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Great lads. 
We've all got dramas in front of

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our leave us. 
We've got dramas in front of us.

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We're all set. 
Sandra, bar guys, all the very 

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best. 
Thanks. 

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All the best. 
Bless me, Alex. 

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Cheers. 
Lovely, great Angus. 

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You know what to do. 
Clap us in. 

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Welcome to the Whiskey Stories 
podcast. 

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We had three casks which we just
bought from Ian MacLeod 

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Distillers. 
Over a long lunch, they were A 

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butt of 1969 spring Bank, which 
was quite good and from memory, 

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a couple of hogs heads 1 was a 
15 year old Tam do and I think a

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12 year old good leader. 
But that was that was my stop to

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get Adelphi going again. 
You know, generally we're not 

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we're not we're not trying to 
rewrite anything. 

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We're just whiskey lovers who 
got behind the lucky enough to 

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get behind the new distillery 
and do everything in the house. 

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And if if if other people have 
the same taste buds, that is 

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fantastic. 
Welcome along the Whiskey 

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Stories podcast, myself, Greg 
Kogar. 

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We're back in the athletic arms,
back when it all began and guess

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what lads, we are going up in 
the world and I just don't mean 

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with the calibre of guests that 
we've got on this evening. 

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We are literally up in diggers. 
We're back in the snug, Ross. 

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I'm quite upset when I get put 
down into that resale, although 

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you guys quite like it, yeah. 
So I'm just getting through the 

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Hatch. 
Too. 

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I've got more breathing space in
here. 

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Got. 
A nice comfy seat up here. 

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It's true. 
It's true. 

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It's a. 
Space we're not kind of perched 

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on a on a stool, no, there's. 
Something about the upholstery, 

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you know? 
There any upholstery? 

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Yeah, that's exactly. 
That's for a change I've seen, 

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right? 
It's been a while since we've 

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been here. 
And we've got drams in front of 

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us. 
What you saw? 

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I've got a couple of belt and 
drams in front of me. 

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Actually, I've got Spring Mank 
18 from this year, which got in 

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recently. 
Last year's was all bourbon and 

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which I really liked. 
This one's 50% bourbon, 40% 

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Sherry, 5% rum. 
OK, it's very Spring Monkey, 

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which actually is maybe not 
really my style of whiskey. 

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Spring Monkey. 
Stuff it's not it's not really 

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my style of whiskey, but I 
thought I'd give it a go. 12 lbs

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for something like that and the 
diggers. 

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Great value. 
And I've got the new Feticare 

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and 25 year olds which. 
Is ages tonight, Ross? 

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I know, I know. 
It's going to be a travel. 

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Those big ages, it's. 
Going to be a travel retail 

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exclusive I believe, which is 
quite annoying, but it's a 

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bourbon cask, 46.8% Petacare, 
which means I know I'm going to 

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enjoy it. 
And I was just in the Diggers 

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leaf before I came here and I 
was looking at the gantry and I 

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thought Kev's done a really good
job here. 

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He's got more whiskey in and I 
seen an unopened bottle of beer 

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having 30 and I said I just have
to ask the question having been 

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an Isla in January, said how 
much is that £35 a nip, £35 for 

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35 mils? 
I've been having 30 so I had to 

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crack that open. 
So I've had a very good. 

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You wouldn't even get, you 
wouldn't even get that cheap on 

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your own staff discount. 
I mean, there's a world. 

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It's a very well priced salmon 
the diggers is what I'll say. 

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There's a there's a world, I 
guess, where a lot of people can

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sometimes go through a large 
part of their life or they'll 

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never have a whiskey older than 
the age that they actually are. 

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Whereas Ross actually, it's 
usually, you never really drinks

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it. 
What have you got I guess? 

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I've got October morning 12. 
Very, very nice. 

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Yeah. 
And I've gone Arden American 

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Fidelity, I can't go. 
Why is that? 

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It's probably in sales for the 
month. 

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I've got your heritage barley 
release great and Pete and 

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Sotternes super. 
Glad. 

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Graham you. 
Have you gone the same way? 

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I've got 2 Arden Americans on 
either side of a Glen Allocate 

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15 and I've gone this is because
you've you've viewed Billy 

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Walker the other day and you've 
just gone all out yeah Glen Alec

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right well yes yeah, we I saw 
Billy speaking at the end 

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Whiskey conference. 
I'll give these guys a shout out

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later on. 
It was, it was a great as we 

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were recording, I still got a 
few weeks after it, but it was a

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really, really successful 
conference. 

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But Arden, Merkin, Sherry, which
people of the podcast will know,

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That was my 2025 DRAM of the 
year. 

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I believe you said you could 
bathe in it. 

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I said I would love to fill a 
bath full of that. 

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What? 
Was nice is when I went to the 

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bar, I went after you. 
So I can actually see pretty 

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much which Arden Merkins you've 
gone for us. 

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I went right go for the ones. 
Well, I said and there was a 

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tasting here as we're recording 
this a couple of weeks ago. 

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So all the Arden Merkins have 
been brought. 

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Forward to the edge, to the 
shelf, and I've also gone for 

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the Arden Merkin tent, which I 
think just a a cracking drama. 

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As well Dark Label the New 10. 
Yes, but we are ardent American 

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daft because tonight, ladies and
gentlemen, we have the managing 

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director of Adelphi Man, who is 
in charge of it all for Adelphi 

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and ardent American, Alex Bruce.
Alex, how are you? 

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I'm very well, thank you and 
delighted to be here. 

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Yes, very kind of you to welcome
me in tonight. 

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Well, thank you for coming 
along. 

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And we're sitting here enjoying 
all these drams. 

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You've got a ginger in front of 
you because you're driving. 

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But look, we would drive them on
your behalf. 

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And I'm sure they're, you know, 
I would say you've probably had 

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that much, you're sick of it, 
but I just don't think you can 

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get sick about the market. 
You guys must be nice to beg 

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Carl. 
If Carl was able to say to Alex,

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no, it's all right, it's safe. 
These boys are OK. 

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Yeah, that's it. 
Yeah, I mean that's one of the 

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other. 
Reasons I'm not careful that 

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I've turned up for this one, 
Carl. 

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I do, I think Carl Kraft says he
is on Instagram. 

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One of the heroes of modern WW 
sales folk. 

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Just. 
But I like the accent, as you 

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know. 
American wife and all the rest. 

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Yeah. 
And he's he's under, he 

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understood that he he doesn't 
pronounce it Glasgow. 

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Yeah. 
Yeah, we've had to beat that 

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into the and Carl. 
Carl Ossigrave is one of the 

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00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:14,200
great podcast moments. 
We had him on the pod and about 

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two weeks later he was out in 
America and somebody who listens

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to the pod drove about 6 hours. 
Scott Moore drove about 6 hours 

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to go and meet him in Saint 
Louis. 

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He's he's back out at the 
moment. 

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He's in, I think Austin tonight.
Was he? 

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00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:30,120
Yeah. 
Or 19 only if you're listening 

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Scott, that's. 
Another 8 hours drive from 

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00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:36,120
Memphis I think but. 
But no, Alex, it's great. 

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I mean, I think we, what we'll 
all say is we'll mention on the 

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market a lot tonight and the day
of course we'll talk about that.

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But you're not paying, you're 
not paying us to do it. 

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We genuinely, I mean, not that 
we would speak about a brand if 

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we weren't being paid to talk 
about, but we're being paid. 

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Sorry, but we are just massive 
Arden market fans on the podcast

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and and genuinely, and we were 
actually talking. 

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In fact, the last last week's 
episode we're talking about, it 

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was Flor Outram was on the pod 
and it was one of her, what, 3 

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drafts? 
European Brandon Master for 

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international beverage. 
Yes, that's correct. 

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And we were asking, she asked 
about how does Arden American 

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pop up a lot, and I said, yeah, 
it does. 

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It was Charlie Hume who first 
put it up and it was that Paul 

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Noir champagne, but he got to 
try it before that actually came

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out. 
And I said I was really annoyed 

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and I'm repeating myself. 
So if you listen to last week's 

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apologies, but I'm but I was 
really annoyed that night for 

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two reasons #1 I'd never heard 
of Arde Marcus, so I didn't have

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a clue how to spell it. 
And if you look back at my 

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00:06:35,400 --> 00:06:37,800
phonetic spelling of what I 
thought he'd said. 

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And then of course he's stuck 
Paul Louise Noir or whatever it 

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is on top of it. 
Well, that's a nightmare for a 

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dyslexic straight away. 
But secondly, I was actually 

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really annoyed because the first
time I'd ever heard of Arde 

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marking and the first time I'd 
ever we'd ever had somebody on a

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walk 3 drams bringing in a new 
distillery on a walk 3 DRAM 

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Charlie. 
His walk 3 drams were incredible

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that night and I was semi 
disappointed going why? 

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I've never heard of these guys. 
Why would you, why would you 

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bring that and how wrong a year 
and a bit later am I? 

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Because the the range and scope 
of the whiskey that's been 

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produced there is absolutely 
fantastic and we've just enjoyed

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so many different releases. 
Angus, anyway. 

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Absolutely. 
I think, I think particularly 

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when there was a moment we had 
when we were at the Edinburgh 

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Whiskey Festival and we were 
recording something at the time.

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So we were kind of mid 
conversation. 

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Somebody who we we know for the 
Jeeves, Jeeves we know as a 

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listener came up and he had a 
bottling of your cherry cap, 

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your cherry release. 
I think it might have actually 

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00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:36,160
been a single cast version, a 
private bottling of that. 

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And he kind of just Glenn Kern 
glad. 

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Like we didn't really even see 
necessarily what he was pouring.

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They put it in, couldn't tell us
what it was. 

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It was just, you know, that 
point, right? 

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OK. 
And we tried it. 

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And I remember Graham and I just
kind of. 

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Gave a look because we're again 
on camera. 

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00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:54,880
We chatted mid conversation 
conversation with somebody else.

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00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:57,160
Somebody else was talking. 
He's coming on camera and 

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00:07:57,160 --> 00:08:00,600
porters and Graham just made the
eye contact and went right. 

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00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:02,640
Wow, that's. 
Really, really nice whiskey, 

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00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:05,120
Yeah. 
Look, and we, I think the end of

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00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:09,720
the day, we, I mean, I think 
Carl probably explained this 

186
00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:13,080
previously, but everything's in 
house, including the blending 

187
00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:14,800
team. 
And I think that's hugely 

188
00:08:14,800 --> 00:08:17,160
important. 
We're not wearing lab coats. 

189
00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:20,800
We're not masters this and 
masters that, We're just people 

190
00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:26,480
who love whiskey and have been 
in alcohol for a number of years

191
00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:29,680
and have gained experience both 
in terms of what we like and 

192
00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:35,559
also what we think works. 
And having that all together not

193
00:08:35,559 --> 00:08:40,080
only gives you a bit of 
consistency, but if we're having

194
00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:42,120
a bit of fun, that can shine 
through as well. 

195
00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:45,000
Definitely say that one. 
I spoke to Carol, you know, but 

196
00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:47,320
talk, talk us through then where
they're all how they're all 

197
00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:50,080
start from your own point of 
view, where do you start by 

198
00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:56,280
getting involved in in whiskey? 
So I actually started on the 

199
00:08:56,280 --> 00:09:01,120
wrong side of the channel. 
I did my sort of post student 

200
00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:07,040
training with Remy Remy Mahtan 
and I was very lucky to build a 

201
00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:09,800
Blogger job through Highland 
Distillers, who were then in the

202
00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:14,800
mid 90s in a joint venture. 
So I got a beautiful office on 

203
00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:19,400
the Ron Vine de Chauncelyze and 
I had an amazing few months. 

204
00:09:19,960 --> 00:09:24,640
But what it taught me was, well,
it gave me this, this desire to 

205
00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:26,600
get back into or to get into 
spirits. 

206
00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:30,720
And it was logical that that 
would be Scotch because it was 

207
00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:32,800
back home. 
So I came back kind of going 

208
00:09:32,840 --> 00:09:34,360
right get a job in Scotch 
whiskey. 

209
00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:37,880
And it was just about the time 
when we were ploring our way 

210
00:09:37,880 --> 00:09:41,920
back out of the last dip and the
last jobs to come back are the 

211
00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:44,320
sales and marketing jobs, which 
is what I was going for. 

212
00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:47,320
So various people said look, 
just get into the industry 

213
00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:50,040
anyhow you can. 
And I managed to get a job in 

214
00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:53,080
wine because I ended up working 
for J&B. 

215
00:09:53,680 --> 00:09:56,920
But on the wine side up here in 
Scotland, I had about 8 years 

216
00:09:56,920 --> 00:10:01,480
with them and then formed my own
little wine business in Leith. 

217
00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:05,080
And two years into that, we 
opened a retail shop. 

218
00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:15,800
It's now I think ALDI, it's we 
started ALDI the the building is

219
00:10:15,800 --> 00:10:18,360
that ALDI? 
It's just next soon as this 

220
00:10:18,520 --> 00:10:22,320
goes, oh, it's in. 
I started the middle ale. 

221
00:10:24,560 --> 00:10:26,960
Yeah, Anyway, yeah, next to 
Kinloch Anderson there and it, 

222
00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:31,200
it had a back entrance onto the 
Main Street, you know, 

223
00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:32,440
commercial. 
Yeah. 

224
00:10:32,440 --> 00:10:33,200
Commercial St. 
Yeah. 

225
00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:36,200
So directly opposite Tom 
Kitchens and in fact we were his

226
00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:38,640
first wine supplier when he 
opened because we took, we took 

227
00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:40,120
it across on a trolley. 
You just pass it right? 

228
00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:43,000
Straight. 
Ahead so people said why, why 

229
00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:46,480
don't you adapt? 
You're doing wholesale, why 

230
00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:48,280
don't you do retail at the back 
door? 

231
00:10:48,440 --> 00:10:51,120
So we opened like a wine 
warehouse, Majestic style thing.

232
00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:54,760
Lots of people came in they 
bought wine and then gradually 

233
00:10:54,760 --> 00:11:00,080
they started complaining that 
they that we didn't have the 

234
00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,760
full shelf. 
You know, where's your gin? 

235
00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:06,360
Where's your whiskey? 
So I went out and I rang up my 

236
00:11:06,360 --> 00:11:10,080
old friend Jamie Walker, who 
owned Adelphi, and Adelphi I've 

237
00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:13,320
known for years because we used 
to buy it, J&B and all the rest 

238
00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:16,520
of it just for these exceptional
single casks. 

239
00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:19,360
Almost eccentric in how 
exceptional they were. 

240
00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:23,440
They, him and Charlie McLean had
spent hours over each selection.

241
00:11:23,880 --> 00:11:27,680
I mean I think the ratio back 
there was something like 1 cast 

242
00:11:27,680 --> 00:11:32,960
selected in 40 tried. 
Albeit it was different back 

243
00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:34,880
then because you just got all 
kinds of cars coming through. 

244
00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:36,720
You didn't get any kind of pre 
selection. 

245
00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:38,680
What time? 
Of year, sort of when, what, 

246
00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:40,080
what, what page are we talking 
here then? 

247
00:11:40,160 --> 00:11:46,080
So this would have been summer 
2004. 

248
00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:50,480
Right, OK. 
Jamie then said I've just sold 

249
00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:53,320
the business. 
You need to go meet a guy who 

250
00:11:53,320 --> 00:11:56,000
lives in Banton. 
He's bought it with a guy who 

251
00:11:56,000 --> 00:11:57,640
lives in AD American. 
I said where? 

252
00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:02,720
So anyway, I met, I met the 
lovely Keith Faulkner in Barnton

253
00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:05,360
on a Saturday afternoon. 
We got on really well and he 

254
00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:08,600
said, I want you to go and meet 
my business partner Donald. 

255
00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:10,080
He lives in Adam American 
tomorrow. 

256
00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:12,360
I said, why? 
I just want to buy some whiskey 

257
00:12:12,360 --> 00:12:14,400
and he said no, no, we want you 
to come and work for us. 

258
00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:17,960
I was like, oh Christ, well 
there's, there's a, a new route.

259
00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:21,160
So I trundled my way up to Adam 
American on Sunday, met Donald 

260
00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:24,880
and on the way back they offered
me the job and I then shipped 

261
00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:28,120
the wine company on to my great 
friend Philippe, who has now 

262
00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:31,400
progressed it into a very good 
company called Luck Duvan, who 

263
00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:35,320
was still trading successfully 
anyway. 

264
00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:37,480
So that that was that. 
That was me into whiskey. 

265
00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:41,800
I arrived at Adelphi, which is 
actually my attic bedroom. 

266
00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:47,040
The office wise, the fax 
machine, I don't think e-mail 

267
00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:48,600
was really kicking off properly 
then. 

268
00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:56,480
And we had three casks which we 
just bought from Ian MacLeod 

269
00:12:56,480 --> 00:13:01,760
Distillers over a long lunch. 
They were a butt of 1969 Spring 

270
00:13:01,760 --> 00:13:05,000
Bank, which was right quite 
good. 

271
00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:09,520
And from memory a couple of 
hogsheads. 1 was a 15 year old 

272
00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:11,840
Tamdu and AI think a 12 year old
good leader. 

273
00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:15,080
But that was that was my stop to
get Adelphi going again. 

274
00:13:15,400 --> 00:13:20,560
Wow, so Jamie Walker then was in
business with it was the other 

275
00:13:20,560 --> 00:13:22,120
chap you said that was up in 
Ardemirkin was? 

276
00:13:22,120 --> 00:13:24,360
No, no, no. 
So Jamie was pre. 

277
00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:27,480
Pre Jamie Walker, Yeah, Jamie 
Walker sold the business to to 

278
00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:29,680
chap up in, well, the guy in 
Barnton. 

279
00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:31,080
Yeah. 
And Ardemirkin. 

280
00:13:31,160 --> 00:13:35,520
And Ardemirkin, yeah. 
And so then, so that back then, 

281
00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:38,040
you're saying that they were 
still an independent bottler. 

282
00:13:38,040 --> 00:13:41,800
Yeah, but you were literally 
these small parcels of casks. 

283
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:43,960
But at the same time, like 
you're saying, Charlie McLean 

284
00:13:43,960 --> 00:13:45,120
was involved at that time as 
well. 

285
00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:48,560
And Charlie was actually a 
director when when I joined and 

286
00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:51,400
he was beginning to branch out. 
He was beginning to write a lot 

287
00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:55,720
more for and taste a lot more 
for other companies in the 

288
00:13:55,720 --> 00:13:57,760
industry. 
So he felt it was a legitimate 

289
00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:01,480
reason to then back down or come
off the board and just remain as

290
00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:04,200
a consultant. 
And what what at that time we 

291
00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:07,040
because we talked with Carol on 
the episode about the history of

292
00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:09,520
Adelphi, where the name comes 
from the Adelphi distillery in 

293
00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:11,400
Glasgow. 
There was a great what was the 

294
00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:12,520
disaster? 
Where the was it? 

295
00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:15,760
The wash back broke and rang 
beer down the area. 

296
00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:18,360
So if you want to hear about 
that, listen to Carl. 

297
00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:21,240
Stop this episode and go back 
and listen to Carl's because it 

298
00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:23,800
was it was good with that. 
But I'm interested at the time 

299
00:14:23,920 --> 00:14:26,760
what was Adelphi as an 
independent bottler and how big 

300
00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:30,600
a scene was independent bottling
in the sort of early 2000s. 

301
00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:35,840
So Adelphi was a bit of a loner,
not as an independent bottler, 

302
00:14:35,840 --> 00:14:38,560
but but in the style of 
independent bottler. 

303
00:14:39,080 --> 00:14:42,800
So you had obviously the famous 
historical names like Gordon 

304
00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:47,360
Macphail, Caden, the Heads, and 
just before Adelphi was 

305
00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:53,560
signatory, Andrew Symington. 
But all of these independent 

306
00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:56,480
bottlers, they all had built 
stock of young whiskey. 

307
00:14:56,880 --> 00:14:58,760
So they were like a sort of 
virtual distiller. 

308
00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:03,800
They built exactly. 
Yeah, young anyway, so filling 

309
00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:06,960
contracts, all the rest of it, 
Jamie and Jamie never had enough

310
00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:09,040
money to do that. 
I mean, literally he was hand to

311
00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:10,960
mouth. 
So he he would buy a cast, he 

312
00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:13,320
would bottle it at Broxburn 
Bottlers, he would sell it, and 

313
00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:15,600
then they'd give him enough 
money to buy the next one just 

314
00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:17,480
in time. 
And that was what what I 

315
00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:21,520
inherited. 
And it was unique. 

316
00:15:21,600 --> 00:15:24,320
There was no one really in the 
market doing that. 

317
00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:27,560
But what it did give you, even 
though you'd never make a huge 

318
00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:31,760
amount of money doing it, and 
you were at the risk of the 

319
00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:36,800
distillers closing their doors 
to supply you, what it gave you 

320
00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:39,960
was the ultimate chance to 
select the best you could get. 

321
00:15:41,400 --> 00:15:43,040
Yeah. 
So that was where he was always 

322
00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:47,040
at that level. 
And he would never allow 

323
00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:49,440
anything to be bottled that 
hadn't been passed by him in 

324
00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:51,240
charge. 
And in my experience when I 

325
00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:57,440
first got into whiskey, Gordon 
Macphail and Adelphi with the 

326
00:15:57,440 --> 00:16:01,400
two bottlings that I've seen 
most commonly in the luxury 

327
00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:04,440
market. 
And it was always didn't 

328
00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:06,800
necessarily have to be big names
in whiskey for I remember having

329
00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:09,680
a Glen Keith. 
Yeah, and he's 21, bottled by 

330
00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:13,440
Adelphi, but thinking this is 
the very best cask. 

331
00:16:13,440 --> 00:16:15,720
So is that what Adelphi came? 
Oh, always. 

332
00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:18,880
Well, even then I remember 
having a six year old Khalila 

333
00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:21,320
that was like I looked like a 
paint of Guinness, it was that 

334
00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:23,320
dark. 
But obviously because it was 

335
00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:25,600
exceptional at that age, that's 
why it had been bottled. 

336
00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:29,200
But it always felt that the out 
turns were not necessarily that 

337
00:16:29,200 --> 00:16:31,960
consistent from Adelphi, but 
they were always focused on the 

338
00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:34,520
quality of what was coming out. 
So you were always really 

339
00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:37,000
excited when you seen there was 
a new Adelphi outturn coming 

340
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:40,720
out. 
Even now all the Adelphi's that 

341
00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:46,240
I have are old 27 year old Clyde
Leish, 40 year old Milton Duff 

342
00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:51,560
and mid 30s bourbon cask 
mortlike. 

343
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:54,280
Yeah, like it's it's all top, 
top stuff. 

344
00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:56,560
So and that. 
Carried on right away through. 

345
00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,040
I think. 
I think it has from from my 

346
00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:01,200
point of view, but you don't see
as much anymore. 

347
00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:05,480
I I must admit, like I from that
from that, you know, Alex, from 

348
00:17:05,839 --> 00:17:08,119
if you've not listened to the 
podcast, I don't blame you, but 

349
00:17:08,839 --> 00:17:12,920
but equally I have Angus and I 
we approached whiskey from we 

350
00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:14,800
we're whisking opposite. 
So we've always said from this 

351
00:17:14,800 --> 00:17:18,000
podcast, you know, we needed to 
get somebody on the podcast with

352
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:19,280
us that knew they were talking 
about. 

353
00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:21,440
We tried with Ross, but then we 
realized we're just going to 

354
00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:23,440
have to get a guest on 
everybody. 

355
00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:28,200
But but I'll be honest, Adelphi 
is just a brand that I've only 

356
00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:31,560
since doing the podcast. 
I mean, before we started doing 

357
00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:34,440
the podcast, Angus, we weren't 
drink, we weren't drinking 

358
00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:36,440
single cast whiskey really. 
No, not really. 

359
00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:38,120
We weren't drinking 
independently bottled stuff 

360
00:17:38,120 --> 00:17:41,560
really. 
So this is all a fairly new part

361
00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:44,400
of the journey for us. 
But then it is it isn't until 

362
00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:49,040
you you, you until you walk into
and this is like we did the the 

363
00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:51,120
spotlight with Morrison distill.
Morrison. 

364
00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:52,440
Yeah. 
Scott Frisky Distillers. 

365
00:17:53,360 --> 00:17:56,440
And I was saying to Tam who was 
doing it with us. 

366
00:17:56,440 --> 00:17:59,560
You know, you don't see car 
more. 

367
00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:01,200
Yeah. 
On the shelves and diggers. 

368
00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:02,560
No. 
And he was like, because we're 

369
00:18:02,760 --> 00:18:05,800
so focused on trade, we we off 
trade, we go into the off trade.

370
00:18:06,360 --> 00:18:08,560
And it's similar to Adelphi. 
You know, you guys, you would 

371
00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:11,480
be, I would be guilty of 
thinking Adelphi were a fairly 

372
00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:14,760
new guy in the game of 
independent bottlers because I'd

373
00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:17,720
never heard them before. 
And I think naively, and Chuck 

374
00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:20,400
always said it just when you 
think you're at the peak of 

375
00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:22,120
ignorance, when you think you 
know absolutely everything about

376
00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:23,960
whiskey. 
But I would sit there and go. 

377
00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:25,360
These Adelphi guys must be 
fairly. 

378
00:18:25,360 --> 00:18:26,880
New and I would have never seen 
them. 

379
00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:28,480
Before. 
And I would have said to you, 

380
00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:31,000
Graham, and I guess we are 
getting into whiskey, that 

381
00:18:31,360 --> 00:18:34,200
independent bottling was kind of
a fairly niche thing for whiskey

382
00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:36,000
drinkers mostly, but just drank 
what they got in the 

383
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:38,040
supermarket. 
So once you got into independent

384
00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:40,000
bottling, you realize how 
interesting things could be. 

385
00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:42,200
And then you would go to 
independent bottlers, you'd have

386
00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:44,920
your preferences, whoever you go
for in Edinburgh, Fragrant Drops

387
00:18:44,920 --> 00:18:48,640
and Woodrow's do really well, 
but Adelphi felt like that 

388
00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:51,440
little next step up. 
But when I first started, I felt

389
00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:54,720
like not only do I know 
independent bottling, but I 

390
00:18:54,760 --> 00:18:58,040
liked Adelphi's selection. 
And Adelphi's selection for me 

391
00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:01,360
was, although it was more few 
and far between, it was always 

392
00:19:01,360 --> 00:19:04,360
something that you would kind of
take your time, sit down and 

393
00:19:04,360 --> 00:19:09,120
take notice of. 
I've got, for example, Ben Nevis

394
00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:12,480
Adelphi in my house that was 
bottled for Loch Fine Whiskeys. 

395
00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:15,000
So again, off trade success, 
looking at an independent 

396
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:17,960
retailer who have said they want
to get their own single cask. 

397
00:19:17,960 --> 00:19:21,440
And again, this was a young 
Darker's Knight Sherry cask. 

398
00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:24,640
But my best experiences are 
distilleries I hadn't. 

399
00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:26,080
And then I'd never heard of Glen
Keith. 

400
00:19:26,440 --> 00:19:28,960
The first Glen Keith I can 
remember tasting is this 

401
00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:32,440
Adelphi, because and that was 
then my representation. 

402
00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:34,520
Representation and thoughts of 
the distillery. 

403
00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:38,480
And just as we've talking about,
you know, Glenbergie, Milton, 

404
00:19:38,480 --> 00:19:42,400
Duff, Tormore, Longmore, and all
these distilleries reputations 

405
00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:46,000
have been built on the shoulders
of independent bottlers because 

406
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:47,920
they've never done official 
bottlings themselves. 

407
00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:50,320
And so I always thought of 
Gordon Macphail in Adelphi. 

408
00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:53,960
If they were, it was well aged 
and it was an interesting cast. 

409
00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:56,040
You were getting to experience a
decelerant maybe you wouldn't 

410
00:19:56,040 --> 00:19:57,720
know much about, which I thought
was really interesting. 

411
00:19:58,360 --> 00:20:01,480
And from your own point of view,
then you're talking about 2004. 

412
00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:03,680
I just want to go back by the 
way and just say selling wine at

413
00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:08,480
the back door and leaf was 
probably but. 

414
00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:11,320
It was what we had to clear off 
the doorstep every morning. 

415
00:20:11,360 --> 00:20:15,360
It was more. 
But what, how how long had the 

416
00:20:15,360 --> 00:20:17,200
like? 
So you're talking about 2004, 

417
00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:21,120
maybe 2005 area time with a 
Delphi and that's what they've 

418
00:20:21,120 --> 00:20:22,480
been doing. 
How long had the Delphi been 

419
00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:26,440
going prior to that then? 
So Jamie started the company in 

420
00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:29,600
1993. 
Wow, so it was all very well 

421
00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:31,720
and. 
I think even at the peak of his 

422
00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:36,320
ability to by cast himself, I 
don't think he did more than 

423
00:20:36,720 --> 00:20:38,680
probably 50 cars a year. 
Yeah, something like that. 

424
00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:40,680
So when was the Scotch Malt 
Whiskey Society? 

425
00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:44,280
What was that? 
Oh, the 1980s, Pip Hill, I think

426
00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:46,040
1883 or something like that, 
right? 

427
00:20:46,120 --> 00:20:49,680
So there've been a bit of time, 
but even it's funny you talking 

428
00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:51,960
about we've, we've, you'll see 
the peaks and troughs of the 

429
00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:54,200
whiskey in the stray and you'll,
you'll know better than most. 

430
00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:56,760
We've talked a lot of 
independent bottlers that we've 

431
00:20:56,760 --> 00:20:59,560
had on the podcast and we hear 
about the processes. 

432
00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:03,440
And you go back just two years 
when we were speaking to Gregor,

433
00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:05,440
Kurt and a few other independent
bottlers and they were saying, 

434
00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:09,840
we at the time, it was like 
you'd get if you had the 

435
00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:12,360
relationship with one of the 
guys that could pass your cast 

436
00:21:12,360 --> 00:21:15,320
on. 
You got a spreadsheet of a list 

437
00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:18,680
of casts and it was like you 
have to buy that parcel and if 

438
00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:21,320
you even tried to ask them, can 
we get a regauge on that or can 

439
00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:23,880
we get some samples sent? 
I was like, no, you buy it as 

440
00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:24,680
is. 
That's what it is. 

441
00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:28,200
Some people will tell you, 
independent bottlers will tell 

442
00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:29,600
you. 
Right now things are easing off 

443
00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:31,880
a little bit because casts are 
becoming more available and 

444
00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:33,680
things like that. 
But it's interesting going back,

445
00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:36,040
you're saying that Jamie had 
already had that relationship 

446
00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:39,240
where he was saying try getting 
the opportunity first of all to 

447
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:42,720
try 40 casts for. 
The the black book, which was 

448
00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:46,280
literally a black book that he 
gave me of all the contacts, the

449
00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:48,720
supply contacts was probably the
most valuable thing. 

450
00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:51,880
Yeah, because that's I got, I 
think I got a battered filing 

451
00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:54,560
cabinet, the fax machine and 
this black book and that was it.

452
00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:56,400
I. 
Mean you came in. 

453
00:21:56,400 --> 00:21:59,680
Was was it a case of keeping 
doing what he'd done? 

454
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:02,840
Before or was there a change? 
In terms of buying casks, 

455
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:05,920
because you said the stock was 
kind of freecast basically when 

456
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:07,560
you came in? 
There was an assortment of 

457
00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:10,680
bottles as well, which he hadn't
sold. 

458
00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:13,240
So yeah, we had that. 
No, that was all that was. 

459
00:22:13,360 --> 00:22:17,080
He had made the decision, I'm 
guessing probably about 2001, 

460
00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:21,960
too, to sell the business. 
And he'd been looking for the 

461
00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:26,680
right people. 
And Keith had walked in on the 

462
00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:32,760
suggestion of a cousin, I think 
a mutual cousin, because she 

463
00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:35,720
said if you, because Keith 
wanted to buy a single cask and 

464
00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:38,920
share it with Donald, basically.
And he'd walked in. 

465
00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:41,160
Jamie had been introduced by 
this cousin. 

466
00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:42,840
And he said, I want to buy a 
single cast. 

467
00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:44,400
I hear you've got some good 
ones. 

468
00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:46,520
And Jamie sold them the 
business. 

469
00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:49,760
He walked out with three casts, 
filing cabinet, black book. 

470
00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:53,480
So I mean. 
Within a year or two you'd gone 

471
00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:55,400
up and cast volume. 
I take it a bit. 

472
00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:57,600
Well, yes and no. 
So the, and that was the reason 

473
00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:00,160
Jamie had sold it to them, was 
he'd finally found someone who 

474
00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:02,720
respected what he'd done and 
would then continue it. 

475
00:23:03,160 --> 00:23:05,600
At least that's what do. 
You hope buying again. 

476
00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:09,600
So retaining Charlie, who then 
became my mentor because I had 

477
00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:11,800
to switch from a kind of wine 
pallet into a whiskey pallet 

478
00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:15,400
fairly quickly. 
And yeah, no, you're right. 

479
00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:17,680
We we bought more now. 
And just to put it into 

480
00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:20,760
perspective on what you've just 
said about doors opening and 

481
00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:24,040
stock availability. 
So 2004 we had good 

482
00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:26,360
availability, really good in 
fact. 

483
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:30,600
And if I give you one example, a
number of some of the most 

484
00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:33,320
exciting cars I ever bought were
from Drambuy. 

485
00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:36,720
Really. 
OK, so Drambuy were based out at

486
00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:39,480
Glen Warranty where you know 
where they were, shared the 

487
00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:43,800
building there at the time. 
And I walked in to meet the the 

488
00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:50,040
the supplier guy there. 
And he offered me on that day 

489
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:54,000
something like 10 Sherry 
Hogsheads of McAllen, 30 year 

490
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:57,120
old Glenn Livett, 40 year old, 
you name it. 

491
00:23:57,640 --> 00:23:59,760
And I said, well, what do you do
with all this stuff? 

492
00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:01,040
And he said we're chucking it 
into Drambu. 

493
00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:04,200
They literally had that stock 
and they were putting it into. 

494
00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:07,000
Drambu yeah, 30 year old. 
McAllen because they bought it 

495
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:09,680
when it was young. 
The Drambu brand had tailed off 

496
00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:11,440
a little bit, so they still had 
the stock. 

497
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:14,200
They had to use it. 
So I was, I was, you know, like 

498
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:17,480
his fairy godmother. 
I was paying him more money. 

499
00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:19,640
Yeah, so have you. 
I was delighted. 

500
00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:21,960
So if anyone can get. 
Themselves a bottle of Granby. 

501
00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:25,240
From two years onwards, yeah. 
Yeah, you probably. 

502
00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:26,720
Got some pretty decent, right? 
Yeah. 

503
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:31,520
Because when you talk about that
time, I mean, we're, well, I, I 

504
00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:35,640
worry that on the podcast over 
the last few weeks, we've become

505
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:39,720
not the doom merchants of the, 
of the, of the industry. 

506
00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:41,600
There's a lot of bad news. 
There it is, but the. 

507
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:43,240
Adju share price has been 
mentioned. 

508
00:24:43,360 --> 00:24:46,720
Yes, it has been mentioned, but 
we offered them an opportunity 

509
00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:50,280
to save their share price by 
buying some of Moira's DRAM jam 

510
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:54,160
and putting out in the shelves. 
But I think I mentioned it I was

511
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,280
at that in whiskey conference as
we were recording this last week

512
00:24:57,720 --> 00:24:59,560
and it was fascinating. 
It was the first time they've 

513
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:02,640
ever done it big KD media, they 
did a great job putting it on. 

514
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:04,520
I didn't know what to expect. 
That's great. 

515
00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:08,000
I was kind of going along there 
going we'll see what this is 

516
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:09,680
like. 
Well, how well attended it'll be

517
00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:12,720
what the and I'd seen a little 
bit online about who we're who's

518
00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:16,440
going to be speaking and look, 
it was on the IT was on the 

519
00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:19,120
topic of conversation, the 
industry. 

520
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:21,960
But they also said at the start 
of the conference, we have to 

521
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:23,640
talk it up. 
We're not going to be talking it

522
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:25,280
down. 
What we if we are going to be 

523
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:27,440
talking about the challenges 
that we're facing, we have to be

524
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:30,680
talking about it on a positive, 
you know, how do we fix it 

525
00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:33,120
rather than just everyone 
getting in a circle or having a 

526
00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:35,560
cry and thinking how bad things 
are and it gets worse and worse 

527
00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:38,200
and worse. 
But very interestingly, the 

528
00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:42,360
aforementioned Billy Walker was 
speaking and it was funny 

529
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:47,000
because he said, I remember when
I, when I, you know, there's 

530
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:49,000
only a few people, there's only 
one person in this room that can

531
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:52,200
say something like this 
effectively is he said, I 

532
00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:55,640
remember when I bought my first 
distillery, right, right. 

533
00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:58,400
You know, I didn't go, oh, well,
good for you, Billy. 

534
00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:04,400
But he said it was 2004 and he 
said for context, there were 14,

535
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:06,640
I think it was 14. 
There was 14 distilleries in 

536
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:08,840
Scotland that had been 
mothballed that were being made 

537
00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:11,320
available, right? 
And he said, just let that sink 

538
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:14,880
in right now when everyone's 
sitting here today thinking 

539
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:16,640
we're in our turmoil at the 
moment. 

540
00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:19,880
It's 2004. 
There were 14 distilleries that 

541
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:22,120
we could have picked from that 
would be officially mothballed. 

542
00:26:22,120 --> 00:26:26,040
So OK, you're hearing about 
people being paid off and it's 

543
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:27,680
terrible. 
And we've seen, you know, 

544
00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:30,520
closures of different areas and 
people are distilleries going 

545
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:32,640
down to certain levels. 
But he was saying that that's 

546
00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:35,760
where the industry was in 2004. 
So from your point of view, 

547
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:38,800
Alex, you know, being involved 
in the industry back then, did 

548
00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:43,120
you see it as a tough time or 
was it a A, you know, whilst 

549
00:26:43,120 --> 00:26:45,680
it's tough for some, is there's 
an opportunity for others? 

550
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,320
I think, I think I've been 
incredibly lucky over the years 

551
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:51,280
at timing things right. 
And it's not by design, it's by 

552
00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:55,920
default. 
But with Adelphi, I landed just 

553
00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:59,640
a single malt was beginning to 
take off while the supply doors 

554
00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:01,640
were still open. 
And that's a very difficult 

555
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:05,480
balance to have. 
And it wasn't long before they 

556
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:07,560
started to close. 
I'm talking three years. 

557
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:10,120
Well, the doors started to yeah,
yeah. 

558
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:13,240
And even even for someone like 
yourself who had that black book

559
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:16,920
had already said. 
So suddenly instead of it was 

560
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:19,120
going back to like what we've 
just talked about where instead 

561
00:27:19,120 --> 00:27:20,960
of you being able to say, come 
on guys, you were selling us 

562
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:23,320
these casks and giving us 
samples and letting us kick the 

563
00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:27,080
casks and try like and what have
you to a few years later, even 

564
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:29,240
with the relationship order in 
place are saying sorry. 

565
00:27:29,360 --> 00:27:33,000
So what you've got to remember 
is, well, what you have to 

566
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:38,040
realise is that that Black Book,
95% of the names on it were 

567
00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:42,400
brokers or they were distillers,
some of them. 

568
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:46,840
But where I was getting whiskey 
in terms of the brands, it was 

569
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,200
more often than not not the 
original distillery. 

570
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:53,120
Yeah. 
So it wasn't the fact that my 

571
00:27:53,120 --> 00:27:56,600
contacts were saying no, it was 
the fact that their. 1. 

572
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:00,120
Their suppliers one thing no 
calm down. 

573
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:02,040
You know, we can't supply that 
much this year. 

574
00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:06,760
And that's the way with all of 
the way the independent bottlers

575
00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:10,120
works, whether some people in 
the industry have referred to us

576
00:28:10,120 --> 00:28:14,240
as parasites, some like to see 
the more symbiotic relationship,

577
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:17,360
which is great. 
And certainly we help out when 

578
00:28:17,360 --> 00:28:20,320
times are tough and, and, and 
it's a good way of spreading the

579
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:22,960
word. 
But with all of these things, 

580
00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:28,120
you've got to remember that the 
original supplier is at the end 

581
00:28:28,120 --> 00:28:30,520
of the day governing everything 
that's happening. 

582
00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:33,800
Yeah. 
And this this includes and I, I 

583
00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:38,600
always drum tell this story. 
So when we do, for example, a no

584
00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:41,400
named whiskey, so we call up 
call it some fictitious name. 

585
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,720
It's not because we don't want 
to tell the customer where it 

586
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:46,920
comes from. 
I mean, in theory we actually 

587
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:50,400
don't know, but maybe we do. 
It's not because, you know, 

588
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:54,240
we're protecting ourselves. 
We're protecting our supplier 

589
00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:56,720
because we need to make sure 
that their supply arrangement 

590
00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:57,680
continues. 
Yeah. 

591
00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:01,520
And if we suddenly say that is a
McAllen or whatever, yeah, then 

592
00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:02,920
it potentially dries up at the 
other end. 

593
00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:04,680
Yeah. 
So it's a much bigger picture 

594
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:06,960
we're looking at. 
I remember speaking to Dougie a 

595
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:09,600
little about that, and I think 
it might have been a Cline leash

596
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:14,960
that had been, I wrote about it 
in the the newsletter actually, 

597
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:17,120
because it's the first time you 
actually look at the dynamic 

598
00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:19,760
from the other side. 
And I think at the time it was 

599
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:21,960
either I might have been Royal 
Mail. 

600
00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:24,280
Whiskey's had the chance to 
bottle a Cline leash and they 

601
00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:26,440
had the naming rights on the 
cask. 

602
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:30,320
They call it Sutherland. 
No, it was, well it was, it was 

603
00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:32,640
about 16 year old or I thought I
can't remember what age it was, 

604
00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:34,800
12 to 16, what somewhere in 
between there. 

605
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:37,280
But the problem was they could 
have stuck that on the shelf. 

606
00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:40,520
That would have been the direct 
competition, recallingly 14. 

607
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:43,680
Yeah, right, but they also said,
well, we can't stick it too high

608
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:45,560
up because then people would go,
well, why would we buy that when

609
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:48,400
we can get a coin leash 14 and 
then they couldn't undercut it 

610
00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:50,800
because then that would piss off
their supplier and they go hang 

611
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:52,240
on, really guys, we're giving 
you this. 

612
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:54,080
You can't suddenly start putting
that out. 

613
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:56,760
So what they decided was they 
made the choice to make it a 

614
00:29:56,760 --> 00:29:58,880
Highland and they put a cat on 
the label. 

615
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:02,120
Maybe Sutherland, maybe they did
that, but but if you knew, you 

616
00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:03,560
knew. 
But what they were able to do is

617
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:04,640
they were able to put it on the 
shelf. 

618
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:08,040
I can't remember what he said, 
but it was like, you know, a £50

619
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:12,560
if that a 50 LB bottle of what 
they knew was 16 year old 

620
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:15,400
claiming what if you knew you 
knew and you were getting a 

621
00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:17,480
bargain. 
And we that's that's what these 

622
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:19,800
things can work in two ways. 
And if it's a single cash, 

623
00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:22,000
you're not going to do too much 
damage. 

624
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:25,160
But as if you're consistently 
buying lots of stock and you 

625
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:28,200
know, everybody knows what a 
Williamson is now at this point 

626
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:30,280
or a burn, you know what 
Williamson is. 

627
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:31,280
No. 
Well, for the people who are 

628
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:33,840
like, I don't. 
Know, I don't know. 

629
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:36,840
Well, I do. 
You've had it on the podcast. 

630
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:38,240
So William Williamson is a 
Lafroy. 

631
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:39,640
Yeah. 
It's like the name you put for a

632
00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:42,480
Lloyd because Bessie Williamson 
was the one of the. 

633
00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:44,640
Remember Ruskin Novices, Ross. 
I know that's true. 

634
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:46,200
It's true. 
Or Burnsides. 

635
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:47,720
Or Ward Heads. 
Or Westport. 

636
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:49,040
Burnsides is an interesting 1 
though. 

637
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:51,760
Because cabinet. 
Yeah, well, that's true. 

638
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:52,480
But. 
And that has well. 

639
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:56,680
We do, Megan. 
Well, because I, I I've was 

640
00:30:56,680 --> 00:31:01,880
speaking to a bottler that's 
that was heavily featured in the

641
00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:06,360
podcast in the last two years 
who have casks of Burnside that 

642
00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:07,880
are going to release it as an 
unknown space. 

643
00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:09,400
I'd soon because they don't want
to get themselves. 

644
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:12,600
Involved oh look, we we put one 
out not realising Burnside 

645
00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:14,960
Burnside. 
Those were well again and 

646
00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:18,160
immediately got a phone call 
phone call because we know them 

647
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:22,040
pretty well and I'm really sorry
I've no idea We'll we'll stop. 

648
00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:24,600
We've got one more. 
So I kind of scratched my head 

649
00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:27,800
and said what we're going to 
call this and I, I called it 

650
00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:30,840
distilled in Duff Town. 
OK, we seem to have hit this. 

651
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:34,800
Yeah, why not? 
And so people have WW sponge 

652
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:36,600
whiskey land have come out of 
sideburn. 

653
00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:38,680
Yeah. 
Equally annoying that our 

654
00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:40,920
friends at can heads. 
But it's one of those things. 

655
00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:44,240
What do you do with these? 
You're not naming it so also, I 

656
00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:47,800
know for a fact that the, you 
know, the owners of these cast 

657
00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:51,560
and William Grant and sons are 
no longer making burn sides and 

658
00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:53,280
selling them or ward heads and 
selling them. 

659
00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:55,720
That's not, they've stopped that
since early 2000s. 

660
00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,240
So that's why it's always 
debated when there's young stuff

661
00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:00,800
that comes out now you'll hear 
from Charlie Metcalf's then 

662
00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:02,560
actually that can't be a 
Burnside because they've not 

663
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:05,680
sold any Burnside and and and 
and since it's XYZ. 

664
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:08,200
But it's interesting to me 
you're bottling all these 

665
00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:10,760
whiskeys. 
You must have seen, you must 

666
00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:14,000
have seen Adelphi really pick up
when when you took over then in 

667
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:16,440
the in this first couple of 
years and started to do slightly

668
00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:18,640
bigger outturns. 
I came back from one of the 

669
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:22,600
clinch moments in terms of sort 
of where we got to, in terms of 

670
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:27,160
so well, I'll just, if I just 
regress to an earlier 

671
00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:30,160
conversation, what I was going 
to say around the fact that you 

672
00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:33,680
hadn't seen Adelphi very much. 
So the availability or lack of. 

673
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:38,240
So bearing in mind, I was coming
out of a wine business and we 

674
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:40,680
were looking after hotels and 
restaurants in Scotland 

675
00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:43,200
predominantly and it was just 
me. 

676
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:46,680
So I had to try and work out 
what the easiest way to market 

677
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:50,000
was and, and with potential 
growth in mind as well. 

678
00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:53,640
So the first thing of, of that 
was to go back to my wine, my 

679
00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:56,200
restaurants and my hotels. 
So we had some really good 

680
00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:59,040
relationships with some good, 
you know, like Andrew Fairley's,

681
00:32:59,040 --> 00:33:01,640
places like that. 
So I could get an exclusive on 

682
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:04,720
the whiskey trolley for that. 
Then I went right. 

683
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:09,440
If I appoint an, an importer in 
one market, they'll then appoint

684
00:33:09,520 --> 00:33:11,960
lots of me and they can, you 
know, take over. 

685
00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:15,320
And it was also a commercially, 
it was a cash flow issue 

686
00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:16,880
because, and it's even worse 
nowadays. 

687
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:21,600
But if you're selling in the UK,
you have to pay the duty upfront

688
00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:24,120
as the manufacturer, as a 
producer. 

689
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:26,800
And yes, you'll get paid, but 
you may be 30 days after. 

690
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:28,960
So that's a lot of cash if 
you're building a brand. 

691
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:32,560
So I thought export, no, no duty
requirements, shove it out the 

692
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:34,120
door. 
Broxman bottlers will handle it 

693
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:35,400
because we use them for 
everything then. 

694
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:40,320
And so places like Germany took 
off and the Netherlands and the 

695
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,440
US, these were all really good 
markets for us in the early 

696
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:46,280
days. 
And the catalyst for me coming 

697
00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:48,800
back to my shareholders and 
saying we need to think about 

698
00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:52,080
the future was a whiskey fair in
Essen. 

699
00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:56,440
I think it was about 2007. 
And it was in this sort of town 

700
00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:58,480
hall in Essen, my first time 
there. 

701
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:01,240
And I remember coming along, 
normally you'd go to a whiskey 

702
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:03,520
fair as an exhibitor maybe an 
hour before the doors open. 

703
00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:06,840
And here we were, nice sunny day
walking in and there was a queue

704
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:09,440
sneaking all the way back from 
the doors around the corner or 

705
00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:12,280
at least two or three corners. 
And I said to my importer Tila, 

706
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:14,320
I said you must be really 
pleased with it. 

707
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:15,719
You know, they're all queuing 
for tickets. 

708
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:18,159
And he said, Nah, they're 
queuing for your cask of. 

709
00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:20,840
Really. 
So we'd done a, we'd done a, an 

710
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:25,000
exclusive cask of our beg for 
the whiskey for that weekend, 

711
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:26,280
which in those days was 
available. 

712
00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:26,600
Yeah. 
Where's? 

713
00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:29,080
Where's Essen? 
Angus, Germany. 

714
00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:31,320
Good in tag. 
Hello, Germany. 

715
00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:32,719
Good. 
In tag Germany. 

716
00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:37,000
They they, they said it was 1 
bottle per person and it sold 

717
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:38,520
out within an hour and a half. 
That's mental. 

718
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:42,080
So I came back slightly cap in 
hand, but also really 

719
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:44,560
optimistic. 
And I said, you know, to Donald 

720
00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:46,600
and Keith, I said, going 
forward, we're going to have an 

721
00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:48,880
issue. 
We can either flat line the 

722
00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:52,880
business because that's kind of 
what supply is doing now, or we 

723
00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:57,440
can take control of our 
production of our, you know, 

724
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:01,640
bulk whiskey, you're like, or we
can just lock ourselves in the 

725
00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:02,960
warehouse and drink what we got 
left. 

726
00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:07,360
And they, and they actually, 
option 3 was definitely got a 

727
00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:10,400
big tick. 
But no, you can see, I mean, 

728
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:12,920
Donald's an engineer. 
He's an extraordinary mind and. 

729
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:18,040
You can see this, this idea of a
distillery, it wasn't there when

730
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:19,320
you took over the company at 
all. 

731
00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:22,560
It wasn't an ambition 
necessarily of your owners. 

732
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:25,360
This is something that came. 
Out no they they wanted this to 

733
00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:28,360
be a hobby that I can make a 
little bit of a profit profit 

734
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:31,160
every year and give them a 
dividend that was it so suddenly

735
00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:34,080
I had this and Donald's you can 
see the cogs going and you see 

736
00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:38,400
it right distillery an American 
what's going around that where's

737
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:41,240
the circular economy and all of 
these things started clicking 

738
00:35:41,240 --> 00:35:43,400
into place so. 
That was that was the decision 

739
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:45,920
that they. 
Had 2007 two thousand and we 

740
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:48,280
then we engaged in architect 
pretty quickly. 

