The Best Whiskey at Every Price Point

0:00 The truest expression of craft doesn't come from a recipe, a process, or even a perfect season for aging. Now it happens naturally, deep inside the barrel, untouched by human intervention. That's why, at Blackwood Distilling Code, they don't rush perfection. Rather, they let time and nature take the lead. Their proprietary Blackwood toasting process isn't just about tradition. It's about unlocking layers of complexity that only emerge when you extend the maturation of a spirit. By carefully toasting their barrels, they coax out these rich, nuanced flavors. Flavors like Creme brulee, toasted pecans, warm baking spices. Flavors that cannot be forced.

0:43 Each sip reveals something new, something distinct, something that can only be achieved when craftsmanship meets patients. To raise a glass and taste what happens when we step back and let the barrel do the talking. Head over to blackwooddistillingcode.com and discover the unhurried elegance of Blackwood Distilling. Today on Film and whiskey, we're going to be looking at the best whiskey you can get at every price point, and we're going to be sampling a new bourbon from our friends at Green River. This is. The Film and Whiskey podcast. Well, hey everybody, welcome into the Film and Whiskey podcast.

1:42 I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G and. We're coming at you with another special bonus episode. Bonus. Episode I am thoroughly enjoying these bonus episodes, Brad, because we have gamified things and I love playing some games. It's the best man. We had so much fun with last week's episode where we built our beginner whiskey shelf with $300.00 that we said let's do something similar here. My my beginner shelf with $105.00 bottle of log full in 16. Dude if you want to impress somebody as a beginner, go get that loggy 16 man. That's the way to do it, man. So today what we're doing once again inspired by our friends down at Green River Distillery, they have just come out with a new bourbon called Green River 1885, and we're going to review it here in just a second. But we were mostly inspired by the fact that this is a very inexpensive bottle of whiskey because of that and because we are one of the only podcasts, whiskey podcast that I'm aware of that really considers the price point when we score out our whiskies.

2:47 I think we kind of have a corner on the market here, Brad. And I think that it it's time that we really just say out loud what we've been implying all these years, which is what's the better than everyone else? Well, that too. I mean, I used to bet a lot all the time, but like, what's the best whiskey you could get at any price point? If someone says I want a Scotch and I can't spend more than $50, here's our recommendation. And so I I went ahead and looked at every whiskey score we've ever given Brad. I pulled them all into a document. You and I are both looking at this document. We've broken it down by the type of whiskey and by general price ranges, and we're going to recommend whiskeys at each of these price ranges. This doesn't sound like a fun game, but for me, and hopefully for you Brad, it sure is.

3:32 Yeah, there there are more than enough whiskey drinkers out there that love a good spreadsheet who I just know we're going to enjoy this episode. Well, before we get into that, I say it's time we try this Green River. We teased it a little bit on last week's episode. So this is called Green River 1885 Bourbon Whiskey. We don't know too much about it other than the cell sheet that we found when we googled it online. The side of the bottle, the copy says that it is a four year age stated bourbon. It is only 85 proof though that's part of the 1885 appeal. We do know the mash bill on it is 76% corn, 15% rye, 9% malted barley. Perhaps most importantly, Brad is the price on this bad boy. Yeah, not only are you only going to spend $22.00 on this bottle of whiskey, Bob, this is not A750 milliliter bottle of whiskey.

4:27 You know how much comes in this bottle. One full. Liter baby, a whole liter of whiskey at $22.00. Seriously folks, this is among the most inexpensive bourbons you can get at this size and I already inherently trust that it's going to be better than most of those whiskey's because it is from Green River. We've, you know, right, their initial release we were a little bit cooler on, but I feel like every single thing they've put out since then we have not only liked but have been effusive in our praise of. Yeah, 100% Green River continues to put out spectacular quality whiskey. Of all the distillers we follow, I feel like they understand their price points better than anyone else.

5:12 Yeah, for sure. Now, one more thing I will say about this before we dive into the actual tasting is that I love a good piece of marketing. Brad, you know that I am a marketer in my day job and the way that they are branding this here bottle of 85 proof bourbon is that it is blended and proofed for the bar. They're trying to put this behind the bar in every bar in America and I think that this is a brilliant way to do it. You know, if you're going to. How'd you like their How'd you like their tagline Make mine an 85. I love it. Dude, if you're going to release a low proof whiskey, then lean into it and say we have proved this so that it can be used in cocktails all throughout America. We're going to put it in a big bottle so that bars don't have to buy a whole bunch of it. And then we're going to price it where bars are going to want to compete for it.

5:57 Like it's a brilliant marketing strategy. Green River, hats off to you. Yeah, hats off to you with the marketing. And now the most important question is Bob, does the whiskey inside the bottle live up to the label on the outside? Well, I have just poured it out. Brad, I'm going to be drinking this live. I know that you have already tried it, so why don't you go ahead and influence me by giving me your nosing notes on this? The nose on this 1885 is a little bit slight, but you get all sorts of black pepper. There is some orange people. I believe we call them Oompa Loompas, Brad. Oompa Loompas, yes, oh man, there is some orange peel is the word I was looking for and and some hints of caramel vanilla.

