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Trader Joe’s Barrel Proof Bourbon & What the Heck is Amburana Finished Whiskey?
May 10, 2026
Today I'm reviewing a peculiar bourbon whiskey from Trader Joes that was bottled at barrel entry proof, talking about a new TTB label for single barrel picks of Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey from Heaven Hill, as well as doing a deep dive into why Amburana casks from Brazil and South America are the latest craze in whiskey finishing, featured by iconic brands such as Nulu, Rare Character, WhistlePig, Teeling, and Starlight Distillery, as well as several American Craft breweries.
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Today on the Bourbon Bites Podcast, I'm reviewing the Trader Joe's Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey bottled at 125 proof
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and doing a deep dive on Ambarana casks and how they're taking the whiskey industry by storm
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Hello everyone and welcome to the Bourbon Bites Podcast. Today is Friday, June 24th, and I'm reviewing a whiskey I forgot that I wanted to try
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This is the Trader Joe's Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Limited Release that was bottled at barrel entry proof
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So this is a 125 proof bourbon. Sometimes this is called a foolproof bourbon depending on the brand
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This came out the very end of last year. I actually had a friend pick it up for me early this year, and I completely forgot about it
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he actually forgot as well it's set in his closet for months but i'm so excited to finally have a
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chance to try and review this whiskey now they don't reveal where this is actually produced at
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but we can assume it is a barton product it just says distilled by bourbon square distilling company
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in louisville but sources say that it's most likely barton very similar to a 1792 full proof
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especially being the same 125 proof now this whiskey was only 30 and when you consider the
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fact that it's 125 proof you know full proof that is a steal of a price so I'm
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gonna get it poured and let's go in and see is this whiskey any good for 30 bucks
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now it's worth mentioning the shape of this bottle it is very similar if not
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the exact same bottle as a Rock Hill Farms which is a Buffalo Trace release it
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actually looks really nice and I'd heard that this had been bottled at Buffalo
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Trace when the TTB label came out I remember everyone was excited that it was potentially gonna be a Buffalo Chase release but like I said sources have said it's most likely
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Barton but I will say it does look pretty nice in this bottle of course Rock Hill Farms does a lot
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better job with the label design and the cork but yeah it's it's a really nice looking bottle
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speaking of Buffalo Trace they actually did release a benchmark foolproof that came out
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end of 2020 I believe I actually did a live stream where I reviewed all of those benchmark
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releases. They did like a top shelf one, a single barrel, full proof. Those are all very, very
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affordable, probably cheaper than this bottle. So if you're curious about my thoughts on what a
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Buffalo Trace 125 proof budget bottle would be, definitely check out that stream. I believe it
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was like a Las Vegas stream that we did with our friends, Brian and Tammy Brinecke. But that was so
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much fun tasting through all of those releases. So this one, you know, it's Barton. I don't have
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the best history with liking Barton other than some really incredible private barrel selections
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of the 1792 foolproof. I actually have a bottle of that pulled down right now that I'll compare
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this to towards the end since it's most likely the same stuff, just a bit younger. But first
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let's go ahead and give this Trader Joe's bourbon a nose. Oh yeah, there's that banana nut bread
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note that I know and sometimes love. Like I said, like Barton, I don't dislike Barton. Let me make
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that clear. You know, some of the old Barton releases I've had that, you know, the Hunter Proof
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one are really solid for the price. I just think most things that are from Barton have a little bit
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too much banana for me personally, unless they're just like a really good single barrel pick like
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these ones that I've been getting. The first one I had was from Costco, actually. And the one that
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I have right here is from K&L here in Hollywood. But, you know, sometimes banana isn't the end of
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the world for me, because if it's like a banana, like a baked banana nut bread, I actually kind of
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like that note. It's just when the banana gets a bit like artificial banana, like Runt's candy
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banana, that I really have a problem with it. And some Barton does do that. But on the nose, no
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this actually smells really nice. I mean, it's really hard to describe anything more than banana
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nut bread because it's so dominantly flavored like that. I mean, that's just the first thing
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that comes into my mind and it's not even subtle with it. It's definitely like a kind of cakey kind
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of dessert with really ripe bananas, a little bit of nuttiness there as well. So again, that's just
