Four or five years ago, I was lucky enough to become involved with our local whiskey society. Matt, the gentlemen who oversees it, invited me to participate in my first “12 Days of Whiskey” event. I had never heard of such a thing, but once I learned what it involved, I was instantly hooked. Now, I know a lot of whiskey societies and bourbon clubs hold these types of events. But since I had never heard of it, I wanted to share our story with all of you and to spread the whiskey love. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to put something like this together. Matt does such an amazing job and I wanted to give him some major kudos as well.
First things first, what is a “12 Days of Whiskey” event? A group of whiskey fanatics does a blind tasting of 12 different whiskies from 12 different sample bottles and then discuss each on a private social media group, over a 12-day period (one whiskey per day). These bottles have no writing on them, other than a number between 1 and 12 written on the lid. None of the tasters have any idea what is in the bottle.
Sounds simple enough, right? As I stated before, putting on something like this takes a lot of work and dedication. Matt spends the year sourcing 12 amazing bottles for us to sample. Once he secures the bottles, we collectively divide the cost up between us and pay our share. Typically, there are 22 people in these groups as that is how many one-ounce pours you normally get out of a 750 ml bottle. (Technically you can normally get 23 one-ounce pours out of a 750 ml bottle, but due to different bottling techniques, that’s not always the case. We limit it to 22 people so everyone is guaranteed one ounce from each bottle.)
The total cost is dependent on what kind of bottles you want. You could do a fantastic, low cost “12 Days of Whiskey” event with bottom shelf bottles. We tend to like the harder-to-find bottles, making things even tougher for Matt. But he always comes through, so our cost is a little higher. Matt then donates his time and pours one-ounce samples from all of the bottles, carefully numbering and sorting each. That’s 264 individual samples. Again, a lot of work.
Once everyone has their samples, the fun begins. On “Day 1,” Matt makes a post in our private social media group announcing the beginning of the event. At some point on day one, we all sample our bottle number 1 and share our thoughts on Matt’s post. Remember, these are plain glass containers, other than the bottle number, we have no idea what its contents are. We then give our tasting notes, plus we try to estimate the age, mash bill, proof, distiller, and label.
The following morning (day 2 of the event), Matt will reveal what bottle 1 actually was in a new post. He will post a picture of the bottle and give us detailed information on it, plus any relevant history of the bottle and/or distillery. Matt then creates the “Day 2” post. Just like we did on day one, we all taste sample bottle number 2 and give our tasting notes on the “Day 2” post. This cycle repeats every day for 12 days.
I absolutely love this event and I look forward to it all year, even though I suck at guessing the bottles. If you’ve never been a part of a “12 Days of Whiskey” event, get with your local whiskey society or put one together yourself. You’ll thank me. Oh, by the way, if you think you know your whiskey, this is a great way to put your knowledge to the test. For most of us, we realize how little we actually know.
Cheers!
