The Distillery Tour Experience in Scotland and Kentucky with Whiskey Is My Yoga (Ep. 18)

Leslie (00:00):
This is Leslie from Whiskey as My Yoga, and you're listening to Travel Fuels Life.

Drew (00:16):
Hello everybody and welcome to Travel Fuels Life Show. We share stories, tips and inspiration to help you live a travel lifestyle. I'm your host, drew Hanish and I am busy planning out my castles and Drams tour of Ireland and Scotland. And this all came about because I had gone to Kentucky and Tennessee about a year ago and I did 19 distilleries between the two. Did them in eight days. Yes. And so I enjoyed that so much. I decided that I need to go to Scotland and do the same thing. So it's kind of tough to figure out how to plan out these trips because of trying to figure out how to get to the distilleries, make sure you're not breaking any laws while you're doing this, being safe as you possibly can be and going to the best distilleries you can plan out. And so I developed a little guide around the Kentucky experience that I had, but I have no guide to work off of for going to Scotland.

(01:20):
And when I went to Kentucky there was no guide for it. But this time I got a little leg up here because I met Leslie McBride, who is also known as whiskey, is my yoga on Instagram. And we struck up a conversation. She's been to Isla, which is a region of Scotland, an island in Scotland, which is one of my favorites. And also she's been to Glasgow, so who better to go to for some whiskey travel planning hacks than somebody who has been there. And so she's going to help me out. Hopefully she helps you out as well. And she also spent a lot of time in Kentucky doing bourbon tours as well. So this is a great opportunity for me to have a little back and forth with somebody and kind of compare notes on our experiences and maybe some stuff that she missed or stuff that I missed along the way. So from my home here in Greenville, South Carolina, it's time to jump on the worldwide web and connect with Leslie McBride of Whiskey is my yoga from her home in Washington DC Hey Leslie, how you doing?

Leslie (02:22):
Good, thank you for having me. I'm excited.

Drew (02:25):
Well, I got to tell you, coming back from Kentucky, I was so energized. I mean so much information in my head. I wanted to share all of that information. I wanted to talk to people and maybe do some tastings and stuff and share all that knowledge that I had. So when you're doing these distillery tours, how do you deal with and what do you, when you come back home, how do you share with your friends?

Leslie (02:50):
So I get really excited cause a lot of my friends love whiskey too. So whenever I come back from a trip, I got this little, it's called bar to go so I can fit five little pores in it. And I get really excited because I have new whiskeys and I want to share 'em and let everyone try and be like, oh my God, I found this new little distillery no one knows about and everyone should know about. When we were offline, I talked to you about the Southern Distilling Company. They're one of the ones when I came back and I'm like, oh my God, you have to try this ride. It's amazing. So I will take little pores of it and everyone thinks I'm weird cause it fits right in my purse. So other people have their pores, they're like, here, try this, try that, try this. And I'm like, oh, I got something for you.

Drew (03:31):
And

Leslie (03:31):
I just pull it right out of my bag. They're like, who are you? And where you

Drew (03:34):
Come from, you come prepared.

Leslie (03:37):
I do, I always end up hanging out with industry people or brand ambassadors and they always have something special. And I never want to be that person that's like, well, I don't have anything for you.

Drew (03:47):
So tell me where this name comes from. Whiskey is my yoga. How did you come up with that?

Leslie (03:52):
Oh my God. So one of my things is I love to convince people who don't whiskey that they do love whiskey because they just don't know that they love whiskey yet. It's one of those common misconceptions. They think they, they really don't. And I'm hanging out at my local whiskey bar and my best friend calls me, she's getting out of yoga and I had three years worth of notes before I started my blog. I'd been going on distillery tours and all kinds of stuff and she had been bugging me to start it forever. Cause she's like, I'm sick of you talking to random strangers. Every time we go out to convince they like whiskey. I'm sitting there with my glass scotch I have in my hand now just completely trying to zone out for my day. I'm just alone at the bar. And she calls me and she just got out of yoga. She's talking about this zen feeling she gets and how relaxed it makes her. And she's like, it's just a way to get rid of all my stress. I'm like, you know what? In a long day to take that deep breath of scotch and enjoy it. And then I just let all my stress out. I'm like, whiskey is my yoga. That's what it is. And she's like, I think we just found your blog name.

Drew (05:04):
Well let's talk about your blog and how you source out all your content for it. Do you just head to a Laker store and start looking at bottles on the shelf and say, Ooh, I haven't been there before and I haven't been there before to figure out which distilleries you're going to or do you go by recommendations or,

Leslie (05:22):
So obviously I went to Ila because Ila was my first love, so I had to go to Isla. And then I love Campbelltown whiskey, so my Scotland trip was a little more planned out. But when I'm in the States, I'm just going on trips to places with friends or I am couch surfing across the country, going to see family and then I just Google or Yelp every distillery in the area when I get there and then I go check them all out.

Drew (05:49):
Since you're doing the blog, do you give them a heads up that you're, you're going to show up and then try to maybe talk with if you get an opportunity to or how do you work that out?

Leslie (06:01):
It really depends on what I want to do. Most of my first visits I like to do blind because I want to know what everybody gets when they walk in. And then at the end I'll be like, Hey, this is who I am. I write this blog and I always send out my stuff ahead of time because I might have misheard something, I might have misspelled someone's name. I don't like to misrepresent these people. They aren't going to change my opinion or change my mind in any way from the experience that I had or what I think of their whiskeys. But they can definitely peerless changed their small back to a flagship name before I wrote about it and something like that. That's a really easy thing for me to fix. And I want to accurately represent these distilleries because I really like the ones that I'm writing about

Drew (06:48):
Is Peerless, the one that has all the cats?