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the best way I can describe it, but let's go and give this a taste. Cheers. I gotta say the proof
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is the first thing you get. That 125 proof is no joke, but this one though, it's really sweet. I
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think that's the second thing that hits you. It's not just, you know, the typical bourbon notes that
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are first to me. It's the proof and then the sweetness. It's like a brown sugar, kind of like
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baking spices, like maybe even like gingerbread kind of note when it first hits your tongue
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and then mid-palate you get more of those like banana bread notes that we were getting on the
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nose. I will say there's a nice rye spice there as well. At first, I was interpreting it as kind
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of like a licorice kind of note, I guess I would say, but I think it's just a rye spice
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which I assume is probably the same mash bill as 1792. If not, it's definitely a high rye
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bourbon mash bill. And that kind of makes the, you know, dessert cakiness of it a bit more like
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you know, a rye bread. It's an interesting combination of flavors, and I feel like a bit different than any other Barton product I've ever tried. And the finish is, you know
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medium to medium long i mean it kind of lingers with that banana um there's also like a bit of
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ethanol hanging out you know the proof comes back in on the finish of it um but it still it finishes very dessertly dessertly is that a word it finishes with a lot of those dessert notes but still the heat you know definitely a Kentucky hug going on here
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Honestly, I didn't know what to expect from this release, you know, based on my experience with Barton
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but this is really solid. I mean, for 30 bucks, I don't really think you could find much of a better deal
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for a whiskey this high proof. And like I said, there are the benchmark foolproof releases
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I think this is better than the benchmark foolproof I tried. If you are a fan at all of Barton
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or if you've had some 1792 products, I think you're really going to enjoy this for the price
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I think $30 is just a solid deal, especially if you like the foolproof releases
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Now, like I said, I did want to do a quick little comparison here to the 1792 foolproof single barrel that I have
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I normally save these type of things for live streams on YouTube, but I figured this will be real quick
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So let's go and get that poured. now as i just poured the 1792 foolproof i'm realizing that the back of the bottle says that
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this was distilled um in bardstown kentucky where the trader joe's whiskey says distilled in louisville
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kentucky so it adds more to the mystery about where this is actually from i mean i think based
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on taste alone i mean it's most certainly barton we know buffalo trace as the distiller was the
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one that filed the ttb label some people suspected this is the same stuff as you know blends i mean
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it does come in the rock hill farms looking bottle i don't get that if anything i mean if i think back
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to louisville i mean the only thing it tastes like from louisville is like old forester and i feel
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like i think we would know if it was old forester because it wouldn't be labeled as everything you know sazerac so again it's it's never been confirmed it's just up in the air but let's go
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and try the 1792 and and see how it compares first let's give it a nose uh on the nose they are a
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little bit different. I think the ethanol definitely comes forward on the 1792, believe it or not
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You know, I thought the other one on the nose, it didn't really come across as so high proof. It was
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very clearly like a banana nut bread dessert. But the 1792, at least this pick of it, is very
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ethanol forward. Behind that, there's a little bit of like the, the Runt's banana, which I don't
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remember getting on this bottle. Now, this bottle's only been open for probably a couple weeks now
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I had another pick of it that I absolutely loved. This is from a different store, so I'm not sure, you know, if it's going to be as good as that one
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But I will say this one's reading a little bit more of, like, the Runtz flavor that I don't love
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Let's go ahead and give it a taste. Okay, that's a lot more familiar than the nose
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I was getting a bit worried. I thought, like, oh, I thought I liked this pick. But, no, that's definitely solid
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Although, to be fair, it's not, I'll be real, this pick that I'm drinking right now is not as good as my first pick of 1792 Foolproof
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This one is from K&L, which I love. They do some amazing picks
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I just had a private barrel selection from Costco that was worlds and worlds beyond everything
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I've ever had from 1792. Like I said, I'm not normally a Barton fan, but that one private select that I had from
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them blew my mind. It was just delicious, like soaked, saturated, caramel-y banana bread
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It was so good. This one, though, is still the banana bread. It's definitely more of like the banana and it's not as ripe
