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Farming Better Whisky with Rhianna Lucas - Makers Mark Diplomat Australia & New Zealand
22 Plays16 days ago
We are back for another week in the Whiskefy's Dram Cave - I called up my good friend Rhi to share a dram and talk all things Makers Mark hours before she set off to the other side of the world.
Of course we had to chat about the latest releases including Star Hill Farm (you can catch my review on the Whiskefy socials) and break down what it means to have Regenerative Farming Practices at a distillery. We dive head first into her background as a bartender and we uncover some of her favourite drops in the rapid fire section.
So much to unpack so you know you want to sit down with a glass of Makers 46 and listen.
Make sure you check out her socials here!
Club Suntory (not a Bali Beach House .. could be fun actually)
Stay locked into those socials for all upcoming events and you know I will always repost on @Whiskefy
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Non-Chill Filtered Podcast
00:00:20
Speaker
And welcome back to another episode of Non-Chill Filtered, where we talk to the movers, the shakers, the people that make the industry great, essentially. And today we are blessed with the absolute legend, the wonderful woman that looks after Maker's Mark in New South Wales.
00:00:40
Speaker
And some would say it is the best Maker's Mark ambassador we've ever had. Stop. Stop. Rhi, how are you today? Oh, I'm doing
Rhi's Journey into the Whiskey Industry
00:00:50
Speaker
very well. how are you? We pretend like we haven't chatted for the last 45 minutes. It's definitely not our first whiskey of the day. No, no, no. It's the second, actually.
00:01:05
Speaker
Oh, absolutely delicious. We've got a lineup of Mecca's Mark sitting on the table. I was like, let us dive into all those stocks that I've just got sitting there because as you know, I've got way too much whiskey. So I'm like, okay, let's. It's it's great to see there's some private selects here that I've not even tried before. So I'm very excited for this little lineup.
00:01:28
Speaker
I'm glad. Well, yeah, please help yourself. But so the the people can learn a little bit more about you. Did you want to give us your comic book zero one origin story? Pretty much take the people how you got to, I'd say drinking whiskey and then found yourself in the industry itself.
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely found myself drinking whiskey because of my dad. My dad was a big fan of whiskey, still is, although he's really stuck on like Johnny Red, but we are developing his experience with whiskey as we go.
00:02:03
Speaker
um but yeah, he he was always a whiskey lover. So that was kind of how we used to connect and in my late teens. We'd, you know, sit and have a whiskey together, which was really nice. Yeah. Yeah, and then like many BAE's do, I started a career in hospitality while I was at uni, loved hospo, didn't love uni that much, moved up fairly quickly through hospitality industry. was a venue manager licensee by the time I was 19 and then started my sort of professional brand side career. think it was the week I turned 21, I started working at Lyon.
00:02:43
Speaker
whoa Yeah, it was very cool. I was over in the US. I got the call. i said, yep, you're on, had a job in sales. So yeah, I was looking after to um sort of the eastern suburbs through into the inner west of Sydney, looking after the full line craft beer portfolio, which was great. Very exciting stuff, craft beer. Yeah.
00:03:06
Speaker
Yeah, there's a lot of craft beer fans somewhere, not anywhere near this podcast. But yeah, what's ah what craft beer was Lion looking after at that point? ah So the biggest brands I was working on at start, mainly like Little Creatures, Penhead, Brooklyn. We later acquired Stoneham Wood, which became a big focus for us.
00:03:27
Speaker
We had the White Rabbit Brewery, Yomundi up in Queensland, Kosciuszko,
00:03:34
Speaker
and then Voodoo Ranger as well, the new Belgian brewery, they came on board as well. So quite a varied portfolio of craft beer, and I just fell in love with everything about the real nerdy side of beer production.
00:03:48
Speaker
um You may have picked this up from me in the past, but I do get a little bit nerdy. I like the details. So... Yeah, I just like fell in love with learning about it, did my certified Cicerone.
00:04:01
Speaker
um I read as much as I can and study as much as I can because I just find
Role at Maker's Mark and Industry Insights
00:04:05
Speaker
it so fascinating. I think beer and and obviously whiskey as well, which is where I'm at now, um is like of this beautiful intersection of storytelling and passion and romance, but also science and i kind of love sitting in the middle of of those two extremes.
00:04:21
Speaker
So yeah, I started in the sales team, i took a stint in the brand team as an assistant brand manager on some of those same beer brands, but really wanted an ambassador role.
00:04:32
Speaker
kind of weaseled my way into the ambassador team at Lyon and yeah, became one of their national craft beer ambassadors. So yeah, traveling around Australia doing beer education sessions, but I've always had this innate love for Maker's Mark, which goes back to the very first bar that ever worked out in Cronulla.
00:04:50
Speaker
I had these two really amazing managers and both of them really loved Maker's Mark. So my 18th birthday, my first cocktail was a Maker's 46 Old Fashion. It was great. Like, I'm glad you didn't use 80 proof for that. Cause, uh, yeah, that would have been horrific.
00:05:07
Speaker
Exactly. but um, you know stepping up into that 46, that was how I learned to upsell at the bar. It was maker's mark, you know, trading people up into 46 and, I had just heard about these stories and the dipping of the wax and I just really loved it. So I was drinking Maker's Mark, um yeah, from kind of day one. And then, yeah, i found my way over to the Maker's Mark team here in Australia. So, yeah, look after all of Australia and New Zealand from an ambassador perspective, which is just the best job ever. There is no better person to run the...
00:05:42
Speaker
I'd say ambassador program for Australia and make his mark because the fact that you're like, all right, that's so passionate about the brand. And I guess being able to,
00:05:55
Speaker
Really enjoy the whiskey as well because you you see these people that sneak into these roles and they're just like, eh, we just want to sell whiskey. Like you don't care about the product, but you know, you're diving into the nerdy side. You really want to learn about like yeast and like different mash bills, even though Maker's Mark sticks with the same mash bill. It's like up until now, up until now, which is like a really cool segue into the the star hill.
00:06:19
Speaker
um Did you want to crack it? Yeah, why not? I've got bottle here. I'm like, it's not going to drink itself. We're going to talk about the whiskey. We've got ah we got to drink said whiskey. Absolutely. need new glass? You good? ah I think I'm okay with this one. I can finish that.
00:06:34
Speaker
Let's see if you can get it open. Oh my God, it's a struggle. Yes. I thought the wax was bad. Yes, now it's like plastic toppers. Give me two. or Or teeth. That's fine. i'm I'm getting absolutely nowhere with this.
00:06:45
Speaker
Okay, give me two. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I can't it different. Oh, there we go. All right.
00:06:54
Speaker
Oh, you say that until we're like... There we go. All right, we got there. Okay.
Star Hill Farm's Unique Whiskey Production
00:07:01
Speaker
Yeah, start your farm. First new mashup from Makers Mart. Very exciting.
00:07:06
Speaker
It's absolutely sick because, like, that pop. Great sound. Oh, I know. yeah i need a new glass. You do. I don't drink whiskey fast. That's so good.
00:07:19
Speaker
I sometimes do. It's fine, it's fine. I love it. Okay, so, anyway, don't mind pouring for Thank you. So yeah, walk me walk me through it. What is Star Hill Farm?
00:07:36
Speaker
Yeah, so Star Hill Farm is a super unique whiskey that we've just launched out of the Maker's Mark distillery. It is a series of firsts for us.
00:07:47
Speaker
So like you mentioned, first new mash bill, every bottle of Maker's Mark that is dipped in the red wax is all the same mash bill, all the same production process up until full maturity at Cast Strength. And then we play around with either wood finishing, with our stave program,
00:08:05
Speaker
changing the proof or aging it for longer in our cellar. But Star Hill is, yeah, completely different whiskey. It's not a bourbon. It is wheat whiskey, which is really fun. But we wanted to explore the true influence that nature and terroir and seasonality have over whiskey. And I think terroir is ah an interesting conversation in whiskey because there's been many debates and a lot of studies around the fact that, you know,
00:08:33
Speaker
after you get through the full process and you grab your whiskey out of a barrel, how much influence from terror are you actually going to see at the end of that? Because that's a There's a lot of inputs in terms of how flavour is developed and so trying to understand if that individual grain is actually having influence was quite difficult.
00:08:52
Speaker
We really wanted to explore it with wheat. Obviously soft red winter wheat is massively important to our flavour profile and our flavour vision that Bill Sr and Marjorie Samuels had all the way back in the 50s. 16% of the mash bill?
00:09:06
Speaker
that's it. You're onto it. It's almost like we've spoken before. Absolutely. I want a typical mash bill, not this one, but this is 100%. Yeah, so um yeah, that soft red bin of wheat, massively important to our flavour vision and we wanted to really explore um the influence of that wheat over the whiskey and particularly we wanted to...
00:09:29
Speaker
bring it back to how that grain is harvested, how it's grown and the soil that it's coming from. um Over the last probably 60 years of conventional farming practices, a lot of the topsoil that we grow all of our crops on has been pretty decimated. And we kind of wanted to have a look at if we treated the land better, utilising regenerative agricultural practices,
00:09:52
Speaker
are we then going to be able to taste that influence in the whiskey? And the answer is yes. um Regenerative ag is something we're super focused on as, is you know, one of the most sustainable distilleries in in the world and, you know, and really revitalising soil life and biodiversity.
00:10:07
Speaker
And so this whiskey sort of set us on our journey of regenerative ag, which massive benefits for the environment, for your health, but also makes really tasty whiskey.
00:10:20
Speaker
which is what we're all about here. Oh, absolutely. We're like with nothing but banging bottles on the table today. So we're very blessed. But in them diving into say 100% malted wheat.
00:10:35
Speaker
It is not 100% malted wheat. So great segue. Oh, okay. Okay. We're changing things up. I like it. So this particular release, and it will change every single year. So the 2025...