Leslie (06:52):
Peerless is the one that has rye. There's a lot of distillery cats, but Peerless has rye and I definitely put Rye on my blog a lot. Yeah. Because he is my buddy. I go in, I'll pick him up and walk around with him. I look like Dr. Evil. I'm just petting the cat as I walk through the distillery.

Drew (07:11):
He's

Leslie (07:12):
Such a sweetheart.

Drew (07:13):
That's funny because when I went to Willett, they had cats over there and I said, what's the deal with cats? Because I keep seeing cats in all the distilleries and or in certain distilleries. And they said

Leslie (07:24):
It's mice.

Drew (07:24):
Mice, yes. So it's it you like cats distillery tours are the thing to do. So how does your opinion of a whiskey change after you do a distillery tour? Sometimes after having that experience just take something that you thought, oh yeah, that was all right and then all of a sudden it kind of changes your whole opinion of the whiskey or,

Leslie (07:47):
Well, I love family stories. It's one of those things where distillery stories, how they got started, it just really intrigues me because every whiskey has a story behind it. Generally you don't get someone who's like, well, I just woke up one day and started a distillery. No, it's like people are really passionate about it and I love to hear what they're passionate about and why they're excited about it. But the thing that I think changes my mind most is usually on the distillery tour, you'll get something a little extra. You'll get the distillery exclusive, you get the one that they're really proud of and you get to try it and it just changes your mind about the entire brand. And that's wonderful. I love that experience.

Drew (08:32):
Well, so let's talk a little bit about your Scott Scotland trip because this is one that I'm just about to take and one of the things that I wanted to figure out when I went on my Kentucky tour was I had no idea. I'm thinking you're going to be drinking whiskey and I'm a solo traveler and am I going to be able to do this while driving my car? And all of those little logistics that you have to work out and which tours are going to be good and which tours may be not so good. And so Scotland, I've been doing a little bit of reading on it. The thing I like about Kentucky is that it's 0.08 is the alcohol level. I did a little calculator that kind of figured out how many drinks

Leslie (09:21):
Might Oh yeah. There's nothing in Scotland you aren't allowed to drink there. They have a zero tolerance policy. Oh,

Drew (09:26):
Okay. So see, this is the stuff that I need to know and planning this out because what I found in Kentucky was that you could go to a distillery and they could only give you one shot's worth, which unless you're an extreme lightweight, one shot is not going to be enough to impair your driving over the legal limit in Kentucky. So

Leslie (09:47):
Especially because it's an hour toward, you have at least 45 minutes between each distillery. You can only sensibly hit up three distilleries in a day. Yeah, I've tried to do more. It is not a thing that can be done.

Drew (10:00):
So when you're in Scotland, how did you plan your trip out then? Did you take public transportation around? Were you running a car? How'd you handle that?

Leslie (10:10):
So my trip to Scotland was interesting. I ended up getting a free flight over, but it was a space available flight. So I took that to Germany and then I got a random flight to Scotland. But it took me a few days to get a spot on the flight to Europe. And then I was in Germany for a few days, so I couldn't call ahead or booking in my hotel. So it was like spur of the moment backpacker style, say Lavie going to go and do the backpacking thing that I never got to do in my undergrad, but with actual money. So I went and I did a lot of Airbnbs and what I did is I went to Glasgow and you can take a bus from Glasgow to Isla and then when you get to Isla, you can get a taxi to wherever you go.

(10:59):
And I know you're going to Ila, so I'll probably focus there a little more. But when you go to Isla, there are three main areas of Isla. So you have, if I had to do over again and I could book my trip, I would book day in bone worm a day near Leroy and Lain, and then a day on the other side of the island near and Kalila and I, I'm sad I didn't get to hit up Dura, but I'm really happy I got to Campbelltown anyway, so you can also go to Jura, but it's like a day trip and there's one distillery there. I was really dead set on going to Campbelltown, so I missed that. But I did go to every distillery in Isla and Le Roig has been one of my loves forever. So that got its own day planned for it. And then I went and hung out in Beck a little bit again for a second time.

Drew (11:58):
So describe to people what a Isla scotch is all about. So they kind of get an idea because I did not like them at first and then I fell in love with them. What is it about Isla scotches?

Leslie (12:11):
So Isla scotches are known for being like smokey peay iodine, and I found out that Isla scotches were the US governments picked to allow in during prohibition because of their sort of medicinal flavor. So Americans even more than other places identified as medicinal because it's a history of that. But what I found when I was there is especially Buna Hain and Brook Lottie have some unpeated scotches, utterly amazing. Some places are going a little light on the pea and getting a different flavor profile. The Lare Cartus this year, it has a nice light, smokey flavor, a little fruity. One of my favorite people actually works at Jack Rose, where you want to head in DC Harvey. He describes it as a great breakfast whiskey. But the thing I love about most Islas, especially after you go there, is you get that nice salt air and you can just taste it.

