225 – Talk Turkey, Rye Entrants, Bourbon Values, and AirBNB on Bourbon Community Roundtable #38

By Bourbon Pursuitpodcast


The Bourbon Community Roundtable is back with talk about Turkey, Rare Breed Rye and more rye whiskey coming to market. We then look at the landscape and ask ourselves “is bourbon priced fairly in today’s market?” because we often get blamed for calling bourbon undervalued. We wrap the show talking about the Jim Beam AirBNB as a potential PR stunt.

Show Notes:

Transcription:

0:00
Hey everybody. If you have a bachelor’s degree and live anywhere in the United States, there’s now a way for you to take your bourbon education to the next level. The distilled spirits business certificate from the University of Louisville is an online program that can be completed in as little as 15 weeks and will prepare you for the business side of the spirits industry. It’s offered by the AA CSP accredited college of business. And this certificate was developed in partnership with industry experts to be one of a kind and it’s going to prepare you for your next adventure. Learn more about this online program at U of l.me. Slash pursue spirits.

0:37
Although I like Justin Deering’s comment of all you need is slack discord, Microsoft Teams in Skype to communicate these days, all of which are like for I don’t have it all. So I feel like I’m even more behind the times

0:50
because I thought it was like I don’t think your broadband can handles

1:07
Welcome back, everybody. It is Episode 225 of bourbon pursuit. I’m one of your heroes Kenny and the past few weeks we’ve been covering a lot of recent bourbon news. So this week there isn’t too much to cover but there is one new release and that is that the master distiller of Michter’s Dan McKee as well as their master of maturation, Andrea Wilson have announced the release of their 20 year old bourbon, the 20 1920 year bourbon will be bottled at 114.2 proof and will have an MSRP of $700 Now this one is pretty coveted by a lot of affluent Burton people out there. So good luck this hunting season trying to find it. Well, that’s really all the industry news for now, because the roundtable is where we’re going to discuss some of the latest happenings and as usual with tonight’s topics, you will find links to the articles in our show notes. But we need to talk a little bit about bourbon pursuit news lately. So let’s kind of talk about what’s happening with that.

2:00
pursuit series is moving at a rapid pace. This week we sold out of Episode 17 in record time. Of course, this really wasn’t a surprise to us because this was our privately labeled will it distillery barrel of their own product which is the first NDP private label that has ever happened happening under their pursuit series brand. And we’ve also opened up Episode 12 and 13 to the public and you can purchase those today by going to pursuit spirits.com with seal box as our online retail partner these bottles can be shipped to a good percentage of states around the country in to your doorstep. There are less than 50 bottles of Episode 12 and only 30 bottles of Episode 13 remaining so go and check it out. We’re also now hitting retail stores in Kentucky. The first private barrel that was selected by Justin’s House of bourbon has been delivered and is now available on their floor as well as on their tasting bar. This is Episode 14 and I remember when Ryan and I were tasting this barrel, it just hit Like a mouthful of Captain Crunch berries. And if you are in or around the Lexington area Ryan and I will be at Justin’s House of bourbon on November 5 at six o’clock pm eastern to talk about this release and pursuit spirits just more in depth. You can get more information about this event on our Facebook page with the link in our show notes. And we really hope to see you there. But we’re still not done yet. Episode 15 was a barrel that we selected that will be hitting shelves across Kentucky starting next week. This barrel show notes talk about some of the most pronounced flavors that we got out of it. And it’s a chocolate cherry pound cake. Heidelberg who is our distributor has told us that they started filling out purchase orders this week. So you will begin to see it pop up on shelves across liquor stores as well as on premise locations in Kentucky. So if you’re a retailer and you’ll be carrying our bourbon send us a message we can give you a shout out on some of our social pages. Well, that’s all let’s go ahead and get on with the show. Here’s Joe from barrel bourbon. Then you’ve got Fred Minnick with above the char.

4:03
I’m Joe Beatrice, founder of barrell craft spirits, we explore whiskey in an entirely new way. My team at barrel craft spirits, selects and blends barrels of whiskey into something greater than the sum of their parts. Pick up a bottle today.

4:17
I’m Fred Minnick, and this is above the charm. This week’s idea comes from Patreon subscriber Andrew Polonsky. He asks, What do you think of all the blending compared to single barrels and small batch? Now, Andrew, this is a great question and you obviously have been reading my work for some time to know that this will spark a real passion and me to talk about the history of the word, blend. See the word blend and American whiskeys always been a dirty term and it goes back to the 1800s when blenders were adding things like tobacco spit and prune juice, and these people were called rectifier and they were working with wholesalers and putting it out on the street people would buy it. Doctors would even prescribe it and They would find that their patients would not get well. So that led to the effort of the bottle and Bond Act where distillers lobbied so bourbon consumers could be protected. Doctors could have a guarantee that they were serving their prescribing their patients legitimate, pure 100 proof whiskey, but the Canadian whiskey blunders did not like it at all. At that time, the Canadians were coming into America starting to sell their whiskey for the cheap knocking out the straight distillers and some of the people that we know is like George t stag, EH Taylor. And so there started this feud at that time between blenders both American and Canadian and straight whiskey distillers. Now this would continue well, for the next 5060 years after prohibition, distillers didn’t have a lot of liquid to play with because they had sold it all on the medicinal market during Prohibition or they didn’t have The opportunity to distill again so there was not a lot of supply. So the distillers, what they would do is they would blend a little straight whiskey in with a grain neutral spirit the and blend was not good. The distillers could not wait to get away from the blended whiskey and start putting out their age doc. And as soon as they did that they started moving away from the word blend. And then the Canadians would actually try to come out with like a bottled and bond at that time. And that led to a little bit of a trade dispute between the United States and Canada. But that’s another story maybe another above the char. But at that time between the 1940s and 1970s, the American distillers kind of banded together to eliminate the word blend from the American whiskey vocabulary, they replaced the word blend with mingling or marrying barrels together. So the actual action of bringing all these barrels together for a badging process, really should be called blending. But because the American distillers did not like that term, because it was associated with the rocket stuff of the 1930s and the piss poor whiskey of the 1800s that they decided to completely eradicate it from the distilleries. Now, we move forward to present day. And you have brands like high West and barrel bourbon, who don’t actually have all the stocks at their disposal, but they’re buying them from wholesalers and barrel brokers, and they take these barrels and they blend them with other barrels from other states and other distilleries creating unique flavor profiles, and they have absolutely turned the business upside down and made the term blending a positive term again, but here’s why. They’re not blending in green neutral spirit, what they are blending our straight whiskeys to these whiskies that are at least two years old, and they haven’t been adding flavoring or coloring. So it’s as pure as something that is bottled in bond. It’s just coming from various distilleries. Now, given that American whiskey always has shenanigans. I know at some point during this wonderful trend, this resurrection of the term blend that we’re seeing, we’re going to have someone who takes advantage of it and start pumping out great neutral spirit coloring it and calling it an award winning blend. So be prepared for that next wave. As soon as someone in this business create something good. Someone comes around and ruins it. And that’s this week’s above the char. If you have an idea, reach out to me on Patreon, just like Andrew did. That’s Patreon at bourbon pursuit. Until next week, cheers

8:51
Welcome back to another episode of bourbon pursuit the official podcast of bourbon, Kenny, Ryan and Fred all back here on bourbon community. Round Table number 38. We’re back, fellas. How’s it going?

9:03
Whoo. All right. Yeah.

