Latest / Whisky Stories Podcast / Selling Drams - A true love story with Tom Whitham and Monique DePace

Transcript

Selling Drams - A true love story with Tom Whitham and Monique DePace · Whisky Stories Podcast

• 0:01
  Right. Get up you can.
• 0:03
  So just so I'm clear, you both met at the whiskey shop, Yes?
• 0:06
  Which one? Victoria St.
• 0:08
  Whiskey. I had no idea that they were
• 0:10
  shagging, by the way. I want.
• 0:13
  For them both, I thought we did not very, not very often.
• 0:16
  I was up in Victoria Street to be honest.
• 0:18
  We we hid it what we thought very well it.
• 0:21
  Turns out not Actually, no, you're just oblivious.
• 0:24
  No, you're OK, but. At.
• 0:28
  This stage it's all. Right, well, that's Andy, but I
• 0:31
  know, I guess I just wasn't up there very often.
• 0:33
  Plus also I was 18 didn't know what sex was.
• 0:37
  Right, Ross, you know what to do what I said.
• 0:40
  I just like to do that. Welcome to the Whiskey Stories
• 0:48
  podcast. I'm going to put you both in
• 0:51
  this spot here. Now you don't have to answer
• 0:52
  immediately, but if you were to describe each other as a DRAM.
• 0:57
  Like Tom Gilfras, that's funnier.
• 0:59
  Jesus, I mean, I I would say that she's definitely something
• 1:03
  in a Sultan cast because she's so sweet.
• 1:07
  I mean, you know, she's petered and and wine casket.
• 1:10
  She's sweet and fiery. Nice, I get that.
• 1:14
  Sweet and smoking. That's better than fiery.
• 1:19
  Welcome along to the Whiskey Service Podcast for myself,
• 1:21
  Graham Cogar. We are back in the athletic arms
• 1:23
  in the tiny little room sandwiched nicely between the
• 1:26
  bar and the Giants toilets. Ross, our big bow.
• 1:29
  I guess he's not here tonight. I know, I know.
• 1:31
  It's the first time we've not complained about being
• 1:33
  absolutely crammed in this room, although we do have four people
• 1:35
  in this room today. Certainly do.
• 1:37
  Well, I've got a wee joke for you, a Canadian and an
• 1:39
  Australian walk in a bar in Edinburgh and box night and end
• 1:43
  up doing a whiskey all right. All right.
• 1:47
  We do have Tom and Monique here. Welcome along to Whiskey Stories
• 1:51
  Podcast. Thank you man.
• 1:52
  Thank you just. Been blinded by Monique's
• 1:55
  diamond ring that she's. Got and I think wow.
• 1:57
  Congratulations are in order guys.
• 1:59
  Thank you, thank you. First couple to ever decide to
• 2:02
  celebrate an engagement by. Coming on the whiskey.
• 2:05
  Stories Podcast welcome along. I'd love to see you're the 1st,
• 2:08
  but actually I've had quite a few whiskey couples on the
• 2:10
  podcast. I think every independent bottle
• 2:13
  a new independent bottle you've had on have ended up being a
• 2:15
  couple. So that's been Tricara.
• 2:17
  Well, they're not Wardrobe's of Edinburgh and favorite drops,
• 2:22
  yeah. Do we just need to start a
• 2:23
  bottler? Is that?
• 2:24
  Perhaps, well, I. Think that's what?
• 2:25
  They're saying we'll get we'll get to come over all the way
• 2:27
  background to that, I guess. But we are here and Diggers
• 2:30
  Athletic Arms, our favorite pub in the world.
• 2:32
  And what are you drowning them? Right, so I've gone for it's
• 2:36
  always great. Kev always steps up a We post on
• 2:42
  Instagram to let everybody know what he's got in he's.
• 2:44
  Taking a photo on a potato this week.
• 2:48
  But actually what I have to say, big shout out to Kev, is Kev.
• 2:52
  I would speak to Kev. The worst part?
• 2:54
  I've ever. Seen from I was shocking.
• 2:56
  I was seeing the Kev last week about obviously he says oh how
• 2:59
  you getting on? I told him we're actually the
• 3:01
  court. He's because he always says who
• 3:02
  you got in coming, so he likes to try and get some stock in and
• 3:06
  stuff like that. So we've got whiskey to talk
• 3:08
  about stuff and I said all we're doing our episode 52.
• 3:12
  It's our big recording. You, Angus and myself just
• 3:15
  chatting away, going through some of the highlights and oh, I
• 3:17
  said you actually featured quite a bit because we've got the
• 3:19
  clips up. I'll listen back to that.
• 3:21
  So he's messaged me about two or three days later said just
• 3:23
  listen to that. Absolute fantastic.
• 3:25
  Some great memories. Really, really enjoyed that.
• 3:27
  Thanks very much. Also think I'm going to need to
• 3:29
  add a sample tax on you guys because he's held about some of
• 3:34
  the great whiskeys that people have brought in.
• 3:36
  I think the one, the White Oak 24.
• 3:38
  Sample brought in 24, yeah. He was, he was like, I'm really
• 3:43
  not happy that I didn't get a shot.
• 3:46
  So Kev, if you're listening, all samples have since been stopped.
• 3:50
  We ask all our guests not to bring any more samples.
• 3:53
  For the visual for the viewers, you've got about 8 samples.
• 3:58
  But. Can't put up an Arden marking 2,
• 4:01
  Arden Marcus Arden marking 10 and I believe the Arden marking
• 4:03
  10 was what everybody was ranting and raving about at the
• 4:06
  Whiskey French. OK.
• 4:09
  And I've decided to go side by side because.
• 4:12
  So, yeah, at Whiskey Fringe, it was an Adelphi Arden American 10
• 4:16
  that won the weekend drama The Week.
• 4:18
  Yeah, this is the first ever official bottling of Arden
• 4:20
  American 10. Yes, thank you for that, Ross.
• 4:26
  Somebody knows what they're talking about.
• 4:27
  But basically having the two side by side, I have to admit, I
• 4:31
  I snuck into the athletic arms on Sunday afternoon.
• 4:36
  My wife is not listening. She knew I was coming here.
• 4:40
  But I just thought, you know what, a bit a nice bit of
• 4:42
  tranquil time, kind of reflect on the end of a busy week.
• 4:46
  And I thought I'll have a pint. And I saw that they had this.
• 4:48
  I don't know whether the pint had gone in my head or the
• 4:50
  whiskey had gone in my head, but I came back with this Arc de
• 4:54
  Marcin Cherry. Cash.
• 4:56
  Cash release and said I think I'd like to.
• 4:59
  It's one of the few whiskeys I'll say is I'd like to fill a
• 5:01
  bathtub with that whiskey and bathe in it.
• 5:05
  You put this in the chat, I couldn't believe you've never
• 5:07
  had such a strong opinion on a drama.
• 5:08
  Yeah, it's not something I've often done.
• 5:11
  I like all whiskey or most of it, especially now that I've
• 5:14
  managed to open my mind up to the peded stuff.
• 5:16
  But I I think I don't know what it is about this.
• 5:19
  It's an absolute cracking DRAM. Maybe we'll do a snippet snippet
• 5:23
  score it for it. I don't know if we're we're in
• 5:26
  search of this perfect 10 out of 10.
• 5:27
  I don't know if I'll hit the. 10 out of 10, but.
• 5:29
  I'll certainly be able to. Remember put in the chat by the
• 5:32
  way lads, I've had Arden American and Sherry last night.
• 5:34
  It's fucking glorious. And I thought there's a well,
• 5:40
  that's. You're not tasted though that's.
• 5:43
  A great taste. And so I have ordered an Arden
• 5:45
  American 10 for me to have tonight as well because I've not
• 5:47
  had it before. And then I've got a tricar, a 30
• 5:50
  year old N British. That's tremendous.
• 5:52
  In fact, they that was number one on the line up they did for
• 5:56
  their indie bottle Spotlight. And has to be said that there's
• 6:00
  very few places left where you can get hold of that bottle.
• 6:03
  Yeah, it's one of the first bottles that they had which
• 6:06
  completely managed to sell out. And one of the things we were
• 6:09
  saying as well, it's never really happened before Angus.
• 6:12
  And I did point out that Angus had it two weeks before the and
• 6:15
  they bought a spotlight on the podcast.
• 6:17
  So we're he was. Taking all the word plaudits.
• 6:19
  Total claiming that, but I'll tell you I would too.
• 6:22
  I've watched it back. I was out today.
• 6:25
  I was I was actually in a little bit of heaven today as we're
• 6:28
  recording this on the 5th of November was there's a company
• 6:32
  that invited me in to have a look at their bottling plant and
• 6:36
  it was incredible to watch the all the different styles that
• 6:38
  they have. I'm standing there and I'm
• 6:41
  thinking this is great and they're telling me about these
• 6:43
  people and then suddenly it's spotted it is that a tree can a
• 6:46
  bottle there? Oh yeah, yeah.
• 6:47
  We know Ryan and Rola. We we bottle for them stuff.
• 6:49
  Fantastic. I know them really well and I
• 6:51
  look closer and my heart took a little extra skip there because
• 6:54
  it was a 27 year old bowl more. That was it was the fun.
• 6:58
  I don't know whether it was actually it was a bottle.
• 7:01
  What I will say is it was a sample bottle.
• 7:03
  Obviously in terms of it was their bottling, but I think the
• 7:05
  labels were slightly off. So it might be something that's
• 7:07
  put through it might not have been the 27 in there might just
• 7:10
  been whiskey in there. But they were just making sure
• 7:11
  the labeling was right. But I don't know what it was
• 7:15
  about that one. With that all, I gave us a
• 7:17
  sample of that at Edinburgh Whiskey Festival and it
• 7:19
  absolutely hit the spot. I was gutted I didn't try that.
• 7:23
  27 year old. Bourbon Boomer wasn't.
• 7:26
  It yeah, yeah, refill bourbon. Just incredible.
• 7:30
  And yeah, definitely worth a try and a sample when when it comes
• 7:34
  out. I don't know whether it's going
• 7:35
  to be out before Christmas or whether it'll be after
• 7:37
  Christmas, but fantastic. But yeah, yeah, someone.
• 7:41
  I can't buy you many more Christmas.
• 7:44
  So obviously we'll get into your careers and stuff as well, but
• 7:47
  how many? Have you guys got sorry?
• 7:49
  Yeah. How many bottles of whiskeys
• 7:50
  have you got a home actually between?
• 7:51
  Yes. Are your official?
• 7:56
  Number. Yeah, or the number.
• 7:57
  That doesn't include all the ones in the cupboard and in the
• 8:00
  closet and the duplicate. It's. 165.
• 8:07
  It's a pretty good sample room, it's all.
• 8:09
  Right. Yeah, yeah, the shelves look OK.
• 8:12
  And what? Have you went for tonight?
• 8:15
  This is a Murray McDavid, Glen Geary.
• 8:20
  I can't remember what caskets in in a.
• 8:22
  Weird wine cast in a weird. Wine cast, which is, you know,
• 8:26
  exactly what I like. Shout out to David.
• 8:28
  Lines, who listens to the podcast, drinks in here and is
• 8:32
  an absolute Glen Geary obsessive.
• 8:36
  Oh yeah. Glen Geary till I die.
• 8:38
  Oh, I love that. Absolutely loves it.
• 8:41
  It's a. Saint Julien wine beret.
• 8:43
  Interesting. I.
• 8:44
  I almost exclusively did it because one of my Co workers
• 8:46
  despises Glen Geary more than anything.
• 8:49
  Oh. Really.
• 8:49
  And I just, I love proving her wrong.
• 8:51
  Nice. Yeah.
• 8:53
  That probably brings on to a good point.
• 8:55
  So of course, we're getting on the Whiskey Stories podcast
• 8:57
  because you talk about whiskey for a living, both of you.
• 9:00
  And I've known you both for a guess about six years when I was
• 9:07
  19, working at the whiskey shop, work in the door.
• 9:10
  Securely. I would occasionally go up to
• 9:13
  Victoria Street, which was kind of slightly more successful shop
• 9:16
  at the time, still the most successful shop actually, and go
• 9:20
  up to that shop and learn from Andy, who somebody actually I've
• 9:24
  never sent out the podcast for, but he was an an amazing kind of
• 9:28
  wealth of knowledge. He gave me a lot of time when I
• 9:31
  was really, really new in the industry.
• 9:33
  And you both worked there? Yeah.
• 9:34
  I told him you were full time. Monique, you were part time.
• 9:37
  Yes, I was. Before we even go into how good
• 9:40
  I was to work with and all that back in the whiskey shop.
• 9:44
  You're Australian, Tom, I am. And Monique, you're Canadian.
• 9:47
  Yes. Indeed, right.
• 9:48
  Well, who do we, who do we start with?
• 9:50
  We'll start Ladies 1st. And because you've been in
• 9:52
  Scotland for longer as well. Yes.
• 9:54
  How did your interest in whiskey start Monique, And then how did
• 9:57
  you end up coming over to Scotland?
• 9:58
  Well, they're technically unrelated.
• 10:02
  The two those two questions. I came to Scotland originally
• 10:05
  for archaeology and to go to school here while studying here
• 10:11
  for my masters. Originally I was like, well, I
• 10:14
  can't can't go to Scotland and not at least try to like
• 10:18
  whiskey. And I did a little like sort of
• 10:22
  at home tasting with a little mini pack of actually boom or
• 10:27
  12/15/18. And I remember like just
• 10:31
  expecting to hate it because all of my experience with whiskey
• 10:34
  before that was like shooting Johnny Walker unwillingly in a
• 10:38
  bar. And I remember having the first
• 10:41
  sip and going, oh, that's pretty nice.
• 10:44
  And then I tried the next one and I was like, oh, that's even
• 10:46
  nicer. And so on and so forth.
• 10:48
  So, yeah, so kind of discovered that I liked it and and.
• 10:54
  Happened to come to Scotland to study archaeology anyway, yeah.
• 10:57
  So it was sort of serendipitous. And then, yeah, I needed a job
• 11:00
  as a poor PhD student in 2018-2019.
• 11:06
  And I was like, I've never worked in retail before, but
• 11:10
  their job came up for weekends cover at the whiskey shop and I
• 11:14
  was like, I can do that probably.
• 11:16
  I talk endlessly anyways, so might as well talk about whiskey
• 11:20
  and. And yeah, and I'm still there.
• 11:24
  Tim, it's just sorry to drop you how annoying was Ross to work
• 11:28
  because I've heard so many people so many people have
• 11:31
  talked about how annoying Ross Wallace very busy young star
• 11:33
  king on his early journey and whiskey learning, learning,
• 11:37
  learning and wanting to impart that knowledge as much as
• 11:39
  possible without. Without trying to sound too
• 11:41
  brown nosy, he was genuinely one of the nicest people in the
• 11:43
  world. They come across that bit.
• 11:46
  Problem is I knew fuck all about whiskey back so I couldn't have
• 11:50
  been a big headed asshole because genuinely I just wanted
• 11:54
  to learn and I remember for example the first time I met
• 11:56
  Monique. OK Monique, how tall are you
• 12:00
  Monique? Like 5.
• 12:02
  Foot. 5 foot Canadian, been studying in Scotland said you
• 12:07
  had an interest in whiskey and I said So what kind of whiskey do
• 12:09
  you drink? And keep in mind it turns out
• 12:12
  that was a wee fairy. I drank floral, easygoing, you
• 12:17
  know, mainly bourbon, cask space, side whiskeys.
• 12:21
  And you started well, Wolf, obviously Octomores, something
• 12:24
  we always have. And you're a massive Pete fiend.
• 12:28
  Yeah. Oh, yeah.
• 12:31
  And I would say probably my first time interacting with
• 12:33
  somebody who their favorite style of whiskey at the time
• 12:36
  anyway, was, oh, has to be peated.
• 12:38
  I really love something as dirty as possible.
• 12:41
  And I was like, that's really interesting.
• 12:43
  And I think that was eye opening for me because again, I couldn't
• 12:46
  even at that point really understand how people get could
• 12:50
  pick notes out of Le Froy of Ardbeg and say, well, I like
• 12:53
  Ardbeg and this Casker. Have you tried this single cast?
• 12:56
  Because we've done a lot of work with Hunter Lang.
• 12:58
  Also, you've had on the podcast as well, these all these single
• 13:01
  casts with the Ardmores and all these different things.
• 13:03
  I was never interested and you always warmed to them.
• 13:07
  So I would say it was really interesting to work with
• 13:08
  somebody that I perhaps if I judged a book by its cover, I
• 13:11
  would never have assumed. It turns out that I met as
• 13:14
  well-being the stereotypical 5 foot Canadian girl and you may.
• 13:19
  It has been said in the podcast that Ross will go for a Japanese
• 13:23
  slipper cocktail. That's true.
• 13:25
  I mean, I've. Tried.
• 13:26
  We were on a stag do not long after recording that episode.
• 13:32
  I admit to being yeah. We're not being on a stag do and
• 13:36
  we're sort of God. It was the first day of a stag
• 13:40
  do and we were out. We entered a bar and that's why
• 13:43
  I was once where I was like, God, we've really started early
• 13:45
  here and we'll get to this sort of five, 6:00-ish.
• 13:48
  Don't want another pint or what am I going to have?
• 13:51
  And we do cocktails. So it's like, what's your order
• 13:53
  Grail? I says, ask them if they'll do
• 13:55
  their Japanese slipper, please. I had to go and explain what the
• 13:59
  ingredients Am I right in saying Maduri, Cointreau, lemon?
• 14:02
  Juice. And it's.
• 14:06
  Basically citrus, sugar and Maduri.
• 14:08
  Yeah, that sounds. Good.
• 14:11
  Annoyed me how nice it was. You should feel.
• 14:16
  Guilty when you drink it, you do feel drink guilty when you drink
• 14:18
  it, but you have more than one. So that's still the case.
• 14:21
  And so I was, that was really interesting.
• 14:23
  And also you're still at the whiskey shop now.
• 14:25
  So now the amount of whiskey you'll have tried in that
• 14:28
  Victoria Street shop, but people don't know it's a tiny, tiny
• 14:31
  little shop up there. Barely bigger than this room, to
• 14:34
  be honest. Yeah.
• 14:35
  Wait A. Minute because we've got the
• 14:37
  ginger boy who usually works on the podcast.
• 14:40
  He's our. He's at Moultrie's walk.
• 14:42
  He's our intern producer. So for the listeners, the the
• 14:45
  the whiskey Shop has two locations, two stores at three,
• 14:48
  right? OK, so maybe.
