The Noble Dram | Whiskey Trips Done Right! (Season 2 | Ep. 1)

Ready to plan the ultimate whiskey adventure? 🌍🥃

In this episode, we break down how to Travel the Noble Way — a smarter, smoother, and far more rewarding way to experience whiskey destinations anywhere in the world.

Whether you’re heading to Scotland, Ireland, Kentucky, Japan, or beyond… this guide will change how you plan your trip.

🔥 Why This Matters

Anyone can plan a trip… but not everyone knows how to:
Avoid rookie mistakes
Find hidden gems
Create a flow to your tasting days
Come home with better stories (and better bottles)

That’s what “Travel the Noble Way” is all about.

Aaron’s Pour: Buzzard’s Roost - Cigar Blend - Double Oaked - 105 Proof
Gavin’s Pour: Kentucky Peerless - Single Barrel - Orange Cream Soda - 106 Proof
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Transcript

Gavin 0:00

On this episode, we're taking the tour. Part travel guide, part tasting session, and part masterclass on how to do a whiskey trip, the noble way.

Aaron 0:43

So after weeks of jet setting and globetrotting, we're finally back home here on American Soil. And that got Gavin and I think, we did a lot of touring the world in search of whiskies. But what about you? Do you want to go tour a distillery or two? So we thought tonight we give a little bit of advice on things we recommend when it comes to visiting your local distillery. So, the theme for tonight is Gavin and I each had to pick a bottle that we purchased while at the distillery on a tour. So get that one out of the way. It's almost empty anyway. Gavin, treat us to bottle number one.

Gavin 1:40

Bottle number one. Alright. So this bottle, it's been opened because I enjoyed it at the distillery and I also enjoyed it at my home. It's hard.

Aaron 1:53

It's hard to come home from a distillery and not open the bottle right away. Right. So I say that. I didn't do that online. You didn't do that. It helped that I had bought several bottles. And so I just hadn't got around to this one yet. We both. All right. So tell us, Gavin, what are we drinking?

Gavin 2:10

First off, I need a there's a little bit of cologne I need to put on. Oh, geez. It's right here. Just dab it, you know, maybe a little here. Do you need some? No, I'm good. So this bottle. I appreciate you not rubbing colour. Yeah, that would be that wouldn't be the weirdest thing that has happened, but it's on the list.

Aaron 2:29

It might be. It's on the list.

Gavin 2:31

It's on the Mount Rushmore. Yeah, it would be on the top floor. For sure. All right. So this bottle is Kentucky Peerless Distilling Company. I like that. Yeah. It's wordy. It's a mouthful. Just Robin. Mouthful. So this bottle is a single barrel Kentucky straight bourbon. Love it. We are 53% ABV. Do the math. 106.

Aaron 3:01

I didn't know there was going to be math involved. I'd had a couple of things. Sorry, I didn't tease you a little bit with it. You threw me off by starting with ABV and then going to proof. Normally when we do American-made, we go proof and then work at the end of the year. Just go proof.

Gavin 3:15

Yeah.

Aaron 3:16

But we start Imperial and go back to metric.

Gavin 3:19

But because we've uh you know been traveling, I get it. We might have our friends out there that are expecting the ABV.

Aaron 3:26

You're still running in kilometers everywhere you go?

Gavin 3:28

Yeah, that's right. So this specific bottle is um, well, let's just say Pierreless is known for being non-chill filtered. We are sweet mash, not sour mash, uh barrel-proof. So basically no water added to this. And this happens to be their orange cream soda expression.

Aaron 4:01

So if my memory serves right, I may have been on this same trip. You may have. This is a single barrel. Yes. Okay. Because I know they I know Peerless does offer some batched releases, but the vast majority of their stuff is single barrel releases. Sorry.

Gavin 4:22

So this bottle, the trip that Aaron was just mentioning, we went to Kentucky in September of 2025. Oh, so maybe we should start there. Where in Kentucky is Peerless? Oh, Peerless is in Louisville. Louisville.

Aaron 4:38

Yeah, you mean Louisville.

Gavin 4:40

Well, depending on if you're a slugger or not.

Aaron 4:44

Yeah, that's true. That's true. If you're a Louisville, they they don't call them Louisville sluggers. Louisville, little little tobacco in your maybe, maybe that's what it is.

Gavin 4:54

I need to start chewing tobacco. Well, you know, destiny has it that there is tobacco in the story of Peerless. So do telling this story. So let's start with a little history lesson. Lushing about Peerless? About Peerless. Or about tobacco. Well, a little bit of both. So here we go. So Peerless began really in 1881 under the E. W. Warsham Distilling Company.

Aaron 5:27

In Henderson, Kentucky. Also a mouthful. Yes. When you come to bourbon company names, those are both doozys.

Gavin 5:34

Yes. So Henderson is located about two to two and a half hours west of Louisville, or maybe southwest, because Kentucky does a little bit of this. It tapers. So it tapers down? It's a doorstop.

Aaron 5:52

It's a doorstop. It's insulting to Kentucky. I apologize, Kentucky. You're just shaped like a doorstop. It's not that you are a doorstop.

Gavin 6:00

Well, it's like Oklahoma shaped like a meat cleaver. So there's that. Did you ever know? Did you ever think about that? Yeah. No. No. Okay. All right. Just me? Okay. I prefer the states that are square. Well, you live in one that's not. No, we're distinctly not. Texas has to be different. It's got a square corner. It touches Oklahoma.

Aaron 6:23

It's got a square spot over me. It's in Oklahoma's armpit. Oh, that is. See, now you're just insulting everybody. Dang it. Dang it. All right. All right. Any hate mail should be sent to Gavin at thenobledram.com. Don't be sending that to me.

Gavin 6:40

Well, I'm sure they can find an actual address somewhere.

Aaron 6:45

All right. Continue on. All right. All right. I'm all f I'm all for stalkers.

Gavin 6:50

Not so much pipe bombs in the in the middle of the so um the uh uh EW Worstham Distilling Company was purchased by Henry Craver back in 1889. So Henry purchased it, and then um it wasn't until I believe um uh let me get my math right, 1907, that it stayed E. W. Warsham Distilling Company, and then he changed it to Peerless. Okay, so even after he purchased it, I think it's something like 19 years he ran with the original company name. Gotcha. So uh under Henry, the production grew, and by 1913, they had over 50 workers and produced um right around 10,000 barrels annually. At its peak in 1917, it was reported that it is the second largest distillery in Kentucky. Really? Yeah.

Aaron 8:01

Yeah, I've always known Peerless as kind of a small operation, not one of the big boys. So the idea of them being one of the big boys is kind of surprising. Right.

Gavin 8:10

And there's a reason for that. Because in 1917, production ceased for the war effort uh for World War I, mainly because of the corn conservation, right? And then, furthermore, in World War II and in Prohibition, those kind of things, um, that's really where uh the distiller distilleries started shifting um and started kind of tapering down production a little bit more. Um and they were one of I think one of five distilleries that uh received a license to sell medicinal whiskey, at least through their stock. And I think there was um maybe a handshake deal with the Walgreen brothers out of Chicago.

