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The Noble Dram | Carry-On Whisky: Shopping Duty Free (Season 3 | Ep. 2) · The Noble Dram

0:00
Aaron: Nothing's better than taking a couple days off and going on vacation.
0:05
Tom: Going to the airport and going to the adult candy store.
0:09
Aaron: Yeah, we're talking duty free.
0:12
Aaron: Welcome everybody to this week's episode of the Noble Drain.
0:46
Aaron: Yep, tonight we don't have Gavin.
0:49
Aaron: We've brought Dad back for another episode.
0:52
Aaron: So, Tom, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
0:55
Tom: Thank you for having me.
0:56
Tom: Appreciate you making the long haul down.
0:58
Tom: I'll try real hard not to steal the show again this time.
1:02
Aaron: People wonder where I get it.
1:04
Aaron: Alright, so Dad finds himself at the airport uh a couple days ago as he's headed on his way down and finds, yes, what we referred to as the adult candy store, aka duty-free, where you can get all of the cologne and whiskey you could ever want.
1:23
Tom: Yes, whiskey that is usually not available at the local liquor store.
1:28
Aaron: Yeah.
1:28
Aaron: We're gonna talk a little bit about that and why that is.
1:31
Aaron: Um, but first and foremost, we need a glass of whiskey.
1:37
Aaron: So, Mr.
1:38
Aaron: Tom, if you would be so kind as to pour us a couple glasses and tell us what it is we're sipping.
1:43
Tom: This is a 19-year-old bottle of Bowmore.
1:46
Tom: I used to say Bowmore, and then I found that it's Bowmore.
1:51
Tom: But it is Bowmore 19.
1:54
Tom: It is 43% alcohol, 19 years old.
1:58
Tom: After it's been aged for about 19 years in an American bourbon cask, it has been finished in a Pinot Noir cask.
2:08
Tom: All right, and I know not very much about Pinot Noir except for this comes from the Burgundy region of France, the Pinot Noir.
2:17
Tom: Put you back here.
2:19
Aaron: Alright.
2:20
Aaron: So, yeah, so I know all of my Pinot Noir knowledge because of my wife, um, and it's still really, really limited.
2:29
Aaron: Uh sorry, so why the bottle of Bowmore 19?
2:34
Aaron: I know you're asking.
2:35
Aaron: And the answer is because this bottle can only be purchased at a duty-free store.
2:41
Tom: And I and I don't would you explain to us why that is?
2:45
Tom: Because I'm not sure I understand why I can't just go into the local store and buy this.
2:49
Aaron: So I I'm gonna be honest with you, it's not really clear why you can only buy this at duty-free stores.
2:56
Aaron: But I think it's important to start.
2:57
Aaron: Maybe we go back all the way to the beginning.
2:58
Aaron: Like, what is a duty-free store?
3:01
Aaron: Um, why do they exist?
3:03
Aaron: What is the draw for a duty free?
3:04
Aaron: Why do they call it duty-free?
3:06
Aaron: Because it's free of all duties.
3:07
Aaron: Um, we should clarify.
3:10
Aaron: D-U-T-Y.
3:11
Aaron: Just make sure we're talking about the right duty.
3:15
Aaron: The they are probably also free of the other duties as well, but it's neither here nor there.
3:22
Aaron: All right, so a duty-free store simply means you are not paying what is believed to be the tax.
3:32
Aaron: Truth of the matter is you probably still pay some tax, but not all the taxes, right?
3:35
Aaron: There are there are certain taxes that are are exempt when you purchase them duty-free.
3:40
Aaron: And the question always becomes, well, why?
3:42
Aaron: Why is why is it that buying at one store means I don't have to pay tax, and buying it at a different store, um, I do.
3:48
Aaron: And the answer is technically the purchase of this bottle was during the process of exporting.
3:55
Aaron: Uh, these bottles happen to have been bottles that friends of mine purchased while on vacation in Mexico.
4:02
Aaron: Two totally separate occasions.
4:03
Aaron: One of those friends happens to be my wife, uh, the other one happens to be another good friend of mine.
4:08
Aaron: It's very fortunate your wife is your friend.
4:10
Aaron: Some days it works out really well.
4:13
Aaron: I the I some days I'm not positive she admits to either of them.
4:18
Aaron: So but the thought process is when she purchases the bottle at the duty free store, she is purchasing it as she is leaving the country.
4:29
Aaron: So ultimately, the country of Mexico sees this as an export out of the country, and thus you don't pay local Mexican sales taxes or VAT taxes or duty taxes because you're exporting.
4:44
Aaron: So the truth is it doesn't mean you are tax-free, it means you're not paying tax to Mexico.
4:54
Aaron: Now, as luck would have it, here in the States, uh we are allowed a certain amount of import for your own personal consumption that also remains free of taxation and tariff.
5:10
Aaron: Because you're not going to resell it.
5:12
Aaron: Because we're not going to resell it.
5:14
Aaron: Um, as with everything in this room, it is intended to be drink.
5:18
Aaron: So really what's happening is you're really just deferring paying tax in Mexico in favor to pay tax in the United States.
5:28
Aaron: But long as you don't bring in too much in any one setting and you meet the rules, you technically get tax-free at the un at the U.S.
5:36
Aaron: Customs when you come into the country.
5:38
Aaron: And thus where the tax-free or duty-free uh comes from.
5:45
Aaron: You look perplexed.
5:50
Tom: Well, I'm j I'm still not a hundred percent sure.
5:53
Tom: That's why I can't I can't buy only so many bottles at duty-free.
5:57
Tom: I can't go in there with a truck and buy.
5:59
Aaron: Here's the weird, here's the weird part.
6:01
Aaron: A lot of duty-free stores will limit you in purchasing based upon the because you're required to show an airline ticket that says you're leaving the country, the the bottle or the bag is sealed so that you can't smuggle more stuff into it and not pay tax on it.
6:16
Aaron: Um, there's a whole variety of little legal loopholes and criteria that they have to meet.
6:22
Aaron: But what it means, though, is your purchasing here and ultimately deferring the tax to another country.
6:33
Aaron: Now we have, we absolutely happen to have uh the limitation of a certain number of liters per person can be brought into the country without paying the tariff or import taxes when you get to the border.
6:48
Aaron: That in itself kind of runs why duty free is what it is, but it doesn't truly answer the question you started with, which was why can I only buy this at a duty free store?
7:01
Aaron: Why can't I buy this everywhere?
7:02
Aaron: And that really comes down to a marketing question.
7:05
Aaron: A lot of a lot of products available at the duty free store are regular products you can buy anywhere.
7:14
Aaron: It's just when you buy it there, it's sans tax, right?
7:19
Aaron: Does not have have the duties, implying it is less expensive.
7:22
Aaron: That's the premise.
7:24
Aaron: Yes.
7:24
Aaron: Some manufacturers, some distillers will say, well, we'll sell a one-liter bottle at roughly the same price we would have sold a $750 at the retail market in the United States, let's say.
7:36
Aaron: So I do have a number of duty free store bottles that were products you could buy in the U.S.
7:42
Aaron: You just got more for the same price.
7:45
Aaron: So you bought it because it was a cost savings move.
7:50
Aaron: But then there are a number of distilleries, two of which happen to be on the table tonight, that have said we're going to make bottles that are only available at international duty-free stores, or what they'll refer to as travel retails.
8:10
Aaron: All right.
8:11
Aaron: So both bottles tonight we will try are what they refer to as travel retail exclusives, which means the only place in the world I can buy them is at duty-free stores.
8:21
Tom: So if I'm one of these two distilleries and I had my routine 12 and 15 and whatever, I'm I put it out in the travel market or the duty-free store.
8:32
Tom: And unless it is less expensive than the local bottle shops, there's no reason for my customers to buy it.
8:39
Tom: But if I can come up with an exclusive offering, I can put it out there and I don't have to worry about what the price of the local bottle shops are asking for that.
8:50
Tom: Theoretically, it's a cost saving.
8:53
Tom: Not necessarily, but most likely.
8:56
Tom: Am I right on any of that?
8:58
Aaron: Yeah, I think.
8:59
Aaron: So you're standing at the duty free store and you are McCallan, you are Crown Royal, you are Johnny Walker, right?
