Keys to hosting your tasting

I get a lot of requests for tips on hosting a tasting.

The thing to keep in mind is that a tasting should be fun. Tastings can and should each have their own personalities. Enjoy the differences. Different attendees, different whiskies, different moods.
But the keys to hosting a good tasting are quite simple:

1. Know your audience. Are they novices? Experts? If novices, then make sure you have a variety of whiskies that have different taste profiles - If everything tastes the same, they'll think Scotch is boring. If they are experts, then make sure you are tasting some interesting things.
2. Know your limits. Do not try to taste too many whiskies. 4 - 6 is a good range. Closer to 4 for novices.
3. Know your stuff. Or Don't. If you are the knowledgable one in the group - be prepared to answer questions. If you are all a bunch of friends getting together to try some new things, (highly recommended) then it's OK not to know all about the whisky. Go to the distillery's site and download the official tasting notes. Use them as a rough guide. Learn together.
4. Have fun.

And now...a classic story on hosting a tasting...

Originally Posted - December 20, 2005

Hosting a Tasting

Last week I hosted my annual Christmas Scotch tasting.

This is an invite only event for 10 or so of my personal friends. Most of these guys are NOT Scotch drinkers, but are fans of alcohol in general and are always looking to learn new things.

In an informal tasting I generally offer some chocolate and shortbread to go along with each whisky. The chocolate is generally Dove and the shortbread is always Walkers. In a tutored tasting, the snacks are offered after we finish the flight of whisky. I make note of what I offered with each whisky below.

Chocolate chip cookies are always available.

This year I presented six whiskies in the following order. (Remember, when hosting your own tasting, always present the whisky by flavor, from lightest to strongest/more complex):

Compass Box Orangerie - This wasn't really part of the tutored tasting, I just wanted everyone to try this excellent beverage. I also didn't want to wait until the end when people's olfactory nerves and taste buds might not fully appreciate the sublime flavor of this once a year beauty. The Orangerie was offered with orange flavored chocolate - you know the one - the orange-shaped ball of chocolate that you whack and it separates into wedges. Good combo.

Bruichladdich 10 - This is what I use to show people that not all Islays are peaty and smoky. The Bruichladdich 10 is light and floral - and perhaps a little young for a 10. Shortbread was offered with the Bruichladdich.

Johnnie Walker Green - We switched gears a bit and I pulled out what I think is a very fine example of a mass market blended malt. Most of the guys, whose experience is limited to JW Red or Black label, were very much surprised by this -- as was I when I first tried it. Served with shortbread and milk chocolate.

Glenfarclas 12 - All things being equal, given a choice between a Macallan 12 and a Glenfarclas 12, I'll take the Glenfarclas. Keep in mind, that I REALLY like the Macallan, but the Glenfarclas is a special treat - It's Macallan's rough-edged cousin. It has all the sherried goodness, but a bite that I enjoy. Dark chocolate.

Bowmore 12 - "The Islay Malt" - Bowmore has the smoke and peat that people expect from an Islay, but is much more even-tempered than a Laphroaig, Lagavulin or Ardbeg. As such, it makes a great introduction to the stronger Islays and is a fine dram in its own right. Served with shortbread and dark chocolate.

Laphroaig 10 year old Cask Strength -  I love this stuff. And I am a kind and generous man for offering it to my guests. Delicious, smoky, peaty. Serve with anything.

The consensus

Everything went over very well...even the rank novices followed the flight and could differentiate distinct differences among all six whiskies -- but the consensus was that for the price ($40) and the taste, the Bowmore 12 couldn't be beat, and it will likely be a new addition to quite a few liquor cabinets as a result.

Here's a parlor trick you can use at your next tasting. This is particularly useful for novices who can't detect anything in the nose other than "whisky."

1. Have your guests hold the tasting glass in one hand, while completely covering the mouth of the glass with their other hand.
2. Then instruct them to vigorously swirl/shake the glass. The palm of their hand should get wet - this has the benefit of aerating the heck out of the whisky.
3. Have them put down the glass and rub the palms of their hands together - this should be done quickly to generate a little heat and cause the whisky to evaporate.
4. Have them immediately cup their hands and place them over their nose and mouth. They should then take a deep whiff.

They should now be able to detect some of the more distinct "non-whisky" aspects of the nose. Plus, it is quite entertaining to see a group of people do this.

The tasting was also a great socialization test for Elsa, the wonder dog, who has never been exposed to that many people in a confined space at once. It's important for large dogs to have proper socialization - she just turned 7 months and is pushing 60 lbs - and rather than ripping out the throats of my guests (which would have been frowned upon),  she spent the majority of the tasting laying at my feet to protect me from all the drunks. Or was it to lap up any inadvertent spills? Either way, good dog! 
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I wanted to let everyone know that www.whiskynews.com now redirects to The Scotch Blog.
Strom was too busy to keep the site up and running with the frequency he would have liked. He kindly donated the URL to me, and for that I am immensely grateful!