Aaron 9:01

Yeah, like in a very ironic twist, I've heard a bit of this Walgreen story, like that was Walgreen's big claim to fame as they became big and mighty because of medicinal alcohol. Right. And then fast forward years later, and they don't sell um liquor or cigarettes. Yeah, like all the fun stuff they stopped selling party poopers.

Gavin 9:21

I know, I know so um in in eight or sorry, in 1925, the original stills were sold. You mean stills? Stills, not still.

Aaron 9:34

I mean they could be still steel magnolia like that.

Gavin 9:38

Yeah, got yeah, they were sold to United Distillers out of Canada. Ironically, the guy hired to disassemble and relocate the original stills ended up forming the Vendome copper and brass works that we know today. Oh, yeah. So before he started Vendome.

Aaron 10:02

How funny! Yeah, yeah, they're in they're a major manufacturer in copper stills, right? So there's a little bit of might be a little foreshadowing to my bottle as well.

Gavin 10:14

Ooh, I'm excited. It was unintentional. That was really unintentional because I had no idea. Uh so that's kind of the brief history um leading up to the closure. But you ran through a lot of years there. Yeah, but we got a bottle sitting right here, which means there was a revival. Which we all love revivals, right?

Aaron 10:39

So yeah, tent revivals are always fun. Tent, yeah. Yeah, I don't what other kind of revivals are there? I don't know. Well, but I like them. Yeah. Well, distillery revivals are fun.

Gavin 10:51

Yes. So in 2013, Henry's fourth and fifth grandsons, generation-wise, fourth and fifth generation grandsons, yeah, revived the brand um and renovated an old tobacco warehouse in Louisville.

Aaron 11:15

Yep, right there uh right on the water's edge.

Gavin 11:18

Yeah, just off of Whiskey Row. Um, so I can't tell you how fitting it is to take an old brand, revive it, and put it in an old building, and revive that building to what it is today.

Aaron 11:33

Yeah, as an architecture guy, I get where you'd yeah, you'd really get a kick out of that. Yeah. Really? Yeah, so for for those who don't know, there's there's kind of whiskey row in in Louisville. I know I'm working on it. I'm working on it. Well, ever since we did the French episode, and you made me figure out how to pronounce things. I've been working on it. I there it is literally several city blocks that is just tasting room after tasting room, back and forth, all the way down the thing, um, intermingled in with restaurants. You kind of get all the way to the west end, and it tapers off. Distinctly abruptly tapers off. And you go about another block and then turn the corner, and there's peerless. Beautiful little building. Um go inside, absolutely gorgeous little space. Yeah. Uh I wouldn't call it so little, but I in the world of Kentucky distilleries, it's not a big place. Fair point. Unlike most of the places up and down Whiskey Row, they're actually a distillery. Yes. Most everywhere else you go is a tasting room that might have a still to some extent for show. I'm not saying they don't actually produce something there, but the reality is the vast majority of what is produced is produced somewhere else. Um, and that that seems to be kind of the unifying theme up and down Whiskey Road until you get all the way to the far end of Whiskey Road and then there are distilleries again. Um yeah, I which I found intriguing because in my head I was like, Yeah, we're gonna go see all these distilleries. And we didn't. Yep. We tasted a bunch of whiskey, but we didn't necessarily see as many distilleries. We'll get to that here in a second.

Gavin 13:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So one or a couple fun things um about Peerless is, and you'll find it all over the label, and if you go to the distillery, it's all over the place. The DSP number is the original DSP number. Oh, they let them bring it back, they let them bring it back, so they reclaimed it. So it's DSP, which stands for uh distilled spirits plant, and then the state, KY, and then the number. So it's DSP KY50. Nowadays, that number, if you were to start a distillery today, is like in the 2000s.

Aaron 13:57

Yeah, they they I don't remember all the details, but I do remember when we were walking around talking to different places about different numbers. At one point, they numbered them sequentially. And then they got to a certain point, and then there was this whole argument over whether or not they could have old numbers and new numbers, and what happens if I create a new label under the old distillery, and does that need a separate number? And then they came out and said, listen, we're not we're not reusing existing numbers and stuff from the past anymore. We're gonna create new numbers. And to avoid confusion, they jumped significantly into like the 20,000 range and started new numbers up there. And I could be mistaken, but I wanted to say there had to something to do with like what county you were in or what geo what portion of the country you were in that those numbers changed. Um, but they are all state specific. But yeah, like you look at DSP numbers and there's 01, 05, 10, 50, right? They're real low numbers, and then that 22,000 and something. I guess you're like, that's ridiculous. Like you can't believe there's many that many distilleries. Well, there wasn't. There's a bunch of numbers missing in the middle somewhere along the lines.

Gavin 15:06

Gotta fudge it somehow. Uh or just leave it room to grow.

Aaron 15:11

It's it's like doctoring the photo, right? It's like the Snapchat filter for DSP numbers. We just get them with a completely different look when you're it's like, hey, that doesn't look quite right.

Gavin 15:20

There you go. There you go.

Aaron 15:21

I've seen that person in in person. I don't know that's available to me. That's not what they look like. Yeah. So I remember the dog ears or the nose for that matter. The butterfly.

Gavin 15:32

Um, so the first barrels were filled at Peerless, the revival Pierless, in 2015. Okay. So a couple years after they restarted. Yeah, so just a couple years, and then two years after they filled those barrels, the first rye came. And then in 2019, the bourbon was born. So that's their first bourbon.

Aaron 15:59

So I think a lot of us know Peerless as a actually a big bourbon or a rye producer, right? I'm not peerless, obviously, know for bourbon, but um, some of my favorite peerless as I've tried over the years have been ryes, which is crazy because I'm not a big rye guy, but they do a lot of things in the way of specialty barrelings and that kind of stuff to get different flavor profiles out of the barrels. And so, yeah, I the notion that the rye hit before the bourbon actually makes sense um from what I know of peerless.

Gavin 16:35

So it's a brief history, but um, as we're kind of sipping and nosing and savoring, what what you got?

Aaron 16:43

No, no, so I was gonna say I I I do want to get us back to because you promised three things. What are what what were those? You you promised that this was going to be a travel guide. Uh-huh. You promised this was going to be a tasting session and a master class in planning a whiskey trip. Yeah. So far, we've done a lot of tasting session. We haven't done either of the other two. Well, what shall we do about that? Uh well, I think let's talk a little bit about what it what in is involved in going and touring a distillery. Is that fair? Yeah. Let's let's get to the touring and ta away from the tasting for a second. I feel free, continue to taste it.

Gavin 17:32

Okay, okay, okay, all right, all right. But so we're gonna stop anyway.

Aaron 17:35

I spent a little time over the last few days kind of putting together a list of things okay. This is a good idea to think about when it comes to visiting a distillery. And I think we we touched a little bit on the one I want to mention first. And that is is it a distillery or is it a tasting room? Because I think sometimes you go expecting to see production and you get there and it's a bar. It's a nice bar, it's fun. They've got a lot of stuff you can't get at other places, right? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, it's just different than touring a distillery itself. So, one of the first things I would say is if you're looking to tour a distillery or go visit a distillery, let me put it that way. First thing you want to know is are you actually visiting a working distillery or are you visiting a tasting room? Most distilleries will put some level of information to clarify that. Right. Part of it might be when you go to book your event, right? You go buy tickets. It's a tasting event or a tour. So just be cognizant. Tour means you're gonna wander around the facility. It might be a small facility, it might be a great big facility, but you're gonna wander around almost always. There's really no point in going to a distillery if you don't get to taste things. So even tours have tastings, as opposed to going and being part of a tasting where they're gonna sit you down in a room and let you taste things. Whether you're sitting at a bar, sitting at a table, or in a classroom kind of setting, it's really a little more geared towards exploring their product offering. So I think it's probably number one to me is just understand where you're going, right? Understand what you're getting yourself into.

