Episode 8 - NEW DISTILLERIES

In this Episode we try whiskies from 'new' distilleries over in Scotland - The Nc'Nean Quiet Rebels Gordon, Holyrood Ambir, and the Aberargie Inaugural Release!

For the first time ever we actually have two interviews for our 'Cask Me Anything' segment - Niel Hendriksz from Aberargie Distillery, as well as Rob and Connor from Holyrood Distillery. 

Make sure to tune in for which of the three whiskies is our 'must buy' from these new distilleries - and we hope you enjoy the show! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_08 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome to the Last Call Whiskey Podcast. I'm Jeremy. I'm Travis. Hey, it's John, the Dark Cloud. We are three friends from Western Canada. We love all things whiskey, and tonight we are going to try three whiskeys from new distilleries. We have the Nicknee and Quiet Rebels, the Holyrood Amber, and the Aberari inaugural release. Let's get the show going.

SPEAKER_06 0:34

Sweet, let's do it. We have uh first tonight, boys. Our first, not double, triple interview. Yeah. Yeah. This is we're breaking new ground. Coordinating this was not easy, uh timing-wise. And but we have two interviews, one with uh Neil Hendricks from Aber Argy Distillery, and then the second interview with Rob Carpenter and Connor O'Keefe from Holyrood Distillery, back to back, three people explaining to them how this all works and why we're waking them up at 5:30 in the morning, six in the morning. And it's all of it and how like they got the invite for the podcast, and they're like, I thought we were going at 6 a.m. Why is the invite for 4 a.m.? Oh, yeah. I had to explain, like, we don't just jump right on with you, we record for like an hour and a half, two hours first. So uh, anyways, I think we're gonna nail it.

SPEAKER_08 1:36

I think it's gonna be fun. It's a lot of people I talk to are surprised that we do it all live. I'm like, well, yeah, we just give her. Yeah, peep breaks are live. They are live, they're like it actually happens.

SPEAKER_06 1:52

Um we just had Jerry, you weren't here, unfortunately. We missed you, but uh, I had on our little sheet here. But drams for fans, we're already two weeks, Sean, post-drams for fans. It doesn't feel like it was two weeks ago, it feels like it was last like last three days ago. Yeah, it was uh well, two weeks ago tonight would have been the VIP brown bag tasting slash karaoke night. And then uh tomorrow, two weeks from tomorrow was the main event. Uh finally calculated all the totals $35,000 raised for the food bank this year. So that's awesome. Real work, guys. That's so sick. Super cool. Every time every time it happens, you're just like, Jesus.

SPEAKER_07 2:36

Like I know leading up to it, Trav, you and I talked about it, and we were kind of like, you know, 30 grand is a is a admirable goal to try and get to, and then the VIP night kind of kicked it off. And I was like, I was like, man, we like yeah, we might get over 30 grand, and then you sent out a total a couple days after, and then had to edit it.

SPEAKER_06 3:01

Well, no, it's it's the fact of the matter is I'm not an accountant. You get all these numbers, and then there's money coming in right to the charity, and there's it's like it's there's there's money coming from different places, and being not an accountant, I just subtracted the uh income sources from the expenses, and it equaled like I don't know, whatever it was, 32 or 31. I was like, oh, that's not bad. But then I realized that most of the expenses had already been paid, but I was still subtracting them from the main. I was like, Oh, I'm such an idiot. So uh yeah, anyways, $35,000 raised for the Edmonton Food Bank, and in total, 130 plus 30 is 160 plus 30, like 190 people through the doors over the weekend. So yeah, this is awesome. Huge thanks. We did for the first time ever. Uh Pam and Chelsea from Dramfind hosted a whiskey women panel on the Saturday. So Jamie Johnson, the national brand investor for Glenn Fittick and and uh the Balvanie, as well as uh Caitlin Quinn from Alberta Distillers and Reese Sims, who is with Flavor Camp. So the three of them did an event to kick things off on Saturday, and then that was pretty much sold out. I think it was the room felt very full. I don't know if they sold it, but it felt full.

SPEAKER_07 4:26

I know I know every seat was sold, and there was like a couple people that couldn't make it last minute, whatever, but yeah, like it was sold out for sure.

SPEAKER_06 4:36

Yeah, and it was really cool format, like it was like a live interview while we sipped on whiskeys from each of the brands, and then the main event just got crazy, was live auction town, where you know it was like we auctioned off a whiskey tasting and homemade donair making night, basically. 20 25-minute long presentation for it. Our director of donaires talked for 25 minutes about donors, where to buy your donair meat, where to get your pitas. It was it was too long, but also quite hilarious. And we raised, I think that package raised almost $1,400 for just you basically just come to my house. I'm gonna pour you some whiskey. He's gonna make you don't airs. That's it. It's that's the thing.

SPEAKER_07 5:19

The fact that he has a mobile donair spit is like the best thing ever. Yeah, he's got his own his own rotation. Yeah, basically, he sold it as like, have you ever gone to a donair shop and watched them carve the meat? And you've thought, I want to do that. Well, no, you can't.

SPEAKER_06 5:38

It's unreal. It's so good. So, yeah, that's gonna be a fun night, and my house is gonna smell amazing. Uh yeah, the night of we might have to cook the donair meat on the deck, anyways. It was awesome, good times. Uh, till next year. I'm already I already got like pretty much all the speakers lined up for next year already, which is very cool. Yeah, Dark Cloud's making a return. No, I think we're still banned actually. Still banned. That's okay. You're a two-year ban.

SPEAKER_09 6:11

I guess special two-year ban.

SPEAKER_08 6:13

I was laughing when uh I forget which chat it was in, but we were talking about Trav just banning everybody walking around. It might have been Caitlin, actually. I think it was Caitlin I was talking to. She's like, Trav was banning everybody. It's like you're banned.

SPEAKER_06 6:28

I banned, I banned. Caitlin's banned. She's still coming back, but she's banned from presenting for one year.

SPEAKER_07 6:34

Yeah, Igor, Igor's banned, and he said he's still coming out. He's already put it in his calendar. Amazing.

SPEAKER_06 6:40

Yeah you just get you get two years and then you're banned for a year. But if you if it's for misbehave, you're just you're banned just because three years in a row is too much. But if you misbehave, it might be two years. Like Sean, Sean, we don't even know what he did, but it's a two-year ban for two-year ban.

SPEAKER_07 6:57

I'm the only guy from the club that showed up to help set up. The only guy that showed up to tear down. I'm banned.

SPEAKER_06 7:04

No, there was more for this. No, I know. I'm just kidding. Uh all right. Happy hour headlines. We got music for this, don't we? We got music. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_05 7:14

I'm Ron Burgundy, and this is what's happening in your world tonight. Heroin. Next. Machine guns, flamethrowers, murder. There's no story here. We've just found that ratings go up when we say those words.

SPEAKER_06 7:28

Um, can I start? Yeah. Yeah. Do you have simply the best music by Tina Turner? I can find it.

unknown 7:36

Simply the best.

SPEAKER_06 7:37

Uh, for the second time in three years, PWS Imports on my hat and your hat, Chair. Uh voted best whiskey agency in Canada at the Whiskey Explorer Awards. Voted. So uh people across the country just decided that we are the best at what we do. I think the reason why people like us is because we're not making money, they must be getting good deals. That's I think we're passing on the ability to make money to them, and now they like us because they're getting good whiskey at good prices. That's what I think is happening. Good whiskey. Probably true. Whatever works. So I think if we want to keep this award, uh we just gotta keep not making money.

SPEAKER_07 8:28

Um there's uh speaking of awards, um Beaumore 21 Sherry Cask, world's best single malt at the World Whiskey Awards. I haven't tried the new one yet. I haven't tried the new one either.

SPEAKER_06 8:45

Is the 21 Sherry here? I know the 18 is. When I say the new one, I know we had the 18 before.

SPEAKER_07 8:51

Did we have a Beaumore 21 here before? I'm not sure, but like I know from the Sherry line we got the 12, the 15, and the 18. I think the 18 is here too, yeah. So the button, yeah, that's not available in Canada, one world's best single malt. Oh, I'm sure some people we know have that bottle. So how much is it? It's expensive. Yeah, I want to say it was like 350 pounds. Yeah, all 21-year-old Bullmore, like cherry cask, yeah. But probably 43%, I'm guessing. Yep. Um, our friends down the road in Bridgeland, their Innisvale whiskey got Canada's best single pot still. Oh, a little quick shout out to our friends at Bridgeland. Well deserved.

SPEAKER_06 9:38

I actually posted a Bridgeline the other day. I was going through some old pictures and I I found uh uh a trio of them. But how many other distilleries made pot still whiskey again? I'm not trying to knock Bridgeland. I'm very how many different distilleries made one of those?

SPEAKER_07 9:57

That's a fair well for sure. Macalone's does one because they've won the war, they've won, they've won the world's best pot still before. Um, if we're gonna talk Macalonies, um their ownerslash distiller, he actually got distiller of the year for the world at the world whiskey awards.

SPEAKER_06 10:17

Is it who are we talking about? Is it still that is it Graham McElhone? Yeah, is he still doing the distillery, or is it wasn't it great? Um Nicholson for a bit, or the the old lag booling guy.

SPEAKER_07 10:30

Well, uh Graham McElone is the one that won the award, so I hope he's doing the distillery.

SPEAKER_06 10:36

Yeah, well, he's like the face of this, he's the guy that's always reaching out, selling casks. Yeah, exactly. Wow, distiller of the in the world.

SPEAKER_07 10:45

I'm pretty sure it was world distiller of the year, yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, and it like made no news here. Like you'd think that would be big news. I could be wrong, I could be wrong, and it was just Canada's distiller of the year, but we got something, and I was like, I remember going through and like seeing it and was like, what what award was this? And I went back and was like, holy crap.

SPEAKER_08 11:09

Well, if we really want to blow this up, Sean, we can just do a live and we can announce it.

SPEAKER_06 11:17

You guys are done with lives.

SPEAKER_07 11:19

I mean no more lives.

SPEAKER_08 11:21

Uh there there is other news that we can we'll leave that for now. Um, you guys see this rumor? Am I out?

SPEAKER_07 11:31

Do I know about this? Yeah, I told you guys about it months months ago. Oh, okay. I'm staying out of it.

SPEAKER_08 11:38

Um, yeah, we'll leave that for now. Uh, this rumor, Sazerac offered $15 billion to buy rival Brown Foreman. Still a rumor.

SPEAKER_06 11:52

Yeah, I it's I've seen it a couple times, but the yeah, the the rumblings are that Sazerac offered to buy Brown Foreman for 15 billion.

SPEAKER_07 12:05

Okay, now there's in this economy. This is the second one because the first one that was rumored was Diaggio was trying to acquire Brown Foreman. Right, right, that's right. And then a bunch of people came out and said, Oh, this is just like conjecture and like a rumor, and then it was like within a couple weeks of that coming out, then it was Sazerac, and they like confirmed that Sazerac confirmed that there's talks going on, but that nothing official has been stated in terms of like an agreement or even money or anything like that.

SPEAKER_06 12:39

Do you do you wonder it must be like they must be sensing weakness? Like they they're like brown foreman because for Diageo and Sazreac to both make an offer, they must sense maybe Brown Foreman's in some financial trouble, and they're like, now's our time. And 15 billion is actually probably five billion lower than what they're worth.

SPEAKER_07 12:59

Like it's well um, but it's not brown brown foreman in the past, like say since January, has closed a couple distilleries and I think a Cooperage. So obviously, if they're like everywhere in the States right now for whiskey's hurting, but um they were kind of out in public with what they were doing about it. So yeah, I mean it could that could be the sharks sniffing blood in the water, yeah. That's kind of what I'm sensing.

SPEAKER_08 13:32

Um, interesting. Okay, I just did a quick Google search on Brown Foreman. Okay. Uh 13.07 billion US dollars.

SPEAKER_07 13:44

Is that what they're valued at?

SPEAKER_08 13:46

Yeah. 15 bills, probably.

SPEAKER_05 13:51

Interesting.

SPEAKER_06 13:53

Um Doug Douglas Lange, founder of Ardenho and um no, Stuart Lang. Stuart founder of Douglas Lang and Ardenno has passed away. He's he's like a pretty well-known guy in that in the industry. I mean, he's those are some big brands. Yeah. Uh it wasn't Doug, it was Stuart Lang that died.

SPEAKER_07 14:22

Yeah, he was the founder of Hunter Lang and Ardenno. Oh, it's Hunter Lang, yeah. Oh, I really so he was one of the Lang brothers that kind of went their separate ways. And right he started Hunter Lang, and then the the other brother started Douglas Lang.

SPEAKER_06 14:40

Oh, so it's the Hunter Lang people that started Ardenho, not the Douglas Lang people?

SPEAKER_07 14:44

Yeah. Are you sure?

SPEAKER_06 14:47

Yes, on 100%. Oh, okay. Uh, I really messed that one up. I shouldn't do the news headlines on news stories, I'm not 100%. Oh.

SPEAKER_09 14:56

Yeah, this one. The next one. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 15:01

Jerry, you go. Yeah, you have to take me, Jeremy. We got a Doug Ford update for everybody. Here we go. We didn't have much last episode, but here we go. Our favorite premiere in Canada. Okay, so still no more American boobs until the tariffs are lifted. But but cancelled plans to remove Crown Royal from LCBO shelves after $23 million deal.

SPEAKER_06 15:35

Yeah. So it's it's actually, I think there's more there.

SPEAKER_08 15:39

You gotta drag it down a bit. They're spending money in different areas of the drinks industry.

SPEAKER_06 15:44

Yeah, so it was like uh, hey, we're still moving the bottling plants to the states, but we're gonna buy a bunch of neutral grain spirit from this company, we're gonna invest in some marketing for Canadian products here, and right made it made it work. Um, and in the grand scheme of things, it's still a Canadian product. So, like I think Doug Ford, that was during like prime Doug Ford news were the headline moments, and he kind of was getting a little ahead of himself on some of these closures, getting a little crazy, dumping bottles out, yeah. It was it's when he won our hearts, and uh, but he's he's going on like all the news stations in the States, and he's like, Nope, none of the booze hits our shelves till the terrace are done. So he's he's not backing down, our boy, our boy Doug. Did you see the Doug Ford news this week?

SPEAKER_07 16:38

Has nothing to do with whiskey at all. But oh, go ahead. We're already talking about him. He uh now I don't know how true this is, but supposedly he bought his own private jet, and then people in Ontario found out like thought he bought it with taxpayer money. This is no way Doug Ford has 55 million dollars laying around, and that there's like memes showing up where it's like a Craigslist ad, like anybody in the market for a PJ? Uh it's yours, but I need it gone ASAP. Sold as is.

SPEAKER_06 17:11

Yeah, the jet didn't go over so well in in this economy. You can't go buying jets. The friggin' the what's the leader of Mexico? Is she called the premier? Is she what is she? She's a president, president of Mexico was flying like on a regular commercial aircraft a couple weeks ago, and Doug Ford, the premier of Alberta's buying jets. Ontario, yeah. Yeah, you can't sorry, yeah, you can't be doing anyways. Uh, enough about Doug Ford. Our premier just rides magic carpets.

unknown 17:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 17:47

Um, Beam Suntory. We're not getting political, Sean. Kinkade. Uh Beam Sun Tory scraps plans for this. Isn't this it's kind of news, but not really. They were gonna build a maturation facility in Scotland. It wasn't a distillery, it's just a match, it's just a cask warehouse. 191 million seems like a lot though. Uh, but they they canceled the plans, they said they're just gonna put the money into um other local warehouses that are already in place. So it's not it's not that big a news, but I'm probably not super surprised that they're not making a gigantic investment until things settle down a little bit.

SPEAKER_08 18:27

They're which like I mean, we just rework the existing facilities we have, we can actually save a hundred million dollars.

SPEAKER_07 18:34

Yeah, hold on, everybody. This whole topic's gonna come up a lot in this episode, especially. But yeah, it's uh in this economy.

SPEAKER_06 18:47

They should buy uh they should use the money and buy Doug Fortage yet. Yeah. Uh all right, new releases, Sean.

SPEAKER_07 18:56

What do we got? Uh so yeah, there's quite a few new releases. Um uh available in Canada, we're doing right, they have to be available. All not all of them, most of them. Maybe. Like some of them have just been announced. We're not sure if they're coming to Canada or not. Maybe, but um, you should take the first one, then I'll I'll take the rest after that.

SPEAKER_06 19:18

All right. Um, while we're gonna be sampling it. The Aberarhi inaugural, after all the talk, Sean's holding up the sample. Jar, sorry. It is it's finally coming, it's finally here. I think it's gonna be ready to go on shelves within the next week, maybe two weeks, depending on any issues uh with the provincial government. Uh, it is here. We're gonna taste it tonight. We're doing a launch tasting tomorrow with the managing, the uh managing director of the distillery, our buddy Neil Hendricks. And super excited about, but we'll talk more about Aber Argy later.

SPEAKER_07 19:53

We also with the bottles, you get this sick little leather band around the neck and snaps, and I wear it as a ring.

