The Noble Dram | Derby Day Drams (Season 2 | Ep. 6)

It’s the fastest two minutes in sports… paired with some of Kentucky’s finest pours. In this episode of The Noble Dram, Aaron and Gavin celebrate the Kentucky Derby by going head-to-head with two iconic bourbons tied to Derby tradition.

Aaron pours Woodford Reserve Historic Barrel Entry — a tribute to the barrel-entry proofing methods that shaped bourbon history and from the brand known as the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby.

Gavin pours Old Forester 1897 Bottled in Bond — honoring the historic Bottled-in-Bond Act and one of bourbon’s oldest promises of quality.

In this episode:
🥃 The history of bourbon and the Kentucky Derby
🏇 Why Woodford Reserve became the Derby’s official pour
📜 How Old Forester helped shape modern whiskey standards
🍃 Mint Julep talk, Derby traditions, and bourbon culture
😂 A hilarious game of Horse Name or Bourbon and Win/Place/Show?

Who takes the win—Woodford Reserve or Old Forester?
Drop your Derby Day pour in the comments and tell us who you’re betting on.

🥃 Subscribe for weekly whiskey content, bottle reviews, and bourbon banter.

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Transcript

Gavin 0:00

Gentlemen, pour your bourbons and start your horses. Wait, I don't think that's how this works at all. What do you mean? Anyways, doesn't matter. Because you know why? Because it's the Kentucky Derby. That is two days of drinking and two minutes of racing.

Aaron 0:18

Yeah, the Kentucky Derby is the only event that's shorter than my attention span, for darn sure.

Gavin 0:25

And that's why we pregame it like it's the Super Bowl.

Aaron 1:00

Thank you for joining us on this week's episode of the Noble Drag. We find ourselves just days away from this year's Kentucky Derby. And if you're a bourbon guy, this is a big weekend. What would I like to say to that? Giddy up. Let's get after it. All right. So tonight's theme obviously is the derby. And so we both picked bottles that have direct ties, or at least distilleries that have direct ties to the running of the Kentucky Derby. All right. This is gonna be a blast. Um, I promise it'll take longer than the race.

Gavin 1:41

Oh, for sure.

Aaron 1:43

So I like to go first. You're gonna go first? And I'll explain why I get to go first, because your tie to the Kentucky Derby is a little looser tie than mine. Mine is the only true tie. All right, all right. All right. So for bottle number one, we visit Woodford's Reserve. And you think to yourself, why does Aaron's bottle mean more? Because Woodford Reserve is the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby. So he says. No, no, says it right on the website when you go there. Um, they've actually been a primary sponsor of the Kentucky Derby since 1999. Like this goes back a number of years, back to when you were a wee lad.

Gavin 2:28

Just a wee lad. You know, I was gonna say shooting ducks across the pond, but most people don't know that reference, and that means nothing to everybody. Nothing to everybody.

Aaron 2:39

All right, so tonight's bottle, although yes, Woodford Reserve is the is the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby. I wanted to do something a little atypical. We can't just drag out a bottle of Woodford's and call it a day. So I went and drugged through my collection of Woodfords, which is surprisingly larger than I expected. You do have a um and I found this. This is the 2022 Master Collection release. Okay. Actually, technically didn't come out to 2023 early in the year, but it was their release from 2022. This is series 18, named the historic barrel entry. The reason we call it that was this one went into the barrel at a different proof than what we typically see done these days. Bear in mind the word historic references to when they used to go that way. All right, so this one clocks in at the end of the barreling. This one's at 94 or 90.4 proof or 46.2 for the math lovers in the crowd. Um, this does not have an age statement, although it is fairly well believed that almost all of the master collections are aged longer than their traditional releases, and those traditional releases are typically six to seven years. Okay. So it's reasonable to assume that this runs just a bit longer. And what makes this bottle special is back at the turn of the century, it was pretty common for you to barrel whiskey at about a hundred to a hundred and three proof. That was pretty well the norm in the industry. And then coming out of prohibition in an effort to, I think, accelerate some of the aging, right? Trying to catch back up for lost time, they began using higher barrel entry proofs, which meant um you got a little bit more oak out of the barrel a little faster, I believe, is the understanding there. So now it is far more common to see barrel entry at 120 or 125 proof. But on this one, they backed it back down to that old traditional or historic 100 proof. So we had this conversation uh a few weeks back. We were talking about this idea of water evaporating from a barrel at a different rate than alcohol does. We now know this one lost alcohol faster than it lost water because we went from 100-proof when it went in to only 90.4 when it came out. So that kind of tells us a little bit about the bourbon. And as we sit here and start to drink, um, I did kind of want to touch back on a little bit of how Woodford's and in the Kentucky Derby tie together. Ooh, do tell. So, yes, Woodford's is the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby. We'll find out that not all bourbon at the Kentucky Derby is Woodford. Um, so I think there's a lot more to it, right? Everybody wants to be in on that um that event. But Woodford's does do an annual release in which they have an artist paint a picture for the label, and then that becomes their Kentucky Derby Limited edition. They do one every year for each running of the race. Just be advised. It is standard Woodfords in the glass, not a specialty release of the bourbon, it's just a specialty bottle. Bottle almost always bottled at a full liter instead of a 750. So um it's kind of a fun little thing to collect, but ultimately you're collecting standard Woodfords.

Gavin 6:36

There's something about collecting ponies that we just can't get past.

Aaron 6:39

Yeah, yeah. We both have daughters. We've had a share of ponies laying around the house for years.

Gavin 6:45

Only if you could spot a few. Let's know if you find a few around.

