Mallory Gordon 00:08
You’re listening to the casual swinger podcast as your host. We need to warn you that the material you’re about to hear may be sexual or explicit in nature. This podcast is intended for an adult audience. Now we don’t expect you to act like adults. What’s the fun in that?
Mickey Gordon 00:22
We’re a married couple living in Florida with over 13 years of experience in the lifestyle and we take almost nothing seriously. Casual swingers a variety show meaning we’ll cover everything from music to events, travel, and even the occasional hilarious screw up. Our show was about entertainment. We’re not licensed professionals had anything and our stories, commentary and guidance should not be confused with the opinions of a licensed professional.
Mallory Gordon 00:46
Now that you know, let’s take those pants off and get comfy. Welcome to casual swinger, I am your co host, Mallory,
Mickey Gordon 01:04
and I am Mickey.
Mallory Gordon 01:05
And it’s nice to see you guys again. Hi.
Mickey Gordon 01:08
You can see them. Well set a new era of podcasting.
Mallory Gordon 01:11
I can see you knows I mean, really sorry about the break you guys.
Mickey Gordon 01:16
Yeah, tres third consecutive episode, we’re starting with an apology. Well done.
Mallory Gordon 01:21
happens. You know, sometimes you have to take self preservation into account and insulate and take care of business. Right. And a lot of family stuff that came up. Yeah, we.
Mickey Gordon 01:27
So I think the best way that we can probably tell you guys, what happened is it wasn’t fun. It wasn’t exciting. It was extremely difficult. There was a lot of things going on, and something had to give. And so we never like showed up and told everybody goodbye because we didn’t want to go away forever. We just had some shit to take care of. Yeah,
Mallory Gordon 01:49
it definitely took a lot longer to circle back than we had planned. But it is what it is. Right. I think we we were experiencing things that most people unfortunately that go through, you know, as far as you know, family in life.
Mickey Gordon 02:01
Yeah. So long anyway, that kind of thing. But you know, the thing of it is, and that I think, really we got to the point where other people were ready to come back. And then we had all these commitments, right, we had the Hedo trip and we had 130 People with us and we had to pay attention to and focus on it was like, You know what, we’re gonna wait until this trip is over. And then we will get casual swinger back on the train tracks had rolling just behind
Mallory Gordon 02:21
the scenes, like when you’re four months out from a trip like that, you know, especially with the way we do things. I don’t know that I can fully articulate the labor intensity that goes into it the sweat equity, from an organizational and curating perspective, because that, that 120 100 cc windows, it’s it’s intense.
Mickey Gordon 02:38
It’s panic inducing is what it is. Um,
Mallory Gordon 02:41
yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s a big undertaking anyways, I mean, when you just look at it on its face, and then yeah, and all the complexities that we tend to add to things because we set the bar so high for ourselves.
Mickey Gordon 02:54
And that’s the thing, this was our first Hedo trip and we’re gonna do, we’re gonna have a much larger conversation, but we’re
Mallory Gordon 02:59
gonna, we’re gonna have an entire episode. The next episode is going to cover this and we actually have a special episode dedicated to the people, the people and it’s I’m so fucking pumped about it.
Mickey Gordon 03:08
That’s gonna be really good. I won’t spoil it. We know what’s in the episodes. It’s really good. Soccer. Yeah, right. Stunning. But it just I think there were a lot of surprises, some of which were you know, timeframes, and it was our first time so I think we set the bar really high for ourselves, of course, the second time, but I’m okay with that. It was it was pretty cool. But you know, family stuff, jobs stuff. By the way, I’m fucking unemployed.
Mallory Gordon 03:33
Well, no, you’re not you’re self employed, which I think is awesome. And I if I could give you an entire round of applause, but I know it’s not going to come across all those mics is the button here. Yeah, I’ll do the golf clap at the back over here. Now, I’m so fucking happy. So fucking proud of you. I think this new chapter in our lives, pun intended, is going to be absolutely incredible. I love the fact that we’re betting on us. And I’m not scared to fail with you. And I know we’re not planning to fail. I think we’re going to succeed. I think our objectives are clear. I think the stars are aligned. I think it’s, it’s going to be amazing. But a lot of
Mickey Gordon 04:09
aspects to what we’re doing right. And it’s it’s our marketing agency, it’s the toy store, it’s travel, there’s a lot of things that we’re doing. And everything that we do is in service to others.
Mallory Gordon 04:21
That it is I think that the community for the community first aspect. I think at heart, we’re both different types of altruistic. I think it kind of serves our souls, and that nature and that kind of like I’ve been working harder than I ever have in my life last year, and I can’t imagine doing it with anyone else on the planet. So let’s get this. Let’s go.
Mickey Gordon 04:44
Yeah, it’s fun. We’re having we’re having a good time. But we it’s funny. I’m like, Hey, I don’t work for the man anymore. So instead of working, you know, which I always worked more hours in eight hours a day when I worked for other people, but I was like, instead of working 12 hours a day I’m gonna work 24 hours a day and fuck you. I’m gonna show you man.
Mallory Gordon 05:01
It is because like, it’s just one of those things when you’re working for yourself. You You only get paid on what you put in. So it almost becomes a little bit of an obsession. So a lot of it I’m here to help mitigate your anxiety and pressures.
Mickey Gordon 05:19
Question about it. But you know, hey, that gets the the net net of it is, we’re back. We’re happy to be here. We’ve got some really, really good stuff for you guys today. I think you guys are going to absolutely love this episode. It is very much in the vein of who we are.
Mallory Gordon 05:35
Yeah, absolutely. I think it is. It is a departure. I mean, it is not a lifestyle focused conversation, but it is ancillary or peripheral. How would you phrase that? I couldn’t really speak on either way.
Mickey Gordon 05:48
I would say that the spirits and alcohol firstly, you know, whiskey is certainly connected to casual swinger by hook or by crook forever.
Mallory Gordon 05:58
Yeah, the whiskey tastings are cocktail. Yeah, you know,
Mickey Gordon 06:01
there’s a lot of things that bind whiskey to us as well bar, it’s a thing now we’re literally sitting in the casual bar,
Mallory Gordon 06:07
which is cool. We’re not in a little corner of the hovel, that is your former office, which has now been stock room. It is the stock group literally, I don’t know how you make it to your desk now. Now, I actually kind of live recording that here. So we maybe we should make this a thing. It is
Mickey Gordon 06:22
kind of cool to sit out here and record for you guys. And you know, this episode is all whiskey. We’re calling this episode a tale of two tails. And the reason we call it that is because I got a message from the traveling whiskey fairy, who’s Ingrid Rodriguez, and she’s been on with us before for a show. We called Whiskey business. And she is the brand educator for Whistlepig for the East Coast. And she said Hey, I’ve got someone coming to town I think you guys should meet. And I had no idea she was bringing the CEO of Limavady whiskey to our fucking house
Mallory Gordon 06:55
master distiller when, when I heard you say his name, it triggered something in my brain. And I remember reading that article in whiskey advocate. Yeah, about the top 10 whiskies of the year. And I didn’t put two and two together until we were sitting here having the conversation and I’m so glad cuz I knew I would have gotten spooked kind of like I did with Holly Randall. Oh, and potatoes. I did not I did not I held it. I held it together this time, but like, I was a little star struck because I mean, he’s such an accomplished distiller and yeah, he’s a former master distiller for Bush, Bush Mills, and he worked his way up, like there’s a lot to respect and I fully enjoyed it. Anybody’s him kismet, like, so amazing. It was
Mickey Gordon 07:35
it was an awesome interview. This was one of the few interviews by the way, guys, we didn’t write a single question before we sat down. No, this was just an off the cuff conversation. Yeah. And as a journalist, that was mind numbing. For me. I was shitting nails before we sat down, first of all, hadn’t done an interview in five months. Yeah. So and then I you know, Ty be sitting next to a true master of his craft. And, you know, I’m fortunate and we are fortunate to have made some friends in the whiskey business, some, you know, Master distillers, artisanal distillers, for different brands, and to have one of them show up in our bar, and yeah, record a show and help introduce our listeners to Irish whiskey. And he was so cool.
Mallory Gordon 08:16
I know he was so nice to my asshole dog. Oh, my belligerent dog who came in here snuck in while we were recording and we’re trying to keep low key and like rabble rousers, and like she was just all up in his business and he was so cool about it and like uninfected come to find out he’s got 280 pounds. Our dogs will Pommery like yeah, so David, it’s a midsize dog. She’s a she’s a sedan. Alright, so
Mickey Gordon 08:39
reminder for all of you who don’t remember we have three Rottweilers here in the casual compound, and most people think are dogs or ponies, but not Mr. McNally. He thought that our dogs were Pomeranian,
Mallory Gordon 08:50
scattered all around great guy. One of the most interesting conversations that I’ll be honest, I think for the majority of it, I was an audience member spectator, just because I was trying to absorb everything he was saying, as he was saying it. You did a terrific job. By the way, I know you felt like you were rusty. I don’t mind giving you kudos. I’m your wife, because I will also tear you down when you fuck it up. Every time. I’m just kidding. I
Mickey Gordon 09:10
appreciate that. It was fun. And I think you guys are gonna enjoy this. When we get around to you got a couple more things to tell you guys about. So we for the first time. Last night last fucking night. By the way. The first time we decided we were going to try and accept an invitation out from a new couple. Oh my gosh, this is something we have not done in like almost two years.
Mallory Gordon 09:32
Yeah, that is true because we, in our travels we met That’s true. That’s true. We we kind of wing it.
Mickey Gordon 09:38
You really don’t want a lot of dates locally. We don’t go to the local swinger club so we’re
Mallory Gordon 09:42
not home much like last 18 months we really have been traveling pretty heavily. So it’s been challenging to work in dates into our travel schedules. I know we kind of threw you know, threw it out the baby with the bathtub there for a bit because we just could never coordinate and it’s it seemed like we were wasting everybody’s time it did.
Mickey Gordon 09:59
It just felt like It was always like, well, I get back to us in three months. And you know, nobody gets back to you in three months. If you don’t get back to me in three months. You might as well say fuck you.
Mallory Gordon 10:06
That is totally fair. You know, it’s a bummer but I get it. I totally understand.
Mickey Gordon 10:11
I’m not mad at you. It just it’s what happened. So we get ready. You know, pick out some nice clothes go to a really nice restaurant, locally. Very, very nice place great cocktail bar. It is a great food.
Mallory Gordon 10:25
I got out my shorts that have to be dry cleaned, which, like especially located for me.
