The Whiskey Ring Podcast

Ep. 14: Rabbit Hole Distillery with Adam Edwards

Episode 14! Welcome to the Whiskey Ring Podcast where we’re bringing you the people who make whiskey interesting. Joining me today is Adam Edwards, Digital Brand Ambassador for Rabbit Hole. Adam and I met during a virtual tasting almost exactly a year ago.
It’s a fun memory to reach back to – by this point a year ago, the website was just starting up, the podcast was still several months in the future, and I was ramping up my tasting notes in almost every way possible. I’d purchased my first glencairn, my third or fourth journal, started posting them online, started sharing samples with friends to try things I hadn’t tried yet. A year later I am fully and completely down the rabbit hole.
You can find Rabbit Hole online at rabbitholedistillery.com and on Whiskey Row, Jefferson Street, in Louisville, KY. Their socials are also included in the show notes so you can follow them and see when they’re coming to a retailer near you. You can also follow Adam on Instagram @bourbontuba for all the Rabbit Hole happenings.
If you haven’t yet, please follow Whiskey in my Wedding Ring and the Whiskey Ring Podcast on Instagram and Facebook and follow @whiskeyring on Twitter, and subscribe to the newsletter on whiskeyinmyweddingring.com. 
If you like what you hear, please consider supporting the site and the podcast. You can help out for as little as $2.50 a month on Patreon. Thank you also to our sponsors, Mash and Grape and Cairn Craft, who are providing discount codes for Whiskey in my Wedding Ring followers and Whiskey Ring Podcast listeners.
Subscribe to the Whiskey Ring Podcast on your favorite podcast platform today! We're on Podbean, Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and most other major podcast platforms. Every subscription and listen helps us get sponsors, secure guests, and ultimately get more content to you.
Thank you for listening and for supporting, and please enjoy my chat with Adam Edwards from Rabbit Hole Distillery.

Ep. 13: Stauning Distillery and Alex Munch

Lucky Episode 13! Welcome to the Whiskey Ring Podcast where we’re bringing you the people who make whiskey interesting.
Today’s podcast is with Stauning Whisky all the way from Denmark. I came across Stauning by accident, if I’m being honest, but was taken with their story and their process. Plus, it’s the first Danish whisky I’ve tried, so either way I had questions.
Joining me to answer those questions is Alex Munch, who co-founded Stauning along with eight friends (that’s nine total for those counting) in 2005. While not yet well-known in the US, Stauning is a legend in Denmark. What started as nine friends from disparate backgrounds (none of which were distilling, by the way), is now a massive enterprise nearing a million LPAs with backing from Diageo and Distill Ventures. You should seriously take a look at their site – the pictures are simply stunning.
As we all know, though, pretty pictures don’t mean good whisky. Stauning, however, has a great recommendation behind it. As he said on the podcast and also in a separate interview, Stauning’s meteoric rise coincided with the rise of New Nordic cuisine, heralded by such acclaimed chefs as Magnus Nilsson and Rene Redzepi. The latter chef’s restaurant, Noma, in Copenhagen, features Stauning as the only whiskey on their menu. I can’t emphasize how cool that is to foodies who also enjoy whisky – it’s a perfect match. Plus, as much as Stauning’s whisky absolutely speaks for itself, having one of the best chefs in the world choose to exclusively serve your whisky is a hell of a mark of approval.
Stauning sent me samples of three of their whiskies ahead of the recording, and all of the tasting notes will be posted ahead of this coming out. As always, editorial control remains with me, but given what I’ve just said I think you know how those reviews will be.
You can find Stauning online at stauningwhisky.com, where they’re proudly presenting their Whisky Magazine Icons of Whisky award for Brand Innovator of the Year 2021. Their socials are also included in the show notes so you can follow them and see when they’re coming to a retailer near you.
If you haven’t yet, please follow Whiskey in my Wedding Ring and the Whiskey Ring Podcast on Instagram and Facebook and follow @whiskeyring on Twitter, and subscribe to the newsletter on whiskeyinmyweddingring.com. 
If you like what you hear, please consider supporting the site and the podcast. You can help out for as little as $2.50 a month on Patreon. Thank you also to our sponsors, Mash and Grape and Cairn Craft. 
Subscribe to the Whiskey Ring Podcast on your favorite podcast platform today! We're on Podbean, Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and most other major podcast platforms. Every subscription and listen helps us get sponsors, secure guests, and ultimately get more content to you.
Thank you for listening and for supporting, and please enjoy my chat with Alex Munch from Stauning Whisky.
Stauning Whisky Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Stauningwhisky
Stauning Whisky Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stauningwhisky/
Stauning Whisky Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/146325719@N03/albums
Tasting Notes
Stauning Floor-Malted Rye Review
Stauning Kaos Triple-Malted Whisky Review
Stauning Smoke Floor-Malted Single Malt Review
 

