I mentioned physical items on my desk that needed sorting. My tasting notes from Whiskyfest comprise some of them.
I'm not going to go into details about the whiskies I tasted; here, instead, is a summary table:
Distillery |
Expression |
Verdict |
Ardbeg |
10 year |
Drink |
Ardbeg |
An Oa |
Buy |
Ardbeg |
Dark Cove Committee Release |
Buy |
Ardbeg |
Kelpie Committee Release |
Drink |
Ardbeg |
Grooves Committee Release |
Drink |
Balvenie |
21 year portwood |
Buy |
Balvenie |
Peat Week |
Drink |
BenRiach |
10 year |
Buy |
BenRiach |
10 year Curiositas |
Drink |
BenRiach |
21 year |
Drink |
BenRiach |
21 year Temporis |
Buy |
BenRiach |
12 year Triple-Distilled Horizons |
Drink |
BenRiach |
Cask Strength Batch 2 |
Drink |
BenRiach |
2005 Peated Port Single Cask #2683 |
Buy |
Bowmore |
18 year Manzanilla |
Buy |
Bowmore |
25 year |
Buy |
Four Roses |
2017 Limited Edition Small Batch |
Skip |
Glenmorangie |
Spios Rye Cask (2018 private edition) |
Buy |
Lagavulin |
Distiller's Edition 2001 |
Buy |
Laphroaig |
25 year |
Buy |
Laphroaig |
27 year |
Buy |
Linkwood |
19 year cask strength |
Skip |
Maker's Mark |
Cask Strength |
Skip |
Maker's Mark |
Private Select |
Skip |
Oban |
Distiller's Edition |
Buy |
Old Rip Van Winkle |
Pappy 20 year |
Skip |
Old Rip Van Winkle |
Pappy 23 year |
Skip |
The Tyrconnell |
15 year Madeira cask |
Buy |
The Tyrconnell |
7 year |
Drink |
The Tyrconnell |
Madeira cask (no age) |
Drink |
The Tyrconnell |
Sherry cask |
Skip |
The Tyrconnell |
Port cask |
Skip |
It's important to note that while I tasted all of these whiskies, but I did not drink all of these whiskies. I went with a friend, and we shared tastes; the pours were generally very small; and we went to seminars for three distilleries, spreading those tastings out over 45 minutes each. The whole event lasted four hours.
Also, Whiskyfest provides a metric shit ton (a shite tonne) of food. Good food. Heavy, fatty food.
But now you have more context for why I did nothing of commercial or professional value over the weekend.
And yeah, as much as I want to buy some of these, I'm not likely to shell out the $1,000 for the Laphroaig 27 next time I'm at Binny's.