April 17, 2025 • 11 mins
In this episode of Aussie Bourbon Lovers, we crack open a nearly-empty bottle of Peerless Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon — one of the few bottles we can’t get easily in Australia, and one that brings back distillery tour memories.
We discuss:
-
🥃 The sweet, oaty, sticky-date nose that makes it a dessert dram
-
🥄 Glassware matters – how this pour behaves in a Peerless tasting glass
-
📸 Why we don’t apologise for those nearly-empty bottles in the thumbnail
-
🏭 The Peerless tour experience and why it made us feel like family
This is bourbon that’s hard to find — and even harder not to love.
🟠 Keywords: Peerless Bourbon, small batch bourbon, dessert bourbon, Kentucky bourbon, Peerless distillery, bourbon tasting, Aussie bourbon podcast
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Peerless Bourbon 01:30 Our Nose and Palette tasting notes 02:05 Tasting Experience and How Glassware can affect the tasting experience 04:00 The Unique Bottle shape for Peerless 05:00 All The Peerless Stories 06:05 Meeting Corky at the Peerless Distillery 06:30 What makes the bourbon different 08:30 Daves Controversial call 08:54 Why Visit Peerless Distillery? 10:00 The Shrinking size of pours for the Bourbon LoversMark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Incredible flavours, even better stories.
(00:05):
One Pour, 10 Minuts.
Aussie bourbon lovers, sharingbourbon with Australia.
Oh, a bit of a delayed pop there, sorry.
What are we drinking tonight, Dave?It's okay.
This is the Peerless Small BatchKentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky.
It's from Peerless.
(00:26):
It's bourbon.
So in America, this is a bottle that's...
See, I say this stuff with some pretendinglike I've got authority on this.
I don't really know.
I think it's not that hard to get inthe US, in a lot of states in the US.
But you can't get it here.
Very hard to get your handson here, in my experience.
Yeah, so you can get it It's hard to get.Sometimes you can get.
I think they sometimes ship so over to us.
(00:49):
Cheers to some Peerless.Cheers.
It doesn't have the usual team becausewe're drinking them out of the…
These are glasses you getwhen you do the distilleries.
We brought back thelittle Peerless glasses.
We went to the tour.It was such a great tour.
It was one of those tours where youfelt like you were one of the team.
Did you think that?
Yeah, I think we were very lucky.
We got a tour guide who wasvery much very close to the
(01:11):
family that run the distillery.
She just made you feel likeyou were one of the gang.
That's what I found anyway.
What did you got on the nose, Dave?
I- alcohol.
Oh, really?You have not been drinking.
You've not been in theair for a few weeks.
And you're not into it.
(01:32):
So caramel, vanilla-y, likesticky date, puddingy stuff.
And then there's this niceoatiness that's real complementary to it.
So I don't know.
Gentle and subtle.
Falls into that desserty category for me.
It definitely has the caramels andstickiness.
(01:55):
There's a nice bit of heat there.
Yeah, I think that's what I accidentallynoticed it without my mouth open.
The other thing is that we're notused to drinking from glass like this.
Glencaron and a little glass,it's still a tulipy, bulby shape.
And glasses do make a differencewhen you're tasting them.
It really does.
Or when you're nosing them andtasting them or the whole lot.
One time I did a tasting for some mates,and I put the same whiskey in four
(02:17):
different kinds of glasses and I askedthem which whiskey they liked the best.
Oh, you mean?
It was pretty funny.It was the start of the night.
But I suppose it does give offdifferent smells and different tastes.
Oh, I really got the caramel then.
I'm going to point out whichNostril I'm getting more.
How little you've bought me.
That is so delicious.
You'll notice in the thumbnail,those same mates have also
(02:41):
been unkind to me about the fact that alot of our thumbnails
are mostly empty bottles.
In fact, if you look at it as acollection, often the pictures
are mostly empty bottles.It means that we enjoy them.
