Dawn Davies, the buying director for The Whiskey Exchange, talks to Gavin about the modern whiskey market and raises issues such as overcharging customers, releasing substandard, non-age statement liquid, and using excessive packaging that shifts focus from the product to “pomp and ceremony.”
She also highlighted a concern that the market prioritizes “flippers” over long-term customer loyalty. Despite the need for an industry “reset,” both speakers agreed that its core strength remains the value of people and unique experiences, which Dawn exemplified by sharing memorable “pinch me moments,” including attending the Cannes Film Festival.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back everybody.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back everybody to another fun edition of the Rolex Whiskey Passion Project And I was just in the pre chat chuckling with my guests today because man, what a trip and what a time I recently had with there And I definitely think we’re bonded pro-liked.
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[SPEAKER_03]: There’s no good data about that and without further adjuved on David welcome to the show my darling.
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[SPEAKER_03]: How are you introduce yourself audience?
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[SPEAKER_03]: Good.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you now.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I have a suit blast.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I’m Don Davies.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I’m the buying director for a company in the UK called the whiskey exchange, which some of you may know.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As well as everybody.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, but yeah, I basically do the buying.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I also help with the events and yeah, general dog’s body is probably the best description.
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[SPEAKER_03]: No, guys, I love that.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So, so, you know, you me spend some good time drank some crazy whiskey.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But the question of that, and you’re nice talk about so many topics.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But I guess my favorite question on this podcast to ask is it’s like, kind of gets to the start?
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[SPEAKER_03]: Like, at what point did like whiskey come into your life?
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[SPEAKER_03]: And not from the means of like, hey, let’s have a good time and get shit-based, be like, hey, these are the doing something really interesting.
01:22.370 –> 01:24.513
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, they, this tastes different to what I’ve had.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I’m curious what else is made.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I’m always, I mean, this gets hands super wrong, but I’ve always been interested in alcohol.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I grew up with in a little bit of my time in Europe and my mom and dad used to give me wine with water, you know, even one of those super young.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So it was something I can always grew up with my mom’s incredible cook.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So flavor is something that’s really important to me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I love flavor.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I love people.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And for me, basically, I went to university up in Scotland.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and Edinburgh, and I decided, well, actually, I didn’t decide.
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[SPEAKER_00]: My father basically turned around to me and said, I’m happy to pay for your accommodation and your university, but I’m not paying for your Guinness habit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You are going to go out and earn money.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I started working in Barclay, the principals hotel, and my the manager in Henderson there, he loved whiskey, and he was the one that first gave me whiskey,
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I just remember thinking, I like this.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is great.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I, you know, in Scotland, you have to drink whiskey.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Otherwise, you’re pretty much rejected from the country.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I was drinking whiskey then, but I think wine became more important to me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I was very much in, as a, a smelly age for a long time, working with wine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think for me, it was kind of coming back into whiskey when I joined a, a company called Selfridges, which is a top end retailer.
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[SPEAKER_00]: in the UK.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I had the great luck to have Dave Brum as a mentor.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know Dave Brum has taken the singles in my bus.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and both of them just introduced me to what whiskey really was, which was incredible drums with amazing stories with incredible people.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And he that was, so I had kind of an intro, and then I kind of had a big intro.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I would say probably it was about our garments 20 years ago, when I really started getting really excited about whiskey.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, that’s a hell of it was the kind of day, you know, I know, I know what gets poured and it’s it and yeah, you win big and I think, you know, and this is, you know, not, you know, I’m totally healthy, everybody don’t worry, but I was telling my cardiologist here today, I’m like, I just either go big or I don’t do it at all.
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[SPEAKER_03]: like I’m good like then like there’s no need for me to drink whiskey if it’s not going big because just I’m I’m good.
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[SPEAKER_03]: There’s so many other things I could drink or not drink.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So I think we definitely I won’t say we’re unicorns can be our locks like us but it is a kind of the unique take in the world when you like
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you know, I’m not being a dick or being like, it’s just this is what I’ve fortunate enough to drink and this is what I’m around and the great people I get to associate with and this is what’s being poured like this is what it is.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that’s it, yeah, I just won’t drink stuff I don’t like.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I think, am I a drink and food snub?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hell yeah, but yeah, I don’t.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn’t stop me drinking a really great glass of, say, Glen Glassau sanden, which I love, which is like 50 quid, but we’re like 70 bucks, I guess, in America.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But, by the way, I’m looking at my credit card from the trip down and seeing that the
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[SPEAKER_03]: I’m like, wait, what?
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[SPEAKER_03]: It’s like, whoa, that’s like 30% up.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You’re like, in the, you know, it’s cheaper.
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[SPEAKER_03]: In my head, that was such a good deal.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And then when I see it on the city bank statement, I’m like, wow, that’s like 30% extra.
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[SPEAKER_03]: That’s a lot.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But fun and games that I like, you know, trying to work out.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You mentioned the Guinness thing earlier and I’m kind of embarrassed to say it, but like, I’d actually never had a Guinness in my life.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, we can not do any more.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I don’t know.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No, this is a crazy part.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No, but this is crazy.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yep, this is the, so in my mind, so my history with beer was grew up inside Africa, drank a lot of beer.
05:40.879 –> 05:46.848
[SPEAKER_03]: Bathrooms will always easy to get to, you drink the beer, you meet my body, one beer, and three beers out.
05:46.869 –> 05:49.293
[SPEAKER_03]: It’s just how my wiring is, it’s what it is.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So it’s very like it’s, it’s, it’s uncomfortable, but if you’re in a common environment, it’s totally fine.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You go to the bathroom and pee.
05:56.124 –> 05:57.987
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, then I used to run nightclubs.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And then I’d have to like literally tell people going to the bathroom of my establishment to get the fuck out of the way, but I really need to go.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And that causes a lot of stress with people that have been drinking.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And you’re just coming in telling them what to do.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And all you know what?
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[SPEAKER_03]: I’m good.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And beer is done with me.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I now switch to whiskey.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I ready used to drink whiskey.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I now drink at my clubs.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Johnny Walker Black.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I pee maybe like once every four hours.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think the most because you’re not drinking enough water.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and if the water was never I mean, I saw a great meme the other day It’s like people who grew up in the 80s.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Nobody ever said to drink water.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It was no adrachin We didn’t have a flask we’d rove around with we didn’t get told 50 times a day like somehow We survived we drank it out of like you know that the the the the hose pipe and it was totally fine Hey, that’s but so on this trip
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[SPEAKER_03]: So my idea of Guinness just looking at it was like, oh, that’s really fucking heavy and like there’s no way anyway I get I I’m with Raj at Justorini’s on the first night.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I land in London a few weeks ago And we get done drinking and he’s like, let’s go get a pint and I’m like sure I’m a trooper.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I’ll go do that
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[SPEAKER_03]: Right, yes, what am I going to say like, no, raw, like, I’m not going to do it, like, I’m, you know, anyway.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So I go, we got to this place.
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[SPEAKER_03]: There’s a million dudes primarily standing outside in business attire with their laptops between the laptop briefcases between the legs.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It’s like six o’clock in the night.
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[SPEAKER_03]: They’re all standing outside the com, comarotry, like I’ve never seen like three women and 100 guys.
