June 30, 2025 • 46 mins
Brad Bonds welcomes listeners to Revival Vintage Spirits and Bottle Shop in Covington, Kentucky, where vintage whiskeys tell the story of American distilling from Prohibition to present day. Located just minutes from the interstate at the unofficial start of the bourbon trail, Revival offers a unique experience with rare and historic spirits that can't be found anywhere else.
• Revival Vintage Spirits occupies a historic 1800s building that once served as Covington's YMCA
• Dusty bottles aren't just old whiskeys—true dusties have tax strips from before 1984
• Well-preserved vintage spirits can remain good for decades or centuries if properly sealed
• Revival makes rare spirits accessible by offering affordable quarter-ounce pours of pre-prohibition whiskey
• The shop occasionally features medicinal prohibition bottles complete with original prescriptions
• Revival hosts distillers and brand owners regularly for special events and tastings
• The store serves as both a bottle shop and bar, creating a comprehensive whiskey experience
• Brad and his business partner are working to change Kentucky law to improve vintage spirit regulations
• Small distilleries can partner with Revival to showcase their products and connect with enthusiasts
• Whiskey collecting is comparable to baseball card collecting, but with the added benefit of consumption
If you're passing through Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky, stop by Revival Vintage Spirits, ask for Brad personally, and experience a true grain-to-glass journey from the past to your present.
Step into the fascinating world of vintage spirits as we join Brad Bonds at Revival Vintage Spirits and Bottle Shop in historic Covington, Kentucky. Just minutes from Cincinnati, this extraordinary establishment serves as both the gateway to bourbon country and a living museum of American whiskey history.
Brad guides us through the remarkable journey of Revival, from its humble beginnings to its current home in a beautifully restored 1800s building that once housed Covington's YMCA. More than just a bottle shop, Revival represents the preservation of whiskey heritage, offering enthusiasts the chance to taste spirits that most people only read about in books.
The conversation delves deep into what makes "dusty" bottles special – those time capsules of whiskey history featuring tax strips from before 1984 that capture production methods long since abandoned. Brad explains the remarkable stability of properly stored vintage spirits, which can remain perfect for decades or even centuries, unlike wine or other collectibles. We explore the delicate art of bottle assessment, learning how clarity, fill level, and label condition impact both value and the drinking experience.
What sets Revival apart is its commitment to accessibility. While some establishments might charge $1,000 per ounce for pre-Prohibition whiskey, Brad shares stories of offering quarter-ounce pours for $40, allowing hundreds of people to experience liquid history. His philosophy shines through in every aspect of the business: "We're trying to figure out a way every day to be fair to who we buy from and fair to who we sell to."
The passion behind Revival is infectious as Brad compares whiskey collecting to baseball cards, but with one crucial difference – "this is the final frontier, because you can choose to buy a bottle from us and collect it, o
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Middle West Spirits was founded in 2008, focusing on
elevating the distinct flavorsof the Ohio River Valley.
Their spirits honor their rootsand reflect their originality
as makers, their integrity asproducers and their passion for
crafting spirits from grain toglass.
Their Michelon Reserve linereflects their story from the
(00:27):
start to the bottle, to yourglass, with unique weeded and
rye bourbons, and also rye andwheat whiskeys, the Michelon
brand is easy to sip.
It might be a grain-to-glassexperience, but I like to think
of it as uncut and unfilteredfrom their family to yours.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Take a picture for me .
Speaker 1 (00:59):
We're on the couch.
We've been in a while.
We're short from the couch.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
We love what we do.
We're drinking and burning andwe're talking some shit, but
we're telling the truth.
Yeah, we're the ScotchieBurning Boys Raising the hell
(01:24):
and making some noise.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, we're the Scotchie Burning Boys now yeah,
(01:52):
all right, welcome back toanother podcast of the Scotchy
Bourbon Boys.
I love location podcasts.
It's one of my favorite thingsto do, and we are at Revival
Vintage Spirits and Bottle Shophere in Covington, kentucky with
Brad Bonds Anybody who'slistened you guys have seen our
lives and you've seen a coupleof our podcasts and know a
(02:16):
little bit about Brad, butthere's a lot of people that
don't know about you, and that'swhat we want to do today is get
that out there.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
doing, doing great man.
I just want to say like thanksso much for the constant support
.
Scotchy Bourbon Boys areawesome.
I was just telling Tiny I'vebeen seeing him more than a lot
of high school friends thathaven't even made their way down
and you know you've probablybeen here about 20 times.
So you know, thank you guys somuch for everything.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
It's such an awesome, awesome destination and stop
Plus, we're the Scotchy BourbonBoys and that's all whiskey that
we do.
And so when you're headed downto Kentucky and when you're
going down to Kentucky, it'smostly bourbon, a little bit of
American whiskey, a little bitof rye, but it's mostly bourbon.
But it's such a great stop onthe way down for us because I
(03:04):
mean we go right by it.
I mean you are literally threeminutes off 71 and we're, and
we're here.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
We're the start of the bourbon trail Right.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Or the end.
Yeah, either or I mean it's.
You've been the end and thestart many times for us, but we
always want to.
We there's so much that welearn when we come down.
There's stuff that you havehere all the time that isn't
something that I even that youneeded.
Right Until I met you, Brad, Iknew of the Dusty, but there's
(03:35):
very.
I probably only had a coupleand then to meet you and have
the education about it that yougive out to so many of your
customers, have the educationabout it that you give out to so
many of your customers and somany, and then to see you grow
into your place here, which isamazing.
And you know, you're probablyat only at about 60% of what
(03:55):
you're going to be.
I mean, there's so much morethat is happening.
But to open this place it'sjust a beautiful store You've
gone into becoming a bar ownerand then use the upstairs
vintage bottle shop is justamazing.
Uh, when you were at thesmaller place, it was very, very
(04:18):
personal there's no doubt aboutit, but it couldn't.
I mean, I imagine there'ssometimes groups of people that
came in and there was a lot ofpeople like hanging out outside
while everybody and kind oftaking and this right now.
You go up there and it's allaccommodating.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I mean, there's enough to get your, you know,
get some room and you're notknocking over bottles like the
other place, like you got somebreathing area.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
And your storage for the bottles and prep of the
bottles coming is that it's just.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
This is now the space that you know you've envisioned
right, we can definitely growinto it.
So, uh, I felt like um, at theother shop.
We were almost, uh, like alittle kid with a tight little
shirt on and you'd be looking atus like, man, your mom needs to
buy you a new shirt.
It's a little too tight.
And now it's like uh, uh, it'slike I got my mom's nightgown on
and you're almost like, hey,man, you need to grow into that
nightgown.
But uh, or it's like yourgirlfriend wearing your
(05:10):
sweatshirt so just gotta, youknow, get some more meat on our
bones in here.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah well, but at the same time it's such a you know,
talk about the, the spaceitself.
It's historic, it's part ofCovington.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, this building was built in the 1800s and at
one point was the YMCA for thewhole city, so a lot of folks
still remember swimming in thisarea just probably 100 feet, you
know just that way.
Basically this was like alocker room or who knows what.
It was also a school at onepoint and a bookstore and so it
(05:47):
was blank, for nothing was inhere for about 10 years, and so
it's really cool to be a part of, you know, bringing back the
city and revitalizing it, andthere's just so much to do down
in Covington, so much good food,really nice place to stay.
Literally right on the otherside of this wall is Hotel
Covington, and so one of thenicest hotels in the state of
Kentucky.
You can really treat yourselfwith the amenities of everything
(06:10):
and walk right across thestreet and get you know Ripple
Winery, get some small bites andyou have Libby's and Canole's
and the Well and everything'slocal.
The only place really within aprobably a half mile of here
that's a big company is JimmyJohn's that's serving food.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
So, as long as you don't need a Jimmy John's, every
single thing down here is localpart of the the bourbon and
whiskey history of kentucky,because of the fact that this is
this is the the crossing point.
It's there.
It's maysville right and andcovington over to cincinnati
within two minutes away.
It's.
It's kind of like I thinkyou're closer to the ballparks
in cincinnati than the peoplewho live in Cincinnati because
they got to go through downtownand get there.
You guys can just drive acrossthe bridge and you're just right
(07:10):
there.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, we're right here you got the best of really
the best of all worlds in thiscity.
The buildings, I'd say, are alittle bit cheaper than
Cincinnati, the camaraderie hereis better, and then if you have
a condo or something on ourside of the river, you're
looking at that city and youhave a better view well, it's so
much.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
It's small town, it's still the.
The downtown area is preservedhistorically and it's not a it's
not a huge city, but if youwant the huge city, it's crossed
right across the river andexactly, and and like, like I
said, I mean you know thatgeorge remus walked these
streets and his gang andwhatever, and prohibition and
(07:50):
there were.
You know, the right down innewport was where he was running
his pharmacies that wereproducing the you know the
certificates to actually get thewhiskey, I mean, and then when
you think about that, and nowyou're a part of it because
you're, you've, you're historic,and so then let's talk about
one of the things that you couldactually do.
(08:10):
Do you now, if you came downhere today, do you have
medicinal prohibition, whiskeyor bourbons, or, and from time
to time you do.
I don't know if you have ittoday, but we, we do have uh
bottles that you can purchase.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Right now I've uh echo springs from 1916 to 22 and
a granddad upstairs from 1916to 26 that even has the
medicinal uh prescription stuckto the label.
You're about a week late,though.
We had a two gallon carboy ofcedar brook from 1902 to 1914.
That was on the bar, so therewas pre-prohibition
(08:45):
pre-prohibition.
There was 10 fifths in that andwe did uh 40 a quarter ounce on
that.
I shared it with probably sixto eight hundred people and, uh,
it lasted about three monthsand so it's gone.
So, if you know, you never knowwhat you're missing here, or
that's a bottle that I would sayat bardstown bourbon company,
or you know a bar in manhattanor in Vegas or whatever, you're
(09:08):
$1,000 an ounce.