We're not collecting them.Exactly.
We're enjoying our bourbon.We're not collecting it.
This PLS one is, again,an almost empty bottle because
we have enjoyed our Peel-as.
Do you know, I literally, we weretalking about which bottle should we do?
(03:03):
And I looked at the shelf and went, oh, webetter do a podcast about
that one before it empties.That's true.
Some of them we need to make sure we dothe podcast before the bottle is gone.
It's just a banger.
Do you know, this is the bottle that Icome in here and I go, oh,
I really feel like something that's easyto have a crack at, but I'm
going to have an easy go of it.
It's going to be delicious.
It's going to be really good.
(03:25):
And I feel like I'm treating myself alittle bit, but
I'm also conscious that I'm not going toget another bottle of that unless I'm in
the US and grab one-offthe shelf over there.
This bottle came to us through-I was goingto say we didn't bring this one back.
We didn't bring it back.
What was the name ofthe one we brought back?
The Peelers.I haveIt's the rye.
It's the Rye.It's the Rye Whisky we brought back.
(03:47):
And that was when we got on thetour there when we were there.
Is it the shape of a doubler?Have I got that wrong?
I thought it was the barrel,but it's not the barrel.
Is it the doubler thatthat's the shape is?
I thought it was the barrel.I'm going to have it wrong.
Whisky nerds everywhere are going tobe like, Dave, you're a nuff-nuff.
But I think it's a piece of the-They're all thinking that anyway, Dave.
It's a piece of the equipment.
(04:08):
And it's not the barrel becauseI thought it was the barrel.
But those little dots are the rivets.
So it's a bit of copperthat it's based on.
But they're such beautiful bottles,but they're also a lot of class.
They're very heavy to bring backif you're weight-restricted.
Bourbon bottles often are.
And so don't be way restricted ifyou're coming back from Kentucky.
Exactly.
Sorry.So I got it with a shipment.
You said you wanted anice bottle of Four Roses.
(04:31):
Yes.And so I said, I'll get one.
You're paying for the shipping.
So you add a few extra bottles.Why not?
And you got to pay the taxes.It comes in all that stuff.
Anyway, so what do I really want if I'mgoing to have to get
something from the US?So a bottle of Peelers was on the list.
There are so many amazingthings that Peelers do.
What are your favourite, Dave?
Well, here's the thing- Becauseyou took me to the distillery.
(04:53):
You'd already been, and you tookme because you loved it so much.
Yeah.So we love telling the stories.
We love telling the stories andsharing the stories and stuff.
There's a previous story you can listen toabout that bottle, the rye,
that we already talk about.
If you want to go back, youcan listen to the story.
Yeah, we won't repeat ourselves, but.
Yeah, we should probably- Waffle on that,the rye But things like Corky
(05:16):
who is the guy who owns it.
Was it he himself who was inmilitary school with Al Gore?
Must be.And then the Olman Brothers.
Or his father.I'm pretty sure.
No, it was him.No.
No, it was him.Him.
Corky's dad was General Patty's right-handman, and so he has General Patty's pistol.
There's those amazing stories.
But then Peerless was startedas a distillery.
(05:39):
During Prohibition, there's these 64,000barrels that get evacuated
on a private train line.
The warehouses covered in vines andAl Capone, and he hangs out with them.
They sell all the barrels to the WalgrandBrothers because they've got the- Yes.
The liquor license- Themeans to get rid of the war.
Or the pharmacies to get rid of.
So there's so So many amazing stories.
(06:00):
That's the reason that I took youthere because so many amazing stories.
I love the stories.
But better than that- Weeven met the man himself.
He walked in right at the end of our tour.
It was fabulous.
He even told us a few ofhis stories and showed it.
He had a book there that different things.
He agreed and disagreed with what some ofthe stuff was in the written in the book.
He was the Olman Brothers.Anyway.
(06:22):
And he signed our bottle.
