00:00 Tequila Showcase We are gathered here today to taste whiskey. Dearly beloved. Well, not just whiskey. No. I brought all kinds of stuff. Yeah. There's something in the jar that looks orangish red. I don't think that's whiskey. Oh, that's for the last. That's the end. Flavor blasted whiskey. And we might be able to see at some point if it slushies. Nice. Oh, yeah. Nice. You guys want to start with some agave? Yeah. We should start with an introduction, huh? Yeah, true. What? On this long form audio medium that we are kicking off? Yeah. We want people to know what's going on, don't we? Yeah. That's a good idea. Hey, you are listening to Barrel to Bottle The Binny's Podcast. Back in your feed with something from the Whiskey Hotline. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. Jim, also communications. Oh, hey Jim. Hey. Lexi, also communications and social media and stuff. And I'm Dan, I work in spirits. All right. So yeah, we haven't done this in a while, but just an update on some of the new stuff that we're bringing in across the board. So I work with the Specialty Spirits Buyer and we kind of bring a lot of the esoteric stuff. Friend of the Pod. Yeah, Brett Pontani, most people know his name. Nice brother. But yeah, I just brought some cool things that we have in stores and that are fun to talk about and taste. So kind of across the board, a little bit of everything. We probably easiest to start with some tequila. Yep. First thing I pass here on. And then Lexi can go. All right. We'll try the peated stuff. I'm going to head out. Yeah, I was afraid you were going to make us start with that Lagovole you had in your hand. No, you got to start with something a little softer. And the first thing we're passing around is Dos Hombres. So Dos Hombres, this is Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston's brand. The two Hombres. Famous for their mezcal, which has done very well. Yeah, I always forget, like people were like, oh, they got a new tequila. I couldn't mean they have a tequila. But then I remember that, no, they started with mezcal. Yeah. Kind of wacky. So this is, we've had this a few weeks now. It comes to, actually, it's made at the same distillery as Cascades, which is a tequila we really like. Yes, we do. And this is $39.99 on the shelf. So tell me what you think. It smells like a, coming in actually pretty aggressively priced for one of these. Yeah. Smells like... Green. Yeah, very green. Yeah, a lot of like that kind of almost savory. To me, it always plays a little bit as like olive briny. Sugarcane. It smells like sugarcane rum. But you get that like, vegetal note and really good blanco. You'll get that a lot of times. Yeah. Yeah, it's nice. A little peppery. A little peppery, a little vegetal, yeah. But it still has like a fluffiness to it. It's a puffy, puffy, puffy and fluffy marshmallow whip of a palette. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And it's really interesting on the finish too. I like what's going on right here. And you know, these guys, you know, they're a celebrity. It's a celebrity brand, but they are really involved with the brand. I mean, Bryan Cranston just had a meeting with Brett like two weeks ago. So he comes to town and talks about it. And Bryan Cranston sit in the Whiskey Hotline office in the Cranston Whiskey Hotline office. I would not allow that to happen. He does not. But no, he just Walter White just kind of making his way through the stuff, like making his way through the bottles and stuff. Let's take a moment to appreciate Bryan Cranston's extreme range, how we were supposed to take the goofy dad from Malcolm in the Middle seriously. Well, isn't it isn't the theory that it's the same character, but yeah, it's the same guy. I mean, he's great on Malcolm in the Middle. I just rewatch that with my kids and he's a tour de force performance from him. But yeah, anyway, that's good stuff on our shelves available. The next is from Mijenta. This is their Symphony Series number three there on Añejo. I love this bottle. It's blue with gold butterflies. So it is. Oh, wow. It would go well among my grandma's Delphi dishware. I don't know what that is. Delphi dishware? It's like white and blue. Oh. About the famous rabbit on it also. I assume these are monarch butterflies. I think so. Those monarchs. I'd have to look at them. I am an entomologist by creating. I think those are. So the symphony barrels they use are actually barrels made up of staves from oak from different parts of the United States. I thought you were going to say different parts of musical instruments. It's like all the symphonies that were closed and they took their woodwinds and just broke them down and made barrels. That'd be cool. So this one has some- Doesn't make any sense at all. No, but it's funny. This one uses barrels that were made of individual barrels that included staves from Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Slowly toasted to help maximize spirit penetration into the wood. Anyway, we really like Mahenta as a brand and their everyday stuff is great, but their limited series are also pretty awesome. Anna Romero is their tequila maker and she has a great job. That all sounds real vague to me. We have got spices from all across the rack and I don't know what that- Like what is the wood? What is the different