Latest / Whisky Stories Podcast / Fraser Morrison: From The Glenlivet Tour Guide to Whisky Life in India

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Fraser Morrison: From The Glenlivet Tour Guide to Whisky Life in India · Whisky Stories Podcast

• 0:00
  Right, right. You know, what do you clap us
• 0:01
  in? Welcome to the Whiskey Stories
• 0:05
  podcast. I loved obviously working
• 0:07
  distillery, but that's what I love.
• 0:08
  The space side is that you've really got the sense that these
• 0:12
  distilleries are the heart between the terms, a guy that
• 0:15
  had obviously managed to get a hold.
• 0:16
  Of some stones blueprints. To stills in the backyard and
• 0:20
  the exact specification. But well, you know what?
• 0:23
  It's reassuring. It's reassuring, right?
• 0:25
  Yeah. Even to this day, with all the
• 0:27
  history was going on, illegal illicit stills are still
• 0:30
  running. I said it's space site.
• 0:33
  Money welcome on the Whiskey Stories podcast, myself, Gremco.
• 0:36
  There we are back. Not in the athletic arms, but
• 0:38
  we're in Diggers too. We're down in Leith, as you can
• 0:40
  see from the background here. If you're watching, Kev's done a
• 0:43
  great job with the place, isn't it?
• 0:46
  Absolutely. We've got a wide variety of
• 0:48
  Indian food and seen beer and Indian whiskey on the menu.
• 0:51
  He's done an absolute cracking job.
• 0:53
  But yeah, we are back here. I'm in Bangalore, back in
• 0:56
  Bangalore. And then I've been tracked down
• 0:58
  and followed by a man who is, well, I think towards the end of
• 1:02
  the year when we did, everyone did their Spotify Unwrapped.
• 1:05
  That's when I started to worry because this guy had been
• 1:08
  messaging Fraser. Big fan.
• 1:12
  I really love you guys. You're the best podcast.
• 1:14
  Go and think, you're brilliant. Oh, fantastic.
• 1:17
  And then Spotify and Rap came along and he's top 8% of our
• 1:20
  fans. He's listened how many hours?
• 1:22
  Over 2000 / 2000 minutes. There you go.
• 1:24
  Isn't the India fan? For Yeah, So then when he found
• 1:26
  out that I'd moved, coming out to Bangalore to spend a bit of
• 1:29
  time, he's trapped. He's flown out to Bangalore
• 1:31
  specifically for us. Isn't you, Fraser?
• 1:33
  Yeah, I only go back to India from Scotland late last week and
• 1:36
  then, yeah, just starts a line flew down from Delhi.
• 1:38
  This. Morning.
• 1:39
  So, yeah, well, yeah, you're an international brand ambassador,
• 1:41
  which is that's why you were here.
• 1:43
  You're you're a man that knows his way around in there as well,
• 1:46
  because you've been, you've been around the place a little bit.
• 1:48
  Yeah, so. I've been here about 18 months.
• 1:51
  Done not quite as good as Barley Baxter.
• 1:54
  Done 15. Cities 15.
• 1:58
  States 17. Cities 15.
• 1:59
  States yeah. What the hell?
• 2:01
  So I mean, it's kind of weird. Like you chat to like my bosses
• 2:03
  and stuff who've, you know, lived here their whole lives and
• 2:05
  they're in a year and a half. I've seen more of the country
• 2:07
  than they have Which? Is really just, you know.
• 2:09
  I'm just really lucky to be able to do it.
• 2:11
  But yeah, tiring as. Well, well, you mentioned
• 2:12
  Stewart Baxter, Barley Baxter, who we had on.
• 2:14
  I mean, this is, this is his route.
• 2:16
  This is his, this is his run, wasn't it?
• 2:17
  Yeah, it was India going around India talking to people about
• 2:21
  whiskey, selling whiskey to them.
• 2:23
  I mean, we've we've, we've had a good few drams already today or
• 2:26
  well, we've got a few drams in front of us as well.
• 2:29
  But how did how did, how did you get into this?
• 2:32
  Like tell me how you all started What, what was it like starting
• 2:34
  for you? It's.
• 2:36
  Been trying not to sound exactly the same Stewart, but it's a bit
• 2:40
  of an accident kind of ended up in it.
• 2:42
  I yeah, stop me if this is more in detail at any point, but
• 2:46
  basically went to Glasgow, studied a marketing degree and
• 2:50
  that COVID happened. I always ended up dropping out
• 2:52
  and I just always worked in like pubs for the first few years.
• 2:55
  I was through there about 6 years in Glasgow and eventually
• 2:58
  I could have made the the transition to like cocktail
• 3:01
  bartending and like God love them.
• 3:05
  And the staff had finished and decided to hire me.
• 3:07
  I think I went in and I was like, well, you got classic
• 3:09
  cocktail experience and I worked in the student bar where they
• 3:11
  had like 6 like cocktails in the menu.
• 3:13
  So I started making an agonium a glass the the bartender, head
• 3:16
  bartender ran. It was actually from Nepal, I
• 3:18
  think, really awarded. Guy just spent a heart attack
• 3:21
  and was like freaking Safeway. And then Leo Brown, who's kind
• 3:25
  of one of the reasons I got into whiskey, my former manager who
• 3:28
  now works in the whiskey industry, she thought I was a
• 3:32
  nice enough person and just was like, we can train him and
• 3:34
  worked there for a couple of years and eventually one night
• 3:39
  or after a Sunday shift we'd had together, maybe a wee bit
• 3:41
  hungover, went to the bed nervous.
• 3:44
  And I think we always kind of like you're a bit of a rubbish
• 3:46
  Scotsman in a rubbish barman if you, if you don't drink whiskey.
• 3:49
  So she she. So Ben never distillery.
• 3:51
  And Ben was. All right.
• 3:53
  OK, Right, right, right, right. I bought me a, bought me a Glen
• 3:56
  drawing at 12. And just like, that was my,
• 3:59
  like, moment, really. I can understand why people like
• 4:01
  whiskey. Before that, I'd never, you
• 4:03
  know, never got it. Like, always panicked when
• 4:04
  somebody came up to the bar about, you know what, asking for
• 4:07
  recommendations. I guess somebody else.
• 4:09
  But yeah, from there she was also kind enough to send me up
• 4:11
  to Aberfeldy Distillery and at this point I was taking a year
• 4:14
  out of uni. Mike McGuinty took me around.
• 4:16
  Mike McGuinty, yeah. Oh, no, Mike.
• 4:18
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well actually Long story short
• 4:23
  is Mike McGuinty is a FIFA. Oh, is he?
• 4:26
  Yeah, and MM and I used to get the train to school together.
• 4:30
  No way. Yeah, so it goes as far back as
• 4:32
  that. It's quite a surreal situation
• 4:33
  where we hadn't seen each other for, I don't know, God.
• 4:37
  Well, we would have been at least 14 or 15, maybe 1516 by
• 4:42
  the time we last saw each other. And then the next time we saw
• 4:44
  each other was that whiskey festival last year or two years
• 4:47
  ago. So it's quite, quite surreal.
• 4:49
  Yeah. Why?
• 4:50
  So might be going to take your own today.
• 4:52
  Yeah, it was a group of like maybe 20 bartenders from
• 4:55
  Glasgow, like mixture hostile, like I think the chip just a
• 4:59
  bunch of cocktail bars as well. And I was really lucky I got
• 5:02
  Wayla swap. She was like, you'll get much
• 5:04
  more out of this than I will. Like, you know, you've I just
• 5:07
  started to kind of appreciate whiskey.
• 5:08
  So we like I've had a building for what you and like at this
• 5:12
  point I wasn't even sure whether I was going back to you.
• 5:14
  And I saw Mike doing the random master job there and I was like,
• 5:19
  this is a sorry blank. This is all right.
• 5:22
  You can swear on the podcast. It's OK.
• 5:24
  She's just some of the stuff I've had to bleep out from
• 5:26
  Angus. My mum will be watching this so.
• 5:32
  That's the last one. And I just saw that's a job, but
• 5:36
  I had no idea what to do with the marketing degree.
• 5:38
  And like, went back to you and he finished it off managing a
• 5:43
  brunch at the bar of a brunch club in Glasgow.
• 5:46
  And a sweet Glasgow guy walks in about a year later and.
• 5:49
  He's like, how? Spicy are the chilies and their
• 5:52
  tacos. Maybe I'll leave it home, but
• 5:53
  that'd be our state. I've getting the idea just like,
• 5:56
  like almost about to feel like all this for the nonsense and
• 5:59
  the guy really, really nice guy. Just like, look, there's this no
• 6:04
  offense to anybody that decides to make hospitality my career
• 6:06
  because especially being here that sometimes you'd appreciate
• 6:09
  and they're so passionate about it.
• 6:11
  And I probably would have ended up doing it if not for this.
• 6:13
  And then he was just like, oh, is this all you want to do or do
• 6:15
  you want to do something else? And I was like, Oh no, I'd love
• 6:17
  to work in like Brandon Master marketing whiskey.
• 6:20
  I've got 2 pals on a podcast. I was like thinking 27 year old
• 6:24
  guys in a shed. But yeah, it's 2.
• 6:26
  There's only one of. Them oh God yeah, sorry I can
• 6:35
  tell I got up at 6:00 but so I know and I'm just like right
• 6:41
  nothing from of this and put me in touch with two former two
• 6:45
  former random masters. They both worked America for
• 6:48
  really big brands and they just were really kind we had a chat
• 6:51
  on the phone and I think this is where I started to really fall
• 6:54
  in love with whiskey. It's just that my mum and dad
• 6:56
  were like, oh, what are these guys like they don't know you
• 6:58
  from like, I don't know, why are they, why are they taking so
• 7:01
  much time to help you do this? And it's just like, I could ask
• 7:05
  them and like. So who are they getting a shout
• 7:06
  out? So Mitch, Mitch, Mitch.
• 7:08
  Yeah. Not another whiskey podcast.
• 7:10
  Yeah, good. Kind of cheesy to say it maybe,
• 7:13
  but like kind of the closest thing to like a mentor pad and
• 7:15
  he's just lovely. And Nicholas Blackie, who
• 7:18
  previously did the podcast with him.
• 7:19
  So that's how I've been, but Nicholas took it all with me and
• 7:22
  like chatted me for an. Hour So wait, so let me get this
• 7:24
  straight. So, so this guy who's walked
• 7:26
  into the so where you were, where were you working at the
• 7:28
  time? The Brunch Club.
• 7:29
  The Brunch Club. So you're working at Brunch
• 7:30
  Club. Some guys walked in.
• 7:32
  Yeah, John Trozier's guy's name, right?
• 7:35
  Right. And he's just asked how spicy
• 7:36
  are the chillies? Yeah, and your tacos.
• 7:38
  And you're not sure whether this guy's taking the piss or not.
• 7:40
  Sorry, Mrs. Morrison, But. And you don't know whether he's
• 7:44
  taking the mecha or not. But at the same time, was he?
• 7:47
  So did he work in whiskey? No, I.
• 7:49
  Don't think he did. So, so he's just randomly had a
• 7:51
  conversation with you and said, well, are you going to work in
• 7:53
  hospitality for the rest of your days?
• 7:55
  And you've said I kind of fancy being a brand ambassador.
• 7:57
  Yeah, he said. Oh well, I've got 2 pals who
• 7:59
  have a whiskey podcast. And we chance meeting, yeah.
• 8:02
  And then and they put you in touch and from there, Mitch and
• 8:06
  Nicholas, Nicholas have have have helped you get to where you
• 8:09
  are now. Well, yeah, it was just like
• 8:10
  Nicholas had a really good chat and was kind of like.
• 8:13
  Yeah, on another whiskey podcast, my.
• 8:18
  Only only appealing to the podcast so far was a whiskey on
• 8:21
  Mitch's podcast like name a whiskey brand beginning AB and
• 8:24
  I'm bound things Brandon must I didn't get it.
• 8:27
  Oh. You struggled with that was
• 8:29
  like. She was.
• 8:29
  Just like you say, you're getting sacked.
• 8:32
  After God, come on. I know Nicholas chat to me first
• 8:35
  and then said to Mitch, like give him a chat.
• 8:37
  You eat Nicholas lips in America and asked them for a while.
• 8:40
  And yeah, basically Mitch stays up in space side.
• 8:43
  So he just went look, I think I love it needs some needs some
• 8:47
  tour guides. So if you're really serious
• 8:49
  about it, move up to space side. I'll put you in touch with some
• 8:53
  some people who might be able to help with accommodation and I
• 8:55
  think you put me word in for me at the distillery.
• 8:57
  So it's what he did. So it was really kind of, and
• 8:59
  you know, he looked after me when I was up there and
• 9:01
  introduced me. To so what's the time frame that
• 9:03
  I said from the moment some random guys asked you how Spacey
• 9:08
  because the chilies in your tacos are to eventually moving
• 9:12
  up to start a job working as a in Glenn live it.
• 9:17
  November 2020 See I met the guy for the first time and like the
• 9:23
  and then I was just like right, yeah, fair enough.
• 9:25
  They came back in a month later. He's like, you didn't add me on
• 9:27
  LinkedIn and it was like, I think something family wise had
• 9:29
  happened and. There was like a reason.
• 9:31
  You just took the phone off me and then sent a message on my
• 9:33
  behalf or on his behalf from my phone.
• 9:35
  Really. Yeah, then moved up on the like
• 9:38
  first or second of. March.
• 9:39
  Right. So I was like quickly it
• 9:40
  happened so from wow and so that so that was you up and going
• 9:43
  with it then. Yeah, yeah.
• 9:44
  And then I was a tour guide there for six months.
• 9:49
  Contract wise I had a I bet my car press which signed me off
• 9:53
  work for a while but I honestly loved it up there.
• 9:55
  Just really, I mean, just because.
• 9:57
  I mean, you're, it's one thing I always find about when we hear
• 10:01
  about brand homes, Yeah. And things.
• 10:04
  And, you know, it's like we had them asked a day from Rasi and
• 10:10
  it's like, how hard is it to have a brand home?
• 10:13
  That's what I say. And you hear about how their
• 10:16
  headquarters or their business operations come out of an office
• 10:19
  sort of in. Is it Edinburgh?
• 10:21
  I think it might be Edinburgh. And you know, only occasionally
• 10:24
  they get to go up to the brand home and talk to Mark Thompson
• 10:26
  and he was going FedEx. He talked about the importance
• 10:29
  of having a brand home and about how operationally, because so
• 10:32
  much work gets done in whiskey in the central belt of Scotland,
• 10:36
  effectively because that's where everything is.
• 10:38
  You know, even look at when you hear about distilleries, you
• 10:41
  know, a lot of bottling gets done down in the central belt.
• 10:44
  A lot of you know everything gets sent sent down that area
• 10:47
  because space is a tough place to sometimes commute to, so to
• 10:51
  speak. But.
• 10:53
  From from your point of view you're you're actually going the
• 10:56
  other way, you're going into space side.
• 10:59
  So you're not just, you're not just breathing that you're
• 11:01
  living it as well. So what was that like living up
• 11:03
  in Space 8? I mean.
• 11:04
  Part of that part of the whiskey scene whilst living in space 8.
• 11:07
  So it's also brilliant. I remember, I remember before I
• 11:09
  went up, Mitch was like very honest with me.
• 11:11
  And he was like, look, you're I was what, 23?
• 11:14
  You're about to be 24 I think at that time.
• 11:16
  And he was like, look, either this is going to be completely
• 11:19
  confirmed to you that you want to work in whiskey or it's going
• 11:21
  to be like the worst move. The 23 year old who's living in
• 11:23
  Glasgow for six years and yeah, how is obviously I've now moved
• 11:28
  to India. I've been here nearly two years
• 11:29
  and I was actually more nervous driving up to space site.
• 11:31
  So I was like in my head at that point.
• 11:33
  I was like, Oh my God, this is such a so far my life's been
• 11:37
  changed. But ever moving from work, which
• 11:39
  obviously it's like, you know, you're looking out and you're
• 11:41
  like, that's just such a daft thing to worry about.
• 11:42
  But yeah, I put it off for ages like my mum was getting.
• 11:46
  I went to the end of my dad's car for the first few weeks till
• 11:50
  I bought a wee wee sports car. That's what you were, so you
• 11:52
  were commuting. No, no, I, my dad's, my dad was
• 11:55
  kind of like starting to just like he'd kind of gone on kind
• 11:59
  of garden leave before retiring. So he had his company car for
• 12:02
  another, another few months and then kindly lent it to me.
