Transcript
Speaker: and And once you reach that point, who's your ideal Australian celebrity to to bring Tano to the world? You can come back and tell us next time. I think i think ah we'll leave celebrity endorsements off of Tano. I mean, if anyone might think of celebrities watching this and is like, I love shoju. Get in touch. Get in touch. Yeah, our budget is a couple of bottles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, absolutely love it.
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Speaker: Find St Agnes and plenty more exclusive offers from leading distilleries at thefullmeasure.com.au forward slash directory. Welcome to the Full Measure podcast. Fantastic to have you with us. I am today joined by James Smith, the founder of the Full Measure, founder of Crafty Pine, founder of lots of things. Great to have you with us.
Speaker: Thank you. i a Founder of many things it seems you know rather grand, but I'll take it. Well, I'm giving him a big intro because I forgot to intro him completely the last time. So if you picked up on that, um you know I'm just doing you favor today. so I didn't pick up on it, I have to say. Even though i edited the show last week, it didn't didn't occur to me. but Maybe I'm sort of always in myself. So, yeah you know, yeah never surprised to hear myself. We'll get to why I probably forgot in a moment. But ah today I'm way incredibly lucky to be joined by Kevin Hamilton from Tano Spirits. We've got an incredible show um with him today. So thank you, Kev. Thanks for coming in, mate. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
Speaker: Before we get to the absolute fantastic wicked amazingness that is Tano Spirits and everything that Kev and Fletcher do there, we're just going to quickly wrap up on Grainstock last week because I think we're still recovering from from the the happenings and all the amazingness of it.
Speaker: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. um i think when we finished our recordings, we still had stuff to do. I think you disappeared. I think after we'd done our recordings, you then went and hosted the whiskey bar for about six hours back to back. um You managed that very well. You're clearly a professional. I didn't tell i didn't try. i don't Now I'm lying. Well, I'm lying. I'm subsequently lying. Everyone will know I didn't drink anything the whole time I was managing the whiskey bar. I had that much to think about and concentrate on that I just, ah you know, maybe a tiny sip here and there, but I kept it very measured. No, I got i got so full full measured. Yeah. Yeah, I've got some great feedback. People are saying, oh, he's just so good. he like He occupies this character when he gets in front of a room of people, which I guess is the same in here as well. Like that Luke McCarthy, the the host, comes out, and everyone's very very impressed wow with the presentations there. No one's saying that to me. Everyone was just trying to feed me more whiskey at the time. So there we go. buts A massive thanks to everyone at Grainstock, to Stu, to all the team, the Whitten Moulthouse crew. It was fantastic. We're going to have some tastings of some of the distilleries that I discovered while we're there coming up pretty soon. There's some really cool distilleries up that way, yeah which will be coming soon. So plenty more to come, which will be fantastic. And also the main Grainstock podcast episode will be out next... oh
Speaker: later this week actually. yeah and So we got interviews with a few more people that we spoke to there. yeah um Covering yeah quite a few bases. um And as far as we're aware, there won't be any grain stock again next year. They're gonna become bi-annual now. yeahp yeah um But yeah we'll ah let people know as soon as it's happening. Yeah, definitely. Get up there. Fantastic. And so I guess we're switching base ingredients somewhat in some ways, but not necessarily. um If you're familiar with shochu, certainly look, I will admit from the outset, um I've been lucky to to spend some time ah in the countries where shochu is produced and you know go to some of the distilleries, but i' and ah you know generally beyond that, I'm pretty much a rookie. So to have Kev in the studio with us today is an is an absolute treat. And where we might start is maybe just a bit of an intro on who you are, what Tano Spirits is and what shochu is.
Speaker: All right, well, Tannels Spirits is, um I guess, Melbourne's first shochu distillery. I was would have said Australians first shochu distillery, but Reading Co did beat us to that a year ago. So they're doing amazing things. um yeah So shochu is Japan's traditional spirit made from rice traditionally and the most important ingredient being koji. So we got into Tano's spirits a couple of years ago. We're really very very new to the scene. We only opened at the beginning of this year and we wanted to bring shochu to outside of Australia because it's it's drank, it's the most consumed spirit in um Japan, it's actually the most consumed alcoholic beverage in Japan. It beats beer, it beats whiskey, it beats beer, it beats sake, but it is not really exported outside of Japan.
