Ep 226 - Overrated Whiskeys vs Underrated Whiskeys

Brandon and I are at Amans again with Wes, Aman, and Parker.  We all give examples of each and we all try a bottle of them.  We discuss why we feel this way and have a lot of fun along the way.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Welcome to the Bourbon Boys. Oh, and then we're getting a cough immediately after. Alright, uh, we are doing a uh podcast at Amon's table again. I'm joined by Showtime.

SPEAKER_06 1:18

What's going on?

SPEAKER_03 1:18

We're joined by Amon.

SPEAKER_06 1:20

Hello, hello.

unknown 1:21

And we're joined by Wes again.

SPEAKER_06 1:22

Good afternoon.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

And Parker's off mic again.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

Yes, I'm also here. Sorry about that.

SPEAKER_03 1:28

I forgot my splitter. Sorry about it. Next time I'll bring the splitter so we can have a uh a fifth mic. Sorry. Anyway, this podcast is gonna be overrated versus underrated uh whiskeys? We're gonna do whiskeys. We're not gonna do bourbon. We're not gonna do you could do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

I would lead it with the bottles that were available here.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

Like isn't that whiskey?

SPEAKER_01 1:56

No, but like any liquid, brandy, rum, spirit.

SPEAKER_03 2:00

If you wanna if you wanna do that, if you wanna I mean that's not gonna be irrelevant.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Yes. So most of our podcasts are. Okay, whiskies. Whiskey is whiskey as it is. Whiskey's gonna be the bourbon. Yeah, I know I get it. American whiskeys. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 2:12

American grain distillate.

SPEAKER_03 2:15

So we're going in on our whiskeys. So we're gonna do overrated versus underrated. I'm gonna start off with Wes.

SPEAKER_06 2:22

Hi there. How are you?

SPEAKER_03 2:24

What's your overrated underrated?

SPEAKER_06 2:25

Hi, Wes. My most overrated based on the bottles that I walked through.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

Hold on a second. We're gonna start with overrated and we're gonna pour it if you have it.

SPEAKER_06 2:36

It's over there. So my over my overrated is uh Bog Standard Elmer T Lee. Okay. And I think it's a fine whiskey for the retail price, but I do not understand why people pay any more than that for this bottle.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

Okay, we're gonna drink it and we're gonna talk about it. And then I'm gonna let uh Brandon stew for a 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

And while we pour these up, I'm gonna counter.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

No, there's no countering right now. There's no countering. You just have to enjoy this whiskey for this for the first time of two.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Oh, don't let him pour.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Boom.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

So he can pour proper when he wants to.

SPEAKER_03 3:22

Let me say.

SPEAKER_06 3:24

He's very gingerly. He pours gingerly when it's Almer T. Lee. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:29

Let me say about Let me say about Elmer T. Lee. This was the first whiskey I got into that I was like, hmm. This is delicious. I had a lot of notes on it, and when I got done drinking it, I took a big breath in and got a lot more like sensory notes. That was the first time I did that.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

I mean it's delicious. Agreed. But I agree. But I I understand the argument Wes is trying to make here vis-a-vis what it costs actually cost people to get a bottle of this. Correct.

SPEAKER_06 4:06

Not even just what it costs, but also the unlikelihood that you'd actually find it on a shelf.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

You'll never find it on the maybe down south, but not here. Right. And it's like I've never seen the shelf in Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_06 4:19

Is it just a factor of like people are like, oh, I can flip this for times what it's worth? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yes. It is definitely a function of that.

SPEAKER_06 4:25

Right. So I think that is what makes it really terrible.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Which is why West, I respect his pick. Because to me, I would almost say it's underrated if you can get it for that retail.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

But we're gonna get to we're gonna get to that.

SPEAKER_06 4:36

It is kind of corny, honestly. Correct. I have I haven't had this in a while. And so this is like a gut reaction, but I it is a little bit corny. Really?

SPEAKER_01 4:45

It's not that old. I would rather have an Eagle Rare tenure, which is easier to get and buy for cheaper. And it tastes better.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

So the other thing with that too is like the whole point of the Elmer T. Lee with the B tag line was the intro to their like so low proof, 90 proof, and then you're supposed to work your way up into the stags and WLW.

SPEAKER_06 5:04

Yeah, but this is a hell of a long way down the stairway.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

Correct. And if you take it at that and you work your way down the road, then it makes sense. But if you just solely have this, then it doesn't make sense, right? Because now it's 90 proof, it's a little light on the tongue, like you said, a lot of corn. It's not very age.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Yeah, but it can be judged on its own merits without comparing it to anything else.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

I don't get a ton of corn. I don't know. It maybe it's just me, but I don't get the ton of corn.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

No, I think it's very tasty. It's it's a nice drinking. Smooth. I wouldn't be offended by this. Someone poured me this at his house. At West's house, I'd be offended. I'm like, wait, this is all you got?

