Bardstown Bourbons: From Legal Briefs to Bourbon Trails with Josh

Join us at the Man Cave Happy Hour for a spirited session with Josh from Bardstown Bourbon Company, tracing his extraordinary path from a legal career to a bourbon aficionado. Inspired by a transformative 40th birthday trip along the Bourbon Trail, Josh shares how Bardstown has grown exponentially since 2014, enticing bourbon lovers with their Origin series. We'll hear echoes of the collaborative energy of Bardstown, especially their thrilling partnership with Michigan's Founders Brewing. If you're curious about the art and innovation that fuel Bardstown's diverse whiskey expressions, this chat is brimming with insights and stories that capture the essence of their craft.

Experience the fusion of bourbon and wine as we journey through Bardstown's Collaborative Series. Imagine a sip filled with the aroma of baked strawberries and cocoa, leading to a rich bourbon finish. Plus, we highlight the "Fat Glenny" Glencairn glass, a unique creation that elevates your tasting experience to new heights. With stories about mash bill compositions, cocktail crafting, and stunning bottle designs, this episode promises a full-bodied exploration of bourbon artistry. Dive into this world of flavors and creativity with us and discover what makes Bardstown Bourbon Company stand out in the whiskey landscape.

https://linktr.ee/ManCaveHappyHour

www.ManCaveHappyHour.com

Jamie Flanagan @DJJamieDetroit

Matt Fox @fox_beazlefox

Merch www.WearingFunny.com

Chapters

• 0:01 Bardstown Whiskey Tasting With Josh
• 6:31 Bardstown Whiskey Collaborative Series Details
• 15:24 Bourbon Glencairn Glass Collaboration

Transcript

Jamie Flanagan: 0:01

I said, hey, hey, welcome to the man Cave Happy Hour.

Matt Fox: 0:09

I said, hey, hey welcome to the man Cave Happy Hour.

Jamie Flanagan: 0:16

We're gonna drink a fine whiskey and smoke a really fine cigar. It is time for happy hour. It is the man cave happy hour whiskey, cigar, spirits, the stories that go along with it. I'm Jamie Flanagan and we are at a very special night down at the Detroit shipping company, inside the Detroit podcasting company, the man cave, back at it down town, and it's whiskey in the winter. And boy is there whiskey. There's gorgeous whiskeys, there's amazing whiskeys, uh, and, and we have josh from bart's town.

Josh: 0:50

Josh, welcome to man cave appreciate it, man, happy to be here so, josh, uh, how long have you been with uh, bart's time it's about three years now. They pulled me in here and, uh, kind of became a passion project of mine to spread the gospel so tell me a little bit about your childhood childhood go back all the way back.

Josh: 1:07

You know wayne michigan grew up. Uh, yeah, hey, you know high school over at wayne, high pretty solid, pretty standard over there. Uh, albion college law school uh, still a licensed attorney. Um, just took that skill set, transferred it over to bourbon when Ron Miles pulled me over here. Okay, he's over there and down at headquarters. Now he's moved on up, so he's got me floating the boat while he's over there. So it's fantastic stuff.

Jamie Flanagan: 1:34

All right. So what was your entrance into the world of spirits?

Josh: 1:38

So, honestly, it was my 40th birthday when I just thought, hey, let's go do the bourbon trail down there, right, okay. So I passed it over to I think the company's called.

Jamie Flanagan: 1:49

Pegasus.

Josh: 1:49

Transportation.

Josh: 1:50

Company or something like that down there. I didn't know what I didn't know, so I said this is what we want to do, take us around. I hit about three different distilleries. The final one was Bardstown, had lunch down there, obviously that five-star restaurant and fell in love with it from that point forward and then it was just off and running. You know, covid kind of transferred what I wanted to do with my career. I just fell into bourbon and thought I could use the same skill set to go out and and preach, preach, bourbon.

Jamie Flanagan: 2:17

So now, from what I understand, Bardstown is like a big dog. Now it's up to like number three.

