Whisky Party

A few quick (belated) notes about last night’s Macallan Twitter tasting at Eighty One. I would have posted  earlier, but today was a big work day and multiple, free glasses of Macallan 18 don’t really leave one in the proper condition to write blog posts at midnight.

• Obviously all the whisky was fantastic, and the food pairings lived up to their Michellin-Star hype (except the asparagus flan, which didn’t complement the whisky).   All tasting notes – including my own – can be found using the #Macallan hashtag.  You can catch some pics and reviews from NOTCOT (who joined us “virtually”) and Live the Lush Life (who was also in attendance).
• Very cool to see the Macallan ice-ball maker in action.  Less cool to have it in my glass (no pun intended).  Despite claims that it could chill a glass for 45 minutes, it melted pretty quickly.  Rather than function as a sipping glass throughout the tasting, it gave me an over-watered scotch within 10 – 15 minutes.
• This was the youngest crowd I’ve ever seen at a scotch tasting.  Most people in the room looked under 35.  From what I understand, half the folks were drinks writers or bloggers, and half came from the culinary world.  That was really encouraging.  More kids these days need to realize scotch isn’t just their father (or grandfather)’s drink.
• Also very cool that some folks from Mashable! were there (and making nice Simpson’s references in their comments/tweets).  Still waiting to see if they’re going to write about it on their site.
• The PR folks really hit on a good idea here, and there are over 25 search pages on Twitter with the #Macallan hashtag as evidence.  This was no #skittles fiasco.  Seemed like lots of folks were following online, generating a decent amount of word-of-mouth PR for the brand.  Thanks to the younger, networked attendees, it also probably hit a much younger audience overall, which is great for Macallan as they try to excite a new generation of whisky drinkers.

In short, this was a grand-slam for Macallan.  Now I’m wondering when other distilleries will try something similar.  When they do, I hope I get another invite.

Related posts:

1. Twitter Contest: Join Me at the NYC Macallan Twitter Tasting
2. Tasting Notes: The Macallan 18
3. 40 Whiskies under $40: Macallan Fine Oak 10 Years Old