SPEAKER_03 5:40

If I paid$12 for a pour of that, I'd be okay with that. I'd be okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Yeah. There's a brandy, you potentially as fuck.

SPEAKER_06 5:46

But it's not. It just doesn't like okay, so first of all.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

What's the secondary value? What's secondary value?

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Anyway from like 150, 200. Okay. That's too much. It's whatever it is, it's too much. Then it's then you're foolish. Because I would tell you, take your 150, go buy something else. I just did three bottles. Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 6:06

I just didn't want to go up and like pick, you know, Weller Special Reserve, or Eagle Rare 10, or uh Pappy because it's a little bit on the nose. It's like obviously. Well, thank you. But I thought I thought this was an interesting one. Like this, to me, this is one of the first allocated bourbons that I ever had. And I I remember seeing one on a shelf and I bought it, and then I never saw another one on the shelf ever in my life.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

Alright. So we're gonna go to Amon for his most overrated pour.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Um, since we said whiskey, I can do Japanese whiskey, right? Yes. That's whiskey. Yeah. I think Yamazaki 18 is the most overrated pour out there. Okay. Yamazaki 18. Wow, I think it's a$900 retail.$900 retail. Shh. I'm not even saying secondary.

SPEAKER_06 7:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

And I bet you it's not even made by Yamazaki. It's mostly just some beam-owned distillery in Scotland that provides them the juice. Gotcha. It's average at best.

SPEAKER_06 7:16

Shout out to my high school colleague Jordan, who works at Suntory.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Congrats, Jordan.

SPEAKER_03 7:23

We we don't have that bottle to review on the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

We can't. How do you say no to that? Is it open?

SPEAKER_03 7:32

I'm gonna move on to uh Showtime.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Kind of hot taken. I was talking about this with Wes a little bit before. For me, it's uh it's for the most part, any makers mark product. Okay. There's a random like somebody who gives me makers like, oh, it's not bad. But I it just hasn't ever hit for me. And I think a lot of it is growing up uh in central Wisconsin where that is like the bourbon. If you're gonna have bourbon in central Wisconsin. So maybe I drank too much of it when I was younger, but like it just doesn't do anything for me. Okay. And I respect it, like I guys that get it, that's their thing. It just doesn't do anything for me.

SPEAKER_03 8:09

So you're talking about standard makers.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

For the most part, but like all these guys are like in here. And when I think about it, similar to what Wes was saying, if I'm gonna go chase bottles, I'm probably not gonna chase a maker's mark product just because of my history with it. So I'm not saying they make bad pores or they make bad juice, it's just not my jam. Gotcha. And so, no offense to Amon, but we got Amon's uh makers pick, so we're gonna get into that.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

We're still hold on to it for a minute. Oh no, we're gonna hold it. You're the only person that has two glasses. It's fancy. Fancy.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

So this is the the What is this Yamazaki? We're drinking the Yamazaki 18 that I think is overrated.

SPEAKER_03 8:51

It smells like band-aid.

SPEAKER_04 8:53

I thought it smelled like rubber. Like erasers. One of the barrel picks versus like the normal plain makers, and maybe we'll change his mind.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

This is not my cup of tea.

SPEAKER_06 9:06

This is what I remember Scotch tasting like. This is scotchy when you were 12? College. Yeah. It's like, oh, this is scotch. It's not like, oh, what a luxurious product this is.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Like that's my first thought. Like I'm like, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

It's like if you put if you age Mac twelve McAllen 12 for maybe a couple years, you might get this. But not e but that might not even be the it might be slightly worse than that.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

So I don't think I'm as harsh as some of the other guys. Like Chad's struggling here. Uh I don't think it's that bad. Like$900 worth. If I paid$900 and this is what I drank, I yes, I'd be pissed.

SPEAKER_06 9:49

Smells like a like uh an eraser and a match. Which is fine for tasting notes.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

It can be interesting and good. Not when those are the first two. Right. Okay. There's plenty of orchard fruit. Especially on the palate.

SPEAKER_03 10:05

Orchard fruit? I got no fruit.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

That's not what I'm saying. A lot of fruit in Scotland. My point is we've drank plenty of scotch. And there are bottles we've had that are older and one third, one fourth the price. Right. Right. And they're spectacular. This is a good thing.

SPEAKER_06 10:21

And then you can extrapolate that even further to cognac.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Which I Yes. Correct. We are going to digress and not do that right now. I'm not digressing.

SPEAKER_06 10:31

Um I was going somewhere with that thought process, but you could tell me about how much you loved what I was doing here. Japanese.

SPEAKER_03 10:40

This stuff tastes like licking a uh hospital floor.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

This is the success of marketing and the fact that they have Yamazaki 25 Sherry, which is supposed to be life-changing, and I believe it. Because that is probably old Yamazaki juice.

