S03E05 WftA - Comparing Two Rossville Union Barrel Proof Ryes

Welcome back to another episode of Whiskey for the Ages! In this exciting installment, hosts Brian Dawson, Hannah, and Elora dive into a unique whiskey tasting adventure. This time, they explore two barrel-proof rye whiskeys from the same distillery but with different packaging. The team embarks on a journey to determine if the packaging influences the whiskey's character and everything else.

They start with the Rossville Union 7-Year Barrel-Proof Straight Rye Whiskey, diving into its bright, citrusy aromas and sweet, comforting flavors. Next, they compare it with another Rossville Union Barrel-Proof Rye Whiskey, discovering intriguing differences in nose and palate. The hosts share their individual tasting notes, preferences, and surprising conclusions about these two ryes.

In addition to the tasting, the episode features whiskey news, including discussions on rye spice origins, new legislation for ready-to-drink cocktails, and exciting new bottle releases from Angel's Envy, Jim Beam, Knob Creek, Maker's Mark, and Buffalo Trace.

Join us for an insightful and fun-filled episode as we uncover the mysteries of these two ryes and much more in the world of whiskey!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Whiskey for the Ages is not sponsored or endorsed for any product or program
mentioned in this show and receive no remuneration from their creators.
Music.

(00:53):
Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching! Hello everybody,
and warm greetings to our Whiskey for the Ages podcast subscribers.
Subscribers i'm your host brian dawson and tonight
hannah and alora are both here with
me and a big thank you to those of you who
are tuning in for the very first time i hope that everyone enjoys this show
and considers subscribing to the podcast as well it's a great one yep and as

(01:16):
alora said it's a great show for you so this time we're reviewing whiskey in
fact two whiskeys Say, two ryes?
Two ryes. And maybe they're the same rye. We don't know yet.
We're going to turn this into a little bit of an adventure here.
But these are two barrel-proof ryes produced by the same distillery,
but with different packaging.

(01:37):
So does the difference in packaging make a difference in the product and everything else?
Now, we've not had either of these two ryes, and both of them were found in
Idaho liquor stores. One of them, the one we're going to try first, is relatively new.
And the other one is one I think we've had in our bunker for a little while, maybe even a year or so.

(02:02):
While researching for the show, I found only one of them appears on the Rossville
Union Distillery website.
You can find that link on our website, whiskeyfortheages.com.
The first one we're going to have is Master Crafted Straight Rye Whiskey Barrel Proof.
Well, girls, are you ready? And this one comes in a tall bottle. It's only 700 ml.

(02:26):
So for people overseas, that's probably a pretty standard bottle size for your liquors.
For us here in the States, that's a new thing that's starting to crop up more
and more to standardize us across the pond and across the Pacific, folks.
But usually a lot of our bottles are going to be 750 ml.

(02:50):
So we have a difference here in volume.
So the Idaho State Liquor Division website lists this one as Rossville Union
7-Year Barrel-Proof Straight Rye Whiskey. It's vital stats.
It's a barrel-proof, obviously, coming out of Lawrenceburg, Indiana from the

(03:10):
distillery Ross & Squibb.
Master Distiller is Ian Sturzman. Company, of course, is MGP.
They are not publishing a mash bill, nor their barrel chart,
nor their barrel entry proof on it. But they are saying it's seven years old.
ABV of 58.5. It does have a different NACBA code than the other.

(03:35):
You can look up that on our website as well.
700 milliliters. It comes in a relatively tall, square-shouldered bottle.
Very, very defined bottle at that $117 proof.
Fair price, according to BoozApp, is $78.77.

(03:55):
Shelf price around the country, probably find that around $63.59.
I paid $69.95.
Availability on this is a limited release. So we're not going to see this real
frequently, but if you see it in your stores, consider giving it a try.
And that is a distinction between the classic Rossville Union bottle shape that's

(04:21):
a little bit shorter, has more of a shoulder to it.
Particular bottle the one we got a year ago doesn't
have any demarcation on it saying that it is a
limited release so maybe they've transitioned
from it being regularly available to this more limited release product that
we're seeing with the tall guy so we'll see all right so you girls have been

(04:47):
nosing this alora what do you
think so i've got a whole arsenal of flavors as As y'all probably know,
to me, it's very citrusy at first.
To me, I got a lot of orange and just bright aromas.
Now, what I mean by bright is it's kind of citrusy, vanilla-y.

(05:12):
It's not depth like in dark fruits or anything like that, like any dark,
deep sugars. When I say bright, I mean, wow, that's up in your face.
That's a very, that's a very almost pungent, but it's not pungent, citrusy flavor.

(05:33):
So lemons would be bright while prune or plum would be darker.
So a lot of bright aromas up here.
I also got some cherries, specifically Rainier cherries.
To me, it's pretty strong. It wants to burn my nostrils.
And then it also reminds me of a tea that I've been trying to make,

(05:55):
this ginger, peach, and turmeric tea with some honey, which is very soothing
for the throat this time of year.
We got a lot of smoke in the air,
so it seems like it's going to be a very comforting rye whiskey to me.
And that's an interesting note to make. This is a very sweet rye.
It doesn't smell like a rye to me.

(06:18):
Anna, what do you got? So I think it does smell like a rye, only in the sense
that it doesn't smell like a bourbon.
There isn't a whole lot of rye dominance. Although, like Allura mentioned,
it is a very fresh, bright nose, which is something that I would associate with traditional ryes.

(06:41):
I also get that zest and citrus element that Allura was mentioning.
I don't know if Allura mentioned zest, but I really do get a zesty element here.
I would probably pin it down closer to an orange than any other citrus.
I do think that there's a little bit of simple syrup here, some light brown sugar.
So it's not over the top sweet, but you do have some sweet elements there.

(07:06):
I get the ginger that Allura mentioned as well. I don't think that this is a
super aggressive nose like what Allura mentioned. I do think it's moderate though.
It just depends on how you're going in and attacking it. And I think for a 117
proof product, this is giving the alcohol level on the nose that I would expect it to.

(07:30):
It's not underperforming or going over the top for me.
I like it. I'm going to ditto just about everything you guys said.
Ryes tend to be fresh. And I get this freshness here. I, too,
am struggling a little bit like Laura.
Is it orange? Is it lime?

(07:53):
Is it lemon? I would say it's orange only because it's not as tart as a lemon or a lime.
It's got a very sweet sort of element to it. It's citrus for sure.
But lemons tend to be way more on the tart side and be like sour.
You think of lemon and you think of sour.
Lime is very, very fresh. fresh and yes

(08:16):
this is fresh but this is also really really sweet and
orange just has that kind of sweetness to
me now we don't eat marmalade in our our household but i can see where an orange
marmalade might might be here yeah orange marmalade is somewhat tart so maybe

(08:39):
that's why it's kind of throwing us all off.
As far as other things I'm getting in the aroma, I'm getting a honey base.
Hannah, you said simple sugar.
I'm getting a honey with maybe a touch of cinnamon in it.
I wrote that down too, only because that's usually what I put in my tea that

(08:59):
I mentioned when I was smelling it.
I put in cinnamon and honey into it. A lot of honey.
There's something else here too. It'd be interesting to see if we can pick it
up when we taste it, but something else. I'm not getting any wood.
Are you girls getting any wood here at all? I am.
I'm getting some sweet oak that's been charred.

(09:20):
Sweet oak. Yeah, like it's a really subtle, subtle flavor, but it's almost like
the sugars from the oak have been burned.
Okay, maybe a sawdust-y kind of thing. Just burnt one.
Interesting. Well, before we taste it, let's bring in the other samples,
see if it's any different at all.

