Bruce Russell and JoAnn Street both know their Wild Turkey distillation and family history like the back of their hand. Both have been brand ambassadors but are now transitioning to new roles. While JoAnn is developing the hospitality side, Bruce is learning the ins and outs of the distillery. This show dives into the personalities of these two as we discuss the effect of bringing fresh faces to the distillery and how they plan on keeping traditions alive.

Show Notes:

• Episode 186 we feature Pam Heilman of Michter’s Distillery
• 150 bottles remaining from 4 barrels of Pursuit Series
• This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about fake whiskey.
• JoAnn, do you want to get into working in the distillery?
• Bruce, are they going to make you join the union?
• How are you related to Jimmy?
• How did you decide to get into the family business?
• Talk about being a female in whiskey.
• What does it mean to be new blood in the company?
• Tell us about your background and how it will help with working in the distillery.
• Did they have a daycare for you at the distillery when you were young?
• What is your favorite Wild Turkey product?
• Do you see yourself living in Lawrenceburg?
• Give us your typical brand ambassador spiel for 80 proof and 101.
• Tell us about Rare Breed and Kentucky Spirit.
• Why is 101 Rye important?

Transcription:

0:00
There’s those

0:00
weird beetles that we got out here.

0:02
Yeah. Does that what does that mean that they’re like stink bugs and know what they are? Yeah, yeah, at least that’s what I know

0:16
that say that one for the blooper reel.

0:29
Welcome back. This is Episode 199 of bourbon pursuit. I’m one of your host Kenny. And to go through a little bit of news back on episode 186. We featured Pam Hyman of Victor’s distillery. Pam talked about her extensive history working in bourbon that began at the Booker no plant. She’s had a long tenured career and was named the master distiller Victor’s back in October of 2016. However, last week, Pam announced she is retiring from actors, and Dan McKee will be taking over as the new master distiller. We wish him all the best in her retirement, and you can look forward to hearing her one last time when we release her interview with Fred Minnick at the Kentucky Derby museums legend series. It might be the worst kept secret in history, and I think it even gets a mention in today’s episode, but the fourth wild turkey masters keep released titled Cornerstone will likely be a nine year old rye according to the filings with the TTP. The label describes it as the cornerstone as a Kentucky straight rye whiskey batch 0001 bottle at 109 proof aged a minimum of nine years and approved by Eddie Russell. However, we all sort of knew this was coming for a while. also kind of fun to note, if you go in a barrel, pick a wild turkey there is going to be a few ride barrels just for sampling fun. Just another reason to love those Russell’s. We’ve had both our guests back on the Russell’s family episode, which was 175. But this time, Joanne and Bruce get to have a moment in the spotlight. Both know their wives, Turkey distillation and family history like the back of their hand. We know this firsthand. Because on our last Russell’s reserve barrel pic, we have Joe in actually giving us the tour for the podcast. And this show dives into their personalities. Because these two are very vibrant. They know what they’re doing. And we discussed the effect of bringing fresh faces into the distillery and how they plan to keep some of these traditions that me as you understand here in a little bit how it try to keep those alive. We’ve got about 150 bottles remaining from our four barrels of pursuit series. These are ranging anywhere from 10 to 14 years old. And we’re excited, we’re going to be bringing two new more barrels in May. One last one of these is actually going to be a five year week from Finger Lakes distilling. And you can get information about these barrels such as their proof and the story behind them as well as you can get them shipped to your door at pursuit spirits.com. Now sit back and relax and here our friend Joe over a barrel bourbon. And if you want here more Joe, make sure you follow us on all our social media channels because our next live recording at downwind bourbon bar is going to be featuring Joe Beatrice of barrel so make sure you stay tuned for that. And as always, you’ve got Fred Minnick with above the char.

3:16
Hi, this is Joe Beatrice from barrel bourbon. We blend cast right high quality spirits to explore the effects of different distillation methods, barrels and ag environments. Use our store locator to find a retail or a bar near you at barrel bourbon calm.

3:30
I’m Fred Minnick, and this is above the char

3:34
and a recent Twitter survey. I asked the question, do you think fake Pappy Van Winkle is in circulation and American retailers and restaurants? 86% of the 861 voters said yes. Now my followers tend to be a little bit more cynical and on the whiskey geek side. But think about this for a moment. Some of the most enthusiastic people and all of spirits American whiskey fan

4:01
tend to think that there’s fake Pappy Van Winkle in circulation.

4:06
That means someone is going to be buying a fake bottle or poor of Pappy Van Winkle. Now, how is this possible? And the times we live in? How is it possible that we can continue to face these types of issues, fraudulent activity on something as as benign as an American whiskey? It’s ridiculous. But we’ve seen it in scotch, there are people serving time in prison for wine. We even had the Pappy Van Winkle heist a few years ago where Buffalo Trace employees stole from their own employer and tried to resell it.

4:45
The fact is, as long as people can make money, it will always happen people will always try to circulate fraudulent bottles into the marketplace. And there’s not a whole lot we can do about it. But there is one thing, one thing that everyone out there can do. And that’s putting an end to the selling of empty bottles on eBay. Get on eBay right now and just search Pappy Van Winkle empty bottle. Now I came across one that was selling for $700 and the guy had empty in quotation marks. And you know, frankly, I just saw read and kind of went off on it and Instagram. But he was really probably trying to sell a full bottle now that I think about it. But nonetheless, you will still find a number of Pappy Van Winkle bottles for sale. You’ll also find empty orphan barrels and Buffalo Trace antique collection and four roses limited editions and you’ll see older mixers bottles being for sale. And there’s they serve no purpose to be sold as empty bottles, other than to for someone to refill them at another time. because no one’s sharing the shit making candles, armor lamps. So if you’re someone who’s putting an empty bottle in eBay, I just want you to know that you’re part of the problem. Oh, you may need money. I understand that. And if you’ve done a once, you know, I hope you got the funds you needed. But if it’s consistently happening, and this is part of a business plan that you have or this is something that you hope to break in and become like a special follow on eBay. Well then sir, ma’am, you are causing us a whole lot of headaches and American whiskey right now. Because there’s a good chunk of us who do not trust that good Pappy Van Winkle, or Buffalo Trace antique collection is legitimate. And if you are selling MTS on eBay, you are one of the biggest pariahs in American whiskey right now. There I said it.

6:55
Think about that, if we can put an end to selling empties on eBay, we may be able to put a dent in some of the fraudulent activity we’ve seen on the secondary market. And worst case scenario in retail or in restaurants. So I don’t know what to do about it. It’s not illegal.

7:16
People can do what they want with an empty bottle. But if you have an empty bottle, display proudly on your mantel, or take it outside and break them on the fucker with a sledgehammer. I don’t care. But don’t put it on eBay.

