Podcast appearances and mentions of rob samuels

Exciting times are coming for Washington County Kentucky.  Denny Potter and Jane Bowie are heavy weights in the bourbon industry and they are building their dream distillery in Washington County!  The Bo Brothers sat down with Denny and Jane in an entertaining episode of 2 Shots on a Barrel!  We guarantee this is a version of Potter & Jane Distilling Company you will not find on any other podcast!  Take a listen to a fun filled episode of 2 Shots!https://www.facebook.com/groups/288170582570690 Bourbon Podcast Bo Brothers

Episode 104 features Maker's Mark Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky. Bottled in 750ml at 45% ABV, or 90 proof. It retails for about $28. Enjoy this episode with a Maker's Mark Old Fashioned! The official website for Maker's Mark: https://www.makersmark.com/ (https://www.makersmark.com/) Brief Historical Timeline: 1840 - T.W. Samuels erects the family's first commercial distillery in Kentucky 1943 - Bill Samuels gets out of his family business, for awhile 1953 - Bill Samuels founds Maker's Mark 1958 - The first bottles of Maker's Mark are hand dipped in red sealing wax 1973 - Maker's Mark hires Kentucky ad agency Doe Anderson 1975 - Bill Samuels, Jr. becomes President and CEO of Maker's Mark 1980 - Maker's Mark is featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal 1981 - Hiram Walker buys Maker's Mark 2004 - A second still is added to increase production 2005 - Pernod Ricard (who ended up with Maker's Mark through acquisitions) sells the brand to Fortune Brands, which would become part of Beam Suntory 2011 - Maker's Mark sells 1 million 9-liter case equivalents for the first time 2011 - Rob Samuels, grandson of the founder, takes over when his father Bill Samuels, Jr. retires 2013 - Proof is reduced 3%, but only for a moment 2015 - A $67 million investment includes a third still and new warehouses 2019 - Maker's Mark sells 2.4 mill cases Key Cocktails: Use as you would any quality bourbon. I'm drinking it neat, but try it in an Old Fashioned or Manhattan. References: Book: Maker's Mark - My Autobiography by Bill Samuels, Jr. published in 2000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maker%27s_Mark (Wikipedia Article on Maker's Mark) https://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2019/03/makers-mark-a-brand-history/ (Brand History Article on The Spirits Business) https://www.drinkspirits.com/bourbon/story-makers-mark-whiskey/ (Drink Spirits Story on Maker's Mark Whisky) https://www.thespiritseducator.com/makers-mark (Maker's Mark on The Spirits Educator) https://vinepair.com/articles/makers-mark-bourbon-secret-hops/ (Vinepair.com Article on Hops Used in Production) https://vinepair.com/articles/makers-mark-spelling-bourbon-cost/ (Vinepair.com Article on Maker' Mark) https://www.doeanderson.com/ (Doe Anderson Ad Agency for Maker's Mark) https://web.archive.org/web/20110726195638/http://www.manufacturing.net/News/2011/01/People-In-The-News-Samuels-To-Step-Down-As-Maker-s-Mark-President/?menuid=718 (Press Release on Bill Samuels, Jr. Retiring via the Wayback Machine) Contact Information: Official show website is: https://www.liquorandliqueurconnoisseur.com/ (www.liquorandliqueurconnoisseur.com) Join my mailing list: http://eepurl.com/hfyhHf (http://eepurl.com/hfyhHf) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liquorandliqueurconnoisseur (https://www.facebook.com/liquorandliqueurconnoisseur) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/LiquorandLiqueurConnoisseur/ (https://www.instagram.com/LiquorandLiqueurConnoisseur/) Twitter: @LLConnoisseur

B Corp is a certification program that measures a company's entire social and environmental impact.There are now more than 4000 Certified B Corporations around the world, several of which we've featured on this podcast: Sipsmith Gin, Stone & Wood Brewing Company, and South Australian winery Unico Zelo.In February, Maker's Mark joined this elite group of businesses. It's the first distillery in Kentucky and the largest distillery in the world to achieve B Corp certification.And in this special episode of the Drinks Adventures podcast – produced with the support of Maker's Mark – you're going to hear about some of the environmental initiatives it's undertaken to safeguard the future of bourbon, which of course is ultimately an agricultural product.We're joined this episode by Rob Samuels, an eighth generation whiskey maker and the grandson of Maker's Mark founder, Bill Samuels Senior.And also with us is Trent Chapman, marketing director Oceania for Beam Suntory, Maker's Mark's parent company.Later on in the interview, we cover the ingredients and production practices that underpin the Maker's Mark style, and the evolution of the bourbon industry in Kentucky, where ten new distilleries opened in 2021.The B-Corp milestone comes as Maker's Mark continues its rapid growth in markets such as Australia.The distillery released a new expression, Maker's 46, in 2010. But the international growth has largely been driven by classic Maker's, which for almost 60 years was the only whiskey it produced.I asked Rob first up about the significance of this singular focus by Maker's, at a time when many of its peers are seemingly bringing out new whiskies every other week.

Today Andy Silvester chats to Rob Samuels, COO of bourbon whiskey producer Maker's Mark, for a discussion focusing on the company's heritage; its B Corp certification; the impact of Covid; and its vision for international growth and innovation whilst remaining true to its roots. Andy also takes us through the headlines -- ARM will list on the New York Stock Exchange instead of the London Stock Exchange; GSK has set some ambitious targets; and airport services company John Menzies has rejected a £469m takeover bid. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our conversation focuses on electric vehicles, or EVs, and how this space has grown worldwide in recent time, along with the prospects for growth in the year ahead and how government subsidies might play a key role in driving adoption. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

The holiday shopping season is a wrap, so we examine how and where consumers shopped during the holidays and whether the pandemic and inventory shortages dampened holiday spirit. Plus, we preview the upcoming reporting season for the consumer sector and touch on how to think about positioning within. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Our conversations unpacks the early days of the 2021 holiday shopping season, outlines the must-have items and experiences on the top of wish lists, potential supply chain implications and more. Featured are Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office and Simeon Hyman, Head of Investment Strategy for ProShares. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Our conversation covers the key questions when it comes to understanding the metaverse, including a look at some questions that remain unanswered, how the metaverse might be monetized and more. Featured are Kevin Dennean, Technology Analyst Americas, Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas and Reid Gilligan, Equity Associate Analyst Americas. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Our conversation focuses on the changes underway within the global auto industry and the kind of role technology is playing, especially when it comes to electric and autonomous vehicles. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Rob Samuels is our guest this week and we are honored to have this 8th generation of whisky-maker on our podcast.  The Samuels family has long been known for founding Maker's Mark Distillery in Loretto Kentucky. Rob is the Managing Director of Maker's Mark and is a passionate story-teller ensuring his family's history is told to the masses.  Rob knows that Maker's Mark is the result of a “purposefully inefficient handmade process” but recognizes the importance of it to his family, their legacy, and to the quality of their bourbon. After this episode, hopefully you will recognize that Maker's Mark is about so much more than the whisky. We are thankful for everyone who has supported us. A huge shoutout to our growing Patreon Community as well! We'd appreciate it if you can take the time to give us feedback on our podcast. If you enjoy our content, consider giving us a 5 star rating on your favorite podcast app, leave us a review, and tell a fellow bourbon lover about our show. Follow  us @BourbonLens on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.  And please check out our Patreon to learn how you can support our endeavors, earn Bourbon Lens swag, be part of future barrel picks, and more. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please email us at TheBourbonLens@Gmail.com. Visit our website BourbonLens.com to check out our blog posts, or even purchase your own Bourbon Lens tasting glass or t-shirt. Cheers,Scott, Jake, & MichaelBourbon Lens * Dripping Wax Logo and Branding Courtesy of Maker's Mark About Maker's Mark® Bourbon In 1953, in Loretto, Ky., Bill Samuels, Sr., fulfilled his dream to create a handmade and delicious bourbon. He decided to make his whisky in small batches, using soft red winter wheat to enhance the softness and sweetness. He then rotated each barrel by hand for consistency and, finally, aged each barrel to taste. Bill Samuels, Sr., transformed bourbon from a “commodity” into a premium handmade spirit, and today Maker's Mark® continues to make its bourbon the same way. In recent years, Maker's Mark has introduced thoughtful, super-premium innovations to its portfolio, including Maker's Mark 46®, Maker's Mark® Cask Strength and Maker's Mark® Private Selection, the brand's first-ever custom barrel program. For more information, visit www.makersmark.com. Show Links: An Oral History of Bourbon Part II: Maker's Mark's Bill Samuels Jr. and Rob Samuels Maker's Mark | Handmade Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky Samuels Family | Our Story  Maker's Mark: a brand history The LEE Initiative The LEE Initiative Partners with Maker's Mark® to Release "CommUNITY Batch" Bourbon with 100% of Proceeds Supporting the Hospitality Industry How Maker's Mark Bourbon Is Made — From Barrel to Iconic Red Wax Seal Unique Kentucky Getaway - Vacation Rental by Makers Mark  The Family Behind Maker's Mark Has Opened Their House for Overnight Stays The 25 Most Important Bourbons Ever Made | Food & Wine You Can Now Stay in the Original Kentucky Home of the Maker's Mark Family NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION The Core Bottles Of Maker's Mark Bourbon Whisky, Ranked Column: Maker's Mark Barrel Entry Proof Experiment Proves Its Tradition Is Solid LEADERS Interview with Rob Samuels, Global General Manager and Chief Distillery Officer, Maker's Mark  Earth Day Champions: UK Introduces World's Largest American White Oak Repository and Genome Mapping Study With Maker's Mark UK, Maker's Mark partnership leads to American white oak research | Lexington Herald Leader UK, Makers Mark collaborate to sustain American white oak with repository and genome mapping study  Independent Stave Company

Mike spends the day in Loretto Kentucky at Maker's Mark. He sits down in the Samuels house with Rob Samuels and gets a real history lesson as they sip on two of Makers Mark's Finest expressions. You definitely want to check this one out! More on Maker's Mark at https://www.makersmark.com/ Check out the bourbon Roadies private Facebook group. Make sure you check out The Bourbon Road at https://thebourbonroad.com and also our private Facebook group, The Bourbon Roadies.

The holiday shopping season is right around the corner, and for some might already be underway - our conversation sheds light on the items or experiences anticipated to be in high demand and what the 2021 season is expected to deliver. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Rob Samuels talks about the history of Maker's Mark and the new experiences that can be had at the Samuel's House...

Rob Samuels talks about the history of Maker's Mark and the new experiences that can be had at the Samuel's House...

Our conversation will offer a look at US retailer and consumer brand Q2 results, trends from the back-to-school shopping season and how to think about allocation within the consumer discretionary sector. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Our conversation will offer a look at US retailer and consumer brand Q2 results, trends from the back-to-school shopping season and how to think about allocation within the consumer discretionary sector. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Our conversation focuses on the cannabis industry in the US and the implications of recently proposed federal legislation. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Our conversation focuses back in on the US consumer as we reflect on what a recent string of retail earnings have told us about trends, behaviors, and the reopening, along with a look at the catalysts to be mindful of in the second half of the year. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Denny Potter has held multiple roles in the bourbon industry and many thought that being the Master Distiller at Heaven Hill would be the pinnacle of anyone's career. In 2018, Denny left Heaven Hill and assumed the role of Master Distiller at Maker's Mark which surprised many. In this episode, we talk about career growth as a Master Distiller and advice to give others aspiring for this role in the industry. And Fred tries to convince Denny to release a 12 year old Maker's Mark. Show Partners: Catoctin Creek has been honoring that tradition of small craft rye whisky since 2009. Learn more at CatoctinCreekDistilling.com. Smooth Ambler builds on the traditional roots of American whiskey in West Virginia. Visit SmoothAmbler.com to learn more. You can now buy Barrell Craft Spirits products online and have them shipped right to your door. Visit BarrellBourbon.com and click Buy Now. Spirits of French Lick is delivering the finest hand crafted Bottled in Bond bourbons. Check out SpiritsofFrenchLick.com. Fling into spring at Total Wine & More. Always at low prices in-store or online at TotalWine.com. Heaven Hill Distillery has been lifting America’s spirit since 1935. Check out educational resources and sign up for their newsletter at HeavenHillDistillery.com. Show Notes: This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about the three tier system. What made you decide to go to Maker's Mark? Do you feel like you have an opportunity to grow or have you hit the ceiling as a Master Distiller? What's it been like working with Rob Samuels? What do you bring to the table as a Master Distiller? How long should someone work in operations before becoming a Master Distiller? Will you ever put out a 12 year old product? Talk about the operations at Maker's. What are the challenges of scaling while trying to keep the integrity of the brand? What was different when you came back to Maker's? What is the difference between operating Maker's vs. Bernheim Distillery?

Our conversation focuses in on the retailers as we reflect on recent earnings results, examine the role that the group will play in the economic recovery and more. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Our conversation will examine the state of the US consumer in the wake of what has been, and continues to be, a disruptive period as a result of the pandemic. We will walk you through how consumers and retailers have adapted, the trends that might remain with us and what the future of consumer behavior might look like. Featured are Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office, as well as Simeon Hyman, Head of Investment Strategy, ProShares. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Our conversation today will focus on the US consumer sectors, including performance expectations, pandemic-driven trends, how e-Commerce might further progress over the next year and more. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

On this episode of the Bourbon Showdown Podcast we welcome Rob Samuels of Maker's Mark. Many people would say that without his family and their contribution to the whiskey industry that bourbon would not be where it is today. I agree with that sentiment and welcome him onto the show where we discuss that history, what he sees for their future and of course good bourbon. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

As with many aspects of 2020, the holiday shopping season will have a different look and feel however the consumer is still forging ahead. Today we discuss how consumers are choosing to shop, the products on their radar this year, how retailers are adapting this the current environment and more. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Today we revisit the state of the US consumer, and talk about trends and behaviors are continuing to be influenced and altered by the COVID-19, including those that might remain with us for the long-term. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, with the UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

As this pandemic period has resulted in many of us spending more time in our homes, many of us have come to realize the perhaps endless list of improvements that can be made, whether be it out of necessity or purely for the pleasure of remodeling. Today we explore how the home improvement industry has fared over these past months, and which demographic might drive further demand and bust out those paint brushes. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, with the UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

As we make our way closer and closer to election day, we consider the many factors that might influence how we choose to vote. Today we focus in on Cannabis, which will indeed have a presence on the 2020 ballot. My guests discuss what?s at stake for the cannabis industry with this election cycle, what the cannabis market looks like today here in the US and what the future might have in store. Featured are Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, as well as Jeannine Lennon, Municipal Credit Strategist Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Charles Werner, your host, welcomes Sergeant Rob Samuels from the San Diego Sheriff’s Department to today’s episode. Rob shares how the use of drones has enhanced the effectiveness of their daily work in assuring public safety. He also talks about their training programs for remote pilots and even for deputies to become proficient observers and, as a result, be able to assist drone pilots more effectively during law enforcement operations. Listen to this episode and learn more about how the San Diego Sheriff’s Department has become an example of the multiple benefits of using drones for public safety operations.   Key Takeaways: [1:17] Rob shares how he got involved with drones. [2:08] How long has the department UAS program been in existence at the San Diego Sheriff’s department? [3:26] Rob shares the beginnings of the UAS program. [5:25] The first aircrafts used at the San Diego Sheriff’s department. [7:55] Ways around geo-fencing. [8:11] Rob talks about the lessons he learned while purchasing unmanned aircraft systems. [9:40] Rob talks about the other UAS programs in San Diego. [10:50] How does the use of drones change law enforcement operations in San Diego? [12:15] Rob explains how drones have changed the development of tactical operations. [14:10] Rob shares successful stories where drones had a key role. [15:20] Drones have recently started being used for traffic crash reconstruction. [16:22] Rob talks about the journal operations for drones at the San Diego Sheriff's Department. [18:02] The process of training remote pilots at the San Diego Sheriff's Department. [22:17] Rob shares some aha moments when drones have been instrumental. [25:42] Indoor flying. [26:42] What was the catalyst to decide to put on drones in more patrol vehicles? [28:14] Rob talks about the near future goals for the use of drones at the San Diego Sheriff’s Department. [33:04] Rob shares what they do in regard to the documentation of the fleet and maintenance. [35:43] Rob talks about the good and bad surprises he encountered in his journey working with drones. [38:02] Charles talks about the Beyond Visual Line of Sight Waiver, Remote ID, and Enhancement Sensor Voice Technology. [40:03] What is next in drone technology? [41:25] Rob shares some words with departments that still don’t have a drone program.   Mentioned in this episode: Airborne International Response Team Presented by AiRXOS, part of GE Aviation with additional support from FIRSTiZ and Pix4D AIRT is the leading 501(c)(3) non-profit organization supporting Drones For Good and Public Safety UAS Become a member of Drone Responders for free. AIRT and DRONERESPONDERS 2020 Drones in Public Safety Survey Drone Responders Events

With the start of a new school year right around the corner, we examine what back to school shopping trends look like in light of the many unknowns surrounding how schools will reopen as a result of the pandemic. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas, from the UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Today we continue our conversation on real estate markets and focus in on how retailers and retail landlords are faring in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Featured are Jon Woloshin, Real Estate and Lodging Analyst Americas, and Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas from the UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

US Consumer trends and behaviors have been re-shaped in recent time, today we discuss how consumers and retailers have been adapting to the current environment, the changes that might stay with us post the crisis and more. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas from the UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

In this episode, Matt talks to Marker's Mark Managing Director, Rob Samuels. Since the ripe, old age of nine, the grandson of Bill, Sr., and Margie has worked at virtually every position in the distillery. Today, Rob is in charge of not "screwing up the whisky" – as his grandfather so elegantly put it. This means honoring that patiently handmade, high-quality ethos of his forbearers while figuring out how to make more Maker's Mark for the world. If you want to try any of the spirits Matt tasted on the show you can ORDER ONLINE or from the BIG RED LIQUORS APP for Curbside Pickup Service. It's as easy as 1,2,3! Start Your Order -  bigredliquors.com Simply select your store, browse and search for Maker's Mark products and start a CURBSIDE order. Your store will notify you when it is ready for pickup. Best of all, our NO TOUCH curbside will leave you with peace of mind and the great products you want ASAP.