9:13
Aaron: Those guys quite often have standard products available because they have a brand name that you would recognize at the store, and whether you actually are getting a discounted price or not, it feels like you are, and people would be interested in it.
9:29
Aaron: I'll say most of the distilleries I've seen that do a lot of traveler exclusives are smaller distilleries that might not otherwise draw in a big crowd at a duty-free store.
9:42
Aaron: Now, what I'll say is not every duty-free store is the same, right?
9:46
Aaron: Some of them sell only the oversized bottles of just the most common brands.
9:52
Aaron: And you walk in thinking, man, I'm gonna get something fun, and then you walk in, you're like, this is all the same stuff I can I can get on sale before the three-day holiday at the liquor store right down the street for essentially the same price.
10:06
Tom: And you don't have to carry it in your luggage across three continents.
10:11
Aaron: So, however, I think the important thing is that just because it means you are quote unquote tax-free does not mean that you pay a cheaper price at the duty-free store than you would anywhere else.
10:27
Aaron: There is still the retailer who sets their price based upon what they can get for the for a bottle.
10:35
Aaron: I know here in the States, we, you know, living in Houston, we have a big international airport, they all have duty-free stores.
10:42
Aaron: I'm often not flying international when I'm at the airport.
10:47
Aaron: But like any kid in a candy store, you kind of want to go see what they got.
10:52
Aaron: And so we wander through the stores, and they often have bottles that would be difficult for me to find at a local retailer.
10:59
Tom: I only had an hour to spend at the Dallas airport on the way down here before we go someplace else.
11:07
Tom: But uh, I didn't qualify for duty-free because I was taking another domestic flight.
11:12
Tom: But the biggest problem is only had about an hour layover to look around, and there was probably two or three hours worth of Scotch whiskey to examine.
11:21
Aaron: I yeah, and I a lot of this depends on how much international travel this the airport tends to have, right?
11:29
Aaron: Um I to say this, what kind of clientele tends to run through that airport probably dictates what kind.
11:36
Aaron: I mean, no different than any other retailer, they're going to cater to the people who tend to be in their stores.
11:41
Aaron: Um, and so whether you're buying the jug-size handles of Jose Cuervo gold, or are you in there looking for specialty spirits from around the globe?
11:54
Aaron: It's certainly a market segment that is heavily catered to their audience, I should say.
12:03
Aaron: Um, so I I I was sitting kind of writing some questions now as we were talking this idea.
12:11
Aaron: Um, and so to the to the topic of travel exclusive versus standard available product, when you go into a duty-free store, is there one of those two groups that you tend to look for?
12:31
Aaron: Are you going into a duty-free store to look for cost savings on one of your favorite brands, something you know you like, but I can get a deal on it?
12:41
Aaron: Or are you going in to a duty-free store specifically saying, Let me find something I can't get anywhere else?
12:50
Tom: Well, first let me preface this by saying I'm an old man.
12:54
Tom: Some years back when I went into a duty-free store, I thought, well, here is something that I know the know the price of at the local shop.
13:02
Tom: I think it's a few percentage less or several percentage less, and I'm going to stock up.
13:08
Tom: And I have friends that I know are wanting that, and putting it in my luggage and carrying it wasn't that big of a deal.
13:15
Tom: Now that I'm older and saving uh two or three or four dollars over retail at my local store so that I can put it in a suitcase and carry it from place to place, I almost exclusively look down the line and say, if any of those on that shelf I can get locally, I'm not even gonna look at because I don't have enough back strength to carry bottles of whiskey around with me.
13:42
Tom: So I'm I'm I'm only going to look at those I can't get anywhere else.
13:46
Aaron: It's crazy how much heavier your backpack gets with two bottles of liquor in it, right?
13:50
Aaron: For sure.
13:51
Aaron: For sure.
13:52
Aaron: Because they don't feel that heavy in your hands.
13:53
Aaron: That's right.
13:54
Aaron: But you put both of them on the back of the phone.
13:56
Tom: And your master already is about as heavy as you want to carry it.
13:59
Aaron: So typically, typically it's the weight I wanted it to be, plus all the stuff my wife put in it, right?
14:05
Aaron: And so now I'm I'm toting an extra iPad and another set of headphones, and so she can carry a pillow.
14:12
Tom: I'm finding that gold and silver and jewelry I got in uh the Grand Cayman, I have to leave that in the trash to make room for my I didn't dump out all the Rolexes.
14:23
Aaron: That's right.
14:23
Aaron: That's right.
14:25
Aaron: Um, so yeah, I think I think in my own life, I think it paralleled that.
14:31
Aaron: There was a time frame um that I I knew certain brands, I knew certain names.
14:39
Aaron: That's what I tended to gravitate toward because I knew it.
14:42
Aaron: Um as I have amassed a bigger and bigger collection, the draw to get something I don't know has become greater than the draw to get something I do know.
14:54
Tom: Um I'll even pitch in if you don't mind me interrupting.
14:57
Tom: No, no, good.
14:57
Tom: Um I look for things I can't get anywhere else, and I know that you've been through a duty free since I saw you last.
15:03
Tom: So when I come down here to your house, one of the first things I do is I kind of scan everything to see if he's picked up something that I haven't been able to find yet.
15:12
Tom: So I yeah.
15:13
Tom: And then I say, Oh, would you be kind enough to share just a weed random?
15:19
Aaron: Way way separated from duty free.
15:23
Aaron: I also find myself walking over to a buddy's house and he's like, Would you like a glass of whiskey?
15:27
Aaron: And I spend three minutes kind of rummaging through the thing trying to find that bottle I've never tried before.
15:32
Aaron: Um sometimes it means I'm asking for a bottle, a pour out of something he probably didn't want to give me, but it's the nature of the beast.
15:42
Tom: This this brown liquid is made to be shared with friends, so you'll have to be sure and tell him you are his friend.
15:48
Tom: For sure, for sure.
15:51
Aaron: I so I guess that this brings up this thought process as we're sitting here talking.
15:59
Aaron: That how much does your willingness to purchase a bottle at duty free, how is how how contingent upon it is your understanding of what a bottle like that should cost?
16:13
Aaron: Because you're often standing in the airport with no backup data.
16:19
Aaron: You I mean, you can frantically try to scroll through your phone, but I've never found an airport that had an internet connection that was worth unless you paid for it, right?
16:29
Aaron: Um, but yeah, I found myself a couple different times kind of frantically scrolling through, trying to figure out.
16:35
Aaron: It doesn't say traveler's exclusive, but it's one I've never seen before.
16:38
Aaron: Is it just because I haven't stumbled into it?
16:40
Aaron: I I'm frantically trying to do internet research, standing in the aisle while my wife stands by the door, kind of tapping her foot with her arms crossed.
16:52
Tom: Yeah, no, she doesn't love the same things I love.
16:54
Tom: There's a there's two or three websites that are pretty quick to come up with what the price is on something.
17:02
Tom: And I'll be honest, I have had uh quite a number of whiskies I've thought, well, if I can ever find that, I've read about it.
17:09
Tom: That sounds intriguing, I'm gonna get it.
17:11
Tom: And then I find myself in a place where I could, and I think, uh, I think that price is higher than it should be.
17:17
Tom: I'm going to hopefully find it again someplace else.
17:20
Tom: And seven years later, when it's no longer in stock and no longer available, somebody says, you don't happen to have a bottle of that, do you?
17:27
Tom: And I close.
17:28
Tom: I was like, I was close, I was scared off by a few bucks, and uh you know, it depends on how important a few bucks is to you.
17:36
Aaron: My wife often makes reference when there's something she wants to spend money on, is that you can't take it with you when you die.
17:42
Aaron: You we we should spend it.
17:44
Aaron: And more than once I've thought, well, yeah, what if I want something else with that money later and then come back and realize, nope, there didn't end up being anything I wanted to spend that money on more than that, and I'm really bummed we didn't buy whatever it was.
17:58
Tom: My wife will take me to buy a coat or a new pair of shoes, not because I need it, but because she wants a coat or a new pair of shoes.
18:06
Tom: She doesn't want to feel guilty.
18:07
Tom: Yeah.
