[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, here we go again. Another fantastic time that I got to spend with Todd Hummel. And we Talked about Elevation 1250, this amazing tequila made at Nom 1522. He's going to tell the whole story about how they came up with the brand, the name, how he met ileana Partita at NOM 1522 Hacienda Deora to make this tequila. He's also going to talk about their rosso, which is really special. And don't miss out. He's got some secrets about new stuff that's coming out. I think we actually pop an exclusive on this one. So I've been sipping on this Rosa, which is absolutely unbelievable. So grab you a glass, get you a pour, and hang on for this episode of Tasting Tequila with Brad. It's Tasting tequila with bread.
Hey, Todd, I'm so glad to have you on today.
How's it going up there in Canada today?
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Good to see you, Brad. Thanks for having me, man. I will tell you, it's about 85, 86 degrees up here, which is why I've got a nice little ranch water going out here outside.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: I didn't realize Canada looked like that. In my mind, there's always drifts of snow and freezing cold at all times. But I realize you have nice summers, too.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: No, we do have some beautiful summers, actually. The west coast is actually quite beautiful of Canada, which I'm actually heading to next week, so.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: Fantastic. And you're in the Toronto area. Great.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: You bet. I'm in the. In the capital of Ontario, largest city in Canada, Toronto. And we're about, I'd say about an hour from Buffalo and a good, good three hours. I can make it in under three to Detroit.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Gotcha. Yes. You can drive faster up there than we can, I think.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: You bet.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: So I know that there's a stereotype that Canadians are always nice. Right. And I personally have never met a mean Canadian, but I was told that that's different if you're from Quebec.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: You know what I think? I think. Listen there. I do know. I do know a lot of Quebecers for sure, but it's if for some reason they seem to have a chip on their shoulder about being part of this country.
But there are some lovely Quebecers for sure. I will. I will tell you that. Interestingly enough, driving across this entire country, you know, we've got some. We've got some rules and laws they don't seem to apply in. In Quebec for some reasons. Everybody drives like, everybody drives crazy up there.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Well, tell everybody a little bit about who you are and kind of your history and do like what happened before tequila and let everybody get some insight into you there.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: So I'm actually gonna. I'll probably date myself now. And the reason being is because I've had a passion for the agave spirit, very specifically tequila, very long time. I got my start after college and university. I'm probably way over educated to be in the tequila business, but that's besides the point. I used to. I used to travel around with the Canadian equestrian team, and I actually would actually be the detail of the captain of the Canadian equestrian team. And one of our stops was Monterrey, Mexico. We stopped there at least three times a year. I remember, you know, fresh out of school, you know, I'm dating myself back to the days where, and it wasn't that long ago, obviously, but that we were like shooting tequila and really bad tequila and we were talking about, you know, the lime, the salt. Oh, why is there a worm in the bottle? That kind of stuff. I remember sitting at a table at a beautiful restaurant, Monterey, Mexico. I can't remember the restaurant. I wish I did, but it was so long ago. And tequila came to the table before we even started dinner. I was like, oh, man, last thing I want to do is shoot tequila right now, right? So my client leans into me, an amazing Mexican businesswoman, and she says, we don't drink tequila like you Americans do. We like to sip it. And I was like, oh, this is going to be harder than I thought.
And I just. Brad. I remember. I remember taking the first sip and I'm like, this is not tequila. And she looks at me, she goes, this is actually tequila.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: So I've had a passion for a really, really long time. I spent most of my career in advertising and marketing. I've worked for some of the largest breweries, some of the largest wineries, both in. In the US And Canada and actually abroad as well. And it wasn't until about just before the pandemic hit that I was making a cocktail for a buddy of mine who is actually in the alcohol business.
And I was making a cocktail. I was just talking about how much I love tequila. Now, I have to give you context around the province that I live in. So Ontario is actually what we call a control state. So everything is. Everything is controlled by the government.
They purchase the alcohol. You know, consumers don't have a lot of choice. I think there's a couple of other, you know, Canadian owners of tequila brands that would say the same thing. And it was always hard to get really good tequila So I would order from other provinces, or I'd bring it up from Mexico when I was there, or even order it from the States and figure out, like, get it delivered to a buddy of mine in Buffalo, drive over the border and bring it back. Right? But I remember making this cocktail for my buddy, and he was like, listen, man, he goes, you have such a passion. Because I was actually thinking about what I wanted to do next in my life. Believe it or not, I'd been in advertising for 30 years. And I was kind of like, all right, what's coming next? And he jokingly said, he goes, oh, you should just start your own tequila brand. And at this time, the only individual that I knew that had started. Actually, there were two individuals, but the one that I knew the most of was Alex Lacroix from. From Siempre. Love the guy. Great brand.
In fact, I loved his. His tequila before it was at 14. 14. It's even better now. But the point was, is, like, I was like, okay, maybe I'll give this a try. And I didn't know how to do it. It just so happens that I had a colleague in the US he actually had a.
He had a ready to drink cocktail, and he was actually producing the tequila for his cocktail at NOM 1522 with Ileana Partita. So he and I were actually on a.
We were on a web conference. We're talking about brands that give back, and my whole idea is like, oh, when I create my own brand, I want to be able to give back to the community, all that kind of stuff.
And he jokingly said. He goes, you got to start your own brand. I'm going to introduce you to Ileana Partita. I'm like, yeah, whatever. Okay, sure. And within, like, five minutes, I was on a WhatsApp with him and Ilana Partida. And I'm like, okay, there's no way she's ever going to respond. Within 40 minutes, she actually responded to me, and she goes, let's have a conversation. I was like, great. So we had a couple of zoom calls, and then Pandemic hit.
So I was like, all right, we're going to shelf this for a little while, obviously. But it gave me that entire year to really start thinking and really exploring on what I wanted this brand to be and what I wanted it to do. Because obviously, you know, a lot of celebrities are in the business. There's brands coming out almost every week. So to me, it was more about, you know, how do I really make sure that this is something that I want what other people really appreciate as well. So as soon as the ban was lifted on being able to travel, I reached out to Eliana, sent her a very long email in Spanish. And I was like, I really want to come down and see you, and let's have a conversation about how you could be our master distiller. And I have some other things I want to talk to you about. So she's like, great. I remember the date specifically. It was May 17, 2022. And I'm like, hey, I'm coming down.
I want to make sure that, you know, we have some time together. She was only have an hour for you. I'm like, okay, I'll take the hour. I don't care. I'm just gonna. And we spent nine and a half hours together that day, Brad, and we actually just, like, hung out. We got to know each other. She gave me a tour.
We did all kinds of tasting. We actually. The blanco that you have, I think you have there is the profile that we came up with sitting there that day. And that was kind of.
That was my foray into the tequila business. And I remember. I remember walking away from the distillery, and I was thinking, like, man, that's probably one of the most incredible, first and foremost, most incredible women I've ever met in my life.
