Diego Lanza: From Italian Childhood to Hong Kong Whiskey Curator and Entrepreneur

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[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back everybody to another fun edition of the Rolex Whiskey Podcast.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Today I got the Hong Kong homey on the phone.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We had so much fun at the Hong Kong Whiskey Festival and boy did this guy have a story.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Diego Lanzo, welcome to the show my friend.

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[SPEAKER_00]: How are you?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, hello and all.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Hi everyone.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Hi everyone.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for the invitation.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah, I must be great.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I fell in love with Hong Kong so I can see why you did too.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I can’t wait to hear the history so we’ll jump into it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: What was your first experience with whiskey where you decided this is something I like?

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[SPEAKER_01]: look it’s I mean I’m gonna try to make it super short yeah but I’ll be honest with you like when I was a kid I remember that my granddad first of all like my family nobody really drinks you know except like a carry the occasion of wine and beer whatever it is but

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, hard liquor, brown spirits, not really, and let alone like any contesters of whatsoever, you know.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And as I was saying, I remember my granddad used to have basically a lot of people that were gifting him, you know, like various bits and pieces, you know, I’m from Italy region league.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So usually,

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[SPEAKER_01]: you know when you go for dinner even today you don’t want to go like it’s always the same thing a new acquaintance or whatever it is you know you’ll never go empty handed right so when my was working all these kind of things he had like friends or you know the lawyer the doctor instead of whatever they were even gifts so I remember there was this cover like full of meanies and bottles and stuff and I really like the label of course because back then I didn’t you know I was what I would probably

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[SPEAKER_01]: eight-year-old seven-year-old, whatever it was, and it was fascinating with this old radios, you know, the one that had like the kind of the mini-bar inside all these kind of things.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And it was until the job that I started for when I was at secondary school, which was like technical and mechanical engineering and all this stuff.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And I, you know, completely dive then in the world of bars.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So cocktails with my first thing.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, you, you need to meet all the different friends, you know, like gin, vodka, this, that, the out of whatever.

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[SPEAKER_01]: But I was always going back to whisking, right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: So I still remember that my first single mold was open for teen, which I have completely drowned or, you know, suffocated with ice at the very beginning.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But that’s how we drank it back in the day.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I remember not veterans at Africa, then you got scotch on the rocks.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, this was like, for me, the first approach I was nineteen years old, right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: But I always liked that rather than drinking, I don’t know, shots of vodka, or tequila, or this, at the out of wherever since it’s the very beginning.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And then when I moved to London to pursue, you know, cocktail career, you know, I had the, the part that I was working at had an amazing whiskey selection.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And then little by little, I basically started trying every single bottle beyond the bar.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And then going to other bars to try whiskey’s.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So that’s like when it started and then I wanted to make a shift and actually pursue all you whisky and you know with a fair amount of like different trips, you know, went back to Italy for nine months, this that the other ended up going back to London in two thousand and sixteen in June got a job as an assistant manager at the whisky change shop and then from there it was

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[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing but, you know, the love that became a passion that became an obsession.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So, and which, that’s why we’re here sitting today, right?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it’s still very great.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you bring an interesting time frame, because you said, two thousand and sixteen.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I also think a lot of people don’t know that when Scotch single malls were struggling and struggling, Italy was one of the largest importers of it, right?

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[SPEAKER_00]: There were guys there that were just buying and buying and buying, saying, you know, I’ll hold on to it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And that’s still this true today.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, some of the largest single barrel collections outside of obviously a Dunkin’ Day in the Gordon McFail.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It’s sitting in Italy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I know they’re selling a lot of it now, but there’s a huge

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[SPEAKER_00]: Being in Italy for Scotch, I mean, I personally as a kid and even as a young adult traveling to Italy, I never, ever saw a lot of whiskey anywhere, other than the basics, you know, Johnny Walker, Shiva’s J&B, you know, stuff like that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So when you said, you know, you come in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in,

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[SPEAKER_00]: like came cool.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It really got on for fifty years and it was just a few guys who gave a shit about it and then in two thousand and sixteen all of a sudden it was like hey this is like a portfolio thing you can make a lot of money.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So you coming into the whiskey exchange which had kind of been like

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[SPEAKER_00]: you know, a great retail, a great shop, a great, I mean, online stores weren’t even kicking in, they were just getting started.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So it was really like, you went to a whiskey shop.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was like going to like a museum because most of the stuff was in the glass case, nobody really knew what was going on unless they knew, which was very few.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then they would like be like a random tasting.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then like a few like whiskey geeks would come out for it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Or a few people who wanted a few free drinks before they went out.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, so, in the end, in sixteenth is this weird, like, pivotal world where all of a sudden knowledge is about to explode.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Before that, the knowledge was, like, held by quite a few, I won’t say a very few, quite a few, but a few, and then Instagram kicks off online stores, education, accessibility,

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[SPEAKER_00]: more whiskey comes out.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it’s kind of like a pivotal year for you showing up.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And what was that like in two thousand and sixteen, you’ve now pursued your passion, you’re in like one of the mechas globally of whiskey.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know, like that’s a legit place.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, definitely.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, look, as I was saying, for me, you know, with Whiskey, I had like this love story, you know, that started basically in in a nine and then, of course, like with London, everything opened, you know, I started going to tasting bars, despite the out of whatever.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And just before going back to the, in sixteenth, like a one back to Italy and in twenty fifteen, I was like managing like in this small restaurants, which is still like very different of mine.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It was actually the guy that got me the first job in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the

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[SPEAKER_01]: And I was curating back then like that the whiskey list, you know, and that was the decision that I made to go back and then to a sixteenth.

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[SPEAKER_00]: How big was the whiskey list back in those days?

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I mean, just like to become really big, but I’ll say big yeah, it’s like one page, like a full column.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely, like that’s insane.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Like for example, you in twenty twelve back in London like at this bar we had like I don’t know probably yeah couple of pages you know whiskey and that’s it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean and back then was already a lot right.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So moving back to twenty sixteen is just because first of all it was like you two serendipity I went back with knowing what it would have done and just having in mind okay I want to do whiskey you know back then already started like collecting a little bit of bottles going around making some you know context and stuff but nothing

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[SPEAKER_01]: major let’s say right and then all of a sudden I go back and within two weeks I got the job as supervisor at the was teaching shop and from them on is it’s literally you know everything flips hundred eighty degrees and it’s completely different world as you said

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[SPEAKER_00]: But you were saying, oh, oh, but on fourteen was like your starter package between two thousand and nine and two thousand and sixteen were there any other gems that you were like holy shit holy shit like so because for me it was like Japanese whiskey.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I never had that and I was like, whoa, that’s different.

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[SPEAKER_01]: This is you had literally as they said in the end of the head right because in London, I still remember, yeah, like in the in the bar that I was working with we were serving twenty five year old because it was in the middle of

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[SPEAKER_01]: Canary Warf so you know big the financial poll in London and there was this guy this customer that he specifically said like look This whiskey they say that is the best in the world won x-way z-mail the adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi adi ad

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[SPEAKER_01]: That’s, listen, insane.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like a glass was basically a hundred pounds of something like that.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And like when I was pleasing enough to buy it and to drink and I was, and that like blew my mind.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And then I tried like, you know, he beat you to twenty one, he beat you thirty, seventeen.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, all like, you know, the whole catalog, goodbye.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Although small note for me, Hakushu, it’s, it’s the daddy.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I love Hakushu.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, the Hakushu, the Hakushu Sherry Cats still, like anytime I see it, I have to order it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I like it, I just have to.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The Hakushu Sherry Cats, but I got to tell you though, it’s very interesting because the Hakushu Sherry Cats is mind blowing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But I had last week in New York, I had one of those Sherry series from La Freud.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The men’s a neon one that just came out like, oh handwritten?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Holy shit, that was good.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Good, good.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, look, Lafrogas, well, when you go ahead, I’m going to say the intersection and the intertwining actually in terms of taste with Pete and Sherry.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, sometimes is quite hard to, I’m going to say to really, really get it right, you know, because unfortunately you have like this to

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[SPEAKER_01]: really strong tastes and really are gonna say columns of profiles, you know, whenever you talk about wood, which is, you know, cherry and when you have an intermission of peat, like so you basically, you know, you peat your barley and then of course, you’ve got something that is peated smoking in terms of liquid and many times I’ve tried things that are like, you know, they’re not bad.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It’s just that they’re very embalanced, you know, so to the fine art of getting right peat with cherry, yeah, when you get right it’s

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[SPEAKER_00]: I’m believable.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that’s a rabbit hole that I now want to go down because I would never a peat guy, even though I grew up drinking Jan B, I didn’t know any better on ice.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I was never a peat guy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I don’t like, you know, I tried like my first oxymor this week in less week in New York, you know, like I’d never, like it’s just on my, my profile, but I’d always loved the haka shoe in the Sherry cask and I’m like, man, I wish like more guys would do it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And now I tried this before and I’m like, dude, there must be more guys that do this.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I’m just going to find the right bottle.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I’m under percent hundred percent and this is it like you know, I mean with a lot of people it’s a great thing you know reading reviews and guides and books and yeah get a lot of it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Ultimately you know we said this when you went to Hong Kong you remember like you know I I don’t even call it a rule is just like a guide that you know Sukinder which is founder and

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[SPEAKER_01]: and former owner of the whiskey change and literally, you know, call it second ad mentor, whatever you want to call it, like, I mean, is the beacon of, I wouldn’t be here without him.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And I wouldn’t be, and I won’t be anywhere else in the world where I’m going to end up in my career alone.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, well, I mean, let’s stop on that point.

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[SPEAKER_01]: What’s it like working at the whiskey exchange?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Let’s bring it back to what you were saying, like in twenty sixties, so very briefly, you know, I worked at the shop for a year and a half.

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[SPEAKER_01]: and then every time the web and a tasting or every time that it was something that I knew, I mean that, so getting to what I’ve come, first of all, the pay was a much, so anything that I could do to make an extra buck, so even setting up rooms for the tasting, closing later, because of the tasting things, just a tent, I could do anything and everything and I did.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And then, because of that, I got to talk to Sickenham many times.

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[SPEAKER_01]: and being at the shop a really funny love with those bloody amazing bottles that as you said like they were sitting behind and they’re still sitting behind sometimes you know plus those with a shelf yep which is all the old and rare and every tiny chicken was coming like I was trailing him and like every time like watching a drink what is this why is that how you do you take this why is this important why this is rare

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[SPEAKER_01]: I, like, literally, I blew his head, like, until he exploded, you know, which one day he basically said, okay, let’s see if this kid, you know, is as crazy sounds like his kid, he’s as crazy as me about whisking.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So, love story short, I wanted to do something else, and back then there was a position with one of his brands, which is porous cake, which is still one of his brands.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Now with Elixir Distillers.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Remember correctly, it was like an ambassador or something like that?

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[SPEAKER_01]: did the interview with Still Today, Master Blender and Chief, you know, in in in command that is Oliver Chilton, of Oliver Xiddys Tillis, did interview and basically all he goes, okay, look, you’d be great for this role.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Once I had the second that I was talking to you, now he told me that he wants to talk to you and he’s got another proposal, I was like, with all the respect, holy shit, okay, now it’s serious.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So, and then, you know, literally, four-year-hours after I was with Sagan, we did a dinner that lasted from seven PM until like three AM in Seoul.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We finished up with the cocky vermouth on the rocks with the, with the peel off orange and the deal was, you know, sealed and done over there, you know.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So, my life forever with him, literally, for at the next four years was next to him.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that’s just amazing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, just to have access to, I mean, because, you know, his whole story to me is kind of like the Amazon story, you know, two guys started at a garage.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, the ones that they had garage.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then when it hit, it was like, you know, people say, oh, it’s timing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It’s timing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It really, what I mean, it was just like boom, and they were ready for it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They had the inventory, and they were like slightly ahead of the rest, which allowed them to be miles ahead.

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[SPEAKER_00]: of the rest.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then it was like, well, like, you can’t catch us.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We’re out.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Let the gates are open.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We’re going to we’re going to own it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We’re going to own it because I remember from the shop to the auctions to everything.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So again, it has its hands and everything.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I’m very hands on.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And this is, and this is exactly, you know, you create your fortune, right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, as Lincoln said, like, if you want to predict the future, you need to create it, right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: And that’s what they did, which is, you know, humanist brother, they, it was risky, you know, like it was the dot com bubble as well.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So in nineteen ninety nine, they sold their family business, which was the first of license business, which is basically, you know, back, and today of licenses are,

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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, just but they guess where you buy, you know, cigarettes, alcohol, this that the other whatever, but back in the days and off license will see a thing, you know, the where the first merchants basically local in in an area, whether it’s in London or in a little city.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So they were selecting fine wines, spirits and everything.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So they close that down with other parents and even his brother basically started the website.

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[SPEAKER_01]: in a little warehouse and literally you had like three people like one employee and the two brothers and they were doing email orders out of an Excel sheet and that was it and from that in nineteen ninety nine to you know fast forward the twenty twenty’s with I think back when when I left we were like about two hundred and I want to say thirty people you know a mega warehouse three brick and mortar shops as you said you know global retailer online or pledge

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I could have the inbound must be insane too people saying hey guys you want to buy this or hey guys I’m looking for something special like the phone and emails must just go twenty hours of it because they are they set the bar so high that like you’d be super to try to go against unless saying other people don’t try to go against but like it kind of be like you know you’re raising other people’s money to chase a dream the dream is already been achieved by them and it works just fine

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and this is like, you know, this is why.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So again, you had already like other projects, it was already thinking about the distillery and other million things.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So this is why basically he he gave me a chance, you know, let’s say so because he said, like listen, and it’s someone to create my collection, you need to literally

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[SPEAKER_01]: basically think like me and act like me because once you learn the trade then you’re on your own like bring me the stuff when you know that is rare that I missed this thing for my collection that is important for the stock or whatever because everything that is under the how do you say category that we called by many other people called old and rare so the vintage world like people’s and so on that was literally my bread and butter my everyday life you know and steal the day

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[SPEAKER_01]: And you got to hunt globally, right?

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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you bought on the trading everywhere.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Every corner Gavin, every corner like I would surrender.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We both bottles.

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[SPEAKER_01]: from Melbourne, Australia, to remote places in the US, like Maryland, man, like honestly.

16:20.071 –> 16:25.093
[SPEAKER_01]: So I have seen stuff that is insane, which is only for specific markets.

16:25.133 –> 16:31.557
[SPEAKER_01]: So it is, for example, I remember some bottles that we bought in the US, which were, you know, Spring Bank, eight year old, and twelve year old.

16:32.057 –> 16:33.838
[SPEAKER_01]: And we labored them completely different.

16:33.898 –> 16:34.759
[SPEAKER_01]: They were done in the eight.

16:34.819 –> 16:38.921
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s got nose in water, small batch for only the, you know, American,

16:39.461 –> 16:40.761
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, insane, insane.

16:40.781 –> 16:48.323
[SPEAKER_01]: So yes, like, whether it was, as I said, teamwork too almost too, I don’t know, you know, we did it, we did it.

16:48.523 –> 16:48.963
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

16:49.783 –> 16:55.405
[SPEAKER_00]: And tell me, like, in in those travels, I mean, what are some standout bottles that you got to try?

16:55.425 –> 17:00.486
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you’re one of the guys that really has tried the rainbow, the rainbow of excellence.

17:02.672 –> 17:03.313
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s very hard.

17:03.373 –> 17:03.873
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, right?

17:05.175 –> 17:07.217
[SPEAKER_00]: And you, and you also have to spend time with you.

17:07.517 –> 17:10.641
[SPEAKER_00]: You’re not just like the casual dude that has a drink at high fives.

17:10.941 –> 17:12.482
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you spend time with the whiskey.

17:13.361 –> 17:38.172
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I do, I do because the thing is like, you know, unfortunately, it just sounds sometimes like I look at myself, I don’t want to sound like a, you know, a snobby prick, like literally, you know, because when people ask me this question, like then I go with me with the passion, but whoever is dear, you know, the final, I’m going to say listener, they made it around, but to answer you question, like with all the humbleness in the passion that lives in me and reads in me,

17:39.212 –> 17:49.578
[SPEAKER_01]: Look, many, many bottles that I’ve tried with Sukinde, whether it was a show or when we traveled like, whether it was Europe or anywhere else like where we did it together, right?

17:50.318 –> 17:58.363
[SPEAKER_01]: So the thing that really really changed everything for me is when Sukinde let me, I mean, we drank together

17:59.283 –> 18:10.151
[SPEAKER_01]: a Boomer-Nein V-Six-Six bottle, I jackweepers in which is a company, I mean, a guy, a designer, a boxer in Germany, and the stock is from Dan Cantela.

18:10.491 –> 18:19.057
[SPEAKER_01]: So Dan Cantela bottle, a lot of R&D-Six-Six, but the single cask or the parcels of bottles, I don’t know that basically this guy had its insane.

18:19.238 –> 18:23.301
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s called the label is called the old train line, which the old series is amazing.

18:23.441 –> 18:26.203
[SPEAKER_01]: He did a beautiful long-mon brickladeck, like

18:26.763 –> 18:35.533
[SPEAKER_01]: amazing bottles, but the born on any six to six, thirty six year old train line old train line jackweebers that like, you know, I was off the races.

18:36.354 –> 18:38.357
[SPEAKER_01]: You have one, do you have one at OB?

18:39.841 –> 18:59.082
[SPEAKER_01]: of that one unfortunately no but the what I think you drank with us the nineteen sixty eight and that is a dunk and teller bottle you know so when whenever use we hear sixties before basically if you blindfolded or whatever else like just just go for it because it’s it’s tropical fruit juice with the wif of peat and

18:59.882 –> 19:20.510
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m repeatable and replaceable is just something amazing and that’s you know like for me Bo more didn’t really come into my my palettes until later and really that does just did a show for me one day like just him and I had like eleven o’clock at night at the virgin hotel in Edinburgh and that was like a life-changing night like I actually didn’t know what to do it was so

19:21.430 –> 19:24.072
[SPEAKER_00]: overwhelming and mind blowing and exciting.

19:24.092 –> 19:26.073
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like holy shit.

19:26.153 –> 19:35.679
[SPEAKER_00]: Like this is going to become my mission to find these older single barrels, not the actual bow more one, because only because of price.

19:36.579 –> 19:37.520
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like that’s it.

19:38.020 –> 19:46.025
[SPEAKER_00]: And unlike the barrier is, you know, if I’m going to buy these bottles, it’s going to be a financial, you know, financial damage.

19:46.940 –> 19:49.402
[SPEAKER_00]: the zero is a dash to the first couple of numbers probably, right?

19:49.642 –> 19:55.307
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it’s just it’s it’s it’s amazing that that the whole bombard is just mind blown.

19:55.928 –> 20:06.557
[SPEAKER_01]: It is in the the other ones and of course, who can like, so can they give me that and then another, you know, distillery that not many people are, you know, familiar with, which is long on, you know, and there.

20:07.117 –> 20:18.864
[SPEAKER_01]: I still remember because unfortunately, you’ve got close these theories and these theories that have changed so much that the term that I have coined with them, I coined that it was just like, that’s an amazing term.

20:18.884 –> 20:19.785
[SPEAKER_01]: That’s what he said back then.

20:20.505 –> 20:27.850
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s these are lost molds, meaning that the single mold and the distillery, it’s still existing today and it’s producing and whatever it is.

20:28.470 –> 20:32.594
[SPEAKER_01]: But the stuff that they were doing back in a days, it’s literally, for example, more.

20:33.054 –> 20:33.235
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes,,,,,,,,

20:50.016 –> 21:10.229
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, when we took in, we took in, we’ve tried, you know, one of the favorite vintage is just, ninety sixty nine, ninety sixty eight, especially the dark cherries from S&WS, they are phenomenal, sixty nine for me, GNM is basically a mutable, got selection, which is a very little independent popular, the dark cherry stuff that they did, the nineteen seventy, ninety seventy one, insane.

21:10.249 –> 21:10.289
[SPEAKER_01]: So,

21:11.550 –> 21:13.952
[SPEAKER_01]: That style, it does not exist anymore.

21:14.372 –> 21:22.779
[SPEAKER_00]: That’s why, I mean, do you also, I mean, do you also, I mean, so when I was, one of my trips to Scotland, the term I used was dinosaur juice.

