Master Distiller Greg Metze joins the show to share the professional and life lessons he’s learned during four decades in the whiskey industry. Before leaving a 38-year career at Seagrams and MGP, Greg crafted custom mash bills for Old Elk. The creative freedom of working with new grain-builds inspired him to leave his legacy in Indiana of distilling 65% bourbons and 85% of ryes in the market, and blaze a new path with Old Elk by using his knowledge and passion for creating the highest quality spirits.

Read More

Alex Brick, Woodinville Whiskey Ambassador joins the show to talk us through the history of the Washington state distillery, and his career in the spirits industry. We sip four delightful expressions that Woodinville has to offer, including a 2022 Harvest Release Port Finished Straight Rye. Alex shares stories of Dave Pickerell, the distillery’s focus on wine-finished whiskeys and we even talk the wonders of Iceland.

Read More

Four years ago I met a man from Australia with ambition to build his whisky brand in the United States. He held an irrational belief that was nearly contagious. In 2009, Starward founder David Vitale built a single malt distillery in Melbourne—when whisky distilling barely existed in Australia. in just 15 years, he went from hand-selling his whisky on folding tables in corporate offices to Distillery of the Year in 2022. Hear the full Starward journey from the founder’s perspective.

Read More

I recap my recent visit to the Bourbon Trail to select a handful of single barrels for Malloy’s Finest, and how wonderful/individual the whiskey industry truly is. We visited Maker’s Mark, Bardstown Bourbon Co., Preservation Distillery, Starlight Distillery and the Bardstown Collection Launch.

Read More

Zak Rye of Warehouse Liquors (Chicago) shares the history of the iconic spirits purveyor, and how they’ve earned the trust of invested whiskey customers from across the country. Zak is a storyteller, a host and a retailer who’s spent time as a coffee roaster, an ambassador for the famed Compass Box, and now, leads the renovation and transformation of their upstairs space into an event/tasting room/social club.

Read More

Good friend and Lustau National Brand Ambassador, Steven Dragun tastes us through five sherry wines from the Bodegas Lustau. Steven also explains a detailed history of the company and the complex organization of aging sherry in a solera system. We also discuss the versatility of their wines in cocktails. Sit back, grab a sherry from your local independent retailer and sip some sherry along with us.

Read More

Live from the world’s best whiskey bar, Delilah’s, I record a Drammers - Chicago whisky event. I’m an ambassador for Starward Whisky, and this episode gives insight to what it’s like to be an ambassador at a branded event. Thank you to Drammers for having me and thank you for being great friends and people.

Read More

Live from The Franklin Room in Chicago, IL, we record the February outrun for Scotch Malt Whisky Society. We blindly sip on six different drams from the club with 34 our dearest friends. We give our tastings notes, reveal the distilleries on the bottle, and talk through history of the club and the scotch distilleries.

Read More

I share my guide to the great city of Austin, TX. This isn’t a best of list, instead, it’s a curation of how I explore cities as a whisky ambassador on the road. Find great coffee shops, breakfast spots, whiskey haunts and cocktail joints.

Read More

Jake shares his time at Starward Whisky and handling the distillery’s single barrel program in the United States. He also tastes and shares the story of Starward’d first Tawny Cask Single Barrel—that’s hitting the market later this year.

Read More

Live from The Green Post in Chicago, we escape whiskey and focus on barrel-aged gin from Tattersall. Our old friend Ambrosia Borowski of Green Post and Marcus Reidy of Tattersall sit down to explain how this delicious gin came to be a single barrel for the restaurant. We also discuss the foundation of Minnesota distillery, and focus on Green Post resurrecting both former Northside restaurants Fountainhead and The Northman.

Read More

Jake, Wilson, and Brett Bauer of Sagamore Spirit analyze the future of their collective distillery’s single barrel programming, and how distributors /retailers value single barrels from mid-size distilleries.

Read More

Old Elk’s new market manager, Eric Rosentreter explains the rise of their single barrel program, and the responsibility of selling/representing a whiskey made by a living legend like Greg Metze.

Read More

Brett Bauer is back to share the development of Sagamore’s private barrel program. Sagamore has a unique blending process of seven-year-old rye whiskey to create private selects for retailers, bars and clubs across the country. Brett breaks down the Maryland distillery's intricate process private rye barrels.

Read More

Ever wonder what it’d be like to blend your own Pinhook True Small Batch? Well, take a listen to Garrett Turnquist of Maize + Mash and Steve Malloy of Malloy’s Finest joint experience of heading to Kentucky and blending together barrels and evaluating proofs to create their own three barrel blend.

Read More

Wilson Torres is on to share the love, the pride and the restoration it took to develop Castle & Key’s single barrel program. This distillery’s story begins from reengineering Colonel Taylor’s bourbon recipe to developing a rye whiskey from the heartbeat of Kentucky, then transforming batches from both of the whiskeys into single barrel programs.

Read More

Day 3 | 12 Days of Barrel Picks. We catch-up with our old friend Bob Zacharias. Bob is the GM of the taproom at the brewery/distillery located in Chicago. Bob shares the growth of Maplewood’s spirits program, and the difference between hospitality when operating a bar versus a taproom and creating a community atmosphere. Midway through the conversation, Adam Smith, Special Projects Manager, joins us and discusses the evolution of their malt program that’s mainly based on distilling off-grain.

Read More

Day 2 | 12 Days of Barrel Picks. Andres Arias of Pernod Ricard is back to highlight the first Jefferson’s single barrel in the on-premise of Illinois. Andres and Callum share the history of selling Jefferson’s, which includes a long-awaited arrival of single barrels from the distillery—that’s been around for nearly 30 years. We also discuss the $250million investment that Pernod is dedicating to the Kentucky distillery.

Read More