6:46 It's, it's not coming across incredibly strong, but there is a little bit of complexity here that I like and I, I give it a 7 out of 10 here. We used to have a black tea box of black tea that was like orange spice. It had like a bunch of kind of fall spices to it with just a little bit of orange peel. I get that here. It's not quite like nosing an old fashioned in a glass because I don't get those Angostura bitter's notes, but I get orange peel, I get cinnamon, I get nutmeg, I get clove and kind of, I don't want to say overwhelming that. But on top of all of that is that black pepper. The rye really comes through on this one. I like it a lot, but it's like, it does remind me of like a a black tea where you can kind of nose the sweetness, but you know that it might not taste super sweet.

7:33 So yeah, I'm looking forward to trying it. Brad, what are your tasting notes here? As I got into the palate, the caramel really came around for me. There's some some flavors of like a golden delicious apple. The vanilla comes through, there's a little bit of a nutty pecan flavor going on. Not a vast plethora of depth, but once again, just really solid flavors that come across nicely. And an 85 proof whiskey. I'm going to give it a 7 1/2 here. Yeah, and again, I think this is where you got to keep the $22.00 price point in mind because it like if this was a $50 bottle of whiskey, I do feel like I'd probably judge it a little bit more harshly than I am.

8:15 The apple is super strong here. This is a perfect fall whiskey. I just get apple, I get orange, I get all those baking spices. I can imagine like mixing this with apple cider in the fall, it just make a really, really good spiked apple cider. It does tip a little bit sour for me towards the back end, kind of like what we get with some toasted bourbon sometimes. And you know, it's not like overly sour. It's not super bitter, but I think that I'm going to be a little bit less harsh on it because it's a $22.00 bottle of whiskey because of that. Now that said, Brad, the finish is great. It kind of keeps rolling back up my palate. I think it's really creamy on the finish. It drinks spicier than an 85 proof whiskey would, and I think that it would hold up really well in a lot of cocktails that they're going to be making behind the bar across America. Dude, I don't know, man.

9:10 If we were going to score this out, it would certainly be getting a 10 out of 10 value for me, 100%. I think on the nose, I'd give it about A7. On the taste I'd give it, I'd say A7, 6 1/2 to A7 finish about the same. This is like a really solid whiskey across the board. And then it's absolutely bolstered by the fact that it's a 10 out of 10 value. Yeah, I feel like we've seen lots of whiskies like this get hit by the the bubble that is the current whiskey world. And so you're going to pay 30 to $40.00 for a bottle like this. And Green River just kind of cut through all the BS and said, Nope, this is a really solid whiskey at $22.00 that you can buy in a one liter bottle to use for your mixed drinks.

9:59 And I I absolutely love what they are doing here because the final product is incredibly delicious, especially considering the value that you're getting. Yeah. I mean, if we were considering this as like a 7:50, we'd be talking about a $1516 bottle of whiskey. So I think my score would probably come out somewhere in the 35 to 38 range on this. And that's like an immediate thumbs up. I would recommend trying this just on the merits of how good it tastes. But then when you get to the value on it, it's like, I don't know, Brad, this is probably one of the best values we've had in the last year, two years on the podcast. Yeah, and I, I think that this whiskey kind of gives you a sense of why you add a little bit of water to your whiskies 'cause when you have a really well made whiskey at 100 plus proof, adding a little bit of water can bring out some texture and flavors and and help the whiskey. And if you gave somebody something like this, this Green River 85, I think he would start to understand that concept. 100%, man.

11:03 All right. We are in a really good spot with this one and I think it becomes a candidate for our next order of business here, which is picking the best whiskey at each price point. We'll get to that right after this break. Hey there whiskey lovers, You ever wonder what happens when you mix Kentucky Derby winners, legendary bourbon masterminds? In a dash of bold ambition you get Blackwood Distilling Co, a premium brand born from the wild 65 to one odds victory of Country House in the 2019 Derby. They have crafted luxury toasted bourbon and America's first triple barreled toasted ride that'll knock your socks off in the most delicious way possible. Picture this 7 to 9 year old Kentucky Bourbon. Think deep creamy vibes, soft barrel spices, and that smooth as velvet warmth kissed by a hint of vanilla from Kentucky's golden era.

11:53 And that's just the bourbon. If rye's more your thing like it is for me, how about a five to seven-year old Indiana rye triple barreled and toasted barrels that blend spice, dark fruits, mint and A dash of white pepper. It's basically a liquid holiday wrapped in oak and fire. The batches are continuously rolling out in states all across the Union, so if you want in on luxury, head to blackwooddistillingco.com to get yourself some Blackwood Toasted Bourbon and Toasted Rye. Cheers to the good stuff. All right, Brad, it's time for us to pick the best whiskey at each price point. Now, I I'll leave it to you.

