Old Carter, Uncut, Mark Carters Masterpiece!

We sit down with Mark Carter to talk about how Old Carter stays unmistakable batch after batch, from chewy caramel depth to that long, silky finish. We get into the real work behind very small blends, the Social Club experience, and why we chase “delicious” over age statements and hype. 
• tasting through recent Old Carter releases and why bottles can open up over time 
• what the Old Carter Social Club is and how lockers, appointments, and tastings work 
• how Mark builds tiny blends and uses a blind tasting panel to choose winners 
• double barreling with brand new barrels and how char levels shape flavor 
• distilling history since 2017 and why keeping barrels “straight” matters 
• mash bill range from high corn to rye and why older rye drinks better 
• bourbon community culture, whiskey versus wine logistics, and lessons from both worlds 
go to uh oldcarterwhiskeyco.com 
let's do the www.scotchybourbonboys.com for all things scotchy bourbon boys 

Caramel you can chew, a finish that won’t quit, and a blender who treats barrels like instruments in a band. We’re joined by Mark Carter of Old Carter Whiskey to unpack how his team keeps a bold, recognizable profile across small batch bourbon, very small batch drops, and club only releases without watering anything down.

We talk through the Old Carter Social Club and why the membership model changes everything: tiny two barrel blends, 375ml formats that actually make sense for ultra limited whiskey, lockers, and tasting appointments that feel like a shared night with friends who care about the details. Mark explains how a blend earns the label, how his blind tasting panel makes final calls, and why “delicious” beats chasing proof or age for its own sake.

Then we go full nerd on double barreling done the hard way, meaning brand new oak barrels, multiple coopers, and char levels that help dial in viscosity, aromatics, and that signature toffee and caramel depth. We also get into mash bills, from high corn sweetness to older 95/5 rye, plus the real world “neck pour” debate and what shipping, heat, and oxygen can do to a bottle.

If you love barrel proof bourbon, blending talk, and behind the scenes whiskey decisions, hit play, subscribe, share this with your bourbon group, and leave a review with the Old Carter batch you’d pour for a friend.

Add for SOFL

If You Have Gohsts

Transcript

Whiskey Thief Tasting Room Plug

Going Live And Bringing Mark On

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Tiny here to tell you about Whiskey Thief Distilling Company and their newly opened tasting room. Whether you are up for a farm to glass distilling experience on the Three Boys Farm in Frankfurt, Kentucky, or an out-of-this world tasting experience in New Look, you won't be disappointed. At both locations, their barrel picks all day, every day, are like none other. Each location features stations with five barrels, each featuring their pot-distilled bourbons and rye. Once the barrels have been thieved and tasted, you can make a selection and feed your own bottle. A day at Whiskey Thief with their friendly staff and ownership will ensure you many good times with good friends and family. Remember to always drink responsibly, never drink and dry, and live your life uncut and unfiltered. Okay, here we go. Tiny's here tonight, and let's see if I can do this. All right, I got that working. And we are having a special guest on tonight. And I'm just trying to make it okay. Yep, that's working. All right. Yes. We we are we started off to to do an old Carter podcast, but I put it out there that that's what we're doing. And all of sudden, out of the blue, uh Christy was Atkinson was like, well, let me see if I could get Mark on tonight. So Mark Carter is here to join us.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Well, it's nice to be here. Super Nash and Steiny. I love you guys. Love you too.

First Pours And Neck Pour Debate

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah, we love you. We love you too, yeah, for sure. And Super Nash is here with us also. Hey, Super Nash! In the house. In the house. And I think this is kind of exciting for Super Nash because the last couple times that we've hung out and whatever, Super Nash has he's he had some health issues, and then also he's been busy catching up and everything. But I think you know, he was when I let him know that you were coming on, he was super excited. Wouldn't you agree, Super Nash?

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Absolutely, yes. Well, he's got a nice lineup there, Super Nash.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Oh thank you. Absolutely. We got uh we got the 50C, we got the KY4, the Tennessee 4, we got batch 14 American whiskey, and then we got batch number nine of the bourbon.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

My goodness, that is a great lineup, and almost all of those are pretty new releases, you know. So thank you.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

That's how much I like it. I I try to stay on top of it and uh and get hold of them. I always got a few stored back in my in my bourbon bunker.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Well, I'm actually uh drinking the 17 national release, the bourbon. The last two and a half, three weeks, we have been doing the 17, 18, 19 bourbon national release, which is called the very small batch.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Right. And most of all the all of what you've done and what you're doing is always very, very it's it's small batches, correct? Now you do a national batch, but then you do local batches also, correct?

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Absolutely absolutely, and I uh it's the small batches I've been working on. I I'm drinking, actually, I'm not drinking from it, but it's right in front of me, so I saw the very small batch, which is the KY4. So I do have the KY4 in front of me, such as you do, too, Supermash.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

That's what I got in my glass tonight is the KY4.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

I haven't opened it yet. Just had opened that up today. Well, you know, kick it around, you know, get some air in it, you know. I believe in neck force and guarantee it's gonna be better tomorrow. Just like line is better in four hours.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Yeah, that's what I did. I opened it up about three o'clock when I came in today and left it in here on the table, just let it let it set open and all that. Beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Well, I you know, as a bliss as a blender, when you say you believe in neck pores, I could see that because people like a lot of times distillers will tell you they don't believe in neck pores, but what happens with distillers is that they get their bottles right at the distillery. You know, it just it never kind of leaves the distillery. So you open that up. It hasn't been shipped, it hasn't been exposed to a semi at 100 degrees, it hasn't gone to a warehouse and sat in a warehouse where it's not heated, then it does hasn't been shipped back on a box truck, it's stuck on a shelf or what you know whatnot. So that's a lot of you know, people don't realize that whiskey does have a it, it's it's it's it's it's hardy, but there is some things that can happen to it that you gotta let that oxygen and everything kind of settle it all down, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:18

It is a lot, it's a living thing too, just like wine. So it does, believe it or not, age. Yeah, even in the bottle, even in the bottle.

