Venue: Oslo Whiskyfestival 2016
A recap of last week’s visit to Oslo Whiskyfestival 2016 - short reviews and pictures from the festival.
Part 1: Friday November 4th
A common question is “what happens at a whisky festival?” — this is an attempt to both review, and, well, at least describe one approach to the multitudes of things to sample.
Reviews and text in general on this page is normally all in English, since they’re (hopefully!) interesting for an international audience. This article, however, is mostly for people within a certain travel time from Oslo, and can be found in both English and Norwegian.
Friday
After the usual queue to get inside on Friday, the decision was made to grab the “starter whisky” while queueing up for the wardrobe on the lower floor. The first whisky, Glengoyne 1999 12 YO Provenance didn’t really hit the mark, and was probably a poor choice for a starter — usually we warm up with a simple and typically 40% ABV whisky to calibrate the system (and it seems that this is the best choice in the future). While not a proper review, the whisky in question seemed sharp and bitter (even for being “just” 46%), and would normally hit a score of 4⁄10.
The first proper taste of whisky was the Springbank Burgundy 12 — it had a promising nose, with earthy autumn leaves and sulphury raisin tones, but the oaky tannins didn’t balance well out, and the finish was lacking. Still, it was interesting and different, and qualified to a score of 6⁄10.
A side note here: While a whisky festival is a great way to experience a good amount of whiskies that you probably would never buy a bottle of blind, it can also lead to strange results — sometimes a great whisky seems mediocre depending on the general order of whiskies tried before it, the lack of time to get really into it, or no time to let the whisky “breathe”. Usually this leads to the earlier whiskies getting low reviews, and later whiskies somehow being all great, however a really great whisky will shine regardless of when it’s sampled. Finally, of course, taste is very individual, and any review site will have a bias based on personal preferences.
Of course, a plan had been made for whiskies to try at the festival, as the various whisky bar menus had been published ahead of time. Equally obvious, this plan fell apart and new plans were drafted when actually at the festival!
Ever since the festival moved to Håndverkeren Kurs- og konferansesenter a few years ago, it’s been divided into four areas: Three floors of whisky (the lower floor, upper floor, and the gallery), and one area for seminars. Even with this large area, there was a decent amount of visitors straight after opening (of note is that this year, as the previous, it might have been faster not to pre-order the ticket, but rather pay at the door, as there was one queue for picking up pre-orders, and two for buying tickets outright — and there’s never been a problem of them being sold out in advance).
While there’s no fixed layout of the whisky bars from year to year, they seem to stay mostly in the same areas with some minor changes.
After leaving the lower floor (but definitiely making a plan to return), it was time to find out where everything else was situated. On the upper floor, the Glendronach table was quickly located, and a sample of Glendronach Cask Strength bought with 2 tokens.
At the whisky festival, every 2cl sample is bought with one or more paper tokens — a strip of 5 costs 125kr, and a one-day ticket includes 10 tokens, while a 2 day ticket includes 15. Each sample is fairly cheap, and comparable to the bottle price at Vinmonopolet divided into 2cl samples with few exceptions.
As long time fans of sherried all whiskies, this really got the day started! Notes of yellow fruits, pepper and cloves on the nose, and with strawberry, peach and tannins on the flavour. The first (but not the last!) clear 10⁄10 of the day!
At this point, it was time to slow down a bit, with a round of the floor, and a trip to the gallery. Talking to the nice people serving you whisky is not required, but highly recommended — there’s tons to learn, and asking for a recommendation can lead to something interesting and unexpected. It was getting close to the pit-stop dram, but still time for a quick whisky.
The pit-stop dram is a special event a few hours into each day; for half an hour, each table serves something special, something that sold out long ago, and/or something new and unreleased. Each guest gets one special ticket per day, and need to use it (plus the required tokens) to buy the dram.
At a whim, The Glenlivet Cipher, a “mysterious” whisky with no tasting notes or indications as to what it contains, was tried. It might have been the short time, or just the whisky, but while it started out with a nice juicy pear note on the nose, it turned into a strangely synthetic pear flavour - 4⁄10, would probably try it again in a different setting, but not buy a bottle.