9:05
Yeah, that’s what we haven’t done this in a while because the last time we did this was on stage at bourbon and beyond. So it’s, it’s been a few weeks, so it’s good to see everybody once again. So Fred, how you been? You finally decompress since then?

9:17
I feel like I’ve done like 10 other events since bourbon and beyond. So it just went from one to another. I feel like Bill Belichick just I’m on to Cincinnati.

9:30
Cincinnati need some help. Actually.

9:32
They’re awful, aren’t they? Oh

9:34
my god. It’s it’s a terrible, terrible season. But again this year, I mean, it’s at this point. I don’t really think anybody’s like really upset. They’re just kind of like, it’s fun to go pay for $12 beers and watch our team lose and we’ll see it again next week.

9:48
Well, me it’s a it’s a hard day to be a Bengals fan. And if you’re a San Francisco fan, holy cow. look good.

9:58
Yeah. So far. It seems like you paid the lot of tension in this so you big on fantasy.

10:03
Yeah, yes, I’m hard.

10:08
I’m not doing very well this year.

10:10
No, I’m I think I’m only won two games so I’m doing pretty terrible without you Ryan.

10:15
Well, I’m four and three, but I’m on a four game winning streak so and I’m looking at my score right now I’m down by two but I have James Conner playing right now. So go Steelers.

10:28
Well, one thing I’ll tell you that I did this year Kenny with a friend of mine, Steve Zubin, who is a national radio personality, and Paul charging and who’s a professional fantasy kind of Guru. We started league together like a small league we call it whiskey League and the entry bought the entry was a bottle of whiskey. And the every week somebody gets chopped, and at the end of the season, the what the winner will get. Every bottle of whiskey. I was out in week two So

11:02
least you weren’t dead last. I mean, that’s that would have been embarrassing. You know, week one.

11:08
Yeah, that’s a tough one. Bad. Alright, so let’s go ahead. We’ve only got two of the people here that you’ve all heard before. But you know, Blake Jordan, let’s go ahead. Let’s hear about your fantasy lineups as well.

11:21
The only fantasy lineup you need is you know, we’re going to call it Minchew mania here in Jacksonville. You know, five time Rookie of the week. How many minute five time that could have been exaggeration, but uh, no, I don’t play much fantasy football. It busy playing real football. You know, as a former NFL tied in I don’t like to get out there and play fantasy leagues. No, it’s just never want to get into but yeah, good time of year. And also I’m Blake from bourbon er. And thanks for joining us tonight. That’s BOURBONR Find me on all the social medias if you haven’t heard it 38 times by now. Now you got it. Time to spell it out.

12:03
That new listener out there if you haven’t heard it, here it is this Sure Sure. All right, Jordan, go ahead. Sure. This is Jordan from breaking bourbon, one of the three guys friends breaking bourbon. Go to the site for the latest reviews and weekly calendar updates. Find us all the socials and patreon at breaking bourbon. My fantasy lineup is not doing so hot this year. So I think I’m three and four hopefully going to be for for after tonight. We’ll see how the Juju does.

12:30
For sure. Alright, so let’s go ahead we’ll kick it off. Start with our topics. And you know, the first one is, it can’t be that, you know, crazy to think about because bourbon really doesn’t move a needle or something really doesn’t happen without marketing involved. And we kind of look at the way that burden marketing is kind of progressed over the probably the past two to five years. I remember I think was a post that Wade had showed on Facebook just I think it was earlier this year. But I think it was not more than five years ago. There is on Buffalo Trace they used to have like the bourbon babe of the day or the bourbon babe of the month, and you could actually go and vote for women and like bikinis and stuff like that. No way. Yes. Very, very way. Like this is like, very,

13:17
like 2015. It wasn’t like talking about 1991 or anything.

13:22
Exactly. So it’s actually relatively recent in the whole. Absolutely. And so I guess the one thing that we want to kind of talk about here is like, what else are brands doing to try to navigate their future and kind of change perception of their brand? You know, Buffalo Trace, of course, they stopped doing that. They’ve got a lot of good stuff on Twitter and Instagram have just like one little one liners are out there. But one of the ones that’s kind of really new and comes to my mind is the one that’s with wild turkey and Matthew McConaughey. You know, he kind of comes on he talks about, Hey, I’m the creative director of wild turkey and I’m the co founder of Long Branch and he wants to showcase stories of people and The weird thing at least for me is that there’s literally no tie or talk about whiskey and the entire thing and it’s all about just elevating new people and new ideas and stuff like that and it’s called talk Turkey. So I kind of want to push over to you guys like what do you all think? like is this a Is this a pretty like safe move like to be able to spend this much money to have this big a name on something and then not even promote the product, whatever except like, just on text on a YouTube video?

14:30
So I’d never seen it till tonight. Full disclosure, you sent the topics out so I watched it and I was like actually impressed I was like, born in kenya step your game up with like, editing and like, we need a leather bound couch and a cocktail God, may I put that

14:48
on? Yeah, the next the next. payout will make sure we put that in our budget.

14:54
Yeah, come on, keep contributing Patreon. We need we need that leather couch. Just kidding. But I don’t know I enjoyed it. The funny thing is that I’m a sucker for inspiring stories like you get told me like a cool entrepreneur, like somebody that’s kind of rose from the ashes. And that’s what seems to be the theme of all three videos. I enjoy that. But the funny thing is, you see, they don’t actually they make the drinks and they sit there the entire time. And I don’t think they ever drink them or talk about them or anything. So it’s it is kind of odd that it is so focused on that kind of entrepreneurial spirit and not much the whiskey like you would think they would talk about what’s in the recipe they’re drinking, or what are they doing? I don’t know. There’s just but but I kind of like it because you have to go to fringe audiences to bring new people in. I mean, if they were to sit around and we would enjoy it if they were sitting around talking about tasting notes or whatever, but we’re already customers. So you got to look to the fringe to bring new people in.

15:51
So I think so it was interesting. I was working in the ad industry when they brought on Matthew McConaughey is the creative director right and it was a big deal because they literally made him the Highest Paid creative director in the entire advertising industry when that took place, right. I think that’s what they were looking for though I think they were looking for something a little different. And that’s why they gave him so much freedom in control and also so much money. I mean, if not, he’s just like another celebrity. No offense to Mila Kunis. But if not, you just have like a celebrity walking through a, you know, a Rick house and pouring some bourbon. I think what it’s doing is it’s, it’s people now know, right? Wild Turkey, even if it’s just by association is going to be Matthew McConaughey. Just kind of like you see him on TV driving in a nameless SUV, you’re probably like, that’s a Lincoln commercial, right, just by association of who he is and what he does and the stories he tells. So I think it’s a really interesting smart move by wild turkey trying to branch out and being more mainstream and hitting that more mainstream audience than just showing somebody pouring a bottle of whiskey in a distillery or something like that right at tunes in those those people who might not be hardcore bourbon drinkers who might be interested in maybe doing a cocktail or just want to listen to a good story. And before they know it, they’re like, Oh, you know, next time I’ll try wild turkey cocktail or something. I’ll buy a bottle of wild turkey genius move in my part or genius move on their part. I think

17:05
I’ll say that this is something that I’ve been personally involved with bourbon up and season two. There’s a lot there’s not really a lot of, you know, break down a bourbon discussion. You know, my first guest is the Golden Globe Award winning actor Jeffrey right. And this is kind of the evolution of of where we’re going. We’re bringing bourbon to the conversation, but it’s not necessarily the conversation. And that’s what bourbon and beyond is. That’s what a lot of these efforts with celebrities is all about. And the fact is, is that we’re never going to be able to break down the mash bill to the 35 year old woman shopping at Bed Bath and Beyond as much as I want to do that or try to happen. Exactly

17:52
right kitchen look like they could care less about there

17:57
but they want to drink it. They want To learn about it in a very, you know, minimal way. And if we if we get them to come to that next level, then the next thing you know it, they’re watching this podcast, it comes down to that we have to capture the fringe consumer. And that’s what all of this is about. So I absolutely applaud wild turkey for spending millions upon millions of dollars to get new people into bourbon. And if track kitchen if you’re watching Hello, this is the first time you watch it. So that’s, that’s awesome. We’ll take your food.