SPEAKER_06 10:58

So I have uh a little bit of I'm gonna mic drop here a bit. Yamazaki. I'm not gonna drop the mic. Thank you. From like where they came from before and their vision for what they wanted as a product, and for whatever reason, Kieran sold Kuruizawa because they didn't want to deal with it anymore, and then Yamazaki turns into this like gigantic empire for Japanese whiskey.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

It was scaling at some point. Hashuku, Hakushu, Yamazaki, and uh Hibiki.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

Brandy has a question. They're all owned by the same people. So is it Japanese scotch, or it's like single malt.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Single malt. It's made in Japan. Where is it?

SPEAKER_05 11:57

It's made the same way as scotch, it's just not from Scotland.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

Gotcha. So it's in Japan. Like, because I think those new to Scotch would be like, what are you talking about? Right? Like a Japanese scotch? Single malt.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

You can call it Japanese scotch.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

No such thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

I'm not. Okay. I'm not. I'm not. Those are mutually exclusive. Correct. Japanese whiskey. Totally get. Japanese whiskey.

SPEAKER_03 12:16

Alright, well, is there somebody else that has to do their no, I think we already went through I Breadties.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

Yeah, I talked about the makers. We're drinking. What's yours? Yeah, what's yours, big dog?

SPEAKER_03 12:28

Oh, I'm sorry. Uh yes, uh, my overrated, for anybody that's listening to this podcast, probably knows the answer to this question. It's gonna be will it. I think their pricing is insane. And especially since they're just selling their own stuff now. Back in the day when they had source stuff, I think it was clearly the best whiskey ever made. No. Alright, we differ. They put out some barrels that were amazing. I'm not gonna lie about that. But the pricing they put out was crazy. Still crazy. But the They were always premium. The lack of transparency is what gives me the ick when it comes to currently you're putting the same label on stuff that you distilled versus stuff that was sourced. That pisses me off. That makes me want to burn your fucking distiller. Oh, I'm sorry. Might have to edit that out. That you put out the same label and try to put it off as if it's source.

SPEAKER_04 13:32

That's fine.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

So I so for me, currently I'm not sure. This is uh Steve Chu, our lawyer.

SPEAKER_04 13:40

Disclaimer Steve Chu. Steve Choo works at the Department of Energy.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

That was a great name drop.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

That was an amazing name drop.

SPEAKER_04 13:58

Glad editing exists. I give a pause to edit that.

SPEAKER_05 14:02

I don't edit. This is all live recording. This is live. This is on the internet. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:08

That's fine because I don't want misinformation. Steve was Steve was at a great Nobel Prize winning physicist. Pause again. Okay. So we're talking about out of sync, but I'm really curious. So you know that maker you were saying makers overrated. What do you say about this maker?

SPEAKER_02 14:27

So I usually get a lot of ethanol. When I drink ethanol, when I drink makers, I usually get a lot of ethanol. I will say I'm it's good. I'm not a huge fan because I get that ethanol aspect of it that it sits in the back of my palate. I don't, for whatever reason, maker's mark always hits me like that. I always get I always get that. This is straight up cherry juice.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Have you ever done it blind?

SPEAKER_02 14:50

I have. I have. And I have there's been times where I picked Maker's Mark.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Like just and that's why I was saying with this, I the cherry I like.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Like so if I sat down on your table, you served me this, I would not be mad at you.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Right, right. No, but I I s you said it's overrated, though, but for the price, it seems like it's very decent. It's like 47 a handle on the shelf.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Yeah, I think like the common man's bourbon, like that 46 and stuff like that. But uh that's just not my but this is like 80.

SPEAKER_06 15:14

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Well, that is this But the point he was making was I'm sorry if I'm putting words in your mouth, but I think you said that makers overall is overrated.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

For me, it's it's I just never had and and kind of what Wes was talking about. It's like the premium well hype, right? Like people are like, oh, the seller age and this and this, and then I try them and they're always underwhelming to me. I found one where I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_06 15:36

My friends' dads in high school all loved makers mark in the giant like 1.75 liter bottles, and I just can't disassociate from that those hangovers.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Correct. And I so I part of it is that for me as well, like central Wisconsin, but there's always makers in my so what I would say is uh standard Baker's mark.

SPEAKER_03 16:01

Uh I don't know if I call it overrated. I mean it's everybody it's subjective, everybody has their own opinions. Picks, I think, are generally overrated because of the price they cut they charge for it, and it's all batch stuff just finished with staves.

SPEAKER_06 16:16

I thought you just meant picks in general. Right, that was yeah. Like there's a lot of really dumb people picking whiskey.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

No, makersmark picks. The price of$75,$80 for makersmark picks batch whiskey being finished in certain staves for like eight weeks. I think most people don't realize that it's a batch whiskey they're putting into this and finishing it.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

But it is interesting. If I could make a counter-argument here. Okay. It's batched only because they're hamstrung by the fact that they rotate their barrels. Correct. They have no other way of doing an effective single barrel program.

SPEAKER_03 16:59

That's fine. I don't have a problem with them rationalizing it. But$75 for I'm not buying a small batch. But but this this individual one, delicious. I have a lot of people. But there are a lot of people that don't put as much thought into it.