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[SPEAKER_03]: All good.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I watched the guy pour it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I did my head, I’m like, oh man, I’ve got a law.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And then, horn, when I sit on that thing I’m like, what?
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[SPEAKER_03]: It’s light?
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[SPEAKER_03]: I tell you, shouldn’t you?
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[SPEAKER_03]: In it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It was so good.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I don’t like really deprive myself because no one in the marketing did they say light and fun.
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[SPEAKER_03]: That’s what they should have said.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Light and fun.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And I would have tried it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But I was like, oh, heavy.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Heavy.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Never drink that.
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[SPEAKER_03]: say you’ve now opened your entire wound up and you don’t need to pay as much as if it’s a larger just as enough and and now anytime I see that I will definitely get one and I’m like totally like mind blowing because they’re marketing to a person like me who’s clueless in that it was not good I had to try it and I didn’t want to try it because their marketing told me it’s just going to be like really heavy and like you’re going to feel like you know I don’t like
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I’m going to give you some advice on Guinness, though.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If you go into a bar and it’s on tap and you don’t see any other Guinness is being poured, don’t drink the Guinness because it won’t be good.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You need somewhere that they’re pouring a lot of Guinness and they’re cleaning their lines.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yep, and we served a lot of Guinness and you would think at some point I would have done that and I remember my bartenders when the beer guys would come on a Tuesday to replace the kegs They would always you know because we did a lot of sports events was like a sports bar
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[SPEAKER_03]: and they would be like keep those lines flowing like no matter what don’t stop him like even if there’s no one in front of you ordering just have three or four you gotta keep these lines going you so yeah makes makes makes total sense all right back to whiskey there was a good Guinness so obviously we you know where I left off on the whiskey is like we’re fortunate to really
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[SPEAKER_03]: Every time we drink, we’re pretty close to going big.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And when I say going big, we’re drinking whiskey history.
09:18.396 –> 09:26.187
[SPEAKER_03]: We’re not, you know, like, yes, we drink other stuff, but we’re fortunate enough to be able to be in a close proximity to whiskey from different eras.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, that’s just how it is.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So now you go to Selfridges and now Whiskey’s blown more open to you.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And…
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[SPEAKER_03]: for you is this, I know you said wine, food, like you and me are kind of spirits, same thing, same thing over there.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But like, are you not like not to date and when I’m putting any ages, like what time in in time is this when you’re at self-regist?
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I just can’t…
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[SPEAKER_00]: I don’t selfishness in the bad.
09:56.048 –> 10:01.375
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to say, 2005 or 2006, I can’t remember exactly.
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[SPEAKER_03]: What year it was?
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[SPEAKER_03]: So global whiskey is not really a thing.
10:04.329 –> 10:07.255
[SPEAKER_03]: Of course, whiskey is a thing because you’re in the land.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But global, like there’s no one coming in like, oh my God, like there’s, you’re doing rums and tequila and vodka and wine campaign, right?
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[SPEAKER_00]: So essentially what it was was it was mainly Scotch we did have Japanese and it was just on the cost of when Japanese started to kick.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But like it was really in the beginning stages I had a few kind of other countries we had a lot of American of course because the Americans always been very popular over here but that was kind of it so yeah it was 90% Scotch and 10% the rest of the world.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But your customers, is that what they were going after in 2005?
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[SPEAKER_00]: We actually, I think the great thing about self which is when I was running it is we had customers that really were very open to trying.
10:57.333 –> 11:09.634
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a different demographic to some of them more kind of, I don’t want to say, stargy department stores, but the department stores are more historical kind of link to the classics, they’re not stargy at all.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and we had a more hip, younger, kind of more outgoing customer that just really as long as you keep tasting something, we’re really happy to try it.
11:17.783 –> 11:29.616
[SPEAKER_00]: So also, like my buying strategy was always, I don’t want to, I don’t want to follow trends, I want to lead or create trends.
11:29.977 –> 11:33.080
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was very much my game plan itself, which is very much my game plan.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What we’re doing here at the Whiskey Exchange.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So it was kind of like, I always wanted to, and that’s why second and I got so close because when he was bringing a lot of the new stuff he was the first person to import Japanese and UK, you know,
11:48.713 –> 11:57.111
[SPEAKER_00]: He was fresh-pushed to bring me actors, he was so many first for him and I would naturally because I loved his palette and what I was doing, bringing them into the self-futures.
11:57.993 –> 12:06.351
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was kind of really nice symbiosis between what’s akin to and how we both think and why we work together for so long.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So, this is 20 years ago.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I’m not talking about racism.
12:11.091 –> 12:17.301
[SPEAKER_03]: Of course there’s buggys and there were error planes and bugs and, you know, people listening 20 years ago is not very long time ago.
12:17.942 –> 12:29.419
[SPEAKER_03]: I guess, I guess my question in that moment 20 years ago was obviously the prices of whiskey were very different to what they are now.
12:29.973 –> 12:38.026
[SPEAKER_03]: I remember growing up and literally thinking you must be crazy rich to afford a bottle of Johnny Walker blue.
12:40.870 –> 12:57.516
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s I think it’s pretty funny because I have to hand you jokers when I sold an auction for drinks trust a couple of years ago and I still have one hand you joker color card and I’ve also got two cares out as and I can tell you now that on my wages I wasn’t paying the prices they’ve
13:00.972 –> 13:10.549
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, once again, for those listening globally, this was only 20 years again, I’m not talking about like, you know, pre-prohibition.
13:10.589 –> 13:16.038
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m talking about very modern society, people were on cell phones.
13:16.319 –> 13:18.142
[SPEAKER_03]: There was email, there was internet.
13:18.623 –> 13:23.190
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, that alone, that explosion is insane.
13:23.972 –> 13:25.815
[SPEAKER_03]: And here’s what I’m coming from.
13:26.605 –> 13:28.727
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m not discounting any of it.
13:29.447 –> 13:32.350
[SPEAKER_03]: Whatever price is, what people are willing to pay for it.
13:32.710 –> 13:33.511
[SPEAKER_03]: That’s just what it is.
13:34.031 –> 13:51.726
[SPEAKER_03]: But in 20 years, the cost of goods on stuff that was laid in wood in the 60s and 70s and 80s, really didn’t go up, storing a barrel, the cost associated with that didn’t really go up that much.
13:52.167 –> 13:56.190
[SPEAKER_03]: Glass bottles didn’t really go up that much.
13:56.170 –> 13:57.932
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, the whiskey was already done.
13:57.972 –> 14:04.381
[SPEAKER_03]: So I look at that and I’m like, oh man, the finance department must be really excited on the ROI on this day.
14:05.382 –> 14:05.722
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
14:05.923 –> 14:11.490
[SPEAKER_00]: And there’s some people that have built the sceneries based on what they, you know, that we bought out of it.
14:11.570 –> 14:16.035
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the thing to remember is actually probably about the 20 years ago, a lot of whiskey was underpriced.
14:16.056 –> 14:22.684
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that’s fair to say is that, you know, there’s a lot of things out there that did need realigning that had more worth.
14:22.664 –> 14:32.519
[SPEAKER_00]: because you are asking someone to keep something in a barrel and not sell it for 20 years plus and even when you’re thinking about 12 years, that’s still a long time to sit on stock.
