Serve Honorably, Drink Honorably: The Four Branches Bourbon Story

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Four veterans from different military branches share how they created Four Branches Bourbon with a mission to honor fallen comrades and change the narrative around veterans and alcohol consumption through their message of "serve honorably, drink honorably."

• Four Branches was founded by veterans from the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force—the only spirits company with founders from all four branches
• The brand's origin connects to fallen CIA operative Greg, whose death 20 years ago inspired the founders to create a way to remember those who didn't return
• Their mantra "don't drink to forget, sip to remember" encourages responsible consumption that honors memories rather than escapes them
• The Continental Bourbon celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Continental Army, Navy and Marines with a 9-year Kentucky straight bourbon bottled at 102 proof
• Every aspect of the bottle design contains symbolism, from the four-sided shape to the "4" logo that represents all branches and those who serve "at the tip of the spear"
• Four Branches donates 4% of gross revenue, with donated bottles having raised over $450,000 for veterans' charities and families

• Gregg Snyder master distiller has been hired as another piece of this amazing puzzle! 

Visit fourbranchescom to order online in 39 states or find Four Branches Bourbon in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, DC, Maryland, Florida, and Arizona.

Bourbon carries stories within its amber depths—but rarely stories as powerful as those behind Four Branches. When veterans from the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force united to create a spirits company, they brought with them a mission that transcends the bottle.

Four Branches began with a moment of reflection. Rick Trott, one of the four founders, haunted by memories of bringing home fallen comrades from combat zones, envisioned creating a bourbon to honor their sacrifice. What started as a simple tribute evolved into something extraordinary when the founders realized they represented each major military branch—a combination unprecedented in the spirits industry. Their backgrounds in special operations and intelligence shaped not just their approach to business but their core philosophy: "Serve honorably, drink honorably."

This isn't marketing jargon. It stems from profound experience with the devastation of veteran suicide and substance abuse. As Mike Franco another one of the founders poignantly explains, "We don't drink to forget—we sip to remember." This perspective transforms each pour into an opportunity for reflection rather than escape. Their Continental Bourbon, crafted to commemorate the 250th anniversary of America's first military branches, embodies this ethos. The nine-year Kentucky straight bourbon, bottled at 102 proof with a precisely balanced mashbill, carries within it centuries of American military tradition.

What truly distinguishes Four Branches is their commitment to giving back. They donate 4% of gross revenue—a significant portion that demonstrates their priorities extend beyond profit margins. Their donated bottles have raised over $450,000 for veterans' charities in just two years. The bottle itself, with its four-sided design and meticulously crafted logo, contains hidden military symbolism that rewards the observant consumer with deeper meaning.

Experience what happens when honor meets craftsmanship in a glass. Whether you're a veteran

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Speaker 2 (00:51):
All right, welcome back to another podcast of the
Scotchy Bourbon Boys.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Welcome everybody.
Great one, great podcast.
We'vechy Bourbon Boys.
Welcome everybody.
Great one, great podcast.
We've got a special one foreverybody.
We've got Greg Schneiderreturning from a brief what
would you call it transition andwe've got Rick Trotter and Mike

(02:25):
.
No, mike Trotter and RickFranco.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
Rick Franco, mike Trotter and Rick Franco.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Welcome everybody for Four Branches Bourbon.
Their brand is kind of new andwe're excited for them to be
coming on tonight Perhaps, yeah,but we also have Super Nash.
Thanks for being here.
We also have Super Nash.

(02:52):
I didn't want to miss you.
Yeah, Super Nash, to get here.
You've gone through a littlebit of something in the last
little bit.
Why don't you just quick telleverybody about how something a
tree fell on your house?

Speaker 5 (03:09):
yeah, I had about 130 foot oak tree uh fall on the
back of my house, across theback deck, across the whole back
middle of my house and acrossthe the whole top gable of the
house.
So, yeah, caused a lot ofdamage but thankfully nobody was

(03:31):
hurt.
We were here during the nightabout 3.30 in the morning during
high winds and a lot ofdownpour, rain and pretty much
that's probably what caused it,but thankfully nobody was hurt
or pets were hurt.
So we were all safe andeverything can be repaired.

(03:51):
And that's the headaches thatI've been kind of going through
the last four or five days wasthe insurance adjuster and a lot
of contractors and all thatcoming out doing estimates and
everything.
But everything's going to befixed and taken care of.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
I'm glad everybody's safe yeah, for sure, that was
the first thing.
Uh, I saw pictures on facebookthat morning and I'm like, oh my
god, and yeah, and then yeah,and then uh, greg, welcome,
welcome back into the into therealm of taking your place as
the most attended person.

(04:32):
You've now gone up to 11, andyou've taken the lead for being
on as a guest and we appreciateyou so much.
That's one of my goals in life,jeff, you know for having being
on as a guest and we appreciateyou so much.

Speaker 6 (04:46):
That's one of my goals in life, Jeff See, I can't
let Alan, you know, surpass meon that.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
So You're doing a great job, Greg, I mean you both
left me in such a lurch becausemy two main guests that I had
on consistently both pretty muchleft where they were and ended
up.
Now.
At least you're ending up in abrand where you're just where
we're putting bottles that youknow.
Alan started all overcompletely and he's just.

(05:16):
You know, before he it's goingto be a couple of years before
some of his whiskey comes backon the shelf, but that's neither
here nor there.
But thank you for coming back onagain and the whole in-between
time.
You know we've got to go toOmori two times and I never felt
that.
You know you never were gone tome.

Speaker 6 (05:37):
No, as you know, it's always a pleasure.
You guys are so on the earthand I've always enjoyed being a
part of the Scotchie BourbonBoys and your podcast and I'm
trying to listen in quitefrequently to see what's going
on with other brands and themarket in general.
So again, it's a pleasure to beback and it's such a privilege
and an honor to be here tonightwith Four Branches.
You know the two guests we'vegot on tonight Rick Franco and

(05:59):
Mike Trott.
They're two of the fourco-founders of Four Branches
Bourbon.
Rick Franco and Mike Trottthey're two of the four
co-founders of Four BranchesBourbon.
As you mentioned earlier, jeff,it's a young brand but it's an
amazing brand, amazing history,amazing story and hopefully
these guys will have time toshare that with your listeners
tonight All right Welcome.

Speaker 5 (06:19):
Welcome, Rick and Mike.
Thanks for being here andtaking time out of your schedule
.
I know how it is being the lastfew years in the podcast and
the whiskey and bourbon industry.
I know how you guys are so busyand tied up with things and
just to take this time out is apleasure and an honor.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
Thank you, thank you.
We appreciate it.
I mean, this is how getting ourstory out there takes guys like
you, so we owe it to you.
So thank you very much,appreciate it.
And the only question I have isSuper Nash, are you going to be
making barrels out of that treelaying across your house?

Speaker 5 (06:57):
Actually, the tree has already been taken away,
it's already been spoken for andbecause insurance people.
When I talk to them on Sunday,they say you've got to get it
out of here and all this.
So I wished I could have, butno, the contractors already took
it away and all that.

(07:17):
So there won't be no barrelmade out of that one.

Speaker 4 (07:20):
That's too bad.

Speaker 5 (07:21):
That's a shame.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
I'm glad everybody's okay yeah so who wants to go
first?
Mike rick?
Uh, let's just talk about,let's just right off the bat how
did, how did you guys meet andmeet up all four of you to form
a, uh, the?
Brand.
I mean it's a it's uh, there's abit.

(07:44):
There's a lot of veteran owneddistilleries and that type of
thing, but you know, you'retalking about all four branches
of the military.
And then, in your prime, inthis bottle right here, you're
talking about the 250thanniversary.
But you know how?
How did it start?

Speaker 3 (08:03):
I'll answer that one.
I needed some.
So, to your point, right, we'rethe only, as far as we know,
we're the only spirits companyin America, and I'm going to
venture to say the world, maybethe world, maybe the world
founded by four veterans fromfour different branches of the
military.
Yes, there are five or six,there are six branches now, but

(08:24):
we just happen to be from fourbranches the military.
And this all started, you know,you can argue to say that this
started 20, some odd years ago.
Almost 30 years ago, the seedswere planted for the founding of
four branches.
For the founding of fourbranches, and that is I was.
30 years ago, I enlisted as aMarine and then I went to

(08:48):
Virginia Military Institute as acadet.
I was at school with anothercadet and you become friends.
And then I got commissioned asa Marine infantry officer and my
buddy Greg we were at CampLejeune together, second
lieutenants, running arounddoing what?
second lieutenants do, which isusually dumb shit, but uh,
deployed quite a bit, uh, andthen I got, I got out of the

(09:09):
Marine Corps, uh, and then gotrecruited into a special program
from the CIA as a contractor.
And 20 years ago I recruitedGreg into that same uh, same
department, same program.
Right, and this isn't one thatyou can just apply to, not as a
kind of, so you have to bevouched for and it's, it's, it

(09:31):
is you, you have to be in thebrotherhood, in the circle to
get into it, right, you have tobe vetted and vouched for.
So I vouched for greg, Irecruited him, got him come on
the program and then, uh, like Isaid, 20 years ago this year,
december 7th, he went on hisfirst mission day.
One night, one out the wire, uhand his team came in contact,

(09:53):
and so then they, they basedmaneuvers, they returned fire,
they did everything right andgreg saved everyone's life.
But greg didn't come back thatnight, and then I got the phone
call to go bring him home.
So I flew across, uh, the pondand brought him and 12 other
american patriots home thatnight.
And then, uh, greg was given astar on the wall, uh, at langley

(10:20):
cia headquarters.
We've all seen the movies withthe stars on the wall, right, so
he.
So he was the first contractorfrom our particular program.
It was a rather big deal.
And then since that time, therehave been five more gentlemen
most I've known eitherpersonally and worked with, or
knew by reputation, because it'sa very small organization

(10:43):
within the CIA that we were apart of.
So now there are now stars onthe wall too.
So let's fast forward threeyears ago.
I guess three years ago.
Let's fast forward to threeyears ago.
Guys, I tell us a lot,supernatant, tiny.
If you hear voices in your head, I'm going to tell you 99 of

(11:05):
time.
Don't listen to him.
Probably a bad idea.
Right, every now and then onewill make sense, all right, and
this one, I remember it clear asclear as day I still have a day
job, my job, going from the dayjob, and it's like you should
do a barrel bar, like, just do abarrel bourbon for the guys in
the unit, the old unit.
I thought that would be.
I thought in my infinite wisdomthat it would be super easy to

(11:26):
do.
Right, you can buy a littlebarrel, get some glass, got a
printer right here, I'll slapsome stickers on and you know
what?
I can sell this on facebook andthe guys will buy it up in a
heartbeat and I'm done.
Uncle sam will come a knockingif you try that.
That's a public safetyannouncement.
Oh, we're well aware of that sothen that's how.