18:08
Tom: So if I can word it, if if I can get this bottle of whiskey, then you are entitled to something that makes it maintains the friendship.
18:16
Aaron: You you gotta balance out, right?
18:17
Aaron: Like you can't get ahead of one or the other on the amount of money you spend.
18:20
Aaron: Yeah, there's you can't keep score either.
18:23
Aaron: There is something just intrinsic about she got to go out and have a nice dinner with one of her girlfriends that makes me feel like I need to call one of my buddies and let's go grab barbecue or something someday and have a couple drinks.
18:35
Aaron: I there is this constant struggle of I'm afraid she's gotten too far ahead of it of enjoyment of life, and I need to level the playing field.
18:43
Aaron: All right, well, let's talk a minute about what's in this glass.
18:47
Tom: You want to go first?
18:48
Aaron: Yeah, so I mean, kind of rules of the game here is that if you pour, I have to I have to give my notes first.
18:55
Aaron: I'll be honest, this is not the first time we have actually cracked this bottle open.
19:00
Aaron: The the the day or two after um after I received this bottle, uh we loaded up in the car and we had made the long haul all the way up to Kansas to see you guys, and I took it with us, and we drank, well, I mean, to be honest, the first half of the bottle.
19:15
Aaron: Yes.
19:16
Aaron: Um, and I'll say, just overall, I remember being really wowed by the bottle the first time.
19:25
Aaron: And I don't know if it's we drank probably too much yesterday, having a good time.
19:30
Tom: And so it's been a long time since you've saw me.
19:32
Aaron: So this is also the first pour of the night.
19:35
Aaron: And so there's a little bit of just kind of getting your palate kind of readjusted to stuff.
19:39
Aaron: I'll say this is much drier than I had remembered it.
19:44
Aaron: Even on the nose, like I expected with Pinot Noir.
19:47
Aaron: Pinot Noir tends to be a fruitier tasting wine varietal, right?
19:53
Aaron: So one of the things I love about Pinot Noirs is it's very fruity and often reminds me when we drink wine, it reminds me of a like a baby sherry, right?
20:05
Aaron: It's not as full and bold as sherry, but it carries a lot of those same things.
20:09
Aaron: And so I tend to find berry notes and and fruit notes and stuff in Pinot Noir.
20:14
Aaron: And I really thought I would get that on the nose, but I don't.
20:18
Tom: So you just rather disappointed or I wrote down dry oak.
20:22
Aaron: I think I get more oak on the nose here than I think I get wine.
20:27
Aaron: Just surprise me, is all I was saying.
20:30
Tom: On the on the nose, I wish I'd had taken careful notes when I had it last time because I'm I'm only going by vague memory, but uh I didn't get very many berry notes.
20:41
Tom: Which gets very vague when you get to half of the bottle.
20:44
Tom: Yes.
20:44
Tom: Now it it muddies, it muddies your memory for sure.
20:47
Tom: If you have two or three other, and of course, when he says half a bottle, what he means is he drank half a bottle and I had a couple tastes.
20:55
Tom: But uh particularly if you have two or three other tastes at the same evening, they do kind of run together in your head the memories.
21:02
Tom: But I find this to there's in where we live, almost all the honey in the store is called uh clover honey, and it has a specific clovery note.
21:13
Tom: But I've had I've never had a taste of manuka honey, but I've had about a thousand whiskeys that they said had a tint of hint of manuka honey, and I'm thinking this is manuka honey along with caramel, maybe a teeny hint of butterscotch on the nose.
21:33
Tom: Uh, now we should I do not find myself disappointed with this.
21:38
Aaron: We we should divulge that about an hour and a half, two hours ago, um, my daughter was in town as well, and uh she wanted ice cream, and so we went and got a little ice cream.
21:47
Aaron: And his ice cream frozen custard his ice cream had caramel in it.
21:52
Aaron: So the fact that he's picking up caramel may have more with what's in the mustache and less with what's to do in the glass.
21:59
Aaron: Um Yeah, I and I and maybe that's partly throwing my palate off that we had something sweet and that it's hard hard to pick up sweetness in something after you've just eaten frozen custard.
22:11
Tom: Um it is a little drying and there's not much of an oily mouthfeel at all to it.
22:16
Tom: And the texture is like a uh a light wine finish.
22:21
Tom: I we're we're hinting into the palate, right?
22:25
Aaron: Kind of like Oh, I'm sorry.
22:25
Aaron: No, but that's okay.
22:27
Aaron: That's okay.
22:27
Aaron: Yeah, when we start talking about mouthfeel and stuff like it that that moves, I here's where here's where I actually get something.
22:35
Aaron: Because I wrote down dry oak on the nose.
22:38
Aaron: I wrote very drying on the palate.
22:41
Aaron: Almost it doesn't have the bitterness of a hops, like from a hoppy beer, but it has that same effect where the inside of my mouth is left very dry.
22:52
Aaron: I I need water after having a sip of it.
22:56
Aaron: I've got a question completely unoily.
22:59
Tom: That dry oak that I think is now that you've rooted it that way, that's a I I gotta admit that's coming through strong.
23:07
Tom: But do you like it or do you not like that dry oak?
23:12
Aaron: So I'm I'm not an overly oaky guy.
23:16
Aaron: I'm one of the problems I, especially in in heavily aged bourbons, is that I tend to feel like it can get too oaky too fast.
23:25
Aaron: Um, this is one of those where Gavin and I, Gavin and I often see eye to eye on a lot of stuff.
23:29
Aaron: In this one, Gavin and I completely see things differently.
23:32
Aaron: He loves the double oaked stuff where it's been re-racked into a new barrel and gets a bunch more oak flavor.
23:38
Aaron: And I I tend to like a little softer oak notes.
23:43
Aaron: I like the sweeter side of oak, I just don't like the tannic side.
23:48
Aaron: Also shows up in my appreciation of white of red wines.
23:51
Aaron: Some of my wife's favorites are the very big, bold tannic reds.
23:56
Aaron: I don't I don't mind the drying so much.
23:59
Aaron: I just don't like the tannic note.
24:01
Aaron: And so that's where I've been kind of struggling on this one.
24:03
Aaron: But I get, and this is where I got something distinctly unoak related, on the palate, I get citrus pith.
24:12
Aaron: Like the white, not not not the zest, not the heavy oily citrus zest, and not the the fruit and juice of the inside, but that almost bitter note of like a thick orange peel, and it comes off and you get a little bit of that pith.
24:32
Aaron: Like, I get that.
24:34
Tom: Um I'll say just the opposite about that old oak flavor, that dry oak flavor.
24:39
Tom: Do you like it?
24:40
Tom: Uh my rating of this will be up a notch or two because it has that oak flavor.
24:45
Tom: I really like that.
24:46
Aaron: To each their own.
24:47
Tom: Yes.
24:48
Aaron: Evidently, sometimes the acorn does fall far from the tree.
24:51
Aaron: Uh depends on what walks by and kicks it.
24:54
Aaron: Very true.
24:56
Aaron: Very true.
24:57
Aaron: That else.
24:58
Aaron: Um, all right.
25:00
Aaron: On the palette.
25:01
Aaron: On the palate, what else are you getting though?
25:03
Tom: I I wrote down that I was getting plum, and you can get various different kinds of apples.
25:10
Tom: Are you talking about the pit on the inside?
25:13
Tom: No, the fruit.
25:14
Tom: I'm talking about the plum, uh, plum.
25:16
Tom: And then also, uh, if you put some thick caramel on a carameled red apple, I'm getting sort of a caramely red apple note there.
25:25
Tom: And there again, I like it.
25:29
Aaron: I'm I'm repeatedly going back and kind of taking a splash of water trying to trying to kind of rinse out anything on my palate and go back to it and pick up on your stuff.
25:37
Aaron: And I don't, I just don't know if I'm getting it.
25:39
Aaron: I would I will I will say this though.
25:43
Aaron: I I am quite curious to see how this how this glass tastes when we come back to it.
25:50
Aaron: Yes.
25:51
Aaron: So I'm I'm going to, at the rate I'm going, I'm gonna probably finish this class, but I'm gonna ask for a little splash more so when we come back around, I've got a little bit to come to it at the end.
26:01
Aaron: Because I think that may be a big part of my big part of what I'm tasting here.
