Latest / Aussie Bourbon Lovers / Michter’s 10 Year Bourbon: 6 Things They Do Differently

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Michter’s 10 Year Bourbon: 6 Things They Do Differently · Aussie Bourbon Lovers

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  Incredible flavours, even better stories. One pour,
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  10 minutes. Aussie Bourbon Lovers sharing bourbon with Australia.
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  Look, it's not my best pop ever, but it was— I definitely opened the bottle.
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  You did, you did, and it's a very special bottle tonight, Dave.
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  What are we drinking tonight? We're having a Michter's 10 Year Old Bourbon.
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  And it's a special bottle actually, because it was given to me by some beautiful
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  friends. Yeah, it was on his birthday wish list and they all
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  went in together and got him this amazing Michter's 10 Year Old. Michter's 10 Year
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  Old, probably one of my favorite bourbons that
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  you can get your hands on, right? This is the 2025 release and
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  what an absolute joy it is to be sharing it with you on the podcast
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  tonight. Cheers. Thanks everyone for getting this for Dave.
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  I'm going to very much enjoy it. Yeah, you get to cash in.
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  That's good. That's great. Who doesn't love
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  a Michtis? Tell you what, that nose has already got
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  me. Just— it's a party in my nostrils.
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  The celebration continues. The celebration will continue every time I
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  drink a Michtis 10. And it's kind of— I hadn't even thought about this,
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  but a Michtis 10, it's like a It's a, it's a 10 number. I turned
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  40, so it's a 10 number. Yeah. Oh, I should have bought you
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  4 bottles. No, that's a joke. Oh, what a good idea. Well,
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  there's still time. No, I'm not 41 yet.
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  Well, maybe over the course of, you know,
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  I love this idea. Come on. On the nose. What are we getting? Oh,
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  it's very— what's the word?
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  Like, it's like that nice fruit. You definitely
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  get the vanilla, but yeah, there's like a,
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  like a currant soaked in. It's like you're making a Christmas cake, like you soak
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  the currants in the whiskey or whatever you're soaking
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  it in. I agree that that's that curranty thing. I also
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  get a chocolatey-ness. There's definitely a dark
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  chocolate to that nose. Caramel, caramello chocolate,
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  like a Cadbury caramello chocolate. Now I'm getting like the really dark,
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  you know, like when you buy a 70%, like the that really
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  nice dark, dark chocolate. That's what I'm nosing.
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  And then I have this— for me, it's like a distinct 10-year
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  thing. It's like there's that oaky, sweet,
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  sweet oak. Yeah, it has oak. Lovely. Not like
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  a— sometimes you get that when I say oakiness, it's like very barrel,
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  like barrelly and heavy oak. But that's
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  like a light— like you can tell it's aged, but it's not too much.
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  Crazy subtle. Yeah. And then baked apple, the other one I'm getting,
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  which might be this Sultana. Sometimes I get Sultanas and baked apple in the same
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  one. I don't know why, but I'm definitely— I'd have to say my strongest
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  one is like the currants and the dark, dark chocolate. I could just nose it.
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  I can. This is weird, isn't it? I could just nose it. You can make
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  the bottle last longer if you nose it. Don't drink it, Dave. I'm not
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  going to do that. That would be foolish, I think, as a bourbon enjoyer.
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  It's to be enjoyed. And it was great to be able to share it with
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  friends on a special occasion. A Michter's bottle is always great for a special
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  occasion. Speaking of special occasions, they've got a special occasion at the moment.
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  The fact that they won a grand award. Well, it's not
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  just a grand award. It's the 4th one in a row. Most admired whisky in
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  the world. In the world. America. It's like the world. Can I
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  be a little bit embarrassing about this? Because I— so I know they've been on
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  the podcast and spoke about how proud they are about it. Yeah.
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  And they— that's incredible. And obviously I was
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  proud for them as well. But then I watched the post where
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  they counted the 50 down. Holy smokes, they've knocked some— well,
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  they've knocked all the distilleries off. But when you watch the illustrious distilleries
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  countdown from the top 50, you realize what that award
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  really means. Yeah. And that top 20 is like,
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  there's so many incredible in
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  the future. Like, I mean, I don't know, whiskies, of course, if you're the most
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  something in the world, then that means everyone else isn't as good as you by
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  that same standard. Yeah, but do yourself a favor and watch that 50 countdown because
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  my goodness, you really understand what the award means. Holy smokes.
