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Lux Row Distillery Expansion, Blood Oath Pact 7 Bourbon Review, & Call of Duty: Vanguard
May 21, 2026
Lux Row Distillers just announced a $4M expansion plan, so I'm reviewing the latest Blood Oath Pact 7 and sharing my thoughts on the distillery and its recent acquisition by MGP. Then, I'm talking with my friend Brandon about the newest game in the CoD franchise, Call of Duty: Vanguard, out today. Follow Brandon on Instagram: @imasmartidi0t Chat about this week's episode on the Bourbon Bytes Whiskey & Gaming Lounge Discord at http://www.BourbonBytes.com Support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/BourbonBytes Subscribe on YouTube for live streams and more at https://www.YouTube.com/BourbonBytes The Bourbon Bytes Podcast was featured on FeedSpot's Top 20 Whiskey Podcasts list: https://blog.feedspot.com/whiskey_podcasts/ Leave a voicemail with questions or topic suggestions: (818) 660-5782
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0:00
On today's episode of the Bourbon Bites podcast, I'm talking about Luxro's $4 million expansion
0:06
reviewing Blood Oath Pack 7, and inviting my friend Brandon on to talk about the latest
0:10
Call of Duty game, Vanguard. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Bourbon Bites podcast
0:25
I'm your host Clifton and today we have a really fun show because not only am I talking about some really cool news from Luxrow, I'm inviting my first guest to the podcast later on
0:36
But before we start, I do want to say a massive thank you to everyone that reviewed the podcast over on Apple Podcasts
0:43
I think our issue has been solved where the podcast wouldn't show up
0:48
If you missed last week's episode, I saw that some people were having some trouble finding it
0:53
I offered a challenge coin to anyone who reviewed the podcast, and a lot of you took me up on that offer
0:59
So I'm going to go ahead and extend that through the end of November 2021
1:03
So if you feel so inclined to leave a review of the Bourbon Bites podcast, just send me a message
1:08
Contact at bourbonbites.com once you've posted that review on Apple Podcasts, and I will send you a challenge coin token of my appreciation
1:17
But with that, let's go ahead and get on with today's episode, because I'm really excited to get some bourbon in my glass
1:23
Today I'll be drinking the latest release from the Blood Oath line, which is from Luxro
1:28
This is Pact 7. Big shout out to Luxro for sending me a sample
1:33
This actually got damaged while shipping. I only ended up with less than half of a bottle of it
1:39
so not really enough to do a full review over on YouTube, but I have enough to, you know, taste it a little bit while we do this podcast
1:46
Plus it's pretty relevant with today's news. So while that opens up, let's talk about the news that I just received today from Luxrow about their $4 million expansion, which is very exciting
2:00
If you missed the news earlier this year, Luxco actually was acquired by MGP out of Indiana
2:06
So there's a lot of talk about, you know, what the reasoning behind that was
2:11
I think it was mutually beneficial. Luxrow, of course, has a Kentucky-based distillery, or Luxco, I guess, is the parent company
2:18
They have the Kentucky-based distillery Luxro. They have good distribution across the country
2:24
And MGP is really ramping up their in-house product. So it seems like a good fit
2:29
And it makes today's news even more relevant because they just announced a $4 million expansion
2:36
They say that this will allow them to be able to produce whiskey for 24 hours a day and boost annual production by 75%
2:45
100%. So that's a massive, massive increase. They say it's planning to complete it in late 2022
2:52
The expansion will be more than 18,000 square feet with 10 barrel warehouses and a custom 43
2:59
foot copper still. So they'll have the ability to distill more than 50,000 barrels of whiskey
3:04
annually when this expansion is complete. So I'm very excited. You guys know I am a big fan of
3:11
Luxro in terms of their branding, their creativity. If you haven't had a chance to tour
3:15
their distillery. Even now, it's amazing. I can't wait to see what it looks like after the expansion
3:21
They did mention that they will continue to remain fully operational during this expansion process
3:26
So really, really cool news. I'm very excited. The funny thing is, as much as I love Lux Row
3:31
we really haven't had a chance to try any of the whiskey that they're actually making and aging
