Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, Brad. Nick. I'm tasting tequila with Brad. I got a really special treat for y'all. I've got a tequila aficionado, an old school tequila drinking guy from Yobalenta, California, Matt Charney. And he is the. We're going to call him a volunteer brand ambassador for Wakamaya Tequila. How you doing tonight, man?
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Outstanding, sir. Glad to be on with you tonight, man. And I love the pronunciation of Wakamaya.
It is good. And, you know, I'll call it guacamaya by slips, but yeah, the proper pronunciation is guacamaya, so.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: Well, tell me about your journey to tequila because I follow you on your social medias. I read a lot of your reviews on Tequila Matchmaker and I know that you have a deep knowledge and I'm picking up a deep passion for agave spirits.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: I appreciate it. It goes way deep. It goes back to the Cuervo and Two Finger Days. When I was a teenager and didn't know any better back in Michigan. I grew up just south of Detroit, so I'm a Midwest boy, you know, thought 1800 was top shelf before I left and went off to the Marine Corps, landed in California while I was in the Marine Corps. And actually before I even had met my wife, I did sip some Patron down in San Diego. And then I met her about three or four weeks later and went down to Baja, tried to buy some Cuervo because I still hadn't known any butter and wasn't trained. And she slapped my hand and I ended up coming home with a bottle of casadoras for $7 for a liter.
1993 or something. You know, I don't know what it was. It was something ridiculous because they just came out with the Nuevo Peso. It was. It went from like 30, 300 to 1 to 30 to 1 or something. Weird. Yeah, it was. It was. I can't remember what the numbers were, but it was something ridiculous. The math equations were. Were nuts. And, you know, her family basically told me after that, you know, mix blancos, shoot repos and sip onos. That was the old, you know, and 100, 100 agave, avoid the mixt. And I learned what a mixto was. That's all I needed to know back then. And the journey was long. It's been a lot of fun, a lot of bottles. I like buying the cheap stuff that was good. The Sinanos and Vita de Romero's and, you know, Hornitos and all the salsa brands and got into the good stuff, the centenarios and what we thought was at that time, back in the 90s, they were, you know, and the traditional stuff that all the grandpas drank and all the tios that drank around the house, we drank it all and, and loved it. Started collecting somewhere in the late 90s. After I got the marine corps and started, you know, having a house and had a home bar, I started collecting and, you know, reservative familias and stuff from the late 90s. And my first blanco I remember sipping was a Siete Leguas from 98 that a friend brought me from Guadalajara, from Guerrero Negro. As a matter of fact, he flew them from the, from there because he worked for the salt Flats.
And you know, I've been sipping on that kind of stuff ever since. But I did take a little break and stopped buying tequila somewhere around 2010. I had a collection of about 50 bottles, had some pretty good stuff, had white label, El Tesoro, you know, the Siftileguas Herodora Suprema. The bottle that I had a few others, old school stuff from that time frame and didn't know what I had. I just, it was just the tequila I had didn't collect like multiple bottles. I just would buy stuff, drink it. The original Cabo had had the original cabos and multiple things. And like I said, I stopped for a while and somewhere around we moved. I built a new bar. All my tequila went in boxes and it was in my. It was in my pantry. And I would pull out a couple bottles and put them up on the fireplace and we just. I'd sip on it occasionally. I wasn't collecting, but I was just drinking this old school tequila. So for 10 years I was drinking the 90s and early 2000 stuff that I had had still savored. And there was probably a couple bottles from the early, like 2010, 2012 time frame, but that people had bought. And I built a new bar in 2020, finished the bar, started buying tequila to put in it just, just went down to the local total Wine. Oh, you know, bought like a couple bottles here, a couple bottles there, bought a Dictivo Cava de Oro, you know, like, oh, 75 bucks for an extra anejo, you know, 85 bucks for this, you know, extra ineja. Bought a couple of these, bought a bottle of Casadoras Reposado, a couple others that were okay. I can't remember what they were, but they were, they were at least decent brands. I think it was a Chinaco or something. I can't remember what it was, but. And hadn't opened them, had a party, started sipping on a couple tequilas, and the sweet stuff just blew me away. What the heck? Where did this come from? Wow. These guys, have they learned something new? These guys are amazing with their barrel selection. I mean, I knew what barrels aged tequilas were in a barrel. I knew how it happened. There was no dummy. You know, like, wow, what kind of barrels are they using to get the sweet flavors? Like, they must be using maple trees or something, right? All this maple syrup. That's what was going on in my head. Like, I didn't. I couldn't fathom. I couldn't fathom the additives in it. I got online. How are they making tequila so sweet? And boom, taste tequila.com, which is tequila matchmakers original site. And, you know, I've been an additive free advocate ever since now, you know, that's.