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"It's Jack-ening all over again! " A fireside chat with the Jack Daniels Brand Ambassador Andy Tsai and co hosted with Gloucester Lane aka Jacob
19 Plays1 day ago
Finally getting a sit down with the legend that graced us for all our Jack Daniels and Woodford Reserve Barrel Picks, the man that is driving Australia's connection to Lynchburg, one sip at a time. But if you don't know him from that he was also on the iconic episode of Whiskefy "The Jack Off: The Extra Blessing" where we tasted 12 Jack Daniels Barrel Strengths blind to pick the winner ... MR ANDY TSAI.
We sit and shoot the shit about all things new with Jack Daniels, a lot more brand events for the people that hold Jack Daniels to the highest standard and talk about it every day - the true Tennessee Squires.
We also sneak in our first experiences with whiskies and how we all fell in love with that delicious spirit.
Huge thank you to Jacob and Andy for taking the time out!
Check their socials for upcoming events.
Socials below!
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Transcript
Intro
Introductions and Whiskey Beginnings
00:00:18
Speaker
What is up, Whiskey fans? It is your boy, Jez, and I am in the Brown Foreman HQ. I was very happy to be invited. don't know who's watching this, listening to it, so I'll kind of lead in with bit of a story, but Andy reached out to couple of Deviants and invited them around to...
00:00:39
Speaker
the Brown Foreman HQ for a couple of whiskies before he jets off and leaves us for an extended period of time. It'll be very sad. for Two weeks. wow thats You can do without me for two weeks. I don't know, it's a bit um but yeah, I was like, I had to clear the schedule, go six, so um rosters can deal with that problem. But yeah, it' rolled into Brown Foreman HQ.
00:01:01
Speaker
Brought a couple of whiskies with me and um I guess I was excited to finally catch up with you gents after a while. long um We've got a couple of voices here if everyone wants to run the intros themselves.
00:01:13
Speaker
ah Jacob here, obviously boss Delane. I've been with Jeremy on the podcast a few years ago. Need some time because of a moving out of Sydney and then coming back to Sydney so finally getting back into it.
00:01:25
Speaker
And obviously the host himself. Where's your second Sydney? I moved down south for and a bit and it's just Kiamat. And then just moved back, bought place in Ashfield. Oh Ashfield, you're in inner west? Yeah, right near you now. Must be nice to have money. Yes.
00:01:42
Speaker
Sport house, car and... I wish....and a holiday home in Blacktown. what Nice. Up and coming location. Was that a carpool box or...?
00:01:53
Speaker
Corrugated. Corrugated. Twice as strong. It is. It's got that reinforced sidewalks. feel like I cut off. You were still doing it. No, no. Across to you. This is your home? Yes. Yes, it is. I'm Andy.
Transforming Webster's Bar and Event Stories
00:02:08
Speaker
Jack Zanthals Brand Ambassador for Australia. I met both of these guys, I think, when I was still working in hospitality. I was at Webster's Bar in Newtown with Ray.
00:02:19
Speaker
We had a big, huge task of turning Zanzibar Newtown into Webster's Bar Newtown. and Zanzibar of course had the Ruby Lounge in the middle floor which was kind of a bit of a seedy clubby kind of situation. at what yeah And we had the big job of turning you into a whiskey bar and part of that journey was um tasting whiskeys and so Ray and myself went through i cheese thousands of different whiskey samples and accidentally fell into whiskey but We started to put on whiskey nights with different brands. We were working with, know, being Suntory, we were working with Brown Foreman, we were working with Sazerac and someone over on the South Street. But every month we were putting on religiously these whiskey events and we started to grow a bit of a community and Jez and Jacob were two of the people that came along.
00:03:01
Speaker
And we just kind of bonded over whiskey and and but a boilermaker dinners. Some of those were like 10 whiskey and three beers. It was ridiculous. People were kind of like rolling down the front stairwell. Different time, Ricoh, different time. yeah and And we made tickets $45 rather than the the general hundred, so it was a bit more accessible. But it also allowed us to have people along that wouldn't normally spend money on on events. And it helps carry the events further in the night because instead of paying $200 you're there, you leave, you go to the bar afterwards, you spend your chat. Exactly! Because you want to be around the $200. Once you've dropped that $200 you're less likely to go up and get a dram of Pappy or of any fancy whiskey because you're like, no I've paid $200, I'll have the whiskies, thank you. And you don't want to spend anything, so it's very true.
00:03:46
Speaker
That's how we met. Yeah, that's it. That's it. well um How long ago was that? That was like maybe six. if I was married back then, and so that was... I forgot about that whole saga. Yeah, it was like 20. Yeah, 12 and a half, actually. but so It's actually your problem for serving me whiskey. That was your mistake. Speaking of mistakes, not my... heart regard um so Tripster's fifth birthday. yeah Talking about rolling down the front stamps. Oh, yes. Fifth birthday. Was that the one we held on the rooftop? That was on the rooftop of Webster's. I don't remember a lot of it. yes that was That was my biggest problem. We had a few of our nights that got, you know, not rowdy, but no we we also, we were trusting people with a lot of samples and, and you know, we were doing 10 to 15 mils, but there were times as well where it would be 10, 15 mil samples up to six and maybe more. And then there was, you know, three samples of beer. And of course,
00:04:42
Speaker
it was responsible serves like i think they were 120 mil or whatever you know right and i kind of pushed them out but people were getting side drinks and and on the birthday parties people were going you know you go to the bar between meals and you come back and then you can take it with the taste which is why when people spend 45 dollars they're like well i've got another 150 here might as well spend it so what so what happened you had a couple too many well it was a little bit more than a couple too many think I think and I
Hospitality to 9-to-5 Transition
00:05:11
Speaker
don't really remember because I was carried out of the venue by ah one of my mates.
00:05:15
Speaker
But they had tied a garbage bag around my head. What? For the drive home. I didn't drive home. Oh no, so classic young person, like Bucks Knight behaviour sort of thing. Yeah, it was classic. Was it 2018, 2019? It had to have been, yeah it was, I mean, well, whenever it was his fifth birthday. Thankfully it wasn't me that had to record the incident report. No, it was the whole deal with anything. Yeah, yeah. I don't know you were working there at the time.
00:05:47
Speaker
left at that point actually, so it didn't sound like a you problem. but ah If it was 2018, it would have been my second last year. I left 2019. It was after Brown Forman actually sent me on the 1870 incentive trip.
00:06:00
Speaker
it was It was towards the end, I think it was around September, October, I went on the incentive trip, and then I kind of put in my notice with Ray just before Christmas. It came across here. um So it might have been the fifth but birthday party might have been kind of like a semi farewell slash I was just on the way up. But anyway, they got a lot of them got, you know, on the loose side. Oh, yeah. Respectful. but But yeah, no, no. I mean, I was a mess.
00:06:24
Speaker
But that spaw that's fine. That's old me, I think. You're young and it's free moves. That's what happens here. It's how it goes. um But yeah, what what was that transition like from you going, because like i I guess we'd land on the hospital, it was very up a slide.
00:06:40
Speaker
Well look, it was a big transition for me because I'd been in hospitality all up for 14 years. Of course, it cafes, restaurants, eating between, wasn't all bars from the beginning, but I had become accustomed to that really late finish. So at KB Hotel, which is just outside there with na Ray and where I met Ray, worked there for three years, but before that I was in Chinatown nightclubs as a duty manager in 2IC. So I was kind of the guy with a really fancy suit on and the the earpiece running ah a security team of, you know, 10 plus guards.
00:07:12
Speaker
um I didn't thank them. We're guards. We're guards. Anyways, I was running all of that that scene yeah and it was pretty out of control. Like we nightclubs, particularly like Chinatown nightclubs. Oh, I was at um Haymarket Hotel. was at Mr. Tipley's, which was also kind of like one of those, it was, A beautiful venue, but it had um a lot of, ah what do you call it, like promoted events that would have hundreds and hundreds of like Asian community, mixed community yeah coming in. But it was all like bottle service, like go nuts. We, our security guards had to carry people out and they were fighting. Yeah. But so the transition, because I was going from such late nights into Webster's, which was still finishing at six, seven in the morning, if we had an incident, I was sometimes sitting there at eight zero in the morning filling out police reports. And there was one morning i remember was after I had went on the incentive trip to Brown Foreman, but I, I finished my police report, I was rubbing my eyes, I got up, I locked the front door and I just stood there on King Street in the middle of Newtown. And I watched a school bus go past and there was list to this lady going for a jog and a man walking his dog and I was just, I felt like a vampire and I was like, calm.
00:08:26
Speaker
I think I was mid-30s too. i was kind of like, yeah the transition was easy because you're going from being like a vampire and in many ways in the hospital world to having a nine to five. yeah And I'm not going to lie you, it took about a year and a half for my body clock to kind of reset to the point where I can wake up at nine and then kind of just slowly make it eight and then make it seven. but your body is completely, you know, it's like doing crazy shift work in graveyards in a hospital or whatever. Yeah, that's that. You do crazy shift work. I do. I do okay. But like some days, well actually the most days it's six till six, right? So six till six. Yes. it's You mean you do both sides of that? Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:06
Speaker
Yeah. What's your favorite, 6am or 6am? 6am, for sure. I was the gym at like 2.30am. That's gross. You knew it was coming though. I did know that was coming. i i remember there was a period where my mum was really worried about me in a hospital because whenever I'd go off to see the family on weekend,
00:09:27
Speaker
or on whenever it was. I had been working until, you know, 7 in the morning, so I'd probably slept until 12, going up there at 2 in the afternoon, and I was like, you know. You're still hazing, because you had 4 hours, 5 hours sleep. So, there was a period of time where I just told my mum that I was doing 9 to 5, but i was starting at You know what I mean? Don't worry, Mum, it's 9 to 5, but it was graveyard 9 to 5.
00:09:49
Speaker
um But the transition, that you know, it's it's just habitual. Instead of doom scrolling in bed or instead of, you know, having that peppermint tea at this time or that time or if you go home and listen to music when you finish at 7 in the morning, it's going to keep you up for an extra two hours. It's kind of getting rid of the things that progress you until you're that knackered and falling asleep is almost a lot glorious. So it took about a year and a half of working for Brown Forman before I went back to normal.
00:10:15
Speaker
Like it took a long time. But now I get up at six and I'm good, but it's taken a
Whiskey Community and Canberra Culture
00:10:21
Speaker
years. Well, yeah. Do you miss it at all though? Do you miss the HOSPO side the matter? know what?
00:10:26
Speaker
You still get a taste though. This is the thing. Like, you get some, like, with the promo stuff. It's going to be my answer. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, just to take your answer away from me. No, no, no, no, no. In a good way. You understand. know, I still work in the HOSPO world. Yeah. Do I miss it? No. But the main reason I love customer service, but I still get to do that all the time. In fact, when I'm in front of people, they are my customers. So I still get to do that. What I don't miss is the cleaning, the bonnet, the fights, the police, running breaks. It was so monotonous that you'd have to get someone into the bike to cover a break. Like it's monotonous work. I loved having a team. Because when you get through a shift with a team, even if you've got like a skeleton crew, it feels like by the end of the night, all right, everyone, let's have a little staff. Yeah, let's just start with it. Then you talk about the silly customers. The of the day. Or remember when Jez came in and we had to carry You know, you talk about everything that's happened in the shift. There's a camaraderie. Yeah. And I miss the camaraderie. I miss dealing with customers. Not all them. Yeah. But I miss that side. But do I miss the whole operation of HOSPO? No, because I did it for long enough that I kind of,
00:11:34
Speaker
was starting to resent it a little bit i was getting a little bit old and i started to resent it as a duty manager or a 2IC or licensee yeah you get like 40 50 years old and you're still dealing with 18 to 22 year olds like as a thing which is fine but you just feel like you know someone's found your dorian gray painting yeah and they're just like You know, you're getting really old and everyone else is staying really young. It's like they're all, that's a really weird analogy, you know I think about it. But you know. The staff all stays the same age. And you're, it's like you're aging and you're getting older and your knees are cracking when you're walking up the stairs. I couldn't carry kegs anymore like I used to. And then, you know, finishing at seven took way different toll on my body than it did from the staff that were 18 to 22. Because they'll just do whatever. And they'll party all night and they'll back it up and I'm like, I can't do that. So,
00:12:24
Speaker
Yeah, I do miss it, but I don't miss the operation of it. I miss the camaraderie hospitality. The community that comes from hospitality. Yeah, that's a fair point. Do you want to go for a drink at five when we finish? Let's go up the road to that venue that's always over. Yeah, right. And like, I don't miss that because everything sounded like a good idea. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, of course we'll have a couple. And then you get home. 5, 2, 3, and you're like, you get home at three days or you get home at like 4 p.m. and you have start at five. Like, no way want miss that. That's like, I'm hinged.
