ChiTuckyBourbonBrothers

Episode 123 - Makers Mark Cellar Age 2025

ChiTucky Bourbon Brothers Season 6 Episode 18

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A Galway street corner, a chance hello to Adam Duritz, and a sunglasses-off moment with Courtney Cox set the scene before we pour something special: Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged 2025. We start with the nostalgia and then zero in on why this release feels different—same mash bill, new dimension—thanks to a cool limestone cellar that slows the dance between spirit and wood.

We break down what matters for your glass. The blend leans 74% 11-year with 13- and 14-year components at 112.9 proof, and the profile announces itself on the nose with brown sugar, cinnamon, toasted oak, and that apple-pie cozy note. On the palate, it turns decadent but never cloying: orange and cherry like an old fashioned, chocolate and toasted almond like a pastry, and enough spice to remind you it’s nearly 113 proof. The fruit shows up earlier than you’d expect from a wheated bourbon, while leather and tobacco stay in the background. If you’ve only known standard Maker’s as sweet and light, this one bends the arc toward depth and balance.

We also talk price, timing, and how to find a pour without burning your budget. MSRP lands at $175, with some secondary lift, so we tested by the ounce first—a move we recommend. Bigger retailers and smart whiskey bars will be your best bet, and if you spot it near retail, we’d grab it. Our ratings land strong, and we call it a top contender for year-end lists, especially for drinkers who want a dessert-ready sipper that doesn’t need ice or a mixer to shine.

If this kind of fruit-forward, cellar-shaped wheated bourbon sounds like your lane, come taste it with us, compare notes, and tell us what you’re getting in the finish. Subscribe for more pours, share with a friend who underestimates Maker’s, and leave a quick review so others can find the show. What bottle should we chase next?

SPEAKER_04:

That sounds really good. I know it sounds clear today. We're we're both uh big Counting Crows fans. I mean, I guess he's still fans, but used to be bigger when they were still putting out music, I guess.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh and he's not just like overly over served trying to sing his old songs on a small stage. Did that happen recently? Ravenia, a couple years ago. He was like blatantly obviously his words.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my gosh, I didn't know that. I was there.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I love Cowdy Crow. I this is one of my this is one of my like high school, senior year, high school, maybe junior year high school, uh August and everything is like one of those, one of those CDs that I listened to forever.

SPEAKER_04:

And I was road tripping in college, and we would just have this whole this whole album on. It's it's not really masculine music that like it's a little there's some bad. It's a little cheesy, it's a little soft, but it it feels good.

SPEAKER_01:

You know what else came out at the same time was the uh Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dream. Those two, those two I remember those two CDs very specifically. Like I listened, I must have listened to them a hundred times each that year.

SPEAKER_04:

I just heard an interview with uh Billy Corgan, and I've always kind of like thought the guy was a little douchey, but um I he's I mean he's a pretty smart dude when it comes to uh he's a hell of a musician, and he's a businessman. I mean, he's he's he's pretty great. Um, this is um Anna No, the the the lead singer is uh Adam Duritz. Adam Durritz. Okay, so I was like twist. I was like, I know I wanted to say a different name, but I'm like, no, I won't say that because that's wrong. Okay, Chai Chucky Bourbon Brothers, Mike and Tony, we are here uh but uh to drink some whiskey. But before we do that, uh Tony might have a little we're gonna go right into a story about counting crows.

SPEAKER_01:

So I yeah, this better be good. It's funny, it's funny. I actually um met Adam Duritz and a couple of his bandmates on the street in Galway, Ireland in 1997. Why were you there? I did a study abroad, uh, and that was just great. One of our weeks.