14:32.579 –> 14:44.778
[SPEAKER_00]: So, there was a degree of things being underpriced, but I think when you look at the market today, it’s just taking the piss and so the market today, let’s talk about that because you see it all.
14:44.998 –> 14:46.841
[SPEAKER_03]: What’s your view on the markets today?
14:46.881 –> 14:47.963
[SPEAKER_03]: Like what are you seeing?
14:48.263 –> 15:03.741
[SPEAKER_00]: I am quite vehement in ideas what the market has done and I think a lot of brands have taken the piss out of the customer, they disrespect the customer, they’ve been greedy, they sold big global growth, they just started releasing
15:03.721 –> 15:10.332
[SPEAKER_00]: crap left right in centers so they were releasing liquid that was monage statement that was sub-standard.
15:10.973 –> 15:15.501
[SPEAKER_00]: They were putting a price tag on it that definitely the quality in the bottle didn’t warrant it.
15:15.621 –> 15:16.863
[SPEAKER_00]: They were listening to marketeers.
15:17.243 –> 15:20.008
[SPEAKER_00]: They weren’t listening to the people that were actually making it.
15:19.988 –> 15:21.411
[SPEAKER_00]: They were chasing China.
15:21.451 –> 15:22.513
[SPEAKER_00]: That was a big issue.
15:22.613 –> 15:23.655
[SPEAKER_00]: They were chasing the fever.
15:23.715 –> 15:24.778
[SPEAKER_00]: That was a big issue.
15:25.579 –> 15:26.761
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Browns just got greedy.
15:26.782 –> 15:28.305
[SPEAKER_00]: And now it’s coming to bite them in the ass.
15:28.765 –> 15:30.890
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is their problem.
15:31.130 –> 15:34.256
[SPEAKER_03]: See, my disrespect is the packaging.
15:34.838 –> 15:35.078
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
15:35.935 –> 15:39.481
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, I don’t buy whiskey for the box that comes right.
15:39.501 –> 15:41.845
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I buy whiskey for the whiskey that it is.
15:41.985 –> 15:47.974
[SPEAKER_03]: And it’s kind of wild that, honestly, packaging’s gotten crazy in the last 20 years.
15:48.796 –> 15:53.263
[SPEAKER_03]: And there’s a few bigger victims and others, but like, everybody kind of joined the game.
15:53.283 –> 16:01.276
[SPEAKER_03]: I feel like the marketing department came in and is like, hey man, if you make the box a little fucking sexy, you can charge an extra 400 bucks.
16:01.536 –> 16:02.618
[SPEAKER_03]: Bigger, I was…
16:02.598 –> 16:22.699
[SPEAKER_03]: I was sitting with a US-based distillery maybe two years ago and I was sitting with the master distiller in the office and I was one of the first ones to try a release that was coming out, first public person like people who come when he had dried it and I was drinking with him and I said how does this 140
16:22.679 –> 16:50.205
[SPEAKER_03]: dollar whiskey become thousands, and he’s like, fuck, if I know, and I’m like, but you, like, you as a company, like, I might degrees an accounting, instead of charging instead of charging the distributed 90 bucks, why didn’t you charge them 500, because you know the store is going to sell it for a thousand, and give yourself a better margin, and he’s like, man, he’s like, marketing would love to hear that, but just remember that these, these annual releases,
16:50.793 –> 16:54.401
[SPEAKER_03]: They’re just like the gravy on top to get people to buy all the core stuff.
16:54.541 –> 16:54.842
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
16:55.804 –> 17:08.312
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, oh man, this is such a rough world out there because you got marketing, you got finance, and then you got this amazing man sitting there, which is love’s making whiskey, and he’s caught him between all the shit because he can’t book you right.
17:09.727 –> 17:17.859
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know, that is a big problem and I think the issue is is that we’ve forgotten that whiskey is not for sitting on a shelf or putting on an auction.
17:18.701 –> 17:19.522
[SPEAKER_00]: Whiskey’s for drinking.
17:19.983 –> 17:26.513
[SPEAKER_00]: These guys have spent time, they spent effort, there’s history in every single profit liquid.
17:27.594 –> 17:34.485
[SPEAKER_00]: And we should be drinking them and we should be able to afford to drink them and not look at something and go, I actually can’t drink that anymore.
17:34.938 –> 17:41.424
[SPEAKER_03]: because, I mean, people with my collection and they’re like, oh, my rule of thumb if it’s under $900, I’ll open it.
17:41.865 –> 17:49.512
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but that to me, I can live with a guy who 30 years ago, thought Johnny Walker blew yet to be a millionaire to buy.
17:50.033 –> 17:52.315
[SPEAKER_03]: So I’m a $900, I’ll open that.
17:52.515 –> 17:55.058
[SPEAKER_03]: Then I look at some of these bottles, and I’m like, are you fucking nuts?
17:55.138 –> 17:56.059
[SPEAKER_03]: It’s a way of opening this.
17:56.740 –> 17:58.621
[SPEAKER_03]: I can’t afford to open it.
17:58.842 –> 18:04.287
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, and this is, yeah, it’s what it is.
18:04.267 –> 18:18.427
[SPEAKER_03]: Obviously, we live in a different fish con than the averages do and we see these bottles everywhere So sometimes it is really humbling to kind of be like whoa, like that’s crazy But like that’s crazy.
18:18.667 –> 18:21.171
[SPEAKER_00]: We aim to buy a house with the bottle whiskey.
18:21.591 –> 18:24.115
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s not working
18:24.095 –> 18:45.968
[SPEAKER_00]: that’s crazy and and I think it’s just gone all out of proportion and you’re right packaging is become I’m not going to lie like I had to so every single really top-end bottle that comes into this huge change we check the packaging we open the boxes we look at everything to make sure it’s in perfect condition so when someone buys it they’re not going to come back to sale there’s a scratch or this was this
18:46.454 –> 18:51.165
[SPEAKER_00]: It took me in the warehouse manager for 45 minutes to get into the McCallan reach.
18:51.185 –> 18:53.310
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m not, or the time series or whatever.
18:53.330 –> 18:55.034
[SPEAKER_00]: 40 minutes.
18:55.054 –> 18:57.780
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m like, this is not even a thing.
18:59.347 –> 19:03.614
[SPEAKER_03]: Or like, I look at that and it’s like, you know, I’m, I love Ben and Dick Hardy.
19:03.835 –> 19:09.805
[SPEAKER_03]: So when he released those seasons, you know, I’ve caught them, but I, but I can justify because it’s a little leak bottle.
19:10.867 –> 19:12.890
[SPEAKER_03]: Some of those packaging is just fucking packaging.
19:12.930 –> 19:16.356
[SPEAKER_03]: The bottle is just in a regular old bottle, high five, patty cake, patty cake.
19:16.697 –> 19:17.538
[SPEAKER_03]: Move on with your life.
19:17.598 –> 19:24.510
[SPEAKER_03]: And you like, man, at least put it in a leak or something to bring it up to be like, where I could be like, hey, like, after we don’t have a decanter.
19:25.098 –> 19:33.372
[SPEAKER_00]: But also getting the waste we’re packaging, I’m very much but sustainability and I look at some of these things and it’s fine if you’re going to stick it on a shelf.
