28/04/2024 The Whisky Fair (Day 2 -- Part 2)

The day's story started here.

JS and I try our best to escape CD and PG's corner, resolute as we are to try other things and see other people (CD, if you read this, I think we should start seeing other people).

As we move to greet the owner of Whisky for Life, he takes the interruption to politely go back to his stand, leaving us with his interlocutor, whom I pour a dram. Meet Babelfisch42, who returns the favour.

Glen Keith 30yo (unknown ABV, Cask Sample)

Nose: peanut oil, flowers and cut fruits, dripping with juice.
Mouth: soft, fruity and flowery.
Finish: long, it combines jasmine and cut peaches. We even detect milk chocolate at the death.
Comment: a gorgeous Glen Keith that will soonish be bottled by East Village Whisky. 9/10 (Thanks for the dram, Babelfisch42)

I pour him another, so he reciprocates.

Highland Park 32yo 1989/2022 (50.7%, East Village Whisky bottled for the 5th Anniversary of Whisky Maniac, Hogshead, 60b)

Nose: a soft, honeyed nose, the way I prefer my HPs.
Mouth: lavender, heather, honey, and hard-boiled violet sweets.
Finish: boiled sweets alright, and set heather honey.
Comment: a solid HP, even if I prefer it the Glen Keith. 8/10 (Thanks for the dram, Babelfisch42)

Bumping into PT in the middle of the room, he greets us in the best possible way: "Do you fancy some Port Ellen?" Is the coke a patholic?

Port Ellen 24yo 1982/2007 (59.6%, The Whisky Fair, Sherry Butt, 509b)

Nose: peaty and smoky (no shit, Sherlock!) We have boiler rooms, tractor engines, hot metal and methedrine engine grease.
Mouth: powerful, with that characteristic Port Ellen touch of caster sugar and diesel smoke.
Finish: long, warming, comforting. Exhaust fumes and diesel smoke have rarely felt so good. Naturally, it has a few grains of smoky barley too.
Comment: hovering between 8 and 9. Let us be generous. 9/10 (Thanks for the dram, PT)

EG's stand, at last. It would be wrong to not see the guy for five years, then neglect him when he is in the same room!

Glen Cawdor d.1976 (57° GL, R. W. Duthie imported by Samaroli, 960b, b#305)

Nose: a strange combination of crushed cereals and split rocks. Cereals come out on top, roasted barley, then flour.
Mouth: acidic, cereal-y, almost unripe. It is also metallic, to a degree.
Finish: corn syrup, roasted barley, maybe maple syrup too?
Comment: puzzling dram. I really wanted to love this, based on the label. It is interesting, rather than good, proof that label-drinkers are deluded. I should know: I can be one myself. Sadly, I did not have time to analyse this probable Glen Garioch carefully, nor to try it with water. 7/10

Less than two hours to go, and we have not yet ventured into the tent, where GB and MRi are, amongst others. Clearly our next mission.

There, we bump into pat gva.

Macallan-Glenlivet d.1961 (103.6° Proof, Mitchell and Craig, b. ca. 1970s)

Nose: extremely meaty and musk-y. Cured meat, pearl onions, roast beef, pastrami, red onions, brine. It is also smoky, as JS points out.
Mouth: thick, it reminds one of an onion custard (I know, right?) poured on a game casserole. It is also rather acidic and drying.
Finish: there is a sweetness to it, now, thank fuck, but it remains a difficult number for this taster, with pickled onions, cured meat, and Saure Gurken.
Comment: tOMoH feels prestigious old Macallans are maybe wasted on him. He is willing to keep trying. For science, of course. 6/10 (Thanks for the dram, pat gva)

Knockdhu 10yo 2013/2023 (53.2%, The Whisky Agency for Bar Bam Bar and Bar Tenuto, Hogshead)

Nose: fresh, somewhere between plum and mint sauce.
Mouth: mellow, fresh, slightly bitter. It is mostly nectarines, doused in mint sauce.
Finish: minty, fresh, ripe with cut peaches and nectarines, topped with crushed mint leaves.
Comment: repetitive notes for a good whisky. Apparently the first Knockdhu by this bottler. 8/10

NH joins us and tries the remainders of

Fettercairn 28yo 1988/2017 (48.9%, The Nectar of the Daily Drams special edition for TastToe, 16/06009)

NH: "I can pinpoint a Fettercairn if it has pineapple, cream cheese, and dish soap."

Bowmore 12yo (43%, OB imported by Soffiantino, b.1980s)

Nose: marmalade, chipped slates, old blades.
Mouth: a soft smoke, pineapple, and cereals. JS finds it sparkly and spritzy.
Finish: ridiculously big for this ABV and time of the festival, long, with a tiny whiff of smoke.
Comment: what can one say about these old bottles? They are good. 8/10

Glen Keith 29yo 1994/2023 (54.1%, The Whisky Agency for the 15th Anniversary of The Whisky Agency, Bourbon Barrel, 125b)

Nose: boiled sweets, crystallised citrus.
Mouth: more candy than a trick-or-treater's bag! Gummibärchen, boiled sweets, Fraises Tagada... It is all borderline chemical. It walks a very tight rope.
Finish: a confectionary explosion. Boiled sweets, crystallised citrus segments, chewy Haribo sweets, fruit jellies.

Comment: unmistakably a Glen Keith. A Glen Keith day, eh? Our third today, easily the least impressive of them, but still a cracking drop. 8/10

Last order.

