Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, guys, here we go. Returning guest. We're going to talk about M77, their new repo. We're going to talk about how they did their batch two blanco. This tequila absolutely blows my mind every time we have it. And Eric is such a great guy. All the things that we've done, the tequila community and military veteran, you know, we love those guys. So stick around for this one. It's great interview. It's tasting tequila with bread.
It's tasting killer with bread.
Guys, I am fired up tonight because not only am I getting to sit with a true American hero, somebody that's done so much for our country, but a guy that has been in the tequila business for a long time and has brought us an amazing tequila that we're going to talk about today. Eric, how the hell are you doing today, my friend? Good.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: Brad, thank you so much, man. I appreciate you having me on. I appreciate your kind words. I really. I'm happy to be here, man. Get to talk about some more stuff got going on.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: Well, I'm stoked you sent me this repo that I have my second glass. I did a review of it the other day. It. It blew me away like your blanco did. It's really good. So I can't wait to hear about this process and all the things that you've got going on right now. So kind of catch us up. What. What have you been doing since the last time we did an interview? That's been probably about, I'm say, almost a year ago.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Yeah, about a year. So I had just launched my lot one blanco. Right. So since then, you know, thanks to the community at large, I was able to sell out in under a year.
So that. That was really cool. A little bit faster than I expected because I had no product for a few months, you know, and that was. I mean, it's cool to sell out, but when you don't have anything, I was like, man, you know, it was kind of a. Gave me some time to. To catch up a little bit on stuff I wanted to do. I got with my distillery, and I wanted to do a little bit something different with the second batch, and I want to do a repo. So we sold out. We got a lot of great reviews. The first time around, it was. It was a lot faster and better than I had could have hoped. You know, the. The market received my product. So what I did this time was we did the lot two blanco, but we held. I did two batches. I. I told you before, I only make about 1100 bottles. Enough tequila for 1100 bottles because I numbered 1077. And the rest are for like samples and stuff like that. So I did double the production. So. So I wanted the, the repo to be from the same bot, the same batch as the blanco, so you could taste the difference of the two. I don't want to do separate batches. Right. So what I did was I did the blanco very similar to the first time, but a little bit different. I want to go a little bit different. So we still use the mambosteria stone ovens, but we did not use wood fire this time. You know, we used steam like is being done. We used taona, so Taona as well. Open air fermentation, naturally free yeast. I didn't use fibers this time, so bit different. And then the main thing is after that, instead of bottling, I put in stabilization tanks for five months. So that was the law. That was the, the blanco, the repo. What we did, we put in French oak, so same process, but we put French oak for three months and then stabilization tanks for two months. So they both somewhat rested for five months. Right. The blanco in five months of stainless steel and the repo three months French oak and two months stainless steel.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: So. So instead of wood fire in your cooking, this time you did a steam cook. So more like a steam cook horno versus a wood fired horno.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Correct. I want to go a little bit more like a even profile. Right. I don't want it like diluted by anything. I didn't. I wanted. You still have the same notes and everything, but I just wanted it kind of more even. Same reason I put it in the stainless steel texture stabilization so you get the full, you know, profile of the pepper, the, you know, the caramel, all these different notes, but it's all at the same time. Like a nice wave of flavor hitting your palate, you know, a nice even dissipation. It's not, you know, as the spikes, you know, like the, the front end low and it kind of goes off at the end. I said I. I was hoping to do a little bit different with that. So I did. And then the server was. Was again kind enough to humor me and what I was trying to do here. And they, they came through. Amazing. Alberto Partida, like I said, non 1477, my master distiller. And it's pretty scary when you go down there because I make so little. I can't be like, you know what? I like that anymore because it's done, you know, it's done. Right, because they're making it just for me the way I want it. So that's kind of the scary part sometimes, you know, just. It's got to work out.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Yeah. So. So you're saying this repo is technically the batch two blocko. Okay, see, I was thinking that you threw some of batch one into barrels and then you went and did batch two. And the repo was from batch one and then batch two came out. So I'm glad to know that that's actually the batch two. So that's going to make me do a whole different thing with my glass. I'm going to pour because the one that I have in front of me is the batch one blanco. And I want to revisit the batch one blanco. I forgot to have this one sealed up really nice because I didn't want to lose anything out of here. So this one batch one, you did wood fired with like a mesquite wood to do your cooking. Right. Okay. Because I always get this like really nice smoke note in the nose of it. And I've always liked that about this one. And I didn't look for it in batch two because I wasn't expecting a different process. Yeah, but you're right, it isn't. It isn't the same prevalent like mesquite wood that I get in this blanco.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: But what we do take, we do smell with it. Like, I hate giving people like what I smell or we're supposed to be smelling. But when I was talking to techie ladies on their. Their show, they were talking about we, we kind of smell the, like a wet cedar on. In the repo. So there's a wood aroma there, but it's, it's not as smoky as the. The lot one.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: Totally agree. I. I guess I wouldn't have said cedar. I get that, that you've planted it there. Right. Because that's how that works. I was going to say like an oaky with a really strong minerality. So I get like a lot of minerality notes with just like this. I. I say this in it. People make fun of me. You know, when you walk into the barrel house and you get that must wood alcohol like barrel room smell.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%. Kind of a little sweet tinge to it, but almost a little funky. And the air is kind of thick. Yeah, yeah, very thick.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: So I get like this musty barrel minerality of like almost like a petrichor, but not quite like limestone, but just very earthy, well water minerality with that barrel note. And it is, it is Still a little bit of a tinge of smoke, but nothing like the mesquite that you pick.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's going to have like the French oak influence to it. Kind of mute some of the other notes. But definitely I want to keep that minerality in there. Hence the tona, you know, hence the wood vats for fermentation.
