While enthusiasm for remarkable whisky can be a very individual thing, sampling and discussing it is, by its very nature, a team effort. Nothing beats getting together with a few friends for a couple of new, interesting drams. This is the simple idea behind whisky shows which, admittedly, have been around for a while but recently have turned into something of a phenomenon. And rightly so. A well-organised event is the perfect meeting ground where the distillers – that's us – and the whisky drinkers of all knowledge and experience levels – that's you – can enjoy valuable face time and, more importantly, share drams.
En Öl och Whiskymässa 2015
We're travel the world with our curiously modern single malt ten times over and then ten times again. Name a whisky event anywhere on this planet and we've probably been there. We love them all. Paris is amazing. Moscow is a rather sophisticated affair. Johannesburg is the embodiment of ‘work hard – play hard’. But if we were to pinpoint the one country where anCnoc gets most love at a whisky show it could, just could, be Sweden. In no small part thanks to the Beer & Whisky Fair in the beautiful and vibrant city of Gothenburg.
En Öl och Whiskymässa, as it's known to the locals, is an important date in the Swedish whisky enthusiast's calendar. People travel from all over the country and, indeed, the overseas to take part in what can be described as a true celebration of fine beer and whisky. Last year over 16,000 people took over the town for the weekend and while this year's figures have not yet been released, if the popularity of the anCnoc stand is anything to go by, it was even busier.
Highlights
The first and most important highlight was in fact the visitors. It would be impossible to describe all the great encounters we had, all the new friends we made and all the great little treats we shared. Thank you to all of you who came to say hello, asked questions, hung around for a bit and enjoyed an anCnoc or two. Your kind words and comments are invaluable to us and they really inform and fuel what we do here at anCnoc and what makes it into the bottles.
We presented a wide range of our bottlings at the stand, from the flagship 12 Year Old to the new 18 Year Old, the rich and much-loved 22 Year Old, the 2000 Vintage and three of our Peaty Collection gems including the Swedish-exclusive Tushkar. If we were to pick a highlight out of these it would have to be the pair of Tushkar on the Dark side and the 18 Year Old on the Light side. From what you said the 18 Year Old strikes a particularly fine balance between maturity and distillery style, while the Tushkar offers a great complexity of peatiness and oaky structure which we know goes down particularly well in Sweden.
Another highlight would have to be our two fantastic masterclasses shared with anothersingle malt – Old Pulteney. Delivered by our award-winning Brand Ambassador Tommy Isaksson, these unique sessions comparing our fresh and bright malt with that made by our friends from the Northern Highlands were sold out weeks in advance and went down an absolute storm. Big thanks to all who attended.
Sad to be leaving
As we're setting course for Scotland we're taking home fond memories of the Beer & Whisky Fair 2015 in Gothenburg. It's events like these that help to remind us why we put all this effort into the quality of our products. See you next year and, if what you were telling us at the stand is true, see some of you at Knockdhu Distillery shortly.
Skål!