POPULARITY
We preview this upcoming State of the City address from Mayor Fischer in this episode of Now You Novi.
Hayley and the Knobs talk the New York Times crossword puzzle being in the shape of a swastika on the first day of Hanukkah, Ian finally seeing "It's a Wonderful Life," and Will Clark's last interview with Mayor Fischer...
Anthony Piagentini, Metro Councilman from District 19, discusses his military service, how he got to Louisville, and the pluses and minuses of Mayor Fischer's term in office...
Hayley and the Knobs discuss Mayor Fischer getting punched at 4th Street Live, Joe Biden falling off his bike, Neil Diamond losing his ability to sing, and U of L raking-in the high profile football recruits...
Jefferson County Circuit Court Clerk David Nicholson discussed the Mayor's comments on budget spending, his designs for funding law enforcement in our city, cleaning up Metro Louisville, and his relationship with Frankfort...
Former-LMPD Sgt. John Mattingly talked about the night Breonna Taylor was killed and his new book "12 Seconds In The Dark". Not only did he recount his actions that night, he also discussed many aspects of the case including the impact of race on the situation, Kenneth's Walker's behavior that night, LMPD higher-ups making Walker "untouchable", Mayor Fischer "wanting (the officers involved) fired", a bounty being put on his head, the validity of the warrant, taking the 5th in the Brett Hankison trial, and more...
The dangerous combination of late night Taco Bell, bourbon, and a late shift have made for an explosive, loose lip, rant of a podcast. The verdict is in, and LMPD Detective Hankison is found not guilty on all charges of Wanton Endangerment 1st and BLM and the far-left are not happy about it. Protest season is coming early in 2022 and Dex has a front row-seat to the show. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer wants more accountability from the Louisville PD about the death of Breonna Taylor. But the real question is, who is holding Mayor Fischer accountable for the massive increase in crime and record breaking number of black lives lost to violence under his administration?
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer gave his final state of the city address last week before the Rotary Club of Louisville. On this week's Access Louisville podcast, we chat with Reporter Michael L. Jones who attended the Rotary meeting about his biggest takeaways from the speech. We also chat about Fischer's legacy and how he will be remembered after leaving office. After that, we chat with reporter Laurel Deppen about her recent interview with ScionHealth CEO Rob Jay.Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services.
We have a monthly segment scheduled with Mayor Fischer, but he was unavailable today so Terry decided to just do the interview himself...
We have a monthly segment scheduled with Mayor Fischer, but he was unavailable today so Terry decided to just do the interview himself...
Mayor Greg Fischer talked about the death of Jefferson County Sheriff's Deputy Brandon Shirley and the efforts to find his killer(s), his support of the police, and counters claims made by J-Town Police Chief Rick Sanders made earlier on the show. Mayor Fischer also discussed the safety of our city and claims that LMPD leadership does not support officers...
Mayor Greg Fischer talked about the death of Jefferson County Sheriff's Deputy Brandon Shirley and the efforts to find his killer(s), his support of the police, and counters claims made by J-Town Police Chief Rick Sanders made earlier on the show. Mayor Fischer also discussed the safety of our city and claims that LMPD leadership does not support officers...
This week, Jazmin brought a lawsuit roundup -- catching us up on lawsuits we've talked about on the show before and introducing a few news ones. Robert talked about Metro Council passing their budget amendment, and how their budget differs from Mayor Fischer's, which he announced in April.
Hour 2 Andy and James break down a mysterious Reed Sheppard rumor, Streble disses Issel/Pratt, more Streble relationship talk breaks out, Harlow going on tour, Andy swipes Mayor Fischer, can UofL learn anything from Creighton, and we end the hour with sound galore. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mayor Greg Fischer discussed the upcoming "City of Ali" documentary on the life and lasting effect of Muhammad Ali, the revitalization of Downtown Louisville, equity efforts being made city-wide, and the possibility of people returning to work Downtown...
Mayor Greg Fischer discussed the upcoming "City of Ali" documentary on the life and lasting effect of Muhammad Ali, the revitalization of Downtown Louisville, equity efforts being made city-wide, and the possibility of people returning to work Downtown...
This week Robert and Jazmin take a look at a few issues in Louisville, including an update on police and protesting, a potential strike by valets at Churchill Downs, and a discussion about the role of LMPD within Mayor Fischer's 2021 budget. Plus, as always, a COVID update.
Robert and Kellie dive into the local impact of the Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's announcement of the grand jury decision in the murder of Breonna Taylor. Kellie shares her personal and professional perspectives on civil service, violence, and community activism. Kellie R. Watson was the first Chief Equity Officer for Louisville Metro Government, providing strategic, visionary planning and oversight to advance racial equity in Louisville Metro Government and she oversees the Department of Human Resources and the Human Relations Commission. Prior to this, she was the General Counsel/Legislative Liaison to Mayor Fischer. She was also the Director of the Human Resources Department/Labor Relations within the Fischer administration. Kellie has served as the Director for Office of Human Resource Management/Acting Director of the Office of Civil Rights and Small Business for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Kellie’s early years in City of Louisville, were as the Director of the Louisville Metro Human Relations Commission for several years, as the Director of the Office of Affirmative Action. Kellie is a member of the Kentucky and Louisville Bar Associations; Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. serving as the Executive Board Chair of Beta Alpha Xi Zeta Chapter; Legislative Liaison for Derby City Chapter of Jack and Jill Inc.
Metro Councilman Anthony Piagentini discussed all aspects of the Breonna Taylor settlement. He talked about the death of Taylor, the need for justice after a full investigation, the lack of accountability from Mayor Fischer in this situation, the naming of Yvette Gentry as Interim Police Chief, the targeting of police officers across the country, and the city's financial situation...
Metro Councilman Anthony Piagentini discussed all aspects of the Breonna Taylor settlement. He talked about the death of Taylor, the need for justice after a full investigation, the lack of accountability from Mayor Fischer in this situation, the naming of Yvette Gentry as Interim Police Chief, the targeting of police officers across the country, and the city's financial situation...
Political Strategist Cody Patterson broke down the goings-on at the RNC. He talked about Herschel Walker's speech, the platform that was given to Daniel Cameron, and previews the President's speech on Thursday. Then he put on his Democrat Strategist hat and discussed Biden's negative reaction to rioting and Mayor Fischer's plan for non-violent protests in Louisville...
Political Strategist Cody Patterson broke down the goings-on at the RNC. He talked about Herschel Walker's speech, the platform that was given to Daniel Cameron, and previews the President's speech on Thursday. Then he put on his Democrat Strategist hat and discussed Biden's negative reaction to rioting and Mayor Fischer's plan for non-violent protests in Louisville...
Mayor Greg Fischer discusses the limiting of the State Fair and other events at the KFEC, the need for federal aid not only on the state level but for localities like Louisville Metro, how to make the citizens feel safe amid rising violence across the city and the retirement of more LMPD officers, and the possibility of federal agents being deployed to Louisville after the release of the results of the Breonna Taylor investigation...
Mayor Greg Fischer discusses the limiting of the State Fair and other events at the KFEC, the need for federal aid not only on the state level but for localities like Louisville Metro, how to make the citizens feel safe amid rising violence across the city and the retirement of more LMPD officers, and the possibility of federal agents being deployed to Louisville after the release of the results of the Breonna Taylor investigation...
Political strategist Cody Patterson discusses Senator McConnell's fight to get the HEALS Act passed, Amy McGrath's new PR gimmick, and Metro Council's half-hearted quest for clarity from Mayor Fischer...
Political strategist Cody Patterson discusses Senator McConnell's fight to get the HEALS Act passed, Amy McGrath's new PR gimmick, and Metro Council's half-hearted quest for clarity from Mayor Fischer...
For the inaugural episode of An American Breakthrough, Conference President Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer is joined by Second Vice President Miami Mayor Francis Suarez as he shares how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting Florida. Then, Mayor Fischer is joined by Conference Vice President Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley for a look at the economic side of the crisis and the Conference's push for direct emergency fiscal assitance.
While Phillip M. Bailey is leaving the Courier Journal (sort of) to be a National Political Correspondent at USA Today, he still has his ear to the ground in The Ville and lots of insight into what is happening. He talked about Charles Booker's political future, whether or not the city is prepared for what might happen if the officers in Breonna Taylor's case are not arrested and charged, and the huge amount of scrutiny piling on Mayor Fischer...
While Phillip M. Bailey is leaving the Courier Journal (sort of) to be a National Political Correspondent at USA Today, he still has his ear to the ground in The Ville and lots of insight into what is happening. He talked about Charles Booker's political future, whether or not the city is prepared for what might happen if the officers in Breonna Taylor's case are not arrested and charged, and the huge amount of scrutiny piling on Mayor Fischer...
Hey y’all! This week’s episode will be short and sweet. I would like for you guys to head over to change.org to continue to sign different petitions and to call the attorney general’s office and the mayor’s office to have the police fired and charged. Attorney Cameron (502)696-5300 and Mayor Fischer (502)574-2003 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ogtalkswithsj/support
Dr. Ricky Jones called in the midst of "Black Valentines Season" to talk about Matt Jones lying (Terry's claim) about his score on Bethpage Black, what Mayor Fischer needs to do to earn the trust of the city again, Ricky being "confrontational" during today's Louisville Forum, and a personal issue he is involved in with the University of Louisville...
Dr. Ricky Jones called in the midst of "Black Valentines Season" to talk about Matt Jones lying (Terry's claim) about his score on Bethpage Black, what Mayor Fischer needs to do to earn the trust of the city again, Ricky being "confrontational" during today's Louisville Forum, and a personal issue he is involved in with the University of Louisville...
Mayor Greg Fischer talked about the state of the Breonna Taylor case and contingency plans in case the verdict is not what sections of the public have been calling for. He also discussed the status of Jefferson Square Park and people not being allowed to camp overnight, restoring a feeling of safety in downtown Louisville, and the overall level of violence in the Metro...
Mayor Greg Fischer talked about the state of the Breonna Taylor case and contingency plans in case the verdict is not what sections of the public have been calling for. He also discussed the status of Jefferson Square Park and people not being allowed to camp overnight, restoring a feeling of safety in downtown Louisville, and the overall level of violence in the Metro...
Dr. Ricky Jones discusses Mayor Fischer's "investigative process continues" stance on the Breonna Taylor case, how to restore trust in city leadership, the "Blue Flu", Charles Booker's loss in the primary and what that says about Kentucky...
Dr. Ricky Jones discusses Mayor Fischer's "investigative process continues" stance on the Breonna Taylor case, how to restore trust in city leadership, the "Blue Flu", Charles Booker's loss in the primary and what that says about Kentucky...
This week Jazmin and Robert talk about many of the topics dominating the news this summer: COVID-19, protests, and the primary election. In addition, this week the show dives into the reasons why Mayor Fischer says he cannot fire the three officers who executed the no-knock warrant on Breonna Taylor's home which resulted in her killing at their hands. We looked at the laws, the mayor's justification, and how it all compares to actions taken in Minneapolis and Atlanta, where officers have been fired.
Benny T explains the May hiatus and shares something he's never shared publicly before, then shares what he's doing now and the vision for this podcast moving forward. Lots of thoughts on the #BlackLivesMatter protests in Louisville and around the nation, including reaction from being at Mayor Fischer's community Q&A Tuesday night. Also, a long overdue apology and Uber stories. Rate, review, subscribe!
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer joined WDRB in the Morning anchors Candyce Clifft and Sterling Riggs on May 15, 2020 to discuss the controversial police shooting of former Metro EMT Breonna Taylor at her apartment on March 13. This bonus episode features the full interview. Mayor Fischer deflects questions of confidence in LMPD chief amid Breonna Taylor investigation
The Louisville Pride Foundation (LPF) and Mayor Greg Fischer meet for a virtual “Community Conversation” on COVID-19: How Louisville Metro Government (LMG) is dealing with the repercussions of the Corona Virus. Sit down with LPF's Executive Director, Mike Slaton, Kendall Boyd, and Mayor Fischer as they engage in a discussion on how the city of Louisville's focus on resilience, equity, and compassion has helped during this pandemic; how they're responding, what they've learned, and how they're helping. You don't want to miss it!
Mayor Greg Fischer talked about the plateau of COVID-19 in the Metro. He also discussed the recent increase of people out in public settings, the financial impact on the city if the Fed doesn’t provide more relief to cities and states, GLI’s statement about their desire to quickly re-open businesses, and the future of the Kentucky Derby…
Mayor Greg Fischer talked about the plateau of COVID-19 in the Metro. He also discussed the recent increase of people out in public settings, the financial impact on the city if the Fed doesn't provide more relief to cities and states, GLI's statement about their desire to quickly re-open businesses, and the future of the Kentucky Derby…
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer has unveiled a three-phase recovery plan for the city as the COVID-19 outbreak begins to show early signs of subsiding. The plan is called “Build Back Better, Together.” Fischer says reopening the economy and lifting restrictions on services will be dependent on meeting various benchmarks. They include a decline in the number and rate of new coronavirus cases, expanded testing and protecting at-risk populations. Louisville Metro Government is also seeking public input about the recovery effort. Mayor Fischer joined us, along with Louisville CFO Daniel Frockt and Dr. Sarah Moyer, director of the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness, for a special edition of In Conversation. We talked about the recovery plan, the ongoing battle against COVID-19 and Louisville's financial health.
Just what is Louisville preparing for with the coronavirus? Should we expect to run out of hospital beds or ventilators? On today's podcast Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer joins us to update our listeners on the steps Louisville is taking to ensure our hospitals, workers, and citizens are prepared for what may come. With large factories closing temporarily, and economic uncertainty, Mayor Fischer details some of the steps his office and others in Louisville are taking to aid or most vulnerable.
Hayley and the Knobs talked with Mayor Fischer from quarantine, home schoolin', stupid celebs, and college kids being dumb on Spring Break…
Hayley and the Knobs talked with Mayor Fischer from quarantine, home schoolin’, stupid celebs, and college kids being dumb on Spring Break…
Mayor Greg Fischer called from quarantine to fill us in on the status of his wife who tested positive for COVID-19. He also announced a new emergency response fund for those in need in the Metro, talked about what you can do to make sure our healthcare system isn’t overwhelmed in the future, and filled us in on some of the actions the city is taking to lessen the effects of COVID-19…
Mayor Greg Fischer called from quarantine to fill us in on the status of his wife who tested positive for COVID-19. He also announced a new emergency response fund for those in need in the Metro, talked about what you can do to make sure our healthcare system isn't overwhelmed in the future, and filled us in on some of the actions the city is taking to lessen the effects of COVID-19…
Hayley and the Knobs talk hoarding TP, social distancing, drive-thru liquor stores, Mayor Fischer dancing, and what to watch while you’re trapped at home…
Hayley and the Knobs talk hoarding TP, social distancing, drive-thru liquor stores, Mayor Fischer dancing, and what to watch while you're trapped at home…
The Bourbon Pursuit team takes a minute to look back on some of our favorite podcasts we recorded this year. We also look at all the bourbons that were released in 2019 (around 55) and Ryan and Kenny vote on their favorite while we have to wait for Fred. Then we take some time to look into 2020 with what we think is going to happen with TTB labels, marijuana, tariffs, and the 3 tier system in 2020. We wrap up the show giving our individual 2020 predictions about barrel programs, secondary markets, and other legalities. Happy New Year! Show Partners: At Barrell Craft Spirits, they spend weeks choosing barrels to create a new batch. Joe and Tripp meticulously sample every barrel to make sure the blend is absolutely perfect. Find out more at BarrellBourbon.com. Receive $25 off your first order at RackHouse Whiskey Club with code "Pursuit". Visit RackhouseWhiskeyClub.com. Show Notes: Barrel Picks: https://www.patreon.com/posts/jack-daniels-wow-32305844, https://www.patreon.com/posts/eagle-rare-with-32446056 This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about barrel char. What was your favorite episode of 2019? What was the most awkward episode? Bourbons released in 2019. What do you see on the horizon for tariffs and the export market? Do you think we will see a marijuana or CBD infused whiskey in 2020? Will TTB crackdown on new COLAs in 2020? Do you predict a shakeup in the 3 tier system? Will we see the rise of the big secondary groups in 2020? Other predictions for 2020. 0:00 You know, we weren't drinking whiskey this. I know as soon as we started I was just like, should we stop and get this? I was like, yeah, we're gonna roll let's let's actually we sounded much more cohesive, so maybe we don't drink anymore. 0:23 Everybody it is Episode 233. It is our final show of 2019. And usually during this time of the year, things are winding down, I guess except if you work in retail, then it's a bunch of last minute shoppers, but we still have some news to cover. So let's get into it. Last week, I opened the show talking about the craft beverage modernization and Tax Reform Act being in jeopardy. And we also talked about it in this week's podcast. Well, some hopes have been answered and the tax cut has been approved and extended for one additional year. It is passed in both the House and the Senate. So now, graph distillers can take advantage of one more year tax 1:00 breaks. So we'll see what's going to happen in 2020. It will be furthered again or if it's now time for craft distillers to start preparing for a 400% tax increase in 2021. If anything has the word Weller associated to it, there's bound to be some hysteria that follows. This past week, a new Weller single label that was orange hit the TTB. This caused a bunch of memes to spread like, well a pumpkin spice well or honey and even a Weller jaundice. I'm not too sure who thought of that idea, but the market needs no excitement every single week. Now, there are no public details from Sazerac on this line. So it's still yet to be determined when or even if it will ever be released. The proof and the price point. On the bourbon pursuit side, we're finishing out 2019 with a bang. For the past few weeks, we've been lucky enough to select two more single barrels for our Patreon community. Two weeks ago, we traveled down to Lynchburg, Tennessee to select a barrel proof jack daniels. And to my surprise, these whiskies they're only five years 2:00 result. But we ended up choosing a barrel that was 131 proof and just completely floored us on taste and complexity. It was also a good time just talking to a lot of folks that work there because it was truly an all encompassing experience with humble people who just love what they do. And we did our best not to getting into those is jack daniels of bourbon conversations. Anybody that works there because we knew it wasn't gonna go anywhere. And this week, or should I say last week, we traveled down to Buffalo Trace and selected our first ever Eagle rare barrel. And to keep the story short, we had our team of 10 people, along with Susanna who leads the barrel program with Joshua steely who manages the premier bourbon brands and the infamous Freddy Johnson. It was a split decision all the way to the very end, where Joshua and Freddy ended up being our tiebreakers. You can read the stories for both of these pic experiences with the link in our show notes. And these barrels will only and always be exclusively available to our Patreon community. 3:00 thank you as always to our retail partner, keg and bottle for making it happen. You can read more about them and order whiskey online and have it shipped to your door at keg the letter in bottle.com. And not only that is we're starting out 2020. with even more barrel selections, we have our first 1792 foolproof selection happening on the third of January. So go to our Patreon page, check it out to see all the single barrels that we have lined up and the ones that are be coming in. As I look back and reflect on 2019 it's been a monumental year of growth for the podcast, but it was also the launch of our whiskey quickie series. We selected 19 single barrels from various distilleries, we really 17 episodes of pursuit series, and the podcast. It reached a new milestone of 950,000 downloads in 2019. So thank you, all of you out there that listen and support this podcast. We just couldn't do it without you. We decided to celebrate this very special occasion and buy some new equipment to help you even bring 4:00 better quality in 2020. So we can't wait to start recording all new podcasts with the new gear coming in. And today's podcast is going to be more about looking back at 2019 reflections but also looking into 2020. What was our whiskey of the year? And what do we think is going to happen with things like TTB labels, marijuana tariffs, the three tier system and more in 2020 we covered all in today's podcast, but first, sit back, relax and let's listen for what Joe has to say over a barrell bourbon. And then you've got Fred minnick with above the char. 4:32 I'm Joe Beatrice, founder of barrell craft spirits, myself and our master distiller Tripp stimpson spend weeks choosing barrels to create a new batch. We meticulously sample every barrel make sure the blend is absolutely perfect. Next time ask your bartender for barrell bourbon. 4:49 I'm Fred Minnick. And this is above the char this week's idea comes from Jess or blonde ambition, on Twitter. Great handled by the way blog 5:00 invention, kind of jealous of that handle? she asked, What's the average char for a barrel. Now it's interesting, this is something that the distillers they tend to be very emphatic about their belief in the charring of the barrel. As you know, by law, every barrel has to be newly charred oak in order for it to store bourbon. And there have been a lot of experiments over the years to include buffalo traces, experiment for their experimental line that they store whiskey and in a barrel that was charged for nearly like two minutes and the barrel barely held together. So you can't really have a barrel that's charred for more than a minute, minute and a half in order to have like, decent volume come out of it. So the average char that most people use and that they found that they 6:00 derive the best flavor for them is usually about a char number four or 55 seconds, you'll also hear it called the alligator char. Now you're finding a lot of people really kind of live by the chart number three, chart number three is you know in that 45 second to 52nd range and it gets people a lot more you know, a lot more durability out of the barrel but the wood also gets, you know, when that whiskey gets deeper down there and that line, they tend to come out a little earlier. And I've seen some people do a chart number two and a chart one and to be honest with you, those whiskies tend to be a little greener, you find you find a lot of like a stringent notes and I had typically not been much of a fan of that of those. Of course all that is to say that at the end of the day charring plays, fire little or roll into the flavor of the 7:00 Whiskey then the leaving the stage outside and letting them dry age or the toasting mechanisms. So I think the charring while important, is not the most important aspect of the barrel. And that's this week's above the char Hey, if you have an idea for above the char hit me up on Twitter, Instagram or wherever the hell you want to at Fred minich just email me on my website Fred MiniK calm until next week. Cheers 7:34 Welcome back to the final episode of bourbon pursuit for 2019 Kenny Ryan and Fred down here in the I don't know is this is somewhat of a new setup for us. So we're trying to invest in some new equipment make it sound better make everything kind of work. So yeah, yeah. Wait until the very last episode. Here to get some new equipment. Well, you know, we're, I keep I keep looking at all the Fred stuff that he has and his new setup. I get jealous. 8:00 Do I get jealous and envious now? Yeah, Mike envy that little bit. It's a little bit of mine. It is at least you know how to turn it on. It took me it took me a while to figure it out to use that damn thing. Yeah, it's all right, we'll get there. But today, what we're going to do is we're going to be going over kind of like a recap of some of the favorite things that we did or we saw or a part of in 2019. Also looking into 2020 with some predictions and some kind of ideas that that I kind of have, and we'll kind of just, we'll take it from there. And you know, one thing that the certain data just originally came or just recently came out, there are now 800,000 podcasts that are out there now. And it's an astounding amount and we just want to say thank you to the listeners out there. Not all bourbon, are they out? Well, I mean, there, there's probably a new one every other day feels like it 800,000 other ones now, but you know, want to say thank you to all of our listeners out there, because we definitely appreciate it and hopefully you continue listening to us more as we go into 2020. But what's kind of one thing I want to kind of look at is kind of reflect back on 2019 a little bit 9:00 Like, you know, Fred or Ryan I'll let you kind of dive in or I'll kind of say a few of them like did you have a like an episode that you were really happy about or you're proud about or really got a lot out of you want to take this further you want me to go 9:14 you know, we had so many great ones. I really enjoyed getting Matthew Ray Walton here at English from WWE. And I, the reason why I I love that is you know, inevitably you're going to have new people come into into kind of like the media spotlight and everything for for whiskey and I I applaud that I want to see new people coming in and, and giving their opinion about whiskey and kind of like furthering the story of what we know whiskey is and who enjoys it. And to have like, someone of that caliber who's on TV like every every week and body slamming people I just think that's kind of cool. And you know, we've become pretty good friends and I just think what he has done for 10:01 Whiskey and continue to do so is is fascinating and I'm also I also it's not just because she's one of my best friends but the Peggy know Stevens episode that you and I did 10:14 notice both of those I was not a bar. 10:18 Well, we were mentioning this earlier, it's very rare that all three together it is and I think it's because, you know, it's kind of like when, when the President goes on the stage to talk, you know, you need to have one of the people in the bag, in case 10:30 too many chiefs. Yeah, there's gonna be one designated survive. Yeah. 10:35 This the Peggy no Stevens episode to me was like, you know, she revealed a lot of things there. That was, you know, she didn't have to. And, you know, I wrote the book, whiskey women, and I think she was she was a reason why I wrote it. She was a trailblazer in that in this world. 10:58 And then on the other side, Jackie's 11:00 I can whom we all three were there when was never a fun one she's always great. She's great and Campbell was great and you know I just got to tell you we had a lot of fun this year and every episode I was a part of and you know, just fantastic for me personally. Yeah, I mean for me one of the one of the ones I really enjoyed the most you know, as as Ryan I started venturing off into the our own little side business as well with pursuit spirits. But as we started really kind of like turning a new chapter for bourbon pursuit as well. Like we're, we're not just interviewing master distillers and it's not all cultural, but we're looking at even like, further behind the curtains of things. And that's when we did Episode 182 with Jeff hoffmeyer, brinda yamo and really talking about like, what's the secrets behind sourcing whiskey? Like we all knew that there were there were source whiskey out there, but not a lot of people knew the process what it takes there. I mean, got every talked about, like the whole like a counterfeit full of or a whole truckload full of like counterfeit rum potentially Right. I mean, like 12:00 There was there's a lot of things that a lot of people just didn't really know about it beforehand. Yeah, that was kind of like 12:06 that broke a little news in our world for for a broker to come out and say that there's counterfeit bourbon out there, and someone's bottled it and we don't know who you know. And as a consumer, it's kind of like, it kind of goes back to that old. That old adage, really only buy wood from people you trust and like, that's why the distilled and bottled by are like a source purveyor. Like the pursuit series. 12:32 Your best What's that? 12:35 But you know, that opened a lot of eyes, I think. And yeah, I totally agree. What about you, Ryan? Do you have a favorite one from this past year? Or maybe the most awkward one? Well? 12:49 Well, I think everyone knows which the most awkward one detail. I don't know which one you'd be referring with a counterfeiter, which, I mean, that probably is I it was awful. 13:00 Doing it at the time because it was so awkward but 13:04 as Fred and I talked about with other people and I think it did bring us three like a lot closer and you know because you know you had some people taking shots at us and questioning and all that stuff so we kind of we kind of bonded over it so that and I think a lot of people enjoyed it as well kind of shed some light on a dark subject of this hobby and hopefully deter some people from doing it but probably my most like memorable and fun one I always am in amazed by the business aspect of this and like I really enjoyed the one we did with coffee just because I've started businesses you know myself and on a much smaller scale than he had with rabbit hole and like this guy was literally leveraging his everything to make it happen and you could just tell like, you know it, it was about to come to fruition but it had yet and later we found out that you know, they were purchased by a printer card and 14:00 It was just fascinating for me to hear, you know, because I mean, it's ballsy to come into Kentucky, where you have the most you know, you have the big boys and literally that in you have no connection to the industry whatsoever. And you just start a brand and in succeed like that, it's pretty incredible. So, and I wasn't on that interview, but Kobe is someone who definitely came in and, you know, made some enemies in the process as well. And like he, and he, but he kept pushing forward and his way and so that story is fascinating. For that reason. He got like, one of these big entrepreneur organizations, you got Entrepreneur of the Year for the whole country. So like he's, he caught a lot of people's attention naturally. That's, I mean, it says impressive and, you know, speak on the business side of things like one of the ones that both you were not there for, but I was one dealing with Episode 223 with Ken Lewis, a new riff and really hearing his story of how he just 15:00 Kind of like just randomly got into the liquor business. And then he eventually sold off the the party sources that now become liquor barns in Louisville. And now he just has that one. He had that one location and said, you know what I want to get into the actual distilling process and everything like that, and then kind of talked about how when he was actually at the party source, how he bought all these barrels of MGP just saying like, hey, like, I don't know, maybe I'll do something with them one day. And you know, lo and behold, that's really what kick started everything that happened in New Earth and they did a clean cut from Okay, to their own product. There was no blending or anything like that, and they're not sourcing anything else. It's just moving towards their product and you know, they've had a strong 2019 as well even going into it from from that side, man. Think about how good their whiskey is to know you know, and they just 15:47 they just kind of came out of nowhere for a lot of people we've we've known about them for sure. But for a lot of people are just like discovering new riff and they're like, Oh my god, this is good. And so that story too, is like it's so rare and whiskey. 16:00 That we see someone who Gamble's at all, and and then their whiskies. Good. Yeah usually it's things we see most of them that that don't succeed you know we get you're like, man I'm sorry you spent your whole life savings on this and make this sorry about that but now it's it's hard for me to remember what episodes got released this year because we record some and some get released and so I'm like, you know, just thinking back because if you're not familiar with our process, we batch record I know you're familiar with it but the audience 16:32 we batch record to me, Vance and kind of release them as we go and just so the audience can know and feel sorry for Ryan and I we've just been bullied into like that we have to plan for the next quarter and right after this and it's like we have to come up with new episodes and and he's been trying to schedule it can he's been trying to schedule this with us for a long time and we have a whole syllabus of like, coming up after the show. Let me get your copies at the door. Have a seat. We're going to go over that. 17:00 what's what's your here's a question for you, Kenny. What is your? What's your favorite moment of trying to get Ryan and I to do something? Probably when I get to call y'all names I'm like, well, you bastards. Finally look at these texts. Charlie, I'm trying to get answers to plan the calendar January. I don't like, like, 17:19 I'm in Disney World Day. I'll be back home said no, but I mean, like I said, finally, like when I get those, I feel like I'm just it's it's always waiting. And then as soon as I get it, I'm like, okay, bam, I can start knocking things out, start getting everything ready. And there's there's a whole process behind it. I just got to make sure that we're gonna add like two weeks buffer, you know, when you try to get stuff done with us. Right. 