12:34 Here we have this nice little fancy document broken down with the color coding and everything else. We do have it broken down by type of whiskey. So where would you like to start? Bourbon is obviously the most dominant type of whiskey we've had on this podcast, so there's a lot to go through with bourbon. Would you rather knock out some of the ones that we've had fewer of, or just start right with bourbon? Yeah, I was going to say let's go with our rye, our Irish and international. And then from there, I think we should do Scotch and then bourbon. Now I put international as a category here, which is not really fair because obviously Scotch and Irish whiskey and if we did Canadian, those would all be international too. But we've had some whiskeys like Japanese whiskeys, we've had Taiwanese whiskeys, Indian whiskeys, that there just aren't enough of them to form their own category. So perhaps unfairly, I said international as a category. That's what I mean there.

13:29 Brad, why don't you go ahead and walk us through the price point ranges that we're going to be choosing from? Yeah, it's pretty simple. We're going to be looking at whiskeys in five categories under $25.00. So you know kind of your bottom level whiskeys that you'll be drinking day in and day out 25 to $50.50 to $80, 80 to $120.00. And then we're kind of getting into our luxury tier of $120.00 plus. Now. I can tell you right now, Bob, that is going to get really expensive when it comes to the scotches that I I picked out. Well, yeah. And I will say that the list that we're looking at here, Brad, I went back through all of our whiskeys that we've reviewed and I just kind of arbitrarily said, I'll, I'll put the cut off at 38 out of 50 on average.

14:18 Now, I think that's going to unfairly impact like our under $25 category because a lot of times those whiskeys aren't great, but they're like far and away the best thing you can get for 15 bucks. And so I think when I look at this list, a lot of those whiskeys are missing and it's going to really come down to us to kind of nominate some of these. But this gives us a nice baseline. So why don't we go ahead and start walking through Brad? Do you want to start with Rye or Irish or international? Let's go ahead and start with rye. Might as well start at the top. Now I don't have any whiskeys categorized here for the under 25 category. And in fact I think maybe the only one we've ever done that would fall into that category is old Overholt. Not even the 100 proof old Overholt, but the regular and I think that you might be able to get the 100 proof for under 25. So it's just a question of Brad, which one would you rather have on your shelf, the under the the 80 proof or the 100 proof? Probably the 100 proof.

15:19 I think that would be my go to. You just have. There's just a depth of flavor you you can't quite get on 80 proofs. Well, there you go. By by virtue of being the only one that we could pick from Old Overholt 100 is your Under 25 Rye representative now in the $25.00 to 50 range? We've really only got 2 here. We've got the Old Overhold 114 proof, which our friend Chris Blattner raves about. And then we've also got your standard US1, Mcter's Single Barrel Rye, one of Brad's highest rated rise of all time on this podcast. I have a feeling I know where this is going. Yeah, the the Mcter's rise far and away the obvious choice here at $45. Do you have any other nominees in this area or or is this pretty much the one?

16:07 I I would say it's mixtures rye that that's the the only option at this price point that I think is worth your money. OK. Why don't you go ahead and walk us through our next range, the 50 to $80.00 range, because once again, we don't have anything on our spreadsheet in that range. So it's going to take us kind of brainstorming here a little bit. Yeah, I was going to say, I think here this now I am, I am reporting this based on friends and the Internet. I'm going to say the Wild Turkey rare Breed rye is probably your best value in this range. I I think it's at like $65. OK, yeah, that sounds about right. The only one that I would put up that came from a bonus episode so it doesn't have a full score from us, was this one we tried last year. We tried two ryes on one episode and one of them was the Tumblin Dice Rye, which is really good, but like 80 or 90 bucks. And then we tried one called Hunting Creek Rye, which became like one of our best loved whiskeys of that season. That's a $50 bottle and I just tried it again a couple weeks ago and I don't know if I could get a better ride for 50 bucks than the Hunting Creek.

17:16 Yeah, I do remember that. Hunting Creek I'll I just looked at the price. The wild Turkey rare breed rye is 60 bucks. So I, I'm probably going to buy myself a bottle that soon that hunting Creek rye was stunning. So I yes, that that's the winner in my book. Awesome. All right, well that takes us to the $80.00 to $120.00 range where we've got 3 nominees and they are all Bradgy beloved favorites. One of them at 100 plus dollars. Depends on where you get this bottle is your Midwinter night's DRAM. This is the tater bottle of all tater bottles. People seek this out every year. It ends up getting way marked up so I I almost hesitate to put it in here at 100 because it's so rare to find it at 100. And it has to compete with Beryl Seagrass. The other, the other competition here, if we can put that in quotes, is Old Forester Single Barrel Rye, which we tried and really, really loved that one.