Aaron 6:50

There's nothing Gavin enjoys more than laying out some Easter eggs for everybody. All right, so um, quick trivia question. This is nothing to do with um the questions I want to ask for fun, but do you know which running this is of the Kentucky Derby? How many times they've run the Kentucky Derby?

Gavin 7:08

I know that we're over one 150 years, right? Because I remember I don't know if it was a year or a two years ago when that came out. Yep. But I your your math is pretty close, but I don't know exactly where we're at if it's like 150.

Aaron 7:25

Yeah, 51. This year's the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby. So I was on it. First one ran in 1875. Um, and uh I'm not a huge horse racing guy, although there is a track not too far from the house here, and I do like to go and throw a couple bucks on the ponies and have a good time. Um, drink beers, and you you pick the one with the shiniest coat or the one that D's right before the race. Like you have to have a reason, right? Or throw a couple bucks out.

Gavin 7:54

Just the name alone.

Aaron 7:56

For sure, for sure. And then the the engineer me gets the race sheet and starts looking how they ran in the and then I get worse. And the more I analyze it, the worse I get. Um, so a little bit of facts and tidbits about the Kentucky Derby. It's a one and a quarter mile race. So it's more than one loop around the track, right? It's a big in the in the grand scheme of races, it's a big race. Um, it's run by thoroughbreds, not quarter horses. This may come as a shock to people who are from the city, but quarter horses run less than a full mile, almost a quarter of almost a quarter? Okay. So thoroughbreds, and they're all three years old. If you're four, you're too old for the Kentucky Derby. Uh it's crazy to me, right? Like that the horses are quite so young. Um, the current record holder for fastest run of the Kentucky Derby. Do you know this little stat? Tidbit, if you will. Tidbit. I do not know this one. Uh Secretariat. You probably heard of the movie or the horse. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Secretariat is the fastest, ran the race in one minute 59.4 seconds. Wasn't there something about Seabiscuit? So when they when they talk about it, the fastest two minutes. Really, it's the fastest one minute 59.4 seconds. But that seems a little wordy. Right. It rolls off the tongue better when you say the fastest two minutes. So, um, one last trivia question for you. Do you know the official beverage, the official cocktail of the Kentucky Derby?

Gavin 9:30

Well, if you would have had me if you didn't say cocktail, because I think I do know the cocktail. I think it is the old mint julep.

Aaron 9:43

The mint julep, yeah. I I like the way you threw everybody off there for a minute. Um you you played the lovable idiot so well sometimes. No, no, no, no. He plays it. He's not really so well, but he he really does play down to that. Um, yeah, so the mint julep uh last year hasn't run this year. We don't know how many will be served this year. Last year at Churchill Downs, so at the race track, this is staggering me. A hundred and twenty thousand mint juleps were served over the weekend. And I don't know what everybody else drank, but I had a lot. That's awesome. No, I've a lot of mint. I've never been to the Kentucky Derby. Um, it would be bucket list kind of thing to go. I would agreed. I would certainly have to um get a new wardrobe uh selection for the Kentucky Derby. That is a two the two the nines dressed up.

Gavin 10:44

Agreed, yeah. Agreed. I'm gonna shout out to Jess Braun out of Dallas for outfitting me in my life. Oh, you you are looking quite dapper. Thank you. Thank you.

Aaron 10:55

You look like the kind of guy who walks the horse back to the winner's circle after it's over. Like you've got that vibe, like horse trainer vibe. Horse train, I'll take that. Yeah, it's better than jockey, I guess.

Gavin 11:06

I don't know. The jockeys get all the action.

Aaron 11:08

Just looking over the table at us. Sorry, sorry. Jockeys aren't big, it's a fairly well uh known fact. I mean, he's not wrong. I yeah, like so I I don't know if you know this, but that when they weigh before a horse race, they weigh the jockey and the saddle, and then they publish this in the tip sheet so that way you know if the jockey is heavy. Uh and if the jockey is too light, they'll actually add weights to the saddle to even up point. You can just be lighter. Do you do what the do you know what the weight of a jockey, fully dressed jockey and saddle?

Gavin 11:46

I'm guessing like 90 pounds.

Aaron 11:48

It's like 120 pounds. Oh, so 123. I was under but the jockey might only be 90 pounds. Yeah, fair. I haven't been 90 pounds since the third grade. That was when my jockey career ended, is at the end of the third grade. Oh, that's funny. All right, so while we sit here and sip and and savor and and all of those fun things, sniff, sniff, sip, and saver. One of these things, we're gonna have to write it on the wall off the camera so I can read it.

Gavin 12:16

That's that's gonna be our motto above the door.

Aaron 12:18

But before we get too far into this, in in I want to do something fun.

Gavin 12:22

So we often do fun things here.

Aaron 12:24

We often play this game Mount Rushmore, which is always a in my mind is quite enjoyable. I have no idea if the audience likes it or not, but I enjoy it. It's high on my list, so we do it.

Gavin 12:35

Um it's on the Mount Rushmore.

Aaron 12:37

It is on the Mount Rushmore of things we do. Yeah, it's Mount Rushmore for sure. So, but this one, Mount Rushmore didn't feel fitting. This feels like we need to be horse raced themed. So in keeping with that, I'm going to give you three things. You have to rank them in order, but it's not one, two, three, it's win place show. When place show. That is the that is the nomenclature for betting. Okay. That's what we're going to do. Win place show. We're gonna do three of these, it'll be kind of rabid. Feel free to elaborate why you picked in the order you did. Win, place, show. Let's go. All right. So, first one is racing type. Okay. Within a relatively short distance from my home, we have a variety of racing venues for you to go to. One of them is a dog track, one of them is a horse track, and one is an auto track. So, racing, dogs, horses, cars. Put them in order.

Gavin 13:43

Oh gosh, good question. Um, I would have to say I think the culture of a horse race is more my speed. Um, you mean the horse race people are more cultured? Is that what you're saying? I'm not saying that. I'm just saying I've been to all three of these.

Aaron 14:04

I'm not positively disagreeing with you, but it I there is a distinct difference at any of these between the people who own and the people who bet on. Fairly. Right? Like there's a there's a there's a huge dichotomy. I couldn't disagree with that.

Gavin 14:20

Any of that. I think a horse race to me. I mean, I grew up uh, you know, small farm town in Oklahoma, horsing horses just are kind of a thing. So I think horses, that's what that's good, that's that's winning. And then I'm gonna go uh race like auto next. Time and then dog racing.

Aaron 14:43

Dogs bringing up the rear. Yeah. Probably not the order in which they would race if you put them side by side. Fair. Yeah, I feel like the car would win, but now maybe an old timey car.

Gavin 14:55

Now, we actually went to a race uh last year. Yeah, we we did an auto race. We did an auto race, and it was phenomenal.

Aaron 15:03

I enjoyed it. Yeah, I I I was never a big auto race guy until I went to one. I was like, yeah, I get it now. I get it now.

Gavin 15:10

There's octane in your veins after that.

Aaron 15:12

Yeah, no, it's it's hard to not want to stand up and scream and yell as they go by because it doesn't matter because no one can hear you. I will be honest, the thrill standing at the rail as the horses come roaring past, very similar. Very similar. Right. Um, there's just a lot more downtime and a lot less fire at a horse track than there is at an auto track. And I will say I will say dog track is I kind of feel bad for the dogs. I don't know why I don't feel bad for the horses as much, but I certainly feel bad for the dogs.

Gavin 15:49

Agreed. I think I mean being a dog owner as well. Like, I don't I don't know. That one just doesn't strike me as I want to go just watch that. Yeah, I watch that in my backyard every day.

Aaron 16:02

Yeah, so you should be in my house when somebody rings the door. Exactly. Like we've got that going nonstop. Yeah. All right. So a lot of tracks, horse tracks especially, will do specialty animal races, kind of an exotic, fun thing. Okay. I want to know which is your favorite atypical animal race. So, first one, wiener dogs, right? Sorry, Dotsons, if you will. Sorry. Wiener dog races. I did not know the wiener dog races, right? They're awesome. I've also seen corgi races. Oh yeah. Again, big fat dogs with short legs, yeah, right? And then we live in a town that is known for having a great big rodeo, and every year at the rodeo they have piglet races. So win, play, show, animal races, wiener dogs, corgies, or piglets.

Gavin 17:02

Oh, this is so fun. Uh, I used to own pigs, so I'm gonna go piglets. Ooh, for the win, pig for the win. Also the tastiest of those three. Oh, agree. I mean, sorry. Don't tell the queen or the king about the corgies. Uh, and then so I'm gonna go piggies, I'm gonna go corgis, and then I'm gonna go weenies. All right, yeah. Why why the order on the dogs? Um, I just think corgis are fun and funny looking. And I I know some people that got some corgis, and they're also funny and funny looking. And I just I don't know, there's just something about corgis that are just more fun.

Aaron 17:46

I to look at, I will say corgis tend to have a little bit more hair, so the mechanics of what's going on over there doesn't quite as visible as it can be with a wiener dog. Um, wiener dogs look like they're trying really hard. It's just all the more they can do. But corgis, like, I can't even tell if they're trying. Like they're just kind of waddling. Yeah, for sure. For sure. All right. This weekend, Kentucky Derby is the first race of the triple crown. So I want you to put in order the triple crown races, which ones you think is the best for win, place, and show. You've got the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. In that order, if that helps you decide which one is your favorite. Let's see how much you know about horse racing.

Gavin 18:37

I don't know a lot about horse racing. Um I'm gonna go Belmont Stakes. That's number one. That's your that's your win. That's my win. Come. Uh Kentucky Derby. Come. And then I don't even know what you said for the Preakness. Preakness.

Aaron 19:00

I I think I would have picked the exact same order, but I actually have a reason. So very rarely does somebody win the triple crown. But the only chance that there is a triple crown winner, they have to have won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. So the Belmont Stakes has the potential to be the big, big, big, big historic level race.

Gavin 19:23

Okay.

Aaron 19:25

I will say of the three, Kentucky Derby is clearly the biggest party, right? That's the that kicks off the race season. It's what everybody gets excited for. Um, yeah, the preakness is kind of the, oh yeah.

Gavin 19:38

I mean some people can't even say it.

Aaron 19:41

Can't remember where it is. I get it. All of that makes sense to me. No offense. All right. Win, place, show. All right. That might come back. I enjoy that. Oh, I like it too. I enjoy that. Because you don't get the wishy-washiness of no particular order that you get with Mount Rush Warren.

Gavin 19:58

Fair.

Aaron 19:59

Good point. All right. Let's step back to the whiskeys. The whiskeys. All right. So in your glass, did you have a chance to sniff, sip, and savor? I did. All right.

Gavin 20:14

I did. What did you get? So on the nose, um sweet, caramel, some chocolatey notes in there. And in fact, I kind of went candy-esque and put Tootsie roll. Oh. Yeah, yours is a little, you're thinking a little more milk chocolate. Yeah. I do think, and maybe this is because like I I really enjoy Woodford's and I always associate them for some reason. And if you watched our Thanksgiving episode, um I I relate them a lot to desserts and like pecans. There's something that I get that I just relate to like a pecan pie.