18:27
Yes, I think

18:29
it’s just about casting a bigger net, you know, you know, you’re not going to get everyone but obviously, the wider you cast the net, the more likely people are to get to this level of fandom and in interest in bourbon, so not everybody’s going to want to know the mash bills and everything that but that doesn’t mean that, you know, next time they’re out of the out of bar, they may order a bourbon old fashion instead of you know, vodka soda or whatever, whatever they may be drinking. So I think that’s the whole point. No, it was really well done. It was entertaining and you know even as somebody who watches a lot of bourbon stuff, I still watched it and enjoyed it. So

19:07
yeah, I just switched on the cocktail side they like said what the guy was making or what they were drinking or like because like I knew they’re drinking old fashioned on the first one but the second or like, is that a bourbon Mojito? Or is that a bourbon?

19:18
What are they doing?

19:19
A little bit of? Yeah. of bourbon. relevant, not relevance. But

19:25
yeah. And yeah, just some,

19:26
like I said, I think that’s the only thing where they really missed the ball on is that there is just really no tie into the whiskey in itself. Like I there’s never any mention of it. It was just stories of people. I mean, it’s it’s kind of like one of those things if you think about it’s like if somebody was to start, like, let’s say that this bourbon podcast, like blew up and then we’re like, oh, yeah, we’re sponsored by ibuprofen, right? It’s just like, there’s, you know, we don’t really like talk about it, but it’s just like, it’s just like a big sponsorship. So, and I guess I’ll also kind of take a little bit of a devil’s advocate role here. And if you think about it, if you are if you are a bourbon consumer, and you look Some of like the previous commercials that had come out on national TV of like Jimmy and Eddie like in the warehouse and, and talking about their product, you kind of feel like oh, like this is homey like this feels like, it feels like something relatable like I know these people. Like I don’t relate to a big wave surfer, right. And so that’s kind of where I think like, it’s cool just to have extra content. And it’s also just, in my opinion, it’s just social media and YouTube is kind of what is targeted at so trying to figure out exactly like how do you scale this to reach a mass audience? I think is it’s a little bit tough to figure out on their end.

20:36
I think we should do a retreat. I don’t know if you watched the third one the yoga away or something. We should all take a retreat to one of those cabins in Australia. Every Community Roundtable turkey under addition,

20:48
live on. Yeah, can we get wild turkey to sponsor that i’ll i’ll be willing to travel with Matthew McConaughey.

20:53
We need to You’re the one that gets all these sponsored trips. I don’t know.

20:58
I gotta,

20:59
I gotta we gotta Go to the chat here, john Henderson saying that, you know, he’s kind of jealous of Matthew McConaughey. I mean, he’s kind of like, he’s kind of done that, you know, he’s kind of like that guy that all dudes kind of, you know want to be in some respects.

21:17
I just like to trying something new right? It’s so different that hasn’t been done before in bourbon specifically that you know, maybe it doesn’t work maybe it does. Maybe it takes off and continues to be a thing for them. But at least they’re trying something new first just doing the same old same old. Here’s

21:31
kind of my thought on it, too is like why YouTube? So like I, I know, like this business a little bit. And they could have bought time on a network like FYI, or a&e. And I question as to whether or not that would have better traction for them. Then, then YouTube, that’s probably my only criticism of the whole thing is the is the vehicle in which they chose 12

21:56
younger new consumers are on YouTube, they’re not on you know, those big cable networks everybody’s cutting the cord there. You look

22:02
at the statistics for Gen Z. It’s ridiculous how much YouTube they consume verse TV and those it’s above drinking age now, so they’re going after the target.

22:11
There you go. Good market research. And so while we’re still on the topic of talking Turkey will actually talk about one of the newest things that kind of hit the TTP that means that it is not officially released. There is no official release statement or anything like that, but I think it makes everybody a little bit happy to see that there’s going to be a rare breed rye a barrel proof right out there. And you know, I think I know you know, Fred’s kind of ruined Rare Breed for the rest of the nation already in the past few weeks or fuck sake.

22:44
Kind of like having a hard on from again.

22:49
In our blind tasting did I not hate McKenna and I did. And that bottle of wine blind tasting

22:55
awesome.

22:56
I mean, a single barrel should not be accepted into

23:01
Sure, the another

23:03
one on that, actually. So anyway, let’s get back to the kind of rare breed rise. So kind of talk about what do you all think? I mean, I don’t think anybody’s not excited for this.

23:12
No, I mean, I mean fine one bourbon enthusiast who doesn’t want a, you know, well, are they calling it barrel proof? I mean, that rare breed always gets me because I know barrel proof isn’t technically Well, it’s like 112 is

23:25
what the first label is, but it’s

23:27
me whatever. You know, it’s pretty crazy to think that coming off of the, you know, the Masters keep what was the Masters keeper I that they did was the name of, I guess, Cornerstone coming up for the cornerstone release that they follow back up, but I guess it makes sense because that one got a lot of, you know, a lot of fanfare, a lot of attraction. So to release this, you know, I feel like that’s going to be one of those mainstays on everyone’s best value list. You know, whiskeys you should be drinking right now. all that kind of good stuff. So I think it’s It’s great. I mean, I, I’d love to have more high profile turkey right on the market.

24:05
You know, Eddie first told me about his plans to do like a rare breed right about two years ago. And I think he’s been trying to, like break this through, you know, compound a for several years. So I feel like this is one. This is a great win for Eddie Russell. It’s going to be an everyday product that’s on the market. You know, it’ll be distributed nationally. I mean, this is a very, very exciting day for for whiskey geeks because I do think you’ll be able to find this.

24:35
Well, Eddie son, Bruce, he’s like a huge rap fan. Like that’s like, he says he’s been pushing rap for them for a while. And but Jimmy hates raw, right? Like, her dad

24:45
just doesn’t like it. He Well, he they he comes from that old mold of like, you know, you know, Pennsylvania was was right country and Maryland. And in Ryan was for blending is coming from that region. So He’s very much a bourbon man.

25:02
Well, I mean, I, like I said, I think everybody’s kind of excited for having some wild turkey barrel proof expressions that are out there. And I think Blake really kind of said it here is that if you can put this into the value category, many people are going to be, you know, kind of driving towards it. I mean, it’s it hopefully just doesn’t go the way of values of like Elmer TV and well, or 12 and stuff like that. Which it certainly could be if it comes out in a smaller release cycle or something like that. But to this day, we haven’t seen anything from Rare Breed not making its way on the shelves until about a month ago.

25:36
It’ll be interesting because, you know, you’ll, you can find wild turkey and other variants. Left and Right, but sometimes it’s hard to find the right especially especially on the shelf, at least, you know, traveling around looking for it. So hopefully it’s a little more accessible. But I think like anything else, not like anything else, but I think like everyone else rise become really hot. Right? You just saw heaven hill with Elijah Craig ride coming out. I think you’ve been noticing that over the years so I think it’s a great thing or a revival. And just more options for folks and I’m super excited for it is going to be super tasty.

