1st Newcastle Whisky Festival

[Spirit of Islay]

Nothing New , just info about the event .
I Believe there's going to be a write up about it in the Local Morning paper tomorrow morning , if it's put up on their site i'll post a link here.

[Spirit of Islay]

Eddie and the festival got a nice little Write up / Plug in the Newcastle Journal this morning.......
http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-taste/wine-reviews/alastair-gilmour/2009/05/01/chance-to-get-into-the-spirit-of-city-event-61634-23513886/

[ClubSmed]

I am on the train to Newcastle and am very excited

[les taylor]

I am on the train to Newcastle and am very excited

Hope you guys have a good day.

[ClubSmed]

I will try to write a review/ notes on this on the train home if still capable

[kyorke1]

It was a very good day I may write a bit more later when I am able to.

[Spirit of Islay]

Well what a superb Day yesterday !
The Venue was tip-top , a lovely airy room with plenty of room for everyone .Good idea to have food available in the area and a nice sitting area complete with comfy sofas , The Whisky Lounge !
A very good turn out as well , 330 tickets sold before hand and a few paying on the door .
Nice to catch up with old friends (Raymond and Florence from Bladnoch , Willie JJ , Paul and Livvy amongst others ) and finally put faces to names from the various forums (Chris , Keiron , John McGill , Ras to name a few) .
Good selection of whiskies , more than enough to keep you occupied .
Good to meet Ardbegs Ambassador Davinia , enjoyed the 2002 cask at the tasting , sister cask to a one i filled at the Feis Ile .
Highlights ? The Bladnoch table and The Berry Bros Table , Rob had a superb selection of Berrys Own , the 1982 St Maggies was superb .

Afterwards Willie , Livvy , Ras and myself met up with Mel (my wife) and Sky (Ras's Partner) and ended up in Chinatown for a meal before everyone went their own way .

Like i said A Fantastic day in my eyes , everyone seemed to enjoy it and hopefully we can have a regular event in Newcastle from now on !
Thanks to all the Exhibitors who made an effort to come to our fair city and a huge thanks to Eddie for organising such a great event !
Your the man Eddie !!!!

Full report soon on The SOI....

[ClubSmed]

1st Newcastle Whisky Festival notes

The location is ideal for transport as it is so close to the train station, car parks (the exhibitors drive I presume), bus routes and the metro. It was not obvious from the outside (at least when I arrived) that the Whisky event was there, nor was I particuly well directed upon entering the building. Once I found some signs leading to the room being used I found it was very nice with great ornate iron beams, very Victorian industrial, with art deco lights and wood paneling which all went to lend itself very well to the event. It has high cellings so is well aired keeping both visitors and whisky at the right temperature. The facilities were as you would expect from a modern museum, all in all nothing too bad so far.

The queue to get in was slow at least in the first insance as they were still trying to sign people up for master classes 1 at a time, I hope they got more efficiant at this as time went on. The goodiebag was a good size heavy paper bag, useful for collecting info from stalls and hold purchases. It contained a branded Glencairn glass and event guide which was very informative as well as a few othe leaflets etc.

The layout of the "stalls" was as you would expect, around the walls with a few in the centre, numbering about 20 in all.
The stall of note for me was the Amrut purely for the fact that it was interesting to find out more about Indian whiskyproduction and taste
I did attended the master classes of Cooley and Diagio:
The Cooley mastercass was very informative but it does have an Irish bias(as it should)
The Diagio masterclass was evangelical as expecteted
Both of the above master classes would have done better to have water and oatcakes to clense the palate between whiskies. Also on both occasions I was a little late turning up as there were no anouncements in the hall that the master classes were starting. This I found quite a flaw as it is easy to lose track of time in the hall.
All in all an excellent event, just a smooth as Whisky live, with similar numbers (if not a better sellection) of exhibitors.

[Spirit of Islay]

Hi Clubsmed ,
Glad you seemed to enjoy the event on the whole .

Also on both occasions I was a little late turning up as there were no anouncements in the hall that the master classes were starting. This I found quite a flaw as it is easy to lose track of time in the hall.

They did actually announce the Masterclasses over the tannoy system and asked you to go to the main door in and out of the room but i'm sure Eddie will pick up on any comments and sort them out at future events !

[Spirit of Islay]

Posted report on main site.....
http://www.spiritofislay.net > More.... > Newcastle Whisky Festival

[r900p]

A good day had by all i think.

Top 5 whiskies for me in no particular order,

Amrut Cask strength Peated version
Kilbeggan 15 blend
BBR St Maggie,
Bladnoch Invergordon
Black Bush.

Good to see Willie, Gordon, Keiran, John and Dog. See everyone at York maybe.

Rob

[BruceCrichton]

How did it go?

[ClubSmed]

How did it go?

It was really good, especialy given how reasonably priced it was!

[Ras Mazunga]

The festival was great.

It was nice to meet a few people from the forums. Of course the whiskies were interesting too.

Hopefully next year again...

[Willie JJ]

How did it go?

It cost me £15 for the ticket and £17 for the train. Excellent value and a brilliant event.