Hot, Great Drams & Good Times!
Saturday saw us battle through the heat and racing hoards to once again take over York Medical Society for our now-annual Summer Festival.
This year we’ve got a better selection of photos of ‘what happened at the festival’ which is largely down to club member Kate (thanks!) although we did manage to record a video of our tasting table before we started!
More exhibitors, More whisky, More fun…
If you’ve been following our social media – our main effort is on Instagram and Facebook – you will have seen that we’ve been on a global sourcing mission for our tasting table. Part of achieving our ‘shrink a larger festival down’ concept is to provide a lot of variety some of which we achieve through our curated tasting table. BIG thanks to retailers, distilleries and partners who have helped us in this endeavour:
- Barrel and Brand for donating a bottle of Macaloney’s Canadian Sugar Kelp Peat Project Whisky, who knew seaweed could be used in whisky production?
- Dornoch Distillery for releasing the Mystery Malts series – we had fun getting people to guess the drams and a few managed to guess correctly, winning our spot prizes!
- Glencadam for their 18yr – we ❤️ the flavour which we thought had a ginger style essence of spice.
- Indri for shipping us Agneya, their latest India-only (currently) Sherry and Bourbon cask release to give us a world 🌍 exclusive.
- Springbank for donating the delicious Longrow 100 Proof which got ‘dram of the afternoon’ in our cinema tasting and a Springbank 100 Proof (September release) for our Dream Drams.
- Tomintoul for the 14yr old PX which delighted the sherry fans!
- TopWhiskies for a discount on one of Dream Dram bottles and donating a 10yr old Masala Finish Linkwood
- Waiheke Whisky for shipping us Moss, their first release all the way from New Zealand so we got to try whisky from a very interesting looking still – BTW Dave, our only New Zealand 🇳🇿 member was first to try so won their merchandise!
- White Peak Distillery for ensuring we could buy a bottle of ‘Special Waters’ – we were keen to try how the ‘petites eaux’ cognac making technique worked out and well done 👏 it was a special 🥃
- Woodrow’s of Edinburgh for humouring our request to sell us a trade ‘Selection Box’ to give us some of their latest releases to pour.
Courtesy of The Whisky Lounge, we had giveaway glassware for the first time and doing our bit for the environment, they were unused glasses from previous festivals so let’s admire the Glencairns before we introduce our exhibitors!
EXHIBITORS
Cooper King
We love to check out what our local Yorkshire distilleries have been up to and this year, we were kindly supported by Cooper King- BIG thanks 🙏 to Abbie and Chris!
They donated a bottle of their Pioneer release (£85 / Expedition Series / 50% abv / Kentucky rye whiskey casks) for our SUPERDRAW ‘donate during checkout’ – which raised £164 for St Leonard’s Hospice (more about that later!) – and that release got a lot of whisky 🥃 +❤️ love on the day.
Even though we bill our festival as a ‘micro festival’ we still want the latest and best and it was great that attendees got to try their latest release Sundown (£85 / Expedition Series / 47% abv / small 100 litre first full bourbon casks).
“Sundown is a celebration of American oak. Matured predominantly in first-fill bourbon casks, it opens with inviting aromas of biscuity banoffee pie and toasted nuts. On the palate, chewy vanilla and mint chocolate are carried on a backbone of malt and toasted oak – thanks in part to the small 100 litre casks used for maturation. The finish is sublime, with dried fruit and lingering, warming spice.”
– Abbie Jaume, Head Distiller
Exhibitor Spotlight / Billy Abbott from The Whisky Exchange
Billy Abbott generally doesn’t need an intro in whisky circles as his reputation for whisky knowledge and bonhomie travels in advance.
Keen to test his good nature, we suggested online that he bring some of the ‘dusty bottles’ from cellars and he didn’t disappoint with a 1940’s Haig & Haig 12yr blend (43.4%, £399) with an old style Spring Cap lid.