SPEAKER_06 20:02

And this is the only time those are part of the release. This is the only one. So if you want one of those leather bands, you gotta buy one. Good thing I stole two off the bottles from DraftRap. Oh, that was hard actually. Um, we have a PWS imports cask that just landed a little bit while ago, but it's it's in the market now. It's an Aaron distillery, but it's called Lacranza, but you know it's Lacranza is there, and I I they kind of jumped the shark a little with that whole thing, but um, too many distillery names over there. There's like lag, there's Lacranza, there's Aaron. They've lost me. I don't know what's what over there anymore. Um, this is just Lacranza slash Aaron, nine-year first built bourbon maturation for the whole time. It's a PWS cast, really nice spring summer whiskey, uh, if you like that kind of thing. And then um this one's not here yet, but it's the LaFroygue Willem Defoe release. I'm guessing it's NAS. Did you see an age on it? I think it said 16. Oh, okay. I don't know if I didn't, I didn't I just saw the big Willem down the box.

SPEAKER_07 21:11

Sorry, it's either 14 or 16, and it's basically the 10-year sherry cask, just older extra years, yeah. And extra and extra cost. Well gonna be extra. Um they went they went full fashion. It's like this is Willem by Willem.

SPEAKER_04 21:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 21:32

Like it's like he's Willem fucking defoe. He's not like an artist, or like I mean he's an actor, but like let's not go too far here. Uh, I like more the Offerman vibe myself, but oh well. Yeah. All right, I'm done with the releases.

SPEAKER_07 21:53

That would not be good for you. No. Sean never buys Ardbeg again.

unknown 22:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 22:01

Um, speaking of Ard Big, um, they just released their 10-year cast strength. So a lot of people have been asking for that for years. They kind of played on that with the launch, saying that it was like the most asked about committee release. Um, I've actually tried it, and I tried it next to the regular 10, and it's definitely like more powerful, way more PD, but it lost a lot of that like citrus fruit note that I love in the 10 year. Interesting. Um, obviously, it hits harder, it's kind of strength. It was, I don't know, like close to 60%, I think. Um, that is coming to Canada, I'm pretty sure. And then their other new release is the Faechile um committee release, which is called Dolce. And I'm gonna get I should have put it in here. I think it's another Marsala or Manzania finish, something like that. Now, okay, it sounds like it should be good, but the last few releases that they did with like fortified wines, like one of the um Dragon's Tales or whatever they call them. The Harpy's Tale, yeah, yeah. Like it was uh it was a Marsala, but it was they even like I don't know how true it is, but somebody said they used like 80 bourbon barrels and 20 of the wine casks for the blend. So um those are still sitting on shelves, so I'm sure we'll see this come here. Sticking on Isla, the Kilhoman 100% Isla Sherry cask. It's 11 years old. It's the first time they've ever used all sherry for the 100% Isla barley, which they grow, harvest, and kiln themselves on their farm. And it's because it's their barley and they do the the peating, it's only like 20 ppm, so it's less peated than the stuff that like Loch Gorm and McKear Bay. Um, I've tried that one and it is phenomenal. Like just lowering that PPM and the sherry cast, like it's just it's almost like the perfect kind of balance for them. Um, Lag of Ulin went away from Offerman and they released an 11-year sweet peat. Now, have haven't heard that. This is the one I don't know if it's come to Canada at all. Um, it's in the States, I'm pretty sure. And I'm sure if you wanted to, you could find it at an auction or get uh UK store to ship it. Um kind of varied responses on that that I've seen online. Um, our friends up in Fort McMurray, the maltmaniacs, they released their um well, they launched their private cask with Ben Romick, and it's a 10-year sherry cask. And we me and Trav tried it. It was at uh the bothy tasting that we had. Yeah, it's actually pretty good for sherry, like full sherry Ben Romick. It was pretty hot. It was hot, like I remember it being hot and fairly peated as well. And then um, there's two stacks: Polaris 4.2, which is full vintage mash bill from um our author friend over there that he did at Bowen. Um, so I actually got a bottle and a can of this. I haven't cracked it yet, but that's what Shane was talking about when he was on with us in uh in the March episode. Yeah, Finn O'Connor. Yeah, Finn O'Connor, yeah. Um, and then Lock Blowman announced this one special for me. They're 2026 British Open casks. So they they do two every year now. They do an NAS kind of like special edition, then they do a like an old aged one. So the regular one is uh Argentinian mallback finish, which I'm so stoked on. I love mallback, yeah. Yeah, and then the aged one is a 19-year-old tawny port finish. So that could be interesting as well. Um and then the final one is they just released two new uh Cadenhead Enigmas, and one is a 16-year-old blended malt, and it's Highland Park, Kilcarin, and Hazelburn blended together. So cool. Yeah, and the the price on that, like all Enigmas seem to be fairly they don't tell you what it is usually. Um, and this one was like when it launched, it was 75 pounds. So even if it's like even if it's double that, 150 bucks here, like that's uh that's a buy all day, as far as I'm concerned. Maybe maybe if it comes here, we'll uh throw it on an episode.

SPEAKER_06 26:52

And you and I just both bought the same bottle, I believe. We bought that Living Souls 99 and 1. Yeah, what's the deal with that one? It's 99% part bag.

SPEAKER_07 27:01

No, no, it's 99% 18-year-old Lecheg. Lecheg. And then 1% 3-year-old North British. And the story that they've sold with it is that it was a bottling plant incident where they accidentally vatted 1% of North British, three-year-old North British into it. Um, but like I have the 18-year-old distillery release Lecheg, and this costs significantly less. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 27:31

Uh so that's I'm looking forward to trying that. And then your whiskey's not out yet. We'll talk about it more next month, I think.

SPEAKER_07 27:40

It's probably better. I think May is when it's supposed to launch, sometime in May, hopefully.

SPEAKER_06 27:46

Because uh, your launch event we didn't talk about, but it was awesome. You did a great job, presented your whisky. Your whiskey's fantastic. But it's it's it's so old that cast strength was like what 44% or something like that. Yeah, but it smelt, it smelt exactly that my only knock on it was the finish was a little bit short. That was my only knock on it. That it it I could have smelled that whiskey for a day.

SPEAKER_07 28:10

It oh yeah, give me that cologne. I still have the sample sitting right next to me, and I probably sniff it right out of this bottle like a couple times a week that I'm home. Yeah, I'm I'm really excited.

SPEAKER_06 28:23

I I I snagged a bottle and we're gonna uh we're gonna pour it in a virtual event. Um, Jeremy, we should get on that one too. That'll be fun for you to join. Yeah, yeah. Urban cast bonanza, anyways. Yeah, uh, we'll we'll talk about your new whiskey once it lands probably next episode, hopefully.

SPEAKER_07 28:40

And then hopefully, Jeremy might know better, but we have our own podcast bottle coming out too soon. Oh shit, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 28:52

It's I don't know exact dates on that. Actually, here, give me one second.

SPEAKER_06 28:55

Well, can we why don't we just leave it? Yeah, let's leave that. We'll make it a bigger priority to talk about it when we're a little less rushed next episode because we're recording our next episode pretty soon anyway.

SPEAKER_07 29:06

Yeah, we're like two weeks away. Yeah, which is awesome. This one felt like it was took so long to get to, dude.

SPEAKER_06 29:12

Like a month and a half next month. Yeah. Uh for everyone that's listening. Sometimes we record early in the month and then it's like three weeks to a month until it comes out. Sometimes, like right now, we're recording April 24th for May 1st release. So April 24th, yeah. 25th.

SPEAKER_07 29:30

And that means Jeremy has one week to edit this episode.

SPEAKER_06 29:34

Yeah, like he's not busy enough. Yeah, exactly. Um, we have 45 minutes till our first interview. Should we pull the bunk? Yeah, let's pull the bunk. Do it. Well, tonight we're gonna grab some malts because we're gonna fight one of these whiskies.

SPEAKER_08 29:58

Uh I can't wait to see the price.

SPEAKER_06 30:02

I blocked them all, so you don't know. Killing me. Uh, whiskey number one, Nicknean, the Quiet Rebels Gordon edition. Pretty cool um series. Whiskey number two, Holyrood Amber and beer. It's spelled A-M-B-I-R, but it's just means amber. It's the Scottish Gaelic amber. They just switched the E for an I and called it Gaelic. And then uh number three, Aber Argy. So let's just let's get right into it. Let's do some Nick Nean. Sean, do you want to? I think while we're kicking off, maybe just tell people a little bit about the distillery before we start doing the whiskey. Is that maybe the better way to do it? Uh yeah, we can do that for sure. Just like a quick little like what Nick Nean's deal is because they it's a pretty cool distillery.

SPEAKER_07 30:55

Yeah, so uh obviously we're it's a new new distillery episode. So uh they were founded in 2013, but didn't start distilling till 2017. Um they're in the Western Highlands across the Sound of Mole from Tobermory, so they're kind of like kind of up near Ardenberkin and Ben Nevis, kind of like that general area. Across the across the Sound of Mole from Tobermory, too. They're like right across the yeah, yeah. So like if you go across the water in north, you go to Ardenberken. If you go across the water in south, you go to Ben Nevis and Oban, and they're kind of like across the water straight over there, so yeah. Um, Annabelle Thomas, she's the uh the owner and founder. Um, and she actually built it on her parents' estate, which is so pretty cool.

SPEAKER_06 31:49

Obviously, put a bit of money and land costs, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_07 31:53

Um capacity right now is a hundred thousand liters a year, and they have remained completely independent because they raised a lot of capital through multiple rounds of funding. They're basically crowdfunded. Um, they got 40 to 50 private investors all in on it. Um, so yeah, I mean that's super cool. Super um, their ideology is to leave the world better than we found it, and they are net zero. It was the first distillery in the UK to be verified as net zero for its own operations, so that's a pretty big deal. Um I do this next one, yeah. Go for it.

SPEAKER_06 32:35

Because I I watched an interview with Annabelle today, and it was like uh it wasn't really a whiskey interview, it was more like a guy who does like an environmental kind of podcast. And he asked her about like what are sort of like the main things that make you like an eco-friendly distillery, and she talked about three environmental sort of 100% like pillars of their sort of eco-focus. So, one was their biomass boiler, so they use wood chips to produce the steam that runs distills, but it also like that the heat also heats the whole distillery, like everything in the distillery. These wood chips they get from the a local forest, it's within two miles of the distillery, so they're not like hauling the stuff in on big trucks or anything, right? And then um every time they take one of those trees out of the forest, they're replanting at least one tree every time. So that's one. Second one, 100% organic barley, which she mentioned in another interview that she thinks it gives it like this really good creamy quality. Um, so that's two. And number three, they found a recycled glass bottle supplier. Um, so those are their big three that they yeah, beautiful bottles. Um, so yeah, I found the interview really interesting because this is like a big part of what they do, and um seems like they're doing a pretty good job of it. I think I think I already covered the next one too with the organic barley, Sean.

SPEAKER_07 34:04

They use uh innovative yeast as well. Um, it's kind of experimental and non-traditional. They use some rum and wine yeast to pull out specific fruit esters out of the out of the wash. So yeah, it's um I remember first hearing about them years ago, and obviously their bottles capture the eye, and I was like, oh, that's cool. And then we were lucky like a few years ago, our our kind of promotion group that we had with a bunch of friends, they sent us all a bottle of it, and we got to try it. And that's I want to say it's one of the first releases they had, and yeah, it was super young, but super super tasty. You could see that there was potential that it was gonna grow, and then um, this one like pretty damn cool.

SPEAKER_06 34:52

Yeah, so the series, the quiet rebels series, is the rebels are the workers at the distillery, so they're quiet rebels in the sense that you know they're going about their thing, but then in a way they're rebels because of all the how different they're going about running this distillery. So Gordon, I believe, is the distillery manager. Uh, yes, distillery manager who's been there since the beginning. So uh for this whiskey, he um what was it say? He wanted a deep fruit influence for this one. So he went with 74% str red wine casks, shave toast and re tart rechard. He's uh every episode, Travis. Uh shave, toasted, and recharge, nineteen percent X sherry casks, and seven percent X Rvasaltes, which is a French fortified sweet wine. It's a lot like a Pacero de Santelia de la cask. So, anyways, this is Rebels uh Quiet Rebels Gordon. What do we think?

SPEAKER_07 36:24

48.5 percent, and it's kind of a common theme, like all three whiskies are 48 or 49 percent this month, which is cool. We don't never usually have that is three whiskeys that are all similar in proof. Um like I tried these blind last night, and my initial notes was that it just it smelled and initial taste was just like a standard whiskey. Like when you think of just like a uh a whiskey palate nose kind of thing. Now I'm kind of pulling out a little bit of the the wine cast funk, which I didn't get at all last night. Um, like I actually thought blind that this was bourbon cast, and then to find out there's no bourbon cast at all is like bonkers. Crazy.

SPEAKER_08 37:15

It's uh do we know like ages of these three whiskies?

SPEAKER_06 37:22

No, we know they're all young-ish, but this one and the Aber Argy, based on what I found online, are both probably in that like seven to nine year range-ish, probably more like seven or eight, and then the holy root is probably a little bit younger, uh, because the distillery is younger. So, yeah, let's just say we don't know. Okay, so I poured this blind. This is when I messaged you guys last night. Same thing, and I think we need to do this every episode is to pour them blind first, and we kind of give our initial rankings, but it's also a really good reminder that you gotta come back to whiskies, you cannot go after that first that first taste. I was downstairs watching hockey with with my son and you know, paying attention to the whiskeys, but also not like we are tonight. Yeah, I just thought this was a really, really well blended, but I thought like mostly bourbon cast, maybe with a sherry finish of some sort. And then when I saw the casting, I was actually a little bit surprised, like Sean said. Yeah, I would say I'm getting more out now, especially on the palate. Um, getting some of that like tannins like in in the top of the mouth. It's giving me like some sherry cast stuff, but it's a very well-made whiskey.

SPEAKER_07 38:37

Yeah, like I get a lot of like the typical bourbon cast, like it's very honeyed, kind of vanilla caramel, that line. It last night, and again, diet, whatever, stress of the day, which I didn't have any yesterday because I slept unlike Jeremy. Um, you know, that plays uh a factor. You can taste the whisk the same whiskey two days in a row and can be completely different. Totally. Um tonight I'm getting a little bit more of the fruit coming through than I did last night, which is nice. Um, I got I think I said that this was the least spicy or like least ethanol-y, like least hot of the three last night, and I'm I'm still not getting much heat off of it. It's not burning at all, not prickly. Um, but it just seems to be such like a nice rounded overall whiskey, kind of medium finish on it. Like I took a sit, talk for a bit. I can still kind of taste it. It's not lingering forever, but I mean, I don't expect young whiskeys to have a super long finish, anyways. But yeah, I mean, I'm not I'm not mad at this at all.

SPEAKER_08 39:51

It's I was just gonna say that it's like the nothing to be mad about with this whiskey. It is um just kind of in every sense of the way, as you sit through and experience it, you're like, yeah, it's all just kind of good. Like it's but there's nothing that jumps out as like, oh, I wish this or I wish that. It's like, no, like there's it's all kind of good.

SPEAKER_06 40:20

Well, we tried to get um the owner and and uh founder Annabelle on the show, it didn't work out for her. Um, but I I would be curious to ask her, like, it doesn't really say, is this all like full maturation and then blended, or was it were like these casts that were originally bourbon and then they finished them in these casts and blended them together, but they're just that's just what they're showing. Like, I it just doesn't feel to me like full maturation 74% STR. And I'm not saying it's not there, it's very much there, but it just doesn't feel like full maturation STR, X Sherry, X X fortified wine to me. Yeah, we got questions to Annabelle. Yeah, well I'll see you know what her and I are we have each other's email, I'll email her, I'll ask her, and I'll just say we need some answers. Um answers. But that it to me, it's actually probably a better whiskey because I think it's almost more balanced. And I think if it came across with as much of all that, it might have been too much, but it's quite it's it's it kind of reminds me a little bit of like like the Japanese whiskeys, and this is very well blended, very well made. Doesn't like jump off a shelf, like pop you in the face, like, oh my god, this is mind-blowing. But you're like, this is really good, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 41:41

Yeah, well crafted, well blended, just poor for anybody. Yeah, and I was gonna save that for like our review part, but yeah, this is one that you literally could pull off the shelf for anybody that just wants a nice solid-made whiskey.

SPEAKER_06 41:57

Yeah, and they're all newish distilleries. Let's say newish because like 2017 for two of them, 2018. So, like the youngest distiller here is still seven years old. But for this one, I don't get any useful notes at all on the whiskey. Yeah, I agree on this one.

SPEAKER_07 42:14

No, like blind, if you were to put this in front of me and tell me it was a 10 or 12 year old, I would say, yeah, I I could see that.

SPEAKER_06 42:20

Yeah. Uh producer tasting notes quickly, wine soaked red berries, honey, and a hint of creme brulee. I'm okay with all that because it didn't say, you know, like in previous producer notes where they're like saturated red fruits. Yeah, like to me, wine-soaked red berries, I could easily, and then that honey note is there. Uh on the palate, spiced plum jam, candied orange people peel, and apricot. I I think those are great notes for this whiskey, actually. Yeah, yeah. I think they are too. Like, there's not a lot of like dark plum jam is a nice note, actually.

