The B Team Podcast
Talking all things Business, Bentonville, and Bourbon. Hosted by Josh Saffran, Matt Marrs, and Rob Nelson. New episodes every Thursday!
The B Team Podcast
Ep. 86 - The Bourbon Market Just Flipped
Borrowed coffee cups, a sherry-finished pour, and a market plot twist: we crack open Horse Neck’s Kentucky Bourbon and unpack why the bourbon world suddenly feels upside down. We’re joined by our resident spirits pro to translate tasting notes into plain English, orange marmalade, licorice, toasted oak, and that cherry-friendly finish, and to explain why this bottle works neat, with a splash, or in an old-fashioned.
From there, we zoom out. Shelves that were bare a year ago now show Buffalo Trace by the case. E.H. Taylor and other favorites are popping up at or near MSRP. Meanwhile, several distilleries have paused production because inventory on hand can meet demand in the near term. That’s the X-point: a glut from years of aggressive barreling meeting consumer downtrading in a wobbly economy. We talk through what that means for pricing, secondary markets, and why some bottles may sit longer in oak, potentially turning good whiskey into great whiskey over the next few years.
If you’re tired of the bourbon chase, you’re not alone. Reposado, Añejo, and extra Añejo tequilas, especially additive-free standouts, are winning over bourbon palates with ex-bourbon barrel character and clearer value. Rum is a dark horse too, with well-aged, ex-American oak releases offering caramel, spice, and depth without the bourbon premium. We share practical strategies: build relationships with independents, test “walk by” labels you’ve ignored for years, and follow a simple rule of thumb, hold treasured allocations, buy quality value now, and skip panic selling.
If you enjoyed this, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend who still thinks everything good is only behind the counter. What bottle are you hunting, or rediscovering, this week?
Welcome to the B Team Podcast. I am your host, Josh Saffron, with my co-host, Matt Morris, and our permanent guest, Rob Nelson. We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bettonville, bourbon, and business. The B Team Podcast. Be here. Welcome to the B Team Podcast. I'm your host, Josh Saffron, with my co-host, Matt Morris. And our permanent guest.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. He was supposed to be here and I wasn't. I'm glad that you called me in. Emergency.
SPEAKER_02:We're supposed to be here. We're supposed to film at 3 30.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:He calls me at 3 30 and says, I'm 15 minutes late. I said, Great, do you have the whiskey glasses? He says, No, which is why we're drinking out of these. Thank you, Heroes. Heroes coffee.
SPEAKER_00:Shout out to Heroes. They were willing to loan us these. They thought it was a weird request. Yes. So shout out to Heroes because I have some right here. We did buy coffee from.
SPEAKER_02:We did feel bad. We walked in, and these ladies like the Matt and I, like, we're two losers. Like, can we borrow a couple of cups? And they're like, huh, I'm like, you know, those back there. And they're like, who are these losers? We're like, we just need them for the podcast.
SPEAKER_00:Sure. They gave us cups. We asked for a muffin. They said no, we can buy that.
SPEAKER_02:We pushed our luck a bit. We said, yeah, these muffins could come also.
SPEAKER_01:That'd be good with the whiskey. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Speaking of Russ. Oh, and Russ is back. The OG. It's been forever. Sorry. Thank you. We forgot about it.
SPEAKER_01:It's been a minute. It's it's good to get the gang back together, minus one. Where is he? And it's been yeah, it has been a minute. I feel like I've shortchanged the group the last few months. We're all busy, but you know, today is getting back in the saddle and let's move this forward, talking about a new bourbon uh from some owners from Texas.
SPEAKER_02:Well, before we talk horsenneck, I do want to give you some feedback. Okay. When we do the podcast and you're not here, Matt and Rob and I try to cobble through it and we're like, uh, I don't know, what do you taste? I don't know. It's kind of good. And then we get into the creme brulee and the stone fruit, and Matt and I start laughing like five-year-olds. And one of the last podcasts, they had the ingredients on the back, the tasting notes. So Matt's like, well, if Ross was here, this is what it would say.
SPEAKER_00:So we missed you when you're not here. It's not the same. Well, I appreciate that. That means a lot, guys. I mean, with this one, do you smell a little cherry in there? Why, yes, this is cherry finish. Well played, Matthew.
SPEAKER_01:See, he's becoming like you. Yes. So tell us.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. That's good to know. I don't know that it's anything good, but so tell us about Horsenk and what you know. And again, I'll give you a little bit of background from my perspective. Um, Gents Place has uh has signed a corporate partnership. Shout out to Darren from Horse Neck. And uh for the Gents Place opening coming up, they uh they donated a few different bottles for us and said, hey, come taste this one. So um I'd love to get some feedback on it and whatever you know about the brand, and then we'll we'll taste. But Matt, yes, a little sherry on it. Good glad you caught that note.
SPEAKER_01:It's a little on the nose. This is my maiden voyage on on the brand. Okay. Uh, but you know, for the it's interesting on the name, Horse Neck. Originally, well well over 100 years ago, the horseneck name was a non-alcoholic drink. It was a tall drink, ginger ale with a with a lemon twist, non-alcoholic, and then and then over time uh it became a cocktail and with bourbon or brandy with with uh with bitters and with uh with that lemon twist. And I know these fine gentlemen that I don't know them, but I know that that they do have this in a in a cocktail can. They do also do canned cocktails. So again, they started I think that's where they started, correct? I think they started with the cocktail can. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and then and then they morphed into this. It's a Kentucky bourbon, age and distilled in Kentucky. This is a sherry age finish. It is a straight Kentucky bourbon, so there's no age statement on here by law. We know it's a minimum of four years, and then they finish it in sherry barrels from Spain by law. Sherry can only come from Spain. Now the one who do knows this. This is hard to nose in this, right? Yes, this is very difficult. This is hard to know.
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna see, I'm gonna see if you pull out some of the tasting notes.
SPEAKER_01:Oh I can see there are tasting notes on the back. Okay, well. Here we go. I'm getting I'm getting uh just on the nose, and then let me put a little bit here. I'm I am getting orange marmalade, I'm getting licorice, I'm I'm getting a little bit of stone fruits and peach, I'm getting I'm getting a lot of dark baking spices like clove and cinnamon. Star and Nice, and I'm getting a lot of the good herbal spice and a little bit of eucalyptus. So what he's doing is throwing out 50 different things and a couple of them stick.
SPEAKER_00:So this is saying it's it's a bouquet of rye spice, which kind of what you're saying with toasted oak. And it said it reveals hints of almonds, walnuts, and sub subtle floral flavors. So pretty much what you said there.
SPEAKER_01:Again, to whoever the blender is and to put that together. Because we taste, you know, it's all subjective, right? Uh, but this is what I get from the sherry notes. Again, they you know, this is late afternoon. They might have blended in the morning. You know, the best time to blend is in the morning before that you have the day on you. Um, but this is not bad. 95. I do like it. I am catching the sherry. Did you put a uh did it help it or hurt it?
SPEAKER_02:There's more flavor when you hit the when you hit the water.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know where it is distilled and age, but I'm gonna just ballpark and say that it could be Bargettown or Heaven Hill or Lux Row. Would it say or not? No, that just says aged and distilled in Kentucky. Oh, okay. I do like it though. It does have a nice afterfinish taste. Yeah. I do like that. Well, and this is really good with chocolate because it's cherry influence. I imagine chocolate-covered cherries with this would be nice. I because of that toasted the toasted oak, you know, you kind of get that sweetness of uh of uh toasted marshmallow.
SPEAKER_02:This one would also be good, I think, in an old fashioned. I think this would also taste good there.
SPEAKER_01:Now I want to try their canned cocktails.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, this is good. Um so what's interesting is they started sending in samples, or we started uh bringing them in for the gents place, and the the gents place guys are very picky with I want to drink the wild or something. And so we've gone through a bunch of bottles of this, and everybody seems to like it. So um everybody's been a big fan of this brand. Um, I haven't had much of it.
SPEAKER_00:This has been this was pretty tasty. This is a good one. So, what's the what's the MSRP on one on this brand here?
SPEAKER_02:Uh, I don't know the specific one. The ones that we carry chest about 50 to 60 bucks.
SPEAKER_01:So reason reasonably priced. I think this could be ballpark on the shelf up to about 65 because of that extra sherry and flaws because of those those sherry barrels are expensive to bring over. And that adds cost. But I'm pleasantly surprised. Again, this if I was doing a blind on this as a competition judge, you know, I would give this a high B plus. So I'd give this right at an 88 or an 89. This is I think for me personally, again, being a judge and being a presenter and an educator, I think personally this needs a little bit more time and oak. But again, I'm interested in to try that nine year and see where that goes again. That again, that nine year, you think about this as so we're in 25. So the nine year was in you know, distilled and aged in 16 or 15 or before, which these guys weren't around. They were just on the bourbon trail and and then had they had a had an idea to start their own brands. So they're not distilling, you know, they're a negotiant, they're buying the barrels and having it distilled and aged for them, and and and they have a blender in Kentucky. And again, not bad. There's so many of these brands out in the marketplace right now, there's a wash of brands in the marketplace.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that's what I want to talk about. That I normally we do our seven or eight minutes with you, and then we'd move on and bring in in somebody else, but we will be everybody's been clamoring for you. The Facebook feedback team has been saying rush, rush, rush, rush I feel it.
SPEAKER_00:Well, they moved from Bobby to you.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I mean, you have to be here to get good feedback. But the feedback that I was gonna start with with you is what you just start talking about, all the brands, because I keep seeing and reading and hearing that the bourbon industry is changing. A lot of smaller mom and pop brands are starting to go out of business. There's a huge bourbon downswing. Um, more allocated stuff is now out there. So there's been a huge shift in the last three to six months in in bourbon in general, and that's what I want to spend time talking about today with you.
SPEAKER_01:Like what's going on? So the the the just the biggest, this is the biggest tipping point, you know, just right up here on the tip of the spear, is going to be the uncertainty of the economy uh and and economic environment that we're in right now. Uh so when we saw this in 2007, 2008, kind of the last time that people had that uncertainty of what was going on, you know, this is when people started trading down. So if people are so what happens, like I'm just gonna say on um, because I've represented these brands back then, Johnny Walker is an example. Johnny Walker block the Johnny Walker drinker is an example on the Scotch category. They want to continue in that space. And they want to be a loyal Johnny Walker consumer. And you can say this about any brand, any category. And that so they traded that black label drinker traded down to red. And because if you trade out of that category, it is and say maybe that red drinker traded down to an economy, maybe they never go back to Scotch. Maybe they go to another category, or maybe they go to beer, maybe they just go way off the reservation. And this is what's going on around.
