December 9, 2022 • 41 mins
As part of the "My Favo(u)rite Irish..." series I got to chat with Toby Nolan, an Irish-born commercial photographer who lives in Central Oregon and we talked about Toby, his travels, and my goodness has he traveled, and of course, his Favo(u)rite Irish Whiskey, which is Redbreast!
See Toby's work HERE: https://www.TNolanImagery.com
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/
See Toby's work HERE: https://www.TNolanImagery.com
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/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
- Toby Nolan,
Redbreast 12 year old,for my favorite Irish.
(Irish music playing)
Fáilte ar ais, we'renormally sitting at a bar
but Toby, it's not a bar in here, is it?
- It's not quite, no, it has its moments,
(00:21):
but yeah, not usually.
- So, Toby Nolan, Irishmanin Central Oregon,
met you a number of yearsback when we were up here,
folks know that we love to travel here,
and met you at a brewery.
- [Toby] Indeed, Deschutes Brewery,
and I think we trieddoing the maths on it.
We think it was probably what, six?
- Yeah.
- Maybe seven years ago.
(00:41):
It's going back a little ways, yeah.
- So, I didn't realize at the time,
I thought you were a beer guy,
and I'm sure you are,
but you're obviously,you're a photographer.
- That's it, yeah.
So, always been a beer guy.
It's kind of in the DNA.
Always been a whiskeyguy, kind of in the DNA.
But yeah, I've been working asa full-time photographer now
for actually not long after we first met.
(01:03):
- Okay.- That's when I kind of,
started transitioninginto doing it part-time,
trying to get a business going
and then started going full-time with it.
But yeah, I mean, first picked up a camera
in school in Dublin.
We had the old dark room and everything.
That's where I kind of.
- So, you're old school on that front?
- Old School, yeah, yeah.
Even spent a very shortamount of time in Sallynoggin,
(01:26):
at the little college there.
- At the Tech, isn't it?
- Yeah.- Yes, yeah.
It didn't last long.
There were a little bitof a creative differences
between me and the person in charge.
But yeah, always wantedto be a photographer.
Never really followed itthrough until later in life.
And here I am now living the dream.
- Yeah, you're in afantastic fun studio space
that you have here in Bend.
(01:47):
And we'll talk aboutwhat got you here later.
But obviously, you're a fellow Dub,
born in Dún Laoghaire, was it?
- Dún Laoghaire area.
Yep, so, Dún Laoghaire,Dalkey kind of areas.
- Okay, so not too farfrom where I was raised.
- Yep.
- But you've traveledsince a very early age.
- I was born with itchy feet for sure.
(02:08):
So yeah, family relocatedfrom Dublin to Jersey.
Not New Jersey, Old Jersey,
when I was very young,
just over a year old.
And then I ended up moving back to Dublin
at about the age of 12.
I went to boarding school,finished up school,
worked for about 18 months,
(02:29):
actually worked in BlackRock for a while.
- Okay.
- Right opposite your school there.
- Where I went.
- Yeah, I was working as a car salesman,
first job out of school.
- Yeah.
- And before that I was in the BMW place,
just up the road there as well.
- Okay.
- So, but yeah, did that andthen kind of decided to travel,
and three-month roundtrip to Cape Town turned
(02:50):
into 2 1/2 years laterflying out of Nairobi, Kenya,
having kind of, hitchhiked my way
all through southern eastern Africa.
And then, that took me fromNairobi to Toronto, Canada.
Lived there for about a year.
- There isn't a directflight now between those two.
Is there? You probably haveto go back through Heathrow
- I'm trying to rememberwhich way I bounced around
(03:11):
to get there yeah, but it wasn't direct.
So yeah, lived in Canada for a bit
and then decided to go backto Dublin to, you know,
figure my life out and all the rest.
And about four months later Iwas on a plane to New Zealand,
supposed to go out there for about a year.
That turned into four and a half years.
(03:32):
And then, about a year ofbouncing around traveling,
and then, ended up on theeast coast in Pennsylvania.
Hacked about six months,
didn't really love it there.
So, drove from Pennsylvania to Alaska,
worked up there for a season
and then drove down to this area,
and I've been here ever since.
So, coming up on 10 years now.
- So, have you ever mappedout all those miles?
(03:54):
- I haven't.
I really should sit down.
I remember, I think it wasactually potentially one
of my parents that figured it out once.
But yeah, by the age of 21,
I'd been around the world four times.
- That's impressive.
- So, I've probably donea couple more since then.
- It's kind of in our Irish DNA,
this, you know, leaving.
You and I, we're a generation apart,
but we were part of the generations
(04:16):
that left the country.- Yes.
- And you've ended up here ina wonderful part of the world.
I live just south of here ina wonderful part of the world.
- Not too shabby down in Napa either.
- No, it's not.
But you know, I've beenlucky enough to travel.
I feel privileged to havetraveled through that time.
And I was encouraged bymy parents, you know,
raised in Dublin, but wouldoften go off traveling.
(04:38):
And obviously your parents raised you
with that same kind of, outlook.
- Yeah, we did family holidaysand things growing up,
and that's definitely whattaught me that, you know,
travel's exciting andinteresting, and worth doing.
And I have very supportiveand very patient parents.
- It helps.
- There's definitely beenmoments over the years
(04:59):
where they're like, you're not done yet?
You don't want to maybeslow down for a little bit?
But they've always seenthat I'm happy, you know,
seen that I'm providing for myself.
I'm not, you know, asking for handouts.
- The hand isn't out.
- Exactly, exactly.
So, you know, I think they realize
that I'm living my life theway that works best for me.
(05:20):
And I think they both on some level
are living vicariously through me as well
because they weren't able to,
they didn't have the same opportunities.
- Well, and also theease of travel nowadays,
you know, you and I can,
I'm not sure where you can go from here,
but living where we dodown to San Francisco,
and I'm back in Dublin in 11 hours.
- Yeah.
- Whereas generationsbefore us, once they left,
(05:42):
it was a one-way ticket.
- That's it, exactly.
- Very much on, you know,same is true of the Italians,
the Germans, etc.
And that was it.
Once they left, they left.
Whereas you and I go back.
- Yeah.
- I was just back and I'm notsure when you were back next.
- I was just back in June actually.
- Great.- Yes, so, not that long ago.
- Probably your firsttrip in a couple of years?
- That was the first, oh gosh,when did I go back before?
(06:04):
I think it was 2019.
I snuck in a quick trip before everything.
- There was a little pandemicin between then and now.
- Little hiccup along the way.
- Yeah.- Yeah.
So, you're here, folks know Ilove this part of the world.
You're here, there isn'ttoo many Irish folks here,
I'm guessing.
- No, we are few and far between.
I have met not many that live here.
(06:26):
Actually, you said one of the ways
that you were able to locate me again was
you saw my name in a magazineas a photo contributor.
- Yeah, Bend Magazine.
- And that same magazine,
I got a random email oneday through my work email
and it was a Irish womanliving in Bend who said,
I read your bio in Bend magazine,realized you were Irish,
(06:47):
can we get together and have a drink?
I haven't seen anyonefrom home in forever.
And that was right before the pandemic.
I should pick that back upnow and see where she's at.
But yeah, there's very few of us around.
- Here. Yeah, no, I'm going to guess
that in places like Portland,
there's probably asizeable Irish population.
- There's definitely alittle bit more, yeah.
- The climate is just like Ireland.
(07:09):
Pick a city in Ireland.- I know.
- You know, it's wet.- Yep.
- It's cold in the winter.- Yep.
- And there's a great quitepub culture in Portland as well
which is something thatwe have back there.
So, I suppose we should keep chatting,
but we should probably putsomething in our glass here.
- I agree with you on that, yeah.
- So, we should talk Whiskey.
(07:30):
- Yes.
- So, how did you come to whiskey?
Was it in the family?
- Yes, very much from my dad.
My dad is a man of great taste.
He loves whiskey, he loves wine.
He's developed a bit of a passion for rum
in more recent years as well.
So, he is been dabbling in that.
But yeah, my dad was the one
(07:51):
that introduced me to whiskey originally.
Of course, Jameson wasthe very first whiskey
that I ever had and is still today,
there's never not a bottle of Jameson
at my house or my dad's.
- Okay.
- Every time we gettogether that's our staple.
So yeah, he first introducedme to it and you know,
(08:12):
it didn't take the waybeer did originally for me.
And a lot of that was justdown to accessibility,
cost, that sort of a thing.
And also the people thatyou like to share it with.
Not as many of my friendswere whiskey drinkers,
you know, everybody wanted beer.
But as I got a little bitolder and I started saying,
(08:33):
well, maybe I don't needto share it, you know,
I can just have a littlecollection of bottles for myself.
And it was actually aprivate collection was,
- Let me give it to you.- Thank you.
A private collection went up for sale
and a friend of minecontacted me and said,
"Hey there's a bunchof Irish whiskeys here,
you should come check it out."
And that was the firsttime I found Redbreast 12.
(08:55):
So, believe it or not,
the first time I found Redbreast12 was in central Oregon.
(both laughing)
I made it this far.
- Sláinte.- Sláinte.
- It's old.
- Yeah, you say Jameson waskind of something you had
as you were growing up.
Redbreast 12 was whatbrought me back here.
It was my, I call it my gateway.
(09:17):
To this part of my life,
and I think you'vealluded to something there
that when you're younger,
you don't necessarily drink whiskey
in a kind of a sippingsense as I would say.