7:31
And that’s this week’s above the char this this subjects get me pretty pissed off. So if you have something that might piss me off, hit me up on Twitter, or Instagram at Fred Minnick. That’s at Fred Minnick. Until next week. Cheers.

7:48
Welcome back to the episode of bourbon pursuit the official podcast of bourbon. Kenny here recording once again in Lawrenceburg at wild turkey Hill, home of wild turkey bourbon. And this has been a serious recordings that we have been doing. However, we have two new guests to the show that had not been on previously because we have had Jimmy and Eddie on. And we’ve got a few of the wild turkey super fans that have been on before as well. But this one we kind of looked at and we said there’s got to be some more faces, right. And there’s a lot of new faces that are starting up and become better the younger generation of bourbon, or what Fred and some other cells are starting to call this even the media people like the new regime of it, right because we’ve got a lot of people that are older authors and they’re trying to do something different and we’re doing podcast now. And now we’ve got some new blood that are starting to enter the the whiskey world in itself. So with that, I’m going to go ahead and introduce our guests. So we have got Bruce Russell, who is the global was the global brand ambassador gonna go ahead and introduce yourself.

8:48
Yeah, how’s it going, guys? I was just the brand ambassador, there’s just only ever one of us I was like all of them whatever there would be I would do.

8:57
But now they’ve got me transitioning to be more than a story hopefully take over and

9:02
do a lot of the same stuff that dad Jimmy did. So we’ll talk about that one then we also have Joanne and Joanne is it st them I saying that correctly? Okay.

9:09
Yeah, so I do a little bit of brand ambassador work but I also help out and the visitor center with you know, all the events and whatnot that go on kind of all over the place.

9:19
So let’s go ahead and that’s a that’s a good way to kind of kick started so you you’re going in and doing a lot of like the events and stuff like that Do you do you want to follow in any other footsteps to like get into the the distillation, the warehouse, the actual jobs of what’s actually happening inside of the distillery now.

9:34
So for me, I have a little bit of a different story, like Bruce grew up coming to the distillery whereas I grew up in Tennessee, and then decided to move up to Kentucky. But right now I’m committed. Great.

9:47
Thank

9:47
you. I think I’m liked a little bit more now and the Russell family because

9:51
you don’t wear like a bunch of orange around the house. Okay, so you’re not a volunteer went

9:54
to the University of Kentucky. So okay, well, pretty hard cats fan. But for me, I think I’m just still trying to find my way in this industry. And right now I’m really enjoying the marketing aspect of the job, and just really getting to interact with different bartenders and people who truly love what you do here. And it makes me more passionate and want to be better at my job, as well. So for right now, I think, let Bruce, Eddie and Jimmy make all the good juice. And then I’ll just be out there talking about it sharing the wild turkey love.

10:22
So you don’t have any dreams or aspirations to want to do that.

10:25
Maybe in the future. But right now I’m enjoying what I’m doing.

10:28
Maybe like a summer internship, something like that to learn the distilling operation.

10:33
Yeah, we’ll see. I think once Bruce gets here, I’ve learned a lot from him. We’re kind of really good buddies, and definitely who I look up to the most. So I’m sure once he gets back here and kind of doing his thing, I’ll probably be very intrigued in that as well. But I’m really enjoying what I’m doing right now. So

10:47
awesome. And so Bruce will will kick that over to you. So you have been now you live in Austin, Texas right now. Correct.

10:55
Kind of kind of all right. So I haven’t lived there much this year. So he’s got a home back.

11:02
They’ve got me moving back for sure. Permanently here in Kentucky, January one. It was actually supposed to be sometime this year. So my jobs kind of in a transition phase where I’ve really probably spent the most time here in Lawrenceburg at the distillery this year, as opposed to 300 days on the road last year, but I’m still doing a little bit of the ambassador work. We’ve hired somebody to take over as a national level ambassador, but I guess they don’t. They don’t they treat everybody a little bit nicer than us. So they didn’t make your family. Yeah, they didn’t make him travel 315 days. So he only has the West Coast. So I’m filling in a little bit on the East Coast, Joanne’s feeling a little bit on the east coast and some of the smaller markets.

11:38
So you guys are starting to understand what it’s like to live in the Delta sky lounge.

11:43
Exactly. Yeah. And we are Delta 13 through me, dad, Jimmy, I think all of us.

11:48
Yeah, we’ve we’ve talked about it, to an extent, at least with Eddie and I, because I was a Delta person at one point when I was traveling. So we talked about sky lounges and sort of how you get used to

11:58
lean and do while they weren’t Southwest. With his wild turkeys. So yeah, and Jimmy was buddies with herb. And like, I think that’s kind of how that wild turkey thing got started.

12:08
But now I’ve

12:09
worn by bugs out here, by the way. So if you see us on camera, and we’re dodging we even it’s, it’s because we’re just bug just flying everywhere. And we are recording outside. So if you hear trucks going on the background, it’s because of the limestone quarry that they are just trucking stuff in and out of, you know, it was funny, we were actually recording another episode and trying to figure out, you know, where Bruce was going to start coming into here, because Eddie actually was part of the Union when he started coming in here. And Jimmy was sort of laughing a little bit because he made him do that. Now they’re going to make us start joining the union to and sort of work your ranks up you think, you

12:44
know, the know, and it’s a cute story now, but

12:50
he wasn’t as cute back in the day, there’s, you know, there’s some real animosity between him about how that got started. I don’t even think that many originally wanted to work here. You know, now they are, they work well together, we make amazing whiskey.

13:04
But I won’t have to do the exact same thing dad did. His dad was kind of forced to go the union without a college degree. And I’m coming in with a little bit of background in the job and with a degree in some chemistry under my belt and stuff and been having doing the apprenticeship. So I would assume that I’m going to have to do the same type of things. But I probably won’t be a union employee. I’ll probably be a company employee, but their plan is to get me as soon as possible into the warehouse. And one thing we did forget to mention is so you are Eddie son.

13:35
Oh, yeah. So we got forgot to get all about the family lineage. Point. So

13:40
yeah. Jimmy Russell Mini is what we call it means it is our grandfather, Eddie occur master distillers, my father, and then he is joins uncle. But as far as Walter, he’s concerned, you know, Jimmy me was not the first one to work here. My grandmother worked here before he did, and was basically the reason he got a job here. And then his father had worked here even before my grandmother did. And as far as I know, his grandfather was maybe the first person to work in a distillery here in Lawrenceburg, and Anderson County. And he worked at the Old Joe plant, which I believe was the precursor to what eventually became for roses.

14:19
So talk about your side, like, did you did you look at coming into this and saying, like, I just, I just need a job guys. Like, can we can we have some fun here? Or did you have this aspiration of wanting to be a part in the family business?