SPEAKER_02:So in that case, Matt's going from the Pappy 25 to the Pappy 15. Like he's he's down trading from the super high end to the less super high end.
SPEAKER_01:And the downtrading also is on the secondary market. Like, you know, all the things that I was hold on, please. Secret knock is here.
SPEAKER_02:He has risen. What's going on? Welcome, Bobby. Here's sorry, Russ, but it's all right. Since we didn't have anybody bring our glasses today, we were drinking coffee cups that Matt and I stole from Heroes. So so we're just gonna give you a little. What's up, buddy?
SPEAKER_00:Good to see you. Yeah, he always has something to bitch about, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_02:20 minutes late, but here's your little cup. So any Russ, as you were saying when after Rob interrupted you.
SPEAKER_01:So what I'm seeing right now is here's some stories. So I was in Memphis three weeks ago, and uh I walked into Buster's, which was like big stores up here in Northwest Arkansas, and we've talked about Shanks and Bomburger before. I walk into I walked into Buster's in Memphis a couple weeks ago, and they had Shanks and Bomburger on the shelf at the store. I have never seen Bomburger in the wide onesies or like a whole. They had probably had eight of each, and one per customer, and 150 bucks. So first question Matt's gonna say is how come you didn't buy me a bottle, right? For that's I was being selfish for myself. And uh and it's it, and then that same store a couple weeks ago, a couple weeks beforehand, my buddy Kelly, who I stayed with when out there, he he got some blandins right at 85, 88 bucks right off the shelf. And so these allocated brands that we've all been going to that we don't want to buy the secondary market are starting to appear back in retail. And it's a lot because again, the down trade that I'm talking about, people are drinking less, maybe a lot of people because that bourbon consumer is is trading to tequila right now because especially in uh reposito and yayo extra and viejo, because a lot of consumers on the bourbon trade, they've been chasing their allocator brass for 10, 15 years and they're tired of the chase. That's the biggest thing right there. They're just so tired of I've been told it's gonna come back out, I've been told it's gonna come back out. And then, you know, then all of a sudden they go to an event, they go to a party, they hear me speak, you know, and all of a sudden they go, Oh, I want to get into tequila. You know, after maybe one of my tequila events, and I talk about bourbon being uh an abriposado and viejo or extraño, those are bourbon drinkers' tequilas because the majority of them are Asian ex-American oak. And so it's easy to transition, and and the cost is a little bit, so people are watching their dollars, you know, and mining their sets, and they're gonna trade down and save a little bit of value and a little bit of money. But the other big thing that's going on in the down trade right now, besides ready to drink, so people are doing RTDs, you know, and maybe they don't want to spend 20 bucks on a bottle of that means ready to drink, in case you guys didn't pick up.
SPEAKER_00:That's what he said. Yeah, ready to drink RTD review too.
SPEAKER_01:And and guess what? The big thing that Matt thought you were talking about his STDs. He got very confused when it's like shape. We're drinking down. People are also going to Gubbies. Oh, yeah. They're going to Delta 8, Delta 9, they're going to h they're going to cannabis, they're going to vape. And you know, Gen Z right now, and and the legal drinking age, 21, that consumer group is not drinking right now.
SPEAKER_00:No. And I heard that it could it may not be true. We heard that they doubled or tripled production, a lot of the bourbon.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so here's the new story. So you I do what I said. Is the is the demand down at the same time the supply is coming up?
SPEAKER_01:For sure. Here that's that X point, right? That's that X right here. Is is what's going on is so about 15 years ago, there was about a half a billion gallons of spirit being just in the United States. A half a billion. All in all in Matt's closet. You know, it's at 1.5 billion gallons of whiskey right now. Almost 1.5 billion gallons of whiskey are maturing right now. And we're down, we're down, their production is down right now. But here's here's upsetting for me is knowing these brands very well, is George Dickle has paused production. Balcones has paused production. So they're not gonna, they're they paused, they're not mop all in the distilleries, but Balcones and Waco, you know, that's owned by Diaggio, but Diaggio bought them three years ago. You know, they dislaid out 17 employees. So George Dick paused not distilling. So nothing new is being produced to go on the shelves? Like they're out of business. They still have barrels in the warehouses. Okay. So their forecast is right now because of the slide in consumption, is the the bean counters, the accountants, the the sales and marketing teams have realized that they have enough production to get them into new into June of next year without without basically having empty shelf space.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and it's a hard game if you think about it. When you're 10 or 12 years out. Like when you get older stuff, you have it in the pipeline.
