Toshan Man at Whisky Festival Ghent (Belgium)

On Saturday 11th February 2012, I visited the Whisky Festival in Ghent (Belgium), where I was able to sample some 35 whiskies from all over the world. Some of the finer drams I tried were the Redbreast 12 Year Old Cask Strength, Highland Park 22 Year Old from Sesante and Caol Ila 25 Year Old from Kintra, to name but a few.

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But the highlight came at the end of the show, when I again visited the booth from Morrison-Bowmore, manned by the sympathetic brand ambassador Gordon Dundas and the importer for Belgium Stephan De Bolle (who, incidentally, won the Brand Ambassador Award at the Belgian Whisky Awards 2012, congratulations!) where I tasted the Glen Garioch Founder’s Reserve, the Bowmore 25 and – last but not least – the Auchentoshan 40 Year Old 1965.

I could not believe my luck when, at the end of the day, Stephan offered me (after some nudging on my part, I admit) to buy the remainder of the bottle for my Toshan Man collection. I jumped at the chance without a second thought, when he (less reluctantly than I had feared) agreed.

I am very happy to be the owner of (albeit a half full) bottle of this wonderful whisky. Only 200 bottles of this great dram are in existence. They retail around 900 EUR, so you can imagine it is not the kind of bottle you purchase on a whim (if you can find it in the first place). Getting a half bottle, number 75/200, was a deal too good to be true. Well, not really, since I did get it.

Another great addition to the Toshan Man Collection.

Thank you, Stephan and Gordon, for making this whisky lover’s day!

Mark Dermul – Toshan Man
www.markdermul.be/toshanman