Up next in 10
It’s another Bourbon Boos review, and this week Clifton braves one of the strangest bottles yet — Buchanan’s Pineapple “Spirit Drink.” Technically not even whisky, this scotch-based pineapple blend surprised him more than expected. Is it a tropical treat or a tiki bar tragedy? Tune in to find out! Plus, this week’s whiskey news covers: Elijah Craig Barrel-Proof Rye Russell’s Reserve’s Highest-Proof Bourbon Yet The Rise of “Whiskey House” — A Fully Automated Distillery Grab your glass (and maybe some ice) — it’s time to get spooky, sweet, and slightly skeptical.
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0:00
Today on the Bourbon Bites podcast, Elijah Craig announces their barrel-proof rye whiskey
0:05
Wild Turkey is releasing its highest proof bourbon yet. And do machines and bourbon mix? They do at Whiskey House
0:12
Plus, we have our Bourbon Booze bite-size review of Buchanan's Pineapple Spirit Drink
0:18
Spooky. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Bourbon Bites podcast. I'm your host, Clifton, and this is the
0:36
week of Thursday, October 23rd, 2025. I hope you all are having a great spooky season. We're going
0:43
to continue the podcast with Bourbon Booze, where I review, I don't know why that booze went up
0:48
instead of down. I'm going to go booze, but today it's booze, because the Bourbon Boo of today is
0:54
questionable because technically it's not a bourbon nor is it a whiskey but we'll get into
1:00
that in a bit. We do have some whiskey news to talk about first. Some of this is older news I
1:06
just haven't had a chance to cover. The rest is more recent news but I do want to get caught up
1:11
on a few things that I haven't talked about yet on the podcast. Also just a heads up for those of
1:16
you listening to this on Thursday I will not be doing a live stream this week. I have an industry
1:20
event to go to for work but I will be going live this Saturday with Brandon we're going to do a
1:26
flight of Jack Daniel's age-dated bottles maybe do it blind should have some fun there so check it
1:32
out this Saturday usually we try to do it around 6 p.m pacific 9 p.m eastern so make sure to tune
1:38
in or watch the replay also a reminder to subscribe on YouTube if you're not already because if you
1:43
enjoy the podcast I have a feeling you will also love the channel so thank you for that I do want
1:48
to shout out my newest uh bite club renewal member this is someone that was previously over
1:53
on patreon but made the switch over to the bite club at bourbonbites.com which means a lot to me
1:58
because on the bite club more of the proceeds go directly to me uh patreon takes a larger cut so
2:03
if you are currently a patron and you want to support the channel even further it just takes
2:07
a few clicks to uh switch over your membership um so shout out to aaron artino whiskey pair
2:12
thank you aaron for uh moving over to bourbonbites.com glad to have you join or or rejoin
2:18
should I say the bourbon megabytes tier. All right well one piece of news that I never covered but I
2:23
did read about quite a while ago. Elijah Craig is announcing their barrel proof rye. It's going to
2:30
be a new addition to their lineup similar to their Elijah Craig barrel proof bourbon which has been
2:34
a longtime favorite of mine here for several years actually. So they are launching their very first
2:40
edition of this coming in at 108 proof. It's going to be a 12 year three month old rye whiskey
2:48
and this first batch is labeled interestingly enough A925 so I think that's just because it's
2:54
the first one I think they're probably going to standardize the regular batch naming as Elijah
3:00
Craig Barrel Proof once we start the new year so usually it's A125, B525, and C925 but since
3:08
this is the first batch of the year they're naming it A. I'm very very very excited for this I do love
3:14
Heaven Hills rye flavor profile from Pikesville to just the regular Elijah Craig rye. I'm a big
3:20
fan of it. And getting it at full proof, even though 108 proof doesn't necessarily seem that high
3:27
carrying with it a 12-year, three-month age statement is very exciting. Now, as with Elijah
3:31
Craig barrel proof, the 12-year age statement is no longer standardized. So there's a chance the
3:36
next batch of this will be, you know, nine years, 10 years. We don't know yet. Now, unfortunately
3:41
I haven't had a chance to try the third batch of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof this year
3:46
I'm usually on Heaven Hill's PR sample list where they'll send me samples of like their
3:51
Elijah Craigs, their Larcenies, sometimes some old fits. And I've been, you know, receiving those
3:57
pretty consistently over the past couple years. But unfortunately, I don't know if I've fallen
4:02
off the list or they lost my contact info. I'm not quite sure, but I haven't gotten anything from
4:07
them in several months. So I did reach out to my contacts there, but didn't hear back. So heaven
4:13
hill if you're listening, please, I appreciate media samples. And not just because I want like
4:18
free booze. That's not the point, right? The point is I want a chance to try them to see if they're worth you picking up. I think a lot of people look forward to my blind Elijah Craig Barrelproof
4:25
flight every year, where I put the A batches, B batches, and C batches blind in a flight along
4:30
with maybe some of my favorite batches from previous years. Haven't been able to do that
4:34
this year which is a real bummer because I've done that every year and I really enjoyed it and I've checked my local stores and I just have not seen the C-Batch show up. I did get the A-Batch
4:43
and the B-Batch from Heaven Hill but that was the last thing I got from them. I think it'll be quite
4:46
a while before I see the C-Batch here in Southern California so I'm keeping an eye out I'm keeping
4:51
my fingers crossed and I hate to like linger on this I know I mentioned it on a hangout the other
4:55
night but uh I don't know I just feel like Heaven Hill has been one that's kind of always believed
4:59
in me as a creator as cheesy as that sounds from a major corporation um just because they've
5:04
always, you know, considered me on their list of sending review items. Really no other major
5:10
distilleries have kind of, you know, even answered my emails. No fault to them, you know. I know
5:16
there's a lot bigger channels out there and a lot bigger whiskey review resources. Like, I don't
5:21
expect to get the antique collection from Buffalo Trace sent for review, but, you know, I just feel
5:26
like I try my best to be a good platform for these brands and offer them opportunities to come on and
5:32
be interviewed and you know again no hard feelings towards Seventh Hill I just kind of a little bummed about not receiving samples from them lately but if you have a contact there or any of the major
5:43
distilleries that you think I should reach out to I'd love to there's a few smaller distilleries
5:48
that are have been great have been sent me samples recently which I've done some live streams I've
5:53
done some podcast reviews of but yeah the bigger ones are a lot harder to to get a hold of but you
5:59
know what? I'll keep trying. Just for you guys. All right, tangent over. Let's talk about another
6:04
newly announced whiskey. Russell's Reserve just announced their new single Rickhouse series
6:11
bourbon, and it's their highest proof yet. So this is the green label. They've been doing it for a
6:16
couple years now, but this one in particular is aged on the fifth floor of Camp Nelson's Rickhouse
6:22
E, and is coming in at 128 proof. According to this article on food and wine, it's the highest
6:27
proof bourbon ever bottled by wild turkey they say this is aged in a uniquely cool shaded environment
6:33
of camp nelson's seven-story rickhouse e and they say that master distiller eddie russell selected
6:38
these barrels for their slow nuanced maturation and are going to be releasing this nationwide
6:43
in quotes because who knows if we'll ever actually see it for a retail price of 300
6:50
dollars so that's where you got me right like i had the very first single rickhouse series and
6:55
thought it was some of the best wild turkey I've ever had and I think that bottle was $200 maybe
7:00
I mean it could have been a little bit higher than $200 but it was so good that I would have
7:05
considered buying a bottle of it but then I tried a later release of it and I think at that point
7:09
it had gone up to $250 and I thought it was just you know okay so this new release even though it
7:15
is the highest proof yet $300 for a uh what I assume is a 10 year I'm not actually seeing a
7:22
age statement on this one which is interesting but $300 for a 10 plus year old bourbon is really
7:29
hard to justify for me and I love wild turkey right like I said they're they're one of the
7:33
top distilleries for a reason but seeing $300 for a single bottle of whiskey from a single
7:39
rickhouse unfortunately that's just way past a price that I'm comfortable picking this up at
7:45
I would love to of course try it but I don't think it's obviously going to be good enough
7:49
to make me say that it's worth $300. That's kind of where I draw my line. Like I'll pay up to like
7:54
$200 for something if I truly believe in it. Maybe $250 if it's something really special
7:59
But unless it's like a Pappy Van Winkle or maybe a Buffalo Trace Antique Collection
8:04
that I've tried before and I really like, what I pay, you know, $250, $300 for is just, I don't know
8:11
For me personally, this is just my budget. I know everyone is different, but for me it's got to be
8:15
really freaking good whiskey to even justify the $200 to $250 price point. So I think I'll be
8:21
skipping this one. But if you've had a chance to try the Camp Nelson E single rickhouse series
8:25
let me know how it is. I'll keep an eye on it, but I'm not willing to spend $300 on a bottle of
8:31
turkey yet. They'll always get me someday, but not today. All right, one more whiskey news stories
8:37
to talk about before we get into our bite-sized review. This is actually a new distillery that I
8:42
have not really heard anything about. This is from an article on wired.com, which kind of ties into
