June 12, 2025 • 11 mins
Pour yourself a dram and join us as we crack open a 2019 Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel pick — courtesy of Kitty Hawk & Harry Stubbs. This is a bottle with character, and we’re joined by Denver from Denver & Liely to sip, share stories, and swirl some opinions.
We get into: – What makes a single barrel pick special – The Wild Turkey connection with the Russell family – Tasting notes, glassware talk, and why this dram hits different – What makes this D&L Bourbon Glass so good.
If you love bourbon, barrel picks, and not taking things too seriously, you’re in the right place.
🎧 New episodes every pour or so. 🥃 Find us on Instagram: @aussiebourbonlovers 🔎 Keywords: bourbon, single barrel, Russell’s Reserve, Wild Turkey, barrel pick, Denver and Liely, Kentucky bourbon, whiskey podcast, Australian bourbon fans
Experience the difference and get your hands on some stunning Denver and Liely Glassware, 15% off with code 'AUSSIE15' denverandliely.com
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Bourbon and Glassware 01:00 The Russel Family and this expression of Russel's Reserve. 02:08 The Journey of Creating a Bourbon Glass from a passion for drinking 04:10 Visiting the Mecca of Bourbon, Kentucky for Research 05:54 The Science and Art of Glass Design 08:00 Glassware Design and What The Options are. 08:35 The Formula 1 Car of Bourbon Glasses 09:58 Bourbon Culture and AccessibilityMark 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 BourbonLovers, Sharing Bourbon with Australia.
Nice one.Great.
Yeah, now tip it in the glasses for us.
Tell us what we're doing.What are we pouring?
We are pouring a Russell's Reservesingle barrel pick from Kitty
(00:27):
Hawk and what's his name?
Harry Stubbs from 2019.
Oh, cool.
Tell us about…
Well, wait, hang on.
Before we get going, Hatch, thisis Denver from Denver and Liley.
These glorious glasses.Hey, cheers, mate.
Thanks for coming on the podcast.Santé.
Santé.Oh, you've got them all going.
Good things.Oh, yes.
(00:48):
That's amazing.
Maybebefore we go too far, it's a Russell,
so it's from the Wild turkey people?Yeah.
The family that runsWild turkeys are the Russells,
owned by Campari now, I'm pretty sure.
But yeah, they're still involved.
So Eddie and their dad.
(01:09):
What's his name?Jimmy.
Jimmy, yeah.Jimmy Russell and the son.
Is it Bruce?Bruce, exactly.
You guys are better at names than me.
Yeah, just an absolute collector here.
They still run the thing.
Eddie and Jimmy.
Jimmy still rocks up to the shop,so you guys have been in there.
We haven't yet, but we want to go.
(01:29):
But he's always in the gift shop.
Is that the- Yeah, he has his Lexus and hejust drives his SUV basically on the
nature strip in front ofthe shop and it gets out.
He's pretty old now.
We'll sit down and havea chat in the gift shop.
He still rocks up to work.I don't know.
I think It might be over 90 now.
But yeah, amazing.
When you know you love your job.When you still.
(01:52):
I think it's just part.
It's so integrated into that facility.
It feels like his home, literally He justgoes in and does his thing and then
just cruises out whenever he wants to.So good.
Yeah, really good.
How does this story go?
So your name's literally onthe box and on the glass.
(02:12):
How does it go that you gofrom just enjoying a nice pour.
Where did the bourboninterest come from for you?
Bourbon interest.
We started the company, Laila and I, in2015, I think, somewhere around there.
It's just Basically, we released glassesof stuff that we're just
drinking at the time.
(02:33):
Don't follow any trendsor anything like that.
It's just no market research.
Just things you enjoy drinking.
Yeah, and the technical aspects.
Both of us were into engineering,both industrial designers.
Just the technical aspects.
And the whole business wasn'tmeant to be a business.
I can't remember if I told you the story,but it was meant to be Christmas present
(02:54):
to a family and friends, the whiskeyglass, the original one,
which we'll look at later.
But that was only meant to be 100 glasses.
Laila was taking 35, I was taking 35.
And then we were selling 30 externally.
And a friend's blog at the time helped ussell those 30 externally, which
was broadsheet in Australia.
(03:14):
The whole company started because we weretalking about parking at Chatston, which
is a big shopping mall in Australia,and we didn't want to do that.
Why don't we just design a whiskey glass?
It started from that whiskey glassand then went to a gin glass, and then we
just happened to drinking more bourbon.
