345 - Chasing Bourbon Counterfeiters with Adam Herz
Refills, counterfeits, and bogus bourbon. It's the unfortunate reality that we live in right now. Only until very recently have we seen distilleries start taking a more aggressive approach thwarting some of these efforts. But there is one individual who has stepped up to be known as THE person in the community when it comes to hunting down scammers and that's Adam Herz. Adam calls himself a whiskey watchdog and got into the habit of tracking down fakes a few years ago. He works with a team of people to find where bottles, foils, and sales originated to bring justice to the bourbon world. Adam has been featured on Inside Edition and was responsible for tracking down employees at Buffalo Trace who were involved a counterfeit ring at one point. He gives us some insight into his process and even some red flags to look for when you are wanting to buy a highly desirable bottle. Here's another fun fact about Adam, he is the creator of the American Pie film series. What bourbon would you pair with apple pie?
Show Notes:
- Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about dusty bottle ages.
- When did you see the rise of counterfeit bottles start making their way to market?
- Can you talk about your old hunting days?
- What does FOAF'ing mean?
- Can you give some insight and history into creating the American Pie series?
- Now that you're an adult, what bourbon would you pair with apple pie?
- How did you find a need in the market for someone to validate bottles?
- What drives you to be "the person" who uncovers these stories?
- How do you start gathering evidence and then presenting the facts?
- Are you keeping a database of Pappy bottles sold on eBay?
- What are some red flags when people are looking for fakes?
- Is it easier to fake a new or older bottle?
- Have you ever thought about involving law enforcement?
- Talk about how you broke up a Pappy Van Winkle counterfeit ring that led back to an employee at Buffalo Trace
- Support this podcast on Patreon
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Available Results
Generated results are saved to your library for reuse and search.
Choose Template
Pick the result you want. You can review provider and model before generating.
A concise first-pass summary for understanding the episode quickly.
A comprehensive, source-grounded extraction of the reusable knowledge in an episode.
Technologies, AI models, technical methods, capabilities, limitations, and adoption implications.
Repeatable methods, frameworks, mental models, processes, and systems.
A dedicated analysis of warnings, limitations, trade-offs, weak evidence, and uncertainty.
A dedicated inventory of concrete resources named in the episode.
A concise first-pass summary for understanding the episode quickly.
A detailed readable summary organized by chapter or topic.
A navigable map of subjects, topic flow, and suggested chapters.
A comprehensive, source-grounded extraction of the reusable knowledge in an episode.
Reusable atomic knowledge units extracted from the episode.
A comprehensive extraction focused on health practices, protocols, claims, and safety caveats.
A comprehensive extraction focused on opportunities, strategy, markets, and company building.
Explicit actions, next steps, habits, recommendations, and things to avoid.
A dedicated inventory of concrete resources named in the episode.
A dedicated analysis of warnings, limitations, trade-offs, weak evidence, and uncertainty.
A concise first-pass summary for understanding the episode quickly.
A detailed readable summary organized by chapter or topic.
A navigable map of subjects, topic flow, and suggested chapters.
A comprehensive, source-grounded extraction of the reusable knowledge in an episode.
Reusable atomic knowledge units extracted from the episode.
A comprehensive extraction focused on health practices, protocols, claims, and safety caveats.
A comprehensive extraction focused on opportunities, strategy, markets, and company building.
Scientific findings, mechanisms, studies, hypotheses, and the limits of the evidence discussed.
Technologies, AI models, technical methods, capabilities, limitations, and adoption implications.
Investment theses, assets, catalysts, valuation reasoning, time horizons, and risks.
Chronologies, actors, causes, consequences, turning points, and competing historical interpretations.
Policies, proposals, stakeholders, arguments, implementation constraints, and predicted effects.
Career paths, skills, hiring signals, workplace decisions, transitions, and limitations of the advice.
Behavioral mechanisms, biases, motivation, habits, emotions, interventions, and evidence limitations.
Economic mechanisms, incentives, indicators, market structure, forecasts, and uncertainty.
Leadership principles, team systems, organizational design, culture, feedback, and failure modes.
Audience, positioning, messaging, acquisition, retention, experiments, metrics, and failed approaches.
Teaching methods, learning strategies, practice, feedback, assessment, and effectiveness evidence.
Theses, premises, arguments, objections, values, thought experiments, and unresolved questions.
Communication patterns, conflict, boundaries, expectations, repair methods, and contextual limitations.
Books, papers, authors, courses, and other learning resources mentioned in the episode.
Repeatable methods, frameworks, mental models, processes, and systems.
Explicit actions, next steps, habits, recommendations, and things to avoid.
Memorable statements and important claims with attribution and source context.
A dedicated inventory of concrete resources named in the episode.
A dedicated analysis of warnings, limitations, trade-offs, weak evidence, and uncertainty.