A couple weeks ago Mark (the other #1) and myself attended Whiskyfest Chicago. As was the last time we attended we found great whisky and great people.
About the whisky:
The event is four hours with the first being the VIP hour (special whiskies offered only during that hour). Whisky Advocate, who owns the event, publishes a list of the hundreds of whiskies being offered so you can determine the focus of your taste buds prior to the arrival and ensuing stampede. (And there was a stampede to the Pappy 23 year old).
Mark and I had chosen 15 to try during the VIP hour. Of those we both determined our favorite was the Glen Grant 5 Decades. This limited edition single malt “is the marriage of the most valuable Glen Grant casks from the past 50 years” (so says their web site). It far exceeded the other VIP offerings we tasted. Cost for such a bottle will set you back $150. If you have a collection, or an understanding spouse, I recommend buying a bottle…NOW! It is a limited edition item.
Throughout the rest of the evening we tasted probably 35 to 40 more. Some were items that were new on the market and some were old favorites that we just wanted to try again. As you can imagine after so many one would have to be really good to stand out. Mark found that in the Bowmore Devil’s Cask. This is a 10 year old Islay single malt with a rich flavor and served at 56.9% ABV. Cost is $90.
My stand out was a Canadian Rye Whisky. For years I have been rooting for a great whisky to come out of Canada. They try and try and try but never come up with a homerun. Don’t get me wrong they have many really good expressions. The 1910 Rye (12 years old) is worthy to be on any drinker’s shelf. But at this event the one that jumped to the front of my list was TAP 357 Canadian Rye Whisky. This is an 8 year old that is “aged in a combination of hand-selected barrels and port casks and finished with a small amount of port wine…..”. Fantastic! We actually found this at a store called Foremost Liquor Store for $26 per bottle. A quick note about this store, they have many branches but we found this at their 1040 Argyle (Chicago) location. The proprietor Jim was a hoot and their selection of whiskey was outstanding. They had a number of older bottles that, we thought, went away five years ago. Mark was like a kid in a candy store…with expensive candy.
About the people:
The event attracts folks from all over the country. And we have not met an unpleasant person yet. One group that we met were the guys with the Janesville (WI) Bottle Club. They wore some pretty cool matching sweaters. I won’t say that the sweaters looked better than our RCWS polo’s, but they were pretty snappy looking.
The following day, while at a local liquor store tasting, we met a group from the Oklahoma Malt Whisky Society (Tulsa area). They could not have been nicer.
The whole weekend was one for the memory books. Next year we will be doing it again.
Finally, I have uploaded the few photos I took to our facebook page at: http://goo.gl/1HU9Tt
Cheers,
Doug #1