00:00 Introduction Hey. Hello. Hello. You're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast, Backing Your Feed with Something Whisky. We have the Whiskey Hotline team here for this one. This is kind of an annual tradition. So we're tasting the top 20, and it's gonna be cool. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. I'm Dan, I work in spirits. I'm Brett, with The Whiskey Hotline. And I'm Lexi, socials and stuff. Everybody knows you're Lexi. But if I change my voice, do I still sound like Lexi? Yes. Okay, Dan, you have this list in front of you, and a number of bottles. So yeah, every year Whiskey Advocate puts out their top 20 whiskeys of the previous year. Just keep in mind these are all new releases, so anything that was new from 2025 is eligible for this list. We have a fair amount of this stuff around the chain, and we've got a few here to sample as we go through. Forgivingly, you didn't bring all of them with you. Yeah, last year I think I brought 17 bottles. Yeah. That was a bit much. That was a day. This is fine. And then, do we get to provide social commentary on each and every pick, or are we just going to let some of them slide by? You can definitely offer some feedback on it. You're here for the color commentary. He's the Troy Aikman. 1:29 Whiskeys 20-17 Number 20 is Lockley Fallow Edition. Number 20. So Lockley is a Scotch distillery. We have some of this around the chain. Lockley is a new producer. They've only been operating about seven or eight years distilling. Most of their product is six years old that they're releasing commercially. And it is a farm to table or farm to glass. They grow all the barley. Their yearly production is based purely on what they can grow on the farm. In and around Ayrshire, close to Prestwick Airport, south of Glasgow. So it would be considered a lowland. And they do a really interesting combination of blends. They have a regular release, which is called our barley. Then they have four seasonal releases, which are based on fallow being the winter. They have harvest. Yeah, going into autumn. So there's a heavy sherry influence on the whiskey. The other thing worth mentioning is lowlands forever were considered or they were mostly just used for blends, very light whiskeys that were typically mostly used for blends. In the last, what do you say, Brett, like 10 years, a number of lowland distilleries have emerged and been started that are making really excellent whiskey that it's worth looking at again. Because I think lowland is probably the smallest part of our set other than maybe Campbeltown. Yeah, Campbeltown just because they're essentially two, three distilleries, but two that are functioning regularly and one that only runs a few weeks out of the year. Although there's another one being built in Campbeltown. So there will be a fourth distillery in Campbeltown. And there are a couple, including our friend from Outlander, Sam Hewan, has bought a distillery in the lowlands to produce the gin for Sassenatschen, as well as the base spirit for the Sassenatschen Whiskey. Annandale's open down there. The Borders is six months, nine months away from having legal whiskey. Plus the, you know, the traditionals, the Blue Bloods, such as Bladnock, Auchintosh and Glen Kinchey. The point being that there's a bunch of lowland scatch dealers that you wouldn't have seen ten years ago. And we're checking them out, because as this class that we have in front of us tells us, this is I mean, this is like this is like a warm autumn hug and like a scratchy wool sweater. It smells excellent. It's like graham crackers and raspberries. Yeah, it's just like comforting, right? The great irony too about Lockley is the person who was the opening distiller, he since moved on, but the person who distilled all these is John Campbell. John Campbell would be known to scotch aficionados as the longtime master distiller for LaFrogue. Didn't we have John Campbell on Barrel the Bottle The Binnys Podcast? Absolutely, at least once. And John spent a career making the most distinctive, polarizing, peaty Isle of Skye in existence and shows you the talent the man has to turn around and do something so really rich and light and delicate as this, as Lafayette in general. This is as complex and multifaceted as a lot of blends. Like there's a peated component and it's light and wispy and it's present, but it's just behind everything and there's fruit and there's a lot of grain. It's layered and layered and complex. It's got like, it hits all the spots in single malt scotch, you know, it's got like you said, the grains there, the barrels characters there, a touch of just like a wisp of peat maybe. Like it's not even, no, not at all. That's what I like about it. That's just maybe coming from the sherry. They don't use peat. It wouldn't be traditional, but that's a combination of two things and people, and you get this a lot of times where people will bring a heavily sherry bottle to the cow and say, well, this is kind of peaty. I don't like it. And it's not peat. Dan hit it. It's from the sherry. Interesting. Because young and it's really something you get from youth because the same sort of bitter phenolic character that causes you to react to peat, like there's a great experiment. You should do this at home. Take a peated whiskey, put it in a glass that you can basically get your tongue into. If you lean over and put just the tip of your tongue into a glass of peated whiskey and stay bent over, you will perceive little to no smoke character whatsoever because the receptors for phenols bitters are all over your tongue, but really concentrated in the back. So it's a fun experiment to stick the tip of your tongue in. You should get a lot of sweet character. And then when you move your head up right and the whiskey naturally washes back across your tongue, when it hits the back, that's when you get the smoke character. And if you did that with this, luckily, I'd be willing to bet that that character, that spicy, almost smoky, really drying character in the back of your mouth. But that's very, very much because of the new