Potstill Festival Amersfoort, the Netherlands 4-6 October 2013

For the 11th time in a row, Dutch whisky drinks company Van Wees organised the Potstill Festival in Amersfoort, right in the heart of the Netherlands.
Just last June we celebrated the 50th anniversary of mr Han van Wees in the whisky business. You can read our blog about that event here.
Whiskytips was @ the Potstill do make a video report, as we did on two previous occasions.

Nice element in this festival is the combination of Scotch whisky, whisk(e)y from other countries, bourbon, rye and other distillates, like armagnac, calavados and jenever.
First year we went, we only concentrated on nosing and tasting whisky, which is basically a shame, because you're missing out on a lot of other nice flavours and experiences.

This year's edition also had a special limited festival bottling, a 10 YO Glenfarclas, that will become a collectable in the near future for sure. And if not, it's a great dram, we tried it.

Another nice aspect of the festival is the Treasure room. For €20 extra you get the chance to taste rare, often independent bottlings, that are long gone in most cases. What to think about a Rosebank of Macduff 1969? A good deal we think.

Meanwhile moviemaker Gwen Jansen was filming for her upcoming documentary "Nederland Whiskyland", that covers all aspects of the whisky scene in the Netherlands, with its festivals, clubs, restaurants, shops etc. It is a crowfunded documentary and everyone can particpate in this unique film. Just check www.nederlandwhiskyland.nl. (It's in Dutch, but Google will help)

Whiskywriter Robin Brilleman was there to sign his book. In the Netherlands law prohibits the sale of alcohol during events like these (how we envie our more liberal neighbour countries), but you can sell books, so luckily there was some money to be spent.

The Potstill Festival has good connections to some of the brands (not surprisingly also imported by Van Wees), which gives room to new introductions or at least the news about it.
This way we could learn that Arran will be releasing a limited Milennium Cask Bottling and Benromach will do another Sassicaia Finish soon. We can't wait!
Right after the afternoon session people rushed to the retail store of Van Wees in Amersfoort to get a bottle of whisky they just tasted.
A short impression can be found here.

Our winner of the festival was the Balmenach 1988 24 YO, cask 2794 bottled by Signatory at cask strength.
The bottle should retail for around €85-€90.
Our happiness was even greater when we found out that Van Wees have bottled a second cask of Balmenach, cask 2795 (also cask strength), for roughly the same price, in their own range, the Ultimate.
The warm flavours just keep popping up and you're used to winter time straight away.

Concluding remarks: great festival, lots of different drinks to be tasted, gives the opportunity to look beyond your whiskyfrontiers and sharpen yer tastebuds, not too big and commercial; let's hope it will stay that way. See you at the 12th edition next year and look out for the Wallace tartan.


©Whiskytips 2013