Michters Fort Nelson Reserve Bourbon The One Dave Bottled Himself

In this episode of Aussie Bourbon Lovers, Dave cracks open a near-empty bottle of Michter’s Fort Nelson Reserve — hand-bottled at the Michter’s experience in Louisville and personally labelled “Dave Collins.”

We chat about:

• 🥃 The Fort Nelson bottling experience on Whiskey Row

• 🛠️ Whether it's single barrel or vatted bourbon

• 📖 Writing your name in Michter’s bottling ledger

• 🤩 Bourbon joy that rivals Christmas morning

This is barrel-strength bourbon with a personal twist — and it hits just right.

🟠 Keywords: Michter’s, Fort Nelson Reserve, bourbon, barrel strength, hand bottled, whiskey row, Louisville, distillery experience, Aussie bourbon, bourbon podcast

 

Chapters

00:45 Bourbon Bottling Experience at Fort Nelson 02:00 What is Fort Nelson Reserve? 02:40 The Experience of Pulling the Lever and Filling Your Bottle 04:00 When Should you Open a Special Bottle of Bourbon? 06:00 How can you enjoy a Special Bourbon? 07:41 The Sentimentality of Whiskey 09:30 Celebrating the Last Drops

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Incredible flavours, even better stories.

(00:05):
One Pour, 10 Minuts, Aussie BourbonLovers Sharing Bourbon with Australia.
No problem.
But so much anticipation.
Sorry, everyone.
What are we having tonight, Hedge?
Tonight, Dave, is a special one.

(00:26):
It's a Michter's,but it's got a particular…
I can't share your label on it.
Just say the word.It's the Fort Nelson Reserve.
It is the Fort Nelson Reserve,but it says Dave Collins.
He's the person that hand bottled this.
Yeah, you pour it in.
I'll give the high-levelthing of what it is.

(00:46):
When you get to go toFort Nelson, which is the…
A lot of the distilleries have anexperience on Distiller's Row
or Distillery Row in Louisville.
In the main bit of downtown Louisville,you can go and experience
lots of distilleries.
You're not necessarilyalways at the distillery.
Peel as you are, but atMichter's, you're not.

(01:07):
You're at an experience.And Evan Williams, you're not.
And Old Forest, you're not.
They do distil at some of thosesites, but it's often like a sample.
They're doing testing and they'redoing cool R&D stuff at that site.
But the big main distilleryis somewhere else.
So this is from the Michter'sone, which is called Fort Nelson.
A really cool experience.It's amazing.
I've said this, this is probably aboutevery one of the ones we've spoken about

(01:29):
that's on on that main road inLouisville, but you got to go.
It's so good.
The day we did this, and again, thanks, ashout out to Tom for organising it for
us, it was like, I think Dave wasmore excited than a kid at Christmas.
I don't know.
You just couldn't wipethe smile off your face.
Bottling your own bottle of bourbon.

(01:51):
A bottle of a mix ofbourbon is so special.
Yeah, it's amazing.
So tonight, the bottle is almost empty.Okay.
Here we go.We Here you go.
Let's do the cheers so we canstart getting into this, please.
Here we go.
We know it's going to smell great.It's great.
It is great.
It's barrel proof Michter's bourbon.That's what we're having.

(02:15):
Barrel strength.
It's straight out of the barrel.
What's the proof of this one?
Hundred day proof.
Is it mixed?
I guess obviously,it's not straight out of it.
It's not a single barrel.Is it vatted?
Are you asking?I think it's vatted, yes.
I don't think that's a single barrel.
No, they put it throughthe thing and then…
But it's really fun because you get toconnect your bottle up to the system

(02:39):
that's there and thenpull the lever and watch it all fill in.
But then you get to write your name in thebook to say that you
are bottling it because I don't have todo all these legal things, but it's fun.
Then you get to name your bottle.
What did you call yours, Dave?
I called mine Dave Collins.
Is that too boring?It was a big good use.

(03:00):
Which one?
The name of the bottleand the name of the…
Anyway, so I just called it Dave Collins.Dave Collins.
It's like a small version of me.
In a bottle.
It is everything that a nicebarrel-strength bourbon
should be from Michter's.
Good on the nose and very calmly.It's just delicious.
It's almost like a butterscotchcaramel over the top of pancakes.
But here's the thing.That bottle is really empty.

(03:22):
We've had it open for, Ireckon, less than a whole week.
Let's call it two weeks,but it hasn't been long.
We We were at the fireplace going onenight, and we just
were like, you said, because sometimes wetake in turns as to who gets to pick the
bottle of bourbon thatwe're having a nightcap of.
We give each other descriptions of thatneeds to be desserty or it needs

(03:43):
to be this or needs to be that.
You just said, tonight, I need a good one.
I went to the cupboard and I went, Well,this one's got his name on it, so
we can't not say this is a good one.It's micked it.
I knew it was guaranteed for it tobe something we were going to love.
We've had a few guests over,and very quickly it's gone.

(04:03):
I know some people have that hesitation,Dave, of like, it's a
really special bottle.When do you open it?
I love that we just opened it one randomnight, and
the fun was in bottling it and the storythat went with it, and now we got to
enjoy it together and with friends.
It's interesting thing is what makes abottle of whiskey so special that

(04:26):
you're so reluctant to open it?
I know we've had this conversation, andit's the It's an age-old discussion about
whether or not you should be ableto have bottles that you don't open.
There's some bottles up therethat we haven't opened yet.
But it's not that we're waitingfor something in particular.
It's just like when the moment's right,I won't have any concern opening it.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
There's a lot Actually, there's a lot.
There's some good ones thatyou're looking forward to open.

