WEBVTT - Natterjack Makes Accidentally Overaged Whiskey Available 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:06.760 Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:10.479 You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:16.600 Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio. 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.520 All right, everybody, so our next guest. I think we 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:25.560 last cut up. It was Saint Patrick's day. It was 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.640 very appropriate. But as many folks know, we don't need 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:32.920 an excuse to drink whiskey Irish whiskey to be excited. 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:36.240 I think that's fair to say. There's also Scotch whiskey, 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:38.120 US whiskey, Canadian whiskey. 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.080 There's more. And listen, this is a big market, a 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:43.600 global market. There's lots of players, but we want to 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:45.800 bring in one who's got his own little take on 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:49.000 it and back with us. Is Aiden Meghan. He's founder 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:51.280 of Natterjack Irish Whiskey and he joins us once again 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.200 in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio. Wearing shorts because it's 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:55.120 hot out right. 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:56.520 So it's hotter on the New York that it is 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:57.000 in Texas. 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.760 You're speaking my language. I came in and out every 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:02.640 day here wearing shorts. Everybody gives me a hard time. 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:05.240 I was instructed by my wife not to wear shorts, 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:06.400 so thank you for outing me on that. 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:07.280 We just did a. 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:09.920 Story about shorts, no shorts in the office, and we 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:12.560 did a whole segment on it because apparently some people 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:14.920 are like, yeah, it's really hot, why not it's gotten casual, 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:16.080 and others are like, you can't do it. 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:18.319 You can do it. Okay, I can do it. You 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:18.800 can do it. 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:19.600 How are you. 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:21.679 Amazing, really really good? Yeah, thank you for having me back. 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:23.600 It's been a few months. Tell us something's been. 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:27.160 Going, and things have been going great. So look, we've 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:29.880 been traveling to anyone who will have us to go 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:34.600 and promote the whiskey. We're now in fourteen states in 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:37.040 the US, we'll be in twenty by the end of 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.000 the year, and then with a bit of a tailwind 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:41.120 twenty five by Saint Patrick Say and we open up 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.360 New England. So it's been just been incredible. The reception 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:46.680 to the whiskey has been great, and we got national 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.280 national distribution through through Total Wine and More, which was 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:52.960 massive because we won Irish Whiskey the Year for twenty 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:53.320 twenty four. 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:55.800 Those recognitions are important, are Yeah, we've talked about it 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:58.000 with our own crater on the restaurant side, in terms 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:02.200 of like different global recognitions. What it global recognitions? Excuse 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:04.680 me what it means for a restaurant, but for you guys, like, 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:05.760 these are things that move the needle. 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:08.000 Yeah, and the previous winners are like the massive, like 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:10.679 the twenty twenty two bottle. That one is a thirty 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:12.240 year old Irish whiskey and it's two and a half 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:16.280 round a bottle. Ours is eighty. So you talk about value, 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:17.920 and everyone loves value or it doesn't matter who you are. 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.480 So it's a it was really just an incredible award 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:22.000 and it was really well taken. It opened up these 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:23.639 kind of chains. We've just opened up a big chain 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:26.680 in Texas as well, so these are these are massive 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:28.679 for Look, we've got a I think we've got a 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.000 good story, but people are like where can I buy it? 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.560 And it's really it's really frustrating when you're like, well 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.320 there's local liquor store on sixth and and you're just 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.960 like that's not a compelling story. So so this is 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:41.440 this change this year. It's been amazing. 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:44.000 So talk about that process of going state to state here, 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:47.360 because I think a lot of people who've lived in 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:52.520 different states might understand that local and state liquor laws 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:56.560 very drastically across borders. Absolutely, So it's like it's really 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:59.160 tough on a distribution level, especially if you're a small 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:01.960 independent player to succeed here. How do you do it? 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:05.440 So you partner with In our case, I'm gonna speak 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:06.639 to our case, because we're not with one of the 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:09.760 big distributors, with individual distributors in each in each market. 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:12.560 So what we do is we go we educate them, 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.600 we incentivize them to to incentivize them by bring them 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:18.799 along on the journey, right, So meet them, spend time 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:20.520 with them, spend time in market with them, telling the 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.079 story so they can then effectively tell the story as well. 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:24.079 That's a slow process. 