Whisky Live

My unwitting membership of the Distant Thunder Whisky Club (DTWC) continued yesterday with a visit to the Whisky Live Expo in Sydney.

The Expo was in the International Passenger Terminal for cruise ships located in Circular Quay. It's a building I've wanted to get inside to take a look around for a while. The fantastic view from the balcony of the Opera House, ferries coming and going, and an amazing red moon setting over Watson Bay helped make up for the soulless interior. The inside doesn't keep up to the promises of the sleek exterior.

On arrival everyone was given a tasting glass and vouchers for food, beer and most importantly whisky! At a guess there were around 18 stalls each representing one or more distilleries. In addition to Scottish whiskies there were Indian, Welsh, Japanese and Australian tipples on offer. Most of the stall holders spoke very knowledgeably about the whisky making process and the uniqueness of their own distillery.

The event was quite well run. Being the first year the distilleries were not quite sure how much whisky they would sell and some had run out of stock. Luckily the whisky supplies for tasting were not exhausted! The stalls were a bit uniform and unexciting. A bit more effort next year please!

I can't say that I am yet a convert to whisky, but I did sample 4 or 5 drams. This was a lot less than some of the other DTWC members who were definitely inebriated by the end of the evening! There was a chocolate stall doing whisky and chocolate matching which I thought was quite innovative.

The Secretary for DTWC, Clint, spent a solid two months drumming up support for a trip to the Expo between members, before realising he couldn't attend himself! (Something about a 60th birthday party in the family.) Throughout the evening we bombarded Clint with text messages letting him know what he was missing. I am sure he was quite annoyed with us by the end!

I am sure there will be reviews shortly being posted by other members on the DTWC site.