(09:41):
This one, the Idaho website is also calling this one Rossville Union Barrel-Proof
Rye Whiskey. Its vital stats is it's going to be the same, barrel-proof, straight rye whiskey.
Ross & Squibb Distillery, still the same distiller, Ian Sturzman.
Company is MGP, like before. Again, no mash bill, barrel char,

(10:04):
or barrel entry proof. It, too, is seven years old.
But how it differs, this one is 117.2 proof.
Now, that's hardly enough to make a difference. The other was 58.5 ABV. this is 58.6 ABV.
And naturally, because the bottle is bigger, 750 milliliters,

(10:27):
it's a rounded shoulder bottle like Hannah mentioned.
It has a different NACBA code as well.
Booz App is putting a $77.18 fair price.
And interestingly enough, they're showing a shelf price around the country of
$75.51, which probably makes sense because it's a little bit bigger.

(10:49):
It has an extra pour in it, extra pour in the bottle.
This one is the one I was mixing up from before.
Current price in Idaho is $69.95. However, I think we've had this one for about a year.
We might've paid a little less than that back a year ago. I want to say we paid
about $60. So only a $10 difference. Yep.

(11:13):
Allocated annual limited release on this is what the Idaho folks are saying.
The Idaho liquor website, they're saying that you have to hunt to find it.
So, anybody have any thoughts on how it compares? Does it have a different aroma?
So, when we initially started this and started setting up and looking at what

(11:37):
we were going to be tasting and reviewing today,
I admittedly had a lot of concerns that these were going to be identical bottles,
identical noses, palates, the whole nine.
Mine I'm gonna have to kind of eat some
crow because this is a very very different nose
to me in a lot of ways one the

(11:59):
first thing that stands out to me is this one has a lot more bitter notes to
it I think that comes from the citrus now I know citrus is associated with acidity
but hear me out it's like the zest in this has gone a little off the the orange has gone a little off.
And now we've gotten maybe a little bit more of the pith, that white stringy

(12:25):
stuff in the orange that you really don't like eating that much. But it works here.
I think that there's a higher oak content. I don't know if I want to commit
to it being sweet, but there is a higher oak content all the same.
I think the alcohol tone is a lot more mellow here than it was on our or tall

(12:47):
guy on that first one we had.
I also get a little bit of leather, so we're bringing it down to some earthier tones.
And I even get a little bit of a yeasty element, not to the point where I want
to say this is like a rye bread.
But yeast as it stands on its own, has its own unique acidity and properties and punch to it.

(13:11):
And I get a little bit of that quality here.
I'm going to interject and say I'm getting a lot of these same things,
but the first thing that I'm thinking about with this one for me is depth.
It seems to have more character. It smells older.
I know they're both seven years old, but it smells older. There's an earthiness to it.

(13:35):
So I would agree that this is a very, very different—.
This is a very different aroma to me. I think, I'm going to disagree with you, Hannah, on this.
It does have a much more forward alcohol base.
Like the first nosing I really took
of this, I was reminded of nail polish remover. So I was like, oh, okay.

(14:00):
That's crazy. We're going for it. I can't get any alcohol burn on this at all.
And I too have a little more alcohol. I mean, I'm pushing it,
like, I'm poking at it, like, and practically sticking my nose in it,
and I'm not getting that.
I would also say, like, it's starting to veer towards the darker fruit side,

(14:20):
maybe towards the pit fruit side.
I'd say maybe apricot.
It's still a pretty strong feeling to me. I'd get some cherries.
Hannah, you mentioned bitters, and I would agree with that. But I'd even go
so far as to say it's got almost like a grapefruit kind of bitter citrus.

(14:43):
And then another thing that I want to note here, this is, I thought that the
other one, the taller one, was kind of briny.
This one is more briny. I think it's almost got like a sea breeze element to
it even. Interesting. Yeah. Interesting.
So, yeah, Dad, I would agree with you. The shorter one has more depth to it.

(15:04):
But is there anything unique that you find bad compared to the other?
I think that, like you said, Hannah, there's some oak here.
And for me, it's almost like a, I don't want to say stale sawdust,
but it's more of a sawdusty element than it is a burnt anything.
It's not fresh sawdust by any means. I think it's kind of been sawdust that's

(15:28):
been laying around the shop for a while.
Yeah, I would agree with that. And that kind of goes with that earthy depth
that we've been talking about.
Yeah. And, okay, so which one do we all like the most as far as nose goes?
I'm more intrigued by the first one, to be honest.
I got second. You like the old? Yeah.

(15:48):
The only way I call them new and old, I'm liking the new one more.
I think there's, I like my rye to be bright and fresh and I'm getting that a
little bit more on my new guy than on the, on the old.
So that's kind of an interesting comparison. Like when we first sat down and
Hannah said, these are both the same. They look the same.

(16:12):
I mean, when you compare the two in the glass, they look the same,
the same color, what have you. But this is going to be interesting.
Who's taking a taste? I have not. Here we go. I have, and it is very interesting,
but I'll wait. No, go ahead.
So we're going on the new guy. We're going on the taller, newer one on the website.

(16:35):
Well, I wrote in all caps, oak.
It's very oak driven. I'm actually quite surprised because I didn't get a whole lot of it.
I got charred oak at the very, very tail end of it.
This one I'm getting like pure oak. and I
would also say it kind of marries well
with the brightness because the taste has more

(16:57):
depth to it I would say it's warmer in flavor I like for the aftertaste I'm
getting some warm spices like the cinnamon maybe even red hot candies like the
cinnamon bears I don't know people still know of those. I hope that they do.
I would say this one has a bit more brown sugar and more vanilla.

(17:24):
That's interesting that you're saying brown sugar. I was just writing it down
as you were saying. I was not looking at your paper.
Recently, I stumbled across a product called Hot Honey. honey.
Essentially, it's honey that has cinnamon in it.
And I had some the other day on some walnuts, of all things. That sounds beautiful.

(17:50):
That sounds like you. Yeah, I'm getting a nutty texture, or not a texture,
a nutty flavor out of this that really is reminiscent of those candy coated
honey, hot honey walnuts.
The other day, dad and I went to a wine tasting place and we got pecans there

(18:13):
and they were the candy, like cinnamon sugar pecans.
And I'm not really a much, much of a nut fan as you guys know, but holy crap.
If dad were not in In the car, I would have devoured the whole entire bag in less than 15 minutes.
But alas, I had to share with him.

(18:34):
Alas. It was a sacrifice. I took them from you. Yeah, you did.
I also had quite a bit of wine to drink at that point.
So, I mean, he was probably like, okay, I want some of those pecans.
You got to eat, but let me have some of them. So the citrus is here too.
But it's warmer. It's like a cinnamon sugar warm. Way warmer.

(18:54):
This is really warm in the throat.
Yeah. And another thing I wanted to write down for this one was that,
you know, we're in a smoky climate right now.
This feels very soothing on the throat and it smelled like it would be soothing on the throat.
Yeah, for those of you who don't know, there's quite a few forest fires going

(19:14):
on in Oregon right now, and the jet stream's kind of picking that smoke up and
bringing it over our way.
There's forest fires in Northern California. We're getting them as well.
The girls and I have lived in Idaho, well, Hannah nearly all of her life and
Laura all of her life, and I've been here since 94.

(19:35):
We've always joked we have five seasons in Idaho. the traditional for winter,
spring, summer, fall, but we
also get a season we call smoke and we're in the middle of it right now.
Some days you go outside and you could just taste it in the air.
Well, I get what you're saying about this one, Laura. It's really soothing on the throat.

(19:58):
Hannah, what do you think of it? So I've been sitting here the whole time,
just writing brighten lots of stuff down.
There's a lot of overlap with what you guys are saying. I still get a little bit of the citrus here.
I'm leaning now a little bit towards a grapefruit element.
Grapefruit can also, in my opinion, get almost grainy in its acidity,

(20:22):
and I get that sort of quality here.
And grapefruit, more than other citrus fruits,
I think can lend itself to bitter flavors and the
bitterness is really coming out in this one now keeping in
mind the old one was the one that
on the nose there were a lot of bitters that were caught up there but here i'm

(20:42):
getting a lot of bitters on the new guy from that but there's a sweet element
in this there is there is i i totally get what you guys are saying with like
the hot honey the the cinnamon i even get a
little bit of like a sour candy component here,
which I really like. Like a hard candy?