19:34.053 –> 19:39.883
[SPEAKER_00]: But when the box weighs like, I need to forklift it out of a truck.
19:40.184 –> 19:42.648
[SPEAKER_00]: At this point I’m like, who is putting that on display?
19:42.688 –> 19:45.132
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m where are they putting it on display?
19:45.112 –> 19:49.176
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I mean, you told me about display, you know, two years ago, I went to distillers one of one.
19:49.717 –> 19:58.347
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, I stayed after the, like, luncheon the day before the auction, and I hung out with, with, just hung out there.
19:58.787 –> 20:08.858
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I went over to, like, the holding room, where, where all that, the bottles had been delivered to and they’re packaging, and it literally was like a cargo
20:09.732 –> 20:14.259
[SPEAKER_03]: Like some of them, you could have put a body in there, just snuck it off the property, like it was so big.
20:14.860 –> 20:16.002
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, and I’m just like, whoa.
20:16.022 –> 20:23.114
[SPEAKER_03]: And then like, when I went last year, when I went to the McAllen 200 year anniversary thing, I went shopping.
20:23.674 –> 20:25.658
[SPEAKER_03]: You could do it as a VIP, and I bought it.
20:25.778 –> 20:30.205
[SPEAKER_03]: Just tell your world in New York, and it’s just still your world London, because they happened to have it in there.
20:30.225 –> 20:30.806
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, great.
20:30.826 –> 20:31.727
[SPEAKER_03]: I don’t have these ones.
20:31.747 –> 20:32.388
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m gonna grab them.
20:32.408 –> 20:35.233
[SPEAKER_03]: They were like, in shock, they’re like, hey, we can’t help you get these home.
20:35.213 –> 20:43.145
[SPEAKER_03]: Like you’re on your own and I’m like okay, so I’m we’re nearly walking out of McAllen With them driving me the balance with these two giant boxes.
20:43.605 –> 20:51.657
[SPEAKER_03]: So the the morning I unpack the layer one of the box Yeah, and I go down and I go down through the down sky the good leader.
20:51.677 –> 20:56.985
[SPEAKER_03]: I don’t like hey guys You help me dispose of these large outer boxes
20:56.965 –> 20:57.927
[SPEAKER_03]: And they’re like, yeah, sure.
20:57.947 –> 20:59.129
[SPEAKER_03]: And I’m just leaving your room.
20:59.169 –> 20:59.750
[SPEAKER_03]: We’ve got that.
21:00.050 –> 21:00.972
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I cool.
21:00.992 –> 21:05.841
[SPEAKER_03]: So now I travel on to the next part of my trip with like the the middle bottle.
21:05.881 –> 21:07.664
[SPEAKER_03]: It’s not even the inner the middle of the box.
21:07.684 –> 21:10.970
[SPEAKER_03]: It’s not even it’s not even that the inner box is the middle box.
21:11.871 –> 21:16.299
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I get to my last location and I’m like, all right, well, now I got to put these in a suitcase.
21:16.319 –> 21:18.703
[SPEAKER_03]: So then I peel another whole layer.
21:19.983 –> 21:22.086
[SPEAKER_03]: And I’m just like, well, that was a big layer.
21:22.106 –> 21:23.788
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, that’s a lot like net the lock.
21:24.269 –> 21:31.218
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I have still the inner layer and the packaging with the box inside it that I could fit into the suitcases.
21:31.699 –> 21:40.050
[SPEAKER_03]: And I remember looking on like, whoa, that’s like three, that’s like a fabric, no, no, what were those eggs where you had opened up and there’s a little two little Chinese.
21:40.469 –> 21:54.502
[SPEAKER_03]: I love like this is just nuts like how do you move these things around like that’s crazy and Yes, I own them because I’m a collector and yes, I’m able to get them at retail and I’m just like It’s out of control now the package.
21:54.522 –> 21:56.807
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it’s officially out of control
21:58.458 –> 22:02.524
[SPEAKER_03]: We have now lost our mind and we’re no longer focusing on liquid.
22:02.544 –> 22:05.568
[SPEAKER_03]: We’re focusing on the pump and ceremony of packaging.
22:05.868 –> 22:10.795
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and I hope in 2021 that that’s chills out a little bit.
22:10.815 –> 22:12.998
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they think you’re doing some really good stuff.
22:13.679 –> 22:16.383
[SPEAKER_00]: I love what Proclad they are doing with their packaging right now.
22:16.423 –> 22:19.427
[SPEAKER_00]: They’re really stripping it back and saying, actually, do you really need it?
22:19.547 –> 22:20.569
[SPEAKER_00]: Do we need all of this?
22:21.510 –> 22:22.972
[SPEAKER_00]: People looking more sustainable options.
22:23.072 –> 22:27.418
[SPEAKER_00]: I think people are having two because those are the government’s taxing and how out of us.
22:28.225 –> 22:46.437
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, I’m blown away like, you know, there’s a new line item when I bring product in and I’m like, whoa, that’s, that’s a big line item too in pounds and very,
22:47.108 –> 22:59.880
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I’m in Selfridges, I’ve done nine years and I love Selfridges, I think Selfridges is a very special place, but you know, I was kind of hitting my ceiling, I didn’t close very much in many places.
22:59.980 –> 23:14.955
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, Kim and I had talked for about two years about doing something together, we get on so well, he’s one of my best runs.
23:14.935 –> 23:17.459
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I was like, I’m really well with, and we’re sitting down.
23:17.519 –> 23:20.323
[SPEAKER_00]: The skin is like, so, you know what, would you come and be our buyer?
23:20.523 –> 23:21.665
[SPEAKER_00]: And they’ve never had a buyer.
23:22.326 –> 23:26.051
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, okay, you guys ready to kind of hand over some of that to me.
23:26.071 –> 23:27.233
[SPEAKER_00]: And they were like, yeah, it’s time.
23:27.253 –> 23:29.176
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to focus on growth and this and that.
23:29.937 –> 23:32.521
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was like, okay, fine, let’s do it.
23:32.601 –> 23:36.787
[SPEAKER_00]: And we celebrated with a vintage and a groany, which I didn’t think was a bad thing.
23:36.827 –> 23:41.955
[SPEAKER_00]: And in our bar, down in Park Royal, which is the most unblammerish place in the entire UK.
23:41.935 –> 23:47.647
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was just, you know, felt right, coming, and that was me going full-time in spirits.
23:48.048 –> 23:49.130
[SPEAKER_00]: And we were still in wine.
23:49.190 –> 23:52.096
[SPEAKER_00]: That was something I said, and that wasn’t going to give up.
23:52.116 –> 23:53.679
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is such an important part of my life?
23:53.699 –> 23:55.743
[SPEAKER_00]: So we do a lot of champagne, we’ve four to five.
23:56.685 –> 24:00.433
[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, started working as their buyer.
24:00.413 –> 24:02.497
[SPEAKER_03]: Edward, what you, what you was that?
24:02.958 –> 24:07.607
[SPEAKER_00]: That was, so I passed my master of wine in 2015, so it was 2015.
24:07.728 –> 24:12.537
[SPEAKER_03]: So basically, now whiskey’s in full throw, like it’s happening.