26:06
Aaron: So I won't say top me off, but like a like a like a NASCAR pit stop, just put a splash in it, no time.
26:14
Aaron: No tires.
26:16
Aaron: All right, so let's talk a little bit about the finish, though.
26:23
Aaron: Um the finish is where it actually kind of gets a little intriguing to me.
26:28
Aaron: I get a salinity on the finish, I get a bit of sea breeze, I get kind of that old wooden boat out by the dock.
26:38
Tom: I was going to use the word brine.
26:40
Tom: Yeah.
26:40
Tom: But that's it.
26:42
Aaron: Saline, brine, whatever.
26:43
Aaron: I I sometimes you sometimes when we say briny, I picture seaweed.
26:49
Aaron: Mm-hmm.
26:49
Aaron: Right?
26:50
Aaron: And it I I think that has a slightly different smell about it than just ocean breeze.
26:58
Aaron: But if you've ever been near an ocean and that like the when the wind blows out, like you can smell salt in the air, yeah, right.
27:05
Aaron: Like I get that.
27:06
Aaron: Um I think it's a little different than kind of that brown fish water kind of funk of actual seawater.
27:15
Tom: When I was a kid, the word brine, living in western Kansas, quite a ways away from the harbor and the and the and the docks.
27:23
Tom: That's true.
27:24
Tom: Uh brine meant something you prepared to make pickles out of.
27:27
Tom: And uh and uh I'd that that always had dill in it and whatnot.
27:32
Tom: And so it took me a long time to I don't get any of that kind of brine, right?
27:36
Aaron: Like there's no vinegar kind of note to this.
27:39
Tom: I would read tasters' notes, I'd talk about brine, and I'd think, why would you want that?
27:43
Tom: Olives?
27:45
Aaron: Oh gross.
27:46
Aaron: All right.
27:48
Aaron: So here's do you have more to add to the finish than just brine?
27:54
Tom: There is a lingering sweet oakiness there in that in that finish.
27:58
Tom: That there again, I'm not necessarily going so much about what it tastes like, but how much I like it.
28:03
Tom: And that is tell me what your rating system is.
28:08
Aaron: Yeah, or I was just gonna chat about that.
28:10
Aaron: So I'll get my number here in a sec.
28:12
Aaron: But um to remind everybody, both here and at home, uh under 60 is undrinkable swill.
28:21
Aaron: 60 to 69 means I would happily have a glass if you were paying for it.
28:29
Aaron: The 70s, 70 to 79, is I'd be interested in buying a glass of that.
28:35
Aaron: I don't know as if I need a bottle, right?
28:39
Aaron: Um, then 80s would be I'd everything from I'd be interested to having a bottle to up to like, yeah, let's let's go get one of those, right?
28:50
Aaron: 90s now get into the I own a bottle and I'm only willing to share them with somebody I know that would truly appreciate how good that is.
28:59
Aaron: 95 to 99 is they'll find it after I pass because nobody alive knows that I have this because I don't want to share it with anybody.
29:09
Aaron: So that gives you your benchmark.
29:12
Aaron: So to that end, my number on the more 19 is a 78 at this point.
29:21
Tom: And here's here's where I tell you why.
29:23
Tom: I can I can, you know, everybody's entitled their opinion, even if it's wrong, but your opinion's wrong.
29:29
Aaron: Well, not everybody can do that.
29:31
Aaron: I I again I want to come back to this because I remember this being much better the last time we had it.
29:39
Aaron: And or enjoying it, I gotta be careful.
29:42
Aaron: I enjoyed it more last time we had it.
29:45
Aaron: Um, I don't think the whiskey changed.
29:47
Aaron: I think it's still the same whiskey.
29:49
Aaron: I I I think I think this is on me and and my variation.
29:52
Aaron: So I do want to come back to it.
29:54
Aaron: I the oakiness to me is more than I want, and I think detracts from the rest of the whiskey.
30:01
Aaron: Okay.
30:02
Aaron: I mean, that that that that's it's not bad, but it's just it's got that one negative that pulls it down out of I gotta have one into okay, I yeah, I buy a drink because it's it's something fun and something different, but I don't know if I need that in the collection.
30:19
Aaron: The irony is not lost on me in the fact that it is in my collection.
30:26
Tom: Well, if you use the the the numerical layout, somewhere between 88 and 92 would be those bottles that you would say.
30:36
Tom: I have to have a bottle of that.
30:38
Tom: Absolutely.
30:38
Tom: And I'm saying if I ever see a bottle of this in the store, it's gonna be my bottle unless there's three big guys fighting over two bottles.
30:47
Tom: This is kick a kid out of a wheelchair to get in front of him a lot.
30:52
Tom: I'm gonna have to say I would start at 90 or 92 to from my reading.
30:57
Tom: And uh I'm gonna say 92, 92 and a half, 92, 92.
31:03
Aaron: I I was gonna write down the half because I don't think we've had a half yet on the show.
31:06
Aaron: I keep putting dot zero on all the scores, thinking maybe one day we'll have a fraction, but no, 92 it is.
31:14
Aaron: All right, um, I will I just realized I don't know how much she paid for this bottle.
31:20
Aaron: I I want to say it was in the 200 plus range.
31:25
Aaron: I don't know.
31:26
Aaron: Which ultimately makes me feel more confident in my 78 score on this one, but uh neither here nor there.
31:35
Aaron: I'll look it up.
31:35
Aaron: I'll I'll go back and dig through text messages with my wife as she was standing in the duty free store saying which one do you want?
31:41
Aaron: And I'll I'll figure out what it is and let everybody at home know.
31:44
Tom: Before we move on, may I say this?
31:46
Tom: Yeah, the 12-year Bowmore, the twelve the 16, the 15, dark, and the 15 darkest.
31:54
Aaron: The darkest 15 is is one of my favorites from Bowmore, but it is distinctly unlike this.
31:59
Tom: All those Bowmores, I've always said they were close to excellent scratches, but they just fell a little short on their peat.
32:06
Tom: And so I've never been a big fan of uh having Bowmore, but if they all tasted like this, I'd have I'd have a lot of Bowmore.
32:15
Aaron: I find it intriguing that the reason you dock other Bowmores is not enough peat.
32:20
Aaron: Oh, it's it's got no I got no peat on this at all.
32:24
Aaron: Yes, yes, this is I know this is almost peat friendly.
32:27
Aaron: It does not say on the container one way or the other, right?
32:30
Aaron: And and one of the we'll talk a little bit about this uh coming up is one of my reasons I struggle with purchasing travel exclusives is you can't find any information about this stuff because you can't buy it anywhere.
32:42
Aaron: So no retailers really talk about them.
32:44
Aaron: Um and so there's a great deal of you're buying a bottle on a complete crapshoot, a complete flyer.
32:52
Aaron: Um, and so you don't know what you want, so or don't know what you're gonna get unless it's written on the container.
32:57
Aaron: So this one does not say, Part of me thought maybe, right?
33:01
Aaron: There there are some Bowmores that do have peat on them.
33:04
Tom: Your your dad's glad you bought it, even if the injury gives it a little bit.
33:07
Aaron: I so to me, 78.
33:13
Aaron: To Tom, 92.
33:17
Aaron: I think that might be the greatest, the greatest delta we've ever had on this episode.
33:21
Tom: It's because you and you and uh Gavin almost always agree.
33:26
Tom: I in general disagreeable people.
33:30
Aaron: Once the first guy's right, we don't have to argue much.
33:33
Aaron: All right, we're going to the second one.
33:35
Aaron: I'm gonna leave this one sitting because I think I think I'm gonna come back to this and I think it's going to change my score.
33:40
Aaron: All right.
33:41
Aaron: Second bottle tonight is Laphroaig's Portwood.
33:46
Aaron: This actually happens to be an older bottle.
33:49
Aaron: I got this a few years back now.
33:51
Aaron: Um, I believe they now call this the Portwood cask.
33:55
Aaron: But from reading descriptions online, they are the same thing.
34:01
Aaron: Um both back then and now.
34:06
Tom: Oh, I think I probably over poured that for you.
34:08
Tom: Um then pour this one small for me.
34:11
Tom: That's my plan.