17:41 But I applaud you for for the person. The Pursuit pays off. Yeah. Oh, there we go. So let's go ahead and let's start, you know, looking at to actually, you know, kind of talk about this too, because I don't want my best Bourbons of the year. I don't know, you know, I know Fred's gonna be recording his you know that we're recording this here. 18:00 About two weeks prior to this actually being released and Fred's going to be releasing his, his best Bourbons and best whiskies of 2019. You know, Ryan, I kind of want you to kind of talk about this too, but you know, I think 2019 was actually a very very good year for American whiskey and bourbon. And I'm I actually wrote down every single limited release and everyday bourbon that got released to and I'm just going to go through this really quickly because I want just to say like, just the gravity of really what went out there. And as soon as I say these things, you'd be like, Oh, yeah, that was actually just like back in February now now kind of rain. So of course you've got the antique collection and you got Van Winkle but you had Cornerstone right Elmer tealy 100th The amaranth grain of the gods four roses 2019 small mash Maker's Mark RC six angels empty cash drink knob Creek, quarter oak, double Eagle, very rare old charter oak series, angels envy Ella Rosso Bardstown bourbon company with their fusion fight for habit more. Bill need had some experimental that came out web saffle eight and Sam from GP for gateway. 19:00 Four releases this year blood oath pack five old Carter had a few Bourbons and rise. Woodford Reserve backer at addition Woodford Reserve batch proof Woodford Reserve chocolate malted, rye, peerless bourbon Weller full proof. 1792 12 year king of Kentucky 2019 Baker's 13 Wild Turkey, Cornerstone right I had on there twice, so maybe I'll take that one back. Old forester birthday bourbon Parker's heavy char rye, Kentucky, bourbon number nine Stranahan snowflake 2019. Remus volstad, reserve bourbon from MGP. And those were all the limited releases. So now we go into just the everyday releases. Old forester rye, crema Kentucky they had two releases this year for roses small batch select heaven Hill bottle and bond seven year Cooper's craft barrel reserve 100 proof Maker's Mark 100 proof uncle nearest 1884 small batch whistlepig piggyback rebel yield 100 proof Woodford Reserve week whiskey decal 13. Year bottle and bond, Jim beans legend Kentucky out confiscated Baker seven and the bullet single barrel program was also announced. And then you also had others like barrel dovetail all the barrel 20:00 releases all Bazell Hayden, Caribbean, right, you had all of the Booker's batches. I mean, when I did account, like we were saying we have options out there. It was like almost like 55 new entrants into the market this year of just limited releases. But there's also a good handful of just every other day stuff. So in my opinion, 2019 was a fantastic year for American whiskey. So there's there's two things two ways to look at this one. Yes, it was a fantastic year. The other way is is that these distilleries are getting savvy about releases Yeah, every every release is a new press release is a new story somewhere it's new and so they're not just like saying like, Okay, we got Woodford Reserve and Maker's Mark, let's go, you know, pushing that so they, they've, they've learned that the consumer base like something new, special and different. And so that's what that list tells me is that some some MBAs and the boardrooms have spotted that and it's the strategies were 21:00 Yeah, I think it also tells us that, you know, they're starting to catch up on their stocks of aging product. They're starting to, you know, you starting to see like, seven, eight year, you know, stuff getting pushed out there that, you know, finally they weren't, you know, eight years ago they didn't have and so I think they're able to catch up on and start releasing some more stuff now. I mean, this was this was just from the big guys, right like this is this doesn't even take account the other 300 craft distilleries or maybe 3000 craft distilleries there are across our nation now. Right. So there's a lot of stuff that was released. And for it, I kind of see what you're saying that this is, this could be a telling sign of what is going to come in 2020 like, yeah, we just named off maybe like 3030 to 40 kind of like, you know, big kind of things that kind of shook up that. It's because it seems like every week that there's a press release, and everybody's like, Oh, yes, I gotta go get this one. Right, right. I mean, even just last week, like pretty much everybody around here. We got 22:00 larceny barrel proof and we got the old Fitz 15 years and it's like, okay, like already gearing up for first to 2020 to go and find new bottles, right? So I guess that's just kind of the maybe that's just a new evolutionary cycle that we're going to see. And I would like to say like what the question to me is like you say that list and we know their strategy, I think what can be very telling us the pricing of each one of those as like. And the one the the big winner of that entire list to me, is the old forester rye coming in at $23. And that's just and we know that Jackie's I can kind of fight for that to be at that price point. And the other ones like you know, where what are their price points, I mean, they're hovering anywhere between 75 and 150. And so you know, a lot of these like new kind of products, they're not really pricing in, you know, the old consumers who brought them to the dance, they're, they're gone for that. That new consumer who's like thinks that $75 is too 23:01 Yeah, I mean, I could definitely see that I mean, I think Ryan and I, we we had this conversation of even before we went in the car when we were just talking about pursuit series and we're talking about like, oh, like what happens if we run out of glass and we just like kill the brand and start a new brand? Like what like what do we do here? Right so there's there's definitely even though it's very smaller scale, we have ideas and things even think about you know, even when that happens, but Ryan, what about you mean is there one of these like everyday ones that kind of like stuck out to you or anything like that is kinda like maybe one of your best whiskies of Yeah, I mean, Fred already mentioned that before sir I mean, it's frickin It's so good. 23:39 I get it in pretty much when I can every cocktail to like it's good both ways. And then the the decal bald and bond I thought was really excellent. You know, and price grade and, you know, the blind tasting of the heaven Hill, bald and bought seven year also proved that it's a very good and you know, at 40 bucks as much to your chagrin 24:00 Right, much to my chagrin, but 24:02 it's really good whiskey and it's $40. You know, like Fred said, most stuff that you got to get that quality is like 7500 bucks. So, you know, that's, you know, it was good. Yeah. And that's, I mean, I guess this will be another question for you all like going into 2020. Can you picture bigger brands trying to come out with more extensions that drive a price point even lower? Or do you think they want to create more extensions that create a higher price point to try and match some of the craft distillers, the Sorcerer's and everybody out there that can't make a price point as low as you can if you're actually distilling it you own these barrels for since they were, you know, basically born at that point? Well, we had to market leaders come out with very lowest price points. Brown Forman, and the Ico so brown Foreman's old Forester, Ryan Diaz, you would be George decal, bottle, the bond and those two kind of like under, you know, let's say $30 or 25:00 $40 price points. 25:03 You know, that was very telling to me, and then you saw beam do that as well, like they're not pricing on collection. Yeah, they're not pricing high. So I do think that there is a little bit of an effort to kind of make us think that they are pricing in that direction, like larceny still like 25 bucks for for the most part most places you go. But then there 25:27 you know there are other things are like 150. So that I think that what you're seeing is, is that you're seeing that they're going to always have something under $30. But they're going to start stacking the chips toward that hundred and $50 market and I think we might start seeing the price go up more because the demand is there in the high affluent areas that places like 25:51 I mean Hollywood, places like Wall Street. So there's like a desire to have this and they and they and that crowd just won't drink it. 26:00 $30 whiskey, they just won't it's timin that's cheap. They're too good for that. And so if if the bourbon industry does not price themselves to be competitive to scotch for those money people, then they won't get them and then so that's kind of like their rationale behind a lot of it. Yeah, I mean, you are seeing a lot of things that are pushing that hundred $50 price point and I can definitely see exactly why they would want to do it too. I mean, you've got to you have to push to kind of get those affluent people I mean, we see it all the time. I mean, we've I always say for myself that I don't have a drinking problem I've got a buying problem and I will always be able to go and if I find any limited edition bottle like even if it's hundred 50 bucks I'll be like, Yeah, go ahead and get it like it. I just don't know i mean, i i have a I have a bad urge. always buy stuff, right? That's, that's just me but at the same exact time, there's always going to be a lot of people out there in the bourbon world that are never going to pass up anything that a price point that is limited or anything like that, too. So I don't know. We'll 27:00 We'll kind of see how that plays out in 2020. So we're kind of moving on a little bit here. So looking into 2020. So one of the things that kind of happened even recently, as even as of today, it's still kind of unfolding, as we talked about that. In 2019. There's been a trade war, we've had tariffs, we've had a lot of things going on that has really hurt bourbon in export interest. And we've talked about it plenty of times of how the export market is really where a lot of growth can be, as soon as you start getting all the scotch drinkers around the world to actually start seeing bourbon as a first class citizen form. And so there's been things have already kind of progressed a little bit today. There's been some stuff with China. We're not going to get too into politics here, but I kind of want to figure out like, 27:45 what do you all see on the roadmap or their horizon for this in 2020? This is very scary as we record this right now. I mean, there might have been, there might have been something that came to fruition, but at the moment in 28:00 In Washington, DC, the craft Modernization Act is on the table to be renewed. And if it is not renewed in craft distillers, I think we'll talk first, what is the craft Modernization Act to because I know I've heard about before I read it, but for everybody, I have no idea what it is. So, basically, this was a so you got a lemonade stand, they give you $5 now, so to keep it to kind of keep it 28:25 to basically to give you like, the the easy version is that a couple years ago, they passed a craft Modernization Act, they basically gave craft distillers as defined by you know, the the government or we AC essays qualifications, 28:42 that they would get less they would pay less taxes, then then the big guys and it gave them kind of a competitive advantage. This was very, very important to them, especially as these terrorists were coming on and they were losing those like foreign markets because they couldn't afford to, you know, to eat the 20 years. 29:00 25% tariff that they were going to go overseas and so there was sunshine clause in that which means that when it's when this period is up, you know, they're going to cut it and or they're going to re evaluate it and that period is up and so now you have craft distillers who are looking who've been you know, taking advantage of this tax and investing it back into their you know, there's like a paying taxes on certain areas and they've been investing it back into their company. And when if that goes away, then they have to you know, there's like a 200 400% tax increase like right away on on like excise taxes and that puts them at a competitive disadvantage. You know, some of these guys have like big corporate support like you know, wouldn't build those now and rabbit hole and people like that, but for the most part, this is very dangerous, very dangerous and and from what I can tell, it is not good. 30:00 Going to may not pass and the other thing is too is that also defined a lot of things in in spirits 30:08 like or in drinks like a define Mead and gave like some definitions to meet and there's also another thing that's happening kind of on the federal level is that they're trying to define what a barrel is and with that would eliminate the basically the smaller barrels and the craft distillers have you know love them or hate them for it but they've kind of defined their ways with those smaller barrels. And so I've always felt like there's a lot of like 30:34 backdoor Washington stuff going on with the big boys you know, the trend kind of cut out is squash some of the little things and because that means you take away those smaller barrels, I mean, he basically eliminate probably a quarter to half of of the craft whiskey distillers 30:51 I guess I kind of like a follow on question to that is, 30:55 you know, you talked about investing into the business, you talked about being able to 31:00 A lot of that money means is dc dc if if this doesn't pass like is 2020 going to be like the year of either sink or swim for a lot of these craft distillers than I do. I mean, I think 2020 is a very telling year. 31:14 And if you don't have money if you're if you're cash flow short, this is this is going to be a bad year. And then the other thing too is like, just what you're starting to see. You're starting to see and you guys are a part of this and a little bit. You're starting to see like independent bottlers come in and they are relieving a little pressure by going to the smaller distillers and buying barrels. So what you're seeing is is like anybody who has some solid craft whiskey, they're actually putting stuff out on the market. So they're getting kind of kind of a band aid effect. They're not helping their brand, but they're getting cash flow by selling 15 barrels to last lantern or 15 barrels to bourbon pursuit to bottle 32:00 Are pursued series to bottle for for upcoming line. And so that that's 111 positive for these guys is that there there's there's a business model there that can help them. But you know if they're new and they're little cash strapped they don't have aged whiskey man I want to be in their shoes tough What about you? Rami? What do you see something that happened with the export market like here? Do you think it's going to get better or worse? 32:33 Well, I mean, I guess it all really it's so hard to predict with the election coming and everything there's so much in the air like 32:40 nobody knows what's going to happen and the dude know we're all going to need a drink. 32:46 Yeah, exact. We're all for that one. It's just so you know, the waters are so unsettled there in Washington, you know, on both sides, and so it's hard to predict anything on with anything with what we have going on. 33:00 In 2020, it's just like, let's all just be nice, you know, in 2020, let's just we're all bourbon brothers, you know, not let the politics divide is but as far as exports, I have no idea because it's, you know, I'm sure a lot of people are sitting back to waiting to see what happens. Yeah, I would think that something in a trade war needs to that sound like an educator responded said a very educated who will let it will let it pass. But I mean, for me, I kind of see this as I would like to see something change. You know, we we talked about it before, I've seen the export market as as the could be the future of bourbon growth. And you don't want another whiskey glut era to say that, you know, a bottle of bullet here in Kentucky or in the United States is $35. And then you go across the seas, and then it's $75 when there's a bottle of scotch for 50. Nobody's going to go Yeah, by the bullet, right. I mean, so well, and I think right now, like Remember, our young said with he said, Well, even though we have issues with exports over there, we can fill a need here and domestically. So you know, I think the need here domestically, still as 34:00 So, so much that it's not really going to affect too many people except for like jack daniels who relies heavily on exports. Yeah, and that is true and they're losing like 120 $5 million. Which, but still for them that's like, that's like one day I revenue probably. But 34:18 it matters. It matters because the world stage the conversation is, is like it kind of goes back to really, you know, the 1950s when these bourbon distilleries were fighting to make bourbon a unique product to the United States and get exports overseas as they were always coming up against the Battle of like foreign governments saying like, you're not whiskey, you're not you're not whiskey. scotch is whiskey. And so so all a lot of this is is a kind of, 34:51 it's kind of an international battle that just hasn't stopped in, you know, scotch and bourbon brands that they're very closely knit and everything but 35:00 You know, scotch is dominant is dominant and it is known as whiskey and bourbon is just like a, like a fraction of what they get. And and, and I don't think that the bourbon brands will ever fully admit this. But they're jealous of scotch and what they have done internationally. It's like Kenny with your MC. Yeah. 35:24 Pretty much 35:27 and they do it with us bourbon barrels. And so they're like, you got our dirty second sloppy seconds. Right? And, 35:35 and so they want they want a piece of that. And as then that's all there is to it, but they're also not in a position to do it. And so like, you know, Al is very smart to say like, we can't do it overseas, which, so let's focus on domestic markets. I mean, that's the it's the right move. I mean, I I'd venture to say places like Boise, Idaho and Bismarck, South Dakota is not right that South Dakota riders and 36:01 South Dakota I left my Atlas upstairs. So I'd venture to say that places like that, you know, you might go into a random place and there's five Bourbons, you know, why not make it 20 36:13 All right, Ryan, I'll talk to you a little softball here right because one of the great conversations that we did have this year we talked about marijuana and whiskey and whether they were going to have an impact on one another or anything like that, but this was actually something that Chris Hart had actually posted out on one of the forums and says, Do you think we will see a marijuana or CBD infused whiskey in 2020 36:36 I mean especially with with all the states that are going to opening up legalization to like it's it's there is a trickle effect happening cbds and everything so I mean, you drive around here and Kentucky I see signs like on every gas station every like I think I saw like a mechanic shops that we sell CBD here or something, you know, it's like 36:55 diversify, diversify. bound. Oh, I guess I mean, if they look if it's legal that you 37:00 I think they will because people, I've talked to people and they'd really seem whether it's a placebo or not, they really think the CBD like works for them and whatever element they're trying to deal with. But uh, you know, I mean char Bay's pretty close to doing it anyway, so I'm not a hobby ever whiskey. And I'm not sure that it will taste good, but maybe, I don't know what to say. Yeah, I mean, for me, I mean, it can't be called bourbon, right? Maybe I don't really know. But can it be called bourbon? If he doesn't if he can't, because it's not really low what unless you're distilling with it right. One of the things that has been done is they take the seeds and they distill it in a in a like, qualifies as a grain under the hemp rather qualifies as a grain as a seed on like some kind of USDA code. And so there have been people who have mashed it and cooked it and fermented it and y'all know me Romans one 38:00 of those that had done that previous previously and then from here's the thing about this, I've talked to a lot of, you know, marijuana people and they don't really want this, it seems to me like, and I'm sure there definitely are people who you know, within the weed business who want to see like infused alcohol. But most of the people that I talked to who are kind of like in the, you know, the luxury lifestyle of marijuana, like trying to like make it be like its own thing, they're like, you know, pair it, but don't, don't combine it they want they would like to see you know, marijuana become like a, like a luxury good as something that you would enjoy recreationally like we do bourbon, and they don't like that a lot of them don't like the idea of combining it with alcohol because that perpetuates like a stoner or a drunken kind of, it's hard to like persona, you know, it interacts with somebody so differently, you know, right. And then you interact you have the two and it's like, well, how do you dose it you know, correctly say, one shot for somebody might like 39:00 I'm trip out and like call the ambulance on themselves or something, whereas somebody else needs like four. And so I don't know, it just seems like it'd be tricky to combine the two were because you can't really dose it out as well. But constellation invested billions into the business for a reason. And they're studying like how how to get it to metabolize the same way as alcohol because, you know, weed metabolizes differently than alcohol, and they're trying to figure out how to make it work. So someone's going to do it eventually. Next Best gummy. 