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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fear and Greed summer series. I'm Michael

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Speaker 1: Thompson today investing in tequila and beyond that, actually investing

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Speaker 1: in tequila tourism. It sounds odd and very specific, but

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Speaker 1: it is a fascinating space. As always, this is general

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Speaker 1: information only, and you need to get advice tailored to

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Speaker 1: you before making investment decisions. Stefan von Imoff is the

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Speaker 1: co founder of alternative investing community fund Alts dot Co. Stefan,

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to Fear and Greed.

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Speaker 2: Good to be here. Let's stock tequila.

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Speaker 1: We have talked in the past about investing in tequila,

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Speaker 1: specifically the drink before we get to the tourism side

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Speaker 1: of it. Give us the quick thirty second version of

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Speaker 1: why tequila and why not? Kind of perhaps the more

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Speaker 1: traditional liquid investments of whiskey or wine.

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Speaker 2: Nice use of liquid investments.

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Speaker 1: By the way, Hey, I thought you'd like that.

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Speaker 2: You know, look, there's definitely nothing wrong with investing in

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Speaker 2: wine and whiskey. These are great alternative investments for sure.

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Speaker 2: But what toi Quia has is an accelerated appreciation schedule

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Speaker 2: that those other spirits don't have. So, for example, if

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Speaker 2: you're looking to invest in wine and whiskey, these are five, seven,

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Speaker 2: ten year holds for a lot of these investments, right,

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Speaker 2: whereas tequila, on the other hand, it's basically a three

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Speaker 2: year investment. It goes from blanco to reposado, to a

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Speaker 2: Naho and then to an extra extra in Naho that's

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Speaker 2: in three three and a half years and you're out right.

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Speaker 2: So it's basically all the same appreciation qualities as wine

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Speaker 2: and whiskey without the weight.

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Speaker 1: Rot And for those those premium products, is there big

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Speaker 1: market for it these days?

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Speaker 2: There absolutely is a big market for premium tequila. Now,

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Speaker 2: it is true that every tequila under the sun calls

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Speaker 2: themselves premium. The CRT, which is the governing board in

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Speaker 2: Mexico which governs the use of tequila, they really, you know,

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Speaker 2: you can't just call anything tequila. It has to be

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Speaker 2: from a certain region, it has to be one hundred

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Speaker 2: percent of GAVI. But they don't have any control over

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Speaker 2: the premium. So every brand kind of calls themselves premium.

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Speaker 2: That said, there is a definite move away from the

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Speaker 2: big manufactured I won't name names on this podcast, but

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Speaker 2: we all know who are talking about. The big tequila

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Speaker 2: companies who you know love them or hate them. The

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Speaker 2: quality just isn't like what it is compared to craft tequila.

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Speaker 2: So that movement is very real and it kind of

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Speaker 2: echoes the larger premiumization trend that we see in wine

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Speaker 2: and beer and spirits globally. People are drinking less but

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Speaker 2: the drinking higher quality.

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Speaker 1: Okay, tequila tourism, tequila hotel in particular, what is it?

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Speaker 1: Is it just traveling to the destination to consume, to

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Speaker 1: be part of the manufacturing process, to be around it all.

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Speaker 1: What is it?

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Speaker 2: We're kind of thinking that tequila has a chance to

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Speaker 2: really become a big tourism draw in a way that

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Speaker 2: in the same way that you know, wine has become

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Speaker 2: a huge tourism draw in Australia and Napa and France,

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Speaker 2: or the way Scotch has become an enormous draw in Scotland,

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Speaker 2: or Bourbon, the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky. Right, So if

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Speaker 2: you think about like the Bourbon Trail, you know this

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Speaker 2: is you know, in about twenty five years, this trail

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Speaker 2: has gone from zero people to two point seven million

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Speaker 2: visitors per year in twenty five years. Right, that's a

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Speaker 2: lot of money for these distilleries, for the local economies

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Speaker 2: in Kentucky, and we feel that there's an opportunity to

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Speaker 2: do the same thing with tequila. And I'm not sure

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Speaker 2: if you've ever been down to Halisco in Mexico.

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Speaker 1: Have you been? No? No, I haven't. Okay.

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Speaker 2: It's a beautiful part of the world and it's just

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Speaker 2: ripe for some real serious like tourism kind of injections.

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Speaker 2: It's perfectly situated, the climate is spectacular, the views are amazing,

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Speaker 2: but when you get down there, it's kind of you know,

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Speaker 2: there's a distillery here, distillery there, a nice hotel here,

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Speaker 2: boutique hotel there, but there's no solid, like real infrastructure

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Speaker 2: gluing it all together. That's what we're trying to do.

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Speaker 2: We're trying to create the world's first dedicated to upscale

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Speaker 2: tequila resort and we're going to be doing this right

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Speaker 2: smack in the middle of the action, with excellent views

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Speaker 2: of the Vulcan Tequila, the Tequila Volcano in Jalisco, Mexico.

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Speaker 1: And so you're really using as your model then Scotland,

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Speaker 1: NAPA in the US, Australia, kind of the barosso all

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Speaker 1: of these kind of things where it has been established

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Speaker 1: over a long period of time that people will come

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Speaker 1: not just for the product, but for the experience.

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Speaker 2: Right, That's exactly right. And I think the time is

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Speaker 2: now for this as well, because you know, Mexican tourism

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Speaker 2: is through the roof. More and more people are moving

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Speaker 2: to Mexico. Mexico is in the news more and more

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Speaker 2: each day, the economy is doing spectacularly well. And I

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Speaker 2: think the entire tequila industry is you know, it's one

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Speaker 2: of those spirits where it's like, you know, not everyone

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Speaker 2: really kind of gets it, but once you have your

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Speaker 2: first sip of like pure one hundred percent of gave tequila, man,

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Speaker 2: I mean, your world just changes forever. And we really

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Speaker 2: think that we can bring this experience to the forefront,

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Speaker 2: and we're really excited about this investment.

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Speaker 1: He's sounding particularly evangelical about tequila today. This is that

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Speaker 1: you are here to preach the word of the tequila.

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Speaker 1: This is quite extraordinary. It's a it is an interesting space,

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Speaker 1: and I mean it's one certainly we'll have to keep

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Speaker 1: an eye on to see whether in Mexico you can

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Speaker 1: replicate what has worked in these other places. Stefan, thank

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Speaker 1: you for talking to Fear and Greed Summer series Gracias

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Speaker 1: that was to find von Imoff from ots dot Co.

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Speaker 1: Don't forget to hit follow on the podcast. New episodes

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Speaker 1: every day during our summer series and regular shows are

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Speaker 1: back from January twelve. I'm Michael Thompson and this is

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Speaker 1: Fear and Greed