3:34
on site. Because up until this point, they had been sourcing a lot of their whiskey from Heaven
3:39
Hill. So like the Rebel line, previously Rebel Yell, is Heaven Hill Juice. And Ezra Brooks
3:45
same thing there so i'd be really curious especially with the mgp uh purchase of them
3:50
you know maybe they switch over some of those more budget brands to uh younger mgp which again is
3:56
totally cool with me i'm a big fan of both um so it's really interesting to see um where their
4:00
actual distillate and the barrels that they're aging on site where that ends up are they going
4:05
to put it into their uh you know david nicholson brand or even blood oath which we're about to get
4:10
into here, or are they going to make that a special release with a different name? I don't
4:15
really know. A lot is up in the air, but it sounds really exciting and good for them, honestly. Like
4:20
I said, I love their creativity. You'll know what I mean. If you visit the distillery, there's a lot
4:24
of art on the walls. They have an amazing, amazing reel that they play at the beginning of the tour
4:30
I got goosebumps the entire time, so I love what they're doing, and I'm excited to see where this
4:34
expansion takes them. So since we're on the topic of Luxro, I thought it would be a good time to
4:39
review this Blood Oath Pact 7. Now, this actually came out early 2021. I didn't get a bottle of it
4:46
until I got this sample. I haven't seen Blood Oath just in the stores at all this year
4:51
But this time, this is a blend of three high rye Kentucky bourbons. There's a 14-year-old in here
4:57
an eight-year-old, and another eight-year-old that's been finished in sauterne wine cask from
5:02
France. So I actually don't know too much about sauterne other than the fact that I did a
5:08
stream over on YouTube a few months ago where I tasted a bunch of wines that are
5:14
commonly used for finishing. And the biggest takeaway from doing that was how
5:18
sweet Sautern was. And the interesting thing about that one is they do a
5:22
process what they call noble rot So they actually let the grapes sit on the vines a lot longer than usual It draws out all the water so the flavors become really concentrated That wine is so thick so sweet It reminds me of almost like honeycomb
5:36
Just the mouthfeel, there's like an earthiness there, but there's a lot of honey on it
5:40
So I really enjoyed Sauternes on its own. I'm very, very curious to see how it impacts this whiskey
5:46
Because again, it is only one part of the three whiskeys that are into this release
5:50
Now we don't know where these actually are from. I assume they are still Heaven Hill
5:54
Again, they don't actually say where they're getting their disclet from. But yeah, I'm super excited to get into this
6:00
We do know it's high rise. So, of course, it isn't like a larceny or a old Fitz Mashville
6:05
It's more in like the Elijah Craig territory, Evan Williams, if it is Heaven Hill
6:10
Again, no official information. But you guys know I'm a big Heaven Hill fan
6:14
So I'm very curious to try Blood Oath Pact 7. If you don't know this line, they release it every year
6:19
It's always released at 98.6 proof. of course with the blood temperature. I like that little cute touch there. It's usually around $100
6:28
MSRP. This year there was 51,000 bottles released. Now this does have a spit of a secondary market
6:35
Like I said, I have not seen this release anywhere. So like I said, I'm really thankful
6:39
they sent me a sample even though I lost most of it to shipping and you have enough of it just to
6:45
give you a little quick review of it here today. So let's go ahead and give that a nose
6:49
ah it's super bright up front it's it's got that honey that i was getting from the sautern cask
6:55
or the sautern wine that i had before um but it's got a lot of oak too i assume the 14 year is a
7:01
pretty dominant one here it is listed first um and you can tell there's some well-aged uh whiskey in
7:07
this glass even the youngest whiskey at eight years old is still i mean today's standards that's
7:11
actually pretty pretty old when it comes to uh craft whiskey even though you know luxro is now
7:17
owned by MGP, they really were a craft distillery, and I'm hoping they keep that legacy and they
7:23
don't just become like every other big name distillery. I'm hoping they keep that uniqueness
7:28
to them. But yeah, on the nose, there's a lot of honey sweetness and oak and just smells delicious
7:35