Old Carter Social Club And Lockers

SPEAKER_01 7:28

There's no doubt. There's you know, it can't it doesn't stop. I mean, just because it's not in wood, you know?

unknown 7:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Right. So so let's for one, let's just for everybody to know, um, one of the cool things about this brand is there is, I think, one of the coolest, what would you say, club associated with a whiskey brand. Now, there's a lot of different uh bigger brands and whatnot, but the talk about the old Carter Social Club, you know, and and the importance to what it is. It's almost like where you're at and and your home.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Yeah, it's kind of fun. You know, back in 2022, we opened up the club and and we figured that we would do something very special and have members and do small, really, really small batches. We only have at this point 330 members, so I could do either almost a single barrel if I do it in maybe 375s now or two-barrel blend, something like that. But I try to give the club everything that I can I have made, but they get things uh not the national releases or even the state releases, distributor releases get. So they they get something a little more bit more, you know, unique and it lets me play it around even more. I love doing small batches. I'm a blender and I get to play around. If it's two two barrels and I blend it, it's a blend, you know. And then it may go into a new barrel and it may sit there for three years and it's a single barrel that I have blended, which is fun. You know. The one of the things that we're talking about is with the small batch, even our biggest small batch was 22 barrels, and that was for um actually the American whiskey 15, which every it's 75% of it was 19 and 20-year-old juice, so there wasn't a lot in those barrels. I feel very comfortable doing a 20-barrel blend for the national lease. And always there is always a little bit of double barreling in everything we do, and I try to educate people what double barreling is for us. There is double oaking, there, you know, which could be stays or chips, but for us, it's a brand new barrel every time, which is usually about$350 for a new barrel. So that's the difference between us and a lot of other people. You know, there's nothing wrong with however you do whatever you like, but I'm really used to using barrels, and I love barrels because I come from the wine business. And the wine business uses, you know, French oak. I use American oak for my my bourbon. A lot, you know, once you get down into from small batches, which is maybe 20 barrels, to very small batches, maybe five barrels. Or less. Yeah. South Carolina was four barrels.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

That's just that's those those are amazing batches that you're doing.

Tiny Batches And Blind Blend Panel

SPEAKER_02 11:29

And people, what people I I think partially though, one of the different different in flavors and profiles, and it's just amazing the flavors and profiles that you get to come out in your batches. Great palette. Which brings me to the question. And who how many people do you usually have on your your blending and tasting palette? I mean, panel.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Well, what I do is I blend and then I will taste it through, and if I like it, it goes into the judging, basically. And we have four of us that will blind taste it and see which one we like the most. And that's if we're unanimous, and a lot of times we are, that's the one we will pick, and then the rest will, you know, will not be made. So, but uh Christy's on there, Brian Booth's on there, and Alan Elliott's on there right now.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

And then, and then you have a dis you have you're distilling, and you have been for a while.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Thank goodness you mentioned that because a lot of people think we're just uh you know a non-producer. We we've been producing whiskey since 17. And now, and I was so excited that you mentioned that because today I'm thinking about it, it's nine years old now. And almost all the stuff I was blending today is nine, ten, eleven, twelve years old already. You know, a lot of the stuff I've got in front of me. I'm going, God, time just passes.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Yeah, and and it's crazy, but the time is passing like so fast. I mean, I remember, I remember when I first was getting into it in 2019 and I signed up in 2018 for Maker's Mark, their their you know, their ambassador program, which is something similar where you sign up and then they they they name a barrel. And I've already gone, got bottles out of it. You know, it's it's already, and and when I was thinking how long, you know, five, six years is, and it went by so it's going by so quick. I mean, I I I think about, you know, we uh just how fast new, you know, New Orleans came and went. We were in New Orleans and we had a real we had a good time, you guys did great, got to taste. But I mean, what is it now? We're almost we're we're coming up this week. That'll be three weeks ago, right? Absolutely. And and all those barrels are three weeks older. So yes, and then with the club, you get that exclusivity of those, the the ability to purchase those bottles. And I would say, based off of, you know, what when you're blending, because of your whiskey that you're obtaining and then also distilling of higher quality, those those three, four barrel batches, right, are still, you're still, you don't, you're not trying to, you don't have to blend anything out. You're blending for taste. A lot of times when you make those big, big, big batches people are making, a lot of times they're putting other barrels in and they're working to get through those barrels because of a cost-effective type thing. And with you, that's really not what you're trying to do. You know, you've got a couple, you know, you can do those smaller barrels and they're of such superior quality.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Yeah. It was really fun that doing the little, you know, our last release we did for the club was a 20-year American whiskey, and it was a two-barrel blend. And it was an actually 20 and 21 year that I had put into a char four barrel. When was it, you know, one was char five, one was char four, and it was blended into a char four, you know, at the end three years ago. And then we basically, you know, divided that into 375s, coming out with about 300 and you know, almost 60 bottles, which was perfect for the club.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Yeah, it was. It was perfect because mine's still in my locker and I'm waiting to go get it.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Now, with the club, which is kind of nice, is when you do come, we usually pour you what you bought, and you also take your bottle home with you. You never open it there, you know, which is nice. You know, and you get to bring a few friends with you and uh taste through at least usually four different expressions that we have released currently, maybe even throughout the United States. You know, maybe it'll be in Texas, maybe it'll be you know, South Carolina or North Carolina, or maybe up in New York.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

So yeah, it's not just you ex you just go and pick it out of your locker. It's an experience when you go there sharing with your friends. I mean, you guys, the the it's such a great, you know, experience going there, and it's such a great atmosphere. Can't wait to see the upstairs once once you're getting that, you're getting that close to being finished.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

It is it is done, and we have actually assigned some lockers, which is nice up there. So the people will be tasting up there that have the locker up there if they want, or they can, you know, it's on the third floor. The second floor is the original part. We actually even have a first floor that was the spot where we started it all at. And uh, we'd open that up and we'd do some tasting there, and that's where we do our pop-ups. We were doing pop-ups, and that was okay for a while, but then a lot of the other people that were club members said, well, well, we'd rather have the bottles than have this people on the street come in and get the bottles. So we stopped doing pop-ups uh, you know, back in 23 was the last uh pop-up we did.

