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April 3, 2025 10 mins

In this episode of Aussie Bourbon Lovers, we sip on Penelope Barrel Strength (Red Label) — a four-grain, 115.2 proof sourced bourbon with heart, flavour, and a great backstory.

We talk through:

  • 👨‍👩‍👧 How the brand was named after the founder’s daughter (jealous!)

  • 🧪 What makes Penelope’s sourcing strategy so successful

  • 🍰 Why this pour screams dessert without being overpowering

  • 🧠 The full-circle MGP-to-brand ownership journey

  • 📦 And why Penelope makes such a great bourbon for new drinkers

It’s light, it's lovely, and it might just be the gateway barrel strength you’ve been looking for.

🟠 Keywords: Penelope Bourbon, barrel strength, Penelope Red Label, MGP, sourced bourbon, four-grain bourbon, Aussie bourbon podcast, bourbon dessert notes

 

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Penelope Bourbon 03:07 Exploring Penelope's Unique Expressions 05:50 Choosing the Perfect Bourbon 08:55 Personal Preferences and Bourbon Enjoyment
Mark 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.
That was more of a hit the micwith a bottle than a pop, Dave.
All right.Thank you very much.
What are we drinking?Well, thanks for asking.
Tonight, we've got a PenalopeBarrelstrength.
It's the one with the red label.

(00:26):
The Penalipi bottlesmake such a nice lineup.
This is such a good display.They're tall and thin and pretty.
And then every label is a differentcolour, so you can't get confused
as to which one you're drinking.115.
2 proof, barrel strength.
So it's not a single barrel,it's barrel strength.
So it's like a batch of that.

(00:50):
It's the red Penelope.Cheers.
We do get a goodsound from our Glen Canes.
You do.
Rido, H.
We've once before spoken about Penelope,and I went
with a broad brush that probably wasn'tfair about all Penelope expressions,
which I don't stand by, actually.No.

(01:11):
Because I really didn't have a goodunderstanding of all the
Penelope expressions.But tell me what we know about Penelope.
It's delicious.
It was named after the people whomade it named after their
daughter, which I think is so cool.Yeah.
That makes me a little bit jealous.
We didn't start a permanent label afterour It would be such a

(01:32):
good act of parenthood.
Yeah, but they are sourced, althoughoriginally were they still sourced.
Still are, yeah.
So they're sourced, whichI think gives it a great edge in the sense
that they Obviously, you don't have thatsame story of generational and
everything that a lot of bourbons have.
But I think the fact that they'veflipped that story and gone the other way,

(01:56):
like they've named it after theirdaughter, so it's the future.
But they'remixing good bourbons together, so they can
be really fussy and picky with whatflavours and tastes and expressions they
get, which I think is really fascinating.Great.
This is a 4-6-year-old,and it's four grains.
I don't know if it's infamous, but in thebourbon world, Penalope was a brand that

(02:20):
came from Mjp, Indiana's bigdistillery that makes a distil for
lots and lots of different labels.
Penalope Penelope made it, and thenthe Mjp group, brought it back.
I don't know if it's exactly theMGB company, but they now own it.
So Penelope is now owned by the companywho had originally been
selling the whiskey to them.

(02:41):
Because the brand has been so successful,and it's been huge here
in Australia, actually.I find it more as an easier drink to me.
When I was getting into bourbon,some of them were a bit much, and you were
like, Whoa, that didn'tfeel like you could…
Whereas Penelope was just an easy drink.
It was delicious and easy to drink, likelighter is probably the word I'd use.

(03:03):
But this has given me really good dessert.It's interesting.
While you were putting the kids to bed,I did a thing where I went…
Did a little bit ofreading about it because…
Because Penelope has so many differentexpressions, and because they choose from
so many different barrelsand so many different mash bills and
stuff, they can do a huge different numberof variations in the

(03:24):
expressions and stuff.They can do a lot of different stuff.
And somewhere I'd read thatbarrel strength is just stronger version
of their foregrain,which is the white one.
But it's not because the-gives us actual facts.
The mash bill is actually a bit different.
It's not exactly the same.
It still has four grains.
But the barrel strength bourbon has 82%corn, 8% wheat, 7% rye,

(03:46):
and 3% malted barley.
And that mash billpercentage, the ranges and stuff are
actually different in that foregrain, thewhite level one, which I think of as the
entry level one, which wehave spoken about in the past.
This one is more, and I'm notWhat's the corn?
There's some podcasters who call it aproof whore, but I'm not a proof whore.
But I do like more-You like a stronger-you know,

(04:08):
a little bit-high proof.Something more punchy.
Say how much corn is in this one?
82% corn.
There we go.
Because I do like the ones with more cornfor whatever reason that
I've come to learn.Yeah, well, it's the sweetness, isn't it?
That you get from that.It's like a bit more syrupy.
While I'm sitting here spilling out factsfrom memory that I can try and
remember you've done your research.

(04:29):
Putting the kids to bed.
You've been doing the worthy thing.
I'm just wing it.
And you're just like, Iactually do the facts tonight.
Because otherwise, what would happen isthis would be a very dry podcast and
you and I would be both sitting here.I had some good information.
No, I know.We both know a little bit.
I didn't do any research.
I'm trying to bring someknowledge to the good Australians.
Come on.