741
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:54,040
Yeah, the wrong one. 
And he came up with this 

742
00:35:54,040 --> 00:35:56,800
monstrous great factory on the 
hillside, you know, like 

743
00:35:57,040 --> 00:35:59,160
architects drawing thing. 
And it just wasn't the right 

744
00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:00,360
place. 
It wasn't the right volume. 

745
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:02,320
It was all wrong. 
So you had a site fairly 

746
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:03,840
quickly. 
No, no, we didn't. 

747
00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:06,080
At that stage, it was just 
Plunkett somewhere in an 

748
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:08,320
American as a design. 
And then we'll work out, you 

749
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:09,840
know, how to build. 
It the rest of. 

750
00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:13,120
So we kind of then felt really 
despondent because the cost was 

751
00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:17,560
obviously horrific. 
And then another trip, this time

752
00:36:17,560 --> 00:36:21,200
to Japan. 
And I think it was 2010. 

753
00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:24,880
I got invited last minute. 
I was out in Tokyo for the 

754
00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:28,720
whiskey fair and Anthony Wills 
was there and he was invited to 

755
00:36:28,720 --> 00:36:33,120
go and visit Chichibu, which was
the same age as as Kilhoman. 

756
00:36:33,600 --> 00:36:35,720
And there was a journalist, a 
British journalist as well. 

757
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:37,600
And, and he said, why don't you 
come along? 

758
00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:39,360
It'll be fun. 
It's like a three hour train 

759
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:40,640
journey. 
We're in Tokyo. 

760
00:36:41,120 --> 00:36:45,600
So I went out and what a place. 
I mean, my eyes just open to the

761
00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:49,640
the simplicity and on the flip 
sides, the quality out of that 

762
00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:52,320
simplicity, you know, So there 
was, I can't remember it was 

763
00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:54,920
you, me or whoever it was back 
in the day, but there was 

764
00:36:54,920 --> 00:37:01,000
someone stirring the Mizanara 
wash back. 

765
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:05,400
Sorry, a mash ton by hand with 
an awe. 

766
00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:07,880
Everything was Yeah. 
Yeah. 

767
00:37:08,240 --> 00:37:10,680
Well, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck's been
to Chichibu. 

768
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:12,080
I think he just turned up and 
asked if. 

769
00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:12,920
He can have a look. 
He does. 

770
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:16,360
He went back to Chichi Chichi 
Whiskey Festival and favorite is

771
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:17,360
Yeah. 
Yeah, it's great. 

772
00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:18,480
It's really good. 
Yeah. 

773
00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:20,520
So anyway, came back full, full 
of optimism. 

774
00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:22,760
We don't need to go big, we can 
do it small scale. 

775
00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:25,480
I think Chichibu was probably 
around 80,000 litres. 

776
00:37:25,560 --> 00:37:27,520
Yeah, 'cause you're about a 
million litres, aren't? 

777
00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:28,160
You. 
No, we're not. 

778
00:37:28,240 --> 00:37:29,920
We're not. 
We originally planned for 

779
00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:35,160
100,000 and one of my, by then 
I'd, I'd encouraged a few more 

780
00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:37,040
mentors to kind of appear on the
scene. 

781
00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:42,560
One of them was Colin Ross, who 
was forever the manager at Ben 

782
00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:45,800
Nevis Discovery. 
And it was what I wanted was his

783
00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:48,400
historical knowledge. 
So the peaks and the troughs, 

784
00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:49,880
what did he do? 
All these kind of things. 

785
00:37:50,760 --> 00:37:52,360
And he said, right, what are you
building? 

786
00:37:52,480 --> 00:37:54,960
And I said it's 100,000 litre, 
it's going to be off grid 

787
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:57,000
because we kind of had worked 
that out. 

788
00:37:57,000 --> 00:37:59,880
It's going to be an Adam Mercan.
He said best water in Scotland 

789
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:02,640
isn't that great. 
And he said right, I'm going to 

790
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:05,280
stop you there. 
He said 100,000 meter all wrong.

791
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:09,360
You either go in for a kind of 
cellar door, tiny, tiny, tiny 

792
00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:12,880
thing like 20 thousand, 30,000 
meters that you can pretty much 

793
00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:18,320
sell direct to consumer or you 
get at least 200 to 250 because 

794
00:38:18,360 --> 00:38:21,240
otherwise to grow the brand, 
you'll never have enough 

795
00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:25,200
advertising promotional 
collateral, especially in the 

796
00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:28,360
big markets like America. 
So that's when we shifted it up 

797
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:35,320
to we could do, we could do 750,
we could do 500 comfortably, but

798
00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:37,960
we settled at about 400. 400 wow
there. 

799
00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:41,560
We go it's a good size. 
So that's because to hear it 

800
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:45,320
like that, to hear the story 
about the fact that you wanted 

801
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:49,440
to get the, you know, you saw 
that there was a market there, 

802
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:51,760
you saw what you had and going 
to Germany, seeing the queue 

803
00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:54,760
around the block and things like
that and going right where, 

804
00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:58,640
because that is the, it's funny.
The, the, the question over 

805
00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:02,120
being an independent bottler of 
where they start versus where 

806
00:39:02,120 --> 00:39:05,560
you end up is a lot of these 
guys will start. 

807
00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:07,400
And it's, it's kind of like hand
to mouth. 

808
00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:10,480
That's you buy a cast, you get a
bald, you get enough money to 

809
00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:12,720
buy your next cast. 
Or maybe you have a, because 

810
00:39:12,720 --> 00:39:15,600
we've talked about it so many 
times, a cast sitting on the 

811
00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:17,560
shelf. 
There's a, there's a hole in 

812
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:19,320
your pocket. 
It just burns a hole in your 

813
00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:20,920
pocket. 
You maybe buy that, but you go 

814
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:22,720
well and it ties up your cash 
flow. 

815
00:39:22,720 --> 00:39:24,840
You don't know when are you 
going to get that bottled? 

816
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:27,320
You maybe know it's a crack in 
whiskey. 

817
00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:30,440
And as soon as it's ready, well,
once that goes, that is going to

818
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:32,120
sell. 
But at the same time, until it's

819
00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:35,240
ready, it's not. 
So there is that that element of

820
00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:40,080
at some point an independent 
bottler has to jump in and go 

821
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:42,000
right, it's time to do it. 
You said cap and and a little 

822
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:45,120
bit go Yep, go investors and say
can we, can we actually start 

823
00:39:45,120 --> 00:39:46,320
laying down? 
Cash so we. 

824
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:49,320
Could do it badly to go to go to
the next stage instead of just 

825
00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:51,960
going listen guys, I think when 
we start laying down more cash, 

826
00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:53,520
we could be we could really make
a go of it. 

827
00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:56,240
You've gone all in. 
Let's get bulk. 

828
00:39:56,320 --> 00:39:57,840
Let's get going. 
And move that must have been 

829
00:39:57,920 --> 00:40:00,520
kind of fundraising challenges. 
I mean, how how did you raise 

830
00:40:00,520 --> 00:40:03,080
the capital to build the 
distillery itself? 

831
00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:04,640
Was that something that came 
from your owner? 

832
00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:07,280
Yeah, look, we're very lucky. 
We've never used them. 

833
00:40:07,280 --> 00:40:12,000
We've never used a bank so well,
not not for overdraft or loan 

834
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:12,840
facilities over. 
The years? 

835
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:19,560
No, it's not somewhere. 
No, as Donald said, you know, 

836
00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:23,440
he's a typical philanthropic 
investor, Scotsman. 

837
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:25,760
He's got deep pockets and short 
arms. 

838
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:31,760
But we managed to structure it 
or they managed to structure it 

839
00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:36,840
as as principal shareholders 
through loans and a bit of 

840
00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:39,880
capital we got. 
We would because we were ahead 

841
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:43,040
of the big growth in new 
distilleries. 

842
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:46,840
We managed to get 2 quite decent
grants as well, one from 

843
00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:51,200
Scottish Government and one from
Highlands and Islands and in 

844
00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:55,720
fact the Highlands and Islands 
one, I'm sorry HIE Islands and 

845
00:40:55,720 --> 00:41:01,040
Islands Enterprise was only 
available if we built a retail 

846
00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:04,800
element on site, so a visitor 
centre and that was the last 

847
00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:08,520
thing we wanted people that come
to our. 

848
00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:11,760
Just to create those few more 
jobs. 

849
00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:14,160
Yeah, exactly what it was. 
It's about bringing, you know, 

850
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:16,720
more, more jobs. 
So they, they, they say, well, 

851
00:41:16,720 --> 00:41:18,640
we need to see a feasibility 
study if you're going to build a

852
00:41:18,640 --> 00:41:21,520
visitor centre. 
And, and we got some guy from 

853
00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:25,360
down South to come up and 
scratch his head and, and avoid 

854
00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:29,560
the midges for a few months. 
And he reckoned that when we got

855
00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:32,680
to full maturation, as in you 
know, 20304050 years down the 

856
00:41:32,680 --> 00:41:35,480
line as a brand, not as a 
whiskey, but as a brand, we 

857
00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:38,440
might be lucky to squeeze 10,000
people down that single track 

858
00:41:38,440 --> 00:41:40,760
route. 
Last year we got over 10,000 

859
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:41,480
people. 
That's amazing. 

860
00:41:41,760 --> 00:41:46,200
So it has changed. 
It's really changed, not, not 

861
00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:50,520
the way things work in Adam 
Merkel, but just the, the, the 

862
00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:54,280
support, the natural support 
it's brought to the area, which 

863
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:58,360
is more than we could ever wish.
And tell me Alex before you the 

864
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:01,080
distillery really kicks off and 
the development of Adelphi at 

865
00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:04,520
this point, are you filling 
spirit into cash Philadelphia at

866
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:07,040
this point or are you still 
buying kind of ready made liquid

867
00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:09,360
and. 
So what we've, we've kind of got

868
00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:12,400
onto phase, I don't know if it's
234 or whatever, but it's, it's 

869
00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:15,920
beyond phase one of Adam Merkin.
So phase one of Adam Merkin was 

870
00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:19,040
to bottle a single malt. 
And we did that stupidly or 

871
00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:21,640
luckily during COVID when 
everyone was sitting, sitting at

872
00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:22,880
home and wanting something to 
do. 

873
00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:30,680
Phase two, let's call it that 
was to start using a proportion 

874
00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:34,440
of Adam Merkin to benefit 
Adelphi, OK, by that I mean 

875
00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:37,760
trading bulk, sure. 
So we're now actively trading Ad

876
00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:40,600
American with some of the quite 
big guys football lending. 

877
00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:45,120
Trading spirits rather than. 
Sometimes mature, sometimes 

878
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:49,440
Billings, and we're getting 
mature stock back more often 

879
00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:52,120
than not that we can then shove 
through Adelphi much more 

880
00:42:52,120 --> 00:42:53,520
quickly. 
And I think it was something 

881
00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:56,840
that should be admired about a 
new distillery and new feels 

882
00:42:56,920 --> 00:42:59,040
very established now in all 
reality. 

883
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:00,880
You were the lowercase. 
Then it really does. 

884
00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:02,000
It does you. 
See many grey hairs. 

885
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:04,280
Like it does feel you're very 
established now, but we've seen,

886
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:06,880
you know, all these new 
distilleries open in the 21st 

887
00:43:06,880 --> 00:43:10,560
century. 
Anyway, your policy on wood has 

888
00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:14,840
been quite exciting for a new 
distillery and adventurous. 

889
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:17,920
Did I say as well, does that 
come from a confidence of having

890
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:21,520
used lots of stuff for a Delphi 
and having an interesting wood 

891
00:43:21,520 --> 00:43:24,640
management policy or is it go 
well, we're bringing really 

892
00:43:24,640 --> 00:43:27,760
interesting spirit here. 
Let's see how it tastes and 

893
00:43:27,800 --> 00:43:30,360
sauteed, you know, repeated 
sauteed for example like. 

894
00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:34,720
I oh, there's so many things 
feeding into this and I'll try 

895
00:43:34,720 --> 00:43:37,080
and keep it short. 
The first thing that's always 

896
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:39,280
ringing in the back of my head, 
and this might sound a bit kind 

897
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:42,920
of flippant or whatever the word
is, my great, great, great 

898
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:45,640
grandfather. 
Four times great grandfather was

899
00:43:47,200 --> 00:43:50,640
many call him the first blender 
or first commercial blender. 

900
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:53,040
Yeah, my mother's side. 
Andrew Asher. 

901
00:43:53,240 --> 00:43:54,920
Yeah, I mean, we, we need to 
talk about. 

902
00:43:55,880 --> 00:43:56,560
That we don't. 
We don't. 

903
00:43:57,000 --> 00:43:58,200
Well, the reason I'm bringing 
him up. 

904
00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:01,240
He's effectively the first man 
that put grain in spirit, but 

905
00:44:01,240 --> 00:44:02,280
grain commercially. 
Whiskey. 

906
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:05,200
Commercial all together. 
But beyond that, what he did, 

907
00:44:05,440 --> 00:44:08,200
and this is what's ringing in my
head every day when I get up, is

908
00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:10,800
you have to have consistency. 
Sure. 

909
00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:13,520
So even when it comes to the 
blend, we've got lots of, you 

910
00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:15,920
know, multiple components from 
multiple distineries, you've 

911
00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:17,880
still got to get that 
consistency, right. 

912
00:44:18,120 --> 00:44:22,160
So one of the aspects of being 
able to look at different wood 

913
00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:26,360
types is that our new make 
spirit is consistent. 

914
00:44:26,840 --> 00:44:30,000
And yes, we do unpeted and yes, 
we do petered and occasionally 

915
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:33,800
we'll go off and do a heritage 
or whatever, but the DNA is 

916
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:36,440
there throughout. 
And we're just very lucky. 

917
00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:38,000
And there's a number of reasons 
for this too. 

918
00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:41,000
We're very lucky that the DNA is
quite powerful. 

919
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:44,360
It's it's got a real West Coast 
character to it. 

920
00:44:44,720 --> 00:44:48,000
So it allows it to shine through
even when you go off and shovel 

921
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:50,280
it in a so turn or report or 
whatever. 

922
00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:52,880
But even then I was still 
nervous. 

923
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:56,040
I was very traditional in that 
when we started, it was all 

924
00:44:56,040 --> 00:45:00,560
bourbon, it was all Sherry. 
And the other important factor 

925
00:45:00,560 --> 00:45:02,480
was that I had to work with 
source. 

926
00:45:02,840 --> 00:45:05,400
So I wasn't going to work with a
cooperage or a broker. 

927
00:45:05,840 --> 00:45:09,480
You know, I literally in 2013, I
went to two places. 

928
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:15,240
I went to Kentucky and I met 
with the then seller of Jim Beam

929
00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:19,400
in terms of casks, and then I 
went to Spain and down to Hare F

930
00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:22,200
and met Miguel Martine. 
Both really good introductions. 

931
00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:25,960
And the Jim Beam 1 ended up 
falling flat on its nose because

932
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:30,040
they got sold to Santori the day
before I placed my first 

933
00:45:30,040 --> 00:45:35,120
container order. 
But just to show you how the 

934
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:42,360
international industry works, I,
I put the phone down really 

935
00:45:42,360 --> 00:45:44,240
despondent. 
I knew we were starting to 

936
00:45:44,240 --> 00:45:47,040
distill in six months time. 
We had no wood on the water. 

937
00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:53,600
And I remembered one of my 
oldest friends from back here in

938
00:45:53,600 --> 00:45:57,080
Fife, he had married, he'd 
married an American and 

939
00:45:57,080 --> 00:45:59,600
emigrated years ago, lived in 
Virginia. 

940
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:02,280
I remember the last time I'd 
spoken to him, we were talking 

941
00:46:02,280 --> 00:46:05,120
about distilling and stuff and 
he'd said, oh, you must meet my 

942
00:46:05,120 --> 00:46:06,960
friend who works for Brian 
Foreman. 

943
00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:10,480
And I, I thought, I wonder what 
his friend does at Brown Forman.

944
00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:13,960
So I, I waited till the time was
right in the day and I rang up 

945
00:46:14,160 --> 00:46:16,920
my mate Sean and I said, who's 
your friend at Brown Foreman? 

946
00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:20,080
And he said, oh, it's my friend 
and my wife, but he's currently 

947
00:46:20,080 --> 00:46:21,960
in Australia. 
He's he's like the manager right

948
00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:24,080
there for Brown Foreman. 
What? 

949
00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:26,000
What is it you want? 
I said I need cast. 

950
00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:27,400
I need a container of cast 
empty. 

951
00:46:27,960 --> 00:46:31,600
And he said OK. 
And, and half an hour later the 

952
00:46:31,600 --> 00:46:34,880
phone rang in my office from the
head Cooper at Brown Foreman. 

953
00:46:35,400 --> 00:46:36,720
Wow. 
So he'd gone from Virginia to 

954
00:46:36,720 --> 00:46:43,320
Sydney back to Kentucky, and 
this guy who had an, you know, 

955
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:46,000
he everyone knew he was always 
grumpy and wouldn't speak to 

956
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:48,640
anyone Here he was. 
And he said, I've been told to 

957
00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:51,480
speak to you and I've been told 
to send you some cars, but I 

958
00:46:51,480 --> 00:46:55,280
don't want to. 
Terrible American accent, by the

959
00:46:55,320 --> 00:46:57,360
way, I. 
Wasn't going to try. 

960
00:46:57,360 --> 00:47:01,040
The car so and so this is 
anyway, but he has phoned you 

961
00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:02,480
straight away, yeah. 
Phone me straight away and he 

962
00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:04,800
said you're really lucky because
what's happened? 

963
00:47:04,960 --> 00:47:08,800
And basically with a whole 
revamp of cooperages and who 

964
00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:11,560
owns what, the space side 
cooperage had been sold to the 

965
00:47:11,560 --> 00:47:13,680
French. 
The French had then decided to 

966
00:47:13,800 --> 00:47:17,120
try and get into Kentucky to 
almost get rid of the supply 

967
00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:18,640
chain and, and make it their 
own. 

968
00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:23,000
That had pissed off all the guys
who were selling to, you know, 

969
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:26,560
XY and Z in Kentucky. 
So Brian Foreman had gone, this 

970
00:47:26,560 --> 00:47:30,160
guy who was on the phone, he got
his nephew to start up a new 

971
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:31,880
cooperage business, independent 
cooperage. 

972
00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:34,640
And he said, I'll supply you all
the brown Foreman casks. 

973
00:47:34,640 --> 00:47:36,240
Wow. 
So I was his first customer. 

974
00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:37,720
That's brilliant. 
Yeah. 

975
00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:38,880
Yeah. 
And we're still with him today. 

976
00:47:38,880 --> 00:47:39,440
Yeah. 
Yeah. 

977
00:47:40,480 --> 00:47:42,480
Ex. 
Ex Jack Daniels casks. 

978
00:47:42,920 --> 00:47:45,360
Originally and then we decided 
they were just a wee bit too 

979
00:47:45,360 --> 00:47:47,920
late so we moved to Old Forester
and Woodface. 

980
00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:50,520
Right, let's go, let's go back a
lot. 

981
00:47:50,640 --> 00:47:55,640
So you you, you briefly, I mean 
to just casually drop and I 

982
00:47:56,120 --> 00:48:00,160
think a fourth great grandfather
of mine was was Andrew Usher and

983
00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:03,200
expect us to brush overnight. 
But Angus? 

984
00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:05,680
Angus is Angus is our head of 
research. 

985
00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:09,080
On what's coming now. 
He's the historian as well of 

986
00:48:09,080 --> 00:48:14,680
the Whiskey Stories podcast. 
Ross has a phrase is tail, Ross 

987
00:48:14,680 --> 00:48:16,320
sometimes says when he gets 
excited about something. 

988
00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:19,440
He says my tail was wagging. 
Angus's tail was wagging today 

989
00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:21,760
when he was like, you know. 
Reading about Andrew Usher. 

990
00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:24,560
Yeah, it was, it was terrific. 
I mean, especially when I, I was

991
00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:27,800
looking online, I saw we we've 
recorded one episode at 

992
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:31,800
Bennett's Bar in Tall Cross and 
I was on. 

993
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:34,680
That is Andrew Usher. 
Spirits, there's a glass window.

994
00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:37,680
And I mean, you know, everyone 
in Edinburgh knows about the 

995
00:48:37,720 --> 00:48:41,000
Usher Hall as well and this guy,
but you know, it was one of the 

996
00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:44,280
of course founding N British 
distillery as well. 

997
00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:49,280
The guy just has the whiskey 
history CV to rune all others. 

998
00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:51,040
There was some he'd. 
Be a great guest on the podcast.

999
00:48:51,040 --> 00:48:54,200
He really would be. 
We've got his 4th grade 

1000
00:48:54,240 --> 00:48:57,240
grandson. 
No, there was some irony on the 

1001
00:48:57,240 --> 00:49:00,360
North British thing and I'm sure
you're aware of, but just in 

1002
00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:02,080
case you aren't or you're the 
listeners aren't. 

1003
00:49:02,640 --> 00:49:05,440
So Andrew Usher. 
Oh, who else was it? 

1004
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:07,920
It was it. 
Was Sandaman's. 

1005
00:49:08,720 --> 00:49:10,720
Yeah, but what's the brand in 
Leithnow? 

1006
00:49:10,720 --> 00:49:13,000
It's been resurrected. 
Oh, we've seen the crabbies. 

1007
00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:14,960
Crabbies. 
Yeah, yeah, it's John Crabby, 

1008
00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:17,320
probably Thompson and other 
people. 

1009
00:49:17,560 --> 00:49:21,240
So they were Edinburgh 
merchants, basically grocers who

1010
00:49:21,240 --> 00:49:23,160
were all into blending it by 
that stage. 

1011
00:49:23,680 --> 00:49:27,760
And they relied on what was, 
would it have been DCL? 

1012
00:49:28,040 --> 00:49:29,920
Yeah, it was DCL. 
Yeah, yeah. 

1013
00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:33,080
So what is Diagio? 
Basically today they relied on 

1014
00:49:33,080 --> 00:49:37,160
DCL for their grain element. 
And so, you know, not their 

1015
00:49:37,160 --> 00:49:39,360
supply chain. 
So they said, right, let's start

1016
00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:42,720
our own grain distillery and 
we'll we can look after our own 

1017
00:49:42,720 --> 00:49:45,240
and supply tip who owns. 
North British well. 

1018
00:49:46,440 --> 00:49:48,840
Yeah, 50%, yeah, yeah. 
It's funny how these things go. 

1019
00:49:48,840 --> 00:49:51,240
And of course. 
The irony as well with William. 

1020
00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:53,920
We've talked about the story 
with William Grant and sons 

1021
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:56,520
where they were in the same 
situation, not in charge of 

1022
00:49:56,520 --> 00:49:58,760
their own grain supply chain. 
So what did they go and do? 

1023
00:49:58,760 --> 00:50:00,120
They founded. 
Girvan. 

1024
00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:02,200
In the 60s. 
And now they bought the famous 

1025
00:50:02,200 --> 00:50:04,200
grouse which used a lot of North
British. 

1026
00:50:04,240 --> 00:50:06,680
Graves could close N British. 
Yeah, exactly. 

1027
00:50:06,880 --> 00:50:09,080
So it's it's all these things 
kind of come. 

1028
00:50:09,800 --> 00:50:12,760
When you, when you, when you 
look, when you look back 

1029
00:50:12,800 --> 00:50:15,320
through, when you look back when
you, you started. 

1030
00:50:15,600 --> 00:50:18,160
So let's go through. 
So you're saying 2007 was when 

1031
00:50:18,160 --> 00:50:20,320
the conversation started to 
happen about opening a 

1032
00:50:20,320 --> 00:50:23,560
distillery? 
I found a single piece of A4 the

1033
00:50:23,560 --> 00:50:24,640
other day. 
I can't remember what I was 

1034
00:50:24,640 --> 00:50:27,520
looking for, but I found it in 
an old file with scribbles on it

1035
00:50:28,440 --> 00:50:31,720
and there was a meeting, a board
meeting in an American when that

1036
00:50:31,720 --> 00:50:33,760
question was posed. 
Shall we open a distiller? 

1037
00:50:33,760 --> 00:50:35,240
Shall we just, shall we just 
create a distillery? 

1038
00:50:35,280 --> 00:50:37,720
And there was like two or three 
things saying do this, do that, 

1039
00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:39,240
and I also had to go off and do 
them. 

1040
00:50:40,400 --> 00:50:41,840
Yeah, that was it. 
And then when? 

1041
00:50:41,840 --> 00:50:44,600
When I went from the next stage,
then what's that way? 

1042
00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:48,200
Because again, so the question 
about Arden Market, then you're 

1043
00:50:48,200 --> 00:50:51,400
on the western peninsula right 
up in the middle of bloody 

1044
00:50:51,400 --> 00:50:56,280
nowhere, which even the fact 
that 10,000 people, it just 

1045
00:50:56,280 --> 00:50:58,000
shows you that like genuinely 
is. 

1046
00:50:58,200 --> 00:51:02,200
You can get the ferry from off 
the mainland on the back off of 

1047
00:51:02,280 --> 00:51:05,160
but but. 
The fact is there is an element 

1048
00:51:05,160 --> 00:51:07,960
of. 
I mean, there is an element of 

1049
00:51:07,960 --> 00:51:10,960
that to travel all the way 
there. 

1050
00:51:11,040 --> 00:51:13,280
What's the word I'm looking for?
Pilgrimage. 

1051
00:51:13,280 --> 00:51:13,960
Yeah. 
Pilgrimage. 

1052
00:51:14,240 --> 00:51:15,160
Genuinely. 
Yeah. 

1053
00:51:16,000 --> 00:51:18,480
To be able to be in that 
position at such a young age as 

1054
00:51:18,480 --> 00:51:20,640
well, where people are just like
we have to go and see this 

1055
00:51:20,640 --> 00:51:23,440
because, you know, you could be 
a 200 year old distillery and 

1056
00:51:23,600 --> 00:51:24,840
almost. 
Maybe that's what makes it more 

1057
00:51:24,840 --> 00:51:28,160
exciting is the fact that, you 
know, you could be 150 or 200 

1058
00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:29,360
years old and you've been there 
for so long. 

1059
00:51:29,360 --> 00:51:31,120
Everyone's like, we can go there
whenever we want. 

1060
00:51:31,200 --> 00:51:32,600
It's like the story about 
Edinburgh Castle. 

1061
00:51:32,600 --> 00:51:34,960
How many people in Edinburgh 
visited Edinburgh Castle versus 

1062
00:51:35,240 --> 00:51:37,120
all the tourists? 
But as I said, you know, it's 

1063
00:51:37,120 --> 00:51:39,160
there so you can always go, you 
know, Glen FedEx there, so you'd

1064
00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:41,280
always go. 
But Arden Market is new, so it's

1065
00:51:41,280 --> 00:51:43,480
like you have to go and see it 
because what's going on. 

1066
00:51:43,640 --> 00:51:45,800
But what I want to know is, 
first of all, was it always 

1067
00:51:45,800 --> 00:51:48,680
going to be just we have to 
build it on in Arden Market and 

1068
00:51:48,680 --> 00:51:52,000
why was that conversation? 
So it was basically going to be 

1069
00:51:52,160 --> 00:51:54,960
in and around that area. 
So Keith and Donald both had 

1070
00:51:55,160 --> 00:51:59,360
farms, if you like one. 
Keith had his farm on the Morven

1071
00:51:59,360 --> 00:52:02,160
Peninsula, which is across the 
water where where Nick Neon is 

1072
00:52:02,160 --> 00:52:05,400
actually now. 
And Donald had his farm on 

1073
00:52:05,520 --> 00:52:07,840
American. 
And it wasn't like they were 

1074
00:52:07,840 --> 00:52:10,400
fighting for rights to the 
distillery. 

1075
00:52:10,760 --> 00:52:12,240
It was about finding the right 
place. 

1076
00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:17,280
And even though it's pretty much
the wettest point of anywhere in

1077
00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:20,840
the UK, because it's literally 
as, as we say on our bottles, 

1078
00:52:20,840 --> 00:52:24,840
headland of the great seas, the 
Atlantic just get dumped on us 

1079
00:52:25,280 --> 00:52:28,280
regularly. 
Even though it rains all the 

1080
00:52:28,280 --> 00:52:30,240
time. 
There are very few holding 

1081
00:52:30,240 --> 00:52:34,080
locks, unlike, you know, we're 
in central belt and and space 

1082
00:52:34,080 --> 00:52:36,000
side especially. 
You have a lot of hill water, 

1083
00:52:36,320 --> 00:52:38,080
you have snow melt. 
We don't get that on the West 

1084
00:52:38,080 --> 00:52:39,520
Coast. 
Just right off, straight into 

1085
00:52:39,720 --> 00:52:41,120
the. 
Sea it literally comes pouring 

1086
00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:42,760
down. 
It looks like Coca-Cola because 

1087
00:52:42,760 --> 00:52:46,320
of the peat, and it pours into 
Locksuner, which is the second 

1088
00:52:46,640 --> 00:52:49,120
longest sea lock in Scotland 
locks. 

1089
00:52:49,120 --> 00:52:53,080
Soon it turns brown and then it 
clears up again so that's what 

1090
00:52:53,080 --> 00:52:56,640
you're left with. 
We looked at 7 sites and only 

1091
00:52:56,640 --> 00:53:01,120
one had a proper amount of 
holding or holding locks. 

1092
00:53:01,120 --> 00:53:05,040
I think it's got three above us 
in the distillery and even then 

1093
00:53:05,120 --> 00:53:08,760
we feared we wouldn't have 
enough water and we put 

1094
00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:11,200
recycling things in place now, 
so it's not an issue we. 

1095
00:53:11,720 --> 00:53:14,200
Find a borehole opportunity. 
No, because we're too close to 

1096
00:53:14,200 --> 00:53:16,040
the sea water really. 
It's going to be brackish. 

1097
00:53:17,160 --> 00:53:20,200
So it was just. 
The point is, so it was always 

1098
00:53:20,200 --> 00:53:22,640
going to be in that area, yes, 
you would never looked at and 

1099
00:53:22,640 --> 00:53:26,680
going because I remember 
Alastair, Dave Rassie, well he 

1100
00:53:26,680 --> 00:53:30,200
spoke about it. 
He said, he said, look, we 

1101
00:53:30,200 --> 00:53:31,960
could, we could start a 
distillery here. 

1102
00:53:32,440 --> 00:53:37,040
And, and again, it was an 
investor who he had or a partner

1103
00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:39,640
that he had well. 
The investor came in and said 

1104
00:53:39,640 --> 00:53:41,840
well. 
It was a cheap hotel that was 

1105
00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:47,520
for sale and the investor's wife
was originally from Rasi. 

1106
00:53:47,520 --> 00:53:50,520
Rasi been offered objected by 
this, just nobody was wanting 

1107
00:53:50,520 --> 00:53:53,000
this this closed hotel. 
Alice today was from the borders

1108
00:53:53,000 --> 00:53:54,960
and in his mind it had always 
been there'll be some of the 

1109
00:53:54,960 --> 00:53:56,120
borders, there'll be some of the
borders. 

1110
00:53:56,120 --> 00:53:59,640
But this investor came in and he
said we can have this distillery

1111
00:53:59,640 --> 00:54:00,920
but it's going to be in Rasi but
also. 

1112
00:54:01,240 --> 00:54:04,560
Equally though, like what like 
what Alex has just said is, you 

1113
00:54:04,560 --> 00:54:09,560
know, how easy is it to all 
right, land price and all the 

1114
00:54:09,560 --> 00:54:10,840
other things that go along with 
it. 

1115
00:54:11,240 --> 00:54:17,360
But also, you know, Scotland 
will probably throw more at you 

1116
00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:20,360
if you can bring people to rural
area where you're talking 

1117
00:54:20,360 --> 00:54:22,360
grounds and things, stuff like 
that, where you can send 

1118
00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:24,640
something safe and. 
On Lastly, they also happened to

1119
00:54:24,640 --> 00:54:27,640
put a borehole, but 50 yards 
behind where that old hotel was 

1120
00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:30,600
and hit water. 
Yeah, which is a fortunate thing

1121
00:54:30,600 --> 00:54:31,520
to do. 
Yeah. 

1122
00:54:31,720 --> 00:54:34,240
So it was always going to be. 
So it was always going to be up 

1123
00:54:34,240 --> 00:54:35,600
that neck of the. 
Way it was always going to be 

1124
00:54:35,600 --> 00:54:37,000
there, but we had to try and 
work out. 

1125
00:54:37,040 --> 00:54:38,760
It wasn't just about building 
the distillery. 

1126
00:54:38,800 --> 00:54:41,920
We had to work out how all our 
raw materials. 

1127
00:54:41,920 --> 00:54:43,240
Well, this is an excellent thing
for. 

1128
00:54:43,440 --> 00:54:45,800
Construction so this is where 
Donald's cogs were, you know, 

1129
00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:48,000
moving and he could visibly see 
the brain and gear. 

1130
00:54:49,200 --> 00:54:53,840
He has this estate which apart 
from a multitude of sheep and 

1131
00:54:53,840 --> 00:55:00,000
cows and a wind turbine and 
that's about it except for one 

1132
00:55:02,160 --> 00:55:06,800
at that .1 crop he could not use
or could not benefit from. 

1133
00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:12,200
And that was thousands of acres 
of forestry, some of it standing

1134
00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:14,080
dead because of previous forest 
fires. 

1135
00:55:14,640 --> 00:55:17,600
But the majority of it costs so 
much to get it out to the 

1136
00:55:17,600 --> 00:55:20,840
nearest mill in Fort William to 
actually fail it. 

1137
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:22,280
Absolutely not. 
It made no sense. 

1138
00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:26,720
So he said, right, what we're 
going to do here is you're going

1139
00:55:26,720 --> 00:55:30,600
to be, but we are going to be 
the first distillery to use 100%

1140
00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:32,840
wood chip fueled. 
By a mass boiler. 

1141
00:55:33,600 --> 00:55:37,240
It, it had been tested as a 
backup in places like Temartin I

1142
00:55:37,240 --> 00:55:39,000
think for a few years before 
that. 

1143
00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:43,000
But no one had relied purely on 
wood chip for obvious reasons. 

1144
00:55:44,160 --> 00:55:46,680
So that was the first thing and 
we had to go to Switzerland to 

1145
00:55:46,680 --> 00:55:49,440
find someone who could build a 
big enough steam boiler, A 

1146
00:55:49,440 --> 00:55:51,440
biomass steam boiler, because no
one in the UK could. 

1147
00:55:52,120 --> 00:55:54,960
Then he said, right, I'm going 
to have to feed you quite a lot 

1148
00:55:54,960 --> 00:55:57,920
of wood chip. 
So I'm going to build a plant 2 

1149
00:55:57,920 --> 00:56:00,760
miles down the road and that 
plant is going to process all 

1150
00:56:00,760 --> 00:56:04,240
your by products as well. 
And I can benefit from that 

1151
00:56:04,680 --> 00:56:08,560
because my cows can now eat your
giraffe and your butt ill and I 

1152
00:56:08,560 --> 00:56:11,080
don't need to get food. 
Lorries come and feed. 

1153
00:56:11,320 --> 00:56:14,120
Sorry, cattle feed lorries. 
So not only were you cutting 

1154
00:56:14,120 --> 00:56:16,720
down on cattle feed lorries 
coming in, we were cutting down 

1155
00:56:16,720 --> 00:56:18,680
on what would have been timber 
lorries going out. 

1156
00:56:19,000 --> 00:56:21,160
So we're actually, even though 
we had to bring cast in and out 

1157
00:56:21,640 --> 00:56:23,440
and a bit of barley. 
Or malt. 

1158
00:56:23,920 --> 00:56:26,640
We're actually cutting down, 
Yeah, well, the infrastructure 

1159
00:56:26,920 --> 00:56:30,480
we were cutting down on long 
term heavy haulage on the single

1160
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:33,440
track Rd. 
So we kind of naturally form 

1161
00:56:33,440 --> 00:56:36,120
this, this sort of circular 
economy, I suppose you can call 

1162
00:56:36,120 --> 00:56:39,760
it that. 
So we buy the wood chip often. 

1163
00:56:40,560 --> 00:56:42,720
We burn about a ton every two 
hours. 

1164
00:56:43,440 --> 00:56:47,280
It's delivered by tractor and 
trader and the tractor then 

1165
00:56:47,280 --> 00:56:50,360
pulls the draft back, which gets
palletized. 

1166
00:56:50,680 --> 00:56:53,760
And meanwhile there's 2 miles of
pipe going over the hill, which 

1167
00:56:53,760 --> 00:56:58,520
takes the pothail into an 
evaporator that gets evaporated.

1168
00:56:58,600 --> 00:57:03,960
The heat coming from biomass as 
well from wood chip and the 

1169
00:57:04,160 --> 00:57:08,480
syrup from the pottel and the 
pellet from the giraffe get 

1170
00:57:08,480 --> 00:57:11,440
mixed together and sent out to 
to feed the cows. 

1171
00:57:11,440 --> 00:57:16,160
It's as simple as that and it is
and I love saying this because 

1172
00:57:16,160 --> 00:57:19,360
it is completely true and I'm 
not making it up our distillery.

1173
00:57:19,360 --> 00:57:22,600
Going back to what you were 
saying about output, our 

1174
00:57:22,600 --> 00:57:27,400
distillery is sized in a classic
tail wagging dog situation 

1175
00:57:27,920 --> 00:57:30,520
because the number of carries 
dictates how much whiskey we can

1176
00:57:30,520 --> 00:57:33,560
produce. 
I love it. 

1177
00:57:33,920 --> 00:57:36,600
That is, I've actually worked on
a biomass plant. 

1178
00:57:36,600 --> 00:57:39,000
What have you not done? 
What have you not done? 

1179
00:57:43,240 --> 00:57:46,400
It was, I mean, I don't know if 
anyone, I mean, my previous 

1180
00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:49,560
employer no longer exists so 
they can't come back at me. 

1181
00:57:49,560 --> 00:57:52,200
But it was a cursed project from
the very beginning. 

1182
00:57:52,200 --> 00:57:56,840
I remember it, but I remember 
the biomass thing really kicked 

1183
00:57:56,840 --> 00:58:00,680
off in this sort of two. 
You're talking what, 2008 to 

1184
00:58:00,680 --> 00:58:02,640
2012? 
There was a big push for 

1185
00:58:02,640 --> 00:58:04,400
biomass. 
But one of the biggest problems 

1186
00:58:04,480 --> 00:58:07,800
which you've managed to solve 
immediately in that process is 

1187
00:58:07,800 --> 00:58:10,040
the source of wood, because 
there's a lot of people who 

1188
00:58:10,040 --> 00:58:12,840
cynically will talk about wood. 
Where does the wood, where does 

1189
00:58:12,840 --> 00:58:16,040
the wood pellets come from to 
force to feed the biomass plant?

1190
00:58:16,520 --> 00:58:18,760
And that's always something that
a lot of people have have have 

1191
00:58:18,760 --> 00:58:22,800
critical criticised biomass for.
And this is not only local wood 

1192
00:58:22,800 --> 00:58:24,560
chip because it's tractor and 
trader delivered. 

1193
00:58:24,560 --> 00:58:26,800
Yeah, but it's, it's also 
replanting behind it. 

1194
00:58:26,960 --> 00:58:28,320
Yeah. 
So they, they look at the 

1195
00:58:28,320 --> 00:58:30,200
forestry as a, you know, we look
at Bali. 

1196
00:58:30,200 --> 00:58:32,040
As a well are you are you 
replanting the forestry? 

1197
00:58:32,040 --> 00:58:35,240
No, they're they're I'm sorry, 
they're they're as but so it's 

1198
00:58:35,280 --> 00:58:38,160
it's it's like planting Bali, 
except it's a 30 year this. 

1199
00:58:38,160 --> 00:58:40,040
Is remarkable because it was a 
forestry that was not 

1200
00:58:40,040 --> 00:58:41,320
economical. 
And now? 

1201
00:58:41,400 --> 00:58:42,880
It is because you've got the 
solar. 

1202
00:58:42,880 --> 00:58:44,960
So again, another reason to put 
well, but still it in that I. 

1203
00:58:44,960 --> 00:58:47,200
Have to ask you as well, have 
you tried the beef? 

1204
00:58:48,520 --> 00:58:51,240
So, yes, and I'll tell you 
exactly where you need to go. 

1205
00:58:52,440 --> 00:58:55,520
You need to go to other American
restaurant in Glasgow, right? 

1206
00:58:55,560 --> 00:58:57,360
Really, they haven't. 
They serve beef from. 

1207
00:58:57,400 --> 00:59:01,120
So they serve beef from other 
American and Mull and venison 

1208
00:59:01,120 --> 00:59:03,760
from other American. 
They also get, you know, if 

1209
00:59:03,760 --> 00:59:05,560
they're really feeling hungry, 
they can come and eat the cow's 

1210
00:59:05,720 --> 00:59:08,880
food. 
So yeah, you can basically 

1211
00:59:08,880 --> 00:59:11,840
guarantee that a steak in the 
other American restaurant has 

1212
00:59:11,840 --> 00:59:14,440
got some other American whiskey,
my product in it. 

1213
00:59:14,880 --> 00:59:17,640
Fantastic. 
I think we need to make a trip. 

1214
00:59:18,040 --> 00:59:23,480
I want to talk about then 
building a distillery and we 

1215
00:59:23,480 --> 00:59:25,040
mentioned we were talking a 
little bit before. 

1216
00:59:25,160 --> 00:59:26,480
We did that. 
I'm gonna let you introduce this

1217
00:59:26,480 --> 00:59:26,960
with. 
Sorry, Yeah. 

1218
00:59:26,960 --> 00:59:28,360
Ross. 
Ross. 

1219
00:59:28,680 --> 00:59:32,160
Ross, Ross, this is Smokey. 
I wonder if I'm going to 

1220
00:59:32,160 --> 00:59:33,880
introduce one that's first if. 
That's OK. 

1221
00:59:34,280 --> 00:59:35,400
So you. 
Brought a couple of drums, 

1222
00:59:35,400 --> 00:59:36,320
actually. 
What are we having? 

1223
00:59:36,320 --> 00:59:37,880
Very first, yeah. 
Well, first of all, I should 

1224
00:59:37,880 --> 00:59:39,800
probably tell you why there's 
very little left in the bottle. 

1225
00:59:42,840 --> 00:59:48,040
A very surreal tasting event I 
had to do after we beat France 

1226
00:59:48,040 --> 00:59:51,720
at Murrayfield last weekend. 55 
the weekend before. 

1227
00:59:52,240 --> 00:59:54,160
Bonjour to our French. 
Hello, France. 

1228
00:59:54,880 --> 00:59:56,640
So. 
Congratulations on your title 

1229
00:59:56,720 --> 00:59:58,320
actually. 
I'll say an old school friend of

1230
00:59:58,320 --> 01:00:01,520
mine was an ex captain of 
Scotland rugby and every now and

1231
01:00:01,520 --> 01:00:04,640
then we'll do something to raise
money for Doddie Weir and you 

1232
01:00:04,640 --> 01:00:08,720
know the MND and everything. 
So we were having a meeting in 

1233
01:00:08,720 --> 01:00:12,040
the office the previous week. 
And I was sharing with the 

1234
01:00:12,040 --> 01:00:14,840
board, I was sharing something 
on screen, probably a 

1235
01:00:14,840 --> 01:00:16,880
spreadsheet showing how little 
money we got in the bank. 

1236
01:00:19,320 --> 01:00:21,920
Anyway, my WhatsApp. 
The whiskey business, The 

1237
01:00:22,040 --> 01:00:23,720
whiskey industry is great. 
I. 

1238
01:00:24,440 --> 01:00:26,160
Suppose we're spending it. 
Exactly. 

1239
01:00:27,080 --> 01:00:31,360
It's all been reinvested. 
The WhatsApp starts going and it

1240
01:00:31,680 --> 01:00:33,080
I've got it on the computer as 
well. 

1241
01:00:33,080 --> 01:00:35,680
So there's Rob Wainwright 
calling, comes across the screen

1242
01:00:35,920 --> 01:00:38,000
and they're all going, oh, 
answer it, answer it and I'll 

1243
01:00:38,080 --> 01:00:39,720
go. 
No, no, I'll call him back 

1244
01:00:39,720 --> 01:00:41,600
after. 
So basically this is like the 

1245
01:00:41,600 --> 01:00:43,680
Thursday of that week. 
I called him back and he said, 

1246
01:00:43,680 --> 01:00:47,520
can you do a tasting in the in 
the the Eagles townhouse on 

1247
01:00:47,520 --> 01:00:50,400
Saturday night? 
It kind of be after dinner. 

1248
01:00:50,400 --> 01:00:53,440
And I said yes. 
I said, OK. 

1249
01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:57,800
He said just just pitch up like 
half nine and we'll you know, 

1250
01:00:57,800 --> 01:00:59,400
we'll get you in. 
Bring four or five good 

1251
01:00:59,400 --> 01:01:00,960
whiskies. 
And I don't know who this is. 

1252
01:01:02,040 --> 01:01:06,760
I don't know. 
So anyway, I pitched up and also

1253
01:01:06,760 --> 01:01:08,760
another friend, Marc Beaumont, 
he was there. 

1254
01:01:09,000 --> 01:01:11,160
So these are guys are all just 
bicycled to Dublin. 

1255
01:01:11,160 --> 01:01:13,080
Yeah, I was just going to say. 
You powered the Duke that 

1256
01:01:13,120 --> 01:01:15,200
powered off of them. 
That is the third time I've 

1257
01:01:15,200 --> 01:01:17,960
given them a whiskey tasting the
day or two days before they've 

1258
01:01:17,960 --> 01:01:21,160
gone on these massive bicycles. 
So I don't know. 

1259
01:01:21,720 --> 01:01:25,600
Anyway, so Mark and I are going,
you know, we're going 

1260
01:01:25,600 --> 01:01:28,040
downstairs, apparently. 
So we got LED in and it's a 

1261
01:01:28,040 --> 01:01:30,120
secret room in the townhouse. 
It's like a sort of library 

1262
01:01:30,120 --> 01:01:31,960
door. 
Big Thing swings open like 

1263
01:01:31,960 --> 01:01:34,360
halfway and right in front of me
with his back to me. 

1264
01:01:34,360 --> 01:01:39,760
He's Prince Albert Monaco, so it
was his dinner and we have done 

1265
01:01:39,760 --> 01:01:41,560
stuff with him in the past. 
I've been out to Monaco. 

1266
01:01:41,560 --> 01:01:44,080
Connell's been there. 
He actually opened the 

1267
01:01:44,080 --> 01:01:47,040
distillery site. 
Not the distillery, but the the 

1268
01:01:47,440 --> 01:01:49,560
construction site. 
So when when shovels went in. 

1269
01:01:49,560 --> 01:01:52,440
The ground, he opened it, he 
clipped the ribbon in order he 

1270
01:01:52,440 --> 01:01:54,800
did so there's a connection 
anyway. 

1271
01:01:54,880 --> 01:01:56,920
So he was. 
He was, yeah. 

1272
01:01:56,920 --> 01:01:59,560
He jumped up and shook hands and
that was lovely. 

1273
01:01:59,840 --> 01:02:03,040
He introduced me to his 2 French
friends on his right and as I 

1274
01:02:03,040 --> 01:02:06,480
was speaking to them the door 
was closing so I could get the 

1275
01:02:06,480 --> 01:02:08,000
picture on the left hand side of
the table. 

1276
01:02:08,240 --> 01:02:12,280
So bearing in mind this is 9:30 
which and the match started at 

1277
01:02:12,280 --> 01:02:16,600
2:30 and finished at what 430? 
Yeah, sitting next to Prince 

1278
01:02:16,600 --> 01:02:19,120
Albert on his left was Finn 
Russell was. 

1279
01:02:19,560 --> 01:02:20,120
It. 
Oh wow. 

1280
01:02:22,760 --> 01:02:26,120
And sitting next to Finn was 
Jamie Ritchie, who had crutches.

1281
01:02:26,200 --> 01:02:29,480
Yeah, that was just like the 
most surreal evening I've ever 

1282
01:02:29,480 --> 01:02:31,520
had. 
Anyway, had a great night. 

1283
01:02:32,160 --> 01:02:34,880
And the reason I took those two 
whiskeys, so there were a couple

1284
01:02:34,880 --> 01:02:38,800
of others, but the Fascadel, 
which is an Adelphi brand, which

1285
01:02:38,800 --> 01:02:43,800
I created in 2007, I think it 
was on the back of us deciding 

1286
01:02:43,800 --> 01:02:46,520
to build a distillery. 
And I thought maybe in the 

1287
01:02:46,520 --> 01:02:49,880
future, if we were lucky enough 
to produce a decent whiskey, we 

1288
01:02:49,880 --> 01:02:53,880
should, we might have some of 
our whiskey named after places 

1289
01:02:54,240 --> 01:02:55,840
in the peninsula, on the 
peninsula. 

1290
01:02:56,160 --> 01:02:59,680
And Fascadel is this beautiful 
smuggler's curve right on the 

1291
01:02:59,680 --> 01:03:01,960
sort of northwest point of the 
peninsula. 

1292
01:03:02,720 --> 01:03:04,280
No smuggling going on these 
days, you know. 

1293
01:03:05,240 --> 01:03:06,880
There's a story there, but I 
won't go into tonight. 

1294
01:03:09,640 --> 01:03:14,320
Anyway, Fascadel for Adelphi or 
for Adelphi purposes was always 

1295
01:03:15,440 --> 01:03:17,720
styled. 
So the make that we filled into 

1296
01:03:17,720 --> 01:03:20,360
it was always going to be 
similar, we hoped, to what we 

1297
01:03:20,360 --> 01:03:23,040
could produce in Adam American. 
So that is not in Adam American.

1298
01:03:23,040 --> 01:03:25,440
No, but this was. 
Because I was actually just 

1299
01:03:25,440 --> 01:03:27,320
tasting that they're going that 
taste. 

1300
01:03:27,480 --> 01:03:29,280
I was, I was a bit worried 
because I've just put that in 

1301
01:03:29,280 --> 01:03:30,600
the glass. 
I've just had an hard mark. 

1302
01:03:30,600 --> 01:03:33,360
In it you can almost assume it's
a benchmark. 

1303
01:03:33,360 --> 01:03:35,200
It was one of the things we were
aspiring to do. 

1304
01:03:35,400 --> 01:03:38,920
So this is a 10 year old tender 
cask batch, all bourbon, bottled

1305
01:03:38,920 --> 01:03:43,640
at 46% of an unnamed. 
Back in the day it was 

1306
01:03:43,640 --> 01:03:47,800
definitely unnameable distillery
on an island off the West Coast 

1307
01:03:47,920 --> 01:03:51,360
with a bridge there. 
You go on an island off the West

1308
01:03:51,360 --> 01:03:53,640
Coast with a bridge. 
Yeah, I guess knows. 

1309
01:03:53,760 --> 01:03:56,160
Yeah, I know. 
You know them, you do all right?

1310
01:03:56,880 --> 01:03:59,280
OK, you'll work on that. 
Later. 

1311
01:03:59,400 --> 01:04:01,840
Yeah, that's amazing. 
And that, that if you imagine, 

1312
01:04:01,840 --> 01:04:05,680
and I, I said this in some 
previous interview somewhere, if

1313
01:04:05,680 --> 01:04:10,080
you imagined a bucket of all my 
favorite drams mixed together, 

1314
01:04:10,280 --> 01:04:12,440
that was what I'd hoped an 
American would turn out to be. 

1315
01:04:12,920 --> 01:04:14,520
And that was one of the main 
ingredients for that. 

1316
01:04:15,000 --> 01:04:15,880
So that's why I brought it 
along. 

1317
01:04:15,880 --> 01:04:17,800
Tonight is a kind of succession 
draft. 

1318
01:04:17,880 --> 01:04:21,600
There's a single cast then. 
There's 10 cast batch. 10 cast. 

1319
01:04:21,800 --> 01:04:25,280
Yeah, because actually I've just
seen bottle #1 of 3797. 

1320
01:04:25,600 --> 01:04:27,880
So, Angus, is this the first 
time that we've ever sampled a 

1321
01:04:27,880 --> 01:04:30,560
DRAM after the from the same 
bottle? 

1322
01:04:30,920 --> 01:04:34,080
Of Prince Albert, Monaco and 
Finn, Russell and Jim. 

1323
01:04:34,120 --> 01:04:35,600
Actually, yeah, I would. 
Say no in. 

1324
01:04:35,600 --> 01:04:38,400
Fairness, Finn wasn't right. 
Of course. 

1325
01:04:38,760 --> 01:04:40,320
I. 
Remember, Jamie was or not, but 

1326
01:04:40,320 --> 01:04:43,160
yeah. 
I gave you Prince Albert was 

1327
01:04:43,520 --> 01:04:43,920
getting. 
Yeah. 

1328
01:04:44,240 --> 01:04:49,600
Play salute. 
Well, thank you for bringing 

1329
01:04:49,600 --> 01:04:51,640
these in. 
And then this next bottles looks

1330
01:04:51,760 --> 01:04:55,200
much more like something we have
seen many times in this podcast 

1331
01:04:55,520 --> 01:04:58,320
dressed sample. 
That's what I read inside of 

1332
01:04:58,320 --> 01:04:59,840
this. 
It does look a bit like a sample

1333
01:04:59,840 --> 01:05:01,400
bottle. 
It's about having the official 

1334
01:05:01,400 --> 01:05:02,800
label. 
But I have a question. 

1335
01:05:03,280 --> 01:05:09,680
This is from Ben Nevis distilled
at Ben Nevis 197037 years old, 

1336
01:05:09,920 --> 01:05:14,080
which is all very exciting. 
This is blended Scotch whisky. 

1337
01:05:14,080 --> 01:05:16,200
You're going to need to explain 
that one to me. 

1338
01:05:17,080 --> 01:05:20,200
Well, the reason I brought along
tonight was A, that was 

1339
01:05:20,200 --> 01:05:24,880
something left in it and B again
was one of our influencing West 

1340
01:05:24,880 --> 01:05:27,760
Coast, you know, West Highland 
distillers, Colin Ross, 

1341
01:05:27,760 --> 01:05:30,480
etcetera. 
But it does have a bit of a 

1342
01:05:30,480 --> 01:05:35,000
story behind it. 
So during prohibition in the 

1343
01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:39,520
USA, Canadian called Joseph 
Hobbs made a fortune by 

1344
01:05:39,520 --> 01:05:43,840
smuggling Scotch whiskey down 
the Great Lakes as penicillin 

1345
01:05:43,840 --> 01:05:48,880
and various other things. 
And when the prohibition ceased,

1346
01:05:49,360 --> 01:05:52,480
he had his fortune and he 
decided to reinvest it in 

1347
01:05:52,480 --> 01:05:55,880
Scotland as best as he could 
because he felt, you know, 

1348
01:05:55,880 --> 01:05:56,920
that's where he got his money 
from. 

1349
01:05:57,760 --> 01:06:00,760
So he came over to Scotland and 
he bought Ben Nevis Distillery 

1350
01:06:00,760 --> 01:06:03,080
and Lock Side distillery in 
Montrose. 

1351
01:06:03,640 --> 01:06:06,040
He also bought in Velocchi 
Castle Hotel. 

1352
01:06:06,520 --> 01:06:09,440
It wasn't the hotel then but the
building. 

1353
01:06:10,320 --> 01:06:13,960
And not wanting just to rest on 
laurels of having bought 

1354
01:06:13,960 --> 01:06:17,400
distilleries, he then decided to
be a bit different and he put in

1355
01:06:19,800 --> 01:06:22,800
the whereabouts basically to 
make grain whiskey on both sides

1356
01:06:22,880 --> 01:06:24,800
alongside the malt whiskey. 
Wow. 

1357
01:06:25,080 --> 01:06:28,440
Column stills, etcetera. 
And even then he didn't stop. 

1358
01:06:29,120 --> 01:06:32,200
He then decided to blend at 
birth some of his stock. 

1359
01:06:32,400 --> 01:06:35,360
OK, so this is a blended at 
birth grain and malt bend. 

1360
01:06:35,360 --> 01:06:37,600
Nervous. 
It's a single blend single. 

1361
01:06:37,600 --> 01:06:40,600
Blend so this is grain and malt 
spirit being blended as we've. 

1362
01:06:40,600 --> 01:06:41,960
Talked about that not that long 
ago. 

1363
01:06:41,960 --> 01:06:43,000
That's the question that was 
asked. 

1364
01:06:43,000 --> 01:06:48,680
You're no longer allowed to do 
it Yeah at new make spirit but 

1365
01:06:49,240 --> 01:06:51,120
we I think. 
We we talk. 

1366
01:06:51,120 --> 01:06:52,480
About it. 
About House of Hazelwood. 

1367
01:06:52,480 --> 01:06:54,000
Who done? 
No, no, no, no. 

1368
01:06:54,320 --> 01:06:59,760
You went for drams with Chuck 
and Fraser maybe. 

1369
01:07:00,280 --> 01:07:03,480
And he talked about blending at 
like blending at birth. 

1370
01:07:04,160 --> 01:07:07,120
Chuck then asked Craig Urquhart 
on the on the podcast a couple 

1371
01:07:07,120 --> 01:07:09,560
weeks a few weeks ago about it 
and Greg said because it was the

1372
01:07:09,560 --> 01:07:12,760
Dunhill, the Alfred Dunhill 
blend that we tried was a 

1373
01:07:12,760 --> 01:07:16,160
blended at birth blend that 
Dunhill had had and they got, 

1374
01:07:16,160 --> 01:07:18,600
they shipped it off and Glenn 
Glenn Moore then that picking up

1375
01:07:18,600 --> 01:07:21,360
all them refine, refine. 
But we were asking about that 

1376
01:07:21,360 --> 01:07:24,600
and it was, it's, it's an 
interesting concept because it 

1377
01:07:24,600 --> 01:07:27,280
economically it almost doesn't 
make sense to do because you'll 

1378
01:07:27,280 --> 01:07:30,280
never know what the, you know, 
at least when you're blending, 

1379
01:07:30,280 --> 01:07:32,120
you can suddenly go. 
You've tried to finish, you've 

1380
01:07:32,120 --> 01:07:33,760
tried to product. 
To add a little bit of that and.

1381
01:07:33,760 --> 01:07:36,040
You've balanced them out. 
Yeah, whereas actually can blend

1382
01:07:36,040 --> 01:07:37,680
at birth. 
So I take it this so? 

1383
01:07:37,760 --> 01:07:39,640
So what you're saying is 
blending at birth is no longer? 

1384
01:07:39,640 --> 01:07:40,440
Allowed. 
No, I think it. 

1385
01:07:40,560 --> 01:07:44,360
Is my understanding is you 
cannot currently blend spirit 

1386
01:07:44,400 --> 01:07:46,440
grain and malt. 
Ah, sorry. 

1387
01:07:46,440 --> 01:07:47,880
Grain and malt not not 
distilleries. 

1388
01:07:47,880 --> 01:07:48,520
Yeah, OK. 
Yeah. 

1389
01:07:48,840 --> 01:07:50,720
Yeah, of course you can make a 
blend. 

1390
01:07:50,720 --> 01:07:52,280
Yeah, absolutely. 
Of course you can. 

1391
01:07:52,280 --> 01:07:54,880
You can combine stouts, but I 
don't think you combine grain 

1392
01:07:54,880 --> 01:07:56,920
and malt, mature it and call it 
blended. 

1393
01:07:56,920 --> 01:07:58,200
Scot. 
Is that why Loch Lemon doesn't 

1394
01:07:58,200 --> 01:08:00,840
do it then? 
It might be the last time I had 

1395
01:08:00,840 --> 01:08:06,800
it was a House of Hazelwood 1964
or 1966 called Blended at Birth 

1396
01:08:06,800 --> 01:08:08,240
and again it was 2 space side 
malts. 

1397
01:08:08,240 --> 01:08:12,800
He never told who it was and it 
produced this amazingly tropical

1398
01:08:12,800 --> 01:08:16,520
fruity spirit which is in the 
top three drama of all time for 

1399
01:08:16,520 --> 01:08:18,160
me, is what I mentioned. 
I think I also. 

1400
01:08:18,359 --> 01:08:21,840
This is 1 of 135 bottles by you.
Very much. 

1401
01:08:22,479 --> 01:08:25,279
From 1970, I don't know what you
guys were doing in 1970. 

1402
01:08:25,600 --> 01:08:27,840
My father was. 
Ross Barover what he started 

1403
01:08:27,840 --> 01:08:29,880
with a 3030 year old Ben. 
I haven't this. 

1404
01:08:29,960 --> 01:08:31,920
Afternoon. 
My father was born in 69. 

1405
01:08:31,920 --> 01:08:33,120
But this is the year old who 
means. 

1406
01:08:33,120 --> 01:08:34,040
So there you go. 
There you are. 

1407
01:08:34,040 --> 01:08:34,920
Yeah, thank. 
You very. 

1408
01:08:36,800 --> 01:08:38,920
Much, Ross. 
No thanks, Alex, don't thank. 

1409
01:08:39,399 --> 01:08:43,520
You, Ross, I will say sorry 
brings on a nice subject here. 

1410
01:08:43,520 --> 01:08:44,920
Talk about Finn Russell sitting 
there. 

1411
01:08:46,160 --> 01:08:49,000
You are also been tucking into a
little sample bottle. 

1412
01:08:49,120 --> 01:08:50,960
That's the first thing you can 
already try. 

1413
01:08:51,120 --> 01:08:54,640
I am, and it's actually blowing 
my socks off. 

1414
01:08:54,680 --> 01:08:57,600
Yeah, it's great. 
But Bob cutting the whiskey 

1415
01:08:57,600 --> 01:08:59,240
shed. 
Long time listener whiskey. 

1416
01:08:59,279 --> 01:09:01,960
Shed, yeah. 
A long time listener, long time 

1417
01:09:01,960 --> 01:09:03,880
contributor to the Wishy Story's
Facebook page. 

1418
01:09:03,880 --> 01:09:06,120
If you're new to the if you're 
new to the podcast, join the 

1419
01:09:06,120 --> 01:09:08,319
Facebook page. 
It's very active people from all

1420
01:09:08,319 --> 01:09:09,880
over the world. 
Facebook group, Yeah. 

1421
01:09:11,520 --> 01:09:16,800
The whiskey shed 6 Nations blend
now I absolutely love the label 

1422
01:09:16,800 --> 01:09:18,279
here as well. 
Alex, I'll give you this the 

1423
01:09:18,279 --> 01:09:21,520
half of this to take home. 
It's actually fantastic It's 

1424
01:09:21,600 --> 01:09:23,080
got. 
This has got, so it's got. 

1425
01:09:23,080 --> 01:09:26,720
Pretty well it's got single from
all of the Six Nations. 

1426
01:09:26,720 --> 01:09:29,040
Yeah, the. 
Constituents were they put the 

1427
01:09:29,040 --> 01:09:30,880
constituents of the blend. 
Out. 

1428
01:09:30,880 --> 01:09:35,160
I'm going to be honest, Bob, 
cutting this is not only not 

1429
01:09:35,200 --> 01:09:37,479
shit, which is what I would 
occasionally say to say is 

1430
01:09:37,479 --> 01:09:40,120
something that's all right, it's
actually very tasty. 

1431
01:09:40,600 --> 01:09:43,520
I like of course, that you're 
not selling this because some 

1432
01:09:43,560 --> 01:09:48,399
ABV official sample probably 
wouldn't work, but bottled 2026,

1433
01:09:48,439 --> 01:09:52,560
it's just fantastic. 
Well, he said that, let me tell 

1434
01:09:52,560 --> 01:09:58,840
you, okay, the 2027 Six Nation 
blend is in the cask already. 

1435
01:09:58,960 --> 01:10:02,400
Excellent, right? 
A Chianti season, cask season 

1436
01:10:02,400 --> 01:10:06,720
for most of the 2026. 
Here's the blend. 

1437
01:10:06,720 --> 01:10:08,880
Saint Patrick's cask. 
Is this for this year? 

1438
01:10:09,040 --> 01:10:11,520
Yeah, for no, this is this. 
Is next year's? 

1439
01:10:11,600 --> 01:10:12,920
Oh, tell us. 
Tell me what's in this. 

1440
01:10:13,440 --> 01:10:17,400
I've got no but next, so next 
year's that we can look forward 

1441
01:10:17,400 --> 01:10:20,200
to it. 
We've got 12 months to Saint 

1442
01:10:20,240 --> 01:10:23,240
Patrick's Cask Strength, 
Ireland, Cotswold Founder's 

1443
01:10:23,240 --> 01:10:27,640
Choice, England, Pune Darkness, 
Italy, Glen Allocate, QV Cast 

1444
01:10:27,720 --> 01:10:33,480
Scotland Glen Lossy Red wine 
Break Scotland, Cortoise single 

1445
01:10:33,480 --> 01:10:38,440
malt France hate Club Green 
Scotland and Bellevue blue-green

1446
01:10:38,480 --> 01:10:40,080
France. 
So that's so. 

1447
01:10:40,320 --> 01:10:42,200
I mean, tell you what, right? 
Honestly. 

1448
01:10:42,200 --> 01:10:44,320
And do you know? 
There's got to be a Welsh to, 

1449
01:10:44,680 --> 01:10:47,520
say, a Welsh system. 
There's the Pendennon or the. 

1450
01:10:49,200 --> 01:10:52,560
Yeah, from the list that you 
from send me. 

1451
01:10:52,560 --> 01:10:57,960
Bob, you need to go back. 
Wales have had an unlucky last. 

1452
01:10:58,000 --> 01:11:01,760
Year you cannot kick them out. 
You've left a well train of 

1453
01:11:01,800 --> 01:11:03,360
that, but but what I would say 
is. 

1454
01:11:04,200 --> 01:11:05,640
That Lee label is brilliant as 
well. 

1455
01:11:05,640 --> 01:11:07,320
He's. 
Done his label yeah look at 

1456
01:11:07,360 --> 01:11:08,680
that. 
It's it's it's great. 

1457
01:11:08,760 --> 01:11:10,760
And he does whiskey shed. 
He's got his only whiskey and he

1458
01:11:10,760 --> 01:11:12,920
does his videos. 6 Nations video
has been fantastic. 

1459
01:11:13,040 --> 01:11:14,960
What I was saying? 
And what are 6 Nations It's been

1460
01:11:14,960 --> 01:11:16,760
by the way. 
So Alex, were you at the 

1461
01:11:16,760 --> 01:11:19,520
Scotland France game? 
No, I've been to the England 

1462
01:11:19,520 --> 01:11:21,480
one, which was more than enough 
enjoyment. 

1463
01:11:21,680 --> 01:11:26,240
Hi, Bob. 
Thanks for sharing that 

1464
01:11:26,640 --> 01:11:27,760
properly. 
World class draft. 

1465
01:11:27,800 --> 01:11:30,800
It's the 1st 19 I think. 
Is this the first single blend 

1466
01:11:30,800 --> 01:11:33,320
we've had on the podcast? 
So we'd bottled some of those. 

1467
01:11:33,320 --> 01:11:36,360
We also bought some oxides over 
the years, also single blend. 

1468
01:11:36,600 --> 01:11:40,400
But just so we know, you see the
strength is 50 points. 50.9. 

1469
01:11:40,520 --> 01:11:44,240
Yeah. 
So for a 1970, albeit bottled in

1470
01:11:44,240 --> 01:11:47,600
2008 or whatever to be that high
strength, that was one of the 

1471
01:11:48,160 --> 01:11:51,200
positives of doing a blend at 
birth was the grain was much 

1472
01:11:51,200 --> 01:11:52,200
higher strength. 
Yeah. 

1473
01:11:52,200 --> 01:11:55,360
So you got longer maturation 
potential that's. 

1474
01:11:55,480 --> 01:11:56,400
Delicious. 
Both, that is. 

1475
01:11:57,360 --> 01:11:59,520
It's a fruit bomb. 
It's also quite cheesy though. 

1476
01:12:00,160 --> 01:12:01,840
Yeah, they're a bit cheesy in 
there, that kind. 

1477
01:12:01,920 --> 01:12:05,280
Of Benedis element I guess. 
So I'd say. 

1478
01:12:06,240 --> 01:12:07,880
Really, really cool. 
No. 

1479
01:12:08,320 --> 01:12:10,880
And not many distilleries that 
could do that as well, even 

1480
01:12:11,040 --> 01:12:11,680
around the. 
World. 

1481
01:12:11,680 --> 01:12:14,640
Not many bottles that would have
thought of doing that for sure. 

1482
01:12:14,840 --> 01:12:18,040
Talk to us about the Arden 
American process then we I find 

1483
01:12:18,040 --> 01:12:22,600
it fascinating that new 
distilleries get this 

1484
01:12:22,600 --> 01:12:24,760
opportunity to create something 
from scratch. 

1485
01:12:25,920 --> 01:12:30,520
We've we've spoken to so many 
people on the television has 

1486
01:12:30,520 --> 01:12:32,120
just come on. 
Excellent. 

1487
01:12:33,480 --> 01:12:36,200
Just in time for colleague, but 
we've spoken to so many people 

1488
01:12:36,200 --> 01:12:39,640
on the podcast, you know, you, 
you speak to older, you know, 

1489
01:12:39,640 --> 01:12:42,520
distilleries and they talk about
this the, the, the heritage that

1490
01:12:42,520 --> 01:12:46,040
they have and about how. 
And one of the things that I've 

1491
01:12:46,040 --> 01:12:48,560
always said, and I said that 
even just a few weeks ago, the 

1492
01:12:48,560 --> 01:12:51,760
Aberrargay inaugural tasting 
that we had with, with the 

1493
01:12:51,760 --> 01:12:57,000
Morrisons guys and Tam Cuthbert,
there's no one alive today that 

1494
01:12:57,000 --> 01:13:00,880
has been able to sit there and 
swirl a glass of spring back 

1495
01:13:00,880 --> 01:13:03,640
when FedEx, Balvani or anyone 
that goes when far. 

1496
01:13:03,640 --> 01:13:05,560
Let's go. 
Can't wait to see what it's like

1497
01:13:05,560 --> 01:13:10,280
at 10, you know, But at the same
time, the whiskey that we know 

1498
01:13:10,280 --> 01:13:13,320
today has been built on so many 
different factors like your 

1499
01:13:13,320 --> 01:13:17,000
great, great great grandfather, 
Andrew Usher is part of that as 

1500
01:13:17,000 --> 01:13:20,120
well, where people making 
decisions and then we'll just 

1501
01:13:20,120 --> 01:13:22,400
learn from them and move on. 
People have made mistakes, so 

1502
01:13:22,400 --> 01:13:25,240
we've learned to move on. 
So when you get an opportunity 

1503
01:13:25,240 --> 01:13:29,800
to actually build a distillery 
from scratch, how much of it is,

1504
01:13:30,000 --> 01:13:31,320
I mean, do you, are you sitting 
there? 

1505
01:13:31,400 --> 01:13:33,600
You've already told us about 
this Adelphi release that you've

1506
01:13:33,600 --> 01:13:35,680
said this is what I'd like 
Adelphi to taste like. 

1507
01:13:36,000 --> 01:13:37,680
So when? 
What's the process from there? 

1508
01:13:38,320 --> 01:13:42,840
So I was very lucky, as were a 
number of newer distillers, to 

1509
01:13:42,960 --> 01:13:47,240
have the amazing wisdom and 
scientific knowledge of Jim 

1510
01:13:47,240 --> 01:13:53,520
Swan. 
So we got in just just after 

1511
01:13:53,520 --> 01:13:55,720
Kavlan. 
So he's still involved in 

1512
01:13:55,720 --> 01:13:59,000
setting up Kavlan in Taiwan. 
He was still up and down the 

1513
01:13:59,000 --> 01:14:02,560
road to Pendaren, even though 
they had started way back. 

1514
01:14:02,920 --> 01:14:08,720
He came in later. 
And for those of you who don't 

1515
01:14:08,720 --> 01:14:13,000
know, Doctor Jim Swan very sadly
died a few years ago now, but he

1516
01:14:13,000 --> 01:14:18,720
was one of the original chemist,
if you like, who would sample 

1517
01:14:18,960 --> 01:14:23,280
and rate a new mate from most of
the small to medium 

1518
01:14:23,280 --> 01:14:25,720
distilleries. 
And the company which he set up 

1519
01:14:25,720 --> 01:14:29,800
with Harry Rifkin called Taplock
and Thompson is still the go to 

1520
01:14:29,880 --> 01:14:33,480
for that process. 
So we still send samples to TNT 

1521
01:14:34,000 --> 01:14:37,200
every month we get a rating 
back. 

1522
01:14:38,160 --> 01:14:42,200
Most importantly, it's not what 
they rate it out of five, 

1523
01:14:42,640 --> 01:14:46,120
although it's quite nice to see.
It's the spider diagram, and you

1524
01:14:46,120 --> 01:14:47,720
want to be able to. 
If you imagine it on tracing 

1525
01:14:47,720 --> 01:14:49,520
paper, you want it to be the 
same spider. 

1526
01:14:49,640 --> 01:14:51,400
Yeah, well, you need it to look 
as it goes back. 

1527
01:14:51,520 --> 01:14:55,360
To the consistency. 
So that's why we used that lock 

1528
01:14:55,360 --> 01:14:58,120
and Thompson. 
That's why Jim set it up with 

1529
01:14:58,120 --> 01:15:01,800
Harry Rifkin. 
But Jim was not. 

1530
01:15:01,840 --> 01:15:04,200
I mean, he enjoyed whiskey, 
don't get me wrong, but he was 

1531
01:15:04,200 --> 01:15:08,560
not coming at the industry 
design, if you like, from a 

1532
01:15:08,560 --> 01:15:11,960
whiskey drinker's perspective. 
He was coming at it from a 

1533
01:15:11,960 --> 01:15:15,840
chemist perspective. 
How are flavours created? 

1534
01:15:16,600 --> 01:15:19,880
And he'd worked out how 
basically, and I, I'm no 

1535
01:15:19,880 --> 01:15:24,320
scientist so I don't know quite 
how it all works, but he'd 

1536
01:15:24,320 --> 01:15:28,320
worked out how to mature, sorry,
how to create whiskey or 

1537
01:15:28,320 --> 01:15:32,920
pneumate spirit that did not 
require the oxidization process 

1538
01:15:33,280 --> 01:15:36,200
to mature. 
And it's a combination. 

1539
01:15:36,200 --> 01:15:37,840
It's like a jigsaw of different 
things. 

1540
01:15:37,840 --> 01:15:41,320
And I know this now because 
we've tried eliminating 1 and 

1541
01:15:41,320 --> 01:15:43,400
putting it back very quickly 
because we know it changes 

1542
01:15:43,400 --> 01:15:45,880
things. 
The combination of different 

1543
01:15:45,880 --> 01:15:50,040
things, starting at the the mash
ton, going through fermentation,

1544
01:15:50,680 --> 01:15:53,200
the cuts, the way the condenses 
work, all of these kind of 

1545
01:15:53,200 --> 01:15:55,360
things. 
And then the quality of the 

1546
01:15:55,360 --> 01:15:56,960
wood, that was another of his 
big things. 

1547
01:15:57,360 --> 01:16:01,800
And even though he was the guy 
behind inventing STR casts. 

1548
01:16:03,160 --> 01:16:05,200
I was just about to say, I don't
think I've seen an armed 

1549
01:16:05,200 --> 01:16:06,880
American. 
So I, I, I didn't fall out with 

1550
01:16:06,880 --> 01:16:07,840
him. 
STR means what's. 

1551
01:16:08,320 --> 01:16:11,920
That shave dos of recharge. 
I never fell out with Jim, but I

1552
01:16:11,920 --> 01:16:14,800
had a disagreement on 2 
occasions, STR was 1. 

1553
01:16:15,200 --> 01:16:17,360
He said you've got to try. 
You'll be the first people to 

1554
01:16:17,360 --> 01:16:19,600
get these. 
And I said, well, can you tell 

1555
01:16:19,600 --> 01:16:21,720
me what they're going to taste 
like, what it's going to do to 

1556
01:16:21,720 --> 01:16:22,800
the spirit? 
And he said, well, I'll tell you

1557
01:16:22,800 --> 01:16:26,320
what, I'll send you a bottle of 
Kavalan Soloist or whatever it 

1558
01:16:26,320 --> 01:16:28,760
was that it was 2 years old, but
it obviously had that 

1559
01:16:28,760 --> 01:16:31,000
accelerated Taiwanese 
maturation. 

1560
01:16:31,760 --> 01:16:36,040
And for me it was too dry. 
It's a kind of Jim Swan's an 

1561
01:16:36,040 --> 01:16:37,480
absolute genius. 
So what did you have to do for 

1562
01:16:37,480 --> 01:16:38,600
these new distilleries? 
It's amazing. 

1563
01:16:38,840 --> 01:16:41,560
SCR is kind of a shortcut. 
Yeah. 

1564
01:16:41,560 --> 01:16:45,680
It accelerates some actuation. 
It's been really successful in 

1565
01:16:46,080 --> 01:16:50,880
Kings Barns as the example. 
I always I've got a lot of new 

1566
01:16:50,880 --> 01:16:53,000
distilleries have used it. 
Jim Swan at Lindo's Abbey as 

1567
01:16:53,000 --> 01:16:53,680
well. 
Wasn't it? 

1568
01:16:53,920 --> 01:16:54,200
Yeah. 
Yeah. 

1569
01:16:54,280 --> 01:16:55,520
Well, he had. 
Yeah, he had. 

1570
01:16:56,120 --> 01:16:58,880
Yeah, it was it was it's plaques
on it was in the still house, 

1571
01:16:58,880 --> 01:17:01,280
London's Abbey. 
But but Kings Barns is probably 

1572
01:17:01,280 --> 01:17:04,640
the example of their dream to 
DRAM was it was just the STR and

1573
01:17:04,640 --> 01:17:06,440
it was four or five years old. 
He went actually, that's that's 

1574
01:17:06,440 --> 01:17:07,880
palatable. 
I totally get it. 

1575
01:17:08,560 --> 01:17:12,000
It does. 
I am not a fan of STR casts. 

1576
01:17:12,400 --> 01:17:14,640
Either yeah, it's lovely red 
fruit, all those kind of things,

1577
01:17:15,360 --> 01:17:17,320
and it's cheap. 
Or at least it was a lot 

1578
01:17:17,320 --> 01:17:18,760
cheaper. 
It's now bourbon class to come 

1579
01:17:18,760 --> 01:17:19,840
down again. 
It's not. 

1580
01:17:19,920 --> 01:17:22,200
Plus it isn't. 
I think I recently had an STR 

1581
01:17:22,200 --> 01:17:25,120
French Oak Kilholmen and that 
was interesting. 

1582
01:17:25,120 --> 01:17:27,360
They're effectively shaving the 
inside of the you're. 

1583
01:17:27,360 --> 01:17:28,960
Bringing the wood back to life. 
Yeah. 

1584
01:17:30,000 --> 01:17:33,800
It's it's almost I would 
describe it to a customer as 

1585
01:17:34,360 --> 01:17:38,080
taking a used cask and trying to
bring virgin oak elements to the

1586
01:17:38,080 --> 01:17:40,000
wood. 
Yeah, by shaving it and then. 

1587
01:17:40,280 --> 01:17:43,640
There are other ways to do it 
and we've we've seen through 

1588
01:17:43,640 --> 01:17:47,520
Adelphi and this is kind of 
where I was coming from over the

1589
01:17:47,520 --> 01:17:50,720
years tasting with Charlie, 
selecting casks for Adelphi. 

1590
01:17:51,680 --> 01:17:55,320
It wasn't about the name, the 
age, the colour, it was about 

1591
01:17:55,320 --> 01:17:57,640
finding a DRAM that we would 
both sit down and happily have 

1592
01:17:57,640 --> 01:18:00,520
another. 
And it's about the drinkability.

1593
01:18:01,360 --> 01:18:04,840
And within that there's a mouth 
texture, the flavours that it 

1594
01:18:05,720 --> 01:18:07,840
could have been completely off 
brand in terms of flavour 

1595
01:18:07,840 --> 01:18:10,280
profile. 
But if it was drinking well and 

1596
01:18:10,280 --> 01:18:12,600
you'd have another go to it, 
then that is a good whiskey to 

1597
01:18:12,600 --> 01:18:15,040
put in a bottle. 
And that's kind of what we tried

1598
01:18:15,040 --> 01:18:18,840
to do without American too. 
And I didn't, I felt that that 

1599
01:18:18,840 --> 01:18:22,800
dryness would have made it 
difficult to have more than 

1600
01:18:22,800 --> 01:18:23,440
right you're. 
Right. 

1601
01:18:23,440 --> 01:18:26,160
There's so many times that you 
can have a DRAM where it's a one

1602
01:18:26,160 --> 01:18:28,320
DRAM wonder where you can sit 
down and go. 

1603
01:18:28,840 --> 01:18:31,320
It might be there's there's 
whiskeys that I would go to that

1604
01:18:31,320 --> 01:18:32,560
go. 
Do you know what that'd be the 

1605
01:18:32,560 --> 01:18:34,200
perfect end of the night whiskey
for me. 

1606
01:18:34,200 --> 01:18:36,360
Where you have that, you have 
that's that's it. 

1607
01:18:36,880 --> 01:18:38,600
Equally, there might be a 
whiskey where you could say 

1608
01:18:38,600 --> 01:18:40,400
that's your starting whiskey 
where you have that. 

1609
01:18:40,400 --> 01:18:40,920
Yeah. 
And move on. 

1610
01:18:40,920 --> 01:18:44,920
But actually there's something 
to be said and I've said it over

1611
01:18:44,920 --> 01:18:46,320
the last since I got back from 
India. 

1612
01:18:46,320 --> 01:18:51,000
I don't know if I've mentioned 
on the podcast a bit at the same

1613
01:18:51,000 --> 01:18:55,240
time, one of the things is I 
I've said it, In fact, I've said

1614
01:18:55,240 --> 01:18:56,760
it before. 
When I went, it was with code, 

1615
01:18:56,760 --> 01:18:58,920
It was the episode with Cody 
Reynolds. 

1616
01:18:58,920 --> 01:19:02,320
It's all age, how long it was. 
But sometimes we feel like we're

1617
01:19:02,320 --> 01:19:05,280
under pressure in this podcast 
where you have to pick 3 or 4 

1618
01:19:05,280 --> 01:19:07,440
drams and every time you come in
here you feel like I should be 

1619
01:19:07,440 --> 01:19:10,160
trying something else. 
But actually, sometimes you just

1620
01:19:10,160 --> 01:19:14,520
want to come in and just say 
that is a DRAM I'd like to have.

1621
01:19:14,720 --> 01:19:17,760
Graham from two years ago would 
have been delighted by Glen 

1622
01:19:18,000 --> 01:19:19,600
Alec, 15. 
Absolutely. 

1623
01:19:19,600 --> 01:19:22,280
Glenn Piero today delighted. 
Genuinely. 

1624
01:19:22,400 --> 01:19:24,040
You don't need to pretend to 
like Pete. 

1625
01:19:24,240 --> 01:19:28,560
You can enjoy this. 
You can really go back to what 

1626
01:19:28,560 --> 01:19:31,640
you love and. 
What you said, there is a lot to

1627
01:19:31,640 --> 01:19:34,160
be said for that and I think 
that's where we've talked about 

1628
01:19:34,160 --> 01:19:35,560
it. 
We talked about with Tim Walker 

1629
01:19:36,400 --> 01:19:40,000
Ross, you know, in the luxury 
market, if someone's paying an 

1630
01:19:40,000 --> 01:19:42,400
awful lot of money for a bottle 
of whiskey and luxury, do they 

1631
01:19:42,400 --> 01:19:44,640
want to pay for something that 
they're going to be challenged 

1632
01:19:44,640 --> 01:19:46,800
with or do they want to just pay
something that's going to be 

1633
01:19:47,000 --> 01:19:49,880
smooth and easy to drink and 
just down, you're not down the 

1634
01:19:49,880 --> 01:19:51,200
hard, but just they can sit and 
go. 

1635
01:19:51,200 --> 01:19:53,400
I don't even worry about how 
much water I need to add. 

1636
01:19:53,400 --> 01:19:54,720
I don't need to worry about 
that, you know? 

1637
01:19:54,800 --> 01:19:57,000
And so actually it brings on a 
really nice point about art and 

1638
01:19:57,000 --> 01:20:00,520
working as well. 
You're very reasonably priced. 

1639
01:20:01,680 --> 01:20:03,240
But. 
That's why I had that 

1640
01:20:03,240 --> 01:20:06,200
spreadsheet. 
But your single malt and the 

1641
01:20:06,200 --> 01:20:08,840
diversity of your single malt 
through different cask finishes,

1642
01:20:08,840 --> 01:20:13,160
limited release single casks as 
well, always very reasonably 

1643
01:20:13,160 --> 01:20:15,600
priced. 
And really, it seems to me that 

1644
01:20:15,600 --> 01:20:18,240
you've always set out that Arden
Merkin was to be a whiskey that 

1645
01:20:18,240 --> 01:20:20,560
was to be dragged. 
Yeah, which is an interesting 

1646
01:20:20,560 --> 01:20:23,480
dynamic when you look at the 
Adelphi element where you look 

1647
01:20:23,480 --> 01:20:26,600
at the exclusivity and possibly 
the premium premiumisation. 

1648
01:20:26,680 --> 01:20:27,840
But they always doubt. 
Yeah, they. 

1649
01:20:27,880 --> 01:20:31,480
Could have gone down the OR the 
port Helen root and gone we 

1650
01:20:31,480 --> 01:20:32,720
want. 
If you bought a bottle of this 

1651
01:20:32,720 --> 01:20:38,200
sealed now, yes it's interesting
and it happens to be delicious, 

1652
01:20:38,480 --> 01:20:40,920
but you might be reluctant to 
not open it until a special 

1653
01:20:40,920 --> 01:20:43,520
occasion or a real reason to do 
it because it's it's liquid 

1654
01:20:43,520 --> 01:20:47,360
history. 
With Adelphi, we never put the 

1655
01:20:47,360 --> 01:20:50,960
prices up because we felt we 
were better because we were 

1656
01:20:50,960 --> 01:20:54,600
operating on a just in time 
method, which back then was very

1657
01:20:54,600 --> 01:20:56,200
rare. 
Nowadays it's kind of everyone 

1658
01:20:56,200 --> 01:20:59,720
does it, but back then we were 
reliant on what it was, what it 

1659
01:20:59,720 --> 01:21:03,080
cost us to buy on that day. 
That was then plus margin, what 

1660
01:21:03,080 --> 01:21:05,160
we sold it at. 
So yeah, sometimes we were more 

1661
01:21:05,160 --> 01:21:07,760
expensive, sometimes we were 
slightly cheaper, but we just 

1662
01:21:07,760 --> 01:21:10,000
put it out straight margin. 
Here's something to drink. 

1663
01:21:10,400 --> 01:21:12,760
And Arden Merkin was always 
going to be the same principle. 

1664
01:21:13,120 --> 01:21:16,160
We managed to get, and this is 
again, Donald's brain in in gear

1665
01:21:16,840 --> 01:21:18,760
as an engineer. 
We managed to get our cost of 

1666
01:21:18,760 --> 01:21:22,160
production for a reasonably 
small distillery to a very low 

1667
01:21:22,160 --> 01:21:25,360
level biomass wood chip 
delivered 2 miles away, 

1668
01:21:26,000 --> 01:21:28,200
hydroelectricity, all these kind
of things. 

1669
01:21:29,320 --> 01:21:33,080
A, they don't fluctuate as much 
like oil and gas and B, we have 

1670
01:21:33,080 --> 01:21:38,560
a nice low, you know, no 
transport costs, all that kind 

1671
01:21:38,560 --> 01:21:40,960
of thing. 
So we've been very fortunate to 

1672
01:21:40,960 --> 01:21:45,040
build, being able to build and 
run a distillery of a small to 

1673
01:21:45,040 --> 01:21:52,440
medium size purely for single 
malt ish that can then translate

1674
01:21:52,440 --> 01:21:58,200
into an affordable attainable. 
And you know, when do you make 

1675
01:21:58,200 --> 01:22:01,480
the decision? 
Because like everyone will say, 

1676
01:22:01,480 --> 01:22:03,960
we make the decision to put out 
our first release, our first 

1677
01:22:03,960 --> 01:22:07,240
single malt when it's ready. 
That's the line, isn't it? 

1678
01:22:07,800 --> 01:22:10,840
And I suppose it has to be the 
line because if you're not 

1679
01:22:10,840 --> 01:22:15,760
putting out three years in one 
day, yeah, then you suddenly go,

1680
01:22:15,760 --> 01:22:18,880
well, why are you putting out 
after seven years? 

1681
01:22:18,880 --> 01:22:22,000
Or sometimes you might wait. 
Some people will make wait for 

1682
01:22:22,000 --> 01:22:24,760
the age statement to hit the 
den, but there's other. 

1683
01:22:24,800 --> 01:22:29,960
So was there a plan in place to 
go we will release On this date?

1684
01:22:29,960 --> 01:22:31,480
Or was it just a case? 
Was it that? 

1685
01:22:31,560 --> 01:22:33,800
We'll release it when it's 
ready, Mark. 

1686
01:22:34,840 --> 01:22:37,440
So there were kind of two or 
three plans which you all got 

1687
01:22:37,440 --> 01:22:40,880
sort of mixed up. 
The first plan which wasn't was 

1688
01:22:41,240 --> 01:22:43,520
I bought off Miguel Martin in 
Spain. 

1689
01:22:43,520 --> 01:22:47,320
I bought some octaves, some 
little 50 litre nuked Sherry 

1690
01:22:47,360 --> 01:22:51,560
octave on our first lorry from 
him. 

1691
01:22:51,640 --> 01:22:55,160
So this had been 2014 and I 
didn't buy them to accelerate 

1692
01:22:55,160 --> 01:22:57,360
maturation, to be able to sell 
quickly. 

1693
01:22:57,640 --> 01:23:00,480
I bought them to accelerate 
maturation to see if we needed 

1694
01:23:00,480 --> 01:23:02,960
to change anything. 
And then yeah, it doesn't make 

1695
01:23:02,960 --> 01:23:03,600
difference. 
Yeah. 

1696
01:23:04,320 --> 01:23:06,680
And. 
That's an octave. 

1697
01:23:06,680 --> 01:23:08,320
How do we need to approach our 
butts? 

1698
01:23:08,320 --> 01:23:10,960
Yeah, just, you know, because it
would means even though it's 

1699
01:23:10,960 --> 01:23:13,920
heavily Sherry, you'd be able to
see, do you have enough DNA 

1700
01:23:13,920 --> 01:23:15,920
coming through? 
Do you have this, that the rest 

1701
01:23:16,560 --> 01:23:17,920
of it? 
Yeah, it might taste of 

1702
01:23:18,000 --> 01:23:19,680
strawberries and you want it to 
taste of raspberries. 

1703
01:23:20,000 --> 01:23:22,280
Yeah. 
So what actually happened was 

1704
01:23:22,280 --> 01:23:26,080
the complete opposite in that 
these things matured so well so 

1705
01:23:26,080 --> 01:23:27,720
quickly that we had to bottle 
them. 

1706
01:23:27,920 --> 01:23:30,080
Yeah. 
So we came out with these less 

1707
01:23:30,080 --> 01:23:31,720
than three-year old Spirit 
bottlings. 

1708
01:23:31,920 --> 01:23:34,280
OK. 
And it was AD for Anna Domini 

1709
01:23:34,360 --> 01:23:36,600
rather than Anna Mercantisuri, 
but it was also Anna 

1710
01:23:36,600 --> 01:23:42,680
Mercantisuri. 
AD 2016 20/17/2018 in 2019 all 

1711
01:23:42,680 --> 01:23:46,160
from octaves and they got a real
cult following around the world 

1712
01:23:46,360 --> 01:23:47,720
even though they're kind of 
small batches. 

1713
01:23:47,960 --> 01:23:50,480
And they were called Spirit. 
They were called Spirit and it 

1714
01:23:50,480 --> 01:23:53,240
just kind of led people into 
waiting for the first single 

1715
01:23:53,240 --> 01:23:56,600
mole, which was great. 
So by that stage, by probably 

1716
01:23:56,600 --> 01:24:00,120
the second batch of those 
becoming quite successful, we 

1717
01:24:00,120 --> 01:24:02,880
then reckoned we'd be able to 
get something out at five years 

1718
01:24:02,880 --> 01:24:04,200
old that was good enough 
quality. 

1719
01:24:04,640 --> 01:24:07,600
What we didn't of course know 
was in in whatever. 

1720
01:24:07,600 --> 01:24:09,040
That would have been another 
three years time. 

1721
01:24:09,720 --> 01:24:11,720
Global pandemic. 
There was a global pandemic 

1722
01:24:11,720 --> 01:24:15,840
coming around the corner, so we 
decided to push ahead. 

1723
01:24:15,920 --> 01:24:18,560
The one thing that could have 
stalled it, and thank God it 

1724
01:24:18,560 --> 01:24:20,600
didn't, was that we weren't 
allowed out. 

1725
01:24:21,760 --> 01:24:25,200
And we had to literally, Connell
myself, had to get time in the 

1726
01:24:25,200 --> 01:24:27,640
warehouses in order to start 
looking at casks. 

1727
01:24:27,640 --> 01:24:29,000
We hadn't been up there in 
months. 

1728
01:24:29,680 --> 01:24:32,240
I mean, Adam American literally 
had a roadblock. 

1729
01:24:32,240 --> 01:24:33,520
It was like no one in, no one 
out. 

1730
01:24:34,640 --> 01:24:37,520
So eventually we got let out in 
the, I think it was the late 

1731
01:24:37,520 --> 01:24:40,080
spring of that year, maybe the 
summer, I can't remember. 

1732
01:24:40,480 --> 01:24:43,680
We got up, we locked ourselves 
in the Warehouse 1, which was 

1733
01:24:43,680 --> 01:24:47,880
the only main, only warehouse 
really at the time, and we just 

1734
01:24:47,880 --> 01:24:50,040
started going through the 2014 
and 15 stuff. 

1735
01:24:50,040 --> 01:24:51,360
That sounds like a terrible day.
It was. 

1736
01:24:51,600 --> 01:24:54,200
It was, yeah. 
How did you spend your COVID? 

1737
01:24:54,480 --> 01:24:57,640
What I was I was making cakes 
and making bread. 

1738
01:24:57,840 --> 01:24:59,520
You're in the warehouse for the 
first time in. 

1739
01:25:00,920 --> 01:25:05,200
Well, we had both both families 
were up as well because they're 

1740
01:25:05,200 --> 01:25:09,040
in great fun on the beaches. 
Again, first time lied out and 

1741
01:25:09,040 --> 01:25:12,880
we ended up with something like 
100 samples on this big table to

1742
01:25:12,880 --> 01:25:15,040
start putting the first blend. 
Didn't know what what it was 

1743
01:25:15,040 --> 01:25:17,840
going to taste like. 
We literally we, we had nowhere 

1744
01:25:17,840 --> 01:25:21,600
to even, you know, start from. 
I remember Graham Mackay coming 

1745
01:25:21,600 --> 01:25:24,000
in for a sort of pseudo 
interview stroke. 

1746
01:25:24,280 --> 01:25:26,160
You're coming in, you know 
you're coming to work for us. 

1747
01:25:26,160 --> 01:25:29,000
But he didn't know that and 
they're kind of going crazy. 

1748
01:25:29,000 --> 01:25:33,120
What have I let myself into? 
And we ended up with three, 

1749
01:25:33,160 --> 01:25:39,320
three different versions. 
The first version was exactly 

1750
01:25:39,360 --> 01:25:41,560
the profile of stock that we 
were laying down. 

1751
01:25:42,080 --> 01:25:47,680
So it was 50% unpetered, 50% 
pitted, 75% verb and matured and

1752
01:25:47,680 --> 01:25:51,920
25% sharing. 
And version two and three were a

1753
01:25:51,920 --> 01:25:55,120
variation on that. 
And everyone that we took it to,

1754
01:25:55,520 --> 01:25:57,280
including people like Dave 
Brumer, who just happened to 

1755
01:25:57,280 --> 01:25:59,520
appear in London American 
randomly because he was writing 

1756
01:25:59,520 --> 01:26:02,960
a book, everyone unanimously 
said version 1. 

1757
01:26:03,800 --> 01:26:07,200
And so we were lucky we got the 
recipe right from day one. 

1758
01:26:08,120 --> 01:26:10,160
But you never know. 
But then you've got some Connell

1759
01:26:10,160 --> 01:26:13,920
then who thought Connell has 
been a big part of he's like 

1760
01:26:13,920 --> 01:26:15,880
your agent, isn't he? 
He's speaking like Conal gay 

1761
01:26:18,600 --> 01:26:19,800
Alex. 
And he said I'll let you see. 

1762
01:26:19,800 --> 01:26:22,480
And he he sent me your rider. 
He said he's got to have this 

1763
01:26:22,480 --> 01:26:24,480
year. 
There's no blue M and Ms. or 

1764
01:26:24,480 --> 01:26:28,640
Reddit. 
Where's the bubble bar, Christ? 

1765
01:26:28,880 --> 01:26:32,000
But but Conor, how long has 
Conal been at the distillery 

1766
01:26:32,000 --> 01:26:34,280
for? 
So I knew him from travelling to

1767
01:26:34,280 --> 01:26:35,840
New Zealand to. 
And it's Conor. 

1768
01:26:35,840 --> 01:26:36,800
What's this? 
What's this film? 

1769
01:26:36,920 --> 01:26:39,240
And Conor McKay. 
The sales director, yeah. 

1770
01:26:40,400 --> 01:26:42,680
So I've been going out to New 
Zealand every other year for 

1771
01:26:42,680 --> 01:26:47,440
DRAM Fest, which is the best, by
far the best whiskey festival on

1772
01:26:47,440 --> 01:26:51,200
that side of the world. 
It's fun, it's big, it's it's 

1773
01:26:51,200 --> 01:26:54,200
quick, you know, which is good 
from both sides of the table. 

1774
01:26:55,240 --> 01:26:57,360
And it's a whole weekend of 
different things going on. 

1775
01:26:57,880 --> 01:27:00,480
And they look after all the 
Scots that come over. 

1776
01:27:00,480 --> 01:27:03,600
So everyone from the industry, 
they get taken on adventures and

1777
01:27:03,600 --> 01:27:06,240
stuff. 
Anyway, Connell was, he comes 

1778
01:27:06,240 --> 01:27:09,400
through the hotel trade and then
got employed by Whiskey Galore 

1779
01:27:09,400 --> 01:27:12,440
that run Gram Fest also right 
importers. 

1780
01:27:13,000 --> 01:27:16,680
He got employed as AGM, can't 
remember which year it was maybe

1781
01:27:16,680 --> 01:27:19,640
20/15/16. 
And I met him, we did a road 

1782
01:27:19,640 --> 01:27:24,720
trip through New Zealand doing 
tastings and he was saying, even

1783
01:27:24,720 --> 01:27:26,480
at that stage he was saying I 
might have to come back at some 

1784
01:27:26,480 --> 01:27:29,080
point. 
And so we just kept in touch and

1785
01:27:29,560 --> 01:27:32,800
I wasn't actually looking, but 
he he got in touch and I said, 

1786
01:27:33,400 --> 01:27:36,840
you're about a year too quick. 
But let me let me see what we 

1787
01:27:36,840 --> 01:27:38,920
can do. 
And it's a similar sort of Carl,

1788
01:27:39,040 --> 01:27:41,720
you know, Carl was, you know, 
working as an import, working, 

1789
01:27:42,120 --> 01:27:44,080
was it the Scottish Government? 
He was working part of the 

1790
01:27:44,080 --> 01:27:45,920
Scottish Government with 
American imports and stuff. 

1791
01:27:45,920 --> 01:27:46,280
Like that? 
Yeah. 

1792
01:27:46,280 --> 01:27:48,960
No, he was. 
And suddenly, but yeah, how 

1793
01:27:48,960 --> 01:27:50,760
big's the team? 
Because Carl's even talked 

1794
01:27:50,760 --> 01:27:55,080
about, you know, was it the mid 
J he was talking about where he 

1795
01:27:55,080 --> 01:27:58,840
said we were all just sitting 
there and no, there was a drama 

1796
01:27:58,840 --> 01:28:00,440
that he had. 
And he said, what if we just 

1797
01:28:00,440 --> 01:28:04,360
stick up Sherry button there and
wait that everyone was sitting 

1798
01:28:04,360 --> 01:28:06,880
there and it was like round the 
table samples on the table. 

1799
01:28:06,880 --> 01:28:09,200
Everyone's trying to sampling 
like what's the next release 

1800
01:28:09,200 --> 01:28:11,920
going to be? 
And somebody said, what if we 

1801
01:28:11,920 --> 01:28:14,120
just stick a cherry button there
and see what happens? 

1802
01:28:14,120 --> 01:28:15,880
And they went, OK, here's a set 
cherry sample. 

1803
01:28:16,080 --> 01:28:19,280
And everyone just went, yeah, 
that's yeah, that's it. 

1804
01:28:19,280 --> 01:28:21,120
So I mean, what's the team like?
How big's the team? 

1805
01:28:21,120 --> 01:28:23,120
Because you're all the way up in
the middle of of Ireland to 

1806
01:28:23,120 --> 01:28:23,920
market. 
You just. 

1807
01:28:23,920 --> 01:28:26,960
Wondered. 
We just hired Connie, who's 

1808
01:28:26,960 --> 01:28:27,760
fantastic. 
He's just. 

1809
01:28:27,760 --> 01:28:31,000
Started new UK sales manager. 
Yeah, it's good to get some good

1810
01:28:31,000 --> 01:28:32,760
news in West. 
Yeah, yeah, people are hiring. 

1811
01:28:32,920 --> 01:28:34,960
Yeah, yeah, that's why I have 
even less beans than I did last 

1812
01:28:34,960 --> 01:28:39,680
week. 
No, look, so the if we're 

1813
01:28:39,680 --> 01:28:41,480
talking blending team or. 
Just the total. 

1814
01:28:41,520 --> 01:28:44,560
Like the total team. 
So we're split 5050 more or less

1815
01:28:44,560 --> 01:28:47,680
between our American where we 
make the stuff and welcome 

1816
01:28:47,680 --> 01:28:51,560
people And, and, and just on 
that, you mentioned, you know, 

1817
01:28:51,560 --> 01:28:55,600
about people going up there like
pilgrims from the other side of 

1818
01:28:55,600 --> 01:28:57,520
the coin. 
We are so delighted when someone

1819
01:28:57,520 --> 01:29:00,760
walks through that door. 
Yeah, that it's a genuine West 

1820
01:29:00,760 --> 01:29:04,160
Coast hospitality and I've been 
out there a couple of times last

1821
01:29:04,160 --> 01:29:08,040
year where the car park's 
overflowing onto the single 

1822
01:29:08,040 --> 01:29:12,560
track Rd. which doesn't help and
everyone just is happy. 

1823
01:29:12,640 --> 01:29:15,760
It's great. 
So 50% of people up there, all 

1824
01:29:15,760 --> 01:29:20,560
local, got some early help in to
train up and now it's all local.

1825
01:29:20,840 --> 01:29:24,320
The distillery manager is the he
was bus driver for the kids. 

1826
01:29:24,320 --> 01:29:27,800
That's right, in 2014. 
So even all the production team,

1827
01:29:27,800 --> 01:29:29,000
everyone. 
Everyone's and I. 

1828
01:29:29,160 --> 01:29:32,520
Mean that's great because that's
a bit like even the third 

1829
01:29:32,520 --> 01:29:36,640
episode we had we we spoke to 
he's from Harris. 

1830
01:29:36,640 --> 01:29:39,960
We spoke about Harris and how 
great they've been at employing 

1831
01:29:39,960 --> 01:29:43,480
local people, training, skilling
people locally rather than 

1832
01:29:43,600 --> 01:29:46,160
bringing in people from. 
So we're we're looking at it not

1833
01:29:46,160 --> 01:29:48,440
just for the here and now, we're
looking at it for the future as 

1834
01:29:48,440 --> 01:29:51,000
well. 
So here and now is if someone 

1835
01:29:51,000 --> 01:29:54,840
leaves, we bring someone in at 
the bottom, which is not the 

1836
01:29:54,840 --> 01:29:58,280
worst job, it's just the the 
least training required, which 

1837
01:29:58,280 --> 01:30:01,600
is warehouse and then they get 
immediately trained up through 

1838
01:30:01,600 --> 01:30:03,600
warehousing. 
They get trained on the stills 

1839
01:30:03,600 --> 01:30:06,760
within six months to a year. 
They get offered to take the IBD

1840
01:30:06,760 --> 01:30:09,320
exams. 
So everyone pretty much within a

1841
01:30:09,320 --> 01:30:13,200
year or two of arriving has the 
ability to do anything on site. 

1842
01:30:14,360 --> 01:30:16,880
And, and long term, what we've 
done since the beginning, we 

1843
01:30:16,880 --> 01:30:19,960
teamed up with the Ad American 
Trust, which is like the local 

1844
01:30:19,960 --> 01:30:26,400
charity and we basically sell 
them a cask or casks every year 

1845
01:30:26,880 --> 01:30:28,720
a child or children are born on 
the peninsula. 

1846
01:30:29,360 --> 01:30:35,000
We sell them a cost price. 
It gets put away in their name. 

1847
01:30:35,440 --> 01:30:39,520
And when they turn of a legal 
age for alcohol, they can write 

1848
01:30:39,520 --> 01:30:43,440
to the trust and say I want to 
go to university, I want to 

1849
01:30:43,440 --> 01:30:46,480
start a business selling wool 
because I've got a sheep in the 

1850
01:30:46,480 --> 01:30:48,640
garden. 
You know, as long as it's a good

1851
01:30:48,640 --> 01:30:52,280
case for it commercially, they 
then the trust then sells that 

1852
01:30:52,280 --> 01:30:56,280
cast back to us and we give them
the going rate on that day. 

1853
01:30:57,000 --> 01:30:59,520
So when we started. 
This on the peninsula. 

1854
01:30:59,840 --> 01:31:02,400
And we kind of hope we then we 
then bring them in as well. 

1855
01:31:02,400 --> 01:31:03,960
We kind of say that. 
This is what you can. 

1856
01:31:04,040 --> 01:31:06,040
There's a whole story about 
Billy Brebner. 

1857
01:31:07,440 --> 01:31:11,960
Oh yes, so back it was back when
got to qualify to play for 

1858
01:31:11,960 --> 01:31:13,960
Scotland, you had to be born in 
Scotland. 

1859
01:31:14,160 --> 01:31:17,920
And Billy Bremner was playing 
for Leeds and famously his 

1860
01:31:17,920 --> 01:31:21,040
wife's water broke and he 
trucked her in the car and drove

1861
01:31:21,040 --> 01:31:23,720
from Leeds to cross the border 
because he didn't want, if he 

1862
01:31:23,720 --> 01:31:26,840
had his first son, he didn't 
want his son being born as an 

1863
01:31:26,840 --> 01:31:30,560
Englishman instead of Scotsman. 
So basically, if people are 

1864
01:31:30,560 --> 01:31:33,040
listening, if you're close. 
To the peninsula. 

1865
01:31:33,360 --> 01:31:36,080
Well, look, if you're sitting 
there going could. 4 hour drive 

1866
01:31:36,080 --> 01:31:38,400
from Edinburgh. 
You know, someone could be 

1867
01:31:38,400 --> 01:31:41,680
sitting there going, well, I've 
ready to pop in the next few few

1868
01:31:41,680 --> 01:31:43,440
weeks. 
Get in a car up there on the 

1869
01:31:43,440 --> 01:31:44,800
working peninsula. 
You'll get yourself. 

1870
01:31:44,800 --> 01:31:50,240
We've just heard of it, the low 
operating cars, That's good, 

1871
01:31:50,320 --> 01:31:52,240
that's brilliant. 
That's a great, it's a great 

1872
01:31:52,240 --> 01:31:54,720
incentive. 
It's a practical, it's 

1873
01:31:54,720 --> 01:31:56,360
practical. 
We're not, you know, with 

1874
01:31:56,360 --> 01:31:58,840
everything we do, we some people
say we're the greenest, we're 

1875
01:31:58,840 --> 01:32:02,960
not maybe where when we started,
some people say we do this and 

1876
01:32:02,960 --> 01:32:05,000
that, but everything we've done 
has been pragmatic. 

1877
01:32:05,480 --> 01:32:09,760
It's been because of where we 
are and in order to benefit 

1878
01:32:09,760 --> 01:32:11,560
where we are. 
And the Highlands and Isles of 

1879
01:32:11,560 --> 01:32:13,600
Scotland need to this 
investment. 

1880
01:32:14,440 --> 01:32:17,400
Yeah, as you said, we mentioned 
them before Rassie and other 

1881
01:32:17,400 --> 01:32:18,880
distillery. 
I was there last week for the 

1882
01:32:18,880 --> 01:32:21,720
first time. 
There was 120 people on that 

1883
01:32:21,720 --> 01:32:24,520
island before the distillery. 
The latest census are expected 

1884
01:32:24,520 --> 01:32:27,440
about 188. 
Apparently that's a third of the

1885
01:32:27,520 --> 01:32:28,200
island. 
Yeah. 

1886
01:32:28,200 --> 01:32:29,760
Because somebody has invested in
it. 

1887
01:32:30,080 --> 01:32:31,360
Yes. 
And these rural communities, 

1888
01:32:31,360 --> 01:32:33,280
when you do go north, the 
central. 

1889
01:32:33,280 --> 01:32:35,480
The kind of brain drain and the.
Ageing. 

1890
01:32:35,640 --> 01:32:37,880
Population, this is it's really 
important. 

1891
01:32:38,120 --> 01:32:40,560
Yeah, I I'm very successful. 
Holding it, yeah. 

1892
01:32:40,840 --> 01:32:44,200
And but at the same time it is 
bringing people into these areas

1893
01:32:44,320 --> 01:32:47,840
to to get eaten alive by the 
midges because I the. 

1894
01:32:48,000 --> 01:32:50,160
Midget population up the. 
Other thing is I wouldn't want 

1895
01:32:50,160 --> 01:32:52,600
to say again, we don't want to 
cover what Carol had already 

1896
01:32:52,600 --> 01:32:54,240
talked about. 
If you want to find out the 

1897
01:32:54,240 --> 01:32:57,120
Midget, the hard American 
Midget, find out on the his 

1898
01:32:57,120 --> 01:32:59,880
episode, because he'll tell you 
all about the the reason mine 

1899
01:32:59,880 --> 01:33:02,120
it. 
But what we it says is it says 

1900
01:33:02,120 --> 01:33:05,160
that Arden markings are a brand 
and the distillery likes to have

1901
01:33:05,160 --> 01:33:07,200
a bit of fun as well. 
That doesn't you know, it's 

1902
01:33:07,200 --> 01:33:09,120
important to be serious about 
whiskey and when you're putting 

1903
01:33:09,120 --> 01:33:11,320
out the whiskey that you're 
putting out, you can do that, 

1904
01:33:11,320 --> 01:33:12,400
but you can also have a bit of 
fun. 

1905
01:33:12,400 --> 01:33:15,560
But Mclean's nose as well? 
Talk about so. 

1906
01:33:15,720 --> 01:33:18,320
So Mclean's nose is what? 
What is Mclean's nose? 

1907
01:33:18,520 --> 01:33:24,160
I So the day we opened, we were 
very fortunate to have Princess 

1908
01:33:24,160 --> 01:33:27,480
Anne. 
She flew in to to the ceremony. 

1909
01:33:27,960 --> 01:33:32,200
It was 32° in an American, so we
were dressed up in teads and 

1910
01:33:32,200 --> 01:33:35,760
kilts and stuff like this and. 
Like Ross, as if they did. 

1911
01:33:36,200 --> 01:33:38,760
Just really not enjoying the the
heat. 

1912
01:33:39,400 --> 01:33:40,720
So we took her right through the
process. 

1913
01:33:40,720 --> 01:33:44,920
I was involved in the early bit 
of it with the filling store, 

1914
01:33:45,240 --> 01:33:48,320
filling a bottle through her 
husband and of new make spirit. 

1915
01:33:48,680 --> 01:33:50,800
Then she progressed through 
production and she got to the 

1916
01:33:50,800 --> 01:33:53,480
still room. 
Now, bearing in mind it's 32° 

1917
01:33:53,680 --> 01:33:54,280
outside. 
Oh yeah, What's? 

1918
01:33:54,400 --> 01:33:55,480
That still room would have been 
50. 

1919
01:33:55,480 --> 01:33:57,800
There's like our trip up to Glen
Murray and one of the Snow Room.

1920
01:33:57,960 --> 01:33:58,400
Is too hot. 
Yeah. 

1921
01:33:58,680 --> 01:34:01,080
We're not allowed. 
So all she did, there was never 

1922
01:34:01,080 --> 01:34:02,960
a bead of sweat. 
All she did was she removed her 

1923
01:34:02,960 --> 01:34:05,320
gloves and gave them to her lady
in waiting. 

1924
01:34:05,360 --> 01:34:07,800
I can assure you when we went up
to Glen Murray that last summer 

1925
01:34:07,800 --> 01:34:09,160
in the hot stadium, there was a 
lot of sweat. 

1926
01:34:09,280 --> 01:34:13,200
Yeah, anyway, she then flew out 
after, you know, handshakes and 

1927
01:34:13,200 --> 01:34:14,400
all the rest of it, and that was
great. 

1928
01:34:14,400 --> 01:34:16,360
And we kind of, you know, 
everything relaxed. 

1929
01:34:16,360 --> 01:34:20,600
But it was a lovely day anyway 
and the next thing I do, I had a

1930
01:34:20,600 --> 01:34:22,320
drama in my hand. 
I was looking out the still room

1931
01:34:22,320 --> 01:34:25,360
window down the lock. 
You can just see Toby Mori at 

1932
01:34:25,360 --> 01:34:29,600
the end of the lock and just 
kind of feeling, not smug but 

1933
01:34:29,600 --> 01:34:31,600
just feeling really happy we'd 
got to that stage. 

1934
01:34:32,680 --> 01:34:35,160
I knew there was going to still 
be a massive journey ahead but 

1935
01:34:35,200 --> 01:34:37,840
you know, we'd got there. 
And the next thing I knew, 

1936
01:34:37,840 --> 01:34:40,520
Charlie Mclean's, there was his 
very sweaty arm around me. 

1937
01:34:43,760 --> 01:34:47,640
And he says to me, he says, you 
do realise you are now the 

1938
01:34:47,640 --> 01:34:51,120
closest distillery to my nose. 
And I thought that was the 

1939
01:34:51,120 --> 01:34:52,360
nicest thing he could have ever 
said. 

1940
01:34:52,400 --> 01:34:54,880
You know, we haven't even 
matured a whiskey yet. 

1941
01:34:54,920 --> 01:34:56,600
And you were saying it's the 
best thing you've ever had. 

1942
01:34:57,440 --> 01:35:00,040
And, and so I said thank you 
very much, It's really kind. 

1943
01:35:00,120 --> 01:35:01,840
And we passed our ways and that 
was fine. 

1944
01:35:02,240 --> 01:35:05,160
And it was several years later 
back in the still room, I'd just

1945
01:35:05,160 --> 01:35:07,720
got come up from Fife. 
I was walking through saying hi 

1946
01:35:07,720 --> 01:35:09,320
to everyone and there was a 
stillman. 

1947
01:35:09,680 --> 01:35:15,120
We we basically, we have two 
shifts a day, 6 till 2 till 2 

1948
01:35:15,120 --> 01:35:17,560
till 10. 
So around about half one to half

1949
01:35:17,560 --> 01:35:21,080
two, there's a changeover of 
shift and it was a lovely sunny 

1950
01:35:21,080 --> 01:35:23,920
summer's day. 
And whoever was coming off shift

1951
01:35:24,200 --> 01:35:28,720
on the stills said to me, yeah, 
I'm just off to go and climb 

1952
01:35:28,720 --> 01:35:31,360
Mclean's Nose. 
I said, what do you mean climb 

1953
01:35:31,360 --> 01:35:33,400
Mclean's Nose? 
He said, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

1954
01:35:33,400 --> 01:35:35,760
The big rock that goes down to 
locks in it, it's off the back 

1955
01:35:35,760 --> 01:35:39,280
of of Ben Heehan, which is the 
highest hill. 

1956
01:35:40,520 --> 01:35:43,160
And I said, really? 
I said, so everything started 

1957
01:35:43,160 --> 01:35:45,920
clicking. 
So as soon as I go back to Fife 

1958
01:35:46,760 --> 01:35:50,200
the following week, I got onto 
our IP guys and I I got the 

1959
01:35:50,200 --> 01:35:54,080
brand locked. 
In SO, Mclean's nose is actually

1960
01:35:54,120 --> 01:35:55,320
a dedicated area. 
There. 

1961
01:35:55,440 --> 01:35:59,760
So it is literally it's a, it's 
a, a, a nose shaped, well, 

1962
01:35:59,760 --> 01:36:02,360
Mclean's nose shape because 
they've got quite kind of Roman 

1963
01:36:02,360 --> 01:36:05,240
noses. 
It's a volcanic outpouring 

1964
01:36:05,440 --> 01:36:08,560
because Arden Merken is all 
volcano basically right from the

1965
01:36:08,560 --> 01:36:11,320
far end all the way through. 
And it it, it would have been 

1966
01:36:11,320 --> 01:36:15,960
the lava spewing down into 
Lacuna and it just looks like a 

1967
01:36:15,960 --> 01:36:17,600
nose. 
But it's been, crucially, it's 

1968
01:36:17,600 --> 01:36:20,880
been at fundamental in 
navigational aid for boats 

1969
01:36:21,240 --> 01:36:23,400
coming in and around the Tobe 
Mori area. 

1970
01:36:23,720 --> 01:36:25,520
So they'll see that. 
See that they know where they 

1971
01:36:25,520 --> 01:36:27,400
are. 
I know where I am. 

1972
01:36:27,640 --> 01:36:27,840
Yeah. 
So. 

1973
01:36:27,840 --> 01:36:29,280
So it was all registered. 
That's fine. 

1974
01:36:29,320 --> 01:36:30,680
Parked it. 
And I can't even remember what 

1975
01:36:30,680 --> 01:36:33,480
year this was. 
And then bit by bit I kind of 

1976
01:36:33,480 --> 01:36:35,520
remembered, oh, we've got that 
brand, what we're going to do 

1977
01:36:35,520 --> 01:36:36,920
with it? 
And I thought, let's do a 

1978
01:36:36,920 --> 01:36:38,680
blended malt. 
And then everyone did a blended 

1979
01:36:38,680 --> 01:36:40,640
malt, so maybe we shouldn't do a
blended malt. 

1980
01:36:41,080 --> 01:36:43,160
And then I said, well, and also 
the trouble with the blended 

1981
01:36:43,160 --> 01:36:48,600
malt is that you are, if prices 
start going up and they did for 

1982
01:36:49,120 --> 01:36:52,760
malt whiskey, you're then going 
to have to put your blended malt

1983
01:36:52,760 --> 01:36:56,320
up as well. 
So we ended up deciding to do a 

1984
01:36:56,360 --> 01:37:00,040
whiskey that would always be 
affordable, or at least we'd try

1985
01:37:00,040 --> 01:37:03,080
our best to be affordable that 
we had enough control over to 

1986
01:37:03,080 --> 01:37:06,640
make it consistent in price and 
flavor. 

1987
01:37:08,280 --> 01:37:09,960
And other than that, there was 
no criteria. 

1988
01:37:09,960 --> 01:37:12,840
So we didn't actually know that 
it was going to be a blend at 

1989
01:37:12,840 --> 01:37:14,600
that point. 
We just said it's got to be at 

1990
01:37:14,600 --> 01:37:17,520
this kind of area of price and 
it's got to be really drinkable,

1991
01:37:17,760 --> 01:37:20,200
interesting whiskey. 
And we ended up going with a 

1992
01:37:20,200 --> 01:37:24,840
completely upside down blend. 
So 70% malt, 30% green. 

1993
01:37:25,120 --> 01:37:25,720
Really. 
Yeah. 

1994
01:37:26,320 --> 01:37:30,440
And of the 70%, a high 
proportion is from a certain 

1995
01:37:30,440 --> 01:37:32,040
West Coast distillery that we 
may or may not. 

1996
01:37:33,480 --> 01:37:35,600
That's not only support. 
So, yeah. 

1997
01:37:35,960 --> 01:37:37,560
And. 
You know where Mcleans knows his

1998
01:37:37,560 --> 01:37:39,000
first reference on the podcast? 
Go on. 

1999
01:37:39,760 --> 01:37:41,360
It was. 
We did mention it. 

2000
01:37:41,360 --> 01:37:42,760
It was player distilleries, 
right? 

2001
01:37:43,640 --> 01:37:48,480
And we did the higher or lower 
game of price point top 50. 

2002
01:37:48,520 --> 01:37:52,240
It was, it was we, we picked 10 
of the top fifth or it was in 

2003
01:37:52,240 --> 01:37:55,080
the top 20 drams in Royal Mile 
whiskeys, right, Right. 

2004
01:37:55,080 --> 01:37:57,680
So what I did was I went into 
the Royal Mile whiskeys top 

2005
01:37:57,680 --> 01:38:00,880
drams and then hit the filter 
button and went price highest to

2006
01:38:00,880 --> 01:38:03,600
lowest. 
And then I picked the last 10. 

2007
01:38:03,600 --> 01:38:05,320
And then we played a higher or 
lower version. 

2008
01:38:05,320 --> 01:38:07,480
We played we, we did a player 
distilleries right. 

2009
01:38:07,480 --> 01:38:12,640
And Maclean's nose was the 
highest rated and cheapest. 

2010
01:38:13,040 --> 01:38:14,960
I'd say best value if you'd say 
that's amazing. 

2011
01:38:14,960 --> 01:38:18,520
But also then the other part of 
it was referenced with with when

2012
01:38:18,560 --> 01:38:23,360
Carl was on the podcast because 
Maclean's nose played a big part

2013
01:38:23,440 --> 01:38:27,400
in the Mccharles's Charles 
Maclean's sons who rode across 

2014
01:38:27,400 --> 01:38:29,440
roads all the way. 
Across was at the Pacifically 

2015
01:38:29,480 --> 01:38:30,040
Rd. 
Atlantic. 

2016
01:38:30,240 --> 01:38:31,080
Atlantic. 
No, no, no. 

2017
01:38:31,080 --> 01:38:32,880
Well, at First Pacific. 
Pacific this time. 

2018
01:38:33,080 --> 01:38:35,080
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. 
Which is extraordinary. 

2019
01:38:35,080 --> 01:38:37,000
It's like whatever 9000 miles 
they've had. 

2020
01:38:37,000 --> 01:38:39,560
With their brothers, I said 
yeah, I can't even, no, I'm not 

2021
01:38:39,560 --> 01:38:40,680
sure. 
Like the car with my brother 

2022
01:38:40,760 --> 01:38:47,080
from Edinburgh, Kirkhodie and. 
That was a real last minute 

2023
01:38:47,080 --> 01:38:49,360
thing because we'd obviously 
individually we'd all been 

2024
01:38:49,640 --> 01:38:52,600
helping, you know, just giving 
sponsorship as much as we could 

2025
01:38:52,600 --> 01:38:55,520
afford. 
Oh, it's unreal unaided to, to 

2026
01:38:55,640 --> 01:38:58,280
Rd. from Peru to Australia, 
which is what we did. 

2027
01:38:59,440 --> 01:39:01,000
So we've been helping as we 
could. 

2028
01:39:01,680 --> 01:39:03,880
And then I said to Charlie, I 
said, look, I really want to do 

2029
01:39:03,880 --> 01:39:05,920
something from the business. 
We haven't got a huge amount of 

2030
01:39:05,920 --> 01:39:12,760
money, but how about we say from
now until you land? 

2031
01:39:13,320 --> 01:39:15,040
So there was still quite far out
at that point. 

2032
01:39:16,320 --> 01:39:19,800
We'll for everything sold in the
UK of Maclean's nose, we'll 

2033
01:39:19,800 --> 01:39:23,400
donate £5 to the the court. 
So it's basically the profit. 

2034
01:39:24,000 --> 01:39:25,320
I'm not going to get into my 
commercials. 

2035
01:39:25,680 --> 01:39:28,840
More or less a profit. 
And he said that would be great.

2036
01:39:28,840 --> 01:39:31,560
And I said, well, you do realise
that they'll make more more 

2037
01:39:31,560 --> 01:39:38,080
money if they stay out longer? 
Yeah, that outboard engine back 

2038
01:39:38,080 --> 01:39:39,600
in the boat. 
But I mean, Mclean's knows 

2039
01:39:39,600 --> 01:39:42,400
itself, you know, when you were 
talking about that ability to 

2040
01:39:42,400 --> 01:39:45,440
then buy from other distilleries
and you know, some of it would 

2041
01:39:45,720 --> 01:39:48,520
go obvious into our Delphy, some
of it's clearly going into 

2042
01:39:48,520 --> 01:39:50,200
Mclean's nose as well, 
potentially. 

2043
01:39:50,680 --> 01:39:52,800
And I mean, Charles McLean 
himself must. 

2044
01:39:52,920 --> 01:39:54,960
Did he have some say in the 
recipe? 

2045
01:39:54,960 --> 01:39:58,520
No, at the inception. 
He had a say in the so yeah, 

2046
01:39:58,520 --> 01:40:00,960
like like we did with the first 
single malt from an American. 

2047
01:40:01,000 --> 01:40:03,400
He got to choose between 3 
versions, right? 

2048
01:40:03,400 --> 01:40:05,840
We we were the ones. 
If you put it together, I had a 

2049
01:40:05,840 --> 01:40:08,720
rough idea of what I wanted. 
Yeah, I wanted to use N British.

2050
01:40:09,160 --> 01:40:11,520
That's the Green, because of 
their family, the history. 

2051
01:40:11,920 --> 01:40:14,000
Whether or not we'll always be 
able to use it, I don't know, 

2052
01:40:14,480 --> 01:40:16,800
but it's certainly up until this
point it's been 100%. 

2053
01:40:18,360 --> 01:40:20,200
But we are fast approaching that
time of the evening. 

2054
01:40:20,200 --> 01:40:21,560
Well, I've got one last 
question. 

2055
01:40:21,560 --> 01:40:23,440
I know I'm allowed one. 
Had an hour and a half. 

2056
01:40:23,440 --> 01:40:23,800
Angry. 
I know. 

2057
01:40:23,920 --> 01:40:25,720
I know well why. 
Why? 

2058
01:40:25,760 --> 01:40:26,160
Why? 
Why? 

2059
01:40:26,680 --> 01:40:32,320
Yeah, but we're talking one of 
the previous podcasts on it, Flo

2060
01:40:32,480 --> 01:40:36,080
Uttrum on and we're talking a 
lot about the maturation and you

2061
01:40:36,080 --> 01:40:39,880
know, she of old pulp name. 
She played great emphasis on 

2062
01:40:39,880 --> 01:40:41,200
that. 
The fact that it's all all the 

2063
01:40:41,200 --> 01:40:45,160
stuff that goes into single malt
is matured in weck and the you 

2064
01:40:45,160 --> 01:40:48,600
know, the wind in the air plays 
a great part in the character of

2065
01:40:48,600 --> 01:40:50,600
the whiskey. 
It's everything that goes into 

2066
01:40:50,600 --> 01:40:53,080
single malt. 
Armed American matured up at 

2067
01:40:53,080 --> 01:40:57,040
armed American and and does that
have a part to play in the 

2068
01:40:57,120 --> 01:40:58,920
outcome of the whiskey as well? 
Because there is that 

2069
01:40:58,920 --> 01:41:01,560
maritimeness and that salinity 
there is there. 

2070
01:41:01,560 --> 01:41:05,480
I see it in an American as well.
So with a very, very few 

2071
01:41:05,480 --> 01:41:07,560
exceptions, when we ran out of 
warehouse space and we're about 

2072
01:41:07,560 --> 01:41:11,640
to run out again and we had to 
take class off site for maybe 

2073
01:41:11,640 --> 01:41:13,640
six months. 
Everything's been matured up 

2074
01:41:13,640 --> 01:41:17,200
there. 
So there's there's two things I 

2075
01:41:17,200 --> 01:41:20,680
don't know what was said about 
totally, but if I give you my 

2076
01:41:21,680 --> 01:41:23,880
the impression, if you like, I 
mean, it's probably complete 

2077
01:41:23,880 --> 01:41:25,480
rubbish. 
But this is the way I see it. 

