Latest / The Scotchy Bourbon Boys / Exploring the Aromatic Union of Yellowstone Bourbon and Cigars with Stephen Fante Face of Limestone Branch Distillery

Transcript

Exploring the Aromatic Union of Yellowstone Bourbon and Cigars with Stephen Fante Face of Limestone Branch Distillery · The Scotchy Bourbon Boys

• 1:00
  Speaker 2: We need background noise, is what he's saying.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we know.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: They have no idea what we'll do next time.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: What's great is what I hear in the microphone.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Weather's not bad today, though I'll take this thing Beautiful 16.5ish maybe.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Awesome.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Dude, I'm still working on it.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: I only got 8.5.
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: It's all good, Alright we are the two Bourbon on the banks in Frankfort, kentucky.
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: We have a very special guest and we're here in full force.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: We have Stephen Bonte.
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: Welcome.
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: Thanks for having me.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: Yes, it's great to have you here.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: We're smoking some cigars, we're drinking some fine.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: Yellowstone bourbon.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: I believe that's a barrel thing.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: That's a white color Sizes.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: And then also we've got whiskey, we've got CT, we've got super nice and we've got tiny right here We've got security, pedestal security.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: And there's always gummies.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: Cheers, everybody Cheers.
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: So, stephen, it's so great to have you on the podcast here.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: This is what we're doing Our first podcast of Bourbon on the banks.
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: Thank you for coming.
• 3:09
  Speaker 5: It was a great time in St Louis For the St Louis Bourbon Festival.
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: Now we're here at Bourbon on the banks.
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: I've got time to spend with some of our good friends, like Michael Beach, etc.
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: And now I'm here with you guys.
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: It's a hell of a weekend.
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: I mean, you don't get better than that, absolutely.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: And we have to say thank you, the cigars.
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: compliments of Kobe the Kentucky original black bourbon enthusiast, president Jamar Mack, and I partnered up.
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: We made up some custom shirts.
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: He donated some cigars for our booth and joined us over there, so we have cigars to give away.
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: You want to come spend some time at the booth?
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: We've got chairs set up for you to come over and sit down and smoke the cigar and have a floor, just like we do at Artistillery.
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: We want you to get yourself on in your pocket, put a cigar on one hand and a bourbon on the other and forget about life for a moment.
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: So come by and see us at the Yellowstone booth and enjoy some of the Kobe treats that we have for you.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: You also have a treat that's in the shape of a dog bun.
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: So there's puppies.
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: You got to have poop bags, so we've got the dog bone poop bag with the Yellowstone on it, Free TQ.
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we bring your puppy up.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: My wife was over there trying to get that for me.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: That's been a sin.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: They're used to one of those because there was a line.
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: Oh wait, here goes the poop bag.
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: There it is there it is.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: It even comes with a little clasp so you can hook it on your belt loop and that way if dog takes it down, the dog will get on it.
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's got a Kim.
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: Caron.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: So what's really cool is you've always been an avid cigar smoker.
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: Correct me.
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: Jay Paul Tucker.
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: Jay Paul's house of cigars was where I met Carlito Fuente for the first time.
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: Jay Paul introduced me to Carlito.
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: Last night I was with Niche Patel.
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: Niche is Rocky Patel's brother.
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: It was extraordinary.
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: It was two nights ago that I did that at the.
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: We had a big event in St Louis and so, yeah, I've been a cigar smoker for quite some time Lit cigar bar lounge.
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: Niche had just spoken there and then I spoke after him and it was just great to meet Patel family in person.
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: They've got some cigars right now at the Rocky Patel compound.
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: They have the tobacco in our bourbon barrels Wow, they have rappers in our bourbon barrels coming to Stardare U.
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: There's going to be a new Yellowstone Presidente cigar finished in bourbon barrels, wow, wow.
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: That sounds awesome.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: So you brought a bottle of a barrel pan a.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Yellowstone which.
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: I have a lot of favorites of, but talk about what a cigar does.
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: I am a fairly new beginner.
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: I've smoked cigars on special occasions throughout my whole life.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: But talk about what like, for instance, the cigar we're smoking today, and then what?
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: It does when you're drinking bourbon, because it actually makes a lot of times a bourbon will bring out some sweetness up against the cigar tobacco flavor, and then you drink the bourbon and it changes the flavor of the bourbon, right?
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: I mean, let me borrow your torch.
