Battle of the Beams: 100 Proof Decisions for Thanksgiving

As I was talking to my friend Paul about my excitement over Beam’s Old Tub 100 Proof Bottled in Bond Bourbon this past week, he said to me: “Isn’t it just the same as the Jim Beam Distiller’s Cut, but younger and more expensive?”

Ooof. I don’t know. Is it?

As it turns out, the Jim Beam Distillers’s Cut—at $16.99—uses 100 proof whiskies between 5-6 years of age for a pretty hot price, whereas the Old Tub uses 4 year old whiskies at $18.95. Yes, we’re only talking two dollars and a year or two of difference here, but it’s more the idea of a deal that may or may not be the deal you think it is.

Then another friend said to me: “Why would I buy the Old Tub instead of Old Grand-Dad? Sure it’s a few bucks cheaper, but OGD is already perfect as it is.”

Ugh, will someone please just share my enthusiasm about Old Tub?!

Beam has so many good values already that when they present a new bargain label, they end up competing against themselves! Nevertheless, I was pretty sure that Old Tub’s outstanding flavor would hold up against the other two stalwarts because it’s one of the best $20 whiskies I’ve had in quite some time. But there’s only one thing you can do when presented with such questions, and that’s get a bottle of each one and do a side-by-side tasting.

(As an aside, in my personal experience it’s fun to taste $100+ bottles, but there are few things more exhilarating for me than splitting hairs on $20 bottles of booze to determine the ultimate value.)

First Tasting:

Old Tub: The sweetness of the whiskey is superbly balanced by the graininess. In the same way that old school food wines dial it back in order to pair well with food, the Old Tub tastes like a Bourbon with proper restraint and I appreciate that.

Jim Beam Distiller’s Cut: You can definitely taste those extra few years in wood right away as the sweetness and the richness of the Bourbon comes across instantly on the palate. Unfortunately, it falls short on the finish so it’s sort of a one-trick pony.

Old Grand-Dad: Combine the best parts of the Old Tub with the richness of the Distiller’s Cut, and that’s the OGD. Clear winner.

Before you start putting the OGD into your shopping cart, let me fill in on round two and another important detail you should know: Beam has discontinued the Distiller’s Cut, so I took everything that was left in the warehouse. If that’s something you want to try, do so sooner than later.

Second Tasting (two days later)

Old Tub: An amazing nose, loaded with spice, cinnamon red hots, and tons of sweet oak. More on the palate. So, so, so pleasing.

Jim Beam Distiller’s Cut: Less fragrant on the nose, but plenty of vanilla and oak. Again, sweet up front, thin in the back. Good for $16.99, but wouldn’t be on my short list (plus, I don’t like the bottle, so it would be hidden in my bar behind the others).

Old Grand-Dad: Again, very good, but somehow less dynamic than I remembered it before. Bananas Foster on the nose, more sweet oak, but if I had to choose between bananas and cinnamon, I’m going with the latter 9 out of 10 times. Hence, Old Tub.

I could obviously go back for a third and fourth tasting, and I might feel differently, but after two sittings I can tell you this for certain:

1. You NEED a bottle of Old Tub. For the price, it’s a hot, hot, hot deal.

2. Old Grand-Dad is a legendary whiskey for a reason. If you’ve never had it, add that one in, too.

3. Jim Beam Distiller’s Cut is good, but the specs won’t save you here. Sure it’s older and less expensive, but it doesn’t taste as good as the other two.

4. Nevertheless, you still may want to buy the Distiller’s Cut as it’s getting discontinued according to my source at Beam.

5. Given that all three whiskies combined will run you $60, maybe you should just get all three.

-David Driscoll

Delicious, Inexpensive 12 Year Old Single Malt Made With 100% Malted Wheat

“This is insanely good for the price,” said a friend of mine last week when I let him taste my sample of Hye-Land Armenian single malt. As a Los Angeles bartender with an incredible pedigree, I knew he wasn’t blowing smoke up my ass. He was legitimately impressed.

As was I.