8:47
the whole tech nerdiness of this podcast as well. This article is from Christopher Null and was
8:52
published last week. And it's talking about a new Kentucky distillery that is powered by tech
9:00
And not only that, they are focusing solely as a contract distilled product distillery. So they're
9:05
not releasing their own product. So I'm talking about Whiskey House. And like I said, I really
9:10
haven't heard of this, but it's a full-fledged distillery, but they are using technology at a
9:15
large scale to kind of standardize things, make things a little more efficient versus, you know
9:21
the handcrafted thing we see at a lot of distilleries. Their focus is on efficiency and
9:26
automation and real-time ytics, all the tech buzzwords you want to say. And they're not the
9:32
first one to do contract distilling as a pretty major focus of their distillery. Of course, MGP
9:37
out of Indiana does that. But in Kentucky, you have places like Bardstown Bourbon Company
9:41
that does a lot of contract distilling. Now, they also released their own product line
9:45
you know, they have a very successful brand identity. But Whiskey House isn't trying to
9:50
do that. They actually just want to focus exclusively on contract distilling. So things
9:56
from celebrity whiskeys to smaller brands, they really want to standardize the process and kind
10:02
of become a powerhouse for contract distilled whiskeys, which, I mean, I know what this sounds
10:08
like, right? This sounds like the evil corporate overlords coming into the bourbon industry
10:12
you know, making it all tech, making it run by AI, let's say, and taking away some of the
10:18
handcraftedness of bourbon. But let's be real. I mean, these major distillers all kind of function
10:23
this way. It's just more they have a history and a legacy of doing things, you know, by hand
10:27
This one is coming into the industry with technology at the forefront. It's located 50
10:32
miles outside of Louisville. They say the building looks more like a data center than a distillery
10:37
And actually, they haven't really allowed press to come inside except for wired. They were some
10:41
of the first to actually come inside and do a tour of it. And they say that inside this distillery
10:45
every second of every step of whiskey production has been fine-tuned and automated to the limits
10:50
of today's technology, with the goal of minimalizing the chance of an error or human screw-up
10:55
while maximizing efficiency. Now, what's even more interesting is they really don't have too
11:00
many employees. They say that each shift is only seven people on the floor. The rest are in the
11:06
lab or in the barreling or in maintenance. A lot of it is just really run by machines
11:11
They say there over 1 sensors installed across every piece of equipment on the production floor They regulate temperature liquid equilibrium dynamics reflux ratios all these fancy science
11:23
buzzwords that you don't love to hear when you're thinking of handcrafted bourbon
11:29
But what's interesting is they already have a relatively large customer base
11:33
Brands like Calumet Farms, Redwood Empire, High and Wicked, and Clyde Mays are using
11:38
Whiskey House to create their bourbon and whiskeys. And what's interesting is the fact that so much of
11:45
this is automated really allows these brands to customize the recipe for exactly what they're
11:50
looking for. So they can take any custom mash bill that these distilleries want to make. At the moment
11:56
they're using over 56 different mash bills for the products they're making. And I think that's
12:01
something that kind of sets it apart. You know, there are contract distilleries like MGP that
12:05
will let you do a custom mash bill. But that seems to be very limited. I think the majority
12:09
of people tend to pick one of their standard mash bills for either their bourbon or their rye
12:14
Barstown Bourbon Company, it's a little more customizable as well. But it seems like Whiskey
12:18
House really wants it to make it, you know, truly the flavor profile and the mash bill that these
12:24
brands are looking for, which I think is an interesting part of it. You know, if these
12:29
brands don't have the infrastructure to, you know, be distilling their own product at this point
12:33
this is a great way to get that in motion while they kind of build up their distillery build up
12:38
their brand and it it makes sense in a business perspective now will the consumer like it that's
12:45
yet to be you know seen I've not tried any whiskey that's come out of here as far as I'm aware
12:49
but there's a chance you know it could be great whiskey I think you know this is kind of where
12:54
a lot of manufacturing is heading you know they're trying to use machines as much as possible to
12:59
replace human workers, which is unfortunate, but it's not just that industry, right? We're seeing it
13:04
with, you know, even office jobs trying to find AI to replace employees. It's just kind of a shift
13:08
right now in the, not just the whiskey industry, but, you know, technology and just work culture
13:15