SPEAKER_01:And again, that's the thing. So here's the other part of that equation. Because people are trading down, they're not drinking more stock available, then that more that stock that's available, it's not being dumped to proof down to go on the bottom to go to the shelves, is now there's more whiskey aging. And so for the big consumers out there, especially like myself that like that big age, for me, that's gonna be my sweet spot in four or five years. Then maybe that 10-year I was waiting on, maybe it's gonna be 15, and that really hits my wheelhouse. But again, it's gonna go up in price and value. It could go up$20,$25 because of the agile share and every and all the other variables, I guess, of supply and demand, economics 101. So there's that catch 22 that's going on. Interesting.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and you did mention, and I'm gonna give you credit because maybe 18 months ago at a bourbon tasting, you told me bourbon is gonna slow and tequila is the next bourbon. I go, get the hell out of here. You don't know what you're talking about. There's no way that's gonna be the case. And you are spot on. You go into the stores now, and everybody's looking for the tequila. And I'm starting to drink a lot of the tequila right now, and I'm enjoying it probably more than I'm enjoying the bourbon. But I thought there's no way in hell you were gonna be right, and that's that's actually been what's happening. Why don't we take that money to Vegas, baby?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna stick with bourbon. Yeah. Well, what about you? Are you doing any tequila? I there are some tequilas that I like, but for the majority, I like bourbon.
SPEAKER_02:But if you said to me right now, let's go to a bar, what do you want to order? Like, I would order a reposado before I'd order a bourbon. Now, if it was like a really good, particularly if Matt was bringing in one of his bottles to drink, I would drink Matt's stash. But otherwise, the reposados, for me, I'm drinking a ton of those right now. And somebody says to me, they're traveling, and they say, What do you want me to look for? You want me to find you an Igor Rwell or say, Do you have the Ford a laser reposado? And if you could find that, that's my first ask back.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm picking that up not Saturday now, I'm picking it up Friday in San Antonio. So the I've been through this these cycles multiple times in my career, and I and I've seen this. And it's again, we're gonna we're gonna get down to that, down into that valley, and we're gonna get back into the peak. It's just gonna be a while.
SPEAKER_02:So so Matt, you're suggesting that he buy some of the stuff now at the dip price because it's gonna go back up. But you because Matt Matt likes to buy without a doubt. Yeah. So buy the stuff that's the good stuff now and then hold it, and then it's gonna go back up. And now down the road.
SPEAKER_01:Well, here's an example. I have a client that was looking for some George T. Stagg Sr. And you know, I found some. You know, two years ago, that Stag Sr. was$1,600 to$1,700. And I found a bottle the other day. A couple bottles were$850 each,$9.50 each. Wow. How many bottles do you have? And think about this.
SPEAKER_00:None.
SPEAKER_01:Think about think about what we're doing with Pappy for our Gentsgiving company. Shout out. Shout out to Gentsgiving. How many do we have about 30 tickets left? We have only 30 left of the 144. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00:I sold four today.
SPEAKER_01:Great. That's why you were late. Okay. And what was Pappy a couple years ago? So the lot 1250 to 15B.
SPEAKER_02:So when you were getting lot B, well, you got a you guessed. Five or 700? We got no, that was the the 10 year old repuls. But the lot B, we just got four bottles at 750 a bottle. And three, four years ago, yeah, 15,000 or 12, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_01:This is concerning, but for the loyal consumers that have been looking for their favorite brands for years and years and years, you know, it's a win, especially up here in Northwest Arkansas. And Arkansas, we're we're kind of a market that has to wait and wait and wait.
SPEAKER_02:But I was gonna say the flippers, the people that are buying it, finding it somewhere at MSRP and then flipping it for six or seven X that we're only getting two and three X that now.
SPEAKER_01:That's that that ship is sailed for right now. Uh that's gonna be a very rare whiskey that people find that they can flip right now. Unless they have, unless they have two or three friends that are looking for it, and they, you know, they just kind of want to do the old uh bait switch with them, which will happen. Um I I would think so. We're the projections are right now is this could last into 2030. Whoa. Uh and again, uh there's you know, there's over 3,000 distilleries in America. A hundred over 150 have shuttered this year. Do we have to shut down Bar Nelson?
SPEAKER_00:Like this is this is scary times. Yeah, like what should we do? Smiles and that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_02:We run on smiles.
SPEAKER_00:Bar Nelson's a club. It doesn't, it doesn't have any stock, so it doesn't care what the market does. Like everyone brings their own stuff.
SPEAKER_01:You know, if we were on smiles and we've got to schedule another trip on the bourbon trail. Yeah. I'll give you, you know, again, I'm gonna be up there two weeks on the trail on Friday. So I'll give you guys my my thought of what I see when I'm up there in a couple weeks to see what we saw last year and what we can't find this year, or vice versa. Because we didn't see much last year. No, we stayed at Heaven Hill. We did it we we because of the connection here with Rob, we did he he hooked us up at McTurch.
SPEAKER_00:He did hook us up at uh without without a we need to follow up with them and yeah, yeah, find out about that. Uh the the Nelson. I was hoping you guys were gonna get a celebration for gents for Gents Giving.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, Bobby's follow-through at times may not be on par with what I'm hoping would be the case because I have to kind of nudge him to send that email. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Of course. We got one, me and Rob would probably send you a video in his bar.
SPEAKER_02:We've like He's got two of them.
SPEAKER_01:The one for Gents Given, we just couldn't get it. Rob's over there like this.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Rob's like But for our loyal listeners here in Northwest Arkansas. Go after your favorite package store, your independence right now, and look in their lockbox. You know, go say hi to the manager, the owner, say hi to them. Just don't go in and do the U-turn if you can't find because I'm working on an, you know, I'm always working on new events. And I've got a new one. Uh, I'm gonna call it Walk by Bourbon event. What call what? Walk by bourbon. Walk by bourbon. So you walk by an aisle in a liquor store and you've walked by that brand for a hundred times because maybe you haven't consumed it since college. And I'm calling it walk by bourbon. And I'm gonna put this in a lineup as a brown bag. And to see what people like, I'm gonna put like a walk by bourbon would be.
