The Village Whiskey Spirits Show 2023
It has been way too long since I went to the last spirits fair! To change that I got the chance to visit the 2023 Village Whisk(e)y tradeshow in Nuremberg. It was great to see a lot of familiar faces live again. On top of that, I also got the chance to try some amazing whiskies as well as some rum (and a port).
Our first stop was the Weyermannbooth to visit my friend Roland. I have to admit that I have a weak spot for the spirits of the malt experts. Their No. 5 whisky is a great combination of mellow malt notes, combined with some sherry fruits and cereals. The great thing is to experience the development of their small distillery and therefore their whiskies.
Experts in barrel sourcing
Right next to the Weyermann booth were my friends from Heimat Distillers. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of their rum (it has been a while since I did some shooting with busy surroundings). Nevertheless, that should not subtract from their single cask bottlings from Guyana being very delicious. You get a lot of Guyana ester notes with a noticeable barrel influence.
My favourite style of port
At one of many Perola booths I had the chance to try a bottle of my favourite port style. Colheita port is a vintage bottling of Tawny port and it combines the advantages of both worlds. The Dow’s Colheita 2007 delivered rich fruit notes, with some candied red fruits, some hints of tannins and slight aged wine notes.
Scotch and Scottish humor
Around midday we were invited to a GlenAllachie tasting. To be honest, the tasting alone might deserve its own article. Brand Ambassador Declan McCrossan lead through a very funny and interesting tasting. We tried the Cuvée, the 12-Year-Old as well as the 15-Year-Old. With the last one definitely being my favourite. All in all, this distillery is becoming one of my favourites over the last few years.
18-Year-Old, 21-Year-Old and 30-Year Old Scotch
Well, after enjoying excellent drinks made by Markus Wolf at my favourite bar, I absolutely had to visit him at the Borco booth. There he insisted on me trying the 18-Year-Old, 21-Year-Old and 30-Year Old Glengoyne bottlings. While the 18-Year-Old was perfectly smooth with still a hint of Bourbon cask flavour, the 21-Year-Old was my favourite. It added even more complexity while remaining perfectly balanced. The oldest of the three showed those rare notes only old Scotch whiskies have. There were quite some ester notes and tannins that the long maturation in oak barrels adds to the flavour.
Highly atypical American whisky flavours
At yet another Perola stand, we tasted some rare American whiskies. The Yellowstone Family Reserve really tastes different from regular bourbons. It carries quite some ester notes and is very grassy, almost like a rye. In contrast, the American Single Malt from the Limestone Branch Distillery tasted of roasted corn which almost reminded me of a fried taco. In the end, we also had a sip of the Remus Repeal Reserve a blend of different older bourbons. This one tasted like a typical aged bourbon with great notes of overripe fruits and tannins.
Rare bourbons
Our last stop was at the Michter’s booth were we first had the Toasted Barrel Finish Sour Mash whisky. The additional aging really added to the complexity of the Sour Mash and gave it a bit more edge. However, the highlight (maybe of the whole spirits fair) were the ultra limited Shenk’s Homestead 2021 and Bomberger’s 2021 bourbons. It is hard to describe the complexity of both, but the latter remined me a bit of Van Winkle 10-Year-Old.
Some rum at last
Oh yes, we also stopped at the Ferrand and Hell or High Water Rum stands to say hello. There we on the one hand tried the newest Plantation Black Cask release and the Hell or High Water X.O. bottling. Both were medium dry easy-sipping rums.
*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The tickets were provided by Weyermann, Kirsch Whisky (Tasting) and Borco.
