Speyside Whisky Festival

by **BruceCrichton** » Sun May 09, 2004 10:22 pm

Was anyone at the Speyside Whisky festival from April 30 th to May 3rd?

by **SpiritofShetland** » Mon May 10, 2004 4:53 pm

Yes, I was there. It was brilliant.

I've written a little bit about in the Slainthe.org-site:
Speyside Whisky Festival

A bit more is written on my society's site:
Norwegian Malt Whisky Society (only in Norwegian)

by **BruceCrichton** » Mon May 10, 2004 5:57 pm

What events were you at?

I must have met you or seen you about.

by **SpiritofShetland** » Tue May 11, 2004 9:29 am

Well, Bruce. I was on the Norwegian team at The Whisky Game - otherwise I mostly attendet Talks&Tastes and visited distilleries and tasted their wash.

PS! I was the one who always was smooching with that Norwegian lady with the difficult name.

by **BruceCrichton** » Tue May 11, 2004 11:23 am

Yes, I guessed who you were when I saw your post over at Slainthe.

The girl was Ragnhild and me and my mate were talking to her at the dregs party while you were getting plastered.

It's a wonder you're still alive.

A man called Geir saw you with not much colour in your face the following morning.

My mate (tall blond guy with glasses) and I were away home just after 10am.

Hope you had a good festival and maybe I'll see you in September.

p.s. What whiskies did you particularly enjoy and what ones did you take home?

by **SpiritofShetland** » Tue May 11, 2004 9:32 pm

I wasn't very up to it the following morning, no.

We'll most certainly will be back this autumn, and look forward to seeing you.

My favourites was the Brora at Gavins tasting, the Eilian Dubh and most of the ones at the Springbank table.

We received some of the bottles of our Linkwood-cask while staying there. So we all (5 of us) had to bring 3 of the bottles back home to Norway. The rest (of the whisky Ragnhild and I brought home) was 3 bottles of Springbank Rum Wood (bought from SohoWhisky.com, cask strength bottlings of F&F Linkwood and Clyenlish, Glen Moray 1991 Mountain Oak and 1974 Managers Bottling, a Clyenlish 14yo F&F and a Signatory-bottling of Rosebank.

ps. Ragnhild says hello.

-----
Martin
Oslo, Norway
Norwegian MaltWhisky Society
http:///www.nmwl.no

by **BruceCrichton** » Wed May 12, 2004 6:17 pm

My favourite of the tastings were the vertical tasting of Linkwood with the OMC version being the best if money is no object. Even the G+M version is excellent. However money is an object to me so I have bought a 1990 Signatory one which was excellent value.

The Tomintoul 10 yr old was the discovery of the festival and my mate and I bought a bottle each.

I also bought a Glengoyne 17 yr for £18 which was a steal.

As for the best of the rest, Springbank 100 proof is breathtakingly good with the biggest vanilla taste of all the whiskies I've ever had. Speyburn 25 yr old was great with a splash of water - it is tasteless at 62.5 % vol but was probably never meant to have been drunk neat. Just a drop and the flavour opens up markedly. The 10 yr old was another discovery. It has smoothed markedly in the last couple of years and Inver House told me that they have a new malt master working on it which has improved it no end.
The Eilean Dubh was excellent and certainly the best Tomatin I've ever had.

As always, my bucket was bone dry at the end of every tasting. Some things are a matter of professional pride! (Unlike the clown at the last dram that poured nearly everything away!)

Did buy a lot of stuff for other people though and I'll probably push the boat out a bit more in September.

Oh and tell Ragnhild that Stuart will be back in September 2005. He might even make next spring as well. Stuart is always good company at these events.

by **BruceCrichton** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 8:40 pm

ps. Ragnhild says hello.

-----
Martin
Oslo, Norway
Norwegian MaltWhisky Society
http:///www.nmwl.no

The two of you are in Whisky Magazine issue 40, page 16.

by **SpiritofShetland** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 1:55 pm

Oh crap.

Will need to pick up that issue when it eventually comes to Norway. We'va also featured in the latest newsletter from Aberlour.

by **BruceCrichton** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 1:59 pm

You were described as a Boris Johnson look-alike.

I'd get Marcin Miller for that if I were you.

by **SpiritofShetland** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 6:53 pm

Let's see... I'm not going to Britain until September. Maybe I'll drop by his office...

No Mr. Mïller, I've no intention to do you bodily harm, not counting the harm a few drams might do though...

Cheers all.

by **BruceCrichton** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 8:19 pm

Do you know who Boris Johnson is?

You'd need to eat all the pies at Hampden Park to look like him.

by **SpiritofShetland** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 8:38 am

I know who he is. And yes, the man is a bit more full around waist than me. But I'm not that easily offended.

No worries, mate.

by **BruceCrichton** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 12:42 pm

You speak better English than he does which is worrying for the Conservative party and the constituency of Henley (Michael Heseltine's old seat) which he represents.

by **ragsrobin** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 12:40 pm

I sort of see Mr. Millers point, actually - same hair colour and all that. And we're working on the waistline (how about having a go at that Sachertorte THIS weekend?). The major difference seems to be that SpiritofShetland is devastatingly attractive, whereas Boris Johnson... well, we'll just leave that unsaid, I think.

by **BruceCrichton** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 12:47 pm

Hello Ragnhild.

I notice that Mr Miller didn't appear to be at any events that weren't by Chivas brothers.

Oh well, that leaves all the more for me.

