I recently attended a huge wine show at the Javitz Center in Manhattan called VinExpo.
There were 1000’s of wines to try, plus a few spirits – I had some wonderful whiskey from France called Half Moon.

There were also classes and seminars. I attended a seminar sponsored by the Riedel company who makes beautiful glassware – mostly wine glasses.

In fact we use Riedel wine glasses at the Private Club where I work. The purpose of this seminar was to show that the glass has a substantial influence on your experience drinking the wine. Of course these glasses look beautiful, so that’s a great start. They feel great when you pick them up and are perfectly balanced…we all know to hold a wine glass by the stem yes? In fact it was said in the seminar “if a glass has a stem, use it!” This is of course so that you do not warm up your wine or whatever beverage with your body heat.

This week on the podcast we talk  with Anne Koziara from Riedel, who gave the seminar,

Our sponsor this week is CAKE POS from Sysco.

CAKE is the Point of Sale system that lets bar & restaurant owners focus on the guest experience. Stop worrying about tracking every sale  - CAKE does that for you.

CAKE is the Point of Sale system that lets bar & restaurant owners focus on the guest experience. Stop worrying about tracking every sale  - CAKE does that for you. You can automatically save information and review it later, from anywhere. That means maybe as the manager or owner can maybe actually take days off, which can be pretty rare in the restaurant business.

No matter where you are, you can check in on daily reports and know they’ll be up to date.
To get started with CAKE, check out trycake.com/bartender. For our Bartender Journey listeners, you can get $750 off the activation fee. That's a 75% discount. Go to trycake.com/bartender and request a demo!

Please feel free to get in touch with me via email with any questions, content suggestions, etc. for any reason. 

Toast:
May we always part with great regret
and meet again with pleasure.

 Episode No 273

This time on the show we talk about the science of flavor with Derek Elefson.
Derek shared some great resources with us:

Flavor Wheels:
 
Bourbon
https://modernthirst.com/2014/08/06/the-bourbon-tasting-wheel/#prettyPhoto/0/
 
Malt Whiskies
http://malt-review.com/2015/09/10/whisky-flavour-wheels-and-colour-charts/
 
Gin
http://www.ginfoundry.com/gin-news/gin-tasting-wheel/
 
Wine
https://shop.winefolly.com/products/wine-flavors-chart

Our sponsor this week is CAKE POS.
CAKE is the Point of Sale system that lets bar & restaurant owners focus on the guest experience. Stop worrying about tracking every sale  - CAKE does that for you. No matter where you are, you can check in on daily reports and know they’ll be up to date.
 
To get started with CAKE, check out trycake.com/bartender. For our Bartender Journey listeners, you can get $750 off the activation fee. That's a 75% discount.

This time on the show we talk with Mr. Philip Duff.  I caught up with Philip after a great seminar he put on about Irish Whiskey, sponsored by Knoppoge Castle Irish Whiskey, which is a great brand.
Irish Whiskey has such a tumultuous history,

There was the great rise and fall of Irish Whiskey and right now another great rise, or resurgence.
We’ll get into some of it with Philip during the interview.

Our sponsor this week is CAKE POS.

CAKE is the Point of Sale system that lets bar & restaurant owners focus on the guest experience.

To get started with CAKE, check out trycake.com/bartender. For our podcast listeners, you can get $750 off the activation fee. That's a 75% discount. And with that discount, you get a user-friendly Point of Sale solution that includes cloud reporting and world-class 24/7 support.

This time on the Bartender Journey Podcast we speak with Andrew Watson who is originally from Australia, but now lives and bartends in Sweden.  He is competing in the Bacardi Legacy competition.  
Andrew’s Bacardi Legacy Cocktail is called Cubist.  Recipe:

45 ml Bacardi Silver | 20 ml dry vermouth | 2.5 ml (or a barspoon) Pastis | 25 ml Prosecco | 20 ml Honey water (1:1) | 25 ml Lemon juice

Follow Andrew’s Bacardi Legacy journey:

• On Instagram
• On YouTube

Our sponsor this week is CAKE POS & Management system from Sysco.
To get started with CAKE, check out trycake.com/bartender.
Bartender Journey listeners get $750 off the activation fee. That's a 75% discount. And with that discount, you get a user-friendly Point of Sale solution that includes cloud reporting and world-class 24/7 support.

