Burns Night How-To Part 2

This week I’ve started a series to tips and advice for staging a Burns Night event on January 25.

And now it seems spirits maker Morrison Bowmore has launched its own version of the event – the William McGonagall supper.

The rationale behind the link between Auchenstoshan and McGonagall is that both do things differently. The whisky is triple distilled, unlike its double distilled Scotch peers, and Rabbie Burns’ great rival William McGonagall was known for being a maverick and challenging the boundaries of poetry.

The William McGonagall dinner – an excuse to honour Morrison Bowmore’s tripled distilled Auchenstoshan – takes its cue from McGonagall’s playful-to-the-extreme attitude to most things, suggesting a Black Mass –esque dinner, doing everything backwards.

Consequently, the menu they propose is as follows – in this order:

Auchentoshan Presents… The William McGonagall Burns Supper Menu:

Dessert:           

Cranachan paired with Auchentoshan Three Wood

Main Course:    

Haggis, neeps and tatties served with whisky gravy, paired with Auchentoshan 12 Years Old

Starter:            

Flaked smoked salmon over oatcakes, paired with Auchentoshan Classic

Other than the order, this isn’t a far dry from my suggestion in Part 1.

To help boost on-trade sales, Auchentoshan has provided on-trade accounts with a set of tools to host their own McGonagall Burns supper, including recipes, posters, menu cards, tent cards, coasters and tickets. Each dish is paired with an Auchentoshan expression, served in specially created, irreverent Auchentoshan whisky glasses designed with a variety of different shaped and sized moustaches.

The campaign caters also for consumers keen to partake in the topsy-turvy Haggis festivities with downloadable material from the Auchentoshan website, including a ‘How To’ guide and decoration materials, invitations, menu holders, and examples of McGonagall’s poetry.