No wrong way to taste it

Portlanders clad in kilts and plaid sashes gathered at University Place Friday to honor the 250th birthday of the Scottish bard Robert Burns and to receive a brief education in the skill of whisky tasting.

“It’s really, really simple. It really has to do with the enzymatic conversions of soluble carbohydrates that are bound up into a protein matrix, in the acrospire of a barley cell,” said Glenlivet ambassador Richard Edwards. “I’m just kidding, man, we’re going to drink some whisky tonight.”

But whisky tasting wasn’t the only attraction of the evening at the third annual Robert Burns Supper and Whisky Tasting Benefit, which supports the PSU School of Fine and Performing Arts. A full dinner buffet—complete with haggis—was escorted into the room by bagpipes.

Traditional Scottish dancers exhibited their talent on the dance floor and local Celtic band Rose in the Heather performed throughout the evening, while photos of the Scottish homeland were projected onto the wall.

“I’m not Scottish or part of PSU, but I love the event, so I come,” attendee Laura Barton said. “I just heard about it on the PSU Web site.”

The Burns Supper Committee, started by John and Jodie McLean, puts on the event.

“This is a celebration that is done in Scotland every year, but this year is special because it is the 250th anniversary [of Burns’ birthday],” Jodie McLean said. “My husband [John] is from Scotland, and he would get homesick, so we decided to put on this event that they have every year in Scotland.”

The Glenlivet, the No. 1 selling single-malt whisky in the United States, provided the whisky for the tasting along with Edwards. The highlight of the night came when Edwards took the stage, dressed in a traditional Scottish kilt, and gave a presentation on whisky tasting.

A total of five different years of malt whiskies from the Glenlivet line were provided for the event.

Edwards’ presentation gave an education on the proper way to drink whisky, the difference between single malt and blended whisky, and the history of the Glenlivet.

“We’re not cowboys, man, you don’t shoot scotch,” Edwards said. “So many people will pour a nice $200 drab of whisky and bam. But there is no wrong way, or right way, to drink scotch. It is however you like it.”

The Glenlivet currently outsells every other single malt in the U.S. market four-to-one. It is the second-best selling single-malt whisky globally.

“We say it is the single malt that started it all,” Edwards said. “And the reason we claim we are the single malt that started it all, the Glenlivet was the first licensed distillery after the Excise Act. And every bottle of the Glenlivet is wrapped in a wrapping paper, and if you ever flatten that wrapping paper out and hold it up to the light, it’s got that first license. Most people open that wrapping paper and throw it away.”