Latest / Aussie Bourbon Lovers / Vanilla Gorilla & Kentucky Festival Tips: Burton James Single Barrel Wheated Bourbon

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Vanilla Gorilla & Kentucky Festival Tips: Burton James Single Barrel Wheated Bourbon · Aussie Bourbon Lovers

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  Incredible flavors, even better stories. One Pour,
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  10 Minutes. Aussie bourbon lovers sharing bourbon with Australia.
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  Oh, got a little pot there, Dave. Pretty pleased with that. Welcome.
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  Welcome indeed. What are we having tonight, H? Oh, we're having a Burton James this
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  evening. It's a single barrel weighted bourbon,
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  and it's the, it's the Barrel 101. It's the 107.6
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  proof. They always write, handwrite the labels of the, of the single barrels.
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  Cheers. Cheers. If you, if you're listening
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  to that, hopefully you can hear that these are the mini Glencairns.
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  Yes, they are. They're from the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Why is this,
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  H? Why are we drinking from such a small glass? Well, in a month's time,
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  Dave, we'll be packing our bags heading over to KBF.
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  So we wanted to give our listeners a few hot tips
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  on, you know, if they ever want to go. Before we get too much into
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  that, can I just run through the stats of this and just talk about what
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  we're getting here? So Sean McDonald, who is
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  the distiller at Burton James, we, we love Sean so
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  much and we're excited to see him when we head over in a month's time,
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  thereabouts. Handwrites on these swing tags
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  exactly what's in there. 51% corn, 45% wheat, 4% malted barley,
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  distilled in Indiana. It's 10 years old. It was made on the—
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  well, you know, in— it's going to be April 2015.
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  I nearly read that the Australian way and it made 175 bottles
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  and it was dumped in 2025. And I love the fact of those of you
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  that are watching this, that it's literally like written on the back of a baseball
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  card. Like, it's really cool. That is, that is super cool.
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  Baseball card and then all the info's on the back. I love it. That nose,
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  lovely caramelly kind of creamy nose.
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  Creamy, creamy caramel. Yeah. That weird?
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  No, that's that smoothness that you get with it.
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  So much flavor. Yeah. So much vanilla goodness.
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  I love it. Would you say the nose matches the taste when it comes to
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  this one? Because it's definitely got a beautiful nose on it. It is not disaggregated
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  as— You love using that word now that you know what it means. Aggregated.
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  Is that what— like, what's happening? And then that the
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  wait, because this was, this was last week's episode, see, because of
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  the dry July thing. Oh, we're back. I know we're back. We're back live
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  again, people, after a month of— No, not— I don't think
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  anyone's listening to us right now. No, but like, we're back in sync.
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  Correct. Our last few episodes have been throwback episodes.
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  Oh, July. Very good. I know we get a bottle of
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  the first Kentucky Bourbon Festival we ever went to. We stumbled
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  across the Burton James stall and
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  I'm not sure that's actually true. It is. It was the one before last.
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  We've been to a few. But anyway, go on. I thought it was the first
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  one because we've only got, what, 3 bottles now? 2? I think we've only had
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  2. I'm happy to be wrong anyway.
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  When we came across it every year since we bought our first bottle, we've gone
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  back and bought a bottle from that stall because it's
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  always a winner. I'm so happy with this. David Drickhouse called
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  this his vanilla gorilla. Yeah. When after— because we pointed
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  to it, we said, go over and have a— you've got to go and have
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  a check out Burton James. And I think more than just us were saying that
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  because this is what happens at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. It was
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  one of the bottled picks of the Festival because they always just
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  do such great flavors. They do great flavors. All right, come on then. So the
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  thing that I said to you before is we want to do 3
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  each top tips for people who are heading to KBF,
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  whether they're Australians or not. Well, I've written a pretty big list, but I
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  think gentlemen would allow the ladies to go first just in case I steal
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  some of yours. What are your, what are your top 3 tips for someone who's
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  thinking about heading over to Kentucky, to Bardstown, in that
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  What's that going to be, the second weekend of September? Yep. My first tip would
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  be don't rush. Enjoy it. Like, people get there really early,
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  queue up. Obviously, if you're someone who's there for specific bottles,
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  that's— there's definitely part of the crowd that's there for that.