wood? I mean, we just had that terroir series from Starlight. This was like oak from different parts of Europe, which if you were to overlay the map of Europe on the United States, it would probably be about maybe a little bit smaller because these are- Yeah. So it's going for the same concept as that. The wood grows differently. A hundred percent. I mean, like- Wait a minute, but that was like each barrel source was its own bottling and here they're just like, I don't know, all of them in the same barrels? Because you're getting, instead of like, I mean, maybe the approaches that you're trying to get the flavors from the different wood into one. Like almost a bunch of things coming in together to one. Like say a bunch of musical instruments coming in together. Like a symphony? All right, I still don't get it. Because again, no, like what color is donut sprinkles? Like every color, it just seems like they're putting all the donut sprinkles in here. What if it's just chocolate sprinkles? But all the donut flavor, it's all the donut sprinkles are the same flavor. Yeah. And they're all the same donut colored sprinkles. Like they are, there's a certain mix of exact shades that are always the donut sprinkles. So what you're saying- Yeah, the party color compo. Children's elementary school color compo. You'd prefer five different donuts, one with all red, one with all yellow, one with all orange, one with all white. But those are the same flavors. I think it would make more sense if you're trying to learn about the expressiveness of wood and where it comes from to not mix them all up at a bucket. Well, let's say that they've already figured that out with what they've done and they're like, these are the woods we like, and let's make a barrel that has all of them. All right. All right, I'm with you anyway. So what do you think? How limited is this thing? It's around still. I mean, it'll be like these don't fly off the shelves. They do move. They're really good once you have them. I mean, yeah, this is $120 bottle of tequila. Oh, is that why it smells so good? Yeah, it does. I mean, it's like. Caramel-y thing going on at the end. I like that little bit of the butterscotch. Yeah, it goes back and forth a little bit. It's also bottled at 90 proof, which is more proof than you're typically going to get, which is great for like a sipping tequila like this, because you're going to sit and contemplate it. It has a little bit of that rum ester quality at the finish too. Yeah. I mean, it has the smell of like a Rick House or even like a winery in like Napa with all the barrels. It has that like... The woods right up front... . worty kind of almost like leathery. Yeah. And it's like this one even more than the last one is like puffy frosting sweet at the very, very finish. That's nice. Oh yeah. The finish is great. Yeah. That's a fantastic tequila. Dessert tequila. Yeah. It's got like spice and the wood is there. Definitely like, I think if you're a big, you know, whiskey drinker, whether it's scotch or bourbon, I think this would be right up your alley because it's got a ton of wood. Bourbon drinkers. Yeah. It really does. Yeah. So the next tequila is from Friend of the Pod, El Mexicano. The tequila maker has been on our podcast before. Last summer. Last summer, I believe. This is the family that created Casa Dores Tequila when they sold the brand. They still had tequila making in the blood. So they. Waited until their season desist. Well. Waited so they're not compete. And then they. And we. I think you made that joke on the episode, Greg. So far, we've had a Blanco, a Reposado and a High Proof Blanco. They're on. Yeho is now in stores and it's $39.99 on the shelf. It smells incredible. This is $39.99. And yeah. And they're. Their signature, aside from a super affordable tequila, their signature, one of their signatures is they use French and American oak. Yo, what's that one that comes in like a rectangular bottle? It's from Bacardi. It's from the Bacardi family. It's kind of hard to pour. It's like a poor spot. Tequila? Yeah. Oh, the Corso. Corso. Corso. Oh, yeah. That had I remember that one distinctly one of the first times that my mind was blown by a really an Añejo Tequila because it has this like caramel and pencil shaving thing. And this is like as close as I've ever smelled to that. Well, this is $44.99. Still. Still. It's a hell of a deal. It's a good price. That is a good price. Yeah. But it's still I mean, a good Añejo to me should have some of that agave still there. It shouldn't be just, you know, buried by the. Agave on the nose, I think. Yeah, it's in there. Yeah, it's. It's still got that nice little. What were you saying? Plush softness on the end and then that caramelly, you know, token caramel flavor. That's pretty incredible. It's like, now, that's great value. $45. Yeah, $45 bucks. Easy to like has like the finish is there still for me. Like I'm still tasting it. It doesn't like end abruptly or anything. Graham cracker pie crust. The spices, the little bit of sweetness, but it's not overly sweet. It's a little bit savory too. I'm a fan. Yeah, they make great stuff. Yeah. Nice bottle too. It looks pretty cool. Yeah. 10:35 Gin Exploration All right, cool. What's next? Let me see here. We've got some gin, actually. Gin? Yeah. Is this what I think it is? Sure is. I purposely didn't