(21:03):
No, like a gummy, like sour patches.
I get a little bit of that. I get the Red Hots thing, like you're mentioning, Allura.
Just really cinnamon heavy. But a lot of bitter here.
And that's not a bad thing, but a lot of bitters. I've got nutmeg. Okay.

(21:23):
I've got molasses. I've got. That's where your bitter's coming from.
It's the sweet bitter from molasses.
I didn't even think about that, but you're right. Molasses.
And then I get what you guys are saying with all of the nut element too.
Me, I'm leaning more towards like
a roasted chestnut situation with some cinnamon and sugar coating on it.
It reminds me of a time like during a parade that I had some roasted chestnuts

(21:49):
and it's bringing me right back to that moment. So that could very well be my setting for this one.
But like Laura also mentioned, I think the alcohol is very prevalent here.
I actually think that the word I used on my notes was crescendo.
So even though I'm taking a sip and letting it go away, the alcohol warmth just

(22:15):
continues to build even after the sip is gone.
And it just keeps warming up, warming up.
I did do a Kentucky Chew with this one. The freshness just explodes.
I also said in all caps, ouch, it hurts.
This Kentucky Chew definitely hurts. My eyes watered a little bit.

(22:36):
But I did get more of the sour candy and grapefruit when I did the chew.
That's that sour or that spicy honey, that hot honey.
So I got to ask, it sounds like we're tasting different flavors from what we
were smelling. Are we pleased with that? Yes.
That's a great question. Traditionally speaking, I like my palates and my noses to match.

(23:00):
I don't care for surprises like that,
but I'm also a bit surprised because the nose on this one was so acidic with
the citrus and the zest and the ginger and even with the brown sugar,
And this one is really sitting kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum with a lot of bitter notes.

(23:28):
And I am a little bit thrown. I don't know if I want to say I'm happy or sad
about it, but I am thrown.
It's interesting that you're saying that it's bitter.
While there's a bitterness here, to me, it's not as predominant as you're making it out to be.
But again, that's palates. Your palate and my palate are not the same palate.

(23:52):
And that's important for everybody to know. If somebody likes something great,
if someone doesn't, that's fine too.
But do you think that this palate matches what you got on the nose? To a degree.
But like I said, I got a lot of depth out of that.
I'm sorry, the second one, I got a lot of depth and I didn't get much out of
the first. There's more depth here in this one now.

(24:16):
It's interesting. I'm poised and ready to do the second taste from the second sample.
That one, I think the aroma was better.
We'll see how these guys match up. Laura, have you had any of this second one
yet or no? I have not. Go in.
It is very interesting because like Hannah, I am very, I want the smell and the taste to align.

(24:43):
I want them to. But this one, I'm actually kind of pleased that it doesn't.
It's kind of like one of those kinds of couples where you say, like, they don't.
They seem so different, and yet they just are in love.
It's kind of like the one time opposites attract really worked out.
And I would say that that kind of goes with the taller one.

(25:04):
Now I'm going to go in for my shorter one while these two are writing stuff down.
So here's my first initial thought. These are backwards.
This one is more reminiscent. The taste, the flavors are more reminiscent of the first one's aroma,
whereas the first one's flavors are more reminiscent of the second one's aroma.

(25:32):
That's just bizarre to me how they could be backwards like this. Make no mistake.
These guys are definitely sisters or definitely brothers.
I mean, they have many of the same crossover elements,
but this one doesn't have near the brown sugar that I picked up when,

(25:53):
or the earthiness that I picked up when I was nosing it.
The second one had lots of brown sugar. This one doesn't have quite as sweet notes to it.
See, I could almost completely disagree with you on that. I will say that my
first thought on my first sip was, holy crap, that's different.

(26:19):
It isn't, I don't want to call it a night and day because I don't think they're
opposites from each other.
Maybe like dawn and dusk. Well, I don't even want to say that.
I just want to say this one's on a whole other playing field than what the other one is.
I get, I mean, I'm still working through this here. or I haven't done a Kentucky Chew with this yet.

(26:40):
I had a lot of baking elements with this one. There are more baking.
The other one's more a topping, if you will. Yeah. And this is more of a,
this is more. Filling. Yeah.
This one's more filling, more complex, I'd have to say.
One of the first thing that I noted was the mouthfeel on it.

(27:01):
The mouthfeel on this one is amazing.
Super creamy, super oily. It just gives and gives and gives in that regard,
and I love that about this.
I get a little bit of anise, which isn't something that I'm particularly fond
of as far as baking ingredients go, but in juxtaposition with all the other

(27:24):
flavors that I'm getting, sugar cookie, vanilla,
graham crackers, it's actually quite pleasant.
I'm getting old oak here now. The oak is here. It wasn't really there in the
new guy, but definitely here in the old, and I like that.

(27:45):
It just creates this sensation that this is old. This has stories to tell.
This has a wisdom to it.
The foundation is really, really strong with all of the flavors marrying together
like how they would in a culinary dish.

(28:06):
And I really liked that. It's interesting you say deep oak.
Now that I've acclimated to it a little bit, I'm not, I don't have the first
one's flavors in my mind anymore.
I see what you're saying about that deep oak.
It's deep, but it's not burnt. It's not char. It's a...

(28:27):
Very pleasant, in fact. And now that earthiness comes back in like I picked up on the initial depth.
I too love the mouthfeel. I could sit with this one in my mouth and forget to swallow.
It feels so nice.

(28:47):
Kind of aggravated a little bit with the tongue. Right away,
you notice that 117 proof, which frankly, a person should notice that 117 proof.
Proof when it's provoked a little bit. But it doesn't hurt as much as the other
one does. This one is more refined.
The taller one has a stronger ability to hurt me.

(29:08):
This one, you know, I would say it's very oak driven to me.
I would say also it's very baking driven.
Hannah, you mentioned anise. Like some people,
when they make a rye bread, they'll add
more than just caraway seeds caraway is

(29:29):
a huge signature ingredient in rye
bread but some people i like me i put fennel in with with the caraway seeds
as you started talking i could see where you were going and i i knew what you
were saying it's there yeah and my dad sister sister,

(29:49):
and I are not huge fans of anise or black licorice flavor.
My uncle, he's been on the show, Mark, he will put anise in his rye bread,
and I remember making rye bread with him, and I was like, are you sure about this?
Because I'm not a huge fan of this, but whatever.
I'll go with whatever you go with. It was very pleasant.

(30:13):
I didn't mind it so much because he didn't put a whole lot in,
But it added just that extra sugary sweetness.
Another thing I want to note here, going forward with the baking element,
there's baking soda in this.
I didn't note baking soda, but I did note white pepper.
And the burn from baking soda can be similar to a burn from white pepper.

(30:39):
So I think we were getting the same thing, but calling it something else.
I would say it's more baking soda. It's just got this bitter,
strong, powdery element to it.
See, and I'd say it's white pepper because the burn is complex.
Well, the burn can be complex with baking soda. I think the baking soda,

(31:00):
like someone just put in too much of it in a batter.
We'll agree to disagree there. I do think that the white pepper,
I also noted a little bit later here, that the white pepper that I'm getting
goes in combination with firework smoke.
You know how on Fourth of July, once you're all done, there's kind of a sweet

(31:20):
smoke that hurts, but is also pleasant.
It's not a cooking smoke. It's not a grass fire smoke. It's a firework smoke
with all the ash and all the debris. Yeah.
I think that it works with the white pepper and probably even a little bit with
that baking soda element you're talking. So here's a challenge.

