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142: What is Driving the Texas Whiskey Boom?

Bourbon Lens

Release Date: 09/26/2021

302: Sitting Down with Dierks Bentley and His New ROW 94 Whiskey show art 302: Sitting Down with Dierks Bentley and His New ROW 94 Whiskey

Bourbon Lens

We’re joined by multi-Platinum country music artist, Dierks Bentley, in this special episode of Bourbon Lens.  Dierks recently wrapped up his Gravel & Gold Tour and is firmly planted back in Nashville preparing for his next album. We had the privilege to sit down with Dierks to talk about his newest project, Row 94 Whiskey.  Row 94 is a Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey distilled at the historic Green River Distilling Company.  Dierks aims for Row 94 to be the bourbon you reach for when you’re enjoying a night with friends, listening to live music, or pouring a whiskey...

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301: Restoration and History with Cook’s Mill Whiskey Founder Jason Queen show art 301: Restoration and History with Cook’s Mill Whiskey Founder Jason Queen

Bourbon Lens

On a recent trip to Myrtle Beach we crossed paths with Jason Queen as he was working to promote his bourbon in South Carolina.  Jason shared a bit of history with us and a whiskey too.  That chance meeting and conversation inspired this latest episode of the Bourbon Lens Podcast.  Jason, a serial entrepreneur and conservationist purchased Cook’s Mill, an old grist mill in order to restore this once thriving mill. That goal set him on a path to creating a whiskey that is focused paying homage to North Carolina’s past.  Sit back and buckle in for the latest episode of the...

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300: Celebrating a New Milestone with Birthday Bourbon at Old Forester show art 300: Celebrating a New Milestone with Birthday Bourbon at Old Forester

Bourbon Lens

We are celebrating a BIG milestone this week as we release the 300th Episode of Bourbon Lens.  Old Forester and Brown-Forman were gracious enough to invite Jake and Scott to Whiskey Row to celebrate.  Bourbon Lens is joined by Melissa Rift and Caleb Trigo from Old Forester to discuss the historic brand, its legacy and future, and to toast our milestone with the 2024 Edition of Birthday Bourbon.  We couldn’t think of a better choice for celebrating this milestone episode and thank the team at Brown-Forman and Old Forester for their support all these years. As we celebrate this...

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299: Building the Best 5 Bottle American Whiskey Bar show art 299: Building the Best 5 Bottle American Whiskey Bar

Bourbon Lens

It’s the question that every whiskey enthusiast has been asked: What’s the one bottle of whiskey you keep on your bar?  Since one bottle clearly wouldn’t make a great podcast, we decided to up the ante a bit and decided to build the Ultimate 5 Bottle American Whiskey Bar.  Jake and Scott run through how they would build their whiskey bar if only afforded 5 slots. We’ve given ourselves criteria in hopes of finding a bottle for every niche and occasion.   We run through our choices for 1) best everyday whiskey, 2) best cocktail whiskey, 3) high proof whiskey, 4) Top Shelf...

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298: The Most Exciting New Whiskey Releases for Fall 2024 show art 298: The Most Exciting New Whiskey Releases for Fall 2024

Bourbon Lens

It’s been a wild season of new whiskey and bourbon releases and we’re catching up on some of the ones you may have missed. The press releases have been coming in fast and furious of late and Bourbon Lens is doing our best to keep you abreast of all the news.  We recap some of the most exciting releases from the heritage Kentucky distilleries, the best distilleries both inside and outside of Kentucky, and even some celebrity brands that have the whiskey world talking. As always, be sure you’re following along at BourbonLens.com for all the latest news and notes of the whiskey world. ...

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297: Kentucky Bourbon Festival 2024 Recap and Planning for Next Year show art 297: Kentucky Bourbon Festival 2024 Recap and Planning for Next Year

Bourbon Lens

Scott and Jake sit down to debrief after a long weekend at the   We discuss some of our favorite pours and experiences from yet another memorable Festival. We must give a shoutout to our AirBnB housemates who joined us to celebrate and to all our listeners who introduced themselves over the weekend. We wrap up this recap episode with some tips to consider as you plan your trip to the . Thank you to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, its board and staff, and Estes PR for inviting us to the Festival to cover the events and festivities of the weekend. Image Credit: We are thankful for your...

