Recommendations requested

Gosh, I've come up with more questions than answers, and you don't need to answer my questions to anyone but yourself.

What have you done at past club gatherings? I don't ask to suggest you should follow some prescribed format, but rather to get you to consider your group's experiences. Is the group's goal to learn about various whiskies, or is the gathering strictly a social event, or ???

Will you offer water? Hors d'oeuvres? They help give the event more of a social atmosphere than a classroom. Plus both of these stretch out the time between pours and help make the order of pours not so, so important.

Having said that, though, I do like your "light, sherried, peated" scenario.

What's the point of the Booker's quiz? I'm not a fan of tests, and it wouldn't be a mystery "whisky" but rather a mystery "whiskey." One man's opinion.

How much of each whisky will you pour? The answer to this, in part, helps answer my first question. I'm a fan of half ounce pours of no more than five whiskies. Any of your "option" whiskies would probably fit in with your three planned single malts.

We belong to a whisky club that meets once a month, September through May. While the social aspect of the club is probably the glue that keeps us together, learning is a big part of our purpose. One guy chooses the whiskies and the order. He presents a brief history of the distillery and sort of a pedigree (peated or not, type of cask wood(s), abv, etc.) for each whisky we taste. As we've evolved, another member has begun to compile tasting notes for each whisky we try and she hands those out at the next meeting. We usually meet at a restaurant, and the restauranteur supplies cheeses, crackers, grapes, dried fruits, chocolate bits, and gallons of water.

No matter what you do, or how you do it, keep it light hearted and fun.

@Nozinan - if you are presenting Booker's then mash it up a bit more and throw in cousin Baker's....very strong resemblance at lower abv.

@two-bit-cowboy

Some very good questions.

I had originally envisioned the club as purposes to explore the world of Whisky, an educational endeavor, so to speak. While the core group is drawn from another group that I am a part of, we do invite other interested parties. It's informal so we don't have set meetings (everyone is busy and we choose dates when we're free - Whisky is for fun, not to be a chore). I can understand a larger group where money is involved being more structured.

Water, food, chocolate and any other beverages that can be supplied, are. Non-drinkers occasionally come (ie:during lent -I provided a Korean barley tea - as close to single malt as you can get).

We do, well, I do, take notes. Given that we all hail from a debating group, we call the notes "minutes", and we score the drams, and compare to previous notes if there are repeats. There are a few favourites that we go back to... Helps me get through the bottle and onto something new.

I'm terms of pours, they're based on the ABV, each person's tolerance, and the number of drams we're planning. I occasionally skip one if I've had it before and there are a lot of whiskies planned.

The reason for the Booker's is that while we HAVE done Canadian whiskies (Glen Breton rare and ice 10, Forty Creek confederation oak) and some blends, we've never done an American Whiskey. I really like this one and want to share it, but I'd like to do it without preconceived notions (such as the ones I had before trying it).

Thank you for taking the time to ask all those questions. Answering them was a very useful exercise.

@paddockjudge

Thanks for the suggestion. Hard to find in my area but LCBO. Does list Baker's in a nearby town. Depends if the wife will let me buy another bottle. She doesn't like that the cabinet doors already don't close completely...