You're telling me you're gonna be heading over there. So you'll see the process, how it drips straight from the taona into the big wood vats they have underground.
And it's so cool to see. It's just like doing this little. Well, depending on what process are the starts bubbling and stuff and so awesome.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I can't wait to see it. Fortunately, we get to be there. This will come out probably the week after we were there.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: So Alberto invited us to come over and see the whole distillery and he was like, do you want to come? And I'm like, absolutely. Like this would be awesome. So we're really excited to go and see the process.
So for people who don't know you and know how you got into this, how did you find Alberto and kind of come to this decision to start this brand? What was your journey to get to NOM 1477?
[00:07:46] Speaker B: Sure. So you said I had a brand 18 years ago, different brand, like a lifetime ago in the tequila world. Right. There was this whole additive free movement. Wasn't a thing. You know, we had. In those days you were lucky, you had a hundred percent agave, which patron, Don Julio. All those brands were at the time. Right. So we had another brand, I had another partner who was. Who put us in touch with his distillery. We went down there, they did what they did for us and we did well at. At the time, I remember the name of the brand was Caramba. We had Bin magazine, they had. I remember there was like a. The top hundred tequilas at the time. And we had been in business at that point less than two years. And we had got number one for flavored tequila, which we weren't flavored, it's just we were resting in Bordeaux barrels. So at the time they didn't really know how to classify that. So they. It said flavored. So we got number one for that. We got number three for. For our extranejo, which we did in. In French oak, if I remember correctly. And then we got number 10 for our regular reposado, which at the time was cool cause we came in right between El Casadores and Jimador, which again 18 years ago was a Whole different conversation. And those are like legacy brands. So I really like what they were doing there. So that brand ran its course. You know, I stepped away from it. It kind of did a bunch other things, joined the military, all this other stuff, right? So when I started this project again, and I stayed in touch with. With not only Alberto, but at the time, he wasn't the master distiller. At the time, I was dealing with. With the father Gildardo senior and brother Gildardo. We didn't. They'd come out, we talk with them. But I mean, I remain in contact with the family and I saw how much they grew from that with their brands and, and other brands. And so Alberto with his project, you know, first Tricera Don Alberto, which is an additive fee brand, then with a Matitena, which was amazing, right? So when I started thinking about this, I was down there a few years ago for Hildardo, the. The brother's birthday, and I started talking to them. I'm like, guys, I want to do this again. You know, I want to do this. I don't know what capacity yet, but I want to do the right. All right, man, just let us know, let us know. So the more I thought about it, I definitely want to go craft this time. I want to like more of a passion project type thing. Like, hey, man, if it goes good, it goes good. You know, I. I'll figure that out, right? So when I came to them, I want to do a micro batch. I was kind of influenced by the whole teremana small batch, you know, label issue. And I was like, man, I can't say small batch come with micro batch. A lot of people don't use. I know people use micro batches, you know, some brands that's great. So. But I wanted to do a brand that was all micro batch because I didn't think anyone really had done that. I mean, it's not in the mezcal world all day long. Even smarter than what I'm doing, right? So because of that, I was like, you know what, Let me go ahead and kind of pitch this project to them. And honestly, I was just lucky that they're like, okay, Eric, we got you. You know, and they're like, man, your. Your quantities are ridiculous. But, you know, we've done for a long time, we'll do this. So one, because they were. They were being, you know, kind to me. And two, because probably the only sort of be like working in the small batches that I'm making, you know, the quality that I want. So I I went with them and, and like I said, they've been so gracious and, and with just, you know, accommodating what I want and not, not trying to just sell me what they have in their barrel room and trying to white labels. So I've been able to, to work with them because of that, because they've actually allowed me to, you know, from scratch do what I want to do with this project.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: That's awesome. So now 1477, they, they have a lot of, they have a lot of tools in their kitchen. Right. They make a lot of brands and there's a lot of different tequilas, tequilas that come out of there. So for you, yours is being made in a very specific portion of the distillery, is that correct?
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Correct, Correct. So there's, there's different areas of it, right. They have industrial site was, they do produce other brands in other ways and sometimes some of them are blended away. Some of them, you know, they do have autoclaves there. They do have a roller mill they have down there they just build down. So when you get there, it's so cool. It was like four down as in a row. The ovens behind it there, they have like the, the, the stone ovens on the side as well.
So that's a different portion of it and it's just grown and grown and it's really, really awesome. I mean, I think you're really going to like it. And especially going downstairs, the way they have like the barrel room is huge. They have bars down there and they really cool stuff and yeah, so, so the processes are different. So they do produce, you know, commercial stuff, which, that's the business side of the house. Right. But lucky for me, Alberto had the foresight to go ahead and move forward with his project, which gave me the tools to, to use, you know, for mine. And I knew that they do other craft stuff as, as well, but I, I, I've been pretty, pretty lucky that he, he's allowed me to, to play around with, with his toys.
[00:12:28] Speaker A: Well, I think it's important that we mention it because some people will get on agave matchmaker. They'll look at a nom and they'll look at some tequilas in that one nom and then they check out like they're like, oh, I, I'm not going to get anything in that nom. I had that tequila and I didn't like it. And to understand that that different distilleries can have so many different tools in their kitchen to make so many different things that to pay Attention to each individual tequila, not necessarily just the nom. And I think that's important.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: No, 100%.
