Latest / Whisky Stories Podcast / How to get whisky into America with Importer Howard Sacks

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How to get whisky into America with Importer Howard Sacks · Whisky Stories Podcast

• 0:00
  Right, right. We've got, we've warmed up now
• 0:02
  you see. Right guys?
• 0:02
  We've got coffee in front of us. We've got mugs of coffee.
• 0:05
  Cheers, guys. Cheers.
• 0:06
  Let's give breakfast. Podcast take two.
• 0:09
  There we go. Right.
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  I guess you know what to do. Clap us in.
• 0:17
  Welcome to the Whiskey Stories podcast.
• 0:19
  For me to add anyone to the the portfolio of what I import, they
• 0:23
  really have to be additive. They have to they have to have
• 0:26
  something different. We don't want to just import the
• 0:28
  same stuff with different labels.
• 0:30
  Like sometimes we can see a product like 99 and one from
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  living souls. Yeah, yeah, we, we knew that
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  that was going to be instantly. So I, we didn't have a
• 0:35
  conversation about that. The first time I came to
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  Scotland. I, I, I called up my my current
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  and favorite wife, Melissa and only wife if we're folks who
• 0:46
  listen and I thought you have to come here.
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  It's it's incredibly amazing. Welcome along to Whiskey Stories
• 0:52
  podcast, myself, Graeme Cogar. We are back in the athletic arm,
• 0:55
  back in Diggers. But Angus, we're not where we
• 0:58
  usually are. We really have gone up in the
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  world because we are sitting at the well in the bar.
• 1:03
  Absolutely. Yeah.
• 1:04
  We're in the main body of the Kirk, as we are.
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  We're actually at the bar. We're not sandwich between the
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  bar and the giant style. No, we're, we're underneath the
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  bar. We're not underneath the bar
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  even. We're we're sitting in because,
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  and that's because Diggers is crap and no one turns up.
• 1:16
  Yeah, we've got the place to our side, right?
• 1:18
  Good luck. Kev's around the corners a bit.
• 1:20
  Chuck a bottle at you. But we are.
• 1:22
  No, it's, I mean, I don't know if we can officially call this a
• 1:24
  lock in. If anyone from the licensing
• 1:26
  board is listening, it's we are. We did check.
• 1:29
  Everything's very. Licensed.
• 1:31
  We haven't broken in, we haven't stayed the night, we haven't
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  slept in. It isn't 3 o't o'clock in the
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  morning or anything. It's actually 10:00 in the
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  morning. It is, but when we turned up
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  this morning or when I turned up this morning, there was a lock
• 1:41
  on the. Door a lock Yeah, exactly.
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  We had to knock a specific way and get ourselves in the door.
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  Please don't do that if you do say WSP 15, you'll get a 15%
• 1:52
  discount when you come in the morning, it's on your coffee.
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  But no, we're, we're here. It's because today we are off to
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  the Independent Spirits Festival down in Leith.
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  Which I could not be more excited about.
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  I'm really. I've, I mean, last year Ross
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  occasionally over this podcast, he was there, he spoken, can I
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  go in terms about how good this festival was and looking at the
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  I didn't see the line up for last year, but I've seen the
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  line up for this year and I'm really, really excited.
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  Absolutely. I think it was actually a one
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  off last year. What I was told was basically
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  someone said you need to do that again.
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  If you don't do it again, I'm going to do it or I'll get
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  somebody else to do it because it's such a popular run.
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  It's a purely independent bottler, spirits, independent
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  bottler, whiskey festival. So only independent bottlers.
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  They're really looking forward to it, but and.
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  As you can see from the sunshine coming in, we've got a fantastic
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  day. Cracking day for spending the
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  whole day inside. Drinking, but we've a year ago
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  this morning, I guess. Yes, we were having breakfast
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  with the gentleman who's joined us today, Howard Sax.
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  Howard, how are you? I'm doing fantastic, fantastic.
• 2:58
  Great to great to have you here. Great to see you now.
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  A year ago just now, I guess this weekend was our Dormac
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  trip, which is mental because the the fact that 12 months ago
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  I know it it. It seems like it was about two
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  weeks ago. It was great.
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  And yeah, and we were sitting there with Phil and Simon on the
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  Friday night in the Dormac Castle Hotel.
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  We just recorded our first episode with Phil and Simon
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  where they brought out so much risky for us down in their
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  little in their. It's a seller room that we had.
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  Yeah, bro, all these drams, we'd had a chat.
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  Then they said up the stairs, we'll get some dinner.
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  And we're sitting having dinner. And Phil kind of said, I hope
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  you don't mind, but we're going to ask this guy to come and join
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  us. His name's Howard.
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  He's come all the way from the States.
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  So Howard went and sat down and we were like, hi, Howard, nice
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  to meet you. Yeah, great.
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  And then we asked you, what do you do?
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  So tell everybody, Howard, who are you and what do you do?
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  So I'm Howard Sachs. I'm the founder of an import
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  company, Sachs Dynamic Operations.
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  I'm I've been just a massive fan of Scotch whiskey and I started
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  the company to bring more great Scotch into the US.
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  We're a national importer. I import for Hollywood
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  distillery, Annandale Distillery.
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  I love some independent bottlers.
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  So we're we're the importer for Lady, the Glen, Living Souls,
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  the whiskey broker brands and Bartels we we import for as well
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  the Highland layered brands. Nice.
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  So yeah, because that's that's the crazy thing about this
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  morning and that's why we managed to all hook up again, is
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  the fact that like this time last year.
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  So we met you, Phil, Phil invited you onto the table,
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  which was great. We sat there.
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  We had some really, really the pizzas up at the northern
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  castle. Oh absolutely fantastic.
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  And then you know, I had a few drams, had a good night.
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  Then the next day we were just, oh there's that Howard guy at
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  breakfast when we sat and had breakfast together as well.
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  So literally a year to the day at this time probably we were
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  sitting enjoying a nice breakfast at Dorner Castle
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  Hotel. And here we are now a year on
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  Diggers and you've not stayed in Scotland for the year, You've
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  been waiting in the States and come back again.
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  So you've been here, How long have you been in Scotland for
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  this trip? About two weeks I was, I was
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  here last week and then the week before and I'll stay for the
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  festival because it, it's just the independent Spirits Festival
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  is an incredible place with so many great brands, so many great
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  brands, so much energy in the room.
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  It seems like everyone from around the world that is into
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  independent whiskey is here. Because you went to this
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  festival. Last year I did go yeah, yeah.
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  So some of our suppliers were in the, the film independent
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  spirits or I should say series, the four part series,
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  independent series that I think is, is really how to educate
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  people globally about, about what's so special about
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  independent. Bottlers Well, that's the thing,
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  because the story behind this festival was effectively
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  basically, now the names have completely gone away from me,
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  but there was a, there was a, a docu series or document movie
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  done by independent bottlers, independent bottling of Scotch
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  and a lot of familiar faces in that throughout the, the people
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  that we've spoken to and met and, and some big names in the
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  industry as well. And I think they did their they
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  did the launch last year of this.
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  And then at the back of it, they just had a sort of festival at
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  the same time. And like I say, I think that was
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  always just going to be that was the launch.
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  That was just it. And then basically people said,
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  by the way, this is really, really, really, really good.
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  Yes, we need to be doing it again.
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  Yeah. And basically here we are a year
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  on and we've got the we've got the, the festival down at Leith
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  today, which I'm really excited. But now it's like what Angus was
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  saying earlier as well. I think it was Greg Urquhart and
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  a few other guys I've spoken to have just said that the day was
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  just incredible. When we talk about whiskey
• 6:27
  festivals, we've covered a lot of whiskey festivals, I guess.
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  Yeah, we've covered quite a few. We've been to Helmsborough for
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  the IT was. Loman and Clyde.
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  Loman and Clyde, Yeah. We've been to, obviously we've
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  been a couple of times to the one in Murrayfield in Edinburgh,
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  Edinburgh, Edinburgh Whiskey Festival.
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  Yeah, Whiskey friends as. Well whiskey, fried and Fife.
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  Whiskey and Fife as well. Festival, so we've we've been to
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  a fair share. We have and the thing about them
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  is. Even that is a drop in the water
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  compared to what there is. Oh well, there is and.
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  There's so many out there. So when you do have people
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  saying people in the industry, people who know the 2 two ways
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  of looking at it is you have people in the industry who say
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  this is the best whiskey festival we've done.
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  And then you have people in the industry who go to festivals and
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  other people who do go to a lot of whiskey festivals saying I'm
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  coming to this because it is up there.
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  I think Whiskey Fringe will always be seen as like the main
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  big whiskey festival in Edinburgh.
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  Yeah, in Scotland. Then you have whiskey Paris
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  live. You have Whiskey London, London
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  live, London. Is it London live or whiskey in
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  London? Whatever.
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  And you have actually don't. If Chuck was here, he'd be
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  saying you have the Chichiboo Fest out in Japan.
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  Absolutely, they're global, but this is what what makes a good
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  whiskey festival. And I think that's a question
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  that we do want to ask a little bit more about is what makes a
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  good whiskey festival. And I think one of the things
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  that I'll say is that when you have a room full of just indie
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  bottlers, we've been lucky enough to go to Whiskey Fringe a
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  couple of Times Now, I guess. And the downstairs better
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  Whiskey Fringe is a sort of independent newish distilleries
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  and independent. And what everyone always says is
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  it is the busiest. Yeah, part of the festival
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  because. There is that diversity there
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  and there is that, you know, you know that people will be, you
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  know, having interesting releases.
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  You know there'll be there'll be different things that you can
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  try. Yeah, and, and it's good fun and
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  you're meeting people who, and not that everyone else doesn't,
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  but you know, you can go to a whiskey festival and you can
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  have a big brand there. And that big brand will have
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  maybe a brand advocacy team or a brand ambassador.
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  And, and that's fine. And that's great because there's
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  some fantastic brand ambassadors out there like Mike Brown and,
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  and some of the other guys that we've met.
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  So getting a chance to speak to those guys, you see the passion
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  coming through. Other brands might even put
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  somebody like Stephen Woodcock on the stand.
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  And you know, then you're getting a chance to actually
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  meet the guy who's blending it and who's has a fingerprint on
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  the whiskey. But when you go to an
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  independent, the section of the independent or you're going
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  somewhere, it's all independents that are in there.
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  You're meeting the people who are literally doing it.
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  You know, Woody and Megan will be there today and they'll be
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  sitting there standing there on the thing and they'll be talking
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  about what they're doing. George and Rachel Keebel, you'll
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  have the Thompson brothers will be down.
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  And it's basically it is these guys are what we're giving you
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  is what we've physically made ourselves.
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  Absolutely. And it's a very good point,
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  Graham, because what you're saying is not only is a great
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  chance to try the whiskey and try maybe something a wee bit
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  different that they might have at the festival, etcetera, I'm
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  sure people will be bringing special bottles along.
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  It's also a great opportunity, like you said, to speak to the
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  producer, speak to those people, ask questions, get to know about
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  what these brands do, how they do it.
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  But you know, if you're a whiskey fringe and you are
• 9:38
  speaking at the refind, I had a rare find you.
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  They just had a couple of chances.
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  Like what we did see from that is actually such an engaged
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  audience. People were asking us these
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  questions that really should have been asking the producers.
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  Right. Yeah, yeah.
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  But also it's the second side of it.
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  The secondary part from a brand perspective is it's the people
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  who are coming in are important. Yes.
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  Now, I'm not going to slaughter any, any whiskey festival in
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  general. But when you get a group of
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  engaged people who know what basically what you know is that
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  this room is going to be full of whiskey geeks.
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  Yeah, right. So the geeks have.
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  This is where they're all going. This is Comic Con.
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  There are this is, you know, for whiskey geeks.
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  This is. This is it, you know, and.
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  We even got dressed up. We've got yeah, we've got our
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  teachers, we're cosplaying, we're broadcasters.
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  But that because. But there is a danger You we've
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  seen it ourselves. It's a long day.
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  You're standing on a stall and you're pouring whiskey.
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  And then what you have is you have one person that comes.
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  There are people who walk about these festivals with pens and
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  paper and notepads, right? Oh, yeah.
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  Great. Yeah.
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  They're coming up and going, right?
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  I've researched that you're going to be here.
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  I've found that you've got, you know, an unnamed lowland.
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  I want to, I want to try it and I want to talk about it and I
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  want to hear about it. Great.
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  Then it gives us an or it gives the brand an opportunity to
• 10:58
  speak to them. Then also you just get people
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  that are just literally walking around going oh, I'll try some
• 11:03
  of that or oh, I'll try something.
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  That's now of course, we always advocate please festival
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  responsibly, OK, But you do just get people sometimes that just
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  go like we interviewed a guy at the Roman and Clyde Whiskey
• 11:14
  Festival. I said, what have you tried
• 11:16
  today? And he went row one, right?
• 11:20
  And I went, OK, And I said, Ellie, stand out.
• 11:23
  And he went, it all just tastes like whiskey, but that's fine.
• 11:27
  That's his prerogative. He was there.
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  So this is where you're literally going to get you're
• 11:31
  not going to get people going. Can I try your most expensive or
• 11:33
  can I try your oldest whiskey? What they're going to say is
• 11:36
  they're going to say, can I, can I, can I try what?
• 11:40
  I really like ROM casts. I want to try all the.
• 11:42
  ROM casts finishes, so I'm looking forward to it.
• 11:44
  But Howard, right. Talk us through your journey.
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  How did you get any whiskey? So I've always like since I
• 11:51
  became drinking age have have enjoyed whiskey.
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  Which is of course like 3 or 4 years after we overcame the
• 11:56
  drinking age of these. Days unfortunately, but I, I was
• 12:01
  in consulting and I, I did tax consulting and large projects
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  and I'd be on the road with project teams and you'd go out
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  it, you'd get in early, you'd work late, you'd go out, you'd
• 12:13
  have, you'd have some drinks to unwind.
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  And I was, I was on a project, I think where I really began my,
• 12:22
  my love of Scotch was, I was in a project in London and it
• 12:26
  wasn't a long term project, but I was out there for weeks at a
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  time and I discovered what, what?
• 12:32
  Well, in London, cash strength and independent bottled Scotch,
• 12:37
  particularly I, I had a bottle from the whiskey exchange that
• 12:41
  was their Christmas mall. It was a Glenn Farkle in there.
• 12:43
  It was a cash strength and it was just, it was just
• 12:47
  incredible. And so I think that that was
• 12:51
  that was my, the start of my journey was start with having
• 12:56
  just social like drinks, like a Doer's or Johnnie Walker.
• 13:00
  And then when I when I came to the UK from from the US and got
• 13:04
  exposure to to some of the great distilleries in Scotland and
• 13:08
  what they were able to produce at at at non chill, filtered at
• 13:11
  at at higher strengths, it really got me thinking and
• 13:17
  wanting to explore what else is out there.
• 13:20
  And when is this roughly time wise what we're talking?
• 13:22
  How? Many years ago, yeah.
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  So. 2016 was the first time I went out there and then 2018 I
• 13:29
  would say was when I started to get down in the deep end where I
• 13:34
  was, I was seeing the independent bottlers and, and
• 13:37
  looking for, for distilleries that didn't have releases that
• 13:40
  were usually used for, not for, for blending, not not
• 13:44
  necessarily as as a, as a single mall.
• 13:47
  So you were doing that on your kind of personal level.
• 13:50
  You were just seeing those different whiskeys that cast
• 13:53
  strength whiskeys, independent bottlers.
• 13:56
  How long then until you started your business then?
• 13:58
  Yes, I, I, I continued to do consulting through, through 2022
• 14:04
  and towards the, the end of the pandemic, I got to be managing
• 14:09
  director at a large global firm. And I, I found myself
• 14:14
  unsatisfied with, with where I was.
• 14:17
  I got to the, the, the pinnacle, so to speak, at what I thought
• 14:20
  was the most prestigious firm and, and doing the kind of work
• 14:23
  that I wanted to do with the level I wanted to do it.
• 14:26
  But I, I, I was just unsatisfied.
• 14:29
  I, I didn't, I didn't think that this was how I wanted to spend
• 14:33
  my life. And so I, I, I left what, what
• 14:37
  at that point it was, it was a hard, you know, summit to climb,
• 14:40
  but I had got to, to there. And I, I said, I want to do
• 14:44
  something entrepreneurial. And so I, I wrote some business
• 14:47
  plans and I, I promised my, my wife I would operate no more
• 14:51
  than three entrepreneurial businesses at once.
• 14:53
  And and and I'm still on the first business.
• 14:59
  Well, that's good, man. That's really good.
• 15:03
  I wrote the and I thought that there was I and I still believe
• 15:08
  it, that it's just logistically and operationally and from a
• 15:12
  regulatory perspective, it's hard to operate in the US,
• 15:17
  especially with single cast cash strength whiskeys, the stuff I
• 15:21
  like. And I sought, I sought to use my
• 15:24
  experience with, with regulators and, and with, with process to,
• 15:30
  to try to, to come up with a way to efficiently get the, the
• 15:35
  kinds of whiskeys that I loved. The stuff that was that was
• 15:37
  single casket was limited release into the US and
• 15:41
  available for consumers to to easily purchase and and get into
• 15:45
  their home bars and and into to their their glasses ultimately.
• 15:48
  'Cause it's a niche. You're niche, Dang, aren't you?
• 15:50
  Because when you going back before you even started the
• 15:54
  business and came up with a business plan, you know, we've
• 15:56
  got Scott Moore. Hello, Scott.
• 16:00
  And his current wife out there in the States.
• 16:02
  And Scott. Scott will travel around the
• 16:04
  country with the work that he does with the Memphis Symphony
• 16:08
  Orchestra. He is travelling a lot for work.
• 16:11
  And what he'll be able to do is he'll be able to work out, oh, I
• 16:14
  could go to this state and I know I can get this supporter
• 16:16
  and hear that. Yeah.
• 16:17
  And he, he is looking. I mean, the thing that really
• 16:20
  gave us introduction to Scott was when it was a weekend DRAM
• 16:23
  roll call and Ross spotted some really obscure.
• 16:27
  It was a Black Adder. I think it was like an Inver
• 16:30
  Gordon 50 or something like that.
• 16:32
  It was an old grain whiskey bottle by Black at our
• 16:34
  Independent bottle. Yeah, and Ross and.
• 16:36
  Ross went. How have you got that in
• 16:38
  America? Where did you find this?
• 16:39
  And then that triggered him to do his that triggered him to do
• 16:42
  his video, which was great. And it was started the video of
• 16:45
  people showing their bars and we saw whiskey shed PM from from
• 16:48
  Bob cutting and we've seen we've seen Craig Darling's bar
• 16:52
  absolutely fantastic. But point being is there are
• 16:56
  there are people out in America, in the States and all over the
• 16:59
  world really, but in America that we'll be searching for
• 17:02
  unique and bespoke whiskeys. And how easy is that to explain
• 17:06
  it from where we're sitting in a pub with over 800 bottles of
• 17:08
  whiskey and a bridge of independent bottlers, how easy
• 17:11
  is it for the consumer in the States?
• 17:13
  So when you've come back from London, as you're going far
• 17:16
  less, you've you've gone right and I need to find more, not not
• 17:19
  just your standard OB's on the shelf.
• 17:21
  How hard is that? It's, it's, it can be incredibly
• 17:25
  difficult, especially depending on which state you're in.
• 17:27
  So at the time, I was living in the state of Pennsylvania, which
• 17:30
  is what what we call a control state, meaning the government
• 17:34
  has controlled monopoly on the retail tier.
• 17:37
  So this is maybe a bit like in Sweden where the kind of the
• 17:41
  liquor stores and Sweden are all kind of government owned.
• 17:43
  Yeah, you've got a limited selection of what you can buy.
• 17:46
  Is that the same idea? In in certain states, yeah.
• 17:49
  Yeah. So each state is different,
• 17:51
  their own, their own little fiefdoms.
• 17:52
  Yeah. But in Pennsylvania, there's a
• 17:54
  there's a Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board and there's a
• 17:58
  buyer for spirits. And that buyer for spirits is in
• 18:02
  charge of buying the the, the what's going to be in the
• 18:05
  physical stores throughout the state.
• 18:07
  Just one person. Basically.
• 18:08
  So they have full control. So if that person doesn't think
• 18:12
  that whiskey is really that big a business and decides that
• 18:14
  tequila or rum or cognac is a bigger opportunity, then
• 18:18
  basically the shop shelves will be full of that but not and
• 18:21
  you'll get limited whiskey on there.
• 18:23
  You'll have limited Scotch in there because they might think
• 18:26
  Scotch is in a good category because they what they've chosen
• 18:28
  is a moving. Yeah, Well, that's the next
• 18:31
  thing. Yeah.
• 18:31
  Because I want to dive into this.
• 18:33
  I really want to go into how it works because I don't know if
• 18:36
  I've told you, Angus, but I was actually in India for a wee
• 18:38
  while at the beginning of the year.
• 18:40
  Yeah, Really. Yeah, I was over there.
• 18:41
  I don't know, I wondered where you are, but, but I've done a
• 18:44
  lot of conversations about India and Indian market.
• 18:47
  And we've, we've done podcast episodes where we've discussed
• 18:50
  the the challenges and the way that India's set up.
• 18:53
  But we've never, we've spoken to Scott Moore about it, who's a
• 18:55
  consumer, and he talks about how difficult it is for him to get
• 18:59
  to get easier, how tricky it is depending state by state.
• 19:02
  So what it what is the system in the States?
• 19:04
  Then explain it to us as easily as you possibly can so we can
• 19:08
  understand how hard or how easy it is to get whiskey in America.
• 19:10
  Yeah. So we, we have a, I'll start at
• 19:12
  the top level. We have a, we have a three tier
• 19:14
  system where you've got, you've got the producer tier.
• 19:18
  Those are the people that that make the products.
• 19:20
  You have the wholesale tier. That's where I sit.
• 19:23
  Those are people that that import the products and sell to
• 19:26
  one another and includes local distributors in each state.
• 19:29
  Each state likes to to protect themselves and have local people
• 19:32
  doing distribution within their state.
• 19:34
  And then you have the retail tier and that includes stores
• 19:37
  and bars and pubs and all the on premise and off premise items
• 19:44
  within the so you get licensed unlicensed at at the national
• 19:48
  level by the TTB for for wholesale and and import.
• 19:51
  And the TTB or who? Sorry, that's.
• 19:53
  The the federal government. That's federal government tax
• 19:57
  and trade. Bureau.
• 19:57
  There they go, the Bureau. Guys at the Bureau.
• 20:02
  They've been good to, they've been good to work with.
• 20:03
  I have no complaints working with the TTBI.
• 20:05
  When they interviewed me, they asked if I was going to pay my
• 20:07
  taxes and I said, Oh yeah, I'll pay my and then that.
• 20:10
  Then things went a lot easier after.
• 20:13
  They want to make things as long as you're paying taxes.
• 20:15
  You get your license for the TTB then, right?
• 20:17
  So you're licensed. So then what happens?
• 20:19
  So then we have, I have a state license, so I have state
• 20:21
  licenses. My home state is Florida now.
• 20:24
  Really great place to do business.
• 20:26
  Hello to the Tampa Bay Whiskey Club.
• 20:32
  Thank you for the support. Tampa Bay Whiskey Club, Alfredo,
• 20:35
  Roberto Alley and the rest of the members.
• 20:37
  Really good guys. Hope to be out.
• 20:39
  I'll be in Tampa I think in in April, yeah.
• 20:41
  So hopefully we'll have a DRAM, then hopefully this will be out
• 20:43
  by. Yeah.
• 20:46
  So, yeah. So yeah, that's our home state
• 20:47
  by. Home state, we've got import
• 20:49
  export licenses in Florida, but then if we want to do business
• 20:52
  in other states, some states require licenses, others don't.
• 20:56
  So for for California, we've got and I won't name all the states,
• 21:00
  but you know there's an out of state shippers permit you have
• 21:02
  to have, right. In New York State, there's like
• 21:04
  a marketing permit that we have to have, I forget what they call
• 21:08
  it. And in Maryland we registered to
• 21:10
  be in. And so all the different states,
• 21:13
  some have a charge, some charge you for the license to be able
• 21:17
  to do it, some charge you by the SKU.
• 21:18
  So every brand label we have to register.
• 21:22
  So for for one of the reasons why it's challenging to bring
• 21:26
  single cask in to the US is that each of the labels, depending on
• 21:30
  how the labels are designed, is its own registration.
• 21:33
  So Florida might charge me $30.00 for the label, New York
• 21:36
  might charge me $20.00 for the label and and.
• 21:39
  So what you say for the label you're talking about like let's
• 21:41
  just say if, if, if we're talking about living souls,
• 21:43
  because living souls are one of your brands you distribute and
• 21:46
  bring in living souls can bring out.
• 21:48
  So the living souls label is there, but let's just say if
• 21:50
  they give you an out turn of say three different tasks, then 100
• 21:55
  bottles of this cask A, 200 bottles of cask B and 300
• 21:59
  bottles of cask C, you would have to pay for each one of
• 22:02
  those out a label registration for cask A, a label registration
• 22:05
  for cask B for the same sake, even though it's the same brand.
• 22:08
  Yes, right. Wow.
• 22:09
  And that's very I think that's very similar in India.
• 22:11
  I think there's a similarity. And then when it when you talk
• 22:13
  about the cost of that, what about the time scale?
• 22:16
  Is it quick turn around or do you have to submit it and wait a
• 22:19
  few weeks, months to get labels registered?
• 22:21
  So. My home state of Florida is
• 22:23
  pretty efficient because they're, they, they like to
• 22:26
  collect the revenue. So within 24 hours of me
• 22:28
  submitting it, they'll they'll approve it and then we can be
• 22:31
  selling. So you can have literally
• 22:32
  bottles ready to go and. But other States and I won't
• 22:36
  name names because we like to go on good terms with the other.
• 22:38
  They can, they can take a month and then they ask questions
• 22:41
  about it and and and so it can be a longer process.
• 22:44
  And all right, so you said you weren't going to name all the
• 22:46
  states that you're actually in because, but how many states
• 22:49
  across America are you in there? Well, what?
• 22:53
  What I've done as a, as a new importers, our, our first
• 22:56
  shipment came in 2024 is we, we took an effort versus impact
• 23:00
  approach to say what are the biggest markets that we can be
• 23:03
  in with, with the lowest amount of effort and are going to have
• 23:07
  the biggest impact on, on the the bottom line.
• 23:10
  And so for us, we looked at New York State and New York State's
• 23:14
  a great place to do business. And so that was the first market
• 23:17
  we were in. And in 2024, we're in, we're in
• 23:21
  some of the best bars in Manhattan, which is pretty
• 23:24
  prestigious. And it's it's, it helps us
• 23:25
  nationally. So we're in places like the
• 23:27
  Brandy Library, we're in Copper and Oak, we're in the travel bar
• 23:31
  in Brooklyn there. And that was important for me
• 23:34
  because I see that really as advertising that these great
• 23:37
  places are willing to stock the products.
• 23:39
  And when people, there's a lot of tourists that come into those
• 23:42
  bars that they can see it there and they can go want to get it.
• 23:47
  And then the other thing that we did as as part of my, my
• 23:50
  business plan is I wanted to work with a good digital
• 23:53
  partner. So most of the stores that we
• 23:55
  work with are digital first, meaning they have really great
• 23:59
  websites and they allow people to, to buy things online in
• 24:03
  addition to their, their brick and mortar.
• 24:04
  They don't rely on foot traffic. And so the stores that we've
• 24:08
  been able to work with in New York State stock most of the
• 24:11
  skews that I import so that consumers don't have to go find
• 24:15
  the bottle. Cuz on a, on a given import, I
• 24:17
  may only get of a single cask. And this is a good like I may
• 24:21
  get 10 cases of 60 bottles in the country and.
• 24:25
  Yeah. So where do you put that?
• 24:26
  Yeah. So we don't want, we don't want
• 24:27
  the consumer to have to figure out what this store has this
• 24:30
  bottle and that store has that one cuz you're never going to
• 24:32
  get the single the right bottle in the right store.
• 24:36
  So we work with with, with places that had really good
• 24:39
  e-commerce strategy so that consumers are able to to go
• 24:43
  online and buy the bottles and and those New York retailers
• 24:47
  have have worked out pretty good deals where they're able to to
• 24:50
  ship. Yeah.
• 24:51
  And so, and they've got national reach as well.
• 24:53
  Yeah, most of them are able to. There's a couple states that
• 24:55
  don't like you to ship into them that they don't ship into.
• 24:58
  But most of the country, unless your state is litigious are are
• 25:02
  able to to get the bottles. So the idea being, you know,
• 25:05
  someone like Scott Moore, he's in New York for for work or a
• 25:09
  wee trip with his current wife. They pop into one of these bars,
• 25:13
  he sees a bottle on the shelf. Wow, we've never seen that
• 25:15
  before. Orders it and goes, this is
• 25:18
  great. I can get this in the States
• 25:20
  now. And instead of trying to find
• 25:22
  out what shop he can get it in or store, he can find out.
• 25:26
  Basically he can just go online and there'll be a retailer
• 25:29
  hopefully. So that's actually that is an
• 25:32
  interesting model and that's where for me trying to really
• 25:35
  understand it because so from the other point of view then
• 25:38
  let's just say we want to get Whiskey Stories podcast product
• 25:42
  into the States, then yeah, how do we do it?
• 25:46
  Yeah. So step one is, you know,
• 25:51
  working on what the price is going to be.
• 25:52
  Yeah, because in the three tier system, it shocks a lot of
• 25:56
  people to see how how there's a there's a kind of a snowball
• 26:00
  effect. Everybody takes their.
• 26:01
  Car, yeah. So you know, 1st we have to
• 26:05
  convert from from pounds to dollars, which which is simple
• 26:08
  enough. And then we ship into the US
• 26:13
  There's a lot of cost to get things over the Atlantic and
• 26:15
  there's filings. And so we, we, you would need to
• 26:18
  have an FDA registration. We'd need to notify the FDA when
• 26:22
  the product is coming should port fees when it comes in the
• 26:26
  port, they're gonna have a fee. I pay a customs broker to do the
• 26:29
  filings. She does a great job.
• 26:31
  It's done right quickly the first time, every time, and then
• 26:35
  we bring it into a warehouse and.
• 26:38
  You do all that. Yeah, I coordinate all that.
• 26:40
  Right. So yeah, so literally all I'm
• 26:41
  doing is at this point, as I'm saying to you, yeah, I've found
• 26:45
  you. I've got a brand, I've got
• 26:46
  Whiskey stories, podcast Blend, which we're going to get sorted
• 26:49
  once I get my batting tank cleaned.
• 26:52
  Coming coming in later this year at some.
• 26:54
  Point I say to you, right, how do we get whiskey stories blend
• 26:57
  into the states? I speak to you and you say,
• 26:59
  right, I'll sort of that. Yeah, I give the parade of
• 27:03
  horribles and all of the costs. Right.
• 27:06
  And so then tell me this then with all those costs, if I do
• 27:10
  you base it on, but the bottle it costs us or if I say to you
• 27:14
  right, what the bottle to retail, I say the retail value
• 27:17
  of this bottle is going to say 50 lbs for easy, right?
• 27:20
  Do you then take that and then work out what that has to sit on
• 27:23
  the shelf at in America or do we have to then work out a deal
• 27:28
  saying or do you say to be great?
• 27:29
  If you want the bottle to cost $50.00 in America, you need to
• 27:36
  sell it to us at X price. Is that how that works then?
• 27:38
  Yeah, it's kind of a blend of both, I would say.
• 27:41
  Good use of an. Analogy, good blend, yeah, So we
• 27:44
  get what's called X works pricing where the supplier said
• 27:47
  this is what the bottle is going to cost and at FoB where you can
• 27:53
  pick it up at a point. So X works.
• 27:55
  So why understanding X works is effectively, if I said to you, X
• 27:59
  works, right, I'm going to bottle all this, I'm going to
• 28:01
  label it and then I'm going to put it in the cases and I'm
• 28:03
  going to leave it at the front door of diggers.
• 28:06
  And then it's up to you. I'm going to sell it to you at
• 28:08
  this price. And that's all I'm going to do.
• 28:10
  And then it's your now your job, which I can help you with, but
• 28:13
  it's your job to find somebody in a van to pick it up, then
• 28:18
  take it to either an airport that's going to ship it or or
• 28:22
  probably go by sea. So it's going to go to
• 28:23
  Grangemouth or someplace like that, but that's X works
• 28:26
  literally just means this is the price of the bottles left at the
• 28:29
  front door for you to then collect and do whatever you want
• 28:32
  with. Yeah.
• 28:33
  So that OK. So we start with that and I'll,
• 28:35
  I'll run that through the model that I have which, which has all
• 28:38
  of these costs that that I so we, we spread out all the costs
• 28:42
  of import from because we consolidate across suppliers
• 28:45
  typically to to try to to lower that.
• 28:48
  And then we have we have cost for warehousing.
• 28:50
  So for instance, the state of California has a resting rule
• 28:53
  where it has to, it has to rest for 24 hours in California.
• 28:58
  Some might say it just has to touch, but it, it has to touch
• 29:01
  or, or rest depending on who you talk to.
• 29:03
  And then from there it, it can go out to a retailer, but that's
• 29:07
  to keep the warehouses and business in California.
• 29:08
  So our our model incorporates all of those costs for, for,
• 29:12
  for, for third parties, a small amount of margin for us a wee a
• 29:16
  wee bit. And then we've got distributors
• 29:18
  in each state that we we work with, they get paid.
• 29:21
  And then we have the retailer in the US and the retailer
• 29:23
  typically in the US likes to earn about 30% margin.
• 29:26
  Some retailers are lower, some are a little higher, depending
• 29:29
  on the real. Estate, which is a big margin,
• 29:31
  isn't. It so the retailer takes 30%,
• 29:33
  but then also you've got so go, let's go the other way.
