Latest / The Noble Dram / The Noble Dram | The Whiskey Trip - Collaboration | Part 2 (Season 2 | Ep. 8)
Transcript
- 0:00Gavin: This week on the noble dream, the exciting conclusion of our conversation with Big Chief.
- 0:05Gavin: And if you missed it, Aaron and I had an amazing opportunity to sit down on his show, The Whiskey Trip, where we got to talk all things Texas from football to barbecue and a couple of bourbons.
- 0:19Gavin: You know what?
- 0:19Gavin: Enough about last week.
- 0:21Gavin: Buckle up Buttercup as we take a ride with the big chief.
- 0:26Gavin: We are so excited that you're here with us.
- 1:02Gavin: Uh and uh it's a little different than normal.
- 1:05Gavin: No, we got an extra one.
- 1:06Gavin: Yeah.
- 1:06Gavin: We picked him up on the side of the road.
- 1:08Gavin: Because you know what?
- 1:09Gavin: He's whiskey tripping, just a little homeless guy walking down the road.
- 1:13Gavin: So for those who missed or don't follow whiskey trip, we got to be on Big Chiefs show a couple of weeks ago.
- 1:24Gavin: And we said this was so much fun recording this that we needed to do more.
- 1:29Gavin: And so now we get to have you on our show.
- 1:32Gavin: Yeah.
- 1:32Gavin: This is quite a bit of fun.
- 1:33Big Chief: So first, let me say thanks for being here.
- 1:35Big Chief: Well, I appreciate you guys having me.
- 1:37Big Chief: Uh I mean, the first episode was a blast.
- 1:40Big Chief: But I think I don't usually get interviewed by people.
- 1:43Big Chief: Well, I do.
- 1:44Big Chief: Uh not typically.
- 1:47Aaron: I saw some of Gavin's questions.
- 1:48Aaron: You are screwed.
- 1:49Aaron: Does it feel awkward to be in the hot seat?
- 1:52Aaron: I do not have hemorrhoids, by the way.
- 1:53Aaron: Let me take that one off a little bit.
- 1:57Aaron: All right.
- 1:59Aaron: We're we're up there.
- 2:00Aaron: All right.
- 2:01Aaron: So before we get into whiskey, because we always like to race straight into whiskey, I noticed Gavin's already got his bottle out.
- 2:07Aaron: He's he's so antsy.
- 2:08Aaron: Um why don't you tell our viewers a little bit about whiskey trip and big chief?
- 2:15Aaron: Well, it's the whiskey trip.
- 2:17Big Chief: Oh, sorry.
- 2:18Big Chief: Then I don't want to get sued because Gary Stewart owns whiskey trip.
- 2:21Big Chief: Uh oh.
- 2:22Big Chief: Is it the or the?
- 2:24Big Chief: The it's on the glass.
- 2:25Big Chief: No, no, I know, but you pronounce it the or the.
- 2:28Big Chief: Well, you give me and Gavin a shit of a time.
- 2:31Big Chief: Yeah.
- 2:31Big Chief: Oh, about it.
- 2:32Big Chief: But it's the whiskey trip, right?
- 2:34Big Chief: Okay.
- 2:34Big Chief: Uh and I guess the whiskey trip is about taking a just taking a ride and uh taking an adventure, going to different distilleries.
- 2:44Big Chief: Uh, and I always say I want to be the Paul Harvey of whiskey, right?
- 2:48Big Chief: Uh I want to tell a story.
- 2:50Big Chief: I want to, you know, when I go to a distillery, and the first thing I say to them, they're like, hey, we're gonna give you this whiskey.
- 2:56Big Chief: I'm I didn't come for your whiskey.
- 2:58Big Chief: I came to steal your story, right?
- 3:00Big Chief: I want to put that story out to the world.
- 3:01Big Chief: And I want the story nobody else knows.
- 3:03Big Chief: Uh one of the best stories I've ever gotten was from Marlene Holmes at Mailman Green, and she's uh she's telling me about her and Booker No, is when she was a distillery supervisor at Jeff Beam and about feeding these catfish.
- 3:18Big Chief: And I was like, wow, that's a story right there.
- 3:21Big Chief: Uh that's the kind of stories I'm looking for.
- 3:23Big Chief: While the whiskey is great, I'm also want to meet people and connect people.
- 3:28Big Chief: You know, if somebody says, hey, what's your superpower?
- 3:31Big Chief: I'd say, minus connection uh between folks.
- 3:34Big Chief: And that's how I met you guys.
- 3:36Big Chief: Don't be scared to go up to somebody and say, Hey, my name is, you know, Mike Hyatt, or, you know, my moniker of being big chief.
- 3:43Big Chief: Uh don't go up, you know, don't be afraid to go up to somebody and introduce yourself and say, hey, let's get out there in the world a little bit.
- 3:50Aaron: You may not be able to pick this up on the on the screen, but Gavin and I are both sitting on phone books to try to look bigger next to Mike.
- 3:57Big Chief: Now come on, how tall are you?
- 3:59Big Chief: Uh about 6'2.
- 4:00Big Chief: So I'm I'm at that same height, right?
- 4:02Big Chief: Uh, but I I'll probably outweigh you probably a good 75 pounds, I would think.
- 4:07Aaron: You're uh you're a me and a Gavin together, what's your thing?
- 4:10Aaron: Gavin's a tiny little fella.
- 4:11Aaron: Let me he's a lumber clock.
- 4:13Big Chief: 290, 290 right now.
- 4:15Big Chief: You you you you got me by about 75 pounds.
- 4:19Gavin: We're not gonna tell you where we're at.
- 4:21Gavin: What are you at?
- 4:21Gavin: A buck 40?
- 4:22Gavin: Uh a little heavier.
- 4:24Gavin: I'm about 180.
- 4:25Gavin: 180.
- 4:26Gavin: My very first driver's license at one at 14 years old.
- 4:30Gavin: I was 185 pounds.
- 4:32Gavin: I think on my 14.
- 4:33Big Chief: Oh, that's when I got my first driver's license, then I was 225 at 14.
- 4:38Big Chief: Uh that's a big boy, even then.
- 4:41Big Chief: Yeah, I mean he was big chief.
- 4:43Big Chief: Did not hurt one of the ladies, though.
- 4:45Aaron: I will I will say I was not 6'2 at 14, though.
- 4:48Aaron: I was a I was a late sprouter, so I was a much shorter 185.
- 4:53Aaron: You were a gumby at that point.
- 4:56Aaron: All right.
- 4:57Aaron: So if you watched a couple Tuesdays ago when we were on the whiskey trip, you kind of know where the conversation has been so far and what we talked about.
- 5:10Aaron: And where we really kind of focused was this idea of whiskies that were surprising, right?
- 5:15Aaron: The stories behind people that surprised us that make things great.
- 5:19Aaron: So I gave Gavin and I the challenge of you need to pick a whiskey that doesn't taste like the things they normally produce.
- 5:27Aaron: What is that surprise whiskey?
- 5:30Aaron: You picked American-made products.
- 5:33Aaron: So Gavin and I said we got to go overseas.
- 5:36Aaron: And so we have picked two scotches tonight.
- 5:38Aaron: All right.
- 5:39Aaron: That are atypical from their distilleries.
- 5:43Aaron: That's our theme.
- 5:44Aaron: That's our theme.
- 5:45Aaron: So I get to go first.
- 5:47Big Chief: Gavin looks like he's got the working man's bottle, and you got to.
- 5:50Aaron: Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
- 5:51Aaron: Mine is bougie as hell.
- 5:52Aaron: Look how shiny that thing is.
- 5:54Big Chief: All right.
- 5:54Big Chief: You can't even see inside of it.
- 5:56Big Chief: It's like a pair of rims.
- 5:57Big Chief: Just hide.
- 5:58Big Chief: Just hold that.
- 5:59Gavin: Let's hold that top.
- 6:00Gavin: That's a nice.
- 6:00Gavin: You could kill somebody.
- 6:01Gavin: Yes.
- 6:02Gavin: No, that is fabulous.
- 6:03Gavin: This is like a Freya ranch.
- 6:05Gavin: This is I'm gonna let you, I'm gonna let you pour your own so that way then I'm not in trouble for overpouring anything.
- 6:11Gavin: Can I can I just say, first and foremost, thank you for the bourbon bullshitter shirts.
- 6:17Gavin: Yes.
- 6:18Gavin: We're drinking scotch in bourbon bullshitter shirts.
- 6:21Gavin: I'm sure the Scottish would love this.
- 6:24Gavin: So but you know, what's the what was this aged in?
- 6:28Gavin: What's the so this one has been aged in a variety of barrels?
- 6:33Gavin: Bourbon, obviously, in that mix.
- 6:36Gavin: So it's really just dirty bourbon, as it said on the first dirty bourbon.
- 6:39Gavin: Um, I'm gonna tell you it's delicious dirty bourbon, though.
- 6:43Gavin: All right, so let's start with a little bit about Glenn Maranji.
- 6:46Gavin: Glenn Maranji is actually really, really known for their barrel selection program.
- 6:50Gavin: So they actually own Forest and a Cooperage in Missouri and make their own barrels, then lease those barrels to Jack Daniels and Jim Bean.
- 7:04Gavin: And so that's how they get their ex-bourbon.
- 7:07Gavin: And so if you ever go and take a look at Glimerangy, what you'll really notice is they do a lot of specialty finishing barrels, a variety of different wines, other bourbons, all of that.
- 7:18Gavin: But this one, this one specifically is completely different from that.
- 7:23Gavin: What makes Signet special is that they heavily, heavily toast their barley.
- 7:29Gavin: So a dark roasted chocolate malt is what they refer to it as.
- 7:35Gavin: So this one clocks in at 46% ABV for those people who like to live on the Imperial.
- 7:42Gavin: That's uh 92 proof.
- 7:44Gavin: We're going down a little bit.
- 7:46Gavin: There is a there is no age statement on this, but they believe most of this product is somewhere between 15 and 21 years old.
- 7:55Gavin: Um, this is produced one week a year during Signet Week, typically in October.
- 8:02Gavin: So you will find this kind of hits the shelves and it's available and then it disappears for a while, right?
- 8:08Gavin: While they wait for the next year's release.
- 8:10Big Chief: So this would be considered a sweet mash, all most Scottish whiskey at most.
- 8:20Gavin: Yeah.
- 8:21Gavin: Absolutely.
- 8:21Gavin: So in traditional form for our show, we're going to come back at the end and talk about what we smell and taste and and and we'll give numbers to them and I'll walk you through exactly how we we uh parse out numbers because we are different than a lot of shows.
- 8:38Gavin: And the fact that we routinely rate things less than 95.
- 8:42Gavin: We find most shows are like the scores are anywhere from 94 to 97.
- 8:47Gavin: I was like, well, that didn't really tell me much about the whiskey of every whiskey you rate is always up in that range.
- 8:52Big Chief: So I gotta say the nose on this.
- 8:53Big Chief: I love the nose.
- 8:54Big Chief: It's very beautiful.
- 8:56Big Chief: And on the last week's show or the first half of this, you commented on the the F E bottle and how beautiful.
- 9:04Big Chief: Very beautiful bottle.
- 9:05Big Chief: Yes.
- 9:05Big Chief: But it almost looks like they're trying to hide something in the bottle.
- 9:09Big Chief: Uh just because of the blackness of it and stuff.
- 9:12Big Chief: And I always, I don't know, it's just something about me.
- 9:15Big Chief: What are you trying to hide?
- 9:16Gavin: I I feel the same way.
- 9:18Gavin: I'm a bottle kind of guy.
- 9:19Gavin: I like I like the way bottles look.
- 9:22Gavin: And you know, Aaron always has the adage of you eat with your eyes first or you drink with your eyes first, right?
- 9:28Gavin: You you see something, even at a book, right?
- 9:31Gavin: You judge the book by its cover for sure when it comes to whiskey.
- 9:34Gavin: Uh, if it's a bottle that is completely black or completely whited out, and you can't see anything in it, it's really hard to judge the liquid inside with your eyes.
- 9:46Gavin: Because you just you just can't see it.
- 9:48Gavin: Right.
- 9:48Gavin: Yeah, but there's also a bit of a premium whiskey feels right in a premium bottle.
- 9:55Gavin: Right?
- 9:56Gavin: Like if if every whiskey was served in a plastic jug, it wouldn't feel the same.
- 10:03Gavin: I mean, part of the I go, oh, you dropped it and it bounced.
- 10:05Gavin: That's not a good whiskey.
- 10:08Big Chief: I don't know.
- 10:08Big Chief: Maybe this one, because it kind of smokes down to uh um no, you can you can see a bit of the color on the bottom, right?
- 10:15Big Chief: It's it's like singing a thong on a woman.
- 10:18Big Chief: This is the whale tail of whiskeys.
- 10:21Big Chief: I like where your head's at tails.
- 10:23Big Chief: I like where your head's at.
- 10:24Big Chief: You're like, oh, what is that?
- 10:25Big Chief: But no, uh, God almighty, that that's a good whiskey.
- 10:30Big Chief: My question would be how much did that bottle?
- 10:31Big Chief: So this this bottle MSRP is at $220.
- 10:35Gavin: That's a big bourbon bottle, rather.
- 10:37Gavin: Yeah, now we're making a big jump from probably the bottles.
- 10:40Gavin: No, no, no, no, no.
- 10:41Gavin: You do now you're making it sound like you only brought cheap stuff.
- 10:44Gavin: The stuff we had last in the first half was very, very tasty.
- 10:47Big Chief: I will tell you that eight-year-old is not uh around the same price, but pr pretty expensive.
- 10:54Gavin: Which is a which is a fun thing to kind of talk through.
- 10:57Gavin: So on part one of this um collaboration that we're doing, we did talk a lot about Texas whiskeys, right?
- 11:06Gavin: Or we started that conversation.
- 11:08Gavin: So now I'd like to actually go back to some of that.
- 11:11Gavin: Yeah.
- 11:12Gavin: Right.
- 11:12Gavin: Um Yes, we are drinking scotch and we are going to we're gonna talk Texas.
- 11:18Gavin: We're gonna talk Texas.
- 11:18Gavin: That's all right.
- 11:20Gavin: But you know, this is this is part of uh the fun of magic, right?
- 11:24Gavin: Of whiskey podcasting magic.
- 11:26Gavin: So big chief.
- 11:28Gavin: Texas whiskey has a distinct identity, right?
- 11:32Gavin: And I think sometimes we struggle, and we talked about it a little bit in your episode, where like the United States doesn't really have whiskey regions quite yet, but we may be getting there at some point.
- 11:46Gavin: You know, Texas whiskey has a um kind of a an identity of hotter, aging, bigger oak, bolder profiles.
- 11:57Gavin: What was the first Texas whiskey that stopped you in your tracks?
- 12:01Gavin: I was like, ah, this is different and I like it.
- 12:06Big Chief: I would say I have to say Iron Root Harbinger, uh, just like I am.
- 12:10Big Chief: I was like, holy shit, this is some kind of magical stuff.
- 12:15Big Chief: And maybe it was the licorice family themselves and uh Marcia, the mother of Texas whiskey, but the whiskey in the glass and the way that they uh maturate their barrels, uh to me, they maturate their barrels like the French uh maturate brandy, right?
- 12:35Big Chief: Uh they are just totally different in life.
- 12:39Big Chief: So Iron Root uh would be that Harbinger uh just kind of opened my eyes up to say, oh man, these whiskies are a little bit different than what I tasted before in uh Garrison Brothers or Balcone's uh with their uh I they weren't American single moths at the time, but they're single moths uh in tasting those.
- 12:59Big Chief: So that would be it.
- 13:01Big Chief: The iron just was like, God dang, this is good.
- 13:04Gavin: Was what made that one stand out because it was so much like other regions' whiskeys, or was it was on its own, it was good, independent, not like everyone else.
- 13:15Big Chief: I think they're not China made Kentucky bourbon or Texas whiskey, they're making their whiskey.
- 13:21Big Chief: And I think that's what people need to understand about distilleries.
- 13:25Big Chief: Uh even in Kentucky, you know, a lot of people are like, oh, that's Kentucky bourbon.
- 13:30Big Chief: But there's a big difference between Buffalo Traces whiskey and let's say uh Heaven Hill, where uh Buffalo Trace's rye spice, uh you know, these big chocolate notes and stuff, and they're in their rye, or not they're rye, but they're wheat.
- 13:48Big Chief: Uh what you have with Heaven Hill is you got this peanut taste, this nuttiness, right?
- 13:52Big Chief: And you get the same thing down in that Barrestown region.
- 13:55Big Chief: So it's even in Kentucky, there's regions to me, uh, you know, where Heaven Hill is even further north than what Maker's Mark is.
- 14:05Big Chief: Uh so you know, I think it to me, what stood out about the Herbinger, number one, it's hireproof.
- 14:12Big Chief: I think it's 118.
- 14:14Big Chief: Uh it was a younger whiskey which surprised me.
- 14:17Big Chief: Uh you know, and I I'm not an ageist uh in whiskey.
- 14:22Big Chief: I think some whiskey nerds are gonna be ageist and be like, well, Scotch has to be this old and uh bourbon has to be this old.
- 14:29Big Chief: I look for it as a regional thing, right?
- 14:32Big Chief: I look at the terroir and where it was made, and it's like wine.
- 14:37Big Chief: I'm not gonna judge French wine against California wine or against Australia wine or uh let's say Brazil uh or Argentina make some very beautiful wines.
- 14:51Big Chief: I'm not gonna judge those against each other, they all stand out for their own uh terroir.
- 14:57Big Chief: Yeah, and I think whiskey we need to do the same thing.
- 14:59Gavin: I think when we get down to scoring, I was gonna say we often say, well, this has the same s number as that bourbon we also take.
- 15:07Gavin: But those that does not mean those are the same, right?
- 15:10Gavin: The range we we try to say an a 90 from bourbon is different than a 90 from scotch, right?
- 15:18Gavin: We're comparing them to their their like kind, but one of the fun parts is when you stumble into a whiskey that is like, man, that kind of breaks the mold, right?
- 15:29Gavin: That's not what you typically think of, um, which is distinctly different here than what you think of when you think of Highland Scotch, right?
- 15:39Gavin: Normally I start thinking about light, sweet floral notes and maltiness, and all the maltiness here is completely different than what you typically uh typically see.
- 15:50Big Chief: So I this has like this, you know, and also we were gonna talk about tasty notes, but on the very back end of my palate, I had a little bit of smokiness on this.
- 15:59Big Chief: And I'm looking at that beautifulness of this whiskey.
- 16:02Big Chief: And I'm not trying to judge this against any other whiskey, right?
- 16:06Big Chief: It's what's in the glass right now.
- 16:08Big Chief: What glass am I drinking it in?
- 16:09Big Chief: That that matters.
- 16:10Big Chief: If you drink it in a rock's glass over a big old giant chunk of ice, uh, that can change the complexity of this whiskey the same as it would anything else.
- 16:19Big Chief: If you drink it, uh, it depends on what kind of ice you're using to steel dice.
- 16:24Big Chief: Uh, are you using just tap water that has a bunch of chlorine and fluoride in it and stuff?
- 16:30Big Chief: Or are you drinking it with just some store-bought ice just full of trash?
- 16:35Gavin: What was your glass washed in?
- 16:37Gavin: Yeah, even though it's a bit.
- 16:38Big Chief: If you wash it and you like cook, let's say your wife had a mixing bowl and she whisked it up some scrambled eggs for you in the morning, right?
- 16:45Big Chief: She sticks that in a dishwasher and you stick that same glass in that dishwasher, you might as well throw that glass away or rewash it because it's gonna take some of the things that we're gonna smell argument.
- 16:55Gavin: So yeah.
- 16:55Gavin: So my dad has this exact same argument about coffee, and he won't let my mom wash the coffee mug he drinks out of every morning with anything else for this exact same reason.
- 17:05Gavin: I I think shape of glass matters, right?
- 17:08Gavin: We're we're drinking out of these great the whiskey trips.
- 17:10Gavin: Spay, spay rock's glass, right?
- 17:12Gavin: Yeah, um, that's a little different shape, neck size, opening size, then you get out of a Glen Karen, then certainly yeah, you get out of a rock's glass or a highball.
- 17:21Gavin: Um that ultimately does change your perception.
- 17:25Gavin: Um, I was intrigued.
- 17:27Gavin: My so my wife being a wine person, she actually talks about smelling the front edge of the glass versus the far side of the glass.
- 17:34Gavin: Oh.
- 17:34Gavin: And how some compounds are heavier, and when you rock the glass, some compounds actually roll across the bottom of the glass, and some of the lighter compounds roll across the top of the glass.
- 17:44Gavin: Now, all my Glencarens, that distance is this far, and my nose is about the same size.
- 17:50Gavin: So I'm not positive I get a difference on in Glenclarens, but certainly in wine glasses, right?
- 17:55Gavin: Um, I had a buddy who did a wine tasting and they got to the end and they told him it was the same wine in every glass.
- 18:00Gavin: It was just a different shaped glass.
- 18:02Gavin: And they were talking about all the different uh nuances that they had picked up.
- 18:06Gavin: Do you all ever find yourself like at you know, drinking a soda and sticking your nose in the glass?
- 18:11Gavin: Like no, that's just really weird.
- 18:15Big Chief: Like we're like, no, I've never done that.
- 18:17Gavin: Like I've done that.
- 18:18Gavin: Like I was like, I'm like, oh, oh, this is soda.
- 18:21Gavin: Like maybe it's RC Cola?
- 18:24Gavin: Yeah, exactly.
- 18:25Gavin: You're a pib guy, aren't you?
- 18:27Gavin: No, I I'm definitely not Mr.
- 18:29Gavin: Pib.
- 18:30Gavin: Is that is that as a big insult?
- 18:32Gavin: Is it in King of the Cross?
- 18:33Gavin: Oh my gosh.
- 18:34Gavin: You're a Pibb guy.
- 18:35Gavin: We're from Oklahoma, so we're Dr.
- 18:37Gavin: Pepper.
- 18:37Gavin: What I will say is AMC theaters, no carmike theaters, are from Georgia.
- 18:43Gavin: Georgia are Pib folk.
- 18:45Gavin: And so um it's because of Coke.
- 18:49Gavin: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
- 18:50Gavin: And so my brother um worked at a movie theater for many years in Oklahoma when he was in high school and college.
- 18:58Gavin: And so I get into movies for free all the time.
- 19:01Gavin: And I go in there and I get soda, and I was like, you know, it's Mr.
- 19:04Gavin: Pibb.
- 19:04Gavin: It's just not it's not the same.
- 19:07Big Chief: It's well, it's not, it's it's shameful, so shameful.
- 19:11Big Chief: So shameful.
