Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: We want to talk about natural resources, maybe because the
Speaker 2: natural resources from the great state of Montana are being
Speaker 2: used to fill a soul called void in the vodka industry.
Speaker 2: May Leave Vodka. It promises to lift your spirits with
Speaker 2: locally sourced, high quality grains and natural spring water. And
Speaker 2: if that's not enough to sell one of its sustainable
Speaker 2: bottles of star Power behind, it might do that just
Speaker 2: as well. I'm happy to say that the co founders
Speaker 2: of Maylee Vodka join us right now here on the
Speaker 2: Big Program, Blaine Halverson and the actor Jason Momoa. Thanks
Speaker 2: for both of you, gentlemen, for joining us here today here,
Speaker 2: and of course, Jason, I'm going to start with the
Speaker 2: very obvious question here. Just tell me what sets this
Speaker 2: vodka apart from all the others.
Speaker 3: Why does this set apart from all the other vodkas? Yeah,
Speaker 3: the other vodkas don't taste good. I think we set
Speaker 3: out to make this vodka just because we wanted to
Speaker 3: treat it like a spirit sets out of an ingredient.
Speaker 3: So it's been as kind of our gold sickens quite
Speaker 3: a while time to do that. But we found out
Speaker 3: that it was actually because of it's the water we use,
Speaker 3: and you know, vodka sixty percent water, we use a
Speaker 3: live water for Montana.
Speaker 2: Well, give us a sense here to blame when we
Speaker 2: talk about how you sort of market this and more importantly,
Speaker 2: I guess getting on shelves and what we know is
Speaker 2: a very crowded space. I mean, there are a lot
Speaker 2: of liquor brands, a lot of vodka brands specifically out
Speaker 2: there here. How do you get this in front of
Speaker 2: people in a way where they look to your to
Speaker 2: mainly vodka rather than all the others.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean listen with Jay and I started this thing,
Speaker 3: like I said, but you know, we were not vodka guys.
Speaker 3: We were more in the whiskey and tequila things we
Speaker 3: saw avoid and vodka just to us, vodka was really
Speaker 3: looked upon as an ingredient. So we've just sort of
Speaker 3: charged in creating something that was that was different and
Speaker 3: giving vodka an actual flavor profile and something smooth, and
Speaker 3: treating it more, as Jason said, as an actual spirit
Speaker 3: rather than a than an ingredient.
Speaker 4: So you know, it's been a big piece.
Speaker 3: You know, obviously the vodka market is really kind of
Speaker 3: controlled in general, by kind of the big the Big
Speaker 3: four that have been around quite some time, and it
Speaker 3: just felt like it was a it was a you know,
Speaker 3: a piece of the liquor industry that that was ready
Speaker 3: for a change and needed something different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, both of you have a history together, right, You
Speaker 1: started on this journey to create something eight years ago,
Speaker 1: and it sounds like you kind of stumbled upon vodka
Speaker 1: as your collaborative you know product here. But part of
Speaker 1: the origin story of Meinlee Vodka is that neither of
Speaker 1: you actually like vodka. I'm guessing that has changed now.
Speaker 4: But I love we love, we love vodka now, right,
Speaker 4: So I mean, I mean.
Speaker 3: That's the beautiful thing like this, this bottle, like what
Speaker 3: we set out to do.
Speaker 4: Just the design quality of it.
Speaker 3: It ticks off everything that we love, so the sustainability
Speaker 3: aspect of it. We wanted something that tastes good, it's
Speaker 3: got a great story behind it, and to be able
Speaker 3: to drink this and we take it to everybody.
Speaker 4: We asked them to.
Speaker 3: Drink it neat and drink it, you know, warm room temperature,
Speaker 3: and and it tastes beautiful. And we most of the
Speaker 3: we went up for all the competitions and we poured out.
Speaker 3: It's a blind taste test that we won everything. So
Speaker 3: it's been the most one of the most decorated spirits
Speaker 3: in the world. We've got seven platinum or seven goals,
Speaker 3: three platinums, and two perfect perfect scores. So we've been
Speaker 3: out for a year and a half and it's just
Speaker 3: been wonderful actually to take it to people and show
Speaker 3: it to them, and at the price point where it's
Speaker 3: still you know, anywhere from twenty dollars to twenty four
Speaker 3: dollars for a bottle, and it's beautiful and it tastes good.
Speaker 3: It's like we wanted to make that some of the
Speaker 3: affordable luxury.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: Right, we should point out that no two bottles are
Speaker 1: the same, because each bottle is different. The manufacturing the
Speaker 1: last bottle is really a point of pride for you, Blaine.
Speaker 1: I'm curious when you as you bring your Voka around
Speaker 1: and you you know, have different people taste it. I'm
Speaker 1: wondering if you've gotten any kind of feedback from the
Speaker 1: big players in the industry, you know, the Constellation Reds,
Speaker 1: the Diadios, whether anyone's talk to you about the flavor
Speaker 1: profile that you have come up with for melee vodka.
Speaker 3: I mean, listen, most people in America don't think actually
Speaker 3: even know what vodka tastes like. I mean, they're used
Speaker 3: to drinking it in a drink, and that that's that
Speaker 3: was sort of our point. I mean, the fact that
Speaker 3: we go around and and have people try it at
Speaker 3: room temperature in its natural form. I mean you can
Speaker 3: kind of tell a lot just by people's first sort
Speaker 3: of impression of when you're asking them to drink vodka warm.
Speaker 3: You know, most of them sort of turn their nose
Speaker 3: because they're you know, the ones that have they sort
Speaker 3: of know that in general, vodkan tastes like rubbing alcohol.
Speaker 3: It's it's hot, it's got that it's got that burn.