21:23.760 –> 21:28.243
[SPEAKER_00]: They will never, like, he’s going to go drink this stuff from the sixties that dinosaur juice.

21:28.604 –> 21:29.665
[SPEAKER_00]: The dinosaurs are gone.

21:29.725 –> 21:30.765
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s never going to be the same.

21:31.006 –> 21:37.731
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, where I’m rolling into this, you know, the sharing of the sixties, seventies and eighties was very different to the shareies now.

21:38.051 –> 21:38.532
[SPEAKER_00]: It just seems.

21:39.152 –> 21:40.452
[SPEAKER_00]: And that’s not going to be recreated.

21:40.512 –> 21:48.155
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, that moment, it’s like the moment where people, all, you know, for many years, they cooked a steak on, you know, outside on a fire.

21:48.895 –> 21:51.936
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they came inside and then they was on a gas grill.

21:52.616 –> 21:54.537
[SPEAKER_00]: And then electric came.

21:54.677 –> 21:57.538
[SPEAKER_00]: And then staying, you know, nonstick pans came.

21:57.858 –> 22:01.939
[SPEAKER_00]: If still cooking of a steak, but it’s very different to when they cooked it over coals.

22:02.519 –> 22:03.960
[SPEAKER_01]: Nice and I was, yeah, yeah.

22:04.161 –> 22:23.298
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we’d share, you know, it’s one of those things that, as you said, I mean, it’s still produced today, but, you know, we, we, let’s say that the masses forget that the sharing tasks that they’re using today, the literally made specifically in tailored or the scorch industry, which back then wasn’t the case, right?

22:23.478 –> 22:27.101
[SPEAKER_01]: So it’s because like the, the, the, would the sharing that was used

22:27.840 –> 22:48.736
[SPEAKER_01]: to season and actually like there was aging in those tasks it was real sharing meant for drinking you know stuff that it was twenty-year-old thirty-year-old and sometimes even even solar tasks like real solar tasks meaning that they were taken out of a solar system whether it’s like technically should be the last level you know it depends like how many creators you have so you got different levels of

22:49.557 –> 22:55.098
[SPEAKER_01]: of how big is, you know, the kind of the pyramid, you know, the different lines and rows of of tasks.

22:55.659 –> 22:58.599
[SPEAKER_01]: And that’s where our cast that are like eight year old, hundred years old and so on.

22:58.619 –> 23:03.361
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, but now it’s, you know, basic impossible to find is like the rarest treasure ever.

23:04.061 –> 23:09.262
[SPEAKER_00]: And I had someone once show me the inside of a old school Sherry barrel.

23:10.702 –> 23:12.643
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the inside of a new Sherry barrel.

23:13.949 –> 23:40.657
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, let me just tell you that the one was very red, very, very red and stained and and you could smell and the other one was like, I don’t know, redish, you know, but you know, that as so many like my nuishes as well, like, you know, how sick are the states for for example, you know, people always talk about like when especially on the geek side, they always talk about like the transportation tasks when it comes down to Sherry, right?

23:40.697 –> 23:41.798
[SPEAKER_01]: Because Sherry was until

23:44.175 –> 23:52.478
[SPEAKER_01]: three, four, five, okay, I’m anyway, the mid-AIDs, it was still being bottled when it was arriving at the port of Bristol or anywhere like in England, right?

23:52.898 –> 24:02.961
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they basically said, no, this is, you know, a, depending on how you want to say, like, you know, DOC, DOC, DOCG, whatever it is, in terms of, you know, protected, you know, agriculture, protected, you know, products.

24:03.041 –> 24:07.923
[SPEAKER_01]: So you needed to produce and bottle the sherry in Spain in the triangle of Earth.

24:08.523 –> 24:20.454
[SPEAKER_01]: But back then, you know, they were transporting all these shares that were meant for drinking, you know, that they were going on the counters of wind merchants with these, you know, transportation tasks, because for them, even back then it was a precious thing to have a solar task.

24:20.514 –> 24:26.340
[SPEAKER_01]: But after all those, you know, months, let alone, you know, the travel on by by sea, but

24:27.020 –> 24:33.683
[SPEAKER_01]: even when they were sitting on a counter because on the counter that we’re putting like the whole barrel, the old cask and then you know, they were feeling bottles with Sherry.

24:34.203 –> 24:40.946
[SPEAKER_01]: So he had this share that was like a lot because he took him about five hundred liters, you know, six hundred liters, a dinosaur’s like massive things.

24:41.006 –> 24:43.427
[SPEAKER_01]: So they were last in like months in a shop.

24:43.887 –> 24:51.311
[SPEAKER_01]: But all of that basically just contributed to the wood getting like even more soaked than everything because it was a let’s say a newer

24:52.151 –> 25:13.285
[SPEAKER_01]: type of cast because it was built for the transportation but to endure as well the the travel the stays were really thick so a lot of the sharing was like you know going and penetrating that that would and then long story short you know basically said well we can still profit out of it rather than just burning the wood just you know let’s sell it to the Scottish industry because they they need it and that was it

25:15.210 –> 25:17.292
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, and I don’t think that moment’s going to come back.

25:17.392 –> 25:18.954
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, you’ve got to move forward.

25:19.014 –> 25:21.697
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s built.

25:21.717 –> 25:22.317
[SPEAKER_00]: There’s no need.

25:22.337 –> 25:22.958
[SPEAKER_00]: There’s no need.

25:23.018 –> 25:24.619
[SPEAKER_00]: There’s a whole different system now.

25:24.639 –> 25:34.930
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you talk about all these guys that even steal tank shit so quickly, you know, like out of the wood into steel, like almost immediately and then back into wood later, it’s like, it’s now become like,

25:35.290 –> 25:37.753
[SPEAKER_00]: like restaurant ingredients, you know what they did.

25:37.813 –> 25:38.373
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that’s fine.

25:38.614 –> 25:39.414
[SPEAKER_00]: So, okay.

25:39.535 –> 25:39.975
[SPEAKER_00]: So, let’s go.

25:40.035 –> 25:40.355
[SPEAKER_00]: Let’s go.

25:40.375 –> 25:47.222
[SPEAKER_00]: So, now you have whiskey exchange and then another opportunity where I get to meet your rises.

25:47.623 –> 25:48.344
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell me about that.

25:48.944 –> 25:53.629
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, actually, that is something in the middle first, which is Bonas, which is… Oh, that’s right.

25:53.909 –> 25:54.410
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yeah.

25:54.650 –> 25:57.013
[SPEAKER_00]: Which, and you know Joe, right?

25:57.513 –> 25:57.793
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, man.

25:58.514 –> 26:02.978
[SPEAKER_00]: hundred percent like Joe Joey’s like such your friend and he’s an amazing guy.

26:02.998 –> 26:03.618
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.

