The Dram Dialogues
We are whiskey enthusiasts who enjoy getting together, online and in person, to enjoy a few drinks, share knowledge, meet new people, and have a great time. Our goal is to bring together individuals who share the same interest in whiskey
The Dram Dialogues
The Artie Line: Where Real Whiskey Begins at 100 Proof
Have you ever met someone whose generosity and passion for bourbon completely changed your perspective? That's exactly what happened when we reconnected with Artie, one of our earliest supporters, in his whiskey-filled basement for a heartfelt conversation about bourbon, friendship, and the joy of sharing.
This episode takes us back to our humble beginnings when Artie first invited us to film in his basement, generously supplying the whiskey for those early (admittedly rough-around-the-edges) YouTube videos. What blossomed from that initial meeting was a friendship built on mutual appreciation for fine spirits and community building. During our visit, Artie surprised us with special signed and etched Jack Daniels Sturgis Rally bottles, continuing his tradition of remarkable generosity that has defined our relationship over the years.
We dive deep into what we've affectionately named "the Artie line" – the philosophy that quality bourbon generally starts at 100 proof, with his personal sweet spot between 115-135 proof. This sparks a fascinating discussion about proof preferences, with Artie making just one exception to his rule: Elmer T. Lee at 90 proof. Throughout our conversation, we sample an impressive lineup including Russell's 13, Remus Repeal Batch, Bourbon Pursuit, Green River, and RD1, while reflecting on the evolution of brands like Jack Daniels through their special releases and single barrel programs.
The heart of this episode captures why we created Dram Dialogues in the first place – to build a community where bourbon enthusiasts can connect, share their finds, and enjoy exceptional spirits together. As Artie perfectly summarizes: "You get a nice bottle, you bring some people over, open it and share it." Join us for this intimate conversation that reminds us all what makes the bourbon community truly special, and don't forget to check out our website for more content as we continue to share our whiskey journey!
to another episode of the Dram Dialogues here in Idaho.
Speaker 1:We're at a house in the basement of a special person to our page and to me, one of our very first people to kind of reach out to us, one of the first kind of members of the page too, and reached out to us back when a few years ago and if you've seen any of our little bit of YouTube videos we have out there, I think some of our very first posts, very first full-length videos, were here at this house. Artie invited us up here I'll have him introduce himself in a second but he invited us up here to shoot some videos and he supplied the whiskey and it was an awesome time. If you get a chance. They were very early on, so the audio and everything is not the best, but check those videos out If you get a chance. They were very early on, so the audio and everything's not the best, but check those videos out if you get a chance over on our YouTube page. But yeah, already, go ahead and introduce yourself and just tell us what you do and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:You bet them were good times. I remember that and it's interesting sitting here with you now, compared to them with this fancy podcast and all this equipment.
Speaker 2:So you've come a long way, so good job. Thank you. Name's Artie. I live in Post Falls, been here since I don't know. We've been here 15, 16 years, spent a career kind of working at Walmart and doing stuff like that, but I'm probably getting towards the tail end of that. But it's been a good career. And I guess Jordan, we, I think we met at it was a bourbon thing, I think it was Blanton's, wasn't it just a Blanton's thing that they were? Because I think how I got you interested was we were drinking some Blanton's there and we talked about straight from the barrel, yep, and I said, well, I know a guy who knows a guy who has some of that. And I said that's me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right, that's right, I invited you over.
Speaker 2:That is it. And that was kind of the first night you came over.
Speaker 1:We drank a little whiskey and visited, yeah, and had some of that blend straight from the barrel. Yeah, I know, we went. Shortly after that we went to Whiskey Barrel Weekend. We whiskey barrel weekend.
Speaker 2:We did that like two ish years ago. Yeah, yeah, you invited me to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you went to that with us and one one thing we kind of hit on that, blantons, is we'll talk about that tasting for a second. I remember the one thing. I remember a lot of things I remember about that tasting we did at your house the, the video yeah was.