Josh: 2:22

Big dog. I mean yeah, it's up to like number three. Big dog. I mean yeah, it's, it's uh boosted pretty rapidly since 2014.

Jamie Flanagan: 2:27

Yeah, so it started in I started in 2014.

Josh: 2:30

We got a juice in the barrels in 2016 and things just kind of took off from there. Uh, we got another 18 rick houses that are going up on, uh, some new property we just acquired all right now co-host matt fox rolling in.

Jamie Flanagan: 2:42

We have an extra for you, matt. If you go over there, you can bring the second camera. I'm on a single camera view. You can make a two camera view. You'll be in the shot, and? But all right, so so, bardstown, bardstown, here's my critique, or my criticism. Bardstown, you got a lot of expressions, a lot of stuff. You there's a lot of different expressions. Do you find that your patrons get a little overwhelmed? It's like, are they overwhelmed? Are there too many choices?

Josh: 3:10

I don't think so, because it never gets boring right. We never sit on three big bottles. There's always something coming out. You still have your favorites that are out there and ready to supply so you can go grab them. But there's always something exciting to talk about at events like this. Tastings do any place else, dinner pairings that I do at restaurants. It's fun, it's a. That's why. That's why I am devoted to this company, because there's so much to talk about let me ask you a question, matt.

Matt Fox: 3:33

What is it? I didn't catch you, josh, thank you, yeah. So let me ask the question is this up, yep sweet. So when you're doing a tasting, where do you start? You know someone that's never, that's never had barstown. Where do you start them off? Do you start them at a lower proof and then work your way up, or is it just about what you're pairing it with?

Josh: 3:50

It's always nice when you're doing just kind of like a basic test or a tasting at a general place. It's not like a dinner pairing necessarily. Okay To start with, for me, Origin anyways right, Because it has four that run the gambit, right.

Josh: 4:03

The high wheat that just recently came out the bottled and bond weeded the high rye bourbon and of course the rye whiskey, Beautiful. So it's fun to kind of go through that. There's nothing that I think would be too much for somebody who's entry level coming into bourbon and there's nothing that would be overwhelming. Nothing that would be overwhelming, but nothing that would turn off somebody who's really into bourbon and looking for something complex. I think it has all of that on that origin series Perfect place to start.

Jamie Flanagan: 4:29

It's so pretty. And then you get to the collaborative series You've done stuff with like founders and that's like a Michigan thing. I saw that on the shelf. I'm like whoo, whoo, who's? They got a couple on the shelf at Keiko's.

Josh: 4:45

No doubt, Yep. Even Red Wagon has some over there too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan: 4:49

And that's the thing on these special expressions. Are they like one and done? Because they're special barrels, I guess they would go away right.

Josh: 4:56

You know there have been a couple where we've was a Chateau de la Baud 1 and a Chateau de la Baud 2 that came out, but for the most part, unless there's an additional agreement that's going on with the collaborative company that we're working with, you will find that at least that particular expression is a one and done situation, like the founders one.

Jamie Flanagan: 5:18

That's why I say you find it, grab it. So what about Chateau de la Soul? Is that coming soon?

Josh: 5:24

Yeah, right, we're DJs, we make DJ jokes All the time. All right, so in our midst here we have the Silver Oak.

Jamie Flanagan: 5:35

So this is one of the new expressions.

Josh: 5:35

This is the newest collaboration that's come out. It's wide out here in Michigan. All right, it is a fun one yeah. So tell me about Silver Oak, especially if you're a wine lover. Silver Oak's out of Napa. It's a well-known winery out there. What we ended up doing is, instead of just having them ship their cab-sav barrels to us, we sent refrigerated trucks out to them.

Jamie Flanagan: 5:56

What Go big or go home, baby, what so?