14:34
Yeah. So growing up, I always went to different events that they threw, like outside of the distillery, whether it be bourbon festival, or like the national Wild Turkey Federation down in Nashville. And I’ve always kind of had interest in it. But when I turned 21, I started out giving tours at the visitor center and just kind of working there as a summer job. And the longer I was there, the more passionate I got about it. And when you really get here, and you see what Jim Eddie do here, and then what Bruce has done the past few years, you just kind of you love it, you can’t get out of it. It’s addicting. And when you see that passion, you don’t want to do anything else.

15:10
You use that word passion a lot right about what you what you see inside the family. Yeah. So are you looking at making this a lifelong career Wild Turkey? Are you looking this is like this is this has been fun?

15:21
No, I’d love to, I’d love to work here. And it’s not just the family, it’s the people. A lot of our employees have been here for very long time. And I think that says a lot to our company and who we are as a brand, that it’s not just Jimmy and Eddie that have been here forever. We’ve got people that have worked here, 2030, 4050 years. So you saying there’s other

15:38
people we should have on the podcast to be saying to me,

15:42
if you want to

15:43
tell you the real truth, maybe you don’t like that.

15:47
So yeah.

15:49
So another question for you. While you’re still we’re talking on Joanne here, kind of talk about what it is being you know, we will talk about being sort of a younger generation here in a second. But you’ve been very female, because right now you have a lot of females that are starting to make their presence, you’ve got fond Weaver of uncle nearest you’ve got Marian eaves of castle and key. You’ve got the bourbon women’s society that’s starting to grow on hundreds of members now. So do you do you see this as like a great push for for, you know, involvement of women into whiskey to

16:22
absolutely and I’ve got to be a part of women and whiskeys a lot. So their Instagram page, they’ve got a ton of followers, but also just the support. Because I’m sure like Jimmy said back in the day, it really wasn’t gentleman’s drink and not so much anymore. And he likes saying that i think i think he does. Yeah,

16:38
he’s got he got this little like, twinkle in his eyes, like,

16:41
just a demand.

16:42
Maybe maybe the good old days. I don’t know.

16:44
It’s awesome. It’s a great time to be in the industry. It’s booming right now. And it’s not just whether it be brand ambassador work, but bartenders and just industry in general is, is growing insanely right now. And I’m just thankful to be a part of it.

16:59
So let’s talk about sort of new blood, right? Like what it means to be new blood in here. Do you do you think that this is because Jimmy it said it before right? It’s it’s an old man’s drink it was something that just just kind of just pretty stagnant for a while DC is a new regime or new blood coming in? That’s kind of reinvigorating this market.

17:18
Absolutely. I would definitely say so. And it’s it’s everywhere. And I don’t think it’s just in bourbon or whiskey. I think it’s in all of the industry whether it be the beer or the vodka or the gin. Think it’s everywhere everybody’s kind of coming together and realizing women have a pretty powerful role in this industry and it’s just exciting to be a part of it.

17:38
And Bruce What about you because you know you’re going to be I guess going head to head with say Freddie no here in a few years right?

17:47
Oh, not head to head he’s bigger than me. I’m not mad.

17:51
Oh, hello, Freddie. I love that family. There’s very little competition I don’t even consider me and Freddie the new regime that is not new regime he’s just trying to do is granted did he’s just trying to make Booker proud really. And that’s kind of what I’m doing just trying to make Jimmy Pro. So I think you’ll probably see some more old school stuff from us then you will maybe our peers as far as age is concerned. This new wave of distiller this new wave of industry person is really exciting. For the most part. Now here I can tell you one thing we have as big of a problem as you see in other places.

18:24
But here in Kentucky we’ve got a ton of

18:28
young and just younger people than dead and Jimmy that are making amazing product when you look at stuff

18:35
and people that are just involved maybe not even at the master quote unquote master distiller level but there’s the people in there making it there’s a young guy out there, that

18:44
new contract is still right there in Bardstown bourbon company, and they’re making crazy good juice, we went out there and checked it out with blaze news, Mr. Hargrove out there making some good stuff, Drew over there will it’s doing some crazy cool stuff, Mariana, they’re canceling key. He’s doing some crazy cool stuff. There’s this group of people, especially here in Kentucky, the folks over at angel’s envy, are doing some really cool stuff that and that younger generation, I’m really excited to see because all these people are either from here and had family involved, or they’re doing it in a way that I think you can be proud of. But I will say that there is some bad that’s come from,

19:24
Oh, here we go go with the dirt and not dirt. But I

19:27
do think that there’s something about every 25 to 35 year old person with a chemistry degree. distilling. aspirations now, like we talked about before, calls himself a master distiller and finds seven angel investors to build them a distillery in their band choose that they don’t want to really talk about and be honest about like, there’s a good side and a bad side.

19:48
Not only to the young, younger, influence and kind of influx into our industry, but also there’s money to be made now. And for most of Jamie and dad’s career, there was no money to be made. So the people doing it more people that loved it. Now, you know, you see a little bit of both. But with people like Freddie and the family over there at angel’s envy, and drew and Marianne, and I mean, even dad and his generation, when you look at Fred and dad and somebody a car owner, Danny, we’re good hands here in Kentucky. Absolutely. Yeah.

20:21
So I want to kind of touch on something else that you were talking about there, too. We talked about, you know, the chemistry degrees and all that sort of stuff, kind of talking about your background of sort of what’s going to lead you into the distilling path, right. I mean, you’re going to take an apprenticeship underneath your dad sort of learned from the ranks.

20:40
So I think the my kind of education will be twofold.

20:46
It’ll be mostly hands on work, the academic aspect of distilling that the chemistry component.

20:55
I’ve spent a lot of time studying, researching and learning from the people that we have here on our technical team and our old distillery supervisor and dad. And that’s what I’ve always been most interested in. Before I wanted to work here. I was going to school trying to be an engineer. So you know, I’ve always been a tinkerer taking things apart, figuring stuff out, it’s always been very interesting to me, where most of my production will be now is learning how to actually do it by hand. Even though all this is automated is very important for dad and Jimmy to pass along. how it’s done, kind of the way that Jimmy used to do it. That way I know, oh, when this when this shit breaks, when this shit breaks, isn’t going right, in a distillery does not run correctly, almost ever. Anybody anytime you go to the store, and like oh, everything’s running great. It’s usually not

21:46
everything, something’s always wrong. And I need to know why. Because that’s where a master distiller really comes in to play now. You know, and some people I guess, are just figureheads. But a lot of these guys whether the consumer base another they’re not are in their work. But a master is doers and stern pots anymore. He’s not hand crushing grain or, you know, he’s not sitting on top of a 200 degrees still having to take proofs and temperatures like Jimmy would. It’s all automated now. Right? We’re master distiller really comes in handy is, how to remedy something that’s going wrong.