Speaker: so and We have been to Japan a few times. we love we I love shochu, I love chuhai's, I love the flavor profile of shochu, I love the versatility of shochu, I love the history and how it's made. And we thought, let's let's start making it here in and Australia. So Fletch and i started the business a couple of years ago, moved into a place in Northcote, and we have been distilling shochu for Actually, just about a year.
Speaker: it was November, I think our first commercial batch was and finished distilling and then we left it to age for a few months and then we launched it in about March of this year. Fantastic. I have to say, yeah having tried to be as sort of blinkered as possible and mono-focused on Australian craft beer for the best part of two decades now, it's like, that sounds interesting, but I can't let it cloud my you know brain and and and I guess liver. Living capacity. Since starting and on this adventure with you know Luke a few months ago, it's been just fascinating, like learning all this stuff. You know, Luke's been sort of walking encyclopedia for me, but sort of going, oh, I didn't know there was these distilleries. there and then But when I read that you guys were in the sort of neighbouring suburb to where I've been living with my family for the last sort 16, 17 years, it's like...
Speaker: You know, and and just the whole presentation, you know, if you're not watching this on yeah on YouTube or on video on on Spotify, you won't be aware, but like all the artwork around the the embrace of the wider culture, which we'll come to when we talk about this event you've got coming up. It's just like, wow, like how how deep and how broad does the Australian spirits industry go? Like it's pretty been pretty fascinating. Yeah, like, um I mean, we'll get into a bit more, but like, you Fletch and my business partner is a street artist for the last 30 years. So we brought a lot of that um identity with us to when we're making shochu. We felt it would be quintessentially Melbourne to use street artists for our labels. It also stands out on the shelf. it's it's not as It doesn't look like your traditional sho and spirits label. In fact, we drew a lot more inspiration from beer labels than we did with spirits labels because you know I love the artistry of beer labels and how it sort of tells a story usually on the can. And we wanted to have that same idea when we were making our bottles. Yeah, fantastic. and If you are you know listening along and you haven't seen their bottles, jump on, have a look. They're absolutely beautiful. Do you want to quickly talk to us about some of the artwork that you've got and artists that you work with? Yeah. So um all of our bottle art is done by Taylor Brokman. So she's a Melbourne-based street artist. um she they um When we moved into the distillery two years ago, Fletch
Speaker: and called around all of his street art friends. yeah And they came, about 12 artists painted every corner of the distillery. We figured, let's do this now before we move in all the heavy equipment. Because once it's in, it ain't happening after that. yeah So there's still a few. You missed a bit over here. yeah Well, there's still a few spots in the wall which weren't you know quite taken up. So we are always looking for ah more people to come by and like finish off what we started. But yeah, Tela, they're absolutely incredible. It's all kind of female-led street art. We used different elements of it in different bottles so we've got a past present and future style um bottles for our main line and then for our seasonal releases we kind of um go back to like maybe what the ingredient is or what the history of that particular shochu might be in Japan and then kind of bring it to a kind of modern or a sort of artistic sort street art kind of style.
Speaker: Yeah. So yeah, it's like blending the sort of Melbourne street art styles with sort of traditional Japanese techniques. and that and Now we did promise ourselves, much as we do want to learn more, that we weren't going to go dive too deep into the Tano story because we'd love to get you and Fletcher back on for ah for a full episode down the line maybe we can time it with the year's anniversary the first release next year yeah but I guess if people do want to learn more the best opportunity probably ever in your brief history is coming up like paul this this coming weekend by the time this podcast goes out want to tell us a little bit about that because um I'm definitely trying to rally not only the troops in the office here but my entire family like my son my son is going to be he's huge My Hero Academia fan he's going to come down and just go oh my god old consoles look at the artwork everywhere do you want to tell us what's happening at the weekend Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So next ah Sunday, 1st of November, is World Shochu Day.
