Heaven came to Canberra

I have written much about my previous trips away for whiskey shows.

Well, whiskeylive came to Canberra.

I bought tickets as soon as they were available, and wild horses would not be able to keep me away.

there were an excellent selection of whiskies available, and many were sampled.

There were a number of Australian whiskies available were were sampled and well liked.

The only down side of whiskey live Canberra was it did not have any master classes

I like the masterclasses, they give you a chance to sit down, pace your drinking a bit better, and hopefully learn something. 

Whisky live Canberra?

I have written before about my trips to Sydney for Whisky live and the other whisky fairs.

During the week, I got what would have to be the best news ever. There is going to be a Whisky live in other Australian cities apart from Sydney and Melbourne.

And best of all, they are planning on coming to Canberra too.

Roll on July.

Damm

i have posted before about my trips to Whisky live in 2010 and 2009.

I was getting ready to go up to Sydney for Whiskey live in October, when i got the following notice.

Whisky live in Sydney is delayed until June 2011.

Damm,

Whiskey live 2010 pt 2

We arrived at Randwick racecourse shortly after Whiskey live opened.

Usually i have a saying, "when confronted with a choice of two evils, choose the one you have not tried before".

On this night, that gave me a problem. I was going to try and sample all the whiskey there, that i had not tried before.

A little while later I realised that i set myself an ill fated goal. It would not be possible to try and taste all the whiskeys there that i had not tasted before.

I set myself this goal before i realised the sheer number of whiskies that would be available, however, I gave this goal a valiant effort, but was overcome by the sheer numbers of whiskeys there.

I was faced with a challenge that not even Don Quixote would accept.

I had a little break while doing a masterclass on the effects of Oak, only to be confronted by more whiskies back in the main hall.

By this stage the night got a little hazie, so i will finish by saying it was a wonderful night.

And i am waiting with a baited breath for whiskey live 2011.

Whiskey live 2010

So a couple of weeks ago, Rocky Wobbly and myself decide to go on a road trip.

We head off for Sydney for the weekend (and Whiskey live 2.0
or 2010).

Our first stop was at Truckstop 31 at Marulan.

The restaurant there used to do great meals, however it recently changed hands, and the food is even better now.

After checking into our hotel, we ventured out to Coggee oval to watch Randwick take on Eastwood. Alas it was not a good day for the boys in Green as they went down 40-14.

However there was no time to rest after the game, as it was quickly back to the hotel, and take the 15 minute walk to Randwick racecourse for whiskey live.

This i will pick up in part two of my story.

Whiskey Live - Day Two

The Whiskey Live-Whiskey show was not due to begin until 4pm in the Afternoon. This left me a day to kill in Sydney. With so many options, and such little time, i decided to visit Paddys Market, and Darling Harbour. While in Darling Harbour, I stopped and drooled a little in the Lindt chocolate shop.


took a Ferry around to Circular Quay.


and jumped on a Manly Ferry. I had first lunch at Manly.

I did not eat at the bald mans chocolate shop, but i wish i had seen it earlier. I was so tempted to pick up the dish of chocolate and see how much i could drink before they caught me. It was sitting righ there, on the bench, and it was so tempting
Took the Ferry back to Circular Quay, And wandered up into town, for second lunch at Harrys Cafe.

I only remembered to take the photo of the pie at this stage of eating it, and i did not think that i could eat a second pie, so i could not stage that photo either.

The Whiskey show was at the Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay, and i got there to discover tables and tables of whiskys and whiskeys.

My pick of the evening would have to be the Limeburners from Western Australia.

Although the Amrut from India

and Edradour from Scotland were also worth noting.

We ran into some other whiskey lovers from Canberra.

Yes that is right, Brendan Smyth loves a wee drop of the Dram too

And had a wonderful time. If Whiskey live in on again next year, I will be going.

Whiskey Live - Day One.

The international whiskey show (Whiskey Live) was in Sydney in the First week of September. Wild horses were not able to keep me away so on Thursday morning, Rocky and myself packed our bags and headed up to Sydney.

We arrived at our motel with 30 minutes to spare before our first masterclass was due to begin. Luckily our digs were only 10 minutes walk for where the masterclasses were being held, so we were able to get there on time.

Our First masterclass was about the Whiskies of Islay. It was presented by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, and was well worth the trip. Six whiskies were presented in the masterclass, five were single case bottlings, and the sixth was a commercial whiskey from the same distillery as whiskey number four (the Laphroaig 10 year old).

The evening session was a Journey Around Scotland and was presented by a Brand Ambassador from Diageo Brands. This meant we spent the night being shown only brands from the Diageo stable.

But it was not that bad. We had eight whiskies. The first six was one whisky from each of the whisky areas in Scotland, and then we did a vertical tasting of the Talisker, as we tasted the 10, 18 and 25 year olds. He also produced a bottle of pure grain whisky, and i had a sample of it, but as i had spent the day drinking heavy peaty scotches, the pure grain had no taste whatsoever.