Whiskey, Tequila, And The American Dream - Shankar Distillers - Varchas Whiskey

What happens when a Mysore-born tech founder falls in love with American whiskey—and decides to ship the culture back to the world? We head into Shankar Distillers in Troy, Michigan, where copper columns hum, the hybrid pot still shines, and Reserve 102 proves why a high-rye single barrel can win fans on both sides of the bar. Varchas shares how global travel exposed a gap on overseas shelves, why he partnered with MGP while building his own production, and how a Detroit-made identity can thrive from Metro Detroit to Bangalore.

We taste and compare the 102-proof single-barrel high-rye bourbon with a lineup of thoughtful finishes, including a standout Madeira cask that layers dark chocolate and cherry without burying the base whiskey. Along the way, we dig into the engineering: a continuous column for stripping, the pot still for precise cuts, and why finishing works best when the starting whiskey already sings. Distribution strategy, pricing that punches above its weight, and Michigan’s Great Lakes water all play a role in keeping quality consistent while scaling smart.

Then we pivot to tequila, done the right way. It’s 100% blue agave, additive-free, made and bottled in Mexico, and aged in their own used bourbon barrels to bring a shortbread-cookie sweetness bourbon lovers will recognize. We talk agave age, 900-degree ovens, blending column and pot distillate, and how fresh green pepper and cooked-agave notes can sit in harmony. The team also opens up about becoming the first American craft whiskey to enter India, why they built a diverse spirits portfolio, and how a regulated investment round turns fans into brand ambassadors.

If you love bourbon, are curious about cask finishes, or want to understand what “additive-free tequila” really means, this tour has you covered—plus plenty of insider tips on store picks, state availability, and what’s launching next. Pour a glass, press play, and tell us: would you reach for the high-rye single barrel, the Madeira finish, or the reposado aged in bourbon barrels? Subscribe, share with a spirits-loving friend, and leave a review to help more drinkers find the show.

Transcript

Welcome To Shankar Distillers

August Gitshlag 0:16

We're gonna drink a fine whiskey and smoke a really fine cigar.

Jamie Flanagan 0:24

It is time for happy hour. It is the man cave happy hour, whiskey, cigars, spirits, the stories that go along with it. I'm Jimmy Flanagan.

August Gitshlag 0:30

I I would normally be introducing Matt Fox right now, but Matt Matt's on the road. He's driving still. No.

Jamie Flanagan 0:37

He's trying to get here. He's trying to get here. And he's thinking he's not here. And and if people notice. Oh I'm August Kitchlike. I guess. Oh yeah, I'll do that part. I don't want to have Matt introduce me. This is the people can see that we're there's there's a whole dais here.

August Gitshlag 0:50

There's a whole yes, this is not the usual confines of the podcast Your Voice Studio.

Jamie Flanagan 0:54

And and there's magnificent copper and brass and and all kinds of things behind. Scrapper's dream back there. It is it is nuts. We are at uh Shankar Distilleries in Troy, and we're talking whiskey, we're talking whiskey, we're talking rice, we're talking tequila gin. I think there's a vodka in the mix. Oh, yeah. In there. So yeah, so we have a whole panel. We got Jennifer and Spencer with us. Familiar, familiar names.

August Gitshlag 1:22

We have Spencer on the high chair today. Yes. He's sitting up high, but Jen's still down there. But she's on the high chair too.

Jamie Flanagan 1:29

So yeah, so we're gonna it's we've been talking to these guys forever. We see you see them on the shelves, you see them on the on in the bars in Metro Detroit and and and around, and we're gonna find out exactly exactly where and how far out. And and we've tasted them, but we we needed we don't have the story. We need to to to get this.

August Gitshlag 1:48

I mean, I've been here, I was brought here early on. I'm like, why are we going into this no man's land behind Oakland Mall? What the heck's back here? Really? And it was seriously, it was like, I'm like, this is a distillery, and like I thought I knew this stuff, and we're friends with the guys at Weiss. I know they had distiller very well. He's one of my best friends, Andrew Zink. And so I we do a podcast about drinking, yeah. Like when someone takes me into a into an industrial complex, and then we open up and there's this beautiful space. I'm like, what the hell is this? And uh, we left with two bottles of tequila.

SPEAKER_08 2:16

It's a good day, yeah.

August Gitshlag 2:17

It was a good day, uh it was a good night, it was a fun night. Uh, they were really good cocktails. So I actually have experienced the the nightlife side of the distillery here. But so the man behind it all, yes, that I did not get to experience.

Jamie Flanagan 2:29

Yes, so and the name is on the bottle, and the name is on the distillery. Varchas, thank you so much for having us out here this afternoon.

SPEAKER_07 2:37

Thank you, thank you so much for coming in. You know, it's been phenomenal, and hope you guys are enjoying the spirits you'll start off with.

Varchas’ Journey From India To IT

Jamie Flanagan 2:44

The welcome cocktail was was amazing, and I always have one question that I like to kick things off with and uh kind of get a feel for things. Uh, Varchas, tell tell me about your childhood.

SPEAKER_07 2:53

So I I I grew up in India, you know, okay uh southern part of India, south of Bangalore, called uh Mysore, and uh you know it's a it's a city of palaces and you know wildlife, and uh you know again I had the experience of uh uh a lot of cultures, a lot of backgrounds, you know, and then but I also had a dream to come to America. So a lot of good schools, and you know, decided to come to America about 35 years ago.

Jamie Flanagan 3:23

Okay, and so you you live a double life. I I have like 10 different jobs, right? You're Batman in your other life, right? No, so you have the bourbon life and and and you have an IT life, right? Yes, so you got two two separate things going on. So the IT came first, right? And you have a successful IT company, and then you're like, hey, you know what, this is great, but uh why not do bourbon? Okay, how did that happen?

SPEAKER_07 3:48

Yeah, really. You know, I mean, uh this is a you know the toughest question. So, you know, you know, like when I started my company, B2Soft, which is you know in about six countries around the world, uh I still run the company about 27 years in business. When I established my company in different parts of the world, I started to travel around to my offices. I started to see, you know, I am a big bourbon lover, big whiskey lover. I couldn't find any of the American whiskeys out there, right? So immediately being an entrepreneur, I started thinking about, oh my god, and how about I bring my American whiskey here, right? And then, you know, that's how the whole thought process started about 10 years ago. About seven, eight years ago, I started to do contract distilling, and then five years ago, six years ago, started the company.

August Gitshlag 4:36

Well, I was gonna ask if you started distilling in your garage, like some of these guys, you know, with a couple copper pots and you know, yeah, got the hearts and the tails and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_07 4:44

And uh so honestly, you know, I'm a core IT guy with a beautiful love for whiskies.

August Gitshlag 4:51

You're you're dressed too well to be a moonshiner. You're just too sharply dressed to be doing moonshining.

SPEAKER_07 4:56

Acetone pipes and stuff like that. You know, I'm an IT, so you know I gotta be who I am, right? You know, but but the reality is, you know, taking uh you know, I truly believe in exporting our American spirits. Like American spirits have got a long way to go, but you know, we only experiencing in America. I want to take it worldwide. Okay. And now actually, you know, we became the first American craft whiskey to go to India. Oh, now there you go. All right. India drinks half the world's whiskey. Okay. Well, it has half the world's people. Yeah, it should drink a little bit. Those words, those numbers. Yeah, yeah, almost, almost, yeah, yeah. Almost, yeah. So that's actually, you know, I thought, okay, how about actually we take our American craft whiskey, our culture here, back, export to other countries, right? You know, especially with India, with my experience. And I think, you know, we're talking to Spencer earlier. I know Spencer has been to India many times, so he understands it. You know, I would only find one or two local American whiskies there. I said, you know what? We got an opportunity. So that's how the whole idea started off with.

SPEAKER_06 5:59

But you didn't distill any of the stuff yourself initially, did you?

SPEAKER_07 6:02

No, no, no. We actually partnered with MGP. Okay. So they distilled for us. I got a great strategic partnership with them, global partnership. And then actually we saw distill in the last couple of years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 6:14

Right?

Why Export American Whiskey Abroad

SPEAKER_07 6:14

Ours is aging in the back, while the ones I've already distilled before with MGP is about eight to ten years old right now. So that's what goes into my bottle, right? That's with my bourbons and rye whiskies. But if you talk about my gin, my varka, my tequila is all made by us.

