Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Back in your feed, this is going to be a great one. I'm Greg, I do communications for Binny's Beverage Depot. I'm Roger, I work in beer. Hey, I'm Chris, I do wine-related things. I'm Lexi, communications coordinator. I'm Dan, and I'm in spirits. Dan, a heavy task falls on your shoulders today. All right, the annual Whisky Advocate magazine, top 20 whiskies of 2024 came out at the end of last year. And once we all had time after the holidays, we got together to talk about them. So I brought what we have. We've got 12 and a half of them here. We only have half a whiskey. Yeah, cool. Well, we'll see. We'll see what you guys think. That's better than it used to be. I mean, the big gripe with this list was that it was just unobtanium after unobtanium. Once upon a time. Thanks a lot, Whisky Advocate. I think that they was pretty balanced. Like, it's interesting to see some of the things that are on here, which we can kind of talk about as we go. Nothing super crazy hard to get allocated, although there's always got to be one or two of those. No, I think it's a pretty good list. At least it's friendly to my palate. And let's get started. Turbo mode. Here we go. Number 20. The first is Westland Wine Cask Finished. This is a single malt from Washington State, finished in Pacific Northwest, Cab Sauve, Sarrah and Washington Red Blend, as well as some Petite Verdeux and Tempranillo. And some bunch of other varietals too. Just a bunch of red wine. Dump the whiskey in, see what happens. Most of the aging happened in ex-bourbon barrels, finished in those wine casks. Five years old. It did spend time in New Oak, which sometimes can batter single malt. But I was wondering that because it's pretty dark for single malt. So there was New Oak here. Let's take a quick moment to celebrate the fact that American single malt whiskey just became an officially recognized category. Absolutely. It turned out the way we wanted it. The bourbon rule. Right. You can use used wood, all that good stuff. So there's this whole new American category that they've been making for a while, but it's officially recognized by the alcohol commission. And there's a lot of single malts out there. I know it's somewhat unexplored. American single malt anyway is a somewhat unexplored part of our stores for our customers. But there's a lot of good stuff happening there. Talk to your local Binny's liquor person. Ask them about it. They'll give you some good recommendations. Wanted to know what this one it was made with the fermentation app of the Belgian beer yeast. Oh, well, you can tell with the new oak, there's some coconut vanilla. Yeah. And the fruit across here, some graceful fruit and plum and cherry, like preserves, cherry preserves. Well, this is pretty available, pretty friendly. 92 proof, $69.99. We put it on sale. I think it's on sale right now, which if you're listening to this in a couple of years, doesn't matter, but I think it's on sale for $64.99 right now. Roger, give us a note. I think in general, people need to, the comments that I see with a lot of the people geeking out on Bourbon is that there's not enough choice and there's not enough options. They really need to embrace this category because it's giving them a lot of the different flavor profiles that they want. True. And that there aren't a ton of options for right now. Until very recently, there weren't many Bourbons finished in all these weird finishes and stuff. And Brad always talks about how single malt itself is a more interesting category in that it gives you a palette on which to paint more broadly than Bourbon can ever be, or right, because of its strong character. These guys are doing it here in America and this is interesting. I think the biggest hold up in the past was always this pervasive myth that all Scotch is smoky. Yeah, true. So at least I think if ever we had a chance to shed that, at least with American single malt, there won't be the peat thing looming over everything. Are you tasting this? There's like a Ludens in it. A little bit of cherry. Yeah. Don't get too excited because there's a lot of smoky Scotch coming up, Raj, but that was them. Yay. I'm so excited. This is interesting. I think it's got a lot of orchard fruit, like pear and apple and nectarine. It's got a lot of cooked apple skin. I don't want to say char because that evokes a smokiness. I mean, without as much of, there's a little of this sweet dessert spice, but it has a very autumnal feel to me. Yeah. When you think of the apple. Yeah. I definitely get baked orchard fruits for sure. Cool. All right. Moving on, 19, we do not have Starward. Three-year-old Hunter Proof, they are an Australian single malt producer. We had Starward on the Cask once upon a time. We do have some Starward stuff in our stores. It's definitely worth checking out. They're doing some cool stuff. Number 18. Number 18 comes from a well-known Irish whiskey man, Bushmills. They did a series of 10 years. One of them was a Bordeaux Cask finish. Spent most of its time in Bourbon and Sherry casks, finished in Bordeaux casks. I love that sound. It really doesn't get old. Then these Bordeaux casks were Firstville Pomerol casks. Firstville Pomerol. Chris, any guesses? What the winery is? How would I know? I'm sure they don't suppose. We can say for sure that it will be Merlot dominant. Okay. Somebody told me the other day that it was completely arbitrary that they picked Merlot to scream out in sideways and that they just liked how it sounded. Like they screamed out, he screamed out a bunch of other like- I'm not drinking any Chiraz. Not drinking any more Chardonnay. Like it's just Merlot, they liked how that sounded the best and then- Yeah, I think I saw an interview with him recently where he was like, I've never even, I don't think I've ever had Merlot. Sorry, I ruined an entire sector of the industry. Is this a movie I don't know? Oh, Sideways. You should probably see Sideways. Okay. Huh, this smells interesting. Bushmills, 10 year Bourbon and Sherry Cask Bordeaux casks. Man, so they make it impossible for us to actually put the name of the product on the website because it's like a whole Wikipedia article on the front of the bottle. It is single malt, so 100% malted barley, bourbon season casks, ex-Sherry casks. Was this Whisky Advocate single malt? Is this how this works? It's