Let's go ahead and give it a taste. Cheers. So the palate's not too different from the nose. Still
7:43
this one, I think they kind of swap places. The honey kind of goes more towards the finish
7:47
which is interesting. Usually honey notes I get up front. But for this one, it starts out a little
7:52
bit burnt caramel on the front of the palate, transitions to the oak, and then finishes with a
7:58
really, really lovely, dare I say honeycomb again. There's like, it's honey but mixed with like
8:03
earthiness. And I always describe that as honeycomb. It's not just the honey itself. It's like
8:07
the actual, you know, have you guys ever ate honeycomb? I know there's a place in Charleston
8:12
where I'm from. It's actually from Savannah, the Savannah Bee Company. And they sell honeycomb by
8:17
the brick or by the block. And oh my gosh, it's just one of the most delightful things. I'm a bit
8:22
of a honey fanatic. I don't know if many people know that about me, but when I was a kid, I used
8:26
to eat those like honey sticks that I think you're supposed to put in tea or something. But I would
8:31
buy up all the flavors from the flea market, whether it's like wildflower or even like some
8:35
of the fun ones like, you know, like fruit punch honey that were artificially flavored. But I've
8:40
just always really found honey a delicacy. And I think, you know, if I were royalty back in the
8:47
olden days, that would be my pleasure. You know, keep your caviar, I'll take my honey. That's kind
8:52
of my guilty pleasure. So whenever a whiskey has a honey note, I always get excited about it
8:58
Another whiskey that has that note that's one of my favorites is E.H. Taylor, especially some of
9:02
the single barrels in their rye. There's that honey at the front of the palate, which is why
9:06
this is so interesting because with this blood oath pack seven, the honey's on the finish
9:10
So that's actually an experience I actually haven't had before. So I'm really curious to
9:14
go in for a second sip. Oh man, that's, that's just really nice. It, it definitely does taste
9:20
like it could be from heaven Hill as a lot of similar aspects. I just reviewed the ECBP C921
9:26
on my last podcast. So this is, you know, 14 year, eight year old kind of averages out towards that
9:32
12-year mark, which is what the electric barrel proof is. So it's giving me some familiar notes
9:37
Of course, it is lower proof. I don't necessarily get as much of the finish as I guess I expected
9:44
And now I know only one of the whiskeys in here was actually finished in the sauterned casks
9:48
It's got a nice sweetness to it, but I wouldn't say it's a sweetness too different from like a
9:53
typical Heaven Hill product. I guess maybe the honey more so, because usually with Heaven Hill
9:57
I get vanilla caramel, you know, the typical, I mean, I always say ECBP is the quintessential
10:02
bourbon if you're looking for bourbon notes but this one it does go a little lighter a little more
10:07
floral especially on the nose um but yeah a hundred dollars i i think this is a great limited
10:14
release series to you know get into if you're just looking for something special to have on the shelf
10:19
i know they actually released a trilogy collection um they had a first one was packed one two and
10:24
three but they just earlier this year released four five and six um in like a trilogy set which
10:29
is really cool for me personally i don't think i will be picking up another bottle of this
10:33
hundred dollars is you know if you can find it for that price and you are a fan of you know
10:37
heaven hill let's just say it or just even the the blood oath line um plus it comes in a pretty
10:42
sexy bottle too i think it's worth picking up and trying maybe try it before you buy it
10:46
um i don't i don't think it necessarily drinks like a typical limited release bourbon it just
10:52
it just is very solid i think you know the impact of the the cask on the packed six from last year was a bit more made it feel a little bit more special But this one though I mean I think it yeah like I said try before you buy
11:06
I don't think I'll be buying another bottle of this, but it was really great to try
11:10
And again, thank you so much to Luxro for sending me the sample. So on to some gaming news
11:15
On the day that this podcast is coming out, November 5th, is the date the new Call of Duty Vanguard is released
11:22
And I actually don't know very much about Call of Duty other than the older games. So I invited my good friend Brandon to come onto the podcast and talk a little bit about this new release