24:12.577 –> 24:16.686
[SPEAKER_03]: But I came in in 2015, like, like the fuses been lit.
24:16.726 –> 24:17.688
[SPEAKER_03]: We’re going to explode now.
24:17.748 –> 24:18.289
[SPEAKER_03]: It’s coming.
24:18.590 –> 24:21.576
[SPEAKER_00]: And I really came in when that kind of was just starting.
24:21.976 –> 24:22.337
[SPEAKER_00]: And
24:22.317 –> 24:23.318
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I was very lucky.
24:24.079 –> 24:28.385
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say I’m still didn’t have a huge knowledge on whiskey.
24:28.405 –> 24:30.228
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a good grounding.
24:30.268 –> 24:38.959
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say, but this is where my whiskey knowledge really started to take off because when you’re in the whiskey exchange, you’re talking about the best distillers.
24:38.979 –> 24:40.742
[SPEAKER_00]: You’re talking to the best industry people.
24:40.802 –> 24:48.392
[SPEAKER_00]: You’ve got access to people like surge Valentine, Charlie McLean, Dave Brum, seconder, you can’t help,
24:48.372 –> 25:13.890
[SPEAKER_00]: suck in all this information and I could just love to work in the skin because I used to work late, he would work late and every now and then again I would throw out a comment like I don’t like for more and then skin to be like well you haven’t tried 1960s before I was like yep no I haven’t so kind of can I try nineties for more and it kind of every time I wanted something I was like let’s just come I don’t like it oh my god like I think my kids do that
25:16.908 –> 25:22.868
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, but how crazy because Sukinde and his brother were buying and for ever.
25:23.793 –> 25:36.851
[SPEAKER_03]: and really like at some point I hope in the future I get him on the podcast to be like what I mean like I know I’ve read the stories and all that kind of stuff but it’s like they were literally buying when nobody was not many were buying not nobody.
25:37.292 –> 25:47.286
[SPEAKER_00]: He’s the reason he is I firmly believe the reason McCallan is what it is today because he was firmly understanding Lillick with new it had huge potential.
25:47.266 –> 25:55.484
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s Len Dronex, another one that he was really sort of doing a lot with, definitely Japanese whiskey in the UK, he’s very low in my head.
25:55.504 –> 26:00.776
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you said earlier, like 2005, Japanese, I’m like, well, I bet four people were like, I’ll give it a try.
26:00.796 –> 26:02.119
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you’re not like, you know.
26:04.495 –> 26:18.633
[SPEAKER_00]: essentially, and he’s, I think, both of us have gone on that journey of kind of really, we were doing things like whisky of the year, which was really celebrating smaller brands or core ranges.
26:18.773 –> 26:31.870
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just think his voice is so powerful in that whisky industry at the time, and he’s, I mean, I’m super excited, but why not to visit his
26:31.850 –> 26:35.275
[SPEAKER_03]: And I’m driven by twice now.
26:35.295 –> 26:36.176
[SPEAKER_03]: I keep waiting.
26:37.257 –> 26:41.784
[SPEAKER_03]: There’s a lot of, there’s a lot of quarters for people to stay.
26:41.804 –> 26:43.166
[SPEAKER_03]: I saw.
26:44.027 –> 26:49.695
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to say, if you’re building an island, you have to build a combination for a staff.
26:49.955 –> 26:51.978
[SPEAKER_00]: Or how we go as per instance, that’s that.
26:52.378 –> 27:00.810
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think that kind of when I joined Whiskey Exchange, it was very much the beginning of that kind of momentous growth.
27:00.790 –> 27:16.150
[SPEAKER_00]: And so so the first year we were definitely seeing big growth and then as soon as that kind of 2018 2019 happened and it went all just great But you weren’t into in 2015 and and correct me if I’m wrong you weren’t a big online presence where you
27:16.383 –> 27:21.977
[SPEAKER_00]: We were always whisky chances always being one of the biggest online retailers for spirits in the world.
27:22.538 –> 27:27.591
[SPEAKER_03]: But the buying wasn’t like it is like there was a switch that happened with everybody went online.
27:27.772 –> 27:32.383
[SPEAKER_03]: Like when I’m saying I’m here, Pete customers try to buying a lot more online than they ever did.
27:32.363 –> 27:36.611
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah, 100%, I mean, then we were just starting that journey when I kind of came aboard.
27:36.671 –> 27:40.418
[SPEAKER_00]: So when second and last year, open the whiskey exchange, they saw a gap in the market.
27:40.439 –> 27:48.775
[SPEAKER_00]: There was no one really selling spirits online and there was some run online, sort of wine online people, but not many spirits ones and they just saw that market.
27:48.815 –> 27:52.161
[SPEAKER_00]: So they really had a lot of good Google presence.
27:52.141 –> 28:02.036
[SPEAKER_00]: because they were the first, you know, it just built and it built and it built and then became like the by word for whiskey, not just in the UK, but kind of worldwide.
28:02.056 –> 28:09.828
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it was if you wanted to know something about whiskey or you wanted to see what was happening, it would be the whiskey changing that you went to.
28:09.988 –> 28:17.459
[SPEAKER_00]: So I kind of joined on that period where my strength was probably more the other spirits in the beginning, so Kind of was definitely doing more of the whiskey buying.
28:17.559 –> 28:20.764
[SPEAKER_00]: The me especially Scottish, I very much kind of
28:20.744 –> 28:22.306
[SPEAKER_00]: owned world whiskey.
28:22.326 –> 28:25.410
[SPEAKER_00]: It was something that I kind of made my strength.
28:26.372 –> 28:30.818
[SPEAKER_00]: And you gradually more and more working within the scratch industry.
28:30.898 –> 28:34.302
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s now something that has become a huge passion as well.
28:34.402 –> 28:41.512
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it’s such a great time to be in whiskey because you can taste whiskey from everywhere in the planet now.
28:42.173 –> 28:43.495
[SPEAKER_00]: Everywhere in whiskey.
28:43.615 –> 28:44.877
[SPEAKER_00]: You need what?
28:45.057 –> 28:49.603
[SPEAKER_03]: What did you pour for
28:49.837 –> 29:11.946
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, which is the same, like when they start to like just the, just the essence of where that is going, was like mind blown, like you could, you could see like all the bones were there, and it’s just young and like when that starts to do what mother nature does to the barrels and the thought like that is just going to be like, wow, they’re going to make, you know, that’s super term liquid gold.
29:13.613 –> 29:15.956
[SPEAKER_00]: for real and I reckon it could be the next to Pam.
29:16.136 –> 29:17.819
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it’s really really exciting.
29:17.919 –> 29:19.982
[SPEAKER_00]: There’s an area and that was it.
29:20.262 –> 29:36.103
[SPEAKER_00]: We were really excited to bring in new things and I think that’s something I’ve always loved just going out and finding that next big thing and I’m very lucky I have Jason who’s my old and rare buyer who’s an incredible mileage on old and rare whisky years and so we have a pretty dynamic team.
29:36.223 –> 29:42.692
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a seasuit’s my number two from a buying perspective who’s just
29:42.672 –> 29:50.892
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it’s definitely, for me, something that’s, it’s such an exciting company’s work for it and it’s one of the kind of process stand still.
