Drinking 7 Whiskeys: San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2023

0:00 Hey everyone. Before we get into today's episode, I just want to remind you that we have a ton of extra content over on our Patreon. We do movie watch parties, special Patreon bonus episodes, and all other sorts of wacky stuff that you can access easily if you head on over to patreon.com/filmwhiskey. Well, hey, everybody. Welcome into the Film and Whiskey Podcast.

0:40 I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And we're coming at you with another special bonus episode. Brad, we try to be timely on this podcast, but listen, we are a podcast that reviews whiskeys that are already out. And movies that have been out for 50 years. So like, you know, it's kind of hard clues, kind of hard for. Only only 50 years ago. It's hard for us to keep up with current events on this podcast sometimes. Like, I know that we could chase the clicks, we could chase the views. If we reviewed every movie that comes out every week or if every time somebody releases a new barrel proof version of Elijah Craig or something, we review that. But that's not what we're about here, so. I'm going to say this disclaimer for this episode. Listen, I know that it's July.

1:31 We all are aware of what month it is. And what we're doing today is we are reviewing and retasting some whiskeys that won golds and double golds at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, one of the biggest and best spirits competitions in the world. I said all that because that competition took place in April and it is now July. So listen. I know that this is not the sexiest of topics, we're not getting all those all those clicks at this point, but. All those sweet, sweet downloads. Let me explain to you, dear listeners, why it takes so long to produce an episode like this. Hey, we were not judges in San Francisco, and so we didn't find out what won golds and double Golds for like a month after the competition.

2:18 Like you start to like they they tell the distillers, hey, you want a gold medal and you start to see like random posts from distillers that are like, hey, we want a gold medal. But they don't release this master list of whiskeys and spirits to the public until like May. It's a giant Excel document that you can download. And So what happens is I get this list in like, may I. Furiously scroll through it trying to find everybody who's won a gold or double gold that we haven't already tried on the podcast before. I send all of them emails. Some of them respond and say, yes, you can taste our whiskey. Then we have to wait for the whiskeys to get shipped to us. And then once they get shipped to us, we have to look at our schedule and say when do we have bonus episodes coming out.

2:59 Brad, listen, it takes time to schedule a thing like this. So we know. We know it's been 3 months, but now you get to hear us review 7 whiskeys. You sure do what I hear you saying, Bob is. It takes time to make a thing go right. That's it. Takes 2. Come on, it takes 2 can. You to make it out of sight, can you? It takes the two of us, Brad. It does. I'm trying to work with. You it does take the two of us, that's for sure. Or it could take 7 because we're drinking 7 whiskeys today, folks. The Lord's number. We are not pairing this up with any sort of movie related content. If you'd like to listen to some movie stuff, we've got a great episode out this week with film critic Bilga Abiri talking about The Prestige.

3:40 Right now it is all whiskey all the time, baby. So with that said, Brad, where do you want to start today? We've got 7 whiskeys to try. When I sampled these, I went in the order of proof, like I went from the lowest proof one to the highest proof. One same thing, Bob. Well then, where does that land us? Where should we start today? We need to start in my family's home state of Iowa with the Cedar Ridge quintessential. We have not had a Cedar Ridge product on this podcast in a long, long time. Cedar Ridge is doing incredible things out there in Iowa. They're known for their experimentation both with their bourbons and now especially with their single malts, which they are calling the Quint essential after their Master Distiller, Murphy Quint.

4:26 This is a 92 proof, 100% barley mash bill. It won a double gold and it was a finalist for best in class. So it's like one of three or four that made it to the very finals for American single malts at San Francisco this year. Brad, not to spoil things too much, this is a damn good whiskey. It really is, yeah. If I had to just give overall notes, this thing had like cherry juice and malted barley and vanilla and honey. The finish was kind of oaky charcoal. It got a little bit. Bitter at the end, but not in a bad way. Almost reminded me of kale a little bit. I was very, very a very big fan of this whiskey. Bob I got bubble gum on the nose, which is not something I ever get with malted whiskey.

5:18 But I think that that's the cool thing about American single malt is that you can't go into it thinking this will smell like a Scotch. There is something singular and unique about a the malting process in the United States, but also. It's it's just like with wine, like Terroir makes a big difference and something that is distilled in the Pacific Northwest versus distilled in Iowa. It's going to taste different and this has like really really decadently sweet notes that you might get on a bourbon. For me it it really presented as like a powdery, almost like double bubble type bubble gum mixed with the malt. On the nose, I gave it an 8 on the nose I gave it an 8 1/2 on the pallet, I gave it an 8 on the finish. Which pretty much would translate to about a nine on the balance.