Of secondly, just how cool she is and how innovative she is about what she wants to do and how she wants to do it. We just align. So I remember writing three. Three words down. It was like. It was legacy, respect, and determination. And that's how I was going to build this brand, just based on my meeting with her. And kind of. I mean, I will say the rest is history, but, you know, we. We launched In May of 2023, a hundred cases in our local liquor store here. And we've continued to grow over the past, you know, two to three years, having a lot of fun and just, you know, making sure that what. What real tequila should taste like. And that's kind of my story of how I got into it.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: That's very awesome. And it's neat that you didn't have to go through that challenge of meeting multiple distilleries and going, you know, talking to so many different people that you. You kind of found the right person at the right time.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: It was serendipitous, and that's the word that I use. I mean, it might be like, you know, a ridiculous word to use as far as, like, falling into the right place as far as business is concerned, but I just remember walking away from that Distiller going like, this is. This is what I'm doing. This is how I'm doing it. And I need to. I need to make sure that she knows that, you know, I want to. I want to do some great stuff with her. With that said, you know, Iliane is not only our master Distiller, she's also our partner in our brand. So one of the things that was really important to us is that she actually owns part of our brand. We offered that up to her, but that's also about. And she will joke about it because she asked. She goes, okay, that's fine. But she goes, I want to make sure that my employees and my community benefit from that. I'm like, done. So her actual employees and part of the community and mostly the women that work at the organization at Hacienda de Oro, they actually take part in our success. They have part ownership in our company as well. And we give back to the community as well through kind of scholarships and education.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: That's awesome, because a lot of people don't realize, sure, this big American company or this American investor or this American celebrity can go down there and make a tequila and be successful at it, and that does help the people that work there. But when a brand has their. Their employees and the brand is part owner of the Distiller and master source, part owed to the brand, now they can create some generational wealth, and instead of just creating a brand for somebody else, they're creating a brand that's theirs too. And then now that's something that can continue to grow within that distillery and be passed on and really help give a bigger impact on the area and the workers. So that's awesome that you do that. That's really awesome.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: Well, and, you know, it's funny because I think we've all had this conversation in the community and those who really appreciate, you know, where tequila comes from and. And the hard work that goes into it, I think for those of us who really care about where it comes from, it's a port. It's important to give back, right? It's important to understand it's important. That's why, you know, when I use those terms, you know, legacy and respect and the determination, those three words really came from just meeting Ileana, meeting her father, meeting the community.
And it's really, really important to give back to them because they do such a great job imparting what they do and share. They share it with the rest of the world. And I remember Ileana was very intrigued by the. Because she Had. She never had a Canadian approach her before, obviously, and she was like, wow, this is my opportunity to kind of go global. Right. So. And at the same time, she actually had a. She had a business group from Germany that was approaching her as well. In her mind. She was like, great. I want to be able to tell the story of not only my distillery, but my community. And, you know, we're actually made in Amatitan, which is, like, about 45 minutes north of Guadalajara and just outside of Tequila. So for us, it's really important to kind of share where, you know, where a lot of the distilleries are, where a lot of the families are, and where a lot of the great tequila, you know, that provides it to the rest of the world comes from.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: And a lot of people don't realize that Amaten is not only a place where tequila is made, but some of the very first tequila that was ever made comes from Omatitan, not necessarily the town of Tequila. So you're sitting in the hotbed of history.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Well, Ileana always jokes about that. She goes, I just want you to tell everybody that Amochtitan is the official birthplace of tequila. Not a lot of people know that, but a lot of people inside the US north of the border here. I was like, oh, the town of Tequila, that must be where it started. It's like, sure. But if you look at some of the regions around, specifically Amatitan, they found some of the oldest ruins of distilleries in the area, which is incredible.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: Yeah. And there's a distillery still operating that is no longer in the CRT, that is, I believe, on the 15th or 16th generation.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Of making agave spirits.
It's hard for. It's hard for a farmer in America to hand his farm down to the next generation, one or two generations. So to think Ileana, I believe, is fourth generation.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: She is.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: And one of four siblings, I believe all.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: All brothers, though.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: Yeah. She's. I think she's the only youngest and a female. Yeah. She's probably the toughest one of the bunch.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: Yeah, she absolutely is. And that's why, you know, we. We have no issues calling her the absolute badass boss of. Of Amatitan. Very side note, she's very involved in a lot of local politics. She's involved in the community. She gives back to. The think is really great. But, you know, her father and she and I have had this conversation. She speaks openly about. It is like her father gave her the distillery because, you know, she. Her English is, bar none, amazing. First and Foremost well educated. Just, she has that personality. And you know, as well as, as a lot of other people in this industry that I talk to, I mean, Ileana and I travel a lot together. We, we have the luxury of being able to kind of work together in market. We were just down at BCB in New Jersey and New York last or two weeks ago. But for the fact that her dad was, and she's been in the agave field since she was like 12 or 13 years old, like, this is kind of something that she's done. And her mother gave her a lot of, kind of a lot of confidence to go, you can do this. And her dad was like, here you go, here's. You know, so now she's one of, I want to say probably five, don't quote me on that, but five women in the entire region who hold the distinction of CEO and master distiller with non distillery.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: Yeah, there's only a few. And all the ones I know do make great tequila. That's the thing. It's. When the first time I had a tequila with Eliana and it was ultimo, was just coming back out.
It's like, what an approachable, easy to drink agave, forward blanco, right? And so many of the female master distillers that I've, I've either met or had those tequilas, there's, there's something sometimes a little different, a little, A little more approachable. Like this repo is almost gone. I haven't had it very long.
It's because it's a repo that my wife comes and grabs the bottle. Like she picks this repo and she really likes it. So. And then that says something about how you guys are making tequila one, but also how Ileana makes this approach that the tequila, to me is good. I like it. It's got all of the agave flavor that I like. It's robust, it's complex.
Yet for my wife, who's not, you know, this deep off the end agave nerd that can spout every nom number there is, she likes because it's easy to drink and it tastes good, right? So that's, that's hitting both, you know, you hit both nails, you know, when you're, when you're doing that.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, I will tell you this much, and this is kind of a little insider, insider scoop, I'll give you. There are four of us, four of us that I know that are that work with her, that when we went to first meet her, the first blanco that she actually gave Us was Ultimo Agave. And based on that tasting, actually, the other guy, I can, I can share, like Mike Winters from Kinta Lisa. He and I share this story all the time. It's like, Like, I need to work with this woman because of this tequila right here. And our first sip on Ultimo was like, yeah, this is kind of what tequila is supposed to taste like. Right. And. Or in our minds, what we wanted to kind of launch off of. So Ultimo for her, I think is what garners her the most kind of private labels. First and foremost. As soon as we try it, we're like, man, if you're making this in this distillery, you can make and. And then you start having fun. You start kind of coming up with your own profile. You're drinking a lot, you're taking stuff out, you're putting stuff in. It's. It's a lot of fun working with her, for sure.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: Awesome. We did find out in a recent meeting what the name means.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: And I, you know, when I asked the question and you told the answer, my brain was like, duh. Like, how did I not even think of that? But it's such a great name.
So tell everybody what it means. So that. So the people that don't know.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: So interestingly enough, like, again, what I find, and I think you probably find this in this industry as well, Brad, is that there are a lot of people who need a lot of education around tequila because there is a lot of misnomers. There's a lot of thoughts around what tequila is or what it should be, or whether it be celebrity or whether it be the old brands that we use.
For me, I always had a penchant for wine. I always liked wine. Right. It's like I. And we'll. We'll get to chatting about the Rosa for sure. But my neighbor is actually owns a winery and owns a wine brand. And we always had conversations around terroir and climate and altitude and all that kind of stuff. And I'm like, yeah, that's what it's all about in the tequila world too. But people don't know that.
So I, I took a large leap first and foremost because the name isn't like, it doesn't roll off the tongue that easily. But to me, it was really to start talking about where the distillery is. So that said, elevation 1250. The distillery itself, NOM 1522 Hacienda de Oro, is actually located at 1,250 meters above sea level.
I have to use meters because Canada and Mexico Were metric. I apologize.
And so the elevation sits. The elevation is. Is. And what people don't realize is that, you know, those who start to know, it's like, oh, you've got Highland tequilas and you've got Valley. The valley is still not that low. It's like, it's. It's 12, 50 meters above sea level and the climate is absolutely incredible. And that's kind of where I came up with the name afterwards.
Anecdotally, I will share this story and Ileana laughs all the time. I wanted to call the tequila Ileana. And she's like, whoa, no, she goes, we might be saving that for some time. So I've registered all the domain names for.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: So you got it.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: Yeah, Ileana, Tequila, all that kind of stuff. But to me, it was like, now I can actually pay homage to Amatitan, the distillery. The people that are there through the name and just saying, like, hey, this is where it's actually produced. It's at this altitude and you've been. So I, you know, I don't have to explain to you, but the climate is absolutely insanely beautiful. First and foremost, it benefits from the volcanic soil. So, you know, all of our fields are in the volcanic soil. Volcano in the background, but it's still pretty high, where it's like, you get your cold seasons, you get your rainy seasons, you get really hot seasons, and your tequila ends up being a little bit different just based on the time of year. Like, again, if I, if I look at the back of the bottles, like this is an O2 that. So the, the reposado, I think, I think you have the same bottle.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: It's a lot too, about two.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: Yeah. So I know that was in the rainy season, right. So I know it, that it stayed in the open air fermentation tanks a little bit longer because it wasn't as, as warm. So. And it brings out a little bit from. For the blanco, it brings out some, you know, different notes. It brings out a little bit more funkiness when it's in the rainy season, whereas when it's really, really warm, let's call it May, you know, you'll get a lot more of the minerality you've got. So to me, naming it for the elevation that it's actually produced at, that's an opportunity for me, my brand ambassadors, anybody who's within the organization to be able to talk about where it's actually made. And that's how we came up with the name.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: I think it's awesome. Like, when you said it, my Brain was like, duh, that's. I should have known that. And that is so cool. And in talking about that elevation, a lot of people refer to the valley as the lowlands and then refer to Los Altos as the highlands. And you've. You've probably never met this guy before. His name's Jimmy. Jimmy said, hey, can you do me a favor in your videos? And I said, what would you like me to do, Mr. Salsa? And he said, stop saying lowlands. It's ridiculous.
It's higher up than Denver, Colorado.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: So you had your hand slapped, basically, is what. And it's so funny. I now do that. To be honest with you, Brad, when people. Oh, it's in the lowlands. I'm like, you can't really call it the lowlands because. And I'll call it out. I'm a massive Broncos fan. Okay, Just so we're clear. So to me, it's like, yeah, it's. It's actually higher altitude than in the mountains where football players need, like, they need oxygen masks because of it.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: We talk about Denver, Colorado, as the mile high city. And I'm over here calling a Matatan and. And tequila the lowlands. Jimmy said it in a very nice way. You know, I of course, ask him one day, is there anything that I can do different? And he said, yeah, I did a video about it.
[00:20:30] Speaker B: You know, anecdotally, Ileana actually corrected me in a presentation like, no, one of our early, early ones. And she did it so nicely. But I was like, yeah, yeah. It's like, here I am trying to educate people that it's a. It's actually a high altitude, and I kind of came into it. It was one of. One of our first kind of conversations. But, yeah, lowlands is such a misnomer for where, you know, where this terroir actually lies.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: And I think it is a valley in comparison to a lot of the region around it. I. I see where the term comes from and where. Where people say it and. And I. I try to correct myself every time and refer to it as Tequila from the valleys or Tequila from the Valles, and really focusing on that and then. And then that to people. So your bottle having that right as the name is a great jumping off point to teach something about the region and about the area. So I really like that. It's really cool. Thank you.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: Thank you. And if you notice, on the inside of the label as well, there actually is a drawing on the inside of the label. It was a local. Local Canadian artist that drew it for me. She's actually very famous Worldwide for drawing like this is all by hand.
And it's actually an agave plant drawn in the style of a topographical map. And there's a couple of X's that you can see there. One of them is where the agave field is. Yeah, through the back. And then one of them is where the distillery is. And then one of them. And I don't know if you had the opportunity to visit. Did you visit La Palapa at her dad's agave fields? La Palapa is the. The restaurant that overlooks all of the fields. So there's a little X for that too. But it's just, you know, it's little details like that where people, you know, people ask the question. It's like, oh, what's this all about? It's like. Well, it's actually, you know, drawn in a style of a topographical map to identify kind of like, you know, where. Where things are as far as, you know, tequila, the tequila production is concerned. Now you'll also notice that there are two monarch butterflies in the top corner.
So that's actually when I showed Ileana the original labels. I didn't show her with the butterflies, but she loves the monarch butterflies that actually fly directly from Canada, believe it or not, down to Mexico. So I threw those in as kind of little Easter eggs for her so that when we actually did the printing, she didn't know they were coming out. And then she saw the label, she goes, I love butterflies. I'm like, there you go. So.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: Well, we love when the Canadian butterflies fly through, but you can keep your birds, the Canadian geese.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Oh, God, they're so un.
We don't even like them. Just so you know. No, they're annoying. Especially on a golf. Especially on a golf course, Brad.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: They are not nice. Only mean Canadians I've ever met.
[00:23:08] Speaker B: Fair enough. They must be from Quebec.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: Yeah, they're all a bunch of French birds. Okay, so let's, let's dig into a little bit of production method. So everybody knows how you're making the tequilas. So we're talking about Vallez tequilas. And way they bring those in there and put them right in front of the autoclave, right there where they unload them out of the trucks. That to me is there's two smells. I love the smell of the cooked agave, but I also love the smell of that fresh cut agave.
[00:23:36] Speaker B: And one of the interesting parts, as far as Ileana's process is concerned is that. And if you, I mean, you can disagree with me, but one of the Things I find with the blanco is that you still get a lot of that kind of fresh cut grass. You still get a little bit of complex pear to it. It's like clean. Which is, which is what I always wanted to do. That was kind of my goal. Our, all of our agave plants are seven year agave plants between seven and eight. But as you will understand from a CRT standpoint, we need to make sure that we're pretty accurate as far as what we. So bare minimum, all of our agave plants come out of the ground at seven years. It is, is her estate. They're all organic. So her fields are all organic fields. We have not, we've not certified with FDA as far as the juice is concerned. But all of her fields are organic. And when they come out of that beautiful rich volcanic soil, they are cut up in the, which you've seen the yard before, they get into the, the autoclave. So we do autoclave, we, we do 10 hour cook and then we actually let them rest for 12, 12 hours. So those doors aren't opened for another 12 hours after the cook is done. And you like a lot of people in this industry and I'm still trying to figure out how to impart that smell onto people that aren't there. But when that door opens and the agave, the cooked agave just kind of falls out. And that like that aroma that you get is like absolutely insane. We do a, a three process roller mill. So we, we run it through the roller mill three times with the water. That well, which is another kind of little unique thing for us is that the well water that she brings in kind of comes through the volcanic soil anyways. So you get a lot of minerality in the water as well. And then we open air ferment. She's got, she has more now but there are six major 22,000 liter fermentation tanks. They're all open air. And I think we've discussed this before. Her, her yeast is actually proprietary yeast. So she actually makes the yeast. Right. There's a combination of bread, combination of, of, of other yeast that she's used from past production, which is really cool because then that, that really makes your blanco be different. Kind of almost every batch, right. Because the yeast is a little bit different. So the open air fermentation is cool. And then we twice distill in stainless steel, but copper umbilic coils through the middle. And one of the things that's really kind of neat and I know there are some other distilleries that do it. But for me, it was kind of cool. When the distillation is done, she opens the cap and she kind of lets it, like, stay open for a couple of days, which is kind of cool, right? So it's like, it's still. It gets a little bit of aeration, if you will. And I.
Whether it's a true science or not, I just find it. It adds a little bit of. I mean, still at 55, but it adds a little bit of cleanliness and smoothness to the. To the agave spirit itself.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: And then we. And then we bottle. And by the way, bottling, you know, says handcrafted on our bottle. And that is so true. Ileana has not moved to any kind of mass production as far as bottling facilities are concerned. Her worry, as far as doing something that is like, she may have to let go of some people, and she wasn't. Doesn't want to do that yet. So I know. I know pretty much most of the. The individuals, mostly women, that do work in the bottling plant, and I go in there as often as I can and try and help out, because as you can tell, our label's a little bit different as far as the strip is concerned. So you can only imagine they're building. They're building a really unique contraption to try and figure out. It's like, okay, how do we make this strip as straight as we can on the bottle? So I'm so.
