4: Ep. 4 - "My Favo(u)rite Irish Whiskey" with Kevin Dowling & Green Spot Irish Whiskey

As part of the "My Favo(u)rite Irish..." series, I finally got to chat with Kevin "Kildare Kev" Dowling about his favo(u)rite Irish Whiskey.

He loves Green Spot, and why wouldn't he, so we got to catch up, talk about his Irish & Mexican heritage, taste some Green Spot, and I got to spring a lovely surprise on him too!

Find out more about me and my Irish Whiskey work and watch the "My Favo(u)rite Irish..." Video series on YouTube here.

The "My Favo(u)rite Irish..." podcast is listed by Feedspot as one of the Top 5 Irish Whiskey Podcasts online: https://blog.feedspot.com/irish_whiskey_podcasts/

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
- Kevin Dowling,
Green Spot Irish Whiskeyfor My Favo(u)rite Irish.
(Irish music playing)
Fáilte ar ais,
Welcome back to the bar.
Finally, I have "KildareKev" at the bar with me.

(00:24):
I've been wanting to getyou here for months, Kevin.
And here we are with, oh, here it is.
Out it comes.
You're going to cover your Dublin Blue
with your Lilywhite shirt.
- That's right.
This is vintage.
This is from a ways back.
But, yeah, the Kildare.
- So we've got you at the bar.
We've got what, half a bottleof your favorite Irish.
- That's right.

(00:44):
- And we're going to have a chat.
- Sure.
- Thanks for taking thetime to come to the bar.
So, Kevin Dowling,obviously very Irish name.
But, you're probably theleast Irish looking person
that we've had on My Favo(u)rite Irish.
So, where's the ancestry?
- Yeah, I get the,
you don't look like aKevin Dowling, a lot.
So, my dad is from KildareMonasterevin, Kildare.

(01:04):
And then my mother'sMexican, Mexican-American.
So, there's six of us in the family.
- So, going to guess a littlebit of Catholicism in there?
- Well I, Yeah, the Irish catholics.
It's actually not that uncommon a mix.
The Irish Mexican mix isn't that uncommon.
There's six of us in our family
and three came out morewhite, more Irish looking,
and then three came outdarker, more Mexican looking.

(01:26):
I was one of the darker ones.
So, you got the, what couldbe referred to as, you know,
looking like the Black Irish.
- That's right, the Black Irish.
That's what it is...
- And I know your brotherMike, back in 2012.
- That's right.
- That's a long time ago now.
He came to our TEDxNapaValley event here.
And he's definitely got theIrish genes in the family.
- Yeah, so, he's lighter with brown hair,
but him and my brother Shane, the saying,

(01:48):
they'll get a red whisker,like in their eyebrow,
or they'll get the red hair a little bit.
So, it comes out.
- And I've known you for,goodness, it's at least 10 years.
- At least 10 years. Well,I moved here in 2011.
I think I met you in myfirst few months here or so.
- Yeah, so, I rememberthe first time we met,
we had a coffee down at Oxbow.
- At the Oxbow, yeah.
- It was meant to be akind of a half hour coffee,
you know, get to know each other.

(02:09):
It didn't lead into likea five o'clock drink,
but, we were there for atleast a couple of hours.
- Couple hours.
I remember it led into rugby pretty quick.
Some pretty good soccerstories there, so, yeah.
Lost track of time on that one.
- Yeah, and then ever since then,
we have had an annual tradition
where we go for a pint at Christmas.
- That's right.
At least a pint, but yeah.
- Yeah, we've done itat all sorts of venues

(02:30):
here in town.
We started at, I kind ofgrimace when I say this now,
down at Bilco's downtown.
- Well I remember the firstone was at Bilco's, yeah.
- We've did it a numberof times at Hop Creek
just down the road.
- That's right.
- And then last year Ithink we went down to,
do we go down to one ofthe breweries downtown?
- It was, no, just outside the Oxbow.
I think it's the new Fieldwork.
- That's right.- Just outside the Oxbow.
Really nice place.
- Yeah, so, a tradition thatobviously we'll do again

(02:53):
this year.
- Sure.
- So, yeah, it's been funseeing your kids grow up.
You've seen my kids grow up.
It's hard to believe youreldest is now off in college.
- He's, yeah, he is in hisfirst year at college now.
- My eldest is apparentlygainfully employed.
(both laughing)
So, yeah, it's been, Iremember when I first met you,
neither of us had gray hair.

