MyVegas MyVegas Whiskey Tasting Report

I'm a lurker, and this is my first post here. I wanted to share our experiences doing the Whiskey Tasting at Monte Carlo. We went on a Monday evening, around 5:00 pm. April 2016. There was no one at the High Limits area and a dealer facing our way with nothing to do for the entire time we were there. There were also no bar patrons while we were there either. We sat at a low table and chairs versus the bar area with the bar stools as we had someone with a walker, so your experience would be different if you were to sit at the bar. Since we sat at the low table/chairs, we had a waitress. She brought over waters, and asked if we had a drink order. We told her we were there for the MyVegas Whiskey Tasting, and could we see the menu? She replied that they were out of them, but she would see what she could find. So she comes back with a page like I have seen on here, but wrinkled and with several items crossed off.


Here are a few more pics of different sections:


So my friend who is knows more about whiskey than I do, he makes his selection, and the waitress goes off and places the order with the bartender. She brings the drinks over and places them in line, and tells us which one is which, so I make notes. The bartender comes over and tells us that he has placed the bottles in order, so I take a pic of the bottles.


And here are the whiskey pours in front of us...

So the pours are, from left to right: Glenlivet 12, Glenfiddich 12, Macallan 12, and Oban 14.


The bartender comes over and suggests that we taste each, then add some water and try each again. So, we tasted one at a time, sipped it straight and then added some water, and sipped each again, before moving on to the next one. So my friend with a more educated pallet and me, a complete whiskey noob, did agree on the following ranking:
Best to not-as-good: Oban, Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, Macallan.

And now, here comes the uneducated, unuseful part,: I am not going to try to describe the whiskies, other than to say that the Macallan had a strong 'old rubber tennis shoe' odor that was you have to get past to try to drink it, the rest smelled fine. Oban was the smoothest.

Here is their available whiskeys:


One also receives a bowl of peanuts, wasabi peas, spiced raisins, etc. (meh). When we did the Bellagio Vodka tasting, we ordered additional snacks - there does not seem to be such an option here.



We have previously done the vodka tasting at the Bellagio, and we love these fun activities. My friend does purchase beverages based on these tastings, so I expect to see some of these in his cabinet next time I visit!

We totally loved the vintage/retro/historic cocktails book - and I would totally purchase that as a gift if it is available... some pics:




The HIT Lounge is nice, I would definitely sit in there again, order some drinks (at Happy Hour, unless I become rich...) and the bartender gave us useful info. The cocktails are $15, half off at HH. I would sit at the bar next time. And, please MyVegas, can we have more tastings options?!]

Picture of the HIT Lounge:

 

Thanks for the post. I enjoy Scotch and will have to try the Oban 14 in the future.

 

looks pretty good, although those menus look kind of weird with the crossed out selections re-written in pen or whatever that is.

I'm going to try to give this a shot next trip

 

Always great to hear a review. The whiskies aren't anything earth shattering but the pours look solid (probably about an ounce). Thanks for the review.

 

Thanks so much for the review.

 

See, this is why there are horse races. I've had all of those malts and would rank them in the exact opposite order! But as my grandfather said,
"If everybody's tastes were the same, they'd all be hot for your grandmother."

 

I too did the MyVegas Whiskey Tasting a few month ago. Looks like the same "Drink Menu" that I was given, with some of them crossed off and and others penned in. They were all out of the " Glenlivet 12" so the Bar tender let me try the " Glenlivet 18" MMMmmm Mmmmm good .

 

Just had a look at that reward and it says that you get 3 whiskeys. Looks like it's been cut back from 4!!

 

I take it this reward is only for 1 person?

 

I did this last year, one of the best value MyVegas rewards we have used. I was only supposed to get 3 spirits, but was given 4. The Barman was excellent, nice guy and had decent knowledge. I would love to do this again next time!

 

During my trip this past weekend I took advantage of the Whiskey Tasting comp. One thing to note is the HIT Lounge is usually opens at 5PM Sun-Thurs. I got lucky and the bartender was there around 4 and let me partake. I was provided the list and was told I could pick four from the list or anything "in the range" of what was on the list. I saw a bottle of Jefferson's Reserve up there and was informed it was an acceptable selection, so I included that in my four. Pours were all at least 1 ounce in snifters, he also left the bottles down so I could read any tasting notes and see how the matched up. Bartender had knowledge of a few whiskeys and noted he was learning more as he could (there were a lot), but was friendly and conversational none the less.

My picks this trip were: Dickel Rye, Booker's (because I'm a masochist), Knob Creek Single Barrel (Monte Carlo selected), Jefferson's Reserve

 

This will definitely be on my to do list in September.

Mark

 

I did the whiskey tasting a couple of years ago and thought it was great. Plus the HIT lounge was nice. When I walked the Blue man group did their parade thing which was fun to watch, that was a bonus!

 

Hey there. One Short question: My fiance and I travelling together and he is an absolute Whisky Lover. I myself dont bother to much on that stuff ;-)! We already picked our 3 possible Rewards from MGM with MyVegas, but I got the 4th one left. Is is possible that I get the reward and we do the tasting together? Do they bother who drinks the Whisky? I really would like to get that reward for My fiance.