Speaker 1:I know it was me and my one of my cousins might have been both my cousins here at that time. Jay ayers was up here with us and somebody else, but I remember trying these things and then you asking us what our favorite was, and we all told you our favorite and then the great, the cool part about it was you gave us those bottles, yeah, yeah, and I still have the bottle. It's empty now, good, but I still have that bottle.
Speaker 2:Perfect.
Speaker 1:I have the bottle that you gave my cousin when he finished that. I kept that bottle, just the fact about just how cool it was. And then you guys out there that watch and listen, I made a post on Facebook not too long ago talking about a special bottle that I have, jack Daniels from the Sturgis Rally. That was another bottle that was gifted to me from you as well. And, yeah, we talk about that all the time. I'm still sitting up there. And then we get here today and then I get another surprise of two more 85th Sturgis still sitting up there. And then we get here today and then I get another surprise of two more 85th Sturgis motorcycle rally, walmart picks, signed, etched, all the above. You know again. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I really do appreciate that and they do mean a lot to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know how many more years I'll be able to do that. That was like I told you another guy who knows, a guy who was kind of there and the distiller was there that day signing these bottles and that gold on the side of them. And, like I told you I needed six, I said I need two for me, two for my son. And then there's this guy I know in West Falls, Idaho. He got to have two, so we brought him back for you. So yeah, thank you, it's, it's, it's fun to give them to you.
Speaker 2:You know, back when you came and I gave you them bottles for me, like you can look around and see I got, I got all these bottles and and I'm not like a heavy drinker, this is what I do like some guys come over and we we drink a little bourbon. I don't ever sit here and drink here by myself. I got a couple of boys, so I got three boys, but one lives in Seattle, so it's a little further for him. But my oldest and my middle son, we sat down here and work on these bottles, but it's rare, it's like once a month, sometimes once every two months. So I got more than I can ever get through. So it's always kind of fun to have somebody come over who really loves like what you're doing bourbon and friends and and you can walk out with a couple bottles that that gives me a lot of joy.
Speaker 1:I love it. And let's talk about one other thing too he's. You drink whiskey, like bourbon, like you, you like it, like you enjoy it. But there's always something that stuck with me after the first time we were here, and that's the we call it the already line. Can you, can you tell us what that is?
Speaker 2:Sure, I know, when we were, we were first getting and getting to know each other and we talked something. I think it started with that Blanton's, which is just like 94, 93. I don't remember right off hand and I told you I was like yeah, that's like, I mean it's okay, but you, you get up in that one 30, one 25, 35.
Speaker 2:I was like like that's the sweet spot, right? So because I don't drink a lot, I I don't really drink anything below 100. So my sweet spot's probably 115 to 135. There's a bunch of bourbons I like at 101 or 100 or 105. But the Ardy line is 100. And I would tell you, if there was a bourbon that I would drink below 100, there's only one and it's Elmer T Lee. Okay, and I think it's 90.
Speaker 1:I did see that sitting over there. Yeah, it's below.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a couple up there too, it's 90. And I would tell you that it's for me, in my opinion, it's the best under 100 or the best around 90. That hits my taste buds just right. So other than that one. If I'm going to drink it, I'm probably going to be a little higher proof.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we got some drinks out here that we're sipping on and he's got a very nice collection sitting over there as well and I poured something below the arty line because it was sitting out there, but it's not one I've tried before and it was it's caribou crossing, but it's a walmart pick, yeah, so I poured that to try it. It's, it's good, it's very good. I do enjoy caribou crossing, but it is below that 100 line. But I'm with you as well on that. I do. We do like them a little hotter. We do like them over 100 yeah I don't like it to burn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like it to be mixed well. Still gotta be mixed well yeah but we brought some other stuff from our trip to kentucky that, yeah, you really brought some nice stuff we're sipping on, we we have out here. We have russell's 13, the new remus, the remus bay, bruth, bourbon pursuit, green river and a place called rd1 no relation yeah, sounds similar, but of course that's when I started with rd1 I was like it's, it's, it's about at 117.
Speaker 2:I thought that was a good starting point.
Speaker 1:It was really good. Yeah, like I'm a fan. Yeah, those are the ones. We got to try the barrels ourselves and, yeah, thief them ourself.