Mickey Gordon 10:29
Oh, you were hot as shit like you had you had your summer bang and ask going on. Plus, you’ve been working out like a crazy woman. So you have a body to die for. Thank you. And legs for days. He had those, you know, kind of pseudo heels on and it was just like
Mallory Gordon 10:45
it was a it was a cute outfit. I felt I felt cute. So we
Mickey Gordon 10:48
sat at that table for it was it was a little over 30 minutes when we got the second text 15 minutes before we got there. We got a text from this couple that said,
Mallory Gordon 10:57
literally don’t leave, don’t leave. We’re running late. So sorry.
Mickey Gordon 11:01
Yeah. And then 30 minutes after they were supposed to be there. So the reservation was for 745 and 815. We get a message saying our babysitter is sick. We’re not sure that we’re going to be able to make it 15 minutes later, 45 minutes after they’re supposed to be there. We’re not coming.
Mallory Gordon 11:19
Yeah, and I get things happen. But I don’t know. I honestly I’m not even gonna pretend that I know what happened on the other side. I will say the three the three messages the first and second one. It was definitely discrepancies there. So I don’t know what happened. But I was totally comfortable not responding to the last message because I was a little annoyed at the fact that it took that long and took me forever to get ready. Right? Just just selfishly as a girl like I was I was like, I don’t I love dressing that for you. But there is a different level of stress maybe the good kind of stress to getting ready for a date like that like double checking my eyeliner, make sure my wings aren’t lopsided, right?
Mickey Gordon 12:00
What did you want? You want people to like you it’s first impressions are lasting impressions. And when you go to the trouble. I mean, we went to a place that was I mean, 45 minutes almost an hour from our house. So we left with plenty of time we were there. 15 minutes early. So we were an hour in. You normally have dinner by then. So
Mallory Gordon 12:16
you were already like I snack. I had the protocol.
Mickey Gordon 12:20
You’re not okay when you’re hungry.
Mallory Gordon 12:23
A lot, bro.
Mickey Gordon 12:24
I’ve been in the lifestyle as you guys might remember for the two of you that are still listening to our show at this point. For since I was 17 years old, so a long fucking time in the lifestyle. I’ve never been stood up before last night. That’s actually true. We’ve never been stood up. We have never been stood up. But I personally had never been stood up. We together have never been stood up. That was a really good run. Yeah. To find. Everybody does. I think everybody gets stood up. We could probably do a whole episode on the emotions that come from getting stood up. You know, the initial one is pissed. And of course they said they were pissed off at their babysitter or whatever, but I’m pretty sure they knew before 45 minutes after where they were supposed to be.
Mallory Gordon 13:06
I’m already over that whether they did or did not. I just know that I’m in a position to go time is you know, precious and all those things that I don’t know that I give him a second shot.
Mickey Gordon 13:14
No, I won’t so in my opinion, they’re there. They’re dead to me. Off offer their heads. Hmm. Oh, yes. Queen of Hearts. Yeah, feed them to the wolves do not let them eat cake next. I’m not gonna go Oh, Marie Antoinette on them. Yeah, they don’t get cake. They’re just get their heads cut off. Wow.
Mallory Gordon 13:32
All right, moving on. So what we’re still booking dates. We have one next weekend. So
Mickey Gordon 13:36
actually, you’ve just got a message about other possible what’s going on? I
Mallory Gordon 13:42
know. I mean, I think we’re in a good place to meet new people. Yeah, right now, I think with the changes in our life and the way it’s pivoted. I think this is the perfect time for that. Let’s let’s do this. Yeah,
Mickey Gordon 13:52
I think why not? So that’s pretty cool. It’s just among, you know, other things that we have coming. So we got a date. You know, next weekend. I’m going to be in Austin this week. We’ve got PCAP coming up in October.
Mallory Gordon 14:04
I know I’m so excited. I’ve been thinking a lot about that event. What’s our favorite event? from a lifestyle perspective? Yes, there’s so much value to the event in and of itself, not only their parties and play rooms, but these different tracks and different personality archetypes that she brings in to help host which is always just amazing. And then obviously the guests, the guests there in Sofia funny that you find these moments and high value conversations, even when they’re very, very short. You know, for me, it’s a symbiotic a good way to explain this like or holistic, maybe it’s a holistic experience, when vocabularies
Mickey Gordon 14:48
could be mutually serving, so it can be symbiotic as well.
Mallory Gordon 14:51
I’m sorry, like you’re gonna have to check me and correct me because I know I’ve been using words and properly lately and I think it’s like
Mickey Gordon 14:58
because we have been doing the pod Fast I’ve been yelling at you for it. Yeah, that’s that’s probably why. Yeah. So Well, I think you do a great job and I’m not worried about it. You know, funny enough, we had a bunch of PCAP errs on our Hedo trip.
Mallory Gordon 15:13
We did
Mickey Gordon 15:14
amazingly round like, well, what the fuck like this is cool taking
Mallory Gordon 15:17
a step back and looking around and, and being able to identify like the different walks of life and personalities and where we may or may, where we met them or where they came from. It was just, it was such a dynamic and diverse group it was I cannot wait, it’s going to be an emotional episode. Just FYI, when we when we do the heater recap, it’s going to be all over
Mickey Gordon 15:38
the place. So it’s going to be a struggle. I mean, these guys will definitely cried or but we got experts coming up in like two or three weeks are
Mallory Gordon 15:45
so excited. This is the first industry event that we’ve attended since the change in circumstances in my life. So I’m super pumped.
Mickey Gordon 15:53
It looks a lot like a swinger party. And when I look at the agenda, yeah, the thing Well, lo night and like, they got theme nights and parties.
Mallory Gordon 16:01
Well, and to be fair, like we’ve been in corporate industry for a long time, and I think it’s architected in such a way that we’re very familiar with
Mickey Gordon 16:08
every other event I’ve ever been to, but more.
Mallory Gordon 16:10
Exactly, it’s just, yeah, yeah,
Mickey Gordon 16:13
we’re kiddies. Yeah. More boobs. Love dates. I’m so excited. Um, we’re going to see titties in Miami.
Mallory Gordon 16:19
It looks like it’s, it’s outlined to be very beneficial and professional.
Mickey Gordon 16:23
Yeah. Believe it or Yeah, I think we’re gonna get a lot out of it professionally, we
Mallory Gordon 16:27
won’t, I don’t know. But I am excited to go.
Mickey Gordon 16:30
It’s a write off. So I hope you get something. I think it’s gonna be great. I think maybe we can meet some other people that are on that side of our industry, right? Because I love this when your community, the adult lifestyle community,
Mallory Gordon 16:42
I love serving that community. We can take away from an event like this and learn and learning is I think one of the keys to life, right? I live in a happy life has always been open to learn more, and servicing them through like the toy store, for example.
Mickey Gordon 16:55
Well, and the toys are certainly part of why we’re going to XPS. But, you know, I think the biggest difference for the adult creator community is that they’re all out. So in the lifestyle community, we deal with a lot of discretion and people with different sorts of jobs that can’t be out in any capacity. And so to go to an event where everyone is out, and I wouldn’t say
Mallory Gordon 17:16
everyone, but I think the majority of them, the vast majority, I would think versus the swinger community, which most of them are not exactly,
Mickey Gordon 17:23
I think, yeah, it would be literally the mirror image, you know, where these people are probably a little more in, you know, to a certain extent that may not jive with our style, because while we’re out, we’re not overt or gratuitous about our behaviors. Generally speaking,
Mallory Gordon 17:39
I’m gonna go off the cuff here. And maybe you make a note of this. And I don’t care if you keep this in this episode, the difference between lifestyle and swinger it’s a conversation I had and the coffee date I had this week. Yeah, that and I didn’t dive deep into it with that person. But I think that is a perspective when you use that nomenclature that changes how they view it. Interest now just turning
Mickey Gordon 18:00
left maybe we have a future episode coming up Mallory everybody.
Mallory Gordon 18:06
VS Swinging Rando noodle let the wall she just
Mickey Gordon 18:08
threw it at my forehead just so you know. That’s alright. We’ll get back to that though. But yeah, we got X biz coming up there just after that last weekend of May. FYI, we’re going to be in Austin again. I
Mallory Gordon 18:19
cannot wait first why Bucky in love, Texas. But I love it even more so because we get to see some of our most favorite people on the planet G and Andrew from average swingers and we’re going to their charity bar crawl. And the list of people that we know and love that are coming just keeps growing as and I’m super pumped.
Mickey Gordon 18:37
It’s a bunch of people from Edo trip coming. There’s a few other people we can talk about that are coming peak operators that are coming and there’s some surprise guests coming. I mean, it’s it’s gonna be fun. Yes, I’m really looking forward to that Barker. Oh, we did it a couple years ago. It was what right after COVID I think because history was a ghost town. Yes. It was like crazy.
Mallory Gordon 18:56
Yeah. True story. Is is so much fun though. I’m looking for I can’t I cannot be around Jamie Angie and I have a good time is humans J
Mickey Gordon 19:05
I’ve said this before guys, Jay is one of my favorite human beings that walks this earth. He’s the most emotionally intelligent person I’ve ever known. intellectually. He’s dumb as a bag of hammers. But when it comes to his emotion, how I’m kidding, he
Mallory Gordon 19:18
better he says awful things about my man.
Mickey Gordon 19:22
No, he’s brilliant. He is one of the kindest and frankly, most personally influential people in my life. I absolutely love him. And I cannot wait to just spend some time. I mean, we’ll probably get shit faced drunk and make a fool of himself and I can’t wait to Sullivan.
Mallory Gordon 19:37
Limit an injury is like the kindest person on the planet. Like if you really have to be an awful human for her not to want to give you the shirt off her back. So
Mickey Gordon 19:45
I like when she gives me the shirt off her back. She knows my boobs. That’s a good thing. AJ did you know I love those two so much. I just can’t wait to see them and aren’t we going to do some boudoir photos?
Mallory Gordon 19:59
Are I’m so excited. I’ve never had professional photos done yet. Just so you know, your photos are fucking amazing. I think I’ve gotten pretty decent in taking my photos but like having a professional photo is a little nerve racking. So yeah, I found these people on Tik Tok and they do incredible almost like dreamscape style boudoir,
Mickey Gordon 20:18
which, which it looks good to me.
Mallory Gordon 20:21
So out of an image, this is just for me like I may you we may use them or share them at some point. But this is like something I’ve always wanted to do for myself. And I’m, I think probably ripcord. It’s a big birthday year for me. And I promised myself I’d be the fittest this year, like the healthiest version of me which I have to say since forever ever in my life. I am the healthiest version of myself.