Distilling Since 2017 And Staying Straight

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Well, yeah, your distribution is, you know, you guys are just working. I I think well, once again, you're part of like the wine, and you're part of, you know, you've you've got that experience of what you're doing. So you really kind of understand distribution and volume of what, you know, you're you're making sure you don't get too big too fast, so then all of a sudden your whiskey suffers because that's not what you're what you're in it for, you know.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Integrity is what it's all about, you know, when it comes to flavor. I'm never chasing age. It is great when you have some age, it tastes great. It's also great when you have some proof that tastes great. But anyway, you know, combining it, as long as at the end of the day what you're blending is delicious, then we want. Then then it's good. There's, you know, really bad stuff that's old, and there's really bad stuff that's high proof. You know, you've gotta have it taste great. You know, it's not what we we we chase ever. When we do blend, we want it to be delicious and we want to be able to move into a new area. Uh we're going to be in Indiana. We're working on that right now, and that will be great to be there. I would love to be able to say we will be making a batch just for Ohio. And since you mentioned that earlier on today, let's let's make that happen. They all be talking to Heidelberg, our distributor up there, and make a just a very small batch, a small blend, maybe five, six barrels, something like that for Ohio.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Ohio, we I love Ohio. I I mean, uh you you've been here, you've kind of met Anne Dimmick, who's a really good friend of the podcast, and she is so good. I mean, when a five-six barrel would be amazing that you the release could happen. Like I I know that you can just that she would set you up at the releases, bring you up, have you do do bottle signings. You, you and Christy, you would absolutely have a great, a great time. And that it's it's perfect for old Carter to do that.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

It it is, and it might be perfect timing because we have just brought our wines back into both Kentucky and Ohio, and we have been absent for quite a few years. We used to sell there, but we were again very, very small production with the with the wine that we were selling it all direct to consumer. And you know, we forgot about our distributors, and you know, now we've actually got more grapes. There's a uh uh availability of grapes for years. You couldn't buy grapes. Now you can get grapes, it's kind of like the wine, the whiskey business. You can find barrels today, you couldn't get barrels, you know, five years ago. So with that, we're able to get really nice grapes. We're able to get really nice barrels, and we can expand in the right way.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

So, you know, I'll be headed out to California in June. June 12th through the 16th, I believe I'm gonna be out there. Great.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

So we've got to come by the winery, Napa, Calusbog. It's a beautiful area. Yeah. Yeah, you go there and I'm just gonna I will help you, you know, set up something, you know, a tasting at the winery, which I'll love to do that for you. Oh, that'd be great.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

Yeah, because like I said, my my in-laws, they they live there and my gosh, uh just to lose me, but no pick for this. But anyway, they're just about an hour north of LA on the 101 and all. So like I say, we're headed out there, my brother-in-law's getting married out there. On on uh the Sunday color color winery, I think. Yeah, it's probably where he's getting married at and all. But then we got a couple two or three other days that are wide open.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Yeah, uh whatever you need if you're up in Napa Valley, okay. That is for sure. I'll definitely, I'll definitely give you a call and let you know. All right, super Nash, I love you.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

I'm gonna be too worried. I'm gonna be on that time. I will be down by in Kentucky the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th for the National Bourbon Day and week. So I'll probably try. If are you guys gonna be in in town for that?

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Uh what month?

SPEAKER_01 22:36

June. June 14th. Is that Sunday is actually National Bourbon Day?

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Well, I may be here. I never know where I'm gonna be. I never plan anything out in more than about a month and a half.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

I get it. I get it. I understand. Yes, you're you're a busy guy doing busy things, that's for sure. And you gotta do all the promotion and everything. So, you know, I've I've I've I think I we saw you, I saw you with uh Roxy when we came down to when we were coming down to Florida, we saw you at the at the bottling plant and and the blending plant. And then also we stopped by the club and then got to see you. It was great seeing you and Christy in New Orleans. I mean that was great. That was fabulous. Great um great city. Plus, we all ended up going to You missed the wedding. That's a first for me. The bourbon festival turns into a wedding.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Everything anything and everything is possible in the whiskey business.

Ohio Batch Idea And Wine Expansion

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Yes, especially, yes, with the people, the great people within within the industry.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

I love this community. I love this community so much. It's unbelievable for the people that are in it and all the you know personalities and the great things that people actually accomplish.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Yeah, definitely. And to see the, you know, as you, as me, when you see the younger people in the industry not only just surviving, but starting to thrive and coming up with their, you know, when you're talking about the other people, you come up with different, the different brands that are doing well. Because, you know, you need the younger people to keep coming up so that they can attract the, you know, the younger, the younger people get the younger people involved for everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

Yeah, you always need new people coming into the industry, into consumers, uh, into actually producing. It's it's a great thing, you know. And when you think, I think, you know, if you're not bigger, uh big enough to accept that, then I think you end up actually giving up a lot of creativity. You know, you uh I I'm not just a blender myself and a producer and an owner. I am an enthusiast of what everybody does out there. And I find joy every time I I I I talk to somebody is starting a new brand and and doing a fabulous job.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