Speaker 1:But but yeah, you know, just we want, we wanted to come down and shoot this episode, just a nice quick one and say thank you for yeah everything that you've done for the page and myself and these gifts and and opening up your house with barely no one else and letting five, six guys come in here and shoot a video. I remember we were sipping bourbon and my cousin he was out sipping mixed drinks out on the patio. Yeah, we made him sit on the patio.
Speaker 2:He couldn't come in the house with a mixed drink. He had to sit outside.
Speaker 1:I mean, we got rules here, that's right Now. Do you still have that large? Was it a Jack Daniels bump in that glass case? I do.
Speaker 2:So eventually, when we get this kind of turned into where it's headed, we'll bring that down here. But that is kind of my pride and joy. Like that's a pretty fancy bottle the old number seven in the case. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a really cool bottle bottle, the old number seven in the case. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a really cool bottle. It really is. Yeah, that's one you probably pass down.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, that will absolutely go to Probably my oldest. He's got a pretty big Jack Daniels collection. He's been collecting it since he was honestly too young to collect it, so we'll keep that to ourselves.
Speaker 1:And Jack Daniels in general, has come a long ways from way back before my time or what it used to be to where it is now, with all these single barrels and everything coming out. Sinatra edition out there, yeah, but Jack jack 10s, 12s, the 14s, all good, all that stuff, it's fantastic. Jack 14 is in a lot of people's top three to five right now anyways and I've never tried that, I've never had the 10, 12 or 14.
Speaker 2:Well, I uh, should have brought it. I, when I was younger, I wouldn't have done Jack Daniels at all at that 80, but when they started doing the single barrels and I'm a big fan of their rye, oh yeah, it's great, it's both. And I got a Jack Daniels up here somewhere. It's a 136. Yeah, it's like drinking magic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they get up there. They're almost hazmat at that point it's a little sip.
Speaker 2:It's a little sip yeah, well, arty. Anything else you want to go over, talk about, or no, I appreciate you coming over and I was excited to get these couple bottles to you. I know you got that one Yep, and you know I mean it's hard to get it all to come together. Yeah, where you can get it etched and get it signed.
Speaker 1:Oh, and these bottles are great and I'll take pictures of them and get them posted, of course.
Speaker 2:So well, that's the fun. For me, Like I told you, it's like giving bottles and visiting and having a few drinks with people. That's the fun.
Speaker 1:That's the fun. That's what it's about. We like to do that. I mean that was kind of why, in general, we started the group anyways.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I talk about when I tell people why did you start the group? Well, there was always foodie pages out there. On Facebook you could find foodie pages out there, but I couldn't find anything really out there about. There was bourbon pages, whiskey pages out there, but there wasn't something like this where we could just meet up with people, sit around, drink, have fun and share our bottles. We get, our finds we get, and that's what it's all about. You get a nice bottle, you bring some people over, open it and share it and that's what it's all about.
Speaker 2:You get a nice bottle, you bring some people over, open it and share it. Well, I love your page and of course I was gone quite a bit the last couple years, so my wife's a fan, so every once in a while she'd hand that over to me and tell me to catch up.
Speaker 1:No, she's on there all the time. It's awesome to see. Yeah, she keeps us relevant. She's definitely one of our top contributors, for sure.
Speaker 2:Better Facebooker than I am. But she'll hand that to me and say you better get caught up, see what's going on around the area and what people are finding, so it's always fun to see that.
Speaker 1:And we're putting a lot more out there on our website too, starting to update little things a little bit better. Jamie, he's sitting over here next to us. He's behind the scenes a lot, but a huge help to everything we do here. But yeah, Jamie, do you got anything you want to add to this, Are you good?
Speaker 2:Oh, he's good. He says Well, in fairness, jamie's not drinking a mixed drink, so he gets to sit down here with us.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we put him out on the deck, he drinking a real drink with you and I so no mixed drinks.
Speaker 1:That's right, but all right everybody. Well, thanks for joining in on our third episode here, and, uh, we look forward to doing a lot more, but already thank you again for having us up here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it. We'll see you next time.