Mickey Gordon 20:44
Yeah, you really are. And so two things about that. First of all, boudoir is the only French word. I know. So there we go. French now. You don’t know the words the lady Marmolada not one of them. Richie. coochie he scrubbed my crotch crickets? Yeah. No, no, that’s it. Not it. Okay.
Mallory Gordon 21:03
Okay. I can’t eat No, not even try it. Now that I’m on the
Mickey Gordon 21:08
itchy coochie scratchy. Ouchy. No. Anyway, so that’s gonna be
Mallory Gordon 21:15
no it means Do you want to sleep with me tonight? And friends? Yes, I took French I should actually know how to say this. But I sound like Peggy hill when she tries to speak Spanish.
Mickey Gordon 21:24
I can’t even I can’t even imitate you.
Mallory Gordon 21:28
That’s why there you go. Would you say to friends, well, you’re gonna just have to go through an ad and out you’re not doing it again.
Mickey Gordon 21:36
Okay. That’s alright, though. But look, guys, probably long winded for an intro for us. Matter of fact, we’re about six minutes over what we usually do for these. But that’s fine. This is our first time back in five months. I hope you guys absolutely love this introduction to Limavady Irish whiskey. It is a joint effort between Whistlepig and Limavady. So you’re not going to see it, it doesn’t. It actually says Whistlepig on the back of the bottle on the bottom. But on the front of the bottle. It’s just a sky blue label that says Limavady, you’re gonna find out the Irish whiskies like Bushmills and Redbreast, and powers. But it is a vastly different flavor profile than anything you’ve seen before. And if you want to check it out, you get a discount both on that and Whistlepig. So if you go to whistlepig.com, or if you go to limavady.com, and that’s li M AVADY. In use code casual swinger, you will get a discount on both of those amazing whiskey brands. So it’s not in the meat of this episode. That’s the only place you’re gonna find it again, that is whistlepig.com or limavady.com. And use code casual swinger for a discount.
Mallory Gordon 22:46
Love it. So excited. By the way, this is my favorite Irish whiskey and it goes really well in coffee. You’ll hear oh, yeah, we
Mickey Gordon 22:53
got some It’s my biggest recommendation. We do. We do
Mallory Gordon 22:56
the espresso martinis happening like as soon as we finish recording this.
Mickey Gordon 23:00
Oh, yeah, she’s gonna pour one for the next episode. We’re gonna record two episodes back to back tonight, guys.
Mallory Gordon 23:04
Yeah, yeah, well, also, so we have to plan our cocktails for the cocktail hour in two weeks.
Mickey Gordon 23:09
Yeah, we got some work to do tonight, but we’re gonna get to that without further ado, we’re gonna jump into this, but I’m gonna let Mallory do her thing. She’s not rusty. Watch what happens.
Mallory Gordon 23:17
I am totally rusty. I effed it up the first time. So we’re casual swimmer everywhere. You can find us at casual swingers.com That is not with an S Just FYI, casual swinger.com You can email us if you have questions or commentary at podcast at casual swinger.com. If you’d like to say something nice, feel free to check us out on iTunes and put in a review and if you don’t, you can email us and then we won’t read it. We are also on social media. That’s YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Although Twitter has shadowbanned so best of luck finding us there.
Mickey Gordon 23:48
Yeah, they hate us. We’ll talk about that in another pan. We’re also
Mallory Gordon 23:50
on the DVC dating sites which are STC SLS and Cassidy.
Mickey Gordon 23:53
That’ll do it folks. We’ll be back in a hot second with Darryl McNally and the traveling whiskey fairy Ingrid Rodriguez. You’ve been listening to casual swinger. We’re back This
Mallory Gordon 24:20
feels good to be back again. Yes,
Mickey Gordon 24:22
it feels like deja vu. It is we’re doing it again. Is
Mallory Gordon 24:26
there like copyright issues if we use like the Welcome Back? Kotter like
Mickey Gordon 24:30
the music Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back.
Mallory Gordon 24:33
Yeah, I’m not singing I don’t want to kill the last two listeners we have left on this planet.
Mickey Gordon 24:37
Oh, well. One of them is probably one of our children because that’s not inappropriate or uncomfortable at all.
Mallory Gordon 24:42
Yeah, you just made it awkward.
Mickey Gordon 24:43
That’s what I do. I’m not wearing pants. Actually, I am cool. I have six concussions. You guys are used to it by now. Hey, welcome back to casual swinger everybody. My name is Mickey.
Mallory Gordon 24:54
And I’m Mallory and I am going to let everyone know that you did forget underwear this weekend. So I actually
Mickey Gordon 24:58
did not wear underwear. On this weekend, I know now our guests are very uncomfortable in this room. This is our first podcast ever from the casual bar.
Mallory Gordon 25:08
So excited. I really feel this has to be a thing, because what’s it doing the ambience and the convenience of it all?
Mickey Gordon 25:14
Oh, well it is very convenient. We can get to the whiskey we can continue the conversation, we can slur our words we can do all the fun things we do. This is season five, episode two. We are calling this a tale of two tails. You guys are gonna find out why it’s until the two tails and why the fuck we’ve been gone for four months. But not today. Not today. I’m telling later we will get into some shit happened. We had a family member with cancer and we know Womp womp Yeah, my game not pressing sound effect buttons, frankly, because I don’t remember where they are the poor.
Mallory Gordon 25:41
I’m very happy because that is probably like my number two pet peeve is you’re you’re bored with your buttons and your sound effects.
Mickey Gordon 25:47
That’s your second pet peeve.
Mallory Gordon 25:49
But we just mean if I have to tell you Oh, that’s it?
Mickey Gordon 25:53
I can’t afford it.
Mallory Gordon 25:54
Yeah, okay. Anywho we are coming off at an amazing trip to Jamaica that we’re going to cover at a later date.
Mickey Gordon 26:00
Oh, yeah. So many fun things. I think we made some new listeners down there, which is pretty cool. So we’re gonna get past all of that. But why is this a tale of two tales. This is a tale of two tales because it’s not about getting NAS. No, it’s not about us. It’s not about two pieces of tail. It’s about a tale of two tails, two different tails, a pig’s tail and a dog’s tail. But which is kind of funny. Guys, you know, we love whiskey here on casual swinger. And we are back and we’re going to have so many stories for you guys. We have so much to tell you so much going on. But we had an opportunity. So we actually made our hiatus a little longer than we wanted to. When she told her friends. We got a thing and the Joneses that we were going to be back on April 1. And then I got a phone call the next day from the traveling whiskey fairy that said that the master distiller for Limavady, and the CEO was going to be in town from Ireland, like a month later, and I was like, Well, I guess we’re just gonna fucking wait.
Mallory Gordon 26:52
What? Yeah, spoiler alert. We are not alone in the casual bar.
Mickey Gordon 26:55
We are. We’re never alone in the casual bar or neighbors come over and drink our kids. Come drink put water in the bottles. It’s fine. Yeah,
Mallory Gordon 27:02
that’s true. Yeah,
Mickey Gordon 27:03
we had vodka freeze over once in this house. If you can believe that. And our kids were like, We don’t know what’s wrong and like you feel fucking chemistry. That’s okay, though. But hey, here at the table with us in the casual bar. Without further ado, we have the traveling whiskey fairy herself. She is the brand educator for the East for Whistlepig whiskey. Her name is Ingrid Rodriguez. You remember her from whiskey business. Ingrid. How you doing?
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 27:25
All I’m doing well. Thank you for having us. And I love the bar and all the pups
Mickey Gordon 27:30
are dogs here. There’s a lot of Whistlepig here too.
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 27:33
I saw it’s a beautiful bar.
Mickey Gordon 27:35
Yeah, you know, it’s I think you were actually the beginning of my problem with whiskey. I’m the beginning of a lot of problems.
Mallory Gordon 27:43
I was not gonna say problem. He definitely has a great affection
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 27:47
for them also a lot of affection.
Mickey Gordon 27:51
Actually, that’s funny. One of my friends affection for you is how I met us. happened some time ago. So and of course, my new favorite Irishman Darrell McHale, McNally Terrell McNally. I’m gonna say that again. Hopefully I’ll just delete it later, but I won’t remember. He’s the CEO and the master distiller for limb. Avadi Irish whiskey, Darrell, how are you my friend?
28:11
I’m great. It’s it’s great to be in Florida. It’s great to be in casual bar. It’s great to be drinking Limavady whiskey, you guys.
Mickey Gordon 28:17
i This is amazing. And by the way, I bought that Luma volume whiskey before you got here. So Wow. And I didn’t know you were coming. I actually bought it when you told me about it some time ago, because there’s a little easter egg on some of those butter is and one of those is never gonna get open for that reason. So I can fuck with you about it for all
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 28:32
time. Make sure Darryl signs up before he leaves. Oh,
Mickey Gordon 28:35
that’s a great plan. That’s even better play and sign the error bottle. I love it. Yeah. Just to rub it into angry.
28:42
Does that make it more valuable or less valuable?
Mickey Gordon 28:46
Emily every time she comes over so I can point it
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 28:48
out to her. But that’s that’s like rubbing is appropriate for this conversation. By the way,
Mickey Gordon 28:52
nothing belongs in the casual bar very much. So I’m not going to say that we’ve never done things we shouldn’t do in the space you’re sitting in. I’m just going to say that we’ve never hosted a podcast in the space. This is true because some kinky shit has gone. Anyway, anyway, off to the professional stuff. Let’s move on. So let’s talk a little bit we’re gonna talk to obviously Daryl, you’re the star of the show today. We want to talk just more about Irish whiskey and where you come from in the history of all of it in our listeners absolutely love whiskey on casual swinger. We talk about it all the time whiskey of the month. And spoiler alert, guys, the whiskey of the month for this month is going to be Limavady Irish whiskey because it meets all of our qualifications, in addition to being fucking good. So we’re gonna talk about that here in a little bit as well. But first, do me a favor introduce us to Limavady. Sure. introduce us to the brand. The town you come from. Yeah, I think your story is magical. That spoiler alert, folks, we actually recorded 15 minutes to this episode and something bad happens. We’re doing this a second time. So Darryl is going to do it again for us. and just tell us I mean, I believe if I recall now you were basically born in the bar. Yeah. So what happened? Where do you come from?
30:08
Yeah. So I actually live in Limavady. Luma valleys, Irish for leap of the dog. So you’ll see here and all the logos and T shirts that I wear Limavady leaping the dog, it’s a story of an Irish Wolfhound that actually jumped the river row to warn its master about an enemy ambush way back in the 16th century. So it actually saved the tone from certain death. And actually I always add a little bit to him not assured if this history is right but I always say it was Scottish come to learn how to make Irish whiskey as let’s face it, we meet we taught them how to make it like you know, but just didn’t teach them how to spell Louis. Like American whiskey Irish whiskey is gonna need you know what that means. means excellent.
