Limburg Whisky Fair 2024

Limburg Whisky Fair 2024, Limburg, 27-28 April 2024, Germany

The Limburg whisky fair is for most whisky freaks, the best whisky fair in the world and also one of my favourites. The selection of whiskies, old and new, is probably unsurpassed.
Unfortunately, I cannot stay there the whole the week end, so my Saturday is always a rush.

I left home early afternoon on Friday, and somewhat as expected, my train arrived in late in Frankfurt, leaving me with only 5 min to change of train. After a sprint through the crowd, I reached on time my train and arrived at final destination with a delay of 23 min.

After taking my room for the hotel, it was time to walk to a private dinner, with many friends from all over the world. With everyone bringing a few bottles with them, over 100 bottles were filling the tables. The evening was great, not only due to the nice selection of bottles, but mainly due the presence of all these whisky enthusiasts and the nice discussions. I really enjoyed this evening, as during the fair, time to discuss tends to be limited. Whisky is made to share and to enjoy, and this me, that evening reflects what whisky should be.

After a good night of rest, I went for a solid breakfast, where I discovered a group of Swiss whisky friends. Whisky is never far away in Limburg and it was a warm up for the day.

I arrived at the "Halle" 15 min before the opening and unfortunately, I choose the wrong queue, as 30 min after the opening, I was still queuing.

The queue at the main entrance

Once inside, my first stop was to see some friends at the stand of Catawiki, where I tasted a delicious fruity and rich Glendronach 12 YO from 1964, before tasting a Red Seal Scotch whisky bottled for the famous London retailer Fortnum & Mason. Bottled in the 1940s, this whisky had a nice round mouthfeel, on toffee and cooked cereals, before the mild and mellow spices, leather and some old smoke was coming through. Not very complex, but pleasant. The Royal Sovereign Mansfields from the 1950s was more toffee, fudge and dried fruit and thus heavier. The 8 YO Highland Mile Sacoone & Speed was a nice rather intense, mellow blended whisky, with probably a fair proportion of malt, with some rather oily and slightly peated flavours, giving a dirty side to this whisky. It reminded me of the old dirty Campbletown style. Very nice.

Most of the bottlings at Catawiki

Browsing through the halls, the stand of Whiskykanzler with all these old Islay or Karuizawa single malts. My next stop was at Sansibar/C. Dully and Acla Selection. I tasted the new C. Dully Selections, starting with a surprising Loch Lomond / Old Rhosdhu 1994, with was very complex, bold, intense, with lots of grassy flavours, reminding me of the Littlemill bottled a decade ago. Old Rhosdhu has not the best reputation amongst whisky connoisseurs, but it you taste that one, this might change your views on that distillery. The following whisky was of similar quality, but with a very different style. The Islay 25 YO Single Malt was distilled at Laphroaig. The whisky was mellow, moderately maritime, with some seaweeds, and iodine, with a delicious mellow and medicinal peat smoke and some candied citrus fruits. Often, with 25 YO distillery bottlings, the peat level is very low, but this expression retained a good level, in addition to be rather intense, maritime and moderately medicinal. Very good. From Sansibar, there has no new releases lately, but new ones are being bottled, thus I tasted a 1982 30 YO Caperdonich from them, with rather spicy, slightly aromatic and bitter aromatic herbs. A nice whisky, but challenging one.

The new Old Roshdu from C. Dully is impressive! and the Islay as well...

Shinanoya is imported in Germany by Sansibar, and therefore a good opportunity to taste whiskies for the Japanese market. The first one was a young Yamazakura Aska single cask for them, which showed a nice maturity, with light spicy and aromatic flavours. The Akkeshi Single cask for Bar Barns and Shinanoya was a rather peated single malt distilled in a new distillery on Hokkaido. The whisky was rather young, smooth, slightly oaky with a dry and rather maritime peat smoke, reminding me of some young Islay whiskies. The distillate was clean, so curious to taste it in a few years. The 2010 Williamson Blended malt for Shinanoya was a rather sweet and fruity Islay whisky, with a rather mild peated profile. The Shizuoka Single Cask 2017 was deliciously fruity, very smooth and rather silky, making it dangerously drinkable. The Single Cask 2018 Single Cask peated had a nice mild peat, smoother than the Islay peat, with nice vanilla and yellow fruits. The Daftmill 2010 Single Cask for Japan was complex, with lovely ripe exotic fruits, some vanilla custard and nice round and mellow floral flavours. Very enjoyable!

