Photo – Kim Jane Photography
When I entered The Victorian Whisky Festival, the first place I visited was the bar. Which was different, and welcomed. The festival was set in Paradise Alley, a bar that sits in a large warehouse in Melbourne’s trendy inner-city suburb of Collingwood.
It’s a particularly ‘Melbourne’ venue, offering up a killer wine list, great beers, an awesome back bar, solid cocktails and engaging service. But it’s also a cut above the standard fare, effortlessly managing to be divey, hospitable, approachable and meticulous all at once.
While standing at Paradise Alley’s custom-made bar (crafted, fittingly, from Victorian ash), I see Manhattans being stirred down, highballs going out and quality craft beers being poured. Behind this, a lively, diverse crowd of attendees move between stalls where distillers and ambassadors are standing behind barrels and chatting all things whisky.
There’s people catching up, there’s listening and laughter, questions and answers. It’s mid-afternoon but the room is dark and dimly lit. There’s a mood and ambience to the space, which is what you expect in any great bar. And it’s what you hope for when you’re, well, drinking whisky.
The Victorian Whisky Festival at Paradise Alley. Photo – Kim Jane Photography
I’ll be straight up with you, I’ve never been a huge fan of whisky festivals. The throngs who push from stall to stall (mostly blokes) downing sample after sample in bright conference room spaces is about as far away as you can get from my idea of what enjoying whisky is about. But The Victorian Whisky Festival was different.
‘I wanted this to be in an environment that’s similar to where people love to drink whisky,’ says Fred Siggins, the hospitality veteran, writer and events and marketing manager for Whisky & Alement, the bar responsible for The Victorian Whisky Festival.
‘Where do people love to drink whisky? Where there’s good music and good food and good cocktails and a fun, relaxing social environment to hang out in. That’s where we drink whisky, right?’
Whisky & Alement’s Fred Siggins at The Victorian Whisky Festival – Kim Jane Photography
Full disclosure, I’ve known Siggins for years and used to work in a similar role for Whisky & Alement, so it was a pretty safe bet that this festival was going to be up my… alley. But following the pandemic, the relevance and success of whisky festivals has come into focus, something Siggins acknowledges.
‘I think as an industry we can step it up a notch,’ says Siggins. ‘Whisky is more than just liquid in a bottle, it’s a whole social experience. And I think if you remove that social experience that’s a disservice to the whisky and the producer.’
Siggins is, I think, on point here. He continues: ‘I guess maybe that’s the bartender in me coming out. But it was really important for us as a venue putting on a whisky show to make sure that we recreated that environment of hospitality.’
Food offering at The Victorian Whiskey Festival – Kim Jane Photography
Whisky festivals are hardly rare occurrences these days, as Andrew Derbidge, cellarmaster and director of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Australia has aptly written about. You can almost attend a different whisky festival in Australia’s capital cities every few weeks.
Like Siggins, Jose Dymenstein of Melbourne’s Casa de Vinos shares similar ideas about what makes for a quality whisky festival experience.
Dymenstein founded the Whisky Abbey Festival in 2021 at the tail end of the COVID-19 trainwreck. His inspiration was The Whisky Fair in Limburg, likely the largest whisky festival in the world, which is just about to hold its latest iteration. At the German festival, established way back in 2002, everyone from distilleries, bottlers, merchants and whisky societies offer up seriously rare and old whiskies by the dram, giving attendees thousands of different whiskies to choose from. The key difference is that you only pay a modest entry fee (€12 this year) and then pay by the dram for whatever you taste, a crucial distinction Dymenstein has also introduced at Whisky Abbey.
Whisky Abbey Festival 2022. Photo – Whisky Abbey
‘With this culture we’re establishing with Whisky Abbey where people pay by the dram, we’re getting to a point where it’s sustainable for everyone, especially for small producers and bars to come and exhibit,’ says Dymenstein.
‘In the better shows in Europe and Asia, you get customers that make better decisions because they have to pay for the dram. They drink less, which is great, and they drink better. We still want it to feel like a big party, but with this model people pace themselves and take time to think about what they’re drinking as well.’
Every festival needs a point of difference, and that often comes down to who’s exhibiting, says Dymenstein, which is why he also invites specialist bars like Melbourne’s The Elysian and a suite of respected independent bottlers to Whisky Abbey.
‘Any whisky show is only as good as the exhibitors that are there. If you don’t get good exhibitors, it’s not going to work. And it’s about looking after the exhibitors as well. They need to be happy, they need to make money, especially smaller producers, that’s so important.’
Whisky Abbey Festival – Oz Whisky Review
Niche whisky festivals have developed to a point where themed shows are now more common. Tasmanian Whisky Week has been steadily building its presence since first launching in 2016. Modelled on Islay’s annual Fèis Ìle whisky festival, Tasmanian Whisky Week, which I’ve covered in-depth previously, now has over 40-plus whisky exhibitors and 15-plus events across the week long celebration (look out for the full program release in late May).
Across the country, David Ligoff has also been refining his program of shows to reflect the changing whisky festival landscape. Through his company Alchemist Events and its partnership with The Whisky List, Ligoff has created a more curated program of events.
‘We’ve taken the approach of smaller, more boutique shows, and a lot more themed shows which we’re now taking around the country. Bigger isn’t always better,’ he says.
Killara Distillery at The Australian Whisky Show. Photo – The Whisky List
During the pandemic, Ligoff pivoted in a number of creative digital ways to keep the community of whisky enthusiasts engaged. Post-pandemic, his line-up of events include the just-held Australian Whisky Show, The American Whiskey Show and the upcoming Fèis Ìle – The Islay Festival.
With assistance from The Whisky List, attendees at each show can also use a smartly designed app to see what’s available to taste, mark down what they’ve tried, and then leave instant reviews for all to see.
‘There’s a whole generation of new whisky drinkers that became passionate about whisky during COVID-19,’ says Ligoff. ‘And the big difference now is data intelligence, so we can give more feedback to the brand about what consumers think. Before, the only feedback we got about products was if it sold or not. Now, we can show producers in detail what people thought of their products. That feedback is extremely useful for producers and helps us to design better shows for consumers as well.’
I attended Ligoff’s recent Australian Whisky Show, where over 30 Australian producers and more than 100 different whiskies were on offer. It was a brilliant representation of how far the Australian industry has travelled, and as I made my way through the stalls, catching up with old friends and trying new whiskies alongside people at different stages of their whisky journey, I occasionally thought back to the dark days of the pandemic and how lucky we are to simply experience events like this again.
Sure, I still have reservations about some of the whisky festivals out there. But there’s no doubt that the show circuit is evolving, and I’m excited to see what that evolution will look like.