sherry barrels. Interesting. And when you are doing that bent over with your tongue in a glass, make sure you film it so that you can get a viral Instagram video. Lockley Fallow Edition is in our source for $69.99. All right, moving on to number 19 is Achiro's Malten Grain 111 Proof. Number 19. We have some of this in the chain, $79.99. It's the front end, yeah, each row is the front end. He's reopened a distillery called Chichibu, is involved in a couple of other distilleries, and sort of is the front end of Japanese craft malt distilling. Japan's got a very long and very complex and knotted history of distillation of various kinds. For a number of years, the only two, the only, there were three malt distilleries. It was the two Nikkei properties, Yoichi, Yoichi and Miyagikyo, and then the Yamazaki distillery, actually four, and then the Kushu, which made peated whiskey, and that was it. And now each row has led a whole wave of new Japanese distillery openings that are all coming into maturity. How cool is that? All right, number 18 is Drum Shandbo Marsala. Cask finished. Number 18. This is around the chain at $79.99. It's an Irish whiskey finished in Marsala Cask. Single pot. Single pot still. Single pot still, right, which is uniquely Irish style. Drum Shandbo sort of earned their cut making a gunpowder tea-influenced gin, which is absolutely fantastic. We sell tons of, especially in the summer. And that gin, despite how good it is, was really just a way to get to age on whiskey, which they could then release in this Marsala's. Yet another example of some fantastic, purely Irish single pot stills coming out of Drum Shandbo. All right. Next, we have Luxro Small Batch PX Sherry Finished. Number 17. Which I actually have this in front of me, so I'm gonna pass it around. Luxro is the distillery that produces Rebel and Ezra Brooks, and most notably, Yellowstone. Same ownership as the Yellowstone Folk, although that's made just south of Bargetown, where Luxro is located. Is there a story behind the name? With it just in the boardroom, and somebody was like, let's call it Luxco. They're like, no, that's dumb. No, they named it after the owners, Don Lux. Oh, well, right, so Luxco, Luxro. Luxco, Luxro. The punt is bigger than anything I've ever felt on this bottle. Yeah. It goes all the way up. Well, you got to make it look bigger on the shelf. From a visual and hospitality standpoint, the distillery was absolutely designed for hospitality. Absolutely gorgeous. They occupied, you know, they're on a property on the outskirts of Bargetown, Kentucky, which is sort of the bourbon capital of Kentucky. People in Frankfurt might argue, but I would say Bargetown has a pretty fair claim to that title. They had a beautiful old stone farmhouse that was existing. They sort of modeled the distillery to be respectful of that and where it was. And it's a really great experience. They had, you know, again, Rebel and Ezra Brooks were both very well established brands that were owned by the Luxco Company. Luxco was bought by MGP, friends in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. They were, but the Luxco people, because they had the sales and branding skill, the Luxco people were actually running that piece of the company. And then the MGP people are doing what they want to do, which is just produce fantastic whiskey. The Luxrow distillery is at the top of the hill too. It's a pretty cool place to visit if you're ever down there. And these whiskeys, they were at the front end. You know, bourbon started, bourbon is a difficult category to innovate in because they have such strict rules about the ingredients you can use and the technical aspects of distillation and the way that you age it. And the age that things have to be. So bourbon can be tough to do innovation. This is, you know, one of the things they've sort of followed the Scots in the last few years trying to just broaden the characteristics of products that they're releasing. And so one of the things they've done is start to use traditional, what would be traditional, Scotch and Irish woods, sherry casks, port casks, Madeira casks, so on. As finishing. As finishing casks. And this is beautiful. I mean, it's the base whisky is fantastic. Luxro produced and then finished in really high quality. It's worth mentioning, it's 112 proof, which is- That's 112 proof? I was gonna say, it feels a little hot. And it's, get this, it's $49.99 on ourselves. This is a orange marmalade, cloves and nutmeg butterscotch. That PX sherry is just singing. I'm also getting a little, have you ever tasted vanilla extract? It's a little bit more, there's something else there, it's a little bit almost, not complex to it, but something else there. I think that's what I'm getting, and I wonder if that's from the sherry or something. Like a high-toned kind of screaming. It's lactone. That's like, sometimes you get it as a vanilla extract, you would also get it a little bit as some kind of tropical. So if you get any, especially coconut, but that's, yeah, that's lactone. I think what you're saying too is like, cause the vanilla is there, but I think it plays with the PX sherry so well, which for those who don't know, Pedro Jimenez sherry, if you buy that, it's almost got the consistency of like maple syrup. It's a very rich, very sweet style of sherry that some people put on their ice cream, for better or worse. Roger. Roger, specifically. But that's something that you get offered when you go out sometimes, like, oh, do you want some PX sherry on your ice cream? It's like, sure, I guess. One more drink, can't hurt anybody, right? When you go out, when I go out, they're like, sir, this is Wendy's. You have to keep your pants on. Can you please take the wine bottle home with you? I like this for as high proof as it is. Yeah, the proof is, it's got some proof, but it drinks much more gentle than that 112. It does in that little, nice, little elegant drying characteristic, which is totally the PX would, but a nice little, because normally, bourbons don't get super dry because corn is really rich. I perceive a lot of sweetness here and the spice characteristic, it's almost like an old-fashioned. I want to make an old-fashioned out of this. And then I have like, just now that I've spit it out three minutes ago or so. The wood. I just, it's like, I'm getting like pure like raspberry hard candy right in the middle of my tongue. Really nice. Tannic. Just tannins here. Yeah, for sure. Oh, definitely. Cool. All right. 