ChiTuckyBourbonBrothers
The “Chitucky Bourbon Brothers” podcast, hosted by Mike Nielsen and Tony Meyers, serves as a delightful exploration of bourbon and whiskey culture, offering insightful reviews and discussions about various bourbons and whiskeys. The hosts share their passion for sipping “brown water,” a colloquial term for bourbon and whiskey, and aim to blend music with their love for these beverages, creating an engaging auditory experience for listeners. The podcast not only provides detailed reviews of different bourbons and whiskeys but also promotes a relaxed atmosphere where enthusiasts can enjoy the nuances of their favorite drinks alongside music that complements the experience.
ChiTuckyBourbonBrothers
Episode 116 - Old Fitzgerald 7 Year
We are exploring Heaven Hill's newest offering in the celebrated Old Fitzgerald lineup—the 7-year Bottled in Bond expression that's making waves for its accessibility and exceptional quality. As we crack open this stunning bottle, we trace the remarkable heritage of Old Fitzgerald from its 1870 origins serving rail lines and private clubs to its time under Pappy Van Winkle's stewardship as the famous "whisper of wheat." The story of how Heaven Hill acquired this treasured brand in 1999 sets the stage for understanding why today's release matters so much to bourbon lovers.
The tasting reveals a perfectly balanced wheated bourbon with a fruit-forward nose reminiscent of brown sugar-coated bananas that transitions to a palate dominated by baking spices, vanilla, and sweet bread notes. At 100 proof and seven years old, it challenges conventional wisdom about the necessity of extended aging, proving that masterful distilling and careful barrel selection can create exceptional bourbon at a younger age than many premium offerings.
What makes this release particularly exciting is its price point—typically around $60 at retail, significantly less than the coveted Decanter Series bottles that often command $125 or more. We debate whether the older expressions justify their premium and celebrate Heaven Hill's decision to make this a regular, twice-yearly release with distinctive green (spring) and gold (fall) labels.
Whether you're a seasoned bourbon collector or simply appreciate quality whiskey that won't break the bank, this episode offers valuable insights into one of the most anticipated new regular releases in the American whiskey landscape. As always, we're here to help you navigate the world of bourbon, because we believe what matters most isn't just what's in your glass—it's who you're sharing it with.
hey, they said bourbon. I know how about. How about that? Did you know? He was going to say that I don't even know who this is or what song this is, so please do tell it's.
Speaker 3:Jordan Davis. I think it's his new song called Bar None.
Speaker 2:He can be a little wimpy, a little soft, but I do like a good handful of his songs. Jordan Davis.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's just one of these new new country artists. You know, I feel like a lot of the new country's got a more poppy beat to it so you know what I don't like and, listeners, you can take a side here.
Speaker 2:I don't. Tony has, so we have a whiskey apartment together, probably like 400 bottles, but he has 200 other bottles give or take at his house and he won't bring them over. He won't share them.
Speaker 3:I'll share them, but you gotta come to my house.
Speaker 2:I'm sick of what we have here, kind of Not really but a little bit.
Speaker 3:Are you kidding me? You know what's around here.
Speaker 2:So, listeners, don't you think, tony should bring all his other bottles over? Uh-huh. We have a lot of those bottles here. I want more. Why do you want more? I want to try some new stuff. Anyway, Shite Tuggy.
Speaker 3:Bourbon Brothers, I'll bring some new stuff over. Yes, how about that? Only?
Speaker 2:because we're on the podcast.
Speaker 3:How about that?
Speaker 2:I brought it out. I knew if I set it on here you would. So next podcast we will check in to make sure Tony has brought some bottles.
Speaker 3:We'll do a podcast on something I brought over.
Speaker 2:We're going to drink.
Speaker 3:That's what's. Yeah, the heck, I don't know what to say.
Speaker 2:So I wanted to touch on before we're going to drink today, which is old Fitzgerald seven year bottle and bond. Getting back to that in a second, we've had some really good podcasts lately. We have yeah, we've had Congressman. Lately we have yeah, we've congressman andy bar. That was fucking awesome and like I got chills when he was talking about, yeah, it's not about the whiskey, it's about about who you have, who you drink it with, and I was like, did you know that our tagline is like, of course not. I was like, well, you should listen to our podcast then, because that's what we say all the time, which is so fucking true, uh. But then also pete marino, dan callowoway, jared Allen joined us and I think they're so great Listeners like a lot of people are listening, but they were one takes. It's pretty fucking hard to have guests, four microphones, people dialing in and I'm going to give you a little kudos. I want you to bring some more whiskey over here, but you really masterfully blended those together.
Speaker 3:Oh well, I like to think it was pretty fucking awesome. Yeah, I'd like to think that we tested it as much as I think that we have just gotten a lot better at not speaking over top of each other, yeah, and we've also had our share of guests on, so we're kind of getting better on how to introduce them and how to get them into what we want to talk about with them without being a lot of dead air.
Speaker 2:We have talked about that, where a guest comes on, You're like hey and it's, and you say their name and they're like hi, it's like hi, OK, I'm glad we got high out of the way and you know, they just kind of don't necessarily know what to say because they don't podcast all the time no, it's been cool, though it's been good.
Speaker 3:We've had a lot of. We've had a lot of downloads in the last 30 days. It's we're approaching our goal of 10 000 download.
Speaker 2:I wonder when it's gonna be thousand. We're close. Tell me who's who's doing the downloading.
Speaker 3:Uh, it's all over, it's actually I have to love it it's. It's actually all over um over If I do all episodes.
Speaker 2:It's been doing it a couple years. We're north of 100 episodes. What are the numbers on those?
Speaker 3:90%, 91% in North America, which would be I would think it would be 100%. Which is so cool that there's other percents that people are listening to, where 4% in Europe, 2% in Asia and then just small percents. The remaining 3% spread out over South America, africa and O8, and Oceania, which I guess is Australia, really Australia, new Zealand, down there.
Speaker 2:Did you look it up? Because I have no idea where Oceania is.
Speaker 3:Well, I know that it says how many we have from Australia.
Speaker 2:So I just assume that yeah, maybe a listener down there will invite us. That would be cool.
Speaker 3:We'll go to OCEAN why?
Speaker 2:not why not Obviously.
Speaker 3:Chicago Illinois kind of covers Number one podcast. What was it? One of our early ones. So that's the funny part is, when you start looking at like old episode downloads, obviously the earliest downloads have the most options.
Speaker 2:They're the most opportunity, because people go back and they look to the bottle. That's that's what I do. I go through podcasts and I'm like, what do I actually want to know more about? And if they're tasting something that I don't give a shit about, then I go back to older stuff.
Speaker 3:So what I would say so like. The eagle rare 10 was one of our first podcasts and that's that's got the most downloads. The eagle rare 10 year um, the one that surprises me that has had the like one of like. The second most is actually from season four. We're only on season five, by the way, so from last year we have seasons. Well, every year I do it as a year.
Speaker 2:A season is a year so I can keep track of it.
Speaker 3:When you say it's kind of cool, we're in season five yeah, the uh, four rows a single barrel, um, one of the barrel strengths that actually is really high on our download list, um, but honestly most of them are old, uh, the old forester, 1924 is up there pretty high, that's from. That's a newer one. Um, yeah, other than that, the one that surprises me the most is the iW Harper 15-year that is tied for our second most ever downloads.
Speaker 2:Whoa, we should go back and listen and see what we actually said and did. And we have a couple bottles. That's that square bottle, that rectangle bottle.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's actually pretty good. I think we had some at that distillery south of.
Speaker 2:I wonder if the age brought people to it, because 15 years I mean that's really up there, like today brought people to it like, oh, because 15 years?
Speaker 3:I mean that's, that's really up there like today to uh pivot over to what. We're sorry, we can go, let's see what we're doing today.
Speaker 2:Nobody cares about past old fitzgerald. They have what's called their decanter series. They came out with and those bottles are absolutely gorgeous. They've been coming out since, I believe, 2018. They come out in spring and fall and then they have a vvs, a very, very special bottle that they come out with sometimes and that's only if you go there and pay 230 at heaven hill heaven hill very lucky is who.
Speaker 2:uh, tony will get into the stats on old fits and when. Heaven hill bought the brand. But they just came out with this smaller decanter and they're always bottled and bond 100 proof. Old Fitz is, of course, a weeded mash bill and this one is a seven year, where the other decanter series are usually like 10, 11, 12, 13 years old. So I saw this online. I'm like I got to get it, so I dropped 100 bucks and someone shipped it to my house.
Speaker 1:And I started drinking it with my wife Lori, and bam, it was gone. It was gone.
Speaker 2:So I'm like I gotta bring that over so we can podcast that. There's like literally a sip each, uh, but in my opinion I've drank it over the last like call it month. It didn't take us that long.