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It's more of, like I said, the artificial banana flavor, which I'm a little disappointed by
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Which almost makes me feel like, do I prefer the Trader Joe's bourbon over the 1792 Foolproof
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Let me go back to the Trader Joe's. Flavor-wise, the palate of the Trader Joe's is a lot hotter
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The ethanol reads a lot more. It's less oaky, for sure. You can tell it's a younger product
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The 1792 has a bit more depth to it. It has a bit of an oaky richness. But I will say, as a balanced whiskey, the 1792 absolutely gets my vote
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you can tell that this one has more age to it. It comes across just way more well-balanced
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and it's reminded me a lot of how I felt about the Benchmark Foolproof. To me, that was a really
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nice flavor, but the body, the character of it just didn't fully convince me that it was a high-priced
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bourbon, even though it is, you know, foolproof. But as we know, age does a lot for whiskey
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especially bourbon. So when you're comparing, you know, like a four to five-year-old product
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supposedly, to like an eight to nine-year-old product, I think I prefer the older ones
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especially, I mean, look at some of my favorite bourbons, you know, Knob Creek 12, as well as some
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of the other 10-year-olds and 9-year-olds. I think I do appreciate a bit more age, and that's why I'm
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leaning towards the 1792. But for half the price, I mean, dang, this Trader Joe's bourbon is an
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absolute buy if you like Barton. But yeah, well done, Trader Joe's, and definitely recommend
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picking this one up. So before we do our deep dive into a South American type of wood that's sweeping
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the market right now. I want to mention a new TTB label that I came across that I think you guys
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should know about. This is from Heaven Hill and it is a Rittenhouse Rye single barrel pick that's
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going to be made available to people doing barrel picks. I was definitely a bit taken back by this
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one. I mean, Rittenhouse Rye is a staple when it comes to cocktails. A lot of really nice cocktail
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bars here in the Los Angeles area use it for making things like Manhattans and, you know
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fancy rye cocktails so i guess i don't know why i was a bit surprised about it being a single barrel
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product i guess you know it makes sense especially with a lot of cocktail culture it being kind of
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like a staple i could see people wanting to maybe tailor and tweak that flavor profile to find
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exactly what works for them especially for cocktails however i i thought that like honestly
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thought that elijah craig rye would be the more obvious choice for picks i mean elijah craig rye
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gets forgotten about it a relatively new product it only hit a few states when it first came out i I had to get my mom to hand deliver it to me from South Carolina when it first came out But yeah Elijah Craig Rye is a little bit more expensive than Rittenhouse It about more It been assumed to be a bit more age on it It only 94 proof compared to
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the 100 proof of Rittenhouse. But just with the fact that they've established a barrel pick kind
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of, you know, label and look for Elijah Craig, I was kind of surprised that the Rittenhouse wasn't
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the same as that because they're the same mash bill. Heaven Hill only makes one Rye mash bill
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as far as I'm aware. So I, and I think it's, you know, maybe limiting the fact that it's a
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Rittenhouse rye because Rittenhouse rye is a bottled and bond product, which means, you know
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it has to be, you know, in the same warehouse in the same distilling season. So age wise
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I don't know how much variation there is with a Rittenhouse rye. Now I could be wrong, you know
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they could have some four to seven, you know, 10 year old Rittenhouse rye out there waiting to be
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picked. But I just assume most Rittenhouse rye with the price point that it is, you know, around
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$23. I would assume it's on the lower end, you know, like the four to five years old
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So I'm almost wondering how much variation there really is between the Rittenhouse Rye barrels
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I just assume with like Elijah Craig Rye, they would have different ages, you know
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lots of different warehouses and a lot more variation there for the single barrel picks. I just, I'm a bit surprised that Rittenhouse Rye is the choice for this program. But again
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I'm a big fan of Rittenhouse Rye. So depending on the price of these picks, I absolutely would pick
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them up i love heaven hill riot you know with pikesville being their higher end there i think
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it's seven year age dated i think that one's 114 proof so that was you know the high proof option
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um heaven hill riot was one of my first rise that i fell in love with before i fell in love with you
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know 100 rise 95.5 rise uh so i i am excited for this i just think it's a bit of an odd choice to