[00:27:03] Speaker A: The bottle always amazing people watching the people do it.
When you walk into the rooms, and they're just like, I couldn't stick a sticker on straight for nothing. And they're just like, shoom, boom, boom, and just keep going. It's so awesome.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: And there's all kinds of different bottles as well, right? That's go through, you know, from a private label standpoint, from her family brands, that kind of stuff, you know, Entre Monos is produced there. You know, shout out to Entremono's Great, great juice there. You know, they've got the rope that goes around there. And I was just like. And that's not. That's not like, you know, there's not a machine that does that. These are people in the bottling plant just like, wrapping the rope. And I'm like, so is that more painful than putting our labels on straight? She's like, oh, yeah, for sure.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: I know this. If I'm ever on a boat somewhere and I need someone to tie us off to the dock, I want Alan Taylor to be there because he's going to know how to tie us off.
[00:27:52] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. Exactly. So that's, that's, that's our production. And, and again, I think what I really appreciate, what I've learned, what I try and impart on people who are trying our tequila, is that because of, because of the climate, because of the terroir, the altitude, the open air fermentation and the proprietary yeast, what I try to explain to people is like, hey, I challenge you to have a lot two and a lot five of my blanco and try them side by side. I bet you they won't taste exactly the same. And that's. And, and I think those of us who appreciate tequila, I think that's what it comes down to. It's like, man, that's what I love about it. It's like this has got a little more funk because it was like, you know, in the rainy season, this got a lot more minerality because it was in the, you know, the, the, the, the heat season.
So to me, that is, that's one of the things as far as producing a great blanco is concerned. And especially in that region where it's like, you can start to, you can start to, you know, describe different notes, different aroma, and that to me is where the passion of tequila comes through.
[00:28:54] Speaker A: I agree with you. And the whole terroir discussion, I think is awesome. And I've, I was never a wine person. Now my tastes have changed over the years. So there are some wines that I do enjoy I still can't do. Like those, the really dry ones. Everybody like, I think that's every wine drinker's goal is to get someone that likes a dessert wine and then eventually have them drink the driest wine ever made.
But I relate to that because every single bourbon drinker, I want them to drink like an XA that they like better than bourbon and eventually be drinking a high proof because they like the taste of agave. So I understand that progression because I do it in tequila, but it's a really neat conversation to have and to talk about how that matters and how the time of year is different as well.
[00:29:42] Speaker B: Absolutely. And then by the way, that, that kind of leads into all the other expressions as well. Right. Because depending when your blanco is made, you could get a very, very different. Like our, our, our repo, for example. Our repo is actually rested for four months in Four Roses bourbon barrels. But what I love about it is that, you know, you get a little bit of depending on the batch a lot. For argument's sake is, is you get A little bit of a different kind of vibe to it. You'll always get, I think. I think because we put it in bourbon barrels, you'll get that, you know, you'll get the oak, you'll get the. You'll get the bourbon. You'll get that kind of, like, honey, the smokiness, all that kind of stuff.
But what's retained from the blanco, you still get a little bit of like, holy, I can still get that minerality, or still, I still taste that complex pear way in the background. So to me, as you go through the expressions, depending when it's made, you get the different. You know, you get a little bit of a different profile. Not so much so that it's so different. But then. Then we go back to the conversation as far as why big brand put, you know, that additive word into their products just to make it taste the same all the time.
[00:30:48] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. There is. There is something to be said for those big brands that want. I call it the McDonald's effect. If you eat at McDonald's in Indy or you go to Toronto or you eat McDonald's in China, it's going to taste the same. Oh, yeah, right. And so I understand that.
[00:31:01] Speaker B: Great analogy, actually. Great analogy.
[00:31:03] Speaker A: They really work hard to make it be the same. And so when you're. When you are in one of those countries and you go, okay, I just need a piece of America, so I'm going to go eat some McDonald's, because it's going to taste the same. Well, I feel that way about Jim Beam, too. If, If I'm going to want a glass of Jim Beam, I want it to taste like Jim Beam. I don't want it to taste like a different year or lot or vintage. It's freaking Jim Beam, right? So, yeah, so I get that in the big brands and what they're creating. But when you step off into the. This agave nerd world that we both live in, it's like, oh, my gosh, you know, I'll have. I'll have a friend over and have 11 bottles out here and. And tasting through the, you know, the. The different nuances of each one, and I think it's awesome. So, yeah, I had a friend over yesterday. We did just that because he had never had a Rosa before.
So let's. Let's talk about your Rosa and how that came to be, because I think it's. It is pretty cool. And I pick up that dryness in the finish, and I get a little bit of that wine flavor in the finish, and it is such an intense, easy tequila for me to drink. I'm surprised there's any left because as a person who's never liked wine, the Rosa is amazing to me.
[00:32:22] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think, for lack of a better term, I really think that Ileana and myself, just based on the early conversations, we hit it out of the park. As far as what we came out with to get there, though, I, you know, I think, I think it's easy for a lot of brands to go like, all right, we're going to do a blanco, we're going to do a repo, we're going to go to Anejo, we're going to go to Extra Anejo. One of the beauties of working with Ileana, she's like, and, you know, some of the brands that she works with, some of the private labels she works with, like, we're all about kind of like pushing the envelope and doing some innovative stuff.
So I, I, again, I have a Canadian neighbor who actually owns a winery and a wine brand down in Lodi, California, and I knocked on his door one day and, I mean, the story sounds ridiculous, but it's the absolute truth. I knock on his door and I'm like, hey, Chris, I want to actually take our blanco tequila, which he loves, and I want to put it in your red wine barrels, specifically your Cabernet Sauvignon Loi California Cabernet Sauvignon barrels. He goes, we can do that. I'm like, according to Ilana, we can absolutely do that. So we were like, we went down. We, like, went to the winery. I was like, looking at the barrels. I'm like, okay, there. You're like, I picked 15 barrels. And, Brad, they had just been recently emptied as well, which I was kind of, again, when you talk about serendipity in this business, is like, I fell into the right place at the right time, where it's like, yeah, the. The. The wine master was like, yeah, we had just recently emptied these. I'm like, I want those 15. Let's ship them down. When Ileana cracked them open, when I shipped them down, she goes, oh, there's still a little bit of wine in the bottom and it's still seeping out because they had just been. I'm like, all right, let's do it.
So we actually put our blanco in those barrels for only 15 days.
And she. She kind of had the intuition where it's like, yeah, it'd be easy to leave it in. Kind of like, you know, leave it in for a month, leave it in just shy of becoming a reposado for argument's sake, because I still wanted to do a blanco repo. And she said after 15 days, she goes, like, we have to stop right now. I was like, okay, well, you're the master distiller. You're the boss of this kind of stuff. And I just happened to go down the week later when they're actually pulling everything out, and I saw the color and I was like, come on. Like, are you kidding me right now? It is so red. So it's so. It's so red. So just so you know, my. My agreement with the winery now is that I have to buy previously empt. Emptied, like, and actually I was fortunate enough, Jay Bear actually was down at the distillery with me one day and we tried the Rosa there. He's like, dude, he goes, because you're gonna have to, like, this is going to be hard to maintain if you don't get the same types of barrels. I'm like, so my agreement with the winery now is like, they have to be the same cab. So barrels, they have to be previously emptied. And by the way, it's about three weeks previously emptied, so it's not like the day after. But there's still stuff seeping out, right?