26:09
And you know, it’s it’s actually a category that has a broad reaching flavors. I mean, there’s a lot of people who don’t like dad’s hat right out of Pennsylvania.

26:20
God

26:23
let me tell you this cork in this Rubble, yo, Jordan,

26:30
can you get any closer to the microphone? Sorry, guys, Jordan had

26:38
where was I? Oh, broad region. There’s a lot of different flavor variants when it comes to rhyme, you know, because it the grain comes through even after the barrel so the higher they go, the more flavor that comes out, you know, from that particular grain and the distillation technique, I think can sway the flavor of rice so much more than bourbon and plus is very hard to ferment. So when you ferment right foams up, and there’s a lot of people who will add enzymes to it and enzymes will have a big impact on the flavor. So that’s why you can taste some like, you know, morality or some Flintstone vitamins because they’re pounding it with, with enzymes. So I think we have an incredible next 20 years of new rye whiskeys coming out. And I just I can’t wait to taste them all.

27:25
I’m glad you said that about the rye how it kind of bubbles up. I remember Ryan, I don’t know if you were there. But we were in new riff. And we were doing a tour and they were doing a batch of rye. And I mean, it was just overflowing just like pouring out of the fermented tank. And they’re just sitting there the hose just spraying it for hours because I mean, it just kept on just bubbling out. And in Jordan, I like how you brought up the Elijah Craig Bry. Now, this only leads to one thing one inevitable thing that’s going to happen is that they’re gonna they’re gonna have to come out with Elijah Craig barrel proof, right?

27:57
Yeah, for sure. And I think that’s probably the first thought everyone had when we all read that press release number and solve it is it’s not a matter of if it’s a matter of one. Right? So. And that’s, I mean, I think Elijah Craig Ryan’s gonna be hard to get only by the fact that it’s starting off in four states, but I’m sure people go gangbusters once they do a barrel proof version of it, right? I’m sure we’ll see it. We might see it as much released before we see it full time, but we’ll probably see it for sure.

28:26
Yeah, and at $30 I don’t think anybody’s going to be worried about coughing up that kind of money. But I guess one other thing that will kind of bring up and Blake I’ll let you kind of talk about this one. So actually only being available in four states as it starts going out. What do you What’s your kind of thought on it? Because I know that there’s always a lot of angry people around us that don’t get their hands on and they’re like, wait, it’s in our backyard. Like how can you shame Kentucky like this?

28:51
Yeah, I think that just goes back to the original thing we’re talking about with like the Matthew McConaughey videos of you know, they have their market strategies. They have this places they want to hit, they want to come in with something new to try to get that product placement. So it’s it’s a business strategy. You know, I think it’s kind of a continued thing where we see as Fred likes to say, not dancing with the people that brought you but that’s that’s a part of it overall, you know, I think any of us that are not in one of those states who want a bottle will still find a way to get a bottle. They know the enthusiasts are going to get their bottles, but you know, for the that that borderline whiskey drinker, they want to, you know, try to bring them in with something new and exciting. So it’s brand extension and I mean, yes, I don’t think it is fair to the guys who’ve been consistent consistently drinking their stuff supporting them. But at the end of the day, I understand the move. It’s it’s kind of like that’s probably the smart thing in in overall healthier distilleries.

29:55
I will say that it’s right now what we are seeing is we are selling Seeing a dynamic diversity in business strategy amongst all these distillers and somehow Kentucky is kind of like the centerpiece, it’s it seems to me like those who focus on Kentucky don’t focus on something like San Francisco and those who folk, you know, focused on San Francisco, you know, look at like Kentucky is kind of like a third tier market. It’s really it really is fascinating from a business perspective. So anyone who’s out there who, who like studies like business strategies, you know, long term effects, I would love to see people’s opinion on this about what the long term consequences are of like, you know, not focusing on the market that is traditionally so core to a category

30:48
so i think you know, and just from a high level standpoint to right everyone always associates bourbon was Kentucky, right? Oh, it’s Kentucky bourbon bourbon comes from Kentucky, etc. And really is the push bourbon has become just more mainstream over the years. I think this is a move to show and make people realize Bourbons and American spirit right? Bourbons for America. bourbon, just not for Kentucky. Right? Wrong or indifferent. Right? By focusing outside of Kentucky. It’s kind of a symbol of, yeah, this is this is for everyone. You know, hopefully that releases in Kentucky to eventually. But right now, that’s what it’s showing. It’s just not a Kentucky thing. It’s doesn’t matter where you are. There’s always markets out there and Bourbons for America, just not for Kentucky fans. America Merica.

31:32
And so I guess another question when I keep thinking about this, and I’m like, my gosh, every single year there’s press releases. And I’d say there’s probably like at least five as a good handful of just like big brand extensions that come out every single year and like how much longer can we can we keep going on like this? I mean, the only people that I know that the lava rye whiskey is four roses like other than that, like is there anything else that the big guys can possibly do to keep making brand extensions or we’ve got to hit it

32:04
we got to hit a plateau at some point blends at straits blends of bourbon and rum like for for two disunion

32:13
malts.

32:14
Now, can we get a whiskey finishing and mead barrels? Maybe but you

32:22
gotta think about it from from like a hardcore consumer perspective sure I mean it makes sense to kind of like maybe test the waters and put some of those out there but from a from something that’s like a viable sort of thing like I don’t ever imagine seeing heaven Hill coming out like we’ve got this new brand extension called heaven Hill. I don’t know what mixed ninja ninja Blender mix right you know whatever it’s going to be and they do a bourbon and whiskey and a rum in it and they think like oh yeah, like people gonna go crazy. Oh, well, they did come out with hypnotic

32:53
Kenny. True.

32:58
So I mean that one

32:59
yeah. I mean, that’s, I don’t know, the thing is we think that they are thinking about us which like in your in the chat, you said we are the 1%. And they could care less, you know, they’re just trying to they’re just trying to like, you know, just like you said, find those niches and keep extending the brands. I mean, they could care less about what we think about it.

33:21
I disagree with that with me. We we had that topic a couple weeks ago are like do barbican’s or do the distilleries care about the bourbon consumer. I just think they’re trying to find untapped you know, avenues and the one thing they’re doing is a vault in this you gotta remember they’re pulling back on flavored whiskey you’re seeing some companies like jack is really doubling down but you don’t see a lot of these distilleries you know, push forward flavor whiskey. 10 years ago, flavored whiskey was all the rage, it was all the rage, and now it’s, it’s hardly even talked about,

33:56
far less red stags and many Bourbons and All that on the market now that’s for sure.

34:02
Well, I mean they’re still there. They just don’t talk about them or advertise them or do anything I just

34:06
drink whenever I’m partying with Kid Rock and you know the bands.

34:11
It’s always good to have backstage patches with Blake.

34:15
The thing is, as you actually don’t need them, you just walk back and go where you’re going.