• 14:50
  For a listener, you just break down the whiskey shop a bit for
• 14:53
  people who don't know about it. Well, so this company line,
• 14:57
  we're the largest brick and mortar whiskey retail in the UKI
• 15:02
  think we've got almost probably 25 shops now, Cardiff.
• 15:07
  And stuff as well. Cardiff, Exeter Exeter was last
• 15:11
  month we're opening shop. Coming up in France.
• 15:13
  Yeah, 2 shops in France. We've got a new one coming up in
• 15:18
  in Glasgow, going to be in Saint Andrews Square I believe, or
• 15:22
  yeah Square. But here in Edinburgh is where
• 15:25
  the whiskey shop started at Waverly Market, which is where
• 15:27
  you were. That location is still open, but
• 15:33
  now we've got Victoria Street and Moultrie's Walk as well.
• 15:37
  But we all sort of focus on different things.
• 15:39
  So I would say at Victoria Street, we do a lot more of
• 15:43
  single casks, sort of niche distillery, small batch type
• 15:46
  things. We do have those in the other
• 15:50
  shops as well, but Waverly market a little bit more of your
• 15:54
  distillery bottlings official. Bottlings will be, sure, but
• 15:57
  where? About Victoria, sort of about my
• 15:59
  drug is in Edinburgh then so. Victoria St.
• 16:01
  You've got a Victoria Street right by the castle.
• 16:04
  The. Bow.
• 16:05
  Bar the Bow Bar, you know, and, and so that's your American
• 16:08
  tourist. Well, I was.
• 16:09
  Going to say yeah. It's your bread and butter,
• 16:11
  tourist. I come and take squid inside for
• 16:13
  the first time. They come in and Monique says
• 16:15
  why don't you buy something you can't get back home?
• 16:17
  Yeah. And then basically you can give
• 16:19
  them samples, see what you think, and they'll end up
• 16:21
  picking something miraculous. And that's how that tiny shop
• 16:24
  does an amazing but well. Here's a here's a question in
• 16:26
  mate, without divulging too much information, if you're allowed
• 16:29
  to, but tell me what's one of the best days you've had working
• 16:33
  there where somebody's walked out or a few people you've
• 16:36
  you've you've brought in a a fair amount of money, sold a
• 16:39
  fair amount of us here. I honestly would say that it's
• 16:42
  not necessarily the amount of money.
• 16:44
  It is really more if you just have a really, really great chat
• 16:48
  with somebody and you know that they are just absolutely chuffed
• 16:53
  with the bottle that they've got and that they're going to
• 16:55
  really, really enjoy it. But then also.
• 16:57
  She sold a Banff. That was going to be my.
• 17:03
  Answer. I remember the only good bottle
• 17:06
  I ever sold in Victoria St. was a band 40 old and rare Hunter.
• 17:10
  Line. Remember.
• 17:11
  I missed and remember it well. That's a band Fuzzy Highland
• 17:15
  decelerated. It's closed.
• 17:16
  And it was, it was 2 grand a bottle and.
• 17:18
  This is what fascinates me many years ago.
• 17:20
  Now, yeah, it's 2 grand a bottle.
• 17:22
  It was a. 2 grand a bottle when I was 19 and there and I sold it
• 17:25
  to Scotsman that was about to move to Dubai.
• 17:27
  Yeah, that's how I remember. That's that's that's
• 17:29
  fascinating. It's funny how you remember, but
• 17:31
  also the people you meet, the people you speak to in that
• 17:33
  little shop, all corners of the globe.
• 17:36
  Well. I think one of a customer that
• 17:39
  I've had that has now come back multiple times.
• 17:43
  He's from the United States and he will come in once or twice a
• 17:47
  year and he normally ships like 12 bottles back to the US And
• 17:54
  the first, the first time that that he was in, he ended up he
• 17:57
  has part of a whiskey club in California and he ended up
• 18:00
  buying 2 cases worth of a single cask, Benreich PX cask.
• 18:06
  Yeah. And remember that.
• 18:08
  Because he opened a bottle in the shop and shared it amongst
• 18:10
  the staff. That was incredible.
• 18:11
  I'm. Not supposed to do that, sorry.
• 18:13
  So. You have but.
• 18:18
  He went. Outside opened it.
• 18:20
  Yeah, that's. So interesting though, and so
• 18:25
  you obviously must have loved it in the team up there.
• 18:27
  Yeah. Yeah, it's, I mean, we've, it's
• 18:29
  definitely changed quite a bit over the years, but we've
• 18:33
  actually got some really great people with us now.
• 18:36
  Not necessarily everybody that started off maybe wanting to be
• 18:40
  in the industry more just looking for a job.
• 18:42
  But I think a lot of them, I think it's something about, I
• 18:46
  mean, certainly Andy, that's our GM up there.
• 18:49
  He's great with the whiskey and everything.
• 18:52
  So we have sort of cultivated a lot of interest and you have
• 18:58
  people that really do know at least about the bottles that we
• 19:01
  stock, maybe not so much about some of the other ones.
• 19:04
  This. Gentleman Andy, It's the general
• 19:06
  manager. Victoria.
• 19:06
  She has favorite facilities. Glenn Lossy.
• 19:09
  Right. OK, you know, so I always love
• 19:11
  to remember trying Charles Kerr. I also could why does he like
• 19:14
  Glenn Talkers? Talkers?
• 19:15
  And it was always Glenn Lawson. Your family.
• 19:17
  It was Glenn Lossy in bourbon. It was Glenn Lossy.
• 19:19
  Don't ruin it. That's the guy.
• 19:21
  He's the guy. Up at Royal Mile Whiskey, he's
• 19:24
  got a favorite whiskey. That's is it, not Glenn Elgin.
• 19:28
  Oh yeah, what Jolly Topper talked about the 2011 records
• 19:34
  he's told the most. Glenn Elgin, 12 in the world.
• 19:36
  Because anybody came in for any bottle of whiskey, he was
• 19:39
  telling them, I mean. It's funny, like I don't, I'm
• 19:42
  not at that stage where I'm obsessed with one single
• 19:44
  distillery really. But at the same time there's
• 19:46
  something quite nice and romantic about somebody just
• 19:49
  absolutely upset. Like we're just talking David
• 19:51
  Lines at Glenn Giri. It's got to be in Glenn Giri.
• 19:54
  It's like I'm absolutely in love with it.
• 19:55
  So now tell me many then. It's an interesting one because.
• 20:00
  You talk about like the conversations that you have with
• 20:02
  people and walking in and stuff like that.
• 20:03
  But I can imagine that when at certain times of the year,
• 20:06
  particularly during like Edinburgh Festival times when
• 20:09
  the places are busy and stuff, how difficult is it to cut
• 20:12
  through the mild peruser that's coming in and going, oh, I'm
• 20:16
  just having a little look and then you know, you realize these
• 20:20
  guys aren't going to buy anything to coin a phrase,
• 20:24
  because my background is sort of sales.
• 20:26
  Tyre kickers like to come in and have a little look around.
• 20:30
  We chat, I play that and then walk out again without walking
• 20:33
  out with a bag clinking the bottles versus because I suppose
• 20:37
  there's two sides to it. There'll be a lot of people that
• 20:40
  walk into the shop that are there for buy whiskey.
• 20:42
  Yes. And then it's about your job
• 20:44
  just to try and see what whiskey suits them.
• 20:46
  But then also though, is it a case of if somebody walks in the
• 20:50
  shop and they're maybe not sure, do you, is it to try and get
• 20:54
  them to walk out with something in their carrier bag?
• 20:56
  Yeah. I think we're quite lucky in
• 20:59
  that we do our own little single cask bottlings.
• 21:03
  We bottle them in in small sizes as well.
• 21:06
  So if people are sort of just browsing, maybe you can kind of
• 21:10
  start the conversation by going like, oh, you know this.
• 21:12
  Let me tell you about what these are as we're talking about some
• 21:16
  of those bottles there. And it is they're they're very
• 21:19
  eye-catching. We've got these sort of little,
• 21:23
  little wooden bears. Treasures they are.
• 21:24
  Now called cask treasures because giggle and cure confused
• 21:29
  people. OK, so yes, we have rebranded.
• 21:32
  They're just cask treasures now. But yes, you've got these little
• 21:35
  single cast bottlings. And that was always a really
• 21:38
  good way of sort of going like, yeah, you're, you're welcome to
• 21:42
  give these a taste, see what you like.
• 21:44
  So generally a lot of people would end up, even if it was
• 21:49
  just a small bottle, they'd buy something.
• 21:51
  And I think because our shop is so small, when it's really busy
• 21:54
  like that, if you're just wasting time, you don't want to
• 21:58
  be in there, yeah. It's just too.
• 22:00
  Small it's too. Cramped and you can't really
• 22:03
  sort of peruse the shelves. So the only answer.
• 22:06
  Is after six years of retail they see you coming from a mile.
• 22:08
  Yeah, I just think about. That I'm just, I'm just.
• 22:11
  What samples have you got about now?
• 22:13
  At what point was it when you're there and in walks this tall,
• 22:18
  dark, handsome tree? Aussie book.
• 22:21
  But you just think I have a bit of that.
• 22:25
  Hilariously, she was completely oblivious to me for about the
• 22:28
  first few months. Well, this is probably a.
• 22:29
  Good point to start on. We can marry that, but we can
• 22:33
  come. Back to that.
• 22:35
  Okay, one last question, yes, for Monique as well.
• 22:38
  Is it just Scotch whiskey? You drink a lot of everything.
• 22:41
  I've, I'm not big on, I'm actually Canadian whiskey I'm
• 22:46
  not a big fan of at all, at least the ones that I've had.
• 22:49
  And that might more be because of experiences in my youth with
• 22:52
  overindulging and Crown Royal. What's your name?
• 22:57
  I think, well, very responsible, yeah.
• 23:01
  Although. Crown Royal with orange juice.
• 23:03
  Great. So good so.
• 23:06
  Yeah. It's really good honestly.
• 23:08
  It's called a gladiator. Don't know why.
• 23:11
  I would say the worst. Hangover I've ever had.
• 23:13
  Whiskey was on Crown Royal Green apple which of?
• 23:17
  Course wouldn't be legal. Here in Scotland it's called
• 23:18
  whiskey, but in northern rural Michigan it's what you'll take.
• 23:22
  And it's quite good actually. And and and they don't.
• 23:26
  Really measure. So again, I feel like in Canada,
• 23:28
  you know, anything above the most of the population of Canada
• 23:31
  feel like you order a whiskey, you get like a half pound most
• 23:34
  of the time. So polite.
• 23:36
  And generous. I'll apologize for you too much,
• 23:40
  I guess now there's some there. Some of the flavoured ones are
• 23:43
  good, I and so. I guess actually we guess we can
• 23:46
  talk more when we hear Tom's story about now visiting
• 23:49
  distilleries and everything as well.
• 23:50
  So an Australian also moved to Scotland.
• 23:53
  I did. How did your interest in whiskey
• 23:55
  start, Tom? It was one of those I, I kind of
• 23:58
  always had a passing interest in being into whiskey and then sort
• 24:03
  of that I was, I always wanted to to want to like whiskey.
• 24:08
  So you wanted to be snobby? I wanted to be a snob.
• 24:11
  Yeah, I, I had, I had, you know, it's like in Australia the
• 24:15
  limit, the selection was fairly limited.
• 24:17
  But I, I thought I was, you know, really up on my stuff when
• 24:21
  I was buying green label instead of blue label because green
• 24:24
  label's clearly the better option and I'm saving the money.
• 24:29
  But Scottish attitude. But no.
• 24:33
  So I, I, I whiskey was a complete accident for me, to be
• 24:37
  honest. I I moved over here in which
• 24:40
  part of Australia where? You're from Sydney?
• 24:41
  Sydney, Yeah. And it was too hot, so I got
• 24:44
  sick of it and moved over. But it was I It was a complete
• 24:49
  accident falling into the whiskey shop.
• 24:50
  Really. Because I came over here and
• 24:54
  needed a job. I ended up with a job at an
• 24:57
  undisclosed pizza place for three weeks.
• 24:59
  Hated my life for the entirety of it and was and looking for
• 25:04
  anything that was going and a job came up at the whiskey shop
• 25:07
  that was full time, applied for it.
• 25:10
  I've always worked in retail. I know nothing about whiskey.
• 25:14
  I know what I like. I drink great label.
• 25:17
  But got the job at Victoria Street and it was kind of, I
• 25:23
  think learning from the likes of Andy and Monique and Ross and
• 25:29
  just sort of, you know, the full timers that were there at the
• 25:31
  time, like Lindsay and David as well were, were really big on
• 25:34
  that. And it was just going, this
• 25:36
  industry is amazing. Yeah.
• 25:37
  And it's there's so much to it. And how long were you at Vic?
• 25:41
  Street for SO. I was there for two years, just
• 25:46
  over two years, but a good half of that was lockdown.
• 25:51
  So I was technically with the company for two years, but I was
• 25:56
  probably only working for 14 months of that.
• 26:02
  But yeah, so that was, I was the the sort of sole survivor of
• 26:07
  the, the whenever, whenever I went on furlough.
• 26:11
  And then they had to sort of cut the staff down.
• 26:14
  And it would have been genuine. It would have actually been
• 26:16
  Monique. But Monique was part time and
• 26:18
  they needed AI. Think you literally.
• 26:20
  If I remember you can, there's only you can only just set the
• 26:22
  amount of hours on your visa, Yeah.
• 26:24
  So initially on a student visa, you can only work 20 hours.
• 26:27
  Yeah. And I.
• 26:27
  Remember that being the case, so when it.
• 26:30
  Comes to joining a company like the whiskey Shop and things like
• 26:34
  that is do they put you through any kind of training before you
• 26:38
  get kind of train on the. Job yeah, it it very.
• 26:41
  Much was it was that level of like I, I, I went in under the,
• 26:46
  the assumption of I know how to serve customers, but I don't
• 26:49
  know the product. And it was very much at the time
• 26:52
  of going, it was, I've started in July, so a month before
• 26:57
  Edinburgh Fringe. And it was very you're going to
• 26:59
  learn or you're going to leave. And and that was it.
• 27:03
  Having having the staff members that we had there allowed me to
• 27:06
  learn on the job. And it was that and just going,
• 27:09
  OK, I'll listen to, I'll find out about, you know, the cast,
• 27:11
  they've got the cast treasures that they've got.
• 27:13
  I'll find out about that. That's five whiskeys.
• 27:16
  I can repeat, repeat, repeat until I'm good at it.
• 27:19
  And then if somebody asks me a different question, I can find
• 27:21
  out. Yeah.
• 27:23
  And do you guys sell? Those cool little, the counters
• 27:26
  that are shaped in little, sort of you sell them, they're great.
• 27:32
  You don't. Do.
• 27:35
  This you do. No, no, no, we.
• 27:36
  Don't certainly. Certainly you do.
• 27:38
  Not do like. Little Golf Club.
• 27:40
  Golf just look like a shape Waverly does.
• 27:44
  One in the shape. Of a football that we got in a
• 27:47
  week after the Six Nations ended.
• 27:49
  So that was great timing. A rugby ball, you mean?
• 27:52
  Yeah, rugby. Yeah.
• 27:55
  Sorry, sorry. We've got a lot of.
• 27:57
  Yeah. No, we we don't have them.
• 28:01
  We do have them as a company, but Waverly stocks those, not
• 28:06
  us. Great.
• 28:08
  We're. Highbrow.
• 28:09
  Yeah, that's. Typically you would ask for
• 28:11
  that. Do you have those golf clubs who
• 28:14
  have a non district blended whiskey that's dirty?
• 28:17
  It should be the Edinburgh. Castle is what it is, that one.
• 28:21
  That one was good. It came in a wooden box.
• 28:23
  Wooden box. Glass bottle in the shape of
• 28:26
  Edinburgh Castle with a non discretion.
• 28:27
  I'll be honest. With you, right, Like there's
• 28:30
  such a fine line between, I'll say this, I went, I did the West
• 28:36
  Highland way maybe seven or eight years ago, did it to save
• 28:41
  money and it cost me more money. And I look.
• 28:44
  Around, I look around at that time and I thought, God, we love
• 28:47
  wrapping off tourists say so when everyone says that, oh, do
• 28:51
  a staycation, it's the best thing you'll do.
• 28:52
  You'll save money and this, that and the next thing.
• 28:54
  Rubbish. Right.
• 28:56
  I had a miserable night in a tent in Dorman, not Dorman,
• 29:00
  sorry Dormaness. Which resulted in US bailing out
• 29:03
  and sleeping in the car to him lock the door when because my
• 29:07
  keys kept automatically locking the car, which would then set
• 29:09
  the alarm off when they're moving in the car the whole
• 29:12
  place up. But but I was doing like visited
• 29:15
  and you know what? I just remember and maybe it's
• 29:17
  changed now and what have you, and I just remember being there
• 29:20
  and thinking like God, Scottish. People are the worst.
• 29:24
  We really. I clearly really do.
• 29:26
  We're saying this in Australia. Green and decided to move.
• 29:30
  Reasonably happy, but what have I?
• 29:32
  Done but we talked about this respect like the Scotch whisky
• 29:34
  experiences. I'll be the first to admit and
• 29:37
  the Scotch whisky experience have been great for us in the
• 29:39
  podcast. They they we do have free
• 29:41
  tickets that we are still to use.
• 29:43
  We've had a lot of people worked for them and still worked their
• 29:47
  alley Baxter give a shout out and you know loads and loads of
• 29:50
  other people there and and I always turn my nose up at the
• 29:53
  Scottish whiskey experience because I was like Royal Mile
• 29:56
  whiskey RIP off. They're just going to be there.
• 29:59
  But then you turn out that actually the shop bar everything
• 30:03
  is about a great experience. Yeah.
• 30:06
  So. Then.
• 30:06
  From my own perspective is like you look at these whiskey shops
• 30:09
  and you look at these places and you're like, Nah, because I know
• 30:13
  it's going to be a place where you're it's a tourist trap, but
• 30:17
  at the same. Time.
• 30:19
  I mean, spent a little bit of time with the ginger boy and
• 30:21
  going into the Moultrie's Walk shop and you look at the whiskey
• 30:24
  that's there and there's the W Club as well, if I'm right and
• 30:27
  say yes. Yes, so we've got a wee club
• 30:30
  where we do tastings and things. A lot of tastings are always up.
• 30:33
  On Victoria St. as well. Yeah, well, we.
• 30:35
  We've been, I've been to, we went to the valve.
• 30:37
  Any tasting at the shop? Moultrie's last.
• 30:40
  Two months ago. A couple of months ago and then
• 30:42
  Ross got ejected from the Glen turret one for Chuck and his
• 30:45
  glass. Yeah, Ross.
• 30:52
  Dropped his glass and he was giving us a good player.