Mickey Gordon 30:48
The extra E is
30:48
right now so we’ll have a valley is where it was where I was born and bred. It’s it’s where I was actually born into the Irish bar. Irish family bars were literally promoted my mother day one was taken to the family bar Day Two was poor than was perfect paint again us by the time it was two years old shaken up cocktails, you name it, they put Guinness in your bottle will normally have a lot of whiskey. And that’s probably stood the test of time because back home if you sneeze you get a little bit of whiskey or teasing a little bit of whiskey. So to this day, to this day in our I still sneeze and it was one of those trials and tribulations of becoming a master distiller in Ireland. So yeah, no love of art. He’s got a great story. I worked for Bushmills worked for Bush Mills was part of Irish distillers, Pernod Ricard, where IT professionals was part of Diageo. So worked for all the big guys if you like, and on the first of April, April Fool’s Day 2015 I was in I was asked if I would build a distillery down in Dublin so both Dublin Liberty’s distillery and launched the Dubliner dad rabbit and Dublin Liberty single malt, but there’s just something not right making something not right melt Mallory, but just there’s something just wasn’t right. I had to do something different. So it was actually sitting in the local bar on Friday night. And that relative who was a district attorney from New York, relative on my mother’s side, the McLaughlin’s actually come in to the bar tracing your family tree. Os Irish are terrible, like to generation. I have no clue who we are. But thank God, we have some Irish in the US who come and trace their family tree. She says, Do you know that our family actually own lumber Valley distillery in 1880. So this was really old Irish whiskey didn’t back to 1750 and my family on my mom’s side, the McLaughlin’s actually owned it nearly nearly there, me and my brother both looked at each other as we were sort of playing pool and finish an offer or whiskies, and the hairs in the back of the neck were stand up because here’s me master distiller Bushmills I’m one of the top distillers in Bushmills, and essentially only the two of them the two of us in the family. So you could almost say that the whiskey was rolling through the DNA, and we didn’t even know about it. So from that day, I says, right, I’m gonna get that brand, I’m gonna buy them a valley back, whoever owns it, and I’m gonna bring it back to life. I’m not stupid, because I’m in the business, essentially, 25 years, I know, we needed a distribution partner. I knew we needed somebody to get into the me and distributors and all the different 32 states that were in plus, were in some control states as well. So Whistlepig actually contacted me. I think there actually was an FBA guy dug into my office or something
Mallory Gordon 33:11
I was gonna say, did you like what you on the market where you work? No. Okay,
33:14
I literally had a 45 page presentation, which I built up you have after the event when I found out that way too long. That’s 45 pages of just all my thoughts, all my dreams, what the whiskey should be what it should taste like. So the grind work was done. And I got a phone call from the CEO of Whistlepig. He said, we really liked your story, because it’s real. It’s got history. It’s got heritage. It’s got another tail. It’s got a dog. Yeah, so both the dog Limavady Lipa, the dog. So essentially, 40 years after that we got asked for exclusivity. And we became partners with with what’s happening here in the US. Very different brand, you know, as Irish obviously, it’s got its own sort of credentials. This goes on history and heritage. But essentially, I say to people, I don’t mean you can call it whistle, pigs, Irish whiskey, but we try to keep the brand separate, obviously. But yeah, it’s the first sort of step into a different category for Whistlepig. And no better partner, get to meet Ingrid, all the different team across the US. So I fly into the states and you’re taking around shaking hands kissing babies, and you know, drinking them a valley whiskey in the Word.
Mallory Gordon 34:19
I’m glad you got that right. Because I usually say shaking babies and it doesn’t work.
Mickey Gordon 34:23
If you don’t like your baby. He
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 34:24
literally the first person that he met from the sales side of Whistlepig was me. Because for some reason, we decided and we always do all the whiskies that we launched for some reason are in August in Florida in 105 degree weather on the beach.
Mallory Gordon 34:39
Everyone wants to meet whiskey,
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 34:41
I meet Darrell and I was like, Ooh, you’re very white.
Mickey Gordon 34:45
He doesn’t look like an Irish man at all. You literally outside of the glasses because I have a friend who wears very similar glasses and he he’s kind of an Axe Murderer, but it’s you so you do favor him just a little minus the accent, but he’s Hail is fuck too. But you don’t look like an Irishman. Most of my Irish friends are gingers are soulless gingers, and you look like any I’m honestly until you start talking. You look like an A, what I would consider an educated American. Yeah, no. Well, actually I know that’s a hard that’s that’s an oxymoron. And Ingrid Ingrid’s trying not to spit whiskey all over the microphone.
Mallory Gordon 35:21
I’m just over here shaking my head. No, not making friends. Right. So prejudicial.
Mickey Gordon 35:26
Oh, that’s well, yeah, I know. I keep my own kind.
35:30
They talk about the dark iration. And really, that sort of European spammy State blog dark bronies dark hair. That’s really what the Irish were known for way before the Vikings and Viet it. You know, I always say to my wife who’s blonde and green eight. I say, hey, you know, our family was 100% Irish until like, we had a child. So part of Viking green as his allies, you know, blonde hair. So, ya know, we’re family. The dark Irish were known as which was dark featured, very Spanish looking. So yeah, so yeah, like a little bit of white look.
Mickey Gordon 36:03
I’ve got a tan. You’ve been in Florida for 12 hours.
36:06
We have a guy I believe in Adams in LA. So when we went to the most recent sales conference, he was me time because I’ve been traveling the US some watch recently. He was me more time the Irish tango. De La
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 36:18
La Tammy Whistlepig. Stuart. Meanwhile, I’m the whitest Porter.
Mickey Gordon 36:23
It looks a little like QB though.
Mallory Gordon 36:25
Oh, don’t get me started. Yes. Okay. Present. You know exactly
Mickey Gordon 36:29
what I’m talking about. Okay. Yeah, yeah. And it’s a good thing. It’s Beloved.
Mallory Gordon 36:33
Like he’s, he’s one of our favorite humans, the smartest people I’ve ever known.
Mickey Gordon 36:37
He’s an absolutely brilliant human being but he’s a weirdo. It’s a great thing.
36:43
There’s a fine line. He’s not that
Mallory Gordon 36:46
very, very intelligent, and an artist
Mickey Gordon 36:47
and artists on top of that, he makes some outlandish shit. As a matter of fact, there’s a bottle that I keep whiskey and up there that has an octopus on it. He’s the sculptor that made it. So he’s he’s very artistic and a creator. So going back to talking about creation a little bit, you know, here on casual swinger, we talk a lot about the history of whiskey in the history of whiskey in the United States guild dates back to the early 17 Excuse me, 1700s It goes back way further. I mean, you just mentioned obviously 1608 I
37:18
believe? Yeah.
Mickey Gordon 37:19
So how far back does it go in Ireland? How far back does Limavady go? It wasn’t just in your family let’s just talk about your family like Irish whiskey because we like to think we made this shit we talked about bourbon and Tennessee and corn and and what it takes to make a good what it takes to make whiskey what it takes to make it bourbon. I think we’re full of shit in this country will tell us how wrong we are.
37:41
All Irish I always say the Irish taught the Scots and obviously there’s so many Irish come across to the US. So they brought their their crafts, if you like the distillation crafts from the Irish, when they when they came across and their masters here to the US. I always say there’s 7 million people in Ireland and there’s 70 million Irish in the US. So that’s why there’s such a renaissance of Irish whiskey and Irish whiskey is just about to take over the seals of scotch whiskey in the US which is it’s
Mallory Gordon 38:07
incredible.
38:08
It’s it’s growing with screws and whiskey. So probably another reason another reason why Whistlepig maybe wanted to get in and the Irish whiskey kind of smartest. It’s on its own fire. But yeah, a little bit history. I joke where I live in Limavady. There was an area known as the road or Oh WTE used to spell it back in the day. Oh, but it’s aro ut like route 66. Us and it was an area across North Donegal North Derry where Limavady is into North Antrim were Bushmills us. So when I worked for Bush Mills, I would have traveled the world saying oh and 16 weeks a license was granted to Sir Thomas Phillips, who built Bush Mills, essentially. But when I did a little bit of history check through Thomas Phillips belt, new tone, Limavady. He lived in Limavady, his granddaughter married into the Alexander family who built the first distillery in Nevada in 1750. But listen, I don’t want to follow it with me. My friends are Bushmills it was master distiller and I love that job. But all I’m saying is that Limavady is a damn old Irish whiskey. Therefore, if it’s a damn old Irish whiskey, it’s a damn old, global old whiskey. So yeah, it’s about bringing not a new kid back to life. But bringing that old kid back to life. And the fact my family or didn’t at nearly it gives a real history and heritage and provenance nearly, because here’s me, my brother, distillers DNA running through your veins making whiskey. And essentially, it was a family tradition and handling. And we spoke earlier you were saying about your grandfather as well. And like, you know, it’s probably your love of whiskey as well comes from that. Truly. Yeah. Julie? Very much. So
Mickey Gordon 39:44
yeah, by the way, for those of you that and you know, for our friends that listen to wanderlust fingers, for example, because they’re very European and worldly. They use terms like what Darrell just use when he said it’s Providence, what he meant his feet for my American friends. What that is
Mallory Gordon 40:00
spent? Yeah, it feels very full circle that story in and of itself and hundreds of years in the making. Like I have goosebumps over here. meant to do. I’ve heard it once already.
Mickey Gordon 40:10
I’m sorry. I’ve had a bit of a technical issue. But yeah, what made you decide because you were a master distiller for Bush mill? Yeah. Which is not an easy thing to do. That’s a career achievement by itself. Right. You could have stopped right there. And been done. Yeah,
Mallory Gordon 40:27
you’re established you were doing well.
Mickey Gordon 40:28
So at some point, something in you said, I have to do this differently than I’m doing it right now. Yeah. Was it taste profit, love passion.