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: So we've got, like, similar, you know, I started out drinking great tequila. I switched to bourbon, and then next thing you know, I've got a beautiful bottle that has a bell on top of it. That, to me, was so sweet and so good. And then I jumped into this All Things Tequila Facebook page, and you're gonna find this funny. You know, all of these guys were, like, ripping on some of the tequilas that I like, so I just unjoined the group. I was like, the heck with these guys. You guys don't know what they're talking about. And I bought my first bottle of like, oo. And I was like, wow, this is like, this is really more like old school Cabo to me. Like, that brought me back to that old tequila that I liked. And as the oldest cabo that I like, so. So then I'm like, maybe that stupid Facebook page wasn't wrong. That's what I rejoined.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: That's funny.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: You know, got Tequila Matchmaker. And, you know, there's been multiple years of, you know, taking this journey down into the additive free world and not. Not as much even the additive free world. I. I don't. I'm. I don't drink a lot of tequilas with additives, but if you add it to make a profile that you're going for, good for you. I just wish there was transparency, you know, to that. So I knew, right? I'm probably more of a guy that digs into that tradition of the brand and the story behind the brand.
[00:07:27] Speaker B: And it's all about the story. The story, the journey. I call it a tequila journey. I typically only drink flights. I'm never the guy to sit down at my House at my bar anyways. And even if I go out, typically I'll never just sit and drink a bottle of tequila at a party. We go to a. We go to a gathering and I take a bottle. Yeah, we'll drink that bottle of tequila. But other than that, it's the only time where I drink one. I want a flight. I want 4, 5, 7, 8 different tequilas every single time. I've trended towards the blancos and the high proofs as of late, in this last, you know, year of the journey or so, six months or more as it's trended that way. And I think I was naturally trending that way as the high proof started to trend too. And I think they are a bit of a new trend, a new, old trend because they used to be high proofs back in the day. But, you know, things changed and now it's been, you know, 40, 40, 40 for so long. And there have been just a few exceptions with the, you know, the tapatios and the. And the G408 that have been mainstay high proofs. But now there's just so many and walk my. I don't think they came out like, oh, we have to have a high proof. I think they know tequila and that's what they like to drink.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Yeah, they just came out closer to that cast. Drink less, less water and keeping that agave forward flavor.
[00:08:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So let's get into a little story about them. So what are you drinking first? What are you drinking?
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Well, so one that I haven't had yet is the. The little repo 41.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: So I'm gonna go ahead and pop that into a glass. So I have that.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: So. And I see you got a Glen Karen, which I've been playing with. And this is thanks to Pedro. He's got me playing with red wine glasses.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: Gotcha. Which would be a similar, very similar shape.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that has the in and a little more straight there, but similar. Right. And I've been drinking a lot of the. The using the Chisholm Trail claps. And then I have the Glen Cairns as well. And I have little brandy snifters. And I've been drinking from all those things for years and playing around and what I found, you know, and not in a bad way, but I found the Chisholm trunk definitely will mutate some of the smells and flavor.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: I've heard that in a good way.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: In some cases, you know, but in another way it also is kind of exposing the. Where the red wine or the brandy sniffer. May expose. Maybe it's a flop if you want to call it a flaw.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: You know, I. I noticed that in that glass. Like, I'll have something in here that I'm like, oh, that has a lot of great aromas. And then I throw it in there and go, oh, wait a minute. That was.
I don't know what that is. Like, I'm picking up something there. Right. So that does change it.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: So I've been. What I've been doing lately. A lot of times when I'm doing a review or a battle of some sort, I'm actually using multiple glasses for both, where I'll set up, you know, two Chisholm Trail class. And I'll sit and I'll smell that first and I'll smell both, and I'll rate the smell. Then I'll pour it into the wine glass, and then I'll sit and smell them both and then rate the smell and then decide which one I'm going to drink out of. And I'll drink them both from the same glass at that point. Gotcha. And so. And sometimes I might go over the choose. Sometimes I might go to the wine glass. I've been mixing it up, and it's been kind of fun.
