The Independent Spirits Festival
Fib Whisky Whitlaw 7yo Red Wine Finish | 63.5% ABV
Score: 10/10
Nirvana.
TL;DR
The best so far…?
The Beautiful, Small World of Whisky
What a weekend.
It’s now Monday morning and I’m packing my bags after the Independent Spirits Festival Weekend in Edinburgh.
The weather has been quite nice; cold but bright Spring sunshine. It looks as if it’ll be the same today. I’m leaving later in the afternoon, so I take a painkiller for the inevitable headache - drink responsibly and all that jazz - and head into the shower before preparing my suitcase, which will consist of me trying to find a way to accommodate the ridiculous number of bottles I didn’t intend to buy over the last few days.
But I don’t regret a single purchase. This has been an exceptional few days. Let me take you through them, from my arrival last week.
Arriving in Edinburgh I’m already enjoying the lovely feeling of a small, welcoming whisky world waiting here for me, with so many familiar faces greeting me along the way. As the weekend starts to build, here, there and everywhere there are whisky folk to bump into.
There are people in our community coming from the four corners of the globe: San Francisco, New England, Australia, Hong Kong, England, France, the Netherlands, Belgium… the list goes on. Mere miles are not permitted to get in the way of those hell bent on taking in this curious new festival in Leith. Still, when you think about it, it is kind of a miracle that dozens of us international whisky botherers all gathered and met in Edinburgh, for just a few days, to attend a whisky film premiere and its associated festival.
Travelling from Paris to do so myself, leaving my significant other behind, and having the chance to experience this whisky moment, I feel it’s my duty to recount the events of what is currently my Greatest Ever Stay in Edinburgh.
It’s quite late on Friday when I arrive in what oor Wally affectionately refers to as “the World’s Second-Best City”. I’m just in time to spend an evening in town with pals travelling up from Campbeltown and across from Paisley. I meet them at the Scotsman hotel before we head up to the Ensign Ewart, one of the best pubs in town and definitely the first one you should visit during any stay in Dùn Èideann. It sits conveniently located at the top of the Royal Mile, a hundred meters away from the castle entrance and almost opposite the Scotch Whisky Experience.
In these cosy environs, we are delighted and only mildly surprised to see a few familiar faces waiting for us in the pub; more well-kent faces from the Netherlands, the South of England and Norway. The excitement builds. We are very ready for this.
We chat for a couple of hours and share stories of upheaval and moves to the Wee Toon. We exchange muled bottles and samples, share drams and laughs before another wander back down the Royal Mile for a salvatory kebab and a farewell. We are set up nicely in both mood and motivation for the following day.
The next morning, I wake early and decide to wear my French rugby polo. It’s the Six Nations ‘Super Saturday’ and we have the final round later in the evening: France v Scotland.
I head out for breakfast and meet with more friends who have travelled from the USA for this event. It’s my friend's birthday, and we plan the day ahead, as well as his upcoming trip to join me in Paris for a wine tasting. So much to look forward to! Soon, we hop into a cab to get down to the day’s main event - other than the rugby that is - the Independent Spirits - A Whisky Series premiere, brought to us by Guy Satchwell and Greg Swartz of Blacksmith & Jones; the team behind the Water Of Life movie which first aired in 2021.
The screening is programmed to begin at noon and will show all four episodes. The afternoon into the early evening afterwards will be dedicated to the associated Independent Spirits whisky festival, the first and only one in Scotland to focus upon independent bottlers in whisky, and the brainchild of two other well kent faces around these parts: Roy Duff of Aqvavitae and writer David Stirk who has been tasked with the organisation of the event.
Spoiler: with the help of Keith Duncan and the Whisky Indy Love Festival team from Newcastle, they nail it.
On our way down Leith Walk, we spot even more familiar faces along the way, even sharing a cab with a tall friend from the Netherlands and we happily head towards Leith Theatre. Upon arrival we are greeted with an impressive building. The blonde sandstone facade of Leith Theatre is almost a hundred years old. Originally a gift from the City of Edinburgh to Leith to mark the borough’s amalgamation into the city in 1920, it has, over its life, spent some years in a state of neglect.
This is a shame, because a building better suited to a whisky festival and an associated film premiere would be difficult to find. It’s an excellent and seemingly underused venue. With the annual world-famous Edinburgh Festival held every August, it seems criminal that such a venue isn’t used more. It would be great to see a place such as this thriving once more.
We join the swiftly moving queue under the cloisters outside to be greeted by David himself, handing out wristbands like his life depended on it. In the busy line of waiting whisky folk I still have time to say hello and catch a few more familiar faces before we take our seats. Two hundred chairs are arranged in lines inside the theatre’s Thomas Morton Hall. A temporary projector screen and audio system has been set up to turn the large and echoey room into a makeshift movie theatre. We are then served our first dram of the day: an independently bottled - of course! - Tormore. Tasty and very welcome indeed. It makes it easy to settle in for the screening.
The first two parts of the series were projected on the big screen and we’re greeted with an endless stream of famous and well-informed whisky bods from inside and outside of the independent whisky bottling scene. Through individual interviews and sound clips, we are told the story of what independent bottlers do, what they bring to whisky and why they still exist today. A must watch for invested whisky fans.
We will soon discover that almost every company involved in the making of this ‘docuseries’ has brought their wares to share with us afterwards. They are busy setting up in the festival hall next door as we enjoy the huge screen. Scenes of flowing amber and swirling glasses whet our palates nicely for what awaits.
After the first two episodes, we take a break while another dram is poured for us. This time the whisky is a donation from Seb Bunford-Jones, of Glasgow distillery fame. A friend of director Greg Swartz - after he spent time working at Glasgow Distillery back in 2018 - it’s appropriate to see a new vibrant and independent distillery asked to come along and share something from the time Greg was working there. The bottles were drawn from the remnants of a peated Oloroso hogshead if I recall correctly, and it was a beautiful, big, bold and sweet peater. A proper movie dram.
The movie series itself is great, and while I won’t spoil it for you, I will say it is worth a watch, even solely for Mark Watt’s recollection of a certain ‘bad’ cask he once had in his possession.
There’s an interval between the end of the four-part series and the beginning of the festival itself, so we slip out to go and grab some lunch at the SMWS Leith Vaults, where we are joined by another couple of friends, a Scot travelling from Inverness and an American who has travelled all the way from San Francisco - just for this weekend! Incredible. Great fun is had and, while we don’t drink any whisky there, the fish & chips - actually called Beer & whisky battered haddock with chunky fries - because it’s a fancy place - is very good and serves its purpose of lining our bellies before the afternoon madness.
We head back to the festival grounds, where we find ourselves joined by a further two hundred eager enthusiasts there for just the festival. With four hundred plus of us all ready for some whisky exploration, things already in full swing.
I dive straight in, heading first to the familiar face of Julie Hamilton, representing Decadent Drinks. I try the Teaninich first, which is probably one of their best value drams to date, before moving on to the 30yo Gone Grant, aka Caperdonich. Immediately I’m struck. A 30yo closed distillery offered as a second pour - and a free pour at that. What a beauty it was too! Fruity, waxy, yet light and fresh. A truly gorgeous glass and not a bad way to start. Julie, as well as the majority of other exhibitors, are selling bottles directly over the table. I’m immediately tempted, but I hold my water, this is just the first stop.
I meet Seb, who is supposed to be on a day off, but can’t help strolling around to taste all the independently bottled Glasgow expressions he can find. I share my future plans of moving to Scotland and I’m greeted by a smile and a raised eyebrow. Seb knows only too well that whisky drives us in ways that can be difficult to explain. So there you go. That’s my hope for the future. The cat’s out of the bag!
I leave him to his Glasgow quest and make a beeline to the Adelphi stand where, much to everyone’s joy, we’re greeted by the effervescent Jenny Karlsson. With her bright smile she shares a great Inchgower in Palo Cortado, or rather Paolo Cortado as the label stated, because you know, the Scotch whisky industry’s first objective is to try to find new ways to badly orthograph French, Italian and Spanish wines. No hard feelings Jenny, the whisky was great and we’d forgive you anything. The Inchgower sits on the table alongside swathes of other Adelphi releases and it looks as if the card reader is working overtime.
This goes on and on for a few hours, and the penny starts to drop with me - this is not a typical festival.
The drams being offered on free pour are varied and endless; young Teaninichs and Mortlachs are offered alongside decades old Arrans and Springbanks. Everyone you meet is lit with excitement, eagerly sharing special things they’ve been offered around different spots. The banter intensifies as it becomes apparent just how high the standard of whisky being shared is. Suddenly everyone is carrying tote bags and ever-heavier backpacks full of very fairly priced bottles, many of which are only likely to be available on the day. The genuine delight from everyone is incredible to witness. There’s a visceral, palpable buzz to the thing. There are gleeful faces everywhere.
I can’t help but get involved, out comes the wallet. I head to Watt Whisky where we see Mark and Kate working a festival together for the first time. After leaving them to another flurry of empty glasses and eager punters, I head next to Fragrant Drops, who share their freshly released series called Elevenses, consisting of fresh-bourbon matured “breakfast whiskies”, bottled at 50% and priced at £45. Something to look out for, UK residents.
