Exploring Natterjack Irish Whiskey: A Toad-ally Unique Spirit (BRC S3 E10)

# Swell AI Transcript: BRC S3 E10 Natterjack Rough Cut.mov

Kerry Moynahan:
It is 5 o'clock somewhere and you've tuned in to Season 3, Episode 10 of BRC. For those of you who'd like to watch this episode, I highly recommend it. You can view Season 3 on our website, YouTube, Spotify, WhiskeyNetwork.net, and Zencastr. I'm Carrie Moynihan, and in today's Tales from the Still, I speak with Aidan Megan about Natterjack Irish Whiskey. Then later in the show, Chef Louise Leonard joins me for a dram and we talk about the other white meat. So kick up your shoes, pour yourself a dram, and join me for this episode of Barrel Room Chronicles. Last season on Barrel Room Chronicles, I embarked on an amazing journey through Ireland, from Dingle to Belfast and nearly everything in between. Now I'm going to do it all over again. But this time, you're invited. That's right. Join me this September for a trip of a lifetime through the rich tapestry of Irish whiskey culture. We'll visit iconic locations, such as the Titanic Experience and the new Titanic Distillery, and tour through the lush Irish landscapes and visit filming locations from the hit TV series Game of Thrones. We'll also visit historic sites, including cathedrals, jails, castles and more. Plus, we'll get to distill our very own batch of Clonachilty gin. To find out more or to book now, visit BarrelRoomChronicles.com and click on the Brock Tours photo. Well, hello, good evening, good afternoon, whatever time it is you are watching the show today. Welcome to Barrel Room Chronicles. Today's guest is none other than Aidan Megan from Natterjack Irish Whiskey. And we're going to talk about this Natterjack, which is very exciting because it's all about the toad. So we'll get into why there's a toad, what the toad represents and all of that. But first, Aidan, welcome to the show. And tell me, what is your whiskey journey? When you were a wee little lad, did you ever think that you would be owning a whiskey company with a toad as its mascot?

Aidan Mehigan:
Yeah, first off, thank you for having me. A great question. No, I didn't. I actually started the business because I figured I loved whiskey, but Irish whiskey had missed me. I knew my favorite bourbon. I didn't know my favorite Irish whiskey. And I was like, I was unfulfilled in a career. And I was like, if I have this passion for food and wine and spirits and my own home spirit has missed me, how it must have missed a load of people. Like it must have been, it must be doing something that is maybe missing the spot. Because look, I had a dispose of Lincoln when I like going out. So if Irish whiskey missed me, it must have missed loads of people. But I think this is key. I got into drinking because drinking is great fun. Right. I didn't get into drinking because it's, uh, an intellectual exercise or anything like that. I got into it because it's really great to share with people, to share an experience with people. The, the, you know, the, the early moments of a night out are some of the best moments you'll ever have. There's some great, don't get me wrong. There's some great moments at the end and in the middle, but you know, those early stages when all the possibilities lie out in front of you. And I wanted, uh, I thought Irish whiskey could have something in that space and it didn't. And I was like, right, let's go and do that. So I got a friend of mine to draw the Natterjack toad, a very talented artist called Kelvin Mann, who's based in Dublin. And I'd actually asked him to draw a toad. And he said, there's an Irish one, I'll draw you a Natterjack toad. And I was like, do it. So he drew the toad and Natterjack was born. And then I went on this kind of-

Kerry Moynahan:
Why did you think toad? What was toad? Why toad?

Aidan Mehigan:
I liked the cadence of for toad black. And I thought that would be, I wanted a kind of a single syllable animal number and color all included. And so I looked at different types, like a two fish blue. There was some dreadful ones like, four brown bear, and there was something to do with a seal, but like, it wasn't good. But I was like, when he said that there was this toad in Natterjack, I was like, Natterjack's an amazing name. And then it turns out, right, while Kelvin's off sketching that, I did a lot of work on the Natterjack toad, and I went down to where it lives in Western Ireland in a place called Castle Gregory. And it turns out it has some intriguing similarities to Irish whiskey, right? It's gestation period from a toadlet to a toad is three years. Irish whiskey has to be in barrel for three years, tick, right? Secondly, it has a mating call that can be heard two kilometers away, like some whiskey drinkers, and it's nocturnal with most whiskey drinkers. So it's like, this is our, this is our animal. But then, right, then it turned like, because now we're, we're in startup phase, right? And it's like, okay, well, what else about this animal speaks to us? And it turns out that the Natterjack toad is a very Irish toad, right? It can't hop, it walks, it can't swim, it drowns, it does things its own way to survive. And that kind of made me think this is, this has to be our spirit animal. So Kelvin drew the toad, and then we had this six-foot toad made for launch. And when we put it in the street, people love toads. And this was news to us, right? People absolutely love toads. We put this six-foot toad in the middle of Dublin ahead of the day before launch, and people were just coming up and kissing it. And that toad is with us in Texas now, and wherever we put it out, people interact with it. It always spoke to me as the harder thing to do, Kerry, than put on the front an Irish horse. Because Ireland's famous for our horse industry is a global leader, right? So a proud Irish horse would have been, this is a regal bottle of whiskey.

Aidan Mehigan:
That's not much crack, right?

Aidan Mehigan:
I wanted it to be something that people look at and they go, that makes me want to have fun. And I think that's what we've achieved. So that's kind of the journey, how we got there.

Kerry Moynahan:
I feel like it's a very intriguing label and it's a very intriguing toad. On the cast strength, you've got the really great metal toad, which really, and I think this bottle looks very sophisticated, especially with the toad. And you know what? When I first saw NanoJack and there's a toad, I'm like, Toad. That's interesting. So I was drawn in. I said, I got to get this guy on. I got to find out about the toad. So that is a great toad story. I love it. So you were in Dublin. Now the six foot toad, you brought it to Texas. I mean, how did you ship this giant toad?

Aidan Mehigan:
It came with, so we have, I have a six year old, four year old and a one and a half year old and Faye, my lovely wife, and we've got a great Dane. And we came kit and caboodle one year ago to Texas to push Natterjack in America. You like the, from a business perspective, it's hard to build a small brand making phone calls from Dublin because phone calls are the easiest things to duck in the world. But the, the head of Total Wine or the head of Specs in Texas can't ignore me when I'm knocking on his door in downtown Dallas. Right. And so if we're going to build this by hand, if we're going to really live the story of our brand, which is adventure and having the life you want, you've got to go and get it. You can't expect a phone call to open up the largest, most complex spirits market in the world for you. And so. Oh yeah.

Kerry Moynahan:
You mean the three-tier system is not easy to navigate? I've never heard that before.

Aidan Mehigan:
Yes. It's harder from Dublin, right? So like we have this incredible investor team behind us and they were like, you got to get out here and sell. And I was like, no problem. And they looked to me a bit funny, but it was part of the deal. They were like, have you told your wife you're moving to America? And I was like, leave that with me, right? So I go in and I said, Faye, the deal's going to get done. We're refinancing. This is the best news we've ever had. Do you want to move to New York or Chicago? They said, neither. And I was like, uh-oh. Um, we're in a bit of trouble here because I've told him we're moving and she's like, look, I'm not saying not, not the States. I'm just saying, give me outdoor spaces, give me sunshine and give me cowboys. That's actually what she said. She now has changed it and said, give me outdoor spaces, sunshine and horses. But I remember cause I was like, cowboys. Yeah. So I said, look, we got distribution in Texas. What do you reckon? And she's like, done. And this is no joke, right? That was October 2022. The week after, my mom came over, looked after the kids and Faye and I flew to Austin and found a house. And I look at a couple of schools, flew home, got the kids and came out.

Kerry Moynahan:
So, and that was kind of our journey to... But the six foot toad, is he, is he like inflatable? Or like, how did you package him?

Aidan Mehigan:
I'll send you a picture. But he came over in the container with our lives possessions. So we had our couch, say, a couple of chairs, a bed, and this sort of jazz. So that all came over in a container. And actually, the madness of it is, is we shipped it before we got our visas.

Aidan Mehigan:
And someone was like, what are you going to do if you don't get your visa?

Aidan Mehigan:
It's like, well, look, this business, this business has been about betting big and hopefully winning big. So that was a big gamble.

Kerry Moynahan:
Yeah. Yeah. Visas are not easy. I do a lot of production work with international stuff. And I've dealt with visa people from all over the world. And some places are easy, some places are not easy. And some places you just have to say, I think we're going to fly under the radar for a bit.

Aidan Mehigan:
It turned out the story worked from a visa perspective for us, but our stuff was gone. So what are we going to do?

Kerry Moynahan:
So did you sell your home in Ireland? Or did you keep it and rent it out?