Speaker 3:I'm lying, but I'll just say you've had it for a month.
Speaker 2:Um, it's really fucking good. So. So then, what does Tony do? He's like I was at Costco. They got a pallet of it and I paid like 58 bucks, 58 bucks. I was like damn it that guy got. He almost doubled up on me with 100 bucks.
Speaker 3:But totally, totally, totally, msrp is $60.
Speaker 2:So I think Costco always sells stuff for like a dollar under srp or whatever, and then you pay tax and whatever, and I had it shipped to my doorstep.
Speaker 3:Speaking of tax, I just bought a bunch of fireworks because we're getting close to the fourth and you know I love, I know you do I bought a bunch after watching you fly them. Do you know? It's like over 20 to 25 percent tax when you're buying those. There's like all these line items of taxes on fireworks.
Speaker 2:Well, they come from china, so that could be tariff, but maybe not yet, because those aren't really in place maybe but I just gotta say two words. Who cares? Worth it? Yeah, totally worth it. Like it takes me back to being like a 15 year old, where I'm just like shooting off mortar shells and bottle rockets and black cats and it's like everyone's like you're a pyromaniac, I'm like I you can call it that. I don't't really like the joy isn't really lighting it.
Speaker 3:It's like the anticipation and kind of the scare it's running from the cops after it goes off.
Speaker 2:Is it going to burn you? Yeah, and then maybe the cops show up. All right, so I'm going to let you do some stats on the Old Fitz, bottled and Bound seven-year weeded bourbon from Heaven Hill.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the cool thing about this is that it's the same mash bills, the decanter series you brought the decanter series up and that and those special bottles, those vvs's. There's only been three of those vvs's 2018, 2020 and then last year, 2024, and that commemorated the 2024 commemorated the 25th anniversary of heaven hill purchasing um, the old purchasing old old fitzgerald, which is the old bernheim uh distillery.
Speaker 2:Purchased it from bernheim, I think from diageo, but yes, yeah, diageo purchased, bought them some point after they closed in 1982 and just because you said it, I want to do the mash bill, which is is 68 corn, 20 wheat and 12 barley, correct, and that's the same no matter what, and I think all the decanters are also bottle and bond.
Speaker 3:So the main difference between this what we're drinking at a seven-year in these decanters is the age and then probably where it's stored in the rickhouses.
Speaker 2:And we were somewhere yesterday. Tony and I were having some whiskey yesterday and I said you know, obviously to be a bourbon you've got to be four years old. Six changes it dramatically. This is a seven year, I think. You get to eight to ten and it starts to get extra good, even though this is really great at seven. And then I think personally, peak years are 10 to 12. Like you just talked about the, um, the, that Harper being 15.
Speaker 2:I don't really like if you're paying up to go that out or like a you know a pappy 23 year or whatever. I think you're going too far and it tastes really Woody and Okie. But um, I think sweet spot is more or less 10, I'm sorry, eight to 12 years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think Sweet Spot is more or less 8 to 12 years old. Yeah, I would say up to 15, depending on the ones. But some of those ones after you get there they get oaky. But Old Fitz was first produced in 1870. And it was actually kind of cool. It's for the rail and steam lines and the private clubs locally. So you took a train and they, yeah, this was their private label. Oh, cool, that's how it kind of started. And then in the 1990s it was actually released to 1900. Sorry, it was released to the public in both america and europe.
Speaker 3:And, um, you know, it was one of the few distills actually using the pot still method, so, and it continued to do that until 1913. And then prohibition and it was actually one of the uh distilleries that the government ran, um, government supervised so that it could stay open as a medicinal trade. And then it was actually acquired by uh pappy, pappy van winkle, for ten thousand dollars, introduced as the whisper of wheat. And how long did uh pappy own it? Um, I don't know exactly when Diageo purchased it. I don't remember because I know that it was produced. The Stitzel was produced at the Stitzel Weller Distillery until it was shut down in 1992. And then the production transferred to Diageo at the Bernheim Distillery in 1999. So somewhere between 92 and 99. So those 92 to 99 years.
Speaker 2:The old fits made by Pappy and made at that Stitzel Weller plant go for big. We talk about Dusty's old bottles. Those go for big, big bucks and even back then the bottles are so gorgeous. So if you can find, if you're at grandma or grandpa's house and you look under the bar and there's an old because it wasn't expensive back then right, there's some old fits dusty under the bar. Uh, you might have a couple.
Speaker 3:They didn't look like the decanters, but they. They were prettier, squattier bottles.
