- David the neighbor, some JJ Corry whiskey,

for "My Favo(u)rite Irish..."

(Irish music playing)

Fáilte ar ais,

Welcome back to the bar,

and a big, fáilte go mór to David Seth,

neighbor, friend, whiskey drinker.

Welcome.

- Hey, thank you Andrew,

great to be here.

- Yeah, so we've got a story behind these,

and how we've ended up here at the bar.

Obviously, known you for a couple of years now.

We've played a little bit of golf together.

We've shared glasses of wine out back.

But we got talking about whiskey

when I started this crazy journey of mine.

And you told me you were going for dinner

at a restaurant here? - Yeah, we were headed up

to Brix for dinner.

It was Memorial Day weekend.

We were doing a staycation,

and so we thought we'd hit a few restaurants

in the Napa Valley area.

So we went out to Bottega and Brix,

and up to Farmstead.

But when we were headed to Brix,

you had said, "Hey, you might want to look out

for a good Irish whiskey up there, JJ Corry."

And so we did.

I had it and it was fabulous,

and the rest is history. - I got you hooked,

because you're a Scotch drinker.

- I am a Scotch drinker,

a peaty, smokey, Laphroaig Scotch drinker, so.

- Okay, so we're bringing you

from the dark side to the light side.

- Right?

- So to speak, with JJ Corry.

- So to speak, exactly.

- So you were then so taken with the JJ Corry that you had

that you hunted some down in the East Bay.

- Yep.

And you bought a gift pack I believe, isn't that right?

- It was the Gael and the Hanson

together with a couple of lovely glasses

with their logo on it. - Yeah, I got these.

- And then you shot me a message,

said there was a little something for me

waiting on the front porch.

Sandina and I were out, we came back

and we discovered something on the front porch.

- [David] That's right.

- [Andrew] Which was, you know, this fine beauty.

- [David] The Gael.

- Yeah, so then fast forward a little bit,

you came for dinner last weekend,

you brought the Hanson with you,

kind of the sister or the twin to the Gael.

We finished dinner,

we had a lovely meal out back.

- That's right. - And we cracked both bottles,

the three of us,

because number three,

Sandina is over there behind the camera.

We all tasted them.

I really enjoyed the difference between the two.

- Yeah, they were wonderful,

very nice.

And surprising how delicious the Gael was.

- Yeah, so we decided,

right, well we have these two together,

and, obviously, you've obviously enjoyed the Hanson.

I can tell. - I have.

It's a nice,

it's been a nice summer whiskey.

- And obviously not as,

I haven't enjoyed the Gael as much.

We'll make sure we catch up on that one.

(both laughing)

So we thought, we got the two of them back together.

- Right.

- Let's taste them.

Let's kind of do the "My Favo(u)rite Irish..."

because I'm going to guess that, right now,

this is your favorite Irish whiskey?

- It is my favorite Irish.

- So before we jump into tasting them,

you know, some background,

you are originally from Hawai'i.

- From the Hawaiian islands, that's right.

I was born and raised there.

And have been in the Bay Area for about five years.

This is my second time in the Bay Area.

I lived here about maybe 20 years ago, for about five years.

And now I'm back.

- And you're back here because of work, job?

- I'm back here because of work,

and in Napa Valley specifically because of work.

So it's a tough place to work,

but someone's got to do it.

- And yeah,

you're happy to tell folks

you're involved in the project management of...

- That's right.

The state is building a new $300 million

skilled nursing facility for Cal Vet up in Yountville.

And so I'm the state's construction principal for that.

And we're here for a few years.

- You have a rough commute,

you occasionally have to cycle to work.

- I do.

It's about 10 miles up the trail,

that's right, to the project.

- It's about 12 miles back?

- Exactly.

(both laughing)

- Not many people know this,

it's actually uphill.

- It's up hill.

That's right, that's right.

- So, and then in,

over the various months in our various conversations

you've shared that your brother-in-law has

an Irish pub.

- That's right.

My brother-in-law and my sister are

in the Irish bar business

in Honolulu, they've been very successful

and he has a new venture, the Black Tavern

Black Shamrock, excuse me, Black Shamrock Tavern.

- There's a mouthful.

- Yeah, I know.

In Chinatown in <Honolulu>, right on the,

on the Irish corner across from Murphy's Irish bar.

So yeah, it's

- We've talked about, it's top of my list for when

I eventually make it to Honolulu.

I look forward to getting an introduction

to your brother-in-law

and tasting his top shelf whiskeys there.

- I'm sure we'll have to rope you

into doing a tasting when you get there.

- And then as part of my journey, one of the things

I did here was I invited a few people who knew their stuff

so to speak, to the house a few weeks back.

And you were one of those obviously being,

you know, a Scotch drinker.

And invited winemaker, a wine educator

and a distiller to the house.

And you were part of that.

How, how was it, how was the experience of tasting?

- You know, it was great.

I loved you started off with the cocktail

and that was was lovely.

- The Poitín, poitín cocktail.

- Yeah, it was lovely.

You got it right there.

- We used some of the Mad March Hare.

- Yeah, it was very nice.

It was fun to sit, you had some

restaurant professionals there.

I think you had a chemist in the

in the distilling industry.

Yeah, yeah. So it was quite informative.

It was, it was terrific.

We got to taste kind of a range

of different things that you had for us and

- Yeah, we went through the four styles, which was great.

- Yeah.

Yeah, and lots of good discussion.

- Yeah. Which was great.

And introduce you to the, the two glass tasting theory

which were going to use here.

I use that whenever I do a tasting just allows me to,

particularly with these two, you know, they weigh in at 46%.

- Right.

- So, you know, there's definitely, you know

some alcohol comes off.

So when you are in the glass without the liquid

it just is easier to get some of the aroma.

So speaking of tasting and aromas, I suppose we should.

- Well let's go, we

- We should pour away.

- Absolutely.

- So I will pour the Hanson in the

right hand glass here for both of us.

We'll do that and then

we'll pour the Gael at the same time.

So, little bit of that there.

Yeah. Lovely light colorr on this one.

And you've obviously, you know, had this

for a couple of months now what is it about this you like?

- It is, it's light,

it's flavorful but not overpowering.

Again, coming from the

Smokey, peaty Scotch, it's, it's delightful.

And with the warm weather we've been having here in Napa,

it's just been the perfect,

the perfect whiskey in the afternoon on a warm day.

- Yeah

- It's refreshing,

and almost crisp, you know

with a little bit of ice in there and a splash of water.

- It's funny, because, when I've tasted it

and we tasted it when you brought it over.

I found it kind of a lemony-limey character there.

That to me is crispness.

That's citrus character.

- Right.

- So, I suppose we should say sláinte.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, sláinte.

- Sláinte.

- So the Hanson, yeah, light on the color front.

I just love that color.

So I'm doing some digging.

So for folks who don't know,

JJ Corry is an Irish whiskey bonder.

Bonding is the old Irish art and tradition

of actually buying made spirit from distillers.

And then they age it in their warehouse.

So, they get to choose what goes into the barrel

and they get to obviously

do the blending afterwards.

So this is a blend of two different aged grain whiskeys.

So before we jumped down, we talked

about that there's a, they have a, you know

a 10 year old grain whiskey, 80% of this.

And then the other 20% is,

is a four year old grain whiskey.

So all grain whiskey.

So my guess on that is the majority

of this starts as this corn

is essentially the mash bill.

And then if I'm wrong on that,

happy to be corrected.

But, and I believe that their philosophy there is

that no color additions take place.

All the color, or lack of color, we see in this

comes from the barrels.

So really light on the color front.

So you think, so you think it's going to be a kind

of a, you know, a thin whiskey,

but goodness it's just, it's quite the opposite.

- Right.

- You know, the nose,

I talk again about that delicate, you know,

that lovely delicate lemony limey character,

vanilla and caramel come through.

When you brought this over last week

I was just loving sipping it out on the back there.

So, so yeah, that's, you know, really attractive nose.

- I'm going to splash a bit of water in there.

- Yeah, and then on the palate,

just same things again,

really delicate.

So like all good Irish whiskeys, David,

there's a story behind the name on this one.

So it's called the Hanson.

And on the bottle there's a bowler hat.

So it turns out there was a guy

called Andrew Hanson who

was the excise man for County Clare back in the day.

He and JJ Corry apparently got on really well,

so I suspect that he might have turned a blind eye

every now and then to shenanigans that happened

with not reporting and that sort of thing.

Anyway, Andrew Hanson proposed

to JJ Curry's daughter Josie,

and then they ended up getting married.

So if you're going to be a whiskey bonder

you may as well have an excise man in the family.

(both laughing)

- Right,

and so an homage to

- Very much so, I think.

- To Mr. Hanson, huh.

- I think a lot of what they do now

at JJ Curry is pay homage to what he did back in the day.

And there's, you know, there's, as I said

lots of great stories

in Irish whiskey and that's definitely one of them.

Yeah, I agree with you on the summer sipper.

- Yeah.