It's unfortunately kind of a shot thing.
People go to the bar, theyorder a shot of bitter.
- Or mixed Coke or Red Bullor something like that.
- Yeah,
I think, you know, from my journey,
(09:38):
you've got to be at a certainage or stage in your life
to actually appreciate it.
And you know,
the reality is a bottle ofRedbreast or Green Spot,
or any of these wonderful whiskeys,
they're not necessarily cheap to buy
to be drinking it every night.
- That's it, yeah.
- Yeah. So what is itabout this that you love?
- So there's a few things about Redbreast,
(09:59):
I'm a somewhat of a sentimental old fool.
And once I tried it andrealized I loved it,
I was talking of course to my dad,
first person I call, you know,
send him a photo of allthe bottles I got from
that private collection and everything.
And we're chatting back and forth,
and it was actually mymom in the background,
we were on a video chat,
she said, Redbreast 12?
(10:19):
I said, yeah.
She goes, that's thefamily whiskey right there.
- Family Whiskey.
- Of course I had to call them out,
I was like, well, where'sit been my whole life then,
Cause I don't remember getting offered it?
But yeah, I guess especiallyon my mother's side,
Redbreast 12 has been, you know,
the go-to for four generations now.
So I like the fact
that I sort of independently discovered it
(10:41):
and it's got this connectionto my family already.
But then also it's just,
I mean it's a bland wayto describe something,
but it's just such agood drinking Whiskey.
- Yeah.
- It's,
when I'm trying to convincefriends of mine around here
to try Irish, cause people here,
like they're bourbon understandable,
when you start talkingwhiskey they might say,
(11:02):
Oh, I've tried a couple scotches,
but I didn't really like it.
And like, well what about Irish Whiskey?
No, I've never really tried it.
And this is now, I usedto start them on Jameson.
This is now what I startpeople on and I've converted.
- That's a high bar starting them on this.
- Yeah.
Well, I think I said itto you on the phone once,
I like if I can get themhooked on Redbreast 12,
I know there's alwaysa bottle at their house
(11:22):
if I go over there.
(laughing)
It works in my favor too.
- Yeah, so we have your family
to thank for keeping theRedbreast lineage going
because the brand almost died.
You know, the modern iterationthat we see now is a,
(11:45):
generally it's a mash build,
so that's the, kind ofthe, the grain recipe.
50% malted, 50% unmalted barley.
- Yeah.
- Previous, in previousgenerations there was,
there was slight differences to that.
And also the distillation process,
so they talk about it being oily
and having a deeper spice character,
older Redbreasts.
- Okay.
- And older Redbreastsgo for a pretty penny.
(12:07):
- I'm sure.
- When they come to markets.
I am sure there are old houses,
country houses,
round Ireland, where there's bottles
of Redbreast knocking around in cellars,
or larders, or whatever,
and they're worth money nowadays.
- Yeah.
- So it's um...
so obviously this is your now, your go-to.
How would, we're, you know,we're here in your workspace.
(12:28):
I'm hoping there isn't toomuch of this drunk here.
(laughing)
- Not too much,
but on occasion we'll celebratethe end of a big project
or something.
- Good, and you'll toastto it with some, Irish.
- Exactly, yeah.
- When you're at home sipping this,
how do you sip your Whiskey?
Do you sip it like this?
- So my, 99% of the time,
(12:50):
it'll be,
a couple of drops of water in there.
On a rare occasion I might puta single large cube in there.
But again,
the longer I drink Whiskeyand the more I enjoy it,
I tend to strip that back toI'll start out with a sip neat.
Especially if it's somethingI haven't ever had before,
(13:10):
I haven't had a long time.
- Yeah.
- Just completely neat,
and then I'll just add a coupleof drops of water in there
to open it up and that'show I like to do it.
I don't like to mess around with mixers,
and I've had plenty ofdisagreements with girlfriends
and things in the past when I come home
and find one of my nice whiskeys with a
chunk of Coca-Cola or something and I'm...
(13:33):
- Because they haven't paid for it.
You're the one who has paid for it.
Becuse my philosophy isif you've paid for it,
you can drink it however you want.
- Yes.
- So, yeah.
- And my philosophy is,
why would you add Coca-Cola
to a $80 or a $100 bottle of Whiskey,
when there's a bottleof Bulleit down there?
Which, Bulleit's fine,I don't mind Bulleit.
I have, I quite enjoy a bit of bourbon,
but I don't know why youwould choose a fine whiskey.
(13:57):
- Especially when you think of the amount
of crafting that's gone into it.
Time obviously blended of the end,
time in barrel,
the distillation,
and then gone all theway back to the farmer
who grew the the grains.
- Yeah.
- It's a it's a long old process.
- It is.
- And how can you trulyappreciate something
if you're masking the flavor, you know?
I think you need toexperience it in it's raw form
(14:19):
to start to learn howto appreciate whiskey.
- I agree with you.
It's a part of my journey as well is,
is kind of going backwards, you know,
five, six years ago would'vehad it over a big ice cube,
but now, we'll do that on occasion,
but more so the sipping,
and to your point, the water,
(14:39):
and we do have some water here
if we need to add a few drops in.
So, um.
- Redbreast is one of the few
that I find straight out of the bottle,
it's just good to go.
It's got that littlebit of sweetness to it,
which I think plays apart in why I've been able
to get friends of mine in theUS to learn to appreciate it.
(15:00):
I hate to compare apples and oranges,
they're not the same thing,
but some of the qualities of Redbreast
it's got that little spice to it,
but it's got that sortof sweet finish as well.
I think if somebody's usedto drinking American bourbon,
this is less of a shockingtransition for them, you know,
there's to me some crossoversbetween Redbreast 12
(15:23):
and some US bourbons as well.
So it's not like jumping straight into,
you know,
some really peaty, smokyscotch from one of the Islands
or something where people go,
"Oh, I tried scotch onceand it was horrible."
It's like, wow.
You know, you tried one type.
So, yeah.
- And I think that's helping
the Renaissance in Irishwhiskey, is the style,
it is more approachable.
- Yes.
(15:44):
- Your, as you say sweetness,that sweet character,
which comes from the various components,
comes from distillation,
comes from,
comes from the barrels.
But it's definitely whatgets a lot of people hooked.
So yeah, it's a, it's no...
- But I'm certainly not shyof a peaty, smoky scotch too,
for I often have a Laphroaig or something.
(16:06):
- Okay, because Oban orO-ban is my favorite.
- Dad's a fan of that one too.- Yeah.
- I've had it on occasion,
but there's something about the Laphroaig
that just sits well with me.
- Okay.
- Again, it could be a sentimental thing.
I've got some good memoriesover the years with that too.
- So you're here, you live here,
and obviously we're inBend here in your studio,
(16:27):
but you moved to Sisters.
- Correct, yeah.
- Smaller town to thenorthwest of us there.
- Yeah.
- But this is essentially home now
and has been for a number of years.
So, I'm going to ask you
to turn into the DeschutesCounty Tourism Board
for a couple of minutes for us.
So, favorite places to go fora good cocktail, where would?
(16:47):
- Good cocktail, so ifwe briefly step outside
of Central Oregon,
I would say actually myfavorite place in the state,
probably to go for a cocktailor just a good drink,
is a place called Huber's in Portland.
I'm not sure if you've been there.
- No.
- But it's, it's theoldest bar in Portland.
Just incredible atmosphere,these beautiful big kind of
(17:08):
bolted curve ceilings and everything.
Real characters working behind the bar,
and really good at what they do.
So if I'm ever in Portland,
Huber's is an absolute go-to.
But around here inCentral Oregon, you know,
we've got The Stihl Whiskeybar in Downtown Bend,
that's got a great selection.
It's busy, it's popular.
(17:28):
The tricky part can sometimes be
just physically getting in there.
It's often very busy,
But Stihl's a great spot.
There's a restaurant inSisters called Chops,
which is sort of a finedining style restaurant,
but they've got a couple ofgreat bartenders out there.
A fellow, Joe, in particular is.
- You're obviously a regular there?
- We, we spend time there, yeah.
(17:50):
Sisters is a small enoughtown that if you're,
as we were chattingabout off camera before,
you know, the Irish arenaturally chatty people,
we'll kind of walk up to anybody
and strike up a conversation.
So, you put a personality like ours
in a small town like Sisters,
most people know who youare after a few months.
- And, folks who don't know,
Sisters' famed for it's quilting.
(18:13):
It's where the annualgathering of the quilters...
- It's a big quilt show, yes.
Which is one of the more unique
and slightly bizarre gatheringsI've ever witnessed before.
I had no idea there wassuch a cult behind quilting.
But yeah, I mean it's chaos,
to the point where a lotof people who live there,
we get out of town when it's happening.
(18:34):
We just say,
you know, we'll leave'em to it for the weekend
because it's just tens ofthousands of people are showing up.
And some of these quiltsare going for five,
10 plus thousand dollars.
I mean serious.
- And Sisters is a populationof, correct me if I'm wrong,
like five to 8,000somewhere like that, is it?
- You know, I'd be shockedif it's even that much.
Sisters proper, I wouldguess is three to four.
(18:54):
Somebody's going to callme out in the comments,
I'm sure of it.
- And 10,000 visitors come in for this?
- Yeah,
I'd actually have to checkexactly what visitor numbers are,
but I mean, town turns into gridlock.
- Wow.
- You know.
Like to the point where,
I live about two miles outside of Sisters,
just north of town,
and the quickest way for me to get to Bend
(19:15):
is to drive into Sisters and down.
During the quilt show I'lladd 15 miles to my journey
just to avoid trying todrive through that area
cause it's bumper to bumper gridlock.
- With the quilters?
- Oh, the quilters, yeah.
Yeah, they're a rare breed.
(both laughing)
So, and then on the otherend of the spectrum,
we're famous for theSisters Rodeo as well.
(19:36):
- Oh, I didn't know that.
- Which is a whole different crowd.
- I can imagine.
- Yeah.
The sister's rodeo is, it's an incredibly,
especially as somebody who's not,
I didn't grow up in the US,
I didn't grow up in that environment,
you know, so to go thereand you know, it's,
I think it's three or fourdays, the actual rodeo,
(19:57):
but it's basically for a whole week,
Sisters just goes into ahuge party for a whole week.
Live music at every bar,
late nights all over the place,
locals nights going on.
You've got all these rodeo cowboys,
- Cowgirls.
And cowgirls, and it'sterminology I learned this year,
Buckle bunnies.
(laughing)
(20:18):
So it's.
- Is that somethingthat's in between a cowboy
and a cowgirl?
Is it?
- They do,
I think that's what theycall the barrel racer girls.
So they do that reallyincredible high speed on a horse
around the end of a barrel and back up.
But that's my naiveunderstanding of what that is.
- Hey, you know, justput on the Irish accent
and you can get away with anything.
(20:40):
- That's it.
So, but yeah, Sisters is a great spot.
I was seven or so years in Bend,
which has now got apopulation of over 100,000.
- Yeah.
- And even in the time I was here, it's,
it's just grown exponentially.
I mean as you guys come up here,
you know why it's appealing.
Amazing outdoor activities,
(21:02):
a four seasons town.
You got great skiing andsnowboarding in the winter.
You've got every type of summeractivity you could imagine.
Lakes, rivers, mountains,
more and more industry andbusiness starting up here too.
- Yeah, no, definitely.
One of the things Ilove about coming here,
a number of things, but one of them is
the support that it giveskind of entrepreneurship,
(21:25):
mentorship,
there's definitely a "can-do" attitude
in this part of the world,
which I love.
You know, you and I have ourown businesses, so, you know,
I love seeing that, thatit's very supportive.
But back on the kindof the advice kind of,
favorite places to go for awalk or a hike around here?
And it could be a long list.
(21:46):
- It could be a long list.
So yeah, it's,
and it's interesting, it'sgetting a little tricky now.
We're so popular,
they've had to bringin a permit system here
for some of the really busy hiking trails.
You actually have to pre-purchasea permit to be able to go,
and it's limited on certain days.
Some of my favorites canbe hard to get onto now,
but you know,
(22:06):
one of the most famous onesis the Green Lakes Trail,
which takes you, so the west of Bend,
you've got the Cascade Mountains,
Mount Bachelor, the Sisters,everything like that.
And the Green Lakes Trail isjust an incredible incline
trail that takes you up to thesebeautiful lakes at the base
of the mountains and everything like that.
South Sister, summiting SouthSister, I did that in 2020.
(22:28):
That was my first COVIDproject was Climb a Mountain.
- Okay.
- And it was a, it was a goodslog for me because I mean,
I keep active, but I'm not themost in-shape guy out there.
But, you know, it's a goodtrail if you're prepared.
It's achievable for anybody.
- Okay.
- And it's amazing.
It's a little over 10,000feet at the summit.
(22:49):
So you get up there andyou've just got these,
just mind blowing 360 degreeviews, looking at other peaks,
looking down at the lakes and everything.
It's incredible, so.
And then out in Sisters,
there's a number out there I like as well.
Tam McArthur Rim is abeautiful one out there.
It takes you up around threecreeks Lake and things.
(23:09):
And the Metolius river.
I'm a big fly fisherman,
have been a fly fishermanmost of my adult life.
- Okay.
- That's just a remarkable river.
- So I'm sure folks backin Ireland will eventually,
you know,
both see and hear this
and they'll hear you talkabout a 10,000 foot mountain
and they'll grim us because I think
(23:30):
Carrauntoohil down in county Kerry,
I think weighs in at,
and I'm sure I'll becorrected in the comments,
but about 3300 - 3400 feet.
We are here in Bend.
We are,
I think the center of Bendis measured at like 3849ft,
something like that.
- Yeah.
- So here we are,
where we are sitting,
and we are higher than anypoint on the island of Ireland.
(23:52):
- Absolutely.
- I always struggle when Icome up here the first night.
- Oh.
- With the, with that,
with just going from groundsea level up to here.
- Yeah.
- But here we are in thesecond night and you know,
we're good.
- You're in, you're in shape.
- So do you find when you goto sea level that you know,
because you're living atelevation, that you are,
(24:13):
you're able to go longer,you have more stamina?
Is that never, you everreally thought about it?
- It's a good question actually.
I, in my younger yearsI was much more aware
of that sort of thing.
I was incredibly active.
I worked as an outdoorguide for over a decade,
all around the world, ataltitude to sea level.
Everything from kayaking,
to glacier climbing,
(24:35):
to rafting,
fishing, I mean, you name it.
And I certainly noticedback then that yeah,
I had more stamina more,
nowadays, you know,
I do most of my activity around here
and when I go to thecoast, I'm on holiday.
I'm not really working toohard when I'm out there.
- Makes, you know, makes a lot of sense.
(24:56):
- But I do love getting tothe, the Oregon coast though.
It's so beautiful.
- Yeah, we're like that,
where we are living in a lovely place,
but it's, for us,
it's an hour and a halfdrive out to the coast
and it's just, I think itkind of recharges the soul.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
And obviously both of usbeing from relatively close
to the coast in Dublin, I certainly know,
although I loved in my youth,
(25:18):
hiking through the Wicklow mountains,
and kayaking and canoeing down there,
but getting out to the coast in,
whether it's Dublin or Wicklow,
is always something torecharge the batteries.
- Absolutely.
- So we touched on the pandemicthere a few minutes ago.
When I got in touch with you,
finally tracked you down online
and we chatted about various things.
One of them was where we went to school.
(25:38):
So you went to St. Columba's College,
I went to BlackRock College.
They were big rivals incross country and rugby.
I know, because you know,
you and I, we're not thebiggest guys in the world.
- No, no.
- So I stopped rugby at 13.
Did cross country.
We used to go out to St.Columba's every year.
It was one of the most enjoyable
but most horrific crosscountry races we would run.
It was proper cross country.
(25:59):
- That's a gnarly area out there, yeah.
- But you told me a great story
about how when you were there,
you actually got away fromrugby and you got into golf.
- Indeed, yeah.
So like most kids at, youknow, over there is rugby,
little bit of hockey, maybesome football, real football,
that sort of a thing.
(26:19):
And then, yeah.
There was a golf course that actually,
I can never remember if itwas on the school property
or it shared a border with it,but there it was right there.
I mean it was walkable from the dorm rooms
and there was an agreement
that students could playthe course for free.
So for various reasons, you know,
stepping away from sports thatI wasn't really built for,
(26:41):
I picked up a golf club,
started playing golf andgot really, really into it.
Myself and a small group of buddies
all started playing together.
I actually ended up starting
the first golf team for St. Columba's.
And my last year there waswhen that was going on,
and started playing againstsome of the other schools around
and things like that.
And I developed anabsolute passion for it,
(27:02):
but I mean, to be honest,
one of the contributingfactors is we realize,
my friends and I, that golf wasthe only unsupervised sport.
So while everyone else wasplaying football and rugby
and things with teachers,we'd be on the golf course.
Not that we were gettingup to too much mischief,
but you know, it was, whenyou're in boarding school,
(27:23):
you live there, you sleepthere, you eat there,
you go to class there,you never get a break.
So any opportunity to feellike you have some freedom.
- A bit of freedom, yeah.
- Some control.
So that was kind of thecontributing factor. But yeah,
we all got really into it and yeah.
- And then obviously you'vetalked about all your travels,
you can't cart golf clubsaround that with you.
(27:44):
- No.
- But like a lot of people,
you came back to golf in the pandemic.
- Yeah, thank you COVID.
- You know,
and there's definitely somesilver linings for all of us.
And here, you know, this ontop of being a great beer town,
a decent food town, anincredible place for outdoors.
This is a great place for golf.
(28:04):
- Phenomenal golf area.
Just huge amount of courses
for every budget and skill level.
I mean you can playeverything from, you know,
when I first started playingagain when COVID hit,
The Old Back Nine,
Which is just on the southside of Bend, at the time,
I think it was $22 for a round of nine.
(28:26):
And I had the first tee slot, you know,
every time I went out firsttees slot in the morning.
And then once I kindof realized like, okay,
I haven't completely lost my game,
like I can show my face in public,
I started playing someother courses again.
And now that I live in Sisters,
I just actually in the last two weeks,
have played twice out there
at a course called Aspen Lakes.
(28:47):
- Okay.
- Phenomenal course as well.
Beautiful, long, oh my gosh,
I walked it the first time and
- And regretted it?
- I was knackered by the end of it.
Absolutely.
And I only walked nine,
but it was nine long, long holes.
But it's a unique one too.
You've got this red lava rock around here.
- Yeah.
(29:07):
The cinder rock.