try this at the gin event because you told me we were doing this podcast. I wanted a live reaction. It looks like you just pulled the pistachio section of the Spomoni right out of the ice cream cube. So the first gin we're tasting, we've got two gins from, there's a new distillery called Cambridge Distilling. The first is kind of a gin with pretty recognizable flavors designed to be used in a martini. But it's got kind of the typical, you know, you've got juniper, some citrus. Three Seasons. These are very elegant gins. They are, both of them are going to be over $100 a bottle. Wow. So they're not. It's a square ass bottle. It is really a square one. I don't know what it is about that bottle that's just, I've seen other square bottles or something about this. It's shockingly square. Yeah. I think that has to do with the opaque paint job. Maybe. But yeah, just seems really square. It says it comes from Sausalito. Okay. Over $100 gin. They're kind of, that's like three times the price of an expensive gin that I can conceive of actually paying money for. We do see some interest in gins that you're going to, like when you're making a martini and it's like, or really gin forward cocktail, right? Like you're not putting, you're not, I mean, do what you want with it, but I personally wouldn't put this in a gin tonic. No. But just sipping on this with like a splash of club soda and ice, I think would be really nice. What's the unique angle here? It just smells like juniper. There's something in there that I can't name. Verbena. Verbena? Yep. Verbena, verbena, summer rose, and ripe autumnal black currant leaf. So it's all about the florality. Yeah. That's why I like it. Cool. It's very perfumey. It tastes very perfumey. I don't mean that in a bad way like sipping on perfume. I mean like the, I don't know what's the word, oral factory combination is perfume. But there's a nice bramble fruit mid-palate that I'm at least picking up. It's got a lot going on. I think it smells really, I don't know what's going on. Maybe it's just my palate today, but it smells like a pastry in a way. Like a lemon scone or something? Yeah, like something like, yeah. With a pine-salt glaze. Yeah, I mean you get behind that. I don't hate it. You got to do a lot to a gin to make it $100, Ben. Well, I mean, we're just here to deliver the story. That's true. This is a very good gin. Also Three Seasons. $109.99. Both of these are $100. Well, wait till, so I'm going to pass around the next one, which is their truffle gin. Oh my God. They made a truffle gin? They made a truffle gin. They also, while I'm passing this around, they have this, they call it the Watenshi Gin. Essentially, when you're making gin, there's like, and they call it an angel's share, where you have this evaporation of some alcohol that just usually disappears. In that is what they claim is some of the most delicate flavors and aromas from the botanicals. Yeah, if it evaporates right out of the gin. So this Watenshi Gin, they basically, they developed a way to collect this angel's share from gin distillation. And they have to like, I mean, they have to do, I think, like hundreds of runs to get a bottle of this. Yeah. And so about a 750 milliliter bottle of this is $4,000. You're operating in a narrow band of alcohol there. Because like, it's like not, you got to start at the heads. Right. And then you then stop. And this is something we don't have. If you're interested, we can bring a bottle in for you, which makes a $109 truffle gin seem a much more friendly price, huh? Yeah, let's talk about this truffle gin. Man, I'm afraid to taste this because it is going to absolutely dominate my palate for the next day. Yeah. Truffle, maybe have been like- Is that another gin? We don't have to talk about it. PTSD after too much truffles once, and I'm scared here. I just- Post-truffle stress disorder. Yeah. Truffle french fries immediately. Yeah, it has that, definitely that truffle fry. Rob and I were talking about this earlier today about the use for this because we've- I mean, you have this and it's really- Bloody Maris. Well, what we came up with was do a dirty martini, but do sake instead of vermouth, and then use soy sauce instead of olive brine. Okay. What do you think? I think that's a little much. It's a little bonkers. It's like leading to that umami kind of. I mean- Oh, there it goes. It's a lot more truffle in the nose. The nose is all truffle. Then it disappears when you taste it, and then it comes back. Yeah. That retronasal kind of thing. That's what I meant, retronasal. Yeah. Not olfactory. I'm an olfactory. You could have worked with retronasal. Yeah. That retronasal just boom, truffles. Sure does. We had this at our gin and botanicals event last week, and people were like, oh my God, this is so good, or like what the hell are they doing to gin? Jeff says this all the time, we get a wine tasting, it's the oddball thing that stands out, not necessarily the good thing. Sure, sure. I'm not saying this isn't good, but why did they make it? Why? I'm curious about cocktails. JCB have a truffle something? John Charles Wase had the truffle vodka and the caviar vodka. Well, one of the things like- Caviar vodka. That guy. You have to understand too, and over there, gin is where you'll go to it. If you go to a good bar here, you'll expect to see a