Whisky and More 04-05 October 2024, Geneva, Switzerland

https://whiskyandmore.ch/

For the photo gallery, click here

Just back from the Whisky Live Paris, I noticed that the Whisky and More was taking place this week end. With no obligations on Saturday, I took the train to Geneva to attend to that event.

The event was located at Palexpo, the Convention centre close to the airport

My first stop was at Whisky Time to have a chat with Franco, the organizer of the show  while tasting the new releases from Ardbeg, starting with a very elegant and new Ardbeg 17 YO, an elegant, rather subtle Ardbeg, with a light influence from the cask and a very nice, complex and elegant peat smoke, with some iodine, sea shell and tar. Well balanced and very good. Somewhat surprisingly, the 17 YO is markedly more expensive than the 19 YO.
I tasted then the Ardbeg 23 YO Vintage 2002 with its fancy and modern packaging. The whisky was rather peaty, with lots of liquorice, burnt wood, ashes and some maritime and medicinal flavours, suggesting a substantial amount of heavily charred casks. Not so much to my liking.

A very nice selection of Ardbeg at Whisky Time

I moved then to Maltage, a Swiss distillery located in the canton of Geneva, who is producing for some years a local whisky. The production is very confidential with only 20 casks filled last year. Until last year, the whisky was produced in a Holstein still and since 2022, produced in a spirit still manufactured in Portugal, like the craft distillery of Dornoch in Scotland. They are using locally produced barley and using brewing yeast instead of distillers years. Over the years, they have changed of the type of yeast, as the yield was about a quarter of a typical Scottish distillery, and used the spent yeast, to incubate the new mash. All their whiskies are bottled at cask strength and retailing for 129 CHF, which just covers the high production costs linked to locally source product. I started the tasting with the 2009 matured in a combination of Satigny wine casks, ex-Vin Jaune and ex-bourbon bloodtub. The result is a very nice fruity whisky, well matured, with a good complexity, nice creamy malty flavours and some yellow and orchards fruits. Not only the whisky is matured, but the influence from the various casks is very harmonious and balanced. Really nice and the long maturation (close to 1 week) provide a smooth product.  The 2017 vintage inaugural release was matured initially in ex-1993 Lagavulin cask, before being transferred successively in ex-Satigny vin jaune and ex-bourbon bloodtub. The whisky starts more on dough and very light maritime peat smoke and sea salt, before sweeter fruity flavours emerge (mainly peach, some apricots and Mirabelle), with some vanilla as well. The peat smoke is much lighter than any ex-peated cask I tried. The whisky is rather complex and I enjoyed much the transition from the initial peat cask influence before moving to the sweeter flavour from the vin jaune. As for the first Maltage, the influence of the cask is well-integrated and balanced, without taking over. Also, even if small casks have been used, there is no roughness or oaky flavours released. The version in Fine de Merlot was a more challenging one as it started on slightly oaky flavours before moving to more winey -sugary flavours (cooked wine). Finally, I tasted the ex-sherry cask Inaugural release, with an excellent sweet sherry influence, on chocolate, leather, fudge, nice malty flavours, red berries, some orange and cinnamon. Very good! I really enjoyed these well-crafted whiskies, well balanced, smooth showing a remarkable maturity, probably due to combination of yeast types, control of cask maturation and long maturation.

The stand of the Maltage, a craft distillery located in the canton of Geneva in Switzerland

I enjoyed very much tasting these whiskies with long time whisky friends, but after realizing that I spent more than 2.5 hours already at the show, it was time trying to make some progress.

So, I decided to make a quick tour of the stands, before I got stuck at the Whisky Bibliothek / Worldofwhisky stand, where plenty of new releases for the 25th Anniversary of World of whisky am Waldhaus am See. The Glencadam 2011 was nicely fruity and fresh, with the dirty malt and hops flavours that are typical from that this distillery, with some green orchards fruits, vanilla and light aromas of apricots, quince and Mirabelle. Nice and fresh.  The Glenlossie 2009 was another light and fresh whisky, with a mixture of light floral and malty flavours, combined with some green apples and light notes of exotic fruits. The Morlach 2008 was very good, with nice spicy flavours, intense, floral, rather rich, with various spices, some vanilla and yellow fruits. The Speyside 2005 M(acallan) was floral, rich, spicy, but also drier and more on tannins than the two previous releases for Waldhaus am See. The best value whisky for the show was probably a Secret Orkney (Highland Park) 14 YO cask strength from Signatory for only 59 CHF!! Not only the value was there but the mixture of first fill sherry and bourbon casks gave a nice complexity and intensity to the whisky, with some toffee, leather, orange peel and some honey. Finally, I tasted the new bottling for  Whisky Bibliothek, a 16 Bunnahahbain from Signatory, with nice light maritime flavours, and a lovely rich sherry, on leather, dark fruits, chocolate and sea salty. Very nice, without any off notes.

Most of the 25th Anniversary selection for world of whisky am Waldhaus am See, as well as some of the bottlings for whisky-bibliothek.ch

My final dram at the show was a Glenfarclas 2014 The Independence for Switzerland, a very fruity expression of Glenfarclas, mainly on orange, fudge and Mirabelle, with nice round spices and floral flavours.

A nice selection of Glenfarclas, as well as the Swiss edition

As the time was running late and I had a long ride home, it was time to leave.

Still recovering from the whisky live, I could not taste as many whiskies as I could and visited only a handful of stands (as you can see from the photo gallery), it was nice meeting and talking to whisky enthusiasts from the Romandie and thank you Fabrice and Nicolas for the “other” drams as well.

The show was spacious, and it was easy to move through the stand. There was also a sitting  area to relax.  A very nice and relax show, with a large amount of whiskies, but I wished there was spittoons at the stands.

Slainte,
Patrick, 05 October 2024