Speaker 2:If I remember right, they weren't the key and the colors and like the font of the old Fitzgerald. I don't know. Some marketing person way back then did a good job and it's appealing to me. I think it's cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I think it's really neat and I think that this particular seven-year that we're going to have today, this is what they're going to come out with every year. It's not going to change much. I think they're going to have two different labels. They're going to have two different labels.
Speaker 2:uh, they're going to do a green one when it's distilled in the spring and they're going to do a gold one when it's distilled in the fall you know, similar to their decanter styles, but this is something I think you're going to get more readily available and I think they're going to distill a lot more of it and at that 60 price if it keeps coming out and they make a lot of it like good on them because it'll be something that I pick up probably every spring and fall, not to get ahead of ourselves, because I pretty much drank the whole bottle with my wife over the last month, but um, it's, it's pretty, pretty tasty stuff. On that note, do you want to?
Speaker 2:uh smell it a little little sniff. Yeah, you definitely definitely. You said right off the bat. Yeah, fruity, like very fruit, forward in a very, very good way, I would say yeah, I mean, I remember you saying something about brown sugar.
Speaker 3:You think it could be like a banana, like a brown banana, a brown sugar banana so like a very, very, very ripe banana.
Speaker 2:well, I guess if it's color brown I laughed, but I like it.
Speaker 3:It's like the fruitiness of a little banana with brown sugar.
Speaker 2:It's fruity sweet sugar with a.
Speaker 3:Maybe it's a char instead of banana. I don't know. I get those mixed up, it's toasty I'm having a sip. A little spicy, I'm having a sip. That was our longest nose ever, but it's a really fun nose.
Speaker 2:We only have one sip. So, if Tony finishes it's over.
Speaker 3:I know I'm going on to something else. We'll have to pull the larceny out and see how close it is, because it's the other weeded by Heaven Hill.
Speaker 2:So well-rounded, so perfectly proofed. I love high proof. Snee out and see how close it is, because it's the other weeded by, uh heaven hill. So well rounded, so perfectly proofed. I love high proof. You know this could be. Obviously it's bonded, so it's 100. You could take it to 120 and I would probably like it even more. But it's like it's perfectly proofed, perfectly blended, and Lots of baking spice, lots of yeah, flavor all over the place in the way of it's toasty, it's spicy but it's sweet. You got, of course, the vanilla, but the fruit kind of goes away and I love that when the palate and the nose are similar. No, I like when they're when they're totally opposite. That nose was fruity and then this goes into some like spicy kind of sweet cookie, definitely sprite, yeah definitely spicy.
Speaker 3:Spicy bread, that's cool. Yeah, definitely baking spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Such an easy drinker oh yeah, like we're at like chug worthy, like it. Just yeah, tony's is gone and gone and cut um. Finish isn't like really long at all. I would call it like medium um, but it ends with like a smooth sweetness as well um, it's just.
Speaker 3:This is a tough glass to put down. I wish that we had more of that, I would.
Speaker 2:I would have great words. Yes, it's just uh, you know I, maybe I saw would you double down on your point? Maybe I saved you a little bit little little splash, little splash, um, yeah, I mean really knocked it out of the park. Seven, uh, you know, that's why those decanters, people love them, because those are 10, 11, 12 years old, uh, probably the sweetest spot you can get. So this mash bill, this is good juice is four years older yeah, you know what else is good about what's the retail on the uh, on the decanters, that was going, I think 100.
Speaker 3:I think there are 100 or 100 and a quarter.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say 125 which would be you know, you wait those years and it's double what this is.
Speaker 3:Well, I just we just had last year, like yesterday, when we were tasting, we tasted the decanter. Um that was.
Speaker 2:It was the 11 year, 24, 11 spring, yeah, the 2024 spring the green label not that much better than this for double the price? Or do you want two bottles of this?
Speaker 3:I well the cool bottle of the decanter, I guess, counts for some of that the decanter bottle is pretty cool um, I would say that I would take the decanter only because I know that this is going to come out twice a year, forever now. Yeah, this is it's going to be the same and I hope that I hope that, hope that it just doesn't be gobbled up so quickly. I mean, I loved walking into Costco and seeing it limit one there. I was like, oh, I'll take that.
Speaker 2:I almost went back there. Oh, they only let you have one. Yeah, all right. So how about you give it your SIP rating or any other thoughts on it?