39:31 I mean, so there's, there's, there's eventually it's going to happen. I mean, who knows? Who knows? I mean, I could see it happening. I mean, they're there today, they're already infusing different kinds of sports drinks or anything like that with it. But you know, alcohol is a, as we all know, a very heavy, heavy regulated kind of sector here. So pick up again and get shipping much less and 39:54 using it using it with Oh, gosh, you know, so, you know, this is the other thing 40:00 That I kind of got wind of this. We had a Patreon community person actually sent us a sample of this. And it was called it was from heritage distilling and it's called BSB 103. And it stands for brown sugar bourbon, and it says this high altitude bourbon is flavored with natural brown sugar and cinnamon for flavor kick that will sure wake you up whiskey aficionados looking to try something new. Also, it was only 60 proof and not 80. And this originally just kind of just went through the TTP went through the whole approval process like didn't really say much about it right? Is it is it labeled as like your flavored whiskey or it says it's like the fanciful name is BSB 103. Okay, underneath it and say brown sugar, but it says no, it says like brown sugar, bourbon and like letters and all around. It's what it says everything that it was originally just called brown sugar. bourbon is what originally called they had to rename it to be sb 103. And so we know that this isn't the first time right there's plenty of other instances where we've seen things 41:00 Just a slip through the cracks and yeah there's a bottle and bond like flavored whiskey few years ago. I mean it happens this is what keeps Wade interesting, right? is what keeps him like, you know really like metal. So I guess, do you do you all think that the TTB and just in 2020 in general, do you think it's gonna even get more relaxed or more strict 41:23 with the careers of master distiller spanning almost 50 years, as well as Kentucky bourbon Hall of Famer and having over 100 million people taste his products. Steve nalli is a legend of bourbon who for years made Maker's Mark with expertise and precision. His latest project is with Bardstown bourbon company, a state of the art distillery in the heart of the bourbon capital of the world. They're known for the popular fusion series, however, they're adding something new in 2020 with a release named the prisoner. It starts as a nine year old Tennessee bourbon that has been finished in the prisoner wine companies French oak barrels for 18 months. The good news is, you don't have to wait till next year to try it. Steve and the team at Bardstown 42:00 company have teamed up with rackhouse whiskey club rackhouse whiskey club is a whiskey the Month Club on a mission to uncover the best flavors and stories that craft distilleries across the US have to offer. Their December box features a full size bottle of Bardstown suffusion series, and a 200 milliliter bottle of the prisoner. There's also some cool merchant side. And as always, with this membership, shipping is free. Get your hands on some early release Bardstown bourbon, by signing up at rackhouse whiskey club.com. Use code pursuit for $25 off your first box. 42:34 Do you do you all think that the TTB and just in 2020 in general, do you think it's gonna even get more relaxed or more strict? I mean, I know there's other laws that are on the books but what he kind of sees the head turner patron are going to happen here. I mean, it's with any government agency, its resources like you know that they probably just have limited resources and it's like, you know, with us when we apply for any federal thing for personal 43:00 series like whereas the transfer and bond or state ABC, you like submit it, and you check back three weeks later, like, oh, we're still looking at stuff from six months ago that submit and you're like, what? Like, stuff just moves slow just because they only have like two people working in the office doing everything. So they're probably overworked, overwhelmed. So things just slip there. I think they'll follow the laws as best they can. But there's human error when you know you have that. So there's definitely not a whole lot of automation takes place, even though I will say the TTB did start a new new registering and cola system in 2019. It did happen. So they have a new like portal and stuff like that. But I think the backend work is still very manual process read, do you read to say something? You know, I think for the most part, they do a good job considering that they have like five people, you know, looking at all those labels and God that can't be easy, and everyone gets frustrated with them. And they're an easy target. But 43:53 I always like to go back to the person who creates the label. What are you doing? You know, I mean, you you've been 44:00 agreed to not protect yourself. And if you put that through as as bourbon on your application, then you're in violation of the law. And so, you know, I think we sometimes beat up on the TTP, and rightfully so often. But here it's like 44:19 put, I put the blame entirely on, on on the applicant. Well, and it's, I noticed this other day, you kind of mentioned it like separating, you know, bourbon from whiskey category, like in, I never really thought it was that big a deal until I went to the liquor store. And you go look at the bourbon section, and it's huge. And then the American whiskey center is like really tiny, and it's off to the side. And it's like not, it's not visible, you know, from everything else. And so I can see why someone would work so hard to get that 44:52 slip by just to get that designation because if you're right there, in the midst of what everybody else is buying, versus being kinda off to the side of the marriage. 45:00 Whiskey category I can see where it's worth it. Yeah, I mean, we've we've, we see it all the time. I mean, whether you're coming out with like a wheat whiskey or an American whiskey, something like that, and yet you're not gonna have the eyeballs because it doesn't say bourbon on the label. Yeah, I mean I think that's that's one of the big issues that we do see and probably why there is so much entrance into the market 45:19 then you've got people playing with all kinds of different experimentations I I think I just saw an email this morning about 100% corn, bourbon, I'm like, Okay, I guess it technically is it's bourbon right? But it's just like it's like we're just we're playing with all different variations of this category to try in make sure that everything is still hitting that that Big B word on the label at the end of the day. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's funny what like once upon a time there was like a limit on like, how much corn you could put in for bourbon. But then that went away a long time ago, but that would not have been considered bourbon back in the day. Oh, I love listening old Fred stories over here. It's like another thing too. I don't think he was around. 45:58 This is like, is like 46:00 barrel entry proof if we if we were to go back to like 1955 more than half of the Bourbons on the shelf today would not be considered bourbon. No. Because it was what like one oh wait a second 115 or something was 110 was the was the legal maximum limit difference for for barrel entry proof and that changed in 62 inches Do you think the reason success of new roof and wilderness trail and others you know because well I guess well as they have a higher Berlin troopers, do you think lower barrel entry proof makes 1,000% I really do. I mean, and here's the thing is it is it is really good. In certain what I have noticed is that's really really good between like three and five years old, and like anything after like eight but that but that six to eight years old, it can be really, really, really flat. 46:50 The the higher barrel entry proof can be fantastic up to 12 years old after 12 years old. That clock is ticking because that it's like it seems somehow absorbed. 47:00 more wood. And Andrew Wilson from Victor's is the best person to talk about this. She talks she breaks it down from a chemical aspect and everything and as you know, makers is going in the barrel of 103 proof which is the lowest in the industry. And it to me it's one of it's one of the more enjoyable conversations to have about whiskey because 47:22 I feel I feel that not enough attention is paid to it but yet the Pete there are a lot more people paying attention to it. And willness Trail and new riff and those little barrel entry proofs Absolutely. Making making nice whiskey. Yeah, I mean, they're definitely making waves when you when you have that because somebody tastes it and you're like, holy crap, this is a four year old bourbon like this is actually really good. Now the one thing that you know, you say you really like it, I say one of the one of the downsides to it. It doesn't have and maybe this is just because, you know, you think of like the stags, the stag, juniors of the world, stuff like that. It doesn't have like that, that link 48:00 Green very long finish where something has like that hard spice to it or anything like that. Like this Like creamy delicate today that's that's exactly right. So you're basically looking at a style and a preference here like do you like that butter style dripping down your jaw line or do you want to feel that? You know, that's punch in the face punch in the face 48:20 cinnamon or something in the here's the thing. I like all of them. And it's like how does how does that one feel on my palate and you kind of like it's just like it's like football you know? They're they're running backs who will run you over in our amazing and then there are running backs who will go left to right, you can't tackle them and they spin and then there are running backs, who all they're good for is catching a pass and blog. There's the Barry Sanders and the Jerome Bettis is the That's exactly right. So like that on a T shirt. They're all great. It's just like what is your preference for your offense or for your palate in that moment? Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's there's definitely times when I'm like oh yeah. 49:00 I'd like to do like, like something that's, you know, if I'm just sitting there on the couch and I just want to do something that's like, yeah, like you said, caramella, very buttery, sometimes I'll reach for dusty and that kind of aspect. And then there's sometimes I'm like, All right, we're going hundred and 20 proof and above right now. So yeah, there's definitely the kind of situational context for it to write on. So one of the things that we talked about a lot in 2019, is we talked about the three tier system, we talked about shipping, we've talked about all these things. And this is and you know, the the Supreme Court case of the state of Tennessee with total wine and some other ones that were kind of envelope in there, and how this is potentially going to open up the market for some change. Here, maybe in 2020. So I kind of want to get your take on what is there going to be a shake up in the three tier system, can you foresee it happening? Are there too many lobbyists? Will the will the people revolt like what do you all kind of see, I think it's always way I would that, you know, you asked me this six months ago 50:00 I thought we were close. And I just feel as the more I get into it, the more and more the big. The big players involved are just digging in, and they're digging in hard and they're not going to let this happen. I just, I just feel like we got a ways to go on it. I always go back to this and this was in one of my above the chars A while back 46 state attorneys general signed a letter and made it like kind of like their mission for 2020 this DOP secondary sales on Craigslist, 50:35 I just can't even believe that would be on the radar. And you know, and then putting the efforts in the that just shows me that they're like sticking in hard to the three system. It's not. I mean, it's not like they just like put out a press release. I mean, they were doing media, they were putting out detailed plans. They were setting up meetings with the social media entities. And I'm just thinking to myself, I'm scared to death of my 51:00 five year old getting kidnapped in target when my wife is going and Christmas shopping with him. And he's like stuck there by like trying to get in there because that's where human traffickers are there like in places like that. Why are we focusing on that? And yes, is it is there a potential that you know, there can be some kind of like poisoned alcohol out there? Yeah, there is. It's called in the heels of like Appalachian places where people are making illegal whiskey. No one is getting or illegal moonshine. No one is getting that in these like consumer facing forums, and the fact that they are using, they're actually coming out and they're citing Pappy Van Winkle right now. They're citing Pappy Van Winkle in these conversations. And the fact that they are doing that tells me that they don't get it. They don't understand that this is actually a consumer base that is really just supporting one another and not trying to, you know, for the most part not making money 52:00 People who are like saying they're in Maine or they're in Idaho and and they got a buddy in Kentucky and said, Hey, we have no Henry McKenna here. 52:10 Can you give me a bottle, you know, something like that. And there's no effort whatsoever to support the consumer base from the brands from the government from the distributors or anything like that. And that's that's my biggest problem here is like if you want to take off if you want to go after the secondary markets, fine. Okay, that's your that's your Hill. But what about what about like consumers who are really have fallen in love with this? 52:38 With this world, this bourbon world, we get an email every day from someone who just finds bourbon, they listen to the podcast, they want to learn more, they want to find more bottles, and what can we do for them now? And maybe there's not much there's not a whole lot we can do about that. Like, Hey, I read about this great whiskey but you can never get it because you live in Boise, Idaho. I know. Yeah. I mean, I really 53:00 I really want to shake up to happen. And I guess one question I'll point to you back there. Fred is, you know, we talked about these attorney generals, do you think that this is, this is somebody planting that that seed in their head like this has got to be a lobbyist that's happening for the distribution system? Or maybe some of the major manufacturers out there that they're they're planting the seed in their head, and they're kind of distracting them from really what they're, they're putting forth their agenda, not maybe the agenda of, of the people that are actually the consumers, they really care about this. Yeah. And there was also there was an op ed in the local courier journal 53:41 that was published on repeal day from a distributor here that said, 53:47 happy reptil they think a distributor So you started to see like, some like and he had a whole lot better about why distributors are important and they help you. Basically they age gate, make sure alcohol doesn't get in the hands. 54:00 of kids and stuff. And I'm glad they put it in a newspaper. Yeah. 54:06 So only like 10 people are going to read it. Fantastic. Hey, now, come on now, don't be hitting up newspapers where I got my start. 54:15 But you know, so you're seeing you very much singing offensive, whether it's a coordinated thing. I mean, I can't tell you that. But I do know that. These are some of the same efforts. That kind of took down a lot of the tobacco industry in the 90s. Meanwhile, while you have this going on, you also have you have this entirely you have a new group coming out saying like, drinking is bad. Advertising alcohol is bad. And so you have a growing movement of kind of like these consumer protectionist groups that are trying to ban things like advertising, they want to you know, we're just now seeing it on like YouTube, they're wanting to like rip down a lot of 54:56 alcohol related things and social media. 