BottledInBond Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 Every time I read almost anything Diageo does, I just shake my head. Who are the clowns in charge, and why does anyone keep giving them their money? https://www.foxnews.com/tech/distillery-scotland-using-ai-create-limited-edition-whisky 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anwalt Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 I respectfully beg to differ. The potential of AI is too great to ignore in any endeavor. Experimentation (including all the failed experiments) has been the source of constant innovation and improvement leading to the material paradise we inhabit. Shall AI at some point produce better whiskey? Dunno, seems likely to me, as AI just magnifies humans. Could it produce better whiskey, or improvements to existing ways of doing things? Yup. Would I pay for those particular Diageo bottles? Nope. Shall someone, especially given the small quantity? Likely. JMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvd99 Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 2 hours ago, BottledInBond said: Every time I read almost anything Diageo does, I just shake my head. Who are the clowns in charge, and why does anyone keep giving them their money? https://www.foxnews.com/tech/distillery-scotland-using-ai-create-limited-edition-whisky They’ve got to recoup their $230 million dollar investment - why not have the billionaires help them out at $50k per AI bottle? In all seriousness, I’m sure AI will weasel its way into every industry at some point, whisky included. I buy lots of Diageo stuff, their antics don’t really bother me. If you want old school, buy Springbank, only distiller to do everything in house, but that’s getting really expensive and hard to find too 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottledInBond Posted March 26 Author Share Posted March 26 4 hours ago, jvd99 said: They’ve got to recoup their $230 million dollar investment - why not have the billionaires help them out at $50k per AI bottle? In all seriousness, I’m sure AI will weasel its way into every industry at some point, whisky included. I buy lots of Diageo stuff, their antics don’t really bother me. If you want old school, buy Springbank, only distiller to do everything in house, but that’s getting really expensive and hard to find too I’m really not a scotch drinker so Diageo’s portfolio in that segment isn’t something I pay much attention to. Their bourbon and rye stuff is where most of my scrutiny has historically been. Maybe they’re great and doing the right things on the scotch side and if so that’s cool. Getting idiots to spend $50K on anything is ridiculous but if there’s an idiot willing to pay it, I guess that’s their own problem. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinjoe Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 2 hours ago, BottledInBond said: I’m really not a scotch drinker so Diageo’s portfolio in that segment isn’t something I pay much attention to. Their bourbon and rye stuff is where most of my scrutiny has historically been. Maybe they’re great and doing the right things on the scotch side and if so that’s cool. Getting idiots to spend $50K on anything is ridiculous but if there’s an idiot willing to pay it, I guess that’s their own problem. Yes, this could all be Stuid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kepler Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 (edited) On 3/26/2024 at 8:40 AM, BottledInBond said: Every time I read almost anything Diageo does, I just shake my head. Who are the clowns in charge, and why does anyone keep giving them their money? https://www.foxnews.com/tech/distillery-scotland-using-ai-create-limited-edition-whisky I agree with you. This is cringe territory. Can't they (or anyone else who enjoys whiskey) see that if whiskey becomes a product designed by A.I. that it will cease to exist as a unique premium product? What makes Scotch and bourbon desirable is the human element. I, for one, will not be interested in dropping anything over $25 for a liquor that is not made in the old world way. Might as well just get drunk on beer or some random low cost liquor. For a lot cheaper. Edited March 30 by Kepler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottledInBond Posted April 2 Author Share Posted April 2 On 3/29/2024 at 11:46 PM, Kepler said: I agree with you. This is cringe territory. Can't they (or anyone else who enjoys whiskey) see that if whiskey becomes a product designed by A.I. that it will cease to exist as a unique premium product? What makes Scotch and bourbon desirable is the human element. I, for one, will not be interested in dropping anything over $25 for a liquor that is not made in the old world way. Might as well just get drunk on beer or some random low cost liquor. For a lot cheaper. In my current state of bourbon zen, I’m pretty content with mid shelf and value products. I have lost the FOMO. If anything I get excited about barrel picks these days. To your point, the whole reason I like those is they’re all a little unique and when you can buy picks from people who you know has similar tastes, it dramatically increases the chances you’ll enjoy it. That’s the human element. The fact that anyone would spend $50K on any bottle of any liquid is irrational. That said, do I interact with people occasionally where $50K is no big deal to them at all? Yeah, but I still think it’s dumb to do so. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvd99 Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 On Whiskyfun.com, the best review site around IMO, they had a post this week about how an intern at Macallan mistakenly sent out an e-mail describing the "Butt Heart" aging process they use on some unique bottles that I'd never even heard if before, which apparently uses AI to help determine when the butt contents are ready to be extracted from a sherry butt that has never been moved even an inch after landing in the warehouse. Apparently, the liquid at the "heart" of the butt ages differently than the liquid surrounding it. Very interesting use of AI, different than Diageo. I just cut and pasted the blog post because WF is so old-school, you can't link to an actual post The Macallan Butt Heart, at the very heart of innovation Whiskyfun exclusive This isn't the first time mysterious butts of The Macallan bearing enigmatic circles painted on their heads with the inscription 'BH' have been spotted in Edrington's warehouses, without anyone ever providing a real explanation. However, today, an email from the company accidentally sent by a marketing intern has just revealed to us that these are actually butts that are part of an innovative program called "Butt Heart". Unlike other casks, which are moved after maturation to the group's blending and bottling lines, which inevitably stirs up their contents, these butts are never moved or even opened after having joined their storage and maturation area in their warehouse. The whisky housed in these very special butts is thus never disturbed and, over the years, the very heart of the casks acquires an aromatic profile very different from that of the malt on the perimeter, or even in direct contact with the sherry-seasoned oak. Closer to the original distillate, less marked by wood and wine, it seems that these "butt hearts" become much more complex and subtle over the years than the other parts of each cask. Subsequently, after estimating the stage of maturation using a computer program fed by artificial intelligence developed by the Computer Science Department of Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, the butt heart is extracted using a gentle suction pump inserted right into the heart of the cask through its bung hole. The operation takes several hours for each cask, and the very slight mixing with the rest of the butt that occurs during the operation is thus reduced to infinitesimal amounts, with the heart remaining almost pure according to The Macallan. The rest of the cask then joins the blending and bottling areas, as usual. It is estimated that the extraction of the butt hearts will have only an extremely limited impact on the quality of the usual releases of the 12 years, 15 years, 18 years or, of course, the NAS expressions. However, it is stipulated that the older expressions, like the 21 years or the 25 years, will never contain any butt from which the heart has been extracted in this way. The first release of the new The Macallan Butt Heart seems to be planned for the second half of 2024. It will display no age statement and will be bottled at 40% ABV, but the price already seems to be set at around £3,499 per bottle, due to the extreme quality of these butt hearts and the fact that only fifteen percent of the contents of each butt used during this extremely innovative process can be extracted. As we go to press, no one at The Macallan was available to comment on this exclusive information, but we will keep you updated. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvd99 Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 LOL - I think the MacAllan thing was an April Fools post - just dawned on me Now that's funny and embarrassing at the same time! I never seem to pay attention to April 1 and fall for this all the time....Good one Whiskyfun.com!! At least I broke the news to myself.... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulO Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 Butt Heart - sounds a lot like butt head. You know, if it was real, there are people that would fork over the 3,499 pounds or USD equivalent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvd99 Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 11 hours ago, PaulO said: Butt Heart - sounds a lot like butt head. You know, if it was real, there are people that would fork over the 3,499 pounds or USD equivalent. Oh yeah, embarrassing for sure. I think it would be $100k no doubt! Gotta tag @mbroo5880i and @BottledInBond because they’ll get a kick out of making fun of me 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbroo5880i Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 (edited) 13 minutes ago, jvd99 said: Oh yeah, embarrassing for sure. I think it would be $100k no doubt! Gotta tag @mbroo5880i and @BottledInBond because they’ll get a kick out of making fun of me Our banter can get intense but it is all in good spirit. I always respect you perspective. As you know, you and I agree on more than we disagree. It is just all in the nuance. I had not seen this until you tagged me but I will be honest. When I read through the post, I thought "Butt Heart" seems odd but when I read "the butt heart is extracted using a gentle suction pump inserted right into the heart of the cask through its bung hole" I became suspicious. I almost felt stuid falling for it. Peace Brother! Edited April 5 by mbroo5880i Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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