00:10:47
Speaker
ah release is a combination of two mash builds. Right, it was a blend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we've got 100% malted soft red winter wheat and the other is 70% unmalted soft red winter wheat, 30% malted barley.
00:11:00
Speaker
So yeah really interesting. It comes out to 51% of the red winter 27% malted red winter wheat and 22% malted barley in that final mash build that we have there. So definitely no corn. It's bottled at cast strength And the whiskey is seven or eight years old.
00:11:19
Speaker
Which is great. Yeah. For like, so the fact that we just had this kicking away in the warehouse for seven years, just under wraps. Yeah. And you're just like, wonder what they're doing. Like, yeah, obviously there's more experimentation in the works.
00:11:33
Speaker
So much. Like trying new things. They've got a thousand and one different stave combinations, like in just in their core line, say. Yeah. um For like their private selects. Do you think we'd see like a a variation with like barrel types?
00:11:49
Speaker
Great question. ah Yes. so not that we, I guess, have spoken too much about this in, I guess, the the chat about Star Hill Farm as we've been launching it.
00:12:00
Speaker
But if we're going to get nerdy, this is the place for it. ah This whiskey is actually utilizing five different barrel types already. o Okay, because there's no mention of that. like who Not really. yeah to have like Rob Simons come out and like...
00:12:15
Speaker
talk about this whiskey and like just being able to sit there and listen to him but the conversation didn't come up about barrels hypsia everyone thought it was the chard American oak yeah um and that's and that's the thing because yeah the regular makers mark barrels are chard level three American white oak um all made by independent safe company but we experimented a little bit with this and it kind of falls back into this I guess um work that we're doing around the influence of nature and agriculture over the final product. And obviously our wood is also an agricultural product.
00:12:50
Speaker
So we've got five different types of barrels in there. ah The first one is just our regular standard chai level three, which is kind of like our control barrel and then four experimental. So we've got one full French oak, one American white oak with French oak heads, one that is wave stave barrel,
00:13:10
Speaker
which is similar to if you've ever seen the Seared French Cuvée stave that's available for private select, it's cut with a groove. So the full barrel is cut with that groove. um And then the last one is a toasted barrel. So toasted to independent stave companies, profile number 54. Okay. So there's a lot going on. Yeah, absolutely. So it's essentially, you look at it the same way you'd look at a private select, right? And it's just like, this is a giant vat of whiskey that has had like different, I'd say,
00:13:40
Speaker
barrels blended into it, yeah i treated it in the same way as the product. They've got hundreds of streams of whiskey that were potentially able to be blended into this final product. The the work that our innovation team does, and Beth, Ryan and Blake, is just out of this world.
00:13:58
Speaker
had a good chat with them the other day actually about sort of how they get their heads around this process because you think, yeah, private selectors, crazy in terms of yeah the 1001 different types of whiskey that you might be able to get out of that but then you look at what they're doing in star hill we've got yeah different mash bills different types of barrels different ages um also different wheat strains that we're using and testing and playing with we play with a few like alien varieties some modern varieties as well because we're actually growing all of the wheat for Star Hill Farm on our estate.
00:14:30
Speaker
um Which is a massive property. Huge, and constantly buying up more land. um So our estate at Star Hill Farm, which is the location of Makers Mark Distillery, is the first in the world to achieve tier three regenerified certification. So all our land there is yes certified by a third party as regenerative.
00:14:49
Speaker
And then we've also worked with... all the farmers that we work with that provide the rest of our grain and particularly the corn within a 60 mile radius of the distillery and certified them all as well so that we know that all of the grain coming for any makers mark product now is actually certified regenerified from 2023 but yeah this particular bottle is using yeah only wheat that we're growing on site actually why this is now the first ever estate certified whiskey, which basically is trying to bring some more transparency to to whiskey productions. we know, that's not always very forthcoming.
00:15:27
Speaker
ah no comment. No, no. Well, look, there's a reason why it was like, you know, they enacted the Bottling Bond Act. Exactly. Because like at whiskey at that point, it was whatever you wanted it to be.
00:15:41
Speaker
So the fact that we're still having that conversation now is mind blowing. Crazy. Cause like obviously the regulations, um, even with like Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey and it's like labeling and the TTB. Oh my God. So many confusing, contradictory laws in there.
00:16:02
Speaker
What's the bloke who's like dedicated his entire life to just sifting through the whiskey law documents? Oh, is it? No, because coming with you, he does the labels so that he knows what's happening. No, there's a, there's another bloke. I always forget his name, but he's like dedicated his life to like trying to point out all of the discrepancies and inconsistencies in whiskey. Maybe I haven't seen it. know It's wild. I'll find it. Yeah, yeah. I will nerd out on that. That is sick.
00:16:26
Speaker
because you just look at it and you're like, oh, I can't even ah can't even get into this. Like, my brain can't handle. But, um yeah. haven't had enough whiskey for long time. and so But yeah, bringing like the estate certification label um is, yeah, going to allow us to bring one step more in that, I guess, transparency conversation. So we were the first whiskey to get it with Star Hill Farm. I think there's maybe six distilleries in Kentucky now that are able to Also use that label. There's only really two things that you have to ah cover in that you either grow all of the grain for the whiskey yourself or they're with controlled farms within 30 miles of your distillery.
00:17:08
Speaker
And controlled meaning like you have full visibility over there, like production process, how they're growing. are they regenerative certified? Two thirds of the grain has to be at that level. And then everything else in terms of production from milling up to bottling has to be on site too.
00:17:24
Speaker
So yeah, we're well over that two thirds because the only thing that we can't certify regenerified yet is the malted barley because you don't buy from the farm, you buy from the maltster and there's a lot more intricacies that go into understanding where that grain comes from and it doesn't grow in Kentucky.
00:17:41
Speaker
Right. Not very well. Yeah, yeah. I guess there's not a... Because if it's not growing in Kentucky, like obviously it's like 30 miles, you can't really yeah govern that.
00:17:54
Speaker
So would they work on like a malted barley product? We are. Yeah. yeah So we've partnered with the University of Kentucky as well as some of the you know best grain growers in the industry to try and find a strain of barley that will adapt and grow to the Kentucky climate.
00:18:15
Speaker
It's been a bit of a process. Oh, I can imagine. If someone had figured it out, they'd be growing it. Yeah, but like this I think it just shows the dedication that Maffys Mark has to truly being sustainable, being a force for good and making sure that we're doing things in such a way that you know we're giving always more back to the land than what we take from it so we can keep distilling for generations. I think, yeah, the fact that they've got a project trying to figure out which strain of barley might potentially grow well in the climate is...
Regenerative Agriculture and Its Impact
00:18:44
Speaker
a pretty good testament to that mind-blowing that like you know you've tasked a a university to go all right you focus on what kind of grain would grow well in yeah Kentucky um I know Rob touched on it when he was here but How much longer could farms continue to, i guess, grow grains on the soil they currently have without using this regenerative farming practices? Because like you will see, i guess, a change the same way you would see, what are we talking like?
00:19:18
Speaker
Heirloom grains no longer grow because they constantly get changed over time through fertilizer and through, yeah guess, like, you know, different cycles. um and cross-pollination all the fun stuff i know nothing about i know heaps about it yeah no no that's right we've got we've got we've got time so much time um but yeah like how much longer could these farms be sustainable before you're receiving any oh sorry receiving no more nutrients from said grains Yeah, not not long. So the US has only got 60 years of topsoil left.
00:19:53
Speaker
So yeah, traditional farming practices absolutely ruin the soil. It is so eroded and dead and lifeless now that yeah, there's only 60 years left, which is 60 harvests. And we're not just talking whiskey. We are talking all food that grows in the ground, which is pretty concerning.
00:20:11
Speaker
yeah, trying to bring back these regenerative principles, which it sounds new. It's not really like this is the way that, you know, First Nations people have been looking after the land for centuries.
00:20:25
Speaker
And then in the last 50 to 60 years, we came through and just burned it all down. ah So we're trying to bring back those principles. And so principles of regenerative farming, it's quite simple.
00:20:37
Speaker
um No herbicides, no pesticides, no tillage. So cutting into the land, because obviously that is going to promote lots of erosion. um Rotational grazing, so using livestock to move through parts of the land that you're growing on. They actually kind of squash down the dirt with their hooves, which helps with the erosion as well, but they're also fertilising the land as they go.
00:21:00
Speaker
Cover cropping. So cover cropping is planting really nitrogen rich crops, often legumes that you don't actually harvest. You cut them down and then let them seep all that nitrogen back into the soil. okay Really important because monoculture agriculture, where you're just planting just acres and acres and acres of the same type of product that you're harvesting a couple of times a year, you're only ever taking from the land. You're never giving anything back.
00:21:29
Speaker
And the interesting thing about all this is when you kind of look at it on the surface, I think a lot of people like, you know, we live in a world where obviously economics is massively important to all of these farms.
00:21:42
Speaker
They're looking at it going, well, how can i utilize the space that I have on my farm to grow a crop that I don't then get to sell and make any money out of But if you do look at it a little bit deeper, all of this stuff actually ensures that you're getting much better yields every time you do crop because there is more nitrogen in the soil.
00:22:02
Speaker
There's more activity happening. There's more biodiversity as these root systems are allowed to grow down into the soil. ah They have this symbiotic relationship with the fungi, which is what brings in the nutrients.
00:22:15
Speaker
Now, these nutrients, obviously, important for the growth of that produce, whatever it might be, grain, important for human health. But also, those proteins carry the flavor molecules that we need for precursors for all the flavor. So if we're farming in this way, we actually get better tasting products as well.
00:22:33
Speaker
So it kind of sounds a little bit complicated, but when you get down to it, it's just looking after the land, promoting biodiversity, promoting soil health. And yeah, it will have a massive impact on the environment because yeah, if we don't start making these changes, we're kind of screwed.
00:22:49
Speaker
um Which is why Star Hill Farm actually is one of the first ever purpose-led brands in this way. So we're part of the regenerative alliance. so Makers Mark is committed to transforming 1 million acres of farmland,
00:23:05
Speaker
ah into certified, regenerified farmland, which is actually part of a bigger project that is aiming for 100 million acres. So all the proceeds from Stuyhill Farm is going towards that initiative, which is super exciting. It's a great initiative to kind of get behind because, you as you said, like there's not a lot of time left.
00:23:24
Speaker
Do we know where this kind of came from? Because like to stumble upon this and just decide, there's only 60 years left. I assume it's part of the research the team were doing and...
00:23:37
Speaker
Yeah, it was. i mean, over the last probably 12 years, we've massively transformed our campus at Maker's Mark Distillery at Stahil Farm. And we started, you know, are B Corp certified. And so we've been on this journey of sustainability for a while. We're always pushing ourselves to kind of ask the next question and do the next thing. And so when we started looking at our farmland, we realised that there's a problem.
00:24:01
Speaker
um And then we worked really closely with this guy called Gabe Brown, Gabe Brown is like a leading sort of ah thought driver on regenerative agriculture.
00:24:13
Speaker
And he, um yeah, really, really helped us to understand more about this, I guess, whole concept regenerative and regenerative agriculture. and was able to yeah then help us to transform our land and now a lot of other people.
00:24:27
Speaker
He's got a company called Understanding Ag. and so he does like talks and workshops all around the world. And we kind of were able to connect with him because he has a series of documentaries. The first one's called Kiss the Ground, the second one Common Ground, and the third one is in production right now. The film crew were actually in Australia earlier this year.
00:24:51
Speaker
ah doing some filming, which I get to meet them and do a little event with them, which was really cool. Are you on film? ah No, but that would be cool. No, no. No, no. Very disappointing. no no Um, and that third one I think is called ground swell and it's, they're honestly such eyeopening, um, documentaries. They were suggested to me on my very first trip to the distillery, which was on my second day on the job.
00:25:16
Speaker
It was like, hi, welcome. Here's your phone and your laptop. Anyway, off you go to Kentucky. um so I spent two weeks there doing my like full brand immersion, which was just the best.
00:25:28
Speaker
And yeah, I'm getting these suggestions from Rob Samuels about things that he would suggest I study or watch or read as someone who's starting out at Maker's Mark.
00:25:40
Speaker
And I'm expecting him to give me like whiskey books and, you know, like that kind of stuff. Yeah, I got a documentary about farming and a book about ah having an infinite mindset in business. I was like, this is not what expected at all. yeah um oh and and then and a book about um regenerative practices as well from Chef Dan Barber, who's one of the world's you know leading sustainable chefs.
00:26:08
Speaker
So yeah, it was quite a varied suggestion from Rob. And I remember being there being like, this is so not what I was expecting. And then I watched the documentary, Kiss the Ground.
00:26:20
Speaker
on a flight somewhere and then immediately watched it again and then I was driving somewhere for like an hour and a half and so I put on the audio of the documentary and listened to it on my drive it is so inspiring so interesting I'm obsessed with this like regenerative agriculture stuff which is not what I thought I was getting myself into as a whiskey BA but here we are As I pull out my phone, I remember Rob say something. Is it on Prime? I feel like it's Yeah, it is now. Yeah. i was, let me have a look. I'm going jump on Just Watch because his name is Gabe Brown. Let me see where I can point people to watch this because if it has changed your life, I was like, yeah, yeah, Rob, I'll watch it. i can completely forgot.
00:27:02
Speaker
It's classic me. Gabe Brown.
00:27:09
Speaker
Let's see what we can find here. So, what was the, I can't actually see it. Common ground. Yeah. Amazon prime 2023. Perfect. There go.
00:27:20
Speaker
yeah we Amazon prime everybody. Oh, in Oh, stop it. That is exactly, that'll make my eyes feel better. Yeah. All right. so like so the third time listening to it, what had your mindset changed to about regenerative farming? Oh man, I drank that Kool-Aid like you wouldn't ah believe.
00:27:42
Speaker
Like I listened to this documentary and was like... I need to change my entire life. Like the liver king. That's listening to them speak about obviously, you know, that stat around we've got 60 years of topsoil left before we can't grow anything was pretty like hits you in the face a little bit and you're like, wow, that's quite serious. Like, why aren't we speaking about that more?
00:28:04
Speaker
And then, yeah, they go into um so much detail, even around like herbicides and pesticides, how obviously bad they are for human health. But um like they were developed as ah war chemicals. Like then...
00:28:20
Speaker
Like, I'm sorry. They were developed as war chemicals. And then after the war ended, then they like rejigged them a bit. And now we spray them over everything we eat. Like, come on. That doesn't make any sense. No.
00:28:33
Speaker
Rob always says it. It's the only people who benefit from conventional agriculture are the chemical companies. Yeah, of course. So they dive quite deeply into that whole side of things, which is really upsetting. um but it it makes sense for them as a company, right? Like they're going to go, oh, no, no, it's good for your plants. Like it'll keep the bugs off it yeah just so they can sell more pesticides. 100%. the same way, um like different, I guess, different brands will sponsor different things. They'll go, oh, well, smoking is good for your health. Yeah. Because it's sponsored by the Marlboro men. Yeah. like yeah
00:29:11
Speaker
It's 100% what happened. And unfortunately, it's this cycle where the more you use the herbicides and pesticides and you're monoculturing and not encouraging biodiversity, the more you actually need them.
00:29:24
Speaker
So ah i actually learned this in Dan's book, which is called The Third Plate, also an amazing read. He was working with this farmer and this guy never had any problem with pests and he never used any chemical inputs at all.
00:29:40
Speaker
But because he had such a diverse way of putting together his farmland that he would plant particular types of plants that would attract certain pests away from what he was growing.
00:29:52
Speaker
But he always said, like, if you've got healthy soil and everything's working in harmony, the pests don't come the pests attack what's weak so as you're weakening basically the root systems and everything you're working with by using herbicides and pesticides you're encouraging more need for them because the root systems are dying so you don't get as much yield so you need the herbicides to help them grow And then everything's not that healthy because the root systems are not healthy enough in poor soil. So then you need the pesticides to keep the pests away because they're coming into attack what's weak.
00:30:22
Speaker
So it's just this like awful cycle. my god It's so bad. And then, yeah, like learning where these these chemicals came from is just... insane. So yeah, it kind of like really opened my eyes quite a lot.
00:30:35
Speaker
And like, I'm someone who is, I mean, clearly very passionate about everything Maker's Mark does. And the sustainability side of Maker's Mark's ethos is something that really attracted me to the brand in the first place. So learning more and more about this, like, it just makes me love this brand so much, like what they're actually doing. always say we just use whiskey to be a force for good in the world.
00:30:59
Speaker
Um, but yeah, it was crazy. Like all of my produce I buy now is genitive certified. Like I really, just i really wait for it. yeah But it's so much, it's even better for you. Like yeah what I was saying before about the the nutrients and the same thing, even with like any meat or seafood that you're buying, same, same deal. So yeah, um, completely, completely changed my life, but just opened my eyes up and really made me like i was 100 behind maker's mark before and now i'm like 148 behind like real good and i love maker's mark as a brand because like we did whiskey it smashed it out of the park like you know for them to go hard on a single niche and just like make it incredible um like it it doesn't get any better than that um
00:31:49
Speaker
I've got so many questions. Okay. um I'll kind of stick with the the same kind of grain we're working for. Have you heard of Morgan Spurlock? um Give me a weird face. um Supersize me.
00:32:03
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm with you. Yeah, yeah. So do you think there's an issue with how they're marketing, I'd say, organic? Because as you kind of land on the regenerative ah certified industry,
00:32:17
Speaker
And then they're like, all right, well, you also have organic. And yeah in his second documentary, goes, for you to be certified organic, your chickens need to be outside in like a square meter of sun. Yeah. And it's like, there can be majority inside, but as long as they have access to the sunlight, they're like organic.
00:32:37
Speaker
Mm-hmm. is that not causing a bigger issue? So we need to change like the, I'd say certification process. Yeah. I think, I think organic is a funny one, like, which is why, you know, we stay well clear from that because it kind of just doesn't mean anything. If really get down to it, it doesn't mean a lot.
00:32:55
Speaker
It just means our chicken costs $14 a kilo rather than nine. What do we? Yeah. I think the certification particularly for Regenified, which is why we've aligned so heavily with, that particular certification because that is like when you talk in depth it is in depth like they come out they assess your soil they take samples they take samples of your water they check your water beds like the whole thing is so scientific and you have to be getting actual number reads from whoever it is they test soil yeah i don't know beyond me yeah i'm not quite there yet close close close
00:33:33
Speaker
Two more documentaries away from the anyway. Soil certified nerd. I love it. Oh my God. um Yeah. So I think that this particular certification is quite important, but it's also fairly new.
00:33:46
Speaker
So a question I asked a lot about this particular bottle of Star Hill Farm is, is the grain in this certified regenerified? This year it's not. But when we laid down these barrels...
00:33:57
Speaker
Certification didn't exist. So we've been working. This set us on our journey and we've been working towards it. Then the certification came out and we went, great, we'll work towards that. So now, yeah, all whisky since November 2023, all the wheat, all the corn certified, regenerified.
00:34:11
Speaker
But, yeah, it's interesting because it is quite new. um It's not really... doesn't have a marketing campaign yet. No, of course not. People aren't really talking about it. you know Most people, when I stand up and start talking about regenerative agriculture, like, I've never heard about this before.