So we were doing $160 an ounceor $40 a quarter ounce, and
we're trying to figure out a wayevery day to be fair to who we
buy from and fair to who we sellto, and I don't need to be a
multimillionaire If we can justtreat people fairly and get
folks in the game.
That's literally the wholemindset around this business.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
That's.
I mean it's awesome.
That's awesome and plus you'regoing to be sponsoring.
You're the sponsor of theScotchy Bourbon Boys bus tour,
so it's the revival ScotchyBourbon Boys, kentucky Bourbon
Boys bus tour and we are lookingforward to that.
That's just one of the things.
(09:51):
But but for me, the educationabout Dusty's.
Now I the other day I wasthinking about Dusty's what
actually?
So there's no rules of what aDusty is Like.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
There's no actual definition I would say, the
average person getting intobourbon thinks that if they have
a little dust on the bottleit's a Dusty from 2022 or
something, and a Dusty for me ithas to have a tack strip.
So typically the tack stripstopped in 1984.
And it has some true40-year-old plus dust on it.
(10:25):
But no, I'd say the bourboncommunity, if it's a 2015 or a
2020 and they're maybe just alittle dirty at their house, it
has some dust, then they name ita Dusty.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Chat GPT said it has to be at least for it to be a
Dusty, according to what shesearched the internet.
Internet for for me was that ithas to be at least a decade or
decades old.
So she was saying 10 to 20years is where it would be in
there.
But there was no specific.
You know, there's no term of umcongress hasn't, hasn't made a,
(11:00):
you know, a statement that aDusty is 20 years old.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Well, so the law for Dusty's in Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
For collectibles.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah, for collectibles, for us to purchase
it.
Technically it's got to be fromlast year and I can't get it
from a distributor and then it'sa vintage bottle.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
So, in other words, as soon as it's out of
distribution and the next batchis out, it's considered the
state of Kentucky.
Yes, I think it's a vintage.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Yes, I mean, you know , and we do have some bottles
that we purchase off the publicthat are, you know, newer, that
we can't get from a distributor.
But our focus is, you know,something like this Like it's
got a tack strip.
You know there's no barcode toscan it.
I mean, how do you ring thisthing up?
Right, like it's.
(11:49):
You know that that's a timecapsule and that's a dusty and
uh, you know, like I'll, I'lldie on my Hill.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Well, and then the other aspect.
Uh well, I didn't silence that,let's let that go.
That go, there we go.
Sorry about that, folks it'ssilence now.
Yeah uh, but but you know whenyou're getting into you're
(12:17):
talking about 40 years old, 1984.
So I as a kid collectedbaseball.
So collecting bourbon is verysimilar because of the market.
But the only thing there's nogovernment intervention on
baseball cards like there is onalcohol.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
It's not a controlled substance.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
You can't really drink it Right, right, right
right.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
But you know and it's consumable.
So you know how much is left ishow you know if it's really
good.
Most people consume it.
But when I collected baseballcards I was 1973, 1974, I was
collecting and I thought 1954,53, 20 years old was an old
(13:01):
baseball card as a kid.
Now I've collected ever sinceand I still do it a little
dabble a little but I stillthink 1954, 1953 are the old
cards.
They are the old cards and eventhough 1983 is now, you know,
or 1985 is now 40 years away, soit's twice as old as the
(13:25):
fifties cards that I wascollecting before.
But I don't consider them old.
I guess it's just yourperspective, right?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
No, I think we all have our own, and then I love
that you brought that up.
I mean, what we're doing here,basically, is collecting
baseball cards for grown people,and, uh, you can collect cards,
or you can collect paintings,or we have our feet on a rug,
you know, you can collect books.
The thing is, though, you can'teat those, and so you can even
have a Model T car or somethingyou can't eat the chair of it, I
(13:53):
guess.
But you know what we're doinghere.
It's the final frontier, andyou can choose to buy a bottle
from us and collect it, or youcan pop it open and consume it,
and so I don't think there'sanything left on the planet.
You know, beer and wine reallydon't stand the test of time.
The biggest misconception ofour parents was to age their
wine, and, you know, unless it'slike a Lafitte, rothschild or a
(14:16):
Port or something, it just eventhen it doesn't stand the test
of time, and it's unless it's inthe right atmosphere and each
bottle is its own time capsule.
But, uh, these bourbon bottlesare typically 80 proof or higher
, and, and really just all thelick liquor in general Scotch
rum, gin, tequila, vodka, youname it and it as long as the
seal is good and it's in a uh, agood place in the house and not
(14:37):
in a musty basement or in ashed outside, I mean like a
bottle like this is going tostay good, you know, probably a
century or two after I'm gone.
You know it's, the fill levelis good, the clarity is good,
and you know so it's going tostay so from a standpoint.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Just as far as educating me clarity, ok, so
I've now had dealt with quite afew.
So what are?
So if a bottle turns like, whenyou see it, it's cloudy, it's
obvious, like it's oxidized, youcan so when it's when it's
oxidized for a certain amount.
And I actually have a bottle ofweller special reserve that I
(15:17):
opened six years ago that stillhas about two aces left of it
and I was doing a tasting it andI noticed there was a little
cloudiness to it.
So what is the cloudiness?
Does it actually make thewhiskey taste bad or is it?
Does it make it poisonous?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
I mean it's not going to be like it's not going to
kill you, okay, um it's just notgoing to be as good.
it'll be a little off-putting,um.
And so you know, I try to tellfolks like, if, if you're gonna
buy a bottle for me and maybeevery uh christmas you bust it
out with your wife or yourfriends or whoever and you want
it for the last five or ten ortwenty years, um, once the
(15:56):
bottle gets about halfway, maybeput that into like a pint and
then when it goes you knowhalfway of that, maybe put it in
a half pint, and then you knowyou want the little amount of
air as possible.
And I think when bottles getyou know where there's like two
fingers left or a fourth of itleft.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
You should almost put it into even just finish it, if
even that's usually what I do,but let's just say, like I have
a william luru weller, that'sgetting down there.
I should definitely just getone of my 100 milliliter sample
bottles and put it in there.
Keep the air, then I'm notgonna for one.
You lose with that much air,it's gonna evaporate a certain
amount of of it.
(16:32):
And then two I mean I storeeverything stored in a cool, dry
place for me but two when itgets to the evaporation.
But then you also don't want itto go to turn.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
The only downfall, I think, is just as a human being,
visually you want to see itcome out of that original
container.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
And so another way.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I've even heard of folks putting, you know, glass
marbles in a bottle to likeraise the fill level and what
they're putting in isn't likeplastic or anything.
And then I've also heard offolks using like an argon gas
like you would use with wine,and you create that like burial
barrier.
Yeah, they sell those, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
They sell that ability to do that and create
that.
Now, you're right completely.
It's kind of like I get a lotof samples sent to me and when I
get one and most of the timewhen I'm talking with distillers
, when I ask for a sample, Idon't mind a hundred milliliter
bottle of five of the differentbottles and everything and
that's fine with me.
Or you pull it from a barreland you have the sample, but
(17:32):
it's not the same.
Now when you pull it from abarrel it's kind of special
because it was from the barreland you got it out, yeah, but
when you get a sample up it'snot the same as having a full
bottle.
Now sometimes you're gettingsamples that people haven't
bottled yet, which is kind ofcool in itself and that's
different.
But I would say you're right,is that it's all part of the
collecting aspect of it, orhaving it is that you pour it
(17:56):
out of the bottle that it was inand people get to see that
bottle.
You're usually sharing it kindof thing.
So I mean, that's the part thatI think is really kind of a
cool aspect of what you do,especially the bottles.
When you go upstairs in the shop, you know the shop is.
(18:18):
What we probably could do is,once we're done with the podcast
, I'll keep us on live onFacebook and we'll just go up
there and walk the shop beforewe sign off so everybody can see
it.
But you know, like you said,you know now it's got to be so
as far as, what do you do with?
And I kind of know the answer.
(18:39):
But you can answer the questionfor everybody.
You find a bottle.
The seal's intact, it'sbeautiful, you can see the
liquid is really good, it'ssomething special, but the
label's been just totallytrashed.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, I mean, that's a drinker.
That's even more of a reason toopen it up.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Because when people are going to pay the kind of
money they want they wanteverything.
They want it so they can put iton their collection they're
going to pay that kind of money.
That's what they want.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I mean, I'm literally grading each bottle as a
baseball card.
Where's the fill level?
Where's the clarity?
Where's the tax trip?
Before we met today, I got acall from a gentleman.
Basically every day I get calls.
People want to sell us stuff 24hours a day.
And so guy calls me.
He's like hey, I have some oldbottles.
(19:25):
There's some old bourbon andscotch and rum and they're from
the forties, fifties and sixties.
What is it worth?
And I'm like I have no idea.
You know, send me some photosof what you got, because, like
you know, it's if I dealt inbaseball cards and you're like,
oh, I got a Mickey Mantle andyou call me.
You know, how do I know if Ihaven't seen?
Speaker 1 (19:44):
it.
Well, I got it, or they go.
I got a couple Yankees and thenI got a couple Milwaukee Braves
and I caught a couple ChicagoCubs.
Well, caught a couple ofChicago Cubs.
Well, if they're just commonsthey're still worth something.
But it's not like having theMickey Mantle.
And what would what would bethe Mickey Mantle 1953 baseball
card, mickey Mantle, worth?
You know what is it.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I mean that would probably be the like an old
Fitzgerald or something or anold Forrester from back then.
You know it's a.
It just shows you like what wehave upstairs, like if you're
looking for Magic Johnson and Ihave Larry Bird and Michael
Jordan.
I don't have your card.
So you know if I have a 53, youknow old fits and an old
Forester.
But all of a sudden you I don'tknow you want you know an early
(20:26):
times or something.