(13:20):
When I sit and I drink an ILAs scotch, now it reminds me of in the mornings I stayed in Mar the whole time I was there, you walk down the hill to catch the bus and there is just this beautiful ocean salt air smell. And I loved it. I absolutely love it, but I can taste it every time I have an eye left or a Scotland Island scotch. I absolutely adore it, but they're a bit more harsh when you go to Brook Lottie request to try their unpeated unaged whiskey because I swear to God that stuff could replace any schnapps I've ever had. It is fruity and beautiful and amazing. You'd be surprised about the unaged whiskeys.

Drew (14:09):
So this was my first experience with Isla scotch was that I tried art bag and I took a sip of it and as soon as I took a sip of it, I said, for a guy who can't pick out flavors, this one has a really distinct flavor and I can't put my finger on it. And then when I finally did figure it out, I said, it tastes like band-aids. And that was the iodine. That was the iodine. And then I drank it further. I went, well, kind of reminds me of an ashtray. So this was not a romantic kind of introduction to Isla Scotch, but it's funny because I had a friend of mine come over and we were doing some tastings. He said, I want to try that art bag. So I poured him a little and he went, Ooh, this is a campfire. And I thought he just relabeled it and made it sound so much more romantic than my bandaid in an ashtray. And then it was funny because I started to try to teach myself what it was that I could like about this particular whiskey. And then I tried and I think Leroy has not got quite such an alcohol bite to it as Ardbeg does. So it was a little more pleasant. It

Leslie (15:24):
Depends on which one you have, but a good amount of leroy's are proofed down a little bit. So especially for a beginner, it's a great, great segue to get you into the Isla feel.

Drew (15:35):
And so what I found interesting about it was that I had always been looking for scotches and judging them by the amount of sweetness that they had. Rookie mistake I guess. But when I thought about Freud I, the things you were talking about tasting the salt and the sea air in it and the smokiness, I thought when I drink it, I think it tastes like beef brisket and it has all of that kind of savory kind of flavor to it. And now that I think of it as a savory scotch, I love it and it's my favorite scotch. So that was one of the reasons why I wanted to go to Isla. So it's funny how

Leslie (16:16):
It's definitely a perception thing and what you think and what else you'll get in Ila is when they're smoking the peat, that smokey set, you'll have that. And there I got lucked out. I had one half rainy sort of cold day. I didn't even need a jacket, I just had a little zip up and was fine. And the rest of the time was utterly beautiful. A lot of places had to start their silent season early last year because they weren't getting enough rain and their sources of water dried up. But the peat was just the peat smell and the smoke around the feel. And the flavors are definitely in Isla as you go around. It just gives me good memories to drink an Ila Scot anymore. I just get happy with it and I loved it beforehand. It was my first love, so I had to have loved it.

Drew (17:10):
Yeah. Well so did you go to any bars while you were there? Did you kind of mix that in?

Leslie (17:16):
So I spent way too much time at Lucci. If when you go it is the Be Morin, the bar is called Lucci and it's named after the owner because he always dresses a fancy. And literally when you go talk to the bartenders, because they're absolutely amazing, there's old Peter and young Peter and young Peter knows everything. We used to play guests the scotch and he would get me every time because Islas have these very distinctive flavors that we all look for. And I'm pretty good at picking out the standard stuff we have over here. I can usually guess the distillery pretty easily, especially on my Islas. Like I pride myself on that. He would pick out stuff and I'm like, I don't even think this from this island. He's like, here you go. Yeah, these magical, super fruity Islas, like these single bottlings that they have, it was just so much fun. I feel like I spent a ton of time there. There's a couple of good places on both of the ports. As soon as you get off of the ports, the first hotel you see on each side is amazing as well. And get some seafood while you're there. They have these oversized shrimp things that I can't pronounce the name of. They're orange, they're amazing. Eat them, trust me.

Drew (18:35):
Well, and I'm staying in Port Allen, so I'm, I'm going to be doing all that. Oh nice. Yeah. So I'll be doing all my bus trips from there. But I got an Airbnb there with the idea that I've got three distilleries within walking distance of myself. So maybe I can do that. But did you pick up buses in between when you did that or is it pretty decent to walk?

Leslie (18:55):
So I would get the buses in the morning, but probably plan on taxiing back in the afternoon. Okay. Because you'll probably be out longer than the buses are. And honestly, I made friends on my tours and I hitchhiked a lot because I would miss my bus and I'd just walk down the street and I'd be like, maybe someone will pick me up. But Ala is so safe, it's so safe. By the time I got back to my bar, they already knew who brought me home. It was insanity. It was like small town u s A, except for times a million.

Drew (19:28):
So how long did it take for you to get used to the scotch accent?

Leslie (19:34):
So I spent a few days in Glasgow before I headed to Isla. I spent two days and I went to check out the William Wallace Monument. Be like Braveheart? Yeah, St. Castle. Cause how do you go to Scotland and not St. Castle? So I was around a lot of people. It took me a little while, but I'm pretty upfront and I'm like, Hey, can you repeat that? Can you talk a little slower? Okay. No issues. And everybody was really, really friendly, especially when they figured out I was traveling by myself. I feel like half of Bowmore knew who I was and kept an eye out on me. They were so sweet, so sweet. I loved the little small town feel and how kind everybody was. Probably my favorite thing about being there.

Drew (20:17):
So did you get a chance to, I mean it's right next door, I say that, but have you ever been to Ireland?