As for Boris Johnson, I'm still waiting for him to finish a sentence without making an a**e of it.

by **Rudolph Hucker** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 1:12 pm

A little sad, Bruce, that you feel it appropriate to have a dig at Mr Miller in this forum

Unless you were with Mr Miller 24 hours a day, you can't know where he was apart from when you both happened to be at Chivas events - unless, of course, that is where you both were all the time!. :oops:

In over 5 years on WM, Mr Miller undoubtedly spent more time with a wider range of whisky producers than another other journalist in the UK.

I am sure that such luminaries as Richard Patterson, Andrew Symington, Iain Henderson and many others would vouch for
Mr Miller's commitment to the industry.

And we should all remember that without Mr Miller - and, or course, Mr Riley-Smith, there would be no WM and no forum like this.

Cheers

Rudolph

by **Matt2** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 1:33 pm

BruceCrichton wrote:As for Boris Johnson, I'm still waiting for him to finish a sentence without making an a**e of it.

Poor Boris, he tries his best and has me smiling everytime, I could listen to him babble for hours

by **ragsrobin** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 1:39 pm

I think you're minsinterpreting Bruce's comment, here, Rudolph (Hi, Bruce!) - he appears to me to be saying that Mr. Miller only writes about Chivas events in the article in WM, not where he himself saw the man (hence his use of "notice" as opposed to "noticed").

In any case, I'm sure Mr. Miller is amply capable of defending himself.

by **ragsrobin** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 1:46 pm

BruceCrichton wrote:Hello Ragnhild.

Hey. How did you know it was me?

by **BruceCrichton** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 6:11 pm

ragsrobin wrote:
BruceCrichton wrote:Hello Ragnhild.

Hey. How did you know it was me?

Having seen you two together, it's obvious what you think of Arve. :twisted:

Plus obviously I know what your nickname is and your real name and I seem to be the only native English speaker you've met that can pronounce your name properly.

See you in September.

by **BruceCrichton** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 6:14 pm

Rudolph, who said anything about Marcin Miller's commitment to the industry? I just noticed that all the events in his report were Chivas Brothers events.

Plus if he doesn't go to Dufftown then that leaves all the more whisky for me at the Dregs party.

by **marcin** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 2:44 pm

Hi there,

I feel I should point out that - to many ladies of my acquaintance - the Honourable Member for Henley and Editor of The Spectator is something of a sex symbol.

The thinking woman's crumpet?

Implausible but true.

M

by **BruceCrichton** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 6:46 pm

Maybe we should all start eating pies and mumbling stupidly on Have I Got News For You and Parkinson with Sean Connery and Ricky Tomlinson beside us.

by **BruceCrichton** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 3:24 pm

BTW, Rudolph, have you ever been to the Speyside Whisky Festival?

by **Rudolph Hucker** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 11:16 am

Yes Bruce, I have.

Was there in 2001. Drove up from Edinburgh, stayed at the Craigellachie Hotel, visited Fiona's shop in Dufftown, spent a couple of hours with David Urqhart at Gordon & McPhail, even got to the Walkers Shortbread factory.

En route visited the Edradour, Blair Atholl, Dalwhinnie, Tomatin and a couple of other distilleries. The manager at the Tomatin visitors centre complained that most of the visitors during the Festival were coach parties on week long trips from England, whose holiday included a visit either to a distillery or to a woollen mill! So not exactly dedicated whisky buffs.

Maybe that's where Speyside suffers a little against Islay - after all there can't be many people who go to Islay/Jura at Festival time for anything else but the whisky.

Sadly never had the opportunity to go back to Speyside - yet!

Cheers

Rudolph

by **SpiritofShetland** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 1:14 pm

I think you've got a point there Rudolph. I've driven through Moffat once, it wasn't a pretty sight.

The advantage of a festival such as Speyside is of course the opporunity for many to just happend to come over it, when they aren't that interested in whisky. There hasn't been a festival yet that I havn't met someone who just happened to be in the area - and they of course gets taken good care of by the whiskybuffs, and hopefully they leave with a new interest for whisky.

by **BruceCrichton** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 9:56 pm

Rudolph Hucker wrote:Maybe that's where Speyside suffers a little against Islay - after all there can't be many people who go to Islay/Jura at Festival time for anything else but the whisky.

I've never been to Islay but I like Speyside because there is something other than just whisky up there. Shortbread for a start!

And I've still to go down to Spey Bay and I've still to watch a falconry exhibition.

As for Tomatin, there surely aren't that many festival goers who go to Tomatin. Given the location of Tomatin, the bulk of it's visitors will be surely tourists by the coachload.

by **Ash** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 10:52 pm

Arve,
What has Moffat got to do with it? It is at least 150 miles from either Speyside or Islay. Did I miss something?

Tomatin will get bus parties for two reasons. It is only yards off the A9, which is a main artery to the Highlands, so the buses don't have to detour far. Second, it is at a "services" stop on the road, i.e. food, toilet, etc, so its not inconceivable that buses would be stopping anyway. It would not really be considered part of Speyside, given that its an hour from Dufftown.

by **SpiritofShetland** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 8:04 am

Moffat has a huge number of coach-parties visiting.

A pretty little town, if you manage to stay away from the coaches.

by **SpiritofShetland** » Sat Jun 26, 2004 5:32 pm

Btw. Whisky Mag has finally appeared in the shops here in Norway. Ragnhild bought two issues, one for us and one for the parents.