You know, I know the catadoras and they, you know, you get taught a certain way and all that. There's a lot to it, for sure. You know, I'm a big guy of like. Like tonight my palate's dirty. I'm not. I wouldn't rate a tequila tonight, you know, like, for a true score at all.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: You know, and. And, you know, but in some of those days, like, oh, wait a minute, this tequila tastes great at this time. Like, you know, you've had spicy food. A certain tequila is going to taste different than if you've had sweet food or fish. Or fish or whatever it is. Right. You know, the savers and the sweets and whatever has been on your palate earlier impacts how you're going to drink now. And, you know, I can't. I laugh at all the people that get crazy about you know, pairing. Oh, the rock said drink, eat dark chocolate with his candy with his tequila or something, you know, like a while back. Well, hell, yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. I love having tequila and dessert together.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: There's certain ones, especially what you're sipping on right there, that repo.
I think that's a great one to sip on with a dessert.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: All right, so I got a couple questions for you. So the first thing I want to know about because I think it's beautiful and I'm sure there's a story behind this logo and this very beautiful bird that is located on it. So do you know what this represents and how they came up with it?
[00:12:02] Speaker B: You know, I had that same very question and ask that same question because of the story. Wanting to know the story right behind your name. A lot of times the name is there. Right. We'll get to the glorious parts of the story later apparently, because this isn't. That was the seventh or eighth name that they submitted to get trademarked and it got approved.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: And they're amazing marketing team. After getting the name approved, this is what they put together.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: It's beautiful though, the packaging of this, you know, and I'm not, you know, we talk about the bottles, right. And how fancy bottles usually don' good juice in it, but the, the packaging of this is. It's beautiful. It is just. It's. It's gorgeous bottles. The, the way they laid it out, it's amazing. The boxes are even really cool, you know, that's. And when you're trying to get something, you know, on premise and you got. It's on the back shelf of the bar, you know, somebody's gonna go, wow, watch that. That's good looking. You know, So I didn't know if there was a story behind it or not.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
That's too bad, right? Yeah, it's unfortunate. That's, that's not the beautiful part of the story, but it is a beautiful bird and you know that it does translate to the macaw. That's what wakamaya is.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: Gotcha. Okay.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: Macaw bird. So I could see them definitely having some stuffed macaws or maybe a real macaw at their, at their booth someday when they, when they're actually in the.
[00:13:26] Speaker A: US that'd be really cool because as.
[00:13:29] Speaker B: You know, these bottles are only Mexico only. There's. There's none available in the US at the moment.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Right. That's what I was going to ask is when is there a timeframe or do they have. Are they going through the process to get it imported into the States?
[00:13:41] Speaker B: Yeah, that's exactly what they're going through now. They got an importer in California, I think he's up near Fresno. Importer, distributor. I mean, hopefully February. I don't know. You know, I mean, they're, they're making tequila. They got to go through all the, you know, approvals for crt. They don't have any, anything boxed and labeled or, or anything ready that they had 300 pallets of tequila boxed. Like you see it right there, labeled slightly different. The. The label was not the same. It actually had 100 additive free on the label.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: Yeah, that's gone.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: Well, that is now they. But they approved them. So you notice it's on the box, right? Yes, all 300 pallets have that on the box.
But they came back three days after approving or two. I don't know what the exact story is, but a couple days after approving the labels that said additive free, and they went and had them all printed all those bottles, and they came back said, nope, they canceled it on them. And they had to take all those labels off and relabel all 300 pallets. So. So he's. I don't know what the exact mix is of Blanco, Repo and Anejo. The anejo sold out almost immediately.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: They put the anejo out there. It's. It's in Mexico, but there's none in Baja. I have about. I have about 200 milliliters left, and I won't even share that with anybody until I get more.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: It's a. It's a 30 month Anejo. It's really good. They. They're getting it all out there and they're selling in Mexico only first, which is different than all other brands.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Yeah, it's very interesting.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: Okay. Get the money, hit the big market. You know, US is 70% of the. Of the world market of tequila. You know, go to California, Texas or New York. Start there. He said, no, I'm. I'm a Mexican. I'm a Mexican company. I'm a Mexican, you know, owner. I'm starting in Mexico first.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: That's awesome. They are NOM 1621, right is where.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: This one's made at. Yep. That's just Casa. Casa Macias.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: And is there a lot of brands coming out of there?
[00:15:41] Speaker B: No, there's no. There's no pedigree coming out of there. So that, that's where it's. They're a little different. Where they come from is their pedigree is agave.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Montini Brands has been agave farmers for three generations.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: They are the fifth largest grower of agave in all of Mexico.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: Wow. And are they growing in all in Jalisco?
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Everywhere.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:04] Speaker B: And all the. And all the tequila regions. Allowable regions. They have.
[00:16:07] Speaker A: Okay, fantastic.
[00:16:08] Speaker B: They have enough properties? They have properties all over.
Being the fifth largest. They got property. You know, I don't know what. I can't read. He. Pedro could spout off the numbers of millions of liters and, you know, whatever they could do annually, it's. It's something insane.
So they were supplying the big brands back in the day, the Cuervos and such. That's how they got. I mean, they got that big. They've been supplying agave for years and years. And they were. You know the story of the agave farmer who gets, you know, burned over every time there's a price drop. And they went through it. They were that family. They got burned. And dad in the way I hear the story in 2010, which was the last big drop 14 years ago.
I'm making up some numbers, but the story goes, you know, the contract price was, you know, six bucks a kilo or, I don't know, buck 60 a kilo, whatever it was. And then, you know, they come in and, oh, well, price is down. Sorry, this year we're only going to give you, you know, $0.26. And his dad said, no, no, thank you. You know, you had a contract. This is the price. You want my agave, you got to pay this price. They come back and offered him even less. 18 cents.
Nope, go away. You know, don't come back. You know, he came back again and offered him even less, and he said no. And they plowed the fields under, just planted corn or something. You know, this would not even sell them. The guy who said a penny just said, screw it and was gonna. And talk that. I think the talk was to get away from it.
They came around. They still kept growing agave. They're still doing it. About seven to 10 years ago, they decided, I think about seven years ago. So they decided, you know what? Let's just stop. If they got back into tequila game, they were making bulk, okay? And you know how bulk works. I mean, a lot of the brands that are out there get bulk shipped in. They mix it with their stuff and then put their label on it. And they don't have to tell anybody, right. Legal CRT approves it. They've been making bulk for all the big brands.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: A lot of brands. Even. Even, he says, some of the profiles that we enjoy.
Can't say. Can't say. I mean, It's. It's. There's NDAs. So, you know, maybe he's bullshitting, maybe he's not. I don't think so. I think it's real, you know, considering as much agave as they have.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: But if you think there's. There's another great tequila that comes from a great. The same story, you know, 1146 wouldn't be right, what it is today, if Ernesto's father wouldn't have, you know, backed down and sold Cuervo the tequila or the agaves at a cheaper price. And, you know, the story is he asked his dad, why'd you do that? And he said, well, the customer is always in charge. And he said, I'm. I'm never having that happen to me, you know, so that. That created, you know, num 1146, which, gosh, I mean, there's. That's another set of great tequilas, you know, from that adversity. So tell me about their process. So obviously they're agave.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: Yep. So mature. Mature agave. They're using the best of the best. The Supremes, the cap. You know, everything's. That was it caponas, when they. They let them go to Kyote right before they go, and they're doing all the right things and getting the matures.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: That we got these and cutting them in half, removing the Kagoya before cooking the whole thing.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: They do 50 autocl.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:19:29] Speaker B: High pressure.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: High pressure. Okay.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: And 50. Well, and what is high pressure versus low pressure? @ what point? I don't know the exact number. So, you know, I mean, it's. It's capable of high pressure machine. But what they're actually cooking at and how long, I don't know. You know, you got to talk to the masters on that, right.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: In the detail.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: But the other 50 is orno, you know.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: Okay. And then for maceration, they use it in a roller mill.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: I think it's a roll. I believe it's a roller mill. You know, I. I don't really get that caught up into the maceration too much. If they're using, you know, an orno to cook, you know, as long as they're not using a, you know, some form of diffusing operations, a roller, a shredder, a Felipe, you know, customized whatever. Right.
And then the big one is their fermentation. They don't use any yeast. It's open air, natural, wild. Yeah.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: So are they doing any fermentation with Bergazi? Are they doing any fiber fermentation or without fiber?
[00:20:30] Speaker B: No fibers was what I was told. And there'll probably be more experimentations, but not in this line for sure. And they do have other product lines that will be coming out, other brands.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: Distillation. We talking copper pot or stainless with copper?
[00:20:44] Speaker B: Stainless.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: With copper for both distillations, yes. Fantastic.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: I believe, you know. Yeah, I'd have to double check, but I believe so I Was told copper coil. So. Yeah. Okay.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: Are they resting their blancos before bottling or going straight?
[00:20:59] Speaker B: Quite a bit of. I don't think they aerate, but there's definitely some resting on them and they have stuff in tanks. They're making it so far ahead and so much of it.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: And those details you'd have to get direct. But they're making a lot of tequila. They're not doing small batch, they're making lots of it all together. Because formula. Sure. The big hold up is that fermentation because basically the way you talk through it, you know, the cooking takes about three days.
[00:21:25] Speaker A: Right.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: You know the, the.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: Unless you're doing true high pressure, then you know you can knock it out in eight days or eight hours.
[00:21:31] Speaker B: Well, yeah, you could. Right. But his, his process, whether he. The way they do it, you know, because of loading and unloading and temperature drop and everything else, both processes take them about three days. So they get all their cooked in three days.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: So low and slow, Low and slow.
[00:21:45] Speaker B: The takes about the same, you know, a day and a half to three days, depending on how much you shred and how much you have going and getting that all the way through. And then the big hold up is fermentation. That's 10 to. In the winter, possibly 25 days. Right. And then that's where the whole the hold up is. So every. All production basically kind of stops there. So what they're working on is building a lot of tanks for the fermentation. So that takes 10 to 15 to whatever days. You gotta have like five cycles every three days. You could be filling up another cycle. Right. And so I just imagine how much they're working on that to try and keep up is amazing.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: They're probably doing stainless steel tanks would be my guess.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Yeah, they got a lot of stainless steel tanks. You can see them in the pictures. If you go on the walk of my Facebook page and stuff. He shares a ton of videos of it from their, from their facility. I don't know enough about the mezcal to really talk to it educationally wise or intelligently. I enjoyed this one. But I also was like, you know, five sips in and really, you know, going there and I've. And I've drank it a few other times and I've shared it with a bunch of friends and everybody seems to like it. My. So my big one that I, that I Love is this 54.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: Is that, that's right there. That.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Yeah, that's this one here.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: So what, what are they Doing barrel wise, do you know?
[00:22:59] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:59] Speaker A: So what they're putting in barrel wise.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: So barrels, they use four different processes that they blend. Okay. They don't switch barrels, switch from barrel to barrel. They do four different processes.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: It's double barreling, but they're blending different ones.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: Yes. So it's French oak. It's all white. It's all French oak.
They use virgin that they char and cut and do different things with. So they do a two press there. They do wet wine, and then they take wine and they char the wines.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:23:32] Speaker B: They do a blend. I think there's a Cabernet and I believe a Malbec or something like that. They're using a couple different ones. They use some nap on. They use a mix. But they have a tenoyer down there that does all their. They're. They're barrel making and they. They cut like, you know, they get. He. If you sit and listen to Pedro talk about it, he'll talk about. We cut at. I can't remember the millimeters. I'm making it up 3, 5, and 9 millimeters. Because at 3 you get the oak, and at 5 you get the vanilla, and at 9, you get the whatever. Because there's at different depths of the barrel, you get different flavors.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:24:04] Speaker B: And how they char it and what they all do. So. So they're taking those four different types, basically, of barrels and then blending it all at the end.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: You know, as dark as it is, I figured they. They had to be doing in that 8 to 10, month.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: 11.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: Age time. 11. Okay. And then I knew they had to be doing a heavy char to be able to get this much color. And they had.
[00:24:29] Speaker B: I don't know how deep the char is because he talked about char, but he didn't. He didn't.