- 19:11Big Chief: But I'm surprised you would drink it because it's from Texas.
- 19:13Big Chief: Oh, yeah.
- 19:15Big Chief: I mean, it is.
- 19:16Big Chief: No, there's a whole story behind Dr.
- 19:18Big Chief: Pepper.
- 19:19Big Chief: Yeah.
- 19:20Gavin: The the hatred that Oklahoma has for Texas, I don't know as if Oklahoma State has that hatred.
- 19:27Gavin: They don't because you know.
- 19:28Gavin: There's a bit of like enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?
- 19:33Big Chief: Well, they're like, we're nice.
- 19:35Big Chief: I hate to say this.
- 19:36Big Chief: You're like the Texas AM of Oklahoma.
- 19:39Big Chief: No, that's fair.
- 19:41Big Chief: That's fair.
- 19:42Gavin: Now we're I can't I have clients out there that can't talk about this.
- 19:45Gavin: Most states have a bit of the like the city kid school and the country kid school, right?
- 19:53Gavin: I came from the country kids' school in my state as well.
- 19:55Gavin: So well, to be fair, we were Oklahoma AM before we were Oklahoma State.
- 19:59Gavin: So I'm not gonna throw this around, but the very first AM university in the country was Kansas State.
- 20:06Gavin: So everyone else follows that.
- 20:08Gavin: So we were the Kansas State IDs way back in the day.
- 20:10Gavin: Long before the AM.
- 20:12Big Chief: I thought Georgia Georgia Tech was.
- 20:14Gavin: Oh my god.
- 20:15Gavin: Yeah, you have to let us know down in the comments for sure.
- 20:18Gavin: The one Georgia fan that launches.
- 20:21Gavin: Yeah.
- 20:24Gavin: Um, so uh I got another question for you.
- 20:27Gavin: Um so we've talked, obviously, Texas, we've talked some Kentucky, and we've talked Scotch in Scotland a little bit.
- 20:35Gavin: Um, for the folks out there that say, you know, that they don't like Texas or Texas can't hold up to a Kentucky whiskey, like what is that one Texas whiskey that outside of kind of that one that spoke to you your first Texas whiskey that really made you stop in your tracks?
- 20:55Gavin: If there was another Texas whiskey that or a bottle that you would say this really holds up to a Kentucky whiskey?
- 21:03Big Chief: I think right now Steele Austin is showing that.
- 21:05Big Chief: Uh number one, they're putting the money behind the marketing of it, but they're also column steel, right?
- 21:12Big Chief: And that's uh I think that's a lot of the people that are right on the verge of being a whiskey nerd, they just don't understand enough about pot steel versus column steel.
- 21:21Big Chief: We talked a little bit on the second or the first half uh about that, but understanding that they're using a column steel, uh they palletizer whiskey, but so do people in Kentucky.
- 21:34Big Chief: But I think they're the ones right now that are showing that diversity in whiskey and showing that they can stand up against a Kentucky bourbon.
- 21:43Big Chief: But it's more about marketing though, than it is anything.
- 21:47Big Chief: It's not the whiskey itself, it's marketing.
- 21:50Gavin: I mean, I I think you're right.
- 21:51Gavin: I think Still Austin is making really good whiskey.
- 21:54Gavin: I think what helps Still Austin is they're making a very Kentucky style of whiskey for the Vast majority of the product.
- 22:01Gavin: It's got a lot of those similar profiles.
- 22:03Gavin: But the part I find most intriguing is all of the ones people chase and all the accolades come when they break that and go do something different that isn't, right?
- 22:14Gavin: Whether it's red corn or blue corn, um, it's when they break that mold and go do something atypical.
- 22:20Gavin: That's where the accolades seem to find.
- 22:22Big Chief: I I think that, you know, even Kentucky, if let's let's just get it real.
- 22:27Big Chief: If you just took Jim Beam White Label and Trust once we did this one.
- 22:32Big Chief: Or even a benchmark, just a oh, benchmark off of the shelf, right?
- 22:42Big Chief: Because that's Buffalo Trace.
- 22:44Gavin: I don't know how well you do research, but this is like every one of the first six episodes we did.
- 22:48Gavin: This is what we did.
- 22:49Gavin: We're gonna start at the bottom and work our way up.
- 22:51Gavin: And we did all these.
- 22:52Big Chief: Tell me that you would put any of those up against any Steel Austin regular, their regular discipline.
- 22:59Big Chief: And tell me how they fare in a blind.
- 23:01Big Chief: For sure.
- 23:02Big Chief: For sure.
- 23:02Big Chief: And then come back and talk to me.
- 23:04Big Chief: Uh, don't just say, well, I drink Texas whiskey.
- 23:09Big Chief: Uh that's the same thing with Scotch.
- 23:11Big Chief: Don't just tell me, hey, you hate scotch or you hate Irish whiskey.
- 23:17Big Chief: Because I want to then I want to know what did you what did you drink before that you made it, you not like it.
- 23:23Gavin: It's probably, you know, it's probably somebody that was like, oh, here, taste this, and it is so high proof, or it is so peted, that that's what their first introduction is.
- 23:36Gavin: And so they don't know kind of the complexity of it, or they don't know the other side of it, and they're just they get this one thing and they're like, Nope, don't like it, never want to taste it again.
- 23:47Big Chief: This right here is like this nice uh and and some people would be like, I I'm telling you, if you don't go out and try to find your pour of this and like just try it and open your mind up, you're gonna drink it that first sip, and you're gonna be like, Oh, this is this is this is a sexy whiskey that's like drinking a nice orange-spiced hot tea with some honey in it in the wintertime, man.
- 24:17Gavin: It's it's even got lace on it.
- 24:19Gavin: It is so different, it is so different than other whiskies, right?
- 24:23Gavin: Like this really does kind of deviate from that.
- 24:26Gavin: So before we get into what we're tasting in the glass, because I do want to come back to that.
- 24:30Gavin: I I'm curious.
- 24:32Gavin: We talked a little bit about Scotch, we talked a little bit about Texas, we talked a little bit about Kentucky.
- 24:36Gavin: Is there an area of the globe right now that you're like, I really like where what's coming out of there?
- 24:43Gavin: That's where I think something cool is is originating.
- 24:46Gavin: They're doing they're doing things the right way.
- 24:48Gavin: Is there a region globally that you love?
- 24:52Big Chief: I think globally, the region that's ever gonna shock people is India right now.
- 24:58Big Chief: Um they're building beautiful distilleries.
- 25:01Big Chief: There's some whiskey out of there that's gonna shock some people.
- 25:04Big Chief: Uh, I think in the next 20 years, that's gonna be the place that really, really shocks people.
- 25:10Big Chief: Uh I've got a couple German whiskeys.
- 25:13Big Chief: Uh, that's more the green belt of of Europe.
- 25:17Big Chief: A lot of people don't know that.
- 25:18Big Chief: And the Germans were some of the first that made whiskey in the United States.
- 25:21Big Chief: Uh, I think there are rye's coming out of there that are super beautiful, but um I'm just wondering if we're not gonna see some stuff out of South America that just totally blows people's doors off.
- 25:35Gavin: I you don't really see anything coming out of there now, right?
- 25:38Gavin: Um, it would be intriguing.
- 25:39Gavin: But yeah, we did we did some whiskies from around the world and we were really surprised by India for sure.
- 25:45Big Chief: I just think that's a I mean, the Japanese are already there, right?
- 25:48Big Chief: The Japanese whiskies are some of them are really, really good.
- 25:52Big Chief: Uh, but I think India is that country that makes you wonder.
- 25:56Big Chief: They're also the the country with most alcohol poisoning, uh, because of all the illegal hooch they make there.
- 26:02Big Chief: Uh because of the class system there, if that makes sense.
- 26:06Big Chief: No, no, I'm with you.
- 26:07Big Chief: I'm with you.
- 26:08Gavin: All right, so I want to get back to the whiskey.
- 26:10Gavin: Yep.
- 26:10Gavin: So um we taught we touched on a little bit, but I'm gonna give you a chance to to kind of fine point it down.
- 26:18Gavin: We're gonna go nose, then palette, then finish.
- 26:21Gavin: Is there things about this that jump out to you?
- 26:23Gavin: Let's start with the nose.
- 26:25Big Chief: Uh as I get this like nice toasted uh peach.
- 26:30Big Chief: Um maybe some uh drizzled honey on that peach that when it's worn though.
- 26:38Big Chief: Like grilled.
- 26:40Big Chief: Yes, yeah, it is very, very beautiful nose.
- 26:44Big Chief: Uh when I first hit my palate, I was like, this is like I used to hate apple pie because my mom would make this apple pie and she would just use this.
- 26:52Big Chief: And you remember this, right?
- 26:53Big Chief: This is horrible.
- 26:56Big Chief: But then I met my wife and she was like, I'm gonna make you an apple pie.
- 27:00Big Chief: And I was like, all right.
- 27:02Big Chief: That's a way to a man's heart.
- 27:04Big Chief: She went in there and sliced up these apples really, really thin.
- 27:08Big Chief: And you know, she had extra goop between the layers.
- 27:11Big Chief: She put she put like brown sugar in there and cinnamon.
- 27:17Gavin: Can't tank, can't take Gavin anywhere.
- 27:19Gavin: I apologize for him.
- 27:22Big Chief: But then she uh made the crust herself and she took and you know, baked it and put a lattice on it stuff.
- 27:29Big Chief: But when I first sipped on this, it took me back to that that that apple pie that she makes.
- 27:34Big Chief: Uh now I make the apple pies and I'm I put oh bourbon in it.
- 27:38Big Chief: Of course you do.
- 27:39Gavin: I I was I was just gonna say, does this part where you tell us you now make better apple pie than your wife?
- 27:43Gavin: Oh, she's I mean this is this is fighting words.
- 27:47Big Chief: A smoke a smoked apple pie.
- 27:49Big Chief: A smoker?
- 27:50Big Chief: Yeah, that sounds amazing.
- 27:52Gavin: Like, we can be there in a couple hours have good or whipped up.
- 27:56Gavin: If I'm cooking, there's whiskey in it somehow, somewhere.
- 27:59Gavin: I mean what's the end or with it for sure.
- 28:02Gavin: Yeah, you put whiskey in it again.
- 28:03Gavin: I'm like, yeah, it's drunken chili.
- 28:05Gavin: Of course I couldn't.
- 28:06Big Chief: Oh I put that's okro in chili?
- 28:09Gavin: Yeah, that's so good.
- 28:10Gavin: But hold up, hold up.
- 28:11Gavin: You don't put old tub in there?
- 28:13Gavin: Probably cook with old tub.
- 28:18Gavin: You gotta cook it out.
- 28:21Big Chief: It's like a flat coat, though.
- 28:23Gavin: Old tub is just it's like a hot on the nose.
- 28:26Gavin: What did you pick up?
- 28:27Gavin: Uh I got uh there's a chocolatey note, like a almost like a dark chocolate.
- 28:32Gavin: Um I'll be honest, I was somewhat surprised at how light the dark chocolate was on the nose and then how predominant it became on palette and finish.
- 28:42Gavin: Yes.
- 28:42Gavin: Uh I also there's a bit of like a coffee-ish note uh on the nose.
- 28:48Gavin: Yeah, I think I think I'm gonna agree with both of you guys on this.
- 28:52Gavin: I will say the nose leaned far more on the sweet fruit side.
- 28:56Gavin: And I think as I moved into the palate in the finish, all of the coffee and chocolate and stuff started to show up.