Gavin 19:26

But before, number one, there is zero. Uh-oh. And I would say, even before you start that, if you are planning on driving, maybe not drive.

Aaron 19:43

It's not important till the end, but you need to think about it at the beginning.

Gavin 19:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So ride share, Ubers, Lyfts, all those kind of things, or having a designated driver.

Aaron 19:54

I was gonna say bring your pregnant wife. Or that. Um she can't drink, anyways. She shouldn't drink, anyways. Um and wait, do you have a pregnant wife? And not anymore. I have had pregnant wives for sure. Um, but not only do they guarantee you a safe ride home, um, they also mean that if there's a double set of tastings, you get two. So throwing that out there, uh, probably wouldn't forecast or broadcast it to everybody around you. Some of the places are pretty big sticklers on how much you have to drink and that kind of stuff. And so, um, but yes, Kevin, first and foremost, always, always, always drink responsibly and get home responsibly for sure. All right. Let me let me mark that one off my list. No, it was it was actually number one on my list. It says, Have a driver. No one wants a DUI. Yeah, I nothing would ruin a day at the distillery more than a night in jail. Fair. So I sounds like there's a story there. No, no, no. I mean, I've never been arrested for DUI, but I I've had a buddy who we couldn't find in the morning, and I was like, what happened? He's like, not good things. Um, your your trip to a distillery gets significantly more expensive if you have to post bail. That's all I'm getting at.

Gavin 21:20

I mean, yeah.

Aaron 21:22

So we talked a little bit about tours versus tastings, right? Understand what you're getting yourself into. Second, I'll say either way, there's almost always a tasting. So the question is, what is that tasting? Understand that when you go, lots of distilleries provide some level of specialty tastings that are non standard release products, where they may also offer a you come in and you get to explore their, I'll say their base range, right? Their standard things. Distinct advantages and disadvantages of both. Let's say you go to the specialty release tasting and you love all of it. One, those are almost always more expensive bottles. Two, there's a chance you can't buy those bottles even at the distillery. And three, if you can, it's almost always at the distillery, you cannot buy it when you get home, right? That tends to be the thing. Sometimes there are stuff you just can't buy, right? They're not even offered for sale. So nothing saddens you more than finding a whiskey you absolutely love and adore, and you can't bring it home with you. That may also be the positive in this, right? Um, it's stuff you can never get anywhere else except for going to the distillery and being part of that tasting. Yep. Um inversely, especially if you're somebody who's relatively new or relatively new to that distillery, right? Even if you drink a lot of whiskies, but I've never had anything from there, sometimes their core offering is a reasonable tasting to taste. One, it gets you an understanding of exactly what it is they produce and sell. It's not all of their specialty stuff. And then two, if you enjoy any of that stuff, you know you can get it when you get home. All right. So pros and cons either way. Again, a lot of the stuff we're going to talk about today is not a this is the right way, this is the wrong way. It's just understanding the expectations. It's the noble way. Yeah, for sure. So even when you get into some of their specialty stuff, um, one of my favorite trips has been when we got to go sit in the Rick House and taste straight from the barrel. That barrel's never getting bottled. It's only for the people on those trips. That is a specialty thing. You just can't get anywhere else. And so, especially, especially if it's a distillery, you've gone a long distance to get to. I don't want stuff I can buy at home. Right. Right? Um, I want those things that are exclusive, that there's no chance I'll ever get it to try this again. Um, especially if you're getting to share it with a buddy, right? Like you get to like you guys will always have that. Remember that time we tried that whiskey at that place. Um, kind of like tonight. No, because we have whole bottles. We can try it again tomorrow. Oh, yeah. So somebody could call you now that you have your email address, send you an email, say that they want to come over and sip on your beer list, and you'll open up the house. Come on in. Let's do this. Um, so I I've got a couple others, but Gavin, I kind of want to hear your advice to those at home. Um, when they're headed out to go see a distillery, what are things that you look for?

Gavin 24:57

Things that I look for, I would say um I think you you you hit it on the nose um when you said something along the lines of maybe trying to find something other than what you can find on the shelf. Um and what I would say is it doesn't hurt to ask, right? Um if you're at a distillery and you're tasting through their um standard offerings and you like it, but you want to try something unique and different and fun, ask them. Like, what's it gonna hurt? They could say no, we don't really have anything, or that that's totally fine. And if they don't, it's great. Doesn't hurt to ask. I'd say lean into the conversation. That's one of the things that I love about going to distilleries is trying to find someone that I can relate to and talk to and um start developing a relationship with, right?

Aaron 26:04

Yeah, I th I think Peerless was a great example of that. Peerless was great. So a little of the backstory of our trip. We happened to be at Peerless early one morning. Like I think we were drinking at 9:30 in the morning, 10 o'clock, something like that. It was early. Yeah, it was early enough we shouldn't have been drinking barrel-proof bourbon at that point, but hey, you're on vacation, right? Live a little. We ended up leaving Peerless and ran into one of the one of the, I guess, tour guide or tasting guide that was there, ran into them at a different place later that night at a different bar and got to chatting with them. And he's like, he remembered us from that morning, started talking, and we said, you know, to be honest, we really liked one of those bottles. We'd love to get one. Um, but unfortunately, we have to leave early tomorrow morning, and we won't you guys aren't open in time. And he said, No, nonsense. Come over. Like, we'll open it up. Like, like we'll we'll accommodate you. And then when we showed up, really the intent was we're just gonna like we didn't even park the car, we left it setting on the curb out in front of the colour.

Gavin 27:16

We'll leave somebody in the car.

Aaron 27:17

No, yeah. So sorry, Ben. Uh we had to go back and get Ben, right? Shout out to the driver. Um, so we go in, just thinking we're gonna run in, buy a shirt, buy a bottle, whatever. And he comes in, he starts talking about the tour. And I was like, well, we didn't have a chance for a tour the day before. We'd we'd just done a tasting. And he's like, that's crazy. You have to see the facility. So the next thing I know, he drug out several bottles, poured some tasters, and we took off on a walking tour through the distillery. All private, just the just just our guys, right? There was four of us and the tour guide. And and as we're wandering around having a great time, like you what you realize is he loves bourbon as much as we love bourbon. He wants to share what he knows and what he gets to be a part of with us because he can see the excitement in us. All of it because we just asked, hey, we we'd love to be able to come back, we'd love to be able to do something fun. And the next thing you know, the doors are open and everybody's uh welcoming us in. Uh, it was an absolute top-notch experience for us. Everyone I know since then that said, I'm heading to Louisville, I've said, go to Peerless. Um, I what a what an absolute wonderful place to go visit.

