Liz and Paul of mcleanscotland attended the festival, here is the trip blog/story by Paul;
A Scots perspective view on the whisky festival.
We left a chilly Scotland on Wednesday 16 January, flew from Edinburgh to Heathrow (my advice, try and NOT travel via Heathrow, a nightmare!) from here to Calgary and on to Victoria – our travelling time including stop overs? Roughly 24 hours, tiring! We arrived tired out and exhausted at Victoria, we had Stan Willow waiting for us at the gate, what a relief and what a guy! Never met Stan before but he turned out to be a gem. He drove us to the Grand Pacific hotel, we checked in 9pm ish, thanked Stan and dumped luggage in the rooms, we then HAD to check out the hotel bar, och come on, we are Scots after all! A few drinks and bed beckoned.
THURSDAY; I woke up around 4am, couldnee sleep, still on Scottish time (8 hours different) so started unpacking and ironed some shirts! Met Mark Davidson from Edinburgh (the Jolly Topper) Oliver from Germany and Billy Abbott (The Whisky Exchange) at breakfast. A few other guys at breakfast, awaiting the trip to Shelter point, sadly I had to drop out of this trip (dam and double dam!). Top man Lawrence Graham appeared to say hello, it was he we were working with on the long lead up to this event. Liz appeared around 9ish to my amazement! We had a free day for a while, met a few people and dondered into town, where we found shops and, more importantly, the Bard & Banker Scottish pub, so we HAD to go in and see. A great bar with seriously good looking lassies working there, we had a couple of drinks, as you do, then our new pal Stan arrived and took us on a trip around the city, marinas, golf club and several places including his house, before calling in at Spinnakers for lunch and a beer. Good stuff. We had a dinner arranged tonight (Lawrence), the Canadian Whisky Awards, lots of people there and new friends made yet again – Highwood Distillers amongst them, many awards handed out but sadly no drams from the winners! Och well, we enjoyed some nice local wine. After the dinner; Adjourn to the bar, where more drinks consumed (bloody hell, the bar prices there are high!) and we met more folks, all too many to mention but must mention one, Grant Stevely from Dubh Glas distillery, another really nice guy. Cannee mind what time we went to bed? But it was another good day!
FRIDAY; much of a free day today, so went shopping again, guess what? We ended up at the Irish Times pub, well I am half Scottish half Irish! We both enjoyed lunch and drinks, I had a couple of pints of Kilkenny beer, superb, my mum is from there. More good lookin lassies there by the way. We returned to the hotel as we had a masterclass to attend that evening; Duncan Taylor. Peter did a great job and we had 6 drams, my own favourite the Black Bull 40 year old. Er, then back to the bar, becoming a habit eh! More people to meet, one too many for me, but that’s another story. Another great day ends.
SATURDAY; main day, I was down early (6am) checking out the room for our masterclass, all was ready and waiting for us. Liz came down 9ish and we set up the laptop to the projector, tested and did a trial run, fab! 10.30 friends arrived from further up the island coast, they have been on tour with us and again this year, they were to assist in our masterclass, more later. 11.15 we started our masterclass, Ranald from Cadenhead/Springbank took over for 15 minutes with 3 excellent drams, our thanks to pal Ranald for this, much appreciated. I then took over chatting about Scotland, showing photos and generally yappin on! I broke off to show an excellent short film of the 2012 Tiree music festival, a wee isle between Mull and Skye, this went down very well. Back to a wee bit of chatter then introduced Jack and Mike (locals) who told our class how good we were! I was very flattered and thankful we did well for them, you just cannee buy words like that, many thanks lads. Class over, a quick pack up and over to the hotel lobby. Can I just say, the festival staff are brilliant, they set the room up, poured all drams, stood guard for us and cleaned up at the end, flawless! Some questions and answers with guests, then relax with Mike, Susan, Jack and Lynn over lunch, we enjoyed all of that so far today! We pottered about checking out other masterclasses, poked our noses in to many rooms and chilled out. This evening started at 5pm for us, setting up at the table for the main tasting sessions, thanks again to Lawrence, we had a superb location for our stand, right next to the main hall entrance and food room! 6pm saw the VIP’s arrive, 7pm the general masses! It all went on until 10pm, we were kept busy talking about our tours all night, met many people, a few wasters but 99% interested parties looking to visit Scotland and Ireland with us on whisky tours. After many sample drams and great food, we took down the stand and dropped all back to the bedroom. Then ventured downstairs – where to? You know full well, the bar! More really nice people met here, in particular Del boy, most memorable! Drinks, drinks, until the bar closed!!! Liz opted for the pub with Del and a few others, I was worn oot and the legs giving way so stayed at the hotel. A long day.
SUNDAY; a sleep in, down at the breakfast room for 9am, nae sign of Liz. Sat about with Mark again until Liz arrived, Mark due out so we wandered aboot and did some shopping, ending up at the Empress hotel, where in the Bengal Lounge we had an afternoon (too long) of cocktails. A wee bit jolly, we headed back to our hotel to make ready for the farewell whisky dinner. This was an excellent night, great food, superb whisky and a great table of people to chat to. Met old and new friends tonight. Another good night.
SUMMARY; what a great event! It was hard to pull ourselves away to collect emails and actually do some work, but we did manage it. The whole organisation of the Victoria Whisky Festival was amazingly good, nothing too much trouble for anyone, the main guys superb; Lawrence, Stan, Iain, Glenn and many more – the names I have forgot, I am terrible with names, sorry to all I have missed. Everyone was superb, all the volunteers, every masterclass, dinner and tasting was run so well. The only poor item was the hotel closing the bar so early, but that is no due to any of the management of the festival. We were treated so well, looked after and cared for so well, we have attended many whisky festivals and by far, this one stands out a mile above the others. Our travel was long but I would do it again, I never knew there were so many Canadian whiskies! All that is left is to unpack and catch up with people, as I have promised to do. So – if you met us there I am pleased to have done so, please do drop me a line, I will answer everything. Thanks Canada!
What also made the Festival so different is that it is a non-profit event. All proceeds go to local charities, and of course lots of volunteers are involved. Another thing, the ‘no drink and drive’ policy is enforced strictly.
Paul McLean, owner mcleanscotland.com angelswhiskyclub.com Perth, Scotland
See http://www.timescolonist.com/life/around-town-at-whisky-fest-canada-s-high-spirited-secret-1.51248
