Corporate
What I do is part training, part entertainment. I organise and present tastings, and make them fun. I’m not tied to any company and don’t try and sell anything at the tastings. Which means I can choose from any producer I like. And I do this based on smell and taste.
I came to malt whisky from wine and still do wine and champagne as well as whisky tastings. Whatever the subject, my approach is the same. Decide what’s important. Make it relevant to the particular audience. (I’ll come back to that.) And make it fun. Nail the first two and the third comes naturally.
I’m based near Aberdeen, Scotland; so much of my work comes from oil companies. Repeat business from BP, Shell, Conoco Phillips, etc is rather satisfying. But it’s not just oil companies. The National Trust for Scotland uses me – doing tastings in Crathes Castle or Mar Lodge is always special.
Some venues though are an unexpected delight. KPMG’s Edinburgh office looks straight out, from the third floor, at the castle four hundred yards away. That isn’t my favourite backdrop though; the Gaelic College on Skye wins that one. It’s at the South end of the island, right on the coast. A glass wall looks out over the Sound of Sleat to the mountains of Knoydart. Even Vesuvius, as a back drop to a wine tasting, from the thirteenth floor observation lounge of a cruise ship, as we left Naples, does not beat that for me.
Most of the conferences I do for the university are in Aberdeen, but the Maths. Dept. had me across to Skye for that one.
Malt whisky and champagne are subjects I can give people an overview of in an hour or so. Wine by comparison, is a vast subject – which makes it all the more fun.
Few of us are gifted at identifying smells but most of us are good detecting differences between smells. So a lot of what I do involves comparisons.
So for champagne I do the wines in pairs. I’ll start with the difference between Prosecco and Cava. Having them on separate nights they might seem similar, but together they are very different. Starting with these also helps to put Champagne into context.
Which is what I cover next using two pink fizz’s. One of the best from the New World v a champagne. Reading about the differences will never make those differences as clear as being able to smell and taste one of each, side by side.
Then the difference between non vintage and vintage champagne. They are a very different style of wine. And having one of each from the same house makes this abundantly clear.
Then house style. For that I like to compare Roederer’s n.v. with Bollinger n.v. Roederer (the people that make Cristal) is about absolute clarity and purity of fruit. Bollinger has fairly similar proportions of grapes in the blend but with some much older wines you get added richness.
Whatever the event I usually bring everything I need. Glasses, product etc, but not the tables, chairs and people. And it’s the people that make my job so much fun. Every group is different.
At the end of August I did a tasting at the University as part of the evening programme for a Cognitive Psychology conference. So for that group I was talking much more about smell and memory than normal. Two days later I was on the lawn outside Pittodrie House Hotel, with the same six whiskies, for an oil company. Which meant a completely different set of really good questions.
The feedback from both events is below. Obviously I’m delighted with this sort of thing. But what is even better than the kind words, is that they both want to pay me.
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From: "Pearson, Dr David G."
To: "Gordon Muir"
Subject: SV: Conference whisky-tasting - August
Date: 27 August 2007 15:40
Glad you felt that the night went well Gordon. Certainly the feedback I had from delegates was excellent, and for many it was the highlight of the conference.
I've checked with our finance officer and they have the following listing on the payment system (see below). Is this you? If you can send me an invoice (for £500) I'll get your payment sorted out ASAP.
My address is: David Pearson, School of Psychology, William Guild Building, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 2UB.
Thanks again for a great night,
David.