I don't, I don't have the earlytimes.
But what's funny is theForester is a better product
than early times and technicallyyou could have settled with
something better, but it doesn'tsay early times on it.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
This is yeah, and I mean I don't know.
So you do get people coming infor specific bottles all day.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, I mean it's like for a birth year or you
know, like their dad drank, youknow.
Cuddy Sark or whatever you knowthey want to relive those good
times with their, their friendsand family, and so, yeah,
they're totally in search ofthat one thing, and if I don't
have it, I don't have what theywant.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Well, and then they can.
There's an aspect of it thenyou can search for them somewhat
, right, yeah, I can put them onthe list to give them a call.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
And you know, the future would be like off of our
website, like having a wish listand you kind of type typing up
to us like what you're wishingfor and then when we get it in,
it notifies you.
In a perfect world.
We're just.
We're just not there yet.
All right, this is supposed topost.
I've got a question for me.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Okay, we got Matt Lison.
I think you know Matt he's,he's watching.
But if anybody has a question,live, feel free to put it up on
the comments.
What else?
There was one other.
Yeah, like you covered theprivate, you'll do a private
event.
I mean.
(21:50):
So one of the coolest things ifyou love bourbon, whiskey,
scotch, and you want to havesomething special for your
friends.
It's from the top to the bottom, I mean, but you're going to
get a good experience, that'sthe whole thing.
So you know, you got to contact, we got the hours out there.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Now, if you're looking for a fun experience or
a fun event, I mean you couldtotally rent us out, where we're
closed to the public.
We'd have to talk about thepricing to that.
But if you're okay with stillbeing open and customers can
come in during your event,there's no like upfront cost and
you basically would you know.
If you wanted to have a budgetfor a bar tab, we can work with
you any kind of way.
(22:34):
Or if you want individuals topay for it, you know, happy to
work with folks.
We don't have food either, sowe use Ripple, which is an
awesome small bite wine shopacross the street, for catering
and charcuterie and pizza.
But you could bring, you know,jimmy John's or Kroger's or you
know however you want to foreseeyour event to be.
We can accommodate that.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
That's excellent.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
So we'll end the actual podcast and then
everybody on Facebook will goupstairs and check that out.
I'll leave you guys with.
If you're passing throughCincinnati, northern Kentucky,
put us on your list, stop by,come hang out, ask for me.
Personally, I would love togive you the tour and seriously
appreciate your time andlistening today.
All right, so.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Matt's watching and working on this.
So Randy Ford says thanks forthe information.
He looks forward to meeting youin person.
Do you have any GarrisonBrothers high rye?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Not right now, but that could change Later.
Today I could buy some bottlesand that might be one of the
bottles that comes in.
So I'm really in search of justolder spirits.
But you can't pepper this placewith tack strips because, folks
, we're the final frontier ofliquor.
I think once you've triedeverything, we have what your
(23:57):
dad drank and what your grandpadrank, and that's really what
I'm looking for.
But in the same breath of that,you know we do buy new
collections, because you can'tpepper our upstairs with
multi-thousand dollar bottlesand things that the final
frontier and people might be atlevel one still.
And so you know, we have someEagle, rare and Blantons and
unfortunately we didn't getthose from a distributor yet
(24:18):
because we haven't really builtup an allocation.
But you know, we try to be fairwith those and we can have
something that you're you know,hopefully something that you're
looking for.
And you know, maybe if we don'thave what you're looking for,
like that Garrison Brothers, Ihave 700 other bottles that
might, you know, tickle yourfancy.
You didn't know you needed.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Yeah, randy, when you come, that's probably yeah, but
Brad's capable when he's outthere.
If you put him on a search heprobably will look for it and he
lets you know.
I mean, there's no doubt whatyou come across has to be
sometimes.
So.
(24:55):
Do you ever get one of thosewhere it's just like, oh damn,
if it just would have been this.
Like it's the coolest bottle,but it's like you know, like
it's just not for the store, butyou just wish it was you know,
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Yeah, say, like a Weller Millennium would like be
a perfect bottle Like you can't.
Really, it has no secondaryvalue.
Stores are struggling to sellit for cost.
I'd love to have one of those.
It's just you know.
It would tie up a ton of ourcapital for what you know, and
so that's a great example.
(25:30):
Really, any high-end BuffaloTrace product right now that
isn't moving at all, like theDouble Eagle, rare or an OFC or
something like that, those arebottles we'd love to have.
They just really makeabsolutely no sense for me or
any business to buy them.
I don't think unless you'reProv in DC and he's got access
to the congressmen that have themoney to buy that stuff for
(25:54):
entertainment whatever.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Oh, hlq just announced the millennium.
They're gonna do threedifferent.
I saw raffle things.
That'd be a raffle.
I wouldn't be in the only theonly one.
I mean they have blanton'sgolden and, yeah, straight from
the barrel.
Okay, but the, the, thatcollection which is of the, the
(26:16):
prohibition bottles, thatspecial collection, that's like,
I believe, a grand for four orfive bottles or whatever.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
You're not even really sure what the secondary
on is.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
On, yeah, but I mean at the same time, that's the
only thing I'd be interested in,because if I had four or five
bottles and they're 250 a piece,or you know, you know, or two
then that's, that's a doablething.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
But just think about that, right, if you're lucky
enough to win that and then youwanted to resell it to me, you'd
probably want to make somethingand then I'd need to resell it.
You know, there's not much meaton the bones, it's not a
feasible thing for me.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Well, the second, the , the current secondary market.
Isn't you?
You're?
You're right, because thedistilleries and they rightfully
should have have raised theirprices on those type of bottles
where they were selling them forso low before, and then they'd
sell for $750, $1,000 onsecondary.
And people always say, well,secondary is this and secondary
(27:11):
is that, and I'm like nosecondary is you're paying
retail for a bottle of bourbonand then you're going to pay the
guy a price for getting it foryou.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Well, I'd say any bottle other than that Blanton's
.
You're basically bailing outthe Ohio liquor system just by
purchasing that.
So I would say don't buy it.
Let those come down and letthem take the hit, because you
know they've been raking in thecash for decades.
Now, like it's about to reversea little bit and I think it
needs a little bit of acorrection.
(27:40):
And you know those would bebottles I had a hard pass for me
.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Well, yeah, at this point there's no doubt, because
that market, the distilleriesare getting some of the money
and they sell them at thoseprices.
You know, it's not like thosebottles don't sell, it's just
that there's no secondary valuethen for them.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
There's a lot of liquor stores.
They're sitting on the shelves,you know, collecting dust,
tying up their capital.
So they're not going to sit onmy shelf.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
No, and what you do for people is this shop is
exactly it.
It's like you find bottles frompeople that are structurally
and visually sound and then youpresent them to people who might
want them, and there's a pricefor that one rent.
You got to pay rent to have ashop and everything to your time
(28:31):
and effort to find them.
Then your reputation that youspent years and years building,
you know, and that all has to gointo what you're purchasing,
and then you can understandwhere the price comes from you
know, well, all those bottlesthey're releasing other than the
Blanton's Gold.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
You know the Weller I'm looking for a Weller with
the tack strip, thoseProhibition bottles that are
relabeled with whateverfour-year product in there, like
I'm looking for the actualprohibition label of it.
Um, and then what was the otherone, the ofc?
I'd wanted ofc from prohibition.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
So there's literally pretty much nothing being
released today that I could evencare about well, though I I
care about the ofc a little bitbecause I I've never even like.
Like, when it got released inin ohio, the first time, I
believe, for the whole state inthe raffle was three bottles.
Yeah, it's so rare and it's solimited, limited.
(29:24):
I'd like to at least try it.
But and and I love it, butyou've actually had a bottle of
ofc pre-pro prohibition in here,right?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
yeah, we have a couple times, so I mean that's
that's what I'm now.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
That's what I would want.
That more than the new one yeahbecause I don't know is there,
is there, and I've always saidthis.
It's like I understand why theprices are what they are,
because it's it's a limitedamounts, it's it's um
availability, and then it comesdown to how old it is.
I mean, I understand it, peopledon't.
(29:58):
How old it is doesn't alwaysmean good bourbon, but it does
mean it had to sit in a barrelfor 10 years and be, you know,
taken care of, and that there'sa price to let something sit for
10 years, plus they're payingtaxes and everything on it as
they go.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
So there's always that you know, and so but you
know, you figure that could havebeen just an Eagle Rare, that's
a $40 bottle, and then they'reputting it in a bottle that
they're selling for thousands.
So I mean, it's just, it's allabout the label.
You know that's what a blind isgood for to really figure out
what you like.
And money doesn't buy.
You know money doesn't buy bur.
You know money doesn't buytaste.
(30:34):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
And it's just like collecting, yeah, I mean.
Uh, I mean, if a bourbon all ofa sudden becomes a wacky
package that you wanted backthen, which I believe was windex
, a windex wind hex it wascalled, and everybody just
wanted that one, yeah, that'skind of how bourbon works, right
every once in a while, that'sall everybody wants.
Like buffalo trace is the thecurrent?
That's all everybody wants.
(30:54):
Like Buffalo trace is the thecurrent?
That's what everybody wants.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
So a thing that's constantly asked to me is uh,
you know, hey, what should I bedrinking?
What should I be finding?
Um, I think you know, ifmaker's mark or wild turkeys
your jam and you can go toKroger liquor store and just
pick it up for 20, 30 bucks, whocares what I say?
Who cares what you say?
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Who cares what Fred Minnick says?
Like you know, buy what youlike it's personal.
Yeah, no, I mean taste issubjective, so but I will say us
and Fred Minnick and you offerup stuff that that most people
didn't even know existed, likeexactly, for instance, you know,
when you're talking about old,stubborn it's, it's a, it's a
very small brand and we presentit and we get it out there.
(31:40):
But if we didn't do that, Iwould have a problem because
nobody would know about it.
