The B Team Podcast
Talking all things Business, Bentonville, and Bourbon. Hosted by Josh Saffran, Matt Marrs, and Rob Nelson. New episodes every Thursday!
The B Team Podcast
Bourbon Tasting: Blade and Bow
How does bourbon ignite debates about geography, and what makes Blade and Bow bourbon a standout in a world of aged spirits? This week, we navigate the bittersweet absence of one of our co-hosts and still manage to keep the energy high and the conversation flowing. We explore the rich distilling heritage of Kentucky, laugh over common misconceptions about its capital, and ponder the importance of value and partnership in both our personal and professional lives.
With humor as our guide, we traverse the landscapes of Wild Turkey, Woodford Reserve, Buffalo Trace, and Four Roses, each with its compelling story and place in bourbon lore. Russ shares tantalizing insights about Blade and Bow, an intriguing creation from Diageo that emerged just nine years ago, and its deep roots in Louisville's distillery scene. If you're ready for a sensory adventure through bourbon country, pour yourself a glass and tune in, as we toast to partnerships, the joy of discovery, and the eternal appeal of bourbon.
Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I am your host, josh Saffron, with my co-host, matt Morris and our permanent guest Rob Nelson. We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bentonville, bourbon and business. The B-Team Podcast Be here. Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I am your host, josh Safran, along with my very handsome co-host, matt Marris.
Speaker 3:And we got an empty seat over here.
Speaker 1:We got an empty seat. Now the value from the empty seat will be about the same as we normally get from the full seat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but it's a sad day. It is. It's a sad day. I mean you and him kind of went full sideways over him and he's missing some of the shows that we were supposed to do.
Speaker 1:Contracts are right. I mean we form a partnership and got to add up to your value. Ripped up the contract on the show. Yeah, it's tough. I hope today we can replace him with somebody spectacular. My gut is I feel good about keeping the Nelson genes alive, but it's a sad day for me it is. I have my tissues in my pocket in case I break down in some tears.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hopefully. That's the only reason you have those in your pocket, hopefully.
Speaker 1:I do have a little bit of a cold. I do have a little bit of a cold, but no, it's a sad day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but anyway, besides that, yes, russ is here. What do we have today to talk about? This is my favorite part.
Speaker 2:It is great Good to see you, matt and, of course, josh. Always good to see you, guys.
Speaker 3:And I guess I'm not going that way. He's over there, he's a ghost, he's in his own lane over there.
Speaker 2:He might be hitchhiking right now, who knows. So we do have this afternoon, you know, blade and Bow from Diageo, from Stitts Willard Distillery in Louisville. So how do you pronounce the capital of Kentucky? Louisville or.
Speaker 1:Louisville. I know the answer to this because I've been in so many of your events. I'm going to let Matt go here.
Speaker 3:I thought it was Louisville, louisville.
Speaker 1:Can I? I'll give you the answer it's neither. That's not the capital. No, it's not.
Speaker 2:It's Frankfurt. It's Frankfurt, you're right. I'm just making sure you guys are paying attention.
Speaker 1:I only knew that because I've seen you do that multiple times, and every time somebody says Louisville, Louisville.
Speaker 3:Well, it's always funny Now. Now we're kind of going off, off, off the road.
Speaker 1:We always do, though we always go off the road.
Speaker 3:But like it's like the, you know, like Topeka, Kansas, you think it would be Kansas City or you know there's just you always think it's going to be the biggest city in the state, so it throws you off.
Speaker 1:When you think of Kentucky, you think of Louisville, you don't think of Frankfort, I think of Louisville, I don't think of Frankfort.
Speaker 2:I get it. I think of them all too. But when I think about Frankfort then I think about the four great distilleries are right outside of Frankfort, you know Wild Turkey, woodford Reserve, buffalo Trace and Four Roses. That's a good afternoon day visit to go to Frankfort and spend a few days there. That's a great afternoon. And then of course, another great afternoon is on the other side, it's, you know, louisville.
Speaker 2:You know where Bladen Bow is and stuff Stitzer Well, or visit other distilleries in the area. It's a good time to go up there to visit because they want to see their consumer. And Blade Bow was developed by Diageo nine years ago. It was released. Oh, it's a new brand. Yes, it was just recently introduced, in 2015. I didn't know that. And Blade Bow is an interesting name, isn't it? And it gets its name from uh, from the key. So this is the blade and that's the bow blade and bow. And they used to. And then at the old distillery, the old stills roller distillery, they used to have keys hanging on the distillery doors and the and there were five keys and were the noted five keys of bourbon production. So does each one have a different key? Back in the day, they did, but on the bottles are they all?
