Latest / Aussie Bourbon Lovers / Old Grandad 114: Small Jug, Big Personality

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Old Grandad 114: Small Jug, Big Personality · Aussie Bourbon Lovers

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  Incredible flavours. Even better stories. One pour. Ten minutes. Aussie bourbon lovers
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  sharing bourbon with Australia.
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  Hey.
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  Good one. Nice.
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  This bottle's almost empty, Dave. What are we drinking?
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  This is an Old Grandad 114.
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  I just love the name. Old Grandad.
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  And immediately before we hit record, you declared that you don't know much about it.
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  I don't know anything about this other than it's called Old Grandad. And it sits on our
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  shelf and it's nearly empty, which means we like it.
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  Well, definitely one of us likes it, because you said you don't know anything about it.
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  Can you tell me before we have any if you like it or not?
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  Oh, before we have any?
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  Yeah. Do you know if you like it? Or is this bottle mostly empty because I like it?
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  I'd probably go with that option.
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  I think it might be that one.
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  Which means it's going to have tobacco-y flavours if I don't like it.
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  I'm not saying you don't like it. I just might be keeping it from you about how good it is.
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  Maybe it's really good you've never shown it to me.
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  Maybe. Cheers.
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  Cheers to Old Grandad. I like the name. I'll have to find out if I like the liquid.
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  All right. Well, I'm going to do this as a bit of trivia. Let's go. Come on then. First
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  of all, what are you getting on the nose?
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  Well, it's a very subtle nose.
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  What do we call this? We call this...
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  We had another one of the Old Grandad expressions, actually, not this one. We had the bottled-in
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  bond one, actually.
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  It's very subtle on the nose.
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  We call that velocity coming out of the glass?
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  Yeah. There's like not...
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  I agree with you. That's not huge.
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  It's nice. I'm getting your vanilla, but it's not really strong. It doesn't hit you in the
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  nose. Some of them, it's powerful flavour, but that's very subtle.
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  It's called Old Grandad 114. Don't lose the bottle.
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  Okay.
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  What do you think 114 is about?
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  That's how Old Grandad is?
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  Oh, this might be a long episode. Sorry, everyone.
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  Sorry.
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  What do you think 114 might be?
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  Old Grandad 114. Is that the number, the distillery number?
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  No.
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  114. I don't know. The barrel number?
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  Have a try. No. Barrel number? No.
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  We could be here all night.
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  114. You can do this. I went with the easiest question first. This is the easiest question.
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  Much harder.
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  Tell me the answer then.
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  It's 114 proof. It's so easy and you got it so wrong.
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  Because I was going for something way more complicated.
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  That's why I told you it was easy.
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  All right.
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  I really should stick to the ...
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  Come on. Nose it again.
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  Yeah. I said vanilla and very subtle.
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  Very good. Okay.
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  You tell me what you get.
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  All right. Well, I can do that too. I'm getting a little bit of fruit and caramel. Super.
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  Yeah, I'm getting that biscuity-ness a little bit as well, so cinnamon.
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  I'm going to say this is mostly because you've been hogging it on the shelf.
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  Why are you saying that?
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  Because it's nice.
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  I like that. You like that a lot.
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  Yes.
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  Yeah. And do you know why you like it a lot? Because it's very good.
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  So have we been drinking this or is this something you're like, this is delicious.
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  I'm just giving it to myself.
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  I'll put it this way. This is not your first pour of that for sure.
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  No. I know that.
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  I almost never pour myself something and pour you something different.
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  But when I do, I pour myself something really good.
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  No, no.
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  On business trips, we'll be ...
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  Is this not available in Australia?
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  You can get it in Australia.
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  But I just tried to find another bottle because I can see how deep this one is
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  and it's not that easy to get.
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  Wait, I've got more questions for you. Stop trying it.
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  I'm just really disappointed that the 114 was just literally the proof.
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  You're disappointed?
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  It was the easiest trivia question and you got it wrong with four guesses.
