Latest / Whisky Stories Podcast / Thompson Brothers Live: Indie Bottler Spotlight, Dornoch Whisky & The Mystery Malt

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Thompson Brothers Live: Indie Bottler Spotlight, Dornoch Whisky & The Mystery Malt · Whisky Stories Podcast

0:00
Is everyone ready to rock'n'roll, eh?
0:02
Brilliant, right, Angus? We've got drums in front of us.
0:04
We've got a crowd here. You know what to do.
0:06
Clap us in. Welcome along the whiskey
0:09
stories. Indie bowlers bowling with
0:10
Thompson, bro. There we go, Angus.
0:15
That's the most enthusiastic here we've had yet.
0:17
We've done it again, Angus. We have done it again.
0:20
We've convinced people to come and listen to us and drink
0:22
drums, eh? Absolutely.
0:24
And you know, fuck the fuck the Gallagher brothers.
0:28
We've got one of the Thompson brothers.
0:30
Exactly, like I said, there's you've got, there's there's
0:33
Oasis going on. We're in the middle of Edinburgh
0:34
Fringe, but this is the hottest property in town.
0:36
A sellout gig for us tonight, Angus.
0:38
Absolutely. Yeah.
0:40
Brilliant. Well, welcome along.
0:41
We've got Simon Thompson, one of the Thompson brothers, I think,
0:44
you know, the Gallagher brothers are used to falling out with
0:48
each other. There wasn't any hard words say
0:50
that. Edinburgh Whiskey Fringe today,
0:51
you know. Oh, it happens from time to
0:53
time. So yeah.
0:55
We've got, we've got standing. We're I'm, I'm trying out a solo
0:57
career and Dan's my, Dan's my backing band here.
1:00
So Dan's our head distiller. But no, we're good.
1:03
We're Phil's just has to hold down the whiskey fringe tonight.
1:07
Well, yeah, I mean, it is day one of whiskey fringe.
1:10
So, you know, a busy day for you guys.
1:12
Has anyone been a whiskey fringe today?
1:15
No. Yeah, yeah, no.
1:18
I was a little bit concerned that like everyone would have
1:20
been today and then everyone would just be wasted with, you
1:23
know, 625 milligrams to go. Yeah.
1:26
That was like, well, 25 milligrams if everyone else is
1:28
pouring, 35 if Angus is pouring. No.
1:32
Thank you for coming along. Is anyone doing Saturday doing
1:34
Sunday? Is it?
1:35
Who's going to Whiskey Fringe? Actually, who's going Saturday?
1:38
Brilliant. Excellent.
1:39
Excellent. Are we?
1:40
Sorry? Just two seconds.
1:41
We will get the music off if that's at all possible.
1:43
Sorry. Thank you.
1:44
All right, so brilliant. Whiskey French today.
1:47
How was it? Yeah, hectic.
1:48
We were late. There was something on which
1:50
caused an excessive amount of traffic.
1:52
So yeah, we got we got there 2 minutes after it started.
1:56
The gates were locked for the the staff entrance type thing,
2:00
so we had to walk past everyone with all our cases to the walk
2:02
of shame past everyone. It's like, yeah, everyone knows
2:05
we're late. And what was the, what was the
2:07
halftime orange today? I'd be I'd love to know that the
2:09
Thompson brothers are sticking under the table for that.
2:11
Yeah, so our unnamed eyeless and Gamal 33 year old 1991, which
2:19
you know may or may not be from a Southside eyelid distillery
2:23
that rhymes with Leapfrog. Brilliant.
2:28
I'll beg. Then.
2:30
We've got Dan here. Dan, we've met before.
2:33
Well, if anyone's watched the Dorner trip that Angus, Ross,
2:37
Chuck and I did, we were getting right in your Rd. in your little
2:41
distillery, because it is a very little distillery that you're
2:43
in. And it was like the morning and
2:45
I think you had a lot of work to do and we were sort of getting
2:47
in the way of you as you were trying to do your job.
2:48
You were doing cuts. I think you were doing the hard.
2:50
Cuts. No, it was OK actually.
2:51
Well, sorry, I'm French, so sorry for the accent.
2:54
No, it was all. Right.
2:55
Are you just apologizing for the accent or apologizing for being
2:57
French maybe? Who knows?
3:02
No, it was all right. You were in the way.
3:04
But I'm used to that, I guess. No, no, it was all right.
3:06
Yeah. No.
3:07
No, but great. Well, thank you very much for
3:09
both coming along. I think we've got drums in front
3:11
of us. I think we just want to get
3:12
fired straight in before we start talking about who we are,
3:15
what we're drinking and everything like that.
3:16
So, Simon. So before anyone goes thirsty.
3:19
So in theory on your left, just double check your darker drum
3:24
just to be sure. So Thompson Brothers blended
3:30
Scotch W6 year olds TBBSW 'cause we, you know, sometimes we're a
3:35
bit unimaginative with naming and this was it's kind of
3:37
working title and I would stick on label.
3:39
It'll be fine. So yeah, fun little 6 year old
3:42
blend is a warm up technically legally still aging.
3:47
So oh, when do we buy it? I've got that.
3:50
She got noted down the AYS Age of youngest spirit.
3:56
Yeah, so technically, legally now nine years old, but it
4:01
worked really well as its original form.
4:03
As BSW 6 year olds, we just kept rolling with that.
4:05
The liquid's not changing. It's all from the same original
4:08
vatting. So it's one of these fun things
4:11
where every now and again the whiskey industry, an error
4:14
occurs. Someone really messes up in the
4:18
bottling plants in the vatting and something older gets
4:22
contaminated with something younger or something of a
4:24
different category and then all of a sudden it's like, oh crap,
4:27
right, get rid of this, sell it out to the brokerage market.
4:30
So this is one of these things. So it really punches above it's
4:35
age and category and we could be bottling it as a nine year old.
4:39
But yeah, it just keeps on going.
4:42
It's all the same. Original 20,000 litre VAT.
4:44
Got a little bit of it left, but yeah, I think a good example of
4:48
that recently if you guys tried the Living Souls in 99 and one.
4:53
We have Graham, Did we? I can't remember where, but we
4:56
definitely tried it because I remembered it.
4:57
So we must have we. Must have tried it.
4:59
Yeah, that's what. I remember it was very good as
5:01
well. Thank you for the person that
5:03
provided us that somebody. Yeah, so.
5:08
That's a similar, similar kind of thing happens every so often.
5:10
I I think they said what that was, so I'm allowed to say what
5:12
that was. But yeah, so that, so in that,
5:15
in that situation, it was meant to be this year's liturg 18 year
5:19
old, right? The vatting tank had something
5:21
three years old dropped in in error.
5:23
So the whole VAT 20,000 liters become fairly standard size for
5:28
vats became the age of the youngest thing in there, which
5:33
is about 1% or less 3 year old. So these things happen every so
5:37
often and you know, the best thing you can do is take
5:39
advantage of it and be able to put something out that's really
5:42
good quality to price ratio. Even if the you know the the the
5:47
age statement, the name has to kind of hide what it is so.
5:50
How much, how much can you tell us?
5:52
You've you've alluded to the fact that there was a mistake
5:54
made. Yeah.
5:55
Which has allowed you to get hold of 20,000 litres of
5:58
something I. Can't, I can't say I've, I've,
6:02
I've privately, you know, told like some shops and stuff before
6:04
and one of the shops stuck it up and stuck it up on their
6:08
website. So it was briefly there.
6:11
And I think a lot of people now know what it is.
6:13
What the distillery that's basically 99% of this is 99%
6:18
single malt. That was 12 year old at the
6:19
point of being contaminated, which will now be like 15 year
6:23
old, I guess at this point. So yeah, technically a blend.
6:26
And I feel really bad because online Scotch whiskey awards
6:30
last two years. This is 1 best blend and it's
6:35
it's. An accidental blend.
6:36
It's. Technically, yeah, technically,
6:38
legally it's a blend. But we didn't, we didn't blend
6:41
it. He.
6:42
Didn't do any blend. No, it also says you're, you're
6:45
saying sorry, Chuck, when you I would.
6:46
Say it's a really interesting one after the conversation we
6:48
had yesterday with Craig. Yeah, yeah, the.
6:50
Company that he worked for, yeah.
6:52
Listen to that next week, you'll hear that.
6:54
But you're you now you say it's six years old.
6:57
But what's interesting on the bottle, first of all, we're
6:59
going to talk about your labels as the as the evening goes on.
7:02
But aged over 6, I should just say as well, everybody slon
7:06
Javar. Cheers.
7:07
Enjoy that. So thank you very much.
7:08
First DRAM, first DRAM of the night.
7:09
Great. Thank you very much.
7:11
But it is aged over six years. So normally you wouldn't see
7:15
that on a on a label. Is that is that you guys just
7:18
giving a nod to the situation? Yeah.
7:20
I mean, you used to see a lot of old bottles with aged over and,
7:24
you know, aged over six years. So you could be six years in a
7:29
day, but you're quite often single malts and sometimes
7:32
blends were built up of things that were OK, there's a minimum
7:34
age of 12, but you know, OK, we've got these old Sherry cast
7:38
known ones with chucks and that into colour.
7:39
Yeah. So we used to see it in the 70s
7:44
and 80s used to be, I remember like the old hord over was it
7:48
hord over 8? But used to see it in a lot of
7:51
old labels. And so, you know, we, we do
7:52
harken back to a lot of older labels of whiskey in in what we
7:56
do. It's a bit, it's a bit of a
7:57
mishmash You'll see on the next one as well.
7:59
That's that's again, that's a homage to an old label that
8:03
probably most people have forgotten.
8:05
Whereas the labels for these ones, you know, again,
8:08
everything we do gets a unique label.
8:10
We've done over 500 unique releases with unique labels, but
8:15
this one same guy does some of her rum ones.
8:18
He's a he's a barman in Hiroshima.
8:22
And years ago we were. So when we, we, we first started
8:26
distillery, we're doing some gin, we're exporting Japan.
8:29
We did the tasting and he did a hand drawn poster and we're
8:32
like, oh, like the style if you, and just kind of kept that filed
8:36
in the back of the mine. So then later on when we're
8:38
doing rums, we're like, would you do a rum label for us?
8:40
Yeah. And then he did the both the
8:42
BSW, the SRV 5 blend. And he does all of our rum
8:46
labels for us. He refuses to take money, which
8:49
is that's. Handy kind of you.
8:53
Know we're trying to you know he you know he does he does work
8:56
that has value to us so he should be get something to
8:58
refused any form of compensation.
9:01
So in the end we just started filling casks of Dornick and
9:05
stamping his name on it, sending him the certificate, and it's
9:07
like, thank you well. So he's been getting casks of
9:10
dornick or just. I mean not a lot of cast, not.
9:13
A lot of cast. I mean, I'd draw you a label for
9:15
a casket on you tell me what you want on that label and I'll do
9:19
my very best to draw for you. There's a.
9:22
Good line in stickman. Yeah, you.
9:25
Used to be on ChatGPT, yeah. Yeah, exactly.
9:27
Hi, ChatGPT, please create a label for me.
9:30
But Dan, I'm interested to know how a Frenchman like yourself
9:33
ends up, you know, working in the in Dornick distillery in
9:37
that sort of distilling role. Just because I heard about the
9:41
Thompson brothers back in 2018 on the French forum, and I knew
9:47
that they were aiming at recreating the old style
9:50
whiskeys, and I just found that very interesting.
9:53
Yeah. So that's pretty simple.
9:56
Just yeah, the intention. So what was that?
9:59
When did you say that was right in the?
10:00
18 and I moved to Scotland in 18 so.
10:03
You actually so right, so you're sitting reading a, a forum, a
10:07
French forum, a a whiskey forum and you said you, you read about
10:11
the Thompson brothers and then what was the sort of process
10:13
from that looking? At the at Donald history two
10:16
years and a half ago. But yeah, I I've been heard
10:20
about them for like, yeah, nearly, yes 7.
10:24
Years. There's a little bit more to
10:25
that where I'm so that, you know, he's, he's got his
10:32
qualification and brewing distilling from Harriet Watts.
10:34
He was working at another distillery and then he was
10:40
dating one of our members of staff.
10:42
Right. OK, so so so you were briefly
10:45
you were briefly on a French forum of whiskey and then you
10:48
jumped onto Tinder, started swiping and Dorn I can.
10:52
See where it goes? It was.
10:54
It was indeed Tinder. But yeah, pretty much, yeah.
11:02
There they. Are go there.
11:04
It was almost the opposite though, because Dan, you know,
11:08
Dan was dating Varrie. We knew he was a distillery, we
11:10
knew he worked for and I think we we had him up for a day just
11:14
to play in the distillery in. The distillery just just for.
11:16
Fun. It's like this guy's pretty good
11:18
actually. And I was, and I said to Varrie,
11:20
so, you know, can we think about employing him?
11:23
And she's, I think it was early in the relationship.
11:24
She's like, absolutely not. And then then we waited until,
11:28
you know, things things were getting a bit more serious and
11:32
Dan was Dan was looking for a job at single malt whiskey
11:35
distillery. So I was like, can we boy Dan
11:38
now? Because yeah, we're we're quite
11:40
impressed. And yeah.
11:42
And now, now Dan and Barry are married.
11:45
Fantastic, great. Would it be awkward if they
11:47
didn't work out though? But well done Dan, well done.
11:52
That's fantastic. Bring your boyfriend to work and
11:53
you get a distiller on the back of it there.
11:55
That absolutely what we're thinking of this then, lads.
11:59
Yeah, it's it's fantastic. I've.
12:01
Got a bottle of this I have to say I've got a bottle of this in
12:03
the house because retail wise you're looking at what what
12:04
you're looking at that so I. Think it started at 3253 or 4
12:08
years ago, I think RRPS 3750, but we give a good margin to
12:13
retailers. So a lot of them drop that down
12:15
to 35 or 34. So you can pick up, you should
12:18
be able to pick up for like 3435 at the moment.
12:22
Yeah, yeah, it does, does really well.
12:23
And we're, yeah, I was checking earlier because just, I
12:26
sometimes get asked because I've said before it's running out
12:28
because it's all one big 20,000 litre batch.
12:31
And I was doing the calculations on how much we had left.
12:35
But yeah, there's still 9 bucks remaining.
12:38
Each bottle output about 700 bottles.
12:42
But we've, we've just two shipped up to Dornick for
12:45
bottling and we have shipped 2 off to our friends at Living
12:53
Souls. There's talking about 99 and one
12:55
because I so badly wanted that what the liquid from 99 and one.