11:30
Brandon, welcome to the show. Hey, man. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Of course. So you guys know Brandon. He's a mod in our live streams
11:38
You also see him at our hangouts. He's usually playing Call of Duty during our hangouts
11:43
So I thought it was pretty appropriate. So, Brandon, are you excited about this new game or is it kind of like, yeah, there's a new Call of Duty all the time
11:51
Yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at right now. It's like I've been I've been playing for a long time and it's just another series
11:56
They keep going back and forth between futuristic and then back to World War Two
12:00
So I'm on the fence, you know, my favorite Call of Duty games are the ones that are story focused
12:05
I love the campaign. I suck and multiplayer. So if a game has a good campaign mode, I get drawn into it
12:11
But I think you're the opposite, right? You're all multiplayer. Yeah, I was like, I'm all multiplayer all the way
12:16
I mean, when I was younger, I used to campaign to play by myself. But ever since Xbox Live became a thing, I've gone to definitely multiplayer for sure
12:24
And yeah, I've seen how good you are at it. You're so much better. So what is the one that you've been playing recently
12:30
The game I've actually been playing a lot of is actually Call of Duty Modern Warfare. Oh, Modern Warfare
12:35
That was that was one of the original ones I played. Is this like a new game or is it kind of a remake of that one
12:40
They've actually done they've already done a remake, but then this is actually a remake of it
12:44
So it's kind of it's kind of almost like futuristic. That's kind of cool. Gotcha. see i i think i get overwhelmed with the whole futuristic aspect of them i love the ones that
12:53
are based you know in world war ii um so i'm i honestly have been following this just a little
12:58
bit again you know call of duty games come out what like almost every year basically that's pretty
13:03
much yeah like the last couple years honestly it's like almost every single year on to the day almost yeah but this one looks really cool so call of duty vanguard is actually also based uh in
13:11
world war ii similar to the other games um but other games focus more on like the main like
13:15
european battles but this one seems to kind of go all over the place so like there's the whole
13:19
pacific aspect of it north africa things like that or the trailer made me kind of excited but
13:24
i feel like that's kind of a thing with call of duty right the trailers always look so much better than the game oh yeah for sure they do a really good job of doing that but it does look like you
13:31
could actually pick between like there's like four different players um that are playable for
13:35
the campaign mode and i know they added a lot of new things for multiplayer so that's kind of what
13:39
i'm kind of wanting to get your thoughts on so have you have you seen like any of the updates
13:43
that are coming to multiplayer for that one yeah i'm actually looking to see because it actually
13:47
looks like they are going to have the war zone update which i'm kind of interested to see how
13:51
that's going to work out so tell me about war zone i think that's kind of like after i kind of
13:56
stopped playing is war zone just like their universe for multiplayer yeah it's basically
14:00
well it's basically its own games you've actually got multiplayer with all the regular all the
14:04
regular matches and games that they have but then war zone is its own separate thing it is still
14:08
multiplayer but it's basically one giant map and it's up to 140 players wow and you basically just
14:14
battle it out to see you know last man standing so to speak you can either do singles or teams
14:18
that's awesome so do you think this game has its own like individual multiplayer as well in addition
14:23
to that yeah most definitely it will okay because i'm seeing that there's like there's 20 different
14:28
multiplayer maps that are in this uh new game um and the match types seem pretty similar there's a
14:33
new one called champion hill have you heard anything about that no i was actually looking
14:37
that up myself to see what some of these new games are the new game types so it'll be interesting to
14:41
see how they actually play out yeah that one seems to me from what i mean again it's i'm just basing
14:46
this on the trailer and like the press release but it seems to be kind of like a a survival kind