SPEAKER_06 17:21

There's a lot of really mid Makers Mark. But there's a lot of mid combinations.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

The problem is when you go pick any other single barrel, I mean any other, you're getting unique single barrels.

SPEAKER_07 17:35

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

With them, especially it's overwhelming. When you go sit there the first time and they explain the process to you, you're like, wait, hang on, what are we doing? It took me a second. Remember the first time we went there? It's like you need to learn how to use an abacus. So then we had to ask questions, we figured it out. I'm like, oh, okay. So this is how this works, this is how the staves work, because it's a very unique program. No one else does what they do. Right. It is because they want to introduce some variability on top of the fact that they rotate their barrels and the profile. They want the same profile for every bottle that goes out. Correct. Yep. Correct. Yeah. Correct.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

But similar, so I was going to counter that. Uh with the complexity of it, I feel the same way about four roses.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Counter-counterpoint.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Counter-counter, right? Counter-counter. Double counter. Now we're really coaching back.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Shout out to Bach.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

Right? So, like four roses, I gotta pull the book out, I gotta read like OESB and you know all that. Like I'm not as a I'm not really into that. Like I want to go be able to do that. Reading is fundamental. The public school teachers will tell me we want to clear my face and we'll know exactly what it is. And I like that. I'm not saying four roses is bad or makers is bad. You better not say four roses is just takes you a minute to understand their system to understand what you're actually tasting. Which is fine, which I like.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

I it can be intimidating, correct. But once you get it, you just like okay, fine. Correct. We'll work within your parameters. And roses, I mean, you're tasting them blind, and it you judge the barrel on its own merit. They tell you the recipe later, so I don't care about that either. I want to taste it. Yes, because he confirmed that with some unique barrels that he sourced.

SPEAKER_06 19:17

I we should have a podcast on that. That would infuriate about a hundred very middle manager people in the world right now. Let's get back to the whiskey itself.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

What is the uh the barrel? What's the uh stats on the uh the drinking? It's a rah. Seven-year-old. Oh Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

What does that say? It's uh 53.3% seven year. So 106 barrel 9685. Thanks for nothing.

unknown 19:49

What do you want me to read?

SPEAKER_01 19:50

I thought you were reading something like that. I thought he had better eyesight than me.

SPEAKER_06 19:55

He's a pilot? I don't think so. This guy, though. Yeah. Let's get you behind the yeah. 200 bucks?

SPEAKER_05 20:04

200 bucks for seven, like that. For a seven year? Yeah. I'm asking.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

That's a question he asked. I thought it was like 200 bucks. Like, what's the MSRP on a bottle of it?

SPEAKER_05 20:15

I think so. For seven years.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

This was probably two, two fifty. Okay, so that was pretty accurate.

SPEAKER_06 20:22

It's more than Mickers. It's good. Right. Michael's yeah. More than Michener's, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

Okay. I'm glad Amon and uh Wes are off the rails this time and not Brandon.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

He got here late, so Amon and I were on here, so I feel good, right? Ketchup. Yes. Uh it's great whiskey, but$200? No. Not for seven-year-old whiskey.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Yeah, that's my thing. I I you know, it's it's great whiskey. You know, so seven years of$250,$2, like then I'm like, but so I think really what the problem is.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Oh, that's fruity.

SPEAKER_06 21:04

So I haven't smelled it yet, but it tastes like a lot of fruit on that thing.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

95-5 MVP.

SPEAKER_06 21:10

So really, but what we need to consider is how this looks next to like Carrera marble and um lithographs. What the hell are you talking about? And uh, you know, nice vintage role under lighting and yeah, a roly or two. So what we're really not considering is how this can fit into the really um subtle home decor that many people uh enjoy. Put their green tops in the street. So you're saying is LVMX should buy them.

SPEAKER_04 21:45

So really what I'm saying is this is an investment in your mental well being and you could sell that, put it on the shelf, and and comes with a Louis Vuitton purse for your wife too, so that everyone's happy because I mean it's pretty much the same thing.

SPEAKER_06 21:59

I mean if you're If you're buying Willet, you definitely have a wife that needs Louis Vuitton and purses.

SPEAKER_03 22:06

Every Amon's table goes off the rails at some point. I was worried that it was gonna be the first episode, and we got the second episode in. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

This is good. This is good.

SPEAKER_03 22:18

Alright, well, we're gonna switch gears and we're gonna do the most underrated pours. We're gonna go Amon first. What's your most underrated pour? That's okay. That's gonna be our final pour.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

They don't need to know about that yet. As far as underrated goes, I'm gonna go with store picks.

SPEAKER_03 22:44

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Um not just mine. Any store, anyone's paladin trust. Anyone out there, anyone's palette you trust. I feel like that is the best value if you like drinking whiskey. If you like collecting whiskey, that's a different story.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

So you're talking about anybody's store picks because you get the most unique stuff.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Yes. Because now you have your stamp on them, and they're also pretty fair for pricing. As in you can get uniqueness for a very affordable price.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

But the the other part of that is sometimes groups and stores don't pick the best barrels.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

They do it for Well then it's like I said, if your palette aligns with someone. What makes the barrel good or bad?