• 29:35
  So the retailers take a 30% margin roughly give or take,
• 29:38
  then your distributors getting something.
• 29:40
  They like some some of the full service distributors that that
• 29:43
  are in the the middle of the country like to earn 30%.
• 29:47
  So the retailers getting 30, yes, distributors getting 30,
• 29:50
  yeah, we're having to pay for it to sit in California for a day
• 29:53
  and we haven't. Gone to California.
• 29:55
  And we haven't even mentioned the T word either.
• 29:57
  Yeah, we have to hire ups and taxes and duties.
• 30:00
  Yeah, I was, I was getting to that right.
• 30:02
  OK. Sorry.
• 30:02
  Yeah, no, it's a carry on. Yeah, yeah.
• 30:06
  I mean we went in a couple. So we went, I was giving you the
• 30:09
  parade of horribles from the import side when we're landing
• 30:12
  and then there's one also then from the.
• 30:14
  So what we prepare is a waterfall analysis.
• 30:16
  We have all the costs. So that's usually what happens
• 30:18
  with the supplier is they give me the price, I look at it and
• 30:21
  then it's it looks like it's initially a good price with X
• 30:24
  works and then we layer and all these costs we're like this is
• 30:27
  what it's going to land at the shelf at.
• 30:30
  And then we have that talk is like you, I don't know if this
• 30:33
  is going to be sellable here. Sometimes we can see a product
• 30:35
  like 99 and one from living Souls.
• 30:37
  Yeah, we knew that that was going to be instantly.
• 30:39
  We didn't have a conversation about that.
• 30:42
  But like other products with them or other suppliers, we
• 30:45
  might have that conversation to say if this is going to sit at
• 30:48
  $500, do we think people are going to buy it at $500?
• 30:51
  Yeah, because ultimately the person so who picks up the belt
• 30:55
  really who who gets hit here Because if I'm saying you X
• 30:58
  Works price, so I'm saying it says retail price at £50, let's
• 31:01
  just say X Works is going. So we've not included any tax on
• 31:04
  that. We're not including any margin
• 31:06
  on that. Well, we are making a margin.
• 31:07
  We're not a retail margin. I'll maybe say to you, right,
• 31:10
  it's going to cost you £35 per bottle, right.
• 31:13
  Let's say for easy counting, that's 350 bottles because we're
• 31:16
  giving you 10. We're giving you, we're giving
• 31:17
  you 100 bottles. Yeah, sorry, we're giving you
• 31:21
  1010 bottles. My maths is not in a good place
• 31:24
  right now. So it's all right.
• 31:25
  You're getting 10 bottles for easy count.
• 31:27
  There's 10 bottles, 35 lbs cost to you.
• 31:30
  OK, then you've got to do all layer all your other costs on
• 31:34
  top. Roughly speaking, what would you
• 31:35
  reckon that would sit on the shelf in the States and for?
• 31:38
  35 LB bottle. But we would retail at 50, but
• 31:43
  you're going to have to add in all your costs on.
• 31:45
  That, yeah, I think in the US three tier system that's that's
• 31:48
  going to be close to, to it's going to be pushing like close
• 31:51
  to 140 a $150.00 depending on where that and depends where the
• 31:54
  pound is. Yeah.
• 31:56
  So you can buy it for 50, so I can buy it for £50 in the shop
• 31:59
  in Scotland, but the the consumer in the States is going
• 32:02
  to have to pay 100. And then what you have the
• 32:04
  problem is you that like you said, you have to have
• 32:07
  conversations with us to go right guys.
• 32:10
  Is your product realistically going to justify somebody's, how
• 32:16
  can they justify spending that kind of money on your whiskey?
• 32:19
  And if they do, are they going to be enthusiastic enough to go
• 32:23
  back and want more or are they going to go, I'm not drinking
• 32:26
  that, it's rubbish, that was an Angus blend and go.
• 32:33
  And then your problem is your retailer stuck with that stock.
• 32:37
  Well, we like, we don't like retailers to be stuck with.
• 32:39
  Stuff exactly, because then the problem is the retailer never
• 32:41
  comes back to you again because he says, Howard, the last time
• 32:43
  you gave me stuff I took a punt in it and it was rubbish.
• 32:46
  So so this is so. So where do you have to have
• 32:48
  that conversation? First or last, don't you?
• 32:50
  Yeah, it's a, it's a long and it's a hard conversation and
• 32:53
  sometimes it's 1:00. We, we don't finish like their
• 32:56
  products that we think would be great.
• 32:59
  But maybe the economics just don't work in the US,
• 33:02
  unfortunately. Because.
• 33:04
  Well. Well, no, I'm just that is the
• 33:07
  problem that you have is that it's one of the conversations
• 33:10
  that we'll be having a lot this week actually with people is
• 33:14
  when you're putting, when you're an independent bottler or a
• 33:17
  blender or anybody really and you've got the head or heart
• 33:19
  situation, what hat do you put on?
• 33:21
  Do you put, sit there and go, I love this DRAM.
• 33:23
  I would drink this DRAM. This is an absolute cracking
• 33:26
  DRAM, but then you have to then put your other hat on and go
• 33:28
  get. A businessman.
• 33:29
  Is this drama actually going to sell at the price that we put it
• 33:33
  on the shelf at? Is it going to sit on the shelf
• 33:34
  beside everybody else's drama at the same price and not stand
• 33:37
  out? Or is it going to be pitched too
• 33:39
  high? Or is it just not going to?
• 33:41
  You know, that's where conversations like that, people
• 33:44
  really in the whiskey industry, if you're on the creation side,
• 33:47
  don't like to have. Well, maybe do they?
• 33:49
  But what I would say is we talk about all the time Jura, there's
• 33:54
  Dura 10 and Dura isn't, well, Dura itself is the number one
• 33:58
  selling single malt in Scotland, UK, brand new UK, yeah.
• 34:02
  And people will go what there is.
• 34:05
  It's 40% ABV S It does what it needs to do.
• 34:10
  People buy it 26 LB a bottle in the coop or in the supermarket.
• 34:13
  That's what they do then, you know, so they have to make a
• 34:17
  decision. The people White and Mackay are
• 34:18
  sitting there going, yeah, that's that's what it is.
• 34:21
  That's a product. That's a brand that sells.
• 34:23
  Yeah. But that leads interestingly
• 34:24
  into the kind of products you've decided to base your business
• 34:28
  around because you're not, you're primarily independent
• 34:31
  bottlers, small distilleries, etcetera.
• 34:33
  You're not, you're not going after those big distilleries
• 34:37
  because they're already taken for right.
• 34:39
  So this is trying, what you're trying to do in a way is bring
• 34:43
  something that's not currently in America to America, which is
• 34:48
  a really, really interesting decision as well because also
• 34:50
  you're you're kind of breaking new ground as you're doing that
• 34:53
  as well. Yeah, So the, the distilleries
• 34:56
  and the brands largely that I've brought in, I I sought out and
• 35:01
  they weren't in the US and I wanted them to be in the US.
• 35:04
  So at Hollywood Distillery, for instance, I was knocking on the
• 35:07
  door before they even had single ball.
• 35:09
  Really available. So you were.
• 35:11
  Cuz I loved what they were doing with their experimentations in
• 35:15
  malt bills. We call it mash bills in the US,
• 35:18
  but with different malts and specialty yeasts.
• 35:20
  I thought it was. I still do.
• 35:22
  I think it's incredibly exciting and it wasn't in the US.
• 35:26
  And I love what Annandale does with single cast cash strength
• 35:30
  and no traditional importer would want to mess around with
• 35:33
  that because of the logistical challenges of trying to well.
• 35:37
  Does that make it difficult for you?
• 35:38
  Because what you've picked is you've picked 2 brands, 2
• 35:41
  distillery brands that are doing something very different by
• 35:44
  making things completely unique all the time, so the consistency
• 35:47
  is not there. Does that make it harder for
• 35:49
  you? Because ultimately you've got a
• 35:51
  situation where you know what happens if I like that Hollywood
• 35:54
  release and I go, I love that, and then I go, I can't get it
• 35:58
  anymore because the next holiday's gone.
• 36:01
  There's a nice part to that, but also there's equally a challenge
• 36:03
  to that as well. There, there is a lot of chat.
• 36:05
  So there's challenge with getting that shelf space and
• 36:07
  then when it's sold out, it's sold out, but it doesn't
• 36:11
  necessarily mean that that retailer is going to want to put
• 36:15
  a different SKU from that producer in that shelf space.
• 36:18
  It's a lot of work. We for in Adendale's case, we
• 36:21
  imported a double Oaked and double oak, not on their end,
• 36:25
  their single cast, meaning one cask from from start to finish,
• 36:28
  but they used a double oak from a prominent bourbon distillery.
• 36:32
  And we imported it last year and it, it was phenomenal and it
• 36:36
  worked really well and, and people really liked it.
• 36:39
  And we have another double oak cast pick, but I've got the
• 36:42
  buyers are saying, well, we like that old one.
• 36:43
  We don't know about the new one. And it's like, well, it's trust
• 36:46
  me, it's better. But but it's it's.
• 36:50
  Challenging you've got you've got it is.
• 36:51
  It is, but I guess what you're saying with, you know, we talk
• 36:53
  about Jura and and Jura #1 best selling single malt brand in the
• 36:58
  UK and that has a market. But there is another market
• 37:02
  which like you said, the people go Jura, they're not buying
• 37:05
  Jura, they're buying. So there is, you know, I'm sure
• 37:08
  like the UK and the US there is this market for cast strength,
• 37:13
  single cast. Yeah, new distilleries,
• 37:15
  interesting independent bottlers and if you can bring that to
• 37:20
  that market, then you know you. You and if you could hook into
• 37:23
  that market and that's. And expand that market.
• 37:26
  Well, yeah, I mean, but there's my next question then is who
• 37:28
  picks up the bill for marketing? Because your, your point here is
• 37:32
  that, yeah, if you suddenly say I've got Hollywood now you put
• 37:36
  that in a shop, how many people are going to go, wow, Hollywood
• 37:39
  versus what you have to do to push that to make itself?
• 37:42
  Do you pick up the bill for that?
• 37:44
  Does the retailer pick up the bill for that?
• 37:45
  Do Hollywood or the the brand that you're bringing in do that?
• 37:48
  Or is it a shared cost for everybody?
• 37:50
  Yeah. So I, I try to do, do it in a
• 37:53
  shared fashion where when we go out around the country, we'll,
• 37:57
  we'll allocate a certain amount to the, the brands for, for AMP
• 38:01
  that we, we ask them to, to chip in and contribute.
• 38:05
  But, but largely like if, if I'm going out to New York or if I'm
• 38:08
  going out to California, or even if I'm going to the other side
• 38:10
  of Florida for the like week, my cost to be out there is, is, is
• 38:14
  I'm not allocating that. We're just allocating, you know,
• 38:17
  actual costs. Like if there's a booth, we'll
• 38:20
  put part of the booth back to the brands.
• 38:23
  If if we're pouring bottles, we'll before we pour the
• 38:25
  bottles, we'll ask the brands you know to contribute some of
• 38:28
  that to to. So you'll say liquid available?
• 38:31
  Yeah. So you'll say living Souls, for
• 38:33
  example, we're going to be at a festival somewhere in the
• 38:36
  States, like like New York. 5 bottles to.
• 38:39
  Give us, give us some pouring stock that we don't have to pay
• 38:41
  for, but it gives us a chance to do the liquid to lip situation.
• 38:45
  Yeah, but it's critical. Yeah, absolutely.
• 38:48
  Especially for new brands that people aren't familiar with.
• 38:50
  Getting liquid and glasses and getting people trying it and
• 38:53
  talking about it. OK, so that's you'll split that
• 38:55
  and activate like because this is the other thing brand
• 38:58
  activations and things like that.
• 38:59
  Do you do you do all those kind of stuff?
• 39:01
  Will you be, will that be part of your in your wheelhouse where
• 39:03
  you'll say new brand or or even just current brands that we've
• 39:08
  got? But we're going to do activation
• 39:10
  events where it might be a case of, you know, there's loads of
• 39:13
  cool activations that we've heard about over since during
• 39:15
  the podcast, but things like cocktail master classes, taste
• 39:19
  things. I know you do a lot of online
• 39:21
  tastings and things like that as well, but is that something that
• 39:24
  you'll be doing as well? Yeah.
• 39:25
  We, we, we do activations. One of the one of the, I think
• 39:29
  great things that we do for our brands is we've built up a good
• 39:32
  Rolodex of, of people that are that are American influencers
• 39:38
  and can help to to spread the word that they do podcasts like
• 39:41
  you. So if you ever come to the US
• 39:42
  and you want to meet up with some.
• 39:44
  If you ever need somebody to come over and do a bit of
• 39:47
  punting for your for your for your products, it'll let us
• 39:50
  know, especially around the World Cup time, that would be
• 39:52
  it'd be quite nice to get out, but.
• 39:55
  Scotland Scotland might be playing a game in in Florida.
• 39:58
  Yeah, there we go. We can wiggle our way out.
• 40:00
  There's. Some good stuff in Miami.
• 40:01
  We just, we just opened Massachusetts as a market.
• 40:05
  Really. You need us.
• 40:06
  You need us there. OK, so, so, so you tap into
• 40:09
  influencers, you tap into. Media.
• 40:11
  And clubs as well like Tampa for.
• 40:13
  Sure. Yeah, the clubs are, are are
• 40:15
  critical for us. So we we built that in a in a
• 40:18
  really short period of time if you think about it since 2024.
• 40:22
  And we we get our brands in touch, we get, we make sure that
• 40:25
  they get some, some liquid. We work with them to do that.
• 40:28
  And I think, I think that's a real value add as the service
• 40:31
  and it's it's critical to what we do.
• 40:33
  We run a online account, Scotch Drinkers only to help promote
• 40:38
  our brands to the US and be we also have with Scotch Drinkers
• 40:43
  only, we work with one of our retailers in New York that does
• 40:46
  fulfillment of the brand. So people can can think of
• 40:49
  Scotch Drinkers only, they can go to scotchdrinkersonly.com and
• 40:52
  they can easily get, you know, all the brands that we import.
• 40:55
  And that, that I suppose what you're doing there is you're,
• 40:58
  you're tapping into, but also creating and building your own
• 41:00
  community on that front where, because you look the I was at
• 41:03
  the in whiskey conference last week and Stephanie McLeod, the
• 41:08
  blending blending director for John Deere's and Sons, She's
• 41:13
  been, she's been working in whiskey for a long time.
• 41:15
  And the, the chat was about the challenges that we have and the
• 41:18
  American market was actually spoken about quite a lot
• 41:20
  because. And we'll maybe talk about the
• 41:21
  tariffs there as what they've been important on that.
• 41:23
  And, well, that's done to the industry.
• 41:25
  But one of the things she was asked was, you know, one of the
• 41:28
  things she said was sorry, is, you know, the whiskey industry
• 41:31
  and people are working in the industry, fish where the fish
• 41:33
  are. You know, that's what we've got
• 41:35
  to start doing. And I suppose what you've had to
• 41:37
  start doing is find the fish that like to eat, nibble on.
• 41:40
  Yeah, yeah, unique, bespoke. Because you can't put a
• 41:44
  marketing budget out and start putting billboards up like Glenn
• 41:47
  Fennick would do or like the other guy.
• 41:49
  Or even marketing might be a challenge anyway.
• 41:51
  But you. Know they've definitely slowed
• 41:52
  down in the past year. I would say really the big boys,
• 41:54
  yeah. But but you can't do that
• 41:56
  because you can't do that for Holy Rood or you can't do that
• 41:59
  because it just it probably doesn't get the impact it does.
• 42:02
  However, sourcing whiskey club that might have fifty members of
• 42:08
  those fifty members, you know, but 85% of them are going to be
• 42:12
  absolutely engaged on the products that you're selling.
• 42:15
  And of that 85%, maybe 15% of them will be the guys that go,
• 42:20
  I'm going to purchase a bottle of that.
• 42:22
  And if you can tap in all in a country the size of America, you
• 42:26
  know that that's that. Yeah.
• 42:27
  But it's interesting because I think, you know, we talk it's a
• 42:30
  more mature market than maybe other markets we talk about.
• 42:32
  We talk a lot about India on the podcast.
• 42:35
  When you talk about, you know, there's so many people just
• 42:37
  turning drinking age. These are people that might
• 42:40
  decide to drink whiskey in America.
• 42:43
  It's like, wow, there's a lot of people that might be drinking
• 42:45
  whiskey, but we can convert them to single cast, cast strength,
• 42:49
  interesting distilleries. It's almost like you're that
• 42:51
  stage ahead. Of course.
• 42:53
  Yeah. And you're also, you're also
• 42:54
  tapping into a demographic of people who have the income or
• 42:58
  the disposable income that could spend.
• 43:00
  Like you say, if you come to Scotland, then you're getting a
• 43:02
  bottle for £50 and it's sitting on the shelf and the state's
• 43:05
  £150 a $150. You know that is that a
• 43:08
  different demographic like the whiskey drinker over in the
• 43:11
  States? Do you get pubs like Diggers
• 43:13
  where you can get some absolutely incredible deals on
• 43:16
  and transport for 35 mils for the prices that you're getting?
• 43:20
  Or is it the whiskey drinker that you see in in the States is
• 43:23
  somebody is a little bit more affluent with a bit more money
• 43:25
  to spend? I I don't think I don't think
• 43:30
  not just saying this, I don't think bars like this exist in
• 43:33
  the US where you and one of the I I love coming to Scotland.
• 43:37
  I love coming to places like this.
• 43:38
  I love coming to like places like the pot still when I go to
• 43:41
  Glasgow, where you have access to just so many amazing trams at
• 43:45
  at reasonable prices in in the US.
• 43:49
  It it just it's difficult to I think that so in the US bourbon
• 43:56
  yeah is our is the home team. Yeah, yeah.
• 43:58
  And so there are places like this for bourbon, yeah, where
• 44:01
  you can go, but there's not too many places that you can go in
• 44:05
  the US and have this, this variety of Scotch and.
• 44:08
  It's when you see spoiled Gram. We are.
• 44:10
  We absolutely are. But it's when he's lucky.
• 44:11
  He's a lad. He's the guy for the Tampa Bay
• 44:13
  Whiskey Club and he's he's got, I mean, his his collection that
• 44:16
  he's got. He showed me pictures of it.
• 44:18
  And you really took it. Take it for granted.
• 44:20
  Sometimes you can fall into a trap where you speak to someone
• 44:23
  from abroad and you're, you know, oh, you like a whiskey, do
• 44:27
  you? And you naively just like you
• 44:28
  probably only see the whiskeys that, you know, the stuff that
• 44:30
  we we see all the time, but you've never seen anything like
• 44:33
  this. So you could fall into that trap
• 44:35
  where you're just a bit like, all right, very good.
• 44:37
  Like what, Ross being amazed at Scott Moore's back bar that he
• 44:40
  has in his house. And then you see this guy and he
• 44:42
  pulls out his phone and he shows me his and it's like a shot.
• 44:45
  He has a shot. I think he had more Spring Bank
• 44:47
  than the Spring Bank gift shop IF.
• 44:50
  If I say, and the great thing about that was he he said that
• 44:54
  on the taste, I did a tasting for them in here when they when
• 44:57
  the guys came and one of the drams that we put on was the
• 45:00
  last DRAM was the Woody's Highland Park 7 that he did
• 45:03
  exclusively for Diggers. And he looked at that and he
• 45:07
  said, look at all the Highland parks I've got.
• 45:09
  And he had all of them, 30 year old 2520 ones, whatever you can
• 45:13
  get the age statement, he's had a lot of that.
• 45:14
  And I said, well that's great, but have you ever tried 7 year
• 45:17
  old single cask Highland Park? And he went no.
• 45:19
  And he wasn't really sure about it.
• 45:20
  He tried it and he was like, I need to buy at least three
• 45:22
  bottles of that and he couldn't because it was all sold out.
• 45:24
  But that opportunity is, you know, that's something that
• 45:27
  people don't get a chance to do, whereas we do in this.
• 45:30
  And and the other thing we were talking before Graham managed to
• 45:33
  get out of a scratcher this morning, Howard, we were talking
• 45:36
  about how in America there's there, there's like a kind of
• 45:39
  group of people that just go for the highest ABV possible.
• 45:42
  They hunt for these bottles. Oh, really?
• 45:45
  Yeah, There's a mark, there's a market there where there are
• 45:48
  guys. What was expression?
• 45:50
  Hazmat so. Hazmat.
• 45:52
  W17 percent alcohol they they seek out really.
• 45:56
  Yeah, we there's a lot of proof hounds.
• 45:58
  Proof, yeah. Yeah.
• 46:00
  So what's the highest percentage ABV whiskey you've imported?
• 46:03
  However, can you remember or? Yeah, I imported a new make
• 46:08
  spirit that was. Pretty because how does that
• 46:10
  work in America? Because obviously once it's left
• 46:12
  Scotland as new make spirit, it will never be whiskey.
• 46:14
  No, no. So.
• 46:15
  So it was kind of funny. Well.
• 46:17
  It'll never be Scotch whiskey. Yeah.
• 46:19
  I had to write the TTB and we had to get a formula approval
• 46:24
  for new make spirit because because.
• 46:27
  No one had ever imported it before as like for retail or.
• 46:30
  I'm sure someone had some more, but yeah, yeah.
• 46:32
  But so if, if your whiskey is Scotch whiskey, it gets a pass
• 46:37
  from the TTB, You don't have to write a formula.
• 46:39
  They probably are not going to do any kind of analysis.
• 46:41
  Like they trust it. Yeah, yeah.
• 46:44
  They know that if, if, if SWA and the UK government has said
• 46:48
  that this is Scotch whiskey, that it's it's OK.
• 46:50
  Yeah, it's good. It's good stuff.
• 46:53
  But anything else based like Canadian whiskey and I think
• 46:56
  Irish whiskey, there's like other but but numake spirit or
• 47:00
  gin or a number of other things. You need to have a form, what's
• 47:02
  called a formula. So I had to write up all the
• 47:04
  steps that go into making Scotch up until it going into the oak
• 47:08
  barrel and they approved it and we imported it.
• 47:11
  And I I think that was it, that 63 1/2% alcohol, I don't recall.
• 47:16
  That wasn't even aged in a barrel at that by cask or
• 47:18
  anything. It was literally just straight
• 47:20
  from the cells. And that's an entertainer and a
• 47:23
  tanker. Yeah.
• 47:24
  So you're, so you are especially numate because.
• 47:27
  I mean you selling this in bottles to the public?
• 47:29
  Was. Oh yeah, yeah.
• 47:30
  Yeah, and it went down quite well.
• 47:31
  I mean you well the proof hounds would well.
• 47:33
  I was gonna say there's proof hounds, but there's also a
• 47:34
  culture of moonshine in America as well.
• 47:37
  You know the kind of clear spirit so.
• 47:40
  I don't know if it would scale, but shops that got it sold it
• 47:43
  out in 24 hours just because people had not seen it before.
• 47:46
  Yeah, yeah, just because it was just something different, just
• 47:48
  something new. We we kept the price sharp.
• 47:51
  It was, it was. So it's a funny story with that
• 47:53
  like I was getting, I was getting charged warehouse rent
• 47:57
  on this jug of new make spirit and the tariffs were about to be
• 48:02
  implemented. So I based, I called up my
• 48:04
  friends at whiskey broker and I said, let's let's put it in the
• 48:07
  bottle and get it into the US before the tariffs are
• 48:09
  implemented. And we airlifted out a whole
• 48:12
  bunch of of liquid on April 1st last year.
• 48:16
  The tariffs went into effect April 2nd.
• 48:18
  Happy birthday, Grandpa. And so that that was, that was
• 48:22
  that was that was a A1 time, you know, great thing that we did.
• 48:25
  Yeah, yeah, that was that. Was you could move like that
• 48:27
  because it is you don't have really too much of a problem
• 48:29
  with that now that like whiskey you meant whiskey broker.
• 48:32
  I should say it's funny whiskey broker.
• 48:34
  I've been speaking a lot about them this week as well and the
• 48:38
  the the is it Martin his name is.
• 48:39
  Martin and Jane Armstrong. Down, down, and now they're
• 48:42
  down. South in Creetown.
• 48:43
  Yes, yeah, he's a. Beautiful, sweet coward, Yeah, I
• 48:45
  was. And they're the, these guys as
• 48:48
  A, the, the, the B word, the broker word is in their name.
• 48:50
  Yeah. But actually they, they, they
• 48:52
  sell, buy and sell casks to, to trade.
• 48:55
  They are not involved in any investment.
• 48:57
  What you know, in fact, Martin's been very actively against it
• 49:00
  and spoken very openly about it and and talked to me about it as
• 49:03
  well in length. But they are one of the people
• 49:07
  that they bottle stuff, but they also do a lot of storage because
• 49:09
  that's the next the question I want to have.
• 49:11
  We've got some duty paid samples in front of us.
• 49:13
  But what I wonder, how do you, how do you go like sourcing
• 49:15
  whiskey Then what's the process for you?
• 49:17
  Like what's it been like for the last couple of weeks for you
• 49:19
  being in and around and speaking to people?
• 49:21
  Yeah. So I, I should preface with my
• 49:24
  suppliers will always be better at independent bottling then
• 49:28
  then I would ever be because they, they either own the
• 49:31
  warehouse or they're close to the warehouse.
• 49:34
  And so my process is I, I, I, I meet with them, I see what they
• 49:39
  have available. I try to give them some, some
• 49:41
  feedback. What I see domestically in my
• 49:43
  market, what, what sales have been moving quicker for me, what
• 49:48
  types of bottles people are looking for price ranges that
• 49:51
  the US public seems to you know from, from my sales data that I
• 49:55
  see move. And I try to have collaborative
• 49:57
  conversations with, with all the suppliers so that they can
• 50:00
  either set up their out turns to, to accommodate what will
• 50:04
  work for us. Or if they're, they're sourcing
• 50:06
  whiskey, they can try to source things that that work.
• 50:11
  I do some private casks either for, for clubs or for stores or
• 50:15
  just curiosities like fun experiments I like to do just
• 50:18
  for myself. And so my, my process for that
• 50:22
  is when we're looking at where the whiskey, I run it through
• 50:24
  the same model. And I said, where is this going
• 50:26
  to be? And is it, is it going to be
• 50:27
  economically viable on the shelf?
• 50:30
  Wow. And that probably makes it a lot
• 50:32
  easier because going to our independent bottler and saying,
• 50:39
  listen guys, what we know is that something very heavily
• 50:42
  pitted, something that's 60 odd percent and something that's
• 50:46
  dark will sell very, very well. And they can go and go right.
• 50:50
  Here's the cast that we have in that category.
• 50:52
  Whereas you don't have the power to go because you don't have the
• 50:55
  selling power at the moment to go to have a big brand like, you
• 51:00
  know, Glenn Morngy and saying, my whiskey drinkers want this
• 51:04
  because they'll just go, well, pick what we've got and that's
• 51:07
  what you get. Whereas you being able to have
• 51:09
  that flexibility where we have now we've got samples in front
• 51:12
  of us because it is fast approaching 11 AM.
• 51:15
  So we should probably have a drama.
• 51:16
  It's it's, that's what we got. What, what are these, what
• 51:21
  you've you've brought in with you?
• 51:22
  So what? Yeah, this first one here is a
• 51:23
  Blair Athol. Yes.
• 51:26
  So it's a Blairathol. It's a private cask.
• 51:27
  I I bought from from Martin at whiskey broker.
• 51:30
  I bought it in a in a hog's head, so.
• 51:32
  This is one of your own cast. Yeah, it's a private cast that I
• 51:34
  have. I wanted to share it with you
• 51:35
  guys. Fantastic.
• 51:36
  I saw some really strange cast that I had shipped over from
• 51:40
  America. So this is a bourbon barrel that
• 51:43
  held rum and tequila and now it has Blairathol in it.
• 51:47
  Wow, OK. So wow.
• 51:50
  It's hard to about. Cheers.
• 51:51
  Cheers, and so none of the the I BS that I work with probably
• 51:54
  would want to touch this, but I thought it looked.
• 51:56
  Cool. You just thought, yeah, so this
• 51:57
  is something, this is your own project.
• 51:59
  Yeah, but this is, this is interesting where you're
• 52:02
  mentioning that you're sourcing casks in America and then
• 52:05
  bringing them to Scotland. You're almost involved in a kind
• 52:08
  of, it's interesting. You're almost involved in the
• 52:10
  other end of the industry where it's no we'll we'll bring casks
• 52:14
  to Scotland that that can be used to mature Scotch.
• 52:17
  It's really interesting. Yeah, I think it's it's
• 52:20
  something that I think is fun. I think for for the US consumer.
• 52:23
  I try to source from so it's not just a ex bourbon barrel, but I
• 52:27
  try to pick what I think are fun distilleries that that you know,
• 52:31
  so people can that are geeks can get into.
• 52:33
  Well, what mash bill held this? Or was this rye or?
• 52:36
  Or that is, that is the market. You're having it.
• 52:38
  Like you say, if you can, if you could lift up the Independent
• 52:42
  Spirits Festival and stick it into the States.
• 52:43
  The people that are going to be in there later on this afternoon
• 52:46
  are the people that you want because they're the people that
• 52:48
  will sit there and go now like we've had which when Scott
• 52:55
  Sneddon brought oat whiskey to our birthday party, it's
• 53:00
  probably the best reaction to a whiskey that not many people
• 53:04
  particularly enjoyed but actually loved at the same time.
• 53:09
  Because what it was was it was OK OT it was oat whiskey.
• 53:15
  People were a bit like not a drama that I would probably go
• 53:19
  to regularly. It's probably where it's
• 53:21
  sitting. However, the opportunity to try
• 53:24
  2 drams of oat whiskey have been matured separately was just an
• 53:28
  incredible thing. And that would be the same with
• 53:30
  this. There'll be people who look at
• 53:31
  that. I really want to try some water.
• 53:34
  Tequila. Tequila, So that's what.
• 53:37
  So this is a tequila and rum rum.
• 53:40
  So what was in a bourbon barrel? So a bourbon barrel that said
• 53:43
  had aged tequila in it and then aged rum in it and now has
• 53:46
  Blair? What age?
• 53:47
  What's? A10 year, 10 year.
• 53:48
  Old 10 years Blair and. Blair Apple, traditionally, you
• 53:52
  know, it would be cherry casks and that very kind of, you know,
• 53:55
  that deep colour you see with Blair Athol from thinking the
• 53:58
  floor and fauna. So this is this is something
• 54:01
  completely different as well. Absolutely.
• 54:02
  You know, it's not what you would normally see spirit from
• 54:05
  that distillery. Yeah.
• 54:07
  Fantastic. I mean, and I'll have to say,
• 54:09
  well, we're going to have to come clean Howard and and let
• 54:11
  the listeners in on a little secret.
• 54:13
  But we were we were with each other yesterday for a long day
• 54:17
  of drinking drabs. So I did try this last night and
• 54:21
  I'm glad that I I still probably have the taste of it at the back
• 54:24
  of my mouth before I tried it this morning again.
• 54:26
  A. Bit of water and that's lovely.
• 54:28
  But it's nice to revisit this. It's absolutely lovely.
• 54:30
  Because we did try, there was a lot of drums consumed yesterday
• 54:33
  there. Were a lot of drums, yeah.
• 54:36
  And it was great. But the conversations that
• 54:38
  you're having then are you speaking, Obviously you're,
• 54:43
  you're re engaging with people you're already working with to
• 54:45
  maintain that relationship, but are you also looking at building
• 54:48
  new relationships and speaking to new people and seeing what
• 54:51
  it's about? Yeah, so at the last Independent
• 54:53
  Spirits Festival, shout out to Scotch on the Bayou.
• 54:57
  She's a great influencer, runs a YouTube show in the US.
• 55:02
  She grabbed me by the arm and physically dragged me to the
• 55:05
  Living Souls booth and told me I had to try this stuff.
• 55:08
  And there was like swarms of people.
• 55:10
  And so I probably would not have tried to fight the swarm into
• 55:12
  there. But that was that was how I
• 55:14
  discovered them. And for me to add anyone to the
• 55:18
  the portfolio of what I import, they really have to be additive.
• 55:22
  They have to, they have to have something different.
• 55:24
  We don't want to just import the same stuff with different
• 55:26
  labels. And so I thought what what they
• 55:29
  were doing with especially with the 99 in one, but also with
• 55:32
  with some of the other products they have.
• 55:34
  For a company, it's only been kind of doing what they're doing
• 55:37
  for 18 months. Yeah, just making waves.
• 55:39
  The the, the living souls, even the they're bottling, even the
• 55:43
  bottles that they have. They're beautiful.
• 55:44
  Do you know what? They're bottles, right?
• 55:46
  Oh, they're. Bottles.
• 55:48
  They are nice bottles. They're almost like wine.
• 55:49
  Bottles. Well, they're cognac.
• 55:51
  They're the cognac version of the tall round.
• 55:53
  Ah, so that's like because I'm not really a cognac drinker but
• 55:56
  if you were to buy. It may be cognac or Brandy A.
• 55:59
  Standard cognac or a Brandy? That's their standard bottle.
• 56:02
  Basically, if you looked at that the Brandy label and you were a
• 56:05
  Brandy drinker, you'd look at that as the same way.
• 56:07
  You'd say, well, that's just a tall, that's a very standardised
• 56:09
  bottle. But basically what it's very
• 56:11
  interesting is it means that when they go and buy the
• 56:12
  bottles, they're buying them just as cheap as you can pick up
• 56:15
  a tall round. But they're also that's I.
• 56:17
  Think there's some cognac or Brandy company using a tall
• 56:20
  round? Oh, these fancy bottles.
• 56:22
  Yeah, fast. But as a brand to go in there
• 56:26
  and the access to liquid that they've got and the stock and
• 56:29
  and as you've said already heard just that the the the releases
• 56:33
  that they've put are actually. 40 years incredible that's been
• 56:36
  very popular in the US and they've they've done something
• 56:39
  really interesting where they've done different batches.