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296: Our Trip to New Riff Distilling with Jay Erisman show art 296: Our Trip to New Riff Distilling with Jay Erisman

Bourbon Lens

Scott and Jake travel to Newport Kentucky to visit New Riff Distilling and sit down with co-founder Jay Erisman.  We kick back inside the Aquifer Bar to discuss New Riff’s history, their whiskey portfolio, and what’s ahead now that the distillery recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.   In this episode, we taste New Riff Bottled in Bond Bourbon, Silver Grove Bourbon, Malted Rye, and their 8 Year Bourbon.  Stay tuned to Bourbon Lens for more coverage of New Riff coming soon, including their second batch of Kentucky Single Malt and their Whisky NRD tasting courses currently...

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295: Four Roses New Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon for 2024 show art 295: Four Roses New Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon for 2024

Bourbon Lens

We continue our coverage for Bourbon Heritage Month as we explore Four Roses Bourbon, including their new .  We are joined by Brent Elliott, Master Distiller for Four Roses Bourbon Distillery.  We discuss Brent’s process for crafting this limited edition bourbon, the , the distillery’s commitment to quality and tradition, and the recent announcement of an expansion of the Four Roses Bourbon recipe lineup.  What is your favorite Four Roses recipe or release? About Four Roses: Established in 1888, Four Roses combines two mashbills with five proprietary yeast strains to distill...

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294: James B. Beam Distilling Co. is Celebrating a Big Milestone show art 294: James B. Beam Distilling Co. is Celebrating a Big Milestone

Bourbon Lens

We’re kicking off National Bourbon Heritage Month with one of the legendary distilleries of Kentucky Bourbon.  We’ve traveled to James B. Beam Distilling Co. to chat about the Homeplace, located in Clermont, Kentucky and their 90th year at that location.  Alex Bowie, Director of Homeplace Experience at James B. Beam Distilling Co. sits down with Jake and Scott inside the Historic Beam House. We discuss how Beam has evolved its Homeplace over the last 90 years, the importance of adapting to the evolving bourbon tourist, and some of the innovations coming from this historic...

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293: Heaven's Door Whiskey and The Last Refuge show art 293: Heaven's Door Whiskey and The Last Refuge

Bourbon Lens

We travel to The Last Refuge in Louisville’s NuLu neighborhood to visit the future brand home of Heaven’s Door Whiskey.  We are joined by Adam Edwards, National Brand Ambassador, to discuss the inspiration behind the brand, Bob Dylan’s art and music, and their portfolio of whiskeys.  We are thankful for your support over the last 5 years. We must give the biggest shoutout to our growing Patreon Community of supporters! As always, we'd appreciate it if you would take a few minutes time to give us feedback on Bourbon Lens podcast. If you enjoy our content, consider giving us a 5...

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More Episodes

Texas Whiskey is a growing category looking to make its mark in the world of American Whiskey and Kentucky Bourbon. We’re joined by Nico Martini, who just published his book Texas Whiskey, an ever-evolving chronicle and guidebook of the “history” and people of Texas Whiskey. Nico is also co-founder of Grayson Whiskey, author of Texas Cocktails, and a lover of all things Texas. Grayson Whiskey is a blend of Texas bourbon and wheat whiskies and just hit the shelves only a few months ago after a successful launch.

In this episode, we taste Grayson Texas Blended Bourbon Batch 1, which is coming in at 3 years old and 119.4 proof. Batch 1 contains whiskey from Ironroot Republic Distilling, Balcones Distilling, and Five Points Distilling, the makers of Lone Elm Whiskey.  As you’ll hear in the episode, after selling out Batch 1, Grayson will release Batch 1B in October 2020.  Batch 1B will contain the same distilleries and same percentage blend as the original batch, but some variation is expected.  On March 2, 2022, Grayson will release Batch 2, featuring 4 distilleries; with the addition of Still Austin.

A huge thank you to Nico Martini for the opportunity to try the whiskey, check out his book, and to Cider Mill Press for the review copy of the book.

We are thankful for everyone who has supported us. A huge shoutout to our growing Patreon Community as well! We'd appreciate it if you can take the time to give us feedback on our podcast. If you enjoy our content, consider giving us a 5 star rating on your favorite podcast app, leave us a review, and tell a fellow bourbon lover about our show.

