Whisky Week has come to an end for another year. In its first year, it was more than a great success with all the seminars packing out and our feature nights going over monumentally. It started on Wednesday and covered the up to and over the internationally famous Victoria Whisky Fest.
Wednesday started out with our good friend and true burly Scotsman, Ross Hendry from The Glenrothes. We had industry and a general public seminars with a spectacular tasting of six whiskies from the wide selection of The Glenrothes. The Glenrothes is known for their year statement over most whiskies age statement, they say that they wait till the whisky is mature not just a certain age. In this they let us taste the Select Reserve, 1998, 1995, 1985 and two different cask numbers of the 1979. It was a tasting that would go down in history as one of the broadest and in depth tastings at Clive’s.
Thursday saw the return of Jeff Meyers, the Maker’s Mark Brand Diplomat and the newly charged appointment as Small Batch Ambassador. Jeff was in town a few months ago and gave a great seminar at Veneto to the industry crew so this time we just focussed on our elite general public. Jeff walked the resident cocktail geeks through Maker’s Mark from the “whitedog” stage all the way through the Maker’s 46. After the event, Jeff hung out after and spent some time with the guests who began to partake in whatever Maker’s Mark cocktails they could get.
The final day of seminars was Friday with the newest brand ambassador in the Jim Beam family, Dan Volway. Dan really stepped up and got the industry tasting moving through 9, yes count them 9 scotches with about 27 industry. Four Macallans, three Highland Parks and two Famous Grouses were poured, tasted and quaffed with great enjoyment.
Friday night saw the Forty Creek feature menu along with the meet and greet with John Hall in the back snug later in the evening. The Glenmorangie and Ardbeg night along with the Buffalo Trace feature nights went down for all the pre and post Whisky Fest participants and really rounded out our Whisky Week.
What’s planned for next year, you will have to see but I thank all the participants, the speakers and the sponsors for making it a fantastic week of whisky.
