What do the Bears, Blackhawks, Cubs, Sox, and Bourbon have in common? That’s life for Carmen DeFalco, ESPN Chicago Radio host of Carmen and Jurko. Carmen and Kenny were introduced over twitter and through Carmen’s tweet storm of local sports, he has a following of people that want to know more about bourbon. Carmen joins the show to talk about his Chicago hunting tales and when he breaks open big bottles for Stanley Cup victories.

Show Notes:

• We had some trouble getting started and we now see our kids can navigate technology better
• Talk about your radio show, Carmen and Jurko on ESPN Radio Chicago. http://www.espn.com/espnradio/podcast/archive/_/id/3095452
• What’s your bourbon story?
• Your Dad was in the wholesale business. Did that have a big influence?
• Were your friends at 21 making fun of you for being a whiskey drinker?
• Has it flipped where people now go to your house and rummage through your whiskey collection?
• Are you more of a Binny’s person or do you have your hole in the walls?
• How long have you been going through the cycle of traveling and hunting?
• Maker’s Mark is like a gateway into this world. What was next for you?
• Can you remember any of those resources you used when you started learning more about bourbon?
• How much do you talk about bourbon on the air?
• What’s really becoming more hard to find?
• Do you ever drink on air?
• Do you have a particular whiskey to align with what sport your watching?
• Now that you have had some older vintages you could use those as trading for better values
• Do you get chastised for not being a cubs fan?
• Bourbon and Bacon Fundraiser Event – https://chicagobourbonandbacon.eventscff.org/
• Follow Carmen on Twitter – https://twitter.com/carmendefalco

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I don’t know a bourbon enthusiast that doesn’t love Four Roses. But this one goes into the depths of expert level opinions behind mash bills, hype behind certain runs, single barrels, mutated yeast, and more. Brett Atlas and Travis Hill join the show to talk about their experiences with Four Roses, their 10 recipes, and how they blend and create their own Limited Edition Small Batches.

• Farewall to Dave Pickerell. Enjoy our podcast with him https://bourbonpursuit.com/2018/03/29/man-behind-100-distilleries-dave-pickerell/
• The Lounge with Will Chambers – https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lounge-with-will-chambers/id1440284845
• This week’s Above The Char with Fred Minnick reflects on the past of Dave Pickerell.
• Was it cask strength that got you hooked into Four Roses or was it a standard offering?
• Give a break down of how to decipher the recipe for something like OBSQ vs OESF
• Do you think the tasting notes on the back of the hang tag is inaccurate?
• How often have you tried all recipes side by side?
• Do you have a favorite 4R recipe and why?
• Have you ever had a bad barrel?
• Does the hype factor just play into a particular recipe?
• How come everyone thinks OESK is the best?
• What do you see as the typical recipe selections at a private barrel pick?
• Have you ever walked out and never picked a barrel?
• What do you think is a misconception of larger stores and their selections?
• Do you think picks done by Brent Elliott are better or worse than ones done by a store?
• Some words for Brent
• How do you go about trying all 10 recipes?
• Talk about trying to create your own Limited Edition Small Batches
• Why do you think Four Roses doesn’t put out barrel proof Small Batch?
• The ages of barrel picks have been exponentially decreasing. Can they still keep this pace?
• Would you lose your mind over a Four Roses pick?
• Do you think the tags on the bottle showing the rack and details of the barrel are for the distillery to trace back anything for quality purposes or is it for the bourbon geeks?
• Are higher aged Four Roses that are 17 or 23 years old any good?
• Can you talk about the mutated yeast that contributed to the 125th anniversary bottle in 2013?
• Has the ME warehouse fad passed?