But so you asked the questionabout why do I like it so much.
They do things so well.
They do so many things as well.
Because he's just a…
I'm going to get the complete story alittle bit wrong, but he made his money
independently as a businessman before heread- He's doing this like this, though.
It's like a retirement.Like a retirement fund.
(06:43):
Yeah, which I think it's really funbecause that means he can really
do what he wants to do with it.Exactly.
Here are the things they do.
They don't work on weekends.
They do a sweet mash process, so thatmeans they clean everything every time.
Because that is more costlyand much more time consuming.
But it means they can control every…
(07:04):
Well, I mean, control is a silly word, butthey've got this excellent
control over the process.
Every bottle of Peelis is kosher, eventhough no one in the family is Jewish.
It's a tips me lid tothe-Was it his grandfather?
Yeah.
But I think they didn't evendo it for him necessarily.
Wasn't that a respect to the family?
(07:25):
I thought he did it out of respect for hisgrandfather or
great-grandfather or something.
But yeah, they went to a lot ofeffort to make sure they got that.
It still is everybody's bottle is stillkosher, which is, I think, quite uncommon.
Low barrel entry proof, 107it goes in, which is that.
So this is like the Mictis thing.
So instead of going 120, it goes 107.
Mictis is, I think, slightly lower.
(07:45):
So that's interesting.
And this one, it's got on the labelthat it's in the glass at 108.
7 proof.
So low barrel entry proof meansthere's more water goes in.
After or before?Before.
Oh, yeah.
So they put the water inbefore and less after.
In fact, I'm wondering if they don't putany water in after, but please
don't quote me on that one.Don't quote us on anything.
(08:06):
Yeah, exactly.
Can you imagine if someone- someone whoactually knows what they're
talking about is listening.
This is for people who wantto get introduced to bourbon.
Then go down the rabbit holeand do the research themselves.
But let me say something that maybe is abit controversial, and people are
definitely allowed todisagree with me on this.
(08:27):
If you go to Louisville in Kentucky andyou've only got time to
do one distillery tour.
You do Peelers.
I reckon you should do Peelers.
Oh, I don't know.The stories are so good.
Yeah.
You definitely can't miss it, butone, there's so many good ones.
There's Michto's and Old Forrester andAngels Envy and Rabbit Hole.
It's just like, you can't just...
Why would anyone in their mind be inLouisville, Kentucky
(08:51):
and only want to do one?
That's a ridiculous idea.You're right.
But definitely, if you got a shortlist,put Peelis on it because
just Like amazing stories.
I think I could almost- The bourbonis really good, but amazing stories.
The bourbon is really good.
Then you end up in the tasting room at theend, and they're like these old woodlined
classrooms and with these glasses.
(09:12):
Then they go along and give youthe taste of each of the things,
including the single barrels they've got.
And you can only get the singlebarrels from the distillery.
And then you also see they do these drops.
I'm not even sure what they dropped theother day, but they dropped, is it
a toasted barrel, rye or something?
Everyone's queued up for miles long.Amazing.
So cool.But they know where to get the good stuff.
(09:34):
Yeah.And so it's got this.
It's almost like a cult following becausethey're not a big distiller
because they do these small runs.
No, they're quite small compared tosome of the other really big ones.
Yeah, true small batch.
And so all that stuff all adds up to beinga really fascinating, cool,
true, I suppose independentor craft distiller, I think.
(09:54):
I think, yeah.Yeah.
I just love the stories.
I love that it's small.
It's on the small side,and I love that it tastes delicious.
Do you know what I think is happening?What's happening, Dave?
I think your pause for the podcast isgetting smaller because
we've basically finished, but I'm aboutto cheese with an almost empty glass.
Oh, no, we can't do that, Dave.
I'll have to make sure I'mmore generous with my pause.
(10:17):
If you get to Louisville andyou've got any time at all and you're
wondering what to dowith it, please, please.
Visit PLS.Visit PLS.
It's such a cool little spot.They're wonderful.
Right in the middle of town.They're friendly.
Easy to get to.Yeah.
Friendly.Awesome.
And only 30 staff, you're probably goingto be doing a tour with the head of
marketing or with someone who's reallyclose to connected with the family.
That's what I meant when I said, I thinkyou feel like they're just so close,
(10:39):
tight knit, and it tastes delicious, too.Excuse us.
I need to pour some more in my glass.Cheers.
Thanks for listening.
Make sure you're connected with us onTikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, and stay
connected with us by clicking subscribeon your favourite podcast app.
Incredible flavours, even better stories.
(00:05):
One Pour, 10 Minuts.
Aussie bourbon lovers, sharingbourbon with Australia.
Oh, a bit of a delayed pop there, sorry.
What are we drinking tonight, Dave?It's okay.
This is the Peerless Small BatchKentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky.
It's from Peerless.
(00:26):
It's bourbon.
So in America, this is a bottle that's...
See, I say this stuff with some pretendinglike I've got authority on this.
I don't really know.
I think it's not that hard to get inthe US, in a lot of states in the US.
But you can't get it here.
Very hard to get your handson here, in my experience.
Yeah, so you can get it It's hard to get.Sometimes you can get.
I think they sometimes ship so over to us.
(00:49):
Cheers to some Peerless.Cheers.
It doesn't have the usual team becausewe're drinking them out of the…
These are glasses you getwhen you do the distilleries.
We brought back thelittle Peerless glasses.
We went to the tour.It was such a great tour.
It was one of those tours where youfelt like you were one of the team.
Did you think that?
Yeah, I think we were very lucky.
We got a tour guide who wasvery much very close to the
(01:11):
family that run the distillery.
She just made you feel likeyou were one of the gang.
That's what I found anyway.
What did you got on the nose, Dave?
I- alcohol.
Oh, really?You have not been drinking.
You've not been in theair for a few weeks.
And you're not into it.
(01:32):
So caramel, vanilla-y, likesticky date, puddingy stuff.
And then there's this niceoatiness that's real complementary to it.
So I don't know.
Gentle and subtle.
Falls into that desserty category for me.
It definitely has the caramels andstickiness.
(01:55):
There's a nice bit of heat there.
Yeah, I think that's what I accidentallynoticed it without my mouth open.
The other thing is that we're notused to drinking from glass like this.
Glencaron and a little glass,it's still a tulipy, bulby shape.
And glasses do make a differencewhen you're tasting them.
It really does.
Or when you're nosing them andtasting them or the whole lot.
One time I did a tasting for some mates,and I put the same whiskey in four
(02:17):
different kinds of glasses and I askedthem which whiskey they liked the best.
Oh, you mean?
It was pretty funny.It was the start of the night.
But I suppose it does give offdifferent smells and different tastes.
Oh, I really got the caramel then.
I'm going to point out whichNostril I'm getting more.
How little you've bought me.
That is so delicious.
You'll notice in the thumbnail,those same mates have also
(02:41):
been unkind to me about the fact that alot of our thumbnails
are mostly empty bottles.
In fact, if you look at it as acollection, often the pictures
are mostly empty bottles.It means that we enjoy them.
We're not collecting them.Exactly.
We're enjoying our bourbon.We're not collecting it.
This PLS one is, again,an almost empty bottle because
we have enjoyed our Peel-as.
Do you know, I literally, we weretalking about which bottle should we do?
(03:03):
And I looked at the shelf and went, oh, webetter do a podcast about
that one before it empties.That's true.
Some of them we need to make sure we dothe podcast before the bottle is gone.
It's just a banger.
Do you know, this is the bottle that Icome in here and I go, oh,
I really feel like something that's easyto have a crack at, but I'm
going to have an easy go of it.
It's going to be delicious.
It's going to be really good.