And then when Ileana was like, we did it, like, we nailed it. We're. We're right on that spot where I think this is what it needs to be. And I think you can probably attest to it as well. Is that the Rosa you still. I think the barrel did what it needed to it. It basically kissed the blanco tequila enough. They made out long enough that it was like, okay, you got some color and you got a little bit of tan and you got a little bit of black currant. But guess what? I personally feel that you still get the minerality. You still get like a little bit of that, you know, the black pepper on the. On the. The pallet. So that to me was really exciting because it's like Ileana and I want to do some really innovative stuff. Some. I don't like to use the word unique because I think too many people use, like, oh, we're so unique. But I think innovation and what's kind of next in what we do is going to be really key as far as the ROSA program with NOM 1522 is concerned. So with that, I can share with you that we've actually refilled all 15 first barrels. So lot two will not be a Blanco Rosa. It will actually be a high proof Anejo.
[00:36:07] Speaker A: Rosa.
Wow, that's awesome.
[00:36:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So we're actually. We're actually going to pull it out after. It's going to be almost a year. Like, we will leave it a year, maybe a year and a day or whatever it is.
Just before bcb, she actually did a poll. It was about eight months, and she goes, we are on track. This is going to be incredible. That's from the master distiller, so obviously I trust her. So, yeah, we were actually going to produce a high proof, so 47 Anejo Rosa, which we're really excited about. Now, we are also very into sustainability, so to me, the barrel life is really important. So once those barrels with the anejo is done, we actually sell them back to a microbrewery and they're actually going to produce a seasonal beer out of those 15 barrels. That's very cool. Yeah. So they're going to all kinds. So this is. This is our kind of rotation as far as. So we will continue producing the Blanco Rosa, we will continue with the Anejo Rosa, the high proof. And then they, you know, the barrel sees its final life as a.
I mean, it may have a life after that, but its final life through us will be producing a seasonal beer out of a cask that actually saw tequila and red wine in it.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: That's very cool.
So I have a question I've never asked before, and I've always wondered this, but I. And I've heard, like, stories. So. So the barrels that are sent, are they just. The barrel. Like, are they taking the barrel apart to send the barrel so it's easier to ship and they're stacking the staves and putting the barrel back together, or are they just putting all these giant barrels and shipping them that way?
[00:37:33] Speaker B: That is a really great question because we also have another barrel program that. That I can share with you. Unfortunately, it's not available in the US yet, but it will be. We actually. We ship the barrels whole and I do. I've got an incredible logistics partner down in Guadalajara. Hector over at IGL is an incredible, incredible guy, helps out a lot. The idea was like, let's just bring them down, because if we break them apart, you know, you might lose a little bit of that consistency. As far as the wine that's still coming out of the. Now, had I known that that was going to be the case, that there was still a little bit of wine and it was still kind of coming out of the pores, I would have made that decision ultimately. But I was just like, hey, you know what, let's keep them intact. So we shipped all the barrels down there intact and they arrive at the distillery. What Ileana does is she just pops the top and like, she closes it afterwards. She pops the top just to see what's inside, what the char looks like, what the remnants of whatever was in it before looks like. But no, we. We definitely ship them down. Whole little more expensive. But, you know, ultimately, at the end of the day, the end product, I think is a great, you know, a great idea to how we need to do it. It's like I do have a partnership with an amazing Canadian whiskey distillery here in. In Canada. We actually did one single barrel. I just wanted, like, I literally knocked on their door one day. It's an incredible brewery family that got into the distillery business and I asked them, I boldly asked them, like, I want to buy one of your barrels and send it down to Mexico. They're like, that's going to be a ton expensive for you. I'm like, I don't care. Let's do it. So we actually produced. It's called Spring Mill Distillery. It's the. It's the Sleeman beer family, which is a very, very famous brewery in, in Canada.
And we produced 200 bottles of a single. Single cask. Again, I mean, single cask, one cask. We shipped it down as is, but we have the opportunity now to actually kind of deconstruct the barrels here and ship them down because a little bit more expensive from just outside of Toronto down the. To Mexico versus California to Mexico. But those barrels, I think what we nailed on the head with the Rosa is that the wet barrels really work for us and it really kind of puts what we need to. I think we'll still get the same kind of the consistency, the profile that we need out of those Canadian rye barrels. And they're. They're Canadian white oak barrels, by the way. They're not American white oak. So it's a full kind of Canadian collab that we did with the distillery down in Mexico.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: Those own trees too then, huh? I didn't.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. By the way, guess where most of Canadian oak comes from?
Quebec.
[00:40:04] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: So we gotta be nice.
[00:40:07] Speaker A: It's a very astringent wood.
[00:40:09] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly, exactly. You can tell, but you can tell by the. By the juice that comes out of the bottle for sure. So. No. So I think, I think, think for us moving forward, I'm so proud of the blanco, I really am, because it's something that Iliana and I kind of kind of came up together with.
But to me, our barrel program is what's really gonna. And we've talked about this a hundred times before with everybody in the industry. It's like so many Tequila, like, it's. It's. You know, I can compete.
You know, I can compete on the shelf as far as blanco is concerned, because I'm proud of the Blanco. But ultimately, at the end of the day, what I want is I want people like, we're kind of moving forward with like, hey, we made this tequila specifically for you. So our Rosa program, our. Our new Canadian barrel program, like, those kind of things are going to be innovative and what consumers, I think, are looking for. And this is what I was going to tell you as far as customers and people getting educated about tequila. We in the industry and those of us who are really proud of the products that we have, we're with great distilleries. We really have to share the story of how tequila is made, where it comes from, the work that goes into it. And I think consumers are starting to become more curious about tequila. You know, I mean, listen, I've got a gin, you know, I've got a gin on my bar cart that it's like, you know, it's. They roast the juniper berries before they put it in. Okay, great. But gin you can make in your bathtub. Vodka. I mean, you know, I'm not, you know, I'm not shitting all over vodka.
[00:41:34] Speaker A: But you can make it your neighbor's bathtub.
[00:41:36] Speaker B: Exactly. So to me, to me, something like bourbon, obviously, it's like, oh, you do some really cool stuff. I think with tequila, we can start to do some really cool stuff. And that's where I want to go with the brand. That's where Ileana and I want to go with the brand, where it's like, okay, our Rosa barrel program is going to grow into, like, okay, so we're using Lodi California Cab soap barrels. What do we do next? Where do we go next? You know, maybe it's a British Columbia. You know, it's a British Columbia red wine barrel that we send down. Maybe we're going over to Spain, whatever it is. But I really want to kind of start to have some fun. And the only reason I say that is because Ileana's all over that kind of stuff.
You know, if you. If you've had Kintaleza, and I always. I always bow down to Mike Winter and. And what he's done with Kintoliza. It's like, that's the kind of stuff she likes doing. And those are the kind of private labels she wants to work with. People who want to be really innovative and kind of what's next in tequila? Because I think consumers are starting to understand. It's like, holy shit, I can get, you know, I can get a tequila that's out of a rhyme. Red wine barrel. I never knew that before.
[00:42:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I've never had Kinthales. I've just heard a lot about it. It's one I've never, never.
[00:42:42] Speaker B: We're gonna get you a bottle.
[00:42:44] Speaker A: Yeah, that'd be pretty awesome. Yeah, I see that. When I do tastings, like when I, I bring out. I did it the last season. I brought your rose out and I explained what that was, and everybody tasted it and they were like, I didn't know that was a thing. And I was like, yeah, well, hang on a minute. I've gotten, you know, this here. You know, you've probably never had a tepazate 25 year tepazate plant that is a mezcal that is not smoky and amazing. They're like, I've never had that before. Well, let me bring you a sotol that's made from the dasalyrium plant, that's not even an agave and, but made in an ancestral way. And so when the people leave like a tasting, they, they, they've gone through like a whole like masterclass, you know, of what the different flavors and tastings are and what's out there.