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go with the written house rye i'm curious for you guys listening you know do you think this is a
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weird choice or do you think this is the perfect choice i would love to hear your thoughts on that
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By the way, I want to give a shout out to our Discord community, which has been very, very active lately
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We have not just patrons there, but listeners and viewers of the channel from all over the world
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You know, if you're looking for a new community to just hang out with, we do random hangouts throughout the week, you know, no matter what time people are usually hanging out
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But not just that, we have different rooms for, you know, movies and music and video games
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And of course, you know, what bottles you've been picking up lately. So if you're looking for a community to share those things with, you know, that may not be as toxic and sometimes cringeworthy as some Facebook groups, definitely join the Bourbon Bites Whiskey and Gaming Lounge Discord server
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You can go to bourbonbites.com. There's a link tree there. Just scroll to the bottom
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You'll see a link to the Discord. If you're not yet a member there, please join us. It's super welcoming
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It's a great community. And I just love chatting with you guys, you know, pretty much every day
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I'm checking it, seeing what you guys are talking about. So always looking for new members and definitely share your thoughts on this episode of the podcast in the podcast channel
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And let me know if you guys are excited for these Rittenhouse Rye Picks or Trader Joe's Bourbon or whatever we're talking about
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I love, you know, inspiring conversation based on this podcast. So speaking of conversation, I was inspired by a couple new TTB labels to do a bit of a deep dive on a new to me type of wood
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So get ready to get nerdy. I'm really excited about this. And I think you guys are going to start seeing a lot more of this type of finish popping up in whiskey, especially American whiskey
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But there's a few other types of spirits that have used this wood
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And I think it's something that, you know, as a whiskey lover, you'd like to be aware of, especially if you start seeing this pop up on labels
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So this was actually inspired by two new TTB labels that I came across. One is for a Nulu bourbon that is finished in Ambarana casks
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Now, I don't know if it's Ambarana, Ambarana. I did a little bit of research
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I heard it pronounced both ways. So I think it's kind of either or, but this is my first time seeing this
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And this is for a new experimental cask series. They've always tried a bunch of things
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You know, I wasn't as interested in it until I started reading a bit further and saw another
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bourbon label that is also finished in Ambarana barrels. This is the Rare Character Single Barrel series
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They're releasing a cask-threnth bourbon also finished in Ambarana casks. So at this point, I was like, okay, wait, what is Ambarana or Ambarana
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So this is actually a type of wood from South America, most prominently Brazil
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it's most often used for aging a type of spirit called cachaça
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And this is a rum-like sugarcane spirit that's made primarily in South America
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And they age in these barrels that impart so much flavor in so little time
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So that's kind of where it's traditionally been used for the cachaça. But now it's starting to kind of leak into not just the bourbon industry, but the craft beer industry
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And I feel like I want to credit the craft beer industry for kind of highlighting this
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Because based on an article from craftbeer.com, it says that there was a competition back in 2018 called the Great American Beer Festival
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And the winner of the gold medal from that festival was called 70K Ambarana, which was a 13% imperial milk stout from Against the Grain Brewery in Louisville, Kentucky
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And that was one of the first American craft beer distilleries to use this cask
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And it ended up winning a gold medal. They say that this was blended from, you know, it was a bourbon barrel aged beer because obviously, right, Kentucky
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They went on to finish it in a Brazilian barrel, and it seems like everyone was just thrilled
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by the amount of flavor that was imparted from that barrel. Brewmaster for that distillery, Jerry Nagy, says
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Whatever you tasting whether it cocoa spices vanilla or cinnamon it all in the wood So let talk about whiskey because this is a whiskey podcast after all so in may of 2019 whistle pig released a 12 year old 95 rye from mgp that was finished for only 10 days
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in the ambarana casks now this is part of their old world cask finish series um i actually didn't
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realize this was a 12 year old mgp holy crap that sounds amazing i wish i could get my hands on it
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now but that was a 2019 release so it's probably long gone but reviews say that one had a really
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strong kind of toasted coconut kind of note so they were the first one that i was able to find
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in terms of whiskey using this cask but they were definitely not the last because in november of
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2020 teeling out of ireland released a new series called wonders of wood and this first release i