Gavin 28:33

What I would say is that experience will be uniquely yours when you go, right? Whether it be a local distillery or traveling to a distant distillery, you know, hop on a pedal jumper and go across the pond or whatever, right? Like, but I would say lean into the conversations. To me, that you're meeting somebody that is there because they love to be there, right? And then they want to talk with people.

Aaron 29:03

And the truth of the matter is, most of these people love whiskey every bit as much as you do. Yep. Um, and you can't stop talking about whiskey, nor can they stop talking about whiskey. Now, what I will say is not every tour is the same. Right. We did do some tours where they come over with the little speaker box and the headset, and it's clear they're just reading the script as they walk around and point at things on the wall. And what you realized is as soon as you interjected and asked a question, they just kind of brushed your question off and moved on. They're they're not the people to ask questions to you, right? Um we're not gonna name names um because not everybody's experience is the same. I understand that. But yeah, like some sometimes you go on a trip and you're like, I'm kind of let down by what we got there. Um, it's one of the reasons I personally like going and touring smaller distilleries because quite often the guy who gives the tour is the master distiller or the the blender or the plant manager who this is where he works, this is what he does all day long. Or I should say he or she. So where they work all the time. This is their home. And they're going to let you in on some of these things. They want to, they want to share some of those passions with them, with you. So um, yeah. I it was one of the other ones was like this this dynamic between small and intimate and large and kind of mass producing. Um there are some big names who have big facilities, and it's hard to make a trip through an area and not stop at one of those big places. Um, what I'll say is every time I go, I was like, it was cool to be in a place where history was, but the experience that we're there, like from a whiskey standpoint, is always a bit of a letdown. Um, whereas in you go to small places, ironic, not ironic, I should say, um, both of the bottles that Gavin and I picked are from small uh brands because they they roll out the red carpet and give you really uh a wonderful experience. Yeah. All right. So one other thing I did I did want to say that I think we kind of touched on that I think is important when it comes to planning a trip, and then we can start talking about what's in the glass. Always, always, always give yourself a chance to go back before you leave town. We made this mistake and we got saved by the guy at Peerless. The truth of the matter is you're going to, especially if you're visiting multiple places. If you're just going to one place, this is easy. You're gonna go, you're gonna taste stuff. If you like something, you buy a bottle and you leave. If you're visiting multiple places, there's always a bit of apprehension of I like this one, but I don't know if I want to spend, I don't know if I want to buy a bottle here, or I want to buy a bottle at the next place or the place after that. And I've put myself on a bottle count. I'm not going over so many bottles, and then you get to the end of the day and you're like, I wish I'd have bought that bottle. Like now that we're done with today and I tried all this stuff, my favorite was the one at the first spot. It's really nice if you can swing back by the first spot and pick that bottle up. So leave yourself just a little bit of time at the end of the day or the next morning or whenever in your trip to be like, we want to go back and pick something up, right? Whether it's I really like that shirt, I really like the the glass they had, I really like the bottle, whatever it was, give yourself a chance to run back around and pick up that that keepsake memento um that you were hesitant to pull the trigger on earlier.

Gavin 32:48

I think that is solid and sound advice.

Aaron 32:51

It was it was the one thing when we did our trip. I thought every most everything was smashing the wall, but that was one thing we distinctly didn't do.

Gavin 32:58

But that is ultimately what led us in having that other fun experience with peerless was one of our guys on the trip really wanted a bottle. He didn't get a peerless, or he wanted an additional one, I think it was a different expression or whatever. And so that led to conversations at Tent, another location, maybe that one over there, that then led to an early morning taster or few, and then the walking tour. And what I am seeing is you need an extra splash.

Aaron 33:39

I got ahead of myself. You did. You did. So I do want to talk about what's in this bottle though. Yes. We can we can come back to we can come back to more fun travel guides and whiskey trip planning advice. Right now, let's step back to training sessions or tasting session. I like it. I like it. Okay. So your bottle, my notes. Yes. You described the bottle. What was the name of this release? This is the orange cream soda. Orange cream soda. So, what I'll say is I expected with that name me to get orange right off the nose. And I didn't. What? Now, our pre-pour was a light weeded bourbon. This is a much bolder, heavier proof. I'll say this. If I had been guessing on the proof off the nose, I'd have guessed higher than 53.

Gavin 34:36

I I thought this. You mean 53 or 106 proof. 106 proof. I was like 53 proof. Well, that would be horrible. That's water.

unknown 34:45

Yeah.

Aaron 34:47

There's more alcohol out of my faucet that comes out of the spigot in Kentucky. No, so it wasn't until I sip, come back, sip, come back. It was that third time around I began to pick up. And you said orange soda. I do you remember the orange popsicles that had like the cream, like the vanilla ice cream in the middle and the orange on the eyes. I had one last night. Good lord. Legitimately had one last night. 12? Um no, it re on the nose that third time around I got to it.

Gavin 35:20

It's the creamsicle, the orange creamsicle.

Aaron 35:22

Um, so I I'll say the other flavor that showed up after a bit of kind of going back and sipping it, and I was like, man, like once I cut through the proof, right? Part of that's just kind of getting used to the heat. Um, do you remember circus peanuts? Yeah. I I get that kind of sugary, not marshmallow exactly. Um, but yeah, that like the puffy, almost foam circus peanuts. I get that on the nose. Like Texas Roadhouse style peanuts? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm talking like the candy, the like uh foam marshmallowy kind of stuff that is in the shape of a peanut.

Gavin 36:04

I gotcha. Because when you start talking marshmallow peanut, I was lost.

Aaron 36:08

But it's a that's a delicious Rice Krispie treat right there. Yeah, couldn't deny that. All right. But it I'll say initially on the nose, I got heat, I got spice, and I got oakiness. Okay, but it wasn't until it came around and you kind of let that set on the palate for a bit and came back to it that I started to pick up the orange notes. Okay, all right. But I will say I it it's there. It just it initially I was overwhelmed by other stuff.

Gavin 36:40

So um on the nose, I wrote um there's a subtle oakiness to it. I think maybe this just because I'm a little hungry, but uh I got a little maple bacon on it. Um I think there's some vanilla cream. And then I can't help myself knowing the name and knowing how much I loved it. I did put orange zest.

Aaron 37:14

Yeah, I mean I think we've flirted around with a lot of the similar notes. Um I'll say I thought the oak was pretty prominent when I first started smelling. Um, but as I've gotten more accustomed to it, like it has subsided and and there's more of the orange and vanilla that shows up than oakiness. Okay. So on the palette, can I did it stay along the same lines? I thought actually from the beginning, I thought there was a very, very subtle orange note to it. Um whereas even though I didn't get it on the nose, I almost immediately got some level of orange. It was probably more zest than juice. Um, I mean, yeah, if a spice children. I mean, you're like waving around an empty glass. One of my favorite things about a whiskey glass is the empty glass because there is aromas in there that you can't pick up because alcohol blurs some of them. And that when you have an empty glass and that alcohol evaporates, you you get an opportunity to get into that. I will say in the empty glass, I got a lot more orange than I had um initially. No, I will say on the on the palette, um I thought in general it was lighter. I thought the nose had more proof and the finish had more proof, but the palette actually softened a bit um with just a hint of orange zest. Okay.