SPEAKER_04:

Very underrated to Dublin. I think Galway's great. I think Galway is one of my favorite cities in Germany. For sure, for sure. Like if you're yeah, Ireland's always just totally underrated too. Oh, I'm going to Paris or London. I'm like, how about you do all of Ireland in like a couple of weeks, and it's the best couple of weeks of your fucking life.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but anyway, that that year, uh, the buddy, my buddy and I were over there together. We were in a a little town called Wolverhampton, England, which is close to Birmingham, England. And um, we were always just going to shows, honestly. We went to a lot of different shows, but we knew County Crows was doing the European tour. We couldn't find any tickets anywhere. And one day we happened to be just going to Galway and then the Iron Islands. And um uh yeah, we were on the train between Dublin and Galway, and there was a newspaper article that said they were in town. So, you know, this is back pre-cell phones. So he went, took off to the hostel to find us a place. I went to the local record store because that's where you had to buy your tickets. You had to go to like literally go to record stores. It was kind of cool. Okay. So I show up, the first record store didn't have any, but they called a different one down around across town. I, as I'm walking, I get I get our tickets. They save two for me. I get our tickets and I'm walking back to because you know, you just have to like tell your buddy, hey, I'll meet you at this, at this, I don't know, like uh phone booth in front of the train station at a certain time because there's no way to find people. It's like back in the day.

SPEAKER_04:

So I'm walking back and oh yeah, but you weren't like just text me. No.

SPEAKER_01:

So anyway, I'm walking back and all of a sudden I walk past Adam Durts and I stop and I look over at him and he looks at me and I go, You're Adam Durts of the County Cruz. He goes, I am. And I go, I am, and I go, I just got tickets to your show. And I showed him our tickets.

SPEAKER_04:

And he's like, that was a good state. That probably made him feel good. Like you're not just some like you know, groupy follower. You're like, hey bro, I just I'm I'm gonna see you tonight.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I's like, I just got tickets to your show. And he was like, he was like, No way. I go, he goes, What he goes, where are you from? And I said, Oh, I'm from Kentucky. And he's like, Really? He goes, What's Patino gonna do? Is he gonna stay at Kentucky or is he gonna go? And I go, Oh my body.

SPEAKER_03:

Are you really in a conversation with Petino?

SPEAKER_01:

I go, my buddy, my buddy told me, I go, I have some friends in Kentucky that think he's leaving for Boston because that's where his wife's family's from. And he's like, Really? He's like, oh. And I'm like, So anyway, so he stands with just him? No, it's him and a girl, real pretty girl, and like three or four big guys. Anyway, he goes, uh, he goes, um, what the heck did he say? He goes, he goes, Well, hey, what's your name? And I gave him my name, and he goes, Why don't you come backstage after the show? And I was like, No way. I was like, All right, great. And he goes, Yeah, he goes, and then at that point, the girl that was with him took her sunglasses off, these big huge sunglasses, and I looked at her and I looked at him and I looked back at her and I go, You're Courtney Cox.

SPEAKER_04:

Holy when you said a pretty girlfriend, I was like, he had quite a few of them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, anyway, so she was there, and I looked at her and I'm like, Oh my god, I'm so embarrassed.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm like, I'm sorry I didn't recognize you. You're like, all oh my god, clamoring over then Adam, and he's like, uh, my girlfriend's she's way probably more popular than I am.

SPEAKER_01:

Anyway, so we go that night, we go to our show, and this is like, I don't know, you ever been to shows in like little towns in Europe? I mean, it's like a I don't know, like a fucking gymnasium. Like there's like a stage on one side and some bleachers and a bunch of just a big, like a big pit area. Anyway, Courtney Cox is in the first row of the bleachers, and we were like in the front, and I walked over and I waved to her and she waved back, and all the people there thought like my buddy and I were like rock stars. Oh my god, that's fucking great. But we did get to go backstage and meet him and signed our tickets, and we said it was fun. That's cool. It was a fun thing.

SPEAKER_04:

I knew you liked counting crows. I didn't know there was such a story.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so there you are. I wasted four minutes of uh counting crows talk.

