spend the money on a specialty release and it brings something to the table that's different from the normal, like the orchard fruit in this is off the charts. When you said apple, like it apples a pear. It's so delicious. So I think Makers is underappreciated in general. I think our hand our Makers hand picks are one of the best things that you guys do. I think it's great. That's pretty great. Look forward to it next year, though. I mean, this is going to be a thing from them every year now. All right, moving on. Number five. Number five is Wild Turkey Masters Keep Voyage. This is the last one I don't have. I'm sorry, guys. So this was 10 year old bourbon matured in number four char barrels, of course, and then finished in Appleton Rum casks because Campari who owns Wild Turkey owns Appleton Rum. Why couldn't you get this? This was super limited. It came out earlier in the year. We are long sold out. Also, it was like almost 300 bucks or something. So I'm sure it was good. The Wild Turkey release that got more hype, I think, from the Bourbon Faithful this year was the Wild Turkey Generations Release, which came out in the fall, which was $500. A friend of mine who is a huge wild turkey nut and trades online for all kinds of old dusty wild turkeys and Japanese releases and has a bunch of the modern stuff too. He thinks that was one of the best turkeys he's had in a long time, but neither here nor there. We don't have number five Wild Turkey voyage. It's gone. It was very expensive. If you had one, let us know. Send us a note at comments at binnys.com or hit us up at binny's bev on the social media of your choice. We're interested to hear what you think about it. Excellent plug. When they first started doing those specialties, I will say like the OG Masters Keeps, my brother, huge bourbon fan, been drinking it for years. He was all about those. So I got a chance to try a lot of them. They're pretty phenomenal. Yeah, while Turkey Masters Keep, I haven't had a bad one really. Way back when they did a 17 year old that was a little oaky for me then, but that was 15 years ago. Remember the silver one? What was the silver one called? Diamond? Maybe. Yeah, that was good. Diamonds are forever. All right. Number three. Number four. Number four. Number four. Fans of excess packaging rejoice. In a box with a door. Number four is Little Book Chapter Seven. In retrospect, this is called. So Little Book is a series by Freddie Noe, who is Fred Noe's son, Booker Noe's grandson. At Jim Beam, he is whatever generation master distiller now. And he is really kind of in charge of the innovation end of things. And so he works. They have a small innovation distillery at the Claremont distillery that he gets to do whatever he wants. And so he's making single malt. He's making rye. He's doing whatever he wants. So, Greg, get ready for a crazy spreadsheet again, because bear with me on this. This has a bunch of random stuff in it. Way we go. This blend is made from 18 year old Kentucky straight bourbon, 17 year old Kentucky straight bourbon, 10 year old Kentucky straight rye, nine year old Kentucky straight bourbon, five year old Kentucky straight malt finished in applewood smoked barrels, four year old Kentucky straight bourbon, four year old Kentucky straight rye. And no percentages there. No percentages there. 750 ml and 118.1 proof. Now that malt, so it's got a component here that's malt finished with applewood smoked barrels, five year old straight malt. That's a contentious thing. So the last, this is little book chapter seven, chapter six, I believe it was chapter six, had a lot of that malt that featured prominently. And the way they applewood smoked those barrels, they literally pumped smoke into the barrels while it was full of liquid like it was a smoked cocktail. I don't understand what you just said. Like they took a hose full of smoke being pumped into the liquid in the barrel. And it was gross. I've had that too. Like really not good. I've even had certain Beam people agree with me on that. Oh, nope. But there's a little bit of that in here. There's some amount of that in here. OK. Have you tried this? And I really like this. Uh oh. You know what Fred No did before he took the reins over at Beam? You know the Bo Cephas song, All My Rowdy Friends? He was one of them rowdy friends. He hung out with Junior. When it was like a roadie. So I bring it up because he lived like so hard and fast with Bo Cephas that he went to manage a distillery to calm his life down. So bro, if I've tried a few of these little books and at least the ones that I've tried, they've done some of that like really young juice with really old juice. And it's not been for me because I feel like it's disjointed. But boy, you love that Barrelcraft Batch 35. Yeah. But this is one of the better little books that I've tried. I agree. I think this is really good. It is gone. This came out in August in limited quantities. We sold, we actually got a pretty fair shot at this. Listeners, probably a lot of you got this from a Binny's near you because we had a nice amount of cases. This was $170. It is gone. Well, limited release bourbon, man. You know, you're paying between $150 and $200 now. It's hot. It's gorgeous. I get a distinctive. It