We Love The Perth Whisky Festival!

Around about the 30 year mark, both Rae and I finally conquered an ambition – to love whisky.  Maybe it’s an age thing getting those taste buds ripe enough to appreciate it but it finally happened.  Now, we’re not professing to be whisky connosieurs by any means but we know that Rae likes the Speysides which are fruity and delicate whereas I like an Islay with its peaty, smoky tones (that’s our entire knowledge).

After having our arms well and truly twisted (that Nicola Martin at Small City Big Personality PERTH can execute a grapple let me tell you) to review the Perth Whisky Festival, staged by Exel Wines of South Street, we took our first half day Saturday shift off to go and see what all the fuss was about. 

On arriving at Perth Racecourse, the venue for this years festival, we were greeted with a packed room rumbling with chatter, laughter and a very distinctive whiff of the good stuff.  People of all ages were smiling fondly as they enjoyed sips from their little pots of nectar.  The atmosphere was buzzing.  It was fantastically friendly and jovial with an added dash of excitement as we scoured the room to see what can only be described as whisky galore!

Being sensible souls, we decided that hammering straight in to the hard stuff at 1:45 in the afternoon would be a dangerous idea, so we went straight to the bar to “ease ourselves in” with a pint of lager.  Like I say – sensible.

And then it began.  So much whisky and so little time.

Ironically our first port of call was to the Ogilvy Scottish vodka stand.  The vodka is produced just up the road using locally grown maris piper potatoes.  A generous measure was handed to us poured over ice and it certainly didn’t disappoint.  It has to be one of the smoothest vodkas we’ve ever tasted.  If you’re a vodka lover you must add this to your want list!  I think it’s important to point out that the festival focuses primarily on Whisky but there were a range of vodkas, gins and rums available for tasting too – what’s not to love.  In fact you can partake in whisky and gin tasting masterclasses in a separate area which went down a storm judging by all the people we chatted to afterwards.

Next on the whisky trail was the 25 year old Tullibardine which comes in at a cool £250 per bottle.  You could see the joy on Rae’s face as that first sip trickled down his throat.  Amazing!  Funnily enough, he wanted to stay at that table for another nip but was dragged away (reluctantly) to sample the other delights on offer. 

One thing that really struck us was the bottle design and labelling and how effective they were at attracting our attention.  Whisky’s like Big Peat and Scallywag (with a cute wee dog on the bottle) really caught our eye.

And so it went on, nip and after nip after nip. I should mention that each and every one of the distillery hosts were brilliant.  They were enthusiastic, friendly and passionate about their product, expertly advising which drink to try based on preferred tastes.  And the punters were equally as friendly.  There was much banter to be had with strangers as everyone waited patiently for their next dram.

This event is nothing short of fantastic.  It was so good in fact that we think this should be a bi-annual event (any chance Exel Wines?).  We left the racecourse with a warm glow, rabbiting on to the very forgiving taxi driver on the way home about how brilliant it was.

So thanks once again to Russell and the team at Exel Wines for inviting us to sample some of the finest drams we’ve ever tasted.  When the festival comes around next time, we’ll DEFINITLEY be there.  And we’d certainly encourage EVERYONE to give it a go.  Slange!

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You can enjoy the whisky knowledge of Exel Wine all year round by visiting their shop in South Street.

Thanks to Rae and Craig for their #SmallCityTourist Spot!