October 23, 2025 • 22 mins
It’s another Bourbon Boos review, and this week Clifton braves one of the strangest bottles yet — Buchanan’s Pineapple “Spirit Drink.” 🥃🍍
Technically not even whisky, this scotch-based pineapple blend surprised him more than expected. Is it a tropical treat or a tiki bar tragedy? Tune in to find out!
Plus, this week’s whiskey news covers: 🔥 Elijah Craig Barrel-Proof Rye 💪 Russell’s Reserve’s Highest-Proof Bourbon Yet 🤖 The Rise of “Whiskey House” — A Fully Automated Distillery
Grab your glass (and maybe some ice) — it’s time to get spooky, sweet, and slightly skeptical.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Today on the Bourbon Bytes podcast, Elijah Craig announces their barrel-proof rye whiskey,
Wild Turkey is releasing its highest proof bourbon yet, and do machines and bourbon mix?
They do at Whiskey House. Plus, we have our bourbon boos byte-sized review
of Buchanan's Pineapple Spirit Drink. Spooky!
(00:31):
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Bourbon Bytes podcast. I'm your host, Clifton,
and this is the week of Thursday, October 23rd, 2025. I hope you all are having a great spooky
season. We're going to continue the podcast with bourbon boos, where I review... I don't know why
that boos went up instead of down. Normally I go boos, but today it's boos because the bourbon
(00:53):
boo of today is questionable, because technically it's not a bourbon, nor is it a whiskey. But we'll
get into that in a bit. We do have some whiskey news to talk about first. Some of this is older
news I just haven't had a chance to cover. The rest is more recent news, but I do want to get
caught up on a few things that I haven't talked about yet on the podcast. Also, just a heads up
(01:15):
for those of you listening to this on Thursday, I will not be doing a live stream this week.
I have an industry event to go to for work, but I will be going live this Saturday with Brandon.
We're going to do a flight of Jack Daniels age-stated bottles. Maybe do it blind. Should have
some fun there, so check it out this Saturday. Usually we try to do it around 6 p.m. Pacific,
(01:36):
9 p.m. Eastern, so make sure to tune in or watch the replay. Also, a reminder to subscribe on
YouTube if you're not already, because if you enjoy the podcast, I have a feeling you will also
love the channel. Thank you for that. I do want to shout out my newest Byte Club renewal member.
This is someone that was previously over on Patreon, but made the switch over to the Byte
Club at bourbonbytes.com, which means a lot to me because on the Byte Club, more of the proceeds go
(02:00):
directly to me. Patreon takes a larger cut, so if you are currently a patron and you want to
support the channel even further, it just takes a few clicks to switch over your membership.
Shout out to Aaron Artino, @WhiskyPair. Thank you, Aaron, for moving over to bourbonbytes.com.
Glad to have you join or rejoin, should I say, the bourbon megabytes tier.
(02:20):
One piece of news that I never covered, but I did read about quite a while ago,
Elijah Craig is announcing their barrel-proof rye. It's going to be a new addition to their lineup,
similar to their Elijah Craig barrel-proof bourbon, which has been a longtime favorite of
here for several years, actually. They are launching their very first edition of this,
(02:42):
coming in at 108 proof. It's going to be a 12-year, 3-month-old rye whiskey.
This first batch is labeled, interestingly enough, A925. I think that's just because it's the first
one. I think they're probably going to standardize the regular batch naming as Elijah Craig barrel
proof once we start the new year. Usually, it's A125, B525, and C925, but since this is the first
(03:08):
batch of the year, they're naming it A. I'm very, very, very excited for this. I do love Heaven
Hills rye flavor profile, from Pikesville to just the regular Elijah Craig rye. I'm a big fan of it,
and getting it at full proof, even though 108 proof doesn't necessarily seem that high,
carrying with it a 12-year, 3-month-age statement is very exciting. Now, as with Elijah Craig
(03:32):
barrel-proof, the 12-year age statement is no longer standardized, so there's a chance the
next batch of this will be 9 years, 10 years, we don't know yet. Now, unfortunately, I haven't
had a chance to try the third batch of Elijah Craig barrel-proof this year. I'm usually on
Heaven Hills PR sample list, where they'll send me samples of their Elijah Craig's, their Larceny's,
(03:53):
sometimes some Old Fitz, and I've been, you know, receiving those pretty consistently over the past
couple years, but unfortunately, I don't know if I've fallen off the list, or they lost my contact
info. I'm not quite sure, but I haven't gotten anything from them in several months, so I did
reach out to my contacts there, but didn't hear back. So, Heaven Hill, if you're listening, please,
(04:14):
I appreciate media samples, and not just because I want, like, free booze. That's not the point,
right? The point is, I want a chance to try them to see if they're worth you picking up. I think a
lot of people look forward to my blind Elijah Craig barrel-proof flight every year, where I put the A
batches, B batches, and C batches blind in a flight, along with maybe some of my favorite batches from
previous years. I haven't been able to do that this year, which is a real bummer, because I've done
(04:36):
that every year, and I really enjoyed it, and I've checked my local stores, and I just have not seen
the C batch show up. I did get the A batch and the B batch from Heaven Hill, but that was the last
thing I got from them. I think it'll be quite a while before I see the C batch here in Southern
California, so I'm keeping an eye out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and I hate to, like, linger on
this. I know I mentioned it on a hangout the other night, but I don't know. I just feel like Heaven
(04:57):
Hill has been one that's kind of always believed in me as a creator, as cheesy as that sounds,
from a major corporation, just because they've always, you know, considered me on their list of
sending review items. Really, no other major distilleries have kind of, you know, even answered
my emails. Not no fault to them, you know. I know there's a lot bigger channels out there, and a lot
(05:18):
bigger whiskey review resources. Like, I don't expect to get the Antique Collection from Buffalo
Trace sent for review, but, you know, I just feel like I try my best to be a good platform for these
brands and offer them opportunities to come on and be interviewed, and, you know, again, no hard
feelings towards Heaven Hill. I'm just kind of a little bummed about not receiving samples from
(05:40):
them lately, but if you have a contact there or any of the major distilleries that you think I should
reach out to, I'd love to. There's a few smaller distilleries that have been great and have been
sent me samples recently, which I've done some live streams, I've done some podcast reviews of,
but yeah, the bigger ones are a lot harder to to get a hold of, but you know what? I'll keep trying
(06:00):
just for you guys. All right, tangent over, let's talk about another newly announced whiskey.
Russell's Reserve just announced their new single Rick House series bourbon, and it's their highest
proof yet. So this is the green label. They've been doing it for a couple years now, but this
one in particular is aged on the fifth floor of Camp Nelson's Rick House E and is coming in at
(06:23):
128 proof. According to this article on Food and Wine, it's the highest proof bourbon ever bottled
by Wild Turkey. They say this is aged in a uniquely cool shaded environment of Camp Nelson's
seven-story Rick House E, and they say that master distiller Eddie Russell selected these
barrels for their slow, nuanced maturation and are going to be releasing this nationwide,
(06:44):
in quotes, because who knows if we'll ever actually see it, for a retail price of $300.
So that's where you got me, right? Like, I had the very first single Rick House series and thought
it was some of the best Wild Turkey I've ever had, and I think that bottle was $200, maybe,
I mean, it could have been a little bit higher than $200, but it was so good that I would have
(07:05):
considered buying a bottle of it. But then I tried a later release of it, and I think at that
point it had gone up to $250, and I thought it was just, you know, okay. So this new release,
even though it is the highest proof yet, $300 for a, what I assume is a 10-year, I'm not actually
seeing an age statement on this one, which is interesting, but $300 for a 10-plus-year-old
(07:28):
bourbon is really hard to justify for me, and I love Wild Turkey, right? Like I said, they're
one of the top distilleries for a reason, but seeing $300 for a single bottle of whiskey from
a single Rick House, unfortunately, that's just way past a price that I'm comfortable picking this
up at. I would love to, of course, try it, but I don't think whiskey is going to be good enough
(07:49):
to make me say that it's worth $300. That's kind of where I draw my line, like I'll pay up to like
$200 for something if I truly believe in it, maybe $250 if it's something really special,
but unless it's like a Pappy Van Winkle or maybe a Buffalo Trace Antique Collection
that I've tried before and I really like, would I pay, you know, $250, $300 for? It's just,
(08:10):
I don't know. For me personally, this is just my budget. I know everyone is different,
but for me, it's got to be really freaking good whiskey to even justify the $200 to $250 price
point. So I think I'll be skipping this one, but if you've had a chance to try the Camp Nelson E
Single Rick House series, let me know how it is. I'll keep an eye on it, but I'm not willing to
spend $300 on a bottle of Turkey yet. They'll always get me someday, but not today.
(08:35):
All right. One more whiskey news stories to talk about before we get into our byte-sized review.
This is actually a new distillery that I have not really heard anything about. This is from an
article on wired.com, which kind of ties into the whole tech nerdiness of this podcast as well.
This article is from Christopher Null and was published last week, and it's talking about a
(08:56):
new Kentucky distillery that is powered by tech. And not only that, they are focusing solely as a
contract distilled product distillery. So they're not releasing their own product. So I'm talking
about Whiskey House. And like I said, I really haven't heard of this, but it's a full-fledged
distillery, but they are using technology at a large scale to kind of standardize things,
(09:18):
make things a little more efficient versus the handcrafted thing we see at a lot of distilleries.
Their focus is on efficiency and automation and real-time analytics, all the tech buzzwords you
want to say. And they're not the first one to do contract distilling as a pretty major focus
of their distillery. Of course, MGP out of Indiana does that. But in Kentucky, you have
(09:39):
places like Bardstown Bourbon Company that does a lot of contract distilling. Now they also released
their own product line. They have a very successful brand identity. But Whiskey House
isn't trying to do that. They actually just want to focus exclusively on contract distilling. So
things from celebrity whiskeys to smaller brands, they really want to standardize the process and
(10:02):
kind of become a powerhouse for contract distilled whiskeys. Which, I mean, I know what this sounds
like, right? This sounds like the evil corporate overlords coming into the bourbon industry,
you know, making it all tech, making it run by AI, let's say, and taking away some of the
handcraftedness of bourbon. But let's be real. I mean, these major distilleries all kind of
(10:23):
function this way. It's just more they have a history and a legacy of doing things, you know,
by hand. This one is coming into the industry with technology at the forefront. It's located
50 miles outside of Louisville. They say the building looks more like a data center than
a distillery. And actually, they haven't really allowed press to come inside except for Wired.