Right. And I can explain that. Blancos in the repo, that blanco is in the anejo, and here's an extra anejo. But here's also a rosa. Here's a high proof, here's a still strength. Like there's, there's so many things that you can do just within a brand and, and then, then when you start getting into the batching, the lot numbers of this time of year and that time of year, and totally this was a different field than that field. And these agaves were stressed when they, they grew from, you know, the, with dry years and wet years and all those things. It's so fun. I mean, this is so fun to explain to people.
[00:44:01] Speaker B: And it's funny because I think there's a collective of us that understand and you know, most of us, I know most of us, and we all have these conversations, but I think the more the, you know, the. I'll use the term average, which is not what I'm trying to say, but the average consumer starts to understand a little bit more about Tequila. And then they get into Mezcal, and then they get into Sotol or Racia, Right? It's like, so all of a sudden, we're. We're. We're telling a story about a region or regions in Mexico where it's like, yeah, it's like. And I. You know, I'll. I'm not throwing anybody in the bus as far as close friends that I have. But when, you know, I got into this business, most people were like, oh, man. Like, you know, where do you co Pack it? Like, just outside of Toronto. It's like, no, man. There's only one place in the world you can make tequila.
[00:44:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:45] Speaker B: And that's where you start the education process. They're all of a sudden like, okay. It's like, there's only one. Okay, I get it.
And then you go from there. So I think those of us who own brands who are passionate and have great partners first and foremost, and have relationships with people like you and Doug and Jay and like countless others who love to talk about this kind of stuff, this is where we get to educate consumers on, you know, not only where tequila comes from, but all the different, you know, all the different ways you can, you know, produce tequila, all the different barrels you can use, all the different aging methods you can use, the different yeasts you can use. It's like. Like that. That to me is like, that's an MBA in itself.
[00:45:27] Speaker A: You know, one of the things that I think that's cool about tequila, and I'm gonna. I'm gonna broaden this to agave spirits. You think about all of those other spirits. None of those have a plant that has to grow seven, eight years, and then none of those use a plant that physically has a heart. Right. We. We talk about the heart of the agave, and all of those other spirits are. They're spirits. Sure. They're. They're alcohol spirits. But. But to me, tequila is a spirit that not only has a heart from the pina, but also has a soul of the people who make it. This soul of this tradition of all of the people. So when you're talking about the heart and soul of a spirit, it's. There isn't anything else like it, bar none. Nothing.
[00:46:10] Speaker B: That. That is so well put, man. Like, the way. Yeah, actually, the heart and soul is like. It's literally from the people. It's master distillers. It's a.
Generations of family members that have come before. And I think I always. People are like, oh, man, it must be so awesome. Like, you Know, being in the tequila business, probably always drinking and partying, I'm like, well, it is a business at the end of the day. But one of the things I love about this industry and specifically the people that I get to, to share it with is like, there's such a romanticism around it as well. Now I, you know, I was listening to you and Doug have the conversation on your, on your last, on your last video as well.
And I mean, bow down to Doug, like, I have so much time for him. It really is, it's a business at the end of the day as well. So it's easy for me to say like, you know, when I'm, when I'm out in public and I'm talking to people, we're doing the tasting and they're like asking about the label. They're like, oh, what's the little like, you know, agave plant? I'm like, oh, that's not an agave plant. That's the sun that is coming up. And this, this is very anecdotal for, for me, it's like I remember the first time I was standing in Ileana's agave fields at 6:30 in the morning and the sun was just coming up over the mountains. And that religious experience and that romance that I had, it's like to me that's like, oh my God, this is so amazing. I want everybody to experience this. End of the day. It is a business. But there's such a romanticism in the Keela category because there are stories behind it, there are people behind it, there's a region behind it. A lot of other, a lot of other alcohols have that obviously like wine. Everybody's like, oh my God. You know, it's like French wine, Italian wine, whatever it is, is. But to me, from a spirit standpoint, it's like you get to tell some really, really great stories and there's some serious, serious legacy behind some of these families that produce some of the best tequilas in the world. And as much as I love my product, I, I am all over buying other brands that I believe in that I know the families that. So to me that that's what I like to share as well. It's like, sure, buy my tequila, but guess actually this is a very funny story and Alex and Rick will actually from Siempre will actually attest to this when I' traveling Canada and people know that we're both Canadian owners of, of brands specifically, we're a control state in Ontario. We are the only two additive free tequilas in the liquor control Board of Ontario, the lcbo, which is our liquor stores. I will go into a store manager, and I always make sure. And Rick does the same thing now. We always make sure our bottles are side by side to make sure that people. Well, so our store manager or product, you know, a product. Product manager can go like, these are the two brands that are Canadian owned, that are additive free. And so to me, there's pride in being part of a great community where we can share ideas, we can talk about things, and we can kind of like go through the bruises and battles of being in the tequila industry all knowing that it kind of goes back to the families that we're associated with, the master distillers that we have great relationships with. And you guys have the same kind of, you know, you have the same vibe, you have the same feeling with some of these master distillers. And, you know, to me, that's the beauty and the ease of being able to sell tequila at the end of the day, because there is such a romanticism and a story behind it. Now behind the curtain, I'm obviously dealing with, like, all the business stuff and the CRT and all that kind of stuff, but I think consumers are starting to lean a little more into kind of like, wow, I didn't know you could put a blanco tequila in a red wine barrel. Like, yeah, you can. And here's the. Here's the result of it. And by the way, I'm not the only brand that does it. Here, try this, try that, Try this.
[00:49:42] Speaker A: Yeah, there's some others. Yeah, yeah. Actually, I was part of the tequila matchmaker mystery blind. That happened at the end of the year, last year. So they told us nothing. Just tin bottles. They all look like either repos or anejos, and some of them kind of look like blancos. And it was tin roses. And I'd never had a Rosa in my life. And I'm going to.
Okay, I really like this, but it.
It's broken. Like, I don't know what this is right in my brain because there was so many added flavors and mouth feel and the tannins were different. And I was just, you know, first. Everything was rated really low because I didn't know what anything was. So the first time I did, I was like, okay, there's a flavor in her. I don't know. So these all have additives, right? That's. That's where I went first.
[00:50:29] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:50:30] Speaker A: So then as I went back and retasted, I'm like, okay, that's that's not a saccharine, you know, that's not a glycerin. That's not a. Okay, so I don't know, maybe that's an effect of a barrel. Okay, so then, so now you know. Okay, I like this better, you know, so my, my. All of my numbers started to change as I went back through those roses. And I. When I do those blinds, I'll do four, you know, four of them. The next day I'll do four next, I do a four, right.
Bounce them all around, swing five or six days to, to actually rate them all.
And I came out of there with some very high rated tequilas without having a clue of what they were.
And my, my palate picked up on. Okay, these aren't additives that I'm tasting. This is something in my mind was barrel influence. I just didn't know what.
[00:51:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:18] Speaker A: And then when it came out of what it was, I was like, you sneaky bastard. Like, because they.
[00:51:24] Speaker B: Yeah, because they don't give you any details as far as, like, what barrel it was in, how long it was in there for, if it was even in a barrel. It might have been in a stone egg, for God's sakes.
[00:51:32] Speaker A: Yeah, it just said mystery blind. Like, nothing. Like, usually you get blanco blind or this one's a blanco diffuser, right? So like, okay, now I know what I'm tasting. This one was just mystery. And, and some of them were, were the color of yours, some of them were the colors of xays, and some of them were the color of, you know, maybe just a little bit hinted blanco, like, you know, very light color. So just in looking at the bottles, you know, I put them all out on the table and I'm like, huh, the heck is this? You know, so tasting through that was a real eye opener for me to go through that blind. It was really an awesome blind. And I don't remember it. Were you in that blind?
