Dramfest 2023 Archives - Rant And Whisky

Event Overview

A very happy, well-oiled crowd.

That was Dramfest 2023, New Zealand’s largest whisky event.

NZ whisky enthusiasts have been waiting for three years to get back to Dramfest. The last festival, in 2020, took place on the weekend before NZ’s first Covid lock-down, when Dave Broom got “kept in” in NZ and had to receive care packages of whisky to keep him going!.

And then came Dramfest 2022. Sort of.

We had all our entry tickets sorted. Airfares and beds were booked, and we were eagerly awaiting the exciting range of Dramfest Sessions to come up for grabs.

Then, just as the starting gun was about to fire, the rug was brutally snatched from under our collective feet by yet another bloody lock-down!

It all seemed a diabolical plot, like someone telling a 5-year-old that Santa Claus doesn’t exist!

Patience gets its Reward, though: Dramfest 2023 (2022.5?). And it has been well worth waiting for!

Putting whisky aside for a moment (just a moment), what a magnificent venue Christchurch’s new Te Pae Convention Centre is.

And the Whisky Galore team added a mouth-watering 68 stands, with over 70 brands of whisky and rum on offer this year. Happiness and smiles all around.

My very rough count of this year’s assembly was 324 drams available to sample, plus those at the Sessions and a few “under the table” ones that I missed in the reckoning.

Dramfest 30 minutes BC (Before Customers)

My Dramfest Highlights (View from the Chair)

Compared with previous Dramfests, my intake of alcohol at this year’s event was minute. Maybe something to do with drink-driving.

Instead of tasting everything available, I took the opportunity to spend my time introducing myself to the owners of New Zealand distilleries. I had previously met quite a few of them by email or telephone but not in person. It was great to meet them, introduce myself and shake a hand or two.

I was delighted to get a warm welcome from everyone I spoke with. As a result, I am looking forward to being able to provide this Blog with many more articles on NZ distilleries and the local whisky scene.

I did weaken a bit during the tripping around and took the chance to test-drive a few NZ-produced drams. Here are my views:

Lammermore Distillery, The Jack Scott Single Malt, 46%

Nose: Sweet and floral. A slight tinge of sweaty shearing shed.
Palette: Tongue bite at first, but that drops away quickly. Young and plenty of alcohol heat, vinous from the Pinot Noir barrels.
Finish: The tongue sting stays. The taste sours at the end (again, the influence of the pinot noir barrel?), but then again so do a lot of whiskies.
Score: 8.1

Cardrona whisky Pinot Noir, 52% ABV

Nose: Vanilla custard with dried stone fruit. The pinot noir barrel gives the expected vinous note.
Palette: Sharp, and not too alcohol hot. Under the sharpness the whisky is smooth and even, with pip fruit on the tongue.
Finish: A heat stays on the tongue, roof and walls of the mouth. The vanilla custard note remains.
Comment: This is the second iteration of Cardrona to be matured in pinot casks. We reviewed the first “Just Hatched” Pinot Noir-matured whisky is Dec 2019. This second one is way better. I have tried this before Dramfest, and I was just as impressed then.
Score: 8.7

Waiheke Whisky, Peat and Port, 46%, 5-yrear-old, 40ppm peat. Dramfest bottling.

Nose: Marine, like rock pools. Citrus peel with vanilla
Palette: Rich and sweet. Slightly “sheepy”, but not in a bad way.
Finish: The sweetness stays.
Comment: This is capital N Nice! Actually, a whole lot better than nice.
Further comment: Although the 40ppm of phenols is accurate, if you are expecting this to be like one of Islay’s more heathen expressions you will be disappointed. In all the New Zealand peated whiskies I have tasted from Waiheke Whisky the peat notes are there, but they are way more subtle than Scottish peated drams – with Waiheke whiskies I really have had to look to find to find them.
Score: 7.9

And then I spent Sunday working on the Black Tot Rum stand. For an ardent (and sober) people watcher, manning the stand is so much fun.

Graeme’s Dramfest Sessions

Email traffic in Wellington prior to Dramfest, getting tickets to the sessions was a bit of a keyboard lottery. Some punters won Powerball, others were left bemoaning their poor fortune.

Graeme got particularly lucky. He scored entry both the Arran and the Glen Scotia mini sessions. He then followed that streak by getting into Sunday’s Top Shelf session, led by Dave Broom and Michael Fraser Milne.

Graeme has kindly provided his tasting notes from those events.