- 29:03Gavin: And that that heavily roasted malt, right?
- 29:06Gavin: I agree, disagree.
- 29:07Gavin: How are you feeling on this one?
- 29:10Big Chief: On the palate?
- 29:10Big Chief: Yeah.
- 29:11Big Chief: Oh, on the palate, it just keeps going and going.
- 29:13Big Chief: Oh, it's like a long, nice finish on it.
- 29:16Big Chief: And stuff, I'm always surprised with that with whiskies, right?
- 29:19Big Chief: Uh I'm looking at your glasses, didn't have a whole lot of legs, and maybe that's the proof.
- 29:24Big Chief: But I'll I always that I used to say this all the time.
- 29:26Big Chief: I'm like, I'd like to see this at cast strength and see what it tastes like.
- 29:30Big Chief: We're going there.
- 29:33Gavin: This was this was a debate we actually had um a couple days ago, and I'm kind of curious your take.
- 29:38Gavin: And I know this, I'm throwing this right in the middle of the tasting notes, but I think there is an argument to be had that sometimes cast strength provides so much proof it covers up, I won't say inferior whiskey, but whiskey that has flaws to it.
- 29:56Gavin: Whereas when you bring it down in proof, those flaws show up, and you can't hide it as much when you bring it down in proof.
- 30:02Gavin: I'm curious your take.
- 30:03Gavin: Which which side of that coin because this was a debate, right?
- 30:07Big Chief: Um I think distillers, they are trying to hide something, they're proofing it down.
- 30:13Big Chief: There's some flaw in there.
- 30:14Big Chief: They thought, oh, this doesn't drink good, Australia barrel.
- 30:17Big Chief: But that's typically European style, they don't drink high-proof whiskeys.
- 30:22Big Chief: And that really Americans drink didn't drink high-proof whiskey.
- 30:25Big Chief: Even moonshine, right?
- 30:27Big Chief: Is I a moonshiner told us.
- 30:29Big Chief: He's like, I would never sell moonshine at 140 proof.
- 30:32Big Chief: I sell it at 100-proof because that's what people can drink.
- 30:34Big Chief: He's like, you know what happens to a man that drinks the whole jar of Mason jar of 140 moonshine.
- 30:40Big Chief: Jump off a mountain.
- 30:41Big Chief: Yeah, he's like, so but I it's still beautiful whiskey.
- 30:45Big Chief: I uh and I don't think nothing is hidden inside this glass.
- 30:48Big Chief: Uh it tastes just a hints of of almost white chocolate to me.
- 30:54Big Chief: There's no darn chocolate on this.
- 30:56Big Chief: Um and but that's my palate.
- 30:59Big Chief: Um very still that tea, you know, and honey is coming out to me and hitting me at the right spot.
- 31:07Big Chief: That honey note, crisp apple all the way on this.
- 31:13Big Chief: I just I'm looking for that memory.
- 31:16Big Chief: And that memory of my wife making apple pie and you're eating it, and maybe just a dab of um you know, vanilla ice cream with it.
- 31:26Big Chief: Very beautiful whiskey.
- 31:28Big Chief: Uh do I know if it's worth that price or not?
- 31:31Big Chief: I'm like, absolutely.
- 31:36Gavin: So to me, where this one really breaks out and gets different is on the finish.
- 31:42Gavin: Because on the on the nose I had sweet fruit, on the palate, I got a little bit more chocolate and espresso.
- 31:51Gavin: And then on the finish, I run through all of that again.
- 31:55Gavin: I've got I've got chocolate, it almost starts milk chocolate and ends dark chocolate where your mouth dries a bit and it kind of creates that little bit of pucker.
- 32:05Gavin: And then there's just this hint of orange that shows up as it dries.
- 32:09Gavin: Yeah.
- 32:11Gavin: And it brings fruit back into it.
- 32:14Big Chief: And I that's I really like the way that kind of brings you full circle on the I was gonna say there's not really enough leather in this room for this bottle, I don't think.
- 32:21Big Chief: I just don't feel like uh there could be a whole bunch of things.
- 32:24Big Chief: It's because I can't see Gavin's pants.
- 32:26Gavin: That's the same as leather pants.
- 32:27Gavin: So on the finish, I think it I put orange, um, and then I put like a smoky ash.
- 32:35Gavin: It's not smoky as your traditional like um smoky scotch would be.
- 32:41Gavin: There's uh it's almost like um like after the campfire has been blazing and it's just the embers going, and there's a little bit of ash.
- 32:50Gavin: Like that's what I got mixed with a bit of orange.
- 32:53Gavin: So it's almost like the orange fell into ash, and then you tried to eat it.
- 32:57Gavin: Yeah, Gavin gets out there.
- 33:00Big Chief: Gavin, I just should have warned you on that one.
- 33:01Big Chief: Yeah, that smokiness from the campfire.
- 33:08Big Chief: You know, and you're eating a s'more, but if you had that toasted a little bit, that's where you know you ever had that s'more cooker.
- 33:17Big Chief: You know what I'm talking about?
- 33:18Big Chief: That was like the cast iron.
- 33:19Big Chief: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 33:20Big Chief: When you put it in there and you're, you know, you put it in the fire and you're cooking it.
- 33:24Big Chief: That graham cracker gets a little bit of smoke in the kind of filters in.
- 33:29Gavin: It's different than a normal s'more where you just toast the marshmallow and then try to use that heat to melt the chocolate on a untoasted graham cracker.
- 33:36Gavin: And I don't know if that's a different flavor made for.
- 33:39Big Chief: I think it was made for like grilled cheese sandwiches or something back in the day.
- 33:42Big Chief: But that's I've cooked s'mores in there, and it's just filters in there.
- 33:45Gavin: Can we just say s'more is the best version of a grilled cheese sandwich ever?
- 33:50Big Chief: I don't know.
- 33:51Big Chief: We just had grilled cheese sandwiches the other day for dinner.
- 33:54Big Chief: All right.
- 33:55Big Chief: Well, my mother-in-law ate coconut shrimp in front of us.
- 33:58Big Chief: Oh.
- 33:59Big Chief: I was like, man, I know.
- 34:01Big Chief: I was like, we're just eating bread and butter over here, and you're eating fancy.
- 34:06Gavin: All right, so it's it's that time where we put numbers to things.
- 34:09Gavin: So I want to give you a rundown of how we score so you can at least try to match that that system.
- 34:16Gavin: In our mind, anything 60 and below is undrinkable swill.
- 34:20Gavin: The 60s represent I would drink it, but only if you bought it for me.
- 34:26Gavin: The 70s are I would drink it, but I wouldn't buy a bottle of it.
- 34:30Gavin: 80s are I'd love to have a bottle.
- 34:33Gavin: 90s are I have a bottle and I don't share it unless I really know you appreciate it.
- 34:38Gavin: Nothing goes above 99.
- 34:40Gavin: That's our that's our premise when we put numbers.
- 34:44Gavin: And as the guy who picks them but picked the barrel, I mean I get to be the one that goes last.
- 34:49Gavin: So as as the guest, understanding 70s only uh or 60s only if Gavin or I bought it for you.
- 35:00Gavin: 70s, you'd you'd buy a glass at the bar, but you didn't need to own a bottle.
- 35:04Gavin: 80s is have a bottle, 90 is keep it in the back of the stack so nobody knows you got it.
- 35:09Big Chief: I'm a whiskey like nerd.
- 35:10Big Chief: I love all whiskeys, uh, but I would say right around like 88 to 91 on this, right?
- 35:16Big Chief: Yeah.
- 35:16Big Chief: To where because the price point on this is you know, I and I don't I probably buy less whiskey than both of you put together, right?
- 35:25Big Chief: Uh at this point in my life and where my shows that, but I would still buy this and put it back unless I knew you really number one deserve to drink it.
- 35:36Big Chief: Yeah.
- 35:40Big Chief: But but I I think somewhere in that range 88 to 91.
- 35:44Big Chief: All right.
- 35:45Big Chief: I'll have to put a hyphen in your score when we put it on the back.
- 35:47Big Chief: Is this uh has uh as the guy who writes the whiskey Bible?
- 35:50Big Chief: What's that guy's name?
- 35:51Big Chief: Uh not Mike Jackson.
- 35:53Big Chief: Almost GM Morrison or something.
- 35:56Big Chief: Doors the doors?
- 35:59Gavin: No, no, that's a different guy.
- 36:00Gavin: I forgot what his name is, but oh Charles.
- 36:03Gavin: Isn't it Charles?
- 36:04Gavin: Now we're gonna figure it out.
- 36:06Gavin: I'm gonna have to edit this entire section out of the episode.
- 36:08Gavin: We'll just put it we'll just put it in it.
- 36:10Gavin: I'm leaving it in it.
- 36:11Big Chief: I'm just wondering where other people score it.
- 36:13Big Chief: Uh but I think you're right.
- 36:15Gavin: Well, no, no, Gavin's gonna give it a number here in a second.
- 36:17Gavin: I think it's gonna be too.
- 36:18Gavin: I mean, yeah, yeah.
- 36:19Gavin: So um I'm with you.
- 36:21Gavin: I put it at a 91.
- 36:23Gavin: Good lord.
- 36:24Gavin: Are you kidding me?
- 36:25Gavin: No, no, no, Mike, read the number I wrote down.
- 36:28Gavin: 90.
- 36:28Gavin: 91.
- 36:30Gavin: 91.
- 36:30Gavin: So this is like a 91.
- 36:32Gavin: I mean, asterisk a little bit.
- 36:34Gavin: We all settled in a 91.
- 36:39Gavin: You didn't tell me I had to have a hard number.
- 36:42Gavin: No, I'm so big a number.
- 36:43Gavin: Not a fine, you're fine, you're fine.
- 36:45Gavin: We'll put 91 for all three of them.
- 36:47Gavin: The part I find the part I find really intriguing is sitting listening to our tasting notes.
- 36:51Gavin: You tasted something different than what Gavin tasted, and and that was still a little different than what I had.
- 36:57Gavin: But yet we all ultimately came back and said, that's the kind of bottle I would love to have, and I would share with somebody special.
- 37:04Big Chief: So I I drank whiskey with somebody not too long ago, and I they're a newer whiskey drinker, right?
- 37:10Big Chief: And um like a mu newer kind of whiskey drinker?
- 37:14Big Chief: No, they're just newer.
- 37:16Big Chief: Great person, I think.
- 37:19Big Chief: And but they were telling me their tasting notes, and I was like, there's no way that this person is able to tell me this.
- 37:28Big Chief: I'm like, I think you're just throwing stuff out there.
- 37:32Big Chief: Um and I think over time a person's palate develops to where the amount of whiskey that I drink per year uh is way more than what the normal typical person, even a whiskey nerd.
- 37:49Gavin: The 70-pound difference between you and I's liver alone.
- 37:55Big Chief: Well, I'm not talking about the amount of that.
- 37:57Big Chief: I'm talking about the amount of bottles.
- 37:59Big Chief: Yeah, no, I I understand.
- 38:00Big Chief: You know, like it let's say a whiskey social, right?
- 38:03Big Chief: How many different bottles of whiskey did you taste that night?
- 38:08Big Chief: Well, I tried to do all of them.
- 38:12Gavin: That's the inherent problem of going to a wick whiskey expo like that is like same thing with bottle shares.
- 38:18Gavin: Yeah, once you get to a certain point, your palate is toast.
- 38:22Gavin: Like you're not, there's no point in drinking anymore.