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  You can go through it and see how many you've tried too. I just— I
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  have a new— yeah, I suppose you could do that too. I really had a
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  newfound respect for that. This— sorry, I— you have— you probably still just nosing that.
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  That is An absolute delight.
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  And from some of the other, um, Michter's 10s that I've had, that is—
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  I think it's fruitier in a lovely,
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  rounded way than some of the other ones I've had. That's beautiful.
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  Fruity is the wrong— it sounds like I'm talking about a white wine or something.
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  I'm not. I'm talking about these like rounded rolls
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  off the palate, caramelly, um, like,
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  uh, what's the— like when you gotta It really is
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  the fruit in that fruitcake, like that delicious Christmas pudding.
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  Christmas pudding when you have the caramel sauce on top of that really fruity Christmas
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  pudding. I had this weird visual when you were saying that, that maybe like a
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  toffee apple, but like if you could toffee apple lots of different fruits and then
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  have that as some kind of like a fruit salad that's like got this lovely
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  caramel crust on lots of different fruits.
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  That's weird. Yeah, but I'm getting that it's got a lot of warmth, like really
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  nice, like that Christmas. My mum used to make this Christmas pudding that used
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  to have lots of like fruit in it. And then
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  she'd pour like this caramel sauce over the top. Oh yeah. And that's what this
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  drink is like, really. Oh yeah. Bit of sticky date. Yeah, a little bit of
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  sticky date, but more like currants and raisins and sultanas
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  and like, yeah, lots of fruitiness. It kind of
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  feels like it's almost coated more of my tongue than it actually made contact with.
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  Like it's really gripping on my whole tongue. You don't need to go for another
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  sip really quickly because it's You know, I'm gonna have
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  a party in my mouth. It's like parties everywhere.
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  That's good birthday drink. So the fun
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  thing about— so the Michter's 10 Year Old thing is that it's 10 years
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  old, but because Michter's do these great things that
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  make their whiskey so different from a lot of other— a lot of, a lot
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  of others. So some others will do some of these things. There's these 6 things
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  they do. Yeah. All different. Yeah. Do you know all 6?
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  I have got a cheat sheet. Do you know all 6?
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  I, I know a few of them. I don't know if I can— Go ahead,
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  go ahead. I can fill out the rest. All right. I know they put it
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  in at a low proof, so I know that. Do you know what it is?
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  I know that most places have to be lower
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  than 125. Yes. And they put theirs in around 103.
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  Okay. Gold star. Well played. I'm really stretching the
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  memory here. I know they toast their barrels before they char them. So lots of
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  places do that. There's not lots, but there's more More than just them do that
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  one. Yeah, I know they have a really unique filtration system.
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  So this non-chill filtered thing, a lot of people bang on about that. They say
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  no, no, chill filtration is okay, but it's custom chill filtration depending on
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  the expression. Yeah. So they don't just like— it's not not
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  filtered and it's not chill filtered. It's like this special
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  Michter's way of— really thoughtful. And when we got to do the tour at Chiveley,
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  they showed us what that looked like. And my goodness, it was effective.
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  Really? Yeah, really different because they line them up in the different ones with the
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  different filtrations and it's amazing what just difference the filtration makes.
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  You've distracted me now from remembering how many have I done. I think you've done
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  3 toasted. You did the 103 entry and
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  you also did filtration. You got one that a lot will do.
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  That was the toasted. No, no, there's another one that a lot will do.
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  It's about the batch size. They do a small batch now. Lots of places say
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  small batch and they mean like 200 or
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  however many barrels, but Michter's keep it below
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  20. Is their small batch kind of—
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  Yeah. Which is actually a genuine small batch. No more than 24
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  barrels. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Small batch. And I
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  had the other one while I was thinking of that. I remember the other one.
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  Toasted, chill filtered.
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  There's 2. You've got 2 more. You can do it. Oh, I can do it.
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  I believe in me. It went in my mind. I'm not sure
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  I believe in you. Oh, they— oh, they— I said they put it in the
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  low proof. This is not compelling.