Josh: 5:59

that the second, that they drained their barrels of Cab Sav into the bottles. We loaded those barrels up and got them back to our Captain Cool. So, there was residual Cab Sav in there, so that when we put our six bourbon blend in there, three Kentuckys, a Tennessee, a Georgia and Indiana, all nine to 14 years old, why stop there Just?

Matt Fox: 6:16

keep on going. The whole, the whole country, let's get all 50.

Josh: 6:19

Yeah, but we popped it into the barrels for another 17 months and kept it towards the top of the nose of this and the first pole.

Josh: 6:31

All of our collaboratives for me anyways tend to be like a collaborative bourbon, collaborative sandwich, if you will. This is no different in that regard. The nose tends to be what you would expect from a solid cab salve, a nice silver oak cab salve. And that first pole even is where you're getting a lot of like, maybe baked strawberries, the cocoa, the cinnamon notes, which holds true, holds true, honestly, about to mid-palate. And then you get that bourbon, uh, blend in there, where you get some of the bite from the bourbon that you would normally expect, and it finishes on the back end, uh, you know, with that cocoa, with that cinnamon, with a little heat, but it's kind of like a, a wine bourbon hybrid, the way you feel you got the heat from the bourbon and the, the taste from the just looking at the bottle from here, j Josh, with the light behind it from the laptop there, you can see the red oh yeah, you can really see that coloring there.

Josh: 7:20

When you put this up side by side with one of our origins, which is just your traditional bourbon, it's not a non-finished one. You can absolutely see that.

Matt Fox: 7:29

You can just see it. I can see the cab just float around and they're going. Try me.

Josh: 7:33

That's a product where you put it in the rickhouse. It just sucked the flavor and the essence of that cab salve from the barrels right there.

Jamie Flanagan: 7:42

Oh nice.

Josh: 7:43

I took a sippy.

Jamie Flanagan: 7:47

I've been sniffing and it's yummy. The taste is great. August, there's another chair and another mic and the camera's on Baby. There's another chair and another mic and the camera's on, baby.

Josh: 7:55

sit down. There you go. Have a good evening, august. Don't walk in until the VIP starts. You know that's the right time to come in. Yeah, josh from Bardstown. Yeah, I think we crossed paths once. It's distinctly possible. I'm floating around all over that One of these.

Jamie Flanagan: 8:10

Yeah perhaps floating around all over that one of these? Yeah, perhaps, and uh, yeah. So the cocktails happening here whiskey in the winter. What's happening with the, the cocktails? Because we, I mean, I'm gonna tell you what's happening?

Josh: 8:20

what's happening is I don't have a sample cup yeah, that's what's happening there.

Jamie Flanagan: 8:25

You go there, you go.

Josh: 8:26

Fair, I mean, we are close yeah, we're close, you know, I'm right across the way. You come over a little more later on, just sits on the opposite.

Jamie Flanagan: 8:33

So what, uh, what cocktails? And does bartown, uh, make a good cocktail?

Josh: 8:37

a hundred percent. The ones that are rolling over there are, uh, the origin series they're doing with.

Jamie Flanagan: 8:41

Uh, you're probably not gonna want to mix this fella. I wouldn't. I mean, you know that's what. Enjoy bourbons, however the hell you like it, of course but I wouldn't do it right but over there they have.

Josh: 8:50

Uh, there's, there's one. They're using the high rye bourbon for the 36 percent rye in the mash bill. It's more one that it's a. It's a lighter one, if you will Right. There's some lime juice in there. They asked that they they should use the weededs for that and I said no, I don't really think that would blend too well.

Jamie Flanagan: 9:06

I think the weededs are.

Josh: 9:08

You know, they're rich, they're hearty, and I think the lime juice is something that lends itself better to that high rye bourbon. So they're doing that one over there, and then they have a weeded Boulevard that they're doing as well with the bottles and bond, which is 20 percent wheat. I told them they could probably, you know, change out the high wheat too if they wanted to do that as well. That's at thirty nine percent wheat. You know it's the highest wheat content of any mash bill in Kentucky. And what is it?