SPEAKER_07 42:58

Yeah. It's like there's not a lot of dark, dark fruits, but you get those like stone fruits for sure.

SPEAKER_06 43:07

Yeah. It's quite nice. Very nice. Uh, textured? What did you guys get? It says creamy on the end and lingering. How's the texture for you guys?

SPEAKER_07 43:21

I wouldn't go as far as creamy, but it's not thin. Not thin at all. No.

SPEAKER_06 43:26

I think I think that's a fair analysis. Um anything else on that one. No, I mean let's move on. Okay. Whiskey number two.

SPEAKER_07 43:41

Holly is it it's Hollyrood. Not Holyrood. Funny story, uh, when I first moved to Edmonton. I mean Hollyrood should have two L's. No.

SPEAKER_06 43:50

Holy Holy Road is like if you're saying holy cow, it's one L. If you're saying Holly, like I don't know why you would say ball. But that's two L's. This is Holyrood.

unknown 44:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 44:10

Yeah. When I first moved to Edmonton uh back in '93, '94, um the neighborhood I lived in and the school I went to was Holyrood Elementary. And it was whole whole it was not Holyrood is Holyrood. Did they make why is there only one? Why is there only one Allen? Because it's Scottish. I don't have a clue. Holyrood Elementary in Edmonton is Scottish. No, the name Holyrood. Like in the off in the office, they had a picture of Holyrood Castle. Oh, really? Oh. And the Queen. She's the king now.

SPEAKER_06 44:48

All right. Let's you know what? Let's not even ask Rob that because he might think we're idiots. Yeah. Let's just leave. I don't want him to think we're stupid.

SPEAKER_07 44:56

He's gotta set a good precedent. I've met Rob a couple times. He's not he knows I'm an idiot. Yeah, yeah. He's well aware. Alright, we're fine then.

SPEAKER_06 45:05

Alright, whiskey number two. Uh can we sure?

SPEAKER_08 45:13

The uh there's a big difference in the uh nose on this one and the last one in terms of uh what I would guess an age would be compared to the last one. Does that make sense? This one it's giving me the uh it's giving me a little bit more of a younger whiskey vibe to it.

SPEAKER_07 45:40

That's yeah. The funny thing is last night I didn't get that at all, but I am picking it out a little bit tonight. Like it's not doesn't smell or taste new makey at all. No, no, no. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_08 45:52

That's not what I mean.

SPEAKER_07 45:53

Yeah, but it's it's I mean, even looking at the three side by side, it's the lightest of the three. Now that again could be casting, you know.

SPEAKER_06 46:03

Well, it is casting, but so let's go back quickly. Holyrood, they're the they're the youngest distillery of the three tonight. So that might explain this a little bit. 2019, they started distilling first distillery in Edinburgh uh in a hundred years, almost a hundred years. Over a hundred years. Over over a hundred years, yeah. Uh it was like yeah, 19, whatever. Um, the owners are Rob and Kelly Carpenter, who are Canadians who own SMWS Canada. They are big supporters of DRAMs for fans since the early days. Um, Sean, you go to all our tastings in Montin. Fantastic people. So there is a personal connection here, um, which is how probably we were able to get Rob to come on the podcast. Uh, and then David Robertson's the other owner. They are equipped to make 250,000 liters a year, uh, which is decent, but still really overall quite small. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 47:04

Now, in saying that, they also produce gin and rum at the distillery. Uh-huh. So that all that goes into those numbers as well. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 47:12

And you can make a hell of a lot of gin in a short period of time if you want. Right. So, and Sean, you can add to this, but I watched uh an interview with Rob today uh on YouTube. And basically, they're like the they're doing, they're basically taking the SMWS flavor approach and making a distillery based around the flavor. They're they're they're basically thinking about flavors as they're messing around with like yeast and barley, and everything they're doing is like creating different types of flavor. Like, I call them lock lamin light in a way, because of how many different things they're doing at the distillery.

SPEAKER_07 47:49

Yeah, they pull on every lever that you can pull on in the process to create different um, like their motto is test, learn, improve, repeat. Like it's perfect. So I have the first three releases that have come to Canada. Um, the inaugural was super cool. That's yeah. Arrival. Um, the arrival, yeah. And that has like a story behind it. Then there was, I think, a P did one, which is super cool, and did like I think they used a whole bunch of different casks in that one, or maybe that's the arrival. And then this one is they use like all sorts of different kinds of malt. Um, yeah, like distiller's malt, crystal malt, um the chocolate malt, and you know, they they use heritage malts that other distilleries aren't using, they use unique yeast, their their stills are seven meters tall, which is fairly tall for stills, and like they're in a like a classified storied building. It's like a whole train, uh an old train station, yeah. Like the offices from the train station. So, like to get seven meter stills in there, they had to do a lot of a lot of innovative movement of still to get it in there.

SPEAKER_06 49:08

And they have they have uh they have a triple distilled whiskey they make too there. Um, and they're experimenting with distillation time, so they're speeding it up, shorting it down, fermenting everything you can imagine, like you said, pulling every lever. So, like as whiskey nerds, when this whiskey starts to get and again, it's still this we're not saying this is, but when it starts to get 10 plus you, they're gonna have a lot of cool flavors in those casks. Totally. Yeah, from all of them.

SPEAKER_07 49:35

If you were able to try the three or four releases that have come to Canada, they are all completely different, which for a young new distillery to do that is pretty crazy. It's impressive. If you think of you think of Ardenho, like they're fairly standard in what they're doing. They've released you know a cast strength version, a sherry cask, a pyramid cask, but they're not like when you taste it, you know what you're tasting. Whereas you could pick up two Hollywood distillery releases, and they you wouldn't think that they're from the same place, which is I I find it super cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 50:10

Uh Jared, what is this whiskey? Uh, what is the casking on this?

SPEAKER_08 50:16

Yeah, casking. Let me pull this up here. Uh, so uh relatively straightforward. Um, 90% bourbon casks, mix of first fill and second fill barrels, um, and 10% oloroso sherry casks.

SPEAKER_06 50:39

Can we quickly tell people that you've been shooting at bars all week long and have had no sleep and probably zero preparation?

SPEAKER_08 50:47

I this is the least prepared I have ever been for a podcast. I was including the one including the one you had no whiskey for, including the one I had no whiskey for. I was shooting for Nika whiskey at 50 Best Bars pop-ups and the main event all week in Vancouver. I am three nights in a row between three and four hours sleep, and it's stacked, and then I ended it all off, and now I'm recording a podcast.

SPEAKER_06 51:17

So I'll just like throwing stuff at you, like, hey, how about I do this? How about let's throw in stuff at me. You jump in whenever you're ready, whenever you're comfortable. I don't want to put you like in a spot where you're like, I don't know what the fuck we're talking about here, Chap. It's all good. I don't yeah, I know. I don't I just didn't want to turn this into a hockey podcast, so I'm not talking about the orders game right now. I want to I don't want to get frustrated either. Uh so Sean, you talked about it, but this whiskey obviously not an age statement, but they're saying probably like around three to five years old. Uh, maybe Rob and Connor can tell us, but they're calling it a whiskey nerds dram because of the extreme transparency in the recipe, which has seven different specialty malts, chocolate malts, they got toasted malt, Vienna malt for body, caramel. Like this is the kind of stuff that they're doing with crystal malt, which is awesome. So cool. And again, when I tasted last night blind, it was it was well, we're gonna talk about I I was a little bit kind of like, oh, what is this? Now, when you see the recipe and you know about the chocolate malts, and you're actually like starting to look for that in the whiskey, you can pick out the crazy weird maltiness in this whiskey.

SPEAKER_07 52:36

Oh, yeah, and like like Vienna malt, I think is more of like a beer malt than uh like a whiskey malt. And the crystal malt, like Jeremy and I are very familiar with that because Bushmills did some crazy releases using crystal malt, and they're some of my favorite bushmills, so but like to add that in with all these other ones, like it's like a smorgasbord of malt, and this true smorgasbord of malt.

SPEAKER_06 53:09

Yeah, true. Again, I'm gonna go back to my first experience. I was a little bit like, yeah, I don't know. Tasting it again tonight and looking at it from a different through a different lens and again different palette stuff. I'm I'm enjoying it a lot more than I did last night. I don't know, but well, you enjoyed it last night too.

SPEAKER_08 53:33

You own the bottle, but yeah, you own the bottle. I tried mine this afternoon and then let them sit out. Um and I would say I'm enjoying it more this time around than I did earlier today. Um, I wonder if part of that is the influence of seeing some of the cool whiskey nerd shit that they're doing.

SPEAKER_07 53:56

Um like, oh yeah, this is actually really freaking cool. But like it goes to show you, like, even blind, like you have no preconceived notions about anything. Totally. And like, like I I sent to you guys when I tried all three, I picked which I thought was each one, and I got all three wrong. Yeah, you did. And I think I I think I did too, actually. Yeah, and like this one, I have the bottle, I've drank it, and I remember the first time I tried it, and kind of like I made a post about it and cracked the bottle, and I like I read about all this malt, and I was like, this is insane. So maybe maybe it was the familiarity because I have tasted it and I haven't really tasted the other two, but yeah, like even coming back to it tonight, I I enjoy it more tonight than I did last night, but I also enjoyed the Nick Neon more tonight as well. So is it maybe just whiskey is always better with friends and not by yourself? I was gonna say the same thing, like it yeah, not my 15-year-old daughter and wife pouring it blind while I'm upstairs getting changed, like I'm down sitting by myself, like oh, it's not the same.

SPEAKER_06 55:07

It's not the same, and but also talking it out and like reading the coolness, I think it just it gives you a level of appreciation, and and again, I would say the biggest knock on this whiskey is just a slightly youthful nose, but like again, not as bad as last, not bad, not as useful to me as it was last night.

SPEAKER_08 55:28

It's just and it's uh and I will say I think that the like when I directly started nosing this after the Nick Nindaway on the nose, I was like, Oh, it smells a bit younger, but the palette doesn't reflect it in the same way, I don't think.

SPEAKER_07 55:47

No, I don't think so. Yeah, I mean it is it's minimum two years younger than the other stuff, I would assume. Yeah, oh yeah, it is for sure.

SPEAKER_06 55:57

It is. Um, I'll just give the producers notes. Nose, caramel, caramel creamy fudge. So they're talking about a little chocolate, which is probably from that chocolate malt, which is that's there for sure. Yeah. Dimmerer sugar Scottish tablet. What the fuck is a Scottish tablet? Claire's gonna laugh at me. What is a Scottish tablet? It's an iPad that you buy at uh smells like that, and Siri has a Scottish accent. Tablets smell different in Scotland than in Canada.

SPEAKER_07 56:27

Oh my god. I know what it is, I think, but I'm just gonna search it up. Why do you just call it a cookie? It's like a medium heart sugary confection from Scotland. It's why do they have so many different names for treats over there? Condensed milk and butter, which is boiled to a softball stage and allowed to crystallize, and it looks like fudge. Oh, interesting. Just call it fudge. It's fudge.

SPEAKER_08 56:50

It's a tablet, Trav. Scottish fudge.

SPEAKER_07 56:53

It's literally made with butter, sugar, and condensed milk. That's it.

SPEAKER_06 56:56

Those three ingredients, that's it. I'm gonna disagree. I'm gonna disagree with their known on the palates. The red fruits, I'm not, I just that 10% sherry to me isn't giving it. I agree. Maybe I don't think I don't get that. To me, I'm getting the malts, I'm getting cereal notes. I don't get the red fruit, but that and then vanilla and cornflakes, which for sure I'm getting vanilla and cornflakes, finish biscuit, velvet texture, mouth wine texture is really nice. Yeah, it is nice.

SPEAKER_07 57:26

Yeah, I agree. It's creamy, like, and again, it's probably some of those malts in there, but yeah, it's it's it's creamy and soft. There's not a any bite to it. It kind of has like a nice kind of spiced finish, like spice might be the wrong word, but it's like the finish is there, like it lets you know that it's there. Oh, it's not super, it's not super long, but oh that's okay. It's five-year-old whiskey.

SPEAKER_06 57:54

It's like yeah, yeah, total, yeah, totally. Uh, it's 10 13. So we gotta get through Aberargy, we gotta get through by knock by in 17 minutes. We can do this, right? We can totally do this. No one's in the wedding room yet. Okay, uh, Neil's gonna sleep right to the last minute, anyway. We probably got to like 10:35, but we probably are gonna want a pea break by then, right?

SPEAKER_08 58:18

Yeah, I'm gonna want a pea break before we do the interviews.

SPEAKER_06 58:21

Before three interviews, okay. Aberargy. Obviously excited about this. We can talk, I could talk for hours about the whole story of how I know about Aber Argy, how I know Neil. We'll talk a little bit about the interview. Let's skip that for now. Uh, founded in 2016, first cask filled in 2017. So this whiskey that you're drinking could be anywhere up to nine years old. My guess is it's more like seven, eight years old. They are in Perth, just outside of Perth. Perth is considered highlands, but the actual distillery is like four miles or four kilometers south of the Highland Line. So it is a lowland, eastern lowland distillery. Barely. Would be fairly close to like St. Andrew's golf course, I would think. Uh, the owners, the Morrison family. So we'll talk about this a little bit with Neil. Um, but then in 1994, the Morrison family sold Beaumore, Okintosh, and Glengeary to uh Beams Centauri. Uh, that was the last time they made whiskey until Aber Argy. So they're basically coming back out of the woodwork after like 30 years, which is awesome. Um, they're a barley to Baldwell distillery, they have a 300-acre farm doing everything on site. You know what? We're gonna talk about all this with Neil. We can skip all this. It's let's talk about the whiskey, and uh, we'll learn about the distillery after. Does that sound fair?

SPEAKER_08 59:46

That sounds great, man. From my first uh go at this earlier today, this nose is popping. Yeah, me too. Like way more. Way more. Like very, very nice.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:06

Um, what I've said to most people about this whiskey is I guess we can read the stats quick. 50% first fill bourbon barrels and 50% first fill sherry. It doesn't say first fill on the whisk on the bottle, but basically they're only using first-fill barrels for now.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:26

What I love is that we got samples of just straight bourbon and just straight sherry. Yeah, I'm gonna drink those after.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:33

So you basically got the components that make up the whiskey, which is cool. Um, 48.2%, so very close to the Nicmean. And then because they're growing their own barley, they're growing Golden Promise barley. We'll talk about that more with Neil. But this is like a barley that they've stopped growing in the industry since like the 70s and 80s, because it's a low-yield barley, produces lots of field. We talked about this last yield, we've talked about this last episode. But the mix in this whiskey is 48% laureate barley and 52% golden promise barley. So think rich texture, typically from golden promised barley. That's the whiskey.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:16

Producer notes, rich layered whiskey with notes of baked apple and golden pastry, balanced by succulent sultanas and prunes, and a lingering herbal finish.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:28

Herbal finish for sure. It's man, this whiskey is popping compared to my first try with it.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:36

I've been telling people this whiskey it's it's kind of like the other ones that you're it's gonna be really hard to blow people away with whiskeys under 10 years old. Typically, that's just the way the world works. But this is to me a whiskey that is very well blended. Um, it's got some really cool components, like the texture, I think, is amazing. Um, and it's just a whiskey again. I go back to like a whiskey you would pour for almost anybody.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:02

It's crazy because tasting it last night blind, it was so funky on the nose, and it like felt disjointed is too strong a word. It wasn't disjointed, but it just felt like I was like kind of picking things out, and I realized that it's probably the complexity that I was getting is that I was getting a more complex mixture of of notes. Um, but tonight, like Jeremy said, it's popping, and I I don't think I did it in the same order last night because I did it blind, so and I was going back and forth to each of them as well, yeah, which is a little different than yeah, like my mouth is watering. I'm trying I'm having a hard time speaking because my mouth is so full of drool.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:51

That's what I'm experiencing too. It just man, it is obviously we're in like we're tasting these all back to back. This one my first try-through, I did them blind. My order was the Nicknean Aberargy Hollyrood. Um this time around, after it's sitting out for a few hours, it is like it feels like vibrant to me compared to the other two. There's just like it pops.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:25

Yeah. Um the the note that I've seen pop a lot is or come up a lot is pastry shop. And then that baked apple, like kind of it's like a really nice apple note, but that pastry shop nose, it's like it's like very much like walking into a fresh lots of fresh baked goods, ready.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:52

And yeah, actually, in Holyrood, where I grew up, there was a little tiny bakery in a strip mall that they demolished the whole strip mall to make room for LRT bullshit. Um, and that bakery, we used to go in there in the summer at like 10 a.m. and just grab like a thing of fresh cookies or whatever. And the smell every time you walked in there, if you walked in too early, it was just bread. All you'd smell is fresh bread. But if you went in there around 10 to noon, they were they'd started making all the cookies and cupcakes and stuff, so you're getting way more sweetness. But that smell when you walked in was just like, oh, if I could go back to that, so good.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:36