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  They— sorry, I'm trying really hard to remember. I'll do one more
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  and then you can do the last one. Okay. They air dry the wood for
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  a really long time. It's like— yeah, it's called seasoning. Seasoning. Yeah. And so this
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  is legit. Put it out in the yard and just leave it there. I feel
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  like I have Andrea's voice in my mind listening to it because she's
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  got— she talks about the fact that there's basically the bugs kind of get at
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  it and it's kind of good that gets the stuff growing on itself because they
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  literally leave it out in there for months. I think about it in a yard
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  or a paddock or wherever where the wood has this, like just wood being
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  exposed to the elements. Yeah. Between 18 and 60 months
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  is how long it goes out and some Other places will do 6 months or
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  less or 12 months or less. 60 months. This is a long time.
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  Long time. Yeah. How many years is 60 months? I remember being blown
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  away doing maths. I remembered my 5 facts.
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  Now 6. But I remember being blown away when Andrea
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  showed me that the different, like, way they make sure the wood is
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  cut for, like, Michter's barrels, like, there's a very specific and
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  just like the detail. It's not just, oh, here's a barrel made out of this
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  wood. It's like been left out there for a very specific amount of
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  time. And then each stave is
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  like selected for a Michter's barrel. It's like so good.
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  I love barrels. I love the science
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  and the art and the mystery of wood. Yeah, I love it. But I have
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  never had a better few minutes of
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  loving the wood story as when we were with Andrew and
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  Dan at at Shively at McDizz as they're explaining this stuff. And then Precision
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  Fine Grain, that as well. The story of that, the Bomburgers expression that they did.
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  Oh my goodness. Andrew's passion for wood is genuinely
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  next level. I've met anyone who really loves the flavors that can come from,
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  from wood like that. Yeah. So what's my number 6, Dave, that I forgot?
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  You didn't do heat cycling, which was the— that's kind of like my first one.
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  Yeah, that's like the one that is the fun one because the 10 years of
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  this. So they heat cycle the warehouses, which means that the temperature in
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  the warehouse fluctuates in the winter. They basically put a heater
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  on in the warehouse, which means they create a second summer almost. So the
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  temperature comes in and out of the wood. So 10 years is just the youngest.
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  The temperature, the whisky comes in and out of the barrel. Yeah, but 10 years
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  is the youngest in that. Well, so that's the— sorry, the idea
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  is that the youngest whisky in any barrel can be
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  what the age statement on the label. On the label.
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  This is a single barrel. The expression is
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  called tenure. Infamously, Mikta's tenure
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  is often much older than that. Yeah. Like sometimes it's
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  been as old as I think 16 or 17 years. So like it's infamously
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  older and the 10 years is the actual calendar
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  age. But I think about it almost like dog years because you get— Oh,
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  because they explain to us it's a year and a half. So 10 years according
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  to the science of it or whatever is kind of 15 years. If it's the
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  youngest. Yeah, I'm kind of going off a bit of a weird tangent. You need
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  a pen and paper to follow, but that's kind of like the youngest. But if
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  it is, say, 15 years, it's kind of 1.5 times that. Yeah,
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  I'd— yeah, it's just— we're saying that's 22
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  years if I'm doing my maths right.
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  Oh, but I think the proof is in the— of the pudding is in the
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  eating, in this case the drinking, because it is just an absolute
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  delight to enjoy. And it's not— this is the thing that drives me kind of
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  crazy, is that how on earth are they getting something that is so
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  balanced? When you talk about those ages and you have other expressions
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  from other distilleries that have that amount of time in a barrel, it's,
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  it's, you get so much oak influence that it does taste like you're
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  on a trip to Bunnings. You're eating a piece of timber. Well,
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  it's so, it's so easy to kind of age it too much and, and get
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  like, some people really like that really strong oaky finish,
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  but I definitely don't. But this is somehow able
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  to give you that oakiness that comes with age,
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  but still have that amazing, delicious,
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  fruity, smooth finish. If you can't tell, we kind of like Michter's and we kind
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  of like this expression. You should do
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  your best to get your hands on one of these, or at least a pour
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  of one of these. Or at least some really good friends like Dave who'll buy
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  you a bottle. Hang on. Friends like I've got you,
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  mate. Not friends like, I'm not going to buy anyone a bottle of this.
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  If I get my hands on a bottle of this, I'll share a pour with
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  you, but I'm not Giving it to anyone.
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  Hey, here's to celebrating special moments and special birthdays with
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  awesome people and awesome whiskies. To fabulous friends.
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  Cheers.
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  Thanks for
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  listening. Make sure you connect with us on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, and stay connected
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