Speaker: So on the 31st of October, we are having a big old party at the distillery. So we are we have street artists coming in to paint the laneway behind our distillery. We have a good friend of ours from Japan flying in to do a mural on the front of our distillery. So I need to get back there at some point next week and finish and buffing the wall so he can paint it. so that's going to be incredible. All the glamour jobs of making you know cool spirits. Trying to paint stuff last week when it was 30 degrees. it was The paint was drying before it was on the wall. um We've got DJs coming to do some sets.
Speaker: We've got Yakitori. Izakaya Only is coming to Yakitori thing out front. So um people can just come in from the street. buy some yakitori, try some of our products, watch the street artists at work, boogie to some DJs. We're also coinciding it with the launch of two new products. So one of them is called Awamori, which is a ah um traditional Okinawan spirit. It's actually the the very first shochu. so Again, as you said, we'll get into the history of it more on another one, but this is about a 600-year-old spirit um made from jasmine rice. So we actually use an Australian-grown version called Topaz, and this is going to be the first 100% jasmine rice spirit made probably anywhere in the world. And what i love is the way you say it, it sounds like it could be a town on these on the western hours of Scotland as well. it's It's funny, yeah. A friend of mine until last week thought that we were calling it out like Alamori, kind of like Tobermori in Mull, and i was like...
Speaker: Yeah, I get it. Yeah. So um yeah, awamori. And then we're also doing a blend of our sweet potato shochu with a green tea shochu. And we're calling it emocha, which is a fantastically tasty like tropical fruit note spirit with like this like herbaceous green tea flavor on it. It's stunning. So really, really interested.
Speaker: to get people in to try it, um you know have a bit of a dance, have a bit of a have a bit of a but but a meat on sticks. And that's on the Saturday. And then on the Sunday, we have a shochu and sake pairing. So we have a sake sommelier coming over. They're going to showcase three sakes. And we're going showcase our two new releases and one other shochu. And going pair it with um like different types of like little little little like snacks and things like that. So you can understand the flavors and the comparisons and the difference between sake and shochu because a lot of people think that you know shochu is just sake. People think sake is a spirit which is and that's actually a wine and you know and the basic sense of it is if you distill sake you get shochu but obviously there's a lot more to it than that because sake is only made from rice and shochu can be made from as i just said they're almost anything yeah so it's um it's gonna be a good education experience as well on the sunday some people want to come down there's tickets available for available for that but on the saturday it's just a free come on come on down have a bit of fun learn a little bit about shochu and um yeah enjoy yourself yeah and it be your first big open day like yeah well we had a bit of a run-up at it last weekend because it was my 40th last weekend So we had about 50 of my friends come down and we had ah a good old party there. it was much less um ordered, I guess. The bowling survived. was been given and It's been given the stress test. oh it was a good It was a great stress test of whether or not our bar could like keep up. We found out that we ran out of ice a bit faster than we thought we were. so we're going have to probably buy in some more ice in advance. So we learned a lot of cool things. It was really, really good day. And everyone had a great time. We had Yakutori then as well. um but yeah this weekend or yeah this coming weekend is going to be our kind of official launch and like letting as many people from the neighborhood and wider area to come and check us out well that's why we want to go as well because we've got some learning to do we i look as i said of off the top um yeah i've been very lucky to to spend some time in and around these uh different spirit making traditions but the best place to to learn about it will obviously be at Tano in Northcote this weekend. um What do we have in the glass here, by the way? just to you know I know tasting on air isn't necessarily the most catchy of things every time. You need smell-vision for that one. but just But just to give us a little bit of it an idea, this perfectly clear liquid here. Yes. this is going to be funny. So Fletch, I did not clear it with him beforehand, but this is a release spirit. This is not one of our... We are saving those other ones, but this is a um We do a sesame shochu here. So we do a seasonal, like a very small batch, because it's quite expensive to make that much black sesame.
