The Whiskey Reviewer A World of Whiskey, Poured Every Weekday
By Emma Briones
(Credit: Alvaro/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0)
Oh, Paris. The city of lights for some and the City of Love for others. Whatever you want to call it, it’s always a good idea to visit Paris. And it is even better if you have a great excuse like visiting one of the most exciting whisky festivals in Europe: Whisky Live Paris.
So, between the expected visits to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum, you can spend an afternoon or two enjoying some nice drams. I attended this year’s Whisky Live Paris and discovered some interesting whiskies that are hard or impossible to find in my hometown of Barcelona.
About Whisky Live Paris 2018
Visiting a whisky festival is one of the essential things on any whisky aficionado’s to-do list. And, if you live in Europe, Whisky Live Paris should be on the top of your list.
Founded in 2004, Whisky Live Paris is the largest whisky festival in Continental Europe. There is only other festival in Europe generally that, in my opinion, can compete with Whisky Live Paris, and that is The Whisky Show in London. La Maison du Whisky, one of the largest spirits shop in Europe, is behind the organization and logistics of Whisky Live Paris.
The festival usually takes place the last weekend of September and lasts for three days. Saturday and Sunday it is open to the general public, while on Monday it is reserved only for trade professionals.
If you want to attend, there are some different options. You can choose the Day ticket, with a price around 70 euros (60 if you get the early bird). There is also a VIP pass for one day (120 euros) and the full VIP pass (195 euros) to visit both Saturday and Sunday. Keep in mind that VIP passes include access to the festival one hour earlier and also exclusive access to the VIP room to taste rare whiskies.
With a Day ticket you can perfectly enjoy the festival for around 6 hours (from 13:30 to 19:30h), so you will enjoy a nice collection of whiskies. Anyway, if you want to take advantage of the 500m2 and all of the 150 brands, two-day tickets are mandatory.
Highlights at Whisky Live Paris 2018
Whisky festivals are great to know the people behind our favorite whiskies. I had the chance to taste the latest Midleton products with Billy Leighton, its Master Blender and also enjoyed The Story of the Spaniard, the latest whisky by Compass Box, with John Glasser, its Whisky Maker.
I also got the chance to taste whiskies from distilleries around the world. When you visit a whisky festival like Whisky Live Paris 2018, it is easy to taste around 80 whiskies in just one day (don’t forget to use the spittoons; it is not necessary to drink it all!). Even so, it can be hard to choose only some of them. These are the drams that really got my attention.
Box Swedish Whisky
(Credit: Box)
BOX (Sweden)
This was not my first encounter with Swedish whisky, but what they are doing at Box is something special. This distillery, located in the Swedish north close to the Ångerman river, was founded in 2010. Nowadays, they produce spirit 6 days a week, reaching a mark of 100,000 liters per year.
Even though they started just 8 years ago, they are producing nice quality whiskies. They are usually young (from 4 to 5 years), but climate changes in north Sweden accelerate the aging process. I really enjoyed their The 2nd Step, Collection 02.
Method & Madness Hungarian Oak (Ireland)
It is not news that what they are doing at Midleton with the new Method & Madness range is quite interesting. Taking advantage of the Irish Whisky Association regulations, they are innovating by using different kinds of wood barrels. The latest addition is Method & Madness Hungarian Oak, a Single Pot Still Irish whiskey finished for 11 months in virgin Hungarian oak barrels. This is one of the best expressions of the new range.
Paul John (India)
Indian whisky keeps being the best-selling whisky in the world, even though most of these brands are usually only for domestic intake. If we move away from those whiskies, we might discover more complex whiskies like Paul John. This whisky, unlike Original Choice (a top selling blend from the same company), can be found in Europe and the US.
Paul John Indian Single Malt
(Credit: Paul John)
The distillery is not as young as you might think (it was founded in 1992), but they only started producing Single Malt in 2012. Nowadays, their range includes like 6 or 7 different whiskies and it is hard to pick just one.
Slyrs (Germany)
One of the big surprises at Whisky Live Paris 2018 was this Bavarian whisky. Even though I had heard about it, this was my very first chance to try it. A second later I was just wondering why it took me so long.
Slyrs produces whiskies from 3 to 12 years and all of them are quite surprising. It is a soft and fruity single malt and, if i had to choose one, I’d go for Slyrs Fifty-One.
Wolfburn (Scotland)
Wolfurn is a young and small distillery on the north of Scotland. Founded in 2013, they offer young whiskies that leave nothing to want from older, better established distilleries.
They have quite interesting whiskies in their basic range, like Northland or Aurora. And also nice limited editions. Wolfburn is one of the distilleries that should be in your “to taste” list.
Other Whiskies To Keep In Mind
Even though these have been my highlights, it is hard to taste really bad whiskies in these kind of festivals (but I’d advise you to not taste Breton whisky, at least not yet!). Among all the whiskies that I got to try, there were others that, even though they were not as surprising, I’d love to have in my whisky cabinet.
One of them was the BenRiach 10 Curiositas. After tasting some whiskies from its range, this is definitely one of the whiskies I’d have at home. Also quite nice was The Gauldrons from Douglas Laing. Even though isn’t as known as its sibling Big Peat, it is a nice sample of a coastal whisky.
I was also impressed with what they are doing with Cooper Dog. This vatted of 8 Speyside whiskies, produced by the team at the Craigellachie hotel is surely a nice delight. Alone, with ice or in a cocktail, looks like a perfect match for a daily dram.
