An Interview: Gowe Whisky
“It all started when I was a Forest Ranger and my boss told me to market a certain area.”
Across the table from me, a man of retirement age sits down and sips from his water. His eyes sparkle joy when he starts telling his story. And I quickly pen down my first notes for this interview.
This small adventure started months ago. And I am not kidding when I say months.
After a fun evening in my favourite whisky bar with a friend, we ended the night with a very funky Bruichladdich from an Independent Bottler. And for couple of days, it was a topic on our chat. I decided to browse some webshops selling IB Bruichladdich and found one that sold samples of a Dutch Indie Bottler that had multiple Bruichladdich bottles. Gowe Whisky.
Sharing this information with my friend, we decided to buy a couple of these and promised ourselves that we would enjoy them together.
I ordered two large samples and got them delivered two days later. Then the clock started.
For months those samples were staring at me from my whisky cabinet, waiting for a moment to try them.
When we finally were able to sample the samples, we both fell in love with the Bruichladdich on ex-rivesaltes cask. Cask number 1511. Going to the webstore we ordered the samples from, fully intended to get it, everything was (temporarily?) sold out.
A quick Google prompt later, we discovered the website with a webshop from Gowe Whisky itself and were able to get a bottle. But that website triggered me a bit, I wanted to know more. I decided to contact the bottler.
I sent an email, mentioning I just ordered a bottle and was curious. I mentioned I was a small, tiny whisky blogger (A title that I find too large to use to describe my work here.) and asked if I could interview him. The very next day I received a response. Not only was this bottler open for an interview, he was even suggesting to meet up and even sample some Gowe Whisky!
So on a windy Monday evening, me and my Drambuddie Martijn were sitting at a table with the man behind Gowe Whisky, Han Duyverman.
A Forest Ranger planning his future
Han starts his story almost immediately, describing in a quick tempo how he got into whisky. Being asked to do a vitality research on how to market an area, which happened to be the Korenburgerveen, a peat area in the Netherlands. Realising peat and barley might equal whisky, an idea formed in his head. Unfortunately, no barley was produced in that area. But the Idea of whisky stayed with him.
“It happened when I was about 50, and I thought, when I'm 65, I'll always make friends if I have whisky!” Han explains to us, when he mentions a reason to get into his adventure.
He tells us he enjoys these kind of moments, sharing his whisky with fans.
And that is something we can attest to and be thankful for, because on this evening, Han facilitated Martijn and myself, who were both rather busy at work, to travel all the way from the other side of the country to my home.
Coming over as a true pragmatic and decisive man, he describes how he activated his idea:
“I just got the core range, the entry level bottle, of three distilleries and put them on the table. I proceded to taste them with some friends, making notes. Bruichladdich won with 1/10th of a point difference!”
(While Han told his story and arrived around this point, I could no longer withstand the bottles on the table and decided to pour a small dram of cask 3659. Tasting notes can be found here.)
I forgot my glass!
Booking a trip to Scotland, to Islay, Han travelled to the Bruichladdich Distillery with a friend and booked a tour. During the tour, close to the end, he spotted Jim McEwan with a client going in the warehouse and mentioned he forgot his glass. Jim asked them to join and he ended up on a private tasting. (At this moment, Han became one of my heroes.)
This small enterprise led to the purchase of 5 casks at Bruichladdich, close to the point where the distillery no longer sold casks. Or as Han puts it, he saved 5 casks from Rémy Cointreau.
Licensed victualler's shop, at home
I’m going to skip the part where Han tells us about the importing, he did have some fun anecdotes in there, but nobody wants to hear about taxes and stuff like that.
But after importing, there's the selling. Most bottles were sold thorugh liquor stores, but Han also found a way to sell them from home.
He actually has a license to sell alcohol from his own liquor store, at home address.
By transforming the shed as a little store, Han has an actual licensed liquor store at home! To me, this sounds as the ultimate mancave.
Fun fact is that people might ring the doorbell and actually buy a whisky.
How can you sell this stuff?!
Han mentions he like to drink whisky during a good conversation, as long as the conversation is not about whisky!
He tells us how he shares his bottles with friends while playing cards, and how he loves to see other people enjoy his drams. Not everybody that got a dram from Han could appreciate that. To quote a friend of Han after a sip: "How can you sell this stuff!?"
The confusion here might be that every bottle is a single cask whisky at cask strength and I can imagine people not being used to drinking whisky get shocked a bit.
Han jokingly mentions he has around 375 bottles left. Available from 3 different casks and although all were ex-Rivesaltes casks, each brings out it's own charm.
A good adventure has an ending
As I write up this story, I realise everything that I wrote down does not do justice to the adventure Han has embarked on. He shared fun little anecdotes, tells everything from his point of view and shares his doubts and certainties.
I already mention the fact that he is a whisky hero in my eyes.
From deciding to just get some casks based on an afternoon tasting with friends, to actually travelling to the distillery and meeting Jim McEwan on a tour, the whole proces sounds as an adventure to me.
Spicing it up with smaller stories around the labelling, Brexit, one bottle being 1 year older than the others in the series thanks to Brexit, it all creates a great story.
And like every book or movie where you're invested in, you don't want it to end.
But I had to ask the question:
What if all bottles have been sold?
"If it's done, it's done. It has been fun, but I'm not going to get new casks."
Like Han mentioned he has around 375 bottles left (At the time of the interview.).
If you don't want to miss out on a great Bruichladdich, check out his website at Gowewhisky.nl