18:16 But dude, I'm not even the world's biggest rye fan and I have had to listen to you go on and on about Beryl Seagrass over the years. So I know where this is going. I like, I don't think there's any competition here. This is the easiest choice for any price point of any type of whiskey We're going to do today $85 barrel Seagrass. I would probably choose it above our luxury category whiskies. Yeah, where we only have two entries, they're both like at least $200.00 and depending on how much you want to spend, if you can spend unlimited money on these. One is the Barrel Seagrass 16 year, which I believe is the Gray Label one. The other one is the Thomas H Handy Sazerac Rye, which we've tried multiple variants of.

19:03 I think the 2020 was the one that was our highest rated whiskey of all time. Yes I think that would be my choice here. I like the Seagrass 16 but it is not better enough than the regular one for me to merit like spending the extra like I I'm happy if all I could ever get was the regular seagrass forever. Agreed. Yeah, 100% agreed that Thomas H Handy was like the heavens opening up and like there is so much going on with the Sazerac Rye there. Absolutely incredible poor. And I think that's our luxury winner in the rye category. All right.

19:44 So from the bottom to the top here in the budget category, we're picking Old Overholt 100. In the next tier up, we're going with US1 Mcter's US1 Single Barrel Rye in that 50 to $80.00 range, Hunting Creek Rye in the 80 to 120 barrel Seagrass and then in our luxury category, Thomas H Handy Sazerac Rye. That's a damn good shelf of rye right there, dude. That's that is an incredible shelf of rye, Bob. Let's knock Irish whiskey out here, Brad, because I've only got 3 entries on the spreadsheet and they're all like under $50. We've had some upper level Irish whiskeys in the past, specifically in season one. We tried a bunch of red breast and I don't think that we were ready to score high end Irish whiskeys yet. So I'm going to go ahead and just recuse us from those like let's, I think we should only kind of give what we reviewed and what we put confidence in our review for with maybe a caveat of like, hey, we've tried more Irish whiskey outside the podcast, Maybe try this if you want to spend a lot of money is that.

20:49 Fair. I I think that's 100% fair. Well, in our under $25.00 range, I think there's really only one that I would recommend and it's because it comes in right at the high end of that at 2499 in the state of Ohio, it's the Sexton Single Malt Irish. Whiskey dude, this whiskey still like lives on in my brain as one of the best whiskeys we've had just because of the price point and the amount of flavor that you get in what I think is an 86 proof whiskey. Yeah, something like. That yeah, dude, so much flavor, all sorts of depth and complexity that you get in Irish whiskeys and I like, I just think it's such a cool bottle to go on top of all that. 100% OK. In the next category, up our 25 to 50, we've got two nominees. One is just your standard everyday Jameson, which we've tried multiple Times Now as a way of confirming that we weren't just noobs back in the day, which we were, but we were correct.

21:51 Noobs Jameson is a delicious whiskey and despite being mass produced like it, is one of the higher quality mass produced whiskeys you can get. Yeah. And our other option is the Bushmills Redbush, a whiskey that, if I'm being honest, Bob, I don't really remember drinking. We did three Bushmills right in a row and there were standard white label Bushmills, not very good. Then we tried the black Bush and that was not very good. And then we tried the Redbush, which I believe is finished in bourbon casks and it is like way spicier and so much more complex. And I like, I have it on my shelf still. I really love that. And when I'm in the mood for an Irish whiskey that's a little has more pop to it, that's what I pull off. Now I will say in this category, slightly on the cheaper side, coming in at $29.00 for a 750.

22:40 I would also personally recommend Tola Mordu. Oh yeah, I believe you gave that a 40 out of 50 on average. Yes, I was going to say I remember drinking that and really, really liking it. Now it's been a little while, but man, oh man, it's a great value at $29.00, but I think I am going to go with Jameson for just a few dollars more. I'll pick Jameson as well. I think my personal choice would be the Red Bush, but I'm OK with Jameson. Now. Again, we have had some Irish whiskeys on the way, high end actually, back in March we went to this event that was hosted by the Ohio Liquor Bureau where we drank a bunch of really great Irish whiskeys. Waterford blew my mind. Booa was really, really good.

23:24 Yep. We've also had an Irish whiskey from a company called Ahru ATHRU that they they mailed them to us from Ireland. That was the coolest package of mail I've ever gotten. I don't know how it got through customs, but it got to my house somehow and that was the best Irish whiskey I've ever had. But it was also like $250 a bottle. Yeah, there, there are incredible Irish whiskeys out there. We're not going to finish up the line up for Irish because we just haven't had quite enough of it, but if you haven't gotten into Irish whiskey yet, you need to. All right, Brad, let's knock out this one that I called international. Now, we've had probably four or five Japanese whiskeys on the show and then intermingled with some other areas, one of them being whales, where we had a flight of, I think, 4 different Pandarin whiskeys.

