Speaker 1: Paul Giles. Welcome to the Mental mate.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1: Mark. You are a co founder along with me and
Speaker 1: along with Andrew Nugent, and we are here at the
Speaker 1: Burdenhand filming this and we've got some great wines up
Speaker 1: behind us, and of course our great whiskey up the
Speaker 1: top and enough the boys can see. You want, mate,
Speaker 1: go for it please? Actually, I just love the way
Speaker 1: you pour it, the way you do the whole thing.
Speaker 1: You do everything like with such like.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's what it's about. It is. It's
Speaker 2: all about the theater, and it's all about the occasion
Speaker 2: in the moment.
Speaker 1: Definitely.
Speaker 2: I think it's pretty important in order to make sure
Speaker 2: that it's a big deal.
Speaker 1: Thanks mate, Cheers, cheer. It's wonderful. Give yourself one.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I haven't had one for ages, haven't you No?
Speaker 2: What's wrong with you?
Speaker 1: Oh my god? It's gold. Look at that.
Speaker 2: It is, isn't it. I'm pretty proud of it.
Speaker 1: Whoa, that's fucking good? How good it is? It's so
Speaker 1: easy it is, isn't it. Yeah?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 1: You want to go back? So, I mean, obviously we're
Speaker 1: in this together, but it's your show today, so I'm
Speaker 1: just going to I'm going to be playing my role,
Speaker 1: my roles you know the podcast. You know, I'm doing
Speaker 1: the questions and I'm not really going to participate much
Speaker 1: in the answer I got either all come from you.
Speaker 1: Of course you're talking on all of our behalfs. But
Speaker 1: it's about the story of how this business started off
Speaker 1: and you know where, and probably most importantly where do
Speaker 1: where do you come from? So tell us about Paul Charles. First,
Speaker 1: talk about yourself. I know it's painful, talk about it.
Speaker 2: I'm a I'm a Melbourne boy, born and braised my
Speaker 2: whole life. I got two older brothers and a twin brother,
Speaker 2: revolved around football, had a.
Speaker 1: Twin brother after all these years, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, twin brother and two older brothers, and the two
Speaker 2: older brothers sort of made their life and set up
Speaker 2: the family by playing football. So all I wanted to
Speaker 2: do was play football, a football. Yeah, and the age
Speaker 2: of fifteen, I got kicked their head and got a
Speaker 2: fractured skull and a blood clot and a brain hemorrhage
Speaker 2: and fell into a coma. So my football dream sort
Speaker 2: of went out the door. Yeah, sort of potted around
Speaker 2: at school and was sort of so lucky and so
Speaker 2: fortunate I ended up sort of overseas, working overseas for
Speaker 2: nearly a decade.
Speaker 1: And what we're doing overseas, of all things.
Speaker 2: I was in advertising was I was a model.
Speaker 1: I know that.
Speaker 2: Embarrassed to say. Can I just tell you it's nearly
Speaker 2: as old as a whisky. It's like a thousand BC.
Speaker 2: It was. It was that long ago, So and partner
Speaker 2: or one of the places or one of the destinations
Speaker 2: where I spent majority of my time was Japan, and
Speaker 2: that's where I developed my love for whiskey. Basically, really yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm the ritually what they did in Japan, I mean,
Speaker 2: which you know this because of you as well. That's
Speaker 2: it's based on the Japanese formula to be jalicate. It's
Speaker 2: not peedy and what have you. But I'm big on
Speaker 2: ritual and big on the habits, and I'm big on
Speaker 2: tradition and stuff, and the Japanese it was just sort
Speaker 2: of part and parcel of their tradition and ritual whiskey,
Speaker 2: and that's where I developed my taste for whiskey. I mean,
Speaker 2: I mean, like, you know, growing up in a football
Speaker 2: environment and you know you're aiding into around you know,
Speaker 2: twenty five or thirty, whatever it may be. I sort
Speaker 2: of found as though alcohol and that's what we're in.
Speaker 2: We're in the alcohol business, and you have to be careful.
Speaker 2: But sort of went from beer, and then as I've
Speaker 2: got a bit older and a bit more cultured, it
Speaker 2: sort of shifted to wine. But I've always sort of
Speaker 2: loved whiskey, So whiskey has always sort of been my
Speaker 2: passion basically sort of thing, and probably was probably I mean,
Speaker 2: I've known you for what thirty years, but I think
Speaker 2: it was around ten years ago that, you know, we
Speaker 2: sort of were at an event and and you sort
Speaker 2: of turned around, said, are you guys interested in doing whiskey?
Speaker 2: And my ears pricked up straight away because been a
Speaker 2: whiskey lover and things. And then all of a sudden
Speaker 2: we sort of got talking from there, and it sort
Speaker 2: of just sort of basically evolved from there, the fact
Speaker 2: type of thing that you're a whiskey bit of a
Speaker 2: connoisseur as well, and love it, and so did I.
Speaker 2: And Andrew's always loved it, even though his background has
Speaker 2: been wine and stuff, and we sort of put it
Speaker 2: all together, but there was there there there were certain
Speaker 2: criterias that we wanted. Part and parcel number one was
Speaker 2: the fact that we wanted to make it a delicate whiskey.
Speaker 2: We didn't want to make it pety, we wanted to
Speaker 2: make it in the Japanese style. We wanted to make
Speaker 2: something that appealed to females as well sort of things.
Speaker 2: So and that's basically what we came up with, which
Speaker 2: has been an amazing ride and an amazing journey.
Speaker 1: One of the things I found. I do remember sitting
Speaker 1: in the cellar door restaurant here around the close where
Speaker 1: we are at the moment, and I remember sitting there
Speaker 1: and talking to you and Nurge and Andrew, and we
Speaker 1: started it's funny how businesses can get cooked up. And
Speaker 1: we were just sort of throwing crap around, the stuff
Speaker 1: the crap around place. And and when the whiskey idea
Speaker 1: was sort of sort of becoming developed, we thought to ourselves,
Speaker 1: what type of whiskey does it going to be? Is
Speaker 1: it going to be like you Jim Bean Marry style whiskey,
Speaker 1: Scottish type whiskey, and some of which is that peak type,
Speaker 1: heavy peat, smoky taste, and then the Japanese style whiskey.
Speaker 1: And there's probably other types two sky around with the
Speaker 1: Japanese type whiskey, which is sort of where you decided
Speaker 1: to go to when we're talking about that one of
Speaker 1: the things you just mentioned that is appealing to females. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm not a good at marketing alcohol because I don't
Speaker 1: know markets alcohol, alcoholic markets. You guys do you and
Speaker 1: androw do? I mean, whine is your territory and you
Speaker 1: study these areas. Why did you say at the Times
Speaker 1: years ago? But why did you say the taste profile
Speaker 1: should also appeal appeal to females. Why did you think
Speaker 1: that was important?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, for a fiscal point of view, it's
Speaker 2: another fifty center of the market. But more so I
Speaker 2: was in the fact we I sort of found, as though,
Speaker 2: you know, that that females shifted from wines to Gin's
Speaker 2: and then they decided to sort of move to whiskey.
Speaker 2: They sort of wanted something that was just a little
Speaker 2: bit something they could sip, you put a rock in it.
Speaker 2: They like the sound of all this sort of thing.