The Arran mini-session

Arran 17yo rare batch Calvados cask 52.5% ABV.

Matured for full 17 years in second fill casks previously used to mature Calvados.

Nose and palette: Both apples and pears dominate, spiciness.
Finish: Medium-long with flavour persisting.
Score: 8.5

Lagg release one ex-bourbon 50% ABV.

Matured in bourbon cask, peating at 50 ppm.

Nose: light peat.
Palette: more pronounced peat, otherwise undistinguished.
Finish: long, peat dominant.
Comment: In no way measures up to the Arran Fingal’s Cut tasted at last Dramfest.
Score: 6.5

The Glen Scotia mini –session

Glen Scotia 25yo, refill ex-bourbon casks, but finished in first fill ex-bourbon. 48.8% ABV

Nose: Standard vanilla.
Palette: Chocolate, vanilla, sweetness.
Finish: Medium-long with flavour lasting well.
Comment: This won whisky of the year at the 2021 San Francisco spirits forum.
Score: 8.5

Glen Scotia 9yo first fill ex-bourbon Cask no 9. 56.7% ABV

Distilled 2013. Specially selected for Dramfest, six bottles only taken straight from the cask still sitting in the warehouse.

Nose: Standard vanilla.
Palette: Oily, salty, fruity.
Finish: Long flavour persistence.
Comment: Watch out for the release of this one.
Score: 9.0

The Top Shelf

The theme of the Top Shelf tasting was reviewing the traditions of whisky-making.

Daftmill 15yo first fill American oak 55.7% ABV cask strength

A Lowlands distiller, Daftmill is from the traditional farmer distiller, making whisky in his spare time from on-farm materials.

Nose: Oaky, vanilla, spice. Palette: buttery, mouth-filling, well integrated flavours.
Finish: Everlasting flavour. So long that it was necessary to drink some water before moving on to the next whisky!
Score: 9.8

Glenturret 30yo matured in ex-sherry cask 42% ABV.

One of 750 bottles from this Highlands distillery.

Nose: Sherry, spice, geranium (the last Dave Broom’s comment).
Palette: Soft, floral, sherry, dark fruit and dates.
Finish: Long and subtle flavours (but not as long as the Daftmill).
Comment: A light whisky, well-integrated and soft.
Score: 9.0

Springbank 22yo from Adelphi, 46.3% ABV.

One of 239 bottles. Easily the oldest Springbank anywhere in Dramfest.

Nose: Sherry, new-made bread.
Palette: Sherry, low-level peat evident.
Finish: Medium-long, fades more rapidly than first two.
Comment: Slightly disappointing after the first two.
Score: 8.0

Caol Ila 40 yo Director’s Special bottled by Whisky Exchange. 49.1% ABV.

Nose: Fruity, grapefruit, very light peat in the background.
Palette: Fruit, salty, peat remain light and in the background.
Finish: Long, with lasting flavours, peat finally becoming more evident but beautifully integrated.
Comment: the bottler loves tropical fruit whiskies.
Score: 9.5

Overall Tasting Comment: Fully lived up to very high expectations.

I won’t be sad to see the back of 2022.

Let’s be honest, the last couple of years have been pretty rubbish, really.

Covid reared its ugly head in NZ in March 2020, just a few days after Whisky Galore’s 2020 Dramfest. It resulted in personal lockdowns, business close-downs and relationship breakups. And a lot of empty whisky, wine, and other bottles.

Since 2021 Covid has also proved to be a very handy scapegoat for a whole range of ills – inflation, delays in supply, more inflation, lack of business performance, high inflation, reduced stock of nearly everything important (whisky), potholes, road works, road -re-works, high costs of public works, lack of performance, expensive groceries, horrendous petrol prices. And inflation.

And Covid even managed to stop Dramfest 2022!

The covid-inspired disruptions to 2021 were a pain. A couple of notable Scotsmen were detained in New Zealand, caught by the first sudden lockdown. One did take the opportunity to make a bit of a name for himself by getting samples in to his isolation accommodation and putting up on-line tastings.

Limited Tastings

For the general whisky-drinking public, only a very limited number of whisky tastings were able to be held due to the demands of lockdowns, “social distancing”, mask-wearing and the like.

if you will forgive me a small personal indulgence, 2022 has been a calamity.

A fortunately short spell in hospital (where I discovered whisky consumption is frowned upon) was rather too quickly followed by an unrelated muscular injury which has required pain-killers of ocean-going strength.

