In this week’s Smart Talking we chat to Blair Bowman, founder and organizer of World Whisky Day 2012. 
Hi Blair, welcome to Smart Talking. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Blair: I’m a twenty-something whisky and social media fan. I’ve been living in Barcelona for a year and prior to that I spent three months in Shanghai. I’m returning to Scotland in September to finish my degree in Spanish and study Chinese at Aberdeen University.
Your particular whisky journey: when and how did you get into whisky? What’s the attraction?
Blair: In my first year at Aberdeen University I was a founding member of the Aberdeen University Malt Whisky Society. From then on I’ve gone on to be a Judge at a Spirit of Speyside Whisky Cocktail Competition as well as judging twice at the highly debated International Whisky Competition in Chicago. In addition I’ve also worked at Taipei WhiskyLive 2010, the world’s largest whisky festival.
What is World Whisky Day 2012 and how did it come about?
Blair: World Whisky Day will be a day of global whisky celebration. A day for people all over the world to share a dram or two. A day for whisky anoraks and amateurs to open a special whisky together. After launching World Whisky Day online I was advised by some whisky contacts to hold it on 27th March 2012 as this is the birthday of the late whisky author Michael Jackson, not, of course, to be confused with the late international pop sensation! World Whisky Day is an exciting and new way of celebrating a shared passion for whisky all around the world; it is a way of saying thank you to everyone involved in the industry.
I originally put the idea out there to see what kind of response it would get and I can say the response so far has been incredible. World Whisky Day is fast approaching 2,000 global attendees in just over month. Now that I have received messages from groups and individuals all over the world I have decided to take this further than just an idea. It is going to be HUGE!
Who can get involved in World Whisky Day 2012 and how can people get involved? Can you give us a taste of any planned events and participation to date?
Blair: Anyone and everyone can get involved. When our full website is launched, www.worldwhiskyday.com (at the moment it is just a landing page), we will be inviting individuals, groups, bars and distilleries all over the world to register their events on www.worldwhiskyday.com. Individuals will be able to search for their local events wherever they may be. There will be a lot of social media integration leading up to the day and on the day itself. We have received lots of emails from people all over the world wanting to get involved and do something in their city or area, from New York to San Francisco, Sydney to Shanghai.
The event has links to charity – how does that work?
Blair: Yes, the late author Michael Jackson died of Parkinson´s and for this reason I am hoping to be able to make a donation to Parkinson´s UK from our Net Profit.
You have almost 2000 attendees recorded so far. Which countries/continents are showing most interest in the event so far?
Blair: We have seen interest from 42 countries in 6 continents and these people speak 32 different languages. Now I’m just waiting to get an email from Antarctica to get the 7th and final continent involved! Interestingly, I can see that the country showing the most interest at the moment is Sweden followed by the UK and USA.
We see you are a fan of social media. Do you think social media can enhance or inform people’s experience of whisky and if so, how?
Blair: Definitely, whisky has really taken off in social media circles. It started with whisky blogging in the early dot com boom but now I see dozens of new whisky blogs appearing every month. I think distilleries are really starting to embrace social media – it’s great being able to follow day-to-day and behind-the-scenes distillery operations with tweets from a distillery manager as well as tweets from globe-trotting brand ambassadors hosting events around the world.
Has social media changed the way you communicate or learn about whisky in any way?
Blair: I’ve taken part in several Twitter whisky tastings (’twastings’ if you will). Basically, a distillery chooses a select bunch of whisky bloggers or tweeters and sends them samples. At a chosen time everyone logs onto Twitter and follows a predefined hash-tag, the hash-tag means that even those without the samples can still follow the conversation. Also, now with Google+’s new ‘hangouts’ (multiple person video calls) Whyte & Mackay are planning on hosting the first ever whisky hangout on Google+. I’m excited to see how it works for a whisky tasting. A few years ago I hosted the first ever Google Wave Whisky Tasting, which was fun, but unfortunately Google Wave flopped.
How would you convert a non-whisky drinker to its delights?
Blair: I think it’s really important that people are open-minded about whisky. A lot of people have had ‘bad’ experiences with whisky in the past, or they’ve tried whisky once and not liked it and never tried it again (and it was probably mixed with Coke!) so they need to put that in the past and give whisky another chance! I’m also fully aware that whisky might still have an image of being “an old man’s drink” and I’m really trying to help get rid of this image.
If someone is trying whisky for the first time I really make them smell the whisky for a long time before I tell them to take a sip. A good rule of thumb, which you hear a lot when teaching new whisky drinkers, is to leave the whisky on your tongue for a second for every year of the whisky, eg, leave a 10 year old whisky on your tongue for 10 seconds. Then see what they taste – whisky is a very personal thing and a lot of people get, what I like to call, taste memories. I’ve heard people say, “That tasted like my Grandad’s shed” or “That smells like my Auntie’s marmalade”. And the great thing is there is no right or wrong answer.
In addition, I’ve seen how people drink whisky in other parts of the world and its nothing like how I drink it. In Costa Rica they all drink it with ice and condensed milk, in China with green tea and most other parts of the world with Coke but it doesn’t really matter if they are enjoying it!
And finally, since you are currently living in Barcelona, any recommendations for good pairings of Catalan dishes and Scotch Whisky?
Blair: I like to keep a bottle of Laphroaig Quarter Cask in the fridge in the summer. It goes very well with spicy patatas bravas.
Many thanks for Smart Talking with us Blair. We wish you all the best with World Whisky Day 2012.
For more information visit www.worldwhiskyday.com
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