On The Town: The Macallan Scotch Tasting

Last week I had the opportunity to attend my first Matchstick event which was a scotch tasting for the brand The Macallan.  Truth be told, I’m not a scotch drinker.  I’ve likely had it in some mixed drinks over the years but I’ve never been a scotch kind of gal.  But when I got the invite for this event I figured why not?

The event was held at ONE at the Hazelton Hotel in Yorkville.  I hadn’t been there before but was curious to check out the space and taste some scotch.  When I arrived with my two buddies we were immediately offered some scotch.  I’ll admit my first sip stunned me. It was too big and too quick!  But I was not deterred.

We had a great host named Mark who took us through an interesting PowerPoint presentation that taught us about the history of the brand, how the scotch is made and then… tasting!

We were given four different years of The Macallan scotches to taste, a 12-year, a 15-year, an 18-year and a 21-year.   Two of them were aged in fine oak casks and two were aged in sherry oak casks from Spain, which accounts for the differences in colour (the darker ones are from sherry casks).  Perhaps my favourite part of the evening were the montages set to music corresponding to the year that the scotch was first aged.  Seriously, it may have been the highlight of my life.  I believe Sting and Rod Stewart were played.  Kind of amazing.

To me, alcohol is usually just alcohol but this tasting really taught me how to taste the different notes.  For example, toffee.  Yes, there are toffee notes!  I also learned that there is nothing wrong with adding a bit of water and/or ice to your scotch.  In fact, we saw a really cool demonstration where Mark made round ice cubes!

I really enjoyed the scotch tasting and thought it was a great experience.  My favourite ended up being the 18-year scotch which I later learned costs about $290.  What can I say, I have expensive tastes.  I definitely have a new appreciation for sctoch and totally look forward to being in a group of guys at a bar and ordering me some scotch.

At the end of the evening we even got our own little ambassador kits that contained small bottles of the 10 and 12-year varieties.  not bad!  I’m not sure when I’ll crack them open… waiting for a special day or perhaps a really crappy day… we’ll see!

For more information about The Macallan click here.

Also, here’s a quick survey that you can take!