Speaker 2: And more so I was in the fact as well
Speaker 2: that I just seemed to think it's pretty important to
Speaker 2: have to offer a product that appeals to females. I
Speaker 2: mean I'm a bit like you as well. You know,
Speaker 2: and Andrews are saying, you know, we're in touch with
Speaker 2: our feminine side, and you know, the wine component of
Speaker 2: the business, Andrews business, you know, the large percentage of
Speaker 2: that is females as well, and I just think it's
Speaker 2: pretty important in order to have a product to watch
Speaker 2: for that beyond.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just trying to sort of scratch around
Speaker 1: here and you on you because I'm actually curious because
Speaker 1: I've never really known the answer because it wasn't something
Speaker 1: that I thought of. I mean, I agree with it,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't something I thought of him initially. And
Speaker 1: apart from the obvious things fifty cent of the market,
Speaker 1: Apart from that, what is it? Do you do you
Speaker 1: feel as though, particularly given your experience in the wine game,
Speaker 1: do you feel as though there's been women have evolved
Speaker 1: in terms of what they're prepared to be seen as tasty?
Speaker 1: Because like, if I go back to when I was
Speaker 1: a young guy and if a woman asked for whiskey,
Speaker 1: she's a drunk. I mean, I don't mean a disparaging
Speaker 1: but when I'm going back forty years, right, but today
Speaker 1: it would seem to be completely acceptable for women to
Speaker 1: ask for whiskey.
Speaker 2: Definitely. I mean men were, even though he's sort of
Speaker 2: seen as a drunk too, you know, I mean used
Speaker 2: to used the old madman days. You used to walk
Speaker 2: in the first thing, and my dad was the same,
Speaker 2: used to walk in st thing. The first thing wasn't
Speaker 2: how young kids or anything like that. They're the own
Speaker 2: private bar and bang they needed a hit of something
Speaker 2: in order to just function. Slow down. Yeah, So so
Speaker 2: I think I think it's I think they've always just shifted.
Speaker 2: I mean everything psychlical and everything moves in you know,
Speaker 2: in in trends and stuff. When we're dealing with a
Speaker 2: product here or too. You know, this particular product is
Speaker 2: in whiskey. That's it was created in the thirteen hundred,
Speaker 2: so it's two thousand years old. Wine was probably before that,
Speaker 2: was in the twelfth and thirteenth hundreds that century that
Speaker 2: they say. So that's pushing even more so. It's been
Speaker 2: round for years and years and years, and everything will
Speaker 2: have its time in the sun, you know, trends and
Speaker 2: whatever it may be. And it was gin and tonics
Speaker 2: and you know, chardonnay was big, and now it's moved
Speaker 2: to savignon blanc, and then you know, so everything everyone's
Speaker 2: everyone's everyone's palette changes to a certain extent as they
Speaker 2: get older as well. I always say that, you know,
Speaker 2: if I turn round in my future son and Lauren
Speaker 2: say come mate, let's go downstairs and have a beer,
Speaker 2: he'd be like, Oh, fantastic, this conversation is going to
Speaker 2: be football, surfing, weather, whatever it may be. If I
Speaker 2: turn around to turn around and say kind that we're
Speaker 2: going to go downstairs and have a glass of red wine,
Speaker 2: he'd be like, Oh, we're going to talk about architecture
Speaker 2: and art and a bit more cultured thing, a bit
Speaker 2: more theater. If I turn around him and say, nope,
Speaker 2: we're going down having a whiskey, he doesn't know. What
Speaker 2: is not really confessional, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: It's you and I enough, definitely confessional.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I just find as it draws, the
Speaker 2: conversation is a lot deeper. I find as the everyone's emotions,
Speaker 2: they feel as though it's a bit easier in order
Speaker 2: to talk and get a bit deeper in the in
Speaker 2: relation to the conversation and stuff that's both male and female.
Speaker 2: So I love what it represents and I think I
Speaker 2: sort of made that observation when I was in Japan.
Speaker 2: You know, when you when you're when you're when you're
Speaker 2: in the work environment, and they work hard over there
Speaker 2: that you know, if they'd have a have a beer,
Speaker 2: it was a little bit more lighter in conversation, what
Speaker 2: have you. And they have a sarky after that, and
Speaker 2: they just sort of start to ramp up a little bit.
Speaker 2: But once they sort of had whiskey, it was just
Speaker 2: like they really sort of they let go of a
Speaker 2: lot things and they just they were really deep in
Speaker 2: their conversation. I was used to used to think, Wow,
Speaker 2: that's you know, is it because of their drunker or
Speaker 2: is it because of the product itself. And as I,
Speaker 2: you know, as I drank more whiskey, and as I
Speaker 2: obviously you know, got into the manufacturing side of it,
Speaker 2: I sort of find as I was just one of
Speaker 2: those things, there's something about the smell, the taste, the
Speaker 2: theater of what we just did before and the sound
Speaker 2: of the rock and stuff, and sit down. It's not
Speaker 2: a slurp it down as much as you can and
Speaker 2: quick and so it can't slow. It's medicinal. It's you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's a bit like red wine as well. I
Speaker 2: just want to find it though. It's just got that
Speaker 2: serves its purpose in relation, and that's you know, it's
Speaker 2: three ingredients. It's water, barley and you know, an old barleyon.
Speaker 2: It's yeast, and that's it. You know, you think that
Speaker 2: you can make something so pure and so beautiful out
Speaker 2: of out of three ingredients. And it's been around, as
Speaker 2: I said, since you know, thirteen thirteen hundreds. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's a long time in order to have a product
Speaker 2: around there, and as wine's are same, you know, wine's
Speaker 2: probably older. You know, it's been around for a lot
Speaker 2: a lot longer. And all it is is a grape,
Speaker 2: you know, at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: So so if it's interesting, I part from the theater
Speaker 1: and you just sort of demonstrate the theater. And you
Speaker 1: do you think that it is much more conducive to
Speaker 1: deeper conversations or even slow, slower conversations because the nature
Speaker 1: of the way you drink it, you sip it as
Speaker 1: opposed to wine you drink and beer as you golp it.
Speaker 1: Even sort of other sparkly sort of drinks with mix
Speaker 1: mixed types, drinks like you know, gim bean and coca something.
Speaker 1: You're sort of.
Speaker 2: Drinking this, you sip the quick yeah, on the very
Speaker 2: A lot of the times you sort of don't even sip.
Speaker 2: A lot of the times I just sort of put
Speaker 2: it to my lip sort of thing and then take
Speaker 2: it back. And then it's the flavor component that sits there.
Speaker 2: You know, you don't do that with with with with
Speaker 2: red wine and beer. It's like gold gold, gold, gold golp.
Speaker 2: So there's sort of you know, plus all I suppose
Speaker 2: you know the sugar component as well. It's a bit
Speaker 2: you know, it's a bit like quick quick quick. At
Speaker 2: the conversation with this is just slow down. Let's just
Speaker 2: slow down.
Speaker 1: And so how important do you think that is for today?
Speaker 1: So because I've done a number of shows here in Adelaide.