(11:53):
That's how.
Then I, you know, I realized,okay, plan a's failed, let me go
to plan b.
Let me call mike.
Mike and I had worked togetheruh in the past and mike's son
and I were actually deployed onthe same uh base in the same ao,
ao for the same organization atone time.
So I called Mike and said, hey,this is my idea, what do you
think?
And we started talking andoriginally it was you guys still

(12:16):
there.
Did I lose?
No, you're good.
Oh, no, you're good.
Okay, all right, my earbudsmade a sound.
Good, okay, all right, that's,my earbuds made a sound.
Um.
So we started talking and youknow we affectionately like to
say, well, let's call, you know,let's, let's call harold.
Harold's a 33 year retiredcommand master chief from the
seal teams.
He spent a number of thoseyears in uh, in seal team six,

(12:41):
um.
So we said everybody needs anavy seal these days.
Harold's the guy and I alwayscredit mike with this one on big
brain, air force, look at me,rockets and all this other stuff
.
Um, he's like wait a minute,I'm air force, you're a marine.
We got navy guy.
If we get one more guy, therecould be four of us and so a
mutual friend that uh, bothharold mike and I knew uh

(13:06):
connected us, rj and we.
You know I like toaffectionately call rj as our
army guy, I like to call him ourunderachiever, because he
started as a green beret andthen at age 39 he took the air
force pararescue selection test,which is like going to buds or
becoming a ranger at 39 yearsold, and he still holds the

(13:27):
record and he's 56, 57.
He's still jumping and diving.
So that's kind of how the fourbranches came together.
And then, you know, you gotfour guys who spent careers
doing all sorts of stuff allover the world, not in this
industry at all.
We, so we did what we do best iswe sought out subject matter

(13:51):
experts on how to start puttingthis together and doing the
research.
Right, we come fromintelligence backgrounds,
starting doing the research, dowhat we know how to do and uh,
this will play into and thenI'll shut my suck and let mike
talk for a minute.
This this plays into how ourmessaging came around right,
because we are for veterans,we've dealt with veteran suicide

(14:15):
, first responder suicide and wedidn't know if we wanted to be
a part of a, an industry and a,you know, a part of an industry
that obviously influences baddecisions.
It can, it has that ability todo right, and we've seen that.
So we had what I call a crisisof conscience where we took a

(14:37):
step back because we'd lost somefriends the year that we were
putting it together and was like, okay, let's, let's do a little
soul searching, self-analysis.
Are we going to do this?
And I won't speak, I'll speakcollectively, but I'll speak for
myself.
More so is that, you know.
The answer for me was we'venever in our careers back down

(14:58):
from a fight.
We have had very atypicalcareers and we've done things
very differently.
So we said at least let's takethat approach to the industry
and let's do something that'snot been done before From our
standpoint.
Let's try our hardest to changethe narrative within the spirits
industry as it relates toveterans, military first

(15:23):
responders and, I would argue tosay, anybody right as a
collective, and that message ison every bottle, and that is
that's where I serve honorably.
Everybody serves the community.
Whether you're in the military,law enforcement or not, it
doesn't matter, we all servesomething, and I think that's
the one thing that we can allagree on as a unified, we all

(15:44):
serve something, so we say servehonorably.
And if you drink or choose todrink and we say choose to,
because we put this out a lot Ifyou're sober, stay sober.
Everyone out there.
If you don't drink, don't start.
But, you know, what you have aseat at our campfire always, and
we say drink honorably.
That is not drink responsibly,that's a different message.

(16:05):
A very important message isdrink responsibly.
For us, the drink honorably isif you're the last one to come
home from downrange soldier orless police officer, from a call
last firefighter out of theburning house, whatever it may
be, just all the memories of themen and women that didn't come
back.
We personally are lucky to besitting here right, but more

(16:28):
important than that, becausethey're gone, don't decide your
own memory.
We see that far too often andthat's what we hope.
That the drink army gives menand women a chance to pause,
reflect, right, and then that'swhere it leads into.
We don't drink to forget becausewe've done that in our careers

(16:51):
and lives.
Rather, we choose now to sit toremember, and that is the
message that we are reallyputting out there.
As a brandon, it's not justsipping to remember the gggs in
our lives, sipping to remember aretirement, a ceremony, four
guys getting together on apodcast for the first time,
having some great bourbon andtelling stories.

(17:12):
You pick those moments is whatwe tell people.
You pick the moments in life wehave a lot to be grateful for
and a lot of moments to sip toremember.
So that, in a nutshell, is howyou know Team Four Branches came
together and what our missionis and what our why is.

Speaker 5 (17:32):
That is so awesome.
That is one of the beststatements that I think I've
heard since I've been in thisindustry and doing all these
podcasts, and thank you, rick,for sharing that.
That's honorable.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
We live what's in the bottles right, it's passion.
This is us.
We're putting ourselves and oursouls into this.
It's not a hobby.
Mike says if we wanted a hobby,we'd be making chairs.

Speaker 4 (18:03):
That's something I planned on doing at 62 years old
.

Speaker 3 (18:08):
We always question who's the smartest one here?
Now, right?

Speaker 4 (18:13):
It's the youngest one .
It's the youngest one.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
But they talk about like a bourbon or a whiskey
lifestyle they're drinking orthe friends, the family they're

(18:49):
drinking for, rememberingspecial occasions.
It's kind of like when you goout on a Friday night onto your
back porch and you put a bourbonin your glass and you just sit
by the fire and you slow downand take time and appreciate the
things that are so great inlife but also then remember the

(19:14):
people you know, remembering thepeople that are no longer with
you or what you know.
And there's so many times thatbourbon is involved with, let's
say, an older family member atone point that you shared a pour
with, or an older person that'sno longer with us.
And you know, greg, you knowhow that goes the most because

(19:34):
you've been in the bourbonindustry for so long and so many
of those pours that you hadwith some of the people in the
industry that are so you knowpart of the lore.
You never forget that andthat's you guys have taken that
aspect and you know everybodyfigures out their own path and

(19:56):
it's really kind of cool to seethe path that you guys are on
and what bourbon means to youand what you're trying to put
out there and we agree with.
That's why.
That's why me and Super Nashand CT, who's part of it, and my
wife, that's why we're in this,because it's not it's not so
much the bourbon itself, it'sthe people that you're spending
the time with.
That it brings you together andthat usually doesn't.

(20:20):
You know there's a lot of.
You know whiskey can be manydifferent things, but when
you're talking about thatlifestyle that you guys are
living, that's exactly.
You know what you said and Iagree with Super Nash how you
put it.
That's probably the best I'veheard it.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
Yeah it sure is that's a thin line right between
whiskey and bourbon.
Right, it's obviously very thin, but we've always said bourbon
is even more so than whiskey.
I don't know why, it's justinteresting, right.
Bourbon, to me and to us, is areflective spirit.
You mentioned that.
You know it's just sitting andyou're having these sips, these

(20:58):
small sips, and you'reremembering great times and
interesting moments and maybeit's untrue but I just don't see
myself just pounding downwhiskey to get crazy.
Bourbon is something unique andinteresting and maybe similar
to scotch as well.
But no, we appreciate that andhopefully, you know, more than
anything is that message doesget spread across and we've

(21:21):
always said, from day one, if wecan take one guy who's sitting
at the bar, who's a veteran orfirst responder and he knows
he's drinking too much and hehears this message or maybe he
sees that drink honorably on abottle and he goes you know what
I'm not doing that he turns andwalks away and we can save one
life.
Because I can tell you, rickand I and rj and harold, we've

(21:42):
done thousands and thousands oftastings now and when we tell
people to drink honorably, don'tdrink to forget, sip to
remember, and 50% of the peoplestart to tear up.
You know you're striking anerve and we're okay to hit that
nerve because if we can save afew lives and still enjoy our

(22:02):
freedoms and have a sip ofbourbon now and then it's a
win-win in our category.
Absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, and the friendships, Mike.
What part of the story did Rickmiss about how you got involved
in this or why?

Speaker 4 (22:25):
I don't think he missed as much.
Honestly, I mean it didn't.
You know what we'll say whenRick called and he goes hey, you
know I'm thinking about doingthis.
He mentioned Greg.
You know, right off the bat,we've all got our Greg's in our
lives, as far as a lot of usveterans.
And you know, johnny Mike Spannwas the very first american

(22:46):
killed in afghanistan after 9-11.
You can google him.
He's known as casualty numberone.
Um november, two months afterseptember 11th, special
activities division of cia, hepushed out with a small team to
get into afghanistan to look forbin laden um.
After that, I was in aneighboring country when we got

(23:06):
the word that Johnny was killedin a fight as well and, like
Rick, I was dispatched to gobring him home to his wife and
young child.
So probably 15 seconds intoRick telling me his story, I'm
like dude, okay, well, I'm in,this is easy, let's do this.
And the same thing we calledharold and harold's.

(23:28):
You know harold said the samething.
You know, guys, I don't need to, you don't need to tell me the
long story, I'm into this.
You know how many guys I've hadto put in in body bags and
bring home under that flag,draped coffin, and then rj, and
we called rj.
He was filming and he's a.
He also is a uh, an advisor indifferent movies and he was
filming a movie with ChrisHemsworth in Prague action too,

(23:50):
and we get him on the phone.
That's the probably the commontheme.
Less than 10 seconds, everybodywas like I get it, let's do
this, how do we do it?
And then every one of us havehad to bring those guys and gals
home.
So that's that's the commonthread.
None of us have had to bringthose guys and gals home.
So, that's the common thread.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
So is the second hardest thing that you've done,
besides bring your friends home,is it starting a bourbon brand?

Speaker 4 (24:19):
Yes, 100%.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
It is incredibly difficult, right?
I joke facetiously thatsometimes it's easier to get
shot at than start a bourboncompany.
It's a lot easier to get shotat, because you can shoot back
this one guys.
It'd be like hey, super Nash,tomorrow I need you to perform
brain surgery.
Go, yeah, right, yeah, exactly.

(24:47):
So it's taken us, you know,three years, right, a year, a
year to ramp up, almost like six, eight months to ramp up, and
now two years, we're in market.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
To your point.
You know we just came out theday that Jeff Hotmayer he's
joined our team as an investor.
Jeff, you may know of the name,jeff Hotmayer.
He's joined our team as aninvestor.
Jeff, you may know of the name,jeff Hotmayer.
He was on Barstown BourbonCompany's board.
He was the founder of Brindiamo.
He's been in this industry for along time as well, but he was
the very first person we spoketo three and a half years ago.