Matt Fox: 9:32

What? What's the mash bill on?

Josh: 9:34

it, so it's 39% wheat. Obviously, the majority corn is about 5% malted barley in there, wow, 39% 39%. It's up there, and while it doesn't necessarily add additional sweetness for me, anyways, I think what it does do is provide a very viscous, silky mouthfeel and it keeps that finish kind of up higher. It's a 106 proof. So while you get a Kentucky hug, right it's a higher one.

Josh: 10:00

Right, six proof. So while you get a kentucky hug, right, it's a higher one, right, right, and it it's a shorter finish, so it keeps you coming back to that bottle. You know, by design, of course, right let's do it so.

Jamie Flanagan: 10:04

On the second sip, I'm getting like a rye taste in here.

Josh: 10:07

I'm getting that spicy wheat and maybe even weedy so it, yes, if you look at the the match bill with the three kentuckys, the second dominant grain and uh, all of them is, uh, is rye. So you are going to get that rye. You're going to get like towards that back end is where some of that cinnamon from they would normally expect from a good rye is going to kind of come forward to blend nicely with the cab salve, with a little cocoa each each next sip is is is more sip one so my tongue is still numb yeah, that's how you guys know the pain sensors, right.

Jamie Flanagan: 10:38

That second and third tip are the interesting things going on Right in the middle.

Matt Fox: 10:41

Yeah, okay, it's lingering. It's hanging around in such a splendid way. It really is.

Jamie Flanagan: 10:46

The Barstown Silver Oak Collaborative Series. This has a nice etching on the back of it. Do all of them have that? On the special series, or is that just special?

Josh: 10:59

So honestly that on the special series or is that just? Special.

Josh: 11:00

Honestly all the bottles that we have have a nice etching on it. It's specific to the particular bottle. If you look at the Origin bottle and bond being weeded, it has actually the oak tree type of oak tree that we would get the barrels from. The high wheat has wheat and then the high rye has rye on the back of it. The collaborations you'll find have something specific to the collaborative company. You would probably find that scene in Silver Oak. Our Foursquare collaboration has a profile or a picture of the Foursquare distillery down in Barbados. So yeah, specific to the collab. You always find something on the back. It's very cool.

Jamie Flanagan: 11:34

All right, so, as we're here at the Detroit Podcasting Company inside the Detroit Shippingroit, shipping company say that whiskey in the winter. I know I'm gonna get through it. And, uh, we're, we're digging it on the man cave happy hour josh, thanks for being in here. As people go in to buy the barge town, when they get the origin, yeah, uh, where's it coming in at? And then when you get into the collector collaborative series not collector, but collaborative series where are we coming at?

Josh: 11:58

The statement for Origin, you're going to find anywhere from $49.95 to a little bit higher. For the bottled and bond You'll find it $50 to $52.

Matt Fox: 12:08

That's not wrecking anybody. Anybody's drinking this kind of whiskey. That ain't wrecking no one's pocket. That's an everyday bottle for me, absolutely.

Josh: 12:15

The collaborations are going to be up there a little more. $159.95 is the statement for the collaborative series. We keep that pretty consistent right. The discovery comes in at $129.99 for statement the discovery series but the collaborative is always going to be like those three price points.

Jamie Flanagan: 12:34

And the discovery series are so we have.

Josh: 12:37

I think we're up to 12, uh, now and see there's a lot of expressions.

Jamie Flanagan: 12:40

Yeah see, I said it seems like it's too much.

Josh: 12:43

It's never you would think so right, you would think so I want to have those I want to have those breaks removed the slogan for the? Uh, you know the mantra for bardstown bourbon companies never stand still fair up.

Jamie Flanagan: 12:56

That's it. You guys aren't we? We don't, All right, but Discovery put still in quotes yeah sure. Why not? Yeah, let's do that. So the Discovery is 12, 15, 12. Discovery 12 just recently came out that one.