Speaker: So it's a black sesame shochu made with black koji. So um again, we'll get into the you know koji, but koji in a nutshell is just converts the starches to sugar. yeah And it also provides a little bunch of other flavor, which allows you to the fer ferment, and brings a lot of the, it basically it gives shochu its character. Black koji is generally very umami forward, a lot more caramelized, a lot more deeper, earthier flavors. And then the other kojis are usually a bit lighter, a bit fruitier. So what we did is we went black sesame, that's a really savory thing. We, uh, uh, black koji, sorry, black sesame is very savory. Black koji is very sesame, andre very savory. And then we made it with a mixture of barley and rice. So it's about 80% unmalted barley. We don't use malted barley and shochu. And then rice to give it a little bit of,
Speaker: a little bit of um creamy roundness. yeah I definitely get that. on the eyes on the pallet stra would you and Would it be fair to say so this upfront flavors are more of the traditional sort of that's the character of the the spirit because then the sesame comes in comes riding in you know. fast its The barley is definitely um more pronounced in this one so you got that kind of grainy barley flavor and then that sesame kind of kind of coats the mouth, gives that the oil in body. It's like it comes riding in sort of yeah as as as the the battle is in. It goes, ah, don't forget me.
Speaker: and it's And it's crazy because it's only 28% well. So it's not a full, like it's not we're not talking 40% or 50%. That would be a lot. um This is quite an a sessionable drink, even though it's quite is savory. And we decided to make it because there is a shochu you can buy. We used to be able buy in Melbourne down in Sake Ginza in Richmond used to sell it, which was sesame shochu, but they haven't got it in in the last five years. So we were like, let's just make it because it's one of our favorites. And we think it's come out pretty well. So yeah, it was only bottled a couple weeks ago. So it's very still very new. And we've only been, we only started selling it behind the bar last weekend and it was very popular. Fantastic. Well, if you're Melbourne based, then this is the space to check out this weekend. um And of course we're very, you know, thank you so much for being one of our earlier supporters. Tano came on from the get go pretty much. So we really, really appreciate If you want a bit more information to the story, jump on, have a look at our full measure listing, or of course jump onto the website. We hope to see many of you Melbourne based folks this weekend and Kev thankfully is going to stick around before we get into news which we might go into right now. Cheers.
Speaker: Hey guys, I'm Jo Yee from Bar Selector. So today I'm making a variation of food curry with St. Anna's bartender's cup brandy. Start with 45 ml of s St. Anna's brandy. Silky traditional spin out in Australia forever.
Speaker: Fucure is a sort of a post-prohibition classic cocktail from New Orleans. It's traditionally brandy, rye whiskey and Don Benedictine as some bitters. And some rye whiskey we use the Kojashu which is an Earl Grey infilled sake liqueur.
Speaker: About 15ml of the Cocchi Italian Sweat Vermeve and then Fucure you make Don Benedictine. two baths of that. Singana's buttermilk's brandy is 44%, it's got like beautiful texture, so just couple of dashes of Angus Dewar and orange for this and then we can stir the drink. Stirring it out, a bit of orange oil for that, and garnish with marachina cherry. Here you go, Singana's Bukhari.
Speaker: All right, everyone. We're back here. The Full Measure podcast with James and with Kevin, who's been very, very great to hang around for our little news chat. Really appreciate it, Kev. No problem. And the story that we'd love to sort of open with is a story that I, well, got to sort of discover. Right. You're now a breaking news reporter, Luke. Yes. ah Breaking news in-depth reporter. Yeah, yeah. That's me. um and I was very, very lucky to to get a chance to travel up to Woodend and spend a bit of time with the Maiden Eye crew. So for those not familiar, um Maiden Eye are probably one of the pioneering vermouth producers in Australia. And yes, we do cover vermouth here on The Full Measure as well. We've got Naturi vermouth up there if you want to have ah a squiz at the amazing stuff that Richard's doing there as well. And we'll definitely be getting more vermouth producers coming online in future. so
Speaker: Why the Maiden Eye story is so significant is obviously because they were you know sort of leaders in this space and in creating vermoots that use native botanicals and you know just pets so well in cocktails. They're amazing drinking on their own. um And I was very lucky to spend some time with Gilles Lapillé and Sean Byrne.