Jamie Flanagan 6:32

Okay. All right. And we're gonna get to the tequila because uh we got stories about that.

August Gitshlag 6:37

Isn't there always a story about tequila, Jamie? We're gonna do that again. This is not a spring break story. No, it's not a dorm room carpet story.

Jamie Flanagan 6:45

Kilash, how did you when did you get involved in the project? Have you been here from the get-go or when did you get pulled in? So I kind of started out like after you're the master distiller.

SPEAKER_04 6:55

Yeah, I'm the master distiller. I was working in a different distillery. I left that and it was just perfect timing. The my first day here at Shankar Distillers was the day the building was bought. Okay. First job was build out the production area, which I love. So this is this is this is Shankar's baby, it's my baby too. Yeah, all right.

Jamie Flanagan 7:16

All right, yeah. So, yeah, it's it's gorgeous. Did you did you did it come with the skylight or did you have to put that in?

SPEAKER_07 7:23

No, we're gonna open up the whole roof.

SPEAKER_04 7:24

Yeah, you know, it's all like this was a classic 1980s building. There's a sauna in here. Oh my god, you know, that tasting room that you guys were in. There was a you know, like there was like a full glass wall around it that we just tore down the whole building. Nice.

August Gitshlag 7:40

Did you have to lower the other tanks in through the ceiling?

SPEAKER_04 7:43

Or did you open up stills that way? Put the stills that way. Okay. Okay, flipped them up.

August Gitshlag 7:49

Yeah, okay.

Jamie Flanagan 7:51

Yeah, so what are we seeing? Because uh people can see the video if you're if you're not. This is one of the videos you should, if you're watching, watching the audio podcast, go listen to the video podcast because it's it's amazing. It's let it roll. So, but it's it's amazing to to see what's behind us. So, what is behind us here?

SPEAKER_04 8:12

What's uh what do you what do you what's this is the pretty the pretty still, right? It's all nice and copper. I'm not sure if the camera picks up that one right there. It is yeah, so our pot still, hybrid pot still's behind us, 250 gallons still with a bunch of columns that you can see. That's the hybrid part. Okay, so we got our whiskey column, that smaller column on there. We got two vodka columns right there that we basically run together as if it's stacked right up on top of each other, basically. It's got a gin basket and then a nice shiny condenser over there. But this is what we call basically like our finishing still, right?

SPEAKER_08 8:46

What is it?

SPEAKER_04 8:46

And this is our continuous column. So this is what we call our stripping still, right? Not because it looks like a stripper pole, big old pole, but that's uh nicest pole I've seen right there.

August Gitshlag 9:00

So but no jokes. Jennifer's here.

SPEAKER_04 9:04

But uh, that's really the workhorse right there. So when you go into like a massive, big old distillery, you don't really see it much in craft distilleries. There's a few in Michigan, but this is what we actually pump our fermentation beer into to actually get the alcohol separated, making like the low wines, and then we process it on the finishing still behind us, and that's where we make our cuts. Not to say that you know, a little bit of heads isn't already cut off on this system, but a majority of the cuts are all done on the pot still behind us. Okay, all right.

Jamie Flanagan 9:36

So you're a master blending. How much of the taste, Marchas, are are you saying this is the taste I like, this is the taste I'm looking for? What taste do you look for?

Building The Distillery And Gear Tour

SPEAKER_07 9:48

Yeah, so great question, right? So I'm I'm your common bourbon lover, right? I'm not a master distribution, right? Their taste profiles are much different than a common drinker. So I'm also doing tasting for the global customers. For example, if I I'm tasting it for an Indian customer, you want to have more of the malt whiskey in it, right? So, for example, we released a product in India which has got uh American malt, American bourbon, American dry whiskey called the Detroit Reserve. So that's the product we is super popular in India, our own product, which is all made out of separate you from the American styles too and give you something a little different on the shelf, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 10:34

Yeah, because they're they're not used to bourbon, right? So, and it's super expensive over there too, because it's really just a couple big guys over there. Oh couple big guys over there, you know, but uh and tariffs, yeah. But you know, they're a huge malt whiskey country, so you know, they've been drinking scotch forever, they drink Indian malt whiskey like no other. So, you know, the the realistic step to get them into the American bourbon kind of like taste profile is kind of starting them off with that blend where you have a feel of what bourbon kind of tastes like in it, but it's familiar to you. That comfort of your way scotchiness, yeah, work your way into like the premium awesome bourbon.

August Gitshlag 11:13

So we don't want to talk about my opinion of scotch. I did that the last show.

SPEAKER_07 11:18

Anyway, uh for me, I think you know it has to be appealing to the common drinker, right? You know, it has it's so important.

August Gitshlag 11:27

Yeah, if you want to sell more than five bottles, you gotta have regular people wanting to drink it.

SPEAKER_07 11:30

Yeah, it has to be smooth, it has to be appealing, it has to have a good feeling. You know, you don't want to wake up next time morning with a headache, right? You know, there's a whole bunch of factors, but again, the taste profiles, uh, you gotta be able to taste the vanilla, the caramel, the wood. So for the bourbon side of it, our tequilas is a different volume altogether, but we are targeting our tequila to be more for the bourbon drinkers, right? You know, because they like to sip it, it's not your short tequila, right? Yeah, yeah. So that's why I ate them in bourbon barrels, so you get the same wood flavors, I think.

Jamie Flanagan 12:02

All right. Okay, so I I see a few barrels behind us, but do you have a rack house? Where the where where are the barrels sleeping? Is it this facility somewhere? All the way in the back. Okay, there's a whole back farther where this is a big building. Yeah, so you're all your barrels are here for now.

SPEAKER_04 12:19

So basically, all the new fills are here, yeah, which we will probably ship off site once we're completely filled up with them. But then we bring in our other barrels that we're still waiting for aging, you know, our MGP barrels. So basically, what's ready to bottle and what was just made will be here.

Jamie Flanagan 12:34

All right. So when we get a bottle, is this MGP for now still?

SPEAKER_04 12:40

Yeah, so the bourbon and rye is gonna be MGP for another couple of weeks, three more years, two to three years, okay, before we start to blend them in.

SPEAKER_07 12:50

But our everything else is made here. Okay, so everything's bottled here though, right? Bottled here. Everything's bottled here.

August Gitshlag 12:55

So you can put that sticker on it. Yeah, Michigan.

SPEAKER_07 12:58

Everything is bottled here, and and again, the most important thing is you know, we blend them with you know Great Lakes water, okay. All Michigan water. All right, the taste do change, okay, compared to what you guys see. But again, our our you know our watercolor gene is all made right here.

SPEAKER_04 13:12

Kentucky likes to rant about their water, but we Michiganders should be proud of our water too. We got a lot of fresh water around here.

August Gitshlag 13:17

Yeah, largest source of the world. Great sorts. That's right. So that's that's Ray from marketing down there on the marketing guy. All the good tips, all the good tidbits. All the good tits. Where's my the stripper column again? Talking about I got in his head. Having gotten it out of my head.

SPEAKER_06 13:35

You notice he keeps staring at it.

August Gitshlag 13:37

Yes, Ray, I had no comment about your breasts. I was talking about your knowledge and your tidbits, okay, of information like the good Michigan water that you eat. So um, I wanted to ask a question about the tequila. Does weren't there, aren't there rules, and I could be completely wrong, about what you can call tequila, like where it's made to call it that or something? Yeah, I think that was when it's locally. Tell me about but yeah, because our listeners probably don't even know that.

SPEAKER_07 13:59

Yeah, so so so let me start off on a Kailoshakiri, add upon it, Akiri. So tequila has to be made in Alisco. Okay. Uh, if you want to call it a hundred percent blue agave tequila, it has to be made, distilled, and bottled in Mexico. Okay. So, but again, in our case, we have a partnership with a great distillery down in Mexico. Kailosh goes there, and I go with him most of the time, not all the time. I'm sorry.

August Gitshlag 14:25

Well, unless his credit cards work, and then it's a good thing to get boss. We have a great time together. I bet, I bet.

SPEAKER_07 14:30

So, so so we go there, you know. You should and he is distilling with them, tasting it out, and then they're bottling it, and we are quality checking it before it gets your back in. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 14:42

So it's not, it's not your average celebrity tequila where they're really just because that's what that's what a lot of the producers, when you go down there, they're like, hey, this is my tequila, this is what you can have. It's like, no, I want to make sure you're distilling it to like our standard of quality, right? I don't I also don't want it to taste like the next guy's tequila that we just bottled it for, right?

August Gitshlag 15:02

Yeah, like they couldn't sell it to you know Brad Pitt. So he's gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_04 15:05

Yeah, they can't, they're not allowed to sell how they make our tequila to somebody else.

SPEAKER_06 15:09

Okay, I was gonna say you send it back up to the states to bottle it here.

SPEAKER_04 15:11

No, it has to be bottled there. So all of it's 100% agave, so it has to be bottled there.

August Gitshlag 15:16

Oh wow, but you've got your fingernails in that barrel, so you can say you have your finger.

SPEAKER_07 15:20

I have every one of them. Yeah, okay. On that activity, it's our own recipe.

August Gitshlag 15:24

Okay, so it's already trademarked.

SPEAKER_07 15:26

So yeah.

August Gitshlag 15:28

So you have the recipe, it's just they have to make it down there for you to call it what it is. That's another step in the in the process. It takes a little out of your profits, but it's a quality product.

SPEAKER_04 15:36

And I mean it's worth it to call it 100% agave, really.

How The Stills Work And Cuts

SPEAKER_07 15:39

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

Just with the market knowledge, right?

SPEAKER_07 15:42

But but but but the most important thing I want to add to this is you know, the agave plants, just like our bourbon when they age five, six, seven, eight years, how they get better. We choose only five to six years aged agave plants to make our tequila.

SPEAKER_04 15:57

Uh huh. If you want to crap goes in the mescal, yeah. You could cheap out and do it with like three-year-old, you know, agave, but they're it's like it's crazy what goes into the tequila bottle, even before we start aging it in whiskey barrels, right? It lives a whiskey's lifetime just growing before it even hits a barrel and it might become anything.

August Gitshlag 16:20

I don't take that long to grow, it just takes that long to age.

SPEAKER_04 16:23

One season for corn, right?

Jamie Flanagan 16:24

Yeah, one season for corn.

unknown 16:26

Yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 16:27

So let's try the whiskey. Let's get in and you can tell us what uh mash bill we're doing you know mash bills and things? So okay. Oh, yeah.

unknown 16:36

Okay.

Jamie Flanagan 16:37

Well, because it's a it's a blend, it's MTP. We did say, Yeah, I'm sure you know the mash bills.

SPEAKER_06 16:41

One to have uh Ray, uh marketing in there. You want to explain the eagles or shocker? Do you want to explain the eagles that are on there and the difference when the reasoning for that?

SPEAKER_07 16:50

Yeah, so let me actually talk about the you know the bottle is a very, very unique bottle. So so so I need a bottle, but again, uh Rob, can I get a bottle? This one, okay. Let me show this bottle. So, again, every bottle of bourbon is an American dream in a bottle.

August Gitshlag 17:08

All right, okay. I mean, I'll all right. I'll I'll allow it. American dream in a bottle. I like it. Okay. You know why?

SPEAKER_07 17:17

Because because look, I'm living an American dream. There you go. Okay. Okay, that's the reality, right? Yeah, no other country in the world will will get an opportunity like like here. Okay, let's let's face it. That's awesome. Okay, so if you look at the double-headed eagle, on the emblem is the kings of the emblem of the kings of South India.

Jamie Flanagan 17:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 17:38

And on the top eagle, which is the American flying eagle, is the American Eagle. So the whole story behind it, if I switch to this bottle, if you look at this American Eagle, and again, you know, Spencer, we talked about the South India, the emblems of the kings of South India. Okay. Nice touch. I I'm trying to bring a mix of East and West into American craftsmanship, which I'm taking it back to the East to sell it there.

SPEAKER_06 18:08

All right. And there's four different uh heads you have, right?

SPEAKER_07 18:12

Yes, yeah. You know, we have uh one letter for each brand of warchas. Is there six of them?

SPEAKER_06 18:19

Six of them. Oh, there's six eagles, okay.

SPEAKER_07 18:21

And on these uh this particular uh special eagle is only for like high proof, battle-proof bourbons.

August Gitshlag 18:28

All right.

Jamie Flanagan 18:29

So yeah, I thought the one where the I thought the one where the wings were up were gonna be the highest proof. No, that's the wings went up, was high high. That's right.

August Gitshlag 18:37

You see double when you drink the good stuff.

SPEAKER_06 18:39

You see double vision when you have the high proofs. You have two heads.

Flavor Philosophy And Global Palates

SPEAKER_07 18:43

So yeah, so that's the again. You're playing the the reserve one or two? Yeah, so so yeah, so yeah, get right up on the mic.

SPEAKER_04 18:51

So, what was the first pour there? So, this is the reserve 102. This is like our number one selling product. Okay, this is a high rye, super high rye mash bill, 60 corn, 36 rye, okay, 4% melted barley. And then what makes this one really cool is this is a single barrel. So this product's always single barrel. So everything, you know, what we try right now might have been different than what you had in your old fashioned up at the bar, just because you know what we got in stock at the tasting room, right? We got a couple, couple different barrels in stock. But this was named in Forbes last year for top five bourbons in the world, and you know, probably about 10% of the barrels is what I pick out for this product that just hit that kind of quality standard. We're looking at anything from about six to eight years old, just kind of depends on the barrel. And I'm sure you guys have drink a lot of whiskey. You've probably had a lot of old whiskey that isn't good sometimes, and sometimes you see some young ones that are like fire, like amazing.

August Gitshlag 19:50

I defend the blending process. I think it's almost uh there's a crazy challenge to just say I'm gonna make this always taste the same forever, rather than oh, I'm gonna charge more and make this one that can never do it again. Yeah, and I can't get my recipe right twice.

SPEAKER_04 20:04

I like the difference though, because I feel like that's what kind of is the craft distilling piece of it.

August Gitshlag 20:08

It's like I mean, there's a there's a home for that. Yeah, that's why these barrel picks.

SPEAKER_04 20:13

We're not we're not trying to be Buffalo Trace and it tastes exactly the same every time.

August Gitshlag 20:16

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 20:17

We want it to be thorough, but the like level of quality is what we're at every single time. So you might pick out different flavors that might be a little more prominent in one poor than another, right?

Jamie Flanagan 20:27

It's it's very sweet on the nose. It it and I'm not getting any ethanol on the nose, it's not hurting me at all.

SPEAKER_04 20:34

No, and then the the sip sips got that rye heat that I like, and I should say it's 102 proof for eight mile M102.

August Gitshlag 20:44

Yeah, is that really?

SPEAKER_07 20:46

Yeah, uh 102. It's called 102 because of eight mile road, which is Michigan 102.

Jamie Flanagan 20:54

I like that. Yeah, that's on that's our number one center. More marketing. Yes. So from what I've seen on the website, there's like at least 15 different expressions of of whiskeys and bourbons across on the website. And then at the grocery store, I was at the Kroger, we'll see it there. What is what is on the shelf out in public, readily available for folks?

SPEAKER_05 21:24

Right now, our small batch bourbon, yeah, which is a 90 proof, which you're tasting 102 right now. It's a 90 proof version.

Jamie Flanagan 21:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 21:31

That's actually small batch, which is three barrels. We blend together and proof. We have a small batch rye, which is a very high rye, 95% rye, 5% malted barley, which is also at the market in Kroger. And then we have our reserve 102, of course, which is the the one you're tasting now.

Jamie Flanagan 21:50

I'm kidding, what are you getting out of this? Jennifer Jennifer, give Jennifer the mic. Jennifer, are you are you tasting? Did you taste it?

SPEAKER_01 21:56

I did. I got some heat. I also, for some reason, have some cinnamon.

Jamie Flanagan 22:00

All right. I I'm getting a fruit, and I don't know. I'm I don't know what fruit it is. I want to I want to say maybe apricot. All right. So I'm I'm getting it, and it's nice. It's not it's not too fruity. It's not like juicy fruit, fruity, fruity, but it's just a nice, it's rich. Is there something on the thing?

MGP Partnership And Michigan Water

SPEAKER_06 22:20

No, you get a little bit of the sweetness when you first uh hit your tongue before you actually uh finish off the uh taste though, and then you feel the heat after. And it it stays stays there. It's not like a burning heat, but it it lingers enough to actually enjoy the taste.

unknown 22:33

Right.

SPEAKER_04 22:33

That's the right. Yeah, one of the things we look for in this one is specifically like the finish, right? I mean, it's nice to have a sip that just tastes good, but if it doesn't last, like are you really gonna drink more of that, right? You want that linger and just be like, yeah, let's let's kill this bottle tonight, boys.

SPEAKER_06 22:50

It doesn't dissipate and go away. You actually you're you're able to enjoy it and lingers around, like you said.

SPEAKER_08 22:54

Yeah, right, like that's where it is.

Jamie Flanagan 22:56

I'm getting it more on the tip of my tongue, is kind of hanging out on the tip of my tongue. This one, and but the flavor is just kind of it's it's it's the flavor is almost an aroma sticking around as a as an aroma for me. So no, I got it.

August Gitshlag 23:10

When you when you mentioned the apricots, I was like maybe a fruit, yeah. Like the CVS ones that you put in a chartery board. No, the Trader Joe's one. Same shit.

Jamie Flanagan 23:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right on. All right. So now this is uh a single barrel, right? Proof down to 102 for eight mile.

August Gitshlag 23:31

So once this one is done, though, you're not gonna have another one with this flavor profile, correct? It do you try to come from? It might be something that's close. No, no, you're right, right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

But you're this is the but I'm not I'm not picking it out for anything particular. It's like I, you know, I rate every single barrel we got, and it either gets you know the the gold star, gold star like a single barrel, or it's gonna be, you know, something that might taste really, really nice, but we'll probably eventually end up in, you know, one of our small batches. So what I'm going for most of the time is obviously a little bit of sweetness. Everyone loves vanilla, caramel, brown sugar. That's classic, right? Right. But uh we really love that high rye flavor. Like that is one thing we all love here. We like to think that makes this a little bit unique, even though I chase rice. Yeah, and green label whiskies, yeah. While this is like a high rye whiskey, it I don't know. I mean, I get a lot of rye flavor on it, but it's not like overwhelming to me at all.

Jamie Flanagan 24:28

It's not super there is spice in it, but it's not super spicy.

August Gitshlag 24:31

Like the cinnamon is a nice you're not playing the green label game, no, yeah, which which is like the common thing with rye is everybody has a green label, your Woodford, your bullet, your old forester, all of them do it now.

SPEAKER_07 24:42

Our rye is red label. You're so all right, all right.

August Gitshlag 24:49

We're from Michigan, that's right. Yeah, we got we ordered rye right away.

SPEAKER_04 24:53

So I think our rye was our first gold medal that we got.

August Gitshlag 24:57

Yeah, it's gold medal winner 2023.

SPEAKER_05 24:59

Okay, all right.

Jamie Flanagan 25:01

All right, so that was that was that was nice.

SPEAKER_04 25:03

That was the that was this one right here, the 102.

Jamie Flanagan 25:05

The 102 stuff.

SPEAKER_04 25:06

I brought out a really nice special one. Okay, because you were asking about you know what other stuff we have here, right? There are a lot of expressions we have. We do some finishes. This one, what we got out here is one of my favorite. It's a Madeira uh finish. You guys ever have a Madeira finish before? No, I don't think we have this. You guys have drink Madeira wine before? I have, yes. So I think it really adds like a nice sweetness without getting like PX sherry sweetness.

August Gitshlag 25:30

How did they do it?

SPEAKER_04 25:32

What do you mean?

August Gitshlag 25:33

How did they do it? Is it barrel? They put it in wine barrels, yeah. So we can I we put it in one bar. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, that's what I'm wanting to say. Yeah, you put it in the wine barrel.

SPEAKER_04 25:41

So I'm taking this is a truly a single barrel.

August Gitshlag 25:43

All right, I put it in the ride wine barrels.

SPEAKER_04 25:45

Okay, I told them which barrel to put in a rock here.

August Gitshlag 25:48

I mean, I didn't realize you worked here.

SPEAKER_04 25:49

Jesse, my Jesse.

August Gitshlag 25:51

I just moved to the whiskey, the whiskey contest that whiskey taco.

SPEAKER_04 25:54

Jesse, yeah. I'm Walter White, he's Jesse. Oh my god, I get it. I get it now.

Jamie Flanagan 25:59

Yeah, I like it. I like it.

Tequila Rules And Additive Free Approach

SPEAKER_04 26:00

But uh, you know, so a lot of the finishes you might get are not actually single barrel, so it might be a bunch of barrels because you know, after you're aging it, you know, you don't have a full barrel of whiskey at the end, anyways, when you're gonna go put it in that wine barrel. Could be a blend, then they might blend a bunch of those wine finishes together.

August Gitshlag 26:18

I know the camera's a ways away, but it is a significant color change. Yes, yes, yes, yes, especially.

SPEAKER_04 26:23

So that's um single barrel into single barrel, that's all it is right there. Okay, uh and it's it's it's one of our best. Yeah, I think we had a water out here to do some rinses that way. There we go. You want to rinse your oh, there you go. He's ahead of it. He was excited.

August Gitshlag 26:37

That's like yeah, because the wine gets to the dark one over there, it looks like it's a little different. I am a sucker for the Basil Hayden dark rye, which I think is a cheat code for whiskey drinking, especially for women who don't want to drink whiskey don't are afraid of it. Get that sherry cask stuff. I know, I know. I'm not I was not talking about you, you know you're special. Oh, here's the lid, by the way. But it's uh the the sherry casks and the wine casks, I think, are underutilized. Yeah, but they also some of the nerds will say that you've you've corrupted the bourbon, you've corrupted it too much. I think you do whatever people want to drink. And this, if it's drinkable, it works. So I like this idea.

SPEAKER_07 27:19

I'm gonna say we have an ammo finishes, right? So this is the Madeira cask, we've done cognac cast finishes.

August Gitshlag 27:24

Okay, I've had cognac cats finish before uh Jefferson. They had a Jefferson's ocean cognac finish one.

SPEAKER_04 27:30

And we have uh port wine finishes, but yeah, we did a port wine, Ruby port, we did a tawny port, we've done Oros O Sherry. We have a port, tawny port.

August Gitshlag 27:40

I love a good tawny port.

SPEAKER_04 27:41

Yeah, my favorite thing and most of the time. That one that one's sold out, so uh, we don't have that.

August Gitshlag 27:44

I go to Motor City wine, I get that bottle of tawny port out of the corner and just sit there and sip in the sunny katan, actually. Well, that's an aging yourself there. He's spread eagle on the hood of a car in a white snake video. Okay, that's pretty much it.

Jamie Flanagan 27:58

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 28:00

Yeah, the wine picks.

Jamie Flanagan 28:03

The note, the note, the nose is the same.

SPEAKER_07 28:05

This is actually one of the best my favorite.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

Yeah, this is my favorite of our finishes. Aside from the tawny port, that one was killer. We're gonna be doing that one again. That come out even darker. Okay, so ports are usually there is a little bit of cheating, I think, with the finishing, and that is when you leave too much of the wine in the belly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that's and have you ever seen a port that's just like a purple, a purple colored bourbon, basically? Like that's that's too much.

August Gitshlag 28:32

The ports are thicker, they're a little heavier, and they're you know, yeah, it's dark and it's getting a little ruby.

Jamie Flanagan 28:37

Oh my gosh, the the finish on this is insane. Uh dark chocolate juice.

August Gitshlag 28:43

I do taste the cherries on it. What's the the starting? What's the starting juice on this? Like, what did you put in there to start with? That was our barrel-proof high-ride.

SPEAKER_04 28:50

Okay, so it was a high ride bourbon. And so, like, there is a cheat code, right? You can always put something that doesn't taste good into a wine barrel that people think will make it better, but that's not true. I don't know.

August Gitshlag 29:03

I have friends that do that with shit all the time. You put it in a barrel and you call it something and you sell it, and it'll it's a whole different taste.

SPEAKER_04 29:09

It is a completely different taste, but like we're not going for something young. Like, this was already like a six-year whiskey that wasn't. Right, right, right.

August Gitshlag 29:16

You're not rushing it. That's when people make the mistake. When they take their white lightning and they don't age it and they try to put it in a barrel that's that's uh a cheap bird. That's that's a cheap. Yeah, that is junk. That is that is junk.

SPEAKER_04 29:26

And like this is that in the barrel then after. So this was like about six and a half years in the original bourbon barrel doing its aging, and then about seven, uh, uh seven to eight months in the wine barrel. A particular specification on the chart level in the barrel uh for like our whiskey barrels. Yeah, our whiskey barrels are chart four classic.

SPEAKER_07 29:45

Okay. And I think you know, the most important thing is you know creating a very high quality product, right? You know, we're not we don't want to sell it, we want to sell it a ton, but still, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_08 29:56

And then that's the point, right? You're not rushing.

SPEAKER_07 29:59

Yeah, we're not rushing it, you know. We're taking our own time, you know. Let's let's create a real good product which people love.

Jamie Flanagan 30:05

All right, so uh the Rob was watching online, he had a question. He wanted to know how many the uh of what you're putting out, how how much of it, what percentage is coming from single barrels?

SPEAKER_04 30:16

Since our number one seller is our 102, I would say probably 60 percent at least.

Jamie Flanagan 30:22

So, all right, so your number one seller, that's why where are you selling it? Because you there the the 90 proof is available at Kroger, right? And in that big box, and I see it, I see it at I see it at the uh party stores and and convenience stores and around town. How many states are you in? And yeah, so let's get our marketing folks on this right. So, yeah, so what's out there? Where can we find it? Where can we buy it?

SPEAKER_05 30:46

So, Michigan, of course. We're in Kroger, total wine, we're in Meyer. Nice. We are in multiple states, including Michigan, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Illinois.

August Gitshlag 31:01

Okay, we're licensed.

SPEAKER_05 31:05

Plus, we're in India, which again, the largest market consumers of whiskey in the world.

Tasting Reserve 102 High Rye

August Gitshlag 31:12

So, how many cases are you are you putting? That sounds crazy because we you know bourbon's a phenomenon here right now, yeah. And you you never know about other countries what's allowed and what they'll allow you to do, you know. So that's fascinating. That that how many cases of of product are you moving through in India?

SPEAKER_07 31:31

So in India, actually, we have a couple of thousand cases right now. Okay. We just only started uh in the last two and a half, three years to sell it. Okay, right. And to answer to add to what Ray was talking about, you know, we are in Michigan, Georgia, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, right? We also licensed a few more states, so we're growing pretty pretty quickly. But again, Michigan is our home base. Gotcha.

August Gitshlag 31:56

Well, yes, it's your names on the building.

SPEAKER_04 31:58

Yeah, I believe it's over a thousand stores in Michigan that we're in in general. Okay, yeah, I think it's close to 1200, right? Oh, 1500. 1500. We're growing fast in Michigan. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 32:18

Consumers of bourbon, whiskey to make sure that you're gonna be in a market where it's gonna be consumed.

August Gitshlag 32:23

Yeah, you need to get a distributor that has a profile that moves your kind of product, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 32:26

Yeah, yeah. For example, Michigan, right? We are in the public national R and DC. So they were also in Georgia, they're also in Texas. Okay, so we are there because of the reason. Uh, we also went to Florida because you know, Florida is also a big market for and everyone there is from Michigan or New York and Chicago anyway.

August Gitshlag 32:42

So, yeah. Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Jamie Flanagan 32:44

So, I mean, but what so is it it's the 90-proof barrel is that's going out to those? How many expressions are going out? Is it just the one?

SPEAKER_07 32:52

So, so we have actually our uh small a small batch. So we we totally in in the market, the big sellers are our 90 proof bourbon, 90 proof rye, on our single uh single barrel reserving two.

Jamie Flanagan 33:04

Right. But your your outlets can order any any of like the 15 expressions if they want.

August Gitshlag 33:09

But they can't get these little, they can't get these barrel eggs. These are for here, right?

SPEAKER_04 33:12

No, they can get they can get those three are tequilas, our vodkin, our gin. Um, all the cool, crazy expressions we can only get at the distillery. Okay, unless you know, some looker stores will do, you know, we can do direct distribution to them. Um so we'll do barrel picks, right? And that's they might get a different, we have a different bourbon mash bill. It's our heritage mash bill, it's uh 75214. So still kind of high rye. Yeah, but it's a little bit more traditional, hence the name Heritage. But those you'll get, you know, at a lot of a lot of barrel picks, we do that all only barrel proof really.

SPEAKER_06 33:47

So are you able to order any of them online for anyone who gets it in different states?

SPEAKER_07 33:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So basically you can order anywhere. So if you go to watch uswhiskey.com or shankardicius.com, or I'm sorry, buy watchdiswiskey.com or buy shankardis.com, you can order. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 34:03

And I think it's is it all 50 states? Yeah, all 50 states. Yeah, we'll put the links.

Jamie Flanagan 34:07

Yeah, we'll put the links down in the show notes for sure.

SPEAKER_04 34:09

But like our actual distributions were the ones that's listed where a Wiker store might be able to order it.

Jamie Flanagan 34:14

But this is all very, very craft. Yes. I mean, even those that you're pushing out in in bigger numbers are still very, very craft. How many people are are hustling here and and making this happen?

SPEAKER_08 34:30

Yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 34:35

What are you doing? You know, you know, I don't see any children.

SPEAKER_07 34:40

Think about this, right? I think you know, you know, I I I want to I definitely want to give credit to my software company folks, B2R folks who are really helping us on the back end on the operation side, but the core work gets done by my people here. We're probably totally locally and globally, or about 35 people. Yeah, you know. It seems like a tight-knit group. It's very small group, yeah, working very hard, very close. Again, we still craft, you know.

August Gitshlag 35:07

So so earlier when I shed a tear because I couldn't introduce him, he finally made it. Next to me is our the third member of the family here at the Man Cape Happy Hour, sexy Matt Fox.

Matt Fox 35:18

Well, thank you, August. Thanks for getting it. So I I was I was I did make it. I was listening on the way in. Oh, yeah, and I stopped listening because I was getting off the freeway. I passed over the 102, eight mile. Hey. I'm like, all right, here we go.

Jamie Flanagan 35:32

He was listening.

Matt Fox 35:33

I was listening. I was listening. And yeah, I and I stopped listening when uh because I was pulling in, it was the Madura. Madeira, yeah, yeah. And is that what you poured? Yeah, yeah. Oh my god, that is incredible.

Jamie Flanagan 35:46

All right, okay so Ray, is there another Plunkarin behind you we could uh set up for Matt?

Matt Fox 35:50

I got one I got one right here. Oh, he's got one. All right, you were too busy, man.

Jamie Flanagan 35:54

Our hospitality is number one here. I figured my husband that Matt didn't want to be. Who am I thinking that Matt didn't have a drink? I'm just looking out for a brother. That's awesome.

Matt Fox 36:06

All right, I I'm thank you for allowing me to crash the party. Yeah, we're late for dinner. Just here we are. Late for drinks. Just for the dessert, right? I did.

Jamie Flanagan 36:17

All right. So, Ray, here comes a hard question, right? What do you what what's this gonna do to me in my wallet for uh getting my hands on on some of these expressions? The one at uh the retails, what's uh MSR? You'd be surprised. Okay, you know, this isn't a hundred dollar bottle.

SPEAKER_05 36:32

Okay, it tastes like a hundred dollar bottle. There's what we're drinking right now, is is it's got you know what would you pay for the 102?

Matt Fox 36:40

That's a great question.

SPEAKER_05 36:41

Oh, what would I pay for that one?

August Gitshlag 36:44

What would I pay is pretty basic. I don't pay more. The most we paid for a bottle is a gift bottle at around 75 to 80 bucks.

SPEAKER_05 36:51

Less, yeah.

August Gitshlag 36:52

Yeah, and so I'm thinking for me it's fifty dollars or less.

SPEAKER_05 36:54

So this is a 59 dollar bottle of of all right whiskey all day long on the 102.

Jamie Flanagan 37:00

Yeah, on the 102. On the 102.

SPEAKER_05 37:01

So the two small batches 49, 49.99.

Jamie Flanagan 37:04

Boom, there you go. You're right. We moved right back into your neighborhood.

SPEAKER_05 37:07

The barrel proof are the ones that the more money at 65. The barrel proof are up part a little higher, you know. And the finishes, of course, are higher.

August Gitshlag 37:13

Um this finish is gorgeous, so can we walk out of the can we walk out of the tasting room with bottles of that? Or of course, yeah, we saw them here.

SPEAKER_04 37:19

Okay, I'm bringing home. And uh, one of you guys were drinking rye in your old fashioned, right? We I was we were we all yeah, so there's rye and sherry up there, too, that you should definitely try.

August Gitshlag 37:30

Yeah, oh a sherry cask rye? Yeah, just say why were you burying the lead? I mean, okay.

SPEAKER_04 37:37

And if if this is a little too sweet because Madeira is like a dessert wine, then maybe a cognet cask is like it's a little bit drier.

August Gitshlag 37:44

Come on, look at me. There's nothing too sweet for me.

Jamie Flanagan 37:47

So now this is we're gonna do we're gonna do some tequila in a minute. We're gonna bring that on. But now we had some friends at uh the High Clerk Castle, and they were doing something innovative. Yes, and they were inviting people to join the party and and to and and to buy into it and buy into the barrels.

SPEAKER_06 38:06

They were doing sourcing.

Jamie Flanagan 38:07

Yes, crowdfunding. Are you guys doing something similar? Are you guys doing uh I think I see something about you guys are you can people can get into this, right?

SPEAKER_07 38:16

Yes, yes, yeah, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 38:17

So uh who's who was supposed to talk on on this and whose idea was it? And what do we do?

SPEAKER_07 38:23

Yeah, so so basically now I've been advised by a lot of experts in the market. You know, it's just not about uh you know, like like I've invested about 10 million dollars into the business. Okay, so now I think you know we're trying to build social capital. We're trying to bring brand ambassadors around the country.

August Gitshlag 38:41

Social capital. I like that phrase.

SPEAKER_07 38:42

Yeah, right? So so so so so we feel uh very very strongly feel that actually when we get uh people investing and buying into the company around the country, they become our brand ambassadors, they become the owners of our company, and we have a bigger uh opportunity to grow. Is working for the Green Bay Pack?

Matt Fox 39:02

When's that when does that IPO come out? That's what I want to know.

SPEAKER_07 39:05

So we we just uh went uh we just went live uh a couple of weeks ago. Oh, okay. And and people are really you know, I see a lot of people coming in and trying to invest and buy into the company.

Jamie Flanagan 39:15

So are they buying into the company or are they buying into uh specific barrels? What's what's the angle?

SPEAKER_07 39:21

They're buying into the company. Okay, uh, because you know we are uh because we are SCC regulated, it's a public uh it's almost like a publicly traded company, but it's really private, right?

Matt Fox 39:31

Yeah, yeah, and that's privately owned, but you can invest in it and you can okay, right. I like that.

SPEAKER_07 39:35

Yeah, and this was a yeah, it's a you know a great way to bring in new partners in new people in, right? Also helps us to leverage the funds towards more marketing. Sure.

Matt Fox 39:46

Just maintain your 51%. That's all you gotta get out of it.

Madeira And Other Cask Finishes

SPEAKER_04 39:50

There's also kind of diversity in it, too, because we have all these SKUs, especially with the tequila, right? So, like bourbon, you know, people say bourbon's down. I don't know about that, it's true, but you know, crafty valleys, yeah. But like, that's why there's other options here, so it's kind of like different than just invert investing into a bourbon company, right? Because we we have all those kinds of you are a spirits company, you're not a spirit company, you're not a bourbon company, exactly.

SPEAKER_06 40:17

Tequila has been picking up in the past couple years, yes, it has, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 40:20

Whiskey focused spirits on uh on the reality is I think you know it's more about we are fairly uh diversified with whiskey and tequila.

Matt Fox 40:30

Your portfolio is is growing still, right?

SPEAKER_07 40:33

Yeah, and then we're also in multiple countries, so now we're global, right? So that brings a different dynamics.

Matt Fox 40:40

You did say that at the beginning of the show. You're talking about you were you're you're a global company because you are in India, you are across the United States. You you do have your hands in multiple countries, yeah, right?

Jamie Flanagan 40:51

Well, and and you're pulling in tequila, right? That you're you're in Mexico, yeah, made it in Mexico with a unique recipe of your own. Now, August, his lady friend is is something of a tequila snob.

August Gitshlag 41:05

She likes she likes mezcal, which drives me nuts. Oh, the smokila, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 41:15

I'm a mezcal fan.

August Gitshlag 41:17

But yes. What did I call scotch last week? Trash. I call it donor party soup. You're boiling your leather shoes. That's all you got left.

SPEAKER_05 41:29

Yeah, but you haven't tried our reprisado yet.

August Gitshlag 41:31

No, I'm that's I'm talking about scotch. I hate scotch. I'm talking about the kid. I'll drink the kid.

SPEAKER_06 41:37

I wasn't blasting products. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was telling you that like smoke those has been.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

No, I don't. Wait, our our friendship's over now because you don't like masking.

SPEAKER_04 41:45

Do you do you like bonfires in Michigan? No, no, it's no, I don't.

August Gitshlag 41:49

I have to leave those damn good hoodies outside now. I can't do that anymore. This guy doesn't toast his marshmallows.

SPEAKER_06 41:56

What's that? What? You must like bonfires if you with your woman drinking bourbon.

August Gitshlag 42:03

I'm not even loving what a candle house or three bit of kindling houses are this close together.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

I really, really, really like you, so I'm gonna let this go.

Jamie Flanagan 42:13

Fair play. Yeah, you should. Shannon, Shannon Gibson chimed in. She says, It's my favorite distillery. So thanks, Shannon.

August Gitshlag 42:19

But I do have to pass around a card game. We had about 15 people playing like past the ace or something, and then we passed the bottle with the with the cards, and they're like, What is this? And we told them, you know, it's Shanker, it's out of out of Troy. Like, what? This is local? Like, yeah, yeah. The bottle had them fooled. They thought they were drinking some kind of crazy thing out of Mexico. I'm like, it's out of Mexico via Troy, Michigan.

SPEAKER_04 42:44

When you see it on the shelf, the little neck tag on it says what is it? Made in Michigan, or no, born in Michigan, Michigan. Made in Mexico.

Jamie Flanagan 42:52

All right. So I'm waiting for the big beaver exit. I'm waiting for the big beaver exit 69 label somewhere in the middle.

SPEAKER_04 42:59

You might see that in uh bourbon barrel club pic.

Matt Fox 43:03

That's on their 169 proof. That's on the 169 proof.

August Gitshlag 43:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's called 9900 Grados. 900 Grados. That's 900 degrees, which is what the agave is cooked.

SPEAKER_05 43:17

Get on the light.

August Gitshlag 43:18

Okay, there you go.

SPEAKER_05 43:18

Give it a micro. 900 degrees, which is what the agave is cooked at. Oh, okay.

August Gitshlag 43:23

So when it goes, again, are they like cooked in the ground?

Jamie Flanagan 43:27

I mean, you it's it is that is that like a wives sale, or is that like old? No, do they do they bury it and burn it?

SPEAKER_05 43:33

And no, it's actually a big plant. They cut it, it's got all the leaves coming out of it. Yeah, yeah. They chop off all the leaves, and it says the heart. Yeah, and that heart goes into a grinding mill and then goes into an oven. Or it goes in the oven first and gets it's cooked. Goes in the oven, gets cooked at 900 degrees. Okay, comes out, gets pounded down to uh basically a mash like we have for our corn and everything else for the whiskey. All right, gets put into the still and distilled.

Jamie Flanagan 44:00

So the uh somebody wanted to know what type of agave do you use? So it's blue, it's a hundred percent blue agave, yes. And they and you could call it that because it is done in Mexico, bottled in Mexico that you go down and observe how often do you head down to Mexico and keep your probably two to three times a year?

SPEAKER_04 44:19

Okay, where we basically make it all, and then once it's all like up to our quality, uh everything's good, and we bring that uh import it all back in.

SPEAKER_01 44:28

It tastes like a sugar cookie, it's a sugar cookie.

SPEAKER_06 44:30

I'm telling you I think a lot of people are gonna be asking, yeah, is this the additive free agave? Yes, it's additive free. Okay, so I know a lot of people, that's a big thing. People look at and saying, Okay, here I want to drink tequila, I want to drink agave, I want to have make sure it's additive free. So that's the biggest thing.

August Gitshlag 44:44

We also talk about yeah, the additive thing is a big because that's a that's a social media thing that goes out there. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 44:49

I want to talk about people, but people click on that, they say, okay, here I'm it's a it's agave. Okay, but is it additive free? I want that.

August Gitshlag 44:55

A lot of that is the shit show competition between the companies, yes, calling you know the Cabresto crap and all that stuff. So I'm curious. So, you know, we you have the different kinds of tequilos, the reposados, the anejos, the blancos, the color on this comes from something different, though, right?

SPEAKER_04 45:12

The color it comes from our barrels, but it comes from our whiskey barrels.

Jamie Flanagan 45:15

So and uh somebody just asked a question on the on the line as well. Are they your bourbon barrels that they're aged in?

SPEAKER_04 45:22

Yes, our varchis whiskey barrels, it's our bourbon.

Jamie Flanagan 45:25

So you ship your barrels down there for to age them down there because it's got to be barrel bottled down there, so you don't ship the liquid up here, age it, send it back down. That's a nightmare. So you send your bottles. I I wanted to, and we blasted right past the the the wine barrels for this. How big are the wine barrels, right? Because whiskey barrels are a certain size, they're much bigger, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:45

They're yeah, they're they're yeah, so that one is a uh cognac cask right there. Okay.

Jamie Flanagan 45:52

Yeah, yeah. All right, so they're about double the size, right?

SPEAKER_04 45:55

Yeah, yeah. Well, for the cognac, the Madeira's slut is in between kind of that and like our standard American white oak barrel. All right.

SPEAKER_06 46:04

Who's that? Is that considered a full barrel or three-quarter barrel?

SPEAKER_04 46:07

That's full barrel. Well, what are you considering a bourbon barrel?

SPEAKER_07 46:10

Yeah, so so so the boy barrel is about uh 53 gallons, right? The bourbon is 53 gallons.

SPEAKER_04 46:17

Yeah, so roughly I believe our wine barrels are close to 225 to 300 liters, which is you know, math bigger than 53 gallons.

Distribution, States, And India Launch

Jamie Flanagan 46:29

You know, so yeah, Shannon is worried about the additives. So besides being in your barrel, right, are there any additives?

SPEAKER_07 46:38

So, what do we do? Actually, I think you know, let me actually talk a little bit about the whole distillation of tequila, right? Oh my gosh, it smells so good. So it's not burning my nose. So that's wonderful. So so just like how you guys see it here, right?

SPEAKER_08 46:51

Right, right.

SPEAKER_07 46:51

So we got the column still and the part still. So we use the same concept in Mexico. So they got column stills and part still. So all the tequilas are a combination of both. So then we mix them up together, right? And then actually there's blending magic to it as well.

SPEAKER_04 47:07

But the what the key component, I think, is like starting out with good agave, right? So it's not cheaping out and saying, hey, my agave is two, three years old. Let's start cooking it. It's like, no, it gets mature flavors just like whiskey gets mature flavors in a barrel. It's proper age agave and exactly where you get it sourced from.

SPEAKER_07 47:26

Good old age, I'm sorry, where you source it from as well.

SPEAKER_04 47:28

Yeah, and so the distillery we're partnered with actually owns all of these agave fields, so it's actually their agave. So the quality control is there from the very beginning to the very end.

Jamie Flanagan 47:37

I don't know, because we've I've I had an old fashioned, we had that, we had that, we had that. Am I getting a little jalapeno-y kind of I like to call it bell pepper, which is like a classic tequila thing. Okay, I'm getting a little like a jalapeno-y, spicy, pepper-y kind of thing on it.

SPEAKER_04 47:53

Maybe you're maybe you're tasting a little rye coming through. Right. Yeah, I don't know.

Jamie Flanagan 47:57

I mean, because we've had a lot of stuff in and out of these glasses.

SPEAKER_04 47:59

The vet I call that like the vegetable, it's the vegetable component of tequila. Yeah. One thing we were really going for when we were making it was, you know, there's tequilas that are on the side of like just cooked agave flavor. There are some that are fully on like the vegetable side, that bell pepper, black pepper kind of flavor in it. And yeah, like black pepper corn almost. And then we're going for that in between. I wanted cook agave and that vegetable flavor together.

SPEAKER_06 48:26

Sweet chili flavor, not really the bell peppers, not as sweet. You get that sweet chili, you get that little complex flavor to it.

Jamie Flanagan 48:31

There, yeah. And I'm getting, I just there's something like green, like uh fresh. It it it's I'm getting like it's like on the on the skin and on the skin of something, right?

SPEAKER_01 48:42

Yeah, it's more fresh than the other peppers. So I see the green what you're talking.

Jamie Flanagan 48:47

It's not it's not green, but I mean that that's I'm just it's like fresh green. It's not it's not grassy, it's crisper. Crisper, yeah. It's not you know, it's not like an apple crisp, but yeah, it's a it's a crisper thing. There's a there's something in there because sometimes when we're doing rye, they're like green, they're like grassy. Sometimes ryes are grassy, green, all heat, yeah. Sometimes all heat, you know.

SPEAKER_04 49:09

Yeah, well I would say this is a different kind of green. It's agave's completely different, but like when I would talk about green with a whiskey barrel, like that would be not something I'm into. But I I like that this is like this is like the fresh agave kind of coming through.

Jamie Flanagan 49:24

We and again, we're we do a lot of whiskey, we do a lot of bourbon, and we venture out to gins and and vodkas and tequilas and and wines and beers and and all to us. Yeah, and and uh what's in the box? Send us a box of that and we'll talk about it. But uh for sure. And uh describe the sugar cooking.

SPEAKER_04 49:42

Yeah, and this is and that's like it's partly the barrel, but it's partly the just the cooked agave flavor. It's so hard to describe if you've actually never chewed on a piece of cooked agave. It's it's different than agave syrup that you'd put in, you know, cooking or tea.

August Gitshlag 49:58

I use agave syrup for my own.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

It's just like a cookie, like a very like sugar cookie, shortbread cookie.

SPEAKER_06 50:06

I do I do see like the syrupy flavor you're talking about, but it's not like thick syrup, but it's like a you can see the legs you're talking about. Yeah, they get it. But I can say I never chewed on a piece of Magabe before.

SPEAKER_04 50:15

Most people don't if you know I haven't been down to Helisca.

August Gitshlag 50:17

Yeah, I'm here for it. Yeah, all right.

Matt Fox 50:19

So I've been very quiet because I'm just sipping here on this tequila.

Jamie Flanagan 50:23

Tequila on a Wednesday night.

Matt Fox 50:24

I am I am not the biggest tequila fan. I I'm I'm self-proclaimed. I really don't like tequila all that much. However, this is beautiful. I would definitely want I want to take that home. Yeah, we can make that happen for the low, low price.

August Gitshlag 50:43

49.99. 490 bucks in a little tax there with it. Yeah, yeah. That's in your that that's definitely a little help.

SPEAKER_06 50:51

You know, all right.

Jamie Flanagan 50:53

So the tequila expressions, the the the the the whiskey, the bourbons available in our retails. Um, are you are your are your are your tequilas out there as well?

Pricing, Availability, And Store Picks

SPEAKER_07 51:05

So verticulos was first launched in 2024 and November, right? I think we're in probably about 150 stores in Michigan. We are in also a number of Meyers and a number of other local stores here. It's going pretty fast.

Matt Fox 51:21

Yeah.

unknown 51:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 51:23

We're in total wine, Myers, a lot of local good district stores as well.

August Gitshlag 51:28

Along with uh Wana in Florida selling uh a decent amount. Yeah, you mentioned doing some barrel picks. Do you do barrel picks with local party stores here or just in all of your markets?

SPEAKER_04 51:38

Yeah, so if you just have a go ahead, go ahead and say if talk about that. If you know uh Bernstein's liquor, oh yeah, they're they're they're ballers, yeah. That's uh those are the big boys dropping on Friday, drop it on Friday. We got a barrel pick with them right on it's gonna be the barrel pick of our high rye, and it actually was the barrel that we won a gold at San Francisco Spirit Awards with. That was the that was the award-winning barrel for us.

SPEAKER_05 52:03

That's a big deal. We also have three tastings on Friday. Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_07 52:07

I don't know, and we also have a uh like you know another uh master decay store in Sylvan Wines and Sylvan Lake. Sylvan Lake, okay.

August Gitshlag 52:15

And we also got the West Side in the North. When are you gonna come to the east side, dog?

SPEAKER_04 52:19

Um Eastside Cats, you know, Woodward Woods, but also Woodward Corner, like Meyer did a store pick with us.

August Gitshlag 52:26

Yeah, that's yeah, my store wine snow like it. Yeah, we're gonna get you into the wine garden and get you to meet Big Tony in St. Claire Shores. He's a great one. You gotta meet Wine Garden, the guy boys at the AB guys, Yvonne and those guys at AB Liquor do a lot. We get a lot of barrel picks with them. They come on the show a lot. Um, they have a few times, and who else? Hey, Caicos folks are always good with the cards. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah. They're always good with us, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 52:53

Yeah, we woke up Steve and Wow, that's uh the so gin and vodka. We're gonna come back and do gin and vodka, and we'll talk about it's not as cloudy out, a clear sunny day. But Berthaus, what in your adventures so far? This is how many years have you been doing this? Six years now. All right, so six years. What is it? What do you have a favorite child? Do you what what has been your like, oh my gosh, this this this I because you can't pick, you know, it's like your favorite child. But is there one that was like, wow, this was really surprising, and I really, really enjoyed this part of the project?

SPEAKER_07 53:32

So, you know, you know, I enjoy many people enjoy it. Okay, like the tasting room, right? Right, people coming in and sharing with you, right? Like, so like I every Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights, I get texts from my friends about they're drinking Reserve 102, right? But I think you know, I'm I'm looking at much bigger, right? You know, I really want to take you know our American craft spirits global. I want to I want to have people around the world talking about our products. Okay, I think actually our our our bourbon is doing phenomenally well, and we also you know talking about launching you know something cool like like a Detroit Reserve, which is a Michigan product worldwide. And I like like it's funny. Like I like I went to a bar in Bangalore, India, South India, and I asked them, okay, give me a watch just Detroit Reserve. He said, Oh, you want a Detroit? That's cool. I said, Man, that's a good thing. That's pretty effing cool. That's pretty cool. You know, I get a kick out of that, right? Yeah, and I'm looking at like something like that, you know.

August Gitshlag 54:44

I mean, I'm not gonna let you be this diplomatic on the question. I'm gonna phrase it differently.

Matt Fox 54:49

All right, get it. I'm gonna sit back and watch.

Tequila Production, Barrels, And Profiles

August Gitshlag 54:53

You know, you're gonna you're going on the Orient Express. It's a you got five days on a train, and you're gonna meet people on this train, you get one bottle of your product you're gonna bring with you. What are you bringing on the train? Rizou 102. Hey, that's a like what's your baby, what's your baby? I mean, yep, great answer. And I love the Detroit and India thing, but we want to know like that's your thing. Like, this is what I'm showing up. But I'm telling you, but I'm proud of one.

SPEAKER_07 55:17

That's great. One on two, you know, meaning uh all in.

SPEAKER_05 55:20

Well, flip it back to them. What would you take out of what you tasted?

August Gitshlag 55:24

Oh, if I could take that to the Madeira, the Madeira.

Jamie Flanagan 55:27

Oh, that was insane. That was that was insane.

August Gitshlag 55:31

But that's only because I haven't been over there and had the sherry one and I haven't had the other ones, you know. I already know my girlfriend's got the tequila and her carry-on, so I gotta they don't have to worry about that. It's already there, it's in the house right now on our on our shelf next to our wife's stuff. We have that in the shelf.

SPEAKER_05 55:46

So I just think the the 102 is is I don't want to say a daily drinker, but it's a daily drinker.

August Gitshlag 55:51

Yeah, it's smooth, it's 102-proof.

SPEAKER_05 55:53

You don't feel that big merm.

August Gitshlag 55:54

But that's not that flavors here. And that's that's what you want.

SPEAKER_01 55:58

Yeah, any time of the night.

August Gitshlag 56:00

No, and that's what you want. You want that one that you get that's drinkable, that people are gonna have one or two watching landman. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 56:09

I'm gonna pour for you and you drink it. I get it for that.

SPEAKER_04 56:12

Something you're also like happy to drink neat, and you don't have to make an old-fashioned, which you know is what we do at home. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 56:19

We only do old-fashioned out of the back.

SPEAKER_04 56:21

Yeah, this it's a safe choice getting the old-fashioned, right?

August Gitshlag 56:24

I make them at home.

SPEAKER_04 56:25

Not every place.

SPEAKER_01 56:26

Oh, you didn't have the one I was used to.

SPEAKER_04 56:31

Yeah, that one's a good one.

Jamie Flanagan 56:33

I don't know what's name to like I said, there's so many different expressions. And again, we didn't even we didn't even bounce over to the vodka or gin. And I I really would. So, I mean, if if you guys would be able to do that.

August Gitshlag 56:47

Yes, please come back.

SPEAKER_07 56:49

Please come back. You know, you guys need to really come back. We should really talk about the gin. We should really talk about the vodka because then I'll I'll be on time the next time. Yeah, 100 one 100 Michigan made.

Jamie Flanagan 57:00

Oh, it's in that that that's a thing. I I love that.

unknown 57:05

I love it.

Jamie Flanagan 57:05

Um all right, so we're gonna wrap it up. We're gonna we're gonna have a couple more cocktails. All right, so but one last time, let's get everybody where where to go.

SPEAKER_05 57:14

Websites and marketing marketing felt the main one is www.shankardistillers.com. All right, and that's our main website. We have a www.900 grottos tequila.com. Nice, nice. And then if you want to buy online, we have buy varchaswhiskey.com okay, or buy nine hundred grottos tequila.com.

August Gitshlag 57:39

And you don't need the www for those, right? You don't need those.

Jamie Flanagan 57:45

Liquor is so hard. It's like, you know, thank you, government, for getting involved in our lives more than we want. Oh my god, we're here to how do you get labels and and bottle approved because these are very intricate labels. It's like I uh is labeling a nightmare. Yeah, we've talked to so many people, it's like it's a it's it's a whole job in and of itself.

August Gitshlag 58:05

And in the beer industry, where it's a different beer every month, it's even harder to do it.

SPEAKER_05 58:08

A lot of planning, a lot of design, a lot of work around it. It's taking Shankar's story into play. If you look at the bottle, that is Shankar's story. The front eagle, the double-headed eagle, is from his kingdom of mice or where he was born. I love it. The top American eagle celebrates his American dream that he's putting together.

SPEAKER_06 58:26

What I like is the shape of the bottle, it's not the standard.

SPEAKER_05 58:28

If you notice, it's a shape of a V. It's a shape of a V, like Varja's. Yeah, I I love it.

August Gitshlag 58:34

I think that, and this is just a crude observation that by the bottle shape, people old people would think it's a brandy. I can kind of see that. Maybe they would have it as a brandy shape bottle for older folks. Like there would be a 10 stamp on it. Well, I've seen I I had you know, grandparents at the bar that had tax stamps on the stuff, you know, and those are like brandy bottles had that unique shape, but now it's just being a little unique shape, so you stand out. It's sexy. There's so many damn bottles in the shop.

SPEAKER_05 59:04

It's a sexy bottle, it's got the nice V, the nice Eagle on top.

August Gitshlag 59:07

Just say no, it's it's it's it's damn sexy. It is now I'm done jerking you off.

SPEAKER_05 59:12

Hey, you were talking about my breasts earlier. Come on.

Jamie Flanagan 59:15

Uh so we're gonna put all those links in the bottom. Marshalls, gentlemen, thank you for letting us invade your space. And thank you for the fours. This has just been amazing, and they're really wonderful. So thank you. And we'll come back if if you'll have us.

SPEAKER_04 59:32

Yeah, no, no, we're gonna you guys can come live at the uh the gin launch we're gonna do in April.

SPEAKER_07 59:39

Yeah, we all right, let's mark that. We're gonna gin launch in April, we're gonna sink a demay in May, but you know, most importantly, thank you guys for coming in. Thank you guys so much. Okay, I appreciate it. Cheers, everybody uh we gotta do the whole like and subscribe and all the things.

SPEAKER_06 59:55

Oh, yeah, podcast things and all the podcast places.

August Gitshlag 59:59

All right, thank you, Spencer Jennifer, for joining us.

unknown 1:00:02

Thank you.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:04

No, anytime, anytime. No, thank you.

August Gitshlag 1:00:06

All right, folks, good night.