(31:42):
Go back to the first one. Okay. Go back and taste the first one.
And without making a comment.
Hard to do. Once your mouth is done and you've swallowed, take a sip of the
second one. I can't believe they're that different.
It's like they're like from two different distilleries.

(32:03):
They're twins in a sense. The first one becomes even more bitter to me after doing that.
All of a sudden the first one's darker and then the second one's brighter. Like I'm confused.
But it's a good kind of confused. I'm not saying it's bad. So another thing
I want to add here is if there is such thing as a candied oak,

(32:27):
I would say that about the second one, like a candied oak.
So interesting you'd say that. The second one, you're saying candied oak.
There's a sweetness there that
I noticed on the first one that I couldn't pick up. On the second one?

(32:50):
On the aroma, rather, on the second one that I couldn't pick up.
And I still haven't figured out what that sweetness is.
And I'm going around the flavor wheel in my mind, our flavor wheel.
It's not simple. There's a little complexity to it.
It's brown sugar, but is it almost burnt?

(33:13):
I made caramel the other night and burnt it. No, it is not burnt caramel.
And he makes his caramel with brown sugar. it's just, it's a tough call.
There's a honey element to it, but it's almost a dark honey.
Hannah, you might have hit it on the head when you said molasses. On the first one.

(33:33):
Yes. But this has got a sweetness to it that goes with your oak.
Yeah. I think it's a dark vanilla, honestly. Oh, I didn't think about that.
I think it's a dark vanilla.
So I do want to ask, when we think of vanilla, there's different kinds.
Is it extract or is it bean?

(33:55):
Whenever I'm talking about vanilla in any of my reviews, I'm always thinking
of it in terms of the extract.
Really? Yeah. I never think of it as a bean. No, I'm always thinking about it
in terms of the extract, but not so much like I'm going to have a sip of the extract or anything.
You know how some things, when you taste them, they remind you of a smell?

(34:20):
Yes. And vice versa. So anytime I'm talking about vanilla on a taste or on a
nose, I'm always referring to something that I smell in vanilla extract.
So we make pancakes with vanilla extract.
It's real vanilla. It's real vanilla, but it's vanilla extract that we use. We don't use the bean.

(34:42):
So is that the kind of vanilla that you're...
Yeah, like the liquid, the extract that you're pouring in to whatever baking
product that you're doing,
there's a degree of sweetness that you can get on the nose that sometimes that
aroma can be replicated on the palate.

(35:05):
Obviously, if you were to have vanilla extract, like take a sip of that stuff,
it does not taste like how it smells.
I have to taste it all the time because someone likes cookies and someone begs
me to make cookies all the time. All of the time. But.
That is something that maybe no one knew about me, I guess, that whenever I'm

(35:30):
talking about vanilla, I'm talking about it in terms of, hey,
when I smell vanilla extract, this is the degree to which I'm smelling it.
So we were watching a cooking show the other night, and somebody was talking about vanilla bean.
And the vanilla bean that you see, the little flecks in the ice cream or the

(35:51):
little flecks in the other things
you might be cooking, are actually the cheapest part of the vanilla.
It's the waste. taste so when they're putting
in an ice cream and in some cases charging more
for it you're not getting as much
vanilla flavor as you think so maybe the extract that you're talking about is

(36:13):
the depth of character yeah that dark vanilla i get that now that makes all
the sense in the world so any similarities between the two we've been talking
about the difference what are the similarities?
Well, it's harder now to think of the similarities.
And I mean that because at first I had a clear vision in my head for where this

(36:36):
was going to go. Like the tall one's going to be brighter.
It's going to be like a, like one of my teas, you know, like throat soothing, bright, citrusy.
I go to the second one and it's more bready,
but then dad had to throw this experiment on us
and now I can't tell which one's which except for the
fact that they're in different glasses it's interesting

(36:59):
I I can tell
they're related in the fact that there is
through and through an element
of citrus that exists there the
citrus is less apparent on the old
ones one's palate where a
lot of on number two where the baking elements are a bit more prevalent but

(37:25):
when we did do that back and forth test between new and old I had a bit more
citrus come forward when I got to the second one to the old one.
But it is really hard to tell here how, as far as similarities go.
I honestly don't know if I'd say they're similar enough to both be called Rossville Union Barrel Proof.

(37:53):
I can say they're similar enough that they're both Rye's. And if they're both
so similar to where they're called similar names, perhaps packaging does have a factor in this.
Or the fact that we got the second one, the short one with the broad shoulders here, a year ago.

(38:15):
It came from a completely different barrel batch. Yeah, a whole different set
of years that it would have been aging in versus the tall guy that we have now
who's marketed as a limited release. lease.
Both of them came from barrels, came from sources that were a total of 82 barrels.
One could argue that that's a small batch, but that's not how Rossville is deciding

(38:40):
to market either of these guys, which I find kind of interesting.
Because these should, you know, 82 barrels to me falls in a small batch category,
especially when you think about Elijah Craig small batches, and those can number
in the hundreds. Yes, exactly.
So they taste so different to me.

(39:03):
I think what it is is— I'm quite impressed to say that they're both Rossville's.
You know, whiskey, they don't have a vintage.
Like, wine has a vintage. You know, the wine from 2021 or 2024, whatever it is.
In reality, the older one, the one we keep referencing as older or number two,

(39:26):
was made a year ago or actually grown two years ago.
The number one was made less than a year ago, grown last year.
Certainly, it's going to have different flavors. Certainly, growing conditions were different.
It came out of different barrels. And I think that's probably really the highlight

(39:48):
of the whole discussion,
that things that can be marketed the same, things that have really similar labels,
even though they may have different bottling styles,
that...
Each year it can vary, and that's
just because you may not care for one year's

(40:10):
red dish doesn't really mean that it's
necessary or maybe it's not even a good idea to write off the second year and
vice versa because that second year is going off of a whole different baseline than the other.

(40:30):
I mean, we've had the Eliza Craig Barrel Proofs. Every year.
We get every batch that we can. All three are different.
Yeah. There are some people that say the bookers that will have three or four
batches a year, batch number two is never as good as batch number one, three, or four.

(40:53):
It's kind of like comparing tree rings.
You can have two trees in a forest and their rings won't be the same.
One's going to get more water. One's going to get more water. And you can tell that.
You can even tell if one tree has a worse fire season than the other tree.
Yeah, and just a matter of that tree's older than the other one. Yeah.

(41:14):
There are so many different kinds of stories that tree rings can tell.
And these are kind of their, you know, symptom of it to a degree.
Absolutely. Yeah. You can tell the droughts and you can tell their fire seasons
and you can tell their age.
So both of these on the finish, they're both throat warming.

(41:34):
Yeah. I mean, I feel the two. I think the first one has more warmth to it than
the second one. The first one did remind me of my tea.
They linger though. Yeah, both of them do.
Unfortunately, because we're drinking one right after the other,
I can't tell which one's causing my throat to be the warmest or the lingering.
Lingering but I think the flavors linger

(41:57):
longer in the second I actually disagree
with that I think that they linger longer in the first one
the first one's stronger to me the first one's way more like boom boom boom
boom boom with flavor so the boom boom boom boom with the flavors is stuck in
my throat I agree with Alara it's a whole lot more punchy to me as it was on the palette as well.

(42:22):
Everything on the palette for the second one was very.
Cohesive is a word I want to use versus the
palette on the first one
was very look at me here look at me there look at me over over yonder and all
of this other stuff so on the finish you get those echoes of all of these disparate

(42:48):
flavors that are still trying to make a stand in one way or another.
And I kind of like that though, because it really makes that finish interesting.
And Rise as a whole, I think their finishes really have to be punchy and really have to be forward.

(43:11):
That's one of the things I love about Rise is that from start to finish, they are in your face.
They are, we are fresh. We are citrusy. We are bready.
We are acidic or bitter or whatever it is.
And they maintain a tone from nose to finish.

