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#24 Jake Burger - Who/What is the Greatest Bartender, Bar, Cocktail Book & Cocktail Of All Time?
Jake Burger is a bartender, gin producer and amateur (his own words) drinks historian. I gave him just four questions - who is the greatest bartender of all time, what is the greatest cocktail of all time, what is the greatest cocktail book of all time, and which is the greatest bar of all time?Now an apology. Before recording with Jake I had just finished my interview with Alessandro Palazzi at Dukes. Then followed a martini, followed by a taxi ride to my other good friend Hannah-Sharman Cox’s house in west London, where upon arrival Hannah and her partner in crime Siobhan gave me a beer and a gin & tonic. Then we began recording and worked airway through a further three martinis, beers, and whisky. And no food. All of this is to say, you may notice the effects of all that alcohol taking hold at around the halfway point of the interview. Jake, being Jake manages to come away relatively unscathed, though even he falters a little towards the end. Thus, this is not the most professional looking or sounding episode of this podcast. There is bad language, and there are incomplete trains of thought. But it is a pretty honest one, and not a million miles away from what it’s like spending a night drinking with Jake and I. Regardless of my fairly obvious and steady transition into an intoxicated person, there remains some great insights - mostly from Jake - and historical anecdote that make this episode too good not to release in spite of the mild embarrassment it’s going to cause me.This Episode is sponsored by Fever-Tree Mixers
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2:11:42
#23 Jamie Baxter - 100+ Distilleries Built, How To Make Gin, Baijiu
Jamie Baxter is a Distillery Consultant who has designed and built more than 100 distilleries over the past 15 years. He setup the Chase Vodka Distillery in Herefordshire in 2008, built the City of London Distillery, East London Liquor Company, and distilleries in Europe and India. On the episode we discuss his transition from cereal manufacturing to potato vodka distilling when he joined Willian Chase in Herefordshire, some of his consultancy projects, along with the pitfalls of building a distillery from scratch. Jamie gives a brief rundown of the various factors that go into making a great gin, then we finish by talking about the Chinese spirit baijiu (arguably the most popular spirit in the world), which Jamie became an ambassador of after a recent trip to China.To support this podcast please like and subscribe.This episode is sponsored by Fever-Tree mixers.
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2:14:22
#22 Alessandro Palazzi - Dukes Hotel, Martinis, Ian Fleming, 50 Years of Bartending
Alessandro Palazzi is the Head Bartender at Dukes Hotel in London where this episode was filmed. In a career spanning 50 years, he has made possibly more martinis that anyone else alive today at what is perhaps the most famous martini bar in the world. On the episode Alessandro shares his 50 year career in hospitality, the philosophy of Dukes, his tips on how to make a great martini, what it was like making martinis for King Charles, and we delve into the commonly held legend that Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond novels) drank martinis at Dukes.Notes: • Gilberto Preti, whose name comes up once or twice, worked at Dukes from 1984 until around 2003. • George V (cinq) hotel is mentioned a few times - it's a very fancy hotel in Paris• The Fleming biography that is mentioned is The Life of Ian Fleming by John PearsonTo support this podcast please share, like, and subscribe!This episode is sponsored by Fever-Tree03:09 50 Years of Bartending Part 1 - Origin Stories, Lessons, Savoy, George V Paris11:54 Arriving at Dukes Hotel15:40 50 Years of Bartending Part 2 - Los Angeles Gangs, Greek Sherry, Ritz Paris, Learning from People22:57 Ian Fleming and Dukes - Evidence, Stories, Dukes in the 50’s, Life of Ian Fleming34:07 Dukes Cocktails, Exploring Gin Brands, Freezers37:29 The Dukes Experience - Regulars, Ritual, Holiness44:09 Secrets & Inspiration, Margaritas, Bullshot47:44 The Secrets of the Perfect Martini - Temperature, Dilution, Ingredients, Garnish, Preparation, Price, Consumption1:01:12 Making Martinis with The King1:05:25 Self Reflection1:06:58 No Power in the Bar - Dealing with Issues1:08:44 Legacy - Dukes Bartenders & Team1:13:09 Vesper Martini - Creation Story, Gin & Vodka, Fleming, Mythbusting
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1:17:34
#21 Dawn Davies MW - Wine Masterclass: Regions, Varieties, Terroir, Biodynamic, Natural, Tasting, Closures, Storage, Enjoyment