14:50
of tournament thing so like there's multiple arenas like so multiple battles like you'll move
14:55
on to the next stage um it sounds pretty cool it kind of sounds like kind of almost battle royale
14:59
style yeah that's what it sounds like to me too when i was reading about it as well um and of
15:03
course they brought back zombies i mean i think that's all that's like a call of duty staple at this point right yeah but they've made it like real complicated now with all the new stuff they
15:11
have and all the easter eggs and everything they released a new trailer um just recently in october
15:16
of the zombie mode for this game and a lot of people i was reading through the comments people
15:20
are really excited about this one in particular because they introduced like an element of like
15:24
lore or like some kind of like uh you know mystery behind it it's not just you know zombies fighting
15:30
there's like a bunch of different weapons that have different abilities um it looks pretty cool
15:34
I mean, do you normally play zombie mode? I haven't played zombie mode in a few Call of Duties, honestly
15:39
because like you said, like they actually change it to where zombies, almost like you said, it's almost like a campaign along with the game
15:45
It's not like the older ones where it's literally just, you know, see how long you can last and kill as many zombies as you can
15:50
Now there's actually a storyline. There's actually objectives that you actually move along in zombies
15:55
That's really cool. So they've been doing cross-platform play for a while now
15:59
This isn't the first game that's had that, right? This is only going to be the second game
16:03
because modern warfare was the first one that was actually cross-platform and that was one of the reasons why i really wanted to get that one specifically is because a lot of my friends
16:10
are either playstation or pc do you feel like there's sort of a disadvantage um when you're
16:15
playing against people on pc oh 100 i i would think so too because i see i i do i play on pc
16:22
but i use a controller because you know with one arm you can really do mouse and keyboard um but yeah i just know pc gamers like they are they are like you know sharp shooters with their mouse they can like they can lock on to you real quick oh yeah most definitely honestly i haven bought a game in a while and this one just kind of it it checks all the boxes
16:39
for me so i will probably pick this up maybe not on release day um maybe when it goes on sale or
16:44
something like that but i'm excited about it and like you said you're kind of still on the fence
16:47
about it but what if i buy if i buy it will you get it oh i probably will then or at least because
16:52
I'm going to wait and see how how the actual game real gameplay is going to be, because obviously all the videos I was watching, they were all betas
16:59
Right. So I'm curious to see what the final product is going to look like and how everyone enjoys the game player doesn't enjoy the gameplay
17:06
Yeah. So if you guys are listening to this after the game's out, which obviously you are because this is coming out on release day, let us know on Discord what you think of it
17:13
We have a arcade room on there that's all about video games
17:17
So if you have any comments on this game, whether you like it, you hate it, let us know
17:21
We're happy to chime in. And I'm sure Brandon would appreciate hearing what you guys think of it
17:25
Oh, yeah, most definitely. You guys definitely, definitely let me know. And then also put your gamertags in if you guys want to play
17:29
Absolutely. So, Brandon, before I let you go, what have you been drinking lately
17:34
I'm kind of stealing a line from Perry's book. But have you drank anything new or exciting lately
17:39
Actually, it's funny that you mentioned that. Actually, I went to a local distillery down in Oceanside this past weekend
17:45
And I got to try pretty much everything they make. they have all different kinds of spirits down there which is kind of cool oh wow i think yeah
17:53
you were mentioning that a little bit on our hangout the other night what's the distillery called so the distillery is called oceanside distillers okay yeah i haven't heard of it and
18:01
i looked it up like because i was like looking up when you were mentioning because i'd never heard of it it's kind of in the middle of nowhere so do they have like a tasting room or is it kind of
18:08