40:39
I think with Bushmills, you know, it was all I ever knew I’d cut my teeth there I become a master distiller there, still have a great love for Bushmills. But there was just something just missing there was something I knew I had to do. I wanted to build a distillery so a good opportunity to build Dublin Liberty’s distillery through through a company called quintessential brands in the UK. But then once they found out that my family owned Limavady, there was just that terror and ambition to bring that back to life because it closed in 1912. There was a huge renaissance of Irish whiskies. A lot of them knew a lot of them. Cool, maybe not so cool. But I wanted to just bring back that provenance. There was a paper article dating back to 1815, which I haven’t home. And it had Jemison sort of Jameson Whiskey, because Jameson was formed in 1780. And it also had Limavady malt whiskey. And he was me a malt purists because there was a tax put in malted barley in 1785, which meant a lot of distilleries would have substituted malted barley with on malted barley, making some of the Irish Whiskey a little bit later, I wanted to bring them a value back to life as being this is the authentic style of how Irish whiskey should be made 100% malted barley, full of flavor full of taste, bold, brash, stand up and cocktails, really hitting the cheeks if you like. You know, rather than you know, because I think a little bit in the last few years Irish whiskey has been seen as very late. And therefore the consumer who loves that sort of bold, brash rye, bourbon, they’re sort of feeling cheated a little bit with Irish whiskey. So I think we’re Limavady when I brought it back to life again, we got it. And the whiskey advocate just before Christmas, it was in the world, which Oh, my God, that was like the Oscars for me like, I made it all worthwhile. And we got 96 points just recently in the waning Wow, wow. That’s the sort of stuff that I know we’re on the right track. I know we’re, we’re doing something special. It’s also the only younger malt it’s only four and a half years and fertile bourbon casks, you get that lovely space vanilla. And then I flick it into Pedra hominis, which is the sweetest Sherry that you can get from from her Athan southern spin. So it’s quite a young malt which keeps the price profile at the price of a down below 50 bucks, which again, is important for consumers to have the mind of people said to me, I’d rather buy two bottles on my body than anything at 100 bucks on the market at the mouth, which again, is a nice complement to have. Plus it’s a single barrel. So every bottle is individually labeled with cast number and bottle number. So you’re getting a real super premiumness and also one cast the next slightly different so it’s a little bit of fun as well. Yeah,
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 43:12
you can do your own tasting with just three different or, for instance, the founders barrels as well.
Mickey Gordon 43:18
Now I can’t open it because he signed it
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 43:21
by another bottle.
Mallory Gordon 43:24
You know, I love that definitely does not drink for that price point. And that’s something I love. I love when I discover a new flavor either an Irish whiskey bourbon, or rye and I’m usually a bourbon girl. I started with scotch but now I’m I mostly stay in this this bourbon sector. But I love when I find that value. And I never make price point the meaning of whether I like something or not. But when I learned of the price point, you want to shout it from the rooftops, you’re like this drinks like I would pay four times that to have that experience because for us. It’s part of our culture. It’s part of who we are as people. You know, we make jokes all the time. We’re drunks, we don’t go to meetings because our meetings are here at the bar with our with our, with our whiskey. And I love that about the quality of the brain. And I said that the first time we tried it here the last time you were you were with us in great. Yeah,
Mickey Gordon 44:16
it was amazing. Obviously. It was so much fun to have you guys here. And obviously, it’s just one of the coolest things we’ve ever done. And then you had to go and make it cooler. Yeah, thanks.
Mallory Gordon 44:26
You’re welcome. It tastes like someone it was very purposefully made. Yes. And there’s there’s a lot of bourbons out there that have great profiles, but they they missing something. It’s like when your grandmother cooks you a meal versus when you go to a restaurant. Oh, sure. Right.
Mickey Gordon 44:40
And it’s a lot of times I bring bottles home and Mallory will look at me and go hey, how much was it and she knows that if it’s above a certain price point that it’s gonna gather dust in this bar, and she gets pissed at me about it.
Mallory Gordon 44:52
Okay, past I just want to live life now. We can’t take that with us when we’re
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 44:56
so maybe that is a wonderful Whistlepig collect
Mallory Gordon 45:00
Yeah, it is. It’s impressive, right?
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 45:03
It doesn’t suck talking about above price boy.
Mickey Gordon 45:05
Yeah, right. Well, there’s
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 45:06
my Whistlepig collection right there in there, whatever it was. I know you drink most of that.
Mickey Gordon 45:10
I do. There’s several of them are open. But, you know, when we talk about some of this stuff in Mallory’s made a great point, you know, that the price point is special. This is a 4999. Bottle, retail. And obviously, things vary up and down based on you know, the American whiskey craze that we’re going through today. And here on the show, and in whiskey business, we hadn’t grown before we talked about what makes a whiskey a whiskey or what makes a bourbon bourbon and that we have, you know, 25% corn or more corn and then you have your rye levels and things like that. What makes Irish whiskey, Irish whiskey other than the fact that you guys are making it in Ireland, what’s different about because a lot of these listeners are probably never tried an Irish whiskey. They see Bushmills they see the scotches the Dewar’s and the things like that out there. They may not understand what they’re buying, and we’re why that flavor profile is so wildly different from a corn based or a rye based or a wheat based whiskey. What’s different about Irish whiskey and why do you love it?
46:11
You know, Irish whiskey, going back to the single malt is 100% malted barley for Limavady. But other Irish whiskies will have a mix mashbill of malted and unmalted Barley, you always need there’s a bit of the technical bits and nobody fall asleep here. malted barley has a net natural NZ minute which actually helps break down the sugars during the motion process. So you need malted barley as part of the mash bill. But with the tax put in all the barley in 1785, a lot of the distilleries in Ireland were federal pan so much money to the British Crown, that they said, Oh, we’re not going to use 100% malted barley anymore, we’re going to use maybe 50% malted barley, and we’ll mix the other 50% With on malted barley, whether it be just green, barley, wheat beers, you know, whatever, whatever they could find oats was another big thing. So therefore, a lot of Irish whiskey is maybe more southern and Ireland, Irish distillers maybe, maybe have a lighter style with the pot style or single potstill as we know it, which is makes them all that non malted. I love it and wanted to stay true to the sort of authentic or traditional 100% mashbill malted barley,
Mickey Gordon 47:17
the Crown thanks you.
47:17
Yeah, yeah, we stay we stay true to the crown. You know, we just, we just had another ways. You know, there were I lived in a little place called Magilligan, just outside Limavady, there was something like 200 illicit stills around the mountain called Banana, which Ingrid you got to see when we were back home. So that’s really were farmers. We were building the distillery so we’re looking right up at banana mountain with a Game of Thrones was actually filmed a lot of the Game of Thrones that’s when the Dothraki come round the mountain to the dragon had landed there. That’s actually the back of my garden. No kidding, because my mom actually says it’s all the signs do t got got what? Not it’s Game of Thrones, and I’m going into the middle of a mistake of trying to explain to my mom
Mallory Gordon 48:02
long conversation wasn’t
48:06
for the for retiral Miko, okay, just leave it just leave and we get to eat Whiskey. Whiskey.
Mickey Gordon 48:11
Tenaris is related to Ingrid, she’s the mother of cats.
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 48:15
Definitely, definitely. Really funny. We were actually in Ireland last year with a bunch of bartenders for a Limavady competition that we did. And they took us to the hedges, which are very popular in the Game of Thrones. And our tour guide was laughing because she said I couldn’t watch Game of Thrones because so many of my friends were extras in the movie, and in the show that it legitimately just threw me off like a big Oh, look. That’s daddy. Why is Daddy dying and Game of Thrones?
Mallory Gordon 48:43
It broke the illusion. Yeah, that’s funny anymore.
48:46
That’s hilarious. No, so where we live in where there still will be in Limavady. It’s such a beautiful part of the North of Ireland. So you ever get a chance to go there? It’s it is truly magnificent. So So yes, so the bar was born into Ingrid wants me to make sure and see this. So when I when I was born into the bar, it wasn’t known as the blues and salad saddles. It was actually called the mallard as an after the mallard duck because a lot of ducks would flew around. It was a bar after ducks. Yeah, so there’s a breed a dog called the Mahler Yeah. So that where I actually was born into it was called the mallard bar because of all the dogs and whatnot. So fast forward 48 years. And I brought my friends over here from little peek over to show them where I was born. And it’s got the Swinging doors and part of the Swinging doors.
Mickey Gordon 49:35
Like Swinging your very
49:37
favorite so Swinging doors into the Blazing Saddles with with a buffalo head as you go in a few American flag John
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 49:43
Wayne video. Shit. It says a sign that says we serve American pancakes. It was
Mickey Gordon 49:51
a mindfuck for you, Ingrid.
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 49:53
It was hilarious. We had a gentleman with us that was from Texas. And he said I didn’t know that I was coming to Ireland to go back to Texas. Wow. It was great though it is. The best way to put it is it’s their idea of an American western bar as much as some of our Irish bars our idea of Irish but like
Mallory Gordon 50:11
it’s polite parody. Sure, okay.
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 50:16
There was definitely a wall of Jack Daniels. There was a couple of guns lying around a couple of American flags. It was great. Everybody was super nice. His dad was actually behind the bar pouring us whiskey. So that was lovely. And he brought one of which dogs did you bring?
50:30
Yes. Well, I have to Newfoundland dogs. So huge dogs. Yeah, so but 185 points, you’ll use it but also the
Mickey Gordon 50:38
casual dogs don’t bother you at all. No, no, no, no, they’re.
50:42
They’re tiny. Absolutely love large. Yeah. So you’ll get about 185 pounds and Jana, yogi’s Alonso new phone line. So he’s black and wait. Jana is an Irish spotted new phone which has a phone line, which is quite a unique breed to fit late within the new new phone and family. So we’re trying to trying to breed them at the minute video. He’s not really getting it at the minute but we’ll
Mickey Gordon 51:07
play him some doggy porn.
51:09
Oh, yeah, definitely. Definitely. So yeah, so the dogs, the dogs are massive. So we brought them over to the bar. My dad he came out of retirement went behind the bar. Wow, shoo, shoo the team. Just how it’s done. reminisce about what it was like back in the day when I was arrived from that hospital. And we had the music and all that good stuff. So yeah,
Mickey Gordon 51:27
were you conceived in the same bar?
51:29
Probably. Among the dad jokes of my dad, my dad’s mother was originally from Donegal. So Donegal, and there is two neighboring counties. So my dad always makes the joke. He says, Oh, I took you down to Donegal. And your mom brought you back. Because we used to go there at the weekend. So it was a running joke in our house.
Mickey Gordon 51:48
That’s fantastic. So you know you we’ve talked a little bit and there’s a there’s a term that keeps coming up. You keep we talked about malted barley. Sure. What does it mean to malt? Or an in single malt versus double malt?
52:01
Yep. So the, the process of malted barley is if you could imagine a little barley corn like this.