(43:32):
The first one definitely adheres to that rule in my mind.
The second one is very more orchestrated, I'll say,
where everything comes to a point in the palate and is cohesive and is really

(43:53):
solid and it knows where it came from and it's steady,
but it does kind of.
Fade off in the finish a little bit yeah i
would say like they're movements of the
same symphony in a sense yeah yeah
i it's interesting if you

(44:14):
guys ever wonder if it's okay to have disagreements or
differences with anyone else nobody's right nobody's
nobody is right and this podcast alone can
tell you i mean how many times have you heard us
say i completely disagree agree with you on
that or I'm actually gonna agree
with so-and-so here because yeah

(44:36):
I mean Hannah's palate's gonna be different than
dad's I don't know which palate I really align with it really just depends on
the day I think but you know again I mean if you think that it's not okay to
disagree with anyone they're wrong it's completely okay to disagree with it
and And call them out on it. Like, make it a discussion always.

(44:59):
What an individual tastes or smells or how it feels in their throat is truly
what the individual tastes, smells, or feels.
Mm-hmm. You know, no one is more right than somebody else.
And when somebody says, hey, you need to, or you need to do this,

(45:20):
or you must like that, no, you can like whatever you like. Yeah.
For me, when I'm comparing the two, and I'll go first on record here,
I liked the way No. 2 smelled.
I liked No. 2 after I became familiar with No. 2 on the taste.
And I liked the way No. 2 finishes for me.

(45:43):
So if I were going to go reaching for a bottle tomorrow or if I wanted one of
these, I think I'm reaching for No. 2 before I'm reaching for No. 1.
I got to reach for No. 1.
It takes more of the sweet boxes for me. I'm a rye drinker. I really love ryes.
Both of these bottles were my purchases.

(46:06):
Let's set that record straight. I saw both of these guys in the store,
one of them a year ago, one of them just earlier this year.
And I'm already a Rossville Union rye fan. and their straight rye,
which I think sits at like 94 proof, I want to say.

(46:27):
That one, I adore it. It's about 35 bucks, I believe.
Not bad. Totally worth it. One of the best value ryes you're going to find in this store.
So both of these guys, barrel proof ryes.
I saw them and they needed to come home with me.
And I'm going to stick with that conviction with this, but it really is going

(46:52):
to depend on the day which one I want to reach for. I think that.
Sometimes I want something that's punchy. I want something that's going to linger
and challenge me from nose to finish.
In that regard, I'm going to grab the newer bottle, the tall bottle.

(47:12):
Bottle, but sometimes if I'm not quite feeling a bourbon, but maybe not quite
feeling a rye, I'm going to reach for the other one, the short one,
the old one, because there's a complexity and depth there from a rye that's
just not customary. It's not rye-like.
It's not rye-like, and I'm not mad at it because there's a place for it on our shelf.

(47:36):
I'm swallowing down my
words because somebody here is trying to give me a
Kentucky hug and I'm like fighting it so hard from 117 from 117 one of these
two is punching me and I think it's actually the first one the new guy because
when we were doing the palette on that one I was feeling like oh oh, okay,

(48:00):
we have a fighter on our hands,
and pretty sure that's what that one is.
I like them both. When I made the decision to throw this out to the girls tonight,
suggesting that we do both of these,
Hannah had originally picked a Rossville Union to review for this podcast.

(48:23):
And I thought, what a unique opportunity we have to taste two products from
the same distiller, labeled completely different, bottled completely different.
Are they the same? Are they different?
For sure, these two are different. Yeah, very.

(48:44):
And I'm glad that we did both of them at the same time.
There had been a little bit of discussion of whether it was just going to be one or the other.
But I don't know if we would have been able to pick up the nuances between the
two had we separated them.
No, they needed to be drank together. Yeah, especially knowing now that they're
kind of-ish going by the same name.

(49:06):
If not, you know, even though they're not going by the same bottling and stylistic
choices, but I'm glad we had them both, had them both together.
Hannah's over here caressing the bottles. Yes. She likes them both.
I like them both. They're both my babies now.
They're there. I mean, they've all, they always were as soon as they came home

(49:28):
with me. Laura, you have any thoughts?
Really like them. I really, really like them. In fact, like I was thinking of
some songs that might go well with these.
As you guys know, I like to attribute like the whiskeys that we review to like

(49:49):
a symphonic song and then a more modern song.
And like I said earlier, these two are movements of the same symphony.
So I kind of went with that trope there.
Gustav Holst has a symphonic suite or symphony called The Planets.
And I think for one of the bourbons that I reviewed in the past,

(50:13):
I used Jupiter, which is, I believe, the fourth movement.
I'm so sorry if I'm wrong. Probably am.
But for the tall one, I said it was Mercury. Mercury is a very flighty,
bright piece. And then Venus also has a bit of brightness, but it's kind of
dissonant. It's kind of...

(50:34):
Has more depth to it it's more secret more secret more alluring and then for the modern piece,
i've been on a cold play kick for a really long time and these two kind of reminded
me of that for the tall one seven year i said or the bottle says seven year

(50:55):
i said it's a sky full of stars Stars,
that one's got more of a bright kind of guitar segment.
Coldplay's Talk is the second one that I attributed to the second one,
where I said it's got that bright,
stylistic solo guitar, but it's kind of similar to Sky Full of Stars.

(51:19):
So, holds two movements from the planet, and then Coldplay's two songs.
I think it's pretty cool.
Cool. I've been trying to figure out my settings for these guys.
The first one, I think I noted while we were talking about the palette,
when I mentioned the roasted chestnuts, it reminded me of a Christmas parade

(51:40):
that I'd attended where there'd been a little food stand that was selling roasted
chestnuts that were covered in cinnamon sugar and how much I loved that.
And I would have to say that my setting for that one remains a Christmas parade.
It's so bright and warm and kind of in contrast to the cold and dreariness that

(52:06):
you may see in the winter months,
but it's just so exciting and it just pops so well that I think that that parade
would be a a really great place to have something like this. Now, the old one.
I think this is probably where it becomes most apparent that these are really
sister products and they're both Rossville Union products.

(52:29):
Because for the second one, the old one, I said that this one would be best
enjoyed still at Christmastime, but now at home in front of a fireplace.
Place where it's a bit more laid back and subdued and you're just there for
the vibes and you enjoy some quiet time, which is the exact opposite of what you'd get at a parade.

(52:56):
But it's still Christmas. There's still that sort of cheer and chill in the air.
And i think they both could sit really well in in those environments love it absolutely.
Music.

(53:45):
Absolutely love it. you All right, let's think about this for a moment.
At one time or another, we've all said it.
Rye adds spice, wheat contributes softness. All the time we say that.
So I've got something for us. Now we're going to go into our Fortnight in Whiskey.
And these are our news headlines for this Fortnight in Whiskey.

(54:07):
My first one Rye isn't all that spicy Experts say Because it's not It really
isn't I mean it's there It adds a punch of freshness But,
call it a spice because we don't really know what else to call, but it's just a grain.
Spices does not always equal spicy. Aha.

(54:31):
Yes, absolutely. Like wasabi is spicy. Yes.
But cinnamon is, I mean, it can. It's warming. It's warming, like a nutmeg as well.
So in bourbons, I'm going to speak specifically for bourbons,
Heaven Hills bourbons, they've only got 10% rye in the mash bill.

(54:51):
But they come off as spicy.
Yeah. Old Fitzgerald, a weeded bourbon, has plenty of spice.
The Larceny barrel proofs are almost hot.
Yeah. I mean, they're crazy. So a whiskey historian by the name of Michael Veach
posted a Facebook blog recently.

(55:12):
What is rye spice?
In it, he questioned what is the source of spice in bourbon and specifically rye whiskeys.
He expressed an uncertainty and cited, if rye is the source of spice,
then why isn't the 95% rye whiskey made by MGP dominated by spicy flavors?