Dawn Davies is a certified master of wine, former sommelier to the star, former head wine and spirits buyer for Selfridges, and has been the head wine and spirit buyer for the Whisky Exchange for the past 8 or 9 years.00:00 What is Wine?01:40 Where is Wine Made? Climate, New World & Old World, History, Soil08:56 Wine Producing Regions of Note15:19 Tasting Chablis, Comparing Wines, Intro to Terroir, Malolactic Fermentation, Lees27:10 Tasting Californian Chardonnay31:47 Wine Agriculture, The Life of a Grape Vine, Phylloxera, Yields, Quality41:45 How Much to Spend on Wine, The Wine Market, Packaging, Penfolds Vineyard, FMC51:14 Wine Closures - Cork vs. Screw Cap - Cork Taint, Smelling Corks, Oxidation, Other Faults1:02:20 Tasting Pinot Gris, Pinot Grigio, Regional Variations1:05:45 How to Explore and Order Wine1:10:40 Categorising White Varieties by Flavour: Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Viognier1:17:10 Tasting Orange Wine, Wine Colour, Rosé, Tannin, Skin Contact, Orange Wines1:27:19 Natural, Organic & Biodynamic Wines1:40:13 Wine Additives: Sulphites, Chaptalisation, Water, Acids - Economics1:45:10 Wine Labelling, Deciphering Regions in Europe, Profiling Flavour, Appreciation1:51:00 Tasting Italian Frappato, Tasting Technique (slurping), Wine Temperature, Storing Open Wine1:56:36 Tasting Argentinian Cabernet Franc2:00:26 Categorising Reds by Flavour: Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Malbec2:04:08 Quick-fires: Wine Glass Shape, Letting Wine BreatheWines tasted:https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/79526/chablis-village-domaine-jean-collet-2022https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/81285/au-bon-climat-wild-boy-chardonnay-2022https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/82836/pinot-gris-rockburn-2023https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/81875/troupis-hoof-lur-moschofilero-orange-rose-wine-2023https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/80866/les-cretes-la-sabla-2021https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/83641/mauricio-lorca-natural-cabernet-franc-malbec-2023Follow me: https://www.instagram.com/tristanstephenson/?hl=en-gbFollow Dawn: https://www.instagram.com/dawndaviesmw/?hl=enThanks to this episode's sponsor: Fever-Tree
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2:10:05
#20 Lyndon Higginson - UK's Greatest Bar Entrepreneur, Dive Bars, Inspiration, Rum, Manchester
Lyndon is the designer a co-founder of more than 20 bars, pubs and restaurants in the UK including Crazy Pedros, Bunny Jackson’s, Junkyard Golf, Cane & Grain, and Southside. Through a complex range of business partnerships he has conceptualised and built these venues over only a little more than a decade, becoming probably the most successful British bar entrepreneur of his generation. Beyond the headache inducing range of bars, perhaps most remarkable of all is that he has achieved this without the need for external investors. Lyndon is one of my best friends, so I have plenty of prior knowledge as to how how his mind works, and to my own mind it is the strength of the concepts and the subsequent investment into them by his teams that have garnered and maintained appeal from the public. That, and Lyndon’s seemingly insatiable appetite for opening more and more bars. When the rest of us shut down our venues during Covid, Lyndon was working three new openings and personally working in site whenever he could. During the conversation you can expect to learn a bit about Lyndon’s design process, where inspiration comes from, the role of food in his bars, how he went from managing a small Tiki bar in the northern quarter to employing more than a thousand people, our thoughts on the rum and tequila categories and their politics, why dive bars are so great, and much more.To support this podcast please like, subscribe, and rate it. 00:00 How to Build a Dive Bar04:58 Brothers Three Lounge in New Orleans07:30 Lyndon’s Journey into Bars - Keko Moku, Liar’s Club, Cane & Grain14:00 The Origins of Junkyard Golf & Bunny Jackson’s20:00 Designing a Cohesive Brand - Being Disruptive, Bad Reviews, inspiration, El Batay28:28 Food as Marketing - 7 Million Chicken Wings30:18 Rum - Obsession & Politics, Rum GI’s, Rum Sugaring38:00 Tequila & Mezcal - Southside, Ocho, Crazy Pedros, Mezcal Sustainability46:25 Balancing Passion & Business50:40 Interval: Best Debut Album, Stone Roses, Counting Crows51:55 Merchandise - T-shirts, Stickers, Menu Design57:16 Hands-on Bar Building - Southside1:01:10 New Concepts vs. Copy & Paste1:05:40 Dive Bars - People & Places, Barbados1:10:49 New Bars - Looking Forward1:16:00 Legacy1:18:30 ManchesterThis episode is sponsored by Fever-Tree Mixers :)
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1:23:47