(25:18):
We're like, hey, you know, rickreached out to him and Jeff
said hey, why don't you guyscome to Nashville, come to the
house and let's talk?
And all four of us went toNashville.
We sat at his dining room tableand he spent two hours trying
to talk us out of it Legitimate.
He's like, guys, this is atough industry, it's crowded,
it's expensive, especially backthen.

(25:40):
Bourbon at that time wasrunning $3,000 to $4,000 a
barrel right around COVID.
He's like I would run, not walk, this is too hard.
And then, after you know, twohours and you got four
knuckleheads and we're likewe've been through hard times
before, this is not that bad.
He's like, okay, I can see youguys are not going to take no
for an answer.

(26:01):
Here's what you need to do.
And he kind of lined out whatwe needed to do and you know we
were, we took his advice and we,you know, surrounded ourselves
with some really great people.
You know we got johnny manuelfrom a retired brown foreman
executive.
He's one of our executive coach40 years with brown foreman.
And you know nick nelson, heran woodford reserve for many

(26:22):
years.
Tim Condon was a CFO for BrownForeman.
He was with Rabbit Hole.
And then we were fortunateenough to meet up with Greg
through a mutual relationshipwith Mark Irwin at Bardstown.
And just, you know, I got tosay the community, we're not
used to that.
The first six months we werelike something's weird man.

(26:43):
Everybody's willing to talk toyou, everybody's willing to help
you.
And Rick and I don't come fromthat world.
I mean I spent 10 years withthe Air Force and 10 years at
the CIA and you don't trustanybody and we would always have
this conversation.
The four of us were likesomething's weird man.
Everybody's like nice,everybody's open, everybody's
giving you really good advice,introducing you to other people.

(27:03):
We're like this is somethingwrong.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
It took us a year to warm up.

Speaker 5 (27:11):
That's exactly what we found with the six years that
we've been in the whiskeypodcasting industry.
Everybody we've met in thewhiskey and bourbon industry I
mean they are so nice andwilling to talk and help you out
, especially like Greg.
He was one of the first onesand he has introduced us to so

(27:34):
many people and set us on theright path and gave us the right
information, introduced us tothe right people, and every one
of them has been willing to talkwith us or come on to the
podcast or introduce us to thenext person along our path.
And that is amazing what thewhiskey and bourbon world is and

(27:59):
what they do for you.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, I have to agree with what you were saying.
You, yeah, I have to agree withwhat you were saying Initially.
I've done a couple differentthings throughout my life and
every industry.
You kind of make your friendsbut you kind of have competition
and you have all this stuffgoing on.
And then when you experiencethe urban industry, especially
in the Bardstown area, and thenyou expand out to Frankfurt and

(28:25):
in the Kentucky area, the peopleis what you might start out,
the bourbon might get youstarted, but the actual
relationships and the peoplethat you meet is really what you
stay for.
I mean, that's you know.
And then it's not just thepeople within the industry, it's

(28:46):
also the.
Then you start to meet thepeople who also drink bourbon
and whiskey.
The way that you do that, all ofa sudden you know you spend
your life making friends, butthey're far and few.
You know they might be peoplethat you know, especially you
guys in the military.
You've made lots of friends ofthe people that you've gone to

(29:08):
combat with and everything.
But at the same time, outsideof that, how many friends do you
make?
And the same thing with me, Iprobably had three or four
really good friends and that was.
You know, everybody else waskind of acquaintances and then
all of a sudden I get into thisand I start making, I mean,
legitimate friends.
I consider Greg a friend.
I mean, these are people thatyou want to.

(29:29):
You want to travel five hoursdown into Kentucky as much as
you possibly can to spend timewith, and that's not normal
within any in any industry.
It's not definitely like yousaid, in in the military, it's
you know.
But also in most industries.
Besides the people that you'reworking with directly, you're in
competition, and in the bourbonindustry, it seems like

(29:52):
nobody's in actual competition,even though they are in
competition, but they're only incompetition with themselves.
They don't compete against eachother.
Bourbon, and you know whatyou're doing and you put it-
where it is they.
Everybody seems to just acceptthat.
So they become one industry andI think it's also because of
the fact that they've beenaround for so long and seen the

(30:14):
ups and downs and it's all ofit's.
It's, uh, all about history andyou know, even the new people
coming in are making history.
You know there's brands comeand go.
There's so many brands thathave left, but then, as what
Greg's former you know, herevitalized, you know, the
Chicken Cock brand and you knowthat's the part that I've loved

(30:37):
this so much and you guysexpressed it and then you put it
in a bottle.

Speaker 4 (30:44):
Right?
No, you said it perfectly.
I think it's.
Everybody's got their own rootstory, whether you're from Texas
or Washington or Colorado.
We've reached out and to yourpoint.
I have no problem throwing allkinds in there.
Ryan out of 10th MountainDivision has got some great
bourbon and whiskeys and they'vebecome really good friends of
ours.
There's not too many brands inthat veteran space and we're

(31:06):
proud of those guys and whatthey're doing.
And we're all the same family.
But I come from the hills ofKnoxville, tennessee.
I graduated a small schoolwhere Kenny Chesney and Morgan
Wallen graduated.
My grandparents grew up likefive miles from Dolly Parton, so
I'm about as Scotchy as you get.
But there's something about theroots of that kentucky.

(31:28):
My grandmother was fromfrankfurt, kentucky.
We went down to visit castleand key and as we're driving
down into holler to see thatplace and we're frankfurt, I'm
like, holy crap, my grandmotherwas born here like in the 1890s,
and I'm like, oh gee, here I am.
Here I am, you know, sippingsome, some bourbon down here.
It's just, it is a family, it'sa weird family and I've got to

(31:49):
tell you we were scared,reckless, when you see a
thousand different brands on theshelf and we're like how do we
fit into this?
yeah it's complicated, it's kindof scary, right, but uh, your
point, you carve your niche, youtell your story and a lot of
great people around you arewilling to help raise your brand

(32:10):
up and help you tell your storyand give you some instructions
and some good advice.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
And it's been a welcomed uh, it's been a welcome
, it's refreshing it isrefreshing, but I'll follow up
on that story with jeff a yearlater, when we were at our
launch party, mike in barstown.
So we all we invited all ourinvestors had a big launch party
.
We just launched a.
Everyone got their bottle.

(32:35):
It was a.
It was a, a really nice deal.
Later that evening jeff pullsme aside.
He goes I didn't think you guyswould do it.
He did say that yeah I was like,seriously, but we're sometimes
we're too stupid to quit andit's a no, it's a no-fail
mission for us, right?
This this is you have missionsin the military which you can't

(32:58):
fail, just you can't, it's notgoing to happen.
And for us, this is one of them.
Getting our message out there.
Putting excellent juice in abottle right, because everyone
will buy I think that I sayeveryone.
Most people will support aveteran cost once, but if it
tastes like mud water of a pond,they'll never buy it again.

(33:21):
Bond, they'll never buy itagain.
Yeah, right, so we knew twothings.
One, it has to be better thangood because it's got our names
attached to it, right.
I come from a school of thoughtwhere only thing at the end of
the day you have is your name,so I want to make sure it's got
our names.
But, more important than that,it's got the names, got the

(33:43):
names of those that didn't comehome attached to it.
So it had to be good.

Speaker 4 (33:50):
We were fortunate, to Rick's point, to have Steve
Nally lend his name initiallywhen we made our first, Because
we went in, as you know, we weregreen, we didn't know what we
were doing and we sat down withSteve Nally from Barstown and of
course, everybody knows SteveNally.
Oh yeah, super great guy.
He is like grandfather.
I love that guy to death.
He took us in under his wingand led us and directed us and

(34:12):
helped us make that foregrain.
And we owe a lot to Steve wereally do.
And then to be introduced toGreg because we knew we couldn't
own Steve the rest of ourcareer.
Steve has another home.
But then to be introduced toGreg and to have his wisdom to
come on, because, to Rick'spoint, anytime we raise a glass

(34:34):
of toast in honor of our fallenour friend, to his point pardon
my French it can't be shit, itjust can't be.
It's got to be good bourbon.
So that's why you've gregsnyder sitting here making sure,
making sure that we always putgood bourbon in our bottles but
you can also know I will vouchfor greg because I've been with

(34:55):
him.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
he's been a part of us, for I would say he was
within the first, so we've beenaround.
This is our sixth season andcoming up on six years, so about
five and a half years, and,greg, when you picked him, I
will vouch for it.
You picked somebody who's goingto do exactly what you need him

(35:16):
to do and understands theindustry so well.
He understands the bourbondrinkers, he understands all the
stuff that goes around withmarketing and what has to go,
and you know, and he's, he justhas a knack for it.
So you guys made a really gooddecision when you were talking

(35:37):
about not failing.
He is, will and I know will bea key to make sure that you guys
succeed.

Speaker 4 (35:47):
Greg's already brought tremendous value in just
a few months, so a hundredpercent.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
He does.
I mean, I've been on the roadwith him and he does some
phenomenal things.

Speaker 4 (35:59):
And he's sexy.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Just look at him, he's a great looking guy he's
sexy, just look at him, he's agood looking guy.
I mean also for a guy that anon-military guy.

Speaker 5 (36:10):
He's definitely the most military looking of anybody
, right?
He's absolutely, if you put.

Speaker 4 (36:13):
He's always working out and hiking, hiking if you
put him in a lineup of five ofus the four of us and greg and
said, okay, which one's uh navy,sealal or Marine, everybody's
going to say I think it's Greg,yeah.

Speaker 5 (36:29):
Agreed, the old fat one.

Speaker 4 (36:33):
You ain't fat, brother, you ain't fat.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
So, greg, so talk about, we're here for this
bottle right here, and the FourBranches bourbon, the 250th
anniversary bottle, which youguys, I have sent off samples.
Super Nash got a couple ofbottles, you know, got to him.
I'm going to be tasting.

(36:57):
I've smelled it, but I'm goingto be tasting it with you guys
right now for the first time.
I waited, I have patience.
Super Nash never had it, he hasno patience.

Speaker 5 (37:11):
I broke into mine a week ago when all three I
ordered three of them.
I got the free pack and alsogot my commemorative coin along
with it.
Very nice.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
I got mine also and thank you.

Speaker 5 (37:27):
A little bit later on , when we get done with all this
.
I've got a little bit of icingon the cake to share with
everybody here.
Let's go on and let's talkabout this bourbon Greg.