Having poured my third glass at that point, I was trying to figure out if we were both missing something. In no way, whatsoever, had I expected this whiskey to be anywhere near as good as it was, especially given how inexpensive it is. When my boss placed the bottle on my desk last Friday and said, “See what you can do with this,” I thought he was asking me for a personal favor.

If you’re not up to speed on the history of Mission Wine & Spirits, it’s a family-owned Armenian business founded in Pasadena, so I thought maybe he had a buddy back home who needed some help or a family member involved.

Not the case. He just really likes it.

“Is there anything online about it?” my friend queried.

“Unsurprisingly, not much,” I answered; “Yet, the one small tidbit that does exist is a glowing review from the Whisky Advocate of all places.”

“87 Points: The nose offers seasoned oak, citrus, ginger, and allspice. The palate brings sweet notes of melon, coconut shavings, tobacco, Christmas cake, ginger, and clove, all lightly accented by black pepper. The finish is viscous and has balanced sweetness.”

“So they like it, as well,” he added.

No doubt. But where did it come from? Who made it? How? Considering it had to come halfway around the world on a boat, then make its way through the American three-tier system, how in the hell is it so inexpensive?

Here’s the scoop:

• WHY: Mission is clearly a huge supporter of Armenia and Armenian products as a whole, but our enthusiasm for the new Hye-Land 12 year old Armenian single malt is about more than just Armenian pride. It’s just a flat out delicious whiskey for a HOT price, unique in its soft and creamy profile with a sweet, mealy, grainy profile that mends beautifully with the oak and vanilla spices on the finish.

• HOW: While most single malt whiskies are 100% malted barley, the Hye-Land whiskey is made from 100% malted wheat, then aged in Caucasus Mountain oak before being finished in Armenian brandy barrels.

• WHAT: Hye-Land is made at Eraskh Winery and Distillery in the Ararat Valley of Armenia. Known more for its wines, brandies, and vodkas, the facility was established in 1967 roughly 80 miles outside the capital city of Yeraskh in the village of Aralez. The Ararat valley is one of the most ancient agricultural regions on Earth, dating back to Noah and the time of the flood, and its flowing wheat fields, sprawling vineyards, and orchards of fruit trees offer an endless bounty of quality produce for Eraskh’s distillation. All of the wheat used in the Hye-Land single malt is grown locally.

I’ve had plenty of wheat whiskies in my life, but I honestly can’t say if I’ve ever had a single malt wheat whiskey. I worked to create a 100% wheat whiskey with Germain-Robin back in the day, but I don’t remember if the wheat was malted.

What’s the difference, you ask? “Malted” grains have been steeped in water in order to start the growth process, but then dried before the grain can do so, trapping the necessary enzymes and sugars for the fermentation process. When you use unmalted grains for fermentation and eventually distillation, like with American whiskey, producers generally add commercial enzymes in order convert the starch into sugar. Most Bourbon recipes also add in a small percentage of malted barley to the mash to jump start the process and help manage the thick, gummy mash of pure starch.

That’s not to say malted grains are necessarily better, just that purists tend to respect the malting process (especially the old school floor malting method).

But doesn’t single malt whisky have to be made with 100% malted barley? Yes, that’s definitely the case for Scottish single malt. But there are other examples of single malt whiskey made elsewhere from other malted grains, such as the Old Potrero single malt rye whiskey from San Francisco.

A single distillery making whiskey from one singular malted grain is technically a single malt. In the case of Hye-Land, it happens to be wheat.

So do you need this bottle in your collection? The answer is an enthusiastic YES for a number of different reasons:

1. It’s quite good and it likely tastes like nothing else in your bar. It’s like something in between Scottish grain whisky and American whiskey, with butterscotch and spicy oak. It lacks the weight and the viscosity of single malt Scotch, but it does have richness. And after you’ve taken a few sips, you definitely want more.

2. From an educational point of view, it’s just cool to have a whiskey made from 100% malted wheat. And it won’t cost you more than $34.99 to take the plunge. That’s a great price.