Speaker 1: We're in the Adelaid Hills, but like I was in
Speaker 1: the bruss Valley this morning, various other places doing various shows,
Speaker 1: and the theme of every one was take a breath,
Speaker 1: sit back and slow down the most important and get
Speaker 1: back in touch connect with people with nature, you know,
Speaker 1: with what nature provides, which is that's what nature provides
Speaker 1: provided that to us. I know it's people say it's
Speaker 1: bad here and all that sort of stuff. It's not
Speaker 1: the devil incarnade. It's what something comes from nature. Sure,
Speaker 1: if you drink too much, if you do much, but
Speaker 1: the art of conversation. Do you feel as though that
Speaker 1: is being slightly lost and we need to sort of
Speaker 1: if that's something that is a mechanism whereby we can
Speaker 1: connect again, it's worthwhile.
Speaker 2: Totally not. I mean, I think in today's day and age,
Speaker 2: you know, the most important thing and you've taught me
Speaker 2: that as well, is to be able to slow down
Speaker 2: everything so quick, everything so instantaneous, everything's like now sudden.
Speaker 2: If it's not on your table within a minute type
Speaker 2: of thing, what's going on?
Speaker 1: You know, you blow up exactly.
Speaker 2: And it's the thing that I love about And as
Speaker 2: you said, you know, it is alcohol and you have
Speaker 2: to be careful and any anything, you know, whether it's sugar, salt,
Speaker 2: whether it's fish and chips, any anything in excess is
Speaker 2: going to be bad for and alcohol is no different
Speaker 2: obviously sort of thing. But the thing that I love
Speaker 2: about it is what you hit the nail on the head,
Speaker 2: is that slow down. It's conversation, and you know, you
Speaker 2: throw the wine side into things there's food, there's connection,
Speaker 2: there's love, there's family. You know what I mean. It's
Speaker 2: it's just it's one of those it's one of those
Speaker 2: products and one of those things in your life where
Speaker 2: very few of it or does it happen frequently, is
Speaker 2: the fact where it's just yeah, let's slow down, let's
Speaker 2: let's let's talk, let's get deep, let's read set type
Speaker 2: of thing, let's have some great food, tell me about
Speaker 2: this and laughter, and you know, in today's day and age,
Speaker 2: I think it's probably one of the most important things
Speaker 2: in order to in order to slow down and more
Speaker 2: so connect, you know, not connect via phone, not to
Speaker 2: connect electronically. And I think that's what you know, wine
Speaker 2: and whiskey does, is in fact the connection. It draws
Speaker 2: people together. It's there's food on the tape, there's loved ones,
Speaker 2: there's family, there's friends, there's conversation, you know. And I
Speaker 2: think that those particular things, at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: are they not the most important things in the whole
Speaker 2: world world about health, family, love, family, food, I think
Speaker 2: that's probably basically now to eat, isn't it.
Speaker 1: It's funny on the way here, I mean, the guys,
Speaker 1: the team We're listening to the diary of a CEO
Speaker 1: CEO and he was interviewing a gentleman who's considered to
Speaker 1: be the godfather of artificial intelligence, and you know, he's
Speaker 1: in his late seventies. And I was just thinking, as
Speaker 1: you were speaking, then artificial intelligence is never going to
Speaker 1: have a whiskey with me. Ever, Ever, no robot, no computer,
Speaker 1: no software is are we going to sit down and
Speaker 1: have a whiskey with me? And that's where artificial intelligence
Speaker 1: fails miserably, and that's something that's there's never going to repeat.
Speaker 1: An artificial intelligen has probably never been my plumber either.
Speaker 1: But still, you know that socialization that humans have that connection.
Speaker 1: Artificial intelligence doesn't connect to just deliver information that that
Speaker 1: is collected from certain way, but it doesn't connect and
Speaker 1: we as humans we need, we need totally do and
Speaker 1: that an artificial intelligence will never supplant that position. And
Speaker 1: not only we see wine whiskey, but moments. Whiskey helps
Speaker 1: us deliver the moments, and that actually helps us absorb,
Speaker 1: in my view, the moments, and I think that's you know,
Speaker 1: my father passed away last year. But one of the things,
Speaker 1: as you probably recall, is One of the things I
Speaker 1: always wanted to do is create a bottle of whiskey,
Speaker 1: you know, because my father and in fact we're our
Speaker 1: very first we've got George. We've got to tuck to
Speaker 1: for every is my dad's name. But I don't think
Speaker 1: we ever sold any know.
Speaker 2: We've tucked away two hundred and fifty bottles. All we
Speaker 2: manufactured was two hundred and fifty bottles because we're going
Speaker 2: to bring it out of the special time and it
Speaker 2: might be your dad's you know, fifth year anniversary, or
Speaker 2: it might be ten years. And if it's it's ten years,
Speaker 2: that whisky itself will probably be twenty twenty five years
Speaker 2: old sort of thing. So we've tucked it away for
Speaker 2: a special occasion.
Speaker 1: That's good. Hopefully the boys can get a bit of
Speaker 1: b roll later hiding because I don't know, but like,
Speaker 1: but I think I got a bottle. I got to
Speaker 1: I've got a bottle at home somewhere. But let's just
Speaker 1: go back a moment. So it's all very well, we've
Speaker 1: got whiskey and stuff like that, but like it's you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot goes into it. So can we just
Speaker 1: go back through operationally, because you know, you run all that,
Speaker 1: and all I ever do is respond to you send
Speaker 1: me photographs or you send me you know, you send
Speaker 1: me samples to try, and you know, we all try
Speaker 1: the samples. But it all starts with you and ends
Speaker 1: with you. And yeah it does, mate, You've done everything.
Speaker 1: You do everything, So let's just talk about how you chose, well,
Speaker 1: how you met Gareth whiskey maker. Where's the whiskey made?
Speaker 1: It's not here right here where we are at the moment.
Speaker 1: It's made down a Fluria peninsula. Explain where that is?
Speaker 1: What's important about the fluurair peninsula in terms of you
Speaker 1: often talked about the salt in the air and I
Speaker 1: stuff like that. And I wanted then to take me
Speaker 1: through the barrels that the burdenhand has that we've tried
Speaker 1: somewhere whiskeys through and sometimes you've even put in Charonay barrels,
Speaker 1: et cetera. But they just take me through making the whiskey.
Speaker 1: How you chose, why you chose Gareth, why that particular location,
Speaker 1: et cetera.
Speaker 2: Well, as I said before, whiskey is only three ingredients,
Speaker 2: and the way that you get your flavor component is through.
Speaker 2: It's not too dissimilar to wine. Even though wine's more agriculture,
Speaker 2: it comes back down to temperature. It comes back down
Speaker 2: to climate, comes back down to the wood and the
Speaker 2: barrels in which it's stored in. So that's how you
Speaker 2: get your basically your flavor profile. As we said from
Speaker 2: the start of the show, we wanted our whiskey to
Speaker 2: be Japanese and part and part of the Japanese. It's
Speaker 2: got a bit, it's got a bit of maritime about
Speaker 2: a bit of maritime, bit of saltiness and a bit
Speaker 2: of delicate and in that maritime it becomes you know,
Speaker 2: floral components and whatever it may be sort of thing.