12:21 Whiskeys 16-13 Number 16. Stranahan's 12-year Mountain Angel we do not have yet. There's a very small, I mean, we're going to cause a frenzy because we've just launched a 10 and a 12 regular bottlings, one of which was the Whiskey of the Year for I believe for ADI American Distillers Institute, which is a craft spirits judging competition, very reputable. These are variants that are coming. There's going to be a limited amount and they're incredible. For Stranahan's who sort of did the good job of doing malt light where they made a malt that was really very, very appealing to bourbon drinkers and was sort of round. I personally enjoyed it but didn't think there was much complexity going on there. It was just a nice solid whiskey and they've now started releasing some of their older whiskeys 10 to 12 years old and they're stunning. They're absolutely beautiful. Awesome. All right. Does it still come with a little metal cup? Yes. Thank you, Colorado. Number 15. 15 is Yellowstone 10-year limited edition 2025, another bottling from our friends at Luxro. I bet that's really good. It's around. We don't have it here, 139.99 for that. I do bet that's really good. Everybody talks about the Pappy's and the B-Tacks and Old Forrester Birthday and Four Roses Limited Small Batch. This is one of those later secondary really high-end releases that distilleries do that I think a lot of people miss. Oh yeah. So it's nice that they finally get some recognition because this is year in and year out and it's been coming out for a number of years is absolutely gorgeous release and decently priced compared to where a lot of those other sort of talisman sit. How old is it? 10 years. Okay. So that's about right. 140 bucks for 10 years. Yeah. Cool. Number 14. Number 14 is Middle West Cast Strength Wheat Whisky. We've got a little bit in the chain. We've kind of relaunched Middle West this year, Distillery in Ohio. They make some really nice. The stuff we have on the shelf is great. They have like a dark pumpernickel rye that's like a no-brainer. What? It's super good. Wait, does it have like caraway seeds? They used like just a darker rye for the grain. And it really makes a huge difference. I mean, you get that pumpernickel like, you know. We'll dive into the different characteristics, distinctly different characteristics of rye a little bit further up in the list. But these guys are the MGP of Ohio. Huh. Based outside of Columbus, Ohio, and they like MGP for a long time, didn't have own label whiskey. They just produced whiskey and sold on contract, much like MGP does. Is there a Lawrenceburg in Ohio too? There is not, unfortunately. Otherwise, they would have built it there. LDO. Exactly. Well, either that or Seagram's 50 years ago would have built it, which is just like Four Roses in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, and MGP in, well, now MGP at the time was LDI. So they're a fantastic producer and probably the most prominent things we've seen recently are Horse Soldier. Started out of there, somebody relatively well known is Black and it actually moved their production. That's where Black and is being produced amongst others. And five, six years ago, they started developing their own brands, picking just like MGP, some of the best barrels they had. And this is testament to the fact they've done a good job at that. Cool. Number 13. Number 13 is Cedar Ridge Quintessential Number 5. We don't have that yet. We do have other quintessential bottleings on the shelf. This is Cedar Ridge's American Single Malt. Really excellent stuff. There's a little bit of a cult following with the other quintessentials. This one we just haven't, hasn't arrived for us yet. These guys are outside of Iowa City. They're right by the university. Oh. They're actually, they started, Cedar Ridge started, interestingly enough, it's a vineyard. It's actually an Iowa based vineyard that was growing a vinifera grape or two, mostly, you know, the normal Midwest, upper Midwest varietals. La Croix. And so forth. Right. Yeah. But they grew some vinifera and there was a passion from Jeff Quint, who's a father. There's just some passion for distilling. So they started out kind of in a shed with a small still. And now can easily be said are one of the top handful of American single malt producers. They've been doing it for a long time. They have aged goods. They're doing it right. That's an internationalist. That's awesome. Yeah. They're doing a pretty amazing job and it's all in the family. It's still the Quint family is runs and controls everything. And that this release is cast strength too, which is pretty cool. And just generally speaking, if you like malt whiskey and you haven't explored American single malt, we have some of the best American single malt you can find in the country on our shelves. And just ask your local Binny's liquor person and they will guide you right to the good stuff. All right. Number 12. 