Men Behaving Badly

The following post concerns my observations of sub-par behavior at a recent whisky event. These comments are meant to point out the behavior of a few reprehensible individuals and not cast a pall on an otherwise excellent show.

Men behaving badly

I was appalled at the behavior of some of the attendees during the speaker sessions. These people were less interested in learning form the invited speakers and more interested in being rude and obnoxious.

Here are but a few examples of what I witnessed during the Glenrothes talk led by Ronnie Cox and Martine Nouet:

• Just prior to the beginning of the presentation, one gentleman asshole thought it would be appropriate to walk up to Martine as she was preparing, grab a $300 bottle of 1972 and pour himself a dram. When Martine challenged him, he responded with "What are you, the body guard?"
• Ronnie started off by passing around a bottle of new make spirit for the group to nose. A group of men occupying the second row (directly behind me) decided it would be fine to pour themselves samples from the bottle - despite instructions by Ronnie to the contrary.  This same group then refused to pass the bottle around for the rest of the room and then refused to return it to Ronnie when he asked for it. And at the end of the session they attempted to steal the bottle, claiming they had no idea where it was.
• Several groups (including the bottle thieves) talked incessantly and loudly amongst themselves, despite the fact that Ronnie and Martine were in the middle of a presentation. They refused to quiet down despite requests from the presenters and other attendees.
• Several people let their cell phones ring (instead of turning them off) and worse, answered the phones and had discussions in the midst of the presentation.
• Others decided it was fine to leave and return to the room throughout the course of the presentation.
• One jack-ass decided to tell Ronnie how he didn't like what was being served.

Those people weren't there to learn, they were there to drink whatever was available.

The speaker at another session told me that they were sorry they wasted good whisky (35 years old!) on their group, since their 10 year old would have been just as appreciated (which is to say - not at all).

Meanwhile back at the ranch

I heard from some of the exhibitors that they were a little put off by people walking up to the table and simply asking for "the oldest one you have", gulping it down and wandering off to look for the next "old" whisky.

Jokers like the ones I mentioned are ruining it for people who actually go to the show to learn something or to try something new. I don't want to get all nationalistic - but for many of our Scottish friends, this is the only exposure they get to Americans - behavior like this simply reinforces that Americans are loud and obnoxious. Just because you pay $100 to get in doesn't give you the right to act like a giant dick.

My solution?

Registration

Require registration and levy an extra admission fee for the speaker sessions/master classes. An entry fee could be all it takes to separate the people who want to be in the session from the people who just happen to get to the room first.

Tickets

One major difference between the major shows is that at one show attendees are given a booklet of tickets - each ticket is exchanged for a single dram. In actual practice, I know that exhibitors can be selective, and don't always collect tickets. While I used to be a fan of the no tickets method, at least it allows exhibitors to deny a dram to someone who is "over the limit".

With the "no ticket" scheme, I think that people tend to be less responsible and perhaps waste more -  because they feel no need to ration.

Many people will argue with me on this one - and it does punish the responsible drinker - but I've officially switched over to being a proponent of drink tickets - this is not meant to be a drunken frat party, it's a whisky show.

Conclusion

For me, these people cast a shadow on an otherwise excellent show - I can only hope that the people whom I observed read this and feel ashamed for their actions.

Comments

[Chris]

I have come across this situation a couple of times and find it reprehensible. Sure we all like a few drams and may like to interact a bit with the speaker, which if done properly can really add to the event for everyone, but when people start to disrupt the whole event it is time to send them packing. This happened at Bruichladdich a few years ago. Jim was giving a fantastic master class and a few visitors kept talking very loudly in a foreign language and half of us could not hear a thing that Jim was saying. Jim handled it very well, gave them one warning, then on the second offence (a few seconds later) he had his staff remove them from the premises - with a resounding applause from the audience.

***COMMENT EDITED***

I could go on, like the time I was helping out at Bowmore during the festival and caught two Americans sneaking behind the bar to pour themselves huge tumblers of the oldest whisky on the shelf, or the German who refused to pay for anything after an evening of imbibing on expensive whisky because he was from "the German whisky club",or the people that stole the Bunnahabhain sign....

I do not care who your are or how important you think you are, when it comes to enjoying the generous hospitality provided by the great people in Scotland, just respect it and appreciate it and leave your boorish behaviour at home.

[Euan Shand]

I refer to the slanderous comments made by "Chris" regarding my company Duncan Taylor & Co Ltd.

The event in question was attended by members of my company who behaved impeccably and were neither drunk nor created a disturbance. The event was partly filmed by a Duncan Taylor customer who was a guest of the company at the event.

The perpetrators of the disturbance,two individuals from Chicago were caught on camera and clearly were not Duncan Taylor employees.Duncan Taylor and Co does not condone drunken behaviour and no employee of the company has contravened a clear directive to this effect regarding behaviour at events.

I sincerely hope that Scotchblog does not pander to misleading statements which in effect will demean their excellent site.

Euan Shand
Managing Director
Duncan Taylor & Co Ltd

[Kevin Erskine]

Editor's Note:

In his Post, Chris mentioned an event that allegedly concerned members of the Duncan Taylor staff.

Euan Shand recently contacted me to let me know that the people in question WERE not related to Duncan Taylor in ANYWAY and were in fact 2 drunken Americans from Chicago who attempted to pass themselves off as DT employees.

The newspaper that reported the 2 as DT employees has printed a retraction and apologized to Duncan Taylor.

I have removed the comment and am happy to have Euan clear the issue....

[Euan]

Thanks Kevin. Keep up the good work, you have an excellent site. Hopefully "Chris" is one of your regular readers and will accept that Duncan Taylor is a reputable company and values its integrity.