(55:33):
Or not dominated by spicy.
Well, they should be. Right. I mean, they should be if it's that much rye.
But they really don't come off any more spicy than anything else.
No. So, there are bourbons out there with a third the amount of rye,
yet they're just as spicy or more.
He surmised that spice may not be coming solely from rye.

(55:58):
He believes that it's coming from another source. As the post went on,
a whiskey writer by the name of Lou Bryson cited his Whiskey Masterclass book,
in which he says it's the particular strains of yeast which affect the grain
to deliver the spiciness.

(56:18):
He cites two different yeast strains, one known as POF+, or phenol off-note
positive. He says that contributes more spice, kind of like a spicy German Hefeweizen beer.
And then he says the other one is POF negative or phenol off note negative.

(56:40):
And that's what MGP uses in their famed 95.5 rye mash bill.
It lacks spice. It lacks the ability to give spice.
And then another distiller by the name of Alan Bishop chimed in.
And he said that he had a bunch of tech talk, essentially.
He says yeast is what really is impacting the spicy character in whiskey.

(57:03):
It isn't the rye. It isn't the wheat. It's the yeast.
See, I can totally see how yeast would contribute to that.
Thing is is that if it is such a high contributor and if distilleries were so why do you what my.

(57:25):
Question would be why do you even talk about your mash bill if it all comes
down to your yeast anyway why ever talk about your barrel char number if it
all comes down to yeast anyway there's not going to be a distillery that's ever
going to disclose their yeast no they're not they're not And talk about that.
They are always going to be part of that secret recipe for it. That's fine.

(57:46):
I get that. I actually think that barrel char has a huge influence on the amount
of spice that you get from any whiskey.
Well, another person that Bryson cites is an expert named Liz Rhodes.
And she says it starts with the grains, specifically the ferulic acid that's

(58:10):
bound in the cell walls of rye and wheat.
Ferulic acid is released during the mashing and fermenting process.
When the POF positive yeast is used, ferulic acid gets converted to a 4-vital
glycol, which promotes spicy character, and the other just doesn't have it.

(58:32):
I mean, okay, so chemistry, chemistry, chemistry is what all of these guys are
going to say. That's fine.
I, I, I, again, I understand it.
And again, I understand why so many yeast strains are going to be held really
close to the chest on that. But.
I think it's the yeast that gives the distillery its funk.

(58:54):
Yeah, absolutely. The funk comes from whatever yeast strain that you're going to use. But.
I know that from Elijah Craig Barrel Proofs and Larceny Barrel Proofs,
they're charring those barrels to hell and back.
Yep. And a lot of distilleries don't disclose what their barrel chars are.

(59:17):
They want to keep it close to the vest. Yeah. So if you guys want to dig in
and learn about this nerdy stuff, go to our website on our podcast episode page,
whiskeyfortheages.com.
And you can click on the news link for this episode, and all the chemistry-related
links will be in this news article.
Then I've got three quick ready-to-drink cocktail stories, cocktails to go,

(59:42):
ready-to-drink cocktail tacks, and holiday spirit sales signed into North Carolina law.
Bottom line, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signs Senate Bill No.
527 into law back on July 8th.
What this law does, it lowers the tax rate for ready-to-drink cocktails, the RTDs.

(01:00:06):
It allows cocktails to go to be sold at liquor stores and grocery stores.
It's hard to believe that in this day and age, you can't do that everywhere across the nation.
Even in Idaho, where we're a controlled state, RTDs are in liquor stores and
are in grocery stores as well. Well, we got flavored beers, flavored vodkas.

(01:00:28):
Like, I mean, that's just found in your... All those your Martin Reader mixes
and... That's just found in your, you know, Walmart and... Yep. Yeah.
And they're defining a pre-mixed cocktail or an RTD as anything that has an
ABV of less than 13%, which also is most wines and beers, and they're sold in grocery stores.

(01:00:50):
What are they doing? It's not a cocktail, but it is ready to drink. Hell yeah.
Also in North Carolina, they can now sell liquor out of their ABC stores on
New Year's Day and July 4th and Labor Day.
So they're making them work on those days. That sucks for them.
Pennsylvania also got into the act. Act, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro

(01:01:13):
approved Senate Bill number 688,
which allows their state to sell spirit-based RTDs up to 12.5% ABV.
Again, including wines.
So they also make it available in all of the grocery stores and convenience
markets all across the state.

(01:01:35):
And then Ontario, Canada does the same thing. They accelerate the RTD expansion plan.
They're allowing their province to sell the RTDs across there.
Is there any supposition as
to why now of all times you see this influx of allowances with the RTDs?
Especially after we had that one bill that was like,

(01:01:58):
or there are some states that are having that law where they're starting to
get people into trouble if they're like less than 0.8 or something.
Oh, you're talking about the. I didn't even think about that.
Like, why are you now doing this?
Because this is now going to basically get more people into trouble.

(01:02:20):
But, you know, whatever.
To lower the blood alcohol content. That is an interesting overlap.
It'd be interesting to know how much they overlap.
Well, these locations aren't those locations, essentially.
But I'd want to know how much or if neighboring states even have had changes.

(01:02:44):
Thanks for interpreting what I was saying. I had no idea how to work it.
My thinking is if 30 states in the union and Ontario, Canada are making RTDs
available, every one of those states has a neighboring state that already allows it.
Yeah. So consequently, if you're a state that's surrounded by states that are

(01:03:06):
doing it, it's easier to make that jump.
Now that doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do. It's just easier to make that jump.
Or the wrong thing. It doesn't mean it's the wrong thing to do either.
I think that it could be a motive. My theory would be that it'd be worth seeing
such a shift towards craft beers and local wines and everything that's already,

(01:03:35):
you know, able to be found in most grocery stores.
And maybe those ready to drink cocktails that hadn't already been in stores,
bringing them in is meant to be kind
of a gateway cocktail to bringing people into a liquor store for things like

(01:03:56):
a bourbon or a vodka or the base of whatever RTD they're now able to pull next
to the wine section they're already familiar with. Exactly.
And, Laura, I never even thought about it from your point of view.
I was looking at this group of stories as this is a chink in the armor of the three-tiered system.

(01:04:20):
I think it's just interesting that all three of us had completely different
takes on why this was occurring or, you know, at least a hypothesis on why this was happening now.
I think there's a lot more to come. So it seems like, I mean,
this is a pretty big decision for states that, you know, didn't have or provinces that didn't have this.

(01:04:42):
It's certainly going to open a lot more doors, a lot more questions.
I don't think that this is a black and gray or black and white manner.
I think that it may not even be a black and gray matter.
Well, you know, I mean, like black and white. I don't think it's going to be
black. Nothing is black and white anymore. Like, seriously.

(01:05:03):
So now we're going to go on to our new whiskey bottle scavenger hunt segment.
I've got half a dozen or so whiskey to be searching for.
Angel's Envy is dropping its first bourbon without a cask finish.
Up until now, every Angel's Envy bottle that's come out has been finished in
something, usually port.

(01:05:24):
So Angel's Envy, they're located in Louisville. They're known for their cask finish whiskey.
They are trying something new. They're coming out with their first bottle.
It's only available at the distillery.
It's aged four to six years, and it's going to be put out at 103 proof.
It was aged in a cooler warehouse.

(01:05:46):
They're going to do 27 low proof barrels, believe it or not, aged at only 98 proof.
And they're blended with a couple of higher proof barrels to come out with the exact same.
100-proof rating. They're also making this a bottled-in-bond bottle.
So they are jumping in headfirst into the unfinished game.

(01:06:11):
That's right. That's right. So the official tasting notes, they're coming from the distillery.
Caramelized sugar and vanilla wafer on the nose with some banana pudding. Honey latte.
Honey latte. Give me a break. Oh, my gosh.
Take that somewhere else. Light fruit syrup and toasted oak on the palate.