Mickey Gordon 52:06
So he’s making an OK symbol with his hand right now. But yeah,
52:10
so little malted barley, corn, that actually takes up the food and water and all the food reserves if you’d like to grow into a plant. So the barley corn will swell and swell as the sugars are gathered on here. And as soon as it kicks out is that lack respire to grow into a plant, you actually dry it. So the process of molten barley is actually tricking it into thinking that it’s in the ground with all the food reserves and oxygen. And just as it’s about to grow into a plant, you dry it. So you’re locking in all those sugars that’s needed to grow that plant. And as
Mickey Gordon 52:42
you’re crushing plants dreams of being something more,
52:45
yeah, but look at what you’re making.
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 52:46
More is whiskey, this is their dream. Yeah. So they just didn’t know they will be ingested.
52:53
So then you have the malted barley, which is a sweeter if you like a sweeter version of green barley or any of the oats or something like that. So I always use the terminology if you can imagine a blended whiskey, you have green whiskey, and you have malted whiskey. If you imagine the blank canvas, blank canvas, you need the blank canvas, that’s what the green brings to blended whiskey, ultimately, is the reason why you bought the picture. The colors, the sights and sounds. So to me, 100% malted barley, is that picture, your most famous picture, the nicest whiskey could ever taste. So it brings out creative flair to it. And it’s sort of stopping back all that years of history and taxes and the British Crown, getting involved to tamper, making a good whiskey. Nobody. I’m bringing that right back, keeping all those nice parts of it and keeping it all into like a super premium whiskey,
Mickey Gordon 53:43
which is absolutely awesome. So your creativity, what you’ve created Ingrid, in your history, in the bartenders Guild, and what you’ve done in Florida and South Florida, with bartenders, you take these super premium products, these these whiskies and you turn them into something that people that don’t like liquor drink, right? I mean, that’s the thing, right? I mean, here in America, it’s first of all, we have this taste for awful beer that we seem to consume madly until you put the wrong person on the can. And then you know, it’s I’m sorry, I’m making political jokes again. But you know, with cocktails craft cocktails or reach always they’re a fucking rage.
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 54:28
I mean, let’s be fair cocktails were created to actually kind of mask some of the whiskey exactly
Mickey Gordon 54:33
it’s but I think cocktails were maybe were made to mask shit whiskey fair, but now we have all these amazing drinks that can be made and and I don’t know as a spirits creator is somebody that your passion is the spirit itself that these out these cocktails maybe mask the flavor of it a little bit which might not be okay by your standards. So I’ll get to you in a second. But Ingrid as as a former bartender and is the leader of the bartender Gildan all the experience you have, what are some of the most famous drinks or popular drinks that you can think of that use Irish whiskies? And which one would you choose for Limavady and why?
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 55:11
So so first of all, I think that a great bartender can accentuate and highlight a whiskey with whatever components that are in it. I believe that a lot of the bartenders nowadays are looking to actually create the exponential experience for the people that are behind the bar. Limavady does have a little bit of a different flavor profile than some of your traditional Irish whiskies that we’re used to in the United States. For the most part, people aren’t making cocktails out of the powers and the red spots and the Nippo castles of the world even some of the Bish Bushmills are not being made into cocktails as well. You’ll the majority will find are going to be in that Jameson Tulum or do line and there’s nothing wrong with that. The the PX Sherry that you find in the Limavady lends itself to a much much richer like I love espresso martinis, and personally I think God because this is the way of the spirit world I’ll never be hired by a vodka brand. It legitimately enhances the flavor. I as you guys know love to put whiskey in every cocktail and get my hands on. So another one that I love is like a Paloma, which is a grapefruit cocktail. Limavady goes fantastic with those grapefruit flavor profiles. Yeah, Irish whiskey and grapefruit. Oh, it’s absolutely fantastic. We found out in a very fun way that it also goes really well with watermelon, Red Bull and a little bit of lemon. It makes a great shot for some reason. But when you’re talking about the Limavady because of that px Sherry And the malted Berlina if you have anything melon so strawberry, anything strawberry goes well with it. So a smash. It goes fantastic with cherry as well. I did a hibiscus red tea cocktail with it that went really well. So it’s more of a think about something that’s supposed to be rich and have more of an endeavor to it. And Limavady can fill in that space. But of course, in all whiskey world, it makes a fantastic old fashion as well as Gerald just had one for lunch actually at Raglan road.
Mickey Gordon 57:05
No kidding.
57:06
No kid could add to I’ve had several sets it Yeah, so I was in Vegas. They were just after St. Patrick’s Day. So we have a partner nine fine Irishman, which is the Amish bar in New York, New York. So they make their old fashions with them. Avati because he just thought oh my god wanted an Irish bar to we want to make our old fashions with with a whiskey that can stand out. more robust. Limavady was ticking that box, the PX sweetness coming through. I only matured and first fill bourbon Cassie, have that lovely space, even the lovely Roscommon three, but there’s no burn and then you have the PX coming through. They wanted something premium, but they also again, with the cost we were talking about there. They wanted a cost that could stand up so that wasn’t a $25 cocktail. It was not so the 50 bucks a bottle or less meant that they could sell the cocktail at the right price for for maximum poultry. Because let’s face it, it’s it’s a world where people need to make money as well. Yeah, obviously you need the quality you need in order Magnin needs luck. Well the bottle looks well. But yeah, so it was it was quite nice for me to sit and have lunch with my wife and the nine fine Irishman and see three bottles of Limavady disappear. The news for all fashion so sweat on those sort of hairs in the back of your neck. God this is this is good to know if we can get this poultry on the Florida get people to taste it. Florida is a huge cocktail market. And Limavady has that brashness and boldness to pull through so just test it. That is all I can say
Mickey Gordon 58:36
liquor to lips is the challenge in spirits marketing
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 58:39
sips to lips. Yeah, yeah, I would say also for those of you that are interested in cocktails, if you go to either the website limavady.com There is an entire section of recipes. And we encourage you when you’re sitting at home, you’d be surprised what’s in your refrigerator that can make a great cocktail. Feel free to play around us different sugars, different honeys, whatever you have. But I will tell you for the most part, you’re going to end up with coffee.
Mickey Gordon 59:04
Alright, so So Irish Coffee is a thing.
Mallory Gordon 59:07
I’m telling you mine is legit. Irish. Mallory has a
Mickey Gordon 59:10
coffee cup in her hand right now this is I love bourbon and the word fuck yeah. And you’re drinking Limavady and coffee right?
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 59:17
I call it my keto friendly Irish coffee because all you need is black coffee. A bourbon cream that’s legitimately just bourbon and cream or a fresh cream and Limavady no extra sugar
Mallory Gordon 59:28
Yeah, no. I have like a small spots splash on heavy cream maybe like half tablespoon in here antacids
59:34
- Sweet. Yeah. Through the natural sweetness.
Mickey Gordon 59:37
All right. Well, I don’t drink coffee. I think coffee tastes like hot assholes.
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 59:41
Which is also an interesting conversation.
Mallory Gordon 59:44
I love that it makes a great spin on a toddy because you love hunty like to drink like a chai tea right now.
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 59:52
I’m trying to come up with a recipe that’s a Luma body egg cream because I’m Latin. We love egg creams. So when I do that, I’ll send that to you. That’s right. Isn’t
Mallory Gordon 1:00:00
that like a popular drink in the soda shops like FFTs? Okay.
Mickey Gordon 1:00:05
Ingrid because she is so incredibly well spoken as person. But when she gets her Latina on is one of the funniest fucking things you’ll ever hear in your life because she just snaps. And she just literally straight up turns like she sounds like she’s from the streets in New York,
Mallory Gordon 1:00:19
kind of like, I am like he’s from the New York hills of West Virginia after you’ve had a few too many.
Mickey Gordon 1:00:25
So now we’re calling each other out at this table.
1:00:28
I’m from Texas, can you tell me you’re on it?
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 1:00:34
He’s from a small town in the middle of the state.
1:00:37
I always tell it was we were in the raglan road today and was we were doing a staff training for all the staff. So I was telling them a couple of stories of it back back home in Ireland. So my grandfather, my grandfather married my grandmother. She was 18. She was 18. He was 45. So you know, bit of a bit of a Whoa,
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 1:00:57
do you say she was 10? No, it didn’t it?
Mickey Gordon 1:01:00
She was she was either eight of her and they were 10. Okay,
1:01:03
she was 18. He was 45. And they had a town of a family, you know, oh, etc. But back home and Ireland when they move out. He was still out there. So my grandfather lived to his 96 and had 70. Really grandchildren. So that’s the whiskey by the way.
Mickey Gordon 1:01:17
Hell, it was 70 where they give it to the girls or the guys the question. Yeah, both.
1:01:23
So he actually the half bottle in his hip pocket. And he in Ireland that used to go visit and people to tell him what happened that day, because there was no TVs or anything any fun to do. So it was a January evening and he went out and was frosty. And he actually slipped and fell. And all he could feel was the blood down the leg. And he was pleased God, like that’d be blood and not my wrist. My level of risk.
Mickey Gordon 1:01:48
You know, it’s funny that you mentioned that. So back when we lived in Virginia, we used to we had a big ass fire pit. We just talked about this this weekend, my uncle just moved to this area. And it was really it’s really great to have family around again, to be perfectly honest with you. But it’s we talked about what we used to do. And what we used to do is, we would we never knew, honestly how a Friday or Saturday night was going to turn out at our house. We never invited anybody. We didn’t call people and say that we were going to have a thing, we would just light the fire. And when we lit the fire, we would pull up some chairs and just see what happens. And some nights it would be three people and some nights it would be 40 sitting around the fire.
Mallory Gordon 1:02:31
Really, a lot of great memories were created there. Yeah, very much. And it was kind of awesome. Like, I’m not gonna lie. There’s a reason why you’re not allowed to be like a cult leader or like a religious leader. Because I would stand from our deck and look down and you’d be holding cord around this fire that literally looked like the Grand Pooh bah was giving the spoken word of the weekend to his followers. And it was both endearing and a little disturbing.
Mickey Gordon 1:02:55
Little terrifying. She won’t let me buy a church guys. I’ve tried twice, dude, it’s
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 1:02:59
tax free. What are you talking about?
Mallory Gordon 1:03:01
We actually looked at property that had one on site that need it was in disrepair, and I looked at him I was like, just on principle alone. I have to say no. Because this could turn out to be something I’m not prepared for.
Mickey Gordon 1:03:11
I was going to perfect the art of blaspheming Ah, but my point is, whiskey played a part in that every time that the story is that got told and the camaraderie and the sharing, and other stories that were told that I had nothing to do with that I’ll never forget. And I think it’s pretty amazing that you’re sitting here telling me stories about your grandfather, your great grandfather. And as I told you, when we first met my grandfather was a moonshine, or my great grandfather was a moonshine. And the stories that I heard within we were jars because as Mallory soup, softly pointed out, you know, mountains of West Virginia, that’s where we were. And the stories and the fire pits and the piles of wood in my job when I was young was to carry the wood which sucks by the way. That’s the worst part about having a steel anywhere near you is having to feed the fucker all night long.
