Falstaff Cocktail- & Spiritsgala 2015

Hello there, today I'm writing about the "Falstaff Cocktail- & Spiritsgala 2015" in Vienna. Beforehand I'd like to apologise because there are no pictures from the venue in this post. This is because of two reasons I'm about to tell you.

First I was not able to leave work early enough (Yes I have a day job, this blog is merely a project in my free time) to be at a decent time at the location of the gala. Which was in the world famous Vienna Hofburg Palace. To be exact the venue was located inside the "Redoutensäle". I'm not sure if these can be visited during a normal tour but if so, take it! The architecture is stunning! But I digress. So guess what, I had to hurry a little bit and forgot to take a spare battery out of my camera bag for my X100T (I figured it would be swamped there - how right I was -, so I decided to take just my camera and my tasting notes book with me) and the battery inside my precious X100T died instantly upon my arrival. My bad, my bad I know.

The second reason was that I was there as a "normal" guest, not as a "press person". Therefore my access to the stage or behind the bars was limited and in front of the bars was literally no space at all. And it was dark as sh**. No problem with my X100T but as you might remember I had no spare battery with me. And my iPhone isn't very low light capable, although you can get great shots out of it. As long as there is enough light of course. I decided to focus on the other task at hand -that is: tasting whiskies and stuff. Well I had one Rum and a few (more or less) interesting whiskies nothing else. After all I'm "That Whisky Guy"...

So I started in the bigger of the "Redutensäle" just to find out there's no Whisky to be found, except from Hermann Rogner. I like his whiskies despite they are made (fully or partly) of rye. I don't really like the taste of rye, but Hermann's doing a great job of adding lot's of other interesting flavours to his whiskies and balancing the rye taste! I had the "Rye - Whisky No.13" which is made from 100% rye and seasoned in ex-brandy casks. Sweet notes from nougat combined with just a hair of smoke can be found as well as some rye (what a surprise)!

After that I started wandering around and found some Whiskies in the smallest of the three rooms, but it was just as crowded as the other two rooms. I had to be patient to get my share of Whisky and heard in that time some funny statements. The best was "This (Kilbeggan 8yo Single Grain) Single Grain Whisky is made of two or sometimes even more different kinds of grain." I guess he just mixed up the two Kilbeggan's they had for tasting, the "8yo Single Grain" which is made from a single - thus ONE - grain and the "21yo Limited Edition" which is a blend of grain and malt Whiskies. I choose the latter one. Quite interesting for a blend, even the finish is longer than you would expect. I found that Whisky quite sweet but combined with the sourness of a golden delicious apple and some spices.

After I had the "Hibiki" (quite flat in the nose but a nice prickling sweet on the palate) and the "Balvenie 15yo" (toffee and some spices on the palate and a muffled sweet in the nose) I spotted the "Johnny Walter Platinum Label". Priced a little bit below the "Highland Park 18yo" I decided to compare the two. I know that this isn't a fair battle but I did it anyway. While the Platinum presents lots of sweet from honey the Highland Park is much more restrained at the nose. As soon as you start drinking them there is much difference! While the Platinum just keeps being sweet the Highland Park is quite round and mild with some interesting spices and apple notes. The Finish on the Platinum is, well let's say, wait, what finish?? But what to expect from a blend? Interestingly both Whiskies are labelled as 18yo, but they are like day and night. I'd prefer the Highland Park, but I'm biased as I like the most northern distillery of Scotland very much. Although I don't like their pricing scheme especially concerning the "Warrior Series"...

After as "26yo Glenfiddich" (apples and toffee, very mild and round) and an "Auchentoshan Three Wood" (ex-Bourbon, Oloroso and PX casks; toffee and iodine at the nose; salt, iodine and just a hint of toffee at the palate) I decided to call it a day. Mainly because I thought it was way to full and the music was quite loud. It was quite difficult to get information from the personal. On one side there were many (too many) people trying to get something to drink and on the other side the music was way too loud. Okay, you might say that this venue is more a social event than a tasting event and you may be right but the music was really loud. But after all it was a nice evening and I could taste some interesting Whiskies!

Slàinte,

Lukas

Whisky Weekend Salzburg 2015

This time I'm going to write about a Whisky venue I just recently visited. Some might think "Wait, didn't he write just about the Whisky Show 2015 in London? Will he write about it again, hoping nobody would notice?" No, I'm not going to write about the Whisky Show in London, I'll write about the Whisky Weekend in Salzburg, Austria which was just a week after the Whisky Show in London.

After having done my first tasting for the Whisky Consultants the Friday evening before - which I really enjoyed although there is room to improve my presenting skills - my first instinct on Saturday morning - despite I haven't drank a sip of Whisky that evening - was "Okay, that's it! I'm not going!" - just like the Grinch when invited to the Christmas party down in the village (One of my absolute favourite scenes of this movie). But then I thought, watching movies in the bed is fine, but I can watch movies on the train to Salzburg (approximately two and a half hours) too. So I packed my stuff (camera, tasting book, iPad, etc.) and hurried to the train station.

Having scouted the program of the event I knew that there would be a Master class from Talisker at 4 p.m. so I called ahead and reserved a spot. Nearly three hours later - to be exact around 3 p.m. - I got to the venue in the so called "Mönchsberg" - literally translated to "Mountain of the monks" - got my badge and was informed that my Master class was delayed because of the Master class before. So instead of one hour at the venue I'll just have two before my Master class would start - which was fine. But then the nice lady asked, if I'm interested in the last spot for the other Master class which is about to start (which had a very unspecific topic on the homepage as I checked beforehand). So I asked for the topic, she replied "Bruichladdich" and I just handed her the fee (which was incredibly low) without any words. A Talisker AND a Bruichladdich Master class in a day? I was glad and happy - as was the Grinch? - that I went to Salzburg.