• 30:55
  Presenting it was very intimidating.
• 30:57
  But. You're right.
• 30:58
  And you go. In and you need to give it a
• 30:59
  chance. It's just what you're saying,
• 31:01
  but that's. How complex is it?
• 31:03
  Like we talked about this with Cam and Fraser and all the other
• 31:07
  guys we've had from Scotch on and Eduardo and things, and it
• 31:12
  must be dead easy when you have the Macallan up there and you'll
• 31:16
  get people that walk in. Just tell her Macallan.
• 31:18
  Without being an American. Tourist without being a sort of
• 31:22
  cliche. Yeah, I like the Macallan and
• 31:25
  stuff, but then being able to go, right?
• 31:26
  Well, hang on a minute, because the something I learned very
• 31:30
  quickly from watching Cameron at work is as Guy walks in,
• 31:35
  American guy. What do you like to drink, Sir?
• 31:37
  I'd like a Scotch. Who's like, well, you're in the
• 31:38
  right place. Secondly, he said, what do you
• 31:42
  normally like? I like Dalmore.
• 31:43
  I like macabre shock. Shock.
• 31:46
  Right. So basically what?
• 31:47
  I've heard that before, Yeah. And then go, I said.
• 31:49
  Like if I tried Tam do never held the Tam do, right.
• 31:52
  Well, if you like that, you like that, there's a good chance of
• 31:54
  going to like this and that guy walks out there going.
• 31:57
  I've tried a Tam do I'm now a little bit higher.
• 31:59
  When I go back, I can tell all the folks back home that's true
• 32:02
  term. 2 is what you want. To drink, by the way, yeah.
• 32:04
  So for you guys then when you're do like, it's interesting Tom
• 32:09
  will come to you with what you're doing at Cat and Hedge,
• 32:11
  because I think it's slightly different with what people are
• 32:13
  walking in to buy. But at the whiskey shop then, is
• 32:17
  it just dead easy to go right? You want a McAllen, I've got
• 32:19
  this range, here's what you've got and you're going to spend a
• 32:21
  lot of money. Or are you wanting to maybe
• 32:23
  consult them a little bit more? Well, actually, I could save you
• 32:25
  a bit of money and get you a really good draft.
• 32:27
  Yeah, I think. I mean, yeah, it depends on
• 32:29
  maybe what the person's kind of spending power is, what they're
• 32:32
  after. But definitely there will be
• 32:35
  like at the moment we just got in last week a Secret Space
• 32:39
  side, which is a bourbon cask 15 year old that's been bottled by
• 32:45
  signatory but from McAllen. So it's very different from the
• 32:48
  sort of standard if you like McAllen, it's not going to be
• 32:50
  the same, but I think it sort of.
• 32:53
  Depends on their interest as well.
• 32:54
  Yeah. And it's it's if they're willing
• 32:56
  to sit there and listen to you for two seconds, you can get
• 32:59
  them on to something more interesting.
• 33:00
  Yeah. But if they if they just come in
• 33:02
  a point, then then that's that's why I'd argue.
• 33:05
  I would say that I guess we'll get into cabinets.
• 33:08
  The advantage of going to place at cabin heads is that your
• 33:10
  audience are generally more informed and the challenge of
• 33:14
  working at whiskey shop is incredibly diverse and
• 33:17
  unpredictable audience every single day you will get people
• 33:20
  who are series collectors who come and you get a lot more
• 33:22
  regulars as well that are going to go into somewhere at the
• 33:25
  whiskey shop and only that specific shop.
• 33:27
  Well, if. You've got like, if you've got
• 33:30
  this American that's coming over and taking cases home with them
• 33:32
  and stuff like that, then I mean, I mean, I'm assuming that
• 33:35
  everywhere they want to deal. With the same in person, they
• 33:37
  like that customer service. It's personalized.
• 33:39
  You know, they say, I can't wait to speak to Monique again and
• 33:42
  maybe Monique's put a bottle aside from them because they got
• 33:45
  something and it's not going to last very long.
• 33:46
  They go, do you know what they're going to buy that next
• 33:48
  time they're in and that's all that personal.
• 33:50
  It's a really nice. Feeling but like, and again, it
• 33:53
  is that nice feeling. It's like what you're saying
• 33:55
  about drinking the green label instead of this label and stuff
• 33:57
  like that. But being able to say I've got a
• 33:59
  whiskey guy, like I know. I've got listen, I'll phone my
• 34:03
  I'll. I'll phone my whiskey person and
• 34:06
  they'll be able to get tell me and stuff like that.
• 34:07
  But what's really interested me, and I don't want to probe too
• 34:10
  much on this, but like you say, a background of sales and stuff
• 34:13
  like that, There's obviously targets you've got to try and
• 34:14
  hit things and things like that. But then in the whiskey
• 34:17
  industry, trying to have that sort of just as long as you're
• 34:20
  someone's walking out with whiskey, that's a bonus.
• 34:23
  How difficult is it where you can say, right, well, I could
• 34:26
  sell you this and it's going to just, that's great for the shop.
• 34:29
  But from a customer experience, I could say, do you know what I
• 34:33
  think you would want that? But at the same time, if you
• 34:35
  open your mind a little bit more or even I can save you a bit of
• 34:39
  money here. I mean how would how's that 1 I
• 34:42
  think. We are quite lucky in that we
• 34:44
  are such a busy shop. We have a little bit more leeway
• 34:49
  with things like Targets and generally I think the the more
• 34:55
  important thing is for them to go away with like the right body
• 34:59
  for them, even if it's the, the cheaper bottle, the less
• 35:03
  expensive 1 you get. One off expedience for years,
• 35:06
  yeah. And there.
• 35:07
  Was never any when I was there and I believe it's still the
• 35:11
  same. There was never any sales
• 35:13
  pressure. No, it was very much more about
• 35:15
  the right bottle for the right customer.
• 35:17
  And there's no, there's also no Commission.
• 35:19
  Yeah. So there's no incentive
• 35:22
  Commission, Yeah. Yeah.
• 35:23
  I mean if. Someone offers a bottle, I'd say
• 35:25
  the shop and comes back. It's all well enjoyed.
• 35:29
  It's great for the shop and it's a great get feeling when
• 35:32
  somebody buys the 2000 LB Banff. But it it doesn't affect your
• 35:36
  wallet, so you'd rather them have the right.
• 35:38
  So that's what I'll say. My my answer to your question
• 35:41
  would be, it's just the pressures of working sales.
• 35:46
  Aren't really. As prevalent in working and
• 35:49
  watching retail, because you're working watching retail, it's
• 35:52
  genuinely customizing it to the customers needs rather than to
• 35:54
  your needs. And so what's the situation when
• 35:56
  I was at the whiskey shop, the only independent bottle they
• 36:00
  stopped was Hunter line, all Hunter Line bottle, so exclusive
• 36:04
  to them. And the only independent bottle
• 36:06
  on shelf space was Hunter line. And therefore, of course, we had
• 36:10
  better margin on Hunter line for the three days.
• 36:12
  You could tell everybody on Hunter Line that would be
• 36:14
  better, that it never really came into your thinking it would
• 36:17
  be somebody wants single cash whiskey, that's what they were
• 36:19
  going to get because that was the only option.
• 36:20
  Now they mentioned these signatories and they've had so
• 36:23
  many signatories, 17 space side Ms. in the last year or so and
• 36:27
  how good they've been. And actually then it comes into
• 36:30
  the quality of the liquid. And one thing you've got the
• 36:32
  whiskey shop is almost in your face, constant amazing new
• 36:38
  liquid going on the shelves and lots of exclusives as well.
• 36:40
  I don't know if we must be, really.
• 36:41
  Tricky for the whiskey shop because being as large as they
• 36:44
  are then I can imagine like we had.
• 36:48
  Hector McLean. From Jeffrey St.
• 36:50
  Whiskey, Tobacco. And he was talking about like
• 36:54
  when you said off camera and off when we stop recording is like,
• 36:56
  you should see the samples that we get every single week from
• 37:00
  people say like, can you stop my stop?
• 37:02
  We've only got so much shelf space.
• 37:04
  And when you think about it from your point of view, get on the
• 37:07
  shelf from the whiskey shop means that if you can have that,
• 37:11
  you can have that. I mean, from a distilleries
• 37:14
  point of view, from a bottler's point of view.
• 37:15
  I mean, when you think about it, if I'm an indie bottler and I've
• 37:19
  got 200 odd bottles of something, by the time I spread
• 37:22
  that through every whiskey shop, just every whiskey shop in
• 37:26
  Scotland, you can probably get rid of quite a lot of that
• 37:28
  stock. But never mind the whole of the
• 37:29
  UK. Two things #1 great way to be
• 37:32
  able to offload your stock, but #2 to be associated with the
• 37:35
  whiskey shop selling you your brand.
• 37:38
  Then it means that it would be a huge sort of thing to be able to
• 37:41
  puff the chest out and shout out.
• 37:43
  Yeah, I think. So I think I'm, I mean, I think
• 37:46
  at the moment, now that that agreement with Hunter Lang is no
• 37:50
  longer in place, obviously they're focusing on odd and a
• 37:52
  whole now we are definitely, I think looking for any and all
• 37:59
  single casks, any anything that anyone's willing to give us.
• 38:04
  The thing is, is that, yeah, we because we have so many shops,
• 38:07
  we need the whole cask. It's not worth it for us to take
• 38:10
  a case of a cask that's then going to go somewhere.
• 38:14
  And. For people listening back home,
• 38:16
  you'll hear that the music is just about to start.
• 38:19
  The warm up is happening. We have the the the musicians
• 38:21
  next door, which is great, and hopefully they're going to
• 38:25
  actually do a little performance for us at some point between.
• 38:28
  We talk to them every time, they're happy, they're going to
• 38:30
  maybe try and they want to do a whiskey.
• 38:32
  Through these tasting and concert I'm.
• 38:35
  Going. To.
• 38:37
  Put you both in this spot here. Now you don't have to answer
• 38:39
  immediately, but if you were to describe each other as a DRAM.
• 38:46
  So. You maybe don't like Tom.
• 38:48
  Go first. That's funnier.
• 38:56
  I mean, I'm, I'm no, don't look for, don't look.
• 39:00
  For clues in the eyes. No, I'm not looking.
• 39:02
  No, no, it's. Great.
• 39:04
  But people who haven't watched our YouTube channel, check this
• 39:06
  video just because you're comfortable too.
• 39:08
  Yeah, also. On on.
• 39:10
  The Facebook page this Friday we should do to describe your
• 39:12
  partner or your current partner. What drama?
• 39:14
  Your current partner. Oh.
• 39:17
  Jesus, I mean, I I would say that she's definitely something
• 39:20
  in a Sultan cask because she's so sweet.
• 39:25
  God that was awful. No, I mean, you know, she's
• 39:28
  pitted and and Winecarski and she's sweet and fiery.
• 39:32
  So nice. That's.
• 39:34
  A good. That's sweet and smoking.
• 39:37
  That's better than. Fiery.
• 39:41
  Fiery. Yeah, actually.
• 39:43
  What do you think? You've called your fiance fiery.
• 39:45
  That's. So what you're?
• 39:47
  Saying is, she backs up. I mean God.
• 39:51
  She can though. OK, so.
• 39:54
  Something for my some kind of port shop I'm going.
• 39:58
  To say one of those, one of those intense octomores.
• 40:01
  Nice. Yeah, take it.
• 40:04
  I'll take that. Yeah, that was quite a good
• 40:06
  answer actually. Oh, I don't know good name on.
• 40:12
  Australian whiskey. Just come on.
• 40:15
  The. Star War Ginger beer I.
• 40:19
  Love it, I love it. Couldn't even be the.
• 40:22
  Unexpected. Brilliant.
• 40:24
  So at the time then, so you guys have obviously met working in
• 40:27
  the shop, yeah. Who chased?
• 40:29
  Who chased? Each other who chased you so.
• 40:32
  We know the. Answer to that.
• 40:33
  Yeah. Monique was completely oblivious
• 40:38
  to my flirting. Yeah, I'm not sure if it's
• 40:40
  because he's. Really bad at flirting or I'm.
• 40:42
  Just really. Oblivious.
• 40:43
  It's probably both. Hey, you tried this whiskey?
• 40:46
  It's really fire, right? Yeah.
• 40:50
  I knew we got the phrasing wrong.
• 40:53
  Yes, no. So we we met over while Monique
• 40:58
  was on her student visa over Fringe.
• 41:01
  She was able to work a bit of additional hours according to
• 41:05
  the visa restrictions. So over fringe she worked for a
• 41:09
  week and so I had a whole week of being able to work with her
• 41:13
  and and thoroughly enjoyed my time.
• 41:16
  She was one of my one of my favorite Co workers just to have
• 41:19
  a bit of a chat with he would. Steal my lines for whiskey
• 41:24
  bottles. Oh yeah, no.
• 41:26
  Because I was still learning at the time and it was very much a
• 41:29
  level of Monique knows what she's talking about, I'll listen
• 41:31
  to her and parrot that to the customers.
• 41:33
  The audacity. Yeah.
• 41:36
  Monique took that as an insult instead of and.
• 41:39
  Then so you end up making this massive transfer in whiskey
• 41:42
  retail and making it to cabinets.
• 41:45
  Was that a direct move for those?
• 41:46
  No. So I interimmed at Johnny Walker
• 41:51
  Princess St. Oh wow.
• 41:53
  So. That would have been.
• 41:54
  So, I mean, how long has Johnnie Walker, Princess St. been open?
• 41:56
  They've now been open. Three years.
• 41:58
  So if you've. I I was.
• 41:59
  There at the beginning. Wow.
• 42:01
  So yeah, how was? That like then actually shops
• 42:03
  at. Diageo, Jordan Cove.
• 42:04
  I've heard that it was. It was, it was a big change.
• 42:09
  So Johnnie Walker is, I mean, it's, it's a fantastic place and
• 42:14
  the team is brilliant. It was very I think they were
• 42:19
  kind of working as they went. So they're trying to sort of
• 42:24
  figure out Diageo don't do a lot of whiskey retail.
• 42:27
  So having a ginormous shop at the bottom of the building and
• 42:31
  was that was. That where you worked in the
• 42:32
  shop? It was, yeah.
• 42:33
  So trying to work out selling green labels.
• 42:36
  Essentially this. Is the one.
• 42:39
  But no, essentially trying to work out the the sort of kinks
• 42:43
  as they went, which was great fun.
• 42:45
  And I mean, I've got some lifelong friends out of Johnny
• 42:47
  Walton. Yeah, it was.
• 42:50
  It was and to be part of. That to be part of that, but I
• 42:53
  mean, it's actually something Ross on the podcast moment for.
• 42:57
  Edinburgh, Yeah, I. Mean I remember the discussion.
• 42:59
  So my cousin, he works sort of in Edinburgh.
• 43:06
  Property. And stuff like that.
• 43:07
  And he was sort of explaining because it's old Burtons
• 43:10
  building and he was explaining that the old Burtons building
• 43:13
  has been bought. And he was saying that there's
• 43:14
  the record is going to be the Johnny Walker experience.
• 43:16
  And one of the things they talked about was, and I think
• 43:18
  we've mentioned before is he was saying that, you know, they were
• 43:21
  looking at it saying you go to Amsterdam, you've got the
• 43:23
  Heineken experience, you go to Dublin, you've got the Guinness
• 43:26
  experience, and you've got all these different places that have
• 43:29
  experiences. And then you come to Edinburgh.
• 43:31
  And then of course, you had the Scotch whiskey experience, don't
• 43:32
  get me wrong. But at the same time, no
• 43:34
  dedicated brand. And there's no bigger whiskey
• 43:38
  brand in the world than Johnnie Walker the Walker.
• 43:40
  Absolutely. And I mean, realistically there
• 43:43
  is, you know, you can kind of the further you get into the
• 43:45
  industry, the easier it is to sort of Pooh Pooh on Diageo a
• 43:48
  bit and Johnnie Walker in general.
• 43:49
  But but realistically it was a massive boon for the industry
• 43:55
  and for Edinburgh. It was a huge gamble at the end
• 43:59
  of the day. And I mean, it's, it's three
• 44:02
  years open now and they've, they've just welcomed their
• 44:05
  what, millionth visitor and you know, they're, they're doing
• 44:09
  very well. Getting in at the beginning, I
• 44:11
  think was a very interesting experience to to see, yeah, to
• 44:17
  see how it developed through that initial phase.
• 44:23
  But it, it was, it was not quite the whiskey focus that I wanted
• 44:27
  it to be. So that's that.
• 44:29
  That was why I, after I'd been there for close to a year, it
• 44:33
  was I wanted to get back towards something more like, something
• 44:38
  more like the whiskey shop was, which is chats with people about
• 44:42
  whiskey who are interested in whiskey and are willing to
• 44:46
  listen to me talk. So what when you talk?
• 44:48
  About we, we we were mentioning earlier on like the the the
• 44:53
  players taken. Aback by just how how fiddlers
• 44:56
  are. They're ruining the.
• 45:01
  Levels in terms of shut up. In.
• 45:07
  Terms in terms of the. Like the counters we talked
• 45:10
  about? Yeah, like Johnny Walker's
• 45:14
  splattered over absolutely everything.
• 45:16
  So what kind of what, what, what?
• 45:18
  What kind of things are we selling?
• 45:20
  And Johnny? Walker Yeah, so jealously you've
• 45:22
  got the. Whiskeys.
• 45:23
  You've got the cast. Yeah, so.
• 45:25
  But we tell me what is the most You're not wearing the.
• 45:28
  Socks. Oh no, I'm not.
• 45:29
  Are you? No.
• 45:30
  Oh, what? Oh yeah, you.
• 45:31
  Are you're wearing the Johnny Walker socks?
• 45:33
  Johnny Walker underwear. Yeah, Johnny Walker Socks.
• 45:35
  Socks also. There you go, The spider man man
• 45:37
  there. Yeah, although I can't so bad I
• 45:40
  can't actually mention those because they never went for sale
• 45:42
  because they were terrible quality.
• 45:46
  No, sorry. It was.
• 45:47
  If anyone from the Andrew is. Listening.
• 45:48
  We are still listening for sponsorship.
• 45:53
  The things that did go for sale are amazing quality.
• 45:56
  The the shop itself has obviously a lot of Johnny
• 45:58
  Walker. They've got all of Diageo's
• 46:01
  single malt brands as well. Yeah, and they do various
• 46:05
  merchandise. So a lot of the sort of bits and
• 46:07
  pieces, glassware, bar Ware, accessories.
• 46:10
  Equal. That was not equal.
• 46:13
  What? About in there I'm actually.