Speaker 6 (37:42):
Let me start off by talking a little bit about
business strategy and core brand.
I think both Mike and Rickalluded to our core brand is a
four grain bourbon.
It's kind of synonymous withthe four branches, symbolic of
the four branches of themilitary which these guys

(38:02):
represent and kind of built thebrand on.
And so in today's market, asyou guys know, the growth, the
demand for bourbon is softenedup.
It's still strong but thepremium has softened up a little
bit.
Well, for the last 12 to 15years the production of bourbon

(38:23):
has far exceeded what the salesforecast was ever going to be.
And I mean I remember six yearsago, steve Thompson.
I don't know if you rememberSteve Thompson.
He was one of the co-foundersof Kentucky Artisan Distillery.
He was my boss at Brown Foreman.
He was the president of BrownForeman Beverage Company when I
worked at Brown Foreman, but Iwent by, I think it was 2018.

(38:47):
And Steve and I just gottogether one afternoon.
I wanted to see his operation.
He said, greg, he says where'sall this going?
I said what do you mean?
He says if you take the salesforecast and he had solid data
he said look at the salesforecast.
And even if that sales forecastis off 10%, on the low side, he
said this production farexceeds what the sales forecasts

(39:08):
are going out eight, 10 yearsfrom now.
He was right.
And he says got to hit a wallsometime.
Nobody just knew when that wallwas going to hit, so it's never
really hit the wall.
But today there's so muchsurplus of inventory of aged
barreled whiskey that the priceshave dramatically come down.

(39:29):
So, from a great intelligentbusiness strategy, there's an
opportunity to go out and findgood quality aged whiskey that
we can source, can acquire andbottle under the name, and so
that's.
That's the key thing.
Number one, as these guys said,it's gotta be good quality,
good, high quality bourbon.
Number one.

(39:49):
Number two you know you justcan't go around spot market.
You gotta have sustainableinventory.
So the key is go and find a goodenough inventory to sustain
your sales going out for futureyears.
So that's an important elementof it too.
So it's a unique businessstrategy.
A lot of companies are kind ofshifting that way because of the

(40:11):
evolution of the current market, and so you know we do a
four-grain bourbon that nextyear is going to evolve into
something that's a four-graindistillate.
I think everybody's going tojust rave about it.
It's pretty special Tonight.
What we're featuring is theFour Branches, continental, and

(40:32):
I think, as these guys touchedon earlier, this is a tribute to
the 250th anniversary of theContinental Army, continental
Navy and the Continental Marines.
That all started in 1775.
And so I think this pastSaturday was actually the Army's

(40:53):
250th anniversary soquite a parade Before my
involvement.
These guys actually went outand they found some spectacular
bourbon.
This is nine-year-old Kentuckystraight bourbon, extremely
special.
Not enough barrels to bottle anLTO limited time offer.
It's bottled at 102 proof,mashable on a 75% corn, 13% rye,

(41:17):
12% malted barley.
I got to tell you and you guysknow me, I don't BS, I pretty
much tell it like it is.
Whether I like it or not, youlike it or not, this is in my
top 10 bourbons of all time.
You know, in 47 years in thisbusiness I've drank a lot of
bourbon.
It tastes spectacular.
So again there's the label,it's a beautiful bottle,

(41:38):
beautiful package and again, I'mjust privileged and very
honored to be associated withthese guys and get to drink this
great bourbon.
So cheers.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
Cheers.
So and it's bottled at 100proof, correct 102.
102.
Yeah, 102.
All right, so sorry about that.
So the nose on it is.
I'm going to say for me, I'mnot going to say it without, but
it's familiar.
It's familiar and it's got anice.

(42:11):
There's a little bit of brownsugar.

Speaker 5 (42:19):
Lots of vanilla and lots of caramel.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
And I even pick up a little bit of cinnamon.
It's doing some nice.
There's definitely that type ofthat thing.
And then what it does in yourglass is pretty spectacular.
Sticks really nice.
The viscosity on it's perfect.
Here goes it does.

Speaker 5 (42:43):
I too as well switched over to my crystalen
carrying as Greg right before westarted.
Yes, sir, like you said,there's nice weight to it.
It's just nothing like drinkingout of that Perfect.

Speaker 6 (42:58):
Great sipping Les.
Wow, nice.
And again as you guys know, Imean we have to sign
nondisclosure, so we can't.
You know me, I'm transparent asI come.
I like to share information asmuch as I can, but certain
things you can't divulge.
This is one of those things.
But I, you know, as far as thequality of the bourbon, I'll

(43:19):
vouch for it day in and day outthat completely.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
And you know, we just had a guy on uh, ed blake, who
and he actually picked up he wasable to put mgp on the bottle
because he didn't buy it fromthem.
He bought it from somebody whobought it at six years and then
he bought it at 12 to 14 yearsand then he was able to put who
distilled it?
Because he didn't sign an nd.
What's wrong with that?
Yeah, so no, I understand.
If you're purchasing it, youhave to.

(43:49):
You're not supposed to disclose, but you know a lot of people.
You know most people who are inthe know can usually figure out
what's happening.

Speaker 5 (43:58):
I just got to say, at this quality of bourbon, I
don't care where it came from,I'm just glad you guys found it
and you bottled it and put yourname on it, because it's
fantastic and I agree.
I agree with Greg.
This is wonderful.
I mean, it's everything that Ilook for in tasting.

(44:23):
It's a special burger.
I mean all the way down to justthat slight little bit of hug
to the finish.
The full mouthfeel.
All the flavors are there, thearoma, everything's there.

Speaker 4 (44:38):
That one's got a nice hug to it right On our Founders
Blend.
We call it a Kentucky kiss.
You get a little bit of thatrye on the back of the tongue,
that kind of kisses you.
This one has that traditionalKentucky sort of that.
It doesn't have the burn goingdown but it's got that nice heat
in the chest.
I think the other thing bringingGreg in it was a conscious

(45:01):
decision.
We talked about the do we builda distillery, build small, and
go out and go into that place?
And then I think Greg wastalking about it just where the
world is right now and I hate tosay it because this is not this
is not the good news there'sjust some distilleries that's
not going to make it the nextfive to 10 years.
They just kind of overbuilt thedistilleries and then we got

(45:25):
you know Rick and I and Haroldand RJ, we've gone to you know
Missouri, texas, all kinds ofplaces looking North Carolina,
south Carolina, looking atdifferent distilleries.
And I think that's the otherthing you do when you start to
go down this road is there'ssome really great people out
there making some great bourbonand some of that bourbon doesn't

(45:45):
have a bottle to go into.
It doesn't have a bottle to gointo, it doesn't have a brand,
it really doesn't.
And then there's some stuffsitting out there that has kind
of fallen off the ship or fallenoff the radar and we're like,
why reinvent that?
When we try to elevate theindividuals who have crafted
some of these things, I meanthese bourbon is our american
spirit and why go start not thatit's egotistical, but it's

(46:08):
almost a little bit of arrogancestarting your own distillery
when there's always great, greatstuff out that's been made by
some really truly passionate,you know, master distillers and
blenders like Greg.
We would rather give them anopportunity to work with them
and put their product, you know,with us as well and a lot of
times we do, we do a finish likewe

(46:29):
did last year.
We did a really nice, uh,nine-year Kentucky straight.
We finished in in some rumbarrels.
It was fantastic, dynamite,that was fantastic.
And so we do the experimentwith that and kind of have our
own distillery.
And again, as you guys know,that's a very expensive
proposition and we just didn'tfeel like we needed to go down

(46:52):
that route.
But we wanted somebody likeGreg to help us make sure the
quality is good.
If we decide to blend it, if wedecide to age it, if we decide
to double-oak it, we decide todo something unique with it.
We wanted somebody like Greg tomake sure that we're doing the
right things, something uniquewith it.

Speaker 5 (47:08):
We wanted somebody like Greg to make sure that
we're doing the right things.
That shows great respect toAmerican tradition, which in
reality, is respect to theAmerican forces which help build
and protect America as it istoday.
That's honorable.
That's great.
That's honorable, that's great.
That's a great way of thinkingand, to me, is a great way of

(47:33):
looking towards future business.
Appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
There's so many different ways to do it.
You're talking about purchasingbarrels as far as a distillery.
That's one thing that Greg hasproven.
If, down the line, you wantedto distill, contract distilling
is pretty much, which would bethe way that you guys go.
You're already we're dealingwith Steve Nally and the people
from Bardstown Bourbon Company,but you know that's a choice of

(48:00):
any brand.
But, like you said, like I think, when you're doing what you're
doing, there's a lot ofopportunities.
And you know, I was going tosay to Greg you know, just two
years ago buying, there was ashortage of aged whiskey on the
out there for barrels and itwasn't like there and if you

(48:22):
were buying it you were payingpremium, premium prices.
It was really expensive, weknow Right.
But now the opportunity of youknow, we're just I mean, two
years is not that long of a timeMarkets have completely changed
and now there's an excess ofaged whiskey and that's one

(48:42):
thing that the market, you know.
A lot of people were talkingabout the glut to an extent,
especially the people that I'vetalked to as far as consumers,
and I just tried to tell them atone point this glut isn't the
worst thing that can happen toyou.
There's going to be some brandsthat you're going to have to
have the good solid marketingand the good, the established,

(49:04):
you know, base plan, but overallit's going to make the whiskey
cheaper and that's good to theconsumer.
Right to not have it.
I mean, I think the prices forsome of the stuff just kind of
went crazy.
I mean secondary, kind of droveit and then everybody was
buying everything.
But I do believe that there'salways a balance that happens

(49:27):
and this is almost like a marketcorrection.
I don't think, uh, I think it.
You know, when people aredrinking a bottle like your, uh,
continental, there's still alot of people searching for
these bottles.
They're looking for thesedifferent type whiskeys.
That part isn't the part thatwe're talking about.
We're talking about the average, you know everyday whiskey

(49:47):
drinker the jack, jack Daniels,the Jim Beams that has.
That was up way up also andit's kind of started to back
down there in that part of themarket.
But I don't see the allocatedor the kind of bourbon that
you're producing.
I don't see that market goingdown.
But you just definitely have tomake sure, if you're getting it

(50:08):
on the shelf, that you tell yourstory and you know, be in the
in the liquor stores and youknow, you know, go around and
sell it and put boots to theground and meet the people.
Because I always find, you know,when I first went into the
business, I'd walk into theliquor store and it was almost

(50:28):
like Chinese, I mean, I didn'tknow all the brands.
Now when I walk into the storeI know them all and it's boring
and so not so much, but it's notlike it used to be.
So you get to that point.
So then you know what issomebody going to pick when they
want to try something different.
You know they've already gonethrough and now they're looking

(50:51):
for more stuff.
Well, if they've met, you,heard your story and they see it
on the shelf, they're going to,that's what they're going to
pick and, like you said, rick,then once they pour it in their
glass, you have to have aquality whiskey in there that
they're going to buy more of,and I think that's you know, you
guys understand that now I willtell you this and I understand

(51:11):
exactly, uh, greg, why you likethis whiskey, this bourbon, is
because it it is.
There's.
There's bourbons, and I loveaspects of bourbon, but there's
fruitier notes and some and andthere's a lot.
Some are I call dessertbourbons, where they're so sweet
, but then there's the bourbon.