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  And if that's you, go for gold. But if you're there to actually
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  just enjoy the festival, my advice would be don't rush.
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  Like, head in, go around
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  the smaller distilleries, go to the big ones. Pick the ones that don't have
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  queues. Yeah, just go slow.
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  Like, you don't need a rush and you don't need to queue
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  if you don't like there for specific things. So this is
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  such sound advice. And one of the things that I've already kind of visualized in
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  my mind is that when the gates open on the Friday morning, what's it going
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  to be? Is it going to be midday? I think that's right. Midday. We won't
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  be standing in that queue that's going to go around and around the block.
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  We'll be sitting down at— we'll be at Chicken Cock or somewhere in Bardstown.
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  We'll find somewhere nice. We're having a cocktail and we'll be waiting for the queue
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  to die down because there's no need to rush if you're not chasing bottles.
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  This is— if you're chasing bottles, I can understand why you want to be in
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  there as quick as you can. But if you're not chasing really crazy bottles,
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  don't rush. Don't stress yourself with standing in a queue unless you're really looking to
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  meet lots of people in the queue and stuff, which is cool as well.
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  But you meet lots of people inside too. We love the idea of just taking
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  it easy, wait till the queue dies down and, and meander in and enjoy
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  it because it's so much, so much fun. My other 2 tips would
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  be stop past St Joey's for the steak sandwich. Tip number 2. I had
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  steak sandwich written down as well. I knew you would, Dave. It's always— last year
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  I was really nervous that because I was like, I was going to go back.
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  I was like, the first time we had it was the best that I thought
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  I'd built it up in my head how good it was, that I was going
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  to be disappointed. But I wasn't. It was great. So definitely go grab a steak
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  sandwich. And there's lots of great food trucks and stuff there so you can eat
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  during the day, pace yourself out. And the last one was
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  as you go around the different distillers and stalls and
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  everything, ask questions and listen to the stories because it's easy to get
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  caught up in trying everything and tasting all the flavors and all
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  that, trying to get through as much as you can, but just stop
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  and listen and Like, to me, it's the stories
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  behind each of the bottles that we tasted that I loved the most.
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  Like, and meeting the people, it's like, it's the people. I think if you followed
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  the Kentucky Bourbon Festival thing, particularly on social media for a few years,
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  you probably saw, I think particularly last year,
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  but it happens all the time and it's true of all bourbon culture.
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  But there was this great kind of set of posts where people
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  were talking about what's the greatest thing about Kentucky Bourbon Festival. And there's this lovely
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  motif of it's the people is the thing.
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  And stopping and taking time to chat
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  and meet people. And it doesn't matter whether they're a
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  master distiller from a distillery, you know, or a rep or just another
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  bourbon fan from somewhere nearby or far away,
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  or whether there's someone who's cooking the barbecue or something.
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  The people in the community and around bourbon are bloody
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  amazing and we love meeting them and they're That's what makes it so cool.
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  And, you know, the bourbon's cool as well, but the people is what absolutely makes
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  it sing. So yeah, the people stopping and listening to stories. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing.
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  They're my top 3 tips. Dave, what have you got that you can— you're allowed
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  more than 3, but can you squeeze it into a few minutes? I'll see how
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  I go. So actually, one of mine near the top was actually around
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  water. You can, you can easily, if you haven't
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  done, because it's so much fun and the structure of it's so cool and interesting
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  and different to a lot of other whiskey festivals you get to do. As someone
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  who really likes whiskey festivals and going to somewhere where they give you a glass
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  as you walk in and then you've got access to a lot of pours,
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  pacing yourself and drinking water and having breaks and stuff is actually really important.
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  So you can really do it really well because if you don't, you cook yourself
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  early and you'll make a mess of it. Mini dry jellies throughout the day.
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  They have these great big water stations where you can get
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  top up your water bottles and get lots of water. So drinking water, taking breaks,
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  that's a, that's an easy one. Helps you get the best out of the day.
