Last year I went to the Whisky Festival for the first time, this year I had to go back for more! It’s a great opportunity to discover new names and flavours and to learn more about the drinks themselves. The biggest difference with last year was the fact that you couldn’t taste anything for free anymore, every glass had to be payed for with ‘drams’, the festival currency. At first I found this a bit strange, specially because you pay 25€ just to enter the conference, (you do get a glass and 3 drams for it but still). On the other hand, the festival is becoming more successful which means more people are attending and off course tasting. I can imagine giving away so much whisky isn’t really profitable for the resellers so that’s probably why they upped the prices. The good thing about this is that you go looking around for the things you would really like to taste instead of just filling up your glass at every stand and drinking away.
Another thing I’ve noticed, even more than last year, was the fact that you don’t really get taken seriously if you’re below the age of 30 like me. People assume you’re just there to get smashed and don’t really talk or pay attention to you, so the trick is to go about and listen to the stories the seller’s are telling the old chaps and pick up some of that.
All in all I had a splendid time and will probably go back next year!