00:12:54
Speaker
Constantly turning Scotty down when he goes, ah let's go for a drink after we finish the whiskey show and the whiskey show is hell. It's taxing. It's it's it a long day. Set up, packed And then it's like, yeah, let's go for a drink afterwards. I go, I want none of that. i want go to bed. And then that's the difference between the people that are still in the hospital. They're like, yep, let's go out for drink. yeah And then everyone else. It's true. that's um i think also a lot of the whiskey shows I'm running,
00:13:21
Speaker
you know three hour session then a three hour session then the next day another three but some of them are like a four hour session one hour break four hour session at the end of that yeah just kind of want to be alone plus the two hour bump in get two hour bump out at the end of it two hour bumping when did we start doing a two hour bump beat it's like six hour bumping i guess it to be longer than that yeah and but this that's that's the perfect picture of hosmo right it's like it's like when you've dealt with people for that long You just kind of want to sit down and and even having a drink sometimes feels like too hard basket because you just want to rest. yeah And that's the challenge of of whiskey shows because you've got to keep up that energy. yeah Someone will come up and be like, oh do you chill? Filtering? Jack
00:14:01
Speaker
jack Daniels is in bourbon, you're like, just stop to stop stop. Just have this one, sir. Yeah. Yeah, it's the finest old number seven I've bought for you. I miss whiskey shows though. So Brown Forman doesn't really take part in whiskey shows anymore. There's a bit of a change of direction, but I do.
00:14:16
Speaker
I miss it. yeah I actually do. I miss like the Top Shelf Whiskey Show. It was a good one. When people are buying whiskey by the dram, it's great because they're invested a little bit. Like, I want to try that. And the American Whiskey Show was always fun too. It was a little bit more like relaxed. yeah It was much more relaxed. But, and oh, my favorite was Whiskey Live Canberra. Oh really? Because it's it's sort of like the brand ambassadors don't go out to Canberra very often but when they do everyone there is like brand ambassador, they get really pumped up and then they bring their wallets you know they're they're like this guy carried away like three Ben Ravs of Gwendronic and he was just like yeah yeah it it's not like they're in spending on the same but I feel like in Canberra that energy towards whiskey is just so
00:14:58
Speaker
It's so huge. There's some good whiskey bars on camera. Oh yeah. False Dead Repeal. Yeah, False Dead, yeah. Peacemaker as well, like the saloon vibes. Hippo and Co. What else? Molly. Yeah. ah yeah, they've got some great scenes going on down there. was about to say up there. Up there. Such a small community to Christian. Yeah, out there. up there where everything went Out there. it's head West.
00:15:23
Speaker
um Should we have a a dream? Yes, we should. I mean, we're in the Jack Daniels room, right? So, do you want start with the
Jack Daniels' Unique Processes
00:15:31
Speaker
Jack Daniels? I think that's smart. All right, well, let's start with something a little bit on the rare side. Okay.
00:15:38
Speaker
ah This is the Jack Daniels toasted heritage barrel, which is also a single barrel. 50% ABV, 100 proof. The difference with this one is that...
00:15:50
Speaker
Sorry. You're fine. The difference with this one is that it is the same specs of the barrel as every single drop of old number seven. and it goes into a barrel for four to seven years in a 20-minute toasted, 20-second charred white American oak virgin barrel. yeah And then after that journey, the product will come out And it will get put into a secondary barrel, virgin American oak, that's been toasted for 40 minutes and flash charred. The only thing I should say that it kind of rings a bit of a familiar bell with is the Woodford double oaks, which goes into a secondary barrel that's been heavily toasted and flash charred. Very similar process, but also um the second barrel is in Coy Hill. So we've gone like high elevation for the second part of maturation. yeah um And it's a beautiful navy blue bottle. But yes, pass it on if you haven't seen it before. The heritage barrels are... yeah Thank you.
00:16:44
Speaker
Honestly, some of my favorite stuff from Jack Daniels. They're pretty special. the The first rye that was released back in 2019 or 2020, that was one of the ryes that got me fully into rye. It hooked Yeah. You're ah you're a huge rye guy too. a massive rye. I see um a lot of the, well, obviously, you know, anyone that's watching or listening along, um Jacob's got an Instagram, lost a lane, and he takes the most fantastic photos of his drams and his cocktails at that he makes. and while But generally it's kind of rye-centric, what lot of it is. um It's part of the reason, apart from your fabulous personality and that the closeness of our relationship. so But yeah I wanted to have ah your perspective, because you're such a rye guy, I love having those dialogues on rye. And Jez, you like a bit of everything, but would you say you're more of a bourbon? Do you know what's funny?
00:17:28
Speaker
I've been leaning more into rye. I get older. yeah I think that's ah a thing too, when you get older you start to desire something that's got a bit more edge maybe. yeah yeah yeahp Same as like leaning more lower ABV now too, like those mid 50s is what's hitting much more. The sweet spot is 55 to 60 for me. yeah Where like the big ones, I used to be massive fan of like the big Staggs, the big GCs.
00:17:53
Speaker
Those big high 60s. The Booker's. The Booker's was the entry level, right? It showed a lot of American whiskey drinkers how high a proof could go and the fact that the flavor could still be sweet enough to kind of shield the edge of something that high. You weren't just getting that massive. Oh, cheers. Okay, cheers. And thank you. Cheers, guys. Welcome to BF Office.
00:18:11
Speaker
Well, you've been here a couple of times. Nah, it's your first time. Yeah, my first time, yeah. i guess Speaking of first whiskeys... What was your first whiskey? Oh. Look at that segue. All right, I know exactly what it is. i don't like this story, though. I mean, I like this story, but...
00:18:29
Speaker
i'm a I'm an adult now. I'm a different person to to who I was when I had my first whiskey. I we might have the same story. Okay, well, it won't be the same, I guarantee you. I was 18 years old, yeah legal drinking age. Okay, we're in different story. So, no. So I grew up in the Blue Mountains. and I was born in Tassie, but I grew up in the Blue Mountains. And um when I was 18, a couple of my friends got together, and we were still at that level where, know, I grew up in a Christian household, so a lot of the time it was kind of like...
00:18:54
Speaker
Not you weren't allowed to drink alcohol, but it wasn't heavily encouraged to go out and party and stuff, of course. So my friends and I would kind of be like, oh, mum, dad, we're going to a video night. And then we'd go to someone's house and we'd get a case or whatever. But this occasion, we couldn't get a case of beer. And i think we decided to get the cheapest bottle of bourbon that we could afford, which was a bottle of Old Crow. um Yeah. Funnily enough ties to early ah Woodford Reserve play, like not the brand Woodford Reserve, but, you know, Crow, James E. Crow, yeah one of the um the OG crew that kind of put it together. Anyway, old Crow and the only thing that myself and my two mates had um in our backpacks was a warm bottle of Sunkist. So it was old Crow and warm Sunkist. And I had maybe a quarter of the bottle and I vomited.
00:19:46
Speaker
I was drunk too. I think yeah i was intoxicated. um But we you know it was just me and two mates and it was the first first whiskey I ever drank. And sadly, it put me off bourbon as a category for yeah like at least a couple of years. That's so yeah common with people though. That is everyone's, not everyone's first story, but it like talking to people about whiskey and I guess doing the the shows, they're just like, yeah, i don't like bourbon.
00:20:14
Speaker
Yeah. this isn't that is And they just say, Jack Daniels, Jim Beam. Right. That's what they got lit up on. Quite commonplace for it to be Johnny Redd, Jack Daniels, Black Label, Jim Beam, White Label. The Js. Or Smirnoff. Or whether it was Ciara, you know. The base level of spirit, and I can say this, not just like Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, they're kind like the cornerstone of their brands, but a lot of the things that were available on regular pubs and bars back then were, you know, substandard kind of products. And so you're also young, so you don't know when to stop. Your aim is to kind of get intoxicated at least experience what it is. And then when you have too much and you get sick, you blame it on that alcohol and that can happen for your entire life. There are some people that had several shots of tequila at the bar, were sick as a result right later on and have still to this day, like 20 years on without any tequila because it was so traumatizing. It wasn't the tequila, it was... It was how much they had and probably the fact that it wasn't great product either. But yeah, that was my first experience. That was quite a long explanation of it. What about you?
00:21:27
Speaker
Mine, similar. Mine was a hip flask of Jim Beam. Okay. That was the first ever bourbon or whiskey I ever had. Was at a house party as well. And it was mixed with a can of currant because that's all I had. Okay. Because I had to smuggle these with me. That's not the worst combination I've heard of. No. Because that's what you But that was my first experience with whiskey ever.
00:21:48
Speaker
And it didn't put you off? you No. You were like, actually, this is pretty good? i've had a I've never had any of those can't go back to that alcohol experiences. Okay. That's great. Yeah. Moderation?
00:22:01
Speaker
or Or maybe just nolo not trauma. No trauma. Yeah, there's no trauma. That's good. That's very good. And like the diabetes, type 1 diabetic, so is type 1 the one where you... in yeah Insulin. his fault. Not my fault, yeah. Not So getting blackout is kind of a bit hard for me. Okay. Yeah. Okay.
00:22:21
Speaker
Understood. But that was my first experience with... Jeezy....beam and coke. Otherwise, alcohol in general, it was the old Smirnoff bladders. Remember like the Cranberry... Oh, like the Goon Sack? Yeah, the Goon Sack. I remember those, but they were more of a recent, obviously showing my age. Yeah, yeah. They weren't out and until what, like 10, 15 years ago 10 years? Yeah, it's a... 16 was, mean, 18 was the first thing. 20? Yeah. so like mid 2010 to 2020 is when think they started coming out. I don't know where I was. Smirnoff Bladder has a pretty bad ring to it as well. Yeah. As someone in high school that was a steal. Okay, like if you didn't want to go for the green bag at six dollars. Yeah, it's good for sharing too. Yeah, or is it?
00:23:07
Speaker
ah i thought but I think I had the saddest story then. fuck i so no. Yeah, that's it yeah it's ah before No, I won't. was close.
00:23:17
Speaker
um So over at a weekend at dad's place and um I think he just threw me like a can of, I think it was like Jack and Coke, Beam and Coke maybe.
00:23:30
Speaker
It's just like classic RZD. Okay. And then just, yeah, sat out at the front with him as he punched darts and drank that. ever since? Yeah, it's and yeah.
00:23:41
Speaker
Hooked ever since. Didn't speak to dad again, but that's all right. It wasn't because of the Jack Daniels and Coke. No, no, no. wasn't. It was 16. It was fine. It was fine. But yeah, it was like... So as an arttic your first drink was an RTD? pretty sure it was, yeah.
00:23:57
Speaker
Cold, at least? Yeah, was like fresh. Crisp. Yeah, crisp, yeah. It hit the spot. But once again, it was just all that sugar, right? there It is. I think that's why, you know, for that demographic of 18 to 25, the sugar of it disguises the majority of alcohol. And most most young people, when they're going out to a bar, yeah they want something where they're not going to get the biggest hit of alcohol. They want it to be softened. um I was the same way. i'd get like the I remember getting Johnny Walker Red and Cola in the white cans, and it became my favourite, because the less you know you're drinking alcohol, the better when you're young. yeah And I think that's changing now. No, my clause. Well, yeah, that's a classic example, seltzers. of yeah seltus ah
00:24:37
Speaker
Distract with with pineapple, with with mango, with whatever, because you don't want to taste booze when you're that young. i like with the why The buzz balls are coming in now. oh Yeah, I saw those. They are sweet as anything, and they are 50%.
00:24:52
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. So like that's a... On the wine tax, don't they? Yeah. Yeah, they're trying to sneak that puppy in. Bring the price down. Yeah. It's a niche to be ah to be taken
Jack Daniels Flavored Liqueurs – An Introduction to Whiskey?
00:25:00
Speaker
advantage of. Yeah. Well, speaking of niches to be taken advantage of, what about um Jack?
