Nico Martini is all over the place. He’s an author, a blender, and event coordinator, and runs an industry supplier, BarDraft. Martini worked with former MLB three-time all-star Vernon Wells and Ironroot Republic to develop a blended Texas whiskey that won a 2022 Barleycorn.
How long have you been a whiskey author?
Six years.
Name a book that matters
The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell.
Why does it matter?
It was the first book that changed the way I thought about navigating the world of networks. I never thought about the interconnectivity between everybody and everything before that. It changed my perspective.
Favorite quote from the book:
“Broken Windows theory and the Power of Context are one and the same. They are both based on the premise that an epidemic can be reversed, can be tipped, by tinkering with the smallest details of the immediate environment.”
The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell
There are stories and ideas in that book that made me think differently. Like the broken window theory from the 70s. It goes along with the way they think about policing. If we start taking care of the low-level crimes, we can reach the bigger players beause they do low level things to. Now, in hindsight, it’s led to over-policing and stop and frisk, and maybe the tactics weren’t good. But the idea of if you have an opportunity to change the little things the big things will fall in line was solid.
Your preferred top-shelf whiskey:
Kentucky Made Black Maple Hill Bourbon
Why do you like it so much?
It was a gift from my brother. It was the first real whiskey I had that was made to be whiskey. It was not made to be mixed. You drink it straight. We’re talking rare, incredible spirits. I got it around 2000 and sat on it for years before I started doing whiskey events. While I was writing Texas Whiskey, I used up the whole bottle making Manhattans. Which in hindsight, was a misuse of a $4000 bottle of whiskey. But good God, it was wonderful.
Whiskey Revival! Two shots of GB, one shot of lemon juice, one shot of St. Germaine’s–SHAKE over ice and serve!
Your guilty pleasure way to drink it.
Well . . . as a Manhattan.
I never want to make a ___________ again in my life:
Gin anything. I’m gold if I never touch it again.
What is a perfect whiskey?
Andalusia Whiskeys Palo Duro. It’s a Texas single malt. Everything in this bottle is from Texas. This is the 2021 three-year-old, barely grown in the Texas high plains, then smoked with peach wood from a neighbor’s farm. Is it obtainbinable? No. But how often is perfect whiskey obtainable.
People need to quit drinking . . .
. . . Kentucky bourbon because it’s boring.
Who would you most like to see answer these questions?
Chris Hart of the Houston Whiskey Social
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