34:12
Tom: My my theory is that if you pour your pores too big, you limit the number of pours you can have.
34:18
Tom: No, you don't.
34:20
Aaron: No, you don't.
34:21
Aaron: If last night proved anything, no, you don't.
34:26
Aaron: No, you don't.
34:27
Aaron: All right, so this one clocks in at 48% ABV.
34:32
Aaron: For those people who don't like percentages, that is a 96 proofer up from 86 on our first bottle.
34:41
Aaron: Uh, this one, however, has no age statement.
34:44
Aaron: So there's nothing on here to give us any indication as its age.
34:48
Aaron: However, we do know its maturation process.
34:51
Aaron: This spent its first maturation in X bourbon barrels and then finished in European oak barrels that have been seasoned with ruby port.
35:05
Aaron: So not full-fledged port barrels, but seasoned with ports.
35:13
Aaron: I don't know how long they were seasoned and then ultimately how long they were in the finishing barrel.
35:17
Aaron: None of that is written in the small uh marketing panel on the back of the canister.
35:24
Tom: Port by definition has to come from Portugal, Ruby port.
35:28
Tom: Uh but if it was in barrels previously seasoned, that doesn't necessarily mean it ever got to the barrel ever got to Portugal.
35:37
Aaron: No, no, you're absolutely right.
35:39
Aaron: They they absolutely could have filled these somewhere else, spent time at.
35:45
Aaron: I I believe most of the seasoned oak is done at the various bodegas in the Spain or Portugal or wherever, right?
35:59
Aaron: Because they're gonna actually take that port out of one barrel and move it into another barrel and let it season that barrel and then do it again, right?
36:07
Aaron: Like it'll it'll go through a transition.
36:09
Aaron: Um as opposed to letting it mature fully in one wooden barrel and then move it.
36:16
Aaron: Um, that gives them the ability to actually create barrels with the port flavor at a higher volume than they would otherwise just to produce port.
36:28
Aaron: Um it it's a very common practice now, and the demand for sherries and ports and stuff is not nearly as high as the demand for barrels that contained port and sherry.
36:38
Tom: So the the port, the the ports go from barrel to barrel to barrel, just seasoning barrels.
36:45
Aaron: Alright, so I can say this before we get into all of the the notes on this one, uh this one's peated.
36:52
Tom: Yes.
36:52
Tom: Yeah, there is no question on this one.
36:55
Tom: And it's a beautiful peat, too.
36:57
Tom: Um I don't know if you're aware of this, but both Laphroaig and Bowmore are owned by Beam Suntory.
37:07
Aaron: If you tell me, if you tell me that I'm gonna believe it.
37:09
Aaron: I I do know Laphroaig.
37:11
Tom: I did not know that Bowmore was owned by Beam Suntory.
37:13
Tom: I think Jim Beam is also for now.
37:19
Aaron: What if what I've what I've found is about the time you start learning who owns who, they sell them and then they don't own them anymore.
37:25
Tom: It seems awkward to they're they're only about what, seven, eight miles apart, and they compete with each other, uh Bowmore and Laphroaig.
37:34
Tom: And uh You stayed at the Bowmore cottage, didn't you?
37:38
Tom: We did.
37:38
Aaron: We stayed in Bowmore on the island of Isla, um kind of centrally located.
37:43
Aaron: I think village is probably the appropriate term.
37:46
Aaron: Um it didn't feel like a town or a city.
37:48
Aaron: It did have a grocery store and a two or three restaurants.
37:51
Aaron: It did.
37:52
Tom: Actually, it had a wonderful little pizza place.
37:54
Tom: Yes.
37:54
Tom: A lot of fun.
37:55
Tom: And the name of the and we're not we're not promoting or endorsing.
37:58
Aaron: It was good pizza.
37:59
Aaron: But you find yourself in Bowmore, you have two options.
38:03
Aaron: One of the nights, go hit the pizza place.
38:06
Tom: Do you remember what the pizza place's name was?
38:07
Tom: It was Pizzeria.
38:08
Tom: Pizzeria.
38:09
Tom: They they have a lot of peat there.
38:11
Aaron: No, it's we actually were inquisitive fellas, so we went in and and started talking to some of the staff, and they said, yeah, they actually, it's a wood-fired pizza oven that they put little pieces of peat into just so it gets a little peat smokiness to the it was delicious.
38:26
Aaron: I had a if I if I remember correctly, we had scallop pizza.
38:30
Aaron: Yes, and it was spot-on delicious.
38:33
Tom: They they I figure I figure wind on an island eat seafood.
38:38
Tom: And the seafood that they eat that they harvest there is almost all shellfish.
38:43
Tom: So scallop pizza sounded like a bring of idea.
38:46
Tom: And it was too.
38:48
Tom: It was a win-win.
38:49
Tom: All right.
38:52
Aaron: So we were talking about duty free stores.
38:55
Aaron: My question is, when I first heard of Traveler's Exclusives, it was presented to me as a this is a way for distilleries to test a product idea, test a release, and say, is there interest amongst the general populace for this new whatever insert finishing, insert barrel maturation, some funky process.
39:26
Aaron: They did something different, they're gonna try something new so they can test to see if the market actually likes it or not before they start releasing it in full-scale production.
39:36
Aaron: Now, that being said, I can't think of any traveler retail exclusive I've seen in the at duty free stores over the years that I've then later seen in standard production, which tells me there's probably not a ton of truth to this idea that it's testing the waters, so to speak.
40:00
Tom: Something I was just drinking in the last few weeks.
40:04
Tom: And I since I can't think of the name, but my story here, but but it said it was it was a Laphroaig.
40:12
Tom: And it was either Sherry Oak or it was the quarter cask, and it was only in it was on Triple Wood, it was the Laphroaig Triplewood, it was only in duty free, and then it was popular enough they came back and and put it out on the open market, and it was there for a few years uh as a core uh product, and then they took it off again.
40:36
Tom: So, but yes, it's one of the few that I've ever heard of that came out.
40:40
Aaron: Evidently wasn't a strong indicator as to what the market wanted.
40:43
Aaron: So, I guess my question becomes when you find yourself at a duty-free store and you head in, right?
40:50
Aaron: We we talked about you don't you don't tend to go in looking for the tax savings, you're going in looking for something fun.
40:56
Aaron: So, do you feel the idea that a brand makes something that is only available at duty free?
41:04
Aaron: Is that an opportunity for somebody from anywhere in the globe to get access to something really fun and funky and different?
41:14
Aaron: Or is this just a bit of good marketing, trumped up scarcity that ultimately tries to entice you into buying something you may or may not have been at interested in all if you had found it at your local retailer?
41:32
Tom: I have my personal life and friends that say, Are you traveling?
41:38
Tom: If you can find the bottle of such and such, pick it up.
41:40
Tom: The the cloud above duty free in my mind is pick it up because it's something fun and it's something we're scarce to find, whatever.
41:51
Tom: Uh I'm sure that if if all my friends raced over and said, Don't buy this because I bought it and it was not that not that intriguing after I got it, the cloud would be different.
42:02
Tom: But uh in my mind, it's all get it while you can because it's not available.
42:08
Tom: Uh yeah, and I I live in western Kansas and duty-free stores are few and far away.
42:16
Aaron: Don't worry about this, right?
42:17
Aaron: I I mean, yes, even even living in a city that has a two international airports, which means I am close to a number of duty-free stores.
42:27
Aaron: I cannot go in and buy anything at those duty-free stores unless I happen to be traveling internationally.
42:33
Aaron: And normally I'm not buying anything in the Houston duty-free stores, I'm buying something overseas in the duty-free stores to bring back with me.
42:43
Aaron: Yes.
42:44
Aaron: Um, all right, so I had a I had a whole list of questions, and we're getting a little bit out of whack, but this this brings up a good tie to the next question.
42:54
Aaron: Have you ever been at your departure airport and bought a bottle at the duty free store?
43:02
Aaron: Yes.
43:04
Aaron: So you were you were until you happen to be in here in Houston and you're flying to wherever, and sir, foreign destination.
43:10
Aaron: Toronto.
43:11
Aaron: Foreign destination.
43:12
Aaron: So you're flying to Toronto and then gonna come back.
