Latest / Whisky Stories Podcast / Mike Brown Returns: Tamdhu, Glengoyne, Smokehead & Too Many Pre-Pod Drams

Transcript

Mike Brown Returns: Tamdhu, Glengoyne, Smokehead & Too Many Pre-Pod Drams · Whisky Stories Podcast

• 0:00
  Listen, right, Hang on a second, right?
• 0:01
  We've had we've had we've had a few drums, we've had a few
• 0:05
  drums. The biggest mistake we've made
• 0:09
  was we had a few drums before we started recording and I've
• 0:11
  accidentally forgot to press the chord button microphone, I
• 0:15
  guess. So what we're going to do is
• 0:17
  we're going to restart this, right?
• 0:18
  So what we'll do, I guess you know what to do Clap.
• 0:21
  I said have. You got everything going right
• 0:23
  now, yes. It's fine.
• 0:26
  Just let me. That's OK, Angus, you know what
• 0:28
  to do? Clap, I said.
• 0:32
  Welcome to the Whiskey Stories podcast we've got. 28 warehouses
• 0:37
  now at Tamdu. They're built and just tamdu,
• 0:40
  just for tamdu. Well, we're including other
• 0:42
  spirits, including other and other brands and that sort of
• 0:46
  stuff. But Tamdu's warehouse, yes,
• 0:48
  Yeah. So you've got a cask population.
• 0:51
  When I was there the other week, our cast population was about
• 0:54
  140,000 casts on site and we're going to nose them all.
• 1:02
  Welcome along the way Whiskey stories podcast myself Graeme
• 1:06
  Cogar. We are recording this intro at
• 1:08
  the end of the podcast after having about 5 or 6 jabs because
• 1:11
  I forgot to press the record button on the camera so.
• 1:14
  We are so professional. 3 to 5 minutes of introduction with
• 1:18
  Mike Brown here. The irony is McLeod Spirits
• 1:20
  where you know, One for the lip readers, I think.
• 1:23
  But basically one thing is release.
• 1:26
  It as bonus content first, the first first.
• 1:29
  The first 3 minutes are 5 minutes of what we were talking
• 1:33
  about was about how I had accidentally deleted Mikes
• 1:36
  first. This is episode we talked about
• 1:38
  this. Mike, this is episode 3.5 with
• 1:41
  you. Yes, because actually it's the
• 1:42
  second time you've been on the third, second time you've been
• 1:45
  on the pot. This is my third interview, this
• 1:48
  is my second podcast, so. This is episode 2.5. 2.52 point
• 1:53
  7 now. It's a guest that has to work
• 1:55
  the hardest because, because, because in terms of actual
• 1:59
  chatting to us, to the podcast time, he's probably gotten the
• 2:05
  most really. But for people, I'll get.
• 2:08
  That in a. 2nd for people listen, I've just pulled myself
• 2:10
  a drama. I'm not going to tell you what
• 2:12
  drama is. You have to listen to the very
• 2:13
  end of the episode. That's right, in the end if.
• 2:16
  You get to the very end of the episode, you will find out what
• 2:19
  drum we are currently. Boring.
• 2:20
  An absolute belter. Absolutely.
• 2:22
  Yes. Thank you very much, Mike.
• 2:24
  Absolutely need. To finish Delta, somehow every
• 2:26
  time that you come on the podcast, I managed to make a
• 2:28
  mistake when it comes to the recording.
• 2:31
  I also end up being pretty steaming by the end of it.
• 2:33
  I'm sorry. So this is probably the most.
• 2:36
  That's delicious. That's absolutely right.
• 2:38
  Brilliant. Well, look, thank you very much
• 2:40
  for for coming along to the podcast, Mike.
• 2:45
  I'm always happy to be here. Is he recorded or not recorded?
• 2:48
  Just happy to see. You.
• 2:50
  We're always happy when you. Yeah.
• 2:52
  I mean, I can't remember whether I asked about the pagoda roofs
• 2:55
  or not, but we'll get into. That find out we'll.
• 2:56
  Find out anyway guys, I hope you enjoy the the rest of the
• 3:00
  podcast. Once I remember to push the the
• 3:03
  record button on the on the microphones, I'm having a
• 3:05
  nightmare listen all the very best cheers.
• 3:08
  Thank you very much. Have fun I.
• 3:13
  Should see the cogs. Going I thought you just deleted
• 3:18
  it again. Somehow it's OK.
• 3:19
  It's OK. It's OK.
• 3:20
  That's. The time I fucked up and you're
• 3:22
  like. If I can, if I can be bothered
• 3:27
  to go back and editing this and hopefully the sound caught is
• 3:30
  OK. If the sound caught because just
• 3:33
  very quickly, just I guess clap us in.
• 3:36
  OK. Welcome along the Whiskey
• 3:39
  Stories podcast where we're joined by Mike Brown.
• 3:41
  And if you've just heard everything else, that's fine.
• 3:43
  If you haven't then I've accidentally forgot to hit the
• 3:45
  chord on the buttons, but basically.
• 3:47
  We'll fix it in post. But basically what we were
• 3:50
  saying was the. Very what very nearly happened
• 3:53
  is where I guess Mike Brown is. We very nearly had one deleted
• 3:56
  episode and one episode where we didn't.
• 3:58
  Record any sound. You can put those two always.
• 4:01
  You can't really put this. That would be so good.
• 4:03
  So the lip readers out there, No, that's the tree.
• 4:05
  I'm pretty confident. I'm confident there's not be a
• 4:08
  problem. However, like I say, episode #9
• 4:10
  Mike's come in a few weeks later.
• 4:12
  That was a pre record. A few weeks later, we're
• 4:14
  recording with Jody Buck. And I've gone to try and hit the
• 4:18
  card ready to go. It's popped up.
• 4:19
  So you have no, no, no room left anything.
• 4:21
  And it's just like hit buttons, delete, delete, delete, try,
• 4:24
  delete. And then it's come up saying
• 4:26
  like, do you want to save before you delete?
• 4:29
  And I've hit no, everything's shut down.
• 4:31
  And as soon as it's shut down, I've went, oh God.
• 4:34
  And then I realized that the episode that we recorded with
• 4:36
  Mike Brown, what was gone now all those that's years ago,
• 4:41
  2023. So long ago, but can I just say
• 4:44
  by the way, guys, what a journey they that you guys have been on?
• 4:48
  Like when we first started like 2023, it was like the podcast,
• 4:54
  you know, lots of energy, really fresh, you know, look at it now.
• 4:57
  God, no, but no. It was like, really, it was
• 5:01
  like, you know, enthusiastic novice, kind of like we don't
• 5:04
  know anything about whiskey, but we like whiskey.
• 5:05
  We want to learn as much as we can.
• 5:07
  And obviously, apparently you've got some other guy called Ross
• 5:09
  here. I've not met yet.
• 5:10
  I've never heard of him. I've never heard him.
• 5:12
  And he's, you know, the things that Ross doesn't know about
• 5:14
  whiskey isn't worth not knowing. You know, he he knows his stuff.
• 5:17
  So with. Him not on you able to answer
• 5:19
  your own question. Ross, if you are listening to
• 5:23
  this, just want to say I would like to meet you.
• 5:28
  I've got some drams for you if. You're listening to this.
• 5:31
  We're still doing a free drinking Scotch at the bar
• 5:33
  model. But no, honestly, guys, what a
• 5:37
  journey. Like it's, it's been phenomenal
• 5:38
  to listen to all of your stuff and, and you've gone from being,
• 5:42
  you know, like really enthusiastic to taking your
• 5:45
  listeners on a journey. And that's the journey that you
• 5:48
  want every whiskey person that like gets into whiskey to go on.
• 5:51
  So it's so cool. It's like an audio documentary
• 5:54
  of like, I don't know, like a time, like a time journey, like
• 5:58
  a time capsule of whiskey. It's really cool.
• 6:00
  It has been and I actually, yeah, thank you.
• 6:02
  Yeah, Chair, appreciate that Megan, thank you for for your
• 6:04
  for listening support. But what what I would say is
• 6:06
  very interestingly, just as I've seen this is, you know, one of
• 6:09
  the things we talked about Angus when when we started and I
• 6:12
  mentioned that in a couple weeks, couple weeks past our our
• 6:14
  newsletter when we hit our 50,000.
• 6:17
  Yes, massive congratulations. Thank you.
• 6:20
  Thanks mate. But but one of the things we
• 6:22
  said is that when statistically most episodes, most podcasts
• 6:25
  that start never make it past episode 8.
• 6:28
  Wow. And I'm just looking at you at
• 6:30
  episode 9 and we accidentally deleted.
• 6:32
  You you tried so hard, mentioned that you tried so hard I.
• 6:37
  Have to say Mike, as well as what you're very kind, where
• 6:40
  your words there you've talked about, you know, we are on a
• 6:42
  journey and stuff and yet here we are well over a year and a
• 6:45
  bit later, I still don't know. That's what the fucking mic
• 6:47
  said. But that's it man, you wouldn't
• 6:49
  want it any other. Way, but right, I'm going to ask
• 6:51
  you, can you remember? You may have just.
• 6:53
  Can you remember your what, 3 drums from back then?
• 6:56
  From which episode I? Forgot that the the the the.
• 7:00
  The the original, the OG my what 3 drums?
• 7:03
  Oh this is really hard. I mean time do 15 is probably
• 7:07
  there. Time do time do 15 is in there,
• 7:08
  yeah. I'm going to take a hazard of a
• 7:10
  guess. Is it time do bat strength 7 as
• 7:13
  well? Nope.
• 7:14
  OK. What I will say is 2 of your
• 7:16
  three, you were on brand, you were doing a good.
• 7:18
  I was on brand as a brand ambassador.
• 7:20
  Yeah, you're doing a good job. Leonard Russell will be happy
• 7:22
  with me. In that case, then probably
• 7:24
  Smokehead. Sherry Cask.
• 7:25
  Smokehead Sherry cask. Okay, there we go.
• 7:27
  Is remembering now and I would say off brand maybe Balveni 14
• 7:33
  Caribbean cast. Absolutely spot on.
• 7:36
  Just to the benefit of the camera.
• 7:37
  I did not look at that beforehand, just to clarify.
• 7:41
  Absolutely fantastic. Your memory is in good shape.
• 7:42
  Now what I will say I can't find it in my book, right?
• 7:45
  But I've had a memory based on what literally just happened
• 7:50
  here. And I think I'm going to blame
• 7:52
  you on this one, right? We're talking about right.
• 7:54
  So what happens is when Mike comes in, you know, Mike's,
• 7:57
  Mike's a bundle of energy. Getting a reputation.
• 7:59
  To be for a brand ambassador. And we, we've started recording
• 8:03
  now it's, it's sort of 7:00, but you've been here for about half
• 8:06
  an hour. We've had a good bladder.
• 8:07
  We've had a good chinwag. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:09
  And, and I think that's the problem is there's too much
• 8:10
  distraction going on because basically, I think if I remember
• 8:13
  correctly, we were sitting in the wee room sandwiched nicely
• 8:15
  between the bar and, and I also will say that that is probably
• 8:20
  at the time and probably up until we, that was probably the
• 8:23
  most I'd had. Yeah, yeah, I was.
• 8:26
  I was. I remember.
• 8:27
  It because obviously it wasn't, it was, you know, we're sitting
• 8:30
  there kind of shorts and T-shirts, but we were there.
• 8:32
  It was a kind of real. Cozy night.
• 8:33
  It was a good. Korean, wasn't it it?
• 8:35
  Was it was a, you know, kind of hit the cold air and yeah, yeah,
• 8:39
  it comes out and it was like a. Woofed I was.
• 8:41
  I was walking down, I was walking down Diver Rd.
• 8:43
  I was singing. I was. 3 sheets to the wind.
• 8:45
  But, but basically what I'll say is because I remember this now
• 8:48
  is we started the podcast and we started recording.
• 8:51
  We're chatting away and suddenly one of us said, hang on a
• 8:55
  minute, yesterday, yesterday. Not International Scottish Day
• 8:58
  or Whiskey Day or something like that, right?
• 9:00
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And suddenly we realized, like,
• 9:02
  fuck's sake. We're, according to we initially
• 9:04
  cast on International Whiskey Day or whatever day it was,
• 9:07
  Yeah. February time.
• 9:08
  Yeah, and then we had to. I slaughtered Angus, head of
• 9:12
  research. But it was my fault for not not
• 9:14
  being able to flag this up. Well, to add to that then, so
• 9:18
  this Saturday, coming at the time of recording is
• 9:23
  International Whiskey Day. Well.
• 9:24
  There you go. So in international.
• 9:25
  So wait, international whiskey? Does it move?
• 9:27
  Is no, there's there's, there's International Scotch Day and
• 9:30
  there's and there's Wild Whiskey Day.
• 9:31
  So Wild Whiskey Day is this Saturday coming at time of
• 9:34
  recording. There you go.
• 9:35
  There you are. There you are.
• 9:36
  Now, one other thing that we just briefly mentioned.
• 9:38
  There's one other word. I'm looking back at my my notes
• 9:41
  here. Could be anything.
• 9:43
  There's one other word written on on on in this episode page,
• 9:46
  so I'll I'll go through it. It's just put Steamon.
• 9:49
  Well, no, this was the one that never made it.
• 9:51
  So I've got Angus because I think Ross was Ross here for the
• 9:54
  first one I've got. Ross Ross was here for the Lost
• 9:56
  1 and I don't know what I've said to him during that podcast,
• 9:59
  but it didn't get answer. Well, I've.
• 10:01
  Got your brands down, Glenn going Tamdu, Smokehead and
• 10:04
  Rosebank. Yeah, I've put down Tamdu Malt,
• 10:07
  their own barley. This is wee bits of information.
• 10:09
  Was that correct? No, they used to malt their own
• 10:11
  barley. So if you go to the Tamdu
• 10:13
  Wikipedia page with desperate and he's updating there you go
• 10:17
  there. Yeah, desperately.
• 10:21
  For anyone working in the Ian McLeod, this is the digital
• 10:23
  marketing team. Do you?
• 10:25
  If you go to the Wikipedia page, that's what most people will say
• 10:27
  to me. Oh, Tam do's got solid in molten
• 10:31
  boxes. Say no, They were the first to
• 10:33
  have solid in molten boxes. They used to do molten, used to
• 10:35
  do a lot of molten. And they were also the, they
• 10:38
  were the last to use them. And it was a huge, huge molten
• 10:41
  boxes that were, in Leonard Russell's own words, managing
• 10:45
  director of Ian McLeod. They were basically being held
• 10:47
  together with gaffer tape and love.
• 10:49
  Brilliant. So we brought them down because
• 10:51
  there wasn't really much left of them.
• 10:53
  So they we, we did used to do our own all things on site.
• 10:56
  So yeah. But we use Simpsons now for for
• 10:58
  Tandoo. And there's one word here,
• 11:00
  right? Angus Pagoda.
• 11:03
  Yes. For the listeners that were
• 11:04
  lucky enough to miss out on that chat was we spoke about pagoda
• 11:08
  roofs. Did we have a pagoda?
• 11:09
  Bingo. How many times did we say it?
• 11:11
  Well that pagoda now let me let me try and work this out.
• 11:15
  Does Tam do still have pagoda roofs on there?
• 11:17
  So the reason why we probably have spoken about this quite a
• 11:20
  lot was Charles Doig built Tamdu.
• 11:23
  He was the chief architect. He's also the chief architect of
• 11:25
  the infamous pagoda. Or some controversy might say,
• 11:28
  yeah, copula, copula, that that would have been mentioned.
• 11:31
  Yeah. And then I think we got into
• 11:33
  debate about slate versus tiles and what the origins of slate.
• 11:36
  Is it was a wild night. It was wild.
• 11:41
  By the way, we can look back and laugh and be thank the Lord that
• 11:44
  never made out. I can see why it got deleted
• 11:45
  now. Actually I.
• 11:46
  Can see why it was deleted. Yeah, but look right, it's great
• 11:49
  to have you back. Likewise, people got the back.
• 11:51
  Now you are global brand ambassador, right?
• 11:54
  That is a title, a job that so many people listening.
• 11:58
  Well, we've had, we've had a few little BAS on, we've had
• 12:01
  yourself on might as well the lifestyle of a global brand
• 12:03
  ambassador flying around the world, speaking to people,
• 12:07
  educating people, talking up brands, brands like Glenn, Glenn
• 12:11
  Tam, do, Smokehead, Rosebank, all that kind of stuff.
• 12:14
  We're now in June. As you're listening to this,
• 12:17
  how's your how's your year been so far?
• 12:19
  Wow. So honestly, it's been like,
• 12:23
  I've been doing this now for just over 2 years.
• 12:26
  So I wasn't I was kind of still kind of relatively new when I
• 12:29
  first came on to chat to you guys.
• 12:31
  And it's been ridiculously fun. Like for anyone that wants to
• 12:35
  work in the whiskey industry, if you enjoy talking to people, if
• 12:38
  you enjoy sharing stories about drams, like it's just your dream
• 12:41
  job and it doesn't get old. It is tough.
• 12:43
  I'm never going to sit here and say it's the easiest job in the
• 12:46
  world. So as of, let's see, so January,
• 12:50
  I, I flew out to the West Coast of Canada.
• 12:54
  So a lot of the whiskey festivals happened in January in
• 12:56
  Canada. And because it's absolutely
• 12:58
  freezing, there's nothing else to do.
• 12:59
  So, And so that was incredible. And I've got some really funny
• 13:03
  stories I could tell you from there.
• 13:04
  You know, I flew to Edmonton and it was, you know -37 or
• 13:09
  something like that, which was warmer than the last time I was
• 13:12
  there, which was -45 with wind chill.
• 13:16
  So that was pretty cool. Then I did a really cool tasting
• 13:18
  there with a guy called Graham Usher.
• 13:21
  I was chatting to him there. I don't know if I mentioned this
• 13:23
  the last time I was on the podcast.
• 13:24
  So I was chatting to him. The name, the last name didn't
• 13:27
  clock. I saw that he had a bottle of
• 13:29
  Usher's old vatted Glenn Livet on the back bar behind him.
• 13:33
  And I was like whiskey geek. That's old.
• 13:36
  That's very, very old. That predates like for anyone
• 13:39
  that doesn't know. So Alexander Usher was.
• 13:44
  That's right. Johnnie Walker's boss at one
• 13:46
  point. So here's the original like
• 13:48
  whiskey blender When you think of whiskey blenders, the
• 13:49
  architects of whiskey blending Usher's Hall in Edinburgh.
• 13:52
  Yeah. There is a connection.
• 13:54
  Is that usher? Yeah.
• 13:56
  So that's you're sitting having a taste in when.
• 13:58
  I had no idea and I was like, oh, what's that by the way?
• 14:01
  You know, that's gotta be worth something.
• 14:03
  It's sitting on his just on his shelf.
• 14:04
  He's got whiskey shopping in Edmonton.
• 14:06
  Great place. And so he goes, yeah, that's my,
• 14:10
  that's my ancestors. I'm an usher.
• 14:12
  And I just grabbed the sales guy that I was with.
• 14:14
  Get on your knees. Like, yeah, really.
• 14:16
  You know who's here? Yeah, He's a really cool guy.
• 14:19
  He's a. Canadian.
• 14:19
  Is he like immigrate through immigration family wise or is he
• 14:22
  a Scotsman that's working over living?
• 14:24
  Over born in Glasgow. I think he was born in Glasgow.
• 14:26
  Please don't come at me if you misheard that, Graham.
• 14:28
  And actually, this is interesting.
• 14:30
  He's desperate to be on a podcast.
• 14:31
  So I might send you his details because that would be, he would,
• 14:34
  he would love to be involved anyway.
• 14:36
  Edmonton. That'd be really, yeah.
• 14:40
  I wouldn't recommend. Well, do you know it's quite
• 14:42
  cushy? Quite cushy.
• 14:43
  Graham was a good guy. Shout out to you, Graham.
• 14:46
  That was quite fun then. So I flew out to Calgary and it
• 14:50
  was amazing to be out in the Outback, you know, like proper
• 14:54
  when you think of the Rocky Mountains really and you think
• 14:56
  of like the Wild West, you know. So we're driving around with a
• 14:59
  sales manager that I've got there.
• 15:01
  She's lovely. Karen.
• 15:02
  She was, she knows a lot about wine.
• 15:04
  She's relatively new to whiskey. So I'm sort of like driving
• 15:06
  around and I've got Glengoy and Tandoo and my backpack and we're
• 15:09
  just going into, it felt like, you know, you see the old Wild
• 15:12
  West, the old salons, It's one of these like their original
• 15:15
  like 18 swinging doors. Yeah.
• 15:18
  So this guy owns like a guy at the.
• 15:21
  Bar just spitting. Yeah, it was literally like
• 15:23
  that. Like it was, it was like going
• 15:25
  back in time, you could just see this place was built in like,
• 15:27
  you know, as a, as a station house in like the 1860s or
• 15:30
  something in the Outback of Canada.
• 15:32
  Or like one of those old London pubs that's been yeah, that was,
• 15:36
  that was built in 2010, London 2010.
• 15:38
  I mean it looked like. There's just loads of hipsters.
• 15:40
  Yeah, just loads of hipsters. There's a plaque and they know
• 15:43
  what it says. This has been here since the
• 15:44
  1600s. It's the oldest pub in London.
• 15:46
  Someone drinking a Madri. So it's an orange, Yeah.
• 15:52
  That's exactly what it was. So I went and chatted to this
• 15:55
  guy and it was really cool. These these, you know, Hardy
• 15:57
  lumberjack types that are like, you know, men's men, you know,
• 16:00
  and and I'm sitting there talking about Glen Goin and
• 16:02
  Tandu Now apparently I was told this afterwards.
• 16:05
  I went, I went and used the bathroom while I was in there.
• 16:07
  Just got his mid midst conversation was talking to this
• 16:09
  guy about Sherry casks and, you know, the history of Glen Goin
• 16:12
  and Tandu and he was kind of wasn't showing much because this
• 16:16
  Hardy sort of like northern Canada kind of kind of
• 16:19
  mentality. So apparently when I was in the
• 16:21
  bathroom, he grabs the sales lady that was with Karen by the
• 16:26
  arm and just kind of like went straight up to him and went this
• 16:29
  is fantastic. And then just like acted
• 16:33
  completely like normal really. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:36
  He just loved it. He just absolutely loved it like
• 16:38
  a brand ambassador and if he'd come to the middle of nowhere
• 16:41
  and gave him a taste in and it was really cool.
• 16:42
  So what? Like, first of all, right, yeah.
• 16:45
  How does that come around? How how does how do you end up?
• 16:48
  So have you got, so you're talking about your sales sales
• 16:51
  manager that's out there? Yeah.
• 16:53
  Is she charge of sort of North America and what have you?
• 16:56
  And then is she arranging? Look, we've got like, are we
• 17:01
  trying to get just brand, get the brand awareness out there?
• 17:04
  So you just get flown into this place and I mean, how many
• 17:06
  people, for example, are in the saloon bar doing a taste in?
• 17:09
  Yeah, how many people were supposed?
• 17:11
  To have been a place she knew about as well that she took you
• 17:14
  to. Yeah, it's interesting.
• 17:15
  You know, there's many, there's like every market's different as
• 17:18
  well. There's no, there's no normal
• 17:19
  day with this job as well. That's that's the thing you'll
• 17:21
  hear with every brand ambassador.
• 17:23
  I think there's many cogs in the chain.
• 17:24
  So it'll be someone that doesn't necessarily work for Ian McLeod.
• 17:28
  They work for an importer and distributor of that country.
• 17:31
  And each country's different. Each state is different, each
• 17:33
  province is different in Canada. And she'll be, you know, Karen
• 17:37
  will be someone who basically sells all of the products that
• 17:41
  that importer and distributor does.
• 17:42
  So it might be wine, they might be tequila, and they might be
• 17:45
  anything, you know, liqueurs. And that that few weeks for the
• 17:49
  whiskey festival, all of the whiskey brand ambassadors from
• 17:52
  Scotland and Ireland in America kind of fly over and, well, it's
• 17:55
  like a buzz. So all of the different sales
• 17:57
  people for those importers are like going around and seeing all
• 17:59
  their clients. So you know, what's quite often,
• 18:02
  it's quite funny is you bump into other brand ambassadors in
• 18:05
  the middle of nowhere. Yeah.
• 18:07
  You guys all sort of like, I'd imagine there's probably 3 or 4
• 18:11
  different ways to travel over to, to Edmonton, to Calgary, all
• 18:14
  these different places, right? So you're obvious you'll be
• 18:17
  flying maybe Edinburgh to connecting flight or something
• 18:20
  like that. Are you sort of standing in a
• 18:22
  random airport? At a departure, is it like race?
• 18:25
  Is it like race around the world, that TV show on the BBC?
• 18:28
  Yeah. When you're sitting in the,
• 18:30
  you're sitting in the departure line and you see the other team
• 18:32
  coming up and you go it's. It's it's literally like that.
• 18:39
  It's amazing to see as well. Like you just, you're standing
• 18:41
  there and so like, you know, the brand ambassador for Rylaw, he
• 18:45
  was over with me and Daniel. Yeah, no, it's not Daniel.
• 18:50
  He he was there American sales and N Canada sales manager.
• 18:53
  I can't remember his name now because it's been, I've been to
• 18:56
  about 30 different flights since then.
• 18:59
  But I remember seeing him two years beforehand and I was like,
• 19:02
  of all of The Dirty, it was really.
• 19:06
  It's really nice. There we go again, There we go
• 19:08
  again. It's like your extended family
• 19:10
  on the way home. Yeah.
• 19:12
  Are you bumping in each other? And it's like reminiscing over
• 19:16
  like, there we go, we've done it again.
• 19:18
  We've made it. We've made it out alive.
• 19:19
  Yeah, there's, there's quite a few of them.
• 19:21
  There's some really, there's some really good gigs that you
• 19:23
  do throughout the year. Like the Germany ones are always
• 19:26
  so really cool as well. I'll tell you a funny story at
• 19:28
  the end of the the Canada trip. So I was, I didn't really get a
• 19:31
  day off that trip. And then the last day I was in
• 19:34
  Vancouver, Ireland. Now I've got a fear of bears.
• 19:37
  I think it's a fairly normal fear to have.
• 19:39
  Yeah. They're.
• 19:40
  Cuddly, but they're Yeah, there was one in.
• 19:42
  Here I wouldn't be very, I would not be too keen if one came in
• 19:45
  here, I'd probably move. So And I noticed when I was in
• 19:49
  the Outback of Calgary, there was this cute little cartoon
• 19:51
  pictures of bears that were sticking out of trees just to
• 19:54
  kind of warn you in a cute way that, you know, don't go walking
• 19:57
  around too much. And so Karen Marseille was
• 19:59
  manager. She said, oh, you know, like
• 20:01
  they they put a little bear on you like a little bell, a bear
• 20:04
  bell. Little bear belt and she's like,
• 20:06
  don't wear one of those because that's just like ringing the
• 20:08
  dinner bell, right? So is that OK?
• 20:10
  I remember that. That's quite nice.
• 20:12
  So cut to me about 5 days later, I'm on Vancouver Island with a
• 20:16
  different sales manager, Angelica, and she is like, do
• 20:19
  you fancy going for the beach of the day?
• 20:21
  I was like, that sounds amazing. Yeah, a beach in Vancouver
• 20:23
  Island. Let's go.
• 20:24
  She drove me there. We've got her dog, She's really
• 20:27
  cool dog that was from a First Nation reservation.
• 20:30
  So he's like this big kind of Husky with 1 blue eye and really
• 20:34
  cool. We go through to get to the
• 20:36
  beach, you've got to go for a rainforest.
• 20:37
  So there's a rainforest in Vancouver Island.
• 20:40
  In minus or is it is the weather it warmed up a.
• 20:43
  Wee bit, it's about -10 at this point.
• 20:44
  So yeah, yeah, yeah. So you come out and you're
• 20:48
  looking out into the Saint Julian Mountains near Seattle.
• 20:52
  Basically it. Pisses it down.
• 20:54
  All the time it's too, too wet to be cold there basically.
• 20:57
  So I'm walking through and she she gets up and she, I just hear
• 21:00
  this like ringing and she puts the bare bells on me as we're in
• 21:04
  the middle of a rainforest. And I was like, what's that?
• 21:08
  She's like, oh, these are bear bells.
• 21:10
  It's OK. It's OK.
• 21:11
  Well, are they on before? Well, you know, there's there's
• 21:14
  bears around here. So as you're standing in a
• 21:16
  forest, like you're about to go walking through a nature walk in
• 21:19
  a forest and what puts a bear bell on you?
• 21:21
  That was really cool. But then I was like, so you
• 21:23
  know, what kind of bears are? They should be afraid.
• 21:25
  She's like, you really don't need to be that afraid of the
• 21:27
  bears anyway. It's it's the things like the
• 21:29
  Cougars and the wolves. That's what you really want to
• 21:30
  be worried about. Yeah, yeah.
• 21:33
  What's it? What's it they say if it's
• 21:35
  black, fight back. If it's brown.
• 21:37
  Lay down. Lay down.
• 21:38
  Yeah, for bears. For bears, yeah.
• 21:40
  So that was that was going through my head, but that was
• 21:43
  really cool. Again, as an experience, that's
• 21:45
  really amazing. That's I mean, yeah, like this
• 21:47
  is The thing is, you know, we spoke to Danny Dyer about some
• 21:50
  of the trips he's been on. Stewart Barley Baxter was on not
• 21:53
  that longwell, congratulations as well.
• 21:54
  Blake, Craig. Massive congratulations.
• 21:57
  There's award, they're incredible, but like, you know,
• 22:00
  you're travelling the world. I'll look back and I love the
• 22:03
  stories. When you look at the history of
• 22:05
  brand ambassadors or they weren't brand ambassadors back
• 22:08
  then. It was like the no, there was
• 22:11
  what's it? What's what's Oh God, the
• 22:14
  almighty, this is terrible. The family that owned a
• 22:16
  Glenfiddich. William Grant, William.
• 22:17
  Grant Yeah. You know, it's like one of the
• 22:19
  sons just got sent to the other side of the world.
• 22:22
  Yeah, yeah. Asia or wherever it was and it
• 22:25
  was like writing letters back home to be like and and.
• 22:28
  Socializing. Yeah.
• 22:29
  It was the story of Tommy Dewar, the original brand ambassador.
• 22:32
  You know, he literally went right, I'm going to go get some
• 22:34
  orders and steamship to his way around the world and just filled
• 22:38
  his order books for two years and came back and.
• 22:40
  And yeah, the historians will probably be shouting at their,
• 22:43
  their, their radios or whatever just now because I'm going to
• 22:45
  butcher this and I shouldn't because I should know.
• 22:47
  But I'm sure there was at 1.1 of the owners of Valentine's and
• 22:52
  they employed, they employed somebody that nearly became
• 22:56
  James, a James Bond character. And they paid this guy to go in
• 23:00
  the steam liners from the UK to the US.
• 23:03
  Wow, First class and it was luggage of Valentine's and it
• 23:08
  was during prohibition time as well.
• 23:10
  Wow. So basically, now how would that
• 23:12
  work with James Bond? I don't know.
• 23:13
  But basically what it was was there was the 21 Club in New
• 23:17
  York, the Jockey Club, right, was a Speakeasy in New York.
• 23:21
  And that was Ballentine was able to get in there pretty, pretty
• 23:24
  well. Wow.
• 23:25
  And basically, and I've got a really interesting story about
• 23:27
  that actually. But basically what would happen
• 23:29
  is this guy, he would have his have a suitcase full of
• 23:32
  Ballentine's. He would give it to everybody
• 23:34
  and it would be backwards forwards.
• 23:35
  Americans may be going back to America from the UK, vice versa,
• 23:38
  first class. He's giving them Ballentine's
• 23:40
  and he's telling them if you like that, you'll get it in the
• 23:43
  in New York in the Jockey Club and what now this was very
• 23:47
  interesting. I don't like to blow the trumpet
• 23:50
  too much, but somewhere back my grandfather was a director of
• 23:54
  some sort of Ballentine's whiskey, right?
• 23:57
  And my dad always tells a story that he, it was a, it was a
• 24:03
  fateful trip where he decided he was going to, I think he'd
• 24:07
  already proposed to my mother, but basically to celebrate, he
• 24:12
  was going to surprise her. And he got a cheap deal, as you
• 24:16
  do. In what, the winter months?
• 24:19
  It was Cunard who used to own the QE 2 and Concord.
• 24:24
  And what would happen, Hang on two seconds.
• 24:26
  What would happen is you would take a winter crossing from the
• 24:30
  UK over to over to New York and you would have two days, 2 full
• 24:36
  days or three, two nights, three days in New York.
• 24:38
  And you'd fly Concord back from New York back-to-back to London.
• 24:43
  So my dad's decided that's a great idea, right?
• 24:46
  Just got engaged. I'll take take Maureen, my
• 24:49
  fiance, my mum over there, her current, his current fiance, now
• 24:55
  your current mother, my current mother.
• 24:58
  You've got franchises. What he's done is he's done as a
• 25:01
  complete surprise. And I could say this now because
• 25:03
  the guy's no longer here. God rest his soul.
• 25:05
  Charlie Reed, travel agents, right?
• 25:08
  He arranged the whole thing as a surprise, but my dad had to
• 25:10
  forge my mum's signatures and everything like that so she
• 25:12
  would not know about the crossing.
• 25:14
  So there we go, my dad to the full point.
• 25:16
  He's got her all the way. Don't know where she's going.
• 25:18
  Your dad was capable of this, I know.
• 25:20
  Got it. And then basically I would have
• 25:22
  been would have been from Southampton.
• 25:23
  It would have left. I don't know.
• 25:24
  So then so the down Southampton, my mum's still completely
• 25:27
  unaware. So this is 19 God, this would be
• 25:29
  19861987 time, something like that, right And basically got
• 25:34
  her there the next day we're up, we're early suitcases, we're
• 25:38
  going to New York, we're going on the QE 2 and my mum went, I
• 25:41
  hate say like right now. So jobs on the QE 2.
• 25:47
  Now what I'll say is so they get the QE 2 and a kid you not bear
• 25:50
  in mind winter crossing you're going across from the UK to the
• 25:55
  US. I'm just.
• 25:56
  Keeping your eyes out for the. Iceberg and also you're going
• 25:59
  across part of you're nearly hitting the North Atlantic
• 26:02
  during the winter, right? I'll tell you this rough seas,
• 26:05
  I'll tell you this. I don't know if it was up until
• 26:08
  the QE 2 no longer continued, but their crossing was the
• 26:12
  closest that the QE two ever came to capsize.
• 26:16
  Oh my God, that's so bad. To the point where they were
• 26:19
  told to put their life life jackets on in the room, woken up
• 26:22
  in the middle. Of the night.
• 26:23
  Could you imagine? It took them, it took 4 hours to
• 26:25
  get to breakfast because all the cupboards and everything and all
• 26:27
  the cutlery and the plates had fallen off.
• 26:29
  My mum was green, right? She'd had to get injections that
• 26:33
  she didn't enjoy. My dad loved it.
• 26:34
  He won the table tennis competition, Lacrosse.
• 26:39
  However, they avoid the weather issues.
• 26:41
  The QE 2, it's a completely random whiskey story.
• 26:43
  The QE two had to take a diversion to avoid the rough
• 26:46
  sea's weather. So they spent an extra day at
• 26:48
  sea. Nightmare for my mum, but also
• 26:50
  it meant that they never got there.
• 26:52
  They lost a day and a night in New York.
• 26:55
  But yeah, so my grandfather was pretty much same retired at this
• 26:58
  point, no longer Valentine's hard and Walker, it's all this
• 27:03
  kind of stuff through the through the mall things.
• 27:05
  Before they left my dad, my grandfather said to my dad,
• 27:08
  right, if you go to New York, right, look up the 21 Club,
• 27:11
  Jockey Club, it's on wherever it is, can't remember the address.
• 27:14
  And he said, and take this with you.
• 27:16
  And he gave him a money clip and he said show it at the door.
• 27:19
  And my dad said, come on, I'm not doing.
• 27:22
  I said no, no, I was gifted this, this is something that we
• 27:26
  were gifted. And my dad's got no chance,
• 27:28
  absolutely no way that you know, And he said no, no, take it and
• 27:31
  just try it. And my dad's thinking, I'm not,
• 27:33
  you know, this cow olds, this money clip, ancient old money
• 27:36
  clip. And you know, am I going to get
• 27:38
  to the front door and someone's going to go?
• 27:40
  I've never seen that before in my life, mate.
• 27:42
  So anyway, they're in New York. They've got an accelerated
• 27:44
  period of time. I think they've got one night
• 27:46
  and one day to spend in New York or one day, one night and then
• 27:49
  they were whatever. So that night they're rounding
• 27:53
  the yellow taxi cab doing everything and my dad says right
• 27:57
  here, mate, can you take us to the 21 Club Jockey Club?
• 27:59
  Yeah, yeah, no problems. Takes me a massive queue.
• 28:03
  My mum said we're not waiting in this queue, but that says, well,
• 28:05
  wait a minute, let me just try this thing.
• 28:07
  So he goes up to the bouncer. Bouncer's going, sorry mate, you
• 28:10
  got to join the back of the queue.
• 28:11
  But dad's going, sorry, I've got to show you this shows the money
• 28:13
  clip. And you come wow.
• 28:15
  And you come VIP, red rope, all this kind of stuff.
• 28:18
  And it all dates back to the prohibition.
• 28:20
  Wow was Ballantine's and the 21 Jockey Club had a had a
• 28:24
  connection where Ballantine's would be soldier in prohibition
• 28:27
  and apparently the money clip was a was a thing.
• 28:29
  That's like your pass. Right, that was your pass to get
• 28:32
  through and my dad, my mum and dad are sitting there drinking
• 28:35
  this stuff and they were going. I can't believe this actually.
• 28:37
  Bloody what? That's amazing.
• 28:39
  Yeah, yeah, I like my uncle's got the money clip.
• 28:41
  I've been desperate to try and get hold of that money clip.
• 28:43
  I don't know if it was still, I mean the owners of their JOC
• 28:45
  everything the ownership have moved on and.
• 28:46
  On on just talking about. But yeah, when you look back,
• 28:49
  but from from that, like I say, the the guy, you know, brand,
• 28:53
  the original brand ambassador type thing for Valentine's was
• 28:56
  travelling back and forth over the Atlantic.
• 28:58
  And that's what you're doing. You're travelling around bags.
• 29:01
  You're just saying you're driving around Calgary, North
• 29:03
  America. You're in the sort of, you know,
• 29:05
  mountains and all this kind of stuff.
• 29:07
  It's just a bag of whiskey. I'm just going to people and
• 29:09
  saying try that. You like it?
• 29:11
  And actually, when you say it like that, like you forget how
• 29:13
  cool that sounds because I, I'm just like, you know, I'm going
• 29:16
  to work. You know, that's my office is
• 29:18
  like a bag of whiskey. And it's only when I come back
• 29:21
  and I go, that was really cool actually.
• 29:24
  And I've, I've made that guy's day like he was not, not
• 29:28
  expecting to have some, some bloke from Scotland, you know,
• 29:30
  turn up with a bag full of whiskey and go.
• 29:32
  This is really cool. Let me tell you why.
• 29:35
  Yeah, that was really cool. You know, And then after
• 29:37
  Calgary, so we after Victoria as well.
• 29:40
  I was in the Seattle for a few days training up a few staff
• 29:42
  members over there. So I just hopped over and then I
• 29:45
  was back for about 24 hours because it took me 3 days to get
• 29:49
  back. All part of the fun of, you
• 29:52
  know, that storm that hit Edinburgh in January.
• 29:54
  Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was mid like flying when
• 29:57
  that really kicked off. So I landed in Charles de Gaulle
• 30:00
  Airport, which is you. Get diverted to.
• 30:02
  Yeah, I diverted to Paris, which is a fate worse than death.
• 30:06
  And so, yeah, trying to deal with Air France customer service
• 30:10
  was just the worst thing in the entire world.
• 30:11
  So sorry guys, if you're listening near pad to Bob Lemon.
• 30:16
  So yeah, that was rough. And then I stayed in the airport
• 30:19
  for the night, managed to fly back to Manchester.
• 30:23
  The lady in the Air France customer service says I can get
• 30:25
  you to London. Is that close?
• 30:27
  Not really, it's a different country.
• 30:30
  So I've got to Manchester and then I got the train up and it
• 30:34
  took me 3 days to get to Newcastle from that whole
• 30:38
  journey back to Seattle. At Newcastle they went yeah,
• 30:41
  trains aren't running. So I was like, I'm so close.
• 30:44
  Tell me you still had a bag full of whiskey.
• 30:45
  Had a bag full of whiskey, I had a bag full of whiskey.
• 30:48
  We just sat there in the Newcastle train station and we
• 30:51
  drank responsibly. And so, yeah, 24 hours later, I
• 30:55
  was on a plane going to South Africa.
• 30:58
  So I was, I went to Johannesburg.
• 31:00
  That took me 24 hours to get there as well because of the,
• 31:03
  the one of my flights got cancelled.
• 31:04
  That was fun. And so I'm like so tired.
• 31:06
  I'm like, I'm in Canada right now, Am I in France?
• 31:08
  Am I in South Africa? As soon as I landed, I met our
• 31:11
  new importers that were there. I met our new brand ambassador
• 31:14
  and I was training him up. And the first thing I did, I've
• 31:17
  not even really slept. And by the way, just to let you
• 31:19
  know, I'm not doing business class.
• 31:21
  I'm doing, I'm doing like, you know, the shoebox and it's fun.
• 31:25
  Yeah. So as soon, as soon as I land, I
• 31:28
  get there and the first thing I'm doing is I'm meeting a
• 31:31
  whiskey YouTuber to do an interview.
• 31:34
  I talk about our brands and how they're doing in South Africa.
• 31:37
  So I've got like matchsticks in my eyes as I'm talking about it.
• 31:40
  But it was really cool, really, really cool.
• 31:42
  And then I did, I think I was there for about 7 days and I
• 31:46
  think I did. I averaged two or three tastings
• 31:48
  a day was. That a new destination for you
• 31:50
  SO. Yeah, first time.
• 31:51
  And that was also incredible, You know, an amazing, amazing
• 31:54
  whiskey scene. Well, yes, what are you, what
• 31:56
  are you taking over then? Because, I mean, this is the
• 31:58
  Whiskey Stories podcast, not the travelling, not yeah, but.
• 32:01
  My perfect Sunday. Like, what are you like, what
• 32:06
  are these markets dating? Like?
• 32:07
  So what, what, what are the markets over in Canada?
• 32:10
  What are people wanting to drink?
• 32:11
  What are Ian McLeod Distillers trying to get in front of
• 32:14
  people? And and yeah, do you tailor
• 32:15
  things differently for South Africa than you do for Canada
• 32:18
  because different things work in those markets?
• 32:20
  Yeah, kind of actually, you know, you surprise yourself.
• 32:22
  I mean, one of the things that's quite an obvious thing from a
• 32:25
  whiskey production perspective is that they have different
• 32:28
  laws. So South Africa to import
• 32:32
  whiskey into South Africa has to be 750, 50 mil has to be a
• 32:36
  minimum of 43% or. A minimum of 40.
• 32:39
  Minimum of 43%. So if you've got say a Glengoyne
• 32:42
  10 year old that doesn't come in a 750 mil and it's a 40%, you
• 32:47
  suddenly if you want to import that product, you have to stop
• 32:51
  the production line. We Co own a production line,
• 32:54
  Bruxman bottlers with Glenn Farklers.
• 32:56
  So you pause the button, there's only so many bottles that can go
• 32:58
  on that production line. You stop the button, you have to
• 33:00
  change everything over. Let's get the big bottles in,
• 33:02
  let's up the volume if we can to you know that thing to that
• 33:05
  product and then ship it over, which takes months.
• 33:08
  So actually a lot of brands don't really play in that market
• 33:12
  because it's not worth their time to stop because.
• 33:14
  I mean an extra 5th. I mean when you add it up,
• 33:17
  because you're not going to send, you're not going to send a
• 33:19
  case, Yeah. So an extra 50 mil per bottle.
• 33:22
  You're talking about shipping containers.
• 33:23
  Yeah, but also like from, from a point of view of what stock
• 33:27
  you're holding on and what stock you're keeping.
• 33:29
  Yeah. You know, I mean, what would you
• 33:30
  be talking here? Like what would be a minimum
• 33:32
  order requirement? 10,000 bottles or something like
• 33:35
  that maybe? You we've got a filler shipping
• 33:37
  containers to make it worth our time.
• 33:38
  So what's a shipping containers going to take?
• 33:40
  God or may if Yeah, that. I mean, I'm trying to work out
• 33:43
  how many bottles you'd even get in a shipping.
• 33:44
  And that also might not just be, you know, bottles, you know, if
• 33:47
  you if we've got tastings, for example, we're trying to build
• 33:50
  our brand out out there, what we call POS in the business point
• 33:53
  of sale. So you're talking about merch,
• 33:54
  you know. Yeah, yeah.
• 33:55
  Glassware. But even like what kind of on
• 33:57
  track thing is like from I'm there with somebody that can do
• 33:59
  this a lot quicker. But what I'm trying, I think
• 34:01
  it's not the standard size, it's not the volume of the bottles,
• 34:04
  it's that extra 50 mil per bottle.
• 34:06
  So if you suddenly say A10, let's just say for argument's
• 34:09
  sake, you've got minimum order to make it worth our while.
• 34:11
  It's 10,000 bottles. Yeah.
• 34:12
  Bearing in mind each one of those bottles has an extra 50
• 34:14
  mil of liquid in it. Yeah.
• 34:16
  How much more liquid is that 10,000 * 50 mil versus how many
• 34:21
  litres or how many you know do you then need to have?
• 34:23
  So again, that will probably have to be thought about as
• 34:26
  well. You've got to think about it.
• 34:26
  And so that's where the market managers come in.
• 34:28
  So you know, we've got a great guy, Larry, he's a market
• 34:30
  manager there and you know, he has to then do the maths and
• 34:32
  say, you know, how much investment do we want to put
• 34:35
  into this market? Now for us, we actually really
• 34:38
  like South African market. It's a hypermarket for us.
• 34:40
  So that means that it's got the potential to be absolutely huge.
• 34:44
  The reason why is TAMDU has taken off like something like
• 34:47
  it's just they absolutely man for Tam do in South Africa.
• 34:50
  Sherry tarts. Sherry tarts.
• 34:54
  Actually, I was trying really hard to.
• 34:57
  I nailed it down. Yeah.
• 34:59
  I had to have my first pinot Taj and Nelson Mandela square in
• 35:02
  Joburg and I really got it down after that.
• 35:04
  Yeah, yeah. Just be just be careful or
• 35:07
  Pierre Scooping and Doohan van der Meer come in and get he
• 35:11
  done, yes? Yeah, sorry guys, if you are
• 35:13
  listening, I think I'll be quite impressed.
• 35:15
  Pierre Pierre does listen to the pod.
• 35:16
  Is it really Pierre while I watch a diamond on the way there
• 35:19
  just to tune in, DIA this is Africa.
• 35:23
  You know what's really cool about that?
• 35:25
  So the whiskey scene over there, amazing.
• 35:26
  You know, there was a whiskey bar called Whiskey Brothers and
• 35:30
  it was a Scotch malt whiskey society partner bar in
• 35:33
  Johannesburg. Now, I was paranoid a little bit
• 35:35
  before I got there because I thought, what's it going to be
• 35:37
  like doing a tasting as Africa? What's the clientele going to be
• 35:40
  like? I was blown away.
• 35:41
  Did they need to put a? Lion Bell on you.
• 35:43
  Yeah, that was, Yeah. In all fairness, I think I was
• 35:46
  still like, genuinely have I just avoided being eaten by
• 35:50
  bears and Cougars and wolves. And now I'm in South Africa.
• 35:53
  Yeah. So my first tasting there was a
• 35:56
  Glen Goin tasting at the Scotch Monk Whiskey Society partner
• 35:59
  bar, where I can proudly say I was the only white guy in the
• 36:02
  room, which was really cool. And it was like, you know,
• 36:06
  people that, you know, different heritage of Zulu or Botswana
• 36:10
  and, you know, Zimbabwean. And they are like now working in
• 36:15
  real estate or their lawyers or their doctors or their teachers.
• 36:18
  And there's a sort of middle class that's emerging in the
• 36:21
  past 20 years of black S Africans.
• 36:23
  And they are very, very passionate about whiskey.
• 36:26
  They're collecting whiskey. They want to know everything.
• 36:29
  They're getting geeky. They want to know yeast strains,
• 36:31
  fermentation times, Lionel Mangles, all the stuff that, you
• 36:34
  know, we genuinely as a UK consumer don't really care
• 36:37
  about. And that's really geeky.
• 36:38
  They're like more information they want.
• 36:40
  To get more information. Yeah, again, you don't want to
• 36:43
  put people in boxes or anything like that in terms of like
• 36:46
  categorising. But like you do see that maybe
• 36:50
  the harder it is to get hold of whiskey, the more people hold on
• 36:54
  to that element of geekiness. Totally.
• 36:56
  Like, you know I've, I've been across to Germany a few times.
• 37:00
  You know I, I've got an ex-girlfriend who was German
• 37:03
  who, who was very, very thick. Geeky about whiskey.
• 37:07
  Yeah. And it was like, you're too
• 37:09
  geeky about it. You don't need to be that geeky,
• 37:11
  but by the same time, it's almost like, well, we don't have
• 37:15
  the same access that you have. Yeah.
• 37:16
  So we want to learn absolutely everything about it, so.
• 37:20
  Whereas in Scotland you think take it for granted.
• 37:24
  Take it for granted. Yeah.
• 37:25
  And that's actually where you, you guys are sort of a great
• 37:28
  personification of going from being like, you've always got
• 37:30
  access to whiskey, kind of interested in your family
• 37:32
  history or whatever, you know? Should I give it a go?
• 37:34
  Yeah. Quite like a drum.
• 37:35
  Don't mind. It gets you pissed, that kind of
• 37:36
  stuff. Then you sort of go, oh,
• 37:38
  actually this is really cool. It becomes that collector thing
• 37:41
  and then you start collecting the information and that's where
• 37:43
  I think a lot of other people. Are we're seeing it like the
• 37:45
  power of information but very quickly on that subject, yeah,
• 37:48
  drams in front of. Well, Grams, we should talk to
• 37:49
  drams. What's the time?
• 37:50
  How are we on? How then?
• 37:53
  So it begins. Your Canada story leaves me on
• 37:55
  nicely because the first drama I have, OK, it isn't whiskey.
• 37:59
  Oh it. Is it is from Glenn Murray and
• 38:01
  it is a Maple matured spirit drink.
• 38:04
  I heard of this, I saw the diggers had posted it.
• 38:08
  Left you a little bit actually, I've scoffed a.
• 38:10
  Lot. Can I sniff your glass?
• 38:11
  Yeah. You can.
• 38:12
  Sniff my glass. What was I?
• 38:13
  What was I? Well.
• 38:14
  All I can, I think. I think it's because of what it
• 38:16
  is. It's very sweet.
• 38:17
  Isn't it? Everything I've got in my head
• 38:18
  is just pancakes, really. That's all 100%.
• 38:21
  When I was drinking, that's all I could have.
• 38:23
  I'm gonna have to try. That all I was thinking.
• 38:24
  I've been wanting to try it. That's very.
• 38:26
  Cool. Maple syrup is the thing I was
• 38:29
  thinking of again, maybe being led by what it is, but I got
• 38:32
  maples. Yeah, yeah, I got pancakes.
• 38:34
  I mean, when you smell the glass, like you can get a lot of
• 38:36
  nose still from a whiskey if you smell the empty glass anyway
• 38:38
  because you're not getting the ethanol, but you're getting the
• 38:40
  there's some that's Maple syrup. Do you know what my favorite
• 38:43
  thing is sometimes is if I've had a in the house the night
• 38:46
  before and I wake up in the morning, I'm I'm sort of right.
• 38:50
  Need to clean the kitchen here. Need to fill the dishwasher.
• 38:52
  Yeah. And I get the glass and I just.
• 38:55
  There's something nice about it. I started remnants of whiskey in
• 38:57
  the in the glass. You get another element.
• 38:59
  Now, what's very I'll tell you what I'm going to say about
• 39:01
  this, right? We we recently what 1 was it was
• 39:05
  an indie bottle spotlight and it was an inch Gallard that was on
• 39:08
  there and it was was it was it with them?
• 39:12
  Well, 22 I think we've had two inch cars on our in the bottle.
• 39:15
  I'm. Trying to think which.
• 39:16
  There was there was an inch Cara that we did with two Cara.
• 39:19
  No, no, no, no, no. This would have been George and
• 39:22
  Rachel from fragrant drops, fragrant drops, but also the
• 39:26
  Simon. Did Simon Smith have one on the
• 39:28
  on the lineup as well for Pintail?
• 39:31
  I think he did. I think he did, yeah.
• 39:32
  But one of the things we were talking about, I think there's
• 39:34
  also. One for three Cara, which is.
• 39:35
  Yeah, there's a few, but basically I think what we were,
• 39:38
  what was mentioned on one of these episodes was, yeah, it was
• 39:42
  an inch Gather 16 Daniels Cask was basically I think it was
• 39:45
  Simon Smith talks about like the needs we have for savoury and
• 39:49
  sweet. Yeah.
• 39:49
  So like inch gather lends itself very well because it's that
• 39:52
  salty brininess when you put it in a sweet.
• 39:55
  Cask, you got that? Mummy, you get that, that that
• 39:58
  flavor profile, that salted. Yeah, yeah, chocolate salted
• 40:01
  caramel. Yeah, sort of brownies, all that
• 40:03
  kind of stuff. I'm just wondering, like, would
• 40:05
  you take your pancakes? Would you take your pancakes
• 40:07
  with Maple syrup and bacon? Well, if you want the saltiness
• 40:11
  of an inch cower and a Maple Leaf, I would imagine a Maple
• 40:14
  syrup. Yeah, I would say this was less
• 40:15
  on the salt. This was.
• 40:16
  More but if you were to take I would you like your if you can
• 40:20
  imagine streaky bacon on. Pancakes.
• 40:23
  With some. Yeah, With some.
• 40:25
  Canadian Maple syrup or. Maybe an inch cower and a Maple
• 40:30
  syrup cask. There you go.
• 40:31
  Yeah. Anyone it's got an inch goer,
• 40:33
  cask or? An old fashioned with that
• 40:36
  whiskey and some Maple syrup instead of sugar syrup and then
• 40:39
  some like a wee bit of salt in there and some maybe some
• 40:42
  chocolate bitters or something like that would be quite nice.
• 40:45
  We forget cocktail making it. Oh yeah.
• 40:48
  Big fan. Big.
• 40:49
  Fan actually got ang so. I've got and we're gonna.
• 40:51
  I know we're gonna talk about this.
• 40:53
  A mystery DRAM you don't know. No, I do.
• 40:56
  Though I've forgotten. Because from the Thompson
• 41:00
  brothers, they're mystery DRAM. The Diggers.
• 41:04
  Where we are right now is about 8 or 9 bottles behind the back
• 41:06
  bar. So I'm also wielding 1.
• 41:08
  You can't see what you've got, you just have to point at a.
• 41:10
  Bottle. Yeah, yeah.
• 41:11
  And then only once you've done that, we'll care.
• 41:13
  If you if you're listening, you don't know what we're talking
• 41:15
  about. Check out our Check out the
• 41:17
  Dornick the Dornick episode the Dornick episode episode 2
• 41:20
  episode 2 is where they talked about their mystery malt and
• 41:23
  they're basically. Such a good idea.
• 41:24
  A black bottle, I won't quite question mark on it and but
• 41:27
  what, what I have to say is I think it's 60 odd quid a bottle
• 41:32
  retailing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 41:33
  But you know, what they're what they're doing is they've
• 41:36
  actually got a sort of like list of how the breakdown is of what
• 41:40
  you could get. Now the understanding is you buy
• 41:43
  this bottle, you don't know what you're getting and it isn't
• 41:45
  until you take off the the, the, the, the top part, the foil oil,
• 41:49
  you will know what you've got. Such a good idea.
• 41:52
  I think it was off camera and I, I said to I Simon Thompson, I
• 41:56
  said you could really cheese somebody off and just put like,
• 41:59
  just put like AI don't know what would be what, what my my
• 42:03
  expression was for the thing. And he said no, no, no, no,
• 42:05
  That's yes. Well, The thing is.
• 42:06
  That's not what we're the one thing.
• 42:07
  Is 3 years in a day. What you've got to remember,
• 42:10
  well, The thing is like what you've got to remember is it's
• 42:12
  the Thompson brothers. So first of all, Thompson
• 42:14
  brothers, we've talked them up all the time in this they're.
• 42:16
  Going to be great products. And they're they're independent
• 42:18
  bottle stuff, fantastic. So you know what you're getting
• 42:21
  there. Dornik Distillery, great and
• 42:23
  well done for them on the stray stuff.
• 42:24
  So you know you're getting good stuff.
• 42:25
  So this just exemplifies it. But they do, they do, they do
• 42:28
  new. So you can get, you can get, you
• 42:31
  know, there's, there's, there's Glenn Lewis, there's new whiskey
• 42:34
  in there. But there's, but there's Rassie
• 42:36
  in there. But there's also, you know.
• 42:39
  There's their own stuff as well. There's.
• 42:40
  What have you guys got? Have you got one as well?
• 42:41
  Yeah, I've got 3 and I've got one as well.
• 42:43
  So I should explain what I've got here.
• 42:45
  So I've got I've I've got 16 year old Otmore.
• 42:47
  Yeah. And it's.
• 42:49
  Lovely. I've got that one too.
• 42:50
  You've got that one too, yeah. And what, what did you get Mike?
• 42:53
  So I ended up getting against all surprise, right?
• 42:56
  You just said, you know, pick one.
• 42:57
  I said I'll pick #311 year old Stoischer.
• 43:00
  So it's an 11 year old Brunhav impeted.
• 43:02
  Wow. And I was like, this is
• 43:04
  absolutely delicious. It's quite funny that we've got,
• 43:07
  what, 6 bottles to pick from and we're both.
• 43:09
  I've picked three, Yeah. So I've got the old board, you
• 43:11
  know, I've got 16. I got the Brooklyn, I got a 13
• 43:16
  and I got the Boone Haben 11 as well.
• 43:18
  So I mean, but cracking drums, yeah, absolutely fantastic.
• 43:22
  Now you've also brought drums. With I did, I should probably
• 43:26
  slander. By the way, guys, great to see
• 43:29
  you. Great to be back.
• 43:29
  Thanks. For coming along.
• 43:30
  Thank you. Yeah.
• 43:31
  I mean, you didn't have to travel very far to get to
• 43:34
  Digger. This is my.
• 43:36
  This is my local SO. Where were you before you last
• 43:39
  came here? And then we can work out how far
• 43:40
  you've travelled to be on the pod.
• 43:42
  As in in terms of location. Last international destination.
• 43:45
  Last international jet destination was oh technically
• 43:50
  space side festival really well actually and we.
• 43:53
  Were gonna bring this up to get wild, not international.
• 43:55
  Actually these be seamlessly. You were.
• 43:57
  You were quite so. So what was Ian McLeod doing at
• 44:00
  the Space Side Festival? What kind of things were you
• 44:02
  doing yourself? Yeah, so great show and this is
• 44:05
  actually going to lead us perfectly into.
• 44:06
  This is one of these festivals. I think you've actually kind of
• 44:09
  technically been to the Yeah Side festival, but yeah, it's
• 44:12
  one of these festivals a bit like Fazio, which is Yeah, has
• 44:14
  been just been when we're recording.
• 44:17
  I mean, it's one of these festivals that we're just
• 44:19
  jumping at the bit to go to really.
• 44:21
  I would really recommend if you've got any Pete in the class
• 44:23
  to recharge a bit slightly. That was very That was not as
• 44:28
  bad as I. Thought it was.
• 44:29
  Going to be no, no. Yeah, well, what we're going to
• 44:31
  try now is a whiskey that I was having at the space side
• 44:34
  festival. So help yourself.
• 44:41
  This is just been launched. This is the Tam do 21 years old.
• 44:50
  Wow. So we've made it.
• 44:51
  We've got the 21. Absolute fantastic.
• 44:53
  So please. Help yourself and Ross is going
• 44:55
  to be literally kicking himself. And I'm looking at the bottle
• 44:57
  now. The thing is, the great thing is
• 44:59
  actually talking about. People, you have to take a photo
• 45:02
  of this, Yeah. We will.
• 45:03
  Take a photo. This could be the cover photo
• 45:05
  for the podcast. Talking about people missing
• 45:07
  out, Angus actually missed out because Jake was on the podcast.
• 45:11
  I missed his. Episode Jake's a whiskey
• 45:12
  blender. Yeah, Jake, Jake, add cook.
• 45:15
  Big big fan. Of the legend.
• 45:17
  Lovely guy, but he brought in some lovely samples as well.
• 45:20
  But he one of the samples, he said was well, Mike Brown was
• 45:22
  on, he brought. Which one of one up each other,
• 45:24
  Yeah. So on the you guys win.
• 45:27
  You know, I love sample bottles and I love I love like the
• 45:33
  writing on them. I love all that and on that it
• 45:36
  says on the Wii bottle that 21 it says with love, with love.
• 45:40
  Mike and Jake kiss, cuddle, kiss, cuddle XOXO lovely.
• 45:44
  That's that's what we. Want We love our job.
• 45:46
  Thank you very much for that. So, yeah, cheers, Jake.
• 45:49
  Thank you so much. Jake for that.
• 45:51
  Hope you've managed to find a shirt with all the buttons.
• 45:56
  Top if you're listening. You know he won't.
• 45:58
  He needs to get the tax out, so I'm going to also just say
• 46:03
  what's left in that bottle. I would love to give to Ross and
• 46:06
  also importantly, Ross. He won't.
• 46:09
  Miss this but I. Was thinking also it'd be quite
• 46:11
  nice for Ross's dad because I know Ross's dad absolutely loves
• 46:14
  a wee Tam do he's. Almost like a kind of hidden
• 46:17
  character on the podcast is. Especially now because he's lost
• 46:20
  so much weight. I know.
• 46:21
  Well, that's it. A big.
• 46:23
  Tam do fan. So yeah, Ross and your dad, this
• 46:26
  is for you. We DRAM on me and Jake.
• 46:29
  Brilliant. Well, thank you very much.
• 46:30
  Thank you for that guy for bringing pleasure.
• 46:31
  Signed about for that. So yeah.
• 46:33
  So this was just a spirit of space side.
• 46:36
  So we launched this at Spirit Space Side.
• 46:37
  So what we were doing is for those who don't know, Tam Do is
• 46:40
  not an open distillery and what we mean by that is it's really a
• 46:42
  working distillery. It doesn't have a visiting
• 46:44
  centre. So what we do is we open it for
• 46:47
  three days a year every year at the Space Side festival and we
• 46:50
  usually launch a festival release.
• 46:52
  So we did release our Dalby Alley and they do have it for
• 46:56
  sale as drams at the bar as well.
• 46:59
  And so I was, you know, because we don't have a visiting centre,
• 47:03
  we don't have tour guys, we don't have the steering
• 47:05
  ambassadors. So we have to sort of pull in
• 47:07
  the big guns really. And it's me and Gordon Dallas.
• 47:11
  Gordon Dallas is our experiential ambassador who
• 47:13
  you've met at the, the Swee in the, the fair that they had
• 47:16
  there. Was it 2 years ago?
• 47:18
  I think so. A legend in the whiskey
• 47:20
  industry, one of the funniest people you could ever have in a
• 47:22
  whiskey tasting. And then you've got me.
• 47:24
  So it's a potluck really. It's whether you have a good
• 47:26
  tour and it's just US 2 running three tours a day.
• 47:29
  And there's also a dedication society.
• 47:32
  So for anyone interested to find out more about Tam Do absolutely
• 47:35
  nothing cost you, you can join the dedication society.
• 47:38
  And we call ourselves that because we dedicate ourselves
• 47:41
  that one style of spirit maturation, which is Oliver.
• 47:43
  So Sherry cast, that's this is all we do.
• 47:45
  So what we got in front of us here is our brand new Tambu, 21
• 47:47
  years old. Yeah, it's a it's a beast.
• 47:51
  It's so good, dangerous. But what I love about this, if
• 47:54
  you know the Tambu range, you've got the 12, the 15, the 18 and
• 47:57
  the 21. And what I love about it is it's
• 47:59
  the 12 and 1518 is sort of like a Dulux colour chart.
• 48:02
  You've got 12 year old, which is like American oak Sherry cask,
• 48:05
  light and bright breakfast. W15 is one of my favorite
• 48:07
  whiskies. I've mentioned it more of the
• 48:08
  time. It's 5050, you know, European
• 48:10
  oak, American oak Sherry cast 18 is a predominantly first full
• 48:14
  European oak Sherry cast to where do you go from there?
• 48:16
  Do you go more Sherry bomb? No, actually what we've done is
• 48:19
  we've deliberately pulled it back to be a bit more like the
• 48:21
  15 on steroids. So it's a bit more balance, it's
• 48:24
  a bit more harmony, but it's got a bit more of a kick as well.
• 48:27
  So it's. Not.
• 48:27
  It's not like overly Sherry like it's not.
• 48:30
  It's not. It's a grower.
• 48:32
  It's a real, real Sherry grower. It's so smooth.
• 48:34
  Yeah. And.
• 48:35
  If you go 18, it's like, where do you go?
• 48:37
  Yeah. Tune up the Sherry until you're
• 48:38
  kind of yeah. Smooth as anything.
• 48:40
  So we've amped up the ABV, it's 47.5%.
• 48:43
  It is predominantly first fill here we're talking about.
• 48:46
  So it's a lot of first fill. I think it's like above 90%
• 48:49
  first fill in this now, but with a wee touch more of the American
• 48:53
  oak as opposed to the 18. So I think if you look at the
• 48:55
  side by side, the 18, I think the 21 is a wee bit darker, but
• 48:59
  this feels a little bit more balanced than the 18.
• 49:02
  As far it goes back to that, we've, we've mentioned it so
• 49:05
  many times, Mark Thompson's, Mark Thompson's tasting that he
• 49:09
  did, but he was still going for that.
• 49:10
  And he pulled out and he said, and there was people in the room
• 49:15
  that were arguing over whether it was all or also or PX all or
• 49:18
  also PX, all or also PX. And the kicker was he said it's
• 49:22
  it's European virgin oak. Yeah.
• 49:24
  Right. Dark as a night.
• 49:25
  Yeah. But so because this really does
• 49:29
  this time do 21 also backs that up of what you get from the
• 49:33
  Sherry versus what you get from the wood.
• 49:35
  Yeah. You know, if that was in
• 49:36
  European oak, yeah, there there would be more spicy.
• 49:39
  A lot of oak, spice, tannins, that kind of stuff.
• 49:41
  You don't get that with that, you don't get that.
• 49:43
  And I think that can, I don't know whether is there's some
• 49:46
  people who really, I mean, I'm speaking as a former Sherry
• 49:49
  tart. I'm trying to get rid of.
• 49:51
  That's why I'm. So excited I'm converted to the
• 49:53
  Pete there. Converted to the Pete you'll be
• 49:54
  delighted to. Know, but everyone's on a
• 49:56
  journey and that's what you guys have done so well is you've,
• 49:58
  you've shown that journey out. By the way, Ross, if Ross was
• 50:01
  here, he'd be telling me tell whatever I'm putting on, right?
• 50:03
  I'm not. Pretending to like it.
• 50:05
  But yeah, but but what I'm saying is that like there are
• 50:08
  people who maybe don't enjoy the cherry cask as much because of
• 50:13
  overpowerment, but then you wonder is it the cherry or is it
• 50:15
  the European oak? Yeah, if you have that sort of
• 50:18
  that because that tannings that that spiciness and everything
• 50:20
  that comes like that, you don't get there.
• 50:22
  That is smooth. It's lovely texture.
• 50:24
  Absolutely fantastic. Crack it and thank you so much.
• 50:26
  What kind of as that's available people can it so?
• 50:29
  Yeah, we've launched it. And actually the week before we
• 50:32
  launched it, we sent out samples for blind tastings for the
• 50:35
  Spirit of Space site awards for next year.
• 50:37
  And it has already been, before it was even launched,
• 50:41
  Shortlisted to win next year's Best 21 and over.
• 50:44
  That's fantastic. So it's up against the Craig
• 50:45
  Galaki 23. So it's shortlisted next year
• 50:48
  for the Spirit of Space side Best 21 and over.
• 50:50
  It's either going to be the Tandu 21 years old, which is,
• 50:52
  you know, new for us now, or the Craig Galaki 23.
• 50:55
  So it'll be really interesting to see who wins.
• 50:56
  Both great drams. Well, if Mike Mcginty's
• 50:59
  listening from and Mike Megan is working from McCarthy that he's
• 51:06
  crazy, Elliot pop on, pop on and bring.
• 51:11
  Challenge accepted. Worm Tubbs versus Sherry cast?
• 51:14
  There we go. I mean, yeah, time do.
• 51:19
  It's been a distillery that's spoken out so.
• 51:22
  Much on the. Podcast and also it's been
• 51:24
  slaughtered as well with greatly says that when Fraser soon as
• 51:28
  came on yeah and talked about. But I think for people, this is
• 51:32
  the thing. You're open three days a year.
• 51:33
  Yeah. So it's not like people can
• 51:35
  understand what you're saying. But from our understanding is
• 51:38
  it's old school, it's dirty, It's just.
• 51:39
  It's industrial. It's raw.
• 51:41
  Working. What was very cool actually was
• 51:43
  when I was taking people around tours because it was like it's
• 51:46
  wall to wall people that absolutely love whiskey and
• 51:48
  they're always taking up the list.
• 51:51
  A lot of people that I was doing tours for, I either knew them
• 51:54
  from when I was in a different country doing a tasting in their
• 51:56
  country really, or I knew like people that knew them in their
• 51:59
  whiskey clubs. So on the 1 tour, I had a guy
• 52:01
  from South Korea who messaged me on Instagram about 10 minutes
• 52:05
  before saying please tell me you're doing the 4:00 tour at
• 52:07
  Tandu because he met me at the Seoul Bar show a year and a half
• 52:10
  ago. Next to them was a group from
• 52:13
  Germany. I said, where you know, I'm
• 52:15
  doing the thing, you know, where you guys from, you're from Korea
• 52:17
  and you're going to say, oh, and they're like, oh, very
• 52:19
  impressive. Where you guys from or we are
• 52:21
  from Germany. Yeah.
• 52:22
  Good. Nab and bigotsteer.
• 52:23
  Yeah, very good. Yeah, we're from Cologne.
• 52:26
  As I think you'll actually find it's pronounced cone.
• 52:29
  So you know the good crack. Yeah, I think it actually
• 52:33
  pronounced Okta mukti, Their Kingdom, a group.
• 52:40
  From Cologne and all. Be patrons of Scotia.
• 52:42
  Well, this is exactly it. This is where I'm saying they
• 52:44
  also so they and then as soon as you drop that, they go, Oh, this
• 52:47
  isn't a regular tour. You know your stuff and this is
• 52:50
  going to be great. So that must.
• 52:51
  Be fascinating yeah one of the things is for people who are
• 52:54
  listening to this we've talked about Ian MacLeod distillers
• 52:56
  right yeah we're taking it for granted that's we've I've fallen
• 52:59
  into the trap that I try and avoid as falling into Ian
• 53:02
  MacLeod distillers right let's do a quick brief thing yeah
• 53:04
  because one thing we we're big big big fans Ian MacLeod
• 53:08
  distillers shout out to Vicki wicki Elliott as.
• 53:09
  Well, oh Vicki Legend. Absolute legend.
• 53:13
  Is it Tasha Corfield as? Well, Tasha Tasha's absolute
• 53:16
  legend as well. Comes along Yeah.
• 53:18
  Been to yeah. She's a fanatic, she and she's
• 53:22
  so, yeah, yeah, she's great. But.
• 53:23
  She's a legend. The thing is like, right, you've
• 53:26
  got your big whiskey companies, right?
• 53:28
  Big whiskey brands, you've got your Diageoes, you've got your
• 53:29
  Pernos, you've got your Bacardi's, all these kind of
• 53:32
  guys, and they own massive amounts of distilleries.
• 53:35
  Yeah. Now, Ian McLeod Distillers are
• 53:37
  one of those, but they're not the big guys as such.
• 53:40
  However, the the brands that they own are the big guys.
• 53:44
  Yeah, yeah. I can tell you, you know, if you
• 53:45
  want some stats. So we are the second largest
• 53:48
  Scottish owned family distillery company in Scotland, family
• 53:51
  owned rail. So we're second to William
• 53:53
  Grants in terms of in terms of being family owned market share,
• 53:57
  60% of all distilleries are owned by one company, 80% by 2.
• 54:02
  Our market shares about 2% really.
• 54:04
  So actually although second largest sounds quite impressive,
• 54:07
  we're really one of the kind of largest of the independence,
• 54:11
  Yeah, that's sort of where we like to sit ourselves.
• 54:12
  So quite a. Medium place to be because it
• 54:14
  gives you so much like all right, so talk about William
• 54:16
  Grant and sons. We've heard from people who work
• 54:18
  for them being a family owned company.
• 54:20
  They've said that we're not we're not compliant to
• 54:22
  shareholders. We're not compliant to, you
• 54:25
  know, making sure we've got you know, profits got comfort.
• 54:28
  Obviously profits are important when when you're running a
• 54:30
  business, but they don't have to worry about their we're not part
• 54:32
  of our an investment hedge fund. Yeah, but anyway, we are
• 54:35
  independently owned by a family. So it gives a freedom and luxury
• 54:39
  to be able to be a little bit more out there with different
• 54:42
  decisions. Ian McLeod of sellers very
• 54:44
  similar, but also without the no, I don't mean this is I don't
• 54:48
  want to sign that. Like you know, like you said, 2%
• 54:51
  is, is, is, is. Tiny, tiny.
• 54:53
  So it's, it's not like you can do things like what you
• 54:56
  explained. You can turn up at Fasio with a
• 55:00
  boat with a skull and crossbones on it and go, yeah, you know
• 55:03
  what? That's who we are.
• 55:05
  We're we're. Disruptors a little bit. 100%.
• 55:08
  And that's why, you know, you can be a little bit more
• 55:10
  freedom, have a little bit more freedom with the with the brands
• 55:12
  that they're bringing out. And that's what we love about
• 55:14
  it. And it also means that we don't
• 55:16
  have to go through a marketing department to get a brand to
• 55:18
  bus. This is.
• 55:20
  This is it. We're really and like you say,
• 55:22
  like our brands are massive, but it's just a couple of people.
• 55:24
  Like the blending team is 3 people.
• 55:26
  But. Jake, Emma and John, you know,
• 55:29
  and like it literally is that and they're they're blending and
• 55:32
  nosing all of our whiskeys, you know, marketing.
• 55:35
  Our ambassadorial department is me, my boss, Gordon Dundas,
• 55:38
  Philip King, Scott's our gin ambassador.
• 55:40
  He's in Seattle right now doing gin tastings and run a WhatsApp
• 55:43
  group. You've got Gordon Dallas and
• 55:46
  that's that's it. We've got a training now as
• 55:47
  well. So we've just hired a young man,
• 55:49
  Cameron from Glenn Goin. So he's going to be doing full
• 55:51
  time going over to the States and training up staff over
• 55:53
  there. That's it.
• 55:54
  It's just us. That's all within people and our
• 55:56
  biggest asset that we have is as a company as we have our people
• 56:01
  and then also the ability to get liquid on Lips is our number one
• 56:03
  sales tool. We know the liquid that we make
• 56:05
  is absolutely fantastic and it's our biggest asset.
• 56:08
  So just go out there and let people taste it and give them a
• 56:10
  good time, and that's really the biggest thing you can.
• 56:12
  Do and The thing is like it's a small team, but that makes it
• 56:14
  great because what you what you lack and haven't like all right,
• 56:18
  maybe even the cloud distillers can't have brand ambassadors
• 56:21
  located over the world to do the job you do.
• 56:23
  But what you lack in in that is you make up in the personal side
• 56:26
  of it where people from Seoul in South Korea genuinely are in
• 56:31
  space hiding on. I really hope it's the guy that
• 56:33
  we've met. Yeah.
• 56:34
  And and suddenly you can then make that that personal
• 56:37
  connection and that personal touch makes such a because,
• 56:39
  yeah, we've talked about it. Whiskey is a people's It's, it's
• 56:43
  a people's business isn't? It 100%.
• 56:44
  People buy for people and and whiskey and drinking with people
• 56:48
  and that's what it's all about. And 100.
• 56:49
  Percent, I guess working for you in McLeod as well.
• 56:51
  It's it's almost like you've you've you've you've got the
• 56:54
  chance to wear more hats because I mean, if you work for a bigger
• 56:57
  company, a distillery that's very much tailed to be like,
• 57:01
  well, yeah, that gets handed off to somebody else for spirit of
• 57:05
  space side for yourselves. It's like, well, no, I'm going
• 57:07
  to take you around. Everyone quits him.
• 57:09
  Yeah, Yeah. Everyone quits in, you know, we
• 57:11
  don't have anyone loading up the dishes.
• 57:14
  You know, our brand director, Ian Weir, again, one of these
• 57:17
  like people you don't really hear the name of much in the
• 57:18
  industry, but it's an absolute legend.
• 57:20
  The amount of work that goes in to brands that Ian does is
• 57:24
  incredible and Ian's the bloke who drives up all of the stock
• 57:28
  in his car. He's the person that buys all
• 57:30
  the breakfast food in for us in the morning for us to cook
• 57:32
  break. He's cooking breakfast for us
• 57:34
  all. I don't know if you would have
• 57:35
  that if it was a brand director for a much larger company.
• 57:39
  You'd have several people underneath there.
• 57:40
  So there is a really nice family touch that we have.
• 57:43
  And that makes it well, that was the caveat, right, Fraser as
• 57:46
  soon as he's taken a pound in on this podcast for that episode
• 57:49
  that he did and I think. Worst episode we ever did.
• 57:53
  But what he said was and he's he's justified that where
• 57:56
  basically he says that. Tandy was a shite.
• 58:00
  Hole. Yeah, right.
• 58:01
  He did right. And we can't.
• 58:02
  Say that I mean. You're not going to No, no.
• 58:04
  What he did? Was it's it's the beauty is in
• 58:06
  the warehouse, yes. But what he also said was he
• 58:09
  can't be at he use. It to grams it the.
• 58:11
  Beauty is a warehouse, you say? I'm never going to get boat
• 58:13
  lifts. But he caveated that with the
• 58:16
  fact of the matter is like at the time, context is everything
• 58:21
  he worked for, he's working for Scotch.
• 58:23
  Yeah. Balmoral right now, bear in
• 58:25
  mind, once a year these guys were getting invited up to
• 58:27
  McAllen to do the full Buna trip.
• 58:29
  Yeah. They're getting invited to all
• 58:30
  these distilleries to get the full.
• 58:32
  And what they were trying to say is, you know, if you're
• 58:33
  promoting luxury to your to your, to your customers and
• 58:36
  things like that. Yeah.
• 58:37
  But they also got brought up to Tam do right.
• 58:39
  And he said that they got, they got invited in for their dinner,
• 58:42
  right. And the guys who's making the
• 58:43
  dinner and doing the dishes went right.
• 58:44
  Guys, I'm going to have to go now because I've got to go and
• 58:46
  run the stills tonight. Yeah.
• 58:48
  And they were going what, and basically in one of the cottages
• 58:51
  or something like that, they're on site or nearby.
• 58:53
  That was basically the, the, the, you know, because they were
• 58:56
  getting invited into just a working.
• 58:59
  And now the caveat was, was, and I think you'd mention it as
• 59:02
  well, because when Tam Do was owned by Edrington, it was Tam
• 59:05
  Doon McAllen and basically, you know, McCall on the show pony
• 59:09
  Tam Do was a workforce 100%. And that was, and that was that
• 59:12
  was the line and what I also love and they've done it to me.
• 59:15
  And because Tam Do 10 was a gateway whiskey.
• 59:17
  For me, oh it's it's also still a legendary.
• 59:19
  Whiskey, it was a gateway whiskey for me because in Scotch
• 59:22
  and basically, and I've seen them do it.
• 59:24
  I remember standing at the bar at Scotch thinking they did me
• 59:27
  with that as well. And a guy walked in, American
• 59:30
  Lad, and he said hi Sir, can I help you?
• 59:32
  Do you want to drink yet? What would you like to drink?
• 59:36
  Sketch and he went. Well, you're in the right place.
• 59:39
  Well, yeah, I think I've got that.
• 59:41
  We've got over 300 Scotch whiskey star.
• 59:43
  Is there any particular one that you would like?
• 59:45
  Oh, I don't know. I just want a Scotch.
• 59:47
  Says what do you normally like? I like a Dalmore or I like a
• 59:49
  McAllen. And he went, do you want
• 59:51
  something that you've had before?
• 59:52
  Do you want something new? Oh, no, I'm here in Scotland.
• 59:54
  I want something new. You want to try Tam?
• 59:55
  Do. Yeah.
• 59:56
  Never heard of it. Try that and let me know.
• 59:58
  Because he knows. Yeah.
• 59:59
  Isn't it? Yeah.
• 1:00:00
  You're good. No more McAllen then you and
• 1:00:02
  that. We find the same thing, you
• 1:00:05
  know, and all respect to McAllen, all respect to Dalmore
• 1:00:08
  as well. What they make is incredible
• 1:00:09
  liquid and they've got an incredible brand.
• 1:00:11
  We're just much, much smaller with the way that we're making
• 1:00:14
  Tam do the biggest unique selling point.
• 1:00:15
  We'll always say this, if you hear about Tam do it's cherry
• 1:00:17
  cast. That's the only thing we ever do
• 1:00:18
  with our maturation. That being said, I'm going to
• 1:00:21
  show you something very quickly. When I was in Tam Do, I was
• 1:00:25
  degorging some casks as part of it.
• 1:00:27
  This is also a very fun job. Again, many different.
• 1:00:30
  Hacks is pretty decent on. That yes, yeah.
• 1:00:32
  How'd you degorging? Nice.
• 1:00:34
  All right, Yeah, it's. Not bad, you can get a bug out
• 1:00:36
  pretty well. You can get a bug out.
• 1:00:38
  I could. Yeah, this was, this was quite a
• 1:00:40
  tasty bunghole, I've got to be honest with you.
• 1:00:42
  This was, I sniffed this bunghole.
• 1:00:43
  It was quite nice. That Lady of the Glen, it only
• 1:00:45
  took about 5 takes, but yeah. So I mean, he's much better if
• 1:00:49
  you watch our if you watch our YouTube video at the the vlog
• 1:00:52
  from Inch Derny. Oh, Yangus has also he's he's
• 1:00:56
  worked his way into sitting in front of a computer pushing a
• 1:00:58
  mouse. Oh yeah, I saw that.
• 1:00:59
  But yeah, yeah, I saw that. He's bad.
• 1:01:01
  Feel good to operate do. You know, do you know what it
• 1:01:03
  was? It was great to do something.
• 1:01:05
  I'm actually doing my day job which is sitting in a computer
• 1:01:07
  and use a mouse. Amazing, but would I become up
• 1:01:10
  with mashing? Virtual.
• 1:01:11
  Was it virtual distilling skill? I have virtual distilling
• 1:01:14
  computer games coming to screen near.
• 1:01:16
  You. From the Marshfield.
• 1:01:18
  So I don't I haven't got enough for you to try, but you can
• 1:01:21
  definitely sniff this and maybe. If you want.
• 1:01:23
  To pour a weed out, feel free if it will open, pour Yeah if.
• 1:01:26
  You want to pour as well? Yeah, I'll have a.
• 1:01:28
  Little bit of try. Hope so so this.
• 1:01:31
  He's got. A bartending injury.
• 1:01:34
  So this is purely just for the sake of research purposes
• 1:01:38
  obviously, and Ross is? I'm the head of research.
• 1:01:41
  Well, this is This is why you're here.
• 1:01:42
  So this Ross is going to absolutely murder me after this.
• 1:01:45
  This was just me going around degorging A5 year and one day
• 1:01:50
  Tamdu in a refill bourbon cask. And that's what research
• 1:01:54
  represents. So research proposition.
• 1:01:56
  So this will just to clarify for anyone listening, this will
• 1:01:58
  never be a Tamdu single malt. So Tamdu produces, it has a
• 1:02:01
  capacity for 4 million litres a year.
• 1:02:03
  We're currently running at 3,000,000 litres a year of which
• 1:02:06
  400,000 or so will be laid down in Sherry casks to be Tamdu
• 1:02:11
  single malt. The rest of that capacity is
• 1:02:13
  kind of up for grabs within the our company.
• 1:02:16
  So maybe that will become a little bit of Eye of Sky or
• 1:02:19
  maybe we'll swap some of that new make spirit of another
• 1:02:21
  distillery. We make quite a fruity new make
• 1:02:23
  spirit of Time do yeah. That's really.
• 1:02:25
  Fruity because it's refill bourbon.
• 1:02:26
  You're getting a lot of the new make here, which is really
• 1:02:28
  interesting. Yeah, yeah, does.
• 1:02:29
  That not. Would that not be a source of
• 1:02:31
  frustration? And I suppose it's probably a
• 1:02:33
  question to ask when we get an invite to the distillery.
• 1:02:35
  Oh wow. The you are, you are absolutely.
• 1:02:39
  You are absolutely invited. I am cordially inviting you.
• 1:02:43
  I'll. Take that up.
• 1:02:44
  But one of the questions I would have is, you know, we had
• 1:02:47
  Stephen Woodcock on who talked all about the the key message
• 1:02:51
  that he had throughout his whole career working through the
• 1:02:54
  different areas he worked at now at Glenn Glenn Murray and talk
• 1:02:58
  about distillery character. Now The thing is if you're a
• 1:03:01
  distillery like Tam do that is only all are also Sherry cast.
• 1:03:05
  Yeah, so much of it's in the maturation.
• 1:03:07
  But how much? But yeah, you don't have other
• 1:03:10
  examples to give that shows distillery character.
• 1:03:14
  Like there's Angus today. He's trying to Glenn Murray with
• 1:03:17
  that's that's been that's been matured in a well, it's not
• 1:03:21
  whiskey, it's a spirit, a spirit drink that's been matured in a a
• 1:03:25
  Maple cast. Yeah, Yeah.
• 1:03:27
  But what you'll be able to do is if you drink enough Glenn
• 1:03:29
  Murray, like Ally Baxter will have done, and then basically
• 1:03:34
  Ally the backs will be able to determine.
• 1:03:36
  This open his bedroom window. Smell.
• 1:03:38
  Wake up and smell the pancakes. Exactly.
• 1:03:41
  Wake up. And for the pancakes, that
• 1:03:42
  should be on a T-shirt. That's basically.
• 1:03:44
  But there'll be people that will be able to say, I can tell the
• 1:03:46
  distillery character, I can tell where the distillery character
• 1:03:49
  goes, I could tell where the maturation goes.
• 1:03:52
  Yeah. Now with time do it must be
• 1:03:54
  quite restrictive on that because.
• 1:03:56
  It's interesting. To get lost in the fact that
• 1:03:58
  it's just it's Sherry cast. I love that it's a really,
• 1:04:01
  really good question you've just posed, so I'm going to give you
• 1:04:03
  what I like to call a wanky answer.
• 1:04:05
  Good. Give us a it's.
• 1:04:06
  Going to be very wanky, I'm so sorry and wanky but.
• 1:04:09
  We take taste of notes as well in the wanky.
• 1:04:11
  Me too. OK, so if WW making is pretty
• 1:04:15
  much like music, right? You've got every single one of
• 1:04:19
  the distilleries in Scotland will have very similar
• 1:04:21
  instruments and they all just choose to play them slightly
• 1:04:23
  differently, right? So what are you trying to tell
• 1:04:26
  in your music? So we've got a very, very fruity
• 1:04:29
  new make spirit and yeah, you could absolutely argue in a
• 1:04:32
  first fill, you know, European oak PX Hoggy.
• 1:04:37
  Are you going to tell the difference?
• 1:04:38
  Well, yeah, no, I mean it it there's a lot of the work that's
• 1:04:42
  going on in the background. Like maybe you don't hear the
• 1:04:44
  bass line in that track, but if they change that bass line,
• 1:04:47
  would it feel the same? You know, it's that kind of
• 1:04:49
  thing going on with some of the casks.
• 1:04:51
  But then if you look at the tan do 12, tan do 12 is going to be
• 1:04:55
  a little bit younger. Still a lot of first fill in
• 1:04:56
  there as well. Maybe if we had a completely
• 1:04:59
  different new make spirit character, it would be
• 1:05:01
  completely different that Tandu 10.
• 1:05:03
  That was your gateway. If we had a nutty new make
• 1:05:05
  spirit instead of instead of more of a fruity new make
• 1:05:08
  spirit, you know, you probably would be like, is that the kind
• 1:05:12
  of whiskey? Or maybe you would have that
• 1:05:14
  decision point, but you don't like it or not.
• 1:05:15
  What's really interesting about this is Tandu is actually ever
• 1:05:19
  ever so slightly pitted. Technically it's 3 PPM, which is
• 1:05:23
  a legacy is part of part of space side barley and and
• 1:05:27
  molting was they would always have a very really bit of small
• 1:05:30
  bit beat. Now I've put my hand in a whole
• 1:05:32
  bunch of that barley coming out of the truck.
• 1:05:34
  Can I smell any phenolic compounds whatsoever?
• 1:05:36
  No, but could I maybe taste the difference in say a 10 year old
• 1:05:41
  if it had? It's just complexity.
• 1:05:44
  It's like it's small, small things and that's what we're
• 1:05:47
  talking about. It's infinitesimal things.
• 1:05:48
  Well. That's it.
• 1:05:49
  I mean, it's, it's I mean, no, first of all, that that that
• 1:05:53
  that that time do in in bourbon. Fascinating.
• 1:05:56
  Yeah. Is that altered fruits?
• 1:05:57
  You don't know whether you're but but that that that's you.
• 1:06:01
  You've mentioned like the the that that pears and animals and,
• 1:06:03
  well, the theme tonight's been like the journey that we've been
• 1:06:05
  on this. Yeah, I would have sat here two
• 1:06:07
  years ago and said everything happens in the warehouse.
• 1:06:10
  Yeah, right. It's all about the machination.
• 1:06:12
  Yeah. But then you look at like the
• 1:06:13
  8020 principles and stuff like that, you say, well, 80% maybe
• 1:06:16
  does happen in the in the warehouse.
• 1:06:18
  Yeah. However, the 20% when you speak
• 1:06:20
  to someone and then you hear someone like Stephen Woodcock
• 1:06:22
  and you're someone like Jake Adcock talking about the
• 1:06:24
  importance or even Vicki Wick Elliott talking about copper
• 1:06:28
  contact. Yeah.
• 1:06:28
  How important copper contact is. And you say yourself like.
• 1:06:31
  Actually. You know, maybe the 20% is a
• 1:06:34
  really, really important bit because if whiskey all tasted
• 1:06:36
  the same when it came out of the stills, yeah, Yeah.
• 1:06:38
  And then why not just have one big massive whiskey warehouse in
• 1:06:41
  Sterling in the middle of Scotland?
• 1:06:42
  Well, this is where you just Chuck it in a different cast and
• 1:06:45
  that actually is a flavour. So what I'm what I mean, right.
• 1:06:49
  Question that you might not be able to answer.
• 1:06:50
  Question for Ian MacLeod Distillers Challenge, Right
• 1:06:53
  Glenn going yeah, another another cracking distillery that
• 1:06:56
  you guys have been own right and and a big part of friend of the
• 1:07:01
  pod Glenn going love it. But also Jake Adkook being part
• 1:07:04
  of the virgin oak and the white oak.
• 1:07:06
  The white oak. Sorry, the White Oak release,
• 1:07:08
  Yeah. Yeah, amazing ground.
• 1:07:10
  You were on this podcast talking about how Glenn going in Tamdu.
• 1:07:13
  Yeah, very much geared towards Cherry cast.
• 1:07:15
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bring.
• 1:07:17
  It that white oak? Yeah, it was a.
• 1:07:18
  Fast. I know.
• 1:07:19
  Fantastic. Yeah, I was revisiting.
• 1:07:21
  Yeah, I renewed just for you might remember because we
• 1:07:24
  messaged you when we went to. Jail.
• 1:07:25
  Yeah, yeah. Summer, we got your travel
• 1:07:28
  exclusive. There was it the PX that was.
• 1:07:31
  Yeah, it was a 10 year old. So again. 46% first filled time
• 1:07:35
  keeper Yeah so. It's first.
• 1:07:36
  Filled in a later bottle. It's important.
• 1:07:38
  It is mostly bourbon with a hint of Sherry, and that's how it's
• 1:07:42
  that's how it was said on the label, it said.
• 1:07:45
  Yeah. So I think you've got.
• 1:07:46
  A lot of bourbon you've actually got a lot of.
• 1:07:47
  But it was first, it was the first time Jake ever got in
• 1:07:50
  touch with us. It was, we had been, yeah.
• 1:07:53
  So we were travelling through. Germany last summer and.
• 1:07:55
  And we bought on the way out, we bought a travel exclusive, Glenn
• 1:07:58
  going great. But Jake, that was the first
• 1:08:00
  time Jake messaged to say, hey, I listen to your podcast.
• 1:08:04
  I was actually, that was one of the first things I was involved
• 1:08:07
  in and working on. That's right.
• 1:08:08
  What were your thoughts about it?
• 1:08:10
  We went back said, wait a minute.
• 1:08:11
  Absolutely. Crack.
• 1:08:12
  It's so cool, isn't? It on the podcast.
• 1:08:13
  Yeah. But the point being was like,
• 1:08:17
  yeah, is time due. It's always good.
• 1:08:20
  Well, it's difficult to say always.
• 1:08:22
  I'm not going to put you on the spot to say it because I kind of
• 1:08:24
  am. But when you've got the Glen
• 1:08:26
  going, saying we're going going, traditionally was Sherry.
• 1:08:29
  Cast as well, but. They went down the White Oak
• 1:08:32
  route and. It yeah, so with us So what time
• 1:08:36
  do will always be Sherry cast matured.
• 1:08:38
  The single malt that we produce will always be Sherry cast
• 1:08:40
  matured. You will notice if you don't, if
• 1:08:44
  you look you know hard enough you will find that there will be
• 1:08:47
  TAMDU that you can purchase from independent bottlers that will
• 1:08:51
  have like there's one on the bar at the diggers, there's a PX,
• 1:08:54
  there's a TAMDU PX. So obviously we have then got in
• 1:08:57
  warehouses other type of TAMDU that's been laying down and
• 1:09:00
  matured. We've got 28 warehouses now at
• 1:09:03
  TAMDU we've built. And just Tamdu, just for Tamdu.
• 1:09:06
  Well, we're including other spirits, well, including other
• 1:09:10
  and other brands and all that sort of stuff.
• 1:09:11
  But Tam Do's warehouse, yes, Yeah.
• 1:09:14
  So you've got a cask population. When I was there the other week,
• 1:09:18
  our cask population was about 140,000 casks on site and we're
• 1:09:23
  going to nose them all. Let's bring out the concession
• 1:09:30
  and yeah, so that, you know, we've got a lot.
• 1:09:32
  Too much debugging for me. That's a lot of bung that's a
• 1:09:35
  big that's a lot of bugging your arms would fall off.
• 1:09:38
  Let's I'll talk very quickly because you've jumped on a few
• 1:09:40
  things and find it really interesting.
• 1:09:42
  Yeah. So where does Tam do sort of
• 1:09:43
  sit? You know we'll always be sharing
• 1:09:45
  cask mature. That's the story that we want to
• 1:09:46
  tell with our spirit. That being said, and Glenn Goyne
• 1:09:49
  is an incredible distillery and you know similar capacity.
• 1:09:52
  You know we're producing 1,000,000 litres of of spirit
• 1:09:55
  and that will all be Glenn Goyne single malt and we're playing
• 1:09:58
  around with casks. We want to tell the story of Oak
• 1:10:00
  there and that's what we're trying to do with Glenn Goyne.
• 1:10:02
  And also we want the spirit character to shine because we're
• 1:10:04
  very proud of the lots of copper contact there as well.
• 1:10:06
  You could though, very controversially argue that we
• 1:10:09
  get we've done a side by side comparison and this was really
• 1:10:12
  fun. This was a fun day in the
• 1:10:13
  office. We did a side by side comparison
• 1:10:15
  of Glenn Goyne, Tamdu and Rosebanks New Make Spirit wash
• 1:10:19
  and warts and we compared all of them.
• 1:10:22
  And I would, I would argue, and a lot of people do that Tandu
• 1:10:25
  was very, very fruity in comparison to Glenn Goyne
• 1:10:28
  really. And Glenn Goyne's known as being
• 1:10:29
  a very fruity numic spirit. But it's because we get a lot of
• 1:10:32
  copper contact of our stills because Tandu's got 6 stills.
• 1:10:35
  Yeah, that husband and wife stills that are working
• 1:10:36
  together, that's more copper contact.
• 1:10:38
  That's so interesting. But then one of the things I
• 1:10:40
  remember was like trying Rosebank Newmake, which you
• 1:10:42
  brought in with you. Oh yeah.
• 1:10:43
  Yeah, that was a good day and. And again, the conversation and
• 1:10:47
  Vicki Elliot was on the podcast was talking about the copper
• 1:10:50
  contact that Rosebank had kind of really gone for with that.
• 1:10:55
  And then is that is that a kind of instead of a distillery
• 1:11:00
  character? Is that like a brand character
• 1:11:02
  that Ian McLeod distillers are? Is it accidental or is it
• 1:11:05
  deliberate where they go? You know what, we want all our
• 1:11:08
  new make to be kind of on that fruity how they cover copy or
• 1:11:12
  contact or is it just a case of well, that's just the way it's
• 1:11:14
  that's just the way it's. Forward, that's distillery.
• 1:11:16
  It's the legacy of that distillery, what they've
• 1:11:17
  produced and we're just taking over from the, you know, we're
• 1:11:19
  the custodians of that legacy now.
• 1:11:21
  So Glenn Goyne has always been that way.
• 1:11:23
  Although if you what's really cool, I mean the part of this
• 1:11:26
  job is really cool is like looking into the history of the
• 1:11:27
  brands and the archives and stuff.
• 1:11:29
  One of our brand ambassadors, Philip King Scott's also our
• 1:11:32
  archivist, He found records quite recently in Tamdu of there
• 1:11:36
  being worm tubs on site in the 60s.
• 1:11:39
  So the oldest casks that we have in Tandu's warehouse, it's a
• 1:11:43
  1963 cask and a 1961 cask would have been worm tubbed.
• 1:11:47
  OK, So it would have been worm tubbed.
• 1:11:49
  Obviously, you know, incredibly, you know, long in the wood.
• 1:11:54
  So they've been, you know, matured for a long time and a
• 1:11:57
  lot of cask maturation there rather than spirit character.
• 1:12:00
  But they're doing, if you did a side by side comparison of like
• 1:12:03
  a 73, would you pick up the difference of the all these
• 1:12:06
  small things? It's really cool.
• 1:12:07
  What I will also add is very quickly I'm going to jump on
• 1:12:11
  this, so if anyone would like to find out more information about
• 1:12:14
  Tam do. You can't come to the distillery
• 1:12:17
  yet. Unfortunately we don't have
• 1:12:18
  plans for a visiting centre, but you can.
• 1:12:20
  Come, but you just can look at it from.
• 1:12:21
  You can stand outside the gates and take it outside the gates
• 1:12:25
  and Sandy McIntyre might kick you out, but you can have a Tam
• 1:12:30
  do experience and that's at Rosebank.
• 1:12:32
  So in our distillery, we've actually opened up at Rosebank
• 1:12:36
  in Falkirk, a Tam do residency. So there will be an opportunity
• 1:12:41
  for you to come to Rosebank and we're open.
• 1:12:44
  So basically you can do sorry for the benefit of the camera.
• 1:12:49
  I'm sorry, the benefit? Of the camera.
• 1:12:50
  He was keen, he was keen. We were just.
• 1:12:52
  Recording and sometimes sometimes in this room.
• 1:12:56
  Somebody walks in, think it's a toilet.
• 1:12:57
  Stool in front, but a door does sometimes go and somebody just
• 1:13:00
  thinks that they might be able to walk in and sit there.
• 1:13:02
  And have or I think it's a toilet.
• 1:13:03
  Somebody think it's a toilet, but he.
• 1:13:05
  Was keen it was. Woody.
• 1:13:07
  Time woodrows at Edinburgh. A cameo I.
• 1:13:12
  Can't remember, I didn't hear what comedy made but it was like
• 1:13:16
  the weirdest little sorry. Sorry, obviously.
• 1:13:19
  Friend the podcast. It was the weirdest little
• 1:13:22
  cameo. He wants to do a term, a Woodrow
• 1:13:24
  residency and so yeah, very quickly.
• 1:13:27
  So we're offering a term do residency.
• 1:13:28
  And so every day that we're open, check on the website.
• 1:13:31
  And what we're going to do is basically if anyone's done a
• 1:13:33
  Glengoyne malt master experience, it's very similar.
• 1:13:35
  So what you're going to do is you're going to get 4 single
• 1:13:38
  casks of Tamdu refill hogs heads and refill butts and first full
• 1:13:45
  hogs heads and first full butts. And you're going to make your
• 1:13:48
  own Tamdu single malt as part of that.
• 1:13:50
  And then what you'll walk away with is a 20 CL bottle.
• 1:13:53
  And what's also very interesting, so Tamdu's filling
• 1:13:56
  strength when we took over in 2011, we switched our filling
• 1:13:59
  strength to industry standard 63 point 5%.
• 1:14:02
  This is old Tam do stock. So this is pre us taking it over
• 1:14:05
  where their filling strength was much higher.
• 1:14:07
  I think it was 6869%. So I've blended this as a single
• 1:14:11
  malt, which you can tuck into oh wow.
• 1:14:13
  And we're sitting at 66.3% now this is obviously going to take
• 1:14:18
  water very, very well. And so feel free if you want to.
• 1:14:21
  And what I've just done here for the benefit of just trying it
• 1:14:23
  out is I've done a ratio of 25 percent, 25 percent, 25 percent,
• 1:14:27
  25%. So it's it's a quarter of each
• 1:14:30
  type of cask. You've got first fill and 2nd
• 1:14:33
  fill, Sherry butts and Sherry hogs head just to see what's
• 1:14:39
  going to happen. So what I would say is if Tam do
• 1:14:41
  10 is a gateway whiskey, this is smack.
• 1:14:43
  This is, yeah, this is this is I honestly think that somewhere my
• 1:14:48
  distillery, our brand director is, is having a heart attack.
• 1:14:52
  But yes, we were talking about, we were talking about different.
• 1:14:55
  Countries and different kind of rules and regulations, but you
• 1:14:59
  know, at 66%, if you took this to Norway, you would be
• 1:15:01
  arrested. Yeah, that we absolutely would.
• 1:15:03
  Yeah, Drug. Charges because I mean for
• 1:15:05
  anyone that doesn't know, alcohol by volume over 60% in
• 1:15:09
  Norway is classed as a narcotic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right.
• 1:15:12
  Which is a cool fact that we learned for somebody that came
• 1:15:15
  on one of our I mean like in the spotlights 2 things #1 great
• 1:15:19
  that time do and making the the whiskey more accessible.
• 1:15:24
  So, yeah, because like, like you said, right?
• 1:15:27
  So, so two things #1 Glenn Coin has a great WW experience that
• 1:15:33
  people can visit a better centre.
• 1:15:34
  And we know now when you speak to distilleries that.
• 1:15:38
  And I would say probably the best thing you can do in Falkirk
• 1:15:40
  and probably the best thing to come out of Falkirk as well.
• 1:15:42
  Is Rose Bank is. Something with the Kelpies, you
• 1:15:45
  know there. Falkirk Wheel.
• 1:15:49
  Yeah, OK, well, you could make it a fun day out.
• 1:15:50
  Go to do the Tam, do Maltmaster at Rosebank and then go on the
• 1:15:54
  wheel. Well, we've always talked about
• 1:15:55
  taking a canal boat to Falkirk. So I actually own a canal boat.
• 1:15:59
  What? I'm not joking.
• 1:16:01
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's in Leicester in my family.
• 1:16:04
  Well, yeah. So I've got a canal boat if you
• 1:16:07
  want to. That would be a fun trip.
• 1:16:09
  Might take us six months, which might be the longest podcast.
• 1:16:13
  There we go. I tell you what, we'll.
• 1:16:15
  Do right. How long have we got till Rose
• 1:16:17
  Banker officially got whiskey? Oh, well, yeah, I mean, we're
• 1:16:20
  not, we're not putting an age on it, but it's I've done a few,
• 1:16:24
  I've tried a few samples. We it's taken to the wood very
• 1:16:28
  well. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:16:29
  So we're realistically going to release either an 8 or A10, but
• 1:16:31
  depending on what we but. That's a release, but but how
• 1:16:33
  long before? I mean, the first cast that were
• 1:16:35
  filled we'll be turning into. You've got about a year now,
• 1:16:39
  yeah. So it won't be long, Yeah.
• 1:16:40
  So I think we start planning it now.
• 1:16:42
  So when Rosebank, when Rosebank officially can say we'll be.
• 1:16:45
  There, we're all we like 11. We'll be there.
• 1:16:48
  We'll we'll charter. That's amazing.
• 1:16:50
  Charter Canal. This is great and.
• 1:16:52
  What we can do, we can get a little captain's hat for.
• 1:16:54
  Ross, this is so good. And we can get a pirate flag as
• 1:16:57
  well. We do it do a smokehead.
• 1:16:58
  We'll do a whiskey stories for smokehead origin story.
• 1:17:00
  This is very cool. Things.
• 1:17:02
  That we've got this is happening.
• 1:17:04
  After Angela. This is talking.
• 1:17:06
  On the talking on the, on the episode with Swee, we, you know,
• 1:17:10
  we talked about it was it last week, two weeks, episodes ago
• 1:17:14
  about organizing the WW stories whiskey bingo event, which is
• 1:17:20
  something that we definitely have to make happen.
• 1:17:23
  But yeah, a boat we're chartering, we're charging a
• 1:17:25
  canal boat. We'll start because the canal,
• 1:17:28
  the canal from where we are as the crow flies very, very close.
• 1:17:31
  Yes. So we stick, have a few drums
• 1:17:33
  and diggers, and then we jump in the canal.
• 1:17:35
  Could you imagine Ross? So, Captain's hat on.
• 1:17:38
  We do. We do a little.
• 1:17:39
  I mean, it'll take us about a day to get the Folker I.
• 1:17:42
  Honestly think it would take about a day, maybe 2 days.
• 1:17:45
  Yeah, your average speed's about four miles an hour.
• 1:17:47
  We did the. Folker Wheel, Yeah, get off at
• 1:17:49
  Rosebank and that's that, that's.
• 1:17:52
  It and then you straight in there we go.
• 1:17:53
  That's a right. Good day, Al.
• 1:17:54
  That's the plan. I'm going to try, I'm going to
• 1:17:56
  try this now, but what I was going to say is making, you
• 1:18:00
  know, whiskey tourism, whiskey, visitor centres, all that kind
• 1:18:03
  of stuff. We know it's another part of the
• 1:18:05
  business that yeah, that the industry can capitalize on.
• 1:18:08
  And of course with Tam do being the workhorse and being a
• 1:18:11
  working distillery that's, you know, industrial and it's making
• 1:18:15
  a lot of pull it turning out quite a lot.
• 1:18:16
  Whiskey, Yeah, it's difficult to do, but what you're doing is.
• 1:18:19
  And also you don't have to travel all the way up to space
• 1:18:21
  side. You can go to Falkirk, you can
• 1:18:23
  go to Rosebank, you can take in what?
• 1:18:25
  20 minutes on the train from Edinburgh, you can literally
• 1:18:28
  then get off, walk to walk to Rosebank.
• 1:18:30
  Beautiful distillery. And we still have, you know, a
• 1:18:32
  25 LB tour for Rosebank, which is amazing.
• 1:18:35
  Yeah, you'll try Glenn Goyne, you'll try Tamdu, and you'll try
• 1:18:38
  a bit of the new expert from Rosebank there as well.
• 1:18:40
  We've got a 90 LB tour for Rosebank.
• 1:18:42
  You get to try a Rosebank on that as well because it's the
• 1:18:44
  stock's so limited. But they've also got the Tamdu
• 1:18:48
  residency. What I will say is, well, no one
• 1:18:50
  knows about this yet, but by the time of the podcast coming out
• 1:18:53
  in June, it should be live. So I thought I'd tell you guys
• 1:18:56
  first. We're also going to do a pour
• 1:18:58
  your own Tam do at Rosebank. So at Rosebank there will be a
• 1:19:02
  barrel of Tam do in the gift shop that you can take out your.
• 1:19:05
  Own a handful, A handful. Fantastic.
• 1:19:07
  Well, brilliant. And no one knows about that yet.
• 1:19:08
  I. Think it's like you can't get
• 1:19:10
  that. Yeah, you can't get.
• 1:19:11
  That so I would love for all of you including Ross to come up to
• 1:19:15
  Rosebank do the malt master with us at Tam do there as well and
• 1:19:19
  just have a right good day out. We'll do as well.
• 1:19:21
  We'll take that. And then we get the boat back.
• 1:19:23
  Take the train will stick Ross of the bus.
• 1:19:25
  Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. On the on the I'm on the wheels,
• 1:19:30
  we've. Got so much to come on but on
• 1:19:32
  the subject of new distilleries and things like that as well
• 1:19:34
  Yeah now you know 2 two things number one I've seen on Jake's
• 1:19:39
  Instagram feed there was there was there was suddenly monkeys
• 1:19:42
  appearing on his Instagram page yes he was he was over in India
• 1:19:45
  because yes you know as well as a new distillery opening up an
• 1:19:49
  open and fall cut that you're producing you've also got new
• 1:19:51
  distillery over in India as. Well, yeah, we have, yes, we've
• 1:19:53
  got Una in the Himalayan region. And so we, I don't know, I think
• 1:19:58
  I think it'd be quite cool to, you know, Himalayan single malt,
• 1:20:01
  I can see it now. That's quite cool.
• 1:20:02
  And what the plan is there is, you know.
• 1:20:06
  Obviously Emacloud do cherry casks unbelievably well.
• 1:20:09
  We would like to be basically the Indian version of Tamdu.
• 1:20:12
  So we wanted to be a fully matured cherry cask and we've
• 1:20:15
  got spirit that's been running for about a year now.
• 1:20:17
  So we've got a lot of cask samples.
• 1:20:19
  Jake was over there and Sandy's been over there.
• 1:20:21
  I was three manager for Tamdu as well.
• 1:20:23
  We've shipped out things over there as well.
• 1:20:25
  We've been in training the guys up in the warehouses.
• 1:20:28
  Obviously, you know work is different in India, right?
• 1:20:31
  So a lot of it have. You been out?
• 1:20:33
  There I would love to go. I would absolutely love to go.
• 1:20:34
  So I mean, I'm although I've, although Scottish by heart, as
• 1:20:38
  you can obviously tell, I've got this, you know, horrible
• 1:20:41
  infliction of an English accent. Well, you know, so I'm sorry,
• 1:20:45
  sorry, but I was born in Leicester in England and so a
• 1:20:48
  lot of my friends and family were either Hindu or Muslim or
• 1:20:51
  Sikh. And my secondary school, a lot
• 1:20:53
  of my friends, you know, so I learnt a lot of Gujarati in
• 1:20:56
  Punjabi when I was younger. So I am dying to go out to
• 1:21:00
  India. So it'd be really cool.
• 1:21:01
  And what was really interesting was, you know, we were training
• 1:21:03
  up the guys there and a lot of them hadn't worked in the
• 1:21:05
  district before. So Sandy was sort of teaching
• 1:21:07
  them how to roll barrels because there's an art of rolling
• 1:21:10
  barrels, right? You know, getting the bunghole
• 1:21:13
  to land where you want it to go and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:21:15
  So this is small things. That's really cool.
• 1:21:17
  Maturation's gonna be very different obviously, because
• 1:21:19
  it's hotter, different climate and it's taken to the wood
• 1:21:23
  phenomenally so really cool so. You you've had samples from.
• 1:21:27
  Yeah, I've tried it. Yeah.
• 1:21:28
  I mean, what's? The name of the distillery.
• 1:21:29
  It's called una una una. Yeah, well.
• 1:21:31
  Because there was a story about monkeys.
• 1:21:33
  Yes. So we basically were ready to go
• 1:21:35
  about a year and a half ago and the only thing we've got the
• 1:21:38
  stills in place, we've got the mash tons in, we've even got a
• 1:21:41
  shipment in of the Bali, we're ready to go.
• 1:21:43
  Only thing that was stopping us was there's about 100 monkeys
• 1:21:46
  that had completely infested the distillery and I would love the
• 1:21:50
  first expression which I don't think will happen but for it to
• 1:21:53
  be called 100 monkeys. Jodie might have a problem with
• 1:21:55
  that though. It's a monkey shoulder but but I
• 1:21:58
  think it'd be really cool the. Drunken Monkey or?
• 1:22:00
  Something the drunken monkey or something like that.
• 1:22:01
  A monkey's tail. Yeah, yeah, it's a banana DRAM
• 1:22:06
  or something like that. I mean.
• 1:22:08
  You've got to use this stuff. It's just this gold, absolutely
• 1:22:10
  gold. And then?
• 1:22:11
  Of course as well. You know, this is the week after
• 1:22:13
  Fazio. Yeah, there's also lagging Bay.
• 1:22:16
  Lagging Bay over an island. Yeah, where?
• 1:22:19
  Is lagging be at the moment in terms of its kind of
• 1:22:23
  construction. We will.
• 1:22:24
  It's. Not running Spirit.
• 1:22:25
  Yet so yeah, we know we're not running spirit yet.
• 1:22:28
  So what we've done is Malcolm Rennie was our distillery
• 1:22:30
  manager of Rosebank and we mentioned him on my podcast
• 1:22:33
  interview way back in 2003. I believe you called him the Pep
• 1:22:36
  Guardiola of of that's that's a blast from the past.
• 1:22:41
  So he was, he's the guy you get if you want to set up a new
• 1:22:44
  distillery, you know, his, his background was Locklee
• 1:22:48
  Annandale. He also set up Rosebank for us
• 1:22:52
  as well. And he worked in Bricklady in,
• 1:22:54
  in the 80s with his dad. So he's an, he's an Elac, he's
• 1:22:57
  from Isla. All right.
• 1:22:58
  And so he set up Rosebank for us, got the flow rates where we
• 1:23:01
  wanted him to be, got that incredible numic spirit and then
• 1:23:04
  went to go and set up Lagan Bay for us.
• 1:23:06
  So he has gone to set up another distillery.
• 1:23:08
  So we're still laying down buildings.
• 1:23:12
  It's looking pretty good. It's right next to the airport,
• 1:23:15
  so if you come out of the airport, the first thing you'll
• 1:23:17
  see is Lagan Bay. We're really hoping we don't get
• 1:23:19
  nicknamed Terminal 2. It will be heavily pitted and
• 1:23:25
  we're in collaboration with guys called the Isla Boys and they
• 1:23:28
  produce beer. So 50% of it will be a brewery,
• 1:23:31
  50% of it will be distillery as well.
• 1:23:33
  So we'll have Isla beer. I'm hoping we'll have a pitted
• 1:23:36
  beer. That'll be really, really cool.
• 1:23:38
  So by the Fais next year we'll be open.
• 1:23:40
  We've got a day, so we'll have one of the days as well, or
• 1:23:43
  depending on how that goes. And yeah, what I'm really hoping
• 1:23:48
  is that we will sort of be this kind of very cool modern
• 1:23:52
  sustainable distillery on either that's telling our own story,
• 1:23:55
  but also telling the story of barley and beer as well.
• 1:23:58
  We won't ever produce smokehead from that distillery.
• 1:24:01
  Well, that was that was going to be my question.
• 1:24:02
  Because. You mean The thing is, we've
• 1:24:03
  talked about time doing, going. But you are, Chief Smokehead,
• 1:24:06
  you. Are Chief Smokehead so
• 1:24:08
  Smokehead, The thing is, the last thing you were on, I was
• 1:24:10
  like, oh God, I hope it doesn't like too much.
• 1:24:12
  Smoke, however, how times have changed.
• 1:24:14
  You brought your cool. Glass at the smokehead, yeah,
• 1:24:18
  but as as I previously mentioned and now, as Ross would say,
• 1:24:21
  pretending to like the Pete and the Pete Pretender.
• 1:24:23
  But but I, I genuinely am. I love it.
• 1:24:26
  And and we always, we wound Ross up.
• 1:24:30
  Yeah. Because he's not a fan of the
• 1:24:32
  Pete. Well, no, but we also wound Ross
• 1:24:34
  up because one of the great things about it and I will say
• 1:24:36
  it was a wind up if anyone from Ian McLeod is still was it's
• 1:24:41
  Iowa single mall. Yeah, but you will never
• 1:24:43
  disclose. No.
• 1:24:45
  Now I pushed it, right. And then and then what happened
• 1:24:47
  was when Ross contacted me after our episode.
• 1:24:50
  So how was the second episode of Mike?
• 1:24:51
  I said, oh, it was great. We had a great night.
• 1:24:53
  We we actually had we had that a little bit.
• 1:24:55
  We had quite a bit of whiskey. And I said, you know what Mike
• 1:24:57
  actually told us where like he didn't, he didn't, right.
• 1:25:01
  I'll say this, I'll say this. He didn't.
• 1:25:03
  But I told Ross, it's Port Ellen.
• 1:25:05
  It's Port Ellen, No. Where did he get?
• 1:25:06
  Where did he get? Where did he get it from?
• 1:25:08
  And then I said you're going to have to guess, I'm guessing for
• 1:25:13
  about 5 minutes. I'll be honest with you, Rossi
• 1:25:14
  never told us but but now surely the story about Smokehead for
• 1:25:21
  From, let me try and retell for you so I can get it right.
• 1:25:25
  You guys as a disruptive sort of marketing idea said we're coming
• 1:25:31
  official skull and crossbones on the boat turned out.
• 1:25:33
  What year was that? So the story goes 2003, Ian
• 1:25:37
  McLeod become Ian McLeod Distillers.
• 1:25:39
  We purchased Glenn Goyne in 2003 from Edrington.
• 1:25:42
  That story, separately is legendary.
• 1:25:44
  Anyway, I'll give you the short version of that.
• 1:25:46
  Leonard Russell is the managing director of Ian McLeod.
• 1:25:49
  We're family owned, the Russell family are also famous horse
• 1:25:52
  racing family. And so Lucinda Russell, yeah, so
• 1:25:55
  she trained one for Arthur who won a national few years ago.
• 1:25:58
  So that's. Just five horses.
• 1:26:00
  Good. Five good, five horses, good
• 1:26:02
  Scottish sounds. Or.
• 1:26:04
  Scottish sounds, You know what it.
• 1:26:05
  Is or good? 5 straw and good.
• 1:26:08
  Five ballet nose bug. That's.
• 1:26:12
  Why yes. The best straw in the world.
• 1:26:17
  Honestly. For horse bedding, that's great.
• 1:26:20
  It's great one. This is.
• 1:26:22
  He's a relation of Lucinda. Russell, she's the sister quite
• 1:26:25
  a. Well known horse.
• 1:26:26
  Race. Yeah.
• 1:26:27
  So Lucinda's the sister and so we're, you know, into the
• 1:26:30
  family. Into the family issue, that so.
• 1:26:33
  Ian Russell. Sorry, Ian McCloud, Leonard.
• 1:26:36
  Russell. Sorry, Leonard for listening.
• 1:26:38
  Leonard is at a sort of chairman's dinner with Edrington
• 1:26:41
  at one of these horse races and they're getting right tucked in.
• 1:26:44
  My understanding he doesn't get the nickname of Liquid Lenny for
• 1:26:47
  any for nothing. And they're having a very good
• 1:26:50
  time. And you know, we're Ian McLeod
• 1:26:51
  at that point. So we've been independent
• 1:26:53
  bottling a few different things like Isle of Skye whiskey and
• 1:26:55
  that kind of stuff. And as we get it and then so at
• 1:26:58
  the end of the story, he didn't put any bets on for horses that
• 1:27:01
  day, but he did walk away with the contract for Glenn Goyne
• 1:27:05
  that he bought from them after many, many, many drams and a
• 1:27:08
  handshake. And their their actual contract
• 1:27:11
  was signed on the back of one of the booking slips.
• 1:27:13
  Cool. So proper old school the way
• 1:27:15
  things are done and that that will inform how the rest of we
• 1:27:19
  do things anyway, right. So cut to suddenly we only this
• 1:27:21
  story. Slip is framed on the wall.
• 1:27:24
  Somewhere, Oh, Lennon's definitely got it.
• 1:27:25
  Somewhere in his wallet, something like that, he's
• 1:27:27
  absolutely got got it. So that legendary story, you
• 1:27:29
  know, so then father and son, so Leonard and P, it's a takeover.
• 1:27:32
  Glen Goyne family legacy. They then own Glen Goyne and
• 1:27:35
  they own in McCloud Distillers. So they're sitting around a
• 1:27:38
  marketing table going, how are we going to get a name out
• 1:27:40
  there? Ian McCloud Distillers, how do
• 1:27:41
  we got a name out there? And you know, what's the tagline
• 1:27:44
  of Glen Goyne at that point? It's a Highland single malt,
• 1:27:47
  unpeated, never tainted by smoke, so not even just a wee
• 1:27:52
  bit PE. It wasn't tainted by smoke.
• 1:27:54
  So wait, that was they had that in the tagline.
• 1:27:56
  That was what we purchased it from, from Edrington because it
• 1:27:59
  was. Never tainted by.
• 1:28:00
  It was never tainted by smoke. Yeah, Yeah.
• 1:28:02
  So we really had to play that up.
• 1:28:03
  So like, OK, let's play. It like Tom do with the wee 3
• 1:28:05
  PPM. It wasn't, no, this was near 3
• 1:28:08
  PPM. This was hot air only.
• 1:28:11
  I think it actually said our barley is only ever dried, but
• 1:28:14
  hot air, you know, So it was really playing that up.
• 1:28:16
  So we thought, OK, let's do some marketing around that.
• 1:28:18
  Or wouldn't it be funny? Let's let's come up with some
• 1:28:20
  ideas. Wouldn't it be funny if we got a
• 1:28:21
  boat and we just absolutely filled it to the brim with
• 1:28:24
  Glengoyne? And we did the most UN PTS thing
• 1:28:27
  ever. And we took our UN PT whiskey to
• 1:28:29
  the most PTS thing in the world, which was the Isla Whiskey
• 1:28:32
  Festival. So Leonard Russell joked about
• 1:28:34
  it. The joke got too far.
• 1:28:36
  One year later in 2004 nice sunny day on Isla, which is rare
• 1:28:39
  takes human sacrifice. You know people having a good
• 1:28:42
  time, enjoying the smoky drams, having a good laugh, smoking
• 1:28:44
  cigars and a foghorn can be heard off of the course coast of
• 1:28:48
  port Ellen and Leonard Russell's at the front of the ship holding
• 1:28:50
  a bottle of Glen Goine and a pirate flag on the ship and we
• 1:28:53
  basically sabotage your eye of whiskey festival with our
• 1:28:55
  unpeted pile of single mole. Now it was all done in jest
• 1:28:58
  everyone's having a great time they loved it.
• 1:29:00
  The delivery manager has been a Harvin is quoted as saying.
• 1:29:03
  You guys are great, but if you come back next year, I'm going
• 1:29:05
  to break your legs, let you beat that out for if you want, swear
• 1:29:09
  on. Their.
• 1:29:10
  Spot okay, maybe I'll put my maybe for smoke it, I'll swear.
• 1:29:14
  So cut to everyone having a good time and let it sort of notices.
• 1:29:19
  There's a young cult of people getting into smoky whiskey and
• 1:29:21
  they're also sort of it's it's weird because people weren't
• 1:29:25
  really into smoky whiskey. Isla was quite a hard thing to
• 1:29:27
  get into. So there's a cult of Isla, a
• 1:29:29
  religious cult of Isla is starting to form.
• 1:29:31
  And he's also sort of notices that there's a younger crowd
• 1:29:34
  getting into whiskey. But they might be saying, how do
• 1:29:36
  I drink it? You know, do I have to know?
• 1:29:38
  Is it do I have to sniff it? So there was that am I worthy
• 1:29:40
  was a question that was being asked, right.
• 1:29:42
  So Leonard's got this idea flowing into his head.
• 1:29:44
  Then Leonard Liquid Lenny is is sitting next to this guy who's a
• 1:29:48
  a Viking biker who's covered with every single one of the
• 1:29:51
  distillaries of Isla is a tattoo.
• 1:29:53
  And then it's like, I would absolutely love to he's.
• 1:29:55
  Going to run out of space, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:29:58
  Where's? He getting his lagging beta.
• 1:30:00
  In five years time we look at the Beiu tapestry.
• 1:30:03
  So so he where do? You go come first.
• 1:30:09
  His tattoo are there Ring Rd. around Ireland he's going.
• 1:30:13
  To have Cowmack on the back of his head.
• 1:30:15
  So yeah, he's literally covered in tattoos.
• 1:30:18
  And. And so Lenin says, you know, I'd
• 1:30:20
  love to own a brand where this person was willing to tattoo
• 1:30:22
  themselves. In fact, I'm going to do it.
• 1:30:24
  I'm going to own a brand where, you know, you would tattoo
• 1:30:26
  yourself. And he looks around and he says,
• 1:30:28
  you know, these people absolutely love Smokey whiskey,
• 1:30:30
  but they don't just love it. They're consumed by it.
• 1:30:31
  You know, and you get, you get potheads, You know, you get
• 1:30:34
  cokeheads. These people are smokeheads.
• 1:30:36
  And as he says, the name smokehead, the idea is then
• 1:30:39
  born. And the pirate flag is
• 1:30:40
  sluttering in the wind. And we launched in 2005, and
• 1:30:44
  this year we're twenty. Wow.
• 1:30:45
  So we're now 20 years old, proudly independent, and our
• 1:30:49
  brand was born purely out of being rebellious.
• 1:30:52
  And so it just informs everything that we do.
• 1:30:54
  Superb. I mean, I like you say, I have
• 1:30:57
  to say I used to avoid like the plague, to be perfectly honest,
• 1:31:01
  because I would be so I couldn't get myself around to it.
• 1:31:04
  But I, I see it now and I do see like, you know, I don't have to
• 1:31:08
  go on about that, that sort of conversion I've had.
• 1:31:10
  But I, I would say that I now look out Pete Twiskey where I
• 1:31:15
  could try it and I could see the cultiness around it.
• 1:31:17
  And I can see that element that people can get get get brought
• 1:31:20
  into well and. It does.
• 1:31:21
  It does lead us on nicely to something you've brought.
• 1:31:23
  In very nicely. So again, it's all a it's all a
• 1:31:27
  rumour first. So we've got here the newest
• 1:31:29
  member of the Smokehead family, which in June should be
• 1:31:33
  released. This is all technically in May.
• 1:31:38
  You guys will be some of the first people ever ever to try
• 1:31:40
  this so it won't look like it's obviously this is a sample
• 1:31:43
  bottle. Sample bottle.
• 1:31:45
  There you go. This goes under my pillow.
• 1:31:49
  So this is the newest member of the Smokehead family, and this
• 1:31:52
  is the Smokehead 15 years old. Right.
• 1:31:56
  Wow. So we've gone for an age
• 1:31:57
  statement. So that's the first age
• 1:31:58
  statement. You've never had an age
• 1:31:59
  statement? We've had one, so we've had an
• 1:32:01
  18 year old before, which is very rare.
• 1:32:04
  There's still a few bottles kicking around and it's amazing
• 1:32:06
  because it's like engine oil. Yeah.
• 1:32:08
  It literally smells and tastes like, you know, if you ever had
• 1:32:12
  like an old toolbox, like an or a garage floor.
• 1:32:14
  Yeah, it's I'm really selling it.
• 1:32:17
  It's probably somebody who's got, Oh yeah, who's over the
• 1:32:21
  legs. That's not a motorbike.
• 1:32:22
  Good. Give me.
• 1:32:22
  Yeah, engine oil. So I'm just going to let you
• 1:32:27
  fire in and and have fun. So it's 43%, it's a combination
• 1:32:31
  of bourbon and Sherry casks and that's all I'm going to reveal.
• 1:32:34
  And we have a parcel of 15 year old, you know, smokehead sitting
• 1:32:37
  in our warehouses and we didn't know what we were going to do
• 1:32:40
  with it. And we thought, do you know
• 1:32:41
  what? It's our 20th birthday.
• 1:32:42
  Be really funny to be disruptive and release a 15.
• 1:32:45
  Yeah, brilliant. I think it's just really funny.
• 1:32:46
  And if it was 20, it might not be as PT.
• 1:32:49
  So and and and once the cameras are off, you'll be able to tell
• 1:32:51
  us where you where, where it comes from.
• 1:32:52
  I tell you, it's Port Ellen. But The thing is, The thing is
• 1:32:55
  though, then Mike going back to then from a On a serious note,
• 1:32:59
  yeah, what will happen to smokeheads when you have an Isla
• 1:33:03
  distillery? Great question.
• 1:33:04
  So we'll never produce smokehead from Nagin Bay, right?
• 1:33:07
  The way that we make smokehead is really actually very cool.
• 1:33:10
  So what we do is we don't, it's an independent bottling, but we
• 1:33:14
  own these theories. So I remember how I mentioned
• 1:33:16
  we've got this, you know, tambu kicking around in bourbon casks.
• 1:33:19
  We've got a lot of tambu new make spirit.
• 1:33:21
  We've got a bit of Gungaw new make spirit as well.
• 1:33:23
  What we do is we actually old school Scottish whiskey and it
• 1:33:26
  only does this in Scottish whiskey.
• 1:33:27
  You guys will know this by now. We don't go out to a distillery
• 1:33:31
  and we go, you know, hello, I'd like to purchase some of your
• 1:33:34
  casks because let's be honest, they might not give you their
• 1:33:37
  best casks or it might be more expensive.
• 1:33:39
  And that's not to knock any independent bottlers that what
• 1:33:41
  they're doing is amazing. It's all about your elbow rooms.
• 1:33:44
  If you've got good contacts or if you're willing to kind of go
• 1:33:48
  the extra mile to get amazing casks, you can.
• 1:33:50
  What we do though is we actually go to them and we say we've got
• 1:33:54
  fruity newmake Spirit from space side.
• 1:33:56
  We'd like to swap some of that fruity newmake Spirit in space
• 1:33:58
  side with you. We'll give you a tanker.
• 1:34:00
  You give us a tanker with your pitted newmake spirit and we'll
• 1:34:03
  put that into our own wood policy and it's fully matured
• 1:34:06
  into our woods. Yes, very much.
• 1:34:07
  You do what you like with that. We'll do what?
• 1:34:09
  We totally do. Yeah.
