Now into it’s 5th year (where has the time gone !) , i remember many moons ago when Eddie first mooted a festival in the Toon and i was a bit sceptical (would any exhibitors come , would people come ?) but over the moon that someone was going to do it . We may not get the numbers of exhibitors ‘other’ festivals get but we do get quality ! And i wasn’t the only person to notice this .

The Day started with Breakfast in the Five Swans with Livvy who’d travelled down from Cupar , always best to get a good fried breakfast on the stomach before an afternoon trying malts ! We headed across to the Civic Centre for the 12 o’clock opening , Eddies now got the opening off to a tee , liked the way we were through the registration before the official doors opened . After collecting the glass if was off to say hello to Ashok before heading off to the South West of Scotland and seeing our friends at Bladnoch and Whiskybroker.co.uk . It’s always good to catch up with Raymond Florence , Martin and Jane .

Raymond in full Swing

Martin on his Table

I must say a fair bit of the afternoon was spent in this area , not only talking to the Armstrongs but trying their products , At Bladnochs i tried the 10yo Bourbon , the 11yo Sherry and the 20yo – the latter was proving very popular ! On Martins i tried a fair few of his offerings including the Macallan Spirit , the 29yo Tormore and the Springbank , as usual all up to a very high standard .

A little while was spent over with Ashok at the Amrut Stall including giving Ashok a break at one point while Mr Banford wasn’t around with his Camera…….

The Main Man !

With his biggest fan !

Once again the Amrut selection (Amrut 46% , Amrut Cask Strength , Amrut Fusion and Amrut intermediate Sherry) provided very popular with the locals .

Something new introduced this festival was the ‘Under the table Dram tokens’ , you got one white and one black with each ticket and another two if you were a Whisky Lounge member . I used my white one on the Berrys Own 1989 Bunnahabhain (another good Bunna which seemed a little bit weak -sorry Rob !) , the Black tokens were used on The Berrys Own 1974 Glen Grant (probably the best dram of the day !) , The Kilchoman Sherry Cask (it was nice having a chat with Anthonys other Son James about our love of Islay) and the Talisker 25yo at the diageo table . I’ll now try and remember what else i had during the afternoon…… a bit hard , always forget to take notes…….

At Amruts table i had the Intermediate Sherry as it was from a later batch than what i have , At The Whisky Exchange table i tried the Bn4 (Peated Bunna – very nice ) , they also had one of my approved bottles on offer ! At the SMWS table i had the Clynelish which John happily pointed out wasn’t Sulphured ! Over at Diageo i tried the New Storm which i must say i wasn’t impressed with , the 25yo was much better ! Sure there were a few more but……..

It was a fantastic afternoon , good malt with good friends (old and some new ones!) , Livvy and Bobby were on fine form and the exhibitors were as always very friendly and knowledgable . Congratulations to Eddie and Amanda for once again giving us a great afternoon ! Till next year……..