And even. Even with brands, right? I know, like now before you had a brand, had to stick with one nom and you were married, right? Now, they could jump around from nom to have different noms producing different projects for them, right? Same thing. Now, distilleries, yes, they could be crafts, they could. They have that part of the house, but they also have the commercial side of the house, because at the end of the day, it is. There's a business side of this, you know, and it's really nice to romanticize doing a whole craft thing, but, you know, that's great. But at a certain point, you have to eat still, right? You still have to do all this. This other stuff. And they have a lot of people depend on them. So they do have those projects, but they do have. And I know my thing is very crap because that's. That's his baby, right? That he holds that very dear. So he controls a lot of. Well, all of how that's produced. So, yeah, a lot of distilleries do have the option to two different, you know, production. Then you get these other craft brands. Craft brands, I say. But that's what they're shown. But when you go to the distilleries, everything is, you know, autoclave, roller mill, and. And again, nothing wrong with that. That's where you're at. That's your palate set. Godspeed, and, you know, good luck to you and to that brand for you to do that. But that's where, as owners, we have to decide what it is we're trying to do and stick with that, stick with your plan or move on. And, you know, if the business side is what you want to focus on, so be it. Like, I know I can never be in every Costco and every total wine, every bevmo. There's just no way. So I kind of shot myself in the foot. Want to go that way by putting the name of my. The qualities in the name. So I, you know, I can't do more than that. I do a whole bunch of blancos at the same time, and. And I want to make them each unique. I want to make them special. So maybe down the road, I do a different version of this to. To do that, but still keep it cracked. But just the way in this incarnation, which I'm going to always keep this incarnation, it's going to be special bottles, special lots for that kind of demographic that, hey, this is every Lot special even might be three or four blancos, but they're all gonna be a little bit different. You know, even if it's the exact same method, like wine, the vintages change from year to year. Right. So.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: So you're doing all valley ag?
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Yeah, for now. You know, I have. I have thought about like, hey, you know, what lot three might be, you know, altos agave or a blend or. You know, the cool thing is that it's such small quantities that I could play with that. Right. I'm even starting to think of the next expressions because I don't have a lot to go through. Right. I.
It does move, you know, thank God, moves fairly quickly. But like a hoven or repo or an even doing barrel blends, you know, from the. Or different ages. Maybe just do a repo with a three month, stick with a nine month and blend those in the same barrel. I don't know. It's so many cool things you could do with it and just see how they come up. So each batch is what I'm trying to do a little bit unique, make it different than the last one to give, you know, people like a chance to try something different that a bigger brand who's scaling at containers at a time probably wouldn't be able to financially make that risk happen and hope it's well received.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I like that you threw out right away. Maybe I could do los altos agaves. Because maybe you could do mitchu Akan agaves or maybe you could do nayarit agaves. Right. Like play with the flavors of where the agave comes from and really show that off. That'd be cool. And then I was thinking about that too.
Yeah. You said one of my favorite words. I was going to make one here. When you said hoven like hobens happen to be. I think a lot of aficionados really like hoevens and I seem to really gravitate to this blanco forward.
Just a little bit refined that you get with the hoven. And man, if you. If. Even if you do like there's been somewhere, it's a little bit of an anejo and a little bit of a repo and a little bit of a blanco blended together. There's. I don't know, there's something about those that maybe there's this romantic thought that it's all three of those blended together. But also I think it does something to the flavor.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Yeah. No. So again, it makes a little bit difficult for me to do a hoeven that way. Because that's how I want a blend of all of them. I think it even gets a little X A. But for me to do that, I'm going to have to wait the three years to get the X A done and make a little bit more. So I could wait till I get the other ones ready. So I'm thinking of different, different versions of it because technically a hovind can be a blanco and a repo, right? So maybe I play with the type of barrels, maybe play with the, the, the. The proportion of the ratios, right. Of maybe I do 2/3 repo, 1/3 blanco, or I don't know. Or maybe just, you know, 75% blanco, 25% repo, but the. From two different barrels. Or, or I don't know, there's a whole bunch of different. There's so much stuff you can play with and, and I'm looking forward to that. So. And a couple other repo projects I want to work on, but we'll see. We'll see. I have to start kind of committing to that here pretty soon before this kind of runs out. I don't be stuck with no product again like it was last year.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: So, yeah, I'm sure that is a challenge because I know you have a real cult following amongst all of us nerds that absolutely love tequila like we are. Thank you.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: But everybody that I've introduced it to, even my.
So I live in Indiana, so I have a lot of what I call the Tater Head weeded Bourbon Bros that, you know, will drive their car through a building to get a Weller 12.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: And. And when I've brought this out and had them taste it and they're like, what is that? Like, this is so different. And to see them kind of light up and want to know what it is, I think is really cool. So doing such a small batch is. Is that like a really difficult thing to be able to manage your inventory and keep your clientele happy and not lose space on the shelves?
[00:18:39] Speaker B: Yes, a hundred percent. That's why sometimes I feel like, man, I messed up. But at the same time, I'm a big proponent in staying the course. Right. This was my vision. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna continue with this. Like I said, if I need to have a different variation of this brand, maybe one more, what, I don't know, M77, two point, whatever, you know, comes up with, that's not gonna be, you know, hand numbered. That could do larger quantities. I don't want to scale back on the craft, you know, or maybe do it just a little bit different. And that one would be keeping on the shelves, you know, a little bit longer. Get maybe bigger, bigger, like box stores.
But then they'll give me shelf space to squeeze these lots in when they come in, you know, because the goal is, yes, have these sell out. But I also don't want to get to the point where people start getting gouged for pricing because they know the availability is there. Because I see that happen a lot. And it's not the brand's fault. Right. The brand is more than happy to produce and sell, but they're doing what they're doing. But this aftermarket, it's the retail and it's supply and demand. They also don't really blame the retailers because people are willing to pay for it. Right. So it's just a big vicious cycle.