Well, and I think you get some of that here, anyways. It's it's just man, it's it's just really good whiskey. I I've obviously like been very nervous about tasting it and like trying to get not to get too excited. But the big thing with them is they waited, they were very patient, they had the ability to be patient because they they're a they're a family that's been making whiskey forever, they're a fifth generation family, but they have brands, they have McTal, they have Old Perth, they have Carmore. So this it's not like they're starting from scratch and just had to start pumping out whiskey. And that's not that there's anything wrong with that. Like, that's what Nick Neon's doing, that's what Hollywood's doing. You distilleries have to do that, that's fine. These guys didn't, they waited, and I would say the wait was worth it. Like it's just it's just good whiskey.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:28

I think so. When I tried these earlier, I felt like they were all like very close in experience. Um and this time through, I am feeling like the Abergy is it's pulling a bit more for me. It's man, but honestly, all three of these, I don't really have complaints on any of them.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:52

No. So okay, yeah. Like, do you want me to unhighlight the prices? Yes, I Are you guys ready to buy or not buy? Yeah, let's do it. It's gonna be tough. Okay, let's go through the three prices first. So McNeyan, Quiet Rebels, Gordon. Apparently, in SAC, it is available in SAC and it's quite cheap comparatively. It's like 108 bucks. 108 bucks? In SAC. But in Alberta and BC, it's 140 to 150. So why are we getting holes like that? Well, I feel like they probably sack probably was like, give us a good price and we'll buy a boatload up. Right, right. This is true. $207 is a that's a good that's not bad for that. Yeah, this is through Chat GPT though. So like maybe we maybe someone do a quick set SAQ search and just double check it, because uh that's a big difference, you know. Like I'll look it up. Yeah, you're looking to look it up. Yeah. Um so then there's the Holyrood Hollyrood Amber, and it's in the $100 to $115 range, which is very similar to so it says the Holyrood Amber's uh it's in Alberta and some private stores in BC. So in BC it's almost 150 bucks at the strap. So they don't have to think they are cold.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:28

Uh SAC does not, in fact, have this. The one that's 106 is the regular release, the one that we oh, there we go.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:39

Oh, okay. So that's yeah, take that right off. This is why you gotta double check things sometimes because that's the two weird.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:45

They do have two SKUs, but they have a single mold Aeon, a A-O-N, single cask, so a single cask, and it's 170.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:56

Okay. So let's just say Nick Mean is the most expensive. Hollyrood amber, up to 115, 100 to 115, depending where you buy it. Aber Argy is it's gonna be around 115, depending on the shop, but you'll see it. I'm already seeing it being pre-sold on a couple groups for like right around 100. So probably it's very close to Hollywood Amber, 100 to 115. Um, Jared, I don't know what might have happened there, but we lot my camera froze. I'm still here, I'm just resetting it. So there's your prices. I it's gonna be really hard for me to tell people to buy the Nick Neon for 140 to 150 bucks.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:44

Yeah, I just looked it up. Most most Alberta places have it exactly 140 to 150. That's that's gonna be tough for me.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:52

It's I will say, like, based on the experience of all three of these and them being fairly close, for there to be that big of a price difference on one would immediately jump me to the like I I enjoyed it. I enjoyed all three of these. Yeah, like younger new distilleries, no complaints on any of them, really.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:13

Um honestly, I think the price is has a lot to do with the organic. Like, right, organic is not cheap.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:21

Yeah, organic grapes are more expensive too. Yeah, but like I assume I assume that has something to do with the price. But you know, if we're just factoring in essentially, like the experience was good, fair relatively close with all three. 150 bucks for it. I'm gonna pass.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:44

Yeah, I don't think I could buy it for that. And I would say buy a tasting kit for that one. Totally. Yeah, buy a lost in translation tasting kit at whiskey drop, try it, it's really worth trying. And if you do love it, you can go buy a bottle, but at least you get to try it. Yeah, along with along with five other whiskeys in the kit, six total. Yeah, so then I mean, obviously there's gonna be bias here, but I don't even think bias comes into play like fully transparently. I would I think I think the aber argy is gonna be a must-buy for me at that price, considering the tasting for me.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:23

It's the aberargy has stood out for me this round. Um, the Hollyrood though, learning some of the stuff, because I came into this podcast blind, I didn't know any of the info or anything. Learning about what they're doing made me actually appreciate that whiskey. Um it's I don't know, like those are those are good. I will say the Aberagi for me was the most vibrant one tonight. After it sitting out for a few hours, going through them again, it felt like it popped. Um and if it's the same price as the Holly Rood, that would be the one I would go for tonight. But honestly, man, they're both pretty good. All three were good, all three were good.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:15

Like this is yeah, yeah. I think I think based on conversations, we probably well. Sean, you like the you like the Hollywood a little bit more than the Aber Argy, right?

SPEAKER_07 1:11:28

Or is that is that still holding true? No, tonight I think the Aber Argy popped a lot more for me.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:34

Okay, so why don't we do Aber Argy must buy? It's the first, it's the inaugural release, too, which is it's the only inaugural out of the three of these. So right, give it a little bit of kudos for that. Um, and we'll say the Hollyroot Amber, you you should probably buy. I think that's a cool whiskey. Those malts, the different, the different barleys, uh, I think is a really cool concept. And that whiskey really grew on me. If you can get it for around that 100-110 mark, I think that's a $110 bottle. And then let's go Nick Nean, Quiet Rebels, Gordon. We all liked it, but buy the tasting kit to confirm you like it before spending that money. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:20

And if you do like like this the story of Nick Nian and the fact that they're organic, you want to try it. Like, they have other releases in Alberta that are cheaper. And you can get this for a hundred bucks or so, right? Like, yeah, exactly. Like, I know I when I got the amber, I got it for I think it was on sale when I got it, it was 90 bucks. So at 90 bucks on sale, it's great. For me, that's uh that's a up buy for sure, but at regular price, like, yeah, I'm probably gonna grab the Av Ruggy. The fact that it's inaugural as well, like how many times do we see a first release from a distillery, and the price is well above where it should be?

SPEAKER_06 1:13:03

Yeah, I I've talked to several retailers in Alberta, and they're like, it's a very good price for a first ever release, especially with that age behind it. Um I will say with the Hollywood, like how many people can how many bottles in Alberta can you buy and be like, oh, this is cool. It's a Scotch distillery, it's in Edinburgh, first one in a hundred years. Oh, and the owners live in Alberta. Yeah, exactly. That's cool, it's a cool story. Hollyrood is a cool story, and their whiskey's only gonna get better and better. So it's yeah, yeah, must buy Abergate Augur. There's 80 cases coming to Alberta, they're gonna be all across the province. You'll be able to find one. Uh probably should buy Hollyrood Amber. Try the tasting kit first, Nick Mean. Rebels Gordon. If you love it, go buy one.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:56

Yeah, I agree. The Holyrood, I would say, is like the uh, it's kind of like the cool enthusiast kind of pick, right? It's like, let me tell you all these insane things that they're doing.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:09

Yeah, right. Uh Neil Hendricks just messaged me. We timed this perfectly. Said, ready when you are. We can have a quick is he in the waiting room? I don't think. Uh well, I might have to explain it while I pee, but all right, P music?

SPEAKER_08 1:14:30

All right, P music, let's do it. All right, guys, we are back. Post P. It is time for Cast Me Anything with Neil Hendrix Aberargi. Um let's bring him in.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:59

How's it going?

SPEAKER_08 1:15:00

Good. How are you this morning?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:02

Yeah, very well. Thank you.

SPEAKER_08 1:15:04

Thanks for waking up for us.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:08

Um you are most welcome. Let me just say, I've just got to see if I can get my earphones going.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:19

Neil, I was just telling them you were a guest on the old podcast as well. But I forget, I forget, I think we recorded that one late. It would have been early for you too, but I'm not sure. But uh yeah, you we appreciate you coming on nice and early. Not a not a problem at all. How's it going? Everyone's still sober? Quite a question of what we're we've all had we've all had crazy weeks. Sean just got back from his job up northern Alberta. Jar has been shooting uh a big top 50 bars in Canada festival all week long till like two in the morning. And I've been at my day job. So we're all we're all we needed this. This this was a very needed activity. And so we've already reviewed, uh, I think I told you we reviewed three whiskies first. So we're three whiskeys in and a couple Guinness. Nice. Um, but the Aberagi inaugural was the third of the three whiskeys, and we all uh it got our must-buy recommendation of the three. Oh, that's a good movie. Yeah, it did very well. Now, all three were quite tasty, but it was it stood out for us. So yeah. But I'm gonna let Jarek kick it off because he's the host of the of this of this part of the podcast.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:39

Of the cast me anything. So uh Neil, one thing that we always like to do when we bring a guest on is we like to start out with a little bit of like a quick origin story. So, like Aberargy, how did it all come about? Like, give us a quick little rundown.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:58

Yeah. Um, I mean, Aberargy, I suppose, started back when the Morrisons had Morrison Scotch whiskers, uh uh Morrison Beaumore distillers. So our owner, Jamie's grandfather, Stanley P. Morrison, purchased Beaumort Distillery in 1963. Um, and then went on to acquire Glengeary Distillery and Achantoshian Distillery and managed those brands with his son Brian Morrison uh until around 1994 when they sold majority of their shares to Santori. And and then there was a bit of a break. And I remember speaking to Jamie just before I joined the business, and um he said to me he almost felt it was his duty um to re-enter the the Scotch whiskey industry and build a distillery given his family background. So he almost felt obligated. Um, but he he bought a he bought a farm, Nether Netherton farm just south of Perth, about a decade ago, um, and built the distillery, Abergae Distillery, started building in 2016, and we started running the stills in October of 2017. And on the farm, um, you know, we we grow barley. On the specific farm, we go grow Golden Promise barley, and um, and from there we send the malt away to Simpsons to be malted and bring it back. And um yeah, so it's a it's a real barley to bottle operation. Um, and the site the site's probably bigger than most people think. I I think the the single most sort of surprise when people come and visit us is the size of the facility. You know, we've got a bathroom facility and and office. Uh, we've got the the actual distillery um that houses all the equipment you need to distill single masked cotch whiskey. We've got a a vatting facility and uh and a small warehouse, um, and we've got another big warehouse. So on site, we've got to store around 35,000 casks.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:28

Holy.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:30

Yeah, so it's um it's a really nice size. Um, I suppose that's that's that's where it all started. And we I mean we traded as an independent butler for many years. Um, I suppose until March of this year, where we could officially call ourselves a I mean, although we've been selling for eight eight years, we only just released our first our first whiskey.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:01

Which is such a cool way to do it, to wait and have the ability to wait to when you when you feel that it's ready to release. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:11

I mean, for that you need you need a few things. You need one, you need a shell uh that understands that whiskey takes takes time and has the patience um to wait, and you need a sustainable business that allows you from a cash flow point of view to not have to release a three or four-year-old purely for the sake of cash flow. So we're really fortunate in in that position that um our shareholders are fully behind us waiting, um, playing the long game. You know, this is not hey, you know, when we launched Abergi, it was such a phenomenal uh couple of weeks or probably a a month or six weeks of of launch activity, and and you get we almost got into a situation where you want to do everything at once, and it and it took some time just to step back uh and realize yes, we've waited for eight years and everyone's eager to to get on with it, but uh this is uh the youngest Aberargi will ever be. Uh you know, we're dealing with an absolute infant. Yeah, um, this is day one for us. Um and and that when you look at it like that, you know, it's uh yeah, it's um it's a very different approach, I suppose.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:43

See when how many cases of the inaugural were produced?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:50

We did just north of 10,000 bottles. Okay, so around around two two thousand physical cases.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:00

And to how many how many markets are you guys launching in, Neil? Um obviously Canada is Canada's next week ish. So that's one.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:12

Super, yes. Um, so I mean we're in majority of Europe, so on on the launch day we were on shelf on the same day in the the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, um, Poland, France will come a little bit later, yourself will be Soonish, Australia, Japan. Um, we still got stock going to uh oh sorry, Sweden. Um we still got some stock going to Taiwan, but our our key markets, you know, majority of Europe, the UK, one or two markets in Asia, and then yourself, Australia, big market in Canada, Neil.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:07

Yes, yeah, it's gonna blow up here. So when when we did the origin story, I kind of wanted to go back to that for a second because I've I've known you for a while now, and you have a pretty cool sort of background in terms of how you got to where you are. So you're you're now managing director of of of a up-and-coming Scottish distillery that's making our favorite whiskey that we've tasted tonight. But you you you've kind of been working your way up towards this. So, like when you first came over, maybe just talk about like when you first started at with Morrison Distillers, did you at the time, like right when you signed that contract, did you was there an idea that like one day you would be running a distillery, or was that way too far down the road when it first happened? Because you you went over there and when did you start there? I started there in March of 2018, so exactly eight years ago.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:07

Um, was was this ever part of that conversation, or was it just you were brought in to do what you were bought at that time?

SPEAKER_00 1:24:14

I was brought in to do export sales to to find new markets for them to sell the portfolio of whiskey that they had at the time. Um I mean my background was I was a brand ambassador, I was a bartender and a and a brand ambassador for probably the best part of 15 years. And that's how I started in the industry, like most people, you know, behind a bar, either drinking whiskey or serving whiskey, polishing glasses, yeah, um, and then got involved in a distribution company in South Africa and was brand ambassador for their whiskey portfolio. Uh, but when I joined, I suppose when I joined, which was Morrison and Mackay at the time, um, it was a fairly small business. And I knew that I could grow with the business. I saw the potential. Um, and I knew that I would yeah, grow with the business. I don't know whether I at that stage thought that I'd be running the business at within within eight years. Um, but I did play golf with a very good friend of mine about two years ago, and I met Karen who was the the brand ambassador for Glen Orange at the time. I met her in South Africa back in I think 2007 or 2008, and she said to me, Neil, when I met you for the first time, and this is 2007, you said to me that one day you'd love to run a family-owned Scotch whiskey business in Scotland. Very cool. And I don't know, maybe in the back of my mind it's always been there. Um, and maybe I have verbalized it externally to other people. I I certainly didn't go into Morrison Scotch whiskey to still as well Morrison Luca at the time thinking I want to run this business, but I could see the potential. There was there was that it was a phenomenal setup. Um, they had a good group of people, um, some questionable brands within the portfolio, and a lot of that changed within sort of two years of me starting. And you know, we brought out McTala, um, which was a brand created from from scratch. Uh, we redesigned Old Perth and Carmore. Um and now, you know, everyone, everything we've done in the last sort of three to four years has been leading up to us launching Aberari.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:54

Well, and I I I'll we we'll go a little bit more into the Aberagi stuff, but I gotta go back because I remember when you were on a trip to Canada and you were re you were re-kind of structuring Carnemoor and the strictly limited series. And I think at the time, what was the original ABV of the old Carnore bottles? 46. It was 46. And I think I used you and I had a conversation. You said, what would you like, or what would you think the right ABV would be for uh an independently bottle? And I said, I think at the time I said to you 48%, and you ended up going with 47.5, and I tell people not to please you, yeah. I tell people all the time, I was like, I think he agreed with me, but it couldn't be my idea. Now ABR argues 48.2, and I was like, he did it again. He went 2% higher, just so he couldn't say, Oh no, that was Travis's idea way back in 2000, whatever. So, you know, I'm never gonna get my credit, but I still think that deep down inside, you were like, you know what, Travis was right. Way back.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:02

It's just that I mean moving moving Carmore was yeah, we wanted to create we we needed a w one a point of difference. We also didn't want it too high because a lot of the whiskey that we did bottle at uh under Carmore at the time was was pretty young. So you gotta be careful to go too high. And we wanted to be accessible. Um I mean aberargi's 48.2 was purely um down to to tasting. We tasted Aberargi from 46 to 54 percent on every single percentage point and in between. Um and it literally just 48.2 just felt so good. Just a really nice balance between you know, if you go cast trend, it's it's fine, but it's you're really looking after a tiny group of consumers. 40 six percent is okay, it's very approachable, but it's it's maybe not enough, and and 48.2 just was that real balance where there's enough in it, um it's vibrant, but you can taste the maturity, you can taste the age, you can taste the structure, um, but it's not aggressive in any way, it's really approachable.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:31

Yeah, I think I said to the guys earlier, first of all, I think 48 would have done that as well, but we won't go there anymore. Um but I said to the guys, didn't I said to the guys earlier, I did say that this is this feels to me like a whiskey that you could pour for absolutely anybody, and I think that's a huge compliment. Um, because I think you can pour it for enthusiasts or three enthusiasts that thoroughly enjoyed it. Yeah, um, but you can you can pour it for a newbie and you can kind of say, like, here's what they're doing, and and here's what's cool about it. And I I want to go back a little bit just for a sec here, because when you when you go back to designing the distillery, and you're saying this is what we want our whiskey to taste like, every decision you make is like it's an unknown in a way, but you guys chose to do some the Golden Promise barley, you had to choose what style of stills to make, you had to choose fermentation times, and and we've talked to local distillers like your preda and okay, like you don't know any of the results of that down the road, but what were those decisions like for you? How did how were they made? And and I guess I'm I'm sure you're happy with the end result um so far, but it's it to me it's really intriguing to hear what those conversations were like in the early days.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:55

Yeah, I mean, just to be clear, I wasn't involved in the design of the disability. I I joined after they built, but you know, Jamie wanted to create a whiskey of of structure, and I suppose Golden Promise was a big part of that that conversation. Um, we are typically, I mean, legally speaking, we are below the the line. Um, although there's it's nowhere mentioned on our bottle that we're a lowland whiskey. We we don't believe we produce a style of whiskey that is typical of or the that will fit the consumer's expectation of a lowland style whiskey. Right. Um, our stills are, I suppose, average in size. Um, wash still is like almost twice the size of the the spirit still. Um there's a lot of copper contact, our line arms run run down. So although we create a lot of reflux, once it goes through to the to the condensers, again, there's there's some contact there. Um fermentation times was a big one that we played around with. And as you say, you know, we you set up a new design distillery to create a specific style of spirit, but only when you switch it on, and only when you start running the equipment does it tell you how it's going to react. And and the nice thing about being a small distillery and having someone like our production director, Gray McCarthy, who's been there since, well, I think he's been with the business probably closing 16 years. Um, he he knows the the equipment better than anyone. He he can tell you by the sound of the equipment whether things are going right or not. Um and he was given the flexibility and the freedom to to play around in the in the in the first few months to just to make sure that we get things as it as it should be. Um and we're still making some some changes. You know, you you always make small changes that at the moment drives efficiency rather than spirit quality. We we are so happy with the spirit quality, so everything we do is to protect that. But you want to drive efficiency.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:20

Very cool. It it just to me is it's there's so many important decisions that are made, and like you said, with unknowns, and uh to end up with a product like this is it's gotta be pretty exciting for everyone involved, uh over at the distillery. I remember when you sent me your first taste, and you're like, I'm pretty happy with this. It's pretty pretty special.