Point of interest: you may have experienced Tramadol, a manufactured-opiate based analgesic. If you have, you will probably have also experienced some of its rather bizarre side-effects: a slight disassociation from normal reality (wooziness), muddled thinking, slow reaction times and (most spectacularly) dreams straight from Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club band.

I’m probably going to get stick for not reading the box, but I wasn’t aware of the combined effect of Tramadol and alcohol.

I quickly became really aware when a routine traffic breath-test stop indicated that I was perilously close to failing – on only one glass of a less-than-memorable pub chardonnay that had accompanied my steak meal. On the plus side, probably better to discover this before Christmas festivities really hit their straps. All my celebrations for the near future are now going to do wonders for the share-prices of ginger ale and orange juice. Sad.

The Better Bits

But 2022 hasn’t all been rubbish. I managed to get to some magnificent whisky events. Two memorable ones: – Dr Stopher’s Multi functional Madness, and the opportunity a week later to help Mel clean out the contents of her whisky cabinet to make room for planned purchase activity at Dramfest in March.

Another particularly bright note was the creation of the “Virtual Tasting”, where samples are distributed by courier and the tasting event held by a Zoom conference. My wife came home one evening to discover 20 or more fairly convivially chatty people in little boxes discussing the contents of their whisky cabinets on our TV screen.

And there has been the testing/tasting all those generously-given samples I have received, along with the whisky-tasting evenings at Hare and Copper Eatery in Turangi. One must keep a balance!

It is now high time to let 2022 go and move into 2023 with Faith and Hope.

Things to look forward to

I don’t know who wrote this, but I certainly empathise!

Dramfest

The major event for whisky aficionados to look forward to!

Dramfest 2023 is to be held at Christchurch’s new Te Pae Convention and Exhibition Centre on 4^th and 5^th of March.

This will be the much lamented, Covid-struck event delayed from March 2022.

It will feature over 50 exhibitors (including, by ny count, seven New Zealand distilleries, 300 different single malts, blends and other whiskies available to try.

And, for the first time, rum will also be available as a “guest spirit”.

According to the website, tickets are already sold out. Flights, at least from Wellington, are getting hard to find. Accommodation is also looking to be under pressure.

Overseas Travel

Travel is back on again, although (like Tramadol) to be taken with caution.

It will be nice to be able go to Australia, the UK or America again. We’ve done pretty much all of New Zealand now, time to stretch the wings a bit.

And cruise liners are back amongst us. Structures the size of Head Office blocks are parked alongside the wharf disgorging loud shirts, cameras, and peaked caps. Great news for the hospitality industry, which has struggled considerably for the past couple of years.

Reduction in Covid cases

In the last few weeks there has been a startling resurgence in the number of Covid cases being reported, north of 40,000 a week with a significant quantity of people dying with/from the disease.

Hopefully, 2023 will see those numbers start to drop and life return to a normalcy.

Being able to drink

The impact of taking anti-inflammatories is an inability to drink whisky and wine. It’s not that I’ve lost taste (although some may dispute that!), but the slight hallucinogenic effect of the drugs coupled with alcohol is not a pleasant mix. So samples of whiskies have been building up, sitting in a corner of the cabinet and laughing at me. It will be good to get rid of the pills and take other mind-altering substances instead.

And that is why there are no tasting notes for you to read at the moment. Watch this space!

Teeling Release

The Revival Vol V, 12yo Single Malt, 46%

Ireland’s Teeling Whiskey Company are releasing a series of limited edition whiskies under The Revival series label.

WestmeathWhiskeyWorld have reviewed the latest in the series. They note the feeling that these may well be Collector drams, unlikely to ever be opened.

Personally, I am very much looking forward to 2023. I’m looking forward to tasting some new whiskies and re-acquainting myself with some others.

And I’m particularly looking forward to getting together with my whisky-drinking friends!

A very happy New Year to you all.

Slainte

John

Correction

I received the following from WestmeathWhiskyWorld on the subject of Teeling Revival V.

“The Revival Series finished with the Vol V bottle in 2018.

Teeling are now embarking on a Renaissance Series to celebrate their own distillate coming of age at their Dublin distillery.

Renaissance will be of similar style to the Revival bottlings, limited editions, fancy packaging & premium pricing along with pretty tasty whiskey too!”

I greatly appreciate the information. And I’ll go looking for a bottle to see if any travelled all this way!

Tag: Dramfest 2023

Dramfest 2023 Review – Chapter 1