They were some of the first to actually come inside and do a tour of it. And they say that
(10:44):
inside this distillery, every second of every step of whiskey production has been fine-tuned
and automated to the limits of today's technology with the goal of minimalizing the chance of an
error or human screw-up while maximizing efficiency. Now, what's even more interesting
is they really don't have too many employees. They say that each shift is only seven people
on the floor. The rest are in the lab or in the barreling or in maintenance. A lot of it is just
(11:09):
really run by machines. They say there's over 1,500 sensors installed across every piece of
equipment on the production floor. They regulate temperature, liquid equilibrium dynamics, reflux
ratios, all these fancy science buzzwords that you don't love to hear when you're thinking of
handcrafted bourbon. But what's interesting is they already have a relatively large customer
(11:32):
base. Brands like Calumet Farms, Redwood Empire, High & Wicked, and Clyde Mays are using Whiskey
House to create their bourbon and whiskeys. And what's interesting is the fact that so much of
this is automated really allows these brands to customize the recipe for exactly what they're
looking for. So they can take any custom mash bill that these distilleries want to make.
(11:55):
At the moment, they're using over 56 different mash bills for the products they're making.
And I think that's something that kind of sets it apart. You know, there are contract distilleries
like MGP that will let you do a custom mash bill, but that seems to be very limited. I think the
majority of people tend to pick one of their standard mash bills for either their bourbon
or their rye. Bardstown Bourbon Company, it's a little more customizable as well, but it seems
(12:18):
like Whiskey House really wants it to make it, you know, truly the flavor profile and the mash
bill that these brands are looking for, which I think is an interesting part of it. You know,
if these brands don't have the infrastructure to, you know, be distilling their own product at this
point, this is a great way to get that in motion while they kind of build up their distillery,
build up their brand. And it makes sense in a business perspective. Now, will the consumer
(12:44):
like it? That's yet to be, you know, seen. I've not tried any whiskey that's come out of here as
far as I'm aware. But there's a chance, you know, it could be great whiskey. I think, you know, this
is kind of where a lot of manufacturing is heading. You know, they're trying to use machines as much
as possible to replace human workers, which is unfortunate, but it's not just that industry,
right? We're seeing it with, you know, even office jobs, trying to find AI to replace employees.
(13:07):
It's just kind of a shift right now in the, not just the whiskey industry, but, you know,
technology and just work culture in general. So I'm not opposed to the idea. And, you know, here's
a great quote from Heather Greene from Milam & Greene. She says, it's like using someone else's
kitchen. I'm bringing in my mash bill, my yeast strain and my aging process. She said it's
(13:28):
complicated, so she needs good partners. And she considers the whiskey come out of their her
barrels, no matter where they're made. So, you know, it is nice to see that people in the industry
are accepting this as a, you know, alternative to having their own distillery, because they are,
like I said, bringing their craft to it. They're blending their mash bills. So I totally see
(13:48):
why it could be seen as a positive thing. I just worry about consumers and how they're going to
react to this. I'm open minded to it, personally. I don't think it's, you know, I think it's
different. It's something we've never seen before, but I don't think it's a bad idea.
But I'm really curious to hear what you guys think about this. This is a topic that I think,
you know, I would love to discuss further, maybe on one of our after party hangouts,
(14:10):
especially because, you know, the bourbon industry right now is kind of in a weird spot. You know,
younger generations aren't drinking as much alcohol as they have. So, you know, with new
operations like this popping up, how is it going to last long term? Is this going to be something
people are interested in long term? Are these smaller brands going to keep popping up like this?
Or are we going to see a lot of these brands, unfortunately, having to consolidate or close
(14:32):
down? I'm really curious to see what you guys think of this. But me, I'm going into it with
an open mind. I would love to try, you know, their distillate and see what's coming out of there
before I make a true judgment. But yeah, the machines are taking over.
All right, well, that's about it for this week's news, but it's time for our bourbon boos
byte-sized review. All right, well, as I hinted towards at the top of this podcast episode,
(15:05):
this bourbon boos is a weird one. So like I said, not a bourbon, not a scotch, not a whiskey at all.
Instead, this is being labeled as a spirit drink. But I did find it on the whiskey aisle,
so I'm considering a part of the series. OK, judge me if you want. This is Buchanan's
Pineapple. This is crafted with scotch, whiskey, pineapple, citrus and other natural flavors.
(15:30):
I've seen this on the shelves for years and I always wonder why. Like, I just think scotch
and pineapple is not a flavor profile that is that popular. But actually, I did find a little
more info as to why this exists. So Buchanan's is a blended scotch whiskey, but it's really
popular internationally, especially in Mexico. I've heard that Buchanan's is one of the most
(15:52):
readily available blended scotches there. I can confirm. I've been to Mexico and I can confirm
I've seen Buchanan's on the shelves. But what a lot of people in Mexico do with scotch is instead
of blending it with soda or, you know, other types of cocktails where they have Drambuie for,
like a rusty nail, they actually drink scotch with pineapple juice. And it's just a common
(16:13):
mixed drink that folks drink down in Mexico. So I think that's why Buchanan's was like, hey,
let's go ahead and bottle the pineapple flavor in with our scotch and see if people buy it.
