The Curious Bartender Podcast

Francois Thibault is the co-creator of Grey Goose vodka, which launched in 1997  quickly became the world’s most respected super premium vodka brand.  I travelled to Picardy in Northern France alongside Grey Goose’s global brand ambassador, Joe McCanta to meet Francois, and visit the wheat fields of the region the distillery where Grey Goose is made. I should say at this point that Grey goose didn...

Jared Brown and Anastasia Miller are internationally acclaimed authors, historians, distillers. They are the co-founders of Mixellany Limited, they have consulted for spirits brands and bars worldwide, contributing significantly to contemporary cocktail culture. It’s also Jared and Anastasia we have to thank for discovering the first known written reference to a 'cocktail' - from 1798. They have w...

Professor David Mabberley is a world renowned botanist, writer and public speaker, who specialises in the taxonomy of tropical plants. Over more than 50 years he has authored countless scientific papers and identified dozens of new plant species through fieldwork conducted in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and Australia. He is a former Keeper of the Herbarium, Library, Art and Archives at the Royal Bo...

Kevin Armstrong is a bartender, bar owner, spirits and cocktail educator and the author of Round Building, a manual for the professional bartender. Kevin rose to fame in the London bar scene over 20 years ago as the group bar manager for the Match Bar Group. He wrote and deployed the most comprehensive cocktail training program of the era, contributing significantly to the critical acclaim of bars...

Iván Saldaña is a Mexican biologist and internationally recognised expert on agave spirits. With a PhD from the University of Sussex, his research focuses on agave ecology and evolution. Saldaña co-founded Montelobos Mezcal and Casa Lumbre, launching innovative brands like Ancho Reyes, Abasolo whisky, and Sotol Nocheluna. He blends scientific expertise with sustainable practices, and is one of the...

Luca Gargano, CEO of Velier, is one of the most influential figures in rum, known for transforming the rum category globally. Based in Genoa, Italy, Luca's expertise spans wine and spirits trading, authorship, and deep-rooted connections within the Caribbean rum world. In this episode, Luca discusses his extensive experience travelling the Caribbean, beginning with his early life and connections t...

Desmond Payne MBE is Master Distiller Emeritus of Beefeater, one of the world's best loved and most respected gin brands. He is the longest serving gin master distiller in the world, having also spent a 20 year stint at Plymouth Gin. And he is perhaps the most respected gin distiller alive today. I sat down with him in his office at the Beefeater Distillery in London to discuss the history of...

Jonathan, known to his friends as JD, is a bar and restaurant operator of nearly 30 years who has been responsible for some of the best loved and most influential cocktail bars of the early 21st century. In 1997 he founded the Match Bar group which through JD’s uncompromising vision and an illustrious cast of future superstar bartenders, made for groundbreaking venues as Match Bar, The Player, Mil...

Jaime Orendain is a tequilero based at the El Llano Distillery in Tequila Town, Mexico. The Orendain family are considered one of the four founding families of tequila and remain the only family owned producer of the founding four. Jaime and his brother Eduardo established the Arette brand of tequila in the 1980's from the El Llano distillery, and today are amongst the most respected producers of...

Ed Hughes is a certified beer sommelier, the author of Just add Beer - a book about beer and food pairing - and also one of my oldest friends. Based in Cornwall he works at Sharps Brewery as an educator and advocate for Molson Coors but also the beer category as a whole. This is a wide ranging conversation about beer, where we drink through 10 different beers reflecting a bunch of styles, whilst c...

David Gluckman is a retired brand and advertising consultant and author, who over a 40 year career working in the drinks industry created the ideas behind some of the world’s best know spirits, liqueurs and soft drinks. This is a conversation about how brands come into existence, how to test them, package them and market them, and how to streamline this process so as to do it quickly and avoid com...

Jake Burger is a bartender, gin producer and amateur (his own words) drinks historian. I gave him just four questions - who is the greatest bartender of all time, what is the greatest cocktail of all time, what is the greatest cocktail book of all time, and which is the greatest bar of all time? Now an apology. Before recording with Jake I had just finished my interview with Alessandro Palazzi at...

Jamie Baxter is a Distillery Consultant who has designed and built more than 100 distilleries over the past 15 years. He setup the Chase Vodka Distillery in Herefordshire in 2008, built the City of London Distillery, East London Liquor Company, and distilleries in Europe and India. On the episode we discuss his transition from cereal manufacturing to potato vodka distilling when he joined Willian...