29:52.075 –> 29:58.470
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s also so pedigree, you know, the name, it’s like the goodwill around everything is his soul.
29:59.395 –> 30:14.252
[SPEAKER_03]: I love everything about it, but it is wild that everything that they, it’s almost like the Amazon story, like, yeah, I think there’s a need for this, like we’re gonna do it, and I was like, oh shit, look at here, look at it now.
30:14.792 –> 30:17.535
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, look at it, you know, like, this is kind of wild.
30:18.016 –> 30:19.758
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, definitely.
30:19.958 –> 30:21.640
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it has to be a written trap.
30:22.058 –> 30:45.653
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it’s just to be around, you know, you know, as the statement, the big stuff and just in looking now like drinking whiskey from the 60s and the 70s, you know, in 2025 and I always and so humble like when I talked to people from those periods, which it, you know, there’s not any left of you honest, but they say like, you know, the people that put that that liquid in word really was just doing a job.
30:45.633 –> 31:04.317
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you know, you’re taking for the future and they’re so passionate about it Yeah, and they had no one who ever like said, you know, they didn’t have the world-wide audience that we have now to be like fully shit You know back then I was like, hey, good job, you know, here’s your paycheck and a pint that they come you know enjoy
31:04.550 –> 31:11.003
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think a lot of these distillers talk about is being the guardians of the future.
31:11.504 –> 31:16.875
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, they’re making whiskeys now, but what they’re blending whiskeys now, but what they’re making is going into battle.
31:16.935 –> 31:18.778
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they may not see in their lifetime.
31:18.799 –> 31:20.061
[SPEAKER_00]: I think
31:20.041 –> 31:29.479
[SPEAKER_00]: That sense of history, that sense of passing on the back to is something that’s really, really important in Scotch history and Irish history, even in an American history.
31:29.639 –> 31:41.020
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at Bourbon and you look at the nose and the Shapiro’s and you see that same for the lineage that really carries through from generation to generation with the stiller to the stiller and it’s super exciting.
31:42.569 –> 31:45.854
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, I’m, you know, I’m watching the next generation.
31:46.795 –> 31:48.978
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, I, you know, there’s lots of stars.
31:49.679 –> 31:54.325
[SPEAKER_03]: I feel like the older times there were many stars because like even looking at that like picture.
31:54.385 –> 31:57.650
[SPEAKER_03]: I saw last week with Glenn Karen, you know, and the people that were there.
31:57.710 –> 32:01.035
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m like, he like, okay, who’s the 20, 25 group in that picture?
32:01.135 –> 32:03.037
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m having a hard time picturing such a big group.
32:03.057 –> 32:12.070
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m not being a dick about it, but like, I don’t, I don’t have a 20, 25 group that could fill that room that would be like holy shit.
32:12.218 –> 32:13.487
[SPEAKER_00]: personalities.
32:13.527 –> 32:15.985
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, I think people
32:16.589 –> 32:29.041
[SPEAKER_00]: aren’t appreciating that people buy into people, they buy into characters, they help my into packaging and they do show an extent that that’s not how you build an ongoing drinker, that’s how you build a one-flash in the pan drinker.
32:29.942 –> 32:43.575
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, I got into whiskey because of people, I didn’t get into whiskey just because of the liquids and it’s those they brums,
32:43.555 –> 32:51.611
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of inspire you to kind of delve more into it because of the stories they tell and how they tell it and the personalities they have.
32:52.653 –> 33:04.315
[SPEAKER_00]: And those people are what we kind of now need to bring through on the next generation and my worry is that because this is the time when brands are playing back they’re not pulling those ambassadors for the liquid forward.
33:04.295 –> 33:08.820
[SPEAKER_00]: They’re focusing on stuff that I don’t think it’s going to give the long way.
33:08.840 –> 33:17.230
[SPEAKER_03]: They’re focusing on beating last year’s financial, or at least staying afloat, because now you have this fake financial sense because, you know, now that’s what you have.
33:18.412 –> 33:20.834
[SPEAKER_03]: And you’re 100% correct.
33:20.934 –> 33:26.962
[SPEAKER_03]: I think of almost all the whiskey I’ve drank in the last 10 years, and all the whiskey I collect.
33:27.142 –> 33:29.965
[SPEAKER_03]: It’s because I have a personal relationship.
33:29.945 –> 33:33.170
[SPEAKER_03]: if not one degree of separation from the person that made it.
33:33.491 –> 33:33.711
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
33:33.731 –> 33:34.933
[SPEAKER_03]: So I’ve heard the story.
33:34.993 –> 33:35.774
[SPEAKER_03]: I’ve been with them.
33:35.974 –> 33:37.016
[SPEAKER_03]: I understand it.
33:37.477 –> 33:39.380
[SPEAKER_03]: The rest, like, this is too many out there.
33:39.400 –> 33:40.622
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, I don’t really want to go down.
33:40.822 –> 33:48.013
[SPEAKER_03]: And I don’t, you know, like, I always say, like, if somebody just takes a few minutes to invest the time to explain to me everything, like, you got me.
33:48.053 –> 33:48.915
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m loyal like that.
33:48.975 –> 33:49.876
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m loyal to a full.
33:50.397 –> 33:51.799
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, I’m too loyal sometimes.
33:52.160 –> 33:58.129
[SPEAKER_03]: But because, like, I really, really geek out on that stuff,
33:58.109 –> 33:59.071
[SPEAKER_03]: you and I spoke about this.
33:59.131 –> 34:01.156
[SPEAKER_03]: The concern is like, what’s the next generation?
34:01.256 –> 34:01.837
[SPEAKER_03]: I look like.
34:01.857 –> 34:02.338
[SPEAKER_03]: I don’t know.
34:02.739 –> 34:06.187
[SPEAKER_03]: Like that picture we really like scary a week ago or two weeks ago.
34:06.207 –> 34:08.312
[SPEAKER_03]: I don’t like who’s the seven now?
34:08.492 –> 34:08.853
[SPEAKER_03]: I don’t know.
34:09.254 –> 34:09.354
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
34:09.374 –> 34:10.296
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh no.
34:10.613 –> 34:33.769
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think, you know, we’ll know soon and it may help us not only that it may be other parts of the world where there are people that understand that because they’re working on brands that are smaller and they need to go out and they need to push and they need to be customer facing them maybe they’re the people and it’s maybe it’s a way from Scotland who knows.
34:33.749 –> 34:43.354
[SPEAKER_03]: But it’s not cheap now, nothing’s cheap and so when I meet some of these smaller brands and I ask them why they’re not doing more and they just like we don’t have the money
34:44.127 –> 34:48.054
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and it’s like man, like that’s like that’s like, that’s real.
34:48.555 –> 34:49.417
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that’s real.
34:49.938 –> 34:52.342
[SPEAKER_00]: But I got something that I was going to read then.
34:52.903 –> 34:54.967
[SPEAKER_00]: And people is something you should invest in.
34:55.027 –> 34:59.795
[SPEAKER_00]: People to tell your story is a liquor to lips is the most important thing.
34:59.835 –> 35:04.083
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that we’ve had in our toolbook since drinks began.