is gorgeous. This is really good. Distinctive anise note out of the nose. I did too. A lot of fruit on the finish. Interesting, like berry fruit. I think that might be the malt talking. This is a really interesting. It definitely you can tell that it's not your conventional bourbon. There's a lot to unpack here. And I think this. I don't know. I whatever. I taste a lot more hot stuff, I guess. But yeah. It's hot though, right? Yeah. I think if. It's good though. Right. If we had the opportunity to just sit here, if we were just sitting in the office and we just had a glass of this on our desk over the course of two hours and we just went back to it every 20 minutes. Craig wouldn't have to think too much. You'd find a lot of different stuff here. I don't want to just default and be like, well, it's complex. But there's a lot to unpack here. There really is. And I think it's really aided by some time breathing and a little bit of water. This is a whiskey to sit and think about. And if you have the patience to make this last even a half of a football game or something, you're going to be rewarded. I think with a lot of interesting experiences. Yeah, I get it that if you want the rare stuff, you have to pay up. I still struggle with that. I think bourbon is a category that was what was great about it was that you could have a great bourbon and not have to pay a ton of money for it. But that's life now, I guess. So if you are going to do a release, I think the smoked malt component of this makes it a true standout. That's a stunner for the collector. It really is, man. I think this is totally warranted as a top 10 placement for the year. Just out of... I haven't tasted a lot of things like this this year. I think this is warranted. Number 3, Garryana. Number 3 here is Westland Garryana Edition 8. This is the latest edition. It is 100 proof. Way to hear this sentence on the back label that just speaks to Pat Brophy. Enduring and Stoic, Quercus Garryana, The Pacific Northwest's Native Oak, stands as a testament to terroir and perseverance. Oh yeah. Oh man. So when is your check clear? Like all the other beautiful Westland whiskeys that will go ignored. It will collect dust in our beautiful Museum of American Single Malt. It is $160. Pat, is there plenty? There's not plenty. I have. Yet again, we've proven that no one wants to spend $160 on these whiskeys. It's not that no one wants to spend it. It's that we only get like 10 cases. So it's in those 10 stores. Each of them are about halfway sold out. We have sold exactly 50% of our allocation in two months. I guess this one was high enough on the best of Whisky Advocate that it actually sold some bottles. Number three. Number three. It smells like it has cherry finish. It smells like that. High-toned cherry fruit bordering on your, what did you say, Chris? Your floor aging? Oh, man. I might not come down just on this. This is a 700 ml bottle. Oh, American made 700. Well, so is all the Jack Daniels stuff now. Big boo. Yeah. I wish I had another set of hands. Wait. Oh, this is. Greg, this is awesome. This is awesome. This is awesome. It's your chocolate covered cherry whiskey right now. And well, part of it is, Westland has their five malt blend. If you go back far enough and get to the Brophy's Long Lost Brother podcast episode. That was one of the first epically long ones. They use a blend of different brewer's malts and they use a blend of different yeasts as well. They're using an ale yeast and a saison yeast, if memory serves me. There's interesting malt complexity here. There's chocolate, there's cherry, there's fruit. And then there's that kind of richness in oak. And even though there is some new oak in this, I wouldn't call it over-oaked. I really like this. It shows its malt character, but not like a scotch. It's bigger and robust and dare I say, more American. Listen, when you're talking about a limited release of this scale, you are paying partially for barrel count. Like there's a thousand bottles of this or whatever, and then it's gone forever. So that's going to cost you $150, $160. I like this a lot, but I like funky, weird things. And American single malt can be a bit funky and a bit weird. And this is that by definition. It's Garryana oak. But it's not weird or funky in the cheesy mezcal way. I think this is more approachable funky. Which is terrifying. Oh, we should do an all-cheese mezcal paired with cheese. Chris, you and I are getting together on one of those. Make Roger suffer through it. This is great. I don't know what it's going to take people to believe in this brand. I'm glad you said that. I think that, personally, I've always been fascinated with these. I like that they approach the barley from a brewer's mentality instead of just like it's an economy play of- Just make it more like beer and then I'll like it. Yeah. There's a nuttiness here that has to be from the barley. Yeah, it has to be. I really think that that's a unique... The defining characteristic for me is that this has kind of a nut-based confection. Are you sure it's not from the Garryana? It's mighty trunk sheathed in thick mossy bark. It's roots, like our roots, are dug deep into the earth of this place. Above it, towers steadfast and unmoving, but