• 46:15
  Going to sniff it, sniff it, score at that.
• 46:16
  I mean, so we're looking for the actual.
• 46:20
  I mean, we've reached out to no. And I've seen this no, I guess.
• 46:24
  We've reached out to. Quite a few that, you know,
• 46:26
  people on the on the podcast have come on and Scotch bought
• 46:30
  whiskey society. And Shan, a big shout at Shannon
• 46:33
  Buchan. She answered the call.
• 46:35
  She heard us say anyone from the Scottish Maltoski Society, if we
• 46:38
  can get put in touch, he's put us in touch with somebody from
• 46:40
  there. So we're looking at trying to do
• 46:41
  that. But I know that, you know, when
• 46:43
  you work for a company like the Azio, it's difficult because
• 46:46
  there's so much you've got to be careful about coming out of
• 46:49
  this. But at the same.
• 46:50
  Time I mean, I think when you look at what the that Johnnie
• 46:54
  Walker experience has done in Edinburgh, the success that it's
• 46:57
  brought and it really opened my mind up doing this podcast when
• 47:01
  you think to yourself like the Scott the Scottish whiskey
• 47:03
  industry like. Any other business?
• 47:06
  Any other industry, and I look at, you know, Talisker on Sky
• 47:10
  and then Tornabag being opened up and everybody on Sky,
• 47:12
  including Talisker. So they say, everyone's saying
• 47:15
  it's great because it's good for the industry.
• 47:16
  Yeah. And then you've got the Scottish
• 47:18
  Malt Whiskey Society. It's got, sorry, the Scottish
• 47:20
  whiskey experience. And you must have thought, Oh,
• 47:21
  my God, it's only Walker experience is opening up.
• 47:25
  But again, they're like, no, it's brilliant because if
• 47:27
  somebody enjoys that and then they'll say, oh, we can do this
• 47:30
  as well. I mean, I don't know, maybe it
• 47:32
  was they decided to up their game.
• 47:33
  They got rid of the barrel ride. Yeah.
• 47:36
  Morgan. Not a sensory experience, Yeah.
• 47:38
  Diagio. Yeah.
• 47:39
  Yeah. But at the same time, like, it's
• 47:41
  great. So I mean it must have been such
• 47:43
  a difference working for. One you know.
• 47:47
  A big retailer, which we are. But then a statement to Diageo
• 47:51
  Starry, the corporate world. Oh yeah.
• 47:53
  Again, I guess I made the same move as Tom.
• 47:55
  Essentially, I was. Going to say.
• 47:57
  You went from the whiskey shop, then to the bond model and then
• 47:59
  was of Diageo Glen Kinchy because you built Glen Kinchy.
• 48:02
  Didn't. You did 1824?
• 48:03
  Yeah. Brexit mortar.
• 48:06
  And you know that Woody knocked. A wall down at Glen Kinchy when
• 48:08
  he worked there. I do, really.
• 48:10
  There you go. Whiskey stories.
• 48:12
  Podcast knowledge? Yeah.
• 48:14
  I guess I actually. Built the Milton Distillery
• 48:16
  because it was founded Milton right there.
• 48:19
  You. Go anyway.
• 48:22
  Anyway, you end up making you're looking for something new, you
• 48:25
  know, you still want to work in whiskey.
• 48:26
  You've been in whiskey for essentially 3 years.
• 48:28
  Yeah. Yeah, basically.
• 48:31
  So it was very good timing for me that I was looking for
• 48:37
  something a little bit more whiskey focused and the job came
• 48:40
  up at Cadenheads for assistant manager and, and so went for it,
• 48:46
  interviewed with them. I don't know if you guys have
• 48:49
  met many people from Campbelltown, but they are some
• 48:51
  of the most chilled people you'll ever have an interview
• 48:54
  with in your life. Have you done in Campbelltown?
• 48:55
  No. Sadly it was a Zoom call and
• 48:59
  then they happened to be coming up to Edinburgh anyway, so they.
• 49:02
  We had on that went for an interview we.
• 49:04
  Did have some Campbelltown to. Campbellton.
• 49:07
  They did it. Overnight.
• 49:08
  And then they turned up an interview like, oh, did you
• 49:10
  enjoy your Chinese last night? Because I.
• 49:12
  Small the place. There is one take away in
• 49:15
  Campbeltown. So sorry.
• 49:17
  Was it Ali marks that? And I think it was.
• 49:20
  Allie Baxter, you know, and I interviewed down, down in
• 49:22
  Campbelltown, I think. I think and.
• 49:25
  Then the. Initial conversation.
• 49:27
  Had been that I might have to go down to Campbelltown and they
• 49:29
  wouldn't, they would have paid for me to get there.
• 49:31
  Brilliant to interview for a job I wasn't guaranteed but well
• 49:35
  tell us about. Cabinheads then because also.
• 49:37
  You are cabinheads. Retail assistant manager in
• 49:39
  Edinburgh? In Edinburgh, yes.
• 49:41
  Yeah, So it's been mentioned on the.
• 49:44
  Podcast before been a lot of people's whiskeys.
• 49:46
  What? What do you dance recently?
• 49:48
  We've never really went back. Into it.
• 49:50
  So people that are listening, of course we're lucky probably I'll
• 49:53
  half the listeners are industry based, but people that don't
• 49:56
  know and for American listeners and such, what is cabinets?
• 50:00
  So should I be saying cadenheads?
• 50:02
  I mean, honestly. I think it depends entirely on
• 50:05
  your accent. I tend to say Cadenheads, but
• 50:07
  then if I'm chatting to a Scott I'll turn it into I always.
• 50:11
  Said Cadenheads. And I was told it's cabinets I
• 50:15
  I. Think told you that Mark
• 50:16
  Thompson, are you? Are you?
• 50:18
  Probably Cameron. Cameron, I think in.
• 50:20
  So we were found in Aberdeen. I think in Aberdeen it's cabin.
• 50:23
  That makes sense. But no.
• 50:25
  So we're Scotland's oldest independent bottler.
• 50:27
  So we were founded in 1842 and we by casks of spirit from
• 50:34
  anyone and everyone. I mean, we were initially based
• 50:38
  in Aberdeen and then in the 70s we were bought over by J and A
• 50:42
  Mitchell who owns Spring Bank and Glenguile, in case anybody
• 50:48
  who's unaware. And since the 70s, we've been
• 50:53
  based in Campbelltown where we share our warehousing with the
• 50:57
  distilleries and we've got the shop in Campbelltown, shop in
• 51:00
  Edinburgh and we now we also have a shop in London.
• 51:04
  Yeah. What about?
• 51:05
  London, Chilton. Street near Soho, SO busy part
• 51:09
  of town? And of course, your bottles are
• 51:11
  quite unique and they're, they're sort of like, I mean, if
• 51:13
  I was to describe them and it's not a particularly like coffin
• 51:16
  style bottle. Yeah, yeah.
• 51:17
  Don't get used to the coffin style bottles.
• 51:19
  I'm not saying anything more about that.
• 51:20
  That's get used to great what we mentioned a lot.
• 51:23
  Of the time on Cadmere when people are referencing the
• 51:25
  history of space sides is that they will still name all their
• 51:28
  space heads utilities. Glenn Levitt.
• 51:29
  That's right. That's why I recently gifted you
• 51:32
  a bottle of Cadmeres. You did die of Milton.
• 51:34
  Duff, Yeah. Milton Duff.
• 51:35
  Glenn Levitt. So I knew Melton.
• 51:37
  Duff means a lot to you. I bought that Catnet.
• 51:39
  It's the first Catnet bottle I ever bought in 2018. 10 year old
• 51:43
  Melton Duff in a bourbon. Barrel.
• 51:45
  And. Yeah, Glenn.
• 51:47
  Leavitt, Melton, Duff. We've discussed that in the
• 51:49
  podcast. Well, if I could be.
• 51:51
  In the in the. In the sort of spirit.
• 51:54
  Of openness and honesty on on the podcast and I'm going to try
• 51:59
  and find this Pesh. No.
• 52:02
  No, no, not that, but my wife. Or as Angus.
• 52:07
  Angus being current wife, she is my wife, lover to bits.
• 52:12
  She's absolutely. I mean the fact that I've got an
• 52:14
  8 week old baby in the house and she's still happy for me on a
• 52:16
  Tuesday night to go. To the pub.
• 52:18
  And talk about whiskey and it's work, but but basically bless
• 52:22
  her, there was one day she I'm trying to find a photo of it.
• 52:25
  She went away to work and she works down that and got my own
• 52:29
  mouth right. Of course the CAD hits and she's
• 52:32
  coming and this is before we start the Whiskey Stories
• 52:34
  podcast. She knew I liked whiskey and
• 52:35
  she's coming with a canned heads box.
• 52:37
  I've got you a bottle like that and I went.
• 52:42
  When did you get? That and she said I.
• 52:44
  Got. In the the shop down in the
• 52:46
  Royal miles. That's shocked.
• 52:48
  We wanted those touristy ones. And she's like, the guy served
• 52:52
  me. It was really, really nice.
• 52:52
  Told me like I told him they liked your whiskey.
• 52:54
  I didn't know too much about what you like.
• 52:58
  Like that, right? And I said, how much did you pay
• 52:59
  for it? She's like it was 6060 odd quid.
• 53:02
  Oh God, what are you doing? You're the worst.
• 53:05
  And I thought like. Appreciate the gesture and very
• 53:08
  nice. Thank you very much.
• 53:09
  And at that time, independent bottler, I was talking about
• 53:12
  this idea. Right.
• 53:13
  You were in the bottlers made. No sense to me.
• 53:15
  Yeah, and only like Scottish. Whisky can heads.
• 53:18
  I didn't. Know who they were and I was
• 53:20
  like, it's probably just look these I'm kind of started I was
• 53:23
  like, yeah, do you think? This is for to this RIP off.
• 53:25
  Yeah, didn't realize actually it's more whisky people than buy
• 53:28
  this 100% I'm trying to. Make I'm trying to find.
• 53:31
  I would love to know which. One I sent it.
• 53:33
  To very early on I put it in our group chat and you were like,
• 53:37
  that's actually I didn't know a bad like, oh, was that?
• 53:40
  Another. One, I'm a savvy I'm doing.
• 53:43
  Wow, that's not a bad. Bottle, I'm going to try and
• 53:44
  find it. I will try and find it.
• 53:46
  I'm not going to be on my phone, but I feel I felt terrible.
• 53:49
  And then of course you do, you Start learning, you do the
• 53:51
  podcast and stuff like that. And this is like, that's really
• 53:54
  interesting with two of you is as we've kind of already
• 53:56
  discussed, it's like the whiskey shop stands out.
• 54:00
  There'll be so many people, especially I know now where
• 54:02
  cotton Heads is. I know what the shop looks like
• 54:04
  the exterior of it. I know that.
• 54:06
  I mean, we had Mark Davidson on the podcast on a long row and he
• 54:09
  was talking about how, you know, I don't know if it's still the
• 54:12
  same, but like a written Ledger not.
• 54:15
  Anymore. No, we've, we've updated
• 54:17
  sloppiness. Yeah, yeah, we we somehow
• 54:20
  decided that in the 20th century, 21st century, God knows
• 54:25
  that we should probably have a till system.
• 54:28
  I don't even. Remember when you took over?
• 54:30
  It was pretty old school, I remember.
• 54:32
  Coming in to. See you, congratulate you on
• 54:34
  your job, and you. Were writing with.
• 54:36
  A pencil and if some kind of had names and numbers of people
• 54:40
  because cabinets again, because it's such a long and established
• 54:43
  bottler, you always have a lot of lists of people who would
• 54:46
  always buy X spring Mike when they came at.
• 54:49
  All but and obviously that's become.
• 54:50
  An issue for you because. For people that don't know.
• 54:52
  Cabinets, yes, they will send up in a bottler, but yeah, that
• 54:56
  overlap you mentioned, yeah, Spring Bank and Glenn Gale
• 54:59
  people are yeah, it's for. These capital town.
• 55:02
  Facilities Spring Bank. Releases may or may not be our
• 55:05
  least favorite time of the year, but it's only only because we're
• 55:10
  known to have a bigger allocation than a lot of
• 55:13
  retailers. And because of that, I think we
• 55:16
  get a lot more requests than that would be difficult because.
• 55:20
  Like I remember speaking to the guys that wrote a mile and
• 55:22
  Dougie Little and stuff. And it's like, how do you keep
• 55:24
  everybody happy? Yeah, because you'll have loads
• 55:26
  of you'll have loads and loads of people who are regulars that,
• 55:29
  you know, like to spring back. We're going to keep some aside.
• 55:33
  But then at the same time if someone comes in and says I want
• 55:34
  to buy 8 bottles of your spring back, how do you say it?
• 55:37
  No, no. So I mean.
• 55:39
  Look, even even core range, we have to limit now if somebody
• 55:41
  comes in for A10 or A-15, if we've got it, you can have one
• 55:45
  or the other. Really we just can't.
• 55:49
  Unfortunately supply is so limited and to in order to try
• 55:52
  and be fair to as many people as possible, you just can't.
• 55:55
  I'll tell you a. Good problems.
• 55:56
  I'll tell you. Nothing to do with whiskey but
• 55:59
  this. Guy.
• 56:00
  Gorgeously so. He's dead now.
• 56:01
  And Donaldson? Dodo, you said this is funny.
• 56:04
  He used to get called. Dodo, right?
• 56:06
  Dodo. I went on.
• 56:07
  So he was being his 50s forties, 50s, but I was 1819 most You
• 56:11
  were cutting your teeth at the whiskey shop.
• 56:13
  I was working at Curry's in Kirkcaldy, right Curry's
• 56:17
  electronics retailer for anyone listen doesn't know who they are
• 56:21
  and it was the Wii Fit right And it was like we were getting 6 at
• 56:29
  a time in the build up to Christmas.
• 56:32
  Now at the time and this will age how long it was and I don't
• 56:35
  know if you guys will even be in the UK.
• 56:36
  Know what JJB Sports with sports shop were just along the road.
• 56:41
  Two of us. We got 6 wee bits and three
• 56:45
  members of staff took three of them right one each because they
• 56:49
  were like, I'm going to take that for the kids and we'll have
• 56:50
  you. So 3 left, gone within minutes.
• 56:53
  And so Owen Donaldson, God, he's dead.
• 56:58
  The goddess is so lovely, lovely guy type of guy that before the
• 57:03
  Christmas Day, before the Christmas party, young girl who
• 57:06
  works there jumps out. Santa Hun, are you coming in?
• 57:09
  He was such a droll guy. Alan, you coming to Christmas
• 57:12
  now? No, why not?
• 57:14
  I have to work with you beeps every day.
• 57:17
  Why the hell would it work? A social that was just but he
• 57:21
  was such a nice guy, lovely, lovely guy.
• 57:23
  It doesn't sound it, but he really was hard to go.
• 57:25
  But he's just so droll had this really dry.
• 57:27
  So anyway, this guy has come in Dad, slightly rotund kind of
• 57:32
  person, a large guy. He's coming, sweating red in the
• 57:36
  face, like, have you got any of these Nintendo Wii fat things?
• 57:40
  And I said, Nah, sorry, pal. Sold out.
• 57:42
  Oh, you're joking. I sold out.
• 57:43
  All gone today. And then Alan notice I looked
• 57:45
  him up down to see if I was you, pal, wouldn't you waste your
• 57:47
  money on a wee fat? Get down the road that JJB, get
• 57:50
  yourself a pair of trainers. Genuinely never read something
• 57:55
  customer. Service through the roof.
• 57:58
  But I mean, it must be, it must be really difficult because if
• 58:00
  someone's leaving a wad of cash in front of you and said, look,
• 58:02
  I'm happy to take as many as possible, it's got to be not
• 58:06
  the. Spring Max are always going to
• 58:09
  sell out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 58:11
  So I imagine. The sorry, sorry.
• 58:13
  No, no, I imagine the frustrating.
• 58:15
  Thing is, you have a shelf full of really interesting products.
• 58:19
  You've got the authentic collection there, you've got
• 58:20
  some really unusual distilleries.
• 58:22
  Maybe I had to go before maybe some of the interesting
• 58:24
  bottlings spring back drinkers would enjoy.
• 58:27
  If you cut the pot, the head and you've got the spring back and
• 58:29
  also that close the door. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 58:31
  And that's like just, I mean, it is one.
• 58:33
  Of those things, there's no, there's no talking to some of
• 58:37
  them, right. If, if you don't have spring
• 58:38
  back, they're uninterested, which is, you know, we, we've
• 58:41
  got a range that we call the original collection, which is a
• 58:44
  small batch single malted 46%. Everybody hates them, say 46%
• 58:50
  and it's Spring Banks 46%. You love Spring Bank, but our
• 58:54
  range at 46% you don't want that's the line.
• 58:57
  So, yeah, is that an etiquette with retailers, right.
• 59:00
  So if I was to get hold of some of this spring back, right and
• 59:04
  then not sell it at the time that everyone else is selling it
• 59:08
  and then wait three or four weeks, 5-6, some retailers will.
• 59:11
  Do that, not the good guys, and then stick it on.
• 59:13
  The shelves but maybe pump up a little bit of an RRP.
• 59:15
  Is that really bad? That's helpful.
• 59:18
  But also just nobody that's going.
• 59:20
  To. Drink.
• 59:21
  The spring back is going to buy it at that point.
• 59:23
  No, it's so. I mean this is the problem.
• 59:26
  Even even the core range was going for double money on
• 59:29
  auction. Well, this is the next.
• 59:30
  Thing isn't it? And it's it's.
• 59:31
  That looking at it going it's a 10 year old whiskey, It's a good
• 59:34
  whiskey, it's fine, but it's it's worth the 52 lbs that it
• 59:38
  that it should cost if it's more than £52 spring.
• 59:42
  Back sniff it, sniff it. Scored it.
• 59:45
  I'm sorry, not. Sniff is what 3 drums?
• 59:47
  George Kegel. I think the best spring back 10.
• 59:50
  Yeah, that's he. He he, I said.
• 59:52
  I didn't. 10 but I get this and you know I've never.
• 59:54
  Again, my whiskey knowledge and I, like I said, no apologies for
• 59:57
  it in that sense that it's just a little.
• 59:59
  Never ever ever tried it, Never heard about really never known
• 1:00:02
  the 1st and then you you dive in and there's a spring bank
• 1:00:06
  obsession. As a.
• 1:00:07
  Fetish so missing out here. There was a very.
• 1:00:10
  Good long period there where I utterly detest in Spring Bank,
• 1:00:15
  and I'll say that quite happily, it's when I was a YouTube video.
• 1:00:25
  No, when? I was at the whiskey shop.