But there's not much we can do as brand owners to, to, you know, prevent that. Right. We have no say in what it's. At least here in California, we cannot dictate pricing on retail. We could dictate wholesale pricing. Whatever people's margins are, that's their margins.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, we've seen that with a lot of brands. So let's back that up for people who don't know what that even means. So let's say.
So you're probably cooking in. I'm going to take a guess that it's about a 20 ton oven if you're doing your regular hornos.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Okay. And it. So is that two 20 ton ovens to create one batch of 1100 bottles?
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, just about. Yeah, yeah.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: Okay. That's, that was, I was kind of doing math in my head. No, in Tohona, you're not, not quite as efficient. So, so 220 ton ovens run through to honor. You got one batch, boom. You, you, you, you rest that in your tanks, then you go to bottle. But you could turn around and quickly do another batch right behind it and it be a second batch and it be completely different than that first batch. Doing it in the same time frame, is that what you're doing or are you giving it a longer time frame between each batch you do?
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Oh, no, no, I, like I said, I, I wanted to, I hope to get to that point, you know, something like that in the future. Right. But this one, like I said, I didn't start producing until the other one was almost done. I didn't expect it to be done that fast. So we started the production. Then I had to Wait for, hey, when can you guys squeeze me in? Like you said, 1477 is a bigger distillery. They do have their own products. The other products, I'm lucky that the craft client is pretty much Alberto, so I have to squeeze in in between his own stuff. So that's what kind of makes it easier for me. Now they have more donuts and so it's not going to be that far in between. But that being said, I have to forecast okay, I should be done with. And the first one was just, I don't know how long it's going to be. I'm going to make a blanco, see how it goes, and I'll order when I'm ready. So this time I'm starting to see the movement. And I was like, okay, like, I'll be honest with you, I went through. Put it this way, I'm down to one pallet of each right now of this next stop, so I really need to put those orders in. I saw Alberto here in LA a couple months ago, like pretty much right after this came in. He's all, bro, you gotta. What do you need next? Because we gotta start forecasting. And even I saw him at BCB in New York to ran into him at BCB in New York. And so we're working on some stuff. Maybe some. I get too into it. I know you might tell you when you're down there, but maybe some anejo me some Hogan stuff, but stuff that we kind of started working on. But I try to make sure that I moving forward. And even this was maybe it was just a, you know, flash in the panel, the first stuff. Right. So I'm hoping this is starting to move a little bit, you know, better, and then I can start forecasting a little bit easier because I want to at least make one blanco, have one blanco version on the shelf at all times. I want to, you know, have a repo, a couple different repos a year, maybe two different type of specialty once a year. I mean, that's the goal. I don't want to be to where it's one right after the other. Right. Because like you said though, even if I did do that, it could be very different from where I got the Gaga from the galaxy process. Right. Or you know, where in the low lines it came from. Even like the, the. The age of them. Just so many different, different things. Or even I'm resting in the barrels, you know, the barrels or I'm aerating, you know, running oxygen through or aerating them or, or just letting it open air you know, breathe a little bit before body. All those things can change it. Right. But I'm, I'm hoping to have a little bit time between to, you know, decide to leave them in tanks or not. You know, let them. Fibers, no fibers. All those little things that I want to kind of nerd out on and, and hope hopefully make a difference.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: Okay, so sales wise, are you mostly in stores on, on premise or direct to consumer? Where do you see most of your sales right now?
[00:23:29] Speaker B: Still retail. I'll be honest with you, more retail. However, I am getting more into some bars, restaurants, but I'm trying to stay away from nightclubs. Although I have done some events with some clubs that have really cool bar managers that let us do really cool projects with them. You know, just, I find that, that, that target sometimes this is a agave forward bar that have a good agave program. People are going to buy what they buy and the bar staff is not going to push something else. Right. So they're going to be really more. So hey, whatever people buy, we'll, we'll sell that and you sit on the shelf and they blame you. Right. Unless it's restaurant, bar, club that actually has a good program, then great, you know, we'll do it. But I, I, I don't try to not be in those type of establishments, but when I do get picked up by them, I do want to make sure that I support them as much as I can. Tastings with the staff, you know, come up with cocktails, whatever it is, we like to do that. But yeah, mainly I've noticed retail has been really, really, really kind to me and, and the online portion, because it's still, I'm still here in California, although I'm really looking for distribution. A couple of states I want to get into.
I'm getting a lot of people asking me, you know, so many people DM me, hey, when you come to New York, we want you to New York. Texas is another one. Kentucky. I want to get into Kentucky just because I spent a lot of time in Kentucky. I like to go over and pick up a bottle on the shelf every now and again when I'm out there.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: But you know, you're only a couple hours south of me.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I know. We're going to talk. We're going to talk. You got to figure this out.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: Yeah, so we got to do one of these right here at the bar. You can. Yeah, yeah, go in, pick you up a bottle or something and then come up here and we'll hang out and drink your Tequila at my bar and do a live video because. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So are you a bourbon drinker too?
[00:25:16] Speaker B: You know what? I. My thing was scotch before. Right, okay. Big scotch guy. But spending a lot of time in Kentucky at Knox was. Got to Bourbon Trail a lot, so I got to taste so much cool stuff, right? He did all the big, you know, distilleries. You know, we're down in Louisville, around the area. But then we would have weekends off and go check out the small mom and pop distilleries. That was cool. That was really cool. I like that. So I do like bourbon. It took me a little while to get into, like, the sweetness part of it, right.