55:00 And so this is also a case of like, a lot of the things that affect our lives are not government related. They're they're company related that we have really, you know, we're really connected in. And so like, if Facebook makes a policy and says no more alcohol sites that in no way is violation of anything and the government, that's Facebook making a decision, and they could do it. So I guess, if you if you're a senator, and you listen, this podcast or your congressman, you want us to kind of you know, we'll we'll have we'll have the team go there. And we'll we'll get in front of Congress will talk about the real issues here. So make sure that so here's here's the thing is that congressman Yarmuth would be very, very open to having a discussion with us. Mayor Fischer, I know his yard I'll talk to him about 55:53 but I mean, these are these are people who really, really would stand up for it, you know, and what you know 56:00 Because it impacts our state. Yep. I agree. You know, and for me, I've said it before being in tech, being able to see the transition of industries that just get disrupted because they rest on their laurels or they tried to defend everything. You know, don't be a Kodak Don't be a blockbuster Don't be one of these companies that just tries to try to maintain the status quo. And when you've got people and you've got companies that are out there that are figuring out ways that they can get around this, they can get around the distribution system, they can ship across states, they can do these things. all it's going to do is have a bigger trickle effect later on, and more people are going to catch on to it. I mean, you know, we're all good friends with Blake over at seal box and I think he's done an amazing job of how he has grown and matured the business a lot more in 2019 to the point where it's, it's running like a very well oiled machine now. And we talked to a lot of companies 57:00 And they're like, how do you do it? Like, what do you do? I'm like, oh, like we knew this, like early on, like we weren't able to get to all 50 states. So we looked at Blake and he can get to more states than we could ever even try to do it the, you know, filing paperwork and waiting for things to come through and opening distribution and then losing our ass on half the product because we had to pay 25% to somebody else, right? And so now people are like, Oh, well, that's how you did it. So now like we're giving Blake a lot more business because a lot of people also Now see, this is how they can do it. Right. And I think some of the even the people that are already there and distributed and now he can't actually do it. Because the way that the way the law technically works is that he necessarily can't buy direct from somebody and sell it unless it's already if it's not already distributed with inside of DC. And so you know, you've got other brands that said like, Oh, shit, we were there too early, and now we kind of like lost our percentage that we could have got out of this business model as well. Yeah, it's just you know, it's it's tough because it is alcohol and yes 58:00 We want to say let's open up shipping, let's do a secondary, but there is a lot of things that need to be well thought out and laps and limited. And so like, 58:08 we just need, we just need some way for, like, let's work towards it versus like holding our ground either one way or the other. Like, let's like right, say that shipping, we have to do it all that way, or we have to know it. There's got to be a middle ground that we can make it work. And one of the reasons why you may never see a middle ground is because you have like these large distribution companies, and that would require them working together in some ways, you know, and that 58:36 they may not want that get on a zoom call figure it out. But here's the here's the the truth of the matter is that eventually, someone brings up the will How can you guarantee that a 16 year old kid is not going to get the bottle off of the doorstep or whatever. And they're in it doesn't matter. Like you can have people sign for it. You can have anything. The minute that 59:00 shipped alcohol or something outside of the three tier system gets into a child's hands. And something happens. It's over. I know, you're telling me like you never had a fake ID growing up. That's just it is like, I will not confirm nor. 59:17 But I'm just saying that that is they're all as always the go to argument, always. And they're like, you know, we protect that. And here's the thing is that they do to a small percentage, but let's go to you can go to any college bar, any college bar and you will find like under age people getting served almost all the time. And any high schooler whose cousin, you know, goes and buys them. So those and they made in the parking lot and so here's a way tech guy, let's get a thumbprint on every bottle of alcohol that you have to guarantee that you're an adult or something like that. Yeah, one open 59:56 or it explodes your hand. Yeah, not not that's gonna be a tough one. 1:00:00 Neil and the other thing that we kind of also, as we're talking on the shipping topic, as well, as you know, even Kentucky and the KDA, they fought to get shipping at a lot of the distilleries that are around here where people can go and they can have their stuff they want to be able to ship out but they don't want stuff coming in. That's nominates the as a kind of oxymoron. But I also don't know exactly like, what the the stats of the details of it like how much is it actually us? considering we can only ship to like, six states or something, right? I mean, it's been ridiculously low. Yeah, there, there's only 6% Okay, so it's like, I know, a couple disorders don't even do it because they're like, I'm not gonna waste my time on six states, you know, or have a shipping package send, right? Exactly, have set up all those resources to be able to just fulfill six, you know, states, but I know it's just surprising. Like, I'm kind of confused. Like, on one side, we're embracing, you know, the vintage law and all this stuff, you know, and then on the other side, where, you know, control 1:00:59 limits you 1:01:00 Being in secondary so it's all just like it's it's it's hypocritical Yeah, all of these laws basically they start out in one place someone opposes it and then it gets compromised and something gives up and so that that law where they could be shipped in it seems like all the laws are just geared it's more favorable for the businesses and other consumers like I'm all for like distillers being able to serve more alcohol ship sell more bottles on property, all that. Okay, that's great for them. But what about consumers, you know, who wants to buy across? 1:01:33 There's not a I mean, there's not a you know, if there was it'd be small but there's not a bourbon advocacy out there. us maybe right. And, but we're not I don't I'm not signing checks or sending checks that you know, to gain whatever pass but there's, there's so many there's so many lobby groups in the distilling business, you know, and there's that there's the a DI there's a CSA, there's distilled spirits Council. There's a 1:02:00 presidents forum this Kentucky distillers Association, there's Texas whiskey association with, on and on and on, and on and on. And they all tell their story and get what they want, try to get what they want. And, 1:02:12 you know, it's not necessarily always what the consumer wants. Yep, absolutely. So as we start rounding this out, you know, there's, there's one thing that I want us to do is like, what is your big prediction for 2020? Right? And I know, and I'll go first, and I'll kind of kind of set the ground and you can kind of pick what you want. And it could be it coul
It has been a memorable year for Louisville and Mayor Greg Fischer. Last November, Fischer was elected to his third and final term in office and major projects, like a track and field complex and a new YMCA, are finally underway. Fischer has used his office to take up issues like gun control, but state and federal laws could hamper city efforts. Then, there's also the city's budget challenges as it grapples with a state pension crisis. We talk to Fischer and ask what other challenges are ahead as part of WFPL's In Conversation.
If you’re a bourbon die hard, you’ve probably asked yourself this question, “Do bourbon brands care about me?”. You know what I’m talking about because you join in on the conversation when distilleries increase prices or you get angry because your barrel picking group has been snubbed out for allocation reasons. The Bourbon Pursuit team takes a hard look at many of the larger whiskey producers by looking at some of their past actions. But if you’re the whiskey producer, what would you do in the same situation? Show Partners: Hotel Distil on historic Whiskey Row is set to open October 29th in Downtown Louisville. Book now to experience it for yourself at HotelDistil.com. The University of Louisville now has an online Distilled Spirits Business Certificate that focuses on the business side of the spirits industry. Learn more at uofl.me/pursuespirits. Barrell Craft Spirits enjoys finding and identifying barrels that contain distinctive traits and characteristics. They then bottle them at cask strength to retain their authentic qualities for the whiskey enthusiast. Learn more at BarrellBourbon.com. Receive $25 off your first order at RackHouse Whiskey Club with code "Pursuit". Visit RackhouseWhiskeyClub.com. Distillery 291 is an award winning, small batch whiskey distillery located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Learn more at Distillery291.com. Show Notes: Wilderness Trail Expansion: https://amnews.com/2019/10/03/wilderness-trail-distillery-expanding-planning-huge-announcement/ Toddy’s: https://www.liquor.com/articles/best-bourbon-store-toddys-liquors/#gs.7u244v Glenlivet Scotch Pods: https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/05/world/glenlivet-scotch-whisky-capsule-glassless-trnd/index.html Scotch Tariffs: https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/03/business/us-tariffs-whisky-wine/index.html This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about line etiquette. What are your thoughts on the Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond relaunch? What do you think Heaven Hill did wrong in that situation? Are we moving away from a $15 price point? What about the Booker's price increase? Let's discuss Maker's attempt to lower the proof. What about Sazerac's strategy? What about Brown-Forman? What's happening with the allocation of barrel picks? Are people or groups getting cut off? 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 ACS be 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 0:35 pursue spirits All right, 0:37 let me see if I can't get everybody to just like Quiet on the set here. 0:41 All right, Quiet on the set. 0:56 Hey everybody, what is going on? It is Episode 220. of bourbon pursuit. I'm one of your host Kenny, and we've got a ton of news to run through. Let's not wait let's dive into it. Eagle rare bourbon is announcing the 10th annual Eagle rare life award. Now Eagle rare has partnered with garden and gun to seek nominations for the 10th annual Eagle rare life award. The award celebrates those who lead a rare life as defined by showing courage, leadership survival, devotion, character and heroism. Past recipients have included Brian Anderson representing USA cares in Jake Clark of save a warrior to nominate a remarkable individual for the annual Eagle where life award submit an application by November 3 2019. The finalists and their stories will be featured on garden and gun calm from November 15 to December 6, and they allows you to go and cast your votes. The winner of this award will be announced in early 2020. We talk all the time about how big players in the industry are always expanding but now we get to see one sort of on the mid size wilderness trail. Now you've heard from Pat heist and Shane Baker back on episodes 121 at 130. They are playing to add three new additional buildings to their site, including a 13,000 square foot addition. This is going to be an expansion of their bottling and administration buildings plus two new brick houses each totaling around 16,624 square feet. They will store 20,520 barrels each and they will be next in line for construction. The distilleries bottling operation is undergoing a $1.5 million dollar expansion right now with a new automated bottling line and warehouse space as they are going to be adding also more headcount in operations and administration. The distillery is currently wrapping up around a $6 million in capital projects for 2019 and as $8 million in projects underway for 2020. But now that you're doing close to 215 barrels of whiskey per day, you can read more about this in our show notes with the link to AM news.com. Back on episode 152. We featured Guthrie McKay of Tommy's liquors. Now this topic is polarizing to some folks. Today Guthrie charges more than secondary prices for his advocated bourbon and with this small shop that has a lot of listeners and shoppers going through, it puts them in a mixed and almost kind of gets you're frustrated and mad. But Guthrie has seen the highs and lows and he was a kind of a key and secret ingredient to helping the whiskey boom. And you can hear some of those stories that we were counted back on that episode 152 but you know Guthrie was also this week featured in a liquor.com article titled The best bourbon store on earth. And that might be a little bit of clickbait, but we've provided a few quotes to give context the story, and you can read that article with the link in our show notes as well. Jim beam's knob Creek is announcing a new limited edition bottling called quarter oak. The new release finishes knob Creek bourbon and quarter oak casks for four years. Now quarter casts are as the name suggests, one quarter the size of traditional 53 gallon barrels. And as we've seen this before, this means that there's an increase in the surface area with the charred oak relative the volume of whiskey inside. You can call it accelerated aging but it could just mean different types of taste profiles that are coming out of it. But when this finished product is going to be dumped from the Quarter Cask. It is then blended with knob Creek and bottled at 100 proof to create the knob Creek quarter oak, this is going to have a suggested retail price of $50. And with more release news heaven Hill is announcing that they are doing their first line extension of larceny, Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey larceny barrel proof released on an allocated basis three times per year. The first release of this weekend bourbon will ship in January of 2020. larceny barrel proof offers whiskey fans the opportunity to taste larceny just as heaven hills master distiller does Connor straight from the barrel. Each release will have varying proofs and consists of barrels aged of six to eight years old with releases in January may in September. This is also going to have the same naming convention that we've seen with Elijah Craig barrel proof. So the first release will be a 120 a representing the first batch of the year one representing the month with this January and 20 representing the year 2020. Each release will be bottled at barrel proof non chill filtered and available at a suggested retail price of 4999. we first saw it with black and which is metallic is new whiskey, followed by collaboration Slipknot with an Iowa whiskey company and now few spirits and Warner Music artists services are announcing a new release called all secrets know which is a new limited edition bourbon distilled by few spirits master distiller Paul help go in collaboration with Grammy nominated and multi Platinum selling Seattle grunge pioneers. Allison chains now whose music has also stood the test of time and pollutes a generation as well as a lot of whiskey lovers out there two bottles will feature a custom design label by artists Justin Helton. For this release few bourbon is finished for six months in tequila barrels bottled at 101 proof and will have an MSRP or suggested retail price of $75. This game this is how bourbon pursuit we hardly ever really talked about scotch, but the Glenlivet has the internet up in arms because they have released something that was new. It was a video and the Internet has coined it scotch pots. They are clear seaweed wraps that are completely edible and have a cocktail in a clear capsule, Glenlivet partnered with a sustainable startup on this new idea, and it has everyone talking about it. Some folks thought it was April Fool's in October, but we'll see who has the last laugh on this one. If they catch on, they will be served during London celebration of college tail innovation through October 13. And you can read about that with more in our show notes. We've talked about terrorists on the podcast before and terrorists, the retaliation are coming back harder and harder. The US is now going to be imposing a 25% tariff on scotch whiskey being imported into the US. This is going to increase the price of scotch for Americans. The US is the largest market with over $1 billion of scotch whiskey being exported in 2018. Well, perhaps this might get more people drinking bourbon in the end, but who knows what the outfall of this could be. You can read more about it with the link in our show notes as well. Now speaking of what things that we have going on, our community took one for the team and selected a barrel at Traverse City which ended up being a seven year in GP, or incredibly fortunate that we get to bring these experiences to our Patreon community and happy that all these whiskey geeks get to be a part of them. We have a new barrel pic to announce which is in addition to our last one week that we announced which is our Eagle wearable are also adding in to 2019 k jack daniels barrel proof that will be taking place in December. This is going to bring our 2019 tally to 19 barrels selected. And we've already got our first barrel lineup for 2020 as well. Thanks once again to our retail partner, keg and bottle out of the San Diego area for making this all happen. You can go check out their website and get whiskey shipped straight to your door at keg the letter in bottle.com. today's podcast it's one for the diehards, you know who you are because you join in the conversation when distilleries are increasing their prices are you get angry because your barrel picking group got snubbed because of allocation reasons. Now the trio of bourbon pursuit we're here to talk about some of the actions that we've seen over the past year and contemplate. Do bourbon companies actually care about their consumers? Or is this just a part of a bigger game that we all have to play? We mentioned it towards the end of the show. But if 9:00 You're a producer and you're listening to us. Just know that we love you. And we do our best to play devil's advocate. But there's some things that we saw that we really feel like we should take the bourbon communities view and kind of really talk about it put out there in the open and see what happens. So hope you're going to enjoy this one. Alright, so let's get down to it. Here's Joe from barrell bourbon. And then you've got Fred Minnick. What's up the char? It's Joe from barrell bourbon. We enjoy finding and identifying barrels that contain distinctive traits and characteristics. We then bottle them a cash rank to retain their authentic qualities for the whiskey enthusiast. Keep up to date with our newsletter at barrell bourbon.com. 9:37 I'm Fred Minnick. And this is above the char, I reached out to my followers on Twitter for this idea, and bourbon West came up with a good one. He wanted to know how we could improve the etiquette of standing in lines for bourbon. And he's speaking in particular of the etiquette towards the distillery, the store owner, the proprietary, he's saying that he sees some disgusting behavior out there when it comes to standing in line for these were bottles. So thanks, bourbon west for this idea. And here's the thing, if we want bourbon so badly, that we're willing to camp out overnight stand in a long line, I bring my kids to these things. So I have to it's it's the only way I can get there because my wife will be out of town or she'll be running. And the only way I can go to a lot of these events is if I bring my kids and so right then and there. I'm kind of like an odd man out people look at me funny because I've got my kids. And I'm standing in line for bourbon. So they're like, there's there's your dad of the year. But you do see people like get very angry toward the store owner, if they are the last in line and they don't get a bottle. Or they're at the front and they can't get what they want. Or they see a bottle in the store and the store owner wants sell it to them. I've seen people yell, I've seen people throw tantrums. And then you see people on social media afterwards, just absolutely tearing apart a business for them not selling him a bottle. And is that right? Well, you know, it's free speech. And people have the they can do whatever they want. But when you're inside someone's property, and you are there as a customer, there are some things that you should do first, you should never really raise your voice to the store owner. That could be you know, considered threatening, and, you know, if somebody wanted to, they could kick you out, and you should be just a good decent human being. You got to remember this whole bourbon thing. It's, it's just a hobby. It isn't something it's not life and death. We're not curing cancer. We're trying to get a nice bottle of bourbon. So treat people with respect. And so there are three rules that I recommend that everyone carry when it goes into the stores. dress nice it This may sound very weird, but people do not act like assholes when they dress nice. Now what is nice now you know I wear an ascot I'm not saying you have to do that, for God's sake. I'm the only person left on the planet still wearing the damn things. But you know, maybe like a like a polo shirt and khakis and a pair of nice shoes. And you'll find that you don't want to be a dickhead when your dress pretty nicely. Number to say thank you. Even if you do not get the bottle you want the store manager, the store clerk anybody you interact with the distillery whoever, just say thanks. And number three, the people who you're around with start talking to them. Where are they from? Some of the best friends I've made in bourbon have been from standing in line at these places. You really do meet some cool people. They'll be from all over the state or country and sometimes even out of the country because it's their only opportunity to get a rare bottle. So just practice those three things. And it seems like little but hopefully it will diffuse someone else from being a dickhead when they're shopping bourbon. And that's this week's above the char. Hey, if you have an idea like bourbon West did hit me up on Twitter or Instagram at Fred Minnick. That's at Fred Minnick. Until next week. Cheers. 