written by: Christie Marcy   photos by: Adam Finkle
Who says you canât get a drink in Utah?
Not the local whiskey-lovers group Whiskey Drinkers Union: Utah Local 801, co-founded by Jeff Thompson. âMy friend Jim and I are part of a bunch of national whiskey groups, so weâd see all these other people getting together and buying barrels and networking about whiskey and trading bottles,â Thompson says. âI created a group and I invited four people and everyone invited their friends and then friends of friends showed up.â
The group of over 300 has a home on Facebook, where they compare notes on spirits, share liquor-related news, learn how to navigate the arcane rules of the DABC and brag about the varieties of booze theyâve tasted. The group is also real-world activeâThompson and his co-founders schedule monthly events ranging from in-home tastings to tours of local distilleries.
Though the word âwhiskeyâ is in the groupâs name, Thompson is clear that the club is about all liquor, with a focus on local spirit-makers. âWe have a bunch of bourbon nerds. We have a bunch of Scotch nerds. We have people who like whiskey but know nothing about it,â says Thompson, who puts a premium on educating the members of his group. âI host tastings and weâll go through how itâs made and its history.â
A little education goes a long way in appreciating spirits, he says. âThere are people who come to our events and they say âOh, whiskey is OK.â But when you put a glass of Scotch neat in front of them and you teach them how to drink itâyou sip it, you roll it around in your mouth, that whole thingâthey arenât saying, âThis is gross and it tastes like fireâ anymore. They come around.â And to that end, Thompson says, âweâre just trying to build the culture of whiskey here.â
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See more inside our 2017 September/October Issue.