We didn't actually get into the depth. I didn't ask that question. You know, went set and talked with them so long, and that's. This is exactly it. I'm kind of given the. The preemptive and just supporting them and learning what I know about them and, you know, getting his brand out there and supporting. Because I love his story and, you know, I love the idea that, you know, they're trying to, you know, they're not trying to take on Cuervo, but as much tequila as they. I think they can produce, they're. They're trying to do it a different way. They're doing it.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: They're doing it down in Mexico. They're doing all their own brands. They're they're slowly cutting off the stuff that they were doing in bulk and making it for their own brands now and putting in their own bottles. So a few of the bulk people that people used to buy from them probably might be upset because now they're not getting to some of that. But whatever, you know, it is what it is. And he's gonna come out with a couple more tequila brands and mezcal brands. Awesome. Other. Just other. Out of other distilleries as well.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: I was picturing at least a level 4 char. And when you look at how they do it in the bourbon business, you know, you can't use a toasted barrel for it to be. Bourbon has to be a character.
[00:25:38] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:25:38] Speaker A: And then, you know, you have a 1, 2, 3, and 4. And that's just the, the depth of that char. So the more that you burn into that char, that barrel, the more that, you know, spirit is going to then go into and out of that barrel. And, you know, bourbon, Bourbon compared to tequila, we don't drink a blanco in the bourbon world.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: That's.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: That's straight corn moonshine, you know, so they're, they're extracting all their flavor from the barrel. And I, I do get a little less, like up front agave forward in this, but that, that's because it's been in a barrel and obviously it's got a great aging to it, so. But I do like it.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: It's.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: It's got a nice.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: You know how much.
You're gonna get a lot less agave from the, the Cuervo or the, the fulano anejo, you know, Right. Than you do from a ocho anejo. You know, they're using those big. They're probably using those big 600 liter pipings or whatever those big ones are, and they're aging in those. And they're. They're hardly getting any age. You know, you're seeing so many, and it's like, I get it. I appreciate them. But you're getting so many anejos that are like. You look at them like that ain't even a reposado color. Like, right. Well, I mean. And everybody says, oh, it's agave, Ford. It's great. I love it.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:26:54] Speaker B: It's an. I'm like, I get it.
If I want to. If I want agave, I'm drinking my blancos, right?
[00:27:01] Speaker A: No, that's true. And I do say personally, you know, I, I don't, I'm. I don't want to go grab a tequila that turned into a whiskey.
[00:27:10] Speaker B: Right.
[00:27:11] Speaker A: But I don't mind a good dessert tequila that has, you know, that Carmeline and that barreling flavor. But you know, again, I am a, I'm a blanco forward high proof, you know, Right. Give me a punch in the face, you know. So, you know, there is that time frame that I go, oh, you know what? I think I'm going to make, you know, a great tequila old fashioned and I'm going to do that tequila fashion with this. But you know, I do, I do like a forefront agave tequila.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: There's, there's agave here, there's, there's flavor there of the agave. It's just maybe a little more barrel forefront. But again, absolutely, as dark as it is and as long as it's been aged, it's pushing that on Yejo.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: You know, time frame, I honestly think you could put it up against a lot of anejos in a blind and people would.
[00:27:58] Speaker A: 100, 100.
[00:28:00] Speaker B: Go right with it. At 11 months, it's, I mean, heck, how many, how many anos are coming out at, you know, 12 months and you know, three days or eight days? Eight days, right.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: Yeah, no doubt. All right, so tell me this, tell me all the places that people can find this for information. What do you know what all their socials are.
[00:28:20] Speaker B: So he, it's Wakamaya Tequila and it's Montini Brands. They have, they have, you know, walk. My Tequila's on Facebook, it's on Tick Tock. If they're on Instagram, Montini Brands is out there putting stuff out. There's, they're small. It's, you know, it's coming out of Mexico. Their, their web page is montinibrands.mx.com or something like that. I believe you can find it on their, on their Facebook page or on their Instagram page. You'll find where it, it's printed out as one of their links. His link tree isn't accurate. It doesn't work real well if they're growing and slow, you know, the growing pains and of all that fun stuff. The tequila is available in Mexico only right now, but if you're on vacation, you will be able to find it because he's going everywhere. He's in, he's in Cabo now.
[00:29:12] Speaker A: You can find it at the, the Tequila town, which is downtown Cabo San Lucas. And my friend Valentino Rossi who works in that store, seen that I posted this and gave a big old thumbs up and they have it in the store on the square at Tequila Town in Cabo San Lucas. Look for Valentin. He'll hook you up nice.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: There you go. So, yes, they're in La Playa at La Playa Bodega in Tijuana. They're in Don Pisto and Rosarito all over Mexico. Their website has a few of the links to it to the different stores they're getting in. I believe it's in El Beso.
They're. They're getting it out there. There's, you know, there's, there's a lot of cases going. They're bottling more. They're bottling for Mexico still right now. Once they get labels approved and things approved, they'll start bottling for the US Market. It'll come to more than likely California first on a. On the distribution market there. And as soon as it's in California, it's everywhere. Because you know someone like Roadrunner or anybody, they can ship 48 states. So.
[00:30:15] Speaker A: Right. So where can people follow you? Because you have some great. I see your videos all the time and you have some great social media out there too. So where can people find you and follow you?
[00:30:26] Speaker B: Mr. Tequila facts on Instagram. I'm just started my Tik Tok. I don't think it's. I think you might still find me on Mr. Tequila Facts, but I think it's Matt Charney, seven or something because I old person using social media. I know how to set it up properly, you know, whatever. And of course, Facebook. Matt Charney, I'm on, you know, the, the forte fanatics. I got to get a big plug to the forte fanatics boys. That's where the high proof comes in. I don't know what I got to.
[00:30:50] Speaker A: Do to get one of those T shirts. That's all.
[00:30:52] Speaker B: So, so here, I'll tell you this, this shirt is. Is a California special. I. I didn't get this from. From 4th Fanatics. I got the logo emailed to me and I had my own guy make them for me. These are customs, so they have to do that.
[00:31:09] Speaker A: Huh.
[00:31:10] Speaker B: I got a co worker that, that it has a.
I can't remember. It's not, it's not a silk screen printer, but it's some other version. Whatever he does, it's like it's a heat whatever. And he started playing with it and it's just a hobby for him. He's not even trying to draw a business. And he's like, he's made a couple of shirts at work. He's wearing them in and talking about like, well, hey, why don't you make me one. And he. He made me one. They made me a couple on a couple shirts. And I took them to Sabori Cultura in la and I got it autographed by Salvador Chava. And yeah, and I got it by Fleet Camarena on that day. And I was like, okay, so these are two master high proof distillers. You know, like, these are the guys. And then I was just at La Diosa Project and I got Ileana Pertita.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: I got Anna Maria.
[00:32:01] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:32:02] Speaker B: And I got another. A young master distiller that. I'll be honest, I walked past their booth. I had no clue who they were. There was these two young girls sitting at a booth with the names in the house, dosa, Castas or whatever it is. And I went over to my buddy Chris Cardenas from Cardenas Legacy, and I was talking to him and we were bsn and then told him what I was doing. And, you know, the autographs I had already got. And I was waiting for Anna. I hadn't gotten Anna Maria's yet, but I was waiting on it. And he's like, well, you should, you know, I was, what other master distillers are here? And he says, oh, Val. I'm like, who's Val? And like, he points to her. I'm like, okay, what does she make? He's like, well, that's her tequila. And I'm like, oh. And she saw. She's like, well, how do I get to put my name on there? I'm like, well, wait a minute. Do you make a mask? Do you make a high proof? She's like, yeah, I have a high proof being made. It's not out yet, but I'm making one right now. I was like, I'm like, okay, sign away, girl.
[00:32:57] Speaker A: And send a bottle to this address.
[00:32:59] Speaker B: Yeah, we're talking. We'll get there when the high proof comes out. But yeah, what a great event. And I only want autographs when I'm in person. And there's. There's two of them that I have. I have two of that shirt and only two were made.
[00:33:10] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: So I'm gonna continue getting all the autographs on both of those. Eventually. Maybe I'll hang one and maybe auction one off or something for a charity.
[00:33:18] Speaker A: There you go. Auction one, offer a charity. Be fantastic. Well, Matt, I really appreciate your time. I know you're super busy. I know you're coming to me from California where It's probably like 6:30 and I'm coming you from Indiana, where US senior citizens, it's time to go to bed.
[00:33:37] Speaker B: I don't believe you, bro. I don't believe you.
[00:33:39] Speaker A: Oh, dude, I'm an early guy. I. I go to bed early and I wake up early.
