I realized a while ago that this 5th edition of the Hielander Whisky Festival is also the fifth time I’m there. So so far I didn’t miss a single one. I think this is something to keep up.

This year, like two years ago I went there with my in laws. We spent our time drinking, eating and chatting to random people we happen to know. And some we don’t. A lot of friends were met, and a lot of drams were had. I only took wobbly pictures of the ones I bought, but since there was four of us we had quite a couple more.

Of the ones that are not in the pictures:

We tried the Glenmorangie 18 which is an awesome dram. I know I had it before and I knew it was good. Now I want a bottle. I love it when a distillery has an affordable 18 year old which also is great.

There were also more Kintra drams, which were good. I picked a young Tomatin which was a bit immature, but the 23 year old Blair Athol was nice.

Signatory bottled an 18 year old Clynelish at 56.4% for which the hunt it on. Most sites have already sold out but that was a great one.

I also got to try the Glen Moray 25 year old Port Cask, which I hope to review more in depth in a short while.

A slightly too young Tomatin

A very good Grain. I love this kind of stuff.

This didn’t do it for me. Quite the lack of flavor. Bummer

I knew I liked Armorik’s Millesime, this was just to prove a point. Great stuff.

I’m still not in love with this range of Balvenies

The wobblyness starts in full. This was an awesome dram. On the wishlist

This one used to be on my wishlist but got ditched after being there for a year or two. Good stuff though.

I think I had this before. Awesome dram. Really packs some flavor

A mix of casks from the 1990s. This Distillery Only was great.

My favorite of the afternoon. SOO much flavor. Checking auction sites now.

We had a steak and a beer afterwards, at a rather crappy restaurant. Good fun though

So the result of the festival is that I’m a couple tenners lighter. Also that my wishlist has grown significantly. Luckily, not many of the drams are really expensive. As in, I could even buy some of them. Which I might.

Thanks HK, MS and RS!

Oh, and the haggis was great again. I should also have gone back for the smoked salmon, but I decided to buy another dram instead. Both would have been a good idea at the time!