SPEAKER_07 1:33:45

Yeah, it's all we've heard about for the past like what six, eight months is how good it is. And you know, just wait till it comes, wait till it comes.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:53

So now that's and that's great because until until until October of last year, we didn't tell anyone about Aberardi. You know, the only people that knew about us were our distributors, the distributors that that sell um mctala or perfect car more. We didn't tell any anyone else about Everardi or our plans or what we do. We didn't invite any whiskey writers to come and have a look at it. We didn't we had no press releases. Um we wanted to be 100% comfortable with our message before we go to the to the to the audience.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:37

I know our friend uh he was on our old podcast, Sean. He uh got to get a sneak peek, was that almost two years ago now? And he even said he's like, you know, I wasn't allowed to take pictures of much, and I wasn't allowed to see very much, but it's it's pretty cool. So yeah, it was uh it was cool to have one of our close friends be able to go over there and see it firsthand. Um I'm just before we deep dive into anything Abra RBB more than we have, with the old brands. Um, what's the status of them? Like obviously, old Perth, we still have connections in stores in Scotland that when the new releases come out, um, you obviously tell us about them and then we find a way to get them. Um, is is Karn more dead now or is it still being made?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:28

And absolutely not. Um, I mean we we continue as as before. You know, our priorities might have shifted to to to Aberagi for a period of time. Um but you know, we're about to to launch McTala phase, so of phage buckling for this year. We just released uh McTala PX, um, which is our limited edition for this year. Ump, we've done some really fascinating uh blends like um well blended malts, like the Solera edition or Old Perth Bodega. Um so we've got Bodega Concept 2 uh coming on later this year. Um and I mean the priority for Old Perth is to make delicious drinking whiskey for people that enjoy sharing mature malt. Um and and cardmore continues. You know, cardmore is as it was before. There's um yeah, I mean the independent bottling scene has changed over the last five years. Um, there are so many independent bottlers coming to market, but I think as cardmore, we've got a reputation for putting good quality liquid in a bottle, and we just want to continue to do that.

SPEAKER_06 1:36:52

Very cool. The independent bottling market is crazy. And and I think we're starting to see even some brands like Gordon McPhail put out like almost like a budget line. What's that line that just came out? Spirits in Scotland, I think. And and uh so I think that whole world, and I'm in it, is it's gonna be interesting to see how it plays out because I think the days of 10-year-old Lafroy for $250, those days are probably behind us, which is a good thing for consumers for sure. Um going back, this is a question because we're gonna have um Rob Carpenter and uh Conor O'Keefe from Hollywood Distillery on after you actually. We're gonna we're just gonna keep staying up all night where you guys wake up. Uh and we're gonna ask this question of that uh of them as well, because um, and obviously you don't consider yourself like a true Lowland distillery, but when even when you just look at Lowland distilleries in the last 10 years, we've gone from there was like a 1.3, I think, Occintosh and uh I forgot, I can't even think of the other two offhand, but it was like three and yeah, like Occintosh and there you go. And now we're up to like I don't know, almost 20. And and so um I guess the question is how how is Aber Argy gonna come into a market with and not just Lowland distilleries, just all new distilleries across the board, not even just in Scotland, Ireland, Canada. How are you guys planning to I guess differentiate yourself, kind of plant your plant your flag and just say, this is who we are, this is how we're gonna be, because I don't think it's easy out there right now. I know it's not easy.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:37

Yeah. It's not. I mean, I think back to when we sat one of our very first um creative sessions. So we worked with a company down south um called Kingdom and Sparrow um to help us design the brand and and build the DNA and and the design of the packaging and that. And um one of the strongest uh Rob asked us in the in the very first session, why do the world need another single-malt scotch whiskey? And and the answer was pretty simple. It doesn't. Like the world, we don't need anymore. Um that's good, that's a very honest answer. It's a good answer. And and it is, and you you gotta you gotta have those conversations because you know, yeah, there are a lot of new distilleries that a lot of existing distilleries all doing the you know, producing trying to produce good quality whiskey. And and we just took it right back and um and said, right, who do we want to be? Do we want to be experimental by nature? Do we want to be traditional by nature? Do we want to be innovators? Do we want to be recruiters? Like, or do we want to just look after existing whiskey drinkers? What type of whiskey do we want to be? What type of brand do we want to be? And it took uh a lot of guts, and it took me a while to make peace with the fact, well, peace with the fact to to to truly uh be comfortable with not being innovators and not be experimental, and just say, right, uh we're gonna be and there's still sound like we're gonna be premium traditional, we're gonna do things the way we know they would have been done a hundred years ago. We've got that real strong connection between farming and distillation. And if you ever speak to to Gray McKetty, he's got a he's a and he's a farmer. Um and he's got it's such a phenomenal way of talking about the connection between farming and distillation and how distillation is a byproduct of farming rather than the other way around. Um, and a lot of things that we do from a sustainability point of view is relating to our the relationship between farming and distillation, or farming and distilling. And it's not something that we do because it's we want to drive the sustainability piece, it's something that we do because that's best practice for us. Yeah, um so yeah, as I suppose making uh good quality single malt scotch whiskey in the most traditional way we know, um and have just having a very clear uh straightforward story. And I think one of the best uh comments about this whole launch period was the consistency of the narrative, and regardless of whether we tell it or someone else tells it or a consumer tells it, it's fairly consistent, and that just shows that the the story is is clear. Um, you know, we use two types of barley, Golden Promise and Laureate, and we use two types of casks, first for bourbon and first for sherry, and it's uh as simple as that. It's 100% farm grown, and it's 100% first for wood, matured on site, bottled on site, and there you go. It it's not any more complicated than that. But it does make it, and and uh Christiane asked me um at at one of our launch events uh is it more difficult to be traditional or is it more difficult to be innovators? And being traditional, you've got less to hide um because we strive for consistency. Yeah, if you are on the other side of the spectrum and you you just want to innovate, everything is different, and you know, yeah, I suppose we're not making mistakes, but if something is different, there's always an answer for it. Whereas for us, we just want to create something as consistent as possible. We do experiment within the distillery, different yeast types, different fermentation times, um, different distillation regimes, different um barley types, different cask maturations, finishes, all those kind of things. But at the core, we are Laureate and Golden Promise, first of all, bourbon and cherry casks.

SPEAKER_06 1:43:46

And quite a contrast to I mean, I love how you're kind of setting up our next interview, actually. Because all your distillery is like the complete opposite, and that's I think fantastic because it's it's really kind of cool. And you're sorry, Sean and Jared, I just keep going here, but yeah, no, it's all good. Like this is like I have all these things, but you're you're talking about going basically like more based on you know a consistent message, a consistent sort of going with tradition and everything, and you have this background of the Morrison family, and they're a pretty private family, they don't they don't do a lot of like public appearances, you don't see the Morrisons on interviews and like they kind of keep to themselves. But do you think that family history needs to be a part of this story as much as what you just talked about? Because you just talked about the sherry cast, the bourbon cast, first fill, golden promise barley, barley to bottle. You didn't even really talk about this strong fifth generation distilling family in any of that. And I'm just curious is if that's gonna be a part of the story, or just kind of like a very small part of that story.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:59

I mean, it is it is part of the story. Um, because essentially Jamie built the distilleries, he's the solution. We've got a single shareholder, um, well, single, I mean, as as a family. Um, and they, you know, they still behind the scenes still drive some of their strategic direction, um, but they're not involved in the day-to-day running of the business. And I think to be fair, it takes a lot of trust for a family business to hand over the day-to-day operations to a group of people that they that they trust. I mean, it's essentially myself, Graham, our production manager, and and the finance manager. Um, and that's a massive responsibility um for us that we yeah, I mean, we don't take lightly, but Jamie's in the office. I speak to Jamie on a weekly basis. Um but yeah, it's it's less about the family, it's more about the quality of liquid. Um although we would never be able to do what we do without the family, right? And without their their investment, and without their trust, and without their so it is super important, but we are we are not who we are purely because there's Morrison written on the on the front of our building.

SPEAKER_06 1:46:41

Yeah, well, and it it it even in the um in the videos on Instagram and stuff like it's they talk, it's talked about the fifth generation family, and it needs to be talked about. I truly believe as someone who's gonna be promoting this whiskey, I will be talking about it. I think history, history in this industry is important, but I do like that it's not it's not it's not like the only thing, and that there's really a true story coming about the liquid itself and what's making it, you know, what it is. And it's I I it's awesome. You're you guys are capable of making up to 750,000 liters a year, like that's what it the distilleries designed to make, but you're not making that much, obviously. But if you wanted to start really going heavy down the road, you're capable of that?

SPEAKER_00 1:47:30

If we do like distilleries did in the good times, run 247, seven days a week. Um, we we could touch a million. Um so we we when we set up the distillery, we've got we had one wash what one match time, six washbacks, two stills. We now have one mash time, nine washbacks, and two stills. So we could touch on that. Um but we are we we don't we don't need that level of of of liquid. So at the moment we run four and a half days a week, so nine matches a week. Uh half day on a on a Friday, voice take off Friday afternoon, and and we don't work over weekends. Well, the production team, the sales and marketing team work over weekends, but production team don't work over weekends. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:48:31

Very cool. It's you guys are in a uh like a really good position to like off the get-go with Aber Argy and your production facility be in a place that some people, when they start out, would be like one day that's what we're gonna be like. Um, you're in a really fortunate position, and uh it's this is very cool. So I have you've mentioned briefly fermentation times without really any details, but I'm super curious on this one. Uh tell me about your fermentation.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:09

So we've got um long and short. Um and if you if you sketch it out, it will it'll probably make more sense. But we've essentially got nine washbacks, we've got nine meshes a week, so each mash goes into a single washback, and depending on whether we run over the weekend or not, whether that tank is full over the weekend or not, we've got long and short fermentations, but our short fermentation starts at around 72 hours. Okay, so we've got some um was it three three, four day fermentations, and then some five six day fermentations.

SPEAKER_08 1:49:55

Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:56

We distill everything separately, yeah, and then the week. Distillation gets put together into a spirit tank and filled at the end of the week.

SPEAKER_07 1:50:08

Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:12

And again, if you speak to grain, you know, the spirit that runs off the stalls on a Monday is ever so slightly different to the spirit that runs off the stalls on a Friday when the stalls have been working for the for the whole week. Um so again, just to create that balance and consistency, we then fill that to the spirit tank um and bottle it once a week's done. Uh sorry, sorry, cusp, put it to casp once a week's done.

SPEAKER_07 1:50:42

Very cool. So you you mentioned basically 100% first fill, sherry, and bourbon. Down the road, is there gonna be experimentation with cast types as well? Will you release single cask Abergis as well, like a Mizanura cast for Canada?

SPEAKER_06 1:51:03

Straight to the Mizonara.

SPEAKER_08 1:51:04

Oh straight to the Mizanura saw it coming a mile away. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:11

So I suppose two two two things there. One, at the moment it's a hundred percent first fill. Um however, we've started tipping some of that first fill because we believe the the liquid is ready, um, and filling it to refill wood just to to reduce that um maturation, I suppose the the interaction. And by doing that, we've actually created really good quality second fill wood for ourselves. So we don't need to go and buy refill wood, we've generated our ourselves. Because when we if we do want to and you know, as I said, it it's an infant at the moment, so one day we'd probably like to do it at 12 or an 18 or a 30-year-old, and for that you need refill wood. So we've started creating some refill for ourselves, but we also have um a lot of other interesting cast types on on site.

SPEAKER_07 1:52:19

I will work on them. I will work on them. We'll get or like you know, a Borde wine, something like that, or Canadian Ice Wine casts are pretty pretty good.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:33

Uh Neil, we're we're gonna have to let you go because because uh for the first time ever, this is the first time ever we've scheduled two interviews in one podcast. Um Rob awake yet. Yeah, well, he might be. We got Rob and we got Connor, one of the distillers, but it's it's more um because because I can just I mean at some point we have to go to bed too. But uh the question, what I really wanted to ask is I don't have to take the cage to belly for another three hours. I'm I'm okay. Oh yeah, well let's keep going. We'll talk to Rob. Because normally, normally we actually will have gone a lot longer, but we just did this because for the like we were doing a new distillery episode, and we we actually know Rob and Kelly Carpenter quite well from from they live in Alberta part-time, right? So right. Um, anyways, uh I kind of in a way to me, and and this is getting this might really irk you. I don't know if it will or not, but it's kind it aberargy is a little bit like there's a little bit of Springbank there with what you guys are doing. There's an old school feel to it. There's Golden Promise Barley, and I'm not even sure if Springbank's using that. It's the barley to bottle thing. Um, but you it feels a little bit old school to me. It feels like you're making like an old school style whiskey where you're not an old school style, but it's just there feels like an old school element there. Would you agree with that? And and not the computer. I would take that as a massive compliment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:54:03

I mean, I mean when we showed Aberde for the first time in October at the whiskey show in London, one one guy came up to me and he just he he tasted it and he stood back, and he and he his words were this feels considered. This feels considered and it feels old. As in, I want to sit down and I want to appreciate this, I want to take my time with this, and that is the biggest compliment. Um, because that's exactly what we're trying to do.

SPEAKER_06 1:54:43

Yeah, I think I think you're on the right track. I honestly do. Um, my last question for you. The first time, the first time Did you say Jeremy was running this, or are you? No, Jeremy, Jeremy taking it over. Jeremy just does the introduction, but this is this is uh, you know, I don't get to chat with you in person very often. We chat, we text lots, but the um uh this stuff just all excites me so much. But so the first time, and this has to be the last question, but the first time you sipped the final inaugural blend, and wherever that was, probably with your your production team or whatever, but you get to taste it after you know all these years of waiting, your whole journey to get to this point in terms of starting as a bartender, sales rep, you know, you were a collector, all those things, and you sit there and you sip inaugural for the first time with your team. Just just kind of give me an idea of what that felt like because that's that's a friggin' I I didn't get to do it, but I feel like it would have been an amazing experience. Well, it felt sorry, can I interrupt? It felt cool for me sipping Aber Argy here for the first time because I kind of feel like I was part of it from what's the first time.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:59

The first time tasting it was actually you know at the distillery with drain and a lot of sampling and a lot of sampling, and then we made a few adjustments right towards the end. Um but it's not until you bring it home and you you drink it as one of our consumers would that you really go, okay, well, um, but but um I mean just talking about not just that first, I mean, the first up out of a bottle to me, the first sip, you know, on launch day, we went into Edinburgh to a few bars and we you know we purchased a dram of Aberagi, and and for me that was really cool to have to see it on shelf um and to sip it. And I would, you know, the whole launch period, um, and as we careful, uh how I phrased this to and in which order I put it to to Julia, my my wife, but it was wedding day, childbirth, aber launch. I mean, that that that's where it ran to my highlight reel of of my life.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:09

Very cool. So I Jeremy finishes the interview, so I'll let him finish it off. But that's freaking cool. That that's the answer I wanted to hear.

SPEAKER_08 1:57:19

That that is very cool. Uh Neil, thank you so much for waking up and joining us. Um, we know the time change can be a challenge. We do everything completely live. Uh, so we appreciate you. Thank you so much, and we really loved the whiskey tonight. So uh we're excited about the case.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:39

Yeah. And we'll see you in about like, I don't know, 14 hours or so. Yeah, I was about to say, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:57:48

The Aber artist naming lunch. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:55

Tell Rob while um I owe him a beer.

SPEAKER_06 1:57:58

We'll let Rob know. Sounds good. We will and I'm letting Sean run that interview because I talked way too much. Good luck, Sean.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:07

Congrats on all the success, Neil. Really proud of you. Yeah, thank you so much. And uh yeah, I hope to see you soon in in Canada. So yeah, please do come on. Awesome.

SPEAKER_08 1:58:20

All right, thank you, Neil. We'll talk to you soon. All right, guys, we are back. Uh, we have our second interview for the podcast tonight. Uh, we have Rob and Connor. So Rob's the co-founder. Connor is one of the distillers at Hollywood Distillery. So we're gonna bring these guys on, and I'm excited to chat with them. Here we go.

SPEAKER_06 1:58:47

This is cool because we're gonna get we're gonna get the production side from Connor, and we're gonna get the entrepreneurial how the hell do we build a distillery side for Rob? From Rob, yeah, which will be fun, which will be be really cool.

SPEAKER_08 1:59:04

Um, Connor looks muted. Connor is mute there, oh he's back. He was he was being strategic. He was being strategic. Uh, Rob Connor, thank you guys so much for joining us. Uh, we know it's early for you. Um, we like to do everything live on this podcast, and we know sometimes that can present time challenges, so we appreciate you guys waking up and joining us today. Um, so we have we actually tried the uh Hollyrood amber uh as part of our tasting for this podcast. Uh, really enjoyed the whiskey. Now, just kind of as we get going here, one of the things that we like to ask all of our guests is a little bit of an origin story. Uh, can you guys tell us just a little bit about Hollyrood, how it all got going? Um, like how did you guys get to where you are today?

SPEAKER_02 2:00:06

I sense Connor's looking at me for that. I didn't work there when he's when it opened.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:15

Smart guy came in afterwards. Um Rob, you start you gotta start though, because because this is we got a lot of Alberta listeners, so we're gonna have to do a little just a quick Coles notes, like the whole SMWS part two, I think.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:30

All right. Well, let's let's start with um uh a long, long time ago in Edmonton, I was born. Um, so I'm I'm an Edmonton guy, um, but not raised there. I was raised in Prince George, uh, which um folks from Edmonton will know, not that far away. Um and my wife Kelly and I now have our Canadian home in Calgary. Um sorry about that for you, Edmonton uh folks. But uh you gotta live somewhere. Um so uh SMWS, uh Kelly and I kind of got our start in the whiskey industry in uh about 15 years ago because it's uh it's our 15th anniversary as of SMWS Canada this year. And um so we launched um SMWS. For those of you don't know, SMWS is sort of uh one of the world's leading independent bottlers, um uh primarily cask strength, single cask uh whiskey, um from all over Scotland and from all over the world, really, at this point. So um pretty cool brand and a pretty interesting sort of uh membership um club thing with venues for members, etc., in various places around the world. Um so carrying on from that to a certain extent, or at least in parallel to that, um Kelly and I had lived in Anborough for a year, uh 2004-2005. We kind of fallen into the whiskey hole in terms of going to lots of tastings, uh joining the Water of Life Society at the University of Edinburgh, you know, just kind of getting into things, um, doing whiskey distillery visits, and meeting people in the industry. And I thought, because I like a good project, oh, how cool would this be, would this be to do uh when we got back to Canada? And uh gave that a go when we returned to Canada in the fall of 2005. Uh almost got it over the line. Um and then you know the financial crisis uh hits in 2007. A lot of investors got uh pretty nervous about what was going on. So um short story, that didn't go ahead. But um I continued to think about where I would want to do a distillery if I was ever going to uh have that kind of opportunity. And I ultimately kind of landed on well, Kelly and I love Eborough. We keep coming back here. Um we love Scotland. Um there's a lot of great things about doing a distillery in Scotland at the time. You know, other people were announcing projects, but a lot of them weren't going ahead. Um you know, they got announced and you'd never heard about them again. Um so we thought, oh well, we can pull this off. We've you know, we know some people, I've got some interesting background, and and um so we uh put a team together here and we found a building and we found investors, and we uh we opened up Hollyrood and started stilling in September of 2019. And uh you guys have been tasting the benefits of that, I hope. Um I won't go into how Hollyrood's unique quite yet, because I think that's uh that's part of Connor's stick, but um yeah, there we are. There's the origin story. Very, very cool.

SPEAKER_07 2:04:33

And Connor, how did you come to work and uh obviously pull the levers and push the buttons at the distillery?

SPEAKER_01 2:04:43

Um I was uh I'm Irish, uh I was a bartender for most of my adult life. Um so yeah, just uh cocktails and and spirits uh of all sorts. But uh I came to Scotland on a holiday in 2017 and um we did like uh kind of a whiskey tour up the up into the highlands, um Glendronic and Edradaur and um and a few others, and uh uh I just fell in love with the place. So um I moved here, moved to Edinburgh about six months later, um, started working in whiskey bars here. Um and yeah, just uh just really fell in love with whiskey. Um and then during the pandemic, um I did some online courses um and a job came up in 2021 um as a trainee distiller. Um so so yeah, that was I mean it's an incredible opportunity. Um, you know, that these aren't the kinds of things that come up very often, and certainly not in um in a city, you know. Uh you know, if you maybe if you're hanging around at the space side, you know, that does uh trainee distiller jobs come up every day of the week. I don't know, but uh but yeah, it was it's it was just two places myself and um and my colleague Jane uh uh got in. So um so yeah, I was really lucky. Um yeah, I I mean my colleague was uh Jane is um a microbiologist. Um so you know I I feel like uh I well whatever I was bringing to the to the table was maybe not quite the on the the level that she was, but um but yeah, I I certainly had the enthusiasm anyway. Um so yeah, um and and from there we just um just kind of got stuck in. I mean it's a particularly exciting distillery anyway, you know. I like I'd been to a lot of distilleries and um if I'm honest, it looked like a kind of a dull factory job, you know. You see you see guys uh working in in distilleries that kind of pulling levers, press the buttons, you know. Um but uh but yeah, this one was like really hands-on. Um every day is different, every match is different. Um, it was it was really exciting. Um I learned a huge amount. So um, so yeah, um that was yeah, 2021, so five years ago, um just last week actually. Um and uh yeah, it's been incredible. So um I'm senior now, so it's kind of a uh sharp rise. Um I've I've learned learned how to pull levers and press buttons, I think. Um so yeah, um, yeah, that's that's me today.

SPEAKER_08 2:07:19

Very cool, man. Um while we have you, can we ask some of the uh like nerdy questions? Uh on what you guys do. So uh can you talk to me a little bit about um like style of the stills, fermentation times I'm always interested in. Uh like give us just kind of the download on some of that stuff. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:07:43

Um so uh yeah, our stills are um is it's worth looking on them up online, and they're they're they're really tall. So if you you can probably picture Glenn Morangy's stills, um so very similar, sort of shape, and their line arm is horizontal, ours is descending, that's um and ours are a bit smaller. That's about the the only real difference, otherwise they look very similar. Um importantly, we have um uh what's called purifier on our uh spirit still. Um there's not a huge number of those um in the industry, um and it's uh it's kind of a mystery box, you know. I've talked to a lot of the sellers about uh about what happens there, you know, what what it does, but um essentially it's just more reflux. Um you're gonna get um uh more of the the lighter uh lighter elements coming through, uh fruity floral notes. Um so it kind of the standard spirit, if you will, our house style is kind of a uh it's quite a sweet spirit, I think, um just naturally. Um and it's uh it's certainly very fruity. Um we uh we change our cuts kind of per recipe. So and it's something I suppose it's uh normal in um uh in the Americas, but i in Scotland obviously it's it's very unusual to have a recipe, really, and and certainly not a single malt desillery. So uh so importantly that's uh that's our our kind of defining feature is that we have a mash bill um all all with malt um and still kind of classed as thing as Scotch single malt, but um, but we will use uh different kinds of malt. So uh heritage malts, uh chocolate malt, uh cara malt, crystal malts. These are basically uh malts that are malted in different ways. There's uh kind of ranging in toastedness um normally. Uh we also use a lot of different yeasts, um so we we will change our cut points uh kind of according to the recipe. Uh we'll do it by tasting by nose um and and kind of on a on a case-by-case um uh uh situation. Um fermentation times uh they vary a lot actually. Um because we use different yeasts, they uh require different things, you know. Um some need quite long fermentation periods, and some are really quick, like our distilling yeast can pretty much ferment all the sugars in the washback in about 48 hours. Um of our uh our uh uh let's say wine yeast or um or sake yeast will will take maybe two weeks. Um so you know we've got to allow that flexibility and and and thankfully we have that. Um yeah, uh on if on a kind of a standard thing, we we run five days a week. Um so for two of those days it's gonna be a longer fermentation. So kind of towards the end of the week, um it's it's a longer fermentation going into the following week. Um so that would be, I think Brooke Laddie do something very similar. Um they work on a on a five-day schedule. So um, so yeah, they've kind of long and short. So um at kind of full capacity, it averages about 75 hours, something like that. Um, but it's not on unusual for us to do sometimes up to 330 hours. Um and and stuff gets pretty funky, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:11:37

I got a quick, sorry, quick question on that, Connor. When you when you're doing a long fermentation, like the when you're when you're casting that spirit, are you noting like is it known on those casts? Like, okay, this wasn't a long fermentation, this is a short fermentation, so that whenever you're ready to bought, like, you're noting all that, so each cast you specifically know. Okay, this was this fermentation, this was this one.

SPEAKER_01 2:12:03

Um uh it depends a bit. Well, I mean, we you know, uh a distillery is only as good as its record keeping, so like you know, we obviously record everything. Um so uh so yeah, I mean we can definitely trace well you know where uh which which uh cask was which mash and all that. But um so yeah, uh in that case, yes, but uh I think if let's say we're doing a long run of of um of the same recipe and and you have like that kind of variation throughout the week, um we normally vat everything uh so we'll we'll put like six mashes, seven mashes together, and that's so it kind of averages out and gets a more consistent um profile. Um because I mean there is there is a bit of a difference, you know. Um I think the shortest might be uh 50 hours, and the longest in that in that kind of scenario uh would be about 115. So you know there's there's a bit of variation there. Um so yeah, yeah, uh yeah, we we've asked it all um wherever possible.

SPEAKER_08 2:13:09

Um very cool. It's when we uh when we were tasting through the whiskeys for tonight, I I said that Hollyrood was, I think, my enthusiast pick of the three. Um, but like as we were kind of reading through some of the details on what you guys do, I was like, see, this would be cool stuff to sit down with an enthusiast and be like, yeah, they're new, but check all this stuff out that they're doing. And uh this is just confirming everything for me, so it's very cool.

SPEAKER_07 2:13:40

Yeah, like I like I said, I've I've obviously bought the first three releases that came here, and like you have the arrival, which was obviously the first one, and then Travis has it, and then there was the Peter release, and now then there was the Amber, and for a new distillery and a new brand to launch three bottles one after another that are completely different is such a cool way to do it because you know somebody may just like I when I got the amber, I was like, okay, it was on sale. I was like, okay, I'll grab it, but I already had the base knowledge, obviously, knowing Rob and Kelly a little bit. Um, and you know, the first one I may have bought it just because I know them, but then I was like, okay, I dove into it and saw, okay, well, you know, like they're doing such different things each time, so you never know what you're gonna get with it. And it's totally for a whiskey nerd like us, like it's perfect for us. Um, when you do peated malts, do you go deeper into the cuts to get that kind of not super tailsy, but like the super funky peatiness out of it?

SPEAKER_01 2:14:53

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think um like that's that's a good example of of just how you how you have to change your your techniques you know, match by mash. So yeah, um absolutely um you'll find kind of in the the the latter end of the cut um and deeper in into the cut you'll find more um more serial notes. Um and uh because the the finals kind of uh attach the outside of the of the barley kernel, um that's that's what comes through later. So it's so you if you find the same kind of um multi-serial notes in the same place in the cost that you find the the peatiness, let's say so um so they're kind of together. Um but what we also found um this is partly through uh we had a we worked with a PhD student um called Rattel, um and she was studying uh uh specialty malts, so that's your chocolate malt, your caramel, and and crystal malt and such. Um and she found that uh that you also get those kind of toasted flavors from the from specialty malt later in the cut as well. So so when we're using specialty malt, we'll often cut deeper too. Um and yeah, and get those kind of toasted uh burnt notes or or kind of charred toast flavors, you know.

SPEAKER_06 2:16:25

We're gonna have to bring in Rob at some point, but Connor, we gotta keep asking questions. Sorry, Rob, but it's all right. I'm here for it on that.

SPEAKER_02 2:16:35

Holyrood is the distillery for geeks. It really is.

SPEAKER_06 2:16:38

It is, and that's so um I'm I guess I should have known that knowing that you guys are part of it, Kelly and Rob. But the what I said when we were reviewing the three whiskeys, so tonight we did uh Nick Neon, Quiet Rebels Gordon, we did the Hollyrood Amber, and we did Aberargy. And then we just uh interviewed Neil Hendricks, who I've known for a long time. He said he owes you the beer, Rob, for staying on a little bit long. So to hold him up to that.

SPEAKER_02 2:17:04

I think I owe him a beer. They did a favor for us um a number of months ago with uh some disgorging uh that we needed to do. Um and uh they kind of went, well, sure, we can help. So yeah, no, I he and I actually have been trying to get together for a beer for a number of months. Um but uh flu season and and a few other things have gotten in the way uh of that.

SPEAKER_06 2:17:32

Well, it's it if if everything goes according to plan, you and him and Kelly might be at drams for fans next year. So we'll talk about that later. All right off the podcast. Kelly may have talked to me. They're flying us over. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 2:17:48

Um you guys have to promise to sing at karaoke, though. That's the one thing. Yeah, we do have a karaoke aspect about this.

SPEAKER_06 2:17:54

I can do happy birthday. Um the question that what I went when we were drinking through the whiskeys and we talked about and we went through your distillery, and I said it almost feels a little bit like Loch Lawmond-esque, and not that you have column stills and everything like that, but that you are from the get-go producing so many different styles and so many different flavor profiles. And again, this I think a lot goes back to your SMWS background and the flavor profiles and stuff. But Connor, just as a distiller, how friggin' fun is it? And like like you kind of already alluded to it, but going into work and just knowing that it's not a factory, you're not using the same malt from Simpson's maltings every single day. You're every day you're going in, you're like, ah, we'll see what we're making today, and it's gonna be new smells in the distillery. And you know what I mean? I just I guess I just want to know what that's like for you because it feels like it'd be pretty friggin' cool.

SPEAKER_01 2:18:53

Yeah, yeah, I it is huge. Like like I say, I I've I was an enthusiast before I started in the industry. So um, so yeah, it you know, start starting there was was really exciting anyway. Just trying to be able to get behind the kind of red tape and and have a have a look at the the production side really in depth. That alone was exciting, you know. It's it like I say the smells and and uh and the tastes and everything. Um but yeah, you know like I talked to other distillers and and they're they're kind of blown away by how how uh varied it is, you know. Um I've I've almost gotten used to it, not quite, but almost gotten used to it now. Um but you know it it is it is incredible. You know, like there are times w where we may have have three or four different recipes uh in the distillery at this at the same time. So we've got six washbacks, and it might have have a few different recipes there. So you could you could open a washback and and get like intense fruitiness or like a real dark coffee, you know, it's it's hugely um exciting. Um yeah, and and like constantly is all trying to find try something else, you know. Um I mean we're kind of we've tried, I would say that we've tried most things at this stage, uh, you know, that are are within the S the SWA guidebook, but uh you know, and a few things are probably not quite, but um you know, it's it's really exciting to be able to kind of see what's out there and try new things, see what yeasts are you know are are available um uh and and give them a go and and kind of learn how to work with them because you know they're all so different as well. Um so you know, like there was a um I think some of the more exciting ones were things like um like the wine yeasts, um uh burgundy yeast, especially. Like just even in the washback, it's like it's so intensely raspberry flavors uh you're getting just from when you open the washback. It's so I mean that's so unusual. It's not something you think of in a in a new make, a reminder anything else. So um yeah, it's it's it's really interesting. Um yeah, I I would um whenever we'd open malt as well, I'd always taste some, um, just just trying to get get stuck into it, you know. Um and and kind of seeing how how that comes through in the spirit as well, you know. So you've you've got the raw ingredients which smell or taste a certain way into the washback, you know, what they're doing there, uh, you know, how it kind of progresses throughout the that that time, and then and then the spirit itself. And then, you know, obviously it's it's years later before you get to try the whiskey, but you know, seeing seeing if those things still carry on or not, or how they develop, um, it's really exciting. And and and also kind of not really being able to compare notes with anyone, you know, there's a lot of this stuff. I I think we're we're some of the first to do it, um, and certainly at any scale. So so you can't really there's no one to ask. There's no one to say, oh, you know, are you are you finding with the with the sake it's like really acidic or anything? You know, it's just I don't know. We'll I'll try it, we'll see what happens. Um that worked great. That didn't work, okay. Well, we'll we'll try something else, you know. Um so yeah, really, really exciting, um, really fun. It it has a um has a slight kind of homebrewers feel to it sometimes, you know, like you're just like okay, I'm not sure how this is gonna go, but we'll try it. Uh hopefully something delicious at the other end. I love that.