22:18
Or how to make something maybe even better in that automated process. And that’s the stuff you’ve got to learn. You only learn that by being here, Jim, you can go in and smell the fermentation say, I left that sitting there too long starting to smell spicy. Until I was here for a decade, and trying to actually listen and learn. I had no clue what that meant. But now when you go in, you smell it. And you can tell, oh, we’ve had secondary fermentation come in. It’s kind of smells like vinegar and spices, pepper. And it’s stuff like that. You just have to kind of be here and pick up

22:49
there for some reason Jimmy and dad don’t. They don’t teach you. They just figured you know, you listen, you learn, you know? Yeah, it’s got to do time. It’s experience.

22:57
Yeah. And you’re gonna figure out the hard way. I

23:00
don’t know if I’ll ever make whiskey is as good as Jimmy did in his prime. I think.

23:05
I know, I’m boss, because he’s my grandfather. But when you try that Turkey that he was making when cost was not a factor, he was probably losing money hemorrhaging money, probably by making whiskey the way he did. And that stuff in the 70s and 80s and early 90s. That stuff is incredible, right. And so my goal at the end of my apprenticeship is just to make some things happen, you know, if I can make something that’s got a little bit of that old school, wild turkey phone, because we got away from it for a while. There’s this weird time in the 2000s, where our stuff is a little bit inconsistent. It doesn’t have that same kind of wild turkey. Overall flavor. It’s not as complex as flavorful. It doesn’t have that deep funk that some of that other stuff has.

23:47
Now we’re getting I think back to that, yeah. When you taste somebody limited editions, like the Russell’s limited editions are like that decades are

23:56
you man, you take some of these single barrels that that people come and buy some of the best of we’ve ever made in the history of artist story. And so I’m excited about getting to learn how to do it, but also trying to do that same stuff that Jimmy always did.

24:07
Yeah, I mean, that was actually one thing that I had asked your dad, when we started looking at the growth of the brand, how everything is pretty much that’s not running at full bore, right? It’s about three quarters capacity, something like that at the at the current time. So there’s going to be a day when agent stock is going to be there, right? And you can be able to say, well, we’re looking, I’ll go fill a few barrels with 107, right? Because you can do a run and I’ll just go fill 600 barrels, and then yeah, then maybe you’ll be able to look at having those releases where they are reminiscent of those old days. And it could be eight year wild turkey one on one, you know, going into the barrel 107. And it might be able to pick up some of that that old.

24:48
So here’s something I’ll tell you. And really, I’m trying to tell your listeners

24:53
is that if you all want to see stuff like that, even if we have so here’s how it kind of works with us is even if we do have backstage to be able to do that thing, we have to not necessarily get permission. But you know, you gotta convince your overlords

25:05
exactly,

25:06
there needs to be a kind of a program and a plan involved. And they really want to see that it’s going to be worth their time, even if it’s not sold that you know, needs to generate something. And so one thing that I like to tell bartenders, but it goes the same for people that would be listening to this somebody that’s an enthusiast or considers himself a bourbon geek or bourbon nerd or collector.

25:24
If you want to see stuff like old incher proof, if you want to see everything going on to filter this stuff that I see people yelling about on bourbon Reddit or on people’s blogs or on comments on Patreon and stuff.

25:36
Not only your online, purchase, use your purchasing power, purchase the stuff like that tell people when you’re at tastings or at these events, you know, hey, I would really like to see some wild turkey from one on seven. Because that’s what matters it. You never know, you could be talking to the right marketing person at the right time. And all of a sudden, because this has happened with us. I heard from this guy that we would really like this kind of thing. It’s like yeah, we been trying to tell you that for 15 years, but the one right consumer the one right time of one right place can get something like that through. So we want to do all this kind of stuff like one on seven injury proof, we want to

26:10
go back to making you know, maybe some even smaller batches, then we’re doing that are how proof maybe non to filter barrel proof, maybe something like the Kentucky donut legend series.

26:21
There you go. But

26:22
to be able to do that, you know, we need you guys to

26:24
There you go. So there’s a there’s a call to action for all the listeners out there

26:29
who will help us a lot when you all fight for the old school style whiskey that we want to make for sure.

26:33
There you go. So one of the things that we didn’t ask when we started this, because typically when we have somebody we don’t really need to watch Jimmy Nettie, because it’s Jimmy and Eddie but with you all. And it’s typically what we ask all our guests is kind of like, how did you get into bourbon? Like what was? Do you remember that first? Like time that you either consumed it? Or was it something that you know? I’m sure. Probably you come in here and actually just having to go to get delivered daycare here. Did you have to come to date here at the distillery

27:00
the day here for me, I think it was called like Keith James. It was a guy that worked under dad that I always used to hang out with and I was a kid. And I think he knew I got you a bug again. I think they keep knew if he had the basically the boss’s grandkid with him that he could do whatever he wanted. It worked. So we just hang out. No, no daycare.

27:19
But if you want to go ahead first on the whiskey thing.

27:22
I mean, for me, I guess definitely in the past few years my my interest in it, my left words grown a lot and just getting very fortunate to taste a lot of different things. Especially a lot of our old school stuff like Bruce was talking about earlier, the stuff that Jimmy was making the 70 in the 70s in the 80s as some of my favorite stuff. And personally for me like Russell’s 98 is one of my if probably my favorite product that we’ve ever made here before. I just tend to like that sweeter that vanilla Carnival in those Bourbons that we make here. So for me, I’m a big Russell’s advocate. And the whole entire line I really enjoy

28:01
when I was 12 I know that’s not what they want to hear. So 21 this is

28:06
all about being authentic. But when I was 12

28:10
around then I might have been 13 my brothers nine or 10

28:15
dad took us in gave us some whiskey and who you all probably know as bad and Jimmy is not really who they are at home. They’re very stereotypical Southern patriarchs a family’s stern don’t speak.

28:30
disciplinarians. tough on you. And dad at home does not speak he hadn’t spoken me probably four times my whole life except for maybe good game or bad game when I mean a

28:40
lot of it, there’s There seems to be a consistent generational thing between the fathers in these families is

28:46
I’m the kind of the gregarious one so I’ll just force everybody to talk to me, even if they don’t want to

28:52
talk to a brick

28:52
wall. Yeah. But when, whenever I was about that age, dad took me and Jake, besides my younger brother’s name, and

29:00
took probably 30 or 45 minutes to explain to us the importance of the product and kind of like his involvement in it. And he could tell he’s very proud about a thing that I’d never seen him. He’d never been proud of anything like that before in his life, except maybe my mom like that’s the kind of look he had on his face. And that’s when I knew me, my brother both, you know, he never got into this. And at that time, I didn’t want to do this. But I knew this is special. Because dad doesn’t really care about anything besides us. His dogs, you know, maybe hunting and fishing.