Now, I don't know how successful the Buchanan's Pineapple product is. I also have no idea what
to expect this to taste like. I did review the Jim Beam Pineapple that came out relatively
(16:33):
recently over on YouTube, did a live stream featuring that one, and that one was actually
surprisingly good. I didn't expect that flavor profile to work at all, especially with a bourbon,
but it really did. So my hopes for Buchanan's Pineapple are relatively elevated just because
of that experience with the bourbon, but still going into it with a bit of hesitancy. Now,
(16:53):
for the rest of these bourbon boos reviews or just my bourbon byte-sized reviews in general,
I typically drink things neat versus, you know, on the rocks or in a cocktail. However,
every single piece of marketing and info I can find about Buchanan's Pineapple
mentioned drinking it over ice. So I don't necessarily think this is even meant to be
drank neat. In this instance, I'm actually going to pour it over ice just to have that
(17:17):
true Buchanan's Pineapple experience. In terms of ABV, this one comes in at 35% or 70 proof,
as with a lot of other flavored whiskeys. Although, like I said, this one doesn't necessarily count as
a whiskey because it is a spirit drink. It is a product of Scotland though. It's definitely
got scotch in it. Let's go and get that poured. Oh, wow. Even without, you know, getting up in
(17:38):
the nose of this, I can smell that pineapple flavor. And they do say it's actually made with
pineapple, made with pineapple, citrus and other natural flavors. So there's definitely some
element of pineapple here in the spirit itself. By the way, in terms of pricing, this comes in at
about $25 for a full size bottle of it. I just have a sample bottle of it here today. To put it
(17:59):
into perspective, regular Buchanan's, just the 12 year release is $24. So about the same price.
Let's go ahead and give this Buchanan's Pineapple a nose. Oh, wow. Yeah. Straight up pineapple juice.
Wow. That's a very natural smelling pineapple note. You know, not to say that like I'm a pineapple
expert, but I have been to the Dole Plantation in Hawaii. So very familiar with fresh pineapple.
(18:23):
And I will say they nailed the nose here. Nothing about this smells like whiskey, scotch, alcohol.
It just smells like straight up pineapple juice, which is really good. It's like a sweetened
pineapple on the nose. Definitely smells like something that I would be enjoying on the beach
somewhere. Now, I wish I would have had Buchanan's recently just to kind of see if I can find those
flavor notes associated with that blended scotch. Unfortunately, there's not much shining through
(18:46):
on the nose here beyond the pineapple, which again, isn't a bad thing. I don't think this is
meant for people that take scotch a little too seriously, but that doesn't mean it can't be a
delicious drink. So let's go to give it a try. Cheers. Oh, interesting. It's very delicate.
Okay. Very different than a lot of flavored whiskeys that I've tried lately, which are
(19:08):
overly sweet and thick and syrupy. This really isn't. Even with ice, which usually kind of
makes things even more syrupy. This one is really approachable. You can definitely taste the scotch
compared to the nose. All I could smell was pineapple, but on the palate, it's definitely
got that blended scotch flavor, a little cereal grain, a little floral, fruity for sure. The
(19:29):
pineapple is very balanced though, with that scotch note. Honestly, this kind of reminds me of
a rum. I'm sure I've had pineapple flavored rum at some point, but I'm not talking about the cheap
flavored rum, where it's just, you know, like white rum and then flavor added. It almost is
like an aged rum, but with natural flavors. You know, I could see making tiki drinks out of this.
(19:51):
Like, I'm a huge fan of tiki cocktails. I think this would be a good replacement for maybe like
Malibu, which is, I know, coconut, but I could see this working in a similar way that Malibu works.
Also, let's be real. The bottle looks very tiki bar. I do love it, but yeah, I'm super surprised
that this isn't overwhelmingly sweet and it still maintains a lot of the characteristic you would
(20:11):
find from a blended scotch. I kind of don't hate it. Honestly, like this is probably one of the
best bourbon booze we've had so far this month. Is this something that I'm going to drink regularly?
No, I probably wouldn't drink it neat. Maybe the Mexican scotch drinkers are onto something because
this makes me really curious to explore this further. Now, of course, I have to give it a
(20:31):
score because we give everything a score here on the podcast, but I am considering the fact that
this is a flavored whiskey or not even a flavored whiskey, a flavored spirit drink. So that's going
to go into my review, but so is the cost. And I think in terms of, you know, whiskey flavored
spirits, this is one of the better ones I've had. So I think out of 10, I'll have to give this a
(20:54):
6.5 out of 10. Now, I think if I had more time with it and I could explore putting it to cocktails,
I might could even bump that up higher. But just on the rocks, this is not a bad pour at all.
It's not something I'm going to choose to drink very frequently. But if I do see it on the shelves
while I'm at my next all-inclusive resort in Mexico, which I'm trying to do again next year,
hopefully. It's been a couple years since we've gone down to Mexico or we've done cruises recently,
(21:18):
but we haven't actually stayed in Mexico for a while. So if I see this on the pool bar,
I'll be ordering myself a pour over ice because it really is nice and it tastes like scotch. Honestly,
finding good whiskey in Mexico is hard because there's so much good agave spirits from mezcal to
tequila. That's usually what I'm drinking on when I'm down there. But sometimes you might want a
(21:40):
good nice scotch on the rocks. And this does that, but adds a little bit more tropical vibes to it.
So yeah, definitely don't be afraid of this one. It's not as scary as you would think,
even though it is part of bourbon booze. All right. Well, thank you all so much for listening.