SPEAKER_03 23:32

Well, I mean, there's a generic barrel you can pick on every barrel pick. They put it out there for you because you know that there are stores that are gonna do that. Like if you go to 1792, there's gonna be a banana pick in there. But if you're not a generic picker, you're not picking just for 1792, you're picking for the aficionado.

SPEAKER_06 23:55

What I'm saying is if you have this baseline that a lot of people enjoy but not the enthusiasts, is that a bad pick? I would say no for business, right? Like, because for me probably That's why all these brands exist. Correct. Because most people don't have that level of insight.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

So one of the things I've learned over the last couple months is the number of barrel picks I've been on and stuff, is so they put that baseline like this. This is what we do, like whether it's suburban or right, like this is what we do, and it this aligns kind of what we do. And then they're gonna put one out there that's so out in right field, left field that you're like, what is this? And then there's gonna be varying levels to that. And based on your preference and what you pick will determine, right? So some guys will walk in and be like, this is the basic common, it's gonna sell out all day. And then there's some stores that are like, I'm gonna take this one way over here on the extended on the extended version that's way out there. I've never had this because I know I have a following that would be like I want that. And I think that's where Store Pix really and I'll give an example. I was uh uh up north this weekend, I've never heard of Haskell's uh liquor store, and a friend of mine passed me uh a single barrel, and it was called um Mama's Meat Sweats, because it was the highest barrel out of the Rick House, and it was it was amazing, and it was just a Haskell store pick, and it was better than anything that we had on the shelf. Distillery Peerless. I know, I know that's not your jam, but that for me was a phenomenal pick, but it was like what did he charge for it? Uh it's eighty dollars.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Twenty of that's for the class. How much was that? I mean, how how old was it? Peerless has brought the prices down. Really? That is because they were like 130, 140, or the prices coming way down, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Uh because it makes sense. They're getting what they're getting bigger, so production peer for their people.

SPEAKER_06 25:55

What I thought was really interesting coming from the beer world is like, okay, you have all these tickers trying to try different beers next to each other in the same style. Right. And there's a little bit of that in the whiskey world where people are like, alright, there's a bunch of four roses, or there's a bunch of uh whatever distillery, will it certainly comes to mind. And they want to try a bunch of barrels next to each other from the same place and then figure out what the nuances between each of those. And I mean, really, that's why store picks are so interesting, is because you have this ability to take one skew and then try a bunch of different things within that bell curve.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Sure. And depending on where you are, if it's like roses, you get like 10 completely different things.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

And then once you find once you, even if it's not regional for you, once you find that store that picks things along your flavor profile, then you follow them.

SPEAKER_05 26:50

But so if you're a lot more interesting.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

Correct. If you know if you know a store is picking crazy stuff and you want to go check them out.

SPEAKER_04 27:05

Interesting thing about some of the picks too is we'll go to since we're talking about roses, is we've heard stories of people say, I want OESY, I want this many years.

SPEAKER_06 27:15

When we do a picture, H Y J C right, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 27:19

But here's no, but here's here's the point. When we do that, we're sitting there and we say, Don't tell us about anything. And we sit there and we talk about it specifically on what's being tasted. It's democratic. Right. We don't want to know. And then we have multiple votes, and we because you know, we want something that's actually really good. Interesting, maybe not crazy interesting, but something everyone wants to drink. But also, you know, you drink the same thing all the time, it gets really boring. So this becomes a lot of fun. And but like for example, at least at this store, we do a lot of work that goes into every pick, but we don't want to know anything about extreme amounts of work. Oh, it's fun work, work can be fun.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

I think but it's the thing that ultimately we talk about when it comes to single barrels is you've got to find the group or the store that actually puts work into it and just put doesn't put it out there. And we try not to talk about it too much on here because I'm not trying to do my own horn or people's Amon's horn or anybody that that I deal with horn too much because nobody wants an infomercial. No, that's not the point of the no, it's not. But we we're we put work into the single barrels, right? And you come here, you come to Amon's, you come to Mythical for a pick that's curated formed by thousands of tastings. Curated or picked by me, which 90% of the time is whatever. Not curated. Not curated, it's just me picking up.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

So whatever you want. So I'll give two examples. When I when I look at the market and where it's going, it's the opposite of curated.

SPEAKER_06 29:05

Right. What's the opposite of curated? Uh uncurated.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

That's definitely the opposite of curated.

SPEAKER_06 29:13

The English might have uh what is uh non-curated?

SPEAKER_01 29:17

That was a scrap. If you played a curated, I would play uncurated.

SPEAKER_06 29:20

No, I'm thinking about like non-chill filtered, unchill filtered. All right, oh shit.

