Whisky Fest ’09

I don’t get out much these days (though this month certainly seems like an exception to that rule) but that doesn’t mean I don’t maintain a couple of innocuous vices. I like to take a drink in the evenings, and since I live so far away from my favorite darkned bar, and because I’m trying to avoid the empty calories of beer (admittedly, with mixed results; getting older is a bitch like that), I find myself gravitating more and more to whiskey. I’ve been a whiskey drinker for years, and in that time I’ve pretty much always stuck with Jameson because it tastes good and it’s affordable. In the last five years or so, however, I’ve started to really dig into the various types of hooch that represent the whiskey (or “whisky” without the “e” if you’re Scottish, Canadian or Japanese) family.

In my whiskey travels I’ve found that I don’t care for Rye in general, nor do I like whiskeys that deliver a big, overly powerful hit of peat flavor. I like clean, smooth blends, single malts and single casks, mostly older Scotch and Irish whiskies, and refined Southern American bourbons. But those are just generalities. I’m always experimenting, and I’m often surprised by whiskey that I didn’t expected to like. Despite my interest in whiskey, however, I’m still very much a novice, and obviously still learning about the variety, depth and breadth of the product and the culture that surrounds it.

Which is why I enjoy attending WhiskyFest in San Francisco. This three-year-old event is one of two annual whiskey-themed events in the city, and it is by far the superior of the two (I attended the other, the Whiskies Of the World Expo, the first time it was held, and was not impressed with the setup, the distilleries on hand, or the clientele…though I will say that they killed it on the food element). I was at the first annual Whisky Fest and had a blast; I skipped the second one and really regretted it; and last Friday, October 16, I attended the third Whisky Fest with a couple of friends, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Here’s a little photo recap of the action (you can see the whole set in all its full-sized glory over at Flickr)…