Aaron 21:04

Like bitter kind of sharp pecan, or more of the sweet gooey deliciousness of a pecan bite?

Gavin 21:10

Sweet gooey deliciousness. Okay. Uh I don't know why. That's for for them, that is where I go. Maybe it's that kind of fallish or Easter, springtimey feel that I get from them. That's kind of where I land on the nose. So what about you?

Aaron 21:30

I think right off the bat I got a little more dose, yeah, dusty oak. Not dusty oak. Dusty, dusty oak. Um, like that was the first thing that jumped out to me. I know you said caramel. I didn't get the sweetness right away. I got a distinct woodiness about it. Okay. But I'll say the more I delved into it, I actually kind of got into some of the stuff under the surface. Um, I got clove. Uh I got cocoa, but more like remember mom's. Like semi-sweet cocoa powder that you thought you were getting into a treat in your pantry when you were a little dog. It was the Nestle. And you took it. No, that's not it. It's it's more of that bitter cocoa aroma than maybe milk chocolate. But then like as I kind of came back to it after a couple sips, I get like chocolate covered cherries. Yeah. Right? I can see that. Um yeah, I it I don't know as if I tasted it as much as I smelled it, but I distinctly got like a dark cherry, but like I I don't know if it's milk chocolate covered or dark chocolate covered, but there is a chocolate and cherry kind of thing going on.

Gavin 22:44

There's a cocoa esque. Yeah, for sure. I get it. For sure. Uh now does that carry into the palate for you, or do you do you veer off here? I veered off a tad bit. I think there's a bit more baking spice that I got on the palate. Maybe some nutmeg in there. I see where you're where you went with the clove after you said it. I didn't pick it up right away, but I do get that a bit more on the palette now. I think there's a clove cinnamon, but not like punch in the face cinnamon, but there's a little, there's a little spice, spicy spice there. How you feel?

Aaron 23:32

So I on the palette, I think there's a lot going on, but nothing is really bold and in your face, right? I get just a hint of that banana sweetness. I get just a hint of the cherry shows back up again. Um right at the end of the palette, beginning of the finish, I get a distinct kind of little flash of mint. Um, if you if you said there's chocolate tobacco kind of thing going on, like yeah, I'd I I'd be okay with that. I it kind of reminds me of like eating chocolate-covered almonds or something while puffing on a cigar on the back patio. Like, yeah, like I all of that seems to be going on. And I to me, the the palette and finish kind of really fuse. It's hard. Sometimes sometimes you get a very distinct flavor on the on the palate. And then as soon as you finish the sip, like all of a sudden a bunch of other stuff shows up. But to me, there really was hard, it's hard to to pick up that transition from the palette to the finish. Like that carried through. And I get a lot of that same stuff on the finish.

Gavin 24:40

Well, going back to it, you said mint. I wrote down there's a celery note that I felt like I got on the palette after going back to it. Maybe a you know, I don't know if if you're much of a peanut butter celery guy, but maybe you've mentioned celery a couple times.

Aaron 25:04

And I don't know is if I maybe I just need to eat a little more celery. I I don't I uh my youngest is now a teenager. We don't eat a lot of celery in this house anymore. Um there was a time where we ate a lot more than we do now.

Gavin 25:17

But maybe that well, I could be mistaking the mint for or the celery for mint. So there's probably a little bit of green. I got you. There's a there's a bitterness that you might get out of both of them. Who knows? All right, finish.

Aaron 25:35

Finish it. I so like I said, I think a lot of the palette carries through the finish. I I'm kind of sitting here trying to like, is there a is there something I didn't get already that shows up on the finish? Or is it all pretty much the same stuff I had before? And I don't know as if there's a distinctly different flavor. Um I'll say the finishes is some finishes are big and bold and then quickly drop off. I won't say that this is an incredibly long finish, I might say medium, but it is a strong finish all the way through that time period, right? Like it kind of doesn't fade quickly and then just kind of linger, like it's a predominant flavor uh for quite some time.

Gavin 26:25

Oh, I I agree with that. And I just wrote there's a drying effect that I get on the tongue that I didn't really catch on the first round on the palette. But going back to it, I think I mean I put that there's a lingering finish. I didn't put me in my put long, and then that drying that I got on the mid to back palette. If you just look kind of let it sit there for a little bit.

Aaron 26:51

Yeah, I that's a that's a tasty pour. It is in my mind. All right, you gotta give it a number though. All right. Well, let's see. Did the did the fact that we were gonna give it a number sneak up on you? It did, it did. I don't know why. Like I only do it every time, but you know, whatever. Every time I get it. Um, it's your first time doing this, so I understand it. Yeah, it's right down every time. Number one less than mine, and let's move on. All right. All right, my hands have been up the whole time, just so we know. All right, what was your number? 84. Tell us why.

Gavin 27:31

I think that I just wanted a little bit more complexity to it on the proof side, I think. Um there was a bit of spice, but I wanted a little bit more punch to it. I think were you shaking your hands?

Aaron 27:49

No, I don't I don't agree, but continue on. Finish your story, I'll tell you why you're wrong. That's about how all this goes.

Gavin 27:57

Uh so 84. I want a little bit more punch to it. If it was a little bit higher in proof, maybe maybe that would have hit it a little bit higher for me.