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believe was their 14 year old whiskey that was mostly aged in bourbon barrels of course because
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that's traditional with irish whiskey but then they finished it in virgin amberana brazilian
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hardwood and they say this gave this whiskey a strong carrot cake taste with hints of vanilla
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cardamom and walnut reviews say this one is like christmas in a glass so another one that i really
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wish i could get my hands on i love teeling as a distillery honestly i'd love to have them on the
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channel because they've put out some incredible different releases different styles of irish
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whiskey and i'm a huge huge teeling fan now when it comes to american whiskey as far as i can tell
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the first one to actually start using this cask was Starlight Distillery out of Indiana
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So they have a release called Huber's Cigar Batch, which is a bourbon whiskey finished
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in the Ambarana cask for three to eight months. So again, very relatively short finishing time
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especially when we're talking about, you know, just wood casks, you know, it's not like a rum finish or a, you know, a wine finish. These are just solely these barrels. They're able to impact
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that much flavor in a very short amount of time. This one is described as being a full
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on cinnamon toast crunch flavor with stewed berries weaved in and out and a minty tobacco
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note but the cinnamon sugar nutmeg and vanilla are in the lead so sounds fantastic people actually
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this is the one that kind of i think caught a lot of people's attention i saw on when the ttb
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labels came out for the new releases from both new loo and rare character a lot of the comments
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were like if this is anywhere nearly as good as starlight's releases then i'm 100 in for this so
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I have unfortunately not had the opportunity to try Ambarana, or I hope I haven't mispronounced
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this whole time, and it's, you know, Ambarana. Again, I heard it both ways, so I'm just going
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with what feels more right. But doing this research and a bit of a deep dive, I know I
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nerded out a bit, but I'm so, so excited to try some whiskeys finished here. I think Nulu is
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probably the most approachable for me to get, at least here in Southern California. Nulu is pretty
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available. These experimental casts are kind of hit or miss where you can find them. If you happen
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have a whiskey you know whether it's the Nulu or the Teeling or even the Whistlepig that have
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been finished in these casks and you're willing to share a sample please email me contact at
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bourbonbites.com would love a chance to try this and see what this this magical Brazilian or South
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American wood tastes like because it's really really caught my interest and hopefully it catches
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on because we're seeing it pop up pretty much everywhere so just want to let you guys know
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about that maybe you know it's something that you already know about or something you're learning about today so um y'all know i like sharing a bit of uh not just news but some deep dives as well
19:19
i actually haven't done that in the podcast in a while so if you appreciate that let me know and since this podcast is running very very long um i don't want to dive into a bunch of video game
19:28
news but i do want to let you guys know um i've mentioned on the podcast before i'm part of a
19:32
dungeons and dragons game we call it dungeons and drams we go live on youtube every tuesday night
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at 9 30 eastern 6 30 pacific it's with my friends bill the whiskey dick who is our dungeon master
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I'm playing along with Jason from the Mashin' Drum Ed from the Rock Gut Review
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and our friend Molly from Hugging the Cactus which is a type 1 diabetes blog
19:50
we're having a ton of fun with it I think we're on episode 11 but I do want to let you guys know
19:55
if you guys prefer podcasts Bill actually just launched the podcast version of this
20:00
so if you go on whatever platform you're on it's actually a Podbean podcast
20:04
just like this one but you can find it everywhere and search Dungeons and Drams
20:08
you'll be able to find that the first episode is already up he's kind of cutting it down for a podcast
20:13
audio forward type format. Now, just a heads up, you know, the first few episodes, we definitely were really bad
20:18
about calling out what our roles were. And we were also, it's my first time playing Dungeons and Dragons
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So I was a complete noob to the entire experience. So I definitely struggled a bit at the beginning
20:28
But, you know, later on episodes, we ended up getting a hang of it. And I've been just having an absolute blast with it
20:33
My character is named Nobilis, named after, of course, Knob Creek, one of my favorite bourbons
20:39
And he is a half elf warlock, if you are a D&D fan
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But even if you're not, you know, definitely check it out. It's definitely a lot of fun doing a bit of role playing there
20:48
And I will say I'm very, very proud of my character. And I'm really excited to see his secrets revealed in further episodes
20:54
But with that, thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed it, make sure to leave me a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform
21:02
I'll be happy to read it out on a future episode if you'd like. But until next time, this has been the Bourbon Bites Podcast
21:08
Cheers, and I'll talk to you next episode
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