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  I thought it was going to be like some really cool story.
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  Okay. Let's do some more.
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  Let's do some more. Come on then.
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  I don't know anything about it.
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  I just want to put it out there.
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  This is why this is fun.
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  Have a look at the bottle and see if you can work out.
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  Tell the listeners at home what is weird about this bottle.
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  You even opened this.
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  This bottle is really unique for a couple of reasons.
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  Why is it unique?
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  Why is it unique?
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  Oh, come on.
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  That was another easy one.
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  You can look at it and say the answers.
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  It's got a cork.
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  It's got a cork.
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  They almost all have corks.
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  I know.
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  That's what I'm like.
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  Are you joking?
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  Take the cork out.
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  Tell us about the size of the cork.
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  It's large.
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  It's extremely large.
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  That is much larger than you.
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  Every bottle has a different size cork.
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  No, they almost don't.
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  They're almost completely universal size.
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  That is easily the largest cork of any bottle we've ever owned.
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  How are you having trouble with this?
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  All right.
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  From now on, I'm taking the trivia element away.
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  I just want to put it out there.
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  I said I know absolutely nothing about this.
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  I know.
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  So I thought I'd make it, like, fun and easy trivia
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  where you could look at the bottle and provide simple answers.
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  It's a cork, which all bottles are a cork.
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  I don't understand why you think that's unique.
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  The bottle shape.
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  It's almost like a jug.
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  This thing is much closer to a jug than it is a bottle.
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  It's a very old-school bottle.
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  Okay.
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  Here we go.
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  Now you're getting a bit closer.
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  Yeah, and then it's got a little wax seal on it too,
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  which is really cool.
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  Great.
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  So then let me kind of reveal a key piece of information here,
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  which is off the back of what I thought were the guesses.
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  I thought you were going to do some really good guessing.
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  Mash bill, 83% corn, 27% rye, 10% malt for barley,
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  and the thing that you kind of really need to know about this is that
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  that particular recipe has been distilled almost without stopping since 1882.
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  Oh.
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  It was part of a series.
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  Was it always called Old Grandad?
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  It was always called Old Grandad.
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  And there's this funny thing about Old Forrester, Old Crow, Old Overholt,
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  Old Grandad.
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  There's this, like, obsession with calling things old.
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  This one's legit old.
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  Well, this one is kind of legit old, I think.
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  But, you know, Old Forrester's legit old as well.
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  Old Crow was legit old.
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  Old Overholt's legit old.
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  Yeah.
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  That's probably why they all use old.
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  Well, I suppose so.
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  But when I had this really weird, when I was first getting into bourbon,
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  I had this really weird resistance to Old Forrester because of this thing of,
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  like, I don't want something that's old.
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  That's weird.
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  I want something that's kind of fresh and exciting and old sounds like a.
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  Grandad's drink.
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  Well, is it?
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  I don't know.
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  Something like that.
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  But this is amazing.
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  So do you want to?
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  It's distilled by one of the big distilleries.
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  Do you want to guess?
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  No.
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  You don't want to do any more guessing.
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  Okay.
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  Let's have a guess.
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  Okay.
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  Is it one of the big distilleries?
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  I can give you a clue if you want.
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  It's going to be.
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  This was created by someone called Raymond B. Hayden.
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  And this distillery make another drink that's got Hayden in its name.
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  It was named for his grandad.
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  And his grandad's name was Basil Hayden.
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  Oh.
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  Are you going to guess that it's there?
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  He's not going to know.
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  I'm giving you too many clues that you don't know the rest of what the clue means.
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  I know exactly.
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  I know the story.
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  But what's the name of the distillery?
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  James B. Beam Distillery.
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  It's.
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  Jim Beam.
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  Yeah.
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  Beam Suntory.
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  But they make this as well.
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  They make lots of expressions.
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  In fact, they had for a while there,
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  they had what they called the old collection where they had Old Crow and Old Overhaul
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  and Old Grandad as one of the same.
