S.F. isn't a big scotch town either, but I'm a hasher so it was easy.

Come to Wollongong and I could round up a dozen for tasting before breakfast!

With trading there can be the problem of amounts quality and initial price.

With tastings: you organise it, you know what is coming, find a liquor store that will give a heafty discount for buying a ten bottles of very expensive booze (your fellow tasters won't be able to drink too much more) get twice as many friends and acquaintances as you have bottles (split the cost of the whisky between them) have them bring finger food organise pencils and paper for scoring and some sort of scoring system.

Also what I have done for the two tasting I have organised so far, is to pair people up well before the evening and have them research the malt (without tasting it) I had people bring maps and hand outs, I know one wanted to do a powerpoint presentation, they all really got into it and it became a proper educational experience. We all know not to buy a bottle of Lagavulin as a 'special' gift unless we know the recipient actually likes the stuff, we know Tam Dhu is middle of the road inoffensive easy drinking we all know GlenRothes is a 'blokes drink'. And if it happens to be Robby Burns night get a specialty butcher to create a Haggis or just bake a big lump of salmon in the oven.

Single malt, in fact all hard liquor tasting, (I've done a vodka tasting) has a bit of cachet about it, it feels very special being able to talk a bit about it (without being an anorak) and a tasting is a very friendly way to do it.