And in the winter we don't grit,
we don't salt the roads here,
even though we get a lot of snow and ice,
they just throw that cinder rock on it.
Aspen uses that in their bunkers.
So it's not white sand bunkers,
it's this finely dusted up red.
- Wow, really?
- Red.
So it's a really,
I mean you've got, you know, the greens,
- Yeah.
- Of the fairway,
(29:28):
and the green and theroof and everything and
then these kind of volcanicred bunkers and yeah.
- Fascinating.
- Yeah, fascinating.
Not great for the,
- Not good for your clubs.
- underside of your club.
- I was thinking that.
And I know folks won't know,
but weather has changed here this week.
Last week before we traveledup, when you and I spoke,
we were looking at up here,
it was mid to high 70's or so,
(29:48):
and we're definitely alittle cooler than that.
So we didn't pack our clubs this week.
But I look forward toperhaps in the spring
or early summer when we're up again,
we'll connect on,
I don't know if you're an evening golfer
or a weekend golfer,
but we'll definitely get nine holes in.
- One of the beauties of self-employment
is you have some controlover your schedule.
- Don't give away our secrets.
(30:10):
So also when we spoke Toby,
you and I both share alove of Redbreast 12.
It's my favorite.
- Yeah.
- We always have a bottle in the house,
but over the last number ofmonths I've slowly grown my,
I don't, I hate the word collection
because I don't collect whiskey,
I buy it to drink it, and share it.
- Yeah.
- So we, we've got anumber of them at home,
(30:31):
but one of them I picked upwas the, the Cask Strength.
Now you and I talkedabout this on the phone.
- Yes.
- I said I was going to bringup a little treat for you
and this is it.
So we'll pour some in here.
I haven't had any of it yet.
Weighs in at 56.3 alcohol.
So 112.6 proof.
(30:51):
- So this will be yourfirst time ever with it.
- Oh, that's exciting.
- You know, I've pulled thetop on it, but still filled.
- Yeah.
- As I said, love sharing whiskey.
I wanted to share withsomebody who loves Redbreast.
So let's pour a little drop of this.
- Absolutely.
- We may, we may put a little bit of a,
we may put a little bit of.
I want to just put asmaller amount in there.
(31:14):
It's been interesting to watch,
Redbreast expand.
I jokingly what some people call it the,
you know, the Nest,the Robin Redbreast is,
you know, the Nest is getting bigger.
It's obviously a successfulbrand now here in the States.
So there it is at Cask Strength
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
(31:35):
So Sláinte again.
- Sláinte again.
It's immediately verydifferent on the nose.
- Yeah.
Obviously we've just poured it so,
to me it's not as,
it's not as evidently sweet.
(31:56):
- That was the first thing,
yeah, not nearly as sweetcoming straight off there.
But it's got a little bitmore of, I don't know,
it's a long shot,
more of a kind of a green appley kind of,
- Yeah
- Or something to it.
- Which is, which I knowwe talked about Green Spot
on the phone as well.
There's definitely,
green apple always comes through on that.
So that's kind of a,
(32:16):
that's a classic pot stillcharacter that the apple,
and occasionally it goesover into pear as well.
So yeah, it's not often I put myself
or someone else on the spotby literally opening it
for the first time whilewe're, while we're recording.
But, what the hell.
(32:39):
- There's something else on there
and I cannot put my finger on it.
- Big mouthful of spice for me.
- That's a lot hotter.
Yeah.
That one caught me off guard actually.
- Yeah, it's a, we'restepping it up a few percent.
(33:03):
So let's...
- So yeah,
it's definitely not nearlyas sweet on the finish is it?
- Let me, if you want,
I'm going to just poura few drops in there.
- Yep.
- There you go.
- See and that's againwhat I love about the 12.
You don't get that initial, hit.
(33:25):
- Yeah.
- Exactly.
- Yeah.
What's interesting about.
- That brings out the sweetness more now.
- Yeah, agree.
Just those few little drops,you're still drinking it at a,
you know, decent proof.
What I love about Cask Strength whiskey is
it gives the consumer thechoice as to where they want it.
(33:46):
- Yeah.
- So if they want todilute it down a little,
so it's in the mid fortiesor lower than that,
they can,
but it can be,
it can be too much for.
- Yeah, I like,
I mean, initial instincts aretelling me just is to sit down
and have a glass.
I would still reach for the 12 first
- Yeah.
- Myself.
(34:08):
But this might grow on me.
I need to give it a minute.
It actually, again it's, wekeep mentioning Green Spot,
there's, I get little kind of hints
of Green Spot off it in some ways as well.
- It's interesting, back in 2019,
my folks came out forChristmas and they asked,
they were coming throughDuty Free in Dublin,
(34:29):
and I asked could they pickup a bottle of Redbreast 15?
I don't think we couldget it here at the time.
So they brought it,
all excited to open it upand we opened it up and went,
That's different from Redbreast 12.
And I think,
I don't know if our palate hadbecome conditioned to that.
(34:52):
I've had it since and Idefinitely enjoy it more,
but it's a different whiskey.
- Yeah.
- To me.
So...
So I think we might stop recording
and we'll just keep sippingon this and see how it goes.
So one last thing before we wrap up.
(35:13):
When we chatted, you told mea great story about your dad,
kind of, your dad, whiskey andsome music back in the day.
And I think we should put that on record.
- Okay, yeah.
That ties back to my firstever experience with whiskey.
And from memory, I was 14 years old.
(35:33):
My dad is a very responsible person,
he does not feed alcohol to minors.
This was very much a father,son bonding experience.
But yeah, I was about 14 years old,
my dad had a little homeoffice and he had, you know,
the leather chair with the receipt
of buttons and everything in it, you know,
and it was always this kindof mythical place as a child,
you know?
What's that room dad always goes into
that were not really supposed to be in.
(35:55):
And he called me in there one day,
closed the door and walked over,
and pulled out a bottle of Jameson,
good old, off the shelf, regular Jameson.
And he poured me a little glass of it,
and he took me over to thearmchair in the corner,
and he said, sit there,
hold that, don't do anything yet.
So, oh yes dad.
(36:16):
And he walked over andhe had the old, you know,
this was long enough ago thatit was the old hi-fi system,
you know, with the CDchanger and everything.
And he walked over andhe was messing with that
and he teed up a song,which I had never heard
and never even heard ofthe band at the time.
But he got it all ready andhe turned to me and said,
Right, sit there, drinkthat, listen to this.
(36:36):
I'll be back in a minute.
And he hit play and walked out.
And it was Money by Pink Floyd.
- Okay.
- And he had it turned way up,
which was interesting causehe's a fairly conservative guy.
He's not a big noise maker or anything.
And I yeah,
sat there in that armchairsipping on my first ever whiskey,
which was Jameson,
listening to my first ever PinkFloyd song, which was Money.
(36:58):
And that experience will stay with me
for the rest of my life.
And it was an interestingone cause my dad, again,
he's a very loving man.
He's a great father.
But he was always, you know,
he's of that generation
where he's a little bit more reserved,
and you know,
doesn't really wear hisemotions on his sleeve.
So I remember thinkinglike, what's wrong with dad?
Why is he doing that?
And you know,
(37:18):
and I look back now and Irealize that that was just an,
I think for him more so than me,
an important bonding opportunity,
to share a couple of hisfavorite things with me.
- With you.
- Yeah.
And here I am now, you know,
whiskey is a sharedpassion of my dad and I.
Every time we go home,
I'm bringing a bottle,or he's got a bottle,
and he's got something he's held for me.
(37:40):
And you know,
when I was working at Deschute's,
we would do all those barrel-aged beers,
with these really rare, you know,
low quantity beers
that have been aged in bourbon
or aged in this, that and the rest.
And I was constantly sending them home
for my dad and my brother and you know,
he's still hanging on to some of those.
So when I come home,
(38:00):
cause he knows that, you know, I'm,
that's something we canshare together and bond over
and things like that.
- That's great.
That's, to me,
that's as we get older and you know,
haven't been throughwhat we've been through,
I certainly know from my point of view,
I value some things more now,
and family and friendshas really come to the top
(38:22):
of my list in that,
not that I didn't before.
- Yep.
- But it's become even more important.
And to have something like that,
to have it be, you know,
a dram or two or three or whatever it is.
And the nice thing iswe have Irish whiskeys
that are often onlyavailable here in the US.
- Yep.
- So you can bring back home
(38:42):
and then there are manydistilleries doing, you know,
Ireland only or DutyFree only whiskeys there.
So there isn't, it's notlike it's all the same stuff.
You can be sharing differentwhiskeys, which is fantastic.
- Exactly.
- Right, with that, we'll,
we should, we'll keep chatting,
- We'll keep chatting, yeah.
- We'll stop recording,
and we obviously got somenice whiskey to finish.
(39:03):
So I'll say Sláinte,thank you for your time.
- Oh, thank you so much for including me,
and tracking me downafter all these years.
This is impressive detective work.
- Well you know, Google helps.
- Yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
And Google, Irishman in Central Oregon,
there's not many results that pop up.
- And you having such a,such a wonderful website,
which we'll obviouslywill share in the video.
You do some lovely work.
(39:24):
- Thank you very much.
- I say that genuinely as somebody
who works in the digital marketing space.
It was fascinating.
I thought the most important,
not the most important,
but the most interestingone was a lot of food shots.
- Oh yeah, yeah.
- In my opinion some of thehardest photography to do.
- It can be a challenge.
- You've got some beautiful ones on there,
which, we'll, which we'll share out.
So with that, thanks again.
(39:46):
And we will
- Thank you so much.
See you next time everybody.
- Sláinte
- Sláinte, thank you.
- Toby Nolan,
Redbreast 12 year old,for my favorite Irish.
(Irish music playing)
Fáilte ar ais, we'renormally sitting at a bar
but Toby, it's not a bar in here, is it?
- It's not quite, no, it has its moments,
(00:21):
but yeah, not usually.
- So, Toby Nolan, Irishmanin Central Oregon,
met you a number of yearsback when we were up here,
folks know that we love to travel here,
and met you at a brewery.
- [Toby] Indeed, Deschutes Brewery,
and I think we trieddoing the maths on it.
We think it was probably what, six?
- Yeah.
- Maybe seven years ago.
(00:41):
It's going back a little ways, yeah.
- So, I didn't realize at the time,
I thought you were a beer guy,
and I'm sure you are,
but you're obviously,you're a photographer.
- That's it, yeah.
So, always been a beer guy.
It's kind of in the DNA.
Always been a whiskeyguy, kind of in the DNA.
But yeah, I've been working asa full-time photographer now
for actually not long after we first met.
(01:03):
- Okay.- That's when I kind of,
started transitioninginto doing it part-time,
trying to get a business going
and then started going full-time with it.
But yeah, I mean, first picked up a camera
in school in Dublin.
We had the old dark room and everything.
That's where I kind of.
- So, you're old school on that front?
- Old School, yeah, yeah.
Even spent a very shortamount of time in Sallynoggin,
(01:26):
at the little college there.
- At the Tech, isn't it?
- Yeah.- Yes, yeah.
It didn't last long.
There were a little bitof a creative differences
between me and the person in charge.
But yeah, always wantedto be a photographer.
Never really followed itthrough until later in life.
And here I am now living the dream.
- Yeah, you're in afantastic fun studio space
that you have here in Bend.
(01:47):
And we'll talk aboutwhat got you here later.
But obviously, you're a fellow Dub,
born in Dún Laoghaire, was it?
- Dún Laoghaire area.
Yep, so, Dún Laoghaire,Dalkey kind of areas.
- Okay, so not too farfrom where I was raised.
- Yep.
- But you've traveledsince a very early age.
- I was born with itchy feet for sure.
(02:08):
So yeah, family relocatedfrom Dublin to Jersey.
Not New Jersey, Old Jersey,
when I was very young,
just over a year old.
And then I ended up moving back to Dublin
at about the age of 12.
I went to boarding school,finished up school,
worked for about 18 months,
(02:29):
actually worked in BlackRock for a while.
- Okay.
- Right opposite your school there.
- Where I went.
- Yeah, I was working as a car salesman,
first job out of school.
- Yeah.
- And before that I was in the BMW place,
just up the road there as well.
- Okay.
- So, but yeah, did that andthen kind of decided to travel,
and three-month roundtrip to Cape Town turned
(02:50):
into 2 1/2 years laterflying out of Nairobi, Kenya,
having kind of, hitchhiked my way
all through southern eastern Africa.
And then, that took me fromNairobi to Toronto, Canada.
Lived there for about a year.
- There isn't a directflight now between those two.
Is there? You probably haveto go back through Heathrow
- I'm trying to rememberwhich way I bounced around
(03:11):
to get there yeah, but it wasn't direct.
So yeah, lived in Canada for a bit
and then decided to go backto Dublin to, you know,
figure my life out and all the rest.
And about four months later Iwas on a plane to New Zealand,
supposed to go out there for about a year.
That turned into four and a half years.
(03:32):
And then, about a year ofbouncing around traveling,
and then, ended up on theeast coast in Pennsylvania.
Hacked about six months,
didn't really love it there.
So, drove from Pennsylvania to Alaska,
worked up there for a season
and then drove down to this area,
and I've been here ever since.
So, coming up on 10 years now.
- So, have you ever mappedout all those miles?
(03:54):
- I haven't.
I really should sit down.
I remember, I think it wasactually potentially one
of my parents that figured it out once.
But yeah, by the age of 21,
I'd been around the world four times.
- That's impressive.
- So, I've probably donea couple more since then.
- It's kind of in our Irish DNA,
this, you know, leaving.
You and I, we're a generation apart,
but we were part of the generations
(04:16):
that left the country.- Yes.
- And you've ended up here ina wonderful part of the world.
I live just south of here ina wonderful part of the world.
- Not too shabby down in Napa either.
- No, it's not.
But you know, I've beenlucky enough to travel.
I feel privileged to havetraveled through that time.
And I was encouraged bymy parents, you know,
raised in Dublin, but wouldoften go off traveling.
(04:38):
And obviously your parents raised you
with that same kind of, outlook.
- Yeah, we did family holidaysand things growing up,
and that's definitely whattaught me that, you know,
travel's exciting andinteresting, and worth doing.
And I have very supportiveand very patient parents.
- It helps.
- There's definitely beenmoments over the years
(04:59):
where they're like, you're not done yet?
You don't want to maybeslow down for a little bit?
But they've always seenthat I'm happy, you know,
seen that I'm providing for myself.
I'm not, you know, asking for handouts.
- The hand isn't out.
- Exactly, exactly.
So, you know, I think they realize
that I'm living my life theway that works best for me.
(05:20):
And I think they both on some level
are living vicariously through me as well
because they weren't able to,
they didn't have the same opportunities.
- Well, and also theease of travel nowadays,
you know, you and I can,
I'm not sure where you can go from here,
but living where we dodown to San Francisco,
and I'm back in Dublin in 11 hours.
- Yeah.
- Whereas generationsbefore us, once they left,
(05:42):
it was a one-way ticket.
- That's it, exactly.
- Very much on, you know,same is true of the Italians,
the Germans, etc.
And that was it.
Once they left, they left.
Whereas you and I go back.
- Yeah.
- I was just back and I'm notsure when you were back next.
- I was just back in June actually.
- Great.- Yes, so, not that long ago.
- Probably your firsttrip in a couple of years?
- That was the first, oh gosh,when did I go back before?
(06:04):
I think it was 2019.
I snuck in a quick trip before everything.
- There was a little pandemicin between then and now.
- Little hiccup along the way.
- Yeah.- Yeah.
So, you're here, folks know Ilove this part of the world.
You're here, there isn'ttoo many Irish folks here,
I'm guessing.
- No, we are few and far between.
I have met not many that live here.
(06:26):
Actually, you said one of the ways
that you were able to locate me again was
you saw my name in a magazineas a photo contributor.
- Yeah, Bend Magazine.
- And that same magazine,
I got a random email oneday through my work email
and it was a Irish womanliving in Bend who said,
I read your bio in Bend magazine,realized you were Irish,
(06:47):
can we get together and have a drink?
I haven't seen anyonefrom home in forever.
And that was right before the pandemic.
I should pick that back upnow and see where she's at.
But yeah, there's very few of us around.
- Here. Yeah, no, I'm going to guess
that in places like Portland,
there's probably asizeable Irish population.
- There's definitely alittle bit more, yeah.
- The climate is just like Ireland.
(07:09):
Pick a city in Ireland.- I know.
- You know, it's wet.- Yep.
- It's cold in the winter.- Yep.
- And there's a great quitepub culture in Portland as well
which is something thatwe have back there.
So, I suppose we should keep chatting,
but we should probably putsomething in our glass here.
- I agree with you on that, yeah.
- So, we should talk Whiskey.
(07:30):
- Yes.
- So, how did you come to whiskey?
Was it in the family?
- Yes, very much from my dad.
My dad is a man of great taste.
He loves whiskey, he loves wine.
He's developed a bit of a passion for rum
in more recent years as well.
So, he is been dabbling in that.
But yeah, my dad was the one
(07:51):
that introduced me to whiskey originally.
Of course, Jameson wasthe very first whiskey
that I ever had and is still today,
there's never not a bottle of Jameson
at my house or my dad's.
- Okay.
- Every time we gettogether that's our staple.
So yeah, he first introducedme to it and you know,
(08:12):
it didn't take the waybeer did originally for me.
And a lot of that was justdown to accessibility,
cost, that sort of a thing.
And also the people thatyou like to share it with.
Not as many of my friendswere whiskey drinkers,
you know, everybody wanted beer.
But as I got a little bitolder and I started saying,
(08:33):
well, maybe I don't needto share it, you know,
I can just have a littlecollection of bottles for myself.
And it was actually aprivate collection was,
- Let me give it to you.- Thank you.
A private collection went up for sale
and a friend of minecontacted me and said,
"Hey there's a bunchof Irish whiskeys here,
you should come check it out."
And that was the firsttime I found Redbreast 12.
(08:55):
So, believe it or not,
the first time I found Redbreast12 was in central Oregon.
(both laughing)
I made it this far.
- Sláinte.- Sláinte.
- It's old.
- Yeah, you say Jameson waskind of something you had
as you were growing up.
Redbreast 12 was whatbrought me back here.
It was my, I call it my gateway.
(09:17):
To this part of my life,
and I think you'vealluded to something there
that when you're younger,
you don't necessarily drink whiskey
in a kind of a sippingsense as I would say.
It's unfortunately kind of a shot thing.
People go to the bar, theyorder a shot of bitter.
- Or mixed Coke or Red Bullor something like that.