(03:13):
Now we both have gray hair.
- Geez, I don't know if itcomes out on camera or not,
but it's definitely there.
- And I have to say abig thank you to you for,
I remember a number of years back
I helped you and Maria move.
It was a sweltering day.
You moved from...
- That's right.
... moved from AltaHeights on the east side
over here to the west side.
Helped you move, and you, afew days later you arrived
with a thank you.
- That's right.

(03:34):
- It was a bottle of Jameson Black Barrel.
- That's right.- It was a big bottle.
So, long before I started this journey,
we were obviously on the whiskey front.
- That's right, yeah.
I figured that was a good gift to give
to another Irish, kind of help me move.
So, I hope you enjoyed it.
Looks like you've expandedyour collection quite a bit.
- Just a little.
- Just a little.
- So, yeah, it's been a fun few months
on the journey, obviously,
built the bar to accommodate all this

(03:54):
and slowly making my way through it.
So, back to your dad, Monasterevin.
- That's right.
- But, you're born and raisedhere in California, so...
- Berkeley, East Bay.
So, yeah, he came over,
my dad was the oldest of16, there in Monasterevin,
and which is on the far west of Kildare,
almost right on the border with Laois.

(04:16):
He came over as a priest.
It was right around thelate fifties, early sixties,
I think.
And he came over to Boston first,
and then I think he was in Minnesota,
and then ended up in Los Angeles,
where he left the priesthood,
and then met my mom down there.
And...
- So, did he leave thepriesthood before he met your mom
or did he meet your mom andthen leave the priesthood?
- I'm not sure of thesequence involved in that,

(04:36):
(heavy laughter from both)
but, that's another, fairly, since...
... I thought it was really unique.
But, I have a good friend whose dad,
similar story from Kerry,
came over from Kerry as a priest,
left the priesthood, andactually I've met another guy
since then, similar story.
- So, this kind of, youknow, go west young man.
- That's right.- Land of opportunity.
We're not just talking aboutmoney making opportunity.

(04:57):
Obviously, your dad fellin love with your mom.
And you know, here we are today.
- That's right.
He moved up to the Bay Area
where he liked the weathera bit better than LA
and that's where we settled.
- It reminds you a bitmore of the Emerald Isle.
- Yeah, exactly.
The fog, I think it's the fog, yeah.
- So, raised in the East Bay
and you've ended up here in Napa.
- That's right.

(05:18):
- And for work?
You and I both kind of are inand out of the wine business.
But, you're more in the winebusiness than I am, right now.
- That's right.
I work at wine companycalled Duckhorn Wine Company.
I've been there for aboutjust under six years now
in the Marketing Department,so, love it here in Napa.
- What do you do for them?
- So, I'm the Vice Presidentof Trade Marketing.
So, for those that don'tknow, in the wine industry,
you have to, there's anumber of different steps

(05:39):
you have to go through toget wine into the market.
And going through the trade,the distributor level,
and going through theretailer level's one.
So, I manage marketingfor that whole channel.
- Okay.
And the last couple of yearshave been through a pandemic.
How's it been?
- It's been really good actually.
We were fortunate enoughthat on the family side,
the boys were old enough, teenagers,

(06:00):
they could do the Zoom on their own.
My wife's a teacher, shecould teach on her own.
On the work side, we didreally well in pandemic.
People drank a ton ofwine during the pandemic.
(Andrew laughing)
Geez, we would've made more sparkling,
but, we could've made more sparkling wine.
We couldn't have kept it.
People were going through that like crazy.
But, we survived the pandemic really well.
Kind of came out reallystrong out of the pandemic,
both on the family andthe work front, So...

(06:20):
- And you're back to it now, I know,
because trying to squeezeyou into my schedule was,
because you're off around the country.
- Yeah, tomorrow I'm off to Phoenix,
then Utah after that.
After that, then KansasCity, and then Texas,
and then New York, rightaround Thanksgiving.
So, the next two months aregoing to be pretty travel heavy.
- I'm glad I got you before you...
- No, this is awesome.
Thank you for having me.

(06:42):
- Yeah, no so, and youmentioned your wife Maria.
She's Mexican.
- She's Mexican, yeah.
- So obviously there's somethingabout these Dowling men.
(laughs)
- Mexican...
- Well what's cool,
I don't know if you remember,
what's cool, Maria, shegets along with my family
in Ireland really well and my boys
are obviously really proudto be part Irish as well.

(07:03):
And they don't really like whenI make them watch the soccer,
we're not too good in soccer now.
So, they get pretty boredwith the soccer games.
But, if you remember thefirst time you came over
for St. Paddy's, shemade a potato enchilada.
- Enchiladas, I know.
- That's right.
And I never had those before,but they were really good.
And in fact she shows most,
because she works at a bilingual school,
most of her students are bilingual.
She'll show them DarbyO'Gill around St. Patricks.

(07:26):
That was a family tradition of ours
to watch Darby O'Gillaround St. Patrick's.
So, she's embraced it quitea bit, which is good, yeah.
- And then over the years you and I,
we've done a few things together.
We've obviously watched eachother's kids play sports.
And we've tried to playa bit of golf ourselves.
We went out down to Vallejo
for the Leprechaun Open this year.
- That's right, that's right.
- Yeah, I was proud tosay that team of four,

(07:46):
we came last.
- Did we come in last?
(both laughing)
- Yeah, great morning.
- I think we were honestwith the score though.
I'm not sure everybody else was honest
with the scoring though.
- You know, March obviously in Ireland
is a rough time to play golf.
It wasn't a great morning this year.
It was pretty chilly.
- It was pretty chilly.
I think it was drizzling alittle bit at the beginning.
- Yeah, by the time wecame through the turn
at about 10 o'clock, there wasdefinitely a Jameson's had.

(08:08):
- There was definitely a Jameson's had
by the turn.
- And, and then we've watcheda lot of sport over the years.
We've gotten up early in the morning
to watch soccer matchesand rugby matches and...
- That's right.
We were streaming the Lions tour,
two in the morning one time.
- From Australia.
- Yeah, from Australia, that was right.
That's when we've got a WorldCup next year from France,
which is going to be,which I think the kickoffs

(08:29):
will be not too bad for us.
- No, I think when it's in Europe
the kickoffs aren't too challenging.
Like the 6 nations, thekickoffs aren't too challenging
when it's in Europe, so that's good.
- So we could go offon a whole other video
about our prospects forthe World Cup next year,
but, we'll save that for another time.
So, I suppose we should probablytalk less and drink more.

(08:49):
We're here to talk aboutyour favorite Irish whiskey.
Which is Green Spot.
So, for folks who can't see it.
It's on the back of the bottle here.
It says the 27th of April.
So, I started my journey in March,
got in touch with you and saidI had this idea for videos,
and you said, well myfavorite's Green Spot.
- That's right, yeah.
Out I went, bought a bottle,tasted a little bit of it,
then got sick, got sick again,

(09:11):
and came back to it a few months later.
And I found from tastingit in April to July,
it was a completely different whiskey.
And I, my first impressionwasn't wowed by it, but I now am.
I now think it's a phenomenal whiskey.
You know, Redbreast is mygo-to is I think you know.
You're Redbreast too.
- You're right, yeah.
- So, yeah, when I said let'sdo some My Favo(u)rite Irish,

(09:34):
you said, well let's gowith some Green Spot.
So, let's give that a try.
So, it's funny, bothof us working in wine,
it's a different world tasting whiskey.
- You could taste the oakquite a bit more on the,
well you could taste it in wine too,
but when you go wine, wine,wine, wine than to whiskey,

(09:54):
the oak is much more prominenton the, at least for me.
- Yeah.
What I love about, we're not doing,
going to do a kind of a tasting game here,
but, I love the kind ofthe fresh fruit character.
- Sure, yeah. A little bitof citrus on there too, yeah.
- To me there's a lot of peopletalk about apples and pears

(10:18):
in Green Spot.
And there's definitely some of that there.
- There's definitely a bit, alittle Granny Smith in there,
a big green apple in there.
- There's not much you cansay apart from, about it,
apart from just a great, great whiskey.
I love it.
- It is, a tiny bit of spice on there,
like a nice little spice overtone to it.

(10:38):
But, yeah, that's a great whiskey, right.
- You talk in terms of beinga single pot still whiskey,
the spice character comesfrom the distillation.
So, that's where it comes from.
I remember when I tasted this,you know, a tasting note,
I kind of found clovesand black pepper in there.
Really, It's kind of, they're more headed
towards winter spice for me.
- It stays with you a bittoo after you've had it.

(10:59):
No, that's really nice.
- Lovely, lovely.
So, when you're sippingGreen Spot at home,
how do you drink it?
Neat?
- Neat.
- Well when it's, whenit's single pot still,
like high end like that,I like to drink it neat.
And just sip on it for a while.
I'll put a ice cube init from time to time.
Some of the other whiskeys as well,
to kind of cut it a littlebit, open up the flavors.

(11:20):
Tends to get a littlebit more fruity that way.
But, if it's like me and you
and we're just hanging outor just sipping it at home,
I'll drink it neat like this.
I like it that way.
- Yeah, and obviously we talked
about Green Spot and Redbreast.
Do you have any other bottles at home
that are go-to bottles, or?...
- Those would be the big two.
I've had Teelings there, whileago, tried Powers as well,

(11:41):
but, Green Spot and Redbreastwould be the big two, yeah.
- And it's, I don't dunno ifit's not a secret we can share,
but, this is $53 a bottle at Target.
- Sure, it's not that cheap yet.
- But, I've seen it in otherplaces for $65 and $70.
So, yeah.
But, often, Kev, around hereyou'll open a bottle of wine

(12:02):
that costs $40, $50,$60, and you sell wine.
- Yeah, it's not uncommon.
- $80, a $100, a hundredand something dollars
for a bottle of wine.
You're not going to drink abottle of whiskey in one sit,
well I would hope you'renot going to drink a bottle
of whiskey in one sitting.
So, it's going to last acouple of weeks, a month.
- The alcohol percent'sa little bit higher...
- Just a tiny bit.
...than wine.(mutual mirthful laughing)
- Just a touch.
- So, I'm going to drop in

(12:25):
just some five drops here or there.
Here, give you five drops, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Just a little bit of distilled water
just to see if it kind ofopens up the nose and...
Yeah, I find that
it's almost like there's moreberry character coming in now,

(12:47):
than apple.
- Yeah, that's quite a bit of fruit there.
It's definitely green fruit.
- And on the, well, hereI am jumping ahead of you.
And on the palate, I findthe spice has mellowed out.
And it's, you talk aboutbringing the fruit out

(13:07):
there a moment ago.
You're right.
Just the fruit's just, it'salmost singing out of the glass.
- Yeah, that's nice right there.
Yeah, that's smooth.
You're right, it does, thespiciness has a little,
it's like when you sip it neat,
there's a little cut to it,
a little bit of anaftertaste on the spice.
But, that mellows out really nice
when you cut it with the water.
- So, you and I, we chatted,we've chatted a lot,

(13:29):
about text, and chatted about this tasting
and I thought, we'regoing to do Green Spot,
and for a little treat for Kev, I'll open,
maybe we've got some here.
We've got Green Spot Montelena,
we've got Green Spot Leoville Barton.
I actually brought.
I was back in Ireland thererecently, got some Gold Spot,
but, I'm actually going to goone better and all of that.
And we've talked about yourMexican-Irish heritage.

(13:50):
So, you don't know this is coming.
So, there you go.
Right, hidden back here Kev.
You didn't see this one.
- I thought we were goingto go step up on Green Spot.
(both laughing with gusto)
- So, you've talked aboutyour Mexican Irish heritage.
And when you and I chattedon the phone during the week,
you mentioned that your brother Mike,
was considering getting a tattoo.

(14:12):
- Another one, yeah.
- So, Mike served in the Marine Corps.
- He was in Iraq, yeah.
- And Mike was going to geta tattoo of the Mexican...
- The San Patricio Brigade flag.
- Thank you.
- That's right, yeah.
That's the Irish, duringthe Mexican American War,
the Irish soldiers thatdefected from the US Army
to fight with the Mexicans.