lot of bourbons on the shelves there. You'll expect to see 85 gins. Honestly, right now, and this is made in London, or it's a UK-based company. Cambridge. Probably Cambridge. Right now, UK, especially Scottish and Irish gins, are really popular here, and we are selling a lot of them. So I have a little palate cleanser gin to bring you back down from the truffles. This is new bottling for us. It's Ben Lomond. It's a Scottish gin. This is just like a good kind of, it's like 30 bucks on the shelf. Great. I was drinking this this weekend in Gin and Tonics. This is my speed of gin right here. It's perfect for that and it's clean. I don't know. I'm loving this bottle. I love that color of glass. It feels really smooth. Indigo blue. That's lovely. But yeah, right now, Scottish and Irish gin in particular. Gin right now, people that are, a lot of our gin customers are kind of like what craft beer was five or six years ago or they want to try a different gin every time they buy a bottle. And they're willing to give something a shot that they haven't seen before. Okay. Well, so anyway, the truffle gin is insta death for a tasting glass. I just learned that. As well as your spit cup. Can I get another one of these? You got a little goldest thing behind you? Yeah, there's one back there. The Binny's one? No. Greg, you may not. The truffle gin, I'm thinking about that with my chicken piccata martini. Oh yeah. There you go. Oh, not this. This again. What? Nothing. That's why we were thinking like the soy sauce sake thing because sake can have that umami flavor too. Well, you're tripling down. Well, you're the guy that hates a hat on a hat on a hat. That is three hats. Why not put orange vodka into crushed soda? What? Why not? Exactly. Why not? Why not? Why? Why do that? Why tell that? Because I do it great. The worst thing anybody could ever say about a flavored vodka is, it sounds great in a Bloody Mary, like, no, s***. Yeah. Batter it with every flavor north of mankind, and then you won't notice it. Cover it up with tomato juice and salt, then you don't have to taste our flavor. What do you think of this Ben Lomond? I love it. It's also 86 proofs, though. Yeah, kind of. I mean, if you want to have a few gin and tonics, and if you make them like I do with mostly gin, like having a little lower proof with this much flavor is nice. It's so it's not like punchy. It's round. It's low lying. It's kind of oily in its viscosity. Yeah, I would love this in a martini. I started drinking martinis more. Did I tell you that, Dan? Yeah, I know you've been on a kick there. So if you want to borrow a couple ounces, see if you can soy sauce it up with this. And holler back at us. I do on socials. That's what we can do. It wouldn't be a Whiskey Hotline podcast if we didn't taste something from our friends at Whistle Pig. 19:12 American Whiskey Tasting So I brought their latest 12-year, which has matured at least partially in Schaeffer Wine Barrels from the Schaeffer Winery in Napa. Schmancy. Wow. This is $139.99 on the shelf. Bespoke Barrel Rye, aged in Schaeffer Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon Barrels. It looks very similar to, I mean, the bottling they've done forever. Their 12-year is their Old World finish, which has a blend of the Old World is finished in three Old World wine barrels. So Madeira Port and Sauternes, I believe. This is not, it looks like the Old World barrel, but because it's made with, it's finished in American wine barrels, it is not the Old World, but it's part of their Bespoke. So what do you guys think? I can't help it. I'm trying to learn to appreciate things like scotch and tequila, and how a more intricate canvas means you can paint with so many colors. But when we get to the bourbon portion, or rye, when we get to the American whiskeys portion of these things, my little pleasure switch and my pleasure switch and my brain clicks on, and just smelling this and I'm like in a happy place. Yeah. I mean, it's elegant, like there's like caramel, like toasted marshmallow. And punch a punch of spice. And there's kind of that like leathery sort of fruit you get from, I think from the cask. Like orange marmalade on the palate. Yeah, definitely some of that. It's not as spicy as I expected. It's a definitely on the easier side of rye. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's mellow. I think it's 86 proof. So definitely a sipper. And there's still some vanillins in those casks. Yeah. Because that's a pretty profound part of it too. Yeah, it's got that red fruit right in the middle of the palate and a touch of leather. Fruit leather? Leather leather. Leather leather. Like oily leather. Like motorcycle guy leather? Yeah, something like that. Or when you go to, there's this town called Nashville in Indiana. I was going to say, Nashville in Indiana. And it's like a place you go in the fall, and it's like shops and like ice cream places. And it's very quaint and it's in the mountains, or not, I mean, whatever you'd call it, like the pre-mountains or whatever. It's really a nice place to visit. But there's a leather store, and it's the kind of place where they're always having a closeout sale. Yeah. And as you walk by them, they're yelling at you to come in, come, come try a coat. And like this, like they just pour, the leather smell just pours out of this place. It's just like a touch of that. Right. The old school Western wear store. But less horse. But less horse. Less horse. More pig, because it's a whistle pig. Is there, what do you got there? So this is a newish bottling from Yellowstone. It's an eight-year-old. They call it their recollection series. And the idea is that they wanted to honor their brand's history by having a bottle that would have been familiar to somebody drinking in a saloon, like in the 1800s. It's a bottle familiar to somebody drinking Sazerac Rye right now. Did they just steal a container of a bottle? I mean, it's not that close. It's a little different. There's a bottle of Sazerac Rye behind you. It's evocative. It's invocative at the least. Similar. Look at the actual neck of it. Yeah. The little old-timey ribs go partway up. It looks like you also could juice grapefruit on the top of this. Yeah, you probably could. Probably could. But it's eight years old, 110 proof, and it is on sale right now for $59.99. Whoa. Wait. So you got eight-year-old, 110 proof bourbon at that price is a pretty good value. It's like a, I don't know, goodness. Yeah. It's like really sweet. Creamy. Caramel-y. Like coconut cream. Coconut, yeah. A little bit like milk chocolate underneath there. Chocolate coverage here. There's definitely a. Boy, howdy. A lot of like. Very sweet. Almost like cola, like a cola. They got all the desserts in there. Yeah. As a resident whiskey non-advocate. Nervous. It's pretty good. Yeah. I mean, even at that proof, I think it's got some softness. It's not tearing up my palate. No one's ever asking for the whiskey non-advocate top 20 of the year list. Well, they should. This would make my number one, maybe. There's still a fair amount of this around, but it's like a one and done series. But at that price, I mean, it's totally worth having on the bar. How much is that? It's on sale right now for 60 bucks. That's great. Eight-year age statement, 110 proof. It tastes delicious. That's great. It's packed. Yeah. There's a lot going on. But yeah, definitely check that out. We have two new malt whiskeys from Thornton Distilling, which is in the south suburb of Thornton. The first time I'm going to pass around is their signature malt. The site that they're at was actually, the building was kind of decrepit when they took it over, but it was the oldest standing building that was a brewery in Illinois. Is this the place by Joe? Yeah. Now it's a distillery, but one of the owners, whiskey makers, has a background in beer. So with this one, no, nothing in here is peated, but they did use a blend of interesting malts, which I think show really well. I mean, it smells and tastes like brewery, like beer wort. Yeah. So I mean that in the best way. It smells like when you walk into a brewery and they're making beer. We're seeing a lot of malt distilleries that aren't scotched. We see this with tealing. We've talked about it. We've seen it with some of the local ones, like Maplewood, where they're using malts that do bring them a beer flavor, like almost like a porter. So I mean, yeah, it tastes like beer grains. It's great. Yeah. This has Brewers Pale, Munich Malt, Roasted Brown, and Special Dark Malted Barley in it. And you can just come through really elegantly and you can just spirit. I got like a really nice green apple at the beginning too. I don't know if that's... Oh yeah. Like apple skin kind of. Really nice five years old and yeah, local. Tastes like it too. It's delightful. Yeah. Not something I would be naturally drawn to, but it's delightful. Dusting of cocoa powder toward the finish. $49.99 every day price. That's fabulous for a local independent craft place that's making something interesting. Yeah. Yeah. They're known for their Dead Drop series like Kosher. Oh yeah. Those are really popular. And we do well with those too, but these are new to us and nice. It feels like fall too. And maybe that's just because of the grain, but... I think of the mixture of that palm fruit that we were tasting and then the chocolatey kind of friendly grain. Oh, the next is their Prairie Peat. This is made with just Pilsner malt, lightly smoked with hand-harvested Illinois peat. That's your nickname in college, right? Prairie Peat? Yeah. Hand-harvested Illinois peat. So they're using peat. Where is Illinois' peat? Anywhere you have... I think where there's bogs, there's peats. Yeah. I mean, there's like... Where are their bogs? Are they heading up to the Volo bog and taking peat out of there or what? I think it's from the... Yeah. The Volo has a bog. It has a bog and an honor museum. I think it's from the Skokie Lagoons. Really? I'm just kidding. Let's just say I'm getting lost here. But yeah, I mean, you have peat. We've been talking about... Would you say you're getting bogged down? I'm getting a little bogged down over here. We've been talking about this more and more because peat is not just peat. Peat does have terroir. There are, even in Scotland, there are... Highland peat is very different than highland. And everybody kind of thinks peat. It's all the same. Isla peat is what peat tastes like. And there is very like floral peat that you're feeling like the highlands and like Heather is what the, you know, essentially decomposing plant material is. Like you have a flowery kind of peat. So you do have some differences. And