6:05 Brad, this is a really, really good whiskey. Yeah, I think that if I was scoring this out of 50 like like we normally do whiskeys at the end of the day, I would probably end up in the 35 to 37 out of 50 range. It's like really solid. I think the only thing for me was that it was just a little bit too. Grainy to be like transcendent, but it's so close. Like, I don't know if it just needs a little more aging or or what, but this is a a really, really great single ball coming out of Iowa. I will say I love that it's at 92 proof because I don't think it needs any more or any less than this. It never tasted watery and it tasted really robust and full at 92 proof.

6:48 I actually think that like if they tried to bottle this at 100, you know or or above, it would probably be a little too much ethanol on this. It really is just beautiful right where it's at. It's between 60 and $65 depending on where you're buying it. I think that's a really fair price for this. I'm going to give it a big thumbs up. Brad, how about you? Yeah, same here man. Buy anything you can find at Cedar Ridge? All right. We've got one down, 6 to go, Brad. Moving right along in our San Francisco roundup, what is the next one in Proof Point? Well, we have two We have the Bullock Bourbon and the Hunting Creek Rye, both falling at 100 proof.

7:28 Let's start with the Bullock Bourbon. So this is a $65 bottle of bourbon, Brad. It is bottled either at barrel strength or at 100 proof, but it's the same bourbon and you can buy it in. Two different forms. Like I said, $65 for the barrel proof. If you want the 100 proof version, which is what Brad and I are drinking and what won San Francisco, it's $50, which I think is very reasonable considering that it's a craft distiller. Stuff like that is so much fun because if you're like really getting into whiskey, it's fascinating to be able to drink the exact same whiskey at 100 and, you know, 2025 proof and then at 100. And just like compare what you're getting on the nose, on the palate, on the finish it like that's a really cool thing that they're doing.

8:18 So this is a sourced whiskey from MGP. It is then proof down after aging with karst water from Bullock's Cave in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, which means which makes the full name of this product. Brad. Bullock West Virginia Karst Water Select Straight Bourbon Whiskey Colon The Purveyors Collection. That is the longest name of a whiskey we have ever had on the podcast. It's almost like The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robber Ford of Whiskeys. It's between four and six years old. It is between 4:00 and 7:00 barrels in the small batch that we're drinking here. I got bubble gum once again Brad. This was the only the other one that I got bubble gum on and for me it turned into a very particular kind of candy and that is banana Laffy Taffy.

9:09 I got like a ton of that almost artificially sweet banana scent and I really, really loved it because it complimented the oakiness that I got on the nose of this as well. I gave it an 8 1/2 on the nose. Yeah, so the nose for me was caramel. Cherry came through. There was vanilla. And there was just a little bit of, I'm trying to put my finger on it, a little bit of a like a Corn Flakes that I I really enjoyed. When I got into the pallet, it went from that Corn flakes and turned into I I am sure that you did this at some point in your life, Bob, where you just had a bowl of corn flakes and you're like, you know what this needs? Like 3 spoonfuls of sugar on it.

9:57 Yeah. For me, it was like Rice Krispies. I would do that with the Rice Krispies. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like basically the same cereal. This tasted like sugared corn flakes to me. There was Cocacola. There was some cream soda going on. It was a little butterscotchy, but for me, the dominant note was like a bowl full of the sugariest corn flakes I'd ever had. And I thought it was incredible. So I had almost the opposite experience tasting this Brad. Like I wrote down much darker on the palate than it was on the nose, and it may be because I latched onto banana laffy taffy and then like if it doesn't taste like banana laffy. You know, yeah, yeah. But I did get a lot of Juicy Fruit gum on this, which is something I've never had on a whiskey before and I've only ever heard as a tasting note.

10:45 With a barrel pick, we did that. Somebody really like endemic at Watershed Distillery when she was working there, she said this barrel tastes like juicy fruit to me. I got that on this one, but with a much more okie and kind of herbaceous thing underlying it. And then when it got to the finish, for me, this is where the spice really kicked in. It was really spicy, really herbal. It did tip a little bit bitter for me at the end, and I think that they're like from the nose all the way through to the finish. There was a bit of a falloff for me on this one. See, this was actually probably one of my favorites of everything we had. I think that it does like it definitely melts into those baking spices, rye notes at the end.