Josh: 13:08

If you find a bottle of that flying somewhere around, grab it. I think we had 50, 53 cases come to Michigan. So while it's not an allocated bottle, it's one that we actually don't have allocated bottles Fewer and further between, if you find it, grab it. It's a special one. There is actually a four grain in that blend. What makes it a discovery? The discovery is discovering the art of blending which we've essentially perfected For a while there, blending was a bad word in the bourbon community. We've changed that.

Matt Fox: 13:40

It doesn't bother me one bit so blended whiskey blended bourbons are still bourbons 100%.

Josh: 13:46

Okay.

Jamie Flanagan: 13:47

So if they meet all the requirements of a bourbon A through G is a bourbon.

Josh: 13:50

All right, yeah, kgb, sorry, so yeah, so they'll be blended.

Jamie Flanagan: 13:54

All right Fair play. So, yeah, so they'll be blended. All right Fair play. And again, we're not professionals.

Josh: 13:58

That's the reason we do this is so we can learn At what it's something you are.

Jamie Flanagan: 14:03

Professionals at drinking generally. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but the ins and outs and the specifics of the bourbon. So that's why we like to talk to people. What's the sommelier of bourbon called? Get us on on An Irishman.

Josh: 14:16

I'm one of them. I'm an.

Jamie Flanagan: 14:18

Irishman, you get Stave and Thief certified.

Josh: 14:21

I don't know.

Jamie Flanagan: 14:25

I was kind of curious. I forget if there's a title that goes along with that Professional.

Matt Fox: 14:31

I mean, aren't we all that my liver's more professional?

Jamie Flanagan: 14:34

than I am at this point we're all fine. Bour Bourbons are sold. You can find it. What about the distillery itself? Open tours.

Josh: 14:44

Totally, it's one of my favorite places. Adult Disneyland.

Jamie Flanagan: 14:48

Well, that's what you said. You said you went there.

Josh: 14:50

40th birthday and got hooked. I did Absolutely Rapidly. It's one of the only Napa experiences, maybe the only Napa experience along the whole bourbon trail. There's a five star restaurant attached to it. There's multiple experiences that you could do. My favorite is the whiskey thieving experience, where they'll take you into the rickhouse, they'll pull out four barrels and you could do this four times in a month and get four different barrels each time. You take the whiskey thief right over there, pull it out into a glass, you're sampling stuff that's not going to hit the shelves for at least another six to 12 months and at the end of it you get a fat Glenny, we call it. We commissioned a glassmaker to make us a bourbon Glencairn. I know everyone uses the Glencairns but of course that was originally for scotch, so we wanted something that had a Glencairn but a wider midsection, like a pear shaped yeah, absolutely less voluptuously shaped, more pear shaped, um, but it it does the job and it's it's.

Josh: 15:44

We call it the fat glenny, the glass maker would turn over uh in his eventual grave, if you heard us uh talking about that. But uh, that's what we call it. It's exactly what it looks like, and you get one at the end there. So it's uh, it's. It's pretty cool if you get down there, get a reservation for the restaurant. Fantastic stuff, it's all right and then the website.

Jamie Flanagan: 16:03

I'm trying to see if it's on here, Bardstown bourbon dot com, Bardstown, bourbon dot com, all right. And then there's a qr code and it says right, there never stand still there you go on the label.

Josh: 16:12

I wasn't lying. Let's keep moving, fair play all right, josh.

Jamie Flanagan: 16:15

Thanks so much. I know you've got a busy night ahead. Yeah, appreciate it. Selling this story to a lot of people, I'd imagine it's not going to be a hard sell.

Josh: 16:22

It's not. Nights like this tend to go pretty easily, so it's good All right.

Jamie Flanagan: 16:26

thanks for taking a couple minutes here. Absolutely, it's the Man Cave Happy Hour. I'm Jamie Flanagan. I'm Matt Fox.