I think that does it for this week's episode. Like I said, I won't be live today on YouTube,
but I'll be live this Saturday. This next couple of weeks are going to be a little wonky in terms
(22:03):
of my schedule, but please bear with me. I promise to update you when and when I will not be live. So
thank you all. This has been the Bourbon Bytes podcast, a whiskey podcast with a gaming twist.
Cheers. And I'll talk to you next episode.
Today on the Bourbon Bytes podcast, Elijah Craig announces their barrel-proof rye whiskey,
Wild Turkey is releasing its highest proof bourbon yet, and do machines and bourbon mix?
They do at Whiskey House. Plus, we have our bourbon boos byte-sized review
of Buchanan's Pineapple Spirit Drink. Spooky!
(00:31):
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Bourbon Bytes podcast. I'm your host, Clifton,
and this is the week of Thursday, October 23rd, 2025. I hope you all are having a great spooky
season. We're going to continue the podcast with bourbon boos, where I review... I don't know why
that boos went up instead of down. Normally I go boos, but today it's boos because the bourbon
(00:53):
boo of today is questionable, because technically it's not a bourbon, nor is it a whiskey. But we'll
get into that in a bit. We do have some whiskey news to talk about first. Some of this is older
news I just haven't had a chance to cover. The rest is more recent news, but I do want to get
caught up on a few things that I haven't talked about yet on the podcast. Also, just a heads up
(01:15):
for those of you listening to this on Thursday, I will not be doing a live stream this week.
I have an industry event to go to for work, but I will be going live this Saturday with Brandon.
We're going to do a flight of Jack Daniels age-stated bottles. Maybe do it blind. Should have
some fun there, so check it out this Saturday. Usually we try to do it around 6 p.m. Pacific,
(01:36):
9 p.m. Eastern, so make sure to tune in or watch the replay. Also, a reminder to subscribe on
YouTube if you're not already, because if you enjoy the podcast, I have a feeling you will also
love the channel. Thank you for that. I do want to shout out my newest Byte Club renewal member.
This is someone that was previously over on Patreon, but made the switch over to the Byte
Club at bourbonbytes.com, which means a lot to me because on the Byte Club, more of the proceeds go
(02:00):
directly to me. Patreon takes a larger cut, so if you are currently a patron and you want to
support the channel even further, it just takes a few clicks to switch over your membership.
Shout out to Aaron Artino, @WhiskyPair. Thank you, Aaron, for moving over to bourbonbytes.com.
Glad to have you join or rejoin, should I say, the bourbon megabytes tier.
(02:20):
One piece of news that I never covered, but I did read about quite a while ago,
Elijah Craig is announcing their barrel-proof rye. It's going to be a new addition to their lineup,
similar to their Elijah Craig barrel-proof bourbon, which has been a longtime favorite of
here for several years, actually. They are launching their very first edition of this,
(02:42):
coming in at 108 proof. It's going to be a 12-year, 3-month-old rye whiskey.
This first batch is labeled, interestingly enough, A925. I think that's just because it's the first
one. I think they're probably going to standardize the regular batch naming as Elijah Craig barrel
proof once we start the new year. Usually, it's A125, B525, and C925, but since this is the first
(03:08):
batch of the year, they're naming it A. I'm very, very, very excited for this. I do love Heaven
Hills rye flavor profile, from Pikesville to just the regular Elijah Craig rye. I'm a big fan of it,
and getting it at full proof, even though 108 proof doesn't necessarily seem that high,
carrying with it a 12-year, 3-month-age statement is very exciting. Now, as with Elijah Craig
(03:32):
barrel-proof, the 12-year age statement is no longer standardized, so there's a chance the
next batch of this will be 9 years, 10 years, we don't know yet. Now, unfortunately, I haven't
had a chance to try the third batch of Elijah Craig barrel-proof this year. I'm usually on
Heaven Hills PR sample list, where they'll send me samples of their Elijah Craig's, their Larceny's,
(03:53):
sometimes some Old Fitz, and I've been, you know, receiving those pretty consistently over the past
couple years, but unfortunately, I don't know if I've fallen off the list, or they lost my contact
info. I'm not quite sure, but I haven't gotten anything from them in several months, so I did
reach out to my contacts there, but didn't hear back. So, Heaven Hill, if you're listening, please,
(04:14):
I appreciate media samples, and not just because I want, like, free booze. That's not the point,
right? The point is, I want a chance to try them to see if they're worth you picking up. I think a
lot of people look forward to my blind Elijah Craig barrel-proof flight every year, where I put the A
batches, B batches, and C batches blind in a flight, along with maybe some of my favorite batches from
previous years. I haven't been able to do that this year, which is a real bummer, because I've done
(04:36):
that every year, and I really enjoyed it, and I've checked my local stores, and I just have not seen
the C batch show up. I did get the A batch and the B batch from Heaven Hill, but that was the last
thing I got from them. I think it'll be quite a while before I see the C batch here in Southern
California, so I'm keeping an eye out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and I hate to, like, linger on
this. I know I mentioned it on a hangout the other night, but I don't know. I just feel like Heaven
(04:57):
Hill has been one that's kind of always believed in me as a creator, as cheesy as that sounds,
from a major corporation, just because they've always, you know, considered me on their list of
sending review items. Really, no other major distilleries have kind of, you know, even answered
my emails. Not no fault to them, you know. I know there's a lot bigger channels out there, and a lot
(05:18):
bigger whiskey review resources. Like, I don't expect to get the Antique Collection from Buffalo
Trace sent for review, but, you know, I just feel like I try my best to be a good platform for these
brands and offer them opportunities to come on and be interviewed, and, you know, again, no hard
feelings towards Heaven Hill. I'm just kind of a little bummed about not receiving samples from
(05:40):
them lately, but if you have a contact there or any of the major distilleries that you think I should
reach out to, I'd love to. There's a few smaller distilleries that have been great and have been
sent me samples recently, which I've done some live streams, I've done some podcast reviews of,
but yeah, the bigger ones are a lot harder to to get a hold of, but you know what? I'll keep trying
(06:00):
just for you guys. All right, tangent over, let's talk about another newly announced whiskey.