Speaker 3: And it's why, you know, it became something covered up
Speaker 3: in drinks. We wanted to we wanted to create a
Speaker 3: beautiful spirit that he didn't have to cover up and
Speaker 3: then would give the bartenders and mixologists and the people
Speaker 3: in the industry actually be something to actually build off of.
Speaker 4: Uh, you know, we single the still for that reason.
Speaker 3: We wanted to leave all the beautiful you know, the
Speaker 3: beautiful grains that we use and most of all, you know,
Speaker 3: what we call the unicorn this this unbelievable water.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll talk about that, Blaine, because that was the
Speaker 2: part I was interested in. I mean, most with these vodkas,
Speaker 2: they are distilled several times, primarily to make it a
Speaker 2: neutral spirit, which, as you've pointed out, because a lot
Speaker 2: of people use it as to mix in with something else.
Speaker 2: By only distilling this once, so you're leaving behind those grains,
Speaker 2: or at least a flavor from those grains. Why do
Speaker 2: you think other vodka companies, I guess effectively are throwing
Speaker 2: that out for lack of a better word, Well.
Speaker 3: I think it's been Listen, it's I think it's been
Speaker 3: mainly a marketing tool because I don't think people necessarily understand.
Speaker 3: You know, in general, the more you're distill it, the
Speaker 3: only thing surviving distillation is the alcohol. And to me
Speaker 3: it's why you know, we never liked it, because drinking
Speaker 3: alcohol and its natural form.
Speaker 4: Isn't very good.
Speaker 3: And listen, anybody who this whole myth of vodka of
Speaker 3: this you know no, you know, no no smell, no taste.
Speaker 3: If that was the case, I mean everyone has failed.
Speaker 3: I mean there's tried vadka naturally, like there's nothing about
Speaker 3: it that doesn't have you know, heat in itself tastes
Speaker 3: like something. So we wanted to create something that was actually,
Speaker 3: like I said, more smooth. We age our bok as well,
Speaker 3: you know, given at that time similar to like a whiskey,
Speaker 3: also helped smooth it out. But that single desolation because
Speaker 3: we're leaving and again leaving this beautiful water, yeah in
Speaker 3: it as well.
Speaker 4: It's it's going to be smoother.
Speaker 3: Because you're not you're not cooking down, you're not getting
Speaker 3: rid of everything but the alcohol.
Speaker 1: Right right, Jason, let me ask you the final question here.
Speaker 1: What has surprised you most about the spirit industry. I
Speaker 1: know that you've been in the entertainment industry for a
Speaker 1: long time, you have other business interests, but as you
Speaker 1: you know, move further into into the spirit industry, what
Speaker 1: surprises see the most?
Speaker 3: Well, and nothing at this point really surprised me as
Speaker 3: much as how I mean, it was extremely challenging from
Speaker 3: the get go. So you know, it took us eight
Speaker 3: a little over eight years, nine years to actually build
Speaker 3: this to where it's at. This wasn't an overnight thing,
Speaker 3: and no one came to us and I'm like, hey,
Speaker 3: would you be a part of this and that it's
Speaker 3: just been Blaine and I. So there's no there's no partners,
Speaker 3: there's no the odd you know, there's nothing.
Speaker 4: It was just us.
Speaker 3: So that whole time to give us, you know, time
Speaker 3: to trial and air test this out. We really, you know,
Speaker 3: Blam really was the the genius behind. And obviously I
Speaker 3: know a few things about water, but it's like it
Speaker 3: was all about these pure water sources. And so we
Speaker 3: traveled in that time with expedition studios. We brought back
Speaker 3: water from Antarctica, we brought back Everest, we brought back
Speaker 3: the Shackleton around from the Greenland, and like bringing back
Speaker 3: all these like the Northwest Passage, bringing back waters, mixing
Speaker 3: with our mash, finding out that people are like, no,
Speaker 3: you're just gonna distill it.
Speaker 4: It's gonna go away. But it didn't.
Speaker 3: And each flavor profile was different. So when we use
Speaker 3: ro water, which most spirits are made out of, it
Speaker 3: doesn't taste good.
Speaker 4: If you have a.
Speaker 3: Really beautiful, one of a kind water, which we do,
Speaker 3: it's our Unicorn in Montana, and like that water source
Speaker 3: is high, it's low in sodium, so it doesn't cover
Speaker 3: up the grains. And so I think the hardest part
Speaker 3: was the beginning, because it took a long time to
Speaker 3: get into it and like really perfect us a place
Speaker 3: where we didn't know much about. But now it's like
Speaker 3: we know how to sell. I mean, we know how
Speaker 3: to sell. We know how to be intimate and be
Speaker 3: able to go to places and meet with people, and
Speaker 3: so now it's actually quite fun. I mean I'm going
Speaker 3: to go on stage and play music with my band
Speaker 3: right now, to share, you know, drinks with thousands of
Speaker 3: people and really just experience what it's like and having
Speaker 3: a good time. So I think the marketing aspect of
Speaker 3: that is already passed the hard part in the sense
Speaker 3: of we just now it's just getting it to people
Speaker 3: going like, hey, here's the thing. We love Scott's, we
Speaker 3: love mescal whiskey, all that stuff. You can have tons
Speaker 3: of them, tons of different bourbons. You need one vodka,
Speaker 3: you really need one, and so take one of these
Speaker 3: bottles home, tested it with your friends, blind taste tests them,
Speaker 3: and just try it out.
Speaker 4: It's twenty bucks. You'll have a.
Speaker 1: Ball, all right. Jason Momo and Blaine Halverson spoken like
Speaker 1: true entrepreneurs. There the journey of you know, stumbles and
Speaker 1: starts before I kind of find your way co founders
Speaker 1: of Mainly Vodka. Thank you both so much
Speaker 4: Thank you very much, begg you