Edinburgh Whisky Festival

[bifter]

[albo]

I said I'd try and add some detail to this when I felt a bit better, it's now Friday the week later and I'm able to face these demons.

The day started the night before, in my infinite wisdom, I decided that going out the night before an all day whisky event was in fact a good idea. Go me!!

So at 01:30am on Saturday morning I roll into bed a little the worse for wear. 10 hours 30 mins before I was to start at the Whisky Lounge event.

Needless to say, being the father of a 2yr old, I'm not that used to drinking much anymore and come 730am on Saturday I was kind of regretting my laissez-faire attitude to the night before. Still one has to soldier on in these situations, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stiff upper lip 'n' all that.

So after a shower, some headache pills and copious amounts of water, I was on a bus into the centre of Edinburgh to rendezvous with Bifter.

10am, I'm sat in the Queen Street branch of the SMWS contemplating the merits of a cup of much needed coffee versus a large cask strength single malt whisky. The coffee won for 2 reasons, 1) I'm stupid, but not that stupid, and 2) There was to be plenty of opportunity to taste whisky in the next few hours of my life, why rush now.

12noon came round, Bifter and I queued up outside the Hub in Edinburgh on what was a delightfully sunny day, given the winter and 'spring' we've had thus far.

12:15, we have 4 white tokens and 1 black token each, a bottle of water (which still seemed more appealing than a glass of malt) and a programme for the day, as we ascended the stairs to the event.

We walked into a very well appointed, if rather smaller than I expected, room which was wall to wall whisky stands. Whisky stands with... free whisky. Once more I dug deep and put my personal woes aside to ensure I had a tail to tell you all here. Yes that's right, this wasn't about personal enjoyment, it was an informational quest to enlighten those who couldn't be there. No need to thank me!

The first stall we rocked up at was giving away whisky from Japan, they had but 3 offerings on the table (at this point I'll say that I made no notes, and don't have the first idea what distilleries these were from, this is a theme that may run through my blog). Anyway, after a bit of a sales pitch, by one of the guys who writes for the Edinburgh whisky blog. I'll stop there to reflect on the fact that they gave a sales pitch to give away whisky, some jobs are harder than others! I tried a whisky which was from a distillery at the base of one of the mountains about 150 miles north west of Tokyo, someone more sage will advise me of the name I'm sure (Bifter?), anyway it's a blended malt from the distillery which has now closed its doors, it was a vatting of barrels from the last 2 years it was open '99 and '00 if I remember correctly. Nice enough in truth but not stellar, the 2nd whisky I tried there was the cask strength of the same one. Better this time, more bite more fire (they did tell us the whiskies were supposed to represent the dragon (cask strength) and the sea (none cask strength) or some such, a lovely story which I'm sure you can look up on Google as my brain can't recall anymore than that. Bifter didn't try the CS version but he did have the 3rd whisky wish iirc was a 3yr old, this tasted a little young as you would imagine.

At that point I went over to talk to Macateers about a valuation on the Fiddich from a couple of years ago, the foundation reserve, I still have my bottle. Sadly they were unable to be of any real help as I didn't have the bottle with me. Still after my first 2 whiskies of the day, more pressing matters were afoot.

We were joined at this stage by one of Bifters 'associates' a lovely chap who went by the name of Mazz (not his real name), a real nice chap, what he's doing knocking about with Bifter is beyond me, but still he was a welcome addition to the party.

As fate may have it Mazz has a brother (no I'm not going to delve into his family tree), his brother works on one of the stalls, ordinarily this would be fortune of the very highest order, but given that everything was free anyway, it wasn't as exciting as it should have been. Never-the-less we headed over to his brothers stall. It turned out to be what I shall describe as the Balblair / OP stand (Inverhouse or some such is it's technical name). Spying the bottles they had the Balblair 75 which I tried last year at the Edinburgh Fringe, so that was going to be tried, but they also had the Balblair 97 and 89 (I think) which I have a bottle of each at home. I tried both, well you have to really. The 97 was very good, not outstanding but good in every area equally. The 89 however, was excellent on nose and palate, however, for me the finish was disappointingly short, it could have been so much better with a decent finish IMO. After that I had the 75 which is a class above, I really like and rate this whisky and it got my vote for Whisky of the day. Being as the chat was good between us, I decided I'd best try the OP 21, I mean it won whisky of the year last year for JM and it was free so, sometimes you just have to put yourself out. I can see why it won Whisky of the year, it was excellent, not sure if it was the best whisky I had within a 5 mins space of time (the Balblair 75 was better for me) but it was an excellent drop. I passed on the chance to try the 17 and 12 having had both of those in the past and we'd only been there 45mins and I was 6 drams in (still another 4hours 15 to go). At this point the night before had begun to somewhat catch up with me and I was possibly more happy than I ought, but hey it's a Saturday right?