I, being from scotch, I was more into really wood oaky. I didn't like the peaty stuff. I wasn't big in the peaty stuff, right? But. But yeah, I do like bourbons. I'm not as well versed in bourbons, you know, as I am in tequila, but I spend so much time there was so fun just hitting all the different distilleries and, you know, really cool stuff. Really cool stuff.
[00:26:10] Speaker A: So were you stationed down there for a while?
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I used to do a lot of gunnery missions out there. I was kind of a gunnery instructor, so we do missions through there. I'd be there like 90 days at a time for. On and off for about two years.
So we would do that. And then right now, our.
Our headquarters for, like, Human Resource Command that when I go back to for trainings is at Fort Knox. So, you know, when in Rome. Right? You know, so.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, if you ever get to Camp atterbury, that's only 45 minutes south of me, so.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: Okay. Okay.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: Yeah, camp. So I know a lot of guys that came from Fort Knox that moved Camp Atterbury. I do their mortgages when they move here, as a mortgage guy, so.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: Very cool.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: Do a lot of VA loans. So I know there's a lot of movement between those two. Two bases.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Very cool. Very cool.
[00:26:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:58] Speaker B: So. No, I'm sorry.
[00:27:01] Speaker A: Is it true all the money is still at Fort Knox? Like, is there really all the money there?
[00:27:05] Speaker B: All the gold? That.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: That.
[00:27:07] Speaker B: That was the. That was a rumor, right, that all the gold's there? No, but so funny. On post, they sell because they. They bought into it, right? They sell little gold bars. Said Fort Knox on them. The little bullion bars. They have the small ones and the bigger ones because everyone thinks that. So, you know, those are kind of cool to. To buy souvenirs. I have no idea what's in that for. If you ever been down there. It's pretty crazy heavily secured and it's in the front off the side of the road. And there's like gates and turrets and gates and towers. And then it is. And it's not a very unassuming building, but super, super secure.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: So it makes you think all the gold is there.
[00:27:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. Like whatever's in there, they're guarding it. They're guarding it. Right. It's awesome because of that. I just want to touch on this. So when I was there, the first inklings of doing a new brand started, right. So I definitely want to do something Bourbon barrel aged something.
But I want to make it special. You know, I want to make it special with. I want to find a nice family distillery, you know, and we could work with maybe user barrels, something that I like. I don't know. That's. I have all these different projects on in my head. Right. I have some others, some Mexican wine stuff. I want to do like all this different stuff. Right. But that's definitely on my to do list. I definitely want to do a bourbon barrel age from, you know, that, that, that area.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: That's very cool. Okay. So you and I talked about it a little bit before we jumped on here. Explain this amazing mural that's behind you because that is so freaking cool.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: So yeah, so this is stuff I've done since we talked last. Put together a. A festival. Put together my own festival. Right.
[00:28:45] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: So there's so many different festivals going on and it's cool you learn from all of them. But you know, there are certain things that as a brand owner, you want to showcase. So I wanted to kind of do that. So I had a friend of mine, Chris, he does events and he has really amazing venue out here. Kind of a little bit remote, but beautiful venue. Had own lake and stuff like that. So kind of put it here and I got with Liz from Blue Wine because I'm. I want to do. I'll do it right. I want real retail on there. I don't want to be, you know, selling bottles under the table, but I want to give brands opportunity to sell because again, as a brand owner is what I want. Right. So we put this together and the thing is we opportunity to do it. But it was like two months, maybe nine weeks, 10 weeks tops to put this whole festival together. And we did it. I heart Agave festival. So it was last April, but it surpassed our, our, our, our expectations. We wanted to hit 25, 30 brands. Something kind of cool. We ended up with 66 brands. Yeah. We launched 17 new brands that first debuted there. We had some RTDs there. We had Sergio Cruz came out. Cesar Ivanko Polanco. God, who else? Yayo, you know, John was there.
So not only do we have the brands there, but we actually had the owners out which was so cool. So it gave people an industry or all the, all the fanboys. I was so fanboy that day, you know, like, dude, it's so cool. Let's take a picture and. But to have them there on site, you know, we had Mezcals. We had I think one Sotol. So it was just so much fun. And this mural was. We had artists painting it live there. So that was really cool. We did have a little bit of hiccups, you know, being remote. Internet was non existent, you know, so that made transaction a little bit difficult. But aside from that, we heard back from people say, you know what? We were frustrated at first, but we loved it because we all were talking to each other. We could upload later. We were taking pictures and uploading later. Like back in the old, the old days, right when they didn't have all that remote, you know, social media stuff. But it was so much fun. We're going to do it again.
We're so we're working out those details. We're trying to do it maybe we're thinking about doing twice a year, but I definitely think we're going to do it once a year where we're trying to work through. Because then we went down. Well, Liz for blue one, she had gone down the week after Mexico and all the people are like, dude, how come you didn't tell us? We would have gone like we just did it so fast. So this time we want to have a little bit more time to plan a little bit better. But it was, it was so much fun. It was so much fun. A lot of work, a lot of running around. I wasn't even at my booth. And then I had a. I started Tequila club too. I don't know if we talked about that, but I started the no Bad Tequila club.