17:19 Whiskeys 12-9 Number 12 is Glendronic, oh, to the Embers, I do have this here in front of us. I was looking at that label, but I can only see the right half of it, and I was like, Ronik, I hope it's Glendronic, and not, I don't know, Blendronic. There's a Sherry theme going on here on this list. Yeah, I've heard more people talk about Sherry finished whiskey generally in the last couple years than I had before. Not just Brett? Not just Brett. But bear in mind is listeners will know I'm not the biggest Sherry cast fan. Whoa, just accidentally caught a whiff of this as the bottle passed my nose. We tasting this out of order, huh? We should put this one at the end. Well, we were kind of going. I mean, it's funny jumping from Cedar Ridge to Glendronic because you're going from a relative newcomer to the single malt game historically to a Blue Blood, especially in Scotland. This label is gorgeous by the way. Yeah. So they've got, there's a new, three new bottlings from them. We've got two of the three so far. Or the third one go out already. We just sent this in. I know. It's very recent. They're playing with different base whiskies and finishes. This has got a touch of peat in it and then it's finished in PX and Ola Russo Sherry barrels. I don't know if I would say a touch of peat. Okay. To someone like me with a withered old tongue, it's got a touch of peat. Just on the nose, this reminds me of barbecue sauce. There's a sweetness and a richness and a smokiness too. You might ask, why peat in a Highland Space Side Whiskey? That really started with Ben Reik Distillery, which for a period of time was actually owned by the same gentleman Billy Walker, who now owns Glenallakey. Billy bought Glendronic and Ben Reik and resumed the tradition of distilling with peated malt in the Highlands, which was something that Seagrams actually started in the 80s. They were worried in the 80s when distilleries were closing on Isla that they would run out of source peated whiskey. To blend. To blend for Shevis Regal, because at the time they owned Shevis. So they sort of tasked a couple of their space-side distilleries, one of theirs was in particular Ben Reik, and also played around a little bit with Glendronic. Lexi is shaking her head. It's, yeah. I mean, it's the peat, but it's not that iodiney medicinal peat from Isla. There is terroir in peat, and this is more of that floral, it's a gentler style of peat. I think it's woven in really well. And it's very well integrated. It's like a Smug Gouda, kind of. One of my least favorite cheese. All right. I respect it still, though. No. I mean, that's great. How much is this one? This one is 99.99. Are we gonna have it for a while? Yeah, it's supposed to be just a regular release, I think. Awesome. Awesome. Okay. The bottle's really pretty. It is. Number 11. Number 11 is the Bartstown Ferron Collab. So, Bartstown Bourbon finished in Pierre Ferron Cognac casks. 159.99, that is around the chain. Pretty easy to find still. Did we try that one? We had a Bartstown episode. You might have tried that. You know what? When you did that episode, that was before they released the Pierre Ferron. Bummer. I'm gonna have to chase it down. But Bartstown does do really, really some beautiful stuff with non-traditional woods for American, which means European oaks. And they have a good relationship there. Bartstown Bourbon Company is also sort of MGP style. A lot of, they were built really to do a lot of contract distilling and a little bit of tiny distilling and their own biggest stuff you would see from them right now would be High West. They're doing the bulk of the High West. They're doing a lot of Jefferson's too, I believe. But their own line of bottles are amazing. They're like mad scientists with all these- They started very, very easily. Yeah, Steve Nalley, the distiller who's driving everything, was a long time distillery operator and manager at Makers Mark. Yeah. So it's interesting. We've talked to Steve from doing one thing. I mean, at Makers Mark, your whole job is to do one thing exactly the same way at a very high level of quality, day after day after day after day. You go to a place like Bardstown, they go through cycles where in the course of a three-month cycle of production, he might make literally 100 different mashbills of various different styles depending upon what the customer of the distillery wants How cool is that? Yeah. He went from being a bricklayer to a hobbyist on scale. Yeah, he went from building out houses to building cathedrals. Well, I've seen some ice out houses though, especially in Kentucky. If you remember last year, their collab with Omarit was also on this list. So, I mean, they're on fire and they're doing some really good stuff. So, and it's getting a lot of attention worth looking at. Their first Bourbon County Stout one was one of my favorite whiskeys ever. Oh my God, it was so good. All right, number 10. Number 10 is Port Charlotte 18 on our shelves for $1.99.99. There's not a ton of it out there, but there's just a little bit. Isn't that the race to the PDS? Are they still doing that? Port Charlotte, that's the octomore range. Oh, okay. But it does come from the same distillery. Port Charlotte is the peded production of Brookline Distillery and the 18 are some of the oldest commercial casks they have because a group led by Mark Grenier resurrected out of mothballs the Brookline Distillery about 20 years ago. Yeah. And amongst the other things they did, they had the bandwidth to do. Mark was an old wine guy, so he wanted to play with a whole bunch of one the concept of terroir in Scotland because if you there's terroir in wine he's certain you know what she did subsequently at the Waterford Distillery in Ireland is certain that there's terroir and you know some people would say the terroir in Islay is like it's the worst place in the world to grow barley because it's too wet but they have you know he they did releases where it was a hundred percent Islay barley they did releases where they really played around with the peating level you know good relationship with Port Ellen Maltings and you know producing Brooklottie was always a non-peated producer, one of a couple with Bonnehaven on the island that traditionally their mainline products were unpeated. Khalila trivia question actually makes more unpeated than they do peated but the Khalila named whiskey is generally peated. So this is the beginnings of them producing just gorgeous peated whiskey with good age For the 18 at 199.99 which for an 18 year old is a very fair price. But it doesn't come in a perfume bottle. I mean you can put any perfume in any kind of bottle technically. And this will be in everyday bottling too. That's the great thing about this is as time passes they're going to run into more casks that are the proper age to make this an ongoing release. Cool. The Hebridean