• 12:05
  So I drove up in that and was like putting it off and mum was
• 12:08
  terrified. I left at like 5 at night.
• 12:10
  So I get to like Abbey Moore, have a horrible ship in the
• 12:12
  Premier Inn car park. And then yeah, it was like I was
• 12:15
  nervous until I got to the point driving through space site and
• 12:18
  he'd like headlights hitting all these distilleries that I loved
• 12:21
  and you'd start to really enjoy drinking and then.
• 12:24
  So you worked, so you had you like you've had your Aberfelde.
• 12:27
  You saw your Glendronic moment, yes, and you've been up to the
• 12:30
  Aberfelde distillery. So you were at this point, I
• 12:32
  mean, you're talking a couple of years of sort of enjoying drams
• 12:35
  and starting to learn a little bit more about that.
• 12:37
  Yeah and that was the next step in that was importing the
• 12:40
  product and glasses. So that is my probably tied in
• 12:43
  the Highlander in my favorite place during the course of
• 12:46
  garden. And I just like the bartender I
• 12:49
  work with. Gavin was like right, you've
• 12:50
  moved flat right next door to it was like the closest public
• 12:53
  could get to from a flat. It's like, right, you haven't
• 12:54
  been in there. You started liking my skate go
• 12:57
  in and I told my dad and he was like one of my first dates for
• 13:00
  your mum. I got chucked.
• 13:01
  Out there. And then I told my dad was an
• 13:05
  architect when he was working. So you got chucked out for
• 13:07
  talking about architect? You've been trying like,
• 13:10
  obviously. Aggressively sit in the band.
• 13:13
  Like my mum, an early date with my mum, you know, trying to
• 13:15
  obviously bored nervous architecture which clearly
• 13:17
  worked. Yeah, I need now like 30 odd
• 13:19
  years later, but one of the regulars just complained to.
• 13:24
  God, that is part must have been poor a really, really bad.
• 13:30
  I'm feeling brave like 6000 miles away.
• 13:33
  I wonder if that's a supporting wall or have you been escorted
• 13:41
  out of a Have you been asked to leave a premises because your
• 13:43
  chat is starting to offend other punters of the of the pub and
• 13:47
  you're only All you're talking about is architecture to press a
• 13:50
  female then. God, yeah, I'm glad.
• 13:52
  I'm here. Exactly.
• 13:56
  There you go. So so you.
• 13:58
  So you've got another whiskey you're driving up.
• 13:59
  Yeah. And because that is when when
• 14:01
  you don't appreciate it, I would say that we're all guilty of it.
• 14:05
  Scott people from Scotland, Scott, Scottish people.
• 14:08
  You know, there's a start about how few people in Scotland
• 14:11
  they've ever visited Edinburgh Castle.
• 14:13
  But yeah, it's one of the most visited sites in Scotland.
• 14:15
  But it's also the sake or the case of I am annoyed at myself
• 14:19
  every single year where I go. I've not driven up to space side
• 14:23
  enough because I don't I do have a reason.
• 14:26
  The reason is to enjoy some drams.
• 14:28
  Yeah, but I suppose like from if you're working up there or if
• 14:31
  you have a reason to go up there, family visits, etc,
• 14:33
  you'll go up there to help a lot more.
• 14:35
  But it's there and it isn't until you come to a place like
• 14:38
  India and you realize a three hour drive it's.
• 14:41
  Nothing. It's time, it's nothing and it's
• 14:43
  on our doorstep and it isn't until you come to a place like
• 14:45
  India and you speak to. I was speaking to somebody in
• 14:48
  one of the one of the booze shops and just like talking
• 14:53
  about Glenfiddich. Yeah.
• 14:55
  And it's like, I've been there. Yeah.
• 14:57
  And he's like, I'm just absolutely up.
• 14:59
  Amazing. You've been to Glenfiddich.
• 15:01
  It's like, well, yeah, it's three hours away from me, but
• 15:03
  there's a guy who maybe doesn't even have a passport but works
• 15:06
  in a works in a drink shop and sells Glenfiddich and loves it
• 15:09
  and drinks. Whatever.
• 15:11
  That's it. So.
• 15:12
  So you're driving up there, you see all.
• 15:13
  And that's the moment you just decide that everything's going
• 15:15
  to be all right. You're doing OK.
• 15:17
  Yeah, I think so. And and sorry, last after this I
• 15:20
  will not jump about, but I just kind of I really want to give a
• 15:23
  shout out to Bonnie Ford because it was I went in and I told that
• 15:26
  story and it was Thomas who's the owner.
• 15:29
  And he was like, oh, give us a wee second.
• 15:31
  He went and found his dad, Paul, who's sadly passed away.
• 15:34
  And the two of them really were great at getting me into
• 15:37
  whiskey. And you know, that place just I
• 15:39
  was always worried a whiskey bar wouldn't somebody was new to it.
• 15:42
  You'd get judged. Such a stupid thing.
• 15:44
  Now be involved in your friends, people in the industry, working
• 15:46
  in the industry. The salt would never do that.
• 15:48
  But I was always so worried about going in there.
• 15:50
  And before I went in and ordered in the drum and you know, they
• 15:53
  were really kind to me and recommended whiskey.
• 15:56
  And you know, I still still. Really.
• 15:58
  Can't keep in touch with Thomas and the balling.
• 16:00
  Ford's going to be moving. He's got a new place open in
• 16:03
  Glasgow later this year. The whole streets are right next
• 16:06
  to Boston. So well, the guys you.
• 16:08
  Talk about you mentioned two big I mean, we we we are very guilty
• 16:11
  of it on the podcast. We are very.
• 16:15
  East Coast. Centric when it comes to comes
• 16:18
  to the podcast, we're very I mean here we are like say we're
• 16:20
  filming in diggers leaf doing the north of Edinburgh but.
• 16:25
  We're. Very much centered around
• 16:27
  Edinburgh and things like that. We don't venture W enough.
• 16:30
  We were talking about in the group chat, Angus Ross, Chuck
• 16:33
  myself. Well, Angus, Ross and I, Chuck,
• 16:35
  just reads the messages, you know.
• 16:39
  Are you coming to the recording tonight, Chuck?
• 16:42
  Then. Then at 7:10 we get a message
• 16:45
  back said I'll be there in 15 minutes, certainly.
• 16:47
  But by the way, I shouted the Chuck there.
• 16:50
  But but yeah, like we, we don't travel West.
• 16:54
  Yeah, enough. And going to Edinburgh, to
• 16:57
  Glasgow is nothing but the scene in in Glasgow.
• 17:00
  What's it like? You know, we we see it all in
• 17:02
  Edinburgh, right? We we see we've got Woody and
• 17:05
  Megan, you've got George and Rachel Key, but with with
• 17:07
  fragrant drops. You've got wine summit guys,
• 17:10
  you've got loads of you've got diggers and you've got down in
• 17:12
  Leith. You've got all the all the bars
• 17:14
  and stuff like that. Even now distilleries as well
• 17:16
  with holy rood and and Porter leaf and and crabbies.
• 17:22
  What's the name of the crabbies? One there Won't try to say Angus
• 17:25
  is going to be shouting at me fast.
• 17:28
  But anyway, we've got loads going on there.
• 17:30
  Yeah, right. What's it like over in Glasgow
• 17:32
  then? I mean I.
• 17:36
  I was actually. I've seen this to the earlier I
• 17:38
  feel a wee bit with like events in the events in the UK.
• 17:41
  It's like I when I was in Glasgow, I was kind of really at
• 17:44
  the start of kind of whiskey, my whiskey journey and getting into
• 17:46
  it and it was just enjoying drinking and like, yeah, the pot
• 17:50
  still going forward with yeah, a few pals that helped me get into
• 17:53
  whiskey and also like the regulars that met at the bottom
• 17:56
  part in particular. And you know, that that's kind
• 17:59
  of what my exposure to it was. And I didn't really go to a lot
• 18:02
  of these things. And I remember the dill I was I
• 18:06
  was with bonus at the time. American your ex.
• 18:10
  Current girlfriend. Is.
• 18:11
  That what is that we call it. I was trying to think.
• 18:13
  Of we're like. Linking it to that but.
• 18:19
  We were. Like it was.
• 18:20
  Just the Christmas before before.
• 18:22
  We thought space. Side and yeah we went into on
• 18:25
  the court and Alex who and I worked as a brand ambassador for
• 18:27
  Walkley like he just gave us some amazing recognitions I've
• 18:30
  I've I've only seen him like once or twice since I don't
• 18:32
  think you Remember Me because as I was showing you earlier I used
• 18:34
  to have stupid long hair mustache like horrendous yeah
• 18:39
  yeah what was the guy we. Said you look like Julian.
• 18:42
  Boy for the mighty. Bush.
• 18:43
  Yeah, boy, for the mighty Bush, it's.
• 18:44
  Not no. Yeah, yeah.
• 18:46
  Yeah, you look back, some edible, their photos, they were
• 18:47
  quite uncanny. Yeah, actually I was saying.
• 18:49
  That as like hopefully if there's a an award for motion
• 18:51
  food haircut for a Brandon Master in 2025 or hey, you've
• 18:54
  done all right. There maybe, but yeah, I mean
• 18:56
  like. We've got the pot still upon
• 18:58
  accord those are two big ones, but is there other whiskey bars
• 19:00
  around it Glasgow I mean even things like the distilleries now
• 19:05
  that you've got Glasgow distillery and things like that
• 19:07
  quite side yeah much of A shame I've.
• 19:09
  Been to me either. Yeah, yeah.
• 19:11
  Well, I mean, I just look at even some of the the history of
• 19:13
  Glasgow. Yeah, you you look back on.
• 19:17
  You know the. Bonded warehousing and stuff
• 19:19
  like that. Bottling would have all happened
• 19:20
  there. Quite industrious and also being
• 19:21
  a a port city as well would have had things coming in now but
• 19:25
  right I think good. Scene I just haven't had like
• 19:28
  when I go back, I believe it's six months left here so I'm
• 19:30
  looking forward to going back and yeah, see that be a bit
• 19:33
  more. Well, we have done.
• 19:34
  Have you? Have you are listening you
• 19:35
  you're sitting there screaming at your radio going there's
• 19:36
  loads of things to do in Glasgow and I'm so sorry.
• 19:39
  Well, no, drop us a message. Let us not get involved in the
• 19:41
  Facebook group. Whatever, because the more that
• 19:42
  we find out, the better it'll be.
• 19:43
  Because I know that when Scott Moore arrived and he sent me a
• 19:48
  picture from he was having a pie and A and a drum at Potsdale.
• 19:51
  And he was sort of that was him waiting for his bus to go from
• 19:55
  Glasgow Buchanan St. out to Campbelltown to go and do the
• 19:59
  Spring Bank experience and stuff like that.
• 20:00
  So, yeah, I mean, he, he, he obviously.
• 20:02
  And you, you go to the Pottstown and it's a bar we definitely
• 20:05
  need to go to. Right.
• 20:06
  Well, what we go move on. Yeah.
• 20:08
  Whiskey scene in India. Then we are sitting here with
• 20:10
  three drums in front of us. This is one of the.
• 20:14
  This is bald in India. This is I Wendy's pride.
• 20:18
  I think so, yeah. I think we might have reviewed
• 20:21
  this on the pod before when I got back the last time from
• 20:24
  India, but we've decided to go for that again.
• 20:27
  You're talking about 30. ML.
• 20:30
  Drama that has cost us about ₹120, which about.
• 20:34
  Maybe 17 pence, 80 pence, 78 pence.
• 20:37
  It's not bad, Ken's prices. Are really really good.
• 20:41
  Really. Really.
• 20:43
  Really good prices there, there, right?
• 20:45
  There's a blend. Of price, this is this is No,
• 20:50
  it's red. It's on the menus.
• 20:51
  IMFL Indian made Ford and liquor yeah, but it is Scotch whisky.
• 20:57
  I I'm pretty sure it's. Scott Whisky.
• 20:59
  So I'm not it's. This menu so I'm not that's the
• 21:01
  food menu that doesn't help, does it?
• 21:04
  I, I can't speak on this one, but I think, you know, we were
• 21:09
  speaking about it earlier, but it's.
• 21:10
  Often. Like the term that's.
• 21:13
  Used to walk here is like EII so bought it in India, yeah.
• 21:17
  So it'll. Be like neutral grain spirit
• 21:19
  with some molasses as well. Sometimes like ported over and
• 21:23
  then a portion of like Scotch whiskey.
• 21:25
  I think I'm right saying that mixed in, yeah.
• 21:28
  And. Price point I think varies how
• 21:30
  much Scotch whiskey's in it and that's, you know, that's
• 21:33
  probably 90 I think the. Pride's actually Scotch frisky.
• 21:37
  Let me double check. I might be wrong.
• 21:39
  I'm. Very sorry if I've been.
• 21:40
  No, you're all right. Let's go blinders pride.
• 21:50
  I always get mixed UPS. There are some that yeah, yeah,
• 21:51
  this is. The thing and yeah, but I mean,
• 21:55
  that's. Like those kind of bald in India
• 21:57
  ones that's about 95 to 97%. I know you're right.
• 22:00
  It's Indian grain spirit and imported Scotch malts.
• 22:03
  There you go. So there you are, feel.
• 22:05
  I feel, I feel. I should've got that right.
• 22:06
  You've got that right. You've.
• 22:07
  Got that right? Yeah, Blinder sprayed the
• 22:08
  popular Indian Premium Blinded whiskey, known for its smooth,
• 22:11
  smoky taste from blending Indian grain spirits with imported
• 22:15
  Scotch malts from Shivas Brothers, launched in 1995 by
• 22:19
  Pernor Reichard, is recognized for its complexity, woody notes,
• 22:23
  hint of peat and versatility in serving neat on the rocks with
• 22:26
  soda and has variants like even more premium reserve
• 22:30
  collections. You get a reserve collection on
• 22:32
  that as well. So yeah, that's this is what the
• 22:34
  Indian this is this is a mid market.
• 22:36
  This is aiming for the general whiskey drinker.
• 22:39
  It's got Scotch in it, but as you've said.
• 22:42
  It also has. Indian grain spirits in it so
• 22:45
  right. You you probably molasses.
• 22:47
  I think so, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it might differ.
• 22:49
  Yeah, it could be. Right, OK.
• 22:51
  The next one that we've got then is actually.
• 22:53
  Quite like that, yeah. Yeah, Sorry.
• 22:55
  No, no, it's not bad like. For the, for the.
• 23:00
  Price. That's I I was kind of unsure
• 23:03
  what we're, what I was going to get with that because I've not
• 23:05
  had it before, unfortunately. It's quite, it's got, it's got
• 23:08
  something at the end. Well, quite a price here, you
• 23:10
  say? I was going to say like it
• 23:11
  finishes. A wee bit, yeah.
• 23:13
  Right, what's the next one we've got?
• 23:14
  Because I'm forgetting what that is.
• 23:17
  The. You.
• 23:19
  Got you. Got the Sherry cast Paul, John
• 23:21
  and I got. I've got the brilliance.
• 23:23
  You've got the Nirvana, Nirvana. So Paul John, if you haven't
• 23:26
  seen the Paul John vlog, I got a chance to walk around the Paul
• 23:31
  John distillery and go up with the master distiller and Michael
• 23:34
  de Souza, which was just fantastic seeing how they seeing
• 23:37
  how they they make whiskey cast filling system.
• 23:40
  I showed you the video today mental mental mental cast
• 23:44
  filling system where they. Have.
• 23:47
  A massive hose that runs from from a massive tank full of
• 23:51
  spirit. This hose runs there and there's
• 23:53
  a guy with like a motorized pump and then a hose on the other end
• 23:57
  of the motorized pump and he just pumps it up and it goes all
• 24:00
  the way through this other hose. And there's a guy at the top of
• 24:03
  the raccoon with the cast just with the whole end of the hose
• 24:06
  inside the card and he just stands and goes right, that's it
• 24:10
  right And then shut the shut off mental.
• 24:12
  It's like sneaks and. Ladders like yeah.
• 24:14
  Honestly, but it was great to see you, great to see and the
• 24:17
  Paul John guys were absolutely fantastic with me.
• 24:20
  Couldn't have. And then I got a chance to sit
• 24:21
  down with him, Andrew for last week's episode as well.