Tennessee Bourbon 2016/2023 (53.6%, The Whisky Agency for Korea, C#1)

Nose: sweet, it unrolls more confectionary.
Mouth: Gummibärchen, and a drying note, something that seems to be affecting me a lot, today.
Finish: Irn Bru. It is now a bit too chemical for me.
Comment: 7/10

NH [about the founder of whiskyfun.com]: "Sergey Valentinov."

Exhibitors are now packing away.

North of Ireland 24yo 1991/2015 (51.8%, The Whisky Agency & Acla da Fans Acla Selection, Bourbon Barrel, 218b)

Nose: cut peaches, apricots, and supreme mangoes.
Mouth: juicy, overripe. Mangoes and peaches galore. Time to roar the phwoar!
Finish: long and ridiculously fruity, of course.
Comment: what a way to finish the day! 9/10

Double-fisting across the finish line

There is more? NH pours one final dram blind.

Nose: a farminess that only aged Brora comes close to. Cow's backside, dung, manure, field mud, smoke, then, out of nowhere, Parmesan.

Mouth: hay and citrus peel.
Finish: smoky and flint-y in a Mezcal way.
Comment: tOMoH's agony seems to amuse NH very much. It is NH's very own Mezcardbeg, a blend of Mezcal and Ardbeg.

Clowning around

All day, I pour Lochside 21yo d.1981 (50%, Lombard Jewels of Scotland, Bourbon Cask, C#607) and Glenlochy 17yo 1977/1995 (61.8%, Cadenhead Authentic Collection imported by Preiss Imports, 95/250).

We survived Day 2. It looks like our Limburginity is lost too. How was it?

The good:

• Price -- with an entry fee of 15 EUR, we are back to the budget of Whisky Live! Verviers 2006. Of course, one pays for the drams inside, but so did one at Whisky Show Old & Rare, and the admission there was 80 or 90 GBP
• Price range -- from 350 EUR for a cl of Largiemeanoch (hidden under the counter) to drams at 2 EUR a pop, there is something for every budget
• Selection -- new releases, releases from previous editions, or antiques from decades ago. The offer is so vast that one could probably attend several weeks in a row and have a different experience each time
• Exclusivity -- of course, seeing German bottlers and bottlings at a festival in Germany is akin to seeing hens in a henhouse. They do not travel far and wide, however, and for visitors from across the Channel, it is exciting to see more than the odd (overpriced) bottling of The Whisky Agency, or Malts of Scotland, to state but two
• Social -- the whisky world is here. It is a convenient way to catch up with friends we have not seen in a long time. Not to mention everyone brings their A-game (well, their A-whiskies), and share generously
• Security -- yes, security, fire brigade, ambulance are all present. And one will not see them if one is not looking, so discreet they are. They are there just in case, and I doubt that happens often. An orderly affair it is

The room for improvement:

• Maps -- there are maps of the venue detailing which exhibitor is where, but they are few and far between. Some will not mind wandering about and getting lost, while the planners will be annoyed. Similarly...
• Drams list -- no anticipation, relief or disappointment. Exhibitors do not really publish what they are bringing, so no-one knows exactly what is going to be available ahead of schedule. Tough luck for the planners
• Queue management -- a calm and orderly affair all in all, but the queues on Day 1 would have benefitted immensely from having one person going up and down them for the first two hours, taking questions, and dispatching punters to the right queue
• Personal space -- not everyone there is slim. Combined with the fact rucksacks are allowed in the hall, some individuals occupy a lot of space. It affects everyone's freedom of movement, contributes to congestion, and occasionally causes accidents: I have seen bottles being knocked from shelves by backpacks, and the culprit totally unaware of the damage
• Water -- used to finding bottles at every stall, and watercoolers plodded around the hall, it was a shock to realise that, at The Whisky Fair, *some* stands have a 20cl jug, and exhibitors *may* pour one some water from their allocated bottle, if one asks. It explains the rucksacks: they contain bottles of water. Some even bring their CamelBak. Miraculously, drunkenness is under control. Germans know how to handle themselves with alcohol, it seems
• Food -- no food is served, here. There is a Bratwurst Hütte outside, and a handful of stands have a bowl of pretzels and crackers. For thousands of visitors, that means going hungry. Again, it does not seem to fuel drunkenness or bad behaviour; just something to be aware of
• Tables and chairs -- want to sit down to quietly enjoy that dram of Glentowabullin 1827? Perhaps take notes? Well, tough shit. All the space is taken up by stalls or gangways. There is a balcony where one can sit down, but it is a wee trek away. Sitting there for ten minutes requires a thirty-minute investment
• Spitoons -- tOMoH does not come to these events to waste whisky, and, considering one pays for their drams, others probably feel the same. Nevertheless, the option is not given to anyone to not finish a dram. Having grown accustomed to spitoons on each stall, it felt strange
• Bracelets -- going in and out is not encouraged, perhaps impossible. One does not receive a bracelet or a stamp upon stepping in. Perhaps those are given/applied if/when one wants to get out, which means less waste, in which case, great. One may purchase a bottle and want to stash it in their hotel room before coming back to the venue. That would require going out and back in

Verdict: great time. In Savoureur's words: "It is a great social event, and it happens to have some good whiskies too." Apparently, accommodation for next year is already booked. :-)

Remember this? We had a batch of it, a while ago.
There is a Terrence Hill bottling too, dubbed The Hero.