You know, you know and that's.
And if you want to get biggerand bigger, people have to know
about what you're doing, andthat's that's really kind of how
it works.
That's that's the value of ofwhat you're doing here.
Yeah, like most of those youyou show me here's a scotch from
(32:01):
1911 and I didn't, I'd neverheard of that before.
I'm not in whatever, and it'skind of like.
Then you all of a sudden it'skind of like waking yourself up
to um.
You know, you collected umbaseball cards your whole life,
but you always did tops and thenyou realized there was tobacco
cards.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
And upper deck.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, back in the whatever, when you used to buy
tobacco, you'd get the cards andit's just like that opens up a
whole new world.
If you never knew that, andthat's kind of how it is, I
think you should do the book.
You should have the collector'sguide to bourbon and just do
the whole thing, because you getthe bottles in, take pictures
(32:43):
of everyone and put it into abook.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yep, I mean, the future is incredible.
So, yeah, be on the lookout fora possible book.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, because I've seen books of just current
bourbons, or you know, and it'slike you know.
And then there's an aspect ofme getting into this as late out
for a possible book.
Yeah, because I've seen booksof just current bourbons, or
yeah, or you know, and it's likeyou know, and then there's an
aspect of me getting into thisas late, as I did so when I
started in 2019, so since 2017,I was looking at the weller, the
weller special reserve.
You got up there and thatbottle compared to what the
(33:12):
green, I'm like that's what.
And that's just 2015.
Exactly, you know, they changed.
So much has changed in 10 years, like you know weller.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Whatever isn't used goes on to be pappy, basically,
you know.
And then I set this bottle uphere, we didn't even talk about
it, but then you got stitzelweller.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
So oh my god, you can see that right here.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
and so this is the last year of this foil top.
It's a 72, 73, but uh, this isan eight-year bourbon and Pappy
died in 65.
And so this was barreled rightaround 1964, 1965.
So what's in here was made bythe smoking man and you know
it's amazing, and Pappy prettymuch today lives off the
(33:51):
coattails of this.
But as a human being, if youwant a Pappy 15 for a 40th
birthday or whatever and I don'thave that and I have this I
mean this is going to be 100times better.
But people are just blinded bywhat they want.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
That other one has the coolest label in the history
of all labels.
In my opinion, that's one ofthe reasons of its popularity,
with him smoking a cigar onthere, but he had absolutely
nothing to do with it.
Exactly, it's his brand andthey do that, but his family has
curated it throughout, whatever, but he didn't do it.
Yeah, and they do.
(34:29):
In my opinion, they do a goodjob.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Well, I feel like I'm a brand ambassador for pappy.
You know, like I'm a brandambassador for the dead, and so,
uh, you know we're like thereisn't really any uh brands that
are current, that like we'rebrand ambassadors for what was
the oldest whiskey that you'veever?
seen?
Um, well, I, I've sampled aPendennis Club 1893, 125 proof
(34:58):
bourbon before, and so that wasone of the oldest.
And I've had some bottleswithout labels that look maybe
older than that.
That could have been even older, but yeah, the Barnyard funk on
some of those and just thebutterscotch and tobacco and
brown sugar.
It basically, uh, it's like a ayou open that up, I mean the
(35:21):
smell just like takes over abuilding, so and the taste is
amazing.
It's like nothing ever made.
But each bottle is its own timecapsule and if it's hazy or
cloudy or didn't hold, um, it'llnot taste good at all.
So we've, I've been superfortunate, um, you know, to live
the dream and do what I loveand, uh, and taste stuff that
only billionaires could dream of, almost so.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Right, and and well, just as a podcaster, it's the
same thing with me.
Uh, the one thing that I I Ithink you probably learned this
too is that it seems like younever want to force it.
You just kind of let it come toyou, right?
Speaker 2 (36:01):
It's a tough thing, man, in life, because you want
it now.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Yeah, but it seems like if you sit back and let it
come to you eventuallyeverything just keeps coming and
coming.
I mean there's nights that I'vehad where just you didn't think
it was going to be anythingspecial and you end up at a bar.
You know I what was it calledhouse of commons in, uh, in
frankfurt.
We were there that night andpeople that had you know bourbon
(36:27):
on the banks they had boughtbottles that you know an auction
and they were opening them upand sharing them and I mean it
was just crazy.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
No, I think that's in life Like I've.
My wife hates it, but every dayI'm just winging it basically.
And so if you don't really havelike a rigid schedule or plan,
like what do you?
You can't be let down, you know.
And and so it's so cool, likesomeone could.
It'd be hilarious if someonewalked in and tried to sell to
me right now.
You guys would think it wouldbe planned, but you know, I
(36:57):
never know what's coming in orwho, what we're going to sell or
buy.
And so you know, we're neverreally let down and every day is
a journey and it's a fun one,man, and uh, it's so cool to
just uh do what you love andwe'll just sit here with you
today.
Man, it's like you messaged melike yesterday, like you want to
do a podcast.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
I'm like of course I threw it out there.
I mean, you know it's fine,it's funny because sometimes you
try and schedule it and theschedule won't get done.
I mean, I was booking hotelslast night because I didn't know
if I was going to be in theLouisville.
I'm after this, I'm going downto Louisville staying the night
at the Brown, and then I'mcoming back to Frankfurt
(37:33):
spending the night in Frankfurtand then Sunday morning going
back to Louisville, you know,but coming down.
And today I didn't haveanything specific planned
because, you know, I had itturned out to be Saturday when
everything was happening.
So I, like, you know, like tocome down and wing it.
And then I was just like I'mgoing to ask you can't have
something happen if you don'task, right, and here we are.
(37:55):
Well then, the person at leastthat person, when you were
talking about those tailors andwhat was the other brand?
Van Hook, van Hook, at least.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
That woman, when she saw the bottle, asked if there
was full ones, because if shewould have, oh, there you go and
just said nothing that neverwould have happened, and then
you know it just.
It's such a humbling thing thatuh people I don't even know are
telling other people to come tous, you know, and, um, what do
you pay for something like that?
There's no amount of money youcan put on uh word by mouth and
uh positive word by mouth.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
So well, you can tell , meeting you you're real.
I mean, it's all real.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
There's no snook show here.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
No, you're genuinely a great person and your
personality is perfect for this.
I mean, I feel like when Ifirst met you, I was in the what
was it Stranger Things movie,Because you got that kind of
you're wearing a hat.
I forget which hat it was.
Uh, it was green.
Yeah, the weller hat and it'sall foam and it's from the 80s
(39:00):
weller hat and I mean it wasit's the coolest hat.
But at the same time, you knowthat's just you.
That aspect of what everybodyloved about that movie is what
you bring across here.
It's retro.
You have that retro becausebourbon does have a retro aspect
of it and that collecting ofwhen we were kids, when we
weren't drinking bourbon Right.
(39:23):
Yeah, wink, wink.
No, the only stuff we weredrinking is trying to figure out
how to raise the level back upin the bottle without getting
caught right.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
I was that guy too, so that's what I have to watch
out for.
Luckily, every deal we dohappens here, so I'm not getting
anything shipped to me oranything like that, and so we
have to inspect every singlebottle and the integrity of it,
because I was that kid that Irefilled all my parents' stuff
with water.
Who knows what the hell I putin there, they got to bring it
to you.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
That's the rule.
That's how you stay out oftrouble completely.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yeah, in the state of Kentucky, the transaction has
to happen here at our premise.
So yeah, it's a pain point forus, but you know we want to stay
on the up and up.
If it's the right deal, you justfly them in, Well and you and
just to give my business partnera shout out.
So Shannon Smith and I are theowners here, and so it's a
(40:21):
really good yin and yang becauseI get to have a lot of fun and
she keeps me legal.
So having an alcohol beverageattorney, pay our taxes and do
our payroll and we actually havea house bill.
We're trying to change thevintage spirit law and we can
only buy 24 bottles a year, andso we're trying to make it to
(40:41):
where we can buy more, not onlyfor us but for neat bourbon bar,
justin's, house of Bourbon andWatch Hill Proper any of them.
You know we want to.
We want to make the law morefriendly to a place like this
because as the law sits, likeyou know, if I can only buy 24
and you have a thousand bottles,like we're going to lose tax
revenue and tourism to sellingon Facebook or whatever.
I mean.
It is what it is, but you know,when you take it to this level,
like we talked earlier, this isthe hardest thing that the path
of least resistance for me is mymom and dad making me peanut
(41:02):
butter jelly sandwiches andusing their wifi at their house
and having no rent to pay andhaving Penske truck shipped in
and and shipping those productsout and buying all my parents,
neighbors Ferraris, you know,and it's like what the hell am I
doing here with the rent andthe payroll, jesus Christ?
So but no, we're navigatingthis for to ship.
You know to do things the rightway and you know I don't want
(41:23):
my assets taken.
I don't want to be the IRSlooking into us or you know, the
ATF or the alcohol beveragecontrol, and so at the end of
the day, if you were alwaysdoing the right thing, there's
nothing to worry about, you know.
So my only worry is making mypayroll and being fair to my
customers and fair to myemployees.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Yeah, and come down, because it's an experience just
like any other bourbon thing.
When you go to a distillery orwhatnot.
When you come here to revival,it's an experience.
Um, there, there you can meetpeople, People that come off.
They also have release partiesfor some of the single barrels.
Also, you'll have distillershere talking about their
(42:02):
whiskeys we just had.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Ian with MGP, or Ross Squibb was just here this week
and we've had New Riff and theNeelys and Stephen Fonte and
Bernie Lovers week and we've had, you know, new Riff and the
Neelys and Stephen Fonte andBernie Lovers and so, uh, you
know, if you're listening andyou have a small distillery or
you don't feel like you'regetting the word out enough,
like you know, give us a shout,we're.
McBrayers yeah, the McBrayers.