Aidan Mehigan:
No, it's all gone. We've, we sold up everything back. So we, during COVID, as everyone knows, business became hard for everyone, but especially for a very young brand. And so we ended up in really tight financial spots in the kind of mid 21. So at that stage, we moved out of our house, sold our car, sold any belongings that had anything. And then we moved for a while to an Airbnb in a place called Knockanana in County Wicklow, which is the middle of nowhere. And yeah, it's absolutely beautiful. And then we moved back in with Faye's parents in Suffolk for a little while, while we tried to steady the ship and tried to refinance the business. And that was a It was a funny, it wasn't a fun 18 months, it was a bloody hard 18 months, but we got out the other side of it and kind of, and hence why we were just like, right, let's go.

Kerry Moynahan:
Everything in a container, let's do it. Nice. Okay. So when did you actually launch the product originally? Was it during COVID, before COVID?

Aidan Mehigan:
February 2019 was our launch date in Dublin. And now I've been thinking about the business for a long time at that stage. And it had taken us a while to raise the capital to start the business and buy the requisite stock. But what that time period did was it gave me a great rolodex of people who were interested in this frog whiskey, toad whiskey, whatever you want to call it. So we launched in February 2019. And then by the end of 2019, right, We were in six global markets and four US states, right? And this was amazing, right? We were way out of where we thought we were going to be. And I did this trip. I did a 10-day trip where I went to Washington State, Seattle, and then I went to Chicago. I went to Manchester, New Hampshire, New York, and Florida, right? And down to Miami. And I met distributors, and really key is I met mixologists, bartenders, and off-premise owners. I realized on that trip that the story worked here. There's a great championing of entrepreneurialism in America that isn't in every country, right? When people meet the owners of businesses, their eyes light up. Even hearing your story of what you guys have built in the five minutes before we came on today, it's amazing to talk to people who've been through it, right? So it's so championed here in the States that, that I, I took it as a massive breath of fresh air. And that was when I first went back to Faye and I was like, we're going to the States. And she's like, okay. And then of course COVID hit, so we're not going anywhere for two years. So, um, yeah, so that was kind of the, kind of the, the thought process, but that was an amazing first year in 2019. And then just followed up by, by the difficulty everyone went through. Our story is not that different to loads of businesses.

Kerry Moynahan:
Well, the fact that you made it to the other side is, you know, a lot of people didn't. So congratulations on that. So now I'm assuming since it's such a young company that right now you have sourced whiskey, but do you age it specially or it's just all sourced right now in your work? And where and do you have a distillery and where is it if you do?

Aidan Mehigan:
We had plans and planning permission for a distillery pre-COVID. We lost that site as a result of no one willing to loan on tourist attractions in the year or two after COVID. I ideally would love a distillery in Ireland and that's still in the plans, although we don't have one at the moment. We source from Great Northern Distillery in Dundalk. That's no secret. It's the best. They've done an incredible job. And, but just to, to take a little bit of a step back, back in 2017, when I really wanted to do this project, I realized largely because a friend of mine sent me a text and said, you don't know how to make whiskey. What are you doing? was like, I realized I needed to go on a whiskey course. So I went to the American Distillers Institute craft distilling course, which was, I went to do a bourbon course, because as I said to you at the start, I had a favorite bourbon, I didn't have a favorite Irish. And I wanted to try and marry those two flavor profiles. So I went to a bourbon making course, rather than go to an Irish whiskey making course, I was like, let's try and do things differently, which has always been in the DNA of the company. So I went to Louisville, Kentucky, a long way from home. And Jordan Vai, who at the time was the master distiller in Breckenridge, he was teaching the course. And I did the first two days of the course. And after I came out the second day, Jordan was in the car park. looking off wistfully into the distance. I said, look, I'm on your course. Is everything okay? He's like, everything's great. Our distillery just got an investment. And I was like, can I buy you a drink to celebrate? Like, this is my in to the American whiskey society, right? He's clearly connected up the wazoo. And I'm like, okay, so we spent a night and look, We had a great load of drinks. We had a great time. His wife, Maya, they're still great friends of ours and still shareholders in the business, but they were like, what do you need? And I said, I need to learn how to make whiskey. And Jordan's like, well, why don't you come to Breckenridge? I think he meant for a few days. So I went and I stayed for a month with them. Pretty sure at the end they're like, yeah, you need to get out. So, but I worked double shifts every day. We, I got, you know, I got to learn all of the aspects and it's a big distillery now, Breckenridge. Back then it was a good bit smaller, but it was like everything from, you know, the handling of the grain. I'll tell you the one thing that took me ages to work out was what it meant in the whiskey making process. Cause I'd done this course where they talked about pitching yeast. And I was like, And in the course, I was like, oh, I'm writing it down. I'm like, Google, but you can't Google. You can't Google pitching yeast. No. So I get there and I'm like day four and Matt, this guy who was the distiller there at the time, I was like, what's this thing about pitching the yeast? And he's like, throwing it in. I was like,

Aidan Mehigan:
Okay. Right. So it's actually just throwing in the yeast at a given temperature. You pitch the yeast. Oh, okay.

Kerry Moynahan:
Well, it's like you said crack earlier and I know what that means, but most people don't. Like when I was doing my Irish tour last year, like everybody said it at least once. And finally I'm like, what, what does this mean? Cause crack to us is, you know, drugs.

Aidan Mehigan:
Yeah.

Aidan Mehigan:
And so that's it, isn't it? It's that lost in translation between two people who speak perfect English. And it's like, yeah.

Kerry Moynahan:
When you said on-premise or off-premise, we don't call anything that. And like off-license, like no, it's a liquor store. Why does license have anything to do with it?

Aidan Mehigan:
Yeah. I could never work that out either because in Ireland, an off-license needs a license. Like it doesn't make a huge amount of sense.

Kerry Moynahan:
Exactly. Exactly.

Aidan Mehigan:
So, but so then I solidified my relationship with Jordan. As I say, like for Thanksgiving this year, we were with his family in San Antonio and Jordan does all of our blending and he does all like, he's just, he's just been a, just a great mate. And he's been a great partner.

Kerry Moynahan:
Does he, does he, so do you ship him samples to America and then he blends it and then sends the notes back to Great Northern?

Aidan Mehigan:
Well, no. So what happens is we ship them samples as the, as the whiskey is maturing, but then Jordan is there for every blending session where we're actually blending whiskey.

Kerry Moynahan:
Oh, at Great Northern.

Aidan Mehigan:
Yeah. Yeah. So he comes across and we spend a couple of days. It's, it was one of, it was actually one of the things that during my time at Breckenridge that I kind of worked out about the industry. It was a case of, um, you know, 15% of this and 20% of that. Now, that is the case. However, you know, when you're blending and when you're when you're working with, with your new make spirit, and then also your age products, and you're getting your, your ABVs, right, and you're proofing, it's very much olfactory. Now, you know, this looks like he's standing there, and he's like, I have I'm tasting this, and we need to replicate it. Therefore, we need to do this because the alcohols are too high there to you know, there's too much mid palette going on. And that's the level like, you know, I, I do it with them. And it's great fun. But he's like, he says to me, he's like, what is it that you're trying to do here? And I'm like, I want it to be more, I want it to be longer. I want it to be more powerful in the mid palette. It's really burning me on the front palette and that sort of stuff. And then he then plays with the blend to bring that around. And he's a genius. That's great. Yeah.

Kerry Moynahan:
So how many blending sessions do you have per year and how long are they?

Aidan Mehigan:
Three a year. And there's kind of two days out at our bottling plant, which is just around the corner from Great Northern.

Kerry Moynahan:
Okay.

Aidan Mehigan:
And then we obviously ship them samples. And so with winning, which we can get into cast strength in a bit, but that was a really incredible day of blending when that was kind of came into view, when that one came into view, it was really amazing. So, yeah.

Kerry Moynahan:
So when was the first, I'm assuming this one was first.

Aidan Mehigan:
Yeah, blend one.

Kerry Moynahan:
It says blend one, so yes, that would be first. Blend one, if you guys at home can see that. So when was this made, and when was it launched in Dublin, and when was it launched in America, or was it at the same time?

Aidan Mehigan:
It was blended and finished in Virgin Oak in 2018, and so we released it Feb 2019, and it landed in the US November 2019.

Kerry Moynahan:
Okay, great. Are you guys in California? Because I haven't seen you anywhere. Are you in California?

Aidan Mehigan:
We are in one shop in California. It's in San Francisco. There's a shop in San Francisco where we are. It's look, it's a geography thing, right? We're building out the team. We don't have nationwide distribution at the moment. We're in 16 states. But one of those states is California. But it's very hard to put boots on the ground all the way across the country, the size of the size of the US. So we're getting there.

Kerry Moynahan:
Right, right. For sure. All right, well, I think it's time that we taste these. As you can see, I've already started. And then I don't know if you've seen the show, but on almost every one of Season 1, and we had her on a handful on Season 2, but Chef Louise Leonard, who won Season 2 of The Taste, comes in and does a pairing and or tasting or uses the liquid in a recipe. And, uh, we already, we already broke into this and we're ready for, for, uh, for that, but I'm not going to tell you what it is. So that way you have to watch and see, and she'll be up after you today.

Aidan Mehigan:
I'm looking forward to it.

Kerry Moynahan:
I'm going to go ahead and give myself a little pour. And I have two glasses here. I have, um, you know, the regular Glencairn that everybody uses for the nosing, but also my favorite glass is the Irish Tua glass. Have you seen the Irish Tua glass?

Aidan Mehigan:
Yeah. Yeah.

Kerry Moynahan:
Yeah. No, you need to, you need to get your brand on those and you need to, you need to put them in some gift boxes. Rosie's great. She's the creator of this. And for those at home who haven't watched the episode on, on this, it also sits sideways as a decanter. And the, the base is based off of Skilling Michael. Like if you look at it, it's, it's Skilling Michael, which is an island off of Dingle, the coast of Cary. Yeah, so that I'm going to save for the cast strength. So I'm using the Glencairn for the first. Alright, so tell me about this one.

Aidan Mehigan:
So it's 20% malt, it's 80% corn, it's finished for a year in virgin oak. Now that virgin oak is char number four. And we sourced those from segment row in Napa. And the reason for the char number four is to to really in that year that it's in virgin oak, we didn't want to crush the Irish because virgin oak is very powerful, right? So you don't want to crush the malt, you don't want to crush some of the higher notes of the grain. We really wanted to extract lots of the colour, extract lots of the vanilla, lots of the oak, lots of the citrus for me. And really, for me, it makes it so much smoother than what a sherry cask or a sherry finish or a Pedro Ximenez, but it leans into that American flavor profile. It's not an Irish bourbon, but it is a stepping stone for me from a gateway drug, if you will, Kerry, from Irish to bourbon or bourbon to Irish.

Kerry Moynahan:
I agree with that because there's a lot of people You know, especially Americans, since Irish whiskey disappeared basically for 100 years. And the only thing they knew about Irish whiskey was Jameson, Bushmills, or usually that was it, maybe Middleton sometimes. But now, as everyone should know who watches the show, you know, business is booming in Ireland and there's craft blenders and makers and distilleries. throughout the whole country, well, throughout the whole island, I should say, because it's two countries. But, and I, for one, you know, I'm 30% Irish, you might have noticed by my name. You know, I like to connect to my Irish heritage. And when I first started with whiskey, I thought Jameson. And I started on bourbons, but then I went up to Scotches, and then I was like, okay, well, let's try Irish again. And then I started tasting the newer stuff, and I really like it. And I think this is a good gateway between the two, because it does have some characteristics of the virgin oak with the char, but it also has the same, so it's a little bite there, but it still has the smoothness of an Irish whiskey, and I really like it. Good job.

Aidan Mehigan:
And thank you. But even on the first sip for me, there's no burn. Right. And so quite often when I'm, when I'm doing tastings and I do lots of tastings and shows around the country and it's, it's. It's almost disarming when you taste Natterjack. It's like you expect to have, because when you do tasting courses and stuff, they say, right, well, the first taste really prepares your body. Then now have a smell, then, and the second taste is really where the flavor comes through. But for me, with Natterjack, because of what Jordan did in smoothing off what he calls rounding off the edges, it's amazingly approachable from the first sip. I have an old friend of mine, he's since died, but he had a great line about whiskey like this. And it's like, it's great drinking whiskey. Like it's, do you know what I mean? Like it's, it's, it's really good.

Kerry Moynahan:
I told Louise, I said, I gotta, I gotta put this down because it is so easy to drink. We could finish the bottle off and then not even notice that we were, you know, having a problem until the bottle was empty. So, so yeah, it's very, very drinkable.

Aidan Mehigan:
You said about your Irish heritage. So Kerry is where the Natterjack Toad is from. It's from Glen Bay, Kerry. And Castle Gregory and Glen Bay are the two places, both of which are in County Kerry. So it's actually indigenous to Kerry, Kerry.