all single malt. Is that how this works? Okay. The most exciting whiskeys, typically new releases from the year proceeding. What's the proof on this? 92. It's so mellow. It's so low-key. 93. This is a very fruity whisky. It's a very fruity Irish whisky. Typical of Irish whisky, triple distilled, really fruit-forward, light on its feet. Pairs for days. On their website, they call it the summertime whisky. For me, that's pretty much any whisky, but......as well as awesome. Spring. Right, though? And winter. What's the price point on this? Oh, I think it's... Oh, $49.99. I did write it down. See, that's nice to see. Because some of these Irish whiskeys are getting insane when it comes to the price points. Yeah, that's a good point. This is 10 years old, and it's $49.99. I love Red Breast, that the Red Breast prices are getting... Yeah. Yeah, we'll talk about that in a few minutes, too. But yeah, no, it's very approachable if you're just getting into Irish whisky and you want something a little more complex than the standard bar shots. This is a step up for sure, and it's just a really nice pour. Pear, like, for a cent. Yeah, totally pear. Pear, pineapple, very peri. Like if there was pear sauce, you know, there's applesauce. If there was pear sauce, with a little bit of, it's like pear pie, pear cobbler, is that a thing? I don't even know. How about a poached pear? Poached pear, I would say, is the classiest. But there's like a hint of bread in it too, as well as spice and the light sweetness. Number 17. Next we have from Virginia Distilling, they did a series of single malts, where they partnered with breweries across the country to age their whiskey in used casks from those breweries. They did one with Goose Island, they did a Bourbon County edition, which is in a lot of our stores. The one that won the number 17 spot for Whiskey Advocate was used homegrown hardywood from Richmond, Virginia, their gingerbread stout, which at one point was very highly sought after, Christmas release. At one point. At one point. When I lived there. You know this from living there, we've never had hardywood stuff out here, so might be an unknown to some of our listeners. They had this gingerbread stout that was popular and did well every year, and then they did like 50 variants and then started barrel aging it and putting in an upper brandy barrels and things like that. It smells delightful. It smells like dessert. It really does. I mean the ginger definitely comes through. Ginger? I'm getting that like cinnamon. Nutmeg. Yeah, goodness. Lots of fat rails. But yeah, very dessert-like. We have to be careful talking about nutmeg around Chris. He gets the shakes. This is $49.99. Wow. This is good for $50. I'm looking at you, midwinter's dram. We did not have this when the list came out, but the distributor came up with some cases. So this is in a lot of stores. Very pretty, I would assume. Is it going to be around? It'll probably be around for a little bit based on the normal sell-through. I get a distinct licorice note here. Yeah, there's definitely. You have so many different things. There's Carrot Cake 2 in there. Yeah. Pfeffernuss. Pfeffernuss. No idea what that is. These guys. It's a peppernut. Oh, duh. It's spice Caribbean candies or cookies. Yeah. But yeah, I spent five years, at least five years in ex-Bourbon Barrels, then finished in Hardywood Gingerbread Stout Barrels. If you're ever in Richmond, Virginia, check out Hardywood. It's a cool spot. The stout comes across like a cocoa dusting note on the finish. I love it. I like this a lot. I love it as an old-fashioned. The more I drink it, the more I get this good and plenty liquor shot of it. Am I crazy? I love that. I put fennel in a lot of stuff. It's at a cocktail-friendly 100 proof as well. Awesome. Which is nice. It seems lower than that. It drinks lower than that. It doesn't have that bite, but it's very good for 50 bucks. Okay. Serious Barrel to Bottle seal of approval on this one. Everything else doesn't have it too, but wow. Number 16. 16 we don't have. Speaking of expensive Irish whiskey, this is a non-age-stated Red Breast finished in Missouri Oak. Was 199.99. Sounds right up your alley, Roger. Hello. I will say, I ponied up and bought the Lustow finished Red Breast non-age statement. It was in PX Sherry this time, it's post-horror, so it was really good. No, I mean, they make some phenomenal whiskeys, there's no doubt. Number 15. All right, next is Compass Box. Compass Box released two new whiskeys in their lineup. They are pretty masterful scotch blenders. They make really awesome blends of scotch. This one, they have two new to the core line up. This is one of them, the Crimson Cask. It's finished in Sherry Season American Oak casks. Oh, this is an expansion of their core line? Well, they replaced two of them. Don't ask me which ones off the top of my head, but they replaced two. There's two new cores. And then to spend some time in Spanish Red Wine Berrics. Yeah. John Glazer out there crushing it, blending the scotches, making something special. No, they make... Their labels always catch my attention on the shelf. I agree. We're just stalling because Chris is reading the f***ing bottle instead of passing it. He wants to learn from the bottle. Not you guys. That's the best part. You can't ask follow up questions if you don't read the bottle. I didn't get to read a damn thing. I was just looking at that interesting name. I mean, Compass Box, I would say, has been doing things the right way. A lot of thought put into not only the blend, but the packaging. It's really cool packaging. And again, though, it's like people need to get past this age statement hang up. People are always so averse to buying scotch that's blended and that's not an age statement. Right. Exactly. What does that mean? For a blended scotch? Non-age statement. What does that mean? It just means they don't put the... So with whiskey, it has to be... If it says 12 years, all the whiskey in there is 12 years and older. If they don't put an age statement on, then they can use whatever age whiskey they want. Traditionally, like a blended scotch might have some pretty low grade stuff to flesh it out. And you're seeing more... I mean, in the last 10 years, you've seen a lot of single malt producers put out a lot of bottles that are not age dated. It gives them the ability to put something out