COVID-19 has impacted a variety of industries in a variety of ways; today we explore the impacts to the cannabis industry as of today and potential implications to the space further down the pike. Featured is Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas from the UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Daniel Cassidy

As the impacts of COVID-19 widen, today we examine what it all means for the US consumer. How are retailers adapting to this new normal, how is it affecting consumer behavior, and where do opportunities exist within the US discretionary and staples sectors. Today's guest: Rob Samuels, Consumer Analyst Americas from the UBS Chief Investment Office. Host: Anthony Pastore

The 2019 holiday shopping season is officially underway! Today we reflect on how retailers performed over Black Friday, highlight some notable promotional initiatives and must have gift items, the health of the US consumer and more. Featured is Consumer Analyst Americas, from the UBS Chief Investment Office, Rob Samuels. Host: Daniel Cassidy

Today we discuss all things consumer staples by examining sector performance trends and drivers, the Q3 reporting season, notable risks where opportunities exist. Featured is Consumer Analyst Americas, from the UBS Chief Investment Office, Rob Samuels. Host: Daniel Cassidy

If you’re a bourbon die hard, you’ve probably asked yourself this question, “Do bourbon brands care about me?”. You know what I’m talking about because you join in on the conversation when distilleries increase prices or you get angry because your barrel picking group has been snubbed out for allocation reasons. The Bourbon Pursuit team takes a hard look at many of the larger whiskey producers by looking at some of their past actions. But if you’re the whiskey producer, what would you do in the same situation? Show Partners: Hotel Distil on historic Whiskey Row is set to open October 29th in Downtown Louisville. Book now to experience it for yourself at HotelDistil.com. The University of Louisville now has an online Distilled Spirits Business Certificate that focuses on the business side of the spirits industry. Learn more at uofl.me/pursuespirits. Barrell Craft Spirits enjoys finding and identifying barrels that contain distinctive traits and characteristics. They then bottle them at cask strength to retain their authentic qualities for the whiskey enthusiast. Learn more at BarrellBourbon.com. Receive $25 off your first order at RackHouse Whiskey Club with code "Pursuit". Visit RackhouseWhiskeyClub.com. Distillery 291 is an award winning, small batch whiskey distillery located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Learn more at Distillery291.com. Show Notes: Wilderness Trail Expansion: https://amnews.com/2019/10/03/wilderness-trail-distillery-expanding-planning-huge-announcement/ Toddy’s: https://www.liquor.com/articles/best-bourbon-store-toddys-liquors/#gs.7u244v Glenlivet Scotch Pods: https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/05/world/glenlivet-scotch-whisky-capsule-glassless-trnd/index.html Scotch Tariffs: https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/03/business/us-tariffs-whisky-wine/index.html This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about line etiquette. What are your thoughts on the Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond relaunch? What do you think Heaven Hill did wrong in that situation? Are we moving away from a $15 price point? What about the Booker's price increase? Let's discuss Maker's attempt to lower the proof. What about Sazerac's strategy? What about Brown-Forman? What's happening with the allocation of barrel picks? Are people or groups getting cut off? 0:00 Hey everybody. If you have a bachelor's degree and live anywhere in the United States, there's now a way for you to take your bourbon education to the next level. The distilled spirits business certificate from the University of Louisville is an online program that can be completed in as little as 15 weeks and will prepare you for the business side of the spirits industry. It's offered by the ACS be accredited college of business, and this certificate was developed in partnership with industry experts to be one of a kind and it's going to prepare you for your next adventure. Learn more about this online program at U of l.me slash 0:35 pursue spirits All right, 0:37 let me see if I can't get everybody to just like Quiet on the set here. 0:41 All right, Quiet on the set. 0:56 Hey everybody, what is going on? It is Episode 220. of bourbon pursuit. I'm one of your host Kenny, and we've got a ton of news to run through. Let's not wait let's dive into it. Eagle rare bourbon is announcing the 10th annual Eagle rare life award. Now Eagle rare has partnered with garden and gun to seek nominations for the 10th annual Eagle rare life award. The award celebrates those who lead a rare life as defined by showing courage, leadership survival, devotion, character and heroism. Past recipients have included Brian Anderson representing USA cares in Jake Clark of save a warrior to nominate a remarkable individual for the annual Eagle where life award submit an application by November 3 2019. The finalists and their stories will be featured on garden and gun calm from November 15 to December 6, and they allows you to go and cast your votes. The winner of this award will be announced in early 2020. We talk all the time about how big players in the industry are always expanding but now we get to see one sort of on the mid size wilderness trail. Now you've heard from Pat heist and Shane Baker back on episodes 121 at 130. They are playing to add three new additional buildings to their site, including a 13,000 square foot addition. This is going to be an expansion of their bottling and administration buildings plus two new brick houses each totaling around 16,624 square feet. They will store 20,520 barrels each and they will be next in line for construction. The distilleries bottling operation is undergoing a $1.5 million dollar expansion right now with a new automated bottling line and warehouse space as they are going to be adding also more headcount in operations and administration. The distillery is currently wrapping up around a $6 million in capital projects for 2019 and as $8 million in projects underway for 2020. But now that you're doing close to 215 barrels of whiskey per day, you can read more about this in our show notes with the link to AM news.com. Back on episode 152. We featured Guthrie McKay of Tommy's liquors. Now this topic is polarizing to some folks. Today Guthrie charges more than secondary prices for his advocated bourbon and with this small shop that has a lot of listeners and shoppers going through, it puts them in a mixed and almost kind of gets you're frustrated and mad. But Guthrie has seen the highs and lows and he was a kind of a key and secret ingredient to helping the whiskey boom. And you can hear some of those stories that we were counted back on that episode 152 but you know Guthrie was also this week featured in a liquor.com article titled The best bourbon store on earth. And that might be a little bit of clickbait, but we've provided a few quotes to give context the story, and you can read that article with the link in our show notes as well. Jim beam's knob Creek is announcing a new limited edition bottling called quarter oak. The new release finishes knob Creek bourbon and quarter oak casks for four years. Now quarter casts are as the name suggests, one quarter the size of traditional 53 gallon barrels. And as we've seen this before, this means that there's an increase in the surface area with the charred oak relative the volume of whiskey inside. You can call it accelerated aging but it could just mean different types of taste profiles that are coming out of it. But when this finished product is going to be dumped from the Quarter Cask. It is then blended with knob Creek and bottled at 100 proof to create the knob Creek quarter oak, this is going to have a suggested retail price of $50. And with more release news heaven Hill is announcing that they are doing their first line extension of larceny, Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey larceny barrel proof released on an allocated basis three times per year. The first release of this weekend bourbon will ship in January of 2020. larceny barrel proof offers whiskey fans the opportunity to taste larceny just as heaven hills master distiller does Connor straight from the barrel. Each release will have varying proofs and consists of barrels aged of six to eight years old with releases in January may in September. This is also going to have the same naming convention that we've seen with Elijah Craig barrel proof. So the first release will be a 120 a representing the first batch of the year one representing the month with this January and 20 representing the year 2020. Each release will be bottled at barrel proof non chill filtered and available at a suggested retail price of 4999. we first saw it with black and which is metallic is new whiskey, followed by collaboration Slipknot with an Iowa whiskey company and now few spirits and Warner Music artists services are announcing a new release called all secrets know which is a new limited edition bourbon distilled by few spirits master distiller Paul help go in collaboration with Grammy nominated and multi Platinum selling Seattle grunge pioneers. Allison chains now whose music has also stood the test of time and pollutes a generation as well as a lot of whiskey lovers out there two bottles will feature a custom design label by artists Justin Helton. For this release few bourbon is finished for six months in tequila barrels bottled at 101 proof and will have an MSRP or suggested retail price of $75. This game this is how bourbon pursuit we hardly ever really talked about scotch, but the Glenlivet has the internet up in arms because they have released something that was new. It was a video and the Internet has coined it scotch pots. They are clear seaweed wraps that are completely edible and have a cocktail in a clear capsule, Glenlivet partnered with a sustainable startup on this new idea, and it has everyone talking about it. Some folks thought it was April Fool's in October, but we'll see who has the last laugh on this one. If they catch on, they will be served during London celebration of college tail innovation through October 13. And you can read about that with more in our show notes. We've talked about terrorists on the podcast before and terrorists, the retaliation are coming back harder and harder. The US is now going to be imposing a 25% tariff on scotch whiskey being imported into the US. This is going to increase the price of scotch for Americans. The US is the largest market with over $1 billion of scotch whiskey being exported in 2018. Well, perhaps this might get more people drinking bourbon in the end, but who knows what the outfall of this could be. You can read more about it with the link in our show notes as well. Now speaking of what things that we have going on, our community took one for the team and selected a barrel at Traverse City which ended up being a seven year in GP, or incredibly fortunate that we get to bring these experiences to our Patreon community and happy that all these whiskey geeks get to be a part of them. We have a new barrel pic to announce which is in addition to our last one week that we announced which is our Eagle wearable are also adding in to 2019 k jack daniels barrel proof that will be taking place in December. This is going to bring our 2019 tally to 19 barrels selected. And we've already got our first barrel lineup for 2020 as well. Thanks once again to our retail partner, keg and bottle out of the San Diego area for making this all happen. You can go check out their website and get whiskey shipped straight to your door at keg the letter in bottle.com. today's podcast it's one for the diehards, you know who you are because you join in the conversation when distilleries are increasing their prices are you get angry because your barrel picking group got snubbed because of allocation reasons. Now the trio of bourbon pursuit we're here to talk about some of the actions that we've seen over the past year and contemplate. Do bourbon companies actually care about their consumers? Or is this just a part of a bigger game that we all have to play? We mentioned it towards the end of the show. But if 9:00 You're a producer and you're listening to us. Just know that we love you. And we do our best to play devil's advocate. But there's some things that we saw that we really feel like we should take the bourbon communities view and kind of really talk about it put out there in the open and see what happens. So hope you're going to enjoy this one. Alright, so let's get down to it. Here's Joe from barrell bourbon. And then you've got Fred Minnick. What's up the char? It's Joe from barrell bourbon. We enjoy finding and identifying barrels that contain distinctive traits and characteristics. We then bottle them a cash rank to retain their authentic qualities for the whiskey enthusiast. Keep up to date with our newsletter at barrell bourbon.com. 9:37 I'm Fred Minnick. And this is above the char, I reached out to my followers on Twitter for this idea, and bourbon West came up with a good one. He wanted to know how we could improve the etiquette of standing in lines for bourbon. And he's speaking in particular of the etiquette towards the distillery, the store owner, the proprietary, he's saying that he sees some disgusting behavior out there when it comes to standing in line for these were bottles. So thanks, bourbon west for this idea. And here's the thing, if we want bourbon so badly, that we're willing to camp out overnight stand in a long line, I bring my kids to these things. So I have to it's it's the only way I can get there because my wife will be out of town or she'll be running. And the only way I can go to a lot of these events is if I bring my kids and so right then and there. I'm kind of like an odd man out people look at me funny because I've got my kids. And I'm standing in line for bourbon. So they're like, there's there's your dad of the year. But you do see people like get very angry toward the store owner, if they are the last in line and they don't get a bottle. Or they're at the front and they can't get what they want. Or they see a bottle in the store and the store owner wants sell it to them. I've seen people yell, I've seen people throw tantrums. And then you see people on social media afterwards, just absolutely tearing apart a business for them not selling him a bottle. And is that right? Well, you know, it's free speech. And people have the they can do whatever they want. But when you're inside someone's property, and you are there as a customer, there are some things that you should do first, you should never really raise your voice to the store owner. That could be you know, considered threatening, and, you know, if somebody wanted to, they could kick you out, and you should be just a good decent human being. You got to remember this whole bourbon thing. It's, it's just a hobby. It isn't something it's not life and death. We're not curing cancer. We're trying to get a nice bottle of bourbon. So treat people with respect. And so there are three rules that I recommend that everyone carry when it goes into the stores. dress nice it This may sound very weird, but people do not act like assholes when they dress nice. Now what is nice now you know I wear an ascot I'm not saying you have to do that, for God's sake. I'm the only person left on the planet still wearing the damn things. But you know, maybe like a like a polo shirt and khakis and a pair of nice shoes. And you'll find that you don't want to be a dickhead when your dress pretty nicely. Number to say thank you. Even if you do not get the bottle you want the store manager, the store clerk anybody you interact with the distillery whoever, just say thanks. And number three, the people who you're around with start talking to them. Where are they from? Some of the best friends I've made in bourbon have been from standing in line at these places. You really do meet some cool people. They'll be from all over the state or country and sometimes even out of the country because it's their only opportunity to get a rare bottle. So just practice those three things. And it seems like little but hopefully it will diffuse someone else from being a dickhead when they're shopping bourbon. And that's this week's above the char. Hey, if you have an idea like bourbon West did hit me up on Twitter or Instagram at Fred Minnick. That's at Fred Minnick. Until next week. Cheers. 13:15 welcome back to this episode of bourbon pursuit the official podcast of bourbon, the whole trio here today. Wow, hoping we don't burn some bridges. Right? I mean, we're going to be bringing the heat putting some people under some fire. But also, I think speaking for the broader bourbon community that's out there, because we're going to be talking and the subject is, you know, do distilleries actually care about their customers? And this is we thought about this idea. Because, gosh, what was it probably six months ago, we had this this concept of like, everything The news was changing. There's people that are taking off products, there's allocations of barrels that are just getting axed across the board from Yeah, as Fred always said, people that took you to the dance. So today, we're going to, 13:57 you know, barrel programs not kind of going he usually just made it him. 14:02 And so that's exactly what today we're really gonna be focusing on is, is looking at and hopefully, you know, I think we're going to take some, put some fire, put some heat and do some people, we all got to play a little devils advocate, right? Kind of will, one of us one of us will kind of take the role of, well, if the distillers that if I'm the distiller here, like, what's my response? Male? Fuck 14:21 it, let's just, whatever, whatever I mean, it this is this is a conversation that we need to have. Yeah, they need to know, we need to have this conversation because they're, you know, I feel like sometimes distilleries live in a bubble. They live in a bubble of their bottom line, and, you know, help benefiting their shareholders. And the informations out there. It's not like they can't go to a social media forum and find the data find, find people conveying their feelings about what consumers want and what they need. You know, their two years ago, they'd spent $150,000, to get the kind of feedback that is free now. Yeah, on social media. And what I have found consistently, is that they continue to ignore a lot of what people want, or what at least what they're saying they want on social media. 15:20 Absolutely. Well, they got short memories. They forget that like, just 10 or 15 years ago, nobody gave a shit about them. 15:27 So before we also kick it off and dive even further, you know, if you're watching on video, you might be hearing some background noise and people shuffling through because we are recording an episode of this podcast from the barrel room at Hotel distil, which is going to be on historic whiskey row here in Louisville, and it's set to open on November 1. And hotel distill is a place that is exciting. It's got a rich history that's happening here. It's now being transformed into this great space. It's designed to really, you know, what they say is ignite your passion for discovery and we'll do this 16:00 Social anchor for Louisville's revitalization and refinement of bourbon culture and you can book your experience now and stay at this authentic little destination at Hotel distil com. Yeah, I think this JTS Browns office they said at one point there Yeah, this is the actual building his office I had no idea Fred you got any insight into Yeah, this is this is the this is one of the I actually have an old photo of of like the 16:28 an old photo of like the outside and said JTS Brown, it was actually out there. 16:31 Yeah. facade. 16:33 Yeah. And, you know, a lot of cool things happened in here. 16:37 It just amazes like 1015 years ago, all this was like a dump. And yeah, I mean, it was it was like a Renaissance. I mean, 16:43 it was I saw what whiskey row was. I mean, I remember one of our first podcast we did was actually saving whiskey row and what it was, and all the effort that went in for historical and preservation societies of what it went to actually save a lot of the buildings and the facades that you do see out here, 16:57 guys, I want you to think about this. You know, in the 1800s, early 1900s, there were fellows walking around and their suits, go into meetings, and they were brokering deals about bulk whiskey. And they were talking about, like, you know, exporting it to Japan or Germany or wherever. I mean, this is where all the action happened. for American whiskey, where it's like, we're right here at the wall street of whiskey. I really don't like using that term, but it is it really is. And it just kind of went away. And level. You know, I and I give a lot of this credit to our mayor, Mayor Fischer. Greg Fischer. I really don't think, you know, any of this Renaissance happens without, you know, kind of like his, his vision to like, improve, improve this part of our culture. 17:46 Well, and I know and it might be a slider, Ryan, you know, he always has this famous line that you know Bardstown as the capital of bourbon, but it still is global is the epicenter of bourbon. Well, maybe now. 17:58 10 years ago, not so much. Nobody cared about down there, down here. They saw how cool it was in barge towns, they're like, Oh, we gotta do we gotta go do it now. 18:05 Absolutely. 