29:32
He really cared about that whiskey. And I knew like, Oh, this is cool. Because before then All I knew is Jimmy’s. Everybody’s boss me because he had a big office in dad is not anybody’s boss because he did not know he was just the norm. He smelled like everybody else smell it smelled like sweat, and motor oil. And like aging whiskey is the best smell of the world when I was a kid kind of smells like when you drove up to the stereo, what it’s smelled like, but I he was a normal worker. So I didn’t even know him probably 15 or 16 that like

30:06
Jimmy was different. He wasn’t just like an employee. You know what I mean? Yeah. But even at 12 I knew whatever this was, it matters because it matters today.

30:16
So what was that? That turning point for you? Whether it was a few years ago that you said? Yeah, sure I can I can get into the family business. Because it sounded like you were lying

30:26
thing happened to me that happened to dad that happened to Joanne

30:30
Jamie was forced into his job. But my grandmother but we all took summer jobs.

30:37
Dad did not start off wanting to work here. He was playing football at Western hitchhiked up here. didn’t have a car back then granny made him get a job at this story summer job he just never will have same thing happened to me. Basically, same thing happened to join. Whenever I was 21. I got a job here given tours. I had worked a million jobs and stuff farm stuff, working Kroger, the meat department organ and FedEx moving boxes. Dad was like withdrawal would be a lot easier. know everything at the distillery already, you can just give a tour and talk about yourself. It’s like cool, and this little place right next to where we’re at. So the one room home that they’ve kind of converted into an event space.

31:14
And I gave tours and thought I’m gonna make my 10 bucks an hour and give these tours and it’d be easy six hour day job. And I’ll go back to Lexington and party up with UK kids. And about a month in.

31:27
I started getting questions from people, I started to get groups like probably the people that listen to this podcast. What’s amylase enzyme? I’ve heard that before? Like, you know, why is your yeast proprietary? Why does that matter? Or you would get questions that I would have no clue what it was, which would be like, why do you all run your steals hotter? And why is low proof even a good thing? Because I just knew low proof. I went through proof or distillation proof. That’s because that’s what maybe says because tastes good. And then once I realized I don’t have the answers that started to pick the brains. And again, it was a situation where you had two guys in your family.

32:01
They really don’t open up about much. And then as soon as you start talking bourbon, all of a sudden you start to push Yes.

32:09
And that’s when I knew like oh, I need to stick around here and at least figure out what’s going on. Because this is cool. And this in that time I was still thinking maybe I’d go be an engineer or do something like that.

32:21
And it was probably the end of that summer when I knew I’m probably never gonna leave.

32:27
And now you know I’ll never leave the bourbon industry. I love it the people

32:34
and the opportunities afforded my family’s changed my fam the opportunity to travel around the world and meet people that don’t look like us and sound like ghosts and it girl by ghosts it’s changed me for the better a lot. So this industry’s done a lot for us. And we’re very appreciative.

32:49
So the other thing is, you know, being a little bit younger, you know, you’re you’re talking about going party back with the Lexington boys and something like that. So do you see yourself actually living here in Lawrenceburg? Or do you see yourself maybe coming from Lexington or Louisville everybody can eat from the city now love where I’m from. I love Lawrenceburg.

33:05
And it’s a great place to grow up. It’s great place to raise a family but you gotta you gotta have a Yeah, there’s a little a little more I’ve got I’ve got to make the family before I move somewhere where I

33:16
tell me Tinder isn’t like a big thing and Laura’s knowledge.

33:18
It’s pretty tough going out on dates when every single single woman within probably five years of me I’m either related to dated before I dated their sister, you know, it’s a small community. Everybody knows me and everybody knows my best times and my worst time Yeah, and that’s rough here. In South probably have to go to over Lexington. I’m not gonna say I’m never going to live here because Lawrenceburg town, it’s home. Like I went to school at Anderson County. I went to the same high school that Jimmy went to same buildings and everything. I went to church right down here growing up in this little community called Tyrone that is the most little country church in the world.

33:56
And that it made me who I am. And I love it. Maybe when living in Austin, so it’s gonna be awesome. Yeah, six 7000 people or whatever it is. Yeah,

34:06
the live music scene and Lawrenceburg just isn’t the same.

34:09
Well, now there’s a guy right down there Jared Stratton, who disagrees pretty good. Yeah.

34:15
take your word for it.

34:17
So who knows you could be here long enough and you’ll get your own scooter down there.

34:21
That’s good. It’s pretty cool in about 50 That’s what he said he’s

34:24
got a license plate on and do some turn signals

34:26
I really want to because you know we know we’re back in town I really want to get the the chief of police to come down here like fake arresting from drinking and driving on us.

34:37
That’d be a good one. What about you Joanne do you actually live around here? Do you commute like what’s your what’s your

34:42
went to school and Lexington I still live there right now. But think I’m going to be making the move to local by the beginning of the year just for work. bigger market. As you know, Lexington it’s not super big, definitely a college town. But there’s only so much you can do there. So I’m excited to make the move to global get to a little bit better, bigger city. Because I did grow up in Nashville. I grew up in a small town about 20 minutes south of Nashville so much bigger than Lawrenceburg. It

35:08
was like if they gave you an ultimatum gotta move to Lawrenceburg. We would

35:11
do it absolutely i mean granted Joe and made me live here. I get free breakfast every Saturday

35:17
enforcer to be complaining to me.

35:20
Like I’m spending the night at your house. I gotta get I gotta get out of here.

35:28
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35:45
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35:46
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36:37
So I want to kind of just kind of take it back, talk a little bit more about the whiskey right because both of your ambassadors you both know it inside and out. So kind of because this is this is, you know, every show is going to feature a little bit different kind of angle on the wild turkey story. And since you guys know the product sets really well. Let’s just go through them just kind of real quickly to give our listeners kind of a different understanding that they wouldn’t necessarily get from me Eddie or Jimmy when we’re talking stories, right? So So let’s start at the like the at one in one on one and kind of like give us the give us a typical spiel that you would usually do when you’re out in Ambassador is the word we’re

37:13
all good at when you do one on one. And that one’s a little bit more difficult.

37:17
A bit different. Yeah.