Uh, we love Bill and his fatherand uh, we're the pickup
(42:25):
destination for that brand.
You know, and uh ask, pocketwhiskeykey.
My homie, derek Trucks, youknow super passionate vintage
spirit guy and bourbon guy andlaunched a brand and we're one
of the few in the United Statesto carry that.
So you know, if you're a smallguy out there, reach out.
We're happy to talk to you andwe'd love to have you down and
(42:45):
do a little event and carry yourproduct here in my bottle shop.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
So, all right, everybody that's perfect, and
carry your product here in mybottle shop.
All right, everybody that'sperfect.
My man,wwwscotchybourbonboyscom, make
sure that you check us out foreverything we got Glen Cairns.
We got t-shirts.
Also, remember Facebook,instagram, youtube and X, and
then also Apple, iheart andSpotify.
No matter what you watch orlisten, make sure you like,
(43:11):
listen, subscribe, comment andleave good feedback.
Remember good bourbon andwhiskey and spirits equals good
times with good friends.
Make sure you drink responsibly, don't drink and drive and live
your life uncut and unfiltered.
Little Steve-O will take us out.
(43:31):
No, yes, an unfiltered littlesteve-o will take us out.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
No, yes, let's try it one more time.
There we go.
Oh, show me the way to the nextwhiskey bar.
Oh, don't ask why.
Oh, don't ask why, show me.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Oh, I'm just going to end it anyways.
Middle West Spirits was founded in 2008, focusing on
elevating the distinct flavorsof the Ohio River Valley.
Their spirits honor their rootsand reflect their originality
as makers, their integrity asproducers and their passion for
crafting spirits from grain toglass.
Their Michelon Reserve linereflects their story from the
(00:27):
start to the bottle, to yourglass, with unique weeded and
rye bourbons, and also rye andwheat whiskeys, the Michelon
brand is easy to sip.
It might be a grain-to-glassexperience, but I like to think
of it as uncut and unfilteredfrom their family to yours.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Take a picture for me .
Speaker 1 (00:59):
We're on the couch.
We've been in a while.
We're short from the couch.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
We love what we do.
We're drinking and burning andwe're talking some shit, but
we're telling the truth.
Yeah, we're the ScotchieBurning Boys Raising the hell
(01:24):
and making some noise.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, we're the Scotchie Burning Boys now yeah,
(01:52):
all right, welcome back toanother podcast of the Scotchy
Bourbon Boys.
I love location podcasts.
It's one of my favorite thingsto do, and we are at Revival
Vintage Spirits and Bottle Shophere in Covington, kentucky with
Brad Bonds Anybody who'slistened you guys have seen our
lives and you've seen a coupleof our podcasts and know a
(02:16):
little bit about Brad, butthere's a lot of people that
don't know about you, and that'swhat we want to do today is get
that out there.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
doing, doing great man.
I just want to say like thanksso much for the constant support
.
Scotchy Bourbon Boys areawesome.
I was just telling Tiny I'vebeen seeing him more than a lot
of high school friends thathaven't even made their way down
and you know you've probablybeen here about 20 times.
So you know, thank you guys somuch for everything.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
It's such an awesome, awesome destination and stop
Plus, we're the Scotchy BourbonBoys and that's all whiskey that
we do.
And so when you're headed downto Kentucky and when you're
going down to Kentucky, it'smostly bourbon, a little bit of
American whiskey, a little bitof rye, but it's mostly bourbon.
But it's such a great stop onthe way down for us because I
(03:04):
mean we go right by it.
I mean you are literally threeminutes off 71 and we're, and
we're here.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
We're the start of the bourbon trail Right.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Or the end.
Yeah, either or I mean it's.
You've been the end and thestart many times for us, but we
always want to.
We there's so much that welearn when we come down.
There's stuff that you havehere all the time that isn't
something that I even that youneeded.
Right Until I met you, Brad, Iknew of the Dusty, but there's
(03:35):
very.
I probably only had a coupleand then to meet you and have
the education about it that yougive out to so many of your
customers, have the educationabout it that you give out to so
many of your customers and somany, and then to see you grow
into your place here, which isamazing.
And you know, you're probablyat only at about 60% of what
(03:55):
you're going to be.
I mean, there's so much morethat is happening.
But to open this place it'sjust a beautiful store You've
gone into becoming a bar ownerand then use the upstairs
vintage bottle shop is justamazing.
Uh, when you were at thesmaller place, it was very, very
(04:18):
personal there's no doubt aboutit, but it couldn't.
I mean, I imagine there'ssometimes groups of people that
came in and there was a lot ofpeople like hanging out outside
while everybody and kind oftaking and this right now.
You go up there and it's allaccommodating.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I mean, there's enough to get your, you know,
get some room and you're notknocking over bottles like the
other place, like you got somebreathing area.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
And your storage for the bottles and prep of the
bottles coming is that it's just.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
This is now the space that you know you've envisioned
right, we can definitely growinto it.
So, uh, I felt like um, at theother shop.
We were almost, uh, like alittle kid with a tight little
shirt on and you'd be looking atus like, man, your mom needs to
buy you a new shirt.
It's a little too tight.
And now it's like uh, uh, it'slike I got my mom's nightgown on
and you're almost like, hey,man, you need to grow into that
nightgown.
But uh, or it's like yourgirlfriend wearing your
(05:10):
sweatshirt so just gotta, youknow, get some more meat on our
bones in here.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah well, but at the same time it's such a you know,
talk about the, the spaceitself.
It's historic, it's part ofCovington.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, this building was built in the 1800s and at
one point was the YMCA for thewhole city, so a lot of folks
still remember swimming in thisarea just probably 100 feet, you
know just that way.
Basically this was like alocker room or who knows what.
It was also a school at onepoint and a bookstore and so it
(05:47):
was blank, for nothing was inhere for about 10 years, and so
it's really cool to be a part of, you know, bringing back the
city and revitalizing it, andthere's just so much to do down
in Covington, so much good food,really nice place to stay.
Literally right on the otherside of this wall is Hotel
Covington, and so one of thenicest hotels in the state of
Kentucky.
You can really treat yourselfwith the amenities of everything
(06:10):
and walk right across thestreet and get you know Ripple
Winery, get some small bites andyou have Libby's and Canole's
and the Well and everything'slocal.
The only place really within aprobably a half mile of here
that's a big company is JimmyJohn's that's serving food.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
So, as long as you don't need a Jimmy John's, every
single thing down here is localpart of the the bourbon and
whiskey history of kentucky,because of the fact that this is
this is the the crossing point.
It's there.
It's maysville right and andcovington over to cincinnati
within two minutes away.
It's.
It's kind of like I thinkyou're closer to the ballparks
in cincinnati than the peoplewho live in Cincinnati because
they got to go through downtownand get there.
You guys can just drive acrossthe bridge and you're just right
(07:10):
there.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, we're right here you got the best of really
the best of all worlds in thiscity.
The buildings, I'd say, are alittle bit cheaper than
Cincinnati, the camaraderie hereis better, and then if you have
a condo or something on ourside of the river, you're
looking at that city and youhave a better view well, it's so
much.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
It's small town, it's still the.
The downtown area is preservedhistorically and it's not a it's
not a huge city, but if youwant the huge city, it's crossed
right across the river andexactly, and and like, like I
said, I mean you know thatgeorge remus walked these
streets and his gang andwhatever, and prohibition and
(07:50):
there were.
You know, the right down innewport was where he was running
his pharmacies that wereproducing the you know the
certificates to actually get thewhiskey, I mean, and then when
you think about that, and nowyou're a part of it because
you're, you've, you're historic,and so then let's talk about
one of the things that you couldactually do.
(08:10):
Do you now, if you came downhere today, do you have
medicinal prohibition, whiskeyor bourbons, or, and from time
to time you do.
I don't know if you have ittoday, but we, we do have uh
bottles that you can purchase.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Right now I've uh echo springs from 1916 to 22 and
a granddad upstairs from 1916to 26 that even has the
medicinal uh prescription stuckto the label.
You're about a week late,though.
We had a two gallon carboy ofcedar brook from 1902 to 1914.
That was on the bar, so therewas pre-prohibition
(08:45):
pre-prohibition.
There was 10 fifths in that andwe did uh 40 a quarter ounce on
that.
I shared it with probably sixto eight hundred people and, uh,
it lasted about three monthsand so it's gone.
So, if you know, you never knowwhat you're missing here, or
that's a bottle that I would sayat bardstown bourbon company,
or you know a bar in manhattanor in Vegas or whatever, you're
(09:08):
$1,000 an ounce.
So we were doing $160 an ounceor $40 a quarter ounce, and
we're trying to figure out a wayevery day to be fair to who we
buy from and fair to who we sellto, and I don't need to be a
multimillionaire If we can justtreat people fairly and get
folks in the game.
That's literally the wholemindset around this business.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
That's.
I mean it's awesome.
That's awesome and plus you'regoing to be sponsoring.
You're the sponsor of theScotchy Bourbon Boys bus tour,
so it's the revival ScotchyBourbon Boys, kentucky Bourbon
Boys bus tour and we are lookingforward to that.
That's just one of the things.
(09:51):
But but for me, the educationabout Dusty's.
Now I the other day I wasthinking about Dusty's what
actually?
So there's no rules of what aDusty is Like.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
There's no actual definition I would say, the
average person getting intobourbon thinks that if they have
a little dust on the bottleit's a Dusty from 2022 or
something, and a Dusty for me ithas to have a tack strip.
So typically the tack stripstopped in 1984.
And it has some true40-year-old plus dust on it.
(10:25):
But no, I'd say the bourboncommunity, if it's a 2015 or a
2020 and they're maybe just alittle dirty at their house, it
has some dust, then they name ita Dusty.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Chat GPT said it has to be at least for it to be a
Dusty, according to what shesearched the internet.
