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Swiss whisky Festival, Baden 30-31 Oct 2026
https://whisky-festival.ch/

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Note: Most of the whiskies mentioned here will be tasted again in normal conditions. The tasting notes provided here were my first impressions.

As every year, the Autumn-Winter season starts with the Swiss Whisky Festival in Baden, Switzerland, located conveniently at 5 min walking minutes from the train station.
My first stop was at Lateltin to try the new Springbank 21 YO, a very nice, mellow and complex whisky, with notes of coconut, seabrine, some dried fruits and exotic fruits, with a dash of smoke and sea salt.  Very good and well balanced. They also had the new Springbank 31 YO, unfortunately, it was not available for tasting.
The selection of Springbank at Lateltin

Moving to Awico Trading. I tried the 3 new expressions from The Whisky Chamber, starting with a round expression of Annandale 10 YO, moderately spicy, on notes of toffee, treacle and some dried fruits, with a mild influence from the oloroso cask. I tasted then the 2022 Kirkinner, a heavily peated expression of Bladnoch, a very intense, peaty and tarry whisky, remarkably complex, slightly earthy, with a nice aromatic peat smoke and light floral and fruity flavours, giving more roundness than most peated Islay whiskies. A very good surprise, tasting remarkably mature. So don’t look at the age statement; just taste it. The third one was a very peated Pellach, very intense, rather dry Ledaig, on dry maritime peat smoke, some iodine, with light winey and dried fruits. The influence of the Port cask was rather mild and gave a nice roundness to the whole.

The new bottlings from The Whisky Chamber at Awico Trading

The next stand was at Whisky Bibliothek, where a huge selection of new Decadent Drinks were available.

Half of the selection of the new Decadent Drinks at Whisky Bibliothek

I started with the Bladnoch 35 YO, which might have been the favourite whisky from the evening,  very complex, rather intense and powerful, with soft spices, melon, various ripe yellow fruits, a lovely rich and pleasant mouthfeel, without any woodiness or dryness, with various rich and complex fruity flavours and a dash of honey and grassy flavours. Delicious. The Gone Grant 30 YO Chapter 38 (not to be confused with the Gone Grant chapter 18) was a very mellow Caperdonich, rather austere and moderately aromatic, slightly resinous. A good whisky that has unfortunately passed its prime. The new Clynelish 10 YO from their Equinoxe range was a lovely waxy, light and citrussy Clynelish, easy drinking . The Candlekitty is an older Clynelish (16 YO), more round, with some Yuzu, but also heavier than the 10 YO. A good version, but less playful than the 10 YO.

The Dufftown 34 YO was a lovely fresh whisky, elegant, with lovely ripe fruits, hay, straw and light elegant floral flavours. It is rare to find such old expressions from that lesser-known distillery and I appreciate the mixture of elegance and lightness in this whisky, combined with a good complexity, with very little wood influence. A tour de force.
The Sideburn 33 YO is a blended malt by definition, as it a single malt from Balvenie with a tea spoon of Glenfiffich to prevent the use of the name Balvenie on the label. The whisky was mellow, rich, fruity, with round barley flavours, honey, some sultanas, dried fruits and exotic fruits. Very complex and well-made. The Ben Nevis 27 YO delivered what you expect from a 1998 Ben Nevis, very fruity, on exotic fruits, rich grassy flavours, some melon, vanilla, and a touch of honey and spices. Very good. The Old Raasay 8 YO was a nice and spicy expression of that distillery, with rich spices, juniper berries, oak spices, light aromatic flavours and some seabrine. The  Old Orkney 8 YO is a very dry, peaty and aromatic expression of Torahbaig, with some sea brine, dry peat smoke, tar, sea brine and a touch of pepper. Very good.

Some other bottlings from Decadent Drinks at Whisky Bibliothek

The 17 YO Inchgower from the Megaflora & Megafauna series was nicely complex, rich, slightly yeasty and salty, with vanilla, a touch of coconut and light floral flavours. Very elegant and pleasant to drink. The Tadmhu 19 YO was very round, floral, rather yeasty and rubbery, with mild flavours of fresh rubber and spices, as well as orange and tangerine.  The Tullibardine 21 YO was more to my liking,  heavily sherried, with lots of roasted coffee, tannins, lacquer, cloves, and cardamom, with a very light touch of rubber. A very good whisky from an excellent sherry cask. I also tasted the two Decadent Drinks bottled exclusively for Whisky Bibliothek, a very good, aromatic, peaty and dirty complex Ardmore 26 YO, with light aromatic, dried fruits and spices. The Mannochmore was round, floral, with a light round and sweet sherry influence, on sultanas, orange and light floral flavours.

The selection of Asian whiskes at Charles Hofer

Moving to Charles Hofer, I tasted my first Chinese single malt, the Goalong small batch was sweet, fruity, rich, grassy, with honey and sweet juicy, fruity flavours. A good whisky. The Hinotori single malt is a nice young heavily peated, dry, tarry, slightly aromatic whisky, with dry tarry peat smoke. A promising whisky.

Some of the Claxton's at Glenfahrn

At Glenfahrn, I tasted 3 single malts from Claxton’s bottled for Glenfahrn, a very intense and peated whisky, rather aromatic, with notes of sultanas, figs, orange and some red berries. Very good and pleasant to drink.  My last whisky from the evening was the 14 YO Isle of Jura from Claxton, a lovely, lightly peated Isle of Jura, with a nice round peat smoke, rather aromatic, with nice malty flavours, a touch of sea brine, some vanilla and dried fruits.  A really enjoyable whisky, in the style of the old Jura Prophecy, but more complex. Very good.
The attendance was markedly higher than the previous years, althought the number of stands was rather limited. The selection of whiskies was however, very large, in terms of geographical regions,  age, and prices. There was plenty of water and a spitoon available; the hall was well heated and it was easy to move around the stands and places to sit. The restaurant was adjacent to the hall, but prices were rather hefty.
I unfortunately decided to eat near the Trafo, and the service was desperately slow, so it took me almost 2 hours to be served, hence limiting markedly the number of stands that I could visit.

Patrick, 31 Oct 2026