26:04.098 –> 26:06.340
[SPEAKER_00]: So I always trying to spend time with him in the New York.

26:06.360 –> 26:07.501
[SPEAKER_00]: So we were together this week.

26:07.581 –> 26:14.607
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know, in the stuff that he has access to as tribe is probably, you know, up there and close to you.

26:14.627 –> 26:18.029
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and absolutely listen and Joe, of course, like he’s got as well.

26:18.510 –> 26:22.012
[SPEAKER_01]: In this case, we can say, you know, he’s got the age, you know, factor in the

26:22.993 –> 26:34.302
[SPEAKER_01]: in his corner as well, he’s been around the block more than me, you know, I have accelerated the process with the experience that I’ve done, but this and Mr. Hyman is knows what he’s doing, and I literally, you know, is it good friend?

26:34.482 –> 26:36.944
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, just nice guy in the world.

26:37.405 –> 26:50.675
[SPEAKER_00]: The nice guy in the world, like he brought me that, like, grants, you know, I text him, I’m gonna see you tomorrow, bring me a little bottle of something, and I walk in a room for a whiskey tasting for a bunch or other whiskey that I got straight to him.

26:50.955 –> 26:51.636
[SPEAKER_00]: What’s in your pocket?

26:53.310 –> 26:58.852
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember that at a show like Job just brought like these, you know, a very beautiful, well, bottles.

26:58.892 –> 27:00.312
[SPEAKER_01]: It was an amazing chivas.

27:00.992 –> 27:03.433
[SPEAKER_01]: But another that literally blew a lot of people off.

27:03.733 –> 27:11.156
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a red label, Johnny Walker that today, if you just named the name, it’s just like, I mean, I used it for my whiskey soda on my whiskey in Coke, right?

27:11.356 –> 27:11.536
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

27:11.796 –> 27:15.757
[SPEAKER_01]: Or he brought this little bottle like it was a thing with a three, seventy five or something or a half pint.

27:15.837 –> 27:20.398
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I can remember from the thirties, and he was insane.

27:20.418 –> 27:21.279
[SPEAKER_01]: It was so good.

27:21.779 –> 27:22.299
[SPEAKER_01]: So good.

27:23.825 –> 27:29.449
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I mean, the whiskey, you know, you know, I believe that the whiskey was different when nobody wanted it.

27:31.290 –> 27:34.893
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that there was like, hey, hey, I’m just grateful to have somebody.

27:34.973 –> 27:35.994
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, we’re doing it.

27:36.414 –> 27:38.115
[SPEAKER_00]: Then obviously the demand change.

27:38.135 –> 27:39.076
[SPEAKER_00]: So things have to change.

27:39.376 –> 27:40.717
[SPEAKER_00]: So how long were your bottoms for?

27:41.277 –> 27:41.998
[SPEAKER_01]: Two years and a half.

27:42.278 –> 27:44.039
[SPEAKER_01]: So I started as a senior specialist.

27:44.099 –> 27:48.643
[SPEAKER_01]: And then shortly after I was heading basically I was head of UK Europe.

27:49.423 –> 27:53.248
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I was sent here in Hong Kong just like to help out a little bit, restructuring the team.

27:53.288 –> 27:56.312
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a period of renovation, let’s say, in the office.

27:56.592 –> 28:07.065
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, you know, I started spending like two months in Hong Kong and then a month and a half back in London going to Paris because that was where we had the room to do the live auction for the European sales.

28:07.746 –> 28:24.892
[SPEAKER_01]: then another two months or three months in Hong Kong then you know back and forth and then the then CEO of Asia basically said like listen any you like it yes you enjoy yes okay what about like taking UK European Asia and I said instead of saying why I said why not

28:25.612 –> 28:30.016
[SPEAKER_01]: So, and that had ended up here, and then did about a year with them.

28:30.917 –> 28:45.670
[SPEAKER_01]: Then, exactly, we’re saying, like, getting to the point, it, you know, this opportunity came about with my business partners, John, that I’ve met, like, you know, one back in the days with the whiskey change, you know, I’ve known John for basically a decade, and other couple of partners as well.

28:45.690 –> 28:50.734
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we had this chance to open this nice whiskey bar in the private members club that is called Club of Art.

28:51.475 –> 28:53.538
[SPEAKER_01]: And our body is called OB-EG, so overall effect.

28:53.818 –> 28:59.284
[SPEAKER_01]: And we have on the back of it a little company that, uh, important distributes brands, which is now official.

28:59.324 –> 29:02.809
[SPEAKER_01]: We are all things, you know, going back at the full circle.

29:02.889 –> 29:05.131
[SPEAKER_01]: Now we’re importing a distributing electricity still.

29:05.151 –> 29:06.513
[SPEAKER_01]: So, so can this product?

29:07.614 –> 29:11.195
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, the club’s amazing, the bar’s amazing, the team is amazing.

29:11.215 –> 29:18.378
[SPEAKER_00]: But like, to watch the twinkle in your eye of excitement, like it hasn’t faded, you know what I’m saying?

29:18.838 –> 29:23.700
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you’re like, in spending time with you and talking to you and hanging out with you, everything.

29:24.081 –> 29:27.122
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I feel like you’re just as excited as you were in the beginning.

29:27.782 –> 29:34.325
[SPEAKER_01]: I had too kind, but yeah, for me, listen, there’s nothing else like that, that it’s more

29:35.525 –> 29:51.335
[SPEAKER_01]: exciting and then the whole thing you know like for me that the you know I get literally the high when when I hunt bottles but then when I open them when I share them or all the liquid when I talk with you know people like you and and you know from beginners to connoisseurs I love it all

29:52.415 –> 29:52.976
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it’s true.

29:53.036 –> 29:58.721
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know, I always tell people, we’re living a dream that we didn’t even see.

29:58.821 –> 29:59.662
[SPEAKER_00]: None of us saw this.

29:59.722 –> 30:06.328
[SPEAKER_00]: If you took, if you went back to, you know, eighteen year old, on nineteen year old version of us, there’s no clue that we saw this.

30:06.628 –> 30:07.028
[SPEAKER_00]: No clue.

30:07.509 –> 30:08.450
[SPEAKER_00]: Not even half a clue.

30:09.070 –> 30:19.453
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

30:34.147 –> 30:39.675
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, it goes in line with my theory, like, of course is that statement, good things come to good people.

30:39.695 –> 30:40.977
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, done deal on that one.

30:41.398 –> 30:48.288
[SPEAKER_00]: But I feel like when you when you get to do something that’s a passion, the spectrum becomes unknown and so large.

30:50.134 –> 30:51.575
[SPEAKER_01]: definitely, definitely.

30:52.015 –> 31:06.586
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, it’s a beautiful fuel to have in your tank when it’s passionate, you know, because if you’ve got passion as your fuel and the focus and the determination to do it as the spark that literally lit the fire, then, you know, it’s easier.