Russell's Reserve just announced their new single Rick House series bourbon, and it's their highest
proof yet. So this is the green label. They've been doing it for a couple years now, but this
one in particular is aged on the fifth floor of Camp Nelson's Rick House E and is coming in at
(06:23):
128 proof. According to this article on Food and Wine, it's the highest proof bourbon ever bottled
by Wild Turkey. They say this is aged in a uniquely cool shaded environment of Camp Nelson's
seven-story Rick House E, and they say that master distiller Eddie Russell selected these
barrels for their slow, nuanced maturation and are going to be releasing this nationwide,
(06:44):
in quotes, because who knows if we'll ever actually see it, for a retail price of $300.
So that's where you got me, right? Like, I had the very first single Rick House series and thought
it was some of the best Wild Turkey I've ever had, and I think that bottle was $200, maybe,
I mean, it could have been a little bit higher than $200, but it was so good that I would have
(07:05):
considered buying a bottle of it. But then I tried a later release of it, and I think at that
point it had gone up to $250, and I thought it was just, you know, okay. So this new release,
even though it is the highest proof yet, $300 for a, what I assume is a 10-year, I'm not actually
seeing an age statement on this one, which is interesting, but $300 for a 10-plus-year-old
(07:28):
bourbon is really hard to justify for me, and I love Wild Turkey, right? Like I said, they're
one of the top distilleries for a reason, but seeing $300 for a single bottle of whiskey from
a single Rick House, unfortunately, that's just way past a price that I'm comfortable picking this
up at. I would love to, of course, try it, but I don't think whiskey is going to be good enough
(07:49):
to make me say that it's worth $300. That's kind of where I draw my line, like I'll pay up to like
$200 for something if I truly believe in it, maybe $250 if it's something really special,
but unless it's like a Pappy Van Winkle or maybe a Buffalo Trace Antique Collection
that I've tried before and I really like, would I pay, you know, $250, $300 for? It's just,
(08:10):
I don't know. For me personally, this is just my budget. I know everyone is different,
but for me, it's got to be really freaking good whiskey to even justify the $200 to $250 price
point. So I think I'll be skipping this one, but if you've had a chance to try the Camp Nelson E
Single Rick House series, let me know how it is. I'll keep an eye on it, but I'm not willing to
spend $300 on a bottle of Turkey yet. They'll always get me someday, but not today.
(08:35):
All right. One more whiskey news stories to talk about before we get into our byte-sized review.
This is actually a new distillery that I have not really heard anything about. This is from an
article on wired.com, which kind of ties into the whole tech nerdiness of this podcast as well.
This article is from Christopher Null and was published last week, and it's talking about a
(08:56):
new Kentucky distillery that is powered by tech. And not only that, they are focusing solely as a
contract distilled product distillery. So they're not releasing their own product. So I'm talking
about Whiskey House. And like I said, I really haven't heard of this, but it's a full-fledged
distillery, but they are using technology at a large scale to kind of standardize things,
(09:18):
make things a little more efficient versus the handcrafted thing we see at a lot of distilleries.
Their focus is on efficiency and automation and real-time analytics, all the tech buzzwords you
want to say. And they're not the first one to do contract distilling as a pretty major focus
of their distillery. Of course, MGP out of Indiana does that. But in Kentucky, you have
(09:39):
places like Bardstown Bourbon Company that does a lot of contract distilling. Now they also released
their own product line. They have a very successful brand identity. But Whiskey House
isn't trying to do that. They actually just want to focus exclusively on contract distilling. So
things from celebrity whiskeys to smaller brands, they really want to standardize the process and
(10:02):
kind of become a powerhouse for contract distilled whiskeys. Which, I mean, I know what this sounds
like, right? This sounds like the evil corporate overlords coming into the bourbon industry,
you know, making it all tech, making it run by AI, let's say, and taking away some of the
handcraftedness of bourbon. But let's be real. I mean, these major distilleries all kind of
(10:23):
function this way. It's just more they have a history and a legacy of doing things, you know,
by hand. This one is coming into the industry with technology at the forefront. It's located
50 miles outside of Louisville. They say the building looks more like a data center than
a distillery. And actually, they haven't really allowed press to come inside except for Wired.