SPEAKER_03 29:26

Brandon has something to say. He's he was working on it.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

No, what I was gonna say is like when you look at him, when you look at uh try this guy. I will. So all I was gonna say, like to Amon's point, was like a bottle shape. Yep, 100%. When you look at when you look at the whiskey market, right, and how things are changing, it used to be Buffalo Trace on the Shelf and Eagle Rare, and and I know guys that will uh religiously follow social media and things like that for who's getting Eagle Rare store pick, but they won't buy an Eagle 10 on the shelf ever. But they'll buy every store pick they can because they want to taste all the dinner, they don't want to taste the batch of it. They want to taste that. And it's the same thing with Buffalo Trace.

SPEAKER_03 30:06

Eagle Rare is not a batch, it's a single barrel. But I'm just like there's guys Just like EA uh EH I talked about earlier. Correct. ETL.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

ETL, right?

SPEAKER_03 30:17

All right. Well, let's let's move on to our most underrated pours. Well I can start because it's already going around. So for me Oh oh he's Parker's already poured it.

SPEAKER_02 30:26

So it's predetermined that's what I did not I was pouring mine to get replayed in the city.

SPEAKER_03 30:31

You're blaming Parker for this.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 30:33

Your most underrated pour is Old Forrester?

SPEAKER_02 30:35

Old Forrester's uh 1924 specifically for me personally because the the retail the secondary market does not go for a ton. I'm a 10-year guy, a lot of oak on that thing. Like that's one of my favorite pours in general.

unknown 30:49

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

Now, is it on the shelf commonly? No, but I think MSRP is like 130, 125, and uh you're seeing it secondary go for 150 for like 20 bucks more, and I to me that's a great pour. I know it's okay.

SPEAKER_06 31:02

Take your family out to Pizza Hut, have a nice evening.

SPEAKER_02 31:05

That's right. Father of three here. But that 1924, I would like the oak on that thing is phenomenal. And if you if you try the different years, like 23 was my favorite. 25, not as much.

SPEAKER_03 31:19

I do enjoy 1792, uh or not 1792.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

Foreman juices. See, I'm a brown foreman guy, right? Because you look at the old old forcers.

SPEAKER_06 31:28

What do you think about those old uh like the first batch of King Kentucky that came out?

SPEAKER_02 31:34

No retail price of 300, and then the secondary price, it doesn't warrant that to me. And I've had many Kentucky. We talked about this on the uh batch versus. I'm not a huge fan of it. Like it kind of takes away from the allure of what a king is to me.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

So did we mention the fact this is a 10-year-old? Correct, it's a 10-year. Okay, that's not fair.

SPEAKER_02 31:56

Right.

SPEAKER_05 31:57

Like that. Wait, why?

SPEAKER_01 31:58

What do you mean? The regular 1924 is not a 10-year-old. Oh, yes. This is uh special. This is yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:07

I thought they were all 10-year's.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

But that's like that old forcer goodness to me. It's heavy on the oak, the caramel on the backside.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

No, this is uh this is a very nice bar. I can't wait to try Babe Ruth next to this. That's not fair to one of those.

SPEAKER_02 32:26

But if I right? But I will say those Old Forcer blue labels are some of my favorite fours. Yeah. And what I'm noticing, especially locally for us, is those prices are dropping, and you you're starting to see them for like$75, 80 bucks. You gotta eat that mic.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

That's the mic is in my mouth. Right. A$75.80 is not for the regular 24 a great deal. Correct. To me, at that price point, it's definitely counterpoint, a little overrated.

SPEAKER_03 32:57

There are literally two unopened at those.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

Okay, correct.

SPEAKER_03 32:59

We're gonna move on to the next one because we're at 30 minutes now, so I don't want to go too crazy for this podcast. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

Wes, what's your most where's the I I I I have a little more to say. Yes. Because I was talking store picks earlier. Okay. Four shelf bottles. For that 90 proof stuff that's always there.

SPEAKER_03 33:18

Oh, it's coming over the top. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Underrated is four roses small batch. Yep. Okay. And most MGP that's six and older at low proof. Okay. So my plenty of NDPs have that on the shelf. True. But that four roses for 30-32 bucks. Correct. It's flavorful. It has a lot of cherry. It's excellent. It has no corn to it. It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_06 33:40

Who just bought four roses? For a what was it? Billion? How much sandwich?

SPEAKER_02 33:46

Gallo, that's right. Yeah. It was a billion dollars. It's back in America now. A billion. Yep. Billion dollars. One billion. To also that, I would say Wild Turkey 101 from the first time. Yes. That's where my mind went. I thought he was going to say that. I agree with you. Wild Turkey 101? Yes. That's my grandfather. We talk about it all the time. All day.

SPEAKER_06 34:06

That is like listening to a bandwidth. Yes, basically. Sweet. Yeah. Yeah. Turkey. Funk. Delicious. It's Americana. Wes. Your most underrated whiskey. I have two most underrated whiskies. Two. Two. One is the uh inimitable Kraken.