I bounce from table to handshake and hug to table and back around again. I start to lose count of the terrific pours that meet my outstretched glass or are recommended to me by new friends who were strangers a moment before.
More realisation sets in. I fathom what I think has made this festival feel so different, so vibrant, so organic, energetic and real, and it’s suddenly so obvious.
Whisky has spent the last eighteen or so months in the doldrums, and we - the punters - felt it too. What is so desperately needed is an injection of enthusiasm - a statement that reminds us that while the larger whisky market - and global drinks market - might be facing challenges, the specialist stuff, fuelled by lovers of the spirit itself on both sides of those tables, is in rude health.
We are there in numbers and we are ready to embrace it fully.
More than that, however, was the genuine buy-in and support from the exhibitors themselves. They absolutely brought their A-game. It is my belief that they all felt this was a genuine and earnest effort to support their sector specifically - all they had to do was turn up with the right frame of mind and good bottles.
They absolutely did, and how.
I would love to hear from more exhibitors of how the festival felt for them, but there’s an excellent thought piece by an appreciative Mark Watt you can read here, which I think sums up my feelings perfectly.
A great illustration of how the indies in attendance pulled out all the stops could be enjoyed over at Gordon & MacPhail. Our G&M host for the day has completely lost his voice - as many others have - but he puts out an announcement that they would like to share something special to mark the day and celebrate the event. I witness a special bottle being uncorked and rinsed in the space of a couple of minutes: a 1949 G&M Glenlivet. A spectacular gesture and one of dozens that is thoroughly enjoyed and deeply appreciated throughout a spectacular and special day.
As the end of the festival approaches, I take a little break out on my own just to try and take it all in. It’s almost overwhelming. As I do, I stumble upon a stand I haven’t visited yet, manned by two lads in full Scottish rugby attire. As I am due to cheer for the other team later that night, I have to stop by in my French top and try their range. The guys are Ian and Andrew Mundy and they run the Fib whisky company. We quickly get chatting about whisky first, but the discussion inevitably moves on to rugby. I may, at this point, actively bully them into inviting me to tag along later that evening to watch the game at the Port of Leith distillery bar.
Despite the time it would take them to take down and pack away their stand, we arrive at the distillery at the same time. Which either speaks of how many people I got caught up chatting with upon departure - or how many drams I might’ve forgotten I had.
As we take the elevators up to the fantastic top floor bar, it’s anyone’s game on the big screens. But the rugby gods decide to shine their light on the French team in the second half, securing us a Six Nations win. Despite the Scotland team’s demise, it’s great to be able to watch the game with fellow rugby fans. I’d like to thank them once more for their warm welcome.
They leave a little while after the game finishes and I join a few fellow festival goers a few tables to the side. There I meet a Norwegian couple and we enjoy recalling the marvel of the day's events and whiskies we just experienced. Hungry once more, I order a focaccia, as it was written on the menu, and the bartender looks at me like I’ve just spoken in Klingon, replying with the most Scottish thing I’ve ever heard: “Is that bread and oil, aye?” Because of course, that’s what it’s called in their till. God bless you Scotland.
After meeting with a contingent of Barflies who arrive looking for late night, post-festival sustenance, we enjoy a little time together as the staff bring us each a dram of their Table Whisky to accompany our meal. Nice touch.
Thereafter, only the most courageous - or inebriated, or both - among us walk around to the Malt & Hops, a true lair for locals, offering a decent selection of beer and malt whisky, for a wee “deoch an dorus” or night cap. While it’s totally unnecessary, it’s great fun and there’s a sense that we really don’t want the joy of it all to end.
Eventually, the barmaids quickly - but politely - toss us outside when closing time finally comes around, and we all make our way back to our hotels for a well-earned rest.
My mood is lifted once more as I realise that the next day I’m joining Aqvavitae’s tasting at The Belfry. As I finally hit the pillow, I’m grateful to him that he set the start time for 2pm. How perfectly considerate.
Everything about this event was, as some Scots say, ‘braw!’. The movie was really fun and informative, the festival was superbly organised, and the exhibitors brought so much investment to the concept it was destined to be an incredible success.
But most of all, cue in the violins, the best part was - as always - the old friends reacquainted with or new friends made. I feel genuinely privileged to be a part of such a welcoming community and to be able to go to Scotland twice a year to relive it all again, each and every time.