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: That's what happens to a cigar it goes out when you talk too much.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: No, yeah, you enhance flavor characteristics.
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: Something that I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger do was take a cedar wrapper and dip it down into the bourbon and wipe the cigar down so that you pick up the flavor characteristics of the bourbon into the cigar.
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: It's not uncommon for people to dunk their cigar down in it to get a little cooler smoke and to get a little bit of flavor of the actual bourbon.
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: All of which is just fun and enjoyable, and that's what cigars are about.
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: It's about slowing down, it's about spending time with the people that are next to you.
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: And you get a corona cigar I like to pair it with a hand bourbon.
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: You get a Maduro cigar I like to pair it with a light bourbon.
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: I like to go opposite of what I'm drinking in the actual cigar, so typically that works for me.
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: So I've got a Nicaraguan.
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: Is that what I got?
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: No, I got, You've got, a corona.
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: You can tell him by the leaf you got a Nicaraguan, that's a Maduro.
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: That's a little Maduro.
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: You can tell him by the leaf.
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: I've got, I believe, a corona in my hand, these glasses.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: It's a rocket patelle velvet cigar.
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: Wow, I'm just going to say that, pairing it with this bottle the flavor of what I'm picking up from bourbon is just, it changes it.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: It's so caramel, you pick up the sweetness that's what I was about to say.
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: I'm just enjoying this moment and this bourbon and I'm drinking with you.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: That in itself talk about that.
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: When you're with friends, it gives you this flavor and everybody, you know there's also the fact that there's some days the palates not work, you know, and you have a bourbon, you just oh, that's just average.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: But then you hit it like two days later and it's like wow, where did that?
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: It's because we're all, we're human beings and we're just not always fine, right.
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: Well, you know, bourbon opens up, like you open a bottle of bourbon and it gets a little oxygen in it and all of a sudden it gets a little thicker, and you know a little bit more flavorful.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: No, are we talking about?
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: Are we talking about the bourbon or our wives?
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: Yeah well, I I've never met your wives, so I'm talking about the bourbon.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: Chris, has it's been a problem.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: What the heck just happened.
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: It's like where are we?
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: No, I mean I thought there was speechless.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: That doesn't happen on this podcast.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: It's about slowing down and spending time with the people around you.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: So that's what makes it more important to tell you Absolutely.
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: You're going to limestone to stir, you're going to cigar off the back bar.
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: You go out, you sit on a porch with the puppies, you slow down, you're going to fly to whiskey and you get an opportunity to really bond with the people that you're with.
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: You're not in the moment.
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: You're in the moment.
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: Yes, you're getting out of the moment of these damn things and into the moment of what's actually happening around you.
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: So that's why we promote it.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: So, stephen, we talked about earlier that, the bottle that we see before us.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: You do a lot of single barrels, but right now and we're mostly from Ohio, with exception- in.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Nash, but we just released 10 barrels in Ohio.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: That are your picks and I think that this is year after year.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: The state of Ohio is going to your distillery and saying we want barrels.
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: I like those guys a lot.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Because the people of OHLQ understand that your stuff is wanted in Ohio.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: People get it and they're like, wow, this is amazing.
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: The reason that the handpicked selection is getting such worldwide acclaimed is because of we vet the barrels.
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: When you come to Limestone Branch, you're going to do it tasting like you've never done before and it's not like any other barrel pick that I've ever been on and I've been on a lot of them, about 560.
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: And in those 560 barrel picks, the one thing that I've learned is people do not teach you how to pick a barrel.
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: Every distillery that I've ever gone to, I get a glass handed to me and they pull cast-back liquor off the barrel and it says it's going to be just like it is.
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: When it comes to your store, no way, no way, what's?
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: that thing down for most cases, as they do.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: It's going to change the characteristics of a barrel.
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: So we prove it to the proof that it's going to come into the store at.
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: We're going to taste it at 109, 115, and 119 proof.
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: This particular barrel was picked by Ben 109.
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: This one is 109 proof.
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: Ben is one of our lead distillers.
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: At our distillery Ben tasted through multiple barrels and when he came to the one that tasted the best.
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: He not only picked it for the best taste.
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: He picked it for the best taste.
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: We do that blind.
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: You do not talk about a pick when you're picking a barrel pick at Limestone Distillery.
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: You talk about anything you want to talk about, but you do not talk about the pick.
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: You write your answers down.
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: We pull you at the end of it What'd you like at 109?
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: What'd you like at 109?
