Scotchtoberfest ideas

December 7, 2006 8:50 AM

I'm helping host a single malt whisky tasting party, potluck style. How do I ensure a wide range of choices brought from participants?

Next month I'm helping to host Scotchtoberfest, a single malt whisky tasting party.

Format: Each attendee will bring one bottle of single malt. Everyone gets to sample everything, and at the end of the evening we will draw lots. Person who draws #1 gets to choose which bottle they get to bring home. #2 gets next pick, etc.

Problem: I want to make sure that a wide range of whiskys are represented, without going as far as picking what people bring. How can I do that effectively?

(and by all means, while it's not my specific question, feel free to recommend specific bottles to bring)

posted by mcstayinskool to food & drink (17 comments total)

Why do you want to have people take home bottles other than the one they brought? I would feel uncomfortable bringing a $100 bottle knowing that I could likely take home a $50 one. Then again, I'm a poor grad student.

To avoid duplicates, you could set up a shared Google spreadsheet where people name what they will bring. It'll be hard to enforce a broad spectrum without assigning something, but a lack of duplicates will go a long way.

By the way, Lagavulin is great.
posted by Schismatic at 9:04 AM on December 7, 2006

Why do you want to have people take home bottles other than the one they brought?

Because it's fun. This format will sell well with this group.

Thanks for the google spreadsheet idea. That could work.
posted by mcstayinskool at 9:07 AM on December 7, 2006

I've participated in parties like this before. One thing we did is require that all bottles be at least 15 years old (exception made for Oban 14 of course). It does make the price of participation go up, but it encourages people to get more creative than the standard liquor store bottle of Glenlivet 12.

We also scoped out local liquor stores that have a good selection of scotch. In my city (Seattle) a lot of the smaller liquor stores carry the same half dozen bottles. There are a couple of stores downtown with much larger selection. We pointed people to those stores and encouraged them to experiment. It worked out pretty well because everybody wanted to bring something unique.
posted by rhiannon at 9:08 AM on December 7, 2006

Set a price range so people are bringing bottles of comparable value; this should reduce/eliminate Schismatic's concern.

Ask your guests to purchase well in advance and let you know once they have made a selection, then email that out to everyone else, with instructions not to purchase a duplicate.

Sounds like a fun party -- good luck!
posted by modernnomad at 9:08 AM on December 7, 2006

I don't know how many people you have, but could you assign different regions?
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 9:12 AM on December 7, 2006

The 15 year rule would disallow, for example, the Talisker 10 year old.

And that would be a shame.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:15 AM on December 7, 2006

I like the assignment of regions idea...so that would be Highland, Lowland, Islay, right? Should I make a special category for single malts from outside Scotland, or is that blasphemy?
posted by mcstayinskool at 9:18 AM on December 7, 2006

I would agree with the price limit suggestion, but it shouldn't be TOO much of a problem given that most decent single malts are going to run you $35-70 for the standard bottle (as opposed to a private label, finished-in-sherry, aged-25-years bottle).

Beyond that, what TheOnlyCoolTim said, and have each person call/email with his selection after he buys the bottle. There are 4 major whisky producing areas in Scotland: Highland, Lowland, Islay, and Campbeltown. There are way, way more whiskies from the Highlands than any of the others, so assign about 1/3 to 1/2 the people to bring "highland" whisky. And/or divide the highlands into speyside and islands, since they can be quite different.

As to the Islays, which are my personal favorite, try to ensure that not everyone goes the Laphroiag / Caol Ila route, try to get some from the Bowmore / Bruichladdich end of the pool too, as they're more accessible Islays. And of course Lagavulin, which, while technically an Islay, is awesome enough to transcend the genre.
posted by rkent at 9:20 AM on December 7, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

On preview, I also agree with thatwhichfalls. 12-14 year single malts are great (and of course 10 for Talisker), and insisting on, for instance, the Macallan 18 year just pushes it outside the realm of possibility, while it wouldn't be too silly to bring some Macallan 12.

Furthermore, the younger Bowmore bottles are really good for their price, as long as you don't let anyone bring Bowmore Legend. That stuff is dreck; I think it's only aged 4 years, or some such offensively short period.
posted by rkent at 9:24 AM on December 7, 2006

Get someone to bring some Edradour.
Get someone else to bring some Ardbeg.


I would also recommend the following day or three off work. Have fun!
posted by ClanvidHorse at 9:35 AM on December 7, 2006

You could let them know that D&M sells a wide variety of scotch over the Internets.
posted by Tacos Are Pretty Great at 10:03 AM on December 7, 2006

My friends who host a party like this every year provide 3 or 4 of the most obvious usual suspects themselves (or donated by other longtime attendees) as sort of a "familiarity baseline." List of "givens" is provided to partipants, who are instead encouraged to dig deep and find either crazy obscure stuff or underappreciated gems. I agree that a year limit could disqualify some great scotch.

Disclaimer: This is an annual party of serious connoisseurs, so there's some healthy competition built up anyway -- no-one would bother bringing Glenlivet 12.
posted by desuetude at 10:06 AM on December 7, 2006

I've certainly found that for similar parties (whether beer, wine, dessert, or whatever), you don't need to tell people what to bring, just make sure they know what each other is bringing. Email, web page, phone calls, whatever -- just a regular "here's what we've got," whether driven by you or in in the form of mass communication from each person, should work fine.
posted by nickmark at 11:22 AM on December 7, 2006

In addition to the spreadsheet, perhaps you could include in the invitation an offer to provide recommendations of interesting but reasonably priced bottles at the request of attendees who would like some help with their whisky shopping. I'm sure there are people who wouldn't mind being told what to bring and where to go to buy it, especially if this is their first event of this type.
posted by concrete at 11:46 AM on December 7, 2006

Evite has a function - I think they call it a poll - where people could record what they are bringing. Or they could include their choice in the comments to their RSVP.
posted by Sprout the Vulgarian at 12:31 PM on December 7, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

How about an additional prize for the person who brings one that no one has ever heard of (or a penalty if you bring a duplicate)?
posted by serazin at 3:41 PM on December 7, 2006

By the way, Lagavulin is great.

I love you, too.
posted by lagavulin at 12:59 PM on December 9, 2006