00:25:08
Speaker
What's his segue? Yeah, I was like... Please continue. I was like...
00:25:14
Speaker
I'm trying to be behaved here.
00:25:17
Speaker
The, like, I guess the introduction of the liqueurs into their... Jack Laqueurs. You mean speaking about the flavors? Yeah, the... The flavors or the RTDs? Sorry, the the flavors. So you mean like the um Tennessee Fire, Honey, Apple, and Blackberry, which is coming out very soon. About them as in like how are they key recruitment kind of... Well, kind of. So like...
00:25:45
Speaker
I guess we'll circle back and then I'll jump forward. um So like, I guess you want to disguise things as other things so people don't think it's whiskey, right? Yes. Just to try and introduce new customers. I think that's one side of it. The market, yeah that's how I saw it. Yeah. because That's one side of it and the other side is for people that want to explore flavours outside of just whiskey. But yeah both of those things are a key tool, right? If you've got, and we we all have friends that don't want to drink whiskey.
00:26:10
Speaker
Or it's like the word. We don't have those friends. No, but there are. yeah Whether it's partners, friends, or there'll be someone in your life that's close to you. no. We bring them in. No, no. No, no. Come, come, come. You're just like, drink, drink, drink. Friend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If it's...
00:26:25
Speaker
whiskey if it's a bottle of jack daniels no if it's a bottle of jack fire that's different i think you're right if it's a bottle of fireball the perception is more like for a either a party occasion or an occasion of celebration someone that doesn't normally drink whiskey you'll go oh this one's got a cinnamon flavor or this one's got an apple flavor you're far likely to recruit a new drinker than if you pull out a bottle of jack or a jim beam whatever it is because that to them is like burn strong yeah intimidating to non-whiskey drinker it's It's the same as shot of tequila. It doesn't have the same, oh, we're doing a shot of tequila. doesn't have that same noha to it like a non-whiskey drinker. My grandmother won't touch whiskey, but she's got a bottle of Jack Honey and she doesn't see that. good. She doesn't see that as whiskey.
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah. So I guess on that note, yeah ah the flavors are a really great tool of of recruitment. They recruit people into whiskey, but they're also a great tool of showing what else is available outside of the core you know family of brands. Yeah. So we'll try it we're gonna try the Blackberry, because we've got a little bit of it here. um But I think you're right, a big part of it is not so much a distraction, but it is showing people that there can be other flavors with the whiskey. They say things like, it's a whole it's a whole lot of Apple and a whole lot of Jack. Or it's like a little bit of Apple, but a whole lot of Jack. So in the core of it, it's still Jack Daniels, but it's enough that if someone that doesn't like whiskey, they'll still try and go, oh wait, that's just, yeah, apples, that's just happiness.
00:27:48
Speaker
um Then you throw in what you mix it with and then you've got a new customer. hundred percent Well, I have to pour it now. to i didn't want to like I didn't want to bring it up this early, but it was kind of like on the point of, I know, stop it.
00:28:00
Speaker
Well, it's not out in the Australian market yet, so you saw it here first, folks. and Any idea on when it is? Probably a couple of months. Okay. August, September. Stop it. And you're not supposed to have favourite children, but of the Jack family of flavours, it is it just impossible to say no to. Have you made any brambles with it Yes. yeah And that the best thing about it's just like, honestly, yeah yeah apart from like how nice it is to sip neat, it's a perfect way to stay current. Sorry.
00:28:32
Speaker
sorry Sorry. That's the best I've got, which is not much. um the The best thing about it, apart from how nice it is to sit and sip neat yeah um is the fact that you literally would put 15 mils of fresh lemon juice 45 mils of this. yeah And then soda, if you like it less sweet, yeah or lemonade if you want to sweeten it up even more. It's a cocktail just waiting to happen. So so that that'll be like the blackberry spritz.
00:28:56
Speaker
yeah um And then on the other side of that, instead of making a whiskey sour where you've got 45 mils of whiskey, 30 mils of linen juice, 15 mils of aquafaba or egg white, a couple of dashes of bitters, in substituting...
00:29:11
Speaker
The whiskey, you just put in 45ml of blackberry, shake it up as a whiskey sour and it's a whiskey bramble, whiskey bramble sour. It's just, it's a no brainer. It loves being in cocktails.
00:29:22
Speaker
Yeah, I can't wait for this to land. This is like a, it's a perfect, it's very good. It's so good. yeah Perfect unibar drink. Intro to cocktails, intro to just non-bottom shelf spirits.
00:29:36
Speaker
It is, and I think the whiskey, ah like the little whiskey spike that you get in there is enough that you know you're drinking whiskey, but it's not enough to put someone off that doesn't like whiskey. So it's a real perfect drink. um And it's sweet. It sweet. But for some reason in my mind, when I have it, I don't find it overwhelmingly sweet. It's... Nose is sweeter than a taster. Yeah.
00:29:58
Speaker
Yeah. The nose is very sweet. The palate, obviously sweet, but not... I think that's the same with all the Jack flavours, to be honest with you. With the um fire on the nose, it's like, but yeah you know, and then when you taste it, it's actually a bit more subtle.
00:30:10
Speaker
Honey, the same. Apple, you smell like was like you put your nose into like a full barrel of of freshly chopped apples. Then you taste it and it's a lot more subtle. I think the same with this.
00:30:23
Speaker
Rating out of 10? Oh, yeah. Do we really need to like, I love it. Yeah, 10, absolutely. What about the heritage? It's kind of fudgy, it's kind of fudgy, it's very chewy. it's like It's very soft, which is, it's like this gorgeous chock banana pudding. and The couple of people I've shown so far have brought out banana as one of the keynotes. It's not all Jack Daniels whiskeys that have banana.
00:30:47
Speaker
But the sour mashing obviously is the reason we get that bananary note. um For me, I just got like a really nice kind of creamy fudge. It wasn't a deep caramel. It was like a light kind of vanilla-y style. Yeah.
00:30:58
Speaker
Like it's a lot lighter than what you get from, most or softer than you get from most double oak style products. So you're not as oak influenced as you get like the Woodford Reserve and those ones. Yeah, exactly. I think that's much more approachable. But it's got a nuttiness as well. It's got like a little bit of like hazelnutty um nose nose. Yeah, good.
00:31:19
Speaker
I'm really enjoying this one. I'm really enjoying this one. the The contrast, big difference. You've got a main meal and a dessert. Yeah, that's it. That's it. A steak and then... Well, so now I told you I was going to do this earlier in our chat, but um some quickfire questions that I just love. um yeah The first one is...
00:31:41
Speaker
what if you could be one animal, what would it be? And actually we'll do that one first. Go this way. And then I've got a ah second one for you, which is I might as well tell you The second one's going to be if you could enter the room and one song is playing, what would it be?
00:31:56
Speaker
Okay. So the animal I... hadn't really thought about this, but like, as you mentioned it earlier, and I really should have been thinking about it, but um I was like, no, I've actually got get this podcast set up and i did hit, or did,
00:32:11
Speaker
oh did Something happened and the audio didn't want to work until 15 minutes ago, but um we should get it on the camera. You got it working? hope Hopes and prayers. um Yeah, no, so I think we missed like 45 minutes on the mic's audio, but I think the camera got it. So, hopes and prayers. Oh, really? Yeah, no, it wasn't. It wasn't recording the first part? Yeah, it was like, I looked over and then I was like, why is that not red? Then I was like, oh...
00:32:36
Speaker
Why is that not? I'm like, I hit the button. Okay. I was like, we've surely been talking for longer seven, eight minutes. Yeah. No. that Oh, no. No. So let's hope that camera's recording. Anyway, if not, this has been fun. ah search um Yeah, because that was my little filler. But... um I don't know maybe an otter.
00:32:57
Speaker
I feel like... Okay, I was going somewhere similar. going to be able seal. Ooh. Okay, explain the otter and then you can explain. Well, like, I feel like, um like me personally, and like, I'm pretty playful. I'm not, um like, nothing is really... There's no malice behind anything I really say. So I'm just like, I feel like I've got fun-loving personality.
00:33:17
Speaker
What I'm like, yeah, I could... Like water's fine. I'm not down the beach. Like every day I hate sand to the field. No thanks. It's my old secret. You're riddle-ed creek bird. But yeah. So what do you wear when you're walking down over the sand? Do you wear like thongs or do you... I don't go to the beach.
00:33:31
Speaker
Oh, but you like being near the water. Yeah, water's great. Oh, you like being in the water but you don't like sand. Yeah. ah So I'm like, get me a pool. I can do a pool. Yeah, okay. I'm like, ah yeah. Because like I guess growing up on the south coast yeah it was like we always had so many
Personality and Music Preferences
00:33:45
Speaker
beaches. It's a way of life kind of thing. yeah I'd never i never go I'm just like, but like, you know, we go around to my mates place and go swim in the pool. I'm like, yeah, you catch me in there for hours.
00:33:54
Speaker
Okay. But yeah, laps um be at otter. Otter would be the... What do otters do as well? they they Do they build their house out of like sticks and are they... They're beavers. Yeah, they're beavers. So what's the difference between a beaver and an otter, out of curiosity? One's Canadian.
00:34:11
Speaker
Okay, so one's more agreeable and apologizing. Yeah, that's the beaver. The other one's... The beaver is says. Beavers have the big tail. Beavers have the, they chew the wood to make the dams. They gnaw. Yeah, yeah. Otters live in lakes and streams. They use, they collect stones. They have favorite stones. Use them to cry on shells and stuff. fish rock They don't make dams?
00:34:29
Speaker
No. That's all beaver? Yeah. Yeah, I've just learned about what an otter I'm not hard working. That's a... Okay, so you picked an otter as well because they just chill out a bit. Yeah, it's just like... They just sunbake. Yeah, it's big seafood. Okay, otter. So they're kind of similar to a seal. in a way like... That's a choice. That's a choice. I always steal like... That's a choice.
00:34:51
Speaker
That's a choice. let' see I like the cold. okay Love cold water. okay Love the beach. Cold plunge is one of my favourite things to do at any water institution. Cool. okay um Obviously same as you, grew up south coast.
00:35:10
Speaker
surfed, bodyboard, surf club. It's part of all that, so enjoy the beach, haven't had as much time. And then... They're quite fast in the water too. They are. And then obviously seals, they're a bit fat. I'm getting a bit fat as I age. Thick skin though? Thick skin, we'll say, yeah. You dripped a bit of weight. You didn't go type 3 diabetes. One and two. The one that is your fault. One and two. Okay.
00:35:36
Speaker
but And they just, they've got like like otters, got that dog personality, but without being a- Right. They're quite affectionate. They're like companionship. That's it. Loyal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. What about you? What's your animal? I'm a gibbon. A gibbon. Yeah. That is also a choice. I can't. I often look, every time I ask this question, I also have to answer this question. And every time I answer this question, the type of ape changes. Because I do more research and I'm like, oh, why did I say chimpanzee? And I'm like, look at a chimpanzee. And I'm like, i don't have the big, you know, so then I kind of change a little bit.
00:36:08
Speaker
But I watched this clip the other day on Gibbons. And they're kind of like doing their thing. No, it was just an Instagram clip, but it was this beautiful. no it wasn't a Telstra ad, but it was this beautiful clip of the fact that they love hugging. As soon as they meet people, they they hu hey they hug. yeah They get a little bit jealous when other people get hugs as well, which is not me, but they're very affectionate. yeah Anyway, you watch them in a tree and they're swinging like absolute lunatics but with precision.
00:36:36
Speaker
And I think for me, a big part of my personality is like being a lover but also never taking anything too seriously. you see them messing around and they're just hilarious to watch. I can see that. So I'm not a serious animal. I'm not like an apex predator. I'm definitely like a support agent. I like to make other people feel good and I like to have a laugh. And if I could, I don't necessarily think I'd choose an animal that could fly, but would love one that can like swing around trees and get really high if I wanted to. Like falling fox or something. Just an animal that's comfortable going, elevating, and then getting up onto a building or a tree and looking. Yeah. So you don't have to be high, but you can live high you want That's well-thought-out answer. Yeah, give it. I was... What's the other one that I chose? A bonobo. A bonobo. Okay, yeah. And then I was in a presentation with the Brown Forman crew, actually, the marketing team, and I said...
00:37:30
Speaker
ah Bonobo and then there was one gentleman who's actually sitting in the room over there Mark Fisher is um He's one of... Would you like Mark? He's the dark spirits guy and he um takes care of like gin everything outside of Jack Daniels He's he's the senior brand manager for anyway great guy um And he said andy and i was like yep and he goes aren't Bonobos the naughty ones and I was like what? I was like what?
00:37:55
Speaker
oh And I said, no, I chose, you know, in my mind, I chose bonobos because they're female-led. You know, I've got it in a strong family of females. yeah and They also love to be around each other. yeah And then I was like, yeah, community. um Anyway, so Mark said they're the naughty ones because they have wild sex parties.
00:38:13
Speaker
like or They're the only animal that has orgy. That's something to bring up in a And they're very violent. So, anyway, I didn't know any of that, and now I've changed from bonobo to gibbon, because gibbons aren't like that all.
00:38:24
Speaker
So when you're doing the big matings, it's a gibbon, but you are when you're cutting loose with the boys, it's a bonobo. It's a bonobo.
00:38:35
Speaker
Oh! So your animal. Touche. Yeah, yeah, no. um But that's... Sorry, that's a really long-winded answer. But yeah, i' an I'm always an ape because I'm playful, I jump around, annoy people. If people are trying to get work done upstairs, I'm always like, hello. Creepy. What's going on?
00:38:51
Speaker
yeah I'm the i'm the the office kind of... Not class clown, but I'm the one in the office that's always like trying to make jokes and make people laugh and stuff. Yeah, bring it's a good place to be yes it's a good place Strong ape energy. Strong ape.
00:39:04
Speaker
Yes, all right, second question. um So yeah the context is you you're walking into a room. What song, it's either ah just a song that you really like or a song that you feel like you get you'd strut to, you enter the room, Jez is here. Yeah.
00:39:18
Speaker
What song? Well, I've had one song and it was... I think the song that I entered the room on my wedding day. Oh, oh I mean, that makes sense. Yeah, that was like, I guess, ah like we picked it, but obviously it did change now because like music changed taste, but that was um Everybody by the Backstreet Boys.
00:39:40
Speaker
Sorry, that is a not the answer I was expecting. I was not expecting that either. did no but I think I might have That's still such a strong song. Like it was... An interesting choice. um That's a good choice. Not the answer expected. Like I you know walked in seeing that.
00:39:59
Speaker
You sang it? Well, yeah, yeah. Which part? You had to some of the lyrics. Am I sexual? Actually, I... I don't have to that part and then they turn it off. That's it, that's it. That's enough, Jeremy. That was me growing as mother and all. Because it starts pretty strong, but with the acapella like, everybody. It starts strong. It does. But it's got such a killer beat as well. feels rude. The OG clip. There is no one from when it came out in the 90s to now, there is no one that doesn't know that banger. It's timeless. It is. That's the thing, like it just slapped. So backstreet's back, Jez walks in, that's pretty strong. I like it.
00:40:39
Speaker
It was... thoroughly rated it. Let me see if I've... Because I've got a photo of... Oh, do I have a photo? Is it you in a completely white suit, including a white tie?
00:40:52
Speaker
i Like in the video clip. I want it that way. it was one of their clips and they're all like near the white airplane. Oh my goodness. You are yum. Wow. um You are yum. There is still happiness in the eyes. yeah That's amazing. there's i love the I was born in the darkness.
00:41:11
Speaker
Black and grey. Forged bike. Great. Okay. Backstreet's back. Yeah. So that was... Strong. Yeah, it was childhood. um Love it. yeah Now, it's probably, I don't know, something by Nickelback. Like, I've just been really vibing my dad rock era. Okay.
00:41:27
Speaker
and Divorce dad rock era. Yeah, divorce dad rock era. That is Nickelback to a t yeah. what did that Look at this photograph. Which song? I'd probably go like something a little bit more upbeat, maybe like something from the newer album.
00:41:41
Speaker
You're going to have to write. This is like... not a big I'm not a big Nickelback. Really? Okay. No, no, no. No, no, no. you no But which which track?
00:41:52
Speaker
You'll have to sing a little bit for us. No, I am not good singer. That's a good song. Yes. It is definitely. But imagine you bursting through the door. They say that are heroes. Like the budget 2000s rom-com. That's what the guy was going sing. Spider-Man, wasn't it? Oh, really? yeah is It is.
00:42:13
Speaker
it It was actually made stronger by a Spider-Man, that song. yeah Like, that song awesome because of that scene. Because that was what, 2000s? Okay, so you got you got Nickelback and Backstreet Boys. That's yeah pretty strong answers. Two different answers. Two boy bands. Yeah, actually, that's very fair. Okay. All right.
00:42:29
Speaker
little bit of grunge, little bit of pop. Yeah. yeah I'm stuck on this one. Like, I'm not a big music listener. Well. To simplify it, it doesn't have to be like your favorite track in the world, maybe even a bit of a vibe. like Maybe you want to come into like grime with a bit of a da da, you know, like a bit of a rap or a bit, what I'm saying. It could be hip hop, it could be old school R&B. You can come into Usher doing like a circular moonwalk or, you know. Bring in some old Akon.
00:42:53
Speaker
Yeah, Convict. Or like, ah you know, Corky Pulchek, you know, bing bong, bing bong, bing, diddly, diddly. What is that? Borat. No? No.
00:43:04
Speaker
It was even your representation of it or your your recreation of it that I was like... What is that? There were pops and clicks. and it's so even okay what what'sson Who's an artist or a band that you'd really like?
00:43:17
Speaker
like i think I'm not a music person, which is weird. like
00:43:22
Speaker
There's got to be one. There's got to be one track. All right, okay. yeah ah Here's another one. you what You're going to Jez's wedding um and you know how they send you that email. Oh, what songs do you want to listen to? yeah watch You can only pick one. They're like, hey, we're going to fill a playlist of songs that our guests want to listen to. What's the song that you choose?
00:43:43
Speaker
Like you no one's judging you. No one's watching you. You're just punching it. It would be something from like high school time. So it'd be like Fall Out Boy or something of that regard. Just because it's a weird...
00:43:54
Speaker
Music people don't really listen to anymore. Yeah, like a bit of old school emo. Yeah, When it comes on, everyone's like, I know this thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's what's the four-light boy? What's their big... Oh, my chemical romance. Chemical romance, Blackfriars. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
00:44:10
Speaker
What's that? Ah, haven't you people ever heard of closing the goddamn door? Is that for me? That's Disco scene. Wow. It's a little bit younger than me. Like, you know my my emo era was a bit more like the used and AFI. Used? yeah Yes. Yeah, and I like at the drive-in, yeah like a bit more of that kind of punk garage, rocky kind of stuff. But that's good music. And also emo music has had a massive resurgence in the last five years or so. It's weird. So Panic at the Disco.
00:44:40
Speaker
i Fallout Boy, I can't even remember what their big... Sorry for kids now. that Your memories from Fallout Boy, you've got a whole bunch of stuff. Yeah. Okay. What about you? This changes almost every time I answer it.
00:44:53
Speaker
ah But at the moment...
00:44:59
Speaker
Okay. I think at the moment I'm going through a bit of ah like a Mötley Crüe, Van Halen. yeah um re I'm getting re-into the hair metal bands of like the 80s, early 90s. Big dad rock.
00:45:15
Speaker
Yeah, kind of, but you know where it was like all about like spandex and buckles and like teased blonde hair, eye makeup, like where it was all so ridiculous, but if you believed it enough you were the biggest rock star in the world kind of thing. Yeah, like Panther, yeah.
00:45:30
Speaker
Steel Panther. Well, yeah okay. So Steel Panther is getting into more of the modern era. They're almost like a piss take of, that you know, they're almost a parody. yeah But I think I will probably say Van Halen just because I'm so obsessed with like Eddie as a guitarist, but also like David Lee Roth. He's just that, that kind of a rock star. He was so unstable, but so cool at the same time. Um, I, I was reading this thing. oh Oh, what's his name? The spoken word. um Straight edge, real, like, solid jaw kind of dude. um Sorry. Henry Rollins. Okay. So Henry Rollins started Black Flag. yeah um Anyway, long story short, David Lee Roth is, like, this hair metal, kind of like the lead singer of Van Halen's, you know, a real rock star. yeah
00:46:15
Speaker
He came up and he came across Henry Rollins at this, I think they were at an event together, and Henry Rollins is a straight edge dude. He, like, seems like a big alco or whatever else. Yeah. but he's like, just straight edge, no drugs, no drink. And David Lee Roth rocked up wearing this- Sorry, but straight edge, haven't heard that since heist. It's a long, it's an old school kind of thing. The punk scene kind of like- You should see in punk or something. Yeah, here, right? Yeah, so that's the vibe. Anyway, so David Lee Roth rocks up wearing this big gold, like I think like a silver gown, like a huge thing. he goes, oh, Henry, you know,
00:46:48
Speaker
what are he up to? And Henry's like, oh, not much, man. What about you? And he opened up his um his coat and it was just beers. yeah And he just had all these beers. It was like beers, you know, like this. And he goes, oh, i want a beer. And Henry Owens is like, no, man, and I don't want a drink. And David Lee Roth goes, what do you got, school tomorrow?
00:47:09
Speaker
And this was on like a ah clip that I saw recently yeah and I'm just like, they were just so funny and so on and say, well, Henry Rollins is one of the coolest dudes, ever he's not touching booze and he just crossed paths with the wrong person at the wrong time. Especially being in that industry where alcohol is. ah I mean Van Halen, the bass player came in on ah and a gig they did in the 80s with ah two suspended wires and the bass was a bottle of old number seven. And so, yeah, Jack Daniels is like massively ah and a brand that they endorse. Like Tommy Lee was a huge fan. That's my true, sorry. But um they were all such huge fans of Jack that it's kind of like you got to, you know, you've got to kind of wonder how Jack kind of connects them all. But my answer for the question, sorry, if I can get back to it. it.
00:47:55
Speaker
is probably Jump or Panama. oh yeah You know what I mean? Or or even like Hot for Teacher, with the one that starts to the mad drum kind of solo. um I'd enter the room to that. At the moment, you've got to have big energy to match that. Same with Nickelback. You've got to have big energy. like If you come into Backstreet's back and you're like, hey, guys, what's You've got to own that scene. So, yeah, that's my question. Couldn't help notice your watch as you use the handwritten gestures. it was my um It was my birthday recently, and um and the team, including the advocacy team, the ACE team, like the content events team, yeah and the sales team, I think 11 people chucked in to get me this original green Jack
Unique Whiskey Memorabilia and Collections
00:48:34
Speaker
Daniels watch. It was awesome. made out of um repurposed Jack Daniels barrels that have been toasted and charred and it's insane.
00:48:41
Speaker
And they engraved on the back of it, Andy Chai, Jack Daniels brand ambassador. How did you not see this on socials? I did. I was using it an excuse to bring it up. yeah And I also got this. I got this yeah i saw that it was like that is in the last week. That is a fresh tattoo, the sevens. The sevens used. that The outline i got for free at a Barobar's 10th birthday. Really? They were like, Andy, you need to get down the back of the room right now. And I was like, why? and they're like, oh, there's a guy doing free tattoos. And I was like, okay. And they're like, you're the Jack and ambassador. He's got a Jack bottle. Yeah. So I went down there. It took the guy like five minutes. Oh, really? like there. Done it many times. Yeah, and then I just went in and I got some shading done and I got the seven done um at Tattoo Rosie's just up the road there. I went home and my girlfriend's like, you got a bottle of alcohol and now you've got more on the bottle of alcohol? And I'm like, yes. she She understands my obsession with dirt whiskey, but I had to get a Jack tattoo. I promised myself a year ago and the year was just coming in and I was like, go on, go and do it.