Speaker 2: So once we got our flavor profile, what we really
Speaker 2: wanted to do, hence more so in the Japanese style,
Speaker 2: we had to find the best distiller. We wanted the
Speaker 2: best distiller in Australia, and we got the best distiller
Speaker 2: in Australia and it so happened to be dan Fleurio Peninsula,
Speaker 2: where Andrew first when he first went into the vineyard business,
Speaker 2: you know, over a quarter of a century ago. That's
Speaker 2: where one of his first one of his first vineyards
Speaker 2: was down in that particular way. So there was connection
Speaker 2: he's also got a vineyard down that particular neck of
Speaker 2: the woods. Now, so everything sort of married up. But
Speaker 2: the most important thing was Gareth himself. I mean, he's renowned,
Speaker 2: He's won hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of prizes and
Speaker 2: awards and just makes a fantastic whiskey. We are gonna
Speaker 2: he's going to move and we are going to fund
Speaker 2: his distiller and we are going to build a down
Speaker 2: at Finnis sort of thing.
Speaker 1: So which is that is in the flu that's.
Speaker 2: In the fluid Pinsul which is probably around yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: where the three waters basically need you know, the Nurii
Speaker 2: the ocean, and that's why they call it the Fliero Peninsula.
Speaker 2: But you know it's it's about fifteen minutes from where
Speaker 2: Gareth is now. So there's you know, he's famil with everything.
Speaker 2: It still gives off that particular which we're which we wanted,
Speaker 2: you know, that that saltiness, that maritime influence, and there's
Speaker 2: actually totally not if the can get if the boys
Speaker 2: can get a shot out there. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: as I said to you before, the flavor comes from
Speaker 2: the wood, you know, from the barrels in which it's
Speaker 2: stored in. So sometimes you know, the barrels would be
Speaker 2: what they classify sherry barrels, it could be you know,
Speaker 2: classify as bourbon. Barrels would be classified as apex French whatever.
Speaker 2: Whatever the barrel is and what it is is you know,
Speaker 2: it's part of nature. So what wood does is it's
Speaker 2: got a different it's got different components to it. And
Speaker 2: that's basically because as I said, there's only three ingredients.
Speaker 2: But the flavor comes from once it starts to get
Speaker 2: in the barrels. The higher the barrels, the hotter it
Speaker 2: is up the top type of thing, it will soak
Speaker 2: out and bring out more of the flavor component what
Speaker 2: the barrel has to offer in the wood in the wood. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So what we did because we wanted we want a
Speaker 2: bloodline obviously, and we wanted our own flavor. You know,
Speaker 2: bloodline is in blood that that particular bloodline. But also
Speaker 2: we wanted our point of different so we finished off
Speaker 2: you know, once we found our flavor component, we finished
Speaker 2: off our whiskey in our nest egg chardonnay barrels. And
Speaker 2: if you know chardonnay chardon is a bit armandear, a
Speaker 2: bit nutty and slightly little bit buttery. So we finished
Speaker 2: our We finished our whiskey in our in a big
Speaker 2: hog which is two hundred and twenty five hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty leaders. We finished it off in there just just
Speaker 2: to extract a little bit of that sharp Enney component.
Speaker 2: So when you do have a taste of it at
Speaker 2: the end, the final just that final little bit at
Speaker 2: the end, you'll sort of you'll taste that little bit
Speaker 2: of butter and that little bit of arm and in
Speaker 2: that little bit of nutty. And that's because of the
Speaker 2: fact type of thing that it sat in the sharp
Speaker 2: or for six weeks.
Speaker 1: The barrel is made of what top would French oak.
Speaker 2: French oak, Okay, French shoakes a little bit different to
Speaker 2: actually yeah, from France. It's it's the French oak trees
Speaker 2: there are a lot slower to to to grow where
Speaker 2: American oak type of things really quick, so they can
Speaker 2: extract the flavor out of it really quickly in relation
Speaker 2: to American where French choakes a lot more. You know,
Speaker 2: the flavor is bigger, but also it's a little bit
Speaker 2: slower and stuff you have a little bit more control.
Speaker 1: So Burnhand uses French oise.
Speaker 2: All our wines finished off as in franchise.
Speaker 1: So and and then in terms of because I remember
Speaker 1: when I was getting the samples, they were clear, they
Speaker 1: weren't that color, and my god, they was strong because
Speaker 1: you know, the high high concentration levels of alcohol, and
Speaker 1: because they're just samples that it wasn't actual whiskey. And
Speaker 1: so maybe just take us through that process. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: I remember get a like example, they just kept coming
Speaker 1: and eventually we all agreed on which one it would be.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if I actually how much influence I
Speaker 1: had on that. I knew sort of pretty much. I
Speaker 1: was in agreement in general with what you do.
Speaker 2: Guys, Palette, though I think you under say you but I'm.
Speaker 1: Not sure as the one I landed on was what
Speaker 1: we ended up having. But nonetheless, so maybe you should
Speaker 1: explain how strong, because all I kept getting was a
Speaker 1: heavy alcohol. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Cast strength is sixty five, sixty three, sixty eight percent
Speaker 2: and that's rocket fuel.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's absolute.
Speaker 2: Rocket fuel and a bit it's a bit like how
Speaker 2: we I explained the architecture of the wine for you. You know,
Speaker 2: if we have a great year, it'll move into that
Speaker 2: next tier. You have a great, great, great year'll move
Speaker 2: into that next tier thing. But everything has to roll
Speaker 2: pretty well in order for the wine component, that is,
Speaker 2: in order for it to reach that level. Climate, water,
Speaker 2: the rain at the right time, harvest, you know, and
Speaker 2: then the wine makers come in and do their particular thing. George,
Speaker 2: which will go back to the one that we named
Speaker 2: after you. That's that sits at that at that top
Speaker 2: tier is in the fact that it's a single cask.
Speaker 2: It wasn't blended with other cask in order to make that,
Speaker 2: and that is rare.
Speaker 1: That's so the George whiskey we care.
Speaker 2: Sat in one barrel and that and that was it
Speaker 2: and we finished it off ever so slightly sort of thing,
Speaker 2: but that is rare. So this these ones are comprised
Speaker 2: of three different barrels, twenty sixteens and twenty and seventies
Speaker 2: in order to get our flavor component. That's what Gareth does.
Speaker 2: So that one he might take and there's a lot
Speaker 2: of to and and fro, and there's a lot of tasting.
Speaker 2: So a lot of the tasting you did was let's
Speaker 2: get the let's get the foundation right. So it's six
Speaker 2: sixty eight percent, you know, but you can sort of
Speaker 2: get an understanding of what it's going to be like
Speaker 2: to a certain extent. And then that's when Gareth comes
Speaker 2: in order the science component. It's like, okay, if I
Speaker 2: take thirty percent out of that one, take twenty six
Speaker 2: and a half percent out of that, and the rest
Speaker 2: out of that, what do I get? It's a little
Speaker 2: bit hot. Maybe it needs a little bit of that
Speaker 2: one because that one's got more of this and more
Speaker 2: of that. So that's how that's what science within itself,
Speaker 2: even though it's three ingredients that every barrel tells a
Speaker 2: different story and office offers a different flavor profile. It's
Speaker 2: sat up there for longer, so it's extracted more. It's
Speaker 2: more heat, so it's extracted more of the flavor the
Speaker 2: barrel had, you know the thing. So that's what he
Speaker 2: basically did.
Speaker 1: And does it get its color from the barrel? And
Speaker 1: is that from the barrels? Are from the skin of
Speaker 1: the wine, the residue inside that just.