Follow  us @BourbonLens on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.  And please check out our Patreon to learn how you can support our endeavors, earn Bourbon Lens swag, be part of future barrel picks, and more. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please email us at [email protected].

Visit our website BourbonLens.com to check out our blog posts, or even purchase your own Bourbon Lens tasting glass or t-shirt.

Cheers,
Scott, Jake, & Michael
Bourbon Lens

The Story of Grayson Whiskey:

Texas in a bottle. Our goal was to create a bourbon that blended some of the best whiskeys in our state, in a way that had never been done before. For us, Texas whiskey is the epitome of innovation and in Grayson, we honor the diversity and creativity of our great state. Grayson embodies the spirit of Texas in both your glass and in your soul. Grayson is bold, brazen, bona fide, and, above all else, uniquely Texan. We hope that the beginning of our story can be a highlight in yours. Grayson tonight, Texas forever. Cheers, y’all. 

Our goal from the beginning was to highlight the work of some of the best distillers in the great state of Texas in a collaboration that truly represents our home. The first step was to reach out to The Likirish Brothers, Robert and Jonathan, at Ironroot Republic Distilling, because we knew they were blending some of the best whiskey in Texas. After long discussions about what was important to us about whiskey, which flavors profiles we were most interested in, and a discussion of the myriad of ways to achieve the flavor we were looking for, Jonathan then took our ideas and he started developing different paths to our version of Texas in a bottle.

About the Whiskey:

Grayson is a blend of straight Texas whiskeys. When we began to search for the distilleries we, both, wanted to work with and believed could add the layers of complexity we were hoping for. Batch one of Grayson contains some of our favorite Texas distilleries, including Ironroot Republic Distilling, Balcones Distilling, and Five Points Distilling, the makers of Lone Elm Whiskey. Grayson is a blend of 100% straight whiskies that are 100% Texan. Jonathan began creating a series of sample blends of carefully selected single barrels that accentuated specific flavors in each distillery's whiskey. We worked with our distillery partners to hand select every barrel that has gone into this batch. There were barrels selected that were up to 7 years old but everything in Grayson is at least 3 years. We then sought to integrate and balance the overall blend while maintaining the flavors we curated initially. Then, the whiskey was vatted and allowed to marry for a few months prior to bottling. 

With the help of some incredible friends, we hand labeled and hand bottled Grayson in late March. It’s a labor of love, for sure, but it’s also worth every bit of effort. 

Tasting Notes from Grayson:

  • Nose: Raisins, barrel aged maple syrup, Beignet flavored coffee grounds, jalapeño jelly, and a hint of the inside of new cowboy boots.
  • Palate: Super sweet initially with syrupy waffle notes, moves into a spiced cider with allspice, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, brown butter into an almost burnt pecan, sweet wheat and fennel finish. 
  • Proof: 119.4

About Nico Martini Co-founder of Grayson Whiskey

Born and raised in Texas, Nico Martini is a Best-Selling Author of the 2018 release, Texas Cocktails, Author of Texas Whiskey, releasing in July, Co-founder of Bar Draught, a mobile draught cocktail solutions and most recently, Co-Founder of Grayson Blended Bourbon.

Over the years, Martini has become a thought leader and innovator within the Texas spirits industry. He has presented at numerous trade events, including San Antonio Cocktail Conference, the Bar Institute, several United States Bartender's Guild conferences and Portland Cocktail Week.

Martini holds a master’s degree in Emerging Media & Communications from the University of Texas at Dallas. He has been a Guest Lecturer at the university from 2009 through 2014, where he taught Digital Marketing Design and Self-Branding Through Social Media.

Prior to his transition to spirits, Martini worked in a wide variety of fields. He was a Program Director and on-air talent for CBS Radio's Indie-verse 100.3 HD2 in Dallas, toured the U.S. with jugglers, The Flying Karamzov Brothers, performed in wild west comedy shows across the nation, and worked in the indie film industry. A true creative and man of many talents, Martini attributes his background in theatre and varied interests to his well-rounded and positive outlook on the world. Nico currently lives in Dallas with his wife, Sarah, and sons Beckett and Declan. His second book, Texas Whiskey, released in July 2021.

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