171 - Tasting The Oldest Bourbon in History with Buddy Thompson, Former Chairman of Glenmore Distillery

When you see a 45 year old bourbon priced at $1800 retail, do you ask yourself, "Who are they kidding!?". That's exactly what Kenny thought before sitting down with our guest today. James "Buddy" Thompson brings more to this story than a bottle of bourbon. He was the Forman chairman of Glenmore Distillery and donated over $300,000 from the profits of James Thompson & Brother Final Reserve to charities that support Veterans. This episode will capture not only the history of Glenmore Distillery, but also make you intrigued to know what something that has aged 45 years in an oak barrel tastes like and the journey those barrels took until they were actually bottled. Show Notes: The “Private Labels” Ruling Whiskey’s Black Market from PunchDrink.com Join our Private Barrel Club at https://www.patreon.com/bourbonpursuit We are now on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5Z3v7diyoqu0Zx7naH29jc This week’s Above The Char with Fred Minnick is a short list for 2018 American Whiskey of the Year and a Call to Action for listeners to tell him what to drink! Scott Scinta , how did you get into it? What was your initial reaction to the product or story? Buddy, tell us about your path into the spirits industry What happened between Brown and Thompson? Talk about your time at Glenmore Distillery Can you talk about Kentucky Tavern history and during those times at Glenmore? Were you overseeing operations? What was your role comprised of? Why not a 50 year? Are you a veteran yourself? Talk about your military past? How often were you going back and testing these barrels? Are they sad about losing their best tenant ever for resting these barrels? Talk about the extravagant packaging? Why a snifter rather than a glencairn? So this really wasn’t a big profit game? What's the release cycle of these look like? Why not make one big batch? How did Bill Thomas of Jack Rose become involved? Let’s start sampling This nose is incredible! It says "double oaked". So it's been barreled twice What was the entry proof 40+ years ago? What were some of your go to whiskies back then? Were you trying to find a target consumer? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices