Latest / Whisky Stories Podcast / Glenfiddich, Balvenie and the Luxury Whisky Market — Tim Walker, William Grant & Sons

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Glenfiddich, Balvenie and the Luxury Whisky Market — Tim Walker, William Grant & Sons · Whisky Stories Podcast

• 0:00
  Well, happy days. All the very best.
• 0:01
  Cheers. Lovely to see you, Tim.
• 0:04
  Yeah, you're probably the guess. You've chased the most to go.
• 0:07
  I can't believe that for a second.
• 0:09
  I mean, there are more interesting people upstairs in
• 0:12
  the bar than no. No, not top right.
• 0:14
  I guess you know what to do. Clap us in.
• 0:19
  Welcome to the Whiskey Stories podcast.
• 0:21
  It's the best tour I've ever done in whiskey.
• 0:24
  And we've been doing it long enough to know that every, every
• 0:29
  drop that we put in, every boss of 12 year old is going to be of
• 0:33
  the same quality anywhere. In the world.
• 0:36
  Here comes Graham Colgate, ladies and gentlemen.
• 0:39
  Let's hear that all the way from Kirkcaldy.
• 0:41
  The shoe size is 10 1/2 and I like strawberry ice cream.
• 0:52
  Welcome to the whiskey stories podcast myself.
• 0:54
  We're back in the athletic arms back underneath the gents
• 0:57
  toilets and the and the bar and Ross is back.
• 1:02
  Hey nice to meet I'm Graham. Hi, I've been.
• 1:06
  Speaking to Angus the whole time.
• 1:09
  How's things, Ross? It's.
• 1:10
  Good. I'm really glad to be back.
• 1:11
  I've been busy. You've been busy, yes?
• 1:14
  I was in India. In case you know, I've been
• 1:16
  busy. Good I all is well Scotch at the
• 1:19
  ball model is probably went on the boys have been good but I'm
• 1:23
  so glad to be back in my spiritual home yeah the. ***
• 1:27
  when there's post it notes that clearly say not for Ross above
• 1:30
  bottles of whisky. I know.
• 1:32
  I'm glad that I am still remembered.
• 1:35
  And also I feel terrible because there's been so many amazing
• 1:37
  guests you've had on who have messaged me and said, can't we
• 1:41
  see you next Tuesday? I saw that and I'm like, oh, I
• 1:43
  won't quite be there. And the feedback that we've had
• 1:46
  when you've not been on the pod, it's just been huge.
• 1:48
  It's. Been pod's grown incredible.
• 1:52
  In fact, at least Scott's wife hasn't had to say Shut Up Ross
• 1:56
  on the podcast. I will apologize to Shona
• 1:58
  because I put a story up tonight just outside of Athletic.
• 2:01
  I'm Shona Gillespie who's done a great pod about the Loch Loman
• 2:04
  group with Holman and Glenn Scotia and she replied to my
• 2:06
  solution. I'm now taking this personally,
• 2:09
  but I promise you I'm not avoiding these people on
• 2:11
  purpose. However, I do really like the
• 2:14
  guest we've got on today. Well, that's it.
• 2:15
  Yeah, Tim is we've got Tim Walker.
• 2:18
  Yeah, great. A luxury national account
• 2:21
  manager. That's what whenever you have
• 2:23
  luxury. And I'm no surprise that Ross,
• 2:26
  like I'll be available for that one.
• 2:29
  So Shona, take it personally. Put it luxury.
• 2:33
  If you want Ross on the podcast, then you're coming on.
• 2:35
  Put luxury in your job title. Yeah.
• 2:37
  Ross will be there like with bells on, like it was the
• 2:39
  earliest he's ever been tonight. He's like Tim here, Tim here,
• 2:41
  Tim, come here. I'm so glad to be back.
• 2:43
  That's just perfect. There's been a minute I've been
• 2:46
  roasted, but what they are joined by friend that's.
• 2:49
  The account manager for William Grantenstein.
• 2:51
  So and so you manage the on trade luxury accounts in.
• 2:53
  Scotland, yeah, Yeah, I think that's important to, you know,
• 2:56
  to clarify at the beginning, it's not the whole of Scotland
• 2:59
  off trade and you know, independent whiskey retailers.
• 3:02
  It is the on trade your likes of Scotch and, you know, whiskey
• 3:05
  bars, Mission Star restaurants, cocktail bars like Panda and
• 3:09
  Sons. Yeah, it's it's not a bad gig.
• 3:13
  To Yeah, That's a tough paper. Yeah.
• 3:14
  Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.
• 3:16
  I mean, well, talking about luxury, we've got one left.
• 3:18
  Have you ever thought about as well as Grant and Sons ever
• 3:22
  thought about sticking their liquid into cartoons?
• 3:25
  Because we've got a carton of whiskey, Ross.
• 3:26
  This is the last one has been safe here.
• 3:28
  This is directors Special. Directors special.
• 3:31
  It is a carton of Indian whiskey.
• 3:32
  We started off with five. Yeah, a few weeks ago when we
• 3:35
  had freezer soonest on the pod. I think you just need to pull
• 3:38
  the sides and tear it a little bit.
• 3:40
  Praiser Soonest on the pod. I brought 5 Angus and we
• 3:42
  recorded this down at Diggers Leaf New Years and I had the
• 3:46
  intentions of us trying all 5. We got through three of them.
• 3:48
  I went, there's no way we're going through.
• 3:51
  So we opened the. I think we might save the best
• 3:55
  for last though. Well, again, we have discussed
• 3:58
  Indian whiskey previously in the podcast Director special.
• 4:00
  I like the marketing. Smooth blend, smart choice,
• 4:03
  smart choice. I see.
• 4:05
  As a consumer, I love to be told that I'm making a smart choice.
• 4:09
  Do you see that scourge with someone orders their?
• 4:12
  Whiskey. What I like to do is make a
• 4:14
  really clear and obvious recommendation, and when they
• 4:16
  choose that, I go excellent choice just to pat myself on the
• 4:20
  back. The thing is, I'm struggling
• 4:21
  here a little bit. It's we did we talk about it in
• 4:24
  the pod or we've talked about it definitely talked about off the
• 4:28
  pod about a bar, a bar person their what their input should
• 4:33
  actually be. And it'd be good to get your
• 4:35
  opinion on this, Ross, because I was actually a bar that will
• 4:38
  remain nameless. And apologies if I've already
• 4:41
  spoken about this in the pod we have.
• 4:42
  I don't. Think you've mentioned this on
• 4:43
  the pod? If it's what I'm thinking,
• 4:44
  we've. Consumed a lot of whiskey over
• 4:45
  the last few pods. So that's a hefty drama, Ross.
• 4:48
  Yeah, well, if you let. Me just director special Aperi
• 4:53
  card experiment I believe 42.8% a 180 mils.
• 5:00
  So it's a couple of drams worth in a week.
• 5:01
  Good few drams in a cup. Good for the lunch box.
• 5:03
  And it cost me much for about 60 or 70 pence.
• 5:05
  Please drink responsibly. Yeah. 70 pence.
• 5:08
  This costume. This is a big drama, isn't it?
• 5:09
  Yeah, yeah. So.
• 5:10
  So I'll share. That certainly be pounds per
• 5:12
  pound. The cheapest drama, I was gonna
• 5:13
  say. Yeah, well, the drams that
• 5:15
  you've been kind enough to provide time, it's only fair we
• 5:17
  give you, you give you something back.
• 5:19
  I think so often in luxury, and luxury is a word that almost
• 5:23
  haunts me at work and, you know, in trades, like everyone's sort
• 5:28
  of, you know, you, you mention luxury and suddenly everyone's
• 5:30
  like, oh, this guy must, you know, be really special or know
• 5:33
  his stuff. The truth is, I don't really
• 5:36
  know all that much about whiskey.
• 5:38
  Ross, thanks for coming to us. Yeah.
• 5:40
  Absolutely. I mean, I'm, I'm not a brand
• 5:42
  ambassador. You had Dougal on, you had, you
• 5:44
  know, Mark Thompson, who used to work for for us, but they are
• 5:49
  brand ambassadors. You're you're a salesman.
• 5:51
  I'm a, I'm a salesman, unfortunately, who just happens
• 5:53
  to love whiskey and work for a company that produces amazing
• 5:56
  whiskey. But I look at someone like Ross,
• 5:58
  who, you know, works in Scotch at the Balmoral.
• 6:00
  Ross for me is also a brand ambassador for Glenfiddich, for
• 6:05
  Balbeny and for all the other hundreds of whiskey brands out
• 6:08
  there as well. We've said it.
• 6:09
  So I mean, I, I remember going in one of my first meetings was
• 6:14
  with Cam at Scotch and I walked in, you know, English guy going
• 6:19
  in almost sort of two weeks into the job, going up to big Cam and
• 6:24
  saying, so how much do you know about Glenn Fiddick?
• 6:29
  And he he burst out laughing. You know, he was.
• 6:32
  I mean, this is someone who's what, what?
• 6:35
  Go on. This is a smart choice,
• 6:39
  honestly. I'll pass it around.
• 6:40
  Well, you could you continue time.
• 6:42
  I think that's really tasty. Oh, I said the best.
• 6:45
  Oh, absolutely the best for the last.
• 6:48
  The palate. The nose is a wee bit alcohol
• 6:50
  forward, but the palate is soft and sweet.
• 6:53
  You're right. Let's try That's drinkable.
• 6:54
  At 42.8%, Wow, yeah. It's got a bit of a kick at the
• 6:58
  end. Yeah.
• 6:59
  It's it's that. Would go nicely like.
• 7:00
  Very young whiskey, but I think that is.
• 7:04
  There's no Scotch. There's no Scotch on that label.
• 7:06
  Isn't it? I was looking for that.
• 7:07
  It's not Scotch that just says that's a special whiskey.
• 7:09
  And then and then molasses. That'll probably be.
• 7:11
  It's not saying a lot. It's.
• 7:12
  That's why you like it, because it's sweet.
• 7:14
  It's. Sweet.
• 7:15
  It's simple. It's not not offensive at all.
• 7:18
  It's very sweet. Sorry, sorry.
• 7:19
  You're saying it's? Knocking cams laugh you out the
• 7:21
  door. Cams pretty much laughed me out
• 7:23
  the door. And you know, this is someone
• 7:25
  who probably at the time had the most had the biggest Glen Fillet
• 7:28
  private collection out with the Gordon Grant family.
• 7:31
  Yeah, you know, and he could have taken one look at me and
• 7:36
  thought not dealing with this guy.
• 7:38
  But what he did was it sort of made me work for his approval
• 7:44
  and his respect, basically. And it was actually the night
• 7:49
  that we launched the Izakura down in the Botanic Gardens in
• 7:53
  Edinburgh. And Cam was on my table.
• 7:56
  He had a stinking cold. I think it was probably COVID.
• 7:59
  He couldn't taste any of the whiskey, but he knew that he
• 8:02
  liked it just from the mouthfeel and everything like that.
• 8:06
  And there were two people that were no shows on our table.
• 8:08
  And every time they they came round with with whiskey Cam was
• 8:12
  just like, pretend there are two people there just so we can get
• 8:15
  their drams as well. And I was just feeding Cam
• 8:17
  drams, you know, And by the end of the night, he was like, yeah,
• 8:21
  you've won me over. I was like, yes.
• 8:23
  So an easy way to get to his heart there, isn't it?
• 8:24
  Just feed him for a nice expensive egg land for a guy.
• 8:27
  But yeah, I mean, when we did see that we had the, you know,
• 8:30
  someone who works in luxury. Well, that's it's nice.
• 8:32
  We've brought you into the the cellar at Diggers.
• 8:34
  We made you come through the Hatch to get in here and we've
• 8:36
  given you a carton of whiskey is your first trap.
• 8:38
  So we're we're treating you. You know what?
• 8:40
  And this is and and this is probably the only industry where
• 8:44
  that happens more often than, you know, you can, you can
• 8:48
  imagine. Yeah, luxury, whiskey,
• 8:50
  hospitality, there's a lot of stigma that goes behind the word
• 8:54
  luxury. But ultimately everyone is just
• 8:57
  selling or drinking, you know, whiskey that is drunk from 12
• 9:03
  years old all the way up to 56 year old stuff that that we sell
• 9:06
  and you know, it. All these like Ross works in one
• 9:11
  of the finest hotels in in, in the world.
• 9:14
  But yeah, he's more comfortable here than he probably is.
• 9:17
  There and. I think that's questionable.
• 9:19
  I think. Whether he's more comfortable.
• 9:22
  Well, yeah, I always. Thought he is definitely up
• 9:24
  there. I'm not questioning that it's a
• 9:25
  great hotel. I always have my knees out,
• 9:27
  that's true. But it's a kilt or shorts in
• 9:29
  here. I think what I think is
• 9:30
  interesting about your job time and I mean I've got a lot of
• 9:33
  current managers and a lot of big brands have fantastic
• 9:37
  account managers. But Glenferrick and Balveni is
• 9:39
  something that before you think about the sales Rep behind or
• 9:42
  the brand ambassadors, you've seen it everywhere and you've
• 9:44
  seen them in supermarket shelves.
• 9:45
  It's such iconic, distinctive household brands that I would
• 9:49
  argue it makes it a bit more challenging to be their luxury
• 9:52
  BA, luxury Rep, luxury account manager or BA because every day
• 9:57
  will go well. I've got them very 12 and 15 and
• 9:59
  18, all under £100, all under £80.
• 10:03
  You deal with liquid that's 21 years old and older as well as
• 10:07
  kind of limited releases as well, which is just, it does
• 10:11
  limit it straight away. Where's it going to go into in
• 10:13
  the Scottish market as well? It's quite a challenging market
• 10:16
  because you sell so much whiskey in Taiwan and China right now,
• 10:19
  especially the high end. How do you make accounts in
• 10:22
  Scotland, even in London, they're probably probably three
• 10:25
  times you have accounts in London that are buying hello,
• 10:28
  London that are buying top, top WGS products, yeah, compared to
• 10:34
  Scotland and then Edinburgh. So how does that work for you?
• 10:37
  And is this your first kind of role in luxury account
• 10:40
  management as well? It's, yeah, it's my first role
• 10:43
  in luxury account management. It's my first role in whiskey.
• 10:46
  To be honest, I've spent most of my time in London.
• 10:50
  Hello, London, working in travel actually.
• 10:53
  And then when COVID came along, the whole company was basically
• 10:58
  furloughed and I had about a year where I was just sort of
• 11:02
  doing nothing. I was at home.
• 11:04
  I was, you know, it was lovely. I was spending a lot of time
• 11:07
  with my mom and my step dad and you know, I think we all
• 11:09
  remember the weather was amazing as well.
• 11:12
  But I was, I thought after about two weeks, I need to do
• 11:16
  something here, I need to learn, I need to educate myself.
• 11:19
  So what I did was I started learning about wine and whilst I
• 11:23
  was furloughed, I did my WSCT level 2.
• 11:27
  And then when I got back to London after restrictions
• 11:30
  lifted, I ended up doing my Level 3.
• 11:32
  And I worked for a wine company for a while, company called Wine
• 11:34
  Searcher. It's a bit like Vivino, but.
• 11:37
  Seen it? Yeah, seen it.
• 11:38
  And they've they've got Whiskey Searcher part of it as well.
• 11:42
  Anyway, my wife, Scottish born and bred, she, we lived with
• 11:48
  each other in in London for a bit, but she wanted to move.
• 11:51
  I say that I was the one pushing for the move up to Edinburgh
• 11:53
  because I was done with London and Edinburgh is, you know, my
• 11:58
  favorite place in the world. Love it here and just incredibly
• 12:01
  special city. But there weren't necessarily
• 12:05
  many wine jobs going up up in Scotland.
• 12:07
  So the answer was, let's just take a punt at trying to get a
• 12:12
  job in the whiskey industry. So what time?
• 12:14
  So when's that stand? Here.
• 12:15
  So this was, this would have been sort of midway through
• 12:19
  2022. So we were getting married in
• 12:21
  September 22 and we'd said we're just going to move up before the
• 12:25
  end of the year. So we ended up moving December
• 12:28
  2022, two weeks before Christmas.
• 12:31
  I started work at Grants after I got offered the job on the
• 12:34
  Monday and we moved up to Scotland on the Saturday.
• 12:36
  Wow. And, you know, it all just sort
• 12:39
  of fell into place. And see, when you're talking
• 12:42
  about travel, was that a type of travel?
• 12:44
  Was it luxury travel or was it or was it just literally a
• 12:47
  travel? Agency.
• 12:47
  I was talking about travel agency.
• 12:48
  Yeah, well, it was. It was quite a cool.
• 12:50
  It was quite a cool company. It was the main part of what
• 12:54
  they did was they did touring. So they used to do Beyoncé's
• 12:58
  tours. U2's.
• 12:59
  All right. Oh, wow.
• 13:00
  All the travel accommodation logistics for all that and that
• 13:03
  was the really fun part of what they did.
• 13:05
  I worked in the sort of corporate travel bit, which was
• 13:08
  much more sort of you. Know, but you're dealing with I
• 13:10
  mean you're dealing with a demographic of people who are
• 13:13
  probably similar to the demographic of people that you
• 13:15
  would maybe be looking at working with and.
• 13:17
  Trying to offer an authentic product.
• 13:19
  Yeah, presumably A businessman going to New York or Hong Kong
• 13:21
  or. Exactly.
• 13:22
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Probably keen whiskey drinkers
• 13:25
  if they go into those parts of the world.
• 13:26
  Well, yeah, because I mean, we spoke to like when we spoke to
• 13:28
  Shora a couple of weeks ago now, it would have been the episode
• 13:31
  went out and, you know, her mother, that's what she got
• 13:33
  into. And she's explaining about how
• 13:35
  the tours, they have to be tailored for that reason is
• 13:38
  because you could get a group of people that are just like, you
• 13:40
  know, maybe let's just use the cliche Americans over to do some
• 13:43
  golf and we'll take a distillery.
• 13:45
  And whilst we're here versus also, you know, Graham, Angus
• 13:48
  and Ross or even yourself want to say, I want to take, we've
• 13:52
  got guests come and want to give them a full, full experience, a
• 13:55
  bit more unique, a bit more niche.
• 13:56
  So yeah, there's sort of crossover there.
• 13:58
  We'll we'll come back to this. I just want to go through some
• 14:00
  of the drams that we've actually got drams in front of us.
• 14:02
  What you got, Angus? Yeah, so I I've finished it now.
• 14:05
  I started off with I know, thirsty and.
• 14:08
  Take a couple of nice Palvanis and Glenn FedEx and you're.
• 14:11
  Waiting for an empty glass. Quick as I can, I started with.
• 14:15
  It's from Tree Cara. It's a 10 year old Dalrymple.
• 14:17
  Yes. A lowland, A lowland distillery,
• 14:21
  Else Bay, Yes, I think. But very teaspoon, teaspoon,
• 14:24
  teaspoon to Elsa Bay. Yeah, because do you didn't know
• 14:27
  which distillery it? Was well, we had you spot.
• 14:29
  Cut. Well, he's just said it, hasn't
• 14:31
  he? No one.
• 14:31
  He's also be a teaspoon. Actually, what a teaspoon is.
• 14:34
  I've missed an open goal here actually.
• 14:37
  I could have said, actually, I'll tell you this because we, I
• 14:39
  mean we because we myself down ward head and and Burnside.
• 14:43
  Yeah, a little bit. A little bit Al Duni.
• 14:45
  I had no idea about. That one.
• 14:47
  But yeah, because we we've talked about it before about.
• 14:50
  Dalrymple, actually. Dalrymple.
• 14:51
  Yeah, yeah, no, very, very nice. And then I've got 2 drams.
• 14:56
  We did snippet snippet scores with a wee bit earlier.
• 14:59
  Keep your eyes peeled for those. Yeah, I've got, if they make the
• 15:02
  cut. I've got a tall Skirton which
• 15:04
  I've not had in a very, very long time and I was amazed by
• 15:07
  how good it was. Really, really delicious.
• 15:11
  And Lagaville in 16 I. Can't believe you slaughtered
• 15:13
  them. Well, I didn't.
• 15:17
  I didn't slaughter. I didn't know you're Degran 16.
• 15:19
  I've got you will be outraged. I've got I've got the aberraggy
• 15:23
  inaugural relationship as you're listening to this.
• 15:26
  We had an absolute fantastic whiskey tasting with Tom Kuffler
• 15:31
  a few weeks ago. Yeah, looking at your crystal.
• 15:33
  Ball again, because as we were recording this, it is the 3rd of
• 15:37
  March it's launch day. It's launch day since the
• 15:40
  there's not the first drama at the bottle and diggers because
• 15:43
  it had already been opened, but absolute cracking and we are
• 15:45
  recording the the tasting on Friday.
• 15:48
  So it's it's Tuesday tonight we're recording on Friday, but
• 15:51
  really looking forward to that. I thought you went down the
• 15:54
  route of I'm. Going to save myself to on
• 15:56
  Friday because there'll be other people trying it for a fast hour
• 15:58
  on Friday and I just thought, you know, I could try it
• 16:00
  tonight. Plenty of other drama.
• 16:01
  Thanks. An easy going yeah.
• 16:03
  I've tried it in January. It's so good to be bad, but I
• 16:10
  think it's amazing that a distillery like Morrison
• 16:12
  Distillers, as big as they are, have shown the patients.
• 16:15
  Yeah. Because it's not his statements.
• 16:16
  Not his statement, but it's all at least six years old, right?
• 16:19
  I think it's actually all, at least I think it's 2017 or 2018
• 16:23
  vintage, which is the way they're going to look.
• 16:25
  Going. Is that when they started
• 16:26
  distilling? No, it's not when they started
• 16:28
  distilling. So it's not their oldest spirit,
• 16:30
  but they only use barley grown on site of the distillery or in
• 16:35
  their. There are other farms that they
• 16:36
  also own in East Lothian. Great barley in East Lothian.
• 16:39
  Yeah. And so isn't it?
• 16:40
  That's fantastic. Thank you very much.
• 16:42
  Best barley in Scotland and questionable.
• 16:44
  I think the price was £65 for a bottle for an inaugural release.
• 16:48
  I think that's really. Really.
• 16:49
  That's important. Like the Cairn we've spoke about
• 16:52
  with Fraser, as soon as Cairn brought in an inaugural release
• 16:54
  and it was like £50 or something like that for that.
• 16:56
  And it's important. I think we're we'll all come on
• 16:58
  the pricing topic later on, but I think but really, really nice,
• 17:03
  nice and easy go. Now you help me out here because
• 17:07
  this is just shows my naivety. After having shown on the
• 17:09
  podcast and having a really, really enjoying the Glenn
• 17:12
  Scotia, I realized that Campbelltown whiskey is
• 17:16
  something I'm not really. Focused enough?
• 17:19
  No, we've probably only really dipped our toe in with
• 17:21
  Campbelltown. Well, what's it?
• 17:22
  I can't even remember what the kind of whiskey is I've got.
• 17:24
  What's a peated Campbelltown? It's a long road.
• 17:26
  That's the one, Graham. Yeah, yeah, I've got that.
• 17:28
  So never really had it before. I've fancied actually something
• 17:32
  a little bit pity because Ross is here, because I know that he
• 17:34
  hates the fact that I pretend to like Pete so.
• 17:37
  Any excuse to rub? Yeah.
• 17:39
  So I've gone for that, not tried yet and I think I've got the
• 17:41
  I've got. I've re gone for the AD beg 10
• 17:43
  cash track as nice, which I'm looking forward to having again.
• 17:45
  Ross, what are you on? I started very on brand.
• 17:49
  Glenfeddig 12. Balveny 12.
• 17:50
  Yeah, I don't stop. Glenfeddig 12.
• 17:54
  Sorry, Tim. Yeah, I take that back.
• 17:56
  It's a brilliant whiskey. Yeah, but as I've said before,
• 18:01
  you know, in Scotch with 7 tables, we're looking at luxury
• 18:04
  again, looking at the clientele. I love Glenfiddy 12.
• 18:07
  I forgot how much I love it. Super highballable, but also
• 18:12
  just so tasty and fresh. And Balveri 12 Double, which
• 18:16
  which I've mentioned so many times in this podcast, I think
• 18:18
  it was one of my Walk 3 drams from the very first episode
• 18:22
  because when you come into a whiskey bar like this, you've
• 18:24
  got so much whiskey to see. You need a thinking whiskey.
• 18:26
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And for me, that's always been
• 18:28
  Balveni 12 Double Wood. And it did not disappoint.
• 18:31
  Then we Highland Park 12 just to mix it up.
• 18:34
  Don't let the new branding. We'll get on to that too.
• 18:37
  And the whiskey's still great, it's still classic.
• 18:40
  I love Highland Park and amazed to see all the whiskeys that Tim
• 18:44
  has brought from you. Let us know what you're drinking
• 18:46
  and tell us what you brought along as well.
• 18:47
  Yeah. So I'm currently drinking the
• 18:49
  Glenfiddich Aston Martin 16 year old great drum, which I think
• 18:53
  Dougal brought onto the pod back in October, I think it was.
• 18:55
  Yeah. We've got some as you know, we
• 19:00
  mentioned briefly earlier, although I represent Glenfiddich
• 19:03
  and Balbeni and all the other brands in our portfolio, my
• 19:07
  focus is on 21 year old plus. So I wanted to bring some of
• 19:10
  that along today, so do we. So we've got the Balveni 21
• 19:17
  Portwood which. The beautiful West.
• 19:20
  Ross has his own opinion on which is, you know, I want.
• 19:23
  You to Honestly, for me, that is the perfect Balveni.
• 19:27
  Yeah. But I often sell it by saying
• 19:30
  it's too perfect. Yeah.
• 19:31
  Because it's both of the 40%. If you I I highly recommend that
• 19:35
  when you open this, you pour us the drams and put it away.
• 19:38
  OK. Because this is the kind of
• 19:39
  bottle. Yeah.
• 19:40
  That when it's open and put down on a table will disappear.
• 19:43
  Wow. Is it because it is too perfect?
• 19:45
  Have you had it before, Jen? No, no.
• 19:46
  No, I don't know if I have it. I'm not.
• 19:48
  Make sure once you pour that DRAM you put it away.
• 19:50
  I'm not. I want to.
• 19:51
  Because it is an epic. I'm not dragging off, I will I?
• 19:55
  Will if you do open it, I might need one of.
• 19:57
  Them. Sorry.
• 19:58
  Carry on, Tim. I can't.
• 19:59
  What else? So and just sticking on Balveni
• 20:01
  there, we've got a couple of. Bottles which you can only get
• 20:05
  at the distillery. So these are part of the Balbeni
• 20:07
  distillery experience. At the end of the tour you go
• 20:10
  into Warehouse 24, is it? MMM and I'm asking you because I
• 20:15
  work with the company but he knows more about.
• 20:17
  It no, no, that's all I was there in November to.
• 20:20
  Be exactly so you go in and you've got a couple of casts in
• 20:24
  front of you and you get to do the the dip out, you know,
• 20:26
  copper dog and then pull and fill your own bottle.
• 20:29
  Oh, the an actual copper not cause a lot of these handfuls.
• 20:31
  You know, it's the kind of the pill.
• 20:33
  Generally you get to try it first and then so.
• 20:35
  This is a genuine. They'll let you fill it I.
• 20:37
  Wonder if they'd trust me with that And.
• 20:41
  Here's a question Balveni can how do people get to Balveni?
• 20:45
  How can you get into Balveni? Is it an experience that you can
• 20:47
  book this Balveni experience? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 20:51
  The problem is, is because Balveni is so unique in that it
• 20:56
  focuses so much on the craft element of it.
• 20:59
  It's not this, you know, Glenfiddich is amazing as a
• 21:02
  distillery. You go in and but it's amazing
• 21:04
  for different reasons than what Balveni is.
• 21:07
  What I like to do whenever I take customers up to the
• 21:10
  distillery, I love to do Glenfiddich first, have some
• 21:13
  lunch and then go into Balveni because it's like stepping back
• 21:16
  in time. And Balveni some somewhere I've
• 21:20
  never been able to get to. It was always on my list.
• 21:22
  But unfortunately, I think your tours, maybe when I was looking
• 21:26
  at them, they were limited to certain days and it just didn't
• 21:29
  work when I was up there because floor Moulton's I've never seen.
• 21:34
  Is there Cooper a drunk site as well or is this Yes yes so
• 21:37
  exactly always appealing to me. As a tour to go to Balvini Tour.
• 21:41
  Obviously, what's the other? What are the?
• 21:44
  Other and I'll be honest, she just as Tim was saying about
• 21:47
  taking them to one end to the other.
• 21:49
  I'll do it and I can say it in my way that maybe you wouldn't
• 21:53
  say it. Confedic is the prettiest.
• 21:56
  The still house isn't the still house is a cathedral.
• 21:58
  It's absolutely stunning Immaculate.
• 22:00
  It's actually hard to comprehend this, this new style list.
• 22:04
  It's just beautiful. Balveni is mock it.
• 22:08
  Yeah. And for our London listeners,
• 22:10
  that is, it's a wee bit dirty. And what Balveni does is it does
• 22:14
  everything for Balveni, but also does everything for Canenvi
• 22:17
  other than distillation. And so you go into Balveni, yes,
• 22:21
  you've got the floor maltings. You can.
• 22:22
  And they walk around the floor maltings on the tour.
• 22:24
  It's amazing. I think you're committed to
• 22:26
  about 15 or 20% of production, which is still really, really
• 22:29
  high. And then they're still houses, a
• 22:32
  bit higgledy piggledy. It looks like it's all been
• 22:34
  drammed like kind of Yang down a wee bit.
• 22:36
  But it looks great and they've got all the wash backs etcetera.
• 22:41
  I've been up. I've actually been in the top of
• 22:43
  the kiln. The only kiln I've been inside
• 22:46
  of is Balveni and it is just a working distillery.
• 22:51
  It doesn't look like this glamorous brand that we know it
• 22:53
  can be. We see it all over the world.
• 22:55
  It looks like a proper old school Back in Time Distillery,
• 22:59
  which I absolutely love about it and the last tour I'd done was
• 23:01
  in November and it was Sean Balveni BA who took us up and it
• 23:05
  is one. Of the best around.
• 23:06
  It's the best tour I've ever done in whiskey and I reckon
• 23:11
  I've done about 50 distilleries, which is not bad going and I've
• 23:15
  actually done Balveni before and it was great.
• 23:19
  But the last tour I've done, this Balveni experience when I
• 23:21
  got my own little handful here was the best tour I've ever had
• 23:26
  because we went to the cooperage, you know, we went
• 23:29
  around the distillery. I want to visit most in the
• 23:31
  world is is Cornville Moore. And to let you guys in the
• 23:35
  secret common Moore's closed, but it now just houses more
• 23:37
  Balveni. It is.
• 23:40
  It is now basically just a storage place for for really
• 23:43
  special Balveni. Oh, that's the place I'd want to
• 23:45
  be locked into if something went wrong in the world.
• 23:48
  We call absolutely no doubt about it, but it was just such
• 23:51
  an authentic experience. It felt very old school.
• 23:54
  It felt very back in time, yet it was so familiar.
• 23:56
  When you're drinking the DRAM, starting with the 12 today, you
• 23:59
  brought mostly confetti. Did it actually?
• 24:01
  Well, you've got another one. Well, well.
• 24:02
  Well, that's a CUDA. Yeah, well, I was going to ask,
• 24:05
  what are these two casts and? 11. 1 Cherry, 1 Bourbon.
• 24:09
  Yeah, absolutely. And, and what they do is, you
• 24:12
  know, they, they take the bung off and you basically put your
• 24:15
  nose in. You you try.
• 24:16
  Now you're talking my language. And, and it's, and this is
• 24:20
  exactly what you know, Ross has just been talking about.
• 24:22
  It's so rustic. They, they get you to cut your
• 24:25
  hands like that and they pour it into your hands and you drink it
• 24:27
  like this and you get, you get Balveni all over your face and
• 24:31
  your clothes and your hands. I got balveni all over my hands
• 24:33
  went rust. Exactly.
• 24:36
  So you know exactly. I know it feels.
• 24:38
  Yeah, but but but that that experience, there's nothing
• 24:41
  quite like. Again, I, I don't want this to
• 24:45
  come across as disparaging to Glenford because you're so
• 24:49
  right. Glenfiddich is this beautiful,
• 24:51
  clean, amazing. Like it's an amazing experience
• 24:55
  to go there in itself because it is just the scale of it compared
• 24:58
  to Balveni is incredible. But then you go to Balveni and
• 25:01
  you're standing in this, this dusty old warehouse on the site
• 25:04
  of where the old Balveni house used to be.
• 25:06
  And they've taken the bricks that used to be, you know,
• 25:09
  Balveni house and they've made the, the, the molting floor
• 25:12
  building from there and everything.
• 25:15
  You know, there's no light. It's just natural light coming
• 25:18
  in and you're there with whiskey all over your face and your
• 25:21
  hands. And there's something almost
• 25:24
  like sort of primal about it that takes you back to what
• 25:28
  whiskey was about when it was made and what and that enjoyment
• 25:33
  and that real sort of special feeling that whiskey can.
• 25:36
  Get totally. And I suppose having like that,
• 25:38
  that's the beauty of it and that's where William Grant and
• 25:40
  sons can get it so right. And I'm sure it might be a happy
• 25:44
  accident, but also it could be a well thought out plan.
• 25:47
  And the fact that side by side you can have such conflicting
• 25:50
  because they are in the same grounds.
• 25:52
  Basically, you can have such conflicting.
• 25:54
  You can see here's here is, and we've talked about it before,
• 25:56
  work horses and show ponies and whiskey.
• 25:58
  And you can suddenly say like, here's Glenn Ferrick and like
• 26:00
  you say, here's Erasmataz, here's Walt Disney.
• 26:03
  But at the same time here is coming into this area here, this
• 26:06
  is this is where it all actually happens.
• 26:08
  And from that experience, we've had experiences like that as
• 26:10
  well. And it's like one of the things
• 26:11
  we talked about is in fact, in one distillery there, the
• 26:15
  contrast that you get is the branch bank and shiny new
• 26:18
  visitor centre at Glencaddom. And then we walked in and
• 26:21
  there's the guys because it's, it's still very new doing their
• 26:24
  tours. But like the guy left, the guy
• 26:26
  left his lunch bag, just like you'll still see the guy lunch
• 26:28
  bag beside the stills. You're going to like you because
• 26:30
  sometimes, and again, Rosebank and Glenn going, when we did the
• 26:32
  tour, we did that on the same day.
• 26:34
  And it's easy to forget when you turn up at these distilleries
• 26:37
  that you could almost, I mean, I'm sure probably tourists have,
• 26:41
  right? I can remember, I don't know if
• 26:44
  it was, I don't think I met them, but I remember someone
• 26:47
  telling me a story about how an American tourist asked if Saint
• 26:51
  Andrews had been built for the university, right.
• 26:54
  And the guy sort of said, oh, yeah, we deliberately built
• 26:56
  ruins of a cathedral here just to make it feel like it was an
• 27:00
  old place. But it's because it was like
• 27:02
  that. It felt like Saint Andrews being
• 27:04
  a university town. It felt like that it was built
• 27:07
  like. That Glenn going clearly built
• 27:08
  to make whiskey. Yeah, and now it has two and.
• 27:11
  Rosebank built business. Centre, absolutely.
• 27:14
  Yeah, but it's a good point. You could get tourists that
• 27:16
  could probably turn up at a distillery and not realise that
• 27:20
  this is actually where we make the whiskey.
• 27:22
  Yeah. And actually think when they're
• 27:23
  walking through the doors they're just walking into, it's
• 27:25
  all been purposely made to make it look like this is where
• 27:27
  whiskey's made. But actually for hundreds of
• 27:29
  years, 200 years for some places, 130 or 140 years for
• 27:33
  some other places, this is where we make our whiskey.
• 27:35
  Yeah. And I think it's good, yeah,
• 27:36
  because this Tim says not to take away from Glenfinnick how
• 27:38
  much I like Balveni I and we, we have a whiskey podcast.
• 27:43
  We're in the 1% of saddos that love whiskey.
• 27:46
  But what's great about Glenfiddich is Glenfiddich, no
• 27:49
  doubt about it, is for everybody.
• 27:50
  Yeah, you can be brand spanking news to whiskey, but you want an
• 27:54
  authentic experience in Scotland visiting Balveni or sorry,
• 27:58
  Glenfiddich, you're gonna learn the fundamental.
• 28:01
  This is how whiskey is. And it's familiar because it's
• 28:05
  that iconic, you know, triangular bottle that you no
• 28:09
  doubt have back in your own country, wherever you're
• 28:11
  visiting from. It makes me answer a.
• 28:12
  Question, I want to bring in a point just you mentioned earlier
• 28:15
  on about what you were saying, what leads in what you're saying
• 28:17
  there? You mentioned a point about how
• 28:19
  can I. Correct this one.
• 28:20
  You can have supermarkets, you can have whiskeys on the shelves
• 28:23
  at supermarkets and all the way up to luxury and some of the
• 28:26
  whiskey. I'm pretty sure that you've been
• 28:28
  part of selling and being in the company, people drinking,
• 28:30
  well-being excessive and incredible and stuff like that.
• 28:34
  But it's been a question I've always wondered about when a
• 28:37
  brand ends up finding itself on the supermarket shelf and then
• 28:40
  having the contradiction of being a supermarket DRAM versus
• 28:44
  a luxury DRAM. And it's interesting because you
• 28:48
  can look at some whiskies and question how they do it, like
• 28:53
  Jura, for example. I'm going to use Jura and I
• 28:55
  think the guys that. Best selling single malt in the.
• 28:57
  UK, absolutely, but I think the guys that wait Mackay probably
• 28:59
  have it OK because they have a separate brand and which is
• 29:02
  probably very much luxury focused in the Dalmore.
• 29:04
  But at the same time a lot of people will probably look at
• 29:06
  Dura and go as a supermarket DRAM.
• 29:08
  Yeah, so it must make it quite difficult for Dura to have
• 29:11
  luxury as part of that. Poultney 17 we had a great taste
• 29:15
  thing Ross put on last week. Poultney, not Poultney, old
• 29:18
  Poultney in itself sorry, I should say.
• 29:21
  Poultney 12 you can pick up in most supermarkets, yeah.
• 29:23
  Whereas when we went on to the more luxury stuff that they have
• 29:27
  in their range into the 20s, etcetera.
• 29:29
  I'm not going to, I've never seen this for sale anywhere.
• 29:32
  But yet for you people just know when they see Glenfiddich and
• 29:36
  they see Balveni, there's a lot of people that we've, we've
• 29:39
  spoken to people that when there was a guy that we met at the
• 29:41
  Highlander who kind of puffed his chest out and he was like,
• 29:43
  I'm actually a bit of a sort of, I drink the Balveni 12 whenever
• 29:47
  I'm having a DRAM. And he sort of said it as if,
• 29:49
  like I almost said, like, I'm a cut above the average whiskey
• 29:53
  drinkers. I'm drinking.
• 29:54
  But then I'm also going like, yeah, but the Balvin you have
• 29:57
  like so much, if you're going to puff your chest out, surely puff
• 30:00
  your chest about the 14 Caribbean, or even if you want
• 30:02
  to go even higher, the 21. That's what's great.
• 30:05
  You're able to sell a luxury brand off of a supermarket, you
• 30:09
  know, notoriety, everybody knows Glenfinc because even if you're
• 30:13
  you're buying somebody a Christmas present, I bet you a
• 30:15
  lot of people are going for like 15.
• 30:17
  Yeah, it's a gifting DRAM that I use and and.
• 30:20
  We've spoken about it as a big. Gift £32.00 on Clubcard.
• 30:23
  I've seen. I've actually that my father
• 30:25
  will. My father will tell you that's
• 30:26
  the best whiskey you could buy. It's funny how funny how that
• 30:28
  like funny how that can happen and I've mean this with the
• 30:31
  greatest respect. Some of the drams I'm
• 30:32
  associating with, but like Glenn money, for example, you can buy
• 30:34
  it in a Co-op. So people just assume it's a
• 30:36
  Co-op yeah a Co-op level whiskey.
• 30:38
  Same with Jura Co-op level whiskey.
• 30:41
  And you know, there's other ones that are, are the same.
• 30:43
  But at the same time, if you're you're in the coop and you're
• 30:46
  looking at whiskeys and there's a there's a Poultney 12, there's
• 30:49
  a juror 10 and there's a Glenn Murray on there.
• 30:52
  There's going to be a Glenfinnic 12 there as well.
• 30:54
  But why is it that Glenfinnic suddenly can be seen as Oh well,
• 30:57
  you just know that that's what it is, and it's the same above
• 30:59
  any as well? I think, I think with Glenfiddic
• 31:03
  from you know, 12 years old upwards, you could even
• 31:07
  categorize the 12 as a luxury whiskey.
• 31:11
  Mark Thompson had a really good way of, of, of talking about how
• 31:15
  single malt became popular. He spoke about single malt being
• 31:20
  a single ingredient on a pizza, whereas blend blends were an
• 31:25
  average pizza. And when Grants went around the
• 31:29
  world talking about single malts, they were like that.
• 31:33
  If we use this pizza analogy, you could have the best tomato
• 31:36
  sauce in the world and that is what this Glenfiddich is, or you
• 31:40
  could have an average pizza. And that is basically, you know,
• 31:44
  shifted people's perceptions of it.
• 31:46
  And, and Glenn Finnick has been doing it, you know, flushed you
• 31:49
  first, first. And we've been doing it long
• 31:52
  enough to know that every, every drop that we put in, every
• 31:56
  bottled 12 year old is going to be of the same quality anywhere
• 32:02
  in the world. And, and, and I think it
• 32:05
  actually really straddles that off trades retail space and
• 32:11
  luxury space really well. Whereas the Balbeni probably is
• 32:16
  a bit more of a, you probably don't see it as much out in, you
• 32:20
  know, supermarkets compared to Glenfiddich.
• 32:22
  But that's what's beautiful about working for, for grants,
• 32:26
  especially when it comes to the single malt side.
• 32:29
  You have two completely different whiskeys essentially
• 32:34
  on the same site, created a few years apart, and they're
• 32:39
  completely different. The brand, the story, the taste,
• 32:44
  the aesthetic of it all. The clientele.
• 32:46
  The clientele and, and you know what, it some, some other, you
• 32:51
  know, other companies they have, they have a great range of
• 32:55
  whiskeys as well, but they have distilleries that are all over
• 32:58
  the place and you can compare and contrast them.
• 33:00
  But to have two that are so close together, I mean it is one
• 33:05
  site, but 2 completely different whiskeys is an amazing thing to
• 33:09
  be able to go in and speak to people at.
• 33:11
  Ross it's amazing that we have had.
• 33:14
  If you're new to the podcast, go back and listen.
• 33:16
  There's a brilliant character called Danny Dyer.
• 33:18
  Who came up who? Was global brand ambassador for
• 33:22
  grants, which is your fundamental.
• 33:25
  He won that. Almost definitely large.
• 33:27
  He won that, he won the competition it become.
• 33:29
  The brand ambassador. But in terms of people, in terms
• 33:31
  of cases sold, I am imagine grants is your biggest product.
• 33:36
  One of them. And now you own famous grouse.
• 33:39
  Yep, we do. It's.
• 33:40
  A pretty big deal too, yeah. And you've got a blend that's so
• 33:43
  well and international market. He was talking about South
• 33:47
  America. Now you've acquired famous
• 33:49
  grouse, which is known that I think how many times a famous
• 33:52
  grouse be mentioned in the wish. You told this podcast we didn't
• 33:55
  make a rule there. We mentioned Famous Grouse.
• 33:57
  We'd always have to do a single song, but we've mentioned that 2
• 33:59
  minutes. We've not been very strict
• 34:01
  about. That it's amazing that you can
• 34:02
  have a family owned, genuinely family owned family run company
• 34:06
  with these two iconic malts who kind of market against
• 34:09
  themselves, you know, Glenfennick single malt, you'll
• 34:11
  never drink a blend again, never stand for a blend again.
• 34:14
  And it was a against their own thing.
• 34:16
  And at the same time, there's no doubt about it that Grants was
• 34:19
  keeping the lights on. Yeah.
• 34:20
  Yeah. In terms of how many cases they
• 34:22
  were selling, that's why I always wonder.
• 34:25
  I'm a big Balveni fan. Yeah.
• 34:27
  Cameron was a big lymphatic fan. Yeah.
• 34:29
  Yeah, it was perfect when you. Two were together for you, you
• 34:32
  know, selling these two brands, I know you cover the whole
• 34:35
  portfolio. Do you find there's a different
• 34:38
  whiskey drinker or different whiskey bio when it comes to
• 34:41
  these two? Accounts 100% we and you
• 34:44
  probably see this actually first hand when it comes to let's use
• 34:48
  American tourists as an example when they're coming to Scotch.
• 34:52
  Hello, New York. Hello.
• 34:53
  New York, yeah. When they're coming to Scotch
• 34:57
  and you recommend the Glenfiddich, they're not
• 34:59
  interested. That's true.
• 35:01
  Because they can get it back home, and I was fortunate enough
• 35:04
  to go over to New Orleans for for tails last year.
• 35:08
  And what's tales? Tales of the The cocktail.
• 35:12
  Basically it's, you know, every, everyone from all the top bars
• 35:16
  from around the world go there for a week of absolute May.
• 35:19
  I got one of them. Somebody else brought up our
• 35:21
  whiskey podcast called Whiskey. Tails.
• 35:25
  It's an annual festival or. An annual festival in New
• 35:27
  Orleans and you get, you know, panda and sons, great example.
• 35:33
  They, they won three awards there last year.
• 35:35
  And this is this is what people sort of class as the, the
• 35:42
  fellow, the bartender's choice. You know, it's like you're peer
• 35:45
  voting for the best people in in the world.
• 35:48
  It's not like it's not there's no real sort of agenda behind
• 35:51
  it. It's like these are the people
• 35:53
  that are doing as much for the industry as as they can.
• 35:56
  Anyway, I was there and one of our, I was fortunate enough that
• 36:00
  there was a Glenfiddich tasting going on in one of the hotels on
• 36:04
  the river and it was Wayne Cousins, I think he's called.
• 36:07
  He's the East Coast brand ambassador for Glenfiddich.
• 36:11
  And he was saying that they don't necessarily have a problem
• 36:15
  in terms of rate of sale of 21 plus of Glenfiddich because very
• 36:21
  different to how people in the UK are, are drinking.
• 36:26
  A lot of people will go out on a Friday or Thursday or whatever
• 36:29
  and they will ask for a 21 year old trial as if it's nothing.
• 36:33
  Not because of a money thing, but it's just the culture.
• 36:36
  It's the culture. If you're going to have a
• 36:37
  Scottish single malt, yeah, you might as well have an 18 or a 21
• 36:40
  year old. Exactly.
• 36:41
  And there definitely is a thing as well.
• 36:43
  It's interesting, you know, it's something we've, I can't
• 36:45
  remember who's spoken about it before, but it has been
• 36:47
  mentioned when, particularly with Scott Moore, actually, when
• 36:50
  he was over and when we were doing the tour of Edinburgh with
• 36:54
  him or in whiskey bars, he was wanting to try things that he
• 36:56
  wouldn't be able to get in the States.
• 36:58
  So it was a case of right, let's the Bonington you wouldn't have
• 37:01
  tried. That.
• 37:01
  Let's have that. These sorts of things, and I
• 37:03
  think that is a real appeal to your.
• 37:06
  Clientele, yeah. Particularly foreign tourists,
• 37:08
  whiskey drinkers in America, Whiskey.
• 37:10
  American whiskey drinkers. No, not just American, but
• 37:12
  foreign tourists. It's like what can I try here
• 37:14
  that I can't get back? Well, that's why like Jefferson
• 37:16
  St. Whiskey and Tobacco, they're
• 37:18
  shop there. They do so well because it's
• 37:19
  predominantly, you know, you walk into their shop and you've
• 37:23
  got obviously on the Royal Mile, you've got two or three
• 37:25
  different whiskey shops, you've got Royal Mile whiskeys and
• 37:27
  you've got the other ones on there which will sell you
• 37:29
  absolutely everything, even nested the canters of whiskey so
• 37:32
  desire. But when you walk into Jeffrey
• 37:34
  St. whiskey and tobacco, you do get a completely different and
• 37:38
  very heavily heavy on the on the bottlers in there.
• 37:42
  And it's basically because, and that that's what they'll say is
• 37:45
  I think it was Hector McLean and said that on the podcast is
• 37:48
  they'll get people that walk in there that go, I want to take
• 37:51
  something back that I can't find.
• 37:53
  And and where is the problem? You've got and they've got it's
• 37:56
  not a massive collection. Let's get in there.
• 37:58
  You know, it's not like it's sheltered and you walk in and
• 38:00
  it's great. You walk in around my whiskeys
• 38:01
  and you know, I sort of self exclude myself from that shop
• 38:04
  regularly because you can spend a long time.
• 38:07
  No. And it's like the walk, oh,
• 38:08
  whiskey you've got here at Diggers.
• 38:09
  Yeah, Yeah. When you've got 4 walls ground
• 38:12
  up of whiskey and then you can get someone like Mark Davidson
• 38:16
  and then you end up, I mean, the chat that you end up having.
• 38:19
  I always feel guilty because you end up just walking in and
• 38:21
  talking and then you go, right, I'm not buying today, I'm just
• 38:24
  so coming. But then you've got the whiskey,
• 38:27
  you know, the whiskey shop and Moultrie's walk somewhere thanks
• 38:30
  out to the ginger boy there. But yeah, so I take it.
• 38:33
  So that's the contradiction between Glenfiddich and Belvani
• 38:35
  then? Yeah.
• 38:36
  And I think, I think Dougal used the the and when he was on, he
• 38:41
  said it. Glenfiddich is almost a victim
• 38:43
  of its own success. Yeah.
• 38:45
  And you know what I think? I don't think the global brand
• 38:49
  team for Glenfiddich minds. A bit.
• 38:51
  Well, I was going to say it must be all right because.
• 38:54
  Because actually these American tourists or you know, any
• 38:58
  tourists that are over, they're, they're going back home.
• 39:01
  And when they go home, they'll probably end up drinking
• 39:04
  Glenfiddich and those bars that they go to again when they're in
• 39:06
  Scotland, they want to try something else and rightly so.
• 39:09
  I mean, when if we went on holiday, in fact, that's
• 39:13
  something we should all do actually, it'd be great fun.
• 39:16
  But if we did like, we're not. Monaco Grand Prix's coming.
• 39:20
  Up. You're asking the wrong way.
• 39:23
  It's worth it. If we went to Harris in Spain,
• 39:25
  we just find somewhere wagon chips, it would be happy.
• 39:29
  I'm joking. I'm joking.
• 39:31
  I'm joking. No, I'm I'm the same.
• 39:32
  I if I go, if I go abroad, if I if I go to Spain or if I go to
• 39:36
  Italy, I Spanish food, Italian food, I want to if I go to
• 39:40
  Spain, I want to drink Sherry. You want to try If I exactly
• 39:42
  it's something different. People don't get back.
• 39:44
  People are authentic. So Balveni isn't so in terms of
• 39:48
  so Glenfinic is so globally pushed, but Balveni isn't.
• 39:51
  But Balveni doesn't seem to suffer in the same way that
• 39:54
  Glenfiddich does. I don't know whether this is
• 39:56
  something that Ross, you and your team at Scotch find it
• 40:01
  easier to talk about because the craft.
• 40:04
  Behind it and it's got a bit more, not a bit more of a story
• 40:08
  because actually Glenfiddich has an amazing story behind it.
• 40:10
  Probably you know, I mean Balveni is because of
• 40:14
  Glenfiddich, you know, it exists because of that, so.
• 40:18
  I find that people who want to be quote UN quote, serious
• 40:22
  whiskey drinkers take Balveni very seriously, whereas the
• 40:26
  success of Glenfiddich is so out there.
• 40:28
  They can go into any shop anywhere in the world and see
• 40:30
  Glenfiddich that you go. I'm kind of I'm, I've levelled
• 40:33
  up beyond that a wee bit. Not necessarily true.
• 40:35
  You get past the Glen for next. Day because there might be a
• 40:39
  thing. There might be a thing there,
• 40:41
  Ross, where let's say Graham and I just getting into whiskey,
• 40:45
  going to the Scotch. We meet Cam, maybe for the first
• 40:47
  time, and he says, oh, I've got the biggest Glen for the
• 40:49
  collection. You're going this guy, this guy
• 40:51
  might. I thought this guy was meant to
• 40:53
  be into whiskey, and he's got. This like, yeah, I've got a
• 40:56
  bottle. Of Glenfinnick at home.
• 40:57
  Do you know what? Biggest.
• 40:58
  That's what you was getting, say Glenfinnick.
• 41:00
  People would say, really? There's a bit where.
• 41:01
  It wasn't because, yeah, he believed in the liquid, but it's
• 41:04
  a bit like, yeah, I'm surprised that's not something more niche.
• 41:06
  Yeah. But Charles Kerr liked England
• 41:08
  Talkers. Yeah.
• 41:09
  Exactly this is almost. Because it's super.
• 41:11
  Well, this is it. You almost expect.
• 41:12
  That well, that, but I suppose like from your point of view
• 41:15
  then we've always talked about the to Tam to McAllen situation.
• 41:18
  Yeah, where I've seen it play out myself.
• 41:22
  And I do apologise to our American listeners because we're
• 41:25
  they're getting, they're getting sort of vilified here in some
• 41:28
  sense. But I've seen it standing at the
• 41:30
  bar, as I like to do at the at the Balmoral Hotel.
• 41:32
  Scotch, just to know. That you mentioned to them.
• 41:35
  Just just just about the bar team, but I've seen an American
• 41:38
  walking in and one of your staff, I think it was Curtis.
• 41:41
  As polite as ever. Hello, Sir, Can I help you?
• 41:44
  Yeah, I'm here for a sketch. And he says, well, you're in the
• 41:46
  right place and this is the grab a seat.
• 41:50
  Is there anything in particularly like?
• 41:51
  I like the McAllen. I want to try something.
• 41:53
  He said, well, he said, well, we've got loads of that.
• 41:55
  Do you want to try that or do you want to try something a
• 41:57
  little bit different? No, no, give me something
• 41:59
  different. And he says tan and I don't know
• 42:01
  what it was. I don't know what the lowest tan
• 42:03
  do. You'll accept in the on the
• 42:04
  shelves. And most sold are the 18 and 21.
• 42:07
  18 Well, would you like to try tan do and it went back to the
• 42:11
  show pony workhorse situation. Is that a situation for
• 42:14
  yourself, Ross with Balveni Glenn Finnick where someone
• 42:17
  might go. I've heard a Glenn Finnick know
• 42:19
  about it. I said, well, have you heard a
• 42:20
  Balveni? I get a lot.
• 42:22
  What's your favorite whiskey Glenn finish?
• 42:24
  I said no problem. Have you had the Balveni?
• 42:27
  And I don't think I have actually.
• 42:29
  And what I like about Balveni is whenever you speak about Balveni
• 42:32
  in depth, even though it's the same credibility as Glenfiddich,
• 42:36
  when you say it out loud, it sounds so credible.
• 42:38
  That's actually still family owned.
• 42:39
  You know, that's port with 21. You guys haven't?
• 42:42
  Tried that. I've tried.
• 42:44
  That's not with. 21 This isn't just a finish to make it 21.
• 42:48
  This is 21 years with an additional six months in that
• 42:51
  port to finish. You know, in fact, they're being
• 42:53
  more generous than anybody else would bother doing.
• 42:56
  You know, if you're new to whiskey, we often ask them what
• 42:59
  do you like, are you a wine drinker, blah blah.
• 43:01
  And how often do we get a drink Cabernet?
• 43:04
  I like port and cherry. Well, why do you have this?
• 43:06
  It's smooth. Smooth as, as I say, too perfect
• 43:09
  40% for me. This is the perfect balveni
• 43:12
  because it's for everybody. Even.
• 43:14
  Though it's in a luxury color brand, it's true.
• 43:17
  It's true. I will often see a whiskey and
• 43:19
  I'll see it at 40% and the first thing I'll do is criticize,
• 43:24
  whereas I use it to I don't know why that is probably biased, but
• 43:28
  it's probably biased. But to me, I always use it as a
• 43:30
  selling point. Well, this is your first whiskey
• 43:33
  of the day. Have a balcony Portland smooth
• 43:35
  as extra six months family owned just put an independent brand
• 43:38
  here, etcetera, etcetera. I should start using, you know,
• 43:41
  biggest taxpayers in Scotland because that's but it's true
• 43:44
  because it looks great and and it's delicious and what do you
• 43:48
  think? It's very.
• 43:49
  General. And this is but.
• 43:51
  Do you know what it's a? £100 a ball.
• 43:52
  But this is what? It's, it's such a you DRAM,
• 43:55
  Ross. Like I'm drinking that and I'm
• 43:57
  like Ross Barr. I've also I'm knowing what you
• 44:01
  like this is not them that you don't have to weighed in on this
• 44:04
  one time because the brand team will probably be too tough to
• 44:09
  hear in this. But I've heard Ross describe
• 44:10
  whiskeys like this as soft as a baby shite, right?
• 44:16
  But there's a world where I've got a few things I want to talk
• 44:19
  about. First of all, on this topic, we
• 44:21
  did a Scotch tasting at the Balmoral.
• 44:23
  We were sat beside each other, the Brian Kinsman. 1000 Parents.
• 44:27
  Was there and he talked us through some fantastic and
• 44:30
  actually. For People, Brian Kinsman.
• 44:32
  Master blender for the Glen Fener.
• 44:34
  Yeah, 6th. Only this in 139 years of the
• 44:37
  distillery. Brian Kinsman is the only the
• 44:39
  6th person in its house today to be the guy that signs off the
• 44:43
  bottle. But essentially all of my life.
• 44:45
  Born in 199927 years old now. Unfortunately, pretty much every
• 44:49
  Glen Fenerick has been signed off by Brian.
• 44:51
  Kinsman And one of the crazy things about that night was he
• 44:54
  did something to me where he picked up one of the the the
• 44:57
  samples and he swirled it around and annoys me how impressionable
• 45:02
  I am. But when you get a master
• 45:06
  blender saying it, you know and he went and it was a cask
• 45:09
  sample. So it wasn't like there was
• 45:10
  tasting notes to this. It was Brian Kinsley goes, you
• 45:13
  know, when you smell that, it just takes you back to techie at
• 45:16
  school, right? And he goes and you've just used
• 45:19
  the bandsaw and I'm just. Getting pencil shavings.
• 45:22
  Pencil shavings and I just as soon as I smelt it went got me
• 45:26
  there right but. You're back in the techie
• 45:28
  classroom, but. One of the things was very
• 45:29
  interesting about that was there were some incredible whiskeys on
• 45:32
  the lineup as you would expect. As Ross has self-proclaimed the
• 45:35
  best whiskey tastings in Scotland, and I would agree with
• 45:38
  the Scottish club, but a lot of them were in the low 40s, if not
• 45:43
  40%. And after the after that we sat
• 45:45
  there being the whiskey snobs that we've turned into, we kind
• 45:48
  of went interesting that there were so many 40%.
• 45:51
  But then it was raised. The question was, well, you
• 45:54
  know, a lot of people who are buying this stuff, who are
• 45:56
  buying it at the high end, they don't want to be challenged.
• 45:59
  That's why I always. They want something simple,
• 46:01
  easygoing, so you some people might turn their nose up and go.
• 46:05
  I'd love to try the 21 at 46. I bet you you speak to Brian
• 46:08
  Kinsman. Or do you speak and ask him,
• 46:10
  would you like to sell? I said that to Brian.
• 46:13
  Probably say I would love the majority of our whiskey is to be
• 46:16
  at 46 and above, but what I also know is the brand team will tell
• 46:21
  me and the people who are actually selling this whiskey
• 46:23
  will go you know what if. Someone wants to.
• 46:25
  Spend £200 in a bottle of that because you know what, it's got
• 46:28
  the age statement, it's got the brand name on it and it tastes
• 46:31
  very, very good and they don't have to sit there.
• 46:34
  And the worst thing is. Consistent.
• 46:36
  And I yeah, and I know that tasting.
• 46:39
  I think my drama the evening was the 21, which I think is that.
• 46:42
  Grand Reserver. Grand Reserver which is?
• 46:44
  Is that 40% or? It is 40%.
• 46:47
  Is 40%. It's not lovely.
• 46:48
  But I want to talk on the topic of lovely of lovely drams.
• 46:51
  I want to say I was going to say when you mentioned it, I've been
• 46:53
  holding this for ages. Of Glenn Ferrick, Aston Martin
• 46:56
  16. Yes, I wanted to hate this.
• 47:00
  I genuinely did. Thank.
• 47:00
  McLaren fan No. I think.
• 47:03
  It's a big here fan. Actually, well, I love the KIAS,
• 47:06
  but it's an interesting one because it's a change of
• 47:09
  direction for Glenn Finnick. We've talked a lot about on the
• 47:12
  pod over the last couple of weeks there, the brand change,
• 47:15
  the rebrand and you know, we're looking at the industry right
• 47:19
  now as a whole. When people are talking about
• 47:20
  where the where the industry's going and we we mentioned about
• 47:23
  and showing, I raised the question, as you know, the worry
• 47:25
  is with brands are starting to rebrand for the sake of
• 47:28
  rebranding. Dougal spoke on the podcast
• 47:31
  about how was it Mr. Charles? Was that his grandfather?
• 47:36
  Great grandfather's grandfather. That was his.
• 47:38
  His uncle. His Charles gone grandpa's
• 47:40
  brother I. Think yeah, something like that.
• 47:41
  So Mr. So. But he talks about the love that
• 47:44
  Mister Charles had for the bagpipes.
• 47:46
  Yeah. And how so?
• 47:47
  Glenn Ferrick have sponsored the Heritage of the Bagpipe World
• 47:51
  Championship. Yeah.
• 47:52
  I love going to the Braemar Highland Games.
• 47:54
  Yeah. And I love the fact that Glenn
• 47:56
  Ferrick will sponsor the heavies.
• 47:58
  If you couldn't picture the more Scottish thing than a big heavy
• 48:01
  guy in a kilt. Yeah.
• 48:02
  Tossing the cable and what have you.
• 48:03
  And there's Glenn Ferrick on there.
• 48:04
  The Royal Military Tattoo in Eden, Is that a new thing or has
• 48:07
  that been fairly? That was our first year last
• 48:09
  year. Yeah, so there you go.
• 48:10
  So you literally pictured as much as Scottish as you could
• 48:13
  possibly do, but the Aston Martin thing, right.
• 48:15
  So when Dougal brought this along and I'd already seen it, I
• 48:17
  thought, you know what? And Dougal made a very good
• 48:19
  point, is there is a danger that people will look at what they're
• 48:23
  doing. And we've talked about it
• 48:25
  before. Angus is it's dead easy for
• 48:27
  whiskey brands to potentially slap a label on collab, stick
• 48:30
  some, stick some liquid in there, hope it sells.
• 48:33
  And I think, you know, maybe not in the last two or three years,
• 48:36
  but definitely 5 to 10 years. In the last 15 years.
• 48:39
  It's not something we've been guilty over.
• 48:41
  Absolutely not. But I love it.
• 48:43
  Yeah, I absolutely love this. And, and it's interesting and I
• 48:47
  don't mind, I don't mind the direction as well with the Aston
• 48:52
  Martin, your luxury. It's, I mean, it, it's
• 48:55
  interesting to, to get your take on it because I think at a time
• 49:01
  when, you know, a lot of people are worried about distilleries
• 49:05
  closing and that sort of thing, it might seem like something
• 49:09
  that's a bit of a, you know, a big investment into something
• 49:13
  that you don't necessarily know what the returns are going to
• 49:16
  be. But what I'd say is that, you
• 49:20
  know, Glenfiddich, we're not the first alcohol brand to go into
• 49:23
  Formula One, but you know, by no means, and we won't be the last,
• 49:27
  but Glenfiddich have a history of trying different things.
• 49:31
  Trying to be pioneers. Trying to be pioneers and you
• 49:34
  know, it just so happens that Glenmo also, you know, did I
• 49:41
  think they're partnered with F1 as an entirety rather than just
• 49:44
  a team. But if you look at Aston Martin
• 49:47
  as a team, they're a company and they're a team in transition and
• 49:52
  they've chosen to go a different way.
• 49:53
  They've got Adrian Newey to come in to redesign things.
• 49:56
  OK, start of the season, it's looking like they're going to be
• 49:59
  towards the back of the grid. I guarantee you by the end of
• 50:02
  the season they will go up and up and up and they will their
• 50:06
  performance will get better. And they're also supporting A
• 50:08
  fundamentally iconic British car.
• 50:10
  Brand and as well and that's it. And there are so many things
• 50:14
  about Aston Martin is a brand and Glenn Fiddick is a brand as
• 50:19
  British institutions. Yeah.
• 50:21
  And the alignment, I think is actually, there's nothing wrong
• 50:26
  with us being the number one world's most awarded single
• 50:30
  malt. It's something we it's a badge
• 50:32
  we wear. With Chuck, Ryan, Mary there.
• 50:34
  You. Go.
• 50:35
  I've ticked that box, but these are the partnerships that we
• 50:40
  almost need to do to keep, not keep Glenfiddich relevant,
• 50:43
  because Glenfiddich will always be relevant, but to keep it at
• 50:46
  the forefront of of people. Well, it's funny because I.
• 50:48
  I you like the liquid as. Well, I love the liquid.
• 50:51
  Fundamentally, yeah, that's important.
• 50:53
  The it's still liquid forward. Absolutely, 100%.
• 50:56
  And when you've got, like you say, a guy like Brian Kinsman
• 50:58
  signing something off, you know he's not going to put.
• 51:00
  But at the same time, I think it could have been gimmicky.
• 51:02
  And it's not gimmicky, it's actually solid.
• 51:05
  What I would say is that in a previous life I worked in a, you
• 51:08
  know, I worked for a football club.
• 51:10
  And one of their really interesting conversations years
• 51:12
  and years and years ago, I remember being involved in a
• 51:15
  conversation with a sponsor who actually left the football club
• 51:18
  and we were at a low, low end. Yeah, football club in Scotland.
• 51:21
  Or you don't do this at the. Time at the time the sponsor
• 51:25
  left tiny club and what it was, was they loved, he said.
• 51:27
  They were a big company, a multinational company and the
• 51:31
  managing director of the company was a local guy who was putting
• 51:33
  his money into his local football club.
• 51:35
  And he was able to write it off and he was able to say, listen,
• 51:39
  the guys what we bring over from Scandinavia, they love coming in
• 51:43
  and instead of getting the glass boxes and all their asthmatazz,
• 51:46
  they love being in authentic football.
• 51:48
  But I remember when he left, he said there's only so many times
• 51:52
  I can do that for them. There's only so many times I can
• 51:54
  take out a customer who's a high end customer, a guy who spends
• 51:58
  millions of pounds of their business.
• 51:59
  There's almost so many times I can take them into the, you
• 52:02
  know, that environment when I could take them to, you know, I
• 52:06
  could take them down to England to an English Premier League, I
• 52:09
  could take them to a Scottish Premier League, I could take my
• 52:11
  Celtic, Rangers, Old Firm game. And the experience of that, is
• 52:14
  that something like for yourself, where you're looking
• 52:16
  at and going, yeah, the a tent or a marquee, I should say, at
• 52:21
  the Braemar Highland Games is a great experience to go to.
• 52:24
  Never done it myself. I've run around the place but
• 52:26
  I've never actually just sat down with Tim getting bored of.
• 52:29
  Drum maybe this year agree, but. There's there's, there's that,
• 52:33
  then there's also the the bagpipes and what have you.
• 52:36
  And it's great to be part of that, that Scottish authentic
• 52:39
  tradition, but from a branding point of view.
• 52:42
  And if you're. Entering into a new market and
• 52:43
  it's also entering in like I say, do you want to send someone
• 52:46
  into a marquee at Braeman? There's nothing wrong with that.
• 52:49
  Drinking some very, very nice Glen FedEx or some, you know, or
• 52:53
  do you want to be sitting on and and you know, trackside watching
• 52:57
  foreign modern cards going in which I'm sure there's probably
• 53:00
  a possibility that that happens as well.
• 53:02
  Well, it's, I think there are a couple of points in there, the
• 53:04
  rebranding side of things. And you know, you mentioned
• 53:07
  about Highland Park and they it's been met with, let's say, a
• 53:13
  lukewarm response. I feel the same of most to
• 53:16
  rebrand. Yeah, Aaron's a distillery.
• 53:18
  I always give an example of Everybody hated the rebrand.
• 53:20
  Yeah. And everybody decided it's the
• 53:22
  best thing they've ever done. Well, this is it.
• 53:23
  And I'm one of those people. Every everything takes time.
• 53:26
  Yeah. Glenfiddich is going to go
• 53:27
  through a rebrand this year. I don't think that's that's a
• 53:31
  secret. It's we are 1887 first drops
• 53:39
  came out Christmas Day. Everyone knows the story,
• 53:42
  everything has had to evolve over time and it will keep
• 53:45
  evolving because it is at the forefront of whiskey.
• 53:48
  You know, the rebrand, you might look at the new bottle when it
• 53:51
  comes out and go, I preferred the old one.
• 53:54
  But there's something that's just human nature.
• 53:56
  You see something that you're used to and you harp back to
• 53:59
  that. But we will progress with the
• 54:01
  times of any. Probably less so at the same
• 54:04
  sort of rate as Glenn Phytic, because that's almost more
• 54:08
  rooted in tradition in terms of the labeling.
• 54:14
  It's a very kind of traditional labeling, right?
• 54:16
  Yeah, it's about. That right, Yeah.
• 54:21
  It's the most iconic bottle in West Key, but Baveli to me is
• 54:27
  the one that's like untouchable because I think it's what I'm
• 54:30
  using you as a whiskey drinker. But do you think it because like
• 54:32
  the one thing with Glenfidic is when you look at I'm looking at
• 54:35
  an older bottle here, you can see there the one thing with
• 54:37
  Glenfidic is there's so many different factors to the
• 54:40
  uniqueness of the. Glenfidic brand.
• 54:42
  Thing right in the sense of you've got the first of all,
• 54:44
  you've got the triangular bottle.
• 54:45
  Next you've got the stag, then it's you've got the writing of
• 54:49
  Glenfiddic across the off across the front.
• 54:51
  And notice you've brought the you've brought the the Grant
• 54:54
  family family Crest is coming back in the standfast, sort of
• 54:59
  it is coming back on the logo. What I also know is that you
• 55:02
  know, actually for a lot of people, the typeface and the
• 55:05
  font that is being used is actually the typeface and font
• 55:08
  that was used on the original Glenfinic first ever Glenfinic
• 55:12
  bottles, single bottle. That's why I tell them the
• 55:16
  story, what you know, from a branding and marketing point of
• 55:18
  view. Yeah, telling the story
• 55:20
  alongside it, because I'll be honest, I first saw it.
• 55:23
  My first reaction was, what are they doing?
• 55:26
  Read the story. And you got it.
• 55:28
  Actually, OK, I get it a little bit, but at the same time you're
• 55:32
  right. I think when you look at
• 55:33
  Glenfedic through and you know someone like Cameron Ewen, as
• 55:36
  we've mentioned a lot, yeah, I think we should probably that'll
• 55:37
  be the last mention to get some. But when you look at his whiskey
• 55:41
  collection, he'll have and Mark Thompson's house will be the
• 55:44
  same. He'll have the Glenfedic
• 55:45
  collections where you could almost age each bottle through
• 55:48
  the branding, but because there's so many, not so much
• 55:51
  government. On the flip side, the Balveni
• 55:54
  branding, bottle shape, stand, you know, style.
• 55:57
  Very simple. Balveni seems almost quite new
• 55:59
  to people. I think still it's a really
• 56:01
  interesting point. The brands are so well
• 56:03
  established. You're trying to sell the high
• 56:05
  end stuff out, which is always changing in terms of cash
• 56:08
  composition for Glenfinn. I think it's one of the
• 56:09
  interesting things as somebody that's selling the product,
• 56:12
  that's trying to be an ambassador for the brand from my
• 56:15
  own brand home is lymphatic. All these wine finishes the rum
• 56:19
  finishes the conversation worthy whiskey despite being such an
• 56:23
  old school brand and you talk about the sponsorships
• 56:25
  conversation worthy. What you're able to do and your
• 56:29
  team are able to do for the Andre in Scotland to get back to
• 56:31
  your job, I think is the best in terms of activations and and
• 56:38
  point of contact. And it's a club you run called
• 56:40
  the Century Club. Yeah, yeah.
• 56:42
  And this is something that I don't know how long it's been
• 56:45
  going. Maybe you can tell us a bit more
• 56:46
  about it, but this is the most engaged I've ever felt with a
• 56:51
  brand, and that is in Century. Well, before, before you say it,
• 56:53
  I will say it. And again, I don't want to be,
• 56:55
  you know, I don't want to blow too much smoke up there up your
• 56:57
  backside, but come on. What I would say is, you know,
• 57:00
  we've had people on the podcast talking about it.
• 57:04
  In fact, episode #3 with Hazel McLeod, yes.
• 57:07
  Yeah. Yeah, and absolutely, Kev, Kev's
• 57:09
  backed up big time. Yeah, big time.
• 57:11
  But Kev's backed it up a little bit by, you know, being the one
• 57:14
  that talks about Kev, who owns the Diggers.
• 57:16
  I said that, you know, as a brand, William Grant and Sons
• 57:20
  really does look after the on trade.
• 57:22
  Yeah, very, very, very. Well, Kevin?
• 57:24
  Although I will say haven't talked up Glenn FedEx so much,
• 57:28
  having had a member of the family on the podcast, now
• 57:31
  having a luxury national, we have still never been sent Glenn
• 57:35
  FedEx T-shirts, you know? I've always taken care of me
• 57:41
  too, so that's one of the. Podcast.
• 57:44
  We just want a couple of well, you'll need 3T shirts for for, I
• 57:47
  said myself. Well.
• 57:49
  We'll tell you the sizes off the podcast.
• 57:52
  Size FB. In the Century Club, what is
• 57:56
  Century? Club, what is the century?
• 57:58
  Club so the the century Club is is a scheme developed by a
• 58:04
  colleague of mine called Dave Andrews, which is scheme makes
• 58:07
  it sound like we're, you know, trying to make money off people.
• 58:10
  We're not This is this is a program designed to reward
• 58:14
  people who are loyal to to our brands.
• 58:17
  Basically if you stock over 100 years worth of of Glenfiddich,
• 58:22
  Balbane, anything in our portfolio then you become a
• 58:26
  member of the Century Club. There are 4 tiers, 100 + 203
• 58:31
  hundred 400. The top 400 members, Scotch
• 58:35
  Diggers is one of them. They get to go on these amazing
• 58:39
  trips, frame our games, sort of. Tattoo.
• 58:43
  I'd never been to a tattoo and I was able to take my wife to the
• 58:46
  tattoo last year with Glenn Fiddick.
• 58:47
  Yeah, just for. Did you get a wee Glenn Fiddick
• 58:50
  like seat pad that you were to sit on?
• 58:52
  Are we going? Did you get a wee?
• 58:54
  Did you get a wee tarting? A wee tarting straw for where to
• 58:57
  keep you warm. Only you're jealousy could make
• 58:59
  this sound like a that. Thing.
• 59:01
  What I did get was an amazing hip flash with little cups that
• 59:03
  now are in northern Michigan. And my father, Oh yeah, they
• 59:06
  went over in November. He said, oh, I seen you were
• 59:09
  going to see. And all this thing a castle.
• 59:11
  And I said, well, that's the tattoo.
• 59:13
  We do it once a year. And I said, naturally this is
• 59:15
  for you. And so hand on this little
• 59:17
  Glenfinic flask, but they've taken me to Balveri.
• 59:20
  It took me my first brand trip to London, which we mentioned on
• 59:22
  the podcast previously. Kev and Claire were down there
• 59:26
  and got that was the first time you tried Glenfinic 30 or 40?
• 59:29
  I can't remember. But I think it's the most
• 59:32
  interactive brand to sale activation that any brand has
• 59:38
  ever done because it's consistent.
• 59:40
  You know there's going to be a couple of Century Club events in
• 59:42
  the year that makes you, by the way, that makes you.
• 59:46
  Absolutely. As somebody who I don't own my
• 59:48
  bar, Kev owns his bar, but I know he'll look at it as an
• 59:50
  owner. Me running Scotch when a new WGS
• 59:54
  project comes out. When grandson's.
• 59:56
  When Grandson's product comes out, I take note.
• 1:00:00
  And by what I was saying, so just to confirm then this is
• 1:00:03
  the. You're talking about on trade?
• 1:00:05
  So, no. But wait, so that is 100 years,
• 1:00:07
  200 years, 300 years, 400 years of Glenfiddich on your shelves?
• 1:00:11
  Yeah. Or Belvani.
• 1:00:12
  Or Bravani. Monkey shoulder has a certain
• 1:00:15
  value. To.
• 1:00:16
  It wild More, which is our other luxury blend.
• 1:00:20
  So it has an age to it, yeah, on the on trade, but it's.
• 1:00:24
  Like point, what can you reveal? What that age is actually?
• 1:00:28
  No, that's how. Hazelwood is Country Club as
• 1:00:31
  well. House of Hazelwood is, I think
• 1:00:34
  it's considered. We will.
• 1:00:36
  We will consider it if people are like, oh, we've got.
• 1:00:39
  This if you're borderline so. There's a bar house to house I
• 1:00:42
  think. It's important to see people
• 1:00:43
  that don't know. I know you technically represent
• 1:00:46
  another part of the brand, but what is actually what is House
• 1:00:48
  of Hazelwood? Because I think for your job in
• 1:00:50
  luxury, although you're not working for them, it's very
• 1:00:52
  adjacent. So funnily enough, we had a
• 1:00:55
  House of Hazelwood training down in our Richmond office actually.
• 1:01:00
  Which is a low pressure. Global.
• 1:01:02
  Global. Head for London isn't.
• 1:01:03
  It. Yep, yeah.
• 1:01:04
  Hello, London. Hello, London.
• 1:01:05
  Hello, London. And.
• 1:01:08
  All the other suburbs. Richmond on Thames.
• 1:01:10
  House House of Hazelwood is a really interesting brand because
• 1:01:14
  they are, they've almost been quite secretive in how they work
• 1:01:19
  and operate. They are part of William Grant
• 1:01:21
  and Sons, but they sort of go about their business.
• 1:01:25
  They go and see the same accounts that I do.
• 1:01:27
  They've got relationship with Ross but it's completely
• 1:01:31
  separate conversations to what I'm having with Ross, even
• 1:01:33
  though it's the same. Time they operate almost as a
• 1:01:35
  different entity or be you're the same.
• 1:01:37
  Guy Still, William Grant and Sons, The Charles Gordon
• 1:01:40
  Collection. What is the House of Hazelwood?
• 1:01:42
  Well, this is it. Well, I mean, it's, it was
• 1:01:46
  almost a sort of, so I think it was started to, but as a way of
• 1:01:52
  sort of rewarding, not rewarding, but sort of engaging
• 1:01:55
  partners that they had in, you know, trade and business
• 1:01:59
  partners and that sort of thing. But the stuff that they were
• 1:02:02
  producing was so good. They were like, there's a market
• 1:02:05
  here. Some of the best ones you've
• 1:02:06
  ever. Had Is this the Brian Kinsman
• 1:02:08
  stuff that. It's not Brian Kins.
• 1:02:10
  Brian Kinsman actually does sit on the tasting board as far as
• 1:02:13
  I'm aware. But house.
• 1:02:14
  So the Hazelwood house is the family owned house, right?
• 1:02:17
  Yeah. That's kind of what I was doing
• 1:02:18
  at first. Sorry, so I thought you meant as
• 1:02:20
  the brother. Yeah.
• 1:02:21
  So it's the house. Is it in Duffton?
• 1:02:24
  Yeah, I think. It's so it's like the family
• 1:02:26
  house for the Grants family. Charles Gordon have the Charles
• 1:02:30
  Gordon collection. It's single grains, blended
• 1:02:32
  malts, blended Scotch, Not necessarily just from William
• 1:02:36
  Grant and Sons portfolio, WGS portfolio.
• 1:02:39
  It could be from all sorts. But no doubt a strong.
• 1:02:41
  And low out turn high age statement it is in luxury.
• 1:02:47
  Some of the most exciting stuff you can get your hands on,
• 1:02:49
  right. I have two bottles that have
• 1:02:50
  recently arrived. I'm going to have three and I'm
• 1:02:52
  going. To put this is interesting.
• 1:02:53
  I don't think I've ever tried anything.
• 1:02:54
  From it's expensive Angus Angus as in I've got 2 and they're
• 1:02:59
  both £300 plus per DRAM. Right, but I've been working for
• 1:03:03
  grants for 3 1/2 years and I only tasted my first House of
• 1:03:06
  Hazelwood 3 weeks ago. This is what I mean.
• 1:03:12
  I think this is almost what has not the only thing going for it
• 1:03:16
  as a brand because it's an incredible brand.
• 1:03:18
  And in terms of luxury like that, that is sort of the top
• 1:03:22
  end. But it's almost quite secretive
• 1:03:24
  in terms of how they operate, what they do and what they're
• 1:03:28
  and what they produce is some of the, as Ross says, some of the
• 1:03:31
  best whiskies that you've ever. Tried.
• 1:03:33
  It's so interesting, though. It's like a if you know, you
• 1:03:35
  know brand, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:36
  And. And the five farms up in
• 1:03:40
  Braemar. Classic example of a A hotel
• 1:03:44
  that has bought into this story. You know, space side.
• 1:03:48
  Decent whiskey bar as well. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:50
  But my dad when he was on a. Belt there, I believe it was.
• 1:03:53
  That was last year, wasn't it? Yeah, my dad, when he was on a
• 1:03:56
  walk the other day, he found a deer skull with the antlers on
• 1:04:02
  and he took it home of him in his bag because he thought it
• 1:04:04
  was, you know, with 1 antler, they're definitely taking it.
• 1:04:06
  With two antlers, I'm 100% taking it.
• 1:04:09
  Put it in bleach just to make sure no one got anthrax and all
• 1:04:11
  that sort of thing. And he was like, I'm, I'm going
• 1:04:14
  for the going for the five farms kill.
• 1:04:16
  Wall I. Just need another.
• 1:04:17
  I'll just need another 100. I wonder where that was?
• 1:04:21
  Going I'll just do that another 100 but it's like a wee deer but
• 1:04:24
  it's got the antlers there but I.
• 1:04:26
  I stayed there in in November and my ceiling in my bedroom had
• 1:04:30
  about 30 Rd. Deer.
• 1:04:34
  Yeah. Antlers.
• 1:04:34
  Yeah. It was a wee bit bizarre, but
• 1:04:36
  I'm amazing that it's so by. The way I can't remember it's
• 1:04:39
  yeah, there's a particular wall I think in one of the kind of.
• 1:04:43
  So that's our. Dealer.
• 1:04:45
  I mean, I can't believe I've I've started a segment on what
• 1:04:48
  is almost a direct rival, but but the five farms and the
• 1:04:51
  Balmoral, we share the same clientele.
• 1:04:54
  People stay with us and then they go up to and you know what,
• 1:04:57
  the Fife arms is so important to the Highlands in Scotland.
• 1:05:01
  And they are because we never had, we never had somewhere that
• 1:05:05
  was luxury properly. I think the Forbes 4 star, which
• 1:05:09
  is super high end and has this whiskey, this whiskey bar,
• 1:05:13
  Bertie's Bar, which I'm very delighted to say that I had a
• 1:05:15
  great time and as a guest of William Grant and Sons as well.
• 1:05:19
  Oh, sorry, I had a great time. And that was with Sean.
• 1:05:23
  Yeah. And they've got up to Balveni
• 1:05:25
  50, available by The Drum, and they have house on Hazelwood.
• 1:05:27
  Yeah, yeah, and and. Well, there was a famous like
• 1:05:29
  you say, but there was a famous bell that some people questioned
• 1:05:32
  how real it was it. Was real.
• 1:05:34
  It was. Real about some. 150 it.
• 1:05:36
  Was a New Year's Eve bell, wasn't it on?
• 1:05:39
  And so it's funny when you talk about luxury and sales and for
• 1:05:42
  example, my procurement thing, I'm not really maybe do a
• 1:05:45
  different episode on it. Procurement is something that I,
• 1:05:48
  I've really enjoyed my role now, but you haven't.
• 1:05:53
  For me, my top DRAM at Scotch going into next year is going to
• 1:05:57
  be 1000 lbs a DRAM. And by the way, for everybody,
• 1:06:00
  that's it. But that's outrageous.
• 1:06:01
  I totally understand. One draft.
• 1:06:04
  I understand for most folks that's totally outrageous, but
• 1:06:07
  they have drams at 10:15 KA DRAM.
• 1:06:09
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would feel slightly
• 1:06:13
  uncomfortable. I think having some, having some
• 1:06:15
  bottles open for four or five years that.
• 1:06:18
  Kind of level. But they do have the clientele
• 1:06:21
  where they can move on. But it's amazing that there's an
• 1:06:24
  account in Scotland, your account that can buy Balveni
• 1:06:27
  50403025, have all the rare marriages.
• 1:06:31
  I love the rare marriages. I would say I'm the number one
• 1:06:33
  advocate for Balveni rare managers.
• 1:06:35
  But it's the 30 and the 25 that I stock because realistically I
• 1:06:40
  think that's commercial products.
• 1:06:42
  I'm confident I can turn around and my team can turn around
• 1:06:44
  within the year. I still think it's amazing.
• 1:06:47
  They've got a full House of Hazelwood range up there most.
• 1:06:50
  Expensive flight in the. World, I think it's over. 400
• 1:06:54
  years on a flight or something like that.
• 1:06:56
  Or something like that. I mean, because I suppose then
• 1:06:58
  it makes sense if. They're in the Century Club
• 1:07:01
  before the 1st I'm. Just trying to do the mental
• 1:07:04
  math here, right? I think we're verging into the
• 1:07:07
  century club but I'm trying to work out here just to get some
• 1:07:11
  T-shirts. Would be quite nice.
• 1:07:13
  How many glenfedic twelves would we have to drink just to hit the
• 1:07:16
  400 years? Wow.
• 1:07:19
  They get a calculator 12 times, yeah.
• 1:07:21
  We're going to have to open up a bar to get into the centre.
• 1:07:24
  The Braemar games, because I love it, I mean.
• 1:07:26
  As a Scottish club member, you might want to give yourself an
• 1:07:28
  invite to something very. Rarely.
• 1:07:29
  Well, I mean, if you're going to Braemar games, remember it by a
• 1:07:32
  programmer. Yeah.
• 1:07:33
  So basically it's actually, I think it's his last year, this
• 1:07:36
  year. So my uncle, I don't know, I
• 1:07:38
  think I mentioned. We have mentioned.
• 1:07:40
  That my uncle he he he creates the programs for Braemar.
• 1:07:43
  We'll have to get all. This.
• 1:07:44
  I wondered why that was and basically so.
• 1:07:46
  He, he, he spends the year, so he's the whole year, his job and
• 1:07:50
  he's semi retired now. His job is to create the program
• 1:07:53
  from start to finish, get it published and get it all created
• 1:07:56
  and everything like that. And then basically what happens
• 1:07:58
  is him, auntie, my uncle, my my cousins and a few of us, my dad,
• 1:08:02
  my mum and it used to be my Gran and granddad.
• 1:08:05
  Go to your family. We all head up and basically we
• 1:08:08
  get a night stay on the Friday night.
• 1:08:09
  We all arrive different times. Friday we got a good meal, good
• 1:08:11
  couple of drinks, but we're up at 6:00.
• 1:08:13
  Saturday morning, we're down there and we're selling, we're
• 1:08:16
  getting set up and we're flogging programs.
• 1:08:18
  Yeah, right. And about.
• 1:08:20
  Three or four years ago. Yeah.
• 1:08:21
  Well, this is myself and the current wife did it.
• 1:08:24
  Yeah, about 3 or 4 years ago. I think you're a bit short on
• 1:08:28
  family members. Unbelievable.
• 1:08:32
  I got roped in and actually, you know, great fun.
• 1:08:36
  I've never been to. The I didn't realize.
• 1:08:38
  I didn't realize I literally would be working.
• 1:08:40
  The funny thing. The funny thing.
• 1:08:42
  About the second year I did it, I'm walking around and I saw
• 1:08:47
  this guy coming round the the track and getting a whole load
• 1:08:52
  of applause and everything like that.
• 1:08:54
  And I'm, you know, I shy away from the limelight quite, quite
• 1:08:57
  a lot of guys you all know yourselves.
• 1:08:58
  I asked the guy, I said, how's what's he doing there?
• 1:09:01
  And he says he's, he's just on the hill run.
• 1:09:05
  I said, what's the hill run? He says you've got to run all
• 1:09:07
  the way up there and back down again.
• 1:09:08
  I said right, I'll do that next year then.
• 1:09:10
  So I applied to do the hill run right.
• 1:09:13
  And basically the rule is you go any way up and any way down, but
• 1:09:17
  you've got to go past there's Cairns at the top, which is the
• 1:09:19
  stones at the top. It's 43 or 4 Cairns.
• 1:09:20
  You've got to go round the Cairns and you get a little
• 1:09:22
  wristband to say you've been someone at the top gives you
• 1:09:24
  wristband and then then you go right.
• 1:09:26
  But the thing was if you can make it up and down within half
• 1:09:29
  an hour, you get to finish with a lap oner.
• 1:09:31
  Oh, amazing. Right.
• 1:09:32
  So I was like, right, that's it lap oner, right.
• 1:09:34
  OK, that's what you're going for.
• 1:09:35
  So the next thing, everyone gets a different bib, coloured bib,
• 1:09:39
  but it's the locals and some local gets a purple bib or
• 1:09:42
  something like that. Someone says me, just follow a
• 1:09:44
  local because they'll know the way, right?
• 1:09:47
  So, right, OK, so everyone goes the same way up this path, up
• 1:09:50
  the way. Now to give you a context,
• 1:09:52
  right? And I was fairly fit at the
• 1:09:54
  time. I think I got up there round
• 1:09:56
  about 18 to 20 minutes and I'm suddenly going, I've got 10
• 1:10:00
  minutes need to get down here, right.
• 1:10:03
  And when you go around that last Cairn, it's just a free for all.
• 1:10:07
  Everyone just scatters. There's a purple vest, start
• 1:10:11
  running after the guy and I was throwing myself down.
• 1:10:13
  I actually look back and think what a stupid idiot because
• 1:10:16
  there have been people that have serious injured themselves.
• 1:10:19
  I think one of the Queen's footmen was at your ankle.
• 1:10:22
  The Queen's footman once broke his leg doing it and years and
• 1:10:24
  years and years ago. And she actually stopped all her
• 1:10:26
  staff from taking part because it used to be a thing where the
• 1:10:29
  royal, they used to. But basically his foot went down
• 1:10:31
  rabbit hole. As he's going down.
• 1:10:32
  You're just running through the Heather, right.
• 1:10:34
  Anyway, I made it down literally on like 29 seconds, 29 minutes,
• 1:10:38
  40 seconds. Oh, wow.
• 1:10:40
  Right. And then what happens is there's
• 1:10:42
  a guy, as he sees he coming down.
• 1:10:44
  This is your number. And they've given you some
• 1:10:46
  information that you have to give them information like who
• 1:10:48
  you are, where you're from and stuff like that.
• 1:10:50
  And mine is here comes Graham Kogan, ladies and gentlemen.
• 1:10:54
  Let's hear that all the way from Kirkcaldy.
• 1:10:56
  His shoe size is 10 1/2. And he likes strawberry ice
• 1:10:58
  cream. Amazing.
• 1:11:07
  But then I'm in an arena, right? I'm in an arena and suddenly
• 1:11:11
  everyone just, I'll just stop running.
• 1:11:13
  And I was like, hey, I broke that whole way around.
• 1:11:15
  Then the year after my brother and I decided we'll do the and
• 1:11:20
  that's a big regret of mine. I said I'd do the two mile run,
• 1:11:24
  right? Two mile run around the track
• 1:11:27
  Jesus and on the day I says I'm the one my brother did the one
• 1:11:30
  my. Well, I was going to say that,
• 1:11:32
  that the highlight of going was your brother did the one mile
• 1:11:36
  and came second last. And I think the Garrett came
• 1:11:38
  last, came free on the bus. Yeah, well, I I, but your
• 1:11:42
  brother fancy himself as a better runner.
• 1:11:44
  But he was again he was again serious.
• 1:11:47
  My biggest regret in this was I signed up for a two mile right
• 1:11:50
  and we've had a late night on the Friday night and I went and
• 1:11:52
  spoke to the guys and I said can I swap to the one mile please?
• 1:11:55
  Because I don't I've not got 2 miles on me today.
• 1:11:59
  And we did the 2 the one mile race.
• 1:12:01
  My brother and I, that was the first time and you've told me,
• 1:12:03
  bear in mind guys, there's 14,000 people in the arena
• 1:12:07
  watching you, which is quite mental that we could just turn
• 1:12:10
  up and do it. It's.
• 1:12:10
  Like a cauldron. Isn't it?
• 1:12:11
  And I finished, I finished dead last, right?
• 1:12:14
  Lapped at the end and everything like that.
• 1:12:16
  But what really annoyed me was only two people entered the two
• 1:12:21
  mile race. Ohh.
• 1:12:22
  And if I had just entered, I could have walked around and you
• 1:12:25
  had finished third. The place.
• 1:12:27
  You in like the limelight. In a place by the same time as
• 1:12:29
  well, 'cause there's a wee Ledger that gets put in the
• 1:12:31
  Braemar games like thing where everyone has taken part before.
• 1:12:35
  So every met, it's a Ledger of everyone that's taken part.
• 1:12:38
  So you can go through that Ledger and go 100 years back,
• 1:12:40
  yeah, and see who took part in the Braemar and the 100.
• 1:12:43
  And if I had done it and then anyone could go, I could have
• 1:12:46
  said to my great, great grandkids who are based in there
• 1:12:48
  at that point and say go to the Braemar games and check page,
• 1:12:51
  whatever and you'll see your dad, your great, great
• 1:12:53
  grandfather finished third. Yeah, do my already.
• 1:12:55
  No one needs to know that. He finished that and he likes
• 1:12:58
  strawberry ice. Yeah, Strawberry.
• 1:13:00
  Ice. That's amazing.
• 1:13:03
  So I think I think that. It just shows the portfolio of
• 1:13:06
  things that was kind of involved.
• 1:13:08
  Well, this is it. And this goes back to a point
• 1:13:10
  you made. God, I don't know, I've lost
• 1:13:12
  track of time. But yes, we're doing big
• 1:13:14
  partnerships with Aston Martin, but we will continue to do
• 1:13:18
  partnerships with Braemar Games and the Heavies, you know, doing
• 1:13:21
  the, you know, caber toss and all that sort of stuff because
• 1:13:24
  as Dougal said on when he was on hit 40 years plus, we've been
• 1:13:29
  sponsoring that. That's not going to change.
• 1:13:31
  As heritage. Well, and that's like we are a
• 1:13:35
  global brand, but we are true to our space side routes and
• 1:13:40
  Scotland especially is a focus for us.
• 1:13:44
  We, we, we do really well in London with Denfolik and
• 1:13:48
  Melbeni. Hello, London.
• 1:13:51
  But there is a group that I'm fortunate enough to be a member
• 1:13:55
  of where it's specifically focusing on how do we show up
• 1:14:00
  really well in Scotland. The tattoo is a part of it and
• 1:14:04
  it's the first time I went last year as well.
• 1:14:06
  And God like an. Unbelievable thing.
• 1:14:10
  And there's the. Pre show for.
• 1:14:12
  Example yeah, the previous show was and there were so many empty
• 1:14:15
  seats because there's only a handful of people.
• 1:14:18
  It's essentially the dress rehearsal.
• 1:14:20
  That they that was so special. It was an amazing thing.
• 1:14:23
  But how many like this is the thing I get with the Braemar
• 1:14:25
  games as well as that is, you know, first of all the two
• 1:14:27
  things. And again, I look at from the
• 1:14:28
  market, people travel from every part of the world.
• 1:14:31
  I look at from a sales and marketing point of view and I
• 1:14:32
  look at it from two things. You attract the brand and you
• 1:14:35
  could say a global brand is still happy enough to go.
• 1:14:38
  This is who we are. This is what went.
• 1:14:39
  So there's a grassroots element of we are in here with we're not
• 1:14:43
  forgetting about our roots, our heretic.
• 1:14:44
  But at the same time, it's when it isn't until you go to one of
• 1:14:47
  these places, you do realize the pool that Scottish tourism has
• 1:14:51
  on these kind of things. And it's like every second, when
• 1:14:53
  you're flogging a program to somebody and every second person
• 1:14:56
  you speak to Austrian, German, Canadian, American, Australia,
• 1:14:59
  New Zealanders and all this, and you suddenly go wait.
• 1:15:02
  And then you speak to people, they go, we've travelled here
• 1:15:04
  for this. But then, and that will be the
• 1:15:06
  exact same as the military tattoo.
• 1:15:08
  So when you only suddenly go Glenn Phoenix and honestly, I'll
• 1:15:11
  have Gestre Mosey. That's in my 30th year coming to
• 1:15:14
  the tattoo. Yeah.
• 1:15:16
  And that's that's when you have the.
• 1:15:17
  Brand on there. So that makes a lot it makes a
• 1:15:19
  lot of sense. But one one of the things is
• 1:15:21
  then and it's it's the next big question and we feel I feel like
• 1:15:25
  we're grilling you a little bit. We're the reap what's that
• 1:15:27
  rebounder brand all of it. But the point as well as that
• 1:15:29
  led us on the conversation when we're talking about rebranding
• 1:15:32
  led us on the conversation of pricing.
• 1:15:34
  And one of the things is, and because you work, one of the
• 1:15:37
  things we've seen a lot of is a lot like I would say last year,
• 1:15:42
  two years ago, maybe a lot of people were saying all the
• 1:15:46
  brands are focusing on luxury now because there's no money
• 1:15:48
  left in the mid market range. We've seen that chief exec, we
• 1:15:52
  talked about it last week with Greg Urquhart.
• 1:15:54
  We saw the chief executive or the CEO of the Azure coming out
• 1:15:57
  and saying we forgot about that mid market sector.
• 1:16:01
  We focused too much on the luxury.
• 1:16:03
  So now we're going to have to really look at and there was a
• 1:16:05
  hint and when people look at that guy's history as when he's
• 1:16:09
  been chief executive at Tesco etcetera.
• 1:16:11
  We talked about last week, there was a hint of he's got a
• 1:16:14
  previous for slashing prices and we might start to see prices
• 1:16:18
  coming down on Saturday. Well, not necessarily race to
• 1:16:20
  the bottom, Ross, because that's a negative spin, but actually
• 1:16:23
  just. No.
• 1:16:24
  And actually his thing, it wasn't the case of a race to the
• 1:16:27
  bottom, it was the case of we've left the middle.
• 1:16:29
  I kind of tell you if. We've left the middle.
• 1:16:31
  From the Diazio POV, what I've heard about this year's special
• 1:16:34
  releases that are coming out, it's going to be less of them,
• 1:16:36
  they're going to be more expensive, right.
• 1:16:38
  So and so it is interesting because we hear about Klein
• 1:16:40
  leash closing. I know that there's.
• 1:16:41
  Been Klein leash closing. At visitor centre.
• 1:16:44
  Yeah, it's still a desired case. Yeah, closing to the public,
• 1:16:47
  Glenn Kenshi made redundancies. Yeah, this this month, Ian
• 1:16:51
  MacLeod, sellers are made redundancies across whiskey.
• 1:16:54
  A lot of new utilities are are struggling.
• 1:16:57
  It's a very strange position for whiskey because we've made so
• 1:17:00
  much whiskey but the last five years or so.
• 1:17:03
  But from a buyer's point of view, it still seems that the
• 1:17:07
  luxury market is going up in price.
• 1:17:09
  And I think the rare marriage is a good example of that.
• 1:17:12
  I love real managers. There managers.
• 1:17:15
  Balveni, right? So Balveni 30 is a top 3W of all
• 1:17:19
  time for me. In fact, two of the three of my
• 1:17:23
  top three whiskeys. You've got about 50 top three
• 1:17:24
  whiskeys. No, no, no, I don't.
• 1:17:26
  I don't, I don't, I don't. I can tell you exactly what they
• 1:17:29
  are. Balveni 30, to Matin 36 and a
• 1:17:34
  whiskey from US Haywood called Blended at Birth.
• 1:17:38
  And that is the top 3 wishes I've ever had in my life.
• 1:17:41
  Ever. I'll never be able to afford any
• 1:17:43
  of them. No, that's not a totally true.
• 1:17:46
  But you gave me that 36 Tom Atten on on my 36th birthday.
• 1:17:50
  I bet it. Was a really nice touch.
• 1:17:52
  Wasn't that Laurel, actually? And how was it?
• 1:17:55
  That was generally one of the best whiskeys I've ever that's.
• 1:17:57
  Ridiculous, right? I was 36 last year.
• 1:18:00
  I'm. Sorry, but what we are seeing
• 1:18:07
  is, for example, the success of your brands in different markets
• 1:18:13
  is making your job more difficult in domestic markets
• 1:18:16
  because rare managers went from I forgot the Balmeni 30 was
• 1:18:21
  about £6800 a bottle with the £1800 a bottle and that's when
• 1:18:25
  the rare managers released. But it was excellent whiskey.
• 1:18:28
  It was absolutely outstanding whiskey.
• 1:18:29
  Now it's 3 1/2 grand a bottle for Balmeni 30.
• 1:18:32
  How do you, as the account manager for luxury sales, how do
• 1:18:37
  you work that and how obviously there's been challenges with
• 1:18:41
  that. The liquid's so good, which is
• 1:18:43
  which is makes it a little bit easier for you, but how do you
• 1:18:46
  view the market now and how things are going with your own
• 1:18:49
  brand as well? It's really interesting because
• 1:18:51
  we're in a very odd time globally where the people that
• 1:18:57
  are buying these luxury most expensive drams not necessarily
• 1:19:02
  affected by anything going on. Yeah.
• 1:19:04
  So the luxury market in that sense is not affected which?
• 1:19:11
  Your accounts as well because. Yeah.
• 1:19:13
  Scott, we've had, we're having our best year ever.
• 1:19:15
  Yeah, at Scotch in the 13 years have been open, which is strange
• 1:19:18
  because compared to the rest of the industry.
• 1:19:20
  Everything happening in the world and the industry, as you
• 1:19:23
  say, should say that. You're yeah, we should be
• 1:19:25
  struggling. Yeah, but it's not that way.
• 1:19:27
  So it sounds like a sort of flippant thing to say, but
• 1:19:32
  actually I'm not finding the price is becoming a barrier for
• 1:19:39
  when I'm dealing with, you know, the likes of Scotch for
• 1:19:44
  purchasing this stuff from us. Because we're not, we're never
• 1:19:48
  going to over price things just because we can.
• 1:19:51
  Yeah, we, we are set. We are benchmarking this against
• 1:19:54
  everything that you know and we believe in, in the the liquid
• 1:19:58
  that we're, you know, producing as well.
• 1:20:00
  And the Balveni, you know, there's been price rises and
• 1:20:03
  rightly so, because actually as a brand it's gone.
• 1:20:06
  Up and up and up. If you look in luxury right now,
• 1:20:08
  you have the Dalmore, McAllen and Balveni are leagues above of
• 1:20:12
  everybody, everybody else in terms of what they're actually
• 1:20:15
  doing in luxury. From my point of view, that's a
• 1:20:18
  lot of success in Asia, Taiwan and China in particular, for
• 1:20:22
  example. But those phrases have to be
• 1:20:25
  consistent globally. And so that makes it a little
• 1:20:28
  bit more difficult domestically to justify it.
• 1:20:30
  What's good for Balveni, and I'm going to say Balveni compared to
• 1:20:33
  Dalmore and McAllen, Dalmore have done so well from a brand
• 1:20:37
  that was nowhere that is now everywhere.
• 1:20:39
  They're everywhere. Absolutely everywhere.
• 1:20:41
  And credit to them. Balveni has always had the
• 1:20:44
  liquid that once you taste it, you believe in it.
• 1:20:49
  But you know, Dalmore and McAllen, you believe in the
• 1:20:51
  brand automatically. You know, what does James Bond
• 1:20:53
  drink and drinks McAllen, That is what it is.
• 1:20:55
  I've moved away from McAllen this last year, but it's still a
• 1:20:58
  big important brand for me. But as I've actually bought more
• 1:21:02
  high end luxury above any in this last year, but I probably
• 1:21:05
  had more doubts about it because the price you know has kept
• 1:21:08
  going on up. Yeah, because it was.
• 1:21:10
  She as a consumer, Graham, you're a member of the Scotch
• 1:21:13
  Club. Right.
• 1:21:14
  Yeah, I've. Mentioned.
• 1:21:17
  Well. James Bond might drink.
• 1:21:19
  I, I I well. I'm normally the only member of
• 1:21:21
  the Scottish club in the world that still washes themselves,
• 1:21:23
  likes Africa. Sorry quick.
• 1:21:30
  Interjection. I thought you were going to
• 1:21:32
  mention James Bond might drink Maccallum but he drives on
• 1:21:34
  Aston. Martin Well, that's true.
• 1:21:36
  Very good. Very good.
• 1:21:40
  But so the Scotch club you're a member of, you are.
• 1:21:43
  You are a member of the world's most exclusive Whiskey club.
• 1:21:45
  Probably one of your strongest. Members, Yeah.
• 1:21:48
  Yeah, apart from the Century Club.
• 1:21:49
  Listen, I guess, I guess, I guess last set like he gets to
• 1:21:52
  come to a master class everyone because you're a member of this
• 1:21:54
  club and we'll find that members are quite comfortable spending
• 1:21:58
  £100 a DRAM etcetera. What is for you?
• 1:22:03
  If it's a brand that you already know and you're buying by the
• 1:22:06
  drama or by the bottle, how do you justify it?
• 1:22:11
  I think I first of all, I mean like, I mean, I'd love to carry.
• 1:22:13
  We've never spoken on this before, but.
• 1:22:15
  I'd love to carry on this conversation if I was getting my
• 1:22:18
  next membership for free of charge by Rocco 40.
• 1:22:22
  You bought some, You bought 2 very decent bottles.
• 1:22:24
  I've had, I've had two decent bottles, I've been lucky enough.
• 1:22:27
  And I see it as an investment in the, in the club as 2, two or
• 1:22:31
  three different things #1 I think your tastings that are put
• 1:22:34
  on just now make it absolutely value for money for them.
• 1:22:38
  You know, we were at a tasting on Friday night, I guess, to
• 1:22:41
  come along. Yeah.
• 1:22:42
  And it was, it was all pulp, Nate.
• 1:22:43
  And it was absolutely fantastic. And I really, really enjoyed it.
• 1:22:46
  Getting to be in a room, a private room with, you know, a
• 1:22:49
  quiet room with Brian's can. Brian Kinsman, you know, and
• 1:22:52
  I'll say, you know, Brian was great.
• 1:22:53
  The whiskey was fantastic. But the mince pies that were put
• 1:22:56
  on that night, the Glenfiddich mince.
• 1:22:57
  Pies well done 10/1 in world. Class and you're buying.
• 1:22:59
  A bottle of whiskey's, let's say for 1000 lbs.
• 1:23:02
  What do you want, need and expect for that as a customer?
• 1:23:06
  Because for me, buying whiskeys for I can sell them by the DRAM.
• 1:23:10
  I have to look at my margin, but my margin is higher than most of
• 1:23:13
  Scotland and argue whether I can do it commercially.
• 1:23:16
  It has to be for me a brand that I know.
• 1:23:20
  Yeah, I think that when your last purchase.
• 1:23:21
  It seems to you. There's a comfort.
• 1:23:23
  And there's a comfort in that in the sense that when you're when
• 1:23:25
  you start to look at spending a lot of money, and I hope this is
• 1:23:28
  the biggest investment in whiskey that you know, I'll make
• 1:23:31
  in terms of what I'm going to enjoy.
• 1:23:34
  And you know, you know, I put a pencil mark on my bottle after
• 1:23:39
  every time it comes out and they keep to make sure that Ross
• 1:23:41
  isn't tucking, tucking in it to push me to buy another one.
• 1:23:44
  But my point being, I've got my partless theft.
• 1:23:46
  I've got the right SO but. And so for most people.
• 1:23:50
  But I would say that it comes back to my argument here, right?
• 1:23:54
  It comes back to my argument with what we're talking about
• 1:23:56
  with this Bob, any 21, right? And the argument is that there
• 1:23:59
  was an opportunity to go down. And I've got no qualms with
• 1:24:01
  whatsoever. Some of the nicest whiskey I've
• 1:24:03
  ever tried is from Gordon Macphail, right?
• 1:24:06
  But at the same time, when you go down the Gordon Macphail
• 1:24:08
  route, you're looking at because of their cast, because they're
• 1:24:10
  with management, even something in the 30s is still going to be
• 1:24:15
  high. 50 ABV. Yeah.
• 1:24:17
  And for me, I don't want a challenge when I have that DRAM
• 1:24:21
  because I think when you look at cast strength whiskey, you
• 1:24:24
  sometimes look at a situator or high ABV whiskey.
• 1:24:26
  You sometimes look at a situation going.
• 1:24:28
  I'm just not in the mood for that.
• 1:24:29
  I'm in the mood. And if I go to Scotch at the
• 1:24:31
  bottom and I try and take my gland fartless 30 and I.
• 1:24:33
  Just share it as well and. I share it and I use it for an
• 1:24:36
  opportunity to bring people in and it's a nice environment to
• 1:24:38
  go to when I'm treated nicely by the bar staff.
• 1:24:42
  You know, I do have to warn them I'm coming in with somebody so
• 1:24:44
  they don't say you're barred, you're not allowed in here,
• 1:24:47
  right, But because. It's true to have.
• 1:24:49
  If you're buying luxury, what you want is security in the
• 1:24:53
  brand. Yeah.
• 1:24:55
  Confidence in the liquid, Absolutely.
• 1:24:57
  And you don't necessarily want challenge.
• 1:24:58
  I don't want challenge, you want it to be.
• 1:25:00
  Tasty like 3%? Now, and what's interesting is
• 1:25:04
  Glenfiddich is always different Conversation worthy finished
• 1:25:08
  whiskey. We'll go into the 29th in a wee
• 1:25:11
  second. But when it does get stronger
• 1:25:13
  actually, or can get stronger, higher than ABV, but it's always
• 1:25:17
  very balveni. Yeah, the DNA is always there.
• 1:25:20
  I suppose what I do want to challenge you a little bit, Ross
• 1:25:23
  as well here in the sense that I think it's safe to say right now
• 1:25:28
  with the way Whiskey's looking and particularly as we
• 1:25:31
  discussed, like what we're saying last week is maybe and
• 1:25:35
  maybe by this time podcast coming out, things might have
• 1:25:38
  been more a part, but maybe we are starting to look at a shift
• 1:25:41
  in the pricing, OK. We always talked about the
• 1:25:44
  Talisker 18 being the sort of benchmark.
• 1:25:47
  Of. The 18 year old pricing if if
• 1:25:50
  what this chief executive of the CEO of D'azio has said and
• 1:25:54
  basically a focus on the mid market.
• 1:25:56
  History will tell you that when he was Tesco, he tried to bring
• 1:25:59
  it bring the prices of groceries down to match ALDI and Lidl.
• 1:26:02
  So maybe we're going to start to see the potential of that, which
• 1:26:05
  might I might filter all the way through.
• 1:26:06
  But there was also a cynic siding me last week on the
• 1:26:08
  Greg's episode, saying I had spoken to somebody who had
• 1:26:12
  mentioned and they kind of said it off the cusp, but they were
• 1:26:15
  doing a rebrand and they said by rebranding, what it allows us to
• 1:26:19
  do is subtly reset pricing, right?
• 1:26:22
  And I wondered maybe if other brands might be looking at this
• 1:26:25
  going, oh, you know what, the old so and so whiskey I used to
• 1:26:29
  win Ferric 12 as an example. Yeah, the old win Ferric 12 is
• 1:26:31
  sitting on shelves. And we can go to retailers now
• 1:26:33
  and say this is the old bottle. Yeah.
• 1:26:34
  So we can actually give it you at this price, which means you
• 1:26:36
  can put on the shelf at that price.
• 1:26:37
  And then when the new Glenfedric 12 comes out, we can go, OK, you
• 1:26:40
  only need to go up a little bit now, which is less than what we
• 1:26:42
  originally sold it to you, but it's more than what you were
• 1:26:45
  what they're. Well, it doesn't be desirable to
• 1:26:47
  have the old plan. Then but no.
• 1:26:48
  But then what I'm saying is, So what it does show is it means
• 1:26:50
  that big companies don't have to be doing the slashing of prices.
• 1:26:55
  It doesn't have to make news. It's just a very subtle
• 1:26:57
  adjustment. But what it is doing is it is
• 1:26:59
  bringing that pricing down. But what it means, what I want
• 1:27:02
  to know is, is luxury whiskey now just a completely separate
• 1:27:07
  part? I think it might be.
• 1:27:08
  Cut it's, it's a head. Cut the head and just say
• 1:27:10
  that's, that's luxury up there. That's a different world.
• 1:27:12
  Because Tim will have his point of view.
• 1:27:15
  House Hazelwood's best example for me.
• 1:27:17
  You can currently come into Scotch and buy a 50 year old
• 1:27:20
  single rain for £35 in it. I'm going to be buying 50 year
• 1:27:23
  old grain from Hazelwood. It's going to be 350 in it.
• 1:27:25
  Yeah. How do you argue that?
• 1:27:29
  How does that work? Well, what's the cheapest drama
• 1:27:31
  on your menu right now? 10 lbs.
• 1:27:32
  Right, so I've always talked about how going into Scotch is a
• 1:27:37
  nice treat, right. And I remember the first time
• 1:27:39
  ever went into Scotch, I was like, we shouldn't be sitting.
• 1:27:41
  Like I was said there was like ex card and girlfriend at the
• 1:27:44
  time said, well, she was about we shouldn't be in here.
• 1:27:47
  And basically what I'd been is we'd literally been along there.
• 1:27:50
  We've been at the Christmas market out for a wee day out and
• 1:27:53
  a few beers. The over.
• 1:27:54
  Well, to be honest, we've been overpriced for beers and
• 1:27:56
  sausages, so why not get overpriced for a drum?
• 1:27:59
  You're ready to go straight into Scotch then.
• 1:28:01
  But no. But we went into Scotch and you
• 1:28:03
  know what the nicest thing was, was the fact that there was the
• 1:28:07
  there is the luxury feel the luxury element, right and.
• 1:28:11
  The chocolates and almonds that you eat are.
• 1:28:14
  I get my money worth of money, but at the same time there was
• 1:28:17
  also the groundedness of you're not and we weren't looked at
• 1:28:20
  like you shouldn't be in. Here.
• 1:28:21
  And did I say for me compared to Big Cam, it's been on the
• 1:28:26
  podcast before Cam and I ran Scott quite differently.
• 1:28:28
  That's to be the last time he's ever.
• 1:28:29
  Mentioned I will be, but Cam would argue against me.
• 1:28:31
  Put in the 10 LB minimum price point in Scotch.
• 1:28:33
  Absolutely would. Because when Cam ran it, there
• 1:28:36
  were probably. 6-7 pounds 6. 7 lbs A good old days and.
• 1:28:39
  Actually, actually know that you run it.
• 1:28:40
  There's the old printing error. There I say if you spend 20 or
• 1:28:50
  30 lbs on a whiskey and Scotch I think you'll get better value
• 1:28:53
  then you'll get elsewhere in Scotland.
• 1:28:55
  Sure, but the entry point ballet Any 14 Caribbean cask, One of
• 1:29:00
  the most old drams have to charge it actually put 7 tables
• 1:29:04
  and I've got 180 rooms, so there's in.
• 1:29:06
  Scotland. In Scotland's number one hotel,
• 1:29:07
  the only four five star hotel in Edinburgh, we have to have this
• 1:29:11
  set standard because we have got budgets to achieve.
• 1:29:13
  But also reality is what the majority of my clientele expect
• 1:29:18
  is something bespoke, unique and tailored. 100 people walk in
• 1:29:22
  that bar, 95 of of them will ask for recommendation.
• 1:29:27
  Yeah, it's only YouTube picks and a couple of pals that
• 1:29:29
  actually goes. Well.
• 1:29:31
  Filter filter for the Angus is the only one that has actually
• 1:29:33
  seen a print there and went I'll have that.
• 1:29:36
  And because because he's seen it as an error and he's not joking
• 1:29:39
  to you. It's true.
• 1:29:40
  It was a Dal Yuan 26 year old I believe.
• 1:29:43
  I. Think it was, but the market is
• 1:29:53
  lower, covers higher spend. As Tim says, luxury is not
• 1:29:56
  suffering. And so it is odd because we look
• 1:29:58
  at the whiskey industry and I work with certain brands and
• 1:30:01
  they're having a hard time. It's a very small market,
• 1:30:05
  luxury, especially luxury in Scotland because we are so
• 1:30:08
  reliant as Tim's already mentioned on the North American
• 1:30:10
  market and then peak season as well.
• 1:30:13
  And so when it comes to me buying, I'm now looking at we
• 1:30:17
  had two grains when I came in at Scotch nine months ago.
• 1:30:19
  Now we have 12 and they work amazingly from North American
• 1:30:23
  market, but they're all so cheap.
• 1:30:26
  They're all such good value. But as actually what I want is a
• 1:30:30
  North American clientele, Asian clientele, people who want to
• 1:30:34
  expedience luxury to also have an option there.
• 1:30:37
  But I can give them a 50 year old grade for 35 lbs of measure,
• 1:30:39
  but that's not actually necessarily what they want.
• 1:30:41
  They want something that's really limited.
• 1:30:43
  So giving them a 51 year old Gervin 1 of 103 bottles at 3:50
• 1:30:48
  in it, do I think that's necessarily better value than a
• 1:30:51
  50 year old member Gordon at 35? No.
• 1:30:54
  But do I think it is a better experience?
• 1:30:57
  Do I? Do I?
• 1:30:57
  Believe in the market really does depend on the exponential.
• 1:31:00
  Side of things, but it's on the storytelling, it's on the
• 1:31:03
  salesman. I'd say.
• 1:31:03
  I'd say that's nice. And I think that's what unique
• 1:31:05
  whether you, you know, I know the boys are a bit cheeky with
• 1:31:07
  you, but I would argue the three boys that work with me.
• 1:31:10
  Oh. Brilliant what they do at their
• 1:31:12
  jobs. Oh, my God, The guys live and
• 1:31:14
  breathe whiskey. And so we have a brand selling
• 1:31:17
  to us. As Cody Reynolds mentioned so
• 1:31:21
  long ago, if you can get a motivate, A motivated bartender
• 1:31:24
  to leave in your brand, that's the best brand ambassador you'll
• 1:31:26
  ever have. As Tim said, it's on this
• 1:31:27
  broadcast unprovoked. Yeah, we are his brand
• 1:31:30
  ambassadors. We will send the we will sell
• 1:31:32
  the product for him. Well, actually, I mean.
• 1:31:34
  Unless maybe leaves into the question for you, Tim, is yeah,
• 1:31:36
  do you need to have a passion for whiskey to be a whiskey
• 1:31:39
  salesman? It helps.
• 1:31:42
  I I've got to be totally honest. Day one, I spoke about it way
• 1:31:49
  back at the start of of this day one, I was still in London.
• 1:31:54
  I moved up to Scotland on the Saturday day one, my manager at
• 1:31:57
  the time, chap called Sam, He called me up and he said, look,
• 1:32:01
  I meant to be at this demophilic event tonight.
• 1:32:06
  I'm really unwell. Can you go in in my place?
• 1:32:10
  Yeah, absolutely fine. Problem Problem was I didn't
• 1:32:15
  really like whiskey at the time. OK.
• 1:32:17
  Really the only thing. So whiskey is a very, very new
• 1:32:20
  thing to me, literally in the last 3 1/2 years.
• 1:32:23
  Could have filled me, then you. Did.
• 1:32:29
  And, and I think so it was meeting my now wife.
• 1:32:35
  Your current wife. My ex current wife or whatever
• 1:32:38
  we call it, well she's your. Current wife?
• 1:32:40
  No, no, no. She's your current wife.
• 1:32:43
  So. You're definitely married.
• 1:32:44
  She's your current. Wife she we were, we were.
• 1:32:51
  In Hello London. Hello, New York.
• 1:32:54
  We we we went up to to visit her mom 2018 and we I was there with
• 1:33:02
  her sister and her sister's partner at the time now husband
• 1:33:08
  I'm just. Yeah.
• 1:33:08
  Well, yeah, yeah, anyway. We got there, we've been
• 1:33:12
  drinking on the train. We'd had a, you know, good knees
• 1:33:15
  up for 4 1/2 hours. That's what trains are for.
• 1:33:17
  Amazing, absolutely brilliant. We got out to her place in East
• 1:33:21
  Lothian and it was my first time in Scotland for about 10 years
• 1:33:25
  or something. Like that?
• 1:33:26
  And she said, oh, you're up here, you've got to have some
• 1:33:30
  whiskey. And I was like, oh, yeah, I've
• 1:33:33
  had quite a bit already. Pause me.
• 1:33:37
  Essentially that of, you'll guess it, famous grouse.
• 1:33:42
  Yeah, and had the first sip. God by the end of the glass was
• 1:33:47
  like this is OK. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:33:50
  Anyway, I had a similar experience on that first day
• 1:33:53
  working for Grants at Park Row Hotel instead of Grouse.
• 1:33:58
  They were serving Glenfiddich 3040.
• 1:34:01
  Half bite. Unfortunately not.
• 1:34:05
  But I was there and I hadn't had whiskey for a while.
• 1:34:08
  And I was sat next to all these, you know, enthusiasts and
• 1:34:12
  ambassadors and influencers, and they were like, Oh my God, this
• 1:34:15
  is incredible. Isn't this amazing?
• 1:34:18
  And I'm there really actually struggling to.
• 1:34:21
  You must have wanted to like it so much.
• 1:34:24
  So much and, and actually seeing other people enjoy it in that
• 1:34:29
  way, yeah, makes you, makes you, it makes you confident that you
• 1:34:35
  will eventually enjoy it. Yeah, I think that's an
• 1:34:38
  interesting dynamic because it could work the other way.
• 1:34:40
  Oh, completely. And I think so because we, we
• 1:34:45
  were in London for so long and we, we've still got friends and
• 1:34:48
  family that come up and visits us.
• 1:34:50
  I almost act like a Scotch whiskey ambassador when they
• 1:34:53
  when they come up to stay and. Give them a little taste and.
• 1:34:56
  Give them exactly. And and I will say to them that
• 1:34:59
  first sip you have, and this is what Mark Thompson used to say
• 1:35:03
  when he did these trainings. Everything that your body is
• 1:35:07
  telling you is that you're under attack.
• 1:35:09
  It's poison. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:35:10
  And most people have that first sip and go oh, God, no.
• 1:35:13
  And they never go back to it. And I do this training with
• 1:35:18
  guests that come to stay and they try, you know, this
• 1:35:22
  amazing. I don't give them the Balmini
• 1:35:24
  21. First off, you know it's.
• 1:35:27
  Let's say if you like it first. And but, but, but they, they do
• 1:35:33
  this and then they go, OK, they'll, I tell them, you know,
• 1:35:36
  hold it at the front of your mouth, get around your teeth,
• 1:35:38
  Let's swallow it. Let the saliva come to the front
• 1:35:41
  because that is your olfactory bulb saying we're under attack
• 1:35:44
  and they're coating it with everything that to say we're now
• 1:35:46
  safe. And then have another sip.
• 1:35:48
  And so many of them, my, my step dad, he's no longer with us.
• 1:35:54
  He came to Scotch. Yeah.
• 1:35:56
  And I was maybe a month into my management, I think, yeah, when
• 1:35:59
  I hosted him, yeah. And and and he was like, I've
• 1:36:03
  never really liked whiskey. Yeah, he every single DRAM that
• 1:36:08
  Ross. Recommended.
• 1:36:09
  I sat down with him and he brought the whiskey and I
• 1:36:11
  remember. He was like a he was like a kid
• 1:36:14
  in a candy shop. He was like, yeah, fucking hell,
• 1:36:15
  this stuff's. Good.
• 1:36:16
  And I, I I remember him telling me, you know, you're not going
• 1:36:19
  to really necessarily convinced me.
• 1:36:21
  And I said, well, if you can at least notice the difference in
• 1:36:24
  these, you like them. And he enjoyed often and that's
• 1:36:26
  it. And I remember, but that's given
• 1:36:28
  that. Do you know what?
• 1:36:30
  It's your experience. He was he was somebody who
• 1:36:36
  wanted to perhaps give it a chance because he really liked
• 1:36:39
  you and he won. And that's that's the reality of
• 1:36:42
  it. Exactly right.
• 1:36:43
  He goes right, OK, I need to, I need to give this a go.
• 1:36:46
  Tim's giving it a real proper go up here in Edinburgh and he did
• 1:36:50
  and he had a great time. He, he was.
• 1:36:53
  I mean he. And it's a bit stripping back
• 1:36:55
  the those those preconceived notions and but.
• 1:36:59
  There's so many different. How intimidating whiskey can be.
• 1:37:01
  Well, that's it because like what Tim was saying is there's
• 1:37:03
  so many people that like Tim leaned into it where I saw
• 1:37:07
  other, like, I, I know people personally, like my brother, for
• 1:37:12
  example, doesn't get whiskey the way I get whiskey.
• 1:37:15
  But it's almost like he leans against it.
• 1:37:17
  Yeah. And it's probably because you
• 1:37:18
  like it. No, But there's an element.
• 1:37:20
  But I think it's also the fact is that if it's like, it's like
• 1:37:25
  we have a laugh about the Pete side of things for you and me,
• 1:37:27
  Yeah. He only pretends like Pete.
• 1:37:28
  Well, this is it. Like basically some people might
• 1:37:32
  go, there is no way I, I cannot enjoy that DRAM the same way
• 1:37:37
  that you're enjoying that DRAM. So I don't think you're actually
• 1:37:40
  really enjoying it. I think you're enjoying it
• 1:37:42
  because of maybe you're getting caught up in the experience,
• 1:37:45
  caught up in the moment, caught up in the fact that it's a 29
• 1:37:47
  year old whiskey, caught up in this coming out of it.
• 1:37:50
  And you know what? There's probably an element to
• 1:37:52
  that because the experience is so important when you're trying
• 1:37:55
  it. And that's why some people will
• 1:37:56
  tell you, I tried a DRAM once and I didn't like it and I tried
• 1:37:59
  it again and I loved it, but I was like, well, things can
• 1:38:01
  change. What did you have for your lunch
• 1:38:03
  that day? What was the situation?
• 1:38:04
  Was it a Friday night versus Yeah.
• 1:38:07
  And it's like circumstances change but 100% remember then
• 1:38:10
  that's the thing. Some people might lean against
• 1:38:13
  it. Whereas actually if you lean
• 1:38:14
  into it and go I am ready to be people opened up that.
• 1:38:18
  People want to like it if they do.
• 1:38:20
  Just intimidating. And it did used to annoy me
• 1:38:23
  when, you know, when Pete said whiskey and yourself, Graham,
• 1:38:26
  because I felt sometimes you would dismissed Whiskey out of
• 1:38:30
  hand. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:38:31
  And you go, oh, come on. Honestly, Angus, So I I
• 1:38:35
  genuinely used to think that you couldn't rob an aisle of whiskey
• 1:38:37
  because your taste buds are not designed to.
• 1:38:39
  Like, oh, I probably, I probably give Angus too much credit, but
• 1:38:42
  genuinely do you do? But genuinely, if I try a new
• 1:38:44
  Isle of Whiskey before I announce my opinion on Alice
• 1:38:48
  Angus's opinion, because Angus likes it and and my my pal is
• 1:38:52
  immature to it in the same way that some people's pals are
• 1:38:55
  immature to whiskey as a whole. See, But before we move on to
• 1:38:58
  the Watt free drams and that Watt free storage was getting to
• 1:39:00
  the end of the pod, I think it's worth mentioning for example,
• 1:39:04
  the amazing handfuls that you brought along and we had a wee
• 1:39:06
  vote at the last WW Scotch Club taste and.
• 1:39:10
  That's what I mentioned until I get a few.
• 1:39:13
  Members and they mentioned and you voted bourbon cash whiskey
• 1:39:15
  is your favorite yeah yeah because it really pissed me off
• 1:39:18
  because you're a Sherry tart but I'm saying tonight from the bow
• 1:39:22
  of any experience people can go to the distillery and pick one
• 1:39:24
  of these. I I picked the bourbon cash for
• 1:39:27
  myself I've got one of these sitting in my house just now I'm
• 1:39:29
  not I'm not opened but Sherry was amazing for me tonight
• 1:39:33
  Sherry was very what I will say is and Tim should have taken
• 1:39:36
  that way the Balvati port would open tonight.
• 1:39:40
  I've had three this honestly for 2/20 a bottle, maybe retail 220
• 1:39:48
  and I think it's one of the best which you can buy at this and
• 1:39:51
  that's kind of age. If you're buying 1 bottle to
• 1:39:54
  have in your hours to share with guests or to have on the odd
• 1:39:58
  evening, I really think I couldn't give a better
• 1:40:01
  recommendation. Because I was showing that we
• 1:40:04
  had shown on the podcast, you know, she brought the Glenn
• 1:40:09
  Skosher 12. And for me, just that was a
• 1:40:11
  cracking drama. It surprised me how good it
• 1:40:13
  actually was. But it's important because like
• 1:40:16
  we talk about two sides of the whiskey and it's been great
• 1:40:18
  having you on Tim and you've been very kind that you brought.
• 1:40:21
  Yeah, well, let's also mention Graniel Zakura, 29 year old.
• 1:40:25
  So I guess you've been in Japan a couple of times.
• 1:40:27
  Well, yeah, what was interesting is you said amore and I said,
• 1:40:30
  oh, I'more, that's the Japanese prefetcher.
• 1:40:32
  But, and I saw the spelling, I went, no, that's not our Mori.
• 1:40:35
  So our Mori. So that's the way.
• 1:40:38
  This is the cash type. So what is in that?
• 1:40:40
  I still don't actually have any idea what a Japanese Awamori
• 1:40:43
  cash furnish is do. Not hand this to me.
• 1:40:45
  It's also so also. Filled that one.
• 1:40:47
  Awamori, which is not the easiest thing to say no is is
• 1:40:52
  from Okinawa Island of Japan, specifically Japan where and
• 1:40:58
  they they they do rice spirit casks there.
• 1:41:04
  And that's so they age, they age rice, spirit and casks they.
• 1:41:07
  Because rice. No rice spirit.
• 1:41:09
  Well, they. Age the whiskey in rice.
• 1:41:12
  Tasks. Oh, Rice.
• 1:41:13
  Cast. Yeah.
• 1:41:14
  Yeah, so the cast have had rice in it, not.
• 1:41:16
  Rice. Rice spirit.
• 1:41:17
  Yeah. Oh, Rice spirit.
• 1:41:18
  Yeah. So they made the Spirit.
• 1:41:19
  From SO, it's another class finish as part of the Grand
• 1:41:21
  Series. And it's regional.
• 1:41:23
  The Spirit is regional, I believe.
• 1:41:25
  So the rice spirit is like Sotchu, isn't it?
• 1:41:27
  Yeah, that's what it's called, yeah.
• 1:41:29
  Age that and cast these cats get used.
• 1:41:31
  Thank God for you, I guess. No, it is consider.
• 1:41:34
  But the great thing Sotchu is rice spirit and let's you know,
• 1:41:37
  significance of this is lads, we started this podcast.
• 1:41:40
  We had many guests on the brought some amazing whiskey's
• 1:41:42
  on listen over £1000 a bottle that yeah, yeah, and it's super
• 1:41:46
  generous for William Grant and. Son, and it's got a nice.
• 1:41:49
  Of Luxury podcast. And also and also, Tim, thanks
• 1:41:52
  for listening to the podcast. I appreciate it.
• 1:41:55
  Honestly, it means a lot. That's why we've been harassing
• 1:41:57
  to come on for over a year and no thank.
• 1:42:00
  You Google went on for I don't see what can I get away with.
• 1:42:06
  Brings us on to this amazing point of the evening.
• 1:42:08
  Yeah, Graham, we have this consistent feature.
• 1:42:11
  Yeah, the what 3 DRAM. So any 3 whiskeys that have us a
• 1:42:13
  meaning, a story, or any kind of association with yourself?
• 1:42:16
  Time a big I'm looking forward to hearing these.
• 1:42:19
  You're allowed two on brand. No, he's not.
• 1:42:21
  Was it one on brand, one on brand, one on brand?
• 1:42:26
  Oh God. Well now you can go, you can go
• 1:42:27
  on, you can do me one right? You brought 1000 bucks whiskey.
• 1:42:31
  So yeah, it's. People's stories.
• 1:42:34
  Yeah, absolutely. I think there's one.
• 1:42:39
  There's one Denfic 15 Solera, Yeah.
• 1:42:42
  Oh yeah. Was the first whiskey that I
• 1:42:47
  first whiskey I tried in our portfolio, bearing in mind I
• 1:42:49
  tried the 30 and 40 Glenfiddic on my first day.
• 1:42:52
  But was the first one that I really sort of, that was when I
• 1:42:56
  understood the craft that goes into whiskey.
• 1:43:01
  And that was the one for me that I'll put that in a old
• 1:43:05
  Fashioned. I'll have it neat.
• 1:43:06
  Yeah. I'll recommend it to anyone as a
• 1:43:09
  gift. As you guys have said to me,
• 1:43:11
  that is the absolute sort of pinnacle.
• 1:43:14
  Yep. It's a complete all rounder
• 1:43:15
  because what I would say is it's a fairly affordable drum.
• 1:43:19
  It's a drum you can gift. Yeah.
• 1:43:21
  Without being without anybody, without anybody thinking you've
• 1:43:25
  cheaped out. Yeah, it's got a bit of, it's
• 1:43:30
  got a bit of kind of gravitas around it and it's a 15, but
• 1:43:35
  also it's got this solera thing. So it's it's a little bit more
• 1:43:37
  than a 15. It's just unlike you said,
• 1:43:41
  because of its price point, because of where it sets.
• 1:43:43
  You wouldn't necessarily, I mean, I know we're all against
• 1:43:47
  this sort of thing anyway, but you wouldn't feel about you.
• 1:43:50
  You wouldn't feel guilty about putting in a cocktail.
• 1:43:54
  You wouldn't feel guilty about not.
• 1:43:56
  That's what I'm saying. We're not against.
• 1:43:58
  Yeah. Before I came back, it was the
• 1:44:01
  IT was the DRAM used in all cocktails.
• 1:44:03
  Just the. Complete it was he's a McCloud
• 1:44:07
  actually, that was one of our three drams.
• 1:44:09
  Yeah and you know, yeah, genuinely.
• 1:44:10
  And I would say yeah, like I just a complete orienter takes
• 1:44:13
  two really big boxes #1 it's a very recognized.
• 1:44:16
  And this is what I was saying earlier on is like people can
• 1:44:20
  and I do mean this without being disrespectful and it does sound
• 1:44:22
  disrespectful to other brands. But there is this element of
• 1:44:25
  like the glyphetic bottle, glyphetic brand.
• 1:44:28
  There's very few brands that you could say like, like I say you
• 1:44:31
  could buy it in a Co-op, but you could also, you know, you know
• 1:44:33
  there's an element of oh, it's glyphetic.
• 1:44:36
  Now there's the 12, which people just like that is that is the
• 1:44:39
  standard, but it has the brand Glyphetic and it has the age 15.
• 1:44:42
  And it is so when. You do give it to a non, you
• 1:44:44
  know. OK, someone like Ross be
• 1:44:47
  delighted that he's just been given a Glenn Finnick 15 as a
• 1:44:50
  gift from somebody. You're going to be grateful for
• 1:44:52
  it, but you're not going to go, oh, wow, this is amazing.
• 1:44:55
  Whereas somebody who maybe likes a DRAM but doesn't often drink
• 1:44:58
  too much. I would buy it for Bob Barr
• 1:45:00
  every day. My father.
• 1:45:01
  It's the best value 15 year old in whiskey, full stop.
• 1:45:06
  Exclamation mark. There you go.
• 1:45:07
  Print it. Excellent.
• 1:45:09
  Second DRAM. Second DRAM.
• 1:45:12
  It's Glen Moore that has the Santa.
• 1:45:13
  Is there, yeah. Glen Moore, G12.
• 1:45:15
  So there's a bit of a a sad one and has a lot of meaning to me.
• 1:45:21
  I lost my dad in 20 2020 242323. I can't remember that it's one
• 1:45:30
  of those years. You had a tough year.
• 1:45:31
  We had, we had a family holiday, which was very rare for us to
• 1:45:36
  have with him because he, he lived out in Belgrade in Serbia.
• 1:45:40
  And we had a, we met in Slovenia and we, we had a holiday out
• 1:45:44
  there and we're having lunch on the last day that we were there.
• 1:45:49
  And everyone, you know, was ordered their food and I asked
• 1:45:52
  for a, for a whiskey and they had, they had Glenmo Lesanta on
• 1:45:59
  it. And I ordered that and I enjoyed
• 1:46:02
  it. And I was, you know, it was
• 1:46:04
  great. It was, you know, it was fine.
• 1:46:06
  It was lovely. But my, my dad sort of looked
• 1:46:10
  over and sort of looked really sort of like proud that I'd sort
• 1:46:16
  of found, you know, an industry that I've enjoyed and I've, I've
• 1:46:21
  loved working in. And I was, I could talk about
• 1:46:24
  whiskey. And, you know, it's an absolute
• 1:46:26
  honor to be asked to be on this sort of, you know, podcast
• 1:46:30
  because I feel like I've sort of earned my way to be here.
• 1:46:36
  And I think that he sort of saw that and and two months after
• 1:46:41
  that holiday, he had a heart attack and you know, he went,
• 1:46:45
  but that whiskey has always stayed with me as the one that
• 1:46:51
  he. Is like I get this.
• 1:46:54
  Yeah, he wasn't. It wasn't even, you know, one of
• 1:46:57
  our brands, but it was one that he saw me enjoying.
• 1:47:00
  And there was just that one look.
• 1:47:02
  That's of when, like, you found, Yeah, you found what?
• 1:47:06
  You. You're doing all right here.
• 1:47:07
  I mean, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and, and, and that for me
• 1:47:10
  has always, always stuck like, you know, he, he went knowing
• 1:47:17
  that all of his children were in a job or career that they, they
• 1:47:21
  were happy in. And, and so I don't drink it all
• 1:47:25
  that often because obviously it brings a lot of emotions back,
• 1:47:29
  but it's one of those that has always stuck with me as
• 1:47:32
  something that I will know I'll drink on, you know,
• 1:47:37
  anniversaries. Yeah, think about it.
• 1:47:39
  Forever 100. Percent forever and you know
• 1:47:41
  that that for that reason, that's always.
• 1:47:43
  That's what that's what Whiskey Story is is all about.
• 1:47:45
  Yeah, there's a nice feeling like that, a really nice
• 1:47:48
  feeling, yeah. And that's that's there and it's
• 1:47:50
  good that you can have that, that, that there.
• 1:47:52
  So, yeah, very nice. Thank you for sharing that with.
• 1:47:54
  US. No, no, thank you for sharing
• 1:47:55
  that. No, no, 100% that's there.
• 1:47:57
  I mean, I mean. That's what that is what whiskey
• 1:47:59
  is all about. But this is what this podcast is
• 1:48:01
  all about. This is, this is literally like,
• 1:48:05
  what does whiskey mean to you through stories, you know, this
• 1:48:08
  is, and, and whiskey is, is different to any other type of
• 1:48:12
  spirit or alcohol that it brings people together in a way that no
• 1:48:18
  other drink does. And I'm a firm believer in that.
• 1:48:21
  And, and I'm a classic example of that, an Englishman coming up
• 1:48:25
  to work in Scotland with no knowledge of whiskey.
• 1:48:28
  And here I am on a Whiskey Stories podcast.
• 1:48:31
  Three years. Later and the highest
• 1:48:32
  listenership of the Whiskey Stories podcast is in London.
• 1:48:35
  There you go. There you go.
• 1:48:40
  Hello London, I love it. I.
• 1:48:43
  Love it. Third and final one, I think
• 1:48:45
  I've got it here. Oh fantastic.
• 1:48:49
  No. No, the other one.
• 1:48:50
  Well I've just I've just done 2 Glenfiddics.
• 1:48:53
  And you've been speaking. No, you haven't.
• 1:48:54
  You're a Glenmo, so you're fine. So you're allowed to do one
• 1:48:56
  more. Well, the sample bottle is it
• 1:48:58
  that? This, well, it's this one.
• 1:49:01
  Grand Chateau. So all.
• 1:49:02
  Right. Just do this, yeah.
• 1:49:03
  So I have have you tried this? I have I unless it was on that
• 1:49:09
  tasting that we. I need to buy this, yes I think.
• 1:49:13
  I've tried it, Dougal brought it.
• 1:49:15
  And this is the only reason. Why?
• 1:49:16
  I tried. I wasn't on Dougal's podcast.
• 1:49:18
  I've tried it at the Westie Stories.
• 1:49:20
  I don't think I've tried. It yet?
• 1:49:21
  I've tried it at Dougal Gordon's first tasting at the Maltese.
• 1:49:26
  What Westie? I don't think I've tried it
• 1:49:28
  these two may have. Please help.
• 1:49:30
  Yourself. You call it.
• 1:49:34
  The reason, the reason I love this one so much is this is this
• 1:49:40
  is been nine years finished in red wine cast.
• 1:49:44
  Yeah, this is not just your standard finish of 6.
• 1:49:48
  Months. So this is a third 31 year old,
• 1:49:50
  nine years in red wine. Cast Yeah and.
• 1:49:54
  That's a bottle kill as well. But the the thing, the thing
• 1:49:58
  that I love most about this. And it's 47.6% that's.
• 1:50:02
  Generous. The the thing I love most about
• 1:50:04
  this is the memories I have and we've spoken about a few times.
• 1:50:08
  We brame our games, we brought this out a couple of months
• 1:50:11
  beforehand and we took a bunch of Fraser was up for it, Dario
• 1:50:17
  was up for it as well. Really struggling for numbers
• 1:50:19
  that day. Podcast guest, by the way,
• 1:50:25
  Podcast guest. And we took people from, from
• 1:50:34
  Turnberry, from Caledonian, from Scotch, all these amazing
• 1:50:39
  places. These are the 400 members.
• 1:50:40
  You know, we, we got on the bus from Edinburgh at, you know,
• 1:50:45
  half seven in the morning. We made our way up there
• 1:50:48
  drinking drams on the way up. We got to the tent.
• 1:50:51
  It was a gorgeous summer's day. And they brought this over in
• 1:50:59
  the tent and everyone tried it. And I'd, I'd had a nip before,
• 1:51:03
  but I'd never had it like in that environment where you're
• 1:51:06
  sponsoring the the games and everyone's there and everyone
• 1:51:09
  was just blown away by it. And it's the feeling.
• 1:51:15
  It's the feeling you get from drinking whiskey and you close
• 1:51:18
  your eyes and you're almost transported back to where you
• 1:51:20
  were at that point. And every time I have a a drama
• 1:51:23
  this, I remember that day and it was one of the best days I've
• 1:51:27
  done since I've joined. I joined Grounds and you know,
• 1:51:31
  doesn't, you know, it's a delicious strand as well.
• 1:51:34
  Oh well, 10. 31 years old. 31 years old, 23 years in American
• 1:51:42
  oak I think, and then nine years red wine.
• 1:51:44
  It's super. Incredible.
• 1:51:46
  No, Tim, honestly, it's been absolutely worth the weight of
• 1:51:47
  getting you on this podcast because that was a crash.
• 1:51:49
  Oops. Honestly, genuinely, it was.
• 1:51:50
  I really, really enjoyed that and I.
• 1:51:52
  Was not just come back with it. That's been a great pod.
• 1:51:54
  No, I generally love that. I loved that.
• 1:51:57
  And I think I remember the first time we spoke with Tim and said,
• 1:51:59
  oh, you must come on. I'll just come and watch.
• 1:52:03
  It's coming, Rod, come on in episode.
• 1:52:04
  There's something, there's something nice about me.
• 1:52:07
  It's been general lads, I've really missed the pod.
• 1:52:09
  That's been good gentle lads. I've really missed the pod.
• 1:52:12
  And when I said I could just say it was Tom Walker perfect, I
• 1:52:16
  said Timothy, yeah, genuinely. To have a friend like Tim on the
• 1:52:21
  pod as a guest as well, you've been far too generous.
• 1:52:24
  Because. Because we're outrageous.
• 1:52:28
  And you should have known that, really.
• 1:52:29
  But great, Paul, great conversation.
• 1:52:32
  It's been just a luxury haven't. You been a luxury.
• 1:52:34
  The luxury over here? No.
• 1:52:35
  Well, look, thank. You a luxury wishes stories.
• 1:52:37
  Thank you very much for everyone who's tuned in.
• 1:52:39
  Thank you very much for listening.
• 1:52:40
  Thanks again. Like I say, hello, London.
• 1:52:42
  Thank you. Goodbye, London.
• 1:52:43
  Give us five stars. Follow us on socials.
• 1:52:47
  It's been absolutely fantastic, Tim, thank you very much.
• 1:52:49
  All the very best. Cheers Langeva.
• 1:52:52
  Cheers. Brilliant.
• 1:52:53
  Well done.