(03:25):
And I feel like I'm treating myself alittle bit, but
I'm also conscious that I'm not going toget another bottle of that unless I'm in
the US and grab one-offthe shelf over there.
This bottle came to us through-I was goingto say we didn't bring this one back.
We didn't bring it back.
What was the name ofthe one we brought back?
The Peelers.I haveIt's the rye.
It's the Rye.It's the Rye Whisky we brought back.
(03:47):
And that was when we got on thetour there when we were there.
Is it the shape of a doubler?Have I got that wrong?
I thought it was the barrel,but it's not the barrel.
Is it the doubler thatthat's the shape is?
I thought it was the barrel.I'm going to have it wrong.
Whisky nerds everywhere are going tobe like, Dave, you're a nuff-nuff.
But I think it's a piece of the-They're all thinking that anyway, Dave.
It's a piece of the equipment.
(04:08):
And it's not the barrel becauseI thought it was the barrel.
But those little dots are the rivets.
So it's a bit of copperthat it's based on.
But they're such beautiful bottles,but they're also a lot of class.
They're very heavy to bring backif you're weight-restricted.
Bourbon bottles often are.
And so don't be way restricted ifyou're coming back from Kentucky.
Exactly.
Sorry.So I got it with a shipment.
You said you wanted anice bottle of Four Roses.
(04:31):
Yes.And so I said, I'll get one.
You're paying for the shipping.
So you add a few extra bottles.Why not?
And you got to pay the taxes.It comes in all that stuff.
Anyway, so what do I really want if I'mgoing to have to get
something from the US?So a bottle of Peelers was on the list.
There are so many amazingthings that Peelers do.
What are your favourite, Dave?
Well, here's the thing- Becauseyou took me to the distillery.
(04:53):
You'd already been, and you tookme because you loved it so much.
Yeah.So we love telling the stories.
We love telling the stories andsharing the stories and stuff.
There's a previous story you can listen toabout that bottle, the rye,
that we already talk about.
If you want to go back, youcan listen to the story.
Yeah, we won't repeat ourselves, but.
Yeah, we should probably- Waffle on that,the rye But things like Corky
(05:16):
who is the guy who owns it.
Was it he himself who was inmilitary school with Al Gore?
Must be.And then the Olman Brothers.
Or his father.I'm pretty sure.
No, it was him.No.
No, it was him.Him.
Corky's dad was General Patty's right-handman, and so he has General Patty's pistol.
There's those amazing stories.
But then Peerless was startedas a distillery.
(05:39):
During Prohibition, there's these 64,000barrels that get evacuated
on a private train line.
The warehouses covered in vines andAl Capone, and he hangs out with them.
They sell all the barrels to the WalgrandBrothers because they've got the- Yes.
The liquor license- Themeans to get rid of the war.
Or the pharmacies to get rid of.
So there's so So many amazing stories.
(06:00):
That's the reason that I took youthere because so many amazing stories.
I love the stories.
But better than that- Weeven met the man himself.
He walked in right at the end of our tour.
It was fabulous.
He even told us a few ofhis stories and showed it.
He had a book there that different things.
He agreed and disagreed with what some ofthe stuff was in the written in the book.
He was the Olman Brothers.Anyway.
(06:22):
And he signed our bottle.
But so you asked the questionabout why do I like it so much.
They do things so well.
They do so many things as well.
Because he's just a…
I'm going to get the complete story alittle bit wrong, but he made his money
independently as a businessman before heread- He's doing this like this, though.
It's like a retirement.Like a retirement fund.
(06:43):
Yeah, which I think it's really funbecause that means he can really
do what he wants to do with it.Exactly.
Here are the things they do.
They don't work on weekends.
They do a sweet mash process, so thatmeans they clean everything every time.
Because that is more costlyand much more time consuming.
But it means they can control every…
(07:04):
Well, I mean, control is a silly word, butthey've got this excellent
control over the process.