• 56:42
  So each of the batches has variation for people to to go
• 56:46
  explore. And so I, I, we got contacted
• 56:49
  by, by a number of people. We, we, I, I try to talk to
• 56:52
  everyone that is interested and, and hear them out.
• 56:55
  I run it, I run them through the pricing model and talk how, how
• 56:58
  it works in the US. But in order for us to be able
• 57:00
  to, to bring another brand because it's just me and my
• 57:02
  wife. Yeah, my my my favorite wife.
• 57:04
  Favorite wife. Yeah, Favorite, Favorite wife?
• 57:07
  We're running the. Probably.
• 57:08
  I had a good day, yeah. So I thought I only have so many
• 57:11
  hours in the day just. Like to state that my current
• 57:14
  wife is my favorite. Way I'm good for so far So far.
• 57:19
  They have to grow the pie. So we don't want to just
• 57:21
  reallocate pieces of the pie. We want to bring brands in that
• 57:24
  have something really special, have something unique, something
• 57:26
  that gets people exciting is going to do new entries into the
• 57:30
  market. So when we brought Annandale in,
• 57:31
  there was new states that were emailing us that weren't
• 57:34
  currently on, on where we were working with that said, we want
• 57:37
  Annandale. And so that that's, that's what
• 57:39
  we're looking for. That's really cool and that and
• 57:41
  that's the other problem is you'd love to say yes to
• 57:43
  absolutely everybody, but from a time point of view, but also
• 57:46
  you're you're the danger is and this is where it's the the
• 57:49
  danger you have is you buy a you, you buy because you have to
• 57:53
  pay for it, don't you? At the end of the day, this is
• 57:55
  the bet that everyone forgets is you, you're the guy that has to
• 57:58
  pay for the whiskey the first time.
• 58:00
  So you buy 100 bottles of us. You've had to pay that right.
• 58:04
  You've got that liability. Then through your trusted
• 58:06
  networks, you're going to your distributors.
• 58:08
  They buy it off you right, which you've added a margin to it and
• 58:11
  that's fine. You can go that's me fine.
• 58:13
  I got my money back and I've made a little bit on top of it.
• 58:15
  But the problem is if you're in a situation where the whiskey
• 58:19
  that the distributor's bought off you that's gone in, that's
• 58:21
  been convinced to put it into a retailer or a bar.
• 58:24
  Yeah, right. And it doesn't move.
• 58:26
  Yeah, they will never come. The next thing you phone them up
• 58:28
  and say, oh, I've got this stuff.
• 58:30
  They go, no thanks, Howard, because the last stuff you gave
• 58:32
  us, it didn't, it didn't shift. Yeah.
• 58:34
  So then your models knackered on that front.
• 58:36
  But from a positive point of view, you you, you sell 100
• 58:38
  bottles and it goes like hotcakes and you've got the.
• 58:40
  Distributor we need it like when.
• 58:41
  Can we get more wine? That's all.
• 58:42
  But that's the precarious because it's easy to forget
• 58:44
  that, yeah, the consumers getting hit with a lot of the
• 58:47
  price because you've got everyone's getting their margin
• 58:49
  and they're cut and there's a cost involved.
• 58:51
  But at the end of the day, you're the first person that has
• 58:54
  to take the hat. Yeah.
• 58:56
  So a number of the brands work with us on terms, yeah.
• 58:59
  So that we might have 30 or 60 days, yeah, from from when we
• 59:03
  buy the product. But when you think about how
• 59:05
  long it takes to get the product from from Scotland to the US to
• 59:11
  a distributor, it, it, we don't usually typically complete our
• 59:14
  cycle before the the terms. So our one of the things that
• 59:19
  we're working with and it's, it's a bit of an uphill fight is
• 59:23
  the distributors in the US are all asking for terms as well.
• 59:26
  So the distributors are might want between 30 and 60 days.
• 59:30
  Yeah. So everyone, everyone wants that
• 59:32
  buffer. Yeah.
• 59:33
  So that they can suddenly go, well, I can have that sold by
• 59:35
  the time that invoice needs to be paid, and that that helps.
• 59:38
  But at the same time, if everyone does that, then there's
• 59:40
  30 days here, 30 days there, and suddenly you're going back and
• 59:43
  say, well, it's 90 days, someone's going to have to still
• 59:45
  pay. Yeah.
• 59:45
  So that's usually me, yeah. You're yeah, that, that and
• 59:48
  that's the tricky bit, but I mean, exciting thing to be able
• 59:51
  to start and to be able to see the see it growing.
• 59:53
  Yeah, the pub is now starting to open, so we do get thirsty.
• 59:56
  What's the second draft? Mention the second round and
• 59:59
  just on this first round really with a bit of water, really,
• 1:00:03
  really nice. I get that kind of sugar from
• 1:00:05
  the rum. I get a bit of spiciness, a bit
• 1:00:07
  of there is a bit of a kind of tequila taste.
• 1:00:11
  I do think I get that. What I want Angus to do.
• 1:00:13
  Lovely. But yeah, don't tell Angus this.
• 1:00:16
  Right? I want Angus to read the label.
• 1:00:19
  OK, pour yourself. We drop.
• 1:00:21
  Okie Doke. Tell us what you think it is,
• 1:00:23
  because the colour of that everything about it.
• 1:00:26
  So explain it for the listeners who are listening what you have
• 1:00:28
  in front of you. So I have it's a linquid.
• 1:00:31
  Yeah. Year 2010, so presumably 16
• 1:00:36
  years old. Right now, talk about the
• 1:00:37
  colour. The colour, it's a yeah, it's a
• 1:00:43
  kind of deep tea stained colour, yeah. 50 Watt course ABV. 53
• 1:00:49
  point. Six quarter DRAM, so.
• 1:00:51
  Looks to me, I mean if I was to be I would say a 16 year old
• 1:00:54
  cherry cast. Right.
• 1:00:55
  Or also something like. That it would be, yeah, that's
• 1:00:58
  fair. That would be put this in my
• 1:01:04
  glass. I will say Martin Armstrong
• 1:01:06
  personally pulled that from the. Yeah, I should add you can, you
• 1:01:10
  can tell that these have not been filtered.
• 1:01:11
  These there's there's lovely wee bits of char.
• 1:01:14
  And it's a lot, right? So I, I really enjoyed this DRAM
• 1:01:17
  last night. Right.
• 1:01:18
  Have a wee say that it's having a taste.
• 1:01:20
  Angus, tell us what you think. Good.
• 1:01:23
  What do you reckon? Yep, smells very nice.
• 1:01:30
  Let me let me taste it. Proof of the puddings in the
• 1:01:32
  eating right? Yeah.
• 1:01:40
  That is delicious. That is absolutely delicious.
• 1:01:43
  And it doesn't taste 53% either. It's one of these drams that
• 1:01:47
  honestly tastes about 43%, right?
• 1:01:51
  It's very sweet, very sweet, very fudgy.
• 1:01:55
  Yeah. That's lovely, right?
• 1:01:56
  Yeah, that's delicious. Tell us about that.
• 1:01:58
  Tell us a bit more. What cast have we got?
• 1:02:01
  Here. Yeah.
• 1:02:02
  So this is Lyncwood. I bought it from Whiskey Broker
• 1:02:06
  and so they had a good amount of history on it that Martin was
• 1:02:10
  able to share with me. It was another, I was an
• 1:02:13
  international buyer that had it. It was in three bourbon barrels.
• 1:02:19
  1 was the longer maturation, he told me.
• 1:02:21
  The next one they only like put in for 30 days, like kind of
• 1:02:24
  like a tea bag. And then it went into a third
• 1:02:26
  one where I've had it for the past several years and we've
• 1:02:29
  been drawing samples. So this has been re racked 3
• 1:02:31
  Times Now, yes? But in three different bourbon
• 1:02:33
  barrels, so there's. No, Sherry, there's no.
• 1:02:35
  Sherry whatsoever, but I mean, what a color, it's gone on the
• 1:02:38
  color. On that, if you get a chance
• 1:02:39
  for. A 16 year old that's only been
• 1:02:41
  in bourbon. And Linkwood as.
• 1:02:42
  Well, and and and the Berman cast were the all refills was
• 1:02:45
  there Virgin Oak was there first fell do you know or do you?
• 1:02:48
  Know I don't have that I. Don't have that, but but three
• 1:02:50
  so that's been re racked 3 times into different and like you say,
• 1:02:53
  one really long one just tea bag and then the next one is where
• 1:02:57
  it's sitting right now and what a taste.
• 1:02:59
  That's absolutely that's an incredible and that's going to
• 1:03:01
  so that's your own cask as. Well, that's my cask.
• 1:03:03
  Yeah, you're lucky. Thank you very much for giving
• 1:03:05
  us bottle because please tell us when you're going to be putting
• 1:03:08
  that in a glass for there for retail because that.
• 1:03:10
  We might have to go over to the States to pick up a bottle grab.
• 1:03:13
  Happily do that. But look, the pub is now open,
• 1:03:15
  people are going to start flooding in.
• 1:03:17
  We've been lucky enough to be here for a good hour and a half
• 1:03:19
  beforehand enjoying our coffee, our drams and things.
• 1:03:23
  But we are getting to the stage of the of the conversation where
• 1:03:26
  we do ask our guests whether what 3 drams Howard.
• 1:03:28
  So basically I did briefly, I think I breathe, yeah.
• 1:03:31
  I couldn't remember this morning when I was working in last night
• 1:03:34
  after the drams I had to go. Did I tell Howard?
• 1:03:36
  I did a lot about the watch 3 drams.
• 1:03:37
  But anyway, any 3 whiskeys that have a meaning, a story or an
• 1:03:40
  association with? You Yeah.
• 1:03:41
  So I could give 10 drams, but since the bar has to open up, we
• 1:03:44
  we talked about the Glenn Farklas.
• 1:03:46
  I thought for me that the Whiskey Exchange private
• 1:03:49
  bottling was a milestone for me and in my life have having that.
• 1:03:52
  Can you remember what age? Was there an age statement on
• 1:03:54
  that bottle or was it just a Was it a whiskey exchange's own?
• 1:03:59
  So it was a Glenn Farklas branded by the Whiskey Exchange.
• 1:04:02
  Well, no, it was a it was a the Christmas Mall.
• 1:04:06
  So the employee told me it was Glenn Farklas.
• 1:04:09
  There he goes. So it's kind of like a stocking
• 1:04:10
  filler that they do for my whiskey exchange.
• 1:04:12
  The whiskey exchange. And this was about 2014, you
• 1:04:15
  said? 2018 I want to say. 18, Yeah,
• 1:04:18
  OK. So we need to look for that.
• 1:04:19
  You'll maybe find that on an auction.
• 1:04:20
  Somewhere I I did buy a second bottle on an auction.
• 1:04:22
  Yeah. Oh.
• 1:04:23
  Wow, that one. Broke that.
• 1:04:24
  Maybe when you come to Florida, we'll we'll, we'll open that up.
• 1:04:27
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not maybe, when we come to
• 1:04:28
  blood. So I think that was a milestone
• 1:04:32
  for me. After the first time I came to
• 1:04:35
  Scotland, I, I called up my, my current and favorite wife,
• 1:04:38
  Melissa and only wife, if her folks are listening, and I told
• 1:04:45
  you have to come here. It's, it's incredibly amazing
• 1:04:48
  here. And, and so like we, we brought
• 1:04:50
  our families. So we, we came back with, with
• 1:04:52
  my, I brought my folks here. She brought her folks and we
• 1:04:55
  were on the Isle of Skye and there was an evening that my
• 1:04:58
  father and I were drinking Coleela in the sky.
• 1:05:01
  And that was a very memorable DRAM for me.
• 1:05:03
  And so I always have a fondness now for Coleela and I, I, I
• 1:05:06
  Remember, Remember that night. That's right.
• 1:05:11
  Can you? Remember what the bottle was of
• 1:05:12
  Kalila? Was it just a Kalila 12 or?
• 1:05:15
  I think it may have been an 18. Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 1:05:17
  It was not. It was not an.
• 1:05:19
  I mean, it was in the price was reasonable for what it was.
• 1:05:22
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it just it's it's nice.
• 1:05:24
  Kalila 18 is lovely. I'm actually starting to I'm
• 1:05:27
  Ross will tell me I'm talking rubbish, but I am starting to
• 1:05:30
  really come. We tried a few Kalilas yesterday
• 1:05:32
  and I'm starting to cut there's. I really like Kalila.
• 1:05:34
  I really like you get from my point of view.
• 1:05:38
  People want to hear me talking about peat whiskey.
• 1:05:39
  I think there's almost that like kind of coal-fired taste.
• 1:05:42
  You get to coalila. It almost tastes a bit a bit
• 1:05:45
  city. I get, I get, but in a nice way.
• 1:05:48
  And if it's done, it would depend on the cast.
• 1:05:50
  But I get like, sweet and sticky BBQ sauce.
• 1:05:53
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like just Smokey BBQ.
• 1:05:56
  BBQ. Yeah, really, really, really
• 1:05:58
  nice, very nice. OK DRAM number 332.
• 1:06:01
  Good drams already. I love the Ben Nevis distillery.
• 1:06:04
  Yeah, and we don't get enough good Ben Nevis in the US.
• 1:06:09
  It's a distillery that over here, I mean, well, maybe other
• 1:06:12
  than Ross. It splits opinion.
• 1:06:13
  Some people love it, some people hate it.
• 1:06:17
  I love it personally. I love Ben.
• 1:06:18
  Nevis So any affiliate just because it's something that you
• 1:06:22
  can get in the States, but you don't often get an awful lot of
• 1:06:24
  it so. We were talking about some cast
• 1:06:26
  brokers and so Victoria through Vicki Bruce, I was able to
• 1:06:29
  source it. What I think is a reasonable
• 1:06:31
  price, a casket. Ben Nevis and I love Marsala and
• 1:06:34
  it was first film Marsala and so I was able to to pull a DRAM out
• 1:06:38
  of that and, and out of my cast that I was able to get.
• 1:06:41
  And so that that I that would be my third.
• 1:06:44
  Super Yeah, Marsala cast better. Than ever said that that would
• 1:06:47
  be super. Heated.
• 1:06:48
  Yeah. Oh wow.
• 1:06:48
  Wow. Yeah, Now I'm interested how I'm
• 1:06:50
  just, you know, on this front, you know, the journey that
• 1:06:53
  you've been on. And obviously it's mental that a
• 1:06:55
  year ago today we were sitting having breakfast.
• 1:06:58
  I only just met you the night before and we've repeated it
• 1:07:01
  last a year ago last night we were on drinking drabs.
• 1:07:04
  Here we are this morning about malaria, having the same
• 1:07:07
  conversations, but for yourself, what was it like when you, you
• 1:07:09
  obviously take the hit? You know, you've got you've,
• 1:07:12
  you've worked your way up into a massive position in a big
• 1:07:15
  company. You've made the decision to go
• 1:07:17
  yourself. You've promised your wife,
• 1:07:19
  you're only going to have 333 businesses that you're going to
• 1:07:22
  try and run at the same time. It's still your person, which is
• 1:07:24
  great and along with that continued by the way, But when
• 1:07:27
  you got you make the hit. So that moment where you've
• 1:07:29
  gone, right, that's how much it's going to cost me and this
• 1:07:33
  is how much I'm going to be liable for of investment.
• 1:07:39
  When you got that first sale, when you've moved it to somebody
• 1:07:44
  else is going, I'll take the hit on that.
• 1:07:45
  I'll take the punt on you. Someone distributor's going to
• 1:07:49
  have to go. I heard you before, mate, or I
• 1:07:50
  don't really know you that well, never heard of these guys, but
• 1:07:53
  I'll take the hit on you. What was that like?
• 1:07:55
  And then seeing it move and then suddenly the realization was
• 1:07:58
  this is working. Yeah, I mean, any sale feels
• 1:08:00
  fantastic. Yeah.
• 1:08:02
  And so when you, when you complete the sale and, and when
• 1:08:04
  you, you have a, you have a good account that, that you can scale
• 1:08:08
  up, it's just, it's sitting it, it, there's a thrill to, to be
• 1:08:13
  able to do that and, and to be able to, to build something.
• 1:08:15
  And and and so that I don't unless you've done it, you, you
• 1:08:22
  can't really explain the adrenaline.
• 1:08:23
  One moment, nice to be here as well.
• 1:08:25
  Absolutely fantastic. Howard, thank you so much for
• 1:08:27
  coming on. How can people find you?
• 1:08:28
  How can people keep in touch? And if there's anyone in the
• 1:08:31
  States that wants to keep in touch or find out what's the
• 1:08:33
  best ways to get so? The best way for for consumers
• 1:08:36
  to get in touch with us is to follow us at Scotch Drinkers
• 1:08:39
  only that's that's our. That's on Instagram.
• 1:08:41
  That's on Instagram and, and some other platforms and you
• 1:08:44
  have Scotch drinkersonly.com as well.
• 1:08:46
  I recommend everyone sign up for the mailing list.
• 1:08:49
  We try to give the mailing list customers a heads up when things
• 1:08:52
  are coming to a retailer so that the bottles that they want can
• 1:08:56
  be shipped to the retailer and they can they can get, you know,
• 1:08:58
  access to the good stuff. So if if you want, you know, for
• 1:09:01
  instance, we had a killed Alton that came in that 19 years
• 1:09:05
  fantastic. We have we had a limited amount
• 1:09:07
  of Rulati 20 year cash strength's been super popular
• 1:09:11
  and things like that that are maybe getting less than four
• 1:09:14
  cases for the entire country. I'd get on that mailing list and
• 1:09:18
  and try to get access. And then brands.
• 1:09:20
  If there's anyone who listens to this, it's going right.
• 1:09:22
  I want my brand on a shelf in America.
• 1:09:25
  How do they get in touch with you?
• 1:09:26
  What do they do? Come through me and I'll get my.
• 1:09:28
  Cut. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:09:29
  We'll give you a buffet. Yeah.
• 1:09:32
  So Sax Dynamic Operations is the name of our importer company.
• 1:09:35
  It's a long name. We might want to shorten that.
• 1:09:38
  But so they can get in touch with me either through through
• 1:09:42
  the website at saxdynamicoperations.com or
• 1:09:45
  through through LinkedIn, they can connect with me.
• 1:09:48
  Happy to have a conversation with with any, any, any brands,
• 1:09:52
  but looking for things that that are going to be additive and the
• 1:09:56
  economics work in the US market. Really.
• 1:09:58
  I guess what are you looking forward to most this afternoon
• 1:10:01
  when we get down to leaf to go to our to the festival?
• 1:10:04
  I'm just looking forward to seeing who's there are.
• 1:10:07
  You going to look out anything? Are you going to?
• 1:10:08
  I don't know. Are you going to approach this
• 1:10:10
  from a different point of view? I don't know if I have anything
• 1:10:12
  in particular I'm looking out for.
• 1:10:14
  I saw a post on Thompson Brothers put up a post of things
• 1:10:17
  to look out for at the festival and I thought I maybe take a
• 1:10:19
  screenshot of that and I forgot to do that.
• 1:10:22
  So I'm, I'm actually not really approaching this from any point
• 1:10:24
  of view, but I'm just looking forward to seeing people there,
• 1:10:27
  meeting people we've had on the podcast, people that we know,
• 1:10:29
  people that we've maybe never met before.
• 1:10:32
  You know, as much as these are a kind of whiskey event for us,
• 1:10:35
  they've almost become a big social.
• 1:10:37
  Event as well. So I'm looking forward to that
• 1:10:39
  side of things and I'm sure, just listen, I'm sure it's one
• 1:10:43
  of those ones that when we get there, I'm sure other people
• 1:10:45
  will be recommending, oh, go to that stall because you need to
• 1:10:48
  try their 15 year old, what have you, or go to that stall because
• 1:10:52
  you need to try there. I'm just going to look for the
• 1:10:53
  most expensive and the oldest that's.
• 1:10:55
  Well, that's a good no. No, I'm going to do this has got
• 1:10:59
  me on today. My focus is going to be on
• 1:11:02
  refill, bourbon, refill. That's all I'm looking for
• 1:11:05
  today. That's all I'm going to look
• 1:11:06
  for. I'm just going to go refill
• 1:11:07
  bourbon. I'm going to try and find that
• 1:11:09
  PETA don't mind it. Age don't care about I'm just
• 1:11:12
  going to the wine stuff and the wine casks and things.
• 1:11:15
  The sherries, no, I'm going to try and steer clear of them
• 1:11:19
  unless I get a full recommendation.
• 1:11:20
  What I really want to dive my nose into today is refill
• 1:11:23
  bourbon. Howard, what are you?
• 1:11:24
  What are you, how are you attacking this today?
• 1:11:26
  Are you, are you going to support brands that you're
• 1:11:28
  already working with? But are you also just looking
• 1:11:30
  for new things as well? Yeah, I'm going to first and
• 1:11:32
  foremost, so I don't I don't get in trouble with with my social
• 1:11:35
  media manager. I'm going to have to take some,
• 1:11:37
  some good social media videos from our current suppliers.
• 1:11:40
  But last year I found and Bartels and Living Souls like I
• 1:11:43
  mentioned. So I'm going to see who's got
• 1:11:45
  some interesting things, who's got some energy and, you know,
• 1:11:49
  maybe, maybe you know, we'll find the next great brand there.
• 1:11:51
  Absolutely. Well, in the meantime, it's
• 1:11:53
  breakfast. It's time for breakfast.
• 1:11:55
  Thank you very much for coming along.
• 1:11:56
  Howard, thank you for having. I thank you for the big thanks
• 1:11:59
  to Kevin, Clair and Diggers for allowing us to sit here whilst
• 1:12:02
  they've been getting the pub ready because it's going to be a
• 1:12:04
  busy day. It's been absolutely fantastic.
• 1:12:05
  You've been listening to Whiskey Stories podcast, It's great to
• 1:12:08
  great to hear from you. Please get in touch, get in
• 1:12:10
  touch with Howard, message us if you're over in the States, tell
• 1:12:12
  us that you know, Howard, tell us where you're drinking.
• 1:12:14
  Tell us whatever you can possibly do.
• 1:12:16
  Give us five stars. Get involved in the Facebook
• 1:12:18
  group, get involved in our social media, get in on the
• 1:12:21
  Instagram, everything like that. Angus, we've done it again.
• 1:12:23
  All the very best. Cheers, Langeva.
• 1:12:29
  So that's the that's the rehearsal done.
• 1:12:36
  Now what we do is we go downstairs and do the whole
• 1:12:38
  thing again, blow it.