- Yeah,
I think, you know, from my journey,
(09:38):
you've got to be at a certainage or stage in your life
to actually appreciate it.
And you know,
the reality is a bottle ofRedbreast or Green Spot,
or any of these wonderful whiskeys,
they're not necessarily cheap to buy
to be drinking it every night.
- That's it, yeah.
- Yeah. So what is itabout this that you love?
- So there's a few things about Redbreast,
(09:59):
I'm a somewhat of a sentimental old fool.
And once I tried it andrealized I loved it,
I was talking of course to my dad,
first person I call, you know,
send him a photo of allthe bottles I got from
that private collection and everything.
And we're chatting back and forth,
and it was actually mymom in the background,
we were on a video chat,
she said, Redbreast 12?
(10:19):
I said, yeah.
She goes, that's thefamily whiskey right there.
- Family Whiskey.
- Of course I had to call them out,
I was like, well, where'sit been my whole life then,
Cause I don't remember getting offered it?
But yeah, I guess especiallyon my mother's side,
Redbreast 12 has been, you know,
the go-to for four generations now.
So I like the fact
that I sort of independently discovered it
(10:41):
and it's got this connectionto my family already.
But then also it's just,
I mean it's a bland wayto describe something,
but it's just such agood drinking Whiskey.
- Yeah.
- It's,
when I'm trying to convincefriends of mine around here
to try Irish, cause people here,
like they're bourbon understandable,
when you start talkingwhiskey they might say,
(11:02):
Oh, I've tried a couple scotches,
but I didn't really like it.
And like, well what about Irish Whiskey?
No, I've never really tried it.
And this is now, I usedto start them on Jameson.
This is now what I startpeople on and I've converted.
- That's a high bar starting them on this.
- Yeah.
Well, I think I said itto you on the phone once,
I like if I can get themhooked on Redbreast 12,
I know there's alwaysa bottle at their house
(11:22):
if I go over there.
(laughing)
It works in my favor too.
- Yeah, so we have your family
to thank for keeping theRedbreast lineage going
because the brand almost died.
You know, the modern iterationthat we see now is a,
(11:45):
generally it's a mash build,
so that's the, kind ofthe, the grain recipe.
50% malted, 50% unmalted barley.
- Yeah.
- Previous, in previousgenerations there was,
there was slight differences to that.
And also the distillation process,
so they talk about it being oily
and having a deeper spice character,
older Redbreasts.
- Okay.
- And older Redbreastsgo for a pretty penny.
(12:07):
- I'm sure.
- When they come to markets.
I am sure there are old houses,
country houses,
round Ireland, where there's bottles
of Redbreast knocking around in cellars,
or larders, or whatever,
and they're worth money nowadays.
- Yeah.
- So it's um...
so obviously this is your now, your go-to.
How would, we're, you know,we're here in your workspace.
(12:28):
I'm hoping there isn't toomuch of this drunk here.
(laughing)
- Not too much,
but on occasion we'll celebratethe end of a big project
or something.
- Good, and you'll toastto it with some, Irish.
- Exactly, yeah.
- When you're at home sipping this,
how do you sip your Whiskey?
Do you sip it like this?
- So my, 99% of the time,
(12:50):
it'll be,
a couple of drops of water in there.
On a rare occasion I might puta single large cube in there.
But again,
the longer I drink Whiskeyand the more I enjoy it,
I tend to strip that back toI'll start out with a sip neat.
Especially if it's somethingI haven't ever had before,
(13:10):
I haven't had a long time.
- Yeah.
- Just completely neat,
and then I'll just add a coupleof drops of water in there
to open it up and that'show I like to do it.
I don't like to mess around with mixers,
and I've had plenty ofdisagreements with girlfriends
and things in the past when I come home
and find one of my nice whiskeys with a
chunk of Coca-Cola or something and I'm...
(13:33):
- Because they haven't paid for it.
You're the one who has paid for it.
Becuse my philosophy isif you've paid for it,
you can drink it however you want.
- Yes.
- So, yeah.
- And my philosophy is,
why would you add Coca-Cola
to a $80 or a $100 bottle of Whiskey,
when there's a bottleof Bulleit down there?
Which, Bulleit's fine,I don't mind Bulleit.
I have, I quite enjoy a bit of bourbon,
but I don't know why youwould choose a fine whiskey.
(13:57):
- Especially when you think of the amount
of crafting that's gone into it.
Time obviously blended of the end,
time in barrel,
the distillation,
and then gone all theway back to the farmer
who grew the the grains.
- Yeah.
- It's a it's a long old process.
- It is.
- And how can you trulyappreciate something
if you're masking the flavor, you know?
I think you need toexperience it in it's raw form
(14:19):
to start to learn howto appreciate whiskey.
- I agree with you.
It's a part of my journey as well is,
is kind of going backwards, you know,
five, six years ago would'vehad it over a big ice cube,
but now, we'll do that on occasion,
but more so the sipping,
and to your point, the water,
(14:39):
and we do have some water here
if we need to add a few drops in.
So, um.
- Redbreast is one of the few
that I find straight out of the bottle,
it's just good to go.
It's got that littlebit of sweetness to it,
which I think plays apart in why I've been able
to get friends of mine in theUS to learn to appreciate it.
(15:00):
I hate to compare apples and oranges,
they're not the same thing,
but some of the qualities of Redbreast
it's got that little spice to it,
but it's got that sortof sweet finish as well.
I think if somebody's usedto drinking American bourbon,
this is less of a shockingtransition for them, you know,
there's to me some crossoversbetween Redbreast 12
(15:23):
and some US bourbons as well.
So it's not like jumping straight into,
you know,
some really peaty, smokyscotch from one of the Islands
or something where people go,
"Oh, I tried scotch onceand it was horrible."
It's like, wow.
You know, you tried one type.
So, yeah.
- And I think that's helping
the Renaissance in Irishwhiskey, is the style,
it is more approachable.
- Yes.
(15:44):
- Your, as you say sweetness,that sweet character,
which comes from the various components,
comes from distillation,
comes from,
comes from the barrels.
But it's definitely whatgets a lot of people hooked.
So yeah, it's a, it's no...
- But I'm certainly not shyof a peaty, smoky scotch too,
for I often have a Laphroaig or something.
(16:06):
- Okay, because Oban orO-ban is my favorite.
- Dad's a fan of that one too.- Yeah.
- I've had it on occasion,
but there's something about the Laphroaig
that just sits well with me.
- Okay.
- Again, it could be a sentimental thing.
I've got some good memoriesover the years with that too.
- So you're here, you live here,
and obviously we're inBend here in your studio,
(16:27):
but you moved to Sisters.
- Correct, yeah.
- Smaller town to thenorthwest of us there.
- Yeah.
- But this is essentially home now
and has been for a number of years.
So, I'm going to ask you
to turn into the DeschutesCounty Tourism Board
for a couple of minutes for us.
So, favorite places to go fora good cocktail, where would?
(16:47):
- Good cocktail, so ifwe briefly step outside
of Central Oregon,
I would say actually myfavorite place in the state,
probably to go for a cocktailor just a good drink,
is a place called Huber's in Portland.
I'm not sure if you've been there.
- No.
- But it's, it's theoldest bar in Portland.
Just incredible atmosphere,these beautiful big kind of
(17:08):
bolted curve ceilings and everything.
Real characters working behind the bar,
and really good at what they do.
So if I'm ever in Portland,
Huber's is an absolute go-to.
But around here inCentral Oregon, you know,
we've got The Stihl Whiskeybar in Downtown Bend,
that's got a great selection.
It's busy, it's popular.
(17:28):
The tricky part can sometimes be
just physically getting in there.
It's often very busy,
But Stihl's a great spot.
There's a restaurant inSisters called Chops,
which is sort of a finedining style restaurant,
but they've got a couple ofgreat bartenders out there.
A fellow, Joe, in particular is.
- You're obviously a regular there?
- We, we spend time there, yeah.
(17:50):
Sisters is a small enoughtown that if you're,
as we were chattingabout off camera before,
you know, the Irish arenaturally chatty people,
we'll kind of walk up to anybody
and strike up a conversation.
So, you put a personality like ours
in a small town like Sisters,
most people know who youare after a few months.
- And, folks who don't know,
Sisters' famed for it's quilting.
(18:13):
It's where the annualgathering of the quilters...
- It's a big quilt show, yes.
Which is one of the more unique
and slightly bizarre gatheringsI've ever witnessed before.
I had no idea there wassuch a cult behind quilting.
But yeah, I mean it's chaos,
to the point where a lotof people who live there,
we get out of town when it's happening.
(18:34):
We just say,
you know, we'll leave'em to it for the weekend
because it's just tens ofthousands of people are showing up.
And some of these quiltsare going for five,
10 plus thousand dollars.
I mean serious.
- And Sisters is a populationof, correct me if I'm wrong,
like five to 8,000somewhere like that, is it?
- You know, I'd be shockedif it's even that much.
Sisters proper, I wouldguess is three to four.
(18:54):
Somebody's going to callme out in the comments,
I'm sure of it.
- And 10,000 visitors come in for this?
- Yeah,
I'd actually have to checkexactly what visitor numbers are,
but I mean, town turns into gridlock.
- Wow.
- You know.
Like to the point where,
I live about two miles outside of Sisters,
just north of town,
and the quickest way for me to get to Bend
(19:15):
is to drive into Sisters and down.