- 38:25Gavin: Right.
- 38:26Gavin: You're now just enjoying yourself.
- 38:28Gavin: You're not really there for you.
- 38:30Gavin: I find the challenge tends to be is that you get together with buddies and you have a couple drinks.
- 38:34Gavin: And you and then after about the third one, you're like, ooh, we should drag out the and I'm like, why are we dragging out the good stuff at the end of the night when we should have started with small pores of that at the beginning when we could truly appreciate it?
- 38:47Big Chief: I think that's a good, you know, that's a good suggestion to people to start their bottle shares and say, hey, because I did that, uh, you know, and I challenged a guy.
- 38:57Big Chief: I said, if you can get up off that chair, and he was sleeping at my bar.
- 39:00Big Chief: I was like, if you can get up off that chair, you can have the rest of this king of Kentucky.
- 39:05Big Chief: He couldn't, I knew he couldn't make it up off his door.
- 39:07Big Chief: I was like, well, everybody else was like, I'll take it for him.
- 39:11Big Chief: It's gotta be him.
- 39:14Gavin: But yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong with that bottle share saying, listen, I'm bringing out, I'm bringing out a big one.
- 39:19Gavin: We're all gonna have a pour, and then I'm putting it away.
- 39:21Gavin: But to start if it do it, do it at the beginning, not at the end.
- 39:24Big Chief: Or maybe you're two two pores in.
- 39:26Big Chief: Because my argument has always been the third pore is the best one.
- 39:29Big Chief: Yeah, you need to get rimmed up a little bit.
- 39:31Big Chief: Yeah, yeah.
- 39:31Big Chief: Get that get that palette going a little bit.
- 39:33Big Chief: What a number one, a beautiful bottle.
- 39:36Big Chief: Uh, I know it gave a shit for because it's black.
- 39:38Big Chief: No, but if the whole thing was black, and I then I would be like, what's hiding?
- 39:41Big Chief: But it kind of is like, like I said, uh it's it's got a peekaboom moment.
- 39:46Gavin: Yeah, peekabur moment.
- 39:47Gavin: All right.
- 39:48Gavin: This puts us to bottle number two, Gavin.
- 39:50Gavin: Hi.
- 39:51Gavin: Be so kind.
- 39:52Gavin: Yes.
- 39:52Gavin: I'm gonna I'm gonna let a little secret out here.
- 39:57Gavin: This is not the first time I've tried this one.
- 39:59Gavin: Walk and tell.
- 40:00Gavin: That's the one.
- 40:00Gavin: No, no, no, no.
- 40:01Gavin: That's Gavin's bottle.
- 40:02Gavin: I've I I own four different, or I own four of these bottles and only have one and a half left.
- 40:08Gavin: That's how much I've enjoyed those.
- 40:10Gavin: So, our back patio group, I think everyone pretty much has this bottle.
- 40:14Gavin: We stumbled into it, and when we found it, we immediately called and ordered from the distributor every bottle they had left on the shelf.
- 40:21Gavin: It is cute.
- 40:24Gavin: He's a heavy, he's a heavy guy.
- 40:26Gavin: That's why he lets you pour it yourself.
- 40:28Gavin: I'm like, easy little fellow.
- 40:30Gavin: So this next bottle is the open 15 cast strength.
- 40:39Gavin: Um, oloroso and palo cortado cast strength urban.
- 40:46Gavin: We are clocking in at 55.3% ABV.
- 40:52Gavin: And for those out there, the math runs out to 110.6 proof.
- 40:59Big Chief: You know, people always ask me, they're like, and I'm sure the guys or gals ask you the same thing.
- 41:04Big Chief: What's your favorite whiskey?
- 41:06Big Chief: Third, third glass of every time.
- 41:09Gavin: We just talked about it, it's the third one.
- 41:11Big Chief: And I'm like, what's the whiskey?
- 41:13Big Chief: The next whiskey on my trip, right?
- 41:15Big Chief: Is uh that I'm fine down the road and stuff.
- 41:18Big Chief: And I I haven't had this before.
- 41:19Big Chief: But if the palette matches the nose on this, this is a just a sexy nose.
- 41:25Gavin: This one came out.
- 41:28Gavin: We we literally bought up everything left they had in Houston.
- 41:32Gavin: And then like two months later, the whiskey advocates top 20 list of the year came out, and this one was like number three or number four.
- 41:38Gavin: Number two.
- 41:38Gavin: You're still in my stealing it.
- 41:40Gavin: Sorry, sorry.
- 41:41Gavin: Uh, it ranked number two in whiskey advocates uh top 20 in 2025.
- 41:45Gavin: So this is the 2025 release.
- 41:47Gavin: Oh my lord, that's good.
- 41:48Gavin: Uh, this is finished for over four years in the Olaroso and Palo Cortado sherry casks.
- 41:57Big Chief: And the and the palate matches the nose.
- 41:59Big Chief: No, it's spot on.
- 42:02Big Chief: It's spot on.
- 42:03Big Chief: This is why I drink whiskey right here.
- 42:05Big Chief: Yeah.
- 42:05Big Chief: Uh, is to people say, hey Mike, you need to try this.
- 42:09Big Chief: And I I can't thank you enough for bringing that out.
- 42:12Big Chief: A special bottle to you two, obviously.
- 42:14Big Chief: But um, let me try that is now I'm gonna have to find a bottle of it.
- 42:18Big Chief: So so stick one in my back.
- 42:21Big Chief: Yeah, yeah.
- 42:22Gavin: There's a skew there may be some floor whiskey over here.
- 42:25Gavin: Floor whiskey.
- 42:26Gavin: So what we're I'm gonna I'm gonna give a little sneak.
- 42:29Gavin: Big Chief's show does a giveaway every week.
- 42:32Gavin: And we're not we're not normally giveaway guys, but in honor of you being here, we wanted to do a giveaway.
- 42:37Gavin: So what we're going to do, assuming we can twist his arm into letting us have a little bit of the bottles from the first half, is we're gonna do a set of four tasters so you can get all four of them that we tried on the show tonight, and that will be our giveaway for this week.
- 42:52Big Chief: I love it.
- 42:52Big Chief: Well, I'll tell you what, we'll throw an extra whiskey trip glass in with those tasters.
- 42:56Big Chief: That would be awesome.
- 42:56Big Chief: Awesome.
- 42:57Gavin: That would be great.
- 42:58Gavin: That would be great.
- 42:59Gavin: All right.
- 43:00Gavin: I want to get back a little bit to the idea.
- 43:03Gavin: We talked about the hurdles and the things that Gavin and I have been going through in a podcast, but you've been doing this a lot longer, right?
- 43:11Gavin: Like this is easy.
- 43:11Gavin: This old hat for you now.
- 43:13Gavin: I don't know if anything's easy.
- 43:14Gavin: Your show, if at home you don't check it out, go check it out.
- 43:22Gavin: But it is very time out, don't do it right now.
- 43:24Gavin: Finish watching the show.
- 43:25Gavin: And then you get hold up, pause, go subscribe, come back, finish the show, and you'll catch next Tuesday's episode as it goes live.
- 43:32Gavin: Um, you do a lot of interviewing people to hear the story, right?
- 43:38Gavin: That's that's the premise of the show.
- 43:41Gavin: I'm curious, have you ever had that moment where you're like, I cannot believe I've got so and so in front of a microphone with me?
- 43:52Gavin: Has there been a moment that you're like straw strong?
- 43:54Gavin: And it may not be recent, it may have been years ago now, right?
- 43:57Gavin: But was there that person you're like, ugh.
- 43:59Gavin: This is so cool.
- 44:01Gavin: Can't believe this has really happened.
- 44:03Big Chief: Um, I don't feel like I've ever been starstruck and stuff.
- 44:09Big Chief: Uh, you know, have I got to interview some just downright amazing people?
- 44:14Big Chief: Gavin and I were on like a week and a half ago.
- 44:16Big Chief: Come on, we were the stars of that show.
- 44:19Big Chief: I I don't think I have guys, I've just never been like that to where somebody's like, Do you know who that is?
- 44:25Big Chief: Or have I had big guests on my I had an old podcast called The Bourbon Road and uh live some of the so through the same some struggles that you guys have having a co-host and schedules and that, but never a person that you know, and I've got to interview the lar the you know the biggest people in the industry, uh, you know, Brent Elliott Four Roses or uh uh now I'm gonna forget his name.
- 44:52Big Chief: God dang it.
- 44:53Big Chief: Danny Potter from from Maker's Mark.
- 44:55Big Chief: Now he's uh with Potter Jane, his own brand.
- 44:58Big Chief: But uh interviewing those folks, I think when I sit down and interview them, I just try to treat per a person as a normal person.
- 45:07Big Chief: And if you're starstruck, you get lost in a moment and stuff.
- 45:10Big Chief: Do am I excited about getting to interview, you know, Freddie No from Jim Beam and Fred No, hell yeah.
- 45:17Big Chief: That's to me, that's uh a a great uh accomplishment for my show.
- 45:24Big Chief: That means I I had probably made it to the pinnacle where I was gonna be at and stuff.
- 45:29Big Chief: But do I get starstruck?
- 45:31Big Chief: No, because I'm there to to do a I'm a professional, I guess.
- 45:34Big Chief: And maybe that was my military background and what I do for a living, is I'm not starstruck when I speak to a senator or congressman.
- 45:41Big Chief: Somebody's like, hey, you know what?
- 45:42Big Chief: No, it's like it's because they're really not that politicians.
- 45:47Gavin: We're hitting in there, it's a whole different thing.
- 45:49Gavin: But no, I depends on if they're Republican or Democrat is whether or not you're not teasing.
- 45:54Big Chief: I just don't get starstruck like that.
- 45:55Big Chief: I just uh even with you know, I'm gotten into music now.
- 46:00Big Chief: We were right when COVID hit, uh, we were just about to have Sturgil Simpson on.
- 46:07Big Chief: And I might have got a little starstruck then.
- 46:10Big Chief: Um, but I don't I don't know if I would have or not.
- 46:14Big Chief: I just I just feel like they're just a person that puts on their pants, like just like me.
- 46:20Big Chief: No, they have somebody else put their pants on.
- 46:22Big Chief: That's how famous they are.
- 46:24Big Chief: And I don't know if there's anybody in whiskey like that.
- 46:27Big Chief: You ever heard the story about Jimmy Russell and Matthew McConaughey?
- 46:31Big Chief: And Matthew McConaughey thinks he's like a big deal.
- 46:34Big Chief: And he is, he's a movie star, right?
- 46:36Big Chief: But at the same time, Jimmy Russell's a big deal.
- 46:39Big Chief: Yeah.
- 46:40Big Chief: And he's like, I'm Matthew McConaughey.
- 46:42Big Chief: And he's like, I'm Jimmy Russell.
- 46:44Big Chief: And he's like, but I've made a bunch of movies.
- 46:46Big Chief: And he's like, Well, I've made a bunch of whiskey.
- 46:48Big Chief: Uh it's just to me, that's it's an interesting question.
- 46:52Gavin: Which would you be more excited to get to meet in person?
- 46:54Gavin: I already know.
- 46:56Gavin: We got we got to meet Jimmy when we were in when we went and visited uh Turkey.
- 47:00Big Chief: I don't know.
- 47:01Big Chief: Matthew McConaughey is a Texas lawnmower.
- 47:02Big Chief: Yeah.
- 47:03Big Chief: My wife's a lot of people.
- 47:04Big Chief: All the more reason not to like she would be very expensive if I could interview Matthew McConahe.