SPEAKER_03 34:27

Well, that's a single barrel.

SPEAKER_06 34:29

So?

SPEAKER_02 34:30

I just want to say I picked something you could buy.

SPEAKER_03 34:32

That's underrated. That's cool. Damn.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

That's let's pour it around the Nashville barrel uh shorty. Like, oh can you hate it?

SPEAKER_06 34:42

That is that is one of the best barrels of MGP I've ever tasted. Very good. And then my other most underrated is of course uh Old Forester, the blue labels. I'm with you. The barrel proof. Yep. This stuff is what, four years old, maybe? But this is L-forested, L full. And it's just like pure brown sugar and fruit and we talked about hype a little bit earlier, like two years ago.

SPEAKER_02 35:12

Like two, three years ago, blue labels.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Never let Park.

SPEAKER_03 35:17

Parker's heavy-handed pores. This table has gone off the rails earlier.

SPEAKER_06 35:25

This is what people want to listen to. This is what it was. They want to listen to people want to live vicariously.

SPEAKER_04 35:34

People want to listen to what we want them to listen to.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

Old Force of Blue Labels, in my opinion, two years ago, guys were going out of their mind for them.

SPEAKER_06 35:42

When it came out, and the first round of blue labels was like, what the hell is this? Yeah, give it to me.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

Well, everything's coming back down between ninety and a hundred and which is Well, you can't blame shops to capitalize on what they have gotten after a lot of hard work. Never. Because these were tough, tough barrels to get. So I I'm of the b unpopular belief that it's a big thing. How much fireball did you need to sell? Not for Forester. Different company.

SPEAKER_06 36:16

It's a joke.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

That's very funny.

SPEAKER_06 36:18

What's the Forester equivalent of Fireball?

SPEAKER_03 36:20

I have no clue. But this this whiskey is delicious. Not to uh pat my break my own uh arm, patting myself on the back, but this is an exceptional barrel.

SPEAKER_06 36:34

It's a pretty good ride.

SPEAKER_03 36:35

I mean, that's what Fred Minnick said.

SPEAKER_05 36:37

Pretty good, right? Like this was your underrated. Like this is your pick. And you're like, it's alright. No, it's me saying it's like, you know.

SPEAKER_04 36:45

Do we really is when it's really bad, but like this guy's got to be.

SPEAKER_03 36:47

Fred Minnick called it a uh honey barrel.

SPEAKER_06 36:50

That's how it works. This is like one of the best MGP barrels I've ever had the experience of enjoying. Another uniform.

SPEAKER_03 36:59

Well, I thought I was gonna hug him.

unknown 37:01

No.

SPEAKER_03 37:02

I'm not hugging that guy.

SPEAKER_06 37:04

Whoa, yeah, you gotta buy me dinner first.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

Alright.

SPEAKER_06 37:10

Delicious.

SPEAKER_03 37:11

That is amazing. If I migrate on my cow.

SPEAKER_06 37:16

Very good. Also, uh, I don't know the last time I even tasted this. This was uh when did you pick this? Uh 2021, 2020?

SPEAKER_03 37:30

Yeah, I think it was during COVID because they sent me samples. I think it was 2021.

SPEAKER_06 37:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:39

So we're gonna move on. Uh so we don't do my horn enough. We're trying to keep this my horn's big enough. Thank you. Uh so my most underrated pore is going to be shy now. Jack Daniels. This is a Jack Daniels Amon's pick. He has none left.

SPEAKER_06 38:03

You have these? You don't have these. No, we don't. Yeah, I have an open one in my basement.

SPEAKER_03 38:08

So, but next time you have an Amon's uh Jack Daniels pick, come get it, because these are fucking delicious for the first when I first saw them, I bought three.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

I drank two, and there's an open one in my basement. I got one in my basement too. Along with a woman.

SPEAKER_06 38:23

Maybe two, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 38:24

Along with a woman.

SPEAKER_06 38:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:27

We don't want to Wes does edit uh I I enjoy Jack very much. So but like Wes was talking about before, we get back to that Brown Foreman stuff, like the Jack Daniels brand.

SPEAKER_06 38:38

Dude, Brown Foreman I think Jack Daniels picks are like the the someone needs to reverse engineer Brown Foreman distillers.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

Interesting story with these, and by the way, they do say that uh most of these old King of Kentucky barrels are actually from there. From Jack. I've heard this. Doesn't surprise me.

SPEAKER_02 39:00

But it's very interesting when you think about it, right? Like, it actually makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense if you're Braun Foreman.

SPEAKER_01 39:07

Um, what was I gonna say? So the first time we got an allocation of a jack barrel, my favorite salesman of all time, Jake Federmeyer, was our salesman. Great guy from Breakthrough. And he said, Hey, man, there's a jack barrel allocation. Do you want it? Yes. I'm like, are you telling me nobody else wants it in the market? Because I'm not the biggest guy in the market. He goes, no, nobody wants the jack barrel. I'm like, I'll fucking take it.