Gavin 38:49

Um I think on the palate, like I looked at it a little earlier. It's got longer legs. I think that there's some oiliness to it, a little viscous to it. Uh I put that it's like a an orange float. Like if you were to mix this, obviously, with like orange soda and ice cream. Oh, yeah.

Aaron 39:18

That's where your cream sickle popsicle can be.

Gavin 39:22

Right.

Aaron 39:23

To me, when you first take the sip, kind of coach your mouth. You said oily, but as you swirl it around, it quickly dries and and shows up much more oaky. As I've kind of sat here and kind of swirled it a little bit and then take that sip, like it distinctly dries your mouth a bit. And I I think I picked that up on the first times through. I I I mean, on my finish, I wrote spicy and oaky, right? Um and I think that was that drying effect from the oak. I'll say on the on the finish, I didn't get as much orange as I as I had on the nose.

Gavin 40:04

Um on the finish, that's where I put the the dry, that it was dry. I think it's long. It's a long finish. I think um I wrote like orange marmalade. I still think there's a bit of that, but I think the dryness and the oak really get pulled in.

Aaron 40:28

Yeah, that that drying tartness is is kind of hard for me to wrap my head around. If if you ask me to say where does this fall on the orange, this is pith. Like it's the it's not zest and it's not juice on the inside. It's that white almost bitterness. Um I I remember this from when we were there and thinking it was pretty tasty. This is oakier than I had remembered it being. Um, but it's got a distinct oaky spiceness to it. Um maybe clove on the finish a bit. Um, kind of reminds me of like, remember when and I don't know if you did this at your house when in Easter or whatever, when that the ham has got like little cloves stuck all over in the ham. Like it's got that that kind of thing going on for me.

Gavin 41:21

I mean, that fits with my bacon. Yeah. Yeah. Oh I mean. All right. So there we are. Nose palette finish. I gotta put a number to this. Gotta put a number to it. Expecting mine to be high.

Aaron 41:43

No, no. So I'll say I actually really enjoyed this. Um I I think I think my description of it felt like I was lowering the score, and I didn't mean to imply that. I liked what was going on. It I expected more orange sweetness because of the name orange soda. Um, and I don't think I got that. So I I've got this at an 86. I think this is a solid pour. I think this has got some complexity to it. It ran through a couple of different flavors, right? Between starting with a soft kind of vanilla uh orange thing on the palate, it started oily and became dry. There's a spiciness that kind of lingered out into oak. I will also say, given it how hot it drank, I think this might actually help to have a few drops of water in it. I'm normally not a add water to my bourbon guy, but I think that I think that could help that just slightly.

Gavin 42:50

So what you described 86. What you described was like your mouth went on a whiskey tour. That's what I that's what I got.

Aaron 43:00

Went on an adventure because I was with it.

Gavin 43:02

Yeah, there we go. I like it. I like it. All right.

Aaron 43:06

Um, yeah, I'll say, I'll say take a sip of cold water and then and then take another sip of the bourbon. The bourbon is distinctly better. You don't need a lot of water, just an just that coating in the inside of your mouth. This becomes much more sweet and fruity than oaky to me. I can get that. I can be done with that. Yeah, I everything about this says it needs about three drops of cold water in it, and I think that that that changes this one significantly. All right.

Gavin 43:42

There you have it, folks.

Aaron 43:43

All right, but enough about me. Gavin, what number did you give it?

Gavin 43:47

So uh I'm expect expecting my number to be high. Yeah. This is my bottle, and I sought out this bottle. I'm setting it at 93. That is high. Yeah, that is high. Um I I like things a little spicy. Um, to me, when we were at the distillery, I I agree. I I felt like it was maybe a little bit um sweeter while we were there, but we were also tasting a lot.

Aaron 44:18

So I'd say an inherent struggle of when you drink a lot is like it dulls a bit of some of the senses. So you come back later and be like, that's not as hot as I remembered it being, or maybe not as sweet as I remembered it being because what you had to drink before really changed it. Right. Um, yeah, I it's one of the things that I enjoy about this is trying different things back to back to see those differences. But you almost have to go through that glass three or four times to kind of have washed out the previous one to really understand what this one has in it. Yep, agreed. All right, all right. Uh 86 for me, 93 for Gavin. That's a high number. That's a high number. For the last couple weeks, we've been teasing a big announcement coming. That's right, the Noble Dram has a barrel pick.

Gavin 45:05

But we don't half-ass anything here. Not just one barrel pick, we got two.

Aaron 45:10

Larseny, barrel proof, and Elijah Craig, barrel proof. We want to give a special thanks to the guys at MR Liquor here in Northwest Houston that helped make these barrel picks possible.

Gavin 45:21

With them, we've reserved a limited number of each barrel pick for you, our noble listeners.

Aaron 45:28

For everyone who goes online, reserves a bottle before they go on sale to the general public, you get $10 off a bottle.

Gavin 45:36

Follow the link down below in the comments to reserve each one of these bottles.

Aaron 45:41

And don't miss a chance to enjoy two delicious drinks. Cheers.

Gavin 45:51

Uh oh, do you need a knife? You got it? It's a brand new bottle. We'll figure it out. All right. It's like you have never tasted this before. Like, while we do this, all right. You need a knife? No, you got it. Pure manpower.

Aaron 46:06

All right, so let's talk a little bit about mine. My bottle is Buzzard Roost's cigar blend.

Gavin 46:18

Yeah, buddy.

Aaron 46:19

So your story began way back in the 1800s. My story starts much sooner than that. Oops. All right, you haven't got your cologne wearing ready. Oh, all right. Dribbled. Get that. Get that. All right. So let's start with the basics of the bottle. Um, this one's a fun one. I actually have it signed by the master blender. Who would have thunk it? Um that smells like cologne. So, cigar blend from Buzzard Roots. This is a six-year-old bourbon. Uh, clocks in at 52.5% ABV. This is light. Excuse me. This is light beer for the drinkers out there. Uh, yeah, that's 105 proof for those who don't want to have to do the math. Um, this one has a grain bill that was published. Okay. 60% corn, 36% rye, and 4% of that delicious malted barley. And uh we don't always know this, we don't always uh share this. This one clocks in at an MSRP of $85 a bottle. Oh. How dare you remember that? I well, I mean, it was on their website, so that helps. Um yeah, I I don't remember the cost of that peer list, but I can guarantee it was more than $85. Yeah. I don't think Peerless sells a single butt, single barrel bottle for under $100. Agreed. Yeah. So I I'm I'm my gut feel was somewhere in the $120? Yeah, 2020. I was saying 115 to 125 range with my guess. I feel like that's right around it. All right. So uh a little bit more about this bottle and Buzzard Roost overall. So Buzzard Roost began in 2019. This is a relatively new operation. Uh this actually began as two people who gotten together for a barrel pick and started to chat it up, and you get to drink and you start thinking, well, you know, it'd be fun. We should have our own whiskey company. And they're like, Yeah, let's do that. So you know it'd be fun? Yeah, we should do that. We should do our own barrel picks and then eventually own our own distillery. No, so so these guys, I can't say are only NDPs. For those who don't know, NDP stands for non-distilling producer, i.e., they'd buy whiskey from other distilleries, age, and bottle it themselves. So one of the things that you'll look for on a bottle that gives you that indication, it will say bottled by, not distilled and bottled by. And if it's distilled in a different state, by law, they have to tell you what state it was distilled in, if it's different than where it's bottled. Like that's a federal law. And not positive everybody follows that law, but that's the law.