Internet for for me was that ithas to be at least a decade or
decades old.
So she was saying 10 to 20years is where it would be in
there.
But there was no specific.
You know, there's no term of umcongress hasn't, hasn't made a,
(11:00):
you know, a statement that aDusty is 20 years old.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Well, so the law for Dusty's in Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
For collectibles.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah, for collectibles, for us to purchase
it.
Technically it's got to be fromlast year and I can't get it
from a distributor and then it'sa vintage bottle.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
So, in other words, as soon as it's out of
distribution and the next batchis out, it's considered the
state of Kentucky.
Yes, I think it's a vintage.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Yes, I mean, you know , and we do have some bottles
that we purchase off the publicthat are, you know, newer, that
we can't get from a distributor.
But our focus is, you know,something like this Like it's
got a tack strip.
You know there's no barcode toscan it.
I mean, how do you ring thisthing up?
Right, like it's.
(11:49):
You know that that's a timecapsule and that's a dusty and
uh, you know, like I'll, I'lldie on my Hill.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Well, and then the other aspect.
Uh well, I didn't silence that,let's let that go.
That go, there we go.
Sorry about that, folks it'ssilence now.
Yeah uh, but but you know whenyou're getting into you're
(12:17):
talking about 40 years old, 1984.
So I as a kid collectedbaseball.
So collecting bourbon is verysimilar because of the market.
But the only thing there's nogovernment intervention on
baseball cards like there is onalcohol.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
It's not a controlled substance.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
You can't really drink it Right, right, right
right.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
But you know and it's consumable.
So you know how much is left ishow you know if it's really
good.
Most people consume it.
But when I collected baseballcards I was 1973, 1974, I was
collecting and I thought 1954,53, 20 years old was an old
(13:01):
baseball card as a kid.
Now I've collected ever sinceand I still do it a little
dabble a little but I stillthink 1954, 1953 are the old
cards.
They are the old cards and eventhough 1983 is now, you know,
or 1985 is now 40 years away, soit's twice as old as the
(13:25):
fifties cards that I wascollecting before.
But I don't consider them old.
I guess it's just yourperspective, right?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
No, I think we all have our own, and then I love
that you brought that up.
I mean, what we're doing here,basically, is collecting
baseball cards for grown people,and, uh, you can collect cards,
or you can collect paintings,or we have our feet on a rug,
you know, you can collect books.
The thing is, though, you can'teat those, and so you can even
have a Model T car or somethingyou can't eat the chair of it, I
(13:53):
guess.
But you know what we're doinghere.
It's the final frontier, andyou can choose to buy a bottle
from us and collect it, or youcan pop it open and consume it,
and so I don't think there'sanything left on the planet.
You know, beer and wine reallydon't stand the test of time.
The biggest misconception ofour parents was to age their
wine, and, you know, unless it'slike a Lafitte, rothschild or a
(14:16):
Port or something, it just eventhen it doesn't stand the test
of time, and it's unless it's inthe right atmosphere and each
bottle is its own time capsule.
But, uh, these bourbon bottlesare typically 80 proof or higher
, and, and really just all thelick liquor in general Scotch
rum, gin, tequila, vodka, youname it and it as long as the
seal is good and it's in a uh, agood place in the house and not
(14:37):
in a musty basement or in ashed outside, I mean like a
bottle like this is going tostay good, you know, probably a
century or two after I'm gone.
You know it's, the fill levelis good, the clarity is good,
and you know so it's going tostay so from a standpoint.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Just as far as educating me clarity, ok, so
I've now had dealt with quite afew.
So what are?
So if a bottle turns like, whenyou see it, it's cloudy, it's
obvious, like it's oxidized, youcan so when it's when it's
oxidized for a certain amount.
And I actually have a bottle ofweller special reserve that I
(15:17):
opened six years ago that stillhas about two aces left of it
and I was doing a tasting it andI noticed there was a little
cloudiness to it.
So what is the cloudiness?
Does it actually make thewhiskey taste bad or is it?
Does it make it poisonous?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
I mean it's not going to be like it's not going to
kill you, okay, um it's just notgoing to be as good.
it'll be a little off-putting,um.
And so you know, I try to tellfolks like, if, if you're gonna
buy a bottle for me and maybeevery uh christmas you bust it
out with your wife or yourfriends or whoever and you want
it for the last five or ten ortwenty years, um, once the
(15:56):
bottle gets about halfway, maybeput that into like a pint and
then when it goes you knowhalfway of that, maybe put it in
a half pint, and then you knowyou want the little amount of
air as possible.
And I think when bottles getyou know where there's like two
fingers left or a fourth of itleft.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
You should almost put it into even just finish it, if
even that's usually what I do,but let's just say, like I have
a william luru weller, that'sgetting down there.
I should definitely just getone of my 100 milliliter sample
bottles and put it in there.
Keep the air, then I'm notgonna for one.
You lose with that much air,it's gonna evaporate a certain
amount of of it.
(16:32):
And then two I mean I storeeverything stored in a cool, dry
place for me but two when itgets to the evaporation.
But then you also don't want itto go to turn.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
The only downfall, I think, is just as a human being,
visually you want to see itcome out of that original
container.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
And so another way.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I've even heard of folks putting, you know, glass
marbles in a bottle to likeraise the fill level and what
they're putting in isn't likeplastic or anything.
And then I've also heard offolks using like an argon gas
like you would use with wine,and you create that like burial
barrier.
Yeah, they sell those, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
They sell that ability to do that and create
that.
Now, you're right completely.
It's kind of like I get a lotof samples sent to me and when I
get one and most of the timewhen I'm talking with distillers
, when I ask for a sample, Idon't mind a hundred milliliter
bottle of five of the differentbottles and everything and
that's fine with me.
Or you pull it from a barreland you have the sample, but
(17:32):
it's not the same.
Now when you pull it from abarrel it's kind of special
because it was from the barreland you got it out, yeah, but
when you get a sample up it'snot the same as having a full
bottle.
Now sometimes you're gettingsamples that people haven't
bottled yet, which is kind ofcool in itself and that's
different.
But I would say you're right,is that it's all part of the
collecting aspect of it, orhaving it is that you pour it
(17:56):
out of the bottle that it was inand people get to see that
bottle.
You're usually sharing it kindof thing.
So I mean, that's the part thatI think is really kind of a
cool aspect of what you do,especially the bottles.
When you go upstairs in the shop, you know the shop is.
(18:18):
What we probably could do is,once we're done with the podcast
, I'll keep us on live onFacebook and we'll just go up
there and walk the shop beforewe sign off so everybody can see
it.
But you know, like you said,you know now it's got to be so
as far as, what do you do with?
And I kind of know the answer.
(18:39):
But you can answer the questionfor everybody.
You find a bottle.
The seal's intact, it'sbeautiful, you can see the
liquid is really good, it'ssomething special, but the
label's been just totallytrashed.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, I mean, that's a drinker.
That's even more of a reason toopen it up.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Because when people are going to pay the kind of
money they want they wanteverything.
They want it so they can put iton their collection they're
going to pay that kind of money.
That's what they want.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I mean, I'm literally grading each bottle as a
baseball card.
Where's the fill level?
Where's the clarity?
Where's the tax trip?
Before we met today, I got acall from a gentleman.
Basically every day I get calls.
People want to sell us stuff 24hours a day.
And so guy calls me.
He's like hey, I have some oldbottles.
(19:25):
There's some old bourbon andscotch and rum and they're from
the forties, fifties and sixties.
What is it worth?
And I'm like I have no idea.
You know, send me some photosof what you got, because, like
you know, it's if I dealt inbaseball cards and you're like,
oh, I got a Mickey Mantle andyou call me.
You know, how do I know if Ihaven't seen?
Speaker 1 (19:44):
it.
Well, I got it, or they go.
I got a couple Yankees and thenI got a couple Milwaukee Braves
and I caught a couple ChicagoCubs.
Well, caught a couple ofChicago Cubs.
Well, if they're just commonsthey're still worth something.
But it's not like having theMickey Mantle.
And what would what would bethe Mickey Mantle 1953 baseball
card, mickey Mantle, worth?
You know what is it.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I mean that would probably be the like an old
Fitzgerald or something or anold Forrester from back then.
You know it's a.
It just shows you like what wehave upstairs, like if you're
looking for Magic Johnson and Ihave Larry Bird and Michael
Jordan.
I don't have your card.
So you know if I have a 53, youknow old fits and an old
Forester.
But all of a sudden you I don'tknow you want you know an early
(20:26):
times or something.
I don't, I don't have the earlytimes.
But what's funny is theForester is a better product
than early times and technicallyyou could have settled with
something better, but it doesn'tsay early times on it.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
This is yeah, and I mean I don't know.
So you do get people coming infor specific bottles all day.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yeah, I mean it's like for a birth year or you
know, like their dad drank, youknow.
Cuddy Sark or whatever you knowthey want to relive those good
times with their, their friendsand family, and so, yeah,
they're totally in search ofthat one thing, and if I don't
have it, I don't have what theywant.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Well, and then they can.
There's an aspect of it thenyou can search for them somewhat
, right, yeah, I can put them onthe list to give them a call.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
And you know, the future would be like off of our
website, like having a wish listand you kind of type typing up
to us like what you're wishingfor and then when we get it in,
it notifies you.
In a perfect world.
We're just.
We're just not there yet.
All right, this is supposed topost.
I've got a question for me.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Okay, we got Matt Lison.
I think you know Matt he's,he's watching.
But if anybody has a question,live, feel free to put it up on
the comments.
What else?
There was one other.
Yeah, like you covered theprivate, you'll do a private
event.
I mean.
(21:50):
So one of the coolest things ifyou love bourbon, whiskey,
scotch, and you want to havesomething special for your
friends.
It's from the top to the bottom, I mean, but you're going to
get a good experience, that'sthe whole thing.