Speaker: at the new site and then we sort of broke the news that yeah that has emerged and so the reason that's so significant is because as we go into the piece and as most people would be aware in the drink space in Melbourne unfortunately their original premise burnt down Gilles space you know incredibly and very very sadly was burnt to the ground in the January 9 bushfires of this year along with the cool store where a lot of their irreplaceable stock was as well Yeah. One of many businesses really hard hit. You actually traveled up there this week. I think calling it sort of breaking news for I undermine the quality of this art. It's such a beautifully written feature. think once I was, you know, we put up on the website, was like, it feels like one of those sort of Saturday, you know, weekend magazine features that someone has spent You know, days embedded with these people. So if you haven't read it, because I know what the world's like these days, people jump on, they like a post and put a comment or whatever. They don't actually and It's like, go and read Luke's article. It's a beautiful piece. You know, not just a good news story, but actually really getting inside, you know, their story, but also what they've been through over the past 12 months. Yeah. But yeah, so what's the story with the new place then? With the new products and the last remaining bits of some of the old products? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so what we have in front of us. So this is, if you're not familiar, jump and have a look. This is their Maiden Eye. This is their classic, absolutely beautiful. They've got a range of different styles and collaboration releases that they've put out over the years. One of the most famous being the Nocturne, which is an incredible sort of Amaro style. And, know, barrel age, they've added to it progressively the years. We, you know, we'd mentioned article, they started with a 10 year old barrel age Syrah to start or Rosé, Syrah Rosé, sorry. And then when started working on 2014, that just progressively added to it in the Celera. And so when that, unfortunately burnt to the ground, that was lost and basically never to be repeated. Sean mentions the fact that would take them another 22 years to get that product back to where it was. So it's effectively a deceased product now and they have 100 bottles which they're putting onto a lottery. if you're keen, I'm actually going to try and grab one myself, I reckon, because I remember the first time I tasted I remember even reading Max Allen's thoughts on this when he first put this out and it was such a unique incredible um invocation of you know you know not only traditional vermouth making but Australian flavors um and yes so if you're keen on that have a look um some feelings releases as well that there's some new releases planned for the actual day of the fires is that right Yeah, and so very aptly, they're going to release two new vermouths, Phoenix Extra Dry and Phoenix Rosso. They're all coming out in January 9. So they're rapidly working away to finish those off at the moment. So be ready for January. Yeah, just an amazing story. If you don't know Sean and Gilles, they are absolute legends of the Melbourne hospitality. I was lucky to work with them and pour their spirits out over many years working behind the bar. So... Yeah, just look, probably one of the best stories I've covered in a very long time. warmed my cockles for sure. You're still grinning from ear to ear for those that are listening, you know, just recounting the story. Yeah, and you know, it's always great to be able to work with people have gone through something pretty devastating and tragic like that and turned it into, you know, a silver lining. And yeah, I just wish them all the best because it's great story. And obviously, you know, in part of your ongoing education of me and the rest of the Crafty team in the world of Australian Spirits, you know, Vermouth, I guess, is a fairly niche area there. And I guess, you know, as has showed you, I mean, how have they sort of gone about sort of finding? How have you sort of gone about planning okay for, How do we get across what we're doing and where do you think your audience would be? Which I'm assuming is something that the Maiden Eye guys would have been doing 10 plus years ago when they were first coming to market. give you some quick background that and then we can flick to Kev because he'll have some amazing perspective on it. So vermouth is a really interesting category in Australia because we have produced a shit ton of vermouth in the past. When I was writing for Agnes, their centenary publication, their Marco vermouth. Anyone out there who might be of a certain age could remember Marco vermouth and number of other Australian vermouths that were very, very successful But then as things changed in the 80s and 90s, yeah, the wineries, various producers, other brands just found it very difficult to sell these products anymore. And there was a lack of knowledge about how to drink them. And so, by the early 2000s, they massively fell out of favor. And, know, there's virtually no Australian vermouths continued to be produced. Marco, I remember talking to the guys that produced it. They had done so for decades and decades. And then to stop it, you know, you lose all this heritage and tradition and... That's another story entirely. But unfortunately, that's where we found ourselves in the late 2010s and then Made and I, Regal Rogue and a bunch of other Australian producers sort of revived the category and it's been doing really well since. It's still, you know, you still got encourage people to sort of get out there and sell the product and how to drink it to people. And imagine something that's something you guys are working on all the time as well. Yeah, for Tano, well, even just for vermouth, like I got into vermouth from, I mean, it was probably just around COVID when you started to kind of like, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're like, I need to make myself a drink. It's Wednesday. What have I not had this week? The idea of sex on the beach or whatever, it's kind of fading away. Like a Negroni was coming back. was making a lot of Negronis during lockdown. It's good bang for buck. And then just experimenting with different vermouths and then finding out, hang on, there's an Australian vermouth made from Australian botanicals. Why am I not using that? And yeah, it started to play around with different vermouths, different amaros, different takes on Aperols and things like that. And then just realizing that there were other producers out there. I think it's just finding that niche and obviously with the rise, there has been a definite rise of people going back to these traditional cocktails. I think that's really helped those kind of producers of bitters and amaros and those sorts of aromatic wines, which is really, really cool. For Tano,
Speaker: Yeah, like it's similar. We're trying to give people an alternative to a full strength spirit is one of the things. So we we classify ourselves as a mid strength spirit. So it's similar here as well. and Yeah, it's in between a wine and a whiskey. um But you don't sacrifice the flavor. it's it's It's single distilled, so it's still full of flavor. it's Most of our drinks that we sell at our bar are our pretty much one standard drink. So it's just, you know, it's it's nice when someone goes, oh it's just one standard. Oh, I'll have a second then. um yeah
Speaker: ah So that's one of our angles that we're going for. And also just giving people another option who maybe have maybe protect perhaps fatigued with gin. Mezcal has become really popular. So it's like and people like realizing, oh, hang on. this is a clear spirit but it's got heaps of flavor in it. it says you know Until then people were like, oh, it's got to be it's got be like a color to it or it's got to be like whiskey or it's got to be like you know a Shiraz bloody gin or something like that. yeah So yeah coming back to the like us being able to produce these kind of clear spirits with ah like
Speaker: butt loads of flavor that you can then throw into any any drink you like um it's kind of been how we've been angling ourselves and then obviously like leaning into you know the traditional sort of Japanese way of making things and and and Koji and ah lots of Australians come to go to Japan and yeah enjoy the culture and you know we've also been very careful when we starting Tano as well like you know to kind of appreciate with it appropriate So that's always been a bit of a you know a needle that we're you know trying to like thread. um But then obviously grounding ourselves in being Australian first, using Japanese techniques has been like a way that we can kind of stay true to the to the way it's made without kind of copying it.
Speaker: um and bringing it to like ah a more modern audience. So in similar way to something like vermouth, there's people like, oh wait, hang on, we make Australian shochu, we make Australian whiskey, we make, us you know, and it it just kind of gives people a bit of a pride of place of like, they can just go down to the local bottle shop and buy something that's Australian.
Speaker: I guess talking that's a good segue into talking of Australian on a global scale. Yes, on the global scale. Yeah, we're changing gears a little bit here. and So one of the other big stories that we covered this week was the release of Archie Rose and Chris Hemsworth. our Chris Hemsworth, of course, the co-founder. Sorry, the co-owner now, not co-founder. Oh, God, Will's going to kill me. co Co-owner of Archie Rose now, a story that we covered a few months ago. and actually it was it it was it was the morning after we we launched. this I think, yeah, we were texting each other at 6am. Thankfully we were both up either ahead of the kids or with the kids. I was like, Jesus Christ, we only put our first post out, I think it was like 11 and a half hours ago. I think we need to do something on Thor. Yeah, yeah yeah and and Thor's whiskies are now here. So beautifully, ah they have arrived in our office here and we have in front of me, I have the the single malt, the Uttara's single malt. Which looks kind of hammer shaped. It does. Yeah, you do one of these. and um
Speaker: And then the new product that they've released, ah they've got the rye as well the straight rye, but they also have released Australian original, which is a new whiskey, which we haven't even cracked yet. These only landed in the office. there wego Not a lot, yeah, much. So we I'll get a taste in those very soon. But yeah, quite an incredible story. If you haven't, jump on and have a... Kev and I were chatting about the YouTube clip.