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  Yeah, you have, you have fun. And then I think maybe that's linked to that.
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  I'm going to bundle this into one is, is that— and
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  this is only really something that I've started to get better at— is it's
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  okay if you don't, unless you're really loving something,
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  it's okay to sample it, get a really good understanding of it, and then what's
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  left in your glass doesn't have to end up in your mouth. You don't actually
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  have to drink everything that's poured for you. I felt so bad the first time
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  that I, I was— it was one of the days I went, I was driving,
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  and so I would have a a little sample and then obviously
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  I'd have to tip the rest out and I just felt so guilty.
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  But it's true, you can get some of the flavor and not drink the
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  beautiful pours they give you. Because as bourbon nerds, we often
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  will be trying not just the stuff that's 80 proof or 90
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  proof. We'll be trying the, the high proof stuff. There's a lot of barrel proof,
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  single barrels, all that kind of stuff, and they're high proof and you're getting,
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  you know, a lot of alcohol in your glass over and over.
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  And If no one was stopping you from doing anything, you could be drinking really
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  high-proof whiskies a lot and a lot of it. Yeah, but then you wouldn't get
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  the most out of the day to pace yourself. Yeah. Yeah. And so it's just
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  sensible. And next up, Dave, my next one is a bit,
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  a bit wacky actually. And I don't know if anyone else does it the way
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  that I do this. I actually think it's a good idea to take notes.
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  Oh yeah, I take, I take copious notes. He does.
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  And I just, I have to admit, to start with, I was like, okay,
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  Dave, But then when you're going back after 3 days of
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  like sampling all this stuff, it's really handy to have notes
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  that you've— you just record them. So yeah, so I use,
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  I use Notion on my phone platform, but you can handwrite them if
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  you want or you can put— use the Notes app in your phone or whatever.
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  But it's about sorted by distillery and what bottles we've tried and liked and then
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  stories from the distilleries and all that kind of stuff. I love it because you
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  learn so many cool things, but I love— often go back and we'll listen and
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  be like, oh, totally forgot that. And especially as parts of the stories because You
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  hear so many great stories that you remember bits of the stories that
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  you've recorded in the notes afterwards from different distilleries and fun facts
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  that by the time you've done 3 days of it, you've— it all blends into
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  one fabulous thing. My other one is about transport,
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  getting from where you're staying to— tricky one— the
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  Kentucky Bourbon Festival, because in the past few years we've
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  tried— there's been some complexity. We often stay in Louisville. Yeah. And this year
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  they're doing ticketed shuttles, which I'm excited about the prospect of how good this
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  can be. We'll report back about how this goes because we've had
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  different varying levels of success with that. But this year I'm hopeful for how good
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  it's going to be. But the shuttle is a good one. If you— I think
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  you still get shuttle tickets. So if you haven't got shuttle tickets and you're staying
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  in Louisville, I think they get good value and will absolutely make
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  your day better. Yeah, but make sure you know how you're going to get there
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  and get home. It's a good one. So you don't have to worry about it.
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  It's basically— let someone do the hard work for you. I've done more than 3.
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  Can I keep going? Yes. My next one is to ask silly questions. You kind
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  of said this already, but be curious, ask silly questions, and don't be
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  worried about asking silly questions. Yeah, because I think a lot of us don't know
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  anywhere near as much as a lot of other people know. But there's also a
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  lot of people who know less or more than that, and it's totally fine to
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  ask silly questions and good questions and that people want to
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  share it. You learn stuff. What's the worst that can happen, that they tell you
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  something you already know? Great. Like chatting with someone cool over
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  a bourbon. What a great good outcome. Be curious. That's a good one,
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  Dave. Awesome. And, uh, and I think that the
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  best ultimate one is to just relax and enjoy it because it is such a—
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  in, in our, in our calendar, in the 365 days we get for every
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  year, these are 3 of our favorite days without a doubt.
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  And relax and enjoy it and have fun and meet awesome people and
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  enjoy great whiskey. It's pretty fun. And you might even find a bottle that's as
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  good as this one from From Burton James. Thanks, Sean. Cheers.
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  Cheers.
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