1:04:05
That temperature up temperatures guys stay the same.
Mickey Gordon 1:04:07
You kid can’t be too hot, it can’t get cold. Right because the mash has to stay uniform temperature at all times. And and this is not stuff we’ve ever covered with you guys here on the show. If you guys ever come to one of our whiskey tastings and you want to hear how the sausage is made, I’m happy to explain it to you. But me to explain it now would make poor Darryl go to sleep, because he knows how to make whiskey. But it’s so cool to hear that all the way across the pond. It’s the same thing. Yeah. It’s about family, and stories and history and passion and love. And now for you. It’s a business and it’s a business. It’s born of those things.
1:04:48
Yeah, absolutely. But handed down from one generation to the next. So like as you were saying your grandfather their moon shiner. You know it’s a boat. Every good distiller moonshine or poaching maker. It’s all been handled that way. Part of distillation because that’s what it is an art of distillation. distillation, the meaning of distillation is separating a liquid with different boiling points to separate the liquids with different boiling points. So we have methanol, which boils off at 21 degrees Celsius. So it goes right up to stol straight away. And so somebody goes, many members, alcohol fileManager, there’s ethanol, there’s butanol, there’s ISO, alcohol, there’s propanol, it’s about getting the right levels of each of those members of the family without making anybody blind. logging in and off ethanol to make them happy. But it’s still maintaining those little bits of all the other members of the alcohol family to give that taste, you know, the astor’s the ethers, the acid aldehydes, all those flavors that you want to keep in there, but not taste like metal, and not just like metal or sulfur or anything like that. So it’s the art of distillation is one thing, then the blending or the cask maturation is just, it’s just an art in itself. Yeah, so wisdom of art is a really useful bourbon Cassie of maximum spice vanilla, then you put it into px. So again, it’s those sort of years of knowing what works on paper, I kept them about in the sort of the drawing room if you like, or office hadn’t that nobody else would get it. And I knew this was going to work on paper. And then when you get the accolades of eath with whiskey advocate and 96 points with wine enthusiasts behind Mallory Reiner, by the way, is it Yeah, that that’s what makes it all worthwhile. That’s what makes it just makes it all worthwhile. And as well as that getting to meet good people getting to work with good people. And yeah, just to be able to bring them a value back to life for the family. So this is going to stop haunting me.
Mickey Gordon 1:06:39
Wanting that humping.
1:06:41
pontine hottie Irish accent has got me into a lot of ball.
Mickey Gordon 1:06:48
Hey, girls love Irish accents here in America. This is true. You’re a popular guy. You did. We talked about something here. And you know we’re we’re coming toward the the last quarter of this conversation. And the last thing before lips that a whiskey ever really sees is the barrel. So Ingrid mentioned a little while ago. PX sherry. But we didn’t talk about what it is. So here in America, when we make whiskey or bourbon, it spends at least a portion of its life unless it’s a blend or it’s a finished whiskey and white charred white oak American barrels. That’s how we make American whiskey bourbon. Containers are all right. I’m a stickler Ingrid can’t help but correct me folks. Always.
Mallory Gordon 1:07:31
She’s so glad I’m not the only one in the room.
Mickey Gordon 1:07:35
I said it when she got here that she was going to create Remember when I said she was gonna correct me eventually it happens. All right, so. But my point is that not all whiskies or not all, not all spirits are aged the same way. And we’ve used px Sherry a couple of times, tell us what you age your whiskey in and why and what it does, because and Ingrid is famous for this. I’ve said it a few times since then. So we made her famous work because I call her out every time we do the word does the work. What would you use? And why
1:08:06
yet? Well, the definition of maturation with the definition of using wood to mature your spirit is casks of American oak or European oak of less than 700 liters and sighs matured for a minimum of three years before you can actually call an Irish whiskey and Irish whiskey before.
Mickey Gordon 1:08:28
So that’s been three years. Yep. So
1:08:29
the the legal definition to think it’s a 1981 Irish whiskey Act is that containers or oak barrels of less than 700 liters in size matured for a minimum of three years, then you can officially call it an Irish whiskey. So with with Limavady it’s 100% malted barley, it’s in a cask of less than 700 liters because it’s a 200 liter. It’s an American barrel that comes across the pond. It’s been used for one cycle of bourbon or re so we we actually buy them from a company called Kelvin cooperage. In Kentucky. We ship it across, we will use it only once for four and a half years or mature the value from Spirit to four and a half year old whiskey will then take it out of the first fill bourbon and finish it and Pedra Yemenis. So I have a company I deal with in Spain called Antonio pay as lobata. It would be a company I’ve ever dealt with when I worked for Irish distillers back in the day. So it’s very similar to the cast that you use for Redbreast. So I get them to get me a PX which is pad that I have an ace. So there’s five different versions of sherry. So there’s phenol, which is a dry sherry Amontillado. Oloroso which most distilleries will use Oloroso. Then you have a Cream Sherry. And then the very top of that list is Petra Jimenez which is the sweetest of sweet and it’s almost like a trickle if you like, you put it in vanilla ice cream. Yeah. And it’s almost like you know, it’s something you would put as a dessert. So I get the bodega and harass to get really, really old European oak casks so there’s not too much wood coming through them. And I get them to re season with Pedra Yemenis for two two and a half years, which gives that really, really sweet TS profile, which we can pull them from Nevada and the finish. So the finishing them of valleys are very short, three, four months, maximum six months, but it gives that lovely flavor profile that you get when it gives them a value that sweetness, dark summer fruits. Wow, all that good. So it’s a mix American oak, European oak, px finish, Don, there’s a lesson. So you you move
Mickey Gordon 1:10:30
your liquid around a lot. Yeah. You do. I mean, that’s this is an art.
1:10:35
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. There’s a lot of non Irish whiskies out there that just use generic bourbon, first of all, or second, or third fill. So the whiskey has become a little bit generic. Whereas I wanted to have a bit of a sort of head of that px, just to make that slightly different than at Islam of it against other single malt or other blended whiskies of the similar age. They just don’t compare. Now a PX just pulls pulls out that sweetness.
Mallory Gordon 1:11:00
Yeah, it’s definitely a standout definitely. On the much sweeter side.
Mickey Gordon 1:11:05
Very, very cool. What so a lot of American whiskey, I mean, looking at the wall behind you, I have everything from three year, which would be the burning chair, for example. And they call it burning chair for reasons that burns your soul when you drink it. But there’s, there’s quite a few others up there that go all the way up to 23 year, why of age statements become all the rage and Irish whiskey seems to be a nice from start to finish. No one really talks about it. What is what is the value in age? And where is the sweet spot? In your opinion?
1:11:41
Yeah, well, I think Irish whiskey has been so successful. It’s grown in double digit growth. So if you sort of look back, and how we would plan that as master distillers maybe 1015 years ago, we weren’t mandated off stocks. So therefore, no, there’s not a lot of aged Irish whiskey about. So we have had to get a little bit more creative and getting that sort of similar taste profile. So with some of it, the PX is sort of makes it taste a lot older than it actually is. Because essentially is 45 years old, single malt. Good for the price, you know, keeps the blue the 50 bucks as we spoke about earlier, but taste quality, there’s quality there. There’s sweetness, there’s depth, there’s character. We don’t have much age whiskey in Ireland, the distilleries have been built. It’s so popular. It’s not getting a chance to actually get old.
Mickey Gordon 1:12:27
Read the Rick house and
1:12:28
you said Okay, three years. Yep. Bartlett, Senator. Senator. Senator. Yes. So, yeah, well, we will we eventually get some age molds again. Absolutely. That’s something I plan to do for Limavady. We actually have some research and development there. We’ve finished some of it and some psyche casts on Marsala. I’m a Rooney Rallo. So definitely the next time we’re in Florida, we’ll bring you some samples. We haven’t released them yet. We haven’t released them
Mickey Gordon 1:12:53
recorded. holding you to that shit.
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 1:12:55
Yeah, they are pretty fantastic. Yeah,
Mallory Gordon 1:12:58
it really does live in this like, perfect, like middle ground where it’s accessible. But it drinks better than the price point is. So you can have it neat. You can mix it and not feel guilty about mixing it because we do have a few bottles up there. And I’m not gonna lie, that I’d rather mix it than drink it straight. Just because the profile, it’s not fitting for me. And at the price point, it’s a little disappointing, because I want to be able to drink it neat when I purchased it at that cost, if that makes sense.
Mickey Gordon 1:13:26
Oh, completely. I think they were in complete agreement about that I
Mallory Gordon 1:13:30
need to be a Swiss army knife. Yeah,
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 1:13:33
I would like to point out something about the comment that you just made so. So I always say that age doesn’t mean a whiskey is better, it just actually means that it’s older. And depending on what that mash bill is, and that base bill is will depend on how it actually bleeds out that barrel. Some people like things that are overlooked, some people don’t. So keep that in mind. But at the same time, a lot of the cost that’s associated with a higher age statement comes from the fact that it’s very expensive 2030 years ago, to assume that you’re going to have a whiskey market that’s happening today, storing those barrels, the angel’s share, everything that comes out of that barrel goes into that expense, there’s a lot of labor that’s included in making whiskey. So when you’re talking about these 18, of course, Whistlepig has some age or older age statements. But when you’re talking about this whiskey, there’s so much care that’s taken in those barrels to make sure there’s still a product that exists that that care costs at the end of it. So when you’re talking expense, that’s where that comes from. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that that whiskey is going to be better for your palate,
Mickey Gordon 1:14:35
which is huge. Now, there are other factors about whiskey now Ingrid, I know that there are things I can get away with saying that you can’t I say a lot of shit they make you sad. I’ve seen you blush, which if you can make a Hispanic girl blush, you’re doing good work. Just you know, but it’s I see a lot of people that look at the color of a whiskey and they try to decide whether it’s good whiskey or not. Based on its color, because people have never seen food coloring or caramel before, I guess. Do you believe that in that age as whiskey ages, and because I mean, I’m looking at a 23 year bottle right now, which is one of my prized possessions? That’s practically tar. I mean, it’s been it’s the last thing that came out of that fucking barrel before dirt, right? I mean, there’s just nothing left. And I think it’s amazing to own but I don’t know that it’s the most amazing thing to drink.
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 1:15:27
So it goes back to exactly what I said like the so the color is coming off the barrel. Obviously, if you char a barrel, and you’re putting the wood into it, the longer it sits there, the more it’s going to pull from that barrel. Sure.