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: What'd you like at 109?
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: What'd you like at 109?
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: We put stars next to the answers.
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: We do that at 115 again.
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: I like to tell people one of the barrels that you're tasting is going to show up better than the other.
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: Do not overthink this shit.
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: Just circle the one that tastes better than the other two.
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: When we get to the end of it, the stars always align.
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: Close my mind, the coolest thing about my job is the star-liner.
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: I got people from China, japan, india coming to our barrel picks.
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: They had totally backgrounds and different cultures.
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: But when we get on that table and we finally do the blind and I pull them and get all my star liners, the stars always align.
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: When all the stars align on one barrel of one proof, that's the barrel they pick.
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: That's how the Ohio folks picked those 10 barrels.
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: We went through 15 or 20 barrels and we tasted them at three different proofs.
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: We put our notes down at the end of it.
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: I pulled them and we found the barrels that were the best out of all of it.
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: In the very end we go down the rabbit hole again.
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: We go down the rabbit hole between 109 and 115.
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: You take two glasses Side by side.
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: Look at this guy, you taste them Side by side.
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: If you do not interrupt your palate, you will pick up on nuanced characteristic differentials you'd have never picked up on had you interrupted your palate.
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: This time we're looking for bad characteristics, not good characteristics.
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: When you find a bad characteristic in a barrel, you drop it to the table and you move on One that's left in your hand at the very end.
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: That's your pick for the Kentucky Derby.
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: You already picked the trifecta 109, 115, and 119.
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: Now you pick a win for the Kentucky Derby, those four-star ratings if they all fall together on one barrel at one proof.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: That's the barrel you pitch it's very technical, it's very monotonous.
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: You do it over, and, over and over again.
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: It becomes second nature and you pick some of the finest barrels ever, and that's why the hand-picked collection is getting a whole lot of play.
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: Hey, jeff, god bless America.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: Yes, we've got Cheers to that, cheers to that Cheers to that red deck.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we have.
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: They can't hear it.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, of course.
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: Hey Rachel, can you move the Facebook live closer Just?
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: move it closer.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: I think that doesn't matter, put it on him and me Whatever.
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they want to hear, so they can all hear me.
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: So, um, thanks, tess, we've got to work that out.
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: Mr Steven Beame, who's a big part of what you guys do and being the steward of the brand of Yellowstone, talk a little bit about what he's meant to you and the Yellowstone brand.
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: I've known Steven Beame since I was seven years old.
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: I've been bubble gum on his shoes since he was a child.
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: He was 10 years older than me.
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: He's one of my brother's best friends.
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: They hang out they hung out together in high school and they hang out still today and they have similar characteristics and commonalities.
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: My brother's a master roaster, steven Beame is a master distiller, and so I've always known he was a savant.
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: I've known he was a savant since I was a kid, and when you're with somebody in a room that just has a higher intelligence level, you just know it.
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: When you go to a botanical garden, you go to the New Orleans Botanical Garden and you can name every plant in that botanical garden and it's technical name and it's common name.
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: You know you're standing next to a damn savant and Steven Beame is a seven generation bean.
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: He means the world to me.
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: He's not only just a boss, he's one of my best friends in the world.
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: And if you don't know Steven Beame, well by God you ought to, because that's one of those people in life you just do not want to not know.
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: It's like Freddie Johnson, it's like Bernie Lovers.
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: It's Steven Beame, michael Veach.
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: These are people that I hold dearly and closely in my life.
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: If you don't know them well, by God, you better get to know them, because you're missing out on life.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: It's funny, you say Freddie, freddie Johnson, freddie Johnson.
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: Wait, I want to meet Freddie.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Lovers.
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: Freddie.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: Lovers too.
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: Freddie is supposed to be here today.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: So we'll see Freddie later, but the Bernie was on a barrel pick with us not too long ago, and it was great to be in that environment with somebody with that kind of knowledge, in fashion too, and when we did that barrel pick right, so it's exactly what you talked about.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: There was too lot of them that we selected but then we blinded them and they're like why do?
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: you want to blind them, and everybody was going for one at the time, but in the end we picked actually, everybody was going for two, but in the end we picked one, because when you blinded them you got to see them directly without that peak, like you said.
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: Next scenario ahead what you think you like, what you truly like, and then you put those two up against each other, even though you were picking other barrels.
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: And that definitely led to the pit and that was really kind of a cool experience.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: And then Bernie was right there with us.
