Bourbon Pursuit

With the current climate of overpriced rare whiskey, how do you turn that into a profitable business? Matt Landan talks about pivoting his coffee shop into Haymarket Whiskey Bar, a staple of bourbon country and Top 40 whiskey bar.Show Notes: Everyone who has visited Louisville probably knows but we are going to talk about the history of the bar Do you think this is becoming a new landmark on the bourbon trail How are you appealing to the local bourbon community? You also do something unique with the price of your Van Winkles too People on the forums also thought you ruined bourbon for maybe 30 minutes last year too Talk about the new Vintage spirits law and what that means You’re keeping up with it. what’s the latest news with it and where are they? What are some potential pit falls? How do retailers or people like yourself protect themselves from frauds? What mistakes have you made trying to run a whiskey bar? What advice would you give to someone? How do feel about increased competition? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recent whiskey news has really been depressing. There hasn’t been much good that’s come of it so the roundtable spends an hour and complains. We hit on everything from the sadness that is EH Taylor Four Grain being named Whiskey of the Year to the depressing news of no more Eagle Rare store picks in 2018. Read more sorrowing news we talk about in the show notes belowShow Notes: Whiskey Of The Year according to Jim Murray is the EH Taylor Four Grain Did anyone actually like it? Is this a ploy to sell more books? How is this going to effect next year’s release? There is a new Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection Kerry isn’t a fan but Eric does like it. They discuss David J Montgomery from Professor Cocktail is a moron. He tried selling his BTAC samples on the Secondary Market. Will Buffalo Trace change their sample distribution process now? Do relationships matter when you live in a control state? There will be no Eagle Rare store picks in 2018. Kerry explains. What are UofL fans going to do now with their Pitino and Jurich Maker's bottles? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is the madness ever going to end? Are those unicorn bottles going to continue to climb in price for the future? How did we end up here? Past guest Chuck Cowdery, a bourbon authority, enlightens us to how the history of bourbon being an unwanted commodity created stocks of well aged whiskey that led us to the market we see today.Show Notes: Let's talk about the past and the bourbon, crisis, was it an overall understanding that bourbon might be extinct? At what point did you come in to see some of this first hand? How did advertising work for bourbon? How did you get it into the hands of elders? How did no one see this coming? Like literally no one. You talk about the resurgence of bourbon was partly because of the lack of drinkers because it led to the unintentional benefit of very well-aged whiskey What were distillers doing with this better aged whiskey? Do you think exports are the biggest benefactor? What were bourbon brands doing at the time to appeal to the Japanese and European markets? So people are buying whiskey again, how are distillers ramping up production? Was there a surge of more NDPs and independent bottlers buying sourced whiskey? Why do you call this a “not so attractive” trend? At what point did we start seeing the “shortage”? or is there really a shortage? Have NDPs died off because they can’t source or contract distill now? Will craft distillers put a dent in the market or are they just looking for their piece of the pie? Do you think any of these companies will be "under water" on their investments when the bourbon matures for sales in 4-12 years? Especially when they have to compete with the big boys as they are expanding. Do you think we are going to see people drop off because we don’t have a lot of well-aged whiskey now? We have distillers and craft distillers removing age statements. How will that effect the future? What’s the key to making this trend last? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever visited the Bourbon Heritage Center in Bardstown or the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience in downtown Louisville? It's time you meet Jeff Crowe who is the General Manager of Visitor Experiences for Heaven Hill. Jeff takes us through what each locations have to offer and gives some insight into how he can fairly distribute Parker's Heritage and William Heaven Hill releasesShow Notes: Did you come from a hospitality background or whiskey? Was life a bit less hectic in 2013? How has bourbonism grown since you have been around? Has it put more stress on your job Talk about each theEvan Williams Bourbon Experience EWBE and theBourbon Heritage Center BHC and what you will see in each Heaven Hill is unique that you don’t actually ever get to tour where the majority of the bourbon is made. Is there plans to open up Bernheim for visitors? I’ve always told people that they need to visit EWBE to break up the distillery visits because it’s more like a mix of a museum with video projectors. Most distillery visits get pretty repetitive but this breaks the mold. Do you know whose idea it was to build it this way? Talk about the history of this building because it was owned by the Shapiros at one point too. What is the wildest thing you’ve seen happen at either location? Someone trying to dive into the large glass of Evan Williams at the entrance? You also spend time at the BHC in Bardstown. Even though these locations are only an hour away from each other, is there a different vibe or feeling the visitors get from each? Is there something one offers that the other can’t? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Freddie Johnson has a long resume. Previous guest on episode 59, 3rd Generation Employee at Buffalo Trace, and Tour Guide Extraordinaire. He joins to talk about Bourbon Pompeii, who was Thomas H Handy (THH) and other tidbits of random knowledge you only get from Freddie.Show Notes: What’s been going on since the last time we talked? You haven’t been getting a bigger head by reading all those 5 star TripAdvisor reviews have you? Lets give everyone a little refresher about you and your family history at BT So who’s going to continue the family tradition and be the 4th generation? What are the ABCs of bourbon? What is the origin of “the shot”? Who was Thomas H. Handy? Alright, this Bourbon Pompei, lets talk about it. For some other geeks out there besides whisky geeks, you also took part in a new Buffalo Trace virtual reality tour. talk about that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The bourbon community roundtable does a blind tasting with samples sent in by a fan of the show. The best bourbon bloggers out there are put to the test to see if they can figure out where it came from. You won’t believe what happens. Show notes below…Show Notes: We’ve got a full house tonight with Blake from bourbonr.com, Nick from BreakingBourbon, Kerry of subourbia.com, Brian of SippnCorn, and Michael with @flightofbourbon as our special guest Blake talks about tasting blind all the time What do you do about wanting to sample limited releases, but you may not get the opportunity if you only have that 1 shot to buy the bottle? Throughout the show we try samples A, B, C, and D. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fred Minnick, multi-appearance guest on the show and author of the new book Rum Curious, educates us bourbon drinkers on why rum isn’t so bad and how the rum industry needs the passion of the bourbon community. Back in February you had a article named “For Rum’s Sake”, an open letter to bourbon drinkers. Was it a plea? Why rum? There’s lots of other spirits Name a few brands that are accessible in parts of the US that are trustworthy. So what’s wrong with Captain Morgan and those typical ones we all think of? We know bourbon has 3 main ingredients, but what are some of the main ones going into rum? We also have corn whiskey, rye whiskey, etc, any variants? So people want to learn more about rum, besides your book, where are the rum fanatics? Talk about the laws and labels for rum producers What do you think about those companies that say they can create an aged rum in less than 7 days using technology? Thanks to Emmet Klocker that sent us some samples from Lemon Hart, Havana Club, and 1931. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Beau Beckman, Barrel Select Manager at Buffalo Trace, is now a 2nd time guest! We talk about how the program has matured, why you only get to taste 4 barrels rather than more, how the barrels are chosen for the program versus the regular blend, and how you can get your own.Show Notes: So what’s been happening since the last time we chatted back on episode 009? You’ve managed to stay off the news radar it seems like except there was a good article Forbes put out recently and our good friend Bourbon Truth was talking about good private barrels and said you basically had to lick someone’s balls (especially Beau beckman) to get anywhere So we just did a pick and you said you can have the barrel or we can send it off to Mexico For anyone that doesn’t know and didn’t catch them up to speed on your family heritage that you bashfully don’t like to talk about I was actually out here today doing a barrel selection of Buffalo Trace, talk me through the process of what I experienced today The numbers have been dwindling at every place for barrel selections. Where it was once fruitful to try 12 or more barrels, sometimes it’s down to three. Is this just lack of mature whiskey? Or is it lets dwindle down these remaining barrels for single selections and then we will pull out new ones How often does it happen someone will pass on a barrel and then the next group or the group after says something ridiculous like “oh man, that’s the honey barrel!” speaking of honey barrels, do you really believe there are such a thing and how often do those go to single select? how are the barrels chosen for single select, randomly? by a group of tasters? I've had some very off profile barrels too Coming and doing a barrel pick for new whiskey geeks is like the ultimate experience. What do you attribute to the success of a single barrel program? Any advice for those stores who are itching to get on the program or know of a shortcut? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reid Bechtle & Emerald Adair of 1789b join the group to talk about the fascinations with the better things in life, how they started 1789b, how barrel selections have changed in 7 years, and the barrel picks they have still yet to do. Introduce yourselves, your background and how bourbon got into your life What are those coins you have in your hands? Explain what 1789b is Where does the name 1789b come from? Do distilleries roll out the red carpet for you? Have the advent of prolific Facebook groups influenced the group? Talk about those early Reid & Emerald picks How has the barrel selection process changed now that you don’t get the pick of everything in the rick house? When newcomers are in the market and they see Billions with Michter’s 20 year and they get caught up in the chase. Do you all get caught up seeking limited releases too? Is there a bourbon pick you haven’t done yet that would be on your bucket list? Listen to the barrel pick we all did back on Episode 105 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The roundtable is back with a new panel member. Some of us got cursed by making fun of the eclipse while others are being cursed by the Old Forester vapor gods by stealing some extra alcohol for OFBB 2017.Show Notes: Thanks to Maxwell Christy of SuperflyBourbonClub, Blake from bourbonr.com, Jordan from BreakingBourbon, and a brief appearance from Kerry of subourbia.com Who watched the eclipse today? Anyone else underwhelmed? OFBB is releasing their 2017 Birthday Bourbon How about Old Forester Statesman? Has anyone tried it yet? Why is it people are ok with higher prices on private label bourbons however it’s not like that in any other industry? Quinn English asks “I’d like to hear more about distribution and alternatives for the three tier system” Vlad Belchinsky asks “I would like to see a discussion about 'store picks", are they really and why does someone's opinion of 1 barrel drive the price up over a standard release?” Adam Kessell asks “Another topic is what you drink when you don't drink bourbon. And it's connection to bourbon. Or bourbon barrel aged tequila/rum, etc.” https://youtu.be/D7TxC0b6B0k Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices