DuckDrams

With Germany being such a massive importer of Scotch Whisky, it would be strange if there wasn’t at least one massive whisky festival. And indeed there is. At least one. My friends Simon and Veronika put Limburg Whisky Fair on my radar, and offered that I could stay with them in Frankfurt so we could go together. I took them up on the offer, and braved myself for 7h of trains down from little Plön in the north. Somehow I made it to Frankfurt on the agreed time, but on a completely different set of trains than I had booked, improvising my way through the post-strike train chaos like a Deutsche Bahn ninja 🥷

Zoe and I got to know Simon and Veronika through whisky tastings, trips, and meadow hangouts in Edinburgh before and during the pandemic. The Big P robbed us of a shared Islay experience, but Zoe and I got to see Islay two weeks ago, and for S&V Limburg ’23 was the start to a two-week vacation whose main attraction is the peat-misted island.

Last time we met was for the Whisky Fringe 2022, which makes for a natural point of comparison.

Comparison to Whisky Fringe

Bigger🎪Spread across three floors and a tent. Dozens and dozens of vendors. Thousands and thousands of bottles. Meanwhile, Whisky Fringe takes place in the converted cathedral of Mansfield Traquair in Edinburgh – an inspiring place for noble spirits, and quite spacious including its annexes – but the not quite as big (nor labyrinthine) as the Limburg venue.

More expensive💸 The entry ticket and complementary nosing glass were only €12. But if you want to have any whisky (and presumably you do), you better bring the cash: exhibitors usually charged €3-15 per 2cl pour, but there were countless rarities much pricier than that. In contrast, the Whisky Fringe includes as many whisky samples as you can handle without overt overintoxication, all for just £40 which includes one special “half-time orange” dram, a nosing glass, and a £10 RMW store voucher. Amazing value that. With Limburg, whether you get value for your money will come down to luck and skill in choosing your drams. I ended up spending about €60 in total on drams that I had then and there aber sie haben mir sehr gut geschmeckt!

Longer ⏳The gates opened at 11.00 and the vendors started to gently close down just before 19.00 – so almost eight whisky-fuelled hours can be had. There is time to exit for an hour or two to have lunch, and still feel that one can visit and revisit the most interesting vendors. Whisky Fringe, with only four hours (and with queueing and shutdown preparation, not even that) has for me required more careful time management. I suppose the time has been limited so that people won’t get utterly pished on the free-flow whisky.

More retailers 🛒 Basically every little German specialty whisky shop I’ve ever browsed online was there. Alongside them, numerous importers and more or less obscure independent bottlers. In contrast, the stalls at the Whisky Fringe are mainly distilleries (or their owners) and some independent bottlers. In effect, there was a wider selection of bottles on offer in Limburg; but it was also relatively more disorganized and bewildering. In the end, there are more exclusive bottlings in Limburg (e.g. from closed distilleries, or old-age bottling), whereas Fringe gives a better opportunity to try distillery core ranges.

Some highlights

I broke my whisky celibacy with a secret 11yo Sutherland from an Italian indie bottler, Whiskyfacile, that I’d never heard of – it was indeed a slightly dirty Clynelish. This was in the first tent, and I hadn’t yet seen the size of the fair, but already the variety of bottles around me was staggering.

Next, I spotted Lindores Abbey that I had been wanting to try. I asked for the most tropical-fruit, bourbony version on offer, and got poured a Germany exclusive cask for a fiver. Needed a massive amount of water to temper it, but was then right up my alley.

Somewhere here I started to wonder if I had brought too few sample bottles, getting a fair few filled at Maltbarn indie bottler, including old Ben Nevis and Littlemill. Then I discovered other stalls selling pre-bottled samples. I combed through every such box I saw in search of bargains and I did find a fair few, like a 1978 Dallas Dhu. (See upcoming reviews over the next year…)

I made a friend, Uwe, who was looking for a dram of his own 1963 vintage, and found it in a Gordon & MacPhail bottling of Glenlivet for the princely sum of €40. My own vintage of 1993 makes me exactly half his age – a fun coincidence. He generously let me have a wee sip, and I could tell it was a subtle dram with stone fruit notes and fine spices.

I serendipitously spotted a vendor with two bottles of Dornoch selling at €8 a pour. Dornoch distillery is the new ultra-hyped one by the Thompson Bros. indie bottlers, with a very limited outturn and auction prices reaching £1000 for a 3yo 50cl bottling – bonkers! This was a rare chance to get to try it. And, although I would’ve preferred to be able to shut down the hype, I must say the whisky was fantastic. Certainly has unique character, and rarely if ever have I tried something so good at the young age. Ironically, a little further along I found the actual stall for Thompson Bros. and Dornoch and has a wee chat.

For sure the best-value drams I found were at Adelphi’s (or their importer’s) stall, often with just a €3 price tag. Had some lovely Linkwood and Benrinnes.

On the lower level I found new premium indie bottler Spheric sprits. I have a cognac bottle by them, and have been eyeing their whisky online, but it’s simply too expensive. Here I had the chance to try some of the 1996 Ben Nevis (very Ben Nevisy) and filled a couple of sample bottles with 1999 Mortlach and a 1978 blended malt (this one retails for almost €900 a bottle!).

Towards the end of the day I spotted a familiar face – Bryan, a Hongkong trader who we had met in the Islay hostel just the week before. He poured me some nice Japanese whisky I’d never heard of, and we swapped details.

Final impression

What a day! I signed up for the fair without too many expectations, so to find this beast of a whisky feast was a pleasant surprise.

I think both Whisky Fringe and Limburg have their niches, so rather than choosing one over the other – I’d go to both! For the experience on the fair floor, Fringe might have the upper hand with all the free samples, stalls logically organized by brand and distillery, and the climactic experience of the orange dram. At WF it is easy to take a chance with something new. It costs you nothing, and spittoons are everywhere. In Limburg, paying by the dram made me less prone to try something outside my usual preferences. As you can see below, I mostly had bourbon cask Speysiders or Highlanders (my kind of thing)! And once I have somthing delicious in my glass, that I paid for, I’m loathe to toss it out, even though to sample many things you should drink lesser quantities. But a substantial point in Limburg’s favour is being able to leave with sample bottles – as many as you can carry and afford! So my Limburg experience has only just began. And to really try a whisky, requires more calm, attention, and less saturated tastebuds than you’ll have at the fair floor. Given where I am in my whisky journey, an my ambitions with this blog, I am more excited about the next Limburg fair than the whisky fringe.

Dram tally

All in all I spent about €60 on these (plus €12 on the ticket)

• Clynelish 11yo – Whiskyfacile
• Lindored Germany exclusive cask
• Dornoch 4yo
• Linkwood 14 – Adelphi
• Ben Nevis 26yo – Spheric spirits
• Glen Keith 20yo – Signatory
• Armagnac 48yo – Liquid treasures
• Cognac 28yo – Rare Find
• Wakatsuru Saburomaru 3yo
• Tamdhu 20yo – Valinch & Malet
• Tamdhu 18yo – Rare Find
• Benrinnes – Adelphi
• Glenlossie 25yo – Valinch & Malet

---

A little bonus picture: Simon and Veronika walking in Edinburgh. Thanks for a great weekend, guys!