43:14
Aaron: On the way to Toronto, you bought a bottle, hauled it all the way to Toronto, and then hauled it all the way back.
43:22
Tom: No, you just drank it in Toronto.
43:23
Tom: Too many friends on uh Okay, okay.
43:26
Tom: Well, no, that's that's a fair point.
43:28
Aaron: I hadn't I hadn't even considered that you should take it with you and drink it on vacation.
43:32
Tom: Well, I was there for four or five days and I had supper with the four or five, six guys every night.
43:37
Tom: So I get that.
43:38
Aaron: Okay, I I often find myself at duty free.
43:43
Aaron: I know these are are far more available now, but you would find yourself at a duty free store here in the States somewhere, and they would have bottles of Blandon's or Eagle Rare or Weller's or something like that, a tougher to find bourbon, and you go over and look at it, and one, I Was often disappointed at how much I felt they were overcharging.
44:04
Aaron: I mean, just brutally honest, they they were always more expensive than retail prices if you could find it at a retail store.
44:13
Aaron: Which ultimately upset me that in in under the guise of you're gonna save money by not paying taxes, they had more than increased the price of the bottle than the actual sales tax, and you were paying more than that just because you could get it at a duty-free store.
44:28
Tom: Um in general, I would not buy a bottle locally and then take it elsewhere.
44:33
Tom: But my personal opinion of Canadian liquor stores are limited, interesting Scotch whiskeys.
44:41
Tom: And uh I knew I was going to be the Scotch person at the table, so I found something that I thought had general appeal.
44:50
Tom: It wasn't anything fantastic or or exotic, uh, and I bought it thinking this this would give them a better impression of what Scotch whiskey is than what I could find in the Canadian liquor store.
45:03
Tom: And not wanting to put down Canadian liquor stores, but you they're all state-owned or whatever.
45:08
Tom: You know who are Canadian liquor stores, you know.
45:11
Tom: And uh fooling anybody.
45:14
Tom: You go into two and think, well, I'm I'm looking for something intriguing, and they say, no, you can go into all of them, they're all the same.
45:20
Tom: It's a government-owned operation, and unless the committee puts them in the store, we don't have any of them.
45:26
Tom: And and I'm thinking, heck, this sounds like Kansas.
45:32
Aaron: Yeah, I you know, one of the things that um we both Gavin and I normally, and then also the greater group of whiskey guys I know, we often argue, lament, critique, or whatever you want to call it, the three-tier system, and how that how that makes some things available and some things not available.
45:53
Aaron: And in in one way, it moved who got to regulate availability from one guy to another guy, but it didn't change the end result.
46:02
Aaron: Somebody still has exclusive rights for certain things.
46:06
Aaron: I we we spend way too many hours arguing over the three-tier system with absolutely no way to change anything about it.
46:17
Tom: But it's okay.
46:18
Tom: You paid the tax, you can complain.
46:19
Aaron: That's true, that's true.
46:21
Aaron: If if if whiskey drinkers don't complain, no one will.
46:26
Aaron: That's right, right?
46:27
Aaron: All right, so uh a couple other questions.
46:30
Aaron: Just thinking about duty-free stores.
46:33
Aaron: Um you find yourself at the store and you're looking at these options and you know nothing about the bottles, but you're standing there and you're like, man, I've heard of the distillery, but I don't know that release.
46:49
Aaron: I've never had one finished in that kind of barrel, whatever.
46:52
Aaron: How much does the fact that you cannot go back tomorrow and buy one push you to make the purchase?
47:01
Aaron: I I know that the question is how much impulse is the impulse buying?
47:06
Tom: How many salesmen have said the sale on these mattresses, cars, sneakers, whatever, ends tomorrow today at five o'clock?
47:14
Tom: And uh, if you if you if you get over to me repeating, if you get over, and anytime I hear those lines, my first reaction is if it's a good product and you're making it reliable and people want it, so why are you running such an exclusive sale just until 5 p.m.?
47:29
Tom: And if I'm a revered customer, why don't you say, well, since you're in here asking me about it at two, I'll let you get in on the sale, whatever, because you're in here before the sale was over.
47:41
Tom: Uh I back off.
47:42
Tom: My reaction is to back off anytime there's a there's a rush deal.
47:47
Aaron: The more you pressure me, the more I think the sale matters more to you than it does to me.
47:52
Tom: Exactly.
47:52
Tom: It's a fair argument.
47:53
Tom: I'll admit there is a serious because the airplane leaves, you know, it isn't the salesman, it isn't the salesman's job to, but the airplane's gonna close its doors and I'm gonna be on that airplane without my bottle of whatever if I don't get it.
48:06
Tom: So there is a big push, and I I feel that push, and I think I have regretted not giving into it more often than I have regretted giving into it.
48:18
Aaron: I would actually make an argument that the fact that the U.S.
48:22
Aaron: government will only allow me to so many bottles in without having to pay an import tax on it is one of the few things that stops me from drastically overspending in every duty free store I've ever been in.
48:33
Aaron: Because that concern, I don't, one, I don't know when I'm going to be in a duty free store next.
48:41
Aaron: Two, I don't know if the next duty free store will have this bottle or not.
48:46
Aaron: And three, I don't know anything about this release.
48:50
Aaron: Is this release going away in the next six months anyway?
48:53
Aaron: So even though I'm in a duty free store in seven months, they may not have any more.
48:56
Aaron: Like there is so many things that can prevent me from ever getting an opportunity to this.
49:01
Aaron: I have a tendency to want to buy stuff, but knowing that the United States government says I I get two really limits.
49:11
Aaron: I gotta pick with the two I want the most, right?
49:13
Aaron: Um yeah.
49:15
Tom: And sometimes your friend will say there's only so many bottles I want to carry in my backpack.
49:19
Tom: And so that limits that for sure.
49:21
Aaron: There's lots of I think that's a fair question, and it was the lead-in to my last question.
49:26
Aaron: How often have you packed a carry-on with the expressed intent of ultimately putting a bottle in there?
49:36
Aaron: So you have packed going away with the thought process, I need to have have saved space and weight so I can put a bottle into this bag.
49:45
Tom: I've only been to Scotland twice and both times I intentionally left weight and space.
49:52
Tom: Uh, but those are the probably only two that I intentionally specifically saved.
49:57
Tom: I've been in the Caribbean and the gun-through duty-free from the islands or whatever, and said, uh, this old swimsuit uh passe, so I can I can I can get along with I I can make room for it.
50:12
Aaron: I I have on a couple of occasions stood at my suitcase with bottles in hand and thought, well, I can't throw away socks because I gotta pack the bottles in socks.
50:22
Aaron: This is my packing material.
50:23
Aaron: But like, I can buy new underwear when we get home.
50:26
Aaron: And to be honest, that pair of jeans was pretty old to begin with.
50:31
Tom: Oh, and you're not packing right.
50:32
Tom: One pant leg inside the other pant leg and then the bottle on the pant leg.
50:37
Aaron: So I I will say, not a duty free story, but uh a notion of packing airline suitcases with the intent of a bottle.
50:46
Aaron: We we we had a guy's trip to Kentucky and I knew I was buying.
50:50
Aaron: And so my suitcase, check-size suitcase, when you open it up, I had placed a carry-on bag in it and had packed my clothes in it, and then I packed packing material like bubble wrap and such around the gap between the two suitcases, such that when we got there, I could open it up and I could pack all the stuff into the small suitcase.
51:12
Aaron: I I had planned accordingly, suitcase inside a suitcase.
51:16
Aaron: When I got there, I could have two bags to bring up.
51:18
Tom: You you have an uncle who went on a Caribbean cruise with us, and I don't know how many hundreds of dollars worth of clothes he ruined, but when he got there, he said, when I got my suitcase off of the carousel, he said I could smell that there was damage done.
51:35
Aaron: I I will say, in all my travels, I've never lost a bottle.
51:40
Aaron: Um I mean, never broke it.
51:44
Aaron: I don't know, I never lost a suitcase.
51:47
Tom: You flew Air Canada once through Toronto.
51:49
Aaron: It it took 28 days for the bag to come in, but I got it.