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: But, like you said, bourbon brings so many people together and talks about Stephen, his dad connection, like Tim Dant, who does all the research for the beans and the family and everything.
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: It's just family, right.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: Well you know.
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: Stephen's father, jimmy Bean, did not talk much about the bourbon industry Ever.
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: Guy Bean was the master distiller at the Fairfield Distillery.
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: Minor case Bean had the distillery in Getziminy, kentucky, the old Trump distillery His great grandfather.
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: He's a seven generation beaman and all seven generations of this family have been distillers All the way up to Jacob.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: And so when you think about, that you think.
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: Well, he probably learned all this from the Bean family, right?
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: No, no, it was really Dotty Ann, his mother.
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: See, dotty Ann's mother was Kathleen Dant Mowling.
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: You see how that Dant just slipped in there.
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so JW Dant was Stephen Paul Bean's great great grandfather on the mother's side.
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: The boys weren't born, they were distilled, all right, that's amazing Right there.
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: But how can you go wrong when you have?
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: The Dant and the Bean family, the almost the classic of Kentucky families for distilling for so many years.
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: But like when you talk to Stephen, he is so humble and so gracious and so glad to be a part of this industry that it's just like you're in his presence, like you said, and he makes you feel he will drink with you.
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: He makes you feel like family and you know he's in it and that's what I love about him two more words about statement passionate and knowledgeable about this interview.
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: He is well aware of this family history and when he built the distillery.
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: He was very concerned about producing extraordinary juice because he had all of that history on his shoulders.
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: You take over that position as a seventh generation, being the opener distillery.
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: And now you're going to be judged and the judgment is he's one of the most extraordinary distillers that have ever lived in America.
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: In my opinion, he needs to be in the Bourbon Hall of Fame.
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: He should have been in the Bourbon Hall of Fame for a long time now and it hasn't happened yet.
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: But it's going to happen.
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: I just know it will.
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: Sure, because he's one of the first to start a craft distillery.
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: He brought the craft distillery movement and he brought it with passion and he brought it with his family history and he's all about doing the right things, the right way, and when you sit down with him and you talk with him, you know it, it just exudes from him.
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: There's no family in American history that has impacted the Bourbon industry larger than the Bean family.
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: There were seven major distillers when I grew up here in Kentucky, born and raised here.
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: Six out of the seven of them employed a bean as their distiller or master distiller.
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: Over the years They've touched more brands of whiskey than any other family in American history About 28 that I count right off the top of my head.
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: And then you add the dance on the top of that and the family history on his mother's side.
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: You touch that tree.
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: You can put a leaf on every damn branch several times over in brands that those two families have created and have impacted.
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: I say that Stephen Paul Bean are probably the most impactful in the bourbon industry as far as blood related to all of the creators of bourbon whiskey and I want to say cheers to getting Stephen Bean in the Hall of Fame.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: And everybody out here is listening and watching.
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: Let's get behind that and help him get there because he deserves it.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: I need any of the ones in the industry that I know of Stephen the greatest thing, about what Stephen and Paul Small
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: and Starkey in 2019.
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: We were at the Me and my Wife Tour in the distillery Stephen wasn't there for you.
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: You got the sense of what he was doing and what he had to do, and then even talk about it being what he is like you said is knowing not only how distillation should happen.
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: They were, they were so long at at limestone branch, were making one barrel a day Right.
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: And then he kept growing it, but then his association through Luxco and what he did with the Yellowstone brand.
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: That is all the marketing aspect of being a master distiller and understating the business, and that's where the themes and the dance had been doing it for so long, he knew exactly what he needed to do to bring this brand, this amazing brand associated with Yellowstone and every bottle still to this day, right.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: To the dollar.
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: To the forefri.
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: I mean it's amazing what he's done.
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: It's more than a dollar.
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: It's more than a dollar now.
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: You know who the largest support of unashamed parts of the service he was last year Super.
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: You know who the largest support of unashamed parts of?
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: the service he is this year Yellowstone, yellowstone.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: That's all I got to say.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't have to say, you see?
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: that, yeah, that's all.
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: That's the best cigar I've ever smoked.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: With anyone's.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: With you, yeah, absolutely.
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: And let's, let's, cheers that.
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: That's a Freddie Johnson statement.
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: Yeah, come on.
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: I mean come on.
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: Because dance nights never smoke a cigar, like and enjoy it the way that it Freddie, freddie.