3. Armenia has a vibrant food and drink culture. Ararat Armenian brandy is awesome, if you’ve never had it. As is Ararat sparkling water and a number of Armenian wines. The Armenian Lahmajun flatbread I eat for lunch everyday at Old Sassoon Bakery in Pasadena is a taste sensation that explodes on my tongue. I think my favorite part of my new job thus far is the cultural education I’m getting on a daily basis, being surrounded by a majority of Armenians, learning the language and getting a deeper look at the culture.

It turns out that Armenia makes some pretty good whiskey, too. Or at least one really good whiskey so far. I’ll be on the lookout for others.

-David Driscoll

The Most Important Spirit You're Probably Not Drinking

As someone who spends a lot of time in liquor stores, there aren’t many occasions when I can walk into the spirits section of a boutique retailer and find myself overwhelmed with both uncertainty and curiosity. When you’re familiar with just about every major brand of Scotch, Bourbon, gin, vodka, Tequila, mezcal, and rum, the surprises are few and far between. Yet, when I walk the international spirits aisle at Mission, past the countless Arak labels and Armenian brandies, I’m really at a loss when I get to the baijiu. I find myself staring at the shelves in a stupor—hypnotized, wallowing in the wonderment of unfamiliarity and the endless sea of red-labeled hooch.

Unlike the single malt section, where I can give you a summary of just about every brand on the shelf, I’m much less confident when facing the Chinese baijiu selection. I know very little about these bottles, and yet I know there are tons of people drinking this stuff, piling cases of baijiu into their shopping carts, stocking up for the weekend like I might do with Buffalo Trace or Beefeater. What I know or don’t know is irrelevant, however; because baijiu is the most consumed spirit in the world. Literally translating as “white alcohol,” the Chinese juggernaut might still be an anomaly to many in the United States, but to about 1.5 billion abroad it’s the only booze that matters. You wanna know what people are actually drinking rather than simply taking pictures of for social media? It’s baijiu.

What is baijiu exactly, you ask? I’d rather not generalize too much because it can come in many forms, but if pressed I’d say that baijiu is typically a sorghum-based spirit that is fermented using a rotting grain-based paste called qu before being distilled on a pot still and aged in clay jars, sometimes in an underground cellar or even buried in the earth. It’s often blended for consistency, as batches can vary greatly in flavor, and it can come in as light as 35% ABV or as fiery and potent as 70%. It can be as plain as vodka, or as complex and potent as the funkiest of mezcals. Almost everything I know about baijiu I’ve learned from reading Derek Sandhaus’ book on the subject, and spending at least $500+ on various high-end expressions. Believe it or not, China’s best baijiu expressions are not cheap. A 200ml of Kweichou Moutai will cost you at least $200, as will a 375ml of Wuliangye. That’s $400 plus tax for not even a standard bottle’s worth of clear booze.

Like I said before, trying to summarize a category with enormous variation is difficult to do in a few paragraphs, but Sandhaus breaks down baijiu into four types based on aromas: strong, light, sauce and rice. Strong is the most popular category, followed by light, then sauce, and finally rice as it’s often made with glutenous rice rather than sorghum. There are indeed further sub-categories, but I have to think a deep dive of baijiu is going to be too much for those of you just checking in casually. I wanna get to some of the brand specifics before bogging you down in production details and styles. There’s a lot of very interesting cultural information and history that make drinking baijiu a lot of fun.

The Château Lafite of baijiu is called Kweichou Moutai and it’s known as the “national liquor” of China. Clocking in at 53%, it’s been served at every major state dinner for the last century, consumed by everyone from Ho Chi Minh to Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. Henry Kissinger once famously said, “I think if we drink enough Moutai, we can solve anything.” It’s made entirely of fermented sorghum and it smells like roasted soy sauce with other intensely fragrant notes that I am at a loss to describe. In no way is it for the light of heart. The Château Latour of baijiu would probably be Wuliangye, a fermentation of sorghum, rice, glutenous rice, wheat and corn that is the absolute polar opposite of Moutai: fruity on the nose with perfumy notes of pineapple, flowers and nail polish. Translated as “five grain liquid,” it tastes like nothing comparable in the spirits world. High-ester Jamaican rum might be as close as you could get.