below is the persistent draw, the low churning hum of life and energy pulling up from the soil. With it comes Westland's Garryana, an exploration of Pacific Northwest provenance that brings with it a compelling new voice in Cinque Montes whiskey. The sews of swelling underneath him. He's a lumberjack and he's okay. The one, the large. The music from Patton. Please go buy this before it gets closed out. Radjic, stop saying that. They're going to wait for it to get closed out. It's really good. It's really good. You know that last year's batch? Mm-hmm. I drank it all. It was good. It was good. Number two. Oh, I can't wait to try this. I haven't tried this yet. This has like a pecan turtle. Mm-hmm. Or let's get in our old timey candy references. Jim, a bun bar. Oh, damn it. Highland Park, you say? It comes with a booklet. Booklet, you say? There's no leather. Yeah, there's no scary tribal tattoo. Oh, yeah, there are. There is on the neck. Instead of leather, it's cheap plastic. I have been, they have promised me after years of, we'll call it, vociferous bitching, they have promised me that they're getting away from this Viking tattoo crap and they are going back to classic Scotch whiskey merchandising here with my favorite I thought you were going to say they promised to pay for a Viking tattoo if you would get it. Yeah, I was expecting that too. With what? With your red hair and your... Yeah. I do hope they drop it. They could go back to a different scheme. It would be great. What's the theme on this one? What's the batch? Cask Strength batch four. Cask Strength batch four. That doesn't have unpronounceable multi-syllabic words in it. Magnus Mearlsen, the Viking Lord of the Isles. She was a Valkyrie. I feel that we should do something. Conan the Barbarian audio commentary shout out, John Milius. The greatest. A Valkyrie. Oh, this is pretty freaking delicious. I want everyone to guess what proof this is. No cheating if you already looked. No, I did not look. One, one, one fifteen. One fifteen. One twelve. One twelve. Actually, one fifteen is probably too high. Yeah, like one oh six. One oh six. Producer Jim, you got to guess? One oh eight. All right, listeners, this is number two of the year, Highland Park Cask Strength, batch number four from the Whisky Advocate website. A giant of a whiskey with the highest proof ever on our top twenty list. This is a hundred and twenty eight point six. You guys were guessing twenty proof below that. I mean, it doesn't taste like that. It's the closest. Sixty four point three percent alcohol. Jesus. This is a monster. It's wild. Absolute monster. So why do you think it got so high? I think because it's a little younger. Too many edibles. We've got First Phil X Bourbon, First Phil Sherry Seasoned American Oak, First Phil X Port Hogsheads and a small quantity of refill casks. It's so deep and rich and chocolatey and roasted. This is classic Highland Park. This is a Salt Bay sprinkling of spice in the peat quantity. That wiggles his fingers above his pale elbow. His salt colored elbow. Now that you say that though on the finish, it is kind of a slap of alcohol. You wouldn't have said that if I didn't say it. You're probably right. This is, I don't want to call it a bourbon lover Scotch because it's got too much malt and too much Sherry character. Oh yeah. But good God is this great. It's incredible. The fruit, notes, everything. I want to know what you guys think more. You guys all know that this is my favorite distillery. So I'm like their team, they're giving me a Castor Strength Highland Park. I'm teed up for slobbering all over this. So I want to hear something else. This is an easy number two whiskey of the year for me. This is awesome. It's a delicious powerhouse yet it retains elegance. It is so alcoholic but carries it so well. It's pretty amazing. It's grip on the palate even after I added water is robust. I've always thought that the Highland Park did smoke well. I think that the smoke is there but without stealing the show. Agreed. Like the subtlest wisp, it's beautiful. But it's not the subtlest wisp. I think that there's plenty. I just think that it's so packed with everything else. That may be true. That in balance it's a matter of proportion. Because it's a huge, huge whiskey. This whiskey's a monster. Good God is this good. Holy cow, man. This is the best Highland Park I've had in years. What's this Imperial Tootsie Roll cost? $100. No f***ing way. Are you serious? They really knocked us out of the Highland Park. As soon as the Whisky Advocate list dropped, Jaboy hoovered up every case available from the local distributor, so there is plenty available at every single Binny's location. Yes, even talking to you listeners in McHenry, this is broadly available. Buy the hell out of this. This is awesome. That's really cool to hear. This is unbelievable. That's a value. That's the value of this list, even compared to that Ezra Brooks. Number two of the year, I got two thumbs up. I wish I had more hands. So I could give this Whisky four thumbs up. Number one better bring it because I mean. Number one better bring it. This is awesome. This is awesome. That's really nice to see that it is priced that way. I mean I'm sure. It's kind of