The selection of whiskies presented by Shinanoya

At the Maltbarn, I tried their new 1996 Clynelish, with was rather mellow, waxy, on vanilla and some candied citrus, as well as some light and fresh malty flavours. A soft expression from that distillery, with a discreet citric side. The 36 YO Highland Single Malt was a very mellow whisky, with lots of fruity flavours, some berries, orange and leather. Nicely made, but slightly weak to my liking. The distillery is unknown, although some people are suggesting a malt from Glenmorangie.

Some of the new products from the Maltbarn

At Pineus, I tasted two single casks of Ballindalloch for Benelux. The 2016 from a Bourbon single cask was very nice, bold, with a rather heavy body, rich, on vanilla, nice round floral flavours, as well as some yellow fruits. As the distillery has no short-term financial difficulties, they decided to release their single malts, once the product was mature enough and the result is there. The whisky is very good, in style reminding me of the other distillery associated with that name. The 2015 sherry cask was also very good, with mild sherry influence, more on fudge and sultanas. Very good!

The new (and first) Ballindalloch for the Benelux

At the Stand of Enrico and Thomson brothers, I started with the Enrico’s side and the superb Clynelish 1971 from Coopers Choice, a very juicy Clynelish, with a dash of peat smoke, some dirty and farmy notes, as well as lovely fruity flavours, mainly exotic and dried fruits. Simply delicious. The Coleburn 1978 Cadenhead’s was a very grassy, bold, rather oily single malt, without any oaky flavours and a hint of smoke. Very nice! The Longmorn 1974 from Cadenhead’s was a lovely rich, floral and complex whisky, with nice mild and mellow sweet fruity flavours, some summer flowers and light spices. All what you can expect from a Longmorn of that vintage, when Longmorn had a huge reputation. The Ben Nevis 1972 OB is a lovely old style of Ben Nevis, with some heavy aromatic peat smoke, a solid body, sultanas, orange, old worn leather and dried berries. Very good! Finally, I tasted Enrico’s own bottling with a hand written “Malt 100% blended”. The base is a 1964 Glen Grant Samaroli completed by old Mortlach, Highland Park, Bowmore and Springbank. The resulting blended malt was intense, complex, with lots of dried fruits, leather, some fudge, berries, a dash of seabrine, old fashioned maritime peat smoke. Balanced and very enjoyable! Well done Enrico!

The home made blended malt from Enrico, a well made one!

Thomson Bros had a new Dornoch 5 YO single cask 124 with a very bright yellow label with a cartoon lion. The label is very original, and the content most pleasant. The whisky has nice rich malty flavours, some light floral flavours, vanilla and light farmy flavours, reminding me of some old “young” 5 YO single malt from another Sutherland distillery. A lovely fresh and well-made whisky. The other 5 YO, from cask 84 was rather different, heavier, spicier, more intense and oaky. As Dornoch distillery was experimenting with different types of yeasts and barley, this difference between two casks is not unexpected. Talking to Simon Thompson, the application for the new distillery has been submitted and if everything goes well, the new distillery might be ready next year. For the whisky fair, they have bottled a new Sutherland blended malt. The base of this blend is Clynelish, with a certain proportion of Dornoch single malt and a dash of Brora coming from Rare Malt bottles. This blended malt was a very nice whisky, with nice crisp malty flavours, moderately oily, with some citrus, a dash of smoke, farmy flavours and some spices as well.
Their 1989 Laphroaig was mellow, mildly peated, with some camphor, iodine, seaweeds, sea spray, citrus and some light oaky flavours.

Some of the Dornoch single malts at Thompson Bros

At the Whisky Fair stand, I tasted their new 16 YO Ledaig, a very good, intense and peaty Ledaig, with a lovely maritime and dry peat smoke, and round sherry flavours on toffee and fudge.

