This month’s Society Life welcomes one our most tenured and passionate members, Dr. Charlie Hoffman. I first met Charlie in October of 2016 at The Whisky Extravaganza in Washington, D.C., before we started events at The Haven. He was always in attendance with great insights and ideas for tastings. Today, Charlie is our Boston Member Ambassador along with Dr. Marek Domin. Both Boston College professors and whisky nuts, Charlie and Marek make a dynamic duo that the Boston membership benefit from greatly.
Charlie’s intelligence and wit are as perfectly balanced as a well-aged malt. I am so pleased to be able to call him a friend and colleague in whisky. Please pour a dram and put your hands together for Charlie Hoffman!
Over to you, Charlie….
TS: Hi Charlie, please tell us a bit about yourself….
CH: I grew up in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, but have lived in the Boston area since 1976 when I came to MIT for college. In college, I sang with the MIT Logarhythms and often wrote the jokes we’d tell between songs. This helped prepare me to become both a professor and a Member Ambassador to the SMWSA. I am a molecular and chemical geneticist and a professor of Biology at Boston College. My lab works in the area of small molecule screening as a first step toward drug development and I am very passionate about our research. I also love spending time with my wife Sally (we are “newlyweds” having gotten married in December 2024), my three children, and my two grandchildren. Sally has a much larger circle of friends than I do, giving me the opportunity to attend many parties where I generally bring 3-4 expressions, a water dropper, and many small glasses. In these circles, I am known as “the Scotch guy”. Along with membership in the SMWSA and various scientific organizations, I am a member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. Finally, for the past 30 years or so, I have been finding Monarch caterpillars and eggs, and raising and releasing butterflies, and teaching others how to do this as well.
TS: What is it about whisky that interests you the most?
CH: I have to say it is the range of flavors and bouquets associated with various expressions. I also enjoy drinking Scotch with like-minded friends and sharing expressions. After a tasting that Tom Smith ran for MIT alumni in 2019, we formed a group that meets at our house two or three times a year where we all bring 2 to 4 expressions giving us a chance to try bottles other than our own. (These go on for about 5 hours.) I am also oddly drawn to the notion that most of the Scotch I drink is ephemeral, since they are Society bottlings. Once they are gone, that specific experience is gone forever, only to be replaced with a new, different, yet equally enjoyable experience.
TS: What has been your most memorable whisky experience to date?
CH: The best Scotch I ever had was a Society Springbank that I bought around 1997. As I recall it was 31 years old and truly transcendent. Friends who had it with me still talk about that one today. My first trip to The Vaults in 1996 was also a very special experience. Lastly, for a few years now, Sally and I have hosted a Burn’s Night Dinner at our house that is a wonderful way to share Scotch, Haggis, and the poetry and songs of Robbie Burns with friends. We are even fortunate enough to have a friend who plays bagpipes and another whose “Address to a Haggis” is second only by that of Jason Waddleton, owner of The Haven.
TS: You're stranded on a desert island with one bottle of whisky for an entire month, what is it?
CH: Is this a trick question? How is one bottle going to last an entire month? In any case, it would probably be a Society Bunnahabhain or Highland Park (it might actually be a Springbank, but I should probably stay within my budget). There have been so many fantastic releases in the past couple of years, that it would be hard to choose. The 30th Anniversary SMWSA release was particularly good (10.249).
TS: What is your favorite distillery to visit and why?
CH: I am embarrassed to admit that I have only been to one distillery, which was Auchentoshan. I went there during another sabbatical in 2010, this time to Glasgow. My friend and host, George Baillie and I did the tour, and we each purchased a book about various distilleries. While roaming the grounds, we came across the distillery manager (Jeremy Stephens?) and asked him to sign our books as though we were little kids at Disneyworld! Sally and I are trying to find a time to go to Scotland at which point we have to do an Islay tour, since I do not know anyone who loves peated Scotch more than she does.
TS: Why did you decide to become a member of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society?
CH: I became an Assistant Professor in 1990 and received tenure in 1996. One of the perks of tenure in academia is the ability to take a sabbatical every seven years, to enhance one’s professional career. I took this opportunity to work in the lab of a collaborator in Edinburgh, where I lived for four months. I knew I liked Scotch but did not really understand the diversity of it. A PhD student in the lab was a Society member and took us to The Vaults. It was truly eye-opening. We each ordered a couple of expressions and passed them around the table taking small tastes. I particularly remembered a Caol Ila with the name Elephant Droppings (53.54). I was hooked at that point and looked to see if it was possible to join in the US and have Scotch shipped to me. That is when I learned of the SMWSA affiliate. I have been a member ever since and was honored to be “volunteered” as one of the two ambassadors for Boston.
TS: What has been the highlight of your membership experience so far?
CH: There are so many that it is hard to narrow it down to even just a few. My second date with Sally in 2021 was a tasting I did for her after promising that my intentions were pure! Similar to me, she already liked Scotch but had not experienced such high-quality expressions. We have been married for a little more than a year now, so I guess it went well. In 2017, while on sabbatical at the NIH, I attended a tasting at Jack Rose, where Tom Smith arranged for me to talk to the legendary Harvey Fry. He opened my eyes to the idea of discovering the essence of a distillery, even though each expression is unique. Finally, being asked to serve as one of the Boston member ambassadors has been a source of joy that allows me to share my passion for Scotch and gives me a captive audience for my jokes.
TS: Any advice for the other Society members?
CH: Outturn Preview Tastings are a great way to explore distilleries and flavor profiles that you might not expect to enjoy. I have friends in the Society who were not initially fans of peated expressions but have really come to appreciate them now. Everyone seems surprised by how much they love Oily and Coastal expressions. Don’t let age limit your choices. My favorite Islay was a nine-year-old Bunnahabhain. Expressions from India and Israel mature very quickly due to the climate, so that even a three-year-old will seem like a much more mature Scotch. Experiment with tasting before nosing or tasting while holding your nose to embrace the mouthfeel (and it makes you look really sexy). Finally, do not hold on to that last dram in the bottle for nostalgia’s sake.
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Thank you, Charlie, for sharing your thoughts. And thank you, reader, for spending some time with us.