• 1:00:28
  Yeah. I mean this, this was one of the
• 1:00:30
  the things that I think a lot of us sort of connected on.
• 1:00:33
  We come in and ask hey. And we went.
• 1:00:35
  What's wrong with Glenn? Scotia, Yeah, you can get Glenn
• 1:00:38
  Scotia and it's brilliant. You love Glenn.
• 1:00:40
  I love. Glenn Scotia actually brought me
• 1:00:42
  back a memory. Of actually first.
• 1:00:43
  So I remember first meeting when you could be terrified, but what
• 1:00:46
  do? You mean you drink?
• 1:00:47
  Quite. Finally.
• 1:00:48
  Yeah. And then I remember meeting Tom.
• 1:00:52
  Had a discussion about listening.
• 1:00:53
  I was really into Glen Scotia and it was like no way.
• 1:00:57
  Me too. Really, that was a great in
• 1:01:00
  person. In terms of.
• 1:01:02
  I mean in terms of Campbelltown distilleries, because I mean my
• 1:01:05
  history, our head of research isn't here, I guess about, am I
• 1:01:11
  right saying that Campbell time it was thriving like for the
• 1:01:14
  size of place it was. Yeah, it was the whiskey capital
• 1:01:17
  of the world in the early 1900s. There were 37 distilleries.
• 1:01:22
  And it's not big. Ohh, it's tiny.
• 1:01:24
  It's it's, it's half. It's half.
• 1:01:26
  The size of. This pub, it's cheating staff
• 1:01:29
  like the. Stolen.
• 1:01:30
  Yeah, and. Then to nowadays.
• 1:01:33
  We're talking what Spring Bank and well, there's there's.
• 1:01:35
  Three, there's three now and there's 4 coming up, right?
• 1:01:38
  So there's a better. Resurgence coming in, but it.
• 1:01:41
  It's only the three that it is now because Spring Bank opened
• 1:01:45
  Glenn Guile to maintain the Campbelltown whiskey region,
• 1:01:49
  right? So their argument at the time,
• 1:01:51
  they were going to lose Campbelltown's region status.
• 1:01:54
  And their argument at the time was, well, Lowland's only has
• 1:01:56
  three distilleries, so if we opened a third distillery, will
• 1:02:00
  that make us a whiskey region? And it was.
• 1:02:03
  Considered by the. SWA to be appropriate so they
• 1:02:05
  opened Bing Isle so you know it's there there there are a lot
• 1:02:11
  of things that make people want to love spring bank and that
• 1:02:13
  whiskey's great that is but I I. On that though, I think talking
• 1:02:18
  about how difficult it is to get things like Spring Bank because
• 1:02:22
  we get people asking us all the time coming in and usually it's
• 1:02:26
  the same, no, sorry, we don't have it.
• 1:02:27
  And sometimes if I'm feeling bitter, I'll go try Kate and
• 1:02:31
  Heads. They might have it.
• 1:02:34
  Just clarify not. Not feeling better with me.
• 1:02:37
  Just to clarify that, no. Of course not.
• 1:02:39
  Never. I'm kidding.
• 1:02:43
  I'm kidding, I mean. That's that's obviously kind of
• 1:02:47
  the what we would call it's not a problem really.
• 1:02:50
  It's great for Scottish whiskey. We do as well.
• 1:02:52
  Tell me about some of the highlights of cabinets, your
• 1:02:55
  time there and some of the liquids you're tasting.
• 1:02:58
  I mean and. Also, you're not.
• 1:02:59
  Just whiskey bottlers, no. So Cadenheads, we bottle
• 1:03:03
  spirits. So basically we'll buy anything
• 1:03:05
  and everything from anywhere around the world.
• 1:03:08
  So international whiskeys, we do a lot of rum, cognacs, keshasa,
• 1:03:14
  you know, anything. So yeah, we do gin, we've done
• 1:03:18
  Calvados, all sorts of really weird and wonderful things.
• 1:03:23
  I mean, it, it's, it's one of those going back from going from
• 1:03:28
  the the whiskey shop to Johnny Walker and then coming across
• 1:03:30
  the Cadenheads back into a very small scale, very niche product.
• 1:03:37
  I mean, it's been some of the best chats I've ever had with
• 1:03:41
  people, with customers in general who are interested in
• 1:03:43
  whiskey, talking to them about our history, about whiskey in
• 1:03:47
  general and about, I mean, arguably, not to say that we're
• 1:03:52
  too cheap, but we are too cheap for what we sell.
• 1:03:55
  You know, we, we've got a lot of infrastructure that's been paid
• 1:03:59
  for decades ago. We do everything by hand.
• 1:04:01
  So what's the advantage of being?
• 1:04:03
  There being the oldest bottle, there is a portfolio of casks
• 1:04:06
  that you have exactly I mean. That must be.
• 1:04:08
  Another thing I mean the the inventory that you guys must.
• 1:04:12
  Have this is this is the thing. Every now and again I get a
• 1:04:16
  quick little look in at the occasional thing that I know
• 1:04:18
  that we've still got access to and some of the casks are mine
• 1:04:22
  and we're talking about. They've bottled a 29 year old
• 1:04:24
  single cask R beg in the last couple of years.
• 1:04:27
  Yeah, yeah. That's.
• 1:04:28
  Bonkers. Now our beg.
• 1:04:30
  If our beg were bottling a 29 year old single cask of our beg,
• 1:04:34
  it would cost you all of your mother's limbs.
• 1:04:36
  Yeah, it would. Just it would honestly.
• 1:04:40
  It is. It is one of the.
• 1:04:41
  IT is one. Of the I'm just not.
• 1:04:44
  Using that though. That's.
• 1:04:46
  Just it is cotton Heads would charge me before £500 or
• 1:04:49
  whatever it was at the time It it's a. 1000 lbs My my face, my
• 1:04:53
  face, your mum's legs. My favorite, My favorite
• 1:04:57
  comparison is our little mill. We have why we have literally 1
• 1:05:01
  bowl left off, but it's a 31 year old single cast little male
• 1:05:04
  that's 795 lbs which when we released that a few years ago
• 1:05:08
  was, you know, groundbreaking, too expensive.
• 1:05:12
  Cave heads have lost their minds.
• 1:05:15
  But you compare that to a 31 year old single cast little male
• 1:05:17
  from any other bottler and with 1000 lbs too cheap.
• 1:05:22
  Yeah, well, this is. This is This leads on to an
• 1:05:24
  interesting point there because the the the two situations that
• 1:05:29
  you guys find yourself in there one of the things that there's a
• 1:05:31
  lot of chat in the whiskey industry right now.
• 1:05:33
  I'm going to try and sound like I know what we're talking about
• 1:05:35
  here, but like it's what I do on a.
• 1:05:37
  Daily basis, there's a lot. Of chat going around about, I
• 1:05:41
  mean, either there's always peaks and troughs when it comes
• 1:05:44
  to whiskey and I think people are starting to recognize are we
• 1:05:48
  heading into a through? Are we in the through or you
• 1:05:50
  know what, where are we at the moment in the whiskey industry?
• 1:05:53
  I spoke to somebody who's quite senior in the whiskey industry,
• 1:05:56
  said, look, I've been in the industry, thanks very much.
• 1:05:59
  No, he. Didn't work in the whiskey.
• 1:06:00
  Shop He said that I've worked in whiskey for 20 odd years, over
• 1:06:05
  20 years. And he said what I'll tell you
• 1:06:06
  is that the whiskey industry only has good times and very
• 1:06:10
  good times. Yeah.
• 1:06:11
  And he said, so basically when everyone's starting to panic a
• 1:06:14
  little bit and talk about, Oh my God, we're seeing a downturn,
• 1:06:17
  maybe we're just in the good times instead of actually in the
• 1:06:19
  very good times where maybe over the COVID period, there's a
• 1:06:22
  spike in sales, purchase, what have you.
• 1:06:25
  But what is very noticeable from a consumer's point of view is
• 1:06:28
  that distilleries whiskey is becoming very expensive.
• 1:06:32
  Yeah, there's a. Lot of new distilleries, yeah.
• 1:06:34
  So. One of the things is now of
• 1:06:36
  course every distiller, every bottler, everyone will tell you,
• 1:06:40
  yeah, but everything price is going up, cost the heat the
• 1:06:42
  place, cost the staff XYZ. So from your perspective then, I
• 1:06:47
  mean, you're talking about you with a little mill and you're
• 1:06:49
  saying we've probably not charged anywhere near enough in
• 1:06:52
  some people's eyes for what we're putting out.
• 1:06:54
  Whereas Monique you're, you're dictated by what the
• 1:06:59
  distilleries are actually telling you and says RRP, that's
• 1:07:01
  what we want. I think the.
• 1:07:03
  The, the benefit that we've got being owned by J and A Mitchell,
• 1:07:07
  J and A Mitchell's principle has always been that they will
• 1:07:09
  never, they'll never produce more than we'll sell and they'll
• 1:07:15
  never overcharge for what it costs to make.
• 1:07:19
  So it's the reason that one of the reasons that Spring Bank's
• 1:07:22
  so sought after and so well respected is because the quality
• 1:07:25
  is always maintained. But the prices roughly stayed
• 1:07:29
  sort of, you know, the same. I think the, the 10 year old's
• 1:07:32
  gone up £10 in the last 10 years or something.
• 1:07:36
  And we benefit from that as well when we're never going to
• 1:07:38
  overcharge if it means that it won't sell because a product
• 1:07:42
  sitting on a shelf when we've got cases of it out the back is
• 1:07:44
  a useless thing. Yeah, it's just cash.
• 1:07:46
  And it's just cash sitting there.
• 1:07:48
  We might as well have left. It in the cask and let it
• 1:07:50
  matured for another few years and we were going to do that
• 1:07:52
  because. Then from a bottler's point of
• 1:07:53
  view, I suppose if you always follow like and that's really
• 1:07:56
  interesting with having a back catalogue of age stock is if
• 1:08:01
  you, I mean, and this is very, very rough maths and not maths
• 1:08:05
  based on any kind of information.
• 1:08:07
  I've got any math. But if you were to say for
• 1:08:08
  argument's sake, put that in glass and to sell it, it's got
• 1:08:12
  to be a 30%. We've got to make 30% on top of
• 1:08:15
  the cash cost. But then if you suddenly say
• 1:08:18
  like when was that 29 year old are being bought and what did
• 1:08:22
  you actually pay for it at the time?
• 1:08:23
  Which means that you suddenly go as easy as. 30% on and still.
• 1:08:28
  Only cost your mum's legs and arms.
• 1:08:31
  And I think. This is this is one of those
• 1:08:33
  levels of we, we've got the space to buy young.
• 1:08:36
  So if we can, we'll buy young, which obviously means that the
• 1:08:39
  cost cost us next to nothing, which means, yeah, OK, there's
• 1:08:43
  the cost of maintaining a cask over X number of years.
• 1:08:46
  But the, you know, are we benefiting that much by
• 1:08:52
  charging, you know, 1000 lbs when we could charge 500 and
• 1:08:56
  it'll sell out. If 1000 lbs is going to sit on
• 1:08:59
  the shelf and not do anything but £500 will sell out and we've
• 1:09:02
  already made our money back then, you know, I I'm not at
• 1:09:06
  that point in the business. That's not, of course, no.
• 1:09:08
  It's an interesting. Conversation because as you're
• 1:09:11
  saying like holding true to those values in the sense of
• 1:09:16
  saying right, I'll tell you what we could do is like we bought
• 1:09:18
  this cast for X amount and now 30% means that we can sell this
• 1:09:22
  but we could add another 20% on top of that and we still be
• 1:09:26
  making and market value as well and.
• 1:09:28
  You're still looking at it going well.
• 1:09:29
  Even with all that, we're still under market value of what XY
• 1:09:32
  is. It could be incredibly.
• 1:09:34
  Hard, because then you go back to, well, we're working at the
• 1:09:37
  whiskey shop and we all love Telescar 18 and everybody can
• 1:09:39
  buy Telescar 18 forever and they come in and say all the Telescar
• 1:09:42
  18, look at that last one. But now it's 170 lbs and there's
• 1:09:45
  65 lbs before that or whatever. There's nothing you can do about
• 1:09:49
  it. There's an advantage of
• 1:09:50
  candidates. Yes, it's whiskey retail, but
• 1:09:53
  really it's just a storefront of your own product.
• 1:09:55
  Yeah, exactly. It's.
• 1:09:57
  Almost 2. Completely different worlds,
• 1:09:59
  Yeah, it's just a. Bottler.
• 1:10:01
  Who fought ahead? Yeah.
• 1:10:03
  And now you have amazing retail spaces to champion and to
• 1:10:07
  pioneer your bottlings. If you didn't have those retail
• 1:10:09
  spaces, maybe the whiskey shop would be selling cabinets and
• 1:10:12
  that would be another one of those products that we'll talk
• 1:10:15
  about on the shelf. Well, and.
• 1:10:16
  I think that's very much the level of what, you know, part of
• 1:10:19
  the business model is going. We want to be in in control of
• 1:10:22
  our own stuff because then we can put it at the price that we
• 1:10:26
  want it to be at and we can ensure that it's going to
• 1:10:29
  maintain, you know, our sort of values at XY and Z.
• 1:10:32
  It's very, it's a very Campbelltonian way of thinking,
• 1:10:35
  I mean. Brexit Paul Main, who we had on
• 1:10:38
  the podcast not that long ago and he was actually from
• 1:10:41
  underlying and he was the first one to it was I always get this
• 1:10:45
  wrote the pronunciation wrong. That was Captain head legit
• 1:10:49
  legit. Well. 24 I'm.
• 1:10:52
  Just going to say it. Differently to have electric
• 1:10:55
  electric, you're not going to do it in.
• 1:10:58
  Case, Mark Thompson and Cameron Electric's What I.
• 1:11:00
  Would say, but he was he. Was a cabin head 24 electric was
• 1:11:04
  what he one of the first proper whiskeys that really opened his
• 1:11:07
  mind but fascinatingly. Dave.
• 1:11:10
  Worthington, Fatiki. Dave Fatiki, Dave.
• 1:11:14
  And it was the stories were almost identical where and it
• 1:11:17
  was genuinely fascinating in the sense that so Paul main without
• 1:11:20
  having to repeat the story word for one sort of thing.
• 1:11:22
  But basically Paul May had a colleague who was a big whiskey
• 1:11:26
  drinker. His story, I think of him
• 1:11:28
  remember saying it rightly. He said his colleague said,
• 1:11:32
  we'll go for a nice big walk on winter's day.
• 1:11:34
  Big, huge walk. And then they came back big mug
• 1:11:37
  of tea, fry up. And then as they said, you like
• 1:11:40
  your whiskies? Paul wasn't really big on his
• 1:11:43
  whiskeys. He said try this can Hesley J
• 1:11:46
  Twit Electric 24. That's a big entry level drum to
• 1:11:50
  be. We haven't.
• 1:11:51
  And he said blew my mind. Dave Burlington is saying it's
• 1:11:54
  his supervisor or something at work would always bring a bottle
• 1:11:58
  in Christmas time or something like that.
• 1:12:00
  Yeah, and it was. And he brought a Kalila 1991.
• 1:12:05
  They're big entry level drums. They gave me somebody but
• 1:12:07
  fascinatingly both number one and the Watt 3 drams and both
• 1:12:11
  the speaks to the quality. Of the bottle, Well, that's
• 1:12:14
  exactly. Yeah.
• 1:12:14
  But what's interesting here then in between the two of you is the
• 1:12:18
  clientele are coming through the door.
• 1:12:19
  Now we've already mentioned, Monique, you do have a lot of
• 1:12:21
  people that will come in for repeat business.
• 1:12:23
  But when you look at percentages wise, there'll be a lot of
• 1:12:26
  people that come in, buy some bottles, never come back.
• 1:12:29
  Whereas Tom, on your front, I'd imagine it's probably the other
• 1:12:32
  way around. You'll probably have a real sort
• 1:12:34
  of not click, but like almost like a little sort of people
• 1:12:38
  coming out turn the. Kind of thing, yeah, people
• 1:12:40
  like. No, I go my go and get my Yeah,
• 1:12:43
  yeah, very. Much we've got a lot of repeat
• 1:12:44
  business. It's, you know, tastings and.
• 1:12:47
  Stuff so at the. Moment No.
• 1:12:50
  We used to host tastings in the store.
• 1:12:52
  Now we're actually working with predominantly The Belfry, so
• 1:12:56
  Rory from Ensign's and the Belfry.
• 1:13:00
  So we do tastings with him now the license, we refurbed the
• 1:13:04
  shop in January of last year and the licensing changed and which
• 1:13:09
  meant that we have to update the layout of the shop and that's
• 1:13:12
  where XY and Z and there's the tastings in store.
• 1:13:16
  The way they used to run is not doesn't really work anymore.
• 1:13:19
  So we do essentially not quite every month because we do an
• 1:13:24
  outturn every month, but not quite every month we'll do a
• 1:13:26
  tasting with with either ensigns or the belfry is what do you do
• 1:13:31
  an out turn. Once a month.
• 1:13:32
  Once a. Month on the on the subject of
• 1:13:34
  this, I mean, that's a lot of whiskey.
• 1:13:36
  Well, so the. Angus isn't here, but you have
• 1:13:38
  brought samples in with, yes? Yeah, So I mean, I brought, I
• 1:13:41
  brought 2 and Monique's brought 2, probably my, my 2.
• 1:13:47
  So they're they're actually not from our official out turns down
• 1:13:51
  in Campbelltown. If you do a warehouse tasting,
• 1:13:54
  they've got 6 distinct casks that they.
• 1:13:59
  Can't help myself. For us, but no, they do, they do
• 1:14:03
  6 distinct casks for the warehouse tastings down there.
• 1:14:05
  That's way too generous. So one of them is a 14 year old
• 1:14:12
  Fettigan. I love it.
• 1:14:13
  Which is everybody's favorite to sort of Oh yeah, it's.
• 1:14:16
  In 24 Eastern Island, all right. Everybody know what I feel like.
• 1:14:23
  A book somewhere. Wow.
• 1:14:24
  It's. It's like under those daughters,
• 1:14:26
  sure. Ross.
• 1:14:28
  Can we? Fought with that Ross as well
• 1:14:29
  before important it's owned by slave.
• 1:14:31
  Owners. Yeah, so this is and the master
• 1:14:36
  blender at Fetrick and Greg Glass worked at the Wishy shop
• 1:14:41
  in Inverness to restart his career.
• 1:14:43
  No, we. Fought before you pour it this.
• 1:14:46
  Is so this is one that was bottled this year?