Yeah, and and you do that. So much fun, yeah, for us. I mean, or for me, you know, doing this podcast is getting to meet these people and and all when they're starting out, and and some of them, like I say, where all their hopes and dreams and their hard work is has came to fruition and now they're the places they are now. It's it's just so much fun. And and every person that I meet in this industry has always been great and also helping us along, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah. Well, and Mark, you guys are so supportive of everyone. You know, I'm I so many times I, you know, we're with other people in the industry, and they're either you've you've met them before and you know them real well, or you kind of know them, or whatever. But no matter what, you know, I I've probably seen you at 12 to 13 different types of venues at other people's distilleries at yours. And I mean, you're just as far as and then, you know, sometimes you you're you're passing through Ohio and I end up seeing you up here for lunch.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

So it's just that was fabulous having lunch with you. That that that restaurant and that winery is uh incredible, but we spot that. And I just saw an order from Bender's again for the 23 uh wines. So if you go to Bender's up there in your hometown there, you it'll be on the list, I'm sure, some Cabernet, you know, maybe a hundred-point cabernet on the list. Oh, right. That's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

That's perfect.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

It's like one of their steaks, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Oh yeah, that that's a great restaurant. And there's no doubt. And they it's it, you know, and that they've always been happy to have your, you know, you've loved it because they've always wanted wanted what you do. They appreciate quality.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

And that was so fun. You know, I'll never forget it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Yeah, yeah. No, no, and that's that's probably why your whiskeys and your wines have so much character and and you know, culture attached attached to them is because of the fact that you're you're about the people that you spend time with and all the experiences. And, you know, just just real quick, I mean, you were an innkeeper first, correct?

SPEAKER_00 27:58

That is correct. Yeah, I was a builder before I was an innkeeper, but then I built a big house and it was too big, and uh they would have taken it away. But I uh came up with an idea to basically rent rooms out of my house. So I became an innkeeper. A little bed and breakfast and built from there.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Well, that's that's amazing. Everything that's but even even every sip that I have ever taken from the start, before I even knew you, from my first sip on, I was in love with this, with with your bourbon and your and even your American whiskeys are the whether it's the it's just the flavor palettes, they're always you know barrel-proof, right? You got barrel, it's always that.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

You're absolutely correct. We have never ever put water in anything we've done, never watered it back. Ever from the very first time we made whiskey, even when I started with uh Kentucky Allen, made that happen. We made two choices. Those were all double barreled completely, and they were all barrel-proof. As I've made my journey, I sometimes still do 100% barrel-proof on some of these. I uh they're all barrel-proof, but also totally double barreled, but not that many totally anymore. I like to kind of, I think I toned it down a little bit here and there. And you know, a lot of times with older whiskeys, I don't have to put that much barrel into it.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Okay. Right. So it's the double barreling aspect. Now, when you're double barreling, so if you're using right, to keep it a bourbon and you double barrel, you have to new use another new oak barrel, correct?

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Yes, what do I do?

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Right, but if it's an American whiskey, you can reuse one of those barrels if it's a short time, correct?

SPEAKER_00 30:02

You can do anything.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

There's really no rules for you can just make it make it awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

I mean, and then you kind of follow a similar thing each time. I may try a few different things during the way, but you know, once you have a profile of you like, you probably you kind of stick to it, and that's when you drink old carter, you know. You know, that's that that depth, the richness, the balance, the complexity, the aromatics, all the things of sweetness there. You know you're drinking, and I want you to know you're drinking an old carter.

Bourbon Community Stories And COVID Shift

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Well, there's a lot, a lot of people who play with the bourbons that you use, okay? And other brands, whatnot. But what is the I mean, uh is it a if it's a secret, just tell me it's a secret. The caramels that you, the rich caramels and toffees that you pull out of it isn't like and it's consistent. That's one thing. It's consistent as but but also they're the richest car every once in a while uh another brand will pull a caramel off like that. Like they're like like Wild Turkey, Russell's 13, batch one pulled out all this caramel, or a William Lure Luru Weller like from three, four years ago. But all the batches don't consistently do that. You know what I'm saying? It's like then then the next batches are kind of good, but they're just toned down. But when I'm drinking old Carter, I mean this this old Carter O5, oh, this O5 OC that we've got that we picked up. I've tasted it when I, you know, when I was, you know, when I picked it up, Booth, Brian Booth, right? Yes, absolutely. He let me taste it out of the whatever. But I opened this bottle up this weekend, and I swear to God, the finish is an actual caramel. Like it tastes like you're chewing on a caramel, and you you consistently make these these whiskies that way. What's this what's the key?

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Well, that that's called blending, I guess, because that's what I'm looking for. So I will be pulling stuff out and putting stuff in until I get that almost all the time. You know, uh that that is my palette. That's that's what I like. You know, I will make things different sometimes because sometimes you get, well, I like to do some. I've gotten some dark sometimes. I got with char five, like New York, New Jersey was, you know, I had a taste of something I really admired, and I made something similar to that. It was a different producer, I loved it. And I go, that's dark and rich. It's darker and richer. I want something just like that. So I blended something like that. And then I go, well, you know, I've gotten so many of these dark, rich things. I said, maybe I just want to make something sweet. And that was where South Carolina gave me in the background. My God, this is honey in a in a bottle, man.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

Wow. So so your so the mask is going out. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Well, making my mouth water. So I just poured a little bit of this this 5OC.

SPEAKER_01 33:17

Oh my god, it's so good.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

I mean mine's been opened. I think I opened it up just a few days after you left and you dropped it off to me when you were coming back up from Florida.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Yeah. I picked I opened this up on I want to say Friday night, and I basically, even just after I just couldn't believe the caramel. I mean, I was just sitting there. I had it as a nighttime pour, and I was sitting there in the hotel room, you know, everybody's asleep, and I'm just sipping it, and I'm just like, it actually tastes like a caramel. It's like, yeah, and it's wonderful. Now, talk about your mash bills that are normally that that you like to use. I mean, you've used some really special mash bills, right?