How do you drink baijiu? You pour it in a glass and sip or shoot it. When do you drink baijiu? Before, during, and after dinner. How much Baijiu is being consumed on earth? About 1.2 billion cases a year, which is roughly three times the global consumption of vodka. And yet Baijiu is far from flavorless! It’s the most potent, mind-bending, genre-defying spirit in existence and yet most of us in the booze business know almost nothing (if anything) about it. It is served at exactly zero of the bars and restaurants I regularly frequent, and most of my local retailers sell none whatsoever. To me, the entire category is like a candy store full of exotic delights I’ve yet to experience. And that’s before digging deeper into other rice-based Asian spirits like shochu or awamori, the ancient spirit of Okinawa.

For those who think I’m kidding, I invite anyone and everyone to take a trip to Hawaii Supermarket in the San Gabriel Valley, circle the parking lot for ten minutes trying to find a spot, and watch the hoards of shoppers at play, filling their carts with Chinese booze. People are drinking this. More people, to be accurate, than are drinking any other spirit in the world. There’s a lot to unpack. The spectrum of flavor profiles is so wide it’s sometimes hard to believe these spirits are in the same genre. For me, I get a thrill out of every sip. It’s the great unknown; the next great frontier for hopeless booze adventurers like myself.

-David Driscoll

News & Notes - 11/20/20

Happy Friday!

Thanks to everyone who’s been helping us test our new will call system with the website this week. Lots of people taking advantage of our ridiculous $24.99 price on Lagavulin 9 year and the other Game of Thrones whiskies.

Here’s what’s happening in the world of booze this week:

• Our friends at Four PIllars have done it again! Two years in a row as the world’s best gin. Now do you believe me when I tell you it’s the best gin in the world?

• We just got a bunch of Old Tub Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon in today and I’m very excited to try it. This came out during my hiatus from retail, so I’ve never tasted it. Let me say this: things have completely flipped with Jim Beam since I left. They used to have—in my opinion—one of the less interesting portfolios in Bourbon, but now I’d have to say they’re the best value option for mid-tier quality around, and the quality has gone up, up, up since the Suntory merger. The new Baker’s 7 is OUTSTANDING. Knob Creek 9 year old at 100 proof is rocking my world (and having the age statement back helps with credibility). Now we can get 4+ year old, 50% classic Beam for $18.95 with Old Tub. How can you not help but get excited, especially when I read reviews like this?

• Watches…..the more I read about them, the more I realize it’s just another version of the whisky industry. I’ve been going through this book called 100+ No BS Watch Tips and if I ever wrote a book, this is the format and the style I would use—quick points, lots of cussing, etc. In any case, I was fascinated that at one point 80% of all watch movements (the motors) all came from one manufacturer; meaning you’d start a watch design and marketing company, but the base of the watch was outsourced. However, one day that movement manufacturer, owned by Swatch, decided they didn’t want other companies getting rich off their materials, so they shut off access. Sound familiar? This is exactly what happened with blended whisky. Everyone used to buy from what is now Diageo, until they cut off supply. That’s why every corporation in the world began buying up distilleries in Scotland—so that they could have enough whiskey for their blended brands like Chivas, Dewar’s, etc—once they could no longer purchase from Diageo distilleries. Apparently the same thing happened with watches, so now companies have to produce their movements in-house—and they’re expensive. Just like when small distillers do everything in house. It costs more.

-David Driscoll

Catching Up With Heaven Hill: An Interview with Master Distiller Conor O'Driscoll

It was roughly three and a half years ago, when I was rummaging around Louisville with my buddy Joe Heron from Copper & Kings, that I first met Conor O’Driscoll. I wanted to see the new Angel’s Envy Distillery, which at that time wasn’t open to the public.

“I know the distiller,” Joe said to me.

The distiller at that time was Conor, who let us in through a side door and gave us our own private tour. Being that we’re distant relatives, he and I exchanged numbers before we left and continued to keep in touch.