They were some of the first to actually come inside and do a tour of it. And they say that
(10:44):
inside this distillery, every second of every step of whiskey production has been fine-tuned
and automated to the limits of today's technology with the goal of minimalizing the chance of an
error or human screw-up while maximizing efficiency. Now, what's even more interesting
is they really don't have too many employees. They say that each shift is only seven people
on the floor. The rest are in the lab or in the barreling or in maintenance. A lot of it is just
(11:09):
really run by machines. They say there's over 1,500 sensors installed across every piece of
equipment on the production floor. They regulate temperature, liquid equilibrium dynamics, reflux
ratios, all these fancy science buzzwords that you don't love to hear when you're thinking of
handcrafted bourbon. But what's interesting is they already have a relatively large customer
(11:32):
base. Brands like Calumet Farms, Redwood Empire, High & Wicked, and Clyde Mays are using Whiskey
House to create their bourbon and whiskeys. And what's interesting is the fact that so much of
this is automated really allows these brands to customize the recipe for exactly what they're
looking for. So they can take any custom mash bill that these distilleries want to make.
(11:55):
At the moment, they're using over 56 different mash bills for the products they're making.
And I think that's something that kind of sets it apart. You know, there are contract distilleries
like MGP that will let you do a custom mash bill, but that seems to be very limited. I think the
majority of people tend to pick one of their standard mash bills for either their bourbon
or their rye. Bardstown Bourbon Company, it's a little more customizable as well, but it seems
(12:18):
like Whiskey House really wants it to make it, you know, truly the flavor profile and the mash
bill that these brands are looking for, which I think is an interesting part of it. You know,
if these brands don't have the infrastructure to, you know, be distilling their own product at this
point, this is a great way to get that in motion while they kind of build up their distillery,
build up their brand. And it makes sense in a business perspective. Now, will the consumer
(12:44):
like it? That's yet to be, you know, seen. I've not tried any whiskey that's come out of here as
far as I'm aware. But there's a chance, you know, it could be great whiskey. I think, you know, this
is kind of where a lot of manufacturing is heading. You know, they're trying to use machines as much
as possible to replace human workers, which is unfortunate, but it's not just that industry,
right? We're seeing it with, you know, even office jobs, trying to find AI to replace employees.
(13:07):
It's just kind of a shift right now in the, not just the whiskey industry, but, you know,
technology and just work culture in general. So I'm not opposed to the idea. And, you know, here's
a great quote from Heather Greene from Milam & Greene. She says, it's like using someone else's
kitchen. I'm bringing in my mash bill, my yeast strain and my aging process. She said it's
(13:28):
complicated, so she needs good partners. And she considers the whiskey come out of their her
barrels, no matter where they're made. So, you know, it is nice to see that people in the industry
are accepting this as a, you know, alternative to having their own distillery, because they are,
like I said, bringing their craft to it. They're blending their mash bills. So I totally see
(13:48):
why it could be seen as a positive thing. I just worry about consumers and how they're going to
react to this. I'm open minded to it, personally. I don't think it's, you know, I think it's
different. It's something we've never seen before, but I don't think it's a bad idea.
But I'm really curious to hear what you guys think about this. This is a topic that I think,
you know, I would love to discuss further, maybe on one of our after party hangouts,
(14:10):
especially because, you know, the bourbon industry right now is kind of in a weird spot. You know,
younger generations aren't drinking as much alcohol as they have. So, you know, with new
operations like this popping up, how is it going to last long term? Is this going to be something
people are interested in long term? Are these smaller brands going to keep popping up like this?
Or are we going to see a lot of these brands, unfortunately, having to consolidate or close
(14:32):
down? I'm really curious to see what you guys think of this. But me, I'm going into it with
an open mind. I would love to try, you know, their distillate and see what's coming out of there
before I make a true judgment. But yeah, the machines are taking over.
All right, well, that's about it for this week's news, but it's time for our bourbon boos
byte-sized review. All right, well, as I hinted towards at the top of this podcast episode,
(15:05):
this bourbon boos is a weird one. So like I said, not a bourbon, not a scotch, not a whiskey at all.
Instead, this is being labeled as a spirit drink. But I did find it on the whiskey aisle,
so I'm considering a part of the series. OK, judge me if you want. This is Buchanan's
Pineapple. This is crafted with scotch, whiskey, pineapple, citrus and other natural flavors.
(15:30):
I've seen this on the shelves for years and I always wonder why. Like, I just think scotch
and pineapple is not a flavor profile that is that popular. But actually, I did find a little
more info as to why this exists. So Buchanan's is a blended scotch whiskey, but it's really
popular internationally, especially in Mexico. I've heard that Buchanan's is one of the most
(15:52):
readily available blended scotches there. I can confirm. I've been to Mexico and I can confirm
I've seen Buchanan's on the shelves. But what a lot of people in Mexico do with scotch is instead
of blending it with soda or, you know, other types of cocktails where they have Drambuie for,
like a rusty nail, they actually drink scotch with pineapple juice. And it's just a common
(16:13):
mixed drink that folks drink down in Mexico. So I think that's why Buchanan's was like, hey,
let's go ahead and bottle the pineapple flavor in with our scotch and see if people buy it.