SPEAKER_00 34:04

Yeah, I need to know people think I just use mash bills.

SPEAKER_04 34:08

Face time.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Sorry. Yeah, like uh maybe 15, 15 different mash bills when you get really right down to it, because of all the stuff we did that we distilled that we haven't even used yet. But we got 36% rye bourbons, 21% rye bourbons, 99% rye uh bourbon, just 99% corn bourbon. So those are then we move on to Kentucky bourbons and 70% corns and you know, all these different mash bills. I do keep everything straight. If it comes from Indiana, it says everything's always been straight. I haven't uh really blended, you know, Kentucky and Indiana together or Tennessee. I've done that before. It is a long, long time ago. But uh I like the word straight and I like to keep well, I don't like to get it too complicated or too muddy. Um you know, I was a chef at my restaurant for nine years. I did cookbook and you know, yeah, too many. So um the uh we've got some really great bourbons uh from Kentucky that are coming out. Uh bought some new barrels from some other sources. It's no secret, they're all out there. You know, you can buy them and they're different age. You know, I stumbled upon some uh you know, years ago in 18. We bought some 12-year-old Kentucky, and we still have 40 barrels, so you you add uh you know the years to that, and there's 19-year-old Kentucky Strait right now, and they will be turning, you know, 20 next year, which will be really fun. But I've I've already I pick four of them and I'm blending those together. And they're you know, they were from one of the big you know houses at you know in Kentucky that a lot of people bought barrels from, but the the bl be blending them and then rebarreling them into a new barrel probably.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

So so then a lot of times, so when you first got them, you just you're just leaving them alone, or did you rebarrel them right away?

SPEAKER_00 36:18

We didn't have to rebarrel those. Okay. They were delicious, they got better in you know what I I saw from the 13, 14, 15, about 15, they were really, really good. They haven't, you know, not much done to them, and uh, and they you know bourbon can't get too old, you know, they can get too woody.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

Yeah, you know. You gotta pick and choose, right? You pick and choose which ones you feel can get to that could to get that that to that that age, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Absolutely. And you know, you can always rework them. That's where the blending comes in. That's what I like doing. And so I if it if it stands alone really good at that point, I will uh bottle it as is. They'll probably be going into 375, they'll probably be going to the club because they're something very rare. The Kentucky Strait, you know, 19-year-old or 20-year-old, and it will not be cut, it will be barrel-proof.

Barrel Proof Double Barreling And Signature Flavor

SPEAKER_01 37:20

I I will tell anybody who's a bourbon collector that listens to this podcast, you would you would want to join the old Carter Club because every single penny that you deal with, you're dealing with some of the most awesome whiskey, everything you're just rewarded with each. It's not like you have to buy every single bottle, although it seems like I am. But at the same time, what's available to the club, it's just basically it goes, it's an online thing. You get invitation, you get to, they'll tell you when it's going to go online, and you can you can purchase. Sometimes it's two bottles, sometimes it's one. Sometimes they get re you know, it just depends on what happens, and then they put it in a locker. You you were talking about then you make an app, you can make an appointment, you bring four or five of your friends down, you that you'll get to taste a bunch of stuff from the club or you know, or releases that you've just done nationally, and you'll get to taste the the from the bottles that you were gonna that you purchased. You don't have to open it and you can walk away with the full bottle, which you know, it's a fantastic thing. And if you're a collector, a connoisseur, or a whiskey, you want to belong to this club. Mark does just such a great what is your favorite mash bill to work with?

SPEAKER_00 38:39

Well, I love I love high corn. I think my grandmother came from eastern Kentucky and they grew corn and it's in my DNA somehow, man. So the higher the corn mash bill, the sweeter the you know, usually the bourbon is. And so that's that's where I gravitate to, it seems like. But I do love 95-5 ryce. I do love good rye. And if they get old, get older, then I'm I'm really happy with them. I just don't like young ryes, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

I'm I would agree with you. The older wholeheartedly. I mean, yes, some of the that the green aspect of some rice uh is is almost ranted to me. But when you in 95. Like some 95.5s from the place that you can purchase your rice from, there's so there's been some really, really intense, what would you say, those rye flavors that some people really love that I'm not a fan of. But as you get some age on those, and if the person that's dealing with it, I've just I've I've been able, I've tasted from barrels of that where I thought it was going to be horrible because I don't like it in general, young, but all of a sudden you taste from it, and that barrel is like is that really the same product? Because rye seem to, when they absorb that barrel flavor, they seem to absorb it a little bit differently than a bourbon would. You know what I mean? That barrel really starts to influence those older ryes.

SPEAKER_00 40:11

And you know, a 95-5 is so interesting. You'd think a 95% rye would be greener or whatever, but it's not. The 21% rye bourbon seems has more green notes in it to me. It can than a 95-5 rye. Once you know, once you just stand out so much more, it's weird.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

And and like you said to me, the the the fruits, the light fruits and all come out in that rye grain and those high rye, it's a lot more sweeter, fruitery, fruitier. And then also it's sometimes it's like the the the baking spices like the clove and the nutmeg, those aren't near as prevalent to me in those high rise a lot of times as what the what the lower rise would be.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

Yeah, I mean uh yes. I was so proud of uh a couple of the uh the rye we did this last year. You know, the club rye, which was the first time we did that, uh the OC1 rye, I thought was really delicious, and I'm very proud of that. And I would, you know, like to I never I never turned in any of our building or not, any of our whiskeys to any competition. It's so weird.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

Why why do you have to? I mean, you've done this in a way that's so unique. I I mean, I I completely I've I've been around a lot of whiskey brands, and you're doing everything in a way that is it and it shows in your sales, right? I mean, it's not like you you gotta, it's like every time you talk about it, it's like, oh, I got a bottle of this, or I got it's you you're only able to maintain one or two bottles of every batch because it just it just flies off the shelf, and you've really got such a great product price point for what you do.