[00:52:17] Speaker B: No. The Agavos Awards?
[00:52:19] Speaker A: No. Back to the mystery blind in 2024 that was all roses.
[00:52:24] Speaker B: No, Rosa wasn't out at that point yet.
[00:52:27] Speaker A: It should have been in there because that's.
[00:52:29] Speaker B: But I will, I will tell you this much. This is kind of a moment of a moment of pride and kind of like, you know, to the OG himself. Grover actually came by our booth at.
At Bar Convent, Brooklyn, and he hadn't tried the Rosa yet. He know you were up on. On Tequila Matchmaker, and I was like, like, oh, my God. I'm like so nervous. And, you know, to get to get the nod of approval from guys like Grover. It was. It was. It was kind of one of those things where it's like, okay, I did what I needed to do. And again, ultimately, at the end of the day, I want the consumer to love it, because as much as you guys love it and I so much appreciate it, it's like, if a consumer doesn't like it, then I'm screwed because I can't. I can't sell all my roaster to you guys. So when. When Grover came by and he's done such a great. You know, he's done such a great job as far as the additive free movement is concerned, it still meant. It still meant a lot for. For me for him to come by to try the Rosa and go, like, all right, we nailed it. And I was like, okay, that's like, you know, that's. Then I want to keep on that track, right? And to me, it's not about beating out other brands as far as the roast is concerned. I want to make the Rosa for that person that wants to enjoy our Rosa. As far as, like, okay, it's cab soap barrels. It's wet barrels. It's like, the color is beautiful, and I still get that kind of stuff off it. We know. We know him mutually. Tim was doing the review the other day. I don't know if you saw it or not, but he's like, he put the note afterwards, man. He goes, I let it rest a little while longer. And it was like a different tequila. I'm like, that's another thing you need to educate consumers on, right? It's like, hey, listen, your first sip is not necessarily what you're going to think. You know, four sips in or even your second glass in. So to me, that's the other beauty. It's like when you take a. A, you know, a neat sip of vodka, it's like, all right, chances are it's not going to open up, right? But with tequila, and it doesn't matter, like, if it's good tequila, like, you just like, let it rest, let it sit. And that's why I will throw, you know, thanks to. Thanks to your wife appreciating, obviously, the. The reposado. But to me, it's kind of my favorite child right now because it's just one of those tequilas that I love sitting there and sipping on. Like, I can. I can be doing work till, like, one in the morning, and I'll have the bottle beside me and just kind of like, I'm not condoning this but it's like, it's just, to me, it's like, okay, I get something different every time. Or it's like, you know, this nose was a little bit different than four glasses ago, whatever it is. So I think that's what consumers are really starting to appreciate about tequila now.
[00:54:54] Speaker A: Totally agree, totally agree. And you, you nailed it out of the park on all these. I can't wait for the other expressions.
[00:55:00] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:55:01] Speaker A: So quick question. Since you're going to put the high proof in a barrel, are you going to release a high proof by itself?
[00:55:06] Speaker B: Okay, so maybe this is an exclusive, but I have shared it with. So Ileana has done an incredible job at the distillery. She has been growing the distillery and I think you know this as well. She now has a tahona right, in the distillery and she has built a brick oven. So my dream since day one, since even before I started the brand, Brad, I've wanted a Tohona brick oven, high proof. So that will be in the future for sure.
[00:55:31] Speaker A: That's fantastic. We were, yeah, they were building the brick oven when we were there. They were physically working on it while we were there.
[00:55:37] Speaker B: And, and good for her. I mean, she, she had the brick oven in the other distillery, her dad's distillery, so there was like options for that. But as soon as she took over NOM 1522 as her own distillery, I think she wanted to do some really, really cool stuff. And again, as far as sustainability and, and, you know, environmental awareness is concerned, like, she's made a major investment in a water cleaning system as well there. And those are kind of things that I think are important to talk about as well, is that, you know, there are, you know, one of the things Ileana loves to say about tequila and especially specifically the tequila that she makes. It's like we make tequila the way tequila tasted like 200 years ago. Right? Or as far as like what we wanted it to be. But, you know, she's making some investments in the distillery as far as, you know, wood, wood barrel fermentation is concerned. She's got a water purifier now that cleans the water that doesn't necessarily go back to the roller mill and use on the shredding. She actually gives that water to farmers that need water for either their fields or their cattle or whatever it is. So there's things like that in the industry that not a lot of people understand that are really integral parts to the distillery itself on how they can kind of continue growing into the future, but maintaining that kind of heritage. Of, of, of how tequila was made. And that, again, I think it's something that I always tip my hat to, Ileana, that I'm so proud of her for that, is that she's always looking the future, but also wants to maintain that kind of heritage and legacy as far as tequila production is concerned.
[00:57:05] Speaker A: Yeah, she's. She's amazing and doing great things. And I actually was introduced to her through a friend of mine, Cristiana Moratans, who is the owner of the Huena Buena Foundation. Huh. Foundation. You know, she's doing a lot to bring water to small towns there in Mexico. And I know Eliana's, you know, even been a part of that. And anybody that steps in and says, look, I want to make a difference, I want to do something great and make a difference, those are the people that fire me up. And she's, she's right there. So. And you, you obviously are right there too, with what you're doing.
[00:57:36] Speaker B: Okay, I got one thing. So I did hear on the interview with Doug that you're a. A marathon runner.
[00:57:43] Speaker A: Was runner. I don't want to put this thing out that I'm a marathoner. I ran one in Hawaii in December.
[00:57:54] Speaker B: You're doing, you're doing Disney as well, right?
[00:57:55] Speaker A: I'm doing Disney. So both of these is. There's some backstories of both of them. One, my wife and I have been married for 36 years. She was an identical twin. And 30 years ago, her and her twin sister ran the Honolulu Marathon. And her twin sister had since passed away. So my wife looked at me two years ago and said, hey, to honor Joni, I want to run the Honolulu again. It's been 30 years. So I looked at her and said, okay, I'll do it too. And neither of us had been running. I never ran a full marathon before in my life, only half. So I trained for a year, a little less than a year, lost 50 pounds. My wife lost, I think 63 pounds. And we flew out there. My daughter ran it with us as well. I did it in five hours and something. My wife beat her 23 year old self 30 years later. And we were like, okay, this, this was awesome. And my wife looked at me and said, this was not awesome. I'm not doing that ever again.
So I have a podcast, real estate makes us drink. I got a buddy named Brian who's a realtor. I'm a mortgage guy. We talk about the market, we drank a little tequila, drink a little beer, and I threw the challenge out to him to run A marathon. And he's like, no way. Never would never do it. And I said, what if I gave you a thousand bucks? And he was like, well, I said, okay, here's the deal. Why don't we raise a thousand dollars on the podcast and we'll give it to your favorite charity?
And his wife works at a food bank, so a small food pantry in Indianapolis. And a thousand dollars goes a long way in a local pantry.
So I said, I want to run it anyway, so I'm not giving up anything. So you raise the thousand bucks on our show, and I'll match it, and we'll give $2,000 to that food pantry. And it took, like, nine episodes. We do one a month or one a week. So nine weeks. We hit our thousand bucks. So we hit our 2,000 bucks. We had other people donate. We got to, like, $2,300. We had a guest on the show, and he looked at me and said, you gave a grand? And I said, yes. He said, I'll match it.
[00:59:47] Speaker B: It.
[00:59:47] Speaker A: So we raised 33. $3400 for a food pantry.
We signed up for the Disney Marathon. Brian's never ran in his life, not more than three miles in his whole life. And he's ancient. He's two years younger than me, so he's now training for a marathon. He's really excited. And we're going to give 33, 30 $400 to a food bank here in town and run the Disney Marathon in January.