00:34:27
Speaker
And because it is it is new, but in practice, there are farms all around Australia that have adopted these processes. And I was even at one recently and took some bartenders to to this particular regenerative farm.
00:34:39
Speaker
And their tour guide was like, look, and there is no certification for this. This is just like the way that you look after the land. And I was like, there is now. Yeah. um So exciting. even farms are like unaware, which is why that regenerative alliance is so important working with Gabe to try and get in front of as many people that work in the agricultural industry as possible, but not just the farmers, you know, brands like Maker's Mark,
00:35:04
Speaker
that are pushing for this kind of stuff is so important because it has to be the demand. Like we actually cut down, we used to source from about, I think, 22 farms within that 60 mile radius in Kentucky and we cut it to 10 because only 10 were willing to come on the regenerative journey with us. And so we were like, well, we're not buying from anyone that will not look after their land properly. So that pressure from the brands that are utilising agricultural products is super important as well to really kind of drive that change. Did you find an issue with the production then? Because obviously, like halving the amount of farms you'd source from.
00:35:43
Speaker
Not that I'm aware of. Yeah. Although, i don't know if... ah i production team at the distillery are like going to call me up and be like wow we're struggling to get grain re in australia so probably not information i'm across but um look i mean we haven't slowed down production we're at like max capacity right now which is so it's a terrible problem to have yeah it's just like find more land to build more stills essentially Yeah.
00:36:11
Speaker
love it. Yeah. And Makers is, um you know, because we're so deeply attached to our original taste vision, when we expand the distillery, we don't just make things bigger, we just make more of it.
00:36:24
Speaker
Yeah. So that's why when you go there, there's three exact sill setups because we started with one. We're like, oh, wow, we need to expand production. The cheapest, most efficient way to do that was to get a bigger still. We were like, no, that'll change the flavour of the whisky. So we just did a full replication.
00:36:40
Speaker
And now there's three. just keep replicating. So we're like, no, if we change anything in our production process, the flavour will change. So we're pretty, pretty staunch on that. Which is it's great because, you know, takes through the most inefficient, efficient distillery we've ever seen with the hand bodily, ah it sorry, the hand, hand dipping of the wax. Hand cut labels. Yeah. And like watching those girls work, I was like, yeah, there's no way you'll catch me to a manual labor. i am They dip 22 to 27 bottles of Maker's Mark each a minute.
00:37:12
Speaker
yeah That's crazy speed. And that's not including the slam dunks. I know. And just watching those happen, you're like, oh. I love it when you can heckle them into doing one. It's the best. I was like, my favorite photo from my recent Kentucky trip was like photographing them as they're slam dunking it. And yeah I'm like...
00:37:31
Speaker
It's gorgeous. And I just know they get so much satisfaction yeah out of getting to do the slam dunks. I just know it. They're the hardest working team, honestly. You know, they only do half hour shifts. They do half hour on half hour off because it's such repetitive motion. And Makers is very big on looking after their staff properly. So, yeah, they rotate every 30 minutes.
00:37:51
Speaker
Crazy. Yeah. Well, take us through what like day or a couple of days of like just coming on board for Maker's Mark, for you at least, like, because, you know, there's a lot of people that have never been to the distillery or never will go, which is mind-blowing because it's such a beautiful site. Stunning.
00:38:09
Speaker
Especially with this new restaurant opening very soon. oh my gosh. I'm so excited. It was open in the past, starting with provision, so I have eaten there before and because we source everything for the restaurant from sites. it was like set if i identify next level meal like oh my god ah although it is kind of sad though so this is kind of jumping the gun I will go back to like what this whole experience was like but um the first tour that I ever hosted at Maker's Mark because I don't get to bring like heaps of customers over there all the time. We are like a bit far away.
00:38:41
Speaker
was like 16,000 Ks. Yeah. Just like stone's throw. 15 minutes. Yeah. boss Easy. so as I did all my training, the the very last thing you do as you train um to be a diplomat is that you do mock tours under different environments you have to take basically markers out with you and do full ground tours, talk, all that jazz.
00:39:06
Speaker
And the first one I actually hosted for a customer, um maybe it was just guests, either way, it doesn't matter. Might've been a customer from Texas and it might've been just a general consumer tour.
00:39:17
Speaker
But um with our rotational grazing, as you walk down from home place, which is where you you know meet, have a drink, and then you walk down to the still house, At the time we had rotated our sheep and our lambs into the paddock that was right there.
00:39:34
Speaker
um And they knew that they were going to have ah ah lunch at the restaurant and they walked past them were like, Oh no, are we eating those lambs for lunch? And I was like, this is a really rough way to start my first ever tour.
00:39:49
Speaker
Having to like explain. good Not yet. We're still fattening them up. Like, oh, hello kitty cat. Continue just jump around the table. he Come and say hello. um Yeah, I was like, oh, not those ones.
00:40:04
Speaker
Definitely those ones. Definitely those ones. Just not today. That's how it all works, you know. the Rotational grazing helps the land and then eventually, um you know, the stock is consumed. But that's okay.
00:40:17
Speaker
That's how it goes. That's how it goes. At least we've got some transparency over where that that meat is coming from. But anyway, um such a sidetrack. But... it's great. It's like, it's good to see that they are, I guess, like in enforcing that regenerative farming from the jump and they're like, all right, look, we're going to use these, uh, sheep.
00:40:41
Speaker
Um, and like, look, we're going to, you know, get him to feed him on the land. And once we fatten them up, we're going to put them in the restaurant and, Yeah, least look we look after our livestock very, very well. We've got a herd of Wagyu beef actually, cattle on site.
00:40:54
Speaker
and And we have someone who's like their whole job is to just look after the cattle at the distillery, which is amazing. um I can confirm that eventually they are really delicious, but they have the best life because they, you know, have all the spent grains. They just have whiskey grain, breakfast, lunch and dinner, just loving life.
00:41:15
Speaker
I was going to ask you about the whiskey grain too, because we're going get sidetracked against time. Of course we are. What do you guys do with all the the spent grain? Yeah, it goes goes to the farmers. Yeah, awesome. So it just kicks it back to those 10 farmers that are really on board with the the program and...
00:41:30
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, not those ones. Cause they, ah some of them have livestock now, but, um, well they'd have to because of the retain they're doing that. kind of percent see there we But there's always, it's not often a lot. we We have way more spent grain than the cattle. Correct. Yeah. Cause we've got like, I couldn't even tell you how many we have, but it's a small little herd. So so we've got to, we've got to send it elsewhere, but yeah, it all, it all goes to to local farmers.
00:41:54
Speaker
Yeah. That's awesome. Which is great. um but yeah no the experience over there is is amazing so I've been to the distillery now three times but yeah the first time I went on yeah day two of the job I spent a full two weeks at the distillery which is like a long time so I learned a lot um but I was able to do everything from so I was I spent time with every team at the distillery so spent time with the tour guides, the still team, I spent time with the innovation lab, the warehouse team, um even the guys in Cistern that are just taking bungs out of kegs. Like we spent time with every single team that we have there.
00:42:31
Speaker
We get a full understanding and picture of the distillery. But my favorite thing about it, and I actually had someone tell this to me is because I so i skip through the distillery because it's like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory as far as I'm
Experiences at Maker's Mark Distillery
00:42:44
Speaker
concerned.
00:42:44
Speaker
So I'm always like the happiest person you've ever seen when I'm there. I literally skip around and they're like oh, this is like Aussie chick just skipping in the distillery saying how you going to everyone. I'm like, yeah, it's me.
00:42:57
Speaker
um But it's it's just, it's a beautiful campus. So Margie Samuel is one of our founders. She's actually credited with starting Bourbon Tourism because she designed the Makers Mark distillery in order to host guests.
00:43:12
Speaker
So as you move through campus, which is very green and lush and stunning, it's, you can actually walk through the entire production facility, which is kind of crazy because Like you walk through the still house, you see all the fermenters, you see those three stills I was talking about.
00:43:28
Speaker
You then walk through into our little labeling house where we just have two people and two like old school iron like printing presses from the nineteen thirty s hand ripping every label that goes onto Maker's Mark. And you're how are there only two people doing this for every bottle of Maker's Mark that goes out into the world?
00:43:48
Speaker
So that's very cool. And then yeah, you can walk through the bottling line, you can walk through Warehouse A, which is our original warehouse on site, best smelling thing I've ever experienced in my life. if you can make that into a, actually, I think I might have a candle somewhere where it just smells like.
00:44:05
Speaker
I've always wanted to do that. I want to send a perfumer over, get them to spend time in warehouse a Yeah. Because it's like bourbon combined with like, you know, the woody. ah Sorry. He's an absolute pan in the ass. He's got an obsession with plastic and he just likes to lick it.
00:44:20
Speaker
I don't understand what it is. but he's To be clear, we're speaking about the cat. We're speaking about the cat. Sorry. He's just parked himself in front of Ray. I love it. He knows that I love cats. I'm quite okay with this. Yeah, he's very chill.
00:44:32
Speaker
I love it. But if you can, ah like, because this is how I explain, like, bourbon to people. And it's like, we need that scent. 100%. Yeah. Like, you walk through a distillery in, say, spring.
00:44:44
Speaker
And, like, it's reached... Poor little guy. um And it's like, you know, the sun is hitting this... Rickhouse warehouse. And it's like, just taking that note. And like everyone that's listening that has been there, amazing it'll just take them straight there. That scent. And it's like, how can we bottle this? I know. I actually, yeah, I did a bit of research into it and was, of course yeah love those I did. It'd be crazy. Wow. She nerded out about something else. Shocking.
00:45:14
Speaker
um Yeah. I did a bit of research into, I actually found a perfumer from Hunter Candles that I wanted to send over there. And I'm like, I think I might get knocked back on like this multi-thousand dollar trip to send someone over. Just I personally want to like bottle this scent into a candle.
00:45:31
Speaker
But yeah, I think it it would be absolutely amazing. Cause yeah, that experience like walking into the warehouse is just amazing. like indescribable honestly it should be on everyone's to do before you die like totally i've never been to like i don't know ah a warehouse in scotland or anything because i can't imagine it had hit the same heat level well yeah to get those vapors out of the barrel Well, that's that's the thing. Scotland's average temperature is about eight to nine degrees Celsius all year round, whereas obviously Kentucky is hitting way high temperatures. So, yeah, I think it would be quite different. I have also not spent as much time in Scottish warehouses that I have in ah in American ones. But...
00:46:19
Speaker
No, it's it's just amazing. That whole experience at the distillery is just truly indescribable. and And we have so much on site now supporting our you know sustainability initiatives that you know we've got hundreds of bee boxes, apiaries, so you can go out and see the bees. We've got a mushroom quarry where we grow our own mushrooms.
00:46:37
Speaker
We've got the world's largest American... circle American white ah oak research forests. We've planted tens of thousands of American white oak in order to study them, understand the genome sequencing behind their DNA and then help to preserve the species.
00:46:54
Speaker
Will you start harvesting your own? Because I know you work with We do. Yeah. I don't like, will that ever be a thing where you do like, say a limited release of Star Hill, but you've done it from your own trees? Look, never say never.
00:47:09
Speaker
it has the potential, right? It does. But it's just not the point of why we've planted them. Yeah. So, and also it's going to be 80 to a hundred years from now until you'd be able to actually utilize that whiskey, but potentially, you know, yeah ah someone could be drinking whiskey that was made barrels of American white oak grown on site potentially. But yeah, the point is more um understanding. So We've got an American white oak tree on site, which we call our mother tree.
00:47:37
Speaker
And despite the fact that most American white oak will start to like rot and die off after like 130 years, this this guy is well over 400. Mind-blowing. And i'm blind we needed to understand why.
00:47:49
Speaker
So yeah we did the world's ever first genome mapping mapping ah program to map the DNA sequence of this particular tree to try and understand what about its DNA has kept it alive for so long.
00:48:02
Speaker
So now we've planted out all those trees on site so that we can study them and learn. Um, because you know, if white oak is ever susceptible to disease and we lose it, then we are losing all of our whiskey. oh So it's like pretty massively important.
00:48:20
Speaker
It's also like the agricultural input that takes the longest to regenerate. You know, I can have a new crop of corn in 90 days. The water is coming from our spring fed lake on site. I've got to wait 80 to 100 years before I've got that tree available.
00:48:33
Speaker
So the sustainability behind white oak is super important to us. and And we, yeah, we do quite a few things to, I guess, work in the direction of...
00:48:45
Speaker
maintaining that oak as does Independence Day of Company who like you mentioned we work with very very closely love those guys Andrew Weinbrink is like like just a personal hero who looks after innovation for Independence Day of Company actually emailed him this morning plus I love it but but without without him we wouldn't have these like amazing barrels that yeah we we're able to enjoy whiskey out of Oh, totally. he's He's the guy that's doing all the research into toast profiles. And, you know, they, they send out test lots of barrels to distilleries all over Kentucky and the world.
00:49:25
Speaker
Um, and, you know, ask basically for warehouse space, um, so that they can run experiments. In fact, I read two results of two experiments that they ran this morning because that's who I am as a person.
00:49:37
Speaker
But it's super interesting. So, yeah, those guys are the ones that developed, yeah, the Makers 46 stave and then work with us on all the stave production for private select and wood finishing series and anything cool we're doing, basically, they've got a hand in.
00:49:53
Speaker
But they are also, you know, acutely aware of how important managing American white oak is So they have actually their own certification type thing that they work with farmers of American white oak or foresters in the States.
00:50:11
Speaker
Most of farmland in America is privately owned. So all of the wood coming through the mill in into the cooperages is coming from ah yet these farmers who drop them off to the mills.
00:50:23
Speaker
They get inspected. If they're not up to independent state company's code, they will send them back. Much like you guys do with your grains. Correct. yeah Yes. It's all about quality and every step of the way here. yeah I've actually been out to one of their mills. I've actually been out to the forest to go out with some of the guys that were cutting down the American white oak, which is a very cool experience. And then was able to then yeah go to the mill, have a tour through the mill to see it being cut down to staves.
00:50:49
Speaker
And then have been to all of the cooperages that independent stave company are in in in Kentucky as well, which is great. Um, they've got one that's like quite old school, one that's very, very new. We like flash technology.
00:51:02
Speaker
Um, you're not allowed to take photos or videos or anything in there except for them firing the barrels. It's all you can do because all of their technology is proprietary. So yeah, you don't want that leak and totally. Yeah, I get it. But they're just geniuses all around.
00:51:18
Speaker
So yeah, they really focus on the sustainability of the American white oak. I get asked all the time, like, surely we're diminishing our supplies. We have actually so much more American white oak in the forest now than we did 40 years ago because of the forestry management plans that they've put in place, which is really cool.
00:51:34
Speaker
Well, bourbon only consumes about 5% of the American white oak. Which is like, people think you you talk about like bourbon and new charred American oak and they're like, oh, well, bourbon's pretty big and there's yeah a lot of white oak getting consumed, but it's not that much. It's because we're the only people who specifically speak about the type of oak that we're using. The building industry isn't building your house being like, that's American white oak. You know what I mean? They're just building houses. so obviously...
00:52:03
Speaker
the more noise is coming from the bourbon industry that we use American white oak. So people just assume that we use all of it, but yeah, it's like 5%. So we're we're not, we're not the problem, but we are the solution. So absolutely yeah. They'll make his markers a solution considering they're doing research on the like could be genome. Like, but like to take the the time to figure out, it's like, all right, how do we preserve these trees for longer? Yeah.
00:52:29
Speaker
yeah And be it like, you know, you're able to accelerate growth to make the, I'd say the, what is it? Grain. Yeah, grain profile of the tree. I was like, it feels weird saying grain, but you're not talking about corn. You're talking about trees.
00:52:46
Speaker
And it's like, you know, like make a specific grain profile of that tree to make it adapt better to whiskey is mind blowing. Yeah. Like we're only a couple of steps away from...
00:52:58
Speaker
Engineering a tree that is perfect for whiskey. Yeah, and and just understanding yeah which strains are growing best in the environment, how do we yeah protect them from disease and pests and things like that. so It's pretty cool.
00:53:12
Speaker
um I i get ah love this type of stuff. Like wood science is something that really, really interests me. When I was over there once, they offered if I would like to read like the genome sequencing that they did, which was like an 80-page document of just science. And I'm like, I might draw a line yeah on how deep I'm going to get into this. Like it's going to go over my head. Let's be real. Yeah.
00:53:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's so, so interesting. And we just have so many smart people that work with us at Maker's Mark or Independence Day of Company that I'm just absolutely in awe of.
00:53:50
Speaker
um Whether it's, you know, Beth with her controlled chaos of blending different barrels to create Star Hill or Cellar Aged or ah Andrew at ISC, like coming up with all these stave profiles for us. Like these guys are just so smart.
00:54:04
Speaker
um So it's really cool to just be around and be able to soak up that knowledge and learn because it's, yeah, that's what I'm all about. I love it. I love it. Okay. We brought up seller age. So yeah obviously that is the hot talk of the town as well. Like Makers Mark releasing two new products. Well, actually like, I guess ah two new lines yes of product.
00:54:28
Speaker
um into the market and it's not something we've seen for years. I'm sure you have the actual date on it when it was like the last time they released new products.
00:54:38
Speaker
In Australia, because even like sell it like sorry car strength has been available off and on for a while. We'd get job lots here or there. It's been in market since like 2013, but not our market because Australia doesn't always get everything.
00:54:52
Speaker
You can tell i'm um I'm not mad about it at all. um but I'll send this to Rob. Don't worry. Car strength only became like permanently available here since I've been in role. So like within the last two and a half years.
00:55:10
Speaker
So mind blowing the fact that it's sitting on shelves and you know, the, the U S has had 46 car strength. I know it's so good. got Have you got some? I got three bottles. win it amazing We amazing. don't have some. It's good to know.
00:55:25
Speaker
I have the supply covered. Yeah. I like it here. the It's great. But the fact that we've only just started seeing car strength.
00:55:36
Speaker
Yeah. Consistently. It's crazy. The fact that we don't have 90 proof maker's mark. The fact we don't have 90 proof maker's mark is a big problem. Yeah. Like I understand tax laws don't get me started on yeah tax pricing, but...
00:55:52
Speaker
we have this special blend for Australia that comes in at 80 proof and you're really diminishing this quality product by releasing an ad proof. Yeah. It's a shame. And it's, it's an interesting one. Cause I think your your regular consumer can't tell that difference, but if you are right, it tastes 40 and 45% side by side, like it's massive. yeah there's ah There's a clear difference there, but yes, unfortunately tax is unkind to us in Australia.
00:56:17
Speaker
But yeah, like like you're right, we've we've really barely released permanently to market anything new since like car strength and 46. So super exciting to have yet two new lines coming this year and very close to each other. Like Star Hill is basically launching in market right now SellerAge 2025 is launching in a few weeks.
00:56:41
Speaker
so It's really great for me. i have so much more to talk about. So much more good whiskey to drink. Oh, terrible problem. No. Oh, no. Oh, no. What am I going to do? You're going to have cases of celery sitting at your place and you're like, well. Damn. Oh, guess what going to take to a tasting.
00:57:01
Speaker
But no, i'm I'm very, very excited. Yeah, I got a bottle sent over to me from the distillery recently. only took me like 48 emails with customs to get it through. But we got there. Yeah, I've got the last like 50 mils for us here today. So we'll give that a try when you've got an empty glass. Amazing. do have empty glass. Oh, brilliant. Yeah, this is one you prepared earlier. Yeah, it's a...