I think this is very like very lightly peated. Yeah, it's not lightly peated. It's not the Scottish bandaid that Lexi and myself and others don't necessarily care for. What a soft and delicate spirit. It's almost like a little meaty, like just a what can I get? I think the peat comes across in a bitterness on the finish of it. Like there's that peppery kind of numbing sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Szechuan peppercorn. Yeah, exactly. Huh. If you're afraid of peated whiskey and you have a chance to try this, I think this is potentially something that you might enjoy. Oh, yeah. This is like getting coffee with someone and the conversation is interesting, but not fun. You know, like a real pretentious jerk. You're getting coffee with a real pretentious jerk. Me. Oh, okay. One of their goals when they opened this hotel here was to make single malts, and this is kind of our first sort of preview into them, and I think there's a lot of promise here. So totally nice. Pretty exciting. That's really complex. Is that 45 bucks too? This one is 50. It's like five bucks more for the peated one. Still. Yeah. Wow. Still good. Good stuff. Nice to have good local single malt too. Yeah. Not too scary. Next, we have Bladnock. Bladnock is actually a very old distillery, but this eight year is a new expression from them. Natural color, all, I want to say Ola Rosso, Sherry. Another square, square bottle. But this one at least has round on the bottom. This is- Yeah. Square bottle kind of day here at Binny's Beverage Depot, Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Eight-year-old Loland. Yeah, but the Loland's goth. American Oak Red Wine Cask Double Matured Galloway Collection. The way that this looks and the way that I want it to taste in my head is probably not what it's going to taste like. What do you want it to taste like? Let's see. I want it to taste like you're sitting on a really nice leather chair with, I don't know, some tobacco candle maybe because tobacco freaks me out. It's got this like weird, like you just feel fancy kind of vibe, but it's not like aggressively pretentious. Not aggressively pretentious. Yeah. But you feel cool drinking it. That's what I want to taste. Maybe some apple in there. Well, the color here, this is all natural color, which it's extremely like richly amber. Yeah. Lolan Scotches for a long time were primarily used in blended Scotch, but we're starting to see more and more interest in Lolan's and new distillers. But this distillers is over 200 years old or close to 200 years old. It's an old distillery. What is that smell? I can't pick it out. It's like a bit lighter than the rest of it. Not like popcorn or like a banana, but something like. I'm getting like a really light like lemon zest on the lemon. It's like strawberry rhubarb jam. OK. That's fruity. The fruit is so upfront. And it's like that. But it's that on top of something toasty. Yeah. Toast. Jam on toast. Yeah. Well, wait, it's toasty. And it's sherry, right? American red wine casks, which may or may not be Schaeffer. We don't know. Double matured. So that's partially the color. First, Phil casks. There's like this oxidative almond skin thing that I'm getting. Maybe that's what I'm getting. Oh, yeah. Like almost like a touch like marzipan or something. No, like the almond skin, like the kind of bitterness or like walnut skin, like there's but there's also some kind of oxidative thing. Insulinic, like a like a sherry. That's why I asked about sherry, because I'm like, just there's some kind of oxidative. It does have like that. The oxidative kind of rich fruit. But you could, I mean, depending on the type of American cask they're using, you can get some of that, too. Yeah. So I made some ice cream last week and I used a salad at the yard. So I sure did. Made a good amount of money, actually. Nice. I used almond paste for the first time. Oh. Oh. A long time. Yeah. And you cut it open and you smell it right away and it's like this overwhelmingly almond and I'm wondering if that's also kind of that little. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I can see that. Big. It's big for a Lowland. It's really rich. I think it's like rich and almost like decadent, especially compared to the Lowlands I'm familiar with. I agree. But it's a nice whiskey. It's a lot about wine cask. Yeah. Would you say that of these ones that we've tried, do I tend to like the Lowland Scotches or the Highland? Or is it just that doesn't matter? It's more just the peat. I think. Yeah. I mean, keep in mind there is unpeated Isla Scotch too. I think you tend to like things that are a little more, show the barrels on there, on its, like one of the things that Brett talks about is that malt is great because it's like, he talks about it being a canvas that you can use to paint a world of flavors or something like that. So when you have like a Scotch that really shows the character of the barrel that was matured in, and a lot of times that's like a sherry or like a wine cask, especially I think. Yeah. I think that's kind of where you lean more towards, like when it's a bourbon cask, the malt tends to, bourbon kind of tends to take a step back and not influence them all as much, bourbon casks. The wine casks like sherry, port, red wine casks, whatever those kind of things are what give you more of