Our search at The Whisky Shop Dufftown to find the best Single Malt to go with Haggis continued at this year's Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival. We held 3 tastings for guests of the festival to try our 4 specially selected malts. Each tasting was a sell out!
This year our winner from both of last year's festivals, Aberlour 15 Years Old, and the second place from last year's Whisky Shop Dufftown Autumn Festival, Glendronach 18 Years Old PortFinish (it was such a close thing we decided to give it another chance) were pitched against Glenfarclas 105 and Benromach 10.
Our guests were asked to try the whiskies with haggis, neaps and tatties. Nothing else. We do try and be a bit scientific. We wanted to show how the combination of whisky and food emphasised some flavours in either the whisky or the haggis and even create new ones. We were delighted to see the expression of the faces of our guests as they experienced this.
The first and second placed whiskies from our last festival were also the first and second placed ones again. This time the Aberlour 15 Years Old was a clear winner. This is the 3rd festival in a row it has come out on top! May be there can be no better dram for your Haggis. We will put that to the test again during our Autumn festival. We have put 21 whiskies into this competition over the last 3 years.
At this year's Whisky Shop Dufftown Autumn Festival we have been continuing our search for the best single malt to go with Haggis. Neepies and Tatties were also provided as these are expected but it is the Haggis we are focusing,
Here are the details of our events and links to the events of some other event providers. Click through to book tickets. Tickets for our events will ONLY be on sale via The Whisky Shop Dufftown website and from the shop but nowhere else.
Balvenie Distillery
Balvenie are hosting a number of special events during the festival. Contact them direct on 01340 822061 to book your tickets.
Friday 28th September
2pm – 5pm Balvenie Visit: The Coopers' Craft (£50): Tour of Balvenie Maltings, Distillery, Warehouse 24 and 20cl bottling, Cooperage, nosing & tasting of 5 Balvenies from the range. Special focus on the Coopers’ craft – guests will be invited to build their own cask with our Coopers.
Saturday 29th September
10am – 1pm The Balvenie Visit (£25): Visiting Maltings, Distillery, & Warehouse 24. Nosing & Tasting 5 Balvenies from the range (including Tun 1401 batch 5).
2pm – 5pm The Balvenie Visit & Dessert pairings (£75) : Balvenie visit includes: Maltings, Distillery, Warehouse 24 & 20cl bottling, Nosing/tasting of 5 Balvenies from the range, and a pairing with 5 mouth watering desserts from our award winning Chefs!
Sunday 30th September
10am – 1pm and 2pm – 5pm Balvenie Visit - The art and craft of the Coppersmith (£50): Balvenie Coppersmith, Dennis McBain, will take guests through the Coppersmith story and his workshop. Visit includes: Maltings, Distillery, Warehouse 24 & 20cl bottling, Dennis McBain in his workshop, and Nosing/tasting of 5 Balvenies from the range.
Chivas Brothers
Aberlour, Glenlivet and Strathisla distilleries are putting on a range of exciting events. The additional tours and Connoisseur tours during this Festival weekend are:
The Glenlivet Distillery
Spirit of the Malt Tours at 13.00 on Friday 28th, Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th September.
Aberlour Distillery
Founder’s Tours at 10.30 on Wednesday 26th, Thursday 27th, Friday 28th and Saturday 29th September
Strathisla Distillery
Straight From The Cask at 12.30 on Friday 28th and Sunday 30th September
The Ultimate Chivas Experience at 12.30 on Saturday 29th September
Please contact each of the Visitor Centres DIRECT for information and to reserve your place.To find out more clickChivas Brothers.
Glenfarclas
28 September
Glenfarclas distillery will be running their Connoisseur's Tour on 28th September at 2pm (£20). This the tour for you if few like a more in-depth look at the distilling process. The host is Ian McWilliam who will be able to answer any of your questions. For more information and book tickets from Glenfarclas click here.
Glenlivet Hill Trek
Glenlivet Hill Trek will be running their amazing festival tours again this year. If you have not done one then get yourself booked on one for this festival.
The Smuggles Trail
This tour takes you along The Robbie McPherson smugglers trail for breath taking scenery and wild life. For more information click here.
The Dram Line
This is an exceptional and unique whisky tasting event along the Speyside Way taking in some great whisky bars along the way. For more information click here.
Keith Dufftown Railway
The Keith Dufftown Railway are running some special whisky trains during the festival. Different trains will allow you to visit Glenfiddich, Strathisla and Strathmill distilleries. For more information click here.
The Royal Oak
The Royal Oak is Dufftown's whisky pubs and is hosting a number of events during the festival.
Saturday 29th September 21:30 to 00:30 - Live scottish music from Reelers Rant (Free) and Hogroast (Various). Hog Roast, live music and plenty of drams at The Royal Oak Dufftown. Just turn up on the night and pay as you go along.
Monday 1st October 21:00 to 23:00 - Live scottish music (Free). Just turn up.
During the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival this year we ran a cafe & bar at the venue for our tastings. Not only did this serve much needed sustenance to festival guests but also helped us continue our experiments with food and whisky pairings. We looked at bacon rolls with 4 whiskies and Haggis with a different 4 whiskies. Guests were treated to the way the whisky and food combinations change the flavours of both, emphasising some flavours in the food and the whisky and also creating new ones!
We were delighted by the number of people who chose to take part and the fabulously positive response to our whisky and food tastings. Some guests had not done this kind of thing before and where blown away by the whisky and food experience.
Bacon
Brave breakfast festival guests were asked to sample a bacon roll with 4 different whiskies and faced with the challenge of choosing their favourite. The whiskies chosen by Mike Lord were all distillery bottlings: Cragganmore 12, Glen Elgin 12, Singleton of Dufftown 12 and Benromach 10. The bacon was unsmoked and guests were asked not add sauce – this is serious stuff. The clear winner was Cragganmore 12. This was a treat for those that tried the tasting and a great way to start the festival day.
Bacon Roll and a Dram
Cragganmore 12 Years Old
Haggis
During the lunch time period we switched our attention to Haggis, Neeps and Tatties. (For those of you wondering neeps are swedes and tatties are potatoes.) The focus was on pairing the Haggis with Clynelish 14 (as suggested by the Classic Malts website), An Cnoc 12, Aberlour 16 and Benriach 10. Whisky and Haggis is a particularly good combination with the spices in the Haggis working well with the whiskies. Again there was a clear favourite – Aberlour 16.
Aberlour 16 Years Old
Haggis, neeps and tatties
It’s Down to You
With each whisky and food combination there was not one pairing that some people did not vote for as their favourite. This shows again that there are no hard and fast rules with whisky and the only way to find your favourite is to try it for yourself.
Special Thanks
We would like to thank the Dufftown Lodge and their wives and friends for running the cafe and serving spectacular food during the festival. Particular thanks go to Yvonne Smart whose help, cooking and good humour were the backbone of the cafe operation.
Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2012
The Autumn Speyside Festival
For anyone coming to the Autumn Speyside Festival and wishing to attend our events at The WSD Autumn Festival 2012 then it is more than likely than tickets for our events will only be available from our website. There will be no change for the Spirit of Speyside Festival 2013.
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