Aaron 28:08

But I actually really enjoyed this proof point because you can sip it, swoll it around, you can really enjoy what's going on without it burning you. Um, I so I'm in an 86. I think this is not that much more than mine. I think yeah, but the reason why I like it is the fact that I don't think it's too proofy, it doesn't burn you out, um, but does maintain a great deal of depth. There was a lot of little things going on in there that you just don't tend to get with lower proof whiskeys. Or what I should say is sometimes you have to go to a higher proof to get that, but then sometimes it gets too high a proof, and you're like, I kind of need it to back down. I think they've done a very, very good job of making a very tasty whiskey that isn't lighting you on fire when you take a sip. So to me, that actually helped the score rather than hindered it. All right. So 86 for me, 84 for Gavin, Woodford's reserves, historic barrel proof. Well, that was a historic tasting, I just had to say it was. It was. I don't know what whiskey tasted like in the 1800s, 1900s, but if this is what it was like, I mean, we're missing out.

Gavin 29:31

Yeah, that's fair. Good point. All right, so you may have noticed in previous episodes, we got a little announcement and we're gonna kind of show you again.

Aaron 29:42

For the last couple weeks, we've been teasing a big announcement coming. That's right, the Noble Dram has a barrel pick.

Gavin 29:49

But we don't half-ass anything here, not just one barrel pick, we got two. Larceny, barrel proof, and Elijah Craig, barrel proof.

Aaron 29:58

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 30:05

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

Aaron 30:11

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

Gavin 30:20

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

Aaron 30:25

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

Gavin 30:29

Cheers. All right, welcome back everyone. I hope y'all are as excited as we are for those private barrel picks. Yeah, I'm getting giddy, I won't lie.

Aaron 30:46

Like giddy at giddy. Yeah, for sure. I I'm I'm ready to start pouring that. I look forward to tasting those on there.

Gavin 30:55

Absolutely. Yeah, and we are just ecstatic that you get to taste those too. So, again, follow those links. Go grab a bottle, MR Liquors, here in Northwest Houston. Definitely so stoked for that. Yep, for sure. So I think it's time for another bottle. My favorite time.

Aaron 31:17

All right, let's get this nonsense out of here. Nonsense. No, it was a delicious bottle. I shouldn't call it nonsense.

Gavin 31:24

Fair. I mean, yeah. So my bottle. Old Forester 1897. Bottled in bond.

Aaron 31:37

It's one of my favorite ways to bottle. Right. I I was shocked at how silent.

Gavin 31:43

Yeah, that was mine was a stealth bottle. Yeah. This wasn't as loud as I thought it would be, to be completely honest with you there.

Aaron 31:51

It's alright.

Gavin 31:52

It's alright. We'll drink it loud. Yeah. Can I pour it loud? Can I froth it? I have complete confidence in your ability to do that.

Aaron 32:05

No doubt for sure. Sorry, I'm already nosing. All right. I haven't even seen anything with the bottle yet. I can't help myself. I can't help myself.

Gavin 32:15

All right. Old Forester 1897 bottled and bond. This is a part of their whiskey row series. Mash Bill. 72% corn. 18% rye. And that leaves 10% for our favorite molted barley. Audled and bond. Oh man. Did you I didn't do that? What happened there? What happened there? That was you. Alright. Uh 100 proof. So 50% in the room.

Aaron 32:51

Good old Hundy. Uh, this came out the way the other one went in.

Gavin 32:54

I as soon as you said that this was a hunterproof going in the barrel. I was like, eh. Right on par. Yeah. Right on par for where we're going tonight. Their whiskey roast series, they actually have uh a again, it's a series, it's a line. And for old Forster, they all correlate with special milestones within Old Forester's history. So you can go out and buy the whole line if you'd like. Um, this I'm really excited uh to taste sip and savor. Sip nose, sip and sniff, sniff, whatever we're calling it. We're gonna figure it out. Yeah, we really do need to make a sign because neither of us can get it right. Old Forster and the Kentucky Derby have a history. Do you know what their history is? I so I don't know history, but I know present day. Okay.

Aaron 33:53

So I don't I don't want to I don't want to steal thunder if you're heading there next.

Gavin 33:57

So well their long, illustrious history is they were both started in the 1870s. That is not what I was going to say. No, I know. Yeah. But their true connection, I guess, is back in 2015, Old Forester became the official bourbon for the mint julep. Yes.

Aaron 34:28

And I believe, if I read this right, it is for the pre-made. Like you can go over and get it, like they get them out of the jug. That's all made with Old Forester. I actually couldn't find anything anywhere that said specifically that Woodford Reserve, uh, Woodford Reserve was used in mint juleps at the Kentucky Derby. That they were just the official bourbon at the Kentucky Derby. So yeah, I assume you can get Woodford's at the Kentucky Derby. If it's official, it doesn't feel very official if you can't get it. I guess maybe is what I'm getting at.

Gavin 35:04

Well, and I'm because we've never been, I'm curious what the whole like, do they have like being that Woodford is the official, but do they have like a whole line of bourbons that you can get?

Aaron 35:17

I assume like everything else, you get into the up into the sweets and club level at the grandstands, and those there are guys making individual mint juleps for you because you are that level of person, right? And then you get down amongst the infield where the riffraff and ramble are. You're getting the old forester pre-made. I maybe you're down with steerage. Yeah. Um the commoners drink old forester? Yeah. Man, if if that is the common bourbon you're drinking, you're doing all right.

Gavin 35:55

Doing all right.

Aaron 35:56

I agree with that. I agree with that. I don't know if that was gonna be one of your questions, but I'm I'm holding firm to that stance. If old forester is your just go-to run-of-the-mill whiskey, you're winning.