His curated selection included a French whisky better than some of the previous ones we’ve tried, a great Millstone PX and of course, we made him pose with the Ben Nevis release with his face on (60.2%, £71.95). One of our other exhibitors and an attendee – reflecting the slightly silly environment we encourage at our tastings – began to worship him at one point, but what happens at York Whisky Club Summer Festival stays at…. Oh, unless we post it online..😁
PS. If you want a signed copy of his book, The Philosophy of Whisky, go to the cryptically named website: https://philosophyofwhisky.com/
Uncharted Whisky
At York Whisky Club, we love to serve our members so when Mike last year suggested we check out Uncharted Whisky Co, an independent bottler based near Glasgow, we promptly did just that.
This led to a bottle of their Auchroisk sherry bomb ‘Thunderstruck‘ (their release names are inspired by Rock n Roll 🎸) and … yes we were, so we cheered when Jack and Dana got in touch and wanted to join our festival.
Mike was delighted to find his wish was our command, as was Trevor (pictured), a first time attendee to one of our festivals but a sampler of their wares at other festivals. Misty eyes about their previous – now sold out – releases were dried out by trying their new ‘HIGHER GROUND’ – a 10yr Braeval first fill Oloroso sherry cask (£79 on their website)
BIG thanks 🙏 to Jack & Dana for the trip down from Scotland 🏴 and donating a bottle of ‘CALEDONIAN DREAMING’ (a riff on ‘California Dreamin’ ) for our charity auction.
Whisky Situation
When we were looking for intriguing and usual drams for Going Global II, we met Carlos, owner of Whisky Situation, just as he was about to rescue a famous Aberdeen whisky bar. We bought a Romanian whisky and discovered his ethos that whisky 🥃 is for drinking not hoarding – a view we heartily share and is a PERFECT fit for our micro-festival.
From a unique Lindores Abbey Pedro Ximenez Quarter Single Cask (2024, 57.6%, £99) to a GlenAllachie 2014 from the ‘Sinteis’ range – meaning ‘synthesis’ in Scottish Gaelic – with a single malt matured in first-fill Pedro Ximénez Sherry puncheons and Chinquapin, a native American oak from the Ozarks in Missouri, there were intriguing whiskies to try in the panelled room.
BIG thanks 🙏 to Carlos, Ewan and Alex and we hope they manage some rest time 🛌 amidst all the hustle!
St Leonard’s Hospice Dream Dram Table
Since December last year, we’ve been supporting St Leonard’s Hospice, an amazing York-based charity that provides care and support for terminally ill people, and people with life-limiting illnesses.
We raised money in three ways in the festival:
- An opportunity to donate during checkout with the added bonus of a chance to win a bottle of Cooper King Pioneer kindly donated by the distillery
- A Dream Drams table where attendees could try a £300RRP Bruichladdich Octomore Polyphonic, a 28yr teaspooned Balvenie, the first Maker’s Mark whisky release for 70yrs or the Springbank 100 Proof which is released in September (yes, it’s still July!). As that wasn’t enough (!), we also had a bottle of closed distillery Caperdonich. We suggested a donation would be kind and were blown away by the generosity of attendees
- We auctioned our tasting table plus the odd donation or two – our apologies to some spouses and partners of attendees who got a little carried away in the bidding!
Including the GiftAid from online donations, we raised £1,263.70 for St Leonard’s Hospice so a HUGE 🙏 to all who gave generously. If you didn’t attend and would like to donate, our JustGiving Page is still live and will be all year.
BIG THANKS TO YOU GREAT WHISKY PEOPLE!
And Jasper’s wife Georgia who helped with the festival all day from scanning people in to packing up at the end.
We’re off on our holidays in August but we’ve got a packed September, October and a run up to the famous Dream Drams in December – check out the Tastings page on our website for more details.
Thanks for another great Summer Festival and we’ll see you soon!
Jasper & Jim
