FIRST EVER - Ladies ONLY tasting in Eastern Canada

Wow!  About two months ago I got this crazy idea.  I thought I could get enough women together in my home town to come to a ladies only whisky tasting.  I started talking about it with Graham.  I started thinking about what whiskies I would serve, what type of presentation I would give and then I sent out an email to a few friends to see what they thought.  I ploughed forward and starting planning, working on a presentation, researching whiskies.  We worked hard, used very little advertising and before we knew it, we were sold out. (I turned away 10 women). Only two small snags along the way:  One which was a bit funny and left us shaking our heads.  We called CBC, an information program and gave them two tickets to give away.  I was called back and given the name and telephone number of the lucky female winner, but when I called her she had no idea she won, her husband had called in for her and...  she hated whisky!?   

I chose Collingwood, Auchentoshan Three Wood, Balvenie Doublewood, Balblair 2000, Bowmore Darkest 15 and Amrut Single Malt - Single Cask.   ALL because they represented characteristics, in my opinion, that women would enjoy.  The surprise was the Bowmore Darkest 15 and I was pleased as I introduced 33 lovely women to Islays (some of which had been warned not to try that region, cause it was "gross".)

The ladies had a blast, the presentation went well.  Many, MANY fantastic questions about everything.  At the end of the night we ranked them:  Auchentoshan, Bowmore and Balvenie tied for 2nd, Balblair, Amrut and Collingwood.  We adjourned the tasting and offered everyone another great Canadian:  Forty Creek Barrel Select, we also did a Mixology 101 bar:  Shots of Rusty Nails, Whisky Diesels and Whisky Sours were made by Graham (in his kilt) with Chivas 12.   

The feedback was great, and now that we know the audience is out "there", we are definitely going to have another, maybe in the fall.   At midnight, I climbed into bed tired but exhilarated that it was truly a huge success!

THANK you to my wonderful partner Graham, for all the hard work, the help and the advice (even if I disagreed with some of it!  :)   

Stay tuned for more from the east coast.  Let the whisky awakening BEGIN!

Somewhere on my whisky trail,

Johanne