Curated New Orleans whiskey tasting offered by Discoveries Distilled Discoveries is New Orleans’ premium whiskey tasting service. Offering both curated and bespoke educational whiskey tastings that will appeal to the novice and connoisseur alike, Distilled Discoveries meets you where you are, taking you on a deep dive into the world of whiskey. I interviewed Ryan Martin, Founder and Lead Taster of Distilled Discoveries, and talked to him about the art of curation, his personal whiskey journey, and what’s challenging and surprising about starting a new business. We even did some whiskey tasting. So, fill up a dram and enjoy the interview! To book a tasting, visit Distilled Discoveries. Mention me or this video when you schedule your tasting and get 20% off!
New Orleans Whiskey Tasting with Ryan Martin of Distilled Discoveries:
What is Distilled Discoveries, Ryan?
Well, Distilled Discoveries, Kayla, is a company I came up with recently that has origins back in the pandemic, and we’ll get to that in just a minute. But really it’s a company designed for providing curated and bespoke whiskey tastings to people. So I provide everything from the curated bourbon, rye, Scotch, Irish, and Japanese tastings, as well as curated tastings; and I also do blind tastings. The whole idea behind it is to make whiskey very approachable to people because it is a very elegant spirits and an aged spirit and so making it approachable and helping people find their perfect stare what they really liked with their palate.
Me: Okay that sounds awesome. I give curated food tours so it’s, for me, getting to know somebody talking to them a little bit, feeling into their personality, and then orchestrating and designing an experience specifically to satisfy what kind of experience they want to have. It’s really fun, and it’s kind of an intimate thing.
Absolutely, it’s incredibly intimate because while I have some select tastings that I’ve already put together for people that are not as familiar, I also open it up for you to create your tasting for yourself. So whether you’re having a corporate party or your whisky club or weddings, bachelor, bachelorette parties, whatever it may be, you can come to me and you can say “hey I really want something a little sweeter a little bit more spicy, or I really want to try something more craft, something not along the mainstream; or maybe you want to do a blind. I really love doing blind tastings as well because it takes that marketing out of the play, and you can just really go off your senses. So really it’s a way to create something very unique to your experience if you want to do a tasting, or you can do one of my curated offerings as well, coming from my palate, because I had a blessing to try hundreds of whiskies over my lifetime, and so I’ve kind of curated to try and get something that crossed the palate to give you a whole breadth of what these different offerings have.
So you do small in-home tastings and larger events like corporate parties. You mentioned bachelor parties, bachelorette parties and weddings.
Absolutely, yes I can do in-home events where I can actually travel to you, and bring all the glassware. It’s a hands free thing you just show up with your friends, and I’ll bring everything – including all the history, the culture, and the background of these distilleries and the different whiskies we offer. I also can do corporate events as well, weddings and bachelor/bachelorette parties – very big here in New Orleans. So pretty much whatever you want to do I can make it happen because I’m able to travel pretty well with the whiskey.
Me: I don’t even like drink whiskey and I’m excited. I want to try some, and just looking on the website I was like, “Oh this looks so fun; I want to do this!”
What inspired you to start doing this?
Well it’s kind of a two part thing, my whiskey journey began about eight years ago when I was clerking for a Judge in Lake Charles, Judge Jean Thibodeaux. It was at his Christmas party and I didn’t know much about whiskey then either. I had it obviously, in college and what not, but he told me, “It’s a special occasion, Ryan, go pick out some of the good stuff, and he pointed to a bottle up on a shelf, and it was bottle of Blanton’s single barrel. And, I knew Blanton’s was good but I didn’t really appreciate it. I had had it maybe once; I don’t even really remember before that. But we sat down and I had it, and then we slowly sipped it, and just the rich the flavors, the complexity of it was so magical. But what really stood out with me from that experience was the memories that he shared; the stories from Judge Thibodeaux, who’s one of my biggest mentors, and that was what really resonated me. I realized that whiskey not only has incredible, interesting history and culture, incredible flavor; but also, it’s the memories that you have with your friends in sharing a dram. That’s what really makes it special to me. And so that brings us to the pandemic. For the last eight years I’ve been trying whiskies, really building my rapport, researching distilleries, writing on whiskey and various drams and everything. When it came to the pandemic, I wanted to do something to help give back because we weren’t able to socialize, and so I started hosting virtual tastings, where I would send 2 oz samples of whiskey to friends and family around the country. People would get together on Zoom and I would host tastings, and it was really a great bonding and cultural experience. We really got to have that connection that we’ve been missing for a year, and I decided you know what this really brings people together; it’s a fun way, and it brings us back to that memory of Judge Thibodeaux which is the memories you share are more important than what you’re drinking. So that experience is what I wanted to bring to people and Distilled Discoveries.