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:26.040 Oh, it is absolutely. I think I was home two 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.600 days in May, so you're on the road. It's it 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:31.960 is pounding the pavement. But that's actually what we've got 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:33.639 to do. But then you add to the team, right, 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.720 So we're now up to we have eight reps, we've 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:38.720 a national sales director, we're just about to hire a 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:42.000 national marketing director, and we've got three people in Ireland. 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:45.720 So it's it's like it's a lot of a lot 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:48.080 of pounding the pavement. But as you scale you then 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:50.560 you get them to tell the story and they can 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:51.280 educate people. 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:52.760 And I want to get to the story. But I 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:54.440 do feel like it's a it's a moment in time, 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:58.040 or has been for years that in the liquor market, 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:02.600 the alcohol market overall, that starts newcomers can really find 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.360 a niche for themselves, that people are interested. I think 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:08.280 consumers are looking for different choices. 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:10.320 They are, and they're looking for authenticity as well, right, 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:13.040 And I think at the larger brand level that authenticity 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.760 doesn't speak to someone who's who's into the process or 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:19.800 into starting a business or those sorts of things. They 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:23.000 struggle with that. So so for for a brand like ours, yeah, 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:25.320 it's an amazing time to be able to actually go 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:27.599 and meet the people and tell them our story. 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:29.880 Remind us of your story for those tim was it here? 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:30.400 I wasn't here. 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:32.200 Do you like this because you know I missed us 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.480 when you guys did this. Shanali was with us. Shanali Bosik, 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.760 one of our reporters, talked to us though about your 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:39.880 story remind our world. 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:42.599 So I yeah, I was an equity trader and a 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:46.160 hedge fund back in in twenty fifteen. I think was 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:47.760 when I kind of had the moment. I was like, look, 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.200 is this everything that I want to do with my life? 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:52.000 Like I loved it. I think I was okay at it, 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:55.320 like a decent career, but I was like I wanted 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:57.640 to build something. I wanted to build a business. Now 0:04:57.720 --> 0:04:59.600 I was running the business with my partners and that 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:01.520 sort of stuf. But I was like, this is the 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:02.760 time for me to go do that, right, I had 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:05.200 no real responsibilities at a house. I sold the house 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:08.520 and moved back in with my parents, which they were 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:10.240 very good to take me in for a couple of years. 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.400 And that was it. Yeah, I sold the house and 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:16.080 that was just like how much is this going to take? 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:17.320 It turns out it took a lot more time and 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:19.720 a lot more money than I ever fathomed. But then 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:23.240 we got outside investment and our investors are based out 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.680 of Michigan, and so so the first thing I had 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:27.919 to do is I had to build a team. So I 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:30.760 found Jordan via whose artist Doller. I found a team 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:32.920 of industry guys to help me because had no idea 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:34.880 what I was doing. And in some ways, I still. 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:35.920 How do you do that? Or is that just the 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:38.160 trader mentality, I don't know, let's figure. 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:39.640 Outlet's figure it out on the go, right, So I 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.479 built I found actually my first business plan recently. It's dreadful, 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.960 like it is absolutely horrific. So you go and you 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:48.960 you learn, right, and so the business plans that they 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:51.240 as they as it grew, it kind of became its 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:53.280 own kind of thing. And then and everyone. 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:55.479 Told horrific, Like what was it about it that you 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:59.719 went that everything like Jim's and NBA, he could have 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:01.240 you get it. 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:02.400 You could have putished it up for me, but like 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:06.640 maybe maybe not. So the like it's the graphics were dreadful, 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:09.640 the layout was dreadful. It was it my focus was 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:13.040 in the wrong place, right. I didn't realize what it 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:16.760 took to build a whiskey company. I had this idea, 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:18.840 we'd buy a building, we'd put in stills, and we 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:21.440 wait for five years and very and then of course 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:23.320 no one, no one has any problem with the execution 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:25.320 risk of someone who doesn't know what they're doing, doing 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:26.800 it for five years and then finding out if what 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:29.919 they did sales right. So I just didn't understand that, 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:31.920 and it took a long time to kind of get 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:32.680 my head around. 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.560 That the five year time horizon is some seriously delayed 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:37.440 gratification here. I mean, it's not like you're throwing an 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:41.640 app on the app Store, the minimally minimally viable product 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.160 to see if it actually resonates with consumers, like this 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:45.960 thing has to hit or else you're out of luck. 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:49.080 It does, right, and then but I also think what 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:50.800 I didn't want to do was what a lot of 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:52.960 my peers had done, which is release of vodka origin, 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:55.200 and that was that's that. What I did know what 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:57.640 I wanted to do was is that clearly, yeah, you 0:06:57.680 --> 0:06:59.600 and I could have a gin in twelve hours, so 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:01.480 it could. I had a bath, Tim and Aiden's gym 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:02.680 boom right. 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.200 So so when Tim's not doing over the regat. 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:10.360 So I needed to so but I wanted to do whiskey. 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:11.840 So then we need to source whiskey. But this is 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:13.960 back in twenty fifteen sixteen, that wasn't much available from 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:16.480 a sourcing perspective. So I got you know, I got 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:21.320 offered eight thousand liters of this two thousand liters of 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:23.560 eight year old double still, and I was like, I 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:25.160 could buy that. Now I've got the capital and we 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:26.760 can take it to market. But what happens then if 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:29.480 it's a success, I can't get any more of it. 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:34.120 So then that was all that was available contract. Yeah. Yeah, 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:36.720 So I learned that, you know, I learned that I 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:38.520 wanted a plan for scale, that we wanted to go 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:41.320 for something that could really take off and if it 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:43.200 takes off, that there's not so many breaks on it. 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:44.800 Because what I didn't want is to have them as 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:46.800 a huge success and be like, Okay, you can have 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:48.600 some more five years when everyone's forgotten about it and 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:52.160 you sit around going bankrupt. So so I really we 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:54.440 held off and held off until we could get that 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:57.200 proper supply contract that would allow us to grow. And 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.840 we've now secured five years is worth of what we 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:03.080 need for the growth trajectory that we're on. So it's 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.200 been amazing, But that meant we had to push it 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.120 back a year, and that's a year. Don't forget me 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:09.000 and my parents' basement, they're like, what are you doing? 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.360 I'm like, well, I'm like. 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:11.840 How hard were you? 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:16.200 Ye? Love five? I'm not being judging thirty five. It's 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:17.560 like that's what parents are for. 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:19.120 They take in when they need it exactly. 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:20.840 And then but then I met my wife and I 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:21.920 was like, yeah, I need to move back. 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.400 Yes, you is going to go back to the parents. 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:26.360 Hey, but she she loved you. 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:28.679 Then yeah, that's a big thing, exactly exactly. 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:30.200 But you also had to deal with the pandemic. 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.120 Yeah, yeah, and that was that put us into a 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:36.160 kind of a tail spin. Right, So we had initial 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:38.480 investors who weren't happy with how it goes. And the 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:42.679 weird thing about the pandemic is Perna, Rickard and Diaghia, 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:44.720 the big companies were doing really well because they own 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.480 every part of the shelf. So if you wanted a 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:49.480 twenty dollars or one hundred and twenty dollars bottle that 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:51.880 were two hundred two two thousand dollars, they owned everything. 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:54.360 We had one skew, right, so it's like who's taking 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:56.320 a punt on a fifty euro bottle of whiskey. We've 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:58.560 got the pricing wrong as well. But during the pandemic 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.880 and so sales slowed, but they actually continued in the US, 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.079 and because we pivoted a little bit to urs, so 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.480 we were able to pivot because of our display our 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.040 display box into the off prem the US. By the 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:11.079 end of the pandemic, we were in kind of nine 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.520 states and that was pretty amazing. 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.200 Wow, which really kind of gives you some momentum. 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:18.240 Right, Yeah, when you expand to a new state, how 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:20.040 much do sales grow very briefly. 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.839 At the start, very small, You've got to go. You've 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:24.600 got a program. 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:27.760 So it's not just being available, it's about educating the folks. 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.800 Zoom shows. We go to shows, we educate. We do 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.640 staff trainings in chains of bars or in bars, right, 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:38.840 and you try and get onto cocktail lists and then 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:40.760 you try and get the placement in the right place 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:43.280 behind the bars that people can see because the toad 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:44.480 people do call out the toad. 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:45.760 So yeah, the toad on the bottle. 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:47.880 I gotta say, like there are times like I'm buying one, 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:48.959 I'm like, I kind of like that bottle. 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:49.480 What it looks like. 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:51.319 Your bottle is pretty cool. And we're going to get 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:53.360 into the toad in just a moment, because you guys 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.360 have actually been doing some really honorable stuff around that 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.560 and making sure that the toad stick stays around for 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:00.520 a long time. We're going to come back to Aiden 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.240 Aiden Meghan, he's founder of Naderjack Irish whiskey. We might 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:04.120 even sample some. 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:05.880 Oh, yeah, it is Friday. 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:08.839 It is Friday, five o'clock almost somewhere. No, it's five 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:12.080 o'clock somewhere, was five o'clock here here. We want to 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.319 get back to Aid and Meghan, he is founder of 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:17.600 Naderjack Irish whiskey. Who is here back here in our 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.680 Bloomberg Interactive Broker studio. You brought us something. We want 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.040 to talk about the mistake. What is the mistake? 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:27.240 So our blend for Blend one and for a cast strength, 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:29.920 it spends three and a half years expert one year 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:33.520 Virgin Oak, right, So I thought we'd taken out in 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:36.480 twenty twenty are Blend one blend and put it into 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:38.440 steel containers for the next time we needed to do it. 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:40.360 So the pandemic was on, we didn't have a huge 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:42.960 need for whiskey. So about a year later I called 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:44.520 up the guy who'd done it and I was like, 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:46.480 where's that whiskey now? And he's like, it's still in barrel. 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.400 I was like, wow, no, you can't, we can't take it. 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:51.600 So I was like, well, we're going to do because 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:53.240 I can't sell that as Natterjack and I didn't have 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:54.719 a brand for it, so it's like, okay, So we 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.440 left it and then Jordan, via our distiller, was so 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:00.720 he tasted about six months and he's like, that is 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:04.520 the best whiskey we've ever made. It's incredible. So he's like, 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:06.439 so we said, okay, great, Well this is what a 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.079 screw up becomes a good thing, right, and evolution is 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:13.720 full of mistakes and and but we everyone was like, okay, 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:15.959 let's let's let's really market this. We're going to say, 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:17.960 you know, this was always your vision for the whiskey. 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.640 And I was like, but that's all, like, it's a lie. 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:22.840 Continue talking. 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:24.640 So I was like, let's call it. Let's call it 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:26.520 a mistake. I've made some huge mistakes in my life. 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:28.679 So some of the best parts of life come from mistakes. 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.920 And I was like, let's just own it. It was Wow, 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:35.200 it was a screw up that sounded very good. It is. 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.240 It's like our whiskey is a year older and one 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:43.160 year later in virgin How big of a badge, forty 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:48.560 six barrels. It's all sold. Yeah, huge, you can't. You 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:51.480 can get some through natterjack dot com. And it's when 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:53.720 I when I say it's sold, it's left our left 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.680 our distribution right. So it's still in stores, but we 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:59.120 don't have that's the I haven't seen a bottle in 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:02.760 since I saw on today. Smells really heavenly, thank you. Yes, 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:07.600 So it's really heavy on the outlass to walk us through. 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.600 So it's a little bit lighter on malt than our 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:13.320 original blend, but it's still in there. 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:15.960 About seventeen or smell lighter, yeah, I feel. 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:18.560 And then there's lots there's still the char number four 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:23.240 and still for me, toasted walnut, a little bit of 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:25.920 cinnamon and it got it. 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:27.640 I just sit here and smell for the next how 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:28.160 many minutes? 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:28.640 Five minutes? 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:29.560 It got amazing? 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:34.720 So what does that teach you? As someone like these mistakes? 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:36.679 So now are you guys experimenting more? 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:40.000 Yeah, we are. We're playing around with it, we we do. 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.600 You know what it taught me? It taught me that 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:46.200 problems are only problems if you see them as problems. 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.880 That's pretty nice, right, So you. 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.079 This is why you make mistakes in life? 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.360 Sorry? Sorry? Yeah, So my biggest trading steak was about 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:59.360 Korean one non deliverable forwards, which is which cost me 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.520 my job in the really yeah did yeah? I rolled 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:04.319 the wrong amount. I didn't know what a non deliverable 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.240 forward was. So I now know what a non deliverbal 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:10.360 forward is and I no longer. So some mistakes cost 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:10.680 a job. 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:14.240 Some mistakes can make a great credible delivery, like yeah, yeah, 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:16.280 and I think it's our I think it's our best whiskey. 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.000 But then also for our first shipment to China in 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.360 twenty nineteen, big shipment on a thousand cases, we had 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:22.880 had a thousand case order was the first year of 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:25.640 the business. Fay and I hand dipped all the bottles 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:28.880 in black wax and they all got sent to China. 