Gavin 36:08

Well, you did steal my limelight about how many mint juleps. I had that emotional. Oh, you did?

Aaron 36:14

So I'm I'm gonna guess that of the mint jups, of the 120,000 mint juleps, a lot more of them were the pre-made out of the jug than the individually handmade cocktails.

Gavin 36:26

That's probably fair.

Aaron 36:27

And I didn't go that deep into it, but I'll be honest, I found that stat in doing research on the Kentucky Derby, not in looking at Woodford Reserve. So that's not a claim they're making, it's a claim the Derby makes.

Gavin 36:40

Oh, there you go. All right, so I want to play a little game with you. Oh, hold on.

Aaron 36:46

So we know we know corn profile or grain profile. Uh-huh. Do we know age? I don't know as if I caught age. Uh it's at least four years.

Gavin 36:56

Bottled in bond tells us at least four. I did not actually find out.

Aaron 37:01

No age statement.

Gavin 37:02

I don't think there's an age statement on this one. Um, yeah. So if you do know, let us know, or we can find that information.

Aaron 37:11

If you feel like you have an answer with the kind of internet-based bravado and confidence that allows you to just spit it out as if you actually know, um, then yeah. Type it in the comments. Let us know. Let us know. If all you want to do is make fun of the people who put numbers, then also do that in the comments. Are you ready to that is the internet in a nutshell right there? Yeah, fair. Are you ready to play a game? I I'm nervous. Because I haven't written much down yet, and I'm afraid you're gonna ask me questions, and it's gonna be hard for me to keep track of what I'm doing. All right.

Gavin 37:46

So my game Did you did you pick when play show? No. This game, I don't know.

Aaron 37:52

We've not played this game before. Well, in so, in fairness, I don't know the game Gavin's about to give me, and Gavin didn't know the game I gave him. So this is a week of surprises.

Gavin 38:04

Week of surprises. It's not a week surprise, it's just a week of surprises, right? Big difference, right? Real or fake? So I'm going to give you horse names or bourbons, and I need you to tell me if each are real or fake.

Aaron 38:24

Uh real names or fake names? Both. No, no, no. What I mean is that's what I'm guessing. It's not like this is this is a a name of a bourbon. Like, is it really bourbon or not? Right. Okay. So it could be I'm gonna fail miserably at this.

Gavin 38:42

But but it's gonna be in a category of of horse or bourbon. And then you have to tell me if that is real or fake.

Aaron 38:50

Yeah, I my my knowledge of horse names is pretty limited. Well, and unless you guys get really secretary or seabiscuit, because I know those two okay.

Gavin 39:00

So round one. We got three rounds. Okay, all right, round one. Three rounds, goodness. And these are kind of rapid firing. You can tell me if you'd like. Okay. Blame the whiskey.

Aaron 39:12

Is that a real horse or a fake horse? Blame the whiskey. I'm gonna say it is a real horse. That feels like a real horse name. Uh, you're right. That's the kind of silly shenanigans a horse namer would use. All right. Am I am I should I be keeping tabs? I got one right.

Gavin 39:29

All right, you got one right. Here I'm gonna put a check mark next to the ones you get right, right? Right. And an X when you get wrong. This will keep me from having to rewatch the whole episode to try to figure out if I want. Barrel proof legend, is that a real bourbon or fake bourbon? Oh, barrel proof legend.

Aaron 39:50

I'm gonna say that's a fake bourbon. Fake name. Not real. You're right. I actually was thinking barrel brands, like would they name something like that? That's the kind of shenanigans I expect you to pull in this game. You had me second guessing myself.

Gavin 40:11

Authentic. Is that a real horse or a fake horse?

Aaron 40:18

Authentic. I'm gonna say fake horse. Horses often have names from like the the mare that that they came from or something's like well, a single name, single word horse name makes me question it. I'm gonna say fake.

Gavin 40:34

You got that one wrong. That is a true horse's name, and I didn't do this for all of them, but I think there was some controversy. Uh you did research on these horses' names? Maybe from the Derby from 1975.

Aaron 40:50

Yeah, that was before my time. Thanks so.

Gavin 40:53

All right. Okay, is this a real bourbon or fake bourbon? Double oaked reserve. And this could be a name or an expression. Like a release.

Aaron 41:05

Well, a release. The notion of double oaked reserve sounds like a real expression. Probably not the name of the distillery. Right. But yeah, right. It certainly sounds like an expression. You're gonna tell me it's fake, and then I'm going to tell you, I bet I can find one. It is fake. Oh no, I question are fake ones the ones you made up? I don't know. I'm not gonna tell you where I got them. How long did you do internet search trying to find an old model that might have the same name?

Gavin 41:35

I have been searching for since we figured out what we were doing. So like an hour. Yeah. Okay, gotcha. Maxim maximum security. Oh, that's a horse name. That's a horse name. That is that is a real horse name. All right.

Aaron 41:47

That felt that felt like a good name. All right, round one, done.

Gavin 41:50

Round two. All right, hold up. I'm I'm one up. I'm three, two. Yep, you're right. Round two. Small batch revival. Is that a fake bourbon or a real bourbon?

Aaron 42:03

So there's a revival scotch. And small batch feels like the kind of thing you would put into any bourbon name. But I'm gonna say that's fake because you combine two different names of stuff that we already know. You were right.

Gavin 42:17

Woohoo! All right. I'm actually doing way better than this than I thought I would. All right. War of will. Is that a fake horse or a real horse? That feels real horse.

Aaron 42:28

All right. There's a lot of war horses. Yep. So yeah, that was my tipper. All right.