that like rich fruit. I think that's kind of where you tend to prefer. Well, this is all that. Yeah. Definitely. Cool. What's next? Next is, of course, it wouldn't be a Dan Nordman podcast without a heavily peated. Is that a Nick Offerman? No. So this is the first 11 year they've done that wasn't a Nick Offerman branded. And this is an everyday item, a new everyday item from Lack of Will and it's called Sweet. You can take the Nick off of the bottle of scotch, but you can't take the bottle of scotch out of the Nick. I mean, yeah. Sure. We've had this around for a couple of months. It does really well. It comes in at... Oh, the Bladnock 8 by the way is $54.99. The Bladnock's how much? $54.99. $54.99. Oh, that's very affordable for that. Yeah. Yeah. How much does Lack of Will want? This one is $69.99. It says Sweet Pete, guys, so settle down. There is a little sweetness there. There is a little sweetness there. You're choking over here like you had the hiccups while you were tasting. It's good for you to try new stuff. I love Lack of Will, and I love Pete at Scotch. I love Scotch. As you all know. I really like this bottle. This is super in balance. This level of Pete and smoke is super in balance. It doesn't taste like Band-Aids. True. Yeah. It's got more of that just natural smoky instead of the iodiney. Hayrack ride with campfire in the distance. Better than the campfire on the hayride with the burning hayride. That's not safe at all. Man, that's good. Leftover barbecue? It does kind of like it because you have that sweetness. It's almost like it's barbecue sauce because of that level of sweetness. There's almost a chicory note. Yeah. And like a soy sauce thing too. This is really neat. Yeah. I like it. 86 proof. I think I said that already. Is this second to last? Yes. Can I enjoy this for a minute before we have whatever pink sticky thing that is you have over there? I don't know what it is. I can only see it from the side. I need a new glass. Wow. You guys, you guys are so lucky that we get to try this kind of stuff because you're over here to like barely able to, you know, keep it in the palate. And this is wonderful. It's a little bit of a suffering thing, but I also think it's a really good. The only way your palate gets better is by doing stuff like this. So I hate it, but I love it. If that makes sense. Well, yeah, yeah. I like it's cool to, I don't know. I told my kids this. If you were like smelling something and you're like, oh, gross, here, you got to smell this. I would totally smell it. I have to smell it. With any reason. I'm going to say this again. This is right in the wheelhouse of your agave spirits. There's a vegity quality, a smoky quality, a sweetness that's underlying. It's not the same, but it has a lot of the similar qualities. Well, and it's always the thing to keep in mind is that, well, first of all, I'll say, and I'm going to say something about Greg that may or may not be true, but I, and much like from what I can tell from Greg, if you've heard of super tasters where I think I'm an undertaster. Yeah, I think it's the opposite. For real. Because I like really pungent food. I'll just be eating kimchi in my kitchen with the fridge open. My wife is like, are you eating kimchi in there? Yeah. You did that last week to me. Oh, yeah. I did? In the classroom. Oh, yeah, I did bring kimchi. I didn't hear you come in. I had my headphones on. I was working and I didn't hear you really come in, and I just, all of a sudden, I'm like, it smells like kimchi in here. It smells like oily broccoli in here. What's happening? It was good. I just, it was funny. I mean, the foods I like and really salty anchovies and tinned fish and stuff. I mean, that's the kind of- This is my theory of my palate, is that I'm an undertaster. What it means, it means that really overblown things, I can appreciate that other people are just horrified by. Yeah, like bitter stuff. Yeah. I also don't really love sweets that much, and I think it's because it just tastes like nothing to me, and it's just calories that don't do anything for me. Yeah. Because I don't, like, yeah. But I think that's what it is, is I just don't, because the first whiskey I ever enjoyed was the 4810, and I was like 23 years old and immediately fell in love, and that's not normal. Yeah. For lack of a better way to put it. So that's the one thing that I'm not sure about, this working theory, is was I born like this, or is this the product of all of the intense flavors I've pounded myself with for the last 20 years? For me, it's because I had a bottle rocket shoot up my nose when I was a kid. Is that for real? No, that was a Simpsons reference. That's why Joe laughs. I can't smell, what's it? One of the ants can't taste anything because she had a bottle rocket shot up her nose when she was a kid. We just started watching them with my kids. Nice. We're really mid-season two right now. We're reliving happy times. 