Mallory Gordon 1:15:37
And it depends on the level of char absolutely
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 1:15:39
and first use as
1:15:40
well. Because the first use Yeah, you know what, you’re gonna get a lot more levers and colors coming from something that’s been used before because when we bring the cast to Ireland, they’ve had one cycle of bourbon through at least sucked all the the color and that orangey burnt sort of Yeah, levers that you get and bourbons and rice. So what’s left after that? No, you’re still the first film lighter. Later burnt orange. Yeah, and then a b two years we say which is one time used for Irish be slightly later because then a lot of bland and takes part even within single malt we have bourbon first fill bourbon, second filled bourbon, third fill Sherry, first fill Sherry second fill, and you mix them all together in the right proportions, still a single malt, but you’re mixing different qualities of casks and whiskey altogether to get this flavor. With limit value. We don’t do that because every Cask is bottled individually. So therefore, you get slight differences between one cast and the other. Sure, that’s half the fun of it.
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 1:16:34
And also color color is deceiving. So it goes back to what I said like everything is personal palette, right? So some people really like when something’s been sitting in a long time and oak and they’re picking up their flavors. But also, for instance, if we move a whiskey, maybe it’s a four year or five year whiskey, and we move it into, say a Cabernet barrel. The Cabernet color is also going to bleed into that whiskey. Does it mean it’s better, that’s up to you not up to us.
Mickey Gordon 1:17:02
Just read turn you on?
Ingrid Rodriguez – The Traveling Whiskey Fairy 1:17:04
Possibly. But so a lot of the times the visual effects that are a lot of its marketing, the age, the color, even the proof doesn’t really tell you anything about the quality of that whiskey. Proof will tell you get drunk faster. And maybe it’s got more ethanol that’s about it. Color can tell you the cast that it’s finished in and how long it’s been there. But at the end of the day, it’s your own personal palette that’s going to tell you whether you like it or not. And the whiskey family is so large that people can love our stuff or hate our stuff. But either which way there’s something in the whiskey world that they’re going to like.
Mickey Gordon 1:17:40
That is awesome. I think we’ve covered a ton right here. I mean, we’ve talked about what makes Irish whiskey whiskey how long it spends in the barrel, what may I mean, obviously, malted barley versus corn and rye and wheat and all the things Is there anything malodor you can think of we haven’t really covered anything. I love this shit. By the way. This is like to me, this is just sitting around the table with four people that are friends that love whiskey talking, which is cool.
Mallory Gordon 1:18:07
We always talk about like we’re top of the funnel and we do this in pretty much any subject we cover, especially on the show introduced so if I were to drink Irish whiskey, specifically aluminum body for the first time, brand new to it on my palate, how would you recommend I drink it and feel free to give me one or two different exams?
1:18:27
I think I think the best way is to try it with one cube of ice. Okay, so I always say it’s 92 prefer 46% ABV. If somebody’s drinking Irish whiskey, it’s about he’s got the depth the quality for it to be a sip and mosquito doesn’t even be shot Yes, or no problem as well. So yeah, limma Valley separate, let the smell I like whiskey a little bit cooler. Don’t let the ice cube melt completely. Just let it like open the whiskey up. And you’ll see actually the water if you like sort of almost layering through the future loins of the whiskey separate down and don’t let the ice cube melt completely because then you’ve gone too far made a little bit too watery from my lake and that’ll give you the characteristics of the whiskey. You’ll get the spice you get the vanilla, you’ll get the almost like a little bit of chili in the tongue. You’ll get the PX sweetness. You’ll get the maltiness up here. Yeah. And then you’ll get the new burn. So you’re absolutely bounced the whole way down. No burn whatsoever. And you’ll get a robust, beautiful whiskey. Yeah, I actually feel like doing well, I have to do this one. Oh, yeah. My wife will kill me so sorry. clit. So four things an Irish man loves to do. He used to cheat and he used to steal. Here’s the Phaeton and he used to drink. If you’re gonna cheat, which are you cheat death. If you’re gonna steal make sure you steal your sweethearts Hardaway if you’re going to fight, fight free bodies. And if you’re going to drink, regular videos, whiskey and the casual bar
Mickey Gordon 1:19:59
that oh All right, that was perfect. Oh my gosh, that
Mallory Gordon 1:20:05
is delicious. Yeah, I do love it love it is going into casual cocktail for sure.
Mickey Gordon 1:20:09
Oh, yeah, it’ll be there. We’re doing that in just a couple of weeks here for some folks, I’m gonna ask you one last question before we check out here today. A lot of the folks we’ve met in the whiskey business, are chemists classically trained, I mean, you know, scholars of chemistry, but I’ve met other people. And then I have the feeling I know which one you are already. But I’ve, I’ve met other people who were just born to distill. And they picked up the chemistry along the way. That’s it. That’s exactly on the ladder. I was just gonna say which one are you? Yeah. And do you think there’s a difference? Do you think that something is lost in translation when we make the science and not passion
1:20:52
yet, so I actually when I was doing my A levels, which is your equivalent of like you’re leaving before you go to college or university, I studied the three sciences. And somewhat, I don’t care what anybody says, you don’t know exactly what you want to be when you’re 18 years old, you’re still sort of thinking and learning and finding your way. So I did the three sciences going to go into medicine, it’s going to go into pharmacy gonna go into biochemistry, which would have been pretty close to what it’s all about, somehow get disillusioned. And my last year at sort of high school, if you like, or grammar school, and I says to hell, this I’m just going to, I’m just going to go through clear and go to university and do accountancy and corporate financial management. Wow, I took a bit of a head stammer, I think, yeah, but I thought it would buy me three years of finding myself again, sort of grown from a boy into mine and sort of thinking, right, okay, what I really, really want to do here, so we’re gonna read, I’m gonna become an investment banker, because I’m gonna make loads of money. In any project projects, you don’t really see that accountancy and corporate finance or management, comeback started, just started to go into practice to do accountancy and I go, Oh, my God, this is boring. Where’s that little lad that was born into that bar shaking cocktails at age, it was three. That’s not my personality. So I actually got a job at Bushmills. They ended a chartered and purchasing and supply which actually got me the job at Bushmills Bay and bottles and caps and labels and quarks and setting up the supply chain function for an Irish whiskey distillery. They only get bitten by the bug of the process of making whiskey. I then went got I have to become the next master distiller so I really helped Irish distillers set up what was known as the SAP computer system SAP, which was an accountancy driven package, which, you know, we tweaked for distribution and for the whole Jamison, party pars Middleton here, it’s Murphy’s the whole shebang set that up. And the production director actually called me into the office one day and actually was going oh my god, because if you call them to production director’s office, it usually means that this is your last day. Oh, no. So he goes, Listen, thank you very much for doing the job. You get married, you might earn 8090 to come down on your work for us down in Dublin. So you’re away from the family and we want to we want to repay you pick a job. So he’s expecting me to say how to cite for this. I want to be the next master distiller Bushmills which meant me then going and doing a degree in distilling. So after a degree in accountancy and corporate finance, management, and other degree in the charter to purchase and supply, I eventually then went and did a degree in through the Institute of Brewing and Distilling which a degree into stolen, so get the highest mark in the world and 2010. So my name’s there for it. So it’s putting the theory of what I was learning Bushmills was actually bringing actual practice and the theory of it into an exam. Wow. And I want the highest mark in the world and 2010. So looking back on that I needed every single one of those degrees to do my job. Then you add on to that media training, add on to that, having a personality because the personalities travel the word. Yeah, hunt, you have to have a love for it. So for me, I’ve loved every minute of it. I don’t have a Monday morning, we want to pull the Dougie back over when I go to work. That doesn’t happen in my world. I want to get up. Talk to people that Limavady as you can tell your talk for two weeks but Limavady without stopping breathing through the years, you know, yeah.
Mickey Gordon 1:24:15
Yeah, I mean, something else. Those are years. We’re doing good work.
1:24:24
Yeah, so it was a passionate love for it yet.
Mickey Gordon 1:24:26
You know, at the beginning of this conversation, you used a word, you said Providence, and to do what you do, the way you do it. You had to walk a path that you had no idea where it went. You had to walk a path. You learned how to be a business man before you had the opportunity to follow your passion to create something that you could sell. My grandmother used to tell me that if people don’t love you, they won’t buy gold from you for a nickel a ton.
1:24:58
Good said yes. fair trade.
Mickey Gordon 1:25:01
And I think our listeners are gonna love you. Agreed? I think that’s hands down the answer. And I think that they’ll love Limavady and that we are going to create a new generation of Irish whiskey drinkers here on casual swinger. I want to thank you Darrell McNally, CEO and master distiller of Limavady and Ingrid Rodriguez for bringing him to the table. Traveling whiskey fairy who apparently traveled to fucking Ireland and didn’t tell us and brought back an Irishman. I asked for a leprechaun, she brought me a tall guy with a tan, I mean, tall his relatives. But I think it’s absolutely amazing. Mallory, we got to get out of here. And it’s been four months. Everybody. Are you ready for this? Mallory? I’m
Mallory Gordon 1:25:54
choking a little bit.
Mickey Gordon 1:25:55
Can you tell them how to find us? Yeah,
Mallory Gordon 1:25:56
we are casual swinger everywhere. That is Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and oh shit. There’s another one. What are the Twitter of course the Twitter sexy Twitter, Cool World. But we’re also on SLS Cassidy and STC, you want to check us out. They’re
Mickey Gordon 1:26:13
all over the place. Don’t forget casual swinging.com. Don’t forget your casual swinger week.com and all the other fun things that we’re going to tell you guys about in a couple of upcoming episodes. And by the way, it was up coming. It just came up coming because I’ve had like five whiskies with these fuckers tonight. So that’s gonna
Mallory Gordon 1:26:28
say I shorten that up quite a bit because they didn’t want to trip over my words.
Mickey Gordon 1:26:31
Well, unfortunately for you, my tongue is at half capacity now. So no, this has been absolutely lovely Ingrid. And, Darrell, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having us. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to tell this story. We are storytellers. So thank you. Thank you very much. This has been wonderful ladies and gentlemen. You’ve been listening to casual swinger. Once
Back in the saddle!
Limavady CEO Darryl McNally & Whistle Pig Brand Educator Ingrid Rodriguez joined us live in the Casual Bar for a conversation about one of the oldest art forms in the world, making whiskey.
Learn how to make great cocktails with Irish Whiskey & some facts about whiskey you’ve never heard before on this NEW episode of Casual Swinger!
Make sure to use code CASUALSWINGER for a discount on these great brands!