When I hurried down to the room which was more a cave being that the venue was inside the mountain I was greeted by Jason S. Turner himself - Falstaff International Wine Marketing Manager - how delighted I was! We started off with "The Classic Laddie" followed by the "Islay Barley". These two were followed by another "Islay Barley" namely the "Port Charlotte Islay Barley" and the "Black Art 4.1" While the first three Whiskies were n.a.s. Whiskies, the latter one got distilled 1990(!) and was bottled 2013. So we're talking about an 23 year old Whisky. Interesting fact: I liked all four of them, the last one was maybe a little bit better but not that better. As I always say: "Age doesn't matter (that much)"! I'm happy to taste lots of different Whiskies in various prize categories and ages but nearly 300€ for that Whisky is - IMHO - too much.

But wait there were three other Whiskies to taste. But which Whisky could possible top the Black Art series? If you don't prefer peated Whiskies the answer is possibly "none". But if you do the answer is very easy. Of course the mighty peat bomb "Octomore"! Jason brought the versions 06.1 (167ppm), 07.1 (208ppm) and of course 06.3 (258ppm). What a finish! These three aren't cheap either but they are in a prize range I can relate to.

Of course all of the seven Whiskies were n.c.f. (non chill filtered) and n.c.a. (no colour added). Well not "Of course" because many whisky distilleries add colour (that is E150 - caramel colour, produced by using glucose syrup, sulphuric acid and ammonia) to their finished products so that every batch looks just like the batch before. Nearly every distillery filters their Whisky but it is a difference between "normal filtration" and "chill filtration". But I digress, this is stuff for another post!

The reason I mentioned this is because the second Master class from Talisker presented five of their Whiskies, the "Talisker Skye", "Talisker 10y", "Talisker 57° North", "Talisker Port Ruighe" and the "Talisker Storm". All of them have one thing in common, they were all coloured with E150. The colouring doesn't add any taste, but I like to see the natural colour of the Whisky. One of them was finished in a sherry cask (57° North) another one in a port wine cask (Port Ruighe). The latter one was a bit darker but as you recall all of their Whiskies are coloured... Never the less I enjoyed all of the five Whiskies.

After the second master class I just wondered around the little nice venue as I've done between the two Master classes. I had a very good "Highland Game Stew" - the only difference to the traditional "Irish Game Stew" was - and I quote here: "My man is from Scotland that's why it is a Highland Game Stew"! After a quick chat with Jutta and Thomas from the SMWS Austria (tasted the 4.183 at their booth) I got the chance to taste the World Best Single Malt 2015 at the booth of the Whisky Consultants - the "Kavalan Solist Vinho Barrique Single Cask Strength". Unfortunately Michael just opened the last bottle of this Whisky so I couldn't buy it. On the other hand if he hadn't opened it I couldn't have tasted it and therefore I wouldn't have wanted to buy it...  

Slàinte,
Lukas

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Lukas Albert. I'm a Vienna/Austria based photographer, Whisky enthusiast and I am "That Whisky Guy"! On this blog I'm going to present you news of the Whisky world, "absolutely unbiased" tastings of different Whiskies I've encountered and will encounter as well as other (fun) stuff related to Whisky.

My first blog post will be a short history of whom I am and the reasons behind this blog. I discovered Whisky over a decade ago, mainly as an ingredient to cocktails. And of course I was that kind of guy who drank Whisky mixed with Coke. But only Blended Whisky, never Single Malt. That is because in the beginning I didn't know about the Single Malts. I started to discover the "other side" of Whisky - the Single Malts probably five years ago, when my brother gave me a ticket for a Whisky tasting. And at this tasting - held by the L&P Whisky Consultants - I heard about Single Malts and fell completely in love with them. During the tasting they mentioned that this is only a beginner tasting. And that they offer a wide range of special tastings covering everything from a "Horizontal tasting" - meaning there will be Whisky from only one distillery to be tasted to workshops like "Whisky and Beer" or "Whisky and Chocolate". Of course I started booking these other tastings right away.

Tastingline at the "Cask matters" tasting

So that is how I came to Whisky, but why do a blog about it? Well, Michael - a good friend and college whom I know probably longer than I drink Whisky - and I started a photo related blog approximately a year ago over at www.LDAMiAb.com. We're both photographers and like to share our knowledge with other people. Since then I was thinking about writing some "Whisky-Stuff" at our site, but it never felt right. So I decided to start a separate blog. But it took me over a year to complete the task. So here I come! I got the last "kick" to start a blog about what I like and care about from a nice guy who I met at the "The Whisky Exchange - Whisky Show" in London last weekend. But that - and the Whisky Show itself - are topics for my next blog post(s)!

Tastingline at the "Kilchoman" tasting

A final word why this blog is in English, even that my native language is German. Lots of the people interested in Whisky are either native speakers or do understand English well enough. That is the simple reason why I keep this blog in English never the less I'm not THAT good at English. But it can be a good way to improve my English. So if you find mistakes, please let me know. We're all here to learn - I'm not the exception!

I'd love it if you check out my other social media accounts! I'm on Instagram, Google+, Twitter and Facebook. And if you're interested in photography, why not check out www.LDAMiAb.com!

Slàinte,
Lukas