Leslie (20:25):
I have not been to Ireland. I decided that I thought about going to Ireland for a day, but at the same time, because you can take a trip from Campbelltown. So I had that internal debate, do I want to go to Ireland for a day and see what it has to offer or do I really want to spend my time in Campbelltown? And then I got a really good day deal on Airbnb in a great area, Glasgow. So instead of taking a ferry to Ireland for a day, I went over to Glasgow. But Northern Ireland, from what I talked to some people when I was thinking about going there, I guess their whole logistics chain isn't the same because I just caught buses at the ports. I took a bus to the port that takes you over to Isla and then I caught a bus from that port over to Campbelltown and then a bus back to Glasgow. And then I went to Glen going up in Glasgow. I caught buses there, all of that. But I guess in Ireland you really have to have a car and I wanted to avoid driving at all costs. Yeah, no drinking and driving,

Drew (21:31):
Right? Yeah. That's like

Leslie (21:33):
I don't want to be responsible for any of the bad things in my house. So I tried to avoid that no matter what, if there's no car, there's no temptation.

Drew (21:42):
So the way I planned out my whole Scottish trip was to make sure that I always had the distillery at the end of the day. So make sure that wherever I'm staying I can drop my car off at that spot and then ride out to the distillery or walk out to the distillery and then come back. Well

Leslie (22:03):
An amazing thing about Scotland, they do to go pours. So if you're the driver, they'll do it to go pour for you and you can just take it to go and sit and enjoy it at your leisure.

Drew (22:13):
Well, and I saw you pouring a bottle, I guess some of the distilleries will let you pour your own from the cask

Leslie (22:21):
And Yes, on the warehouse tour. So I specifically got the Lero. So Lero was a half day for me. I got there long tour, I wanted to do a hand filled. I was super excited. I've been a friend of Lero forever, by the way. If you're not a friend into LaCroix, go buy a bottle, enter the code and you'll get your one foot of land in Scotland. You'll get your deed to it, which is amazing. And then they pay you, they rent. So you get a mini bottle of LaCroix as rent for free on your land because you bought a bottle and it's so cool. I have my mini bottle. I haven't drank it. I don't think I'll ever drink it. I'll keep

Drew (23:02):
It forever,

Leslie (23:03):
But it's so cool. They pay you rent on your land.

Drew (23:06):
Oh that's awesome. Yeah, because I have one of those, I haven't sent it in yet. So I guess I need to do that before I hit my trip.

Leslie (23:12):
It just go online. It's a really easy signup process. It's amazing.

Drew (23:16):
Okay. And so that brings up the other question, which is how much whiskey can you bring back with you to the US

Leslie (23:25):
So legally you can bring back it something like it's two of the larger bottles, but they charge a 3% tax on the rest when you bring it back in, which is nothing, right? Literally just keep at track of your whiskey, bring back as much as you can carry because I don't even care how much you bring back. Come back with one of the rare bottles, sell it when you get here, it's going to go for more than any tax would. As long as you come back with under a case, they aren't going to get too picky with you.

Drew (23:59):
Okay. And did you find that when you were in Glasgow that there were liquor stores that you wanted to walk into just to see what prices were and see if there was something extra that you wanted to take home?

Leslie (24:11):
Oh my goodness, yes. Hold on one second. Let me look up my spot in Glasgow. Cause it is utterly amazing. This one liquor store. I don't know if you saw the post on my birthday, but I have a birthday scotch that I found at this liquor store and oh my goodness, the name is failing me right now. Horribly.

Drew (24:37):
We can put it in the show notes afterwards. So. So for instance, Lefroy is my favorite. So here, if I were going to buy a bottle, it's going to range anywhere from 50 to $55. Is it worth buying a bottle of that while you're over there and bringing it back because it's signif significantly less Or is it better to go look for some rarer whiskeys that you can't really buy over here?

Leslie (25:01):
I mean you go to Lare, you're going to get a rare whiskey. That's one of the places I did my handhold. I did, if you get a chance to do a warehouse tour, I 150% recommend it. It's like 20 pounds. So it's only 10 pounds more than a normal tour. But you'll get to try things that the public will never get to try. So Leros a little more expensive because they have a full tour and then they have that and your bottle is included in the price. Other places you have to buy the bottle separately but lets you pull a bottle and the frog lets you pull a bottle. And the other thing is you're going to find stuff in these places that you won't ever see anywhere either. I have a bottle of LA goin from the festival this year. I have a hand poured Buna Hain, I have a ham pour Okta more. I'm really, really upset with myself for I was going to get three bottles from Be Warm. And ended up I was like, okay, I'm going to get on right before I leave because I was stupid and I'm like, I'm going to backpack through Europe. So I took an actual backpack. Terrible idea. Terrible. But it's just one of those things where I was romanticized and forgot I was going to be carrying 40 pounds of whiskey with me right everywhere I went.

(26:32):
And you can get stuff you'll never see in the States. That's the thing is it's not the rarer or the cheaper price. You'll never see this in the States. So it's stuff you'll never get to buy or try again. And I just love it. I have bottles that I just stare at.

Drew (26:50):
Okay, I'm going to have to work on my budget for whiskey on this particular trip. Then it sounds like,

Leslie (26:54):
I mean you probably should and you're most likely going to go over it because you'll see things. You'll be like, Ooh, pretty.

Drew (27:02):
All right. So let's kind of talk a little bit about Kentucky and Tennessee. And you actually surprised me. You said you have not been through Tennessee, you're about, you live in Washington, you're about to move to Louisville, Kentucky, which will put you right in the middle of all of this sort of stuff. So if somebody's planning out a Kentucky tour and wanting to pick out the best places to go, what would be some of the distilleries that would be top on your list in Kentucky?