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: Freddie Bernie, all those guys mentors of mine, and that is exactly when we always talk about when we get together.
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: They say it's about the moment.
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: Yes, slow down.
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: Yes, enjoy each other's life.
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: As short kids, we don't have a long time on this planet.
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: While I'm here, I expect to drink a lot more whiskey and smoke a hell of a lot more cigars.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: Amen.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: I hope some of it's in your backyard.
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: Because, I died when you showed me that thot in that bucket.
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: All.
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: I've been trying to do is think about how I can get there.
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: I almost made it a couple of times, but it's like If you wear a lot of black can you go after 12?
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: Freddie is not.
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: So Freddie Johnson needs to come to the backyard.
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: Well, maybe we're fine with him.
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: We'll get him.
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: We'll do the Scotchy Bourbon boys, Freddie Johnson and Stephen Fonte, I mean.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Stephen.
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: I think if you and Bernie lovers as far as being the spokesperson of Bourbon, it's just like you see what you do on social media, what you do in all these events, and we I thank him for it.
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: You make this so worthwhile Shout out to Fred Minick for making me the double-ascount award-winning ambassador of the year.
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: Fred had never given out an ask-out award for anything but whiskey, and he made me the double-ascount award-winning ambassador of the year Two years ago I believe it is now and I asked him.
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: I said Fred, what is it that I did better than Bernie or Freddie Johnson to get this auspicious award?
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: He said you're a badass.
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: What the hell does that actually mean?
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: He said Stephen, you're more passionate about this industry you are Anybody that I've ever met.
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: Yes, you definitely are, and for that you have set the standard for the double-ascount award-winning ambassador.
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: Anybody else that gets a double-ascount award-winning ambassador of the year is going to have to meet that standard in order for me to give it to him, and so he sent it to me a trophy.
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: It looked like.
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: What's that trophy they give out to all those people in the movie industry?
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: Oh, the Grammy the.
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: Oscar.
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: The Oscar, the Oscar, the Oscar In the box.
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: It came in a box, just like my dog box gets.
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: You know what?
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: I get my feed from a dog and I came out of the box and I'm like damn it.
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: I'd like to thank the Academy.
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: So it's on the shelf in the Miner's lounge.
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: It's up there on the mantle in the Miner's lounge.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: And I think that a lot of people don't know if they haven't been here.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: But I'm going to give you props because at this festival you've got a lot of stuff going on two-tenths down.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: We do that.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, you've got people standing in line waiting to meet you and you take time out of your day to come over here and be a part of our podcast.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: Thank you, a big thank you for you and just to come out and share a cigar and a four-pump of this wine, your stone bourbon, with us.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: We couldn't say a bigger thank you to you, man.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: But your passion is why we love you, man, because you are what we want.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: We want people to be passionate about bourbon like you are.
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I claim to be the bona fide train wreck.
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: People are like what are you talking about?
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: I said a train wreck.
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: Think about it.
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: You see a train wreck.
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: You can't look away.
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: You've got to watch it happen.
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: So when I'm giving a speech about bourbon, people are intrigued.
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: They're watching.
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: What's he going to say next?
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: What's this guy?
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a bona fide train wreck.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: It's called Pash, so Stephen had Stephen, he's got Christmas gifts yeah.
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: And it's so much more than Pash.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: Any truth to the rumor that you're going to replace Kevin Costner.
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: I stole those directors Jerry.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: He stole, them all.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: It's over in the tent two hours down.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: There's a stack of cigars on it.
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: I saw a piece of tape.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I saw a piece of tape across the back of it and said Fonze.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to lie.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: I'm a fan of the show and obviously it shares a name with your, bourbon, but I keep waiting for there to be a bottle of yellow stuff in the background there.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: I mean I've seen Blanton's and I've seen Buffalo Trace and I'm like holy shit man.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: Come on, drink some real stuff.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: I'm going to drink some real stuff that represents the name.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Let me, let me.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: I got a question for you when are we gonna see the Fonte Barrel?
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: beer.
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: We've done several.
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: There's a ton of bottles out there with my name on it.
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: No the cigar, the cigar, the cigar.
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: But you do it, it goes fast.
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: I've had my share of names on bottles over the years.
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: It's Steve Beamer, so gracious.
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: He puts up with me daily.
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: He needs, he needs sevens package and extra meat from him.
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: Steven, you are what makes bourbon, which is so great.
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah you are?
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: you are basically an imaginary yes that is why you have that title.