Gavin 49:04

And even if it says produced, it doesn't mean that they distilled it.

Aaron 49:08

Correct. Correct. So the vast majority of what they sell is distilled somewhere else. But not fully. They do have a small still that they do some of their stuff. So they can't you might run into this. Happens to be sourced from somewhere else in a large distillery in Indiana. Um the bottle does not say which distillery, but we know the three letters that it goes with. All right, you're gonna tell them? Do you want me to? Yeah, you can tell. Is it M? M G P M G P. Alright. All right, so where Buzzard Ruse kind of found their niche, they sat down and started talking to a barrel manufacturer, a Cooper kind of Cooperage, um, about a second dairy barreling that is a specific proprietary barrel char procedure. And what they fell into, so think how this works, distilled somewhere else, put into a charred oak barrel. Okay, ages for a number of years, it then comes to buzzard roost. Buzzard Roost, they go and taste it. They're like, yep, this one's ready for a second maturation. They then move that into a new barrel, their own barrel, their proprietary barrel, and let it age for somewhere around. This one happens to be 18 months. Okay. Every different release varies, but their proprietary barrel is a very light char, a number one char. One of their standard releases is called char number one. A very light char, but heavily toasted. I think we've talked about this before, but just kind of reiterate toasting means lower fire for longer period of time. Char, bigger fire, short period of time. Okay? So what they're doing is really, really drying and toasting out, cooking the oak for an extended period of time, and then they flash burn. Right? So it puts a char on the inside, but it's not a heavy char. The thought process here is that allows the whiskey to interact more with the natural oak and less with the charcoal of the char on the inside. Okay? Okay. So this bottle happens to be a limited release. We just got lucky when we were there. If you go on their website right now, terribly sorry, cannot buy this anymore. Doesn't mean they're not going to release others, but this was a one-time or a limited run release. And we got there, we tried, we talked about great stories. This was a place we had not planned on attending coming. Um, we'd had in the group, guys split doing a couple different things during the day. Um, a buddy and I, Andy and I, had um a free time. We had a spot, and we're like, hey, let's go check these guys out. I mean, we literally blind stumbled into this. Walk inside, as a non-distilling producer, they don't have a still to give you a tour of. They don't have a big rick house and all this kind of stuff, right? It's a much smaller operation. So it's a small tasting room, really, on Whiskey Row. But sat down at the bar, started chatting with them. They brought over some samples, started telling us about what it was. Next thing we know, the national sales manager is coming over and he's chatting with us. Uh, the rest of the guys get back. We're like, you guys got to come check this place out. We we ended up back later that night to have another drink with the guys. Um, they ended up keeping the place open, telling everybody else to go. It was just Gavin and I sitting um chatting with the guy. Um, he was pulling out all sorts of specialty little releases, letting us try stuff. I mean, it was absolute phenomenal um interaction with the guys. So go back. I said that they are an NDP, but that's not 100% accurate. I said they're not quite a sole NDP, they actually have a still, they have a 75-gallon Ven Dome still by your guy, copper pot still in the back room. You can see it when you walk in, that they refer to as the Buzz Cauldron, which absolutely love that name. Absolutely great name. And it is it is for them to create new make for them to test and experiment with, uh, do a number of different things, and then also has the opportunity to then blend that in with uh distillate from other places or bourbons from other places and kind of create their own specialty stuff. So not 100% NDP, they do actually produce some stuff in that still and then bottle it. So not completely NDP, but pretty close, pretty close. So I'll tell you a couple um claims to fame. They received a bunch of accolades last year from Fred Minnick. For those who aren't familiar with Fred Minnick, Gavin will give you a small dissertation about how amazing Fred Minnick is. Go Pokes. Big fame, big fan. Um, actually was listening to an interview with him this morning um as I was driving to and from work, um, just talking about his story and how uh how he came to to review whiskeys and no whiskeys and all that stuff. Fabulous story. If you get a chance, go look him up. Fred call me. So, anyways, Fred picked their cigar blend rye in his 2025 top 100 whiskeys of the year, clocked in at number 24. What? So, well up the list, made the graphic for the top 25. It's a big honor. Um, a variety of other accolades that they've won over the years. Um, but just understand small operation, right? When we were talking earlier about what makes it fun, is like you get in there and get to know the guys. Like um, the bartender behind the bar, there were two people. It was the bartender and the national sales manager. Um, so we got a chance to talk with guys that just you don't see those people in large-scale operations. That's right. So I do want to I do want to get over it. I want to give us a chance to sit, sniff, sip, and saber. I can't seem to do those in the right order. All right, but I want to talk a little bit more tasting guide, yes, and master class on a whiskey distillery uh tour. So a lot of what we talked about works. If you are just doing a day trip, like run over to the little local distillery, wherever that happens to be, right? We're running out of them. They've had a couple of them in the Houston area clothes, and it kind of saddens me. So um, we need somebody to open another distillery so we can go sit and hang out there.

Gavin 56:12

Too bad I didn't know a couple guys that are really into whiskey.

Aaron 56:15

Yeah. Problem is we're just short several million dollars. Hey, um call me. Yeah, if you got a million dollars or two that you don't know what to do with, I got a pot still idea. Um no, so the reality though, I think a lot of us, we don't live right down the street from a big distillery, right? And if we do, we've already been there several times. That's that's the truth. And so most people are making a long haul. It's a weekend trip, it's uh a guy's trip for several days. Um, I want you to touch base on maybe some advice that applies to kind of multiple tours, multiple stops, making a big trip. What are things people need to be cognizant of?

Gavin 57:01

Think about first and foremost, pace yourself, right? Um, I think we may have touched on a little bit earlier, but thinking about and planning out how many tastings you want to do in a single day, you don't want to overdo it, right? Because as we all know, once you start tasting multiple expressions from one distillery or one location, and then you move to another one, and then you move to another one, your palate is changing ever so slightly as you go through each pore. It's easy to get burnt out, right? Right, like you'll burn your mouth out, your your palate's toast, you you're just you're not really getting the full experience in the genuine wine or genuine um uh whiskey that you're trying to taste. So I think pacing yourself obviously above and beyond.

Aaron 57:58

Um I think yeah, it I I'll add just because it's it makes sense to go here. Um, when I put together my list, I I wrote stop for lunch. Yeah. I um I think the tendency is you're like we only have so many hours in town, or we only we're only going to be here for so many days. I have to pack everything into here as fast as I can. And the reality is you stop, eat some lunch, um, have plans to hydrate. Right. Try to control yourself. There is a one of the advantages of doing tours, instead of just tasting, is it does force you to walk around for about 30 or 40 minutes. Exactly. And just kind of let things set. Um, yeah, that that that can be helpful. So yeah, maybe intermingle a little of that in two, right?

Gavin 58:45

And then a nice big steak at dinner always helps.

Aaron 58:51

What I will say is there is always time at the end of the night if you want to drink one more whiskey. Um, nothing's worse than getting to 3 p.m. in the afternoon and realize I've gone too far. Right.