18:06 So I'll play a Bardstown can put up some hotels like this, I think 18:10 they missing it. They need this, put a distill and bars down the awesome. Here we go. 18:15 So let's go ahead. And let's dive back into the subjects here. And let's go ahead and we'll take we'll take an easy one, right. I mean, this is one that is a recent news because as people in ourselves live in little boy live in Kentucky, we had access to the white label have six year Heaven and Hell bottle and bond. And it was a, you know, it kind of made. It was pretty big news, right? I mean, when they said they were gonna take it off the market. However, there was no announcement to say that there was going to be a relaunch, there's no anything like that. It was just something that I think it usually kind of started through the grapevine where the distributors found out about it distributors told the retailers, the retailers then told the consumers and then from there, everything went kind of Bismarck, and people just started clearing the shelves left and right. And Kentucky is actually finding this, this white label. And fast forward two to three months afterwards, then a press release comes out that says they're gonna be relaunching with an additional year, and, you know, three x the actual price of what it was before, before you can get it around, what 1215 bucks. And then it was coming back with an SRP of $40. But not only this is also be going out a little bit further outside of Kentucky hitting I think, what 678 states something like that during its first launch. So let's kind of talk about that. What do you think heaven hell did wrong in this situation? 19:41 Well, they, we kind of talked about this on the round table, but you know, that they think we're like stupid or something like they just totally like think, as consumers, like, we'll put out this press release. And just believe what we say. And it happened with the logic, Craig 12. You know, for years, we were like, we're like, oh, we're gonna move the 12 from the front to the back. And you're like, is it going away, no, never, never gone away. And then it goes from the back. It's not no longer and a number, they write the letter 12 or the word 12 on the back. And then after that, and it's like, you think we're stupid, then they do the same thing with heaven Hill, like six year they'd say, Oh, it's going away and never coming back. And then, you know, home to hold. Three months later, get a press release. And so it's like, I get what they're doing, they're going to try to make it a more premium product to the mainstream audience. But like 10 to 15 years ago, nobody cared about you. 20:40 I mean, let's let's also, I'll take their side, little bit here, you know, not even told that that was really happening. Not a ton of people really cared about the white label. I mean, it was always available. It's always there. It was something that was kind of our whiskey geek. Like it was like the thing you knew about like, you're like, that's the bottle that you go, that's 99 or 1099, that you could always count on as a 21:04 great poor at a great value. And like you said, it was kind of you had to be in the know to know about it. 21:10 To answer your question, Kenny, I think the one thing that the mistake they made was transparency. And I I'm very, very close with with heaven Hill, I think their whiskies fantastic. Some of the best I mean, I they do a great job. But I think in this growth of American whiskey, there has been a, there still has been a little bit of this kind of like old school protectionism, of holding on to their ideas and what they're going to be doing, you know, to kind of protect it from, you know, their competitors finding out. Well, really what has happened is that consumers, we feel like we have a right to know, of like, what's happening, 22:00 But what are they hiding? Like? It's whiskey. Like they act like they got like 22:06 you would if they said, We are pulling heaven hills, six year old off the market, to rebrand it, and bring it back as a seven year old bottle and bond at an additional price to more consumers? Would you be? See that's just I think most people would be fine with that. And the last thing I would have been fine with, hey, we really want this to stay available on shelves, we don't want to be like, well, they're 12. So that's why we're going to drop the age statement, kind of do a blend of eight to 12 which, by the way, they 12. So I mean, I was to use Preston van winkles term, I was bought hurt for probably about two years. 22:45 You still don't let it go. 22:47 But it was Elijah Craig 12 years is like so 22:50 tricky. Just like, like we're in it, but the age statement, you know, write it on the back and like had it and then eventually just phase it out and then change it. 22:58 I also so so that that's to me is the only thing the business decision to do it. I don't have a problem with and I don't think it's them not caring about their consumers? I think it's I think it's simply a I think they make a decision and they try to think about the best way to release it. And they're not thinking about necessarily the backlash and the whiskey geek state, we are still very much a very small portion. We are the one percenters 23:23 right, that's that's the one one thing I think, if I keep taking the distillery side of this, and I keep thinking, well, if I'm heaven Hill, I, my goal is to look at the broader market, right? My goal is to focus on that. And when I even put out these press releases, who cares? Except, you know, the 10,000 people that are like really hardcore into this, right. And 23:47 I'm still just flabbergasted by like, they think they have this secret stuff. Do you think like Buffalo Trace gives a shit that they're taking heaven Hill six off year and bringing it and relaunching it like, what do they? What do they think they're hiding? Like, I didn't mean from a competitive stamp, right? Like, yeah, I mean, this, whiskey takes years to develop to what it becomes. And so like, when you announce something, you've thought about it for a very long time, like, somebody just can't replicate it, like a month later, you know, 24:14 let's remember to 14 years ago, when there was like, there were like, two or three of us out there, kind of writing about this sort of thing. Now, I mean, you have a sea of social media, people, you know, finding a bottle, you know, analyzing every single thing, and it's very knowledgeable base. And so we can, you know, people can find out things really quickly. And also heaven hills got a you know, they have a few people in their organization that, you know, will get on social media and or under anonymous handles and say things. So there's that some moles they have, 24:52 they have some leaders. And so does that mean, they all do? 24:55 Nailed it? So I'll take the other side of this. And we had Larry cast on the show, right? You know, before he retired, and Larry is still being even in his retirement. He's actually been very outspoken on this even on social media and Hall 25:07 of Famer, by the way, yes, yes. 25:08 Recent inductee to it. Yeah. And, you know, he goes against the saying is insane. Like, the brand has been undervalued for far too long. True. And it's and it's very true. I think, I think bourbon in itself has been undervalued for this is very true. I agree with all that. But I guess, you know, when we look at it from another standpoint of, you know, if we're going to, is there a market to keep bringing $15 bottles of whiskey or where are we past that because it had been that way for so long is it do we just need to move on. And 25:37 so I've done some research and the studies show that when you raise prices, you actually get more customers. And I've witnessed many people go into liquor stores and my various, you know, book signings and stuff and you know, they're new to bourbon, they don't know anything about it. And the the store rap will try to get someone to buy four roses yellow label, and they'll look at the price. And they say, No, it's too cheap. I want that one. And they'll point to like Jefferson's reserve. And I'm picking I'm picking four roses yellow label every day of the week, over Jefferson's reserve. We still love Trey about Yeah, still. Yes, but but that from a value perspective, you know, I'm saying it's like, that's like, it's, you know, I'm saving pennies, or I'm saving, you know, 1015 bucks. Absolutely. But the the everyday consumer looks at this as a luxury good. And $15 isn't luxury. And that's that's kind of where they're, that's where these these distillers you're coming from? 26:38 Yeah, and understand that from like, if you're buying a gift or wanting to try something special, but if you're wanting like, quality everyday drinkers, you know that you gotta have an affordable option like 30 $30 for heaven Hill balled and bond, I think, or whatever, it's gonna be $40. I think it's overpriced for what it is. I'm, it's me, it's good. But I can drink some great, didn't you? 27:04 Me it was that great. He kept he kept 27:05 himself from 27:08 Above Average? 27:11 Well, I mean, from an everyday drinker to like, Am I going to go buy it at 40. Whereas if I would have it, you know, constantly on my bar, but they don't care about me, they care about the mass audience. And so, 27:22 all right, so here's the here's the sad, hard truth of it. The only line against this is the bartender, the bartender, has to have it at a surf a certain price in order for them to make money. And you can't make a $40 cocktail, right? You gotta it's got to be 10 to 15. So that's why that's why like in scotch, you know, they have like monkey shoulder and Glenlivet, 12 year old, you know, it's very affordable, you know, well, scotches, and the bartender community will always make sure that we have a 15 to $25 bird, because they have to make money on it. And you know, Larry rice is not going to be making cocktails with you know, $55 bourbon. 28:09 Absolutely. So I guess that's the kind of like, makes me think of another question. Like, if one of the main strategies behind bullet and how bullet became so big was because they were able to get behind the bar. Yeah. So in bullet is not a 15 $20 bottle, right. I mean, last time I checked, it's still in the 35 to $50 category. I don't 28:29 know I actually I've seen it for I saw like $18 Cosmo, is it? 28:33 Yeah, well, nevermind. Yeah. bullets in the sub $25 range, we found out what Kenny doesn't buy. 28:41 Just don't pay that much attention, apparently. 28:45 So I think we beat up on heaven Hill a little bit. So I think, 28:48 well not beat up on them. It's just they know, the criticism. And they, they they see it. And it's also stuff that I wouldn't tell them to their face. You know, like, I guess we'll do it on the podcast. back. No one's gonna hear the end day always push back of like, we are. We're a business and we're trying to make money. What I really the thing about it is I also feel bad for heaven Hill, because they get they do get a lot of blowback, and poor Bernie lovers. That guy's doing his job. 29:21 Yeah, but they do it themselves. They do it 29:22 themselves. But Bernie's like, sometimes just kind of left on an island. He's got to be the punching bag, you know? And it's like, I hope they're paying him well, and if not, they need to give him a raise, because that he takes a lot of a 29:34 lot of abuse. And it feels he gotta have a little bit of empathy for him too, because he ends up being like the spokesperson for the brand. I mean, yeah, right. Ryan, do you remember when we interviewed him? We had a two part interview. And we actually asked him, we asked him about Elijah Craig, and the 12 year age statement. And he looked, I mean, he came and he said, and he has no, it's not going away. You know, we're just moved to the back and little blah. And then, like, two months later, 29:57 again, whoops. Yeah, you know, we had to do this because make it available. And it's like, well, two minutes later, it was available and what changed it to 30:05 remember to like, automation, he had, oh, it's not his fault. It's and that's the and that's also the information that the someone gave him had, you know, so, you know, the decision was made that I have no doubt that, you know, they're looking at stocks and they're looking at where the future is and everything, and they make they make decisions in a moment and, and then everyone else is is forced to, like kind of 30:31 catch up to it. I guess. I just don't understand. I understand. Yes, Bourbons undervalued. I totally agree with that. But that's what your logic Craig's your inner McKenna's your Evan Williams single barrels your William heaven hills that's what they're those are brands are for heaven Hill has been a everyday affordable drinker. I don't understand why pivot takeaway from those brands to position this one when it's been like a bomb on the shelf all for all i also 30:58 think so you're thinking one particular thing get to realize when you go to Heaven Heaven hell we've all been in the label room there's hundreds of thousands of labels that they have maybe not hundreds but the definitely thousands Yeah, and I'm pretty sure like a bought every abandoned trademark of Oh, I just don't know that. So let me keep going here because I know when you think about the heaven hell bottom Yvonne that's one thing but you still got Evan lanes bottle and bond. You've got virgin you've got all these things but don't get me wrong I know people are starting to hate on the virgin thing now because they're dropping the age statement off that one as well. So you know it's just a continual progression of what are they going to be able to do 31:32 be honest that was the best marketing that virgin ever had no one knew about that fucking perfect. I mean, we can hear me there's like we knew about it sounded but like i was i was cracking up with like all these people like, like you didn't know about that bourbon. It was a very like I mean, heaven Hill bottle the mom people knew about it, but it's like out of the woodwork they're all a virgin fan. Like Come on. 31:54 Yeah, that was where it was mostly in like North Carolina Yeah. 31:58 There was like a Washington's like, I can't get any worse. Like you couldn't get it anyway. 32:02 Yeah, you know, so not even be tried. But 32:04 it's like I don't know what you're saying they 32:06 still came out. I mean, they rebranded it and came out of quality house right. So it's still still the same box he you know, 32:14 let's mean heaven hills seven years old and bond thousand barrel dump is not a $40 bottle like it 32:24 I get it, it's a rebranding. It's a way to do this. I mean, you can also see this as a way that you know, they they wanted to remove the name heaven Hill, from lower in tears, like, okay, green labels not 32:35 gone away the 90 proof one, you know why? Because someone in the Shapiro family, that's what they buy. Oh, well, so it's on their it's on their bar inside. And so it'll it'll always be there because they that's what they drink. You know, I think it's probably important that we also look at some of the some of the brands that have reacted to consumers pushing back pricing. Like when Booker's announced that they were going to be $100 bottle, you know, they went, they they reverted pretty quickly, because they were like, they were getting a murder. Remember that? 33:13 Oh, yeah, just it was 33:14 11 years ago, they changed it, but yeah, 33:16 they changed it back. And, you know, they didn't have to change any branding or anything. But, you know, they still have a little bit of residual 33:25 in I mean, to be fair Booker's, probably, I mean, it's a barrel proof six year like, really good bourbon. I mean, 33:32 I used to get it for 55 bucks. Yeah. And it was it was 33:37 the most incredible values out there. 33:38 That is a that is to me, that was a more palatable, you know, price increase. You know, they decided change, I think it's 75 or something like that. CSRP now it's about it's probably right where it needs to be and I think people are happy with 33:54 that you were still happy with that. And I mean, I still recommend it to people who haven't tried something and you want to you know, start elevating and trying to go barrel proof and you know, to kind of just take a note off your above the char from weeks ago, you know, being able to experience the different flavors you can get with barrel proof by starting at barrel proof, adding some water adding some ice letting the ice melt, you know, you get you get to experience bourbon five different ways. In a in a barrel proof whiskey like that. So 34:20 some you can always find to, but you know, 34:22 Becker, Booker's isn't the only one remember makers, even what had been five years ago about the 2013? The proof? 34:29 Yeah, the proof debacle, they still won't, they still won't talk about it. So for our listeners out there, this is what happened in 2013, Maker's Mark decided to lower their proof from 90 proof to 84. And they announced it to their brand ambassadors, which is their program that they have for their sir customer loyalty program. So they sent an email to it and people in batch it crazy. It was it was it ended up being front page news, Jay Leno, or one of the you know, the talk shows were talking about it. He was on CNN, it was everywhere. And I got like this. I was I was covering it very, very intensely. And I got these interviews with Bill Samuels and Rob Samuels. And I remember bill saying like, oh, son of a bitch, I guess people really care about our wisdom, you know. And it's like, they say, Bill always has this way of like, making everything sound funny and putting things in perspective. But they changed it back. But to this day, people think people think it's a, it was a marketing ploy, because it was only eight days that they had it out there. But think about it, they had to change their labels, you know, they had to pull. Well, they had they already had products out there had 35:42 a product out there. I mean, and that's kind of I think, I wouldn't say it's a unicorn by any means. But it's definitely a unique bottle that people could have how many 84 proof? maker's marks do you have? I don't 35:52 even think I've ever had it or tried it. 35:55 Not to have you had it, lady? I know. I bet it I they actually I tasted it on the air for a TV station. I was like, yeah, this is it's more watered down. It was like very light. There you go. I mean, really, it's makers is not the I mean, it's nice, but it's not the most complex whiskey. You know, it's it's fine for what it is. But I really did think it was a bad move from a whiskey perspective, because you could taste the difference. You really could. 36:18 Yeah, but I think they've they've been able to rebound and with flying colors. So I haven't really had a problem. 36:26 These companies need like somebody on their team, like they have like bean counters, like making these decisions. You 36:31 know, like, I mean, let's not like in the in the government, they just don't have, like, the government has like someone from like, so the VA has like veterans on committees, to, like have like a veteran oversight committee to make sure that the veterans are getting treated like they should be instead of like the, you know, the doctors want, maybe you want to treat them. And I think you're right, I think that might not be a bad idea. But you know what, they're never going to go for it. And you know, and here's an example I can think of like Sazerac in a lot of people's eyes. They're their public enemy number one. And that's that's because their stuff is highly allocated hard to get. But it's so damn good. Yeah, so I mean, it's same with heaven Hill, their whiskey so damn good. It's kind of like you know, it's kind of like the it's a love hate relationship. Exactly. It's like the the girlfriend you had in high school who couldn't stand but she was so hot, ready? 37:26 Like, I can't help myself, like crap, but yeah, I can't stop 37:31 it. So I guess, you know, will kind of shift the gears a little let's talk about Sazerac. 37:38 As the saying goes, Portland is weird. Perhaps it's something in the water. It turns out that there might be some truth to that. The Oregon capitals primary water source is supplied by the bowl run watershed. It's also the key ingredient and one of the city's most popular watering holes, Bull Run distillery, the boulder and watershed is a very unique water source. It's protected by an act of Congress back in the 1870s. And the city's 38:00 Others got their hands on a beautiful lake up in the Cascade Mountains. And it's been that way since the 1870s. It used to flow through wooden pipes by gravity to Portland. It's that water that gives Voltaren distilleries products, its distinct character. Two bottles are being featured in rockhouse whiskey clubs. Next box. rackhouse was club. It's a whiskey the Month Club, and they're on a mission to uncover the best flavors and stories that craft distilleries across the US have to offer rockhouse ships out to their featured distilleries finest bottles, along with some cool merchandise in a box delivered to your door every two months. Go to rockhouse whiskey club. com to check it out and try some Bull Run for yourself. Use code pursuit for $25 off your first box. distillery 291 Colorado whiskey aims to create a one of a kind bold and beautiful Colorado whiskey, rugged, refined, rebellious owner and founding distiller Michael Myers built the original still from copper photocopier plates, which he used to create in during photographic scenes from Western landscapes to the Chrysler Building. 39:00 on sep tember 11th 2011 10 years after 911 changed his life and the lives of so many others. He pulled the first whiskey off that's still building a future in whiskey office passion for photography. What defines to 91 Colorado whiskey is it spirit passion permeates every sip, find a bottle near you at 291 Colorado whiskey calm, right like you stole it, drink it like you own it, live fast and drink responsibly. Let's will kind of shift the gears a little let's talk about Sazerac. You know, I I will say that the one thing I will I will stand behind size rock. And what they do very well is that they are not pulling the strings of saying like okay, well, we're going to pull something off the market or we're going to just say like, Hey, we see what this stuff trades for we're not dumb, we're going to go ahead and we're going to MSRP our products at x, y, z value, right? They I believe that they are in it for the long game. Like Yeah, I'm they see this is not this is just a quick market blip, where it's going to be something that you know, if you chase after the short money in the short dollar, then that's all you're going to wait, that's that's all it's going to happen. Like you're not going to be able to sustain this for the next 1015 years. So you brought up a good point, because a lot of people distilleries do look at the secondary market, even though say they don't but to especially for limited releases, they really have kind of fell on the secondary market to price things. For me, it's gone up up up and up every single year. And where it says right, it's kind of kind of stay true to like, I mean, I don't me wrong, there's been there's been gradual increases. I mean, if you take it back to 2010 days, you know, antique collection was probably $65, whatever, but going up to 100. Like that's not a that's not a good, that's not a huge ship. 40:48 Parker's was 5575 bucks. And now it's like 400, depending on you know, that 24 years, like 400 bucks or 300 bucks 40:57 retail, and then you take a birthday bourbon, for example, back in 2003, that was a $45 bottle. Now, it's 161 60 out the door at the distillery. So I mean, it's, it's, that's definitely 41:11 something way that the way that says rack operates is basically through the brain of Mark Brown. And Mark is a very conservative, you know, thinker when it comes to business and how they do things. But he's also a long term planner, they have planned out their whiskey projections through 2043. So they are they are that planned out. And they have made the appropriate, you know, business decisions that, you know, to get them where they need to be, I think that the biggest concern that consumers have with the way that company operates is through distribution. Now a lot of it is not anything that they can control. You go into a retailer or an on premise facility. And they will tell you, the only way that they can get Pappy or Buffalo Trace antique collection is if they carry Wheatley, vodka or some of the others as rack brands in large quantities now, that is that is a decision that is made at the distributor level is not. 42:18 That's because I always I always kind of thought like, somehow there's something working in the back the back room over here. And there's greasy palms to be able to say like, you 42:26 know, I'm saying like, if you want this, you gotta that is a very good conspiracy theory to have. But as of right now, it is illegal, you know, to have those conversations for it is illegal for a, a supplier to dictate who gets what, that is an actual law. That is under the federal alcohol administration act. Now, what is happening? I don't know. But I do know that everybody wants that whiskey. And, you know, how does how does the distributor make the decision of who to give it to? Now I've had conversations with people like Joe Beatrice, who's like, the only way you can do this is, you know, top, top level now, you know, customer loyalty. And so it's like, you know, how do they How does the distributor make the decision of who gets the five bottles of Pappy? Is it a? Is it a favoritism thing? Because if that's the case, that's also you know, is that is that fair? Is it you give it to the one who's like doing you're doing your bulk purchases, I've also heard of them like, like the distributors making decisions of like giving using Pappy to get rid of non Sazerac product. So like being would be in their portfolio or, you know, another big brand like that and say like, take up, take all this off of her hand, and you get you get a case of happy. So that stuff happens. And that is not, you know, to my knowledge, you know, I don't know how that you know how those conversations are going. Well, you don't know that's 43:59 the necessarily sighs rags. Yeah. Problem. It's, it comes back to them. But do you think they falsely manipulate their supply? Like to create this allocation? Like myth or because every time I go to Buffalo Trace, there's, they're always bottling blends, and it's always piled up cases? Because it's like what they have done. They got as many warehouses as all these 44:25 other big boys. Yeah, but you gotta realize they're also filling in the hand doing every single one with six people on the line. That's not that's not heaven. Hill level automation. 44:33 Yeah. What a lot of warehouses a lot age juice in there. I mean, this is true. 44:38 What what they do, they do put out, they used to put out an annual press release, about that, and it got picked up everywhere. You know, a smart marketing will say that. But what what Buffalo Trace has done is that they have spread the markets out so much like so let's say, you know, they're trying to penetrate every market in the country. My best friend lives in northern Wisconsin. He's building a Buffalo Trace, really now he can only have one bottle a month, because, you know, because now that northern allocations is moving on over to North Dakota. And so what they have done is they have they're trying to saturate the domestic markets so much that they've spread themselves out of being able to get into the hands of a lot of people so so that allocation that supply is because they're trying to open up bars in Montana, and places like Montana and Wyoming North Dakota. You know, I dare say you walk into a random liquor store there and you might you might find like a gold mine of like Sazerac products. 45:42 Well, where are they? Who are they using their, you know, everyday products like Buffalo Trace or Willer will or 12? To kind of fuel the more premium products like v tak and Pappy, do you think that you know, I mean, most of the most of what they do is they come out with a a lower version of everything that you get stack Junior, you gotta go rare, and then you get the big boys on top. But I know it seems like there's more like 12 year, it's I think it's sometimes easier to get a van Winkle 12 than it is a well or 12 zalando 46:12 you know, well, I think that's this is also just the the rise and the rise of bourbon and the amount of people that are looking forward to I mean, that's we say it's it's hard. It's it's not because yes, I still think there's I would honestly, probably guess that there's probably they're pushing out more product now than they ever have. But it seems still scares to us, because there's still more people now that are looking for it. 46:36 It's I'll put on their hat for a second. They have everybody in the world wants them. How do you how do you decide? What market gets what? 46:47 Yeah, I mean, that's that's it's definitely a tough call. Because you've gotta you gotta take one out of your your your playbook here is is who's been with us for the longest time who are the most loyal customers? Who are the ones with the biggest pockets right now that are really want us? I mean, Money Talks, like let's not be Bernie lovers always said it the best. This is not the bourbon charities the bourbon business. Yeah. And so who's got who's got money? money's gonna talk. And if, if by some chance and Ryan, we know, we've looked at this when we were opening up distribution for pursuit series, and we're like, oh, what state should we go for? And he did a trip down to Texas. And really, I 47:23 always forget that you to like on a brand. Like we're having this conversation. I'm like, wait, you guys hate your customers. 47:30 We listened to our customer feedback. We listened and we go, we go to a snail's pace. But I mean, but but the part was, you know, he said, like, let's look at Texas. And you look at Texas, and he came back from a trip. He was like, Kenny, this is this is so smart. Like why not? There's like, there are more people in the city of Dallas than there are in the state of Kentucky three times as many people in the city of Dallas as there is in the whole state of Kentucky. And then you got states or cities like Houston, San Antonio Austin, and you're like, why would you know, any liquor company would be smart to in they're thirsty. They're thirsty for it, right? And it's like, Okay, well, that's that's an easy target. So you go after the larger markets. 48:12 Dallas bourbon club, shout out to you boys. Yeah. 48:15 Peach MIT. Mm hmm. And so I mean, like, those are the those are the kind of three ways that I look at it. If I'm a if I'm a, you know, brand owner, and I want to figure out if I've got an allocated whiskey, how do I get into the hands of the people? That's the that's the way I'm going to go. Right. Do you have any kind of other thoughts on 48:32 I mean, just going back to what Fred said, like they're trying to get into these new markets, and I think they're trying to position themselves because they're, they're all pumping out a ton of juice. So when the product finally becomes of age, they don't they have us as customers already. So it's like, we need to go promoted other places. So when we do have this stock available, we can spread it out everywhere, not in whereas if they just focused on us bourbon, consumers are going to have a whiskey glut. 48:59 Well, they want to find new consumers too. Yeah. I mean, that's what I mean. Yeah, absolutely. We can't keep selling it to the same three guys here that have more bottles, and they can drink for the rest of their life. Right? They want to find new customers. And that's Yeah, that's really helpful. 49:11 Guys, that's what it comes down to. And you know, what, I saw that in the magazine business, you know, like, one of the big reasons why I decided to go out on my own for with the magazine is because the magazines I was writing for, were pursuing new audiences that would require me to be writing about cocktails, and you know, and not the stories that I wanted to tell. And so anytime you anytime you, ESPN did this to ESPN is inserted VH one and MTV. Anytime you water down, like what was the essence of what you were trying to do. And you're trying to reach a new audience, you're always going to like, appear, like you don't care about your original customer. It's just how it is you can grow 50:00 well, you cannot lose it. Well, to make it appeal to the mass market, you always have to like dumb it down to where like, because you have to make it appeal to everyone versus like a very small niche. And so that small niche that you appeal to at first, you kind of have to break away from them. Because the everyday consumer is not gonna be as passionate as that very small niches. Yeah, we're fairly early adopters. 50:24 Yeah. But you know, people they got a pivot to right now just think of MTV, like, I remember the last time I watched a music video on TV, but if I watch a music video, it's usually on YouTube, right? There's a new platform that takes over and takes care of that. But YouTube's a multi dimensional platform for all that kind of stuff. But you know, I kind of want to 50:40 talk about bourbon pursuit. Absolutely. 50:42 Absolutely. We will never done down 50:46 in Minnick media while we keep doing the shout outs here. Yeah. So let's, let's talk about two more brands. While we kind of wrap this up a little bit. You know, there's there's one brand that comes to mind. You know, we talked about old forester birthday bourbon, but brown Forman, I think they do an aggressive audible job of really not pissing off the consumer base, you know, they've got products that are continually coming out at aggressive price points. And, and really, they've only got it. Should I say, besides all four, it's a birthday bourbon, and they get king in Kentucky, they don't have a whole lot of stuff. That is the super premium, highly allocated stuff. And so they are continually trying to just make everyday solid products. 51:23 Yeah, I mean, the the old forester extensions, like great, everyday like, drinker. I mean, the bottom bond, the 86. I mean, those are like, I could drink the right, yes, they just came out well, but I mean, like these prohibition series, I mean, like the 1910, like, in 1920, just always, consistently blow my socks off. Every time I drink. I'm like, this is really good at 50 to 60. Buck. And one thing, one thing that 51:50 Chris Morris did with the prohibition series, is when they when they are know, when they did the wheat whiskey release with Woodford, you know, they it wasn't prohibition series was with Woodford, they sent the release out and said, We have now released every single type of whiskey that was allotted in the 1935 federal alcohol administration act, and I was just like, oh my god. And I'm like, there's probably not another person in the world who gave that we should talk about that. But I was like, I was like, the fact that you know, and they're released, they're dropping, like, one of the greatest, like legal documents I've ever read. And I was like, I was like, I can't kid in the candy store with that press release. I didn't publish it, but I was, you know, it was very well done. And that the thing about brown Forman is that they overly think, you know, so while they while they are doing a lot of this stuff, I also think they've been kind of left behind in a lot of these conversations of like, you know, you just mentioned you don't have a lot of allocated stuff. You know, so in like, if you are if you're if you're thinking about it, like is that not a good thing? I mean, because now you know, heaven hills got a lot of highly allocated stuff for roses highly Alec a lot of highly allocated stuff, and so does Buffalo Trace. And I don't see why, you know, brown Forman doesn't because their whiskey out of the barrel is incredible. 53:18 And we think it's because they promoted like Woodford so hard out the gate versus and kind of left old fo just a winner and then now it's kind of regain popularity. I think old foresters coming back hard. 53:30 Yeah, I birthday bourbon is highly allocated, by the way. It's very, very much is it but I look at 53:35 at what the resurgence of old forester as the same resurgence we see with 1792, right? Like, how many people were really like gung ho talk about 1792. and still they started coming off with all these extensions of their bottle and bond. Yeah, foolproof. Sweet. Hi, Robert. It's a 53:52 very interesting comparison because they have they both have a very unique note in there that I detect in both of them. No, bananas. Yeah, banana. No. You have to also remember that the beast of brown Forman is the world's number one whiskey and jack daniels. And I tell you what, some of the barrel proof stuff coming out of jack daniels right now. It's fantastic. It's some of the best whiskey you can find. And so, you know, I think what they what brown Forman does really, really well, is that 30 to $50 product, they do a great job with that. And I know a lot of people don't are not Woodford fans. But that's a lot of people's favorite bourbon. Oh, yeah. I mean, I've been I've been on airplanes where I've seen ladies yell at someone sitting next to them for pouring coke with Woodford like How dare you pour Coke? bourbon 54:46 airport. A lot of bourbon consumers that aren't whiskey geeks like Woodford is their premium go to you know, it's like I'm always amazed, not amazed because it is great juice. But it's like you forget that that it is like yeah, the common marketplace that sir like premium go to. 55:00 Alright, so one last gripe before we kind of close this out. And that's one thing that I've talked about at the top of the show. And that's the allocations of barrel pics that used to go to bourbon societies and used to go to people, charities, charities, bodies, everybody that was doing them early on. And now it's like that, sorry, you're not selling enough. And this is we're seeing this at four roses. We're seeing this at wild turkey. And so kind of talk about really, what is the effect of, kind of, from a if you're the manufacturer? Or if you're the the end consumer? Like, do you hate the brand more now? Like do you start to look at other places? I mean, because we're good friends with read an emerald from 1789 be, you know, they they said that their allocations are gone from wild turkey and other places like that, where they used to go and just go in and do barrel pics all the time. And now they're looking at other places. They're looking at wilderness trail they're looking at 55:52 Yeah, just it's opened up an opportunity for these like new players in the game to like, kind of like we've gone barrel pics so many places, but like you're not, you're treated more like royalty, when you go to like new roof or wilderness trails, or Willits, or somewhere, whereas the other ones are like, how can we get them in and out of here as fast as possible? It's clockwork to them. Yeah, it's like, we're going to roll out three barrels, and you have 15 minutes to taste each and then we're gonna go through this and this and get out now. So 56:22 Well, I mean, I still enjoy roses experience and stuff like that I still enjoy the experiences. I mean, when you go to wild turkey, you're there with Eddie and and, you know, you know, it's not Eddie making these decisions, right. You know, this this is definitely higher 56:35 up and then I also I also think that Eddie would make those decisions if he had to, you know, that's something we have to always remember that they're kind of protected like that we always want to give like the distillers a break, but they are you know, they have people there kind of around them to protect them and make them continue to look like the good guy, but don't think for a second that they're not in those rooms having conversations and saying like given their input. Yeah, well, we're about to lose our stock, you know, for 2025 if we keep doing these barrel pics, so they're looking out for the long term and healthiness of their brands and that and that's what I'm like a cop when they're around us, 57:11 then that's exactly 57:12 right. I do not be fooled by that. The niceties from the distillers leave me like someone like Bo Backman. It's as direct. Everybody hates that guy because he's the keeper of the barrels. But he's he's going off of what someone else tells him, you know, and he's got the allocation. 57:30 Yeah. And I'm sure if they if they had unlimited barrel supply, they'd love to keep doing it. Right. I mean, I think I think that's one thing that people don't understand. I don't know if they would they probably 57:40 it's like thing is is a inefficient process. And it's a low margin. Feeling personally, 57:43 are you feeling cut off? 57:45 No, I don't think I'm feeling personally cut off. I think it's Oh, let's let's try harder than us. 57:50 It's harder for us to go to So you mentioned 1789 be Let's mention I I'm a part of a charity that got cut off. what's what's another group that you know of that got cut off? I know about two retailers that got cut out of Wild Turkey? Well, yeah, 58:08 there's there's it's all around, right. I mean, it's there's definitely 58:12 we don't cross the board. We don't see a 58:16 you know, a commonality other than that. They're small. This place isn't getting cut off. MGM and Las Vegas isn't getting cut off. And total wine, liquor barn, they're not getting cut off. So it goes back to this this conversation of like, Who's spending the most money? And, you know, I think it's short sighted to cut out 1789 and you know, people like that, that have incredible connections within the bourbon world. 58:46 And we're the one of the pioneers of actually doing some of this 58:49 stuff. I don't I don't think they cut out some of 58:51 these gaps in a lot of money to charities, like a lot of good comes out of these. 58:55 But there's also been some charities that have been debunked. Right, you know, so you got to remember that to to just like we've seen with the counterfeit, they're always fuck wads that are going to take advantage of the the scenario the situation sounds like that. 59:07 Yes, absolutely. So I think we're going to go ahead and wrap that one up. Because you know, we've, we put some people under fire here, we make sure everybody knows that. If you're brand new, listen to this. We still love every single one of you. We still love the product you're putting out 59:20 we went talk about you if we didn't care. Exactly. I'm 59:23 on the show and join us. 59:24 Yeah, we're looking out for you. We want 59:26 what's best for you actually, they're not looking out for you. And not 59:29 well, we're looking at right 59:32 now they got a brand they're trying to knock you down. So their brand goes up. You don't have 59:35 to worry about 59:37 our toy 24 barrels a year, I think is like we don't we're 59:40 not gonna we're not gonna be stepping on any toes anytime soon. That's for sure. 59:44 Well, you know what I would, you know, I'll talk to you about this off the air. I'll bring this up. Sorry. 59:47 It's okay. So, you know, it was like I said, just make sure that you do have a pretty thick skin if you're listening this from brand, because we do We love you. We love having all the personalities and people behind the brands on the show. You know, we do 1:00:00 kind of look at this from, you know, we see what happens in the Facebook groups and Reddit and everything like that when people are writing blog posts of saying like, oh, like we don't like you anymore. So we're just trying to look at this from the consumer perspective. Don't shoot the messenger. Yeah, exactly. So I will. I will say, though, that I've said this for more than a decade. Don't forget the customers who brought you to the dance. That's it. Absolutely. So thank you everybody, for listening. We hope you enjoyed this episode we recorded at Hotel distil hotel is still is located in downtown Louisville here on whiskey row. And for those of thirst new experiences, you should come check it out. It's a home for the connoisseurs of the finest comforts and gracious service. It's a space where you're going to pass through historic risk row facade and joy, a true and authentic global destination. You can book your experience for it yourself at Hoteldistil.com and it's set to open here on November 1 of 2019. So fellows, thank you once again for joining us. 1:01:00 show. Yeah, and we'll have e