A few years later, I about fell over with excitement when I saw that Heaven Hill had named Conor as its new master distiller. If you’re not familiar with the company, Heaven Hill is a gigantic family-run whiskey business out of Bardstown, KY that makes many of the industry’s best Bourbons and rye whiskies. Elijah Craig, Evan Williams, Rittenhouse Rye, Larceny—the list goes on and on.

While the offices are in Bardstown, Heaven Hill’s Bernheim Distillery is Louisvillle, where Conor lives today. The warehouses are also in Bardstown, but the distillery went up in flames back in 1996 when whole place caught fire. That’s when Heaven Hill transferred its operations to the gigantic Bernheim site, one of the most massive distilleries I’ve ever visited.

I caught up with Conor this last week to say hello and see what was new in his world. Our conversation is below:

David: As you know, I’ve been out of the retail industry for the last two and a half years. I’m trying to play catch up. Tell me: do people still like Bourbon? 

Conor: (laughs) Short answer: yes. Longer answer: yes, yes, yes! We’ve been talking about the boom for ten years, but now it’s a sustained solid growth. We don’t see any signs of it slowing down. COVID hit the on-premise side of our business hard, but the off-premise is still strong. One of our values at Heaven Hill is to be nimble and we’ve really been able to do that. 

David: What are some of the ways you’ve adapted to COVID?

Conor: We put a brand new, high-speed, bottling line in this past Spring and we’ve hired new people at the facility. We’ve also trained more people to help support Evan WIlliams and Elijah Craig as those brands continue to fly off the shelf. Doing all of that while keeping our people healthy and safe has been a challenge. We’re not immune from the impact of COVID—no pun intended—but we have done a good job of keeping people safe and keeping up with demand.

David: How about production?

Conor: At the distillery, it’s been full speed ahead. We are the world’s largest single site Bourbon distillery, and we’re running it as such. We’re finding ways to make more whiskey, while focusing on quality and consistency, while improving our productivity. So those have been some fun challenges. We’re running the place harder and faster than it’s ever been run. 

David: Is it a big change from what you’re used to?

Conor: Most of my career was at Brown Forman, where I worked for 14 years. Then a year and a half at Angel’s Envy. I came here in January of 2019 and it’s been awesome so far. Running the distillery and doing the master distiller stuff has been fun, but working for the Shapria family and Heaven Hill has been the best part.

David: What’s been the best part about working for Heaven Hill thus far?

Conor: The fact that we are independent and family-owned is a real breath of fresh air. The owners of Heaven Hill have a strong connection with the daily business. I speak with Max Shapria about three times a week. If there are answers I need, he’s just a phone call away. There’s not this layer of bureaucracy in between. Max really understands the business too—from the everyday minutia, to the price of corn, all the way to the big picture stuff. It helps drive our nimbleness. When we need answers, it’s quick. In a dynamic business such as this, it makes all the difference.

David: Is the size of Heaven Hill’s distillery a bit overwhelming to run?

Conor: We’ve got the same challenges as any distillery, just on a larger scale. I’ve worked in small, medium, and now extra large distilleries now and I can tell you: this is an efficient distillery. There is a ton of experience and knowledge here. Some people have been here for thirty years and I get to tap into that experience, taking what I know and then adding it to the mix. No matter how much you’re making, it’s the same five steps: milling, mashing, fermentation, distillation, put it in a barrel. We’re milling a million pounds of grain a day. We’re distilling about 500,000 gallons a day. Keeping track of those logistics to drive quality and consistent whiskies is a challenge but it’s a fun challenge. 

David: I knew Bernheim Distillery was big, but I didn’t realize it was that massive in scale.

Conor: We have 17 fermenters. Each one is 124,000 gallons, We fill and therefore have to empty four of those each day. When fermentation is done four days later, we pump that liquid into the stills. We have three stills. We distill four fermenters a day. So that creates enough distillate to fill 1400 barrels a day. We do that 24/7, year round, except for a few weeks in the summer.

David: What about new projects?

Conor: Obviously new product development was going on before I got here, but if you look at what we’ve brought out in the last twelve months, we have Larceny Barrel Proof, the new Parker’s Edition, which is a 10 year old aged in heavily charred barrels. We just brought out a second line extension of Elijah Craig as well, which is a toasted barrel finish. We also brought out the Heaven Hill 7 year BIB. 

