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An Aussie Bourbon? … Made in Kentucky? Larrikin KBF Single Barrel · Aussie Bourbon Lovers

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  Incredible flavours, even better stories.
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  One pour, 10 minutes.
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  Aussie bourbon lovers, sharing bourbon with Australia.
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  It was always like a timpani, that cockpop.
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  It was a pop, it was more of a- A bong.
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  So good. What are we pouring, E.
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  We are having some Larrikin Dave.
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  Some Larrikin Dave?
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  We're having Larrikin Bourbon.
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  It's a single barrel.
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  It's Kentucky Street bourbon whiskey.
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  And there's some exciting stuff about this particular bottle.
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  This particular, so for people playing along who know what Larrikin is or are
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  familiar with a little bit of this story, the bottle we're pouring is the Kentucky
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  Bourbon Festival 2024 Distiller's Road Pick.
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  So this is the barrel pick they did. And it's signed.
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  It's signed by Greg Keely, the master distiller, the main man.
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  And you're right, there's not just one story.
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  There's lots of stories. The first one, Can we...
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  Well, let's start by cheers.
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  Cheersing to Larrikin. Cheers.
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  Oh, it's so good. So delicious.
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  When I do a podcast, I do it with Larrikin.
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  It's not always true.
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  I like that the-What does Larrikin mean, Dave?
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  What is a Larrikin?
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  Well, they've got a great description of it on their website.
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  But a Larrikin is like someone who's a bit free-spirited, plays by their own rules.
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  A bit of mischief. A bit of mischief.
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  Good fun. Yeah, a lot of fun.
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  Funny. I would say funny.
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  What else is a Larrikin?
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  Yeah, that's a great description.
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  Yeah, but we know that because we're the Aussie bourbon lovers.
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  But the amazing thing is that the majority of people who get to drink
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  and enjoy this, because it's not available here in Australia yet.
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  No, you can't get this one in Australia, even though on the label is a kangoo, and
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  it's made by an Aussie who- Greg Keeler.
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  Yeah, Greg lives in Kentucky.
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  Yeah, and this is their mascot. What's his name?
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  Do you remember his name? So the kangoo.
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  The Kangoo, I don't know, but he's an Aussie mascot, so he's a Larrikin mascot.
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  But I said something funny before and now.
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  I'm trying to remember exactly what I said about the fact that you can't make bourbon
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  in Australia because obviously, it's one of the rules to bourbon,
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  it's got to be in America.
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  But you can't make bourbon in Australia.
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  But Australians can make bourbon in America.
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  And this is an example.
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  It's like an Aussie bourbon.
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  It's one of those closest we can get to an Aussie bourbon because it can't be
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  bourbon if it's made in Australia.
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  But it's an Aussie in America making bourbon, and it's really delicious.
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  And we've been holding off on doing this episode with this bottle because we've
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  been trying to make a time with Greg to do the podcast.
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  But we've finally discovered that we're going to be able to do
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  other podcasts with him.
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  Yeah, we're going to meet him when we go to-In Kentucky.
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  Kbf. Yeah.
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  He's going to be at KBF.
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  We're finally allowed to drink this and talk about it, which is so much fun
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  because we've only got one bottle in Australia.
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  I know. It might be the only one here.
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  It's almost bottle kill. Yeah.
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  That's what we've been holding on to.
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  We really love it.
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  The colours of the single barrel label are Purple.
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  That is because, and this is unequivocally true, he's a free mental supporter.
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  In fact, I think both he and Katie asked free mental supporters,
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  and they love Freo.
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  As a Hawthorn supporter-The labels are Fabulous Purple.
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  I remember when we tasted them, the whole range at Kentucky Bourbon Festival, it was
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  really, really difficult to pick one because we were limited on
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  what we could bring home.
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  We umded out about which was our favourite because they were all so good.
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  Because I'm When we taste a range, there's definitely a standout for us.
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  We're like, Yeah, we're taking that bottle.
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  Whereas with the Larrikins, they were all so good.
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  But we chose this one because one of my favourite colours was Purple.
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  The purple label is pretty.
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  For me, it was about how good the juice is.
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  This is an amazing bourbon.
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  It's so delicious.
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  I say delicious way too much.
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  No, it's five years old, but it drinks very complex.
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  It's a really rich dark colour, too. Yeah.
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  Look at the colour. It's amazing.
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  Yeah. Great.
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  There's a handful of bourbons on our shelf, including some ridiculously
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  expensive and hard to get ones that I think of as really special pores.
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  And this is one of those ones that I think of.
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  This is a really special occasion.
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  I can have a bit more of that knowing that I'm not going to be able
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  to get another bottle. Yeah.
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  We know we're going back to KBF, so we're going to be definitely
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  getting another bottle. Well, none of that, though.
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  None of that, though. Yeah, I know.
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  But of a lurican, which you know is going to be good.
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  But I do love the- I'm sure it'll be good.
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  Getting low on a really good bottle.
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  It's hard to finish.
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  I always find it hard to finish because you want to make that
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  goodness last a little longer. Yes.
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  A couple of things The interesting thing about the story about us discovering
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  Larrikin is that before they rebranded as Larrikin, which was
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  during Kentucky Burberry Festival in 2024, they were called Lawrenceburg
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  Burberry Company or Distil Company.
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  Because that's where they are based.
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  Yes.
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  Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, right near Four Roses.
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  And they said, We found out that they were Australian, so we sent an email saying, We
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  didn't know they were Australians making bourbon.
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  We didn't know this was a thing.
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  And so we got all excited about it.
