EDUCATION

Educating our clientele through tastings is the core of our activity. We host lots of private tastings, based on what a group (from 6 to 35 guests) wants to “study”. We also help private parties with casual tastings, in a form of a Spirit booth or a 30 minutes presentation of a couple of spirits best around. We are keen on lecturing off-premise, providing the crowd of a retailer (the seminars we teach at Astor Center), the graduating students of a Law School, a luxury condominium tenants gathering (the Stratus in Chelsea) or even a men care specialized institute (John Allan in TriBeCa) with the adequate presentation. Big brands like the Glenlivet, Balvenie, Glenfiddich, and others call for our services any time their Brand Ambassadors are short-handed.

We multiply educational experiences all throughout the year with 3 Whisky Weeks and at least 1 Cognac Week (two of which happen during Whisky Live and Whisky Fest) when we pull out special menus and invite producers into share their passion with our guests through guided casual tastings. Generally speaking, our Fridays are open to all Distillery Owners, Cellar Masters, Master Blenders who come and offer samples of their wonderful production to curious imbibers. Saturdays give our regulars the opportunity to taste unusual picks at the corner of the main floor bar where one of our Spirit Sommeliers does all the teaching. A theme, different every week, directs the tasting: “cask strength peated Single Malts”, or “Independent Bottlings of big distilleries”, or “12 years old Speyside Malts”.

The Spirit School Seminars let you brush up on your knowledge and give you insider tips of the trade on a particular spirit category. 6 to 10 seminars per session (3 or 4 sessions per year) allow the drinking savvy to pick their favorite tipple: Introduction to Scotch, Precious and Rare Brandies, Bourbons and American Whiskeys, etc, our some of the most popular classes. They will cost you $80.00 and last for about 2 hours during which an average of 8 samples is poured along with some light hors d’oeuvre. The history, making and buying tips of the specific spirit are taught with precision, but always entertaining. The classes are not larger of 25 students and take place at the lower level.

We take the logic of education a step further as we offer tasting flights in the menu, allowing patrons to taste through 6 different drinks while appreciating the tasting notes provided. The most popular of them all is the Singles of Speyside $42.00.

A Library-a true one this time- of books on spirits are available for our guests to read: two shelves of old and new bindings about…Brown Spirits. No lending program though.