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• The “Private Labels” Ruling Whiskey’s Black Market from PunchDrink.com
• Join our Private Barrel Club at https://www.patreon.com/bourbonpursuit
• We are now on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5Z3v7diyoqu0Zx7naH29jc
• This week’s Above The Char with Fred Minnick is a short list for 2018 American Whiskey of the Year and a Call to Action for listeners to tell him what to drink!
• Scott Scinta, how did you get into it?
• What was your initial reaction to the product or story?
• Buddy, tell us about your path into the spirits industry
• What happened between Brown and Thompson?
• Talk about your time at Glenmore Distillery
• Can you talk about Kentucky Tavern history and during those times at Glenmore?
• Were you overseeing operations? What was your role comprised of?
• Why not a 50 year?
• Are you a veteran yourself?
• Talk about your military past?
• How often were you going back and testing these barrels?
• Are they sad about losing their best tenant ever for resting these barrels?
• Talk about the extravagant packaging?
• Why a snifter rather than a glencairn?
• So this really wasn’t a big profit game?
• What’s the release cycle of these look like?
• Why not make one big batch?
• How did Bill Thomas of Jack Rose become involved?
• Let’s start sampling
• This nose is incredible!
• It says “double oaked”. So it’s been barreled twice
• What was the entry proof 40+ years ago?
• What were some of your go to whiskies back then?
• Were you trying to find a target consumer?

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Lets face it. We go over to a buddy’s house so we can try bourbon we don’t have or because their collection is better than ours. How did they get their hands on it? Why are they so cool about sharing it? Michael St. Pierre and Aaron Stine are familiar names in the Facebook bourbon community. You’ve probably seen them buying, selling, or trading bottles but what’s their end game? Learn how these seasoned vets have transformed their bourbon bunkers into what many would call, a bourbon candy land.

Show Notes:

• Get your copy of Bourbon Justice
• Subscribe to Bourbon+ for only $30 a year
• This week’s Above The Char with Fred Minnick tries to define “What’s a bourbon asshole?”
• Michael and Aaron, talk about how you got introduced to bourbon
• When did the itch hit you to start getting high end bourbons?
• Talk about your collection so we can baseline
• Talk about how you amass to the point where you have these crazy bottles in your collections
• Do you see Van Winkle bottles as being the ace in your pocket?
• You don’t think the new Van Winkles are worth their weight now, so do you look at it as trade bait?
• Is there a shelf bourbon you even go to anymore?
• Do you waste your time getting Elijah Craig Barrel Proof or Elmer T Lee for for trading up?
• Have any of those open bottles turned into sample swaps?
• Given the expense of the rarities, what is your price limit for a bottle?
• What’s your white whale?
• Do you have one more piece of advice for transforming your bunker?

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Private barrel selections are becoming the hot new item. These carefully selected barrels are brought into a store and chosen for a particular audience. However, can every one be a winner? Do you trust who picked it? Just because a label said it was chosen by a master distiller, did he really pick it or was it leftovers from other barrel picks? And of course, we have to cover stickers because it’s the hotness. It’s a podcast that is both fascinating and intriguing and will make you think twice about going into a unknown store to purchase a random barrel pick.

Show Notes:

• This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about family and the new Bourbon Hall of Fame inductees.
• Ryan, when you go into a store and look for a single barrel pick, what do you gravitate towards?
• Back on Ep 124 we covered creating a barrel picking group and we’ve talked about individual barrel picks before but we’re going to deep dive today
• What makes barrel picks more special than their standard bottling counterpart?
• Are all barrel picks always better than their standard releases?
• If a store picks samples out of a box, are they all just rejects?
• Is three samples really enough to go off of?
• What about stickers that say “selected by the Master Distiller”?
• Michael Iurato​ asks “I have not had that many store picks but from my experience it seems like the single store pick is usually better than when a major chain or the state run liquor outlet does a pick. Would you agree?”
• Talk about what it means to have a bourbon group together vs having a store pick for you
• Is it really possible to pick a barrel based on the tastes of the customers for a store? I mean everyone is different
• Is having “after market” stickers a good thing?
• Is there too much hype train on them?
• Let’s speculate. Lets talk about store picks that are no longer available. Is there a false sense of demand or are they trying to play the game?
• Why can’t there be just a few single barrels of Weller 12 or Elijah Craig Barrel Proof per year?
• Heaven Hill used to plenty of private picks, but now all you see is Elijah Craig. Why are they holding back?
• Why even continue a single barrel program is the bourbon is going to sell anyway?
• Frank Mentlick​ asks What is the first taste that turn you off a pick? Sweet? Lack flavor? What makes you excited about picks?
• Do you do a baseline by sneaking in a flask with the standard offering?
• Any tips on going on your first barrel pick?