35:04.103 –> 35:07.890
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can’t tell something someone hasn’t tasted.
35:08.343 –> 35:16.613
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and I think that’s really, really important for Brad’s not to lose sight of that made it lose a few marketeers, um, as opposed to losing a few brown ambassadors.
35:17.834 –> 35:18.996
[SPEAKER_03]: No, I’m on the same page.
35:19.036 –> 35:21.679
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, we’ve just crushed 40 minutes like an ain’t no thing.
35:22.300 –> 35:32.832
[SPEAKER_03]: I got to get in, I got to get into the, into the, the question that I always like to end the segment, um, and you, I, I’m very curious where this one goes with you because you’ve really done a lot of stuff.
35:33.352 –> 35:44.290
[SPEAKER_03]: on other any one or two pinch me moments that come to mind when I ask you that question when you’re literally something that those events you go like holy fuck I can’t believe I’m doing that.
35:44.675 –> 35:49.641
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, so many, I think it’s all hard to ask you that question.
35:49.661 –> 35:53.286
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, and I think it’s the one thing that I’ve so blessed.
35:54.868 –> 36:06.362
[SPEAKER_00]: I don’t earn the money to go out and do some of these incredible stuff that people do, but I have the opportunity to do it because I’m a buyer and I’m one of the most sort of powerful buyers in the UK.
36:06.882 –> 36:12.336
[SPEAKER_00]: And it’s just insane, one of my favorite moments, and it’s not a whiskey moment, actually.
36:12.657 –> 36:13.900
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a cognac moment.
36:14.201 –> 36:17.008
[SPEAKER_00]: And I got invited to Cannes Film Festival.
36:17.750 –> 36:20.156
[SPEAKER_00]: And we were literally staying across from the red carpet.
36:20.396 –> 36:21.579
[SPEAKER_00]: We walked down the red carpet.
36:21.619 –> 36:23.845
[SPEAKER_00]: We went to see Cicario.
36:23.825 –> 36:26.229
[SPEAKER_00]: in can I remove it?
36:26.349 –> 36:26.870
[SPEAKER_03]: See a kid?
36:27.451 –> 36:35.866
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I wasn’t saying we went to this sort of pop-up nightclub and we’re dancing, we’re drinking like Bellapock at a magnum.
36:36.307 –> 36:41.536
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, all of this and then suddenly I hear Dan and then I’m like, please tell me that it’s not Snoop Dogg.
36:41.776 –> 36:44.601
[SPEAKER_00]: Am I about to see Snoop Dogg play a private set?
36:44.581 –> 36:46.764
[SPEAKER_00]: and I went absolutely ballistic.
36:47.224 –> 36:48.806
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like this is not a human thing.
36:48.826 –> 36:49.908
[SPEAKER_00]: We were there for 24 hours.
36:50.368 –> 36:52.271
[SPEAKER_00]: I got back to the hotel three at the time of the morning.
36:52.291 –> 36:54.954
[SPEAKER_00]: I said to my best friend who was with me at the time.
36:55.294 –> 36:56.115
[SPEAKER_00]: I said, we’re not going to bed.
36:56.236 –> 36:57.277
[SPEAKER_00]: We are here for 24 hours.
36:57.657 –> 36:59.299
[SPEAKER_00]: We’re the griss.
36:59.680 –> 37:00.621
[SPEAKER_00]: We’re going to order a bow.
37:05.087 –> 37:08.631
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s moments like that and it’s moments where you’re standing
37:09.269 –> 37:17.258
[SPEAKER_00]: in the distillery and you’re drinking liquid that no other person gets to try and you’re like, how is this happened?
37:17.458 –> 37:19.821
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I get to go to Borra, I get to go to Port LN.
37:20.442 –> 37:38.382
[SPEAKER_00]: I, you know, I get to he’s 37 year old at LeFroy again and you’re sitting there and you’re like, there’s so many pinch me moments because it’s such an incredible when you’re sitting next to Fred No and it’s Saturday afternoon and he’s literally spending afternoon with you and you’re sitting there going,
37:39.020 –> 37:44.615
[SPEAKER_00]: I am sitting with a legend when Richard Patterson texts you up Christmas day to wish you happy Christmas.
37:45.256 –> 37:52.716
[SPEAKER_00]: When you’re messaging Dr. Bill crazy ass things, just take it a piss at another when Dave Brum will be best friend.
37:52.876 –> 37:55.864
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that’s the moment you’re like something strong here.
37:56.603 –> 38:05.772
[SPEAKER_03]: That’s what, you know, like people like, you know, obviously, I get to do so much crazy shit and have a good time and people like, oh, like, can I come with you?
38:05.792 –> 38:07.093
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m like, the fuck know you can’t.
38:08.094 –> 38:13.499
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, it’s like, this is like a whole, it’s like almost like a fantasy world sometimes.
38:13.919 –> 38:23.488
[SPEAKER_03]: I really feel like I can’t believe some of the shit and in the most humbling of ways, like how grateful all of the stuff because like, it’s just not normal.
38:23.468 –> 38:28.937
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, and he’s not so amazing, but, you know, the flip side is that I’m at work at 6.30 in the morning.
38:28.997 –> 38:31.200
[SPEAKER_00]: I do 12 hour days.
38:31.901 –> 38:33.965
[SPEAKER_00]: I look at very boring spreadsheets.
38:34.686 –> 38:36.448
[SPEAKER_00]: I taste a lot of shit.
38:37.390 –> 38:40.154
[SPEAKER_03]: You have, well, you have, you have a good of me when you go.
38:40.174 –> 38:40.755
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, you’re my dad.
38:40.775 –> 38:46.945
[SPEAKER_03]: I don’t come my dad’s going to spit it out like fuck like I’m not mature enough for that.
38:48.072 –> 39:08.742
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s just incredible, I’ve been so so lucky in my career to work with some of the most incredible people in the entire world to visit some of the most incredible distilleries and wineries and Connect has in the world and I mean it’s a once in a lifetime.
39:08.762 –> 39:13.489
[SPEAKER_00]: It really is, you know, and I’m so blessed to have that.
39:13.469 –> 39:21.522
[SPEAKER_03]: Like there used to be a hashtag that I would see people read and it’s like the hashtag was it’s a movie and on like sometimes I feel like it is
39:22.987 –> 39:25.331
[SPEAKER_03]: like it’s literally like I don’t know how to explain it.
39:25.452 –> 39:26.694
[SPEAKER_03]: I don’t know the situation.
39:26.754 –> 39:28.838
[SPEAKER_03]: It’s just like, it’s a movie.
39:28.858 –> 39:30.080
[SPEAKER_03]: It’s really fucking weird.
39:30.180 –> 39:31.983
[SPEAKER_03]: Cause yeah, we all have other stuff.
39:32.024 –> 39:33.807
[SPEAKER_03]: We have mundane, we have real job.
39:34.047 –> 39:37.834
[SPEAKER_03]: But your job is tied into the foot, like he said, like, I have 630.
39:37.874 –> 39:39.237
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m your work 12 hour days.
39:39.257 –> 39:41.381
[SPEAKER_03]: It’s like, yes, there’s all this stuff.
39:41.461 –> 39:43.024
[SPEAKER_03]: And sometimes it’s a movie.
