Bourbon Showdown Podcast Bourbon Showdown Podcast

This week we welcome Tara Lindley and the return of High West! Tara is of course High West’s Director of Sensory QA & New Product Development, one of the coolest titles in whiskey and her and I sit down and we talk BOU-RYE! It’s a fantastic conversation with Tara this week as we talk about what brought her to whiskey and how she has built her palette and developed her sensory skills. She also lets me geek out on how she puts her blends together and how people just getting started in whiskey can set their palette up for success, it’s a great episode and we can’t thank Tara enough for coming back on this weeks episode of The Bourbon Showdown Podcast!

This week we welcome Oaklore Distilling to the show! Coming to you straight from the distillery in North Carolina, we sit down with cofounders Matt Simpkins and Tom Bogan and head of sales & commercial operations Jack Shute to talk NC whiskey! We talk about how this North Carolina whiskey brand came to be, what it takes to stand up a new brand in todays whiskey landscape and all the good whiskey that is coming out of Oaklore right now. We drink through Oaklore’s Bourbon and Rye whiskey with a surprise Port finished whiskey to take us home. It’s a fantastic conversation that we got to do at the distillery, which is always special because you get to sit and share whiskey in person and that’s really what it’s all about. We were excited to have Oaklore Distilling on this weeks episode of The Bourbon Showdown Podcast. 

This week we welcome Rifino Valentine, founder of Valentine Distilling and Mayor Pingree Whiskey. We sit down and talk about how he got into the whiskey business and all the changes and growth he has seen since starting Valentine Distilling. He has an awesome perspective on what it takes to make good whiskey and has been in the game since before the boom. It was great having him on the show, learning more about the good whiskey the state of Michigan is making and tasting through some badass bottles of Mayor Pingree on this weeks Bourbon Showdown Podcast!

This week, Jesse welcome Ari Sussman back onto the show to talk the new Whiskey JYPSI, Explorer. The first in a series of whiskey releases that embodies that JYPSI spirit for whiskey adventure. Him and I dive into a tall pour and he walks me through what went into this inaugural Explorer release and how this whiskey truly embodies that EXPLORER spirit. We go everywhere from the forests of France to the hills of the Appalachian mountains with a pit stop in Eric Church’s backyard, we talk about the whole teams involvement in making this unique and flavor-forward whiskey and then WE DRINK IT! It’s a great conversation with Ari, and we were happy to have him back on this weeks episode of The Bourbon Showdown Podcast.

This week we welcome Mike Montgomery and Blue Run back to the show, that’s right my buddy Mike is back on to talk all things BLUE RUN!  We talk  Trifecta and Emerald Rye, which both recently won double gold and gold respectively at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. We talk about how Blue Run got started and how Mike assembled a whiskey dream team when starting the brand, how the living legend Jim Rutledge has been such an intricate part of the Blue Run story  and of course we we dive into how they are now part of the Molson Coors family and how that will help them continue their growth into the whiskey future. A brilliant move by both Blue Run and Coors Spirits co.. It’s a fantastic conversation and as always I can’t thank Mike enough for being on the show. It’s Blue Run and Mike Montgomery on this weeks Bourbon Showdown Podcast! 

This week we welcome Elizabeth McCall, the Master Distiller from Woodford Reserve back to the show to talk all things Kentucky Derby! We talk about how Woodford is the Presenting Sponsor of the Kentucky Derby, “The Greatest Two Minutes in Sports” and we talk about the release of the 2024 commemorative Derby bottle, featuring the artwork of Kentucky native Wylie Caudill, and of course we talk their new Woodford Reserve Kentucky Derby 150 Baccarat Edition! It’s the Kentucky Derby go home show on this weeks Bourbon Showdown Podcast!