• 1:34:10
  It's a legacy that's always been there with Scottish whiskey.
• 1:34:12
  It's unique to Scottish whiskey. And it's nearly that people
• 1:34:14
  don't often know an awful lot about, but it's a whole.
• 1:34:16
  And I think that's The thing is, yeah, you know, the salaries
• 1:34:19
  don't make all their money just from what bottles go out, you
• 1:34:22
  know. I mean, how often do you bring
• 1:34:24
  it a new release? But we're seeing it with new
• 1:34:26
  distilleries. Yeah.
• 1:34:27
  How often does a new distillery actually bring out a new
• 1:34:29
  release? There'll be maybe 123 maximum in
• 1:34:33
  a year. Yeah, threes pushing it if
• 1:34:34
  you're really pushing something out there.
• 1:34:36
  So, you know, if you're bringing out one or two releases a year,
• 1:34:39
  you're not bringing how you how you keep the lights on.
• 1:34:41
  So a lot of the time a lot of that business is done through
• 1:34:45
  through the industry of and that's where it's.
• 1:34:47
  Kind of a bulk, really a lot of it.
• 1:34:49
  And bulk and that's blinder and ultimately you've got your
• 1:34:51
  blinders and things like that. And and that's where whiskey
• 1:34:55
  makers, you know, Ian McLeod Distillers are Ian McLeod
• 1:34:57
  Distillers now because they own. Yeah, distillery.
• 1:34:59
  Yeah. You mentioned earlier on what
• 1:35:02
  were they before? They were just Ian McLeod.
• 1:35:03
  Or Ian McLeod. So Ian McLeod, you know,
• 1:35:06
  formerly PHJ Russell and Sons, you know, now we've gone from
• 1:35:10
  having noticed that it was in 2003.
• 1:35:12
  Glen Goyne Tamdu Edinburgh Gin. We've just rebuilt Edinburgh
• 1:35:16
  Gin's new distillery in the center of Edinburgh, so I've
• 1:35:20
  always got to do this in order. Glengwin Tamdu Edinburgh Gin
• 1:35:23
  Rosebank, which was you have to be trusted by the whiskey
• 1:35:27
  industry to bring back something like Rosebank, right?
• 1:35:29
  So Diageo trusted us to do that. Other people tried to acquire
• 1:35:32
  that brand before us. Then you've got Una building
• 1:35:36
  Lagan Bay. I hope I'm not missing 1 glaring
• 1:35:40
  one. Yes, we've now got 6
• 1:35:42
  distilleries that we earn from from none in 2003.
• 1:35:45
  You've got to be doing something right.
• 1:35:46
  Yeah. And I'm at that set.
• 1:35:48
  So it's it's lovely to illustrate.
• 1:35:50
  That's absolutely. Yeah, let's have a fire in.
• 1:35:52
  It's delicious. I think to illustrate that
• 1:35:54
  point, I mean I, I remember going on a two years ago of Paul
• 1:35:57
  Blair Distillery and they said 90% of our spirit leaves the
• 1:36:01
  distillery on the tanker. What you say?
• 1:36:04
  Like BBQ chief. Smoke head.
• 1:36:06
  That's what you get when you're sitting with a chief smoke head.
• 1:36:08
  Yeah, but you're. Right.
• 1:36:09
  But you're right, 90% of our spirit we don't put in cast
• 1:36:13
  ourselves. It leaves on the tanker that's
• 1:36:15
  and that goes to wherever. Yeah, and I suppose.
• 1:36:18
  So you know. And I suppose by having the
• 1:36:20
  freedom to do what you do with the new make makes it harder for
• 1:36:25
  people to sit there and go, I know what that is totally
• 1:36:28
  because you're able to say, well, hang on.
• 1:36:30
  But again, it comes back to distillery character.
• 1:36:32
  Yeah, there will probably be some people that have an idea
• 1:36:35
  where they can say, I can distinguish distillery character
• 1:36:39
  and certain things. But to be perfectly honest, as
• 1:36:41
  I've said, I've seen, we've seen people argue whether it's a PX
• 1:36:45
  or another Russell cast. Yeah, it was Virgin Oak.
• 1:36:47
  So that's, this is the thing. And unless you're absolutely
• 1:36:50
  certain on it, you'll never never know.
• 1:36:52
  And I like the fact that that isn't engaging.
• 1:36:54
  I like that people are having that conversation.
• 1:36:57
  That's cool, man. If you if you're arguing over
• 1:36:59
  your favorite band or whether you think that they're, you
• 1:37:02
  know, doing something funky or they're playing something or a
• 1:37:04
  harmony, that's cool. You're getting into it, you
• 1:37:06
  know, and that's that's what whiskey's about as well.
• 1:37:08
  This is what whiskey stories are about.
• 1:37:09
  It's, you know, having that conversation.
• 1:37:11
  Is it an art bag? Is it like a is it a Le Freud?
• 1:37:13
  Is it a piece of Benithaven? Is it a Port Ellen?
• 1:37:15
  Is it it could be any of those distilleries.
• 1:37:17
  In theory you could you could start to eliminate a few, but
• 1:37:22
  actually I'm going to say this is quite controversial.
• 1:37:25
  Then what's to say that it's one distillery for every expression?
• 1:37:28
  Well, exactly. And that's it.
• 1:37:30
  That's it. That really bakes your noodle.
• 1:37:32
  And also and also. Also, just just to care.
• 1:37:36
  Just, and that's the point for us, it's just firing.
• 1:37:39
  Yeah, sometimes that's, it's nice to have the information.
• 1:37:43
  Yeah. But look, we sat here, the three
• 1:37:44
  of us have sat here and we've drank out of a bottle with a big
• 1:37:47
  white, a black ball with a big white question I've been happy
• 1:37:51
  to do. It my point.
• 1:37:52
  Because this is exactly, there are times when I, you know, for
• 1:37:54
  example, if you get a single cask release and you'd love to
• 1:37:57
  know. This is cats number 12345.
• 1:37:59
  Yeah, it's an X, you know, PX cask.
• 1:38:03
  It was so many years old it was distilled here.
• 1:38:06
  Yeah. But equally, there's something
• 1:38:08
  nice about. Yeah, like you said, a bottle, a
• 1:38:10
  big black question, a big white, a big black bottle, a white
• 1:38:12
  question. Mark on that.
• 1:38:13
  And you know what? It doesn't actually matter if
• 1:38:16
  you read the top. 100% yeah, as long.
• 1:38:17
  As you enjoy what you're drinking.
• 1:38:19
  You know, if I'm doing, I do a tasting in Germany all the time.
• 1:38:23
  It's one of the biggest markets. And again, you mentioned
• 1:38:25
  earlier, Germans are whiskey geeks and they're great for it.
• 1:38:27
  Yeah, I will open with a Smokehead Master class in
• 1:38:29
  Germany with this guys with Smokehead award-winning Idol
• 1:38:33
  single malt. You just won multiple double
• 1:38:35
  Golds. Very, very cool.
• 1:38:36
  A lot of respect for that. Yeah, I'm not going to talk
• 1:38:38
  about fermentation times. I'm not going to talk about
• 1:38:40
  liner angles. I'm not going to talk about the
• 1:38:42
  shape of the stills. I'm not going to talk about type
• 1:38:43
  of barley. I'm not going to talk about PPM.
• 1:38:46
  What I'm going to do is I'm going to offer you one
• 1:38:47
  opportunity. If you would like to leave this
• 1:38:49
  room now, you can go and talk to any of those other guys that
• 1:38:52
  will do a much better job of those 10 distilleries and I'll
• 1:38:55
  talk about that. I'm going to say, do you like
• 1:38:57
  it? And that's really ultimately
• 1:38:59
  what it is. Absolutely.
• 1:39:00
  And sometimes that that's what that's what it always boils down
• 1:39:02
  to anyway. We're believe it or not, we're
• 1:39:05
  fast approaching that time. We're.
• 1:39:07
  No, I haven't prepared you for this.
• 1:39:09
  I do apologize. But you do know that we, the,
• 1:39:11
  the big feature of the podcast is, what, 3 jams?
• 1:39:13
  What can I say? Since the last time you were on
• 1:39:15
  the podcast, Yeah. If you had three drams that you
• 1:39:17
  were to pick with stories associated with any meaning or
• 1:39:19
  anything like that, what would you be OK looking for?
• 1:39:24
  And you always are allowed at least.
• 1:39:26
  One on brand. At least one, at least one on
• 1:39:27
  brand. OK.
• 1:39:31
  And do I, I suppose it would be. I don't want to repeat the ones
• 1:39:35
  that I've already done, right. So, yeah, I mean, I could say 10
• 1:39:39
  to 15 because it was a real momentous moment in my whiskey
• 1:39:42
  career that sort of, I've said that already.
• 1:39:45
  OK, Smokeheads, Tequila Cask. In January, I was in South
• 1:39:49
  Africa with a brand ambassador there.
• 1:39:51
  His name's Foey. His fortune is his first name,
• 1:39:55
  but his name's Foey. And me and Foey are sitting on
• 1:39:58
  his balcony in his home with his young lad running around.
• 1:40:01
  I'm training him up on the brand, having a right good time
• 1:40:04
  in South Africa. He's treating me to some proper
• 1:40:07
  Shisenyama, traditional African food.
• 1:40:09
  And, you know, fully immersed in like the Zulu culture there as
• 1:40:12
  well was incredible. And we're drinking the smoke and
• 1:40:14
  tequila cask out of that smoke mask in 35° heat.
• 1:40:18
  And that for me is like the epitome of how you now drink
• 1:40:20
  that whiskey. It's a summer whiskey, right?
• 1:40:22
  So that's really that's that's story #1 would be that one.
• 1:40:25
  I mean. It's whiskey like is is Smokey
• 1:40:28
  whiskey. Vicky talked about this.
• 1:40:31
  I think you've talked about it as well.
• 1:40:32
  I guess like, I think Vicky had a one of our what, 3 drams was
• 1:40:37
  in the summer sitting barbecue in Iowa on the beach.
• 1:40:41
  I'd beg. Yeah.
• 1:40:41
  Yeah. I don't know.
• 1:40:43
  Could you could you say? I mean, it's hard to find the
• 1:40:46
  evening. Yeah, sometimes you say.
• 1:40:48
  Right Sherry. Very Sherry's whiskey.
• 1:40:49
  Like a time to right. Christmas.
• 1:40:52
  Christmas. Curry in by the fire.
• 1:40:54
  Yeah, yeah. But then you go what's what is a
• 1:40:56
  nice, what's a nice summary whiskey.
• 1:40:59
  But then and also, and I've said this on the podcast and Ross,
• 1:41:02
  Ross picked me up on it. Right.
• 1:41:04
  I can't remember who I spoke to about and it was at a wedding or
• 1:41:08
  was it maybe on the podcast? Was that a wedding?
• 1:41:09
  I don't know, but basically said there's an art to what you stick
• 1:41:13
  in your hip flask at a wedding. Yes, he did.
• 1:41:16
  Because. Because you have to do.
• 1:41:19
  Got to remember that if you've put that whiskey in there, right
• 1:41:22
  and it's it's it'll be body temperature or warmer.
• 1:41:27
  So it has to survive yeah, it has to stand up there.
• 1:41:29
  And somebody was telling me a peated whiskey because it was.
• 1:41:36
  It's going to open right up. Yeah, and it's going to open
• 1:41:38
  right up. Open P up.
• 1:41:40
  Does it do that? And also you think about it,
• 1:41:42
  right? Is it BBQ smell smoke?
• 1:41:45
  You're probably going to have a BBQ if you're kind of out in the
• 1:41:48
  park in the meadows and you've got, you know, well, we barbecue
• 1:41:50
  on the go. A smoky whiskey with that is
• 1:41:53
  like, give me that over having champagne in the region of
• 1:41:57
  champagne that is just for me is like right up my street.
• 1:42:00
  If you're sitting on a beach in Isla with your mates and a
• 1:42:03
  bottle of smoky whiskey on a rare sunny day, you know, I
• 1:42:06
  mean, like a heat wave that is. Come on.
• 1:42:10
  Like, you don't get better than that.
• 1:42:11
  Hairs on the back of my neck. Just think about it.
• 1:42:12
  Yeah. So that is.
• 1:42:14
  Great, so there you go. Take that.
• 1:42:15
  So smoke a tequila. Cask 43% light bodied summer
• 1:42:19
  whiskey and it's at its peak, finished for eight months in and
• 1:42:22
  they heard tequila casks. It's not trying to be tequila.
• 1:42:24
  It has a sort of slight salinity to it.
• 1:42:26
  It's really lovely, light bodied, really delicious and
• 1:42:30
  also crazy good in cocktails as well.
• 1:42:31
  I know, controversial statement. But it's very good.
• 1:42:33
  I'll take that. Second DRAM.
• 1:42:36
  I will go off brands. What have I really enjoyed
• 1:42:39
  lately? Let me think.
• 1:42:44
  I think one of my favourites is actually IVA Glenn Glasow.
• 1:42:52
  Sand end for being. There for spelling, but.
• 1:42:56
  Yeah, sorry mate, sorry, sorry. You can spell it however you
• 1:43:01
  want, just sand end it's. Got an OW at the end of that,
• 1:43:05
  Glenn. Glasow, I'm not trying that
• 1:43:07
  release. What's the What is sand end?
• 1:43:09
  Sundan was a non age statement released by Doctor Rachel Barry
• 1:43:13
  and she she made it because she was thinking about where she was
• 1:43:17
  when she was younger. She used to play on sand and
• 1:43:19
  beach near Aberdeen. And so she tried to sort of
• 1:43:22
  incorporate this coastal style. So yeah, I think, correct me if
• 1:43:25
  I'm wrong here, whiskey geeks, there's a Manzania Sherry cask
• 1:43:27
  as well as a bourbon cask in there.
• 1:43:29
  So you've got this sort of like salted ice cream and mango thing
• 1:43:33
  going on, which is like her harking back to having ice
• 1:43:35
  creams on the beach the Sunday. So it's a really lovely DRAM,
• 1:43:38
  natural colour, you know, a punchy, punchy ABV on it as well
• 1:43:42
  and just a really good DRAM. And then I would say if I go out
• 1:43:45
  and jump back on brand for a second.
• 1:43:49
  More to do with the story than anything.
• 1:43:51
  Glengoyne, 21. And the reason why was it's the
• 1:43:54
  last drama I had with my dad, because I lost my drama.
• 1:43:57
  I lost my lost my drama. I lost my dad last year,
• 1:44:00
  unfortunately. But we had a hell of a last
• 1:44:02
  night together where we played cards and I took him through my
• 1:44:04
  whiskey collection, which he absolutely loved.
• 1:44:07
  And yeah, just had a really good last night.
• 1:44:10
  And so I'll now always have that drumming.
• 1:44:13
  And that's what whiskey's about as well, right?
• 1:44:14
  Because you're not just, you know, it's not just celebrating
• 1:44:16
  the the good times. The whiskey can be, it can
• 1:44:19
  cement any amazing moment in your life, and that's why we
• 1:44:22
  love it so, yeah. Oh look mate, fantastic drams,
• 1:44:26
  fantastic stories. Another fantastic episode.
• 1:44:29
  Absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much for the
• 1:44:31
  pleasure. I've got one last DRAM for you,
• 1:44:33
  right? I know, I know.
• 1:44:33
  Talk us through the DRAM. Well, what we'll do is you talk
• 1:44:36
  us through the DRAM, we'll cut the cameras.
• 1:44:38
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And everyone can wonder.
• 1:44:40
  What was the DRAM? Find out on Episode 3.5 by.
• 1:44:46
  The way I don't know if I've switched the mics on.
• 1:44:47
  Does that make sense? But what we've got, what have
• 1:44:52
  you got with? Us so me and Jake pulled this
• 1:44:53
  together for you guys again. This is another one that says
• 1:44:55
  with love for Mike and Jake right?
• 1:44:57
  We have here a single cast Glen Goin 16 year old PX Hogs Head at
• 1:45:03
  56.3%. So a single cask PX Hogs Head.
• 1:45:08
  You mentioned you were a Sherry Tarts.
• 1:45:10
  Darling, Well, I'll tell you what we'll do.
• 1:45:12
  We'll get. We'll stop the cameras.
• 1:45:14
  Angus will pop that. We'll drink that and enjoy it.
• 1:45:16
  Listen, guys. Thank you so much, Jake.
• 1:45:18
  Sorry, Jake. He's there.
• 1:45:19
  Thanks, Jake. Mike.
• 1:45:20
  Thanks, Jake. Thank you so much for coming on
• 1:45:23
  again. Yeah, fantastic.
• 1:45:25
  My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
• 1:45:27
  Thanks for having. Me, good people who are
• 1:45:28
  listening to Get in touch. We'll find out a bit more about
• 1:45:30
  what you're doing, where they are in the world.
• 1:45:32
  Yes. Flight radar, Probably flight
• 1:45:34
  trackers. You're more than welcome if you
• 1:45:37
  would like to follow my random travels.
• 1:45:39
  I have an Instagram WM IMD, so Ian McLeod listed as IMD.
• 1:45:44
  You can follow me. If I've not reached my followers
• 1:45:48
  limit, I can try and follow you back.
• 1:45:49
  I do look regular posts as well about, you know, things that
• 1:45:52
  we're doing. We have Facebook pages.
• 1:45:54
  So if you're interested in finding out more about
• 1:45:55
  smokehead, there is a Facebook page you can join called the
• 1:45:57
  Smokeheads. You can also join the Smokeheads
• 1:46:00
  for free on smokehead.com. Costs nothing.
• 1:46:03
  Tam do, you can join the dedication society for free,
• 1:46:05
  costs nothing. Just go to tamdu.com.
• 1:46:07
  Glen Goyne, you can join the Glen Goyne family.
• 1:46:10
  They have Facebook pages as well.
• 1:46:11
  Glen Goyne, Family Appreciation Society, Tam do appreciation
• 1:46:13
  society, all this thing we're out there, just just find us and
• 1:46:16
  have a good time. Or just come to a distillery and
• 1:46:18
  say, is that English guy who thinks he's Scottish chicken
• 1:46:21
  about? And I might be there, I might be
• 1:46:24
  in in Germany or South Africa. We don't know, right?
• 1:46:26
  But yeah, thank you so much for listening, guys.
• 1:46:28
  Always a pleasure. No, honestly, Mike, thank you so
• 1:46:31
  much for coming along. Bye, guys.
• 1:46:32
  Thank you for everybody who's listening.
• 1:46:34
  Thanks for everyone who carries. Don't forget, get involved in
• 1:46:36
  the newsletter. Don't forget, get involved in
• 1:46:38
  the Whiskey Stories Facebook group.
• 1:46:40
  Give us five stars. Pass the pod.
• 1:46:42
  Brilliant. Mike, I'm I'm steaming again.
• 1:46:45
  And so it begins. Cheers.
• 1:46:47
  Guys, thank you very much for that one night.
• 1:46:49
  Cheers. Cheers.
• 1:46:50
  Cheers. Cheers.