Speaker 3:Not really. I mean, this is a really good bonded, 100 proof spring 2018 distilled. I mean, sitting in there, this is a good seven year. I really appreciate this drink SIP shareable absolutely, especially if you can find it for the price. Influence to me, heaven hills obviously one of my favorite. Every time we go, every time we go down to louisville or anywhere near, we always stop at heaven hill. It's like a must stop for us. I love seeing what they have out in the morning and seeing what cool bottles that might just be sitting there. Uh, price I mean, 60 bucks is a home run, 100 bucks. This is a home run 60 bucks. It's like.
Speaker 2:Not only is it, a no-brainer, you should call everybody and tell everybody to come get one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and someone I was reading online called it a great offering and a more accessible price point, which is really we always say. Who doesn't love getting a deal? That's what this feels like, and if you're basing it on, oh, it's a deal because it's seven years old and that is why it's a deal, and thinking you can taste the difference between seven and eight or seven and nine, you probably can't, so they're passing along a deal. Um, if this was like a four or five year juice, I'd be like no, probably not, probably wouldn't be as good, but just a great mash bill shareable. Uh, I shared it with my wife and she drank a lot of it and that's kind of that kind of soured. You can't share it, you drank it all. I just kind of soured me on sharing it, uh, but yeah, it's a good price point to share. Uh, you're right, heaven hill, is they do anything wrong? No, actually, I even love their lowest level Bernheim 7-year.
Speaker 3:I was just going to say that. Bernheim 7-year. Remember that barrel year. It's like $30.
Speaker 2:I actually should taste this against that, because I bet they're also similar mash bills, because it's also Bernheim, anyway, and price, we love it.
Speaker 3:I mean Larceny. I think the Larceny I would be. Yeah, next time we're over here with my bottle because we drank yours, I will have to have the Larceny. I have a Bernheim too. Maybe we put all three of them and see how close they are. That'd be fun. And I think the Bernheim is also seven year, where Larceny is younger. I think larceny is more of a four to five expression. Go ahead, that's what I think.
Speaker 2:What's your number?
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm giving this a.
Speaker 2:Don't do it, don't do what I'm going to do. Three and a quarter, three and a quarter, yep, oh, we're way off.
Speaker 3:How high were you going?
Speaker 2:High threes, oh wow, three, seven, five off. Or how high were you going? High threes, oh wow, um three, seven, five all right, that's fine, I could yeah I actually just pulled that back. I'm gonna be honest, I was going for no really yeah, it's just I.
Speaker 2:It hits on something I want to drink all the time, a really cool brand and something that's not really that expensive. So if someone was like, hey, here's a case of these, it's a great gift, it looks great, they did like what did they screw up here? It's just it could be older and I mean and I it has to be bonded.
Speaker 3:For me, it's like all the older I would be. Yeah to me I feel like it. It has to. This is good. I like this a lot. I thought it was well above average, well above any of our regular drinkers. Three and a quarter, three and a half, that's fine.
Speaker 2:You think I went overboard? I can see it in your eyes.
Speaker 3:No, you didn't go. Four. Anywhere in the threes is good, I think three and a quarter. I might have hit it a hair low, but I only had one little tiny sip. Somebody drank it all.
Speaker 2:I didn't, it was an even pour. Well, if you weren't drinking all your whiskey at home and you actually brought it to the apartment.
Speaker 3:Don't worry, I got one of these at home. I'll tell you when I open it and drink it.
Speaker 2:You're such a dick, bring that one over, because this one's empty. Anyway, chi-tucky Brothers, thanks for taking a listen. I don't know what the heck we're going on.
Speaker 3:I'm guessing it's country. No, we're just going to stay with Jordan Davis, just because why not? You know, this is probably most popular one of the last few years.
Speaker 2:We take care of the whiskey so you could focus on with whom you share it. Mike and Tony Old Fitz Bottled and Bond 7-year from Heaven Hill. It's good stuff, great, great, great. Look for it.
Speaker 3:When you find it, buy this one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if you have a Costco, I think the one near our house probably sold out of it, because you were there a couple weeks ago, right, yeah, yeah, were you there yeah. I never got one because I already had this one. But worth even paying up, I'd go $100 on this. So thanks guys.
Speaker 1:Good to see you, bud. Yeah, have a good one. Cheers guys, but you can buy dirt. Before you get caught on that ladder, let me tell you what it's all about. Find you a few things that matter, that you can put a fence around, and then he laid it out. Buy dirt, find the one you can't live without. Get a ring that you need.