Distillers. The Hebridean Distillers. Outer Hebrides. Number nine. Number nine is Torabhaig Sound of Sleat. So I'm going to pass around here. Sound of Sleat. On the Isle of Skye. That's kind of dismal. Well, so here, we'll, so he needs to look up and get a definition, it's S-L-E-A-T. Oh. Not crappy weather sleet. Although I like a little sleet, like that's kind of my weather. I mean, look at me. I know, sweater weather. Yeah, me too, obviously. As many layers as I can throw on, the better. Okay. So like apparently kittens or something. Sound of Sleet. Oh, Sleet. Oh, and then it's even spelled, you know. So this is, and this makes sense because I've actually had the good fortune to have visited Torabhaig. Torabhaig is one of the new, along with Lockley, is one of the new wave of absolutely fantastic startups, got traditional Scotch distilleries that have all, you know, sort of started in the last 10 or 12 years, that are really coming into their own. And sleet primarily refers to a scenic peninsula on the Isle of Skye, known as the Garden of Skye, but also has other common meanings. Okay. So. So we've got some. And it's beautiful. The distillery, the distillery is on a peninsula that overlooks the water between, which would be the Atlantic Ocean, but the water between Skye and the mainland. Most, like, versed Scotch drinkers know this, but like, this is a great example of why you don't need to have an age statement on a single malt for it to be fantastic and worth buying. No age statement. This is a beautiful whiskey. On the nose, it's so graceful, so graceful. And as Brett was talking about overlooking the Atlantic, like, I'm getting brine here and really soft lemon curd and a whisper, just a whisper of ham. Oh my God. That might be because this was a ham. Not with the ham again. It's like, Brett hates ham. Brett hates it when I say ham. You know about ham. Fair. I don't eat a lot of ham. That's true. That's excellent. This is, by the way, $59.99. It's so viscous. And it's thick in like glycerol or something, but then the flavors are so subtle. And if there's a smoke here, is there a smoke here? Yep. It's woven in as this like a little bit of spice on your pear tart. Yeah. You know? When we've been traditional, and this is the third or fourth release, as Torabhaig steps up to an age statement, which they're going to have eventually. Yeah. This is the third or fourth release that they're just continually like sort of reworking, repurposing what's the best thing we can do at the age we currently have the most product for. Yeah. So. Lexi definitely notes a smoked Gouda on this one. Like almost a smoked Gouda and ham sandwich with a very light smear of not too sweet barbecue sauce. I got a lot of match stick. And I don't know if that's necessarily the best. You're saying sulfur. Yeah. I don't know if that's the best. There's a finish. No, I mean, you will. No, that's an and for a lot of people, it's very pleasant. So that's actually a very accurate and for some people, it doesn't necessarily mean a negative. But can you eat cilantro? Yeah. Yeah, there you go. That's all that matters. Because a lot, well, the matchstick too, and some of you think about it when you talk about a flavor, sometimes it's actually the matchstick for me and Isla, which I find very pleasant, is more of a smell, right? It's like I don't really conceive of eating matchsticks, but I like the smell like a freshly struck match has. There's a smell to it that's very distinctive that some people like. It's like the smell of coffee, those really, really heavy riches, the smell of coffee, the smell of the gasoline. Now that you guys are talking about this, and I'm just sitting here thinking about it, I'm smelling and tasting the 4th of July right now. Yeah. It's on the air. Interesting. It's that cordite. Your brain makes you think that it's a taste, but I think it's really a smell more than a taste. Yep. Let's not use the word retro-nasal right now. No, you just did. Oh, no. Cut it. It's crazy too how when I taste this one, I don't necessarily love it, but to smell the glass, it smells good. Yeah. I don't know. It's like my long time relationship with coffee. When standing at a coffee roastery all day and just. Oh. Don't tell Jack Spethman, but I feel that way about cigars. Yeah. They smell great. Yeah. But they're pretty good to smoke too. I like an occasional cigar. I like coffee. Hardcore. I will have to do a confession, I've started drinking coffee. I don't know why so late in life I've gotten to take up this habit, but I've started drinking coffee and I'm quite enjoying myself. One of us. One of us. All right. 28:54 Whiskeys 8-6 Number eight. Number eight is Rampur Barrel Blush. We do not have this. It's an Indian malt distillery. Don't have it as a coming. It's funny. We're working on it. Rampur has very, very, for the size, Rampur is actually a massive operation. So a lot of people don't understand the distillation in India. India as a country consumes more alcohol than the other country, not just, not necessarily per capita because it's very large population. They are populous. At one point in time, five of the top 10 selling liquor brands in the world were all Indian brands that were only sold in the country of India. They have a weird relationship with Scotch. They love it. And it probably goes back to colonial times. But they love Scotch because they would have been exposed to it centuries ago. But they also have incredibly high tariffs. Like at one point in time, I believe upwards of 300% to bring anything in. So a couple of startups in the last 15 to 20 years, a couple of distillers driven by, driven by Scottish people, but 100% Indian owned, Indian built, have started developing. The first one we would have seen in the States would have been Amrut. Remember that? Now you have a distillery, Indri. You have Rampur. You have Paul John, which is being brought in. Our friends at Ian McLeod Distillers are building. They are the folks that own Glen Going and Rose Bank and TAMDO. They are building a distillery that should be open and running now. And you know, classical