Kerry Moynahan:
That's fantastic. So do you guys have... a plant in Ireland or you just work straight out of a northern?

Aidan Mehigan:
Straight out of the northern. No, we will do, but we don't at the moment, no.

Kerry Moynahan:
And then did you, when you went through and said, okay, we're going to work with you guys, did you go through and pick things that they were already making and then decide which types of barrels you wanted to use for your mash bill? Or did you come up with your own mash bill and have them make it and then now that's what they do for you?

Aidan Mehigan:
No, so Jordan had a very clear idea of what the mash bill would be. And so he worked really hard with the distiller, a guy called Brian Kerr. Brian Watts, a gentleman at Great Northern, he worked really hard with him to get them doing what they wanted. And now we've now got a supply contract where everything is distilled for us at Great Northern and it's on a rolling five-year basis. So as we've grown the business to the level it's at at the moment, like we're in 13 global markets and 16 states. So I think this year we'll do little north of 30,000 cases on the current trajectory, of which we've already done 25%. And it's not even the end of the end of the month. So it's, yeah, it's things are, things are going well. And so part of the success that is locking in your supply and also making sure that things are being distilled for you, as opposed to, as you say, purchasing and then blending afterwards. So we've tried to really use a proxy distillery rather than just buying off the shelf. And that's been a kind of a transformational part of the business is owning that.

Kerry Moynahan:
All right, I think it's time for the cast strength.

Aidan Mehigan:
Cast strength. So cast strength. Now, one Irish whiskey of the year 2024 in the Whiskey Bible.

Kerry Moynahan:
Wait, in 2024? It's only 2024 right now?

Aidan Mehigan:
Yes. 2024 is the Bible. It's released before Christmas in 2023. Okay. So that's Irish Whiskey of the Year. Previous winners were Red Breast, 12-year-old Cast Strength, Bushmills, 30-year-old. It is unheard of for a company like us to win it. And so it's a testament to the work Jordan has done, and it's a testament to the work the team have done. And for me, the blend is slightly different. And we'll change each year. But for me, this drink is all about the mouthfeel. It's It's all the smoothness. It does look like it's 63% ABV. And the reason it's 63% ABV, Kerry, is I wanted it to be really what's in the cask, right? You can release a cask strength in inverted commas that is 55. And it will be caught a little bit. But in order to keep costs, volume, all that, like there's reasons it's still higher proof, but it's not true cask strength. This is true cask strength.

Kerry Moynahan:
It feels like a true cast strength. It's got a nice, a nice hot note on the top and the mouthfeel, you're right. It's like cream in your mouth. It's like a nice hot, spicy, delicious cream.

Aidan Mehigan:
Yeah. And, and it, you know, when we won the award, I was just kind of, I wasn't expecting the phone call and it's like, look, we've got a frog in our bottle, right? It's like people, loads of people in the industry don't take us seriously and that's fine. Like you can't, You can't say I got into this because drinking is great fun and they can be upset if people don't take you seriously, right? That's just not, those two things can't sit side by side. However, when we win this award and we've won double golds and golds and the whiskey is really good, but this recognition was kind of like, oh, actually they're doing something right, right? And it's not just a frog on a bottle to grab people's attention. What they're doing is because we wanted to produce something we could stand over.

Kerry Moynahan:
So what other competitions have you entered?

Aidan Mehigan:
San Diego with double gold, IWC in Germany gold. Then the 50 best, we got best Irish whiskey in 2023. So that's four awards in the last kind of four or five months.

Kerry Moynahan:
Oh wow, that's great.

Aidan Mehigan:
Yeah, it's been really good.

Kerry Moynahan:
So when do you think you'll have bottles on the shelves in Los Angeles?

Aidan Mehigan:
So straight away, you can order through our website, and that'll be delivered to Los Angeles from the warehouse in California, because we have a warehouse for direct to consumer in California. I would hope to have full Californian distribution this year, because a really strong state for us is Washington. We just got approached about opening Oregon. And then look, at that level, with California included, we should get boots on the ground on, in the Western, in Western us. So leave it with me. I'm working hard. Um, and look, I, I spent a summer back in 1998, uh, working in Huntington beach, uh, you know, Duke's on Huntington beach on the pier there.

Kerry Moynahan:
I've seen it. Yes.

Aidan Mehigan:
Yeah. Yes. I didn't, I didn't work there. I worked cleaning toilets at an Irish bar up the road, but Dukes was the kind of the standout landmark there. One of my mates worked at the cinema. We stayed in a motel for the summer. It was, it was amazing. It was an amazing time. So California has a real place in my heart.

Kerry Moynahan:
Well, fantastic. I mean, I kind of wish that you guys would have moved here. We have, we have land. And I think our weather's a little better than Texas, but not this year.

Aidan Mehigan:
I mean, right now it's been very rainy. We didn't have distribution. Easy peasy. And I think there's a wildness to parts of California that I absolutely love, that kind of lush redwoods that you can kind of get lost in for years. And actually it's where Jordan and Maya live. They live on Mare Island in Vallejo? Vallejo?

Kerry Moynahan:
Vallejo, yeah.

Aidan Mehigan:
Yeah, that's where Jordan works at Savaging Cook at the moment.

Kerry Moynahan:
Oh nice, my sister lives not too far from there.

Aidan Mehigan:
So we're releasing a whiskey called The Mistake, which is because we left the whiskey in barrel too long.

Kerry Moynahan:
Yeah, well I'd love to try The Mistake. So right now you have these two expressions plus that. Is there any other expressions that you guys have out in the market?

Aidan Mehigan:
No, that's it. We've got a couple of other size differences. We've got cast strength in 500ml for certain markets. I think our Turkish distributor wants a 3-litre Natterjack. Is that a Jarrah bomb? I'm not sure, but either way, it's 3 litres. That's going to be our core market. The commercial reason for that is 99% of the whiskey market don't know who we are. So I don't believe in growing your footprint until there's a commercial reason to. You only cannibalize your own business. And so we need to do what we do well, we need to support in market, and we need to bring people along on the journey. And I think given the size of our team, three products is loads.

Kerry Moynahan:
What is the size of your team?

Aidan Mehigan:
Uh, we've got six sales reps, um, of which six are in the U S then we've got a head of global sales, Scotty Moran in Dublin as chief operating officer in Dublin, director of marketing here in, um, Vanessa lives in, um, in Virginia and we've just hired a director of sales. So we're growing the team all the time.

Kerry Moynahan:
Fantastic. That's awesome. Well, I'm glad that you guys approached me because I'm very glad that I found out about the natterjack toad. One more thing before we conclude. Tell me about the name of the distillery. It's Gortnor? Gortnor? How do you say that?

Aidan Mehigan:
So girtnáir is the Irish word for a small field of gold, a girtín or, and so girt is a field, girtín is a small field and or is gold. So small field of gold. But when I started this business, I moved into my parents' basement at 35 years of age, something I would suggest everyone thinks long and hard about doing. Don't get me wrong. My parents are amazing, but like you're 35 and you're living in their basement. It's not good scenes. So I had to put a tax return together in year one around the business. So I called it Girtinor and it kind of stuck. It then became a massive problem because we're Natterjack, right? And so now when I go to events and people are like, they put up on the board behind the stand, it's like Gert and Or, and you're like, so where's Natterjack? You're like, okay, this is confusing. So there was some teething elements in relation to that, but we've worked through it, so.

Kerry Moynahan:
Well, that's great. I love the meaning of the name. So you're the modern day leprechaun, I'm going to say.

Aidan Mehigan:
There we go.

Kerry Moynahan:
And you're going to find your gold at the end of the rainbow.

Aidan Mehigan:
I'll take it.

Kerry Moynahan:
I love it. It'll be in a big field. I mean, no, sorry, small field, big gold, small field is where you will find your- And rainbows keeping us down there every day.

Aidan Mehigan:
Yeah.

Kerry Moynahan:
And I mean, right now it's more amber, but you know, gold, amber, you know, close.

Aidan Mehigan:
It's very nice. It is.

Kerry Moynahan:
Well, that's fantastic. And where can we find you on your socials and what's the website so people can order and have stuff shipped to them?

Aidan Mehigan:
Social is, social's Natterjack Irish Whiskey on Instagram, on Facebook, on all those places. TikTok, I don't think, I think, I don't think we do. I think they allow you to do advertising alcohol on there. So, and then if people want to order it, they order it through www.natterjack.com. And people are listening to this show can use my discount code, which is Aidan Special, A-I-D-A-N-S-P-E-C-I-A-L. And you'll get a discount which will cover more than the shipping. So I really appreciate your support. It's been great chatting to you, Kerry.

Kerry Moynahan:
Great. Well, I will put that in the show notes and on our sponsor page so people can get the discount code and go link right to your website. It'll be fantastic.

Aidan Mehigan:
Amazing. Thank you.

Kerry Moynahan:
All right. Well, thank you so much for taking time out and good luck with everything. And I hope to see you in Los Angeles stores real soon.

Aidan Mehigan:
Definitely. Thank you, Kerry. Have a great day.

Kerry Moynahan:
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Chef Louise Leonard:
This is home to me. It's lovely. Like I don't necessarily drink as many single malts from Scotland very often. I don't. We'll be changing that in the near future. Yes, we will. I cannot wait. I'm just being very open with how I have consumed whiskey, which is why this is a fun adventure.

Kerry Moynahan:
It is a fun adventure. Now let's consume this whiskey. Classic. It's classic and it's light. It's got that whole light, light balance, which I love about Irish whiskey because it's triple distilled. So you've got it's and you know what for 40% This is, it doesn't even feel like that.

Chef Louise Leonard:
Like it's. Okay. It feels like water, but water tastes like whiskey.

Kerry Moynahan:
Exactly. Which is so dangerous. Exactly. And then what, what would you do with this? Would you pair it with something?

Chef Louise Leonard:
Okay. I'm going to get cheeky here. I can't help myself. There's, I know it's a toad, but. I want to make frog's legs. Oh boy. Flambéed. Flambéed frog's legs.

Kerry Moynahan:
Okay, so every... They're not going to be happy about this because the toad is a big deal. Okay.

Chef Louise Leonard:
But make sure it's a frog, not a toad. All I'm saying is I would like to make some sautéed frog's legs. All right. You dredge them. Not this toad. Not this toad. So here's the thing with frog's legs. They when people say, oh, it tastes like chicken, like, oh, have you ever had alligator tastes like chicken? Have you ever had this? It tastes like chicken. Alligator does not taste like frogs legs. 100% actually do taste like chicken. I think it's white meat. It's lean.

Kerry Moynahan:
And let me ask one because I've never had frog legs when they serve it. Can you tell it's a frog leg? Or do they like skin it and stuff and make it look like just some meat on the bone or use you have?

Chef Louise Leonard:
No, it's, it's generally the lower half. So When I think of frog's legs, I think of either a classic French preparation or I think of a Asian, like Southeast Asian preparation, which I've had a handful of times too. So with this particular whiskey, I'm leaning more French, which is essentially you get some frog's legs. You can buy them frozen at a lot of supermarkets pretty much around the country. Um, you know, if you live in the South, if you live in Louisiana, of course the deep South, like y'all know what to do with them. But if you live in a place where maybe you don't have an Asian market where you can't find them frozen or you can't get them fresh, um, you might have to special order them. But. For me, I'm going to just dredge them in a little bit of flour. I'm going to pan fry them and I'm going to use this whiskey to flambe. After I pan fry them, I'm going to add some capers. I'm going to add some lemon, a whole bunch of dill, a whole bunch of cilantro, a whole bunch of chilies, a whole bunch of parsley, like all the aromatics and all of the um you know, just chilies and scallions and everything, but a lot of acid and just add that to the pan and dump it over the top of them. And there there you have it. I think that that's for me what this whiskey would go like really, really well. I don't know. I think the Irish style of eating with kind of just like the salt from the sea and everything like Like frog legs are, you know, they lend well to salty preparations and this would be one of them.

Kerry Moynahan:
But as long as we don't use the natterjack toad, we're good. So don't use the natterjack toad. How come there's no, do we not eat any other part of the frog? It's only the legs. It's kind of all what's on top. But what about the front legs?

Chef Louise Leonard:
They're just big. There's nothing there. All of their muscle exists in their lower body. Their jumpers.

Kerry Moynahan:
But how many legs would one have to eat to actually be a full meal?

Chef Louise Leonard:
They're like, each frog leg is like, you know, like a chicken wing. That much meat? Really? Yeah.

Kerry Moynahan:
Wow. Well, I would like to try frog legs, and I really would only like to try them if you have made it. Definitely do not want to use the Natterjack toad, of course. But this is an amazing Irish whiskey. I really like it. And I'm so glad that I've been able to try that with you. So solange va. Cheers. Until next time. Next time on World of Wheezy, we will talk about a new spirit. Well, likely whiskey. But until next time, we'll see you then.