If you haven’t made it there yet, I hope you will, and when you do, please don’t hesitate to ask around to meet the locals and the regular travellers, even those you’ve only talked to on the interwebs, I’m willing to bet a lot of them would be happy to share a dram.
If you did make it there, please join me in celebrating what an incredible and unique event it was and please - join me in campaigning them to ensure that it is not going to be a one-off. Let them know this event is needed and we’re ready to support it again next year.
If that happens, I’ll be first in line for a ticket.
Whisky Review
Whitlaw (Highland Park) 7yo, Fib Whisky, Bourbon then sherry matured, 3 month finish in Mourvèdre red wine cask from Coume del Mas estate (Collioure/Banyuls producer), Cask strength, limited run of 100 bottles, bottled for the Scottish Rugby Away Tours forum, as well as the Hearts + balls charity, 63.5% ABV
£80, but I bought their last bottle - sorry
This of course was purchased on the Fib whisky stand at the festival, and I think it’s the perfect dram to pair with this festival recap.
If you know me, despite liking wine a lot, I rarely enjoy wine-matured whisky. But since this only spent three months in a wine cask, and that this cask came from a very respectable estate, and that we were chatting about rugby, I had to try it.
The asking price of £85 is definitely not cheap for a 7yo Highland Park, but £10 from each bottle was donated to a charity called Hearts + Balls, which aims to help former rugby players who have sustained life altering injuries. A noble cause indeed. And if it resonates with you, please consider donating through their website.
Being a cheap Frenchman, I made use of the £5 discount voucher given to us with our tasting glasses at the festival entrance. In doing so I bagged the last bottle available of this release for £80. I feel kinda bad for using my coupon on a charity bottling, but we were in the festival’s last moments, and I forgot to use it prior to that. I’m assured it makes no difference to them!
The main reason I bought it was the label, but also the fact that I tasted it and realised I could like red wine matured - or in this case, finished - whisky.
Now, let’s see how it fares in the calmer environment of my living room.
Score: 7/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
A cure for red wine cask fear
Nose
Intense, because of the ABV. Not really wine heavy, the oloroso takes the reins. Hazelnuts, forest honey and a hint of smoke. Cherries and dried cranberries; reminiscent of fruit cake. A few drops of water and it becomes more earthy, with gentian, potting soil and heather. It can take a lot of water though, and after a few ml it almost smells of small spring flowers, along with black pepper, plums, oak spice and even a hint of tar. A bit of wax, set honey, porridge and malt.
Palate
Coffee and dried aromatic herbs like thyme. Quite hot when taken neat, as expected. It needs to hydrate a little. With a few drops of water, the bite is toned down a bit, and the same earthy notes as the nose show up on the palate. Put in more, and you get a light earthy peat, dried herbs and lignin. Mentholy freshness on the finish. It’s also rounder, malty, with what seems like European oak spice on the finish.
The Dregs
There’s quite a bit of distillery character showing up for a whisky that looks this dark. It’s the kind of dram that gets me more curious about wine-matured whiskies. Quite a beast, at this ABV. I seem to understand that the lovely lads at Fib only bottle at cask strength, but my personal opinion is that in such cases when the ABV reaches over 60%, especially for younger spirits, meticulous reduction by the bottler could often be beneficial, as it would be done in a much more controlled way than me in my living room. There are great indie bottlers doing that quite often, most notably Decadent Drinks, and I don’t think they get too much backlash for it. I certainly don’t mind.
This ‘Orkney’ is great, but I do think that water is needed to fully appreciate it, if only just to reduce the bite of the alcohol.
In any case, as a whisky geek and rugby fan, I’m very glad I stopped by Ian and Andrew’s stand, as every time I take a dram of this bottle I’ll be reminded of this wonderful weekend in Scotland’s capital city, and everyone who made it special.
Until next time, Slàinte Mhath!
To accompany this, let me advise you to listen to one of my favourite bands from the 2010s, Midlake, and their song Acts of Man. A truly beautiful ballad by an awesome band I urge you to pay attention to. A perfect tune to be melancholic about the past weekend.
Score: 7/10
Photo credits: Gordon Burniston, Keith Duncan, Independent Spirits Festival, Aqvavitae, Ainsley Fife
https://www.independentspirits.co.uk/
Independent Spirits Festival on Facebook
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. AF
-
Dramface is free.
Its fierce independence and community-focused content is funded by that same community. We don’t do ads, sponsorships or paid-for content. If you like what we do you can support us by becoming a Dramface member for the price of a magazine.
However, if you’ve found a particular article valuable, you also have the option to make a direct donation to the writer, here: buy me a dram - you’d make their day. Thank you.
For more on Dramface and our funding read our about page here.