in general. So I'm not opposed to the idea. And, you know, here's a great quote from Heather Green
13:19
from Milliman Green. She says, it's like using someone else's kitchen. I'm bringing in my mash
13:25
bill my yeast strain and my aging process she said it's complicated so she needs good partners
13:30
and she considers the whiskey come out of their her barrels no matter where they're made so
13:35
you know it is nice to see that people in the industry are accepting this as a you know alternative
13:41
to having their own distillery because they are like i said bringing their craft to it they're
13:45
blending their their mash bills so i totally see why it could be seen as a positive thing i just
13:51
worry about consumers and how they're going to react to this. I'm open-minded to it personally
13:57
I don't think it's, you know, I think it's different. It's something we've never seen before, but I don't think it's a bad idea. But I'm really curious to hear what you guys think about this
14:05
This is a topic that I think, you know, I would love to discuss further maybe on one of our
14:09
after-party hangouts, especially because, you know, the bourbon industry right now is kind of
14:13
in a weird spot. You know, younger generations aren't drinking as much alcohol as they have. So
14:18
So, you know, with new operations like this popping up, how is it going to last long term
14:23
Is this going to be something people are interested in long term? Are these smaller brands going to keep popping up like this
14:27
Or are we going to see a lot of these brands, unfortunately, having to consolidate or close down
14:33
I'm really curious to see what you guys think of this. But me, I'm going into it with an open mind
14:38
I would love to try, you know, their distillate and see what's coming out of there before I make a true judgment
14:42
But, yeah, the machines are taking over. All right, well, that's about it for this week's news, but it's time for our bourbon booze bite-sized review
15:00
All right, well, as I hinted towards at the top of this podcast episode, this bourbon booze is a weird one
15:08
So like I said, not a bourbon, not a scotch, not a whiskey at all
15:12
Instead, this is being labeled as a spirit drink, but I did find it on the whiskey aisles, so I'm considering it part of the series
15:20
Okay, judge me if you want. This is Buchanan's Pineapple. This is crafted with scotch whiskey, pineapple, citrus, and other natural flavors
15:30
I've seen this on the shelves for years, and I always wonder why
15:34
Like, I just think scotch and pineapple is not a flavor profile that is that popular
15:39
But actually, I did find a little bit more info as to why this exists
15:43
So Buchanan's is a blended scotch whiskey, but it's really popular internationally, especially in Mexico
15:50
I've heard that Buchanan's is one of the most readily available blended scotches there
15:54
Can confirm I've been to Mexico and I can confirm I've seen Buchanan's on the shelves
15:59
But what a lot of people in Mexico do with scotch is instead of blending it with soda or, you know, other types of cocktails where they have drambuie for, you know, like a rusty nail
16:08
they actually drink scotch with pineapple juice and it's just a common mixed drink that folks drink
16:14
down in New Mexico. So I think that's why Buchanan's was like, hey, let's go ahead and bottle the
16:19
pineapple flavor in with our scotch and see if people buy it. Now, I don't know how successful
16:24
the Buchanan's pineapple product is. I also have no idea what to expect this to taste like
16:29
I did review the Jim Beam pineapple that came out relatively recently over on YouTube
16:34
did a live stream featuring that one, and that one was actually surprisingly good
16:38
I didn't expect that flavor profile to work at all, especially with a bourbon, but it really did
16:44
So my hopes for Buchanan Pineapple are relatively elevated just because of that experience with the bourbon but still going into it with a bit of hesitancy Now for the rest of these bourbon booze reviews or just my bourbon bite reviews in general I typically
16:59
drink things neat versus you know on the rocks or in a cocktail however every single piece of
17:05
marketing and info I can find about Buchanan's pineapple mentioned drinking it over ice so I
17:11
don't necessarily think this is even meant to be drank neat in this instance I'm actually going to
17:15
port over ice just to have that true Buchanan's pineapple experience. In terms of ABV this one
17:22
comes in at 35% or 70 proof as with a lot of other flavored whiskeys although like I said
17:27
this one doesn't necessarily count as a whiskey because it is a spirit drink. It is a product of
17:31
Scotland though it's definitely got scotch in it. Let's go and get that poured. Oh wow even without
17:37
you know getting up in the nose of this I can smell that pineapple flavor and they do say it's
17:42
actually made with pineapple. Made with pineapple, citrus, and other natural flavors. So there's
17:48
definitely some element of pineapple here in the spirit itself. By the way, in terms of pricing
17:53