• 1:14:49
  Well, was it, if you'd gone and done the tasting, it would have
• 1:14:52
  been bottled this year. But it's a four year finish in a
• 1:14:56
  Kakavelos wine. I was going to say that it.
• 1:14:58
  Looks like Kalados but longer so you're going to have to tell.
• 1:15:01
  Not get a casket, Kakavelos. As far as my very arbitrary
• 1:15:05
  research on on Wikipedia is concerned, is fortified wine
• 1:15:10
  from Portugal That's not port OK?
• 1:15:15
  It sounds brilliant. It's.
• 1:15:16
  A really interesting one. It's not a distillery I tend to
• 1:15:21
  lean towards and it's not a there you go.
• 1:15:24
  It's not a wine cast I'd ever come across before, so I thought
• 1:15:27
  it would be a really interesting one to didn't necessarily angle
• 1:15:32
  this for the podcast, but it was just to showcase to you guys,
• 1:15:34
  just to give you just to give you something a bit different
• 1:15:37
  and because Angus is. Here, when he's a poor two or
• 1:15:38
  three dramas are still plenty left in the ball.
• 1:15:40
  Exactly. And so while we're.
• 1:15:43
  Enjoying these samples? Let's talk a little bit more
• 1:15:45
  about he's being a whiskey couple then.
• 1:15:46
  So you get each other at the whiskey shop?
• 1:15:48
  Yeah. Do you make the decision?
• 1:15:50
  Right. I'm gonna go to Johnnie Walker
• 1:15:51
  and that way we're we're gonna see each other at home and at
• 1:15:54
  work. Is it going to be too bad we
• 1:15:55
  eliminate with each other? At that point, we were actually.
• 1:15:57
  Yeah, so we, we, we started dating while we were still work,
• 1:16:01
  both working at the whiskey shop.
• 1:16:03
  I mean, it's like a it was so. Sad.
• 1:16:05
  Basically, yeah. It was like she caused a global
• 1:16:08
  pandemic so that we didn't have to.
• 1:16:11
  Actually was a it was something I was very stressed about about
• 1:16:15
  like seven months in advance where we were planning on going
• 1:16:19
  to Canada and I was like, oh, we're going to have to ask for
• 1:16:22
  the same time off and like, Oh my God, how are we going to
• 1:16:25
  swing it? So so.
• 1:16:27
  Hilariously, and I think the ridiculous thing is the.
• 1:16:30
  Ridiculous. Thing was is that we weren't.
• 1:16:33
  We weren't worried. I'm just sharing yours.
• 1:16:36
  We weren't worried about about it work wise necessarily.
• 1:16:41
  It was purely we just thought it would be awkward for our Co
• 1:16:46
  workers if they knew we were dating.
• 1:16:47
  Yeah. So we thought, you know, to save
• 1:16:50
  face as far as I'm aware there. Was no rule against No, I'm
• 1:16:52
  well. I would've been waiting for them
• 1:16:55
  very. Rarely that.
• 1:16:56
  That's very rarely a thing, but so we.
• 1:16:58
  Yeah, so we just thought in order to make it less awkward
• 1:17:00
  for everyone, we won't tell anyone that we're dating, which
• 1:17:03
  made it really fucking awkward for us, Yeah.
• 1:17:06
  We, I think. And we thought we were super,
• 1:17:08
  super subtle. Yeah.
• 1:17:10
  I mean, I had no clue. I've ever seen it on Instagram.
• 1:17:13
  We went no way, we actually. Came into the Balmoral, do you
• 1:17:17
  remember? Really, it is.
• 1:17:20
  It is one of my. Favorite whiskey stories?
• 1:17:22
  Actual yeah. I mean, you did treat us like
• 1:17:26
  royalty. Yeah, of.
• 1:17:27
  Course. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:17:29
  We were, we were sat, we were sat at the bar getting given, I
• 1:17:32
  mean getting poured drams that we've requested and paid for.
• 1:17:37
  Yeah. And it was having a thought
• 1:17:38
  provoking. Experience.
• 1:17:39
  It really was, you know? I remember getting into ice.
• 1:17:43
  I. Must have feeling gorgeous.
• 1:17:45
  No, great they weren't. Together.
• 1:17:49
  Never asked me to do it, that's probably what I was just sharing
• 1:17:56
  a Co working. KISS we're talking about.
• 1:17:57
  Again, it was on his way to Iowa before he found out he was
• 1:17:59
  actually going to Iowa. I.
• 1:18:01
  Was on the. Ferry and heard the time I said
• 1:18:04
  we're arriving in port and to Port Ellen and I said Port
• 1:18:09
  Ellen's on Iowa. I was like, I'm on the boat.
• 1:18:11
  I definitely had no idea. Wow.
• 1:18:15
  Absolutely, yeah. OK, so you're not reliable.
• 1:18:17
  I we'll. See, this friend is lovely.
• 1:18:19
  So your whiskey tastes are similar.
• 1:18:23
  Quite different they. They're probably more different
• 1:18:27
  now than they actually were. Yeah, Yeah, I think when.
• 1:18:30
  We. First started dating.
• 1:18:32
  I think we both agreed on the we didn't like big Sherry casks and
• 1:18:38
  and we thought that we thought that we both kind of agreed that
• 1:18:41
  peated whiskey was very interesting.
• 1:18:44
  But I, but I think at the time we were like, you know, like
• 1:18:47
  Andy liking Glenn Lossy in a bourbon cast.
• 1:18:49
  We were like, it tastes of nothing, though.
• 1:18:50
  What is what is what is this? Whereas now I adore subtleties.
• 1:18:54
  Yeah, I think I. Think it is very true that
• 1:18:58
  having a sort of positive influences of it doesn't have to
• 1:19:03
  be peated to have flavour. Yeah, we've definitely our
• 1:19:07
  palates have expanded and we've become much more well-rounded I
• 1:19:11
  mean we. In general, we both roughly.
• 1:19:13
  Like the same stuff. Yeah.
• 1:19:14
  Like, you know, our collection at home is our collection.
• 1:19:17
  It's not, it's not just one of ours or but you're ours.
• 1:19:20
  Put on the same, maybe one. That we disagree on quite
• 1:19:23
  heavily. Oh God, there is there.
• 1:19:27
  Is 1W that Monique's decided is one of the greatest whiskey's
• 1:19:30
  ever bottled, and I think it tastes of absolute death.
• 1:19:34
  It is. Objectively not the best cask.
• 1:19:37
  I will admit it is quite sulfurred and it's like
• 1:19:42
  obviously sulfurred but. No.
• 1:19:45
  It's. A.
• 1:19:46
  Private Cask. Brookladdy, Reeve Salt.
• 1:19:52
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:19:54
  Yeah. And I absolutely adore it.
• 1:19:57
  It's like fish sauce and. You wouldn't.
• 1:20:04
  Be able to go you would I. Yeah, I think you would too.
• 1:20:10
  But I think. Generally that one generally.
• 1:20:12
  You're generally, yeah. I think.
• 1:20:14
  I think it started with the both of us adoring peated whiskeys
• 1:20:19
  and then both of us developing thereafter.
• 1:20:22
  Yeah, I'll tell you what, we. Can't we already Can't wait for
• 1:20:24
  The Whiskey Stories episode 2 at your house with 160 bottles.
• 1:20:29
  I want to hear you got. MC.
• 1:20:30
  Nose for your wedding. Ah, gross Thunder.
• 1:20:33
  No, honestly. There's another wedding.
• 1:20:35
  Welcome to the whiskey stories, wedding the scary the.
• 1:20:39
  Scariest thing about our wedding is picking the right bloody
• 1:20:42
  whiskeys for that's. A huge challenge.
• 1:20:45
  Yeah, we're really. Worried about what we're going
• 1:20:46
  to put in the quake? And also you do a.
• 1:20:48
  Lot of research I'll say you're some of the best research
• 1:20:51
  friends in whiskey that have you're always at end sign you're
• 1:20:54
  always at tipsy veggie yeah or or if you're in diggers yeah
• 1:20:59
  that's like. Two of the biggest open
• 1:21:00
  collection of whiskeys in all of Edinburgh.
• 1:21:02
  I mean. Yeah, we, we.
• 1:21:04
  I like that you call. It research, yeah, you should
• 1:21:07
  tell my mum that. Yeah, research.
• 1:21:10
  It is definitely. That I tell my.
• 1:21:11
  Name exactly. We need to know.
• 1:21:15
  We need to make sure. Yeah.
• 1:21:16
  No, I think it's it's one of those, you know, we we've we've
• 1:21:19
  frequented both of those like Ensign you and Tipsy Midgie and
• 1:21:23
  become sort of friends. Do you live in that part of
• 1:21:25
  Star? We're actually, you live down
• 1:21:28
  there, really we're. On Delroy.
• 1:21:29
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is our local, yeah.
• 1:21:32
  But it's because we both work sort of in town.
• 1:21:36
  Yeah. You know, Ensign, you it very,
• 1:21:40
  very rapidly. Easy to.
• 1:21:41
  Just go, you know, an amazing team and.
• 1:21:44
  Yeah. Absolutely.
• 1:21:45
  And, you know, it's we we sort of become friends with the team
• 1:21:49
  in there to the point that, you know, when when we go in,
• 1:21:53
  they're kind of, you know, provided the staff are not brand
• 1:21:56
  new and they recognize us, they kind of go, well, this is new
• 1:21:58
  and this is yeah, you haven't tried this before, provide that
• 1:22:01
  and. Provided it's not heaving well
• 1:22:03
  there, yes. That's not because.
• 1:22:05
  It's a weed pub. As well, people haven't been to
• 1:22:07
  the end saying you're right up by the castle, you think no, no
• 1:22:11
  Scottish or you know, you think none of us would go in.
• 1:22:13
  You think it would just be tourism.
• 1:22:15
  But amazing whiskey selection. They're very fair with the
• 1:22:18
  prices, especially when you think of the location.
• 1:22:20
  Yeah, Yeah, My head boy actually works there.
• 1:22:22
  Ocean Strachan. He was my head boy at school.
• 1:22:25
  Yeah. Nice lads.
• 1:22:25
  Really nice lads. Yeah.
• 1:22:26
  So the Dunbar. Sort of mafia and question you
• 1:22:30
  mentioned on Marine. Biology and then it was great.
• 1:22:33
  He was really smart lads and I said oh what you doing here?
• 1:22:35
  He said well done marine biology.
• 1:22:36
  So I can't find a job really so but ended up in in Ensign just a
• 1:22:41
  lovely, lovely human and Rory and and the boys up there do a
• 1:22:45
  great job and they they. They they're very fair from
• 1:22:49
  where from where they are and from what they do.
• 1:22:52
  It's honestly, I mean they do 35 mil measures.
• 1:22:55
  They're they're on par price wise with diggers and they're on
• 1:22:59
  the mile, you know, and it's it's really quite.
• 1:23:02
  Is that where we? Ended up at the end towards the
• 1:23:05
  end of your stacked so I'm told. I think I believe there was a.
• 1:23:10
  Photo taken outside it. I think Angus and I went in Greg
• 1:23:13
  Arkat with a couple of it. I think it's time.
• 1:23:16
  Yeah, you were out till long into the evening.
• 1:23:21
  I've seen. I've seen, I've seen the team at
• 1:23:23
  Ensign's kick people out before. I imagine that wasn't pretty.
• 1:23:26
  No, no, it was. Going to be me because we would
• 1:23:28
  have went in half past and asked for what treats you got
• 1:23:30
  ourselves. I'm trying to try the
• 1:23:32
  interesting stuff when you're a palate, so I ended up getting.
• 1:23:36
  Yeah, but a really? A really good pub also had an
• 1:23:38
  interesting break even as well so.
• 1:23:39
  Yeah, the. Honor of fairness and many.
• 1:23:43
  You've brought in a couple of samples.
• 1:23:45
  Yeah, I would. Probably.
• 1:23:46
  I would probably start with that one.
• 1:23:47
  Yeah, so. The I brought in, so one of the
• 1:23:51
  things I didn't say with the whiskey shop is we have a sister
• 1:23:54
  shop and in many ways they're sort of like Cadenheads,
• 1:24:00
  Catenheads in that they are an independent bottler in their own
• 1:24:03
  right and they have a shop, They happen to have a shop in
• 1:24:06
  Edinburgh. Yes, so.
• 1:24:08
  A shop in Edinburgh and a shop in in Inverarie.
• 1:24:10
  But there are sister shop look fine, an independent bottler.
• 1:24:14
  So I brought along a Altmore 15 year old which I brought with
• 1:24:20
  you in mind. It is.
• 1:24:24
  I should probably. Point out as well, I wrote on
• 1:24:26
  the label Big Fat Sherry. That's only because when I asked
• 1:24:29
  Monique what the cast type was, she said, oh, I don't know, Big
• 1:24:32
  Fat Sherry. I love that.
• 1:24:34
  I love that. And here's the thing.
• 1:24:36
  So, Graham, I'll give you a lot of view session of being a shady
• 1:24:38
  touch. When I.
• 1:24:40
  Started the whiskey. Yeah, when?
• 1:24:42
  I. Started the whiskey.
• 1:24:43
  I was, Ross was the. Sherry, I mean, I've.
• 1:24:45
  Done myself. I mean, Ross was the only.
• 1:24:48
  Person I knew who liked Glendronick, 18 at the time,
• 1:24:51
  Yeah. And I.
• 1:24:52
  Love watching drugs? And you are I.
• 1:24:55
  Think the only person that I've ever met that actually
• 1:24:58
  recreationally drinks Sherry. As an as an 18 or 19 year old, I
• 1:25:04
  used to drink. I know you.
• 1:25:07
  Did actually. I.
• 1:25:09
  Know I I think you know. So I want to clarify.
• 1:25:13
  I've given Ross is the oldest he's.
• 1:25:16
  The oldest soul I've ever met. You're in. 19.
• 1:25:19
  Or 20 years old. Sherry No.
• 1:25:22
  No, no, I'd. Buy that's worse.
• 1:25:24
  I'd buy bottles of Sherry, so I can't believe that's happened.
• 1:25:29
  I've given my colleague and. And.
• 1:25:32
  Then research a lot of stick for for going to fee paying schools
• 1:25:36
  when they were young which isn't their fault you ran this risk.
• 1:25:38
  When you invited us. I can't.
• 1:25:39
  I know you're. Dirty.
• 1:25:41
  Convenience of drinking 30 year old pet driving a shed.
• 1:25:45
  In a bedroom as an. 18 year. Old.
• 1:25:49
  Yeah, they got labeled like I I sat in this very room.
• 1:25:54
  Yeah. And I went you meet Sherry tart
• 1:25:56
  that you are called me a Sherry tart.
• 1:25:58
  But I've had strangers, total strangers, obviously friends of
• 1:26:01
  the podcast. I should say hello to all these
• 1:26:04
  people who listened to it. But somebody, I can't remember
• 1:26:06
  who it was they were listening. I wish I could go back came.
• 1:26:09
  Up to you and. No, no, it was on a it was on a
• 1:26:12
  weekend DRAM roll call, somebody just.
• 1:26:14
  Tired. So it's not beautiful, somebody.
• 1:26:16
  Perfect. For Someone Like You, Graham,
• 1:26:18
  you're Sherry tart. I was like, oh, you can flip.
• 1:26:22
  That back straight on the right and then I was young.
• 1:26:24
  That certainly was the case that I had a slight shady fixation,
• 1:26:29
  but again, I was learning. I was learning and there's no.
• 1:26:33
  There's no right or wrong with what you're enjoying, Ross.
• 1:26:36
  Here's the thing. I've come full circle, the Cody
• 1:26:38
  Reynolds circle, you know, and I'm now more like Andy there.
• 1:26:42
  So he's a Glenn Lossy in it. And I've always been a manic
• 1:26:45
  whore for manic more. That's why I should have
• 1:26:48
  brought. That's I know.
• 1:26:49
  To be fair, and now so. What about Glenn Burgie and
• 1:26:52
  Milton Duff and Glenn talkers in Manipur?
• 1:26:55
  All what I would have called bland forgettable whiskeys when
• 1:26:59
  I was 1819 is what I find most interesting.
• 1:27:01
  But I think this all my homework.
• 1:27:03
  I mean easy. I.
• 1:27:05
  Mean out more. What's this?
• 1:27:06
  Is this an out more so? So that's.
• 1:27:10
  Fascinating. Well, we've had an outbore 16
• 1:27:12
  tree. Cara brought their outbore 16 in
• 1:27:14
  from Taser and we had an outbore. 11 Finn.
• 1:27:16
  Thompson gave us out more out more 11 that he had, which was a
• 1:27:21
  really interesting whiskey that night because that was finished.
• 1:27:25
  You know the perfect you know. Nice.
• 1:27:27
  It's like. Leather, yeah, it's really I
• 1:27:30
  love that we we've got. We've got a big fat Sherry
• 1:27:33
  Milton Duff at work at the moment and I hate how much I
• 1:27:36
  love it. Yeah, it's so good.
• 1:27:38
  It's four year finish in the freshest PX.
• 1:27:40
  Class isn't that good. It's like leather and mahogany.
• 1:27:43
  It's probably it's. Intense 60. 1.1% Oh yeah, I
• 1:27:48
  probably should. Have said it's.
• 1:27:49
  It's not small, no. Andrew drinks well and the feta
• 1:27:53
  care also drinks really well, 50 or 54% and Altmores are
• 1:27:58
  distilling that probably most sisters won't know that much
• 1:28:00
  about as well. But really, really interesting
• 1:28:02
  distillery and normally bottles of bourbon.
• 1:28:05
  Well, I've got. A gift Well, and I've been
• 1:28:08
  waiting to open this. We will open it.
• 1:28:10
  We'll wait till our drums are finished, but I can put a 10
• 1:28:14
  years connection here. There's a Valentine's Gold Seal
• 1:28:19
  12 year old special. Reserve.
• 1:28:21
  Scotch whiskey, Valentine's, I found this at the back of it.
• 1:28:25
  So basically over the last two or three years, every time I've
• 1:28:28
  got my mom and dad's house, I've tried to read something out of
• 1:28:31
  it With the fact that between the family connection and
• 1:28:34
  whiskey with my mom and my dad worked for Valentine's won't
• 1:28:37
  have you and my grandparents drinking a lot of whiskey.
• 1:28:39
  I've always and basically I think this is the last thing I
• 1:28:41
  found. Yeah, a tiny.
• 1:28:44
  Little miniature but I Ross has got a job to do tomorrow when he
• 1:28:47
  goes into it. Bevy HQ.
• 1:28:50
  Because it's not available, it's not.
• 1:28:52
  Available. Oh dear.
