Are you ready to learn more about wines and drinks? If you want to graduate from your regular beer but don’t know where to start, there will be free tasting and sampling of the different drinks at selected SM Markets. Use this opportunity to try new drinks, try new ways of drinking familiar brands, and hopefully find a new favorite beverage.
FREE SAMPLING of Premium Wines and Spirits at The Tasting Corner
For a limited time only, you can sample some of the most iconic premium wines and spirits in the world at the Tasting Corner in selected SM Markets (schedule below).
This innovative new concept is the first of its kind, and a rare experiential opportunity for those who are curious about premium brands to sample these drinks in their “perfect serve”.
Knowing the perfect serve
A few weeks ago, I was invited to the media launch of The Tasting Corner where we got to sample the drinks!
The perfect serve is the way in which wines and spirits manufacturers recommend that their drinks be served. Most perfect serves are surprisingly not common knowledge, and quite often they are not how everybody drinks it.
For instance, most Cognac aficionados would never think to mix Hennessy VS with ginger ale and a slice of lime, but that is exactly the way in which Hennessy recommends that Hennessy VS be enjoyed.
I’m a purist and always prefer my liquor neat (nothing added, no ice), but trying these new ways to drink Hennessy and Johnnie Walker Black was also fun. I was able to sip more casually because the liquor is diluted, and I was able to make the drinks last longer while catching up with friends. If I was drinking the cognac and Scotch neat, I would only drink like 1 mm of it and have to make it last the whole night because they would be too strong.
Hardcore Scotch Whisky drinkers usually prefer their Scotch neat or on the rocks, Johnnie Walker actually recommends mixing Johnnie Walker black with ginger ale or cola. And while wine connoisseurs everywhere will usually insist on room temperature serving for most if not all wine, Carlo Rossi and Los Cardos actually recommend that their wines be chilled.
Everyone knows the proper lick, shoot, and suck routine for drinking room temperature Tequila, but Jose Cuervo actually recommends Tequila chilled to a precise temperature, and taken straight up.
The best thing is there is no need to try to imagine what that is like, these and other perfect serves are in store at the Tasting Corner, to sample for free.
It’s all about knowing the “good stuff”
Contrary to the all too prevalent mindset in the Philippines, knowing how to drink is not a skill that is based on a person’s alcohol tolerance levels. The real skill doesn’t lie in the ability to drink huge amounts of alcohol, but in knowing the difference between an ordinary drink and “the good stuff.”
This is an idea that millennial drinkers really seem to already be embracing. The one of a kind experiential event that is the Tasting Corner will help broaden their appreciation for the good stuff all the more.
Addressing the media and VIPs at the launch of the Tasting Corner, Mr. Antonio Villasenor, CEO of Blue Mountain, the exclusive distributor of wines and spirits in all SM Markets explained: “The main objective of the Tasting Corner is to give our valued customers a new shopping experience at SM Markets’ Wine & Liquor Section.
We are giving them a unique opportunity to know top wine, liquor, and beer brands with the help of our Brand Ambassadors who will not just share their expertise but let them taste the liquor themselves; so they may compare and pick which brand suits them the most”.
Freebies and free samples at the Tasting Corner
The Tasting Corner is a Pop-up store that will appear in selected SM Supermarkets and Hypermarkets between August 16, and November 8. Free samples of brands such as Johnnie Walker, Hennessy, Jose Cuervo, Fundador or Carlo Rossi, and Los Cardos will be available throughout the Tasting Corner’s limited run.
The Tasting Corner will also offer exclusive discounts/price offs, and lucky Tasting Corner customers can also walk away with premium branded giveaways such as overnight bags, flasks,glasses, pens, and many others. Johnnie Walker fans will love the SM 60th anniversary commemorative bottles.
THE TASTING CORNER SCHEDULE
- August 15 to 30 in SM Hypermarket Mall of Asia
- August 17 to 30 in SM Supermarket The Podium, and SM Hypermarket North EDSA The Block
- August 31 to September 13 in SM Supermarket Megamall B and SM Supermarket Makati
- September 14 to 27 in SM Supermarket Aura and SM Hypermarket Pasig
- September 28 to October 11 in SM Supermarket Cebu, SM Supermarket Fairview, and SM Supermarket San Lazaro
- October 12 to 24 in SM Supermarket Southmall and SM Hypermarket Clark
- October 26 to November 8 in SM Supermarket Lanang Davao, and SM Supermarket Baguio
