Our First Bourbon Meeting in Seoul!

Despite the endless perks that came with growing up in Europe, I recently realized that it had left me rather clueless to a whole world of bourbons in the other side of the world.  I mean it’s not that I’m complaining, having access to your dad’s whiskey cabinet is great especially if he has a taste for Scotch Whisky (and in particular single malt!).  Which is why, I remember when I had my first proper Old Fashioned made with Maker’s Mark, I was surprised to how easily and quickly it became my favourite cocktail. There’s something that’s mischievously silky and incredibly smooth and deep about the Maker’s Mark that you can’t really find in a Scotch that I simply adore.

Things quickly escalated from my first drink and I soon joined a bourbon club (Korea Bourbon Club) on meetup and made it my annual bucket-list item to attend one of their tastings. The organizer, Mark, has events running around once a month at various venues. I’ve been dying to go since the beginning of the year, but my schedule always seemed to clash with the planned monthly events (that and I was secretly terrified of attending alone without much knowledge of bourbon). Which was why when I finally acquired and tested (HE LIKES WHISKEY TOO) the confirmed side kick/boyfriend, who was equally naïve in regards to bourbon, we scheduled in our first ever bourbon tasting.

I was actually really worried I’ll look foolish and silly for my lack of knowledge in between experts and connoisseurs but the event was actually a lot of fun and informative! Mark and his wife was there to greet us at All that Meat (압구정 / Apgujeong) and immediately made us relax with their easy demeanors.  In total 6 of us were there for the meet-up (Mark told us that it usually was 6 – 8 people per meetup). The evening actually was actually really relaxed evening of conversations on various topics ranging from obviously alcohol, politics, Korea etc. with Mark’s instruction/notes on each Bourbon as we slowly progressed through the dinner and drinks.

The menu for the tasting was as following for 70,000 won per person:

Dinner Menu:

• Abalone Shrimp Cevice

• Foie Gras Cranberry Pie 

• Ceasar Salad

• BBQ Combo Platter: Beef Brisket, Pork Rib, Smoked Duck, Smoked Pigs Feet

• Escargot & Mushroom Pizza

• Creme brulee or Brownie with Ice-cream

Tasting Flight: 

• Maker's Mark

• Maker's 46

• Buffalo Trace

• Blanton's 

• Four Roses Single Barrel

The food was terrific, although Lee definitely noticed it more as I was too absorbed in my drinks / various historical and tasting-notes on each drinks.  Rather than it being overly technical, Mark provided us real easy cues to look for in terms of flavours (he even provided us with info-sheet on each explaining the content/flavours etc.) Also he walked us through how we should approach first smelling and then tasting the bourbon (straight).

Having only have tasted Maker’s Mark out of the 5 bourbons, I was delighted to taste and smell such a surprisingly distinct variety of profiles. Nonetheless, my favourite of the night was Maker’s 46, which was much smoother and had stronger scent of Vanilla than Maker’s Mark.  Apparently, there’s currently no major distributor/importer carrying Maker’s 46 (even finding Maker’s Mark is difficult) so it’s definitely an item I’ll be looking for next time I step outside the country. Lee’s favourite was Blanton’s, which I thought had the sharp taste profile similar to scotch whiskey than others. Each bottle’s detail in design and bottling was immaculate and scarily enough I could see myself starting to collect them if it becomes easier to get my hands on them!

What we had feared to be an overly technical and rather ‘difficult’ evening turned out to be one of the best dinner parties I’ve been to all year. I’m definitely looking forward to the next meet up and in the meanwhile upping our bourbon game! (OLD FASHIONED WITH CARDAMOM BITTERS & MAPLE SYRUP)

If you’re interested in bourbon (with or without much knowledge on it), you should definitely come around for a tasting and enjoy the night at what I think is a great –valued deal.