00:57:22
Speaker
Unfortunately i had to kill that ah beautiful star heel, but yeah. Oh, thank you very much. Okay. So take us through what does this year's release look like?
00:57:33
Speaker
This year is in like end of 2025. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll always be a little bit behind on the um release years in Australia, but that's okay.
00:57:45
Speaker
It's kind of like wine vintages. No, no, I get it. I'm all about it. Yes. Unfortunately, we can't. Actually, it was weird. Like, between Star Hill and, like, the Wild Turkey Masters keep drop. Mm-hmm.
00:58:03
Speaker
Released about the same time. Yeah. Like we got the wild turkey release before the US. This was around the same time. Yeah. The star hill dropped around same time as the US. So we're very blessed.
00:58:13
Speaker
It's the first time ever in maker's mark history that Australia has launched a new product at the same time as the US. Yeah. And granted we were obviously like two months behind because it had to get on the water and make its way over here.
00:58:25
Speaker
But yeah, realistically the same time, which is super exciting. It also shows that there's a lot of confidence in in Australia for the Maker's Mark market, which I'm loving. Well, I was going to say that'll trickle down to the rest of the products, you'd think. Yeah, yeah. in a perfect world. In a perfect world.
00:58:42
Speaker
But yes, super exciting. It's it's happening for Seller Age. Seller Age was first released in 2023. And yeah, very similar to Star Hill. This is a ah a blend that will change every single year.
00:58:54
Speaker
just depending on what is tasting good. um Yeah, what barrels we've got in the warehouse. Again, we've got so many barrels in the the cellar that we then try to put together these blends and come up with the best product that year.
00:59:10
Speaker
So release in 2023. And this was something that we, we did release because we have always been asked for, for older whiskey. I remember like a, I guess a personal story here with like Bankers Mark and over Oak. So if you go to the distiller, you do a tasting, you sit in this giant tasting room and they take you through all the whiskeys. And then,
00:59:34
Speaker
uh i'd say 2018 is when i first did it yeah and you know they take you through it um and you land on this glass and they go it's over oak yeah uh over aged i believe it was called um and i tried it and i was like this is amazing bottle it yeah like you have it it's literally in my glass bottle it i will take a case and It's actually so funny. So i we do have, for everything that we move into the cellar, we always then keep control bars in the warehouse to see how they're aging differently in those different aging environments.
01:00:11
Speaker
And so for those following along at home, not familiar with our cellar. So we created our limestone cellar at the distillery um by putting some dynamite in a hill.
01:00:25
Speaker
I've got, i found the video yesterday. I've been looking for it for years. but I finally found it again by trolling the One Drives. but i'll I'll show you later. Yeah. Amazing. Um, but yeah, we we blew up a hill, obviously underneath Kentucky is limestone shelving, which is why, you know, 95% of bourbon production happens in Kentucky because of the water source. Limestone filters that, um, anything harsh irons out of the water, which is great for distilling, but limestone also keeps things very naturally cool.
Whiskey Production and Tasting Insights
01:00:53
Speaker
So we created a cave basically on site at the distillery and the walls of that cave are limestone. So it actually keeps the temperature in there down and like 50 degrees Fahrenheit all year round, which I believe is like eight, nine degrees Celsius.
01:01:09
Speaker
So very similar to scottish yeah very similar to Scottish average temperature, which really helps because we were finding that after about eight years of aging maker's mark in our traditional rickhouses,
01:01:25
Speaker
it became over-oaked. Not that it was bad whiskey by any stretch of the imagination. It just wasn't aligned to our founders' original taste vision, where they wanted this smoother, sweeter, quite inviting bourbon, which is why we don't use rye. It's why we use the wheat.
01:01:44
Speaker
And so as you're over-aging this wood, it becomes but the whiskey, it becomes over-extracted. the wood is adding in way too much tannin for it to remain a whiskey without bitterness.
01:01:57
Speaker
So it wasn't something that we ever wanted to release because it was so dissimilar to the original taste vision. And then, you know, people really wanted this older whiskey and we were like, okay, well, how do we create an older whiskey whilst remaining true to that original guiding light?
01:02:15
Speaker
And it wasn't until we created the cellar where kind of time slows down a little bit in terms of maturation. And we went, oh, maybe we can make an older whiskey here. So we um
01:02:29
Speaker
it's it's it's Maker's Mark, cast strength, the same way that every other bottle of Maker's Mark is ever made or barrel is ever made. But once that barrel has hit full cast strength maturity, instead of being bottled, ah it goes into the cellar.
01:02:44
Speaker
Once it's in there, we we leave it and are continuously tasting as it continues to age. So 2023 was the first time we put one of these whiskies out, which was a ah blend of 11 and 12 year old whisky.
01:02:58
Speaker
This one is ah the oldest we've ever released. So it's a blend of 11, 13 and year Amazing. Which is really, really fun for us Which means there's older stock sitting there for you guys to do this again next year.
01:03:16
Speaker
Potentially. That's purely like mathematically. Yeah. yeah Like the math on this, there is. There is. Yeah. I think I'm meant to say that whatever's in the current blend is the oldest whiskey stock we have on hand. Which thought makes sense because that's what's been released and that's what you can talk about. Correct. But of course, not every barrel that we aged in the cellar made it into the final blend because we find, and this is really interesting because Aging whiskey in a cool environment that has no fluctuation is quite new. yeah So even though you know Scottish whiskey is sitting at that same temperature, there's still fluctuation throughout the year.
01:03:59
Speaker
Whereas this is pretty much the same. It's like naturally temperature controlled. doesn't really fluctuate more than about a degree all year. So that is a really different aging environment to understand and study. And there's a lot of stuff going on in there that we actually just don't get yet. Like we don't know why.
01:04:17
Speaker
Well, same way Buffalo Trace ages whiskey in a fridge. like Yeah. It's purely so you can hold those barrels for longer. yeah um So you don't over oak them and it doesn't create this very harsh profile that you have to blend back with younger stuff. Correct. Therefore defeating the age statement of the product. Yes.
01:04:36
Speaker
There's no point in going through all that time and effort. And money. on it Yeah. and And money just to go, we'll just blend it back. Yeah. Totally. um so yeah, cellar age very much is is playing off that, right? Like you were aging in, yeah, essentially a really large fridge. Yeah.
01:04:53
Speaker
Which is going to slow down the I guess the rate that the whiskey is penetrating through the wood. And tannin is a compound that sits at the back of the stave. So if you're not forcing the whiskey in and out of the wood, you won't pick tannin.
01:05:07
Speaker
So it's not going further enough in, yeahp but, um, what we're looking for is the oxidative effects because obviously we have additive, reductive and oxidative, um, maturation flavor compounds being developed.
01:05:23
Speaker
And so we were never able to really get any of the oxidative in the past because we couldn't leave our barrels in a warehouse for longer than eight years. yeah There was never enough time or head space to allow those reactions to happen.
01:05:37
Speaker
But now that we can have this cellar aging environment, we can keep the whiskey in there. the oxidative reactions have the time to occur. And so we're thinking about, you know, ethanol interacting with oxygen, creating esters or acetaldehyde interacting with oxygen and creating different types of acids or aldehydes.
01:05:59
Speaker
So that's where you start to get your fruity characteristics come through in the whiskey, dark skin fruits, prunes, plums, nuttiness a bit of more spice like you're getting maillard reactions as well so you're getting this caramelization come through so you get this deep complexity in the whiskey without adding any of the harshness the bitterness of the tannic content content this one's all vanilla ice cream yes like this is classic me when i was a kid just getting a spoon into that paul's vanilla ice cream
01:06:30
Speaker
I'm thinking like vanilla ice cream, but it's got a bit of ah like a marble of salted caramel through it. Yeah, I get that. Yeah. I see where that like a line of ah thinking is going.
01:06:43
Speaker
It's like nostalgia in a glass. And that's why like I'm just drawn towards these, I'd say weeded profiles, right? Because it's just so sweet and it's like it's just nailing that.
01:06:55
Speaker
sweetness it's so soft it's like you're able to get those beautiful vanillas those caramels but you don't have that harsh spicy right comes in over the top and it's like okay yeah i get it we get it totally yeah i really love this expression and it's it's changed quite significantly between 23 24 and the 25 release
01:07:20
Speaker
and I mean, like I mentioned, we don't a hundred percent understand what's like going on with this maturation. So 2024 being point something proof. This And this as you enter the barrel at one ten and i think the twenty twenty three was it was much higher than this as well And asked why?
01:07:43
Speaker
and they're like, we have no idea. Like there's no reason that last year's barrels should have spiked. And it went against everything that we know about maturation because the control barrels that they kept in the warehouse for the same amount of time from the same lot only upped in proof by one to two and everything that went into the cell up by five to six.
01:08:04
Speaker
That makes no sense. Yeah, that's right. So now we're like, ah, we need to ask way more questions and like figure out some more info because that defies everything we know about whiskey maturation, particularly. And again, this is one of the studies I was reading from Independence Dave Company this morning is that like, yes, we all kind of understand that as you get hotter and less humid, we're going to age our whiskey faster, but it's actually more about the uh difference in the top and bottom temperature that the floor will experience so it's about the fluctuation how quickly it fluctuates and how much which is why you guys rotate your barrels correct it's why we rotate our barrels so that we get very consistent oh man we have so much to talk about um there's more cats there's more whiskey it's fine come back for round two it's all good
01:08:52
Speaker
We do it at my house where I have just as much whiskey and another cat. Ah, I love it. I'm all about it Right. um But yeah, it's it's the yeah the fluctuation that actually ah really influences the whiskey. and There's no fluctuation in the cellar. No. What's going It's cold and it doesn't change. So why have we been able to like peek at this high proof?
01:09:15
Speaker
but then also never again. And we asked so many questions. We're like, well, do you know what warehouses they came from? Were they smaller warehouses? Were the lots at the side of the warehouse? Or all like, how did that work? And they were like, yeah, no, we checked all of it. Like we have no idea.
01:09:30
Speaker
So that's kind of fun and exciting that we kind of don't really know everything that's going on. But that's the thing. Whiskey making, like you can study it as much as possible using all the scientific ways of, you know,
01:09:45
Speaker
like actually measuring and understanding but at the end of the day like all of it is kind of subject to nature and craftsmanship and whatever like you just don't have as much control as you would ever like and that is i think the beauty of this whiskey yeah no it's the beauty of whiskey right it's like as much as you want to put it in fridges and go do you know what we'll keep it ah this to keep it for longer but In fact, you're going to have a massive proof spike in release still a quality product that isn't over-oaked and people are like, o this is way too harsh. Once again, you don't need to blend it back with younger stuff.
01:10:23
Speaker
release it as a quality product and people are like, this is incredible. Yeah. How do we yeah we not have this all the time? i feel I think the sweet spot for seller age is probably like 11 and 12 year, but that older stuff massively helps in the blend.
01:10:38
Speaker
Of course. I think the 20, 25 is like 75% 11 year old, but by putting back in those 13 and 14 year old barrels adds so much complexity. The finish on this is great, but it's just, it's so interesting. yeah The way that the team works,
01:10:52
Speaker
actually do this because again, I said, they've got like hundreds of barrels of different types and times and all the stuff going on. And they just start somewhere. There's like three people that will put together, ah initial blend.
01:11:06
Speaker
They put them together, they taste them, then they work it back a little bit. And then once they've got their top two to three, they marry them and that them. So we've that, uh, seller age for a month before it goes into bottle, which helps massively.
01:11:22
Speaker
Like day one, it's good. Day two, it's better. Day 30, sick. So stainless steel vat? Yes. um And what, we're just leaving it like open top?
01:11:33
Speaker
I think it's, I'm pretty sure it's closed. Closed? Okay. So just leave closed. Yeah. See what it does? It's just marrying together. Those flavors are just mingling, mellowing, settling. it do its thing. Yeah.
01:11:44
Speaker
And then when they do the um experimentation, they do 200 mils vatted in a 375 mil bottle for like eight days and just see how it happens. And that's what they say to us. They're like, yeah, we can do these experiments.
01:11:59
Speaker
But until it's actually done at full scale, we still don't know what that's going to taste like because things change. It's crazy. It's crazy to think about because like, as you were saying that and like, as I was thinking about it, you would have a whiskey that is bottled in the US and someone would open it that day. So day one, the time it lands in Australia, say day 30, it would be a different profile. Yeah.
01:12:24
Speaker
Mind blowing. Yeah. And I think something's changed more than others, even as i was doing some ah like liquid education with Beth, who looks after our innovation program. Liquid education is the best name.
01:12:38
Speaker
Yeah. It just means you girls were sitting there and it was like early whiskeys in the morning. Oh yeah, I mean, I had to catch up It was going to be like four zero am for me and I'm like, I'm going to be in a very different place than you guys are if I'm on this at 4am drinking whiskeys.
01:12:51
Speaker
But you know, you catch up after or often i catch up and then might call Beth if I have questions. But... you know, we're going through these whiskies and she goes, oh, by the way, um does anyone have warehouse sample, which is yeah, the, the control that you opened, but haven't, um, haven't finished because they sent it out when we did the first 2023 and I'm there like, I certainly do. Yeah. A few people like, yeah, we do as well.
01:13:19
Speaker
And the reason that we were sent it in the first place is so we could do a comparison of what the actual seller is influencing over that maturation profile. And um she goes, so turns out that if you have a bit of headspace in that bottle,
01:13:36
Speaker
And it sat there for two years. It's really mellowed out. It's going to taste really lovely. So potentially don't bring that as a comparison now to why we're doing like, you know, the cellar aging. Cause she's like, it's mellowed so much sitting in bottle with a bit of head space that you will not get like the comparison that you're looking for. Like they're going to, they're going to taste very similar. i was like, very interesting. I'm sitting at looking at my cabinet. I'm like, I've got half a bottle up there. Yeah. Hmm.
01:14:08
Speaker
No, just drink it. Yeah, you're right. It'll be fine. But that's the funny thing about the older whiskey. And I think like this is a whole nother conversation in itself around like older, is it better? is it rarer, expensive, whatever.
01:14:21
Speaker
But when I did share that warehouse sample with some people in Melbourne, two events, so maybe 80 people were able to to sample that. And so many of the guys in the room are like, that's sick.
01:14:36
Speaker
Like, why aren't you bottling that just like you did? yeah But when you taste you're like, but you're just used to drinking old age stated over-oaked bourbon. It's not better. It's objectively not better. Well, that's why like I will say that anything bourbon-wise that's bottled at, say, 110 proof is much better than anything that's bottled at 80 proof. Yeah. And it's like 40% against 55%. It's purely profile-driven.
01:15:04
Speaker
Totally. It completely changes the weight of that whiskey drinks. course it does. Completely. But it's purely profile driven and it's like all you drink is all bourbon and I'm sure I know the people that were involved in this tasting bourbon. I could probably drop all their names.
01:15:20
Speaker
oh But of course they do because I know what they have on their back bar. Exactly. likes like it's i was like, I'm sorry, it's just it's not better whiskey. I understand that you like it but it's just you're used to drinking it. It's like taste like bitter coffee or whatever. Bitter coffee is pretty good. yeah i i also only drink black coffee.
01:15:38
Speaker
yeah i I get a latte with an extra shot because I just like the taste of coffee. doesn't do anything, but I enjoy it. It's purely drink black coffee. Yeah. Black coffee. I'm real bit nerdy about that as well. Oh, okay. No, no, no. That's fine. also, i've yeah, I really...
01:15:55
Speaker
We need another episode for Coffee Talk. We have so many things to talk about. i was like, we're getting we're getting close to your hard out time. But ah do you want to answer a couple of questions for me um so people can get an idea of what you really like? You haven't been prepped on these questions and you give a really shocked face. I love it. I love it. this i do this with everyone. So if you want to bail out of a question, just give me a look and I will press on. All right. um First one from the top. Where is the weirdest place you've tried whiskey?
01:16:29
Speaker
The weirdest? The weirdest place you've tried whiskey.
01:16:34
Speaker
Like, try? Like, weirdest place I've drank a whiskey? Yeah, weirdest place you've drank a whiskey. Oh, my God. I don't know. drink whiskey, like, at all times. Yeah. where's the weirdest place I've ever been in my life? There's probably whiskey there. Yeah, that's pretty standard, actually. Oh, my God. I don't know where I was. Because, like, you are, I guess, a lady that is well-traveled. You have been across to the opposite side of the world and you've tried whiskey pretty much everywhere.
01:17:01
Speaker
Is there a place... Okay, we'll go the most memorable place you've tried whiskey. Memorable. um Because I like me being able to share a whiskey with you and Rob is up there with the most memorable and like Bill Samuels as well. Like me drinking whiskey with Bill. I'm like, fuck. I think the most memorable is when I was invited to build Junior's house to have a whiskey with him. That's pretty special. And the fact he has it on ice and he didn't ask, that kind of gives me an illness.
01:17:29
Speaker
I'm like, let me control my own journey here. I get it. I get it Look, if you're drinking with Bill Jr., you drink however he wants you to. Absolutely. I agree. i agree. I did. i did.
01:17:41
Speaker
He cracked it for me. I drank it. I enjoyed it. I was like... 46 on ice. You don't get anything else. Ours was a private select. Oh, okay. Orcs. So awkward. ah Yeah, so um I guess you were on the basic stuff. and Wow. Somehow we were on the good stuff. He did offer if I wanted to like hold for a photo the first ever bottle of maker's mug that came off the line. i was like, absolutely not.
01:18:04
Speaker
That's, I would have loved that. what yeah What if you're the guy that goes to Bill Jr.'s house and you hold the very first bottle of Makersmark ever produced and you drop it? that You want to be that guy?
01:18:16
Speaker
i would love to be that guy. the fact that i would The fact that I would be roped into whiskey law. The fact that, like, we walk around Kentucky, we walk around Kentucky, you and I.
01:18:29
Speaker
And we run into the fucking legends and we're like nerding out. And then you're having a conversation with me, the guy that dropped the first bottle of 46. You would be frothing. What are you talking about?
01:18:44
Speaker
You would love that. Not first bottle of 46, first bottle classic ever. Yeah, ever. Maker's Mark. Oh, the sorry. The first bottle of Maker's Mark, whatever. You would love that. I would love that. Okay, I see what's going on here. It's not an ego thing, but I'm like, I would rope myself in a whiskey law and I would be... that's Because that's what we love, right? That's why I have 550 bottles of bourbon shelf. Yeah.
01:19:06
Speaker
bourbon on my shelf yeah Yeah, okay, you would love that. Yeah, i would. I would die so much inside. i would never recover. i would be the same, though. I would hate every single moment of that, but to be roped in, I'm like, nah. Nah, like I'm shuddering as I think about it.
01:19:24
Speaker
Absolutely not. Okay, okay. Yeah, was I was tied up on the 46th. All right, do you have a perfect proof?
Whiskey Preferences and Personal Reflections
01:19:34
Speaker
Oh, I'm thinking like...
01:19:37
Speaker
as As long as it's over sort of 108, I'm starting to feel like pretty good about life. Yep. Yeah. Is there a reason why you enjoy over 108? What am I?
01:19:52
Speaker
I'm trying to do the numbers on this. What is it? 43 and a half is 107. seven So we're pretty close. and fifty four 54. That's the one. Yeah. i don't know. I feel like at that point you start to get like the proper viscosity and finish that you're looking for in a whiskey. It can stand up.