11:30 I I think that if I scored it out, I'd probably be around a 40 to 41 out of 50. Here. I think it's a really nice, gentle, classic bourbon. But it has some of those really nice rye notes mixed in at the end that I I was really impressed. I'm definitely lower than you on this one. I think I'd be in the low 30s on this one. And if I think about it in terms of like thumbs up, thumbs down, I'm more like Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator where he like, turns his thumbs sideways before indicating which direction I'm there. I'm like, sideways thumb. Are you thumbs up? I'm a thumbs up here. Awesome. All right, so that's the Bullock. Let's get into this Hunting Creek Rye. This is a brand of rye that has been resurrected by Southern Distilling in North Carolina.

12:18 I'm just going to say like this, Brad, I'm a big fan of this whiskey. I like this one a lot. It is an it's an affordable whiskey $50.00 and it's 100 proof. It's bottled in bond and it is 51% rye in the mash bill. So it's like Gateway Rye for those looking to get into rye. Yeah, yeah, no, this is my favorite whiskey of the 7th. Really. I I oh dude, I thought this was incredible. Like the nose had rye coming through for me. It had some like woodsy like dew on pine needles type of thing going on. And then there was like a little bit of sweetness that came through, a little bit of a caramelly flavor that I was just like this has.

13:03 Everything I want out of a rye. So I I love the nose. Bob, where were you at? I like I'm right there with you man. And even just to tip into the palate a little bit here, I was shocked to go back and see that this was only 51% rye in the mash bill because it's so rye forward even on the nose. I'm like this is a rye drinkers rye. It smells like rye. It punches you in the face with rye and then when you go to sip it like the note that I took was. This is earthy, like, legit. It tastes like dirt. But I dig it. That's that's what I said. And I know that that might sound weird for people who aren't used to drinking whiskeys like that, but it reminded me of, like, topsoil and really dark like deep woods, roots and soil.

13:51 Like you said, dew and pine. It's just like, once again, it's a very manly whiskey, but I'm really into it. This is going to put some hair on your chest. If you're into that kind of thing, I love this a lot, man. Yeah, but it totally does. I think that if I was scoring this out, I'd probably be 4445 out of 50. Like this was an incredible rye that I wish I had five bottles of on my shelf. This is definitely a thumbs up for me. Maybe not quite as high of a thumbs up as you, just because I'm not the rye drinker of the two of us, but I think that says even more for it, right? Like it got the rye drinker stamp of approval here. As well as the Bourbon drinkers stamp of approval.

14:33 Yeah, no 100% this is 2 thumbs up for me. All right man, we are just cruising through these today. We're we got three down now, where we going next? Let's head to the world of whiskey with the World Whiskey Port Bourbon. This is a port finished bourbon that's coming in at 102 proof. And Bob, I I'm sure you can tell us more about it, but this is one of the strangest smelling bourbons that I've ever had in my life. Yeah. So this is from the World Whiskey Society, which is a group in I think based in Oklahoma. And their their whiskeys are all like super premium whiskeys. They select barrels and then they distribute it with their branding on it.

15:14 But like all of their whiskeys are $100 or more. I think this one clocks in at like 165 retail. This is a 10 year aged bourbon that is then finished in port casks. They've also sent us two other bottles that we're going to try on another episode, but this is the one that won gold at San Francisco. It is 102 proof. It's a 51% corn, 45% wheat, 4% malted barley mash bill. So it's almost equivalent corn to wheat, which is something that if I'm going to be frank about this whiskey. I did not get weeded bourbon notes on this whiskey at all, and I think the influence of the port must really be kind of taking over because I thought that this was going to taste like Rebel or like Weller or whatever, and it definitely does not.

16:01 No, for me, on the nose, I got mixed dark berries, I got plum, I got elderberry. I like anything that could be dark Berry. Is is this whiskey to the point where I like this? If somebody gave me this beverage, this liquid, and said smell it and drink it, I don't know if I would tell you that it was whiskey. What I would tell you is that it's freaking delicious. It's really good. Yeah. I mean, I could see somebody. I could see somebody duping me into thinking like. This is a really funky rum.

16:42 I understand where you're coming from because there is so much like I just wrote, grapey on the nose, really really nice prune scent as well. Like Brad, I've never had this experience just just for my knowledge of Christmas carols, but I imagined that like if you told me this is what figgy pudding tasted like, that is 100%. Like, it's just there's tons more grape than I expected. Lots of really dark stone fruit. And then you get to the finish and it's still fruit, but it's not sweet. And I think like, if you're ever going to Ding this for anything, weeded bourbon is typically very sweet on the pallet, in addition to being kind of light. There's not a lot of sweetness on this. But I did write down that I think this is a really interesting experiment in finishing. Is it the best whiskey of the seven? I'm not sure.