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: That was I mean.
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: As you know you're probably.
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: You were honored and you asked him why you got that award and you also know that you, just you can tell you were in St Louis yesterday and you did, and then you're here, you were at, you were at Kentucky Bourbon Festival.
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: You were everywhere and it's like I've always every time I run into you at festivals.
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: It's just like you're so busy, but it's, it's it is Thank you.
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: Great, great, I was going to panel at the Lick Cigar Bar.
• 28:23
  Speaker 5: They asked me you know how do you do it, how do you, how do you go to all these places and how do you do it?
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: I said it's a lifestyle.
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's not something that you do if you watch a clock.
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: If you're one of those people that needs to go to work at nine and get off at five, forget about it.
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: It ain't never gonna happen.
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: My day is typically 12 hour days at minimum, and they're usually six or seven days a week.
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: It's Bernie told me.
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: The industry will eat you alive if you let it.
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: Well, hell, I love it.
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: I, you know I will.
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: I will roll with it.
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: It was not a bad day in the bourbon industry and I have not worked since a decade ago when I started at artistel, as you said it's a life, it's like you're living.
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: You're living.
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: That's the thing.
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: Every day you go and they call it work, but you're living.
• 29:13
  Speaker 5: It's like this is what you need to do, they're a friend yeah.
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: Every friend that I make.
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: I've got tons and tons of friends all over the world now because of my position with this story.
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: They have met me and they know who I am.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Is that not the definition of living?
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: That's living, that's living.
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: That's why we do this, some guys go fishing.
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: I don't like fish.
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: They got fins.
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: Some guys go golfing.
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: I don't like that little white bar, it's ghost places.
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: I don't know where it's supposed to go.
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: I have been doing sporting plays and we were the lead sporting plays at the Frazier this year.
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: We were the lead sponsor of the sporting plays and I powdered some pucks.
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: I kicked the butt of our state manager, ryan Snyder.
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: Alan, that damn course I just a little bit.
• 29:54
  Speaker 5: I think I hit two more pucks in him.
• 29:56
  Speaker 5: We sucked.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: But it was wrong.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Like you said, it's the bourbon life and that's why, as far as a podcaster, you see so many podcasts start reeling in their old brands and everything, and it's been offered up from different types of jobs.
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: I have a nine to five job but I work with family and I can do a lot of this type of stuff because I work with family and the thing I love is meeting all the people the Freddie's and you and Sandy Noe oh, I get the whole thing.
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, she is wonderful.
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: And then talking with Fred, the fact that I can do this.
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: Jackie's life camp.
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yes, yes To Royce.
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: Neal Royce, neal Royce, neal.
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: I was just going to run him in over there and then go back on.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: How awesome to see the young people.
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: right All, the Royce Cornelisian and Martin Neal, you've been beamed, says Royce Neal.
• 31:02
  Speaker 5: I'm just a distiller of his age, that's awesome Coming up in this industry.
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: He's going to be the most extraordinary distiller he already is, but he's going to have that title for decades to come.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: And he just stopped buying.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: Nobody saw that, but he literally came up with it.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I did you because he respects you, yeah he does.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think that's really what it is.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: We know him, but he respects you.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: He respects you.
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: It goes both ways.
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: It does All right everybody.
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: We're right at a nice half hour so let's call this one from the bourbon on the bank.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: So wonderful having Stephen Fonte here.
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: Hey, good cheers everybody, I mean you, stephen Fonte.
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, your name.
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: I have a bourbon and it's the hour with me on the floor.
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: It's up to the story.
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: You Scotchie bourbon boys come to my house, play with the puppies and we'll have a great time out there.
• 31:55
  Speaker 5: Little Evana tasting bar lounge behind my house.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: Oh boy, yeah, it's got a donkey call.
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: I mean, you have a studio back there, but maybe we got to come down to a barrel pick and go hit the house.
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah you, we'll bring the pot bags.
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: I'm just going to bring both the abs.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: There we go.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: You got to watch what you tell, jeff, because when you say, play with the puppies, I mean.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's got a different meaning for him.
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I need that little dog bone that you guys are giving out.
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: Right, when you say that, that means I'm bringing Jeff by himself.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: And I'm not coming, All right everybody, we're the Scotchie Bourbon Boys.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: Thanks for watching us.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Cheers everybody.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: This is going to be a fantastic podcast.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Thank you all.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Yes, thank you All, right.
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: Thank you.