[01:00:10] Speaker B: When is it? In January? Just out of curiosity, because I'm getting to something here. The reason I say this is that one of the things.
[01:00:17] Speaker A: So I.
January previous.
[01:00:20] Speaker B: Okay, so this is great. In a previous life, I actually worked for New Balance, the running shoe company. Okay. I was. I was blessed. I was a runner. I've done several marathons, several halves, countless ks.
Ileana, the third Sunday of every January, she actually has a charity 10k run.
[01:00:41] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:00:42] Speaker B: It is incredible. We donate to it. A lot of other. There are influencers that come down, Brad. It's all downhill, and it's through the agave fields. So I'm. I'm. I'm throwing. I'm throwing out the official challenge right now.
I would love you and your wife and your daughter if she wants to. Let's do the. Like. Let's do Iliana's 10k. I've done it a couple. And by the way, I am completely out of shape now. But it's just one of those moments where the entire community gets together. All the money that's raised Go. Goes back to the kids in Amatitan and stuff like that. So when I heard you talking about kind of like doing running and stuff, like, I'm like, Brad, it's a 10k and it's all downhill.
[01:01:20] Speaker A: I'm in.
[01:01:20] Speaker B: Let's do it.
[01:01:21] Speaker A: When's the next one?
[01:01:22] Speaker B: It's. It's going to be Jan, the third weekend in January all the time. So it'll be back to back. But you know what? It'll be like a little kind of like, you know, it'll be. It'll be a nothing for you, but I'll send you the date.
[01:01:34] Speaker A: Okay, do it.
[01:01:35] Speaker B: Marissa from.
From Techie Ladies is in. I've. I'm getting everybody kind of like, let's, let's do this and let's have a lot of fun because it goes to the kids in Amity Town. And it's, It's. It's really important to me. The run is so beautiful at a certain point, Brad, I gotta be honest, you're running through this, the. The agave fields. You can see actually down into the valley. And then you can see at one point, you can see the end line, which is about probably like, like 700ft down. You're like, oh, I gotta get there. And then you're just like, running through these roads. It's incredible. So I'm throwing that out to you.
[01:02:09] Speaker A: I mean, do they have, like, do they have tequila stations where we can get tequila when we're dehydrated?
[01:02:16] Speaker B: No, that's at the bottom of the hill.
[01:02:18] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:02:19] Speaker B: But, you know, actually, you know what's so amazing about the community too, is that everybody, it's. It's at the. And I forget the town. I really apologize. But it starts in Amatitan, like off the main road, and just winds down all the way to this beautiful, beautiful little town. And all the people who live in the town are waiting there with their trucks, their cars and their buses to drive you back up the hill at the end. Wow. And that's where, that's where you crush the tequila right at the bottom of the hill. And Ileana's always there at the bottom, kind of like waiting for everybody to finish. So it's a pretty cool event.
[01:02:52] Speaker A: Okay, we're in 100%. I love it. My wife, when she gets home from Alaska, and we will, we will get that on the calendar because that, that'll be awesome. And I would love it.
[01:03:01] Speaker B: Yeah, that'd be awesome.
[01:03:02] Speaker A: Well, I want to say cheers. Thanks for doing this. Hey, tell everybody where. Where can they find you. Where's your website? What's your website?
[01:03:09] Speaker B: So the website is elevation 1250 tequila.com. we are actually. We're really proud to be part of powered by sip. So anybody in the US I think it's 48 states. You can pretty much get our tequila within three days if you go to siptakila.com and order. That is where we are in the US so. So in the US we're available in New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Florida, California, hopefully Pennsylvania soon. We're trying to get into that market.
But I've always been a proponent of kind of my backyard strategy. And one thing that's really important to me is that I love all of your states, but the states that are closest to me as far as being able to be boots on the ground, that's where we like to be. But the relationship that we have with SIP Tequila has really, really kind of built our awareness in the US for sure. So we're
[email protected] and then we're available at your local liquor in New Jersey, New York, and California.
[01:04:02] Speaker A: All right, perfect. We'll put some websites up here. SIP Tequila is amazing. I'll also put some of your social media up here so they can check you out, because you have some great social media.
And, man, thanks for, like, taking a Sunday on a beautiful day there in Canada, where I think your neighbors are barbecuing, because I could see smoke coming over the fence.
[01:04:20] Speaker B: You totally can. That's awesome.
[01:04:21] Speaker A: I was watching for, like, someone to look over.
[01:04:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:04:24] Speaker A: You know, like on the old Tim Allen show, but there wasn't anybody that did it.
[01:04:28] Speaker B: I'm about to get the barbecue going in about 10 minutes. I'm. I'm making some nice grilled veggie sandwiches for my kids and my wife tonight.
[01:04:35] Speaker A: There you go.
[01:04:36] Speaker B: You know what? This, first and foremost, this is long overdue, and I really want to put it back to you and say, like, I appreciate everything you do as well. It's like, I think some of the brands that, you know, that you're close with, the people that you know and how you, you know, know how you like to really kind of share what we're all about is really important. Ultimately, at the end of the day, we can spend all kinds of massive marketing dollars, but to me, it's building. And I know you've said this before, building the relationships in this community is so important. And you're one of those guys that, like, I'll go to the ends of the earth, man, if you Want me down in Indiana, kind of like doing a tasting with you. I'm happy to, happy to sit side by side and let's, let's try and get together sometime soon.
[01:05:16] Speaker A: And I appreciate that. You know, I don't do this to get paid. I. I've had brands offer me money to do the videos. I've told them no, that, that's not why I do this. I do get free tequila. I appreciate you sending them that to me. But you also know me. I would have said, hey, where can I order it from? Like, that's not. I do this because I, I like doing it. This is fun. This is my hobby. It's not my job. And I'm not trying to build this into a business. And for all those people that jump in my DMs and say all these nasty things about me. Me. Yeah. Nah, go give to the same charities I give to. That makes me happy.
[01:05:48] Speaker B: So, you know, we're a community and we got to stick together. So I will say this right now. I will make sure. And I'm saying this on your, on your show. I'll make sure you get one of the first bottles of the high proof. Any hotels. Okay.
[01:06:00] Speaker A: And I can't wait. And I want to, I want you to run that 10k with this. Like I'm. Can you do it new? Can you get us a New Balance sponsorship? That would be fantastic.
[01:06:09] Speaker B: Shit. I should. Yeah, I should reach out to some old. Yeah, exactly. I don't even know if I run in New Balance anymore, but I'm a lot older and a lot heavier these days, so. Oh, but yeah. Oh, yeah, I love them.
[01:06:21] Speaker A: That's what I run in.
[01:06:22] Speaker B: I will tell you this much. It's a great event. Ileana's so proud of the people and by the way, a lot of her private labels, like there are a couple of guys that come over from Germany actually and run it as well. So it's a, it's a great weekend, first and foremost. And I'm putting it out to a lot of friends that I will, I will host us for that, that weekend and we'll have a lot of fun. One, as long as you run the 10K, I'm running it.
[01:06:42] Speaker A: I'm in. I'm awesome. If I can get some people to come down and do it as well. So I want to say thanks. I'm going to cheer. Cheers you. Salute you with some Rosa, because this is just absolutely amazing.
[01:06:53] Speaker B: Thank you.
[01:06:54] Speaker A: What do you have in your glass?
[01:06:55] Speaker B: So I, I'm literally just finishing off my favorite child, the repo. But I as I joked before and I'm going to do the shout out. I. I actually have my yayo high proof my ranch water here because it is actually quite hot up here right now.
[01:07:10] Speaker A: Thank you, John and Sergio for also making a fantastic.
[01:07:13] Speaker B: I love those boys. Love those boys.
[01:07:15] Speaker A: Cheers, my friend. Thanks for doing this.
[01:07:17] Speaker B: Thank you so much, man.
