WhiskyFest Chicago is this Friday and, even though I am “working” the event, I will still have time to sample plenty of whiskies. And there certainly is an amazing list of whiskies being poured.
I just went down through the list and there are many rare and/or expensive whiskies being poured which will guarantee that you’ll get your moneys-worth. Some of the ones that caught my eye include: Jameson Rarest Vintage Reserve, Glenfarclas 1974, Bowmore 25 yr., Glenrothes 1975, Bunnahabhain 25 yr., Tomatin 25 yr., Johnnie Walker Blue, Crown Royal CR & XR, Parker’s Heritage Selection, Pappy Van Winkle 23 yr., and a slew of rare whiskies by the independent bottlers. Here’s the complete listing: http://maltadvocate.com/whiskeyfest-chi-whlist.asp
The event has been sold out for about two weeks now but, if you can’t make Chicago, we’re going to play it again in New York and San Francisco later this year.
I was at the San Francisco WhiskeyFest last year – and am looking forward to this year’s! I was at the Whiskies of the World Expo this last weekend and it seems that many distilleries are waiting for WhiskeyFest to pull the big guns out! Many notable brands were missing, and many of the master distillers were not to be found.
Kevin, I hope you had a good time at the WoW Expo and I look forward to meeting you at WhiskyFest later this year. We’re moving the event to the Marriott which has a beautiful ballroom and all the seminars will be on the same floor as the ballroom. Two improvements from our event last year. –John
I was also pleased to see the number of fine whiskies that are being poured as exclusives for the VIP hour (a nice incentive), and am looking forward to those and many more. This will be my third WF Chicago, and it has always been a stellar experience. See you on Friday!
In the future, for all WhiskyFests, we are going to encourage the companies to pull out “special” whiskies for the VIP hour to give the VIP ticket buyer more than just an extra hour with shorter crowds. See you in a few days. –John