38:10 Bottled Cocktail Review Yeah, okay. So, all right, that all said, what is this red bottle? What have we got here? So, probably one of the very popular, I want to cut like the bottled pre-mixed cocktails that we have. One of the very popular lines that we have is Handy and Schiller, which is Sazerac's brand, and they use the ones that we've had forever are the Old Fashioned, which uses Buffalo Trace, and the Manhattan, which uses Sazerac Rye. So, part of that is why it's so popular. They have had a new line extension. There was a Mint Julep, which was, there's still some around, but that was like a LTO for the Kentucky Derby. This is an everyday item from them. It's a Paper Plane. I thought it was kind of interesting that they go from like really classic cocktails to something that's, I mean, at least to me, it's kind of on the leading edge of. It's hip. Yeah, it's like something that, you know, it's been around for a while, but I think that Paper Plane does have its origins in Chicago. It was a cocktail designed for the Violet Hour. So we have that connection too. Paper Plane is bourbon, red bitters, and lemon juice. Yeah, I don't remember. Does it say at the back? A pounce of lemon, tangly lemon, and deep herbal flavors, but the ready to drink cocktail. Bourbon, Aperol. And Amaro, and typically Amaro Nonino. It's good. And lemon juice, right? I just associate this drink with lemon juice. Yeah. I mean, it's lemony. They get pretty acidic by the end of the night. But this is pretty sweet, and it's got the bitter. The bitterness makes it kind of more grapefruit-y. The smell, definitely the smell tastes like, it smells like it's got grapefruit juice in it. Like ruby red grapefruit. Yeah. It tastes like that, too, but less bitter. The bitterness is really dialed down. But I don't hate it. I mean, it smells like fruit punch, but it tastes a lot more structured and interesting. Well, one thing I think, and when I first had you taste this in the office, Lexi, and you brought this up, I think it's a good point with these bottled cocktails that are stronger cocktails that you're going to pour on ice. They're good bases, but you can enhance them. I think that what you said is adding some lemon juice on top of this when you pour it, I think would really add something. I also am a firm believer that all of these canned or ready to drink type things, they shouldn't just be consumed out of the bottle. I think that's a little bit insane. I think that it doesn't need to be anything crazy, but just throw two ice cubes from your freezer in there, shake it, and it's going to make an entirely new cocktail. You're saying you need to shake it also, not just like, but you're saying don't drink it from the bottle into a glass. You're saying bottle into shaker into glass. I would do a little bit of lemon just to try to counteract the sugar and everything else. That's like fresh lemon. You know what would be good in here? Baking spices, so like pimento dram would make it into a Christmas cocktail or even a few brothers old-fashioned aromatic bitters. Well, there's some. I mean, part of that too is like there's certain elements of like, if you were going to batch up old-fashions, let's say, you might wait until you serve it to pour the bitters in, because those are aromatic and some of that can evaporate. Same thing like lemon juice, it's a relatively delicate fruit. Well, it is present here, I think adding like a squeeze from a wedge of a fresh lemon would really just like make it pop a little bit. So the lesson being with these kind of pre-made cocktails is doctor them a little bit, like you would with a frozen pizza, you know? You're not just throwing on some extra stuff that you like, spinach or whatever. Chardonnay. Chardonnay, right? Banana, peppers. Yeah, whatever. You do it at home with your frozen pizza. Do it at home with your ready-to-drink cocktail. I also added a little two drops of this water that's really cold to it, and I do think it tastes different than the first sip. Oh, okay. So food for thought. Dilution would help in this case. This is probably traditionally served up, right? Yeah, with the lemon peel. All right. All right. I didn't hate that. That's pretty good. How much is that? 30 bucks? Yeah, I think they're around 30 bucks. Okay. Yeah, that's some of the stuff we've been doing. Tried to do a wide swathe of types of things, at least. Sometimes I remember that we have cool jobs. You have a cool job. Yep. Yeah. Thanks. I feel very fortunate to do what I do. And I thought that this room would smell like truffles by the end of this thing, but it doesn't. It smells like Lagavulin 11. I keep upping the ante, it's a lot. And we should make a cocktail with both of those things. You think they step on each other? I think it would be a tough sell for the average consumer. Some of that and then maybe some Baileys or something like that. You've lost me now. Yeah. I still want to make it. I'm trying to think of it as gross as I could make it. Truffle Gin Martini with Capers and Caper Brine. Have it with your lemon piccata. And then, yeah, lemon squeeze. Chicken piccata. Yeah, good stuff. All right. Everybody get out there and taste. You'll discover things that you didn't know existed, that you didn't know you needed. And then there they are. There they are. At your local Binny's. At your local Binny's. That Lagoon is really good. That Dos Hombres is really good. Yeah. I'm thinking about that. Whatever the last agave was we had. El Mexicano Añejo. Yeah, that was really good. Really nice. All right. Good stuff. And we'll have some good stuff when we're back in your feed soon. Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Until then, I'm Greg. I'm Jim. I'm Lexi. And I'm Dan. Keep tasting.