So the reason I did that was because I wanted to give a space and be able to utilize resources and a platform from new brands. I was so grateful that I was so well receipt at our I Heart Agave festival. We had four suites, right? So we had the 10x10s on the floor. We had different tiers, but we had four suites that like Scorpios. Really awesome by the way. They were there. A Legacy 71 A couple of brands of these suites, right? I took one of the suites, but I was like, you know, at the time I just had my blanco and I had run out of blanco. Luckily my importer happened to just sell store five cases. Like, look, man, I'll get them back from you. I give them to you. But when you get the. Because the stuff was coming in, it was stuck at the border. So that's one reason I had any tequila. So I didn't think it was fair for me to use a whole suite for just that. So what I did was I pushed forward the Noben Tequila Club and I was able to hand pick brands that maybe just were able to take them into the country. But I want to give them a space to showcase. So we put that in the VIP. We had brands like Hoya, Maestra, Reygosa, Drago, Azul, Legacy71 had run my bottles there, of course, Scorpios, all these other brands I was able to do. So the no Bad Tequila Club started as what I wanted to do. The vision was to not only give other brands a platform, but let their owners jump on lives and talk. Because a lot of them are still in Mexico. They don't have any following or any exposure here. So again, being so new and being able to have a platform to do so, I wanted to, you know, share that also. I want to bring, you know, new brands to people who haven't heard of them yet. But the biggest thing too, we want to do is be able to raise funds for project and the club decides what project it is. Right? And nothing crazy like we're going to do T shirts or hats and 20 bucks, 25 bucks. Nothing crazy, but anything would come from that or anything we do, bottle shares or what have you. We want to raise funds and pick different projects, whether in Mexico or here in the States.
But again, I'm not picking that. The club's going to pick that as a whole. And then we kind of move to another arm with that in that we're actually helping them showcase products. So a lot of them aren't here. So when we do these events or we're invited to these events, I'll go on as M77, but also go on no ban Tequila Club. And under that umbrella, be able to bring in other brands who don't have a physical footprint here. And we've done one golf tournament before, another one's coming up. But like I said, I. I'm more about the. The community and that. And that's all that's kind of Nonprofit stuff, so working on the 501C3 for it. But I really just want to give other brands opportunity that may not have since I'm here and they're not, you know, so.
[00:33:55] Speaker A: Wow, that's really cool. Awesome. A brand helping brands. Like, it's one of the coolest things about the Tequila community is, you know, you got Walmart trying to make Kmart go out of business, and you got Amazon trying to get Walmart to go out of business. But we have tequila brands trying to get other people to drink other people's Tequila. Like, it's you. You would think that's not how it's supposed to work, but in this world of agave spirits, it's just how it works. It's like, look, you like this one? You gotta try this guy. So it's. It's really cool. This community is pretty amazing.
[00:34:27] Speaker B: Yeah, no, 100%. That's one of the things that I love so much about the industry this time around. For me, it wasn't like that before, and I think it's a lot more craft brand, smaller brands. I'm really liking that. I. And not everyone's like that. I will say that. But I am. So it's okay. I, if I like it, great. I'm gonna talk about it. I, I. On my, my public page, I talk about other brands all the time. The no band page, I'm running that, posting that all the time. I know Art denome just did a single barrel with Blue wine. I posted that Scorpio post like, you know, Manuscripto. I'm looking at all the balls I have over here, you know, Interimanos. I was interviewed last week and it kept like, I keep talking about the leg was one of my favorites, you know, and just old school blanco. Just nothing, nothing crazy. Just old school blanco. I love that. Right? So I, I think the, the community as a whole is elevated, has exposure. Or, or then we all win, right? We all win. Not everyone's gonna like my product. That's fine. But like you said, if you don't like it. Hey, did you try this guy? This guy's pretty good. I like this guy. Like, why not?
[00:35:30] Speaker A: It's like that one right there.
[00:35:31] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. Cholo. You got the cholo dog. Yeah, yeah. There's.
[00:35:35] Speaker A: There's another one over here.
One hiding in this corner.
[00:35:39] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: They were very nice to me. The first one that they shipped me completely broke, and it was completely drained and it got the foot broke off of it. And I, I called Ernesto and I'm like, I'll do it. It broke and it's empty. But the box smells good. Like, it really smells good. And they're like, I don't think there's any more. And I'm like, don't worry about it. And a couple of days later, I got a call, and, like, there's another one in the mail. And so I said, look, I'm going to make sure that it has always a spot above my shoulder at all times. And then I glued the other one that was broken, and I put him over here. Right. So it's amazing how these small brands and some of you California guys like y' all hang. Like, everybody knows each other and everybody supports each other. And I think that is so cool to see that, you know, with people. So. And I hear it from brands all the time. I. I talk to a lot of brands. And, you know, I'll be talking to John, like you mentioned from Yayo, and he'll ask me, dude, have you tried this? And, like, it's not one of his. It's a different brand, right? And it's. It's such a common thing, and I. I love that. And when you go to Sergio's place, I don't know how many different tequilas he hands me that have nothing to do with Sergio to taste like, I. I think that is really a cool thing about our community and how people lift other brands up and share and do it in the festival's pretty cool.
[00:36:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Like I said, I had wanted to do something one day, right. I didn't expect it to be so soon and pull together in two months. It was insane. Like, I didn't sleep for a couple months. I took. Had to take a couple days to just decompress because it was crazy. And then the. The pre party the day before, then the after party. Oh, man. A lot of liquid IVs. A lot of liquid IVs, you know, but it was fun.
But you mentioned Sergio in the. Even a guy at his level, his cover is so cool. Like, I ran into him at the New York, New Jersey Agave Club. Rooftop owner for there for bcb. They asked me to take a bottle. I took two bottles, you know, so I had at the time, the Replica. And he goes, let's taste it. We're opening. There's other brands that were there, you know, and I was feeling bad opening at someone else's table. So I was, hey, is it cool? Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Taking pictures. And Sergio grabs my bottles, taking a picture. We're at someone else's booth. Was, no, this is good, man. I gotta take pictures with your picture. I was like, yeah, I appreciate it. I feel kind of bad, but. No, no, but like you said, no one cared. It was like, that's cool, dude. Just jump in, let's do this. And I think that's what makes it so, so great. You know that most, most people that I've come across are, Are open and they don't reciprocate to the fully extent that others do. It's okay. I.