(14:33):
- So, you told me that onthe phone during the week,
and I didn't say anything to you.
But, I actually have an Irish whiskey
that is finished in Tequila casks.
- And in honor of the Mexican, sorry,
the San Patricio Brigade.
- That's cool.
- Brought it back.- That's really cool.
- Yeah, I actually,

(14:53):
we've had some of theother J.J.Corry whiskeys.
Which are fabulous, and Iwas able to pick this up
when we were back recently,
and I thought, no better place to open it.
We've obviously had some already.
I thought, yeah, Kev's in the house.
- Let's honor...
- All right, nice, that's awesome.
Thank you Andrew.
Yeah, that's just somethingI'm going to send you home
on some of this as well.
- Oh geez.

(15:14):
- Yeah, I'll keep the bottlebut I'll decant some for you.
So, yeah, obviously, youknow, smaller bottle,
a limited edition from J.J.Corry,
at 900 bottles of this.
Obviously a very differentwhiskey to the Green Spot,
but, I just thought, but,I have a Mexican Irishman
in the house, so I need to crack that, so.
Yeah, very different whiskey isn't it?
- That is, that's a nice toast

(15:34):
- Sláinte.
- Yeah, Sláinte.
We didn't do a Sláinte
the first time.
- Right, we're catching up now.
Oh, wow, there's not asmuch like vanilla caramel
as you would've got onthat Green Spot there.
- Yeah, and obviously,we're we're comparing
chalk and cheese here,to a certain extent.

(15:56):
This is a beautiful singlepot still Irish whiskey.
And J.J.Corry "bond."
So, they actually buy inthe spirit agent in barrels.
And this is a blend of, Ihaven't even looked it up online.
So, single grain Irish, six year old
and matured in bourbon casks and finished
in the tequila cask
- No, this is really nice.
- So, I'm going toguess, to me tastes like
there's a nice sweetness right on the end,

(16:18):
and I'm going to guess thatcomes from the tequila casks.
- It must.
I don't know that much about
what the flavor from the tequila cask.
I don't know what would come off it,
but you definitely geta little sweetness here.
- Yeah.
I'm just waiting for you tosay, hey Andrew, what's next.
- Yeah.
Are there any other surprises?
I don't have any other ethnicities in me.

(16:39):
I don't know if there's
another combination supposed to happen.
- Well you know, because to the credit
of the distillers andblenders back in Ireland.
They're using all sortsof casks to finish it.
- And Irish whiskey's booming now,
like all over the world.
It's such a growing market right now.
So, you would see that experimentation now
and expanding out new directions.

(16:59):
- It's, it's great to see.
To their credit, they're making the most
of all the opportunities they have.
And now it's a greattime for Irish whiskey.
And obviously, you love your Green Spot.
I love my Redbreast.
But, there's a whole worldof discovery out there, so.
Right.
Well, we need to finish these off,

(17:19):
and do it when the world isn'twatching or listening to us.
So, we should...- That's Right.
Well, we have the World Cup coming up,
the soccer World Cup comingup here in a month or so,
so, maybe we'll...- Yeah, except though...
- We'll pick another team to follow.
(both laughing with gusto)
- And having just seen thedraw for the Euros next year,
I'm guessing that...
- I know, I think we gotFrance and the Netherlands.
Yeah, plus I think, was it Greece came out

(17:42):
of the fourth pot.
- Yeah, you're right.
Greece was the other one.
- So, apparently it's thecertified group of death.
- Although we get achance to get France back
for the Henri...
- Yeah, we'll see.
- We need to let that one go.
- Yeah, no kidding.
That was a while ago.
- Okay, great to have you here.
- Thank you Andrew.
- We've talked about it for ages,
so, great to finally have you.

(18:03):
So, we'd toast, Sláinte mhaith
and see you next time.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
Yeah, I could drink this all day.
- Oh, that's good.
Really nice.
- Yeah, so fun.
Let's see the...
- Oh, it's got theskull on and everything.
- Yeah, no, it's fantastic.
There you go.

(18:23):
Lovely surprise.
- That's really cool.
Thank you Andrew.
This was awesome.
- Yeah, you're very welcome.
Very welcome.
- Are we cut?
- [Crew Member 1] Four, Five.
- [Crew Member 2] If you ever do something
that you don't like, just pause.
- Yeah.
- [Crew Member 2] And do it again.
- Okay, Yeah.

(18:43):
- [Crew Member 3] Pause, anddo what I don't like again,
or pause and do gotcha.
- I gotcha.
- Thanks, Sandina.