Speaker 3:No, they're very similar.
Speaker 2:It's a more gimmicky, it's more marketing, got it?
Speaker 3:yeah.
Speaker 2:But it would be nice to have the three skeleton keys. Five skeleton keys different how they were cut back in the day, so the keys were formed. And the you know how they were cut back in the day, so you know the keys were formed in the distillery. The five keys are for the grains that produce the whiskey, for the yeast that go with fermentation and then fermentation, then distillation and then maturation. Now, a lot of you hear aging.
Speaker 3:A lot of Asians.
Speaker 2:A lot of. Asians there's a lot there.
Speaker 3:So did they buy Sitzelweller then.
Speaker 2:So Diageo, when Diageo was formed, you know, in the late 90s, they bought up multiple companies Right and through Federal Trade Commission and a bunch of other things. There's a lot of horse switching and horse trading back and forth with. Brands were going over here. Brands were going over here just because their Federal Trade Commission says we just can't have this big monster distillery company. So they sold off some brands, then developed other ones over time and so they Diageo did keep the old Stitts Rueller because there was this legacy of going back, you know, through multiple owners, you know going all the way back to 1935. So what we have here is light and bold. It's a younger. You know straight bourbon. You know I get on here. I just a lot of spice, a lot of caramelized sugar, a lot of sugar vanillins.
Speaker 3:I was going to say it's really sweet, it's sweet, it's sweet.
Speaker 2:That's that corn influence. You're always going to get that sweetness from the corn, but this is only 91 proof. So remember, in the past we have had some higher proof and then we get a lot of that sweetness that is masked by the proof and by the AG, I'm still feeling that old Carter, that 129.
Speaker 1:It's still there. I love it.
Speaker 3:It's been a week gone by.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm still feeling it. This is the first time I tried this, because I was at this place for my buddy's 50th birthday that's a shout out to Jim Corbett and I didn't love it, and it's actually better than I remembered it being.
Speaker 2:Try it with the water. You're going to really see how it sweetens it up. Sweet man on my palate now. When I tried Blade and Bow and when I I dropped I dropped it in the lineups in the past is now I'm getting. I get that sweetness. The bubbles up to the surface, but I get a lot of stone fruit.
Speaker 1:So stone fruit you're a big fan of stone fruit. Can you explain what stone?
Speaker 2:fruit is.
Speaker 1:Because Matt and I every time you bring up stone fruit, you laugh like a little schoolboy.
Speaker 3:I've heard of a stone fly. Like when I'm fly fishing we go Stone fruit peaches.
Speaker 2:Okay, anything. Any fruit with a pit of stone? Oh, okay, okay, that makes sense. And I get a little bit of Stone Temple Pilots. I get a little bit of butter popcorn too. This is really good.
Speaker 3:So this one I actually like it better without the water, and I've never. Usually it kind of tones everything down, but to me I don't know. What do you think?
Speaker 1:I liked it both times. I remember when we did the episode where we did the dining in the dark, I had a preconceived notion that I wasn't going to like this and I pretended that we were drinking in the dark, which is a good another college story, right? Remember the times you drank in the dark, but it's much better than I remembered it being. It's actually good both ways.
Speaker 3:Now it's kind of changed a little bit where we were. So if we add a little bit more, it dilutes more of the water.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when you think of Blade and Bullet, think about some other brands like Bullet before they built the distiller, because Bullet and Blade and Bullet owned by Diageo, so they used to age some of their bullet there at the distillery in Louisville. And then also one of my favorite brands that we don't see we have a lot of traction up here in northwest Arkansas is IW Harper. So those brands are you know. So Bullet's been matured there. It still has its own distillery, Diageo. So Blightbow and Stitzel. And then have you heard of the Orphan Barrels Mm-hmm, so this is what Orphan.
Speaker 3:Barrels come from. I have some of those Orphan Barrel bottles.
Speaker 1:What don't you have at the house? I mean, you got quite a bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got a little crazy during. Covid.
Speaker 1:Who did? How many bottles do you have unopened at the house? We have to do a podcast in your liquor locker.