Gavin 59:03

I've gone too far. No, I I agree with that. Um drinking, hydrating. If you're into taking um probiotics that may help with the morning after.

Aaron 59:20

They're not paying us, so we're not saying you know what we're talking about.

Gavin 59:23

Yeah. But they start with a Z and their kind of biotics.

Aaron 59:28

Yeah, I get it.

Gavin 59:30

Um I pack those things wherever I go.

Aaron 59:33

Let's clarify. We're not saying we wouldn't advertise for them. If they want to send us money, we'll tell you guys all about them. But but call me.

Gavin 59:41

Call me. I know a guy. Um I think well, and this kind of relates back to the first question. Talk to your local bottle shop guy, the owner, the guy behind the counter. If you're going and planning a whiskey trip, talk to him. Because you never know where that conversation may lead, right?

Aaron 1:00:07

He obviously knows the regional guy. The regional guy knows somebody at the at the distillery that they can put you in contact with. Um, it gives you the opportunity to have a connection, even if it's not because you're getting something nobody else gets, but it's a person to be in contact with as you as you plan out your trip.

Gavin 1:00:25

Right. Most often, even though you're not trying to get anything special, you're probably gonna end up having a special conversation or um situation just because of that connection. Oh, that guy knows that guy, that knows that guy. Who knows where that may lead, right?

Aaron 1:00:43

And to that point, when you're when you're scheduling out your day, leave you a little grace period in there, right? Like we wouldn't have found Buzzer Roost at all if we hadn't had a one-hour window where we didn't have something scheduled. Right, right. I mean, this was one of those where like some of the guys wanted to go here, some of the guys wanted to go there. We and and we realized it's like we got an hour to kill before we go to the next place. You wanna you wanna duck in here and check this place out? Um, some of those little caveats and those little kind of side adventures, right? Um, are some of the greatest stories you walk away from a trip with.

Gavin 1:01:20

Yep, agreed. Um, and to keep us moving along here, um, one of the big things that I would suggest is thinking about how, like, if you're gonna go distinctly on a whiskey trip or distillery trip, or you're gonna go to multiple places, you're probably gonna purchase some bottles. So transporting those back home is very important. Trust me, I know I've had to borrow bags because I've bought too many bottles in one location, and then I'm like, hey, can't do you have room in your bag? Because I ran out of room.

Aaron 1:01:56

Yeah, so I think there's two parts here. One is how do you safely transport it? Um, two is a different question of how do you legally transport it? We're not gonna get into that. I so part of this is okay, um, if you're making a long trip and this is going to be your only chance to get some of these specialty releases, distillery only exclusives, that kind of stuff, you want to make sure you have an opportunity to bring that stuff back. Um, so what are the rules about bringing bottles onto airlines, right? So many ounces you can get in your carry-on, which means you're checking a bag. If you're checking a bag, how are you going to protect that bottle? Um, I have had very, very good luck over the years of getting bottles home whole. Um, whether that is wrapping them in bubble wrap, that is wrapping them in clothing. Um, I've even got some styrofoam sleeves that uh I've whenever I've purchased bottles online, I tend to save those. So I've got something to put bottles back into. Um they're they're all tricks. What I will say is the more space you can consume in your luggage with packing material when you go, means you've got more space to put bottles back into your luggage when you come home. That that was my school of thought. Um, I've actually known guys who brought suitcases within suitcases. Yeah, I know a guy. So when they get there, they're like, or you can put all the stuff in this one. And then this is my carry-on now. Um yeah, so the the other school of thought here is if you're driving, you got a lot more room, and you can put them in boxes, and you don't have to worry about them being thrown around by the baggage chandlers, that kind of stuff. So that might dictate a bit of your your trip as well. Um, so another aspect I think that that I think makes some sense to discuss, you you had mentioned this idea of dinner. Um, most places will let you book events. Understand that most of those tours or tastings are going to take the better part of an hour. And then you need to account for time to get from here to the next place. Probably need to stop and use the restaurant. Make sure you've booked that so you're not literally running out of one or cutting one short to get to the next one. Um, some of the best parts of every tour is the conversations at the end, the opportunity to to try something new. And you need to miss that because you're racing off to the next tour. Um the the other part is understand that not most sorry, most distilleries are not opens on open on Mondays. That for whatever reason seems to be the day a lot of distilleries shut down. Their weekend, because normally Saturday is a busy day, they move their weekends to Sundays and Mondays. So just be cognizant if you're if you're doing a weekend getaway, go early and visit places on Thursdays and Fridays because you can't stay late and visit places on Mondays and Tuesdays. Just throwing that out. That was that was a thing that came up on our trip when we were scheduling stuff out.

Gavin 1:05:12

Yeah, it's a good point. It's a good point. Um, another thing, just one more thing to add, I'd say, is check out the bar scene. Um, a lot of bars in areas where there's distilleries are going to have their general offerings. And then they may have some bonus um bottles. And when you're in Louisville, um, there are bars that are known for kind of their um off the beam path or rare or allocated, however you want to say it, bottles. Um, so check out those bar scenes. Go visit them because honestly, um, even though we had Peerless booked the bar below around the corner and below our hotel in Louisville led to additional conversations and relationships that then led to Buzzers Roost as well as people at Peerless. And so there was just a lot of conversations that that were had based on going to a local bar.

Aaron 1:06:32

Yeah, I so one of the challenges I think we often have when we're standing at the liquor store is like, I don't know if I want to pull a trigger on a bottle, right? It's 60 bucks. I'm not positive, I don't know anything about it. I don't know if I'm gonna try it. You find yourself in a whiskey town, right? Like Louisville, and you find yourself at a bar, they'll have all sorts of bottles you've never heard of. And now you get to try them for 10 bucks, right? And that's an opportunity to kind of explore all sorts of things you've never had before. You can often find bars anywhere that have the really hard to find stuff. You just got to be willing to pay for it. Yeah, and I'll be honest, every bar we found in Louisville that that offered those kinds of bottles were every bit as expensive there as they are back here in Houston. But what we found in lots of bars was little distilleries that we didn't know anything about, those releases, that kind of stuff, at very reasonable prices. So we got a chance to try all sorts of stuff that I wouldn't have even thought to go find that distillery to put that on our list of places to go see. So um, that was a huge win for us was just stumbling into fun little bars and trying different things.

Gavin 1:07:57

Yeah, agree. All right, so we talked a lot about that. I'm ready to get back to the bottle at hand.

Aaron 1:08:05

Okay, so uh my bottle, yeah, your tasting notes. All right. So tell tell the lovely people at home and the two ugly ones. What do you get on the notes?

Gavin 1:08:17

You keep referring to the two ugly ones. I'm curious who knows people are.

Aaron 1:08:27

No one has been like, I'm one, who's the other, right?

Gavin 1:08:31

Thing one, thing two. Um, all right, on the nose. Uh distinctly more oaky to me than bottle number one. I got a lot of oak on this. Really? Yes. I don't know if I got as much. I think there's a lot of oak. Um, I think there is a perfumey fruitiness to it. There's a bit of a slight peanut note, and then um, this is gonna throw some people off, but uh there's a bit of like a magic marker on the note. Like a sharpie? Yeah.

