Last Tuesday night, Jason, Mike and I went to a special private tasting for Macallan at Fort Mason. Although I'm not a scotch drinker, it was noted as a night to "celebrate the Macallan" and I was very interested in the event.
We stood in line for about 20 minutes before the doors opened and I was excited for the celebration to begin. The doors finally opened right at 8:30pm and the male dominated line slowly walked into the old building.
As I walked in, the interior looked sophisticated, elegant and old. You instantly knew there was a lot of history and I felt so privileged to be in it.
Each guest was given a beautiful half dollar sized golden token. Unfortunately, I had to surrender it if I wanted the first sampling of Macallan. First sip, wow. That's some hard scotch all right. ;)
We walked further into the room and was quickly greeted by the "ambassador/entertainer of the night," Eden, and waiters holding platters of hor devours. My friends and I walked into another room with seating and waited for the show to begin.
There was a 45 minute presentation of scotch 101, Macallan's history, the gorgeous distillery in Scotland (I want to visit!) and ultimately, five tastings of scotch. I had to add water and ice to mine, "neat" scotch is way too strong for me. ;P It's definitely some good stuff and by the end of the fifth tasting, I was persuaded to only drink Macallan if I was to ever order scotch. :P
As a thank you for filling out a survey and giving our email address, we each walked away with a gift bag that included a hat (what the?) and a small glass. I really wished I saved that token...I'd rather have that as a souvenir than a hat! :P
Ultimately, it was a marketing strategy to promote Macallan. I've heard of these types of events (disguising focus groups/market research as parties) in marketing books before, so it was great to actually be able to experience one. The event was a lot of fun and definitely a memorable, exquisite experience. I woud love to attend more stuff like this, even if I'll be receiving a lot of junk mail in the future. ;)
Comments [0]