31:06.826 –> 31:09.428
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s never easy, but you’re privileged.

31:09.708 –> 31:11.650
[SPEAKER_01]: Let’s say you found the treasure, basically.

31:13.871 –> 31:14.772
[SPEAKER_00]: Now tell me something.

31:14.832 –> 31:16.573
[SPEAKER_00]: You’ve done some pretty cool shit in your life.

31:16.994 –> 31:18.855
[SPEAKER_00]: Give me a few of them that were like next level.

31:20.428 –> 31:21.608
[SPEAKER_00]: in terms of with whisking?

31:22.229 –> 31:22.909
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, with whisking.

31:23.769 –> 31:24.149
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, God.

31:24.429 –> 31:31.071
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, one of the things that I’ve done that I’m super proud of, it’s, you know, I love cigars.

31:31.431 –> 31:38.174
[SPEAKER_01]: And in my time in London, I’ve been very lucky to basically become in front of the Sahakian family.

31:38.334 –> 31:43.395
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, the people behind the original and steel very much alive doubt of of Lomchop.

31:43.855 –> 31:45.476
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Eddie Sahakian and Edward Sahakian.

31:46.476 –> 31:57.066
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was with them responsible, basically, to create their fourth anniversary buckling, which was a, nineteen, eighty, thirty-nine-year-old Glen Rothers single-cats.

31:57.106 –> 32:04.633
[SPEAKER_01]: So I broke to them, you know, a few samples from, you know, the infinite circuit in the stock, you know, I told them, I told the circuit, you know, like, look, I want to do this with them.

32:04.713 –> 32:05.473
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the project.

32:06.490 –> 32:11.898
[SPEAKER_01]: walking we do with this type of price point is that the other and you know, just give me some some options.

32:11.918 –> 32:15.503
[SPEAKER_01]: So we can up with Ram, Kanye, a few weeks, he’s in so on.

32:16.244 –> 32:21.672
[SPEAKER_01]: But I fell in love with this sample and I was like, you know, I brought them to them and I said, guys, try it.

32:22.707 –> 32:27.449
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, let me know if you like Kanye Param and they basically didn’t really focus on them and they said, we really want to do a whiskey.

32:27.489 –> 32:29.150
[SPEAKER_01]: So I brought to them a couple of options.

32:29.731 –> 32:38.455
[SPEAKER_01]: And when, you know, I saw their eyes, like, usually, you know, freaking going, I don’t know, that they open up so much when I tried to get their office.

32:38.475 –> 32:42.897
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, I was waiting for this reaction because this is actually I love this whiskey.

32:43.057 –> 32:45.419
[SPEAKER_01]: We tried it with cigars and it was just like,

32:46.079 –> 32:47.140
[SPEAKER_01]: that’s like spot on.

32:47.780 –> 32:52.903
[SPEAKER_01]: Coming from a guy that loves both, but I really don’t do it together.

32:53.203 –> 32:57.566
[SPEAKER_01]: Like if I’m enduring a cigar, especially if it’s a nice cigar or whatever else, I do that.

32:57.946 –> 33:02.308
[SPEAKER_01]: And if I have to person think it’s probably like sweet wine or coffee or along those lines.

33:02.509 –> 33:06.411
[SPEAKER_01]: When I drink in whiskey, I don’t want really to contaminate it with cigar.

33:06.751 –> 33:08.292
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, so… No, I’m the same.

33:08.372 –> 33:09.413
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m the same as you.

33:09.493 –> 33:12.976
[SPEAKER_00]: I was in Austin two weeks ago, and that they’re really cool cigar bar.

33:13.316 –> 33:16.878
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I wanted to enjoy cigar, and they were like, oh, what whiskey do you want?

33:16.898 –> 33:19.700
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m like, to be honest, like, I’m probably going to just have a sparkling water.

33:20.321 –> 33:20.501
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

33:20.821 –> 33:21.482
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.

33:21.982 –> 33:22.322
[SPEAKER_00]: I get it.

33:22.342 –> 33:23.483
[SPEAKER_00]: I like, I don’t need to drink.

33:23.523 –> 33:25.084
[SPEAKER_00]: I don’t want to taint the experience.

33:25.605 –> 33:27.806
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I’m just like, they’re not meant to be done.

33:28.147 –> 33:29.668
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m sure that they are great together.

33:29.688 –> 33:30.829
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m not saying I never do that.

33:30.949 –> 33:35.452
[SPEAKER_00]: But that’s not what it’s like, for me, they’re two separate experiences.

33:36.783 –> 33:47.272
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, and this is not to say that, you know, I’m telling everyone, yo, don’t drink whiskey and smoke or whatever it is like, you know whatever you want because the preferences, like it’s always in the region is always personal, right?

33:47.693 –> 33:49.134
[SPEAKER_00]: But I must not, but I also dig it.

33:49.194 –> 33:53.819
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don’t know, you know, I’m not drinking for the effect to get intoxicated.

33:53.879 –> 33:56.902
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m drinking for the, to learn about history and whiskey.

33:57.702 –> 34:06.086
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m not smoking for the point of smoking a cigar because I want to be more fucked up and stuff like that It’s like I smoke cigars cuz I enjoy good cigars.

34:06.406 –> 34:09.127
[SPEAKER_00]: I drink good whiskey cuz I enjoyed drinking good whiskey.

34:09.508 –> 34:12.009
[SPEAKER_00]: They don’t they don’t mix they just don’t mix for me

34:13.029 –> 34:22.274
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, for me, if I, if I, if I do it, because sometimes you’re able to, that the, you know, the occasion that absolutely can do it is not to say it’s not prohibited right, doll my mind.

34:23.015 –> 34:28.838
[SPEAKER_01]: I, if I would have to do it, I would tend to stay with the forty, forty, three percent ones rather than the castering stuff.

34:29.358 –> 34:30.079
[SPEAKER_01]: Into your point.

34:31.166 –> 34:37.748
[SPEAKER_01]: Whiskey, like the way that I’m explaining, especially with the club where we have a lot of amazing wine collectors of wind drinkers.

34:38.368 –> 34:45.109
[SPEAKER_01]: I’m always telling that the weather is the movie industry or the market industry or whatever else.

34:45.129 –> 35:00.513
[SPEAKER_01]: They show you always the same type of figure and I’m going to say medium to drink whiskey, which is like a tumbler, a big core, maybe ice, whatever it is, when yourself, because now you’re a seasoned drinker for many, many years, you’ve got a specific glass that is like

35:01.273 –> 35:12.959
[SPEAKER_01]: basically like drinking wine, but in a miniature or in a smaller way, you know, you got your glass that is, you know, like this tulip or Cherica pizza or, you know, any thumbs glass, it’s a tasting glass.

35:13.620 –> 35:17.582
[SPEAKER_01]: And it’s literally like drinking wine, just you have to do everything in small mages.