24:12 The Pandarin Portwood is still one of our highest rated whiskeys of the last few seasons. I'm freaking love that thing. We've gone over to India and had a couple, the Amrut Fusion, one of our highest rated whiskeys ever. We had one from Taiwan called Kavalan, which was pretty good. I don't think it's in the league of those other two. And then the best Japanese whiskey that we've had on the show so far was the Yamazaki 12, which is a higher end Japanese whiskey. Brad, I think that honestly what we really have to decide here is between the Amroot Fusion and the Pandaren Portwood, what would get our pick in that 80 to 120 range because they both come in around $90.00. OK, Yeah, I mean, the Portwood from what I remember was similar enough to kind of that Irish Scotch experience. And the the the Amroot fusion was just spectacular. And I, I don't know if I've ever tasted plum on a whiskey so clearly before.

25:22 Nothing against Pandarin. Pandarin makes incredible whiskeys. I, I remember we loved all four of them, but I'm going to give the the Amroot the my vote of confidence here all. Right. So Amroot Fusion and then I guess by default Yamazaki 12 are our representatives from the international bracket, if you want to call it that. Yeah, and I will say literally just a few nights ago I drank some Nika from the barrel. Oh. Dude, it's so good. It's incredible, man, and it's coming in at $70.00, so it also would be in that 50 to 80 price point range. And Oh my gosh, dude, it was spectacular.

26:05 OK, let's jump down to Scotch. And Scotch is an interesting one because I don't have anything in the under $25 price point and I think. That's well, I have something for you, Bob. Oh, do you really Cuddy? Sark, baby? Oh Cuddy. Heck yeah, dude. Let's do Cuddy. Come on man. I like cuddy gets a bad. Rep But for it sure does. $17.00 like it's a damn good mixer. It's an incredible mixer, and if you really just want to have some fun times on cheap Scotch, get yourself some Cutty Sark. There you go. The our our sub $25 entrance is Cutty Sark in the 25 to $50 range. We've got some legitimate single malts and then some blended as well. We had one that I totally forgot we drank Brad called the Spayburn 10.

26:53 This was a whiskey that I don't know how they sell it for so cheap. It's like a $30 single malt. Freaking blew our minds, dude. We were, we were at like a 40 out of 50 on that one. We also really liked your standard Glenn Livett 12, which I don't know how that got such a high score. Like it's good, but I don't think it's like I thought Spayburn was better this past season. We drank one called the old Poulton E12, which also got about a 40 out of 50 from us. I was remember being a huge fan of old Poulton E12. And then we had the Nomad Outland Whiskey, which was like $30.00 and is one of the most like sweet, decadent Scotch whiskies I have ever had. I think I'd also throw a Monkey shoulder in here as well. I don't know.

27:36 How do you want to proceed, Brad? I almost feel like we should do. We should give an award out for a single malt and for a blended. Yeah, I I think easily Monkey Shoulder is your blended winner here. I am actually going to go off script Bob. I have had a single malt that comes in at $35 called Jura 10 year. I've never had anything from Jura. Oh dude, like don't tell anybody but Jura 10 year is incredible and I don't want the price to go up. It's dude, it is. It would be my vote at this range and nothing against Nomad.

28:19 I still really like Nomad, but every time I drink it I have to like, convince myself that it's good because I like it so much but it's so weird in the world of Scotch. That's for sure. Yeah, it's definitely an outlier in the world of Scotch. I think since I haven't had the Jura and I want to try to keep my picks to ones we've actually reviewed on the show. I think I'll go with the Spayburn 10 because I liked the other ones, but I don't know that I liked them enough to to pay 12 to $15.00 more. And if you can get Spayburn for 30 bucks, like that's a great, great deal. Yeah, 100% man. I'm with you there. OK. In our 50 to $80.00 price point, we've got quite a few nominees here, Brad, like yes, we do quite a few.

29:03 I'm I'll just read them from the bottom up. We've got Highland Park 12. We've got the Shivas, Regal Mizunara, Finish, Ardbeg 10, Glen Moringy, Nectar Door Glen Moringy, Lesanta. How do you how do you pronounce that pop? Nectar D Glen Moringy, Lesanta Tam Do 10, Port Charlotte 10, Pandarin Madera Finish, Talisker 10, and Quinta Rubin 14. I think we know our winner here, Brad. It really sucks that this whiskey's like almost $75 now though. Yeah, I was going to say I I love keen to Reuben 14, but I love it at like 60 bucks, not at 70.