37:18
So at one is a was not the original one on one is. So it was kind of a take on that that came out under the promo, I believe, regime when they were a parent company, and they had decided that they wanted to have a competitor for the 80 proof set. And like most 80 proofs, you know, surprise surprise to no one on this, listen to this, or 45 years old. And they had chosen to go down that same route. And so for a very long time, we had an 80 proof wild turkey that was in when people say 45 years old. Hopefully everybody knows that means it’s probably all four years old. And every now and then a fat might squeeze in you know. And so when the best whiskey in for a long time in you’ve I’ve heard on this podcast, I’m sure you’re aware that it’s very hard to get Jimmy to say anything bad about anything that’s ever happened the distiller he’s a very, very proud company, man, very proud, very positive. And he just don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. And if you get him on Sometimes he’ll say what he thinks. But he did not like that at PR never did. And now he admits it. And I think by the end of the ad, he used to tell people kind of like wink, wink, why would you drink the ad if you could get the one on one, because not only was it a four year old product, but it’s proof down. It’s just not what he liked. But then, after he bought us and I thought I think it’s one of the smartest things they’ve done, they realized that we didn’t care for the product. And that’s probably a big reason why I didn’t sail because when your two main phases of the company, they’re on the road debt and Jimmy, when people ask him to drink the 80 proof, and they refuse outright, and go to something else that tells you all. And so they decided to let’s change it. And that is one of the few things that they gave that almost full rein on it. He said, Well, I don’t think that it’s a problem that we have a proof down thing, I just think the whiskey is not good. And so we changed the product. And what you see now is at one is no longer any four or five, it’s now going to be six, seven and eight year old bland average age right around six and a half years. And what he wanted is he wanted an 80 proof product that going to stand up in a cocktail. That’s one of the reasons why I think one on one is so industry friendly is 101 proof. And we’re known for having a big kind of in your face flavor. And it stands up if you add sweetener, you add modifier is you’re going to still taste the whiskey or the raw. It wasn’t the case for 80 proof. And I think it was just a

39:37
it’s night and day better. And I’ve seen all the reviews come out that have compared the old ad to the 8181 just kicks its tail. That’s one of the few things that was kind of in that Jimmy era that just I didn’t think was a very good product. But I know it wasn’t up to him to make it. So what you have now is that blend of 678 right at 81 proof is a large batch. So both it one on one American honey, these products, they’re right around 1500 barrels mingled together for that one batch as opposed to like 150 or less on those small batches. And what we’re looking for is kind of the classic wild turkey flavor profile, but a little bit lighter, a little bit, I guess brighter and a little bit more crisp, maybe fruity almost is the way I would describe it. I think it’s a lot less of that kind of combo vanilla and a lot more like honey fruit, it’s kind of a lighter thing. They it is a different blend than the one on one. I think that’s something that consumers don’t know. It’s not the same bland, it’s not the same age, they’re completely different batches. One on One is older journal talking about that. And we do want at one to have a different kind of flavor profile

40:41
at doing that for a particular market. Because you know, talking about the bourbon aficionado of somebody that’s semi educated. Did you really think that they’re going to go for the 81 or they should probably not

40:56
bourbon aficionado, the only thing we would make was masters keeps.

41:00
That’s not what everybody needs. Everybody likes different stuff. I’m not an expert in wine at all. I can’t even really say one that will.

41:09
But

41:12
yeah, when I whenever I drink my bottle of two buck Chuck or whatever it is, I’m as happy as a lark. Yeah, just like I’m sure whoever enjoys like the 81. That’s their go to drink their enjoyment. It’s, it’s for maybe a more of a beginning consumers for somebody that wants something low proof or something a little bit more sensible.

41:31
or four bar because there’s a lot of bars that want wild turkey is their base product. But we don’t want a one on one raw are not inexpensive, especially for well, or rail products. So if you go to a bar, and they have one on one or one on one, right as their, their bourbon and coke order or whatever, that’s a good bar, it’s been in a lot of money on their product. Most people don’t want that they want something a little bit less expensive at ones for that kind of bar too. But we have seen a pretty big growth on the offspring to which is exciting because it like you were talking about a lot of the consumers that are going to be on this are going to be listening to this are going to want more probably Rare Breed spirit, private barrels, the limited stuff.

42:11
Nailed it.

42:13
We’ve got those consumers like they’re already on our side and we make stuff specifically for them. So it’s really fun to see when you walk into a liquor store. And there’s somebody that’s like, looking through what bourbon should I get? Oh, well, Turkey. Well, now at one’s not at all anymore. It’s wild turkey bourbon. So that’s what they’re going for.

42:29
And I think if you try that it does give you a kind of a good representation of what wild turkey can be. Yeah, one on one. And when you go to Rare Breed or like a Russell 2002, it just continues to be I think even more and more, quote unquote, wild turkey. I think at once like a really good entry point, maybe long branches to now. There we go.

42:49
So go ahead is a little bit of one on one. Yeah,

42:51
absolutely. So um, started back in like the late 30s. Early 40s is when we first started making one on one it was eight year one on one. One thing, one story that really stood out to me that Bruce told in the warehouse one day when we were doing a barrel pick was it really stood out because back then four year old bourbon was really what everybody was getting. And I guess when you put a big on a bottle and one on one, people kind of get drawn to it. So that’s kind of what built our company. It’s cool to see one on one still do so well. It’s still our number one best selling product. Like Bruce said it does tend to be a little bit older. So Seven, eight, sometimes maybe a little nine is thrown in there as well. But for those long

43:28
old book 10 year old and this year, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Short on it, I guess because long range or something. There’s a little bit older in this year.

43:34
Yeah. But for the longest time, all we were making was one on one and one on one. Right. And one of the coolest stories that I’ve come to know is that without the bartending industry without

43:46
off Prem on prem, we would just still be one on one and one on one right. We would not have Russell’s we wouldn’t have Kentucky spirit, we wouldn’t have rare breed, because that’s not what the market wanted back in the day. So it’s really what Bill our company, it’s still who we are today. One thing that I really respect about Eddie and Bruce is that they will never step on what Jimmy’s done here. Like Eddie talks about a little bit earlier. One on one wall is we want to one Rare Breed will always be rare breed Kentucky spirit will always be Kentucky spirit. Those are kind of Jimmy’s babies. But the one on one, like I said is a little bit older than the 81 tends to be a little bit spicier, a little bit bolder kind of that in your face bourbon. A lot of people tend to say it reminds them of their college days. Which is

44:25
funny. It’s funny because we all we all talk about one way more

44:29
money than I did in college. I used to drink whenever I was broken couldn’t steal anything. Yeah, Kentucky gentlemen a mountain dew.

44:34
I was a Kentucky Tavern guy. So I was Kentucky. But we wouldn’t every once while I had a pet a buddy cuz I’m a nerd. Right? I work in tech. And so every time I had to go fix something form or reboot his girlfriend’s router, whatever the fuck it was at the time. It and he would always be like, he was like, Hey, we’re gonna go get a bottle one on one and drink it tonight. Yeah, yeah, we’d shoot it back then we’re kind of like I was like, now I’d probably like savor and sip it. But back then we were shooting it right. I don’t know. Understand.

