Mark, founder of the ground-breaking terroir-driven Waterford Whisky in Ireland and Renegade Rum in Grenada, is going through the grinder of both being in receivership*, and made time for a chat with me.
Mark is very open on the 'pod about the factors that led to the current situation, and there are some real nuggets in here, such as Waterford being French powerhouse distributor La Maison du Whisky's 5th best-selling whisky, why Waterford never did private casks, why you need to go deep, not wide (especially in the USA) and why whisky before the OPEC crisis of 1973 was better.
We're all hoping Mark - who is assembling an investment syndicate to bid for the assets - can regain control of the companies when the assets are auctioned in January, as I don't think anyone can realise the promise of Waterford and Renegade that isn't named Mark Reynier.
*Ireland, where Waterford Whisky is based, doesn't have similar options to the USA's Chapter 11 "protection from creditors"-type of insolvency laws.
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