(04:50):
Thank you for doing your research.
Because if I don't have anything to say,I need someone who's done their research.
But there's this question that's coming upmore recently, right?
So the bourbon bubble is busted.
There's people saying that the bigproducers and stuff are in trouble because
they can't move enoughstock and stuff like that.
And then JPM is one of these ones who comeback and said that they're

(05:11):
returned, what they're able to...
The reporting on how muchthey're selling is coming down.
But one of the great things I think about,in particular,
Penelope, is that it has so manyexpressions, and some that
are really controversial.
Some people really don't like some oftheir expressions, but they
have something for everybody.
Yeah, I was going to say they've gotsomething for everyone and every flavour.

(05:34):
This one, particularly, I'd say.
Halfway through a sentence,you're drinking now.
This is interesting.
I was just checking that it was the onethat I was going to say
because it smelt like it.
And then I I was like,Oh, I better check it.
But it's very desserty to me.
I was just double checking because Iwas like, I'm about to say desserty.
If this is the smoky one,I'll have to correct myself.
But no, it's the desserty one.It's desserty?

(05:56):
Yeah.
I'm getting a little bit like- Like burnt,like Like creme brûlé or like
something with a burnt top.
I was going to sound like a burntpineapple dessert or something.
I don't even know if I've hada burnt pineapple dessert.
It's always like that caramelization.
Yeah, that caramel top.
I'm going to stick with creme brûlé.
I actually don't think it's toodifferent to the Penelope white label.

(06:17):
I like it because it'sbigger, full of flavour.
And the mouth feels better as well.
It's got that-Are these easilyavailable in Australia, Penelope?
The Penelope, you can get in Australia.
You got to find them.
It's not like you're going to walk intoa bottle shop and find it.
You've got to go online.
But the Penelope expressionsare readily available.
Yeah.
And they've got quite afew now, which I love.

(06:39):
Yeah, absolutely.
Pick your favourite Penelope, and you canfollow your bourbon trail from there.
A hundred %.
If I said to you, I wasgoing to give you...
You could choose.You can only have one pour.
One is barrel strength.So it's like a...
Actually, you can choose from three.Here we go.
You can choose from a barrel strength.
So it's a vatted at theIt's the full proof.

(07:00):
So it's the full proofthat it was in the barrel.
These are all Penelope's.
I'm saying across any whiskey.
Oh, that's too hard.
No, let's try it.
You can have itbarrel proof, or barrel strength.
You can have a single barrel.
So it's like a lucky dip, buttheoretically, I picked a good one.
Or you can have a central expression.

(07:20):
So like something that's down at 45 % or40 %, that the distal has gone,
this is our best, this is the one.
We're going to make itconsistently or them forever.
The last one would be make his mark.
Well, no, that could be anything.It could be a Michter's bourbon.
It could be an Old Forest,or it could be Buffalo Trace.
It could be an Eagler.It could be any of these, right?

(07:41):
I don't know, Dave.
I'm not saying it's completely agnostic.
You can get single barrels, and you canget barrel strength of
almost all of these.But in terms of a strength.
A strength?
Barrel strength, I suppose, in singlebarrel, it's going to be roughly the same.
I I do like a good single barrel, butthat's

(08:04):
contradictory to the fact that I enjoydrinking Penelope because
there's a lower strength.
Yeah, I suppose- That'swhy it's tricky to answer.
Because if I was to have one last pour ofbourbon, I'd go a single-
That's not death row.
We haven't made a sentence.
I'd go a single barrelof something delicious because you know
it's good when they'vemade a single barrel.

(08:25):
But having said that,Penelope, it's like you can't fail.
Find the expression of it you like becausethey've got a nice range and they've
really picked and worked out the flavoursthey want to bring through in each one.
Okay, let's go to the big ones.
You can choose a Buffalo Trace, aMichters, a Maker's Mark, an Old

(08:49):
Forrester, and an ElijahCraig, or a Penelope.
To me, Penelope is the mostcrafty of these expressions.
I could have listed awhole bunch of others.
It depends on the moment.
You're not going to get a straight answer.
You're not going to- No, because if it'snot too
cold an evening, if it's a cold evening,I'm sitting in front of the fire, I want

(09:11):
a Michters or aDo you want to make this because Andrea
and Dan said they weren'tgoing to be in our cat.
Andrea and Dan will come and join us.Yes.
Or a maker's or I don't know.
If I feel like a dessert, I want an oldForrester or a a Blanton's Gold, like
something that's really delicious.

(09:34):
But if I'm just, I don't know,weekend, Penelope is like
my, What do I have tonight?
I'll always start on a Penelope becauseit's always going to be delicious
and it's light enough to start on.
I need to get more bottles of Penelope forthis selection because I feel
like I don't have enough for you.
Well, I feel like I start on a Penelopeand then I'm like, Now I feel like dessert

(09:57):
and go to an Old Forrester or go to aa Bluntons or an Egl Rare or
many of the other ones that I like.
It's one of the things welove about Bourbon, right?
Because I enjoy Penelope, but I love howmuch you love it so that you can
have that and I can have others.
When I'm drinking the Penalip, I alwaysmake you drink the ones
that I really don't like.
Which I really do like.
Here's to that.

(10:18):
Enjoy Bourbon, how you like it.Cheers.
Thanks for listening.
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