29:47 I think $374 It is now, man, I'm I'm going to be honest with you. I think in this list I think Talisker 10 might be my. Winner Yeah, me too, man. So again, I kind of want to do these are, I think these are all single malts now, but I almost want to do like a non peeded and a peeded sure that Port Charlotte is like a freaking Pete bomb. That's a little too much for me. Ardbeg 10 might be too, but I think Quinta Reuben is my favorite whiskey here. And I, I want to keep telling people to buy it, but they are, they're starting to test my patience with the pricing on this thing. Talisker 10 has been $70.00 forever. So I'm used to seeing that.

30:29 I think I'm with you. I think Talisker 10 is probably the representative here, Brad. Yeah, 100%. There is a depth of flavour in the Talisker 10 that I loved and you get everything that you want out of a really beautiful single malt Scotch at this price point. OK. In our, I don't want to call it luxury, but our special occasion category of 80 to 120, we're going to say, let's see, five of them came out of our spreadsheet here. We've got the Lefroy 10 task strength, we've got Lefroy Galore, Lageval and 16, Ardbeg, Oogadol and Glenn Moringy 18. Now the 18 year old Glenn Moringy I think is like really pushing the upper limits of that 120.

31:14 It might even go over in some places. Regardless of that, my pick would not be that Glenn Moringy 18. I have a feeling I know exactly what your pick is going to be. Brad I. Mean this is this is the barrel seagrass of of Scotch. Bob Lageval and 16 cost $105.00 and if you gave me $110 to spend on whiskey I would buy this and then I would try to bum A10ML sample off somebody else for 5 bucks. Like Lagavulin 16 is creamy and rich and there are so many beautiful flavors going on here and I I can't encourage you enough, go eat a beautiful salt and peppered steak with your Lagovolin 16 and it'll change your life.

32:08 I'm not picking Lagovolin 16 here because I think I just personally like the ARD Bag Oogadol better. This is the I I by far my highest rated ever peated Scotch. I think the Oogadol does such a great job of capturing what you get in Lagovolin in ARD bag, but then adding just that little bit of sweetness underneath that we don't typically, yeah, do you usually just tastes like medicinal and swampy and like this one I think couples that with a little bit of a nice kind of floral note as well. Honorable mention for me would be that Lefroig lore, which is like it was our highest rated Lefroig for a really long time. I just, I think you could do a lot worse than any of these ones that we've picked so far. Now again on the high, high end of Scotch Brad, we have a couple samples that were given to us by a friend who I will not name here of some Mcallen's that are apparently selling for $40,000 right now.

33:04 And I'm going to break into your house and steal those. Well, I mean, I'm going to share them with you. I'm just saying like the the world of Scotch is truly unlimited in terms of how much money you can spend. So I don't really have a recommendation on the high high end do. You. I do actually Obon 18 is a really good pick up at like I think 180 bucks. The Macallan 15 comes in at about 180 as well. Another really exceptional expensive bottle whiskey. And I finally this is this is like I might buy a pour sometime.

33:44 I spent $50 on a pour of this a while back and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Lagavulin 26 Bob. This is a 2.4000 dollar bottle of whiskey that I will never buy, but man oh man, that poor was special all right. So starting from the bottom up, we're going to recommend Cutty Sark folks at like $17.00 a bottle. From Cuddy to Lagavulin 26 baby. It's all the same, you know, and the next tier up we're going with monkey shoulder followed by Spayburn 10 at 30 ish dollars. We've got the Talisker 10 representing the next tier up at roughly 70 bucks.

34:30 And then if you want to get a little bit crazy, you want to break triple digits, you can either get the Lagavoulin 16 brat's pick or the ARD bag Ugadal my pick. And finally, if you are just rolling in it, you can either do the Oban 18 or the Lagavoulin 26. Brad, this just leaves one category for us and it is a doozy. And we're talking about the world of bourbon. Kind of a a small category. You know, just just a slight category here. One of the things I do love about bourbon, and it's because of our access to it, you know, we're in the native country of bourbon, is that despite inflation, you can still get really good bourbon for under $20 if you know where to look.

35:11 Yeah, there there are all sorts of really great cheap whiskeys out there that don't fall into the trap of, you know, poor man. Swell. We reviewed one of them earlier today, Bob, that Green River 1885 easily jumps into the highest end value category that we've ever had. But it, it was so impressive, Bob, that I, I actually almost had a little bit of a cage match. I brought out my bottle of Rebel 100 that I actually rarely drink from because I had to know, I had to check to see can this 1885 stand up to Rebel 100? And at the end of the day, Bob Rebel 100 is like a 15 out of 10 on value.

36:04 It's so good dude. It's mind boggling how easy of a pick this is for me. The crazy thing is, like, listeners of our show now know how much we've hyped it. And we've had some people say I went out and bought a bottle because you guys hyped it up so much. And they're like, it's pretty good. It's like, yeah, dude, it's $20. Like I didn't tell you it was the best bourbon I've ever had. But but you could easily sell that bottle of whiskey for $30.00 and I still wouldn't bat an eye at it. And the fact that they're selling it at 20 is kind of like you said, it's mind boggling. The only other one that I would put in contention here, aside from the Green River that we had today, and I actually miscategorized this one as being $25.