So you know, you got to contact, we got the hours out there.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Now, if you're looking for a fun experience or
a fun event, I mean you couldtotally rent us out, where we're
closed to the public.
We'd have to talk about thepricing to that.
But if you're okay with stillbeing open and customers can
come in during your event,there's no like upfront cost and
you basically would you know.
If you wanted to have a budgetfor a bar tab, we can work with
you any kind of way.
(22:34):
Or if you want individuals topay for it, you know, happy to
work with folks.
We don't have food either, sowe use Ripple, which is an
awesome small bite wine shopacross the street, for catering
and charcuterie and pizza.
But you could bring, you know,jimmy John's or Kroger's or you
know however you want to foreseeyour event to be.
We can accommodate that.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
That's excellent.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
So we'll end the actual podcast and then
everybody on Facebook will goupstairs and check that out.
I'll leave you guys with.
If you're passing throughCincinnati, northern Kentucky,
put us on your list, stop by,come hang out, ask for me.
Personally, I would love togive you the tour and seriously
appreciate your time andlistening today.
All right, so.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Matt's watching and working on this.
So Randy Ford says thanks forthe information.
He looks forward to meeting youin person.
Do you have any GarrisonBrothers high rye?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Not right now, but that could change Later.
Today I could buy some bottlesand that might be one of the
bottles that comes in.
So I'm really in search of justolder spirits.
But you can't pepper this placewith tack strips because, folks
, we're the final frontier ofliquor.
I think once you've triedeverything, we have what your
(23:57):
dad drank and what your grandpadrank, and that's really what
I'm looking for.
But in the same breath of that,you know we do buy new
collections, because you can'tpepper our upstairs with
multi-thousand dollar bottlesand things that the final
frontier and people might be atlevel one still.
And so you know, we have someEagle, rare and Blantons and
unfortunately we didn't getthose from a distributor yet
(24:18):
because we haven't really builtup an allocation.
But you know, we try to be fairwith those and we can have
something that you're you know,hopefully something that you're
looking for.
And you know, maybe if we don'thave what you're looking for,
like that Garrison Brothers, Ihave 700 other bottles that
might, you know, tickle yourfancy.
You didn't know you needed.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Yeah, randy, when you come, that's probably yeah, but
Brad's capable when he's outthere.
If you put him on a search heprobably will look for it and he
lets you know.
I mean, there's no doubt whatyou come across has to be
sometimes.
So.
(24:55):
Do you ever get one of thosewhere it's just like, oh damn,
if it just would have been this.
Like it's the coolest bottle,but it's like you know, like
it's just not for the store, butyou just wish it was you know,
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Yeah, say, like a Weller Millennium would like be
a perfect bottle Like you can't.
Really, it has no secondaryvalue.
Stores are struggling to sellit for cost.
I'd love to have one of those.
It's just you know.
It would tie up a ton of ourcapital for what you know, and
so that's a great example.
(25:30):
Really, any high-end BuffaloTrace product right now that
isn't moving at all, like theDouble Eagle, rare or an OFC or
something like that, those arebottles we'd love to have.
They just really makeabsolutely no sense for me or
any business to buy them.
I don't think unless you'reProv in DC and he's got access
to the congressmen that have themoney to buy that stuff for
(25:54):
entertainment whatever.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Oh, hlq just announced the millennium.
They're gonna do threedifferent.
I saw raffle things.
That'd be a raffle.
I wouldn't be in the only theonly one.
I mean they have blanton'sgolden and, yeah, straight from
the barrel.
Okay, but the, the, thatcollection which is of the, the
(26:16):
prohibition bottles, thatspecial collection, that's like,
I believe, a grand for four orfive bottles or whatever.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
You're not even really sure what the secondary
on is.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
On, yeah, but I mean at the same time, that's the
only thing I'd be interested in,because if I had four or five
bottles and they're 250 a piece,or you know, you know, or two
then that's, that's a doablething.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
But just think about that, right, if you're lucky
enough to win that and then youwanted to resell it to me, you'd
probably want to make somethingand then I'd need to resell it.
You know, there's not much meaton the bones, it's not a
feasible thing for me.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Well, the second, the , the current secondary market.
Isn't you?
You're?
You're right, because thedistilleries and they rightfully
should have have raised theirprices on those type of bottles
where they were selling them forso low before, and then they'd
sell for $750, $1,000 onsecondary.
And people always say, well,secondary is this and secondary
(27:11):
is that, and I'm like nosecondary is you're paying
retail for a bottle of bourbonand then you're going to pay the
guy a price for getting it foryou.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Well, I'd say any bottle other than that Blanton's
.
You're basically bailing outthe Ohio liquor system just by
purchasing that.
So I would say don't buy it.
Let those come down and letthem take the hit, because you
know they've been raking in thecash for decades.
Now, like it's about to reversea little bit and I think it
needs a little bit of acorrection.
(27:40):
And you know those would bebottles I had a hard pass for me
.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Well, yeah, at this point there's no doubt, because
that market, the distilleriesare getting some of the money
and they sell them at thoseprices.
You know, it's not like thosebottles don't sell, it's just
that there's no secondary valuethen for them.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
There's a lot of liquor stores.
They're sitting on the shelves,you know, collecting dust,
tying up their capital.
So they're not going to sit onmy shelf.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
No, and what you do for people is this shop is
exactly it.
It's like you find bottles frompeople that are structurally
and visually sound and then youpresent them to people who might
want them, and there's a pricefor that one rent.
You got to pay rent to have ashop and everything to your time
(28:31):
and effort to find them.
Then your reputation that youspent years and years building,
you know, and that all has to gointo what you're purchasing,
and then you can understandwhere the price comes from you
know, well, all those bottlesthey're releasing other than the
Blanton's Gold.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
You know the Weller I'm looking for a Weller with
the tack strip, thoseProhibition bottles that are
relabeled with whateverfour-year product in there, like
I'm looking for the actualprohibition label of it.
Um, and then what was the otherone, the ofc?
I'd wanted ofc from prohibition.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
So there's literally pretty much nothing being
released today that I could evencare about well, though I I
care about the ofc a little bitbecause I I've never even like.
Like, when it got released inin ohio, the first time, I
believe, for the whole state inthe raffle was three bottles.
Yeah, it's so rare and it's solimited, limited.
(29:24):
I'd like to at least try it.
But and and I love it, butyou've actually had a bottle of
ofc pre-pro prohibition in here,right?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
yeah, we have a couple times, so I mean that's
that's what I'm now.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
That's what I would want.
That more than the new one yeahbecause I don't know is there,
is there, and I've always saidthis.
It's like I understand why theprices are what they are,
because it's it's a limitedamounts, it's it's um
availability, and then it comesdown to how old it is.
I mean, I understand it, peopledon't.
(29:58):
How old it is doesn't alwaysmean good bourbon, but it does
mean it had to sit in a barrelfor 10 years and be, you know,
taken care of, and that there'sa price to let something sit for
10 years, plus they're payingtaxes and everything on it as
they go.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
So there's always that you know, and so but you
know, you figure that could havebeen just an Eagle Rare, that's
a $40 bottle, and then they'reputting it in a bottle that
they're selling for thousands.
So I mean, it's just, it's allabout the label.
You know that's what a blind isgood for to really figure out
what you like.
And money doesn't buy.
You know money doesn't buy bur.
You know money doesn't buytaste.
(30:34):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
And it's just like collecting, yeah, I mean.
Uh, I mean, if a bourbon all ofa sudden becomes a wacky
package that you wanted backthen, which I believe was windex
, a windex wind hex it wascalled, and everybody just
wanted that one, yeah, that'skind of how bourbon works, right
every once in a while, that'sall everybody wants.
Like buffalo trace is the thecurrent?
That's all everybody wants.
(30:54):
Like Buffalo trace is the thecurrent?
That's what everybody wants.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
So a thing that's constantly asked to me is uh,
you know, hey, what should I bedrinking?
What should I be finding?
Um, I think you know, ifmaker's mark or wild turkeys
your jam and you can go toKroger liquor store and just
pick it up for 20, 30 bucks, whocares what I say?
Who cares what you say?
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Who cares what Fred Minnick says?
Like you know, buy what youlike it's personal.
Yeah, no, I mean taste issubjective, so but I will say us
and Fred Minnick and you offerup stuff that that most people
didn't even know existed, likeexactly, for instance, you know,
when you're talking about old,stubborn it's, it's a, it's a
very small brand and we presentit and we get it out there.
(31:40):
But if we didn't do that, Iwould have a problem because
nobody would know about it.
You know, you know and that's.
And if you want to get biggerand bigger, people have to know
about what you're doing, andthat's that's really kind of how
it works.
That's that's the value of ofwhat you're doing here.
Yeah, like most of those youyou show me here's a scotch from
(32:01):
1911 and I didn't, I'd neverheard of that before.
I'm not in whatever, and it'skind of like.
Then you all of a sudden it'skind of like waking yourself up
to um.
You know, you collected umbaseball cards your whole life,
but you always did tops and thenyou realized there was tobacco
cards.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
And upper deck.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, back in the whatever, when you used to buy
tobacco, you'd get the cards andit's just like that opens up a
whole new world.
If you never knew that, andthat's kind of how it is, I
think you should do the book.
You should have the collector'sguide to bourbon and just do
the whole thing, because you getthe bottles in, take pictures
(32:43):
of everyone and put it into abook.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yep, I mean, the future is incredible.
So, yeah, be on the lookout fora possible book.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, because I've seen books of just current
bourbons, or you know, and it'slike you know.
And then there's an aspect ofme getting into this as late out
for a possible book.
Yeah, because I've seen booksof just current bourbons, or
yeah, or you know, and it's likeyou know, and then there's an
aspect of me getting into thisas late, as I did so when I
started in 2019, so since 2017,I was looking at the weller, the
weller special reserve.