12:59
But we've come to a little fund agreement and we're going to do
13:02
a blend blends. So we're going to do a 99 and
13:06
one crossed with BSW. Oh wow.
13:11
Actually going to be called like.
13:13
TBB SW99/1 like the worst the worst name for.
13:18
Yeah, yeah. I was going to say it's going.
13:20
To actually sound like the barcode of the Yeah yeah I.
13:23
Mean, right. So with regards I know you, you
13:26
can't disclose too much information on the mistake that
13:28
was made and how it was made etcetera, etcetera, where it's
13:31
come from etcetera. But if we were to, if you're
13:33
looking at bottling this at selling this at 35 lbs, what
13:38
would if this hadn't been contaminated, what would the
13:42
liquid be Kinder retailer roughly.
13:44
I mean a rough figure. What would you be saying it's?
13:46
A distillery I don't look at because they tend to be too
13:48
expensive, right? And they act in such a way that
13:52
they don't want my custom I guess.
13:55
OK, right. So I just don't.
13:59
I pretend they don't exist to be honest, right?
14:00
But it was so that, I mean, when you look at that, when the fact
14:03
that you can sell it at 35 lbs, you're even saying you're giving
14:06
retailers generous margins, you'll still be making something
14:10
on the back of that as well. So I mean, that must have been a
14:12
pretty expensive mistake for the poor guy that, that that put the
14:15
digits in the wrong place on that day.
14:17
Yeah. It it happens every now and
14:20
again. So I think we've seen a few good
14:21
ones over the air. What was the there was the 8020,
14:25
was it Glen Orange Yard Beg LV? Was it before LVMH?
14:30
They did, they did one where there's an accidental
14:31
contamination of, you know, same bottling plant, Glen Orangey and
14:36
Yard Beg. That was a good 10, yeah.
14:38
Do you remember 80? It was 8020, I think it was.
14:40
I think we sold in supermarkets, no names, but it was really, I
14:43
think it was 80% Glen Orangey, 20% Hard beg if I remember.
14:46
Crazy. But then, yeah, every now and
14:48
again. But some companies are like make
14:50
a thing of it and others are just like, this ruins our plans.
14:54
We don't want to get the marketing department involved,
14:57
get new label signs. These things take a a while for
14:59
some companies. So just like get out of the door
15:01
just. Get rid of it.
15:02
Well, what we're thinking of this guy's how we're feeling
15:03
about it. Nice easy going starting one,
15:06
isn't it? And then what, 4046% ABB as
15:09
well? Yeah. 46%.
15:10
So a nice easy going DRAM and like I say, a great, a great
15:14
whiskey to have just in the house as well, like a real good
15:17
hoose DRAM to have in the house. Anyone got a bottle of this?
15:20
Already got 1, Craig. Yeah, yeah, a few people there.
15:22
Yeah, yeah. Easy going, eh?
15:26
Yeah. It's gone, but that's the thing,
15:28
there's plenty left, so go down and get yourself another one.
15:31
Well, that's it, right? So that's DRAM number one.
15:35
Then Simon what what we've got for DRAM #2, then you've alluded
15:40
to what we've got. So, so this this year marks the
15:43
25th anniversary of Thompson family at Dorney Castle Tell.
15:49
So against their better judgement, we've taken over the
15:54
the Dorney Castle Tell to continue the legacy, secure the
15:57
long term future of Dorney Distillery.
15:59
Our dad, our dad's still involved in the business kind of
16:02
their day-to-day. And to mark 25 years, we've done
16:06
a series of bottlings with these labels here.
16:09
So these labels are a homage to the old Preston Field House
16:14
Hotel labels. They did lots of legendary
16:17
boomer bottles, So it's kind of a nod to those old style labels.
16:23
So yeah, I think it's it works, works really well.
16:26
We make sure it's super good juice that goes into the 25th
16:30
anniversary bottle. So we'll do a wee, we'll do a
16:32
wee series of these over the course of the year.
16:35
But yeah, this is a Glen Scotia first of all.
16:38
Barrow 11 years old, 2013 and yeah 1 of 235 bottles from a
16:43
single cask at 57.1% ADV which happens to be the old Imperial
16:49
100 proof. There you go.
16:52
Yeah, I was going to say drinking with that, with that
16:54
typeface, I wasn't sure whether it was Dorna Castle or Cold.
16:56
It's Castle. It's going to be on the label.
16:59
Well, that's the thing. I mean, it's nice that that
17:01
kind. Of harks back to I mean, I I
17:03
don't really I can't recall the kind of original Preston Field
17:06
House Hotel bottles, but like. Like a lot of what we do, it's
17:09
just far too niche to the point you.
17:11
Have to exactly. But it's nice that the.
17:13
Yeah, well, but it's nice to explain that you have to explain
17:15
it to people in a way. I mean, you mentioned there the
17:18
hotel. So you guys, I don't know how
17:21
you do it in the sense that running a hotel is one thing it.
17:26
Certainly is. Running a an independent
17:28
bottler, you know, and you're you're not putting out one or
17:32
two bottles a year, you're putting out AI mean how many
17:34
bottles will Thompson Brothers independent bottlers will you
17:38
guys release over the course of a year so.
17:40
The the, the maximum output in in one year we've ever had from
17:44
our Station Rd. bottling sites. The other thing is we're full
17:46
process. So we do our own, yeah,
17:48
bottling, warehousing, all our own logistics.
17:51
It's often quite a small site bursting at the seams.
17:55
So that that's the limit on what we can do is the space we've got
17:58
to play well. I should say sorry if, if you,
17:59
if you haven't already watched it in March, we went up to visit
18:03
you guys for the weekend and you gave us full access.
18:06
We went around. Truck was the cameraman.
18:08
It was, yeah. Footage might give you motion
18:10
sickness. But.
18:12
Genuinely sorry about that to. See the the episode that's the
18:16
to watch what these guys do the hotel, the the distillery, the
18:21
plans for the new distillery. We'll talk about and your
18:24
warehouses and stuff like that. When you when Simon Says it's a
18:27
tight small operation, it's a very tight small operation.
18:30
And and the pizzas are nicer than the whiskey, yeah.
18:33
We do good pizzas. Too.
18:34
Pizzas are great, Yeah, so. The the, the maximum we've we've
18:36
ever had, we've been able to get out of the the site is 57,000
18:40
bottles out to market in a year and that's bursting at the seams
18:45
and. No, but what about releases of
18:46
and that's a hell of a lot, but definitely independently.
18:49
But was that Dornick as well or yeah.
18:51
I mean, we really don't bottle up Dornick, thank thankfully,
18:53
because this does really well. There's no pressure to put out.
18:56
I mean, we've barely put any Dornick out this year because
18:59
we've basically been so busy, but.
19:01
You're so you're like, sorry, 50 odd 1000 bottles are going out
19:04
the door, which you guys are bottling yourselves.
19:06
Yeah, you've got the sort, you're sourcing the casks,
19:08
you're going through all that process, which for the majority
19:11
of people is enough. That's a job, right?
19:13
You're also running and managing a hotel, but you've decided as
19:17
well, you've got a distillery in your back garden that you've got
19:20
guys working on, so you've got to manage that.
19:23
And then on top of that you've decided, well, let's build
19:25
another distilling Darnik as well, which you've got had a
19:28
really great run of crowdfunding on that as well.
19:31
Yeah. Have you?
19:31
Ever seen the the guys at the circus who are spinning plates?
19:34
Yeah. It's like there's like 5 and
19:36
there's 10 and there's 20 and there's 30.
19:38
Yeah, spinning all at once. Yes, It's, it's basically like
19:41
that, Yeah. Because I mean, it really is
19:42
quite, quite incredible, like what you guys will be doing
19:45
here. But to to to the hotel history
19:47
then in the family, is that where you and, and, and Phil
19:50
started out then working that was working behind the bar and
19:53
just being in around the hotel? Yeah.
19:55
You know you'd you'd, you know you're, you're 15 years old and
19:59
the barman. Had a gambling and stealing
20:01
problem, well, a gambling problem and then was stealing
20:03
stuff to keep and then you you gets caught and then you don't
20:06
have anyone and you're like, all right, I guess I'm doing this
20:09
dropping in. So you know, so we started quite
20:12
young You start and then, you know, you finish some bottles of
20:16
whiskey. You know, I think at that point
20:17
we had 20 something bottles in the bar.
20:20
Then you're tasting and you're going oh, actually let's try
20:23
let's get another one of these. Let's try something different
20:25
for this space. And and it just kind of
20:27
accelerated, obviously went off did university education, that
20:30
kind of stuff end up coming back to help out summer holidays,
20:33
then kind of got absorbed into it.
20:36
And, you know, then it got to a point where, you know, using
20:38
trade accounts was like, OK, ordering one for me as well as
20:42
some for the bar. And I started to start
20:44
collecting, which was a slippery slope.
20:47
Collecting led to going off to. This is before online whiskey
20:50
auctions, except, you know, I think maybe whiskey auction in
20:53
Germany was maybe on the go at that point.
20:58
That led to going off to all these small provincial auctions
21:01
as well as some of the big ones all in person, live Hammer
21:04
auctions and buying stuff for the bar where we start to get a
21:07
taste for older styles of Scotch whisky from the, you know, 70s,
21:12
sixties, 50s and, and earlier. And also there's a little trick
21:15
as well, if you're careful, you know, write it all.
21:18
I do my research beforehand. Check all the trade accounts and
21:21
sometimes you could buy, you know, whatever like a bottle of
21:23
a mortgage, 10 year old cheaper auction than it.
21:25
Yeah. So, so I was picking up stuff
21:27
like that while I was also being opportunist on antique bottles
21:31
that we then we, we got a really good reputation for finding
21:35
really interesting antique bottles that we would then open
21:38
on the bar and put out at a very good price.
21:41
Yeah. And that started bringing us
21:42
into the sort of orbit of the sort of European global
21:45
connoisseur scene. And yeah, it's kind of
21:47
accelerated from there, yeah. Has anyone been up to Sorry
21:50
Chuck, you got something? I was.
21:51
Just going to say, was there a point when your parents, when
21:53
they were running the hotel, they were genuinely concerned
21:55
about the? Purchases of whiskey like this.
21:58
Makes perfect sense for a for Dornick to have 1960's The Frog
22:02
in the bar for a reasonable price.
22:03
I. Think I think.
22:06
It's back back then, these kind of things weren't that expensive
22:10
and. So when we talk, what we what
22:12
time frame are we talking here then?
22:14
Oh God, when we start, when we start collecting and going off
22:17
to options and such. Oh, probably.
22:23
It's definitely very early 20s, circa 20s when it's probably
22:26
started collecting for myself and then early 20s I was going
22:30
off and so. Like 2002 thousand and what 3-4
22:33
sort of thing that. Kind of ballpark.
22:35
I know who's older. Forgive me, Phil or yourself.
22:37
Oh, I'm older. You're.
22:38
Older, right? So yeah, so I'm.
22:39
I'm 1984, Phils 1986, right? So out of the two, yeah.
22:43
I mean, who's got who's got younger siblings here?
22:45
Who's, who's have you got? Right.
22:47
So do you, are you? Do you sometimes go Ohh, Phil,
22:50
it was me that actually got you into whiskey anyway, because you
22:52
copied me. You followed the Internet.
22:55
Is it relevant to that around it with you guys?
22:57
Who how did I mean? Because the fact that something
22:59
I mean, I've got a brother and it's like sometimes we'll pick
23:01
things that we go into together, but sometimes it's like that's
23:03
your thing, That's my thing. We'll go that way on it.
23:06
What were you? I mean, for the fact that two of
23:08
you went are so into, Yeah. On, on, on most things we were.
23:10
We were in our own separate directions, but there was a
23:13
strong overlap on whiskey. So it's a tricky one really.
23:17
I, I definitely got, got more nerdy about it early, But Phil,
23:21
Phil's blessed with a better palate and sensory memory and,
23:27
you know, he, he got really into some styles of whiskey quite
23:30
early. So I wouldn't I, I wouldn't want
23:31
to I. Just I've just got this image of
23:33
the two. I've got the tip image of the
23:35
two of you sort of in your own bedrooms.
23:36
Just like, are you betting on that for like as well?
23:42
Just be like but because I mean to have two of you that are so
23:45
heavily involved in it and to work together and have come
23:48
through all together as a family, family businesses we.
23:51
We still run a joint collection. So, you know, we, we used to
23:55
collect really heavily, but then the collection sort of became
23:57
more like a collection slash bar stockpile, a transition from
24:01
being, you know, I, I've got a little bit of the collector
24:04
gene, which is, which is bad where you want to get like all
24:06
the series lined UP1234 or like focus down on one distillery.
24:11
But we we eventually kind of transitioned that to being just
24:14
legendary drinkers, certain distilleries from certain
24:17
vintages and we run a big joint collection because I'm not
24:21
opening a bottle of whiskey that Phil's not going to try and vice
24:24
versa. And generally once, once we've
24:26
had a taste either, you know, ourselves together with friends,
24:29
with staff, then it's going to go on the bar.
24:32
I mean, we're still. Buying for the collection as
24:33
well. Is that carrying?
24:34
On yeah, we're still buying. We, we took a, there's a few
24:38
years where we didn't buy very much because of very high
24:41
auction prices, but we're buying again now, you know, it's a good
24:44
time to keep an eye on the secondary market well.
24:47
I think there was, I think there was a bit of conversation on the
24:51
Facebook group about buying on auctions and things like that.
24:54
And you probably, you mentioned it, Kev mentioned from Diggers
24:57
said I tend to buy most of my Glenfinc twelves off the auction
25:01
as well because I get them for a bit cheaper than you would get
25:03
them for, for, you know, from the, from the retail side of it.
25:06
But you're right is, is a buyer, you're is a buyer's market right
25:10
now for for people who are that's great.
25:12
If you're if you're not invest, if you haven't invested at peak,
25:17
you know, and you're always buying for yourself, your own
25:20
personal collection enjoyment, then it's a great time because
25:23
prices are great. Might get it for a few years.
25:25
But yeah, if there's things you really, you know, there's some
25:28
things are still high, but there's usually a reason for it.
25:32
But yeah, it's a good time. There's, you know, things slip
25:35
through the net. There used to be so many people
25:36
looking that something awesome would go for what you'd expect
25:41
it to go for. But now a lot slips through the
25:44
net and you're like, oh, I'll get that for cheap.
25:46
You got any particular bargains that come to mind that you've
25:49
had in the past or that? Was.
25:52
A Longmail in 1967 that what? Was that sorry?
25:56
Sorry, there was a longmail in 1967.
25:59
Hotel by was. That the was that the GNM
26:03
problem was. It I know I.
26:04
Can't try to remember, was it, I think it was a golden Mac fail
26:07
that went on the drum thingy. And I think that Phil made a
26:12
good bargain. It was like 6 months or eight
26:15
months ago, yeah, for instance. And yeah, that was.
26:18
Very good. The absolute well, the absolute
26:20
best recently. How many bottles have we had
26:24
with three bottles of 1924 Glen Livett bottle 19 maybe 1930s ish
26:33
driven corks bottled by AI, can't remember the details.
26:38
A wine merchant somewhere in England, but spectacular, world
26:43
class, amazing old juice and it just kind of flew under the
26:48
radar at one of the small provincial English Hammer
26:51
auctions. There was 18 bottles total, all
26:54
came from the same same location.
26:57
I managed to track, I managed to find it, but the first option
27:01
three went up and we bought them all and the they all.
27:07
Found the bar at the. Hotel are they?
27:08
Yeah, we. Did we did one that we opened
27:10
one that's on my birthday and then we with some friends and
27:14
then we put it on the bar. It's no longer on the bar, no.
27:18
So I mean, what was the drama that cost like?
27:19
Because that's one of the things that you said which really blew
27:21
my mind. I was going.
27:22
To say bargain like, yeah, I'm confused as to what the
27:26
parameters of that is. But then next was 1926 as well.
27:29
Yeah. 19192419. 24/3. Yeah, 3 bottles and was it No,
27:35
there's 12 total and I found the location of 11 out of the 12.
27:39
Obviously we we have 3, but I managed to figure out who would,
27:43
but they came in a later option. So so the first 3 sold really
27:46
cheap and then the rescue and a subsequent option and kind of
27:50
went for good prices. Obviously people get a bit cage,
27:53
sometimes people get a bit cagey because you don't know the
27:55
drinking condition. But we didn't open them until
27:58
after the second option. We were bidding on the second
28:00
option as well, but we got outgunned.
28:03
Yeah, we got outgunned by bigger hitters than ourselves, but
28:07
yeah, the first. How much we pay for them?
28:08
No. But I know how much you paid,
28:09
but like what was a DRAM? What was a DRAM costing for
28:11
somebody who walked? They walked into the the bar at
28:14
Dorner Castle Hotel and said, I'll have a drama that what were
28:17
you talking? Do you remember I?
28:19
Can't. I can't remember what we put it
28:20
on for roughly. Couple £100 or no I.
28:24
Think it was I think it was 100 and 2000 and 20 off the top of
28:27
my head. The the next the next one's
28:29
probably going to be a bit more 100.
28:30
And £20 for a 1924 Glenn Livet truck.
28:32
Would you pay that bottled? 1930s I'd.
28:35
Probably be quite drunk to do that and then wouldn't think and
28:38
then and then wouldn't appreciate it.
28:41
But I mean, I'd be, I mean, to taste like I've tasted a couple
28:44
of those Glenn Livetz from like, well, not 1920s, but 1930s and
28:48
they're incredible. Like insane historical like.
28:52
Liquid. Yeah.
28:53
And you do take a roll of the dice with these things.
28:55
We've had some ancient things we've opened which have been not
28:59
drinkable. My my 30th birthday, we opened a
29:04
half bottle of old Poultney bottled 20s, maybe 30s spring
29:11
cap. And the the old spring, the old
29:14
leave arm spring caps, the early ones had foil, then cork.
29:19
And there's some glue in between, probably animal glue,
29:22
but they're just split every levels.
29:24
Perfect. Just split ever so slightly and
29:26
the whole thing you know, had been contaminated with animal
29:28
glue. So that's not going to do so.
29:31
That that's, that's, that's the risk you take with these things.
29:34
And we bought 2 recently. We bought two big Demi Johns.
29:39
So they were, you know, the very last, very, very, very latest
29:43
they were being used was like late 50s, maybe 1960.
29:46
But you know, they were used all the way through early, early
29:49
20th century, late 1800s John Walker and Sons branded ancient
29:54
corks in their good patina that had been opened.
29:58
But we opened one and it was fortified wine almost certainly.
30:03
Oh, damn. What kind of fortified wine?
30:07
Oh, Braden. Anyway, that's fortified.
30:08
Why not whiskey? What?
30:09
Was it all right? Yeah.
30:11
I would say well to look out for slightly different price point,
30:15
I think than these things, but Glenard Square, if you're on
30:18
whiskey auctions and you can see a Glenard 12 and a square ball,
30:21
I love. Those ones they.
30:23
Go for about £45 to £60. The corks are notoriously shit
30:29
in the plightest way possible because they they're dehydrated
30:31
and they just crumble to nothing.
30:33
But if you get a good one, no, no juice.
30:36
Like genuinely fantastic. I think they're like, yeah, I
30:38
think they're 80s or something. Maybe I'm wrong with that.
30:40
I. Know they're still doing them
30:42
right through the 90s. Yeah.
30:46
Yeah, early 2000s as well. Brilliant.
30:48
Has. Anyone got a question for so
30:50
far? Anyone got a point on the drums?
30:52
Anyone want to point out? Anyone got a wanky tasting note
30:54
yet or anything like that? What do we think of that?
30:56
Yep, pineapple gummy bears. Hang on, hang on, this needs a
31:00
microphone. Come on, go on, go again.
31:03
I'm getting pineapple and gummy bears on the nose.
31:06
And what was that one for? For the Thompson Brothers
31:09
vintage 2013 OH. There the Glenn Scotia Scotia
31:12
there we go getting that what we get so Sarah agrees yeah yeah, I
31:15
think that's great yeah brilliant.
31:17
I need to have. Some Glenn Scotia.
31:19
Anyone else got any questions or anyone want any other points?
31:22
If we could pick any of that? You got a question there?
31:25
No brawl up two seconds. I feel like kill the right.
31:30
Careful. How did that make you feel?
31:34
So when? You say like the old whiskeys.
31:36
What's the one that I turned you being like, holy shit, this is
31:39
amazing. What made you guys go so yeah,
31:46
so an early an early gateway was the so yeah, this would be 20
31:55
something odd years ago, 22 years ago, 23 years ago was the
32:01
Macallan 18 year old 1970 something that we had on the
32:04
bar. That was definitely a little bit
32:06
of a oh right. OK.
32:07
This is, you know, I don't don't like to speak about Macallan
32:10
these days, to be honest, because, you know, they don't
32:13
don't want my business yet. But yeah, we're we're a long
32:17
we're a long way off doing a a Thompson Brothers McAllen, but.
32:20
We are looking for sponsorship if anyone in the Macallan, if
32:23
anyone in the Macallan must say we love you.
32:28
They could be a door, I mean 808020.
32:31
Yeah, we can. We'll bring you together, take
32:33
us up, give us a show around, puts in one of those nice fancy
32:36
cars that you drive everyone around because we try.
32:38
We can sort that. We have a word with them.
32:40
We have a word with them up there.
32:41
The last. We know the boys at door quite
32:42
well, I think, I think. It was I was in, We're in space,
32:44
side with friends, turn around and feel you need to go check
32:47
out the new McAllen Distillery. It's like they don't really want
32:50
my business. And then he phoned to go up and
32:54
because he hadn't booked you can't even go into the shop.
32:57
Really. I can't even.
32:58
Cross the threshold here. It's like, yeah, well, anyway,
33:01
we're going to, we're going to stop for a wee break.
33:04
We're going to let Angus and Chuck go around and recharge
33:07
your glasses. If you've still got don't rush
33:08
it through guys, but we've got time.
33:10
If you, there should be some water there.
33:11
If you need any more water, I think rinse your glasses out and
33:13
we'll have you. But listen, it's been great fun.
33:15
I hope that's two drums down. We've got another 4 to go.
33:17
It's a cracking lineup tonight. Hope you're enjoying yourself.
33:19
Cheers. Right, OK, everyone ready to
33:26
rock'n'roll, right. I guess you not to do clap us
33:29
back in. Welcome back to Whiskey Stories
33:33
podcast. Indie balls.
33:34
More like with the Thompson brother.
33:37
Haven't got more drums. Brilliant, brilliant, fantastic.
33:42
Right, Simon, What have we got next?
33:44
Right. So next we've got a N British 33
33:48
year old, a scary natural strength of 40 point 1% ABV 40.
33:54
Yeah, 40.1% is a very scary SO. So one of one of our big
33:59
advantages in being full process, having their own
34:02
warehouses, bonded transportation, all that stuff
34:04
is that we can move really, really quickly if we want to,
34:07
which means we can sweep up these kind of danger stocks.
34:10
A lot of other companies wouldn't touch this because it's
34:12
too risky and timelines involved that might drop below 40% or
34:17
you'll have to find another cask of the same vintage or similar
34:20
vintage to to blend it together to up strength it.
34:23
So for us, we can take advantage of all kinds of odds and sods
34:26
and danger stock. And I really like low, naturally
34:29
low cast strength liquid because it becomes more condensed, you
34:34
know, because it's been losing alcohol, but everything else is
34:36
becoming more compressed and more condensed.
34:39
And the flip side of this as well is that it's cheaper for
34:41
us. And and the other side of that
34:44
is that we can then bottle that get out to market so that your
34:48
importers, retailers, everyone can make a margin and it can be
34:51
a really good price for the customer at the end.
34:54
So this is 65 quid, 33 year old N British and we've called it an
35:00
Edinburgh DRAM. We've used, I've done doing a
35:03
little series of these Edinburgh labels as well 'cause we find
35:06
we've got a book of all these old, all these old maps of
35:09
Edinburgh and they make great labels.
35:12
So yeah, we're doing that. And so Royal Mail Whiskey's has
35:15
taken the majority of this and £65 a bottle can't.
35:20
Argue with that like 33 year old whiskey, Yeah.
35:22
What's my? I, I, I take it when this cast
35:24
came into your ownership, it didn't pass go it literally the
35:28
first time you opened the bung was to fill it into bottles.
35:30
I take it because given, given the strength that it's you
35:34
didn't want to take any risks, right?
35:35
Yeah, pretty much. It moves quickly into glass.
35:38
We can, we can have, we can have it have things moved to us
35:42
labels printed into the warehouse ready for bottling
35:46
super quickly. I think the absolute record
35:49
we've got of paying for a cask to having it in glass and on our
35:53
website for sale is 2 weeks, which was wow, yes, literally
35:59
drove down, picked up ourselves, drove it back.
36:02
That was more because it was a super expensive cask and we're
36:04
short in cash. So it's like we need to turn it
36:07
was turn this around quickly. That was a 34 year old juror,
36:10
but it was at Inver Gordon. Oh, that's.
36:11
A great drop. I was going to say that.
36:12
Japanese guys really working for those cats that don't take a
36:15
week to do. We've got another cast ready,
36:19
but we need the picture now, so get the ease out.
36:23
I'll try. Yeah.
36:25
So, so full process likes to do that and you know, because it
36:28
was danger stock, we got a really good price for it and,
36:31
and turned it around quickly and put out for a good price for the
36:34
customer. Everyone's happy.
36:36
What's not to love now? You actually have a dangerous
36:38
thought that comes at a risk. Have you had any?
36:40
Have you had any close calls or? Yeah, I've had, I've had one,
36:45
one close call, not not going under strength till where
36:50
technically legally no longer becomes whiskey at some 40%.
36:55
One of the one of the very old components of the mystery malt
37:01
was last time it was, it was regauged.
37:05
It was, yeah, 49 something. But the time it came to
37:09
bottling, it was like bang on because all the mystery malts
37:12
were bottled at 48.5. So this is 20 something year
37:15
old, I can't remember which specific distillery, and it was
37:18
just touching that you've got a legal tolerance of ±.3% ABV.
37:26
So it was, it was within legal tolerance, but it was, it was.
37:31
On the edge. It was dangerous.
37:33
Couple of things here, like, first of all, when do you see a
37:36
difference with a drum like this that you're bottling at natural
37:40
strength, albeit the natural strength is down at 40 odd
37:43
percent versus adding water to bring a drop, bring a whiskey
37:48
down to a percentage, Yeah. Absolutely.
37:51
So the the drum, the flavours become more compressed and
37:56
intense, but also as the cask loses more volume, whether
38:00
that's water, alcohol and whatever proportion, you get
38:04
more and more headspace within that cask.
38:06
So you get more and more oxidative aging.
38:08
So we did a really good, better Cairn from a leaky cask a few
38:12
years ago that had a huge headspace and it was just so, so
38:16
very good. So you know that that big extra
38:19
amount of headspace speeds up ox of aging, also speeds up losses.
38:23
But sometimes you can get an amazing drum from a leaky cask,
38:26
right? OK, fantastic.
38:27
And my second question is now this is where I'm going to sound
38:29
a little bit more technical and than than I should.
38:33
What does Ola and RLA mean? OK, so Ola is your original
38:39
liters of alcohol. So Dan's Dan's done some
38:44
distilling. He's made new make spirit that
38:46
is original liters of alcohol. You know, day one as as it comes
38:51
off the still or as it goes into day one in a cask.
38:55
That's the original liters of alcohol.
38:59
RLA re gauge liters of alcohol that is the number of liters of
39:04
alcohol in the future. So some some companies, some of
39:08
the big companies might sell semi mature stock on Ola.
39:12
So it might be 567 years old and because they don't want to
39:15
regauge every cask, they're selling it on Ola and they're
39:18
kind of buying it because you know, on average, you know what
39:20
the losses should be because. That's because you mentioned
39:23
about buying this cask or buy, you know, it was, it was a lot.
39:27
You got a good price on it. Because now for people who maybe
39:31
don't know something that I got, I can't remember who it was that
39:34
mentioned it on one of the indie bottle spotlights or an episode
39:37
that we did is you buy your, you buy the cask.
39:40
The price of the cask is priced on just the litres of alcohol,
39:43
isn't it it? Can be both, so, so it can
39:47
either be based on re gauge liter of alcohol.
39:49
So you'd be looking for, you know, at least a fairly recent
39:52
re gauge so you know exactly what's in that cask.
39:55
But big companies, like I said, will sell on original liter of
39:58
alcohol. So you know, we filled 225
40:01
litres at 63.5% into this cask 7 years ago.
40:05
You know, we're not selling you one, We're selling you 20.
40:08
It's probably all going to be fine.