36:48 It's $22.00 in the state of Ohio. Benchmark foolproof. It's 125 proof whiskey for $22.00. Yeah, that's really hard to pass up on, man. Let's walk through this next category. Brad. This is our 25 to $50 range. Starting from the lowest end. We've got Ezra Brooks 99 Bullet Bourbon, Cooper's Craft 100 Proof Early Times Bottled and Bond, Jack Daniels Triple Mash, 1792, Foolproof, Johnny Drum Rebel Distillers Collection, and New Rif Bottled and Bond Bourbon.

37:28 This is a tough matchup. There's like four or five here that I could easily pick. Yeah, I, I was going to say, let's just get like 3 on the docket and talk about those three. I personally am going to recommend Cooper's Craft 100, I think it's called Distillers Blend. I, I'm going to put that one up. Bob, what about for you? Let's see, I can I just throw a couple names out here and you tell me yes or no on these? Sure. I think that Jack Daniels triple match deserves to be in the conversation. Yes, I think Rebel Distillers Collection deserves to be in the conversation. Yes. I would say New Riff, Bottled and Bond, but I also might recommend 1792 Foolproof. We haven't really had anything barrel proof yet or close to it, you know?

38:17 Yeah, I think I would lean towards the 1792 over the new riff, but man, this is a stacked category. And honestly, of all the whiskeys we've done so far, I I almost feel like you need like a subcategory of 30 to 40 and 40 to 50. I think that's fair. Let's do that. OK, so sub $40, we're talking about Cooper's Craft 100. We're talking about Jack Daniels Triple mash, which I categorize as bourbon. I know it's Tennessee whiskey, which is. Bourbon. I think, OK, let's do that. I would say I think the triple mash is the better whiskey, but I would pick the Cooper's Craft here, honestly.

38:59 Yeah, I would slept on. I think, I think 100% people sleep on the Cooper's Craft. It's got great labeling, it's a good looking bottle on your shelf, and it makes some of the absolute best cocktails you will ever have if you're willing to spend, you know, 35 bucks on a mixer. OK, so between Rebel Distillers Collection and 1792 Foolproof, I obviously know my choice. What would your choice? Be yeah, I I think my choice is, is pretty obvious too. The The Rebels Distiller Collection takes everything you get with Rebel 100 and shows you why that is so good when you give it a. Higher quality addition.

39:41 Yeah, for sure. All right, in the 50 to $80.00 range, we're looking at Green River Foolproof, which is immediately a contender. Rebel Cask strength Rebel. Seriously, start paying us money. We have given you so much publicity. Oh, my gosh. A. 100% man. Old Forester 1910 You've got Woodford, Double Oaked, Wild Turkey, Rare Breed, Maker's Mark, Cask Strength, Rabbit Hole, Cave Hill, Old Forester 1920, Russell's Reserve, Single Barrel, Weller Antique, and Joseph Magnus. Holy crap, dude. Dude, we've drank some really good whiskey. We sure have.

40:25 All right, once again, let's do, let's do the same thing. Let's go like 50 to, I don't know, 50 to 60 and then sixty and above. Yeah, I I think that's fair. I think if we're doing 50 to 60, oh man, how are how are you going to this is the might be the hardest category, Bob, because you want. My hot take My hot take is I would take every single one of these over the 60 to $80.00 ones. Oh. I don't think there's one in there. The 60 to $80.00 ones are Rabbit Hole, Cave Hill, Old Forester, 1920, Russell's Reserve and Weller Antique and Joseph Magnus. I would take literally any one of these. Underneath it, above that.

41:11 The Weller Antique One O 7 is the only one that would come close for me, but I think I'm with you. Like honestly, I think if I had to pick two from this category, it would probably be the Green River Foolproof and the Woodford Double Oat and and that's including the 60 and $70.00 stuff. I would cut out, yeah, I would for sure cut out the Rebel cask strength. I just think the Distillers collection is better. Maker's Mark cask strength blew us away. Oh, so good. I think that that's actually $45. Is it really? I I believe it's 45 bucks in the state of Ohio, yeah. All right. Well then we're just going to eliminate it here and I'm going to say sorry that we didn't get to you earlier, but that makes our decision easier.

41:57 I would probably nominate Rare Breed Wood for Double Oaked and Green River Foolproof. Those will be my 3:00. Oh man, if I had to pick one of those three because I I'm with you. I think the Old Forester 1910 is worthy of another mention. One of the best bourbons at that price point. I, I think that I'm just going to stay loyal to my journey as a whiskey connoisseur. And Woodford Double Oaked was the first whiskey I ever had that made me step back and go, oh, yeah, that's what whiskey can be. Yeah.