SPEAKER_04:

Hey, there's no waste, it was cool, cool story just here ready to drink some whiskey. But let's get to it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, let's do it. So we are I'm super excited, as you can tell, as you know, for this.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh man, I mean, who wants to take a guess out there what Tony gets most excited about? Okay, no one wants to guess it's always the one whiskey in this world, which is maker's mark. Yeah, Tony drinks it with anything, he drinks it alone, he drinks it, he mixes it, he blends it, he does anything he can to it as long as he can get a little bit little bit of it into his system every single day of his life. I don't know about every day, but most of it's pretty close. Um, well, they put out a new one, they've been putting it out for three years. Yes, this is the 2025, what they call their seller age product. Correct. So uh Tony and I, uh it's kind of you know, it's the season, it's the buying season, not just for you know holiday gifts and things like that, but it's the buying season for whiskey because a lot of whiskey comes out September, October, November, December. Yeah, and uh this 2025 seller age came out, but only um to start at Makers Marks uh gift shop, and then it was at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival September 5th, 6th, and 7th, and then available to the public in September of 5th, September 15th. Shipped it out to their distributors. And Tony and I are like looking to buy some stuff and what should we try for year end and into next year for the podcast? And Tony's like, hey, we should. I'm hearing great, great things about this 2025 seller aged. And I started reading about it, and we didn't buy a bottle. We found a guy, I found a guy online who shipped me two ounces of it in a really cool bottle, uh, little bottle. And sweet, it's even for 30 bucks on it. It's gonna get a wax, a little bit makers red wax on it. And um, I'm super excited. So I I might actually be more excited than you for the first time ever about a makers product because I mean this is hitting a lot of marks, and I haven't even really um done much smelling or tasting of it yet.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we did we did the 2023 when it first came out, um, back two years ago, almost exactly two years ago, the end of November, two years ago, we ended up doing the seller age 2023, and uh I really liked it, but this one is the read not only are the reviews different, but everything's different about it because the 2023 was mostly 12 year with a little bit of 13 year at 115 proof, and this one is 74 11 year, 10 13 year, and 16 14 year at 112.9 proof, and it's it's supposed to be spectacular. I they have figured out how to get some fruitiness into makers mark, and it's such a cool, such a cool concept that I'm glad they're still doing.

SPEAKER_04:

Do you do you think that when you say figure out how to get some fruitiness, is that because you typically think the standard six to seven six, seven, six to seven year makers mark is um is just kind of sweet. Not I don't know if it's sweet, not sweet fruity, but like sweet, like corn sweet or sugar sweet.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, for me, uh the the standard, the main difference to me is I would say that the the maker's mark original is really sweet, but it's also super light. Um, I just I think that's why it's such a good mixing bourbon, is it's got that sweetness, especially being a weeder. They're all the same mash bill, by the way. I don't know if we said that, but every makers mark product is the same mash bill of 70% corn, 16% soft winter wheat, 14% malted barley.

SPEAKER_04:

That's pretty cool. I think that's really fucking cool. When they they start somewhere, we always say, like you can you start with the mash bill and then you can put your whiskey in a lot of different places. Obviously, the water matters and things like that, but I think it's really cool that they for this long, through all the transitions of who owns them and all the years that they're still the same mash bill. I think it's really, really high high, high marks for that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, I think it just goes to show that the improvements that are made on good bourbon the longer it stays. And and they're not even doing major difference things. I mean, obviously there's different parts of the Rick House and things like that, but the big key item what the reason they call it cellar age is because there is an old limestone cellar on the original Star Hill farm that they actually put a bunch of this older juice into so it it fin you finishes its its distill, it's distill is distillation, I guess. Distillation, yeah. It finishes that at a cooler, at a cooler temperature for a longer time, and it's it's bringing out different parts of the barrel.

SPEAKER_04:

So let's get into that. So we're saying this 2025 year, 2025 bottle is 11 years, but also 13 and 14-year-old bourbons are blended in. Correct. So maker's mark, same ashe bill, the standard stuff that you you know, the that you buy anywhere, is those barrels are at the six or seven year point are taken from where they're where all the other ones are warehoused. They move them to this other place for another call it five, six, seven years on top of the six or seven years that it already had.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I don't know if it's that, I don't know how many years it's there, but yes, in theory, that's what it is. I just don't know if they put it there at year seven or if they put it there at year 10 into it. Like I don't know what year they're moving them into the cellar, but exactly what's happening. And it's I mean, it's a cooler, consistent temperature, which is from a cellar, which is so different than a Rick House, especially in Kentucky, where you're getting you know 100 degree days to you know freezing days in the winter, you know, a cellar is gonna stay stable. I mean, cool, naturally cool, stable. Yeah, so it's just gonna it's gonna change that extraction process out of the barrel.