13:15 welcome back to this episode of bourbon pursuit the official podcast of bourbon, the whole trio here today. Wow, hoping we don't burn some bridges. Right? I mean, we're going to be bringing the heat putting some people under some fire. But also, I think speaking for the broader bourbon community that's out there, because we're going to be talking and the subject is, you know, do distilleries actually care about their customers? And this is we thought about this idea. Because, gosh, what was it probably six months ago, we had this this concept of like, everything The news was changing. There's people that are taking off products, there's allocations of barrels that are just getting axed across the board from Yeah, as Fred always said, people that took you to the dance. So today, we're going to, 13:57 you know, barrel programs not kind of going he usually just made it him. 14:02 And so that's exactly what today we're really gonna be focusing on is, is looking at and hopefully, you know, I think we're going to take some, put some fire, put some heat and do some people, we all got to play a little devils advocate, right? Kind of will, one of us one of us will kind of take the role of, well, if the distillers that if I'm the distiller here, like, what's my response? Male? Fuck 14:21 it, let's just, whatever, whatever I mean, it this is this is a conversation that we need to have. Yeah, they need to know, we need to have this conversation because they're, you know, I feel like sometimes distilleries live in a bubble. They live in a bubble of their bottom line, and, you know, help benefiting their shareholders. And the informations out there. It's not like they can't go to a social media forum and find the data find, find people conveying their feelings about what consumers want and what they need. You know, their two years ago, they'd spent $150,000, to get the kind of feedback that is free now. Yeah, on social media. And what I have found consistently, is that they continue to ignore a lot of what people want, or what at least what they're saying they want on social media. 15:20 Absolutely. Well, they got short memories. They forget that like, just 10 or 15 years ago, nobody gave a shit about them. 15:27 So before we also kick it off and dive even further, you know, if you're watching on video, you might be hearing some background noise and people shuffling through because we are recording an episode of this podcast from the barrel room at Hotel distil, which is going to be on historic whiskey row here in Louisville, and it's set to open on November 1. And hotel distill is a place that is exciting. It's got a rich history that's happening here. It's now being transformed into this great space. It's designed to really, you know, what they say is ignite your passion for discovery and we'll do this 16:00 Social anchor for Louisville's revitalization and refinement of bourbon culture and you can book your experience now and stay at this authentic little destination at Hotel distil com. Yeah, I think this JTS Browns office they said at one point there Yeah, this is the actual building his office I had no idea Fred you got any insight into Yeah, this is this is the this is one of the I actually have an old photo of of like the 16:28 an old photo of like the outside and said JTS Brown, it was actually out there. 16:31 Yeah. facade. 16:33 Yeah. And, you know, a lot of cool things happened in here. 16:37 It just amazes like 1015 years ago, all this was like a dump. And yeah, I mean, it was it was like a Renaissance. I mean, 16:43 it was I saw what whiskey row was. I mean, I remember one of our first podcast we did was actually saving whiskey row and what it was, and all the effort that went in for historical and preservation societies of what it went to actually save a lot of the buildings and the facades that you do see out here, 16:57 guys, I want you to think about this. You know, in the 1800s, early 1900s, there were fellows walking around and their suits, go into meetings, and they were brokering deals about bulk whiskey. And they were talking about, like, you know, exporting it to Japan or Germany or wherever. I mean, this is where all the action happened. for American whiskey, where it's like, we're right here at the wall street of whiskey. I really don't like using that term, but it is it really is. And it just kind of went away. And level. You know, I and I give a lot of this credit to our mayor, Mayor Fischer. Greg Fischer. I really don't think, you know, any of this Renaissance happens without, you know, kind of like his, his vision to like, improve, improve this part of our culture. 17:46 Well, and I know and it might be a slider, Ryan, you know, he always has this famous line that you know Bardstown as the capital of bourbon, but it still is global is the epicenter of bourbon. Well, maybe now. 17:58 10 years ago, not so much. Nobody cared about down there, down here. They saw how cool it was in barge towns, they're like, Oh, we gotta do we gotta go do it now. 18:05 Absolutely. 18:06 So I'll play a Bardstown can put up some hotels like this, I think 18:10 they missing it. They need this, put a distill and bars down the awesome. Here we go. 18:15 So let's go ahead. And let's dive back into the subjects here. And let's go ahead and we'll take we'll take an easy one, right. I mean, this is one that is a recent news because as people in ourselves live in little boy live in Kentucky, we had access to the white label have six year Heaven and Hell bottle and bond. And it was a, you know, it kind of made. It was pretty big news, right? I mean, when they said they were gonna take it off the market. However, there was no announcement to say that there was going to be a relaunch, there's no anything like that. It was just something that I think it usually kind of started through the grapevine where the distributors found out about it distributors told the retailers, the retailers then told the consumers and then from there, everything went kind of Bismarck, and people just started clearing the shelves left and right. And Kentucky is actually finding this, this white label. And fast forward two to three months afterwards, then a press release comes out that says they're gonna be relaunching with an additional year, and, you know, three x the actual price of what it was before, before you can get it around, what 1215 bucks. And then it was coming back with an SRP of $40. But not only this is also be going out a little bit further outside of Kentucky hitting I think, what 678 states something like that during its first launch. So let's kind of talk about that. What do you think heaven hell did wrong in this situation? 19:41 Well, they, we kind of talked about this on the round table, but you know, that they think we're like stupid or something like they just totally like think, as consumers, like, we'll put out this press release. And just believe what we say. And it happened with the logic, Craig 12. You know, for years, we were like, we're like, oh, we're gonna move the 12 from the front to the back. And you're like, is it going away, no, never, never gone away. And then it goes from the back. It's not no longer and a number, they write the letter 12 or the word 12 on the back. And then after that, and it's like, you think we're stupid, then they do the same thing with heaven Hill, like six year they'd say, Oh, it's going away and never coming back. And then, you know, home to hold. Three months later, get a press release. And so it's like, I get what they're doing, they're going to try to make it a more premium product to the mainstream audience. But like 10 to 15 years ago, nobody cared about you. 20:40 I mean, let's let's also, I'll take their side, little bit here, you know, not even told that that was really happening. Not a ton of people really cared about the white label. I mean, it was always available. It's always there. It was something that was kind of our whiskey geek. Like it was like the thing you knew about like, you're like, that's the bottle that you go, that's 99 or 1099, that you could always count on as a 21:04 great poor at a great value. And like you said, it was kind of you had to be in the know to know about it. 21:10 To answer your question, Kenny, I think the one thing that the mistake they made was transparency. And I I'm very, very close with with heaven Hill, I think their whiskies fantastic. Some of the best I mean, I they do a great job. But I think in this growth of American whiskey, there has been a, there still has been a little bit of this kind of like old school protectionism, of holding on to their ideas and what they're going to be doing, you know, to kind of protect it from, you know, their competitors finding out. Well, really what has happened is that consumers, we feel like we have a right to know, of like, what's happening, 22:00 But what are they hiding? Like? It's whiskey. Like they act like they got like 22:06 you would if they said, We are pulling heaven hills, six year old off the market, to rebrand it, and bring it back as a seven year old bottle and bond at an additional price to more consumers? Would you be? See that's just I think most people would be fine with that. And the last thing I would have been fine with, hey, we really want this to stay available on shelves, we don't want to be like, well, they're 12. So that's why we're going to drop the age statement, kind of do a blend of eight to 12 which, by the way, they 12. So I mean, I was to use Preston van winkles term, I was bought hurt for probably about two years. 22:45 You still don't let it go. 22:47 But it was Elijah Craig 12 years is like so 22:50 tricky. Just like, like we're in it, but the age statement, you know, write it on the back and like had it and then eventually just phase it out and then change it. 22:58 I also so so that that's to me is the only thing the business decision to do it. I don't have a problem with and I don't think it's them not caring about their consumers? I think it's I think it's simply a I think they make a decision and they try to think about the best way to release it. And they're not thinking about necessarily the backlash and the whiskey geek state, we are still very much a very small portion. We are the one percenters 23:23 right, that's that's the one one thing I think, if I keep taking the distillery side of this, and I keep thinking, well, if I'm heaven Hill, I, my goal is to look at the broader market, right? My goal is to focus on that. And when I even put out these press releases, who cares? Except, you know, the 10,000 people that are like really hardcore into this, right. And 23:47 I'm still just flabbergasted by like, they think they have this secret stuff. Do you think like Buffalo Trace gives a shit that they're taking heaven Hill six off year and bringing it and relaunching it like, what do they? What do they think they're hiding? Like, I didn't mean from a competitive stamp, right? Like, yeah, I mean, this, whiskey takes years to develop to what it becomes. And so like, when you announce something, you've thought about it for a very long time, like, somebody just can't replicate it, like a month later, you know, 24:14 let's remember to 14 years ago, when there was like, there were like, two or three of us out there, kind of writing about this sort of thing. Now, I mean, you have a sea of social media, people, you know, finding a bottle, you know, analyzing every single thing, and it's very knowledgeable base. And so we can, you know, people can find out things really quickly. And also heaven hills got a you know, they have a few people in their organization that, you know, will get on social media and or under anonymous handles and say things. So there's that some moles they have, 24:52 they have some leaders. And so does that mean, they all do? 24:55 Nailed it? So I'll take the other side of this. And we had Larry cast on the show, right? You know, before he retired, and Larry is still being even in his retirement. He's actually been very outspoken on this even on social media and Hall 25:07 of Famer, by the way, yes, yes. 25:08 Recent inductee to it. Yeah. And, you know, he goes against the saying is insane. Like, the brand has been undervalued for far too long. True. And it's and it's very true. I think, I think bourbon in itself has been undervalued for this is very true. I agree with all that. But I guess, you know, when we look at it from another standpoint of, you know, if we're going to, is there a market to keep bringing $15 bottles of whiskey or where are we past that because it had been that way for so long is it do we just need to move on. And 25:37 so I've done some research and the studies show that when you raise prices, you actually get more customers. And I've witnessed many people go into liquor stores and my various, you know, book signings and stuff and you know, they're new to bourbon, they don't know anything about it. And the the store rap will try to get someone to buy four roses yellow label, and they'll look at the price. And they say, No, it's too cheap. I want that one. And they'll point to like Jefferson's reserve. And I'm picking I'm picking four roses yellow label every day of the week, over Jefferson's reserve. We still love Trey about Yeah, still. Yes, but but that from a value perspective, you know, I'm saying it's like, that's like, it's, you know, I'm saving pennies, or I'm saving, you know, 1015 bucks. Absolutely. But the the everyday consumer looks at this as a luxury good. And $15 isn't luxury. And that's that's kind of where they're, that's where these these distillers you're coming from? 26:38 Yeah, and understand that from like, if you're buying a gift or wanting to try something special, but if you're wanting like, quality everyday drinkers, you know that you gotta have an affordable option like 30 $30 for heaven Hill balled and bond, I think, or whatever, it's gonna be $40. I think it's overpriced for what it is. I'm, it's me, it's good. But I can drink some great, didn't you? 27:04 Me it was that great. He kept he kept 27:05 himself from 27:08 Above Average? 27:11 Well, I mean, from an everyday drinker to like, Am I going to go buy it at 40. Whereas if I would have it, you know, constantly on my bar, but they don't care about me, they care about the mass audience. And so, 27:22 all right, so here's the here's the sad, hard truth of it. The only line against this is the bartender, the bartender, has to have it at a surf a certain price in order for them to make money. And you can't make a $40 cocktail, right? You gotta it's got to be 10 to 15. So that's why that's why like in scotch, you know, they have like monkey shoulder and Glenlivet, 12 year old, you know, it's very affordable, you know, well, scotches, and the bartender community will always make sure that we have a 15 to $25 bird, because they have to make money on it. And you know, Larry rice is not going to be making cocktails with you know, $55 bourbon. 28:09 Absolutely. So I guess that's the kind of like, makes me think of another question. Like, if one of the main strategies behind bullet and how bullet became so big was because they were able to get behind the bar. Yeah. So in bullet is not a 15 $20 bottle, right. I mean, last time I checked, it's still in the 35 to $50 category. I don't 28:29 know I actually I've seen it for I saw like $18 Cosmo, is it? 28:33 Yeah, well, nevermind. Yeah. bullets in the sub $25 range, we found out what Kenny doesn't buy. 28:41 Just don't pay that much attention, apparently. 28:45 So I think we beat up on heaven Hill a little bit. So I think, 28:48 well not beat up on them. It's just they know, the criticism. And they, they they see it. And it's also stuff that I wouldn't tell them to their face. You know, like, I guess we'll do it on the podcast. back. No one's gonna hear the end day always push back of like, we are. We're a business and we're trying to make money. What I really the thing about it is I also feel bad for heaven Hill, because they get they do get a lot of blowback, and poor Bernie lovers. That guy's doing his job. 29:21 Yeah, but they do it themselves. They do it 29:22 themselves. But Bernie's like, sometimes just kind of left on an island. He's got to be the punching bag, you know? And it's like, I hope they're paying him well, and if not, they need to give him a raise, because that he takes a lot of a 29:34 lot of abuse. And it feels he gotta have a little bit of empathy for him too, because he ends up being like the spokesperson for the brand. I mean, yeah, right. Ryan, do you remember when we interviewed him? We had a two part interview. And we actually asked him, we asked him about Elijah Craig, and the 12 year age statement. And he looked, I mean, he came and he said, and he has no, it's not going away. You know, we're just moved to the back and little blah. And then, like, two months later, 29:57 again, whoops. Yeah, you know, we had to do this because make it available. And it's like, well, two minutes later, it was available and what changed it to 30:05 remember to like, automation, he had, oh, it's not his fault. It's and that's the and that's also the information that the someone gave him had, you know, so, you know, the decision was made that I have no doubt that, you know, they're looking at stocks and they're looking at where the future is and everything, and they make they make decisions in a moment and, and then everyone else is is forced to, like kind of 30:31 catch up to it. I guess. I just don't understand. I understand. Yes, Bourbons undervalued. I totally agree with that. But that's what your logic Craig's your inner McKenna's your Evan Williams single barrels your William heaven hills that's what they're those are brands are for heaven Hill has been a everyday affordable drinker. I don't understand why pivot takeaway from those brands to position this one when it's been like a bomb on the shelf all for all i also 30:58 think so you're thinking one particular thing get to realize when you go to Heaven Heaven hell we've all been in the label room there's hundreds of thousands of labels that they have maybe not hundreds but the definitely thousands Yeah, and I'm pretty sure like a bought every abandoned trademark of Oh, I just don't know that. So let me keep going here because I know when you think about the heaven hell bottom Yvonne that's one thing but you still got Evan lanes bottle and bond. You've got virgin you've got all these things but don't get me wrong I know people are starting to hate on the virgin thing now because they're dropping the age statement off that one as well. So you know it's just a continual progression of what are they going to be able to do 31:32 be honest that was the best marketing that virgin ever had no one knew about that fucking perfect. I mean, we can hear me there's like we knew about it sounded but like i was i was cracking up with like all these people like, like you didn't know about that bourbon. It was a very like I mean, heaven Hill bottle the mom people knew about it, but it's like out of the woodwork they're all a virgin fan. Like Come on. 31:54 Yeah, that was where it was mostly in like North Carolina Yeah. 31:58 There was like a Washington's like, I can't get any worse. Like you couldn't get it anyway. 32:02 Yeah, you know, so not even be tried. But 32:04 it's like I don't know what you're saying they 32:06 still came out. I mean, they rebranded it and came out of quality house right. So it's still still the same box he you know, 32:14 let's mean heaven hills seven years old and bond thousand barrel dump is not a $40 bottle like it 32:24 I get it, it's a rebranding. It's a way to do this. I mean, you can also see this as a way that you know, they they wanted to remove the name heaven Hill, from lower in tears, like, okay, green labels not 32:35 gone away the 90 proof one, you know why? Because someone in the Shapiro family, that's what they buy. Oh, well, so it's on their it's on their bar inside. And so it'll it'll always be there because they that's what they drink. You know, I think it's probably important that we also look at some of the some of the brands that have reacted to consumers pushing back pricing. Like when Booker's announced that they were going to be $100 bottle, you know, they went, they they reverted pretty quickly, because they were like, they were getting a murder. Remember that? 33:13 Oh, yeah, just it was 33:14 11 years ago, they changed it, but yeah, 33:16 they changed it back. And, you know, they didn't have to change any branding or anything. But, you know, they still have a little bit of residual 33:25 in I mean, to be fair Booker's, probably, I mean, it's a barrel proof six year like, really good bourbon. I mean, 33:32 I used to get it for 55 bucks. Yeah. And it was it was 33:37 the most incredible values out there. 33:38 That is a that is to me, that was a more palatable, you know, price increase. You know, they decided change, I think it's 75 or something like that. CSRP now it's about it's probably right where it needs to be and I think people are happy with 33:54 that you were still happy with that. And I mean, I still recommend it to people who haven't tried something and you want to you know, start elevating and trying to go barrel proof and you know, to kind of just take a note off your above the char from weeks ago, you know, being able to experience the different flavors you can get with barrel proof by starting at barrel proof, adding some water adding some ice letting the ice melt, you know, you get you get to experience bourbon five different ways. In a in a barrel proof whiskey like that. So 34:20 some you can always find to, but you know, 34:22 Becker, Booker's isn't the only one remember makers, even what had been five years ago about the 2013? The proof? 34:29 Yeah, the proof debacle, they still won't, they still won't talk about it. So for our listeners out there, this is what happened in 2013, Maker's Mark decided to lower their proof from 90 proof to 84. And they announced it to their brand ambassadors, which is their program that they have for their sir customer loyalty program. So they sent an email to it and people in batch it crazy. It was it was it ended up being front page news, Jay Leno, or one of the you know, the talk shows were talking about it. He was on CNN, it was everywhere. And I got like this. I was I was covering it very, very intensely. And I got these interviews with Bill Samuels and Rob Samuels. And I remember bill saying like, oh, son of a bitch, I guess people really care about our wisdom, you know. And it's like, they say, Bill always has this way of like, making everything sound funny and putting things in perspective. But they changed it back. But to this day, people think people think it's a, it was a marketing ploy, because it was only eight days that they had it out there. But think about it, they had to change their labels, you know, they had to pull. Well, they had they already had products out there had 35:42 a product out there. I mean, and that's kind of I think, I wouldn't say it's a unicorn by any means. But it's definitely a unique bottle that people could have how many 84 proof? maker's marks do you have? I don't 35:52 even think I've ever had it or tried it. 35:55 Not to have you had it, lady? I know. I bet it I they actually I tasted it on the air for a TV station. I was like, yeah, this is it's more watered down. It was like very light. There you go. I mean, really, it's makers is not the I mean, it's nice, but it's not the most complex whiskey. You know, it's it's fine for what it is. But I really did think it was a bad move from a whiskey perspective, because you could taste the difference. You really could. 36:18 Yeah, but I think they've they've been able to rebound and with flying colors. So I haven't really had a problem. 36:26 These companies need like somebody on their team, like they have like bean counters, like making these decisions. You 36:31 know, like, I mean, let's not like in the in the government, they just don't have, like, the government has like someone from like, so the VA has like veterans on committees, to, like have like a veteran oversight committee to make sure that the veterans are getting treated like they should be instead of like the, you know, the doctors want, maybe you want to treat them. And I think you're right, I think that might not be a bad idea. But you know what, they're never going to go for it. And you know, and here's an example I can think of like Sazerac in a lot of people's eyes. They're their public enemy number one. And that's that's because their stuff is highly allocated hard to get. But it's so damn good. Yeah, so I mean, it's same with heaven Hill, their whiskey so damn good. It's kind of like you know, it's kind of like the it's a love hate relationship. Exactly. It's like the the girlfriend you had in high school who couldn't stand but she was so hot, ready? 37:26 Like, I can't help myself, like crap, but yeah, I can't stop 37:31 it. So I guess, you know, will kind of shift the gears a little let's talk about Sazerac. 37:38 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 and 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 38:00 Others 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 Voltaren distilleries products, its distinct character. Two bottles are being featured in rockhouse 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 rockhouse 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 rockhouse whiskey club. com to check it out and try some Bull Run for yourself. Use code pursuit for $25 off your first box. distillery 291 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 he used to create in during photographic scenes from Western landscapes to the Chrysler Building. 39:00 on sep tember 11th 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. Let's will kind of shift the gears a little let's talk about Sazerac. You know, I I will say that the one thing I will I will stand behind size rock. And what they do very well is that they are not pulling the strings of saying like okay, well, we're going to pull something off the market or we're going to just say like, Hey, we see what this stuff trades for we're not dumb, we're going to go ahead and we're going to MSRP our products at x, y, z value, right? They I believe that they are in it for the long game. Like Yeah, I'm they see this is not this is just a quick market blip, where it's going to be something that you know, if you chase after the short money in the short dollar, then that's all you're going to wait, that's that's all it's going to happen. Like you're not going to be able to sustain this for the next 1015 years. So you brought up a good point, because a lot of people distilleries do look at the secondary market, even though say they don't but to especially for limited releases, they really have kind of fell on the secondary market to price things. For me, it's gone up up up and up every single year. And where it says right, it's kind of kind of stay true to like, I mean, I don't me wrong, there's been there's been gradual increases. I mean, if you take it back to 2010 days, you know, antique collection was probably $65, whatever, but going up to 100. Like that's not a that's not a good, that's not a huge ship. 40:48 Parker's was 5575 bucks. And now it's like 400, depending on you know, that 24 years, like 400 bucks or 300 bucks 40:57 retail, and then you take a birthday bourbon, for example, back in 2003, that was a $45 bottle. Now, it's 161 60 out the door at the distillery. So I mean, it's, it's, that's definitely 41:11 something way that the way that says rack operates is basically through the brain of Mark Brown. And Mark is a very conservative, you know, thinker when it comes to business and how they do things. But he's also a long term planner, they have planned out their whiskey projections through 2043. So they are they are that planned out. And they have made the appropriate, you know, business decisions that, you know, to get them where they need to be, I think that the biggest concern that consumers have with the way that company operates is through distribution. Now a lot of it is not anything that they can control. You go into a retailer or an on premise facility. And they will tell you, the only way that they can get Pappy or Buffalo Trace antique collection is if they carry Wheatley, vodka or some of the others as rack brands in large quantities now, that is that is a decision that is made at the distributor level is not. 42:18 That's because I always I always kind of thought like, somehow there's something working in the back the back room over here. And there's greasy palms to be able to say like, you 42:26 know, I'm saying like, if you want this, you gotta that is a very good conspiracy theory to have. But as of right now, it is illegal, you know, to have those conversations for it is illegal for a, a supplier to dictate who gets what, that is an actual law. That is under the federal alcohol administration act. Now, what is happening? I don't know. But I do know that everybody wants that whiskey. And, you know, how does how does the distributor make the decision of who to give it to? Now I've had conversations with people like Joe Beatrice, who's like, the only way you can do this is, you know, top, top level now, you know, customer loyalty. And so it's like, you know, how do they How does the distributor make the decision of who gets the five bottles of Pappy? Is it a? Is it a favoritism thing? Because if that's the case, that's also you know, is that is that fair? Is it you give it to the one who's like doing you're doing your bulk purchases, I've also heard of them like, like the distributors making decisions of like giving using Pappy to get rid of non Sazerac product. So like being would be in their portfolio or, you know, another big brand like that and say like, take up, take all this off of her hand, and you get you get a case of happy. So that stuff happens. And that is not, you know, to my knowledge, you know, I don't know how that you know how those conversations are going. Well, you don't know that's 43:59 the necessarily sighs rags. Yeah. Problem. It's, it comes back to them. But do you think they falsely manipulate their supply? Like to create this allocation? Like myth or because every time I go to Buffalo Trace, there's, they're always bottling blends, and it's always piled up cases? Because it's like what they have done. They got as many warehouses as all these 44:25 other big boys. Yeah, but you gotta realize they're also filling in the hand doing every single one with six people on the line. That's not that's not heaven. Hill level automation. 44:33 Yeah. What a lot of warehouses a lot age juice in there. I mean, this is true. 44:38 What what they do, they do put out, they used to put out an annual press release, about that, and it got picked up everywhere. You know, a smart marketing will say that. But what what Buffalo Trace has done is that they have spread the markets out so much like so let's say, you know, they're trying to penetrate every market in the country. My best friend lives in northern Wisconsin. He's building a Buffalo Trace, really now he can only have one bottle a month, because, you know, because now that northern allocations is moving on over to North Dakota. And so what they have done is they have they're trying to saturate the domestic markets so much that they've spread themselves out of being able to get into the hands of a lot of people so so that allocation that supply is because they're trying to open up bars in Montana, and places like Montana and Wyoming North Dakota. You know, I dare say you walk into a random liquor store there and you might you might find like a gold mine of like Sazerac products. 45:42 Well, where are they? Who are they using their, you know, everyday products like Buffalo Trace or Willer will or 12? To kind of fuel the more premium products like v tak and Pappy, do you think that you know, I mean, most of the most of what they do is they come out with a a lower version of everything that you get stack Junior, you gotta go rare, and then you get the big boys on top. But I know it seems like there's more like 12 year, it's I think it's sometimes easier to get a van Winkle 12 than it is a well or 12 zalando 46:12 you know, well, I think that's this is also just the the rise and the rise of bourbon and the amount of people that are looking forward to I mean, that's we say it's it's hard. It's it's not because yes, I still think there's I would honestly, probably guess that there's probably they're pushing out more product now than they ever have. But it seems still scares to us, because there's still more people now that are looking for it. 46:36 It's I'll put on their hat for a second. They have everybody in the world wants them. How do you how do you decide? What market gets what? 46:47 Yeah, I mean, that's that's it's definitely a tough call. Because you've gotta you gotta take one out of your your your playbook here is is who's been with us for the longest time who are the most loyal customers? Who are the ones with the biggest pockets right now that are really want us? I mean, Money Talks, like let's not be Bernie lovers always said it the best. This is not the bourbon charities the bourbon business. Yeah. And so who's got who's got money? money's gonna talk. And if, if by some chance and Ryan, we know, we've looked at this when we were opening up distribution for pursuit series, and we're like, oh, what state should we go for? And he did a trip down to Texas. And really, I 47:23 always forget that you to like on a brand. Like we're having this conversation. I'm like, wait, you guys hate your customers. 47:30 We listened to our customer feedback. We listened and we go, we go to a snail's pace. But I mean, but but the part was, you know, he said, like, let's look at Texas. And you look at Texas, and he came back from a trip. He was like, Kenny, this is this is so smart. Like why not? There's like, there are more people in the city of Dallas than there are in the state of Kentucky three times as many people in the city of Dallas as there is in the whole state of Kentucky. And then you got states or cities like Houston, San Antonio Austin, and you're like, why would you know, any liquor company would be smart to in they're thirsty. They're thirsty for it, right? And it's like, Okay, well, that's that's an easy target. So you go after the larger markets. 48:12 Dallas bourbon club, shout out to you boys. Yeah. 48:15 Peach MIT. Mm hmm. And so I mean, like, those are the those are the kind of three ways that I look at it. If I'm a if I'm a, you know, brand owner, and I want to figure out if I've got an allocated whiskey, how do I get into the hands of the people? That's the that's the way I'm going to go. Right. Do you have any kind of other thoughts on 48:32 I mean, just going back to what Fred said, like they're trying to get into these new markets, and I think they're trying to position themselves because they're, they're all pumping out a ton of juice. So when the product finally becomes of age, they don't they have us as customers already. So it's like, we need to go promoted other places. So when we do have this stock available, we can spread it out everywhere, not in whereas if they just focused on us bourbon, consumers are going to have a whiskey glut. 48:59 Well, they want to find new consumers too. Yeah. I mean, that's what I mean. Yeah, absolutely. We can't keep selling it to the same three guys here that have more bottles, and they can drink for the rest of their life. Right? They want to find new customers. And that's Yeah, that's really helpful. 49:11 Guys, that's what it comes down to. And you know, what, I saw that in the magazine business, you know, like, one of the big reasons why I decided to go out on my own for with the magazine is because the magazines I was writing for, were pursuing new audiences that would require me to be writing about cocktails, and you know, and not the stories that I wanted to tell. And so anytime you anytime you, ESPN did this to ESPN is inserted VH one and MTV. Anytime you water down, like what was the essence of what you were trying to do. And you're trying to reach a new audience, you're always going to like, appear, like you don't care about your original customer. It's just how it is you can grow 50:00 well, you cannot lose it. Well, to make it appeal to the mass market, you always have to like dumb it down to where like, because you have to make it appeal to everyone versus like a very small niche. And so that small niche that you appeal to at first, you kind of have to break away from them. Because the everyday consumer is not gonna be as passionate as that very small niches. Yeah, we're fairly early adopters. 