Speaker 2: Over time, just over time. With wooden things, you have
Speaker 2: a look at wood like woods all ways, you can
Speaker 2: see sort of thing. There's a brown component. We love that.
Speaker 2: We love, I mean, I love the color of that.
Speaker 2: That's that honey rich particular color. You know, and you
Speaker 2: lay out we got six different whiskeys here, and laid
Speaker 2: it all out that all could have a completely different
Speaker 2: color because it's come from a different different DNA, it's
Speaker 2: come from a completely different barrel.
Speaker 1: And then when you consider because like we often talk
Speaker 1: about tasmanium whiskeys, and in fact there's some very famous
Speaker 1: tasmanium Yeah yeah, he started it, yeah yeah, but like
Speaker 1: and it got Sullivan's too, totally, and by the way,
Speaker 1: is best whiskey is the best, And it actually is
Speaker 1: up there with Sullivan's totally, but about a third of
Speaker 1: the price, maybe more than the third place. Because I've
Speaker 1: seen some of the Sulovon's Francho whiskeys at nine and
Speaker 1: Bucks a bottle, like I have seen those, and in fact,
Speaker 1: I got one or two of those bottles because because
Speaker 1: I should say to everybody when we're going through the
Speaker 1: process of how to bottle it and how to package,
Speaker 1: because package is important, how do we sort of land
Speaker 1: on the bird. And we'll come back to that in
Speaker 1: a second. But I went bought I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: fifty bottles of whiskey, and I had all the bottle,
Speaker 1: different bottle shapes, different flavor, profiles just just French, Scottish, whatever,
Speaker 1: Australian had it everywhere and I've still probably got it
Speaker 1: because I don't drink. I'm not really a big drink
Speaker 1: I don't drink much, but I just did it to
Speaker 1: see what the bottles look like. And Paul ended up
Speaker 1: recommending this bottle. So just go through why this bottle shape?
Speaker 1: Why did you land on this?
Speaker 2: I think the most important thing he was obviously it's
Speaker 2: liquid inside. And we knew that we you know along
Speaker 2: you know, with Gareth and Andrew's palette and you know
Speaker 2: yourself and stuff like that, that we had the best
Speaker 2: juice and the best liquid. But it was it was
Speaker 2: a just there was a decision making process that needed
Speaker 2: two things to consider. I think number one was the
Speaker 2: fact that which we spoke about before, I wanted it
Speaker 2: to appeal to females as well, and I sort of
Speaker 2: felt as though that this particular bottle shaped where others
Speaker 2: were too masculine, but I felt that there was enough
Speaker 2: masculinity in order to appeal to a male as well.
Speaker 2: So I sort of felt as though that the shape
Speaker 2: of this and you know, the weight of it and
Speaker 2: the size of it and whatever it may be everything
Speaker 2: else is. There's a bit of Chanelle five about it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, so there was that appealing factor and that
Speaker 2: that appealed to me as well, that for females, but
Speaker 2: also felt as though it was masculine enough for a
Speaker 2: man as well. It's a bit of a hip flask
Speaker 2: and a bit tough and a bit you know, and
Speaker 2: and also I just I like the width of it.
Speaker 2: I like the factor it's like to hold and what
Speaker 2: have you. And we wanted it minimal. We wanted everything minimal.
Speaker 2: We wanted no stickers, we wanted you know, we didn't
Speaker 2: want labels on it. So that is actually car paint
Speaker 2: that goes through a three step process. It gets stamped,
Speaker 2: gets baked, and then they do it each side basically
Speaker 2: sort of thing. So it's a long process in order
Speaker 2: to have even though it looks minimal, it's a long
Speaker 2: process in order to make sure that we got it right.
Speaker 2: And that's what we know. It started with Andrew and
Speaker 2: you can see here that if the boys do a
Speaker 2: little bit of a tour later on, it's all about
Speaker 2: the detail. And there's absolutely nothing wrong to come in
Speaker 2: with an eight point five or a nine point one,
Speaker 2: but we're always nine point nine or don't do it
Speaker 2: at all. So we're big on the attention to detail
Speaker 2: in every single thing, in every aspect. And as I said,
Speaker 2: the most important thing was the juice. And Gareth he
Speaker 2: was tarnished. He's got the same DNA. It's about the
Speaker 2: detail to the absolute nth. And then if we felt
Speaker 2: a lot of you gave me and Andrew gave me
Speaker 2: the erection in order to explore more. And we just
Speaker 2: sort of felt as that every single detail had to
Speaker 2: be a nine point nine and that come back to
Speaker 2: the highest grade core. Even the stopper exactly the stop,
Speaker 2: highest grade pork, it's wood, it's firebranded. You know, as
Speaker 2: I said that this is you know, this is this
Speaker 2: goes through a massive process just in order to do
Speaker 2: you know, to have the logo in relation to you know,
Speaker 2: it's car paints. It's so it's extraordinary what goes. But
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, we just wanted to
Speaker 2: make sure that we had something we were proud of,
Speaker 2: not only externally, but the most important thing was internally.
Speaker 2: And that's what people are going to pay for. You
Speaker 2: know that there's thousands of good wineries and good wines
Speaker 2: out there and there's thousands of good whiskeys out there,
Speaker 2: But what we wanted to do was just to provide
Speaker 2: an experience. And that experience comes back down to what
Speaker 2: we spoke about before, you know, connection, conversation, people, food, family, laughter,
Speaker 2: you know, and I think that those particular things are
Speaker 2: really important. So we wanted to be authentic. Mark, I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, the thing is and that's what you taught me.
Speaker 2: You know, let's be real, let's be your in this world.
Speaker 2: I have met a more authentic person than yourself. The thing,
Speaker 2: what you see is what you get, and that's what
Speaker 2: we wanted to do. You know, we just we always
Speaker 2: just wanted to be honest. We wanted to be honest
Speaker 2: with ourselves. We wanted to be honest with the product.
Speaker 2: We wanted to be honest to the public as well,
Speaker 2: and just be authentic, you know what I mean. It's
Speaker 2: something we were proud of it, and I think that
Speaker 2: we've achieved that.
Speaker 1: The logo, like I can't remember how many iterations of
Speaker 1: a bird we went through and one of the things
Speaker 1: I have experienced and it's been a good experience for
Speaker 1: me and not something I would ordinarily experience. I think
Speaker 1: I know that I have had this discussion with you
Speaker 1: about this actually walking around here at one stage when
Speaker 1: I was here last, and for some reason you compete
Speaker 1: and went for a long walk. And I have a
Speaker 1: much greater appreciation appreciation of Indigenous and First Nations people
Speaker 1: as a result of being involved with you, and Andrew.
Speaker 2: It's important to us, it's our core. I mean, at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, and we've had this conversation before,
Speaker 2: it's like, you know, I just can't understand why is
Speaker 2: a nation that we wouldn't celebrate that where we're you know,
Speaker 2: we could really make us stand and not make a stand,
Speaker 2: but just really be proud of the fact that you
Speaker 2: know that we we think the country that you know,
Speaker 2: these people were here for sixty thousand years. You know,
Speaker 2: Navajo Indians haven't been around that long, let alone anyone else.
Speaker 2: I mean, what a what a thing to be proud
Speaker 2: of the fact type of thing that you know, we
Speaker 2: come from a country that you know, the first type
Speaker 2: of thing with sixty thousand years old. And I mean,
Speaker 2: it's dear to Andrew's heart, you know, it's it's it's
Speaker 2: I think it's something that has to be.