42:37 So I I think I'm just going to stick with Woodford Double Oaked here. I think I am too, and part of it is because I love Rare Breed and I love the Foolproof from Green River so much. I don't know which one of those I would if you made me choose one forever, I don't know that I could make that choice. Whereas Double Oaked is kind of like in a category of its own. So I'm going to put Double Oaked on here. And that takes us to our 80 to 120 range where we've only got a few contenders from our spreadsheet. We've got the Pursuit United Bourbon from our friends at Bourbon Pursuit Barrel Vantage. I think our highest ranked whiskey of season 8, John J Bowman Single Barrel, a whiskey that apparently dominated that I don't even remember drinking Rebel 10 Single Barrel and Booker's. Booker's is kind of the gimmicky choice here. I would say Brad, like if you want a nice box, you can get Booker's.

43:30 Yeah, I I'll go ahead and I know that nobody can get this anymore, but I will just honorable mention the Pfeiffer Pavit Reserve that we had ages ago. And I think that that was a 120. So it's, you know, it's kind of on the edge of this category, but Bardstown Bourbon Company is always going to put out good whiskey. I'm going to say my honorable mention would be the Pursuit United, but I'm going to go with Barrel Vantage. Here I dude, we are we're in lockstep here man, that barrel vantage is so good. I, like Beryl continues to be the greatest blender of whiskeys of any company we've ever encountered. OK.

44:17 That takes us to our ultra premium category where we've got the Bardstown En Route Collaborative series at 160 dollars. We've got the old Forrester 150th anniversary now. As I recall, when we had former blender Jackie Zikan on the show, there were three blends that they came out with as the 1:50 and I think we had blend #1 and it knocked our freaking socks off. That whiskey is got to cost like $1000 now because they only came out once. And then finally we had Blanton straight from the barrel. The barrel that we had was bottled I believe in 2002. It was sent to us by our Instagram friends, bourbon and stuff.

44:59 It was no joke, the best bourbon I've ever had in my life. It's hard for me to say that any other Blanton straight from the barrel will taste like that, but like for me, even on the off chance that it might echo that, I think my pick would be the straight from the barrel. Now I I will say we have also had Pappy Van Winkle 15 year. I don't know if that just didn't quite reach the this level. We we were underwhelmed, Brad. OK. Based on the I think it was based on the price honestly. Yeah, exactly. Now we have also off Off the Record, off the film and Whiskey Record had the likes of Eagle Rear 17 and I was personally blown away with that. I think if I had to pick from these three I would probably. Oh man, that old Forrester 150 was good. I'm going to.

45:57 I'm with you man. I'll go with the Blanton straight from the barrel. That one was so stunningly good. We've had, I think, 4 different kinds of Blanton's on the show, and I think only two of them are even worth the price. And it was the Blanton's gold label and the Blanton straight from the barrel. And I think that if you're ever going to try to tell people to go buy Blanton's, you got to have like it has to be the straight from the barrel. It's the only one that I think is worth springing for in terms of the money you're going to invest. Brad. It's it's also worth noting that our presenting sponsor today, Blackwood Distilling, all of their bottles kind of fall into this 120 to $160.00 price range. And I got to say, man, like that toasted rye that we have had from them. That's obviously not bourbon here that we're talking about, but that toasted barrel rye is freaking phenomenal. It's not available nationwide yet, but if you can find a pour of it anywhere, I highly recommend trying a pour of that at the bar.

46:52 Yes, you. Man, we talked about how a lot of bonus episode whiskeys didn't make it in here because we don't quite have it on our spreadsheets the same way as all of our regular episodes. I, I feel ashamed, Bob, that Blackwood rye is so good. I mean the the amount of the depth of flavor, the richness that you get reminds me of like a barrel seagrass where you get the best of both worlds of a bourbon and a rye. And so we have our list of Bourbons now, Brad in the sub 25 category, Rebel 100 in the 25 to 50. You can take your pick between Rebel Distillers Collection, My Favorite whiskey, and Cooper's Craft 100 in the 50 to $80.00 range.

47:38 Woodford Double Oaked 80 to 120. We picked Barrel Vantage and in the above 120, Blanton's straight from the barrel. I want to drink all of these whiskeys right now. Yeah, I I was going to say, this has given me cravings to like go back and and drink all of these over again. Yeah, well folks, there are our picks for every whiskey you can get at every price point, but we want to know what your personal favorites are. Is there something we completely whipped on or just forgot about? You can let us know on all of our social medias, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok or YouTube at Film Whiskey. Or jum onto the Discord. We are on there every single day talking to you guys, fans of the Film and Whiskey podcast. So if you'd like to join the conversation, you can find a link to our Discord server at the end of every single one of our show notes.

48:28 We want to say thanks again to our presenting sponsor, Blackwood Distilling Company. Check out their website, blackwooddistillingco.com. Grab yourself a bottle today. We'll be back next week with another special bonus episode, but until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And we'll see you next time.