(04:47):
But I was genuinely had a real attachmentto this one because-Well, you bottled it.
It captured a moment in time, right?
See, my hesitation isnot opening a bottle.
My hesitation is when it gets to thisexact point where there's two pores left.
For people listening who can't see, I'vejust been showing this bottle with
the camera basically the whole time.

(05:08):
I have not had much camera time.I'm so excited.
But it's got two or three pores left.It's not much.
Two centimetres.
I hesitate when it gets to that because ifit's a bottle like this that I love,
or if it's a rare bottle, like a bottlethat's a limited release or something,
and you've really enjoyed it.

(05:29):
But can you get more limited release thanone-of-one bottles that you bottled
yourself on a special day in Louisville?
We've got two of thesebecause I bottled one, too.
Yeah, but you bottled that one,and so it's not the same as my one.
It's special to me.
But it's going to taste thesame because it's not the same.
But I get what you mean.
This one is your special bottle.
But that's my hesitationis finishing the bottle.
It's like, I want that goodness to keeplasting, especially when

(05:52):
it's-When it's this good.
Delicious and desserty like this.
Because then the question comes up, andyou've been poking fun underneath my
voice because I haven't been 100%.
Yes, he's trying to copymy deep, sexy radio voice.
Yeah, you've got such a lovelyvoice, and I'm trying to copy it.
But are you allowed to put that in ahot toddy, for example?

(06:14):
That's totally your choice, Dave.
Dave made really goodhot toddys last night.
Well, that's medicinal.
He needed them.He has the man flu.
Yes.
I think you can put whateveryou like in it, Dave.
It'd be a very special hot toddy.
He had a There's a lot offlavours in it, but I tend to go…
I go with ones that I like, but thataren't super sentimental, I suppose.

(06:37):
It's not about the price tag to me.
It's more the sentimental side of it.
II would put a good bourbon in a Hot Toddy,
but I wouldn't put something that was,again, getting low and about to run out,
and I really just wantedto enjoy the flavours.
I love this hobby that we'vecome up on because you know what I did?

(06:58):
I came in here a couple of nights ago andlooked at our whisky's and I said, What?
You talked to the whiskies?
I sang to them.No, I didn't.
No, I was like, I wonder if there's anybottles in here that a Kentucky Bourbon
Festival barrel selectsthat we haven't opened yet.
Do you know what the answer is?
Yes, there's a few thatwe haven't opened yet.
Do you think there's more than one?Yes.

(07:19):
Oh, do you really?
I know of one only.
But there is one.
Why?
I was like, Well, we got ourflights booked for the next one.
We have to open it before we go to thenext We're very much looking
forward to going to the next one.
But for anyone who is actually heading tothe Kentucky Bourbon Festival, I highly
recommend the Michter's experienceof bottling your own bottle.

(07:40):
But you don't need to be at the festival.
Just any time you're in-No, but I'm just saying if you're heading
there for the festival,make sure you do it.
But if you're just generally in theKentucky area, put it on your
bucket list because it's pretty fun.Yes.
I find it hard to express how much fun Ihad doing that because
I've seen all the videos.
There's lots of videos online about peopledoing But when you pull on that lever and

(08:02):
your bottle fills with the bourbon that'sgoing home with you in
your hand-labeled bottle.
You get to label it.
I don't know what that feeling is.
It was just so incredible.
It's hard to describe.
I was so excited that I putthe wrong date on the bottle.
Is that excitement?I put two months later.
Two months later?I think it was two months.
I put the wrong month,and it was in the future.

(08:24):
Then I realised that I probably shouldhave to resticker it because it needed to
match the ledger that we got toto say that we were bottling
and buying a bottle of our own.
Because there's certainlya thing of like...
And in different cases, sometimeswe're in a very lucky position that we're
given bottles of whiskey,which is so lovely.

(08:44):
And then in other cases, we spend areasonable amount of money on
bottles we really, really want.
So is there a good reason?
And at both ends of the spectrum, some ofmy favourite bottles that are definitely
at that, there's only a quarter of it leftor less, are some of the ones that are
really nice that we've beenBut by the same time, some of those are
also those ones that arereally quite expensive.

(09:04):
And then I like theceremony of a bottle kill.
We're at the end of a thing that I'veenjoyed and this is wonderful, and you're
going to enjoy the last thing of it.
Yeah, I like.
A good bottle kill.
Wow, you brought a lot.
That's what I'm thinking.
All right.

(09:24):
Well, if you get a chance to bottle yourown anywhere, because there's definitely
other places you can do it, butI really recommend you do it.
But head over to Michter'sand get that one.
I'll win the lot of them.Just get a whole barrel.
Yes.
You can't get a barrelof Michter's, though.
This is part of the allure.Yeah, I know.
You can't.You got to buy it by the bottle.
Exactly.

(09:45):
So just queue up over andover to try to get that.
And Michter's is a good one becauseit's guaranteed to be good bourbon.
That's it.
Well, here's to opening the bottlesthat you love that will make you happy.
And they make you happy when they're open.Yeah.
And drink it howeveryou like in a hot toddy.
I'm not putting this in a hot toddy.
No, I wouldn't put thisin a hot toddy either.
Especially because the bottleis so low and it is so special.
But yeah.

(10:06):
Enjoy a hot toddy.Drink it how you like it.
Cheers.Thanks for listening.
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