During the quilt show I'lladd 15 miles to my journey
just to avoid trying todrive through that area
cause it's bumper to bumper gridlock.
- With the quilters?
- Oh, the quilters, yeah.
Yeah, they're a rare breed.
(both laughing)
So, and then on the otherend of the spectrum,
we're famous for theSisters Rodeo as well.
(19:36):
- Oh, I didn't know that.
- Which is a whole different crowd.
- I can imagine.
- Yeah.
The sister's rodeo is, it's an incredibly,
especially as somebody who's not,
I didn't grow up in the US,
I didn't grow up in that environment,
you know, so to go thereand you know, it's,
I think it's three or fourdays, the actual rodeo,
(19:57):
but it's basically for a whole week,
Sisters just goes into ahuge party for a whole week.
Live music at every bar,
late nights all over the place,
locals nights going on.
You've got all these rodeo cowboys,
- Cowgirls.
And cowgirls, and it'sterminology I learned this year,
Buckle bunnies.
(laughing)
(20:18):
So it's.
- Is that somethingthat's in between a cowboy
and a cowgirl?
Is it?
- They do,
I think that's what theycall the barrel racer girls.
So they do that reallyincredible high speed on a horse
around the end of a barrel and back up.
But that's my naiveunderstanding of what that is.
- Hey, you know, justput on the Irish accent
and you can get away with anything.
(20:40):
- That's it.
So, but yeah, Sisters is a great spot.
I was seven or so years in Bend,
which has now got apopulation of over 100,000.
- Yeah.
- And even in the time I was here, it's,
it's just grown exponentially.
I mean as you guys come up here,
you know why it's appealing.
Amazing outdoor activities,
(21:02):
a four seasons town.
You got great skiing andsnowboarding in the winter.
You've got every type of summeractivity you could imagine.
Lakes, rivers, mountains,
more and more industry andbusiness starting up here too.
- Yeah, no, definitely.
One of the things Ilove about coming here,
a number of things, but one of them is
the support that it giveskind of entrepreneurship,
(21:25):
mentorship,
there's definitely a "can-do" attitude
in this part of the world,
which I love.
You know, you and I have ourown businesses, so, you know,
I love seeing that, thatit's very supportive.
But back on the kindof the advice kind of,
favorite places to go for awalk or a hike around here?
And it could be a long list.
(21:46):
- It could be a long list.
So yeah, it's,
and it's interesting, it'sgetting a little tricky now.
We're so popular,
they've had to bringin a permit system here
for some of the really busy hiking trails.
You actually have to pre-purchasea permit to be able to go,
and it's limited on certain days.
Some of my favorites canbe hard to get onto now,
but you know,
(22:06):
one of the most famous onesis the Green Lakes Trail,
which takes you, so the west of Bend,
you've got the Cascade Mountains,
Mount Bachelor, the Sisters,everything like that.
And the Green Lakes Trail isjust an incredible incline
trail that takes you up to thesebeautiful lakes at the base
of the mountains and everything like that.
South Sister, summiting SouthSister, I did that in 2020.
(22:28):
That was my first COVIDproject was Climb a Mountain.
- Okay.
- And it was a, it was a goodslog for me because I mean,
I keep active, but I'm not themost in-shape guy out there.
But, you know, it's a goodtrail if you're prepared.
It's achievable for anybody.
- Okay.
- And it's amazing.
It's a little over 10,000feet at the summit.
(22:49):
So you get up there andyou've just got these,
just mind blowing 360 degreeviews, looking at other peaks,
looking down at the lakes and everything.
It's incredible, so.
And then out in Sisters,
there's a number out there I like as well.
Tam McArthur Rim is abeautiful one out there.
It takes you up around threecreeks Lake and things.
(23:09):
And the Metolius river.
I'm a big fly fisherman,
have been a fly fishermanmost of my adult life.
- Okay.
- That's just a remarkable river.
- So I'm sure folks backin Ireland will eventually,
you know,
both see and hear this
and they'll hear you talkabout a 10,000 foot mountain
and they'll grim us because I think
(23:30):
Carrauntoohil down in county Kerry,
I think weighs in at,
and I'm sure I'll becorrected in the comments,
but about 3300 - 3400 feet.
We are here in Bend.
We are,
I think the center of Bendis measured at like 3849ft,
something like that.
- Yeah.
- So here we are,
where we are sitting,
and we are higher than anypoint on the island of Ireland.
(23:52):
- Absolutely.
- I always struggle when Icome up here the first night.
- Oh.
- With the, with that,
with just going from groundsea level up to here.
- Yeah.
- But here we are in thesecond night and you know,
we're good.
- You're in, you're in shape.
- So do you find when you goto sea level that you know,
because you're living atelevation, that you are,
(24:13):
you're able to go longer,you have more stamina?
Is that never, you everreally thought about it?
- It's a good question actually.
I, in my younger yearsI was much more aware
of that sort of thing.
I was incredibly active.
I worked as an outdoorguide for over a decade,
all around the world, ataltitude to sea level.
Everything from kayaking,
to glacier climbing,
(24:35):
to rafting,
fishing, I mean, you name it.
And I certainly noticedback then that yeah,
I had more stamina more,
nowadays, you know,
I do most of my activity around here
and when I go to thecoast, I'm on holiday.
I'm not really working toohard when I'm out there.
- Makes, you know, makes a lot of sense.
(24:56):
- But I do love getting tothe, the Oregon coast though.
It's so beautiful.
- Yeah, we're like that,
where we are living in a lovely place,
but it's, for us,
it's an hour and a halfdrive out to the coast
and it's just, I think itkind of recharges the soul.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
And obviously both of usbeing from relatively close
to the coast in Dublin, I certainly know,
although I loved in my youth,
(25:18):
hiking through the Wicklow mountains,
and kayaking and canoeing down there,
but getting out to the coast in,
whether it's Dublin or Wicklow,
is always something torecharge the batteries.
- Absolutely.
- So we touched on the pandemicthere a few minutes ago.
When I got in touch with you,
finally tracked you down online
and we chatted about various things.
One of them was where we went to school.
(25:38):
So you went to St. Columba's College,
I went to BlackRock College.
They were big rivals incross country and rugby.
I know, because you know,
you and I, we're not thebiggest guys in the world.
- No, no.
- So I stopped rugby at 13.
Did cross country.
We used to go out to St.Columba's every year.
It was one of the most enjoyable
but most horrific crosscountry races we would run.
It was proper cross country.
(25:59):
- That's a gnarly area out there, yeah.
- But you told me a great story
about how when you were there,
you actually got away fromrugby and you got into golf.
- Indeed, yeah.
So like most kids at, youknow, over there is rugby,
little bit of hockey, maybesome football, real football,
that sort of a thing.
(26:19):
And then, yeah.
There was a golf course that actually,
I can never remember if itwas on the school property
or it shared a border with it,but there it was right there.
I mean it was walkable from the dorm rooms
and there was an agreement
that students could playthe course for free.
So for various reasons, you know,
stepping away from sports thatI wasn't really built for,
(26:41):
I picked up a golf club,
started playing golf andgot really, really into it.
Myself and a small group of buddies
all started playing together.
I actually ended up starting
the first golf team for St. Columba's.
And my last year there waswhen that was going on,
and started playing againstsome of the other schools around
and things like that.
And I developed anabsolute passion for it,
(27:02):
but I mean, to be honest,
one of the contributingfactors is we realize,
my friends and I, that golf wasthe only unsupervised sport.
So while everyone else wasplaying football and rugby
and things with teachers,we'd be on the golf course.
Not that we were gettingup to too much mischief,
but you know, it was, whenyou're in boarding school,
(27:23):
you live there, you sleepthere, you eat there,
you go to class there,you never get a break.
So any opportunity to feellike you have some freedom.
- A bit of freedom, yeah.
- Some control.
So that was kind of thecontributing factor. But yeah,
we all got really into it and yeah.
- And then obviously you'vetalked about all your travels,
you can't cart golf clubsaround that with you.
(27:44):
- No.
- But like a lot of people,
you came back to golf in the pandemic.
- Yeah, thank you COVID.
- You know,
and there's definitely somesilver linings for all of us.
And here, you know, this ontop of being a great beer town,
a decent food town, anincredible place for outdoors.
This is a great place for golf.
(28:04):
- Phenomenal golf area.
Just huge amount of courses
for every budget and skill level.
I mean you can playeverything from, you know,
when I first started playingagain when COVID hit,
The Old Back Nine,
Which is just on the southside of Bend, at the time,
I think it was $22 for a round of nine.
(28:26):
And I had the first tee slot, you know,
every time I went out firsttees slot in the morning.
And then once I kindof realized like, okay,
I haven't completely lost my game,
like I can show my face in public,
I started playing someother courses again.
And now that I live in Sisters,
I just actually in the last two weeks,
have played twice out there
at a course called Aspen Lakes.
(28:47):
- Okay.
- Phenomenal course as well.
Beautiful, long, oh my gosh,
I walked it the first time and
- And regretted it?
- I was knackered by the end of it.
Absolutely.
And I only walked nine,
but it was nine long, long holes.
But it's a unique one too.
You've got this red lava rock around here.
- Yeah.
(29:07):
The cinder rock.
And in the winter we don't grit,
we don't salt the roads here,
even though we get a lot of snow and ice,
they just throw that cinder rock on it.
Aspen uses that in their bunkers.
So it's not white sand bunkers,
it's this finely dusted up red.
- Wow, really?
- Red.