SPEAKER_04:

So um let's get into it. Uh and what I'm kind of thinking and thinking somewhat out loud is we haven't talked about so you've touched on things, but let me do it one more time. We've done the mash bill. Um, the proof on this one is 112.9. Um, and we haven't touched on the MSRP, which is a hundred and seventy-four dollars and ninety-nine cents. So uh I mean it's hitting on a lot of things, but that is gonna be the one of the pricier outside of bottles of wine, the pricier bottle of booze you're gonna buy at a liquor store um at retail. Um, so that's why we actually didn't it's you know going for like actually already has a higher aftermarket, um, like 225 to 275, believe it or not. Um, so we got two ounces for 15 bucks an ounce, um, which is a lot more than that price, but we just wanted to try it to see if we really like it before we buy the bottle, which is what we always tell you guys to do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So we actually do it.

SPEAKER_04:

We actually do it.

SPEAKER_01:

But so when they started this, it was like it was$150 in 2023. So it isn't up that much. You said$150,$150, and then they just raised it this year. Actually, it was$150, then last year it was$180, and then this year it's$175.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, they brought it down.

SPEAKER_01:

Look at those, those micros were that's the first time I've heard anybody bring anything down this year.

SPEAKER_04:

Those beams are just so smelly. All right, let's uh let's smell it.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's do it. Cheers. Cheers.

SPEAKER_04:

Holy cow. Yeah, this stuff is holy cow. I mean, it is just brown. So much more than what I mean. I actually wish I had a standard six-year makers next to this. I mean, the age is flying out of the glass, and you can literally like snort it, and you're not even getting the alcohol. It's just straight up sweetness, sugariness. What are you getting?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, to me, it's just it smells so good. It's the brown sugar, the cinnamon, the toasted oak, you know, a little bit of like almost like an apple pie. Just some really cool stuff.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Just um, I mean, caramelly, brown sugary, woody. It just kind of smells like a rickhouse. And like it just has that like really pretty classic aged wood. Alright, here's let's try it. I just can't. I mean, if it tastes anything how it smells, this is like a show.

SPEAKER_02:

Alright. It's already freaking good. But it's pretty nice seconds.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh the balance is there. I've seen reviews of like silky smooth. You're not gonna get that. Um, and I don't think you're getting that because it's almost 113 proof.

SPEAKER_01:

I think if you chew it up, you're not gonna get silky smoothie.

SPEAKER_04:

That's pretty hard to make silky. Um I mean just like a like a decadent dessert.

SPEAKER_03:

I mean it's like it's got a little bit of chocolatey, yeah, but like nutty, it's uh citrusic.

SPEAKER_04:

It ends with um I mean a sweetness to just oh you know what I love are um they're more common now. Um our almond croissants, where it's a croissant, they do something inside that tastes really good, and then there's like toasted almonds on the outside when they when they bake it. It's just a really it's like a fruit forward.

SPEAKER_01:

It's like fruit forward almost. Where I don't think regular makers mark as fruit forward. I think it's more like sweet and soft, sweet and oaky, right?

SPEAKER_04:

So oak from the more from the from the greater age.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

But I'm just compared to the original makers.

SPEAKER_01:

I just think I'm not getting a ton of tobacco leather. You can get that on some of these older bottles that have been sitting in the same charred barrel forever. I'm not I'm getting a little bit of it, but not a lot. To me, it's more of a um the balance is just it's got a great balance of s of sweetness and fruit, but I feel like the fruit's more forward than the sweet this time.

SPEAKER_04:

You know what I'm getting on the finish? Is like an orange. It almost like by itself, it almost tastes like a cocktail. Like an old-fashioned with an orange and a cherry in it. Yeah. I'm getting orange and cherry, but outside of that like extreme sweetness, which is an orange and a cherry, the smoothness is that toasted almond, uh, that like dessert, that butterscotchy, I mean, with with a good a good little spice to it. Like you don't forget that you're drinking almost 113 proof.