Gavin 42:34

Good there. I cannot believe it. Rich strike. Is that a fake horse or a real horse? Rich strike. Opposed to poor strike.

Aaron 42:44

No, no, no. I it it's got two words, which I kind of said implies uh real horse name, but I something about it makes me think false. A fake name.

Gavin 42:54

All right, fake. You are wrong.

Aaron 42:56

That is a real horse. Yeah. Horse owners like to talk about how rich they are, too. I should have. Midnight bourbon. Real horse or fake horse? Oh, midnight bourbon is a horse. Well, I don't know. Is it? I'm gonna say that's a real horse.

Gavin 43:17

Alright, you're on it. Alright. All right. Is this a fake bourbon or a real bourbon? Copper still select. Copper still select. That feels real. It feels like a real bourbon. Feels like a real one. That one is a fake bourbon.

Aaron 43:35

God bless it. So far, it appears to be my ability to identify fake bourbon is bad.

Gavin 43:42

Everything else I seem to be doing okay with. All right, round three.

Aaron 43:45

Final round.

unknown 43:47

Yeah.

Aaron 43:48

Well, hold up. We're 6'4 as it stands right now. All right. Weeded glory. Is that a real bourbon or a fake bourbon? I'm gonna say fake bourbon on this one. You say fake? Yeah.

Gavin 44:01

All right. You got it. Oh. All right. Is this a real bourbon or a fake bourbon? Okay. Hi Rye Thunder. What was my nickname in high school?

Aaron 44:14

I don't think it's real a bourbon. I'm gonna say not a bourbon. All right. That's right.

Gavin 44:19

It's fake bourbon. Alright. Um. Let's go. How many do you have to pick from over there?

Aaron 44:30

Bourbon War. Bourbon War. Is that a. Oh no, no, that's a real horse. That's a real horse. That's uh there was a pinhook model about that. It would have also been a real bourbon. Exactly. Exactly. Hold on, is that the next one on the question? No, but but I put that in there because it was both.

Gavin 44:48

That is awesome. I wanted to see if you got that one. All right. This is the final one.

Aaron 44:57

Final one? Is there only four in the last round? Yep. Okay. I'm trying really hard not to look at your dope plate. All right.

Gavin 45:03

Soup and sandwich. Soup and sandwich. Is that a real horse or fake horse? I was gonna put it as a bourbon, but I figured I wouldn't do that to you.

Aaron 45:15

Well, then that makes it feel like it's fake. If you were trying to decide if it's bourbon or horse, but I'm going fake. You go fake. I'm using the hint. I'm saying I'm saying fake.

Gavin 45:23

I faked you out because that is a real horse.

Aaron 45:25

Is it real horse?

Gavin 45:27

Yes.

Aaron 45:28

All right. I be honest, nine to five. It was way better than I thought of it. You do the pre-dame. Good job than I thought of it. Good job, buddy. All right.

Gavin 45:38

That's better than it probably would have been. Were you sweating on that one? No, I went.

Aaron 45:44

The saving grace is in that that kind of game is if I'm really bad at it, who's gonna be let down by it? Like, I don't think the expectation was he should get all of these.

Gavin 45:54

Well, and there was a lot in there, so it was kind of like I kind of yeah.

Aaron 46:00

I the the the hard part about picking a game in which you make things up to see if you can get people off is you need to make the fake thing sound believable enough that it isn't so obviously fake. Uh yeah, I think it's it's harder to make that list than I think most people would understand.

Gavin 46:23

All right. So you ready to talk about the whiskey? I'm ready to talk about what's in the glass.

Aaron 46:28

Yeah, so I think right off the bat, if if you were sitting down, we we did these in what I feel to be the correct meal order. This is much more entree, and this is distinctly more dessert.

Speaker 4 46:43

Right.

Aaron 46:44

Um yeah. Uh on the nose, I'm getting tons of caramel, tons of vanilla. I mean, quintessential bourbon nose, right? Yep. Um, surprisingly, not as much oak on the nose as I think I expected. And this may come as a shock, but I've always kind of remembered old first, old forester having a distinct like banana aroma, and I don't get a ton of banana on this one. I agree with you. I think it's hidden in there, but it's not it's not prominent.

Gavin 47:22

It's like um after, like if you have a handful of runs and you eat the cherry runt first, and then you go back and you get that banana and you get a little taste of the banana.

Aaron 47:32

I think this is what your hand smells like after you've held banana runs. Oh, there you go. Yeah, like this is like it's there, but it's way back there. I yeah, this this is distinctly different than what I had pictured in my head when you pulled the bottle out.

Gavin 47:48

Okay, yeah. I put tons of vanilla, tons of caramel. There's a um uh a slight leathery note that I got on it. Um almost like sweet candied leather. Sweet candy, it's my favorite kind of leather. Sweat worn, you know, been in the dirt. Oh man, this is making me my head go in bad places. Um yeah, I think I think there's a leathery note to it on this one. Yeah, I can see it. Hang on, hang on, hang on. I can see it.