Speaker: It's really interesting how they've managed to encapsulate, I think, a very Hollywood-esque, Thor-esque style, but then you know keep it and root it um in Australia and Australian flavors, processes, and everything that's you know great about Archie Rose. so So yeah, well, Kev's had a look. I want to throw to him on... What did you think of the the video and the release? itself Yeah, I had a look at it last night and it was it started that I was like, oh, what's this?
Speaker: But as it developed, it was, yeah, it's clearly designed for, think, an American audience. It's got a lot of those same beats of classic Kentucky bourbon ad, that kind of dark and like, you know, dimly lit saloon style. But then there's like injection of humor into it. And it's like that kind of serious, like taking the piss out of yourself kind of thing, which is very Australian. So yeah, by the end of it, I was like, yeah, okay, I see what they're doing here. And I can see how this would absolutely work with a wider sort of American audience who maybe have never heard of Australian whiskey before. Yeah, definitely. And once you reach that point, who's your ideal Australian celebrity to bring Tano to the world? You can come back and tell us next time. Yeah, I think we'll leave celebrity endorsements off of Tano. I mean, I think anyone might think of his celebrity watching this and is like, I love shoju. Get touch. Yeah, our budget is a couple of bottles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, absolutely love it. So look, it's such a fascinating space. I'm watching the RT Roche project very closely. We'll have some comments from Dave Withers, the master distiller, who I've been very lucky know for a long time in a tasting article that will come up very, very soon. love the fact that even at Grainstok last week, Tim Hoskin, one of the distillers from Arch Rose was there. And I think you were kind of assuming he'd bring along a little sample for you. And he was like, I'm not allowed to take this anywhere.
Speaker: You'll get it when you when you're allowed to get When we're ready. When we're good and ready. Yes. ah yeah at the whiskey bar, Tim Hoskin put out a fantastic talk on their triple smoke whiskey. If you haven't tried that, get around it. ah There was people around around the grounds Whitson. I was going, oh, we've got to get in there now. Apparently, there's still some left. you know yes It's the talk of the town And it followed ah ah ah some very heavily peated Isla malts. Ardbeg, I think, was there.
Speaker: Who else was there? There was another Isla malt, which I can't remember now. There was a few whiskeys that day. um And so to to see some of the most heavily peated Isla malts next to ah you know a very unique Australian smoked whiskey um was fantastic. And there's a lot of relationships there as well, but the uniqueness of the Australian whiskey came through. So, of course, all this is tied up into the Archie Rose story. And, yeah, if you haven't tasted whiskeys yet, obviously do so. And, yeah, we'll have some thoughts on Chris Hemsworth's whiskey very soon. Indeed, we will. um Now, before we wrap up, obviously, you've got the big open day and the masterclass coming this weekend. We'll include a link in show notes if anyone wants to find out or book tickets for the Sunday.
Speaker: Beyond that, what's the regularity of the opening of the of the venue going to be? Yeah, so at the moment we are um are we call it the WTF Showtube Bar. It's open Friday through Sunday. So Friday from 5 till 10. Saturday and Sunday from 1 till, we were open till 6 on Sunday, but now the better weather's coming in. We'll probably open till about 8 o'clock on the Sunday. We're looking to open on Thursdays as well as through the summer just for events, tastings, masterclasses, community events as well. We've had a few community events there during on like a Sunday. Just they hang out in the back of the distillery if we're not in production and they can do whatever they want. We've had board games and stuff there as well. So we're also looking to... family friendly Absolutely, yeah. i Family friendly, dog friendly. Yeah, it's a cool spot.
Speaker: want Check it out. Oh, mate, thank you so much. Well, a huge thank you to Kevin Hamilton from Tennis Spirits for coming in. Really appreciate it, mate. Thank you so much for having me. And thank you for joining us on another edition of the Full Measure podcast. Look forward to seeing you next week. Cheers.
Speaker: The Full Measure podcast is produced and edited by Matt Hoffman. For all partnership inquiries, reach out to c Craig Williams, craig at thefullmeasure.com.au. To keep up to date with everything happening in Australian spirits, visit thefullmeasure.com.au and subscribe.