Me: I love that. Yeah, for me during the pandemic I was really missing the opportunity to break bread with people, and share food and drink with people. Because I also enjoy the social atmosphere and the conversation that comes out of sitting at a table with someone. So what a lovely way to bring that thing that we were all missing and not really able to experience in the way that we were used to, to your friends or family.
Ryan: Yeah, absolutely. It’s just a wonderful way to get together and what I really love is that people like yourself and come in as Oh I really don’t like whiskey, or they’ve had a couple experiences with it back in the day or shooting at bars and whenever and didn’t like it. And what’s unique is once they really see that there’s such a complex wide breadth of different types of whiskey flavors, even in each expression will be it bourbon, rye, Irish, Scotch, what have you; they realize like, oh wow, I really do like certain expressions and I really couldn learn to join us and help building your palate. Similar to wine as well. But then you also have that bonding experience and it’s a great experience and fun thing to do. That’s a little bit different than your everyday going out to bars now that were backed out of the pandemic.
Me: I think it sounds so fun.
So you had your first DRAM of the good stuff with the judge who you refer to as your mentor. What do you feel is the biggest life lesson that he taught you in the course of your relationship with him?
I consider Judge Thibodeaux to be a second father; he took me under his wing. After law school and I started my real career which is another thing I do. Yhis is one of my more entrepreneurial adventures on top of my law practice. He really just taught me to enjoy life to the fullest. Don’t let Don’t work too hard, you got to work hard and play hard is what he taught me. Which seems a little trite at first, but when you really think about it we get so consumed with so many things in our lives. That really what he was saying is you got to take a step back, you got to enjoy the good things, as well as push yourself to be the best you can be. You can only be the best you can be when you have balance, and so that’s really what he taught me.
Me: Yeah, I love that. I know I’m constantly working on finding the right work life balance. You know, being in real estate, it’s hard sometimes. Because you’re serving people and you want to be available for them, but you also have to have your self care. Wise words there from Judge Thibodeaux.
So you just started this endeavor, have there been any big surprises that you didn’t expect?
I would say the biggest surprise that I have discovered is, I didn’t know if it would really take off. I really was like, “Okay I’m just going to try this out to get some thing for people to do.” I’ve hosted like very informal tastings at my house with my collection with friends when they come over, but nothing where I was doing something more curated and orchestrated. Trying to do it online was kind of intimidating, the first time as well; and then, I remember the first few times I had people on say, “Oh I really don’t like whiskey and I was like, okay well, this is gonna be a hard sell. And so from there though, what really surprised me was that just letting the experience take hold and just letting it happen and realizing that people can discover stuff. Okay, Distilled Discoveries. They can discover what they really like and kind of changing those perceptions. Which I was surprised by. I was thinking I might only get connoisseurs – people who like whiskey. Whereas really people from all walks of life – people who drink clear spirits like vodks, gins – also learn to enjoy it, and hey I really want to try this at the bar next time. That’s really kind of cool and enjoyable and surprising and makes me feel like I gave something back.
Me: I love that. Yeah, I’m a white liquor person. I’m open minded, I’m open to you changing my mind at some point.
Ryan: I won’t hold that against you. We got some time to go, we’ll figure it out.
Me: Thank you. So so forgiving of me.
Any big challenges you’ve had so far?
The biggest challenge was trying to do it in the virtual format. Previous to pandemic, I was like I said friends and family; I would just pull out some glasses and it would be right there, and having that interaction face to face, really means a lot. Just like any sort of interaction. You being in real estate, you want to get in front of your clients want to talk to people face to face rather than just getting them on the phone. When you’re doing something as intimate as a tasting where you’re teaching people how to use their senses – how to use their nose to pick up the aromas or how to swirl the whiskey in your mouth, to be able to pick up the taste on the palate, and the finish. Those are things that are hard to translate across the line, on top of the labor being able to ship these all over and navigate the mail laws and what not. Luckily I’m a lawyer, and I was able to figure that out as well. But long story short, yeah the virtual tastings could be a challenge but they actually were really rewarding because people were able to hang out with their friends from all over the country. We weren’t limited to just being in the the greater New Orleans area.
Me: Yeah when you first said that you sent things in the mail I was like, ooh, I wonder what kind of limitations and rules and sort of things you had to navigate in order to be able to do that on the up and up.
So where do you see distil discoveries, a year from now?
Well, fingers crossed, as we come out of this pandemic, I really am looking at it to become one of the premier experiences to do it here in New Orleans. We have a rich whiskey history here in the city, even to the name of Bourbon itself. There are a lot of stories that the name of Bourbon whiskey, originated from Bourbon Street and the whiskey that was coming down the Mississippi River from Kentucky, down the Ohio and the Mississippi, being served on Bourbon Street. That’s how it got the name. I want that bourbon whiskey because of the French influence it was very similar to cognac and whatnot. So we have a rich whiskey history here, so I would like to have Distilled Discoveries become a premiere New Orleans experience where people, besides just going out to bars or whatnot, I can actually have a more intimate experience where I can come to them. Or we could be out in the park or anything, and really experience the spirit and learn a little bit more; and not only do it for events, but for private groups of friends as well.
Me: You know, when I’m giving tours, people often think that Bourbon Street got his name from bourbon whiskey, and I usually have to backtrack. Now I can add that there’s actually some suggestion that it’s the opposite.
Ryan: Absolutely
Me: Fascinating. See you’re teaching me good stuff already.
Ryan: Happy to help.
The most important question. What is your favorite whiskey?
That is a tough one, because so many expressions so many different flavor profiles, different types of grain, different distilleries, different maturation processes. I, my favorite expression in general, is bourbon, it’s what I really love. It’s what really began this whiskey journey. I mentioned Blanton’s earlier; it was kind of that first trigger. So Blanton’s always holds a special place in my heart, but my true favorite is a William LaRue Weller. It’s a part of the Buffalo Trace antique collection, out of Buffalo Trace distillery; and it is a between 12 to 15 year, depending on the year, limited release expression. Cast drink wheated whiskey; and it’s very beautiful, very elegant, really rich flavor. I always get it on my birthday. It’s very hard to find. It’s not one you can find, you gotta hunt for it. It’s very expensive on the secondary market, but if you can get a taste of the William LaRue Weller, it might very well change your life.
Me: So 12 to 15 years. Does that mean that it’s distilled for 12 to 15 years, or they only release it every 12 to 15 years?
It actually is released every year. When I say it’s 12 to 15 years – the distillation process is actually fairly short, they do that every single day and can distill down to the basics, what they call the white dog which is the clear distillate. from the grain. But it has aged in oak barrels for 12 to 15 years. In the older days before bourbon became as coveted as it today was more of the 15 year range, so it would sit in a barrel for 15 years to get that flavor. Now it’s more of a 12 year side but it’s still very, very, elegant.
Me: So much patience. I don’t know that I could, that I could do that. I like to cook; I like to make things; I like instant gratification, so to prepare something and then set it aside for 12 years. Sounds like it takes a lot of self discipline.
Ryan: Self discipline, and like, a lot of anxiety too. Because what a lot of people don’t realize is there’s a lot of this liquid that’s lost to evaporation. Some of these older barrels they have opened up and there’s been nothing. So they’ve been waiting 15 years to bottle it, because of how much is lost to evaporation just because of the aging. You got to kind of like, roll the dice a little bit it’s a tough industry because of that. But the end product is really a mastercraft and something to cherish because of that.