Leslie (27:33):
Oh my goodness. Well of course I am moving to Louisville, so I'm real excited about that. By the way, it's the first place I've announced this on.

Drew (27:41):
Okay.

Leslie (27:42):
You get the exclusive on that. But when you go to Louisville, definitely check out the tours in downtown Louisville. Cause the urban still house, that can be anywhere between a 10 minute stop in to an hour long. I don't know if you went to the Evan Williams experience.

Drew (28:01):
Oh I loved it. I did the chocolate tasting. The chocolate pairing. Oh my. That was incredible.

Leslie (28:06):
Oh so cool. And then I actually really, their stuff is really animated and it's really commercialized, but it's really cool story. Anyway, yeah, so it's a nice thing. I am going to Ners next week when I go to Kentucky, so I'm really excited for that. And Pamela is another female master of Stiller, so I represent Ah.

Drew (28:30):
And that one just opened up and it wasn't there when I went to Louisville. So it's fun to see all of these distilleries coming back down to Whiskey Row.

Leslie (28:40):
Oh yeah. And then old Forrester has their own cooperage, which is cool as long as it's operational. It was not actually working the day I went through it, which is cool.

Drew (28:48):
Sad. It is so cool. I got to see that

Leslie (28:49):
One. So I don't want to promise it to everybody. Yeah, because I'm, they don't do it for every tour, but if they did it, it'd be cool. However, Peerless is my hands down favorite love peerless because I was talking about the layers of flavor and rye. Peerless taught me to truly appreciate Rye with their tasting because what they do, did you go to Peerless?

Drew (29:13):
I did not go to Peerless.

Leslie (29:15):
Oh you break my heart.

Drew (29:17):
So more reasons to go to Kentucky, right?

Leslie (29:20):
Yes. So their family story is amazing. It has everything from Al Capone to General Patton to having to work the system with the US government. It's insane. But their tasting made me fall in love with Rise all over again cause I already liked Rise. But what they do is they give you their flagship rye, which their rye is not cheap, but they have mini bottles now. So people can still get some of it if they don't want to buy a expensive bottle. However, they give you their flagship rye and then they give you these single barrels to try with it. And it is utterly amazing to taste the single barrels and then go back and look for the flavors and the flagship. It is one of my favorite things to do because when they guide you through the tasting, you won't do that. So it's the second tasting I was at there that I actually went through and did that. And it is fantastic. Once you do you really discover the flavors, Peerless is one of those pores I'll sit with for an hour and just keep getting new tastes and flavors out of it.

Drew (30:28):
So you surprised me because when I read your blog post and the places that you mentioned in there, I, I didn't go to any of those. I didn't go to Lux Row, I didn't go to Bourbon 30, I didn't go to Castle and Key. I wanted to go to Castle and Key because I went to Glen's Creek right down the road from there and passed by it. But I think it was closed when I was was there that particular day.

Leslie (30:50):
So may I say Castle and Key is my ideal fairytale of everything. A whiskey distillery that is also a castle. It appeals to whiskey lover me and princess me. So I adore Castle and Key and everything that's ever represented and they haven't even made their whiskey yet. They haven't finished it.

Drew (31:10):
Well that was what I was wondering is that I think when I went by it I had realized or learned that they actually didn't have anything on the market yet.

Leslie (31:20):
They have their gin and vodka on the market now and their gin is amazing. Unfortunately vodka gives me horrible migraines the minute I drink it. But the smell of it was wonderful.

Drew (31:32):
Well I guess that answers my other question, which is a lot of these places when they first get started out, they can't sell whiskey because it has to age. And so they find other spirits to sell. And I wondered how many of those other spirits you usually tend to try.

Leslie (31:50):
Whenever I go to the distillery, I try everything but vodka because obviously it, it's not a good day for me afterwards I have to go spend four hours with sunglasses and pain. I definitely love to try their unaged whiskeys as well. A lot of people can't pick up flavor profiles in them. But I think, I don't know, I've done somewhere around 50 some tours of different distilleries now across the US and Scotland. So I picked up on the flavor profiles of a lot of 'em. And some of 'em actually don't have much of a flavor profile initially and something that develops over time. But the ones that I can pick a really good flavor profile out of initially are the ones that I'm like, Ooh, this is going to be special. And then with, what is it? So still Whiskey in Austin, what they do is pretty cool because they don't flavor their whiskey. What they do is they infuse it. So they infuse it with peppers and orange peels and some other stuff and oh my God, I did not think anything can convince me that a gimlet that you can make a better gimlet with whiskey than gin. But their orange peel infused whiskey is amazing and it makes one of the best cocktails I've ever had in my life.

Drew (33:05):
So you do something or you will try something that I usually don't tend to do, which is with beer, I like to have added flavors in, but in whiskey it's like maybe that's my snobbery. I don't like to drink any whiskeys that have anything infused into them other than the ingredients that are standard to making whiskey. So you don't mind stretching the bounds a little bit.

Leslie (33:32):
So I don't mind trying flavored whiskeys, but usually things are flavored with a lot of sugar and that is the syrupy texture bothers me as a personal thing. But I use a lot of stuff like that when I cook cause it's fun to cook with and make things out of. So I'll taste it and then I'll use it for other things aside from drinking. What I like about this is it's not actually flavored, it's infused. So it's sort of like water. It's the difference between putting tang in your drink and the difference between putting an orange peel in there to get the flavor. So it's really, you still get those nice textures of the liquor, you still get the hints of that new make vibe to it, but it has a little bit touch that's different. And even their plain new make, I don't mind drinking at all.

