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Guidance Whiskey and community are two things that are inseparable. It’s something they can’t go without and it’s something we can’t express enough. The very foundation of Guidance Whiskey is built upon community and it serves as a guideline for the company’s growth.
Whether you’re just now getting into whiskey, or you’re a veteran of the spirit, you should know that this is a spirit to share. Something that inspires a sense of comradery and can bring people together to share some great times and stories. It may be the alcohol kicking in and loosening up the atmosphere and inhibitions but we like to think that there’s some magic that comes along with whiskey. Guidance takes ahold of that magic and harnesses its power for bettering the community.
This month we had the pleasure of holding an event with Guidance Whiskey and seeing that magic happen first-hand.
Guidance and Whiskey Culture held an event together at The Standard in Nashville. We taught their members the standard process on how to taste and assess whiskey, as well as a brief overview of whiskey’s illustrious history.
Jason Brings People Together
The mastermind behind Guidance, Jason Ridgel, was there with his usual force of presence. Jason is a community leader. At this event, it was on full display as Jason had people from all professions and walks of life in attendance. From doctors, to entrepreneurs, to philanthropists, Jason has an incredible group of people surrounding him.
And, who could blame them?
Jason is a larger-than-life individual who constantly has his love of life, people, and community on full-display. And, as our event continued, you could see both old friends and new faces break into smiles around him.
The event participants were each given a dram from the last of our Whiskey Culture Private Pick (Batch 1) for the pre-event social.
After, we gathered everyone in the event space and Jason introduced everyone while pouring out glasses of guidance for everyone to use while we went through our presentation.
As a tradition, Jason has a pre-cheers ritual that truly is emblematic of his approach to life. Summed up, it appreciates the people we love, welcomes new people into our community, tells us to ignore the haters, and have a great time enjoying whiskey with friends.
It’s a pre-libation tradition we can completely empathize with and absolutely love.
Tasting Guidance Whiskey
When it came to the tasting, we discussed the four stages of a whiskey tasting: appearance, nose, palate, and finish.
We walked through the standardized terminology for things like the whiskey’s appearance, taught how to nose the whiskey and shared some common notes and indicators from the whiskey.
We did, however, mess with our audience a bit when it came to the palate.
When we threw a fake tasting note of “green apple” in that none of us had ever gotten, things got funny. When we casually dropped that we tasted green apple and asked everyone to express what they were tasting, many noted the green apple. We used that as a teaching tool to discuss suggestibility in tasting.
Many people will not get certain notes in whiskey until they’re told those flavors are there. Our brain has an incredible ability to place scents and flavors at the mere suggestion of them. When we did that exercise, many said they had been influenced by who they were discussing the notes with.
Whiskey is one of those truly communal things. Not only is it fun to try whiskeys with our friends, but our tasting notes become a culmination of those we’ve drank with. Sometimes there’s notes that can be hard to place, and someone will make that perfect reference we carry with us. These, in turn, become part of our vocabulary and part of our assessments.
Guidance had a common theme with the tasters: bright, sweet, and easy to drink.
It was a great crowd, and we loved meeting so many new friends in the Nashville area. It was awesome to see Guidance’s community pull on full display.
We’re looking forward to doing another event with them soon!