00:49:37
Speaker
Is Jack the reason you got into alcohol, like whiskey specifically or? No, I would love to say yes. I think I always knew that Jack was cool. always had a sense that it was rock and roll or iconic or whatever, but I didn't know why. yeah When Ray and I were sitting at the bar, like right across the road, at the yeah it was called KB Hotel back then, but it's now Keg and Brew. We'd sit there and we knew nothing about whiskey at all. Can't imagine Ray not knowing because he seems like... Both of us were in the same boat. We would sit there and we'd have like Reshes or, you know, but we we went through a stage of having Cooper's Green branch out. Yeah. And then we would have like all of the, sorry. No Cooper's red. We had the Cooper's red occasionally, but we, we were exploring a couple of craft options, yeah but our whiskey knowledge was nothing. It's nothing. So about 10 years ago, we would sit there and I think we had a um, a Brook Laddie, the classic Laddie, cause it was light blue. And I was like, that looks nice. And we got that and Ray was drinking Eagle Rare, which is where it all began for Ray, ah Eagle Rare. But both of us would always have a Jack and Coke. It was our drink when we finished the shift. We had Jack and Coke, we'd play a game of darts. And so Jack kind of was the beginning of us getting into whiskey, but Eagle Rare, I think for Ray is where he started stepping it up. yeah For me, it was probably the same. It was like Eagle Rare, moving into you know Jack Daniels Rye, finding out that there were other styles of whiskey. But then your spirits platform, like their products, like the classic Ladi, and then into the Octomor when I became a bit more unstable.
00:51:02
Speaker
That's where it all kind of kicked off. what a What about you? We've already talked about the first dram we had, but that was a bit like... Coincidentally, I got it into through Jack Daniels. by winning it at a hotel around the corner from here. The Aurora, just two streets over, one street over.
00:51:16
Speaker
Went in after an interview in the city 10 ago, 12 years ago twelve years ago now Jack and Coke. Nice. Gave me a thing to fill out to say go on the running. Eight months later, randomly package shows up at door saying... with Eight months? Yeah, eight months. We had a chat about this earlier, but um we're in the Brown Foreman office and I just need to issue a special apology for the fact that you won a competition with with Jack Daniels. could probably still find an email after. Eight months yeah later, you got the prize. Okay, so, I mean, we operate a bit faster now, but, you know, Different time, you weren't here, you weren't here. Seven and a half months at the minimum. That's the... Eight months is, you would have just completely forgotten that ever happened. I forgot it, which is a nice surprise. had idea why it rocked up. There was a piece of paper in there explaining what had happened. They forgot. And then an email paid.
00:52:03
Speaker
How much paper do you need for that? A sticky note the bottle, sorry we forgot, that was it. An email came a few days later explaining that it was, that the competition was forgotten about. okay And that is why I put it to it. I'm glad they followed through with it And also that started your collecting, right? so that's what all Before that, I was in wine.
00:52:22
Speaker
So I was buying wine mostly, drinking red wines mostly. Okay. And then from there, because of that, i was like, oh, buy some whiskeys because I've got whiskeys now. And that's what literally started me. That's cool. Going down that entire block. It's funny how something so small or so simple or even just a reward or a celebration can make you realize, wait a second, that was great and I want to do more of that.
00:52:44
Speaker
that's That's pretty cool. What about you? Yeah, mine's... I don't think I had minds up or have sad topics. I don't know. That's okay. It's my entire life. It's safe room. Thank you. Thank you. sucked. Very reassuring. um No, mine came off the back of my honeymoon, weirdly enough. Oh, really?
00:52:59
Speaker
And we were kind of hitting, oh, like I i guess by drinking whiskey, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to drink whiskey, I'll hit a couple of distilleries. And it was Jack. um I think it was the first distillery. so it was Jack as well. Okay. Yeah, so we drove down. That's weird. um Because we were like touring the US at the time. how old were you? I was, what, 23? Wow. Yeah.
00:53:22
Speaker
um So, yeah, we only had four distilleries on the list that we wanted to hit. um and it was the... um
00:53:35
Speaker
ah why is it Why is it gone? Stitzoella. Oh, yeah yeah. Wow. The Beam Distillery. Jack Daniels. Yeah, Jack. And there was another one I went to as well.
00:53:47
Speaker
um But anyway, the yeah, I got down to Jack. and being the first distillery we hit and just like watching the engagement between the tour guides and yeah the consumers and I'm like, it's incredible that they have such a large amount of love for this spirit and like what they do.
00:54:07
Speaker
and The passion of someone that works at a distillery. The BAs and the distillers make a massive difference in the outlook for brand. And if you get a bad brand ambassador or someone that's not passionate, it can literally taint your view of the whole business and the product. Oh, absolutely. That's the power of not being passionate or the non-power.
00:54:25
Speaker
Yeah, wow, okay, interesting. So at 23, I didn't know my left ear from my right ear. had no idea what I was drinking. But that's that's cool that you you were already on a pilgrimage. So you've been obsessed with whiskey for a very long time, since your early twenty s Yeah. Yeah, um I guess, yeah, like from there, it was just watching them open up like really special bottles for people and then I go, fuck it, I want to do that. um So then it was just like, yeah, that's what started it. Then it was just like, how cool. at scale And then, I don't know, come 550 bottles later and- Is that your collection? Oh, it's a little bit less now because they send like 90 odd to auction. What do you reckon you have now?
00:55:04
Speaker
Oh, what? 550 minus 90, whatever that is. So you still got over 400. Yeah, absolutely. don't know how many of you. I'd be maybe a bit more than that, yeah. Like I can't fit all of mine in my place at the moment. That's so funny because I think like, well obviously my partner looks at my collection goes, how could you possibly need all of those? And I'm like, don't, but there might be a time. Yeah, that's what it is. Someone will come over and there'll be this one. Yes, that is. There'll be this one. Yeah.
00:55:30
Speaker
You never know who's going to walk through that door. It's like you haven't had anyone over in a year. but no. You're always working. You don't have any time to have people over in your yard. You never know. That's true. I'm i'm planning a housewarming soon. So it'd it'd be cool for us to do one of those things soon. and I'd love to have you guys over.
00:55:46
Speaker
um But i think I think I'm at like maybe 150. That's pretty responsible. That's a good carefully everything is curly chosen and curated. And I see other people's you know collections and I always think, man, that's amazing I get so excited, no, but I get excited about it.
00:56:03
Speaker
For me, I'm very carefully chosen about what goes in there. But also, if there's, you know, a bottle left over from a event I did at West or whatever else, it kind of goes in. So there's a story to everything, including I've opened this for someone and then whatever else. So a lot of it is, you know, when you work for a brown formula or you work for a company, you have access to a couple of rare things that, you know, and I don't, I subscribe to, I subscribe to Raise Over Origin. Yeah.
00:56:27
Speaker
I think I picked up my, yeah, Whiskey Wayfarers. I picked up my Eagle Rare today. Oh, you did? I can't wait. But yeah, it's pretty cool that we're all in some way linked by the fact that we fell in love with whiskey at some point.
00:56:44
Speaker
I mean, Whiskeyfire is the name of model, right? Like, it's um it's a pretty weird thing to explain to someone that doesn't like whiskey, but I think more now than 20 years ago, there is so much more of a warm, like, inclusive community to it and people just getting pumped up about the same things. Like, the fact that all of us are really in into Rise at the moment, I think there's, like, no, no what what do you call this, no surprise, because we all kind of float the same waves of excitement with with products together.
00:57:12
Speaker
Probably good time for one of you guys if you want to, pull a whiskey up, because I've... Do you want to I've done two jacks if you want to... Well, I can bring up another jack. No, go yours. Yeah, go to your right first. It is to your right. Right. Hey, that sucks. Do not. this one has a little bit of a story to it.
00:57:34
Speaker
um i will bring it up on screen. It is a Whistlepig 10. So this was a pick done by Whiskey Hunt Australia. Okay. Okay.
00:57:46
Speaker
and Tell us a little bit about um Whiskey Hunt Australia first, we might as well. The Whiskey um Hunt bus pulled up here yeah and everyone came in. yup Brock is ah is a legend. Yeah, yeah so I guess Whiskey Hunt is a well I guess it's one guy, but it's also a team of people um that kind of pick barrels of whiskey, oh American whiskey for Australia.
00:58:08
Speaker
Say the first for Australia. so Brock, picking bourbon for Australia. Was he? i don't know if he was. The first barrel pick?
00:58:21
Speaker
Like that wasn't for bars. Because before then... That's an interesting call. I mean, i know that he did an old Forrester barrel with us before I think he did anything Yeah, because that was 2018. That was when i kind of came into it. Yeah, but he would have done picks before then. yeah I just don't know when he first started. now How interesting if he if he was one of the first. Before then, the only ones I remember were the Dan Murphys ones.
00:58:46
Speaker
Heinemann? Did they... that Yeah, and Vintage Cellars, but they were just... Sounds bad, but just generic, large-scale. was going to say, yeah, the makers by Shakers, yeah. Actually, no, that would be the makers stuff, yeah. But once again, that was done by a bunch of bartenders, yeah therefore for bar.
00:59:05
Speaker
Yeah, for bar. On-premise, yeah, for venues. Let's say he's what he wanted the first. and yeah Prove me wrong. That's really the... Yeah, okay. look Anyway, yeah it was really um really cool dude though. like he He's from the States, right? So he's he's kind of come over and he's really reinvigorated. Oh yeah, sure. He's um really um invigorated the idea of a single barrel and what a barrel pick means.
00:59:30
Speaker
um Which is pretty awesome. But Jez, I think you've worked with them too and you've worked um worked with the Whiskey List guys before. yeah i um I better pull myself stuff. um but It was funny, yeah, like last year um i had the...
00:59:43
Speaker
opportunity to go over with the crew and um i guess, yeah, pick Three, four barrels? You've got one behind me. I've got one behind me because it'd be fun to bring one. I've also worked with you on picking barrel of woodford. We've done a couple together, I think. We've done a couple, yeah. Actually, and we also did the Fire Brimstone one as well. Oh, yeah, the Jack Daniels pick.
Mystery Tasting Events and Whistlepig Memories
01:00:07
Speaker
That was cool. That was lot of fun there, yeah.
01:00:11
Speaker
I was also going to bring that because I was like, oh, and then I'm like too much Jack on the go. Well you probably also knew that I was going have like a... There's only so much you can do with a certain amount of time and you can't go through 50... Well you can actually. I beg to differ. I think we've been through like 16 barrel picks. Oh, when we did that Jack. Oh, we did. Yes, yes. We invited Annie back to the Extra Blessing. Yes, that was a fun day. I think we had 10 plus. There was 20 involved in that, but the last one, there was 8 or 10 when you were there. And they were all single barrel barrel strings. Single barrel barrel. And some barrel strings, yeah. like bringing oh she okay yeah so she was pouring them secretly then we were ranking them and talking about them without knowing was mystery tasting yeah and blind tasting thank you and um that was actually really fun
01:01:05
Speaker
Because the nuances that you get above 60% are harder to detect because yeah it is quite like, it's a lot of ethanol on your palate. so your palate gets tired twice as fast, if not more. So that was fun. It got a little bit silly towards the end. It did. Always does. The jokes got way sillier.
01:01:23
Speaker
So this is 17? 17? Yes. So the story of this, um, if I remember correctly, there was three samples sent to Australia, um, and how they send them is just a, um, consider it the same way you'd pick a, like Buffalo trace or something just being international, just send you a couple of, um, bottles. They're not labeled. And they go pick one, two or three.
01:01:49
Speaker
um and there you go We'll see to the barrel. So Brock picked... with a couple of the boys. um Once it got here, they gave him all the details and it was like, it's actually 17 years old, um which is why he named it the head honcho, riffing off the ah Boss Hog titling for their higher age um releases.
01:02:13
Speaker
What's the highest that they have? um I think it was like 17? So this is close to the highest age statement they have. We do have all the ones, but they're not ryes. They're whiskeys. Canadian or not not North American, right? Canada. Well, not anymore. well They are now from North America. At this time, it was... Vermont. I had Vermont in my mind. yeah okay But yeah
Creative Whiskey Branding and Jousting Side-track
01:02:37
Speaker
they were coming from Alberta.
01:02:40
Speaker
No. yeah and so Apparently there's a meeting in this room. We'll find that out pretty quickly. We'll have to relocate. well be it So this came from our Alberta Premium. So okay big, massive distillery in Canada. And at the time, Whistlepique was sourced from them.
01:02:59
Speaker
That obviously was aged in Vermont. Oh, that is ju delicious. That goes behind, cheers gents, the age of it. Wow, thank you for sharing. this i know the oh It's lovely.