Alessandro Palazzi is the Head Bartender at Dukes Hotel in London where this episode was filmed. In a career spanning 50 years, he has made possibly more martinis that anyone else alive today at what is perhaps the most famous martini bar in the world. On the episode Alessandro shares his 50 year career in hospitality, the philosophy of Dukes, his tips on how to make a great martini, what it was l...

Dawn Davies is a certified master of wine, former sommelier to the star, former head wine and spirits buyer for Selfridges, and has been the head wine and spirit buyer for the Whisky Exchange for the past 8 or 9 years. 00:00 What is Wine? 01:40 Where is Wine Made? Climate, New World & Old World, History, Soil 08:56 Wine Producing Regions of Note 15:19 Tasting Chablis, Comparing Wines, Intro to...

Lyndon is the designer a co-founder of more than 20 bars, pubs and restaurants in the UK including Crazy Pedros, Bunny Jackson’s, Junkyard Golf, Cane & Grain, and Southside. Through a complex range of business partnerships he has conceptualised and built these venues over only a little more than a decade, becoming probably the most successful British bar entrepreneur of his generation. Beyond...

Ian Stirling is the co-founder of the Port of Leith Distillery, located in the historic port of Leith, Scotland. He’s also the co-founder of Lind & Lime Gin and runs a wine and spirits bottling and import business. The Port of Leith Distillery is one of the most remarkable in the world — a vertical distillery built like a tower block in an urban landscape. It holds the unique distinction of be...

Charles Maclean is a renowned Scottish whisky writer, expert, and author. He has written numerous books on the subject, including Whisky: The Water of Life and Scotch Whisky, and specialises in the history and culture of scotch whisky, along with the sensory evaluation of its appreciation. This interview took place at his residence in Edinburgh. Expect to hear about Charlie’s earliest experiences...

Jack Stein is a chef, author, and TV personality. He is the executive head chef of Rick Stein Group including the Seafood Restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall, which recently celebrated its 50th birthday. On the episode we talk about 50 years of The Seafood Restaurant—how it all started as a nightclub, its transformation into a culinary institution, and what the future holds as Jack and his brothers ta...

Isabel Graham-Yooll is a leading expert in the world of fine spirits and the secondary market. She was the director of Whisky. Auction and before that, she worked as a spirits buyer at Bordeaux Index and Milroy’s of Soho. In 2024, she launched Wisgy , an independent consultancy specialising in old and rare spirits, helping collectors, investors, and enthusiasts make sense of the ever-evolving mark...

Salvatore Calabrese has remained one of the leading figures in global cocktail culture for at least forty years. He has served kings, queens, presidents, and a string of Hollywood actors over a career that has seen him tend the bar at legendary Mayfair hotels such as The Dukes, The Lanesborough, Fifty St James, The Playboy Club, and most recently Browns Hotel. We sat down for a conversation about...

Antonio Amorim is the CEO of Amorim Cork, who over a 155 year history have become the world’s biggest producer of cork and cork products.  Amorim produce 6 billion cork stoppers annually accounting for over 50% of the global market. Expect to learn the varied way in which infiltrates our lives, cork is harvested, processed and graded, how cork stoppers are produced and their applications, how the...

James Hoffmann is the best known coffee person in the world. He is the author of the World Atlas of Coffee, co-founder of Square Mile Coffee Roasters, former World Barista Champion, and the host of the James Hoffmann YouTube channel. Expect to learn how delicious instant coffee is made, how barista competitions work, the best ways to up your coffee game at home, why this might be the end of the go...

Andreia is an archaeologist and museum curator, working principally with the Art of Drinking Museum at the World of Wine in Porto, which holds more than 3,500 drinking vessels dating back 9,000 years. This episode was recorded and filmed in the museum, along with eight selected artefacts taken from the display cabinets that together total more than 20,000 years of human drinking history. Expert to...

Ryan Chetiyawardana aka Ryan Cheti, aka Mr Lyan, is  a bartender, bar operator, and author, known for his unique creative style and multi award winning bars in London, Washington DC and Amsterdam, including White Lyan, Cub, Dandelion, Lyaness, Silver Lyan and Super Lyan. Expect to learn about Ryan’s approach to creativity, how important language is to hospitality and flavour, some of the weirdest...