6/19/25 Proof Positive: Maker's Mark Keepers Release
The Keepers Release celebrates those who craft their handmade bourbon at Star Hill Farm. It is inspired by the people who oversee the maturation of their whisky, the true "Keepers" of Maker's Mark. This bold expression features hints of seasoned oak and brûlée sugar, offering a long and enveloping mouthfeel with notes of dried fruit and roasted sweetness. Cheers!
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6/12/25: Chef Paul Smith
Paul Smith’s deeply ingrained love of both cooking and West Virginia can be traced back to his earliest days — standing alongside his grandfather helping stir the sauce for the large Sunday dinners so common among Italian families who had settled in the coalfields. From those beginnings, Paul’s passions for food and his Appalachian home have taken him on a culinary journey that he is proud to share with his community. After graduating from Charleston Catholic High School, Chef Paul immersed himself in learning the hospitality industry and the finer points of great cuisine. With his BA from West Virginia State University, he formally trained at New York’s prestigious Culinary Institute of America (graduated with honors) and CIA’s Greystone campus in Napa Valley, California, where he studied pastries and wine and graduated as Valedictorian.Paul has worked around the country, from The Ritz Carlton Resort in Naples, Florida, to the world-renowned Biltmore Estates in Asheville, North Carolina, to The Windsor Club in Vero Beach, Florida. Taking the tastes and techniques of every stop along his culinary journey he longed to return to his roots and tell these culinary stories through the traditions and flavors of Appalachia. When the Mountain State pulled at his heartstrings, he returned to West Virginia where he served as the Executive Chef at the University of Charleston, and Corporate Chef for Buzz Food Service.Today, he has multiple restaurants in Charleston, West Virginia’s capital: The Pitch Sports Bar & Grill, and 1010 Bridge Restaurant & Catering, which quickly gained a reputation as one of the state’s premiere dining destinations.He believes strongly that a rising tide will lift all boats, and has served as an advisor to multiple food and hospitality businesses in West Virginia. Paul’s ultimate vision is to give back to the state he has always considered home through his gifts of great food and warm hospitality.Chef Paul was named a Semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef of The Southeast Award and became an official nominee the same year and is the first West Virginia chef to receive that honor. He was also named West Virginian of the year in 2023.In 2024 he was honored again with a nomination for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef of The Southeast Award and on June 10th 2024 in a ceremony in Chicago he became West Virginia’s very first James Beard Award winner. He continues to champion West Virginia and his community in all he does, and loves few things more than the way food brings people together.
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6/5/25: Founder of The Macklowe Whiskey Julie Macklowe
Julie is a New York City businesswoman and a passionate entrepreneur. A graduate of the University of Virginia, she had an impressive multi-decade career in the finance industry, running large consumer portfolios for hedge funds like SIGMA and Millennium Management and currently under Macklowe Capital.Julie always had a vision to operate a company, and in 2011, she founded the luxury skincare line Vbeauté. Vbeauté launched at Bergdorf Goodman and became one of the fastest-growing brands on the TV shopping network HSN until it was sold to QVC in the fall of 2018.In 2019, inspired by her expansive collection of the world’s finest whiskies, Julie started The Macklowe, the first luxury American Single Malt. She began laying down her own liquid in Kentucky with the help of Master Blender Ian MacMillian. In December 2022, the Private Collection debuted, with the signature release of the Kentucky Edition being launched in May 2023.
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5/29/25 Proof Positive: Larceny Barrel Proof A125
Larceny Barrel Proof was launched in January 2020, and each year Heaven Hill releases three numbered batches identified by a specific batch code. Batches range in age from 6-8 years and vary in proof, though it is possible for batches to be the same proof as previous batches from time to time. This first batch of 2025, designated by batch code A125 - A (for the first of the year), 1 (for January release month), and 25 (for 2025 release year) - clocks in at exactly 125 proof. Cheers!
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5/22/25 Double Barrel: Old Forester 1924 vs Jack Daniel's 10
It has been a while but the guys bring you this week a good old fashioned duel of Double Barrel between two ten year bourbons.Old Forester 1924The Whiskey Row Series’ 1924 10 – Year – Old is a limited annual release celebrating another milestone in Old Forester’s storied history.During Prohibition, more than 200 distilleries were forced to close. Old Forester, however, continued operations because the federal government issued us one of six medicinal licenses, P-3. In 1924, Old Forester acquired barrels from closed distillers, with different mash bills, and bottled that liquid as Old Forester. This release commemorates that moment in time.Jack Daniel's 10 Jack Daniel’s 10 Year Old Tennessee Whiskey highlights the modern day world-class whiskey expertise of their Distillery while honoring their past, and with a nod to Mr. Jack’s original bottles includes its age stated on the label as their Distillery did more than a century ago.It has been around 120 years since the Jack Daniel Distillery offered a whiskey labeled as ten years of age or greater. But for the past decade they've been experimenting to create a whiskey that would honor the liquid Mr. Jack crafted at the end of the 1800s while keeping up with the growing demand for their whiskey around the world.
USA