Drew (34:26):
Yeah,

Leslie (34:27):
I'm not going to say it's my favorite whiskey, but I can definitely drink it straight. I can drink it in old fashioned. It has a nice mixing and blending profile.

Drew (34:36):
So outside of Kentucky, outside of Scotland, Ireland, where are other places that we should pay attention to in terms of Whiskeys?

Leslie (34:48):
Washington State? 100% really. So they're doing a bit of a different thing. So I dunno if you've heard about the American single Malt movement. You told me you've heard of Strand of Hands out in Colorado. They're another one that does it. Okay. Virginia Distilling Company does a single malt. That's wonderful. But a cool thing that they're doing in Washington State is they're using different types of beer yeast in their mash. So as opposed to Kentucky usually has a really sour mash. And I've drank a lot of mash between here, Scotland, almost every distillery I go to. I asked to try their mash, I asked to try their white dog cause I love to see the progression in the whiskey. It fascinates me anyway, nerd life. But really cool thing that they're doing. Their mash actually tastes like a beer. I could sit and drink, it tastes like an noncarbonated beer, sit and drink a glass of it.

(35:42):
I actually sat with the master distiller for Copper Works and hung out with him and drank a glass of his ash. Tried some of his white dog, utterly amazing because he wasn't really into distilling, but the brewing scene was a little overdone. And so he wanted to try his hand out and see what he could do. So he did a lot of research and went and found his partner. Eventually they want to move into selling their mash with their whiskey. So they'll like sell the actual beer, they'll make the beer for it and then they'll sell it with the whiskey. So you can get your whiskey that was made with that mash bill. Ah.

(36:19):
Which is really cool. But it gives it the whiskey a completely different profile. By the way, I found Copper Works before I knew much of anything about whiskey and loved it. And then I went back because I loved it so much and just adored the tour. The owner was great, gave me a whole overview of that single malt whiskey. But he used to be distilled in several notable distilleries out there and now he wants to do his own stuff. And I completely, I'm like, I see that you do a great job. Their whiskeys and their whiskeys won a lot of awards. So I'm really interested in this new trend that's going on with can a better mash make a better whiskey? I don't want to change every whiskey, obviously, right? Cause I love what bourbon's doing, but it's really interesting to see that change in dynamic. And I love new whiskey flavors, so I get really excited over that stuff.

Drew (37:20):
So it's funny because when I was in Kentucky that there were two different distilleries that I went to that had Malt Kentucky Straight Malt whiskey, and one was the Altec distiller in Lexington and the other was Woodford Reserve. They just actually came out with a Kentucky straight Malt whiskey and it's really good. So you and I were talking about that our first impressions of Woodford Reserve were not good ones. But having tried the malt, I really liked that. Have you had that before?

Leslie (37:54):
I haven't actually. I'll have to check 'em out. But Woodford, like I said, Woodford, they did their sensory tasting with all of their pairings and they won me over. I sat and I enjoyed my Woodford, which is definitely the first time I've done that. But I feel like the first time you find that thing that makes you enjoy the whiskey, you remember the good parts every time you try it after.

Drew (38:16):
So talk about tours then. What are the best all immersive tours that you've been on?

Leslie (38:22):
So this is going to sound super cliche, but the best all inclusive tour that I have been on is Jim Beam in Claremont. So if you're just going on a standard tour of a place, they'll walk you through and you get to go from everything. You get to see their water sore, you get to see their mash, you get to try their mash, you get to see their white dog, which they will splash on your hand and they can't do anything about what you do with your hands. So

(38:51):
Although they can't actually serve it to you, they'll pour it out of the barrel in front of you just on your everyday tour, which is something you really I haven't seen in many other places. So they do that. They do a good overview of every single whiskey. They talk about their quality control process, their historical bottles, all kinds of stuff that you just don't get in a lot of other tours because everyone's like, we're going to fit it into this hour. And then you also can customize your bottle. You put your little thumbprint on your Knob Creek, which is pretty cool.

Drew (39:30):
So is that an extended tour or is that the regular tour?

Leslie (39:34):
That's just a regular everyday tour. Okay. And another one that I want to mention, it was on my favorite tours in the bourbon trail, even though it's not a bourbon trail marked distillery and they like the blend, they don't like to distill is Bourbon 30. It's where my release came out of. And what they do is they're not really about distilling. Jeff's family has been blending for years. So they're like, there are plenty of people that distill really well. What we like to do is we like to blend, we like to finish, we like to experiment. So they have finishing barrels, they'll put some staves in their barrels to season it, all kinds of other things. But the cool thing is, even if you just go in for a casual tasting, you get to pull your tasting right out of the barrel and try something out of a barrel, which is not something you get to do on a day-to-day basis unless you're doing a private barrel pick. It's very ready to try anything out of a barrel. You can also blend your own bottle there, which is another really cool experience you won't get to have almost anywhere else.

Drew (40:43):
I was going to say, this sounds more like what you were going through in Scotland than what you do in Kentucky.