34:20
You don’t need the past just yeah, look, I’m sorry. No, I got the black band. I’m good. Let me Sorry, it’s only Blue Man, sir. Alright, so let’s kind of move on to the next topic here. And I guess it kind of flows in with it because you know, we we talked about on bourbon kind of being undervalued on this podcast all the time. And so this next topic was actually really kind of spawned from Campbeltown and a recent Facebook post where he wrote to us, he said, Fred, I’m glad you reraise the topic that I commented back on from Episode 222. And in my opinion, bourbon is not in has never been undervalued, underrated at time, sure, but not undervalued. I never use a comparison of bourbon to scotch as grounds to argue because Gas prices are just out of control full stop. Now if bourbon producers are making healthy profits and their employees are happy than the various suggested retail prices are fine right where they are, or used to be in some cases, so if influential folks like you Jen’s continued to say bourbon is undervalued, then the producers will continue to respond accordingly. Hell they already have the inevitable result we consumers are going to pay the price literally. So first part of that is a yay or nay. Whoever wants to take it who thinks here bourbon has been under are overvalued in its category and why?

35:35
I’ll go first.

35:38
The People’s champion the people’s channel,

35:41
so I will say certain brand extensions are undervalued, such as like the antique well a retail value like the antique collection, you know, limited releases, yes, like hyper age stuff is undervalued compared to scotch, but your everyday brands like they are valued credit. Lee or a barrel of bourbon calls 400 frickin dollars to make, and that even less for like the big boys. And so when you get 200 plus bottles out of it at a four to six year, seven year range, I mean, and you’re selling it for 30 $40 apiece, you know, they’re making plenty of money. So I don’t want to hear about it’s undervalued, it’s yes, some of the higher age limited really stuff is undervalued. But your everyday brands, like we talked about with heaven Hill ball and bond, it’s priced right or I think it’s overpriced now, but that’s just me.

36:35
No, I agree with that. Ryan and I think you know, so limited releases aside, right, which what will take out of it? Because I think no matter what industry and eliminate release is going to hold more value no matter where you are. Right? We I think we’re also skewed in our thought perception of how much bourbon should cost what we’re willing to spend on a bottle but you have to realize especially I don’t know about you guys, but you’re talking to somebody outside of the bourbon industry, right who’s not a super enthusiast and you start talking about bottle price. And they start looking at you like you have four heads and you’re like, Oh, yeah, 30 $40 that’s, you know, that’s really a great value for a bottle of bourbon that’s really cheap. And to them, that’s a lot of money for to spend on alcohol. Right? That’s not what the normal consumer does. It’s just they play down. So for a lot of brands out there, yeah, you know, there might be some that are good values, right for good value to the flavor ratio, but there’s some that are that are probably overpriced, like Ryan touched on to, I think you need to you know, I think we look at stuff through through rose colored glasses a lot, and putting us in just the average average Middle America consumer shoes, and looking at the prices on the shelves when you’re going out. Yeah, it’s probably just right where the value should be. Right. I don’t think it’s undervalued for a lot of stuff. If anything, some of the new ones are touching on the line of being overpriced. Yeah, I

37:46
think it here we kind of got to define the what what do we mean by under an overvalued the way I look at it is, you know, kind of, to go back to economics classes of price elasticity of you know, how How much people are will the demand still be there based on the increase in price? from that aspect? Yeah, because they keep raising prices and the demand still there. So of course, they’re going to keep raising prices. You know, I’m sure they every distillery listens to this podcast and takes their cues from us on how they should price it. But at the end of the day, what they’re looking at, is it are people still buying it off the shelf for you know, are the orders still coming in? No matter when we raise the prices? If we come out with a new release? Is that still flying off the shelves? That’s all they’re really looking at. So, you know, under overvalued is is kind of irrelevant from the in their minds of just will the demand stay the same if we increase the prices, whether that’s $1 whether that’s $10 and what it’s proved, you know, been proven over the last few years is bourbon consumers are willing to spend a lot more on good bourbon. That’s not great for bourbon consumers because now we have to spend a lot more on good bourbon But there’s still a lot. And I shouldn’t say good bourbon, I should say, you know, these different releases. Because I think we all know there’s plenty of good bourbon out there. But yeah, it’s, you know, whether it’s under over that’s kind of irrelevant. I mean, we’ve all seen the $20 bottles that can win blind tastings. And we’ve all had thousand dollar bottles

39:20
that tasted terrible. So, yeah, I think when you compare bourbon to other spirits, or you know, like wine or beer, other things, like I think it’s a great value even at higher prices, like, because with wine, you could spend 10 so even on an hour, you know, 10 $20 for an average bottle, you’re only getting four drinks out of that, whereas you spend 2030, your, you know, on a bottle of bourbon, like, depending on how

39:47
how healthy your pores are,

39:49
say 20, you know, drinks out of that. So with that, you know, in mind it maybe,

39:54
you know, it’s a good value compared to let me let me just say we’re not we’re not actually Talking about the bourbon. We are talking about paying for the marketing. So the higher you go up in price and spirits, you are paying for marketing. That’s why the heaven Hill bottled in Bond was so important to us is that that six year old bourbon had zero marketing behind it. And now you see when it’s released, you see what marketing costs and what the development of a brand is. Marketing is everything in the spirits business, it’s 75% of the cost of outside of the taxes is marketing. And when you take a look at vodka, you can look at the sign right behind me there what I think about vodka. Vodka is 100% marketing. It’s coming off the still the re distilling it. I mean, they’re putting it in the bottle, you know, maybe there’s $2 and cost for the liquid, maybe $5. Let’s say they’re just selling at 100 times and it’s all about the packaging. It’s all about the marketing they put behind it the celebrity so every layer that you add to includes You, you’re paying more for that. So if we didn’t have marketing, and we were going back to a time when you were just going and brokering based off of the flavor profile and what an essay or said on how good the bourbon was, then you know, we would be having a very different conversation. Now, I am really glad that the original comments are on that said, Don’t compare scotch to bourbon. I’m even guilty of this. But we should not be comparing bourbon to scotch. What we should be doing is just analyzing bourbon. We don’t need to compare it to scotch scotch is a different beast. They’ve got bottles selling for $1.6 million. And they like to kind of flop that around everybody, but then they still have monkey shoulder. So I really do think we have to take a step back for a second. And just look at this for what it is, is that the higher we go up in price, the more marketing we’re paying for it and the higher we go up Price, the better the liquid the distillers put into the bottle. So it’s going to keep happening. There’s nothing that we can really do about it. But I would say that if you find a value brand that you really like, support it.

42:16
Fred, do we need that million dollar bottle for bourbon to kind of push that envelope? As the saying goes, Portland is weird. Perhaps it’s something in the water. It turns out that there might be some truth to that. The Oregon capitals primary water source is supplied by the bowl run watershed. It’s also the key ingredient in one of the city’s most popular watering holes, Bull Run distillery, the boulder and watershed is a very unique water source. It’s protected by an act of Congress back in the 1870s. And the city’s fathers got their hands on a beautiful lake up in the Cascade Mountains. And it’s been that way since the 1870s. It used to flow through wooden pipes by gravity to Portland. It’s that water that gives Voltron distilleries products. Its distinct character

43:00
bottles are being featured in rackhouse whiskey clubs. Next box. rackhouse was club. It’s a whiskey the Month Club, and they’re on a mission to uncover the best flavors and stories that craft distilleries across the US have to offer. Rock house ships out to their featured distilleries finest bottles, along with some cool merchandise in a box delivered to your door. every two months. Go to rock house whiskey club calm and check it out and try some Bull Run for yourself. Use code pursuit for $25 off your first box.