- I actually, this could be a whiskey that

at five o'clock, you know,

because often we will drink our whiskey

at the end of the night.

- Right.

- I could see this being something to,

actually to me, almost gets the palate going,

that kind of freshness.

So yeah, god it's lovely.

Obviously you gifted me the bottle

of the Gael, and you bought them as a gift pack.

Just for folks who are watching this

just so they have an idea of pricing.

The Hansen is about $50 or so dollars retail.

- That's right.

- Give or take.

This one was bottled in 2020.

I'm guessing there's kind of an annual bottling of it.

Again, I'm happy to be corrected if, if there isn't,

but I really like it.

- Uh-huh, I do too.

- I really enjoyed it.

When you, when you brought it over.

- It's just lovely.

- Yeah.

So guilty as charged, when you came over last week,

it was the first time we cracked open the Gael.

- It was, yeah,

I hadn't had it before that.

And so what a wonderful opportunity to.

- Very different.

- Ooh, very different.

- So again, you know, weighs in at 46%,

and this sells, you know, again, you generously give

to me the bottle, about $75 a bottle

is what it sells for.

So, you know, it's not a cheap bottle of whiskey.

So thank you for your generosity.

- My pleasure.

- Back when you bought it for me,

what a treat this is.

This is just, it's a knockout whiskey.

So a blend of 60% malt and then 40% grain.

And then within that there is a list of items that go

into that makeup, which I'll obviously share

underneath the video because it's too much

for me to remember here.

But one of the, one of the component parts

of this is a 26 year old whiskey.

So, you know, adds

to the complexity, much deeper color than we tasted with the

- Yeah. This is just amazing.

- Yeah.

I think, oh goodness.

So truth be told, we had a glass of this last night

over a nice big ice cube and just that little bit

of interaction with the ice, it just, it almost

kind of made the flavor sing.

- Yeah, yeah.

- It was just, yeah, it really expressive.

- Right.

- And you don't know this yet,

but to return your generosity I'm sending you home

with the Gael so you can enjoy it.

- Well thank you very much, and enjoy it I will.

- I think, you know, one good turn deserves another.

- Absolutely.

- So, so yeah for me on the, you know

kind of the nose of the palate of the Gale,

you know there's, you know, wood, wood characters are really

evident, smoke, char, and then there's,

there's almost I find,

and now everyone tastes differently, I find a kind

of a toffee, fudgey, almost caramel texture to it in there.

And when I put it on the palate, the spices are just,

they're right up front.

So for me there's, there's pepper,

there's some clove and I find in it, bizarrely enough

a little bit of cinnamon in there, a little bit

of sweet spice and yeah,

it's just, it's just gorgeous, so

- Yeah, it's, it is luxurious

on your tongue and in your mouth, and it just it's a

- Kind of coats.

- Yeah, yeah.

- I'd agree.

Now it's a, it's a fantastic drop, so.

These are the, I believe these are the only two

we can get here in California.

- I think you're right

- Of the range from the great folks at JJ Corry.

So as you know, we're headed back to Ireland

in a couple of weeks time.

So I'm going to do my darnedest to find a third bottle of one

of their other wonderful,

and see if we can get a hat trick here of

- Yeah. All three and maybe four.

Is there? There might be four out there,

if I'm not mistaken.

- I believe there's even a fifth.

- Okay.

- And obviously, you know, they make lovely whiskey

so there's, there's big demand for it.

I know a couple more of them are available on the East coast

from what I've seen, so.

- Okay.

- But demand, if they can sell them on the East coast

why would they bring them

all the way out here to us?

- Well, I'll tell you,

it's a blessing to have these two and, and they're

you know, in many ways wonderfully contrasted, you know

this is, you know, they could,

you've got your summer and you know

your fall, coming into the holidays whiskey.

I think it's, it's very nice.

- Okay. So I have you hooked on Irish whiskey, good.

- You have my full attention.

- Good, task has been successful.

That's absolutely is sharing a lot of these great stories.

And obviously I'm not sharing them

because you bought these,

you shared them with me and I appreciate that.

But just, it's great to, to open people's eyes to

- It is.

And you know, frankly, and I didn't know

that much about them, so it's been wonderful just

to kind of explore them with you and,

and that you're excited about them and yeah.

Learning so much and imparting that back to me.

So it's been terrific, thank you.

- Good. No, thank you.

And I suppose with that, well, we got to finish these.

- Well, that we will.

- Yeah, so we'll have a sláinte.

- Sláinte.

- Finish up.

- Absolutely.

- And see you next time.

- See you next time.

- Yeah, these are great. Thank you so much.

- Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure.

This is when....