(51:31):
That is what I think thedefinition of bourbon.
It's like when you walk into arickhouse and you smell the
whiskey or and the bourbon'saging.
That, to me, is what bourbon is, and a lot of times you don't
smell sweet, sweet caramels orthis or that, and you guys have
a really nice balance that Iwould call this a bourbon.

Speaker 5 (51:56):
You know that was exactly what I was going to say.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
This has got a complete balance of everything
across the board yeah, I'll saythank you for that because that
hits the mark of the continentalright.
Yeah, originally that thatcompliment pairs really well,
that the continental is theamerican spirit, the american

(52:18):
forces.
It's a, it's what you think ofand you guys just said, but it
tastes like what you would wantbourbon to be, absolutely.

Speaker 5 (52:27):
I agree.

Speaker 4 (52:29):
You could have said it better.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
One thing we didn't mention Mike and guys, Tiny and
Super Nash is that what peopledon't understand is that we're a
big give-back brand.
I don't think we've touched onthat.
We give back 4% of our correctme, if I'm wrong, mike but four
percent of our gross right right, that's a lot trust me, trust

(52:57):
me as a managing principal thathas to write these checks all
the time.
I'm like holy crap, it's a lotof money but probably more more
than that which we never sawcoming.
We never saw this coming.
It was never intended, it'sjust a law of unintended
consequences.
But we are humbled and honoredby it is that we give a lot of
these bottles away to differentorganizations, right, we get

(53:20):
requests all the time.
Hey, can we have a bottle forthis raffle, this auction, and
we pick and choose the ones thatwe feel aligned best with who
we are.
We've given away a lot in twoyears, guys, and in two years
the count now those bottles haveraised an auction in auctions,
over 450 000 that's amazing,that's awesome, that that's a

(53:44):
that's an awesome contribution.
And it says a lot on y'all'spage Helping families, children,
first responders, veterans, thepeople that need it right.
Yes, absolutely A couplehundred dollars as much, as I
think the highest one was$25,000.

Speaker 4 (54:03):
$22,000.
No $25,000 in Texas.
That one bottle, that onebottle $25,.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
25 in Texas.
That one bottle, that onebottle.
25 in Texas, that was a bottle.

Speaker 4 (54:14):
RJ jumped into Normandy last year on the 80th
anniversary of the Normandyinvasion.
He jumped in with a bunch ofguys and he had some World War
II veterans sign the bottle andthey had a flag and it was
auctioned off.
You're right, Rick, it was aflag and the bottle was
auctioned off in Texas for$25,000.
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
Well, I always love charity auctions because people,
the way I put it in, people arelike well, how did wanted to
donate $25,000, and he got areally awesome bottle and flag
and you get something for givingsomething that big and that's
really what those bottles are.
But still, it's just amazingfor that to be, because if you

(55:00):
didn't do that, the auctionwouldn't be there and people
wouldn't be able to donate yeahthat's what the donation is
about.

Speaker 5 (55:07):
It's not about what you get.
It's really about the donationand what the donation is helping
, what the donation is going for, and uh, and then you know just
the bottle and the flag orwhatever you get for your
donation.
That's, that's just the.

Speaker 4 (55:23):
You know the icing on the cake and, let's be honest,
there's no bottle of bourbonworth $25,000.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
Yeah, absolutely it's just not true.

Speaker 4 (55:33):
You know we have to also applaud those Americans,
those patriots who are willingto write that check for $25,000
for a bottle.
You know we love those men andwomen who do that because that
allows those charities to keepfunctioning and we'll keep doing
what we've got to do to makesure allows those charities to
keep functioning and we'll keepdoing what we got to do to make
sure that we're part of that insome way.
Thanks, rick, for bringing thatup.

Speaker 5 (55:55):
Awesome Thank you, rick, and.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
Mike.

Speaker 6 (55:59):
Thank you to all you guys for helping out the
veterans and all the forces.
I'm sorry to interrupt, but yousaid something about going in
the store on the shelf and thatI'll let let Rick and Mike talk
about this.
You know we're very limited.
I think a lot of our sales areonline and we're in very few
markets at this point.
But you guys want to touch onthat because you just can't go

(56:22):
in any way, especially Ohio.
You can't just go into a storeand find it on the shelf.
I got mine online.

Speaker 4 (56:31):
That's such a great another American story.
Right To allow people to builda byproducts like that.
Have it delivered to your door.
A year ago we were only in like29, 30 states.
Now we're in 39 states in termsof you can go to
F-O-U-R-4branchescom in order tohave it delivered to your door,
and we recently switched to anew shipper distributor and now,

(56:54):
rick, probably three to five,three to seven days it's at your
door.
It's crazy.

Speaker 3 (56:59):
I mean, it's one of the greatest changes we've ever
made and the customersatisfaction has been phenomenal
.
You know three to five days, ifnot sometimes sooner, depending
on where it's going.

Speaker 5 (57:11):
Yeah, I think mine was here in about five days to
South Carolina.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
I love it, we do love to hear that.
But we're in Kentucky,tennessee, dc, virginia,
maryland, florida and Arizona asmarkets.
That was our first sevenmarkets to go into.
Basically it was a test of themarkets I live out here in
Arizona.
Now we wanted to see what thislooks like out here and it's

(57:37):
been good.
Arizona has been a really greatmarket for us.
I was surprised at the kind ofbourbon it is bourbon market out
here.
But you think DC, maryland,virginia is natural, and that's
true.
We're in a virginia abd abcstores.
Uh, next year, you know, we'llsee.
You know we'll tease it rick.

(57:57):
Next year we hope to be in thein the carolinas, for sure in
north carolina.
So right, it's natural for us.
Uh, harold and I both haveroots out of North Carolina.
That's kind of where ourfamily's from, and Georgia is a
natural sort of progression.
And then we're thinking aboutthe great state of Pennsylvania.
There's a lot of great patronsand bourbon lovers and
individuals in Pennsylvania.

(58:18):
So we'll see.
You know, I think the otherside of the story and we could
talk about this for hours too isthe whole business structure.
There's four components.
We've talked about it tonight.
You know we always want to makesure good bourbon's in our
bottle 100%.
Even Bardstown will tell us.
Every time we put bourbon in abottle, we always show up a

(58:39):
couple of days prior and tasteit and we work with a final
blend and they're like hey, youknow, you guys are one of the
few that come, come in and tastethe final stuff yeah your
bottom.
We're like dude, how do you notdo that?
Um, yeah, it's important to us,so we're always going to be
there.
We're always going to be partof that tasting.
Greg was part of our last one,so that's important to us.

(59:00):
That's why we brought greg in.
So always, always, great juicein our bottle.
Uh, number two, as rick about,our trademark message is serve
honorably, drink honorably.
Center members are always goingto be forefront of our
conversation.
Three is our give back.
It's important to us.
But number four is if we're nota successful business, one, two

(59:22):
and three doesn't matter.
That's right?
Yeah, absolutely.
We have to be smart about ourbusiness.
That's why, having guys likejohn emmanuel and tim condon and
now jeff hotmer coming on boardand we have a great team of
individuals that are helping usmaking sure let's be honest, the
three of us know how to do somescary stuff, but how to make

(59:43):
bourbon and get bourbon outthere.
That's not our world.
So we have guys like greg thattake us and we call them our
dashboard, our instrument panel.
They tell us when to land andget more fuel, when to turn here
.
Don't do that, do this.
We're pretty good about takinginstructions, even though or
when to jump right.
When to jump when to jumpwhatever it may be, we literally

(01:00:05):
take their instruction.
It's great for us to get outthere and meet the people who
support us, but it's reallythese guys and gals that give us
that kind of support that weneed as a company.
But if we're not successful asa company, we can't give back,
we can't make sure our brandmessage stays and hopefully save

(01:00:25):
some lives and, yeah, it'simportant to us.
I'll leave that with one.
We met with a gentleman who'dbeen around in the spirit
industry, in the distributionindustry, for 40 years.
He just retired and, uh, he waswith the number one company,
distribution, and he was lookingat our bottle.
He was kind of rubbing hisfinger across the floor because
that four has a special meaning.

(01:00:46):
He's tasting the bourbon, he'swatching the videos.
He goes I'll tell you what,guys, because my 40 years of
experience and I think um supernational mentioned it in my 40
years of experience if you keepputting great bourbon in that
bottle, it'll be on the shelf in40 years, as we all know.

(01:01:07):
You know, good bourbon withouta great story is just brown
water.
That's it You've got to have itall.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
You've got to have it all.
There's got to be a story.
I mean, you hired one of thegreatest storytellers.
I've ever heard in.
Greg.
I mean the story he was tellingbefore.
I heard it many times.
I almost could recite it, butevery single time I listened to
it it was a fantastic story.
But your guy's story is great,but then you've got to have.

(01:01:36):
I'm into bourbon.
I love every aspect of bourbon,of all fashion.
I like the bottle, I like themarketing, I like the labeling,
I like the special releases.
I love that.
I'm in it for that.
I like the marketing, I likethe labeling, I like the special
releases.
I love that.
I'm in it for that.
I want the whole package.
If I'm going to be spending myhard-earned dollars to buy a

(01:01:56):
bottle of bourbon when I go out,you know some people, the
bourbon, you know, will speakfor itself to some extent.
But I really love the flash.
But you know, I come from theart industry and you can produce
the greatest art ever producedon the planet.
But if you don't have a way toget it distributed and have

(01:02:19):
somebody see it in a way thatpeople that have money want to
buy it, then it doesn't matterwhat you're doing.
I mean there's so many greatartists throughout history that
have painted and painted andpainted and died poor because
they didn't have that one aspector that outlet to be able to do
what they were doing.

(01:02:39):
And it's the same thing withbourbon.
I mean, it's the story.
I mean there's a reason whybrands last eight, nine that
have been around are not intothis ninth generation, because
they're doing all the rightthings as they go forward.
And if you look at some of thebrands, a lot of them in this
world, the bourbon world, sincethe 90s, have gotten big, huge,

(01:03:04):
giant corporations to basicallyback them so that they can keep
doing what they need to do tokeep that brand viable.
And in the end we all knowthere's ups and downs and
sometimes the corporations orwhatever that all kind of goes
away.
But there's got to be a stewardof the brand.
I mean that's one thing StephenBean one time told me he's just

(01:03:26):
the steward of the Yellowstonebrand.
He's making sure that brandthrough his time period goes and
he's helped it to become morepopular.
And it's the same thing whatyou guys are doing, hopefully
that this brand goes on beyondyou and that's what you're in it
for right, so that futuregenerations can enjoy what you
guys started for right, so thatfuture generations can enjoy

(01:03:49):
what you guys started.