David: I obviously missed the Larceny release. Had no idea that existed.

Conor: The Larceny Barrel Proof is absolutely fantastic whiskey and our SRP is around $50. We have thrived for 85 years by producing great whiskies and not gouging our consumers. Look at Henry McKenna 10, which won best whiskey at SF Spirits. We obviously could have charged more after demand went up, but we still sell it for a great price. The secondary market does it’s thing, but our relationship with our consumers doesn’t change: great whiskies at a great price. That’s been part of our DNA from the get go and I think consumers recognize that.

David: Any long-term projects in play?

Conor: At the distillery level, we’re working on a project called grain-to-glass. We have a field across from us in Bardstown about 250 acres where we’ve started growing grains to make whiskey here. We’ve got corn and wheat going, and from that we’ve made a high-rye Bourbon, a high-wheat Bourbon, and a high-rye rye. We’re partnering with local farmers and conservation groups to bring back rye as a Kentucky cash crop and we’ve grabbed the bull by the horns with this movement. Rye was historically grown as a winter crop here, and as a cover crop to hold the soil together. 

David: So you’re investing in local farmers to grow rye locally as well?

Conor: If farmers are planting rye as a cover crop, why not do it as a cash crop too? We’ve got local farmers that can now be profitable producing it and we’re buying it to make whiskey. This will be the third or fourth year we’ve been distilling from local grains. It still has several years to go before it’s on the shelf, but we’ve been playing around with different barrels. Our friends at Independent Stave have huge knowledge on what types of oak are available and how toasting and charring can bring out different flavors. We’ve done different types of Kentucky oak and European oak as experiments. Lots of fun stuff.

David: What’s been the most surprising thing you’ve learned about Heaven Hill?

Conor: Easily the breadth and depth of the portfolio. I have a personal anecdote. When I first started here, the liquor store around the corner from my house had a bottle of what I read as Pikeville Rye, and I was thinking to myself: who is making rye in Pikeville, KY? Turns out it was Pikesville named after the old Maryland brand and it was my company that made it! We have so many different options and so many whiskies in our book. We're not a one trick pony. We’ve got the unicorns that people chase after, but we’ve got great stuff at every price point.

David: What other changes are happening at Heaven Hill?

Conor: We’re in the midst of a huge renovation and expansion of the visitor’s center in Bardstown. Most of that will be coming on line next year: expanded retail space, three new tasting rooms, and there will be a restaurant and bar with an outside deck overlooking the warehouses. You can go into the rooftop and bar and you can see the new warehouse where we’ve put up a new glass wall so you can see the barrels aging as you have a cocktail. It’s pretty spectacular. Also there will be some new deep dive educational opportunities. There are some self guided options where you can come in and look at yeast under the microscope. I haven’t been down in a couple of months due to COVID, but from what I’ve seen it’s pretty spectacular.

David: I have to ask: how is it working out being an Irish whiskey maker in the middle of Bourbon country?

Conor: They love me, how could they not? (laughs) They put an Irishman in charge of the distillery, so not sure if I’m living the dream or living the stereotype. I’m the first master distiller of Heaven Hill that hasn’t lived in Bardstown. And I’m the first Irish distiller. Parker Beam was the MD for 56 years which is longer than I’ve been alive, so his presence still looms pretty large here.

-David Driscoll

Adding Functionality: Will Call Pick-Up Is Live!

If there’s one thing I’ve learned after 11+ years in wine and spirits retail, it’s that Amazon Prime has completely changed the way we view shipping charges.

We not only expect shipping fees to be minimal when we order online, in most cases any type of shipping fee whatsoever is a dealbreaker.

When I look at the abandoned carts on the Mission website, there’s no doubt in my mind as to why the potential customer changed his or her mind: SHIPPING FEES.