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  Then we arrived at KBF that first day, and there is a ginormous, maybe let's call
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  it three-story high inflatable kangoo.
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  You couldn't miss where the Aussies were at the Bourbon Festival.
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  It's just the biggest That thing, you could stare at it.
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  It was very funny and cool.
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  And then was the talk of the town.
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  And then the juice was so good.
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  Everyone's talking about this bottle and the bottle and bond.
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  And they make really great gin, too.
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  I'm very excited to try that because, again, I really like the label.
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  It's a really cute Wombat.
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  You're not even that much of a gin maker anymore.
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  Fat Wombat, I think it's called. Yeah, Fat Wombat.
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  It's got a really cute label.
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  So I'm really excited to try that because I do like my GNT's.
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  But it's a fun thing, right?
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  Because bourbon is such an American thing.
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  Greg's story is that he served in the Australian military, and then he
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  served in the US military after that.
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  And then after that, he's retired into-Making some delicious.
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  Retired, transitioned out of the military into distilling.
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  And it's such a cool story and a cool thing.
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  And he is, I think, from what I heard and know of him, he's a bit of a lyrican
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  himself and pretty cool character and certainly making us splash in.
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  His wife, Katie, is from the military in America as well.
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  So it's like a veteran-owned distillery.
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  Yes, it's a veteran-owned veteran distilled on the bottle.
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  Yeah.
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  Which is another great story.
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  You've got great bourbon with great stories behind it.
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  Yeah, you really do.
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  What is it about the...
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  There's only a handful of people who are doing, Australians who are doing
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  things in the bourbon industry.
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  What is it about Larrikin that gets you a bit excited, Ece?
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  I just love, well, they got great flavours, but I like the,
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  behind the name, the silliness and the fun and the fact that they've taken some
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  classic Aussie culture and created it as, brought it to the Americans in their
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  favourite drink, bourbon, one of their favourite drinks.
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  But the kangoo and the Wombat, all of that stuff, that they're able to
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  incorporate that into, obviously, something that can only be
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  American, which is bourbon.
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  It's just genuinely good juice as well. That's the other thing.
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  If you go to the website, they've got what looks like a giant Sharon,
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  NFL football, Sharon. Meat pies.
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  With Dockers as a hot air balloon, toeing a meat pie as the basket
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  of the hot air balloon. And then they've got Crockers and emus.
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  Vegemite, crocodiles.
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  Over sandman cars with crocodiles and Vegemite jars and blossom.
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  Emus, all the classic Australian stuff.
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  Surfboards, the City Opera House gets a cameo, and that's just
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  above the fold on the menu.
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  But I love the fact that they're bringing some of the great stories of
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  Australia to bourbon in America.
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  I think that's a great crossover.
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  We can't make bourbon in Australia.
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  We make good whiskey, but I love bourbon.
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  The fact that I can get almost like what you call an Aussie
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  bourbon is really great, and that tastes really amazing.
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  And they're great fun on socials.
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  When I do a podcast, I do it with Larrikin, and they're
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  doing some fun content.
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  They're being fairly-Yeah.
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  If you follow us on Instagram, Dave did a very silly reel of all the fun
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  things he does with the Larrikin. That's silly.
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  It's just joining in the fun. Yeah.
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  But I think it's great to find this thing of there's a nice crossover of that thing,
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  because I actually think, what do you think about this one?
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  I was thinking about this the other day. I was trying to tell.
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  I was caught up with an old friend who's Scottish, but he doesn't drink whiskey.
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  I thought he would drink Scotch, but he's not a Scotch drinker.
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  I was trying to explain to him that I think that the bourbon culture has an
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  inherently Australian characteristic to it.
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  It's that mateship, I think.
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  One of the things that really amazed me when we first went to Kentucky and started
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  to get to know different distilleries and the people involved in making this
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  amazing, delicious drink was that they didn't feel like competitors.
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  They were all talking about each other's stuff and, Oh, make sure you try theirs.
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  They've got a really great one of these toasted ones, or, They've got
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  a really good single barrel.
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  And it was this really camaraderie and mateship that was, I
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  would say, is a very classic Aussie thing.
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  I think that's one of it.
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  But then the other part, and there's lots of great complexity to what I think of the
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  bourbon culture and what made us fall in love with it and why
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  we're here doing this.
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  And one of the wild random people who walked around Australia saying, We
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  love drinking bourbon neat in a glass.
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  In Australia, that's such a weird thing.
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  But the idea that you can drink bourbon exactly
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  how you like it, that the distillers are trying to make it so you can enjoy it how
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  you want it, it's just such a laidback approach to what can otherwise sometimes
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  be thought of as a really tightly wound, highly strung- A little bit snobby.
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  Category.
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  Whisky is like- It's like, how do you have it?
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  Don't drink it with that.
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  Make sure you drink it with this. Yeah.
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  If you're into serious whiskey, you might be a bit more.
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  Yeah. Slightly offended by what we're saying.
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  Well, no, this is the bourbon It's a good thing, though, right?
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  Yeah, it's drinking how you like it.
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  And that's what I love. Cool.
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  Well, we're looking forward to getting to hang out with Greg again.
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  I know.
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  I want to go one more over there, we want to go and check out the distillery and
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  sample all the new bottles because they've got lots of cool.
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  There's like a rosewater one, and they're doing really fun things.
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  Urban cream, lots of cool things. It's fun.
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  It's lyrican.
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  Looking forward to trying more of their stuff and getting to share some
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  more stories with you guys. Cheers.
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  Thanks for listening.
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