Speaker 3 (01:03:52):
The goal.
You hit it on the head, tony,because Mike and I and Harold
and RJ, we've always said this.
Right now we are the ones whostarted.
It's our face, rick, mike,harold, rj.
The goal is we're old guys, wefade away.
And that young man or womanwalks into a bar and says and
that young man or woman walksinto a bar and says, hey, give
me a pour of my four branches.
And let me.
Let me throw this also outthere you pick your branch.

(01:04:15):
If you're in the Coast Guard,you're in the Air Force.
It says four branches.
You pick your branch.
It's yours too.
Right, we just happen to befrom Army, air Force and Navy
Marines.
But that's the goal, is that wego away and it becomes the men
and women who are serving thiscountry, whether they're first
responders, law enforcement,military.

(01:04:35):
It's their bourbon and thatbecomes theirs and the community
around it, the patrioticcommunity that supports it.

Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
It's probably half or more of our nation who really
are the patriotic.
We couldn't be the military, wecouldn't do what we do without
our spouses that support us 100%.
Spouses Absolutely Burden theweight of every soldier, sailor,
airman, marine.
If they're married, it's thespouses that carry the weight, I

(01:05:07):
don't care what anybody says.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
My spouse Roxy.
Yes, she carries the weight.
I'm going down to Kentuckytomorrow and Saturday and she
was booking my hotel rooms.
It's just like I need her somuch.
I will say this though there'sSpace Force now, and you guys
should try and get the fourbranches to be the first urban

(01:05:33):
to be drank in space.

Speaker 3 (01:05:36):
I got this patch two years ago from the commanding
general of Space Force.
That's awesome.
I knew where it was going and Isaid, sir, as soon as you put a
barrel in space, we'll callthat blend space juice.
Oh, that would be cool.
Oh right.

Speaker 4 (01:05:54):
It would be a tiny little barrel, but it's going to
happen, that's all right.
That may be a $25,000 shot.

Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
Well, you guys if it's a tiny little barrel, a
tiny barrel.
I'll make sure when it comesback I'll sign it for you.

Speaker 5 (01:06:08):
Hopefully my son will be working for that.
He's getting ready to finishwith his third degree and he's
either going to work for NASA,spacex or Boeing International.
You did well, you did well,yeah, yeah, I'm so proud of him.
He's got two semesters to go.
This is the first semester thissummer that he's been off and

(01:06:29):
that's only because they didn'thave the courses to finish up,
but he has not missed a semestersince he started college a few
years ago.
Yeah, I'm super proud.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
I am too Super Nash.
I mean, right when we startedgetting together, you told me
that he had enrolled, and I'vebeen through that.

Speaker 5 (01:06:47):
That's right 2019.

Speaker 4 (01:06:51):
Supernation.
Greg and Todd, I got a quick,maybe for your audience,
Obviously, you know, prior tothis, and I did this a little
bit, not so much with scotch butmore with bourbon.
You obviously do it with wine,letting a good bourbon have five
or ten minutes to breathe.
People don't understand theimportance of that.

(01:07:13):
And we have a restaurant nearbyus that is called Bourbon and
Bones and they carry our BlackOps, which is that nine year rum
finish.
And I was sitting next to a guyat the bar and and bartender
knows me and this guy wasordering a bourbon and she goes.
You know, this guy sitting nextto you is a guy that he's a
founder of that four branches.

(01:07:34):
I was telling you about a monthago.
He's like holy cow.
He looked over and he goes.
So we started talking.
He goes, what's your favorite?
And I said, right now it's,it's our black ops.
I said but.
I ordered it prior to dinner andI let it set to the side so it
could breathe.
He goes.
Why do you do that?
And I said, man, it changes theflavor, he goes.
I've had your Black Ops and Ithought it was a little hot.
I said I get that.

(01:07:56):
There's nobody.
You know my personal opinion.
There's no such thing as greatbourbon.
Everybody's got their ownopinions on what a great bourbon
is.
There's really good bourbon andthere's really bad bourbon.
And so he goes.
I thought it was a little hot.
I said I kind of respect that.
I said I tell you what I'mgoing to buy you a glass of of
our black ops.
And I told him and she pouredand I said don't touch it, let
it sit for about 10-15 minutes,let it let it, uh, let it

(01:08:18):
breathe.
He goes okay.
And at the end of dinner weboth started talking again and
we both had our, our bourbon.
And he goes, goes, holy cow,that's a different profile than
I had.
I said let me guess they pouredit last time.
As soon as they poured it youtook a big sip of it.
He goes.
Yeah, I said you got to letthat breathe a little bit.
So you guys I think you, gregand Tanya and Super Nash you

(01:08:42):
guys probably have moreexperience in the genesis of how
we should enjoy that.
It would be interesting to hearyour perspective on letting it
breathe and how important it is.

Speaker 5 (01:08:55):
Absolutely.
I for one, especially with likeweeded bourbons, I've always
opened the bottle and let itbreathe and let it sit for a few
days actually if I'm able tobefore I actually take a pour of

(01:09:17):
it, because it lets the grainsand everything open up and also
lets a little bit of thatethanol evaporate off of it and
then it opens up the flavors ofit so much more.
And the same thing with anypour of bourbon or whiskey that
you get, like you said, lettingit sit there and letting it

(01:09:39):
breathe a little bit.
It just lets a little bit ofthat ethanol breathe off of it
and just open up a little bit,and that just lets the flavor to
me, lets the flavors open up alittle bit, where you're able to
enjoy it a little bit more,instead of the burning sensation
that a lot of people, uh, whichwhen they first taste it like

(01:10:02):
that, that's what really firstkills their to me, I think,
kills their taste buds andthey're not able to really sense
what they're really able totaste.
That's my opinion.

Speaker 4 (01:10:17):
Rick and I, we do these tastings all the time
right, and these both men andwomen will have a little shot
glass or a little one ounce, andthey'll do this thing right now
, and Rick is like we're likegoing across the table like
don't you, don't shoot bourbon,like that, you just don't.
You know, it drives us crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
Well, there's times like maybe, if you're just like
about, you're walking in andit's about 10 minutes till the
concert starts and you got to gothrough security, then you
might, you might do something,you might finish the bottle or
whatever and throw it away.
But I will tell you that, um,as a podcaster, I have to open
up a lot of bottles and, uh, Ihave my ones that I like to go

(01:10:56):
back and forth to.
But out of the 925 bottles, or960 bottles or whatever I have,
I would say at least 875 of themare open.
And I would say there's a sweetspot between six and eight
months where the bottle, whenyou revisit it, tastes almost

(01:11:17):
and it's usually a positiveeffect that if it just sits and
it's able to breathe in thatbottle without that pressure of
the cork, and then whatever, itjust completely changes the
oxidative oxidation of it justchanges it, uh, to usually the
benefit I mean, and and weededdoes it probably the most.

(01:11:39):
Now, some of my it's.
It's bizarre to me becausethere's bottles I have and now
they've been open.
Some bottles have been openalmost six years and I'm almost
ready to see revisiting it, butI also know when it gets down to
about at least two eighths left.
You got to start to really kindof push it because otherwise

(01:12:01):
it's just going to evaporate.
You know I you know it's funnybecause a lot of the bottles sit
and there's no children livingat home.
My wife's the only one.
I'm the one that she usually at.
She goes if she wants something.
She's like pour me this, pourme, that.
I do that.
So I'm in the managing of thiscollection down here and I'm
telling you sometimes some ofthe bottles that I'm like

(01:12:23):
coveting, I'm like who'sstealing my bourbon and it just,
it's just, it's just getting alittle bit lower because you're
not drinking it that's funny,that's funny that's one of the
ways that I learned about thiswas my wife is from Ventura,

(01:12:43):
california, california, andbefore I ever got into bourbon,
and her parents still live outthere.

Speaker 5 (01:12:50):
We were just out there back in April for a couple
weeks and so they always beeninto wine and got me into wine
and all that.
And I've learned a lot aboutwine and learned about letting
the wine breathe, or aeratingthe wine as you pour it into the
glass and all that as to howmuch better the flavors come out

(01:13:14):
in the wine or the oakinesssort of leaves if you let it
aerate a little bit at all.

Speaker 4 (01:13:24):
It's amazing how it changes, even at the end of the
night.
Sometimes I'll walk back to myglass, whether it's a Glencairn
or whatever at all.
It's amazing how it changes,not even at the end of the night
.
Sometime I'll walk back to myglass, whether it's a glen karen
or whatever at all.
I just got my nose and I'm andI'm sniffing and smelling and my
wife, my wife, is like, whatare you doing?
I'm like man, the nose on thisis so good, there's nothing left
, right, it's just what wascoated in glass.
And that's when you get those,true, you know whether it's the

(01:13:46):
confections or the oak or thewoodiness or the, you know,
whatever it may be, that's in it.
Mash, I don't know.
The more obviously it'sdifferent, right, if you're a
consumer versus somebody that'smaking it.
But when you make it I got toimagine, greg, you scratch your
head.
You're probably full offrustration because you have so
much knowledge of how it's madeand what it should taste like.

(01:14:09):
And, um, you know, you're, you,you're, you're.
Frustration must be, uh, prettyhigh sometimes when you're
tasting certain products.
Cause you, you know it's notwhat it should be and you know,
just, I get it.
I, I hate to live in your head.
You know when it comes to.

Speaker 6 (01:14:26):
It's not an exact science, you know, and I didn't
respond early because I wantedto hear what Super National Tiny
had to say.
But they were both spot on andyou know that's why a lot of
high end restaurants, you know,you go to a winery for tasting.
I actually take the wine andpour it in a craft.
It kind of opens it up and itallows that alcohol to dissipate
.
It really pulls up and bringsthe true flavors to the

(01:14:49):
forefront.
After that alcohol dissipates.
I agree with you.
Same thing with whiskey.
Whiskey is a much higheralcohol content.
So if you let it breathe alittle bit, let some of that
alcohol dissipate.
The same thing, you know.
I typically, when I tastewhiskey out of a barrel, I'm
doing sampling.
I'll drink it neat in aGlencairn and then I'm doing
sampling, I'll drink it neat ina glan carrot.
And then I'll let it sit, let itrest, let it open up taste

(01:15:13):
again, and then, the third time,I'll actually put an ice cube
in it.
That ice cube, likewise, willopen up some of those flavors
and further, kind of give you adifferent perspective of what's
actually in that bottle or thatbarrel.