Aaron 48:25

Smell it. It doesn't smell like candy at all. The no, it's yeah, it's there. It's it's it's very soft. It's not um that kind of this doesn't smell like a boot shop, right? I mean, this is not that kind of leathery, but there's just a hint of it in the background. I to me the the vanilla and caramel are just so like almost overpowering of anything else going on. Now on the palate though, the palate actually is pretty soft, like as you're kind of swirling around, letting it hit different parts of the tongue. Like there is a soft sweetness, and I'll say a little more vanilla than I think caramel uh on the on the palate. Um yeah, in and what I'll say is very classic bourbon to me is you get a much more pronounced nose and finish, and the palate is actually pretty soft. Um, I think we see that sometimes in scotches too, especially if you're looking at peat and stuff. It really smells like peat and it really finishes like peat, but while you're swirling it around, like I don't get any of that. And so I think I think a lot of those flavors that you're picking up on the nose and you pick up on the finish, um, don't hit the tongue the same on the palate. Um, so yeah, I I'd say the palate's actually pretty mild. Um I might I might have a hard time identifying that this is a different proof than the Woodford's was. I don't I don't really get much considering it's almost 10 points higher proof. I kind of expected a little more tingle on the tongue and stuff, and I did not get that. Your nickname is the tongue tingler. No, do not start that. I had to change schools when I was younger for that.

Gavin 50:17

Uh I think the caramel carries through on the palette. I think the vanilla icing kind of came about for me on the palette. I think there's a bit of like um caramel toffee maybe comes into play. So I think there's a little toffee note to it.

Aaron 50:42

Um as you move into the finish, though, I think I get fruits showing up. I agree with that. I actually like I wrote dark dark berries and like slash fruit, and the more I'm sitting here just kind of letting it linger, because I think this finish, although not as bold a finish as the Woodford's, I think this finish actually runs just a little longer. It's just much lower level. Um, like I get dates. This reminds me of sticky toffee pudding. Oh, okay, right? That kind of rich sugary caramel note shows up all over the finish. But then there's this kind of dark dates, is really the thing that comes to mind is kind of that sugary sweetness on the on the end of the finish.

Gavin 51:34

So you said like a almost like a chocolate-covered cherry on this one. I think I get more chocolate-covered cherry on this, and maybe it's that subliminal messaging. You said it here. It's been on my mind. I think I get a bit of that on the Forster. I'd say I'm not getting milk chocolate at all.

Aaron 51:55

Um dark fruits, like cherry, dates, plums, prunes, like that kind of stuff. Like I can I can see where those kind of blend a little bit. I think there's for me, the reason I think I lean date over cherry is I get almost that crystallized sugary kind of flavor. Um, like you get from a like a fig or a date. Um more than I think I get the the velvety kind of sweetness of a cherry, but I I just I'm not getting any chocolate.

Gavin 52:32

Really? Like even dark chocolate, if you're getting dark fruits, you're not getting any.

Aaron 52:37

No. Hmm. Well, if you told me there's a smell of like the candy coating from the MMs, maybe, but I don't know about the chocolate itself.

Gavin 52:48

Uh the VOCs from the packaging. Oh, yeah, I get it. Um the adhesive that held the bag together. That's right. Uh, all right. Well, there you have it. I need a number from you.

Aaron 53:04

Yeah, so I it's always funny to me when we do these, because like sometimes you'll have two numbers that are distinctly different. Sometimes you have two numbers that are very close, sometimes they're close together because of the same reasons. Sometimes they're close together and it has nothing to do with it. I'm actually at an 85 on this one, which is just one point off of my last. Um, and it's for totally different reasons. What I enjoyed about the Woodfords is distinctly different than what I enjoyed about the old Forster. I this is this feels to me like if somebody comes in and says, I've never had bourbon, what does bourbon taste like? I was like, you gotta try this one. I mean, this is right down that wheelhouse. It's sometimes we say that because there's just nothing about a bourbon that stands out different. In this instance, I think they have nailed every single thing. That's why this is an 85 and not an 80 or a 75. Um, because I think a lot of times we do these like, ah, it's a 78, and they're like, well, why 78? It's like, well, it's it's a quintessential bourbon, like there's nothing, but they they really did ever they did a bourbon justice, if you will, in this one. This is a tasty, tasty bottle.

Gavin 54:20

I agree with everything you said, except for the chocolate thing. Yeah, the chocolate. I did get chocolate on it. Uh 86 for me. So I two points higher, landed at an 86, which was your first bottle. Yeah. I think this to me, tonight, had a just a smidge more um complexity, a little bit more fun and funky for me than the Woodford. I I agree with you that I think it was just kind of um they got it right, like right up the middle. It was solid. I think it the proof point on this was a you know, you you mentioned about 10 points, a little less than 10 points higher. Like, this is this is it. Like, this is if when I sit down and I want a bourbon, like this is what I want to drink. I'm I'm a little disappointed I haven't drank this bottle yet.

Aaron 55:17

Like, I I feel like this has moved up my list of tasty bourbons in this room significantly tonight.

Gavin 55:25

I feel like we're gonna have fun with this bottle. Not for very long.

Aaron 55:30

That I can guarantee. That I can guarantee. All right. 85 for me, 86 for you, Old Forrester's 1897 bottled and bond.

unknown 55:43

Hi.

Aaron 55:44

So we've come to that point of the night where we raise a glass to thank you, but I feel like we're not doing it right. This is the Kentucky Derby episode. It is. I'll be right back.

Gavin 55:57

What's going on here?

Aaron 56:00

All right. You can't have a Kentucky Derby party, or tasting for that matter, that doesn't have the classic mint julep.

Gavin 56:14

Looky there. Oh, this is so nice of you. I try. I'm so excited. I try. With that being said, thank you everyone for joining us on this fantastic derby episode. Make sure to like, subscribe, share with your other whiskey lovers. Cheers and Solangeville.

Speaker 2 56:39

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'd like to see us share, let us know.

Aaron 56:48

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 56:57

And if you find watching us difficult, you can always listen to each episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. As always, be noble and enjoy your journey responsibly.