Speaker 1: You know, and you have told me that there is
Speaker 1: a great deal of importance from our first Nation's partners, friends,
Speaker 1: family that about bird and how important birds are to them.
Speaker 2: It is that was one of the things. Well you know,
Speaker 2: we got them and I just love what it represents.
Speaker 2: The You're the one that picked it up the bird,
Speaker 2: I'm saying that, yeah.
Speaker 1: But but in some ways you can play have fun
Speaker 1: with that totally, you can give the bird, but really
Speaker 1: deep deep below that in the Whiskey conversation, as you
Speaker 1: dive deeper into it, people should realize that this is
Speaker 1: about something much more significant, Oh, totally, and.
Speaker 2: In the way that the Indigenous. The Indigenous people look
Speaker 2: at birds and what they see the messages they come across,
Speaker 2: no matter what bird it is. I mean, for a
Speaker 2: simple to use it as an example that every time
Speaker 2: I see a feather, the Indigenous people use the feather
Speaker 2: when they see a feather on the ground that it's
Speaker 2: that someone from above. And I always think that it's
Speaker 2: my mum, a signal type of thing that's saying that
Speaker 2: I love you. So every time I will take the
Speaker 2: dog for a walk, I'll see feathers everywhere. It's just
Speaker 2: a little sign of little signal that they use Indigenous
Speaker 2: people being as a ritual where you know, they use
Speaker 2: it as the spirit above has dropped the feather type
Speaker 2: of thing and a little reminded just saying yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: watching your back, Yeah, I'm loving you. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: it's my mum, it's you know, it's my cousin who
Speaker 2: passed away, it's all those sort of people that I'm
Speaker 2: no longer with us, And I just think it just
Speaker 2: has amazing, you know, that that ritual and that tradition
Speaker 2: and that the story along those sort of lines. The
Speaker 2: thing is amazing.
Speaker 1: And because we have often talked about, you know, how
Speaker 1: we could, with their permission, further sort of involve First
Speaker 1: Nations people in our and in a whiskey, maybe some
Speaker 1: sort of indigenous grain or something like doing something special.
Speaker 1: They're doing a one off and no one else in
Speaker 1: the world's ever done. We often talked about that, and
Speaker 1: I think the bird is you know, we're not trying
Speaker 1: to be cute, but in some respects it's a bit
Speaker 1: of a nod to our First Nation's family and I
Speaker 1: really do believe that, and it wasn't something that I
Speaker 1: came up with. It's not something that I'll be honest
Speaker 1: I'm not even used to, but I've been exposed to
Speaker 1: that from you two guys. I mean, for some reason,
Speaker 1: people on Adelaide or South a Stralia are much more
Speaker 1: they are aware of First Nation people than anywhere else.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's because we all grew up in the city,
Speaker 1: never saw Indigenous other than on a footy field, and
Speaker 1: we just thought them as a as a as a
Speaker 1: freak in terms of athleticism compared to us. They could
Speaker 1: do anything, and that's about it. We never really had
Speaker 1: much involvement. But now I have a completely different view
Speaker 1: on Indigenous people as a result of knowing you and
Speaker 1: Andrew and actually having done this whiskey and having seeing
Speaker 1: around having conversations with you and Andrew about the importance
Speaker 1: of this, and I know, to you guys is really important.
Speaker 1: And funnily enough, we did a podcast this morning in
Speaker 1: Barossa Valley with a gentleman's business called the Cabins, and
Speaker 1: he also was talking about First Nations people, how important
Speaker 1: it is to him. And I actually was talking about birds,
Speaker 1: how some birds are really important and probably the number
Speaker 1: one bird I love in the world as a Cooko
Speaker 1: Borough and he said to me that you know how
Speaker 1: important cooker borroughs are to Indigenous people and that you know,
Speaker 1: their laugh is a bit of an omen as to
Speaker 1: how things are going to be and it's going to
Speaker 1: be okay. You hear a car, everything's going to be okay.
Speaker 1: And I actually, without even knowing that, I actually feel
Speaker 1: that every morning when if I if I don't hear
Speaker 1: a corner barreugh where I live in Sydney and and
Speaker 1: or at my farm, I sometimes think I'm not going
Speaker 1: to have a good day. I know it's weird as think,
Speaker 1: and I'm not normally a suspicious or superstitious person about
Speaker 1: many things, but that is one thing that I do
Speaker 1: get concerned about. It if I don't hear a corner borough.
Speaker 1: And because I wake up earlier like you and cook
Speaker 1: a barro is up before daylight. They're the first burder
Speaker 1: and it's the first bird you hear at least, and
Speaker 1: to me it's it's incredibly important. And the bird whiskey
Speaker 1: the name for me, the logo is all part of it.
Speaker 1: And then you know, most people don't realize this, but
Speaker 1: which is why I thought would be a great opportunity.
Speaker 1: Now that I mean, I'd like to have a conversation
Speaker 1: with you about this, you know, like it brought together
Speaker 1: so many things. It did pour into me and my
Speaker 1: dad just but that's.
Speaker 2: Recypical though for Andrew and I too was well not
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, you know as much as
Speaker 2: what we did that do you you did exactly the
Speaker 2: same for us as well. And I think that's what
Speaker 2: the beauty of not only this project and this friendship
Speaker 2: and stuff. But then it comes back down to that
Speaker 2: whole sit down, slow down reflection conversation, let's dig the
Speaker 2: family laughter. It just keeps coming back to those core
Speaker 2: those those core elements, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: And we don't get enough of it, by the way,
Speaker 1: we should say, we don't make a shitload of money
Speaker 1: out of this, but it does. It breaks in and
Speaker 1: wash his face, and it's it's been a good exercise
Speaker 1: experiment for us. We are building the business, you know,
Speaker 1: we want to get more bottles out for sale, and
Speaker 1: that's really important for us because you know, ultimately these
Speaker 1: things are a passion stuff. As a passion project project.
Speaker 2: We sit in that premium space too, and.
Speaker 1: We are in the premium space and things a bit
Speaker 1: tough at the moment just to be but we've done
Speaker 1: everything or Paul's done everything right and because he's added,
Speaker 1: you know, this crazy thing entered into a competition. Okat
Speaker 1: first entry, we want Astray as best single malt. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that come twice, and then we want it again the
Speaker 1: year after. And now you're talking about going into some
Speaker 1: international competitions, which hopefully as we do next year. Is
Speaker 1: that right? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Well, I think I think it'd be fairly you know,
Speaker 2: that'd be just how we evolve and stuff. I think
Speaker 2: it'd be the next the next thing in order to do.
Speaker 2: And then secondly to that which we wanted to do with,
Speaker 2: I want everyone to try this. I want everyone to
Speaker 2: be able to have whiskey. I want not so much whiskey,
Speaker 2: but I want everyone in order to slow down, reflect friends, family,
Speaker 2: laughter and stuff. And as we said, you know, we
Speaker 2: sit in this premium space at the moment, this particular product.
Speaker 2: But you know, the last the last twelve months and
Speaker 2: the next or the last few years basically the thing.
Speaker 2: But over the next like six to eight months, we're
Speaker 2: going to bring something out that's more affordable to every
Speaker 2: to everyone. I mean, this is a special occasion drink,
Speaker 2: this is.