2078
01:41:26,080 --> 01:41:29,280
There are two factors by 
maturing on site, which will 

2079
01:41:29,280 --> 01:41:34,720
allow you allow the spirit to 
take on more of a unique style, 

2080
01:41:34,920 --> 01:41:38,440
specifically to the nature 
you're in the first one, and a 

2081
01:41:38,440 --> 01:41:41,800
lot of people forget about this.
If you're maturing on site, more

2082
01:41:41,800 --> 01:41:46,240
than likely you're filling your 
tasks at 63.5, unless you're 

2083
01:41:46,240 --> 01:41:48,560
really stuck for space, in which
case you'll go up a bit. 

2084
01:41:48,960 --> 01:41:52,560
But you know, we all know in 
Scotland, 63.5 magic number 

2085
01:41:52,720 --> 01:41:57,200
they're filling a cask comes off
the still around 70, just over 

2086
01:41:57,200 --> 01:41:58,720
70. 
That's quite a lot of water to 

2087
01:41:58,720 --> 01:42:01,160
add, sure. 
And if you're filling on site, 

2088
01:42:01,200 --> 01:42:03,280
more than likely you're going to
be using your local water as 

2089
01:42:03,280 --> 01:42:04,240
well. 
Right. 

2090
01:42:05,000 --> 01:42:08,400
Certainly in our American when 
the water hits the hill, it goes

2091
01:42:08,400 --> 01:42:11,080
into the hill. 
We've got Moss, Pete, sheet 

2092
01:42:11,120 --> 01:42:14,280
toenails, everything you like. 
What I'm trying to say is we 

2093
01:42:14,280 --> 01:42:16,400
have a credibly unique water up 
there. 

2094
01:42:16,920 --> 01:42:19,000
I mean, right to the point. 
We've had importers and agents 

2095
01:42:19,000 --> 01:42:21,760
from all over the world coming 
trying the water and thinking 

2096
01:42:21,760 --> 01:42:23,360
this is the best thing we've 
ever had to get back. 

2097
01:42:23,360 --> 01:42:25,160
The whiskey, the water, you 
know. 

2098
01:42:25,720 --> 01:42:29,160
So we have this lovely Peaky 
water coming off 3 springs on 

2099
01:42:29,160 --> 01:42:32,560
the hill, which yes, it goes 
through UV filters because we 

2100
01:42:32,560 --> 01:42:36,480
have to by law, but basically 
you are getting that mineral 

2101
01:42:36,480 --> 01:42:39,600
rich reduction water into the 
cask. 

2102
01:42:39,960 --> 01:42:42,760
I know that makes a difference. 
And then the second one, which 

2103
01:42:43,040 --> 01:42:46,760
is slightly more kind of, you 
know, not wishy washy, but 

2104
01:42:46,800 --> 01:42:49,440
certainly we'd like to think it 
has a big difference is the 

2105
01:42:49,440 --> 01:42:51,760
atmosphere. 
So if you park your car in a 

2106
01:42:51,760 --> 01:42:54,520
rainstorm outside the 
distillery, more often than not,

2107
01:42:54,600 --> 01:42:57,840
if the sun comes out after it, 
it'll be white with salt. 

2108
01:42:57,880 --> 01:43:00,240
I was going to say, if you park 
it there for a few years, yeah, 

2109
01:43:01,520 --> 01:43:04,080
yeah. 
So we're constantly being dumped

2110
01:43:04,080 --> 01:43:07,760
on from a hike with water and 
that is getting in. 

2111
01:43:07,760 --> 01:43:09,920
It's permeating, it's through 
the warehouses, it's all 

2112
01:43:09,920 --> 01:43:13,920
dunnage, it's all natural and we
encourage it as much as we can. 

2113
01:43:14,240 --> 01:43:16,320
Brilliant, brilliant. 
Good question, and it's worth 

2114
01:43:16,320 --> 01:43:16,840
waiting for. 
Good. 

2115
01:43:17,080 --> 01:43:18,080
Good, good, good. 
That's great. 

2116
01:43:18,080 --> 01:43:20,080
Well, we are, we are getting to 
that point in the evening where 

2117
01:43:20,080 --> 01:43:21,840
we do ask our guests whether 
what 3 drafts. 

2118
01:43:21,920 --> 01:43:24,640
So Alex, it's, it's basically 
any 3 whiskeys that have a 

2119
01:43:24,640 --> 01:43:27,200
meaning story or some sort of 
association with yourself. 

2120
01:43:27,200 --> 01:43:30,680
And we do allow I mean, yeah, 
you're, you're the, you're the 

2121
01:43:30,680 --> 01:43:32,320
gaffer. 
So you can have you can have as 

2122
01:43:32,360 --> 01:43:34,800
many 1 brand as you like I. 
Don't think you're long enough 

2123
01:43:34,800 --> 01:43:37,440
for that. 
Look, you very kindly gave me 

2124
01:43:37,440 --> 01:43:38,640
about four hours warning for 
this. 

2125
01:43:38,640 --> 01:43:44,560
So I have had a wee thing I and 
I am going to choose three that 

2126
01:43:44,760 --> 01:43:50,640
have been stepping stones in my 
own personal exploration of 

2127
01:43:50,640 --> 01:43:56,760
whiskey, one of which is trying 
to remember we've got the right 

2128
01:43:56,760 --> 01:44:01,560
ones. 
Yes, one of which is is own 

2129
01:44:01,560 --> 01:44:04,480
brand on brand and the other two
aren't, although there's 

2130
01:44:04,480 --> 01:44:08,240
connection. 
So the first one would be my 

2131
01:44:08,240 --> 01:44:12,000
first introduction to proper 
quality single malt Scottish 

2132
01:44:12,000 --> 01:44:14,000
whiskey. 
And I shared a flat here in 

2133
01:44:14,000 --> 01:44:17,680
Edinburgh University with one of
my oldest friends, whose father 

2134
01:44:17,680 --> 01:44:20,920
back then owned a whiskey shop 
just outside Aviemore. 

2135
01:44:21,560 --> 01:44:25,480
It was a legendary whiskey shop,
long since sold. 

2136
01:44:25,480 --> 01:44:28,840
But when we used to go up, if 
there was any snow on the hills,

2137
01:44:29,120 --> 01:44:31,760
maybe go up for a day skiing 
when we're students, and we'd 

2138
01:44:31,760 --> 01:44:34,680
pop in to see Frank on the way 
down just for a restorative. 

2139
01:44:35,560 --> 01:44:38,560
And I remember the first time 
getting introduced to Flora and 

2140
01:44:38,560 --> 01:44:42,240
fauna, Mortlock and Liquid, side
by side. 

2141
01:44:42,480 --> 01:44:45,440
And it was a defining moment 
because up until that point it 

2142
01:44:45,440 --> 01:44:48,480
had been whatever was on special
in the local pub, which had been

2143
01:44:48,480 --> 01:44:52,760
fine, but it was local pub was 
probably the wrong place, wrong 

2144
01:44:52,760 --> 01:44:54,680
DRAM. 
This was definitely the right 

2145
01:44:54,680 --> 01:44:57,560
place, right DRAM? 
So mort Lac 16 which no longer 

2146
01:44:57,560 --> 01:44:58,840
available as. 
Floor. 

2147
01:44:58,840 --> 01:45:01,160
That's been mentioned the floor 
of it once, I think. 

2148
01:45:01,200 --> 01:45:03,800
It's definitely been mentioned, 
but Linkwood 12 still very much 

2149
01:45:03,880 --> 01:45:05,440
floor and fauna still going 
strong. 

2150
01:45:05,600 --> 01:45:09,000
Cracking DRAM, Yeah. 
So that that would be certainly 

2151
01:45:09,000 --> 01:45:10,120
something that got me 
interested. 

2152
01:45:10,120 --> 01:45:12,880
And then it was only a couple of
years from that stage when I 

2153
01:45:12,880 --> 01:45:15,440
then got the job at Remy and and
really built from there. 

2154
01:45:16,480 --> 01:45:19,040
Second one, I don't know which 
order to put these in. 

2155
01:45:21,280 --> 01:45:27,240
Yeah, OK. 
Second one would be me getting a

2156
01:45:27,240 --> 01:45:31,160
brain wave but on the back of a 
request to blend officially 

2157
01:45:31,160 --> 01:45:33,160
blend international whiskey for 
the first time. 

2158
01:45:34,320 --> 01:45:37,240
I may be wrong, but I've always 
felt that it was the first 

2159
01:45:37,240 --> 01:45:40,880
official Japanese Scotch. 
There's been plenty of 

2160
01:45:41,080 --> 01:45:44,880
unofficial stuff. 
This would have been 2015. 

2161
01:45:44,880 --> 01:45:48,840
But you've been nervous. 2015 
two guys or three guys 

2162
01:45:48,840 --> 01:45:51,960
approached me in the office and 
said we want to commemorate the 

2163
01:45:51,960 --> 01:45:53,960
life of a Scotsman called Thomas
Blake Glover. 

2164
01:45:55,120 --> 01:45:57,720
I'd never heard of him and along
with most other Scots. 

2165
01:45:57,760 --> 01:46:00,400
He's the man who founded 
Mitsubishi and or I played a 

2166
01:46:00,400 --> 01:46:03,880
part in Mitsubishi and Kieran. 
Yeah, no, that's. 

2167
01:46:04,040 --> 01:46:05,240
Why? 
We've become the big part, 

2168
01:46:05,360 --> 01:46:07,640
right? 
He he he sold arms to the 

2169
01:46:07,640 --> 01:46:11,040
Satsuma Daimyo, who was the kind
of local landlord and played a 

2170
01:46:11,040 --> 01:46:15,480
big part in the in the Satsuma 
Rebellion, which was a kind of 

2171
01:46:15,480 --> 01:46:18,120
failed. 
But crucially got them to be got

2172
01:46:18,120 --> 01:46:21,360
them over for yeah, education in
in the England for the first 

2173
01:46:21,360 --> 01:46:23,360
time. 
So it was the first, the 

2174
01:46:23,360 --> 01:46:26,840
current, as far as we know, of 
Japanese coming over to the West

2175
01:46:26,920 --> 01:46:29,560
to learn Western. 
Yeah, but he, he was based in 

2176
01:46:29,560 --> 01:46:31,120
Nagasaki. 
I've been to Nagasaki and 

2177
01:46:31,120 --> 01:46:33,680
there's a whole kind of garden 
that's dedicated to him and his 

2178
01:46:33,720 --> 01:46:36,360
old house is still there and. 
So they, they basically, they 

2179
01:46:36,360 --> 01:46:37,880
told me this in the space of an 
afternoon. 

2180
01:46:37,880 --> 01:46:39,400
This is what he wants, what he 
did. 

2181
01:46:39,400 --> 01:46:41,120
Excuse me. 
Interesting. 

2182
01:46:41,640 --> 01:46:45,320
We want to, they said. 
We want you to make a blended 

2183
01:46:45,320 --> 01:46:49,800
Scotch whiskey and we'll take 
the funds from it to help fund 

2184
01:46:50,400 --> 01:46:53,160
rebuilding his house in in 
Fraserbrook or wherever. 

2185
01:46:53,160 --> 01:46:54,520
It is, yeah. 
He's from Fraserbrook, so I. 

2186
01:46:54,960 --> 01:46:56,640
Said, oh, this is great, it's 
really interesting. 

2187
01:46:56,640 --> 01:47:00,520
And there was a few things which
I hadn't picked up on but 

2188
01:47:00,680 --> 01:47:02,520
subsequently made it even more 
important. 

2189
01:47:03,040 --> 01:47:07,040
One of which, well, sorry. 
I then came back to them the 

2190
01:47:07,040 --> 01:47:10,200
following day having had that 
brain wave, which was why are we

2191
01:47:10,200 --> 01:47:12,560
doing a blend of Scotch? 
He was a blend of the two 

2192
01:47:12,560 --> 01:47:13,720
countries. 
Let's do that. 

2193
01:47:14,560 --> 01:47:17,760
They said, can we do that? 
I said, no idea, I'll go and 

2194
01:47:17,760 --> 01:47:19,960
talk to the SWA. 
And it took months. 

2195
01:47:20,840 --> 01:47:23,440
That's another story. 
But the other trigger for this, 

2196
01:47:23,520 --> 01:47:27,600
this combination was that where 
he did, where he started making 

2197
01:47:27,600 --> 01:47:33,480
a huge impact in Japan was post 
the signing of the Treaty of 

2198
01:47:33,480 --> 01:47:36,240
Amity and Commerce between the 
UK and Japan. 

2199
01:47:36,760 --> 01:47:40,200
So America were first, the UK 
was about fourth in line. 

2200
01:47:40,600 --> 01:47:47,120
But it just happened to be my 
great, great grandfather who was

2201
01:47:47,240 --> 01:47:48,960
ambassador or something. 
I don't, I can't remember out 

2202
01:47:48,960 --> 01:47:53,000
there at the time had a faster 
ship than the French, so he got 

2203
01:47:53,000 --> 01:47:54,760
up there. 
Before the Yangtze. 

2204
01:47:55,840 --> 01:47:58,880
And signed the treaty second 
after America. 

2205
01:47:59,920 --> 01:48:05,360
So that was 18. 
Eighteen 58455 Yeah, 1850s I 

2206
01:48:05,360 --> 01:48:06,280
know. 
Yeah, 1850s. 

2207
01:48:06,560 --> 01:48:09,480
And that allowed Glover then to 
start trading West to east. 

2208
01:48:10,000 --> 01:48:12,320
So there was this amazing family
connection, but I hadn't even 

2209
01:48:12,320 --> 01:48:15,720
thought about it at all. 
So we had the bare bones of the 

2210
01:48:15,720 --> 01:48:18,280
idea. 
I then went spent months with 

2211
01:48:18,280 --> 01:48:20,120
the SWA going through 
everything. 

2212
01:48:20,240 --> 01:48:24,000
What it boiled down to was 
you're only allowed to produce 

2213
01:48:24,080 --> 01:48:27,960
Scotch whiskey in Scotland and 
the word produce was key. 

2214
01:48:28,240 --> 01:48:30,000
So what is production? 
What does it entail? 

2215
01:48:30,280 --> 01:48:33,360
And it came pretty much to its 
flavour altering. 

2216
01:48:33,680 --> 01:48:36,680
So you can bottle in Scotland 
non Scotch whiskey, but you 

2217
01:48:36,680 --> 01:48:39,320
can't do anything else, you 
can't mature it, you can't blend

2218
01:48:39,320 --> 01:48:41,840
it, etcetera. 
So we worked out a way of doing 

2219
01:48:41,840 --> 01:48:45,360
it great, and then I had to find
some Japanese whiskey in bulk. 

2220
01:48:46,200 --> 01:48:49,000
Fortunately, I knew Ochiro 
reasonably well from Chichibu, 

2221
01:48:49,440 --> 01:48:54,880
who still had reasonable stocks 
of Hanyu from his grandfather or

2222
01:48:54,880 --> 01:48:57,400
great uncle, I can't remember, 
who had had that distillery. 

2223
01:48:57,960 --> 01:49:01,040
Now Hanyu's gone on to be the 
most ridiculously expensive, 

2224
01:49:01,240 --> 01:49:04,040
unobtainable whiskey as as the 
castle got fewer and fewer. 

2225
01:49:04,400 --> 01:49:06,120
But he offered me two to choose 
one. 

2226
01:49:06,400 --> 01:49:08,280
They were both beautiful 
whiskeys. 

2227
01:49:08,680 --> 01:49:12,560
We bought one. 
We blended it with Longbourn and

2228
01:49:12,560 --> 01:49:15,480
a few other things and it was 
the first Glover and out it. 

2229
01:49:15,480 --> 01:49:16,600
Went what was the product 
called? 

2230
01:49:16,880 --> 01:49:18,840
It was called the Glover, The 
Glover Glover, Yeah. 

2231
01:49:19,160 --> 01:49:24,240
So we're now on batch 10/11 I. 
Think so the Glover Batch 1. 

2232
01:49:24,400 --> 01:49:26,520
Yeah, this is batch 1 and it was
in a fancy decanter. 

2233
01:49:26,520 --> 01:49:27,800
First time the Delphi's ever 
done that. 

2234
01:49:28,080 --> 01:49:32,880
It was over £1000 a bottle, 
bearing in mind it had a 23 year

2235
01:49:32,880 --> 01:49:33,480
old handy. 
Handy. 

2236
01:49:33,480 --> 01:49:36,320
Yeah, Yeah. 
Wow, and it was delicious. 

2237
01:49:36,880 --> 01:49:38,760
And the family, the family in 
the family connection. 

2238
01:49:38,760 --> 01:49:42,440
Just fell as spurious connection
and it also then allowed me to 

2239
01:49:42,440 --> 01:49:46,840
look at other fusion blending 
opportunities with India, 

2240
01:49:47,120 --> 01:49:49,760
Sweden, Australia. 
We've done, you know, those over

2241
01:49:49,760 --> 01:49:52,360
the years. 
So that was a big step in my own

2242
01:49:52,600 --> 01:49:55,840
personal kind of thing. 
And then the third one goes 

2243
01:49:55,880 --> 01:50:00,440
going back to the other side of 
the family, the ushers was the 

2244
01:50:00,880 --> 01:50:05,200
ability or the the the the 
chance to open a open a bottle 

2245
01:50:05,200 --> 01:50:10,040
of Usher's green stripe with 
modern day and American 

2246
01:50:10,040 --> 01:50:12,840
supporters. 
So our AD Venture club, the 

2247
01:50:12,840 --> 01:50:18,000
adventure Club, we meet once or 
twice a year, normally in Zoom 

2248
01:50:18,000 --> 01:50:20,920
and then in person, and that 
particular year a few years ago 

2249
01:50:20,920 --> 01:50:24,760
was in Behind the Pear Tree in 
Edinburgh. 

2250
01:50:24,760 --> 01:50:27,360
Yeah, which was recently owned 
by Angeles's house. 

2251
01:50:27,560 --> 01:50:31,360
So I had this extraordinary 
opportunity to open the bottle 

2252
01:50:31,360 --> 01:50:35,520
of green Stripe, which I'd got 
an auction Andrew Asher, albeit,

2253
01:50:35,520 --> 01:50:40,080
you know, long after he was 
gone, but his brand and share it

2254
01:50:40,080 --> 01:50:44,680
with my as an hour Adam Merkin 
Wow adventure Club. 

2255
01:50:45,080 --> 01:50:46,520
In his house. 
In his house. 

2256
01:50:46,680 --> 01:50:49,680
Wow, that's super and. 
It was bloody good whiskey as 

2257
01:50:49,680 --> 01:50:51,680
well, actually. 
Great, great watch 3 dramas. 

2258
01:50:52,200 --> 01:50:54,640
Yeah. 
Look, Alex, I have to say, you 

2259
01:50:54,640 --> 01:50:56,360
know, it's been, it's been a 
real pleasure getting you on the

2260
01:50:56,360 --> 01:50:58,360
podcast. 
Adam Merkin for us. 

2261
01:50:58,400 --> 01:51:03,440
I mean, the fact that I wish I'd
brought a trophy because, 

2262
01:51:04,160 --> 01:51:07,200
because last year we sat down to
meet. 

2263
01:51:07,520 --> 01:51:10,120
Sorry. 
Well, year, year past December 

2264
01:51:10,120 --> 01:51:13,040
there we sat down and said what 
are our top drams of 2025? 

2265
01:51:13,600 --> 01:51:16,920
And for me, Arden, Mark and and 
Sherry, I said that, like I 

2266
01:51:16,960 --> 01:51:20,040
said, I wanted to fill a bathtub
with it and wine it and drink it

2267
01:51:20,040 --> 01:51:22,000
and bathing it. 
Bit of a Eureka whiskey for. 

2268
01:51:22,000 --> 01:51:25,600
You, it really was, it was, it 
was a crack and drop then this 

2269
01:51:25,600 --> 01:51:28,080
year or last year. 
Sorry, 2020, sorry, that was 

2270
01:51:28,080 --> 01:51:32,440
2024, I should say 2024-2025. 
We decided instead of going 

2271
01:51:32,440 --> 01:51:35,400
through our all of our drams 
that were our top ones, we put 

2272
01:51:35,400 --> 01:51:39,360
it out to the listeners and we 
got a lot of feedback coming in.

2273
01:51:39,560 --> 01:51:42,320
People ranked in no order. 
Some people put them in order 

2274
01:51:42,320 --> 01:51:46,680
their top 10 drams of 2025. 
I don't know how to collate that

2275
01:51:46,680 --> 01:51:51,960
kind of information to I chucked
in and ChatGPT, but basically by

2276
01:51:52,520 --> 01:51:56,280
basically came out with what 
were the top brands that people 

2277
01:51:56,280 --> 01:51:57,680
were drinking and are the market
finished? 

2278
01:51:57,680 --> 01:52:00,880
Number one, it was #1 for the 
Whiskey Stories podcast. 

2279
01:52:00,880 --> 01:52:05,360
So two years in a row, 
effectively. 2024 Dana Merkin 

2280
01:52:05,360 --> 01:52:09,640
and Sherry for me 2025 Whiskey 
Stories podcast Drama of the 

2281
01:52:09,640 --> 01:52:12,160
Year I. 
Mean that's music music to our 

2282
01:52:13,000 --> 01:52:15,840
you know, generally we're not 
we're not we're not trying to 

2283
01:52:15,840 --> 01:52:18,680
rewrite anything. 
We're just whiskey lovers who've

2284
01:52:18,800 --> 01:52:21,960
got behind the lucky enough to 
get behind the new distillery 

2285
01:52:22,320 --> 01:52:25,600
and do everything in ice. 
And if if other people have the 

2286
01:52:25,600 --> 01:52:28,200
same taste buds. 
It's fantastic and we're coming 

2287
01:52:28,200 --> 01:52:29,600
up to see you. 
Well, I was going to say, you 

2288
01:52:29,600 --> 01:52:31,960
haven't even been yet. 
Yeah, well we're going to make 

2289
01:52:31,960 --> 01:52:35,760
the pilgrimage aren't we lads? 
We're going to be heading up not

2290
01:52:35,760 --> 01:52:38,640
too far away in fact. 
This episode will go out on the 

2291
01:52:39,880 --> 01:52:41,760
2nd of April. 
Yep. 

2292
01:52:42,160 --> 01:52:45,440
And and I. 
Can't be more excited? 

2293
01:52:45,760 --> 01:52:47,400
Actually I'm on the 3rd and the 
4th here. 

2294
01:52:47,440 --> 01:52:48,760
And on the 3rd and 4th, we're 
ending up. 

2295
01:52:48,760 --> 01:52:51,760
So this episode, the the the 
vlog and our trip up, Cornell's 

2296
01:52:51,760 --> 01:52:53,920
looking after us. 
I think he's actually heading to

2297
01:52:53,920 --> 01:52:58,480
New Zealand the next day. 
Or or, well, maybe not. 

2298
01:52:58,560 --> 01:53:00,760
Yeah, well, you never know. 
Yeah, but we're getting looked 

2299
01:53:00,760 --> 01:53:03,160
after up up in the distillery, 
so we're really looking forward 

2300
01:53:03,160 --> 01:53:04,080
to keep your eyes peeled for 
that. 

2301
01:53:04,360 --> 01:53:06,040
But Alex, thank you so much for 
coming on. 

2302
01:53:06,040 --> 01:53:07,640
Thank you for sharing your 
whiskey story as well. 

2303
01:53:07,840 --> 01:53:10,400
And thank you so much for 
sharing these fantastic drams 

2304
01:53:10,400 --> 01:53:12,240
with us as well. 
How How do people get to the 

2305
01:53:12,240 --> 01:53:14,360
distillery salary opened just 
now? 

2306
01:53:14,600 --> 01:53:18,240
Yeah, it is. 
Come Easter, it'll be open seven

2307
01:53:18,240 --> 01:53:20,160
days a week, hopefully, 
certainly 6. 

2308
01:53:20,480 --> 01:53:21,960
We're aiming for seven this 
year. 

2309
01:53:22,560 --> 01:53:27,600
Usual kind of business hours. 
There is an in joke that an 

2310
01:53:27,600 --> 01:53:30,120
American distillery is 4 hours 
from anywhere in Scotland, 

2311
01:53:30,800 --> 01:53:36,080
including including an American,
but it is worth every single 

2312
01:53:36,080 --> 01:53:37,840
mile of that trip. 
Angus is driving. 

2313
01:53:38,040 --> 01:53:39,080
That's for. 
Sure. 

2314
01:53:39,480 --> 01:53:41,840
Yeah, boy, thank you very much, 
Alex, for coming on. 

2315
01:53:41,840 --> 01:53:42,960
Thank you for everyone who's 
listening. 

2316
01:53:43,200 --> 01:53:44,760
Keep up to date with everything 
that's going on through the 

2317
01:53:44,760 --> 01:53:46,240
Facebook page. 
Give us five stars. 

2318
01:53:46,240 --> 01:53:48,080
Follow us on all the social 
media platforms. 

2319
01:53:48,080 --> 01:53:50,320
Check us out on YouTube, get on 
the newsletter as well. 

2320
01:53:50,320 --> 01:53:51,680
All the very best. 
Thank you very much, Alex. 

2321
01:53:51,680 --> 01:53:52,360
Sponge bar. 
Cheers. 

2322
01:53:52,360 --> 01:53:55,920
There we go. 
Well done. 

2323
01:53:55,920 --> 01:53:56,760
Nice one. 
Excellent. 

2324
01:54:00,120 --> 01:54:02,600
That's the closest I've ever 
come out pushing my pants. 

2325
01:54:03,040 --> 01:54:05,120
Sasha. 
See. 

2326
01:54:05,200 --> 01:54:10,320
See, I started me. 
I'm sorry, I should have gone on

2327
01:54:10,320 --> 01:54:11,600
longer. 
No, no, you're all right.