style, they are getting, you know, they are still sourcing. If they make a peated whiskey, they are still sourcing it from Scotland. It turns out that the foothills to the Himalayas, Himalayas for those people who are raised, but the foothills to the Himalayas are a fantastic place to grow barley. I hear that they have good sea salt in the Himalayas. They don't have sea salt. They have pink salt. There is a big difference there in the two salts. But they are so poor, so we have their regular, and their regular everyday offerings have gotten awards in the past. And those, we do carry a couple of their every days. And we are working on getting this bottling. But so far, the availability in the States is very spotty. Cool. Number seven. Seven is Sagamore 10 Year Rye, which there's a little bit around $79.99 in our stores, but it goes real quick when it comes in. Yeah, it kind of came and went. This is 10 years, Baltimore, Maryland distilled. They originally started doing high-rye recipe MGP, sort of made their bones on doing finishes that were really good, as well as having just releasing properly, properly aged MGP. They've now switched to their own distillate. We've done some special projects with them in the past. We were actually gifted some cases from a barrel that a friend that runs Julio's Liquors in Westboro, Massachusetts, had a barrel going with them and we were allowed to get some cases out of that. That's cool. We've subsequently done some things, contributed a barrel and split with Julio's fantastic whiskey shop in Massachusetts. Well, just generally, even though we don't have this bottle in front of us and it's kind of an in and out allocated kind of situation, Sagamore has one to three bottlings on almost every binny shelf and their ryes are excellent. If you like rye whiskey, you should be drinking their stuff. If you like bourbon, try their stuff. It's a little more friendly for bourbon drinkers compared to some ryes. Their cast-strength rye, I think, is like around $50 and it's phenomenal. Yeah, we just got a good 123 proof. We just got there. They've sort of fiddled around a little bit and they've raised the age and raised the proof without raising the price. So, I believe that's... It might be closer to $70, but... Yeah, but it's still a really fair price. It's still pretty damn good for what you're getting. They have barrel houses in Maryland. Maryland is where they're... It's a Maryland-style rye, so yeah. Huh, okay. But really good stuff. If you don't drink Sagamore, you should start drinking Sagamore, because it's good stuff. Number six. Number six is Jefferson's Reserve Cast Strength, which we do have some in the chain, $69.99 on the shelf. Just a good bourbon. Kentucky Artisan Distillers was the long time... First, it was when Trey Zollner started the brand. It was sourced product, most probably well known for the Ocean, where he took barrels. He's a very avid sailor. He took barrels and put them on Ocean Going Vessels, and drove them around on the deck of the boat, and brought them back and bottled them, which is the iconic Jefferson Ocean series. Since then, they're actually building their own distillery. In fact, I think it's built, and they might be running. They were provided with a lot of their liquid most recently, and probably this bottling came from Kentucky artists in this distillery just outside of Louisville, which is a fantastic producer. Now you would know them for the Whiskey Row series, which are coming back to Binny's in the next couple of weeks. But yeah, just good all around traditional, very, very well made, sort of rich, that chocolate cherry kind of style. It's fantastic. 33:41 Whiskeys 5-1 Number five. Number five is Compass Box Flaming Heart, the 2025 edition. Oh, I want to try that, but it's so expensive. $149.99 on the shelf, which is a little pricey, but $150 is actually not that bad for something that's that quality of a blend. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah, I think, I remember it being more expensive than that, so I'm wrong. The previous edition may have been $180. They've come back a little bit. It's sort of the resurrection of Compass Box, which was a blender started by John Glazer, former Diageo employee who was involved in Johnny Walker, who was also involved in wine, who knew the potential or felt a lot of potential with all the different whiskeys that Diageo owned and controlled and used to blend things like Johnny Walker and Buchanan's is theirs and J&B is theirs, so on. And he was able to access these barrels and start to put together some very unique blended malts. Pete Monster probably was the first one that really hit the radar screens for people, did a high-end green whisky called Hedonism, and has subsequently just taken, you know, has blown a lot of norms out in Scotland, has used non-traditional barrels, has used non-traditional verbiage, has really run into some issues with the Scotch Whiskey Association for trying to cut the edge. John recently has sold to, originally, he had Bacardi added on his investors and has sold the business. And so this is the first modeling that's come from the new regime. And they're, thus far, doing a very, very good job of really, really respecting the history of what John built. Yeah. You know, John and Greg Glass and some of the blenders, James Sexton, that were involved. And now they have a new blender, a woman who had worked for McMyra Distillery in Sweden. And this is proof that they're moving in the right direction after the takeover and just maintaining the spirit that John Glaser infused the brand with, but still moving forward. Number five. Number. Nope, number four. Number four is New Riff Bell Bowl O'Ri, which we don't have in the chain, we did. It was in and out real quick, but we're gonna taste it, and we're gonna talk about how great New Riff is, and how every time they are recognized, it's well deserved. And we're gonna pass this Bell Bowl O'Ri. Friends of the podcast have been on a few times. This is the one, but it's not available. People focus a lot on their special releases, which is great, their