Rogue Bottle

Pour a strong one. It’s time for a special announcement.

When I was growing up, our family gatherings mostly revolved around food. Now, most of the gatherings I have with my friends revolve around drinks. Whether you’re doubling down on turkeys or whiskeys, it’s all about coming together to connect.

Today I’m speaking with Richard Rea and Perry Ledesma of The Butcher’s Daughter to discuss their partnership with Trumer Pils. They’re using the same ingredients that go into Trumer’s beer to create items for their menu like breads, pretzels, and infused salts.

Richard and Perry are also longtime friends. That’s why we’ll also hear from Matt Johns, my longtime friend. We sat down to share stories of working together and drinking together, and remembering the value of good food, drink, and friendship.

It’s not only what we drink, but when, where, and how we drink. Each piece reflects on our preferences—and our personalities. Graham and Fisk are the founders of MANCAN Wine, the first wine sold only in a can. They’re also longtime friends who believe you should be able to drink wine whenever, wherever, and however you want. My friend Tony Werner suggested we put these wines to the real test…and drink them by his pool. This led to us sharing our own stories about sneaking drinks, while we consumed a whole lot of MANCAN wine.

Also, we’re gonna talk about goats.

What is Pineau des Charentes? The first description I read was something like: a mixture of Cognac and grape juice. And I really didn’t take it seriously. But then I tried various expressions, and even sampled it in some cocktails, and…I take it pretty seriously now.

According to legend, Pineau was created totally by accident due to a barrel mix-up. So I asked a few friends if they had any stories about Cognac and/or happy accidents, and Carrie Barrett came to the rescue with the perfect tale.

Featured Pineau des Charentes

Here are the wines we drank in this episode.

- Domaine de La Margotterie

- Vieux Pineau Reviseur

- Chateau de Beaulon - 5 year red

- Jean Fillioux COQ Grande Champagne Cognac

Weddings mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and my friends Katie and Tony definitely know how to forge their own path. When my girlfriend and I stop by to say congratulations, they tell us about planning a wedding on their terms, and what it’s like to consider long-standing traditions in a world that’s changing more rapidly than ever.

After many glasses of wine, and a few slices of pizza, we discuss the rosé bug, the newlywed card, and…50 Shades of Grey.

When I first heard about The Spirit Guild, I didn’t really know anything about them. But through a mutual friend, I was introduced to one of their founders: Miller Duvall. He invited me to stop by the distillery, and it turns out that their vodka and gin are made in a pretty unusual way. The base for their spirits is not wheat, or barley, or even potatoes. They use California clementines.

So we sat down to talk about this, and I learned that The Spirit Guild is a lot like Trap Street and Rogue Bottle: built by a small group of friends and family who really care about what they create, and who do things a little bit differently.

Grandparents are awesome. We kind of take for granted not only how much wisdom and experience they have, but also how mysterious they really are.

In the middle of the WhiskyX event in Santa Monica, I spoke with LC May. He’s the grandson of Clyde May, the founder of Clyde May’s Whiskey, which is the official state spirit of the state of Alabama. LC never got to meet his grandfather in person, but now he travels the globe, sharing the stories of his hard-working moonshining grandfather, and the legacy he left behind.

Five years ago, I met Kevin Kautzman at the inaugural Kenyon Playwrights Conference. Just this year we happened to re-connect, and over several rounds of mezcal, he told me more about his podcast Righteous Yammer, with his co-host Brad Kelly. We decided it was time to join forces and record a swapcast.

Since Kevin in New York, Brad is in Michigan, and I’m in California, we realized that we represent three of the four time zones in the USA. So we did the only logical thing: we came up with a drink for each time zone and drank our way across America. We chose cocktails specific to our regions, and looked into some of the history behind their creations along the way (for the Mountain Time Zone, we went wild with shots and beers).

Here on Rogue Bottle you’ll find a condensed 30 minute edit of our discussion. For the full 90 minute conversation, head on over to righteousyammer.com.

Recently on the show, we met Christina Sleeper, the Willy Wonka of boozy jams and preserves. Today we’ll hear from a distiller who’s part Willy Wonka, part Tony Stark, and part Indiana Jones.

If you’ve read the article about him in Wired, you’ll know that he’s invented a futuristic, AI-operated machine that can re-create a 20 year old rum or whiskey…in just six days. And it doesn’t stop there. Bryan and his team have hand-built an ever-growing distillery tour that was recently named the best in the entire world. Picture a mixture of Jurassic Park and the Winchester Mystery house, with a little Disneyland thrown in.

After college, I lived in London for a few months. One of the many things I discovered there was the canned gin and tonic. For just a couple pounds, I could walk into a Marks & Spencer, and walk out with a canned, chilled, ready-to-go cocktail.

Recently, I heard about Cutwater Spirits in San Diego and their series of canned cocktails. Was my English dream finally becoming a reality in the USA?

After a nearly-failed visit to their headquarters, I chatted with Yuseff Cherney, Cutwater’s Founder and Master Distiller. He shared some thoughts on the canned cocktail revolution, horchata-infused vodka, and his origins as a philosophy major.