40:10
Yeah. But because, because just when
40:11
you're pricing it up though, so when someone's buying a cask,
40:14
when you guys are looking at buying a cask, you're buying a
40:16
cask that will say it's X amount per litre of alcohol or per or
40:22
per Ola or RLA or something like that.
40:24
So you get the price and then RLA beside it or Ola beside it.
40:27
And then what you've got to work out is then, well, if it's 63%
40:31
and there's 250 litres, 63% of that is what you're paying for.
40:36
The rest you're just, it's just water, isn't it?
40:38
Yes, yeah, but you're paying for the so, so a litre of alcohol is
40:42
a is an impossible and theoretical 1 litre of 100% ABV
40:48
liquid, which is impossible to achieve, but it's kind of like
40:50
an an accounting metric for for whiskey, so.
40:53
When you're saying this cask was sitting at 40.1, it would mean
40:56
that you know if they're selling it on that percent.
40:59
If it's RLA or Ola very recent you got a decent BB.
41:03
Regage check. Yeah.
41:04
So we're regage checks, you're getting RLA on that.
41:06
You're getting a good price because it's at 40% as well, so.
41:09
Someone's checked it and it was very low, and they've gone.
41:12
Oh, crap. We really need to do something
41:14
with this immediately. Stick in the freezer.
41:15
Who do we? Yeah.
41:21
And who do? Who do we know who can move
41:23
stuff quickly? Yeah.
41:24
Brilliant. Well, we think of this one.
41:27
Yeah. Great tasting notes.
41:29
Anyone got anything? Any tasting notes anyone wants
41:31
to throw out there? I guess.
41:32
You got any? Oh.
41:33
You put me on this. It's got that kind of, I always
41:38
say, almost always say it's got that kind of cranberry lay nose
41:43
with grain whiskey, old grain whiskey.
41:44
You've got a wee bit of that kind of.
41:46
Sweet vanilla. Yeah.
41:48
Go on. Yeah, Well, right.
41:52
Give us one. OK.
41:54
I've got a wanky tasting note. It's like an ice gem an.
41:57
Ice gem, Yeah. It's got a bit of frost and a
42:01
bit of biscuit. What's the one?
42:02
Just a general ice gem straight in the packet.
42:04
Aye, the packet you get that plastic smell as well.
42:10
Which colour? I'm going to go for the blue one
42:14
because you've got because you've got a blue bucket hound.
42:20
There we go. I've that's the first time I've
42:23
ever been included in a wanky tasting note.
42:28
There we go. Well, you can say that at the
42:29
bottle there. Ice Gem.
42:31
Blue ice gem. Yeah, I was checking for
42:33
official tasting notes and they're not up yet because we've
42:35
not, we've not. It's this is for sale at Royal
42:37
Mail Whiskey's and the Whiskey Fringe just now.
42:39
But I think we've held off on selling it until they've had a
42:41
good stab at it for the fringe. So we've not done our own
42:44
tasting notes for it yet. Normally they're on my back of
42:47
house. But yeah, you know, sometimes I
42:50
try and do some notes for these things and I've used none of
42:52
them so far. We've just rambled our way
42:54
through. But yet N British.
42:57
A fun little thing about that was it was founded as a
43:01
consortium of independent blenders to break the monopoly
43:05
of DCL on grain whiskey. And of course, who owns it now,
43:09
Diageo, that you know are. You OK?
43:12
Are you OK with them? Yeah, no, we we love Diageo
43:14
these days, but. You know you.
43:18
Know DCL ultimately merged with UDV, Guinness became Diageo and
43:25
you know 50% owned by Diageo, 50% owned by Edrington.
43:28
So they got their own way in the end.
43:30
That monopoly breaking spirit factory is now.
43:35
Part of it, yeah, Yeah. Although I heard, I've heard
43:38
some murmurings, but you never know if it's just these things
43:41
being considering, being considered that, you know, it's
43:45
on some pretty valuable land, the North British site.
43:49
The logistics of having a big distillery in the middle of a
43:51
city is not ideal. And, you know, I've heard little
43:56
murmurings. And you do have to wonder if
43:57
someone's doing the calculations.
43:59
Yeah. Well, it's a heritage.
44:00
I mean, it's played a big part in our podcast.
44:02
It has. And I would be very sad because
44:04
I love that drive on and approach row and you can almost
44:06
put your window down as you're driving and you just get a whiff
44:09
of distilling happening right there.
44:11
You can put. Your window down.
44:13
No, but you get it. You get it even more if you put
44:16
wagers. He takes the soft top down and
44:19
he's driving along. It takes the soft top down.
44:22
It's convertible for Volkswagen Polo, but it's, I mean, for us N
44:29
British, you know, our spiritual home for the podcast is the
44:33
Diggers and you know, it's a stones throw away.
44:36
It's the closest distillery. But also for for me in
44:39
particular and for for there'll be plenty of other people who
44:42
maybe be similar. But you know, you grow up with
44:44
whiskey perceptions and one of the perceptions you often grow
44:47
up with is that grains aren't any good.
44:49
They're just used to bulk out blends.
44:51
And this that next thing. And one of the great things is
44:54
from doing this podcast is we've had we've been so lucky to try
44:57
some exceptional whiskey, but from all.
44:59
Over. Yeah.
45:00
I mean, you know, in Inver, Gordon's and Cameron Briggs.
45:04
Yeah, yeah. But even Mark Davidson, Jolly
45:06
Topa, I think he, he talked about when he was, when he
45:10
worked at Cadden Heads, he used to do tastings for the Edinburgh
45:13
International School for Language, which is directly
45:15
across the road. I think it was in that area down
45:17
at the Royal, down at the bottom of the mile.
45:20
And he said that what would often happen is he was brought
45:22
in, you're getting a load of students who are coming out of
45:25
study that are from all over the world.
45:27
And he said that he would, he's, he's got a thing.
45:29
It's like start with a grain and go through the, the finish with
45:31
a smoky one sort of thing, get a bourbon in there, Sherry, just
45:34
build them up. And he said that nine times out
45:37
of 10, for the average general person who'd never really drank
45:40
a DRAM before trying something that they didn't even know what
45:42
they were really drinking. You know what, what was your
45:45
favorite? And it said the majority of
45:46
people would always put their hand up drum #1 the grain
45:49
whiskey, just because the flavour that you get of well
45:52
aged grain out of that is a cast.
45:55
What cast type was it? Or anything like that?
45:57
It'll just be refill. So it's not got a huge amount of
46:00
influence, but it makes up for it with time.
46:02
Yeah. But yeah, it's no, we, we, we
46:05
love grain and grain with a good amount of age takes the edge
46:08
off. It's just, yeah, you know, daily
46:11
easy dramming. You don't have to think about it
46:13
too much. You set a bottle on the table
46:15
with a bunch of friends. You're not getting in deep with
46:17
it, but you know, great flavours, smooth, easy drinking,
46:21
you know, as part of a social activity, Superb.
46:26
Well, last night we actually had a little discussion on the next
46:29
week's podcast was listener and the member of the Facebook
46:32
group. Sure, we had a discussion.
46:34
We're going to have a discussion on the podcast next week.
46:36
But but basically, Mark Hughes, who listens to the podcast and
46:40
regularly posts on the Facebook group, he asked a question.
46:42
He sent us an e-mail and then asked them.
46:44
He's off to Egypt for the summer holidays, and it's going to be
46:47
about 40 to 45°. So he was asking, what whiskey
46:50
do you take with you? And he was wondering.
46:52
And we completely bypassed grain in our conversation.
46:55
We did, Yeah. And I would say that sometimes
46:56
you actually couldn't probably go wrong with a nice easygoing.
46:59
Yeah, grain would be perfect. Or in that kind of temperature,
47:02
you want highballs. Yeah.
47:03
Well, that was that was ice. Yeah.
47:05
Eyeballs on ice or Yeah, there you go.
47:10
But there you go, right? So on a drum #2 then our second
47:13
drum before. Before we move on, since you
47:16
guys are you guys are natives to North British is what what what
47:22
what blends does this make up the main constituent of?
47:26
I you got, you got. Diageo and you got Edrington,
47:29
so. Well, I mean, I mean
47:31
historically it must be famous grouse.
47:32
That would have played a big part.
47:35
I would have assumed, and presumably Johnny Walker as
47:37
well, yes. Yeah, yeah, those, those as
47:40
well. And what else have we got?
47:42
I also main main bells. Was it in bells as well?
47:45
Oh. It's not, not my little quick
47:47
list here, but I've got Jane J&B and Cutty Sark as well.
47:50
Oh yeah. But yeah, I like N British,
47:53
although up by us I've got a bias for Invergordon just
47:56
because of course. Yeah, proximity.
47:58
And they they let us use their cooperage, which is nice as
48:01
well. There you go, Andy.
48:03
When you've got Cooperage on site, as far near site as well,
48:05
yeah. They they'll do they'll do is D
48:07
char recharge so super yeah, it's a great, great way doing it
48:10
a. Crack and drum and yeah, and
48:12
we've had. Have you got anyone else with a
48:14
taste note or anyone else got a question for Simon or Dan?
48:18
No, all good. What about one for Angus?
48:20
Anyone got a question for Angus? Right, OK, on the drum #2 then
48:26
or #4 technically. Sorry.
48:30
Oh, wait, trucks got a whack. Because they say no.
48:32
And in fact, actually, I should say for people who maybe haven't
48:36
don't don't recall Chuck is the the reason wanky tasting notes
48:40
exist was basically so years and years ago, Chuck and actually
48:45
Chuck Angus and actually went to school, but we didn't go to
48:47
school together. Graham and I went to school
48:50
together. Angus and I went old times to
48:53
the school, but Chuck wasn't invited to that.
48:55
But but we we were all sitting. There in the background
48:58
somewhere but. Chuck was a couple years, or was
49:00
that a couple years ago, below us at school when I was.
49:02
In the same year as your brothers.
49:03
Yeah, he was my brother, a couple of years old, Star.
49:05
But basically I didn't really know Chuck.
49:07
None of it. We didn't.
49:07
I didn't know Chuck well at all. And then I didn't realise that
49:10
Chuck was working at Scott. You did to get the train with
49:12
me. Yeah, but Chuck was working at
49:14
Scotch and what have you, and then he's gone away.
49:16
He's travelled around the world and then he's becoming.
49:20
There was one night we were at a tasting and he gets really
49:26
annoyed about this. And we didn't know Chuck was at
49:28
the other side of the room, but Angus and I are at one side of
49:30
the room. And anyone got a tasting note?
49:32
And this guy's put his hand up and I think you said yeah.
49:36
Cola cubes on church pews. Right.
49:40
Yeah, no one said at all. Well, yeah, that's why I.
49:42
Remember it? Was, regardless of how much it
49:45
defended it was incredibly wanky.
49:48
But we couldn't see who it was, right?
49:50
And Angus, Ram and I let you go for fucks sake, looked at each.
49:55
Other and rolled our eyes. Who?
49:57
Said that, and then it turns out, it turns out it was Chuck.
49:59
And then. Yeah, now he's here.
50:01
So you're like, you are the original.
50:03
Yeah. You're welcome.
50:04
Yeah, yeah. So give us this one then what's
50:06
I? Was going to say pencil shavings
50:09
and birthday cake like. You've got someone who's
50:13
actually buying it. You've got you're buying pencil
50:16
shavings and birthday cake. And if I.
50:18
Want to be really wanky about it?
50:19
Well, aged pencil shavings. Like like when you're not.
50:23
Not yesterday's pencil shavings. When?
50:25
You're in school and you just sharpen your pencil into your
50:27
pencil case. Leave it for weeks and weeks,
50:30
yeah. There we go, birthday.
50:33
Cake with like tons of sprinkles on top.
50:34
The tasting notes haven't been written for us, so we've had
50:37
yeah, yeah. And I don't think you'll be able
50:42
to go on. We don't.
50:43
We'll take notes. I work.
50:45
For Commission or free bottles. Yeah, yeah.
50:48
Or a cask. He's he's given you a tasting
50:50
notes. Yeah.
50:51
You've got to do a lot to get a cast.
50:53
Right, so on a drum #2 then what we got here then?
50:55
Drum number 24. Sorry, drum #4 So we've got a
50:59
cask sample of Dornak here. So I charged Dan with going to
51:03
grab something. I was, I do like doing rummaging
51:07
for casks. And I was quite surprised this
51:09
is what you went for, because I really, really like these.
51:12
But they, I knew that they would need a very, very long time.
51:16
So I got a whole way back. I got a whole bunch of very old
51:23
solera woods casks from Bodegas Robles and Montea, who at the
51:29
time were the only organic producer of Pedro Jimenez
51:33
Olaroso in Spain. I don't know if they still are,
51:38
but it's a very it's a very old bodega.
51:41
So we got a bunch of casks from 40s, fifties, 60s.
51:46
And this is one of these XPX cask.
51:49
It was still used in their in their system until we we but
51:53
like 1517 of them. And these were my time machines.
51:58
I was intending on laying these downs for a very, very long time
52:02
period. But Dan picked one out for
52:05
tonight, yeah. Dan picked one, but.
52:07
These, I mean, you know, when you describe that, though, I
52:10
mean, it's about, you know, we talk about Sherry's seasoned
52:13
cast. This is about as seasoned as a
52:15
Sherry cast could get, right? The the.
52:16
The wood has very like next to nothing to give it's it's the
52:20
woods ancient. So the idea was to emulate the
52:24
old the old style transport casks where the these old kind
52:29
of dead casks would be used to transport, you know, cherries
52:33
and other another kind of fortified wines from the
52:36
continent to the UK, which would then get used by the early the
52:42
sort of precursors to independent bottlers.
52:43
The old Italian warehouse men and blenders would use that
52:48
would use them for whiskey. And this works.
52:50
So it's kind of an we're trying to emulate the old style by
52:53
using the old Slayer cast. We're trying to emulate the old
52:55
style of transport casks that used to find.
52:58
So as such, the woods had like next to no influence on this and
53:02
it's just meant to be like a vessel for a bit of a bit of
53:05
influence of the PX plus long slow oxidative aging.
53:10
But it's looking really delicious.
53:11
That's. Tasty and from a from a point of
53:14
view, whilst is there anyone here who from leaf themselves
53:17
leafers, yeah, leafers. So right, well, we've got, we've
53:25
got a disputed claim already in the Wildt right.
53:29
So basically, whilst many leafers will say the Edinburgh
53:33
whiskey is, is nice whiskey from the city of Edinburgh up the
53:39
road, because many people would say Leith isn't part of
53:42
Edinburgh. But this actually from your
53:44
point where we're actually sitting right now today,
53:47
tonight. Constitution St. played a big
53:49
part in that with with, you know, the the Patterson brothers
53:53
had bonded warehouses along the street here and, you know,
53:57
cooperages and stuff like that. Offices where people were
54:00
rolling casts like the cast that you're talking about off ships
54:04
leaf that we're then getting transported over the country,
54:07
but also, you know, through Edinburgh and into blender
54:09
blenders and stuff like that as well.
54:10
Yep. Yeah, so that that that was the
54:13
idea was, you know, a bit of a nod to the these old styles and
54:16
was to to lay down something that's going to be bottle 1520
54:20
God, you know, God knows how long.
54:22
So it's nice to have a peek at these now and to sit down and
54:25
enjoy it. And was this, was this made by
54:27
the man beside you then was he part of the distillation?
54:29
No. This is before you, yes.
54:32
Yeah, yeah, this, this would, this would have been well,
54:37
because it's quite large. It takes us a few a few batches
54:39
to fill quite a few batches to fill a but because we're so
54:42
small, yeah. But yeah, this would have been
54:46
me and Jacob who's now at US Distillery.
54:52
All right, so yeah, we we would we would have both worked on
54:56
this. So most of the most of these
55:00
variety of this would have been this is when we started using
55:03
spent breweries from local breweries style R so you're
55:08
using chromaties? Yeah, this will been when we're
55:12
first starting to use spent breweries from property brewery,
55:15
which is local to us. One of his the core yeast that
55:19
he uses in his beers is actually an old Scottish brewing strain,
55:22
which he used at a good chunk of breweries in the 50s and 60s,
55:25
which is a nice tie in as well. And there's also some fun stuff
55:28
with spent brewer's yeast as well.
55:31
You the yield goes way down relative to modern distiller's
55:34
yeast, but there's a whole range of flavours that you can achieve
55:38
from brewing yeast at you know, the, the the family tree for
55:42
distilling yeast is it's quite short and stumpy and it's not
55:47
got that variation flavour yet that you can find in the brewing
55:50
world. But you do get the yield with
55:52
the with the distilling strain. So distorting distilleries never
55:54
used distilling strains of yeast.
55:57
It's only used brewing strains of yeast prefer.
56:01
But in these days mostly spent Brewers yeast in the early days,
56:05
we tried out lots and lots of different strains propagated in
56:08
house. So yeah.
56:10
And then barley varieties. This was kind of a transition
56:14
between two older strains. You had plumage Archer developed
56:17
in the early 20th century and Marsalter from which was 60s,
56:25
give or take. So yeah.
56:27
And. Fascinating for you.
56:29
Like you, you've been involved. Like you.
56:32
You and your brother have been involved in probably every step
56:35
of the way through even I mean I remember you guys explaining to
56:38
us about where was he from the the lorry driver that brought
56:41
your wash backs in maybe Slovenia, Slovenia or something
56:46
like that, you know. Yeah he just said I'll just hang
56:47
around for a week while while you were getting them all belt
56:49
and stuff. Yeah but you from even the the
56:51
building and the modular part of the the distillery to distilling
56:56
yourselves. So from your point of view I.
56:58
Think you could probably fit about two Dornic distilleries in
57:01
this room that we're in, Yeah. For, like I say, if you've got
57:03
context, yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, seriously.
57:06
So because it was the pleasure. Of going up there.
57:09
But yeah, yeah. But you've seen it like, so how
57:11
hard is it to start something and be involved?
57:14
And then as the business grows and as as the Thompson brothers
57:18
grows, as Dornak Distillery grows and things like that, you
57:21
know, to be able to hand it over, to be able to take a step
57:24
back because it's it is a hands on process making whiskey, Yes.
57:27
But at the same time it's, you know, and so you know how you
57:30
like to make it. So you've got the guy down
57:32
beside you who's, you know, is he?
57:35
Oh, ask Dan this. Actually Dan, is he, is he
57:37
tricky at times when he comes in or does he let you get on with
57:39
it? Getting on with what?
57:42
Sorry with. With making.
57:43
With making whiskey. Oh yeah, I have.
57:46
I mean, I would ask if I can do something, for instance, just as
57:50
an example, you know, the bubble.
57:52
So that's all practice you could find.
57:56
So I heard about it from a liquid Antiquarium with Arthur
58:02
and Dave Broome about the bub making who's a very old
58:06
practice, and they could source it from a very old book from
58:10
from the early 20th century. And that's something I did after
58:14
discussing with Phil and Simon, just because I did find that
58:17
very interesting. It's like a starter for
58:21
fermentation. Like you would use it if you
58:23
have a start fermentation you could use a bub to.
58:27
What? Sorry, So what, bub?
58:28
BUB, it's bub. Yeah.
58:30
So you just use and and so. What is that?
58:33
It's would be a mix of yeast and Patel.
58:37
So back setting just to to bring some to lower the pH and it can
58:43
bring some more flavors. And it was an old practice.
58:45
I think that even in Scotland and some of these stories, it
58:48
may have been used until you not.
58:49
Have to mix some warts in there for the sugars as well.
58:52
Waltz, yeah. So waltz, potato and yeast and
58:56
and I'm doing that and I'm just waiting to use it because I just
58:59
find that quite interesting. Did you?
59:00
Say it was kind of like a sourdough star starter.
59:03
Kinda, yeah, Yeah, OK. So I mean for yourself, Simon,
59:08
like you know, it's as we've mentioned, it's hard enough
59:10
sometimes working with your brother on certain things where
59:13
you're saying like, you know, it's you want to go One
59:16
Direction making decisions. But when you when the
59:18
distilleries, I mean, how many people do you do you have staff?
59:22
Is the staff overall everybody Thompson Brothers, Dornick
59:27
Distillery and Dornick Castle or do you have specifically Dornick
59:32
Castle staff? They're working in the hotel and
59:34
then we have Dornick Distillery staff and we have Thompson
59:36
Brothers doing things. Or is it?
59:38
Yeah. There's a good, there's a good
59:40
bit of overlap. So like in the, you know, in the
59:43
winter to keep hotel staff busy. You know, we, we do projects at
59:48
Thompson Brothers, for example, when we did Drams from afar
59:51
where we were doing basically, you know, sampling up old, old
59:55
bottles from the bar, selling them online.
59:58
That was something to keep people busy during the winter
1:00:00
when, you know, business drops off.
1:00:03
So there there's quite a bit of overlap and in in in the kind of
1:00:06
shoulder seasons when it's just picking up or just dying down,
1:00:09
we get hotel staffing to help with bottling and various other
1:00:13
things. You know the product, the
1:00:16
production guys are more focused on production, but they'll also
1:00:18
jump in and help with help with bottling, packing, whatever
1:00:22
needs done, but majority focus production.
1:00:25
But for me, I'm pretty easy going with it as long as I know
1:00:30
people are coming from the right place.
1:00:32
So when someone's working in distillery, as long as it fits
1:00:36
within my window of what I consider just be whiskey in the
1:00:40
older style, there's a lot of autonomy there and I like to see
1:00:43
people. Second drum God.
1:00:49
So I like to see people have their own their own fingerprints
1:00:53
on it. So I don't want someone to be
1:00:55
second guessing themselves when they've got a decision to make
1:00:58
and to go. What would Simon want me to do?
1:01:03
I want them to make the best decision with the information,
1:01:06
the liquid and the flavours that are in front of them.
1:01:10
So, and I'm, I'm OK with having that variation in production
1:01:14
where the, whoever's in charge of, of, of that production where
1:01:18
their personality shows through in it.
1:01:20
And they're just, and I've noticed this with, with guys
1:01:22
who've worked for this over the years, Those different
1:01:25
personalities do show through in the liquid style.
1:01:28
And I'm totally OK with that. Yeah, they're they're all
1:01:30
playing. You're.
1:01:31
Happy for people to have their stamp on it and let it let it
1:01:34
go. Yeah, that's correct.
1:01:35
You can sample a DRAM and go whole.
1:01:36
That's a damned DRAM. Why that?
1:01:40
Phase though, yeah. Honestly, honestly, looking back
1:01:43
that there is I, I can, I can tell the difference between my
1:01:48
production, Jacob's production, Phil's production, you into
1:01:51
production. A lot of that's down to because
1:01:54
we make manual cut points every time by we make the cut points
1:01:57
in the spirit by sense of smell, sense of taste.
1:02:01
You can see people's personality show through on that as well.
1:02:05
And yeah, for me, it's that person's making the best
1:02:08
decision or what they what they think is the best decision with
1:02:12
liquid in front of them. And people have different
1:02:14
personalities and tuning your cut points as well can kind of
1:02:18
tune towards. I tend to always go quite deeper
1:02:23
into the front end, which will give something that will show a
1:02:26
lot better at a much older age, but won't necessarily look so
1:02:30
good at a younger age. Whereas Euan tended to be a bit
1:02:34
more conservative and his stuff tends to present better at
1:02:37
younger age, but might not. We'll see what time.
1:02:40
Time will tell. You know, he was he was right.
1:02:43
But you know, I like to see people's personality come
1:02:46
through on it and it's just make best decision yourself.
1:02:50
Don't try and second guess what someone else thinks is best.
1:02:53
Well. Like you're spirit safe if you
1:02:55
can go, it's not a spirit safe. What would be your spirit safe?
1:02:59
As we saw, it's like this sort of half cut pipe that runs in a
1:03:02
steel bucket type thing. And just and Dan was just
1:03:06
regularly. I mean, is it there's no, it's
1:03:08
not hooked up to the computer or anything like that, Dan, is it?
1:03:11
So it's just literally what was happening is we were standing in
1:03:13
the distillery on a Saturday morning, so they're hungover,
1:03:18
all trying to fit in and we were all trying to squeeze in this
1:03:21
distillery. Chuck's got a camera that he's
1:03:22
trying to show and we're trying to go through it all.
1:03:24
And whilst we are standing there, every 5 or 6 minutes
1:03:27
Dan's kind of squeezing pass goes excuse me, excuse me,
1:03:29
excuse me. And then just like taking this,
1:03:31
this other smaller steel container, holding it down and
1:03:34
just giving it a wee sniff, passing on it, you passing on
1:03:37
the fill and then running it, spitting out on the floor.
1:03:40
I need another couple of minutes to do that.
1:03:42
He was. Drinking it and then spitting it
1:03:44
and then it got passed around us and we were all kind of chatting
1:03:47
and I was like, oh, what do I do with this?
1:03:49
So I just sniffed it. I was like, I don't want to
1:03:51
necessarily taste it unless it's like something I can't actually,
1:03:55
because then I was like, Oh no, I don't want to spit it out on
1:03:57
camera. I'll.
1:03:59
Probably get it all. Down my shirt so.
1:04:01
I was like, I'll just, I'll just sniff it and then pass it on to
1:04:04
chat. But I mean that that element of
1:04:06
you know, that there's something, you know, what you've
1:04:09
you've mentioned and you've talked about is stripping it all
1:04:12
back and really going down the traditional methods of
1:04:15
distillate distilling and making whiskey.
1:04:18
And you've even mentioned about like the yeast varieties and the
1:04:21
barley, barley varieties and things like that that you're
1:04:23
using. But yeah, we've been to
1:04:25
distilleries. We intentionally where you see
1:04:27
the computers that they've got and you see how what they've
1:04:30
done is they've managed to find the mix of serious automation
1:04:34
and and technology in with the modern facility.
1:04:37
But it's all hands on for you guys.
1:04:39
Yeah, and. Starney best performing energy
1:04:44
consumption of a thermal vapor recompression system I've seen
1:04:47
in a distillery. Wow, I'd love to do a distillery
1:04:52
too. Yeah.
1:04:55
Yeah, great, great distillery. I'd love I'd love to you know,
1:04:58
with with the with the with the hammer mill and the mash press
1:05:01
filter yeah, I'd, you know, yeah, a little, a little, a
1:05:05
little cycle still yes. Well, I don't know if I'd use
1:05:08
the Loman still, but the I'd love to have, I'd love to have a
1:05:13
little play around there just for fun, just for very different
1:05:16
style production, which is a little side project that we do
1:05:20
where we go to some other distilleries and do production,
1:05:24
so. You get involved, roll the
1:05:25
sleeves up and actually get involved.
1:05:26
Working directly with the with the other production team and
1:05:29
you know, we kind of work with them to try and find a midpoint
1:05:32
between the kind of things that we do and what they do.
1:05:36
And we've had a bit of fun with that as also it's also part part
1:05:39
of the story project as well. Well, this is, this is what I
1:05:41
was going to ask. So it must very much be kind of
1:05:44
R&D for you because last time when we were speaking to you up
1:05:47
at Dornick, it was the start of your crowdfunder.
1:05:50
Oh yeah, Forestry, which you absolutely smashed, right?
1:05:54
About the time our podcast went out.
1:05:55
Actually, I'd say I think so. I think so.
1:05:59
I think you've started about the Commission.
1:06:00
I started about the check for the Commission.
1:06:02
What have we said? I mean, so, yeah.
1:06:07
Yeah. I mean, just just So what, what
1:06:09
were your kind of goals with that?
1:06:10
And then what did you actually end up raising because it was it
1:06:13
was over 2 million, wasn't it, that you raised to the crowd?
1:06:16
Yeah, we. Yeah, we did quite well.
1:06:17
So in in total for Strewy, we've raised about four.
1:06:23
And then we've also got a fairly chunky grant that we couldn't
1:06:26
talk about the time, but we've got a really chunky grant
1:06:31
directly tied to our energy systems.
1:06:33
And if you want someone to actually fall asleep in the
1:06:35
room, we could take, we could talk.
1:06:37
We've. Had that before?
1:06:38
No, but what I was going to say, it has happened before.
1:06:41
Yeah, but with Stray when we were up there, you, you, you,
1:06:44
you know, you said we're basically we can get the shovel
1:06:48
in the ground tomorrow. So it it kind of early update of
1:06:52
what what's happening at Stray are the are the builders in is
1:06:56
it? So right now we're at the tail
1:06:57
end of the tendering process which which when you go out to
1:07:01
your, your main contractor, Yeah.
1:07:03
So we had a couple of them asked for extensions, which we've
1:07:06
granted. By the time we get to the end of
1:07:09
the tendering process, we've currently got 6 main contractors
1:07:13
in the mix tendering. It's going to be getting deep
1:07:18
into October, which means possible site mobilisation as
1:07:22
possible late October into November.
1:07:26
But then you're in crappy weather time and that's kind of
1:07:30
going to be a discussion between the whether they're happy to get
1:07:33
stuck in and what the weather thinks it's going to take.
1:07:36
Yeah, it's not an it's not an ideal to make a start on your
1:07:39
foundations and access roads and things.
1:07:41
But it's all, it's all systems go.
1:07:42
Then because I think the discussion we were having
1:07:44
before, before the podcast episode went out and as we were
1:07:48
recording it, I think you were talking about, you know, there
1:07:50
was an element where I think there was there was an
1:07:55
understanding that this could go as well as you wanted it to go.
1:07:58
But at the same time, I think was one of the discussions that
1:08:00
you were saying was if it doesn't go as to plan as we have
1:08:03
it in the planet, was it not the site was going to be used for
1:08:05
bonded warehouses that you were going to have?
1:08:07
Well, the site's going to get you.
1:08:09
Yeah, well, the if if we didn't raise enough money, then it
1:08:12
would have to start being a phased approach, which would
1:08:14
mean. So currently Dorney Thompson
1:08:17
Brothers is bottlenecking with its existing bottling
1:08:21
warehousing logistics capacity. So the no brainer would be to
1:08:24
immediately put the new warehouses up and then to
1:08:28
accelerate, accelerate the Thompson Brothers blending side
1:08:32
of the business. If you just weren't quite there
1:08:36
was to kind of go further into that, slow down the main build.
1:08:39
But there's also other things that you could theoretically
1:08:41
phase in. For example, there's a visitor
1:08:44
centre, shop tasting room, which is a conversion of an old
1:08:47
building. So you could drop that down a
1:08:50
year down the line. That would save a big chunk of
1:08:52
the content. But yeah, right now it's all all
1:08:55
systems go. Since you were last up, maybe
1:09:00
the borehole was in when you were up.
1:09:02
Yeah, yeah. It was three to three phase.
1:09:03
Transformer got delivered, but yeah, any.
1:09:07
So there's all these bits and pieces that you can do, but the
1:09:09
main work's not going to happen till the contract.
1:09:12
No, your main contractor is on site, so.
1:09:15
By by sort of January, February 2026, you'll be looking at
1:09:19
starting to see what hopefully some sort of work that depends.
1:09:22
Depends on the weather and the appetite to get stuck into in
1:09:25
the winter. I'm very keen just to show
1:09:27
something happening. Yeah, to to get that first bit
1:09:30
of access Rd. and foundations done.
1:09:32
And then when the foundations are done, the warehouses have
1:09:35
got pretty quickly that's they're going up first
1:09:37
regardless, because we can, we can utilize them straight away,
1:09:41
remove our bottlenecks. And Thompson brothers, we've
1:09:43
already got a new bottling, hot new fully automated bottling
1:09:49
line as well. I've seen you as second hand.
1:09:51
And we didn't pay money for it. We traded.
1:09:54
Yeah. So yeah, a good friend of ours
1:09:56
was I'll. Give you a forecast for your
1:09:58
bottling line 30 thing so. So we don't really let anyone
1:10:03
have Dornick for anything. And they had a bottling line,
1:10:07
fully automated brand news about two something 22240K and they
1:10:13
wanted some casks of Dornik. And I was like, OK.
1:10:16
Well, when it when it needs to work, it needs to work, isn't
1:10:18
it? Yeah, yeah.
1:10:21
Right. Yeah, I.
1:10:21
Was I was so. That's either painting a nice
1:10:24
picture for your labels or having an ultimately automated
1:10:27
bottling wine I. Also, like the Thompson
1:10:32
brothers, has bottlenecks as well.
1:10:34
That's a very appropriate problem for an independent.
1:10:37
What are we thinking so far about these drums guys?
1:10:39
Everyone all right? Did you actually get a chance to
1:10:42
drink your drums at that table there?
1:10:43
Did you just drop them on the floor?
1:10:48
Good. Very smashable.
1:10:51
Yeah, very good. I don't.
1:10:52
Know if I missed what the like the ABV and age of the Dorn
1:10:55
example was? So it's this 20.
1:10:57
What's the date today? So oh, hi, it's.
1:11:00
The 8th of August, 8th of August.
1:11:04
So it's Tuesday, August. No, it's Tuesday that that
1:11:08
because it's 12th of August on that, sorry.
1:11:10
Yeah, we're we're, we're just a few days away from it turning 6
1:11:12
so. So turn 6 on Tuesday.
1:11:14
Yeah, the ABV on it. 5058% AB 50. 8% lovely, brilliant.
1:11:21
And now those two guys, what we what we're thinking if you were
1:11:23
to pick one of one of those two, Dora I.
1:11:27
Think that's unanimous? Yeah.
1:11:28
So. That's it.
1:11:29
Yeah. So basically we've got an extra.
1:11:30
Now The thing is for the next two drams, OK, we have, as
1:11:35
you'll see there is a mystery mole.
1:11:41
There you go. That was really, really good.
1:11:43
But tonight we are going to give you 2 options.
1:11:47
This is the Matrix red pill, blue pill situation.
1:11:50
Do you want mystery malt A or mystery malt B?
1:11:55
We don't know what they are. We're all going to find out at
1:11:58
the same time. So when we're walking round,
1:12:01
it's going to be I'm going to take A or BA or B.
1:12:04
That's what you're getting. And listen, you get what you
1:12:07
get. OK, so.
1:12:09
Yeah, so we've got 1 bottle from series.
1:12:12
Yeah, sorry. Right, we've got, we've got
1:12:15
right guys. So what we've got is we've got 1
1:12:17
bottle one. Bottle from series 1 and 1
1:12:20
Bottle from series 2 so they can't be the same so.
1:12:22
Yeah. So you're not going to get a
1:12:24
double well. They could be like, you know,
1:12:26
they could be, you know, they might be the same.
1:12:27
Yeah. So when I.
1:12:30
Listen, we'll explain it if it goes wrong, OK, We've got a
1:12:34
question in the bag. I was just going to.
1:12:37
Say, is it a mistake to absolutely everybody in the
1:12:39
room? Yes, yes, yes, administrate us
1:12:42
all, but there we go. So we'll take a quick break.
1:12:44
It's not. Open yet?
1:12:46
Yeah, I literally have no idea what this is.
1:12:48
So that's it, right? OK, we'll stop for a wee break.
1:12:51
We'll get ourselves our glasses backed up.
1:12:53
Brilliant. Everyone got drums and everyone
1:12:55
got their drums on their own. OK Angus, you know what to do.
1:12:59
Clap us back in. Welcome over the Whiskey Story
1:13:03
Spotlight. Indie bowlers Spotlight with the
1:13:04
top 7. You're right, we've got two more
1:13:11
drams to go. Yeah.
1:13:13
So we're doing the the 18 year old Highland first, yes.
1:13:16
That's the one we're going for. 18 year old Highland.
1:13:18
Everyone be itching to find out the last one though.
1:13:20
But yeah, this is this is a mystery as well.
1:13:22
I know exactly what this is, but I'm onto a really good thing
1:13:25
with the quality of liquid for the price and I just can't say
1:13:29
what it is. If you look very closely at the
1:13:31
back label, there's enough of a maybe.
1:13:35
Maybe a clever person could figure out well.
1:13:37
You're you're asking the wrong guy here.
1:13:41
What am I? What am I looking at?
1:13:43
Oh, right. OK.
1:13:44
Don't say out loud. So yeah, a very interesting drum
1:13:48
there. Is there any?
1:13:50
It's just, well, it's now it's a company that we used to not be
1:13:54
able to buy direct from, we now can it's.
1:13:56
My favorite brand of brown sauce.
1:14:04
And absolutely in one. And they've changed the
1:14:09
geographical indicator. So used to be able to say be a
1:14:12
little bit more specific with geography, but now you can't.
1:14:15
But I'm able to get it for such a good price for that quality of
1:14:18
liquid in that age. And we can put this out for £65.
1:14:21
The bottle, it's absolutely cracking.
1:14:24
So, so happy we can do that. So I definitely can't say who
1:14:27
it's from because I don't want to annoy them.
1:14:28
No, no, absolutely no. But, but, but The thing is with,
1:14:31
it's an interesting point where you make their assignment
1:14:35
because so many people like what you've just said there is the
1:14:40
fact that you can buy their liquid, this liquid that we're
1:14:43
trying from this particular distillery.
1:14:45
But what you're saying is that you can buy it and put it out at
1:14:48
the price that you're putting it out at, whereas so many other
1:14:51
people slick operation. Yeah.
1:14:53
But but what? Well, well, yes, but what you're
1:14:57
saying is like there's other people like you're, you're not
1:15:00
interested in having the, the, the name, particularly on the
1:15:04
front of the bottle. But what you would like is the
1:15:07
fact that it's good liquid that you're putting out.
1:15:09
And because you can put this liquid at this age out at the
1:15:12
price that you're putting out at, because you're not having to
1:15:14
put that name on the bottle means that you can do that.
1:15:17
Yes, But that's the other bottlers that say no, That's,
1:15:21
that's, that's no good to us. And there'll be other whiskey
1:15:23
drinkers as well that might say it's no good.
1:15:25
If it's a secret Highlander, that's a Highlander.
1:15:27
I don't know where it's from, because I want to know the
1:15:30
distillery, whether or not we can allude to what distillery is
1:15:33
or what people know what distillery is.
1:15:35
If it's just good, good liquid and good whiskey, then that,
1:15:38
that's good. That's what it's all about at a
1:15:39
very good price. Yeah.
1:15:40
Yeah, we, yeah, we can, we can make that work.
1:15:42
Yeah. It's just quality of liquid to
1:15:44
price ratio. The if you're from the same
1:15:46
distillery, if you're buying the official bottle 18 year old
1:15:49
which is slightly lower ABV, it's you know, RRP 140 so. £140
1:15:56
yeah, so. You're so you, so the
1:15:57
absolutely. So I absolutely cannot say what
1:15:58
the name is. Well, I can't I I will not say.
1:16:06
You didn't, you didn't see it. You can see what it's not.
1:16:10
You can see what it's not. But anyway but.
1:16:14
Anyway, yeah, I'm just. Let's move on.
1:16:16
I've got, I've got, I've got good.
1:16:17
Access. I love distillery.
1:16:19
I'm so happy you can buy this at this price and put it out to
1:16:21
customers at this price. The cost is you can't see what
1:16:24
it is because they're official bottlings in beautiful
1:16:27
presentation and excellent quality control is significantly
1:16:32
more expensive. So I'm absolutely happy with
1:16:34
what's. Going on.
1:16:34
So we're going. To Well, what I was going to say
1:16:36
is yours is a beautiful presentation too, because you've
1:16:39
got a lovely, great label on the front as well.
1:16:41
It's kind of porridge oats type, yeah.
1:16:43
Standard, standard tall round, Yeah, Yeah, You know, we like
1:16:47
our standard tall rounds. Keeps, you know, keeps
1:16:49
everything you know, if you've got custom glass involved like
1:16:52
that, then you know everything takes a bit longer and costs a.
1:16:56
Bit more, well, it's. More the choke points, it's like
1:16:58
OK, I need some more, OK, that's going to be 4 months.
1:17:01
Yeah, because. You've got like we've had George
1:17:03
and Rachel from Fragrant drops on and you know, things like
1:17:07
their glass bowl stopper that they put into the top of their
1:17:11
bottle. It's like sourcing that.
1:17:12
And how, how many can you buy? How many do you have to buy to
1:17:17
be able to get it at a good enough price to bring it over
1:17:20
and stuff like that. So when you, when you're buying,
1:17:22
I mean, this is where it gets really exciting when we start
1:17:25
talking about dry goods storage and stuff like that because
1:17:30
you've already talked about the, the challenges that you have and
1:17:33
a bottleneck and stuff like that you have with regards to your
1:17:36
bottling plant and your, your storage facilities because it's,
1:17:39
it's small right? So every inch, nook and cranny
1:17:44
needs to be filled with something that's good for that
1:17:46
space. So what do you do when it comes
1:17:49
to like, where do you store how many?
1:17:50
If you're putting 57,000 bottles out in a year, where are you
1:17:54
storing your Because you can't just put an order in and they
1:17:56
arrive and then you fill them and then they send them out.
1:17:58
This. Is the beauty of the standard
1:17:59
tall round. They're always available, so
1:18:03
your multiple companies as well make the exact same design.
1:18:06
This is just an industry standard.
1:18:08
It's always there, always available except for that time.
1:18:11
Like when was it 2020? The glass shortage of 2022.
1:18:14
Oh, the grey glass shortage of 2020.
1:18:19
Yeah. One of the one of the glass
1:18:21
factories went on fire, so you lost production from one of the
1:18:23
big UK glass factories, Our one and asthma.
1:18:28
Just went absolutely ham in the glass factory.
1:18:30
Was it? Which is leave the whole thing
1:18:32
up. It's.
1:18:32
I don't know what happened, but we were quite late in finding
1:18:35
out about this and then everyone else is already scurrying off
1:18:39
trying to find alternate sources.
1:18:40
So then. Everyone else's sources start
1:18:42
thinking yeah, so. Yeah, I had to find that that's
1:18:45
there's bottles of BSW and SRV 5 for the special sticker on top,
1:18:49
which says like they're in different types of glass and
1:18:52
they're like the sticker says special 2022 glass shortage
1:18:56
edition. Yeah, I'm we're veering off
1:19:01
track a little. No, but.
1:19:03
It's I was also going to say a couple of a couple of people in
1:19:06
the audience have been contributing to the glass
1:19:08
shortage tonight. But yeah, because I mean, these
1:19:14
are, but these are the things, that's what we love about doing
1:19:17
the Indie Bottle Spotlight. You know, it was actually a year
1:19:19
ago in August, we did our first one and it was with Woody and
1:19:21
Megan Woodrow's of Edinburgh and yeah, and, and, you know, it
1:19:25
gives us an insight into the fact that we get to try these,
1:19:28
these great whiskeys that independent bottlers put out.
1:19:31
And you've mentioned that it's a buyers market right now for, for
1:19:35
people on the auctions. But I would say it's, you know,
1:19:37
as a consumer, it's just a great time.
1:19:39
There's new distilleries popping up.
1:19:40
All you've met. We've mentioned in that we did
1:19:43
our distilleries spotlight for so many new distilleries popping
1:19:46
up that we as consumers we can get to enjoy.
1:19:49
But also then the bottler scene is just thriving at the moment.
1:19:51
But there's so much that goes on.
1:19:53
It's it's not just a simple case of buy that cask and just stick
1:19:56
it in the bottles and put it out.
1:19:58
There's, you know, first of all, sourcing good casks because
1:20:02
there'll be plenty of times you've mentioned already, but
1:20:05
you buy a cask and maybe you, you don't get a chance to try it
1:20:08
before you buy it. You've bought it as arrived, you
1:20:10
go. Well, that's no good to us at
1:20:12
this moment in time. Yeah.
1:20:13
If you're if you're buying from if you're buying from the big
1:20:15
boys, you buy a lot and you buy blind at, you know, intermediate
1:20:19
ages and you just got to figure out what to do with them when
1:20:23
they arrive. You know, luckily you can make
1:20:25
judgments of certain distilleries from certain time
1:20:27
periods, certain cast types, and you got a pretty good idea as to
1:20:30
the quality. But sometimes you just go, Oh
1:20:32
yeah, this just needs more time or we need to recast this.
1:20:35
But that's, you know, advantage of being full process.
1:20:37
You just do it when it arrives. There's no big time lag of
1:20:41
waiting for samples, sending instructions.
1:20:44
But yeah, but yeah, it's a good time to be a whiskey enthusiast,
1:20:47
you know, You know, with the global economic situation not
1:20:51
doing amazing, China not kicking off as well as people thought,
1:20:55
South America not kicking off as well as whiskey industry
1:20:57
thought. It means you're starting to see
1:21:00
some like over ageing happen, which is when, you know, OK, you
1:21:03
know, we intended this to be an 8 year old for this product, but
1:21:06
now it's turned 99. Now it's turned 10 because we
1:21:09
didn't sell enough of the 8 year old, which starts means it's
1:21:12
even the like the base blends start using older and older
1:21:15
stock and the, you know, the average quality of that at the
1:21:18
base starts going up. The prices of older stock starts
1:21:22
coming down a bit. We're starting to see that
1:21:24
trickle through the system a bit.
1:21:26
You know, you'll see maybe a bit of a flush out and some more
1:21:29
motivated sellers and some really good pricing in coming
1:21:32
years and starting to see a bit, you know, you're like base
1:21:37
8/10/12 stuff. It's not really shifting too
1:21:39
much. You know, it seems expensive now
1:21:41
compared to 10 years ago, but in line with inflation.
1:21:44
The price of a standard 10 year old malt from a lot of
1:21:46
distilleries is pretty much where it was 10 years ago, 20
1:21:49
years ago, 30 years ago. Yeah, they don't, they don't
1:21:52
shift around that which a few distilleries try to like reach
1:21:54
for the premiumisation thing. But on that, you know, for a lot
1:21:58
of things like Laphroaig 10 or you know what wasn't more in G10
1:22:01
now more in G12, they're kind of in line with inflation give or
1:22:04
take. They they don't shift that much
1:22:06
and. You're, you're, you when, when
1:22:07
you look at like that, you've mentioned with this one, you
1:22:10
know, the relationships are so key when it comes to bottlers to
1:22:13
get your, your access to stock. We've, we, I think Peter from
1:22:17
Woven talked about, you know, the, if you work in sales or
1:22:21
anything like that, the dreaded gatekeeper.
1:22:23
You always hear about having to get through the gatekeeper to
1:22:25
get to. But you said actually the
1:22:26
gatekeepers in the Scotch whisky industry are some of the nicest
1:22:28
people we ever meet. However, there's always a
1:22:31
protection of whiskey, you know, and everyone has to protect
1:22:34
their brand. And we had Steven Rankin when we
1:22:38
did the episode of Gordon Macphail and he talked about,
1:22:40
you know, the tradition of Gordon Macphail is look after
1:22:43
your supplier at every opportunity that you can and
1:22:46
keep that going because it means that you keep getting the
1:22:49
constant supply of liquid when you need it and be liquid and
1:22:53
stuff like that. So, you know, what was the first
1:22:55
thing that you bottled and how did you start to grow the
1:22:57
relationships? Yeah.
1:23:00
So, so we didn't, we did a few bottlings previous to what is
1:23:04
currently the Thompson Brothers. But the first like in the
1:23:08
Thompson Brothers style kind of was a 1972 Inver Gordon that
1:23:15
that was the first one. We did a few bits and pieces
1:23:17
before then. It was like for our bar, for a
1:23:20
kind of drinking club with friends, bits and pieces,
1:23:22
nothing too, nothing serious or commercially minded really.
1:23:27
When we built out Dorney Distillery, we had a little bit
1:23:29
of funds leftover. Our Japanese importer for the
1:23:34
gin asked if we would do an independent bottling or if.
1:23:38
And we're like, I mean, yeah, we've done that before.
1:23:40
We could do that and did one part for UK direct sales, part
1:23:45
for Japan, sold out pretty quickly.
1:23:47
Use the money from that to buy another cask and then and.
1:23:51
That's how it's noble. And and you've alluded.
1:23:53
To it wasn't in the business plan you've.
1:23:55
Alluded. Yeah.
1:23:56
And you've alluded to it as well.
1:23:57
You're in a global market and you know how, how, how far does
1:24:00
your whiskey go? How many markets are you in?
1:24:02
And also how do you establish kind of, you know, is it through
1:24:06
distributors really that you get into these markets or you didn't
1:24:10
like work yourself? Abroad, yeah, so we're just kind
1:24:15
of a bit picky about who we who we work with on exports.
1:24:17
So sure, we'll talk to, we'll talk to people from the
1:24:21
enthusiast seen in different countries to find out, you know,
1:24:23
because some, some importers just really take the piss and
1:24:27
gouge and some, you know, and some, you know, the, the drama
1:24:31
and the gossip always leaks out. So you kind of get a pretty good
1:24:33
gist as to who's the good guys and who's yeah.
1:24:37
Who's who's holding? Back the like the really juicy
1:24:39
stock for themselves that then they'll drip feed into auction
1:24:42
later. So you get a good idea of that
1:24:44
that. Happens then nice though.
1:24:48
Yes, yeah, yeah, definitely happens.
1:24:50
And then people and then some Porsches of price gouge, more
1:24:53
juicy things and yeah, but on the whole, you figure that out
1:24:57
and find out who the good guys are because it makes a big
1:24:59
difference. You've to like this being the
1:25:01
right price or the wrong price on a shop shelf or by the
1:25:05
measure in a bar in another country and.
1:25:07
That'll matter to you guys because like one of the things
1:25:09
that's come through tonight and and it came through the the last
1:25:13
time that we we when we did an episode up there is value is so
1:25:16
important to you guys. Yeah, it was so easy.
1:25:20
You could easily I'm pretty sure most people would agree for the
1:25:23
majority of the drams that we've drank tonight.
1:25:25
When you hear the RRP of what some of these whiskeys are
1:25:27
actually selling for in the shop, we would all probably more
1:25:30
than happy, I shouldn't say this, but probably pay A5 or
1:25:33
more for the for the drams. Don't go and put your price up.
1:25:35
But, but, but the point is that you yourself and Phil, you have
1:25:40
this philosophy which is all about just giving people and
1:25:44
you, we didn't even get a chance to say it, but I remember you
1:25:46
talking about when you, when you set the bar up and we're even on
1:25:49
the bar now, The more premium the whiskey, the higher price
1:25:52
the whiskey is, the lower you put the margin for when you sell
1:25:55
over the bar. So you make that whiskey
1:25:56
accessible for a drink and everything that we've had
1:25:59
tonight, when you look at the price range of it, it's not
1:26:02
mental. Yeah.
1:26:03
I mean, if you put your if I put my my Machiavellian hat on the.
1:26:08
You have a Machiavellian hat. I do.
1:26:16
Sorry, my, my, my, my Manchurian hat.
1:26:18
You know, you need, you need, you know, with like the, with
1:26:24
like the older, more expensive drums, they sell slower because
1:26:26
they're more expensive in the bar.
1:26:29
So you need to sell them quickly while they're in good condition,
1:26:32
especially if it's like a really light spirit low ABV, you'd sell
1:26:35
that quickly because. There's no point not sitting
1:26:37
there for six, 7-8 years, no. And I've gone into bars to order
1:26:40
something and it's fuck, this should have been amazing, but
1:26:43
it's not. How long has this been open for?
1:26:45
Yeah, 6-7 years. And each year they're putting
1:26:47
the price up, checking the auctions and like the same
1:26:49
bottles as like there's a cost, there's a value to money over
1:26:54
time. And I'd rather sell out at a
1:26:57
fair price. And once you get known for doing
1:27:00
that, you, your prices are fair, your value's good, the quality
1:27:05
product's great. You don't have to work very hard
1:27:08
to sell it because people trust the pick.
1:27:11
They know they know they're getting value for money on the
1:27:12
price. And you don't have to spend a
1:27:14
bunch of marketing pushing it. You know, you just, we get the
1:27:17
fundamentals really right and it sells out, you get paid.
1:27:22
So you would put something out, sells out super quickly, We get
1:27:25
paid for that. We've got that money then to go
1:27:27
and find more casks to go and do the same thing and it just keeps
1:27:30
it turning. So, you know, we can use that
1:27:32
money, sell out a product, get paid, buy something else, do
1:27:36
something else and we can, you know, over the time period we
1:27:39
could have done 5 or 6 cycles where someone with much higher
1:27:43
margin and greedier prices could have just done one or two
1:27:46
cycles. So you know the value of just,
1:27:49
if you nail everything right, you don't have, you don't have
1:27:52
to convince people to buy it. It becomes a bit of a no brainer
1:27:57
and well makes it all move very quickly.
1:28:00
Well. That that that probably leads us
1:28:01
on to our next drum because very nicely for yourselves to put
1:28:04
out. But you know.
1:28:06
Well, just just explain the concept of mystery malt because
1:28:09
we're looking, you know, for those that are listening online,
1:28:12
you know, audio only we're looking at, I mean, I could have
1:28:15
probably designed that label. And I've got a cast.
1:28:18
But it's a big white question mark on a black bottle.
1:28:22
It's a mystery malt. There's no indication of what's
1:28:25
in this bottle. But the, the, the beauty of it
1:28:28
is, is these are priced what, £65 a bottle, £65.
1:28:31
So the fact of the matter is that what you've been able to do
1:28:35
is sell people whiskey blind. Yeah, where they don't know what
1:28:39
they're buying, they don't know what they're getting, but
1:28:42
they're happy to just go take my money because the trust that
1:28:45
you've built up with the consumer now, yes, with what
1:28:48
you've already put out and with a fair price.
1:28:50
I know that. Listen, if they're putting an 18
1:28:53
year old whiskey, single malt whiskey, 18 year old single malt
1:28:57
whiskey out at 65 LB and one of these is 65 LB, I know I'm going
1:29:01
to get a bargain regardless. Yeah, yeah.
1:29:03
Well, that's, that's the important thing with it is no
1:29:05
matter what you get out of the system, it needs to represent a
1:29:09
minimum of Fair value at 65 lbs with a very high chance of it
1:29:13
being very good to exceptional value.
1:29:17
The, we put the QR code on the label, which takes you to the
1:29:19
website, which can show you the list of so series 2, there's so
1:29:23
many bottles of this. There's a, you know, 20% chance
1:29:26
of getting this, an 8% chance of getting that.
1:29:28
And that's to keep us honest as well, because if it was, like,
1:29:31
entirely blind, you know, not that we would, but I need to
1:29:34
remove that temptation to, like, fill it for cheap slop.
1:29:39
Yeah, well. I think I may can.
1:29:42
Look at it and know that a minimum they're gonna get fair
1:29:44
value yeah cuz. What's the boxing process like
1:29:47
if you're? Yeah, so is the.
1:29:49
Box. Yeah, we had to design a whole
1:29:51
system for that, so yeah. So yeah.
1:29:57
So each one gets bottled individually, gets put into
1:30:02
crates, labeled what they are, then when it comes to packing
1:30:07
that, we kind of assign them roughly ABCD value.
1:30:11
So each case gets packed with a different A 2B's, 22C's, 2D's.
1:30:18
So that way each case should represent roughly the average
1:30:22
value of what? Right, because I think I think I
1:30:25
kind of made a very bad business suggestion to you that they
1:30:29
should be almost be like Russian roulette and it should be 1
1:30:31
absolute stinker for like what, just one bottle in the back so
1:30:36
that someone gets really fucking pissed off.
1:30:38
It's just like 1 bells amongst. Well, nothing wrong with bells,
1:30:46
but like something just better. Yeah, yeah.
1:30:49
So well. Obviously.
1:30:50
Well. I I took your suggestion,
1:30:52
flipped at 180 and I've been having a wee scout around
1:30:55
chancing my arm to see if I can buy very small quantities of
1:31:00
absolutely stupid juice so I can have like 2 bottles.
1:31:03
So someone gets this old ticket I.
1:31:05
Think this is a. 60 year old. Much better suggestion than
1:31:08
mine. Yeah, right.
1:31:09
OK, I've got the Machiavellian hat on too.
1:31:12
Clearly. Let's see what we you've got
1:31:14
who's got who's got who went for?
1:31:15
Well, quite a few people are here in pairs, so you doubled
1:31:18
up, which is smart move. One went for A, one went for B.
1:31:21
So who's got the A's? Who are the A's?
1:31:23
Right. OK, OK, So do you want to know
1:31:25
what you've got? Right.
1:31:27
I didn't even know what was important, to be honest.
1:31:28
So you it is have. 16 year old Altmore and that's full
1:31:33
maturation in red wine bariques red.
1:31:36
Wine bariques 16 year old Altmore who's got OK?
1:31:45
Trying to say the entire the entire way through pouring.
1:31:50
I was pouring A, right? And you were pouring B.
1:31:54
Who's got let's start again. I'll cut this.
1:31:57
I could cut this. Who's got a a Congratulations.
1:32:01
You've got ton of eight, seven-year old.
1:32:06
There you go. No, but and who's got B?
1:32:10
Congratulations, you've got the 16 year old Altmore.
1:32:12
So tell us a lot about me these. Yeah, OK.
1:32:17
Who's? Who's who's got?
1:32:19
Who's who's got the smoky one? Yeah, who's got?
1:32:22
Yeah, PT OK and dark darker is the Altmore for sure we.
1:32:26
Like to point out it was poured by two dyslexics who were very
1:32:30
nervous and we've also had about.
1:32:35
Right. Talk us through.
1:32:36
Talk us. It was a mystery, so.
1:32:41
Yeah, so it's a bit so, yeah. But so both of these were were
1:32:44
full full single cast as part of the mystery mall.