SPEAKER_06 39:29

You're close to it. We went out there. What a crazy first barrel back. We went out there.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

We went out there, they actually took care of us. They sent a limo for us. Yeah. Yeah. No, that wasn't that guy. The Tennessee, baby. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:45

Had you been to Lynchburg before?

SPEAKER_01 39:47

No, first time. Because that name of that town scares me. So I'm with you. They took us out there in a limo. They fed us at the Madame Bobo's. Madame Bobo's. Very nice.

SPEAKER_06 39:59

It wasn't Madame Bobo's Mary Mary Bobo's. Mary Mo Bobo's.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

Mary Mary Bobo's fantastic food. We picked barrels and great whiskey. And then we have a great time. And uh they drove us right back. I think that's what they did. And in that town, by the way, you can buy booze. All the Iowa's trinket shops with turmoil. Agreed. Yeah. Yep. We dry time. Dry counties.

SPEAKER_03 40:24

The one time I went there with you all, it was amazing. We went to Miss May Maiden Buddha's. And it was delicious. Yeah. But these picks are 70 to 80 bucks. Correct. Yep. For cash strength whiskey. That's crazy nowadays.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

And they're delicious and they're raw and they're just flavorful. They're insanely good. That Jack flavor comes through.

SPEAKER_06 40:49

These are like almost like rum bourbons.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

This is what Jack's brand is. This is what it should be, that unabasheredness. All American unabashedness.

SPEAKER_03 40:58

I mean, we uh we had the first day with the rag at the the uh what was this guy's name? The dude had the bib overalls.

SPEAKER_06 41:06

Uh Cooter. No. Brewster.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

It was closed. No.

SPEAKER_06 41:10

Uh keep going. No, it was like Cooter or something.

SPEAKER_00 41:17

It was not Cooter. It was like something crazy like that.

SPEAKER_03 41:22

I just want you to keep talking and say things.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

God, what was his name?

SPEAKER_03 41:28

It's like Big Jack or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

It was special because he was a Harley guy too. And it was one of those names.

SPEAKER_06 41:35

He weighed a Harley.

SPEAKER_03 41:37

He was a big individual.

SPEAKER_06 41:39

Yeah. Yeah, what was his name?

SPEAKER_03 41:42

I don't know. Somebody's gonna post this cooter. Yeah. Alright, well, we're gonna close this because we're down to 40 minutes. We do you know, we need to close it out now. So anybody got anything to say? There's one thing I want to say.

SPEAKER_02 41:55

Okay. Next time you make it back to Lynchburg, Tennessee, you need to go to Barrel House Barbecue. Okay. Go to Barrel House Barbecue. It's right in the main strip in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Okay. Go in there, tell me no Coach Maddox, and they'll take care of you. Brandon's trying to get a free barbecue next time he goes to the house. Those are my people. Those are my people right in Lynchburg, Tennessee.

SPEAKER_01 42:12

So interesting story. The second time we went to Jack to pick a barrel, we like two of them. We're like, can we take two? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

Sure.

SPEAKER_06 42:20

Sure. We like both of these.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

So the interesting thing about Barrel House is it's literally right there on the strip in Lynchburg. It's like 300 people. But the barbecue there, all the sauces have Jack Daniels in them. But like whether it's sweet or spicy or whatever, they are jacked to the roof. It's elementary. And the cool thing. The cool thing about that restaurant is when you walk in, there's jack offerings, and the walls are white, but people from all over the world sign it. Oh so from all over the world, sign that wall. Yes. I don't know when Lake Wisconsin's gonna make a butt. But like there's people from the Middle East. But Mid East, all that the Asians.

SPEAKER_06 43:01

You know what's really cool? This is a complete like sidetrack right now. Well, is it tangent? This has all been sidetracked. But at Ebenezer's, Chris has like Armand de Belder and Raf and JVR and uh no pretentiousness here. Literally like the godfathers of Goose signed on the That was the name of the guy at Jack Daniels, Goose.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

Goose, Goose, Goose, Goose. We got there. It was Goose.

SPEAKER_03 43:40

This is blowing everybody's eardrums out. Too loud? Too loud.

SPEAKER_06 43:48

No.

SPEAKER_03 43:49

We got people in the we got people in the post.

SPEAKER_06 43:51

We have customers getting a little fascinated now.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

Once again, West's pretentiousness leads us. Into information. Relevant information.

SPEAKER_03 44:07

I like the offshoots, but we're gonna kill this now because we're at 43 minutes. Which is 15 minutes more than our last most of the time. Anytime. Showtime, you got anything to say?

SPEAKER_02 44:23

You need to speak for yourself because I'm good for more than 30 minutes. That's hey. Everybody be safe. Appreciate y'all. Thanks for listening. Thanks for following. Stay with us.

SPEAKER_03 44:34

Enjoy your pours and enjoy your bourbon. Family, sorry.