44:59
I still you never know.

45:02
But it’s I mean, that’s probably one of the biggest the biggest things I get, especially working in the visitor center when people come in, oh, I drank this back when I was in college. Like, that’s how I know it is what it is and why it’s around but tend to be older, a little bit spicier. 101 proof, definitely stand up in a cocktail. Definitely our oldest product in my opinion, it’s we’re going to get that spice it kind of takes over your palate a little bit compared to a few other things in our portfolio that tend to be a little bit sweeter.

45:28
What’s quite the statement to say it’s the oldest one because you got a rare breed as well. So 116 is pretty easy to drink. No, yes, that’s that’s just that’s just back porch. Country Day sipping whiskey right there.

45:38
One thing I’ll say about the one one that I think is kind of cool that people probably don’t realize when they look at the history. And I think this is like kind of in your face to some of the crowd that maybe listens to this podcast, one on one started off as a contract brand. So when people that aren’t super educated about how contract works, yeah, don’t Pooh Pooh contract brands, some of a really great artists pretty good. But what it is what how it kind of it all started, artist story was already making that recipe and something similar. A guy that went on a turkey hunt got some of our whiskey from our distillery that he was already purchasing, and fell in love with it and was one of the few people that probably ever existed that was wealthy enough to turn an inside joke into a brand. And it had become kind of an inside joke with him. And these guys on this hunting trip. Oh, this is Tom’s wild turkey whiskey. And they fell in love with it. And then he started to promote it locally. And it was a contract brand. He owned it the label owned the name. And we made the whiskey for him here out of our distillery back when we were still Anderson distilling company when it was owned, I think even by the repeat.

46:42
And then by the time we were quote unquote, owned by the Austin Nichols company, Austin Nichols was then kind of merged or owned by completely different company. And so anytime when we were the label was owned by Austin Nichols. It was kind of a contract situation. And we were making good stuff out of here. So it was a good contract situation. And Walter, you just kind of took over we were the JT s brown distillery more so than anything else that was our big product. And really the only thing that we made back then that’s still around, I think, although I think we made Dowling whiskey back then, too. And I think it might still be around, but I’m not sure. Jimmy thing seems to think it is. But all of his like facts and figures or stuff from from back when he was drinking 20 years ago.

47:23
I’m not sure he’s not he’s not hitting it as hard as he used to

47:26
know he’s not not unless I make him.

47:28
Yeah. Because now it’s YouTube that are taken over hitting it hard

47:32
on the right. But you know, once every four or five months, whenever we’re all out somewhere, especially like he has certain places he really likes Chicago is probably his favorite market. Definitely. Because he has a lot of friends there. And an old school people are still around there. But when you get him with some old school buddies, he’ll still stay out of 456 in the morning. He the mind is willing. And I think that the The palate is willing. He’s just getting up here and age. Yeah. But if you if you hung out with him all day today and drink whiskey, he’d stay here with you till Friday, if you want to do. Absolutely.

48:06
So let’s go hit hit a few other ones real quick. So talk about rare breed a little bit. Who wants to take that one?

48:12
Yeah, I mean, I’ll talk a little bit about it. So it started back in 91. When we did the first batch, I think Eddie said we’ve made about 13 batches. Now.

48:20
There’s like 12 or 13 different proofs that we’ve done,

48:23
that we’ve done. So making a new one every few years, but right now, it’s going to be six, eight and 12 years old. So Jimmy really, really loves whiskey that is six to 12 years old. So he basically took those three years that he loves the most put together out of barrel proof. And that’s what made Rare Breed so been around since the 90s. The previous batch was at a 112 point eight. So it’s a small batch bourbon for us, that’s about 150 to 200 barrels coming together. And then right at barrel proof, so chill filter it right a barrel proof not on any water to that product whatsoever. So it’s a cast cask strength, or barrel proof bourbon, and right now it’s sitting on 116 eight and it tends to be there a lot of my opinion there are a lot of flavors that go on in the rare breed just because it does have so many different years in it. When you get down to kind of the nerdy science part about whiskey and especially agent in a barrel different years produce different flavors so for me six is really really where you get that spice and the rare breed The A is kind of where you get a little bit more of that vanilla Carmel okie flavor and then that 12 is really getting kind of rounded out bringing more a little bit more of that sweetness kind of that that chocolate Enos I guess Eddie would say nuttiness on the back end of the product. Gotcha.

49:38
real cool. And then what we Kentucky spirit Russell’s right, those are kind of still fall in the same right single barrel will actually Russell’s doesn’t technically have to be single barrel does it? Or is it? There’s four Russell’s products. So two single barrels and two small batches. configs spirits probably the next one, that we would go with every like doing the ambassador thing because we usually do like all the turkey stuff and then the Russell stuff. So rare breed and spirit kind of have a similar story where those aren’t original ideas from me. And I think he just saw his friends do something and thought it was cool and did his version. So Rare Breed came about just two years after Booker’s You know, that’s not a coincidence. And but for the longest time, maybe mini nor, as far as I know, talking to Freddie Fred and, and remembering what I do from when I was a kid Booker never wanted to do a single barrel neither to Jimmy. They thought that it would be a disgrace to the brands because you would lose consistency and the right you can never be perfectly consistent barrel the barrel. And that’s why most of the people listen to this podcast and myself included think the single barrel stuffs probably the coolest stuff that comes out all these distilleries because you can taste

50:47
every day, it’s something different. You

50:48
could taste the barrel there Fred Minnick picked out or you could taste a barrel that the like I was just up in New York with the beast masters guys or whatever, or you taste one that an ABC store picks up, they’re all going to be so wildly different, some super weird and funky some, just like retail some supply. And he hated that. And still doesn’t completely get behind. Because the consistency bothers him so bad. And so it took him forever. So Booker’s 89 Rare Breed 91 will bite and come out in 84. But took him 10 years to finally admit, he’s playing stuffs pretty cool. Maybe we should do our version. And so he kind of wanted to do the same thing over did Elmer wanted to basically make the best version of that ancient age juice he could. And Jimmy wanted to go about making the best version of one on one he could and I still tell people that’s the only way you’re getting kind of the Oh gee, the original one on one just can tell you spirit in that retails all we can be at least eight years old, one on one in the bottles not anymore unless you’re getting it from Japan. So if you want that old school, at least eight year old one on one proof, kind of flavor profile experience the way to go. It’s probably

51:58
the least talked about least and over.

52:02
Most forgotten about product that we have on our line now that the Russell’s single barrels have come out and a lot of people have gone to those with a private barrel program. And with rare breed been so good lately.

