Have you ever wondered what makes whiskey so distinct and unique? Let me take you on a trip down the whiskey lane with none other than Matthew James of Whiskey on the West Coast. This episode, packed with insights and intriguing facts, peels back the layers on the world of whiskey, starting from the stories behind Matthew's successful YouTube channel.
As we journey through the rich history of whiskey, we uncover the intricate differences between bourbon and whiskey, Canadian whiskey, and the complexities of rye whiskey varieties. We delve into whiskey production practices and how they influence the taste of this timeless drink. From discussing whiskey filtration to tasting various brands, the episode holds a wealth of information for both seasoned whiskey enthusiasts and novice sippers. Matthew enlightens us about the regulations around Canadian whiskey and how the process of chill filtering impacts the quality of the drink.
The latter half of the conversation focuses on the influence of marketing on whiskey and the importance of not judging a whiskey by its label. Does the soil type where the whiskey is grown affect its flavor? Can celebrity endorsements sway perceptions? As we mull over these questions, Matthew provides a hands-on guide on how to properly taste and enjoy whiskey. We also debate the concept of terroir in whiskey, testing its validity. Whether you're a whiskey aficionado or a curious beginner, this episode takes you one step closer to becoming a true whiskey connoisseur. So, pour yourself a glass and join us. Cheers!
Have you ever wondered what makes whiskey so distinct and unique? Let me take you on a trip down the whiskey lane with none other than Matthew James of Whiskey on the West Coast. This episode, packed with insights and intriguing facts, peels back the layers on the world of whiskey, starting from the stories behind Matthew's successful YouTube channel.
As we journey through the rich history of whiskey, we uncover the intricate differences between bourbon and whiskey, Canadian whiskey, and the complexities of rye whiskey varieties. We delve into whiskey production practices and how they influence the taste of this timeless drink. From discussing whiskey filtration to tasting various brands, the episode holds a wealth of information for both seasoned whiskey enthusiasts and novice sippers. Matthew enlightens us about the regulations around Canadian whiskey and how the process of chill filtering impacts the quality of the drink.
The latter half of the conversation focuses on the influence of marketing on whiskey and the importance of not judging a whiskey by its label. Does the soil type where the whiskey is grown affect its flavor? Can celebrity endorsements sway perceptions? As we mull over these questions, Matthew provides a hands-on guide on how to properly taste and enjoy whiskey. We also debate the concept of terroir in whiskey, testing its validity. Whether you're a whiskey aficionado or a curious beginner, this episode takes you one step closer to becoming a true whiskey connoisseur. So, pour yourself a glass and join us. Cheers!
Welcome back to another episode of the bigger than me podcast. Here is your host, aaron.
Aaron Pete:One theme that I'm always looking to highlight is the importance of chasing your passion. I believe that many of the freedoms and rights we have today are designed to specifically support people in chasing their passion, whether it's just a hobby or you're trying to turn that hobby into a career. I think it's vital that we highlight individuals who are doing that. That's my guest today. He is the host of whiskey on the West Coast. My guest today is Matthew James Matthew. Since last we spoke, october 24th 2023, you were thinking about starting a YouTube channel. You started that on November 13th, which was just under a month later. You created an email address. You released your first video on December 9th 2022. You are at 1.37 37,000 subscribers. You have over a hundred thousand channel views and 75 videos. Can you remind people who you are?
Matthew James:My name is Matthew James and I am the content producer of whiskey on the West Coast. I drink whiskey and I hopefully know a few things.
Aaron Pete:Perfect. Can you tell us about what happened kind of transpired after that interview because it just looks like you just got to work.
Matthew James:Yeah, no, I took that, that inertia, that start up inertia, that kicking the butt you gave me. I said you got to do something with us. I said you know what You're right I should, I should give this a shot. And so we started at making the channel. Picked a name whiskey on the West Coast picked a you know a way of presenting that information YouTube. And then we started on the logo. Kyla made a fantastic logo inspired by Mount Xi'an and Lady Peak and the Vetter River, and it all kind of unfolded from there. We made our first three videos, we released them like you said, very well researched December 9th, and then here we are, yeah, 100,000 views, that is.
Aaron Pete:That is wild to think about how did it feel to finally put all of this knowledge, all of this passion out there into the world?
Matthew James:It was. It was scary at first. For sure that we have a little video that we we've largely kept to ourselves, where I I'm pushing the button on the publish and I'm drinking a Tim Hortons coffee. I take it one more swig just for good luck, for some bravery, and then and put it on and immediately I'm like, alright, let's take it down. But you know, as soon as the comments started rolling in, soon as people started engaging, it was way too much fun. It's definitely addictive. You get that dope, mean rush, that kick, and my particular community, like the whiskey community, it's just so positive. There's so much positivity. Everyone wants to like, join in, everyone wants to encourage you and reinforce it. I've had barely any negative, negative feedback, so it's most of the negative feedbacks been on my hat, to be personally honest.
Aaron Pete:What advice do you have for other people, seeing that you were there a year ago Kind of interested in but I know you wanted to, but you hadn't dipped your toe in yet. What advice do you have for those people who are right there with their idea or they have this private passion that they don't share with others? What advice do you have?
Matthew James:Start talking about it, because the people around you are gonna start encouraging you. They're gonna tell you whether you're not earnestly. It's a good idea. That's the first thing. Second thing I'd say is Take, take a shot, take some dry runs, like, if you're thinking about like doing YouTube videos, practice some YouTube videos, start putting something together. And if you're feeling like you, you you're on to something, like you've got something that that's connecting and that you yourself would watch, then I think you go forward with it. And finally, the big thing I think really helped us is is not releasing until you you've got your ducks in a row like you. Never a perfect time, obviously, to start something other than right away. Just start right away.
Matthew James:But For us, having three videos to release all at the same time gave people some back catalog to dig into. It gave us some Some depth of catalog. There was a list in there, a Christmas like gift list. There was some reviews. If I put out one video, I think the the channel easily could have been one of those that like has a good first video and the next one kind of Falls a little flat. I think that really helped us a lot. So just being prepared with enough content to kind of satiate people's Desire for that you say us, can you talk about doing this with your partner?
Aaron Pete:I think it's so admirable. Some people they go off and they they have their own interests, whether it's golf, and then they're away from their partner and they get all these negative mindsets. You've been able to do this with the support of your partner. She's helping in the back. What is that?
Matthew James:It's been amazing, it's. I don't think we would be like quarter of the way to where we are without Kyla. Kyla is the, is the one behind, you know, the editing. She's the one behind the look of the channel, making sure I Actually look put together during the videos. Yeah, she does all the editing, the, the, the logo. As I mentioned, she's really like a workhorse, a full-on engine for the channel, and so it's been really great. It's been, it's been something that's brought us together. It's been this like passion project that we can kind of work towards as a goal. So that's been really fun too. But yeah, I couldn't, I couldn't, I can't imagine what the channel would look like without her. It would just be a sad state of affairs.
Aaron Pete:It really would well, part of the thing that we're excited to do is do some Recommendations, tips for people who are getting started on the whiskey. I am a connoisseur but not well versed in the area. Would you mind walking us through how to drink whiskey, how to enjoy it and how to get a lot of flavor out of the experience?
Matthew James:Yeah for sure. So I do have tips for actually what you you want to do if you're, if you're actually drinking whiskey and we can go into that here the first thing I would suggest brought some, some notes, just to keep me all on topic here. It's not as intimidating as it may seem like actually going ahead and and drinking it, like you think you have to pull out a million flavors. You have to go ahead and you know, pick out everything, but really you just need to slow down. You have to slow down and just take time with the whiskey and ask yourself what are you tasting, what are you smelling, what experience are you having here? And Really take your time. Don't rush, go slow. This isn't a race, this isn't Something where you're trying to get to the destination first. So so if you rush it, if you look it, if you shoot it, you're not gonna enjoy it, it's gonna burn, it's gonna be harsh. A good way to measure it is one minute in the glass or a year in the cask For sitting in a glass. So it's a drinking a 12 year old whiskey. You probably want to just let that sit for 12 minutes because as soon as you pour all those alcohol vapor cereal agitated. So if you were going to go in and nose it like we're nose to these right now, they've settled there, they're calm but if you're to do it right away, you're gonna get harsh alcohol vapors. You're not gonna enjoy it. So you got to just take your time, definitely smell it first. If you're just drinking it right away, you're only getting half the experience.
Matthew James:Really, sometimes the most enjoyable thing about a whiskey is the smell. So you want to make sure you're going ahead and taking the time to nose it as well. That's what we call it Just just nosing it, just lifting it to your nose and smelling. The other thing that you'll see people do we can pick up a glass here Is they'll shake it and swirl it. I don't suggest doing that.
Matthew James:Okay, it's okay to do with, like a low strength whiskey. Is it a wine thing? It's a wine thing. You're dead on. Yeah, and that's because it's a low in alcohol percentage. So you don't have those alcohol vapor. So they're gonna agitate it and straight up at your nose. So what you can do is you can go ahead and just coat the outside of the glass and you'll see it'll cling to the outside of the glass and if you watch it you can see it's quite oily and you'll see these big, thick drops of whiskey start tumbling down. Those are the legs, and the legs can tell you a lot of things about how much oak impact it's had oftentimes, how old it is, sometimes how high in alcohol percentage it is. But after doing that, if you go ahead and nose it, you'll get a lot more aromas right and you're not gonna have all those alcohol vapors just attacking your nose like a punch fair to say with Recommendation one that it's also good advice for life.
Matthew James:Slow down, experience and joy Connect yeah, yeah, 100%, absolutely, absolutely do that. So what we're smelling right now is actually a bourbon. This is Eagle rare, 10 year old. It's a Kentucky straight bourbon. And it is a Kentucky straight bourbon is basically a whiskey that's made with corn the at least 51% corn and then other grains, so wheat, rye or barley are the most commonly used ones, and so they'll have lower proportions of those and it can stop in. Kentucky straight bourbon has to be aged in Freshly charred virgin oak barrels, so it has been used before, and it has to be at minimum two years old. So if you ever see Kentucky straight bourbon on a label, that's what that means. This is one of the most popular ones, is from the Buffalo trace distillery, and you've heard of Buffalo trace.
Matthew James:Yeah, I have a bottle you have a bottle of Buffalo trace? Yeah, so it's the same mash bill. It's actually called. I believe it's the low rye mash bill. So it's actually the same recipe. It's just it's older whiskey like mash. Yeah, so it's like the recipe. So when we're talking the amount of corn in it, I think it's 90, but 90% corn.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, that's the grain that they use there's corn and with yeah, yeah well, maybe we'll backtrack and talk about bourbon and what bourbon is.
Matthew James:Okay. So the first thing I'll say is if you're drinking whiskey, the best whiskey for you is the whiskey you like, the way you like to drink it. That, that, that's the the starting point. And if you've watched the whiskey tribe, whiskey vault, they'll talk about that. That's their line and what they're trying to say is if you like the whiskey and you like the way you're drinking it, don't listen to other people who are telling you otherwise to do it a certain way. Do it the way you enjoy it. So that's the first thing.
Matthew James:You can drink it neat like. We have these glasses here. You can drink it with a couple drops of water. You could drink it on the rocks in a tumbler, like, like this here. That's a common way. I don't particularly prefer that way. Yeah, but that's my choice. It's your choice to use a tumbler if you like.
Matthew James:I just find the nose is a lot tougher to get if you're using a tumbler. You can use a kind of a modification between the two, a cheer, and you can see it's got this tulip shape at the top. It's got this big bulb at the bottom. You can also use that. For that I like nosing glasses like this Glen Karen and this is what I use for sipping. Neat it's what we have largely here is mini Glen Karen's and this is great for nosing. Bring it up and be able to get it without having the alcohol vapors. They kind of stay further down with that tulip shape.
Matthew James:You can drink it in a cocktail like like an old-fashioned ever had an old-fashioned. Yes, yeah, they're delicious. Yeah, that's how, honestly, I drink a lot of my bourbon. I don't know, usually drink bourbon straight. I'm more of a single-mold guy on top that, yeah, I just think it's really important not to get caught in the whole like fanciness of this, like always, this, like rare Exclusive is this oh you're doing it wrong. Oh, you're not putting water in, you are putting water in it. People get caught up in their minds. So the way you want to drink it, that's the way you enjoy it, that's the perfect whiskey for you good advice for life as well.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, exactly you like him and the way, the way whiskey is wisdom. Okay, perfect.
Matthew James:So I guess the other thing is like what even is whiskey? Because you're talking about the, you know there's corn at. Whiskey depends on the whiskey. So Whiskeba is the Gaelic word for whiskey. It means, well, water of life, in Latin, aquavitae again water of life. There's a great YouTube channel by Roy Duff named aquavitae and he plays off that theme quite a bit. But his most stripped down form whiskey is simply it's water, it's grains and it's yeast and it's time in oak barrels that's what it is or wood barrels, not always oak, depending on the country.
Matthew James:Now whiskey is, it's really born of a people, of a place. It represents entire culture, sometimes with something like scotch. Scotch is probably the most identifiable export of the Scottish people other than their people themselves. I'd say so. It really, especially, was something like an isla single malt scotch whiskey. That whiskey is representative of that island, of that Coastal atmosphere, of the Pete that blows in the wind, from people burning the peat moss as basically firewood or For heating their homes, all those sorts of things. The coastal maritime influence, all that is all Encapsulated in that whiskey, and also how it's made and by the people who make it Right. So I really believe that whiskey has a special ability to transport people to a place, to a culture, and also, I believe it has this ability to take something that can be like mundane just to just a regular night and make it into something special. Say, you're just hanging out with friends, but you have this absolutely mind-blowing whiskey that transports you to the other side of the world. It has that ability, so I really get excited about it in that way.
Matthew James:So if we were looking at whiskey as in grain, water and yeast and then time in wood casks, well, there's a bit more to that too, because Whiskey isn't just whiskey. For instance, bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon, uh, if you, if you follow that. So if we're talking about um, bourbon, even whiskey, the word is even spelled differently in different countries. Ireland, japan and the United States spell it with an e between the k and the y, scotland and Canada, we don't. We spell it without an e, right?
Matthew James:So, um, it's kind of strange that way and that has historic roots. But for bourbon, uh, again, it has to be 51 corn, so that's, that's the primary grain in it, and then the other grains are going to be rye, wheat or barley typically, and so that buffalo trace product. As we mentioned, same mash bill, same recipe, but just comes from a different place in the warehouse, different uh rick and also it just has more age to it. So if we smell this, do you have any recollection of what buffalo trace smells and tastes like? Do you have it at home?
Aaron Pete:No, no, like caramel right.