01:03:12
Speaker
I feel like this is kind of bringing memories back for me with Whistlepig of having the boss hog, I think. And when I was back at Webster's, Ray and Kathy got this for one of my birthdays and I still remember the little medallion, yeah the the metal kind of pig that was on top and it was so big and so punchy and so chewy and herbal, but there was this real, ah like, I guess the Americans would call it a table syrup. It's not maple syrup, but it's kind of similar to maple syrup in that it's got that kind of gold, almost got like a golden syrup. yeah full of it. Like this is full of that plus the herbal flavour. They just kind of blend in so perfectly. It's got like dill notes. Dill! Yeah, yeah, yeah. What whiskey has dill? That's crazy. I love Whistlepick Rise, like the older stuff. Yeah.
01:03:58
Speaker
Yeah, just... Oh, dill is such a strong call out. It's... Yeah, it's delicious. And dill's divisive herb. It works so well. It's kind of like coriander. like it's like It can be soapy to some and to others it can be really pleasant.
01:04:14
Speaker
yeah it's just That's wonderful. supervis Super facial. What's ABV's 50 something is it? I think it feels, if it drinks like it's- 108.50. Yeah, 108.2.
01:04:24
Speaker
54.2, so it is gorgeous. i Yeah, as soon as I tried it, I'm like, yeah, I need multiple bottles. and So it says 10 year on the front, but it's- Yeah. yeah So all of them are 10 years, yeah. Yeah, so all the single barrels, because they're all like advertised as like a 10 year old barrel pick. But one clearly misses detail. um They're all advertised as 10-year-old barrel pick, once you get the barrel, they're like, here's the details. They're at least 10 years.
01:04:49
Speaker
Okay. So there's two figures. The 10-year picks and the 12-year picks. 12-year picks are all finished. The 10-year picks are just traditional. Oh, I love the labeling, how they put the Whiskey Hunt Australia on there. It actually looks like part of the real. It fits the color. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like that would be beautiful. Yeah, that's, I guess, their branding and then, like, pick stickers on the back. But, yeah, really. that's gorgeous. Pick stickers still haven't really taken off in Australia. No. Well, we don't have enough picks to get pick stickers. Yeah, that's Pick stickers. Yeah.
01:05:20
Speaker
Yeah. Barrel pick stickers. Yeah. Well, you know, the Jack ones that have the medallion, like, they're kind of, they're bling bling around the neck. They're pretty cool. You mean like these ones? Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Segway, there we go. Yeah. um Yeah, i mean that's the cool thing about the Jack Daniels ones is that the neck tag. yeah But um i think I think stickers is an awesome way, like if it's a sticker or a certain type of label, it makes it more like a collaboration that's part of the actual you know packaging. yeah Whereas this is something that's like um obviously quite unique, but it's different. Just different. Far too many of those.
01:05:55
Speaker
No such thing. No such thing. I was like, what do you do with them though? Because like I finished a... You can make a super necklace. Hey. Just chain them all together. Chain them together. A belt. Yeah. Chainmail. Chainmail. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:06:09
Speaker
Tennessee chainmail. Not bad. Surely someone's... up Like you've got the guys that do the Crown Royal suits. Surely someone's going to do one of the... A Jack Daniels neck tag suit. Yeah. That'd be heavy.
01:06:21
Speaker
that It's all that look. It's worth it. Yeah, chainmail is not meant to be light, though. No, it's meant to stop. Jousting. ah Funny you mention that because I was at a red hours at at Ren fair and I learned a little bit about jousting. Hey, okay.
01:06:40
Speaker
It's not about the armour, even though they wear it because... Oh, the armour is to protect them from being killed. Of course, but they have a shield that's like bent like this. And you're supposed to strike that. You're not supposed to strike the person. In fact, if you strike the person, you immediately lose. yeah you have it The points that you gain are from um breaking your lance um in or your jousting stick, when it's whatever it's called.
01:07:03
Speaker
If it breaks, you get a certain amount of points. If it shatters, you get even more points. but you have to land it on that single part here. So the whole thing with jousting is you're an honorable knight or an honorable lady, and you have to present the most clear form of this target. If you don't, for example, if you move or if you dodge or whatever, it's considered dishonorable. The whole idea is that you allow them to land the hit and you try to land your hit. There are obviously accidents with that because it can glance off the thing and it can go somewhere else, but the whole thing is to hit that target. idea that. Yeah, it's interesting. Watching it live, which I didn't think I would be able to in 2026. Where was this? This was at Doonside. I know. We went down to Doonside and the Ren Fair and we all dressed up. It was an awesome day.
01:07:54
Speaker
But yeah, that we we we had, there were three ladies and one sir. So there yeah, three three female jousters and one male. It was awesome. It was so cool to watch. But um yeah, that's that's a sidetrack for you. But yeah, that's the whole thing with with with jousting. You have to hit that target. You can't hit anywhere else. Otherwise you don't. I did not know that. Okay. Your aim is not to hit the person. Yeah.
01:08:15
Speaker
It's to hit the tiger. Just consider that like a dartboard. Like they have this they have to score by hitting the... Okay, okay. Yeah. Anyway, I didn't know. so Yeah, that Crazy. It's... um Highly recommend the Ren Fair to anyone that's... To any weary travellers. It is in Doonside, but you know, you drive out there and it's... Is it a big event? A huge... Thousands of people. Really? It was packed. Yeah, it cool. I how many people would be LARPing down there as well.
01:08:43
Speaker
LARPing? Live action roleplay. oh heaps. Sorry, I i i literally learnt that at the ready. Oh yeah, medieval reenactment. Oh yeah, they're doing it. Oh really? Yeah, they're doing it. yeah Not with metal. They don't use metal um weapons. They use like... was a Foam. It's a type of like hard foam that they use. yeah yeah Yeah. If you're into that kind of thing. yeah I watch role models, so it was kind of funny. All I could think was, you know...
01:09:10
Speaker
All I'm thinking about is
Whiskey Age Statements and Tennessee Squires Tradition
01:09:11
Speaker
tomorrow, you know, like i was thinking of that whole thing, which, you know, but it was great. We had a great time. When's the next one? Very soon. Oh, no way. It's very, there's one called a winter or something coming off Oh, I know.
01:09:25
Speaker
Give me a second. I have got it. I've got it and but yet this is this is amazing. Thank you for sharing. It's lovely. It's delicious. um And once again, like it goes back to us having so many bottles that we're like, this is going to be perfect for this opportunity.
01:09:40
Speaker
And it was funny, like just standing there today going, I wonder what I'll bring because I brought like three bags of just absolute junk. And i was like, what am I going to be able to fit in my bag? And then just saw this bottle poking out from the top and I go it's flat. It can slide right in. like I can't find. it no I'll get it for you later. Sorry, it's distracting me. No, that's okay. um But yeah, I was just like, yeah, perfect. Haven't had it in a while. i was worried it was going to go flat, but it's still... It's still... It's so full-bodied.
01:10:09
Speaker
but What a sweet spot of ABV, too. Yeah. 108. And once again, it just goes back to what you said earlier, like, you know, leaning into those lower ABVs. It's easy to sip. Don't get twisted. I'll still sip on a 60, but... um Yeah, it was like this just hits, but I guess, do you guys have a special proof point that you love?
01:10:29
Speaker
Yeah. For me, it's 110. 110 and up to think if it's to That's kind of my sweet spot. So really just around the single barrel barrel strength. yeah But I'm not always up for that. I quite like, you know, something like the Jack Daniels 10-year, for example, it's 48.5. And when you're that close to 50, it's a really nice point to get full flavour without that massive punch of ABV. But I think, yeah, let's say 55 is just... right Yeah, I'm saying that 55 range is much more approachable now. Like the 53 to 58 range, there's so many good...
01:11:10
Speaker
limited edition bottles that come in that range that just don't blow your socks off. Like the 14 year at 58, incredible. It's one of the best whiskies I've ever tasted, man. It changes frequently on your tongue. Like the Jack Daniels 14, there's just so little of it around. One of my Tennessee Squire friends, Nathan, gave me a taste of it. yeah But it just, as soon as it hits your palate, it's like kind of that grassy-ish, you know, then it's sweet and then it's like cardamom, then it's like tobacco spice, then it's like dark chocolate. It just keeps, it's like the Willy Wonka, yeah you know, dessert. Yeah, it's like an everlasting gobstopper, but in a good way, not in a distracting way where it's like, oh, yum, oh, yum, oh. And it's intriguing.
01:11:53
Speaker
and i love that when I promise you that when I have a 14, if and when I have a 14, we'll gather and we'll do a bit of a 10, 12, know. It'll be so cool. Yeah, we'll have to do that. With the LAs, will Jack ever do Rise in those age states? ah I mean, never say never. I haven't asked the question. I haven't asked that question. We had a virtual with Chris Fletcher and, you I'm asking Stella recently and um we didn't really ask as much as, you know, we could have yeah about what's in the pipeline. yeah But I did let him know that everyone in Australia...
01:12:28
Speaker
is just that we want the single barrel barrel proof um and we want the rye. because And because everyone is just, it's a hot topic at the moment. yeah So were we're asking the question, but I haven't asked the age statement. Because they are leaning into ryes more than they ever have. Yes. And is that a Chris initiative? I think it's a Chris thing. yeah But I also think that it's just talked about so heavily, not just in our market, but in the United States and and our other, you know, partnered markets.
01:12:53
Speaker
I think it's just coming to light that people are really after Rye. And Rye's growing as a category, so I think it's a no-brainer. I don't know whether age statements will go that direction. Yeah, that's fair. But definitely there'll be more of these coming. And that's, just want them to come here. Yeah, at the moment the goal is just to have them here without people having to import them. yeah So we're we're already starting to um put out EDMs and and notifications to our Tennessee Squires. yeah um So maybe you guys will have to get nominated as Squires. But we're starting to announce to our community yeah the rare stuff that's coming out.
01:13:25
Speaker
awesome It's the beginning of us getting more of the rare jacks in. um So hopefully when you know when we do get um the Heritage Barrel, when we do get the Coyhill, when we do get the 10, the 12, the 14, we'll start to network with the Tennessee Squires first and then kind of go out from there. It's my way of bribing you to nominating you as a squire. What's a squire here? It started in 1954. It was a period where Frank Sinatra had gone up on stage and said Nectar of the Gods, quadrupling our size. But at the same time, people were coming back from World War II and they were training on on Motlow land so they wanted their last taste of of you know freedom, which was was Jack Daniels. yeah
01:14:04
Speaker
So that sent us up and then Frank Sinatra came on board and both of them put us into complete allocation. were in trouble. because We couldn't keep up with the demand. So the Tennessee Squires... Allocation is wild. It is wild. And I mean, it was a different time for the world because everyone was drinking gin and vodka yeah and dark spirits were were going down. But then the 50s were this crazy resurgence of going from Cosmos, Manhattan, all the rest of it into whiskey, but mainly because really cool people were saying it was really good and it kind of took off a new life and the American military coming back. buying up everything that they could kind of put us in that situation. um
01:14:42
Speaker
But that was the beginning of Jack Daniels going, How can we make sure that we're getting Jack Daniels to the right people like that and that want it, but more importantly, that deserve appreciate it yeah and appreciate it. So we made the Tennessee Squires Foundation. It was started off that the Jack Daniel Distillery would nominate people that were loyal customers. yeah Those loyal customers would nominate other loyal customers and the network would grow outwards, but they wouldn't just be a fan of Jack. They had to be...
01:15:11
Speaker
excuse me, there had to be an upstanding member of the community, they had to give back to the community, and they had to be the kind of person that was known for their honesty and good morals. yeah So, if you were those things and you loved Jack, so you can forget about it. Yeah, it's...
01:15:25
Speaker
don't comma yeah let's go let's go yeah So basically if you're nominated it's not just Jez is a massive whiskey fan. It's like no Jez is a good good guy. he talks about whiskey all the time. no no, no. He likes Jack Daniels. No, good guy. Talking about whiskey, yes. Good guy. Community. He does a lot for you. You sit the community.
01:15:45
Speaker
you see the community If you think about it though, you give back though. You give back your creativity, you give back yourself. You guys both speak passionately about whisky and you share. Whenever you can, you share. This is an example yeah of that. Anyway, long story short, that's how the Squires started. And now you can only become a Squire if you're nominated by another Squire.
