Oban Whisky Festival – West Coast Whisky Feis
Where? My hometown, Oban, gateway to the isles and the capital of seafood in Scotland. It’s only a few hundred yards from Oban Distillery, where you are surrounded by great pubs, food outlets, shops . When? From 12pm – 6pm, at Oban’s Skipinnish Cèilidh House. What? West Coast Whisky Feis, the brainchild of local drinks retailer Euan, Oban Whisky and Fine Wines, good pals of ours by the way (I think everyone in the drinks industry are friends!). Skipinnish Ceilidh House will hosted a range of exhibits from west coast distilleries. Euan Finlayson, owner of Oban Whisky and Fine Wines, said, “We wanted to create an event that showing off the incredible whiskies that the west coast has to offer. Ticket holders received a dram glass and sample from all the exhibitors. There was a nosing competition where attendees attempedt to identify whiskies by smell alone, with a bottle of single malt whisky up for grabs. Samples were included in the event ticket price and master classes are available for an additional fee. Tickets were £30, incredible value considering the amount of drams available.
Ah, nothing like going home, especially when there is a whisky fest in town – exactly what I did, with partner in crime, Liz. Being born just doon the road in Connel, I love going home, on tour with guests. This time, Liz and myself went there for a special reason, friends of ours, Whisky Fix – a company specialising in Single Malt Scotch Whisky. THURSDAY a good start, I love the direction we are away to the west coast Drimnin to check out a new distillery. But not only that, a wee bit of my clan history to boot, St. Columba’s Chapel and Drimnin Castle. The Maclean clan maintained control over the Sound of Mull and it’s adjacent lands through strategically located castles stretching from Mingary on Ardnamurchan to Duart on Mull. Drimnin Distillery – now that is another blog …
Was it worth going, try and stop us next year! It was better than good, as a first Oban whisky festival it was a resounding success, more people than we expected, both sides of the tables! Lots of excellent drams on offer, we did our best to try as many as possible, just for our education you understand. We arrived 12 noon and left just around 6pm. It was that good. Lots of people we knew from distilleries and bottlers, great food (free) on offer also, the smoked salmon was excellent. We took lots of photos, too many for a blog so catch them on facebook – link from the website.
2018 fest. Gather your strength and gather your pennies … there will be another superb whisky festival in Oban in July next year, we will be there and it would nice to see as many friends as possible. We will be offering tours around the whisky festival, standard tour – accommodation, ticket etc, then a very special tour, a distillery tour BY BOAT to three west coast distilleries, fest ticket, accommodation and transport from Glasgow – this also includes 3 other distillery visits, a whisky dinner and tasting, all to be online soon. If you can’t wait for news, email us at info@whiskytours.scot
Review Paul McLean www.mcleanscotland.com www.whiskytours.scot