You got up there and thatbottle compared to what the
(33:12):
green, I'm like that's what.
And that's just 2015.
Exactly, you know, they changed.
So much has changed in 10 years, like you know weller.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Whatever isn't used goes on to be pappy, basically,
you know.
And then I set this bottle uphere, we didn't even talk about
it, but then you got stitzelweller.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
So oh my god, you can see that right here.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
and so this is the last year of this foil top.
It's a 72, 73, but uh, this isan eight-year bourbon and Pappy
died in 65.
And so this was barreled rightaround 1964, 1965.
So what's in here was made bythe smoking man and you know
it's amazing, and Pappy prettymuch today lives off the
(33:51):
coattails of this.
But as a human being, if youwant a Pappy 15 for a 40th
birthday or whatever and I don'thave that and I have this I
mean this is going to be 100times better.
But people are just blinded bywhat they want.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
That other one has the coolest label in the history
of all labels.
In my opinion, that's one ofthe reasons of its popularity,
with him smoking a cigar onthere, but he had absolutely
nothing to do with it.
Exactly, it's his brand andthey do that, but his family has
curated it throughout, whatever, but he didn't do it.
Yeah, and they do.
(34:29):
In my opinion, they do a goodjob.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Well, I feel like I'm a brand ambassador for pappy.
You know, like I'm a brandambassador for the dead, and so,
uh, you know we're like thereisn't really any uh brands that
are current, that like we'rebrand ambassadors for what was
the oldest whiskey that you'veever?
seen?
Um, well, I, I've sampled aPendennis Club 1893, 125 proof
(34:58):
bourbon before, and so that wasone of the oldest.
And I've had some bottleswithout labels that look maybe
older than that.
That could have been even older, but yeah, the Barnyard funk on
some of those and just thebutterscotch and tobacco and
brown sugar.
It basically, uh, it's like a ayou open that up, I mean the
(35:21):
smell just like takes over abuilding, so and the taste is
amazing.
It's like nothing ever made.
But each bottle is its own timecapsule and if it's hazy or
cloudy or didn't hold, um, it'llnot taste good at all.
So we've, I've been superfortunate, um, you know, to live
the dream and do what I loveand, uh, and taste stuff that
only billionaires could dream of, almost so.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Right, and and well, just as a podcaster, it's the
same thing with me.
Uh, the one thing that I I Ithink you probably learned this
too is that it seems like younever want to force it.
You just kind of let it come toyou, right?
Speaker 2 (36:01):
It's a tough thing, man, in life, because you want
it now.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Yeah, but it seems like if you sit back and let it
come to you eventuallyeverything just keeps coming and
coming.
I mean there's nights that I'vehad where just you didn't think
it was going to be anythingspecial and you end up at a bar.
You know I what was it calledhouse of commons in, uh, in
frankfurt.
We were there that night andpeople that had you know bourbon
(36:27):
on the banks they had boughtbottles that you know an auction
and they were opening them upand sharing them and I mean it
was just crazy.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
No, I think that's in life Like I've.
My wife hates it, but every dayI'm just winging it basically.
And so if you don't really havelike a rigid schedule or plan,
like what do you?
You can't be let down, you know.
And and so it's so cool, likesomeone could.
It'd be hilarious if someonewalked in and tried to sell to
me right now.
You guys would think it wouldbe planned, but you know, I
(36:57):
never know what's coming in orwho, what we're going to sell or
buy.
And so you know, we're neverreally let down and every day is
a journey and it's a fun one,man, and uh, it's so cool to
just uh do what you love andwe'll just sit here with you
today.
Man, it's like you messaged melike yesterday, like you want to
do a podcast.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
I'm like of course I threw it out there.
I mean, you know it's fine,it's funny because sometimes you
try and schedule it and theschedule won't get done.
I mean, I was booking hotelslast night because I didn't know
if I was going to be in theLouisville.
I'm after this, I'm going downto Louisville staying the night
at the Brown, and then I'mcoming back to Frankfurt
(37:33):
spending the night in Frankfurtand then Sunday morning going
back to Louisville, you know,but coming down.
And today I didn't haveanything specific planned
because, you know, I had itturned out to be Saturday when
everything was happening.
So I, like, you know, like tocome down and wing it.
And then I was just like I'mgoing to ask you can't have
something happen if you don'task, right, and here we are.
(37:55):
Well then, the person at leastthat person, when you were
talking about those tailors andwhat was the other brand?
Van Hook, van Hook, at least.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
That woman, when she saw the bottle, asked if there
was full ones, because if shewould have, oh, there you go and
just said nothing that neverwould have happened, and then
you know it just.
It's such a humbling thing thatuh people I don't even know are
telling other people to come tous, you know, and, um, what do
you pay for something like that?
There's no amount of money youcan put on uh word by mouth and
uh positive word by mouth.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
So well, you can tell , meeting you you're real.
I mean, it's all real.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
There's no snook show here.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
No, you're genuinely a great person and your
personality is perfect for this.
I mean, I feel like when Ifirst met you, I was in the what
was it Stranger Things movie,Because you got that kind of
you're wearing a hat.
I forget which hat it was.
Uh, it was green.
Yeah, the weller hat and it'sall foam and it's from the 80s
(39:00):
weller hat and I mean it wasit's the coolest hat.
But at the same time, you knowthat's just you.
That aspect of what everybodyloved about that movie is what
you bring across here.
It's retro.
You have that retro becausebourbon does have a retro aspect
of it and that collecting ofwhen we were kids, when we
weren't drinking bourbon Right.
(39:23):
Yeah, wink, wink.
No, the only stuff we weredrinking is trying to figure out
how to raise the level back upin the bottle without getting
caught right.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
I was that guy too, so that's what I have to watch
out for.
Luckily, every deal we dohappens here, so I'm not getting
anything shipped to me oranything like that, and so we
have to inspect every singlebottle and the integrity of it,
because I was that kid that Irefilled all my parents' stuff
with water.
Who knows what the hell I putin there, they got to bring it
to you.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
That's the rule.
That's how you stay out oftrouble completely.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yeah, in the state of Kentucky, the transaction has
to happen here at our premise.
So yeah, it's a pain point forus, but you know we want to stay
on the up and up.
If it's the right deal, you justfly them in, Well and you and
just to give my business partnera shout out.
So Shannon Smith and I are theowners here, and so it's a
(40:21):
really good yin and yang becauseI get to have a lot of fun and
she keeps me legal.
So having an alcohol beverageattorney, pay our taxes and do
our payroll and we actually havea house bill.
We're trying to change thevintage spirit law and we can
only buy 24 bottles a year, andso we're trying to make it to
(40:41):
where we can buy more, not onlyfor us but for neat bourbon bar,
justin's, house of Bourbon andWatch Hill Proper any of them.
You know we want to.
We want to make the law morefriendly to a place like this
because as the law sits, likeyou know, if I can only buy 24
and you have a thousand bottles,like we're going to lose tax
revenue and tourism to sellingon Facebook or whatever.
I mean.
It is what it is, but you know,when you take it to this level,
like we talked earlier, this isthe hardest thing that the path
of least resistance for me is mymom and dad making me peanut
(41:02):
butter jelly sandwiches andusing their wifi at their house
and having no rent to pay andhaving Penske truck shipped in
and and shipping those productsout and buying all my parents,
neighbors Ferraris, you know,and it's like what the hell am I
doing here with the rent andthe payroll, jesus Christ?
So but no, we're navigatingthis for to ship.
You know to do things the rightway and you know I don't want
(41:23):
my assets taken.
I don't want to be the IRSlooking into us or you know, the
ATF or the alcohol beveragecontrol, and so at the end of
the day, if you were alwaysdoing the right thing, there's
nothing to worry about, you know.
So my only worry is making mypayroll and being fair to my
customers and fair to myemployees.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Yeah, and come down, because it's an experience just
like any other bourbon thing.
When you go to a distillery orwhatnot.
When you come here to revival,it's an experience.
Um, there, there you can meetpeople, People that come off.
They also have release partiesfor some of the single barrels.
Also, you'll have distillershere talking about their
(42:02):
whiskeys we just had.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Ian with MGP, or Ross Squibb was just here this week
and we've had New Riff and theNeelys and Stephen Fonte and
Bernie Lovers week and we've had, you know, new Riff and the
Neelys and Stephen Fonte andBernie Lovers and so, uh, you
know, if you're listening andyou have a small distillery or
you don't feel like you'regetting the word out enough,
like you know, give us a shout,we're.
McBrayers yeah, the McBrayers.
Uh, we love Bill and his fatherand uh, we're the pickup
(42:25):
destination for that brand.
You know, and uh ask, pocketwhiskeykey.
My homie, derek Trucks, youknow super passionate vintage
spirit guy and bourbon guy andlaunched a brand and we're one
of the few in the United Statesto carry that.
So you know, if you're a smallguy out there, reach out.
We're happy to talk to you andwe'd love to have you down and
(42:45):
do a little event and carry yourproduct here in my bottle shop.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
So, all right, everybody that's perfect, and
carry your product here in mybottle shop.
All right, everybody that'sperfect.
My man,wwwscotchybourbonboyscom, make
sure that you check us out foreverything we got Glen Cairns.
We got t-shirts.
Also, remember Facebook,instagram, youtube and X, and
then also Apple, iheart andSpotify.
No matter what you watch orlisten, make sure you like,
(43:11):
listen, subscribe, comment andleave good feedback.
Remember good bourbon andwhiskey and spirits equals good
times with good friends.
Make sure you drink responsibly, don't drink and drive and live
your life uncut and unfiltered.
Little Steve-O will take us out.
(43:31):
No, yes, an unfiltered littlesteve-o will take us out.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
No, yes, let's try it one more time.
There we go.
Oh, show me the way to the nextwhiskey bar.
Oh, don't ask why.
Oh, don't ask why, show me.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Oh, I'm just going to end it anyways.
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