If you're a fan of good bourbon, then you're likely a fan of good food too. Today's guest is the intersection of those two, combining a culinary background with his love for the south and, of course, bourbon. You may know Chef Newman Miller from his appearance on Top Chef season 16. He's also the Executive Chef and Owner of Star Hill Provisions at Maker's Mark and the Harrison Smith House in Bardstown. We talk about his culinary background, where he played a part in the creation of the McDonald's McGriddle and behind the scenes at Top Chef. His deep dive into bourbon was influenced by Drew Kulsveen of Willett. So if you're a wannabe chef or if you're an occasional TV dinner kind of person, this episode is going to have something for you. Show Partners: Barrell Craft Spirits blends and bottles at cask strength, just as nature intended. Find out more at BarrellBourbon.com. Check out Bourbon on the Banks in Frankfort, KY on August 24th. Visit BourbonontheBanks.org. Aged & Ore is running a special promotion on their new Travel Decanter. Get yours today at PursuitTravelDecanter.com. Receive $25 off your first order at Rackhouse Whiskey Club with code "Pursuit". Visit RackhouseWhiskeyClub.com. Show Notes: This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about 4th of July. What was Padma from Top Chef like in real life? What was it like when you heard about being on Top Chef? Why do you think they chose Kentucky for Top Chef? What did the chefs think of being in smaller towns? Was it challenging to cook for everyone? What's a banana croquet? How cool was it to have the chefs create versions of your dishes? How hard is it to judge fellow chefs?  Tell us about your relationship with Rob Samuels. Was there a pep talk before the show? Were you relieved once it was over? How did you get into food? Did you approach Maker's about making food there? Will some of the main food distributors come down to Maker's? What are your biggest challenges? How hard was it to convince the locals to try higher end food? Talk about meeting Drew Kulsveen and how you got into the bourbon community. Where did your passion for bourbon come from? Besides Maker's, do you have a special bourbon that you love? Tell us about your connection to the McGriddle. Where does bourbon and food intersect for you? Talk about Star Hill Provisions. How do you see the future unfolding for the bourbon/tourism industry in Bardstown/Kentucky? Why did you name the restaurant Harrison/Smith House? 0:00 But we could also say that we're recording because you can talk about a chef schedule like it's never going to happen like this just 0:06 yeah, stars align, you know? Yes. Say it like we gave him days and he's like tomorrow? 0:27 Hey, everyone, this is Episode 208 of bourbon pursuit. And we've got a lot of news to go through in the first one is that there is a huge news break. The US Supreme Court in a 72 decision has struck down a two year residency requirement for anyone seeking an initial license to operate a liquor store in Tennessee. Now, why is that important? Well, because you might have remembered back on bourbon Community Roundtable number 29. We discussed this very topic, its total wine versus the state of Tennessee. And it has a lot of implications that really wrapped up inside here because the Commerce Clause which is a part of the United States Constitution, is wrapped up in here. This means it could potentially open up interstate commerce and shipping across all state lines for bourbon. are we paying really close attention to this one because it's a huge win for consumers. And we'll see really what effects are going to happen in the months to come. The Kentucky bourbon trail craft tour is now expanding. With more distilleries, a new look and an upgraded finishing prize. The expanded craft tour will break down into four different regions northern Central, Western, and the Bluegrass. This will help guests map out their distiller excursions to all corners of the Commonwealth. Adam Johnson, Senior Director of the Kentucky bourbon trail experiences, who was on the podcast way back on episode eight talked about the bourbon trail then. And he's saying that each region will have streamlined itineraries and suggestion stops, with visitors earning a collectible challenge coin. After completing each territory. Fans who tour all 22 stops will earn a free customized barrel stage to display their coins. This showpiece also comes with an official Kentucky bourbon trail tasting glass and you can get the craft tour passport. It has been redesigned as a new souvenir guidebook with nearly 70 pages of distillery information cocktail recipes suggested travel routes, maps, events, and more. Those can be purchased at participating distilleries for $3. With the proceeds going to further the Katie as efforts to craft a better drinking culture. With select social responsibility and environmental sustainable partners. You can read all about the trail in which the slaves are a part of it. At ky bourbon trail.com. We're starting to roll out more barrels into our private bail program from major distilleries. We recently sold out of our larger Craig, Buffalo Trace and to four roses barrels in a matter of just a few hours. And we currently have our knob Creek rye in Maker's Mark 46 private selections up for sale in our Patreon community with not one not two but three Russell's reserve barrels to shortly follow here in the next two months. But the big news is to announce that we are headed back to heaven Hill. And we're going there in August to select not one but two, Elijah Craig barrels, we're going to have eight barrels rolled out for us to select from. And well, I kind of liked that really wasn't the big news. The big news is that we've also been allocated one bourbon and one ride barrel from that small little distillery. That's next door to heaven Hill. Yeah, you might have guessed it, it's will it this will be happening in August as well. We're excited, super excited to be able to bring not only the just these barrels to these private barrel programs, where we get to taste and try these unique expressions. But it's more about bringing these experiences to our Patreon community. So if you're a supporter of us, make sure that you can go and you get yourself signed up. And if you want to know more about it, you can go to patreon.com slash bourbon pursuit. And if you support the podcast at over $10 more per month, you can get yourself entered to be a part of this distillery excursion as well. Just look for the post and get yourself entered. And thanks again to our podcast partner, Kagan bottle out of the Southern California area for making all of this possible. You can get all kinds of bourbon shipped to your door at keg the letter in bottle.com. Now for today's show, if you're a fan of good bourbon, then you're likely a fan of good food too. Today's guest is an intersection of those two, combining a culinary background with his love for the south and of course, bourbon. You may know chef Newman Miller from his appearance on Top Chef season 16. He's also the executive chef and owner of star Hill provisions at Maker's Mark in the Harrison Smith house in Bardstown. We talked about his culinary background, where he was a part of the team who created the McDonalds MIT griddle. And these walls talks about being behind the scenes at top shelf than some of this stuff he got to know through the process. We then start talking about his introduction to bourbon and how he befriended drew Cole's Nina Willett to start really trying some amazing whiskey. And how at the end of the day that really led him to running his own restaurant with inside of the Maker's Mark distillery. So if you're a wannabe chef or if you're an occasional TV dinner kind of person, this episode is going to have something for you. Oddly enough, many people still don't know what a podcast is. So if you've got a friend or a relative that's just now getting into bourbon, show them how to subscribe to a podcast and they will know every time a new episode is dropped. Thanks for being our boots on the ground and spreading the good word of bourbon. Up next, we've got Joe Beatrice from barrell bourbon. And then we've got Fred Minnick with above the char. 5:48 Hi, this is Joe Beatrice from barrell bourbon, we blend and bottle a cast drink, just as nature intended. lift your spirits with barrell bourbon. 5:57 I'm Fred Minnick. And this is above the char. Happy Birthday American. Its Independence Day. And this week we celebrate our country's rich heritage in great history. bourbon is at the forefront of this country's history. From the moment that we are a new country, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton decide to tax whiskey distillers and whiskey distillers and appreciate that very much so they tarred and feathered the whiskey tax man, this time would be known as the Whiskey Rebellion. And it was the first time that the federal government had actually deployed federal troops against its own people. Whiskey would find itself in the political circles for years to come from the bottle and Bond Act of 1897 to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and from President Taff giving bourbon its first definition and definitions for whiskies to the congressional declaration of 1964. The made bourbon a unique product the United States to President Obama and McConnell, having discussions that would bring bourbon into the fold to President Trump giving all kinds of tariffs all over the world that would lead to retaliatory tariffs from other countries such as Canada, Europe, China, etc, etc. So this holiday, don't drink a beer. For God's sakes. Don't let anyone drink vodka. really celebrate America, go to your store, buy a nice bottle of bourbon, pour yourself a couple fingers, and sip. After all, it's the American way. And that's this week's above the char. Hey, if you have an idea for about the char hit me up on Twitter or Instagram at Fred manic that's at Fred Minnick. Until next week. Cheers. 7:51 Welcome back to another episode of bourbon pursuit the official podcast of bourbon, Kenny and Ryan the original duo here doing a kind of another spin on bourbon. You know, we, you know, we talked about this before, and we were actually talking to the chef earlier before we actually started recording. And there is a good heavy instance of if you're drinking good, you're also eating good. And we looked at this and said, You know, there's an idea we can start bringing some culinary aspects into it. And our guest today is not only this very well versed in the culinary side, but also he's got a rich history with bourbon being even from you know, the Bardstown area and even in Louisville. So it's gonna be fun. Interesting, just to be able to talk about that, too. 8:34 Yeah, for sure. You food. Um, that's one thing I'm passionate and loved, as Kenny may know, in my gut, sometimes shows he's like, 8:43 he's a walking yelled, yeah. 8:44 But our guest today, so as everyone knows, I'm from bars, town, blah, blah. But one thing missing from the bourbon scene, the bourbon trail was like hospitality, good food, good experiences down in Bardstown and kind of go along with and our guest today kind of saw that and filled that need. So I'm really excited to see like, how he got involved in that area, because it's something that was needed. And he's done a great job at it. So let's dive into it. Yeah, they didn't know it's also good, because we've had a chance to actually talked to our guests today, multiple occasions throughout the past few years. And it just you whiskey 9:23 pigs, yeah, 9:24 a few different events like that. A few different dinners at at his places as well. And, you know, now the stars just aligned and we were able to sort of make this happen. And we'll get into why we actually would record because apparently, the schedule of a chef is pretty hectic, so we'll get into that too. So to date on the show, we actually had his haircut today. 9:47 We can squeeze and his haircut having to be right by it all worked out. 9:52 Yeah. So today on the show, we have chef Newman Miller he was featured on episode two of the most recent season of Top Chef, he is the chef owner and Star Hill provisions that she can be found at Maker's Mark. He is also the executive chef and owner at the Harrison Smith house in Bardstown. He's been recognized by the James Beard Foundation, and now he's a celebrity podcaster making his way up. 10:14 who cares about Padma? Yeah, 10:16 well, you know what the show is one thing, but that was another. 10:20 That was so I want you to be honest. I had this towards the end, but might as well bring it out since we're talking about it. How's Padma in life? real life? I gotta be honest. 10:29 I think that the way she acted towards everybody that I saw the way she was towards me, it raised my level of opinion of her tremendously. Obviously, she's beautiful, I think in person, maybe more. So. You know, my wife would agree. I made sure you know, Rachel was on site too. But she was just so kind. Yeah, everybody that was on the show was really kind. I mean, Tom Colicchio. They tell him he had another hour to wait. He get mad I'd put them in the boat and we ride up to the lake, you know, and sort of talk about the future of makers and what we had going on there. He told me some crazy stories about grammar, she Tavern and it was like, we'd known each other and we have met a day ago. So Padma was great with the whole group, they they found a way to sort of surprised I think you watch TV that much. I mean, you just don't think he might have seen time of day, but it was great. 11:24 Oh, yeah. Very cool. Not probably jumped your schedule. No, 11:26 I honestly 11:28 have questions. No. I mean, that's top of mind. Right. I 11:31 was gonna wonder it as a common question you get from the top chef is so let's 11:35 talk about when you're got the news, hey, top chefs come into makers and they're like, hey, you're going to be involved? How what what was going through your head, 11:44 you know, it was amazing. The way it actually happened was way back when they were doing the the scouting trip, for Top Chef, they were trying to pitch Kentucky as the state to come to and it was down to awesome. One other state I started know who it was. And I was going on vacation. And Seth Thompson reached out to me and I didn't respond. And no offense. It was just I was going on vacation. The next day was the first one in four years with my family. We had to go. And then Rob Samuels called me and I and I answered and he mentioned something about a group coming to Kentucky and then I think it was Christian brands can we ended up talking to the director of tourism, and they you know, they just let me know they're coming to town and could I do it. So I drove my family to Florida. I flew back, I cook for 12 people, I went to bed I flew back, I was on the beach the next morning 11am wide. So that was that was the start of it. And then it took about eight months before we found out whether that paid off or not. And so yeah, we we had a little bit of an investment in it and at that, but I mean, I can't think of anything that we'd rather invest in. You know, this is why we came back to country lucky was to try to show off where I'm from my wife's from Southern Indiana. So close enough. But you know, I wanted to show off where I'm from and that there is hospitality that there is culture I mean, I think you know, food and drink don't always get talked about in the culture section of things but it is and Top Chef just Yeah, it's a big spotlight. 13:22 Yeah, so what were some of the reason that I guess they chose Kentucky as to be featured on this season as opposed to other places 13:28 I think up and coming has to be part of it. I think that they really they're just you know there's more people that have got the bug they go you know sometimes they go away they see what's in other places they realize what they kind of are missing from back home. I think Kentucky's, you know, producing a lot of good artists and I think that our farms they had to look at our farmers and our agriculture and just say wow, this is a this is a really dynamic state when it comes to what grows here what you know there's a lot I mean, cities are what you know, everybody thinks about Lexington the mobile but I think this season is really getting outside of the cities a lot and that's the best part because just showing like from end to end of the state there's a lot of different regions and a lot of little niche products that even Kentucky's don't know about but like I think are generally proud of so what I want to know like 14:24 because you drive the law right Oh, you know what, I wonder what these chefs you know had been to two small towns or anywhere in Kentucky what were they saying? Like? Like Where the hell are we? I mean like 14:34 what is it going on here? What will 14:36 kind of the feedback because if you watch this show, you know that they actually had to go to Colorado and then drive all the way back to Whole Foods and Louisville 14:44 didn't drive know Whole Foods and Loreto working on it. Yeah, we we do have the IGA though. That's right little shop and you know what, it's a pre the responses the same from almost everybody that comes down there the show the tourists, the sort of, it's this white knuckle look. And they're sure that they just came down the loudest, you know, little back road they've ever been to. We asked them how they get here and they actually came down the proper way. The chef's I think were brought in the back way. So you all know there's more than one way to get into Maker's Mark. And they were they were a little rattled and 15:22 a little shady one line bridges. 15:25 It's one is lame. Yeah. There's slop trucks coming the other way. Yeah, I mean, that's what the tourist I think that's really what gets you is if you get a slop truck coming out here not like that's when I believe that you had a hard time getting. Otherwise it's just another road. You know, I grew up in Washington County. So sure, I was just that was how we used to drive. But now the chefs were, they were very generous. I think with it. I think that they're just excited. It's It's such a mental task to be on that show, because so little of it is really about who's the best cook. Right. It's who's the best cook in today's situation. And it's hard. I mean, it's it's a it's a mind bender to think about the way they sort of put these things together. They're not tricking anybody. But it's not just purely 16:16 based on how you can handle the situation. Yeah, 16:18 exactly. So you know, the ride down as part of that, you know, you get carsick? You're gonna have a hard time. 16:24 Yeah. And you had a challenge to because you had to cook for all of them before. So talk about that, and how challenging that's what I was really. 16:32 Like, because you've got a lot of people there. You've got national spotlight, if you're nervous during this whole time to like God, like this is a lot of pressure. 16:40 Yeah, it's not the bourbon pursuit podcast. 16:44 From You know what, though, I'll be perfectly honest, I think about in the exact same way, every everything I do. And it sounds kind of cheesy, but it's a hard way to go about it. It all means the same. And so Coco, for those chefs meant a lot. But those dinners we do on Saturday nights, it means that much. And so to me, that part was okay. That volume was unreal, because we also did the catering for the team that was filming the show. So our team is about for the kitchen. makers at the time was four. And we were catering for the hundred and 50 people that they brought on site. The restaurant was actually open for normal service. And then we did that dinner that you saw, and it was 14 dishes for 14 people. And I think that just from volume, it was the most taxing one of the most taxing things we've ever done. But again, it was the coolest to I mean, it was just so great that people really wanted to know more about things like frog legs. Yeah, you know, why are there frog legs and then you go, Well, there might be a lot of frog legs here because we have more cattle than anybody east of the Mississippi State of Kentucky does not have cattle. Yeah, yeah, with the Laurino producing state. And so to have cattle eating those little ponds so they can drink and stay cool. And frogs do really well around lots of little ponds. So you end up growing up going frog. And and so it's just these sort of cultural things that may or may not make sense to people that aren't from here, but I love you know, banana croquette. I gotta show them Danna croquette off 18:27 as long as it's all good. I was like, oh my man. That's all I have. Thanks. Get my grandma still makes you know, they're all sorry. 18:34 So so you gotta school people that aren't like native from Bardstown and back was that kind of grew up as a city folk so on and talk about what is banana coconut? I've never even had frog legs in my life. See? 18:47 My pond? Yeah, so you're down there. We'll get you 18:51 a gig. That's all 18:52 you need a gig in the flashlight but banana croquette. The way I grew up eating it was not the made for the TV show. I had to I had to class. 19:02 But you didn't do just banana mayo and crush. 19:06 That's it is it's a banana of very rightness depends on your family, or whether somebody forgot to buy the bananas, you can always tell. And usually it's either a Dukes or a Hellman's. I've known people to do miracle whip. Yeah, it's a big 19:21 mistake. It's a big mistake. I do Helmand 19:23 you've got to go elements it Dukes with the sugar can work a little bit, but then crushed peanuts. And my grandma had a hand crank peanut Crusher and she would use skin on Spanish peanuts. No idea why 19:39 I don't like this. I think we just use whatever planners we 19:42 do. Yeah. Not too fancy. 19:44 Well, the way we're doing it now we actually have a farmer and Loretta and they have heirloom peanuts. They they're five generations deep growing these peanuts in Loretta. And they have five little nuts in the shell there nothing like I know. So I use those just like a shalom to the people and stuff. The way we made it for the show. You're basically making almost like a Hollandaise sauce, eggs and vinegar and sugar. And you whisk it over a double boiler, it doubles in volume, you add a little bit of vinegar, apple cider vinegar to it, you keep whisking it, you take it off the heat, you add a little bit of peanut butter, and you add a little bit of mayonnaise to that and it makes almost like a fudge sauce. Then you pour it all over the banana. And then you put crushed nuts. So I had to chef it up. And that's actually a recipe I found from the late 1800s. I collect cookbooks. And so I had some old Kentucky cookbook and they had this recipe in it. So it makes it so much better when you don't hear stories about it, but you can actually find it. So then when somebody questions, yeah, you can, you know, take it back and say look, this isn't just Manet's and the way we grew up with the shirt, you know what I mean? Like there's a it's rooted in the quick version. 20:52 Yeah, you know, the way well, and that's the only way I've ever eaten it. Yeah, honestly, until we got the call about the show. And then I just went deep. And that most proud thing is getting the banana croquette somehow a little bit of attention because it's got to be the weirdest thing that uh, that I made for him for sure. That's awesome. Yeah, you know, Newman, the reason I respect you is because you do do banana croquettes and you do embrace like, two of my favorite things ever are Jake's 150 quick stop sausage, hot sausage, and you gotta you gotta get you gotta give some some background here. There's this. He's groups in Springfield. So Springfield and Bardstown. There's road 150 that connects on the this quick stops What? Maybe halfway? 21:37 It's all right. Yeah, right, right in the middle. I mean, batlin 21:41 white tail, but they make this sausage and the spice blend that goes in it and it's incredible. They put on you can buy it here and what Paul's and stuff for like 10 times the price that you would pay for their but it's incredible in any dish. 21:54 Why don't know if you knew this, but my first job when I turned 16 was a butcher. And I was a butcher's assistant and butcher shop called the meat house in Springfield. My boss ran numbers. And the legend that I've been told and I believe is that Jake's won't fit the recipe was lost in a card game between my boss and think I've heard that story. And that's and that's how the rest of you got over there. So when I was 16, I was making not Jake's 150 I was making the meat house version, okay, of that sausage. And that's why I still don't have any hair anymore. It was thousands of pounds a week every every week. And it was my favorite. So Jake's The reason I still because that we got them in food and wine magazine. There's a little they got a little to page right up or something. And it was because sausage ball recipe we put in there. But there's just something about that sausage and it being iconic. I mean, biscuits and gravy was one of the things that we did for an iconic dish, because it happens in a lot of places. But there's not a sausage culture around breakfast sausage, in a lot of places like in hockey. Right. He could have done it. Couple other southern states could have tried. But Kentucky Really? 23:05 Yeah, it's kind of like Drake and you know, or something you know of the sausages? 23:09 Yeah, yeah, it really is. It's great. I mean, they still make it in the gas station. always joke is the best gas station 23:16 I've ever had. Change Your Life. 23:18 Yeah. And the other thing that you did with that to, you know, to kind of like bring in some of the Northern Kentucky folks, you know, you did you use something with Guetta, as well in the show to 23:27 do you know what one of the other episodes definitely got together? I think I put it up. And but some of the things that I put up, they said they already had other episodes for Yeah, that's why there's no fried chicken, necessarily in my episode, or, in my case, I tried to give them do fried quill. The hot Brown, you know, I worked at the brown hotel was my first job out of culinary school. But there's no hot brown on our episode, because I think that come came on down the line a little bit. So you know, it was hard coming up with the list. And then as soon as done you think of 10 more iconic things that Yeah, 24:03 and you know, 24:04 yeah, I mean, child shower, like all these little things. And I'm only from one of the regions like that's the other thing. I don't think I gave Western Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky 100% of what they could have had because I'm from Central Kentucky sure is a different cuisine. Yeah. 24:22 So How cool was it that? I guess the challenge if you haven't seen that, so the challenge was to create the chefs were to create their own version of what you made from How cool was that? And like, and I want to well talk about that personalized follow up question. 24:38 Honestly, it's kind of surreal. Just Just the fact that the way they framed it was that I was the expert on Kentucky cuisine. And I mean, I'm born and raised. I've eaten since I was born of I do cook professionally. And but for them to sort of believe it and eat it. And you can tell that they believed it. Because you know, when they're eating, they could they could feel how excited we were to share those dishes with them. I think everybody did a great job. I think it's, it's one of the hardest things you can ever do is cook another chef's food when you take it seriously because, you know, is is you can't cook somebody else's food. And so that's why it was so interesting whenever we judge them to sort of go through it and see their influence. And, you know, how much did they take away? Or did they really just cook their meal? Right? In a way that? Yeah, didn't? 25:31 And I'm glad you said you had you different few different spices here and there. Yeah. 25:36 How hard is it to judge fellowships, knowing what they've gone through? And like, are they like, Look, you really need to critique or, like, you know, what's, how did they approach it when you're a judge on the show? 25:47 Or did the producers say like, you gotta be honest there, you gotta, you gotta know, they'll hold back like, yeah, that was a session go, 25:52 no leaving at all. It was it was, it wasn't that hard. I mean, you know, you take into account obvious because you live the life. And you, you know, you saw how hard it was for them to do the elect hot, but it's always hot. Like, you know, like that that part was hilarious, because it's dramatic for TV. But we used to work the monitors in our chef coat. And I mean, it'd be 130 degrees on your station. You know, if you ran a grill station, you literally were cooking, you know, your skin was tight at the end of the night. So, you know, 90 degrees with humidity is just what it is, you know, a part of it. There could be a tobacco farmer episode, and it's much hotter, you know. And so anyway, it was easy from the judges standpoint, just because all I do is eat and taste. You know, I mean, you just taste, taste, taste, taste, taste, taste, taste. And you do it so that instantly when you taste something, you know, it's right or it's wrong. Sure. And then why is it taking a bourbon when you got a barrel papers on? Yeah, exactly. You're being analytical. I mean, it's not, you know, you don't want to sit in front of master distiller and say, This is terrible. This one is flat. This one needs more time, you forgot about this one. And the tannins are outrageous, right. But that's what you have to do when you're spending the money on it. And so that's the same, the same idea, you know, we were the customer. You know, nobody did a bad job. And that made it a lot easier. You know, if somebody had really bombed, none of us wanted to sit there and you know, rail on them, but I guess we could have 27:32 funny Fred on there. I think he got like one line in he was like, I was like, that's typical Fred, like, critical, like, you know, like, get get my piece in? 27:41 Yeah, I mean, you had a lot of face time in it. And it was, it was really cool to see a lot of the ways that you were directing people and talking to people about this, but I kind of want to shift a little bit and talk about your, your relationship to rob Samuels with this as well, you know, was there? Was there a pep talk beforehand, because I know there's probably like a lot of the line for Maker's Mark here to get this right. And he was like, I trust you. 28:01 But I trust you. But be on your A game today. 28:03 You know what, Rob, I gotta give it to rob. He's pretty hands off. Manager when it's big picture. I think, you know, like any good person when it comes to the details, you got to be involved. But, you know, he really honestly trusted that we were going to do our absolute best. I think that we've we've done, you know, that the only thing I can promise that I'll be on time, and I'll try my best. And like, those are two things that I always, you know, sort of do. And Rob knows that. And, you know, I don't he didn't say anything, it was wonderful. He just he said, this is your day thing. I mean, you know, it was like this, this is your day. And that's about as inspirational of a thing. As somebody can tell you, I think they really believe in you, whenever they say something like that. So yeah, Rob was, Rob was fantastic about it. The team, you know, the brand, I think the brand might have been more nervous than Rob was, right. There's a brand involved 29:00 in that would have been as a designer center, like 29:04 agencies, and there's budgets and all these and I don't blame my Beaver, I'd be worried if I just sent a chef out to go and represent. But I think everybody ended up happy with it. I think that the you know, the show itself showed off the campus, unbelievably, I mean, there's nothing I could have done about that. That is no relation to me or my food or anything. But it's a beautiful place to be able to serve food. And I mean, that's really why we're together is they want hospitality. And they want the highest level. That That makes sense as we grow of service and the food. And that's been a sandwich shop and we reopen and you know, a little while, it'll be a different level of that. And we'll just keep on sort of evolving. They trust us to do it. And we're really just trying to match up against, you know, do growing up in Washington County, there were two types of weddings. Either a beer truck would show up with taps on the side with Bud Light, or when you cut your truck and bourbon and coke, and it was always makers and coke and a red cup. And like that was its iconic. I mean, everybody, am I you know, the guys whose dads worked in distilleries worked at Maker's Mark, I could drive there in seven minutes from my parents house. And we used to go swimming in the lake. I mean, and so this before they had 24 hour security, I promise you don't want to try to go swimming a moon anymore. No, no, don't do that. But you know, just being around that makes us want to raise our game. And you know, yeah, make them proud. 30:42 So after was over re like, sigh relief. It's done, or were you like, shit, let's do it again tomorrow. Like, what were what 30:50 was the deep breath? Yeah, it was a solid deep breath. I mean, we, we lost a couple key staff members right beforehand, which is always a bummer. But Anna people got to grow and do their thing. And so it was it was a little bit trying, you know, but I do it again, in a heartbeat. I think you know, 10 minutes later, I was probably ready again. But right away, it was definitely a deep breath. And it's kind of surreal. Like I said, I mean, it's a lot going on in the middle of Loretta, Kentucky. 31:24 And it's all about food. You know, I mean, I just 31:27 couldn't want a better Yeah, yeah. So we're at the pinnacle of the, you know, of your trajectory. So let's get back to the beginning. So how does a kid from Springfield, Kentucky, get on top chef talk about how you got into food? Why did you choose food? And why did you think you know, Central Kentucky is where you want to call home and start your own restaurant. Okay, not loaded, loaded in that question. sit back and listen, I think you can handle it. 31:54 When I was seven, I wrote a letter culinary school. Mom, my mom's a school teacher. And she laminated it and copied it and kept a copy forever. And I don't know what I was thinking. I have nobody in my family that cook particularly well. My dad was the big cook. And I mean, he's a very good cook. But there wasn't a culinary sort of influence on either side. But tomatoes 12 was cooking like little three course meals and I don't think I've ever eaten a three course meal. I don't know where I even knew that you were supposed to have three courses. You didn't see it on TV or 32:27 I don't know, magazines or 32:28 we didn't have cable. So I don't know. It's really weird. And then I started culinary school 12 days after I graduate high school. So I was 17. I finished you know, 18 months later, I went to solvent in Louisville. 32:42 But you were doing a year at the butcher shop at 16 is I was 16. 32:45 The other day the day I turned 16. I was at the butcher shop. I stayed at the butcher shop for the first three months culinary school and then had moved to Louisville. I was falling asleep on the drive to school. It was Yeah, it's a little rough. So I moved to Louisville and had a couple of really terrible. They weren't terrible jobs, jobs and terrible places. And it's still some of my biggest learning experiences. Just things I would never do again. But it was really good to sort of do during culinary school and then I worked for Joe Castro at the brown. Whenever I got out chef Joe was still there. He's the master it was wonderful working for him. 33:32 Make a main hub around her if 33:34 we make a very good we do it Lexington style. So we do the exact hot brown of the brown hotel plus country ham. And I was born in Lexington. So from one to five live there. And yeah, so I've got a little soft spot. And if you can add country ham. Yeah. wins. Yeah, it's who doesn't want salty hand? Yeah, exactly. So work to the brown hotel. got a chance to go up to come diesel engine after that. I lived in Columbus, Indiana. So I was the private chef for the owner of the company. And then my boss. He cooked 12 Michelin stars. He was he was just a badass Gotham Thomas. And I was his junior and senior sous chef there in Indiana for a couple of years. Moved to Scotland and did a short little stint in Scotland. It wasn't exactly what I what I thought I signed up for but I had a good time. Too much rain. You know what the weather I loved it. I only need the sun to make vegetables grow. I'm a weirdo in that respect. You know, I really, I dug that. I love the people. 34:39 We spend enough summers here you're like I'll take cloudy and so yeah, cool. 34:45 Yeah, exactly. But uh, Scala was great. But I had broken up with my girlfriend to move to Scotland. And her name is Rachel, who's now my wife. And so I realized I'd probably just made a couple of mistakes. And I moved from Scotland to Chicago. Chicago worked at North pond restaurant. So it's a Michelin one star restaurant when I first moved there. And then I got into research and development. I was a corporate chef for companies. I did that for the next six, seven years. We did eight. We always say eight winners. We did eight winners in Chicago. And that was it. pick winners. Yeah. 35:21 It's it's it's brutal. It's brutal. 35:23 Oh, it was unbelievable. I mean, my first one or two I still didn't have proper clothes. You know, it's like you're wearing your Kentucky winter clothes. And it doesn't 35:32 really like slices right there. Yeah, 35:35 that's what last time I was there. You can't find anybody without those Canadian goose down jackets nowadays. And those things are expensive. But there's a reason why they have them. Yeah. 35:45 Oh, it's unbelievable. I mean, was like, 35:47 like trekking on Everest. And you're there. 35:48 Yeah. That and then between jackets and strollers, you spend all your money, you know, you can't afford two cars. So you get a nice stroller for the second one. Yeah. But we did Chicago. I, you know, really, really enjoyed the product development side and the research and development but a long story short, I broke my broke my foot in my ankle, pretty bad. And I was out of work for six weeks. And I had this sort of job that I could be out of work. And somehow it It worked. And my wife just knew I wasn't particularly happy with you know, the sort of business that I was getting into at the very end and she said we should open a restaurant in Kentucky. And it wasn't the first time we'd ever talked about it. We had obviously baton back and forth what really started happening was barrel pics became big. So if you think 2011 1213 when the barrel pics, I think that's it, you know, oh, seven a week, still old school. But I think of how lots of distilleries started opening up barrel pics, right. And our friends all ran bar programs in Chicago. Since I wasn't in a kitchen all the time. Now. I became really close to bar. You know, bartenders, so Blackbird, the violet, our the scofflaw group, like they were our best friends. And they were all coming down to Kentucky and doing barrel pics. Going to Louisville having a blast at knock bar and, you know, a garage bar couple of you know, places that were around then. They're devils in AD. And, and then but then they're coming back and they were bummed out about the food. Yeah, you know, and they were bummed out a little bit about the cocktails, right. There wasn't you know, in those years, there weren't cocktail bars. Pearl wasn't around, you know, the silver dollar was it? I was actually getting drinks from the beverage director for silver dollar. 37:48 Larry, you 37:50 know, Susie, so his his partner Susie, was the bartender, a big star, which was my local watering hole in Chicago me 37:59 sense because when I went to big star, I was like, this is like an exact replica of silver dollar, like which one came first? 38:07 The chicken was Maria. It was in this case, but I mean, you know, we just saw we just saw an opening. It kind of made me a little bit not upset. I mean, I wasn't mad at Kentucky or something like that, right. I mean, I chose not to live here for a long time. But I just knew that there are really people doing this now and it's on the industry level right now. But it's going to get down to a normal person level. And what's going to be there, you know, and we started investigating, I grew up in a, an old house built in 1800s. To get a liquor license in Kentucky is weird. There's still a lot of esoteric kind of blue laws. And you know, my county is moist. You know, you can have a liquor license in the city but not in the county. And then we found out a restaurant was for selling bars town in a historic gold home. We could live upstairs 39:02 I called circa sir. Yeah, 39:03 yeah, that was the name of it was circa because it was built circa 1780. Okay, so it's the oldest stone home in Nelson County. And we live on the top two floors and then open the restaurant on the bottom. And that was it. I mean, that was five years ago this year. And 39:23 that was the birth of Harrison Smith. That was 39:25 the birth of Harrison Smith house. Yeah. And then, about two years into Harrison Smith house. We started making barbecue sandwiches in the Toll House me at a makers that had 12 seats. And that was the start of Stargell provisions. So what did you approach them about doing that? Or did they kind of ask you like, Hey, we need somebody we got a lot of visitors coming here that are mega destination, but they need something to eat. 39:53 Hey, it's Kenny here. And I want to tell you about an event that's happening on Saturday, August 24. Because I want to see you historic downtown Frankfort, Kentucky, at bourbon on the banks. It's the Commonwealth premier bourbon tasting and awards festival. There's live music and over 100 vendors of food, beer, wine, and of course, bourbon. 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Use code pursuit for $25 off your first box. 42:06 Did you approach them about doing that? Or did they kind of ask you like, Hey, we need somebody we got a lot of visitors coming here that are making a destination but they need some to eat. 42:15 You know what? I think that I asked if I could sell barbecue sandwiches. Okay, at the Toll House. I think that literally, that was about as basic as it as it started. And I think before that, there wasn't I mean, we still opened as the first. I think the first restaurant in a distillery, I think we we got that one or something like that. And I mean, even then, before that it was all employees that was that was sort of the focus was how do you be a dining room and then also sort of serve guests. And we just sort of turned that a little bit. And we still love, love, love to get the employees in and to feed people that work there. But primarily now Yeah, we're just focused. I mean, that's who's coming in on a Saturday and October we're going to see 550 plus guests from 1130 to 430 on a day. 43:09 So when you which is pretty good for even an average 43:11 restaurant, it's it's, it's it's a crush, man. It's an absolute crush. And then on Saturdays, between May to the end of October, every Saturday night, we do ticket dinners. So you buy your ticket ahead of time you come in, it's a set three course meal, three cocktails, we write the menu that morning. So we swap from being a fast casual lunch place to as comfortable of a fine dining experience because I mean we really don't try to add a lot of the stodgy parts but you know it's its proper food is cold smoked fraud quell you know want to leave on a salad and yeah, just you know country cooking but tuned up a little bit. 43:53 Hop in the makers man, we gotta go to Whole Foods. 43:57 Man, you know, many times I wish there was a whole foods of down there. You just change that to change what you're doing. 44:03 So like some of the main food disturbers? Will they come all the way down there like a like a creation gardens or 44:08 you know what creation actually have to get they delivered to my house and barge town. Okay, I have the walking coolers there. And then I have to take it from walking coolers and bars down down there working on it. And hopefully they'll hear this and work on it even faster. Very excited to to get deliveries in Loretta. 44:27 I know some people there I'll put in actually started the pot for Hey, well we 44:31 like to use. So. Yeah. But it's it's a challenge. I mean, I think staff is probably the biggest challenge. We have great staff. You know, I think everybody who we employ we're really lucky to have, but it's finding people with passion and talent. And, you know, if you're not from there, it can be intimidating. You know, living in the country is just like living in the city. I mean, they're both intimidating if you aren't from one of the other. But such a good place. You know, the the pace is right, we can really focus on what it is if you're into food or drink or beverage. You focus on what matters and you don't have to spend a lot of time Yeah, with the extras, the permitting the you know, sort of the crush that comes around. And so, yeah, staffing is the difficult 45:20 I got a question just being from the region. So like, obviously, tourists coming in, will embrace and kind of take on you know, your the quality of food and don't mind paying higher How hard was it to like, convince the locals because like, I know, you know, Central Kentucky is not a wealthy, it's not poor. It's not wealthy. So people are kind of like putting a put off by like, high end food because it's so expensive. How hard is it? Was it to convince people that like, Come tries, I promise, you know, it's good. I gotta be honest, people do great. 45:55 There's always going to be naysayers, right? There's always going to be, but when people we'll see working your hardest, and doing everything you can and they see the product that your bond and they start to get interested in. You know, the rabbits you get where you get them. And why is this chicken tastes different than chicken that I used to have? Like That was the conversation that really got us through it was we charged what we charged, but it was based in math, right? I mean, it would be terrible. If it wasn't a we wouldn't have been ever to exist. You know, we buy better products. They cost more money. If we do our job, right, they taste that much better. And that's really was the difference maker. You know, there was only two of us that did every bite of food. And every drink basically that ever got served at Harrison Smith house in the last part. We were lucky to have a couple of friends come and help us on Friday and Saturday nights. Paul scurrilous who has Korean restaurant here in town? Yes. came and worked with us for a number of months. We had a good me Anthony who came in and worked with us. He was fantastic. But two of us did. 100% every bite of pastry ever roll every the bone chicken thigh, every cocktail. And you know, I think people Yeah, but people got it, you know, they could. That was what helped us get through it. You know, there were always some pushback. There was always a little naysaying i mean you know, I it's not always easy to get my parents to come in because they didn't want me to come home every time and we didn't eat at restaurants like that whenever I was growing up but you know what made it easier was knowing that we did it in react based in reality, not trying to get rid sure yet. Hell if we if I learned how to start cooking to get rich. 47:48 You're out of reality now. Yeah, but uh, but yeah, I mean, you know, 47:54 I think it's a challenge anywhere I think that chicken is chicken I think that when you put eggs with something, everybody thinks it's worthless. Like these are just common trends that unfortunately follow restaurants around everywhere. And that being said the tourism business is big enough that we didn't have to cater to anybody in particular we were really lucky we got to make our food and sell it and when we needed to we added a three course fried chicken dinner on Wednesday night you know and it was still $25 awesome. But I mean you know for a fried chicken meal and fast foods five bucks is ours already. So we were still you know, five times more than people thought but the number of teachers and like just like you said, real people that came to eat with us it was nothing short of flattering and you know, so a lot of our best customers weren't I don't want to pretend like I know what they're like but you know the super fluent they weren't the who's who of Barcelona started out now the who's who's duty there as well don't get me wrong shirt. Oh 49:04 yeah, for sure. I want to kind of talk about so you've been embraced kind of by the bourbon community like who's involved in I think a lot of that's probably to do it trickles been I know you guys are pretty close talked about how your you all got hooked up I guess and think kind of how you got thrown into the bargain community? 49:20 Yeah, um, you know, when we moved to bars town I knew who drew was will it was really starting to in a national sense. Get more notoriety as to you know what k bf is and or I'm sorry, k Kentucky Kentucky bourbon fest for Kentucky Association. Nice. Name all of them. Good. 49:44 Jackie know, the Kentucky bourbon distillers are 49:48 Yeah, TBD. Yeah. Here we go. their parent company. There we go. 49:51 Yeah, there we go. And people were starting to visit. Yeah, as we can tell, they were starting to figure that out. And so I saw Drew, and I, you know, sort of in the middle. Yeah. And I was like, man, I hope that I can get to know this guy. I hope that this is your peers that sort of becomes and ended up meeting. We're talking about best customers. I mean, nobody's there like every day nobody ate at me when 50:14 you first came out. He was like, thank god this place and they didn't get a decent meal. 50:19 You know, Drew Drew, without a doubt. It was the and still is really one of the biggest supporters we've had for the restaurant. He He really loves cuisine. I mean, he, he embraces it. High and low. It doesn't have to be fancy. If it is he still likes that an awful lot. But now it was just, you know, and then we got to know each other. I remember, he gave us a gift. When we opened and we barely knew each other. We've met a couple of times, and he brought me a new some ham. foot on like one of these. You've got to be in line for three years. The ages in the basement? Yes. Well, we got him on that little while. But this hand was I mean, it was one of the most special things we've ever gotten. He just brought it in, gave it to us. Here you go, guys. Thanks for being in town and sort of went from there. we'd hang out, you know, obviously was such a cult bourbon. You know, it was really interesting to go over to his place. And once you see his his bourbon collection, it makes you want to stop collecting bourbon a little. Boy, you just it's just a realization sort of moment here. Now you go well, I guess I could have a lot of will it are a lot of anything, right? Yeah. But I'm never going to have it all. It's like makers bottles, right? We started collecting those at the restaurant for a little while. But these makers fans, they have a million times more than we'll ever have. Yeah, so now we open the collectible ones. And like we do them all as charity bottle. So people just freak out because they see their collectible bottles open. But we put the whole price of the shot for charity. And then we get to see what whiskey at that time. tasted like. I'll tell you what the 96 championship bottle. Fantastic. Got some gentlemen. 52:05 It's fantastic. 52:09 Exactly, exactly. But you know, so anyway, back to drew we. Yeah, we just hit it off, man. And then he got me into cigars. You know? 52:18 If you think he has a lot of will it's why do you see a car collection? 52:22 Yeah, he's got a he's got a pretty pretty rises selection. And, you know, he's always had something to talk about. I'm interested in the whiskey, he's interested in food. We both sort of have mutual respect, I think for for what the other ones doing and and he was just a massive supporter. I mean, there's nothing like putting your money where your mouth is. And you know, if you want to have nice things, you have to work at it. And he was always down to do his part to make sure that you know, we were doing well. I mean, then our first year when things were really hard. You know, that's when whiskey pig started her. now known as Berea nationally known as but maybe now we can call it whiskey pig again. Okay, and I don't know, but I like whiskey pig better. But you know, him starting that was was a big move between that and there's a guy named Greg Jensen. Do you guys know Greg? I know the name. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, out of California. 53:15 My wife and I were walking. We're pushing a stroller. 53:20 Maybe we've been open for two or three weeks. And it was our first. Like, I think I had four hours off. And we were taking a walk. And we met this gentleman. And he seemed lost. And we gave him directions. And then he asked if we knew about the restaurant on the corner. And we're like, yeah, it's ours. Long story short, he comes in the next night with his wife and his mother in law. And it's the first time anybody's ever asked for a tasting menu. He says, Can you do it? And Josh and I are in the back and we're sweating. And we're like, nervous and, like goosebumps. And we're like, yeah, we can't do that. That's that's what we've trained to do. But we thought we're coming to make fried chicken, you know. And I swear, I think we cooked everything we could, he drank wine, he drink bourbon, they had a blast, and the ticket might have been 300 300. Like, we just went through the wall Adam, and it was experiences when it wasn't bad, because we just weren't set for that yet, you know, but he was deeper in the bourbon world than we would have known. And he started telling people, and then we started doing these dinners for barrel pics, because I think your second part of the question was, how do we get involved in the community? And that was it. That I mean, between drew and the whiskey pig. And then sort of guys starting to do their their pics, you know, and then have a dinner for 20 afterwards. That did it. And, you know, just built and built and built and we still do those dinners all the time at Harrison Smith house. 54:54 I mean, we we've been in one. Yeah, we have. 54:57 Yeah, you know, I kinda want to talk a lot about you know where it is your passion for bourbon come from as well. You know, we really, really talked about because you do you drink bourbon like you have? You have a knack for it. You love it. You know, where did that passion really come from as well. I'm 55:11 swimming in makers like Yeah. 55:15 I mean, just being very honest, the earliest moonshine that we used to be able to get was always an empty makers bottles, which is odd, but it was one of those little connection things. And, you know, for me, I is just a national, you know, it's a pride thing. I like gin. I love drinking a gin and tonic Don't get me wrong, but knowing where it's from what it is what is made out of the people who grew the corn, the people who make it, like, at this point, there's no turning back from it, right. It's like, I love scotch. I love all these things. There's, you know, I'm pretty equal opportunity. But bourbon is the sort of, you know, the sun and other things evolve well rounded in terms of our beverage selection choice. It makes sense because of where we are obviously, but even if it wasn't so many of the classic cocktails, I love even a Bardstown bourbon right now, they do the Tiki drinks with bourbon involved. I love that. I mean, it's just versatile. I don't know my grandma drink. bourbon, my great aunt, who our house cocktail is, you know, we have a house cocktail. We've had it since the day we opened Harrison Smith, and it's still at makers. And it's what she would make for yourself every day at 11am when the price is right was on. And she would make one highball. And watch Bob Barker. And then I guess and yeah, 56:41 yeah. Yeah. And 56:46 that's what she would do. And I can remember as a little kid, helping her get the ice bucket and watching this sort of go down. And, you know, my grandma would drink, heaven Hill, Green Label and coke. And at Christmas time, my dad would borrow Bala makers. And she would always it was just like, it was a script. She say, Pat Newman, I can't, I can't put coke with that, you know, I can't have that. You know, it's just one of these little cultural things that, like I didn't grow up thinking about a prohibition and sort of stance on a lot of things and alcohol. I mean, it just, yeah, so the family was going to drink a little bit of bourbon. And that, yeah, that was it. 57:29 So again, another kind of question for you. Because, you know, you've talked about makers a lot. But, you know, we knew you know, we talked about chefs in bourbon, there's a there's a few that stand out. They had these kind of like magical pairings, right? So, you know, the lady Anthony Bourdain, he had a very tight connection to loving Pappy Van Winkle, Chef Sean Brock, very into like the very, very old Fitzgerald's Well, not anymore. Well, not anymore. But right. Do you have something that you have in a collection that you adorn, that you go back and like, that's your, that's your kind of like, staple thing that you love? 58:00 Be honest, if we're going to talk vintage at all. 58:05 It could be anything I like, I like to I like two things together. I like almost I like the weirdest of the weird. So this could mean that mean, you get to hang out around distillers. So you know, there's things that never get a label put on them. Absolutely. I want that. I want that sea creature that I a dime that weird. Well, maybe it's off way. Like I want way off profile. And I want a chartreuse. Those are my two things. I want a little sip of both of those. I mean, but yeah, because genuinely the best things I've ever had didn't have a label. And yeah, they wouldn't have passed any QC test. They. And there's a couple of distilleries to be perfectly honest. I mean, you know that I've that I've had that from 58:52 go and we're listening. Which ones? 58:56 Well, let me check the label reports here. But you know what I'm saying I mean, I'm not trying to try to dodge it. But I'm not really a brand guy. I don't I don't have one thing that I've always gravitated towards more than the other. It's constant. Just trying to fame few shots of heaven Hill white label and old Bardstown with the in the back. And you know what, even without a doubt, I mean, the highest of the high and the lowest of the low is really where I want to sit. I mean, that that's, you know, the most time where, where I find the most pleasure is those two sort of spectrums of things. I think the middle is where things get cloudy a little bit. You know, that $50 price range nowadays that 6075 is just a different sort of piece than it used to be and give me below or above that. And I'm usually generally pretty happy. Yeah. 59:50 So then another thing I kind of want to talk about, and this kind of goes back to, because I think we do ourselves a disservice if we didn't grab this little nugget of information, because we were upstairs and you were talking about your time I'm in the corporate world that you had a hand and one of the most, I'm glad you brought the biggest breakfast sandwiches that are out there today. So kind of talk about that. 1:00:09 Yeah, hangover cure of choice. 1:00:10 So one of my very first projects that I was involved in, so I, I'm 22 years old, or 20, maybe 23, I don't know, and lived in Chicago, and I get a job at this product development firm. And they work with all kinds of different food service companies coming up with new products. And McDonald's wants to come up with something new, something innovative, and they decided to do a pancake sandwich right? What do they call that to make griddle? Yeah, they'll you'll make griddle. And so our part in it is how do you deliver syrup without getting it on somebody's savings. And that was our piece of the project. And we worked and worked and worked and ended up with these little encapsulate, you know, like Halloween when you go out trick or treating. Have those bats any bite them there's like juice and Saudi? Yeah, well, that food grade wax is what we ended up using. And each one of those materials has tiny little pocket of syrup, wrapped grade logic. It is magic. It truly is. Because the thing is, if I was to give you a handful of them to eat, they would never melt in your mouth. It takes a certain like cooking temperature before they'll fully Melton it's an encapsulation. And so yeah, yeah, that was a fun project. But you know, the one around here gets everybody is campfire chicken, for Cracker Barrel, they'll really do all the billboards of Yeah, that photo got taken in a basement in Chicago seven years ago. Like, how wild is that, you know, this sort of country looking dish of a half a chicken roasted with carrots and stuff was a Kentucky boy in Chicago, selling to a Tennessee company to put on billboards all over little weird little combo circle of life. 1:02:00 So like, kind of one of the last questions that I have is, is kind of, you know, we've talked about bourbon, we've talked about food, but where did the two kind of really intersect for you? Do you look at it as a way of cooking does more pairing like what What's your real take on it? 1:02:15 You know, people ask a lot about what I think pairs best. And I know that's not the question, but part of it is, you know, and I'm just a firm believer that good goes with good. And it's not a scapegoat example to like, get out of pairing things because I could give you exact, but I think that genuinely there's like a couple of levels that you can enjoy food and bourbon and everything else on you know, there's the straight hedonist level, which is great. And it's a little bit too much of, you know, responsibly too much of everything. But you know, lots of food is like the dinner I cooked for Top Chef as too much food too much, but it's just too much, right, you feel good about it, you're going to eat the leftovers, you're not wasting it. But you know, there's sort of that level of pairing. And then when you go to the high end, we just got back from from Spain, my wife and I, and you know, we were doing these sort of Michelin tasting menus. And it was amazing how much the pairings played into the total meal. And it was a reminder to me because with cocktails, we'd be a little bit more careful. We can't go 10 courses. 10 cocktails is never going to work. You know, wine and beer sort of have that play. But I came back with just a stronger desire to think about what exactly does go together instead of always