Today on the show we talk with Dan Newcomb who is an expert on Liquor Licenses. Its tricky out there trying to navigate the liquor license process. Dan will share some insights with us on this complex issue.  Dan's company is Liquor License Advisor.

If you are anywhere near San Antonio TX BarSmarts Advanced is coming to San Antonio, TX on April 2nd, 2019.  It’s a full day of education with the masters of the bar industry like Dale DeGroff, David Wondrich, Paul Pacul, Steve Olson, Doug Frost, and Andy Seymour.

One of the distilleries I visited while in Ireland was Pearse Lyons distillery. Dr. Pearse Lyons had deep family roots in Dublin. There was an old church that had fallen into disrepair and was abandoned for many years. In fact Dr. Lyons’ grandfather is buried there. Dr. Lyons purchased the property and his wife restored it into a beautiful distillery. Unfortunately Dr. Lyons’ passed away in 2018, but the distillery is lives on.  We have some pictures on bartenderjourney.net

Pearse Lyons Distillery in Dublin, Ireland

Tag along on a distillery tour of Tullamore D.E.W.’s state of the art facility. Opened in 2014 it is the first distillery to operate in Tullamore, Ireland since 1954.
Tullamore D.E.W. Whisky Ambassador Kevin Pigott shows us around, shares lots of Irish Whisky knowledge, and even mixes us up some cocktails!

Travel Log from Dublin, Ireland. 
Interview with Chris Hayes, Distillery Brand Ambassador from Teeling Irish Whiskey.

​We at Bartender Journey LOVE Ireland, Irish whiskey and Irish pubs so we’re excited to bring you episode No.  268, Travel Log directly from Dublin, Ireland!
 
Last year for St. Paddy’s Day, Episode No. 245, Hazel interviewed Stephen Teeling at Blacktail in NYC and we had a great time at their St. Patrick’s Day party with US Brand Ambassador, Conor Sweeney.  If you haven’t heard it yet, give it a listen.

So thanks to the Teeling team again, at one of the stops on the Teeling National Irish Coffee Day at My Friend Duke in NYC with Jody McLoughlin, @whiskeydruid on IG , we were able to set up a tour and interview with Chris Hayes, @chris_hayes_twc on IG, Teeling Distillery Brand Ambassador.  Special thanks to Rebecca Bell and Sandra Rudelic from Teeling for making this happen!
 
Chris chats with Brian about the history of the Irish whiskey market, traditional Irish whiskey distillation of pot still vs. column still, introducing Irish whiskey to Scotch drinkers and what makes the Teeling Irish coffee different from other Irish coffees.

If you're not familiar with the trinity of Teeling whiskeys they are: the Small Batch, Single Grain and Single Malt. 
​
​Since we’ve spoken to Teeling last year, they’ve made an amazing splash in the World of Whisk(e)y, including breaking the world record for most expensive auction with their Teeling Whiskey Celebratory Single Pot Still sold online via Whisky Auctioneer in September 2018 at £10,000, ,the highest price ever sold by a whiskey from a new disitllery and was also the first release of whiskey surpassing the previous record of £7.900 that was distilled at their Dublin site.*

If you're fortunate enough to be in Dublin, make certain to book your visit to Teeling!

Florence, Italy is an amazing, beautiful and historic city.
Florence's Life Beyond Tourism inciative offers some interesting lessons. 
Is it possible to be too ambitious with your cocktail program.  I visited a bar/bistro/restaurant that I thought was trying to do TOO much.
I visited two vinyards in the Chianti Classico region:

• Casa Emma
• Fattoria Montecchio
  

A brief wrap up of my adventures in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Plus a snippet of a bus tour around the city.
What an amazing city. Full of friendly, hospitable people. A town with deep history and fascinating things to see. And lots of great whisky!
Next stop on the Bartender Journey tour - Paris!