01:16:03
Speaker
The letter goes off, or now it's email. Yeah. um But it goes off to our distillery and the distillery contemplates the application or nomination I should say. yeah And then they will say, yes, we accept your nomination. They'll send an email to the new Squire saying, hey, congratulations Squire, here is your number. They'll get a a unique number and they'll get a little plot of land in Lynchburg, which is, you know, square inch. so A square inch, wow. Yeah, but it's essentially, they're a lord of Lynchburg, you know, they're a property owner, they're part of the family, and this has been the case since 1954, and if you're a squire, you'll get um a birthday letter once a year, but you'll also be invited to community things depending on the country. Mm. Like depending on how the country sets itself up. So my my literal job and goal right now is to work more with the Jack team to be more community minded. So I'll get the Squires here, I'll get the Squires there. We're doing a barrel pick with the Squires in August. That's awesome.
01:16:53
Speaker
Which is the first of its kind. um But more important than anything else, It is a way of us keeping our ear to the ground and honouring the people that speak about our brands every day. These are the guys that will show you their 500, their 500 collection, and they'll they'll have like a bathroom dressed up like Jack Daniels. They'll have all of these things that are you know that they'll want to show you. They're super fans. Yeah, all the guys from Old Barrel House, they are both squires. Davey and Ross are the absolute, like, iniquity. And they are willing to share, they are willing to talk, they give you the time. Exactly.
01:17:26
Speaker
They
Whiskey Enthusiasm and Public Speaking Confidence
01:17:26
Speaker
go through the history, yeah they go through Lem, they go through everyone. Yeah, I mean, the cool thing about this Squires event that we're doing in August is Davey from Old Barrel House, Ray, we're calling him the youngest Squire because he just became one. And then we've got this gentleman called Arthur Birch who has been a squire for 52 years. 1972 or I think it was. yeah um And so I'm going to start with Ray yeah talking about who's just become a squire and he'll talk about Oak and Orange and Whiskey Bay. fair Then we'll have Davey talking about Old Barrel House and talking about the lore of Jack Daniels as in L-O-R-E. And then finally we'll finish with um Arthur Birch who will talk about what the Jack Daniels landscape was like in the 70s. So, and then we'll do a barrel pick with the Squires. So it's going to be our first Squires community event. That is exciting. and it I'm glad that you're at the helm of this, right? Because... It's a personal project for me, yeah. yeah like I just feel like we haven't done what we could yeah have done for the Squires, but we need... I'm a BA.
01:18:24
Speaker
And that's great to be a brand ambassador, but our bret we have brand ambassadors out there every day. yeah And we need to you know honor that. We need to thank them for that because they you know they do what we do, but they do it ah like another way. yeah Like they'll shop to the pub and they'll just like be wearing jack, jack, jack. They'll have a hat on and they'll get a jacket coat. They'll get a runner jack and they'll talk about the product. In fact, their energy is such that nominations become kind of almost...
01:18:50
Speaker
heavily sought after by their friends because their friends will see, man, this person's like, loves it. And it's infectious. you know Yeah. Anyway, long story to a short question. A long answer to a short question. A great answer, though. But with the barrel pick, is that yeah just for the Squires? It's just for the Squires at the moment. yeah um I'll just have to see if we can get you guys nominated so you can be part of it.
01:19:12
Speaker
but yeah look I won't say no, but i don't know. It'll be Squires community thing, but it's not going to be an exclusive event. Like, where there'll be other opportunities for us to do barrel picks with large groups and or small groups. It'll be good to see more barrel picks come in. Again, yeah but I'm a massive fan of them. I mean, Whiskey Club has just done one. I was talking to Seamus just earlier today. were talking to Seamus earlier, actually. it was A lord. What a lord. Yes. Such a legend. Like, he called me and he was letting me know that he's in Sydney soon and um straight away I went into talk talking about you and he's like, I've got to go. And I'm like, you know you know you know how you just, you're like, oh, i miss you and you you start talking to someone like you haven't for ages and you want to get into it and I could tell that he was super busy and he was just like, I'd love to do this, but... I'm going to have to wait. You'll have to wait.
01:19:57
Speaker
ah Anyway. Yeah, cool. um Thank you for sharing. Delicious. No, you're so welcome. Like... ah circle back to it it's just like we have the ability to share good whiskey because like you're just buying it for so long and he's like Jacob was buying whiskey when Pappy wasn't even cool That's a pretty cool thing to be able to say because it really took off. Yeah.
01:20:21
Speaker
And like you've just... But that energy is shared by people that like really love it, right? And and movements are made by people that just love something yeah and just talk about it. Yeah. Happy. Wow. What a what wave that was, right? Same with Ray with his big res. Yeah.
01:20:36
Speaker
Yeah, he's 17s that he used to drink on a Friday night because that hundred dollars. think there there was one point when we were working at KB and we were going through three bottles of um Eagle Red a week and he's like, oh, geez, look that. he goes, oh, that's me.
01:20:51
Speaker
But again, like it was just a different time. He's like, oh wow, this is really moving. yeah You know, like he I think he was living upstairs. He was, as the licensee, he was living upstairs for a little while. And it it wasn't like crazy nights of full-on drinking. it was just like that was his go-to.
01:21:06
Speaker
And you know, it was probably the same with the Jack Daniels thing. You know, like it was probably like three or four bottles you or whatever. yeah Because he and i every time we finished a shift, we'd have a drink together, we'd go to the gym together almost every day. We were like swole at one point. Because all we were doing is going to the gym and working out and then having drinks at the bar, yeah playing darts, we were like, we were built. Great darts. Yeah, we were so strong that the darts broke the board.
01:21:32
Speaker
But yeah, that's, that that they were the glory days. And and the Eagle Rare 10 moved him onto the 17 and then onto big things. yeah And in the same way for me, i just felt like that that was just six years of just falling in love. Like at a SISBAR just going, what is this world? Meeting all these amazing brand ambassadors that were just inspiring to me, you know, like G and Manu from Serbico and like all these amazing um brand ambassadors were coming through the door. Ross Blaney, James Bunton, like... you know, Katie and Nagar, all these like legends were coming in and just inspiring me to it. I hated public speaking though. so That's something... Can you imagine that? like they Back in the day... I've never seen someone more comfortable in front of a crowd. than you You forget the early days in ze and Webster's because I would be like,
01:22:18
Speaker
I'm going to present the brand ambassador for the Balvenie, Ross Blaney, and and then I'd just give it over and I'd be like, oh, thank God. You know, and I'd go and sit down. You wouldn't know that, but Ray knows that early on I hated it so much. But I just see it where i wanted it. I wanted it, so I just kept like...
01:22:34
Speaker
flexxi yeah I guess it'd go from like you doing the thing to like you, well, like you going to like public speak to now it's like, well, you've a room full your friends. So it's an entirely different thing because it's the same faces. Totally. Yeah. You've created relationships. It's a perfect place to practice is when you're just with your mates having a chat. Like a podcast should be no different. yeah You're sitting with, you know, two people that share your passion. But if this was a room of 50, I'd be speaking in a pretty similar way. I'd just be standing up. yeah yeah you know and And I think once you realise that in public speaking, you become a good public speaker. yeah Don't talk to them differently as if you were talking to ah a couple of people sitting next to you. Because the passion I would share with you, is the same right just had to it's like it's like in theatre where they put makeup on the person, but it's only so their features are more visible to a big room. yeah So you're still doing exactly the same thing, but you'll be amplified and you'll have makeup on. I didn't wear makeup I could show you.
01:23:26
Speaker
I was in musical theater for a while. Oh, well, you really? I was in musical theater for a couple of years back then. Well, Mrs Doubtfire is coming to Sydney, so you... I could play the role of Pierce Brosnan. Hey! You definitely could. You definitely could. You'd suck on it. Oh dear! Isn't that kind of like that Irish accent? Was it an Irish accent that Robin Williams put on when he was playing that? I feel like it was. Scottish, Irish? Oh, you've done yourself a mischief. It was kind of like that weird... What was that? I don't know, man. I took a risk. I reached out into the dark and that's what I found. That's... I'm all about it.
01:24:00
Speaker
I did not know you were into ah musical theatre. Oh, yeah. it was It was a period. I played Gideon, who's the youngest of Seven Brothers and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, ah which is a Gilbert and Sullivan. I was and i was in a Mikado, which is like ah it's about a feudal japanese will meant feudal Japan. yeah um It's a lot of prancing around on stage. and i played ah a character called Titwillow, which was a bird.
01:24:27
Speaker
It was lots of fans yeah and lots of, um what do you call them? What do you call the things that you tie off and you wear? Oh, no. Okay. yeah Lots of kimonos. um Anyway, i did I did my time. in vichitta What's helped you in the long run? It has because I think as well, if you're prepared to get up on stage, it means that you've got, I guess, what it takes. yeah to be a performer, whatever shape that took. i was always I was always in bands, I was always like singing and stuff, but I felt like I was in character and you can kind of you don't have to be your personal self. When you have to be your personal self, it's a bit more terrifying. yeah
01:25:00
Speaker
And that's why the but the brand ambassador thing scared me because I'm not playing a character, I'm me. You're playing Andy. Playing me. yeah yeah And if people don't like it hurts. Whereas if I'm playing like a Japanese feudal character with white um paint and the hair and the kimono, it doesn't matter if people don't like me because after the show they'll have no idea who I am. But now it's like, no, I'm just still that dude that ran that event and if you don't like me, it's me.
01:25:25
Speaker
But
Podcast Setup and Whiskey Chemistry
01:25:25
Speaker
yeah, it's a lot of fun. i don't think anyone has ever said anything bad about you after a show, so everyone's liking you. No, no, it's, um yeah, I won't say anything bad after this. ah We're still... we yeah we we I mean, we're a little bit over time. Yeah, that's right. ah you um We can wrap it up. Yeah.
01:25:44
Speaker
Do you want to... do what Should we do a quick jam of the GOC? Yeah, why not? And then but we can probably still drive after that. Give it a call. Thank you, sir. But yeah, we did set two to four, didn't we? We did.
01:25:58
Speaker
But Jez was, oh, that's probably a bit, can i halve mine with you? Just oh yeah for the driving element. Well, you actually, oh, right. Yeah, well, ah you didn't? I Ubered. I trained, yeah. Oh, man. Well, are you training it back? Yeah.
01:26:12
Speaker
This is probably a chat for after you turn off the camera. That's all right, what are you doing like? If you need a lift, I can give you a lift. No, that's okay, I'll Uber back. It's got all the gear though. Yeah, that's why I Ubered here. I'm only a couple of stops from Central. I think Jack Daniels can get your Uber home. does that sound?
01:26:29
Speaker
No need. No need. I got plenty of money. You're like, I am loaded. I am loaded. you normally see the podcast equipment? Okay, I have For everyone watching at home, the setup that Jez brought in today is absolutely ludicrous. Like, the clamps, the amazing microphones, all Rode. He's got this beautiful, colourful mixing board. From Rode. It's all Rode gear.
01:26:54
Speaker
Yeah. All roads lead to Jez. Allegedly. Sorry. I guess we... Again. Finish off on this one and... um So, yeah. Finish off on Josie. Josie, so this... We've been talking about Barrel. So, Josie's one of the big pickers out in California. ah Altadina, Altadina. Oh, Altadina. Altadina, yeah. He had a...
01:27:18
Speaker
Bottle shop called Everson Royce that's since been re rebranded. um This was one ah is yes one of the first um Jack Daniels Rise barrel-proof picks that came out of States.
01:27:31
Speaker
There was five of them selected, he was one of them. And obviously- Goodness me. This came out, what was it, 22, 23? 23, August It's just lovely. The Yeah, yeah. I just gave it one little swing around the glass and it's just so viscous. It is massive banana bread.
01:27:51
Speaker
And then- like green banana as well on the back. Yeah. It's not that that overripe banana banana bread that you get from a lot of, particularly the old No. 7. It's like an old banana skin. It's like a really like aged banana bread. This is bright banana. Yeah, it's like a green banana bread.
01:28:09
Speaker
Have i already gone into the nerdy thing about why bananas? No, you haven't. No. I'll make it quick. Yeah. no No. We don't want to keep you too long. yeah All right. So Chris Fletcher's background is in chemistry. And and he's ah obviously very, very passionate about bringing chemistry into his um distillation yeah and the way that the team goes about building flavor. So in 2022, we did the event at Bella Vista where we had him and it was called Tales from Lynchburg. And I was interviewing him and talking about...
