Latest / Aussie Bourbon Lovers / 2XO Sneakerhead: The Bourbon We Never Would Have Picked

Transcript

2XO Sneakerhead: The Bourbon We Never Would Have Picked · Aussie Bourbon Lovers

• 0:03
  Incredible flavours, even better stories. One Pour,
• 0:06
  10 Minutes. Aussie bourbon lovers sharing bourbon with Australia.
• 0:14
  Oh, it's like a boom. Yeah, a bit of a boom rather than a pop.
• 0:18
  I love it. What are we having tonight, H? We're having a Sneakerhead blend from
• 0:23
  2XO. One of my favourite things is when we have these Denver and Lily glasses
• 0:27
  out is that the pours just get good and really good. And we often
• 0:31
  reserve these glasses for good purpose. And this is a good one. It is 2
• 0:35
  XO and it's got the coolest label. There's like a gold sneaker
• 0:38
  on it, which is one of the reasons I think originally when we
• 0:41
  were first tasting it, we picked it off the shelf. I was like, cool label.
• 0:45
  Hang on. It was a Dead Set recommendation. So I'm not going to lean into
• 0:48
  this narrative of we just picked it for the picture. No, no, no. We didn't
• 0:51
  pick— sorry, we didn't pick the tasting of it. But it's— to me, it swayed
• 0:55
  me. I liked it. The fact the label was cool swayed me
• 0:59
  to go, yeah, we can squeeze that into our luggage because we were in Louisville
• 1:04
  at a cool little bar called— well, it was
• 1:08
  funny because I went to try and think of the name of it and I
• 1:11
  couldn't for the life of me remember the name of it. And then I was
• 1:14
  out for my walk one morning and I had Ed Sheeran playing in my
• 1:18
  headphones and he was— one of the lyrics was Evergreen and I was like,
• 1:21
  oh, that's it. That's the place I've been trying to remember the name
• 1:25
  of was Evergreen Liquors. And Evergreen Liquors isn't a bar. Well, no, it's like
• 1:29
  a bottle shop, but it has a bar in it. Definitely. It's really cool.
• 1:33
  Really cool. And we're talking about the one in Noorloo, but there's one in Bardstown
• 1:36
  as well. Yeah. Yeah. Here we go. That was a long story. Cheers.
• 1:39
  Cheers. I like a long story, but I also like getting
• 1:44
  a chance to taste my bourbon. To taste it. What are you getting on the
• 1:46
  nose of this? Because this is like, for me, this is one of these bottles
• 1:49
  that we have up there and it's been up there for a year now.
• 1:52
  And we're just very slowly working our way through it. I'm really pleased we're having
• 1:56
  some tonight. Yeah, we really like it, but we also know we can't really replace
• 2:00
  it. Not going to get any more of it. Yeah, it's one of those ones
• 2:03
  that like you don't want to drink too fast, but you
• 2:07
  really enjoy it. So it's tricky. I'm getting kind
• 2:11
  of hazelnutty. Actually, last night at dinner we had this dish that had
• 2:16
  hazelnuts and butter, and it was— I'm getting a little bit of that.
• 2:20
  I'm definitely— you definitely smell butter.
• 2:24
  It's like a— yeah,
• 2:28
  you're right with the buttery nuts, but I definitely got butter. Buttery nuts.
• 2:35
  You hear those buttery nuts in there, Bourbon?
• 2:38
  Popcorn? Yeah, maybe a little bit. Not popcorn, but that, like, that the
• 2:43
  smell you get when it's like the butter's melting and the It's like,
• 2:47
  it's definitely buttery. Also like candied oranges
• 2:50
  or something like that. Like, imagine if you, you know, oh, I know what it
• 2:53
  is. It's that thing. There's a, there's a, there's a chocolate treat that you get,
• 2:56
  which is like a, like a dehydrated
• 3:01
  orange that's been candied or something and then dipped in chocolate. Oh, yes.
• 3:03
  That's what I'm getting. More of the one, the round dark chocolate one you get
• 3:06
  that splits open the orange. You know, Terry's Chocolate
• 3:10
  Orange. Yeah. Really? Oh yeah, I'll go for that.
• 3:14
  Okay. Yeah, sure. Why not? Why not?
• 3:19
  What about on, on the palate, Dave?
• 3:22
  Does it match? I always— I used to really love, like, nosing it and
• 3:26
  tasting it and discussing the differences. Is it aggregated? Now I'm like, that word
• 3:31
  you love. I like to find ones that, like, match and then ones that
• 3:34
  are different. You cooked me, by the way. Terry's Chocolate Oranges have completely cooked that.
• 3:38
  Sorry. I am getting Terry's Chocolate Orange on the palate.
• 3:42
  That is a good— that's really a very strong
• 3:46
  flavor descriptor of what I'm getting here. It's that,
• 3:49
  but it's got the right amount of like zing and punch and
• 3:54
  heat that you want from a really nice bourbon.
• 3:57
  My goodness, the structure of this.
• 4:01
  It's delicate and light, but there's the oakiness afterwards, but it's hanging around
• 4:05
  and it's gonna stick there for a good amount of time. Yeah, you get that,
• 4:09
  that fruitiness up front, but then there's like an oakiness that's
• 4:12
  left on your tongue. Is it weird to say I'm getting like popping candy?
• 4:15
  That's a weird thing to say because popping candy is like an experience
• 4:18
  where the thing is popping on your tongue. Yeah, but it's that sweetness with the,
• 4:21
  like, like the chocolate. It's probably that
• 4:25
  you're getting the chocolate. Okay, well, I'm going to— I'm going with popping candy.
• 4:28
  Popping candy and Terry's Chocolate Orange. Imagine if Terry's Chocolate Orange had popping
• 4:32
  candy in it. This is going to be for our international fans. They're going to
• 4:34
  go, what the heck is Terry's Chocolate Orange? Imagine you
• 4:38
  get orange-flavoured chocolate and it comes looking like an
• 4:42
  orange and you unwrap it and you have to tap it at the top and
• 4:43
  it turns into these orange segments. And every
• 4:48
  year for your birthday, that's what your mum gives you. That's what I got after
• 4:51
  sport when someone's chopped up all the orange into quarters. And then
• 4:55
  this is made of chocolate. I know this is a recurring theme, but it was
• 4:58
  my 40th birthday recently and my brother, as a cute and sweet
• 5:01
  gift, gave me A Terry's Chocolate Orange is like a harking back
• 5:06
  to what Mum used to give me. Yeah, it's a very lovely gift actually.
• 5:09
  And I ate it. It was good. Oh, I was going to say, have we
• 5:12
  got any leftover? Because it would go really well with this. Like paired— this
• 5:16
  paired with a Terry's Chocolate Orange. I would eat that immediately
• 5:21
  and drink this. What a good idea. I can see why.
• 5:24
  And it was the thing about Evergreen Liquor was that they— when
• 5:29
  we go there, we just get them to recommend different stuff. And this was one
• 5:32
  that we just drank on someone else's recommendation.
• 5:38
  Okay, go on. Sorry, finish. And I just love the fact that then
• 5:42
  we were like, we should buy it. Here's the thing that needs to happen at
• 5:46
  these places. Can I, can I paint the picture of what this looks like?
• 5:48
  This is like a— it's a liquor store with a bar
• 5:51
  in it. And around the bar, so imagine part of the counter, like a
• 5:55
  long counter at a liquor store. That's got everything you expect, like chips and,
• 5:58
  you know, where you can buy jerky and, I don't know, mini bottles
• 6:02
  of liquor or whatever it is. And then down one end, there's like a little
• 6:04
  L-shaped bar, has enough seats for 8 people. Yeah,
• 6:08
  about 8. Maybe no more than 8 people. And one
• 6:13
  of the liquor store attendants is basically a bartender who is,
• 6:17
  in this case, ridiculously knowledgeable. I'm pretty sure when we
• 6:21
  got this one, it was Tom still in Nulu. He was unbelievable.
• 6:25
  I'm not sure he's still there. The last couple of times I've been there,
• 6:27
  he hasn't been there. And so helpful.
• 6:31
  And so— and they've got these special deals and all that kind of stuff and
• 6:34
  they've got their own barrel picks and you kind of say what you want to
• 6:37
  spend. They've always got these crazy things where it's like today's $4 pour is this
• 6:41
  or whatever and you can taste something for $4. But then they've also got things
• 6:44
  like King of Kentucky and stuff where you can spend a bit of money and
• 6:46
  you can get these pours that you can't get anywhere else or it's very hard
• 6:49
  to get. I think he was really clever in we were able to describe some
• 6:52
  of the bourbons we loved, but we wanted to try something we hadn't tried.
• 6:55
  And he took that knowledge and went, well, you have— you like this and this
• 6:58
  and this, but you haven't tried this. Great. So clever.
• 7:01
  And so I think I, you know, and I think when we go,
• 7:06
  we try to get to Evergreen Fairbairn. We often stay not far away from there.
• 7:09
  We try to get there a few bits to try something different and new.
• 7:12
  And he kind of got to know a little bit of what we tried
• 7:17
  and what we knew and what we liked. And so after a few days,
• 7:19
  we're like, okay, cool. Give us something we haven't tried,
• 7:23
  asked us a few of the right questions, and then said, all right, try this
• 7:26
  one. And I think by that point, I think I was saying,
• 7:29
  all right, I want to buy some bottles to take back to Australia.
• 7:33
  Yeah. What should we be tasting here that we can grab? There's still bottles of
• 7:36
  back there that we can grab a bottle of. And this was one that he
• 7:39
  suggested. So here's some things that you— I don't think you would know about.
• 7:42
  So can you get this in Australia? Definitely, definitely not. Definitely not.
• 7:46
  2XO is the letters 2XO
• 7:50
  stands for 2 times oak. All of his expressions are double
• 7:54
  oaked. He is Dixon Devons. So he,
• 7:57
  he was the guy who reignited Kentucky
• 8:01
  Owl and then sold it to the Stoller Group. Yeah, this is back in 2017
• 8:05
  or something like that. So like, this is the Kentucky Owl thing. It was his
• 8:08
  thing. Yeah. So it was the Stoller Group and then he went on to do
• 8:11
  this and he himself is a sneakerhead. A sneakerhead is
• 8:15
  someone who goes nuts for collecting sneakers. Oh, that's why it's got the cool sneakers
• 8:18
  on it. Yeah. The Sneakerhead Blend.
• 8:21
  Sneakerhead Blend. It's just such a cool bottle. I am
• 8:26
  a big fan of really
• 8:31
  good bourbon insider knowledge, and this is one of my favorite experiences of this thing,
• 8:34
  of like, that expression from these guys is
• 8:37
  great. I've also had some bum steers. I've got to be really honest that there's
• 8:41
  been some people who've gone, you've really got to try this thing. Yeah, but it
• 8:44
  wasn't what I want. Somebody else, because you never know what kind of palate they
• 8:48
  really want. But if you know your bourbons, I suppose,
• 8:52
  well enough and you're able to articulate what
• 8:55
  flavors you like, then, you know, chances are they'll pick
• 8:59
  something that you like. But the fact that, like, we bought
• 9:03
  it when we were over there for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, when we were—
• 9:07
  had limited luggage space to bring back bottles means that
• 9:10
  I know we like, you know, when you buy a bottle and you've drunk something
• 9:13
  like, did we really like that or what's it like? This one I knew we
• 9:17
  loved because it came home in our bottle and we also had to go to
• 9:21
  Kentucky Bourbon Festival and buy bottles. The packaging is also off the chain.
• 9:24
  This is really good packaging. Yeah, really pretty. That sneaker
• 9:28
  design is— there are some bottles that I just throw in recycle and there are
• 9:31
  others that will never get recycled. I know.
• 9:35
  Bottle that will never— I'll figure out a way of— see the yellow bin.
• 9:38
  Upcycling it because it's so cool. Upcycle it? Yeah. Use it
• 9:41
  for something else. Okay. How could it ever get better
• 9:45
  use case than putting this beautiful juice in it? Once we empty the juice
• 9:49
  out of it, Dave. That's not upcycling. Okay. All right. You'd use
• 9:53
  it for a vase or, you know, it's definitely recycled.
• 9:56
  Put fairy lights in it and use it as a bed. That's a re rather
• 10:00
  than an up. Anyway, I'll lean into it. It's fine.
• 10:04
  I think the moral of the story for this
• 10:08
  one is that in bourbon terms,
• 10:11
  there's almost always— no, almost— there's actually
• 10:15
  always people who know plenty about bourbon around you
• 10:19
  who you should be curious about and listen to their
• 10:23
  views and take action when they give you good advice. I just,
• 10:27
  I just go with the try new things. Like, yep,
• 10:31
  wait, that's better. You've got— you've done it better. So let's do that one.
• 10:35
  Try, try new things. And in it, like in an environment like Evergreen
• 10:38
  where it's like great value to try a little pour or half pour or whatever.
• 10:41
  Yeah, try it. And if you don't like it, don't buy a bottle of it.
• 10:44
  But if you do like it, well, yeah, don't stand
• 10:48
  there idly looking at a bottle and going, I wonder if I should just get
• 10:51
  it. But it gives you a chance to try and try try stuff and then,
• 10:53
  and, and kind of try things that you might not normally try.
• 10:57
  Like if you're not a double oak person or if you're not a rye person
• 11:01
  or like try something that you wouldn't normally try because it might surprise
• 11:05
  you. That's a great shout. Or affirm what you don't like.
• 11:08
  In fact, I think this mash bill is supposed to be 35% rye,
• 11:11
  18% rye bourbon mash bill.
• 11:15
  That's a lot of rye for me, but I would never have said
• 11:18
  that this isn't a flavor profile I was after. It's, it's beautiful.
• 11:23
  There's a couple of high rye mashbills there. I'm really sad about how low that
• 11:26
  bottle is getting, but I'm excited to go back to Kentucky and
• 11:31
  see what other 2XOs we can try. That's true. Yeah, we do have another one
• 11:35
  up there. We'll talk about another time, but this is great.
• 11:38
  And oh, I'm so pleased we poured another one. And I'm glad we use these
• 11:41
  big fat glasses from the team at Deborah and Lyle.
• 11:45
  Thanks so much. They help make it taste really good. Try new things.
• 11:51
  Cheers. Thanks for listening. Make sure you connect with us on TikTok,
• 11:54
  Instagram, and YouTube, and stay connected with us by clicking subscribe on
• 11:58
  your favorite podcast app.