• 1:28:53
  Which? Tells me that this is quite a
• 1:28:55
  rare 19. 80s certainly it's a 50 mil.
• 1:28:58
  Bottle yet? And if it's a 1980s, as we've
• 1:29:00
  said, this would be at the time when Valentine's was owned by
• 1:29:03
  Haram Walker. A Canadian.
• 1:29:06
  Whiskey company indeed. Yes, good Canadian.
• 1:29:08
  Yeah. Good Canadian.
• 1:29:09
  Well, yeah. There we go.
• 1:29:12
  So, Hannah. Walker So what we'll do is we'll
• 1:29:14
  crack this one, obviously, but we are now fast approaching are
• 1:29:19
  what, 3 drams in nature? Now.
• 1:29:22
  As a couple, we always offer couples the chance to do 3 each.
• 1:29:25
  Is this what you're wanting to do?
• 1:29:27
  Very much so. I think or you could.
• 1:29:28
  Do 2 each and share one. If you want to do, let's have.
• 1:29:31
  Sex. I want sex, right?
• 1:29:33
  OK, we're. Going to have.
• 1:29:33
  Sex, right? So.
• 1:29:37
  We'll start with start one each and then people.
• 1:29:39
  Oh yeah, OK. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:29:40
  Crack on. Yeah.
• 1:29:42
  Are these? Ranked No.
• 1:29:43
  No, this is any. Whiskey is.
• 1:29:45
  Just just three. Just.
• 1:29:46
  Three stories and. You can save your most emotional
• 1:29:49
  to last if you want, you know. OK.
• 1:29:52
  Well, OK. Yeah, maybe I'll start.
• 1:29:54
  I'll do. I'll do it in chronological
• 1:29:56
  order. So I think.
• 1:29:58
  For for my first I would say the Lefrog PX cask.
• 1:30:08
  Sorry, the. Lafrog PX cask.
• 1:30:11
  That was probably the first proper bottle of whiskey that I
• 1:30:15
  bought and sort of in a sad way, it was after I finished my
• 1:30:19
  Masters in 2015 and I was moving back to Canada.
• 1:30:23
  So I bought it at the duty free as a sort of I just want to I.
• 1:30:27
  Just want to interrupt here and just say that two days
• 1:30:29
  beforehand she bought a Caden Heads but that is not one of her
• 1:30:32
  whiskeys so there you go. To the bottle you're taking back
• 1:30:38
  to Canada, Yeah, no. I did.
• 1:30:40
  Yes, it's true. I did buy the Caden Heads but
• 1:30:43
  for a long time because it was in a bourbon cask.
• 1:30:45
  After I actually tasted it, I was like, this is terrible and I
• 1:30:48
  didn't like it. Now I do like it, but sorry.
• 1:30:53
  Sorry. Yeah, I had actually a list.
• 1:30:56
  I knew exactly what I wanted to buy.
• 1:30:58
  And I think I was probably quite snobby to the poor woman at
• 1:31:01
  Gatwick Airport. But she was like, oh, well,
• 1:31:04
  like, you know, you like that. OK, Well, maybe.
• 1:31:08
  And she gave me a sample and was like, like, pretty much what I
• 1:31:11
  do now, maybe try this. This is something different, and
• 1:31:14
  you can only get this at airports.
• 1:31:16
  And I was like, oh, it's a litre bottle.
• 1:31:20
  OK. Yeah.
• 1:31:22
  Well, you know, yeah, there's a lot of connections.
• 1:31:27
  Scots in Canada. It's tight, Tight connections.
• 1:31:31
  Which part of Canada? That you're from, I'm from.
• 1:31:33
  Sort of just outside Toronto originally, but I lived in
• 1:31:36
  Toronto for about 10 years, so and so.
• 1:31:38
  Lefroy is the facility of always enjoyed this Lefroy is.
• 1:31:41
  Certainly, as I said, like I started out with the with the
• 1:31:44
  peated whiskeys and that was sort of my love.
• 1:31:47
  And I went to to Isla before 2 days before I flew home.
• 1:31:54
  I went to Isla for about 22 hours and just walked to the
• 1:32:01
  distilleries, took the bus and had the bus driver laugh at me
• 1:32:06
  when I was like, oh, can you just drop me off at Kalila?
• 1:32:09
  And he was like, it's up the hill, why were you waiting here?
• 1:32:15
  After that I walked. But yeah, I think I spent the
• 1:32:19
  longest at Lefroig, and they were absolutely awesome and just
• 1:32:23
  gave me tons of drams while I was waiting.
• 1:32:26
  You know our memories. Isn't it?
• 1:32:27
  That's the facilities, I think. That's.
• 1:32:29
  The first Lefroig. Lefroy I.
• 1:32:31
  Think that's the first Lefroy. We've had two Lagaville sixteens
• 1:32:35
  back-to-back. We've had an Arpeg Boogie
• 1:32:37
  Boogie, which was Vicki Wicki Elliott and interestingly, it'd
• 1:32:44
  be interesting. And again before it gets
• 1:32:46
  mentioned. All the time for the one that
• 1:32:47
  scared people of Jodie Buckin. Yeah, but I'm.
• 1:32:50
  I'm. Fascinated by this and again, I
• 1:32:52
  like to try and find connections and what have you, but I think
• 1:32:58
  from our what 3 drams point of view and actually, do you know
• 1:33:01
  something I need to sit down and actually put together like a
• 1:33:04
  proper spreadsheet at all. But I, I would probably go with
• 1:33:09
  that. We've probably had more smoky
• 1:33:11
  peated whiskey on a walk through drums coming from female.
• 1:33:15
  Yeah, yes. Honestly coming from male.
• 1:33:17
  Yes, I'm very interested. I see it.
• 1:33:19
  All the time when I'm doing sampling for for people in in
• 1:33:23
  the shop and we've got with our casks, we always have at least
• 1:33:27
  one peated whiskey. Yeah.
• 1:33:28
  And the amount of times that there are men that are like, oh,
• 1:33:33
  no, I can't, I can't. And the women are just said
• 1:33:34
  they're going, oh, this is actually quite nice it.
• 1:33:37
  Happens. All the.
• 1:33:39
  Time. I think it's it's.
• 1:33:39
  One of my favorite and least favorite things at the same
• 1:33:42
  time, which was when I was working with you, but also now
• 1:33:46
  is people coming in going I want a whiskey for a woman and I'm
• 1:33:49
  like well, my fiance slash girlfriend as slash Co worker at
• 1:33:54
  the time, depending on when it was loves peated whiskey.
• 1:33:57
  Does that count? Yeah, because I.
• 1:33:59
  Mean. If I was ever working.
• 1:34:02
  With me, because somebody said I'm just like, well.
• 1:34:04
  That's interesting to say to you like what what would that and
• 1:34:08
  that it's a really interesting thing is what would a because I
• 1:34:11
  was interested actually here's here's a thing really, really
• 1:34:14
  close by family friends known I've known her son since we were
• 1:34:19
  at nursery together. Parents are very good friends.
• 1:34:21
  They were out on Friday night. I was with them and her name's
• 1:34:24
  Myrid. She grew up 2 minutes away from
• 1:34:28
  Beau Moore Distillery to the point of chic.
• 1:34:31
  Her mother had the Beau Moore Hotel used to run it.
• 1:34:35
  And basically and interestingly, you know, she was talking about
• 1:34:38
  Fazula and she was talking about the the boom in aisle whiskey
• 1:34:41
  and what have you. Aisle whiskey was always a big
• 1:34:43
  thing. I mean, you talk about when her
• 1:34:46
  her son was born, they bought, they were able to easily buy
• 1:34:50
  casks of Beau Moore for that. But because the new, the
• 1:34:54
  distillery manager would sit in the bar pretty much two or three
• 1:34:57
  times a week sort of thing. But it fascinated me.
• 1:35:01
  I asked. Her if she's.
• 1:35:02
  Born in the wrong. Generation.
• 1:35:03
  Yeah, and I said to. Her, I said right.
• 1:35:05
  I went away and got some whiskeys for the group and I
• 1:35:07
  said right, Mary, do you want a drum?
• 1:35:09
  I said, what's the girl for? Isla, what drama would you go
• 1:35:12
  to? I said Jura, is it really it?
• 1:35:14
  Says. Jura was seen as the the ladies,
• 1:35:18
  the ladies drum. Yeah, so and Isla.
• 1:35:21
  It was like it would be seen it. I think what she was sort of
• 1:35:24
  referring to was like traditionally the ladies on Isla
• 1:35:27
  would drink Judah and and what have you.
• 1:35:29
  But it's, I mean, if someone's to say get me a whiskey that a
• 1:35:33
  woman would drink. Yeah, we have a Nina Walker's.
• 1:35:35
  Massive. That master blender of the Jordy
• 1:35:38
  Walker portfolio, like it's, it's so you're right, 20 years
• 1:35:42
  ago that was maybe a considerate question to ask.
• 1:35:45
  Yeah, absolutely. Right, Tom?
• 1:35:48
  Yes, DRAM. Number one.
• 1:35:49
  For you SO. I've I've back and forth on
• 1:35:52
  this, but I I think hilariously, DRAM #1 is going to be Johnny
• 1:35:56
  Walker Black label, right? Because because for my 18th
• 1:36:04
  birthday, one of my best friends, who is actually one of
• 1:36:08
  my groomsmen, bought me a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label.
• 1:36:13
  And this was at a time when I knew nothing about whiskey other
• 1:36:17
  than you shoot it and you feel awful.
• 1:36:21
  And it was one of the first whiskeys that I ever went well,
• 1:36:25
  you've got to drink it properly. So obviously poured it over a
• 1:36:28
  massive block of ice and thought that it tasted absolutely awful.
• 1:36:35
  Some Busters to. Change but.
• 1:36:37
  I, I think he's, he's since then proceeded to actually buy me a
• 1:36:42
  couple over the years. So for a few of my, you know,
• 1:36:46
  big milestone birthdays, he'd buy me a bottle of Johnny Walker
• 1:36:49
  Black Label. And it sort of became a staple
• 1:36:53
  in what what, before I moved here, it became a staple in my
• 1:36:57
  what was my sort of tiny collection of whiskey.
• 1:37:01
  And to the point that actually when Monique and I were at the
• 1:37:05
  Balmoral and the night that you were serving us, I got into
• 1:37:09
  quite an argument with an American that you.
• 1:37:11
  Had behind. The bar, not behind the bar,
• 1:37:14
  sorry at the bar because he he told me that if he bought me a a
• 1:37:19
  DRAM of black Label that even if it was free I would spit it out.
• 1:37:25
  And my argument to him was that if they bottled Black Label at
• 1:37:29
  cask strength or high strength, it would be probably the best
• 1:37:34
  whiskey ever bottled. And so he bought me a, a drama
• 1:37:39
  Black Label, which you tried to stop him from doing Ross,
• 1:37:43
  because I, I think you were, you were trying to be a responsible
• 1:37:46
  bartender at the time. But I, I very happily enjoyed a
• 1:37:51
  free drama Black Label, Couldn't it?
• 1:37:52
  It's fascinating. I mean.
• 1:37:54
  I guess Shepherd missing host of that was his what was he Johnny
• 1:37:59
  Walker Black Label? It was his story was he just got
• 1:38:04
  engaged with his current wife, now at the time current
• 1:38:08
  girlfriend, then current fiance, now current wife.
• 1:38:11
  He's in Japan with. And then he said they own, was
• 1:38:14
  it Ski Ross Island they were in or they were on an island in
• 1:38:17
  Greece. And then the only bottle they
• 1:38:18
  could get was Jordy Walker Black.
• 1:38:20
  And they said, you know what sat that night on the balcony, Just
• 1:38:23
  been engaged and they enjoyed this.
• 1:38:25
  And fascinatingly, he kept it a secret.
• 1:38:27
  Sly bugger that he is. But remember he wait till you'd
• 1:38:32
  left. He was very quick to say that I
• 1:38:37
  can't do this week Thursday, Friday or Saturday
• 1:38:40
  categorically. And he was very cagey about it.
• 1:38:43
  And I just said for a joke. I said that you're.
• 1:38:47
  Getting married you're. Getting married anyway, No way.
• 1:38:54
  Please, please don't tell anyone.
• 1:38:55
  Please don't tell. I'm just getting a quiet private
• 1:38:58
  thing. Whatever.
• 1:38:59
  And they did the race me thing. I said like, well, so we did it
• 1:39:01
  according on the Wednesday instead and we did the recording
• 1:39:06
  and then I thought, right, so I think you left and I said right,
• 1:39:09
  Angus and I will have a nice speed drum together and do a
• 1:39:13
  power sort of thing. And I thought I'll get I'll get
• 1:39:15
  your drums on yesterday. Bother.
• 1:39:16
  And I went to the bar. I said you go Dom, was it by the
• 1:39:20
  bar here? Johnny Walker Black Label please
• 1:39:22
  too. I don't think we have it 8. 150
• 1:39:26
  open. Bottles of whiskey you're joking
• 1:39:29
  and they went hang on we'll have to find him.
• 1:39:30
  We must have a black label somewhere they're looking
• 1:39:32
  everywhere couldn't find it ordered to Glenn Finnick 20 ones
• 1:39:36
  or something like that for us to enjoy and then after that bloody
• 1:39:38
  spent all that money 20 ones lose the dust off this black
• 1:39:45
  label. But another interestingly, again
• 1:39:48
  another 10 years connection on that is one of the only other
• 1:39:51
  Australian guests that we've had on it.
• 1:39:53
  Simon Smith stop in the exact same seat that you're sitting in
• 1:39:56
  and argued there isn't as in terms of the best whiskey in the
• 1:40:01
  world, Johnny Walker Black Label has to be cost production sales
• 1:40:08
  across the world and consistency.
• 1:40:10
  You cannot say that Johnny Walker Black Label is not one of
• 1:40:13
  the best. Whiskey in the world, Johnny
• 1:40:15
  Walker Black in the house so. My my hilarious thing with that
• 1:40:18
  is that I don't. But I.
• 1:40:22
  Mean we did, yes, but we I. Mean we did when I worked at
• 1:40:25
  Johnny Walker. Yeah, when I worked, when I
• 1:40:27
  worked at Johnny Walker, we, we often had a bottle of Johnny
• 1:40:29
  Walker black. But I, I just think, like I
• 1:40:32
  said, I mean at at the strength it's at in the market that it's
• 1:40:36
  in, it is unbeatable. But if, if they bottled it at
• 1:40:40
  car strength, I don't know if much could compete with it.
• 1:40:42
  And I get it. That's great.
• 1:40:44
  Yeah. Good.
• 1:40:45
  Drum. Really good drum.
• 1:40:46
  Yeah, we'll need to push second drum so.
• 1:40:49
  On the opposite end of the spectrum, and this was actually
• 1:40:53
  at the Ensigneurt, I don't know what made us pick it.
• 1:41:00
  I think it was. It was either the break even
• 1:41:02
  drama or is the one that they gave us a discount on.
• 1:41:05
  I don't know. But it was, I think.
• 1:41:08
  It was new. Yeah, it was a new bottle they
• 1:41:10
  had behind the bar, but it was an old particular bottling of
• 1:41:17
  Port Dundas, 13 year old bourbon cast.
• 1:41:20
  And I think I'd always heard, oh, you know, grain whiskey is
• 1:41:25
  only good when it's older. It has to be at least 20, all
• 1:41:28
  this stuff. And I have certainly had grain
• 1:41:31
  whiskey's that are younger and are quite astringent.
• 1:41:33
  But this Port Dundas was gorgeous.
• 1:41:37
  And how easy was that? Sorry.
• 1:41:38
  Sorry, what age did you say that was 13?
• 1:41:40
  13 It was interesting. Perfect.
• 1:41:44
  Beautiful. And that was a.
• 1:41:46
  Vintage ball, so they've obviously bought in no a
• 1:41:48
  Portland. That's only closed in what,
• 1:41:50
  20/20/2000? Oh, now you're testing me.
• 1:41:54
  Early 2000s In early 2000s 2012 or. 2011, I think 2011 yeah.
• 1:42:00
  2011 So not, not that old. So it was, obviously it was.
• 1:42:05
  It was. At the time, a new bottling of
• 1:42:08
  old particular Yeah it. Wasn't it wasn't old so I think
• 1:42:11
  it was a 2. 1009 vintage, so check.
• 1:42:15
  I don't know, I don't, I don't remember, but it was just
• 1:42:18
  absolutely gorgeous and a perfect drum.
• 1:42:25
  Creamy, light, delicate. Beautiful.
• 1:42:30
  And and absolutely devastating because Port Dundas are closed
• 1:42:36
  and it is one of my favorite distillers.
• 1:42:39
  It's not my favorite. Distillery.
• 1:42:40
  I think that DRAM. Rapidly, I think that DRAM
• 1:42:43
  rapidly turned it into your favorite or one of your favorite
• 1:42:46
  distilleries and we have been. On a hunt for a bottle ever
• 1:42:49
  since, so that. I I've since bought a different
• 1:42:53
  old particular Port Dundas for Monique, but it's the wrong
• 1:42:57
  cast. It's similar, it's similar.
• 1:43:00
  It's very clearly a sister cast. There's a lot of the same
• 1:43:02
  characteristics, but it's not quite the same magic.
• 1:43:05
  And that's there's. Something nice about that
• 1:43:07
  romantic about that as well. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:43:09
  Once it's gone. It's gone and you enjoy it while
• 1:43:11
  you've got it. I think that's one of the most
• 1:43:13
  important things the podcast. Is who?
• 1:43:15
  You drink it with, isn't it? It's a story, and yeah, very
• 1:43:17
  much yeah. That was well that.
• 1:43:18
  Was the two of us too? Yeah, but.
• 1:43:20
  But. Yeah, there is Beautiful but
• 1:43:24
  tragic and I love it, right. Tom.
• 1:43:29
  So I think my second one's probably the first whiskey trip
• 1:43:34
  that I ever took, and it was the first trip that we did together.
• 1:43:38
  So this was in November of 2019 when we've been.
• 1:43:41
  Dating for we've been dating for.
• 1:43:42
  A couple of months, yeah, Gave that.
• 1:43:44
  Yeah, We've been dating for a few weeks, and we decided that
• 1:43:47
  the most sensible thing to do would be to go down to
• 1:43:50
  Campbelltown. But at the time, we didn't give
• 1:43:54
  a crap about Spring Bank and it was only Glen Scotia we
• 1:43:59
  organized to do or Monique organized to do a warehouse
• 1:44:03
  tasting down in Glen Scotia in November.
• 1:44:07
  And there wasn't a soul in Campbelltown.
