Whisky Fringe Edinburgh Friday 5th, Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th August, 2011 – Scotch Whisky News
Dates: Friday 5th, Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th August, 2011.
Times: Friday 3 – 7pm, Saturday & Sunday 2 – 6pm
Venue: Mansfield Traquair church, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh, EH3 6BB
http://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/viewindex.asp?article_id=WF_11
This year is the 10th Anniversary of Royal Mile Whiskies, Whisky Fringe.
From humble beginnings in Edinburgh City Council Chambers Rooms, just down the road from our shop on the Royal Mile, Whisky Fringe has grown into a successful, highly regarded and relaxed celebration of whisky.
Apart from the venue, little has changed over the years in terms of the set up. As with most things in life, a policy of keeping everything as simple as possible, letting the whiskies do the talking, has seen the event attain a respected word of mouth reputation. Tickets always sell out fast and as with any popular show, some people will unfortunately miss out. However having been based in such a tremendous venue as the Mansfield Traquair for the past 6 years, it is difficult to think of moving to an alternative nondescript larger venue. We would be extremely hard pressed to top the stunning setting of this beautifully restored former church.
With this partly in mind, we have extended the event this year to include the Friday afternoon for the first time. This will be a combined on-trade and general public day, allowing exhibitors to promote their brands to an even wider audience of both trade customers, in addition to actual consumers. The product focus will also be broader, with more than just whisky being available to sample. Other high quality spirits such as gin, rum, mezcal, tequila, and vodka, as well as some wines and beers, will all be on show for the Friday only. Saturday and Sunday will revert to the tried and tested format and the focus will return primarily to whisky.
Each year approximately 26 stands are taken by a huge variety of whisky producers and independent bottlers. These range from the big drink companies such as Diageo, Pernod Ricard and Moet Hennessey, to the more compact distillery companies such as Benriach/GlenDronach, Auchentoshan/Bowmore/Glen Garioch and An Cnoc/Balblair/Old Pulteney, right down to the most recent and newly established small scale operations such as Kilchoman. In addition Independent bottlers such as Adelphi, Compass Box, Douglas Laing, Duncan Taylor, Gordon & MacPhail create a lot of interest amongst the attending whisky enthusiasts. On average well over 200 whiskies are available to sample each day, including an exclusive one off ‘Half Time Orange’ dram! (exhibitors bring a bottle of something extra special and attendees can choose one of these exclusive drams to sample at the designated ‘half time’midway point of the day).
All attendees are also encouraged to vote for ‘The Spirit of Whisky Fringe’. This is an annual award given to the most popular spirit over the three days as voted for by all visitors. The winning spirit is then crowned ‘The Spirit of Whisky Fringe’ and is placed on display in the trophy silver coaster on display in Edinburgh shop until the following year.
A Few Quotes:-
Exhibitor quote: “We really enjoyed being involved and would love to be back again next year. It really is brilliant to see so many whisky enthusiasts in the one place, all of them on their best behaviour as well.”
Martin Grant 2009 (Moet Hennessey – Ardbeg & Glenmorangie Whiskies)
Blogger quote: “…still setting the standard by which all UK Shows are judged”. Ralfy Mitchell 2010 (Whisky Blogger extraordinaire! www.ralfy.com)
Punter quote: “I still wouldn’t miss it for the world!! (Shame it’s my wedding anniversary on the 16th…still, she’ll understand!!!)” Mark Appleton 2009 (frequent Whisky Fringe goer and still happily married!)