SPEAKER_01:

It's got more of a spice than I anticipated for having no rye. But at the same time, it's it's the fruit. I'm getting that it's that it's that chocolate, like you said, there's a little bit of chocolate in the palate that's that's bringing that fruit forward, and then it's good. There's a little bit of the tobacco leather, it's just like a layered spice, it's really good.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, if you're into sweets, this is we always say, like, oh, you know, what what goes better with a whiskey than a chocolate chip cookie or whatever? Yeah, this this is your dessert. Yeah, this is great. Not not bad, not like it's not tan wine or something that's like really way too in your face, and you can't, or like a lemon cello that like is just so sweet that you can't have more than one of them.

SPEAKER_01:

This is it just has a it's like lingers with a bold, it's like lingers with that oak and spice. It's like there's not it's not really doesn't have a whole lot of tan. It's it's just good. Just good.

SPEAKER_04:

Can you tell we like makers mark? I don't think we've gone that much on a um on a tangent of uh flavor.

SPEAKER_01:

I this is one of the better this is one of the better ones I've had on our podcast this year. I know we've only got like 17, 18, 20, something like that podcast, but this is a pretty good one.

SPEAKER_04:

We've we they they've all been good though.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no. This one's this one's pretty good.

SPEAKER_04:

We all the podcasts have been good.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, I don't care about that.

SPEAKER_04:

How many have we done? We haven't even broken 20 yet.

SPEAKER_01:

I think we're out.

SPEAKER_04:

We gotta have a banger of a December. I know we're slacking this year. We're gonna put a couple out in December. A couple like five. A couple, some people say like a uh is a few. A few is three to nine, or a and a couple is two. A couple is always two?

SPEAKER_01:

Two, maybe three. A few is two.

SPEAKER_04:

A couple is two. Yeah, I had to laugh. That was a really stupid question.

SPEAKER_01:

I I'm not even gonna comment on that.

SPEAKER_04:

I guess the makers mark has gotten into my bloodstream because that was a really stupid question. Okay, so um I'm afraid to have you review it first because I mean, I feel like do you do you feel like you're gonna go above and beyond with because it's makers? No, do you does it get a little leg up? A little leg up. It has to. When again, what is the yeah? I mean influence.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that the influence for me is off the charts, right? So the shareable for me is um yeah. I mean, this is crazy shareable to somebody that really likes makers that's into it, because it's this is a good anybody you know that's always searching for a really good pour, especially something that you can have straight, neat, without an ice cube or anything. This this one puts you right there. Price is high. I hate spending this much money, but I understand that these brands are trying to trying to capture some of the secondary market for themselves. I don't blame them.

SPEAKER_04:

I really like what we did and we followed what we we what we preach, which uh we're done with this. We have no more. It's two ounces are gone. Um, I have a little left, but you don't. Um and uh part of me is that I love that we're only 30 bucks in on this, but part of me is like, I'll go right into shareable. I I want to share the hell out of it. What I will say, especially um Midwest listeners, I I think there could be a find of this at bigger liquor stores, liquor barn, uh, binny's things like that. It's gonna be rare again because it was at the Bourbon Festival and it was at their store. They did do 245 barrels. Oh, did they do that many? Um, but um I think it's findable at a pretty close, hopefully retail, but pretty close to it. I probably wouldn't go um if it's if it's at retail 175 bucks, you're buying it. I'm just gonna say that. Um, I would even go uh 50 bucks more to like two and a quarter, but uh um this Tony and I talked about this will be underpriced in my prediction at like tasting uh tasting bars that have good good booze. I think they're gonna know what they paid for it, but you could probably get this for uh 10 bucks an ounce, which if that's the case, show show your friends what you like um at that point. So uh shareable, I want to share the hell out of it. Influence, it's makers mark and price. Um, you know, if it's really good, I l I don't mind the price. I think I always say that. And this is this is this is those two words. It's really good. It's really good.

SPEAKER_01:

It's it's excellent. You want to number it or you want me to give it?