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:31.000 But they went through the equator, which is fifty degrees 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:35.840 liquid expanded because it's hot, wax man because it melts 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.240 packed and so all the bottles opened. So it got 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:39.839 to China and they said they opened it and it 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:43.360 smelt amazing. There was no whiskey, so sorry, it was 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:45.880 all open. So we turned that that was a mistake. Yeah, 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.120 turned that into mister Wang Or, our Chinese distributor, came 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:50.600 in and he was like, are you going to cover 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:51.720 the cost of this And I was like, no, You've 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:54.880 got insurance. He's like, my insurance doesn't cover wax melting, 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:57.520 and liquid expanding in the equator, and I was like, Okay, 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:01.240 if you triple your order, I I'll cover the cost. 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:04.240 The first one He's like, don't. So our year was 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:07.240 a complete was amazing in twenty nineteen because this big 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:09.520 fast at your feet there. Oh yeah, I couldn't believe it. 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:13.080 When he woke down, it was like because I knew 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:14.400 I was gonna have to pay if I wanted, Like. 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.679 Yeah, Aiden. One thing I wanted to talk about was 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:20.640 just the changing viewer around alcohol that we're seeing here 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:23.560 in the US. I was with some family like cousins, 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:26.720 extended cousins, extended family over the weekend, and everybody was 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.000 talking about, Hey, did you guys see that article in 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:31.720 the Times over the weekend about people drinking less and 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:33.680 alcohol actually not being good for you at all? 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:34.320 And it seems like. 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.760 Study after studies coming out that says like, okay, you know, 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.160 even in moderation, alcohol isn't good for you. How do 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:41.200 you think about stuff like that? 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:43.200 I do think about it quite a bit, and I 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:45.920 think there definitely is a movement that way. And look, 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:50.840 I think we know that alcohol isn't in moderation. It's 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.400 one study one day says it when the other day 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.480 says right, but for me it's it is definitely a 0:14:56.520 --> 0:14:59.480 movement towards drinking less and also drinking better. So when 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:01.760 we talked about authenticity and knowing the process and knowing 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:04.880 the producers, I don't I think that's really an opportunity 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:08.040 for us for people to say, right, well, if what 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:10.960 I'm going to have tonight is one whiskey, I want 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:13.080 to drink something where it actually means something to me. 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:17.040 So it's an opportunity to connect with a consumer in 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.040 order to really bring them along in the journey with you. 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:21.440 If you only have the one whiskey, make it a 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:25.040 natter jack, right, Don't spend like it's like anything, right, 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:27.960 don't spend your calories on a cheap donut, Go and 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.080 get a really nice donut. And the same is And 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:32.480 I think that's how we try and tell that story 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:32.760 as well. 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:34.640 So like my mother, it's like when you're gonna go shopping, 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:36.640 like you know you're gonna buy something, make sure it's 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:38.760 something you buy really good and make sure it lasts forever. 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:42.920 Like rate this idea of quantity over maybe quality, just generally, 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:44.640 like you do wonder whether or not that kind of 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:46.960 kicks in again in a world where we are very 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.160 blessed by abundance, but you do wonder at some point 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:52.000 where people are kind of like, well, wait a minute, 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:54.520 you know, and certainly in a higher inflationary environment. 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:55.160 I think that's right. 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:58.280 Yeah, the natterjack toad. First of all, if you haven't 0:15:58.280 --> 0:15:59.840 seen this bottle, I'm going to take a picture into 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.920 it out but it is makes your bottles so distinct. 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:06.480 Remind us about the natterjack toad, and I can actually 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:08.320 hold it up for everybody so they can see. 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:11.160 Can they see, Oh yeah, look at that. 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:17.640 So the natterjack toad camel. Yeah, that's the mistake. 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:19.440 But yeah, sorry, there's a little bit of a there's 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.360 a little bit of a but there's a little bit 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:24.360 glare for No, it's actually really kind of cool the 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:25.120 way you guys did it. 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:26.880 That was that was a mistake from the first printing 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:29.680 of our The whole thing is just a mistake, all right. 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:31.960 Mistakes are don't drop it or else that will be 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:32.600 a huge mistake. 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.320 Mistakes are good, But keeping these toads around are also good. 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:36.040 And you guys have been doing it. 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:38.960 Is Yes, natterjack toad is the only toad indigenous to ardent. 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:41.400 But it's a very Irish toad. It can't hop, it walks, 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.480 it can't swim with great and it does things its 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:46.520 own way to survive. So it's very definite in how 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:48.680 it walks. It has a croak that can be heard 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.880 two kilometers away like or sorry, amazing, calling you herd 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:53.800