this comes in at about $25 for a full-size bottle of it. I just have a sample bottle of it here
17:58
today. And to put it into perspective, regular Buchanan's just the 12-year release is $24
18:03
so about the same price. Let's go ahead and give this Buchanan's pineapple a nose
18:07
oh wow yeah straight up pineapple juice wow that's a very natural smelling um pineapple note
18:15
you know not to say that like i'm a pineapple expert but i have been to the dole plantation
18:19
in hawaii so very familiar with fresh pineapple and i will say they nailed the nose here nothing
18:25
about this smells like whiskey scotch alcohol it just smells like straight up pineapple juice which
18:30
is really good it's like a sweetened pineapple on the nose definitely smells like something that i
18:34
would be enjoying on the beach somewhere. Now I wish I would have had Buchanan's recently just to
18:39
kind of see if I can find those flavor notes associated with that blended scotch. Unfortunately
18:44
there's not much shining through on the nose here beyond the pineapple which again isn't a bad thing
18:49
I don't think this is meant for people that take scotch a little too seriously but that doesn't
18:53
mean it can't be a delicious drink. So let's go to give it a try. Cheers. Oh interesting it's very
19:01
delicate. Hmm. Okay. Very different than a lot of flavored whiskeys that I've tried lately, which
19:07
are, you know, overly sweet and, you know, thick and syrupy. This really isn't. Even with ice
19:13
which usually kind of makes things even more syrupy, this one is really approachable. You
19:19
can definitely taste the scotch compared to the nose. You know, all I could smell was pineapple, but on the palate, it's definitely got that blended scotch flavor, you know, a little cereal
19:26
grain, a little floral, fruity for sure. The pineapple is very balanced though with that
19:32
scotch note. Honestly, this kind of reminds me of a rum. I'm sure I've had pineapple flavored rum at
19:39
some point, but I'm not talking about like the cheap flavored rum where it's just, you know
19:42
like white rum and then flavor added. It almost is like an aged rum, but with natural flavors
19:48
You know, I could see making tiki drinks out of this. Like I'm a huge fan of tiki cocktails
19:53
else i think this would be a good replacement for maybe like malibu which is i know coconut but
19:57
i could see this working in a similar way that malibu works also let's be real the bottle looks
20:03
very tiki bar um i do love it but yeah i'm super surprised that this isn't overwhelmingly sweet
20:08
and it still maintains a lot of the characteristic you would find from a blended scotch i kind of
20:13
don't hate it honestly like this is probably one of the best bourbon booze we've had so far
20:18
this month. Is this something that I'm going to drink regularly? No. I probably wouldn't drink it
20:23
neat. Maybe the Mexican Scotch drinkers are on to something because this makes me really curious to
20:29
explore this further. Now of course I have to give it a score because we give everything a score here
20:34
on the podcast but I am considering the fact that this is a flavored whiskey or not even a
20:38
flavored whiskey a flavored spirit drink so that's going to go into my review but so is the
20:42
costs. And I think in terms of, you know, whiskey flavored spirits, this is one of the better ones
20:48
I've had. So I think out of 10, I'll have to give this a 6.5 out of 10. Now, I think if I had more
20:57
time with it and I could explore putting it to cocktails, I might could even bump that up higher
21:01
But just on the rocks, this is not a bad pour at all. It's not something I'm going to choose to
21:05
drink very frequently. But if I do see it on the shelves while I'm at my next all-inclusive resort
21:11
in Mexico which I'm trying to do again next year hopefully. It's been a couple years since we've
21:15
gone down to Mexico or we've done cruises recently but we haven't actually stayed in Mexico for a
21:20
while so if I see this on the pool bar I'll be ordering myself a pour over ice because it really
21:27
is nice and it tastes like scotch. Honestly finding good whiskey in Mexico is hard because there's so
21:33
much good agave spirits from mezcal to tequila. That's usually what I'm drinking on when I'm down
21:37
there but sometimes you might want a good uh nice scotch on the rocks and this does that but adds a
21:43
little bit more tropical vibes to it so yeah definitely don't be afraid of this one it's not
21:48
as scary as you would think even though it is part of bourbon booze all right well thank you all so
21:54
much for listening I think that does it for this week's episode like I said I won't be live today
21:58
on YouTube but I'll be live this Saturday um this next couple weeks are going to be a little wonky
22:03
in terms of my schedule but please bear with me I promise to update you when and when I will not
22:07
be live so thank you all this has been the bourbon bites podcast a whiskey podcast with
22:12
a gaming twist cheers and i'll talk to you next episode
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