Leslie (40:49):
Exactly. It's really a one, and even in Scotland you can pull a single barrel bottle, but you can't blend your own whiskey. You can't be like, well I want some of this barrel, some of that barrel and some of this barrel, and they'll teach you how to do it, which is really cool. Oh, that

Drew (41:04):
Is

Leslie (41:04):
Awesome. So you can go back and be like, and you can name it whatever you want. They'll write whatever you want on the label and it's $120. It's not unaccessible to the everyday person. And then my third favorite is definitely Maker's Mark, because it's like a combination distillery and art gallery.

Drew (41:23):
It is beautiful. It is beautiful,

Leslie (41:25):
Utterly gorgeous.

Drew (41:27):
It was the first distillery that I went to on my distillery tour and I thought, wow, girl, really? If they're all like this, this is pretty good. It really does take you from front to back through the process, get to taste the mash. When they did the tasting, it was one of the best descriptive tastings for me in terms of how to start drinking a whiskey by nosing it and then going through the process of the Kentucky Chew and getting the whole kind of coat your tongue with it and then determine what the finish is. The only problem I had with Maker's Mark was that we had five to try and I felt like I was almost slamming them down. I couldn't drink five. It's like that's too much in such a short period of time to be able to drink. But yeah, I love that tour.

Leslie (42:14):
I mean, they'll let you hang out. They won't kick you out because trust me, okay, I did a couple tastes and I just kept mine around for a minute.

Drew (42:20):
Well, and they give you a little chocolate too when you walk out, so you get to do a little bit of a pairing with that as well. So it was kind of a nice all inclusive, I thought

Leslie (42:31):
It was a really nice tour and a lot of them will walk you through Szel Weller does a great job at walking you through how to taste and giving you different things. And a good amount of the tours in Kentucky will go through the proper tasting style. What I really found special about this distillery was the artwork. So do you know anything about Margaret Samuels or her legacy?

Drew (42:52):
I don't. I don't.

Leslie (42:54):
So she is one of the badass women in whiskey because she's awesome. But she got one of the first patents on a bottle. She got one of the first patents on a design. She patented her font. So she had to fight the government to give her all these things. And she was one of the first people that wanted to make whiskey appealing based on eye appeal. So that bottle is hers. The Maker's Mark is her design. That was all pushed. She did a lot of the business side for the family. Well, the men folk were all focused on distilling. She was out there like wheeling and de and selling, and she imported all of them from Italy initially. And Maker's Mark literally has its own font, which is really cool and kind of frustrating if you're trying to be like, I don't want to do a cool Maker's Mark thing. Right. Nope. Kings de Front.

Drew (43:43):
Yeah, I do remember that story actually. And it was kind of cool that you got to walk through the print shop and be able to pick up a label as you went through. But yeah, I mean she was marketing before marketing was cool.

Leslie (43:56):
She and she actually changed how patents are done in this country, which is pretty fantastic. But in her legacy as she walked through, they have Dale Cha stuff. They have Steve Van Powell, their cafe is done with these beautiful reflections and paintings by Michael Flo. They're utterly gorgeous. And I walk through and I'm like my cousin, he does artwork. So I'm really familiar. I keep an eye on art when I walk through places, mainly because of him and looking at these places, I'm like, I recognize this stuff, I recognize this style. And I'm like, these are not your standard local Kentucky artist, even though they have a lot of those in there. It's just beautiful. As you walk through their tasting room, the blown glass design over the entire wall Oh yeah. Is one of my favorite representations of grain to whiskey that I've ever seen in a piece of art. So that's another one. Even if you don't like whiskey, it's so cool to just walk around there and it's like, these are thousands and thousands of dollar pieces of art. The choli ceiling that they have that has to be over a hundred, probably close to a million dollars.

Drew (45:09):
I was going to say, when you first walk into the place, they have a pretty mosaic in there. As soon as you walk in as well and you get a little bourbon infused coffee, which is a nice start to the day.

Leslie (45:20):
Yes, the mosaic's actually done by a local artist, but they also have that huge beautiful, what is it, the chandelier? Yep. And that's by Steven Powell.

Drew (45:34):
Okay. And now another one that I want to ask you about, did you go to Barton's

Leslie (45:40):
Barton's? I did. I have been to Barton's and I am super sad about what happened yesterday and I hope that everyone's safe. Oh

Drew (45:47):
No, what happened yesterday?

Leslie (45:48):
Don Dunno if you saw they had a huge accident again. Oh

Drew (45:50):
Lord. Another warehouse?

Leslie (45:53):
No, it wasn't a warehouse collapse. However, I have an interesting story about that. One of their mash tanks busted or collapsed into two other ones and a ton of their mash just disappeared. So Oh no. If you can get Bartons like I don't think it's going to be on sale anytime soon. It's going to hurt their production.

Drew (46:15):
Yeah, absolutely. Well you have a story about it. I have a story about it too, which is that that collapse happened at 11 o'clock and I was just leaving for my estate tour at 10 50. So

Leslie (46:31):
Oh my goodness.

Drew (46:31):
I was there the day it happened. Did

Leslie (46:33):
You hear it?