35:17.782 –> 35:22.885
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the poise, it’s less what you’re sipping, it should be, should be less.

35:23.565 –> 35:27.667
[SPEAKER_01]: And the way that you smell as well, should be like a lot more like gentle, right?

35:27.707 –> 35:30.349
[SPEAKER_01]: When you smell wine, you can really go in and, you know,

35:31.189 –> 35:48.975
[SPEAKER_01]: really take it all in with spirits whether it’s forty percent or a castring that fifty sixty one whatever is going to be you really have to like breathe in by you don’t even have to hear yourself like sniffing like you have to be like steady like gentle otherwise you’re going to burn your nostril and for two minutes

35:49.615 –> 35:55.076
[SPEAKER_01]: then you’re just going to like basically smell nail polish, you know, so it’s not going to be a experience for you.

35:55.536 –> 36:10.519
[SPEAKER_01]: So that’s what I’m saying like I’m trying to use like analogies with wines because it is what it is and the beauty of whiskey, this is why I love it as well, is that you, you know, if you open an amazing bottle of wine, let’s say, I don’t know, you open Rwani Kunti or a Petrus or just the name of the name, right?

36:11.199 –> 36:14.740
[SPEAKER_01]: Chances are that you finish with the meal or with the crowd that you’re in.

36:15.480 –> 36:42.820
[SPEAKER_00]: that night or that moment of time when they were at least whiskey most likely most of the time it improves because you know it needs more time to open up for again and also when it’s you pop the seal the oxygen just it also has changed you know the whiskey you’ve been sitting for years with you know a couple of centimeters of air in it and then you pop the cork and and you know the jeanie comes out and the next jeanie comes in and you know and

36:43.340 –> 36:50.747
[SPEAKER_00]: and every time you open it, the genealogy and that also, you know, the fill, you know, people, I look at people.

36:50.767 –> 36:55.311
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m like, well, when you start to pour the whiskey out, there’s more space for the gene to come back in.

36:55.592 –> 36:58.594
[SPEAKER_00]: As you keep pouring it, it just gets more and more and more space.

36:59.315 –> 37:00.816
[SPEAKER_00]: It just changes the profile.

37:01.416 –> 37:02.297
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

37:02.457 –> 37:04.298
[SPEAKER_01]: And it opens up most of the time.

37:04.378 –> 37:09.362
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, then as you know, the more you drink and the more oxygen you have in the bottle.

37:09.442 –> 37:16.667
[SPEAKER_01]: So once you have like, you know, basically, I wouldn’t even say half, but definitely a three quarters of the bottle down.

37:16.927 –> 37:23.591
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to plan what you want to do with that liquid because at some point, even if it’s like sixty sixty to percent like the higher strains.

37:25.392 –> 37:41.520
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s going to spoil it sometimes because it’s a bit unpredictable because then once you get too much oxygen, then you have oxidization and then you start losing the different aromas and taste that change and everything.

37:42.060 –> 37:48.163
[SPEAKER_01]: To preserve it, you can always translate to a smaller vessel, with smaller bottles, so you reduce that oxygen ratio.

37:49.143 –> 37:55.347
[SPEAKER_01]: But at that point, you know, as we always say, if you’re thinking about like, you know, argon gas or smaller bars, whatever, just finishes that thing.

37:56.288 –> 37:56.648
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

37:56.688 –> 37:58.389
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that’ll be what.

37:58.649 –> 38:03.392
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the crazy part is when I’m out and I order like a vintage whiskey and it’s oxidized.

38:04.293 –> 38:07.334
[SPEAKER_00]: And it’s generally because it’s generally because it’s a restaurant.

38:08.015 –> 38:08.195
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh-huh.

38:08.495 –> 38:12.278
[SPEAKER_00]: And that bar was inherited from the previous restaurant that went out of business.

38:13.038 –> 38:21.585
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and that’s in that ball that’s been sitting on the shelf for years, you know, and and who knows the condition and stuff like that, but everyone’s always cool about it.

38:22.065 –> 38:28.670
[SPEAKER_00]: And they know, they take care of it and stuff like that, but I’m like, man, that would have been so good that old spring bank instead of it’s like the essence of a spring bank.

38:28.710 –> 38:29.671
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s like a perfume now.

38:29.971 –> 38:37.977
[SPEAKER_00]: You put through, you know, put your finger in, put a little bit behind your ears and you’re good to go, you know, there’s nothing to do to do damage.

38:38.958 –> 38:39.718
[SPEAKER_00]: I don’t even do.

38:39.758 –> 38:41.319
[SPEAKER_00]: We crushed forty-five minutes, bro.

38:41.499 –> 38:43.099
[SPEAKER_00]: I can’t wait to hang out with you again.

38:43.699 –> 38:44.499
[SPEAKER_00]: That’s the best time.

38:44.599 –> 38:53.122
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m so fortunate that I get to travel the world and somehow I’m magnetized to the right people that I guess spend time with the right people.

38:54.522 –> 39:01.324
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the craziest part though, but over here, the craziest part after spending two days with you at the show.

39:01.824 –> 39:04.705
[SPEAKER_00]: And then all of a sudden, John’s like, hey, I hear you’re coming.

39:04.745 –> 39:05.465
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, John and I

39:05.925 –> 39:09.493
[SPEAKER_00]: have Instagram for like a million years since like the dawn of time.

39:10.155 –> 39:11.438
[SPEAKER_00]: And then whoa, hey, it’s John.

39:11.498 –> 39:12.661
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m like, look out of here.

39:12.901 –> 39:14.104
[SPEAKER_00]: This is all just meant to be.

39:15.647 –> 39:18.648
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, as I was saying, like, I was just shining in what you said.

39:19.008 –> 39:22.229
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, good things happen to good people.

39:22.569 –> 39:22.889
[SPEAKER_01]: That’s it.

39:22.949 –> 39:23.149
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

39:24.770 –> 39:42.015
[SPEAKER_00]: When it’s bad to be like, I’ve come back to America as like the the global spokesperson for Hong Kong is the amazing place on the moment where you can do so much cool shit and just like literally like live the dream if you choose to and not and not have your wallet broken.

39:43.680 –> 39:44.581
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I do that.

39:44.701 –> 39:55.448
[SPEAKER_00]: I do that in fancy restaurants in Scotland, and it’s thousands and thousands of dollars, which listen, I will pay for experiences all day long because I don’t think those experiences we know will be around forever.

39:55.468 –> 39:56.749
[SPEAKER_00]: Heronel, you know?

39:56.809 –> 40:04.814
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I go sit with sal, you know, downstairs there, and I drink all kinds of crazy shit, but that bill is not cheap by any means, but it’s not what you’re done.

40:05.334 –> 40:30.040
[SPEAKER_00]: you know and and and I get to do that in a lot of places then I come to Hong Kong of all places where I can have in five days five missions in the star meals and drink hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of whiskey for like a couple of grand a hundred percent especially when it comes down to whiskeys like you know luckily in Hong Kong but they called you know the New York of Asia and it’s literally like one always on the top three spot as the most expensive place to live in

40:30.880 –> 40:44.544
[SPEAKER_01]: If you’re a whisky lover, you’re in luck, because it’s not a prerogative of OBE or a club at all, but you experience it as well when you go to Lars, the Tiffany, or when you to house plenty, or when you go to Wilchink, we borrowed from Japanese culture.

40:44.704 –> 40:46.785
[SPEAKER_01]: If you go to Japan, again, another place that you know,

40:47.465 –> 40:58.014
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, we would pay for, of course, if something is super rare, fair, okay, fair enough, but even if it’s super rare, it’s gonna be a fraction of what you would pay anywhere else in the world.

40:58.434 –> 41:05.560
[SPEAKER_01]: So we borrow from the couch, because the Japanese Whiskey bar, you know, seen and concept is really what you’ve seen in OBE, right?

41:05.620 –> 41:12.326
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s like it’s beautiful, it’s glasses, like a super design, you know, thought about whatever blah blah blah, but at its core,

41:12.966 –> 41:24.913
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s that, you know, we, and this is why I want to, and I told you back then, I want to price everything fairly because for me the goal is like I want to finish as many possible bottles and then open as many crazy bottles again, you know?

41:25.173 –> 41:35.199
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you’re not looking to sit with argon gas and that plastic stuff around you that like I get bottle delivered like I just picked up in New York I picked up two Romano levy gropas

41:35.819 –> 41:38.420
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, because I love the stuff, old ones.

41:38.580 –> 41:45.661
[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, because they’re so old, and it was in a suit case, and Elisina were in styrofoam cases, so it didn’t leak all over my shit.

41:45.701 –> 41:52.943
[SPEAKER_00]: But the one from being banged around, up and down, up and down, you know, in the thing ended up, the quarks very, very wet now.

41:53.223 –> 41:56.483
[SPEAKER_00]: So I’m going to take it away this weekend and open it and enjoy it.

41:57.024 –> 42:03.485
[SPEAKER_00]: But like, that was another, you know, like, that was another spirit, which was done by artists.

42:04.145 –> 42:16.670
[SPEAKER_00]: back in the day when I say artists nobody really could appreciate what it was back then and now they’re like oh my god yes yes yes yes I mean and guapo is probably not as I’m gonna say

42:18.158 –> 42:21.139
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s beautiful, you know, when it’s done nicely, everything can be amazing.

42:21.179 –> 42:27.960
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, even today, you know, you’ve got another rise of tequila, mascara and so on, and some of the products over there, it’s nuts.

42:28.140 –> 42:30.561
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s beautiful and it’s super cool, you know, full of quality.

42:30.621 –> 42:37.983
[SPEAKER_01]: Grapé, you know, I got from the region, what is it literally like, you know, we were born and raised with, you know, breastfeeding and grapened, but easily.

42:38.443 –> 42:47.685
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of that stuff is, you know, pretty average, you know, like it’s stuff that we used to literally clean the traditions like you have your espresso and then whatever it’s left in the cup.

42:48.305 –> 42:50.106
[SPEAKER_01]: You basically have a glug of grapple.

42:50.447 –> 42:53.429
[SPEAKER_01]: You sort of around to pin the cup and then you down it, right?

42:53.469 –> 42:54.430
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is called Razentine.

42:55.010 –> 43:02.255
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, the Ronald Abyss ones, as you said, it’s a piece of work.

43:02.496 –> 43:09.361
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s literally masterpieces there because it did as well, like in fusion with herbs, it did like different things, aging, non-aging.

43:09.381 –> 43:15.665
[SPEAKER_01]: It was like putting almost all the time, like a vintage, every single label he would draw and stick it up.

43:16.566 –> 43:18.547
[SPEAKER_01]: The guy was just like taking so much care.

43:18.747 –> 43:26.753
[SPEAKER_01]: Even today, I think if you just Google it, I can remember which paper when a caravan would need to die, the one he started like really coming up to rising up to fame.

43:26.853 –> 43:40.681
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he’s either in New York Post or like something like that, something crazy or the bossy journal like a massive massive you know, paper in the US, talking about him like literally calling him something like the you know, the Vinci of, of granddad.

43:40.701 –> 43:43.023
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, the Picasso, the Vinci, you know, of grandpa.

43:43.463 –> 43:52.513
[SPEAKER_00]: So I’m excited because I’ve been slowly buying them the last few years since I was introduced because like I just geek out on stuff that just won’t be re-created.

43:53.173 –> 43:53.994
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, just look.

43:54.435 –> 43:55.035
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s what it is.

43:55.756 –> 44:00.141
[SPEAKER_00]: Dick, any social media Instagram you want to tell so my listeners can follow you?

44:00.587 –> 44:01.507
[SPEAKER_01]: that would be my pleasure.

44:01.567 –> 44:03.008
[SPEAKER_01]: So mine is very simple.

44:03.148 –> 44:06.409
[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to follow me is Whiskey Diego, or the handle is all attached.

44:06.750 –> 44:12.272
[SPEAKER_01]: R-one is O-B-E, so O-B-E, so it’s October, Bravo, Echo, whisking.

44:13.332 –> 44:16.694
[SPEAKER_01]: And the other one, of course, is club-a-tard, which is, which is our club.

44:16.734 –> 44:23.276
[SPEAKER_01]: But these are the three that I would say, it’s where you can see all the little things that we do and the crazy bottles that we open.

44:24.277 –> 44:25.317
[SPEAKER_01]: Stupid things that I drink.

44:25.497 –> 44:25.917
[SPEAKER_01]: The light.

44:26.197 –> 44:26.698
[SPEAKER_01]: The light.

44:29.393 –> 44:50.881
[SPEAKER_00]: if you get to go to Hong Kong look up Diego he can take you on a journey of whiskey journey like you’ve never been in your life and he’s one of the he’s one of the gems of the industry I’m so glad that we got to like you know become friends and hang out and spend some time and I look forward to many many many many many many more times together enjoying what we both love doing and I can’t thank you enough for coming on the shows today and

44:51.281 –> 44:58.646
[SPEAKER_00]: Talking to listeners, definitely go follow Diego, OBE, whiskey, club guitar, you know, obviously once I post the thing, I’ll put the links in there as well.

44:59.146 –> 45:02.268
[SPEAKER_00]: But honestly, it doesn’t get better than the sky and he’s done it all.

45:02.449 –> 45:11.735
[SPEAKER_00]: He’s done it all with a smile and with a graciousness that you can’t believe, you know, like this is like a, this is like a people of the people, you know, this is a real deal.

45:12.015 –> 45:13.136
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you everyone for listening.

45:13.156 –> 45:17.338
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for reading the podcast and we will definitely see you all on the next one.

45:17.479 –> 45:19.360
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening and that’s a wrap.