Whisky Attic: A totally unique, original whisky tasting and education experience amongst one of the largest whisky collections in the world.
I heard about this guy who was really successful in food & beverage in Las Vegas, and who invented his own system for tasting spirits that’s been warmly adopted by the spirits community, and I heard about a place that he opened in town where he’ll teach it to you. And that was it. I was sold.
LA born Adam Carmer found himself in Las Vegas in the nineties in order to complete his Bachelor’s at UNLV. To make ends meet, he worked as a maitre’d at Treasure Island. In just a few years time, he was Director of Restaurants and Steve Wynn’s first Sommelier at The Mirage. Well done, sir.
All that changed in 2003, when he quit the biz and opened The Freakin’ Frog, a not-so-college bar across from UNLV that offered hundreds of wines and over 1,000 beers.
The Frog was a different kind of bar for Vegas. It was quiet (except the pianist), and video poker-free. And on account of their selection, instead of ordering your beer from a menu, you were escorted into the walk-in, where you picked it out yourself.
It was a bar for people who were already educated on these topics to go and continue their education. Publications lined up to give The Frog awards (dozens of them).
The story of how The Freakin’ Frog picked up a 2nd floor expansion – The Whisky Attic – goes like this:
The Frog’s fixture pianist, Seth Barkin didn’t wanna be paid in cash. He wanted to be paid in whisky. Always the same whisky – Black Velvet. Not a particularly good whisky.
Carmer, “Seth, you sure you want Black Velvet again?”
Barkin, “It’s what I like.”
Carmer, “What if I let you try something new but similar?”
And so they did. And each bottle that Barkin didn’t prefer ended up going back behind the bar to collect dust. Before they knew it, they had 3o bottles back there. Then 100.
They started offering invite-only whisky tastings upstairs, and the collection grew even more. By the time it was called The Whisky Attic, it was hundreds of bottles deep, and one of the largest collections in the world.
Adam, founder of Whisky Attic, is a knight in Belgium – that means free beer for life!!
Whisky Attic Rules
Now, Carmer had been adjunct faculty at UNLV since his graduation there. He’s earned his masters since then, and is going for a doctorate. So the educational aspect of Whisky Attic really appealed to him. And it seemed to appeal to his customers, too, who were paying $50-75 a person for a seminar, or whatever you wanna call it.
In 2014, he shut down The Freakin’ Frog, and moved The Whisky Attic a mile or two away from UNLV. Their whisky collection currently stands at an astounding 2,900 bottles and growing. (Quickly approaching this guy.) It’s worth millions. And yes, it’s insured.
The Experience
Whisky Attic is in this really discrete plaza now. The kinda place you’d go to buy wholesale plumbing equipment or something.
You’d never suspect this overwhelming collection inside. But there it is. 6 shelves of Ireland… 30+ shelves of Scottland… Countless American shelves… Bottles as expensive as $100,000.
The structure of the tasting went like this:
- Whisky 101.
- Define and teach Carmer’s Tasting Method.
- Taste.
Whisky 101
How many bottles does it take you to name that country?
Whisky 101 kinda blew my mind. It made me realize how little I knew about this thing I’ve consumed so much of. Expect to learn all sorts of wicked cool shit like:
- What role financiers play in how long whisky ages for.
- Why virtually all whisky makers actually add food dye to their product.
- Why Japanese Whisky is so good now.
- Which country has the MOST whisky distilleries in the world (hint: it’s NOT America, Scotland, NOR Ireland).
- Why Canada makes so much damn Rye.
- Why there’s two ways to spell whisky/whiskey, and why they’ve chosen the former.
- OMG So many more.
The method is one Carmer devised himself over the early days of The Whisky Attic. He calls it the C-STEM Method (Carmer Spirits Tasting Enhancement Method). It’s arguably the first of its kind – a way to systematically taste and enjoy spirits like you never have before. I won’t go into it because you really gotta go do this for yourself. And it’s proprietary.
My personalized rainbow of delight.
The actual tasting went like this. He went around the room asking all 9 of us a series of questions about our taste preferences. He then devised a personalized tasting experience for each of us based on how we answered. WTF. So cool.
My birthday just happened to have passed recently. Laura’s too. Someone leaked this information at the tasting. As a result, he added a 6th taste just for us, also customized (smiley face): 25-year Macallan for me, and 20-year Pappy for Laura. Those aren’t cheap, so that was pretty cool that he did that.
If you like whisky, even just a little, please go to the Whisky Attic. (Set up an appointment first.)
These bottles are worth more than my damn life.