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  All kind of one of the same kind of series.
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  So did he name it after his grandad?
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  Yeah.
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  Raymond Hayden named it after his grandad.
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  That's fun.
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  But here's the thing.
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  Everyone keeps thinking that they're going to axe it and get rid of it.
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  But.
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  Why would they do that?
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  Apparently they're not.
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  Well, because it's so old.
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  And, like, look at this.
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  It looks like an old jug with a plastic, weird plastic cork cap thing with a massive opening.
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  It's this really funny, funky looking thing.
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  And they've got three expressions, an 80 proof, a 100 proof and a 114 proof.
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  And people obsess about this expression, 114 proof.
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  Old Grandad 114 is like a, it's like a go to that people think of as like a really.
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  I just, I like the old school.
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  Quintessential poor.
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  Yeah.
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  It really does have that vibe of, like, something from, like, old school bourbon days.
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  I agree.
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  Yeah.
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  And they've just started releasing these limited releases.
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  Oh, not limited, but like harder to get, whether it's a, I don't know,
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  it's like a black and silver label.
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  Seven year old.
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  I'm not sure if they're single barrels.
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  Yeah, yeah.
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  Sandshake bottle.
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  Yep.
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  And so instead of leaning away from it, they're leaning into it.
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  And they're really kind of well sought after.
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  Why not?
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  It tastes this good.
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  It tastes this good.
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  Yeah.
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  So here's an interesting fact about it.
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  They've kind of got this cult following.
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  People know it.
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  Is it?
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  I'm not going to know.
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  I wasn't going to do it as a trivia question.
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  I'll tell you safely now.
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  You don't have to be scared about that.
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  There's this huge belief that the,
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  that this is just such an incredibly good value pour,
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  that there's a thing where, you know,
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  people often talk about like late 90s, early 2000s,
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  you could get, you know, a bottle of, what is it?
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  Wella 12 down the liquor store for $12 or 30 bucks,
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  whatever it was, and it was such great value.
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  And now you can't get it for any less than blah, blah, blah.
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  There's this thing.
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  But this bottle has kind of stayed the same price.
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  Oh, that's cool.
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  And so there's a lot of people who think that this is just like
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  one of the absolute tried and true bangers.
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  And they just stick into the.
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  It's a good one.
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  Same price, same quality.
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  And.
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  I like it.
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  I don't mind declaring I really, really like it.
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  This was the first bottle of it I had.
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  Yeah.
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  And you didn't obviously get very much of it.
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  I was going to say.
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  But I really enjoyed it.
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  I'm looking for another one.
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  This is how much you liked it for those of you who didn't.
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  If you're looking to try something that maybe is a bit of a amongst
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  bourbon nerds, a bit of a hardcore like go-to for people who know,
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  if you know, you know kind of thing.
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  Yeah.
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  This is a good one to get,
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  even though the bottle looks weird with a weird plastic giant cork.
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  I don't understand.
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  It's just an, like it's a really old school bottle.
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  It kind of doesn't jump out of you because it's so just big,
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  old school bottle.
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  Can I make a strange claim?
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  James Beebe makes some amazing whiskey.
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  Not Jim Beam Wine label, but lots of other stuff.
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  Yeah.
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  Of all the stuff they make, this is by far, in my view.
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  Oh, this is your favourite, Dave?
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  No, it's not my favourite.
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  It's by far the best value good one.
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  Oh.
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  They make a lot of stuff that's a bit expensive.
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  And not.
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  And good, really good.
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  Yep.
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  And they make this one, which is good.
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  Good value.
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  And good value.
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  Yep.
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  There you go.
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  I said it.
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  Here's to good value.
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  Don't buy all the ones in Australia because I want to have some left over.
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  Cheers.
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  Cheers.
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  Cheers.
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  Cheers.
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  Cheers.
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  Cheers.
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  Cheers.
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  Cheers.
• 11:11
  Cheers.
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  Cheers.
• 11:13
  Cheers.
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  Thanks for listening.
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