51:53
Aaron: Um yeah, I went to I went to fill out the little form for uh the value of what was in there, and I got to the part for whiskey, and I cried a bit because it's all price, like you can't buy it anywhere except for at the distillery.
52:06
Aaron: Like the only way to get this was to go back to Scotland to get it.
52:09
Aaron: And I was like, I don't think they're gonna pay that.
52:12
Aaron: I don't think I don't think they're gonna compensate me uh accordingly.
52:16
Aaron: I the I have always I have always been overly worried.
52:23
Aaron: I tend to bottle in a tube sock, that whole thing in another tube sock, slide it in a pant leg, pack clothes across the bottom of the suitcase, bottles in, pack clothes between them around.
52:35
Aaron: I I the OCD engineer in me takes over and I pack like a madman.
52:41
Aaron: But I I literally have have taken the um taken bubble wrap, the little bags that you pump up with the little air pump.
52:49
Aaron: Um, I've taken styrofoam inserts.
52:51
Aaron: My wife often has wine shipped in, and it'll have like two bottles and a styrofoam thing.
52:55
Aaron: I'll take the styrofoam pieces with us.
52:58
Aaron: Um, yeah, I will I will do anything to make sure it makes it home.
53:02
Aaron: If it was a bottle that we opened on vacation, I will take um clear cellophane tape and wrap around the bottle top to bottom to make sure the cork stays in.
53:12
Aaron: I the last thing, I mean, how utterly demoralizing would it be to have that carousel run around and you can see your bag dripping?
53:20
Aaron: Like, oh all the hard work you put in on that vacation gone because of a baggage handler.
53:28
Aaron: Uh yeah, I it I I can't imagine how mad my wife would be, too, if I came home with a luggage full of peated whiskey.
53:38
Tom: All right, let's talk a little bit about this Laphroaig, though.
53:42
Tom: I'm going to use a word to describe the taste of this Laphroaig, and I'm going to use the word Laphroaig peat.
53:50
Tom: If you're if you are unfamiliar with the smell of Laphroaig peat, you won't know exactly what it is I'm talking about.
53:57
Tom: But if you've ever smelled Laphroaig peat, the this is a gentle edition of the Floyd or Laphroaig peat.
54:04
Tom: This isn't like the 10-year, but it's it's a little gentler, but not much.
54:10
Aaron: I'll say on the nose, this does not have that new can of tennis balls, creosote kind of thing, as much as you typically get out of younger uh Laphroaig 10.
54:20
Aaron: Yes.
54:20
Aaron: I'm not saying it's not there, it's just not as pronounced.
54:23
Aaron: Yeah.
54:23
Aaron: Right.
54:23
Aaron: Um a bottle of Laphroaig 10 smells like you're walking across a railroad trellis bridge.
54:31
Aaron: I mean, it just oozes, oozes, creosote, and tar note, and all that kind of stuff.
54:40
Aaron: Um to me, I there is a there is a fruitiness.
54:46
Aaron: Hands down, number one aroma is peat.
54:49
Aaron: Right.
54:49
Aaron: Pete and the smoke that goes with it.
54:51
Aaron: I'll say though, I think the peat's actually a little stronger than the smoke.
54:55
Aaron: Quite often they're the other way around.
54:57
Tom: Yes, I agree.
54:58
Aaron: Um, I think the peat's a little more forward than the smoke.
55:00
Aaron: And then right behind this is fruit.
55:02
Aaron: But what I'll say is it reminds me more of like the skin of a plum or the skin of a red grape and not the fruit from within.
55:14
Aaron: It's got that kind of sharper edged, not as sweet fruitiness to it.
55:20
Tom: What about the smell of a lemon, a lime, or a lime or a lemon peel?
55:24
Tom: I mean, I get a little citrus, zest.
55:28
Tom: I get I get the smell of the zest.
55:31
Aaron: There's there's a number of Isla distilleries that I think pick up either lemon or lime zest on the nose from that peat.
55:40
Aaron: And yeah, absolutely get that there.
55:42
Aaron: I but like I said, I if you've ever when I'm we we were talking about wines, and this has got porn, I know it's not exactly wine, but if you've ever had roses that have spent a lot of time on their skins, which means they they've left the skins in in with the juice, that gives it the redder color and it gives it a tartness.
56:08
Aaron: I won't say bitterness, but a tartness.
56:13
Aaron: I get that on the nose.
56:15
Aaron: I get that kind of grape skin tartness.
56:19
Tom: I may not be enough of a wine drinker to identify that.
56:22
Tom: I wrote that, and there's an awful lot of peat that if somebody tries to tell me, I don't know what peat is, describe it, I'd have to say, well, there's a little hint of mint, maybe cinnamon, maybe a little clove in the background to to peat, and I could almost swear there's a little mint or cinnamon or clove on the nose, maybe a little.
56:43
Tom: I will say this for both of these two, and and uh, you know, I said I like, I really like the flavor of the of the uh oak, and I really like the flavor of the peat, so I tend to rate things more on what I like.
56:56
Tom: Both of these, when I put them up in my nose, I thought, oh, there's a significant amount of well, I would use the term spirit forward or or the smell of alcohol.
57:05
Tom: And I like them better after I put a few drops of water in those.
57:09
Tom: And I on both of them, I thought the uh a few drops of water improved both the nose and the palate.
57:15
Tom: But go ahead.
57:16
Tom: No, no, I I I I can't argue with you.
57:20
Aaron: Um on the palate, though, does it remain consistent?
57:26
Aaron: One of the things that I've always enjoyed about peated scotches is the peat shows up completely different between the nose, the palate, and the finish on some bottles.
57:34
Tom: Is the is the peat carry through all the way, or is it I'm gonna make a bold statement that the peat carries through dramatically on the palate?
57:44
Tom: It's picked up some of the portwood, dark fruit kind of flavors along the way.
57:50
Tom: And there again, this is right down my alley for favorite kinds of scotch whiskey, but that peat is delicious.
58:01
Tom: And that fruit flavor in the background, uh I'd have to say that's delicious too.
58:08
Tom: I mean, that that that they they they they they pair, they match, they carry through.
58:13
Tom: Now, obviously, some of the other stuff on the nose is lost, and some of the fruit stuff is picked up.
58:19
Tom: But but the peat is is that's Laphroaig peat.
58:24
Tom: That stuff came out of the Laphroaig kiln.
58:27
Aaron: I actually think the smokiness comes a little more forward on the palate, whereas whereas on the nose, I thought Pete was a little ahead of smoke.
58:34
Aaron: I think I think that flips a bit for me on the palate.
58:37
Aaron: I I think I get more smokiness on the palette.
58:40
Aaron: I I find it funny that in my head, right, aromas and scents tend to hearken back a memory or pull me to some other thing.
58:54
Aaron: And sometimes it's a color.
58:56
Aaron: This smells ruby red.
59:00
Aaron: Right?
59:01
Aaron: I I know that's and Ruby, you you write down Ruby port and it sticks in your head, and then you take a sip of it, and you're like, yeah, that's what the that's what the color Ruby Red would taste like.
59:12
Aaron: I know that sounds like I don't know how to put that into context.
59:16
Aaron: Well, what does green sound like?
59:18
Aaron: It's kind of a dull hum.
59:20
Aaron: So but I will say a lot of the same flavors and aromas that you got on the nose carried through into the palate.
59:31
Aaron: Like I said, I think I think they switched order just a little bit, but I I still get with with the name of Portwood and thinking about the flavors of a Ruby port, this isn't as sweet as I expected it to be.
59:50
Aaron: It's got the flavor, it's just not it's not sugary sweet.
59:55
Aaron: Sometimes you get a sherried whiskey that is dessert-esque and how sweet it is.
1:00:03
Tom: I don't get any of that kind of stuff at all.
1:00:04
Tom: Does the finish to me the finish came off sweeter than the than the palate?
1:00:14
Tom: Does the sweetness pick back up on the finish for you?
1:00:20
Aaron: I'll be honest, everything I wrote down on the palette, or sorry, everything I wrote down on the on the nose and the palate, I wrote down completely different stuff on the finish.
1:00:30
Aaron: I really like the way this finished.
1:00:32
Aaron: Here's where I got mint.
1:00:34
Aaron: On the pal or on the finish, just sitting here, like it reminds me of like if you've had a cocktail that has a mint sprig at the top of the cocktail, right?
