Spirit Of Toronto

November 8, 2005 by
Filed under: Uncategorized 

Andy & I went to the Spirit Of Toronto on Saturday – absolutely the best fun in ages!

I have to start with a whine though: when the tickets say “doors open at 7:30pm”, how about opening the doors at 7:30pm? Not 10 minutes later … and we all know that you’re not going to add those 10 minutes to the closing time!

Anyway, we all filed in to Roy Thomson Hall, picked up our complimentary bag of magazines and a glass, and headed for the nearest serving table. Andy bumped into someone he knew from school and the three of us made our first stop at Highland Park. [Note: I will almost certainly edit this post to fix the names - you'll see why later]

I think we lost track of Andy’s friend almost immediately as we headed off for our second scotch – I think he met someone else and was still talking when we felt the draw of another tasty tipple.

Unfortunately I don’t remember the names of all the whiskies we tried [we're getting to why - hang on] but we met all sorts of interesting people, including the editor/bourbon-specialist of one of the magazines.

We got chatting to one of the sales reps for Arran (and a few others) and tried all three of their scotchs, including their “Robert Burns World Federation” single malts and a really nice 7 year old. Despite deciding which master classes we wanted to attend (with input from some of the people we met), we didn’t make it to any – I think we might have been too engrossed in tasting (although it would have helped if the organisers had announced they were starting!).

As well as scotch we tried some Irish whiskey (“Connemara” peated single malt), two Japanese whiskies (I don’t remember the name, but the 12 year old tasted just like an Islay – very peaty) and a Bourbon (Rebel Yell, as drunk by Keith Richards and Billy Idol apparently) which was very tasty.

We also revisited the “Glen Breton rare Canadian single malt” (from Nova Scotia) which we were promised had improved since we hated it at the food & wine show a few years ago … and it was almost as bad. (I know there are people who enjoy it and not other things I enjoy – it’s all about personal taste – but I would still pick Tangle Ridge as my top Canadian whisky.)

It’s a shame one of the people working at the Diageo table didn’t understand it’s about personal taste – Andy tried the Glen Ord and really didn’t like it, but the guy tried to tell him he was wrong and how great it is!

Pretty much our lost stop was for the Longmorn 25 year old, which definitely topped both our lists. (Yes, a Speyside ahead of all our beloved Islays!)

About this time we bumped into three people and got chatting; when we were told it was closing time we decided to head across the street to the Elephant & Castle. Unfortunately the service there was surly at best, and we were shephered out after just a couple of pints because they were closing. I think we took all of six steps before I realised I’d left my bag inside; I went back but the doors were locked and the lights were off already! (I called them the next day but they said it hadn’t been handed in, which is why I don’t have my notes to make sure the names above are right. On the other hand, at least all I lost was some tasting notes and a glass.)

The night was still young so we headed along King Street to [a pub whose name escapes me], where they’d already called last orders, so we ended up in the Fox & Fiddle … where I think we doubled the average age! Still, another pint (or two?) went down over more scotch-related chatter, and then we headed home. Apparently (ahem!) I made it home about 3:30am, whereupon I sat down to take my boots off … and woke up about two hours later! :)

All in all a really great night; lots of great stuff to try and interesting people to chat with. I’m sure we’ll be going again next year … but don’t tell anyone else about it because we don’t want it overcrowded like the Fort York beer festival has become.

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Comments

4 Comments on Spirit Of Toronto

  1. Paul, Kerri and The Boys » Blog Archive » Robbie Burns 2005 - only 10 months late! on Mon, 21st Nov 2005 5:38 pm

    2. [...] We also tried adding a few drops of water to each one, following the advice we’d be given at the recent Spirit of Toronto show, so I recorded my notes for each whisky both neat and with water. We were all surprised when the first few scotches really benefitted from the addition of the water, but we soon discovered that it wasn’t true across the board (especially for the Islays). [...]

  2. Paul, Kerri and The Boys » Blog Archive » Top 2 Tuesday (2006.04) on Wed, 1st Feb 2006 11:00 am

    3. [...] Longmorn, 25 year old (sampled at the Spirit of Toronto) [...]

  3. blog.henman.ca » Spirit of Toronto on Sat, 17th Mar 2007 10:44 am

    4. [...] & I have our tickets for the Spirit of Toronto – we went last year (well, November 2005) and it was really good fun. I think we’ll be joined by a couple of [...]

  4. blog.henman.ca » Spirit of Toronto on Thu, 17th May 2007 3:29 pm

    5. [...] Last year’s Spirit of Toronto (well, 18 months ago when the event was last held) was great fun, so we got our tickets as soon as they were released. [...]

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