• 24:23
  He was brilliant. And I have purchased a Tetro
• 24:28
  pack carton of Whiskey Original. Choice.
• 24:31
  Tetrapat whiskey So intrigued by this.
• 24:33
  I mean, like, I don't know if it's a thing that we can bring
• 24:36
  in Scotland I. Mean I don't know cartoons of.
• 24:40
  Whiskey, you know, not 1,000,000 miles.
• 24:41
  Away with that with the disposable pouches well, I mean,
• 24:44
  I think when you're. Drawing those hi.
• 24:45
  If you were to look at. If you were to look at it from a
• 24:49
  sustainability, sustainability point of view, then yeah,
• 24:52
  cartoons are curtains are great, but there we go, right.
• 24:54
  And the last RAM that we have was amroots.
• 24:59
  Amrit Amalgam. Yes.
• 25:01
  So we've got. All three Indian drams, Paul
• 25:04
  John and now Paul John made in Goa and Amrit made in Bangalore
• 25:09
  where we are, but both companies from Bangalore.
• 25:12
  Yeah, and interestingly as well is which was discussed on last
• 25:17
  week's podcast was very interesting as the heat and
• 25:20
  tropical differences between Bangalore and and Goa was when
• 25:26
  they're when they're mature in the casks in Bangalore.
• 25:30
  So I'm roots problem is they'll lose a lot of water in their
• 25:33
  Angel share, whereas with the tropical climate and Goa they
• 25:36
  lose the alcohol. All right, yeah, So there's
• 25:38
  there's an interesting difference there.
• 25:40
  Is that like community or is that?
• 25:41
  Yeah, something to do, I don't know.
• 25:42
  Whether it's the heat, whether it's just the heat or, but
• 25:44
  basically the alcohol is what goes there before the thing.
• 25:47
  So there you go. Right.
• 25:48
  So Glenn Leavitt, Yeah. So yeah, after.
• 25:53
  After that started working. Tour guide and I think again
• 25:57
  sorry pointing up stuff we tried earlier in a couple of years but
• 26:00
  it was him I think maybe the podcast with Cody Reynolds where
• 26:04
  you're talking about like the. As soon as you have a bit of
• 26:06
  knowledge, you realise how you are.
• 26:07
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 26:07
  And I, I was like going up, going, yeah.
• 26:09
  Look, I feel like I know a wee bit about whiskey now and then,
• 26:12
  yeah. Met the guys in production, met
• 26:16
  like who were really kind with their time.
• 26:18
  And Andrew Simpson, who's a friend and one of her other
• 26:21
  brand ambassadors who was my boss when I originally, we both
• 26:24
  were working at distillery. And yeah, he knows, he's like so
• 26:28
  knowledgeable about whiskey. Great guy.
• 26:29
  And he taught me so, so much. And it's.
• 26:33
  Yeah. 1st about really. Intimidating, but it's it was,
• 26:35
  you know how? Does that work?
• 26:38
  Glenn Livet, you're getting chucked in.
• 26:39
  That's a big old brat. Yeah, right.
• 26:41
  And as a, as a, as a distillery visitor center, probably one of
• 26:46
  the higher, you know, the higher visited distilleries in Scotland
• 26:49
  as well. Absolutely.
• 26:50
  So what does it look like you've just driven up because I mean,
• 26:55
  let's let's go back to the time our guys walked into your place
• 26:58
  and said how spicy your cell is. That then LED you on and
• 27:00
  meeting, you know, whiskey podcast guys that you've never
• 27:03
  met before who have then put you forward for.
• 27:06
  A job, right? So, so when you arrive, yeah,
• 27:10
  you know, do you just, is it just a case of, I mean, you
• 27:14
  know, with, you know, did you just get chucked out on the on
• 27:20
  the shop floor, so to speak? Or do you have to go to Glenn
• 27:22
  Livet courses in schools for learning how to do their do
• 27:26
  their tours? Yeah, no, absolutely.
• 27:28
  That's the the latter, and it's. I think it's absolutely one.
• 27:33
  Of the best things just in terms of my own interest in in
• 27:36
  learning more. And also I think it's a real
• 27:39
  credit to, it's not just for for Glenn Lovett, it's for all of
• 27:42
  the parental grant homes they do seasonal.
• 27:45
  Staff are hired. Kind of start of March and they
• 27:47
  have like a three-week training, Yeah, three 3 1/2 week training.
• 27:50
  Is that paid? Yeah.
• 27:52
  And it's it's. Absolutely brilliant.
• 27:53
  Like it's really, you know, I, I loved my time up there and part
• 27:57
  of it was that great start and they take you around every part
• 27:59
  of the production process. So you're hosted by at that
• 28:03
  point it was Karis Simpson who was the former Global BA, that
• 28:06
  amazing person. Just I, that's just before she
• 28:08
  left actually to me to show you. But yeah, Karis hosted our
• 28:11
  training took us to crisp maltings like 2 of the barley
• 28:15
  suppliers. Oh really?
• 28:16
  So they go into. That depth, yeah, yeah, you're
• 28:18
  properly. Like and it's like really,
• 28:20
  really in depth stuff. So I was like taking all these
• 28:22
  notes and it's just like I've got a booklet back home like
• 28:25
  with all this stuff about, you know, different barley varieties
• 28:29
  and yields from them. And it's like at that point I
• 28:31
  wasn't really understanding what I was like taking down
• 28:33
  necessarily. But you know, going back to it's
• 28:35
  really interesting and see the maltings you get taken round
• 28:40
  Shrapheyla and Glenn Livet and yeah, just like taste things you
• 28:45
  get, you know, talking through the products, the history you
• 28:48
  get to meet like fantastic archivist that we've got Robert
• 28:52
  Atho. Do you based out of Stratheil?
• 28:53
  Is he's. I think he stays in Glasgow, but
• 28:56
  he goes up to, he goes up to Stratheil a lot.
• 28:59
  There's the archives there. Yeah, that's right.
• 29:00
  The. Archives I've Yeah, I just wish
• 29:02
  to be locked in that room. Really it's like because that
• 29:05
  will go all the way. Back.
• 29:05
  So that's so that you're talking about, Yeah, you know.
• 29:09
  That will go all the way. Back from all the Parano brands,
• 29:11
  yeah. So, you know, and then I'll go
• 29:13
  back from all the Scotch brands. Yeah, yeah.
• 29:15
  All the Scotch brands at. Perno, but then I'll go back
• 29:18
  through the history of what they were before.
• 29:20
  So they'll look at, you know, acquisitions and when they had
• 29:23
  them, when and and then all that kind of stuff as well.
• 29:26
  Oh, it's amazing. Fantastic.
• 29:27
  Yeah, like. So yeah, they.
• 29:30
  I mean. I don't know.
• 29:32
  I think they've got a pretty good job from what I remember
• 29:34
  them saying, but it's like there's they're trying, they
• 29:36
  tried to have like at least one or two copies of at least the
• 29:40
  bottles of releases that they've done.
• 29:41
  And it's like, yeah, you're just.
• 29:43
  You can stand. There and it's like, yeah,
• 29:44
  there's bottles going back to like the early 1900s, some
• 29:47
  potentially. I'm not sure, that might be
• 29:49
  wrong. Yeah, it's just, it's really
• 29:51
  great. And I think and it's
• 29:52
  Stratheiser. Stratheiser is open for the
• 29:55
  yeah, for the public as well. I would.
• 29:56
  I would, really. Recommend that just company like
• 30:00
  obviously coming out somebody on for this just to have a chat,
• 30:02
  but I honestly it's one of the favorite celery through as I've
• 30:05
  done and it's wait a. Minute I think that was a wart 3
• 30:09
  drams very very early and I'm going to say I'm.
• 30:13
  Going to say it was. Megan from Woodrow's of
• 30:16
  Edinburgh. It is because I remember.
• 30:18
  That episode, yeah. 24th, 24th. Of January 2024 episode 14,
• 30:22
  Megan was lagging on 16, Woodrow's Mortlock 12 and
• 30:25
  Strathailer 15. Single cast.
• 30:27
  There you go. And that's the only That's the
• 30:28
  only Strathailer mentioned on the Wart 3 drams.
• 30:33
  I'm not, obviously. Get to mine later that was
• 30:35
  strathailer almost was one that came onto mine and I think it's
• 30:37
  like such an I'm not tried enough.
• 30:39
  I don't. Think I think.
• 30:41
  I can probably put my hand in. My heart.
• 30:42
  So I don't think I've ever tried a strap.
• 30:44
  Yeah, I'd say that I'll need to. I'll need to.
• 30:46
  We need. To try that pot still get.
• 30:47
  Some, yeah, definitely was in there.
• 30:50
  And yeah, look at. 1980s Strathfield 12 like 4.50 a.
• 30:54
  Draft. I'm one of those.
• 30:55
  Like one of the new staff really.
• 30:56
  Was that one of the Kev's weird bottles?
• 30:58
  Like, I mean, I'm going to have to.
• 30:59
  I'm going to. Have to definitely try it
• 31:00
  because yeah, so we're not that's what's great about like I
• 31:05
  would say if you're going, I mean, look, you're working for a
• 31:08
  big brand, you know, you're not. And when I say working for a big
• 31:11
  brand, Glenn Levitt is a big brand, yeah, but you're also got
• 31:15
  to remember what, what the brand that owns Glenn Levitt is as
• 31:18
  well. So it's like when you go, you
• 31:20
  know, all these big brands are, you know, when you're working
• 31:23
  for our beg, yeah, you're working for LVMH, you know, when
• 31:27
  you're you know, so you've got to remember.
• 31:29
  So they'll have these processes that are in place where people
• 31:32
  are going to be working for them.
• 31:33
  Have to have an understanding of everything and they'll
• 31:36
  representing everything. So getting sent away to like you
• 31:39
  say, learning about the barley varieties and things like that
• 31:42
  and it it backs up. So when you are doing the tour.
• 31:45
  But when we speak to tour tour guides or former tour guides,
• 31:49
  people who worked there, was there an.
• 31:51
  Area. Of the the distillery or process
• 31:55
  or the the full tour? Because it's I think it's
• 31:59
  impossible to do. A good tour.
• 32:02
  Right. Yeah.
• 32:03
  Where you can cover as in depth as you can with everything.
• 32:09
  Yes. Right.
• 32:09
  I don't think you can tell the great story about was it George
• 32:13
  Smith, George Smith? Yeah, I don't think you could.
• 32:14
  Tell the great. Story about George Smith and the
• 32:17
  starting of Glen Limit and also dive into the barley varieties
• 32:22
  that are being used or the fermentation times or the still
• 32:26
  or the line arms or anything like that.
• 32:27
  So I always think that at some point or another when you're a
• 32:30
  tour guide or you're doing this, you have to pick an area and
• 32:32
  make it your skill set. So what was yours, I mean?
• 32:36
  I'd like to firstly apologize to my my former bosses at Glenn
• 32:40
  Livet for answering this question because I.
• 32:44
  Just was like as soon as I moved.
• 32:45
  Up there, like community up there is incredible.
• 32:47
  You know, you see your stories in my family talking about how,
• 32:50
  you know, growing up in your size and Motherwell, like how
• 32:53
  people it was a proper community and people looked out for each
• 32:55
  other. And that's where I loved
• 32:58
  obviously working at distillery, but that's what I loved about
• 33:00
  space side is like you really got the sense that and these
• 33:04
  facilities are the heart of the communities.
• 33:05
  And and I worked very long as this question.
• 33:08
  But Andrew, again, like I had a really bad day, like one of my
• 33:10
  first days. So, you know, I was really late
• 33:12
  on the tour. So I was so interested myself
• 33:14
  and I was just trying to, you know, give all that knowledge to
• 33:16
  people. And I think it's, I'd mucked up
• 33:18
  some facts and stuff because it was, you know, a lot of.
• 33:21
  Stuff to take. In even after the fantastic
• 33:22
  training we had, I was just. Just a tour guide.
• 33:25
  And he was like, you know, Andrew Can, he's his family
• 33:28
  lived in that part of Scotland for generations.
• 33:31
  Like trace. It back hundreds of years and
• 33:34
  you just like look, you know you're the reason my.
• 33:38
  Family can live. Here because you've come all the
• 33:40
  way up from Glasgow to work at a distillery, these distilleries,
• 33:43
  people spending money here travelling, you know, to the
• 33:46
  northeast of Scotland, it means that there's jobs for young
• 33:49
  people, that there's jobs for people in the community.
• 33:51
  Yeah. And raise their families here.
• 33:52
  And it's like that I think, you know, maybe a bit.
• 33:54
  And my dad, I can even show that being a sentiment company.
• 33:57
  But that for me is like the thing that I still think is the
• 34:00
  most support for my time up there is it's about people and
• 34:03
  it's about that I love whiskey and I love trying new drams.
• 34:06
  I love sharing it with people wherever you are, but.
• 34:09
  That. If you place with people that
• 34:10
  make it in the communities, but my my problem, sorry that no
• 34:14
  carry on. No, it's good.
• 34:15
  But my my problem. Was I just loved kind of
• 34:18
  everything about it. So I would run over 2 years by
• 34:20
  half an hour eventually to sort that out.
• 34:22
  So but that's but that's I. Suppose like I'm just thinking
• 34:24
  to myself like that is the great brand, the master.
• 34:27
  I'm looking at it from the lazy point of view where I'm going,
• 34:30
  right. I'll tell you what I'll do is
• 34:31
  I'll just become really, really good at telling the story of the
• 34:33
  of the distillery. I'll tell the great story.
• 34:35
  I'll use it. I'll I'll go on about how he's
• 34:38
  had to buy pistols and yeah, you know, and I'll make everyone
• 34:41
  feel, but that's great. And you know what, that is part
• 34:43
  of the process. But at the same time, the real
• 34:46
  skill with a brand ambassador, I suppose, would be able to read
• 34:48
  the room very quickly and go, right.
• 34:51
  I've got whiskey geeks in here that want to know about
• 34:53
  fermentation time and barley varieties, but I've also just
• 34:57
  got a bunch of tourists first. Whiskey Distillery.
• 35:02
  Just tell them the story. Of the heritage, yeah.
• 35:04
  And being able to pull that together would be their and why
• 35:06
  experience because I mean roughly speaking, how many
• 35:08
  people would be going through the distillery on a sort of
• 35:10
  daily basis like our weekly basis?
• 35:12
  I think so. I mean, obviously.
• 35:14
  The easy event again, really, really good introduction and get
• 35:17
  back to that. You know, there's people like me
• 35:19
  who and a friend, Ian, who's like.
• 35:22
  Take the break from being. Explore exploratory geologist
• 35:25
  and the oil trade. I usually love this whiskey.
• 35:27
  So he's like between jobs, I'll do this.
• 35:29
  So we like the risky, a few other of us.
• 35:32
  But then there was like, you know, there was colleagues there
• 35:33
  that hadn't had this. And it's like.
• 35:36
  The thing that I think is the best about that training that we
• 35:38
  were given is, and they do it for people throughout the whole
• 35:41
  company, not just the tour guides.
• 35:45
  And you know, they're like by the end or by the end of their
• 35:48
  six months of being a tour guide, you know, they were
• 35:51
  proper whiskey drinkers, not proper whiskey drinkers because
• 35:53
  you shouldn't not quantify anything.
• 35:54
  No, I know you mean but. Well, and they had favorite
• 35:57
  whiskeys and. I just think that's that's
• 36:00
  ultimately if a good tour has been able to have somebody pick
• 36:03
  up on like blood and tasting maybe doesn't like it.
• 36:05
  I think that was something I definitely eventually got to
• 36:09
  know was that yeah, the proper whiskey geeks you can just.
• 36:12
  Say to them right I'll. Chat to you at the end of the
• 36:13
  show. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 36:14
  Or. Come up to the bar.
• 36:15
  I'll. Pour you some drams and I can
• 36:16
  talk you through Yeah, like fermentation time times or you
• 36:21
  know, all this other stuff about distillation and it's I think
• 36:24
  it's long as you you'd have quite often family members or
• 36:28
  friends. Drag lawn and.
• 36:29
  Whiskey tears and still still like when I do tastings here,
• 36:31
  that's one thing I want to be able to do.
• 36:33
  Is that someone who maybe doesn't enjoy whiskey?
• 36:37
  Connecting with a bit of the place and the people?
• 36:38
  That's the most important thing. And then also, yeah, like, if
• 36:41
  you're able to try this, like, call John Ego, I get a little
• 36:45
  bit of citrus. Brilliant.
• 36:47
  That's all you need. That's all you need.
• 36:48
  Yeah, I mean it. Gets people that yeah and it
• 36:50
  opens the door to them, but it's like there is an entertainment
• 36:53
  factor. I know we we spoke a barley
• 36:56
  Baxter and. And he said one of.
• 37:00
  Things that stuck out was and he's right.
• 37:01
  He is right when he said that, you know.
• 37:06
  Whiskey first. And then because it's very easy,
• 37:08
  Brandon. Bastards.
• 37:09
  Yeah. To be a brand ambassador, you
• 37:11
  have to have a little bit of razzmatazz.
• 37:12
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 37:13
  Or you should, because if you don't, you know, you're in the
• 37:16
  wrong job. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 37:18
  You know, you've got to be able to hold your room.
• 37:19
  You've got to be able to tell a story.
• 37:20
  You've got to be able to entertain, make people laugh,
• 37:22
  get serious, get, you know, go through all.
• 37:25
  And I get that. But at the same time, I suppose
• 37:26
  from a, it must be very difficult.
• 37:28
  You have to make sure you find the right balance where you're
• 37:30
  going. This isn't about me tonight, by
• 37:32
  the way, guys. This is about the whiskey.
• 37:34
  But at the same time you still have to be able to commander I.
• 37:36
  Think that's important? I would.
• 37:37
  Say that I think that's really, really important.
• 37:39
  I think you look at it and you can say I mean look, it's so
• 37:42
  easy anyone could do a whiskey taster.
• 37:44
  Yeah, right. Anyone, anyone, anybody can do a
• 37:47
  whiskey taster and let me tell you, because what you do is you
• 37:50
  put 5 whiskeys on the liner and you put out whether or not
• 37:53
  you're going to have like does. If it's a big debate, you could
• 37:57
  look at do. You put if we're.
• 38:00
  Putting a whiskey tasting together, do you put the
• 38:03
  whiskeys on the line up out publicly?
• 38:06
  Yeah. So then people can go, oh,
• 38:08
  there's going to be that on the tasting.
• 38:09
  Yeah, I would definitely buy a ticket for that.
• 38:12
  Or do you not put whiskey, the whiskeys in the line up?
• 38:14
  Because then what you're doing is you're then saying, well, if
• 38:17
  you don't put the whiskeys in the line and line up on public,
• 38:21
  you're then saying it's not about the whiskeys so much, it's
• 38:22
  about the experience. Yeah.
• 38:25
  So like I say, anyone can do it. Anyone can put.
• 38:27
  I mean, you can go out there and you can say I'm going to put 5
• 38:30
  port Ellens or 4 Port Ellens in a Broora and you can put it out
• 38:34
  there. Now you could give someone.
• 38:37
  Some taste in those and they can stand up, but whether or not
• 38:39
  people. You know.
• 38:41
  Whether? People come.
• 38:42
  Along to that, whether they don't, okay, I think if you put
• 38:44
  4 Port Ellens in a Broora on there, it'd be difficult for
• 38:47
  people not to go to depending on what the price is right now.
• 38:50
  But it just depends. And then it's down to like,
• 38:52
  well, what happens after the tasting?
• 38:54
  Was that an enjoyable one or was it a boring one or because
• 38:56
  whiskey tastes like whiskey for a lot of people.
• 38:58
  Yeah, it isn't until it's been opened up by somebody who's got
• 39:02
  a skill set like a brand new master to go this is the story,
• 39:05
  this is the moment, this is the heritage and everyone approaches
• 39:08
  it. Everyone finds it from a
• 39:09
  different way. And like you say, if you can get
• 39:12
  one person to identify one tasting note where they walk out
• 39:15
  of that room going or just fall in.
• 39:17
  Love with the brand because. You can't fall in love with a
• 39:19
  brand by just hearing the story. Absolutely.
• 39:22
  I'm like, I absolutely agree with that.
• 39:24
  It's like, I think there's countless times in India you
• 39:28
  get, you know, I'll be hosting these things for.
• 39:30
  Yeah. Like, for instance, and yeah,
• 39:34
  there'll be a guy there that's, you know, in the 70s.
• 39:38
  And. Again, you know, really kind of
• 39:40
  heartfelt. You know, they have such a
• 39:41
  passion for whiskeys here, you know, like even these not even,
• 39:46
  but the Scotch brands and then the the Balder India ones as
• 39:49
  well. You know, you go to see like
• 39:50
  these old school restaurants and have plates from like the 70s or
• 39:54
  60s with like when there's plate Imperial blue branding and it's
• 39:58
  just like it's such a part of Indian culture.
• 40:00
  But you know, you the guys like, Oh yeah, that's like I've been
• 40:03
  drinking one for 50 years, but that's the first time I've
• 40:07
  tasted it. I'm not, that's nothing to do
• 40:08
  with me being able to, you know, do anything special.
• 40:11
  It's just like. Someone's maybe not presented it
• 40:14
  in the right way. Yeah, that's it.
• 40:15
  And that's and not saying that I necessarily did, but you know,
• 40:18
  you have like the other one that sticks out for me was, you know,
• 40:22
  it was lovely tour. That's where distillery and it's
• 40:25
  like this mother and daughter. Mother was maybe late 60s and
• 40:30
  they were like going around really interested at the end,
• 40:33
  like came up and and was really emotional.
• 40:35
  They were going like, oh, look, you know, thank you so much that
• 40:37
  I really meant a lot. And I was like, Oh no, look,
• 40:39
  just enjoy doing it. And, and it turns out the, it
• 40:43
  was a mother and daughter. The mum had lived, been married
• 40:46
  to a doctor and he'd sadly passed away the year before.
• 40:49
  They were from Australia and she lived in, lived in Edinburgh in
• 40:54
  the 1960s. So she might be a little older
• 40:57
  than that. I thought I've just said she
• 40:59
  was. Oh well.
• 41:02
  But. While they were there that was
• 41:05
  her husband was like finishing some part of his men with
• 41:07
  three-year doing another further study and they'd.
• 41:11
  Had their first hog day. And is it people with dark here?
• 41:14
  I think it's good luck to be first fruit.
• 41:16
  All right, OK. I might be getting.
• 41:17
  That wrong? So sorry I never heard that.
• 41:19
  But. Someone apparently, they, like,
• 41:21
  invited her to this hawk with a party.
• 41:23
  And they're like, you're the first fruit because you've got
• 41:26
  this lucky yeah type. And they thrust the bottle of
• 41:27
  Glen Levitt into her hands. And, you know, she was first
• 41:30
  through the door. And that was her first drink of
• 41:32
  whiskey and a Glen Levitt drinker for the rest of our
• 41:35
  life. And her husband would have a
• 41:37
  drama with her on company. And that's the only thing we'd
• 41:40
  have a whiskey. And he passed away the year
• 41:41
  before. And they'd always talked about
• 41:43
  coming and visiting distillery. And, yeah, like, she did that.
• 41:46
  And I was just like, again, not anything special I've done, but
• 41:49
  it's like I've been given the, oh, you get these moments.
• 41:51
  Yeah, and you're like, this is, you know what?
• 41:52
  Yeah, it's about the people and that's that's and you've got
• 41:55
  you've. Got a duty as well to then give
• 41:56
  them a, an experience from that point of view and make it
• 41:59
  special. I mean, I'm, I'm terrible Angus
• 42:02
  will, Angus will back me up on this.
• 42:04
  I'm so impressionable, right, So impressionable.
• 42:07
  And, and basically I'm at the stage now where you know.
• 42:12
  If the whiskey had a. Very good story.
• 42:13
  I'd fall in love with it, which I used to do, but now it's like
• 42:16
  after every single distillery trip I go to, I go.
• 42:19
  That is not my new favorite whiskey.
• 42:21
  You know, I'm sorry, Glenn Cadham, you were you were the
• 42:25
  last distillery that we put out on the vlog.
• 42:26
  But then Paul John one now I'm absolutely but.
• 42:31
  But it is. It is.
• 42:32
  Funny how that an experience like that can and that's
• 42:35
  important thing is, look how many people in their life hold,
• 42:39
  visit more than two distilleries in their lifetime.
• 42:42
  Yeah, we, we speak to a small group of people that, well, Ross
• 42:46
  has probably been a more than 6065 distilleries and his tiny
• 42:50
  little life. I know, but but that's it.
• 42:55
  So, but most people, you know, most people will go, it'll be
• 42:59
  like maybe one or two distilleries in their lifetime.
• 43:02
  So when they go, they'll usually probably hold on to that as an
• 43:05
  experience. And that could be both ways as
• 43:07
  well. They could hold on to that and
• 43:09
  go. That was a really, really
• 43:10
  positive experience. Or they could go really don't
• 43:13
  enjoy my time and I just tell the tour guide felt like he
• 43:16
  couldn't be bothered or he couldn't be bothered or or it
• 43:20
  could be a case of all they talked about was fermentation
• 43:22
  times and copper contact. Yeah, I actually just wanted to
• 43:26
  hear about the story. So getting it wrong is equally
• 43:29
  just as just as difficult, isn't it?
• 43:31
  I mean, I hope hands up to see I've.
• 43:32
  Definitely gone on about cast types and Roman.
• 43:36
  Roman. Castigation methods.
• 43:38
  Really. That was not a stone from
• 43:40
  another former former Space Flight beer that we had when
• 43:44
  he's now in America, but. Like no, Yes and.
• 43:47
  I think, yeah, it's just like finding that balance and it's
• 43:49
  like I, I think not a really good bit of advice that I got
• 43:52
  from, from Mark Thompson was just about how, but I was like 1
• 43:55
  spirit of space side. I think having a beer or two
• 43:57
  after an event, like loads of people there.
• 43:59
  And he's just like, yeah, it's like it's about being, you know?
• 44:03
  Different. You just need.
• 44:04
  To be ready to be a different person for each event you're
• 44:06
  doing, that's a scope. That you're meeting and.
• 44:08
  It's like scope. I think it's probably.
• 44:09
  The yeah, it's, it's a really, it's a.
• 44:12
  Weird. Sensation just like you know
• 44:14
  you're I think you know Stuart touched on how busy you can be
• 44:16
  here and it's like you so I was I.
• 44:18
  Was like listening to this. Podcast at the stand ups really
• 44:21
  like seeing how like when they first started out tramming so
• 44:24
  many shows into America the body can do yeah and then.
• 44:27
  You just realise that you're. Saying the same thing to like
• 44:29
  all these people, you always can't keep track of who it is.
• 44:31
  So it's it definitely can't be that challenging, but it's also
• 44:33
  like a really great thing. You know, sure, it was talked
• 44:35
  about. Yeah, opening Whiskey's, the
• 44:37
  bartenders here would never have a chance to be able to try.
• 44:40
  And, you know, like one of the certainly sweeping statement
• 44:45
  potentially. But I think such a great thing
• 44:48
  about the hospitality industry in India is that it's taken
• 44:50
  really seriously and it's genuinely a way for people who,
• 44:54
  you know, might not be, you know, from from the wealthiest
• 44:58
  background. It's a really good social
• 45:00
  mobility thing. And they train them, they train
• 45:02
  their staff so highly here. And, you know, I feel very lucky
• 45:05
  to be a part of that. You know, I probably trained 3
• 45:07
  or 4000 bartenders really last year and a half.
• 45:09
  And, and yeah, they get so much out of it and it's it's, and
• 45:13
  it's not a bit anything to do with me, but like, yeah, there's
• 45:15
  some of those talented bartenders I've met or working
• 45:17
  here, some of the best coffee bars.
• 45:19
  The restaurants are amazing and the food seems great.
• 45:22
  And it's just, yeah, like it's. You know, it's a nice thing to
• 45:25
  be. Able to be golden and let you
• 45:27
  know exist as you know again mentioned previously this.
• 45:31
  You know, turn out to. Go where we are at the moment
• 45:33
  can be sometimes two or three times more expensive than, Oh
• 45:35
  yeah, than Haryana, where I live.
• 45:37
  So yeah, I mean. Well, Glenn Livett was a
• 45:40
  distillery or still is a distillery I really love.
• 45:43
  But I see I wrote it in the and it wasn't because you're coming
• 45:46
  on the podcast. Actually, I wrote about we're
• 45:49
  doing a drama the month on the newsletter.
• 45:51
  If you want to find out about the newsletter you get on, sign
• 45:54
  up through the website whiskeystories.co.uk.
• 45:56
  But the newsletter, we wanted to be a bit more structured with
• 45:59
  it. And I was going to do a drama in
• 46:01
  the month. So I did a drama, my drama in
• 46:03
  the month for January. Now, it would have been dead
• 46:05
  easy to pick a Paul John or an Indian whiskey.
• 46:08
  I'm over in India and I tried this and I thought, come on,
• 46:11
  I've got plenty of time to talk about Indian whiskey, you know,
• 46:14
  for the net for the rest of the year sort of thing.
• 46:17
  So. But it was a, it was a Glenn
• 46:18
  Live at 12 Double Look. Is it?
• 46:21
  Yeah, Yeah, remember. But it was day 2, day 2 of being
• 46:26
  here and I put up a picture up of it and it's just, I'm on the
• 46:32
  Cody Reynolds cycle now and it's it's annoyed me since Cody first
• 46:36
  mentioned it, but now we have officially had the confirmation
• 46:40
  of it on the episode a couple weeks ago.
• 46:42
  We had one. But when Cody explains it and
• 46:45
  it's like, yeah, I think 3 four months ago, if I'd seen a
• 46:51
  standard core release at 40% ABV, I'd have just been like,
• 46:55
  why? Why would I bother with that?
• 46:57
  I know exactly where the Glen Livet bottles are.
• 46:59
  And Diggers, yeah, I know exactly where they are.
• 47:01
  They're right beside the. Thompson.
• 47:03
  Brothers bottles, which is probably their problem.
• 47:05
  I was going to say yeah. Yeah.
• 47:07
  Anyone struggling? Yeah.
• 47:08
  And then they've got the. Bridge and then they've also
• 47:10
  got, you know, you've got your Edward hours and a few other
• 47:14
  things in that, that that area, yeah.
• 47:17
  It's a. Distillery that it's a drama I
• 47:18
  would go to very often. It's the founders 1 is it?
• 47:21
  Founders deserve? Founders deserve blue.
• 47:23
  Label there sadly. Go get that India.
• 47:24
  But yeah, that tracking drama I used to.
• 47:27
  I have that on a Sunday night and when I lived in Kirkcaldy
• 47:30
  and then I moved on to the 12. I love the illicit still special
• 47:33
  release we used to get. People like, I think it was
• 47:36
  about a year and a half since that stopped being sold.
• 47:38
  Yeah, when I was working there, you get like the Germans in the
• 47:41
  Scandinavian. What was it about?
• 47:43
  Can you? Remember the breakdown of how
• 47:45
  that because again, when I was drinking that that was long
• 47:47
  before I was into my like this level of whiskey, like cast
• 47:50
  breakdown or anything like that. Sadly, I was about the same.
• 47:53
  So yeah. Because I mean, I just loved it,
• 47:57
  but. This is The thing is I tried
• 47:58
  that going for like 12. On the 2nd of January.
• 48:02
  First drama I've had since we arrived.
• 48:03
  And you know what? I just went down an absolute
• 48:05
  treat, buttery smooth, sweet, everything I wanted.
• 48:07
  And it was just very nice, particularly in this climate.
• 48:10
  And. And I just thought it was great.
• 48:13
  So I just think to myself like, why have I neglected Glenn?
• 48:17
  And I think there's always this danger of like, oh, well, it's
• 48:19
  the big guy. So yeah, you stay away from it
• 48:22
  because there's so much rather to talk about.
• 48:24
  But like Cody said in the cycle, eventually, once you've kind of
• 48:28
  gone through the whole cast strength, single cask,
• 48:30
  independently bottled weird and wonderful stuff, you come back
• 48:33
  to that just come. Back and it's just.
• 48:35
  Yeah, I remember them. Dougie Little on his podcast
• 48:38
  episode, shouted Dougie. Actually, Dougie was saying that
• 48:41
  there was. Now wait a minute, let me say
• 48:43
  this without I know basically saying that was day, maybe day.
• 48:47
  Two or day three. Of whiskey Fringe, Yeah.
• 48:51
  And I think he was a bit like. Where do you go after you've
• 48:53
  done 2 days of of this? And it might be Mark Thompson, I
• 48:57
  think he bumped in there. Yeah, he said I'm just going to
• 48:59
  kind of go around the mark. And what Mark did was said, I'm
• 49:03
  only going to go around, I'm just going to try core releases
• 49:05
  of what everyone's bringing out just to sort of realign myself
• 49:09
  with what? Yeah, whatever.
• 49:12
  What? All right, I've tried that
• 49:14
  single cask of that. I've tried their cast strength
• 49:16
  version, I've tried their special edition and that's try
• 49:19
  that. But what's a Core 10, Core 12
• 49:21
  and Core 15 actually tasting like these days?
• 49:24
  What you're saying I. I.
• 49:26
  I was, I was listening to the Cody Reynolds episode when I was
• 49:29
  flying down this morning and it's a, it's a really good point
• 49:31
  and I actually think. You know, as somebody who?
• 49:35
  Wants to try and more whiskey and try really, you know, weird
• 49:38
  stuff where people are releasing.
• 49:40
  It's one of the only downsides of being here is that you don't
• 49:43
  get that opportunity. Like me to tell you.
• 49:45
  Yeah, sadly very limited. In what?
• 49:46
  We get, but like also at the same time it's, I think it's
• 49:48
  probably snapped me out of that a little bit and made me
• 49:50
  appreciate like. Certainly, you know.
• 49:53
  Core range whiskey that's below yeah 46% a lot more and or 48%
• 49:59
  and it's I I now, but yeah, when it's back over Christmas when I
• 50:04
  was the few times I wasn't dead with a yeah that you got that
• 50:07
  bug. Didn't you?
• 50:08
  I was, you know, when I was in the.
• 50:10
  Like pot still going forward I was trying trying to slip in
• 50:12
  there there friends dad put me earlier 10 and for the cracking
• 50:16
  graph for. The buck?
• 50:17
  Yeah, that's like one of the best 10.
• 50:18
  Year olds that I think is out there.
• 50:19
  Well I've said found the list still.
• 50:21
  So 48% non chill filtered and. From from what I remember.
• 50:28
  From when we sold it at distillery, I think there's a
• 50:31
  slightly higher portion of Sherry cast compared to the
• 50:33
  normal. Yeah, I might be wrong in that,
• 50:34
  So I'm very sorry. But well, I just, I just loved.
• 50:37
  It and again fell in love with the Glenn Lovett story, all that
• 50:41
  kind of stuff. And that was that was kind of
• 50:42
  that, right, India. Then so.
• 50:45
  You're out in India. We're out in India right now.
• 50:48
  It's it's someplace, eh? But.
• 50:51
  You've been. What's it been like for you
• 50:53
  being landing, landing in India? Because I'm not saying you
• 50:56
  haven't done much travelling before you came out to India,
• 50:59
  you know. So we were talking about, I
• 51:01
  think both of us inherently being a wee bit nervous Flyers,
• 51:04
  yeah. And.
• 51:06
  My my mum is. Quite the most nervous flyer in
• 51:08
  the world. And yeah, basically I had been
• 51:11
  in a plane for those 15 and I. Think maybe did 3.
• 51:14
  Or four flights and yeah, I. Was I was.
• 51:18
  Worked up Duffton. I had a pretty bad car crash.
• 51:20
  I was really lucky to walk away from and drive them from
• 51:23
  distillery around the blind corner.
• 51:25
  American tourists wrong side the road 70 miles an hour and I'll
• 51:28
  do it had a. 2002 Mazda. NX5 but somehow I don't think.
• 51:33
  Trumping zones are really a. Really a thing that something.
• 51:36
  I walked away from that and then the next day on a lot of
• 51:38
  morphine and I still smoked, having a cigarette and a cup of
• 51:41
  tea out in front of my house and ducting.
• 51:43
  Got an e-mail being like, oh, do you want to try to move to
• 51:45
  India? And I was just.
• 51:46
  Like, that's quite a leap. Yeah.
• 51:50
  That's quite a leap. I need to probably like make
• 51:52
  sure. I'm there.
• 51:52
  Everybody took takes. Everybody took takes that he got
• 51:55
  kicking around up, then I'm there.
• 51:58
  That's like, yeah. And then?
• 51:59
  Where's it to be this? Could you get a?
• 52:00
  Curry and often, Yeah. No, there is, right?
• 52:02
  I can't. Remember this phone?
• 52:04
  But there's a really good take away.
• 52:05
  There's the, IT used to be, used to be the calm and now there's
• 52:10
  the whiskey capital in and like one or two bars you have the the
• 52:14
  Royal British Legion. I wasn't served initially
• 52:17
  because I didn't realize there was.
• 52:21
  A You were a hand. This is a big full back me.
• 52:29
  Tom, who's now working up at Highland Park and he worked at
• 52:34
  distillery as well, and we used to get an Indian from there.
• 52:37
  That was like kind of the only, only exposure to Indian before
• 52:40
  we actually. Go and I mean live in end of 10
• 52:41
  talk about that because Oh yeah, I mean we Angus and I spent
• 52:45
  spent a weekend up there staying in the Highlander staying in
• 52:48
  Aberlauer just said, well, the Highlander then our best, best
• 52:52
  place. And Craig Ella Key.
• 52:53
  Sorry. And it was great, but then it's
• 52:55
  like. You know there was an element.
• 52:58
  Of. There's a better.
• 53:00
  Romance. I would say yeah, around being
• 53:04
  up in that neck of the woods space side right, but also, but
• 53:09
  you're talking about it as well. I remember going up before we
• 53:12
  started the podcast and it was just on the last week the the
• 53:16
  Sunday I. Think we?
• 53:17
  Went up on the Saturday night spirit space side, Yeah, when
• 53:21
  the Islander in and it's rammed, as you can imagine, but you're
• 53:25
  looking around and I was kind of looking at people and I was
• 53:27
  like, they look like folk at working in this, like, you know,
• 53:30
  And there is this sort of romance of the, you mentioned
• 53:32
  it, like brand ambassadors all getting together, sitting around
• 53:35
  in the Highland around having a couple of beers.
• 53:36
  And you know what it'll be like. The romance of it in my mind is
• 53:41
  there'll be people working for one distillery and other
• 53:44
  distilleries all getting there, having a good few drams and
• 53:46
  having a chat and open discussion.
• 53:48
  I mean, is that, is that why it's literally like when you're
• 53:50
  in in and around that area to live?
• 53:52
  I mean that, yeah. I mean.
• 53:53
  I thought it was. I get 2.
• 53:57
  Two parts that I'd say like that.
• 53:59
  Yeah, it's there's like when we were getting a training, there
• 54:02
  was like a distillery. There was a big the big thing
• 54:05
  that everyone kind of says or here repeat the law, which is
• 54:07
  that we're all friends still on the shelf together.
• 54:10
  And it's and it's so true. You know, it's like if I don't
• 54:13
  know, like a pump broke down, we need a certain valve.
• 54:16
  Would go and love it. Eve go to McAllen and they blend
• 54:18
  to the park. That's what I got told about.
• 54:20
  I was up there and I'm sure that is how it is.
• 54:22
  People say that and yeah, look, there's.
• 54:28
  There's not a lot of people. Up there and it's as a result,
• 54:32
  if you're in whiskey, which most people are, it's like everyone
• 54:35
  10 was each other. And it's, if you, well, actually
• 54:38
  someone said to me, it's like if your family up here doesn't work
• 54:40
  in whiskey directly, there will be maybe an electrician or like
• 54:43
  a plumber who probably has some relationship with the industry.
• 54:46
  And it was, it was really good. I mean, I, I would, I've seen
• 54:50
  that to you earlier. Like if I'm 26 in May, if I end
• 54:53
  up settling down, having a family I, I really, really like.
• 54:57
  It to be up. There and I'm feeling safe when
• 54:58
  I'm 7000 miles up 6 to 12 miles. But when I went back for the
• 55:02
  first time from India, I went back to Sterling, went back to
• 55:05
  Glasgow and I went back from spirit space like last year and
• 55:09
  you know. I'd probably pals are like.
• 55:10
  What you're, you're in Southeast Asia and you're using your leave
• 55:13
  to come all the way back if you go to the northeast of Scotland.
• 55:15
  And I was only there like maybe four months in the end before a
• 55:18
  bit months, but I felt more happy to come back there really.
• 55:23
  So you felt more at. Home almost end up in here.
• 55:25
  It's like when you chat to people.
• 55:27
  About it almost sounds a wee bit like, you know, let's see, let's
• 55:30
  get bastard just happening on like you know, obviously he's
• 55:32
  going to say something like that, but there's when I first
• 55:34
  moved up, I bought my dad's car. It's like scored a state and
• 55:37
  then we'd been in the rod personally during the night
• 55:39
  before. Well, now you're hat.
• 55:45
  So I used to the car share with that.
• 55:46
  I mentioned the Geordie guy earlier.
• 55:47
  The exploratory geologist was in his 40s, and we were just like,
• 55:50
  you know, we'll do that, save a bit of money.
• 55:52
  And then so he's picked me up that morning.
• 55:56
  I rolled out of bed, I found the shirt got a square sausage roll
• 55:59
  sitting in the sofa and then having my coffee realized I'd
• 56:03
  slightly not realized he was outside so I was like same pair
• 56:07
  of trousers had the night on the floor a new shirt I'd like to
• 56:09
  add but I I'd. Obviously.
• 56:12
  Not realized the car key was in the, the back pocket.
• 56:14
  So I, I go to work and we're doing, you know, two or three
• 56:17
  tours. I meant to make answer that.
• 56:19
  Earlier, so during peak season you'd be doing maybe two or
• 56:22
  three tours a day. Yeah, two or three new.
• 56:23
  Stop working in the the shop as well.
• 56:26
  And we really recommend it and if you want to get to the
• 56:29
  industry, but yeah, so anyway, my, my phone is buzzing
• 56:34
  constantly for being quite hot. Yeah, I.
• 56:36
  Hadn't. Even noticed I had it on doing a
• 56:38
  disturb event so busy and on the current way.
• 56:41
  Home. Driving through.
• 56:45
  It's the valley that I. Actually have a car crash in
• 56:47
  it's got out out the bane in it and.
• 56:51
  It's called but. It's like a it's a valley
• 56:53
  between Glenn liver and it's dusting right.
• 56:56
  It's maybe 20 minutes, 25 minute drive and get get towards like
• 57:00
  signal start picking in and out terminal notifications off
• 57:04
  silent talk. Suddenly I get maybe like 50
• 57:06
  notifications and it's like, do you like dumped in speed in this
• 57:09
  Facebook? Does anybody know who owns this
• 57:12
  Skoda estate? Been snowing through the whole
• 57:14
  day. So you know the.
• 57:15
  Car keys if you hold. Down the unlock button it puts
• 57:17
  the windows thing. So I have my passport, my
• 57:19
  laptop, headphones and a wallet in the front seat.
• 57:23
  The drive in the passenger seat. Really.
• 57:25
  I'd be open. For 9.
• 57:27
  Hours and no nothing. My next door neighbor hadn't
• 57:31
  even met at this point. I've just been watching it.
• 57:33
  She came out when I got is that your car and I was like you can
• 57:37
  happen and so I'm in my neighbor.
• 57:41
  Right, I was just like I was in. I was like, Oh my Jesus Christ,
• 57:44
  I've had my stuff's all been necked, my dad, my dad's car's
• 57:48
  probably been tanned like, and then yeah, somehow it was fine.
• 57:51
  My dad just had a bit of a laugh at my mum.
• 57:54
  Went back to Sterling the next time.
• 57:57
  We. Went back there and made like
• 57:59
  they were still guys, like old guys in the pub.
• 58:00
  They were like you remember. Tequila windows everyone got
• 58:06
  around town fast. I.
• 58:08
  Just noticed like the school guy, it's brilliant because it's
• 58:11
  great like. I mean, whiskey shop, like all
• 58:15
  that kind of stuff. Yeah.
• 58:16
  Just when you're up there, especially like when you look at
• 58:20
  a shop like the Aberleyar Whiskey Shop, you go in there
• 58:22
  and you just wonder, like what that place?
• 58:24
  It's not. It's a great, great shop to go
• 58:27
  into. But also, you just know it's not
• 58:29
  like there's no nested decanters in the window, right?
• 58:33
  Because I mean, it's a place that you could probably pick up.
• 58:36
  You can probably pick up any whiskey that you could want in
• 58:38
  there. Yeah.
• 58:38
  But also you just don't know if you're ever going to get
• 58:40
  something a bit different or a bit special in there that you're
• 58:42
  not going to get somewhere else 100%.
• 58:44
  I mean that that was. I missed that place as a result.
• 58:47
  And it's like the guys, I'm very sorry, I've forgotten their
• 58:50
  names. But guys that work in there,
• 58:52
  like there's also, I'm not, you know, I think there's probably a
• 58:56
  tendency that you could have in certain parts of the Scottish
• 58:59
  tourist industry where you may be charged an American.
• 59:02
  Yeah, you could get more for something.
• 59:03
  Yeah, those guys would ever do that.
• 59:06
  And yeah, I got like a bottle of, they just have amazing
• 59:09
  stuff, like a bottle of Tandy 10 from like early 1980s.
• 59:12
  I got as far as space side, which will open when I'm back in
• 59:14
  Scotland and we'll maybe get to the Diggers eventually, but not
• 59:18
  from there. But like stuff that I got to try
• 59:20
  and space side as well. It's like I brought two of my
• 59:22
  best pals up to up to space side.
• 59:25
  After. The crash and then I planned it
• 59:27
  for a few weeks before that and it just happened and I was kind
• 59:29
  of limping about to get lucky and Aberlower and Duffton.
• 59:32
  But you know, they really loved it as well.
• 59:34
  And it's like when I was up there we got, I wouldn't mean
• 59:36
  where the bars were, but there was a guy that obviously managed
• 59:41
  to get hold of some stills. Blueprints from his pal and a
• 59:45
  farmer. Had made a one third scale model
• 59:47
  of stills in his back garden to exact specifications and then
• 59:51
  been aged it. Wait, Wait, wait, wait, wait,
• 59:54
  wait, wait. Wait, wait.
• 59:58
  So. This is what I want, right?
• 59:59
  So like, no people because they've gotten the blueprints.
• 1:00:03
  And he'd followed it and built these like exact, apparently
• 1:00:07
  exactly because obviously it was about 1/3 size.
• 1:00:10
  And then somehow you got. As well as.
• 1:00:14
  Kid pages, obviously, but someone had given them like a
• 1:00:16
  knackered little cherry cat because like the way it happens,
• 1:00:19
  like my pals were up and like, Oh yeah, we've got some
• 1:00:21
  illegally distilled space, like whiskey.
• 1:00:23
  And because it heard me talking about the illegal distilling
• 1:00:25
  history up there, which I don't know anywhere near enough about,
• 1:00:28
  but I'd love to more. But.
• 1:00:31
  And they're like, yeah, do you want to try some illegally
• 1:00:33
  distilled? Try some illegally.
• 1:00:35
  Distilled space, side whiskey and then that'd be brilliant.
• 1:00:37
  And then? It was you guys did you guys did
• 1:00:40
  a, a review of another Indian bottle India brand, which was
• 1:00:46
  quite petrol. Yeah.
• 1:00:47
  And that was kind of my my sorry.
• 1:00:51
  It didn't do. Wonders.
• 1:00:54
  But well, do you know what? It's reassuring.
• 1:00:56
  It's reassuring, right? Yeah.
• 1:00:58
  Even to this day, with all the history was going on, illegal,
• 1:01:01
  illicit. Stills are still.
• 1:01:02
  Running yeah, like. Fair play the other.
• 1:01:07
  One like that, which was great. As well, it was a bar up there
• 1:01:11
  same time I had the palsa was just like yeah, one of the could
• 1:01:18
  produce. I might be getting wrong on
• 1:01:20
  this. This is like apologies bam, but.
• 1:01:24
  To my knowledge, I think. That a lot of time when they
• 1:01:27
  send the task back to the could produce to leave a little bit
• 1:01:30
  left at the bottom yeah yeah and then I.
• 1:01:33
  What other guys have done is just like, it was a he was like,
• 1:01:36
  oh, and one of the bartends was like, oh, do you want to try
• 1:01:38
  something special? And just I.
• 1:01:43
  Was like dear palace. Was like, there's the last night
• 1:01:44
  they were up there and they're like, right, Have you heard
• 1:01:47
  McAllen? And I'm like, yeah, right.
• 1:01:48
  Well, this is a 38 year old single cast McAllen that we've
• 1:01:51
  got straight from like a cook fridge and he gets a spotlight
• 1:01:56
  underneath the bar. I'm like, I've no idea what was
• 1:01:58
  expecting. That was just like, what age was
• 1:02:00
  this? Like it was like it was about 38
• 1:02:02
  years old I think. So it was like over 35.
• 1:02:04
  I can't. Might be between 35.
• 1:02:06
  And 38 and then. Single cast, no filtration at
• 1:02:10
  all and and it was it was, it was in.
• 1:02:15
  A Bars. Lemonade bottle too.
• 1:02:16
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know.
• 1:02:18
  It's just. Like up to.
• 1:02:19
  It's up to like. Here I was just like mentor.
• 1:02:22
  Mental. I mean one of the most memorable
• 1:02:25
  drams. I've had so it's almost like,
• 1:02:26
  not quite, but almost still. That's like good shape.
• 1:02:28
  Yeah. Well, I mean there's.
• 1:02:29
  Nominally good. I met a guy years and years ago.
• 1:02:31
  He talked about his dad. Yeah.
• 1:02:34
  And his. Dad worked at one of the last.
• 1:02:38
  Would it have been a? Cooperage.
• 1:02:41
  But basically, well, I don't know if it was a cooperager, it
• 1:02:43
  must have been a cooperage of some sort, but he's in leaf and
• 1:02:46
  he said. That his dad.
• 1:02:47
  Used to steal his mum's tights. Right, because what?
• 1:02:52
  They would do is, Yeah, he said. They didn't know what they were
• 1:02:54
  getting right, but they said they were getting these barrels
• 1:02:57
  and casks coming in and they were to break them down.
• 1:03:00
  Yeah. And he said that they just knew
• 1:03:01
  they used the tights as a filtration.
• 1:03:03
  And then basically I was going to say whiskey.
• 1:03:06
  No. Skipped his legs warm in the
• 1:03:08
  morning. It worked, but but basically all
• 1:03:10
  they would do is they'd empty these, They'd just empty them
• 1:03:12
  into buckets and then put them in brew balls.
• 1:03:16
  You know that brew balls, the old glass and brew balls and
• 1:03:18
  just hand them at work. But the problem was, was I think
• 1:03:21
  they were, I think they were enjoying too much of that whilst
• 1:03:26
  they were at their work. But it would have happened
• 1:03:28
  because look at the end of the day, you know, how much can you
• 1:03:31
  get out of a cask? Yeah, you know, and the event
• 1:03:34
  and I suppose if you work in a cooperage up in space side,
• 1:03:37
  you'll know if you're getting a cast from someplace.
• 1:03:39
  And there they go. Hey Super, these are, that's
• 1:03:41
  what it's all about, mate. Well, that's what you hear up
• 1:03:43
  there. So many, so many great stories
• 1:03:45
  right In India. Yes, so.
• 1:03:47
  You come over. Here and a big, big culture
• 1:03:49
  shock massively. I mean I.
• 1:03:51
  Hope trams with Sam our formal, the former global master and
• 1:03:56
  former India random master won't mind me shopping out on this,
• 1:03:59
  but we were you know, I so actually that's another thing
• 1:04:02
  I'd like to shout out is that I got into so ship.
• 1:04:06
  It's a master program. Stewart talked about it.
• 1:04:09
  I would like, I don't. It's honestly such a fantastic
• 1:04:12
  thing. And if you are somebody who'd
• 1:04:14
  want to get into like grand advocacy or marketing side of
• 1:04:16
  whiskey, it's it's an absolutely brilliant thing.
• 1:04:19
  I was very, I've been very lucky to be a part of it and I I feel
• 1:04:22
  really privileged to represent Glenn Livet and our other
• 1:04:24
  brands. So this is something that people
• 1:04:26
  can. Just yeah, apply for then.
• 1:04:28
  So yeah, it. Used to be a graduate program.
• 1:04:30
  Now it's, you know, if you're a bartender as well, or just,
• 1:04:34
  yeah, like bar experience, you know, maybe smelly experience or
• 1:04:38
  anything generalizing the hospitality experience, you can
• 1:04:41
  now be considered for it. And it's it's really, it's
• 1:04:45
  really a great thing. And I think, yeah, it's I feel
• 1:04:48
  very lucky to be on it and it's given me a fantastic
• 1:04:50
  opportunity. And anyway, we halfway through a
• 1:04:53
  two year posting and then a two year posting.
• 1:04:56
  Yeah, so I've I've. I finish in August right?
• 1:04:59
  So this is part. Of your graduate pro, this is
• 1:05:01
  part of the cheapest program. Then you get posted out and you
• 1:05:04
  know where you're getting posted.
• 1:05:06
  Or is it just a case? See you as well, it's better.
• 1:05:09
  Rigorous interview process. Sorry, my, my year I went down
• 1:05:12
  from it was like 3000 people applied for it.
• 1:05:15
  And you do like a couple of rounds of online interviews.
• 1:05:17
  Then you do assessment center where you have to present about
• 1:05:20
  a brand you're passionate about. And then loads of like, you
• 1:05:22
  know, simulated stuff about doing presentations, marketing
• 1:05:26
  stuff. And yeah, they really put you
• 1:05:28
  through the wringer quite rightly.
• 1:05:29
  And then, yeah, you basically wait.
• 1:05:33
  And then they'll send you an e-mail saying, right, they want
• 1:05:36
  to hire you and here's the market we think you'd be good
• 1:05:38
  for. So yeah, I got, I was again,
• 1:05:40
  like morphine dot outside a cup of tea in the street in the 55
• 1:05:44
  Street at 35A5 Street in Dustin. Right I.
• 1:05:47
  Got like a notification. Through going on somebody else
• 1:05:49
  giving me some sympathy for the car crash.
• 1:05:52
  Congratulations, you're off to you.
• 1:05:53
  And then so Sam, we also do a summit.
• 1:05:57
  So when the next lot come in, we all go back to London and we
• 1:06:01
  kind of do presentations and we go, look, this is our advice
• 1:06:04
  from doing this for a year. And there's a lot of Indian
• 1:06:07
  presentations. And I think it's quite funny.
• 1:06:09
  If he sat in it and he'd watch some millionaires, his only prep
• 1:06:11
  for India, I'd watch the top tier.
• 1:06:13
  And they say, did you actually? Watch that.
• 1:06:15
  That was just like, right? I'm not going to.
• 1:06:20
  There's like no part of me that's going to be able to
• 1:06:22
  consensualize this country. So they haven't got a census in
• 1:06:25
  10 years because of COVID. It could be 2 billion people.
• 1:06:27
  So you know. Like most.
• 1:06:29
  Amazing place I never left Europe landed I was living with
• 1:06:35
  on the other two other brand ambassadors which like crazy
• 1:06:39
  just. Like.
• 1:06:40
  Three guys under 30 living in a flat and belly together and you,
• 1:06:44
  you become pals with like, you know, the cardi guys, all the
• 1:06:46
  other A's in India. And yeah, it's great.
• 1:06:50
  And I just, I've been very lucky to, to travel around here.
• 1:06:53
  I don't want to be like another, you know, another white guy who
• 1:06:55
  goes, oh, I've come to India and it's changed me.
• 1:06:57
  But yeah, from a confidence in terms of, you know, I was quite
• 1:07:00
  anxious for some stuff before this school and like, you know,
• 1:07:03
  just being kidding here and you go right, you're going to go to
• 1:07:06
  17 states, 17615 states in a year and a half.
• 1:07:09
  It's the best thing ever and most welcoming country, nicest
• 1:07:12
  people and. That's I'm sure you'll know you.
• 1:07:15
  Spend a lot of time here. I mean, it's great, but I.
• 1:07:21
  Don't like my father? In law but but going back then
• 1:07:25
  so it's so it's an international so international brand
• 1:07:28
  ambassador but was that did you did you put down your
• 1:07:32
  preferences of countries or was it literally you're you're
• 1:07:36
  applying and you're going to go to India if you get this or is
• 1:07:39
  that a case of you could have been sent to South America you
• 1:07:41
  could have been said North America, Europe or India or
• 1:07:45
  Japan or anywhere like that or was it just it was India only I.
• 1:07:49
  Think the. Way it works is.
• 1:07:50
  They have markets that open up each year.
• 1:07:53
  Obviously. If you have a language.
• 1:07:54
  Then you can, yeah, you can go to.
• 1:07:56
  I mean, I can barely really speak English, but it's like,
• 1:08:00
  yeah, we'll send people off to South America or America and all
• 1:08:02
  these places. So no, it's great.
• 1:08:04
  And see, I think India. So you were fully aware when you
• 1:08:06
  were? Applying that you were based
• 1:08:08
  India was where you were going to be going No right OK, so you
• 1:08:12
  so you just you're just blindly going in and going if I get this
• 1:08:15
  they send me whatever and that'll be it you go through the
• 1:08:18
  interview process and that's it yeah I mean I.
• 1:08:21
  Think one of the things that I was really I really value my
• 1:08:24
  time and space side for is that, you know, I was I was 24 at that
• 1:08:28
  point and 23 sorry. And I just yeah, it was like
• 1:08:33
  this is I just had a moment where I was like, look, this I I
• 1:08:36
  genuinely do love this and the people are amazing and I've met
• 1:08:38
  some of my best pals in whiskey and.
• 1:08:41
  And yeah, I just was like, look, this is all I want to work in
• 1:08:44
  for the rest of my career. Touched with yeah, but yeah.
• 1:08:49
  And it was a really good opportunity and I'd probably, I
• 1:08:51
  don't know why they found another way into whiskey
• 1:08:53
  otherwise, but they ran the master stuff and connecting with
• 1:08:57
  people like, you know, you and shared stories with them, like,
• 1:09:00
  and you see the impact that has the distilleries.
• 1:09:02
  It's something I really enjoy. And I think it's it's a really,
• 1:09:04
  it's a really privilege to do it.
• 1:09:05
  And yeah. No, probably envious.
• 1:09:09
  Great. Because I was already really
• 1:09:11
  proud of being a Glenn Liver. I you know in the 200 year
• 1:09:14
  salary photograph which is predicted.
• 1:09:18
  Yeah, yeah, you're part of that's, that's that's it.
• 1:09:21
  Well, I mean, the 400 years they'll wait back go.
• 1:09:24
  Who's that dafty? Brilliant.
• 1:09:30
  Because they do want to, I mean. It's like every wait a minute,
• 1:09:33
  am I going to? This is sound silly but did they
• 1:09:35
  have 100 year old one? I think so.
• 1:09:37
  I don't. Know but I think they someone
• 1:09:39
  told me I think they started from what 18, 1824 when was
• 1:09:45
  photography invented that's a good question so we'll.
• 1:09:48
  Probably have a 50. Certainly, yeah, 55101 two
• 1:09:52
  12515175200 and wow, I used to sit on my luncheon like you just
• 1:09:56
  guys with it, like the best facial hair you've ever seen.
• 1:09:59
  Yeah. Like really stare looks in the
• 1:10:01
  face, like my family of colleagues, there's all these
• 1:10:04
  like old celery dogs and stuff. And I actually still love
• 1:10:07
  looking at it because it's. Yeah, I mean.
• 1:10:10
  Like. That's.
• 1:10:10
  The. That's the best advice I got
• 1:10:12
  with, like, rather master stuff. It's like, don't you know,
• 1:10:16
  you're the person that's doing it today?
• 1:10:17
  But yeah, you know, there's, like, going to be countless
• 1:10:20
  other people that represent this brand after you.
• 1:10:21
  You're not the important thing. It's the whiskey and the stuff.
• 1:10:23
  Yeah. Carries on, Yeah.
• 1:10:24
  Like he's no one. As much as I'd like to think I'm
• 1:10:27
  getting a job, no one's turning up to a taste and going off
• 1:10:29
  Fraser Morrison's talking about. Yeah, yeah, you.
• 1:10:33
  Never know. You never know.
• 1:10:35
  But this podcast as wonders. Or people you know, but right,
• 1:10:37
  so sorry, but coming over here then, yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:42
  You know, how quickly was it before you were thrust in front
• 1:10:44
  of your first tasting for an Indian market instead of so a
• 1:10:50
  market of Scotch drinkers? So I I was I.
• 1:10:52
  Initially came over as gin brand ambassador for the first couple
• 1:10:55
  of months and it was quite good like I was here maybe about a
• 1:10:59
  week and a bit. They let me let me kind of
• 1:11:01
  adjust. The guys took me to Old Delhi on
• 1:11:04
  the busiest day of the week where the most people I've ever
• 1:11:06
  seen in my life. And it was just like
• 1:11:08
  overwhelming experience I've had in India and I loved it all
• 1:11:11
  great foods. And and then yeah, I did, We
• 1:11:15
  have our central offices in Gurgaon, just like Delhi.
• 1:11:17
  So I did the training to all of our accounts, people who.
• 1:11:21
  Kind of book us. In markets as brand ambassadors
• 1:11:24
  and then we fly out to do the event.
• 1:11:26
  So they arrange it for us and say you're kind of probably
• 1:11:31
  similar to actually kind of what he was talking about his role
• 1:11:33
  globally. So that is like that, but for us
• 1:11:35
  in India. So someone, someone goes, we
• 1:11:37
  want you here. Can you?
• 1:11:38
  So you're in an office. So the days that you're not
• 1:11:41
  travelling and delivering tations, are you in an office?
• 1:11:43
  Yeah, we've got a head office. So you'll walk in the office.
• 1:11:46
  And then is it like a boards up on the table, up on the wall, it
• 1:11:49
  says Monday home Tuesday here or there's a.
• 1:11:54
  Whiteboard at home that I use I use.
• 1:11:56
  Also the first thing I did. Was I trained like our kind of
• 1:12:01
  sales and marketing team on the gin portfolio, right?
• 1:12:04
  It's really good, like good introduction and I think with
• 1:12:06
  whiskey it's really interesting. And you know, I know you've done
• 1:12:10
  stuff with like, you know, the single amateur club guys, I've
• 1:12:14
  not been lucky enough to do anything with them.
• 1:12:16
  But there's another, you know, good, good organization like
• 1:12:19
  Drama Club that I've hosted a lot of events with and.
• 1:12:24
  Yeah, there's, it's a really. Interesting split you see with
• 1:12:27
  kind of people's. Relationship with whiskey
• 1:12:30
  they're so. Passionate about.
• 1:12:31
  Yeah, as you were saying with the guy at the liquor store,
• 1:12:34
  it's like, and you say that you you know, when I say I've worked
• 1:12:36
  at distillery and I've, you know, lived in space, I'd be
• 1:12:39
  just they're so enthused and it's I mean, it kind of reminds
• 1:12:43
  you that or makes me feel proud to be Scottish and proud of.
• 1:12:46
  Yeah, yeah, you know, proud of what we produce and and also,
• 1:12:49
  you know, it's because like I remember when the first weeks we
• 1:12:51
  were sitting in this lovely restaurant and and you're going
• 1:12:54
  for common in if you're in your go or Mumbai, amazing foods,
• 1:12:59
  great cocktails. I just remember kind of going,
• 1:13:01
  we're having a couple of drinks after we watched, like, you
• 1:13:03
  know, being together and just doing some sightseeing.
• 1:13:06
  And it's like, yeah, looking up and going, Oh yeah, I've, you
• 1:13:09
  know, lived near within like a 10. 15 minute drive of.
• 1:13:12
  Maybe four or five or six of these whiskeys.
• 1:13:14
  And that's my, you know, little city in India or little city,
• 1:13:18
  you know, city in. India that I've never.
• 1:13:20
  Knew existed before six months ago.
• 1:13:22
  These bottles end up here. I know that's maybe a really
• 1:13:24
  nice say, but. You don't appreciate, honestly,
• 1:13:28
  you do not appreciate it how I say all the time.
• 1:13:33
  I think you know Johnny. Walker Black Label or Johnny
• 1:13:35
  Walker in itself. Yeah, like it's as big a brand
• 1:13:39
  around the world as Coca-Cola. Yeah, right.
• 1:13:41
  But everybody talks about and if if Scotland had produced
• 1:13:44
  Coca-Cola, yeah, we'd be going mental for it, right?
• 1:13:47
  But it's it's, there's an element of like, right?
• 1:13:51
  Anytime I arrive here, you get off.
• 1:13:53
  The plane. An international arrival section
• 1:13:55
  at Bangalore airport, right? Yeah.
• 1:13:57
  And the first thing you see is either, I mean, the first thing
• 1:14:00
  you see is the striding man, right?
• 1:14:01
  You see, Johnny, you see, and you go.
• 1:14:04
  That's the first thing, OK? The the first thing, every
• 1:14:08
  single international traveller from whatever part of the world
• 1:14:12
  that comes to Bangalore, the first thing they see is the
• 1:14:15
  Johnny Walker man, right? Scotch, OK, not Coca-Cola, not
• 1:14:19
  Pepsi, not any other major brand, not even an Indian brand.
• 1:14:22
  The first thing they see is a Scotch brand.
• 1:14:24
  The second thing I saw last year was a Glenn Murray Christmas
• 1:14:27
  tree. Christmas tree?
• 1:14:30
  I've got a photo of it. A Christmas?
• 1:14:32
  Yeah, a Christmas tree. Oh, and Glenn Murray on it.
• 1:14:35
  I'll get a photo of that, honestly.
• 1:14:36
  Swear to God a Glenn Murray Christmas tree.
• 1:14:38
  Second thing I saw what you're like this mental but yeah, in
• 1:14:41
  Scotland there's so many people that still won't even talk about
• 1:14:44
  or tries Westgate and when is it until you travel abroad that you
• 1:14:47
  actually really do appreciate and then every until you go for
• 1:14:50
  you getting to speak to Scotch drinkers.
• 1:14:53
  Yeah, in another country. I remember like when I went to
• 1:14:56
  that tasting with a single amateur club and I met your
• 1:14:58
  colleague Kia. Yeah.
• 1:15:00
  You know, I was speaking to people that were and it was the
• 1:15:04
  variety in the room was what really got me.
• 1:15:06
  There's 40 people in the room. There was guys that flown to
• 1:15:09
  that flown to the UK and had been to been Iowa.
• 1:15:12
  You know, they couldn't get their head round the fact that
• 1:15:14
  dude, I wasn't Mumbai whiskey tasting and.
• 1:15:17
  And I've never. Been ila.
• 1:15:19
  Yeah, you know, they're going like that's on your doorstep
• 1:15:21
  phone already. You phone and.
• 1:15:22
  Of course with a little bit of not like me to embellish things,
• 1:15:26
  but I did also make the point that I'd flown in specifically
• 1:15:29
  for this taste. So, so they weren't going to be
• 1:15:32
  like. Why the hell would you fly all
• 1:15:34
  the? Way to Mumbai, but I taste.
• 1:15:35
  But you haven't been ila. But yeah, but you had those
• 1:15:37
  guys, right? So people that visited Scotland
• 1:15:40
  four or five times, yeah, been Ila, been up, been probably
• 1:15:44
  visiting more distilleries than I've probably visited.
• 1:15:47
  And then in the same room you had guys that were sitting there
• 1:15:49
  and they were going all right. So if it it.
• 1:15:52
  Doesn't. Matter how dark it is, for the
• 1:15:54
  quality and the price, absolutely.
• 1:15:55
  So you've got that variety, that change, it's huge, isn't it?
• 1:15:58
  I realised I'm very bad for going on.
• 1:16:00
  Tangents, but that was, that's what I was trying to get to.
• 1:16:02
  It's like, yes, like I'll host the taste thing and exactly
• 1:16:04
  that. Yeah, I've done, you know, you
• 1:16:06
  almost, not almost go to Scotland every year, but pretty
• 1:16:09
  much, yeah. You know, like really, most
• 1:16:13
  recently was in Calcutta. And then, yeah, there's like
• 1:16:16
  guys there that I've done quite a few tastings there in the past
• 1:16:19
  few months and the same guys end up coming back and yeah, they
• 1:16:22
  all. Coordinate.
• 1:16:24
  Their. They all a lot of work overseas
• 1:16:26
  and do love international travel and they coordinate their duty
• 1:16:28
  free allowance within like a group of 10 of them.
• 1:16:31
  I think it's like 2 bottles of time you're like and yeah.
• 1:16:33
  They'll they'll go right I. Want to try, you know, I know if
• 1:16:37
  I go to this like do hire or I can get, you know, laced
• 1:16:40
  Optimore or like that, whatever else and.
• 1:16:42
  They're just, yeah, they're making.
• 1:16:44
  Like these little plans and they sit and drink it together and
• 1:16:46
  it's really lovely. And it's, you know, it's the
• 1:16:48
  same thing that I love about whiskey and tree back home.
• 1:16:51
  But then again, yeah, there's like, you'll do a training,
• 1:16:52
  we'll do a. Tasting and.
• 1:16:56
  Yeah. Just people.
• 1:16:57
  People. Don't really understand it.
• 1:16:58
  And there's nothing wrong with that.
• 1:16:59
  You know, they'll be like, Oh yes, when do you add the, when
• 1:17:01
  do you add like the sugar and the green apple and like the
• 1:17:05
  cinnamon? I got the flavour.
• 1:17:07
  Profile. No, no, that, I mean Mark
• 1:17:10
  Thompson talking about the Lagos in Nigeria, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 1:17:16
  he's in Lagos, which is a big, big seller of Glenfiddich.
• 1:17:20
  Yeah. And.
• 1:17:21
  There's a guy there. Who's like what?
• 1:17:24
  Is it? I think, He said.
• 1:17:25
  Something he's this guy sells so basically in the bar you had to
• 1:17:30
  buy the bottle for the table, right?
• 1:17:32
  And he was like the. Biggest.
• 1:17:33
  Seller of Glenfiddich 21. This barman sell Glenfiddich 21
• 1:17:37
  all the time and Mark's done this, you know, training with
• 1:17:42
  with the staff. Yeah.
• 1:17:43
  And this guy's like at the end of it, who's the top seller of
• 1:17:46
  the 21? He's put his hand up and Mark
• 1:17:49
  said, yeah, what's the question at the end of the training?
• 1:17:51
  And he says, what do the numbers on the front mean as an age?
• 1:17:54
  And it's like it really does baffle you sometimes, like what
• 1:17:58
  people understanding of WW is. But what we're going to see is
• 1:18:03
  we've got this year is a big year.
• 1:18:05
  Yeah, because you got the free trade agreement coming in.
• 1:18:07
  Absolutely. Yeah.
• 1:18:08
  It makes me. That it ramps down for the first
• 1:18:09
  time, correct? Well, I.
• 1:18:11
  Mean you'll maybe know more than me because my understanding is
• 1:18:14
  it's meant to be in the first half of 2026, which may make
• 1:18:17
  sense, but now? This has been talked about for.
• 1:18:21
  Years we were talking years since Brexit, really, because
• 1:18:24
  the big part we're like, we're too political.
• 1:18:26
  The big part of Brexit was that well, with the the, the British
• 1:18:29
  government, we're going to create free trade agreements
• 1:18:31
  with India, which is going to allow trade to go through there,
• 1:18:33
  which we're done with that. But the biggest part of that for
• 1:18:36
  people listen this podcast was tariffs for whiskey were going
• 1:18:41
  down from 150% to 75% of the first year.
• 1:18:44
  And then they were to drop all the way down to 45% / 5 years or
• 1:18:47
  something like that, which is going.
• 1:18:49
  To. Be massive for, well,
• 1:18:51
  potentially massive for the Scotch whiskey industry because
• 1:18:55
  you know, it suddenly makes whiskey a lot more accessible.
• 1:18:58
  I'm going to do a lot of work to highlight highlight the places
• 1:19:02
  I've been a day. I've been a Goa, I'm in
• 1:19:05
  Bangalore and I'm going to Delhi and I'm going to show the price
• 1:19:08
  differences that you'll see for Scotch.
• 1:19:09
  Sure, I can send you some footage from.
• 1:19:11
  Haryana as well, if you need. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:19:13
  So we could see. Because it really does show you
• 1:19:15
  what the difference in prices can be when it comes,
• 1:19:17
  particularly single malt. Blinded whiskey is not blinded
• 1:19:19
  Scotch not too bad, but single malt over here it's just
• 1:19:23
  ridiculous in terms of price for I mean, yeah, like from so.
• 1:19:26
  Yeah, Haryana, where I live, is the lowest.
• 1:19:29
  Lowest tax? Experts.
• 1:19:30
  So starting state level and yeah, I think it's like, yeah.
• 1:19:36
  Five years to 40. Percent yeah, but it's yeah like
• 1:19:40
  I think it will be a really good thing in the long run because I
• 1:19:42
  remember one of the things I've got coming up next month is in
• 1:19:46
  the bartender show and they they put on loads like brands for all
• 1:19:49
  those of educational workshops and seminars first year as last
• 1:19:53
  year and a lot of. People attending that.
• 1:19:56
  It was just when the the US agreed the production in Berman
• 1:20:00
  and for tariffs. Yeah, suddenly market had seen
• 1:20:04
  it might have only been an extra 3 or 4 bourbons, but still come
• 1:20:08
  in and people. You know were.
• 1:20:09
  Like, you know, whiskey drinkers are fairly the blend, I'd say
• 1:20:13
  the blended whiskey drinkers in India are very loyal.
• 1:20:16
  But yeah, most other like single bottle drinkers were quite, you
• 1:20:19
  know, we want to try different things.
• 1:20:20
  So people were, you know, obviously hearing caught like
• 1:20:22
  colleagues, friends, like people are tasting.
• 1:20:24
  So yeah, no, I've started, yeah, start drinking a bit more
• 1:20:26
  bourbon. And.
• 1:20:28
  It's really good for for Scotch whiskey.
• 1:20:30
  I mean look, I mean. It's really exciting to see how
• 1:20:32
  how it kind. Of opens up to smaller brands as
• 1:20:34
  well well and there's also like. And there's got a growing middle
• 1:20:37
  class, Yeah, right. And the growing middle class is
• 1:20:40
  the, is the people who can't afford yeah, to drink whiskey.
• 1:20:43
  But at the same time, right now, Scotch, if you're drinking
• 1:20:46
  Scotch whiskey, single malt Scotch whiskey, you're in the
• 1:20:49
  higher end of middle to upper class in the in the social chain
• 1:20:53
  because of the price. But you know, look, we're in,
• 1:20:55
  we're in a very multicultural in the cosmopolitan area of
• 1:20:59
  Bangalore. There's an Italian restaurant
• 1:21:04
  across the road there. There's loads going on.
• 1:21:06
  There's bars, nightclubs, there's, there's lots happening
• 1:21:08
  and you're seeing more and more. And as the world opens up, like
• 1:21:11
  I see it with, with the family over here, it's like, you know,
• 1:21:16
  the world as the world opens up to II has become a first world
• 1:21:19
  country in the last 1520 years, which is great.
• 1:21:22
  And what it's done is it's given opportunity to people and people
• 1:21:25
  are now seeing, I mean, the, the brands that are available in
• 1:21:28
  the, in the booze shop next door to where I live in Bangalore.
• 1:21:33
  It's incredible, right? It's a huge amount, you know,
• 1:21:36
  you know and, but the problem is the price.
• 1:21:39
  But the other problem. Is from my point of view is it's
• 1:21:42
  all blocked in as it's it's 4. It's.
• 1:21:47
  Four major brands. Yeah.
• 1:21:50
  It's the brands. Within those brands you got
• 1:21:51
  Diagios, Pernos, Picardes, LVH, maybe William Grant Sons.
• 1:21:56
  Yeah. So you've got those five big
• 1:21:58
  guys and everything that fits into those.
• 1:22:01
  That's that's what you've got, right.
• 1:22:03
  Which which is which is fine, But it would be so good, so good
• 1:22:07
  to be able to walk in, see people by ordering an Arden
• 1:22:11
  Merkin. Yeah.
• 1:22:11
  Over the bar or like, yeah. Woven or something else like
• 1:22:15
  that? Yeah, my.
• 1:22:16
  Favorite whiskey is back home. Yeah.
• 1:22:17
  Woven Paramore. Yeah.
• 1:22:19
  You guys. Instagram.
• 1:22:20
  Stories. Snip it, slurp it and score.
• 1:22:24
  It was like pure you'll. Just feel like pure.
• 1:22:27
  I know. I mean, tell you what.
• 1:22:28
  One of the highlights for that night was treacle there, the
• 1:22:31
  treacle tart. Yeah, probably, but yeah, I
• 1:22:34
  mean, but there's just yeah, and the baller or just yeah.
• 1:22:40
  Like we see the guys at Paul John talks about how how
• 1:22:43
  important, how valuable their Christmas edition is just being
• 1:22:45
  able to do special edition Paul Jones because the.
• 1:22:48
  But what it does is it creates a.
• 1:22:51
  It's creating a market. Yeah, traffics getting worse,
• 1:22:55
  absolutely. But by create by.
• 1:22:58
  Creates people. It'll create people like us.
• 1:23:00
  Yeah, it'll create people like us who are, you know, we don't
• 1:23:03
  have to be in our high profile job that earns a certain amount
• 1:23:07
  of money so that we can afford to drink Scotch.
• 1:23:08
  Yeah, we're just passionate. There'll be people.
• 1:23:10
  That are passionate. About that will come to a bar
• 1:23:11
  like go a pot still or a bon accord or a diggers or a mother
• 1:23:15
  superior and just be able to say, oh, they've got that and
• 1:23:18
  the variety and the cost will be an important and that's
• 1:23:20
  exciting. I I think it's.
• 1:23:22
  Yeah, there's like definitely an appetite for it that's like, you
• 1:23:25
  know, there's the real regardless of the prior
• 1:23:29
  knowledge or you know, how how much whiskey they've tried.
• 1:23:31
  The thing that comes across any of my events is just that there
• 1:23:35
  is such a there's such a like first, first for knowledge or
• 1:23:39
  just like, you know, they just want to find out more about
• 1:23:42
  these brands and and you know, you're saying that there's like
• 1:23:44
  maybe four. Yeah, the agile paranoid, the
• 1:23:47
  cardio and LVMH grants that are here and it's.
• 1:23:51
  Yeah, that's that's not a bad. Thing and these brands are so
• 1:23:54
  well yeah, they know yeah, they're so familiar with these
• 1:23:58
  brands they're almost part of Indian culture.
• 1:24:01
  Some of them more than you know, more than or as much as Scottish
• 1:24:06
  culture. Like, you know, there's like
• 1:24:07
  stories of I think Valentine's has been sold through, like the
• 1:24:12
  Indian Army have like a kind of shop where they can go and buy.
• 1:24:15
  Yeah, yeah, Indian Army have. Like you get.
• 1:24:18
  So many of the uncles like events I do, they're just like,
• 1:24:23
  they're so fond to balance things as a result of that
• 1:24:25
  because they probably, they served in the Army.
• 1:24:26
  Their officers are, you know, involved in the military and.
• 1:24:30
  It's. Just back to that maybe, yeah,
• 1:24:33
  maybe naive viewpoint of this. I think it's a really lovely
• 1:24:36
  thing and it makes me proud of Yeah, pretty.
• 1:24:38
  Scottish that. You see, our products are
• 1:24:40
  revered so much here, but I always try to say that to them
• 1:24:43
  to, to guess when I'm chatting to them.
• 1:24:45
  Is that what you know? There's an.
• 1:24:47
  Interesting. Level also corresponds with the
• 1:24:50
  Indian single malt where the people.
• 1:24:53
  Who are like, you know. They may be a little bit more
• 1:24:54
  familiar with whiskey. They will.
• 1:24:56
  Yeah, they will. They'll try Indian single malt.
• 1:24:59
  Quite right. Leaks a lot of.
• 1:25:00
  It's very good. You know, I've just, like,
• 1:25:01
  started that Amrit Malgam. Malgam.
• 1:25:04
  Pizzas one that's a. Really big fan of that.
• 1:25:06
  Yeah. And yeah, like there's they'll
• 1:25:09
  try it. But then you always make a point
• 1:25:10
  of saying, look, it's like end of my tastings is try Indian
• 1:25:14
  single malt. Like, you know, we've got one.
• 1:25:17
  Longitude 77. Longitude 77.
• 1:25:19
  Love it. All of that, yeah.
• 1:25:21
  Yeah, I love it. I love it.
• 1:25:23
  I absolutely. Love Longitude 77 and let you
• 1:25:25
  know. I'm injury Paul Jordan.