SPEAKER_00 42:21

Well, thank you for saying that because you know we haven't raised the price in eight years. It's the same price we've been selling to the distributors for eight years, the same price. We have never ever changed the price point. But we came out and we said we're doing something different. We're at we have all this you know, add-ons that we're doing and double barreling with a new barrel, keeping it barrel-proof, keeping it of good age. We've never turned out anything less than seven years. I think eight years, we went to eight years years ago, you know. So we didn't put an age statement on it just now, putting eight statements on a lot of the distributors' first batches, because I have 10-year-old Jews and I love putting 10 years on it. It looks great. I feel good about putting 10 years on it.

SPEAKER_01 43:16

Yeah, it's all I could say is there's some 10-year-old bourbons out there and they don't have the flavor that you have. And the flavors that just come out of it just are such an explosion. Plus, if anybody ever gets a chance, I mean, Mark's blending process, which has been documented throughout your whole career, from even when you guys start when you were in Kentucky Owl and doing all that to the point where you old Carter and old Carter now, you know, it's just like, but I have to admit, since you've basically started back up after your pause, the badges have just been everything has just been phenomenal. And and in the you were talking about the 2120 year, and I got I've got that in my locker right now, haven't but I got a chance to taste it at the festival.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

I you can get you you gotta be careful with that one. Oh yeah, it's 139 also. It it is really hazmat, but it's 139.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

Yeah, it's a it's a 20-year-old hazmat. And and and and oak does not enter into this equation. It is just like toffees and I mean, just they're so complex of what's going on. And it was just it was it was like a symphony, and and most of everything that you do is a symphony.

SPEAKER_00 44:51

Thank you. Of taste. Um I love that I'm so fortunate to be able to do what I love doing.

SPEAKER_02 45:00

Here's a suggestion from uh Ed Porter, one of the Facebook watchers, and he said that uh basically if you did 10-year batch, small batch for Ohio, and then you could name it OH10. Oh H10. It would be almost like Ohio. And that's probably what we'll do. Oh H Chin. I be almost like Ohio. And that's probably what we'll do. You can name it OH10. Oh H chan. I be almost like Ohio. Are you playing that book?

SPEAKER_01 45:51

Oh, sorry, that's my problem. Okay. There was feedback.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

Yeah, I was wondering why is he playing that with you?

SPEAKER_01 46:00

I I actually got to see some, I updated and got to see some comments. So Ed also says the batch 15 rye from last year was killer in a good way.

SPEAKER_00 46:12

Thank you. I I really that we rolled that out. That was 75%, you know. Actually, 19 and 20-year-old, you know, dumb. Oh, the rye? Oh, I love that rye though, too. Yeah, the batch 15 rye. 95.5.

SPEAKER_01 46:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 46:28

16 was a 15.

SPEAKER_01 46:30

Yeah. It's like I I think ask Christy, what was the rye that we tasted right at in the parking lot at Kentucky Bourbon Festival a couple years ago? Badge 14. Yeah, you did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:46

That was probably 15.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

That was okay. 15? Yeah. Yeah, it was so good. I mean, I don't know what to say.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

I mean, the rye was in the back alley of the church of the church back there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

It's a great place to pour.

SPEAKER_02 47:05

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Mash Bills Sourcing And Aging Strategy

SPEAKER_01 47:07

Mark, it makes you feel like you're like back in high school around the corner smoking cigarettes or something. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 47:14

It just, there's something there's something we were setting out there.

SPEAKER_01 47:19

It takes you back. But I mean, and then Christy's doing that. And we, you know, that's right when we had just, I had just finally met you. I mean, I had watched many podcasts and and was like, God, it's my favorite bourbon. I gotta meet Mark. And then, you know, I would just say it's fate, you know, knowing Christy and then all that go, and then everything. And it's just been such, it seems like it's just been such a fantastic ride, put it that way. It's and that's what it is. It's a ride of life.

SPEAKER_00 47:52

It really is. And you know, everybody meets everybody, and we are all supposed to meet each other, you know. It's a very it's a small community, really, truly. Same way with the wine industry, you know. Yeah, you don't go too far from it and you stay in it. As long as you're a good person, you're gonna have lots of great friends because this whole community is made up of great people.

SPEAKER_01 48:17

Do you find that in the bourbon industry it's a little bit different than the wine just in industry, a little bit different as far as the people, or is it pretty much the same straight across the board?

SPEAKER_00 48:31

Well, I don't know. I think uh the whiskey industry has been a little more accepting. It's been, you know, I think it's because it's it's younger in some ways. You know, it was there and then it wasn't there, then it got started again, and so many young people got involved, you know, and so they're all wanting to meet each other. And uh COVID was a big thing, you know, and the wine industry was, you know, a lot of small families, and they, you know, didn't I think they got on YouTube and and did the Zooms as much. We did some of that, but it wasn't like you know, uh it really brought the whiskey business metal uh community together. And that's what a lot of us, you know, you know, we sat home, we drank whiskey, we we shared whiskey, we shipped whiskey all over the country to each other, and it really took off. And I think uh it was coming of age, and I think the wine industry had already come to age, so they didn't do it as much. It wasn't, you know, it was interesting, and also the whiskey shipped better, you know. The wine, you know, is harder to ship.

SPEAKER_01 49:44

Right, right. Yeah, it's much more I mean, yeah. I mean, sometimes you get people talking about, you know, when you're thiefing from a barrel or you're doing something with whiskey, and and they're just like, you know, they act wine is a total different beast. You cannot contaminate it. Contamination is not, but you know, with with whiskey, it's hard to contaminate something. It really is.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

That is that the wine is so easy. It's so easy to ruin it.