39:43.144 –> 39:44.286
[SPEAKER_03]: Like this is wild.
39:44.418 –> 39:50.690
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, there is some home that you’re just like, I am sitting in one of the most bizarre situations.
39:51.171 –> 39:54.417
[SPEAKER_00]: And I’m not ready 100% sure how I got here, but I’m really happy.
39:54.457 –> 39:54.998
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m here.
39:55.819 –> 39:56.841
[SPEAKER_00]: And it’s amazing.
39:57.342 –> 39:59.266
[SPEAKER_00]: This industry is the best industry in the planet.
39:59.626 –> 40:05.257
[SPEAKER_03]: And it’s interesting because you’re talking about the can event and you’re like, we’re saying I’ve watched in the sense that eating pizza.
40:05.597 –> 40:07.641
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, I’ve had those moments where you’re like,
40:08.684 –> 40:10.046
[SPEAKER_03]: I could shut it all down, you know?
40:10.887 –> 40:11.328
[SPEAKER_03]: I can’t.
40:11.909 –> 40:12.650
[SPEAKER_03]: But fuck, why?
40:13.051 –> 40:14.633
[SPEAKER_03]: It’s a once in lifetime thing.
40:14.653 –> 40:15.815
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, what do you do?
40:15.835 –> 40:16.836
[SPEAKER_03]: I’ll get sleep later.
40:16.897 –> 40:17.898
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, it’s all good.
40:18.860 –> 40:20.041
[SPEAKER_03]: My body will recover.
40:20.101 –> 40:22.185
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it’s been enough when this last trip.
40:22.205 –> 40:24.028
[SPEAKER_03]: But my body will recover.
40:24.789 –> 40:25.229
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
40:25.249 –> 40:25.930
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, like shooting.
40:26.131 –> 40:28.174
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m not shooting heroin in an alley.
40:28.454 –> 40:29.316
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, what the hell?
40:29.336 –> 40:30.237
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, we’re good.
40:32.258 –> 40:33.600
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there’s so much music about it.
40:33.660 –> 40:37.865
[SPEAKER_00]: And it’s the trips that get you trips when you’re in Mexico, isn’t it?
40:37.885 –> 40:50.220
[SPEAKER_00]: And some of them are as crazy, small little producers of like, like, see a, or your, you know, you’re in Taiwan, visiting Kavalan, and you’re just like, how the, what is this?
40:50.901 –> 40:51.442
[SPEAKER_00]: What is this?
40:51.842 –> 40:53.404
[SPEAKER_00]: Someone’s paying me for this.
40:53.424 –> 40:54.165
[SPEAKER_00]: Whoop.
40:54.888 –> 40:55.950
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, this is wild.
40:56.190 –> 41:00.117
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I can’t thank you enough for coming on, can’t wait to be out with you again.
41:00.137 –> 41:01.560
[SPEAKER_03]: I did seriously seriously.
41:02.080 –> 41:02.461
[SPEAKER_03]: Seriously.
41:02.521 –> 41:11.597
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you for such a good time that you showed me like and and just getting to meet you and hang out and realize like you know like the same like living our best life.
41:11.577 –> 41:36.066
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, he had some much fun, it was such a cash in it because like it’s it’s so important that we keep talking about the next generation To help please the brands listen and realize that like it is so important to get you know in my world of grocery cans and hands Like with the lip, you know like having the having having the having these brand ambassadors tell the story because like marketing can’t do it like a person can
41:36.046 –> 41:57.177
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, cell sheet doesn’t work the same as a tasting with someone who actually walks you through it a tasting of someone just going through everything with you this is better than anything you could ever email or put on a movie or anything like that it just is people is what makes this industry and I’m really really nervous that we’re fucking that up
41:57.578 –> 42:02.387
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that I agree and but I also know that our industry is insanely resilient.
42:02.547 –> 42:05.633
[SPEAKER_00]: We’re full of incredible people and we’ll break back.
42:05.833 –> 42:14.068
[SPEAKER_00]: We’re just having a recess at the moment and we needed that reset and it’s going to be an amazing future for us and I’m very confident.
42:14.673 –> 42:16.979
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m 100% confident.
42:17.039 –> 42:25.940
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m even more excited about how some of this older stuff is really coming out now a lot more of it because it is special and there will be there will be next renditions.
42:26.081 –> 42:31.213
[SPEAKER_03]: I know that, you know, but that’s going to be don’t any of socials for people to follow you
42:31.193 –> 42:39.729
[SPEAKER_00]: So we are the whiskey change online on Instagram and Twitter and Twitter and Facebook, but I’m Dawn Davies MW on Instagram.
42:40.150 –> 42:41.693
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m pretty terrible and everything else.
42:42.114 –> 42:44.078
[SPEAKER_00]: Dawn Davies MW Instagram.
42:44.318 –> 42:44.859
[SPEAKER_00]: That’s me.
42:45.480 –> 42:45.861
[SPEAKER_00]: Simple.
42:46.735 –> 42:48.877
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I appreciate you taking the time today.
42:48.977 –> 42:49.338
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
42:49.358 –> 42:49.718
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
42:49.738 –> 42:50.099
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
42:50.199 –> 42:51.400
[SPEAKER_03]: I look forward to seeing you again.
42:51.420 –> 42:58.027
[SPEAKER_03]: I thank everyone for listening, continue to listen to the podcast at the while we’ve been doing it for two years.
42:58.127 –> 43:00.630
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, maybe even longer over a hundred episodes.
43:00.730 –> 43:05.936
[SPEAKER_03]: And my pledge from the beginning was to bring people that are truly passionate about whiskey on the show.
43:06.116 –> 43:07.798
[SPEAKER_03]: And learn and hear their stories.
43:07.838 –> 43:10.581
[SPEAKER_03]: So hopefully, you know, you’re sitting at home listening to this.
43:10.601 –> 43:11.562
[SPEAKER_03]: We’ll go pick up.
43:11.542 –> 43:16.390
[SPEAKER_03]: a drink of a Glenn Glasso or something like that that you hear on the shows that we talk about.
43:16.531 –> 43:26.107
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know, I always tell people if you’re out and I know it’s expensive, but you see something unique and old, grab a pour of a treat yourself because I don’t know if the bottles are going to be around much longer.
43:26.468 –> 43:33.921
[SPEAKER_03]: Like it’s really an interesting time with some great whiskey out there from the vintage years, and there’s not a lot left of it.
43:33.901 –> 43:35.346
[SPEAKER_03]: So thanks everybody for listening.
43:35.366 –> 43:35.647
[SPEAKER_03]: Don’t.
43:35.687 –> 43:37.072
[SPEAKER_03]: I can’t thank you enough for coming on.
43:37.533 –> 43:37.834
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
43:37.854 –> 43:38.958
[SPEAKER_03]: Court to seeing you again.
43:38.998 –> 43:42.009
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you everyone for listening and that’s another great episode.
43:42.129 –> 43:42.450
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
43:42.470 –> 43:42.872
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
43:44.096 –> 43:44.959
[SPEAKER_03]: And that’s a wrap.
43:44.979 –> 43:46.223
[SPEAKER_03]: And we’ll see you all next time.
44:03.078 –> 44:05.663
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