43:28
To 91 Colorado whiskey aims to create a one of a kind bold and beautiful Colorado whiskey, rugged, refined, rebellious owner and founding distiller Michael Myers built the original still from copper photocopier plates, which you use to create enduring photographic scenes from Western landscapes to the Chrysler Building. On September 11 2011 10 years after 911 changed his life and the lives of so many others. He pulled the first whiskey off that’s still building a future in whiskey office passion for photography. What defines to 91? Colorado whiskey is it spirit passion permeates every sip. Find a bottle near you at 291 Colorado whiskey calm, right like you stole it. Drink it like you own it. Live fast and drink responsibly. Fred, do we need that million dollar bottle for bourbon to kind of push that envelope?

44:26
I don’t know if if we will see the million dollar bottle of bourbon in my lifetime. I think it will happen. We were you know, you know Pappy is sold for $15,000 at auction. You know, I there is a bottle that went for $100,000 once it was the Parkers unity bottle, but that was for a special cause and had everyone’s you know, whiskey poured into it. So, you know, it would have to be the right bottle and have to be the right option. And the problem with bourbon is is that The new charred oak keeps it from really reaching the level that the Chinese and the other billionaires in the world are comparing it to scotch. Even us even we are comparing bourbon discussion a continual basis and so just imagine what the people with money in the private jets are doing. You know, so they’re they’re looking at they’re looking at bourbon and thinking that $15,000 for a Pappy Van Winkle at auction is is a value you know, we’re not thinking that but you know that’s that’s what it comes down to is the people with money will always look for what is scarce what is rare, and what no one else in the world can get.

45:47
We do have the thousand dollar Mint Julep by God.

45:53
And it still tastes like ass.

45:56
I think we got kind of like One more. One more question. Kind of kind of tailor on the thread that I’ll let you go Jordan, because I don’t know if I still got your answer there. If If you think bourbon is at a level playing field or if Do you think it’s actually undervalued or overvalued?

46:11
Do I think bourbon is undervalued? I got you,

46:15
I get you to tiptoe around it now. Now, the hard questions.

46:18
No, no, I don’t think it’s undervalued. I think it’s right where it probably should be. I think if you’re in the business of bourbon and you own a brand, or a distillery, then yeah, you think it’s undervalued and you want to you want to make more money off of it but from my perspective, as a consumer because I do buy the majority of the bourbon I have I do get media samples but I spent a lot of money on bourbon and I will tell you that I won’t spin secondary prices on a lot of bottles to include, you know the Pappy Van Winkle of the world. I what I will spend crazy money on It’s something that was made prior to 1962. So I don’t think bourbon is undervalued. I think we’re we’re on the verge of you know jumping up too much and pricing. When you see the Buffalo Trace antique collection, and a lot of these other really like the four roses to me the four roses limited edition small batch is my gauge for limited edition Bourbons because that their releases year in and year out have been so good. And I would put any release of the four roses limit edition small batch up against any any other distilleries whiskey to me, so that is that’s the bourbon I always look to when it goes up to $1,000 and we’ve got a problem mixers,

47:51
we got a ways to go then.

47:52
Then we do it. We do have a ways to go mixers. They went ahead and Look at looked at the secondary market and saw what people are doing there. And they price their their celebration, which is fantastic. It’s great whiskey, they price it at $5,000 XRP. And so you will see that sitting around so i think i think there is a limit right now for what people are willing to spend at least publicly and for American whiskey, but I don’t I don’t think it’s undervalued. I think it’s about right on the verge of going to Hi, Jordan, what were you going to know I

48:36
was going to say going back really quick to not the million dollar bottle of bourbon but more towards you know, don’t get me wrong American distillers if they can and they can push into that higher price range they will and you notice them pulling a page out of the scotch playbook to write double Eagle rare sure it’s a value. a one off special bourbon, but it’s also a super expensive glass bottle right the Woodford bankrupt battle being sold and customs or duty free shops. Only Right, bourbon is going to keep trying to do that. And you have to remember a lot of really expensive scotch, what you’re paying for is a really legit crystal to cancer that that in and of itself is a ton of money. Right? So if they can tap that market Don’t get me wrong distillers will if they find the trick, they will start doing that. And they will readily do that too, because no one wants to leave money on the table.

49:17
And so there’s there’s kind of like one one of the things that was kind of on the trail end of this quote was influential folks, like you continue to say that bourbon is undervalued and the producers will continue to respond accordingly. So Blake, we’re all looking at you. What do you think?

49:34
It says influencer.

49:37
mean, do you think do you think we’re the problem? Sometimes when we say stuff like this?

49:41
No, no, because I mean, there’s a whole culture around bourbon that’s that’s pushing it forward and all these different releases and you see, some get hot and spike and then others that kind of fall off but I think that’s just a part of it. You know, that’s part of the bourbon culture and kind of what was a big part of the Facebook groups. So maybe we won’t see that anymore. But yeah, that’s, you know, it’s just obviously nobody wants to pay more for these products. But at the same time, it’s kind of like, you know, going back to the trading cards if something gets hot, and everyone all of a sudden wants it. And that’s just what happens when there’s more demand. So, absolutely.

50:22
So let’s go ahead and kind of move on to the next subject. You know, as we start talking about value and everything like that, we got to look at just the greater market of what’s happening here with inside of just American whiskey and there is a new report coming out from research and markets. com. That is saying that the overall whiskey market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.9% from 2019 to reach 16.8 billion by 2025. And this focuses on bourbon, Tennessee and rye whiskey. So the growth of this particular market and American whiskey is mainly attributed to the grown to For premium American whiskeys and a rising number of super premium and ultra premium brands, rapid urbanization across the globe and fast growing cocktail market. So Fred, you know, you’re the one that kind of wanted to talk about this a little bit, because I think that you want to stress a point about, like how important this research is to really expanding just American whiskey in general. So go ahead and talk kind of talk about it.

51:23
So I’ve been I’ve been a journalist in some capacity since basically 1994. And research and reports is one of those. One of those are not research report. Research and markets is one of those kind of like destinations, for journalists where they get data. And it’s also where people like hedge fund managers, multi billionaires, all those types of people get reports and they spent they will seriously spend up to $5,000 for you know, particular research data before they put, you know a million or two in an industry, whether it’s stock or it’s actually on mainstream. And so for the fact that this came from that particular portal tells me that American whiskey is getting eyeballed at a very high rate from people with money. And when you have more investments coming into it, that means we’re going to start seeing more now I do know, quite a few billionaires who are entering the market, there are more celebrities coming on board, they’re more musicians. Everyone is looking to get into either bourbon, or tequila, tequila as it is it is another spirit that’s kind of on that same trajectory as American whiskey. So the fact that it’s coming from there tells me that this is such a this is so big from a future like investment perspective and tells me that that bubble is very very far from from bursting, especially if you follow those who basically write checks for a living. Yeah, very good. Look at reports you just drive down Bardstown road, and every frickin few months heaven Hill puts up another 50,000 barrel warehouse. There’s like 10 of them now, like two years ago, there was one and now there’s like 10 Well, we’ve known that right. But I mean, the people on Wall Street, this is still just kind of been a little bit of a fancy on the side now in their eyes. American whiskey has proven themselves worthy of their investment and their money. And I, you know, and I also don’t know if it’s too late for someone to enter the game at a at a high level from a distillery perspective, but I gotta look at this from from a business aspect and it looks very positive and it goes back to that is it under valued? Well, I don’t know if I think this more the more distilleries you get in there, I think it will actually keep it in that non undervalued category

54:10
for it. I got a question for you. So, a lot of distillers I talked to they say that we’re still like 30%, where we’re only like 60 to 70% of the stocks that we had in the 60s are, you know, in the 50s, or 60s? That’s correct. That’s correct. And, obviously, they keep saying, you know, the population is grown. You know, there’s more people in the world. So bourbon still got this much more room to grow. But there’s still a lot of competition, you know, like you said, from tequila from wines from beers from cannabis and stuff. So, so, so is that true for?