17:34 It might be the most unique one though. I think this is for sure like a 7 1/2 across the board for me out of 10 in like in every category. And it's really, really good. Like I got to give, I got to tip my hat to World Whiskey Society just because I've never had a port finished whiskey with this much port influence on it. Yeah, I was going to say. For me, as I got through the pallet, all of the fruitiness stayed. And there was like a a bunch of cinnamon coming through and almost like a spiced banana bread that I got. The finish was a dry red wine with cinnamon, like spicing it up Bob. This was one of the strangest, most delicious whiskies I've had in the last few years.

18:21 I I don't know what to do with it, but I'll be darned if it's not incredibly tasty. All right, we have 3 whiskeys left. They are all from the same company, albeit bottled under different brands. We're going to be dealing with a company called Proof and Wood and the first one we're going to try is called The Cabinet. Now this comes from a series of whiskeys that they produce called the DC Series. So when you read the cabinet, it makes a lot of sense. Washington DC, this is the cabinet barrel proof blend of straight whiskeys. So it's a blend of rye and bourbon. You can't call it bourbon, even if it. Is still more than 51% corn in the mash bill because you you can only blend bourbon with bourbon.

19:03 You can't blend with anything else and call it bourbon. It's just the law. So the mash bill on this is that in the rye part of it, it's a 95% rye, 5% barley mash bill. In the bourbon part of it, it's 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% barley. The different ryes that are used are aged for 9-7 and six years. The bourbon is aged for four years. It carries a $109.99 price tag. Brad, this is a premium whiskey at 112 proof. And it it deserves it, Bob. This is a really, really tasty whiskey. Like, the nose was like Christmas in a bottle. It was clove and nutmeg and almond.

19:47 And then it was like really creamy. And I like, literally, I just all I could think about was eggnog. This is like. The Platonic ideal of if you could try to produce a whiskey that pleased both Brad and Bob, because it was really, really rye forward on the nose and then right at the end, it was like tons of bourbon sweetness. And they weren't always like, they didn't always go together, but both of those components were always represented on the nose, on the taste, on the finish. So like, I don't know that I would necessarily call this the most cohesive experience, but it was always like. Here's rye, Okay, now that you've had the rye, here's bourbon. And I really dug that and I wrote down like by the time I got to the taste, my note was just, oh man, this is so good.

20:33 It's like a great rye and a great bourbon. I gave it a nine out of 10 on the taste, Brad. And I think that, like, overall, this may have been my favorite of the seven whiskeys. Yeah, that, yeah, this and that. Hunting Creek Rye were my two favorites by far. Like they they stood out among the the seven. I think that on the flavor for me, on the taste, I got creaminess. There was rye, there's vanilla, there was nutmeg. It was all those those spicy sweet things were coming through the finish. It was really heavily oaked. There was leather, there was almost like a nice dark clove coming in. Bob I I I can't say enough about the cabinet.

21:13 It's an incredible whiskey and and deserved what it won at San Francisco. All right. And then we're going to try 2 whiskeys from them that are bottled under their Tumbling Dice brand. Now Tumbling Dice is a brand that I've been aware of for a long time, Brad. I think going back to like season one or two of this podcast because I believe that our friends down at the Baton Rouge society picked a barrel of Tumbling Dice and I remember seeing it and hearing our friend Austin say how good it was and being like when are we going to get this on the podcast. So this it's been a long time coming to try Tumbling Dice, but they have both a bourbon and a rye that won gold and or double gold at San Francisco. I'd like to start with the bourbon, Brad, and I'll just say this upfront in transparency, I want to start with the bourbon because I preferred the rye. Did you prefer the ride to the bourbon as well? Yeah, definitely.

22:05 OK, and that's not to say the bourbon's bad by any stretch of the imagination. No, not at all. I think the bourbon struggled for me. It was a little bit too hot the the ethanol came through a little too strong. And it was just too grainy, like it tasted a little young for me. I think that the good stuff going on, it has a lot of caramel and vanilla. There's some leathery notes going on. It had some cocacola effervescence on the pallet. I got kind of a Sour Patch Kids kind of feel as it it slowly moved towards bitterness, but didn't quite become bitter. And that's why I say Sour Patch Kids. I don't know. Does that vibe with where you were at on the bourbon? Yeah, I mean my big note on the nose was like I I want to give this credit for not drinking too hot. So this is 116 proof single barrel of it says heavy rye mash bill bourbon.

