Pause for SignetCoffee, chocolate or something sweet?
Everyone is poured Signet at once, then smells, sips and answers one question. Its roasted “chocolate malt” makes the point without a lecture.
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Experience strategy / Glenmorangie
Turning tasting notes into things guests can find.
Cask & Conversation already had a guided tasting that worked. I kept it, then built three tables from the actual notes of Glenmorangie 12, 15 and 18, so guests could see, smell and taste the flavours for themselves.
01 / The brief
Keep the shared tasting.
Bring the flavours to life.
The ambassador-led opening was working, so the job was not to replace it. A tasting note like “honey and vanilla” is easy to nod along to and hard to taste on cue. The opportunity was to give every note something real to point to.
02 / The idea
One room. Three tables.
See it. Smell it. Taste it.
Every table is built from its whisky’s actual tasting notes. Flavour becomes the decor: real fruit, spice, nuts and flowers that guests can compare with what’s in the glass.
- 12Glenmorangie 12
Citrus, peach, honey and vanilla.
- 15Glenmorangie 15
Dried fruit, chocolate, nuts and spice.
- 18Glenmorangie 18
Citrus, flowers, dried fruit, nuts and spice.
From
- Hearing the notes
- Notes on a card
- One guided pour
- Leaving with a memory
To
- Finding the notes
- Notes on the table
- A guided pour, then three tables
- Leaving with a discovery
03 / The evening
Start together.
Explore at your own pace.
What stays and what’s new, step by step.
- 01
Gather
Welcome and networking. Introduce the evening.
Kept - 02
Taste together
The guided tasting of Glenmorangie 15, Signet and Ardbeg.
Kept - 03
Explore
Tables 12, 15 and 18 open. See, smell and taste the flavour cues.
New - 04
Converse
Compare the 12, guess the notes in the 15, try the pairing with the 18.
New - 05
Stay
Return to food, seating and host-led conversation.
Kept
04 / The shared opening
Two four-minute pauses
inside the tasting.
The ambassador still leads. Two short pauses give the whole room one shared moment before the tables open.
Pause for Signet
Smoky perspectiveA contrast to talk about
Ardbeg TEN stays as the smoky counterpoint, with an optional smoke reveal from a covered display glass.
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05 / Three tables
Compare. Guess. Pair.
Each table asks one thing of the guest, and a host guides it.
Table one · Glenmorangie 12Compare the serve
Taste it neat, with a few drops of water, then over ice.
“Which flavour stands out neat, with water or with ice?”View slide
Table two · Glenmorangie 15Taste before the reveal
Write up to six notes, then lift the covers and check them. Four or more right earns a pocket tasting notebook.
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Table three · Glenmorangie 18Pair, then return
Try a small pairing bite with the floral and spice cues, then go back to the glass.
“What did the food bring forward?”View slide
06 / Flavour is the decor
Every note has a place. Every object has a purpose.
Each display is built from the brand’s own product notes: one saturated Glenmorangie orange plane per table, copper, glass and white cloth, warm light, and a discreet giraffe to find.
Ingredients are flavour references, not additions to the whisky.
07 / The finish
A simple record
of the evening.
Guests close the night by sharing what they found, and leave with something that keeps the notes going at home.
The tasting card
A pocket guide to all three, with each one’s signature cocktail.
One discovery
The host asks, “What flavour did you discover tonight?” and each guest shares one observation.
The optional reward
Chocolates or a scent, so the evening lasts a little longer.
08 / A format that travels
Same experience.
Fresh ingredients each time.
One display kit is made per city and reused for every event there. The stories, tables and host prompts stay the same; ingredients and bites are sourced fresh for each edition.
09 / What success would look like
How I’d judge
a first edition.
The concept hasn’t run yet, so these are the signals I’d track, not results.
All three tables
Share of guests who visit all three tables, not just one.
Guess cards
Cards completed at table two, and how many guests score four or more.
One discovery
Guests who share an observation at the close, in their own words.
Cards kept
Tasting cards taken home, and repeat attendance at the next edition.
The complete proposal
Every cask leaves
a conversation behind.
The full 18-slide proposal.