SPEAKER_01 50:13

It really you can't put whiskey and wine in the same aging process, right? That's what I, you know, because if you put a wine barrel by a whiskey barrel, the whiskey barrel's hardy, but there's a certain amount of contamination that can happen to the wine with bacteria, correct?

SPEAKER_00 50:28

Absolutely. It's uh so easy to get bread and all the other things if it's not topped up. You have to keep your every month we top our wines off, we sulfur our wines with if it needs it. If if it we do tests every month, if that barrel is fine and doesn't show that it's growing any bacterial, uh, we don't have to hit it with at all. But if it starts growing, we have to do the sulfur on it. Um you know, the air is the worst thing for wine, and air is the best thing for whiskey.

SPEAKER_01 51:05

And yeah, and and just you know, I agree. The the one of the reasons why I love doing the podcast and being part of the whiskey community, and I really felt that in New Orleans, I even I did I sometimes you don't realize how accepted you are within the whole community. But when you have a wedding at a at a bourbon festival, and then the groom bride and groom accept you to the point where they want you to put it on Facebook and stream it, and then you know, you're helping them bring stuff back up, you know, they you feel like you're part of a family of people that all are doing the same thing and and trying to get to the same place. And it's but because they're working together, it seems like they're growing the business.

SPEAKER_00 51:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're all in it together, truly. And if we're all doing a good job, we're really trying truly rising all votes.

SPEAKER_01 52:09

Yeah, I mean, for sure. Okay, well, zero nine. I gotta just check this real quick. All right. Uh so, all right, so real quick, in summary, because you know, we've we've gone a w a ways. I mean, honestly, if I was to rate this tonight on a barrel bottle breakdown, there's there's not one part of the OC5 that I I find, and and there's I I think on the finish, I would give it the extra but up up. What are you thinking, Super Nash? No doubt. I agree.

SPEAKER_02 52:51

This has got a wonderful finish. And I mean it lasts and lasts. It's got the perfect amount of heat right there, you know, as as you're sipping on it. The flavors are just popping on this thing now. And like I said, mine's been opened, I guess, uh what's it been about six weeks, seven weeks since you went to Florida? And stopped up by here?

SPEAKER_01 53:14

Yeah. Yes. I think it was like February, early February, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:19

Yeah, yeah. So it's been right about six to seven a week since it's been open. Because I opened it just a couple days after you left. I would say it's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 53:29

I would say that what's really available in this is that you know, you're talking about those this is this like when you double barrel with those chars, and you said you were doing using four and five chars, correct? On the double barrels?

SPEAKER_00 53:42

Well, I use uh even more than that. I use anything from a one to five, and I use five different coopers. I love barrels, and I'm I love all those guys making those barrels. And they all give me a little something different.

SPEAKER_01 53:56

Do you know what they give you different? Have you been doing it long enough where you're just like, I need a little bit of this, and it's gonna come from there, kind of thing?

SPEAKER_00 54:06

You know, I'm still learning. I'll be learning until I die.

SPEAKER_01 54:10

But and that shouldn't happen soon.

SPEAKER_00 54:13

I do like I know what a three and a four and a five is me, and what a two and a one give me. Well, you know, but you know, each cupcaker's a little different, you know, and each one, you know, um, how much how you know if it's the age, you know, air-drying, oh how how much uh is it uh eight month, uh 12 month, uh 16 or 36 month? So all those things contribute to all that too and uh taste in so so it's just still just a surprise.

SPEAKER_01 54:48

And and I think your team right now that you're you utilizing is kind of special, obviously, because not only are you producing this uh and your the consistency of what you're producing seems to be, you know, it's like really it got it this is even better. And and I always try to be better.

SPEAKER_02 55:09

There you go. I don't want to go the other way. Yeah, with without breaking it down, Tiny on each individual one. I I pretty much I'd I'd be rating it somewhere between 17 and 19.

SPEAKER_01 55:24

I I think I mean honestly, I it's just the nose is fantastic.

Rye Preferences And Why Age Matters

SPEAKER_02 55:29

I mean, the one thing that I will say about us good viscosity in the mouth and all it's it's hitting all the way around, sides of the tongue, the roof of the mouth, hitting in the back, and the flavors are just staying there on that finish. That's that's what I like about it. I can still, as I bring across them, I can still pick up those flavors still coming across.

SPEAKER_00 55:55

Thank you. I that's what I'm always shooting for, is that viscosity too, in and out feel.

SPEAKER_01 56:01

And and you what I would say is that very silky too. Also, the old Carter flavor, it's it's old, it's like it's undeniably old Carter. I mean, that's there too. I mean, there's some of them that you do where it's still you it's you know it's in the old Carter bottle and everything, but there's there's an aspect of this that just exudes your brand. You know what I mean? It's it's that I mean, you know, and it's kind of like when it first starts off, you get the sweetness, then it hits your regular palate. There's a little bit, and then you pick up that char, which is almost like a completely burnt toffee, almost like maybe a little bit of espresso, and then all of a sudden it hits the back of your throat, it's all over your mouth, and then the then the the warmth goes goes to your chest, and then all of a sudden you start to feel the feel the finish, and it's just like, are you kidding me? It tastes like I swear to god, you dissolve caramels in here.

SPEAKER_02 57:13

The caramel on the end of peanuts, it's it's almost almost like a payday, a payday candy bar. Yeah, right, the rafted peanuts and the caramel nugget. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:29

I mean, I would pour you could pour this over ice cream. You know, I I think about that a lot. You know, I love like when I was a very small child, I would have ice cream at the club with my parents, and I would either put like cream de coco over the top of it so I could get a little blast of alcohol or cream de mint on it. You know, that was the first time. And now I've been thinking recently about putting whiskey over my ice cream.

