Latest / Whisky Stories Podcast / Our FIRST Distillery Spotlight - InchDairnie LIVE from Diggers

Transcript

Our FIRST Distillery Spotlight - InchDairnie LIVE from Diggers · Whisky Stories Podcast

• 0:00
  But we're going to, we're going to get started.
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  I think. I guess you know what to do.
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  Clap us in. Welcome to the Whiskey Stories
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  podcast. King Glasses the second step
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  towards our kind of main marquee release in 2029, which is going
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  to be the entry you felt. I think we really mentioned it
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  on the pod when we were filming at Inch Journey.
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  So yeah, like what we're trying to do with these different
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  expressions and these different kind of spirit types is really
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  kind of like build and drive that demand for the brand.
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  So, you know, by the time that that amazing whiskey, I've tried
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  it, by the way, it's amazing, very lucky to.
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  But by the time that that whiskey is released and you
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  know, we've hopefully got like a really kind of strong core
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  following of whiskey lovers, you know.
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  Welcome along. The Whiskey Stories podcast is
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  still in the spotlight. There we are.
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  That's the hardest bit of man I overhang.
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  But look, we've done it again. I guess we're back in the
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  athletic car. It's brilliant and a packed
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  house here today. As well.
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  And it's a Friday night. A Friday night, I've got my
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  drinking trousers on. Brilliant.
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  And we've got we've we've normally it's an indie bottler
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  spotlight, but tonight it is our first ever distillery spotlight.
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  Big thank you to the guys that inched down there for coming
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  along. Let's hear it for Scott and
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  Daniel, please. They're great.
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  It's always really nice when we can convince people to come here
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  and bring whiskey with them for us, for us to enjoy it.
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  I'm really looking forward to it.
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  So this is part of, well, the Whiskey Stories podcast, first
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  ever collaboration with a, with a distillery.
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  So then stay on the distillery. And for those who haven't seen
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  it already, check back on the 8th of May.
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  We were at the distillery doing a doing a vlog.
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  We were, we were let loose around the distillery.
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  We've got a chance to speak to to Scots then here.
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  So, Scott, first of all, have you been able to get through the
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  street without being stopped for selfies and autographs since
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  that episode? I'm having to permanently wear
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  sunglasses so I can go on unassumed.
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  I thought so, but we you are the managing director of the Inch
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  Daily Distillery. However we christened you re
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  christened you the engineer of flavour.
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  And if you don't know what I'm talking about, go back and watch
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  that episode because it is incredible what's going on.
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  And we're going to hear a lot about that.
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  But I think, you know, it's Friday night, we've got a packed
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  room here, we're all thirsty. So shall we just get straight
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  into the first drum then? Yeah, let's go.
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  So welcome to Inch Daily Distillery, everybody.
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  So this is our first ever release that we have in front of
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  you. So this is the 2017 Rilo.
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  So this came out in April 2023. So if you just have a little
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  noise, just cheers to everybody. So what people think about as a
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  rye whiskey can be quite an intense whiskey.
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  So when we were looking at what we were wanting to do with
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  equipment that we have on site, we wanted to take a concept and
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  see what we could do with it. So this is our Scottish
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  contemporary twist in a rye whiskey.
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  And what I mean by that is we use multi dry rather than on
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  multi dry. So on the nose it's quite a
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  male. It's quite a sweet.
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  You got a lot of caramel and a lot of vanilla and that's
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  because we used virginal casks. Now for the first release, the
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  wood comes from the Ozark region of America.
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  So we've got 2 drabs in front of you and what happened is you got
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  enough rye to do 2 years worth of production because the rye,
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  your eyes not predominantly grown in Scotland.
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  Oh, here he comes. You have to sit right in the
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  centre here, afraid of place. Right, we'll start again.
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  Angus, you know what to do. So.
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  So where did the rye come from then?
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  Where? Was so so the the first rye came
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  from the black aisle. It was a farm in the black aisle
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  and we were fortunate enough that rye is growing but not for
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  whiskey is grown to be put in an unordered digestion plant.
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  And the plan that was earmarked for our I overran commissioning.
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  So we managed to acquire it, but we don't have to do 2 years.
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  So what you have in front of you is the first ram was in Ozark
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  wood for five years and the second ram is the is the
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  distillation the following year. But we put it into wood from the
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  Appalachian region. So all we've done is change the
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  wood location and aged it for another year.
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  So I've been testing to see what everybody feels and thinks to
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  get from it. But so you start with.
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  So on the nose it's lovely vanilla caramel, which you
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  associate from having virgin oak.
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  But if you're on the taste, you got the lovely spicy notes that
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  you expect to get from our eye. It's very sweet as well.
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  And that again comes through in the vanilla extract coming from
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  those casts. So I got lovely spiciness in the
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  side of my tongue, got a lovely sweetness in the back of my
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  palate. So we I call this a Scottish
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  dipping rye. Yeah.
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  Because rye traditionally you tend to add to be a mixer or
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  it's quite an acquired taste, but for here we wanted to bring
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  it to sign, showcase it and taste it.
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  Well, I think you're fine. Sorry.
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  I mean that that that recording that we did, I'd never really
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  had rye before and I didn't really know what to expect and
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  absolutely loved it. I sipped quite a lot of it.
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  I think it was more than 70 guilty that was.
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  Good. I mentioned obviously not tried
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  an awful lot of rye, but the rise I had tried were I think
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  kind of Scandinavian rise, yeah, kind of barnyard a really that
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  kind of almost kind of agricultural taste.
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  Don't get that at all with. This and a lot of that has to do
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  with when you, for those of you haven't seen the podcast that we
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  talk about the Lohman still and the Lohman still is what just as
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  a different level of refinement to the liquid.
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  So the liquid is a lot more lighter, It's a lot more floral,
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  It's a lot more fruity on the the nose and you make, I mean,
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  you put it into the cask. They get a lot of that
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  extractors coming out. But again, the spice is just
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  tempered a little bit to make it a little bit more palatable for
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  sipping. So am I right in saying then,
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  because I'm, I'm very open about this is the, the production side
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  of things, Was it, was it you that talked about Jake, was it
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  Evanston? There we go.
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  I still still reference that right?
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  Still talk about the, the process.
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  Now let me get this right. Malting, milling, mashing,
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  fermentation, distillation, maturation.
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  There we go. There we are.
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  That's it. Thanks, Jake, for that, but nice
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  to see you've got your shirt on. It's not.
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  It's all the way up to the neck tonight.
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  But but like I, I, I've never seen someone react the way that
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  they reacted. And when Ross saw a Loman still
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  for the very first time, he made a very strange noise.
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  Very, very strange, Right. Am I right in saying that if you
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  were to do right another way, would it be using the coffee
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  still? The coffee still sorry, or what?
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  What what makes a Loman? Why?
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  Why was Ross so thrilled to see that?
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  Because there are few and far between, yeah.
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  Most. One other in Scotland.
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  There's one other in Scotland, yes.
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  I mean, it went out of fashion or for us, it's just about that
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  additional reflux and it just imparts a wonderful flavour that
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  works so well with the rye. But what would the alternative
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  be then? So if you weren't using a Roman
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  style, would you be using be able to use another still for
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  well we? What would the like you're
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  saying about the reflux and things, but what does that do at
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  the flavour? Well, last last year, they did
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  some work for the 1920s distillation as part of the JNGZ
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  project. And the original plan was to use
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  the Lohman still, but we're in the middle of commissioning the
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  new equipment, so it wasn't available.
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  So when we did the RYLAW last year, we used our standard
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  spirit still, but our standard spirit still, we have a reflux
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  pump. So it was more than a normal
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  still, but not quite the same reflux as we got for the Lohman
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  still. And the difference is, is a lot
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  heavier spirit. So what we did last year is we
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  put the same, we split basically spent the two weeks in half.
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  The first week and the second week we use the same different
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  style of tasks. We'll mature them separately so
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  that I can monitor to see what the difference is, so I can
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  truly understand myself. What is the benefit of the
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  Lomond Hill still on Rylo? Yeah, now all let's talk about
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  reflux as well. It's usually something I don't
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  want after taste. So I mean, we, we talked a lot
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  in the podcast about the, the, the distillery and, and we, we
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  got that trips it, you know, the vlog and everything like that,
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  but we didn't really get a chance to talk about yourself
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  very much. So how did somebody end up being
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  a managing director of this? Like it was like Willy Wonka and
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  the Chocolate Factory walking into that distillery?
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  Because I've, I've not seen an awful lot of distilleries.
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  But what I do know is not an awful lot of distilleries look
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  like what you've got there so much going on.
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  But how, what was your journey into whiskey?
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  How did you get into that, that point where you're where they
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  are today? Well, I'm a little bit, I
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  suppose I'm a little bit older than I look.
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  So I've been in industry for 29 years.
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  So the first ten years of my life was in development for
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  salmon feed for four years and then on thermal insulation
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  material, which is a bit different to whiskey.
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  We wouldn't have you on a podcast if you were still doing
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  that, by the way, so. So I'm a chemical engineer.
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  So chemical engineer breaks down no processes into the
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  fundamental building blocks. So my early career for 10 years
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  was about taking a process and really looking into the detail.
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  And then about 19 years ago, my two children at the time, my
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  wife and I decided we wanted to be closer together as a family
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  but remain in Scotland. So you can either go to oil and
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  gas or whiskey. And I don't like the taste of
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  petrol, so I thought I'll try whiskey.
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  So I dip my toes. Just haven't found the right
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  one. No, that's true.
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  So I ventured into whiskey at Glen Ord Distillery and for 10
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  years I was in Diagio. And Diagio was a great
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  foundation. But my inquisitive mind asking
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  all the questions, I wasn't really getting the answers that
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  I was looking for. What was your role at Glen Ord
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  Distillery? So Glen Ord I was what's called
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  as a site operations manager. So basically you're responsible
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  for the day-to-day running over distillery?
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  Making sure things are working. Making sure things are working
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  and making sure things are done properly and safely.
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  I'm saying usually that the Aggio as well, you're kind of
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  buddied up with other distilleries.
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  You might not necessarily be always at Glen Ord, you might be
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  kind of other is that. Right, Yes.
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  So we at Glen Ord is part of a group.
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  So Glen Ord group consists of Glen Ord distillery, Glen Ord
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  the Maltons and Tunic distillery.
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  So Tunic distillery is happens to be the one another distillery
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  in Scotland that has a marsh filter.
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  Well, that's incredible coincidence.
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  Well, an incredible coincidence and the MASH filter that we have
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  in Sterny is the old MASH filter from tuning.
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  So I'm unfortunate position. I kind of managed both, yeah,
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  both locations. So that gave me a good
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  foundation. But then as a chemical engineer,
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  it's about understanding the building blocks.
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  So the opportunity to be part of a brand new distillery from the
• 10:54
  foundation up using equipment that was quite unknown within
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  industry, it was too good an opportunity to pass.
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  So that's where in fact I've just passed 10 years.
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  So the 27th of April 2015 I started in a field at Glenrothes
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  and Fife and. How about how?
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  How did that opportunity come about then for you?
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  It was just purely a pants, a chance conversation with a
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  person I knew and they said that there was this opportunity.
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  So I actually met with Ian Palmer, the the founder, and he
• 11:24
  gave me this concept that was like, what do I need to do to
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  get this? So I was lucky enough to be
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  chosen to take it on and here we are 10 years later.
• 11:32
  Now, what was this? Sort of like rye whiskey.
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  I mean, how many people here have tried rye, Have tried rye?
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  You've never tried whiskey before, have you?
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  We've got whiskey. No, I do apologise.
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  You've paid for your ticket. What's going to happen?
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  Is we're going to put the microphone microphone under
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  your. I'm going to give you the
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  microphone at the end of the station.
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  You're. Going to say, I like, I love
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  whiskey. Yeah.
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  There you go. This is a real test.
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  Yeah. Yes.
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  Very much a. Test I've never drank whiskey
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  before, but when I had inch derny I loved it.
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  There you go. But I mean, rye whiskey is a rye
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  whiskey drinkers there are people that enjoyed rye.
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  Dom, you like a rye? Yeah, yourself.
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  Yeah. What kind of was it?
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  Was there any particular types of rye that you guys liked or
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  American rye? Yeah.
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  And what, what, what's the main differences then between
• 12:19
  American rye and the rye that we're drinking right now then?
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  So there's a few differences. I mean, American rye is the
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  variety of the grain that we use, but also an American rye,
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  it tends to be a cone still. So it's very much reminiscent of
• 12:31
  the grain distillation you get here.
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  And what that does is during that processing you do strip a
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  bit of the flavour out, and it tends to be because they use
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  unmolted grain as well, the level of spices significantly
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  higher. So that's why when we were
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  looking at using the rye, that's where the Scottish twist
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  everything. So we molted the rye and that
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  just tempered the flavour down so that the spice is tasting a
• 12:55
  bit more a gentle spice rather than harsh spice.
• 12:59
  And why rye? Well, why not, right?
• 13:02
  Yeah. Well, but there must have been
• 13:04
  like, you know, we've seen new distilleries popping up a lot
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  and there's always an angle of it's an expensive business
• 13:12
  making whiskey, right? We know that.
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  And the way that the industry is going at the moment, you can see
• 13:16
  that as well. So there's obviously reasons
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  where distilleries decide we'll bring out gin products 1st and
• 13:22
  because it's part of distillation or or different
• 13:25
  other opportunities. So what was the reason did it?
• 13:27
  Was it just a case of it's a different area to get into
• 13:30
  market that would make a bit more of a splash or was there a
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  particular, was it always part of the planet was going to be
• 13:35
  right? To start off first we had the
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  equipment. This means we'd, we could
• 13:40
  process a variety of grains. And so once we were running the
• 13:46
  distillery, we started in December 2015.
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  Two 1016 was we had some concepts which we'll talk about
• 13:53
  later on about engineering the single malt.
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  But it was during that time we were just looking at what are
• 13:59
  the options for other means of processing.
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  And Ian, the margin director at the time, came over the 19 O 8
• 14:06
  Royal Commission. And during the royal Commission
• 14:08
  it actually states during that and it's recorded verbatim.
• 14:12
  So people are talking and recording, and this is from 1908
• 14:15
  and it States and records there being rye, wheat, oats and
• 14:19
  malted barley within a discovery.
• 14:21
  So there we have evidence of it being used traditionally.
• 14:25
  So then from there it was like, well that's an idea we'd like to
• 14:28
  look at, how do we go about looking at it?
• 14:30
  And that really started the conversation and idea.
• 14:32
  You mentioned you had two years of production with that grain
• 14:35
  you acquired from the Black Isle.
• 14:36
  What does the future of rye production Inch Sterney look
• 14:39
  like? Well, since 2019, yeah.
• 14:44
  In fact, since 2018, we've been growing rye and your state and
• 14:48
  five. Get 5 rye.
• 14:50
  And we will continue to do so, yeah, because.
• 14:54
  That's right in the world all. All you're right in the future
• 14:56
  will come from 5. Then yes, it's.
• 14:59
  Not going. To be supplement to, to grow
• 15:01
  something, you know, you're at least two years away from the
• 15:03
  concept. You've got to get the seeds put
• 15:06
  in the ground, you've got to grow it and then you'll you'll
• 15:09
  realize that for one year. The following year is when
• 15:12
  you'll malt it and you'll get access to it.
• 15:14
  So it's a long term. So why we were why we got the
• 15:17
  rye in 2017, that's when we actually started.
• 15:20
  So in the seeds locally. So it's 2019 is before we could
• 15:22
  get the first yeah 5 grown rye. And were you able to choose a
• 15:26
  slightly different kind of strain or product then?
• 15:28
  Compared to what was grown back I was considering.
• 15:30
  That was grown for kind of an industrial process where as well
• 15:33
  it's something you can you. That's that's the thing.
• 15:35
  So the first variety is called Magnificult and what a fantastic
• 15:40
  name for it and. Magnificent name for it.
• 15:43
  Yes, it is. And this, the variety that we
• 15:46
  grow currently, when I was called Performer now when we
• 15:49
  were looking to use rye, everybody we spoke to was like,
• 15:53
  oh, at forms like Mage, you need it to be really difficult about
• 15:56
  it. So you can imagine the scene,
• 15:58
  it's 2017, it's December, we're doing the rye.
• 16:03
  And how we run the process at the distillery is we don't do
• 16:07
  one mash to one wash back. We do 4 mashes to one wash back.
• 16:11
  So the wash backs as you've seen are 80,000 litres capacity.
• 16:14
  So what we did is we put one mash into the wash back, we
• 16:18
  added the yeast and then we waited and nothing happened.
• 16:23
  So my my assistant got put on a cherry picker and sent to the
• 16:27
  top of the wash back. That's a big old wash back and
• 16:30
  he looked in and it wasn't doing anything and we thought oh this
• 16:34
  isn't good. So the next wash back we did 2
• 16:37
  marshes. The next wash back we did 3 and
• 16:40
  eventually we got to the 4th wash back and we thought, have
• 16:43
  we? This isn't working?
• 16:45
  But that point we were getting the distillate from the first
• 16:48
  wash back and the conversion. Normally at the distillery we
• 16:52
  get about 9 1/2 to 10% alcohol. We were getting about 7 1/2%
• 16:57
  alcohol for rye and we thought, well, it's working, but we
• 17:00
  couldn't quite understand why it wasn't reacting like everybody
• 17:03
  expected. And it was by a sheer chance.
• 17:05
  Ian had a conversation with the grain merchant who was passing
• 17:09
  by and he came in his ears and was talking and he did a little
• 17:12
  book of all the varieties that opened up and said, yeah,
• 17:15
  Magnifico is a non forming variety and who who knew the
• 17:19
  forming and non forming. So Ryvita bread uses the forming
• 17:23
  variety. So we use an on forming variety
• 17:25
  and that's what we've stuck with.
• 17:27
  So for us it's about understanding the grain because
• 17:30
  it's a lot more complex than we really give it credit.
• 17:33
  I mean, we're only really the tip of the iceberg and
• 17:36
  understanding rye and it's such a a great product to grow in the
• 17:40
  field. You know, it's it grows in
• 17:43
  really infertile soil, the good root structure, it gives a good
• 17:46
  straw which is useful for the farmer and for me it gives a
• 17:49
  brilliant flavour. Well, there you go, I guess we
• 17:51
  found a rye variety that sums the pair of us up perfectly.
• 17:57
  I was thinking non foaming. Careful, Scott, you'll get a job
• 18:02
  here, right? So we're going to move on to the
• 18:05
  the second drum then. Now the conversation I want to
• 18:10
  have here. We've we've asked.
• 18:11
  Oh, well, first of all, you know, talk, talk us through this
• 18:15
  one. Give us, give us the news.
• 18:16
  Give us what we're what we're. Expecting.
• 18:18
  So under those, there's a lot more on the nose.
• 18:21
  The first you'll notice is it's slightly darker than the one
• 18:24
  before. That's because it's been aged in
• 18:25
  the cast for one more year. When we were looking at the
• 18:29
  first vintage after the five years, we thought we're getting
• 18:34
  the right amount of balance of the extractors.
• 18:37
  It would not start to overpower it, but So what I did is we
• 18:42
  didn't take all of the original vintage out of cask.
• 18:45
  I've been keeping that away and I've actually been aging it.
• 18:48
  So it's now seven years and I'm glad to say it's actually
• 18:51
  getting better with age. It's not peaking yet.
• 18:54
  So the next vintage was here is 6 years old.
• 18:58
  And so on the nose, it's not as sweet.
• 19:01
  I get a little bit more complexity on the nose, but
• 19:04
  clear the big changes is on the taste.
• 19:06
  So cheers to everybody for coming.
• 19:13
  And what sort of what's the ABV of?
• 19:14
  So the ABV of both of these is 46.3.
• 19:17
  So it's a direct comparison. So we're starting with the same
• 19:21
  variety of grain grown at the same time.
• 19:24
  So the only difference between the two is we replicated the
• 19:27
  distillation process. So the only difference is the
• 19:30
  cask, both virgin oak, but in the second one, the zinc
• 19:34
  vintage, that extra age and also the different cars, it's not as
• 19:38
  sweet. There's not as much as the
• 19:39
  vanilla and caramel. It's allowing the complexity of
• 19:43
  the wood and also the spiciness to come through a lot more than
• 19:46
  the taste. So you mentioned the wood from
• 19:48
  the first was from the Ozark region of America, which is what
• 19:51
  kind of Mississippi? Yeah, that type of region, yeah.
• 19:53
  Yeah, whereas the second is Appalachians, that's what
• 19:56
  Virginia. Virginia, Yeah, Yeah.
• 19:58
  What's the difference in the, you know, do you notice that
• 20:01
  when you get the cast, you go, oh, that's an Appalachian and
• 20:03
  that's a no? No, no.
• 20:05
  From a visual point of view, there is no apparent difference.
• 20:09
  We do and every year since 2017, we've been doing a different
• 20:14
  region and I've been nosing. I've just recently been nosing
• 20:18
  the next vintage beyond this. Where's the word for the next
• 20:21
  region then? Can you reveal?
• 20:23
  No, I can't. That's one because I can't
• 20:26
  remember well, it's what we're trying the the concept and the
• 20:33
  foundation for the distillery is the three M's as we call it,
• 20:36
  material method and maturation. So rye is a good influence of
• 20:41
  the material. But by using the different words
• 20:44
  without so investigating the maturation part of it just so
• 20:48
  that we can understand. I mean the oldest stalk is 7
• 20:52
  years old. So we want to be doing this for
• 20:54
  a short piece period of time. So we've still got a lot to
• 20:57
  learn and understand about it. And The thing is, you know, I,
• 21:00
  I, I love seeing the new distilleries and what they're
• 21:04
  doing and things like that. But also the, the fact of the
• 21:06
  matter is that, you know, we've got hundreds of years of
• 21:10
  distilling history in whiskey and there's a lot of it that's
• 21:12
  accidental. There's a lot of it that's
• 21:13
  almost, you know, we do it like this because this is the way
• 21:17
  we've always done it. And we don't want to change that
• 21:18
  because we don't dare do it because it could.
• 21:21
  You've heard stories about dents on stills, stills and Becky, you
• 21:25
  told the story of as at the Rosebank still that was smaller.
• 21:28
  That was at the last one because the roof the first one.
• 21:37
  The wash still comes to a flat top, and originally it was
• 21:39
  because they couldn't fit the roof in or they couldn't fit it
• 21:43
  in on the size of the roof. So it was a flat top.
• 21:45
  So when they recreated it, they they actually made it larger in
• 21:49
  size, but they kept the flat top.
• 21:51
  Yeah. We just don't know.
• 21:53
  If that comes to a flavour profile, we were thinking
• 21:56
  obviously you're, you're talking about your reflux, your copper
• 21:58
  reflux and bouncing against it. It could be something that, but
• 22:00
  they wanted to stick to the original blueprints and that's
• 22:02
  what they stuck to. Yeah, it stuck to the flavour as
• 22:05
  well. But I mean, there were so many
• 22:06
  distilleries that have like accidental stories, you know,
• 22:09
  why did it taste like that's all We just, we didn't have, we'd
• 22:11
  ran out of this type of cask. So we had to use that type of
• 22:14
  casket and guess what, Suddenly it changed the flavour profile
• 22:16
  or changed it. So have you had any happy
• 22:19
  accidents? Just, you know, 10 years isn't a
• 22:21
  long period of time. When you look in the scale of
• 22:23
  whiskey and you look at this stuff, seven years, they're
• 22:25
  saying it's the oldest of things.
• 22:26
  So have you found things that actually, well, this is
• 22:30
  different because we've changed, changed the tiny way of doing
• 22:32
  things, because you can engineer it, you can reverse engineer it
• 22:35
  as well. I'm actually trying to think
• 22:37
  what we we have done. That's been by accident, I
• 22:41
  suppose. You've had an unhappy accident
• 22:43
  with the foam. Yeah.
• 22:45
  I think last year where we had the opportunity to use the
• 22:51
  normal still and that was really to understand what the impact of
• 22:55
  the loam still was. That was I suppose was an
• 22:58
  unplanned accident because the still wasn't ready when we
• 23:02
  needed it to be. So I needed an extra week.
• 23:04
  So that was an opportunity as well.
• 23:05
  And it's given me a different flavour profile which hopefully
• 23:08
  will investigate to see what direction of travel it goes in.
• 23:11
  And do you? Do you?
• 23:12
  Are you still in the very much experimental stage with spirit
• 23:15
  that you're creating versus actually, you know, we've got
• 23:20
  Rylaw here as a, as a brand and A and a core product and we've
• 23:23
  got your other because it's nine other variations of spirit that
• 23:26
  you're creating. Yes.
• 23:28
  And within the distillery, are you focused now on just saying,
• 23:31
  we've spent 10 years working out to this point, so this is a
• 23:34
  direction we're going in? Or are you still saying, let's
• 23:37
  try something different, let's try a different way?
• 23:39
  I'm still trying something different.
• 23:40
  I did something different last week, which I can't say anything
• 23:43
  about. I don't remember.
• 23:45
  No, I do remember. We'll be announcing it later on.
• 23:49
  It's part of our print laws, which is an experimental, and
• 23:52
  it's basically a paper that I read talking about phenolic
• 23:57
  compounds and how they are present within.
• 24:00
  That's a hint within the the disk delay, but also in the
• 24:04
  faints and the pothele. So I was reading that, so I want
• 24:07
  to investigate that a little bit further.
• 24:09
  There we go. Now this one that we're
• 24:10
  drinking. This is Rylo version 2.
• 24:12
  This isn't available yet, is it? Or is it coming up available?
• 24:16
  The plan is is we'll be releasing it in July and August
• 24:18
  this year. Brilliant these.
• 24:19
  People are the first people to try.
• 24:22
  There's probably more people being on the moon than has
• 24:24
  tasted this. There you go, we're all on the
• 24:27
  moon tonight. So cheers everybody.
• 24:31
  There we go. Thank you for that.
• 24:34
  Now they talk me through the intricacies here because I
• 24:37
  didn't know this until Ross was talking about it on the podcast.
• 24:41
  You can't officially say it's Scotch rye, can you?
• 24:44
  Or what's the what's the rule between with rye whiskey and
• 24:47
  Scotland? So in case anyone from the SWA
• 24:50
  is. So there's no definition for rye
• 24:53
  and Scotch. So that's why we have to call it
• 24:57
  a single grain. We follow the same practices as
• 25:01
  those who make rye whiskey in America and and you just need to
• 25:05
  go a few miles over the border into Yorkshire.
• 25:08
  We are fielding our producing a rye whiskey and they can call it
• 25:10
  a rye whiskey but we can't. But you're lucky enough that
• 25:14
  from the locality of the distillery, all your ranges here
• 25:20
  and, and all the sort of varieties of whiskeys you're
• 25:22
  creating, they're named after local areas.
• 25:24
  And there's a local area, it's called Rylaw.
• 25:26
  So that's the name. That's why you're able to stick
• 25:28
  Rylaw. So Rylaw Farm is about 500
• 25:30
  meters from the distillery. So we can get Ry in the name,
• 25:33
  but still sticking to the naming regime that we have.
• 25:36
  And again, from the So you talk about the founder, then what was
• 25:39
  it? In Palmer.
• 25:39
  In Palmer then, from his point of view, was this always, you
• 25:43
  know, was it a happy accident or was it literally a case of,
• 25:46
  look, we've got Rylaw right there, we can build a brand
• 25:49
  around that, or was it just the case of all it?
• 25:51
  Was a case of trialling it. So we we have a pilot still on
• 25:56
  the distillery which you probably didn't see when the
• 25:58
  tour because it was tied away. So as I said.
• 26:01
  From is that what's in the tunnel?
• 26:03
  No, that's something different. You'll have to come back.
• 26:06
  So as part of the 19 O 8 Commission, it mentioned rye,
• 26:10
  oats and wheat. So we investigated creating
• 26:13
  whiskey from rye, oats and wheat.
• 26:15
  So rye was the first one that we did on the pilot still and I I
• 26:18
  operated it and the flavour profile that came out was so
• 26:21
  different. So that gave us the confidence
• 26:23
  to then go to full scale. So it was an element of
• 26:27
  assessment, research and then trial and error.
• 26:30
  Brilliant. I mean how we how we find the
• 26:32
  needs so far? Can I ask, I'd like to have a
• 26:35
  show of hands just because I like feedback.
• 26:38
  Is who prefers 1? One being I, I think I'd put my
• 26:43
  hand up for that. And who prefers 2?
• 26:47
  OK. About 5050.
• 26:48
  Yeah. We've got.
• 26:50
  OK. We'll go to yes.
• 26:51
  Yes, 1W drinker, no pressure. Give us the tasting notes that
• 26:55
  you get placed. No this.
• 26:58
  One just doesn't burn as much when.
• 27:00
  You drink? That's OK.
• 27:01
  And has anyone added water and got any feedback on that?
• 27:05
  Yeah, I'm going to go round the room.
• 27:06
  OK who's got anything to say now?
• 27:09
  We do welcome tasting notes if anyone wants to offer them.
• 27:13
  Nope. OK.
• 27:14
  What were you thinking? You've never been to one of
• 27:16
  these before, have you? No.
• 27:18
  So what are you thinking so far? I.
• 27:19
  Enjoyed the first one more. I think it's just the virgin oak
• 27:23
  and the vanilla, and it's kind of hits you the minute you like,
• 27:27
  sort of sniff it. Yeah, good.
• 27:29
  Nice one. Put yourselves in the corner
• 27:32
  the. Second one I thought I enjoyed,
• 27:35
  the second one, is it fuller? I was quite enjoyed it.
• 27:37
  So we've got a first anisex. It's really split in the room,
• 27:40
  isn't it? The second one is pretty good, I
• 27:42
  feel like Maturation's just a touch more on it, like an oaky
• 27:46
  little Jelly baby. A what?
• 27:48
  Sorry. An oaky little Jelly.
• 27:50
  Baby an oaky little Jelly baby. We'll take that fruit.
• 27:53
  How are you feeling about this? It's grand.
• 27:55
  I've not had much to ride before.
• 27:57
  As interested. Yeah, it was good.
• 27:59
  Second one was my preference. Second one was your preference
• 28:01
  there. Jake, did you say what was it?
• 28:03
  Second one as well from yourself, Becky.
• 28:05
  I like the second one but absolutely love the the mouth
• 28:08
  feel of the first one. See that texture?
• 28:10
  I thought that was absolutely stunning.
• 28:11
  I'm all about the texture in the.
• 28:13
  Whiskey, Yeah, yeah. And and it's I mean, as we said,
• 28:16
  I said at the start, we're still learning and look at you.
• 28:20
  You asked about previously what we're doing with it.
• 28:23
  We're just learning what we can do with it.
• 28:26
  So we've been doing, you know, the baseline is that everything
• 28:29
  will go into virgin oak, but after virgin oak then I want to
• 28:34
  see it. So I'm looking at and I take in
• 28:36
  a different direction by using a different cast.
• 28:38
  Just really to understand what did we.
• 28:40
  Conduce, second maturations and yes, what have you.
• 28:43
  Yeah, and also using other fortune oaks because America is
• 28:48
  not the only one. Yeah, Yep, Jake.
• 28:53
  See the tasks that you've tipped for these battings?
• 28:56
  Have you then refilled them as like a second fill of?
• 29:00
  Yes I have and I'm using them for myself.
• 29:03
  Perfect. To answer your question is to
• 29:08
  understand what flavour can I then get into the next spirit to
• 29:12
  impart it so trying to keep it within the family.
• 29:14
  Brilliant. Now we're going to finish these.
• 29:18
  We'll stop for a little bit if you want to have a wee chat or a
• 29:20
  blather. We're also going to be.
• 29:21
  So we're going to be using the same 2 glasses that we've had.
• 29:24
  So we've got Dom's got some jugs of water there.
• 29:27
  You can help yourself to rinse your glasses out and things like
• 29:29
  that. And we'll get pouring.
• 29:31
  Well, maybe send Angus out with the Porter, see if you're lucky
• 29:34
  or not, and we'll we'll get the next the next drums lined up.
• 29:38
  Hope everyone's enjoying themselves.
• 29:39
  Hope it's all been all right. Yeah, good.
• 29:41
  Brilliant. OK, there we go.
• 29:50
  Right, Angus, you know what? Clap us back in.
• 29:56
  Welcome back to the Whiskey Stories podcast.
• 29:59
  First ever Distillery Baller Distillery Spotlight.
• 30:06
  You can. Start again.
• 30:08
  I've had a drama. Put my teeth back in, I guess,
• 30:11
  you know, Do you clap us in? Welcome back to the Whiskey
• 30:14
  Stories Distillery Spotlight. There we go.
• 30:19
  There we go. We've had a drum now that's
• 30:22
  rocking and rolling. So the first two drums are down,
• 30:24
  Scott and I think their, their, their rye whiskey's, you know,
• 30:28
  the the feedback's been absolutely fantastic.
• 30:30
  Isn't it? Yeah, it has been.
• 30:31
  It's went down well emptying glasses as well.
• 30:33
  However, there is a jug of bells, an empty jug there of
• 30:36
  bells on it that we've been pouring any of the unwanted
• 30:38
  drums in there. We will be auctioning that off
• 30:40
  this evening later on as the first ever inch near the
• 30:43
  Infinity bottle. It started there.
• 30:46
  So that's that's what we're going to get at that.
• 30:48
  But this is the exciting bit, Scott, because the drums that
• 30:52
  we've got in front of us now, this was what we were, we were
• 30:55
  we were at the distillery talking about the 8th of May,
• 30:57
  the first official release of single malt whiskey from the
• 31:01
  inch daily distillery. This is exciting it.
• 31:04
  Is and we ended up being a pitted whiskey, which shocked a
• 31:07
  few people, yes, but not us. No, you, you knew all about it.
• 31:12
  Pitted Whiskey from from Fife, I have to say, actually, so talk
• 31:15
  us through. So the first, what's the first
• 31:17
  Ram that we've got here? So the first Ram is so the the
• 31:20
  brand here is King Glassy, which is our pitted brand and this is
• 31:24
  five grown barley. Best barley in the.
• 31:27
  World and then it's been pitted using Pete from Aberdeen.
• 31:31
  So it's Highland Pete, There's all there's.
• 31:35
  Always one we've got the Lunan. So what?
• 31:45
  When people think of peated whiskey, they automatically
• 31:49
  either go, that's really, really good.
• 31:52
  Sorry, my alarm's going off that'd.
• 31:53
  Be a medication. I'll get that when I go home
• 32:02
  because that happened the last time.
• 32:05
  So I've lost my train of thoughts.
• 32:07
  So the Pete did whiskey. When people think of Pete, they
• 32:11
  either screw up their face because they've tried it before
• 32:15
  and it's been quite intense, or their eyes wide.
• 32:17
  They're open because they love it.
• 32:18
  She. Was Grame until about 9 months
• 32:20
  ago. I love it.
• 32:21
  And that's what we love. So what we did is most people's
• 32:25
  impressions or tasting is from the Isla peated malts.
• 32:29
  So by going to mainland peat, it's a different type of peat.
• 32:33
  There's more hair or more vegetation.
• 32:35
  So it's a lot more floral, a lot more mellower.
• 32:39
  And we but we didn't just go for a lightly malt peated, we went
• 32:43
  for quite a high peated. It's about 50 PPM in the malt,
• 32:46
  which gives me about 18 to 20 phenols in the spirit.
• 32:51
  But on the new make the it's a smokiness.
• 32:55
  It's like the dying embers of a fire that you get that smokiness
• 32:59
  on the nose and in the paste. But in the background of the new
• 33:03
  make spirit there's a little fruitiness.
• 33:05
  So that to me was my anchor because there's an element of
• 33:08
  fruit. I could add complexity to that
• 33:10
  point. So what we did is we put it into
• 33:12
  ex burping casts and then after five years of maturation we
• 33:17
  split the parcel. We put some of it remained the
• 33:21
  next bourbon, and some of it we put into a Monteado Station
• 33:25
  cask. For the yeah, people who haven't
• 33:28
  seen it yet, Ross, we asked what's Montearo and Ross just
• 33:31
  really nonchalantly, It's a cherry.
• 33:34
  It's actually a really sexy cherry.
• 33:35
  So. So this is what we're drinking
• 33:37
  here, Monteado. Then they're double matured and
• 33:40
  that now again ABV for this. So again, we played around with
• 33:45
  the different AB VS We actually found that the 46.3 we actually
• 33:51
  found for the vial all worked really, really well.
• 33:53
  So the two drums on offer are both at 46.3 again.
• 33:57
  So on the nose is even there's a subtlety to the pit.
• 34:02
  It's not in your face, Pete. And what we did is we found that
• 34:06
  the Monteado kind of embraces the pit, and then you only
• 34:11
  really are aware that it's peat when you taste it.
• 34:14
  So to everybody's lunch. Thank you.
• 34:18
  Now I will say as well, I was picked up on the I think it was
• 34:23
  either the vlog by one of our listers on the Facebook page
• 34:27
  because I think if you remember correctly now as I'm a Pfeiffer
• 34:29
  born and raised. So give me a high sex when you
• 34:32
  see me. Swimmer, right.
• 34:38
  But what what I would say is that he said I really, really
• 34:42
  love the fact that on the for the first single malt release, I
• 34:45
  picked you up on the name of the release because from a Fifer's
• 34:48
  point of view, King Lassie, it's a town just a stone throw away
• 34:52
  from the distillery. But Fifer's would call it King
• 34:53
  Lassie. So I think I kind of picked you
• 34:56
  up on that on that says no, no, it's not King Lassie, it's King
• 34:59
  Lassie. But another part of the branding
• 35:01
  is obviously keeping that locality.
• 35:03
  How important is that You're sourcing, you're sourcing the
• 35:07
  the the grain from Fife. You're obviously in in central
• 35:10
  Fife, central Fife there England office, but you know, is that
• 35:13
  that's a big part of the brand. Yeah, very, very much.
• 35:15
  I mean we're proud to be in Fife and for us, for the anything
• 35:18
  that's our brand, we want it to be 5 Crow and Fife distilled and
• 35:21
  Fife matured. So by being proud of Fife, we
• 35:24
  then allocate it a Fife name. So by law, as we show up before
• 35:28
  is a farm not nearby. King Glass is the nearest
• 35:31
  village to us. We don't want.
• 35:34
  Another Tom and towel. Tom and tool.
• 35:36
  I we're going to stop that. It is King Lassie or King
• 35:41
  Lassie. I can't remember that.
• 35:43
  I'm happy we both. Yeah.
• 35:45
  So for those that have tasted it, hopefully what you get is it
• 35:49
  opens it up to the pettiness. I get a lovely chewiness with
• 35:52
  tobacco again. I also like to talk about the
• 35:56
  texture. I get a lovely velvet texture
• 35:59
  when I taste it and then it really the sweetness starts to
• 36:02
  come through and you're chewing it and it gives a good finish.
• 36:05
  What we were trying to do is give a peated whiskey for people
• 36:10
  who may traditionally not have been interested in peated
• 36:13
  whiskey. So I'd be very interested in non
• 36:15
  peated whiskey drinkers. What's their views on it is a.
• 36:18
  Peated whiskey drinker. I'm a big fan of this.
• 36:21
  I really. Like that.
• 36:22
  That's lovely. I mean, is there people in this
• 36:23
  room that maybe stay away from peated whiskey normally?
• 36:27
  Yeah, not exclusively, but yeah, I mean, I guess it takes I get
• 36:32
  the piss taken every quite a bit on the podcast because the
• 36:34
  Russell tell Ross and I can say I pretend to like, but I think
• 36:38
  it was like Pete, but I was Becky was there.
• 36:41
  She saw the moment of light. She was holding the camera.
• 36:44
  It was it was a hard beg smoke patriotic table.
• 36:49
  The area in the the whiskey Fringe on the Sunday.
• 36:54
  We've got exclusive access, we've got early access.
• 36:56
  So there we were at about 10:30, eleven o'clock in the morning
• 36:58
  and the first stand that we had to go to was our beg on a Sunday
• 37:03
  morning. The first thing you're getting
• 37:04
  is 3 our beg drums before before the rest of the day at the
• 37:09
  Whiskey Fringe and the Pete really when you when you hear
• 37:14
  about it and it's broken down in certain ways where you hear
• 37:16
  about the different areas, there's a fire Pete, the
• 37:19
  crackling Pete, there's the medicinal Pete, you know, the
• 37:22
  smoky bacon Pete and all that. And it isn't until you realise
• 37:25
  and be able to identify that kind of smokiness that you could
• 37:28
  get you find the one you like. There'll be people in this room
• 37:30
  that maybe are more drawn towards that heavily medicinal
• 37:32
  stuff, but then there's other people that are maybe drawn like
• 37:35
  me, that Fire Pete smoke and smoky bacon.
• 37:39
  Yeah, love it. Absolutely love it.
• 37:40
  And that's, you know, that that kind of that that's what I get
• 37:42
  out of this one. Yeah, I mean, some people get a
• 37:44
  bit of minerality, yeah as well, because it's from the mainland.
• 37:49
  For me, it's just that sitting next to the fire, the image of
• 37:53
  the smoking embers that you're sitting there just enough to
• 37:57
  notice peat, but not enough to over fill your senses.
• 38:01
  And that's what we're looking to do.
• 38:02
  We're just trying to showcase that Pete in a different way,
• 38:05
  which is what we're all about. We're flavour, flavour, flavour
• 38:08
  is what we go after, so this was just our view.
• 38:12
  For Pete and the man was sided here, Daniel then so Daniel
• 38:14
  Cunningham, you're the European sales manager, so it's your job.
• 38:19
  So, So Scott makes this stuff. You've got to pour it and flog
• 38:22
  it. I've got to sell it.
• 38:23
  To be honest, Graham, I didn't think I was going to be talking.
• 38:24
  I just got handed a microphone and got told to sit down.
• 38:26
  So. Let me tell you 2 and a bit
• 38:29
  years ago, that's why I'm Angus on this.
• 38:32
  And he's never left. He's never left.
• 38:35
  But you know, I'm still here talking about talk about the job
• 38:38
  that you've got to do then. So we're now we're on our third
• 38:40
  drum, but the the RYLA. Let's go back to the RYLA and
• 38:43
  see from your own point of view, what was it like taking that to
• 38:46
  market and how well is it done and what what markets really,
• 38:49
  really appreciate the the rye whiskey and where are we seeing
• 38:52
  in Starney in Starney, sorry, distillery flourishing to.
• 38:56
  Be honest, I can't take any credit for the launch of RYLA
• 38:57
  because I joined in 2024, so it was just before me.
• 39:00
  But, you know, it was a very successful launch globally, you
• 39:03
  know, but in 14 markets across the world, there is a, you know,
• 39:06
  it was really successful, but it doesn't come without its
• 39:08
  challenges. You know, the first one being
• 39:10
  the terminology, you know, but the fact that we have to call it
• 39:12
  a single grain and in fact, it is a Scottish rye whiskey.
• 39:15
  So it's, there's a whole education kind of gap that you
• 39:17
  need to bridge there, which is a more of a long term thing.
• 39:20
  You know, you're never going to do that overnight.
• 39:22
  It's, it's consistency and it's, you know, repeating and doing
• 39:25
  it, you know, time and time again.
• 39:27
  And you know, eventually the, the, the messaging will, will
• 39:29
  hit home. But there are some markets that
• 39:32
  resonate with rye whiskey, you know, USA and Canada being being
• 39:35
  the two main ones there. So it's been, it's been very
• 39:38
  well more of a phased approach in the US, as you can imagine,
• 39:40
  because there's different states.
• 39:41
  So you know that they're all their own individual markets.
• 39:45
  No, but it's been fantastic, you know, the style of, of the of
• 39:48
  the rail of rye whiskey and that kind of lighter, elegant style.
• 39:52
  It opens it up for, you know, experimentation, especially in
• 39:55
  the bar world. So there's been some amazing
• 39:57
  kind of high balls. Yeah.
• 39:58
  So is that is that? What you as well?
• 40:00
  Any favourites you've seen? That's it.
• 40:02
  Well, we were in a Three Greek St. in a Soho last week for the
• 40:06
  launcher King Glassy, but they actually had a Rylo eyeball on
• 40:10
  tap and it was, if I can remember, it was Rylor and Peach
• 40:14
  syrup, apple juice and soda and it was phenomenal.
• 40:17
  That was it like just really simple ingredients, like no
• 40:19
  messing around. It was really.
• 40:20
  Really. Well, we've had a few people
• 40:21
  and. You'll be making a few of those
• 40:22
  later on, won't you? He's shaking his head for the
• 40:28
  for the listeners here. But yeah, we've had people
• 40:30
  talking about like what are the, with the weather that we've had
• 40:32
  over the last two or three weeks, people are saying what's
• 40:37
  a drum that's nice for good for nice weather and stuff like
• 40:39
  that. And with the lineup that we've
• 40:41
  had. And of course just so it's
• 40:42
  coincided with the fact that we've been working together on
• 40:45
  this collaboration. I've just had the King Lassie
• 40:48
  Raw and the King Lassie Double Mature constantly on the go in
• 40:51
  my flat with this lovely weather.
• 40:52
  But market said we're in Europe. Then you're probably the
• 40:56
  European market. Are we seeing growth and or you
• 40:58
  know, popularity in different areas of Europe as a particular
• 41:02
  country that you've visited? Talking about rye only.
• 41:03
  Just now, yeah. Just now, yeah.
• 41:05
  Just rye. So, you know, there's been like
• 41:07
  a big rise in the last kind of like 3-4 years, maybe a little
• 41:09
  bit longer than that with European rise, you know, got
• 41:11
  some really good things coming to Denmark with stoning and
• 41:13
  other brands that don't really spring to mind right now.
• 41:15
  But you know, people are starting to, you know, get
• 41:18
  familiar with the category and yeah, there's there's definitely
• 41:21
  a spike. To be honest, mate, I'm not
• 41:22
  going to get into any kind of numbers or that because I would
• 41:25
  just be lying. But the, but no, it's yeah,
• 41:29
  we're definitely seeing it as like an emerging kind of sub
• 41:31
  category of the of the whiskey category as a whole.
• 41:33
  Brilliant. And then of course, you'll be a
• 41:35
  busy man this month, the exciting prospect that the
• 41:38
  distillery is releasing its first single malt.
• 41:40
  So how's that gone? What's that?
• 41:41
  What's their reception been like?
• 41:43
  What's it been like for yourself?
• 41:44
  How have the distillery gone about making sure that they get
• 41:48
  the brand out to as many people as possible and things like
• 41:50
  that? Yeah.
• 41:50
  I mean, it's been absolutely phenomenal.
• 41:51
  We're like 2 weeks out of the two weeks post the launch of
• 41:55
  King Glassy. The reception from the trade in
• 41:57
  the media has been nothing short of phenomenal.
• 41:59
  So I'm sure you'll agree with that.
• 42:00
  Definitely the noise that we created, we've been together a
• 42:03
  really comprehensive plan for the last kind of like four or
• 42:05
  five months. It's been a lot of blood, sweat
• 42:07
  and tears. And it was good to finally get
• 42:08
  out there because King Glassy was existing on laptop screens,
• 42:11
  computer screens and, you know, boardrooms and whatever for a
• 42:14
  very long time. And we were just really excited
• 42:16
  to get our first single malt out there and to see it in amazing
• 42:18
  bars, especially, you know, the athletic arms or the OR the
• 42:20
  diggers as we go around here. And you know, it's just, it's
• 42:23
  just phenomenal. And to get people talking about
• 42:25
  the brand as well. Like that's the main thing.
• 42:26
  Like when you're building a brand, but obviously very new,
• 42:29
  you're relying on, you know, people that are on the front
• 42:31
  lines, the bartenders or, or the shopkeepers in the specialty
• 42:34
  whiskey shops that really get behind it.
• 42:36
  And all starts with the liquid. You know, I'm really proud to
• 42:39
  say that we've got really good liquid thanks to this man at
• 42:41
  Inch Derny. And if you've got good liquid,
• 42:43
  then you know, that gives people the incentive to to really kind
• 42:46
  of like sell your products and talk about you.
• 42:48
  Absolutely right. I mean, yeah, 'cause it there'll
• 42:51
  be lots and lots of people who've never heard them in
• 42:53
  distillery, you're close distillery you don't hate about
• 42:56
  it. But as I say, for people who
• 42:58
  haven't been lucky enough to, to, to visit the distillery, you
• 43:01
  go from being in a, in a Glenrothes industrial estate and
• 43:05
  then you just see these big electric gates.
• 43:07
  Once they open up, they're still, it's beautiful.
• 43:09
  It's absolutely fantastic that you could, and I think we had
• 43:11
  said you could pick that distillery up.
• 43:12
  Yeah, from Glen, an industrial estate in Glenrothes and place
• 43:16
  it anywhere in Scotland. Then it'd be a picturesque,
• 43:18
  lovely distillery and you can't go up and see it.
• 43:20
  But so from, from that point of view then has that been a
• 43:22
  challenge because people are sort of going never heard the
• 43:25
  yeah. Well, what?
• 43:26
  What's that like? There's a new distillery.
• 43:30
  There is a double edged sword. You're not stuck to tradition or
• 43:33
  heritage. So that gives us the freedom,
• 43:36
  the versatility to do what we do.
• 43:38
  But the other side of that is people don't know who you are.
• 43:41
  So it takes Daniel's role in other salespeople and the Rob,
• 43:45
  the brand ambassador to go around and educate people
• 43:48
  because we're not just a straightforward distillery.
• 43:51
  You have to spend time educating people and that takes yeah.
• 43:56
  And that's a long term gain. It's a long term gain.
• 43:58
  And though the working collaborating with you guys
• 44:01
  enable. Well, it's pretty you're right
• 44:02
  on the map, isn't? It people who can't come to us.
• 44:06
  So that was the best way to come into people's living room to
• 44:09
  have a lot of more understanding of who we are and we're trying
• 44:13
  to showcase. Because when you tell people
• 44:15
  what you're doing, some people think, well, that's just a
• 44:17
  gimmick. You're you're just seeing that.
• 44:19
  But it's only when you come to the distillery you can actually
• 44:22
  show you what we do and why we're doing it.
• 44:25
  I was going to say, actually, I don't know if Graham ever told
• 44:26
  you this, but about two or three years ago, Graham and I were
• 44:29
  just pre podcast. We were just in the area.
• 44:32
  Graham actually drove me up to the gates.
• 44:34
  Yeah, yeah. And Sterling, we kind of peeked
• 44:36
  through and I went. Oh, something's going.
• 44:39
  On look at this place. But I thought we got to see.
• 44:41
  So if you told me, then we're doing a podcast.
• 44:43
  I mean, yeah, it's, it was. Almost a bit like, you know,
• 44:48
  there's something going on here, but nobody knows about it.
• 44:51
  Yeah, it was almost that kind. Of yeah, it was like that.
• 44:53
  And it's, it draws intrigue, I suppose, because the the, the
• 44:57
  whiskey drinker that you're looking for, we've got plenty of
• 45:01
  people that happily hold their hands up and say we are whiskey
• 45:04
  geeks, whiskey nails, whatever. And some things when you
• 45:06
  reference that people go, well, you can't say that about people
• 45:08
  that. But no, there is that that that
• 45:11
  growth of people that are desperate to find out more and
• 45:14
  more and more say this, I've said it on the podcast plenty of
• 45:17
  times. You know, I was the opposite.
• 45:18
  I was the guy that used to like coming into the athletic arms
• 45:21
  and real like any of the other stuff there, just like the core
• 45:24
  brands that I know and I, I can trust.
• 45:26
  Whereas now it's, it's that this world of new distilleries where
• 45:29
  beforehand I wouldn't be going. It can't be any good if they're
• 45:31
  new, because why would I have anything from a distillery
• 45:33
  that's only been 10 years, 10 years in in being open when I
• 45:36
  could go to a Glenfiddich that's been open for hundreds of years.
• 45:39
  But what we're seeing is there's so much excitement coming out of
• 45:42
  that. And I think from from that
• 45:44
  perspective, having that freedom, does that give you the
• 45:46
  freedom to be able to do that or do you feel constraint when you
• 45:49
  have to balance so much where what do you want the mass market
• 45:52
  to have and what do you want the the?
• 45:54
  The small consumer, I will always ask for feedback and then
• 45:58
  and it's because I have a general interest because the the
• 46:01
  Rylaw and the King glass say we've, I've been nosing it and
• 46:04
  tasting it from the very beginning.
• 46:06
  So I've got my preference and what I like about it, but it has
• 46:10
  to be a market because we're a business first and foremost.
• 46:14
  So what we're doing now is getting people who understand
• 46:18
  who we are all about and are in cheat by flavour.
• 46:21
  We, we have other parts of the distillery, other liquids that
• 46:24
  we'll bring out in the coming years because ultimately what we
• 46:27
  want to showcase is from a single distillery, a breadth of
• 46:30
  liquid that will be something for everybody and that's the
• 46:34
  challenge that. Because it's not just going to
• 46:35
  be rye whiskey or no beats in whiskey.
• 46:38
  There's going to. Be there's going to be more
• 46:39
  coming out, there'll be some that are more similar to what
• 46:43
  people are used to, but there'll be some that people think they
• 46:47
  know what they're getting, but in a slightly different way.
• 46:50
  And I'm not trying to give too much away for the mystery DRAM,
• 46:53
  of course, but that'll be the gig.
• 46:55
  We're all about flavour. I know whiskey is a wonderful
• 46:58
  liquid that it gets people from all stages in society and of all
• 47:03
  age groups talking about one thing and it's no people
• 47:06
  remember it. You know, a few drams in your
• 47:08
  everybody's fame. That's what I love about whiskey
• 47:11
  and if we can give a liquid a flavour that they might not have
• 47:14
  experienced before, then that's what I'm looking to try and
• 47:17
  achieve. So, Daniel, how did you sorry
• 47:18
  only go? I think it is worth saying
• 47:19
  though, Scott, you kind of touched on it there like, you
• 47:22
  know, Edge Derny, we all, we're only just getting started King
• 47:25
  glasses, the second step towards our kind of main marquee release
• 47:28
  in 2029, which is going to be the Inch Derny 12.
• 47:30
  I think we maybe mentioned it on the pod when we were filming at
• 47:33
  Inch Derny. So yeah, like what we're trying
• 47:36
  to do with these different expressions and these different
• 47:38
  kind of spirit types is really kind of like build and drive
• 47:41
  that demand for the brand. So, you know, by the time that
• 47:43
  that amazing whiskey, I've tried that, by the way, it's amazing,
• 47:48
  very lucky to. But by the time that that
• 47:49
  whiskey is released and you know, we've hopefully got like a
• 47:52
  really kind of strong core following of whiskey lovers, you
• 47:55
  know. I just want to how long does it
• 47:56
  take? You mentioned earlier on, you
• 47:58
  know, conversations where this has been on a computer screen
• 48:00
  and yeah, you're talking about tasting a 12 year old whiskey
• 48:03
  that's already very exciting to think about and stuff.
• 48:07
  But you know, how far ahead do you have to plan or at least
• 48:10
  like this? Well, I'm honest, I'm thinking
• 48:13
  about, I'm thinking about the two sides to the story, the new
• 48:18
  make and the mature. So for the new make, I've got a
• 48:23
  plan for my print laws for the next 5-6, seven years.
• 48:27
  For the maturing stock, I've got a concept and an idea that I'm
• 48:32
  looking for, for 20/27/2020, eight, 2029.
• 48:36
  So I'm already looking at that now.
• 48:38
  But I'm also listening. Somebody talked to me that I'm a
• 48:41
  whiskey listener, also a flavour engineer, listening to the
• 48:45
  whiskey to see. Can I take that to 15?
• 48:50
  What is? I'm trying to understand the
• 48:52
  sweet spot of the spirit and the cask.
• 48:56
  Although the other disabilities have been doing it a long time,
• 48:58
  they've found that over many, many years.
• 49:01
  We are still searching for that. And what I'm trying to
• 49:04
  understand is the sweet spot. Maybe what I think is a sweet
• 49:08
  spot, but I want is that what the consumers are also seeing as
• 49:11
  a sweet spot. So there's still a long way of
• 49:14
  the journey for us to go. So you're like a whiskey
• 49:16
  whisperer? Listener, I'm sorry.
• 49:20
  Whiskey listener, I've got an image in my head because we've.
• 49:22
  We've got loads of them. Well, we've got loads of them,
• 49:25
  but we need to Tana Woodrow's Lexus casks or supposedly Lexus
• 49:29
  casks. Have you ever put your ear to a
• 49:31
  cask? No.
• 49:34
  But wait, so I mean roughly speaking and you don't have to
• 49:38
  give the full numbers if you don't, but when you're looking
• 49:39
  at a release that's how many bottles are you talking entering
• 49:42
  the marketplace roughly? We we're doing it in small
• 49:46
  batches because what we're, we're a small team.
• 49:51
  So we want to be making sure that we get the focus.
• 49:54
  So the last two weeks the focus has been in the UK.
• 49:57
  So in the coming once then the other sales team will be looking
• 50:01
  to go into Canada, America, Japan and then into Europe.
• 50:05
  So we don't want to be getting ahead of ourselves because like
• 50:08
  anybody knows, once you rebought it for a specific market because
• 50:11
  you have certain constraints of what can go on the label to the
• 50:14
  market. So we're being very selective
• 50:16
  and how we're doing it so that we can planet, because what we
• 50:18
  want to be doing is when we go to launch it in another market,
• 50:22
  we can give it the focus attention to educate the
• 50:25
  consumers. So we've been using the UK as a
• 50:28
  benchmark. Yeah.
• 50:29
  So it's really a step by. Start.
• 50:30
  I mean, are we talking very much?
• 50:31
  Are we talking a few thousand? Are we talking 10s of thousands?
• 50:34
  Now is that? The kind of.
• 50:35
  Level I'll give you an idea that we only produced the original
• 50:38
  King Glassy for half a week. Right.
• 50:42
  That's all. And for those people who listen
• 50:45
  to the vlog and the other podcasts don't know exactly how
• 50:47
  much we produce in a week so they'll be able to.
• 50:49
  Work out because I mean, we were, we actually, I looked back
• 50:51
  at, you know, I looked at the the whiskey yearbook and I
• 50:54
  looked at the, you know, you're still in the new distillery
• 50:57
  section on the 2024 one. Anyway.
• 50:59
  I don't know if that's changed in 2025, but when you actually
• 51:02
  look at it, you see the capacity that you guys have and it's
• 51:05
  sizeable. I mean, you're the, you're the
• 51:06
  biggest independent new distillery in terms of capacity
• 51:12
  on there. And, you know, you're in the top
• 51:14
  on the new distillery section on the whiskey.
• 51:15
  You're the top three. And I think the first one's Rose
• 51:18
  Isle and the second one now, what's a Gore?
• 51:21
  The William Grant and Sons? It might be else.
• 51:25
  Yeah. And so you're suddenly saying
• 51:27
  like, you know, you've suddenly got Diageo, William Grant and
• 51:29
  Sons. They're the only two in the new
• 51:32
  distillery section that are up there in terms of capacity
• 51:34
  level. So there's lots of new
• 51:36
  distilleries and they're great and we love them and, and
• 51:39
  they're artisanal for small capacities.
• 51:42
  They're bringing out small out turns and things like that.
• 51:44
  But for you guys, the business model has obviously not just
• 51:46
  been a case of let's get some nice small batch stuff out and
• 51:49
  get people really excited about it.
• 51:51
  It's it's mass, isn't it? Yeah, the the business model is
• 51:53
  very, people say it is very modern, it's actually very
• 51:56
  traditional and that we I do 9 different styles of spirit, but
• 52:01
  I only keep seven of them. The two styles, the Strathe
• 52:04
  Henry and the Pitlochy we sell to 3rd party bottlers and
• 52:08
  blenders and that's what is my you could say is my gin because
• 52:13
  I sell that as new make. That's the bread and butter
• 52:15
  effect. That's the bread and butter.
• 52:16
  So that's the business model, but that's the business model
• 52:19
  that historically been traditional distilleries because
• 52:21
  that's what they did so and. It's quite interesting to know
• 52:23
  whether the new distillery is kind of looked to that and gone.
• 52:26
  We're going to do it exactly like how, you know?
• 52:28
  Yeah, yeah. I mean the.
• 52:30
  Maybe the proliferation of single malts and you know since
• 52:33
  you know 80s, nineties, etcetera has driven that.
• 52:35
  But it's interesting that you're the guys are looking back to
• 52:38
  you. Know, but if you look at if you
• 52:40
  look at most modern distilleries, not all of the
• 52:44
  liquid they produce goes up in the bottle is a single bowl.
• 52:47
  So what we are doing is a lot of people are viewing as being
• 52:50
  quite modern. It's how the industry has been
• 52:52
  functioning for many, many years.
• 52:55
  Now, Daniel, how much of a headache was it for you when the
• 52:59
  distillery decides and maybe the man sitting beside you, Scott
• 53:02
  said, look, you're the European sales manager, so we've got our
• 53:06
  first release of single malt, but we've decided that instead
• 53:09
  of just putting as our first release, we're going to put one
• 53:11
  bottle out. We're actually going to put two
• 53:13
  out instead. So we've got 2 at the same time.
• 53:16
  Launching one I can imagine is a bit of a headache to try and all
• 53:20
  the work that's involved. But putting 2 out at the same
• 53:21
  time, what was that like for you?
• 53:23
  To be honest, it was actually like a really powerful tool to
• 53:25
  drive demand in the market through scarcity because when
• 53:28
  you're looking at the kind of production, you know, numbers, I
• 53:32
  think Scott, correct me if I'm wrong here, is, is it 3 to one
• 53:34
  or four to 1/3 to 1/3 to one? Yeah.
• 53:36
  So three to of a double mature and one one of raw, right?
• 53:41
  So the raw is actually a little bit more, yes, unique in terms
• 53:43
  of that, yeah. But it's that's not reflected in
• 53:45
  the price though. Yeah.
• 53:46
  No, no, no. It's the same price.
• 53:47
  Yes. Yeah. 79 lbs.
• 53:49
  Yeah, yeah. Fantastic.
• 53:50
  Right. So this is the next drama.
• 53:51
  I mean, Scott, this is it. So, so how how this came about
• 53:55
  is as I said, after the five years, we took a parcel of the
• 54:00
  liquid and put it into a Monteado cask, but we left some
• 54:03
  of it in the original cask. The original plan is that when
• 54:08
  this was of age, we would empty the Monteado cask and we'd fill
• 54:12
  the liquid that had been aged for longer back into those cask
• 54:14
  and aged it for longer. That was the original concept.
• 54:17
  But when we came to taste this, the.
• 54:20
  Plans were. Ripped up.
• 54:21
  The plan was ripped up because while this was an interpretation
• 54:26
  of a new way of thinking of peak whiskey, what about the people
• 54:29
  who want peak whiskey? We don't want to, you know,
• 54:33
  we're all about flavour. So I can't be going against what
• 54:36
  other people are wanting. So the raw, as we call it, is
• 54:40
  that it's an ex bourbon casks. There's no, there's extractors.
• 54:44
  You can look by the colour, there's a small amount of
• 54:46
  colour, but it's showing that what we've got here is purely
• 54:50
  from an age point of view. So there's a little bit of
• 54:52
  mellowness, but the the phenolic compounds are not as hidden as
• 54:56
  they are in their first one. So for me, this is what Peaky
• 55:01
  whiskey drinkers want. So cheers everybody.
• 55:03
  Cheers. Cheers.
• 55:04
  Well, I think. Friend, friend of the show and
• 55:08
  father of sometime guest on the show, Bobby Barr.
• 55:13
  Yeah, Ross's dad, Bobby. Barr is a big fan of this and I
• 55:19
  he has it with an next to it and drinks both of them and tries.
• 55:22
  To well, they talked about the pod.
• 55:24
  Yeah, we talked Yeah, we talked on the most recent recording.
• 55:26
  Then we you know, Ross has been Ross's dad's lost a lot of
• 55:30
  weight and I think there's 8 Was it right in saying if he lost a
• 55:33
  certain level of weight, he was going to buy him eight?
• 55:35
  He committed to paying a certain amount of money to buy him 8
• 55:38
  bottles of whiskey, but Ross was to pick the 8 bottles of
• 55:40
  whiskey. But it was a budget of and I
• 55:42
  can't remember exactly how much the budget was or maybe it was
• 55:45
  Dad was going to buy it, but it was treat himself.
• 55:47
  I can't remember, but anyway, and that's what it was Ross's
• 55:50
  recommendation and he said on the podcast, this one here is
• 55:53
  that I found, I found I think the 6th, the 6th drama I'm going
• 55:56
  to buy my dad for for I'm going to recommend to my dad to buy
• 55:59
  for that because he said it was and he likes that.
• 56:02
  And he said his dad loves an art big 10.
• 56:03
  And I think most recently on the I think on this week's episode
• 56:07
  that we recorded, Ross said his dad sat down and I'd beg 10
• 56:10
  beside him and he said couldn't, couldn't pick between the two.
• 56:13
  And I think, you know, when you look at having a distillery in a
• 56:16
  brand like our beg and you're holding your drum up to that
• 56:19
  must be that must be a nice, nice, yes, I have.
• 56:22
  And and that's no, that that's the type of feedback I'm looking
• 56:25
  for, because when we were tasting this, we that's the
• 56:29
  image I had as people who know like peated whiskey have, you
• 56:33
  know, have got their well known brands, but just trying to
• 56:36
  showcase know we can also do this.
• 56:38
  And for the mantra, as I said, of the distillery is the three
• 56:42
  M's. And what this is showcasing is
• 56:44
  the maturation, that by just changing the maturation point,
• 56:49
  it's the same liquid, but it's going in a different direction.
• 56:52
  And that's part of what we're looking to do, is trying to
• 56:55
  educate ourselves, but also hopefully enlighten consumers to
• 56:59
  try something new and different. So when when you're talking
• 57:01
  about you're talking about maybe future releases and things now
• 57:03
  you've put these out side by side, you've had the story with
• 57:06
  the double maturation and then the roster.
• 57:08
  We're really getting to see what this is like stripped all the
• 57:10
  way back. Yes.
• 57:11
  Will that be a consistent theme with new releases?
• 57:13
  Will you always be looking at doing that or, you know, we're
• 57:16
  talking about this one here. I mean, you're saying it's 3:00
• 57:19
  to 1:00 on the bottles to from the double maturation to the to
• 57:23
  the raw. Is that going to be something
• 57:27
  that you're going to carry on doing to let the whiskey drinker
• 57:30
  see here's a release that we're putting out that's had a little
• 57:32
  bit of different wood, different maturation?
• 57:34
  So we are still doing the subtle tinkering with the brand.
• 57:40
  It's just trying to understand what direction of travel we can
• 57:43
  go in. And that's where feedback from
• 57:46
  like events like today is very important because it's just
• 57:49
  reinforcing that what we were going after was correct.
• 57:54
  There might be small changes over the time, but ultimately I
• 57:56
  want to get to a place where King Glassy is a brand that's
• 58:00
  the stable, that's it. Once we get to what I think is
• 58:04
  the right place, then we'll stop thinking because we won't.
• 58:07
  We've got consumers who enjoy what we're producing.
• 58:10
  And Daniel, you've seen so far, it's only been a couple of
• 58:13
  weeks, but are you seeing one or the other performing?
• 58:15
  Is there one that's sort of pushing the way are you hearing
• 58:17
  from people at tasting last night?
• 58:19
  Well, again, what are you seeing a difference people saying is
• 58:22
  there one or the other that people are picking or is?
• 58:24
  It to be honest, it's a wee bit too early, but based on like the
• 58:26
  tastings and what we've seen on social media, it's definitely
• 58:28
  been like a quite an even split. You know, it's not like you've
• 58:30
  got like 1 bar just ordering double mature because that is
• 58:33
  what we call the crowd pleaser because it got the Amontiado
• 58:36
  maturation. But yeah, it's definitely been,
• 58:40
  you know, quite balanced between the two.
• 58:42
  What we're thinking, especially what we're thinking so far, is
• 58:44
  that a. Show a show of hands.
• 58:46
  I like a show of hands. So those in favour of the double
• 58:49
  mature and those who prefer Raw. Just shy if.
• 58:57
  I've said it, I've said it. We kind of spoke when we were
• 58:59
  just when we had a wee break there.
• 59:00
  I said you're a you're a bugger because like even with the Rila
• 59:06
  I've sat, I went away the I went bought 1 bottle of each and I've
• 59:11
  sat down so many times and I've got exactly the same amount.
• 59:14
  Even though it's a black bottle. I'm able to check holding up to
• 59:17
  a light and checking, but I'm pretty much even Stevens of how
• 59:20
  much I've drunk at each bottle because what I'll do is I'll
• 59:22
  pour, pour a double mature and say right, this is my favorite.
• 59:24
  I do enjoy the double mature. I'll drink it and then say
• 59:27
  right, but I better just check If I definitely don't like the
• 59:29
  raw and I try the raw to go and then I get to the end of the
• 59:32
  raw. Now that's better.
• 59:33
  The raw is better. I can't.
• 59:34
  I can't for. Me, I mean, I put my hand up for
• 59:36
  the first one because it's a personal preference allow Sherry
• 59:40
  and B, but the second one is just for, as I said, I think it
• 59:45
  stands up really well against other whiskeys of that.
• 59:48
  Character yeah and well the distillation process were found
• 59:54
  gives a very palatable new make spirit so my view is it means
• 59:58
  it's a very palatable spirit going into the cask it's only
• 1:00:01
  going to get better because you know a cask during maturation
• 1:00:04
  can sometimes remove some of the not so required flavours but.
• 1:00:08
  The good quality liquid be put into it means it's only going to
• 1:00:11
  get better and that's what we hope for and that's what we've
• 1:00:13
  got here in the role. So Daniel, for yourself then
• 1:00:16
  traveling around the world or Europe particularly where's next
• 1:00:20
  for you is a busy time trying to get this into as many bars and
• 1:00:23
  markets and basically the great liquid to lips lying that we
• 1:00:28
  love to hear. That's a key marketing strategy
• 1:00:31
  right there. But I.
• 1:00:32
  Mean where's next for you? Are you off anywhere?
• 1:00:34
  Yeah. So Next up we'll be, we've just
• 1:00:37
  launched in France. So we started in the UK first.
• 1:00:40
  We're just launched in France, just launched in Benelux, so
• 1:00:43
  Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and then it'll be
• 1:00:46
  Austria and Switzerland soon after.
• 1:00:48
  So yeah, from from June I'll be a quite a busy guy.
• 1:00:50
  And is that literally just hopping between places?
• 1:00:53
  You'll have all these bottles in your bag and just trying to get
• 1:00:56
  people as many people are. Are you?
• 1:00:57
  Yeah, you mentioned you got brand ambassador as well.
• 1:01:00
  So is that, are you the second stage of that?
• 1:01:02
  So the brand ambassador's been out drumming up that and then
• 1:01:05
  you're at the back end with the contracts in sign here to commit
• 1:01:08
  to X-Men of boxes and things like that.
• 1:01:09
  We kind of we kind of wanted to create a little bit of buzz
• 1:01:11
  ahead of the for the launch. We worked very proactively, you
• 1:01:14
  know, being our, our first single mall, it was a really big
• 1:01:15
  moment in the distilleries history.
• 1:01:17
  So we're Scott was very kind to give us some kind of sample
• 1:01:21
  bottles before the, the, the official release.
• 1:01:23
  So we start seeding it in market pretty early.
• 1:01:25
  What is the movie about four or five months ago, maybe just
• 1:01:28
  before Christmas actually. And you know that that then give
• 1:01:32
  us the opportunity to then work collaboratively with our
• 1:01:35
  distributors to say, look, these are all the cavies, these are
• 1:01:38
  all the bars, these are all the restaurants, whatever are
• 1:01:40
  interested in stocking this product.
• 1:01:42
  There is demand there. Like we're going to really hit
• 1:01:44
  the ground running. So yeah, now it's just about
• 1:01:47
  going into the market and just like executing the plans that
• 1:01:49
  we've been putting together over the past in a few months.
• 1:01:51
  So when we go to Paris at the end of June, we've got a really
• 1:01:56
  good opportunity with Scottish Development International at the
• 1:02:00
  British Embassy. We're getting to pitch in front
• 1:02:02
  of 40 of what they call the metric cavies, the master
• 1:02:05
  cavies, the master Sailor Man, which is a channel that we're
• 1:02:09
  really trying to focus on because, you know, word of mouth
• 1:02:11
  is, is so keen. You're building a brand from the
• 1:02:13
  bottom up. So yeah, we've got a really, a
• 1:02:15
  lot of really, really good stuff in the, in the calendar, in the
• 1:02:18
  diary, the. British embassy that you're
• 1:02:20
  doing? That say that again, sorry.
• 1:02:21
  Is that actually at the British Embassy?
• 1:02:22
  Yeah, it is. Yeah, that'll.
• 1:02:23
  Be kind of salvas of Ferrero Roche, yeah.
• 1:02:27
  Yeah, for the ambassador. That could work really well with
• 1:02:32
  you, yeah. Well, is that what you'd
• 1:02:35
  recommend, the Ferrero Roche? By the way, it's actually that's
• 1:02:38
  actually that's actually a really good pairing with the
• 1:02:40
  double mature because you've got the nuttiness which appears well
• 1:02:43
  with the Amonteado if. You bring out some Ferrero Roche
• 1:02:45
  at that event. Well, I mean, yeah.
• 1:02:48
  Well, first of all, yeah. If you need any help with any of
• 1:02:50
  these travels, let us know. We'll happily come along with
• 1:02:52
  you. Yeah, I'm sure we'll find that
• 1:02:54
  job for. You, I'm sure we will.
• 1:02:55
  But secondly, then you know, it's interesting because you
• 1:02:58
  know, this is the first distillery spotlight that we've
• 1:03:01
  done. So a lot of the time we've been
• 1:03:02
  speaking to independent bottlers and we hear the challenges that
• 1:03:04
  they have when it comes to like sourcing woods and even sourcing
• 1:03:08
  cast sourcing, sourcing their whiskey for you guys you're
• 1:03:11
  making or producing it. But then from a sales point of
• 1:03:13
  view, having a distillery behind you, being a distillery, having
• 1:03:16
  all that behind you to go away and push a brand explicitly
• 1:03:19
  about that. So you know, you mentioned there
• 1:03:23
  you do you go directly to the bars, the restaurants and things
• 1:03:26
  first to then come back to the import because am I right in
• 1:03:29
  saying it's the important that puts the order in, isn't?
• 1:03:31
  It yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:32
  I mean, I'm always a big believer that you've got to sell
• 1:03:34
  with your your distributor or your importer because it's like
• 1:03:37
  a a collective objective that you're trying to drive here.
• 1:03:41
  So yeah, that that's definitely my approach, but there's you.
• 1:03:43
  Know no, it's just it's a part of the conversations on the
• 1:03:46
  podcast that we've not really heard an awful lot about Yeah
• 1:03:48
  yeah, yeah. How does whiskey end up and for
• 1:03:51
  abroad now we add them. We talked to Gregor Hannah from
• 1:03:55
  Lady of the Glen and he talked about creating relationships
• 1:03:57
  with importers. But then is it the importers job
• 1:04:00
  to then sell or does Gregor Hannah?
• 1:04:02
  Because Gregor Hannah was saying, and loads of other
• 1:04:04
  people, they still go to these whiskey shows across all over
• 1:04:08
  Europe, sometimes all over the world.
• 1:04:10
  So they're still having to sell to the consumer, even though
• 1:04:13
  they're not selling directly from themselves.
• 1:04:15
  They're then passing on to an importer or a distributor who's
• 1:04:18
  actually paid to bring it in. So is that what you do for
• 1:04:20
  leverage? Do you take these samples to X
• 1:04:23
  amount of bars and say France? Yeah, definitely.
• 1:04:25
  And then go to your French importer and say, look, these
• 1:04:27
  guys have all said if this is in this country, they would buy it.
• 1:04:30
  Yeah, exactly. Then they have to then buy it
• 1:04:32
  from you guys at a price and then then it's distributed.
• 1:04:35
  I mean, if you're trying to break into a new market like
• 1:04:37
  that's a, that's a very, very smart strategy.
• 1:04:39
  You know, you're already kind of, I've said this word quite a
• 1:04:41
  lot, but you're already creating that demand like ahead of
• 1:04:43
  working with any, any sort of importer.
• 1:04:45
  But I think being like as active in the market as possible is
• 1:04:49
  very important, especially you've got big aspirations like
• 1:04:51
  what we do it in Sterny. So, you know, you're never
• 1:04:54
  really going truly understand the landscape, the competitor
• 1:04:57
  set the, the, the trends, whatever by sitting in an office
• 1:05:01
  in front of a laptop. You know, you really need to be
• 1:05:03
  out there pounding the pavement, chopping on doors, having
• 1:05:06
  conversations constantly, all the time telling that story.
• 1:05:09
  Liquid to lips, liquid to lips. There we go liquid to lips all,
• 1:05:13
  all the time, you know, and you know, building a brand is is a
• 1:05:17
  is a graft, but it's it's something that's really, really
• 1:05:20
  exciting, you know, and to be part of that journey, you know,
• 1:05:23
  and and hopefully, you know, retire like in 30 odd years,
• 1:05:26
  whatever, give them my age away there.
• 1:05:28
  But yeah, but you know, you can see a bottle of inch Dania or
• 1:05:31
  whatever on the back bar and you can say, oh, that was us.
• 1:05:33
  That was that really kind of grew that and you know.
• 1:05:35
  What I mean so I mean how many people from from distilling we
• 1:05:40
  because we Angus got to sit down at a computer chair and push a
• 1:05:43
  couple of buttons on that on a mouse, but part of.
• 1:05:48
  It, Yeah. And that was a wonderful action.
• 1:05:50
  It does really well. It was like.
• 1:05:52
  Fantastic. Moment, but from from distilling
• 1:05:54
  all the way through to getting the the the the bottles on
• 1:05:58
  shelves, how many people are are working for the for the
• 1:06:00
  distillery and for in the company roughly?
• 1:06:02
  Well, as we said the last time in the podcast, we know we've
• 1:06:05
  just merged with Macduff International to now be inched
• 1:06:09
  Ernie Whiskey. So we've now got 22 people from
• 1:06:12
  the production side of things and then there's 18 people from
• 1:06:16
  the sales and marketing logistics side.
• 1:06:18
  Yep. So we're still a small company,
• 1:06:20
  but we are in over 14 markets worldwide.
• 1:06:23
  And that's just with the engineering portfolio, by the
• 1:06:25
  way, because as you know, Engineering Whiskey Limited as
• 1:06:28
  we are now known, we've got a whole other kind of range of, of
• 1:06:31
  blends as well, which we've got a much wider kind of
• 1:06:34
  distribution network. Across the world.
• 1:06:35
  So I mean, yeah, you're right, it's a small team.
• 1:06:37
  It's a small team and that's that's the challenges that you
• 1:06:39
  have is that it's a small team. But as I say, we've spoken to so
• 1:06:43
  many brand ambassadors. We've spoken to people at work
• 1:06:45
  with get the opportunity to travel around the world with a
• 1:06:47
  product that you can just fill out your bag and hand over to
• 1:06:50
  someone, say try that and tell me if you like it.
• 1:06:52
  And then get that feedback instantly and then be able to go
• 1:06:54
  to somebody said they'll buy it. So go and sell it to.
• 1:06:56
  Them and I think the one key thing is that everybody that
• 1:06:58
  does that is proud of Scotch. Yes, I think as our community
• 1:07:02
  we're very, we're competing with each other, but we're also
• 1:07:05
  working collaborative together of the benefit of Scotch.
• 1:07:08
  Yeah. Well, we've talked a little bit
• 1:07:09
  about, I mean I've banged the drum for too long now about
• 1:07:13
  planting the the that that map as as we're looking at needs to
• 1:07:17
  change that little. There be bit there on the East
• 1:07:19
  Coast needs its own region. You should come in with a
• 1:07:22
  sharpie one day. Yeah, just right.
• 1:07:24
  Five if. You're really part in the flag.
• 1:07:26
  You would. Because you guys have been part
• 1:07:27
  of that a little bit. You know, there was the
• 1:07:29
  accidental misprint on the labeling for the Fife Whiskey
• 1:07:33
  Festival. But like Lady of the Glen, what
• 1:07:35
  was that? I think that I think somebody
• 1:07:36
  had accidentally put Fife as a region on on the bottle of of of
• 1:07:40
  of some of that contain your lightweight.
• 1:07:41
  Obviously a complete accident there of course, but as a
• 1:07:44
  distillery in Fife. And do you, do you have
• 1:07:46
  relationships with the other distillers in Fife as well?
• 1:07:48
  We we talk, are talking and it's one of the things that we are
• 1:07:52
  trying to work together is how can we make Fife even more a
• 1:07:55
  region for whiskey. So it's about, no, we're all of
• 1:07:59
  the distilleries are news like us.
• 1:08:01
  So like anything else, they're still trying to build their
• 1:08:04
  businesses up the brand. But hopefully in the coming
• 1:08:07
  months we'll get together to see how we can all work better
• 1:08:10
  collaboratively together to really showcase Fife as a
• 1:08:13
  region. And just very quickly, as well
• 1:08:15
  as a new distillery, what it allows you to be able to do is
• 1:08:17
  focus on the things that are really, really important to a
• 1:08:21
  lot of consumers now. We spoke to Sterling at Port or
• 1:08:25
  Leaf Distillery and he talked about the mileage that is used
• 1:08:29
  between the grain that they're they're, they're, they're rather
• 1:08:33
  like you. They get all their grain from a
• 1:08:35
  single farm, so. So they attract out that mileage
• 1:08:38
  to sustainability. Then the importance of that how,
• 1:08:40
  how, how big a message is it that the distiller is looking
• 1:08:43
  towards that that area? Because as a new distillery, it
• 1:08:45
  gives you a little bit of a head start where you can build your
• 1:08:48
  product around that. Whereas the older distilleries,
• 1:08:51
  they kind of have to work backwards because when the new
• 1:08:53
  system, you know, people like to hear that things are being done
• 1:08:57
  in the right way that are not that are letting the environment
• 1:09:00
  thrive around them. Yeah, I mean, sustainability is
• 1:09:02
  an important part of what we do know.
• 1:09:05
  It's aligned with our quest for flavour.
• 1:09:08
  So for us by getting the right equipment means that we can be
• 1:09:12
  energy efficient, we can be water efficient, but we're also
• 1:09:15
  open to new ideas and new technology.
• 1:09:17
  We're currently with the Fife growing, you know, we're working
• 1:09:21
  collaboratively with the farmer and only this week we trying to
• 1:09:24
  do a working together all about cover crop because cover crop is
• 1:09:29
  an element for potential for reducing the amount of
• 1:09:31
  fertilizer. And we did a study a few years
• 1:09:33
  ago, we are for a carbon footprint, the growing of the
• 1:09:36
  barley and the malting of the barley is about 68% of my entire
• 1:09:41
  carbon footprint. So by looking at that and even
• 1:09:43
  that 10% reduction is a huge benefit.
• 1:09:45
  So it's what we are doing is we are working with our suppliers
• 1:09:49
  downstream equally our suppliers for the bottle downstream.
• 1:09:53
  So as a distillery you're, you're looking at every
• 1:09:55
  opportunity in supply chain is how can we, because ultimately
• 1:09:59
  we want to be doing business in 100 years.
• 1:10:01
  The only way we can ensure that as if our supply chain still
• 1:10:04
  exists in 100 years. So everything that we do is to
• 1:10:06
  minimize that impact and the environment and also the
• 1:10:09
  surrounding area. I guess after a couple of drams
• 1:10:11
  on Tuesday night, we sat there. I got a little bit carried away.
• 1:10:14
  I'll be honest. I've had a few drams for our
• 1:10:17
  recording. We were talking about, you know,
• 1:10:20
  where the whisk because this was, this is episode 81 as we're
• 1:10:23
  recording. So the week, last week's
• 1:10:25
  episode, which was actually recorded on Tuesday, if you're
• 1:10:27
  listening to this anyway. But basically, I think that the
• 1:10:31
  notion came to me that Amazon Prime might come to us and say
• 1:10:33
  we're going to buy a distillery and let you guys take over.
• 1:10:36
  It was like, I was like Whiskey Stones meets Clarkson Farm.
• 1:10:41
  That was what we were going to do.
• 1:10:42
  But you know, I think that should work.
• 1:10:44
  We should probably get a local farm to grow our barley for us.
• 1:10:48
  I don't think you get much manure, but look, it is an
• 1:10:58
  important factor that is that people look into.
• 1:11:01
  But there's also the challenges that you have with being in a
• 1:11:04
  marketplace which, but you're able to do that as a new
• 1:11:07
  distillery where you can engineer that into the product
• 1:11:10
  rather than have to like I say, if you're an older distillery
• 1:11:13
  looking at this, you probably have to, they have to go back
• 1:11:15
  and try and adjust things and tinker with things and make it
• 1:11:18
  and. That's what they are doing.
• 1:11:20
  There's a lot of discoveries out there are adopting those in an
• 1:11:22
  industry. We support each other because
• 1:11:25
  the sustainability is not just important to us, but the entire
• 1:11:27
  industry. So we are supportive and no
• 1:11:30
  showcase. No.
• 1:11:31
  I've had other people from the industry come to the distillery
• 1:11:34
  because we're open about what we do.
• 1:11:35
  And it's about that level of collaboration, not just within
• 1:11:39
  the production, but again for the consumer, for Scotch,
• 1:11:42
  because ultimately we all want Scotch to be here in 100 years
• 1:11:45
  time. Of course, absolutely here to
• 1:11:47
  that. But Daniel, everyone you
• 1:11:49
  mentioned about, and it's a great question, we always have
• 1:11:52
  sharp elbows in the whiskey industry and Scotts mentioned
• 1:11:54
  everyone's working together. It's fantastic.
• 1:11:56
  But at the end of the day, you're fighting for shelf space.
• 1:11:58
  Yeah, okay. But when you look at a bottle
• 1:11:59
  like this, and I think it was Ed, I think you messaged me and
• 1:12:04
  you talked about the stoppers now.
• 1:12:05
  Yeah, you, Scott, you talked about the level of detail on the
• 1:12:08
  bottle. I mean, the bottles look
• 1:12:10
  absolutely gorgeous. They're fantastic.
• 1:12:11
  I think the way that they look that, you know, people often say
• 1:12:15
  you eat with your eyes when you get food presented to you.
• 1:12:18
  But when you see these bottles sitting there, standing there in
• 1:12:20
  front of you, they are they are very, very nice to look at.
• 1:12:23
  But the detail and things like that as well, Scott that's
• 1:12:25
  involved in in making these. Yeah, I mean, as much level of
• 1:12:28
  detail, the bottle is the brand as well.
• 1:12:30
  Yeah, because as Daniel alluded to, as we're going, we're having
• 1:12:34
  to educate people on who we are. So if you can have a brand in
• 1:12:38
  front of you and you tell a story about it.
• 1:12:41
  So small details like on the neck represents our screen in
• 1:12:45
  our hammer mill, which is unique to us.
• 1:12:47
  On the top of the stoppers, we've got 2 details.
• 1:12:49
  They've got the KLS, the KGS, the King Glassy, the Rilo, but
• 1:12:54
  in that wheel is the gas chromatography.
• 1:12:56
  So it's the DNA of the liquid that's going into the bottle.
• 1:12:59
  So that's already the finger point.
• 1:13:01
  If you look at the label of both of them as a nod to the
• 1:13:05
  engineering, the back label of the Rilo has got the loam still
• 1:13:09
  and APID. So it's a drawing, so you can
• 1:13:11
  see the diagram of it. And in the king glass a it's the
• 1:13:15
  wash still that's on it. So it leaves me small nods to
• 1:13:19
  detail just to showcase because we're proud of our engineering
• 1:13:22
  heritage. The the bottles are forming the
• 1:13:24
  same. Both of them have the ripple
• 1:13:26
  effect. Can we pass these rounds so
• 1:13:27
  people can? Yeah.
• 1:13:29
  So. So the ripple effect is
• 1:13:32
  representation of our three M's material method of maturation at
• 1:13:35
  the bottom on the clear bottles. It says inched in a distillery
• 1:13:40
  because taking glassy and Rilo and standing distillery is a
• 1:13:43
  foundation of what we can do there.
• 1:13:46
  So there's all these small detention details because if
• 1:13:49
  you're talking to people, even if you can only remember two or
• 1:13:52
  three things, whiskey is a sociable product.
• 1:13:55
  And if you're standing with visitors saying no, what's that
• 1:13:58
  you're drinking? No, people allude to the the
• 1:14:01
  stopper. It gets a reaction, the reaction
• 1:14:05
  gets a conversation. And that's what whiskey's all
• 1:14:07
  about. Yeah.
• 1:14:08
  So that's where the level of detail is going into the brand.
• 1:14:10
  So. That and if they're not with an
• 1:14:11
  engineer, they can explain what gas chromatography is.
• 1:14:14
  Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to do a little bit of
• 1:14:17
  roving here to see how we're feeling with everything.
• 1:14:19
  I'll come up to you, you guys at the back here, how are you
• 1:14:21
  finding it so far? That's great, first time being
• 1:14:25
  an event like this. Where Where are you from?
• 1:14:28
  Turkey. Turkey Robin, See you've come
• 1:14:30
  back without a Turkey haircut. He's going to cut my behalf.
• 1:14:39
  But are you? Are you in Turkey yet?
• 1:14:43
  No, not yet. Well, there you go.
• 1:14:44
  Take a bottle back with you. Are you in?
• 1:14:45
  Estonia. You live in Estonia.
• 1:14:47
  Oh, fantastic. So you are in Estonia yet?
• 1:14:49
  No. Well, you are now.
• 1:14:50
  So there you go. Brilliant.
• 1:14:51
  And how you found it tonight. Good.
• 1:14:52
  It's really nice. I forgot the darker colours,
• 1:14:55
  This was really nice. I'm usually more hesitant to
• 1:14:58
  peated whiskeys, but this was easier and more fun.
• 1:15:01
  Yeah. Is there anyone else that was
• 1:15:02
  sort of shy about peated whiskey?
• 1:15:04
  What we have said? What are you thinking?
• 1:15:08
  Yeah, everyone's been lovely. I mean, I like, I like.
• 1:15:11
  I didn't snatch. Thank you.
• 1:15:14
  It was passed. To me, yeah, I like peated
• 1:15:17
  whiskey, so I enjoyed it. But everyone's been very
• 1:15:20
  different and very good. Sorry.
• 1:15:21
  You want to snatch off, right? Right now you guys work at the
• 1:15:25
  distillery as well. What do you do?
• 1:15:28
  I'm the sustainability manager. Oh.
• 1:15:30
  Fantastic. So did Scott do a good job?
• 1:15:32
  Did Scott do a good job explaining it?
• 1:15:34
  Yeah, yeah, perfect. But basically we're looking at
• 1:15:36
  like the environmental footprint of everything in the distillery.
• 1:15:39
  And like Scott said, the carbon footprint lies in the malting
• 1:15:43
  and the growing of the barley. So that's what we're looking at
• 1:15:45
  with lots of stuff that we're doing.
• 1:15:47
  But in terms of the taste, I'm a massive peated whiskey fan, but
• 1:15:52
  I like the Sweet 1. The Double Matures does it for
• 1:15:54
  me. Fantastic.
• 1:15:55
  Have you bought a pedal for your European sales manager yet?
• 1:15:59
  Now we're going to go yourself, you.
• 1:16:01
  How are you finding this? I love whiskey now, honestly.
• 1:16:05
  It's great. There we go.
• 1:16:07
  There we go. Hey, we've done it right lads,
• 1:16:09
  over in this corner here, what we're thinking.
• 1:16:14
  Yeah, I thought the the peated 1 was really nice and I'm not
• 1:16:16
  usually a peated drinker, but it was a lot more palatable I guess
• 1:16:21
  than normal. Right, that's.
• 1:16:23
  What we like to hear. What about yourself?
• 1:16:25
  Definitely the second one, even though it's in the black
• 1:16:27
  bottles, asking Daniel about the black bottle because it's
• 1:16:30
  always, it's really, really light, you know, because it's
• 1:16:32
  just fully bourbon mature. But I like it's chalky and it's
• 1:16:35
  it's, I don't get get too much Pete off it.
• 1:16:38
  That's that's lovely. Much preferred to the first one.
• 1:16:40
  The amountiado. It's just another Sherry, you
• 1:16:43
  know, it's a shady bomb. Yeah.
• 1:16:45
  Good, brilliant, right lads. What we what we yourself,
• 1:16:47
  Sherry. Yeah, I was quite lucky last
• 1:16:50
  year I got married to my current wife.
• 1:16:52
  Oh fantastic, we got married. We know he's a listener because
• 1:16:56
  he referenced on his current wife.
• 1:16:57
  Brilliant. And we went on our honeymoon to
• 1:16:59
  Iowa, so I'm all in. It was great.
• 1:17:02
  We went to every single distillery and did a warehouse
• 1:17:04
  and tasting and we so I love, love Pete, love Sherry.
• 1:17:10
  And so the first one I was loving, but then when I went to
• 1:17:13
  the second one, it was, it was great.
• 1:17:15
  The analogy I kind of used like pizza, it's like a Margarita.
• 1:17:18
  If you can do an incredible Margarita, that's that's all you
• 1:17:23
  need. So the the Sherry becomes a
• 1:17:25
  distraction after that. And I love Sherry.
• 1:17:28
  But yeah, there that second one was, was great.
• 1:17:31
  Superb. Well done.
• 1:17:32
  Thanks. What about yourself?
• 1:17:34
  I don't drink that much Pea's whiskey.
• 1:17:36
  I've kind of got me in the right mood, but.
• 1:17:38
  In the right mood and the first one the double maturation was
• 1:17:40
  that was that was great in the mood he's in the mood tonight
• 1:17:43
  and there we go now our final DRAM of the evening it hasn't
• 1:17:48
  been DRAM there's a mystery DRAM.
• 1:17:50
  Is it in the backroom here? Yes.
• 1:17:51
  Don't we go under lock and. Key under lock and key.
• 1:17:55
  It's not that one. It's not that 1.
• 1:18:04
  Scott needs to help out here. I never knew there was a whole
• 1:18:07
  drum roll thing. What's going on here?
• 1:18:12
  Right. So we'll introduce this, then
• 1:18:14
  we'll stop for a quick break while while Scott pours it.
• 1:18:17
  Yeah. So this is our mystery drama
• 1:18:20
  this evening. Scott, what have you brought
• 1:18:22
  with you tonight? Yes, you.
• 1:18:27
  Never know, it might not have. Been so, so, so this is a single
• 1:18:30
  malt. So when we do our inch daily
• 1:18:36
  production, we do it against the seasons.
• 1:18:39
  So we do a spring, a summer, an autumn and a winter.
• 1:18:42
  So this here is our autumn air winter campaign.
• 1:18:46
  So I've used winter barley and winter barley is not that well
• 1:18:51
  used within the industry. So by having the equipment that
• 1:18:53
  we have, we can use winter barley.
• 1:18:56
  And I'm going to upset Ronnie here because this is fully
• 1:18:59
  matured and a Monteado cask. Just another shady.
• 1:19:04
  Just another shady. Not another shady.
• 1:19:07
  So this here is just a means of showcasing something in the
• 1:19:11
  background as we, we are experimentation with our
• 1:19:14
  different casks. And as we'll talk about a little
• 1:19:17
  bit later, it's, it's Sherry, but not as we know it.
• 1:19:20
  Is this a peated non? Peated this is This is an
• 1:19:24
  unpeated single malt there. We go.
• 1:19:25
  Is it a single cast? This was taken from a single
• 1:19:28
  cast. Right, well, we'll get that
• 1:19:30
  poured there. And there's there's there's a
• 1:19:32
  sample box. So we're not let Angus pour it.
• 1:19:34
  Well, listen, I hope you enjoy Angus, you know what to do.
• 1:19:38
  I do clap us back in. Hey, welcome along to the final
• 1:19:43
  part of this fantastic. There's still a spotlight
• 1:19:47
  tasting. I'm really, really looking
• 1:19:50
  forward to this drama I've seen. I'm looking at the colour of it.
• 1:19:53
  You introduced it earlier on, Scott.
• 1:19:56
  We also know that a gentleman over here is going to be
• 1:19:58
  absolutely delighted because he was talking about the Monteado
• 1:20:01
  and just how much he loves shed. I'm christened the unfairly, I
• 1:20:04
  would say the shedded tart of the podcast.
• 1:20:07
  I've been trying to shake that off.
• 1:20:09
  But when you see it, when you see a DRAM being poured, the
• 1:20:11
  colour of this, it's, it's really exciting.
• 1:20:13
  So. Explain to us again, just very
• 1:20:15
  briefly, what is it we've got here?
• 1:20:16
  So it's very interesting that you use the word Sherry.
• 1:20:20
  So this is not Sherry, of course.
• 1:20:22
  So for those who don't know, to be Sherry it has to be from
• 1:20:25
  hareth in the Sherry triangle. And this is not from Hareth,
• 1:20:29
  it's from Montea. So Montea has got the Pedro
• 1:20:33
  Jimenez grape rather than being hareth which is a Palomino
• 1:20:37
  grape, so. Geographically where?
• 1:20:39
  So if you imagine it's about North East of where Hareth is,
• 1:20:43
  is Montier the capital B in Cordoba.
• 1:20:46
  And we went there and we there's a small family run Cupbridge.
• 1:20:51
  And what they do is they bring in American oak from America and
• 1:20:55
  they season it in the sun in Spain for two years.
• 1:20:58
  They then create the cask, then take that cask and we season it
• 1:21:02
  with different Andalusine wines as we call it.
• 1:21:04
  So for this one here we used a Monteado for a year of seasoning
• 1:21:10
  and then it came to us in 2016. And for this one here we used
• 1:21:15
  our inch derny winter. So let me explain.
• 1:21:19
  Each season we use a different grain and a different yeast.
• 1:21:24
  So we've got spring, summer, autumn and winter.
• 1:21:27
  The spring we use spring barley and a dry yeast and that gives a
• 1:21:32
  very light green grassy because that's when you cut the grass.
• 1:21:37
  In the summer we use spring barley again and we use a wine
• 1:21:40
  yeast and that gives you lots of fruits, floral and that's the
• 1:21:43
  summer campaign. When we go into the autumn and
• 1:21:46
  winter, we start using winter barley.
• 1:21:49
  So winter barley is a harder grain to process and it gives a
• 1:21:53
  heavier distillate. So because it's a heavier
• 1:21:57
  distillate, it can be used in a lot more extreme casks.
• 1:22:02
  So the autumn is the more malt notes coming through, whereas
• 1:22:07
  the winter which we have here is a very heavy meaty CAS flavour
• 1:22:12
  of distillate. So for that one there, we put it
• 1:22:15
  into an Amontillado season cask and it's been in there since
• 1:22:20
  December 2016. So this is 8 years old, fully
• 1:22:24
  matured. So this is showcasing what's to
• 1:22:28
  come. And for a lot of people, as we
• 1:22:30
  talked about, we're after flavour, but people have and
• 1:22:35
  understanding of what they like. And a lot of distilleries use
• 1:22:40
  Sherry casts, but the focus is a lot around all are also cast.
• 1:22:45
  So which has got a bit dry. And for us, we want we're trying
• 1:22:49
  other types of casts. So this one here, as I suppose
• 1:22:52
  is showcasing our what people as associated as being a Sherry,
• 1:22:57
  Sherry influenced whiskey. But I'd be very interested in
• 1:23:01
  the group here today on what their thoughts of it now it is.
• 1:23:05
  Cast strength is literally. What's the ABV?
• 1:23:07
  There, it's about 57%. 57% sorry, that's no, no, no, I you
• 1:23:14
  57% Now I want to ask then if it's if it can't like so, if it
• 1:23:20
  can't be Sherry, if you can't say it's Sherry or do you say
• 1:23:24
  it's Sherry? Is it Sherry wine?
• 1:23:25
  Or no, We call it Montealo. Montealo, but it's.
• 1:23:28
  What we used in the king glass, yes.
• 1:23:30
  So we just tell you what it is. So you're just saying it's
• 1:23:33
  Montealo because this is the question, because it's also
• 1:23:34
  American woods. American oak, Yeah, Because
• 1:23:36
  often you'll maybe see where if it's not from, and maybe I'm
• 1:23:39
  wrong in this, but if it's not from the Sherid region, you can
• 1:23:42
  say European oak and it kind of nods to what it is.
• 1:23:45
  But this is this is American oak from our region.
• 1:23:48
  That's very close or similar to to to that kind of wine.
• 1:23:52
  But so it's just Monteado. So so and I've seen wine.
• 1:23:56
  I've seen wines, but it's called a Monte.
• 1:23:57
  This is a Monteado style. So on the on the nose right away
• 1:24:01
  it's there's a lovely sweetness, lovely.
• 1:24:05
  You know, it's intriguing you your producing.
• 1:24:06
  This is already starting to to to come around.
• 1:24:09
  I'm getting excited. I just seen I just seen this so
• 1:24:12
  to to. Everybody slange, it's been a
• 1:24:19
  pleasure tonight with you. And how do you source that?
• 1:24:25
  Like what, how do you, when you try and find these?
• 1:24:30
  Because that's one of the questions we often have with our
• 1:24:32
  indie bottlers. As we say, sourcing the cast,
• 1:24:34
  sourcing the wood, the challenge.
• 1:24:36
  And you're fighting against so many other distilleries.
• 1:24:39
  When you look at the the amount of, it's the one thing that so
• 1:24:43
  many people forget about is the powerhouses like the Azure.
• 1:24:47
  How much casks do they require to supplement just a brand like
• 1:24:51
  Johnny Walker, never mind all the other distilleries that they
• 1:24:54
  have. And then you've got every other
• 1:24:55
  distillery in Scotland. So there's always this massive
• 1:24:58
  source for for good wood and all that kind.
• 1:25:00
  Of stuff. So for that's why we came out of
• 1:25:03
  a wreath. Yeah.
• 1:25:04
  Because everybody was going in a wreath.
• 1:25:06
  And Ian Palmer, the founder, did a tour of Spain and what he did,
• 1:25:11
  he was tasting the cherries and went for one that you liked 1st.
• 1:25:16
  And because of the region, they're using the Pedro Hemnes
• 1:25:19
  grape. So it's slightly sweeter.
• 1:25:21
  That's we complements the sweetness of the spirit that we
• 1:25:24
  produce. So that was the starting point.
• 1:25:26
  And then like everything else that we've talked about, we have
• 1:25:30
  a process, we have an idea that we're monitoring and nurturing
• 1:25:34
  and seeing how it goes. I've got I've got whiskey and
• 1:25:37
  Fino, I've got it in Pedro Hemnes, I've got it in Palo
• 1:25:39
  Cortado. I've got it in others as well
• 1:25:43
  because I want to understand how it matures.
• 1:25:46
  And I thought seen as how tonight we're showcasing the
• 1:25:49
  King Lassie, which has been matured in a Monteado.
• 1:25:52
  It was representing us in a non peated.
• 1:25:58
  So is this when you talk about the nine different sort of
• 1:26:00
  variations of spirit and things like that then so.
• 1:26:02
  That's one. So that's one variation and one
• 1:26:05
  cask, but. Then is it not another?
• 1:26:07
  It's not too varied is it? It's winter barley but I've got
• 1:26:11
  one in autism. I'm heated as well.
• 1:26:13
  So does. That count as well two separate
• 1:26:15
  types of. Variations, but remember.
• 1:26:17
  King Glassy. Is only peated I do.
• 1:26:20
  Right, the seasonality I only do for the non peated single malt
• 1:26:24
  right. OK, so when when we have tried
• 1:26:26
  the second and you said? Less people have been on the
• 1:26:28
  moon. Yes, very much so.
• 1:26:32
  I mean, this is even more so. That is, this was taken out the
• 1:26:37
  cask yesterday. Wow.
• 1:26:40
  Do do so we can do so we can showcase.
• 1:26:42
  It so as as I. Said throughout this evening,
• 1:26:45
  I'm very much interested in people who are Sherry drinkers,
• 1:26:48
  what they Sherry whiskey drinkers like yourself think
• 1:26:52
  about it, but equally people who maybe are not normally what they
• 1:26:56
  think about. What I'm trying to do is the,
• 1:27:00
  the, the spirit, the the new mix distillate is quite a robust
• 1:27:04
  spirit. And that's why I felt it could
• 1:27:06
  handle itself in this style of cask because ultimately I want
• 1:27:11
  to still have the character of the spirit present within.
• 1:27:15
  I don't want it to be overpowering.
• 1:27:17
  And that's where I'm trying to understand what the point is.
• 1:27:21
  It becomes true too much influence.
• 1:27:23
  I mean over time the extractors reduce I mean and as you add a
• 1:27:27
  little bit of water and it does open up.
• 1:27:29
  If I'm honest, I've probably spent the least amount of time
• 1:27:33
  on this, but I'm not with other ones.
• 1:27:36
  You know, we analyse it, we knows it, we taste it different.
• 1:27:39
  No, you spend a lot of time understanding the nuances of it.
• 1:27:43
  This one here I've probably only noticed and tasted about half a
• 1:27:46
  dozen times, and when you when you try a sample from the cast
• 1:27:50
  that you've. Drawn from is that with an eye
• 1:27:52
  to your 12 year old coming up or yes is it with other future
• 1:27:56
  elites It's it's understanding this is.
• 1:27:59
  What we expected to come out of there.
• 1:28:02
  Am I getting the nuttiness the the almonds?
• 1:28:05
  Am I still getting an element of the spirit?
• 1:28:08
  Has it given me the breadth that I'm looking for?
• 1:28:11
  So I'm asking all these questions when I'm nosing it and
• 1:28:14
  tasting it. Now you you talk.
• 1:28:16
  It's something that I I'd really.
• 1:28:18
  Like to dive into, we don't have too much time on this, but but
• 1:28:21
  one of the things is you talked about how many times you'll try
• 1:28:23
  and test and sample of a, a a whiskey or, or spit before it
• 1:28:27
  makes it to whiskey before it makes it into a bottle.
• 1:28:29
  Then I had AI was at a tasting last year with somebody who
• 1:28:33
  actually just by chance, we got to sat beside each other and
• 1:28:36
  they they work for the McAllen and and they work for the in the
• 1:28:39
  wood management process. And we were sort of talking
• 1:28:41
  about the pricing of whiskey and things.
• 1:28:43
  And he said what people don't really appreciate is yes, the
• 1:28:46
  Macallan's very, very expensive, but from a quality control
• 1:28:49
  level, how many times that liquid is sampled and tried
• 1:28:53
  before it even makes it on into your glass before you get the
• 1:28:56
  chance to drink it? So from your point of view, then
• 1:28:58
  how often are you before it before we get to before we drink
• 1:29:01
  a release a Rylo or a King Lassie or anything like that?
• 1:29:05
  How many times have you actually gone to that liquid to sample it
• 1:29:08
  before it's ready to even be put into bottle?
• 1:29:11
  Well, the the right law. Because it was virgin oak cast,
• 1:29:15
  we pretty much sampled that every year.
• 1:29:17
  And then when we get when we got about four years, we started
• 1:29:20
  doing it more regularly. And just to understand is the
• 1:29:23
  extract of process slowing down the vanilla carnival and we're
• 1:29:26
  still is it getting more or less and we're still getting the
• 1:29:29
  space. So that was going near with the
• 1:29:32
  the pitted one. We after five years we thought
• 1:29:37
  we want to take out because we division of what we wanted to do
• 1:29:40
  it. We wanted to do a double
• 1:29:41
  maturation. So that had to be three years in
• 1:29:44
  our view to be matured. So that's where we took it over
• 1:29:47
  five years. But then after a year, I was
• 1:29:49
  checking it in a fairly regular basis.
• 1:29:50
  But once it's coming close to what we think is optimum, then
• 1:29:55
  we'll sample it a lot more frequently.
• 1:29:57
  And it's just to make sure that we don't go too far.
• 1:30:00
  As we said, this is the oldest liquid we have, so it's not like
• 1:30:05
  we've, you know, we're still learning as we go along.
• 1:30:08
  And that's why for for this one here, this one I envisioned
• 1:30:11
  being 12 years and above. However, I want to make sure
• 1:30:16
  that is it still giving me the flavour or am I running the risk
• 1:30:21
  And this is this is where you're trying to find the peak?
• 1:30:24
  I'm trying to find the peak and this is where the.
• 1:30:26
  Difference of pallets become. There because my pallet is
• 1:30:29
  different to your pallet and vice versa.
• 1:30:31
  What I'm looking to and this is where the work we do with these
• 1:30:34
  ones here is, I think these were at the perfect balance.
• 1:30:38
  And hopefully consumers will agree that's the difficult part.
• 1:30:42
  And I'm by no means, I mean, I've been in the industry 19
• 1:30:45
  years. I, if MD asked me what I do, I'm
• 1:30:48
  a, I'm an engineer first and foremost, but I've been nosing
• 1:30:51
  and tasting whiskey in great detail for the last 10 years.
• 1:30:54
  But I'm still learning. I'm still learning my nose and
• 1:30:57
  I'm still learning the, the art. I'm still learning the spirit.
• 1:31:01
  So that's why eventually today is very important for me to get
• 1:31:06
  feedback from people, both positive and negative, to say
• 1:31:09
  yes or no. I think you've gone this route
• 1:31:12
  and and you know, I've said it so many.
• 1:31:15
  Times on the podcast about how from a whiskey consumers point
• 1:31:18
  of view is so exciting to be a whiskey drinker right now.
• 1:31:21
  We're living through an age of new distilleries popping up so
• 1:31:24
  much. And I've said it, there was
• 1:31:25
  nobody that is alive today that tried Spring Bank and when I
• 1:31:30
  can't wait to see what it's like when it's 10, right.
• 1:31:32
  But, but, but we are, we are here and this is what I mean, we
• 1:31:35
  are trying it right now and and that's what's exciting.
• 1:31:37
  You've given us a little opportunity to look through and
• 1:31:40
  see what this is like. So what is next from from
• 1:31:43
  interesting in the distillery then what can we look forward to
• 1:31:45
  the next few years? Well, the next few years the.
• 1:31:49
  The oats whiskey that you tasted at the discovery, I'm still
• 1:31:54
  understanding where when I released that and that would
• 1:31:58
  have to again be called a single great exactly so that.
• 1:32:01
  Is there a farm nearby that's got Alton in?
• 1:32:03
  The name, yeah. No, I think for that one there
• 1:32:06
  we've. Defined the brand.
• 1:32:08
  As being print laws and so print laws is an area within
• 1:32:13
  Glenrothes. So it will come under that
• 1:32:15
  banner. So we're creating that brand
• 1:32:18
  universe for a better term. So the oats is the first one.
• 1:32:21
  I'm hopeful that we talked, we've talked about it as a 12
• 1:32:25
  year old, we'll do a nice day in a single mole.
• 1:32:28
  I'm hopeful that I've gone away from that then.
• 1:32:30
  Well, that would be 2029, right? OK.
• 1:32:32
  But I'm hopeful. I might try and do something in
• 1:32:34
  2020. 7. But doing something that people
• 1:32:38
  might know maybe what they expect whiskey to be.
• 1:32:42
  And because ultimately what I set out to do is I want a
• 1:32:47
  breadth of portfolio. There's something for everybody.
• 1:32:49
  But the two brands we've launched are probably the two
• 1:32:52
  extreme rye whiskey, a Scottish rye whiskey and a peated malt.
• 1:32:57
  I want to be working more in line with it and the spring and
• 1:33:01
  summer distillates quite light. And that's very much reminiscent
• 1:33:05
  of what people associate as being a single malt.
• 1:33:09
  And that's what I can then hopefully put a different slant
• 1:33:12
  on it. But using the winter barley for
• 1:33:14
  the autumn and winter, which is this is a distillate, gives a, a
• 1:33:18
  heaviness and a meatiness that we don't get in our spring of
• 1:33:21
  summer. So I want to understand how far
• 1:33:24
  I can push it, right. Well, what we're going to do is
• 1:33:27
  you're getting your feedback right now, but we're going to
• 1:33:28
  split. This.
• 1:33:29
  First of all, rye versus single malt, have we got, if you were
• 1:33:34
  to say hands up for the rye preference tonight versus a
• 1:33:37
  single malt, what would we say? Are we going to, if we're going
• 1:33:41
  to split it down the middle of you say right, I'll, I'll just
• 1:33:43
  prefer the rye versus the single malt.
• 1:33:45
  So your first two drums versus your last three, who puts our
• 1:33:48
  hands up for the 1st 22 drums? OK.
• 1:33:52
  So we've got right, we've got some.
• 1:33:53
  Some rye appreciation there. Very, very good.
• 1:33:55
  OK, then we'll do out of the single malts then.
• 1:34:00
  Or in fact, no, we'll do the favorite drum of the night.
• 1:34:02
  Drum #1. Hands up for drum number one.
• 1:34:05
  OK, drum #2, OK, like drum #2 you said you like the rye versus
• 1:34:12
  the single mole, the. Last one was.
• 1:34:17
  OK, drum #3. The double mature 2 like the
• 1:34:20
  double. Mature.
• 1:34:20
  Hands up for the double mature. OK, good.
• 1:34:22
  What about the raw? Good, like the raw and the last
• 1:34:26
  one then There we go. There we go, right Daniel, do
• 1:34:35
  your sales pitch. What can we what, how can we get
• 1:34:37
  a hold of this? How can we find that?
• 1:34:38
  What can we do? So King Glassy Raw is currently
• 1:34:43
  an exclusive. With the whiskey exchange
• 1:34:44
  online, you can get double mature widely available with the
• 1:34:48
  the whiskey shop raw my whiskeys.
• 1:34:49
  If we're looking at more kind of local distribution and the same
• 1:34:52
  as well. And if you, if you like it as
• 1:34:54
  well, they've got 2 bottles of that, but they've got.
• 1:34:56
  The the double mature and the the the raw behind the bar at
• 1:34:59
  the athletic arm. Tom, how much we thought I'm
• 1:35:01
  there 7 LB for a drum there 35 miles as well.
• 1:35:04
  Absolutely banging. Well, listen guys, thank you.
• 1:35:07
  So Angus, we've done it again. We have we've managed to
• 1:35:09
  convince a roomful of people to come along and listen to us talk
• 1:35:11
  about whiskey once we get to drink drums a huge let's show
• 1:35:14
  your appreciation to Scott and Daniel from then standard
• 1:35:16
  distillery. Fantastic.
• 1:35:18
  Thanks guys. Thank you very much.
• 1:35:24
  Thank you so much guys for coming along.
• 1:35:25
  Thank you for sharing your whiskey.
• 1:35:27
  Well, there you go. There you have it.
• 1:35:29
  You have had another the first ever Whiskey Stories Distillery
• 1:35:32
  Spotlight with the Whiskey Stories podcast.
• 1:35:34
  I guess we've done it again. Fantastic.
• 1:35:36
  Less people have tried this whiskey and walked to the moon.
• 1:35:38
  One small step for our whiskey. There we go, Giant lead for the
• 1:35:41
  podcast. There we go.
• 1:35:43
  I'm. Sorry, thank you so much for
• 1:35:44
  coming along, guys. Hope you enjoyed yourself.
• 1:35:46
  Thank you for coming along. And don't forget, if you're
• 1:35:47
  listening, get in the Whiskey Stories podcast Facebook group.
• 1:35:50
  Share us, like us, do it you possibly can.
• 1:35:52
  Cheers guys. Thank you very much.