You don't do it based on wanting that reciprocation. You do it because you generally feel this is a great product. I really, I enjoy it, you know, so. So why not? And again, if they elevate the industry, cool. We all do that opens the craft door to other people. Then he's better for all of us, you know, why not?
[00:38:27] Speaker A: Because if, because if I'm going to drink this and I like this, then I see this and somebody says, oh, you have to try that, then I'm going to try that. It elevates all of the brands that have fallen to the craft organization and group. So. I didn't know that you were doing I Heart Agave. I heard about it, but I didn't know that you were behind it. And I apologize for not being there because if I'd have known you were doing that, I'd have been on a plane and I'd have came out. I actually didn't make any festivals this year. I. I've been in Tequila and around us a lot this year and visiting distilleries and working on a lot of projects. So I, I didn't hit any of the festivals this year. But if, If I'd have known that was yours, I'm telling you, brother, I'd have been there. So the next time, you have no worry.
No.
[00:39:09] Speaker B: So for sure you can come out the next one. I'll. I'll let you know personally about that. But it was kind of by design initially. You know, I.
I was new to the industry. Again, no one knew me. It was a tiny brand. I didn't want to have that stigma of who's this guy, let's try and do. Or a brand starting their own festival. So I wanted the brand to. I mean, well, now the Iphar brand to speak for, for itself, right? And. And I think we did that because my biggest, my biggest goal was to showcase the brands, right. If you go through our social media, which I was running that one as well, it's about 80, 90% brands and brand promotion, not Event promotion. Because I, I, I've been at other festivals where, you know, you pay to be part of it. You do it and they post one picture of you and that's your real. And the other 80 is the event. Event. The event, which is great, but I see it as, as a brand. I want to join this festival. So I get promotion. And let's be I'm frank about it. That's what I'm trying to do. So why not make that the forefront of what the festival is? So I was creating reels, creating their content, rebranding their stuff. It's something they didn't have. I'm gonna do send your logo. I got you. So I'd spend, you know, hours a night building that stuff for them and doing that. So that was the focus this year. And I guess I kind of, by design, I, I didn't want, you know, it to be known. I was associated with it initially. But yeah, yeah, it was, it was, you know, it was us from the beginning. So then we, we did it and now it's, it's kind of known, but it's okay. At least the event spoke for itself, you know, and the brand, hopefully they had a great time. And it was funny like that same day. I never seen so many brands repost. Thank you for having us come out next year. And they weren't coasting about it. And hey, here, take my money. Lock me next year we'll do. I don't even know how done we are with this one yet. Let's, you know, give me a minute. Let me get it dirty. I got you. You were the first. I'm gonna call, but we're gonna wait a little bit. But yeah, it was, it was a blast. It was just like such a great, great venue. It was really nice. I don't know if you, you got a chance to see the social media of it. It was like, there's a lake we had, you know, it was the woods and it was so cool. And the after party was so much fun too. We had a drummer out there with a DJ playing old school stuff, and it was just, just so much fun, you know, so much fun. But, but definitely. But we'll keep in the loop for the next one. And you got to come out now.
[00:41:28] Speaker A: We'll be there for sure. Okay. So are we getting close to retiring? Like, are you about ready to hang up? Working so hard for America?
[00:41:35] Speaker B: I'd like to, I've been buying a lot of lately, so trying to kind of, you know, force that had the retirement Hand but didn't work out. They didn't work out. I'm kind of in a weird position to where I have a few years to go, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to, to finish that. I. I'm getting close to. Hopefully next three or four years I'll be done. And that being said, I could focus on this full time. That was the whole plan of starting this. So I could start growing it and, and not. Not have to rely on this to survive quite yet. So that allows me to be more selective in what I do. I didn't want to be in a position to where like I have to, have to sell, I have to do this to meet, you know, the demand so I could live some. I'm able to be a little more selective on when I release, what I release, how I release it or tell, you know, I mean, lucky have a great distillery. But be like, guys, I don't want to buy this stuff. I don't want done like this, you know, so I have that luxury right now. So I'm looking at, you know, next few years, if everything goes, goes as planned, to be able to transition fully into this. And I don't know, I get really antsy sometimes. People make fun of me, say, dude, you got like ADD because you're like all over the place and you want to do other stuff. Like I'm painting still too. So I'm doing some stuff for the La Diosa project event that's coming up. So they asked me to do a few paintings for them to auction off so they could raise funds for a Oaxacan women's group who sells stuff like Steed Miscalcisies from, I don't know, something like that. So they send me Scala seed to sell to the, the Mescalidias out there so they could kind of keep that tradition going. So I was like, you got it. So I'm not only there as a vendor, but there'll be auctions of some. I don't know what I'll be doing, man. Hopefully a lot more time, just tequila time. But get to the other fun projects too. Maybe do more of these. I don't know. I don't know. But definitely Tequila related.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: What? You know, I, I look at you as my ADD brother. It is, it's a superpower that we have when we have add because work full time in the mortgage business, do full time content, also have a brand new full time business that you don't know anything about yet. And also I'm playing A charity event this weekend at a bar where we raise money for Cabo Kids and ADLN. We raised $5,000 a few weeks ago up in Chicago. Our goal is to raise $10,000 this weekend and we'll do a third show in Cabo San Lucas. And our goal is to raise over a hundred thousand pesos to hand off to a orphanage and also buy clothes for kids in Cabo. So I. I understand the going in multiple directions all the time and always having something going on. So ADD is a superpower. We have to harness the best we can.