SPEAKER_07 2:22:44

So, researching this episode, we uh obviously we try and find out as much information that Google will allow us. And it said that the motto is test, learn, improve, repeat. Now, obviously, when you're doing such experimental things, not everything's gonna 100% work out. Is there anything that you've tested, learned, and then had to really improve and maybe not been able to bottle, or you know, we just said, okay, this may be good in casks 12 years from now, so you just put it the back of the warehouse. Is there anything like that that's come up?

SPEAKER_06 2:23:23

Pull up Latty, just throw everything into crazy wine casks in 15, 20 years. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:23:30

Exactly. It's just like it's that's the blender's problem. We don't worry about it anymore. Um yeah, I look there is. I mean, like, you know, thankfully, yeah, I suppose there are a few things. Um, there are very few things I would make for a really bad whiskey, in in my opinion. Yeah, also but uh there are things that don't work, that's also true. Um so uh let's say one um so things called killer yeasts. So like we we co-pitch our yeast basically, so we'll have a distilling yeast, um and that gives us the alcohol and the yield, um, and it kind of suppresses bacteria a bit. And then we'll have uh a specialty yeast or several different ones, um uh, and that kind of gives us the uh a hit of flavor, um we're looking for. Um and uh sometimes they play together very well um and they they they kind of enhance each other, and other times they don't. Um and champagne yeast is one of those ones that doesn't. It's it's what's called a killer yeast. So it basically it will try and poison the washback um to to remove any other competition. Um so that happens. Uh so the first time we used um uh champagne yeast, we had really, really poor yields. Um and you know, I mean, I think normally we would get about um uh what maybe 500 uh liters of pure alcohol per from a single run. Um and the uh yeah with the champagne EC was more like 250, so like really, really bad. Um yeah, so I mean we've learned to work with that a little bit, so we you know you can you can kind of pitch one a little earlier than the other and try and uh uh try and do it that way, but um yeah, so things like that happen. Um I mean you can sometimes kind of predict if it will, but uh but but it does it does happen. Um you know there are also things like um you know there's a lot there's a lot of products out there that um you know they're made for brewing, really. Um and and in brewing you can kind of add extra enzymes, um you can uh add acids, things like this. You can you can kind of manipulate the the washback in the process. Um obviously in single malt scotch, we can't do any of that. So we're really at the mercy of the of nature, you know. Um and and you just kind of have to hope it works out, really. Um one of the other things actually is uh um some of the heritage malts. So so these are are malts like um uh Chevalier, which was like really popular in the at the turn of the 20th century. Um it's kind of the main the main um barley grown. Um and that over time kind of that was replaced by other things. Um one of those things was plumage archer, um, which has great flavour, um uh really lovely malt, but uh very hard to work with. It um it kind of turns to like a porridge in the mash tun. Um so you know, it just seems to suck up all the water and just and hold on to it. Um so it means that like getting that out of the mash tun after after a mash is really difficult. Um yeah, it it it it was a long night, let's uh put it that way. Yeah, you know going in on the back shift, and you know, you said, okay, we should be out of here at 8 p.m. and and it's like 10, 11, uh, you know, still still trying to empty that mash ton. So um yeah, uh yeah, we learned we learned things there as well. Um but you know, I mean uh in saying that like these are kind of these are kind of process difficulties, and I will say like both of those uh whiskeys turn out superb. So um so you know it's it's just it's a bit of a lottery, you know.

SPEAKER_06 2:27:55

Um sounds like it sounds like uh a few rye nightmares we've heard from uh some distillers in Ireland and and Alberta that we know where they've had that rye, just absolute nightmare. Uh that's just what you just talked about with that porridge and everything. Yeah, yeah. Heard some pretty funny stories about working with different grains and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 2:28:19

Yeah, apparently the the guys from Instagram did one with um with oats as well, uh, an oat whiskey, and that that apparently was a nightmare as well. So yeah, I mean it's you know, it's it's a learning curve, you know. I and I think I think also you know the equipment we have is made for malt, uh, you know, for for a certain kind of malt and milled a certain way. Um and I think when you when you go putting things like oats and rye in there, it's um you can really meet challenges, uh to put it mildly. But uh yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_08 2:28:54

It's very cool, man. It's like everything you're saying, I'm loving the whole approach. Like you you kind of you keep slinging things like hopefully this works out, uh, and it's just uh a level of let's try this and see what happens. Um, and I love that approach with what you guys are doing. Um, Rob, I'm gonna ask you a question here, and we'll bring you back into this because we've been talking about nerdy things for a while. Uh, so you have a whiskey out in the world now. Tell me how the early days have been. Like, what does that feel like for you?

SPEAKER_02 2:29:36

Uh well, yes, six years plus after we started. Um, I'm still a little surreal, in fact, to walk through the distillery, particularly if no one else is around and go, hmm, this actually exists now. Um, so I'm not sure I'll ever quite get used to that. Um, but um I, you know, I'm really proud of what we're doing. Uh, it has been uh a tough road. Um uh you know, and for any young distillery, it it would be, but you know, I don't want to uh uh you know, you gotta sort of take the Canadian approach and go, crap, it snowed again. I just gotta get out and get it done. Um and uh so you know it it keeps, you know, it it's there's been a fair amount of you know, snowstorms um between opening this and today, with COVID um uh coming along five months after we opened. Um and you know, one thing we haven't talked about is that you know Holyrood is very, very centrally located in Eborg, and that's for a reason. We wanted tourists um to come through and visitors and uh get that brand engagement, and you know, alongside that there's there's there's revenue that comes with that. And uh, you know, that part of the business plan all disappeared uh almost right out of the gate and took a few years to come back. And uh, you know, you've got uh crazy uh dictators invading other countries and firing up energy rates. Um I won't tell you which ones. Uh let's not uh go into that, but uh um you know, Brexit's uh inflation costs, you know, you name it. Uh it's been a chaotic time. Um and uh so it has been you know a bit of a challenging road, but but yeah, I'm very proud of the the liquid we've put out. You guys uh you know I've tried Arrival and Amber and uh uh and uh Ambra. Um and the you know the one that I'm you know, I'm I mean they're all your children, you you don't have favorites, I guess, but um the one that didn't get to Canada is Pitch. Uh and Pitch is um just over my shoulder here in that. Um Pitch is uh a very, very malt forward, just uncuous, delicious dram. Um and I'm really kind of bummed that it never got to Canada because some of our releases are not that big. You know, there are six or seven thousand bottles, and pitch uh in particular um got uh got snapped up pretty quickly. Um so and then we've done a number of single cast bottlings, and that's in many ways that's the it's two factors there. It's the society influence, right? Uh because we love our single casts, um, and it is the the innovation influence because we've got so many different things. Um and the influence of specialty malts and heritage malts and the yeast, etc., and what we do from a production perspective tend to create a lot of flavor early on in a liquid and allows us to release something that's pretty delicious at a young age. Um, and that's uh that's allowed us to do some really, really interesting single casts. So yeah, I mean it's been exciting. I'm really proud of of what we've done. Um would I do it again? Uh well, it doesn't matter because 2020 hindsight doesn't, you know, you don't get to redo these decisions. So we are where we are. We'll keep, you know, we're having fun. Um I love that the distillers really enjoy coming in. And figuring stuff out. We keep learning along the way and we'll keep going.

SPEAKER_06 2:34:06

Very cool. I had I actually had the visitor center written down as a question, Rob, because I I watched the tour on YouTube today. I was trying, I just enter anytime we're having an interview, I enter the distillery in YouTube and I just try and do a little bit of research. Um the distillery looks friggin' beautiful. The brick, the old school, like every every video taken from inside, it just feels like you're in an old school Edinburgh building. Um now that COVID's pass and things have kind of gotten back to normal, other than dictators that will not be named. Is the visitor center doing well? Because I feel like for the first distillery in Edinburgh in over 100 years, it has to be doing well, but is it doing well?

SPEAKER_02 2:34:52

It is doing well, absolutely. Um, yeah, now that uh I mean COVID is in the rearview mirror, uh, you know, knock on wood. Um, you know, there's uh there's been some continued challenges with uh with just cost of living, etc. But um yeah, the the visitor center is doing well. Um we are you know it's a tough time for the industry right now um in terms of of spirit volume, soul people are holding on to the money. Um chaos leads to caution, right? So um and uh the visitor center is a really valuable asset for us in that we continue to kind of that side of the business really, really uh is supporting a lot. Um and uh so it is doing well. Um you know, it's top 10 on TripAdvisor, whatever, you know. Um our our uh brand home director uh has her goal this year of uh figuring out the algorithm on TripAdvisor and getting it to a 4.9 from a 4.8. So um nice to have goals.

SPEAKER_06 2:36:14

When I'm looking for recipes, a 4.9, I'll always go to over a 4.8.

SPEAKER_02 2:36:19

So yeah, yeah, of course, of course. Um that that point one really uh ticks the box. So um, yeah, no, we've we've won lots of awards for the visitor center and for the experience. Um and you know, overall the distillery, I mean, we've had lots of awards for the liquid, but the distillery itself, you know, uh we were really tough to win Global Distillery of the Year March of last year from the World Whiskey Awards, uh, which is you know a pretty comprehensive kind of process of whittling down distilleries all across the world. And you know, for a distillery that has only been open for five minutes, um, essentially in the grand scheme of the Scotch whiskey industry, that's pretty amazing to me. And it just speaks to people do respond to people who are trying different things um and are are really focused on flavor. Because that's you know, all the geekiness, you know, is fun to talk about, but that's really where it comes down to. It's all about flavor. 100%.

SPEAKER_07 2:37:34

Yeah, so true. Um like obviously we've ran into each other at festivals and you know, been handed little sample bottles on side by side. And I mean, I last year at Banff, I did a 12 whiskey all single grain tasting, and I look up, and there you guys are in my tasting, and I was just blown away. I mean, you guys did donate a bottle to it, a 32-year-old Cambus, which was blew me away, so and I was able to secure another bottle this year of it, but yeah, um thank you so much for for what you're doing. I think doing what Hollyroots doing is something special, uh you're not you know making one specific style and just sitting on that and aging it. Obviously, you're gonna age some of this stuff. Some of the stuff that you've produced, we will never see for you know 10-15 years, just knowing that it has to age out some of the imperfections that get put in. Um, but yeah, no, it's thank you so much for coming on. Um thanks, Connor, for all the nerdy insights. Um John, don't my main question, my last question is Do you have a do you have a spot that we can set up an on-location podcast to record?

SPEAKER_02 2:39:00

Depending on time of day, yes. Um absolutely. Absolutely. And we yeah, we, you know, it it's uh Travis mentioned, you know, the building. Um, you know, it's a 200-year-old building, um, which, you know, is not that unusual in Enborough, but uh, you know, for we Canadians, um, that is uh pretty amazing. And it's an old we're railway goodshed um that is a big old industrial building that was built 200 years ago. And uh uh and I I like to tell this this story. Um there's a body in in Scotland called Historic Environment Scotland, which is really there to protect the built heritage of the country. Um and they are, when it comes to heritage buildings like ours, you know, they are a required consultee on any planning approvals. Um, you know, and what's the impact on the heritage of the building, etc. And and when it came to our planning application, you know, they're well, I mean, they're often a bit of a barrier because they say, oh, you can't do this, you can't do that. Um and with us, the comment that came back was uh we're supportive because this brings uh an industrial building back to an industrial use. And um you know, we're quite proud of that. We've you know, we've not tried to make the distillery pretty, it's a working distillery. Um it's uh but it's got its own kind of industrial charm. Um so yeah, if if any of you are over in Anborough, please let us know ahead of time and we'll be happy to show you through. And can do a podcast from there if you want.

SPEAKER_06 2:40:47

You got Wi-Fi in that 200-year-old building? Is Wi-Fi in there?

SPEAKER_02 2:40:52

The Wi-Fi back then wasn't that good, so it might be a little shaky, but yeah, no, of course we have Wi-Fi.

SPEAKER_06 2:40:58

And then, and then uh I have to ask, because you talked about single cast, and obviously you have some some distillery single cast. And are you selling to independent ballers at all? Because I think we may know uh an independent baller in common, and I think it'd be really cool to do a polyrood uh single cask through said independent baller at some point if you were to do some sort of thing like that.

SPEAKER_02 2:41:26

Yeah, we we have uh sold cast to independent ballers. We will continue to do that. Um I you know, I think there's there's a little bit of uh reluctance with some distillers to do that. Uh obviously with Kelly's in my background with SMWS. I you know, I I feel that independent ballers can get your spirit out there to an audience that you might not otherwise reach. And if that interests people in going to the proprietary brand and trying that, then then that's that's that's great. Um, you know, that's beating a path to your door. So we have sold independent ballers. Um we have uh SMWS has casks of Holyrood. Um and uh in fact for our 15th anniversary, we had wanted them to release a cask of Holyrood, but you know, the Spirits team at SMWS is very, very careful, and so they kind of went, uh, it's coming along great, but we're not quite it's not quite ready. Um so that's not gonna happen for our 15th anniversary, and that's that's fine. I mean, obviously, we want to make sure that liquid is is delicious when it is released. Um but there have been independent ballers, fragrant drops, claxstons, etc., that have released Hollyroods already. And uh, and that's great. They've both been uh any of the independent ballers that I've tried of Hollyrood, uh biased obviously, but they've been delicious.

SPEAKER_07 2:43:05

Well, I was gonna say, as a member of SMWS here, obviously, um, we've got the gin in Canada from SMWS. Uh, but yeah, I I keep every month I keep waiting for for uh Hollyrood single malt to come through.

SPEAKER_02 2:43:22

Well, don't hold your breath because you'll you'll uh eventually pass out. It's going to be a little while. That's totally fine. We may find another way at some point.

SPEAKER_06 2:43:32

We'll figure it out. Uh yeah. Thank you two so much. Come on, uh, if we come and tour the distillery, we will request you as our tour guide. Yeah. We want to we want to stir the mash, we want to run the still.

SPEAKER_08 2:43:47

Yeah. Mix our own mash because you just want to try everything.

SPEAKER_06 2:43:52

Yeah, we just get to pick our own malt, our own yeast, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 2:43:55

You just hey, we've we do all kinds of contract distilling for people, and that's exactly what happens. Um, our first cask program for private cask owners was you tell us what you want, we'll make it, which was an absolute nightmare for our distillers and from an operational perspective. And God knows no distillery should ever do that again. But you know, from a steep learning curve, yeah, it's great. I love that's very cool.

SPEAKER_09 2:44:25

Yeah, there's not many distilleries in Scotland that can say they're doing that.

SPEAKER_06 2:44:30

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 2:44:33

Can't recommend it, but we nearly broke a few distillers, I think, but there we are.

SPEAKER_08 2:44:42

Amazing. Well, guys, thank you again so much for accommodating the timing. Uh joining us on the podcast. We loved having you learning about what you guys are doing. And uh I we I said earlier we tried the amber tonight and we all really enjoyed it. So uh we're excited to see what's to come from Hollyrood Distillery. Well, very welcome.

SPEAKER_06 2:45:10

Cheers, you guys, Connor, Rob, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 2:45:15

Okay, thanks guys. Thank you. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_06 2:45:20

You know what was super cool is how Aber Argy and Hollyrood, and they're helping each other out. Like Rob's like, I gotta buy him a beer, he's gotta be, but they're doing two completely different things. Yeah, and we got to hear two completely different approaches to starting a distillery, and I honestly think both of them could make it. You know, I hope they both make it because they're both bringing completely different products. I mean, Abergy, I feel like every whiskey that comes from them, we're gonna have a pretty good idea of what we're getting. Yeah, Hollyrood, I feel like we have no fucking clue what we're gonna get, and it's funny interesting.

SPEAKER_08 2:45:57

Yeah, they could come out of left field and be like, we tried this thing and it just fucking worked, yeah, so we bottled it.

SPEAKER_06 2:46:05

Yeah, that was cool. That was a really fun interview listening to Connor talk. Well, like, just yeah, every day's different here.

SPEAKER_07 2:46:12

We don't like that was you gotta cut this out, Jerry. But that was the most engaging Rob's ever been.

SPEAKER_09 2:46:19

Like, we can't just throw that in now. That's a hard edit to make. It's all right, we'll find it. And cut, yeah. Jesus, Sean. But like Jared might forget and then post it. I will all remind him. Somebody send a note in the group chat and we'll make sure we get it.

SPEAKER_06 2:46:41

No, Rob was great. That was Rob was really good.

SPEAKER_07 2:46:43

He was but like you you know as bell uh as well as I do. Like, usually he can be pretty quiet. I think I think he might be a little bit of an introvert, actually. Yeah, when it's the two of them, it's Kelly 100 Rob or nothing. But yeah, like no, to hear his and his passion showed through, which is awesome. Like, oh man, I thought he did great tonight, man. Oh, yeah, some of it his answers were fantastic, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, and like you said, two completely opposite sides of the spectrum of how to make whiskey and both work, yeah, super cool.

SPEAKER_06 2:47:19

Um, I feel like the single cast nation guys would want to bottle a cool bottle because right, they did say they have access to the task, but they're allowed to pick stuff that maybe SMWS might not pick. So maybe like maybe they'll be like, no, we think this is a cool, funky whiskey, we want to bottle it. I think it would be really cool to do a whole Hollyrood single cast nation that we could sell here because the the whole how we all know each other is very cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 2:47:50

Well, and like they make peted stuff, their peted whiskey is actually pretty good.