[00:33:43] Speaker B: Yeah, okay. Yeah, I did see some early messages, I think when we've chatted a couple times, but I do that too. I get up at 5:30 in the morning almost every morning.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm in the same boat.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: Yeah. At 6:00, I'm sitting there looking at my social media, maybe responding some from the night before, his messages or, or something and send us something. And I'll get like, they're like, what are you doing up already, man? Because I'm always talking to the east coast guys.
[00:34:05] Speaker A: Right, Yeah, I get that too. So I want to say thanks. Thanks for the tequila. I really appreciate that. Thanks for all the work that you're doing, spreading the good word. And you know, I really appreciate your knowledge and I definitely appreciate you taking your time out to do this. I think it's awesome.
[00:34:23] Speaker B: And let's do it again. Let's. Let's talk some more, man. It's fun. I can talk to tequila for days and days, man. It's just, it's fun and enjoyable and I love how it connects us. I mean, it's, it really is. It's about bringing us together and it's about the journey more than anything. And I've met. I mean, I haven't, I have enough friends, but I get, so. I get so many more friends with Tequila, you know, I mean, having tequila, you know, around always makes it more fun. But, but no, seriously, like, it's just, it's like, it's the happy juice and it's, it really is, it is a, it is the. I think it's the spirit of unity.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: I totally agree with you. I have a lot of friends that are tired of me talking about Tequila, so I love having friends that don't care that I'm talking about Tequila the whole time.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: Hey. And I can even shut up and listen to someone else talk. That's what my wife doesn't believe me. My wife doesn't believe that I can get on these things and actually share a conversation because she thinks I'm just going to talk over everybody and talk Tequila the only time.
[00:35:16] Speaker A: Yeah, my wife probably feels the same way. And my wife's a little bit of a tequila fan.
[00:35:21] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: My wife's a big history fan. So we had a great time in Tequila back in August. We, you know, we went to Fortaleza. We went to Rete. We stayed at Casa Sales. We went to El Tequilino. We, you know, we had, we went to Cascawina, El Renault. We had, you know, this great, amazing time. And here's the craziest thing that happened. So we, we go to Cabo a lot. And we were invited to Jorge Cuervos Cuervo house, which is in San Jose del Cabo. He's ninth generation Jose Cuervo, so great, great, great, great, great grandpa. And he does a tequila tasting. And he, he literally goes over everything about tequila and how tequila is made and what, what is good tequila. We're in downtown Tequila. We just left the old municipality building, which is a great. A restaurant. And we left there after this great meal. And we're walking and Tony's like, does that guy look familiar to you? And I was like, he does. And we, we kept walking. We walked back around and we walked past this building and, and he was. The same guy was in there again. Now he's having breakfast with his family. And I, I, I recognized as one of his boys because they were at the Te Sc. We were at. At his restaurant. So I stepped inside and I said, excuse me, sir, do you speak English? And he goes, hey, I know you. It was Jorge Cuervo. He was in town visiting family. He's getting ready to launch his own tequila.
[00:36:54] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:36:55] Speaker A: And he's like, what? Well, what are you doing today? I told him we were going to Fortaleza, you know, in an hour. And he's like, well, let me reach out to Guillermo and send him a message and let him know you're coming. And then he's like, ah, Guillermo's not, he's not in town today. He just told me to wish you a great time and maybe he'll see you next time. And I thought, how do you fly, you know, 2,000 miles and somebody else flies 2,000 miles and you run into them on the square in the town of Tequila? That's how this, that's how this tequila thing works to me.
[00:37:26] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure, man, for sure. I love it. And, you know, I mean, we're in the hub here in LA with, you know, so much great stuff going on. But I'll tell you, you gotta be at Saboricultura in Chicago, okay? They're talking about that event. Pyro Lou's putting it on. He's on Instagram, Sabori, Cultural events.
[00:37:46] Speaker A: And you know when it is?
[00:37:48] Speaker B: I believe it's May 30th. He's already announced it. They're 99 booked. They have two facilities. They're both open for that date. So that's the date they just haven't signed the deal for. Which one? And they're. They're flying within the next 10 days to go book it.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: Well, Matt, I want to say thanks for. Thanks for doing this, and I really appreciate you. And I know we'll do it again in the future, real soon.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: All right. Thanks, buddy.