Matthew James:Yeah, caramel is definitely a note on there. Caramel and oak and oh, I almost get like a chocolatey note off of it too, like a bitter dark chocolate, but I get bitterness off of wood oftentimes. But this is a very popular whiskey. We have access to it in British Columbia, um, for a really reasonable price. There's places in the united states where it goes for three times as much as what we pay in bc, just because it's so hard for them to get. It's an allocated product, um, and so people, people will do, um, crazy things to get their hands on a bottle of equal rare. We're lucky to have it just sitting on our shelves available to us, right, um, so, yeah, I, I really appreciate this. We see this is my go-to Bourbon, uh, to pour out home. It's equal rare 10.
Aaron Pete:Okay. Well, let's take this up. Let's do it Cheers, cheers. What are you getting out of that?
Matthew James:Oh, caramel, butterscotch, butterscotch that's a good one.
Matthew James:Yeah, butterscotch Oak. Again, it's heavy on the oak, 10 years in virgin oak in a hot climate like Kentucky. We'll do that. Smoky, Very smoky. It's very sweet. There's a lot of sweet dessert flavors on it. That's the corn. Corn whiskey is often very, very sweet. If you're getting smoke on that, that might be coming from those charred barrels, those charred casks, because they literally they will torch them to different degrees before putting the wood in. And mainly that charcoal is used as a filtering agent. So when the cask cycle between seasons it will draw whiskey in and now those seasons it will push whiskey out of the wood grain. That charcoal kind of acts as a filtering agent. That's cool, yeah, but if you're getting that little bit of char, that smoke that could be coming off the char.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, it's like the heat in your mouth. That's the only way I can think to describe it. Yeah.
Matthew James:Now this whiskey is 45% ABB. With whiskey the legal minimum is 40% alcohol and that has some roots in history. But in Canada and the United States and Scotland, ireland, japan that's the legal minimum. If it's bottled under 40%, they're not legally able to call it whiskey. So in this case you're getting a little bit extra. In this bottle it's 45% and I really appreciate that. That's actually where I start with my bourbons. I don't typically look at bourbons under 45% ABB. Yeah, yeah, it's super classic profile for bourbon. That's really great stuff and yeah, it's my go-to if I want to sit down with a bourbon.
Aaron Pete:I would recommend it. Yeah, you enjoy that one. I'll put a nice blanket on a fall day, yeah.
Matthew James:Yeah, absolutely.
Aaron Pete:Harry Potter in the background Harry.
Matthew James:Potter. Are you a Harry Potter person? Of course you are. Yeah, okay, I'm more of like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings that sort of thing.
Matthew James:Yeah, so other whiskey types. We've talked about bourbon with corn, with rye, with wheat and malted grains. Scotch there's many different types of like monikers for Scotch. You've got, obviously, like you hear about, single malts, blended malt, blended Scotch, all these different things. They're all different types of Scotch but they are all Scotch and they're all whiskey. And so if you're looking at a single malt, that just means it comes from one distillery and that they only use malted barley to make that whiskey. So it can get a little confusing. But a blended malt is legitimately, it is as simple as a blend of malt whiskeys. So using malted barley, again from different distilleries, that's all. Blended malt means All people like to look down on blends because they think they're inferior to a single malt. I think that blends can be even better than single malts, because you can take the best character from the best distilleries, put them all together and create something that, with the sum of its parts, is better than just a single distilleries output.
Aaron Pete:Like a burger yeah. Put everything together in a burger, and it's way better than just a piece of meat.
Matthew James:I'd say so If I had a piece of meat and a piece of lettuce and a pickle. Yeah, no, I don't think I'd be enjoying it as much as a full on burger. Yeah, exactly, that's a great analogy. So that's something there. And it gets even more into Manusia with blended scotch having grain whiskeys in it, like corn whiskies mixed in with the malts. But we won't get too much of the weeds there, canada.
Matthew James:Have you ever heard the phrase rye, rye whiskey? Yeah, okay, rye whiskey in this country is a term that's misused a lot because a lot of people use it just to refer to any whiskey. You'll have a rye and ginger, a rye and Coke, or you know, give me a rye on the rocks and they're meaning just a whiskey. But a lot of whiskies that have been either labeled rye in Canada, or we commonly refer to as rye, won't have a single speck of rye grain in the actual whiskey. It comes from just our history. You know we did use rye for distilling a lot of different whiskies and making them, but at some point we got away from that and we just started calling everything rye.
Aaron Pete:We or disagree that the name rye is just really awful.
Matthew James:It's not fun to I don't, I don't know.
Aaron Pete:Whiskey sounds good. Rye sounds like something that the sun puts on you or something.
Matthew James:Yeah yeah, it's not my favorite, that's for sure. Rye whiskey in Canada. If you're looking for an actual rye whiskey, you want to find something that actually states it's like 90% rye or even 100% rye. There's a lot of 100% rye products that are great in Canada and actually the best whiskey in Canada last year actually came from a small distillery, a small craft distillery in Vancouver, sons of Vancouver, and it was a 100% rye whiskey. So it can be fantastic award winning stuff, but you want to actually make sure you're actually have a rye if you're talking or drinking rye. So there's a lot of confusion about that.
Matthew James:And Canadian whiskey and we'll move on to our second whiskey with this. Canadian whiskey is really confusing because we have something called the 111st rule where the whiskey about 91% or I guess 1011th has to be whiskey. So distilled grains, water and yeast, all that in wood, yada, yada, so whiskey. The other 9% can be any type of like fortified wine, it can be other liquors, they can put whatever in there and they don't have to disclose it. They don't have to tell you what they're putting in there. Why are they like this? Why are they? That's actually a historical approach. That's something that Canadian whiskey has almost always done is my understanding.
Aaron Pete:No justification.
Matthew James:No, just say, hey, we wanted to add these extra flavors. Actually, believe that it's both its greatest strength and greatest weakness, because you have whiskey snobs like myself out of minute. I'm a whiskey snob, I'm terrible for it, but you'll have people like me going. Well, I don't know what's in that. Is it actually whiskey? But then you have the fact that you can have so many other flavors. You have so many other options for making a whiskey. It gives you a lot of extra tools. You can, instead of using a sherry cask which Scott uses a lot, it's a fortified wine cask to age your whiskey in. They're pulling sherry out of the wood grain. Well, in Canada we just say, oh, we're just going to dump straight sherry in there. That's what we did with the next whiskey.
Matthew James:So next whiskey is actually called Rifle Rye. It is a rye made in Alberta by Alberta Distillers and it is aged in ex-burban casks and versioned casks and it is 42% alcohol. It's 90% rye, over 90% rye, I believe it's 91%. But then it is 6% old granddad bourbon. So the first thing we drank bourbon. They put 6% of bourbon in there and they put 3% sherry. Fortified wine. That would be from Spain, from the Hez region.
Aaron Pete:This reminds me of Dr Pepper.
Matthew James:Just throwing everything in there 23 flavors.
Aaron Pete:They're not going to explain to you what they are, they're just going to give you this. I love it. This one is very calm, like it doesn't have like a strong smell.
Matthew James:So this is 3% less ABV than the Eagle Rare, and I do find that alcohol not only, obviously, is it having an intoxicating impact, of course, but it carries flavor, it carries aroma and the lower you go, the more subtle a whiskey is going to be, the more quiet and the less it's going to do on your palate when you take a sip. So this is a bit quieter. I'd agree 42% as well. I think the statistics would dictate that. But this is made by Alberta Distillers. It's the same people that make Alberta premium. If you've ever had Alberta premium, no, no, okay, very common mass marketed whiskey.
Matthew James:They make some good rye whiskey, 100% rye cast strength. The big difference with this is pot distilled rye and so much like what Scott chooses to make their single malt. They use a pot still big copper pot that they heat up and then the vapors go to the top and they cool down. That becomes the whiskey. They use the same thing to make this. It's very sweet again, but I think you get the. You definitely get the wine influence. There's like some like berries or something on the nose.