understated. Well, it's not age stated, Scott. It's not age stated and that's probably why. But it's a blend. Exactly. Not age stated, Scott, is always a suspicion. Don't use the word blend. It's a mixture. Well, it's only eight years old. Yeah, there's probably some eight year old stuff in here, but there's also probably some 12 or 13 year old stuff in here. It's giant. Dude, when they're pulling from that many different casks, I love that there's port and sherry in it and American. It's got the right amount of sherry. This is classic Highland Park, a tempered but dominant dose of sherry with a spice level amount of peat, with that baking spice level of peat, not a smoke peat. Like an earthy spice and that's it. This is the caveman Scott's Whisky. This is what we give cavemen to tell them what Scott's Whisky tastes like. Well, this is perfect. Careful with that rocket. Perfect. Let's get calm down here. No, I will not. This is about as, for my taste, about as good as Scott's Whisky gets. It's pretty good. It's a sausage level of joy there on Brophy's Descriptors. Yeah, but I do love sausage. There's nothing better. I didn't say that. You said it's as good as it gets. I said it's about as good as Scott's Whisky gets. Where could we possibly go from there? Here it comes. Where do we go? Number one. A whiskey you all have already had. Yeah, I know what this is. And universally loved. And I, in the podcast, you have me on record going, he asked everyone what their favorite one was, and I go, oh, this is... Yeah, mine too. Easily. I don't know what it is. I don't remember what it is. Number one Whiskey of the Year, Glenglassaugh Sandend. Another no age statement, Scott. This is the 101 proof offering of the Glenglassaugh range. I tasted this. Time out. Were you on the podcast with Stuart? Yeah, I just looked at you with this glassy eyed stare like am I... Roger and I. I was going to say, I don't remember tasting this. So we tasted this when we had Stuart Buchanan on from Glenglassaugh. Glenglassaugh is a coastal highland distiller. It's on the northeast coast of Scotland. I think Stuart said the distiller itself is 25 meters from the beach or something. Really close. He said he just strolls on the beach with a bottle in his hand. I'm like, of course he's in your vest. So Glenglassaugh recently relaunched with... It has been opened and closed 40 times or some crap like that. It has now reopened. This is the end game since it reopened after a multiple decade closure. They've relaunched with a 12-year-old, a bottling called Sandend and a bottling called Portsoy. Portsoy is Port Barrel aged and lightly peated. The 12-year-old is Sherry and Bourbon. The Sandend is Sherry and Bourbon too, I believe. Let me double check. Sandend. Yeah, Bourbon Sherry and Manzanilla Sherry. So generic Sherry is going to be Oloroso in that case. When we tasted through that expression, it was like one thing that came to my mind was that it would be funny if you tried a single malt from a distillery and then just paint the distillery in one breath. The three expressions were so different, and that definitely seems to be the adage there now. Like they really want to put a ton of thought into each expression. So it's not like, oh, this is a non-age statement versus this is our 12. Because like the 12 was very different and it was good. The 12 was more heavily Sherry. Yeah, it was so much. And there's more Bourbon Barrel in this and it lets this do the talking where we get a real sense of place here. We get this, Sandend is the beach that's right down the street from the distillery. I get a lot of these grilled caramelized tropical fruits. There's like a caramelized pineapple, grilled mango type of thing going on. And then there's that little tiny prick of salinity, like a little tiny tickle of seaside salinity here. This is coastal scotch, unpeated coastal scotch in a nutshell. Well, let me just point out that the choice of the Manzanilla Barrel just underlines this because- It helps the salinity for sure. Yeah, these are coastal Fino Sherries that are sailing in their character for sure. Now, I think the mango might be too heavy of a fruit as a description here. It's lighter and fresher. I think it's like white grape and white peach. White peach is what I said on the original podcast, I think. Now, what's interesting about this to me is you can tell this is Brown Forman's attempts at scotch. Brown Forman owns it now because this is a bourbon proof. This is 101 proof. When have you ever seen a scotch at 101 proof? They are 80, 86, 92 or Cask Strength, 101 proof. It's enough that it gives it those layers and structure, but it doesn't take away from it's drinking experience neat. I think that's a huge part of why it shows so well. I think this whiskey is just gorgeous. When it was named number one, I thought, okay, I get it. Sure I've probably had a better whiskey this year, but I'm not writing a top 20 article for a national magazine. I understand why you could call this the number one of the year. And it is pretty broadly available now. Excuse my sexist personification of this whiskey, but it's like Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation instead of Scarlett Johansson in 46 Bullshit Comic Book Movies 20 Years