Speaker 1: Our launch, this is out launch, but we launched that.
Speaker 1: But you and I only talking, were you showing me
Speaker 1: the new bottle and the new logo, and that was
Speaker 1: not new Lego's sort of similar logo.
Speaker 2: And it might be compromised on quality as well, but
Speaker 2: it might be as the top tier in relation to
Speaker 2: whisky and stuff. That there was always part of the
Speaker 2: business plan and the journey along and again evolving was
Speaker 2: to make sure that we can that it appeal to everyone,
Speaker 2: that everyone access to it. And in order to do that,
Speaker 2: we had to bring out a product that was a
Speaker 2: little bit more cheap and a little bit more affordable.
Speaker 2: We're not compromise on quality.
Speaker 1: But what's interesting about this pool and this is how
Speaker 1: you guys decided to go about it because you know, equally,
Speaker 1: Burdenhand has won many many, many World Best three times.
Speaker 2: Yeah, numerous times made and the Sparklings and you know,
Speaker 2: the chardonnais and things. Yeah, there's a lot of.
Speaker 1: That we're following is that and we've won twice and
Speaker 1: the whiskey thing. But if you can crack it by
Speaker 1: having the best quality, then you can sort of go
Speaker 1: down a step, not ship quality, but go down a
Speaker 1: step and have something affordable, more reasonably priced, which becomes
Speaker 1: your staple. Now we haven't launched it yet, and we
Speaker 1: maybe we're having a conversation with that when we get
Speaker 1: around to launching that. But you, when you came up
Speaker 1: with that product in that bottle with that name and
Speaker 1: that logo and that taste profile and the description, and
Speaker 1: we win awards. One of the things that you were
Speaker 1: able to do which is not here in front of us,
Speaker 1: but you realize that this is the perfect we need
Speaker 1: a gift to be able to give to people, a
Speaker 1: great way to say happy Father's Day, Happy Mother's Day,
Speaker 1: Merry Christmas. Good on you do a staff member, I
Speaker 1: do it in my always and a great business. All
Speaker 1: our award winners get one of these boys every year,
Speaker 1: like two or three times, quite a few, and it's
Speaker 1: I think you order congratulations And the process the congratulations
Speaker 1: not just you got to bother the whiskey, but the
Speaker 1: process is the unpackaging and the whole experience of not
Speaker 1: just drinking whisky, but the whole experience of opening it
Speaker 1: up and what's inside and there's a flavor profile. Maybe
Speaker 1: you can explain how what you're thinking was in relation
Speaker 1: to the packaging. That's not the bottle, but what it
Speaker 1: comes in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's I mean, we all love to
Speaker 2: be able to. I mean we love to the most
Speaker 2: important thing is to be able to give. But you
Speaker 2: know there's a certain part of us as well, it
Speaker 2: loves to receive as well. And I think, you know,
Speaker 2: the most important thing is the acknowledgment itself. Is in
Speaker 2: the fact type of thinking, Wow, marks given me, He recognizes.
Speaker 2: Is that recognizing thing. It's just like he understands the
Speaker 2: work that I've done. He's rewarding me. And exactly, and
Speaker 2: it starts not just this whole there you go there
Speaker 2: it is. It starts the thing with this we make
Speaker 2: it like everything. It's it's about the theater. It's about
Speaker 2: making you feel so special. From the moment you look
Speaker 2: him in the eyes, you give him that gift type
Speaker 2: of thing, and he takes it home or whether he
Speaker 2: opens up there you know, it comes box, it comes
Speaker 2: open up the box it's velvet, you know, and then
Speaker 2: inside which is I keep come referring to the most
Speaker 2: important thing is you know, the whisky itself. But it
Speaker 2: starts the process from the moment that you look in
Speaker 2: the eye. It's basically type of thing to unfolding the
Speaker 2: box to unhappy, pulling it out, taking off the sticker
Speaker 2: to you, and I think that all that sort of
Speaker 2: stuff is really important in front of someone else, in
Speaker 2: front of someone else's so longer form. It's just like, wow,
Speaker 2: this is a process. It's just going to take three
Speaker 2: minutes in order for me to open it up on
Speaker 2: a wrap it and it's just we all.
Speaker 1: Love what don't today? Again, it's a big deal totally.
Speaker 1: Could you could you explain because you know wine and whiskey,
Speaker 1: we're talking about the flavor profile, but you have developed
Speaker 1: quite a sophisticated way of describing the taste. I still
Speaker 1: can't do.
Speaker 2: It, but that comes with the wine, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 1: You can describe it like you can say notes of
Speaker 1: corm llans you started to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know vanilla and Christmas spice.
Speaker 1: Can you just go through how this one that our
Speaker 1: streamium whiskey? How is how? How do you describe it?
Speaker 1: And why?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 1: What are the tastes in early taste, back of the tongue,
Speaker 1: back of the after taste, Like what's the process that
Speaker 1: someone should be trying to look for when they have
Speaker 1: a game.
Speaker 2: I think the first thing is the smell. That's the
Speaker 2: most important thing. And as what we said before, you
Speaker 2: know that. I think that's why the conversation around whiskey
Speaker 2: is completely different to beer, because it's a process and
Speaker 2: the type of thing it's slow, it's smell.
Speaker 1: So what do you smell when you do that?
Speaker 2: I can smell vanilla enimal. I can sort of smell
Speaker 2: a little bit of spice.
Speaker 1: Spice as in the chilly oh.
Speaker 2: No more so type of thing. Is more than come
Speaker 2: the yeah, come, come the cardam and you know, the
Speaker 2: more powdery sort of form.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that's pretty important in that that that's the
Speaker 2: process starts with the smell first. And as I said
Speaker 2: to you before, a lot of the times that you know,
Speaker 2: I'll put the glass to my lips, but actually won't swallow,
Speaker 2: because I think it's fairly important to actually sort of
Speaker 2: taste it on your lips first. I get a lot
Speaker 2: of Christmas about it, a bit a bit of a
Speaker 2: bit of Christmas pudding.
Speaker 1: As in lakes, sultanas and raisins and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just that big sort of that that that big
Speaker 2: rich bold you come currants and come, you know, the
Speaker 2: whole flower and come the yeasty thing. What a Christmas
Speaker 2: pudding is you know that whole richness about it, you know,
Speaker 2: a bit maplely, that time of years syrup. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: sort of find it that bit bit of sweetness come through,
Speaker 2: and then once I do swallow, I think a lot
Speaker 2: of it comes back down to what we spoke about
Speaker 2: before with the chardonnay barrel. I find a bit almond butter.
Speaker 2: It ends with that whole sort of caramel come. It's
Speaker 2: like where you get almonds and you get when you
Speaker 2: go to the nut shop, and you can see them
Speaker 2: in various ways. You can get those ones are coated
Speaker 2: in sugar, and those ones are coated in this, and
Speaker 2: that one's I sort of find it's like nearly nearly
Speaker 2: swelling or chewing on an almond that's been soaked in
Speaker 2: maple syrup and baked in Christmas pudding and then just
Speaker 2: sort of like pan fried in butter. But I'm not
Speaker 2: I'm the I'm the everyone's Palett's difference. Like art, everyone
Speaker 2: sees things different and everyone's palett's a little bit different
Speaker 2: as well. But that's the basically overtone of how I
Speaker 2: how I see it and how I taste it.