We continue our conversation with Rob Samuels, Media Analyst Americas, UBS Chief Investment Office, on everything you wanted to know about video games, but were afraid to ask. On this segment we cover the evolution of player-to-player interaction, what makes a good video game, industry trends, disruptors and opportunities. Host: Daniel Cassidy As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers both investment advisory services and brokerage services. Investment advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate arrangements. It is important that clients understand the ways in which we conduct business and that they carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or services we offer. For more information visit our website at ubs.com/workingwithus. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC.

Over the years people of all ages have gravitated towards video games as a source of entertainment. Today we explore everything you wanted to know about video games, but were afraid to ask. Featured is Media Analyst Americas, from the UBS Chief Investment Office, Rob Samuels. Host: Daniel Cassidy As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers both investment advisory services and brokerage services. Investment advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate arrangements. It is important that clients understand the ways in which we conduct business and that they carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or services we offer. For more information visit our website at ubs.com/workingwithus. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC.

Technology has changed our lives in many ways, including how we consume goods and services. Today we will dive into the rise of e-Commerce and how it has changed the retail landscape, how traditional retailers are responding and more. Featured are Thematic Investing Strategist, Americas, Michelle Laliberte and Consumer Discretionary and Media Analyst Americas, Rob Samuels, from the UBS Chief Investment Office. As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers both investment advisory services and brokerage services. Investment advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate arrangements. It is important that clients understand the ways in which we conduct business and that they carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or services we offer. For more information visit our website at ubs.com/workingwithus. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC.