Speaker 5 (01:15:28):
Fascinating that was one of the things that I learned
when I went to executivebourbon steward school was when
you added the water to it, andthat truly amazed me, as when
you added a few drops of wateror or like an ice cube to it,
and how much it changed theflavors and the aromas of

(01:15:52):
whiskey.
It's.
It's totally different and itjust opens it up so much more
and allows allows them, I guess,I guess to escape more or
something.

Speaker 3 (01:16:03):
It's just, it was just amazing and when I learned
that you know, we, when we, whenwe first came out, we had that
same problem to a certain degreeof whiskey evaporating.
Because we I think, mike, youtold me a story we had a friend
calls and say hey, man, bought abottle of bourbon and there's
something wrong with yourbottles.
They defective immediately.
We're thinking, you know partof my friends, but shit, what's

(01:16:26):
going on with our balls?
So tell us what's happening.
He goes, I don't know, everynight is about two ounces that
evaporates out of that damnbottle.
Because we thought seriously,something's wrong with our corks
or something like you got us,you know so it.
Uh, we had the same problem.

Speaker 4 (01:16:44):
He called me he called me off guard.
You know, when you're startinga business, you know you're
dealing with corks and labelsand boxes and you know cracks
and all kinds of stuff.
It's just, it's a lot of issuesyou're dealing with and he
calls me up, he goes.
Hey, like Rick said, he goes.
I'm losing a couple ounces aday.
And when he called me up, youknow, tony, that bottle comes

(01:17:09):
from France.
That bottle has a little bit ofsand from the area of Normandy.
That's a very clean, crispbottle.
These bottles, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:17:22):
They're not cheap, all the same bottle.

Speaker 4 (01:17:24):
All the same bottles and everything we've put into
that bottle.
There's probably nine to tendifferent images, if you will,
that are hidden within thatbottle.
You can look at it and not tell, but there's a lot of meaning
to that product In addition tothe four-sided bottle.
That's something amazing.

(01:17:44):
The four-sided bottle has ameaning to it.
There's a reason why it'sfour-sided you could go around.
You could go all kinds ofshapes.

Speaker 6 (01:17:52):
There's a reason why it's four-sided and the number
four too.
Mike, you might want to jumpback to number four on the
bottle.

Speaker 5 (01:17:59):
I was going to say something earlier about the
four-sided when we were talkingabout it, that I like the fact
that it was four-sided and thatit attributed to the four
branches.

Speaker 4 (01:18:13):
A lot of hidden meaning there and you guys
you're probably familiar withwhat the four logo means, that
four, you know what the fivedifferent elements to that four.
Are you familiar with that?
No, all right.
So if you look with, that.
No, all right.
So if you look at that bottleas Rick's holding it up right
there, the very bottom, thebottom of that four, has a

(01:18:34):
ground, almost like a groundeffect.
Got that small arch over it,that's the foundation of the
logo that represents the US Army, the foundation of the US
military.
That's the first branch.
That's the foundation of the USmilitary.
That's the first branch, that'sthe foundation of the military.
That's the foundation of thatlogo.
If you look at the next markcoming off of that, going up, if

(01:18:55):
you think of a Navy mast orsubmarine tail coming up out of
the water, Absolutely.
I can see that.
Represents the Navy, If you lookat that thin mark that goes
horizontal.
If you think of the Marines,the Marine is often represented
by the bayonet or the sword.

Speaker 5 (01:19:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:19:13):
It's the thinnest and leanest branch of the military,
by far probably the deadliest.
That represents the MarineCorps and then the Air Force
controls the skies overall.
So that big sweeping motion tothe sky is representing the Air
Force.
Wow, if you tip that bottleslightly sideways you'll see a
downward spear.

(01:19:34):
Just look at that line goingdown the center you'll see a
spear.
Rick will probably point it outto you.
I see half of that spear isshowing.
There's only half showing atthe spear the tip.

Speaker 5 (01:19:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:19:48):
We all served in the special operations or special
units within the CIA.
That's considered serving atthe tip of the spear.
Half of that spear is showingrepresents those serving today.
The other side is missing.
That's for the Mike Spanns, theGreg Wrights and those that are
no longer with us.
Wow, that's with us.

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
Wow, that's pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (01:20:12):
Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:20:14):
I have one.
You probably didn't think I'm aGreen Bay Packer fan, so four
means everything to me.
That's all I can tell you, youknow.

Speaker 4 (01:20:26):
I've got to.
No, there's no cheese on there,I'm sorry about that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:29):
I need to get, I need to get Brett Favre on here and
drink this with me.
That's what I'm thinking rightthere.
There you go, so that's funny.

Speaker 5 (01:20:38):
I I'd like to add something to this now that we're
talking about all this.
I come from a military family.
My dad, jb Nash Sr.
He was a career servicemilitary man, 23 years active
duty and it was spent over allfour branches of the military.

Speaker 4 (01:21:05):
Holy cow.

Speaker 5 (01:21:06):
Yeah, most of them was in the United States Army, a
third of them was in the USMarines Two tours in Vietnam,
one in Korea.
He was a CB in the UnitedStates Navy station in Port

(01:21:27):
Winneme, california, and he onlydid two years in the United
States air force and that'sbecause he was stationed at Fort
Carson, colorado.
Come out of one of his armyterms, went over to the air
force, didn't like the air force, come right back out and went
right back into the army, wow,wow and uh, he had 10 back out,

(01:21:49):
went right back into the Army,wow.
And he had 10 kids and we wereborn all over the world, me
being born in Germany, a brotherborn in France, some in
California, a sister in PortHueneme, california, while he
was in the Navy, and some inColorado Springs while he was at
Fort Carson and the rest herein South Carolina when he was in

(01:22:13):
the Marines.

Speaker 4 (01:22:14):
Holy cow.
We should have your dad's nameon his bottle.
He's a four-brancher, yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:22:19):
So when I saw this four branches and all this and
saw that y'all were coming onand I, immediately, like I say,
hadall were coming on and I, Iimmediately, like I said, I had
to jump on and I grabbed,grabbed some bottles and it was
so special and I just wanted toshare that with y'all and I, I
was just elated that you guys,you know all four of you guys,

(01:22:44):
started this, this brand, overthe four branches and and then
wanted to tell you guys how muchof a special meaning that it
has to me.
And I'd like to raise a glassnow to my fallen father of the
four services, four branches.
Here's a JB.
Here's a JB.

Speaker 4 (01:23:06):
Nash thing.
Oh, wow, thanks for sharingthat Remember.
Okay, you know, that's whatRick said.
We did some videos a while back.
We wanted people to kind ofjump in.
We think it still will taketime.
We wanted people to do exactlywhat you just did, and that's
share what you simply remember.
Um, yes, that's incredible, Ithink.

(01:23:26):
Thanks for sharing it, cause I,you know, everybody's got those
memories.
You know my, my grandfather,was a more or one father in
France and unfortunately he diedwhen my dad was 10 years old
and then my dad 17, joined theArmy and went to the Korean War.
He was at the DMZ and you knowhe fought, and I had three
uncles in World War II Franceand Germany and I was in the

(01:23:50):
first Gulf War.
My son was in the second GulfWar, with 10 tours in
Afghanistan, and people ask mewhy I joined the military and
I'm like dude, that's just all Iknow, right, yeah.
Then you have people like Rick,whose family didn't serve in
the military but he had aninstinct to give back to the
country that his father was asuccessful immigrant to the US

(01:24:15):
and wanted to give back.
Everybody's got a story right.
Everybody's got a story andeverybody wants to sip to
remember something in life andthere's a lot you know.
To Rick's earlier point aboutyou know, sipping to remember,
not drinking to forget, yeah,right, prior to a lot of bad
reasons, a lot of veterans andfirst responders drink to forget

(01:24:35):
.
I remember this guy telling me,because I was having this
conversation with him, barb,about sipping to remember and he
goes, roger, that he goes.
I got it, he goes.
For so long I was drinking toforget the moment that I lost
three really good friends in aHumvee.
We had an IED and he goes.
It was traumatic Body parts andpieces.
Ied and he goes.

(01:24:55):
It was traumatic Body parts andpieces, he said.
But an hour prior to that,Because I never stopped to think
about that, an hour prior tothat, it was the best time of my
life.
We were listening to somereally great music, we were
riding high, we were four guyspart of his convoy in
Afghanistan.
We were doing the best that wecould as veterans.
He goes.

(01:25:15):
We were just on a high.
It was such a cool moment, Iremember, and it had turned dark
and he said I've been drinkingfor about 15 years to forget
that.
But he said you reminded me.
I need to remember whathappened right prior to that.

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
Yeah, because if you sip bourbon the way that it's
made to enjoy and you have theright perspective, you can go
from that to this because ofexactly what you just portrayed,
because the reason you're doingit is everything that matters,

(01:25:57):
right, and if you're using it ina negative way, just like
anything else, you can't.
But this bourbon boom really, inmy opinion, has taken the
sipping part and the lifestyleup to the point where this, this
kind of thing, matters.

(01:26:17):
It's what brings peopletogether, it's the glue that
connects everything and that'swhy the industry we were talking
about the industry.
That's exactly why theindustry's like that, because of
the fact that people that aremaking it understand what it's.
It's.
It's true purposes.
It can be abused just likeanything else.
People come to me all the timeand say, oh, this is bad and

(01:26:40):
whatever I'm like.
So can food be bad?
They're like what?
Yeah, if you eat McDonald's,three cheeseburgers and two Big
Macs a day, it's going to be badfor you.
It's the same thing.
Bourbon and whiskey is nodifferent.
Yes, but a lot of people youdon't want to use it as a crutch

(01:27:16):
and you don't want to use it asyou know.
It might get you throughsometimes, but overall I like to
think it like if you're likeyour father, nash, when he
passed away, it's traumatic, butat the same time, he loved
bourbon and he drank bourbon andyou, you drank bourbon, but you
drink it in perspective, tohonor his memory, opposed to
forget that he's gone and thatMike, mike, rick, that that was
another thing that my dad youknow, he, he became an alcoholic
and but he liked, uh, mostlyhis favorite was like Jim Beam
and traveling all over the worldand stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:27:38):
over the years he and when the decanters came out, he
started collecting all thesedecanters from like Jim Beam,
wild Turkey, jim Dent, jw Dentand you know all different kinds
.
And so when he passed away in99, I was five boys and five

(01:28:00):
girls, I was the only one thatwent into the service out of
those 10 kids and I went intothe army.
So his collection, so when he,he was electing these decanters,
my, my mom, she'd say thesedecanters, when he'd bring them
in it was like, oh, you're notgonna open that one, it's going.