Later. I love those comic book movies. I know you do. But you know what I'm saying? I love Lost in Translation too though. But I think that means you think this whiskey is young. Youthful, vibrant, not overblown in the slightest. It's not about subtlety though. It's about the freshness of life. It's about the freshness of life. This is what Glenglassaugh is. It's a temperate amount of fortified wine barrel aging and a sense of place. Whereas the 12-year-old, as much as I love the 12-year-old, and what we sell the 12-year-old for, I think it's on the shelf for 55 bucks, that's one of the best deals in Scotch Whisky and a Binny's right now. It's got a heavier hand of sherry to it, and that's great. But this is more, in my mind, what Glenglassaugh is. Yeah, I mean, it's a very delicate and beautiful whiskey. A standout in the category, as far as what you're used to just sampling when it comes to single malt, there's so many indulgents heavily sherryed, there's all the smoky Isla stuff, this has a level of finesse and grace that you'd maybe equate with But there's still a weight to it. Yeah, it's not just a boring lowland... There's a weight to it, but again, it's a spring day. It's like the sea breeze on a spring day. It's awesome. I'm glad you guys like this. Oh, it's delicious. Because we went nuts for it when we tried it. I mean, the fruit character in here is remarkable. It's $79.99 at a Binny's near you. I think it's kind of high for a non-age statement, and I wish that... I think that some people are going to pass it up. Now, maybe with this award, it'll get more attention. But my reaction was like, they priced it higher than the 12-year. And you're burying the lead with how beautiful the Scotch is. Well, the 12-year is the flagship. I love this whiskey. Absolutely love this whiskey. I'd take the Highland Park. But they're polar opposites. It's like the yin and the yang, man. Can we mix the two of them together, please? I would say the same thing about justification of number one for the Highland Park. I'll put it that way. Either of those could have won number one. I'd be like, yeah, I totally get it. I think they wanted to award this for the fact that it'll maybe drive more people into the category. I think that this is a wow moment in that there's not as many single malts that'll give you this experience as there's a lot of familiar flavors in the Highland Park. It was obviously done exceptionally well, but the finesse and grace to this is often with more washed out training wheel, too delicate, whereas this has that, but it also brings depth. Yeah, I agree. It's not lacking in character in the slightest, but it is completely graceful. Okay, numbers one, two, three, and four, I think are all justifiably belong in that top five. Yeah. Can I say too, we don't really talk about- I agree. We don't really talk about packaging much, but I kind of need to give them props, like this looks like you're looking at water, like you're looking at the waves. It's waves. Like the way it's distorted. Oh, I thought it was invocative of a gas station soft serve cone. Come on. And they hide it in this stupid nondescript box. Yeah, that box sucks. So stupid. You don't need the box, just put the bottle out there. Yeah, I mean, it's got like a seafoam green cap with, it says coastal right on it, and you've got the waves. And the waves in the glass, it's so awesome. Box is garbage. Get rid of the box. 700 ml. But which is what it is. You guys should demand Neckers. Honestly. We're about 150 mil short on this top 20 list. All right, so that's the Whisky Advocate top 20. Yeah, they did a pretty good job. They did a pretty good job. We didn't have a lot of, we had a couple of stinkers, I suppose. Overall, though, pretty solid list. Overall, though, very solid list. Would have been a lot cooler if we could have tried that Fuji. Maybe next year. It was still an excellent lineup. Excellent lineup. And he tasted a lot of whiskeys. He tasted a lot of whiskeys, and a lot of these are available at your friendly neighborhood Binny's with the exception of two of the things we tasted, right? Yeah. I think Whisky Advocate finally got what the program was like. We don't want to hear about how great this whisky was, the only you got to try. So pretty great, man. A couple of them are a stretch, wallet wise, and a couple of them are undervalued. But for the most part, all of them were delicious. I had a teacher in college, professor in college say that the critic's job, especially the art critic, isn't to judge something so much as it is to highlight the beautiful. And that's what they did here. That is totally fair. Yeah. Absolutely fair. All right, guys. Listeners. Funny stuff. Thanks, Pat. Thanks for wrangling all this. This is a treat to be able to try all these. Yeah. Hopefully. I mean, one day we'll have all 20. One day. We'll see. This was pretty good until then, though. What a tasting cloud. We'll see you next year. Listeners, hope you had fun. Grab some of these at a Binny's near you before they're gone. If they're everyday goods, great job everyone involved. Totally. We'll see you next week with likely not another wine episode. Until then, I'm Pat. I'm Stunned. I'm Roger. I'm Greg. I'm Chris. Keep Tasting!