Comments

[Stephen Eley]

Wow. This is perfectly timed. I'd read your December post before -- Mark Gillespie from the WhiskyCast pointed me to it -- but the refresher was handy.

Starting this Saturday, my friends and I (all novices, or near enough) are going to be starting a series of tastings we're calling 'Single Malt Who'. It's a dual-purpose social event: whisky tasting first, then watching the second season of Doctor Who. (Yes, we're geeks. Last year we did wine and anime.)

I've been trying to research this, and have found no information on doing a series of tastings for whisky, analogous to a tasting course for wine. The only references I have are your book and Jackson's, and while yours has good classifications by general taste type, none gives specific recommendations for "These things are interesting to try in contrast to each other." So I'm expecting we'll have to make this up as we go along. Budgetary constraints mean we'll only be tasting three whiskies per evening, none will be too expensive, and we'll probably reuse several by the end.

In order to have any sort of guidance at all, we're hoping to organize the first few by theme. The first evening will be "What makes single malt different?" -- so we'll be tasting an Irish blend (Black Bush), a Scotch blend (Johnnie Walker Black Label), and one single malt (Macallan 12). Again, we're all beginners, so I wanted to make sure we had a range with obvious differences. Later tastings may look at regions, types of wood, age ranges, etc. I expect it'll be tough to do this and stay at $10-$20 per person per evening, but we're going to try. I may have some questions for you later on as the series gets more complicated. I hope that's all right.

Why are we doing this? First, because it sounded like fun -- and second, because we couldn't find any other way. We live in Atlanta, and it seems that there's at most one event per year around here, which I usually manage to miss. I've found stores with decent selections, but none with a staff that knows or cares about Scotch (recommendations there would be helpful, if anyone knows the city). With no one local to teach us, we decided we'll have to teach ourselves.

Besides -- it beats coming over just to watch TV...

[GreyArea]

Argh! JW Green isn't a blend, it's a vatted malt!

[Kevin Erskine]

Confused Jim.
Who said JW Green is a blend?
It is a blended malt.

Also when did you become a pirate? :)

[GreyArea]

Yarr, ya lubber!

[ok, pirate mode off]

Let's leave the word 'blend' out of the description of anything that only has single malts in it. It just confuses the issue. 'Blend' or 'Blended' has some very particular connotations, strict dictionary definitions notwithstanding.

To me:
blend = mix of grain and single malt (ie JW Black).

Vatted = mix of single malts (from more than one distillery or of different ages/characters from the same distillery) (ie JW Green, Serendipity)

Single Malt = single age, one distillery. May be technically a vatting of similar casks.

That's my take on it :-)

Yarr!

[buddy hawkins]

A friend is having a "scotch tasting" and we discovered that none of us knew what did not go with scotch. What is the consensus about what to serve after the scotch guru finishes with his presentation? thanks buddyhawkins@cableone.net

[Kevin Erskine]

While not only can I not argue with your logic- I agree with it.

Be that as it may, The SWA has spoken and "Blended malts" it is.

And as much as I hate to disagree with the Dread Pirate Jim, I WILL have to argue with your definitions.

A single malt is NOT defined as "single age, one distillery. May be technically a vatting of similar casks."

Most bottled single malts are, in fact, the result of the vatting of casks (from the same distillery) of varying ages. Only a dated vintage (e.g., Glenrothes 1991), or a single cask bottling will be from a specific year.

By the way, not sure if you were saying that Serendipity was a mix of single malts from the same distillery, but it was actually from two different distilleries - Ardbeg & Glen Moray (which are both owned by Glenmorangie PLC - a division of Moet-Hennessey; which in turn is owned by Louis Vuitton-Moet Hennessey (LVMH) & Diageo.)

[Kevin Erskine]

While the standard answer to the question might be another question: "what whisky are you serving", the simple answer is: "Whatever you want."

That is if you are all eating AFTER the whisky has been served and consumed.

If the two are a little more joined, (i.e., a whisky dinner) any traditional Scottish food could be served: Salmon, smoked salmon, steak, lamb, game, etc.

As you can imagine, Whisky was originally made to go with what Scottish farmers were eating.

Right now I'm in Scotland - tonight for dinner I had Smoked Salmon (1st course) and for the entree Chicken stuffed with haggis over a bed of mashed turnips- with potatoes and cabbage on the side. delicious.

Went very well with the Bruichladdich 15 y.o 2nd edition I was enjoying.