(01:06:33):
Oh my gosh. You know, it's just your typical basic girly going to Starbucks
wanting that honey latte.
Okay, we all know how I feel about distilleries self-proloting their own flavors.
Yeah, and if you didn't hear it, Allura groaned. She is not a banana fan.

(01:06:54):
I hate bananas. There you go. If there was such a thing as a devil's fruit to
me, I would tell the devil himself to shove the banana up his ass.
I hate bananas. At the same time, though, I'm interested in trying this.
Not because of what they're purporting. I think it's the honey latte. No, sure.

(01:07:20):
No, I think it's great that they're wanting to get into the game in a different
way. And they're already very well established in their special finish categories.
Good for them for wanting to broaden their horizons and step in with the actual
big boys. So this one's kind of pricey.
They're making a release of 12,000 bottles, but they're only 350 mils. So the smallies.

(01:07:47):
And they're pricing those at $55 each.
I mean, if you think about it, their rise right now, We're pretty darn near 100 at MSRP.
I'm not surprised.
Upset, sure. But surprised, no.
Here's a bottle you might actually find. Jim Beam.

(01:08:07):
Good old Jim Beam. They're reimagining their black label bottle.
So master distillers Freddie and Fred Noe, son and father, are reintroducing Jim Beam Black.
Black has been a bridge from their core white label expressions to their more limited offerings.

(01:08:29):
Black has a brand new age statement, seven years old.
Has a higher proof, 45, up from 83. 83, okay. Or I think it was 83. Okay.
Okay. Or, yeah, thereabouts, which would what? Below 90. Yeah, 86 proof.
Yeah, okay. Okay. And they're doing their updated packaging.

(01:08:49):
I was in the liquor store on Friday, and their 175 milliliter bottles have the new packaging.
It's a completely black label. It doesn't hardly have any white on it at all, except for the words.
It has an orange seven on it for seven years. It's really an attractive bottle.

(01:09:13):
Fred notes that this bottling is a throwback to the older iterations.
Freddie calls the work on black an opportunity to revisit Eames' storied history.
Now, Freddie's the person responsible for the little book. Yeah. Batch.
Yeah. And Fred's taken over from his father, Booker.

(01:09:35):
So they're both working on this project together.
Both of them are huge storytellers. Absolutely. So this is going to definitely reflect that.
So as the master distillers note, the brand portfolio carry lots of variations
in distillation proof, barreling proof, bottling proof.
Finishes. Finishes, what have you. This new Jim Beam Black is available in all the formats.

(01:10:01):
Ranging anywhere from the 50 milliliters right on through the 175 I mentioned.
Their notes say caramel, vanilla, and rich oak.
The new iteration comes with updated packaging to convey its maturity and still priced at $25.
That's not bad. You know what? I'm actually really excited about this.

(01:10:21):
And if they are going to do a whole revamp on it, I'll be very interested.
I love it when a product goes up a little bit in proof and finally hits that
90 line, that 90 proof line.
And like Elora mentioned, both Fred and Freddie are very much storytellers.
And I love that they're taking not necessarily a step back, but they're also

(01:10:46):
paying attention to the little guys in their own line,
as opposed to only their bookers and their little book lines that are much higher
up in the price tiers and space.
And I think we had a story a while back about Jim Beam going back to their roots.

(01:11:07):
Yeah. So I think this is great.
I think that it's nice to know that there are master distillers out there who
aren't just using their baseline projects as solely cash cows to apply to anybody
and everybody who wants to just grab and go,

(01:11:28):
but that they want to put a genuine effort into the product and have it be mature
and have it have its own unique.
Neat story to it. I think that's great. Good for them.
I'm excited to see what the 90 proof offers.
And if you ever want to see like the people behind the whiskey,
behind the bourbon, especially for Freddie and probably Fred,

(01:11:51):
yeah, watch the movie Neat.
We got a reference on it on our website and it goes into the story of how these
people got into the bourbon business.
It has a lot of information about how the bourbon business works,
how it's worked in past years, and how it works in the present.
It just shows the personality behind the bottle, and it's worth watching.

(01:12:13):
Absolutely. Hashtag not sponsored.
Yeah, Knob Creek Bourbon and Rye blends the best Knob Creek Bourbon and Rye.
Now, that's kind of a tongue twister, but essentially what's happening is Knob
Creek, Fred, no, has decided that he is going to blend a nine-year-old bourbon

(01:12:38):
with a seven-year-old rye.
So, Freddie's involved with this too. He says, it's an honor to work with my
dad to go beyond the traditional craft.
The new distiller notes on this one, it's coming out at 113 proof,
which is really an odd proof.
Its color is golden brown with copper hues, aroma of sweet Wheat maple...

(01:13:00):
With hints of nuttiness and baking spice. That sounds like me.
Which would be very on par with a Jim Beam product.
Knob Creek, for those of you who don't know, does fall under the Jim Beam umbrella.
So Freddie and Fred are involved in this one, just like they were in that Jim
Beam Black that we were just talking about. Absolutely.

(01:13:20):
Brown Sweets with a hint of fruitiness and black pepper.
Finish is sweet with lingering spice.
Great price on this bottle. $45 for 750 milliliters, and its availability is
limited, but it's coming out nationwide.
I'm going to look for that one as well. So that's a good one to watch for.
And then another knob creak, they're unveiling a 10-year-old rye.

(01:13:45):
Yes! Oh, my God! Jim Beam! Yeah, right in your face. Oh, my butts today are having a good time.
Yeah. They've announced a 10-year-old Kentucky straight rye.
It's an evolution of their seven-year-old staple rye that comes out,
and it's said to be done with pre-prohibition style in very deeply charred barrels.

(01:14:06):
However, they did not disclose if that's a four or even more,
but heavily charred barrels.
Freddie said of his...
His grandfather, Booker, he set out to create premium whiskey without shortcuts.
And we're excited to contribute to this legacy.
That basically means to me that they've been planning this for a while.

(01:14:29):
They set aside some special barrels to do this 10-year release.
Proof is still going to be that 100, that magical 100, like typical Knob Creek's
tawny and waves of copper, aroma-rich caramel and vanilla deep rye spice,
and some dried apple in this one.
Oh, okay. Black peppercorn, creamy vanilla, and caramel with hints of deep oaken char.

(01:14:52):
Finish smooth with lingering notes of baking spice.
And $69.99, 750 milliliter bottle, and it's available nationwide.
Okay. And then on Maker's Mark,
they've come out with another extension of their wood finishing series.
Last year, the wood finishing series finished up, and they were saying that

(01:15:14):
this was going to be it. No, no, no.
Maker's Mark has a group of people known as The Heart that work for them.
These are individuals that are behind the stuff that's made at the Laredo-based operation.
They're responsible for the newest offering called The Heart Release.
2024 Release is Part 2, the first one of the Part 2 set of the wood finishing series.

(01:15:39):
It's a collection of one-of-a-kind expressions using innovative woodstave finishing techniques.
Techniques basically they're uh i bet they're gonna keep doing what they've
been doing yep do what you know what to do the bourbon tells the story about
their teams in the distillery this one is to come up with the heart release
beth buckner senior manager of innovation and blending,

(01:16:03):
said that they went to about 21 people
in the distillery who had certain aspects
of things that they did well and they asked tell us
what you taste and what you feel and what you
experience i think you're doing your job so that's where this one's coming from
the team responded with mentions of spices and sweet flavors and aromas rather

(01:16:26):
than grains and yeasts so with that feedback the team came up with a berman
expression featuring a rich creamy mouthfeel.
And the bottles are going to come out with varying proofs, anywhere from 107 to 114.
Classic makers. Makers. Wood finishing series. Never know what it's going to be.

(01:16:47):
Fruit forward with notes of caramel, maple, and chocolate.
And available to U.S. retailers here in July 2024 for $75.
So are they doing anything charitable with that one?
I haven't heard. You know, I love makers' wood finishing products.