Aaron Pete:You're right that one is much more flavorful. It's got different flavors.
Matthew James:You get that spiciness from the rye. It's like some like baking spice, like cinnamon, maybe like nutmeg or a touch of ginger is what I'm picking up right now and usually I get like a dill pickle note oftentimes, or even like a dill, like the actual herb off a rye. I think I don't get that off this. It might be covered up by the sweetness of that bourbon and that sherry, but it's very sweet. This is like a dessert in a glass. It really is. I could have this after dinner, maybe after that hamburger.
Aaron Pete:Right. Would you choose that Over dessert? What are we doing here? Not this whiskey Like a cheesecake, or this. Which one are you doing?
Matthew James:Oh, I'm probably going for the cheesecake if I'm honest.
Aaron Pete:Yeah.
Matthew James:If it was another whiskey on this table, it might be a different answer. Yeah, so this is a rather inexpensive whiskey in the grand scheme of things. It usually runs for like 40 or $50. You can catch it on sale and it's a relatively recent product. It was a historic recipe, is what they're claiming, and it's an ode to someone's old recipe that they used in Canada long ago.
Aaron Pete:You talked about this before but the fact that it doesn't drip down immediately.
Matthew James:Yeah, so those are the legs and so what we're looking for with that is the more it clings to the glass and the thicker the beads and the slower they move down. Oftentimes that can be indication of age, of viscosity, of wood impact these sorts of things Not always. Sometimes they'll go down really quickly because it's super high alcohol percentage, like if it's 60%, it'll fly down the glass regardless of age. But yeah, I actually enjoy this more than I enjoy a lot of these sort of traditional Canadian whiskies.
Matthew James:What's interesting with Canadian whiskies is they also typically distill all the grains separately on, like bourbon Bourbon. They'll distill them all one in, like that recipe, that mash bill I talked about. Instead, with Canadian whiskey they will go ahead and they'll distill them separately. So you'll have your corn whiskey and one cask, your wheat whiskey and now there your rye and your malt whiskey, and then they'll take all those and they'll blend them after the fact. So the role of a blender in Canadian whiskey is actually super important and we have a really high profile blender at actually North America's largest distillery in Ontario, the Hiram Walker distillery that makes Weisers Dr Don Livermore. He's kind of a superstar in the whiskey.
Aaron Pete:I'm not that sweet.
Matthew James:Good name, right, livermore, I get that. So that's. One of his many jobs is to go ahead and find the right blending ratio for these whiskies, to give us something that we want.
Aaron Pete:Would you ever do that job?
Matthew James:I'd be terrible at it, but I'd do it.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, why do you think you'd be terrible at it? What do you need for this job?
Matthew James:I think it's an apprenticeship, it is a true craft. You need time, you need experience, you need someone to study under and to learn that and, given time, yeah, I might be able to do it, but I'm not even sure if my palate and my nose is good enough to be able to put together whiskies like he does, like people who do that job master blenders. Let's stop this negative self talk.
Aaron Pete:What are we doing here?
Matthew James:Fair enough, fair enough. So next thing I think would be a great way to talk about whisky and understanding whisky and what beginners should probably know about whisky is that not all whisky is treated the same. It isn't all respected the same way by the people who make it. You think they put so much hard work, so much effort into making whisky. They'd want to make something the very best that they can, and they make some decisions that I think run counterintuitive to that thought process. So were you aware that a lot of whisky actually has caramel colorant, like E150A caramel colorant?
Matthew James:I think you said that the last time I did, I probably did, and so an example of this is this Dewar's 18 blended scotch, and they won't necessarily tell us, except for certain countries require that to be disclosed. So Germany is one of those, and if you look on the back, it'll say at the bottom with DE for Deutschland mit Farbstoff, which means it has coloring in it Wow. And so my big thing about that is what are you trying to hide? Why are you trying to misrepresent your whisky? Because some of the palest absolutely lightest color whisky is the absolute best.
Matthew James:It seems like they've really bought into this idea that we eat with or drink with our eyes. First, if you see a darker colored whisky that looks richer, that looks like fuller in taste, that's the one you're going to buy. And so, even though they're not using casts that are good enough to give you that color or leave you in the cask long enough to do that, they at least don't believe in their whisky enough to let it stand on its own two feet and represent itself. Call it out. Well, what else is it?
Aaron Pete:It's consistency, like if I put on a shirt that makes me look good, yeah, like, is that OK? Yeah, ok.
Matthew James:Yeah, you want to look good, because that's what they just did right. Yeah, but you're also not trying to tell people that it isn't you underneath that.
Aaron Pete:Right.
Matthew James:I don't know. It feels disingenuous. Agreed, yeah, and especially when they market these things as natural craft, artisan products that are super premium, expensive all these other things. I feel like they're really trying to pull the wool over us and fleece us on that. So a lot of whiskies will do that, Even like Lagavu and 16, if you ever heard of that one really expensive whiskies.
Aaron Pete:I love how these things just roll off and Laginville and all that shit.
Matthew James:Gaelic's a fun language, but some of these really super premium whiskies that you have this coloring added to it, I think there can be a small difference in flavor. It can kind of dampen the flavor a tiny bit. You won't really taste it, in my opinion At least. I don't believe I can, but I definitely have a bias against it. So it's not a hard rule for me not to buy whiskies that have coloring in it, but it definitely is like a knock against a whiskey if I'm considering purchasing it. Low proof. I talked about the floor of whiskey being 40% alcohol and how they get there. Is they actually water down the whiskey. So when they take it out of the cask it may. If it's say, a 12-year-old whiskey, oftentimes it could be around 58% to 60% alcohol. So what do they do to get it down to 40%? Well, they dump a bunch of water in it and so if you're at almost 60%, that's a high proportion of what you're being sold as whiskey in the bottle. That is just water that they add it to after the fact. Now, that's not always a bad thing, because sometimes whiskies drink better at different strengths. For instance, one of my favorite strengths to drink a whiskey at is like 47.5% to 48.5%. That's my preferred drinking strength for whiskies.
Matthew James:If I have a cast-string whiskey natural pulled straight from the oak cask hasn't been fussed with I will oftentimes add a bit of water with a water dropper like this to bring it down to that strength. And I'll do that slowly over time, because when you add a bunch of water to a whiskey it can shock the whiskey. It has to kind of reconstitute itself. It has to kind of form up again. It needs time and if you rush it you're just going to have a disjointed mess of a flavor experience. That happens as well when you're bottling whiskey.
Matthew James:A lot of really good whiskey makers will slowly add water before bottling, do it over time, over a process time. They'll even do that when they're putting casks together, because most whiskey releases are a vatting of hundreds of casks. They'll slowly add all those casks together to make sure they actually marry well and that they work well, and then they'll go ahead and bottle it. So when I see something at 40%, I'm deeply suspicious of its quality. I'm suspicious as to why it's at 40%. Are they just trying to maximize profit? Bring it right down to the ground floor to sell something for as much as they can while giving you as little whiskey as possible. I don't like that. So you'll commonly see 40%, 43%, 46% of these things. 46% is a really important one for single malt whiskey, because that is the point where you don't have to chill filter. Now you're probably wondering what the heck chill filtering is.
Aaron Pete:I'd want to go back a little bit Sure.
Matthew James:Yeah, stop me and interject.
Aaron Pete:You said 47% to 48.5%. How did you get to that specific number?