So it's a really,
I mean you've got, you know, the greens,
- Yeah.
- Of the fairway,
(29:28):
and the green and theroof and everything and
then these kind of volcanicred bunkers and yeah.
- Fascinating.
- Yeah, fascinating.
Not great for the,
- Not good for your clubs.
- underside of your club.
- I was thinking that.
And I know folks won't know,
but weather has changed here this week.
Last week before we traveledup, when you and I spoke,
we were looking at up here,
it was mid to high 70's or so,
(29:48):
and we're definitely alittle cooler than that.
So we didn't pack our clubs this week.
But I look forward toperhaps in the spring
or early summer when we're up again,
we'll connect on,
I don't know if you're an evening golfer
or a weekend golfer,
but we'll definitely get nine holes in.
- One of the beauties of self-employment
is you have some controlover your schedule.
- Don't give away our secrets.
(30:10):
So also when we spoke Toby,
you and I both share alove of Redbreast 12.
It's my favorite.
- Yeah.
- We always have a bottle in the house,
but over the last number ofmonths I've slowly grown my,
I don't, I hate the word collection
because I don't collect whiskey,
I buy it to drink it, and share it.
- Yeah.
- So we, we've got anumber of them at home,
(30:31):
but one of them I picked upwas the, the Cask Strength.
Now you and I talkedabout this on the phone.
- Yes.
- I said I was going to bringup a little treat for you
and this is it.
So we'll pour some in here.
I haven't had any of it yet.
Weighs in at 56.3 alcohol.
So 112.6 proof.
(30:51):
- So this will be yourfirst time ever with it.
- Oh, that's exciting.
- You know, I've pulled thetop on it, but still filled.
- Yeah.
- As I said, love sharing whiskey.
I wanted to share withsomebody who loves Redbreast.
So let's pour a little drop of this.
- Absolutely.
- We may, we may put a little bit of a,
we may put a little bit of.
I want to just put asmaller amount in there.
(31:14):
It's been interesting to watch,
Redbreast expand.
I jokingly what some people call it the,
you know, the Nest,the Robin Redbreast is,
you know, the Nest is getting bigger.
It's obviously a successfulbrand now here in the States.
So there it is at Cask Strength
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
(31:35):
So Sláinte again.
- Sláinte again.
It's immediately verydifferent on the nose.
- Yeah.
Obviously we've just poured it so,
to me it's not as,
it's not as evidently sweet.
(31:56):
- That was the first thing,
yeah, not nearly as sweetcoming straight off there.
But it's got a little bitmore of, I don't know,
it's a long shot,
more of a kind of a green appley kind of,
- Yeah
- Or something to it.
- Which is, which I knowwe talked about Green Spot
on the phone as well.
There's definitely,
green apple always comes through on that.
So that's kind of a,
(32:16):
that's a classic pot stillcharacter that the apple,
and occasionally it goesover into pear as well.
So yeah, it's not often I put myself
or someone else on the spotby literally opening it
for the first time whilewe're, while we're recording.
But, what the hell.
(32:39):
- There's something else on there
and I cannot put my finger on it.
- Big mouthful of spice for me.
- That's a lot hotter.
Yeah.
That one caught me off guard actually.
- Yeah, it's a, we'restepping it up a few percent.
(33:03):
So let's...
- So yeah,
it's definitely not nearlyas sweet on the finish is it?
- Let me, if you want,
I'm going to just poura few drops in there.
- Yep.
- There you go.
- See and that's againwhat I love about the 12.
You don't get that initial, hit.
(33:25):
- Yeah.
- Exactly.
- Yeah.
What's interesting about.
- That brings out the sweetness more now.
- Yeah, agree.
Just those few little drops,you're still drinking it at a,
you know, decent proof.
What I love about Cask Strength whiskey is
it gives the consumer thechoice as to where they want it.
(33:46):
- Yeah.
- So if they want todilute it down a little,
so it's in the mid fortiesor lower than that,
they can,
but it can be,
it can be too much for.
- Yeah, I like,
I mean, initial instincts aretelling me just is to sit down
and have a glass.
I would still reach for the 12 first
- Yeah.
- Myself.
(34:08):
But this might grow on me.
I need to give it a minute.
It actually, again it's, wekeep mentioning Green Spot,
there's, I get little kind of hints
of Green Spot off it in some ways as well.
- It's interesting, back in 2019,
my folks came out forChristmas and they asked,
they were coming throughDuty Free in Dublin,
(34:29):
and I asked could they pickup a bottle of Redbreast 15?
I don't think we couldget it here at the time.
So they brought it,
all excited to open it upand we opened it up and went,
That's different from Redbreast 12.
And I think,
I don't know if our palate hadbecome conditioned to that.
(34:52):
I've had it since and Idefinitely enjoy it more,
but it's a different whiskey.
- Yeah.
- To me.
So...
So I think we might stop recording
and we'll just keep sippingon this and see how it goes.
So one last thing before we wrap up.
(35:13):
When we chatted, you told mea great story about your dad,
kind of, your dad, whiskey andsome music back in the day.
And I think we should put that on record.
- Okay, yeah.
That ties back to my firstever experience with whiskey.
And from memory, I was 14 years old.
(35:33):
My dad is a very responsible person,
he does not feed alcohol to minors.
This was very much a father,son bonding experience.
But yeah, I was about 14 years old,
my dad had a little homeoffice and he had, you know,
the leather chair with the receipt
of buttons and everything in it, you know,
and it was always this kindof mythical place as a child,
you know?
What's that room dad always goes into
that were not really supposed to be in.
(35:55):
And he called me in there one day,
closed the door and walked over,
and pulled out a bottle of Jameson,
good old, off the shelf, regular Jameson.
And he poured me a little glass of it,
and he took me over to thearmchair in the corner,
and he said, sit there,
hold that, don't do anything yet.
So, oh yes dad.
(36:16):
And he walked over andhe had the old, you know,
this was long enough ago thatit was the old hi-fi system,
you know, with the CDchanger and everything.
And he walked over andhe was messing with that
and he teed up a song,which I had never heard
and never even heard ofthe band at the time.
But he got it all ready andhe turned to me and said,
Right, sit there, drinkthat, listen to this.
(36:36):
I'll be back in a minute.
And he hit play and walked out.
And it was Money by Pink Floyd.
- Okay.
- And he had it turned way up,
which was interesting causehe's a fairly conservative guy.
He's not a big noise maker or anything.
And I yeah,
sat there in that armchairsipping on my first ever whiskey,
which was Jameson,
listening to my first ever PinkFloyd song, which was Money.
(36:58):
And that experience will stay with me
for the rest of my life.
And it was an interestingone cause my dad, again,
he's a very loving man.
He's a great father.
But he was always, you know,
he's of that generation
where he's a little bit more reserved,
and you know,
doesn't really wear hisemotions on his sleeve.
So I remember thinkinglike, what's wrong with dad?
Why is he doing that?
And you know,
(37:18):
and I look back now and Irealize that that was just an,
I think for him more so than me,
an important bonding opportunity,
to share a couple of hisfavorite things with me.
- With you.
- Yeah.
And here I am now, you know,
whiskey is a sharedpassion of my dad and I.
Every time we go home,
I'm bringing a bottle,or he's got a bottle,
and he's got something he's held for me.
(37:40):
And you know,
when I was working at Deschute's,
we would do all those barrel-aged beers,
with these really rare, you know,
low quantity beers
that have been aged in bourbon
or aged in this, that and the rest.
And I was constantly sending them home
for my dad and my brother and you know,
he's still hanging on to some of those.
So when I come home,
(38:00):
cause he knows that, you know, I'm,
that's something we canshare together and bond over
and things like that.
- That's great.
That's, to me,
that's as we get older and you know,
haven't been throughwhat we've been through,
I certainly know from my point of view,
I value some things more now,
and family and friendshas really come to the top
(38:22):
of my list in that,
not that I didn't before.
- Yep.
- But it's become even more important.
And to have something like that,
to have it be, you know,
a dram or two or three or whatever it is.
And the nice thing iswe have Irish whiskeys
that are often onlyavailable here in the US.
- Yep.
- So you can bring back home
(38:42):
and then there are manydistilleries doing, you know,
Ireland only or DutyFree only whiskeys there.
So there isn't, it's notlike it's all the same stuff.
You can be sharing differentwhiskeys, which is fantastic.
- Exactly.
- Right, with that, we'll,
we should, we'll keep chatting,
- We'll keep chatting, yeah.
- We'll stop recording,
and we obviously got somenice whiskey to finish.
(39:03):
So I'll say Sláinte,thank you for your time.
- Oh, thank you so much for including me,
and tracking me downafter all these years.
This is impressive detective work.
- Well you know, Google helps.
- Yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
And Google, Irishman in Central Oregon,
there's not many results that pop up.
- And you having such a,such a wonderful website,
which we'll obviouslywill share in the video.
You do some lovely work.
(39:24):
- Thank you very much.
- I say that genuinely as somebody
who works in the digital marketing space.
It was fascinating.
I thought the most important,
not the most important,
but the most interestingone was a lot of food shots.
- Oh yeah, yeah.
- In my opinion some of thehardest photography to do.
- It can be a challenge.
- You've got some beautiful ones on there,
which, we'll, which we'll share out.
So with that, thanks again.
(39:46):
And we will
- Thank you so much.
See you next time everybody.
- Sláinte
- Sláinte, thank you.
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