SPEAKER_02:Was that when you put that mellow corn shit near that too?
SPEAKER_01:You've got to give me.
SPEAKER_00:I was like, hey, uh under the I'm gonna throw something out there. Last night I tasted as bottle and bonded uh members mark Walmart's brand or Sam's, whatever it is. Is that Sazerac? It was delicious. Where'd you did you get it at Jane? Uh a buddy brought it over. Okay. Yeah. So I think it's I think that's$1792. So that's what's you did think. That is Sazraq, yeah. Sazerac.
SPEAKER_01:It was yeah, Sazerac does$1792. Did he tell did your friend tell you what the what the cost was? It was fairly inexpensive. So it's like like our you know, 20 bucks to 25. Stand by. I'll text them if I'm so here's the thing is I s I I'm a big advocate for legacy brands. We talk about this as a ignorance. I always I tell people all the time, go buy back and try Wild Turkey 101. No confidence that wild turkey 101 for 25 bucks a bottle has six to eight-year-old bourbon in there.
SPEAKER_00:You know, if do you like wild turkey? Well, at our fishing cabin in Wyoming, that's all we use for old fashions because we just get a big one. We get the hand buy. Yeah. The uh the other good one, if you're talking money-wise, is early times. Bottled bonds, it's one of my favorites for just for a cheap.
SPEAKER_02:I agree.
SPEAKER_01:It's it's very tasty. Yeah. Shocking. I believe uh Sazreck owns that brand. Well, they do. Interesting. Yeah. And so this is something that I've been like again, I remember that conversation we had 18 months ago. Uh, because I really stayed, I try to stay in tune with what's going on in the marketplace. Uh just not here in Northwest Arkansas, but rather in the United States. And also what's really disturbing is what's going on with 28 whiskey. Okay, that's a good value. For for uh$750. Yeah. That's a great value.
SPEAKER_00:Over four years, right? Because bottled in bottom.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, four years plus.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And uh minimum. You know how I like you know, like the midnight dram. It kind of reminded me of that a little bit. It had a little spiciness into it, like it was like a nice Christmas bourbon. It was but twenty-eight instead of two hundred. Exactly. See, Bobby and I are value shoppers, right?
SPEAKER_02:What do you want to be? Yeah. We'll have to ask Lisa if they're making that for remembers market. I'll have to ask her that.
SPEAKER_01:Sounds sounds right. I believe it is. I think I'm pretty sure. Yeah, that relationship. But you know, I think if we'd had this conversation, if we'd go back, wind this back a year ago, everyone I think that what we're talking about is just a falsehood. And it's it's real right now. And again, when I go to Texas and when I in in Tennessee, when I'm out and about, when I see these brands, I go, wow, it's it's pretty incredible to see what is on the shelf now that was so hard to find. And that's why with you guys, you have a relationship with retailers here in Northwest Arkansas. And I'm gonna always preach that. If you can right this is the best time now with everything coming back on the shelf, not everything, but a lot more than we've had up here. This is the time if you never want to talk to a manager at a store. This is when you go build a relationship.
SPEAKER_02:Well, a couple things that I saw recently. So Missouri, Buffalo Trace is no longer allocated. So you walk in there and there are cases and cases at$26,$28.
SPEAKER_00:Well, they have all different sizes. Yes. And there's a, like you said, a whole pallet.
SPEAKER_02:But Macadoodles in Jane. So this was the interesting one. It's the Jane store. Yes. So they're carrying allocated stuff behind the counter now, E.H. Taylor, single barrel, E.H. Taylor, you name it. But if you spend$50, that unlocks access to purchase one at MSRP. And some of the people are complaining about that. And I'm thinking to myself, if you're not going to go buy two bottles of wine or something else to get access to those prices, well, I shouldn't have to buy it. I should be able to buy it on my own. That stuff's never been available to begin with. Like that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's the person that's going to get just a bit.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but I wouldn't mind spending 50 bucks.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you can't sell all your units. Not mine at all. Oh no. And nothing else. Here's two bottles of there. It's just bigger. Here's two bottles of Tito. Yeah, a bottle of wine for the white.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's a no-brainer. But that I've never seen that. That's I've never seen that before with the stuff sitting back there. And if you spend 50, you have access to these bottles.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I got a lot B.
SPEAKER_02:I'll go to Jane and I'll go to Jane and week.
SPEAKER_01:But here, but we all like Colonel Taylor. We all uh we all like Josh would be up there every morning. Lisa, and they take care of us. And we all like Colonel Taylor. You know, we talked about Colonel Taylor does here for years. I'm in Dallas and I walk into a fine wine store that has a nice allocated whiskey selection. I wanted and I just picked up one bottle of Colonel Taylor for 65 bucks. And they had a stack of, they probably had 60, yeah, small backs. They had five cases on the floor. Yeah. And I go, one per customer. He goes, No, you can buy six pack if you want. You can buy 12. You can buy them all if you want.
SPEAKER_00:You know, there was no there is so this is I I think you could say that not just with bourbon, but a lot of hobby type things. Um right now. Right. Just yeah, I I just think, like you said, I think everyone's there's uncertainty, and I think everyone's kind of I mean, this whole stock market only hit a brand new high again and gold decently.
SPEAKER_02:I get I I we all understand all those economics. Carrie better watch our George and I go in there and grab all our gold out and sell it. Gold in the last two years.
SPEAKER_01:This is happening. Is gold at 3800 now?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's over that.
SPEAKER_01:There's the other switch. And silver is at 47. You know what the other switch on this that we haven't talked about is because of our whiskey sales in Canada for bourbon right now are way off the charts because of the tariffs. And then a lot of container ships that were going to have bourbon and rye from the United States. Of course, bourbon would be United States solid, but from the United States that was heading to Europe, a lot of those containers never reached port because they would have had to pay the tariff and the duty. And so they flipped back here in the United States. And then with supply chain and logistics, it takes a couple months to go through the through the chain. Interesting. And so that's why we're getting more and more and more on the shelf right now from the Eagle Rares to the Colonel Taylors. That's why BT up BT mother brand up in Jane Walmart or even throughout the state of Missouri is all wide open right now on the Buffalo Trace. I'm not saying Colonel Taylor, Igor Rare, but just their mother brand of BT.
SPEAKER_02:But going back to what we're talking about with Tequila, so I was in Guess Who the other day and I was asking Hart, shout out to Hart from Guess Who. I said, Hey, do you ever get the any Ford delays in here? And he started laughing. But this would be the way that you were laughing like three years ago when it came to asking for D.H. Taylor. That's what they tell me. And he says, the whole state got two and a half cases. I go, per variant? They go, no, no. Two and a half cases in total of all three. I said, so two bottles of this, three of this. He goes, yes. And that's for the whole state. What's your time frame? He said, That's what they make, that's what they uh put out this part this time of the year on their run. And I was like, that seems like nothing. And he says, I haven't seen a bottle in forever. And he goes, two years ago. Coming from Mexico, isn't it? Two years ago, it used to be on the shelf 16th.
SPEAKER_01:You know, it's a lot box item. And I I tell people all the time, you know, Fortalisa is one of my favorite tequilas. Not because it's a unicorn, because I believe in the brand. You know, it's a Sausa family. You know, the the Fortalisa, the Fortalisa, that was the first tequila brought in the United States, and they call it mascot. Before they rebrand it as tequila. But anyway, the the family is is low it's high demand, low distillation, and I call it the Pappy Van Winkle of the tequila category. Because you can't find it? It's hard to find.
SPEAKER_02:And it's only 90 bucks, and the resale is only like 110 or 125.
SPEAKER_01:Speaking of unicorns, do you know what the the national animal of Scotland is?
SPEAKER_00:The unicorn.
SPEAKER_01:If I'm lying, I'm dying. They voted on it years ago as a bit, as a funny, in a in a past. And so the unicorn is the natural animal of my 51st state, Scotland.
SPEAKER_00:You know, I was at Ruth Chris last night or the night before, two nights ago. Were they dog cushing? That was the food. I didn't get invited. I didn't get invited. I know. You're all wine club members and haven't shown up to a wine club. So you all could go. How was the wine club doing tonight? It was really good. It was really good. And uh he was so impressed that I picked up uh notes of stone fruit. In the wine? In the wine.
SPEAKER_02:And he said, That's my boy Russ.
SPEAKER_00:I said, I've been taught by a professional.
SPEAKER_01:What which uh which one I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00:That was Camus. Oh, Camus. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that was really good.
SPEAKER_02:That's nice. Must have been a great night.
SPEAKER_00:What'd you think of the uh of the uh would have been nice to go to that? Yeah, all you had to do was call and book your reservation. What'd you think of this? The worst very good, especially out of the coffee coffee because it allows me to be a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01:Well, hold on, knows this out of the co out of that, just knows it. That's cancer right there. When I know that I really go, I that's really white off.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I still can't get over you drinking out of the coffee cup. I still remind me of your morning ritual. I mean, it might be it might be a new track.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I mean, if I if I was in the the business that you're in, see you could be on a Zoom call and they just it's like you're having a little afternoon coffee. That's smart. We could have a, I mean, I'm this we may start a new trend for everyone. We're trendsetters.
SPEAKER_01:It's a B-Team podcast, drinking bourbon out of a coffee cup. So the you know, the wine industry is facing the same challenges that the spirits industry is. We saw this years ago with craft beer, too many microbreweries opening up and the supply and demand that fittest, you know, the survival of the fittest over time, a lot of a lot of consolidation, a lot of buyout, and uh unfortunately a lot of breweries went microbreweries went out of business. We're seeing this in the wine industry right now. You know, we're seeing this as spirits, and it it's the ebbs and flows of of a consumable good, when you know, legal drinking age, you know, 21 to end a life. A lot of people go through that ebbs and flows over time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and it's like you said, the the younger generation.
SPEAKER_02:Well, remember we were at that uh that we was the shout-out that did that that evening dance party thing, and there's the the old guys there, and we're drinking, and you look over and they're all drinking water. Like I was like, I'm like, how how how is Barry making any money today? So it's a$50 carpet charge.
SPEAKER_00:I'm like, ah they're all drinking water open bar, but he he knows that the 90% of the people don't drink anymore.
SPEAKER_02:So a huge jug of water, and there's like a line for the water, and we're like, can we just get another bourbon? Like we were the only ones drinking, it was weird, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Because I mean, don't you get pretty thirst thirsty after you take the gummy? I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:So here's a good test market. Then how are your how are your at the Jets place? Is your average member coming in and drinking as much as they used to? And are the lot boxes full?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, because most of my members are 40 and up, so it's this group that still likes to drink. Um, we're not getting a lot. I had a guy today that I was chatting with that's like, hey, can you carry some of that non-alcoholic beer? I don't I don't drink anymore. So we carried that stuff for a period of time. We had a non-alcoholic bourbon for a period of time. It just collected dust. It doesn't taste very good, but I get asked that very, very few and infrequent. But the lockers today, uh, shout out. Uh Gary Head came in today, filled his locker up, and he says, mine's next to Rob. I want to see what Rob puts in his mouth. My locker is loaded up. And I go need some help, buddy. And I go, All right, Bobby, let's see. Because he he specifically put his locker next to yours. I love it. And said, I want Bobby to see what he's locking up.
SPEAKER_00:We're sharing a locker there, right? Yeah. Yeah. So help help me stock it, and you've got a part of the key.
SPEAKER_02:Matt said he thought he was thought he was sharing a locker with you. I thought I thought you said Matt Bottle. Matt's in the uh Matt has a locker in the non-VIP.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'm in the non. We're gonna we're gonna FaceTime Matt. We're gonna FaceTime Matt like Matt's getting one. I know Matt's getting one. I'm sharing a baby.
SPEAKER_01:Are you gonna be there Monday?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I'll be there Monday, four to seven. Yeah, I'll be at the three to seven. Yeah. We're gonna have uh yeah. We got some stuff we can put in there.
SPEAKER_01:I'm headed back to Dallas to my storage unit on Tuesday, and afterwards I get when I get back. So Gary's gonna be there Monday and he's gonna be giving you shit for the Madam.
SPEAKER_00:I have to come and borrow a few good things from you.
SPEAKER_01:Borrow. Hey, yeah, hey, it's Rob is gonna be tequila, Scotch, and bourbon.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Okay. I need some heavy hitters just for show.
SPEAKER_02:This is when you negotiate, but I'll give you a couple things if I could share a locker with you. This is we share one at the other one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we share one at the other one. I'm gonna I might just take the free one that we're over there. I'd sit by myself.
SPEAKER_02:You guys were sitting in the VIP and we're drinking and we're FaceTiming Matt, and he's in the next room over, he's not allowed in with us.
SPEAKER_00:Everyone in the VIP should have access to the camera. Is that Matt sitting there out there by himself? That's funny. So so how how hard is that rule gonna be? Like if you're not a VIP, but if I'm a VIP member, I still bring someone, right? You can bring a guest whenever you want. So like one or two? One guest two. Or what happens if there's two people with me. Yeah. You bring one guest? I can't wait to see it on that. And that's a hard rule. So it'll be hard to have meetings there for people because they can't bring anyone.
SPEAKER_02:Well, so no, then then you can then you can rent out the space. So if you wanted to have a meeting.
SPEAKER_00:Is it rent out or book out?
SPEAKER_02:Um for a VIP. VIP can book out the one half of the room four times a year at no charge. Yeah. There you go.
SPEAKER_00:So yes. I feel like as much as we talked about that, we should they should maybe start supporting the show a little bit, the podcast. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty much been a gents. I mean, it's a conversation.
SPEAKER_02:At some point, at some point, we'll dig out of the hole that we're in financially for this astronomically large uh space that we've built. So you want to hear a really cool derby story. Please, thanks for getting us back on track. I got sweat coming off the back of my head.
SPEAKER_01:I was in Virginia this week. And uh I'd I'd with my Scottish client Monday doing a Scotch event for 150 people. I think 75 went through the tasting uh with their clients from the United States and their clients from uh from Scotland. Last Saturday I was uh I was in Virginia Beach and I did an event for ex-Navy SEALs, an ex-military and ex-first responders. That's kind of cool. Yeah, it's absolutely remarkable. And so I'm gonna get a bottle of this, uh it's distilled at Barstown called Four Branches. And it honors the four branches of the military. Super cool and four uh branches of the military. This is a new brand? Four branches, yes, new brand. Matt's got six tastes. I I I knew I was gonna put the line, I knew it was gonna be in the lineup because I had my tasty, you know, I had the tasting map for everybody. And I get there, and then the the host, Woody, who I'm doing the best for at this big up champion ranch. You've heard me talk about champion ranch is high, fence, exotic, hunting lodge in in near West Texas. Well, I met him years ago, he's an ex-SEAL, and he has a membership there. And so he goes, Hey, when you're in Virginia, let me know and we'll set up an event. And so, four branches, it's a four-grain to honor the four military, it's cool, and distilled at Bargettown, Mr. Bargetown, and the owner, the the Navy SEAL owner, the four, he was there and I presented his bright in front of him. So did you get him to come to Gentsgiving? It's too late for these guys, but because maybe next next year would be great. Um, they do a lot of a lot of give back, but it's feels like you feel like you missed an opportunity. I did this event for all these ex-SEALs and all these ex-military guys. I'm going, my God, what they have seen. Yeah. You know, I can't even imagine what you know from a first responder to these ex-military, these ex-SEAL guys who have seen, but it was pretty cool to because I get there, I'm just gonna do my thing. He goes, Oh, Russ, by the way, the owner's here. That's present, you've got to present four branches in front of him. That's awesome. And it was a lot of fun. And you probably have a lot of pressure in front of a seal, like they'll just take you out back and beat the shit out of you.
SPEAKER_02:That was the biggest concern was you know making it out alive. Yeah, I bet. I got the seal of approval though. I bet. All right, Russ, as we're wrapping up, I want to do fast three couple things for you. So if you are a collector that's holding stuff like Matthew, do you hold? Obviously, you're gonna drink, but do you hold, do you sell? If you're somebody that's looking or buy, yeah, yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_01:Hold, sell, or buy. Hold your allocated stuff that you have right now. Because if you buy, you're you're you're you're selling the dip. Yeah, you don't really want to sell right now. But then if you're that guy or lady that isn't collecting, this is the time to buy. You buy, okay. This is the time to research, uh that's a good analogy, 100%. Good time, Bobby. Or stocks.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Okay. If you are moving away from bourbon, it's tequila uh rum.
SPEAKER_01:Is there anything else that's that's popping right now? Rum is starting to excite me. There's more, there's more high-end allocated rum coming out. That's here's an example. You can get you can get some 25-year-old rum for$100 a battle. But here's the problem about rum, and this is why you have to buy or beware on rum, okay? So in the first world, our laws and regulations are very tight on all beverage alcohol. Here's an example: Guatemala. There's a brand called Rum Samptonario, and you look on the back and it says 30 anos, 30 years. Oh, that's a 30-year-old rum. You look on the back label, it says aged up to 30 years. Matt's got three cases of that one, too. Yeah. And so, but anyway, that said, I loved aged rum, and the majority of the aged rum that we see today is ex-American oak barrels that help bourbon rye, Tennessee whiskey, et cetera. So aged rum, but back to tequila, I would just move into tequila, reposado, and yayo, extra and yayo. I'm a big proponent of additive free. Uh and I've tried to drop a lot, you know, the the tequila I bet did, you know, for the Corbett's in December. You guys were. Shout out to Corey. She didn't make it through the night. She tried, she tried hard. A for effort. She made it through all the teeth. Remember the majority of those were added to free. Yeah. Yep. Yep. And the good value. But you know, the projection this year, and it did not come to realization, was the projection this year was Tequila's going to outsell vodka in the United States for the first time. Whoa. That was the projection a year ago, right now. Wow. That was the trend. Today. But we're talking no, because of the this what we're talking about with the down trade and the downturn. You start a little bit late, and before you get back. But one thing I did say earlier is Tito's Tito's just bought Lalo.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So Lalo, Don Julio's grandson from Mexico. So Lalo is he only does Blanco. And I did buy some of the Lalo uh high proof the other day here. So that's that's hitting it in the marketplace here, the Higher Proof. So Tito's bought that. So there, so there's a lot of acquisition and a lot of buyouts right now going on, too. But a vodka drinker trade into Blanco tequila, a gin drinker trade into Blanco Tequila, the Sky Strinker's favorite tequila is a reposado, a bourbon's favorite tequila is anyhow or extra ⁇ so this is the time because I was a I had a bad experience on spring break in Cancun with tequila and didn't want to try it. This is the time to get back into tequila. This again, you've heard me talk about what you know, the formal presentations is on that regard, right there, you know, when we taste whiskey distilled spirits, it's your brain, it's your nose, it's the old palate. And if you didn't want to like that tequila because of that bad experience you had back in the day, that's your heart telling you that you're not going to like it. So take that heart out of these. Yeah, but that's a certain, but not being a bourbon guy like you are, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That's why you get into a yayo or extra in yayo. Yeah. But even the the that round, you had that XO run. Yep, that's good. It's good. It's it tastes kind of like bourbon a little bit.
SPEAKER_01:Is that the uh the the Mount Gay XO?
SPEAKER_00:I don't know. It's it just says XO on it, but it it was good. Yeah. Maybe because it was free. You're a big fan of the Mount Gay, right? The which one? The Mount Gay? It's a good run, brand. That'll get edited. I'm still waiting for the bloopers. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You missed one at the beginning today. Yeah. I was going to welcome the B Team Podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Russ, plug your website. Website is speaking of grapesandgrains.com. You have anything you're doing locally in the next couple months? Anything doing the Jets Place event on Monday. Uh shout out to the Jets Place new opening at the Walmart campus. And then, of course, VIP golf clap. Yeah, to non-VIPs. And then to you three gentlemen, and the odds. We have Jetsgiving coming up. Jensgiving, November 6th. Yeah, November 6th, and uh little flock. We got odds coming in from Colorado.
SPEAKER_00:We got people coming from around the country. We had a lady. That's right. Did you bring me my check? Or no, but I have perfect segue.
SPEAKER_02:Perfect segue. We have a lady that bought a table from Colorado that wants to sit with Davey. I haven't broken the news to him yet. I wouldn't tell him.
SPEAKER_00:I would just do it.
SPEAKER_02:I would tell him on Monday.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'd say, hey, I need a favor, and he'll be great to do it. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Russ, let's clink with our wonderful glasses. Thanks, Bobby, for bringing the glasses today. Pierce. Salute. Pierce.
SPEAKER_01:To your health, gentlemen.