Glasgow Whisky Festival 2024 has come and gone, leaving me on cloud nine and yet recovering from the weekend shenanigans… I might be getting too old for this. And by this, I don’t mean the shenanigans. I am already planning my 2025 trip. I mean writing a coherent post for this blog while trying to get back into everyday life with my head still in Glasgow.
So I won’t try to write up all that happened. Dramface’s spot-on post by Dougie Crystal on the weekend (Aqvavitae events included) gives an idea of the experience better than I ever could. As he writes: “People Make Glasgow. People Make Whisky, too.” Or, as I told a friend: The whisky was great, but the company was better. Thank all of you who said hi. Thanks to those who I got a chance to chat with, sometimes about whisky but more often about life. Thanks to those I shared drams, laughs, the occasional serious moment, and even humiliating blind-tasting scores. It was a blast spending time with you all.
I look forward to doing it (hopefully!) all again next year
And if you didn’t make it to Glasgow but are still interested in the whisky, I don’t want you to feel excluded. So here is a summary of my favourite drams from what I tried at Glasgow Whisky Festival 2024. Although I visited maybe only two-thirds of the booths I wanted to see, I still tried plenty of samples.
Unobtanium bottles I’d be tempted to give an arm for
Loch Lomond Distillery Edition, 6th edition: bright, zesty and juicy… and the next edition will be even better (wink). If you are in the UK, the distillery editions are regularly available. For all of us outside the UK these bottles will remain impossible to order. I can only hope that Loch Lomond’s next Open release might be another Micheal Henry Chardonnay yeast banger.
Dornoch’s first release, produced in tiny amounts and long gone. Impressive, richly complex, mature.. stunning, not only as a young whisky, just stunning in its own right.
Springbank’s next Sherry 10-year release is an Amontillado cask finish. Rich, elegant sherry notes, silky and a finish that went on forever. Unfortunately, as usual, this will be sold at stupid prices
Straight to my “buy” list
Thompson bros: besides the incredible Doroch Malt, both the IBs I tried, the Dalrymple (costal, slightly peated and deeply sherried) and the new Royal Brackla (hair spray, you say?),were excellent
Tomatin also impressed me with a lovely Tomatin Cask strength, rich, intriguingly complex, and a punchy broad-shouldered CuBocan 15
The next Killekerran 8 bourbon casks just pushed me over the fence: Kilkerran is my favourite distillery
All of Glasgow’s 1770 small batch editions were fun and larger than life, but the one bottle I am still thinking about is the new peated Cask Strength.
Finally, the Indri Dru. Maybe not as complex as others, but so full of tropical flavours, like biting into a ripe mango.
A few positive surprises
I usually prefer my Glen Scotia unpeated, but the new icons of Campbeltown bottling makes the peat and Barolo cask combo really work.
I gave Lochlea a hard time with their Fallow 1st crop, but the 3rd edition is much better, more rounded, and brightly sherried without any youthful character.
Finally, I managed to sneak a taste of the Lagg Kilmory at 5 years old… oh boy, Lagg will be fun in years to come!
And with that I will try my best to get back to my regular posting program, see you soon!
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