1:32:47
Sometimes, yeah, sometimes for the more expensive stuff, we'll
1:32:54
we'll split a cask so it'll become a, you know, we'll put,
1:32:56
you know, 40 bottles into the mystery mall and then 200
1:32:59
bottles as a Thompson Brothers at 200 lbs.
1:33:02
Forty bottles in a mystery mall at 65 lbs.
1:33:04
But the both of these were full casks into the mystery mall
1:33:08
Altmore 16 year old full maturation red wine bariques.
1:33:11
I'm not a big fan of red wine finishes unless it's a really
1:33:15
long finish because the the tannins take a really long time
1:33:19
to develop Red wine casks. They don't have any char,
1:33:23
they're toasted at best. So they just need more time.
1:33:28
So 16 years full maturation red wine barique Great.
1:33:33
You won't be seeing any, you know, one year Red wine cast
1:33:37
finishes with Thompson Brothers. We're just not into that.
1:33:40
But the Tor Vague is excellent. So we did the first ever
1:33:43
independent bottling of Torre Vague a few months ago.
1:33:49
And then the second ever independent bottling is of Torre
1:33:51
Vague as Mystery Malt, which is cool.
1:33:54
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were chasing, we were chasing
1:33:58
absolutely everyone for getting involved with the mystery malt.
1:34:02
So the idea is that it's mutually beneficial for them,
1:34:08
for us, for the retailers, for the customers because it
1:34:13
becomes, you know, it's not if we bought Torvague, we did, but
1:34:18
and bottled, it's the Thompson Brothers independent bottling.
1:34:21
It goes on a shop shelf. There's Thompson Brothers
1:34:23
Torvague, there's official bottling of Torvague and they're
1:34:26
kind of potentially in competition with each other
1:34:28
cannibalizing. Whereas with this, someone's not
1:34:32
chosen to go looking for buying a Tor vague.
1:34:35
It's just randomly turned up in their house or a tasting.
1:34:38
Oh, Tor vague. I've not tried many.
1:34:40
I tried. Tasting, yeah.
1:34:42
Someone's accidentally, someone asked for A and they got B or
1:34:46
something like that for B and they got A, You know, it's A.
1:34:48
It's a happy accident. And if you're whiskey, yeah.
1:34:51
And if you're a whiskey guy, you might have been like, I tried to
1:34:53
the three-year old, it's fine, you know, needs more time.
1:34:57
I'll wait for an 8 year old or 10 year old or whatever.
1:35:00
And then all of a sudden you're reintroduced go, oh shit, this
1:35:01
is good. And so that's worked really
1:35:04
well. We find that with a number of
1:35:05
the new wave distilleries where because people are often opening
1:35:08
these and trying them blind first, kind of leaving judgment
1:35:10
at the preconceptions at the doorstep, you're going, oh shit,
1:35:15
Glenn Withis is actually good. I hadn't even thought about
1:35:18
them. And you know, we, we, you know,
1:35:20
the Glenn Withis we did in this was actually cracking and so
1:35:22
many people were like, oh, Glenn Withis is now on my radar.
1:35:25
And just because it randomly turned up in their house.
1:35:28
So the idea is for them, it's mutually beneficial.
1:35:30
It's good for the customers, the retailers, it's good.
1:35:32
You know, someone's not sure what they want.
1:35:34
Do you like a gamble? Do you like a roll of the dice
1:35:37
although? I saw one person I saw, I saw
1:35:39
one person posted on a Facebook Group, A whiskey Facebook group,
1:35:44
and he posted a picture and it was in Diggers.
1:35:46
And he posted a picture of a drum with the mystery malt
1:35:49
beside it. And he said mystery malt,
1:35:51
Diggers. And then someone commented and
1:35:54
said, what did you get? And he went, didn't bother
1:35:55
checking, wanted to keep it a mystery.
1:35:59
I thought, oh man, Diggers. Have got a selection and it's
1:36:07
all the same price, is that right?
1:36:08
Yeah. It's all gone as well.
1:36:09
Yeah, it's all gone pretty much. There's one bottle left, one
1:36:12
bottle, 1 bottle and. So when you order a mystery
1:36:14
bottle, you don't get to, you don't know what it is.
1:36:16
Yeah, until. After no, it is great, yeah.
1:36:17
And then you get someone coming up to take the bargo, what did
1:36:19
you get? And then try to work out where
1:36:21
the barman's put the bottle back so they could try and work out
1:36:24
what, which one, if they've had it or not.
1:36:26
So, yeah, but look, look. Because.
1:36:28
I didn't think this was going to work for bars.
1:36:30
It was designed for like physical retail.
1:36:32
It's barely touched physical retail, sold out online.
1:36:36
It will eventually once we do some more of it, but I didn't
1:36:39
think it was going to work in bars at all.
1:36:40
And bars have bars have made it well.
1:36:43
You can see one on the, you can see one on the back bar there
1:36:45
and oh there. She is, yeah.
1:36:46
But it stands out because, and The thing is, it's intrigue.
1:36:48
And, and the other thing about it is which, you know, if you
1:36:51
sit around at bars long enough, you'll see people.
1:36:54
If someone, if someone takes, if someone's ordered that and
1:36:57
they're sitting two or three away from you and you see two or
1:36:59
three people ordering it, you're going to wonder like what, what
1:37:02
is that they're drinking? And go, what's that?
1:37:04
Oh, it's a mystery malt. It's only.
1:37:07
And if the bar gets it right, like what the diggers have, and
1:37:09
I'm sure they've done here as well, they'll get the pricing
1:37:11
right. So you go, well, actually, it's
1:37:13
probably worth 450, whatever it is that they're charging to get
1:37:16
a DRAM and just see what it is and have that.
1:37:18
And, you know, as I say, it's, it's probably for a lot of
1:37:21
people as well, might be the first time they've even never
1:37:23
mind had like a Glen with us or a ton of egg or something like
1:37:26
that, but might be the first time they ever come across
1:37:27
Thompson Brothers. Yeah.
1:37:28
And then suddenly it leads them on to a completely different
1:37:30
route as well. Yeah.
1:37:31
And then you've, you know, then you've got that chance as well
1:37:33
that you're going to get a 16 year old, 18 year old, 27 year
1:37:36
old, you know, the, the, the odds, the odds are pretty are
1:37:39
pretty decent getting something old as well.
1:37:42
But the the new wave guys are giving us such good casts.
1:37:47
It's in their, it's in their best interest.
1:37:48
Yeah, to show off a bit, Yeah. And we've been getting great
1:37:51
casts from these. Guys, well, I mean, I have to
1:37:53
say like just on that subject. I mean, you know, we've talked
1:37:56
about your bottle labels and things like that and the Thomas
1:37:58
brothers, but that was that was what got me onto it Was it was
1:38:02
your fortified wine bottling that similar?
1:38:08
It was similar to an Abbey down South that creates fortified
1:38:12
wine. Yeah, was an Altmore as well.
1:38:17
That was an. Altmore So yeah, but but the
1:38:19
label, because I was going, who the hell is put that kind of
1:38:23
label on a bottle of whiskey? And then the next one was was it
1:38:26
was a Tesco, the Tesco bottle. That no, the no, the wait, no,
1:38:29
you probably probably shouldn't mention the the the yellow label
1:38:33
with the red wine cask. But yeah, so I kind of slap fill
1:38:37
in the wrist a few times for that.
1:38:38
So I have done it already responsible.
1:38:39
No, no, no notice. It's like it's just a one off
1:38:41
white do. The monks go daft.
1:38:43
And the, and he designed the the Tesco's label and I'm like, or
1:38:47
the North Highland Blended Malt label.
1:38:50
And I'm like, Phil, you can't do this anymore.
1:38:52
We need to do trademark checks. Yeah, you know, he'd done a
1:38:55
couple. And so I checked trademarks for
1:38:58
the value branding and a certain big supermarket store had let it
1:39:04
let the trademark lapse and go dead.
1:39:06
So now we own the trademark in many classes, so.
1:39:13
So what other? Products are you going to be
1:39:14
bringing out I. Guess he's just wondering
1:39:16
because he wants to get out of the club card, so yeah.
1:39:23
Honestly, we've been, we've been, we did kind of a broad
1:39:27
spectrum across like just about every class.
1:39:29
So yeah, we'll do something with it.
1:39:32
I've got an evil plot I don't want to.
1:39:34
Superb. Well, look guys up your sleeve.
1:39:37
I just want to say it as well. Thank you so much.
1:39:38
But I just want to say a big show.
1:39:39
So we've got Alexis, it's Kabali from Missouri just for this,
1:39:44
just for this recording, just for SLI today.
1:39:50
Brilliant. It's been great.
1:39:51
And also we've got a tasting note.
1:39:54
Robo CJ is sitting at the back there.
1:39:55
He's on our Facebook group page. Now I'm going to get this wrong.
1:39:58
So shout out, is it capac? What is it?
1:40:00
You said Capacci, Capacci, which is not what you've written down.
1:40:03
It's a mixer. It's a Mexican is a Mexican
1:40:06
drink made of It's a pineapple drink made of fermented
1:40:09
pineapples. Pineapple.
1:40:11
Right, No, the door, like I said, tepache, that's over
1:40:17
fermented and brown envelopes. So there's a wanky tasting note
1:40:19
for you. Well, well done for that.
1:40:21
Thank you very much. But look, I just want to say,
1:40:24
come on guys, let's sure appreciate it.
1:40:26
Simon and Dan from the Thompson brother, fantastic, absolutely
1:40:29
brilliant, brilliant, fantastic, great whiskey, great whiskey.
1:40:34
Thank you so much for coming along and showing it.
1:40:36
Yeah, well, yeah, thanks everyone for for, for turning up
1:40:39
and yeah, delicious whiskey, good people.
1:40:42
What more could you want from? Absolutely.
1:40:43
Now you are at, you're at Whiskey Fringe for the rest of
1:40:46
the weekend. Whoever is going at Whiskey
1:40:47
Fringe over the weekend, what, what can we look forward to on
1:40:50
the lineup? What, how?
1:40:51
What can we? Half, half time Orange is well
1:40:54
worth keeping that for us because we have a my my very
1:40:58
last cask of 1991 name protected Isla.
1:41:02
It's Lefrog, SO30303033 years old.
1:41:07
We we got a really good deal a few years back and filled her
1:41:11
boots and we had one left and that's that's it gone bottled in
1:41:17
this style label. So we're kind of this, you know,
1:41:19
everything we do, we're, you know, we're pretty picky about
1:41:22
it. But this like Dorney Castle 25th
1:41:26
anniversary series were being a bit extra picky as to what we do
1:41:29
here. I hope you like the the Glen
1:41:30
Scotia because it's it's a really good Glen Scotia.
1:41:35
But yeah, that yeah, that's that's on the goal.
1:41:38
We we've got a little mystery malt gamble as well.
1:41:40
So we can I put my neck on the line.
1:41:43
Sorry say the Glenn Scotia was the drama of the night.
1:41:46
Well, I. Was going to say, can we go for,
1:41:48
shall we go through for drums of the night?
1:41:49
Right. So drum number one, then we'll
1:41:51
go for the BSW. Anyone fancy that one?
1:41:54
OK, on drum #2 the Glenn Scotia drama of the night.
1:41:57
But the Glenn Scotia is OK, so we've got a few there.
1:42:00
DRAM #3 was the Edinburgh N British 3333 year old.
1:42:06
Anyone for the Chuck? Chuck likes the North British
1:42:08
there. Excellent, well done.
1:42:09
Pencil shavings and birthday cake.
1:42:12
Well done. Wanky right?
1:42:14
And what about the Dornak? Anyone for the Dornak?
1:42:17
Excellent, fantastic. And then we were on to what
1:42:20
about the mystery Highland? Yeah, 18 year old Highland, 18
1:42:24
year old Thailand. I like that.
1:42:25
I'm going to put that up there as well.
1:42:26
And then what about our Mr. Raymour who liked A&B or B&A or
1:42:30
whatever he's got what everyone got a Mr. Rob.
1:42:33
Well, listen guys, let's hear it for Simon and Dan from the
1:42:36
Thompson brothers. I guess we've done it again.
1:42:46
Absolutely. We've we've managed to convince
1:42:48
more people to come and listen to us and drink some drams and
1:42:51
more importantly someone to come along and bring some drams for
1:42:53
us to. Absolutely.
1:42:54
It'd be great. We've got our Machiavellian hats
1:42:56
on. We certainly, certainly have.
1:42:57
Well listen, thank you so much for everyone for coming along.
1:43:00
It's been great. And if you are going to the
1:43:01
Whiskey Fringe over the weekend, we will be there on Sunday.
1:43:04
We'll be working on the rare fine stand we pulled the half
1:43:07
time orange. If you've not watched it
1:43:08
already, we've got a YouTube video of Angus and I mucking
1:43:11
about in a warehouse pulling that of Smith and lots of
1:43:14
bunghos there. But we we pulled out for half
1:43:16
time Orange for that one. We've got a Poutney 17 and a
1:43:22
port port, a Ruby, Ruby port Ruby port.
1:43:25
Good, no, good job. We know what we're talking
1:43:27
about. Well, we're just the port
1:43:28
Bloodstone. There you are.
1:43:30
But if you want to kind of put us under pressure, we will be
1:43:32
working there for the the rare fine guys pouring all day on the
1:43:36
Sunday. So if you're coming along.
1:43:37
But listen, Simon, thank you so much.
1:43:39
What did you? Say that Pony was again 1717
1:43:41
from port. Port, Yeah, yeah, Ruby port,
1:43:44
yeah. So we've got we've got white
1:43:45
port on the table. As well, I'll be seeing you
1:43:46
tomorrow. I.
1:43:49
Love Putney. We've never bought as a Putney.
1:43:51
I'm working on it. Come along, try it to.
1:43:53
A 17 year old white port. I was a white.
1:43:56
I like white. Too tasted that red port and I
1:43:59
worked there. Which is absolutely brutal to
1:44:01
say. Well, we got to pick it.
1:44:02
So that was that was a game. I know you had to go, you had to
1:44:05
go out. Watch the video.
1:44:06
If you haven't. Did you wonder why Chuck's so
1:44:08
pissed off? Watch the video.
1:44:08
Because he was quite annoyed when we turned Chuck.
1:44:11
Chuck. Chuck had to drive us home so.
1:44:13
So yeah, but listen anyway, guys, thank you so much for
1:44:16
coming along. You've been listening to the
1:44:17
Whiskey Stories podcast, Indie Balls.
1:44:19
Cheers. Thank you.