If you’re buying a bottle of wine or whiskey for $30 and suddenly you have to pay an additional $17 to ship it, that’s a completely different value proposition. That’s why will call pick-up is a MUST for any retailer that wants to compete online. You absolutely, positively have to provide customers with a way to reserve their purchases and secure limited allocations without forcing them to ship each time they do it.

For customers who live out of the area, the “Hold” option is also essential.

I have plenty of friends who live in the Bay Area and want to order from Mission, but don’t necessarily want to ship each time they purchase. Instead, they prefer to make continual purchases, aggregate a solid case of bottles, then maximize their volume when it’s time to ship. If it’s $17 to ship a bottle via Fed Ex, but $24 to ship 12 bottles, most people would prefer the latter.

And we haven’t even gotten to GSO shipping yet! A cheaper option for those who live in California. But we will.

In the meantime, we’ve activated Pasadena Pick Up on the website, which means you can buy and pick up later, but also means those of you who live out of the area can hold to ship as well.

If you simply put “Hold for Shipping” in the comments when you select Pick Up - Pasadena, I will store your bottles in our warehouse and wait for your instructions to ship. Then, when you’re ready, just send me an email and I’ll gather up all the booty.

That way you can purchase at your own speed, secure the bottles you want, then pay the lowest possible shipping charges when you’re ready to take possession.

For those wondering if we plan on launching will call service for Sherman Oaks, Glendale, Glen Oaks, and Woodland Hills, the answer is: YES! Very soon. Just gotta work out some operational flows before we start expanding.

Curbside as well? Of course! Just call us when you’re out front.

We’re just getting started here. Lots of changes still to come!

-David Driscoll

Suntory, Nikka, and Mars: The Taketsuru Triad of Japanese Whisky

Masataka Taketsuru: the godfather of Japanese whisky

There are a great many articles about Masataka Taketsuru, the man who built the foundations for the Japanese whiskies we know and love today. If you’re a fan of the genre and you want to know the intimate details about how the tradition started, you should definitely check out them out:

Like this one at the Nikka website.

Or this one at Dekanta.

But I’m here to tell you the story you won’t find in most of these articles.

Let me start by quickly summarizing what many whisky geeks already know:

• Masataka Taketsuru went to Scotland in 1918 to learn how to make Scotch whisky.

• He came back in 1920 with a Scottish wife named Rita and in 1923 he went to work for the company that would become Suntory.

• There he used his expertise to help build Yamazaki: the first whisky distillery in Japan.

• In 1934, Taketsuru left for the northern island of Hokkaido to build his own distillery called Yoichi.

• In 1940, he launched Nikka whisky, Japan’s second whisky company.

That’s the story in a nutshell. Taketsuru goes to Scotland, comes back with knowledge, helps create Suntory, then goes on to found Nikka.

The rest is history!

But not so fast. There’s a third whisky company you may not know about also linked to Taketsuru called Mars. They too have been making whisky for decades, and the core lineup consists of simple, easy-drinking expressions of distinction that won’t cost you half a mortgage payment.

Here’s the skinny:

This is Kiichiro Iwai: the guy behind the guy.

Allow me now to add in a few lesser-known details to the aforementioned bullet points:

• Mr. Iwai was Taketsuru’s boss and the man who introduced Taketsuru to the higher ups at Shettsu Shuzo, the company that commissioned the trip to Scotland.

• Shuzo underwrote Taketsuru’s trip to Scotland because the company wanted to build Japan’s first whisky distillery.

• When Taketsuru returned from Scotland, the Shuzo company was going through financial difficulties and decided not to invest any further in Taketsuru’s knowledge.

• Taketsuru left Shuzo as a result and went on to found Suntory, but the notes the company had commissioned remained.

Despite Taketsuru’s departure, Iwai was still passionate about making whisky and decades later was recruited as an advisor to a sake company called Hombu. In 1949, Hombu acquired a license to produce whisky and Iwai helped build its first whisky distillery using Taketsuru’s notes as a guide.

Today, the company is called Mars and its entry level blended whisky label is called Iwai, paying homage to the man who originally helped bring whisky to Japan by facilitating the education of Taketsuru.

I’m a big fan of the three basic Iwai expressions because:

• They’re inexpensive.

• They’re elegant and typical of the mellow Japanese style.

• They taste good.

The standard Iwai blended whisky uses single malt from the Mars Shinshu distillery and marries it with soft grain whisky to create a ridiculously smooth palate. For $33, it’s a hot deal.

The Iwai 45 is pretty much just the standard Iwai at a higher proof.

The Iwai Tradition has a higher malt content, a higher dose of Sherry maturation, and a slight bit of peat smoke. Like its counterparts, it’s elegant, seamless, and incredibly soft on the palate. It’s my favorite of the trio, by far.

And here’s the part of the story you really won’t find elsewhere (it was told to me by the team at Mars, so take it for what you will):

• Apparently, Taketsuru was engaged to the president of Setto Shuzo’s daughter before leaving to Scotland.

• As we know, he returned to Japan a married man—but not to the president’s daughter.

• Some say the reason the Shuzo company never built the whisky distillery with Taketsuru was more about the romantic fallout of Taketsuru’s new Scottish wife, than about financials!

-David Driscoll

Patina: The Maturity of Connoisseurship

My friend Ewan, who works for Diageo, recently sent me down a weekend-long rabbit hole into the world of vintage watches that had me reading message boards and Instagram comments for hours at a time, while marveling in the parallel nerdism that clearly connects horology to alcohol appreciation.

But rather than bore you with all the detailed connections I wrote down, and the endless meta-syntactical similarities, I’ll just say this: patina.

What is patina? That’s what I asked myself yesterday, having spent hours on the couch crunching numbers on second-hand Rolex movements.

Patina is basically age. Or wear and tear. Or the individual wrinkles that time bestows upon us. And it’s a thing with watches.

As this article from Christie’s spells out: “One of the most interesting evolutions in vintage watch collecting has been the desire to move away from watches that have been restored and polished to look ‘like new’ in favour of watches in original condition with honest patina. Nicks, scratches and fading that may have developed over the course of decades of wear can enhance a watch’s desirability.”

In other words, if you’re buying a vintage watch you may end up paying more for one that has been beat up over the years, rather than one that has been carefully maintained and restored. That’s because patina sells.

It reminds me of the Levi’s phenomenon a while back where Japanese tourists specifically wanted vintage denim that had dirt from an actual rodeo crusted across the front. The authenticity of the jeans was more important than the physical condition of the object itself.

And guess what? This phenomenon isn’t just limited to watches or clothes.

An article from Gear Patrol goes deeper: “There was a broad evolution in collecting, across many different categories, to prefer original, untouched, and unrestored pieces compared to those made to look ‘new.’ That is the case for coin collecting, where coins that had cleaning in the past are hardly sellable. Likewise, cars that are too heavily restored are also becoming harder to sell as people now are beginning to prefer unrestored cars with their original paint and seats. Likewise, paintings that have had significant restoration are also more difficult to sell today than in the past.”

So is there a patina parallel to alcohol? Yes, of course there is.

If we’re talking about wine, I would say that the tenets of terroir and hands-off production have long valued the inherent flaws and individuality of both land and nature when it comes to character. In short, it means that wines with earthy or funky flavors from natural causes are often more sought-after than wines that are clean and polished.

If we’re talking about whisky, I’d say the rise of cask strength single barrel expressions over the last decade mirrors the patina evolution in time pieces. Rather than find the oldest, smoothest, perfectly-blended expression of Scotch available, consumers have gravitated over to raw, untempered, individual casks of whisky that may be unbalanced or jagged on the palate, but in turn have more character and personality.

What the rise of patina in the watch industry alludes to is a maturity of connoisseurship. It’s the same with alcohol. Over time, as you come to appreciate any genre, you start to look for greater meaning. And you start to ask what exactly it is that you’re paying for. Sometimes a product that is too perfect can seem inauthentic because that’s not how reality works.

It reminds me of the scene from the Matrix where we find out there was a previous iteration of the Matrix that failed because human minds wouldn’t accept a world without imperfections.

Ultimately, we come to value authenticity because of its flaws, rather than in spite them.

-David Driscoll