SPEAKER_03:

Excellent. He just keeps elevating it over. This is excellent.

SPEAKER_01:

This is a good one. I think that you I think when the bourbon, I think that when the bourbon, uh, the bourbon lists for the year come out, you're gonna see this consistently in the top five and ten on all the different people. I really think it's that good. Big statement. That's a statement. That's almost like my it's also called a prediction.

SPEAKER_04:

That's almost like my predictions. Tony's predictions was the Broncos. We're gonna have a good year, and mine was the Eagles, and I'm so glad that I'm wrong because the Bears just beat the Eagles. Fuck yeah, go Bears. Um all right. Um I I mean, are you in the four? I think you're in the fours on this.

SPEAKER_01:

I am, I'm four and a quarter.

SPEAKER_04:

I don't know where you're at. When was I last time? Wasn't I four and a quarter on that stag last time?

SPEAKER_01:

Um no, well, last week, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04:

Whenever we podcasted last was um with a couple weeks ago with Mark. With Mark. I'm pretty sure I was I because I feel like I think you were four and a quarter on this. I almost overdid it, which I think you just overdid on this, and I'm gonna go with a four even.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Well, I don't have any problem with that. I I think this is excellent.

SPEAKER_04:

I I've waited a while too. Dude, I feel like this is like changing in the glass. I mean, I was looking at some of the stuff we did this year.

SPEAKER_01:

We've done some really good bottles. We did the Steg 24B, we did the 2024 Sazraq 18. Um I like that stuff. We did the George T. Steg 23.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh, we've done some that was our that was our goal for 25 was to do.

SPEAKER_01:

We did some good that larceny. That larceny barrel proof A125 was excellent. We have another one. We should do another Larceny barrel proof for Elijah Craig. We got a couple of those floating around.

SPEAKER_04:

We got a lot coming up. Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna bang out in December. It's gonna be Christmas parties and podcasting. I like Christmas parties. I've already had one. It's it's I've already had one. You did your first Christmas party. I have one like six more, so lots of uh I think I'll do dry January. No, you're not. Maybe I'll do like mustache. You know, that's not a real thing, right? Dry anything is not real. Why didn't we do Movember? Isn't that where you grow a mustache and you stop drinking?

SPEAKER_01:

Did you see me? I could you see me with a mustache? You know, I only have to shave every two or three days.

SPEAKER_02:

Really?

SPEAKER_01:

Dude, I am so much more evolved than you. You know, we started as apes. Some of us had all this hair. Those of us that don't have this much hair.

SPEAKER_02:

Did he just call himself more evolved? I did. Holy shit. Uh you don't even know what to say now.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm just I just called you an ape too.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm just completely beside myself, but I'm just glad that I have a little bit of this whisper. I know.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm kind of pissed you got some more in your glass.

SPEAKER_04:

So, uh, what are we going out on? We're staying uh with the county crows.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, we are. Oh yeah, we are. This is this is with a story like that. I have to stick that.

SPEAKER_04:

This one, this one's for Courtney.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, this is just one of my more favorite songs of theirs, so it's an easy one to it's an easy one to play, and everybody knows it. Oh, I just took my last sip. Oh.

SPEAKER_04:

So much corn, so much wheat, so much delicious del the little deliciousness.

SPEAKER_01:

It's when you believe in heaven, baby.

SPEAKER_03:

There you go.

SPEAKER_04:

Shotgun brothers, Mike and Tony. We take care of the whiskey so you can focus on with whom you share it. Maker's Mark, seller aged, the 2025 version. Get it. I I'm really saying get it. And it's one of those get it now because it's a great, you know, grandpa, your dad, uh, your mom, your grandma, whoever comes over, it's a really fun. If you don't like it, text that's not gonna blow your doors off each. DM me, I'll buy it from you. Open. Tony, you're he's not DMable, just so you know. Um, but we do have a DM. We do have a check bourbon brothers Instagram. And if you sent me a message there, it would really, it would really warm my heart to look just like this bourbon does. Anyway, peace out, guys. Thanks for listening. Bye.