A wee story by Paul McLean, of MCLEANSCOTLAND & ANGELS WHISKY CLUB on his journey to Finland, for the Helsinki Uisge whisky festival 2014.
I left Scotland at 5.30 Wednesday morning from Aberdeen airport, flying to Frankfurt – if you can help it, do not ever fly there! The airport is so large and so much walking, stairs up and down between gates for connecting flights, you do not get enough time to get from a to b! Crowds of people fighting to get into a lift, to save them walking 3 flights of stairs! A nightmare, compounded by some German travellers who were really rude and pushing into lines awaiting check in, I almost had an argument with one rude pusher – inn! Never again will I use Frankfurt! – having all of 15 minutes to get to another part of the airport for my flight to Helsinki. I must also state the refreshments on Lufthanasa are shocking. A two hour flight; we were given a stale, hard piece of pizza on crisp bread (that you could crack a window with) and a drink. Goodbye Lufthanasa! On my return flight we had a sandwich, one round of bread cut in two with cheese salad. Anyhow, I arrived into Helsinki, much better airport, to find my friend Mika waiting for me. A taxi into the city took half an hour and I checked into the hotel, before sharing a drink or two in the Irish pub next door. Molly Malone’s pub, I ordered two pints of Kilkenny beer, shock horror – it was a Scouser (Liverpool) behind the bar! Good lad so he was. But – 15 euros for 2 pints!!! That evening I met up again with Mika, who took me along to a pre planned whisky tasting event. It was a tasting of 8 drams, all winners in their festival event, some faces I knew, well attended, from tours to Scotland. Also there Ingvar Ronde, editor of the Malt Whisky Yearbook, first time we had met, he was a good guy, we got on famously! A good night, the surprise of the night; Famous Grouse naked, won the blend! The Naked Grouse is a blended Scotch whisky matured in the very best first fill sherry casks. The label was removed from the bottle with the grouse left subtly embossed into the bottle to allow the naked stock to speak for itself.
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Day 2; Thursday the festival starts. I was there early with Ingvar (we shared a table) to set up our stand, we arrived at 1.30, plenty of time to set up and donder around seeing who else was there … och I knew a few people, the first I spotted was Stewart Buchanan of BenRiach, I know Stewart from years ago, a good Muilach (person from the Isle of Mull) presenting drams from Glenglassaugh, BenRiach and GlenDronach, I did partake! Lots of others there I said hello to, before the “gates opened” at 3pm. Saying that, at 2pm VIP and media came in. Ending at 10.30 it was a busy day! Back to the hotel, a chat re a forthcoming tour with Ingvar and then away to ma bed! The feet were happy to do this.
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Day 3; Friday – the busiest day of the festival, it was packed out, from 3pm to 10.30 rushed off our feet, so many questions, so many faces, people I did not know, some I did from past tours, some fun with them at least broke the hard work! Plenty of sampling took place, we were given a 15 year old Tobermory for our table, we had to “sell” drams for vouchers, I must admit, 3 euros for a 1cl dram seemed a lot to me, but – maybe we sold half a bottle? Thing was, anyone could get the same dram on the Interbrands stand at the same cost. The whisky is matured in Gonzalez Byass Oloroso sherry casks and the casks mature on the mainland before travelling back to Mull for the final year before bottling. It was a long day broken by some ventures out into the fray, Ingvar and I took turns to wander about, we also had help on the stand from the people next door; Malt Whisky Association of Finland, a big thanks to them. At the end of the Friday, stand came down and I headed back to Mika’s house for the next 3 nights. Very good of him! With so many brands and stands, including rum, there were many people I made new contacts with, too numerous to mention and it would not be right as some were better contacts than others.
Teerenpeli Distillery, Finland. Produce a couple of single malts, I brought a very good sherry finish home (or should I say a sherry Finnish?), a 10 year old single ex bourbon @ 58.5% living cask. www.taivaanranta.com/teerenpeli_tislaamo They also produce good beer! Tried it! Teerenpeli means “mating game” so I was told. I also tried the Swedish whisky; Mackmyra – it would start with a “mac” eh! They focus on care, craftsmanship looking beyond the traditional approach, another good dram I tried. Mackmyra Whisky is the new generation of Swedish whisky, made using Swedish ingredients without additives. Small casks of 30 and 100 litres create an intense maturation while the Swedish oak contributes prominent spice as we store whisky in a constant temperature, 50 meters deep into the ground in the Bodås mine.
Many others were good Scots and Irish drams, a Japanese and some others lost in my mind! Some highlights; Weymss whole range, Bowmore Devils dram was excellent, they ran out! Being an Angel myself; I just had to try it! The Devil himself once visited Islay and hid in a Bowmore church. But, because the Devil is silly, he hid in a round church which had “no corner for the Devil to hide in”. He was chased out and ran to the Bowmore distillery where he hid inside a barrel on its way to the mainland. So now his spirit haunts the spirit in this bottling! Tasting of Christmas cakes. Warm dark fruits and chocolate. We take tours to Islay of course, including the kirk. Jamesons, the lovely Caroline gave me a dram or three, I do like Irish whiskey – and the coleen’s. Kilbeggan was also sampled (a large one). The Highland Park Freya was making its world debut at the show, it was a really nice dram, but I think a wee bit costly. Martin was kind enough to come over with a slug of it for me to try. By the way, the food was very good at the event. Valhalla Collection, the latest edition has now arrived – Highland Park Freya. After Thor and Loki, the folks at Highland Park decided a softer approach with Freya. Highland Park refer to her as ‘The Fair One’, and look to the aspects of her character focused on love and wisdom. She’s also a war goddess who rode out to battle to choose half of the warrior dead to join her in the afterlife of Fólkvangr rather than Odin’s Valhalla. Highland Park have focused on her feather cloak, said in some texts to be the cause of the Northern Lights, the Aurora Borealis. So, what will be the final dram? Valhalla itself? Odin??? Who knows?
I returned home to Scotland on the Monday. But before I left I shared a few days out with Mika and Anders, seeing more of Helsinki and surrounding areas, many thanks to both of them.
Summary of Helsinki whisky festival; It proved expensive for a poor Scot, prices are high for everything. I saw many weird and wonderful facial hair styles in Helsinki, Charlie Maclean would have been proud of them! Plaited beards, weird handlebar tashes, if I go again I would choose summer, even the water surrounding Helsinki was frozen! Ma poor feet took a battering, it would be nice to see more world whiskies there next year. All credit to Mika for organising this event, it went smoothly and very well. I would recommend anyone to attend.
Paul McLean; www.mcleanscotland.com www.angelswhiskyclub.com
