Whisky Tasting: Putting whisky on the map

Poor Colin Dunn. He had a tough crowd to play to.

Take four grumpy journalists and a handful of reluctant Publican​ sales and production staff who all agree that they 'don't really like whisky'. And then make them drink whisky. Single malt whisky to be exact. And no mixers here.

Dunn, a whisky ambassador for Diageo's luxury drinks division Reserve Brands, loves his scotch. It's his job to make other people feel the same. But doing so involves dispelling quite a few myths and generally making it accessible for mainstream drinkers who believe that single malts, and whisky in general is just for knowledgeable purists. Or golfers.

Dunn is head of a unique 10-man team from Diageo dedicated purely to leading tastings in pubs. The team, created in 2009, is available free of charge to licensees. All they ask is that you stock two of their brands.

Beer in HD

Educating drinkers on the effects of wood, the distillery's location, the ageing process and the ways you can drink whisky is one thing. But tasting alone isn't new and isn't enough to persuade some people to partake. So Dunn and his team have been working hard on unique approaches that they hope will persuade more drinkers.

Indeed, it may be time to dust off that 70s corduroy because the whisky chaser is back. But, this time, with a credible beer connoisseur twist. Trust us on this one, it's going to be good.

"Whisky is aged beer. It's like beer in HD. So whisky and then a sip of beer is like having beer in HD. It's a 'grainaissance'," says Dunn.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The first tool the team have employed to help customers "access" whisky and choose which one is for them is the flavour map.

"We are living in a white spirit market. Young people are drinking gin and vodka. So we have to get people to understand it first," says Dunn.

"Unless you get into it, you walk into the bar and all you see are the benchmark brands. The map is there to help people make a decision and they're purposefully the brands you find in most pubs. It's a great way of bringing people in."

The map - created for Diageo by independent whisky expert Dave Broom - details over 50 single malts, not just Diageo brands, and places them on a grid according to taste. This is divided into four sections, from delicate to smoky and rich to light. Each malt is given a further taste symbol denoting whether it is light and floral, fruity and spicy, rich and rounded or full-bodied and smoky.

It's the drinking equivalent of having a translator turn up while lost in a foreign country where you don't speak the language. Maybe less dramatic, I concede, but people feel embarrassed about not knowing their drinks.

The map makes it easy. For those who like their smoke, there's Ardbeg 10 Year Old or Laphroaig. For something delicate there's Glenlivet 15 Year Old. Or if you're simply after something rich, you can't top Macallan 10 Year Old.

"No-one can tell you how to drink whisky," says Dunn. "It's about personal choice. That's what we're trying to get across. We just show you how you can. People think they can only drink whisky one way [straight-up], so they don't. But there's several ways. We say forget the way your dad drank it. You don't want the alcohol. You want the flavour. It is a huge thing we are taking on."

Maps are available in leaflet form from Reserve Brands. But getting people tasting is another matter. Which is where our team tasting comes in.

Converts

From a room of people who it's fair to say were fairly dispassionate about the idea of sipping a neat malt, it's remarkable how quickly they turned into converts. From trying four Reserve Brands malts with very different flavours - Talisker, Glenkinchie, Dalwhinnie and the Singleton of Dufftown - everyone began to identify which part of the map their palate sits within.

To make it even more accessible Dunn and his team have been working with top chefs, and market stall-holders at London food-haven Borough Market. The Talisker vs Borough Market event at Vinopolis in September saw the whisky paired with smoked Hebridean scallop and crème fraiche blini from the Hebridean Smokehouse (Talisker 18 year old), and Montgomery cheddar and Strathdon blue cheese from Neal's Yard (Talisker 175th Anniversary).

A menu prepared with head chef Allan Pickett at Canary Wharf restaurant Plateau, matching Johnnie Walker with food such as smoked salmon for a one-off event has been retained by the eatery until Christmas.

If you're not convinced of the power of a good food match, maybe this will sway you - Dunn and his team sold 8,000 bottles of Singleton at the Classic Car Show and the NEC Golf Show after encouraging sampling of it with fruit cake.

A classic pairing

But the latest tool in Dunn's armory is revisiting a classic pairing - beer and whisky.

"For the last couple of years, we have been playing around with recipes, with food matching and now beer matching, looking at the connection between whisky and beer," he says. "Whisky is aged beer. It too comes from barley. Drinking them together gives you a higher definition of barley, it reawakens your palate.

"We're taking the same idea from the 1960s or 70s but getting people to savour the taste."

Indeed, this isn't about knocking it back. The idea is to take a sip of beer, then of whisky or vice versa. The effect on the flavour, if you get the pairing right, is quite magical. The taste of the whisky is totally transformed.

A sip of Hobgoblin, with its chocolate notes, and the Singleton - which, hands up, wasn't for me when sipped neat - becomes this rich, warm, velvet-like liquid. The fire, that alcohol burn, goes, and just the flavour remains. With a Dalwhinnie and Honey Dew match, the vanilla flavours melt into each other and the whisky extends the taste of what is a quick finishing beer. It's a revelation and one that Dunn hopes will take off in a massive way.

"We are looking at doing lots of malt and ale festivals next year," says Dunn, "and really put ourselves out there and offer this. It will be a huge journey, working with other bars and groups and showing them what they can do with beers. But we're up for the challenge.

"Any person who comes up to me - black or white, male or female, old or young, I'm going to turn you on to whisky. That's how it is."

• To request a tasting call 0161 484 2469 or email: matthew.westcott@tro-group.co.uk​