- 47:10Big Chief: Oh my lord.
- 47:11Gavin: I'm sure your wife would sit in on that interview.
- 47:14Gavin: That's the one that's the one time my wife would drink whiskey right now.
- 47:19Gavin: So we actually, years ago, um, I got into doing whiskey tastings for customers and stuff.
- 47:25Gavin: And so I would always pick some sort of goofball theme, right?
- 47:28Gavin: And so we did a Matthew McConaughey night, and it was all rye, all right, all right.
- 47:33Gavin: And so that was our theme they were only rye whiskeys.
- 47:36Gavin: And then he comes out with long branch.
- 47:38Gavin: I'm like, well, I kind of gotta put that in this tasting, but it's not a rye whiskey, and I didn't it threw me way off.
- 47:45Big Chief: I I just don't get starstruck by people.
- 47:47Big Chief: Uh I don't except if I'm super inebriated and I'm at a uh Fleetwood Matt concert.
- 47:56Big Chief: Okay.
- 47:56Big Chief: Uh Steamy Nix comes out, then yeah.
- 47:59Big Chief: That's fair enough.
- 48:01Gavin: That'll that'll be your bucket list.
- 48:02Gavin: Maybe Paula Bean.
- 48:03Gavin: All right, well that gets that gets the that gets my last better.
- 48:06Gavin: Get out of brand.
- 48:08Gavin: All right, so you you've sat down and interviewed a lot of people.
- 48:14Gavin: Some people are talkers, some people aren't talkers.
- 48:18Gavin: Like as somebody who has the struggle of potentially having to carry the conversation or sometimes try to get a word in edgewise, has there been interviews you're like that one got out of hand on me?
- 48:32Gavin: Um, either way.
- 48:33Gavin: Right?
- 48:33Gavin: Like if you want to tell a God, that was like pulling teeth kind of story, or if you want to tell a story like it was supposed to be 15 minutes and two and a half hours later, I'm going, uh-huh, uh-huh.
- 48:42Gavin: And you don't have to drive all the shit.
- 48:44Gavin: Stop talking it.
- 48:45Gavin: You don't have to say names if you don't want to talk about it.
- 48:47Big Chief: No, I we'll go look up their picture and put it up here above our heads.
- 48:49Big Chief: I talk about this uh on my show two weeks ago.
- 48:52Big Chief: Is uh I've been to Maker's Mark several times and interviewed uh the Master Silver there, the master uh blender, master imagination.
- 49:02Big Chief: Um, but also one of the owners, Rob Stagnels, and uh one of the founders' grandchildren.
- 49:09Big Chief: And uh it was just like reading from a pamphlet.
- 49:13Big Chief: I was like, this is a sales pitch.
- 49:14Big Chief: And I'm not ashamed of saying that about that, but I've had people like that.
- 49:19Big Chief: Uh Mark Rucker from the Bourbon Life said that Harley Wheatley from Buffalo Trace was the same way, you know, just yes and no questions.
- 49:28Big Chief: Um, but the art of being an interviewer is drawing good questions out of people now.
- 49:35Big Chief: When you do draw out a good question, that question might be 30 minutes long, and you're like, who am I ever gonna be able to talk?
- 49:42Big Chief: Uh and where do I fit that in and not interrupt and try to be rude?
- 49:47Big Chief: Right.
- 49:47Big Chief: But you just gotta, I've just found you gotta let it flow.
- 49:50Big Chief: And uh, I don't set my show to one hour.
- 49:54Big Chief: Uh I'll just let it ride.
- 49:56Big Chief: And if it's two and a half hours, um, I think my best episode ever was with uh with you guys now.
- 50:03Big Chief: Uh go check it out.
- 50:05Big Chief: Go check it out.
- 50:05Big Chief: Uh no, with the third best.
- 50:07Big Chief: That's okay.
- 50:08Big Chief: We'll get there.
- 50:08Big Chief: And I go back to the Maker's Mark uh episode.
- 50:11Big Chief: Um, but that episode went like two and a half hours.
- 50:15Big Chief: And I remember my old Kobo's like, that's too long.
- 50:17Big Chief: Nobody's gonna watch it.
- 50:19Big Chief: And that was our most watched episode ever.
- 50:21Big Chief: Uh because people have plenty of time to watch it.
- 50:23Big Chief: Oh, you're gonna be on there, you're gonna go.
- 50:25Big Chief: A little bit here, a little bit there, or you sit down with a whole bottle and you finish the bottle, whatever you're doing.
- 50:30Gavin: That's a good night.
- 50:31Big Chief: But you need a buddy.
- 50:33Big Chief: I don't have a time limit on it.
- 50:34Big Chief: I just let the conversation flow when the stories come out.
- 50:36Big Chief: And as the more whiskey a person drinks, sometimes the more they'll talk to you.
- 50:41Big Chief: Yeah.
- 50:42Gavin: It's always amazing to me.
- 50:45Gavin: Um, like you can ask 10 questions and get nine yes or no answers, and then one that's the thing they wanted to talk about.
- 50:54Gavin: That whatever that is, struck a chord, and then they take off, and you're like, I did not see that.
- 50:58Big Chief: Yeah, or something that you disagree with, or you're like, I didn't want to talk about that today.
- 51:03Big Chief: I I've got some unaired episodes that I've got those hard rules on my show.
- 51:09Big Chief: We're not gonna talk about politics, right?
- 51:11Big Chief: And we're not gonna talk about religion, and we're not gonna talk about social issues.
- 51:15Big Chief: We're gonna talk about whiskey, right?
- 51:17Big Chief: We talk about barbecue.
- 51:18Big Chief: Well, let me cross that question off.
- 51:20Big Chief: So the wheels turn it over there and say, Yeah, but I I got those hard rules, and I've had an episode where a guy, that's all he talked about, the whole thing was bashing politics.
- 51:32Big Chief: And I was like, I stopped him and I was like, hey, you know, I just am not comfortable with this.
- 51:37Big Chief: And he just kept going, and I was like, and I they called me and said, When's our episode?
- 51:42Big Chief: It's not coming out ever, ever.
- 51:43Big Chief: Uh now that distillery went out of business.
- 51:46Big Chief: I will not name that name, but um the those are the episodes you just gotta roll with them, and uh some of them, some things will never come out like that.
- 51:55Big Chief: And that's stuff like in TV.
- 51:57Big Chief: Well, everything comes out now, it seems like, but nobody's ever gonna hear that episode.
- 52:02Big Chief: Uh, I deleted the stuff and I'm just like moved on.
- 52:04Big Chief: Some stuff you can edit out.
- 52:06Big Chief: Yeah.
- 52:07Big Chief: That's why I don't do live uh live shows, is because the insurance seems like it'd be a lot way more expensive for a live show.
- 52:14Big Chief: I mean, I have been a live show a couple times and I drank too much whiskey on those shows and got uncomfortable.
- 52:21Big Chief: But um just like uncomfortable or I think Brit Brent Elliott, I'd had a great conversation with him, and I fucked up, and for some reason my microphone or his microphone didn't record.
- 52:35Big Chief: And so it's just you asking questions.
- 52:37Big Chief: You can barely hear him, and my old co-host put the episode out.
- 52:41Big Chief: I was like, please don't put that out.
- 52:42Big Chief: We'll just go back to that one.
- 52:44Big Chief: Yeah, and he put it out anyways, and I just I was so embarrassed by it.
- 52:48Big Chief: It it just it broke me almost.
- 52:50Big Chief: I was like, why did you do that?
- 52:51Big Chief: But you know, the show must go on.
- 52:54Gavin: It's been thick, and it's a bit disheartening that you'll you'll spend several hours prepping and then and then shoot an episode and that you know it takes a couple hours to shoot an episode, and then you get to the end and realize that we're having mic trouble, and like all of that was for nothing, right?
- 53:11Gavin: Um I will say that Gavin and I have had a couple of those.
- 53:15Gavin: And if you if you go back and look at our episodes, the ones that are notably shorter, that's probably because we did that the second time, and we go much faster the second time we're gonna be able to do that.
- 53:24Big Chief: Hey, we got all these questions we asked.
- 53:25Gavin: We already know, we already know what we're gonna talk about.
- 53:28Big Chief: Um that's just the art of the conversation, and uh, I think over time as you guys go along, you're gonna get better and better at it.
- 53:36Big Chief: I bet you look at your first content to now, um, it's probably my index.
- 53:40Gavin: If if viewership is any indication, the first episode we ever did was our best one.
- 53:45Gavin: But I disagree.
- 53:46Gavin: I think we just had a lot of family that showed up to play.
- 53:48Gavin: They were like, oh, this is a new thing, we're gonna go do this.
- 53:50Gavin: I think episode two, they're like, you know, I think I've had enough of that.
- 53:54Gavin: So you said something that I just want to tag on to.
- 53:57Gavin: You said the art of conversation, and I think that is very eloquently put.
- 54:02Gavin: I think is eloquent a word people you typically use to describe you?
- 54:07Gavin: Uh no.
- 54:07Gavin: Okay.
- 54:08Gavin: Well, here we go.
- 54:08Gavin: Do I look elegant?
- 54:10Gavin: I'm gonna I'm gonna go back to the never mind.
- 54:15Gavin: We're gonna move on.
- 54:16Gavin: Oh, I'm gonna hear the conversation we had off camera about leg day.
- 54:21Gavin: Oh, yeah.
- 54:21Gavin: So there we go.
- 54:23Gavin: Trying to go through the best, the best legs in whiskey podcasts is what have I heard.
- 54:29Gavin: That's yeah, we'll see, we'll see.
- 54:30Big Chief: From a dividend guest, I bet you I'd probably do I mean, I got some I got some snacksy legs for a fat guy.
- 54:35Big Chief: Yeah, the big frame.
- 54:38Big Chief: That's true.
- 54:38Gavin: You plenty of workout, big chief legs.
- 54:41Gavin: Yeah.
- 54:42Gavin: Um, no, I I I think the art of conversation, the art of storytelling.
- 54:49Gavin: I think it's so very important and important.
- 54:51Gavin: And I I love the thought uh and the comment you made about, you know, like I'm not here to sell your whiskey, I'm here to to steal your story.
- 55:01Gavin: I think that is so cool to think about.
- 55:04Gavin: Um as Aaron and I've uh started the Noble Dram, we long talked about like every pore tells a story.
- 55:14Gavin: And we've we've as far as the noble dram have centered mostly around us, our community.
- 55:22Gavin: Um we don't interview a whole lot, uh, and we would love to do more interviews, so let us know if if that is something that you would be interested in.
- 55:31Gavin: Um but I think the art of storytelling and the art of conversation um is so very important.
- 55:40Gavin: And for you, you do it by yourself.
- 55:44Gavin: And for the most part, right?
- 55:46Gavin: Like you interview somebody else.
- 55:48Gavin: And I would find that more nerve-wracking than having a co-host who you can ping-pong things off of.
- 55:56Gavin: So you're saying I'm your crutch, as well as you are my crutch.
- 55:59Big Chief: I I I don't know.
- 56:00Big Chief: There's you know, you might not have grow grow up in a time of watching the nightly news, but definitely uh Aaron and I did, right?
- 56:10Big Chief: And you we watched these great um Walter Cronkite, right?
- 56:15Big Chief: With these great interviewers that just could draw out like uh who was the guy that was it Walter Conkrite that was had a big uh relationship with Muhammad Ali uh his name is, but they were had this art of storytelling and interviewing stuff.
