How Virtual Tastings Are Fast Becoming A New Frontier In Alcohol Appreciation
The COVID-19 pandemic was transformative at many levels. As we all struggled to find comfort day after day amidst a lockdown, we also deciphered ways to connect with the world through virtual mediums to install some modicum of normalcy in our everyday lives. Before we knew it, there occurred a smooth transition from real to virtual and so many experiences that would have seemed impossible to enjoy without being physically present were suddenly appealing on the screen. This trickled down to varied luxe and premium engagements too, including wine and whisky tastings, virtual experiences that felt utterly normal and comfortable.
What Is Online Tasting
Virtual or online tasting, as the name suggests, is a convening of participants on a meeting platform like Zoom or Teams for a journey through several spirits, their flavour profiles and origins. But instead of moving through a vineyard or distillery, these are carefully crafted experiences that can be enjoyed from the comfort of home.
Like a quintessential liquor tasting journey, participants are equipped with tasting kits and apparatus and embark on a thrilling process of tasting distilled beverages and appreciating their flavours while learning how to mix drinks in their kitchens. This means, wine or whisky tasting can be relished from your couch in an earnestly modern take on understanding the world of premium spirits.
Avant Garde Journeys
It is not only the virtual scape that is making these online tastings a novelty in alcohol appreciation. The sheer ingenuity involved in curating and packing a tasting kit suited to the interests of the participants and the flow of an event which gathers an intimate group together allows the tasters to bond with the spirit and enjoy its unique notes in a more relaxed setting.
As well, for those who love home hosting, these tastings are even more significant because of the opportunities they provide to understand how the spirit complements the vibe of their drawing rooms or study, or wherever they host their guests. How the spirit fits into their liquor cabinet is also easily identifiable when participants are already close to their home bar.
For mixology enthusiasts, virtual tastings are certainly a newer and innovative avenue in alcohol appreciation because they can craft cocktails using instruments and bar apparatus that is known to them and arrive at the most accurate version of a recipe because of this familiarity. This is also an excellent alternative for those seeking a tasting experience on a limited budget and want to cut down the cost of travelling to an expensive winery or distillery.
One-on-One But Collective
Alcohol appreciation is a very individualistic experience. Each participant would revel in varied flavour profiles contained in a spirit and have a tasting note that is most distinctive because it emerges from their unique understanding of the spirit world. On a virtual platform, such an experience can be shared with the instructors or guides as a rather one-on-one conversation within a small group of people. This facilitates a healthy exchange of mixology notes over glasses of select beverages. It is also possible to share these notes on private chats, especially for those who might shy away from expressing their tasting experiences in front of a large audience.
Virtual engagement with liquors and professionals in the spirit world are then more about putting a rather inventive spin on our interpretation of classic spirits. A stellar example of such a journey is the innovations in our understanding of whisky that is quickly transitioning from its association with leather armchairs and cigars to becoming a modern sundowner through concoctions like the Singleton Plus Two formula.
Expanding a conventional understanding of tasting wines, whiskies, vodkas and cocktail mixes, virtual appreciation of alcohol is indeed a pioneering hack. It is stretching the contours of a global study of distilling and wine making processes becoming an alluring space, both for its logistical advantages and the personalised comfort it offers.