Speaker 3:Probably have over 100 probably, oh boy.
Speaker 2:Unopened. Okay, that's impressive.
Speaker 1:That's good. I'm not in your camp, although my wife seems to think I am. Every time I bring her to your house or Rob's house, she goes oh, you have so much bourbon, you have so much bourbon. Then I go to your house or Rob's house, she goes oh, you have so much bourbon, you have so much bourbon.
Speaker 3:And then I go to your house and Rob's like it's not so bad just yet. My analogy is bad when there's a tornado or a storm and everyone has to climb in there with all the bourbon and the storm.
Speaker 1:I can just carry it out. There's no room for us.
Speaker 2:And then you're playing good cop, bad cop. Yeah, don't touch that one, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you're kind of hoping for a tornado.
Speaker 2:Oh, that one over here that you've never heard of the night of white. Why did?
Speaker 1:I, that's for you. Let me rephrase that You're kind of hoping for a tornado warning, exactly so you can be here and go boom, boom, boom. He's in there, like there's no white in there right?
Speaker 3:No, there's, I'm going to be happy.
Speaker 1:So we should sit outside your window one night and be like we had a tornado warning, just so you guys could go in there and drink at 2 in the morning, exactly.
Speaker 3:Now it's. This is like I say. I don't think I get kind of like you said. I think I had it one time and I didn't love it, but this is pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yes, I, it's much, much, much better than I anticipated being and I actually am enjoying it, just like I'm enjoying your company and I'm enjoying the silence it.
Speaker 3:It has been really quiet today. I mean it's been quiet. My, I'm not gonna have a crick in my neck. I know it's afternoon because of that. I mean I miss him over there, but he's. I do miss him, but he's holding the line you know it's been a rough one.
Speaker 1:I'm not sleeping well. I don't know what he's won the line.
Speaker 3:It's been a rough one, I'm not sleeping well, I don't know what he's won, what all the issues are.
Speaker 1:He wants your share of the contract. He wants to have your share of the ownership.
Speaker 2:I think you need to have a come-to-Dram meeting with him.
Speaker 3:Oh, you bring some Dram up here and everything he'll forget about Midwinter. That's his favorite. He loves that we should review that.
Speaker 1:I have a bottle. You have the Midwinter. He absolutely Maybe. That's the way to get him back. We'll get him back with a Midwinter. That's a great idea. I'm bullish on that brand too.
Speaker 3:It's so good it's his favorite, he wouldn't trade. It Is it's his favorite, he wouldn't trade it Is that going to be the hook. We may have to bring him back with a bottle of that. That's a good call. Well, it would be nice for you to tell us all the ins and outs of what's it at the High West.
Speaker 2:That's a rye, the mid-winters is a rye, and then finished in portwood barrels.
Speaker 3:Okay, it's very good. Oh, it's good. Every year, when the holiday season starts, rob and I open one, and then it's supposed to last the whole season.
Speaker 2:Well, I'd like to do with that. When we do it, I'm going to bring some blue cheese.
Speaker 1:You know, I feel young. I know, but you loved it, I did, I did love it.
Speaker 2:But I'll bring some. I need a blindfold. All right, so I'll bring some. I need a blindfold. All right, so I'll bring some salted chocolate.
Speaker 1:You like salted chocolate. I do love that. Who doesn't like that?
Speaker 2:Because, again, you were going to be the second one out of here if you didn't like chocolate the way I did. Uh-huh, I'm in. So I'll bring salted chocolate and blue cheese when we do the Midwinter it's night to am, because you're going to see what a striking profile they all have together when you see these flavors.
Speaker 3:That's what I love about Russ being here is he opens up so many other doors that you don't know about.
Speaker 1:Again we were laughing because the first couple episodes like it's really good.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then you bring him in and he's bringing this stuff to light and I'm like I's really good, yeah. And then you bring him in and he's bringing this stuff to light and I'm like I never thought of that. Yeah, you'll eat my blue cheese, I'll eat your salted chocolate. That's what we do as a host and a co-host. We work together.
Speaker 3:I thought you were going to say something else.
Speaker 2:I'm a giver, I'm giving back.
Speaker 3:I'm giving back these snacks to you guys. He's a giver. He's a giver, he's a giver.
Speaker 1:He may move over to this chair here. Cheers boys. Yeah, pleasure, thanks again.
Speaker 2:Russ, thank you. See you on the next one.