#116 Glenmodan: Even Whiskey Experts Fear This Test
#116 Glenmodan: Even Whiskey Experts Fear This Test
Most whiskey training gets the order backwards. Bartenders and servers get handed tasting notes, distillery trivia, region maps, and cask-finish jargon and then get sent out to sell scotch to guests who are quietly terrified of mispronouncing the bottle. GlenmoDan, Glenmorangie's whisky educator and a Master Scotch holder through the Council of Whisky Masters, argues that every one of those details is worthless until you deal with the thing underneath: anxiety. Mispronunciation, unfamiliar categories, self-identification ("I'm not a whiskey person"): these are anxiety drivers, and anxiety is inversely tied to perceived value. Kill the anxiety and the guest will follow you anywhere. Lead with the annoying detail and you've built the wall yourself.
Expect to Learn:
- The organizing principle that makes 160 Scottish single malt distilleries stop feeling like noise
- Why a guest saying "I don't do gin" is an invitation, not a rejection, and the move that works
- The certification that specifically trains you to taste around your own confirmation bias
- Why Glenmodan almost walked out of his whiskey tasting
- Why finishing fourth in your category can be more creatively valuable than finishing first
Links:
- GlenmoDan on Instagram — @glenmodan
- MH Whisky Central / MH Whisky School
- YouTube: nine types of water, one whisky
- Council of Whisky Masters
- WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust)
- Edinburgh Whisky Academy
- Tequila Wars by Ted Genoways
- Dave Elitch
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I talk to people in and around the service industry space. I'm looking to hear from the people I wish I could have talked to when I was coming up in bars. Said another way: I am trying to make sense of this wild, beautiful mess that can be a life working in bars, and help others that are feeling similarly confused and/or lost. Check out the Podcast Website Here and get in touch with me!
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- Doug Frost MW MS
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As always, I’m just here taking notes, trying to figure out what it all means.
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