SPEAKER_01 57:57

Yeah, well, if you put this in a you could you could have this as one of the drinks at the club, you just make old Carter, you know, milkshake, and you just put the old Carter in there, and I'm telling you, it'll be like caramel milkshake. Guys, so yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 58:18

You guys are the best. That's how you've been a pleasure hanging out with you always.

SPEAKER_02 58:23

Yeah, we we love it. We we enjoy hanging out with you too, Mark. Uh it's every time we get together, it's it's always fun and interesting.

SPEAKER_01 58:31

Yeah, we we love what you guys are doing. We love to see both both of you and Christy, and it's just fantastic. And just so you know, just because you're on here tonight, this would have been the same love fest with or without you.

SPEAKER_02 58:50

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 58:52

You could have watched this and it would have been pretty much the same because honestly, from the from the I I spilled when when we were when we were first drinking our first bottle, he had picked it up. It was Kentucky one, and and he had opened it, and I think we drank in the weekend, we drank all the bottle, but we were like, we were like hanging out, and I bumped it like on a Thursday night when I met them in Indiana.

SPEAKER_02 59:21

Right, and and we're all in we're all in the way. I got it in Corbin, Kentucky.

SPEAKER_00 59:28

That's where Booth's from. Corbin, yeah. It's not too far from where Somerset, where I'm from. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 59:36

Yeah, I I always stop in Corbin, going and coming every time I come up to Kentucky.

Price Discipline And Age Statements

SPEAKER_01 59:42

Yeah. And then I knocked, we're in the hotel, and I and I'm like telling him, this is the best whiskey I've ever tasted in my life, the Kentucky one. I said, it is unbelievable. I said, I told him, ask me what I want. And he's like, What do you want? And I'm like, old Carter. And so from ever since then, I he'll always ask, Hey, Tiny, what do you want? A bunch of other bottles.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:06

I mean, like a case of bottles from a couple other bigger distilleries and stuff. And he tried the whole night because I was like, I was wanting to try a couple of those bottles myself. And so I was like, Well, let's open up this one. Is what do you want? Is all he could say is old Carter. Yep. Old Carter. So, so I bumped his, so we're like kind of like goofing around the floor, and we were good about to make a toast, and he knocked, he knocked my whole glass out of my hand.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:38

Onto the pillowcase. And I I basically rung the pillowcase out in his glass. But you have to remember it's barrel-proof. Oh, yes, yes, it is, that's for sure. All right, thank you. It was so good. Do you have anything else uh you want to ask specifically, uh, Super Nash?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:01

Yeah, I think I think we pretty much covered it uh and all. And he's told told us about a few projects he's got going on. I was I was always gonna ask about that, but uh, you let us know what kind of stuff you got going on and uh be looking for. So yeah, I think you've pretty much covered all the bases with me.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:21

Yeah, we love you guys, and uh like I said, anytime you're in Louisville, please come see us over at uh either the club or over at uh where the facility is where I bottle and I blend. And like I said, we're doing I'm doing a whole bunch of single barrels now for a lot of the clubs and things like that too. So that's wonderful. Old Carter is only single barrels will always come out only in the club.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:48

But is there any way somebody can find out about you online?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:55

Yeah, you can go to uh oldcarterwhiskeyco.com and um the just there's actually email us. We have a wait list for the club, but we look at every email and we answer every email. And I have uh you know my own couple of Instagram and Facebook accounts, and a lot of people you know reach out that way, and I uh I reach back out to them anytime they actually do try to contact me.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:27

So yeah, you're definitely an accessible person, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:34

Well, I you know, if it wasn't for all of you helping support old Carter, we wouldn't be here. So uh I really appreciate it and thank everyone for you know the the love and support you guys have given us.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:49

It's it's our it's always our our pleasure, as you can see. Yeah, thanks to you.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:56

Thank you very much, Super Nash, and thank you, Tiny. I love you both.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:00

Yeah, love you too. Thanks for coming on, Mark. Yeah, thanks a lot.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:05

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:06

All right, have a good night. All right, have a good night. Bye, Christy. Bye, Christy. All right, all right, so so real quick, I gotta do a quick thing and then we'll end it and bring people. That was fantastic, was it not?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:27

It sure was. Awesome. I always like to get love hanging out with Mark and Christy too. Although she was just in the background, but uh absolutely all right.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:44

So, all right, so I'm gonna end this up, everybody. There's a ton of we're getting a ton of hot thumbs up, that's for sure. Alright. I I don't understand why. Alright, I should just make that go down.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:02

Thumbs up and hearted.

OC5 Tasting Notes Coopers And Char

SPEAKER_01 1:04:07

I gotta, all right, so I did that. Let's click on that. There's more all right, Matt. New Orleans was a blast. Yep, he says that. And Walker's on. Alright, so I've got a Roxy's not Brandy's on. Yep. I'm gonna basically finish this up and then I'm gonna put it out to everybody, but I gotta turn it over to somebody because Roxy tonight isn't feeling good, and I gotta find out what's happening.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:39

All right, yes, definitely check on her. Yeah, I've got I've got to go. I got another huge company I did uh I've done a big company every day this week.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:51

All right, so I'll do the thing, and you can help me do let's do the www.scotchybourbonboys.com for all things scotchy bourbon boys.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:59

Glen Karen's t-shirts, yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:02

Uh bourbon balls.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:05

Crystal crystal Glencarens is the Crystal Glen Glencairn Club, which has got all the different perks with it. Bourbon balls.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:16

How are you doing on those?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:17

Well, if people order them, I'll make them. There you go. There you go. Right. Although we're getting there really quick, aren't we?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:28

Yes, we are.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:29

All right, so with that said, remember good bourbon equals good times with good friends.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:36

Make sure you don't drink and drive, drink responsibly, don't drink and drive, and go out and live your life uncut and unfiltered.

Where To Find Them And Sign Off

SPEAKER_01 1:05:48

And AI will take us out. There we go.