Speaker 1: But and most people go, oh, that's beyond me. But
Speaker 1: I actually I've as I've had more and more of
Speaker 1: this over over the years, I'm actually starting to pick
Speaker 1: up those let's call them flavors or odors or whatever
Speaker 1: they are.
Speaker 2: A nuances.
Speaker 1: Nuances.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if we sat down here with Andrew, obviously, because
Speaker 2: Andrew has been Vita cultures and a white maker and
Speaker 2: the owner of a bird hand along with his wife
Speaker 2: and even the white maker, the way that they think
Speaker 2: of describe is just phenomenal. Their palette is just extraordinary.
Speaker 2: Dried apriy cots come in thing with a little bit
Speaker 2: of current, then backed off with a little bit of spice,
Speaker 2: and it's finished off with a little bit of pan
Speaker 2: fry with cream. It's just like, oh, it is too.
Speaker 2: You know, they're amazing, it's amazing. It's an amazing skill
Speaker 2: to have. But also it's a it's a train palette
Speaker 2: as well. You know, he's had tasted thousands and thousands
Speaker 2: and thousands of samples of wine. You know, you've you've
Speaker 2: tasted your hundreds of whiskeys in order to get what
Speaker 2: this was. But at the end of the day, we
Speaker 2: knew what we wanted, we knew where we wanted to sit,
Speaker 2: we knew exactly what our favorite profile was going to be.
Speaker 2: And lucky and fortunate we got Dareth we got that way, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 2: and and and the and the lesson one that we
Speaker 2: bring out mon't be compromised on any of those components either.
Speaker 1: More goods. We only want quality anywhere at the end
Speaker 1: of the day. In terms of winning the award, the
Speaker 1: last award, it's all blind testing because it doesn't come
Speaker 1: with our label on it. I don't know where it
Speaker 1: comes from. The chardonnay finishing off and the chardenay barrels.
Speaker 1: That's pretty unusual, I think.
Speaker 2: I think, like with everything in business, And as I said,
Speaker 2: you know which we spoke before, we're dealing with a
Speaker 2: product here that's thousands of years old. So but as
Speaker 2: technology has changed, and as you know, everyone's lifestyles change,
Speaker 2: and what's on offer has changed as well, that people
Speaker 2: are always experimenting with things. You know, they're experimenting. Remember
Speaker 2: you told me one time that you know, one guy
Speaker 2: was bringing blocks of ice back from the Antarctic to
Speaker 2: melt top of the thing because he wanted the water there.
Speaker 2: So they're always experimenting. In relation. You can't you're you're
Speaker 2: not going to experiment too much sort of thing. In
Speaker 2: relation to the three components. You might be able to
Speaker 2: throw in a little bit of native in there and
Speaker 2: relationship change of over profile and stuff, but those three
Speaker 2: basically foundation ingredients will stay the same. So the only
Speaker 2: other way that you can really sort of change and
Speaker 2: explore more and experiment more is going to be via
Speaker 2: not only the barrel component sort of thing, but what's
Speaker 2: inside the barrel as well.
Speaker 1: What's what has been previously inside the barrel, because because
Speaker 1: it will coat the.
Speaker 2: Out Yeah, exactly, So a lot of people have been
Speaker 2: playing around, they've been playing and we were our first batch,
Speaker 2: we put it in the nest eg charraz barrel. I remember,
Speaker 2: I remember that instead of as I said, I described
Speaker 2: the flavored profile just then at the end was that chardonnay,
Speaker 2: that butty nuttery. Our first particular batch had that sort
Speaker 2: of nearly very component at the end of it where
Speaker 2: you sort of the last and.
Speaker 1: That one also won best did that win in the water?
Speaker 1: I can remember? I think that won on ward two.
Speaker 1: That that was the first award. The second award was
Speaker 1: and and one of the things that hand is famous
Speaker 1: for globally is it is its bars like it. That's
Speaker 1: at the top of the tree. List is the top
Speaker 1: of your shelve up there. That that's the that's and
Speaker 1: that's a big advantage for us, like huge relative to
Speaker 1: any other whiskey maker in the country because they don't
Speaker 1: have that access.
Speaker 2: That's barrel. It's a barrel. That's that's the barrel. That's
Speaker 2: that every single barrel, even though it's French oake and
Speaker 2: down the road or you know in another region might
Speaker 2: have French oak, but the French the barrel hasn't sat here.
Speaker 2: It's completely different. We're a cool climate vineyard, yeah, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, So sour our grapes are going
Speaker 2: to be completely different compared to somewhere over in Hunter Valley,
Speaker 2: compared to you know, down the Flurio Peninsula down to
Speaker 2: Mornington Peninsula, down over to Turnover in w A. It's
Speaker 2: a completely different climate. So our barrels are completely different.
Speaker 2: They sit which the boys might be able to get
Speaker 2: some footage of, I think, like in the room next door.
Speaker 2: So it's a completely different process can involve in what
Speaker 2: it is type of thing in other regions.
Speaker 1: Well, I've been I've really enjoyed because it's interesting. We're
Speaker 1: over here to do some other stuff, and the boys said,
Speaker 1: let's go down and talk to Paul and as you
Speaker 1: do a podcast ourselves in relation to mark your own
Speaker 1: products for a change.
Speaker 2: You're always talking about other people, and I just turned
Speaker 2: around on behalf of Andrew as well, and stuff like
Speaker 2: what you've done in order for not only for us
Speaker 2: as a business, but more so for me personally. I
Speaker 2: just think that you're so humble, You're so authentic and
Speaker 2: so real and stuff that at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: from the moment that I sort of met you, probably
Speaker 2: around thirty years ago, you changed my life. And every
Speaker 2: single day or when I speak to you, whatever it
Speaker 2: may be, once a week or whatever it is, type
Speaker 2: of thing I come out and I say to my wife,
Speaker 2: he still makes me a better person than what I
Speaker 2: was in the ten minutes before I spoke to any
Speaker 2: sort of thing. Your philosophy on life, the time that
Speaker 2: you give and what you give back to the community
Speaker 2: and the people and especially business owners and stuff as well,
Speaker 2: is just extraordinary. And I just consider myself one of
Speaker 2: the most no I consider myself. I wake up in
Speaker 2: the morning the luckiest personal life, and I go to
Speaker 2: bed exactly the same because to be able to be
Speaker 2: bookended by the two business partners, I have a product
Speaker 2: that I'm so proud of, one one of the great
Speaker 2: visionaries of the world. With Andrew and what he's created
Speaker 2: here with wine and what he produces and stuff, and
Speaker 2: then for you and stuff. I just consider myself so
Speaker 2: lucky and fortunate and I'm just blessed in order to
Speaker 2: be able to have that affiliation with you. And I
Speaker 2: appreciate and I don't think there's been enough said inulation
Speaker 2: what you do not only for your community and for
Speaker 2: the people within it and the small business owners, but
Speaker 2: for Australia itself too.
Speaker 1: Man. I appreciate that. And by the way, Andrew and
Speaker 1: I would not have whiskey.
Speaker 2: If you weren't.
Speaker 1: You're doing it for us, I can tell you now.
Speaker 1: I pumped up, mate, Jesus mate, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: Enjoy