21: Ep. 21 "My Favo(u)rite Irish Whiskey" with Jason Schneider & Knappogue Castle 14yo

On this episode I got to spend some time recently - well I say recently but it was actually back in March - with Jason Schneider who has arguably one of the best jobs in the industry. Jason is the Spirits Buyer AND General Manager of the highly respected retailer, Bottle Barn (https://bottlebarn.com/) , which is located in the city of Santa Rosa in beautiful Sonoma Wine Country, about an hour from where I live. 

As I was editing this episode it brought back to me what a fascinating and insightful conversation I’d had with Jason. We only got to chat for 20 or so minutes but in that time we covered a LOT of ground. We chatted about Bottle Barn’s history and Jason’s history at Bottle Barn while serving his apprenticeship there.

It was great to go down rabbit holes about spirit sales and how the market has evolved in Jason’s time at Bottle Barn. We talked about how whiskey is now the number one selling spirits category at Bottle Barn and who’s buying that whiskey demographically.

It was a fascinating chat and we managed to squeeze it all in to just over 20 minutes as we both had work to do in preparation for St. Patrick’s Day, which tells you how long ago we chatted!

And we talked about all of this as we sipped on Jason’s Favo(u)rite Irish Whiskey, which is the 14 year old Single Malt from Knappogue Castle.

Listen along…

Resources;
Bottle Barn Website (https://bottlebarn.com/)
Bottle Barn Irish Whiskey Selection (https://bottlebarn.com/collections/ir...)
Visit Santa Rosa (https://www.visitsantarosa.com/)
Visit Sonoma County (https://www.sonomacounty.com/)

Find out more about me (https://irishwhiskeylad.com/about-me) and my Irish Whiskey work (https://irishwhiskeylad.com/irish-whi...) and watch the "My Favo(u)rite Irish..." Video series on YouTube here. (https://bit.ly/IWLYTPlaylistMFI)

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_whisk...