(01:17:08):
Every time we get the opportunity to buy one, I always do.
I think they're a highly underrated product and everybody judges them because
everybody knows that red wax drip advertisement that they see on the internet
and on TV and whatnot. not.
But their wood finishing series really is very incredible.

(01:17:30):
There's a lot of complexity in there. I just had a new one for myself the other
night, fell in love with it almost immediately.
All of that being said, if you're going to call something the heart release,
I kind of feel like it's a bit of an opportunity missed if you don't try to

(01:17:50):
do something charitable with that one, because there are so many heart problems
in this country and around the world that it would have been a really great
moment for them to partner.
What a great idea. You know, that would have been my Hanna Pro Marketing tip.
But, you know, I wasn't asked.
Well, let's hope these are as good as the BRT-01 and the FAE-02.

(01:18:15):
Which were two of my favorites in that series so far.
The FAE-02 was stellar. Yeah, we all like to brown here.
And then lastly, I've got one from Buffalo Trace.
They've just dropped a new barrel-proof rye, and it's from their Colonel E.H. Taylor line.

(01:18:36):
They're all looking at me like, Anna, what are you thinking?
Because I was poised to take a sip of my rye, and I had to set it down to process that. As we all know.
That's really exciting, guys. As we all know, Buffalo Trace is known for producing
some of the most sought-after bottles of American whiskey.

(01:18:59):
Of course, Pappy Van Winkle and the Antique Collection and the W.L.
Letwater line. And Blanton's.
And Blanton's. The one with the horse. Yeah, yeah. And the Curl EH Taylor.
Well, the EH Taylor lineup includes some of the special barrel treatments, like,
The Unicorn Warehouse Sea Tornado Surviving Expression.

(01:19:20):
Those are stupid, crazy, expensive right now on the secondary market. $20,000 plus.
Hell no. And essentially what it was, the tornado came through and knocked down a warehouse.
And they couldn't get the barrels back in a warehouse soon enough,
so they sat outside all summer long.
If it's not fire or flood, it's a tornado. There you go. You live in Kentucky,

(01:19:45):
these are the things you can tend to.
And all it does is make you richer with your calamities.
A new barrel-strength rye has come out. It is the 13th whiskey to join this lineup.
The entire E.H. Taylor lineup qualifies as bottled and bond,
with the exception of the barrel-proofs.

(01:20:05):
This new age EH Taylor barrel proof rye is uncut, unfiltered rye whiskey made
from a mash bill, which is around the legally required 51% or more rye grain.
The distillery never discloses any of their exact percentages.
And this first one is bottled at about 126 proof.

(01:20:28):
Hannah is already figuring out where am I going to find one of these bottles.
You know, which kidney do I sell? Yeah.
Official distillery tasting notes, aroma, white pepper and nutty on the nose,
palate, dried stone fruit, pepper, and oaky dryness with a sweet finish.
And MSRP, and good luck on finding this in you non-control states,

(01:20:53):
listed at about $78 to $80.
Not the worst price I've seen.
That's not what you're going to pay if you're not living in a control state. Yeah.
And even in a controlled state, it may be hard to find. Best of luck.
For sure. Keep your eyes out for this one. Hannah's got her eyes open, wide open right now.
We've been fortunate to have a
couple of the Colonel Taylor barrel-proof bourbons, and they are stellar.

(01:21:17):
In fact, I've rated them among my top five scoring tiers.
Yeah. They're just awesome products. Taylor's are amazing.
I think we even reviewed one on this podcast, not this season,
but last season. and it was one of the final ones, a barrel-proof.
You're right, a barrel-proof. I think it was.
Number 10, batch 10. Yeah, batch 10. So good.

(01:21:38):
So good. And don't forget, access to the links of these news stories and more
on Whiskey News from the podcast archive page at our website,
whiskeyfortheages.com.
Now go out there and find yourself some bottles.
Girls, what'd you think? That is our Whiskey Review with a Twist episode.

(01:21:59):
It was interesting because Hannah and I were very concerned about...
Hannah was more vocal about this, but I was also kind of concerned that these
weren't the same. It kind of puts...
My experience or experimented a test. Like, I'm up in Montana doing school right now.
How does a Montana bourbon that's, you know, of the same brand,

(01:22:23):
same name, same everything compared to one over here?
It's kind of like the prototype for that kind of experiment.
Like, does packaging really have a huge factor in it if this is the same bourbon?
Rye. Rye. This is a rye. If this is the same ride, does packaging have the same experience?

(01:22:43):
Or is it really just a matter of time that we had one of these guys purchased
and set away in our bunker a year ago,
and the other one is a new adoption to our little family bunker over here, and how it all works.
And then, moreover, how you guys should approach and how we should approach seasonal releases.

(01:23:07):
Like we mentioned earlier with Elijah Craig Barrel Proofs or Larceny Barrel
Proofs for that matter, or even all the way up to the Bookers,
though they are named different for each batch that they come out.
I think this was a really great experiment with two products that look by name
basically the same thing, though the packaging is different,

(01:23:29):
to see how different they really can be and how each needs to be appreciated for their own moments.
There's a chemistry involved with any kind of whiskey that you go for,
or really just any kind of alcohol you go for.
So make it an experiment. Like, try different things. If something looks similar

(01:23:50):
to you, how can you make it different?
How can you compare where you are, what you're tasting, what kind of glasses
you're tasting from, and what kind of bottles you're tasting from?
I think all of that has all the differences, all the distinguished moments in
the world. So drop us a note.

(01:24:11):
Tell us what you think. Yeah. Disagree with us, please.
Yep. Yep. Like, tell us what you really think, seriously.
Because, I mean, like I said, y'all have heard, I disagree with you on this.
I'm going to disagree with you on this.
Seriously, just make it fun. Make it a conversation.

(01:24:31):
Talk a little bit real quick before we end this, what we have in store for you
guys going forward through the season. The next episode we have is going to be a guest interview.
We're bringing back a friend to the show, Greg Walters. You guys have may have heard us on his show.
He's been on our show before. We're going to bring him back. We love talking to Greg.

(01:24:51):
He's always so much fun to talk to and his takes are fascinating to say the least.
This time around, we're going to have him do some blind tastings we
know what he's tasting but he doesn't so it's going
to be a lot of fun who really knows though where the
show is going to go every time we've had an interaction with greg
it has spun so far off of

(01:25:12):
the rails in the best way and
we're we're just here for it we're going for the ride it's
a spiral of malady that's the word that's an
inside joke if y'all listen to his last episode on
his podcast that's been linked on our page multiple
times as well so listen to that if you haven't already after that we're gonna

(01:25:34):
have a distillery review that's gonna be another me show another hannah show
i'm gonna lead you through some history on another distillery that i'm not gonna
spoil for you what it is yet but be looking forward to it because i love doing those episodes.
Episode eight, that's going to be an expose. We're going to talk about some

(01:25:54):
topics and challenges that we whiskey aficionados face,
whether that's Laura and I as women in a whiskey store,
whether that's us going into a non-control state when we leave the borders of
Idaho for whatever reason that we don't, you know, as out of our control or
whatever the case may be.

(01:26:15):
We're going to talk about it. And then I'll do a whiskey history one.
I got to do my history. We love the history episodes.
I think it's a great learning opportunity to know where the strength that we
all enjoy really came from.
And then we're going to wrap our season up like we have in the past with the
listeners pick review. So be on the lookout still.
That's not coming yet, but still be on the lookout for the options of what we're

(01:26:39):
going to be reviewing for you guys coming up.
And as always we may flex the
order a bit but we're still going to
have some fun add some surprises along the way we're
always there for those we look forward to
talking with you all again soon please please please let us know what you think
about all these we'd love to hear from you as always we end our episodes with

(01:27:03):
the ringing of the Glencairns so everybody thanks for joining in I hope you.
Music.
Had fun we sure did girls Girls, talk to you soon.
Cheers. Cheers, everyone. Cheers.