Every bottle of Peelis is kosher, eventhough no one in the family is Jewish.
It's a tips me lid tothe-Was it his grandfather?
Yeah.
But I think they didn't evendo it for him necessarily.
Wasn't that a respect to the family?
(07:25):
I thought he did it out of respect for hisgrandfather or
great-grandfather or something.
But yeah, they went to a lot ofeffort to make sure they got that.
It still is everybody's bottle is stillkosher, which is, I think, quite uncommon.
Low barrel entry proof, 107it goes in, which is that.
So this is like the Mictis thing.
So instead of going 120, it goes 107.
Mictis is, I think, slightly lower.
(07:45):
So that's interesting.
And this one, it's got on the labelthat it's in the glass at 108.
7 proof.
So low barrel entry proof meansthere's more water goes in.
After or before?Before.
Oh, yeah.
So they put the water inbefore and less after.
In fact, I'm wondering if they don't putany water in after, but please
don't quote me on that one.Don't quote us on anything.
(08:06):
Yeah, exactly.
Can you imagine if someone- someone whoactually knows what they're
talking about is listening.
This is for people who wantto get introduced to bourbon.
Then go down the rabbit holeand do the research themselves.
But let me say something that maybe is abit controversial, and people are
definitely allowed todisagree with me on this.
(08:27):
If you go to Louisville in Kentucky andyou've only got time to
do one distillery tour.
You do Peelers.
I reckon you should do Peelers.
Oh, I don't know.The stories are so good.
Yeah.
You definitely can't miss it, butone, there's so many good ones.
There's Michto's and Old Forrester andAngels Envy and Rabbit Hole.
It's just like, you can't just...
Why would anyone in their mind be inLouisville, Kentucky
(08:51):
and only want to do one?
That's a ridiculous idea.You're right.
But definitely, if you got a shortlist,put Peelis on it because
just Like amazing stories.
I think I could almost- The bourbonis really good, but amazing stories.
The bourbon is really good.
Then you end up in the tasting room at theend, and they're like these old woodlined
classrooms and with these glasses.
(09:12):
Then they go along and give youthe taste of each of the things,
including the single barrels they've got.
And you can only get the singlebarrels from the distillery.
And then you also see they do these drops.
I'm not even sure what they dropped theother day, but they dropped, is it
a toasted barrel, rye or something?
Everyone's queued up for miles long.Amazing.
So cool.But they know where to get the good stuff.
(09:34):
Yeah.And so it's got this.
It's almost like a cult following becausethey're not a big distiller
because they do these small runs.
No, they're quite small compared tosome of the other really big ones.
Yeah, true small batch.
And so all that stuff all adds up to beinga really fascinating, cool,
true, I suppose independentor craft distiller, I think.
(09:54):
I think, yeah.Yeah.
I just love the stories.
I love that it's small.
It's on the small side,and I love that it tastes delicious.
Do you know what I think is happening?What's happening, Dave?
I think your pause for the podcast isgetting smaller because
we've basically finished, but I'm aboutto cheese with an almost empty glass.
Oh, no, we can't do that, Dave.
I'll have to make sure I'mmore generous with my pause.
(10:17):
If you get to Louisville andyou've got any time at all and you're
wondering what to dowith it, please, please.
Visit PLS.Visit PLS.
It's such a cool little spot.They're wonderful.
Right in the middle of town.They're friendly.
Easy to get to.Yeah.
Friendly.Awesome.
And only 30 staff, you're probably goingto be doing a tour with the head of
marketing or with someone who's reallyclose to connected with the family.
That's what I meant when I said, I thinkyou feel like they're just so close,
(10:39):
tight knit, and it tastes delicious, too.Excuse us.
I need to pour some more in my glass.Cheers.
Thanks for listening.
Make sure you're connected with us onTikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, and stay
connected with us by clicking subscribeon your favourite podcast app.
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