Special to Newsweek

Nov. 13, 2006

Dave Gonano loves to drink whiskey and talk whiskey. He has traveled several times from his hometown of Baldwin, Md., to Kentucky for bourbon festivals and distillery tours, chatting up whiskey makers and collected some 300 bottles along the way. On a recent Monday night he could be found in the middle of a crowded Manhattan hotel ballroom having a very good time, enough fun to justify a three-hour train ride and a $145 entry fee. Gonano was drinking a smooth, rich and spicy rye whiskey-21-year-old Rittenhouse-with the man who made it, Parker Beam, the second-generation master distiller at Kentucky's Heaven Hill Distillery. Beam is a member of the first family of American distilling, but he has nothing to do with the company that makes Jim Beam bourbon, whose master distiller is now a man named Dalton. "I like to tell people," Parker Beam joked with a thick-as-molasses drawl, "that every bottle of whiskey from Heaven Hill has been made by a Beam, and that's more than you can say about Jim Beam."

Gonano and about 2,500 other booze lovers jammed long tables on the fifth floor of the Marriott Marquis for the ninth annual WhiskyFest New York, holding out small glasses shaped like hurricane lampshades for short shots of whiskey from the U.S. and Ireland and wee samples of whisky from Scotland, Japan and Canada. (American and Irish distillers generally spell the word with the "e," while Scottish, Canadian and Japanese producers usually don't.) Some hopped from one table to another to get their money’s worth-about 1,800 of them paid $105 for the 3½ hour event, while another 600 or so put up $40 more to get an extra hour-but others took their time and chatted as much as sipped. The crowd, like the typical buyer of these top-shelf brown spirits, was mostly white and mostly male, although there seemed to be more women at this year’s Fest. "I think we caught the wave of increased interest in whiskey nine years ago," says John Hansell, editor of Malt Advocate magazine and the man who, with his wife, Amy Westlake, produces the WhiskyFests. "People are drinking less, but they're drinking better."

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WhiskyFest. Sometimes it is best to break down a word in order to discover its true meaning and impact. Whisky- a beautiful, brown elixir made from distilling the product of fermented grain nectar and then aged gently in wood casks for years and sometimes decades. Fest- commonly short for ‘festival’ that denotes a periodic commemoration, anniversary, or celebration. When combined you get a word that can only be defined as a celebration of Whisky, its brands, people, and culture. Now that the meaning is clear I have just two words to add: "I’m in".

The drinks business, like most any other, puts on its share of exhibitions and shows. Granted, by nature, drinks business shows hold more hedonistic pleasure than your typical convention of actuaries and landscapers. With that said, it is a business and while at work we all have our hurdles to cross. For us in the drinks biz attending these various shows is often more than pleasure. The pure repetition of format, attendees, and simply the atmosphere create a "Groundhog Day" sensation. I know that I’m not earning any sympathy points at the moment (and in truth sympathy isn’t warranted). Besides, what kid doesn’t like going to the circus? Except, of course, if you drag the kid to the same circus each week for years on end. At one point he’ll turn to you and say, "I get it; the car is far too small for all of those clowns to be inside. Can we go now?" Fortunately, the universe provides the odd exception to the rule, and in the cosmos of drinks biz shows, the sparkling exception is WhiskyFest.

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March 22, 2007

Chicago Tribune - Chicago, Ill.

By Ross Werland

If there is a prime season for whiskey in Chicago, we're smack in the middle of it, between the visitations of whiskey wizards around St. Patrick's Day to the outright invasion by the high priests of the spirit for that mega-tasting, WhiskyFest, on April 13.

For anyone who has ever considered mining this liquid gold, now is the time to start digging it.

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By Elaine Richardson

Like a bazaar gone wonderfully wrong, the grand ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Chicago bustles with activity as hundreds of people stroll from booth to booth, coming away not with trinkets, but with a nosing glass full of... whiskey.

From 30-year-old Glenfiddich to signature red-waxed glasses of Maker's Mark, the room is awash with the liquid results of malted and distilled grains--around seventy brands in all--each available at request to the more than 700 folks who've ponied up $65 to attend Malt Advocate magazine's WhiskyFest Chicago. But even early in the evening, the prospect of three-and-a-half hours of unfettered whiskey sampling take their toll: "I have to eat," one woman moans to her companion, as they head off toward strategically placed, carb-laden tables, looking for something to soak up the booze. Of course, many are simply tasting--smell, sip, toss. "That just seems silly," exclaims a jovial fellow between the Chivas and Wild Turkey tables as he downs a liberal portion. "Why the hell would I want to throw away good whiskey." Good point.

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Written by Edward F. Nesta

How would you like to spend an evening with more than 250 of the world’s finest, rarest, and most expensive international whiskies to taste?

In addition, there were Master Blenders discussing the nuances of their product, as well as great food, a great venue, and gorgeous women pouring a wee dram or two for you. There was that and more at WhiskyFest.

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Sunday, April 02, 2006

Theresa Carter, The Local Tourist

I'd given my liver a break since St. Patrick's Day and I decided last week it was time to test it again. Being the glutton for punishment that I am, WhiskyFest was the perfect opportunity. (Side note: in my research I found that St. Patrick - besides bringing Christianity to Ireland - also introduced distilling to the isle, which was then brought to Scotland. No wonder I've always felt a fondness for the old cleric.)

WhiskyFest is Malt Advocate's annual celebration of Scotch Whisky, which is from Scotland, and Whiskey, which is from everywhere else. Just like you can't get Champagne from anywhere but the Champagne region of France, you can't get Scotch Whisky from anywhere but Scotland. You can get Whisky from Canada, but you get Whiskey from Ireland and the US. (For simplicity's sake I'm just going to call it whiskey from here on out.) As an example of how highly this beverage is regarded in Scotland, the name comes from the Gaelic word for "Water of Life."

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