• 1:44:09
  It was just the two of us. It depends on the cast number,
• 1:44:14
  sorry. So there wasn't a soul in
• 1:44:18
  Campbelltown? It was, it was the two of us in
• 1:44:22
  Glen Scotia. It was my first distillery tour
• 1:44:25
  ever. And I, I remember because it was
• 1:44:29
  quite funny at the time we were working in the industry and the,
• 1:44:32
  the lady running the tour was like, do you have any questions
• 1:44:35
  about anything? And I was looking at it going, I
• 1:44:37
  don't understand what I'm looking at.
• 1:44:39
  I, I, I know all the terminology, but I have no idea.
• 1:44:42
  Like what's a mash tongue? What?
• 1:44:45
  So I was, I was wildly out of my death, but we ended up in the
• 1:44:49
  warehouse tasting and there was a 19 year old single cask ex
• 1:44:55
  bourbon barrel unpeated Glen Scotia.
• 1:44:59
  And I think it completely blew my mind because again, it was
• 1:45:06
  one of those, it was you know who I was with the trip we were
• 1:45:09
  on. But it was so bright and fresh
• 1:45:14
  and it was really creamy, really orchard fruity and there was
• 1:45:17
  just toffee everywhere. And it was what, mid 50% ABV
• 1:45:23
  unpaiden Glen Scotia. I'd never come across anything
• 1:45:26
  like it because the up to that point, the only experience I'd
• 1:45:30
  had was Glen Scotia 15, which I adored, and Glen Scotia
• 1:45:34
  Victoriana, which I thought was one of the best things that had
• 1:45:36
  ever been bottled, but then experiencing a completely
• 1:45:42
  different side of the distillery and it.
• 1:45:45
  Was sample. Yeah, yeah, They never bottled.
• 1:45:47
  It and it was I think. We.
• 1:45:48
  Were by the end of that, oh, probably drunk enough that if
• 1:45:51
  they had put a number in front of us we would have said yes.
• 1:45:55
  Oh, really? So.
• 1:45:56
  They they. Yeah, they lost it.
• 1:45:58
  I mean my my. Favorite.
• 1:45:59
  My favorite part of that entire oh, my favorite part of the
• 1:46:02
  entire trip was when we were after the warehouse tasting in
• 1:46:05
  the in the distillery shop. Nothing there.
• 1:46:08
  And. I was running around like a
• 1:46:11
  bloody headless chicken and Monique was stood there trying
• 1:46:14
  to hold a sort of coherent conversation with the girl.
• 1:46:17
  And I ran over and they had a little cask end that they had
• 1:46:21
  clearly for their display boomed with the words Glen, with the
• 1:46:24
  letters Glen Scotia and had it as a display.
• 1:46:27
  And I went, how much is that? And she went, oh, I don't know.
• 1:46:32
  I'll charge you however much it costs for a a cheese board.
• 1:46:37
  Cool. Whatever, whatever.
• 1:46:38
  I don't, I want it. So she took what was clearly
• 1:46:42
  just part of the display out, charged US money for it, and
• 1:46:45
  that is now sat proudly above our fireplace.
• 1:46:48
  They've not replaced. It No, they haven't.
• 1:46:50
  When we went in the next Oh wait, when we've been back every
• 1:46:53
  other time, there's no cast. End with any chance you've got.
• 1:46:56
  That yeah, that's us cheeseburger.
• 1:47:03
  Cheeseburger so. I.
• 1:47:04
  Did swither on this quite a bit, but I have to go with the kind
• 1:47:09
  of wanky route and say that if this was an old bottling set, it
• 1:47:16
  was a sample bottle of a Gordon Macphail Talisker 21 year old.
• 1:47:24
  But it was distilled in 1947. Woof.
• 1:47:29
  There's a flex. Oh yeah, boy we hate people
• 1:47:32
  saying stuff like. Black Label, by the way.
• 1:47:36
  We we spoke, we spoke, we spoke about this ad nauseam because
• 1:47:39
  Monique didn't want to come across like a whiskey wanker.
• 1:47:41
  But I didn't. I didn't.
• 1:47:43
  And I'm. Gonna don't worry I.
• 1:47:45
  Think on the first episode one of them said Bells, one of them
• 1:47:48
  said Grouse, so I said 30 or something.
• 1:47:52
  But. What what I mean that that is a
• 1:47:55
  place Gordon Mayfield. 21 year old 1947 what I will say.
• 1:48:00
  Is. Every time this happens, you'll
• 1:48:01
  see Ross when we're doing what 3 drams and we are we are now
• 1:48:06
  available to be followed I believe on the baby app.
• 1:48:09
  Ross is checking on the baby app to find all the information.
• 1:48:12
  If you want to see the information that you we're
• 1:48:15
  talking about whiskeys, we're talking about, I mean this
• 1:48:17
  stuff, the. Thing interesting stuff about
• 1:48:19
  this kind of whiskey is it's not necessarily the oldest whiskey
• 1:48:24
  that could be ruined and overcooked.
• 1:48:26
  That's a generation of whiskey where the destillation was just
• 1:48:30
  different. So it was different. 1947.
• 1:48:32
  Gordon Macphail, Both of the 21 could be a really balanced
• 1:48:35
  interest in whiskey. It was and.
• 1:48:38
  That to me is way more thought for a whole character.
• 1:48:40
  So what was the whiskey like? And that was.
• 1:48:41
  It's absolutely what you're saying.
• 1:48:43
  Like the fact that it's like this is something from a
• 1:48:46
  completely different generation. It is a snapshot in time,
• 1:48:50
  really. And it was, I mean, if you're
• 1:48:53
  familiar with Tusker now, you get all these like spicy, like
• 1:48:58
  moderate peat spice and like little caramel, sweeter notes.
• 1:49:03
  This was orange blossoms. And there was, yeah, a bit of
• 1:49:08
  spice, but it was, it was rounded, it was soft, and it was
• 1:49:12
  super, super interesting. I mean, it did, obviously.
• 1:49:15
  Means that in a bottle for. Well, there was, yeah.
• 1:49:17
  So they're they're. Arguably slightly flatter than
• 1:49:19
  mine. So distilled in 1947, which
• 1:49:24
  means bottled in 1968. Yeah, great math.
• 1:49:28
  But basically it's like, so yes, someone's made a decision in
• 1:49:32
  1968. It's like that glass, by the
• 1:49:34
  way, because that tastes bloody good.
• 1:49:36
  Yeah. All right.
• 1:49:37
  And then? You wonder they.
• 1:49:38
  Would never have a. Single thought would have got to
• 1:49:41
  try it and then he 6. Days Fast forward to when was
• 1:49:44
  that you tried that last year? That no, that would have been in
• 1:49:47
  20/22. It was too.
• 1:49:49
  Was before going to Canada, yeah.
• 1:49:51
  So unfortunately I thought I was going to be like Daughter of the
• 1:49:56
  Century award because my father loves Talisker and I'm
• 1:50:01
  definitely going to flame him on the bus here.
• 1:50:03
  I brought the like dregs of the little like 5 CL bottle that we
• 1:50:10
  had and I brought that to Canada for him.
• 1:50:13
  And like was delicately shaking out the last droplet into a
• 1:50:19
  glass for him. And I was like, oh, here you go.
• 1:50:21
  You know, like look at this amazing thing, like how awesome
• 1:50:24
  is my job? Which absolutely it is.
• 1:50:29
  It. Was a sample that was given to
• 1:50:32
  the whiskey shop as maybe you might want to stock this and we
• 1:50:35
  didn't. Interesting.
• 1:50:37
  Yeah, so, yeah. So your dad.
• 1:50:40
  So you're. Giving this to your old man,
• 1:50:42
  Yeah. Yeah, Well, not.
• 1:50:46
  Quite say that. But he knocked it back.
• 1:50:50
  Even a. Moment shot of consideration and
• 1:50:54
  I just felt, I think both. Of us all plummets years on.
• 1:51:01
  The. The both of us I think almost
• 1:51:04
  had a heart attack at that moment.
• 1:51:06
  I'm just going wait, enjoy it. Just chucked.
• 1:51:10
  It back, yeah. And I think like, yeah, you
• 1:51:14
  probably could have seen like, the light shining out of my eyes
• 1:51:17
  as I was like, Oh my God. So.
• 1:51:19
  Never again. No, no, never.
• 1:51:21
  No. He's lost all privileges.
• 1:51:23
  But I think that was just like such an amazing moment. 75
• 1:51:27
  years. Old from installation he just
• 1:51:30
  yes yeah and he. Just there.
• 1:51:34
  Was no watching. Thing, but you could talk and
• 1:51:35
  talk and talk about that. I mean in the sense that like
• 1:51:37
  single malt wasn't really a big thing.
• 1:51:38
  So at the time in 1968 someone's going and I let the Gordon
• 1:51:41
  Macphail are independent bottlers are creating a 21 year
• 1:51:45
  old task at the time. Wow, absolutely incredible.
• 1:51:47
  But yeah, he didn't care at all. Yeah, big shout.
• 1:51:50
  Out to your dad. Apparently.
• 1:51:53
  This is just a regular, you know, occurrence video.
• 1:51:55
  This didn't put orange. Juice in it I'll.
• 1:51:58
  Make this in a. Gladiator.
• 1:51:59
  I think I would. Have probably I would have
• 1:52:02
  probably killed him, but I would have stopped that for sure.
• 1:52:05
  But I think that was just one of those things of how else, like
• 1:52:08
  whatever situation, great Sony. Great tram, right, Tom?
• 1:52:14
  So my. My last one is actually probably
• 1:52:16
  the most meaningful, and this was actually influenced by you
• 1:52:20
  telling me to make leave the most meaningful.
• 1:52:21
  The last. No, it's it's hilariously it's
• 1:52:25
  my favorite distillery. It is an A thrusk. 7 year old.
• 1:52:30
  So just bringing us back down to earth slightly.
• 1:52:32
  Never had enough fuss. Yeah, we would.
• 1:52:38
  No bit fucking rude. So this is a Hepburn's choice.
• 1:52:48
  It is. Absolutely piss clear.
• 1:52:53
  Refill. Refill, refill, refill.
• 1:52:55
  Hogs Head. It tastes of absolutely nothing.
• 1:53:01
  The reason that it's as important to me or one of my
• 1:53:04
  stories is because when I first moved to Scotland, my parents
• 1:53:10
  happened to be in Scotland at the same time as I decided to
• 1:53:14
  move here. OK, so we met up, they've been
• 1:53:18
  up in the Highlands, We met up in Edinburgh and they gifted me
• 1:53:25
  my first bottle of whiskey having since after having moved
• 1:53:28
  to Scotland. That is it.
• 1:53:29
  That is the piss clearer thrust that it is.
• 1:53:33
  I think there's actually I. Think I believe that's on the
• 1:53:35
  shelf. Yeah, here.
• 1:53:38
  Kidding. I think I.
• 1:53:40
  Think, I think that's on the shelf, yeah.
• 1:53:44
  I. Buy a drama.
• 1:53:45
  That I've got it if it's if. It's gonna, I'll tell you.
• 1:53:49
  What I'll be 5000 out of 10. Yeah.
• 1:53:52
  So I had never seen a whiskey that color in my life up until
• 1:53:56
  the point that I've moved here. My entire experience with
• 1:53:59
  whiskey was Johnnie Walker, Bo More and Glenn Fiddick and I had
• 1:54:05
  no idea that whiskey wasn't a brown liquid and it blew my
• 1:54:11
  mind. So not only was it obviously the
• 1:54:15
  the sentimental value of my parents gifting it to me is my
• 1:54:17
  first RAM here, but I I'd never experienced anything like this
• 1:54:23
  light it's orchard fruits. It tasted like Raspberry jam on
• 1:54:28
  like on a what's the what's the word?
• 1:54:32
  I'm looking for an oat cake. No stale.
• 1:54:35
  Piece of bread just. Stale.
• 1:54:36
  Piece of bread. It's a once you taste the.
• 1:54:38
  Note right there. Isn't it?
• 1:54:40
  But I love it. I I've it's I've become obsessed
• 1:54:43
  with the thrust because of that drain.
• 1:54:46
  It is my. Favorite distillery?
• 1:54:48
  I've now had the oldest thrust that's ever been bottled because
• 1:54:51
  I'm so obsessed with that. Favorite I.
• 1:54:54
  Visited the distillery and I've been through it unlike many
• 1:54:57
  other people. Credit to Andy Alicia, shop like
• 1:55:00
  your thruster is way worse. Isn't it?
• 1:55:05
  No, isn't it? No.
• 1:55:06
  We've not got very. Long, sorry.
• 1:55:07
  What we're going to do is we're going to play a little game of
• 1:55:10
  Mr. and misses to fight what we're going to do, yeah.
• 1:55:17
  I'm. Going to give.
• 1:55:17
  You a countdown from three and the two of you are going to say
• 1:55:20
  one DRAM, right, One DRAM and if the pair you get spot on, you
• 1:55:26
  get to tell the story. If you don't, well, just we'll
• 1:55:29
  just do it right. It's one drum between the two of
• 1:55:32
  you. That's a what, 3 drums for you
• 1:55:34
  guys as a couple. You have a whiskey.
• 1:55:37
  Right, one drum. You can't confer, you can't look
• 1:55:39
  at each other. You can't do that, right?
• 1:55:41
  Are you ready? You just got to shout out,
• 1:55:43
  right? Wait, wait.
• 1:55:44
  OK, then what I will say is like I say the whiskey Stories
• 1:55:47
  podcast, we are, you know, keep up to date on what we're doing,
• 1:55:51
  everything we're thinking about. I'm sorry, I thinking about
• 1:55:53
  there thinking about everything we're doing right now.
• 1:55:55
  You'll find us on Instagram. Don't forget to join the WW
• 1:56:00
  Store, his Facebook group. He's.
• 1:56:02
  Got 1. Right you can't do it right
• 1:56:04
  don't forget to join the whiskey group like and feel.
• 1:56:05
  Thank you so much for everyone listening right and you're.
• 1:56:08
  Ready. I'm going.
• 1:56:09
  You've got to. Shout out one drum.
• 1:56:10
  Do you think that? It's a story I can still I.
• 1:56:13
  Can still just. Be the.
• 1:56:14
  Distillery or whatever, right? 321 Go in, scour 29.
• 1:56:23
  In Scour 20. 9 There you go there.
• 1:56:26
  You go and do you know? Immediately what?
• 1:56:27
  The story is of each other's drama.
• 1:56:29
  There I I was. Bonus content.
• 1:56:33
  Thanks a lot. What the accident?
• 1:56:36
  Tom is doing November. Tom is, I mean.
• 1:56:39
  Sorry, yes, this was going to come.
• 1:56:40
  Out by the time. This podcast comes out Tom will
• 1:56:43
  have a handlebar mustache right now he.
• 1:56:46
  Looks like the. Guarantee and so.
• 1:56:48
  By. The time this comes out, Tom
• 1:56:50
  will probably come into the Facebook group and post it's
• 1:56:54
  magnificent mustache. Tom, is there anywhere that?
• 1:56:56
  You're raising money. I am, yes.
• 1:56:57
  I'm raising it for November. So Men's Health, how can people
• 1:57:01
  find? Out about both these, yeah.
• 1:57:03
  You can Google Movember, it's November with an M Yeah, or you
• 1:57:08
  can visit me. I am Mini dot Mott on Instagram
• 1:57:11
  and I'm all over that. Ross is.
• 1:57:13
  Doing Movember, but January is going to call it January.
• 1:57:19
  Very good. And Monique kind of people find
• 1:57:21
  you online. I have an Instagram that I've
• 1:57:24
  neglected for several years that I am trying to get back into
• 1:57:29
  called Weird and wonderful whiskeys, but also monique.de
• 1:57:33
  pace at on Instagram. That's that's me.
• 1:57:37
  That's my my sort of mainstay. Great episode.
• 1:57:41
  Thank you so much. For you guys coming on,
• 1:57:42
  honestly, thank you to the the musicians next door for making
• 1:57:46
  it such a lovely atmosphere. And yeah, great thanks.
• 1:57:51
  Thanks to everybody for listening.
• 1:57:52
  This is episode 53. We kind of have to start again.
• 1:57:55
  It's episode 1 of the next year of the whiskey Storage podcast,
• 1:57:58
  Whiskey stories Facebook group. Get on it.
• 1:58:00
  It's well worth it. We're now over 100 members
• 1:58:03
  weekend drum roll call. Brilliant.
• 1:58:05
  We had JML Laird. Posted a.
• 1:58:11
  Picture of a distillery from a hill and just said I'm out for a
• 1:58:15
  walk in the middle of space side.
• 1:58:17
  What is this? Fantastic.
• 1:58:20
  We've got loads and loads of different things going on and I
• 1:58:24
  guess incorrectly. But we've even got heard of the
• 1:58:26
  I guess, and that's what that and we've even.
• 1:58:28
  Got like a. Live auction going on for Ben
• 1:58:32
  Rea five year old for a good cross for the British Heart
• 1:58:36
  Foundation. George Trump is doing that.
• 1:58:37
  There is loads going on in that Facebook group.
• 1:58:40
  It's a very, very active Facebook group.
• 1:58:42
  You can find us on Instagram, whiskey stories, pod, Instagram.
• 1:58:46
  The YouTube channel is live. We've got over 30 videos of us
• 1:58:50
  talking, yes. We've got about. 50 subscribers.
• 1:58:53
  Let's get that pushed as well. It's never separate score.
• 1:58:56
  It's we're now on, we're tick tockers.
• 1:58:58
  I play football. On Monday and somebody who I
• 1:59:00
  don't know, I play football, playing football, and I seen you
• 1:59:03
  on my tick tock, tick tock, he said.
• 1:59:07
  You're like a memory box for your knowledge.
• 1:59:09
  And I said I think I'm talking. 62nd whisking the views, get on
• 1:59:14
  it. And as I say, we have now we
• 1:59:16
  have set up an account on the Baby app where all the whiskey
• 1:59:20
  that we talk about on this podcast or what 3 drams,
• 1:59:23
  everything like that. We will put it up there.
• 1:59:25
  Follow us on that because I believe there is a follow
• 1:59:27
  feature of us that not many people know about it.
• 1:59:29
  I'm working on it, right? Follow us on that.
• 1:59:33
  You'll find everything out you need to know.
• 1:59:35
  Thank you so much Tom and mate for coming on.
• 1:59:37
  Thank you for the draft as well. Brilliant.
• 1:59:39
  Thanks to the fiddlers next door.
• 1:59:41
  Thanks to the Athletic Garments for having us.
• 1:59:43
  I guess if you're listening, you've missed a belt or a
• 1:59:45
  podcast in Japan. In Japan.
• 1:59:48
  Cheers guys, all there. Cheers, cheers.