Victoria Whisky Festival 2012, Part 1: Introduction and the Amrut Grand Tasting

Vancouver is a great town for whisky lovers; we’re lucky to have quite a few great events over the year (mostly in the winter months). For now, though, Vancouver Island holds the title for BC’s best malt event – the Victoria Whisky Festival. A four-day program encompassing dinners, masterclasses and of course the Grand Tasting hall, it receives a lot of support from distilleries and independent bottlers. It’s possible to taste some seriously good stuff here.

 

After last year’s close call when it came to getting tickets, I made sure to reserve them nice and early for the 2012 festival when they went on sale in November last year. Despite calling the ticket line the minute it opened, it was several hours before we got a call back and by then many of the packages had sold out. However my wife (my whisky partner-in-crime) managed to score some great events and as the day rolled around we couldn’t wait to get started.

 

After a somewhat damp ferry ride, the first event of the weekend on Friday night was one of the big ones – the Amrut Grand Tasting hosted by Ashok Chokalingham, brand ambassador for the distillery. Ashok is a great host and had some really excellent whisky to share.

 

Amrut Samples

The line-up for the evening

Read the rest of this entry »

Why Whisky?

My name’s Dave; I live in Vancouver BC, and I’ve been a whisky drinker for about 4 years. That makes me a relative newcomer and part of the new wave of whisky drinkers that have helped push their drink of choice  to its current heights of popularity. As I write this in early 2012, we are a few years into a period which is probably the greatest boom in whisky’s long history; certainly when it comes to single malt Scotch and its international siblings, but also including bourbon, rye and all the other types of distilled, oak-matured alcohol which can be lumped together under the same banner.

 

So what’s so great about whisky? At your first encounter, I know from experience that a great single malt can taste unexpectedly harsh; it’s a strong drink when taken neat, anywhere from 40% ABV (the minimum strength to be called Scotch whisky) up to the heady heights of cask strength bottlings which can be anywhere up to 70% ABV (you might want a drop of water with those). For the novice, the alcohol can overwhelm everything else. But gain some experience and educate your palate a little and complex flavours will begin to jump out at you.

 

Read the rest of this entry »