Ep. 12: Great Lakes Distillery and Ross Salchow

Episode 12! Welcome to the Whiskey Ring Podcast where we’re bringing you the people who make whiskey interesting. New tagline – let me know what you think of it.
Today, we’re going across the Great Lakes to visit Great Lakes Distillery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I’m joined by Ross Salchow, a longtime employee whose title would never cover the range of work he does.  
Great Lakes was the first distillery I ever visited in person. Picture it: Milwaukee, 2016. I was on a business trip for the American Jesuit Colleges conference and had some free time to explore. I’d never been to Milwaukee, let alone Wisconsin, and with the Brewers out of town I decided to take an Uber over to this distillery.
Great Lakes is the first distillery in Wisconsin since Prohibition. When I visited five years ago, there were one or two whiskies, a few brandies from local products (including cherry), a regular gin and a barrel-aged gin. This was before I started doing tasting notes or had a collection of any kind, but I brought back bottles of the barrel-aged gin and cherry brandy because they were so damn good.
Since then, they’ve done nothing but grow. Absinthes, bourbons, single malts, gins, nothing is off limits for this team. As much product as possible is sourced from Wisconsin to keep the local flavor, and to their credit, when something can’t be sourced from WI (barley, for example, doesn’t take well to WI winters), they’re transparent about it coming from somewhere else.
Ross was probably there the day I visited. Hell, for all I can remember, he could’ve been my tour guide. He’s been there for many years now and knows the ins and outs of the place better than anyone. We chat about successes and failures, why their bottled-in-bond gin couldn’t be called that until last year, so many nitty gritty topics you won’t find anywhere else. I’m the first to say that I like craft, but not every craft distillery is ready. Count me in for saying that Great Lakes is here to stay and deserves a try.
I can’t wait to get back there and try more of their new products. In the meantime, you can visit them at greatlakesdistillery.com, @greatlakesdistillery on social media, and keep an eye out for their products as distribution grows. 
If you haven’t yet, please follow Whiskey in my Wedding Ring and the Whiskey Ring Podcast on Instagram and Facebook and follow @whiskeyring on Twitter, and subscribe to the newsletter on whiskeyinmyweddingring.com. 
If you like what you hear, please consider supporting the site and the podcast. You can help out for as little as $2.50 a month on Patreon. Thank you also to our sponsors, Mash and Grape and Cairn Craft. 
Subscribe to the Whiskey Ring Podcast on your favorite podcast platform today! We're on Podbean, Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and most other major podcast platforms. Every subscription and listen helps us get sponsors, secure guests, and ultimately get more content to you.
Thank you for listening and for supporting, and please enjoy my chat with Ross Salchow from Great Lakes Distillery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Ep. 11: David Thompson, Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery

Episode 11! Today, we’re going across the pond to the North of England and Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery. I’m joined by founder and Managing Director, David Thompson.
Dave is a farmer at heart, and Yorkshire is his garden. Yorkshire is the largest county in England by far and has ample space to grow grain and everything you need for distilling. And yet, like much of the rest of England, distilleries are few and far between compared to its Northern and Western neighbors.
I ask Dave why this is, what constitutes a “Yorkshire” style of whisky, if there is one, and what he and Spirit of Yorkshire bring to the table. The core answer and the most fascinating one is that they are, again, farmers at heart. Spirit of Yorkshire isn’t meant to be a global, shelf-filling enterprise – it’s meant to showcase what can be made with the local product and share it with those who will enjoy it. As their acreage grows, so will they, and not a second sooner.
Spirit of Yorkshire is a field-to-bottle operation, distilling their own home-grown barley. Keep in mind that this is the same barley that could be going to Scottish or Irish distillers – much of what’s distilled to the North and West is barley grown in mainland England, and yet there are conspicuously few distilleries where the barley is actually grown.
I love talking to distillers and producers right on the cusp of something big, and that’s exactly where Spirit of Yorkshire is. As we speak, new agreements with distributors in the US are being signed for their Filey Bay line to get to the US.
I’d also be remiss in not mentioning that Spirit of Yorkshire is a Jim Swan-connected project. The late Dr. Jim Swan, who passed away in 2017, was prolific. If you’re an American whiskey drinker, the most apt comparison might be Dave Pickerell, but with all due respect to the late Mr. Pickerell, Jim Swan’s influence reached as far as one possibly could in whiskey. Dr. Swan’s fingerprints remain on some of the most exciting distilleries around the world, from Yorkshire to Kavalan in Taiwan to Penderyn in Wales, India’s Amrut, and Kilchoman on Islay. He had influence in every major whiskey-producing country and many of the up-and-comers, too, with a signature style that was less about him and more about what the local style was or could be like.
So, does it make a difference to distill where the barley is grown? Well…to be honest, I’ll have to wait to find out. Not a long time, but just a little until distribution hits New York. I am very excited to do so and will be posting my tasting notes as soon as I can grab a bottle (or three). Until then, keep your sights on Spirit of Yorkshire, its methods, its expansive and informative website, and I’ll sit back and enjoy revisiting my medieval history years just a few hours from where the Vikings landed at Lindisfarne.
If you haven’t yet, please follow Whiskey in my Wedding Ring and the Whiskey Ring Podcast on Instagram and Facebook and follow @whiskeyring on Twitter, and subscribe to the newsletter on whiskeyinmyweddingring.com. 
If you like what you hear, please consider supporting the site and the podcast. You can help out for as little as $2.50 a month on Patreon. Thank you also to our sponsors, Mash and Grape and Cairn Craft. 
Subscribe to the Whiskey Ring Podcast on your favorite podcast platform today! We're on Podbean, Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and most other major podcast platforms. Every subscription and listen helps us get sponsors, secure guests, and ultimately get more content to you.
Thank you for listening and for supporting, and please enjoy my chat with David Thompson, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery.

Ep.10: Lew Bryson

Episode 10! We're bringing out the big guns now (after Michter's, is there such a thing?) Today's episode is with Lew Bryson, longtime spirits and beer writer, author, taster, and all-around great guy.
Lew is a literal spirit guide for me - his book Tasting Whiskey kickstarted my whiskey tasting journey, and his follow-up, Whiskey Masterclass, gave the deep dive into each part of the process any serious whiskey lover could want. His blog, Seen Through a Glass, chronicles his journeys through whiskey, beer, and the PLCB, his home state's "evil empire" of liquor sales. 
This is as fun an episode as I've had yet - I know you'll love it, too. Thank you to Lew for making time to talk - he had to run afterwards (into the other room, but still) to taste the finalists for Fred Minnick's Ascot Awards Whiskey of the Year!
If you haven’t yet, please follow Whiskey in my Wedding Ring and the Whiskey Ring Podcast on Instagram and Facebook and follow @whiskeyring on Twitter, and subscribe to the newsletter on whiskeyinmyweddingring.com. 
If you like what you hear, please consider supporting the site and the podcast. You can help out for as little as $2.50 a month on Patreon. Thank you also to our sponsors, Mash and Grape and Cairn Craft. 
Subscribe to the Whiskey Ring Podcast on your favorite podcast platform today! We're on Podbean, Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and most other major podcast platforms. Every subscription and listen helps us get sponsors, secure guests, and ultimately get more content to you.
Thank you for listening and for supporting, and please enjoy my chat with legendary whiskey and beer write Lew Bryson.

Ep. 9: Dan McKee and Andrea Wilson of Michter‘s Distillery, Part 2

We're at episode 8.2! Part 2 of my special 2-part episode with Michter's Distillery's Dan McKee and Andrea Wilson. Couple quick things:
1 - Follow and enter the Michter's barware giveaway on all my social media accounts
2 - Check out Mike's Michter's History article on www.thebourbonculture.com
If you haven’t yet, please follow Whiskey in my Wedding Ring and the Whiskey Ring Podcast on Instagram and Facebook and follow @whiskeyring on Twitter, and subscribe to the newsletter on whiskeyinmyweddingring.com. 
If you like what you hear, please consider supporting the site and the podcast. You can help out for as little as $2.50 a month at www.patreon.com/whiskeyinmyweddingring. Thank you also to our sponsors, Mash and Grape and Cairn Craft. 
Subscribe to the Whiskey Ring Podcast on your favorite podcast platform today! We're on Podbean, Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and most other major podcast platforms. Every subscription and listen helps us get sponsors, secure guests, and ultimately get more content to you. Thank you for listening and for supporting, and please enjoy part two of my conversation with Dan McKee and Andrea Wilson, Master Distiller and Master of Maturation, of Michter’s Distillery.

Ep. 8: Dan McKee and Andrea Wilson of Michter‘s Distillery, Part 1

Hi Whiskey Ringers, it is episode 8! Thank you so much for listening and please share with your friends, family, and fellow whiskey lovers. 
This is part one of a special, two-part episode with Dan McKee and Andrea Wilson of Michter’s Distillery. I am beyond excited to have both Dan and Andrea on the podcast after just seven episodes. Not only were they generous with their time, they were generous in another way, too…but more on that later.
Side note: I wasn’t able to get my friend Mike Frey on the recording – we ran into some technical issues that will be fixed going forward, but unfortunately, he couldn’t join the one episode I really wanted to have him on. He’ll be a future co-host every now and again for sure, though.
Mike is a huge Michter’s fan. He has the first bottle ever released at the Fort Nelson location, he’s got a large collection, and more recently, he wrote a fantastic longform article all about the history of Michter’s. You can find it on www.thebourbonculture.com, his website he co-hosts with another Mike. If you like this episode, you’ll like the article, and I encourage you to take a read when you can.
Finally, on the day this episode goes live, I will be starting a giveaway just for followers: a full set of Michter’s Copper Barware: a shaker, a bar spoon, a jigger, a julep cup, and two Michter’s glencairns. Thank you to Michter’s for helping with this giveaway. Visit me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and at the whiskeyinmyweddingring website for giveaway rules and details. Listeners will get additional entries using a special code from the middle of this episode.
If you haven’t yet, please follow Whiskey in my Wedding Ring and the Whiskey Ring Podcast on Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to the newsletter on whiskeyinmyweddingring.com. 
If you like what you hear, please consider supporting the site and the podcast. You can help out for as little as $2.50 a month at www.patreon.com/whiskeyinmyweddingring. Thank you also to our sponsors, Mash and Grape and Cairn Craft. 
Subscribe to the Whiskey Ring Podcast on your favorite podcast platform today! We're on Podbean, Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and most other major podcast platforms. Every subscription and listen helps us get sponsors, secure guests, and ultimately get more content to you. Thank you for listening and for supporting, and please enjoy part one of my conversation with Dan McKee and Andrea Wilson, Master Distiller and Master of Maturation, respectively, of Michter’s Distillery.
Cheers,
David

Ep. 7: Taconic Distillery

Hi Whiskey Ringers, it is episode 7! Thank you so much for listening and please share with your friends, family, and fellow whiskey lovers. 
On this episode, I’ve got Paul Coughlin, founder of Taconic Distillery in New York’s Hudson Valley. New York whiskey - bourbon, rye, single malts - is fascinating and deeply personal to me. I love talking to friends and distillers throughout New York about different styles, the history of distilling in New York, and what makes New York unique in the distilling landscape. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is Empire Rye, a non-legal set of standards for New York rye, but that’ll be talked about on a future episode. 
Taconic is probably my favorite New York-based distillery. There might be a product here and there from another place that I like more, but I don’t think another New York distillery has the consistency of product that Taconic has. There’s also no other distillery in New York from which I enjoy nearly every product they make. Are you a New York distillery listening to this and thinking “hey, we’ve got some great stuff, have you tried us?” I’ll be honest, the answer is probably no. And that’s on me, but hey, we’re only on episode 7! If you do want me to try your products, just shoot me an email: David@whiskeyinmyweddingring.com, or reach out to me on Facebook, instagram, or through the website. 
Lastly, this will be a slightly shorter episode - I promise, I’ll be visiting Taconic in person to talk to the full team and get more info out of Brandon and Paul hopefully over the summer.
If you haven’t yet, please follow Whiskey in my Wedding Ring and the Whiskey Ring Podcast on Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to the newsletter on whiskeyinmyweddingring.com. 
If you like what you hear, please consider supporting the site and the podcast. You can help out for as little as $2.50 a month at www.patreon.com/whiskeyinmyweddingring. Thank you also to our sponsors, Mash and Grape and Cairn Craft. 
You can find Taconic online and on Instagram and Facebook. 
Subscribe to the Whiskey Ring Podcast on your favorite podcast platform today! We're on Podbean, Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and most other major podcast platforms. Every subscription and listen helps us get sponsors, secure guests, and ultimately get more content to you. Thank you for listening and for supporting, and please enjoy this episode with Paul Coughlin of Taconic Distillery. 
Cheers!David