[00:44:12] Speaker B: That's so awesome, man. Kudos to you. I. I love doing stuff like that too.
So if you ever need, you know, let me know how I could be involved in anything like that. I'd love to because I. I'm really big into, you know, charitable events and stuff. I mean, not. Not only like military ones, because they said we did a gala, we raised funds for that. We did some other stuff for like this homeless organization, but whatever it is, we just recently does some of small scale with Louis Liquor out here. They did a backpack for kids back to school. Anything, you know, we can do. I'm. I'm a firm proponent and I'm in a position to help someone. I will, you know, however I can. However minute. Why not? Whether. No matter where they're at. So, man, kudos to you for that. That's awesome. Cheers. And if you ever need Cheers. Anything, let me know, man. I. I'll definitely jump on board.
[00:44:58] Speaker A: I'm the same boat. You have something going on that you need something, you tell me. Because I. I feel like I've been really blessed with a lot of the opportunities that I've had in my life and the success that's been around that. So we try to give back in every area that we can. And. And we've really found that helping in Mexico is. Been something I feel like I take from Mexico all the time. I take their hospitality, I take time at their beaches, and I love their food, and I take time from the people and I take more from there than I do from here. So our heart has really been at trying to give back to the kids in Cabo. Any organizations in Jalisco, helping out with Gente Buena and raising as much money as possible with Gente Buena and help serving the people in the Tequila community is really where our hearts have been for a long time. So I appreciate all of the things that you do and it inspires me to do what we do. So. Yeah. Cheers. Cheers to you, my brother.
[00:45:51] Speaker B: Salute. Salute. Yeah, I just, I'll take a moment too, man. I just want to tell you thank you for what you do and people like you, but I, you are one of the first people to have me on, and what, what little success I feel I have at the moment is in due in part to platforms like this. So thank you for taking a chance on me in the beginning and having me on and giving this platform and just, it's, it means a lot to, to, to small brands for me personally to be able to tell my story, to get the brand out there to people who may not even be in my circle. And the cool thing with online, now, they could buy online, they could try, you know, another state, and, and that's great.
So really, man, I just want to say thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity and this platform to, to be heard.
[00:46:33] Speaker A: I appreciate that you, you actually took a shot on me too, because I was pretty new at doing this the first time that we talked. And, you know, I, I, I appreciate everything about what you have going on. I, I, you know, I've learned a little bit about who you are and what you stand for, and then bringing such a great tequila, you, you fit in exactly with what I wanted to promote and the people that I wanted to talk to. So thank you so much for you trusting me as well. And thanks for the great tequila, my friend. I appreciate it.
[00:47:00] Speaker B: Yeah, man. Yeah, no, it's good. I, I, I, I love it. Like I said, the community is awesome. This community is awesome. I'm so glad to be a part of it, and it's just, I'm excited for what's to come in the future. And, you know, not just with my brand, but with other brands, man. So much cool stuff's out there. Like I said, all those brands that we, we debuted at iHearts, they're, they're getting ready. We're pretty close to jumping the market. A couple of them are in the market. Like Drago Su. I never heard of that.
Awesome. Awesome, dude. Really great stuff. I'll put you in touch with them. I was talking to this on another show. He just came with Stonehouse two Wheel, Opposite direction at the same time, so. Super cool. Yeah, he's. I think I know a fair share about Takia, but he's talking to me on a whole, like, molecular level of the stuff he's trying to do.
He. Yeah, I was like, man, nicest guy. He just turned 30. Master Distiller has own family's been in industry for a while, but now he's Taking off.
They used to make this tilados and stuff for the restaurant, but now he's like, no, no, we got to do this right? And he's taken off. He's doing really, really great. That's what I'm looking forward to. Hoya Maestra is another one from a buddy of mine. You're gonna be close, you'll be united. Talk to me offline. Maybe you stop by this other story too. Fred Alberto's as well, old school spot. I was down there with, with Mike Tequila Cop last year for my birthday and we got some 60 setting proof raft of steel type stuff. So awesome. And so he produces for another friend of ours and I just won the LA Spirits award for the high proof a Blanco, I think a 92 or something like that. So excited for that. And then Rewoza, he's actually doggos in Japan right now, but they're taking stuff everywhere and to see all my friends doing all this really great stuff to me is so cool, man. It makes me excited for, for them and makes me say hey, at least, you know, some small way they're opening a door that I could come in through at one point in the future, you know. So it's just so cool to see all these different, smaller distillery now being showcased and being, you know, out here in, in the US and other countries. And now I'm seeing I have another buddy, Carlito's Spirits. He's out in Japan a lot. He's been there for the last couple of years because he's seen that movement. He's like, I'm making money yet, but they know who I am. So that kind of cool that people are taking the chance in these other markets to open it up for the rest of us. I think that that's amazing. Colombia is another market that you wouldn't think, but stuff's moving that way too. And yeah, so we talk offline about that stuff for a while if you want. But yeah, there's so many different things and I'm so excited to see all these other brands doing these things. It's pretty awesome.
[00:49:30] Speaker A: Well, I'm excited about your brand. I'm fired up to share it and talk about it. I love having people taste it. I think what you're doing is a great, just incredible. And what you're doing at this festival is really cool too. I can't wait to be a part of it. And hey, I, I poured a little glass of this batch one to cheers you and say thanks for doing this tonight. And it was so fun hanging out.
[00:49:49] Speaker B: Thanks, man. Cheers, brother.