01:28:35
Speaker
Great event, by the way. It it was so much fun. and And we wanted to make it really real and really human. And I didn't want it to feel like it's a master distiller event where they just talk about the nuance. I really wanted to get to know him a little bit and the crowd as well. I think we had over 100 people there. yeah know was um Sold that event. just It was great. it was And...
01:28:52
Speaker
One of the things, selfishly, at the end of the event, we talked about all these different things. One of the Tennessee Squires brought out a bottle of 12-year, opened it for Chris, which is such a yeah generous thing to give to the master distiller who made it. yeah um But it was full of these heartfelt moments. But at the end, um I'd asked all the questions. They were coming in live to add to an iPad that I had. It was really cool. Like, it was really well run. And then I was finished the questions, and I was like, oh, okay, well...
01:29:19
Speaker
Here's a selfish one from me. People always talk about the fact that Jack Daniels smells and tastes like bananas. Can you tell me more about that or why? um And straight away, he said, oh, well, you know, Andy, my my background is in chemistry, so I can tell you exactly why that is. And he said, we do sour mashing. So, you know, 20% of the backset, and the the leftover you know part of the of the fermentation gets put back into the next kind of like a sourdough starter.
01:29:45
Speaker
keeps consistency, keeps funk, and it builds all those kind of esters, fruits, flavors um coming back in. yeah But because of the sour mashing that we do, and you'll find this with a lot of bourbons, a lot of American whiskeys, is that sour mashing will bring forward this one single little compound called isoamyl acetate. And isoamyl acetate is the exact compound of banana. But it's kind of like...
01:30:08
Speaker
It's like a big candy banana, like a big, big foam banana smell. yeah And he said that when that enters the conversation at Jack Daniels, it's encouraged because that part of the sour mashing brings that in, but it's become such a, ah you know, number one, a fundamental, beautiful flavour of bourbon and Tennessee whiskey is banana. But two, when you're putting it with Coke...
01:30:30
Speaker
banana and coke are the most unlikely and beautiful pairing that you can have if you've ever had this you might not have had this before but a um a spider yeah you can have like a banana ice cream spider with jack daniels oh man i've actually never done that but it also it also speaks to the fact that isoamyl acetate and you know the flavors of coca-cola yeah um that that kind of like syrupy colary kind of bubbliness with banana is just It's delicious. um And I don't think the reason was ever Coke because, you know, Jack Daniels never worked with Coca-Cola back in the day. But it's this amazing compound. And banana has been with us since 1866, right? look It's a flavour that came with the cell mashing. So, um yeah, that's the really nerdy reason that you'll smell and taste banana, isoamyl acetate.
01:31:21
Speaker
And I'm so glad i asked him and now i tell everyone at every single event, hey guys, I'm not gonna get nerdy, but here's something really nerdy. And I'll tell them about isoamyl acetate.
01:31:33
Speaker
Is that the same reason that you get the banana and starwood then as well? they don't do a sour mashing with Really good question. I think, yeah, that's a great one to ask Carmen. She would beat that up because she's so into the chemistry of distillation. um I can't, yeah, I wouldn't be able to tell you, but they don't do sour mashing or do do they do any form of it in their fermentation cycle? You don't need to sour mash to um to have that compound enter. You can create a yeast environment where isoamyl acetate comes in. But I think sour mashing and yeah is how it happens with Jack. That makes sense.
01:32:10
Speaker
That's a great one to ask her. She'll love that. She'll get that question and be like, okay, let's do that.
01:32:17
Speaker
Well, guess to close off, is there anything new coming in the months that we should be looking out for Jack or Brown Formula General? Yes. um I used to shy away from this question, but it's such a good way to wrap. And also I've had my ear to the ground more than ever before. We had um Grant Adams and Amanda Fowler, who are part of our global Jack team, come and do a school of Jack for us, which is a new advocacy program that's getting rolled out globally. um And they were talking to me about a few things, but also what's in the pipeline was kind of one of the key things that I wanted access to. And they sent across the Coy Hill, which we'll probably flick off the cameras and have afterwards, but ah it's it's called Hazmat Rye. It's 72 plus percent ABV and it's taken from Coy Hill. So we'll have ah a bit of a taste of that after. but
01:33:01
Speaker
One of the things I said to them is, hey, I'm dealing with Tennessee Squires and super fans and people that love this stuff. What can I tell them? So the age series is the biggest thing on our plate right now. We've got the 10, then the 12 will probably be early next year. The 14 will probably be a couple of years, but it will it will come here in small number. The halo is about to roll out. I saw the halo, it is gorgeous. Which looks outrageous. was trying to convince Amber to let me buy one.
01:33:24
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, like I can't tell you exactly where they'll fall price-wise, but I think it's going to be between $1,000 and $1,200 something around that ballpark. Okay, cool. It's a collector's... Held out. Yeah, it's like it's a look it's a collector's item. It's a celebration of the McLaren partnership, which is in its third year. yeah um But apart from the Halo, you've got an iteration that we bring out once a year for McLaren as well. The 26 just came out. yeah um And then apart from the aged expressions, we'll continue to do um heritage releases, holiday releases. um
01:33:58
Speaker
The Blackberry we're doing a launch for it here too, which is going to be fun. Doing a launch for a flavour is always fun because it's more about, you know, entertainment than it is about a... You don't have to be serious about the brand, right? You can still be serious about the brand, but it's more so like you can play with those flavours. Mixed drinks, DJ, like, how are we going to kind of... It's a party. It is. It's more a party than a serious conversation. Totally. Party without being a party, I guess. Because it's an established brand. You don't want cut loose. But it's going to...
01:34:32
Speaker
It's going to kill. It's going to go very well. It's just so good. So I'm really excited about that. And then obviously, you know, question on everyone's mind at the moment, the Tanyd Hill and the Koi Hill, yeah um highest elevations where our rickhouses sit and get absolutely... wild, wild, um into high temperatures. um They, at this stage, even though it's slightly sad information, they don't make enough for us to be a priority market. So I don't think that we will get a steady supply, but I will try, but as we're starting to do with the Squires and giving out information, we'll try to provide early information and access to products that we know will have enough to sell. If we don't have enough to sell,
01:35:15
Speaker
I'll just have to invite you guys to an event where we where we have a tasting of it together. Like you've done the past with fantasy tasters. Exactly right. So we we want people to have access. Whenever a product has a unicorn and the unicorn doesn't come out or is not available for too long, people start to lose interest and they'll find a unicorn elsewhere. yeah So we're aware that we need to give people access, whether it's, yeah if it's not a full bottle, just let them sample it because they'll be able to find out, oh, this is innovation at Jack. This is what's happening.
01:35:43
Speaker
So there are a few other things in the pipeline. That's exciting. to um because And ro more rye. oh um And very happy about it. Rye the word at the moment. It's, it's um yeah, it's certainly a direction that, you know, Chris Fletcher and the team seem to be taking is getting more into the ryes than they have been before, which speaks to a growing demand global globally. Yeah.
01:36:03
Speaker
And
Building Community through Whiskey Events
01:36:03
Speaker
great for the bar scene as well. Oh, who doesn't love rye Manhattan? An all ah shift on old fashioned. Paper plane. Paper plane. Yeah. It loves the complexity of like the rye grain off the back of a paper plane. It's delicious.
01:36:17
Speaker
But um. Watcherous. Yeah. It's funny like i just kind of a wrap up, go full circle, but it kind of shows the importance of those Webster's events, right? Like you're talking about unicorn bottles and it was like being able to open those unicorn bottles for a small group of people um at dirt, cheap prices. And then like- I don't think we ever got above $100 a ticket. didn't. And it was like a full lineup of bosses, like your BTACs and your Pappys, and it's like, oh, there you go, that's your- The Old Foresters. Yes. And like the thing is, instead of
01:36:51
Speaker
the unicorn going to one person. Yeah. You're sharing it with 20, 30, 40 people. Exactly. So more people get to try it rather than that one person and maybe two, three of them. And then those 20 people that go to that session will go off and talk about it yeah and just keep the conversation. Correct. And I think any, any brands dream, any supplier's dream is for people to be talking about their brand. Yeah. Yeah. And the only way you get people talking is to provide access. yeah Whether the access is big or small, it doesn't matter. Just invite people along or invite the people that are making noise, like but for you guys. um And then let's inspire a little bit of jealousy. You know what mean? Like, you want to be in that room? jealousy will reach out, you know? Which is why you're actually looking after the Tennessee Squires now, which circles back in, which is yeah incredible. Take care of your brand ambassadors, specifically ones that aren't on the Brown Foreman payroll. It's like these guys are doing that job out of legitimate love, like real love. So I'm trying to kind of spoil them a little bit and just treat them with the respect they deserve. so And after spending 50 years buying Jack, sometimes they deserve that. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Arthur Burch. Yeah, yeah.
01:37:52
Speaker
I'm looking forward to it. He's a character. He is a character. Interested to see how this... ah Yeah, I'm very curious to see how it plays out. yeah it's It's going to event. All the conversation's gonna be like, yeah. and But it will be the first of of many, too. There'll be other events I'll have to get you guys along to as well that aren't just squires or make you squires.
01:38:09
Speaker
Anyway, cheers guys. Cheers. Thanks Jeremy. Andy, anything coming up that you want to plug? Any events? Yes, we're going to be doing the Jack Daniels 10 Year Edition 5 launch soon. um For context, Chris Fletcher has said that the 10 Year Edition 5 is his favourite of the aged.
01:38:27
Speaker
series. So for him to say that, um knowing that he's worked on the 12 and the 14, and the 14 just won Best Tennessee Whiskey, yeah and he just won but Icons of Whiskey too, Best Master Distiller, which is crazy this year. um We're doing those launches between June and mid-August. I will make sure that both of you guys come along to the Sydney one.
01:38:50
Speaker
Thank you. um Plugging it's kind of hard because they are going to be smaller events. yeah yeah But certainly if you guys know a couple of people that would like to come along to that, we are going to be bartenders, squires, and probably a couple of yeah whiskey enthusiasts. So i'd I'd love to have you guys. along with yeah yeah I've said it now. so You've penciled yourself into a corner. yeah, yeah.
01:39:09
Speaker
Yeah, I promise that I'm more than happy to make. So that'll be, thank you it'll be mid June to mid August and I'll come back to you with a date. Yeah, thank you. An excuse to hang out with you lovely gentlemen again. It's been too long. Yes it has. this it has Considering you're back up in Sydney. Yeah, back in Sydney so things are much easier now. We have you now. Yes, yes. Until you leave us again for Melbourne again? Who knows? Melbourne, oh yeah, can't live with Amber. Oh, I forgot she's out there. Yeah. it's the bre He's like the breeze. Just in and out.
01:39:38
Speaker
oh and Does anyone remember Jacob? Definitely not. Oh no, we do. We do. We have too many stories. We can't forget him. But yeah, on that note, very sad note actually. Yeah, we will wrap it up. Well, thank you very much for joining us, Jess. Thank you for having me actually. That was, it's your house, it's not mine. I felt very strongly about this and it came out of nowhere. I was just like, you know, it so was out of nowhere. But it was, for me, it was like an opportunity hang out with you guys, like selfishly, but more importantly, to hang out with two people that I know are so passionate about whisky and rye and Jack Daniels. Jack Daniels, yeah. But you guys do so much for the community, more than you realise, and I think for me as well, we want to start doing more stuff from the office. Like this is our home place. So why not have people in here? We facilities to
Podcast Conclusion and Appreciation
01:40:23
Speaker
do this. I mean, Jez brought all the facilities. He could have brought anywhere. Accessories. It's literally my pleasure and something that I felt very passionate about having you guys in the room. So it won't be the last time.
01:40:36
Speaker
No, thank you very much. ah It's definitely not my first time here. And I'm surprised I didn't see my face on the door. Wanted poster? I want it. With a knife. Yeah, it's just like, don't let him behind the bar again. He will do a shooey.
01:40:50
Speaker
ah Well yeah, thank you. Jacob, anything want to I'm still trying to stuff set up, yeah being in Sydney, so nothing to plug as of yet. Okay, well yeah, we'll plug you in, plug me in, plug someone in. um And yeah, hopefully you guys watch this, because there's a couple of moments here where was just like, oh yeah watch it back listen to it a couple of tangents yeah a couple of tangents to be up on YouTube OnlyFans and anywhere else you get your podcast but um yeah thanks for listening I am Jez I'm Jacob I'm Andy that's it thank you all