Bourbon Showdown Podcast

This week we welcome WhistlePig back to the show to talk about The Boss Hog XI: The Juggernaut! We sit down with chief blender Meghan Ireland and  Research and Development Distiller, Mitch Mahar to talk all things Boss Hog! Whistlepig always delivers with The Boss Hog and Meghan and Mitch walk us through how they got to this years signature release.  It’s a globe traveling episode this week as they take us through their journey to India and how that inspired the flavors you find in The Boss Hog XI. How they were so hyper-focused on putting out the best liquid possible that they went straight to the source of the flavors they were looking for and utilized that Indian influence to craft a rye whiskey unlike any other Boss Hog put out before it. It’s a fantastic episode this week that will take you to India and back through the drinking glass on this weeks Bourbon Showdown Podcast! 

High West is back! This week I get to sit down with Isaac Winter, the Distilling Manager at High West and he walks me through this years Midwinter Nights Dram. We talk about how they start the process each year and what goes into making one of their most sought after annual releases. Then we crack a bottle of act 12 and (spoiler alert) it's really damn good! It’s a fun episode this week on the Bourbon Showdown podcast and I think you guys are really going to enjoy it!

This week we welcome Heath Schneider from Sextro Rye to the show. Sextro Rye, steeped in whiskey history, Heath and his Whiskey making bootleg partner Whiskey Rich discovered that Heaths Grandmother, Lorine Sextro had supported the family through the Great Depression by learning how to distill and making her own rye whiskey during prohibition. This rye became very popular in certain circles, becoming known as one of Al Capones favorites. Cut to 2015, where Heath is now making whiskey and carrying on the family legacy with the release of Sextro Rye, a rye whiskey made from his Grandmothers prohibition recipe. This is a fun interview with a lot of honesty from Heath about his family’s connection to bootlegging and his own whiskey journey. It has all the elements of a classic whiskey story, bootlegging, long lost family recipes, the mob…. the beauty of this story is that it’s true! So sit back and pour a tall glass of rye as we go back to prohibition days on this weeks Bourbon Showdown podcast. 

This week we welcome Found North Whisky to the show! We sit down with co-founder and head blender Nick Taylor to talk all things Found North! This is my favorite kind of whisky conversation. Found North has their finger on the pulse of what the whiskey consumer wants right now and Nick walks me through how they got it there. Their Batch 10 Wheated whisky should be hitting stores next week and we are so grateful to Nick for coming on the show and giving us a sneak peak of this awesome bottle of whisky. It’s a damn good episode this week! So sit back, pour yourself a tall pour of some Found North and get ready for Nick Taylor and Found North on this weeks episode of The Bourbon Showdown Podcast! 

This week we welcome Rick and Ricky Johnson from 15 Stars Bourbon to the show and they walk me through everything 15 stars. We talk how they got started in whiskey and how this whiskey got as good as it is. It’s a great conversation where we do a deep dive on good whiskey! We talk blending, secondary finishes and good business as it pertains to this industry.  We drink through their Three Kings and Triple Cask II expressions all while talking about how they got this goodness in the bottle. It’s a good time with 15 Stars Bourbon on this weeks episode of The Bourbon Showdown Podcast

This week we welcome Jodie Filiatreau, Artisanal Distiller for Evan Williams and The Evan Williams Experience in Louisville Kentucky to the show! Jodie is a wealth of whiskey knowledge and we sit down to talk all things Evan Williams! We talk about how Jodie got started in whiskey, how he became the Artisanal Distiller for Evan Williams, all the good whiskey he is making in Kentucky, the Evan Williams Experience and some of the fun things he has coming up next. It’s a fun conversation with Jodie this week on The Bourbon Showdown Podcast!

This week we welcome Mystic Farm & Distillery to the show! Whiskey made in North Carolina is always one of my favorite topics and we sit down with co-founder Michael Sinclair to talk Broken Oak whiskey and what it takes to make whiskey in the Carolinas. He walks me through all the wonderful things they are doing at Mystic right now. We talk about how he got into the whiskey game, the story behind the name and how the whiskey gets made. Throw in some comedy and some wrestling and this episode has it all this week on The Bourbon Showdown Podcast.

This week we welcome Caryn Wells and Green River to the show! It’s always a blast having Caryn on and this week we sit down and do a DEEP DIVE on all things Green River! We talk about the bourbon, the wheated, the rye, the full proof, we talk barrel picks we talk “make mine an 85”,  we talk about everything under the whiskey sun! It’s a phenomenal conversation with Caryn Wells and Green River on this week’s Bourbon Showdown Podcast! 

This week we welcome Number JUAN tequila to the show. Thats right Tequila!  We celebrate all good spirits on The Bourbon Showdown, and today we sit down with the entire Number Juan team and do a deep dive on all things tequila. We sit down with Alex Reymundo, Rich Espe, Master Distiller Nestor Rivera and a surprise call-in from Ron White.  We talk about literally everything in this episode, we talk tequila, yachts, dental work…. You name it, it comes up, all while drinking Number Juan’s, Juan in a million! It’s a Tequila showdown today on the Bourbon Showdown Podcast.

This week we welcome Whiskey Journalist and American Whiskey Magazine contributor, Maggie Kimberl to the show! Recently named 2024 Bourbon Women Spirits Writer of the Year, she is one of the premiere whiskey journalist in the industry and she is helping shape the narrative of the current whiskey landscape through the articles that she writes. I can’t think of anyone better to have on the show as we get ready for September and National Bourbon Heritage Month! We talk the current state of whiskey, we talk how she got into the industry, some of our shared influences, our love of vinyl and everything in between. Its a super fun show to kick off Bourbon Heritage Month on this episode of the Bourbon Showdown Podcast.