SPEAKER_06 2:47:54

And if they have like a heavily peted, super funky that you know it might be a little young for SMWS, but single cast nation they like they like kind of a little bit more different stuff than SWS might, and that's what kind of is cool is they're picking from the same warehouse, but they do have very different palettes. Yeah, exactly. That was fun. I really didn't know how it was gonna go interviewing back-to-back new distilleries, totally, but because they were the approaches so different, it was really cool to see the contrast. Yeah, it was very cool. I loved both of them, yeah. Yeah, that was fun. Okay, let's wrap this up. Uh, new distillery. Yeah, we did all that. Um, whiskey club shout-out. Oh, guys, got a good one today. Are you ready? Oh, I'm ready. Uh, this year's whiskey club of the month in Canada is the Red Deer Whiskey Club. Run by my boy Lars. Yeah. Lars and I chat a lot. Jerry, you know him, Sean, you know him. Yeah. Um he is so enthusiastic, so passionate about all this stuff. I thought I ran a good whiskey club. I I do not. Lars runs a good whiskey club. I'm an amateur compared to Lars. Um founded in 2019, so three years after, four years after the MTN Scottish Club. Um, 80 85 members in Red Deer. They've done casks. The only three casks they've done so far is three mackalonies casks. So I'm guessing they were all probably the smaller mackalonies was doing like the smaller versions, right? Do they have pins like these? Uh they don't know they they might. They might. This isn't a contest, Sean.

SPEAKER_07 2:49:50

No, no, we love Lars. Um, I've been trying to go down to one of their tastings for so long, and they always seem to fall when I'm at work, or you know, I just can't. But yeah, one day we'll go down together.

SPEAKER_06 2:50:04

It's fun, it's a good night out. Um, they have like there's always a meal, they bring in catering from some restaurant in town. They do have a Tolabarden cast coming. Yeah, I committed to a bottle of it. Um, good price point, too. They do seven core events a year and then two to five special events. They have a big fundraiser for United Way, they raise like way more money than drive ups for fams. It's crazy how much money they raise. Really? Crazy. Uh, we go and pour PWS, has been there the last several years. Dave was there last year. Um, it's it's awesome. It's it's a it's huge. Their VIP tasting is like three or four hundred bucks a person, and they pour crazy shit. I believe that. Yeah, I do that's awesome. Um, and uh yeah, they're tied to the uh they do like two to three different whiskey events or with charity whiskey events a year, not just the United Way. So there Lars has a heart of gold, he's freaking runs a tight ship, but uh it's an awesome ship. And uh if you're anywhere near Red Deer, come to an event. It's I wish my whiskey club. Well, I don't know if he'd be allowed in. I told you Lars runs a pretty tight ship. He might shout. Yeah, I don't even let my brother into my house. So yeah. The other cool thing, the Red Deer Whiskey Club and and Lars always supports the smaller importers and the smaller agencies. Um with the whiskey, the whiskey, oh shit. Lee Hansen. Barrel hunter? Barrel hunter, Lee Hansen. He brings him in, he brings Andy Dunn, he brings uh us, he brings Kenny and Carnmore and Rare Drams. Like it's he he really likes to support the small agencies, um which I love, you know. So yeah, Red Risky Club. Sean, tasting kits.

SPEAKER_07 2:52:06

Yeah, so our last tasting kits, which were the uh had the Irish in it, as of today, April 25th. Now there is five left, but those will be sold out by the time this airs. Irish, Irish and Japan. No, Japan's with this one.

SPEAKER_08 2:52:25

Yeah, Japan's with new distilleries. What was it?

SPEAKER_06 2:52:28

Irish and what? Irish and we gotta figure this out because we need to sell these last these last five kits need to sell.

SPEAKER_08 2:52:40

Was it the North Star? Yeah, Lenbergie Indies.

SPEAKER_06 2:52:49

Yeah, so yeah, five and six, Indies and Irish. Oh yeah, with those and indies, yeah, yeah. That's a good that's a good kit, actually. You get to taste okay, guys. Go buy those kits $55, six crazy good different whiskeys.

SPEAKER_07 2:53:04

And and our friends at Bushmills, the local uh importer company. Well, it's Proximo. They donated a pair of socks and a Glenn Cairn to go with every tasting kit. That was never mentioned, really, but they're still there. Go get one smill stuff.

SPEAKER_06 2:53:22

Isn't this the one with the uh last call whiskey podcast pins, too?

SPEAKER_07 2:53:27

No, the new one is this one that we're not okay. Yeah, so this one, as of the airing of this episode, there's a new kit available, has last month's Japanese whiskies, this month's three new new distillery whiskies, and you get the first people to get a last call whiskey podcast. The first people outside of us to get a pin. Look at that thing, it's beautiful. It's so beautiful. Last call whiskey podcast. Oh my god. Um, Lockie's teacher has a pin. I told you guys that. Amazing. Yeah, no, uh, the pins have gone over well. We probably have to order a new batch soon, but uh no, yeah, you get one with a kit. So you get to try Abergy, the new release, the Holyrood, Ambier, Nick Mean, Quiet Rebels, Gordon, and the three Japanese, and the three Japanese, which we said, like you need to try those Japanese whiskies and decide for yourself. Like, if there's a kit that we've put out through Whiskey Drop that people should buy, it's this one. Because guaranteed, these are six whiskeys that most people have not tried yet. Totally.

SPEAKER_06 2:54:40

And most people don't have a pin, aka nobody. Yeah, except Lockheed's teacher. Nobody Lockie's teacher and us. And us. And us. Actually, I gave five to YD whiskey nights for an upcoming event at the Freemasons Hall.

SPEAKER_07 2:54:56

I may have handed out handed out some to her. Well, the McBrides, they helped us out big time on the night of the main event. They have pins. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:55:07

Um all right. Well, that's that's it then. No more all tasting kits, buy them. Parting glass. Wait, wait. Oh, you guys do you guys need anything tonight? Well, that can be part of parting glass. That's usually what Jeremy just puts it on loop, and then we just talk, and then the parting glass music goes on repeat.

SPEAKER_08 2:55:29

Usually exactly.

SPEAKER_06 2:55:31

Yeah, perfect. I'm eating popcorn, just like good old-fashioned chick-a-pop from Cosmo. Okay, that looks good.

SPEAKER_07 2:55:38

I was so my wife and girls, they invested in an old school air popper. Man, that is popcorn. Yeah, the old beige ones, it's the best. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's it's where they get it. I have no idea. Amazon at a garage sale 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_08 2:56:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 2:56:00

Yeah. But like a little bit of melted butter in the microwave and then lots of salt. Yeah, but we have dill salt. Oh my god. Yeah. That's not my snack for tonight. My snack for tonight ran into um what's the Harvest Crunch? Is that the multi green chips? I opened the bag last night when I was like by myself sitting on the couch wondering if my four-hour nap was gonna screw over my actual bed. Sleep at night, which it didn't. It didn't at all. And uh cracked that bag last night and I got a bowl sitting here. They're way too crunchy to eat during a podcast. So I'm gonna go sit on the couch, watch the oilers' highlights of their stupid, stupid loss.

SPEAKER_09 2:56:56

Oh yeah, bad. We can't do that.

SPEAKER_08 2:56:58

We can't talk about it. Jared what are you gonna do? Sorry. Um I devoured goldfish crackers during our interviews. Oh yeah. They're all gone, and I wish I had got double the packs that I did because I couldn't.

SPEAKER_07 2:57:13

You know that you've been working late hours in crazy places when you're throwing down a bag of goldfish. Goldfish crackers.

SPEAKER_08 2:57:22

It's when your body feels like this is all I need, you know you've been working hard. That is so true. They always end up like at your side through those times.

SPEAKER_09 2:57:36

The goldfish crackers.

SPEAKER_08 2:57:39

Uh what's happening in May, dude? Anything going on? I have a big uh I have a big one for May. I am heading over to Ireland the end of the month. Yeah, so with my dad, his wife, me, my son, and my brother and his son. So um when we were growing up, my dad did trips with us when we for us we were 13. Um so we would head over to Ireland, our families from the Analong were from Analong, uh, Northern Ireland. And so my dad took us over when we were young, and he wants to continue the tradition with our kids now. So we are going over. I'm just in this, uh I'm super lucky that my older brother and I have kids the same age, so we get to all go on the trip together, which is amazing. Um, so that's gonna be great. I was just talking with Shane yesterday, and we have locked-in dates for visiting two stacks warehouse on our way north. We fly in and out of Dublin, and then we're driving north, we're hitting two stacks on our way north, and then on our way back south to Dublin, we're going through and along along the Carlingford Lock. We're gonna hit Cologne on our way back down and uh get to see both of them. So I'm super excited for that. Unreal.

SPEAKER_06 2:59:12

Yeah, that's crazy. Are they taking uh I thought you were gonna go with Bowen distillery, maybe not happening? To Bowen?

SPEAKER_05 2:59:20

Yeah, with Shane.

SPEAKER_08 2:59:23

Oh, I'm not sure. I know he like when I first talked to him, he was like, I want to do all the things with you. And uh, and I was like, it's I was like, it's really not my trip. It's my dad's trip. So um I was like, we have some days that I know we're traveling through that we can stop and hang out. Um if it was just me, I would I would just be like, Shane, you plan fucking everything. I'll just go wherever you want to go. I know he wants to take us to a brewery in Annalong as well. Uh so we'll see how much we get done.

SPEAKER_07 3:00:01

Jared, have you ever gone to Newgrange? No. Dude, for the couple hour detour it is, and it's like next to the town that Bo An is in, yeah, but that place was literally life-changing. Like, you're running your hand across carvings in this tunnel that are older than the pyramids in Egypt and Stonehenge. So cool. And like they obviously they fake the the lighting that happens on the winter equinox, but you get to like see what what it's like. Uh man, like, we went and immediately entered the lottery to get to go for the winter solstice and said if we won the lottery, we would fly there just for that. Like, that place is insane. And it's so worth the worth the little detour. I'm gonna check that out.

SPEAKER_06 3:00:54

Gary's born, Ireland. I'm going to Japan. I'll be there. I'll be in Japan when you're in Ireland. Yeah, I think we're away the same time. Yeah. And I'm going to Chichibu distillery for one day. Oh, my wife and kids are gonna do their own thing. Michael Pang, we interviewed on the Japanese episode, right? We already talked about this. So I'll go to Chichibu, other than that, I'll be just family stuff, no whiskey stuff, but that's that's what we're going there for.

SPEAKER_07 3:01:19

I'll uh I'll be in uh Fort Hills, Alberta. I'll be uh making the oil that turns into gasoline that you guys' planes will use. And uh since you guys are gone, I'll just work some overtime probably.

SPEAKER_08 3:01:38

Sounds good. What's the difference between Japan and Ireland? You're gonna work it out.

SPEAKER_07 3:01:43

Jesus. I don't know, but Jared, did you hear? Alberta, no more time changes.

SPEAKER_08 3:01:50

I heard that on the radio yesterday. That's great news. It's good news for this podcast. We would have been fucked.

SPEAKER_09 3:01:57

We would have been so fucked with the podcast.

SPEAKER_07 3:02:03

Now it's two hours' difference for half the year, and yeah. Jeremy has no idea what if he's at. Would have ended the podcast for sure.

SPEAKER_09 3:02:10

It would have been the nail pretty often.

SPEAKER_07 3:02:12

It's already hard enough coordinating this totally. Well, between your guys' trips, my work schedule, yeah, it's like it worked out that we're what six days before the end of the month, so Jeremy has six days. Next month, he has like 22 days to edit.

SPEAKER_06 3:02:27

Yeah, that's right. When we asked Rob about recording a podcast in the distillery, he's like, well, it depends what time you'd like to record.

SPEAKER_07 3:02:36

Yeah. Well, we're gonna stick with our schedule and go at 6 a.m.

SPEAKER_09 3:02:40

Yeah, yeah. You're not recording at 6 a.m. It depends what time. A little back. I think Connor, Connor went into work.

SPEAKER_06 3:02:47

He was at the distillery for sure. Like concrete wall behind him. Oh, yeah, for sure. I think so. Alright, let's wrap this up. Uh I really enjoyed that episode, guys. That was fun. That was I learned a ton about three new distilleries.

SPEAKER_03 3:03:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 3:03:02

Yeah. Uh, and Jeremy almost fell asleep for the first time on an episode. Fighting my life.

SPEAKER_07 3:03:10

Through this episode, we reconnected with two old friends and made a new friend. Connor. Our new best friend. Well, I guess two new friends. Annabelle from McNeyan. Well, we didn't meet her yet.

SPEAKER_06 3:03:23

We tried to meet her, but we've talked to her. Yes. No, Connor's our new best friend. Connor's our best friend. You know what's up. He's Irish and he's living in a neighborhood. I know.

SPEAKER_08 3:03:34

I was like, Yeah, I was like, this guy's unreal.

SPEAKER_06 3:03:37

If we go to Hollywood Distillery, don't tell me Connor's not coming out to party with us after. He's partying with us. We'll find karaoke. Connor will be at karaoke. I can count. He's Irish and living in he's gonna be at karaoke. Yeah. Connor, you're invited. You better be there.

SPEAKER_09 3:04:00

Travis will make sure you sing.

SPEAKER_06 3:04:03

Everyone, everyone, you have to sing one song before you leave. That's the rule. That's the rule. You can't go home. If you're in a karaoke bar, you sing one song, and then you leave. No one is too proud to sing one song. No.

SPEAKER_08 3:04:14

No. It's my uh our employee Adrian lived in Japan, Trav. He said karaoke is massive over there. You would have been sing so much karaoke over there. As long as they have tragically hit. And it's and he I think he told me that like a lot of the karaoke bars, you get super cheap drinks if you're there like hanging out and singing. Drinks anywhere but Canada are cheaper than Canada.

SPEAKER_07 3:04:42

Like we paid the most.

SPEAKER_08 3:04:45

We were paying $8.50 for a Guinness, and we were like, yeah, no, that was cheap. $8.50 a Guinness. It's did I tell you about when I bought a uh what was it? Um it was a Miller High Life Tall Boy at the Shortsy Classic at Rogers Place. $28. Jeez. Like you can you can buy a fucking entire case of Miller High Life at the liquor store for $28. And I bought one. So yeah, you're right. We pay more than anywhere else in the world. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 3:05:28

Uh thanks for tuning in, anyone who's still listening. Next episode is the bourbon episode. Oh yeah, bourbon. It's the Doug Ford tribute episode. We should try and get him on as a guest. We should at least reach out and try and get him on to talk about the tariffs and see what he says.

SPEAKER_08 3:05:54

It's maybe he'll maybe he'll come do it in person and fly on his private jet if he hasn't. His PJ. He's got a PJ now, it's no problem. He'll be here in three hours.

SPEAKER_06 3:06:05

Fox News, CDC, Las Coast podcast. That's his that's his media tour.

SPEAKER_07 3:06:14

Yeah, we got three really cool bourbons to try. Bardstown Original, Buzzard's Roost Bottle and Bon, and Jay Henry's son's La Femme La Flamme Reserve Armagnac finish. Armagnac finish. I was looking at that.

SPEAKER_08 3:06:29

It's more, we're just gonna talk about.

SPEAKER_06 3:06:32

We gotta talk about bourbon. It's a fun category to talk about.

SPEAKER_08 3:06:35

It is fun.

SPEAKER_06 3:06:36

Yeah. We're gonna talk about it. We're gonna debate. Sean's probably gonna get mad.

SPEAKER_08 3:06:43

Maybe they'll grind a malt. Maybe he'll grind a really big malt.

unknown 3:06:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_08 3:06:47

Sean Sean will grind a malt. We probably won't buy anything anyway.

SPEAKER_06 3:06:51

Do you two realize that if I don't actually end the podcast, you guys would do this till 3 a.m.? If it's not me being a dick, you guys would just keep this is we've been parting the class for 15 minutes, and I'm trying to end it, and you're just and it'll happen. Yeah, what do you want to do?

SPEAKER_07 3:07:11

Last month was it last month or the one before where you had to fly in the morning? Yeah, you left. And me and Travis stayed or me and Jeremy stayed on for like an hour and a half. Did you? Yeah, yeah, we did. We could talk forever.

SPEAKER_09 3:07:24

We could end the recording and keep talking.

SPEAKER_08 3:07:26

Sean and I did a bush mills live one time that we talked about the bush mills for 20 minutes, and then it was so long, and we got talking about everything like Area 51 and UFOs. It was awesome. Alright, guys, thank you so much for tuning in. Uh Derek's gonna wrap it up now. I'm gonna wrap it up now. I just wanted to steal it from you. Uh thank you for listening. Uh appreciate you guys all, and we will see you on the next episode. The Last Call Whiskey Podcast is sponsored by Whiskey Drop Canada. Don't forget that every two episodes you'll be able to order a kit through Whiskey Drop where you can taste through all of the whiskeys that we taste on this podcast. And special thanks to our friends Really Jiggered for the use of their recording of Parting Glass in this episode. We'll see you guys next time.

SPEAKER_03 3:08:26

Good night.