54:44
Yeah, we’re still we’re still a ways off from where we used to be. I mean, we’re just now kind of getting to the numbers that where we were at some point the 70s but you go into like 58 to 1966 and there was far more bourbon that was being put But also you have to remember that there was not a lot of scotch in the market and so the scotch that was in the market was like was blends like you didn’t see like a growth of single malt until the 1960s. So everybody was buying, you know, the people who had the money back then were buying bonded bourbon bottled in bond. But what happened was vodka comes on the scene, and this really is why I hate vodka, everybody, because vodka comes on the scene and starts pushing, you know, bourbon over here with kind of the new crowd. And the bourbon distillers tried to react to that. And what what did they do? They lowered their proofs instead of focusing on quality. They tried to like lower their quality to compete with vodka and orange juice. So it was a big mistake of theirs. And the scotch whiskey distillers seize the moment so did cognac. And so you started seeing all of this single malt and a lot more brandies kind of come on the market and take away that market share. That bourbon has So that is, that’s a little bit as to why bourbon started to fall. But at the same time, bourbon right now is on the verge of coming back. But you have to have more investment in here, you probably need, you probably need about two or three more juggernaut distillers to really get back to where we were. I mean, huge said about this report coming out. I mean, I’m looking at the website right now. So to get your hands on this particular copy that talks about this, this forecast of 2025, it’s going to cost you around 30 $500, if not more to actually get your hands on it, right. Like that’s a that’s a pretty substantial amount of money to pay for something like this. So I think there definitely is some validity to what you’re saying in regards of the types of people that are reading this are the ones that have that type of money to burn that are investing into distilleries are investing in startups or, you know, buying out other companies or anything like that. So there’s definitely something to kind of see about how big this market is growing is just from an investor standpoint.

56:59
Yeah. I mean, we’ve had investors on the show before, right? I mean, we talked about building Rick houses and all that sort of stuff too. So there’s there’s definitely room here for more things to come in from other markets and other people, for new entrants into it. It’s just not going to be the big boys and the large companies that might be having this kind of stuff forever. But you know, Blake, you’re, you’re kind of in the financial side. I mean, like, when you when you look at this sort of stuff, is there anything that kind of like, raise your head that might think it might be a little weird or kind of off or anything like that? Well, no, I mean, I

57:30
think just, you know, kind of to Fred’s point of more juggernaut juggernauts coming into the playing field is you see people like Bardstown bourbon company, wilderness trail others and on with some serious capacity to make bourbon and you know, that’s got to go somewhere. They’re not all contract distilling, even though a lot of them are but there’s a lot more bourbon being made, you know, Jordan and I took a tour of wilderness trail and I believe I’ll find my notes, but it was something like 230 barrels a day. I was there, too. Yeah.

58:01
3252 30 to 50 left

58:04
Ryan in the I was hobbling

58:07
too slow on that on one leg but yeah, so it was like 232 to 50 barrels a day. So there’s a lot you know, it just, there’s you don’t make those kind of decisions on blind faith, I would assume you know so I assume there’s market research and all that kind of stuff going into this to say hey look Wait, this is where the industry is go growing and you know, as I think it was in the show notes earlier millennials or whatever generation we are buying more because we’re like sitting home drinking with our kids all night.

58:39
I got a question for everyone. So there’s a lot of investor people may or may not know this, you can be an investor, say like Bardstown bourbon company or wellness try you can buy like a lot of bourbon, because there’s a role in Kentucky it as they age a year and a day. And so a lot of investors go and buy a 600,000 barrels at a time but at age for you Here in a day pay X amount after it ages a year a day, it’s immediately double work double, because it’s called Kentucky bourbon. Now, do you think if that rule wasn’t in place people would even be interested in investing in that? Well, I mean, that’s is that an open

59:13
question? Well,

59:16
you know, because it really becomes a securities market at that point. And you know, if you have the money you have the right connections, why would you not do something if you can double your money on something after a year day that that’s

59:32
that would have to be a whole rule change of the way I look at it? I’m like, I’m like sure. It makes sense. Like if I was to just be in the contract bourbon business, I definitely do that if they change it to say like, as soon as it’s still here and put the barrel here you go Kentucky bourbon and shipped wherever you want to go like that. That’s like, full stop, like next day, like I’m putting all my money to do something like that. Now, if they said like, oh, it has to be aged there for the entire time and still it’s bottled, then it gets a little bit different. So I think there is that rule. kind of gives a little bit of flexibility and what you want to do but, you know, a year, isn’t that long to wait on an investment sometimes.

1:00:07
I don’t know. That’s, I think that’s an interesting question, Ryan. One that a cynical person might ask. And I go when it comes to bourbon brands and money and investors, yeah, it’s true. That And that, my friend is why you’re the people’s champion. And I you know, I know a lot of the people who have done something like that, and after that year has happened, they’ve doubled down or they’ve increased You know, there’s something about that law it has actually lowered a lot of people in and kept a lot of people away from Indiana. And Tennessee. One of the things that no one really wants to talk about, is MTP is kind of emerging. You know, they they’ve really hurt themselves in Kentucky. Kind of rallied rallied around and blockchains them out while Tennessee comes on board and starts plucking people off to on the source whiskey market. So in MTP is though is the one distiller. When we look at the big distilleries right now, that’s really kind of hurting from a, from a futuristic perspective, because other than those old stocks, no one’s really calling them.

1:01:22
And I think that’s partly because you have so many more distilleries coming online in Kentucky it’s like hey, if you’re buying younger stock, what would you rather it say on the bottle? You know, Kentucky straight bourbon, or India or Indiana? That’s, you know, I wonder if maybe that TTP rule change what would a change something about that?

1:01:45
For sure. Alright, so we’re getting we’re running towards the top of the hour here and I kind of want to finish with with one last one one because it’s still timely. We had talked about it at least I talked about in the opening of one of the podcasts here recently, and that’s travel leisure they came out kind of broke the article, but now more media outlets are picking it. up, and that is that you can rent Jim beam’s historic Kentucky home on Airbnb. Now this was right on the Jim Beam property. And you can still book stays for the rest of 2019. Or it might have been sold out by now and start looking for 2020. But each day is priced at a mere $23 a night, which marks the same price as a bottle of Jim Beam black bourbon, the only catches that used to be everyone in the house has to be 21 years or older. So is this fun? Or is this a bad decision? Because this the way I look at it is that when people ask Ryan and I about Hey, where do we stay? We’re going to the bourbon trail and I’m like Louisville, you come to level and then they’re like what we’re saying in Bardstown I go, I’m gonna put cc on Ryan Ryan, go ahead and spit out your three or four places, right? Because you know, in mobile, you’ve got in mobile, you got you got Airbnb, you’ve got Marissa, you got Hilton properties, you’ve got tons of restaurants, and and bar sounds missing a lot of that. So do you kind of see this as a way to kind of keep people interested in to it, or is this kind of just like a

1:03:02
PR stunt? Well, the problem with where Jim Beam is, it’s like no man’s land. It’s like in between Bardstown and global. So like, there’s like literally nothing to do so you can stay there for one night, right? So you’re moving, you’re moving no matter what. Ball, you’ll only want to stay there one night. Trust me, if you go, I mean, you all know where it is. It’s like think Claremont. I mean, yeah, it’s true, like nothing to do there except go visit Jim Beam, but I heard

1:03:30
they let you, you know, just break into the warehouse and get as much out as you’d like, wow, state.

