12/19/2025
With all of those holiday parties coming up, why not do something special? Here are our five tips to the perfect whiskey tasting night 🥃
1. Prepare a presentation and/or handout for your guests.
• Define what you’re drinking, for example “It’s all Whiskey. Bourbon is American whiskey made from at least 51% corn, Scotch Whisky is from Scotland and is made of 100% barley, etc.”
• Include pics of the bottles and information about the distilleries.
• Give it your own personal touch with graphics and humor!
2. Choose a category. You want to pick something based on your audience. Here are some ideas for categories:
• The Survey Course - Choose a Bourbon, a Rye, A Scotch, and an Irish Whiskey. Explain the differences and help people to develop a taste for what they like.
• Regional Deep-Dive - Choose a region - Islay, Scotland for example - and showcase different distilleries from that region.
• The Vertical - Pick one distillery and pour different ages / expressions. K**b Creek 9/12/18/21, or Lagavulin
8,11,12,16.
• The Beast Master - Go hog wild (see what we did there?), have everyone pitch in some cash, and buy four of the most outrageous bottles you can afford.
3. Pointers:
• Glassware - Have matching glasses for all your drams and pour them out in advance.
•Pours/Portions - Four pours is usually good, three minimum, five max. It gets hard to taste after 5. A half ounce per pour is a good, an ounce if you’re feeling randy. 1/4 ounce minimum if you have a lot of folks.
• Order - Pour the most gentle/subtle flavors first. Start with lower proofs. Save anything like peated or sherry-finished for the end. And don’t mix different liquors like whiskey, tequila, rum, Armagnac.
• The Delighter - Grab one special bottle, maybe a birth year bottle for your honored guest, a limited release, or a vintage find. Hide it and save it as a “delighter” pour at the end.
4. Food/Pairings
• Avoid anything that will overpower the whiskey - nothing spicy/saucy/stinky.
• Salty and sweet things usually pair well.
• If you’re serving dinner, do the tasting before.
5. ENJOY! Encourage people to start drinking immediately, don’t talk too much, play music!
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