At this point things start to become a little more hazy so I can't go into things in as good a detail, you're probably all bored reading anyway.

We visited the Talisker stand which was a good stop off point, I had the 57 north, which I always like, I also had the DE which was good but not as good as the 57, I also tried the new Storm, it wasn't bad but wasn't good either, I believe the cool kids say 'meh'. I won't be spending any of my hard earned on a bottle of that I can tell you. We also tried the port finish and while it was better than the storm again not great and for the money I'd rather have a bottle of the 10 and change. While there I also tried what I think was the Dalwhinnie DE, but my ability for critical reference was impaired by several Taliskers, though it didn't stand out.

I think at that point we might have gone for lunch, which I'm sad to say was a sorry affair, by the time we got there at 13:30 everything was cold and there was little of anything left. No hot plates to keep the food warm.... really?

While we were upstairs after lunch one of the lectures had just finished and the guy was packing up, I spotted the chance to try and blag some newmake which it turned out to be from Glenmo, to be honest I should have known better, I've had newmake before and I'm not a fan, but I went on instinct on that one and it was bad, if I were living in a shop doorway it may have been something to keep me warm at night, but at a whisky festival with some excellent whisky free and available, it was an error in judgement, still it removed a layer from my mouth and took away any taste from the cold food, so not all was lost.

We headed back down to the main all for more whisky which by now I'd already drank too much and was just fuelling stupidity with my own stupidity, a lethal combination as it turns out.

Anyway, we hit the Macallan and HP stand I had an HP 21 which I did no justice too, it seemed good but I'll never know from that tasting. I then when at a gusto to the new Macallan range, I didn't try the Gold, but tried the Amber and Sienna, I thought the Sienna pipped it for me but to be fair both were very good whiskies, not sure about the cost being NAS but good none the less, Bifter by now was chatting to a guy who used to work for Macallan and I spotted a couple of sample bottles (not those types), so I asked him about them, we got a pour each of them and the guy later found out the were not there for consumption more a display to show what different wood does to the spirit, still something new and tasty and not many others will have tried it, the much darker one was much younger, something like 11 v's 23, but I preferred the younger one though it had a much more pronounced sherry to it which you need after the first 20 or so drams of the day. I also tried an oldish Glenrothes at the stand an 88 I think but again I can't tell you much about it.

I tried the Glenmo Lasanta next as I have an unopened bottle of that and it was sulphur ridden, so I'll be giving away the bottle I have at home, in truth I think I'd have preferred the Glenmo new make to it!!!!! The first and only whisky I tipped away (though I got close later on).

Everything started to get a bit more silly at this point, and we decided a visit to the Venezuelan rum stand was in order and tried the top rum they had on offer it was a rum made from honey or so the guy told up, to me it was sickly sweet and did nothing for me.

I think at this point we went into the SMWS lounge and serving behind their mini bar type thing was one of the guys (Ben) who we'd been chatting to at the SMWS earlier in the day, the SMWS were trying out their May Outturn which was good as it will save me a paid visit to the society. I had a 28yr old Clynelish amongst a couple of others, a HP and the other one was possibly an Arran though I can't really remember, but the stand out for all of us was the CI a 19yr old sherry finished CI which was wonderful, its a shame now the outturn is out that it's not available to buy on it's own!

We headed out of the SMWS lounge into the main hall again and by this point I have very little recollection, I tried the Ardbeg Corry and used my black token on a 30yr OP which was actually excellent, Bifter had a 30yr old Talisker which was good also.

In truth I don't really remember much more, of the 4 tokens for special drams I woke up at home with one still in my pocket, which can only be described as bad planning but all in all it was an excellent day. I'm not sure I do it full justice here but it's the best I can do from hazy thoughts and memories.

I lost between 430pm and about 11pm, but I made it home and to bed in good order somehow. My son goes to bed at 7pm and I was in bed before him, I bet he's so proud of his daddy.

[bifter]

Great reading mate! Maz doesn't have a brother though, that was just his pal You must have been worse for wear earlier than I thought!

The Japanese sherried whiskies were Karuizawa, I found some interesting info about the distillery here:

http://www.whiskyforeveryone.com/whisky_distilleries/japan/karuizawa.html

I recall they were around £60-£70 which, considering they are Japanese, now closed and the low output, seems like great value. Can't recall the name of the independent but I'll check the programme later and report back. The other whisky they were selling was three year old Chichibu:

http://nonjatta.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/visit-to-new-distillery-at-chichibu.html

Considering how young it was it was very impressive, a very clean taste with the estery notes on the juicy, fruity side, pear, melon, etc.
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"Whisky is liquid sunshine."
[George Bernard Shaw]