The Wine Voyage

Table of Contents - How Rum Is Made - The Regional Styles of Rum - Regional Style Comparison - How to Read a Rum Label - How to Taste Rum - A Rum Tasting Flight for Groups - Rum Cocktails as a Learning Tool - Age and Maturation in Rum - Common Questions About Rum - Rum for Groups: The Wine Voyage Approach - Further Reading Rum might be the most misunderstood spirit in the world. Ask most people what they know about rum and you'll get one of three answers: pirates, coconut, or Cuba Libre. Which is a shame, because what's actually happening in rum — across the Caribbean and beyond — is as complex and regionally specific as anything in wine. I came to rum through the back door of cocktail culture, then got properly pulled in when a bartender in New Orleans poured me a 15-year Barbadian neat and told me to forget everything I thought I knew. I did. By the end of the glass, I was taking notes. This guide covers everything: how rum is made, the major regional styles, how to taste it ...

Table of Contents - How Rum Is Made - The Regional Styles of Rum - Regional Style Comparison - How to Read a Rum Label - How to Taste Rum - A Rum Tasting Flight for Groups - Rum Cocktails as a Learning Tool - Age and Maturation in Rum - Common Questions About Rum - Rum for Groups: The Wine Voyage Approach - Further Reading Rum might be the most misunderstood spirit in the world. Ask most people what they know about rum and you'll get one of three answers: pirates, coconut, or Cuba Libre. Which is a shame, because what's actually happening in rum — across the Caribbean and beyond — is as complex and regionally specific as anything in wine. I came to rum through the back door of cocktail culture, then got properly pulled in when a bartender in New Orleans poured me a 15-year Barbadian neat and told me to forget everything I thought I knew. I did. By the end of the glass, I was taking notes. This guide covers everything: how rum is made, the major regional styles, how to taste it ...

Table of Contents - The Core Challenge with Large Group Team Building - Formats That Scale Well - What Doesn't Work at Large Scale (And Why) - Practical Planning Considerations - The Best Large-Group Team Building I've Seen - Matching Activity to Group Composition - Making It Stick After the Event - Further Reading Running team building activities for large groups is a completely different problem than organizing something for a team of ten. When you've got 80, 150, or 300 people in a room, the dynamics change entirely. The activities that create genuine connection at small scale can fall flat or become logistically impossible at scale. And the activities designed for mass participation often sacrifice depth for throughput. I've planned corporate events at both ends of the spectrum, and the thing that separates a memorable large-group experience from a forgettable one is almost never the budget. It's the structure. Here's what I know works — and why. The Core Ch...

Table of Contents - The Core Challenge with Large Group Team Building - Formats That Scale Well - What Doesn't Work at Large Scale (And Why) - Practical Planning Considerations - The Best Large-Group Team Building I've Seen - Matching Activity to Group Composition - Making It Stick After the Event - Further Reading Running team building activities for large groups is a completely different problem than organizing something for a team of ten. When you've got 80, 150, or 300 people in a room, the dynamics change entirely. The activities that create genuine connection at small scale can fall flat or become logistically impossible at scale. And the activities designed for mass participation often sacrifice depth for throughput. I've planned corporate events at both ends of the spectrum, and the thing that separates a memorable large-group experience from a forgettable one is almost never the budget. It's the structure. Here's what I know works — and why. The Core Ch...

Table of Contents - Why Wine Feels Intimidating (And Why It Shouldn't) - The Flavor Profiles That Win Over Skeptics - A Head-to-Head Comparison for New Wine Drinkers - What to Avoid Early On - How a Group Tasting Changes Everything - Practical Tips for Buying Wine as a Beginner - From Non-Wine Drinker to Wine Curious - Further Reading I hear it constantly at our tasting events: "I'm not really a wine person." And every single time, I think — you just haven't found your wine yet. Wine for non-wine drinkers isn't a niche category. It's a starting point. The honest truth is that most people who say they don't like wine have only ever been handed something that wasn't right for them — a big tannic red at a company dinner, a bone-dry white at a reception, something that tasted more like vinegar than anything enjoyable. That's not a you problem. That's a pairing problem. This guide is for anyone who feels left out at wine events, nervous at resta...

Table of Contents - Why Wine Feels Intimidating (And Why It Shouldn't) - The Flavor Profiles That Win Over Skeptics - A Head-to-Head Comparison for New Wine Drinkers - What to Avoid Early On - How a Group Tasting Changes Everything - Practical Tips for Buying Wine as a Beginner - From Non-Wine Drinker to Wine Curious - Further Reading I hear it constantly at our tasting events: "I'm not really a wine person." And every single time, I think — you just haven't found your wine yet. Wine for non-wine drinkers isn't a niche category. It's a starting point. The honest truth is that most people who say they don't like wine have only ever been handed something that wasn't right for them — a big tannic red at a company dinner, a bone-dry white at a reception, something that tasted more like vinegar than anything enjoyable. That's not a you problem. That's a pairing problem. This guide is for anyone who feels left out at wine events, nervous at resta...

Table of Contents - Why Bother Writing Wine Tasting Notes? - The Classic Framework for Wine Tasting Notes - Wine Tasting Notes Template - Reading Other People's Wine Tasting Notes - Common Wine Tasting Note Vocabulary by Style - Developing Your Palate Through Comparative Tasting - Digital Tools for Tracking Tasting Notes - From Notes to Knowledge - Further Reading The first time I seriously tried to write wine tasting notes, I stared at a glass of Pinot Noir for three minutes and produced: "smells like wine. Tastes like wine. Red." It took a while to build the vocabulary and structure to do better than that. But here's what I eventually learned: writing wine tasting notes isn't about knowing obscure flavor descriptors or having a certified palate. It's about paying attention in a systematic way and having a framework to organize what you notice. This guide gives you that framework — and explains why developing your own tasting notes practice will change how yo...

Table of Contents - Why Bother Writing Wine Tasting Notes? - The Classic Framework for Wine Tasting Notes - Wine Tasting Notes Template - Reading Other People's Wine Tasting Notes - Common Wine Tasting Note Vocabulary by Style - Developing Your Palate Through Comparative Tasting - Digital Tools for Tracking Tasting Notes - From Notes to Knowledge - Further Reading The first time I seriously tried to write wine tasting notes, I stared at a glass of Pinot Noir for three minutes and produced: "smells like wine. Tastes like wine. Red." It took a while to build the vocabulary and structure to do better than that. But here's what I eventually learned: writing wine tasting notes isn't about knowing obscure flavor descriptors or having a certified palate. It's about paying attention in a systematic way and having a framework to organize what you notice. This guide gives you that framework — and explains why developing your own tasting notes practice will change how yo...

Table of Contents - Start with a Clear Concept - Cocktail Party Ideas by Format - Building Your Cocktail Party Drink Menu - Cocktail Party Themes Worth Stealing - Food for Cocktail Parties - Setting and Atmosphere - Cocktail Parties for Corporate Groups - Further Reading I've helped plan a lot of events over the years, and the cocktail party is one of the most underrated formats in the entire entertaining playbook. Done right, it's the most flexible, socially alive kind of gathering you can host — people move around, conversations cross-pollinate, and the energy stays high from start to finish. Done wrong, it's a room full of people standing awkwardly with glasses they don't know what to do with. The difference comes down to intention. A great cocktail party doesn't just happen — it's shaped by a few smart decisions made well before the first guest arrives. Whether you're planning something intimate at home or a large corporate reception, these cocktail part...