So why don't we do a bourbon glass?
But the first thing that we did wasdo a research trip to the States.
(03:36):
Because this thing fascinates me.
So everyone drinks bourbon out ofa few different glasses, right?
Yeah.
So what happened?
How did you decide that youwanted to do something different?
And what were you going to do?
Yeah, we were just told.
There was a reasonable followingfrom the States at that time for us.
Anda lot of people were over here, people
were arguing, why do youneed a bourbon glass?
(03:58):
And we were just like, oh, I'm not Sure.
I wasn't drinking as much bourbon asI have at the time.
I just thought the best placeto find out is to go to Mecca.
Who was in the expert panel oftrialling and testing?
Well, Laila and I first goand just don't tell anyone.
(04:18):
We just go and rock up, goand try everything and enjoy.
It's not just the technical aspects ofunderstanding bourbon, but for us,
it's the cultural experience as well.
How does that fit into a culture?
We look at food and music and a wholebunch of different things and just engross
yourself into Kentucky andTennessee, essentially.
(04:40):
Go to different things, go to gigs, go towhiskey bars, and also the distilleries.
Yeah, and you can't helpbut fall in love with it.
Yeah, we got into it.
It was pretty fun, but it was reallyeye-opening because how could you
be using a whiskey glass that's designedfor grain, for malta barley,
(05:00):
and then try and fit that or shoehorn thatinto this culture, which is a completely
different beast because they'relooking for different things.
They're enjoying it at a temperature 20degrees celsius different
to the other one.
Also the process and just understandingall the technicalities, which
we're quite technically capable.
Laila is not in the business anymore,moved to New Zealand.
(05:23):
But we're technically capable, butI think we go well beyond that.
I don't think any ofthe other companies can…
They don't put the value on it.
It's not that they can't afford to do it.
They just don't put the valueon culture, I think, as well.
Whereas we do.
Our wine glass that just came out,that was an eight-year project.
(05:45):
There's no other company that can do thatin the whole world, to
do R&D for eight years.
They need to get it out there andget money back for the shareholders.
That's fine.How fun.
Then in terms of what we're looking at andhow you get to this It's a cool
shape, which is such a cool shape.
The thing that I love about this is…
Can you nose this and tell me…
(06:07):
Because we've,spoiler, we've had some of these at home.
Side by side, these are You get that.
It's the nice, chunky, almost rock glasshole for you, but you
still get the tulip shape.
But then a good size opening, soyou're getting lots of that-Aroma.
Beautiful aroma.
You don't get that…
I find the ones with the narrower tops,you get that very wafty The alcohol
(06:31):
often hits you in the face first.
With this, you don't get that.
No, because the shape is designed to blowoff that volatile layer,
especially with something…
What's this sitting at?
What is that sitting at?What's it?
Yes, actually.Yeah, What's that?
I think 105, maybe.I don't know.
Making it up.110.
It's drinking well.Yeah, 55.
It's beautifully made.
(06:51):
A lot of these single cast are like that.
You get like magic once.
It's really cool.
What was the question?
How much How much science, how muchart goes into something like this?
Okay, yeah.
Basically, we look at how people areenjoying bourbon,
and then we hear from those people thatare making the bourbon, the absolute
source of truth, as to how theywant it to taste and smell.
(07:14):
The skill that we have is then takingthose words and then turning
it into a physical form.
I'm not sure why the other companieshaven't done that.
I feel like if you were to design anyproduct in any other
realm in the regular world, like amicrophone or a car or a pair of shoes,
(07:35):
you ask the people-What they want.Yeah, what they want.
Is it more of the tradition?
That's the traditional glassthat they've always had.
It'll always stay that way.The other glass?
Yeah.
Are we allowed to talk about it?You can say it.
It's what we usually drink out of.It's a Glencan.
Yeah, Glencan.
It's all version, like every version ofthose glasses are all
(07:57):
smaller or larger, but the same shape,same-Yeah, it's It's a commercial decision
as opposed to experience decision.
If you are after a very cost-effectiveA to B bourbon glass, it seems strange,
but I guess you're buying a whiskey glass.
They've got great distribution andit's really good at what it
(08:20):
does, like a Toyota Corolla.
It can get you from A to B, very reliable,really cheap to fix.
You can just get another one anyway.
Whereas our thing is thepinnacle performance.
We make Formula 1 cars andwe don't make anything else.
Both of them can get you from A to B,but in very, very different manners.
