I organised my first Whisk(e)y Tasting

Hey guys!
So like the title says, I recently organised my first whisk(e)y tasting 🙂

As my whisk(e)y collection keeps growing I decided that I should share it with some friends and share the whisk(e)y love, also try to teach them a little bit about the whisk(e)y world.

So after doing some research on how one can organise this, I put the plan in motion.

I had to consider a couple of factors as well, like the fact that none of us, the participants to the whisk(e)y tasting, is really an aficionado, so I had to make sure I made the right choices in terms of: the format to use, the whisk(e)y to choose and how to present it to my audience.

The format
As for the format, despite the fact that we were all beginners here, I went with a blind whisk(e)y tasting. I know, you’re going to say “why go for a blind tasting, since you are all beginners”, to that I say “For fun!”:-)) Yes, I went with a blind tasting format so that we would have a lot of fun in the process and let me tell you, we did! And the success was partly because of the choice in whisk(e)y.

The whisk(e)y I chose for the tasting
So, since I chose to have a blind tasting, I knew I had to make a smart choice and also provide some hints for the guys, since we are all beginners and would have had a hard time guessing the brands used.

With that in mind, I chose the following:

1. a sherry cask – GlennDronach 12yo
2. an American whiskey (bourbon) – Eagle Rare 10yo
3. a blend – Johnnie Walker Blender’s Batch
4. a heavily peated scotch – Talisker 10yo

The presentation
As for the presentation, I did not use glencairn glasses, I used tumblers and to make things even more unique, I used small 50ml bottles for the tasting samples, and each of us would pour the whisk(e)y in the one glass that was provided.
I also designed and printed out tasting mats with instructions (see photo) and also tasting notes pads(see photo).

So everyone tasted the samples, one by one and made a note of:

• the spirit nationality
• type (blended or single malt)
• strength and color
• tasting notes
• comments and conclusions
• everyone had to say whether the sample was a cherry cask, American(bourbon), a blend, a peated scotch

We had tons of fun and at the end I asked everyone to tell me which one was their favorite sample, surprisingly the Number 2 sample, which was the Eagle Rare 10yo, had very good reviews. Then I asked them to have a look at the other side of the printed tasting mat where the 4 samples were revealed with tasting notes and details.
Everyone said they had tons of fun and we agreed to make this a recurring event!

All in all, it was a great night! 😉

And of course we just had to have a cigar, or two, after we finished the tasting. We also had some brandy and watched the Champions League Final match ! :-))

Now over to you, what do you think about this whisk(e)y tasting? Would you have done it differently, considering this was the first one? Have you organised whisk(e)y tastings before? How did you do it?
Sound off in the comments section.

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The aftermath! :-))

Also, don’t forget:
This blog does not sell alcoholic beverages and does not encourage nor promotes irresponsible alcohol consumption, so please DRINK RESPONSIBLY! 🙂

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Andrei Muresan

My name is Andrei, Andrei-Paul Muresan. I’m an IT professional, born in the wonderful year of 1982, in the heart of Transylvania (for people who don’t know, the heart of Transylvania is a city called Cluj-Napoca, located in Eastern Europe, in Romania to be more exact). Here’s a photo of me, just to put a face to the name 😉 I mentioned Transylvania because most people are more likely to know where Transylvania is and not where Romania is 🙂 oh and by the way, vampires, they’re just ghost stories, sorry to disappoint everybody. As you might expect, given my profession, I’m passionate about technology and everything that surrounds it, but I am also a great spirits fan, and when I say spirits I mean scotch, whisk(e)y and cognac, and I also enjoy a good cigar (I never say no to a good cigar). I like to mix all that with a good tune and also a good game, I own a couple of game consoles. I am, by no means, an expert in the scotch/whisk(e)y/cognac/cigar world, but I am keen on learning everything there is to know about it, so I’m launching an invitation to you, to join me in this virtual journey as we learn together.

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