(01:28:23):
She, she'd put it up on hershelf.
So that's how, all of a suddenwe he had accumulated like, or
my mom had accumulated over50-something decanters that were
full.
So when he passed away, and thenmy brother's sister's like you
know you were your dad's son,you know that went in the

(01:28:44):
service.
You deserve all these.
And then all the pictures andthe accommodations, awards and
all that because he's got apresidential accommodation from
serving in all four branches too.
Wow, and I got all that becausehe's got a presidential
accommodation from being servingin all four branches too.
Wow, and I, I got all thatstuff and uh.
But I've got all thesedecanters and that's one thing
that I do is each year when wecome up on our kentucky bourbon

(01:29:08):
tour or during the kentuckybourbon festival, we go on a bus
tour, I always bring one ofthese old decanters and open it
up on the bus tour and sharewith everybody.
That's cool and that's you know.
It's just so much fun to dothat and let people taste this
stuff.

(01:29:28):
And I know, like I say, mydad's looking down and that's
what makes me feel good.
I never got into whiskey andbourbon until like six years ago
, in 2019, and that's about thesame time.
I met Jeff when I came throughthe Kentucky Bourbon Festival
and happened to see his pictureon the festival page that he was

(01:29:50):
presenting a picture to Fredand Freddie Ngo he had painted,
and I just started following iton Facebook.
I just messaged him.
I just found an old Booker'sbottle.
So that's how we becamebrothers from another mother.
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:30:09):
So that's how all that became about, Although we
do have two decanters that arethe same, and that was when they
were your mother's.
So I honor that decanterbecause that was one of the a
lot of the decanters thatsurvived really well were the
ones that Super Nash's momcoveted.

Speaker 5 (01:30:31):
Yeah, like I said, if she'd see something that looked
really nice and all it would goon her shelves and all where
she collected stuff from allover the world, you know, and
you know ceramic stuff and allthis but when he brought that
decanter in nope, nope, there itgoes on the shelf.

Speaker 4 (01:30:52):
She was a smart woman , right?
Yes, she was.

Speaker 1 (01:30:56):
All right, we should wrap up, we should get ready,
summarize.
Give us your website all theinformation how people can find
out about your bourbon and getit online.
Just give us all theinformation there and then we'll
summarize that up.
We'll end the audio at that.
After you do that, I'll do mylittle thing.

(01:31:18):
We'll.
We'll end with our, our uhfavorite song and then, uh, if
you don't mind, we well, I thinkit's getting late tonight.
We'll just, and then we'll justend it.
On facebook.
There's a couple people whohave a couple questions.
I I'll just.
Maybe we can take them and youguys can answer them.
We're here.

Speaker 4 (01:31:36):
First.
First of all, connie and SuperNash, thanks for having us on
your podcast and Greg, thanksfor joining us and kind of
bringing us into this family.
You know, if you go to F-O-U-Rfourbranchescom, you'll see all
the story and you'll have allthe links to information.
If you're in one of the sevenstates I mentioned, you can go

(01:32:00):
out.
There's a find locator.
Put your zip code in it.
It'll tell you where thenearest location is, and that
again is Kentucky, tennessee,virginia, dc, maryland, Florida
and Arizona.
You can order your product.
We ship to 39 different statesand that's where probably half

(01:32:20):
of our products go out throughDTC.
Go to YouTube.
You'll see probably 30 to 40different videos.
We were on.
Fox and Friends.
Last weekend, a few monthsprior, we were on NBC Today Show
.
You know we're very apolitical.
You know we don't get into it.
There are four guys that haveserved our country and done some

(01:32:42):
pretty you know some prettyunique things.
It's hard to describe that, butwe bleed red, white and blue.
There's one thing where we feelwe need to do a better job, and
that's bringing our countrytogether in a more unified area.
A country divided cannot standalone.
You just can't do that.

(01:33:03):
So you know we want to bringpeople back closer to the middle
, and that's why things likesitting around telling stories
and reminiscing about your dadyou know, nash, that is so cool,
that's exactly what it's aboutand honoring those individuals.
So thank you guys again forallowing us to be part of your

(01:33:23):
show.
And I only have one question,and that's where did you get
Scotchy Boys at?
Where does that come from?

Speaker 1 (01:33:29):
The Scotchy Bourbon Boys Scotchy.

Speaker 4 (01:33:31):
Bourbon Boys.

Speaker 1 (01:33:32):
So we are not.
What would you say?
We're bourbon heavy, but wealso look into other brands.
So we were whiskey scotch.

Speaker 5 (01:33:45):
So initially, when we were trying to figure out what
to do, we were tasting a lot ofscotches and Will Ferrell was
Anchorman and his favorite thingwas super nash but, to be

(01:34:09):
honest, how they really startedbecoming bourbon and whiskey
heavy is because when I messagedhim back in 2019 and I started
they, I was able to get thingsdown here in South Carolina that
he couldn't get in Ohio.
He's like well, how can I getit?

(01:34:30):
Well, I'll ship it to you.
I don't even know you, it don'tmatter.
I shipped it up to them.
I was shipping them barrelpicks of 1792 and stuff like
that.
And so then all of a sudden,you know I was getting things
from all over, and so here yougot to taste this, let's taste
this on the podcast, and we werejust really starting out

(01:34:53):
picking things from the bottomshelf and tasting them and
giving our own tasting notes andlearning about it, because we
were all just getting into it.
Well then I was coming up withsome amazing bottles because I
was just traveling all over withmy work and sending them up,
bottles after bottles, afterbottles, and sending them up

(01:35:16):
bottles after bottles, afterbottles and the next I mean so
we were tasting whiskey andbourbon, every other podcast,
and so that's basically how webecame, and then, through our
wonderful friend Greg, you know,starting to meet more and more
people and introducing us to allthe right people at the right
time.
You know in Kentucky and all inIndiana, that we were able to

(01:35:44):
expand and just get to knoweverybody, and that's how we
expanded into more, into bourbonand whiskey, wouldn't you say?
Jeff.

Speaker 1 (01:35:52):
Well, yeah, and then there's always the time period
this is this last story when Imet Super Nash.
He came up for a meeting of theScotchy Bourbon Boys and he
brought Sherry, his now wife,who he was not married to.
Well, she found out that herknee was injured and when they

(01:36:13):
went back home this was thegreatest time period in my life.
She had to move in with him andwhen she moved in, nash
basically had bourbon bottles inevery nook and cranny in his
house.
We are talking about closets,spare bedroom, even where you
keep the pans In the kitchencabinets.

(01:36:34):
Where you keep the pots and pans.
So she moves in and the firstthing I do is I get this, this
package, it's like 75 pounds,and it comes up and there's like
14 bottles.
And then another month, anotherone comes and I'm like what's
going on?

(01:36:54):
He goes well, I got to supplyyou guys with bottles for the
podcast.
And I'm like, yeah'm likewhat's going on?
He goes well, I gotta supplyyou guys with bottles for the
podcast.
And I'm like, yeah, but what'sgoing on?
He's like.
He's like I had to make, makeroom for sherry to put some pots
and pans and some plates in thecupboard, so.
So then they broke up, and thenthey broke up for a little bit
and they were not whatever, andthen they got together and

(01:37:14):
eventually got married.
But but when they were gettingback together, I was like, are
you going to move her in?
Because I was just likewondering what kind of like,
cause he's probably filled itall again.
So it was a great story.

Speaker 5 (01:37:28):
Oh yeah, yeah, that was.
That was a great time.

Speaker 1 (01:37:31):
All right, so did that answer your question.

Speaker 5 (01:37:34):
It did All right, greg.

Speaker 1 (01:37:37):
Do you have any final things before we sign out?

Speaker 6 (01:37:41):
No, I don't, you know .
As always, guys, it's always apleasure.
I appreciate you guys and whatyou do so much because you bring
a whole new light, a whole newexposure to what we do in this
industry and what I've done for40, over 47 years now and, as
you know, I love and appreciateyou guys and thanks so much for

(01:38:02):
having us on.
Hopefully your listenersenjoyed and, you know, resonated
with what Mike and Rick had tosay tonight and so again, I'm
just honored, very privileged tobe working with them, this
great brand.
There's good things to comedown the road and looking
forward to the future.

Speaker 1 (01:38:23):
Same here, All right.
Thanks, Rick and Mike and Gregfor joining us tonight.

Speaker 5 (01:38:29):
Well, we have Mike and we have Greg, Rick.
Any last words that you'd liketo say?

Speaker 3 (01:38:34):
You know, first of all, thanks for I'll reiterate
what they said guys, thanks forhaving us on.
It's been a great time.
You know, anytime we can gettogether and have a pour and
share and tell the story.
That's really impactful andmeaningful.
You know, hearing the story ofSuper Nashville by your dad is
probably one of the coolestthings I've heard in a long time
.
In fact, I don't know anybodywho's been in all four branches

(01:38:55):
and now I've met somebody whosefather was in the four branches.

Speaker 5 (01:39:01):
I wish I'd had time to grab a picture of them, and
all that.

Speaker 4 (01:39:06):
Next time.

Speaker 1 (01:39:08):
On the next one.

Speaker 5 (01:39:10):
I will grab some pictures and show of each one.

Speaker 3 (01:39:14):
I'd love to see that, we'd all love to see that.
You know the other guys on here.
Um, guys, it's been great.
Um, thank you for having us.
You know, and hopefully themember, the viewership out there
goes to, you know,forbranchescom learns a little
bit more and as I end up andevery podcast, with telling

(01:39:35):
people hey, let's have a sip toremember when you have a pour.

Speaker 1 (01:39:40):
All right.
So remember everybody, Cheers,Cheers, Remember everybody.
Wwwscotchiebourbonboyscom forall your Scotchie Bourbon Boys
merchandise.
We've got Blank Karens, We'vegot T-shirts, Check us out,
Check out the bios andeverything.
And we're approaching our 500thpodcast coming up.

(01:40:02):
I believe it's going toprobably be late August, so
that's kind of cool to be ableto be around for 500 podcasts.
And then also we are onFacebook, Instagram, YouTube and
X, along with Apple iHeart andSpotify.
Whether you watch us or youlisten to us, remember to make

(01:40:25):
sure you like listen.
Comment completely reiteratedgood bourbon equals good times
and good friends.
Make sure that you drinkresponsibly, don't drink and

(01:40:45):
drive, and drink honorably, andmake sure you live your life
uncut and unfiltered.

Speaker 5 (01:40:54):
And little Steve-o will take us one more thing,
okay, I just want to give ashout out to all the uh veterans
and military whiskey andbourbon groups that, uh, I
belong to and that I've sharedto.
I appreciate each and every oneof y'all listening, tuning in,
watching this and like us andgive these guys a like go to

(01:41:18):
their website If you canpatronize them and because
they're doing great things andjust want to thank each and
every one of y'all and every oneof y'all that have served.
Thank you.
And super Nash.

Speaker 1 (01:41:32):
Little Steve-O's going gonna take us out.