Father's Day event offers tastes of local whiskey

For Frederick Social’s Audi Nagi, the pairing of dads and whiskey seemed like a natural fit.

“We love to do collaborations. And Father’s Day just seemed like a really good time to do a whiskey tasting,” said Nagi of Frederick Social, which hosted Sunday’s event.

It was the third year that the restaurant and taphouse along Frederick’s Carroll Creek has teamed up with McClintock Distilling to offer a chance to sample some of McClintock’s products.

The small, 1/3 ounce cups just give people a little taste of each of the eight products, said Braeden Bumpers of McClintock. They wanted to offer a rare-whiskey tasting, and went into their inventory to find some older products that haven’t been released in several years, he said.

Each selection was paired with a fruit or piece of food to help bring out its respective flavor, Nagi said.

Each customer got a tray with cherries, raspberries, apricots, a chocolate truffle with cayenne pepper flakes and one with a coconut dusting, a piece of savory challah bread with pesto, and a sweet challah with brown sugar and cinnamon, she said.

Promoting the different flavors with the various foods can provide a full sensory experience for the guests, Bumpers said.

For Mike Hopman of Frederick and Jerry Langston of Jefferson, the event seemed like a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Hopman said he’s a fan of McClintock’s products, and he contacted Langston when he saw the event listed on Facebook.

The two met through their sons’ participation in Boy Scouts, and even though their sons are older now, the two men still like to hang out, Langston said.

They came to the event last year, and wanted to see what products McClintock is coming out with.

It’s fun to try different whiskeys, Hopman said. Some may have the same ingredients, but different techniques can lead to different products.

“There’s always a different interpretation,” he said.

On Father’s Day, Andrew Essl had some unusual drinking buddies in his son Atlas, 2, and daughter Azalea, 7 months, as well as his wife, Alexa.

Residents of downtown Frederick, Essl said the family was looking for something interesting to do for the holiday.

While this is his third Father’s Day, it’s the first with two children instead of one, Essl said.

He described himself as a casual whiskey drinker, and said he’s more of a craft beer guy.

But Sunday’s event was fun, he said.

He’s had a few of McClintock’s whiskeys before, and said the event helped some of the different elements of the various products come through.

Nagi said events like Sunday’s, where people can learn about different products, are popular among Frederick Social’s customers.

“We’ve found that people love these kinds of events,” she said.

As the whiskey tasting was winding down, some patrons moved outside to the patio along Carroll Creek, where Darren Sheffield of Frederick’s Midar Cigars offered a selection of his products.

“Nothing compares pairing whiskey and cigars,” Sheffield said.

Whiskey has a certain woody taste, which goes well with a cigar’s flavor, he said.

And both products can help people kick back and relax, he said.

“People have a good day, they want to have a cigar. People have a bad day, they want to have a cigar,” Sheffield said.