Tasting Machine!

Hi my name is Olivier Beaulieu-Grise aka OBG

I was born on April 25th 1977 in Montreal Quebec Canada and I am a French Canadian that immigrated to Las Vegas Nevada in 2006 and I have made a life here but let’s step back in time so that you understand who I am and how I came to be IAMOBG.

Born in a family that was obsessed with food and wine I started studying wine at 15 since my mother read Wine Spectator, at the time I was taken back by how many wines the world had and how interesting the subject was

At the age of 17 I got a job has a dishwasher and eventually I became a busboy, from there I moved around to other restaurants until a faithful day I got invited to a wine tasting and on that day my life changed has I met Alain Belanger and he changed the course of my life in one swift tasting! From that point on I devoted my whole life to reading and tasting wine and basically spent all of my money buying wine and building a wine cellar. This was my calling and it still is today but things have evolved. 

By the time I was 20 years old I was doing inventory of one of the biggest steakhouse in Montréal and saw that hospitality was and still is to this day my calling since I love people and I can read a room in a blink of an eye, this obsession of focusing to be the best in my field has been a long journey and after getting fired from every job I held since at the time I thought that I knew it all..

Eventually I found myself looking to travel and expend my horizons and after complaining to my mother that I wanted to open my own restaurant and that no one wanted to finance me since I am a little crazy and at the time was only 25 years-old, and told me “ why don’t you go work on a cruise ship and see the world since you have nothing here and you speak multiple languages and I know of no one that knows more about wine or is more devoted to hospitality then you!” with that in mind I applied to all the cruise ship to end up two weeks later working in the Caribbean’s for Holland American on the Westerdam.

From there I met a man on that ship that offered me to come work for him in Las Vegas and at the time I thought sure like that is ever going to happen??? But the moment I got off the ship after five months of 16 hour days no days off! I came home and made the call for that would be the call that would change my life once again, that man paid for my visa and gave me a job in the fine wine division at Southern Wine & Spirits and within a year I was calling on the Wynn Resort & Casino with what I think is the greatest wine book in the world the J&P wholesale book that was close to nineteen thousand skus of the greatest wines in the world! But the crazy part is that I would work with two master sommeliers that mentored me on this insane journey!

After rising to the top of the industry and working there for four years I called it quits since one day I was sitting in a meeting and listening to the overall numbers I saw that wine was only a drop in the bucket and that the real money was in the spirits category, after seeing the rise of craft beer from 2000 to 2010 I told everyone I am leaving and I am opening a craft distillery in a garage so Distilling Head Distillery was born, everyone thought that I was completely lost my shit but like everything in my life I have never paid much attention to what people think or say! 

I moved my family to Portland Oregon and open distilling head distillery without a clue of how to do any of it but I eventually figured out allot of things and created Bengerminz Vodka and eventually created Warship rum. This journey push me to the edge of bankruptcy and eventually I had to move back to Las Vegas and go back to my first love being a floor sommelier at Wolfgang Puck Cut Steakhouse. Has usual that didn’t last long and I moved on to run West Coast Wine and spirits Wholesaler has the GM for more than a year but I still had the distillery open in Portland and would fly back every month to bottle the vodka and Rum even when I was working at the steakhouse. After getting a distribution deal for California, Nevada & Arizona I thought I was on my way and quite the Wholesaler but it didn’t take long that it wasn’t viable so I had to close everything and start over… but what could a man like myself do?

Her I am today after learning everything that the industry has to offer from brewing, distilling, winemaking and teaching hospitality to people and of course showing them how to buy Whiskey, Beer and wine and run a business so this is my new undertaking and it’s a simple new path

I OBG want to teach people how to taste and how to buy or make alcohol since allot of the time I see that the industry is very tight lip about how everything is made but in the end its simpler then everyone thinks. I am a digital Creator that makes intuitive videos about alcohol their brands and the companies that make them so I hope that you follow me on this never ending adventure!