(08:41):
It's a completely different experience.
But if you'reprioritising performance over everything
else like we do,then you'd buy probably our glass.
This is this thing, isn't it?
If you're drinking a bottle that you canget it, Dan's, and you haven't spent too
much on, it's totally fine to put that ina But if you're taking something off the
(09:01):
shelf that you've invested in or someone'sgiven you a really special gift or
something like that, that you really wantto rip into and experience everything
from, well, then you're doing yourself amassive disservice by not spending a
fraction of the price of the bottleon a glass that you enjoyed it.
Yeah, I would even argue Obviously,we drink everything out of our glass.
We're at home.
But even in the States, I'd be buying,I can't remember the name of it with the
(09:25):
green label, ended upgetting various awards.
Not a plant since It was alot of green labels, then.
Yeah, it was around 30 bucks.
We were trying to get the best with whowe could for 30 bucks in the States.
This showcases their work incredibly well.
It's completely slipped from my mind.
But it'll be one of their following songs.
(09:45):
Is it one of those ones that they have inthere that are cheapest chips,
but they've got heaps of them.
You can get them so easy.
Yeah, it was at the…
Oh, my God, I've completely drawn a blank.
I think it was in 20…
If I can send in their guesses.
Yeah, 2019, It was in 2020that it ended up becoming like it won some
world bourbon of the Yearor something like that.
(10:05):
But prior to that, I've been tellingclose mates about it and not telling…
Telling them, Don't tell anyone else.He's pretending he can't.
They were all single cask, that one.
It was like $29 for years.
Then all of a sudden it just shot upbecause then the demand
went through the roof.
But there are so manygreat bourbons below.
(10:27):
I could pick a few under 50 in Australia.
You make it taste iteven better by using it.
Yeah, you frame…
What we're aiming to do is just framethe work that they've already put in.
There's so much craft and even terroir andall of those things that we talk
about in wine that exist in bourbon.
It just doesn't have the samelimelight, I guess, or same…
I don't know.
(10:48):
I don't know why people…
It's some strange connotation in the worldthat it's not of the same ink as wine or
whiskey and stuff in some countries,but it's just It's just not the case.
Well, you can get them readily.
You can get them on your website, and youcan get them at a few of the big
liquor stores around the place as well.
Any everywhere in the world,people listening overseas?
(11:10):
Pretty much.
As long as it's on an activewarzone and there was another thing.
Fair enough.
Yeah, I can't rememberthe other condition.
There's a couple of rules.There's only two conditions.
But if you're in a safe place enjoyingbourbon, you can probably
get your hands up.Pretty much.
You can get them anyway.
Mate, this has been magnificent.Thanks for sharing this, Paul.
We're going to have you back for moreepisodes because there's so many more
(11:32):
stories to tell, but really appreciate it.Cheers, guys.
Cheers.Thanks, Deborah.
It's hard to do the third cheers.
This is the fourth wallor whatever they call it.
I know we got to go out there.
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 BourbonLovers, Sharing Bourbon with Australia.
Nice one.Great.
Yeah, now tip it in the glasses for us.
Tell us what we're doing.What are we pouring?
We are pouring a Russell's Reservesingle barrel pick from Kitty
(00:27):
Hawk and what's his name?
Harry Stubbs from 2019.
Oh, cool.
Tell us about…
Well, wait, hang on.
Before we get going, Hatch, thisis Denver from Denver and Liley.
These glorious glasses.Hey, cheers, mate.
Thanks for coming on the podcast.Santé.
Santé.Oh, you've got them all going.
Good things.Oh, yes.
(00:48):
That's amazing.
Maybebefore we go too far, it's a Russell,
so it's from the Wild turkey people?Yeah.
The family that runsWild turkeys are the Russells,
owned by Campari now, I'm pretty sure.
But yeah, they're still involved.
So Eddie and their dad.
(01:09):
What's his name?Jimmy.
Jimmy, yeah.Jimmy Russell and the son.
Is it Bruce?Bruce, exactly.
You guys are better at names than me.
Yeah, just an absolute collector here.
They still run the thing.
Eddie and Jimmy.
Jimmy still rocks up to the shop,so you guys have been in there.
We haven't yet, but we want to go.
(01:29):
But he's always in the gift shop.
Is that the- Yeah, he has his Lexus and hejust drives his SUV basically on the
nature strip in front ofthe shop and it gets out.
He's pretty old now.
We'll sit down and havea chat in the gift shop.
He still rocks up to work.I don't know.
I think It might be over 90 now.
But yeah, amazing.
When you know you love your job.When you still.
(01:52):
I think it's just part.
It's so integrated into that facility.
It feels like his home, literally He justgoes in and does his thing and then
just cruises out whenever he wants to.So good.
Yeah, really good.
How does this story go?
So your name's literally onthe box and on the glass.
(02:12):
How does it go that you gofrom just enjoying a nice pour.
Where did the bourboninterest come from for you?
Bourbon interest.
We started the company, Laila and I, in2015, I think, somewhere around there.
It's just Basically, we released glassesof stuff that we're just
drinking at the time.
(02:33):
Don't follow any trendsor anything like that.
It's just no market research.
Just things you enjoy drinking.
Yeah, and the technical aspects.
Both of us were into engineering,both industrial designers.
Just the technical aspects.
And the whole business wasn'tmeant to be a business.
I can't remember if I told you the story,but it was meant to be Christmas present
(02:54):
to a family and friends, the whiskeyglass, the original one,
which we'll look at later.
But that was only meant to be 100 glasses.
Laila was taking 35, I was taking 35.
And then we were selling 30 externally.
And a friend's blog at the time helped ussell those 30 externally, which
was broadsheet in Australia.
(03:14):
The whole company started because we weretalking about parking at Chatston, which
is a big shopping mall in Australia,and we didn't want to do that.
Why don't we just design a whiskey glass?
It started from that whiskey glassand then went to a gin glass, and then we
just happened to drinking more bourbon.
So why don't we do a bourbon glass?
But the first thing that we did wasdo a research trip to the States.
(03:36):
Because this thing fascinates me.
So everyone drinks bourbon out ofa few different glasses, right?
Yeah.
So what happened?
How did you decide that youwanted to do something different?
And what were you going to do?
Yeah, we were just told.
There was a reasonable followingfrom the States at that time for us.
Anda lot of people were over here, people
were arguing, why do youneed a bourbon glass?
(03:58):
And we were just like, oh, I'm not Sure.
I wasn't drinking as much bourbon asI have at the time.
I just thought the best placeto find out is to go to Mecca.
Who was in the expert panel oftrialling and testing?
Well, Laila and I first goand just don't tell anyone.
(04:18):
We just go and rock up, goand try everything and enjoy.
It's not just the technical aspects ofunderstanding bourbon, but for us,
it's the cultural experience as well.
How does that fit into a culture?
We look at food and music and a wholebunch of different things and just engross
yourself into Kentucky andTennessee, essentially.
(04:40):
Go to different things, go to gigs, go towhiskey bars, and also the distilleries.
Yeah, and you can't helpbut fall in love with it.
Yeah, we got into it.
It was pretty fun, but it was reallyeye-opening because how could you
be using a whiskey glass that's designedfor grain, for malta barley,
(05:00):
and then try and fit that or shoehorn thatinto this culture, which is a completely
different beast because they'relooking for different things.
They're enjoying it at a temperature 20degrees celsius different
to the other one.
Also the process and just understandingall the technicalities, which
we're quite technically capable.
Laila is not in the business anymore,moved to New Zealand.
(05:23):
But we're technically capable, butI think we go well beyond that.
I don't think any ofthe other companies can…
They don't put the value on it.
It's not that they can't afford to do it.
They just don't put the valueon culture, I think, as well.
Whereas we do.
Our wine glass that just came out,that was an eight-year project.
(05:45):
There's no other company that can do thatin the whole world, to
do R&D for eight years.
They need to get it out there andget money back for the shareholders.
That's fine.How fun.
Then in terms of what we're looking at andhow you get to this It's a cool
shape, which is such a cool shape.
The thing that I love about this is…
Can you nose this and tell me…
(06:07):
Because we've,spoiler, we've had some of these at home.
Side by side, these are You get that.
It's the nice, chunky, almost rock glasshole for you, but you
still get the tulip shape.
But then a good size opening, soyou're getting lots of that-Aroma.
Beautiful aroma.
You don't get that…
I find the ones with the narrower tops,you get that very wafty The alcohol
(06:31):
often hits you in the face first.
With this, you don't get that.
No, because the shape is designed to blowoff that volatile layer,
especially with something…
What's this sitting at?
What is that sitting at?What's it?
Yes, actually.Yeah, What's that?
I think 105, maybe.I don't know.
Making it up.110.
It's drinking well.Yeah, 55.