Aaron 1:09:16

Or like the uh marks a lot, yeah, whatever that other brain is. Yeah. I got none of that. You've got none of that? So here's what I'll say. Um, yeah, I'm not saying there's not oak. The oak here is a darker, woodier oak, not as sharp and tannic oak as the peerless. So when you said there's more oak here than the first one, I I could not disagree more. I actually get like a like a bruleeed sugar, like a burnt sugar note on the nose. Okay. Uh you said fruit. I'd agree. I think this is almost more like grilled fruits. Like we've got a little bit of that kind of like the sugars have cooked down a little bit uh on the nose. But yeah, to me, this is um this is more of a charred oak, uh grilled fruits, burnt sugar. Like there is a there is a burned quality on the nose that I actually really enjoy in this. Um, that's just kind of giving everything a bit of a char. All right. All right.

Gavin 1:10:23

I don't get any peanuts, sorry. Like, I didn't get the peanuts until uh I wrote that back in after I tasted it. So there was a bit of a slight peanut note that came in after going back to the nose.

Aaron 1:10:41

Um the palate is where this one comes alive to me, though. Oh, it comes alive. All right, all right. You you're gonna tell me the exha exact opposite again? You're like, I get nothing. It's like drinking water.

Gavin 1:10:53

No, yeah, this if this was only water. If this is what water tastes like.

Aaron 1:10:58

Oh my god.

Gavin 1:10:59

I'd be well hydrated. Yeah. For real. For real. We're gonna make a t-shirt that says something like that. Um on the palate, I this is where like the burnt sugars come into play for me. I actually wrote down a brown burnt sugar. Yeah. On the palette. Um, I think it's spicy. Uh, I think maple comes back into play. Um like a maple bacon. Again, I maybe because I'm just craving some bacon. I don't know what it is tonight, but um like one of those maple bacon donuts. Yeah, oh gosh. That's like Slather Me and Maple Bacon Donuts.

Aaron 1:11:46

I think for me, the the sweetness got a little darker on the palate. I wrote down molasses cookies, like a real dark gingerbread almost kind of thing. Yeah, um, I get a leathery note to the palate. Um, yeah, I to me, I think the nose was more sugary, and the the the palate went darker.

Gavin 1:12:15

I think after you said leather, after tasting it, nosing it, tasting it, going back to it.

Aaron 1:12:23

Well oiled leather.

Gavin 1:12:25

Yeah, it's like it's that leather wallet you've had in your back pocket for 10, 15, 20 years. Yeah. It's got butt sweat and all kinds of stuff on it.

Aaron 1:12:37

Oh, God, no. No, not that. Not that. All right, on the finish.

Gavin 1:12:44

On the finish. Um, long lingering. I think it is still spicy. Um, it's something that reminds me of a cigar. Smoke shows up on the finished. It's a smoke show.

Aaron 1:13:01

I don't know what that. It's not curvy enough to be a smoke show. Um, no, this is that's got a distinctly different level of curve for sure. Um yeah, so I get oak shows back up in a very soft toasted way, not the charred way that we were getting earlier. I get smoke, not so much um charcoal, right? Like that kind of soft, wispy smoke, like a smoker running. Um I one of the one of the perks of being your bottle is you get to go do the research, and one of the things the distiller mentioned was tamarind. Um I wouldn't have said tamarind, yeah, except for a week ago, I found myself at an art big tasting event, and they were giving out little tamarind shamarind sugar balls. There was some sort of gummy thing that was tamarind flavored, and I was like, those are delicious.

Gavin 1:13:59

You've had gummies at an art bag of it.

Aaron 1:14:01

Yeah, um, and so yeah, I I get that. That's kind of that dark sugar burnt jar kind of thing going on, toasted yolk, like all of that stuff goes together. All right, you're gonna give this a number. I am, and I'm gonna be mad at you because it's not high enough. I can already see this coming.

Gavin 1:14:24

So I actually own the same bottle.

Aaron 1:14:27

Um, so I can't I don't I don't think anyone walked away from that night without purchasing this bottle. Yeah, I think everybody bought a bottle of the same.

Gavin 1:14:36

Everyone bought this bottle. Um, unlike Aaron, mine was signed by every person in my mine's only the master distiller.

Aaron 1:14:46

They gave us the marker. We all signed together.

Gavin 1:14:49

Yeah. Everyone in the bartender, the yeah, everyone. Like the driver.

Aaron 1:14:55

The guy who the guy who worked at Peerless that was sitting at the end of the bar, we had him sign it.

Gavin 1:14:59

Everyone signed my bottle. Um, so I'm setting it at 90 on this.

Aaron 1:15:03

I it's a fair answer. I I'm at 89. I think this is a very, very provocative and enjoyable bottle. It's got a lot of different things going on. I will say, considering there is a half a percent ABV difference between the two, this sips without nearly the level of burn that does. Agreed. Yeah. Part of me says, well, what happens if we sip these in a different order, right? Does that change? But I to me, I think this sips on the palate a little softer from a burn standpoint, but distinctly more robust in its flavor profile. It's a little lighter, a little fruitier, a little um different. So yeah. 89 for me, 90 for you. But I do have one question before we close this episode out. Do you think this would go good with a cigar? It's the cigar blend. The the premise here for marketing is like this is what goes good with a cigar. Do you agree with that notion?

Gavin 1:16:07

I I do. I think both bottles would be great with a cigar.

Aaron 1:16:14

Yeah, I think different cigars for different bottles. Yeah, right. I think this needs a lighter tobacco that allows some of that sweetness to carry through. I think this would stand up to a much more robust, Maduro, aged cigar. Um, I think, I think this holds up better in that world than than maybe the peerless would. I my fear is a big, bold, dark cigar that would overrun peerless in this instance. And this would overrun a light Connecticut-style cigar.

Gavin 1:16:47

Hmm. All right. Well, there's a challenge here, I think. And at some point, we're gonna do that challenge. We might introduce a cigar in this one of these episodes at some point.

Aaron 1:17:01

My wife would have my butt if we lit cigars in this house. I love the idea, but we're gonna figure out how to do this on the back patio if we're gonna do that.

Gavin 1:17:10

That might be what we do. An episode on the back patio.

Aaron 1:17:13

Question I'm going back to, I'm going back. Oh my lord. Going back to the beer list now absolutely smells like orange soda. Like it almost smells carbonated. It almost smells like an orange float. Yeah, it absolutely does.

Gavin 1:17:32

All right. So, why don't you tell the folks out there what's next?

Aaron 1:17:38

So, so we don't know what's next. We'll figure it out before we get to next week. But in the meantime, don't forget, like, follow, do all those buttons down below. Let us know have you had Peerless, have you had uh Buzzard Roost, whether it's this release or any others. Um, and until we see you next time, cheers.

Gavin 1:17:57

And Slansha va.

Aaron 1:18:02

Two glasses.

Speaker 1 1:18:06

We want to thank you, our noble listener, for joining us. We believe each whiskey has a story, and so do you. So give us your thoughts by leaving a comment. And if you have a whiskey you would like to see us share, let us know. You don't want to miss a single episode, so subscribe to our YouTube channel and make sure to like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to stay up to date on the Noble Dream.

Speaker 2 1:18:24

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Speaker 1 1:18:29

As always, be noble and enjoy your journey responsibly.