Drew (46:35):
I did not hear it. Apparently I was in the visitor center at the time that it happened and nobody was saying anything. But we kept seeing the fire marshal driving around and we're standing inside of one of the lower warehouses and I said, is it normal that the fire marshal drives through here? And the guide said, no, not really. And I love this tour because he was like, when we started the tour, he said, this tour will go as long as you want it to, and I will show you anything that you want to see that we'll just go and it's free. Which is a bonus on top of that. So it was very cool from that standpoint. Everybody was so nice to us when we went through and I saw so much about the distilling process that I hadn't gotten anywhere else. But it was when we got up into the distilling area, somebody came up and told the guide, you can't take anybody up the hill. Well, part of the estate tours, you get to go see the big wood carving of the 1792 bottle and the biggest barrel in the world. And oh,

Leslie (47:44):
I haven't been on the estate tour. I just want to know standard tours.

Drew (47:47):
Okay. So when you go up there, you're supposed to be able to see all of that. Well, it was above the barrel where the warehouse was that collapsed. And so, oh no, we were just about to head up that way and he wouldn't tell us. And they kind of whispered back and forth with each other and he said, unfortunately, we've had some kind of an issue and we're not able to take you up to the upper warehouses, but we will take you. You

Leslie (48:10):
Know what? They probably didn't even tell him. They're just like, Hey, no, go today, poor guys probably I'm going to have to make something up cause you weren't telling me what's up.

Drew (48:17):
It was funny because when I went over to Willett for my next tour, Willett is where I found out what happened at Barton's. None of us knew. And it was funny because Yeah, that

Leslie (48:27):
Is insane.

Drew (48:29):
So they give you a bung hole cork and they date it. Yep,

Leslie (48:34):
Yep. I got

Drew (48:34):
Mine and they wrote estate on it. And so that's my proof that I was there on the day that the warehouse collapsed. So it was just a partial collapse. But yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, it was nuts.

Leslie (48:45):
So did they still take you in the Rick house?

Drew (48:48):
They did. They took us all the way. We got to do everything. We went to the bottling facility and all of that. We just were not able to go up on that top hill.

Leslie (48:56):
So when I went in the Rick house, what I found really ironic is this the only tour that's ever done this, they showed us a part of the Rick House with this little beaker thing like little, it was a little piece of wood on a string. And I guess when it moves you have to make sure to balance the Rick house. And they gave us this whole speech about how important is balancing the Rick House to keep the Rick House collapsing. I don't know if they did during your tour because the obvious.

Drew (49:22):
Yeah, they didn't mention that. So yeah, must have been a

Leslie (49:26):
Sensitive, but that was, it was at least a 20 minute explanation during our tour. Wow. I thought it was really, really cool. And then stops and I'm like, well, I guess that little piece of wood doesn't work too well.

Drew (49:36):
Yeah, that was probably a pretty sensitive subject for them. Well, Leslie, I want to thank you for being on the show this week and before we let you go, it would be fantastic if you would give us some details on some different ways that people can keep in touch with you and be able to see what you're doing on your journeys. So where can they find more information about you?

Leslie (49:58):
So whiskey is my yoga is my Instagram, facebook and.com. Okay. And then my website's going to be changing a little bit, so I actually got the LLC for Whiskey is my yoga. Ooh, nice. So I'm managing a couple places, social media, and once again, I have that big thing where I only do stuff for people if I believe in them. And then I'm doing some staff training on whiskey and food pairings because I really think it's a super underutilized industry. Like I said, I love to cook and if you look at half my post, it's like my home cooking and be picking a whiskey. I don't do that at random. I actually go through all my whiskeys to find something that goes well with my dinner when I post it. And it's one of my favorite things. I think it's super underutilized. But have you done any whiskey and food pairings aside from the chocolate one?

Drew (50:54):
I have not really. I mean, and that's one of those things that it just seems like a natural, but for some reason I haven't bumped into it. So

Leslie (51:01):
Yeah, a lot of places don't do it. But I highly recommend when you go to Isla, get some kind of cream pie, like a chocolate cream pie or Oreo cream pie something. Try it with an is lo whiskey. It turns all of those smokey flavors into extra buttery goodness. Okay. It's amazing how it reacts with cream.

Drew (51:21):
Nice. Well, you are definitely going to be the person that's going to open my eyes to some of these new things as I keep watching your blog because you are getting so much more immersed in it than I can.

Leslie (51:36):
Well, I'm definitely a little obsessive.

Drew (51:39):
Yes. Well, it's good. It's good for everybody who wants to learn more and be able to either get started into tasting whiskeys or take that extra step. So I am looking forward to watching what you do down the road, and I appreciate all your time today and for all the great information you gave us.

Leslie (52:00):
Yeah, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Drew (52:03):
Are you primed up and ready to go on a whiskey tour? I can tell you I definitely am. And if you want to get any of the notes from today's show, go to the show notesPage@travelfuelslife.com slash podcast. Look for episode number 18 and we have some bonus coverage for you, including two videos and one of those videos as Leslie teaching us how to do tastings and to come up with profiles for whiskey so that we can learn a lot faster how to taste and appreciate whiskey. So that's a great episode. And we also talk a bit about her favorite bar in Washington, which is a place that I've been dying to go to and we've got that content out there@travelfuelslife.com slash podcasts. And she also gave us a link on her website to what her favorite distillery tours were on the bourbon trail. And so check that out as well. And make sure to follow me on facebook.com/travel Fuels Life or instagram.com/travel fuels life in both those locations. I'm posting all of my great travels around Scotland that I'll be doing and also look out for whiskey lore. That's right. If you go out to facebook.com/whiskey lore, there's going to be some photos and content out there from a whiskey perspective. So check that out from Travel Fuels Live. And until next time, have yourself a great week. Safe travels and thanks for listening to Travel Fuels Life.