Whisky Party

When the drums kick in

I’m not generally what one would call a “hater.”  I’m especially rather pleasant when it comes to whisk(e)y.  For instance, put me in a room with people  who like whisky, at an event which helps me learn more of said spirit, and offer me as much drink as I can handle (and maybe a smidgeon more – as Devo meant to say “Are we not men?  We are WhiskyParty!”) and I should be the happiest camper this side of Scotland.

Yet somehow, it was not to be.  Whiskies of the World, held in San Francisco at the Hotel Nikko, managed to disappoint me.  A lot.  It obviously wasn’t all bad:  in fact there were some pretty cool highlights.  But throughout it all, especially for a festival that calls itself “The Greatest Whiskey Event”, I couldn’t help but continuously compare it to WhiskyFest, and Whiskies of the World was found wanting.

You know an event is struggling when random guests are discussing loudly, for all to hear, about how bad the event is and how after 5 years of attending he and his wife won’t come back.  You know it’s worse when an even more random server stops, looks at those guests and says “You’re right.  There’s not enough room.  This isn’t run well”.  You know it’s getting dangerously close to the cliff’s edge when a whisky icon begins ruminating to those same guests about the various reasons why the event is going the way it’s going.  And you know you should just cut your losses when an even cooler icon from a very cool distillery that we all love leans over to you and says “this place is a total clusterf*ck.”

Sigh.  The event has been written up already by DrinkHacker and a new local whiskey read The Casks.  They seemed to have noticed the issues I write about here, but it didn’t bother them as much.  Me?  Well, let’s go Positives and Negatives.

Positive:

• Maker’s 46.  A sample bottle was there.  I tried it (apparently even before John Hansell!).  By that point my palate was not as resilient as I would have liked, but I remember it being chewy, very oaky, less vanilla and more spice, satisfying in a way that regular Makers is not for me, and it was one of three drams for which I went back for seconds.
• Music Makes Me Smile.  The Bushmills Irish Pipers Band killed it.  They went around a few times, and each time just brought the energy of the event way up.
• Mackillop’s Choice Highland Park 1980.  Lovely Dara from The Whisky Shop told me I had to go back and try this (I had given up trying to elbow my way to try all the offerings) and she was right.  This was delicious.  There was spice and lots of fruit, slight vanilla, faint smoke, and an evolving decadent finish.  I know absolutely nothing of how old it was but I liked it a lot.
• Microdistilleries. It was absolutely great to have a seminar on the distilleries, learn about the trials and tribulations, and sample the wares from some heavy hitters.  At the end of the night, Anchor Steam even gave away a copy of Cocktail Boothby’s American Bar-Tender in which there’s a cocktail recipe on how to “make Scotch Whiskey”.
• People.  Lorne Mackillop was there, as was Simon Brooking from Laphroaig and Rick Edwards from The Glenlivet.  Steve Beale from Diageo represented as did Richard Paterson from Whyte and MacKay.  Folks from High West Distillery, Tuthilltown and Maker’s Mark were in full force.  I even met an awesome guy waiting in line to get in (more on that below) who had driven over 12 hours from Utah to get there.  There were some good people there.  As I state below, it’s just a shame you were meeting them under less than ideal conditions.

Negative:

• Operations 101.  My evening started at 5:10 PM when I arrived at the Hotel Nikko ballroom in time for the VIP entrance at 5:15PM (the regular crowd would gain entrance at 6:00PM).  Awesome, right?  Well, awesome except for the fact that I then was directed to a long meandering line that didn’t move very fast. I waited for a full 43 minutes, gaining entrance to the event room at 5:53PM.  No announcements as to what was happening occurred.  We just were told to wait.  And what did I actually wait for?  A wristband.  I waited online to exchange my ticket for….a ticket.  Though I won an Alcademics contest to get a ticket, I sure felt bad for the suckers who coughed up all that extra money for extra tasting time that didn’t occur.
• SWAG 101.  But what about the free glass?  That must have been cool, right?  Well, only “Dram Club Members” who paid an extra $60 for that honor got a glass.  The VIP ticket holders and the regular folks did not (this is apparently different than from years past).  The rest of us got to drink out of catered wine glasses (you know, the cheap ones with dishwasher stains) that I had to find on my own.  Literally – I had to find them on my own.  There were no directions or instructions given when I exchanged my ticket for the wristband ticket – I literally went inside the event, and then after asking a booth about where the glasses were, had to go back outside to a side table hidden in a corner to pick up a glass from a tray that looked like it was the discard pile of dirty dishes.
• Put Up A Stupid Sign 101. Even if you wanted to learn about whisky, you couldn’t hear when announcements were made as to the starting of the seminars.  There was no HQ inside the event at which to ask questions.  And the seminars themselves were located on another floor separate from the main event, without any signs that I could see to help direct people to them.  I wound up missing the first seminar I wanted to attend and had to ask 3 ‘helpers’ located outside of the actual event  before getting correct directions to the seminars.
• Crowd Control 101.  As has been noted elsewhere, the space allotted for all of the booths and all of the people (one of the whisky icons told me that he had heard 1200 tickets were sold) was probably only big enough for a third of the booths and people that filled it.  So, instead of being able to try a whisky and carry on somewhat meaningful conversation to learn about it, you just had to try and shove and be one of the people holding their glass out for a pour.

Overall

I drank the other 45

“The Greatest Whiskey Event”? Comparing the event to WhiskyFest almost seems laughable.  For sure, there were issues with WhiskyFest, too (i.e. whiskies being advertised that weren’t actually there).  But at least that wasn’t MaltAdvocate’s fault.

Whereas WhiskyFest gave the distilleries and the whisky the ability to shine, it seems that at this event, all the distilleries were trying to make the best out of a less than ideal situation in which they were put.

So, did I have fun?  Absolutely.  Would I pay to go again?  Eh.  The main thing that irks me about the event was that  all these negative issues made the event seem it was only a)about making money and b)about getting drunk.  The event was NOT about whisk(e)y.  It was not about the reasons that people pay to go there.  They and everyone else can get drunk on their own for less money.  Probably makes sense for the event organizers to realize that next year, and try to improve  upon their (or apparently go back to their prior) formula.  If not, there seems to be a few other festivals that are willing and able to take over.

-StrongLikeCask