• 1:25:27
  I mean be honest, like. I've fallen at the trap Paul
• 1:25:31
  Jordan's the last distillery was that I've fallen in love with
• 1:25:33
  it. But I have like I've got I mean,
• 1:25:34
  I've got the bottles for taking home.
• 1:25:36
  And what's great so is that Paul Jordan is actually very
• 1:25:39
  accessible back in the UK as well.
• 1:25:41
  And what was fascinating was the fact that they chose as an
• 1:25:44
  Indian single malt. Yeah, they chose to launch in
• 1:25:46
  the UK first before they launched anywhere else in the
• 1:25:49
  world. Is that so the first launch of
• 1:25:51
  Paul John. Yeah.
• 1:25:52
  Was pretty sure it was a year before they actually launched in
• 1:25:54
  India. When did they watch 2012?
• 1:25:57
  I think it would have been nice. So but.
• 1:25:58
  But but point is like, yeah, it's it's really, really, really
• 1:26:02
  good whiskey. Yeah.
• 1:26:02
  And it's it there is good whiskey world whiskey there and
• 1:26:05
  very well pride. But they will be worried also
• 1:26:09
  that suddenly, you know, it's hard enough for them to as
• 1:26:12
  whiskey because whiskey. Can always you.
• 1:26:15
  Always compare whiskey with Scotch.
• 1:26:17
  Yeah, right. Australian whiskey, Japanese
• 1:26:19
  whiskey, Irish whiskey, Indian whiskey, American whiskey.
• 1:26:22
  It'll always be compared to Scotch.
• 1:26:23
  And sometimes I always puff my chest.
• 1:26:25
  I'd be like, I'll never be Scotch sort of thing like that.
• 1:26:27
  Naively. But yeah, their problem.
• 1:26:29
  Will be is that if Scotch? Becomes more accessible, then
• 1:26:32
  how far further down the pecking order does the likes of the
• 1:26:35
  Indian brands become? I mean, I can't speak.
• 1:26:38
  For any like a fishery statistics.
• 1:26:40
  But. I I've certainly noticed in the
• 1:26:43
  past six months a lot when people ask me about amazing all
• 1:26:46
  fantastics, which, yeah, maybe you'd potentially worry a
• 1:26:52
  Scottish point of view, but no, I don't think you.
• 1:26:55
  But it's it's nice. I think it's nice to see that.
• 1:26:57
  Yeah. You know, they're proud of what
• 1:26:59
  whiskey that they're making in India and people are trying it
• 1:27:01
  and enjoying it and and not comparing the two.
• 1:27:03
  They're just going, yeah, there's I can also get amazing
• 1:27:06
  whiskey that's made as well. And yeah, hopefully there's just
• 1:27:09
  much more selection. Yeah, we were able to send.
• 1:27:11
  Over as well. I think.
• 1:27:13
  That that's. Just remind me of like the.
• 1:27:16
  Worst tasting moment in the past 12 months.
• 1:27:19
  So I was in. I was in Jaipur.
• 1:27:22
  Full tart and tart kilted up, full kit.
• 1:27:26
  I. Also don't recommend that.
• 1:27:30
  That was like my, I think that shit I got my haircut in Jaipur
• 1:27:34
  right because it was 50° and I tried wearing the felt the day
• 1:27:37
  before going. Just this is not designed for
• 1:27:40
  this weather. So sensible haircut and then
• 1:27:43
  like, yeah, turn up to the. Event.
• 1:27:44
  And we do this amazing tasting format where it's done.
• 1:27:48
  Globally as. Well, you use headphones
• 1:27:51
  blindfolds to basically alter the perception of.
• 1:27:55
  I love it and the whole thing. Is like I've got.
• 1:27:58
  A Britney Michael and so thankfully not stretching any
• 1:28:01
  detention singing, but I see you've got one of those.
• 1:28:03
  Oh, you've got. One of those especially ever.
• 1:28:04
  I've never. Got normal 1.
• 1:28:05
  I just talk my hands so much. I think you're one of those for
• 1:28:07
  Angus. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:28:11
  I just take something for a walk.
• 1:28:14
  So you think they might? Relax, me Britney.
• 1:28:17
  Britney Spears them up in there. So I'm like struck them out and
• 1:28:20
  you do. I do the tasting.
• 1:28:22
  And then? Relevant sound or whatever is
• 1:28:26
  played, any instruction instruct the tasting over the audio and
• 1:28:29
  then you get discussion and it's really good because you get
• 1:28:32
  people. People are maybe a little
• 1:28:35
  skeptical. Then first artist so can't do
• 1:28:38
  anything and then yeah, by the second whiskey there and then
• 1:28:42
  chat and I, I in the front can have two two guys like the audio
• 1:28:45
  visual team with microphones. So you're kind of looking around
• 1:28:47
  the room. You're right, right.
• 1:28:48
  How can I? Go like this person here and.
• 1:28:50
  Then give them my key and so I'm getting to the end and then I
• 1:28:54
  was just going to leave the early 30s down the front.
• 1:28:56
  You should be for. Stealing that, maybe?
• 1:28:58
  But I was like either you have hated this taste thing or.
• 1:29:02
  You have. Something really interesting to
• 1:29:03
  say. So I was like, right, maybe I
• 1:29:05
  guess for a better judgment, I'll give it an iPhone and then
• 1:29:08
  so my phone comes down and yeah, it's like, right, Madam, like
• 1:29:13
  what do you, what do you, what do you make of that?
• 1:29:16
  Everyone with 18 year old Did you did you think the audio
• 1:29:18
  track changed that? She's like I.
• 1:29:20
  Am so distracted I should have. Thought about this year.
• 1:29:24
  I was like, OK. I've no idea what this is.
• 1:29:29
  And she's like, I hope. You don't mind?
• 1:29:30
  Me saying I'm a personal trader and you've got the most amazing
• 1:29:35
  calves I've ever seen. You've got really.
• 1:29:38
  That was just like. There you go.
• 1:29:40
  This. Was this was like just when I
• 1:29:41
  moved? To whiskey so I was like again,
• 1:29:44
  very warm and 53 here. I just I had this moment.
• 1:29:47
  So this is car crash. I'm going to get sacked.
• 1:29:49
  Like you've got great calves? I'm a personal trainer and I
• 1:29:53
  think you've got the best. Let's have a look at your
• 1:29:55
  calves. We'll see that little bad.
• 1:29:58
  Little bad good these Scottish calves here.
• 1:30:02
  Let me tell you, I was just like a lot of.
• 1:30:03
  Whiskey in there, no exercise and you can have castle this as
• 1:30:08
  well. A couple of seconds.
• 1:30:10
  I felt like 30 second. It felt like a 32nd break.
• 1:30:12
  It's just like a room full of. People now everyone just looking
• 1:30:15
  at your calf and I think potentially when my.
• 1:30:17
  Bosses was there as well so. It.
• 1:30:21
  Was a positive. It wasn't like your calves put
• 1:30:22
  her off. No, thankfully.
• 1:30:24
  Not yeah, so. Lifelong blind liver drinker
• 1:30:26
  lately. Big hearing.
• 1:30:27
  OK, Cash. Putting it up.
• 1:30:29
  But hey, you know, right, Yeah, that.
• 1:30:31
  So thank. Hopefully my goal is no more
• 1:30:34
  mentioning my Castro anymore tasting it's very old.
• 1:30:36
  Well, on that note, we have. Reached the point of the evening
• 1:30:37
  where we do talk about your what, 3 drams?
• 1:30:39
  What a terrible way to end. That so.
• 1:30:42
  Fraser, I'm going to ask you for your what, 3 drams?
• 1:30:45
  Any 3 whiskeys that have any sort of meaning, story, or
• 1:30:48
  something special towards you? So.
• 1:30:54
  You can just tell me. To.
• 1:30:56
  Can I get another real mention? Yeah, listen, we've had.
• 1:30:58
  Somebody's, I think the record, we've had seven drums fitted in,
• 1:31:01
  a lot of the drums. OK, so.
• 1:31:03
  First one would be Glenn Limit 21 archive, so that's a.
• 1:31:07
  Is that an honourable? Mention or a draft that's one of
• 1:31:09
  one of two drums. So that is. 2021 Archive.
• 1:31:14
  So it's different from the normal 21 year olds, it's kind
• 1:31:18
  of. It's a slightly.
• 1:31:26
  Older. Cast that have been selected for
• 1:31:28
  it or sorry distilled at an earlier date and it's like much
• 1:31:32
  fewer kind of casts are selected can simply enjoyable blue label
• 1:31:35
  where it's, you know, very kind of stringent process just lovely
• 1:31:39
  like Sherry Glenn Livett, we're talking about that earlier.
• 1:31:40
  I really think Glenn Livett and Sherry is just so underrated and
• 1:31:45
  I would love, you know, in the future and going love it more.
• 1:31:51
  For me at least, more going. Love it Sherry.
• 1:31:53
  Sherry Yeah, where? It's a better, better thing and
• 1:31:56
  that's really special for me. So, you know, first we have
• 1:31:59
  like, yeah, we have a discount for the staff shop some, some
• 1:32:02
  alcohol companies and I bought a couple of bottles of that.
• 1:32:06
  And before my mum, so one of my granny's, she on my my mum's
• 1:32:12
  side, she was a wee bit of a wee bit of a fan of a whiskey too
• 1:32:14
  much so. All right.
• 1:32:16
  I think some would. Argue she loved to she was 97,
• 1:32:19
  but she she loved she loved the whiskey and my mum when she was
• 1:32:23
  a wee kid, I think the family party picked up a Tumblr that my
• 1:32:27
  great grand had. That's why Drake had and she
• 1:32:32
  didn't realize Whiskey had a a. Bit a mouthful of whiskey and.
• 1:32:36
  She didn't drink it for she'd have a whiskey Mac and I wish
• 1:32:40
  great way to have a whiskey but wouldn't drink whiskey until
• 1:32:44
  last year and this is for the honorable mentions items.
• 1:32:46
  So just before I left for India for the first time, which was
• 1:32:50
  the. Autumn 2020. 4.
• 1:32:54
  Late before. Sat down I was feeling really
• 1:32:56
  emotional and you know not sure what I was thinking about it and
• 1:33:00
  I yeah we opened this Glen of a tight archive had that my mom
• 1:33:04
  she loved it and then the honorable mentioned is DRAM wars
• 1:33:07
  Ben Reyes 10 year old single cast finished in Rancio SEC
• 1:33:09
  which we mentioned Rancio second mentioned the absolute.
• 1:33:15
  I just love that so. My mum had that as well, which
• 1:33:17
  was like, you know, it's a 58 to 60, some early 60s cast.
• 1:33:22
  Strength. Single cast and someone that
• 1:33:24
  doesn't drink. A lot of whiskey like for that,
• 1:33:27
  for her, those were. Her like that, particularly that
• 1:33:29
  Ben Renis was her like whiskey thing has now got her into
• 1:33:31
  whiskey. She's joined SMWS.
• 1:33:33
  Oh, really? Brilliant.
• 1:33:34
  We were just before I left. She really like we've been
• 1:33:36
  through having a you could buy meal that sister stayed home and
• 1:33:41
  they've got the chip in Glasgow went to a couple of pubs and
• 1:33:44
  then got back to the flat. The house saw you and she was
• 1:33:48
  yeah drinking Amber Lauer been a knee like I'm loving it.
• 1:33:49
  And in about 18 months the time I've been here, she's now lost
• 1:33:53
  her whiskey. And then so that that Ben Renis
• 1:33:56
  for me is not mentioned because it got my mom into yeah, yeah.
• 1:33:58
  So. Just like.
• 1:34:00
  Ben Renis You know, nice. And three anyway, like, just
• 1:34:04
  like apricots, right? Peaches.
• 1:34:05
  Stone fruits. Right.
• 1:34:07
  Is anything. Like I love more rancic SEC
• 1:34:10
  fetish whiskeys and then yeah by the 21 second would be.
• 1:34:18
  So this is. Hera Storgaard, who's one of my
• 1:34:20
  best pals in whiskey and she is amazing whiskey writer and knows
• 1:34:25
  so much about, well, whiskeys has really made me try whiskeys
• 1:34:28
  from all over the world. And instead of just going, yes,
• 1:34:30
  Scottish whiskies, the best. Yeah.
• 1:34:32
  And we were, I was before I went to India and Heather happened to
• 1:34:37
  be down in London when I was there.
• 1:34:38
  And Melody Whiskey Bar and Hammersmith is an absolutely
• 1:34:42
  fantastic place. I think it's actually either
• 1:34:45
  Indian or British. Indian gentleman who owns.
• 1:34:46
  All right, OK And TDR has not changed since like.
• 1:34:49
  Oh really. Well, it's got an amazing
• 1:34:51
  whiskey selection and we were in there.
• 1:34:52
  We had some amazing drums together and and then.
• 1:34:56
  Heather. Finally gave me the sample or
• 1:34:58
  something and it's from double check the name.
• 1:35:02
  It's it's hang on. I'm just going to get want to
• 1:35:10
  make sure I get this right. I thought I had this thing.
• 1:35:13
  See Vibrost Vanderheiten. So it's a limited edition from
• 1:35:19
  most northerly distillery in in the world.
• 1:35:22
  It's in Norway. Vivrost BI.
• 1:35:24
  VROS. T and then Vanaheim BANAHEIM and
• 1:35:33
  it's. Aged in a.
• 1:35:34
  Mixture of I think initially bourbon tasks, then teak and
• 1:35:39
  Sherry tasks really. And Heather's just like, look,
• 1:35:43
  this is like. My kind of first known.
• 1:35:44
  Scottish whiskey, I think apart from Irish.
• 1:35:45
  And she was just like, right, this is.
• 1:35:48
  Strudel in my glass. Apple strudel in my.
• 1:35:50
  Glass and like. Honestly the most amazing
• 1:35:52
  description and it's like if you can pick a bottle up.
• 1:35:55
  I was like sadly looking at an auction over Christmas and it's
• 1:35:57
  like 250 for the ball, but it's Heather bless of you beam it up
• 1:36:02
  for a week catch up over Christmas when I was back and
• 1:36:05
  she gave me more samples and gave me like 100 mil sample.
• 1:36:09
  Wow. So got had had some with my mum
• 1:36:12
  and it's just like that is it was about yeah, 18 months apart
• 1:36:15
  having these two and it's I think it's one of my favorite
• 1:36:17
  whiskeys I've ever had. Really just like phenomenal.
• 1:36:20
  I think when Scandinavian whiskey is not.
• 1:36:21
  Something I've tried an awful lot of, honestly.
• 1:36:24
  Well. Annoy, I know I have a snore
• 1:36:26
  garden Ester and she'll give you some good recommendations.
• 1:36:28
  Yeah. So I think.
• 1:36:30
  Some of my favorite whiskeys had in the past year have been yeah,
• 1:36:33
  I've been Scandinavian ones. So last one.
• 1:36:44
  I I was, yeah, trying. Between like the glad you're at
• 1:36:46
  12:00 just because that was kind of drama got me into busiest,
• 1:36:50
  but I would probably say. It's a dormant 4 year old that.
• 1:36:56
  We had a Melody whiskey bar that night as well.
• 1:36:58
  Which? 4.
• 1:37:01
  Yeah, and I can't remember. Which one it was?
• 1:37:03
  So that's really terrible. I will get back to you on that.
• 1:37:05
  But it had a border collie in the front and yeah, family had
• 1:37:08
  those. Nothing to do with how much I
• 1:37:09
  enjoyed it, but that was my first.
• 1:37:12
  My first door. And yeah, just.
• 1:37:16
  That like, you know, I just love anything.
• 1:37:19
  I'm so jealous you guys got. I know.
• 1:37:21
  That's right, when I get back. I'm going to stay.
• 1:37:25
  Get yourself. Yeah, absolutely fantastic.
• 1:37:26
  Well, look, yeah, Fraser, honestly, thank you so much for
• 1:37:29
  flying in. You fall in today for that.
• 1:37:31
  It's fantastic. Best guess you've had in
• 1:37:33
  Bangalore? Oh, the traffic.
• 1:37:35
  Here in leaf. The traffic here in Leaf and the
• 1:37:37
  and the Mesquite was started getting worse.
• 1:37:39
  Yeah. By the way, thank you very much
• 1:37:40
  for coming along. Thank you for having me and I.
• 1:37:42
  Realized I went on about. 500 tangents No, you're not
• 1:37:45
  absolutely fantastic. It's great.
• 1:37:47
  Cheers. Thank you.