22:58 This bourbon was aged for at least seven years. It does have 36% rye in the mash bill to go along with 60% corn and 4% barley and it doesn't have a ton of bitterness to it and which I think that sometimes high rye mash bills can really do. The problem for me was that it doesn't drink super hot, but it also just didn't have a ton of flavor to it. Like it was kind of muted for me a little bit, which I wasn't expecting at barrel proof. Still a good whiskey, but for me it didn't come close to touching this rye and I I don't know. Do you want to give any final thoughts on the bourbon before we jump into the rye? No. Let's let's get into this rye, man, because it's really, really tasty.

23:39 So I think that this is probably my second favorite whiskey and it may even it might even end up being my first favorite after I sip it again right now because this is along with a couple of the other rise we've tried today. This is a rye drinkers rye Brad. This is also a seven-year aged rye. It's a 95.5 mash bill distilled in Indiana. That's the famous Indiana mash bill. It clocks in at 117.56 proof. It is really freaking good and it has notes of dill on the nose like crazy for me. Yeah, this one had so much going on for me. The nose almost had like a pop of fresh orange along with some caramel.

24:20 There was black pepper and then the rye spices kind of started to overtake things. I think that when I got into the the flavor. It kind of let me down just a little bit. I I almost felt like there was yeah, I I almost feel like there was almost like an artificial sweetener flavor going on. Wow. Along with the rye, the caramel, there was some floraly notes. But the the biggest let off for me was that the finish, just the only note that lingered for me was artificial sweetener. Wow, I'm not getting that at all. And I will say like. It does get sweeter on the palate than it was on the nose. But you know, honestly, Brad, I think one thing that may be either, you know, consciously or unconsciously turning you off from this a little bit is that you are a noted hater of dill Pickles.

25:09 You do not like Pickles. And sometimes rye tips into dill, sometimes it's mint, sometimes it's other kind of herbs. This one is really dill forward and I am a noted lover of dill Pickles, so I'm a big fan of this. It definitely doesn't like overpower anything on the palate, but that dill is still there. And so for me, I'm really pleased with this because it's so consistent throughout. Like everything I got on the nose is there on the palate and then on the palate I get this nice little pop of sweetness to go with everything. The finish doesn't quite live up to the palate for me because it kind of falls off a Cliff a little bit, like it's it's mouth watering, it's good.

25:50 But it's not a very long lasting finish and I think that if there was anything about this that I would like, it's like to be able to taste it 2 minutes later. But I'm not quite getting that. I still think, man, this is neck and neck for my favorite one of the day and one of the better rise I've had probably in the last year. Yeah, I I think that this one just really impresses on the nose and the tip of the tongue and then kind of just becomes average for me through the rest of the experience. But overall, I still really like this whiskey and I I think it stands up with a lot of other rides that we've tried. Let's give some film and whiskey awards here at the end of our San Francisco run through.

26:31 Three months Later, I want, you know what? I want them to put our awards on their neck tags just like they do with San Francisco. Like just put our logo and like 2 thumbs up, you know? Yeah, yeah. We've just got to start our own, you know, our own competition. What's your winner for the day, Brad? Oh man, my winner for the day, I think. I think it's the proof in wood cabinet. A little more than the Hunting Creek. It's that's neck and neck with the Hunting Creek. I think that the cabinet deserves its price tag and I think that's the reason why I put a little bit ahead because I'm like, man, like. They know what they've got here and they're charging for it and I I can't blame them for that.

27:18 I think my winner is this Tumbling Dice rye the more I think about it. But if this was the Oscars and we were doing a preferential ballot for best picture, I think the winner would actually end up being this Hunting Creek because we both have it in like second place. Yeah, easily the the Hunting Creek is. Incredible. Bob and I, I would do a lot to get my hands on more of that. Especially at 50 bucks it is hard to not recommend that. Yeah, exactly $50. Man, oh man, that's such a good price. Yeah, yeah, go get yourself some Hunting Creek ride. All right, everybody. That's it. We got through 7 whiskeys in what, Brad? Like 30 minutes. We did pretty damn good here.

27:58 Yeah, we nailed it, man. This is probably the fastest, like, whiskey review episode we've ever done. And we are not novices anymore, so we're not trying to down seven shots of whiskey in 30 minutes. I have been drinking a whiskey a day for like the past 10 days. All right. That is. That does it for San Francisco. They can finally close the chapter on this year's San Francisco World Spirits competition. We'll be back on Tuesday with another regularly scheduled episode, but until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Reggie. And we'll see you next time.