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Is he the biggest Wild Turkey super fan out there? Without a doubt. David Jennings goes by the alter ego RareBird101. In this episode we explore his obsession with older dusty Wild Turkey and even some of the newest Russell’s Reserve offerings. We also spend some time speculating on our theories on what has changed over the years and if Wild Turkey is headed in the right direction with premium offerings.

Show Notes:

• Before we dive right in, what’s your bourbon story?
• What got you into Wild Turkey?
• What keeps you interested in Wild Turkey?
• Talk about your blog for a minute and what you do at Rarebird101
• Think about some of those reviews you’ve done, because I’ve seen some real turkey unicorns in there from tradition to split labels to Christmas Rye. Do you have any standout favorites?
• What is it about cheesy gold foil?
• Jimmy says nothing has changed. But Be honest, do you think dusty Wild Turkey is better than today?
• Since you’ve tasted almost everything in the turkey lineup, any thoughts on recreating that dusty flavor profile?
• We posted on Instagram a while back about waiting in line for a Weller107 store pick because people like us are dumb. You were playing the angle that if everyone focused their attention on Russell’s Reserve picks you wouldn’t have to stand in line. I know you have an article on the 10 reasons why you should be buying Russell’s Reserve picks, what are some of those favorite reasons of yours?
• How many different Russell’s Reserve picks do you have?
• It seems that Wild Turkey limited releases don’t get many accolades. From Diamond to Master’s Keep. What’s you honest opinion? Do you feel they don’t deserve the high dollar or do you?
• Did you sleep on Russell’s Reserve 1998 like I did?
• When are you getting your chance to meet Matt McConaughey?
• Support RareBird101 on Patreon

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Where can you see Lenny Kravitz, John Mayer, Bourbon Pursuit, Sheryl Crow, Eddie Russell, Sting, Fred Noe, and more! Only at Bourbon & Beyond Festival 2018! The entire Bourbon Pursuit Team is together for the first time to talk about the festival, the music , the Bourbon+ seminars, and a few backstage stories from last year. Oh yeah… you can win tickets to be there with us, visit Facebook and get entered to win.

Show Notes:

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It’s time for the blind battle of private barrel selections! Three heavyweight bouts between barrels that have sweet stickers and demand a hefty market price. During this fight of flights we are joined by Ben Pickett and Paul Warnott to discuss blind tasting strategies, barrel selection processes, and overall thoughts on our competing picks.

Show Notes:

