Episode
486. The Return of the King: Tasting King of Kentucky Small Batches
- Podcast
- The Bourbon Road
- Published
- Mar 11, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2798
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Summary
Welcome back to another episode of The Bourbon Road! After a brief hiatus, the man, the myth, the legend—Jim Shannon—is officially back in the host chair. Jim recently returned from a trip to Florida, where he experienced the wild swings of winter weather, going from 80 degrees down to 35. Of course, Kentucky wasn't about to be outdone, greeting him with 70-degree days followed immediately by threats of snow and heavy rains. As Jim and Todd Ritter settle back into the Bourbon Road bar, they take a moment to reflect on the crazy weather and look back at the anniversary of the historic Frankfort floods, thankful that the waterfront survived mostly intact this year. But enough about the weather—it is time to drink some incredible whiskey. For this highly anticipated review episode, the guys are diving into something truly special: the brand-new King of Kentucky Small Batch releases from Brown-Forman. If you follow the brand, you know that King of Kentucky is historically known for its ultra-rare, high-proof single barrel releases. However, the team at Brown-Forman found themselves with around 100 barrels that had incredibly low yields—some containing only 20 to 30 bottles worth of liquid due to heavy evaporation. Rather than release them individually, they decided to batch them together. This special release was created in honor of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States. These small batches feature bourbon aged between 12 and 18 years, and surprisingly, they utilize a slightly different mash bill than the standard releases: 75% corn, 15% rye, and 10% malted barley. Bottled in 700mL formats with an MSRP of $299, these are still incredibly hard to find. Fortunately, Todd and Jim were lucky enough to get their hands on samples of all three batches thanks to thei…