01:20:10
Speaker
I clearly like to drink my whiskey neat. Um, I feel like that's sort of the point where I'm going to enjoy sipping on that whiskey when it's neat. Simple as that. Yeah.
01:20:23
Speaker
Tracks for me. Okay. Whiskey apocalypse. All the bottles disappear in the world except one. And this is what you get to enjoy for the rest of your life. What bottle is it? It doesn't have to be on brand. brood I know. your everything's going to be on brand.
01:20:41
Speaker
Not because I am a corporate gal, but because I just love Maker's Mark. Which is perfect. um like Like I said at the very start, I didn't start working for Maker's Mark for a job. I started working for Maker's Mark love Maker's Mark.
01:20:53
Speaker
Absolutely. I think I... Not that this is... anywhere near objectively like the best bottle of makers mark i've ever had but i think i have such a personal affinity for 46 that that would be where i'm at it's also a whiskey i go back to quite a lot because it's i send everyone there though like i know exactly what you're saying and like the fact that you can introduce so many people to 46 and like be it from like new to bourbon new to uh going from scotch to bourbon yeah
01:21:24
Speaker
It's like such a comfortable place and arguably the best price bottle on the market. Uncle Dan's like 69 bucks on his offer. Amazing. The fact that it sat at 60 bucks, 65 bucks for ages, 47%. Yeah. Oh,
01:21:38
Speaker
stop it it's It's great. It's got a little bit of a high proof than yeah classic. It's got those lovely spice notes to it. The finish is little bit longer, a little bit velvety. um But yeah, I just... <unk>s That's often the whiskey that I come back to. Like if I'm just having a quick whiskey at home or something, it's like, oh, I'll grab the 46. Yeah, I love it. it's Yeah.
01:21:59
Speaker
Can't beat it. Classic. Classic. There's a reason why people go for it. Okay. The most... undervalued whiskey on the market that you highly rate?
01:22:11
Speaker
Do you have one or it's going to be 46? I feel like we just answered that question. I feel like we're there. I'm like, yeah. Anything from like your personal selection or is it purely just like 46? I live in a world where most things I think could maybe come down in price, not, not increase. No, no, I agree. I agree.
01:22:33
Speaker
I am purely advocating for that. Like if you need someone from the government on this podcast just to talk smack and abuse Seriously. Every time I go through the airport and LaFroigue PX cask is just like another $30 more per bottle. Like every time i'm like, could we not be doing this? Cause I'd like to drink a lot of you and you're making it hard. Problem is you're buying LaFroigue. Like that is the total opposite of what like maker's mark is. And I love that.
01:22:59
Speaker
I can't. Big Laphroaig fan. Okay. Massive. Yeah, we need another day. if That is. i need ah I need to break that concept down. Yeah, break that down. because I think the very simple way to put it is like I'm a fan of bold flavors. Okay. So Laphroaig really fits that bill for me. It's so smoky. Like you yeah say Laphroaig and people can't say Laphroaig.
01:23:22
Speaker
and i I don't know what they'd say because that's how I heard it say to me and I'm like I'll go with that. But it's just so smoky. So smoky. I guess like the variation of casks. Oh, it's all on brand. it's ah So many amazing casks. So many things. To be fair, I've been drinking Maker's Mark on the Froyc well before I joined. Also, I started my whiskey drinking career at an age that I should not announce.
01:23:46
Speaker
um I'm with But on Canadian Club. So like i I didn't mean for this to happen. But then I like started at Santora. was like, wow, my whole life is here.
01:23:56
Speaker
It's fine. It's fine. Just stumble into it. I, yeah, I, we might've had the same dad cause I remember drinking from a very young age and he's like, don't tell your mother. ah Okay. Thanks dad. That's, Hey, it's worked out for us now. I feel I've got more of a buying problem than a drinking problem, but, um, I reckon we can work that out.
01:24:16
Speaker
um Okay, the the last question for you and then I'll up'll put you out of misery. You're going to hate this so Oh, God. If you could share a dram with any historical figure, who would it be and why? I love the eyebrow raise.
01:24:29
Speaker
Any historical anyone So, like, it could be anyone from, like, a point in time. You know what? I i actually already know. oh okay. And we're keeping it on brand once again. love it. I would love to sit down with Margie Samuels.
01:24:45
Speaker
Like that woman was a trailblazer. Yeah. You know, she is absolutely incredible. Like everything you see on the Maker's Mark bottle was her. Even the little notch in the neck was Margie Samuels because she wanted every single time you poured whiskey to have that same glugging sound that is what's symboled to her, I've opened a new bottle
Star Hill and Maker's Mark's Distinctive Features
01:25:06
Speaker
of whiskey. But once you get down past the neck and you don't have the air bubble anymore, you don't get that sound. So she put a notch in so you always get the sound.
01:25:13
Speaker
She was on another level. the Like another level. Is there any reason why Star Hill doesn't have it? Yes, because this is not a bourbon. So we wanted to make very clear interesting that ah all of the red wax dipped...
01:25:32
Speaker
All of the bottles that look like this, everything that is Maker's Mark stayed with Maker's Mark. And then this being a wheat whiskey, not a bourbon, a new brand, a new mash bill. We wanted to be quite clear that it's it's different. So no notch, different bottle, no wax. This is meant to symbolize like the limestone yeah cellar in that cork.
01:25:54
Speaker
So bougie. I love Yeah. Price tag is very bougie, but, um, yeah, a hundred bucks, a hundred bucks. I'll just keep telling everyone a hundred bucks us and we'll see what happens. and Hey, I would like people to buy it here. That would really help me out.
01:26:10
Speaker
Yeah, okay, but I don't know if anyone has the money to buy here. It's not my fault. That is also not my fault. I'm $100 US and you guys do the math.
01:26:21
Speaker
A bit interesting. i love I was just looking at the new bottles, actually. um And they do have this... like it looks like they've gone through with a bit of fishing line and like with the older bottles, like it kind of like, I guess you got the the neck and then it goes to like to this really rounded kind of thing. But as you kind of square it off with these new bottles, it looks like they've got this piece of fishing wire and they've really tightened it.
01:26:44
Speaker
um Right the place of the neck. Yeah. To create this. Sound. This sound that's okay. I'm going to, you're making me open more bottles tonight. And I'm like,
01:26:57
Speaker
Okay, I guess it's terrible problem to have. um But yeah, okay, I'm all about it. Yeah, she she was just this genius of a person. She had this vision for Maker's Mark. like you You say that the reason you buy your first bottle of Maker's Mark is because of Margie, because her idea was the wax, the hand-cut labels.
01:27:17
Speaker
Even the name Maker's Mark came from her. The logo, the notch in the bottle, everything, the way the distillery is set up. genius. And then Bill is the reason you buy a second because it's real bloody tasty.
01:27:29
Speaker
So yeah, that's, that's the reason she was the first a woman ever associated with a distillery to be inducted into the Bourbon Hall of Fame. Yeah. It's like maker's mark is like for me, bourbon Disneyland. Yeah. It is like, like I get people talk about like Buffalo Trace as being Bourbon Disneyland. For me, like Maker's Mark, Bourbon Disneyland, because... There's just so much going on. So much going on. Like you, direct comparison to Buffalo Trace and it is purely just production. Yeah.
01:27:58
Speaker
With, I guess, Maker's Mark, you're going from like the regenerative farming aspect, just touched on the start of the episode, and you're like, you've got this livestock cruising around and then...
01:28:09
Speaker
purely on our distillery visit. Like we went through the mushroom farm and like, there's fucking mushrooms here. What are we doing? Yeah. And we've, we've got a truffle hunting dog star. Yes, I did. Star is the best. He's so cute, but he, he lives on site because yeah, we've got all these um orchards, apples, pears, whatever.
01:28:32
Speaker
And we inoculated them all with truffles cause we naturally found truffles on site at Star Hill we're like, cool. This is another thing Star Hill adds. So we inoculated all these trees with with truffles and then we got Star, this amazing dog, and we're training him to point at the truffles when he finds them.
01:28:49
Speaker
It's so good. There's just a lot happening. So much going on. I can't wait. I can't wait to go back because you guys have some incredible stuff in the works. Yeah, but I'll be back next week and I'm very excited. i cannot wait to catch your recap on everything.
01:29:03
Speaker
It sounds like I've got to make a trip down to you and bring a bottle of 46 car strength with me. Hell yeah. Oh, I can't wait.
Conclusion and Social Media Handles
01:29:10
Speaker
All right, Rhi, thank you so much for coming on. i know you got to get out of here. You've long drive home, you poor thing. Bye.
01:29:16
Speaker
long train home. because Long train home. We've been drinking the whiskey. Yes, we have been enjoying the goods, but yeah, thank you so much for coming on. want plug your socials, plug anything you have coming up, tastings? Oh, love to. ah Thank you so much for having me. It's so much fun to just hang out and drink some whiskey and get a bit nerdy on a few different things. i love it.
01:29:34
Speaker
Uh, yeah, guys, I've got a few socials that you can find me on. So re underscore whiskey is where I'm at. I'm on club, Santori underscore makers. Mark is where you like really get the like trade hospitality, focused content.
01:29:51
Speaker
And then also clubs on Tori Oceania is where you can find not only what I'm doing on makers mark, but our full Santori portfolio, which is really exciting. So yeah. Love Well, yeah, thank you so much for coming on. um Yeah, we're going have to catch up again soon because going have some amazing goss come next week. I love it. Well, yeah, thank you guys for listening. Hopefully you enjoyed this episode. Hopefully you took a lot of information out of it because there's a lot of stuff coming at you. Listen to it again and again in the car ride home.
01:30:20
Speaker
ah Love you guys. Cheers.