• Buy your tickets to the Speed Museum’s Art of Bourbon hosted by Fred Minnick
• This week’s “Above the Char” focuses on the myth that bourbon can only be made in Kentucky
• Paul invited us to come, what was the motivation behind it?
• Ben, how do you disperse 150 bottles between 1000 people?
• Are you spoiled by being able to go on every single barrel pick?
• Do you see people faking store picks now because there are hang tags?
• Time to do our first blind tasting
• [Russell’s Reserve Results between Blind Monkey, Bluegrass Berries, and Twix]
• Does trying anything in a particular order skew the results?
• Tell the story behind Bluegrass Berries
• Do you use anything as a palate cleanser
• When you’re going into blind tastings, do you have a method for setting it up and breaking it down?
• Time do our 2nd blind tasting
• Have you tried a bottled-in-bond blind to remove the proof variable?
• Do you pick for the group or the store?
• Have you ever done a barrel proof line up and is that harder or easier than something that’s 90 or 110 proof.
• What do legs do for you?
• What do you think the attraction is to NCF or is it all mental?
• [Buffalo Trace Results between Bourbon Community Roundtable, The Bourbon Review 2017, and Tipsy Buffalo]
• Is there any way you can get a barrel proof single barrel any more that is outside of MGP?
• Time to do our 3rd blind tasting
• What was your impression of picking a barrel at New Riff/OKI vs Wild Turkey or Buffalo Trace?
• When going back and forth between two, do you look for big discerning differences?
• When you are doing blind, is it harder to do 8 or more together or should you narrow the field?
• How often do you, if ever, spit anything out when tasting?
• [Barrel Proof Results between EH Taylor Barrel Proof and OKI 12 year “Ricky Bobby”]
• Stop in at Jake’s Cigar Bar to learn more and try some of these barrels.

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Everyone has some news to share this week. We welcome, Fred Minnick, as a new co-host to the show and kick off a new segment called “Above the Char”. Ed Bley, multi-appearance guest on the show, has some news to share as well. Can you guess what it is? What’s going to happen to Old Baldy? What’s on the horizon for everyone? Enjoy this week’s episode!

Show Notes:

• This week’s “Above the Char” with Fred Minnick discusses cigar barrels or cigar blends
• Ed is leaving Cork N Bottle and opening a distillery
• What’s the name of it?
• What happens after barreling?
• Are you going to be distilling or just sourcing?
• Focus on filtration and proofing
• Did you find your great great grandpappys old recipe?
• How did you feel Cork N Bottle groomed you for this?
• Elephant in the room… what’s happening with Old Baldy?
• Narrow it down, what does it mean that your focus will be on filtration techniques
• Have you talked to other master distillers about advice on this adventure?
• Are you hiring?
• What’s the meaning behind the name?
• Is there something that was the climatic moment?
• Do you have a legit fear that it could flop?
• In the scotch world, blending of other distilleries is common, but why now for bourbon?
• Have you taken on investors or are you bootstrapped?
• What’s the vision of the site if it’s not a distillery?
• Is there a timeline for having a release?
• How do you think your loyal Cork N Bottle customers feel?
• Ed, what do you have planned for bourbon and rum blends?
• Do you plan on changing your instagram account name?

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There used to be thousands of distilleries spread across Kentucky at houses, farms, and industrial sites. As time moved through the industrial revolution, prohibition, and the clear spirit movement, many of these became ruins and were long forgotten. Nick Laracuente has dedicated years to uncovering these forgotten pieces of history as an effort to piece together their story. He is also on the forefront of Buffalo Trace’s Bourbon Pompeii exhibit. Listen to this episode as Nick tells his story of discovering artifacts and uncovering the history of bourbon distillation.

Show Notes:

• Did archeology turn you into a bourbon enthusiast or was it the other way around?
• I suppose it really helps to know more about the product you are researching
• What is the drive or economic reason for wanting to dig up these sites and learn?
• Are distilleries funding this or the state? Where is the money coming from?
• Who was Jack Jouett?
• Can you talk about the magnitude of the footprint you are dealing with?
• What is your fascination with the Fraziers or Ecklers who haven’t had much history documented?
• Have you been able to uncover something that isn’t part of today’s distillation techniques?
• When you are exploring a site, do you have an idea of how big the operation was to figure out what to look for?
• When you are digging holes looking for artifacts, how big are these holes?
• What is your “eureka” moment when something is found?
• At what point does the story start coming together for the Jouett distillery?
• Let’s talk about the poster child of bourbon archeology, Bourbon Pompeii.
• Other than the vats, anything else cool that was discovered?
• Follow Nick on twitter (@archeologist) and instagram (bourbonarcheology)

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