that they taste that's maybe aging in a unique cask that's really good. But if they put like a seven year age statement, all the scotch people would be like, well, that's too young. I'm not paying for that. Well, the, you know, well, the distillers or whoever's tasting the barrels is, you know, says, well, this is awesome stuff. We want to make sure that we get this in people's hands. We don't want to put a seven year age statement on it because that comes with a certain connotation, even though it could be the best whiskey you've ever had in your life. Does Compass Box have their own warehouse? I think they do. Or do they only go through Indy Cask Agers? I'm not sure. OK. Well, I mean, they're out there hunting for casks to as ingredients for interesting recipes. And you really have to respect that, which is a little bit different than the the blenders who've been making the inexpensive scotches that somehow go from Scotland to America. And the seven fifty or one seven five still cost like twenty dollars. How well those invariably are not single malt. Oh, yeah. I mean, those are blends. But this is a blend. And let's try this point. I think what what still ends up happening all all the years working in stores, helping customers, that the amount of traffic you see in the Scotch is just isle is exponentially higher around the holidays. And when you normally are asking people if they need help, I would say a huge percentage of the time it's for a gift. True. So more people need to just be drinking Scotch for their own pleasure. They keep giving me all this Scotch. I never need to buy it, right? It's just always such a thing that's given as gifts. So then people get hung up on like, well, I'm buying this from my boss. It has to be at least 12 years old. Like it has this thing, you know, like before 12, this is not a good Scotch. And you know, this, it's a pervasive myth that I think still we deal with. Yeah. And I would also point out that older is not better. Absolutely either. I mean, when you get up into the, into higher age statements, sometimes, you know, they're a little dried out. Well, there's a time and place for everything. You know what I mean? Am I going to open up a 25 year LaFrog every night? No, but it's a good special occasion. Well, I'm just getting started at the Whisky Outline. We're just griping about things. Let's try this fabulous Scotch. I already did. This is so spicy. Ketchup. Yeah, I know. It's clove and nutmeg for days. And I'm going to like vanilla and like vanilla on like ripe strawberries. And there's a lot of red fruit. Not a whisper of smoke. This is like what a blended Scotch is in my mind. It's a bourbon drinkers blend also. Yeah, a huge vanilla on the nose. Yeah. I get bog butter and seaweed. Okay. That's fair. I mean, you know. Why do we have him on this one? Bog butter. I think it's a little buttery in the nose. And I agree, it's spicy and very fruity. Well, unlike their other selections, they're non-chill filtered and natural color too. So it's so red, which is a very dark color for no color. Why is it called Crimson Cask? One of them is a red wine. Yeah, there's red wine finish. But it seems to be the theme thus far. Red wine barrel aging. This again seems very either autumnal or Christmasy. Maybe more Christmasy. The sweet spice is made good with cookies. Yeah, a lot of spice on the finish. Number 14. Number 14 is 2XO Kiyowa Blend. 2XO is a brand by master blender, Dixon Deadman. He's released a ton of different bourbons in our stores. This is part of the Icon series. Each of them has some connection to something that's near and dear to him. And so this is named after an island off the coast of South Carolina that he apparently likes to vacation at. It has nothing to do with how the bourbons age. It's a really good bourbon. It's $99.99. OK, this better deliver. Some of these move quickly. Some sit around, but they are good. They're fantastic. I wrote about one called Sneakerhead that apparently he likes to collect sneakers. Again, the whiskey doesn't show any sneaker. Any rubber or leather notes? Hot rubber and leather. But I've tried many ciders and weird things that do smell like tennis balls and sneakers, believe it or not. Kiwan? Kiwa. I'm not in love with this logo. Looks cheap. Wow. I'm just speaking my mind here. Are you talking about the font treatment of the 2XO? Yeah. Yeah. It kind of looks like a Vin Diesel movie. Yeah, exactly. 2X2O. 2X2Furious. Tokyo Drift. I feel like if you're going to name something after an island, It better be a rum. It's got to have some little, yeah. Well, there's a palm tree. All right, let's talk about what's in the box. This is really woody. A lot of wood. Wood shows. It's 104 proof. I do think the heat comes across on the nose also. We put these on sale quite a bit. You know, knock 10 bucks off here and there. We don't like making money. This was 99.99, you said? Wow, it really shows wood. It's grippy. And if you were looking for one of those difficult to find, overly age-statemented, like I was just saying, yeah, it is tannic and heavily extracted, it's okay. It's gigantic. And you know what? This would be good. This would be good in a Manhattan. This would make a real Manhattan because like, usually I'm looking for rye. I'm looking for something with the body and presence and spice. And this would hold its own. It needs some ice. I know. It does. It's a little much. That's kind of the same thing. Too plush. It's big. It's big. It felt a little bit like a punch in the mouth. Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay. Well. But I get it. It's not for me and that's okay. But check their stuff out. I mean, this one is a little woodier than some I've had. The sneaker I thought was really elegant and flavorful and delicious. But this is a good example of what they're doing. Number 13, number 13, number 13. That's a anchorman. All right. I'm Ron Burgundy. I'm Rod Burgundy. Number 13 is Knob Creek Bourbon X-Ry. Wait a minute. Is this special? This is a limited release that's pretty available right now. It's a blend of 30% nine-year-old bourbon and 70% seven-year-old rye bottled at 113 proof. Remember when Wild Turkey did a thing like this and they had some stupid story like, oops, we mixed them together on accident. I'm sure it was on accident. Totally. Unforgiven, I think that was called. Yeah. Yeah. Forgiven. Forgiven. Okay. Well, I'm in for this though. I like Knob Creek and I like their rye and I like their bourbon. I've even been known to put both bourbon and rye in a cocktail together. You are an animal. Or the, whoa, whoops, sorry. You want some of that back? Evergreen Park pour. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'll set this aside so I can enjoy it later. The rice shines through in terms of mint and spice. Yeah. I think the nose is delightful. I think it shows both bourbon and rye clearly. Like pencil lead, pencil shavings. I mean that positively. Greg inadvertently shades a brand. Yeah. You're welcome. I don't know. I get that cedar-y aspect to it. And I think that's pleasant. Cedar is not pencil though. Yeah. No, this is more like graphite. Now there's a- Doubles down, half back and off. Well, it's there and it's not negative. I like that note. It's got a little bit of the roasted nut kind of character. Praline? A little bit, yeah. Definitely orange peel. It's got a lot going on in the notes. I mean, there's that freshly cut grass slash wood. Oh, it's so good on the palate. It's like orange creamsicle with spices on top and it is palate gripping. I got a lot of sweet caramel on the front and then grass. Yeah. It's pretty delicious. It is the perfect amalgamation of bourbon and rye. This is fabulous because you clearly get rye notes on the finish and the front is all about sweet. Yeah. It's a little bit lean while still having all the benefits of drinking bourbon. Fellow old-timey candy enthusiast, Dan Nordman, I'm going to say one of my call-outs which some other people didn't care for. This has the classic Bit-O-Honey. Yum. We were going there. It's definitely in there. I like those. That's what he meant when he said toasted nut. Oh, Lexi. Likes Bit-O-Honey? I do. Yeah. See it? They're not. It's delicious. Yeah. I always get shaded for liking old-person candy and I feel like they're not only old people that like some of these candies. Why did you just look at me right now? I'm not specifically making fun of you right now. Nothing cracks a tooth like a bit of honey. Many times. Literally hundreds of times in the past. Nothing extracts a filling like a bit of honey. Got too many teeth? Don't get me wrong. Yeah, I'm afraid to eat them anymore. But I know what they taste like. Also, you're talking to someone who grew up on root beer barrels. Oh, yeah. There's a lot. And good in plennies. Wait, do you know what a, I'm sorry, a pear drop is? Yeah, nobody does. It's fine. Yeah, nobody does. A pear drop? Yeah. You know, an old candy that I never understood is the soda bottles that are made out of wax? What's that about? They got that liquid inside. Yeah. And that was before they chewed that as gum instead of before we had gum. Okay. That makes sense. Cause it's like, what if we made a gusher, but it's inedible? I mean, you can technically eat anything. Well, there are lots of wax candies. I mean, wax lips. That's not a candy. That's a candle. Those are gross. Those are gross. Dan, how much is this fabulous bottle? $44.99. That's great. That's fantastic. Great news. Oh man. Don't sleep on this one. It's not going to last forever. And yeah, yeah, real good. Oh, and I bet this one's going to cost a lot more. Roger is of course talking about number 12. So this is where the whiskey and a half comes in. Whiskey and a half. So I've got the 2023 and the 2024 editions of the Angels Envy Cast Strength. Wait, which one made the list? 2023 is the one that made the list. There is some of that in the chain. We do not discriminate between years. So if you look at it being in stock in a store, it could be one or other or both. The 2023 is Just Aged and Ruby Port Cast, which is typical for Angels Envy. The 2024, which there's quite a bit of in the chain still, definitely worth picking up. Is aged in both Ruby Port and Tawny Port casks. So I'll pass around the 2023 first. That was a good poll. Yeah, for sure. I'm gonna look up the price. $149.99 is my guess. You're way off. You're such a positive person. Yeah, it's such an optimist. We had the newest distiller from Angels Envy and he kind of spearheaded this brand. He worked at Stranahan's before, so he's really interested in finishing and you're seeing... You're already starting to see some new stuff coming from Angels Envy and some more innovation from them. Okay, first we're gonna try the 23, right? We got the 23 right here? Correct. Oh, man. $249.99. All right. I mean, this smells delicious. Vanilla bomb. Vanilla bomb. Red fruit too. Caramel. What always gets me with this whiskey is that it's just so fat on the palate, but it's got like an elegance that probably comes from the finishing, but just the caramel and there's fruit and it's not, it's just very, very approachable for the Did you say there's sherry in here? This is just Ruby Port. Just Ruby Port. It has kind of the high-tone sherry note. I wonder what is giving it that. Chris? I don't know. Greg? Do you pick it up though, Roger? It's really, the fruit character I think is pretty stunning. It reminds me, speaking of candies, we have one of those fruit nut creams from a place like Seas that have maple and cherry. Homeboy definitely has candy on the brain right now. I like when he goes, speaking of candy, we were not speaking of candy. We were not that long ago. I'm still thinking about it. I want to side by side these. Huge complexity. It's just really inviting. Easy to drink for cast strength too. I'm usually a big proponent of you should put some sort of either ice or liquid in a cast strength, dial it in. What is the actual proof? The proof on the 2023 is 118.2 and the 2024 is 118.8. They got it dialed in. That is pretty consistent. Yeah. This is good. This is really good. It's very good. It has some of that nut roll kind of flavor that we were talking about before. Yeah. That's right. Another way to say it. I think Roger nailed it. It's got that weird fruity. What is the candy you're referring to? It's like I know exactly what it is. I just don't know what they call them. Yeah. It's like a maple nougat nut with bits of cherry. Yeah. It's spot on that. It comes wrapped in wax paper or cellophane. Is that like the one you play roulette with the Valentine's hearts? It's not the pink crappy. We're talking like high quality stuff here. But yeah, it's like a maple nut and dried fruit. Yeah. A golden bonbon, if you will. I'll look it up in a second here. So say if you Google. Yeah, just a ton of complexity. What going on? All right, we passed around the 24. Lexi smartly has two glasses and the rest of us. Chris has two. I do. I'm just going off the dome on this one. I remember the last one. It has a really. Yeah. It's good. It's really good. So this one, the 24 has Ruby and Tawny. So you get a little more of the dark fruit. We tried 23 first. I think that Tawny port brings a little more roasted almond like note to it, too. I think it's more well integrated. It's more seamless. Hmm. I feel a little bit more heat on the 24, but that is going to be accumulating piles of whiskey on my tongue, too. Also possible. Or there's more red fruit on the on the 23. So maybe like the heat is more exposed because it's not under a wave of flavor. Yeah, I definitely feel the heat more on the finish. This is more subtle, but it's more round. I think I like the 24 more. Yeah. And that's weird for me because I usually like big, dumb, obvious things. And Greg is surreptitiously saying he's in love with me. Chris, you have never been obvious, my friend. Big and dumb, never obvious. What a slogan. I think there's a little more complexity maybe to the first one. The second one is to me more spice and a little more nutty. I mean, what you'd think from a tawny versus more fruit in the ruby, more nutty. Well, if you got 500 bucks, you should definitely do it side by side. Obviously. I do think the alcohol shows more on the 24 though. Agreed. Yeah. I think that's very true. I think I liked the 23 a little bit more, but that makes sense. It's not quite as biting. Yeah. Number 11. All right, let's go get on the smoke train. Oh, seriously? It's nice how they organized this tasting for us to not have to deal with smoke until almost the back half. This is Ardbeg Spectacular. Awesome. Classic Islay Distillery. This is their Ardbeg Day Release for this past year. Rare Port Barrels with ex-Berber Barrels. According to Ardbeg, this is the first time they've released a whiskey that's been at least partially aged in port barrels. Really? $139.99. Is Dr. Bill Lumsden still manning the helm of this program? I mean, they're still under the LVMH umbrella, so I would imagine so. Dr. Bill. Oh, my God. All right. It is Isla. This is going to burn all of our glasses and make them useless, but it's also going to burn our palates. That's why we got two glasses. Look at that. Oh, God. Smell it from here. Yeah, it's a phenol bomb. Holy cow. Medicine cabinet. Yeah. Band-aid. Just band-aid. Yeah. Band-aid. Smoked meat. I dissent, you guys. I think this is fabulous. I'm not saying it's not fabulous. I can always just with an Isla Scotch, I can always imagine you've been out in the Moors for some reason. Never been there, but I'm just imagining. The Moors. You're probably shooting grouse or something. You're cold and you're wet. Your sweater is wet. You come in and you change and- There's a fire. There's a fire and you take your hip-high waders off. The haggis is roasting or boiling or whatever they do. Whatever they do to haggis. The thing about an Isla Scotch to me is it's like for whatever you pay for it, it's a trip to Scotland in a glass and you can just sit with it for hours. The nose itself is captivating to me. It's not that peaty. You're talking about iodine and band-aids and it's there, but it's not that overwhelmingly peaty. There is this delightful little dessert underneath. Yeah. There's definitely fruit that pops through. And it's pears and it's poached pears. It's spicy little Christmas spice poached pears. Really been a pear episode. I know. It's becoming a parent. A lot of malt whisky. No, I see what you did there. You're welcome. You're a shame. I would definitely sit next to a warming fire with this. Sure am. It's just like. Dude, it tastes like pirousines on the palate. It tastes like asparagus and green pepper. It's got a touch of sweetness. I like the nose more. You had them and you lost them. You tasting this? What the hell is going on? Fajitas, anyone? Smoky meat and green peppers. Yeah. Hell yeah. Really? It is. I can handle this. It doesn't sound like a sizzling platter and you've got something. I can handle the taste. The taste. You like the taste, I like the nose. Yeah, that makes sense. There's like a round sweetness at the end too. Yeah, you're weird agave palate. This is like in that same zone. I kind of like it. Mezcal people. It does have a lot of green, vegetal, herbal notes. Yeah. It tastes like a roasted poblano pepper. It does. Is it really? Smoky roasted poblano pepper. It's like the Scottish version of chile reno. Yeah, I was going to say, who doesn't like a chile reno? Come on, Raj. I should have had this at lunch. I mean, if you stuffed your poblano with oats and lungs. Yeah. You're having a Mexican poblano? Mexican haggis. Yeah. All right, moving on. Wow. I think this one gets the award for most interesting so far. It's definitely complex. It's interesting. That's the mispersonality of all of these products. I think this has the opportunity. I'm always saying the people will need to talk about beer pairings more. You can drink whiskey with food and no one does. For sure. They never talk about food and whiskey pairings. This would be good with food. A lot of food. Especially sweet and salty things. I think this would make a killer Rob Roy, which is Scotch Manhattan. Just that smokiness and the ham in there. What if we made a rusty nail with this, with that a lotte super sweet. Let's do it. I'll do it when we're done. I will totally do it when we're done. I'm down. That could be interesting. Okay. I'm into, that'll be a bonus episode. Can we high five on the podcast? Oh, yeah. Okay. All right. All right. All right. Number 10. Number 10 is Bernheim, the first batch from this past year, Barrel Proof. You don't have a bottle on the table? We don't have it. There's some of probably the third batch in some stores, but if you see it, buy it. Number nine. Number nine is a true unicorn. It's the Wild Turkey 8 Year 101, Jimmy's 70th Anniversary Bottle. Don't have it. Can't get it. Not in stores. A little secret about little Danny Norman is that Wild Turkey is my favorite distillery. Number eight. Glenmaringi 16, the Nectar. So this is an update from their bottle that's been around for a long time, the Nectar Dior, which is a 12 year expression, finished in Sauternes from Glenmaringi. This one is the 16 year, we don't have it yet. It is coming. It's coming. And it is finished in Sauternes, Mont Basillard. Mont Basillard. Mont Basillard, Muscatel and Tokai Barrel. So we should, oh, we should totally taste it when it does come in and then just like edit it in right here. Sure. I don't know when. So here comes future us right here. Maybe. And we're back in the past. All right. Or the present as we are. We do a bonus episode and it's just flash-forwarding and then making weird cocktails. Okay. So we don't have the Glenmorge yet. We do not. It should be coming. Number seven. Number seven also we do not have Still Austin Bottled and Bond Redcorn. We got a very small amount that sold quickly. This is Still Austin is obviously a Texas distillery. They are making some great whiskey. They do slow water reduction similar to how Armagnac is produced. So their Texas whiskey doesn't have the biting oak that a lot of Texas whiskey does. So if you're looking for that, Still Austin is not your brand. That said, they are making some really elegant and fantastic whiskies. Blows my mind they age whiskey in Texas. Well, these guys haven't figured out they are doing a great job. And a lot of their newer bottlings are becoming harder to find semi unicorns. We get emails about them questions at the hotline, but this one we also do not have. Number 6. Number 6, we also do not have this one. It's like they're all in a row. This is the Bookers Springfield batch. This was the first batch of Bookers from this year. I will say Bookers is always good. Barrel proof from Beam. Some of the releases we got this year, we did get a fair amount. We actually wrote about one of them in an email. So their Bookers is becoming more available from its scarcity over the past few years. But this one is long gone. Number 5. Number 5, we also do not have. What? This is the Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon. They did three. They did a bourbon, a wheat, a whiskey, a weeded bourbon and a rye. The focus on this series is the corn strain that they're using. So they work with a pretty famous corn hybridizer named Bex. And they went for a high starch corn that helps with better alcohol creation when they're making the whiskey without as much yield. So these ones come and go when they come in. You'll typically see them very briefly on the shelf, but they go pretty quickly. Bower. Number four. Number four is from our friends at Bardstown. Wait, he's reaching into the box. Oh, finally. This is more than just listening. Amrute finished bourbon. Or this is a rye whiskey finished in Amrute. Cask Amrute is an Indian single malt whiskey. So, they're reusing single malt casks for a rye. Correct. That's crazy. So, the way that this single malt cask is new. As far as I know, they were. They are using a blend of Indiana and Kentucky rye, mostly Indiana. The Indiana rye was finished in Amrute casks and the Kentucky rye was not. Indiana. This is Indiana. Much like most of Bardstown's bottlings, the side of the bottle tells you percentages of age statements and where it came from. A spreadsheet on the side of the bottle. I love it. Yeah, they give you lots of information. Holy cow. Yeah. This is quite delightful. And a QR code on the other side of the bottle. 110 proof. I like that proof. 159.99. Their collabs aren't inexpensive, but they're pretty phenomenal. Respect. Jeff picked a Bardstown for one of his picks last year. I love this place. I just can't afford it. Rich and sweet in the nose. It's got that fruit from the malt finish and probably the rye too. I like this a lot, especially this after the band-aid moment. It's funny. This almost reminds me of the melding, the Knob Creek mixture of bourbon and rye. The sweetness here is reminding me of the bourbon, but it's definitely a rye through and through. Loads of butterscotch and cherry. Well, you get that Kentucky rye and the Indiana rye. It's really fruity and sweet up front, but it's spicy on the finish. The Indiana rye is 43 percent nine-year, 45 percent corn, 51 percent rye, four percent barley, and 20 percent 95-5. Really high rye. Well, the 95-5 in particular. Yeah. Yeah, that's the MGP way. This would make a sick old-fashioned. Yeah. Yeah. Totes. Oh, man. Look at you over there, looking at these old-fashions with $150 rye. I said it would. I didn't say it did. But maybe I can sneak this home. Yeah. You have to fight for it. This is Jeff's bottle, so you'll have to ask him about it. Not to Jeff. Okay, I love this. It's very expensive, but I love it. Good pick. Number three. Back to Smoketown with Lagavulin 12, Ink of Legends. This is last year's Diageo. Special release from Lagavulin. Psychedelic artwork. I'm into this. That's pretty cool. This is finished in Don Julio on Yeho Cask. Oh. Okay, now we're literally talking about the merging of Agave Spirit and CW. Well, I was wondering why that looks so Aztecan or whatever. It does. How much is it? It's a 12-year Lagavulin. This is Cast Drink 12-year, 179.99. Well, we're at number three, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's going to happen, except for that one time that it was double-double from Doers and it was like 25 bucks at the time. No, that was so good. It's interesting how we've been drinking so many of these have been like wine barrel aged and stuff. Yeah. This seems much paler. Yeah, very pale. Very, very reserved on the Pete for Lagavulin. Yeah. I really like it on the nose. Yeah. Which is also shocking. Yeah, from an Islay hater, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. The smokiness is so integrated with, again, orchard fruits here, I think. Lagavulin, I feel, always did a nice job of integrating Pete. It was like the non-Pete person's Islay, besides things that are literally not peeted from there. Yeah. I mean, it's beautifully subtle. Roger, you know how you talk about bit of honey? This is like bit of ham. Bit of ham. Well, to me, for like, I mean, this is 112.8 proof. It's very soft and friendly. Ham on a biscuit, if you will. There's a note of bitter chocolate in here. Yeah. And a vegetal peppery quality that is like classy and restrained instead of overblown. And it wheezes in with the peak. This would taste great with chocolate. Yeah. This would taste amazing with chocolate. Agreed. May I suggest that there's just an overriding Mexican chocolate feature here? The spiciness of it? Yeah, the spice. Cocoa powder. The chocolate. To bring up See's Candies again. Have any of you ever tried their Scotch Malos? Oh yeah, they're amazing. This would be incredible. Where is this place? See's. There's one in Downers Grove. They're everywhere. There weren't Warren Buffett's candy store. So yeah, but around here, where can you? There's one in Downers on Agden. I know. That's what I just said. But where else? Oh, where like here, up there in Lincolnwood? I'm not sure around here. It's a California company originally. Yeah, you can mail order any of their stuff. But the candy is fantastic. I would say much better than current day Fannie Mae. Oh yeah, it blows it out of the water. Yeah, it's not even close. Well, next week on Barrel to Bottle, Isla Whisky and old school candies. I mean, literally half the tasting notes you've just been saying would apply to that candy. Those scotch mellows. Don't get them excited. They're literally shaking right now. Marshmallow and caramel covered in chocolate. It's delightful. Not just is the flavor incredible, but texturally, the caramel is like really dense and chewy. Are you talking about the scotch or the candy? It would be so good with the scotch. It really would be. I would also, just as an aside, they have the best peanut brittle around. Hold on a sec. Did we just find the Isla scotch that Roger ate? Have you had it? Yeah, it's incredible. I mean, I've always liked Lagavulin the most of any of the Isla. Okay. Pillowy heaven on top of this super dense caramel with the dark chocolate ones. I need like a quarter next to it for scale because if that's as big as it looks right now. They're pretty big actually. They're a bigger piece of candy. I don't like candy that takes two or three bites. Dad told me I like this bigger one. Oh. Okay. We can't keep talking about candy. Because there's honey in them too. It's a honey marshmallow. It's not just like garbage sugar. Lagavulin is delicious and inspiring, I would say. And if you don't necessarily love a little scotch, this is a good one. Yeah. I agree. Delightful. Which brings us to number two. This is Brooklyn 18 year. Speaking of Isla that's not always peated. So this is from their unpeated selections if you want. How about that? If you want their peated, you get Port Charlotte. And if you want their abrasively peated. Are you undressing this thing? It's wearing a little wetsuit. This is the new packaging. So yeah, it sounds disgusting. It's so cute, though. This is kind of the idea. The whole wetsuit. They have a lot of the distilleries. My understanding is they have directives from like the government to produce their packaging. This is that's better than a box or plastic. I like it. We're looking at a little. It looks like if you had clothing that was form fitting and you were the shape of a scotch. It looks like they made something out of egg cartons, like egg and water. An egg carton wetsuit. You're reducing packaging, why not just a naked bottle? What is the point of that? To keep it from getting dinged. If it fell over, maybe it wouldn't break. But if you dropped it, it would still break. Catching your eye because it looks like literally nothing else on the shelf. We're all in marketing. We should have this. Look, and you can see through it. I was going to say that I think it's cute. It would grab my attention for sure. So hats off. I think it's cute too. I don't love Glass Stoppers, but I do love Brutality. Same. 18 years old. I would guess that they're trying to draw more people from your age into the Scotch world. By having an egg carton sheath. They are trying to be a little bit more eco-conscious and that's great. So this is unpeated Isla Scotch, 18 years old. Mostly bourbon finished with some soterran and port finishing. That all totally scans on what I was smelling as you were saying it. Definitely bourbon forward, caramel and vanilla, and then the sweetness from soterran. I just get ham. Just ham. I want to rinse your glass. Yeah. There shouldn't be ham here. This is Isla, but it's unpeated and I know Brooke Laddie sometimes uses grain from Isla itself. The grain is- So this is the first, this was the still in 2004 when they- Oh, they were just children at the time. Yeah. This was the first time that they used Isla grown barley in there. They're scotch. Because this was a shuttered distillery that was reinvigorated. Yeah. I feel like however they configured this, the grain comes forward and you taste the grain, which- As it should. So you're saying that the grains provenance is Isla itself in this one? At least partially. Don't quote me on- It says right over it that they want the terroir of Isla to come through. So I know that's one of their things, but I know they can't always have enough barley from Isla to make all their products, of course. Our designers will tell you that I love their font work. These big chunky sans-serif fonts, I love them. It's like the title card in a Tarantino or Wes Anderson movie. All right. Yes. I also think that I like the monochrome. I love a monochrome situation with the double blue. Real subtle and classy. And this is a 100-proof non-chill filtered natural color. I will say I have to pour out a little- For the homies. For the homies. I miss- If you were going to talk about packaging, they did some of the coolest packaging. So a lot of people have bulls**t tubes that are just not anything to write home about. True. They had some of their series that they were truly works of art, like beautiful seascape impressionist paintings or very intricate wooden. This is still pretty cool. It's just not that. It's interesting, but it's not that. That was number two. It leans into the modernization of all the different logos and things though. Yeah. This whiskey is incredible. Yeah. I mean, it's phenomenal. 179.99, which fits with the $10 a year. Yeah, right. Big red. Sleek and streamlined and like a piano, like the wood finish on a piano or a sailboat. It's so perfectly polished. That's what I'm trying to say. A schooner is a sailboat. That's what I'm all about right now. Yeah. I mean, I really think the barley comes through. It has this toasty nutty character that's really elegant. To your point, polished, for sure. Yeah. This is an elegant whiskey. Agreed. I was going to say this is it. And we've had some stuff that's been a little over extracted or over the top. This is like the old school Scotch waltzing into the room and going, no, no. This is how it's done. Yeah. All right. All right. Number one. No, no. LeFroyg. Last finale. Really hidden the Isla places. Here comes LeFroyg. Exact reaction was that right there. If I ever make it to Isla and I go to LeFroyg, I will ask them for a job and I'll never leave. Brett, keep them out of Isla. This is the second in their elements series, Elements 2.0, where they're doing some experimentation. This one has a long fermentation, so almost five days of fermentation, which is in a lot of cases twice as long as you would typically expect. That gives it some interesting fruitiness. We're talking ester development here. Ester development, yep. Also a bottle of Cast Strength 159.99, non-age stated. What's the proof on what's the Cast Strength on this? We have this? It is around, yep. It's 119.2 proof. Laphroaig sticking with their design philosophy of plain white. White and green. White and green. Kids love white and green. I'm going to say again, very judiciously peated. Their stuff varies, very much so by depending on the release. Some of them are- Were they battling it out with Brook Laddie or Arbeg? Arbeg. Well, in Port Charlotte for the peediest of peedie. The Port Charlotte stuff's crazy high. Well, we get the Octomore. Octomore is the one that- That's the peediest. If you want to be punched in the teeth with some pee, which I do. That's the hot sauce fan of the Scotch world. Yeah, right. Lexi, I think this smells like agave spirit. It has a similar note and earthiness. I just annihilated my nose one moment. It's also quite spirited. Are you doing Rails of Nutmeg again? You know when you get excited and you're like, oh, let me smell it and then you're like, oh, man. Yeah, right. This definitely is not as smoky as a lot of fries. It's delightful. It's got lots of tropical fruit, vanilla. It's like a floral sweetness, like orange blossom or something like that, lavender blossom, honeysuckle. Honeysuckle is one of them. Some might say heather. Heather. Heather. I think there's definitely orange blossom in here too. Heather and Esther are hanging out together in the old folks home. This is so weird. What are you talking about? It's like smoke and bong water, like resin. Yep, you're right. What is going on here? Everyone gives me the business about smoke beers and everyone geeks out about smoked scotches. Oh, on the palate, the smoke is so present. Yeah. Yeah, it's weird. There's a kind of a disconnect between the nose and the palate. It's so big and robust on the palate. This is phenomenal. I love it. It is weird. I mean, it's so delicate in the nose, in my opinion. Yeah, absolutely. I'm just grabbing flowers in your face. I know. It's like slapping you from inside your mouth. Yeah. Once again though, imagine you're- Why is it so red, like dank and weedy, like- I would say there's a bar fight going on. A bar fight. There's a bar fight going on in my mouth. That's what's happening. It's cannabis, right? There's a smokiness. It's a lot. But it's still fruity on the palate. That's how you know you're alive. Bar fights in the mouth. I don't know about that. Keeps me feeling feelings. I understand the appeal to this. As a person who rarely changes her bong water. As a person who may or may not love this, I do not. I understand why someone does. Absolutely. I think it's meat. You need to have Tom Murriani try some of this. I think I have a little bottle. I have to bring him back some. As a smoke meat and cannabis enthusiast. He will love this. Two great tastes that go great together. I love Laphroaig. To me, they can do no wrong. I think this is a great example. Ride or die. I haven't told you guys this yet, but I had when I was a kid, a bottle rocket flew up my nose and exploded, so I can't really taste anything. I'm just kidding. That's a really old Simpsons reference. But anyhow, everything smells like gunpowder. We're at the end of this list. I thought that it was a pretty interesting list. We had four Isla Scotches, three of them pretty smoky, only a couple of unicorn or semi-unicorns, and a lot of stuff that's readily available. They were all in a row. They were all in a row, yeah. But yeah, I think it was a pretty fair list. It's an interesting list. We're leaning into malt whiskies this year. And wine finishing. Yeah. I like some of these were good malt whiskies. Yeah. I was nervous for this podcast episode. I was very nervous and I was very surprised and very pleased. I'm sorry, you were intimidated by tasting 12 of the best whiskies of the year? As a non-whiskey drinker, yes. How much was that Compass Box again? $69.99 for the Compass Box. That was a really good whisky. It was. The Virginia one, to me, was the standout. That was very good. Which one was the Virginia one? The one with the gingerbread stout finish. I forgot about that, yeah. Fabulous. The way people geek out over that Midwinter's Dram, which was an awesome whisky for 80, but now it's like 140 or something. That's 179.99. Blended stuff is a theme here also because there's a couple of blended bourbon and rye-influenced bourbons, and a blended scotch can be awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Needs to drop the stigma. Yeah. People want all these new flavors. You're not going to get the new flavors without embracing some of the new categories and blending. I'm all in on this list. I think they did a pretty good job. At Binny's, we have multiple whisky aisles, not just the bourbon aisles, so get out your comfort zone, talk to some of our educated and interesting staff that we have in our stores and find something new that you're going to like. You're absolutely right. Call the Whisky Hotline number before they disconnect it and talk to Dan. Yeah, that's right. Dan's picking up the phone at the Whisky Hotline these days. I got a lot to do outside the office. That's also true. About the next month, I think. We'll get him his cell phone. You're going straight to voicemail. That's what he's saying. Dan, thanks a bunch for dogging down these bottles that we had. Thanks for having me. Oh, come on. Everybody else, thanks for listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. We are back real soon with something real good. Until then, I'm Greg. I'm Roger. I'm Chris. I'm Lexi. I'm Dan. Keep tasting.