1:00:43
Aaron: Like it reminds me of that fresh mint.
1:00:46
Aaron: Um, I get a lot more citrus on the back end than I did on the front end.
1:00:53
Aaron: And I'd say it almost changes a bit from me from lime to orange on the finish.
1:00:59
Aaron: Um, yeah, it to me a lot of scotches, two or three of the, or one or two of the categories feels relatively, yeah, that's kind of what I expect.
1:01:12
Aaron: Yeah.
1:01:12
Aaron: And then one surprises you.
1:01:14
Aaron: Finish is where this one surprises me.
1:01:16
Aaron: The finish is much better than I.
1:01:17
Aaron: Not that I'm not that I'm poo-pooing on palette or nose, but the finish I think is where it got intriguing to me.
1:01:24
Tom: You could take a sip of this and five minutes later still be enjoying the the the whole thing.
1:01:31
Tom: The the peat is pretty typical Laphroaig peat where it sticks with you, but that sweetness on the top of my tongue that's mostly fruit that carries along with it, which I was kind of surprised that that fruitiness carried with it as long as the peat did.
1:01:48
Tom: Uh a lot of times, five minutes after you've had a taste, the only thing in your mouth is the peat.
1:01:53
Tom: But this is this is the whole nine yards in your mouth, still three, four minutes after your last sip.
1:02:00
Tom: It's the full bouquet.
1:02:02
Tom: Yes.
1:02:02
Aaron: Yeah.
1:02:03
Aaron: Um, it's time to give it a number.
1:02:05
Aaron: And I poured this bottle, which means you have to give your number first.
1:02:10
Tom: Oh.
1:02:10
Tom: After we give our numbers away.
1:02:12
Aaron: I was afraid you'd cheat.
1:02:13
Aaron: I laid my pen right over top of my numbers.
1:02:15
Tom: Oh, it didn't make any difference because I know your opinion.
1:02:17
Tom: Um, the uh after we get done, are we going to conclude whether we should or shouldn't have duty free?
1:02:25
Tom: Is this a good or bad?
1:02:26
Tom: Are we are we being asked to pass judgment on the entire legal process?
1:02:31
Aaron: If you feel called to pass judgment, you can.
1:02:34
Aaron: This is a no-judge.
1:02:36
Tom: I'm still not quite sure why I'm being cheated out of these two whiskeys in my local liquor store.
1:02:43
Tom: Uh somehow that feels like feels like, well, yeah, if I had to pay the duty, whatever it is, why am I why am I not getting it?
1:02:51
Tom: Uh but that aside, now talk about the finish.
1:02:54
Tom: Or talk about the score.
1:02:56
Tom: If night if 88 was something I was going to buy, and 92 was something I would definitely buy, and 93 was something I would start celebrating drinking that scotch, or celebrate something else with that scotch.
1:03:11
Aaron: Your 90s need to be like, I'm not just gonna let anybody try this.
1:03:15
Aaron: If somebody comes over and I know they appreciate how.
1:03:17
Aaron: What did you say?
1:03:18
Tom: 95 when above wasn't.
1:03:19
Aaron: 95 and above was nobody knows you on the bottle because you're never sharing it with anybody.
1:03:24
Tom: I would share this with somebody.
1:03:25
Tom: So 94 would be the upper.
1:03:28
Tom: I'm saying 92 would be the lower, and I think I like this just because it's a Laphroaig's peat.
1:03:34
Tom: I gave this one a 92, I'm giving this one a 93.
1:03:39
Aaron: Alright.
1:03:40
Aaron: So dead is proving to be consistent, if nothing else.
1:03:45
Aaron: All right.
1:03:46
Aaron: Um, I I I like this one better.
1:03:50
Aaron: I don't know if part of that is just it's the second bottle.
1:03:53
Aaron: Oh, well, you're gonna go back and take it.
1:03:54
Aaron: I I actually went back and took a sip of this um after I wrote my score down.
1:03:58
Aaron: I'm in an 85.
1:03:59
Aaron: I think that is a very enjoyable bottle.
1:04:01
Aaron: You have to like peat.
1:04:03
Aaron: Mm-hmm.
1:04:04
Aaron: Mm-hmm.
1:04:05
Aaron: If you are one who prefers the sugary sweet sherry bomb, that's not what this is.
1:04:13
Aaron: This is like you've you begin whittling down Scotch drinkers, right?
1:04:19
Aaron: But once you find like this one's a good one for for what it is, this one's a tasty one.
1:04:24
Aaron: So yeah.
1:04:24
Aaron: Uh recap.
1:04:26
Aaron: Dad's at a 93, I'm at an 85 on this one.
1:04:33
Aaron: All right.
1:04:34
Tom: And on yours, you or on mine, this is the uh 19 Dal more and you were Bowmore.
1:04:40
Tom: I'm sorry.
1:04:42
Tom: 19 Bowmore, and you were a 78, and I was a 92 on the 19 Bowmore.
1:04:47
Aaron: All right, so just before we close out, um, I I had not planned on passing judgment on the legal structure of international trade.
1:04:58
Aaron: Um perhaps that's a whole nother episode.
1:05:02
Aaron: Uh, but what I will say is I think it's fun to go back and try the first one.
1:05:07
Aaron: And I did, and I will say, some of the things that I found a bit off-putting in the Bowmore have obviously subsided and subdued.
1:05:16
Aaron: So you're gonna reach the reason.
1:05:18
Aaron: No, no, I'm I'm sticking with the number I'm at, right?
1:05:21
Aaron: I'm not, I'm not, we're not rehashing.
1:05:23
Aaron: What I will say is it's tough to drink a heavily peated and then come back to a non-peated.
1:05:30
Aaron: Um, it's inherently going to taste soft and smooth.
1:05:34
Aaron: And like I you you just skewed your palate, you know, right?
1:05:38
Aaron: Um but no, on the nose, some of the the dry oakiness has absolutely toned it down a little bit.
1:05:46
Aaron: And I there's a sweetness to it now.
1:05:48
Aaron: Some of the berries are coming out.
1:05:50
Aaron: I still don't know if it's I still don't know if it's a oh my god, I gotta have one of those.
1:05:56
Aaron: Um, it's a fun bottle to have.
1:05:58
Aaron: We just a few weeks ago, um, we'd had a debate here is how much of the story behind a bottle should be weighed into the enjoyment of said bottle.
1:06:12
Aaron: And here's my argument.
1:06:14
Aaron: If you blind tasted these, I probably don't give them the same score.
1:06:19
Aaron: I probably don't put them in the same order as when we we go through.
1:06:23
Aaron: It is fun to do that, but rarely do I sit down to enjoy a whiskey and have no idea what it is.
1:06:30
Aaron: So every time I know what's got poured in my glass, the story absolutely matters, right?
1:06:37
Aaron: Um, there is something wonderful about a buddy who shares something you can't get, right?
1:06:43
Aaron: That just makes it better.
1:06:45
Aaron: Um, whether it's its age or its exclusivity, or it was a bottle he picked up on vacation with his buddy.
1:06:53
Tom: Like the story behind the bottle, absolutely even this bottle is something I bought and I have not shared it with anybody else.
1:07:01
Tom: But this first bottle of this I ever tasted was with a group of people that I was friends with makes this one taste better.
1:07:08
Tom: It it reminds you of those friendships that you made.
1:07:12
Tom: Even if you're not drinking it with a friend, they still enhance the flavor.
1:07:16
Aaron: Indeed, indeed.
1:07:17
Aaron: All right.
1:07:18
Aaron: We've come to the end, y'all.
1:07:20
Aaron: Just because I'm curious, which one are you toasting with?
1:07:24
Tom: Uh, the Laphroaig.
1:07:26
Tom: That one point medicine.
1:07:27
Tom: This was purposeful.
1:07:28
Tom: This is purposeful.
1:07:30
Aaron: Then I absolutely will toast with Bowmore.
1:07:32
Aaron: So, to everybody out there, till next week.
1:07:34
Aaron: Cheers!
1:07:35
Tom: Slainte Mhath!
1:07:39
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1:07:42
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1:07:44
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1:07:46
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1:08:02
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