special releases are awesome. The first time I went there, we tasted this red turkey wheat that they had, and it was probably the best bourbon I tasted that year. They're in Kentucky, right across the border from Cincinnati. And that particular bottling, they had worked with, there's a famous open air market in Cincinnati, and they worked with a baker there to source this really cool strain of wheat, essentially, and the bourbon was outstanding. This is the Bell Bowl O'Ri, which... Well, Bell Bowl, we know we were talking about rye. A couple of things, the development. This is the Whiskey Hotline's dream. If there were one of the mini Whiskey Hotline dreams, but this might be near the top of the stack, because New Rift Distilling was actually built by the owner of... Liquor Bar. The Party Source. Party Source. Which was, it is a fantastic store in Newport, Kentucky, right across the river from Cincinnati. Ken Lewis, family owned, and decided they wanted a distillery. And because of three tier, you can't own both, so he sold Party Source to family, and built a distillery in his parking lot. So, if Whiskey Hotline, if anybody's listening, you know who you are. Which parking also. You want to build a distillery. I think that we've already got a building in place in Lincoln Park that would make a very, very nice distillery if the Whiskey Hotline were going to be granted a distillery. Ooh, we'd have to put a fence up in the middle of the Champagne Depot. But that, exactly. But that's essentially where it came from. It's literally built in the parking lot of the Party Source, which is a pretty massive store. And they were given, you know, they wanted to balance traditional, because it's a big distillery, so they can be, they have some decent production being run by Molly Lewis, who is the daughter of Ken Lewis, who was the man who founded Party Source and who sold it and built the distillery. Their long time spirits consultant, Jay Erisman, was a long time distiller. He's since gone back to Party Source, but he was the one that did some training at MGP, who are basically what we always jokingly refer to MGP as America's Rye, because if you've had any sort of sourced rye anywhere, it's probably MGP. They really put rye on the map for us. And so he really took his learning from MGP, including sourcing the rye. The rye that MGP has traditionally used and is also being used at New Riff, for just their base product, which is one of the best ryes produced, period, in the eyes of the Whiskey Hotline, at least, is all sourced from Germany. And it's all distillation and brewing grade rye from Germany. And that's what MGP has always used. So America's rye has always been made with German, actual German grain. Balboa is a strain because they wanted to get things as close to home as possible. As farmers will know, you know, barley and rye don't grow very well in the middle and lower Midwest. You know, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois. Butterrain, Canada. So it grows where it's drier and cooler. It doesn't grow, you know, it just doesn't do well with moisture. It doesn't do well with high winds because rye stalks are very brittle. So Balboa is a strain that had been grown in southern Indiana in the past. A lot of times it's just a cover crop, but they found some seeds. It's a shorter, heartier stalk, which means you get a big thunderstorm that goes through southern Indiana on the Ohio River plain. It doesn't get knocked over. And I believe that similar strains they played with at our friends at Whiskey Acres in DeKalb, Illinois, which is right in the middle of the heart of corn. They also happened to be growing their own wheat, their own rye, and now their own barley. But Balboa was a particular strain that was traditional, that is really tasty, and this is it. I mean, the amount of citrus oil in this to me is just... And this is one of their only domestically grown ryes that uses the Balboa from southern Indiana. Bananas and bubblegum, it's like a big fruity rye. And it's a huge backbone too. Like it's in balance, but it's gigantic. This is excellent. I mean, again, like we said, this isn't something you're gonna find in our stores, but you should be paying attention to New Riff outside of their special releases. We do hand picks that are always excellent. Like, Brez said, their rye is awesome, they're bourbon, unbelievable, crazy good price. They're like 50 bucks for the Bottle on Bond 55, I think for the, or maybe 60 for the Single Barrel, which is a little higher proof. But yeah, New Riff, pay attention to them if you're not already. We love their stuff and you're a little too. This is, if you're gonna do an academic class on rye because there's just bits of everything that you would always call the markers. There's a bit of Dill, there's a bit of mint. Little bit of spearmint. There's a bit of baking spice, right? There's all those things in layers. Number three. Number three is Makers Seller Aged This Year's Edition, which I believe was 11 years old. We had it for $189.99, but that was a highly allocated unicorn bottle that does not exist anymore. Number two. Number two is Oban 15 Year Olu Rosso Palo Cortado's Sherry Finished, which we don't have and is not coming. Yeah, it's not coming. They didn't release it here. That was, I believe, a UK-only bottle. I don't know if they're going to release it in the States. They did a 14-year-old, which is nice, a 14-year-old finished product, which is part of their Distillers Reserve Series. And of course, we got a little bit of their Distillers Edition, which is the traditional finished whiskey. Oban makes great whiskey, I mean. Yeah, that's beautiful. That's Graham Cracker. You said earlier to me that is the Graham Cracker crust from a great cheesecake. I'm all about it. Number one is the brand new Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Rye. This does not exist in our stores. We got it. Literally the day that this was announced was the day that it was distro-ed out coincidentally, but that was very small amounts, very allocated, in and out really quick. If you're