- 56:34Big Chief: And is it well?
- 56:35Big Chief: Sometimes it is tough to do it by myself, or have somebody else in the room watching me uh and trying to text me and say, You should ask this.
- 56:46Big Chief: You should ask, hey, go make your own damn podcast.
- 56:49Big Chief: I've got it in my head what I'm gonna do.
- 56:52Gavin: We we've had this debate, right?
- 56:54Gavin: We have no producer.
- 56:54Gavin: This is Gavin and I.
- 56:55Gavin: We kind of do it ourselves.
- 56:57Gavin: And then you you hear guys that like, yeah, I have a producer and he tip talks to me in my ear while I'm doing this.
- 57:02Gavin: I don't know how you listen and listen to the conversation at hand and put your thoughts together.
- 57:10Gavin: Like two-thirds of what we do every night before we film is like, let's run through what is what is the plan, how are we going to handle this so that way then it flows naturally because we don't have somebody giving us feedback on what to do.
- 57:24Gavin: I think that would be a lot harder.
- 57:26Big Chief: Uh, one of the things I have changed over the years, uh, I used to look at my phone a lot why that person was talking.
- 57:34Big Chief: And my wife would catch me doing that.
- 57:36Big Chief: Now, before I started filming, nobody ever noticed that, but I had to break myself for that, right?
- 57:41Big Chief: Um, so that maybe put a little bit more preparation in.
- 57:45Big Chief: And uh people are like, Man, you know a lot about these uh these distilleries, your guests.
- 57:50Big Chief: And I'm like, that's because I did some homework, you know, and it's that preparation for the interview and thinking about uh the whiskey that I'm gonna drink with them or the story that we're gonna tell, or the story I found, or the listen to the other shows like your guys' show.
- 58:06Big Chief: If you have a person on your show and I'm gonna have them on a year or two later, I'm gonna go back and watch that show and see what was said, see, look at the mannerisms of whenever that guest was asked that question, and that will tell a lot that communicate, that body language, right?
- 58:22Big Chief: Will tell a lot.
- 58:23Big Chief: Was that made them uncomfortable?
- 58:24Big Chief: Because I don't want to make my guests uncomfortable.
- 58:26Big Chief: I want them to sit down, and most of them tell me they're like, Man, you made me feel so comfortable sitting down and just talking to you and stupid shit.
- 58:33Big Chief: It just felt like we were having, like we were talking about porch pores.
- 58:36Big Chief: Uh, it's just sitting down and talking to his friends.
- 58:39Big Chief: And at the end of the day, I want to I want to leave there and be like, man, I love that guy.
- 58:44Big Chief: He's just a conversationalist.
- 58:46Big Chief: Uh, we had a great conversation, and he's gonna do I want to steal their stories?
- 58:51Big Chief: Uh I do, but at the end of the day, I want people to go back there and say, you know what, I bought I'm buying this whiskey because of Big Chief, if that makes sense.
- 58:58Big Chief: And I I think you guys think the same thing.
- 59:00Big Chief: You want people to walk into a liquor store or into a distillery and say, I showed up here because of the noble dram, uh, because of Aaron and Gavin, and I enjoyed their show so much and what they told me about these bottles that I had to come out here and get this.
- 59:15Big Chief: Now that's do they all do that?
- 59:17Big Chief: No, but I know the showers call me and say, Hey, uh, we have we have people coming here all the time and say, Hey, B Chief, told us about you.
- 59:25Big Chief: Uh that makes me feel good.
- 59:28Big Chief: Uh, you know, that makes me feel good that uh small of the stiller uh got bestow some whiskey because of my my stupid little show out there.
- 59:38Gavin: Well, and we talked a little bit about it in in the first half, right?
- 59:41Gavin: Like part of just because I say it's good doesn't mean everybody's gonna like it, right?
- 59:47Gavin: Part of this is I say it's good because it matches my palate.
- 59:49Gavin: And so the question is you watch the show for a little bit and you say, I've tried some of the things that Aaron likes, or I've tried some of the things that Gavin likes, and I agree or I disagree, and you begin to understand, like, oh my my palate aligns with theirs in this way, and that then helps act as a guide to going and getting your own whiskey.
- 1:00:10Gavin: And to that note, I think telling stories, right?
- 1:00:14Gavin: Getting to know the person, I think tells a lot about also kind of what they're tasting.
- 1:00:19Gavin: Like some of the notes that I get off of this whiskey off of this glass is from my experiences, and you were talking about like you know, the apple pie, right?
- 1:00:29Gavin: The imagery of that.
- 1:00:30Gavin: Imagine if she'd made peach pie.
- 1:00:33Big Chief: Right.
- 1:00:34Big Chief: That would be that'd be a totally different whiskey.
- 1:00:36Big Chief: Southern color.
- 1:00:41Gavin: Like that's how I relate to whiskey.
- 1:00:43Gavin: I relate to whiskey a lot through movies, through I mean, obviously through memories, movies, music, like the lived experiences.
- 1:00:52Gavin: So with that being said, I want to get to a little bit of what's in the glass.
- 1:00:57Gavin: Let's get it.
- 1:00:57Gavin: Let's do it.
- 1:00:58Gavin: So on the nose, big chief.
- 1:01:00Gavin: I'd like to know kind of what you're kind of hitting that on the nose.
- 1:01:08Big Chief: So the nose on the on this right here was a lot of you get you take an orange and you toast it.
- 1:01:17Big Chief: Um, you kind of caramelize it a little bit.
- 1:01:19Big Chief: That's I'm getting that on this nose for some reason.
- 1:01:22Big Chief: And I kept going back to that and I'm like, what is what am I getting on this nose?
- 1:01:25Big Chief: So when I'm making a like a cocktail, if I took and drizzled a little bit of brown sugar on an orange and then toasted it and stuck it in a glass and poured some whiskey over it with like some um vanilla, uh, that would be this nose right here.
- 1:01:40Big Chief: Uh, if that makes sense to get it.
- 1:01:41Big Chief: I know listeners out there viewers are like, Ty, is this guy getting that?
- 1:01:45Big Chief: No, no, sure.
- 1:01:46Big Chief: But that's a little experience.
- 1:01:47Big Chief: Yeah.
- 1:01:48Gavin: Well, I I think I think f in a broader sense, fruit, right, is obviously where you start and then you delve into it a little bit.
- 1:01:56Gavin: I'm with you on orange, not orange peel, but orange, right?
- 1:02:00Gavin: Like actual side of orange, not the peel side of orange.
- 1:02:05Gavin: Um, I also get fruit that like you mentioned peach earlier being grilled.
- 1:02:11Gavin: I I'm almost like apricot on this one, like a dehydrated apricot.
- 1:02:15Gavin: I like that you get in trail mix.
- 1:02:18Gavin: Um on the nose.
- 1:02:20Gavin: I think I think some I think fruit just carries throughout this entire thing, right?
- 1:02:24Gavin: This is dessertish almost in its fruitiness.
- 1:02:28Gavin: Well, on the nose or citrus all over it.
- 1:02:34Gavin: I put raisin bread.
- 1:02:36Gavin: I think there's a raisininess to it.
- 1:02:39Gavin: Um I think that's at polo cordado desk.
- 1:02:43Gavin: Yeah, no, for sure.
- 1:02:44Gavin: Yeah.
- 1:02:45Gavin: And then oben, if you don't know where obin is, it's on the west side of Scotland, right on the coast.
- 1:02:52Gavin: I get a bit of almost a saltiness to it on the nose.
- 1:02:58Big Chief: I would say this has got a little bit of uh uh even when you say salty, but salted butter, but it's honey butter.
- 1:03:05Big Chief: Okay.
- 1:03:05Big Chief: Uh that's something I'd I would pick up in this nose right here.
- 1:03:09Big Chief: Uh and I don't know if you ever had a good honey butter, but good lord, on a hot roll.
- 1:03:15Big Chief: God oh my so we could talk hot rolls.
- 1:03:18Big Chief: He's gonna talk about drone rolls.
- 1:03:22Gavin: Yeah, so so my my wife likes to make butter.
- 1:03:25Gavin: It's a thing she does now, right?
- 1:03:26Gavin: And then and then you get done, and she just puts flake salt on top of a buttered piece of bread.
- 1:03:32Gavin: From way up here.
- 1:03:35Gavin: Um, but yeah, that like flaky salt on grilled fruits and butter.
- 1:03:42Gavin: Like I absolutely get that.
- 1:03:44Gavin: All right, on the palate, where are we saying on the palate?
- 1:03:48Big Chief: I think I'm getting a a lot of that malted barley's coming out to me on this.
- 1:03:53Big Chief: Um but I'm still getting that we're talking about that honey butter and a roll, a nice yeast roll and stuff.
- 1:04:02Big Chief: I'm getting that um openness to me.
- 1:04:05Big Chief: Um waves of that fruit, right?
- 1:04:09Big Chief: And almost like a uh a compost of a chutney of uh fruits chopped up uh that maybe were not stewed, but you grilled them a little bit.
- 1:04:21Big Chief: Man, I tell you what.
- 1:04:22Big Chief: Beautiful whiskey.
- 1:04:24Gavin: I'm on it.
- 1:04:25Gavin: So the only thing I would add to that is I think the fruits have been stewed on a smoker.
- 1:04:30Gavin: I think there's a hint of smoke.
- 1:04:32Gavin: A little hint of smoke, yeah.
- 1:04:33Gavin: And not ashy like we were talking about before, but like actual wispy smoke that shows up.
- 1:04:40Gavin: Um I think there's a good chance that that smoke comes from peat, and I don't get a ton of earthy, grassy peat notes.
- 1:04:49Gavin: I think the fruit still carries the the banner um through the palate.
- 1:04:54Big Chief: So this is not a peated whiskey at all.
- 1:04:56Big Chief: So many barrels.
- 1:04:59Gavin: No, no.
- 1:04:59Gavin: So there's a at least a reasonable chance that some of the the whiskey in here has been peed.
- 1:05:06Gavin: Yeah.
- 1:05:07Gavin: But uh, what I'll say is I think it's not all of it, and I don't think it was heavily peated.
- 1:05:11Gavin: Right.
- 1:05:12Gavin: That that would be my interpretation.
- 1:05:13Gavin: If if there I don't know for sure, but that would that would certainly be our interpretation of the barrel.
- 1:05:18Big Chief: And I would say the barreling of it when you do that Our Rosso would take some of that out of there.
- 1:05:24Big Chief: Uh the longer it sits in the barrel, the more it pulls in those four years.
- 1:05:29Gavin: Four years.
- 1:05:29Gavin: Four years it finished in Palo Cardano.
- 1:05:33Gavin: It was in other barrels before.
- 1:05:36Gavin: Correct.
- 1:05:36Gavin: So I think I think you're I think the safe assumption is they were probably ex-bourbon barrels, right?
- 1:05:44Gavin: Because we talked a little bit about vanilla and honey that's shown up.
- 1:05:47Gavin: I think a lot of that is leaching some of that peat out, and then they've moved it over into a very, very fruity sherry barrel.
- 1:05:55Gavin: Um and I I think that again Helps to soften some of the peat note, but that there's that wispy smokiness that carries through.
- 1:06:05Gavin: Like a peach cobbler that's been cooked on a smoker.
- 1:06:08Gavin: What how much does a does bottle run?
- 1:06:11Gavin: Uh this this runs around 150 bucks.
- 1:06:14Gavin: Okay.
- 1:06:15Gavin: Give or take a few tinners.
- 1:06:18Gavin: Yeah.
- 1:06:19Gavin: But it's about 150 bucks.
- 1:06:21Gavin: Um on the palate, on this one, I put charred fruits.
- 1:06:26Gavin: So that that tracks.
- 1:06:28Gavin: Um I put there's a little cinnamon graham cracker into it.
- 1:06:33Gavin: So I think there's a little cinnamon note to it.
- 1:06:34Gavin: Like the little bears you can get your kids used to eat.
- 1:06:37Gavin: Yep.
- 1:06:38Gavin: And maybe it's because we got a you still have a kid who meets up.
- 1:06:40Gavin: Yeah.
- 1:06:41Gavin: Um, and then the very last thing, I put sun-kissed soda.
- 1:06:46Gavin: Like orange, like orange.
- 1:06:48Gavin: Orange soda.
- 1:06:49Gavin: I think there's a little bit of that note that showed up.
- 1:06:52Gavin: So that orange still comes in, a little artificial orange, but high fructose corn cereal.
- 1:06:58Big Chief: When you talk about that cinnamon, I get the, but I would get a cinnamon, and you probably know nothing about this because you're age.
- 1:07:05Big Chief: Uh oh.
- 1:07:05Big Chief: You're such a young man.
- 1:07:07Big Chief: Uh, but cinnamon toothpicks from the back.
- 1:07:09Big Chief: Oh, yeah.
- 1:07:10Gavin: Oh, yeah.
- 1:07:11Gavin: I'm not as young as I look, let's just say you gotta remember that.
- 1:07:15Gavin: You gotta remember every trend that hit the country hit Oklahoma 15 years later.
- 1:07:19Gavin: So they still have cinnamon toothpicks in Oklahoma.
- 1:07:24Gavin: Um, all right, finish.
- 1:07:25Gavin: I mean, the proof shows up to me on the finish.
- 1:07:31Gavin: Like this actually tingles and bites the tongue more than the signet did.
- 1:07:37Gavin: Um so to me, that's where the proof really shows up.
- 1:07:41Gavin: I think flavor stay consistent, right?
- 1:07:43Gavin: Into the finish.
- 1:07:44Gavin: But there is a there is a bite on the tongue and the tingliness that comes from proof.
- 1:07:50Big Chief: I think as it's set in a glass, the longer it's set in there, it seems like the proof has gone down.
- 1:07:56Big Chief: I would almost think I had some ice in my glass.
- 1:07:59Big Chief: You know, the first one breathed a little.
- 1:08:01Big Chief: Yeah, it it breathed, it opened up, and the the proof went down for me, but still it has that long finish.
- 1:08:09Big Chief: What's the total age on this, did they say?
- 1:08:12Big Chief: 15 years.
- 1:08:12Big Chief: 15 total years.
- 1:08:14Big Chief: So it's 15 total years or 15 plus the four.
- 1:08:17Big Chief: It should be 15 total.
- 1:08:19Big Chief: 15 total.
- 1:08:19Big Chief: So you had 11 plus 4.
- 1:08:21Big Chief: 11 plus 4.
- 1:08:22Gavin: But really, it's only 11 euro whiskey because once you take it out of the first barrel.
- 1:08:26Gavin: In sc in Scotland, I think they still count the second maturation in the total.
- 1:08:31Gavin: Could you imagine if people in America did that?
- 1:08:34Gavin: So a lot of things.
- 1:08:37Big Chief: So gotta be different.
- 1:08:40Gavin: Yeah, well, yes, when we did the whiskeys of the world and started running through the rules of whiskey in all these different countries, there's so many similarities, but yet so many differences that really everyone exploits the differences and kind of ignores the similarities.
- 1:08:56Gavin: Yeah.
- 1:08:56Gavin: All right, we gotta put numbers to these.
- 1:08:58Gavin: Well, you didn't give gear finish.
- 1:09:00Gavin: No, no, it's it's it's proof.
- 1:09:02Gavin: Proof is proof, proof to finish.
- 1:09:04Gavin: Smoke, smoke, and fruit still carry the the flavor profile, but like a tingliness that shows up on the tongue where that proof, like you know, there's still proof to it.
- 1:09:14Gavin: So I said it was crisp.
- 1:09:16Gavin: Um, I think there is a bit of like Welchess white grape juice, you know, like the little communion cups you get at church.
- 1:09:24Gavin: Um, like what do you just so we're on the same page?
- 1:09:27Gavin: Yours is the only church that uses white grape juice.
- 1:09:30Gavin: We go to the churches use red grape juice.
- 1:09:33Gavin: Um, no, I think there's like a Welchish white grape juice.
- 1:09:37Big Chief: My church uses Miller Line.
- 1:09:41Gavin: The Millerline church.
- 1:09:42Gavin: Uh, yeah, I think knowing where this is in Scotland, I think the finish just reminds me of like uh fish and chips.
- 1:09:51Gavin: Like I want to eat or drink this with fish and chips.
- 1:09:54Gavin: This this is dessert after a nice food meal sitting on the coast.
- 1:10:01Big Chief: Yeah, yeah.
- 1:10:01Gavin: I'm with you there.
- 1:10:02Big Chief: Yeah, I almost want to slap you for saying that just ruined it for me, right there.
- 1:10:08Big Chief: It doesn't taste like fish and chips.
- 1:10:11Big Chief: I would want to, I'm with Aaron on this.
- 1:10:14Big Chief: I want to drink this with a like a really good dessert, like a uh baked Alaska or a creamer lask.
- 1:10:24Gavin: Yeah, to me, to me, I think one of the problems you always have when you talk about whiskies and desserts is that the whiskey is very sweet by itself, but when you pair it with something else that's really sweet, it loses some of its sweetness.
- 1:10:35Gavin: I actually think I would lean towards like a like a New York style cheesecake that isn't very sweet on its own, but really rich and creamy.
- 1:10:42Gavin: What about a dilemma cheesecake?
- 1:10:44Gavin: The fruitness of this carry the carry the day on the sweetness.
- 1:10:50Gavin: Yeah.
- 1:10:50Gavin: Yeah.
- 1:10:50Gavin: My fear is that my fear is that big a laxica would be so sugary that this wouldn't taste sweet anymore.
- 1:10:57Big Chief: Yeah, I mean, I I don't know.
- 1:10:59Big Chief: I could be a good one.
- 1:11:00Big Chief: I mean, I do it.
- 1:11:01Gavin: I do it.
- 1:11:02Gavin: I do it.
- 1:11:04Gavin: All right, we gotta put a number to it.
- 1:11:05Gavin: All right.
- 1:11:06Gavin: You want to give us a range?
- 1:11:09Big Chief: Oh, I know the rules.
- 1:11:10Big Chief: The rules have been laid down good.
- 1:11:12Big Chief: I understand them.
- 1:11:13Big Chief: Um, this is a tough one right here.
- 1:11:17Big Chief: Um, I think the price on this was a little less.
- 1:11:21Big Chief: Uh, so I'd probably go with about a 92 on this 92.
- 1:11:26Big Chief: I can't think of the last time we had two whiskeys both in the 90s on one episode.
- 1:11:30Gavin: Yeah, I am a 94 on this one.
- 1:11:33Gavin: This one is excellent.
- 1:11:35Gavin: It saddens me that this is a limited release, and I'm gonna put some home run hitters up here.
- 1:11:40Gavin: I mean, look at that.
- 1:11:41Gavin: I don't got much left.
- 1:11:42Gavin: I put this at a 93.
- 1:11:44Gavin: Um, I mean, right up there in the 90s.
- 1:11:47Gavin: It is sweet, it is salty, it is fruity, it is there's some smokiness to it, there's a little bit of spice.
- 1:11:56Gavin: I mean, it is everything I want is scotch.
- 1:11:59Gavin: This is it.
- 1:12:00Gavin: I'm I'm that would be the average here is 93.
- 1:12:03Gavin: I made a mistake and I I sipped my last sip, and I need a splash for the rest of beer.
- 1:12:07Gavin: Well, I think at that point, we're just gonna do another round.
- 1:12:10Gavin: Okay.
- 1:12:11Gavin: Um I need a tad bit more.
- 1:12:12Gavin: Gavin's will be a full pour.
- 1:12:14Gavin: I just want a splash for the teddy.
- 1:12:15Gavin: I'll just do a splash.
- 1:12:16Big Chief: I mean, I gotta drive.
- 1:12:17Gavin: So you still got a little in your glass, so you're okay.
- 1:12:21Gavin: All right.
- 1:12:21Gavin: So the way we end all of these is with a toast and a cheers to everyone at home.
- 1:12:27Gavin: But I want to do it a little different today.
- 1:12:30Gavin: What I want to encourage you is to go out, check out Big Chief and the Whiskey Trip.
- 1:12:37Gavin: Comes out every Tuesday morning, right?
- 1:12:38Gavin: Every Tuesday morning.
- 1:12:39Gavin: You can you can listen to it on the way to work.
- 1:12:41Gavin: That's how early this guy gets up and gets after it.
- 1:12:43Gavin: Um, excellent storytelling, tons of great uh personalities from around whiskey, both from the podcast world and the production world.
- 1:12:53Gavin: Um, it has been an absolute treat to have you here tonight.
- 1:12:56Big Chief: Well, I tell you what, I've had a great time.
- 1:12:58Big Chief: Uh you guys pour some great whiskeys for me.
- 1:13:00Big Chief: Uh I can't say thank you enough.
- 1:13:02Big Chief: I just, you know, this is what I got into this for was to meet guys like you and uh to hear your stories, right?
- 1:13:11Big Chief: To hear your backgrounds, to and appreciate that.
- 1:13:14Big Chief: And then to understand that you appreciate whiskies from around the world like I do.
- 1:13:19Big Chief: Uh there's not a lot of people in what we're doing to do that.
- 1:13:23Big Chief: They stick to a genre easily.
- 1:13:25Big Chief: Uh they're only an expert at that.
- 1:13:28Big Chief: Uh while you guys are And I love how you're scoring them and uh your tasting notes are spot on.
- 1:13:35Big Chief: You're not using one tasting oil that somebody else wrote.
- 1:13:38Big Chief: You're you're you got your own tasting notes.
- 1:13:41Big Chief: Sounds like you're doing it from you know, from memory, like you said, from a memory you had, something you ate.
- 1:13:48Big Chief: And that's what I always talk about in whiskey.
- 1:13:50Big Chief: So I appreciate you two guys and having me on here and sharing your stories with me.
- 1:13:54Gavin: A lot of fun.
- 1:13:54Gavin: Yeah, well, big chief, uh, thank you so much.
- 1:13:57Gavin: Um, first and foremost, also thank you for your service to this country and everything that you've done.
- 1:14:03Gavin: Um cheers and Salon Javal.
- 1:14:06Gavin: Salon Javal.
- 1:14:12Big Chief: We want to thank you, our noble listener, for joining us.
- 1:14:14Big Chief: We believe each whiskey has a story, and so do you.
- 1:14:17Big Chief: So give us your thoughts by leaving a comment.
- 1:14:19Big Chief: And if you have a whiskey you'd like to see us share, let us know.
- 1:14:22Big Chief: You don't want to miss a single episode, so subscribe to our YouTube channel.
- 1:14:25Big Chief: And make sure to like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to stay up to date on the Noble Dream.
- 1:14:30Big Chief: And if you find watching us difficult, you can always listen to each episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
- 1:14:35Big Chief: As always, be noble and enjoy your journey responsibly.