Our choice for the pit-stop dram was the venerable Bunnahabhain 25. There were many contenders, and any one of the choices would probably have been great, but there was no buyers remorse here! Bunnahabhain 25 is a lovely sooty cinnamon bun covered in lavender, with hints of plums and and chocolate. The flavour was full of tannins, tobacco, cinnamon, and forest berries, leading to a finish of chocolate, berries and yoghurt — really great, and an obvious 10⁄10.
“What do you mean? Tannins and tobacco? How can that be good?” — Of course, flavours and the experience thereof is very individual, but the tasting notes here are a combination of the immediate reaction to the whisky, plus notes over time as the glass is sampled; you might not find any of the notes here, or you see immediately what we mean even if it doesn’t actually smell of cigarettes. If the notes would properly reflect what was actually said at the festival, it would be something like “tobacco-ish but not quite, and there’s some dark herbal something there”.
Straight after the pit-stop (and thankfully not at the same time, as it was last year), there were seminars and “master classes” in the fourth area of the festival. The master class of choice this evening was the Highland Park seminar.
The most coveted master classes sell out several weeks ahead of the festival, and are worth checking out and planning beforehand. Each seminar typically has 4-6 whiskies, a mix of things found out in the main halls, and often something special. It’s recommended to “avoid” the table hosting the seminar until after, to avoid having to pay tokens for something you’d get eventually anyhow – speaking out of experience here…
The seminar was held by Senior Brand Ambassador at Highland Park, Martin Markvardsen, and with a mix of Highland Park history and personal anecdotes from his early days of working there, he led us through an excellent selection of whiskies!
We started out with one of the fairly new additions to the basic selection at Vinmonopolet, Highland Park Cask Strength, a really nice and rich sherried whisky 9⁄10.
This was followed by another whisky without an age statement, the Highland Park Dark Origins, which – even if it has a lower ABV – seems to have a sharper flavour, though with lots of dried fruits; another 9⁄10.
However, this was nothing compared to the third whisky of the day (and the pit-stop dram at the Highland Park table), Highland Park Hjarta. This whisky has been sold out for years, and was a uniquely fruity whisky with hints of heather. The big guns have to come out for this one: 11⁄10.
You’d think following this would be a challenge, but the Highland Park 21 managed to persuade us into another 10⁄10.
“But your usual scores are so strict, why is everything beyond perfect here‽“ — It’s true the regular scores use a larger range in trying to make distinctions between whiskies, but there’s no real time for that at the festival. Also, we don’t want to have to follow each score we discuss with others at the festival with a lengthy explanation — at the festival there’s always something to talk with others about; “So, what’s in the glass?”
Finally, we got to try the new launch at the festival: Highland Park OWF 13 Single Cask Chris Maile (or something to that effect), which best can be described as the regular cask strength kicked up a notch; 10⁄10.
After this, the seminar ended, and it was getting close to last call. Even so, there was time to squeeze in a few more samples; first out was the fantastic Glenglassaugh Evolution Tennessee Cask 57.2% which was another 10⁄10.
Close by was the Myken table, which is something not to miss at any festival! At their first visit, they presented a not-really-whisky only a few weeks old, but at this festival, they’re up to Myken 1.5 years — still not a whisky, but better every time.
This had notes of spices, fruit, and pine, which earns it a 7⁄10, with some points subtracted due to the “rawness” of the flavour still. Also sampled was their unpeated new-make spirit (unaged spirit), which was almost gin-like, but with the same fruity notes 6⁄10.The general rule is that the spirit has to be stored 3 years on a barrel before it can be called whisky.
The notes got sparse at this point, but the evening was rounded out by Chieftains Glenrothes 15 Single Cask at 9⁄10 and the always fantastic Glenglassaugh 30 at 10⁄10.
At this point, the bars were closed, and it was time to stumble home. Friday is always a bit hectic and short, but this year luck was on our side and most of the things tried were fantastic!