My talks and tastings are tailored to the requirements of the audience. The emphasis is always on developing a fuller appreciation of whisky. The smallest audience I have addressed to date was two; the largest five hundred. Currently, I present around thirty talks and tastings a year – for brand owners, companies, clubs, academic and other institutions – in the U.K. and abroad (this year, in Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Luxemburg, Norway, Russia, Taiwan, Finland and Sweden)
Talks
These take the form of lectures, with or without visual aids, Q&A sessions or after-dinner chats. Broadly, the talks embrace aspects of the history, production, maturation and sensory evaluation of Scotch whisky (both malt and blended). It goes without saying that talks are often illustrated with tasting samples, and vice versa.
Tastings
Tastings can be more or less tutored, vertical or horizontal, and can include as many whiskies as requested, although after about six samples, the nose and palate become tired. It is desirable that the audience be seated, with samples in front of them: larger audiences can be accommodated by an introductory talk, followed by a peripatetic tasting.
Whisky Dinners
The idea here is to match food and whisky, so that the former highlights characteristics in the latter. I introduce both and we discuss how well the match works. The ‘dinner’ can be anything from a full-blown eight course feast to a range of bonnes bouches and tapas.
For further details please get in touch directly.