It's becoming the age old question for consumers of television ? to cut the cord or to not cut the cord. Today my guest is going to make the case for doing so by addressing the common questions from consumers who may be skeptical or on the fence. Featured is Consumer Discretionary and Media Analyst Americas, from the UBS Chief Investment Office, Rob Samuels. As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers both investment advisory services and brokerage services. Investment advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate arrangements. It is important that clients understand the ways in which we conduct business and that they carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or services we offer. For more information visit our website at ubs.com/workingwithus. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC.

Today we turn our focus back to the retailers as we reflect on the 2018 holiday shopping season. We recap performance, discuss expectations for 2019, highlight industry trends, where opportunities exist for investors and more. Featured is Consumer Discretionary Equity Strategist Americas, Rob Samuels from the UBS Chief Investment Office. As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers both investment advisory services and brokerage services. Investment advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate arrangements. It is important that clients understand the ways in which we conduct business and that they carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or services we offer. For more information visit our website at ubs.com/workingwithus. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC

Dec 04, 2018. Today we turn our focus to the relationship between eCommerce and Retail as we examine how this space is shaping up as we're fast approaching the holidays. My guests and I will discuss some of the trends in ecommerce versus traditional brick and mortar retail, recap some of the drivers and sentiment for consumers, offer their takeaways, investment implications and more. Featured are Jon Woloshin, Real Estate Sector Strategist Americas and Rob Samuels, Consumer Discretionary Sector Strategist Americas from the UBS Chief Investment Office. As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers both investment advisory services and brokerage services. Investment advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate arrangements. It is important that clients understand the ways in which we conduct business and that they carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or services we offer. For more information visit our website at ubs.com/workingwithus. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC

With its iconic square-shaped bottle dipped in red wax and that consistently familiar flavor profile, Kentucky bourbon brand Maker's Mark is recognized and beloved the world over. Apparently, not without a shaky start. According to Rob Samuels, who currently runs the company, it took a good 30 years for the billion dollar brand to turn a profit. He should know. His grandparents started Maker’s Mark in the 1950s when American whiskey was at an all time low, his father Bill Samuels Jr. helped to usher in this country’s bourbon boom, and for the last 8 years, Rob has been leading the brand into the next generation as President and COO. I caught up with Rob at the recent BevCon conference here in LA and he gave us the super insiders take to all things Maker’s Mark, the Samuels Family and Kentucky bourbon. This week's featured cocktail is the signature drink for Kentucky horse race institution, Keeneland. Keeneland Breeze 1 1/4 oz Maker’s Mark  splash Orange liqueur splash Ginger ale splash Fresh squeezed orange juice Orange wedge Rocks glass and ice Fill rocks glass with ice, add the bourbon, orange liqueur and fresh orange juice, top with ginger ale, give it a stir and garnish with an orange wedge. Links: Maker's Mark Keeneland Bit by a Fox: blog: http://bitbyafox.com instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bitbyafox/ facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BitByAFox/ twitter: https://twitter.com/bitbyafox music: https://www.humanworldwide.com

Steve, Tracy and Katie talk to Rob Samuels, Chief Operating Officer for Maker’s Mark Distillery. The team talks Samuels’ family history, Maker’s Mark past and present and what the future holds for the organization. Today’s show was sponsored by Steve Akley’s two new books, Bourbon Mixology Volume 4 (https://goo.gl/GP6L1z) and Mules and More (https://goo.gl/EN3wEj). The Bourbon Show music (Whiskey on the Mississippi) is by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Check us out at: abvnetwork.com. Join the ABV Network Revolution by adding #ABVNetworkCrew to your profile in social media.

“For us, marketing meant polishing the apple. Not chasing people, letting them find you.” Over the past 59 years, quite a few people have found Maker’s Mark. The distinctive bourbon has grown from being the hobby of founder Bill Samuels, Sr. His son, Bill Samuels, Jr., led much of that growth. From their wax-dipped bottles to their brand ambassador program, Maker’s has built a brand as unique as their spirits. I couldn’t wait to discuss all of this and more with Bill on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Bill Samuels, Jr. Growing up on Distiller’s Row in Bardstown, Kentucky – son of Maker’s Mark Founder Bill Samuels, Sr. and godson of Jim Beam – Bill Samuels, Jr. has been an eyewitness to many milestones in bourbon history and has made history himself. As the current Chairman Emeritus of Maker’s Mark, Bill ran his family’s company for 35 years as President and CEO. Under his watchful eye, he followed his father’s stern but simple piece of advice for him: “don’t screw up the whisky,” which is the advice he passed on to his son Rob Samuels, Maker’s current COO. Before passing on the torch in 2011, Bill left quite a legacy which included the introduction of Maker’s first new expression, Maker’s 46, the brand’s beloved Ambassador program, and more. Bill’s current role is perfectly suited for the very first Maker’s Mark Ambassador: travel around the world, introduce Maker’s Mark and Maker’s 46 to folks and share a story or two about all of the incredible history he’s been an eyewitness to. Episode Highlights Commercializing a hobby sounds daunting. But that’s exactly what Bill Samuels, Jr. was charged with doing. His mandate was simple — “never compromise on the spirit.” Bill Samuels, Jr. had to carefully exploit this hobby. “We hired an agency not to do advertising.” What Bill and their agency partners did instead was building on the “discovery” process. “We didn’t want to sell something that people didn’t want to buy. It had to be something you heard about from a friend.” What about those distinct dipped bottles? “Mom was a chemist and started playing around with wax.” As a patent attorney, Bill Samuels, Jr. patented the process, cementing the red wax drippings as a key brand touchpoint. And the ambassador program? “That was the mother of necessity. All of our customers previously had been in Kentucky. All of a sudden a credible source praised our product — The Wall Street Journal. That was the moment we became a national brand. Everything we did with customers was personal — 1:1.” The ambassador program helped them identify and embrace those fans who “raised their hands.” Another benefit to ambassadors … “It’s not a story you want to tell but every once in awhile you screw up.” Like when Maker’s thought the only way to answer demand was by reducing the proof the spirit. They communicated this to their ambassadors first and were met with immediate resistance. “It took Coke nine months to see what they did (with New Coke). We knew in two days.” They took immediate steps to reverse their decision, restoring the spirit to the delight of their fans. “We like to have fun with it, too.” That’s why Maker’s sends out gifts to ambassadors at the holidays. What brand has made Bill smile recently? Bill reminded us about the story of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, a collaborative effort between competitive distilleries that’s been a big hit with tourism in the state. “Don’t try to do it all in one day,” cautioned Bill. To learn more about Bill and Maker’s Mark, check out the Maker’s Mark website. As We Wrap … Before we go, I want to flip the microphone around to our community …Recently former guest Bruce Kennedy and Rogue Jess gave the podcast a shout. Thanks for listening! Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show. Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. Remember – On Brand is brought to you by my new book — Get Scrappy: Smarter Digital Marketing for Businesses Big and Small. Order now at Amazon and check out GetScrappyBook.com for special offers and extras. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet!

Rob Samuels, COO of Maker's Mark, talks about the operations behind Maker's and holding almost every job at the distillery since he was 9.   - We kick off the show talking about bourbon tourism numbers from 2015- Talk about your childhood and growing up in the family business- What does the phrase mean “blow your ears off?”- Maker's has a great relationship with Keeneland, talk about it.- Where do you see Makers as a part of the growth of bourbon?- What do you think kept Maker's alive 20-30 years ago when vodka was king?- What are some your favorite ads Maker's has had over the years?- This is a family business. What was the best piece of advice your father ever gave you?- You started at the distillery at 9 years old. Talk about holding all those various positions over the years. Best and worst job- How do you get on the tasting panel at Maker's?- Back in 2013 was the great proof reduction debacle. Talk about that.- What are some of toughest decisions you’ve had to make as COO?- Let's talk about life outside of bourbon. Do you have any other hobbies?

So, you have an iconic brand, but not enough supply to meet growing global demand...so you make one change in the product to increase supply, and all hell breaks loose! That's the situation Rob Samuels of Maker's Mark found himself in this week after announcing that the Bourbon his family has produced for more than 50 years would be lowered from 45% ABV to 42%. With media outlets from all over the world calling him for interviews, Rob sat down to talk with us this week about the reasons for the change, and why most people shouldn't notice any difference. In the news, we mourn the passing of Truman Cox, get the first word on an all-new Bourbon from Jim Beam, and discover a new use for whisky glasses.

Time for a road trip...this time to the spiritual home of Bourbon...Kentucky. This week's episode comes from DeSha's Restaurant and Bar in Lexington, which tied for top honors as Best Whisky Bar in the World in Whisky Magazine's recent Icons of Whisky Awards. It's about an hour away from another Icon award winner...the Maker's Mark Distillery in Loretto, which was named Best Visitor Attraction by Whisky Magazine. Assistant Master Distiller Kevin Smith and Rob Samuels, grandson of Maker's Mark founder William Samuels Sr. will guide us through the distillery and its new visitors center.