like you kind of just have to message them and know know what's up yeah so pretty much you have
18:12
to pretty much message them because it's basically two guys that do this for fun as a side gig kind
18:16
of thing they literally started in 2018 and they just distill their own stuff so actually when you
18:21
look at the website it literally is just a warehouse because when they first opened up you
18:25
were not allowed to have a tasting room in the in the facility that they're in oh gotcha so and now
18:31
they've kind of basically just added it's kind of just like the front room of the warehouse that they're in they have they do their tastings or whatever it's a very very small production
18:38
setup they got going on oh nice so what are you drinking now what was your favorite from them
18:42
so my favorite is actually so there's actually it's funny so they have two different guys in
18:46
there. And they both go two different ways of distilling. So one gentleman actually does rye
18:53
bourbon, vodka, and I want to say gin. The other gentleman, the one that I liked
18:58
he actually likes to experiment a lot. So he uses 5, 10, 15, and 53-gallon barrels for his aging
19:05
process, along with different types of yeast strains and grains and corn, all that kind of
19:11
stuff that he likes to kind of experiment with oh very cool so so he does a bit of the experimental
19:16
blending like maybe like single malts and things like that so they have a single malt that's
19:20
american then they also have a single malt that's peated they have a rice whiskey which was amazing
19:24
by the way rice whiskey i've never i have no idea what that would be like so if you have a sweet tooth
19:30
like i do it was almost like super sweet on the palate and the nose but it was super good but
19:36
i was gonna buy a bottle but unfortunately he like the barrel that he actually did it in he
19:40
he actually watered down a 90 proof for a customer. Oh, okay. So they were buying the barrel
19:44
Yeah, but the little bottle that he had me drinking out was 118 proof. I think he watered down a 90
19:48
I'm like, yeah, loses its luster when he watered down that much. For sure. Well, that's really cool
19:53
I need to reach out to them. I'd love to have them on the show or next time I'm down that way
19:57
maybe we can go taste a few barrels. Oh, most definitely. It's going to be a good time
20:01
Well, Brandon, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for being the first guest on my podcast
20:05
That's pretty cool. Yeah, I hope I wasn't too bad for you, but. No, no, you were great
20:09
And I do want to do more of this. I want to have more people from the Patreon community, from the Discord community come on
20:15
So if you are listening to this and you're part of our community, or if you're not yet part of our community, you can join us at bourbonbites.com
20:21
You're welcome to come on the podcast if you have a topic idea or a game that you're excited about or a whiskey like Brandon just said, a local distillery that you're excited about
20:28
Please let me know. I'd love to have you on. You can also call in at 818-660-5782
20:35
Leave me a voicemail. I'm happy to feature it on the show. so Brandon thank you so much for coming on thank you for having me dude I appreciate it I'm glad
20:42
to be your first guest and hopefully the first time of many thank you all so much for listening
20:46
to the bourbon bites podcast if you have any feedback make sure to join our discord server
20:50
bourbon bites.com you can see a link to it there you can also call in with your feedback or
20:55
questions or anything like that so leave me a voicemail at 818-660-5782 I'd love to do a
21:03
segment on that every week. If those start coming in, I haven't got one yet. So if you want to be
21:07
the first caller to the Bourbon Bites podcast, go ahead and give me a ring. But make sure you're
21:13
following me on all of your favorite podcast platforms. And of course, subscribe to the
21:17
YouTube channel. This week we had on a representative from Impex Beverages doing
21:22
Japanese whiskey. So make sure to go watch the replay of that stream. Next week we have Penelope
21:28
bourbon on we're having their founder come on and taste us through their new line of toasted
21:33
products which y'all know i'm very excited about so thank y'all so much for listening until next
21:38
time this has been bourbon bites whiskey reviews with the gaming twist i'm clifton cheers and i'll
21:44
talk to you next podcast
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