50:24 Yeah. But you know, people they got a pivot to right now just think of MTV, like, I remember the last time I watched a music video on TV, but if I watch a music video, it's usually on YouTube, right? There's a new platform that takes over and takes care of that. But YouTube's a multi dimensional platform for all that kind of stuff. But you know, I kind of want to 50:40 talk about bourbon pursuit. Absolutely. 50:42 Absolutely. We will never done down 50:46 in Minnick media while we keep doing the shout outs here. Yeah. So let's, let's talk about two more brands. While we kind of wrap this up a little bit. You know, there's there's one brand that comes to mind. You know, we talked about old forester birthday bourbon, but brown Forman, I think they do an aggressive audible job of really not pissing off the consumer base, you know, they've got products that are continually coming out at aggressive price points. And, and really, they've only got it. Should I say, besides all four, it's a birthday bourbon, and they get king in Kentucky, they don't have a whole lot of stuff. That is the super premium, highly allocated stuff. And so they are continually trying to just make everyday solid products. 51:23 Yeah, I mean, the the old forester extensions, like great, everyday like, drinker. I mean, the bottom bond, the 86. I mean, those are like, I could drink the right, yes, they just came out well, but I mean, like these prohibition series, I mean, like the 1910, like, in 1920, just always, consistently blow my socks off. Every time I drink. I'm like, this is really good at 50 to 60. Buck. And one thing, one thing that 51:50 Chris Morris did with the prohibition series, is when they when they are know, when they did the wheat whiskey release with Woodford, you know, they it wasn't prohibition series was with Woodford, they sent the release out and said, We have now released every single type of whiskey that was allotted in the 1935 federal alcohol administration act, and I was just like, oh my god. And I'm like, there's probably not another person in the world who gave that we should talk about that. But I was like, I was like, the fact that you know, and they're released, they're dropping, like, one of the greatest, like legal documents I've ever read. And I was like, I was like, I can't kid in the candy store with that press release. I didn't publish it, but I was, you know, it was very well done. And that the thing about brown Forman is that they overly think, you know, so while they while they are doing a lot of this stuff, I also think they've been kind of left behind in a lot of these conversations of like, you know, you just mentioned you don't have a lot of allocated stuff. You know, so in like, if you are if you're if you're thinking about it, like is that not a good thing? I mean, because now you know, heaven hills got a lot of highly allocated stuff for roses highly Alec a lot of highly allocated stuff, and so does Buffalo Trace. And I don't see why, you know, brown Forman doesn't because their whiskey out of the barrel is incredible. 53:18 And we think it's because they promoted like Woodford so hard out the gate versus and kind of left old fo just a winner and then now it's kind of regain popularity. I think old foresters coming back hard. 53:30 Yeah, I birthday bourbon is highly allocated, by the way. It's very, very much is it but I look at 53:35 at what the resurgence of old forester as the same resurgence we see with 1792, right? Like, how many people were really like gung ho talk about 1792. and still they started coming off with all these extensions of their bottle and bond. Yeah, foolproof. Sweet. Hi, Robert. It's a 53:52 very interesting comparison because they have they both have a very unique note in there that I detect in both of them. No, bananas. Yeah, banana. No. You have to also remember that the beast of brown Forman is the world's number one whiskey and jack daniels. And I tell you what, some of the barrel proof stuff coming out of jack daniels right now. It's fantastic. It's some of the best whiskey you can find. And so, you know, I think what they what brown Forman does really, really well, is that 30 to $50 product, they do a great job with that. And I know a lot of people don't are not Woodford fans. But that's a lot of people's favorite bourbon. Oh, yeah. I mean, I've been I've been on airplanes where I've seen ladies yell at someone sitting next to them for pouring coke with Woodford like How dare you pour Coke? bourbon 54:46 airport. A lot of bourbon consumers that aren't whiskey geeks like Woodford is their premium go to you know, it's like I'm always amazed, not amazed because it is great juice. But it's like you forget that that it is like yeah, the common marketplace that sir like premium go to. 55:00 Alright, so one last gripe before we kind of close this out. And that's one thing that I've talked about at the top of the show. And that's the allocations of barrel pics that used to go to bourbon societies and used to go to people, charities, charities, bodies, everybody that was doing them early on. And now it's like that, sorry, you're not selling enough. And this is we're seeing this at four roses. We're seeing this at wild turkey. And so kind of talk about really, what is the effect of, kind of, from a if you're the manufacturer? Or if you're the the end consumer? Like, do you hate the brand more now? Like do you start to look at other places? I mean, because we're good friends with read an emerald from 1789 be, you know, they they said that their allocations are gone from wild turkey and other places like that, where they used to go and just go in and do barrel pics all the time. And now they're looking at other places. They're looking at wilderness trail they're looking at 55:52 Yeah, just it's opened up an opportunity for these like new players in the game to like, kind of like we've gone barrel pics so many places, but like you're not, you're treated more like royalty, when you go to like new roof or wilderness trails, or Willits, or somewhere, whereas the other ones are like, how can we get them in and out of here as fast as possible? It's clockwork to them. Yeah, it's like, we're going to roll out three barrels, and you have 15 minutes to taste each and then we're gonna go through this and this and get out now. So 56:22 Well, I mean, I still enjoy roses experience and stuff like that I still enjoy the experiences. I mean, when you go to wild turkey, you're there with Eddie and and, you know, you know, it's not Eddie making these decisions, right. You know, this this is definitely higher 56:35 up and then I also I also think that Eddie would make those decisions if he had to, you know, that's something we have to always remember that they're kind of protected like that we always want to give like the distillers a break, but they are you know, they have people there kind of around them to protect them and make them continue to look like the good guy, but don't think for a second that they're not in those rooms having conversations and saying like given their input. Yeah, well, we're about to lose our stock, you know, for 2025 if we keep doing these barrel pics, so they're looking out for the long term and healthiness of their brands and that and that's what I'm like a cop when they're around us, 57:11 then that's exactly 57:12 right. I do not be fooled by that. The niceties from the distillers leave me like someone like Bo Backman. It's as direct. Everybody hates that guy because he's the keeper of the barrels. But he's he's going off of what someone else tells him, you know, and he's got the allocation. 57:30 Yeah. And I'm sure if they if they had unlimited barrel supply, they'd love to keep doing it. Right. I mean, I think I think that's one thing that people don't understand. I don't know if they would they probably 57:40 it's like thing is is a inefficient process. And it's a low margin. Feeling personally, 57:43 are you feeling cut off? 57:45 No, I don't think I'm feeling personally cut off. I think it's Oh, let's let's try harder than us. 57:50 It's harder for us to go to So you mentioned 1789 be Let's mention I I'm a part of a charity that got cut off. what's what's another group that you know of that got cut off? I know about two retailers that got cut out of Wild Turkey? Well, yeah, 58:08 there's there's it's all around, right. I mean, it's there's definitely 58:12 we don't cross the board. We don't see a 58:16 you know, a commonality other than that. They're small. This place isn't getting cut off. MGM and Las Vegas isn't getting cut off. And total wine, liquor barn, they're not getting cut off. So it goes back to this this conversation of like, Who's spending the most money? And, you know, I think it's short sighted to cut out 1789 and you know, people like that, that have incredible connections within the bourbon world. 58:46 And we're the one of the pioneers of actually doing some of this 58:49 stuff. I don't I don't think they cut out some of 58:51 these gaps in a lot of money to charities, like a lot of good comes out of these. 58:55 But there's also been some charities that have been debunked. Right, you know, so you got to remember that to to just like we've seen with the counterfeit, they're always fuck wads that are going to take advantage of the the scenario the situation sounds like that. 59:07 Yes, absolutely. So I think we're going to go ahead and wrap that one up. Because you know, we've, we put some people under fire here, we make sure everybody knows that. If you're brand new, listen to this. We still love every single one of you. We still love the product you're putting out 59:20 we went talk about you if we didn't care. Exactly. I'm 59:23 on the show and join us. 59:24 Yeah, we're looking out for you. We want 59:26 what's best for you actually, they're not looking out for you. And not 59:29 well, we're looking at right 59:32 now they got a brand they're trying to knock you down. So their brand goes up. You don't have 59:35 to worry about 59:37 our toy 24 barrels a year, I think is like we don't we're 59:40 not gonna we're not gonna be stepping on any toes anytime soon. That's for sure. 59:44 Well, you know what I would, you know, I'll talk to you about this off the air. I'll bring this up. Sorry. 59:47 It's okay. So, you know, it was like I said, just make sure that you do have a pretty thick skin if you're listening this from brand, because we do We love you. We love having all the personalities and people behind the brands on the show. You know, we do 1:00:00 kind of look at this from, you know, we see what happens in the Facebook groups and Reddit and everything like that when people are writing blog posts of saying like, oh, like we don't like you anymore. So we're just trying to look at this from the consumer perspective. Don't shoot the messenger. Yeah, exactly. So I will. I will say, though, that I've said this for more than a decade. Don't forget the customers who brought you to the dance. That's it. Absolutely. So thank you everybody, for listening. We hope you enjoyed this episode we recorded at Hotel distil hotel is still is located in downtown Louisville here on whiskey row. And for those of thirst new experiences, you should come check it out. It's a home for the connoisseurs of the finest comforts and gracious service. It's a space where you're going to pass through historic risk row facade and joy, a true and authentic global destination. You can book your experience for it yourself at Hoteldistil.com and it's set to open here on November 1 of 2019. So fellows, thank you once again for joining us. 1:01:00 show. Yeah, and we'll have e
Mayor Greg Fischer started the conversation discussing the UPS expansion. He also talked about the economic effect of the tri-festivals and the amount of new business growth in downtown Louisville. Lastly, he discussed Churchill Down’s acquisition of Turfway Park and a possible expansion in the metro. Listen to the Mayor’s call here…
ABC's Alex Stone is at Area 51 after spending the night in his car. More from Mayor Fischer responding to LMPD Chief Steve Conrad's comments on officer morale. Scott Benjamin from The Fast Track podcast talks cars and 790 KRD's Nick Coffey discusses the controversy involving UK linebacker Kash Daniel.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer speaks to LMPD Chief Steve Conrad's comments on officer morale. Leland and Sasquatch talk about their trip to Butt Drugs in Corydon. Comedian Adam Carolla joins the show to talk bourbon, The Man Show and comedy in a politically correct society.
Leland discuss the Louisville street lights issue with Sasquatch, what Mayor Fischer can do about it and more.
Mayor Greg Fischer talked about his vision on gun safety in our city and cities across the country. He asked for the President, Senate, House, and others to push for increased background checks and expressed ways that citizens can decrease the risk of violent crime in their communities. Listen to the Mayor’s call here…
Mayor Fischer talked about sanctuary cities, the interaction between federal (ICE) and local law enforcement, and the goal to be both welcoming and compliant to all laws. He also discussed the President’s tweets about The Squad, racism, the city’s budget issues, expanded gaming, and more.Listen to The Mayor’s call here…
Guest Shawn Moth, and Mayor Fischer
Mayor Greg Fischer started by discussing the WHAS Crusade for Children, D-Day, Ali Week and the unveiling of the new logo for Muhammad Ali International Airport. He also discussed budget issues and how they could affect LMPD in the future, more cuts coming, and what is going to happen with money donated for pools.Listen to the Mayor’s call here…
Mayor Fischer told Leland Conway that this is bad journalism, but Denis Frankenberger put the numbers together and he feels that the city is overpaying for the KFC YUM! Center and $300 million could be saved by simply changing the language in a city ordinance. He also discussed how he was not allowed to speak in front of the Metro Council, how the lease with U of L is hurting the YUM!, the lack of an occupational tax, and other financial issues at 2nd and Main.Listen to Denis’ visit here…
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer joins Leland to discuss his proposed cuts to the city budget. The City of Louisville faces a $35 million budget shortfall due to a pension obligation to the state.
02-14-19 Hour 2 Guests: ABC's Jim Ryan and Mayor Greg Fischer.
Guest: Jody Davis, Mayor Fischer, and Paul Rogers
Host Ryan Coonerty talks with Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer about the importance of compassion for a city's success, as well as the strength required to have compassion. Mayor Fischer also discussed how his background as an entrepreneur and inventor influences his work as a mayor, and his belief that mayors must have the head of a CEO and the heart of a social worker.
The Louisville Cycling Podcast is dedicated to celebrating the people, rides, and events that make Louisville and the surrounding area a great place to be a cyclist! Today's Episode You've heard Mayor Fischer mentioned on several occasions by other guests of the podcast, so I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that he was willing to notch out a little time from his day to talk with me about our city and cycling. Let's be clear: our mayor is an ally for cyclists and a firm believer in the benefits of making Louisville cycling friendly… and not just because he rides a bike himself, but because it's the right thing for our city. If you want to learn more about the hip surgery I'm undergoing, check out this link: https://www.hss.edu/no-index/animation-total-hip-replacement-anterior-approach.htm The Louisville Cycling Podcast is supported by United Financial Group. And when I say “supported,” what I really mean is that I couldn't do this without them. So if you're in the market for a new home or want to explore refinancing your existing home, E-mail me at Barry@ufglending.comor through the podcast. John Dziedzic, the owner is new enough to cycling to still be totally eaten up by it, and that means he loves giving cyclists the best possible deal on their mortgage loans. So, if you're ready to think about a new home or refinance, be sure to support our primary sponsor, United Financial Group. Thank you for listening to the Louisville Cycling Podcast. You know the drill at this point: Share the podcast on your social media feeds, take a minute and leave a review, or just e-mail me at louisvillecycling@gmail.comto let me know you're out there and listening. I'm expecting big things for the podcast in 2019 and you can help shape it with your suggestions and feedback. Sponsorship The Louisville Cycling Podcast is sponsored by United Financial Group (UFG). If you or someone you know is considering a new home purchase or refinancing of a current home, there's no better group to work with than Team UFG. With UFG, get great rates and loan packages that fit your individual circumstances. You'll find no one with a bigger commitment to service and relationships, AND you'll close smoothly and on time. E-mail barry@ufglending.comand get pre-approved as soon as you start thinking about a purchase or refinance. Mention this podcast and get a $750 credit toward any closing costs as well! Nmls# 1582330 The Louisville Cycling Podcast Contact Information I would love to hear your feedback and comments. You can contact me at the following e-mail address: louisvillecycling@gmail.com You can also call or text to 502-593-4497 Social Media: Instagram: @louisvillecyclingpodcast Twitter: @lvillecycling I'm working on a new website that I'll be announcing soon. And guess what? We're available on Amazon Alexatoo! Just say “Alexa, enable the Louisville cycling podcast”!
Ramsey is out, Mike is solo. Guest: Deputy Editor of Card Chronicle Keith Wynne, Jeff Greer, Jeff Walz and Mayor Fischer
Live from the Frazier Museum for The Spirit of Kentucky Bourbon Experience. Guest: Chris Redman, Ken Sugiura and Mayor Fischer
Mayor Greg Fischer called in to talk about the cancellation if Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life, the festival plans for 2019, and the safety of Champions Park. He also discussed the future of Topgolf, the Amazon pitch and being forced to release information on who gets tickets/benefits from the city, and Dr. Bendapudi’s inauguration at U of L.Listen to his call here…
Mayor Greg Fischer talked about the opening of the Convention Center, the JCPS negotiation with the State, the Explorer case and Councilwoman Leet’s push for perjury charges, Louisville’s immigrant community, Abolish ICE, and more.
Follow the Data presents a conversation with Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and James Anderson, who leads Government Innovation at Bloomberg Philanthropies. Mayor Fischer is serving in his second term and says that to be a good mayor, you need the “head of a CEO, but the heart of a social worker.” Mayor Fischer and James discuss the discipline required to create a truly innovative city hall, why citizen engagement is so important, and how Louisville’s focus on becoming a more compassionate city has not only helped attract new businesses but also caught the attention of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Mayor Greg Fischer talks about his Give A Day – Week of Service program that starts again on Saturday. He talked about the origins, goals, and successes of the program. He also talked about graffiti removal, the repeated painting of the Castleman statue, and the Gang Prevention Bill.
We recap the Pitino interview on The Dan Patrick Show, talk to Coach Dan McDonnell and Mayor Fischer calls in.