52:14
I really think people should should give spirit a chance if they haven’t had in a while. It’s a delicious product. And when you find that right barrel might be the best thing we make. Yeah, that stuff is so good. And I know some people get caught up in the will Russell’s is 110. And it’s one on one. Sometimes water helps. Sometimes you find that right? That right barrel that you prove it down, you know, 1015 proof points and that water opens it up. And it’s just super tasty.

52:38
We’re getting small bugs over here.

52:39
But I agree with Bruce definitely because I think Kentucky spirit is my favorite product and just kind of like our standard portfolio, but definitely doesn’t get the love that it deserves for being eight year one on one kind of like that. Oh, gee stuff.

52:51
Where’s me they change that bottle?

52:53
Yeah.

52:55
It could be the fact it could be the only reason people bought now is because of that goal bought onto it scares me because not very much of it is bought. And so I don’t want anything to happen to that product.

53:03
Right? Well, you should probably just save like a few pallets of it in the back. So you can just go have your own little special releases of your own spirit.

53:10
Don’t think that’s not already done. Yeah. Here’s a few, quote unquote, empty barrels out here, you know, there you go.

53:18
That’s smart. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna get towards the end of this. So if there’s any other products that you want to quickly touch on real quick, that kind of educate the consumers. Yeah, I

53:25
would love to touch on one on one raw, a little bit more. It’s my favorite product that we make you’re in, you’re out because you’re the right guy. But it’s not because it’s my favorite to drink that probably the single barrel raw or maybe a revival right now really like, but I think one on one rise very important to us, because it’s very important to the bartending industry.

53:49
It’s what they’ve traditionally kind of held as their own. And the thing that they’ve always kind of supported. Wild Turkey with is putting one on one rise, the bass cocktail and spirits are in Wales. And it only exists today in its current form because of our dinner. And I think this is a good story to tell your listeners, whether they work in the industry, or they’re enthusiasts, or they run their own blogs or podcasts or whatever, that you all matter people that really the people that enjoy our product, and people that are passionate about our product they matter to us. So one on one raw went away for a while, we made very little raw for very long time, one day, kinda in the first season, spring, one day in the second season, fall winter, and

54:32
didn’t have enough. Part of that is because we didn’t forecast enough part of that is forgiven happen. So we lost six months worth of our on to accidental thing that our buddy Connie did. And we didn’t have enough. So in the late 2000s, I think might have been around 2010, 2011, 2012,

54:51
right in there.

54:53
One on one route went away. And compared to Tom came out with 81. And nothing faith we can get by by just lowering the proof a little bit. And we couldn’t get by a lot of people got very angry, especially people that were had to use that for decades is there?

55:11
Well, yeah, they’re raw. If you ask for a Ronnie, that’s what they’re going to give you. And so

55:18
a guy by the name of Eric Asher, who’s a good buddy of mine, now that he’s almost like one of the family owns bars in San Diego, New York. At that time, I think maybe working in San Francisco started an online petition, first time I ever seen this happen to petition a supplier and also kind of speak out and say, if you are going to get one on one on one route, we’re not going to carry any more competitive products. In he was the guy that kind of mattered, you know, he made himself mad, or he was loud and proud about what he did and took bartending seriously. And, and because of his passion, and because he got a lot of other people to kind of side with him and sign up on this kind of like online petition or group or whatever it was completely Listen, and they came out with a product after just two or three years of her being off the shelf. And it’s we don’t where it’s not even an allocation anymore, we have plenty of it, and have had plenty of it for a year to the one on one or at least

56:11
in that’s why it’s kind of my favorite product, because it’s a product that is very near and dear to me because I enjoy it so much. Because one on one rise, the only reason why we make any rat to begin with, because it’s the thing that kind of makes money on the wrong side. But also because it’s a good example of what a person that can be passionate can take what they can do what they can get done. You know, you had a question from from Dave Jennings earlier, Robert. It’s another good example like this dude just made a hobby, his hobby into almost like a full time job. Even though he has another job in like, we talked about him in the company when we’re doing meetings and stuff like did you see that thing he said? Or did you see that timeline that he did like bars? Like Is this right? Can we use this? Like, should we pay him

57:00
he’s doing a better job than a lot of people we paid to do that kind of stuff. And if you’re even if it’s not wild turkey if you’re listening into this, you’re passionate about whiskey about bourbon. If you’re a Buffalo Trace fan or a Jim Beam Stan, are you only like 400 year old family state will it? That’s cool. Be passionate about that, almost to the noxious level and kind of good things happen. Because we like that we like when somebody shows up and gets that know that look I was talking about earlier the den Jimmy have on their face on their passion about something like when dad was talking about that whiskey. That’s the kind of look that makes me excited when somebody comes in. And dad’s like, I got something that we haven’t even put out yet for Detroit. And you see that guys, I was like, you know, you think that at home the moon at that point. That’s the best part of this job to see people get excited about what we do.

57:51
Absolutely. Well, that’s good. That’s I’m gonna go ahead and end on that note, because there’s gonna be one that we’re never gonna forget because we’re all going to walk away with mosquito bites after this.

58:01
So I want to kind of quickly wrap it up. If there’s anybody that people want to get in contact with you social media, go ahead and let them know so they can find you. Twitter, Instagram,

58:10
I’m Joanne Street. It’s pretty basic on all social media aspects.

58:14
You said of yourself called yourself.

58:19
That was karma right there.

58:22
My Instagram is Russell’s rock. I don’t use social media very much. And I think my Twitter is Bruce Russell one on one.

58:31
I’m on Reddit too. You’ll see me like pop around on bourbon Reddit every now and then. But if I can be reached any of those social media outlets and if you want to know anything, if you want to reach out and come take a tour or come pick out barrels or you just want to know what actually goes on and whether or not what you’ve heard is true. Reach out. We’re very open and honest and we’ll try to answer you as quickly as possible

58:57
inside secrets with Bruce Russell.

59:00
So I want to say thank you all again for coming on the show make sure you follow them on social media make sure you follow us as well bourbon pursuit on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. And if you do like what you hear you want to keep this show going to bring on always new and interesting guests. Go ahead and subscribe and support us on Patreon pa te r eo in comm slash bourbon pursuit. And if you have any more show suggestions people do like to see send us an email team at bourbon pursuit calm with that, YouTube. Thank you again for joining us. It’s been a pleasure. And we’ll hopefully we’ll do this again. Maybe mom will have to do a catch up at some point, right? Because your dad and Jimmy or both Me Me, me me. I’ll call them Me too. He they were back on episode 7076, something like that. And now we’re, we’re hundreds of episodes past that. So it’s gonna be good to kind of catch up with you all soon. So with that, thank you again and we’ll see you all next week.