Matthew James:I got to that number by reading and then experience, so that's actually a historic proof point that's used by a lot of the blenders and merchants that were bottling whiskey back in the day in Scotland and so that 48% was kind of the point. Others, like there's an independent bottler named Carnmore bottles oftentimes at 47.5%. There's another one called whiskey sponge a bottle's at 48.5% and they're targeting that area because historically that was kind of like the Goldilocks zone of drinking strength. That's where you wanted to have your whiskey at. So that's what put me onto that. I started trying to get in and around that when I'm adding water, because I'm not a great at math, I'm not adding exactly enough water to bring it down to that, but I'm trying to get it in that area and typically that is where I enjoy the whiskies the most. So chill filtered Back to you. Chill filtering, yes. So that is another way they fuss about with the whiskey and it's all for looks much like adding the color.
Matthew James:Some whiskey brands will go ahead and they will filter the whiskey because there's lots of charcoal chunks. There's a whole bunch of other things in a whiskey If it's expert in cask what we talked about earlier with those casts that have been charred on the inside. They've used blow torches to make this charcoal. That charcoal falls off. It goes into the whiskey. So when I was on Islay in Scotland this past year when we were pulling whiskey straight from the barrel, if you got too close to the bottom you'd pull out chunks of charcoal. You don't really want to drink charcoal bits. I mean it's kind of chewy. That's a whole new thing to like chewing your whiskey, not what I want to do. However, there's different levels of filtration. A simple barrier filter will remove most of that charcoal. You might just get a fine residue at the bottom of a bottle. That's how I prefer my whiskey. But chill filtration is when they lower the temperature of the whiskey, so a fairly cold temperature and then they go ahead and they force that whiskey through, basically like cardboard plates lined up in the machine and what they're trying to do is by chilling it you have the lipids and the fats kind of clot a bit and it makes it easier for these cardboard filters as an easy way to describe them they catch those fats, those lipids, strip them from the whiskey and then by doing that, if a whiskey is added to ice and it gets watered down. It remains clear. If you don't do that, the whiskey can go cloudy and to some people that's a hallmark of lack of quality. They don't like the whiskey looking like that. Even if the whiskey goes cold below 46%, if it's not chill filtered, it will go cloudy. That's a good thing. That's a hallmark of quality in my books.
Matthew James:Because those fats, those lipids, they carry a lot of flavor. I don't know about you, but I eat way too much fatty food because it's delicious. They are something that adds a lot of texture, a lot of volume and robustness, a lot of chew factor. As I just mentioned, I'm chewing on whiskey. It's because of the creamy and velvety texture of it. It's just very enjoyable. And when you remove those things you get a thin, watery whiskey, oftentimes something I don't like to see. So this Dewar's 18 that I have here that is also chill filtered, so it's 18 years old.
Aaron Pete:They're just slacking on everything they are.
Matthew James:They make other good whiskeys. Craig Gallagher 13 is a fantastic whiskey, one of my favorite but they treat that one with a little more respect than they do their 18 year old flagship brand here.
Aaron Pete:What would you rank this? One Out of 10. Out of 10? Out of 10.?
Matthew James:Four, ok, four out of 10.
Aaron Pete:And for our first, our bourbon.
Matthew James:Yeah, as bourbons go, I'd give it probably a six like 6.5.
Aaron Pete:OK, and then yeah, five, five.
Matthew James:Just average. Ok, yeah, Above average for Eagle Rare. Average for Rifle nothing bad. Ok. If we're going to go to our next whiskey here, this is a perfect time. This is a whiskey from a distillery I visited on Islay this year. This is a single malt Scotch whiskey. It has a little lid. I call them, or we call them, petite chapeaus at home.
Aaron Pete:I feel pretty with this, so this is for whiskey. Yeah, this looks like a sugar bowl. Sugar bowl, you can use it no sugar buns.
Matthew James:There's some sugar in there, I'm sure. So I use these little lids on my glasses just to trap the aromas. So if I have a whiskey, that's a bit more subtle and I want to get a better idea of what it smells like. I'll put that on for a little while, especially if we're sitting here talking for a long time.
Aaron Pete:So why did you say that this one was good for? Was there a reason you chose this specific whiskey for this specific glass?
Matthew James:I chose the lid for this whiskey because this can be a more subtle whiskey. Ok, now, I chose this whiskey for this particular topic because Brook Lattie is just one of these distilleries that's doing everything right, at least in my books. They closed down in 1994. They reopened in 2000 and started making whiskey once again, 2002, 2001. And when they did so, they kind of brought an ethos that they wanted to make something. And again, that's it fully of the place where they are on the west coast of Scotland, in the Hebrides, place that in my recollection, was referred to as the Isles of the Blessed. It's a place where my family actually emigrated from to come to Canada, to Nova Scotia, back in the day, so I have some personal family connections to that place. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it was wonderful to go back there. Now, brooklady, they don't color their whiskey, it's all natural color. They don't chill, filter their whiskey, they don't. They just do a simple barrier filter to remove charcoal.
Matthew James:And this particular whiskey this is the Brooklady Isle of Barley 2013. It's Isle of Singamult Scotch whiskey. It is made 100% from barley that they've grown on the Isle of Isle. So they actually have recruited local farmers into growing barley on Isle and they're using just that barley to make this whiskey. That's a tough thing to do on Isle because it's a really rugged coastal atmosphere, really windy, there's lots of storms that come by and that is not the best environment for barley to grow. There was very few people in my understanding in recent history who were growing barley on Isle. Historically there was tons, but lately there wasn't and they've been instrumental in bringing that back to the island by actually saying, no matter what happens to your crop, we're going to buy it from you. We want to support our farmers here who are supporting us. So that is a really cool thing.
Matthew James:So we get so much information from this whiskey. We get the year that it was distilled. I think if you dig into it you get the year the barley was harvested. You get the name of the seven farms and the locations on Isle where it came from. They're giving you all the information you ever wanted to know. It's first fill American oak casts, so American whiskey or bourbon casts. That's 75% of the cast makeup. It's also 25% refill French oak, which would typically be French wine casks. They're giving us all the information we'd ever want to know about this whiskey Makes me really excited because I nerd out on it real hard, as you can tell.
Matthew James:But I also love Bricklady because not only are they doing everything right with the whiskey, they're treating their employees right. They're B corp certified, and so that means that they are actually committed to not only paying their employees a living wage but actually having them gainfully employed. So they actually, I believe, the largest private employer on Isle, an island that I think has like 11, 12 distilleries soon. There's more and more announced every day. It seems they are just doing everything right. They're also very environmentally conscious. They just re-release their blue bottle. I think we have it on the shelf up here. They've re-released a new design that's actually using recycled glass as opposed to these ones. I guess they weren't before. Like they're trying to make decisions that are more environmentally conscious. I love that. I love that ethos. I love trying to do better for the people who work for you and for the people in your community, for the farmers, as well as the environment and the planet in general.
Aaron Pete:And then the customers as well, right.
Matthew James:Exactly so. If we take a nose on this, you can see why I put the lid on it.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, yeah, yeah, because it's a very shy nose but this is 50% alcohol.
Matthew James:This is the strongest whiskey so far.
Aaron Pete:Really yeah.
Matthew James:Really pretty nose. Really subtle floral, some like sea-rees, coastal elements. I love that. Some lemon citrus malt sweetness.
Aaron Pete:This one might be the best one. Yeah, so far. So far, this is really good.
Matthew James:It's one of my favorites.
Aaron Pete:Yeah.
Matthew James:Absolutely.
Aaron Pete:You're right, it has like a flower smell.
Matthew James:Oh, so wonderfully pretty.