It's beautifully made.
(06:51):
A lot of these single cast are like that.
You get like magic once.
It's really cool.
What was the question?
How much How much science, how muchart goes into something like this?
Okay, yeah.
Basically, we look at how people areenjoying bourbon,
and then we hear from those people thatare making the bourbon, the absolute
source of truth, as to how theywant it to taste and smell.
(07:14):
The skill that we have is then takingthose words and then turning
it into a physical form.
I'm not sure why the other companieshaven't done that.
I feel like if you were to design anyproduct in any other
realm in the regular world, like amicrophone or a car or a pair of shoes,
(07:35):
you ask the people-What they want.Yeah, what they want.
Is it more of the tradition?
That's the traditional glassthat they've always had.
It'll always stay that way.The other glass?
Yeah.
Are we allowed to talk about it?You can say it.
It's what we usually drink out of.It's a Glencan.
Yeah, Glencan.
It's all version, like every version ofthose glasses are all
(07:57):
smaller or larger, but the same shape,same-Yeah, it's It's a commercial decision
as opposed to experience decision.
If you are after a very cost-effectiveA to B bourbon glass, it seems strange,
but I guess you're buying a whiskey glass.
They've got great distribution andit's really good at what it
(08:20):
does, like a Toyota Corolla.
It can get you from A to B, very reliable,really cheap to fix.
You can just get another one anyway.
Whereas our thing is thepinnacle performance.
We make Formula 1 cars andwe don't make anything else.
Both of them can get you from A to B,but in very, very different manners.
(08:41):
It's a completely different experience.
But if you'reprioritising performance over everything
else like we do,then you'd buy probably our glass.
This is this thing, isn't it?
If you're drinking a bottle that you canget it, Dan's, and you haven't spent too
much on, it's totally fine to put that ina But if you're taking something off the
(09:01):
shelf that you've invested in or someone'sgiven you a really special gift or
something like that, that you really wantto rip into and experience everything
from, well, then you're doing yourself amassive disservice by not spending a
fraction of the price of the bottleon a glass that you enjoyed it.
Yeah, I would even argue Obviously,we drink everything out of our glass.
We're at home.
But even in the States, I'd be buying,I can't remember the name of it with the
(09:25):
green label, ended upgetting various awards.
Not a plant since It was alot of green labels, then.
Yeah, it was around 30 bucks.
We were trying to get the best with whowe could for 30 bucks in the States.
This showcases their work incredibly well.
It's completely slipped from my mind.
But it'll be one of their following songs.
(09:45):
Is it one of those ones that they have inthere that are cheapest chips,
but they've got heaps of them.
You can get them so easy.
Yeah, it was at the…
Oh, my God, I've completely drawn a blank.
I think it was in 20…
If I can send in their guesses.
Yeah, 2019, It was in 2020that it ended up becoming like it won some
world bourbon of the Yearor something like that.
(10:05):
But prior to that, I've been tellingclose mates about it and not telling…
Telling them, Don't tell anyone else.He's pretending he can't.
They were all single cask, that one.
It was like $29 for years.
Then all of a sudden it just shot upbecause then the demand
went through the roof.
But there are so manygreat bourbons below.
(10:27):
I could pick a few under 50 in Australia.
You make it taste iteven better by using it.
Yeah, you frame…
What we're aiming to do is just framethe work that they've already put in.
There's so much craft and even terroir andall of those things that we talk
about in wine that exist in bourbon.
It just doesn't have the samelimelight, I guess, or same…
I don't know.
(10:48):
I don't know why people…
It's some strange connotation in the worldthat it's not of the same ink as wine or
whiskey and stuff in some countries,but it's just It's just not the case.
Well, you can get them readily.
You can get them on your website, and youcan get them at a few of the big
liquor stores around the place as well.
Any everywhere in the world,people listening overseas?
(11:10):
Pretty much.
As long as it's on an activewarzone and there was another thing.
Fair enough.
Yeah, I can't rememberthe other condition.
There's a couple of rules.There's only two conditions.
But if you're in a safe place enjoyingbourbon, you can probably
get your hands up.Pretty much.
You can get them anyway.
Mate, this has been magnificent.Thanks for sharing this, Paul.
We're going to have you back for moreepisodes because there's so many more
(11:32):
stories to tell, but really appreciate it.Cheers, guys.
Cheers.Thanks, Deborah.
It's hard to do the third cheers.
This is the fourth wallor whatever they call it.
I know we got to go out there.
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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