At the Whisky Agency, Carsten has pulled an impressive collection of old bottlings from his private stock and I could not resist tasting many of them, including the Provenance “triptych”. My first dram was a very rare Glen Garioch 1965 12 YO for Lemar import, a very juicy whisky, on heather honey, mild old-fashioned aromatic peat smoke, vanilla, orange, some mild tropical fruits and dried fruits. Seemed slightly low on the abv, but highly drinkable. In the Provenance Series, the Brora 1974 was waxy, slightly citric and mildly peated, while the 1975 was fruitier, slightly more complex and drier. Finally, the 1976 was very waxy, rather citric and some round flavours. I will be tasting again these 3 Brora side by side, as I was getting tired and I might have inverted the order. The Springbank Local Barley 1966-97 is a very good Springbank, but as mentioned by Carsten, a challenging one, as it has no dominating flavours. It is indeed a mixed of salted toffee, vanilla, mild peat smoke, some oily and mineral flavours, as well as some wax. An elegant and subtle Springbank. The Springbank 1967 20 YO Dun Eideann was bottled by the owners of the distillery for this subsidiary of Signatory. This Springbank is the best one I have tasted for years, with lots of complexity, delicious fruity flavours, some seabrine, sea salt and lovely peaty and smoky flavours. It was reduced to 43%, but the flavours are very intense and rich. Simply Wow. My last old bottling was the Douglas Laing OMC 1972 27 YO 238 bottles, which was the first release from Douglas Laing. I was not disappointed by this whisky, as it had a lovely complex and maritime peat smoke, on iodine, camphor and disinfectant, with a sharpness and intensity remarkable for a whisky that old. The finish was very long, elegant, subtle, peaty and medicinal.

Some of the oldies at The Whisky Agency

Moving to the new releases from the Whisky Agency, I tasted a 2002 Irish Single Malt, a bold and grassy Irish whisky, with some oily flavours, a dash of smoke and ripe orchards fruits. A very nice Irish malt from Cooley distillery certainly. The 35 YO Littlemill was a rather challenging whisky, with a combination of grassy flavours, bubble-gum and tree sap. It is not woody per se, but the sappy flavours were rather strong and I was struggling with them. The 14 YO Secret Islay (Ardbeg) was a clean, salty, maritime and peaty Ardbeg, on seaweeds, medicinal flavours and a dry peat smoke. The 14 YO Secret Islay (Laphroaig) was smokier, fruitier, smoother, but also less on iodine and a more discreet peat smoke. I was offered by a friend a very old Macduff 5 Yo from Hamilton, a very lovely, sweet, grassy and fruity Macduff, with lots of yellow fruits, some quince and gooseberries. Rather well balanced and complex, suggesting that a certain proportion of old malt was part of the vat. Finally, I was offered there a delicious Glenrothes Cadenhead dumpy, a rich, spicy, intense and complex whisky, with a rich old fashion sherry influence on dried fruits, treacle, tannins and various spices. A very different style from the current production, as Glenrothes used to produce a rather heavy Speyside style of whiskies, before their owner decided in the 1970s to create a lighter style of whisky to fit to their needs of a light whisky for their blends.

And some aged recently releases from The Whisky Agency

At the stand of OG, I tasted the Linkwood 12 YO 1960 for Samaroli, a very fruity, rich single malt, with some peat smoke, honey and light aromatic and grassy flavours. The old Linkwood for Samaroli are impressive. I tasted then an Old Fusiliier 21 YO Pure Malt, a very good, rich and fruity malt, with lots of spices, orange, dried fruits and high-grade leather.

My final stop was at the rather hidden stand of Ilie, Collezionaremania, to taste a very intense, clean, sharp and rather peated Springbank 10 YO 56.7% bottled in the 1970s-early 1980s.

A very good sharp old Springbank at Collezionaremania

It was time to take my leave from Limburg and to take my train home, making sure of refreshing my DB app to keep up with the changes (change of track and every changing delays).

My two days in Limburg were most enjoyable, with enriching discussions, exchanges and delicious whiskies. The 5 hours of train went fast and allowed me to write this report just on time before reaching final destination. Event was great but if exhibitors could think about spittoon, that would be great. By chance, the temperature was mild, as it was very warm in some rooms.

Slainte

Patrick

, 27 April 2024

Note: As I was asked if I could taste all that I wanted. The answer was simply no, as you might need one week to taste of the nice products presented by all the other retailers present during the show