Now, I don't know how successful the Buchanan's Pineapple product is. I also have no idea what
to expect this to taste like. I did review the Jim Beam Pineapple that came out relatively
(16:33):
recently over on YouTube, did a live stream featuring that one, and that one was actually
surprisingly good. I didn't expect that flavor profile to work at all, especially with a bourbon,
but it really did. So my hopes for Buchanan's Pineapple are relatively elevated just because
of that experience with the bourbon, but still going into it with a bit of hesitancy. Now,
(16:53):
for the rest of these bourbon boos reviews or just my bourbon byte-sized reviews in general,
I typically drink things neat versus, you know, on the rocks or in a cocktail. However,
every single piece of marketing and info I can find about Buchanan's Pineapple
mentioned drinking it over ice. So I don't necessarily think this is even meant to be
drank neat. In this instance, I'm actually going to pour it over ice just to have that
(17:17):
true Buchanan's Pineapple experience. In terms of ABV, this one comes in at 35% or 70 proof,
as with a lot of other flavored whiskeys. Although, like I said, this one doesn't necessarily count as
a whiskey because it is a spirit drink. It is a product of Scotland though. It's definitely
got scotch in it. Let's go and get that poured. Oh, wow. Even without, you know, getting up in
(17:38):
the nose of this, I can smell that pineapple flavor. And they do say it's actually made with
pineapple, made with pineapple, citrus and other natural flavors. So there's definitely some
element of pineapple here in the spirit itself. By the way, in terms of pricing, this comes in at
about $25 for a full size bottle of it. I just have a sample bottle of it here today. To put it
(17:59):
into perspective, regular Buchanan's, just the 12 year release is $24. So about the same price.
Let's go ahead and give this Buchanan's Pineapple a nose. Oh, wow. Yeah. Straight up pineapple juice.
Wow. That's a very natural smelling pineapple note. You know, not to say that like I'm a pineapple
expert, but I have been to the Dole Plantation in Hawaii. So very familiar with fresh pineapple.
(18:23):
And I will say they nailed the nose here. Nothing about this smells like whiskey, scotch, alcohol.
It just smells like straight up pineapple juice, which is really good. It's like a sweetened
pineapple on the nose. Definitely smells like something that I would be enjoying on the beach
somewhere. Now, I wish I would have had Buchanan's recently just to kind of see if I can find those
flavor notes associated with that blended scotch. Unfortunately, there's not much shining through
(18:46):
on the nose here beyond the pineapple, which again, isn't a bad thing. I don't think this is
meant for people that take scotch a little too seriously, but that doesn't mean it can't be a
delicious drink. So let's go to give it a try. Cheers. Oh, interesting. It's very delicate.
Okay. Very different than a lot of flavored whiskeys that I've tried lately, which are
(19:08):
overly sweet and thick and syrupy. This really isn't. Even with ice, which usually kind of
makes things even more syrupy. This one is really approachable. You can definitely taste the scotch
compared to the nose. All I could smell was pineapple, but on the palate, it's definitely
got that blended scotch flavor, a little cereal grain, a little floral, fruity for sure. The
(19:29):
pineapple is very balanced though, with that scotch note. Honestly, this kind of reminds me of
a rum. I'm sure I've had pineapple flavored rum at some point, but I'm not talking about the cheap
flavored rum, where it's just, you know, like white rum and then flavor added. It almost is
like an aged rum, but with natural flavors. You know, I could see making tiki drinks out of this.
(19:51):
Like, I'm a huge fan of tiki cocktails. I think this would be a good replacement for maybe like
Malibu, which is, I know, coconut, but I could see this working in a similar way that Malibu works.
Also, let's be real. The bottle looks very tiki bar. I do love it, but yeah, I'm super surprised
that this isn't overwhelmingly sweet and it still maintains a lot of the characteristic you would
(20:11):
find from a blended scotch. I kind of don't hate it. Honestly, like this is probably one of the
best bourbon booze we've had so far this month. Is this something that I'm going to drink regularly?
No, I probably wouldn't drink it neat. Maybe the Mexican scotch drinkers are onto something because
this makes me really curious to explore this further. Now, of course, I have to give it a
(20:31):
score because we give everything a score here on the podcast, but I am considering the fact that
this is a flavored whiskey or not even a flavored whiskey, a flavored spirit drink. So that's going
to go into my review, but so is the cost. And I think in terms of, you know, whiskey flavored
spirits, this is one of the better ones I've had. So I think out of 10, I'll have to give this a
(20:54):
6.5 out of 10. Now, I think if I had more time with it and I could explore putting it to cocktails,
I might could even bump that up higher. But just on the rocks, this is not a bad pour at all.
It's not something I'm going to choose to drink very frequently. But if I do see it on the shelves
while I'm at my next all-inclusive resort in Mexico, which I'm trying to do again next year,
hopefully. It's been a couple years since we've gone down to Mexico or we've done cruises recently,
(21:18):
but we haven't actually stayed in Mexico for a while. So if I see this on the pool bar,
I'll be ordering myself a pour over ice because it really is nice and it tastes like scotch. Honestly,
finding good whiskey in Mexico is hard because there's so much good agave spirits from mezcal to
tequila. That's usually what I'm drinking on when I'm down there. But sometimes you might want a
(21:40):
good nice scotch on the rocks. And this does that, but adds a little bit more tropical vibes to it.
So yeah, definitely don't be afraid of this one. It's not as scary as you would think,
even though it is part of bourbon booze. All right. Well, thank you all so much for listening.
I think that does it for this week's episode. Like I said, I won't be live today on YouTube,
but I'll be live this Saturday. This next couple of weeks are going to be a little wonky in terms
(22:03):
of my schedule, but please bear with me. I promise to update you when and when I will not be live. So
thank you all. This has been the Bourbon Bytes podcast, a whiskey podcast with a gaming twist.
Cheers. And I'll talk to you next episode.
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