feeling FOMO, check out Pikesville Rye. That was for a long time. Heaven Hill Rye, 115 proof, and with a seven, six-year age statement. It's not the exact same, but it's pretty damn good and we're checking it out. We're going to have a bunch of it that's coming in. Our distributors received some, so we've got a bunch going in next week. There's some in stores now too. It's been pretty readily available for six months to a year now, something like that. But yeah, if you're missing out on the LodgeCrag Barrel proof fry, go to your local Binny's right now, and unless you've been partaking in our fine goods, and get yourself a bottle of Pikesville Rye, and you'll get some sense of that experience. Pikesville Rye. Pikesville Rye, yeah. Okay, all right. And both of them are variants, both of them are higher, longer-aged variants of Rittenhouse, because it's the same production. So Rittenhouse is of course a bartender's best friend. Yeah, great cocktail whiskey. Okay. That might have been a little anticlimactic, but that new riff was pretty good. Sure was. Because they're not more Elijah Craig coming. That was a batch. The batches aren't small, but because of the hype, one they're sought after regardless of whether or not they get their named Whiskey of the Year, they're large, but heavily pursued. Yeah. Yeah, man. And I don't believe that they have anything. There will be another batch. It just won't be this exact identical batch. They have the same kind of naming convention as the other Heaven Hill barrel proof stuff, so Elijah Craig and Larceny, where it's like it's a batch A, O, something, something. So that leads me to believe that there will be, it'll be a three times a year release, much like their other barrel proof offerings. I like that inside baseball that you bring to the label reading game. Well, that's my job, isn't it? Yes, it is. That's why we like hanging out with The Whiskey Hotline. Whiskey Advocate's top 20 of the year. We tried five of them and more are available at Binny's. And like you say, if you don't have the number one, there is a Dan in every one of our stores that will tell you exactly what you should be drinking. Well, this list is, you know, that there's a lot of different stuff here. I mean, we got shout outs from distilleries that, you know, Brett's been working with for years that have been kind of under the radar, like Torabhaig is a great example of that. So I think this is a good list with a lot of cool stuff on it. So don't focus on those top five. There's, you know, explore the entire list. And use it as a starting point to discover all kinds of stuff. Absolutely. All right, well, thanks for making the trip, Brett. Glad to be here. Dan, you live right down the street, so you don't get credit for it. I sure do. I walked here, in fact, that's not true. I left the city in a vehicle that's not an airplane, so. Yeah, I know that's tough. That's tough, he rarely does that. All right, it's a stretch limousine, of course. It's a party bus. He's spread in the back with a bunch of bottles. Hey, can you turn it up? That reminds me of our rapid fire drive from Whistle Pig to the Burlington Airport. It was in a 5 AM in a party bus. It was very tense too, because he was, so, Whiskey Hotline is, again, we're very fortunate that we're allowed to travel, and this was one Dan is, Dan likes to be to the airport in plenty of time to not be stressed. I like having a few cocktails before I get out. Yeah, I get that. So, we had a, like a 6 AM, we had a very early flight, so we had a 5 AM, I think, pickup call, and I started finally getting, and this is the middle of nowhere in Vermont where there's no cell signal, we finally got the guy to pick up at a half an hour, and I said, listen, dude, I said, we're probably not gonna make this plane. He goes, well, I'm just here, and I got lost, so it was a very tense ride. But we made it, it was the end's worst nightmare, but we literally got off the buck, walked straight through security. Luckily, we were all carrying on. We got rid of everything soon, we didn't have to check bags, and pretty much got off the van, walked through security and straight onto the plane. Well, and I'm a pretty calm guy, except when it comes to getting on an airplane. And the worst part about that is my wife left that morning on another airplane to another part of the country, so my dogs were alone in my house, and I'm like, I have to get back to Chicago. Yeah, you can't miss that flight. I remember you, but like the next day, you were still quivering. Well, and to top it off, we get there, and like he said, walked through security, Brett actually got stopped, and I was like, screw him, I'm getting on this plane. He's an adult. And you go up this, we're on this escalator, right at the top, there's just this little- It's not a short walk, it's a tiny airport that maximizes the amount of walking. Yeah, so you go at the top of the escalator, there's just like the metal plate that you're on, and there's just like a 2-inch incline down to the regular floor, and I just like stepped on it wrong and just ate it, and I slid on my belly for like 4 feet, like a seal, and I'm just laying there, and there's like 3 people in the airport and they're all looking at me, and the people were with one of our district managers, and he's like, you all right, man? And I'm like, just give me a sec. And I just like lay there in shame. Face down on the floor. But so I was probably quivering from that too. Okay, yeah, yeah. But we had a lot of fun that time. All right. Well, anyway, thanks for bringing the samples and your expertise and walking us through this. Really appreciate it. I found a Scotch Island. Hell yeah, we're getting there. Outstanding. That's it for this episode of Barrel to Bottle The Binnys Podcast. Back in your feed real soon. Real great. Until then, I'll miss you. I'm Greg. I'm Lexi. I'm Dan. I'm Brett. Keep drinking. Tasting. We don't make money if people only taste. They gotta drink. What if they taste 15 things? Say keep tasting. Okay, sorry. Ah, I can't allow it. Keep tasting. Outstanding. Good read. Good read.