Aaron Pete:Yeah.
Matthew James:It's a delicate whiskey. This is a whiskey I typically add water to, because water will release aromas. If you add drops of water you'll get an even more expressive nose on a whiskey and it'll also give it oftentimes a more velvety and creamy mouthfeel. So right now I'm getting a bit of pepper on it, so it's a little harsh for my taker now, so I would typically add a little water. That would bring it down. If I added some water, maybe it'd bring it down to that 48% I was talking about from that 50.
Matthew James:But this is a beautiful whiskey. I appreciate what Brooke Lattie does Now if I put this in front of you. This glass right here is that blue bottle we were just talking about. That is their standard release. That is their classic Lattie. Now this Isla Barley is nine years old. That one is non-H statement. They don't tell us how old it is. If you smell those, I'm wondering if you'll actually find if there's a difference between them.
Aaron Pete:Weirdly, I find this one smells stronger than this one.
Matthew James:Yeah, they're exact same alcohol percentage. Okay, that one is older, but that one's made with the Isla Barley. I do find Isla Barley gives a more full male feel. I really like what it does not. But this all could be just me looking for things that are different, but I really like that. They're really playing into this idea of terroir. So I think it's what's the idea of what Terroir?
Aaron Pete:Did you just say that word? Just thinking that that was just talking to get a question?
Matthew James:Yeah, I totally did. I'm that person. Apparently I work. Sometimes they call me Mr Big Words because I just use words and they're like what are you saying? Yeah, I'm bad for that. So terroir, I believe it's the French word for just like dirt earth, and what that's representing you're talking about in wines a concept from wine, basically, where the type of soil that the vines are growing in impacts how the grapes are going to taste and how the wine is going to taste.
Aaron Pete:Man, I just interviewed a guy who's breaking down literally that flowers go in and their roots will send out carbohydrates, asking for, basically, certain types of bugs to come, eat and then excrete, so it can take up the boron from the excretion of that bacteria in order to make it healthier. Because I was like, what's the difference between organic and non-organic? And he was like, well, they shut off. If you give it a certain fertilizer, it will shut off some of these sensors that it will send out to try and get certain nutrients back from the bugs and the bacteria and the stuff moving in the soil in order for it to grow, and so it gets certain trace elements in order to become healthy. Which makes it like when you eat an apple and it feels like it's filled with flavor, versus eating an apple with no flavor, it's those teeny, tiny little sensors that it's doing. So I believe in your tar war, mr Sir.
Matthew James:That is unbelievably fascinating. That is really cool, yeah, so the idea of that was actually brought, basically from someone in the wine industry to Brooklady Mark Rainier. He was one of the owners and again, he had this wine background. So he wanted to explore terroir and whiskey and a lot of people will claim that there's no such thing as terroir and whiskey because when you distill it you strip those elements out of it on like wine where you aren't distilling it. I'm not so certain because routinely I try Kielomans 100% isla barley, rich viscous got those coastal elements to it. Same with Okta more isla barley, port Charlotte, isla barley, this Brooklady isla barley. I see this common theme where isla barley, anyways, is super mineralic. Like I feel like you can pick up some of that soil, that rock, almost like a flintiness, but you also pick up again this extra viscosity. I think there is something to terroir and whiskey, but it's something that's heavily debated. There's people who will stomp their feet and say absolutely not full stop.
Aaron Pete:The answer is probably seeking. You shall find. If you're willing to open your mind to it and look for it, then you're probably going to find it. If you're going to say that it doesn't exist, then you're going to avoid anything that would suggest that.
Matthew James:I'd say you're right, all right.
Aaron Pete:Happens every once in a while.
Matthew James:So one of the other tips I'd have for beginners is when you're looking at whiskey, especially if you're shopping for whiskey don't judge a whiskey by its cover, don't judge it by its looks. Looks can be deceiving. Preconceived notions can make you think that a whiskey that's just had caramel colorant added to it and dumped in is super rich and just such a decadent palette that you can bring it home and realize you've just been bamboozled and you've been lied to.
Aaron Pete:Fair to say, though, that we do, in fact, judge books by their covers. Oh, of course, of course.
Matthew James:Okay, and I'm not immune to this One of the bottles up there that McCallan a night on earth in Scotland. I bought that because it had a flipping cool box.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, it had a really cool box. That one was the one that opens up. Like what did you call it? The Russian nesting doll.
Matthew James:Exactly, yeah, it was like a box within a box within a box. I also think it looks pretty, it is. Yeah, it was like whiskey inception that box. It was great, but the whiskey was incredibly disappointing. It was terribly disappointing it was. It's actually I've banned that bottle on the whiskey on the West Coast YouTube channel now. I've used it for examples of bad whiskey in so many videos that I was like I can bring it here because it's not banned on the bigger than me podcast.
Matthew James:You banned it for yourself. Yes, do yourself. I'm not allowed to talk about it anymore on my channel. But yeah, fancy boxes, fancy bottles like really cool labels just be wary of them. Compass Box is a blending house that makes really amazing blended whiskies and they have the most amazing beautiful labels and they make amazing whiskey. So it's not like hard and fast. If something like looks cool, it doesn't mean it's bad, but just make sure you're not only buying on looks alone. Yeah, the other thing that you see a lot of is like product placement. So the McCallan there you watch suits. Yeah, suits. I think I remember you talking about that. Yeah, it's huge. Also, james Bond James Bond drinks McCallan, I think she for like shoots someone with a glass of whiskey on their head at one point and it was a super old and rare McCallan.
Matthew James:John Wick there was a bottle of Blanton's and John Wick Blanton's is now a super premium bourbon whiskey. At the time it sold for like $35, $40 a bottle. Now it's going for sometimes hundreds of dollars a bottle. Product placement works. I find Blanton's completely disappointing as a bourbon. It's not something I really enjoy. However, there's good whiskeys that are placed in movies as well Glen Dronic. I really enjoy Glen Dronic. It was in the Kingsman movies. They actually had a Kingsman whiskey they released with it. And then you have celebrity endorsement whiskies, much like we've seen a lot with Tequila lately with like Dwayne Johnson and a whole bunch of others. George Clooney has this Casamigos Tequila. There was the Brothers Bond which I think you have a bottle of right. We drank it all.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, did you enjoy it? Yeah, it was good. It was very vanilla-ish.
Matthew James:Yeah, so were they from the Vampire Diaries, of course, yeah, okay, I didn't watch the show, sadly.
Aaron Pete:Well, get it together, man it is.
Matthew James:October. It is October so. And then there's also one. There's Blackand that's done by Metallica and there's one particular I've noticed recently called Red Bank Whiskey and that's by Kiefer Sutherland from the show 24 and other shows, and his is particularly egregious for, like how it describes the whiskey and how it's just a bunch of flannel, as another YouTuber, ralphie, would say, it's just garbage. Wow, the whiskey might not be garbage. The whiskey could taste fine. The way they're describing it does not let me trust them at all. Did you ever try Connor McGregor's? Oh, proper, proper 12. Yeah, proper, number 12. I didn't. I didn't, and that's probably because I'm on a snob, but it was also like okay, so you're putting 12 on there because you think people are going to see the number 12 and assume it's 12 years old when it's three year old. Sourced whiskey from the Jameson distillery. So I could go buy Jameson, probably for cheaper, and not expect that it's actually 12 years old.
Aaron Pete:Like it just felt disingenuous and it wasn't a real whiskey right it was whiskey.
Matthew James:Yeah, it was Irish whiskey, but I remember there was a liquor store, a localty here, who put the picture of that for that, posting online as a dumpster fire instead of the bottle Right. It got a lot of hate when it was first released and maybe I should give it a chance. But I've heard other people go back to it recently and say it's better but still not good. But if you want to dive into a case study on bad advertising with buzzwords Red Bank whiskey, canadian whiskey from Keith or Sutherland, it's not good.
Matthew James:No, it makes all the marketing sense as far as I can tell. But yeah, the other thing I'd mention as not judging whiskey is age. Don't judge it by age. So one of my favorite whiskies out there is called Octomor, also by Brooklady, and it's the most heavily petered whiskey in the world and you might see it on the shelf behind us here. That might come up later. That's the super tall one there in that great, great 10. Octomor, octomor that whiskey is only five years old and five years old is super young. In single malt scotch whiskey Typically we're used to seeing at least 10 or 12 year age statements.
Matthew James:But oftentimes distillers get super shy about anything younger and they won't even put an age statement on it. It'll be something that we call NAS, non-age stated whiskey, and that's because they're ashamed of how young it is. They don't think you're going to buy it if you know how young it is. So maybe they think it's good whiskey but they don't want to tell you what it is because maybe you'll judge it on how young it is. Don't judge it.
Matthew James:Some of the best whiskies are young whiskies. Premialization with older whiskies, charging more for older whiskies, is actually a relatively recent phenomenon. It kind of happened once we had a glut of stock of older whiskey and the marketers were trying to like well, how can we move this whiskey, how can we use this to make more for us? And so in doing so, they trained us to believe that older whiskey is always better. Not always the case. It can be over-oaked, it can be very, very subtle, it can lack flavor, but over-oaked it can be just super bitter. It can just take the taste like wood juice, like. Oftentimes I find older whiskies are better, but again, not always they have to be treated right. So yeah, don't buy into that sort of belief. Young whiskey can still be great.
Aaron Pete:Sounds good.
Matthew James:Yeah, so what I would suggest here as well. When I first started buying whiskey at Backing University, I always thought, or how I bought whiskey was I looked at the date that the distillery was founded? I was like, oh, this one was founded in like 1815. This must be good. And I'd look at one. It's like, oh, this is from 1967. That can't be good. I'm not going to pay for that. That was a silly thing for me to do. I don't know what I was thinking, and I wanted to talk about actually probably the best new distillery to open in Scotland, and so that would be our next whiskey and that would be from the Arden American distillery.
Aaron Pete:Arden American.
Matthew James:Bang on, you got it. You're lying. Arden and Gherkin. Arden American. Arden American. Arden American. Okay, so this distillery opened in 2014. It's not even 10 years old yet. The actual distillery this is the Arden American. 80, 01, 2101, which is a big name with lots of numbers just to say that it was made in January of 2021. That's when it was bottled. That's the batch. It was the first batch from that year. 46.8% alcohol. This is not chill filtered, as we talked about earlier. This doesn't have any color added, so it's a young whiskey. I think it's only about six years old.
Aaron Pete:Yeah.
Matthew James:It looks more like the color of a beer. Yeah yeah, I think that's like a really like light crisp, like lager or pilsner or something right. But this whiskey, when you know, I think it's as expressive as anything we've had so far.
Aaron Pete:I would agree with you.
Matthew James:Right away. I'm getting like lemon citrus.
Aaron Pete:I don't know how you do that. We have different noses.
Matthew James:I'm definitely getting a coastal influence, like sea breeze for me.
Aaron Pete:Yes, I would agree with that.
Matthew James:Super mineralic whiskey.
Aaron Pete:Mineralic man Like where am I?
Matthew James:Coastal. It's, like I have heard others say, like oyster shells, like by the sea, and this is from the western highlands of Scotland. This is up in the absolute boonies. It's one of the most remote distilleries in Scotland. Did you go there? I did not go there, I went near there. I went to the Isle of Moll, which is across the sound of Moll from Arden American. Do you own an encyclopedia? I don't know.
Aaron Pete:I just want to know how you come up with these words.
Matthew James:I'm probably misusing all of them too. I probably am.
Aaron Pete:You never know. Do you say it with confidence? You get to go.
Matthew James:There you go, fake it till you make it. I guess Now, if we're talking about types of casts that are used, cast type is important in whiskey In this case. Different casts are going to give you different flavors. This uses experbing casts. That first whiskey we tried, say if they emptied that cask they can't use it again because they can only use virgin oaks. They have to sell it to somebody. Oftentimes they get sold to Scotland. Scotland buys them and they age their single molts in them because they want whiskey barrels that don't have as much oak influence, because they want to age their whiskey for longer. With too much oak influence it won't taste as good. This is 65% experbing barrels and it's 35% sherry casts. Alleroso Pedro MNS. They're different types of sherry, they use different types of grapes and there's different ways of making them. But fortified red wine just think of it that way. Extra strong red wine casts are used in this as well.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, that's more peaty.
Matthew James:There's a touch of peat.
Aaron Pete:And not like if you put me in a drink.
Matthew James:No, no, I don't believe you're in here. If you were, I'd be very concerned. So that peat you identified right away. Yeah, and so peat is a earthy moss that traditionally was cut from bogs and then used to dry barley after they soaked it to malt to germinate. Now they had to use this because there's not many trees in Scotland and trees are a finite resource. There's something that they're pretty cherished over there. They don't want to use them all. That's why you actually rarely see a Scottish oak cask used to mature whiskey, and so that smoke, that peatiness, is coming from the way they dried the barley to make the whiskey, and so this is actually a fairly lightly peated whiskey. I think it's somewhere in around like 10 or 11 phenyl parts per million. If you're familiar with something like Lagovulin, ever seen Lagovulin? Ron Swanson drinks it on parks and recreation. That one's about 35. And that's what people usually refer to as like a really smoky whiskey. So about one third of the strength of that for smokiness.
Aaron Pete:This is really good. I like this one. You're enjoying this one.
Matthew James:Yeah, okay, because I remember last time you didn't really enjoy the smoky flavors.
Aaron Pete:And intimidating for sure, yeah, but you're getting like that. You've grown so have I I hope it's showing Awesome.
Matthew James:I'm really excited that you enjoyed this because that opens up a world of flavors and personally this is my preferred flavor profile Lightly to moderately peated. I think it's great because that peat isn't the whole focal point as we'll see later with something else. It doesn't steal the show. It's like a seasoning that's adding to the whole dish, and so you have the influence of the cask, you have the influence of the place where it's aging and it's made, and you also have that peat all working together with those grains to make something really beautiful.
Aaron Pete:Right, are we able to try? You said that there was one that's like the most peated.
Matthew James:That's the last one the lineup here. Okay, If we have that anywhere before any of these, we will not taste anything else the rest of the day.
Aaron Pete:Okay.
Matthew James:So we'll move on here, but that's one of my favorites. Again, that's six years old, that's one of the youngest whiskeys you can buy on the market, and yet that's your favorite so far, right.
Aaron Pete:It's close with the other one you just showed me, whisper body. Yeah, both of those were really good, they're just different. Yeah, they're just. It's like a beer versus wine, like I wouldn't put them in the same lane, totally.
Matthew James:So, yeah, that's a really great introduction to some of the things you don't want to judge it by. Again, I mentioned earlier, you don't want to judge a single malt as being better than a blended malt Just because it's a single malt. That's fancier. Now, again, you put them all together. In skillful hands, a blended malt can be better. So if you're looking at a blended malt on a shelf, don't write it off just because it's a blend. Okay, it could be an amazing thing.
Aaron Pete:I won't.
Matthew James:So we talked earlier about slowing down with a whisky, taking your time to nose it, to let it sit in the glass a minute in the glass or a year in the cask, that sort of thing, what we want to do. Once we've smelled it, once we've gotten to know it a little bit, we have some ideas of what we're expecting. On the nose, we can actually even start nosing this here. You can already have some preconceived notions of what this might taste like.
Aaron Pete:I agree, it hits stronger.
Matthew James:Stronger, more rich, fruitier, maybe like Christmas cake dried fruits raisin. I definitely get like a stewed raisin on that?
Aaron Pete:Do you have a different nose than me? Where did you get your nose from, Matt?
Matthew James:I think it's just spending enough time obsessing over it and you start to pick out the differences. Yeah, so once you've taken some time with the nose, you can go ahead and you can start taking a sip. Now I suggest taking small sips. I think a small sip you'll get more out of a whisky than a big sip. Big sip can overwhelm the palate. You can be attacked by sharp alcohol harshness. It'll taste really peppery. You'll get a tingly sensation all over your tongue. Smaller sip it really helps to actually handle that and not be overwhelmed by it, and then you're able to go ahead and assess what flavors you're picking up in a whisky.
Aaron Pete:Again, really good advice for even eating food I'm guilty of, just like I'm just going to swallow this whole burger in the first bite and then it's like did you taste it?
Matthew James:No.
Aaron Pete:No.
Matthew James:I passed you by. Yeah. Now I also suggest if you're looking to try and find flavors in a whisky, a great rule of thumb is to chew on the whisky a little bit and just let it sit on your palate Again, maybe one second for every year it was aged. Here is a 12 year old whiskey. We'll talk about which one it is, but maybe letting it sit for 12 seconds on your palate and then swallowing and see what you come up with.
Aaron Pete:This one stays on your tongue in a different way. Yeah yeah, does it still on my tongue here? Yeah yeah, Interesting Fascinating. Is that not what should be happening?
Matthew James:No, no, absolutely. You are your own personal whiskey expert. There's no better expert in the whiskey that you enjoy other than you.
Aaron Pete:I trust you more so well, that's on you.
Matthew James:But if it's staying on your palate longer, I think that's a great thing, because you can go longer in between sips. That whiskey is going to last you a lot longer. Sometimes I sit with a single glass of whiskey for an hour and a half. I'll take some notes and I'll just slowly take it all in. You savor the whiskey, and as you savor the whiskey you also can go ahead and you can savor the finish too, because the whiskey doesn't stop talking to you once you've swallowed. There's a whole other chapter after that. If you're taking a breath out, you'll still be tasting the whiskey. You just might be tasting different things.
Aaron Pete:You're right.
Matthew James:So it's a whole experience. It's not just sip or glug or chug and gone.
Aaron Pete:Seems like a good mindfulness exercise. Yeah, okay, it's like an meditation. Can we do the last one? Sure you ready for it.
Matthew James:Sure, that is the, so this one before I pass by. This is the Buna Hava and 12-year-old.
Aaron Pete:If we had like. Oh, the one we just did.
Matthew James:Yeah.
Aaron Pete:Okay, the next one we should have, like if we had sound effects, it would be like a.
Matthew James:Drum roll yeah. I think so because you can kind of akin this to something extreme and whiskey, yeah. And so this is the Bercladi Octomor 12.2. This is a version of the most heavily peded whiskey in the world. So when we're talking pede again, we're talking smoke. Yeah, that smells extreme. Yeah, extreme barbecue. Yeah. So five years old, really young whiskey. That is to help emphasize how smoky it is, how peded it is.
Aaron Pete:Right.
Matthew James:All right. Over time, as it ages, it loses some of that smokiness. A 30-year-old LaFrogue isn't going to taste particularly pedy. Those flavors turn into something else. This is bottled young to emphasize how smoky it is. If we didn't cover this up, we probably would have been smelling it the entire time as we're trying to know his other whiskies.
Aaron Pete:Alex. So we have our photographer here. Alex, come smell this. Is this not the craziest thing you've ever smelled? That was one of the craziest things I've ever smelled. It is amazing.
Matthew James:So this is X Bourbon barrels, as we talked about earlier, Right, and then a French fortified wine type white fortified wine called Sauternes Cast, which gives it a lot of sweetness. Okay, so Tim come out here. This is also.
Aaron Pete:Come smell this. We're going to get a Timbits in here A.
Matthew James:Timbit, I like that. I like that. I'll hand it off Legendary.
Aaron Pete:Have everybody smell it, recognize how crazy the smell is.
Matthew James:So this is 57.3%, nearly 60% alcohol. So it's cast strength. They haven't come out here, rebecca. Do you think Rebecca would come smell it?
Aaron Pete:I don't know if she's in the back.
Matthew James:It's unreal, eh, so cast strength. This is by far the strongest whiskey on the table.
Aaron Pete:Typically. By far Is she in there? Does Kyla know the smell?
Matthew James:Oh, yes, yeah, yeah she does so. When I talked about heavy-peated whiskey, 35 was heavy. This is 129.7%. Oh my God, this is four times what would be considered a heavily-peated whiskey.
Aaron Pete:Is it high in alcohol? You said 59% alcohol 57.3% 57.3%.
Matthew James:Yeah, all right.
Aaron Pete:Okay, ready, bottoms up Cheers. Thank you again for coming back on.
Matthew James:Thanks for having me, aaron, I really appreciate it.
Aaron Pete:All my favorite. No Smells fun. That is the sourest thing. It tastes like eating licorice that was run over by a rubber tire.
Matthew James:I love it. There you go, rubber.
Aaron Pete:I'm getting that energy now because it's like my taste buds off.
Matthew James:Rubber tire and licorice. I could see both those notes in it, especially licorice, but it's like sweet barbecue for me and I really love it.
Aaron Pete:Right, go ahead. Yeah Well, I'm going to ask if you are able to tell people how they can follow you.
Matthew James:Yeah, so if you're wanting to hear more about whiskey, about all things whiskey, you can find me on YouTube under whiskey on the West Coast. I also have an Instagram that I post on, which is also under the name whiskey on the West Coast, and we just this week started a Patreon page whiskey on the West Coast with extra, you know, whiskey reviews, some extra content and some other perks and benefits. So, yeah, look, look for me, especially on YouTube. That's where we mainly post.
Aaron Pete:I'm so proud of you for chasing this. I think that it's so valuable when people are able to find their voice. When we talk about freedom of expression, when we talk about these ideas, they can sound so disconnected, but the idea of what I believe people fought for in World War II was that people could reach their full potential and share their gifts with the world, and that's exactly what I think you're doing, so I'm so grateful that you took the steps and that you started this. I know that your page is so successful and that you're getting so much support, so I'm so happy for you and grateful to have you back on almost exactly a year later.
Matthew James:It's been a while. Thank you for all the support, Aaron. I really appreciate it and I'm so excited to see what's happened with your channel too, with the people you're having on your reach. It feels global now. It feels global. It's really cool to see, and this studio, it's just, it's a mind trip.
Aaron Pete:I appreciate it, man. I highly recommend people go follow your page whiskey on the West Coast. I think you're doing such tremendous work, I think you offer such great insights and, again, I think all of the tools that you're providing people specifically for whiskey can be utilized in so many different ways for people to connect themselves with that they're eating, with their drinking and making sure that they live a long, healthy, happy life. So thank you again.
Matthew James:Thanks, Aaron.
Aaron Pete:Perfect, cheers, cheers. I would cheers again, but I finished mine. I didn't think I could handle it the second time.