1:03:36
Actually, there was something in in the listing that said that they have a full stock bar of Jim Beam products that you get to sample on while you’re

1:03:45
saying is there

1:03:46
really, I think

1:03:47
it’s a really cool idea. I’d love to stay there. I don’t know if there still any nights available, but Jim Beam out. I’ll throw that out there. I’d stay there in a night in a heartbeat and pay whatever it is 26 bucks, but I think that’s pretty cool. You know kind of way to promote tourism and I assume that’s what they’re trying to do more of is to not have it be Hey, you want to do a bourbon trail trip go stay in Louisville, you know to try to bring more people into the Bardstown and in those other areas so it’s pretty cool way to to promote it and

1:04:20
yeah i thought was pretty interesting

1:04:23
i mean i don’t know if this is going to be a flash in the pan either right because will itself will it’s getting ready to open up their their on premise place to stay. Buffalo Trace flooring one right building one yeah yeah so when you know me and Blake were out at part of town right and they’re talking about putting a hotel that goes back to the whole Napa Valley and Kentucky bourbon everything else right. But I think we’re going to notice more like destination stays out that way. Now whether that’s the right thing to do if that’s your one time going on the bourbon trail or not. That’s different question. I think we all probably unanimously agree it’s not the right thing to do, but I don’t think it’s going to be this is like a PR so I think we’re going to see more to still is doing this.

1:05:01
And but but yeah, I mean, so that’s a kind of a separate conversation people like building you know, Bed and Breakfast is is very different than what Jim Beam has done. Just imagine the amount of meetings they had discussed this and, and, and that image imaging and the projections of the amount of media they would get. I mean, who knows

1:05:25
how much they thing? Yes,

1:05:27
exactly. I mean, just think about how much time and effort they put into to creating this and then all the media attention they got for it. I think they even got some light not late night TV play on it. So, you know, kudos to them. They they they won the PR for the week, but I also want a question like, you know, you’re doing this you’re letting people stay there one night that’s that’s lovely. But could that money not have been spent in a better way Like maybe, I don’t know, a new firm enter you know, another still maybe some new barrels i mean i don’t know i just i don’t i don’t look at this as being like anything more than a publicity stunt it feels to me like it is just it was contrived in some kind of marketing meeting and they got pushed way back into you know Claremont Kentucky and I can see Fred know and they’re saying like this is a dumb fucking idea because it probably it probably started with his house and then got moved to the actual

1:06:37
he’s like no, no nobody stayed with me.

1:06:39
I know have you seen my bathroom? So I don’t I don’t see this being this is nice it got a lot of attention but it is a marketing stuff. I don’t see it anything more than that.

1:06:52
What I’d be interested to know is who initiated the idea was a Jim Beam was or was it Airbnb? Oh yes and the PR firm was

1:06:59
like Because

1:07:00
we can everything I keep reading is like you can Airbnb a gym being right it’s just as much so cool for Airbnb is this for Jim Beam right and it shows once again Airbnb you can go to unique parts and stay in unique places right? So I don’t know who approached him. But here’s

1:07:15
another here’s another thing too is and by the way everyone is saying on our chat be that yes, it was a publicity stunt and it worked. You’re right, you’re absolutely right. So from that perspective, 100% win for Jim Beam. The other the other side is, Airbnb is still not an accepted thing in the hospitality business. They’re basically telling all the hotel partners that they’ve created that, hey, we’re partnering with Airbnb who has been trying to lobby against and compete against Airbnb for, you know, the last few years. So I don’t know that may it may hurt them with like one, one hotel or another.

1:07:54
I’m not giving up my Marriott points. I don’t care what she said. No,

1:07:58
I didn’t want to release This information because it’s a PR firm that passed it to me but the word on the street is Ryan Cecil’s home in Bardstown can now be turned into an Airbnb as well as they like to call him the founding son will now be an Airbnb that you can stay

1:08:17
where I grew up where’s the where Stephen Foster distillery was the water came from so I got a five acre lake you can fish you know it’s yeah 1010 grand a night all your

1:08:31
release next week. ending on

1:08:34
Yeah, we’ll go the exact opposite of the gym been round just like just blow it out of the water is all we need is like two people to stay there and you’re set for the year right? Yeah, all my trophies are up there too.

1:08:43
You know, from from Little League, and, of course the house cooling and whatever.

1:08:48
Yeah. And I think you know, Freddie, you totally nailed it like this was it was a APR. So I mean, we got us talking and we’re doing it. We’re talking about it. And as you mentioned, people are in chat. They’re saying it already like it’s sold out. Within minutes after went online, it was only for like they said a select few days in 2019. And that was it. So perhaps at the end of the day, it’s not really a long term strategy for him. It was just again,

1:09:12
when you get show up, they’re gonna be like, this was a bad idea.

1:09:16
Gotta be like, you should put this $23 towards a new furniture like Fred said.

1:09:22
Now, that’s a good point. I’m talking about like the meetings and all the firms they paid to get this going. But from the sounds of it, it might have been Airbnb, who paid for this? And if that’s the case, if Airbnb paid for all the research and planning that went into it, that’s a big win for beam. Well, I mean, it’s

1:09:38
Yeah, it’s free. At the end of the day, I’ll take that too.

1:09:40
I guess there’s a lot on the back end, but if you’re like, Hey, we got this house.

1:09:43
Well, I was

1:09:44
put $23 on let’s see if somebody wants to stay.

1:09:47
Yeah, not a hard sell. Alright, so that’s the that’s the end of tonight’s Roundtable. So fellas, thank you so much for joining today. And thank you everybody that was on the chat. This is a fantastic long discussion of just hitting everything from Wild Turkey and finishing up with being an Airbnb and talk about bourbon being valued or undervalued the entire way. So Fred and Ryan, thank you again for joining us once again. Good to have the trio back here. And Blake and Jordan. I’ll let you sign off real quick too.

1:10:14
Yeah, this is Jordan from breaking bourbon and three guys who runs breaking bourbon com latest reviews and release calendars at breaking bourbon and all the socials.

1:10:24
Yeah, and I am Blake from bourbon or calm I apologize for the internet issues tonight. So whoever has to edit this episode is uh, you know, apologize in advance, but you check me out on all the social medias, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram BOURBONR as well as my site seal box calm where you can find bunch of new barrel pics coming up. So a lot of interesting things coming down the pipe. So check it out. And thanks everyone for joining us. You know, it’s always fun to have a inactive chat so that that makes it even more fun for us. So thanks everyone for watching and listening

1:11:00
Sure, we’re going to we’re going to try something different as we sign off here So, Ryan, I’ll let you do any kind of closing then I want Fred to kind of close it out for us.

1:11:08
We want to make right quick. Am I closing out for all?

1:11:11
All your closing out your closing out this show, buddy? Hi, or

1:11:15
See you later. Go

1:11:18
ahead. You’re on

1:11:20
the way No, Ryan’s gotta go first.

1:11:22
doodles go, Fred.

1:11:25
So, uh, you know, thanks for joining us at tonight’s Roundtable. Always a good time. Big thanks to breaking bourbon and bourbon er, and make sure you’re checking out the Patreon subscriber page look up bourbon pursuit also follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook search bourbon pursuit. Until next week, or next month.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *