Latest / Whisky Stories Podcast / Indy Bottlers Spotlight - Rare Find from Gleann Mor Spirits

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Indy Bottlers Spotlight - Rare Find from Gleann Mor Spirits · Whisky Stories Podcast

• 0:00
  Right. So is everybody ready to
• 0:01
  rock'n'roll? Everybody got drums in front of
• 0:04
  them, right, Angus? You know what to do.
• 0:09
  Clap us in. Welcome along to the Whiskey
• 0:12
  Store. These Angus.
• 0:16
  You're not Angus. Please do not clap along yet.
• 0:20
  You want to start with a round of applause?
• 0:25
  That's the slowest ride to the forest rank we've ever had.
• 0:27
  We've been clocked off before we even started, right, Angus?
• 0:29
  You do walk out and then. I'll park here.
• 0:32
  Right, Angus, you know what to do.
• 0:33
  I know what. To do.
• 0:37
  Welcome to the Whiskey Stories podcast.
• 0:41
  So what we have in front of us tonight for the very first time,
• 0:45
  the only people in the whole wide world that have ever tried
• 0:48
  this whiskey is we are proud to release our first ever 25 year
• 0:52
  old blended whiskey from they're on Glenmore Spirits for the
• 0:56
  Whiskey Stories podcast. So there we go available for the
• 1:04
  priceless sum of 85 lbs. Welcome along to the Whiskey
• 1:07
  Stories podcast, Indie bowlers bowler.
• 1:12
  Yes we are back, we are, We are back in the athletic arm, back
• 1:17
  in spiritual home, absolutely where it all began and it's
• 1:20
  crammed, packed full of people who I can't believe it, are
• 1:23
  actually here to listen to our Pata.
• 1:25
  I know it's unbelievable isn't it?
• 1:27
  We say it every single time. But I think what we say is come
• 1:29
  for the DRAM, stay for the banter.
• 1:32
  That's our wanky catch catch line.
• 1:35
  But we are joined by Mr. Gregor here from Glenmore Spirits who
• 1:38
  is going to take us through a fantastic line up of rare find.
• 1:41
  We've got 4 fantastic drams plus a mystery drum.
• 1:45
  They're getting the game now. Power fright.
• 1:50
  Great. Title season isn't.
• 1:51
  It it's exactly hold on, what's up?
• 1:53
  How are you guys? I'm good, thanks for having me
• 1:55
  back. It's just, what, 53 weeks ago?
• 1:57
  As I was looking back on the on the old archives, the The
• 2:02
  Whiskey Stories book that will one day be published.
• 2:05
  Greg would have been about episode 4 or 5.
• 2:07
  Episode 6 Episode 6 On the 22nd of November we recorded in here
• 2:11
  and I believe this was the very podcast and the very place where
• 2:15
  I coined the phrase warehouses make me horny.
• 2:20
  You've not got the T-shirts yet though.
• 2:21
  I. Don't think it was a good one
• 2:22
  for this, but we all saw that out.
• 2:24
  But Greg, we test that for you. Can you remember your what 3
• 2:27
  drams were when you were on? Yep, pretty sure it was a
• 2:31
  Balveny 12. Double wood to start then 52
• 2:35
  year old Carsbridge single grain.
• 2:37
  That was your third. Right.
• 2:39
  The second one will be 10 year old Port Charlotte.
• 2:42
  Absolutely spot on. Well done your memories fine and
• 2:45
  well now. It's good to check it, Thanks.
• 2:50
  Thanks, Raymond. But we have, we do have drams in
• 2:53
  front of us. Everyone's ready to go, I think,
• 2:55
  and I think we'll probably lead us into our first DRAM this
• 2:58
  evening. Yes.
• 2:59
  So the, the drams tonight are all part of our latest out turn,
• 3:03
  which was our quarter 3 this year.
• 3:05
  We've actually just quarter four's just going out to retail
• 3:08
  now and it's just a a single bottle release.
• 3:11
  So that's you'll not have seen that yet, but we'll save that
• 3:13
  for the next time. But the ones I've brought along
• 3:15
  tonight, hopefully you'll enjoy them.
• 3:18
  It's the first time I've been allowed out the warehouse.
• 3:20
  It's quite a busy time of the year for me.
• 3:22
  I'm usually locked in the warehouse at this time of year I
• 3:24
  think. What that would do to you,
• 3:25
  Graham? He's locked out the warehouse,
• 3:30
  so yeah, it's nice. This will be the first time I've
• 3:32
  tried any of these drams with anyone other than the team at
• 3:35
  work. So I'm, I'm looking forward to
• 3:37
  getting some feedback for the crowd today.
• 3:39
  So yeah, we're going to start with an Aberfelde.
• 3:41
  So a 13 year old Aberfelde. It's cast strength.
• 3:45
  Everything you're going to see tonight is a single cast, cast
• 3:48
  strength. It's going to be a natural
• 3:52
  colour, non chill filter. It's kind of the philosophy
• 3:54
  behind rare find. So the first one up, as I say
• 3:57
  Abberfeldi, it's 56.8%. For anyone who listened to the
• 4:02
  podcast last year, you'll know this already when I talk about
• 4:05
  the application of water. If you've not listened to it,
• 4:08
  don't bother. It wasn't that good.
• 4:10
  But yeah, when I when I put a whiskey into a bottle, I always
• 4:15
  just present it naturally. That doesn't mean it's at drink
• 4:18
  drinking strength. You'll find that yourself.
• 4:20
  I've seen a few glasses of water on your tables.
• 4:24
  If you're needing water, we have jugs as well.
• 4:26
  It's I would always advise just a wee drop of water does help
• 4:29
  help these. I usually appraise it as it is
• 4:31
  cast strength first. I would encourage you to give it
• 4:33
  a wee a wee try that, but it will take water.
• 4:35
  Well, this one. So yeah, it's a refill Hogs
• 4:38
  Head, quite a quite a lot of spirit character there.
• 4:42
  There's not the cast doing a minimal lifting on this one.
• 4:45
  So yeah, thanks for coming along and and joining in tonight.
• 4:49
  So it's the one closest to you is Aberfelde.
• 4:51
  OK. There we go.
• 4:53
  Cheers, cheers. So for people who are here and
• 5:00
  maybe don't know an awful lot about Rare Find, but also
• 5:03
  Glenmore Spirits and Greg Wilson, we're drinking this.
• 5:05
  What kind of Well, first of all, who are Glenn Moore spirits and
• 5:09
  what's the rare fine range all about?
• 5:11
  South Glenn Moore's the the parent company.
• 5:15
  So under Glenn Moore now we have pretty much about 30 odd brands
• 5:19
  across rum, gin, vodka, whiskeys.
• 5:22
  Obviously we're about 80% of our our output is whiskey, but what
• 5:26
  we have in front of us tonight is rare find that was our first
• 5:28
  brand. It's the crown jewels and the
• 5:31
  portfolio and it's really to showcase the best of our cask
• 5:35
  inventory. So what we tend to do with this
• 5:38
  is we'll, we'll really try and showcase the the best, as I say,
• 5:43
  of what we've got. But we're curating that whiskey
• 5:45
  in the background. When it first, we first started
• 5:47
  as an indie bottler for anyone who doesn't know, we buy, we
• 5:49
  don't distill this whiskey. We buy it from the producers and
• 5:52
  we nurture it to a point where we think it's ready to bottle.
• 5:55
  When we first started, it was very much buying cash that were
• 5:58
  ready there and then and not really having much of an
• 6:01
  influence on the spirit. It was just picking good
• 6:03
  whiskey. Now we're at the other end of
• 6:05
  the scale with a, a, a mask and a, a huge warehouse in
• 6:08
  Glenrothes, thousands of casts to kind of look after a wood
• 6:11
  programme. So we've, we've moved along that
• 6:13
  scale of independent bottlers, which is there's people who can
• 6:16
  sit in their, their armchair and be an independent bottler.
• 6:19
  And that's kind of where we started right up to where we are
• 6:21
  now, which is every touch point after that bottling, labelling,
• 6:24
  all the cast machinations, everything's handled and house.
• 6:27
  We're even taking a new make spirit now that we're laying
• 6:29
  down for 10/20/30 years plus. So yeah, we're we're moving
• 6:34
  towards the other end of the scale, isn't it?
• 6:36
  It's a, it's an interesting one with regards to then the bowlers
• 6:39
  that we've had so far and the journey that that that these
• 6:42
  people have to go on because there's always that danger.
• 6:45
  At some point you haven't, you're going to have to make the
• 6:48
  jump where they say instead of constantly buying casks that are
• 6:51
  going to be churned out as releases, at some point you'll
• 6:55
  lay casks down and say these are of course, from a financial
• 6:58
  point of view, that's a huge risk to take as well because
• 7:01
  you're sitting with an asset for such a long period of time when
• 7:04
  you started it, going more spirits to where you are now,
• 7:07
  where you was that part of the process with you being there.
• 7:10
  So when I started, it was obviously my director that
• 7:13
  started the business. I was employee number one.
• 7:16
  There was a handful of casks, four or five casks in the
• 7:19
  warehouse and everything was kind of just done from a small
• 7:23
  unit in Jane St. in Leith. So that was kind of where our
• 7:26
  home was for many years. We only moved this year out to
• 7:30
  this side of the town, the dark side of the city.
• 7:33
  But yeah, the that point where the business gets to, you've got
• 7:37
  that decision to make. Are you just going from bottling
• 7:39
  to bottling, raising some money by bottling it to buy more to
• 7:43
  bottle the next turn? That does you're right.
• 7:45
  There becomes a tipping point to be kind of serious and have
• 7:49
  enough inventory to grow in new markets that the director made
• 7:52
  the decision to start laying down casks.
• 7:54
  That was a massive jump. Like we, the growth in the last
• 7:58
  three years particularly has just completely blown my mind.
• 8:01
  So I've, when I started, as I say, I was employee number one,
• 8:04
  I was doing the photography, I was, I was doing the bottling
• 8:06
  for a lot of the, the kind of gin products, I was doing
• 8:10
  labelling. And as the business has grown,
• 8:12
  I've become kind of more focused on spirits management and head
• 8:16
  of operations. So kind of looking after all the
• 8:18
  dry goods movement and stuff. But the backfilling it with
• 8:21
  staff as you grow is obviously difficult as well.
• 8:23
  You don't want to overstretch resources.
• 8:25
  So it's been a a constant evolution of what we're sitting
• 8:28
  on. But to do it properly, I think
• 8:31
  you have to have stopped laid down.
• 8:32
  Yeah, yeah. And, and one thing about that
• 8:35
  that you know, you mentioned and we that I think someone's just
• 8:39
  scored. I thought that too was for me.
• 8:44
  They talked about buying new make spirit and how, how you
• 8:48
  know in, in, in, in the market we are in or the market you're
• 8:51
  in, How, how, how hard is that? Are you you having to buy
• 8:54
  particular volumes that you make?
• 8:56
  Are you going to specific distilleries and thinking, I'd
• 8:59
  love to buy a new make from that distillery?
• 9:01
  Or is it a case of just what's available, what you can buy,
• 9:03
  what's accessible, that you're you're you're you're bringing in
• 9:07
  to lay into new cars? So that kind of that bulk trade
• 9:10
  inside of whiskey is is probably one of the most important parts
• 9:13
  of the industry in general. So you only have to look at how
• 9:17
  many distilleries are used in the blends.
• 9:19
  For Johnny Walker, for example, the Azure have plenty
• 9:23
  distilleries, but they don't have enough to do their own
• 9:25
  blends. So the whole the whole industry
• 9:28
  is built on trading. And we're at the point where,
• 9:31
  yeah, in the past we maybe have taken 1000 litres in a tank like
• 9:34
  a small IBC, they're called 1000 litre tank.
• 9:38
  But we're now at the point where we're taking a a full tank of
• 9:40
  kind of one make. Yeah.
• 9:43
  So we've, we've, we've, we've evolved through that kind of
• 9:45
  process. And I mean in a lot of this we,
• 9:48
  we obviously have our, our rare find on the table tonight, but
• 9:50
  we have our larger format blended products with whiskey
• 9:53
  roll, all the acquaintance, the Edinburgh whiskey range as well
• 9:56
  as although that single malt, but it's still a larger volume
• 9:59
  vatting of single malt casts. So we're trying to look into the
• 10:03
  future and go, how big could this be?
• 10:06
  And the only way to give yourself scalability in 20 years
• 10:09
  is to be buying a bulk liquid now to lay.
• 10:12
  Down and from lots of different distilleries as well.
• 10:14
  Presumably you can't just, you know, you need to pedge your bet
• 10:17
  space. Absolutely.
• 10:18
  I mean you, you one, you don't know what spirit's going to be
• 10:21
  popular or hard to get in the future.
• 10:23
  So you've I think from a strategy point of view,
• 10:26
  especially when we're in a blend blended product market, you want
• 10:29
  as much flexibility in the inventory as possible.
• 10:32
  And it's a case of when that lands is looking with the rest
• 10:35
  of the team, what's the and the sales guys and everybody in the
• 10:38
  marketing side, where are the brands going in five or ten
• 10:41
  years? And I need to start ring fencing
• 10:43
  some of this liquid now with the view that it's going to become
• 10:46
  that particular product or a component and a product in in
• 10:49
  years to come. I mean, it's it you, when you
• 10:51
  look at the sort of lines that indie bottlers have to trade,
• 10:55
  there's so many different areas. And one of the big things is
• 10:58
  being able to actually put the name of the distillery on the
• 11:01
  bottles as well. So this is an Aberfelde and a
• 11:04
  lot of the time you've mentioned, you know, the, the
• 11:08
  fact that Diageo have so many distilleries that as a whiskey
• 11:11
  consumer, you've probably never really heard of because the
• 11:13
  whiskey never makes it out to the light of day for your normal
• 11:17
  whiskey drinker, other than the fact that it goes into the well
• 11:20
  known blends that you'll see around around the world.
• 11:23
  So from a from an established distillery like Aberfelde, there
• 11:26
  has to be special agreements put in place so that when you're
• 11:30
  purchasing their cask and you're then putting their name on your
• 11:33
  product, you have to toe a big party line with them, don't you?
• 11:37
  Absolutely. It all comes down to kind of
• 11:39
  transactional agreements and that could change from
• 11:42
  transaction to transaction. But for each parcel or cask, it
• 11:45
  comes with the paperwork that either says you can or you can't
• 11:48
  use the name. And we have one of the drums on
• 11:50
  the line up tonight. The the 4th drum is an unnamed
• 11:53
  dial up for that was the agreement and we'll stick to
• 11:56
  that. I mean you, if you fall foul of
• 11:58
  that agreement, you won't get casks again off.
• 12:00
  Of these people turn the cameras off when you're.
• 12:03
  So it's, it's always dangerous putting the unnamed one at the
• 12:06
  end of a tasting because that's when your, your, your defences
• 12:09
  have slipped a bit. But yeah, I'm, I'm pretty good
• 12:11
  at keeping my, my cars close to my chest for that when I let
• 12:14
  people make their own assumptions.
• 12:15
  And the, the quickest way around that is to say to someone, I'll
• 12:18
  tell you what it is, but I'll have to put an extra £5060 on
• 12:22
  the bottle. There's, there's, yeah, there's,
• 12:25
  there's, it's the most common question I get with unnamed
• 12:28
  stuff is what is it? Is it this, what is it?
• 12:30
  And I just, you have to keep tight lipped.
• 12:32
  It's not worth the risk. How, how, how strict are the
• 12:34
  kind of sometimes because I mean, we see sometimes it's, you
• 12:38
  know, the regions stated. But then sometimes it does say,
• 12:42
  you know, there's a signatory bottle that's very kind of
• 12:44
  popular, which is space side brackets and close brackets.
• 12:48
  And that kind of narrows down the yeah, is that, is that kind
• 12:52
  of being a bit naughty or is it? I mean, I'm not going to comment
• 12:55
  on anybody else's levels, but we, we just try to keep our head
• 12:59
  down, do, do what we're told to do or not do anything we're not
• 13:03
  allowed to do. But yeah, it's, it's, you've got
• 13:06
  to be careful around it. I know there's, there's been
• 13:08
  kind of high profile ones in the past where they've done the
• 13:11
  anagrams and it's caused a bit of bother and stuff like that.
• 13:13
  We, we try and steer clear of that.
• 13:16
  Yeah, there's there's. It's been the common theme
• 13:19
  throughout the whole podcast. Whenever we've had somebody from
• 13:22
  the industry on, and particularly the last two or
• 13:24
  three indie bottle or all the indie bottlers that we've done
• 13:27
  is you always, I couldn't get my head round independently bottled
• 13:31
  liquid for a long, long time. And I think it was Ryan from our
• 13:35
  tree Cara. So Dangus said for a lot of
• 13:38
  people, they look at an independent bottler and they'll
• 13:40
  see an Aberfeldie in a different company and he used it, used it.
• 13:44
  Ryan said, knock off whiskey, You know, in the sense that from
• 13:47
  a from a naive point of view, you say, well, it can't, it
• 13:49
  cannot be as good as the Aberfeldie stuff because it's
• 13:51
  not in an Aberfeldie bottle and things.
• 13:54
  And I couldn't work out how do people manage to get hold of
• 13:56
  this liquid? What are they doing?
• 13:57
  They must be paying 10s, maybe hundreds of thousands of pounds,
• 14:00
  which I'm sure is sometimes the case.
• 14:02
  But one of the things that you've raised before on the
• 14:05
  podcast and many other people have, it's the relationships
• 14:07
  that are built. And I suppose like what Angus is
• 14:10
  talking about there is the fact that the, The thing is you'll
• 14:15
  have with the casks that you're buying and the liquid that
• 14:17
  you're getting from distilleries, you'll have
• 14:19
  established relationships now within the industry.
• 14:21
  And one slip, it's not maybe going to be a financial penalty
• 14:25
  that you'll get given from the industry or anything like that.
• 14:27
  But it could just be the case in that's it, you're scored off the
• 14:30
  list and you're not ever going to get any liquid from us again.
• 14:32
  And that in itself could be hugely damaging for for a
• 14:36
  company. Absolutely.
• 14:37
  It's just think of it, we're coming up to Christmas.
• 14:39
  It's like you're on the the good list of the naughty list.
• 14:42
  You don't want to be on the naughty list when you're trying
• 14:43
  to procure whiskey. So yeah, just stick to the rules
• 14:46
  and and try and you, you would hope that with the direct
• 14:50
  relationships that we can have, I would hope that I'm showcasing
• 14:54
  these distillates in in a nice enough way that the distillery
• 14:57
  would be proud to let us bottle some of their stuff.
• 15:00
  So that's, that's kind of the a treat whether the respect that
• 15:04
  deserves it. Someone's given us the
• 15:05
  opportunity to to use their distillate.
• 15:08
  And we are joined by quite a few familiar faces and guests.
• 15:10
  We also have our first ever roving mic, and we're trying to
• 15:13
  work out what we're going to do with this.
• 15:15
  If someone just takes their hand, I'll just throw the mic to
• 15:16
  you, catch it, tell us what you think and then throw it back.
• 15:21
  But Vicky Wicky Elliott is joining us.
• 15:22
  Friend of the podcast Vicky, how are you?
• 15:24
  I'm grand. Thank you.
• 15:25
  How are you? We're not too bad.
• 15:27
  We've got drums in front of us and we're hearing some fantastic
• 15:29
  stuff. What are your thoughts on there
• 15:31
  in the first round? I'm very much enjoying it.
• 15:34
  I'm loving the Apple, get a lot of Apple from it as well and.
• 15:38
  I'm very much in my mouth feel and I just think there's a good
• 15:42
  honey kind of taste with it and also kind of that nice coating
• 15:45
  like I don't know if it is like the honey influence as well.
• 15:47
  It's. Beautiful.
• 15:48
  I'd love to open up a little bit of water and well, maybe see
• 15:51
  even get some water now. Yeah, I might just use my
• 15:54
  finger, but no, it's, it's lovely, but there's also quite a
• 15:56
  wee kind of warmth, that almost warming spice, Natasha says
• 16:00
  about apple pie. Or Apple.
• 16:03
  Sewers, Apple sewers. There you go.
• 16:05
  I'll, I'll take that's quite a bit.
• 16:06
  It's quite a big product that. Well, I mean, we do.
• 16:09
  Have another well known friend of this.
• 16:12
  Here he goes the the eyes are already rolling.
• 16:15
  A friend of the show, Mr. No, he didn't.
• 16:18
  Mr. Chucker, the minute Apple Sewers came out someone's mouth.
• 16:22
  I immediately looked at Chucker now.
• 16:24
  For those who are sorry, you mean listeners to listeners to
• 16:27
  the podcast, then who are the regular listeners?
• 16:30
  Have you got any? Yeah, Brilliant.
• 16:31
  OK, non regular listeners over there.
• 16:35
  It's fine. Wondering what the hell are
• 16:36
  these guys talking about? But Chuck, Chuck's her old
• 16:39
  friend and he hadn't actually been on the podcast until a few
• 16:42
  months ago because he's been on his world travels.
• 16:44
  So well travelled, in fact, that his mum got in touch with one of
• 16:48
  the guests on the podcast Say, have you heard from Chuck?
• 16:50
  Because I don't know. I don't know where he is he.
• 16:52
  Hasn't spoken to me for three weeks.
• 16:53
  But we had to put a public podcast announcement and say,
• 16:56
  Chuck, call your mum. But but Chuck also was the
• 17:00
  famous person on the podcast who was coined with the wanky
• 17:06
  tasting notes. It's Chuck's first.
• 17:08
  We have a debate. It was was it church pews and
• 17:11
  cola cubes? I mean, that's what.
• 17:12
  You thought it was, but yeah, it was.
• 17:15
  Church. Floors and cola cubes.
• 17:16
  Church floors and cola cubes. So if we're going to maybe I
• 17:20
  don't think we're going to put you under serious pressure for
• 17:23
  for every DRAM that we've got, but I think at some point this
• 17:26
  evening you're going to be put on the spot for a wanky tasting
• 17:30
  note. I didn't.
• 17:30
  I didn't really get. Apples too much?
• 17:33
  I thought it was like golden syrup and apricots.
• 17:36
  Golden syrup and apricots. Does that does that ring true
• 17:38
  with anybody? Have we got any other tasting
• 17:41
  notes? So.
• 17:43
  McDonald's apple Donald Apple pie is.
• 17:45
  It's a bit cooler than. McDonald's apple pie.
• 17:48
  Normally that burns your. Just there is a couple of sheets
• 17:52
  floating about on some of the tables.
• 17:54
  I didn't have enough for all the tables but you can pass them
• 17:56
  around. They have got my tasting notes
• 17:58
  on them. But don't be scared by them.
• 18:00
  And some people like not to see the taste notes and just have
• 18:02
  their own. But if you want to see what I
• 18:04
  said, they're on there as well and.
• 18:06
  Of course the Whiskey Stories podcast is going international.
• 18:09
  We have loads of people from around the world.
• 18:11
  We do indeed. Couple of folk all the way.
• 18:13
  You've travelled all the way from Greece for this, Yes, it's
• 18:16
  a little fantastic. We've got the guys up the back
• 18:18
  there. Where is it you're from again?
• 18:19
  It was France. You travelled all the way from
• 18:22
  France? But I'm afraid he's all been
• 18:24
  knackered because one boy got the wrong bus this morning and
• 18:26
  he's come all the way from Ohio. Where are you from?
• 18:31
  This chap? You've travelled all the way
• 18:33
  from Ohio for the Whiskey Stories podcast.
• 18:35
  How are you feeling? Absolutely knackered.
• 18:39
  Have you arrived today? I left on Thursday but didn't
• 18:42
  arrive until Sunday morning because of Big Bert and OH.
• 18:45
  Hi, of course. Worst comes the worst I just,
• 18:48
  well, I end up on a megabus from London to Edinburgh, so that
• 18:50
  tells you a bit of how bad I got.
• 18:53
  Really. So you're, you're up visiting,
• 18:55
  you're from, I take it that's not a thing.
• 18:56
  I was going to say. I was going to say you've,
• 18:59
  you've, you've taken on the accent very quickly, you know.
• 19:02
  My American wife is from Columbus, OH, So I've been
• 19:05
  living there in the last eight years, right.
• 19:07
  I mean, I've followed Greg for all he's doing and it's amazing
• 19:10
  what he's done from like he said, from being #1 employee to
• 19:13
  well, he is a number one employee, but he's.
• 19:17
  A number one employee. Yeah.
• 19:21
  And whiskey. Cedar, You're a whiskey drinker,
• 19:23
  I'm assuming I did. I lost.
• 19:25
  Yeah, I had a 15 year old Bomo last night.
• 19:27
  It was really nice. So I wore myself up to the time.
• 19:29
  Yeah. And what's that?
• 19:30
  What's that sort of whiskey selection of whiskey scene like
• 19:32
  in Ohio for for yourself? Can you grab Scotch drams fairly
• 19:37
  accessible or is it mainly bourbon?
• 19:39
  It's usually the same like 15 as the at the grocery store, you
• 19:43
  know, But yeah, it's, I saw a Welsh one recently.
• 19:47
  There's that. I need to get to talk to Greg
• 19:50
  about why that Welsh whiskey is in an American store for some
• 19:54
  reason there. We go shop, yeah.
• 19:58
  Probably. It's a shop, not a store.
• 20:01
  You're back in Edinburgh. I'm back in Edinburgh.
• 20:02
  I'll. Get pillars for that from my
• 20:03
  family as well. It's fine, but the drums are
• 20:07
  going down. Lovely.
• 20:07
  Greg, we're talking about your journey and your story and Glenn
• 20:11
  Moore Quickly before we move on to the next DRAM.
• 20:14
  I can remember the story here, but how did it all start for
• 20:16
  you? Getting into whiskey, employment
• 20:19
  in whiskey and working with Glenn Moore Spirits because it's
• 20:22
  quite an interesting story. Blackmail.
• 20:27
  Who will you buy me? Keep that quiet.
• 20:30
  No, it was it was photography that got me in a whiskey.
• 20:33
  So at the same time I got into whiskey at 30, I also picked up
• 20:38
  the camera for the first time since studying film photography
• 20:43
  at school, which was many moons ago now.
• 20:46
  And the digital age obviously happened.
• 20:48
  So when I picked up ADSLR, I fell back in love with
• 20:51
  photography. And then the two kind of went
• 20:54
  hand in hand. I was buying bottles of whiskey,
• 20:57
  practicing my photography by taking pictures of the bottles
• 20:59
  of whiskey, and then one thing led to another.
• 21:01
  I was doing some work in the industry and soft drinks and
• 21:06
  stuff. So I had some experience in
• 21:08
  commercial photography and I was out one night doing some
• 21:11
  landscape stuff and took a photograph of what is now my my
• 21:15
  boss's car down in. I wasn't.
• 21:18
  That sounds creepy. How?
• 21:21
  Was he doing in this car? It was at an event, so it was an
• 21:24
  event down in Leith for the launch of a bar down in Leith
• 21:27
  and it was all branded up with one of the gin brands at the
• 21:30
  time and it's quite a striking car.
• 21:31
  It was an orange Lamborghini so it caught my eye being of a car
• 21:35
  person and I took a photo put online and had a direct message
• 21:40
  from them to call about the picture.
• 21:42
  They wanted to buy it and I said you can have it and they were
• 21:45
  like do you work in photography? I said yes and then they were
• 21:49
  saying they needed some photography for some of the
• 21:50
  bottles. So went in the following week,
• 21:53
  took some pictures and then a few weeks later keys for the
• 21:55
  warehouse and then that's been it since then.
• 21:58
  Fantastic. And your your photography really
• 21:59
  took off when you took my photo and I made it my Instagram
• 22:02
  profile. Yeah, I mean that that was the
• 22:04
  recognition I needed. I mean, I, I had a couple of
• 22:07
  images published in the Scottish Landscape Photographer the year,
• 22:11
  but the proudest moment was was your your profile picture.
• 22:14
  I've got to say that I've got hanging in my daughter's room.
• 22:19
  Yeah, she doesn't sleep with a light on either.
• 22:21
  Oh, I. Was going to say I'll keep her
• 22:22
  up. So if we're looking at our next
• 22:24
  track, first of all, high off everyone else live.
• 22:27
  Any other notes or anyone want to sort of highlight anything
• 22:29
  about that whiskey? Oh, we've got a real time
• 22:33
  picture of Angus there, there. We are in this very room, as it
• 22:37
  happens. 6 out of 10. Anyone else?
• 22:42
  Anyone else got any other notes or points in that drum?
• 22:47
  Lovely. Hi, it's a good way to start,
• 22:49
  isn't it? Yeah, so I chose that one as a
• 22:52
  starter because it's it's sweet, it's fruity, it's approachable.
• 22:55
  I know the ABV is quite high, but that's the point in adding a
• 22:58
  bit of water. But I thought it was a good out
• 23:00
  of the seven that came out the out turn recently.
• 23:01
  I thought that was a nice start. And whiskey.
• 23:04
  And then, yeah, DRAM #2 we're on to an Altmore 14.
• 23:09
  So we've gone up a year. We've gone slightly down in ABV.
• 23:14
  So it's 56.6%. So only .2 away from the DRAM
• 23:18
  you've just had. So that that may give you an
• 23:20
  indication on how much water to add to this DRAM.
• 23:23
  But yeah, this is a refill break.
• 23:25
  There was 230 bottles that came out of the cask.
• 23:29
  It's I just almost not when you see a lot of it's usually in
• 23:32
  blends. I think a lot of it goes into
• 23:34
  old Perth these days. But yeah, absolutely solid DRAM
• 23:39
  For me, this cask although, so when we purchased it and this is
• 23:42
  one of the things when we purchase lots of casks, the
• 23:45
  paperwork might just say refill Barique or refill Hogs head.
• 23:49
  But for me, I think the cat, there's a lot of cask activity
• 23:52
  on this. I think it's brought a lot to
• 23:55
  the table compared to the the previous DRAM, but I'll let you
• 23:58
  guys draw your own decision on how you think that's taste and
• 24:02
  how the how it differs from the previous DRAM.
• 24:04
  I do actually usually say to people to keep a little bit of
• 24:07
  your first DRAM back to compare because it is I know I've.
• 24:12
  Completely. Failed on the 1st.
• 24:16
  Drama always has the hardest job because you're you're just
• 24:19
  getting your palate started and stuff.
• 24:20
  Although we did have a nice welcome drink, so thanks for the
• 24:22
  team here for providing that. So yeah, enjoy.
• 24:26
  This is actually, you see, sorry you see that Altmores aren't
• 24:29
  quite common. This is the third Altmoor we've
• 24:31
  had on our Lindy. Butler Spot.
• 24:33
  I didn't, I I had that exact thought, Graham, but I didn't
• 24:35
  know if I wanted to raise that or not.
• 24:37
  No, especially after Greg. So you don't see it very often,
• 24:39
  I thought. I think that.
• 24:40
  I think we're Finn Thompson. Thompson had one last week.
• 24:43
  Tricara, Tricara and this one and then this one.
• 24:46
  So I mean the question I wanted to ask you, Greg, and it kind of
• 24:51
  relates to what you're saying about casks.
• 24:53
  So you don't necessarily get too much information on them about
• 24:58
  the casks. So they said, you know, it might
• 25:00
  just say a refill barique, but maybe there's not, you know, how
• 25:03
  vague sometimes are the kind of descriptions you get on the
• 25:06
  paperwork of casks that you receive.
• 25:08
  Is there any that have kind of been a kind of complete mystery
• 25:10
  to you or do you, are they generally quite what's the
• 25:13
  documentation like is really what I'm asking?
• 25:15
  Yeah. So a lot of the times with the,
• 25:17
  with the bigger purchases, when it's kind of larger parcels of
• 25:20
  casks, they can sometimes be quite generic in, in the way the
• 25:23
  paperwork's presented. And we're bound by the the kind
• 25:28
  of Scottish regs that we need. Unless we can back up what we've
• 25:31
  been putting on the label, we can't call anything out.
• 25:34
  So we can only go by the paper where there has been incidents
• 25:38
  of where we've received a cask and we've been expecting a
• 25:42
  refill Hawkshead and it's turned up and it's it's marked up as a
• 25:45
  second fill PX. And that's when you lift the
• 25:48
  phone and you give them the cast number and whoever sold it to
• 25:51
  you could probably dig a bit deeper into the paperwork.
• 25:53
  I think sometimes when they're dealing with large transactions,
• 25:56
  it's maybe just easier to just keep it a bit more generic.
• 25:59
  But something that's important to us and definitely to me over
• 26:03
  the last few years since we've been building our own wood
• 26:04
  program is really drilling in on as much detail as we we can get.
• 26:09
  But at the same time, for me, the Aberfeldy and a refill Hawks
• 26:13
  head, we don't really need any more information than that.
• 26:16
  For me, I think the drama speaks for itself.
• 26:17
  The distillery characteristics there, but it's the ones that
• 26:21
  you're expecting it to be one thing and you're looking at
• 26:24
  going Nope. And then you have to just go
• 26:26
  through the the phone calls and emails.
• 26:28
  Just can we double check that? Can you look back?
• 26:30
  And nine times out of 10, they're happy to help and go and
• 26:32
  investigate that. So you sometimes get a little
• 26:34
  surprise, but in the in the parcel.
• 26:37
  And you'll maybe look at like sometimes you'll maybe pick up.
• 26:40
  We've often talked about it throughout these spotlights
• 26:43
  where you speak to an independent bottler and there's
• 26:46
  a lot of pressure sometimes to go, what do we need to do with
• 26:49
  this? Woody spoke on on the on the
• 26:52
  first one that we did about market pressure.
• 26:55
  A lot of the time people will see people have come to as a
• 27:00
  consumer, get so used to going well.
• 27:02
  I can see that they've finished that in something.
• 27:04
  And I finished whiskey is often from an independent bottler's
• 27:06
  point of view. You know, people see that in the
• 27:09
  market and go, I would like to try a finished whiskey when
• 27:12
  sometimes you see just a refill Hogs Head or a first of all Hogs
• 27:14
  head to go. Oh, it's only a first of all
• 27:16
  Hogs head sort of thing. Not thinking about what the
• 27:18
  liquid must taste like. So there'll be plenty of times
• 27:21
  when you've opened up a pulled a bun out of cask, sampled it and
• 27:25
  gone. That's perfect, ready to go.
• 27:27
  But what about the times when you've maybe got on the
• 27:29
  paperwork a cast that you're thinking this potentially could
• 27:33
  be an absolute banger and you open it up and it's just, it's
• 27:36
  not the wood hasn't worked with it.
• 27:38
  The wood hasn't worked with the liquid.
• 27:40
  And you've effectively got just a a cast containing liquid
• 27:43
  instead of a cast maturing whiskey.
• 27:45
  I mean it happens. I try when I, when I start to
• 27:49
  look through sample for assessment, I just try and not
• 27:53
  have any information. If I'm honest, I just judge the
• 27:55
  spirit on what is. If I, if I can avoid knowing any
• 27:58
  information, that's how I prefer to do it.
• 28:00
  Sometimes that's not possible. I'll judge the spirit and then
• 28:03
  I'll go, right, what age is that?
• 28:05
  What? And once I've done that initial
• 28:07
  assessment, absolutely I need to know all the details and I need
• 28:10
  to monitor it going forward. But that first assessment, I
• 28:13
  would much rather not be a told what age it is or what cast type
• 28:17
  it is and just go, is this a pass or a fail?
• 28:20
  And if it's a pass, is it a six or is it A7 or is it A8 or is it
• 28:24
  a nine? If it's a fail, why is it a
• 28:26
  fail? Is it just the the woods not
• 28:28
  really doing anything yet? Does it just need more time?
• 28:30
  Because you can, you can sense there's a cask cask activity
• 28:34
  there, but it just maybe needs longer.
• 28:36
  But if you can assess it and you it should be further down the
• 28:39
  road in terms of the wood, the woods influence on the the
• 28:42
  maturation process, then there needs to be a point where I'll
• 28:45
  have to intervene there. But yeah, it's, it's, that's
• 28:48
  the, the fun bit actually, and the challenge of going through
• 28:51
  the inventory. It was easy when it was 10 cast,
• 28:54
  but I'm dealing with thousands of cast now.
• 28:55
  So it's, it's a, it's an enormous kind of job in itself.
• 28:59
  Ladies and gentlemen, please, it's Mr. Ross Bar and you come
• 29:08
  Ross, you'll have a seat. I would like to say as well,
• 29:11
  just I, I forgot to say. And now that Ross is here, we
• 29:14
  can, we will have a bit of a laugh about it as well.
• 29:16
  The whiskey gingers that you did everyone enjoy their whiskey
• 29:19
  ginger ale that we got. Delicious, isn't it?
• 29:21
  We, we, what do you bet? Come see, come somewhere.
• 29:25
  OK, there's a lady with a good nose for whiskey.
• 29:27
  Because basically when we spoke to Kev about what what, what he
• 29:30
  said, what whiskey do you want? And for people who listen to the
• 29:32
  podcast a few months good few months ago now, I guess we did a
• 29:36
  challenge where we can try and find whiskey, what whiskey's we
• 29:39
  could find on the auctions. And I sat and I, I found old
• 29:45
  smuggler was what I found, which is an old, old brand.
• 29:49
  And I think it's old smuggler. The brand has probably been
• 29:51
  passed through quite a lot of different companies who own it
• 29:54
  and I hadn't realised when I bought it so I bought that it
• 29:57
  was only something like 22 lbs or something like that.
• 30:00
  And I also found a 1970s dimple pinch and a lovely little dimple
• 30:04
  bottle 50 CL and the size of this box arrived a couple of
• 30:09
  days later. I'm thinking what the hell is
• 30:10
  that? And it wasn't until I pulled out
• 30:11
  the tiny little dimple bottle. For those that know know the
• 30:14
  dimple bottles tiny wee things. This was only 50 CL and I
• 30:17
  actually got 1.75 litres of of old Smuggler.
• 30:23
  It's absolutely it looks like a fire extinguisher.
• 30:27
  Basically. We tried it and we kind of all
• 30:28
  in agreement. I think it was quite soapy, was
• 30:32
  sort of tasting notes that I got it.
• 30:34
  Just was a bit kind of open, Ray.
• 30:37
  So we gave it to Kev. Kev stuck it behind the bar.
• 30:39
  He found a shelf that was strong enough for this ball. 1.75
• 30:42
  litres and you might have seen it.
• 30:44
  It's on the bottom shelf there. It was like 2 LB on a drum for
• 30:46
  3535 mils. Hi, hi.
• 30:51
  Well, Kev said what you want. I said I'll just stick some old
• 30:54
  smuggler. So that's what we've had
• 30:56
  tonight, but they're old smuggler and ginger, but soapy
• 31:01
  ginger, soapy ginger. So that's what we've got there.
• 31:05
  It's a free, it's a free drama and enjoy that.
• 31:13
  Aye, there we go. So I felt more than when this
• 31:16
  cask came through. You're talking about thousands
• 31:19
  of casks being stored, Greg. So when you've got smaller
• 31:22
  parcels and smaller batches, when you probably started again,
• 31:26
  Woody talked about hugging and sitting on and even licking his
• 31:30
  casks when he was in being able to to do that.
• 31:35
  I think when you've got a small batch, a small warehouse, I'm
• 31:38
  sure it was like when you guys started, is it impossible for
• 31:42
  you to keep track on of every single whiskey that comes in?
• 31:45
  So that's in the back of your mind.
• 31:47
  You'll probably have to have spreadsheets and booklets, your
• 31:50
  own notes and stuff. Can you remember the Altmore
• 31:52
  coming in? Can you remember sampling it for
• 31:54
  the first time or anything like that?
• 31:55
  And, and what was the journey of that cask like before it ended
• 31:59
  up in the in the glass and before it ended up being tried
• 32:01
  for us to try it? Well.
• 32:03
  Before I get into that, I'm just going to say, obviously I know
• 32:06
  Woody quite well and that's the PG stuff that he has to.
• 32:09
  Do. You don't want to know.
• 32:11
  He does some great whiskey. But yeah, no, the yes, you're
• 32:15
  right. So the, the romantic side of my
• 32:17
  job is nosing and tasting and doing these kind of stuff.
• 32:21
  But probably 80% of my cash management is literally two
• 32:25
  different types of software and a spreadsheet that lives in the
• 32:28
  middle. And it's looking at data, trying
• 32:31
  to build in a bit of predictability on maturation,
• 32:35
  ordering wood, all that kind of stuff.
• 32:36
  It's it can be. I've got to immerse myself in
• 32:40
  it. They always laugh in the office.
• 32:42
  They know when I'm on my spreadsheet because I put my
• 32:44
  earphones and I need to concentrate because that the
• 32:47
  implications of copying the data from 1 sheet to my master sheet.
• 32:51
  If I put it in the wrong cell it could cause problems.
• 32:54
  So I need to be fully focused on when.
• 32:55
  People go, oh, this whiskey rotates.
• 32:57
  Amazing. It's got a 35 year old single,
• 33:01
  but yeah, it's the. SO going back maybe two years
• 33:05
  ago, I would work on a quarterly basis.
• 33:07
  So I would come up with a release strategy for quarter
• 33:10
  one, let's say. And then as as soon as that's
• 33:13
  released, I'm looking what, what am I going to pull out the
• 33:15
  warehouse for quarter 2. Now I'm at the point where I've
• 33:18
  probably sitting with 80 to 100 casts that I've passed that
• 33:22
  could be bottled tomorrow. The the future needs to be that
• 33:27
  I know what's coming out in five years.
• 33:30
  And even in a single casket, there's an element of
• 33:32
  predictability. But it's at the point of when
• 33:35
  you pull the trigger, you've got to really kind of keep a close
• 33:38
  eye on that spirit, especially if it's in really active wood.
• 33:41
  You've got to be on top of that maturation process.
• 33:43
  I think the, to your question about how to track all these, a
• 33:47
  lot of them are in good vessels. They're maybe not bringing a lot
• 33:50
  of wood impact, but there's still spirit development going
• 33:53
  on and there's a I can take a, a cast that may be deemed as not
• 33:57
  quite ready and we can talk about that with the next two
• 34:00
  drums. They they were ones that weren't
• 34:02
  ready and I I wanted to bring them to market.
• 34:05
  So I'd intervened with a cask finish, knowing roughly when
• 34:08
  they would be coming out to market.
• 34:10
  But the other stuff I could have let these, the, the first two
• 34:13
  could have been running for another 5-10 years.
• 34:16
  They just wouldn't get taken away.
• 34:17
  So yeah, the, the Altmore, the reason that dropped out of me
• 34:21
  was you're saying you've tried three now from a few other
• 34:24
  Indies. It's not one that we've put a
• 34:25
  lot. No, there's only been a handful
• 34:27
  in in the last 10 years. So under my kind of my tenure of
• 34:32
  looking after the whiskey, I've never released an Altmore.
• 34:35
  So I'm always keen to try and not repeat too much.
• 34:38
  Yeah, the the, the distilleries or the makes that we're bringing
• 34:42
  out. But yeah, that was that was my
• 34:44
  thought on that. I thought it was.
• 34:45
  I tried it. It stood out as being a really
• 34:49
  good example of a refill on the paperwork.
• 34:52
  And I thought, yeah, this is ready.
• 34:54
  We'll do a quick bit of roving. Sorry, Ross, when you go, do you
• 34:57
  want to? I'm already saying you use like
• 34:59
  a one to 10 scoring system the first time you try your casks.
• 35:03
  Yes. Because that was the alpha that
• 35:05
  was fascinating. You're talking about, OK, you
• 35:08
  receive maybe a package of liquid, a parcel of liquid
• 35:10
  rather however many casks. And you literally do score at
• 35:13
  1:00 to 10:00 and go, OK, that's a four or five that's worth re
• 35:17
  re casting or, or whatever. So well, this Altmore spirit is
• 35:22
  very subtle and gentle. And that's kind of the idea.
• 35:25
  They've always been pretty unglamorous.
• 35:27
  Stuck it in American Oak and kind of leave it how it is until
• 35:29
  recent releases. Was this already quite a strong
• 35:32
  on your one at A10 scale before you?
• 35:35
  Absolutely. So I mean that one at A10, if
• 35:39
  it's a six or above, I would consider bottling it.
• 35:42
  Yeah, I've never had a 10. I was going to.
• 35:44
  I was going to. There's my next question of.
• 35:45
  You that's that's like a mic drop moment and you just you go
• 35:48
  home, you've completed with how. Many nines?
• 35:50
  How many nines have you had then?
• 35:52
  The Mystery Drum. My wife might be listening.
• 35:58
  So. See, yeah, there there's been a
• 36:02
  few for me. I think there's been a few that
• 36:04
  I would there was a a manic more 14 and a refill.
• 36:07
  I didn't have to intervene with it.
• 36:08
  I absolutely loved it. There was a a Pulteney 14 yet
• 36:11
  again, I didn't have to intervene with it.
• 36:13
  Maybe I should just not intervene with anything.
• 36:15
  No, there for me on the table tonight.
• 36:18
  There's there's a damn, I'll not, I'll not call it out yet,
• 36:20
  but well, it's one of the next two that I'm so proud of.
• 36:25
  I think it's it's one of my favourites yet because there's
• 36:28
  there's a bit of a journey there.
• 36:29
  I'll go into the story when we get to that, how I got that
• 36:32
  spirit to where I wanted it to be.
• 36:34
  But yeah, there's there's been a few and have you?
• 36:37
  Ever had a one? Absolutely, yeah.
• 36:39
  There's so there's there's stuff that you're looking.
• 36:42
  So it's it's a pass or a fail. And if it's a fail, it's four or
• 36:46
  below. And if it's a one, there's
• 36:48
  something you just, you'll probably never see the light of
• 36:51
  day. You get bad cast one in so many
• 36:54
  thousands. I can't remember the, the
• 36:55
  statistic that some of the bigger guys put out, but it's
• 36:58
  like one in 10,000 or one in eight thousands.
• 36:59
  Like you just can't use it. We have, we've definitely got
• 37:02
  them in inventory and we're, we've got a couple just now
• 37:05
  obvious for obvious reasons, I won't go into the, the reasons
• 37:08
  why, but it's not the, the, I would have expected them to be
• 37:13
  sevens or 10s, but there's something's gone wrong and the
• 37:16
  maturation process, it's not been the distillate, it's been
• 37:18
  the vessel. And those are.
• 37:20
  I'm using them now to experiment to see if I put this and that,
• 37:26
  what happens to? How do we change the colour of
• 37:28
  how? Fun is that I mean cookies it's
• 37:31
  important because a lot of money on the line at the same time I
• 37:34
  love the one to 10 system. Believe in yourself.
• 37:36
  You know, you're good at what you do.
• 37:37
  And yeah, definitely a three or four or definitely an 8 and a
• 37:41
  nine year and you're happy with it.
• 37:43
  One of the tastings, I have been lucky enough to come to your
• 37:46
  tastings before, and you presented us with a four out of
• 37:49
  10. So this manic more was a
• 37:51
  refilled cask, 4 out of 10. And that night we voted on the
• 37:55
  cask to move into. That was maybe a year and a half
• 37:58
  ago, Two years ago. Yeah.
• 37:59
  I thought that was the coolest thing ever.
• 38:01
  Yeah, so that that was the coolest thing ever was when we
• 38:03
  got to try it again. Been yeah.
• 38:06
  So that, that was a perfect example that the taste in that
• 38:08
  Ross has mentioned in there was a Scotch at Balmoral, which I
• 38:11
  know a few of the guys that worked there have been.
• 38:13
  And obviously a couple of people here tonight have been involved
• 38:16
  in that working there at some point.
• 38:18
  But was really happy to host a taste in there and and to really
• 38:22
  explain my job to the people in the room.
• 38:25
  I'd brought a sample along. It was a 10 year old manic more
• 38:28
  as Ross said. I'd scored at 4:00.
• 38:29
  So it was a needed intervention. The spirit was fine.
• 38:32
  It was there was no weed activity at all, especially for
• 38:35
  10 years old in this vessel. It was it was really needing a
• 38:38
  help. So I gave the crowd on that
• 38:41
  taste and an option of five different casks to re rack it
• 38:45
  into. So they were all first fell.
• 38:46
  One was a refill, actually. The rest were all first fell and
• 38:50
  they had a chat and a vote around the room and what would
• 38:52
  this do? What?
• 38:52
  There was a rum, think a rum cask option.
• 38:55
  There was Sherry. There was.
• 38:57
  One, we tried a 50 year old grain that night and one of the
• 38:59
  options was to use to use the casket.
• 39:01
  Yeah, the 50 year old grain was there, which was interesting.
• 39:03
  So how did? We go with a bit of red wine in.
• 39:05
  The end It was a Santamilian Grand Crew red wine from
• 39:08
  Bordeaux. So that's currently in the the
• 39:12
  warehouse maturing and I've. Seen these chemical beaker
• 39:16
  things for pouring whiskey before?
• 39:17
  Well, I'm going to do a quick round the room.
• 39:19
  What do you guys reckon on that drum there, Sir?
• 39:21
  It's. Fantastic.
• 39:23
  It's empty. Yeah.
• 39:24
  It's probably worry. Angus is coming round.
• 39:26
  Don't you worry. What?
• 39:28
  What about you? What about yourself?
• 39:30
  I loved it. Loved it.
• 39:30
  Yes, I. Really like it.
• 39:32
  I think it's like Christmas pudding an ice cream.
• 39:34
  Christmas pudding an ice cream there, but again, the tasting
• 39:36
  notes quite quite early on tonight and have you out of the
• 39:39
  two coconuts. Coconut, the nose and.
• 39:42
  Baldies. Coconut from the Greeks.
• 39:45
  That's where they're thinking. From the Greeks.
• 39:46
  Which part of Greece is that? You're from?
• 39:49
  Right there we go. Coconut from the Greeks there.
• 39:53
  Ice cream. What was it you said it was I.
• 39:56
  Think it's like Christmas put an ice cream?
• 39:57
  Christmas, put an ice cream. What about yourselves?
• 39:59
  What are the French guys thinking?
• 40:01
  I thought he tasted like freshly shaved oak, especially shadow,
• 40:05
  and for me it was only the bubble gum coming really really
• 40:08
  strong and. Do you have a favorite?
• 40:11
  So far far's the. Second one is the second one.
• 40:12
  I like the first one, the. First one, second one for me.
• 40:15
  You love the You love the whiskey ginger fruit.
• 40:22
  You're back again. Lovely to see you back.
• 40:24
  How are you? I'm grand.
• 40:25
  Yeah. Cheers.
• 40:26
  And what have you thought about tonight so far?
• 40:28
  It's been grand. I enjoyed the second one.
• 40:30
  The two of them so far. I.
• 40:32
  Had a question with. Greg as well, Sorry.
• 40:35
  I see with the new make from all the experimentation that you're
• 40:38
  talking about, how do you decide when you get new make on the
• 40:41
  texture of that to decide how you're then going to finish it?
• 40:44
  You know, you're now seeing, you're thinking many years
• 40:45
  ahead. I'm more curious about your
• 40:47
  process now because you've been in it for a while.
• 40:49
  How do you then take a new make from ex distillery and decide
• 40:52
  you know what? On my experience, This is why I
• 40:55
  think I should finish this. That's what I should do with it.
• 40:57
  So a lot of the times we when we buy new make, apart from a
• 41:00
  couple of exceptions, we've managed to get some younger,
• 41:03
  like more newer, new make from people who maybe we don't know
• 41:08
  where their spirits go and that's more of a challenge.
• 41:10
  But when you would, yeah. So when you're dealing with
• 41:12
  older distilleries, there's a level of quality and consistency
• 41:16
  that you know their house style, you know where what their
• 41:19
  maturation programme is and you can use that as a touch point.
• 41:22
  You don't have to copy it, but at least it will inform.
• 41:25
  So when we look at new make, we we grade it on a different
• 41:29
  flavour profiles. So there's waxy, it's it's PT,
• 41:32
  that's it's grassy, it's floral. It will fall into one of those
• 41:36
  categories. And it from a blending point of
• 41:38
  view, I need to have eyes on that tips because I might say we
• 41:41
  need 10% of that held back and refill so that I can use it in
• 41:45
  blending. And then we can ask wood, add
• 41:46
  wood influence later. But one of the beauties of being
• 41:49
  an independent is we don't have a core range house style.
• 41:53
  So I can put it in a variety of different woods and even maybe
• 41:58
  ones that you wouldn't expect for that distillate and play
• 42:00
  around a little bit. And some of it's a bit of a
• 42:04
  finger and head exercise. Some of it's a really educated
• 42:07
  guess and some of it you're it's a safe path because you're kind
• 42:10
  of following in the footsteps of the distillery with what they
• 42:12
  would normally do. Yeah, I mean, yeah.
• 42:19
  So it's. Calm down.
• 42:20
  You're not going to end up sitting here one day asking a
• 42:22
  question. He's asking no really good
• 42:25
  question. He's going to take Agus's place,
• 42:28
  I mean. Texture obviously plays its
• 42:29
  part, but ultimately the the the distillery is the biggest
• 42:34
  insight into what performs well with their spirit.
• 42:37
  So that's probably the safest space you can play as.
• 42:41
  So the the manic more that we were talking about earlier is a
• 42:43
  great example. We've got we we had a a sister
• 42:46
  cask run, so 10 casts all filled in the same day, same
• 42:49
  distillate, all in refill. I've put them in a wild like the
• 42:53
  loads of different finishes. They're not.
• 42:54
  We've only released a couple recently.
• 42:56
  We've done the Sant Amelian Grand Cru with we've done hearts
• 42:59
  150th whiskey. Boo, I'm only joking.
• 43:05
  There's no need for that shirt. So yeah, that was that was a
• 43:09
  great example of a so I'll give you an insight on that one.
• 43:12
  Red wine finishes for me with the way they perform, it usually
• 43:16
  takes a bit longer for integration, but with the manic,
• 43:19
  more hostile, that kind of quite sweet and fruity style.
• 43:22
  It was ready way quicker than I expected it to be.
• 43:24
  It took on the the the wine comes on quickly, but sometimes
• 43:28
  is a bit disjointed. It takes a bit longer to get a
• 43:30
  bit sweetness back. It can be a little bit tannic, a
• 43:32
  bit too much going on, but that really quickly was ready to go.
• 43:36
  Other casks of other Santimilian casts that are filled at the
• 43:40
  exact same time, they're not ready yet because the distal,
• 43:42
  it's doing a different thing. So yeah, it's, it's very much a
• 43:46
  case by case. And listen, I've never worked at
• 43:48
  any of these distilleries. So I'm learning as I'll play
• 43:50
  around with the inventory that, oh right, that's noted that that
• 43:54
  particular distillery takes a finish quickly or works really
• 43:56
  well with a certain style. So yeah, I'm, I'm going through
• 43:59
  the job. Hopefully the consumers, if they
• 44:00
  stick with us and and keep trying our stuff as the years go
• 44:03
  on, they'll, they'll be going through that journey that I'm
• 44:05
  going through. Well, guys who are at the last
• 44:09
  indie ball or spotlight will be absolutely gutted to see that
• 44:11
  Angus has been given a Porter this week.
• 44:14
  This this time. I've also lost I've also lost my
• 44:16
  job on the podcast while something going.
• 44:19
  Round after Yeah. Finn Thompson's.
• 44:21
  It was a Tammy villain. 33 year old.
• 44:23
  Yeah, sorry. I was Angus was filling
• 44:27
  everyone's up to the brim. And unfortunately for for me, in
• 44:29
  fact, still embarrassed about it.
• 44:32
  This this drum. Next, Greg was in fact Vicky.
• 44:36
  It was yourself and I and Angus. We were you were involved in
• 44:40
  this vicariously. Greg.
• 44:42
  I believe we had been at a tasting the night before that
• 44:45
  you had been hosting Angus and I'd been at a tasting and the
• 44:49
  next day it was the Edinburgh Whiskey Festival.
• 44:51
  And I'll be perfectly honest, we arrived very early that day to
• 44:54
  get set up at the Edinburgh Whiskey Festival.
• 44:56
  I was still feeling the after effects of Greg.
• 44:58
  'S I had a very fuzzy head. And we kind of didn't know.
• 45:01
  And we bumped into yourself, Vicky, and we were walking
• 45:04
  around and we had to have a drama to get started on the day.
• 45:07
  And we thought, well, Angus and I made the decision, why don't
• 45:10
  we start where we left off, which was a taste in Mcgregg's.
• 45:13
  We found the the Glenmore Spirit stand and there it was.
• 45:16
  And I think I asked you pick me one Vicky, and you pick the
• 45:20
  Deanston 18. So it's your fault.
• 45:25
  So it's my fault. I, I love, I love the Deanston.
• 45:27
  Deanston there was probably one of the first distilleries that I
• 45:30
  actually had a tour in and I was fascinated by the way that they
• 45:33
  processed Israel. And, and again, I'm talking
• 45:37
  about the mouthfeel, that kind of waxiness that they can get
• 45:39
  out of it. Like there's only other few
• 45:41
  distilleries that can do that, like plain leash for example.
• 45:44
  Yeah. So it's always something that
• 45:45
  always, always stands out for it.
• 45:47
  And that was one of the. First chance that you had at the
• 45:49
  end of the. Room.
• 45:50
  Yeah, yeah. And it.
• 45:51
  Got me, it got me right over the hill.
• 45:53
  I would say it was your colleague John, who we know a
• 45:58
  little bit and he he, when you go to a whiskey festival and
• 46:03
  things are obviously pouring's really, really important.
• 46:05
  But I think John knew that I needed maybe a double helping
• 46:08
  just to just to get us going, Angus.
• 46:10
  And we certainly did for the rest of the day Saturday the
• 46:12
  right way. My.
• 46:12
  Helping's all round. So, so Greg, tell us, tell us a
• 46:16
  little bit about this drum, 'cause I absolutely loved it
• 46:18
  that day and I'm really looking forward to trying this again.
• 46:20
  Yeah. So as I said earlier, there was
• 46:22
  a drama on the table that I'm particularly proud of and it's
• 46:26
  it's this one. Obviously I picked, I picked the
• 46:29
  whole out turn, so I should be proud of it all.
• 46:31
  And you shouldn't have your favourites but.
• 46:33
  I think it's a lot of your children.
• 46:34
  Yeah, yeah. Well, I've only got one that I
• 46:36
  know of. So it's it's an easy, it's an
• 46:38
  easy pick. So yeah, this drama in
• 46:40
  particular the the cask was, was the spirit was lovely.
• 46:44
  So I assess this when it came in, it was definitely a pass.
• 46:47
  I think I'd given it a kind of 6 or A7, but we got the
• 46:51
  opportunity at that point as part of our CAS programme to buy
• 46:56
  in some seasoned dollar also casks.
• 46:59
  So these were ex wine breaks that had been refurbed and and
• 47:03
  prepped for seasoning. And we've been approached by the
• 47:07
  gentleman. In fact a quick Side Story on
• 47:10
  this. So the gentleman who provided
• 47:12
  these casks came to visit as he flew all the way over from Spain
• 47:16
  to come and introduce themselves.
• 47:17
  He went to see other people in the industry, but we sent them
• 47:20
  the address which was an industrial estate in Leith.
• 47:22
  And he came in and we're having a face to face chat in the
• 47:26
  warehouse and a group of local youth chased a a rival gang
• 47:31
  member into the warehouse. We're threatening all sorts.
• 47:36
  And then the gentleman, we're sorry this.
• 47:38
  See, when people say Leith is all fancy now and you know it's
• 47:43
  all regenerated, there's still, there's still people running
• 47:46
  from gangs, right? There's enough gentrification
• 47:49
  that passed off as a it's kind of live theatre piece.
• 47:53
  Don't worry that the knives were fake.
• 47:54
  It's fine. So yeah, he, he was quite
• 47:57
  shocked at that point, but we've since become quite good friends.
• 48:00
  He was over the other week actually.
• 48:02
  And this was one of his casks. So this this was one of these 12
• 48:07
  month season dollar also casks. And this has had a six month
• 48:10
  finish. And I just think it was the
• 48:13
  perfect point for pulling it out.
• 48:14
  So I was monitoring these very closely because it was the first
• 48:17
  time we'd worked with these casks.
• 48:18
  I was checking them maybe every couple of months.
• 48:20
  And I was like, we need to put this out.
• 48:22
  This is absolutely perfect. And I had the opportunity to go
• 48:26
  out for dinner with the, the gentleman who's supplied these
• 48:29
  forecast a couple of weeks ago. And we after dinner, I took a
• 48:32
  Scotch at Balmoral again. Always gets they must.
• 48:34
  They're surely they're sponsorship.
• 48:36
  We're still. Waiting on sponsorship, we.
• 48:39
  Went in there and they they. They've poured us a drama this
• 48:41
  and I got to enjoy it with him and it was the first time he
• 48:44
  tried it and he's he's new to working with the whiskey
• 48:46
  industry. So it was one of the he's he's
• 48:48
  tried a couple with this. He's he was blown away with the
• 48:50
  how how well this is presented. So it was, it was a really that
• 48:54
  having that total rapper. Yeah.
• 48:58
  I think so. He's yeah.
• 48:59
  If he's listening, you're too cheap.
• 49:01
  And see see when that that gang of youths came in and started
• 49:05
  sort of their their theatre production that you'd have to
• 49:07
  take your top off and show them your tattoo, which men they
• 49:10
  understood which gang and leaf you are from.
• 49:12
  I know It's all hand signals, Graham.
• 49:14
  Yeah. You don't want tattoos.
• 49:16
  That's too easily. I mean, when we're drinking this
• 49:20
  DRAM and you're talking about wood, we've talked a lot about
• 49:22
  wood management and stuff like that.
• 49:24
  Yeah. And we're we we see and hear
• 49:27
  about independent bottlers buying casks, bottling them or
• 49:32
  yeah, re racking them, putting the liquid into other casts to
• 49:35
  finish them off and stuff like that.
• 49:36
  But you're also, and as Ross has said and other people, Farouk
• 49:39
  had said, sorry about the buying new make spirit.
• 49:42
  That then means a new dimension of procurement from your point
• 49:46
  of view as well, in the sense that you have to source empty
• 49:49
  casks, you have to source wood. And one of the things we hear a
• 49:51
  lot of in the industry is people are saying it's becoming harder
• 49:55
  and harder to source good casks, good wood, because you've got
• 50:00
  you're competing with the big dogs.
• 50:01
  You're competing with the likes of Edgington's and the likes of
• 50:04
  William Grant and Sons and all these big players that are
• 50:07
  producing, you know, massive amount of liquid every single
• 50:10
  day that all has to be put in wood that they would need to
• 50:13
  have to their level. So how do you go about that
• 50:15
  then? How do you source your casks?
• 50:17
  And is that another part of your job now where instead of just
• 50:20
  finishing in the odd finishing casks, you actually have to have
• 50:23
  large scale amounts of of casks to put your new make spirit in
• 50:27
  and as well as the finisher? Well, I was, and I had another
• 50:30
  big question to that. Just because he didn't ask you
• 50:31
  enough, don't. Delay it's.
• 50:35
  His. First one he's been.
• 50:37
  Here I might, I might be being naive, but when you're buying,
• 50:40
  you make spirit. Surely you're getting an option
• 50:41
  to buy you make spirit in cask. I know that you're doing a lot
• 50:45
  of wood management, but if you're buying from, I would say,
• 50:49
  OK, not specifics, but say like Glen Glen Lewis and Balandala
• 50:53
  young distilleries with very good spirit, surely they're
• 50:56
  providing an American old Cog said.
• 50:58
  If you're buying enough new, make spirit from them.
• 51:02
  No, no, essentially not me. Yeah.
• 51:04
  I mean, they're yeah. So they're.
• 51:06
  They are literally just sending you like plastic containers.
• 51:08
  A new make, yeah. Wood's so important.
• 51:11
  So you, you've got to understand that the, that, as Graham says,
• 51:13
  the market is really tight on wood and these relationships
• 51:16
  that people have with cooperages with a consolidation sites all
• 51:20
  around the world that, that procure the best of the wood
• 51:23
  from that market. If you've not got a direct in
• 51:26
  with them, you're struggling, you're, you're picking through.
• 51:28
  And there's nothing wrong with buying wood in Scotland.
• 51:31
  We've done it, we still do it. We'll continue to do that,
• 51:33
  whether it's refill or we can we, we, there's some partners
• 51:37
  that we buy from that get, have great access to bring in mixed
• 51:41
  containers into the Scottish market.
• 51:43
  But one of my kind of key pushes on the wood strategy about 3
• 51:46
  years ago, maybe four years now actually, was to try and get as
• 51:50
  close to source on that wood management because it's such an
• 51:52
  integral part of the story. So we now have partners that we
• 51:56
  work. So we've got a seasoning
• 51:57
  programme in a Barba deal with Barba deal in San Lukar, part of
• 52:01
  the the Sherry Triangle. We've got a seasoning programme
• 52:04
  there. We buy from our cooperage in
• 52:06
  Montier and not our cooperage. You don't own it.
• 52:08
  That sounded like it was ours. It's a well established
• 52:12
  cooperage who other people in industry use.
• 52:14
  We've went that step closer and we deal with them direct.
• 52:17
  They also came to Leith, but there was no, there's no riots
• 52:19
  in the warehouse that day. We we've just even last week at
• 52:24
  we don't have a programme just now for port casks.
• 52:26
  So I had a meeting a couple of weeks ago actually it was with a
• 52:30
  potential cooperage and, and just outside of portal we've
• 52:34
  been buying direct from a consolidation cooperage in
• 52:38
  Australia. So we're trying to get as close
• 52:40
  as we can for building that provenance story for casks like
• 52:45
  this. I've met the guy who owns a
• 52:47
  winery that seasoned this cask and that is why I'm really proud
• 52:51
  of this particular bottling. And but yeah, that wood strategy
• 52:56
  for me, it needs to be spread. You need to, you need to be open
• 53:00
  to taking stuff that you maybe didn't think you were going to
• 53:03
  take. But that's the beauty of being
• 53:04
  an independent. I can buy a parcel of mixed wood
• 53:07
  and then assign the liquid to after because we've got a
• 53:10
  flexible inventory. We're not tied down to doing a
• 53:13
  specific house style. So you're buying a lot of refill
• 53:15
  wine at the moment? Not a little bit, no.
• 53:17
  I mean, even last year we took in, we took in nearly 2000 first
• 53:21
  for bourbon cash last year because.
• 53:22
  This is this is the biggest companies in whiskey right now.
• 53:26
  Not buying bourbon cash to fill new me expect at the moment
• 53:28
  William Grant and Sons have just bought 40,000 refill wine casks
• 53:32
  because of the price of bourbon casks.
• 53:33
  Yeah. I mean, but our inventory, we're
• 53:36
  trying to, we're trying to come up with a strategy where we
• 53:38
  balance it or between Berman Sherry.
• 53:41
  Now they'll have, they'll have legacy cast that they bought,
• 53:44
  they they'll have bought container loads over the last 10
• 53:47
  years that will be in their business for decades.
• 53:49
  And and they'll still be able to use that in their their
• 53:52
  programme that needs that type of influence.
• 53:54
  But the way if you're buying Newcast now, you're right, the,
• 53:57
  the bourbon market's tight, it's expensive.
• 54:00
  We've got a good that. Used to be the reasonable
• 54:02
  option, yeah. Oh, you can't even put it in
• 54:03
  that bourbon cask. It's not reasonable anymore.
• 54:06
  Probably gone up about 5 times and really it's like 5.
• 54:09
  Not it's not went up five times, it's it's went up by 5 times
• 54:13
  since I I first started. That has a huge impact on your
• 54:16
  bottom line because when you look at the price of whiskey and
• 54:18
  you know, if anyone is interested invested in
• 54:20
  purchasing any of these bottles, Greg does have the sort of
• 54:23
  retail price that you can you can get them through.
• 54:25
  But that's The thing is we as consumers, we're all sitting
• 54:28
  there seeing the prices of whiskey rise up loads and loads
• 54:32
  of those. I think that's why probably a
• 54:33
  lot of us like to drink here in diggers because the cost of
• 54:36
  dramber 35 mil is absolutely fantastic.
• 54:39
  I kept putting on, but it really does sort of show that when you
• 54:43
  when you do see a lot of the work that has to go in the fact
• 54:48
  that to make this Deanston happen, someone's had to come
• 54:53
  over from Spain or Portugal, Spain over from Spain to build
• 54:57
  that relationship to then purchase the wood from then to
• 55:00
  come in for that whiskey. To go ahead.
• 55:02
  On the subject of Deanston, I do just want to mention a big
• 55:04
  honourable mention to our own Tiger's whiskey guru here, Dom.
• 55:09
  He's absolutely he's mortified. But I would also like to say as
• 55:13
  well, whilst Dom's here, a big thank you because Dom not only
• 55:16
  is the one that has to put up with us looking for our drams
• 55:19
  when we're coming in to record, he's very helpful.
• 55:21
  He usually has drams laid out for us already thinking, oh,
• 55:24
  this is the last podcast. I think you might like this one.
• 55:27
  But you're also become our booking agent Dom as well,
• 55:29
  haven't you? He's he's at about Dom.
• 55:34
  What's your thought so far on the on the whiskeys tonight?
• 55:37
  I've had them all before because I've been allowed to meet with
• 55:41
  John. Yeah, it was very lovely.
• 55:43
  And Cat, I'm assuming? Did you invite John?
• 55:46
  Yeah, yeah. I invite him out all the time.
• 55:49
  He just always says no. I don't know.
• 55:50
  I don't know what. I don't know what I've done to
• 55:52
  John. John, if you're listening, I'm
• 55:53
  sorry. Let's go.
• 55:55
  Come on, John. Come on, John, please.
• 55:56
  Actually, I think we were in Scotch last time we tried all of
• 55:59
  these. Yeah.
• 56:01
  I mean, I've been to a few of your preview tastings and
• 56:04
  basically 95% plus of it is always really, really suited to
• 56:11
  me. And one of the big things I like
• 56:13
  about Rarefied is that I, I'm placed up with like Greg's
• 56:17
  tasting notes ideally matched with me for some reason.
• 56:20
  So I think they're spot on and intuitive and really
• 56:23
  approachable. What about Chuck's tasting notes
• 56:29
  do wanky buddy? I mean, I get that a lot so.
• 56:35
  Chuck's got a question, one more question on the woods.
• 56:37
  Yes, I was. Just going to ask I.
• 56:39
  Mean so when all the new distilleries were coming out,
• 56:42
  you saw a lot of aggressive push for like STR casks.
• 56:45
  I think a lot of people got quite jaded about that.
• 56:48
  What's STR? Sorry, first of all.
• 56:50
  STR would be stripped, toasted and recharged.
• 56:52
  So you're taking. Casks that have been utilized a
• 56:55
  couple of times, taking a couple of layers off and then retorting
• 56:59
  and recharging. So and again like more usage out
• 57:02
  of it, do you think that'd be a bit more prevalent or is that
• 57:04
  something you've thought about using more?
• 57:06
  I mean, as part, as part of our strategy, I mean, you've a lot
• 57:10
  of people maybe don't understand, but if you're
• 57:12
  dealing with a especially like European oak with the thicker
• 57:16
  staves, the butts, for instance, we so we've got some butts that
• 57:20
  are getting shaved and, and re toasted to our spec just now.
• 57:25
  One from a sustainability point of view, the cost of wood, the
• 57:29
  they perform as well as the, the wood anyway, It's just the doubt
• 57:33
  of that management. I think it, it sounds like there
• 57:35
  that someone's trying to pull the wool over somebody's eyes,
• 57:37
  But a lot of, a lot of what you see in the stave isn't really
• 57:40
  getting used properly. So they you hear about it a lot
• 57:44
  because I think, I think the liquid actually turns out to
• 57:46
  like penetrate like one like 14 millimetres into the wood.
• 57:51
  At the end of the day, so. Thinking about taking a couple
• 57:54
  of layers off and then allowing you access SO.
• 57:56
  It's a shortcut method. Shortcut, shortcut method, STR
• 57:59
  cast. Nobody wants to say that, but it
• 58:01
  is. I mean, the King's Barns done a
• 58:02
  really good job with it, but we're not actually seeing any
• 58:05
  particularly aged whiskey and STR casts, is it?
• 58:11
  Doctor Jim Swan's method? And he basically he's done this,
• 58:14
  he's done this consulting for still these all over the world.
• 58:17
  And it meant you as ski. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 58:22
  He's distilleries. I found it 10 years ago.
• 58:24
  Yeah, no, but without. Well, just tell.
• 58:29
  Me the risk has to be 3 years old as you know that one that.
• 58:33
  Will that create? So from an STR point of view, if
• 58:36
  you're using STR, will that create a certain original effect
• 58:41
  on the on the Crisco? Right.
• 58:42
  I'm going to do a bit of roving. Vicky has very kindly decided to
• 58:45
  take on the challenge of pouring the the next drama.
• 58:48
  Also just quickly Dom, I want to ask what were your thoughts on
• 58:50
  Angus's pouring technique There it.
• 58:53
  Was pretty good, yeah. Not bad.
• 58:55
  Not bad at all. Yeah, I.
• 58:56
  Think you get a shift in there behind the barn diggers.
• 58:58
  We'll see. We'll see.
• 59:00
  Oh, I think. Happily work behind the barn
• 59:04
  diggers. We'll go over here.
• 59:07
  What are your thoughts so far then?
• 59:10
  On this last round on. All the drums at the pack.
• 59:12
  Oh. They've all been.
• 59:13
  Delightful. I would say the last one was
• 59:17
  like a burnt caramel Creme brulee there's.
• 59:21
  A little wanky whiskey tasting? Not for you, no.
• 59:24
  I like that. That's good.
• 59:27
  Taran So we got into a bit of a debate about whether the So I
• 59:32
  was like, it tastes like the toffee penny and I was like,
• 59:35
  that's in the Roses box. And then James.
• 59:37
  Was like, no, it's in the Quality St. box.
• 59:41
  We fell out about that. We were like, yeah, we both
• 59:45
  well. The three of us won't.
• 59:46
  It was Quality St. though, yeah, whoever said.
• 59:48
  It was I got it wrong. I got it wrong.
• 59:50
  So I can't. Not here.
• 59:54
  No, it's very nice, very good. Yeah.
• 59:56
  It's it's uncanny how we're writing the same toasting notes
• 59:59
  without seeing so. So, Greg, when you.
• 1:00:09
  When you started out, did you ever think that you would end up
• 1:00:12
  working in at the level that you did?
• 1:00:14
  I mean, when you how long ago was it that you took that
• 1:00:16
  photograph and what's it been like to get to where you are
• 1:00:19
  just now then? Yeah, that was, it was coming up
• 1:00:22
  for. It'll be 1010 years ago next
• 1:00:24
  year, 10 years, 10 years. So it's been in one way it feels
• 1:00:28
  like a long time, but at the same time it's kind of flown by.
• 1:00:31
  I think one of the things I'm being really disappointed, like
• 1:00:35
  everybody was affected by Covad. That was kind of when I really
• 1:00:38
  had the rains on the whiskey maturation and I wanted to go
• 1:00:42
  visiting a lot of distilleries and doing a lot of connecting.
• 1:00:45
  But I was kind of just locked away doing it in the warehouse,
• 1:00:48
  which is which is fine. But yeah, it's, I'm so grateful
• 1:00:53
  to to be a part of the business and be given the freedom to do
• 1:00:57
  what I do with the spirit. It's it's great.
• 1:01:00
  I mean, we do have an internal tasting panel now for releases
• 1:01:03
  as well. So I think it's important
• 1:01:04
  because it can't all just be on my say so.
• 1:01:07
  So I'll pick the cast and I'll run it past the team and they
• 1:01:10
  won't know what they're tasting. But I just, I want that second
• 1:01:12
  level of just like, is this right?
• 1:01:16
  And that's an important part of growing because you need to
• 1:01:20
  appeal to everybody. And I'm not everybody.
• 1:01:22
  So I need I need a balance panel.
• 1:01:24
  Ross, you've, you've just arrived here, are you?
• 1:01:27
  Did you catch up? Have you caught up with your
• 1:01:28
  drums? Have.
• 1:01:29
  And I've got to say I've actually purposely kept the
• 1:01:32
  Altmore twice now and I've added water to it and I could come
• 1:01:36
  back to it. It's a great spirit, something I
• 1:01:38
  don't get to drink enough of. Aberfeldy was lovely.
• 1:01:42
  I think I've maybe had that Aberfeldy in the last week or so
• 1:01:44
  actually. And the Deanston is good.
• 1:01:46
  I was excited about the Deanston because of what Greg done with
• 1:01:48
  Deanston. Previously you had quite an old
• 1:01:51
  Deanston that you split in two and I thought this was really
• 1:01:54
  interesting because this is when people wanted to learn about
• 1:01:57
  what is independent bottling, what is official bottling you
• 1:02:01
  had. How old was it?
• 1:02:02
  So what we had was a a refill hogs head with a 26 year old
• 1:02:07
  Deanston. 26 year old Deanston And instead of just bottling it,
• 1:02:10
  we have bottled half of it. Yeah.
• 1:02:14
  And then? Well, it wasn't quite half.
• 1:02:16
  So what What had happened was I had an opportunity to to
• 1:02:19
  experiment with a 128 litre seasoned all of Russell Cask,
• 1:02:25
  which is 1/4 of a buck. So a lot of times people refer
• 1:02:30
  to that as a quarter cherry cask and people think it's tiny, but
• 1:02:33
  it's quite a a reasonable vessel.
• 1:02:35
  So a big rest yeah. So I thought it's I thought I'll
• 1:02:39
  I'll give it a I'll get, I'll brim that full and I'll just
• 1:02:43
  monitor it. So I think it was seven months
• 1:02:45
  finish, but the donor liquid was was a nine like I'm going to
• 1:02:50
  call it, it was a nine. But I still chose to finish
• 1:02:52
  because I wanted to showcase that independent bottlers don't
• 1:02:55
  always just have spirit that's lacking, and we're finishing it
• 1:02:59
  to hide A spirit that's not ready.
• 1:03:01
  Yeah, this was something that, and many people that bought both
• 1:03:04
  and tried both said at if you, it was probably a 5050 split.
• 1:03:08
  I liked it before you finished it.
• 1:03:10
  I liked it after you finished it.
• 1:03:11
  I thought the two really showcased what we could do as as
• 1:03:14
  a business. That's really interesting.
• 1:03:16
  It's like, well, it's like a whiskey.
• 1:03:17
  Spot the difference? Well.
• 1:03:18
  Before, before we move on to our before we move on to our next
• 1:03:21
  drama, I just want to make a point.
• 1:03:23
  I, I thought I have a good pal here, Angus for pouring and it's
• 1:03:27
  pouring techniques what we can. See and and and I have to say
• 1:03:30
  Graham, if you if you can look at the 1st 2 bottles and then
• 1:03:33
  look at the third bottle, you can see I've been on my best.
• 1:03:35
  What we can see here is. Vicky can't be trusted with all
• 1:03:38
  footballs. Greg, you've you've turned up a
• 1:03:46
  hole in this ball because there's something wrong with
• 1:03:48
  this, but lead us on tonight. You're coming back.
• 1:03:52
  That's a rageous. Hi, Vicky.
• 1:03:55
  You poured them just enough so I managed to get 25 miles out of
• 1:03:58
  that one. So thank you very much.
• 1:04:00
  It was a digger's pool, I think if you got carried away, been in
• 1:04:02
  diggers. But Greg, lead us on to this.
• 1:04:03
  This is our 4th DRAM that we're on.
• 1:04:05
  Well, I don't, I don't know what I've done, Vicky, but she's
• 1:04:07
  definitely only gave me 25. I don't know who got, I don't
• 1:04:10
  know who got extra. But anyway, yeah, the final
• 1:04:13
  DRAM. So that, as I mentioned earlier,
• 1:04:14
  we sometimes get stuff that we can't.
• 1:04:16
  Penultimate DRAM. The penultimate DRAM.
• 1:04:18
  The final DRAM on this table, but not the last round tonight.
• 1:04:22
  So this is an 11 year old brackets medium PT dialer.
• 1:04:27
  So my tasting notes are on the sheet if you want to look at
• 1:04:31
  them if not, do your own. But this is an excellent example
• 1:04:36
  of an Isle a spirit trying to be careful about not slipping up
• 1:04:40
  here. So what what I've done with
• 1:04:42
  this? I mean I.
• 1:04:43
  I reckon that was what Vicky's strategy was.
• 1:04:45
  That's right. Yeah.
• 1:04:46
  Yeah. Trying to get you to slip and
• 1:04:47
  spill the beans. This is the worst favorite doing
• 1:04:49
  a tasting on the podcast. Yeah, the NDA are.
• 1:04:52
  I know, I know. So this is quite a complicated
• 1:04:55
  cask that we finished it in. So to to explain to everyone in
• 1:04:58
  the room, sometimes we get an opportunity to have casks that
• 1:05:02
  have been used in actual bodegas for Sherry maturation.
• 1:05:07
  So this was this would have been a buck originally, but the
• 1:05:10
  cooperage that we use in in Montier had broken it down into
• 1:05:14
  a smaller vessel. So this came as as a hogs head.
• 1:05:16
  So the the actual wood itself, the wood influence isn't really
• 1:05:20
  there from the finish. Any wood influence will be from
• 1:05:25
  the previous vessel, which was a refill hogs head.
• 1:05:28
  But the actual Sherry element of it would have come from that
• 1:05:31
  bodega cast that was broken down in a smaller vessel and that was
• 1:05:36
  used for 15 years. Sorry, it was used for 20 years
• 1:05:40
  in a Sherry bodega. And then I've done a 15 month
• 1:05:42
  finish on this with that cask if that makes.
• 1:05:45
  Sense and perhaps we should explain that because maybe quite
• 1:05:47
  a lot of people won't realise this is it's not maybe you know,
• 1:05:51
  people might think you see Sherry casks, you think, well,
• 1:05:54
  that's held Sherry for 20 years as like you said, this cask has.
• 1:05:57
  But generally speaking, Sherry casks or things that are listed
• 1:06:00
  as Sherry casks, I've only really been seasoned with Sherry
• 1:06:04
  before they come to cold whiskey.
• 1:06:06
  Is that right? That's absolutely right.
• 1:06:07
  So I mentioned it earlier that we've got a seasoning programme
• 1:06:11
  with Barbadale. All of the wood that's been used
• 1:06:14
  in that seasoning programme with aspect out char levels, whether
• 1:06:18
  I wanted American oak, European oak, even some of it's in
• 1:06:21
  specifically Spanish oak. They've all had 24 months
• 1:06:25
  season. So that means it's a new vessel.
• 1:06:27
  It's been, it's been toasted or charred to the level I want.
• 1:06:30
  They'll fill it with Sherry. 24 months later they'll decant the
• 1:06:34
  Sherry, send the cast over and we'll fill them.
• 1:06:38
  So it's a, it's a different animal from those old
• 1:06:40
  traditional, traditional bodega casks which are, you don't see
• 1:06:44
  much of that going around. So this is an example of that
• 1:06:47
  with this being first film, first time use for us, 15
• 1:06:50
  months. I think it's quite, it's a
• 1:06:53
  controlled integration of the Sherry influence.
• 1:06:57
  If that had been a 24 month seasoned vessel for that same
• 1:07:01
  finishing period, it would be much more elevated than the
• 1:07:04
  Sherry influence on that because the the the cask is really
• 1:07:09
  active. It's got a lot of wood contact,
• 1:07:11
  wood influence coming through. So yeah, this is another example
• 1:07:16
  of a part of the WOOD program I've been working on and our
• 1:07:20
  connections that we have kind of direct from sources, as close as
• 1:07:23
  we can get to sources. And another little point of
• 1:07:25
  order from something you mentioned actually a while ago,
• 1:07:27
  you mentioned when you're taking on new make Spirit, you often
• 1:07:31
  you know the tanker arrives, it's new make Spirit.
• 1:07:34
  It goes into basically a plastic container in terms of the aging
• 1:07:39
  process that doesn't start until it hits wood.
• 1:07:41
  Yeah, it's got, it's got to be. Even if it's distilled 3 or 4
• 1:07:44
  weeks ago. Yep, in the spirit you you
• 1:07:47
  don't. The aging process does not start
• 1:07:48
  until it hits the oak. Absolutely.
• 1:07:50
  And, and sometimes we'll, we'll receive a tanker and we'll,
• 1:07:53
  we'll have to put into IBC until we've selected the wood we want
• 1:07:56
  for that particular filling programme or we're maybe waiting
• 1:07:59
  on a wood delivery so you can try and get these things to you.
• 1:08:02
  You're talking about shipping casks from the other side of the
• 1:08:04
  world to land at the same time for a tanker that you ordered 8
• 1:08:08
  months ago. The logistics of that can be
• 1:08:11
  quite tricky. And there might be a couple of
• 1:08:14
  weeks or whatever between you hold it in the vessel, but the
• 1:08:17
  actual ageing process doesn't happen until it's hit that wood,
• 1:08:20
  as you say. One of the, one of the debates
• 1:08:23
  that we had on the, on the podcast a couple of weeks ago
• 1:08:26
  was when does a, when does a distillery become an established
• 1:08:30
  distillery? Where you look at we was
• 1:08:32
  Kilhoman, Kilhoman, that was, we had the Kilhoman episode.
• 1:08:35
  And you look at Kilhoman, it opened its doors in 2005 and you
• 1:08:39
  would say, is Kilhoman now deemed coming up for 20 years?
• 1:08:43
  Is it deemed as a new distillery versus what?
• 1:08:47
  When do you become a sort of recognised or established or and
• 1:08:51
  we've we've talked about this as well.
• 1:08:53
  When you have you have indie bottlers and then you have
• 1:08:56
  independent bottlers and you look around, you've got Cardin
• 1:08:59
  heads, Gordon and Macphail. And you know, there's plenty of
• 1:09:03
  others that are, you know, independent bottlers that have
• 1:09:06
  been in the game for a very, very, very long time.
• 1:09:08
  And the history of independent bottlers is a really fascinating
• 1:09:11
  one about how how people like Gordon Macphail set up and
• 1:09:15
  Cardin heads as well. So from your own perspective and
• 1:09:18
  from Glenmore Spirits point of view, now that you are laying
• 1:09:21
  down casks and I think we, I think it was Peter from Woven,
• 1:09:25
  we spoke about it. When you enter a, an industry
• 1:09:28
  that's hundreds of years old and you're in a market where there
• 1:09:32
  are people in that same area who have been around for those
• 1:09:35
  hundreds of years. Where do you see yourselves at
• 1:09:38
  the moment and what do you see the level of growth being like
• 1:09:41
  for Glenmore Spirits? I think when you, when you look
• 1:09:44
  at these generational family owned distilleries, no one's
• 1:09:49
  ever really going to catch up with that.
• 1:09:51
  I mean these, these well established powerhouses of the
• 1:09:54
  industry are going to be around because the, the spirit is great
• 1:09:58
  and the reputation is great and it's and hopefully they carry on
• 1:10:01
  for, for the rest of time. We're we're 10 years old next
• 1:10:05
  year. We'll be celebrating our, our
• 1:10:07
  anniversary quarter one, quarter 2 next year.
• 1:10:09
  Can't remember exactly when, but they will ten years is nothing
• 1:10:13
  in whiskey really. Well, especially like some of
• 1:10:16
  the stuff we're releasing. We've we've put a 50 year old
• 1:10:19
  whiskey before we've put a 52 year old whiskey as we've not
• 1:10:22
  made it in terms of the spirit. We've just been custodians of
• 1:10:26
  it. And as a business and and even
• 1:10:28
  my role within the business, I'm just a custodian of that role.
• 1:10:31
  Someone will Glenmore will be around after I'm not here.
• 1:10:35
  I'll just be passing the baton on to someone else to pick up
• 1:10:38
  the reins and you we don't really get caught up in that.
• 1:10:41
  We just try to do the best we can with what we've got in the
• 1:10:43
  inventory now and always look to elevate that next year, what 10
• 1:10:47
  years looks like and just get closer to being.
• 1:10:50
  I would love to be in the same conversation as your Berry
• 1:10:52
  brothers, your can heads your your Gordon Macphail's in 100
• 1:10:55
  years. I hope Glenn, Glenn Morris here
• 1:10:57
  and and all our grandchildren are sitting in the diggers with
• 1:11:01
  with your your daughter. I'm here.
• 1:11:07
  Have you released anything that you've laid down as new make yet
• 1:11:10
  or is that to come? No.
• 1:11:12
  So that's, that's definitely a while off yet.
• 1:11:14
  So I think the the youngest release and a rare find bottle
• 1:11:21
  because obviously blends is we've got a bit of flexibility
• 1:11:23
  in age there, but the youngest release and rare finds being a 5
• 1:11:27
  year old and that was quite bold.
• 1:11:29
  But yeah, I mean that's that new make that we're dealing with
• 1:11:33
  just now is that's the future strategy we've got.
• 1:11:36
  We've got enough age stock that we can we we're fine for for
• 1:11:40
  decades to come that we can always populate these kind of
• 1:11:43
  age statements that that you see here tonight and older as well.
• 1:11:45
  We've got, we've got plenty of inventory that's 30 plus.
• 1:11:48
  Going off on a bit of a tangent here, one question I wanted to
• 1:11:50
  ask. You were talking a bit before
• 1:11:52
  the podcast started about your bottles, and there's a
• 1:11:54
  thumbprint on your bottles on the front, and there's also a
• 1:11:57
  thumbprint on the top of the kind of.
• 1:12:01
  Boxes. The boxes.
• 1:12:04
  Is that anyone's thumb in particular, or is it just?
• 1:12:06
  As a clip art, so I was actually.
• 1:12:08
  I did suddenly wonder is that somebody's actually so.
• 1:12:11
  It is the single most common question that we get at
• 1:12:14
  tastings. Oh, there we.
• 1:12:15
  Go. Still looking for them?
• 1:12:17
  Yes, asking. The obvious question.
• 1:12:19
  Yeah, so it's just a, it's just a design.
• 1:12:23
  So it was, it was created as a design.
• 1:12:24
  A lot of people think it's the director's thumbprint or mine,
• 1:12:27
  but you don't. We don't want anyone hacking
• 1:12:29
  into our phones. We're scanning a wall and but
• 1:12:32
  yeah, I literally, I had this. We had, we've got a Japanese
• 1:12:35
  importer who had an interview with them this morning and that
• 1:12:38
  was one of the first questions they asked was where this and
• 1:12:41
  it's something that's really a people latch onto it.
• 1:12:45
  They want to know why it's there.
• 1:12:46
  It's pretty simple. It's, it's the individuality of
• 1:12:49
  a thumbprint. We, we think about the cask like
• 1:12:52
  that. So it's not so much about the
• 1:12:53
  spirit, the influence of the cask.
• 1:12:55
  And it goes back to what I was saying about the manic more
• 1:12:57
  earlier 10 casks all refill, all filled in the same day.
• 1:13:00
  And they were all, they all had their own identity.
• 1:13:03
  So it's it's celebrating that individually individuality of
• 1:13:06
  the cask and what that brings. And you had someone enquiring,
• 1:13:10
  just to make you aware they phoned you up, did they not?
• 1:13:14
  Yeah, so we, we had AI hope this person's not listening, GDPR and
• 1:13:20
  all that. So we had an e-mail from a
• 1:13:23
  customer who kindly bought one of our bottles and engaged with
• 1:13:26
  the product. And that's great.
• 1:13:28
  But they, they had quite a hurried e-mail, received a
• 1:13:33
  product and a day later, I really like the whiskey, but I
• 1:13:36
  just wanted to flag it to you. Someone had left a thumbprint on
• 1:13:39
  my bottle and I couldn't get off.
• 1:13:42
  And then he proceeded to say, but it was also on the display
• 1:13:45
  case on the top and on the front and on the back.
• 1:13:48
  And I was like, I'm really sorry to, I don't know how else to put
• 1:13:52
  this. That's our logo.
• 1:13:54
  I don't know. You've scrubbed the bottle for
• 1:13:56
  it. Yeah.
• 1:13:57
  But also for everybody here and not to put my good old pal Angus
• 1:14:00
  on the spot, but Angus was struggling to get the the case
• 1:14:04
  off the top of the the box. And and Greg pointed out that
• 1:14:08
  you just need to put your thumb on the thumb for it.
• 1:14:09
  And I won't say whether Angus put his thumb on top, but I
• 1:14:15
  wait. But when it, when it comes to
• 1:14:18
  welcome back to the, the, the point about planning and
• 1:14:21
  longevity and stuff like that, whiskey is such a unique
• 1:14:24
  industry in the sense that when you lay casks down and you have
• 1:14:27
  to wait three years in a day before they can before they can
• 1:14:30
  call them whiskey. And then there's that, that
• 1:14:32
  moment where we had Finn Thompson on the last one and
• 1:14:35
  Finn was blessed with the fact that his grandfather, as his own
• 1:14:39
  sort of admission, was a collector.
• 1:14:41
  And having passed up the Ben Eagles and the old Perth brand,
• 1:14:44
  his grandfather had still decided.
• 1:14:45
  I'm going to keep hold and still sort of keep my eye in the game
• 1:14:49
  and keep hold of some of these casks and carry on buying them.
• 1:14:53
  From from your point of view, there's a lot of pressure on
• 1:14:56
  your shoulders, whereas you're making decisions not only for
• 1:14:58
  what goes into bottles now, for putting on the market in your
• 1:15:02
  quarter releases, but you're also having to make decisions
• 1:15:05
  years down the line. And you know there might be
• 1:15:08
  somebody one day going, hopefully, thank God Greg
• 1:15:12
  Urquhart was on the ball because he really made a great decision
• 1:15:15
  seven or eight years ago or they might be going, what were they
• 1:15:18
  bloody thinking 20 years ago when they made these?
• 1:15:21
  Does that cross your mind a lot? Does that?
• 1:15:23
  Is that something that plays on your mind?
• 1:15:25
  Well, unlike Finn, my granddad just left bookies debts to the
• 1:15:29
  family in terms of I would just hope that whoever takes on the
• 1:15:36
  spirits management after me, they're good enough to hide the
• 1:15:39
  bad ones. That's it.
• 1:15:41
  You hope that. No, but you've got to have a
• 1:15:43
  view, view of the future. And that's as I say, I'm the
• 1:15:46
  custodian of the the wood programme and the spirit that's
• 1:15:49
  in the business just now. And I would love to think that
• 1:15:52
  someone else is looking after that later and hopefully they go
• 1:15:55
  actually, we found an old Dean Sin 18 in the cover that was
• 1:15:58
  great. Like we keep library copies of
• 1:16:01
  all of these for the business and the thought of somebody
• 1:16:04
  sitting in 2020, thirty years having a taste.
• 1:16:07
  And when I'm in a an old folks home or something that would be
• 1:16:11
  great. Like it's a, it's a nice wee
• 1:16:13
  kind of legacy to leave. But yeah, all, all I'm trying to
• 1:16:16
  do just now is give us enough flexibility in the inventory for
• 1:16:21
  as far in the future as I can. And that and I can only work
• 1:16:23
  with what we have at the moment and we're always trying to
• 1:16:26
  upskill that. Well, I mean, the the two points
• 1:16:28
  on that front is I think it wasn't long after the podcast
• 1:16:31
  has started and it was Gordon Macphail had made the the big
• 1:16:36
  decision that they were gonna stop being an independent
• 1:16:38
  bottler. And I think it was Ross they.
• 1:16:40
  Said they were gonna stop buying new cash.
• 1:16:41
  Yeah, and 80 or? 90 years.
• 1:16:44
  Worth. Well, that's all this is it.
• 1:16:45
  So the news everyone suddenly broke, the news of Gordon
• 1:16:48
  Macphail aren't gonna be buying new casts.
• 1:16:50
  Everyone said they're not gonna be independent balls, But with,
• 1:16:53
  as you've said, the stock that they already have, they have
• 1:16:55
  probably about enough for 80 years to come.
• 1:16:57
  For Malik, I, I wasn't panicking 'cause I'll be deed before they
• 1:17:00
  stopped bottling anything. And then on the other side of it
• 1:17:03
  as well, we had Paul Main on the podcast.
• 1:17:05
  A few a few few months ago and he was talking about Hunter Lang
• 1:17:08
  and he was saying that someone said, I think it was, they were
• 1:17:12
  talking about a 40 year old bottle that they had.
• 1:17:16
  And someone said a well done to Hunter Lang for bowling at this
• 1:17:21
  age. And he said no, well done for
• 1:17:22
  them for holding on it. You know, because they've sat
• 1:17:26
  there and gone. We have this and it will have
• 1:17:28
  hit 20, it will have hit 253035 and someone has had to go.
• 1:17:33
  I'm just going to sit on that. How difficult is that for you,
• 1:17:35
  Greg? And you're having a look at it
• 1:17:37
  And you could say, I know that I could do something with that
• 1:17:40
  wood, with that cast, but I also know that I could leave that for
• 1:17:43
  another two years, three years, five years, and then revisit it
• 1:17:47
  and it'll still be a banger. So yeah, that's, that's part of
• 1:17:50
  that, that spreadsheet, the spreadsheet I was talking about
• 1:17:53
  earlier. So I think you also have to
• 1:17:54
  remember that the stuff at the top end of our inventory, the
• 1:17:57
  higher age stuff that's losing ABV, it's also a getting more
• 1:18:02
  delicate as it as it gets older. So you it's not just about
• 1:18:06
  leaving the 20 year old now that's going to be 40.
• 1:18:09
  You've got to look at the 40 year old now that do we just
• 1:18:11
  release it now you don't. Want to get the situation where
• 1:18:14
  you dip your stick in one and it goes 39.9% I'll.
• 1:18:25
  I'll leave that to Woody. What happens after 4 draft?
• 1:18:30
  PG I guess. Whatever you.
• 1:18:33
  Do to. I'm sorry, when is it time you
• 1:18:37
  check the? ABV.
• 1:18:38
  Yeah. When?
• 1:18:39
  You check the ABV, there's a clap, there's a.
• 1:18:46
  Clap. Well, about every five podcasts,
• 1:18:47
  I think. Something like that.
• 1:18:49
  So anyway. But yes, so we're lucky enough
• 1:19:04
  to have in our, in our warehouse, we, we do have a
• 1:19:08
  software which is, it's available to other, other
• 1:19:11
  warehouses use it. It's quite an advanced software
• 1:19:14
  for tracking Abvs. So we do, especially in the
• 1:19:17
  older stuff when it it comes into the warehouse, we'll do a
• 1:19:20
  health check on the cask, check the ABV, make sure we know where
• 1:19:24
  it's at. They're probably the most
• 1:19:25
  important cast to keep an eye on.
• 1:19:27
  And the software will be I can isolate anything under 45% and
• 1:19:32
  keep a track on stuff that we're worried about in terms of low
• 1:19:34
  ABV. So yeah, leaning on modern
• 1:19:38
  technology is important, but nothing like modern technology
• 1:19:41
  is great, but it's never going to replace alkies.
• 1:19:48
  Yeah, you need to, you need to nose, you need to nose and you
• 1:19:52
  need to do your sensory on these, these casts and the human
• 1:19:54
  elements always, the human elements always got to be there.
• 1:19:57
  Yeah, yeah. Now I was just going to say it's
• 1:20:00
  interesting how you're talking about being a custodian of what
• 1:20:03
  you have now and what will come in the future and you won't
• 1:20:08
  necessarily see all of it come to fruition.
• 1:20:10
  So. And there's a very interesting
• 1:20:12
  film out there called Meet the Story of Bourbon.
• 1:20:14
  I don't know if anyone seen it. And repeatedly what they talk
• 1:20:16
  about is that. I'm saying that a master
• 1:20:19
  Whistler will never see the third cast come to full maturity
• 1:20:24
  because for them a full maturity is about 20 or 30 years.
• 1:20:28
  And so there's maybe 1 industry right now, Jimmy Russell at Wild
• 1:20:32
  Turkey. And it's this sense that no
• 1:20:35
  matter what you're doing, you're always leaving something behind
• 1:20:38
  for the person who succeeds you. But the second person who
• 1:20:41
  succeeds them, you know, it's this idea of legacy that the,
• 1:20:45
  the whiskey industry, it isn't about you and your contribution.
• 1:20:49
  It's what you prepare them for far down the line.
• 1:20:53
  I mean, and in our industry here in Scotland, we have maybe
• 1:20:56
  Malcolm leaving Glenn Grant now we've got Richard Patterson at
• 1:21:00
  Dalmore who's been there, what, 50 plus years?
• 1:21:04
  I mean, that's, yeah, that's maybe two casks come to absolute
• 1:21:10
  full maturity. So the idea that there's a man
• 1:21:13
  in his 90s still doing this part time, you know, and the
• 1:21:17
  incredible legacy he leaves behind, Yeah.
• 1:21:20
  Do you think you'll be doing it when you're 90?
• 1:21:23
  Probably not. I reckon I'm going to get found
• 1:21:27
  out in the next year or two. I'll be, I'll be Chuck No.
• 1:21:30
  But they make it, they make it your name on the ball.
• 1:21:32
  I'll make that decision. Well, Lead.
• 1:21:37
  Us on to a nice point because we are ready.
• 1:21:39
  Is everybody ready for our mystery draft?
• 1:21:43
  Have you got? A.
• 1:21:45
  Mystery, mystery. We got it here, right?
• 1:21:50
  So Graham is going into the backroom to bring it out.
• 1:21:58
  Someone wants to give their thoughts.
• 1:21:59
  Dom is on it. The last jam was it was lovely,
• 1:22:04
  wasn't it? It was like a summer day.
• 1:22:06
  It was like such on you, my partners probably that we said
• 1:22:10
  it was like sunshine and I would say it was, it was, it was
• 1:22:14
  summertime. What we got here Builders
• 1:22:18
  Breakfast crisp. Builders breakfast crisps.
• 1:22:21
  Oh. There's a challenge.
• 1:22:22
  So as a taste of note, as a taste of note goes, remember.
• 1:22:27
  Yeah. The Walker.
• 1:22:29
  Builders. Can Chuck beat that?
• 1:22:31
  I think we need to have a a taste of Where's Chuck is he
• 1:22:36
  disappeared. He disappeared, Chuck.
• 1:22:37
  'S little beard Chuck Chuck is life in.
• 1:22:39
  The room, I'll be honest, Chuck. Chuck gave me.
• 1:22:41
  Chuck gave me his his wanky decent note on that DRAM.
• 1:22:44
  Oh, what did he give it? He said it smelled a bit like
• 1:22:47
  the cover of a swimming pool. Great.
• 1:22:53
  So. The cover of a swimming pool and
• 1:22:55
  builders breakfast draft building, somebody said.
• 1:22:57
  The tarpaulin on top of a swimming pool is what is what
• 1:23:00
  they smell. I would.
• 1:23:01
  Question what he's doing at the gym that's just decent.
• 1:23:04
  I just want to guess. I think it's like a villain.
• 1:23:07
  That's my guess. Couldn't possibly come in.
• 1:23:09
  Couldn't possibly come in. Right now, Graham.
• 1:23:15
  Graham. I think now Graham is currently
• 1:23:19
  he's, he's going around, he's left us.
• 1:23:25
  Graham Scott. Let Graham announce it when he
• 1:23:27
  sits back down so he's covering the label of his hand.
• 1:23:32
  I did pre warn him on that. This is definitely the part of
• 1:23:35
  the podcast that gets cut. This is.
• 1:23:46
  Well, I think he told me what it is and I'm on the makes.
• 1:23:49
  I'm not going to say what it is because I don't want to get into
• 1:23:52
  trouble until he didn't tell me what it was travelling around
• 1:24:03
  the room. He is.
• 1:24:05
  Like a fine racehorse, I guess. Nice prime smile on his face.
• 1:24:09
  Tactical removal of the label. It's been a good evening.
• 1:24:13
  A very receptive it's been. Great, I missed the first time
• 1:24:16
  you've actually. Been to an I've.
• 1:24:18
  Been to a late? Yeah, sorry I'm late.
• 1:24:20
  This one. I've been busy, but I felt like
• 1:24:24
  it was worth doing, certainly because of this next DRAM
• 1:24:27
  especially so. We'll see what it's all about.
• 1:24:29
  Nice. Next.
• 1:24:30
  DRAM and plus it's nice to see Greg it's.
• 1:24:32
  Very nice to see. Greg, thanks for having me.
• 1:24:34
  And do you know what she Because this will make him not cut out.
• 1:24:37
  I've got a whiskey story to tell.
• 1:24:40
  So the other day, 2 days ago, I was at Hibbs.
• 1:24:47
  Hibbs, Aberdeen, yeah, yeah. And I hosted Kev.
• 1:24:50
  In the Emerald Lunch. Yeah, I wasn't eating.
• 1:24:52
  Can't make money? Yeah, I know.
• 1:24:55
  OK, God, that's my good cut. So I hosted Kev from the Diggers
• 1:24:59
  and we had a couple of bottles on Alabet.
• 1:25:01
  Can we have some whiskey ginger rails?
• 1:25:03
  Whiskey roll Whiskey ginger rails and had a great night good
• 1:25:07
  day in football and so I noticed she started the whiskey ginger
• 1:25:09
  ale's tonight. The whiskey ginger ale's mixed
• 1:25:11
  with Malbec that are Goodman Ken McGee had made it so that he
• 1:25:16
  fell asleep on the train back to Falkirk, ended up in Glasgow and
• 1:25:19
  had to pay £95 taxes to get home after the game.
• 1:25:23
  So there's a wee whiskey stories for you.
• 1:25:25
  Graham Mike, Graham Mike, keep it in because he's going to hear
• 1:25:28
  the whiskey story as he goes round the room when he.
• 1:25:31
  Comes back to Ed. I've just.
• 1:25:34
  I've just. Done a whiskey story, Sorry.
• 1:25:36
  In the In the meantime, are you going round?
• 1:25:44
  So I think we need to challenge Chuck a little bit here.
• 1:25:48
  So someone on the table over here said that that Ram reminded
• 1:25:53
  them of Walker's Builders breakfast crisps.
• 1:25:58
  No, the Isla. The unnamed Isla.
• 1:26:03
  And we heard that. You think it might be more like
• 1:26:06
  the tarpaulin that covers a spray?
• 1:26:08
  My Dick. Most dickish tasting all the
• 1:26:10
  time and it reminds me of like what I imagine a 70s swimming
• 1:26:14
  pool would smell. Like just like.
• 1:26:16
  What you imagine? Or is this why you're banned
• 1:26:18
  from the local gym? I wasn't alive in the 70s.
• 1:26:25
  Fair. It's a fairpoint.
• 1:26:39
  OK, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the mystery Dry.
• 1:26:52
  Greg, how are we going to introduce this and we haven't
• 1:26:55
  actually planned. This, well, we can start it off
• 1:26:56
  by saying this is this that the lovely looking people in this
• 1:27:00
  room are the first people to ever try this?
• 1:27:02
  Yes. It's a Digger's Snug exclusive.
• 1:27:09
  I tell the story, Greg. So.
• 1:27:11
  Or do you have you got have you got an intro for this?
• 1:27:14
  So obviously as I said, I was here just over a year ago, the
• 1:27:20
  guys good friends with the guys are can I say that?
• 1:27:24
  Can I say? That you can say that, yeah.
• 1:27:26
  Ross never turns up when I'm here.
• 1:27:28
  At least he turned up but late. He was here eventually.
• 1:27:30
  So yeah, through the the growth of the podcast and obviously a
• 1:27:35
  lot of people, I'm a, I'm a listener as well.
• 1:27:37
  I listen to the podcast with the sound off, but no, it's, it's,
• 1:27:41
  it's a it's a great podcast. I like the energy of it.
• 1:27:45
  All the people that come on out are really genuine.
• 1:27:46
  Lots of industry peers of mine come on it.
• 1:27:49
  I don't think any of them listened to mine.
• 1:27:51
  That was too early in the in the scope, but I'm back again, so
• 1:27:53
  they might hear me this time. No, but we were on a young
• 1:27:57
  gentleman to to to my right there had a stag do and over a
• 1:28:02
  couple of apparel spritz were the conversation about maybe
• 1:28:05
  doing a project together. So yeah, Graham, do you want to
• 1:28:09
  pick up for there? Well, a year ago, just over a
• 1:28:11
  year ago, we sat down in the tiny wee room behind us, Ross,
• 1:28:14
  Angus and I, and we decided to record a podcast.
• 1:28:17
  We had no idea how many people would TuneIn and listen.
• 1:28:20
  We had no idea that we'd ever even find ourselves in a
• 1:28:22
  situation where people would actually pay to come along and
• 1:28:25
  and listen to our our nonsense. Our first ever episode got 8
• 1:28:27
  downloads and now 8 downloads. That was probably three of us
• 1:28:32
  and family members. I think we're now, we're now
• 1:28:34
  fast approaching 10,000 downloads.
• 1:28:36
  We've got over 5555 episodes out.
• 1:28:39
  We've met some fantastic people like Greg and we've tried some
• 1:28:41
  great whiskies. But one of the the first drams
• 1:28:44
  that we ever had on this podcast was a 25 year old grants blend.
• 1:28:51
  And one of the reasons that we started with that is the fact
• 1:28:53
  that one of the things that we talk a lot about on this podcast
• 1:28:56
  is trying not to trying to breakdown different perspectives
• 1:29:00
  of of whiskey. And for a lot of people, they'll
• 1:29:02
  maybe say, oh, blinds aren't this, blinds aren't that. 35
• 1:29:05
  drams for 35 mils of a 25 year old DRAM Ross was about. 99
• 1:29:10
  Quite at last. And you said you're not going to
• 1:29:11
  get better value for a 25 year old whiskey.
• 1:29:13
  That's it. So over this drunken
• 1:29:15
  conversation with Greg and myself, we, we started talking
• 1:29:18
  and we thought, well, let's you know, if we dream it, we can
• 1:29:21
  pour it. And and that was it.
• 1:29:24
  So what we have in front of us tonight for the very first time,
• 1:29:28
  the only people in the whole wide world have ever tried this
• 1:29:31
  whiskey is we are proud to release our first ever 25 year
• 1:29:35
  old blended whiskey from from Glenmore Spirits for the Whiskey
• 1:29:39
  Stories podcast. So there we go.
• 1:29:46
  Available for the priceless sum of 85 lbs, which I think is
• 1:29:50
  again where Greg, we talked about.
• 1:29:52
  We, we deliberately deliberated over over how we were going to
• 1:29:55
  do this. We wanted to follow in Kev's
• 1:29:59
  footsteps. Kev's been a big help for this
• 1:30:00
  as well because this is available to purchase through
• 1:30:02
  Diggers and also online with yourselves.
• 1:30:05
  But we, we deliberate a lot, deliberated a lot over what,
• 1:30:08
  what do you charge for something like this?
• 1:30:10
  And you know, Angus and I are trying to build a retirement
• 1:30:13
  fund for us. Lawyer fees.
• 1:30:18
  But one of the one of the things that was one of the things that
• 1:30:20
  we loved about coming here is and we we have actually had a
• 1:30:24
  wee chuckle about it already this evening is, you know, Kev
• 1:30:27
  Diggers is a big part of the podcast.
• 1:30:30
  It's where we've recorded the majority of them.
• 1:30:32
  It's where it started and I think everybody in this room
• 1:30:35
  would agree that Kev's pricing structure is absolutely
• 1:30:38
  fantastic. 35 mils no well, this is it.
• 1:30:43
  But so that's what we're looking at £85 for a bottle of 25 year
• 1:30:46
  old whiskey. But more importantly, whiskey's
• 1:30:48
  about sitting down with friends, with people around us enjoying
• 1:30:52
  it and and and be and sharing some happy memories and some
• 1:30:55
  stories and that's. Details about the whiskey.
• 1:30:56
  This is one of 69 bottles that exist.
• 1:31:00
  Very much a limited release. 12 years older.
• 1:31:07
  Hello. Hello.
• 1:31:08
  I could tell you, I could tell you this.
• 1:31:09
  Angus has not dipped to sticking.
• 1:31:13
  Although, although actually actually interestingly, it's one
• 1:31:15
  of 69 bottles, but the drums that you've had are from the
• 1:31:18
  bottle #70 is that right, Greg? So that.
• 1:31:21
  There's 69 bottles available for purchase and and we managed to
• 1:31:25
  squeeze enough out what's here tonight to pour what everyone
• 1:31:28
  has and I didn't charge them for that.
• 1:31:30
  I should have if my boss is listening, sorry, take off.
• 1:31:35
  So as we all have a little smell and a little taste, maybe we'll
• 1:31:38
  start with the ABV. And Greg, you talk about the
• 1:31:40
  actual liquid itself. Yeah.
• 1:31:41
  So, So what we've got tonight is it's a blended Scotch.
• 1:31:45
  So when I was talking about obviously our business is 10
• 1:31:49
  years old next year. So clearly the these spirits
• 1:31:51
  came to us at some point. So this when we buy purchase
• 1:31:55
  casks, we also can purchase blends.
• 1:31:58
  So this was a blend that we purchased.
• 1:32:00
  We got several Sherry butts refill Sherry butts of this
• 1:32:04
  liquid. And I think a nice tie into what
• 1:32:07
  I was talking about earlier with the Deanston is the liquid in
• 1:32:10
  this release was finished for a very short period, but it was,
• 1:32:14
  it was finished in the, the cast that I spoke about, the
• 1:32:17
  gentleman who came to the, the Leith dramatic performance.
• 1:32:21
  So it was a a seasoned dollar Rosso cask.
• 1:32:23
  It's been in there just to elevate it a little bit, just to
• 1:32:26
  add a bit more complexity. And I think the liquid's great.
• 1:32:29
  I mean, it's, it's a 43.8% great drinking strength.
• 1:32:35
  What's the, the open? I mean, what is the age of it?
• 1:32:39
  It's 2525 years, but 25 will be the minimum in there so that
• 1:32:43
  some of the components may be older.
• 1:32:45
  So this was one that we bought as a, as a 1999 distillate.
• 1:32:49
  And we have, we have other casts of this in our in our inventory,
• 1:32:52
  but this lick, I think this liquid is fantastic.
• 1:32:55
  It's a great show. It's a great showcase for what a
• 1:32:57
  blend can be. And yeah, it doesn't taste like
• 1:33:00
  a blend. It's not.
• 1:33:03
  So it's all to give you an idea of what the components are.
• 1:33:06
  Is there's, there's three distilleries in there on the
• 1:33:09
  malt side and they're all space side.
• 1:33:12
  The, the blended side of it is, is a lowland grain.
• 1:33:16
  That's all the information I can give you.
• 1:33:18
  But it's, I think as a, as a blend, it's well-rounded.
• 1:33:21
  It's really rich. A lot of those kind of Christmas
• 1:33:24
  cakey, notes the the gentleman to my right is going to provide.
• 1:33:31
  Yeah, exactly. Yes, but I mean, but we would
• 1:33:33
  have been ruined. But it was a mess.
• 1:33:35
  It was a mess. A Yeah, You didn't.
• 1:33:41
  I understand. I understand that.
• 1:33:42
  And we did, yeah. Yeah.
• 1:33:48
  So it's the reason, the only reason that was the.
• 1:33:52
  It's wet. Yeah, you're absolutely right.
• 1:34:00
  The palate. It does, but you'll just eat it
• 1:34:06
  by a bottle and then you can have it before you have a beer.
• 1:34:11
  W60 What's on this 60 now for? For people who listen to the
• 1:34:17
  podcast or follow us on social media, one of the things that
• 1:34:19
  we've recently started doing is our snippet snippet score at
• 1:34:22
  62nd Whiskey Reviews and we have we have brought the only reason
• 1:34:27
  Ross Barr's come along to this particular episode and hasn't
• 1:34:29
  been at any other indie bottler's policy is because he
• 1:34:31
  is here to do the snippet sippet score at 62nd Whiskey review.
• 1:34:36
  This is a nightmare. One take in front of a live
• 1:34:38
  audience. He's a nervous wreck before we
• 1:34:40
  usually do it when it's just us right?
• 1:34:42
  Are you ready to Are you ready to do it?
• 1:34:44
  Yes, I guess so. It's the first time I've ever
• 1:34:46
  tried it. So, well, this is how much?
• 1:34:48
  Would a dramby go give me a wee bit. £8.50 I'd like to go on for
• 1:34:52
  £35. Yeah.
• 1:34:56
  Right. OK.
• 1:34:58
  Shall we start around here? Alright, hang on two seconds.
• 1:35:01
  Let me get this right. Right, here we go.
• 1:35:08
  Yeah, I will do right. Ready 321 62nd Whiskey Review
• 1:35:18
  Ross Bar What have you got? The 25 year old whiskey stories
• 1:35:22
  blend by Rear Fight. Region.
• 1:35:28
  Tell me about the Distiller bottler.
• 1:35:30
  The bottler great bottler and 10 years old soon to be This is a
• 1:35:34
  25 year old whiskey that they've produced exclusively for us
• 1:35:37
  tell. Me about the DRAM.
• 1:35:39
  The DRAM itself all are also influence bottled at 43.8% and
• 1:35:46
  yeah 25 year olds but I've got a steal.
• 1:35:49
  Cost for the drum. £8.50 diggers or 3 lbs if you buy the bottle.
• 1:35:54
  How much for the bottle? The bottle You just told me
• 1:35:57
  this. The bottle is £85.
• 1:36:00
  Snip it, snip it. You've got time.
• 1:36:05
  Score it. Well, I have to get a score.
• 1:36:08
  Actually, I'll give it a 9.69. There we go.
• 1:36:17
  Even mentioned it was 1999. That's my year.
• 1:36:20
  Come on, Ross, There we go. I.
• 1:36:22
  Hate that. That's terrible.
• 1:36:23
  So ladies and gentlemen, that does take us up to the sort of
• 1:36:26
  end of this evening. It's been absolutely fantastic
• 1:36:28
  to have you all here. But what we will do before we
• 1:36:30
  leave is I will start again, start again.
• 1:36:36
  You are hired. Oh, these we'll have a wee vote
• 1:36:41
  for drama of the evening. You're allowed one vote and then
• 1:36:43
  a wild card vote. I hope everyone uses their wild
• 1:36:46
  card vote for so you. I see.
• 1:36:50
  First of all, hands up for the Aberfeld at 13.
• 1:36:53
  Favorite drama in the wild card one?
• 1:36:55
  OK, so we've got one at the back there.
• 1:36:58
  Buy yourself a bottle. How much is that for the bottle,
• 1:36:59
  Greg? That is available through
• 1:37:03
  specialist retail across the UK, about £85.
• 1:37:06
  There you go. Bargain at Christmas.
• 1:37:07
  Put on your list Omar 14 #2 who's that?
• 1:37:11
  OK, not a bad shout there. Lovely redraw. 80 lbs RRP
• 1:37:15
  specialist retail. Deanston 18 You've done 2.
• 1:37:19
  Is that your? Is that your wild card?
• 1:37:20
  That's your wild card. Deanston's 105.
• 1:37:25
  There you go, Iowa medium pitaids.
• 1:37:28
  Oh no, he's got two hands up there.
• 1:37:30
  You can't have your hands up. There you go.
• 1:37:33
  That's 95. Pound Mystery draw, everyone,
• 1:37:36
  for everybody listening and not watching on the video,
• 1:37:39
  everyone's got their hands up, two hands up.
• 1:37:41
  All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much.
• 1:37:44
  Thank you to Greg for coming along and sharing this whiskey
• 1:37:46
  stories with us. Thanks.
• 1:37:54
  Thank you so much for coming along and listening to Angus
• 1:37:57
  Ross myself. This has been the whiskey
• 1:37:58
  Stories podcast. Indy bought our spotlight.
• 1:38:00
  You can find us on our Instagram where we are the Whiskey Stories
• 1:38:03
  pod. Also get us on the Facebook
• 1:38:05
  group. If you're on Facebook, join the
• 1:38:07
  Facebook group. Have you drunk?
• 1:38:09
  Brilliant. Absolutely fantastic.
• 1:38:11
  I want to see somebody put up. This is their weekend DRAM roll
• 1:38:14
  call at some point this week. You'll get us on Spotify, you'll
• 1:38:18
  get us on YouTube. You'll get us on TikTok as well.
• 1:38:21
  You'll see Ross on Tik. He's a Tik toker.
• 1:38:23
  You'll see him on on TikTok with this snippet snippet scored at
• 1:38:26
  62nd whiskey If you he's mortified.
• 1:38:29
  He's a tik toker. He's 25.
• 1:38:31
  He's allowed to be. But it's been absolutely
• 1:38:32
  fantastic. Thank.
• 1:38:34
  Thank you very much for coming along.
• 1:38:35
  Right, Spider Man.