Anyone going to Spirit of Toronto 2015?

What? No one going?

I hope to get into the early ISLAY masterclass. There, I said it.

I'd go if it weren't a 500 mile drive...Oh - and if my wife would let me off my leash.

I'm happy to say my friend got me into the Islay (Caol Ila) masterclass that starts before the main event. I hope to see some of you there, just as it was great to meet some of you at the last one.

i'm looking forward to seeing you there, @Nozinan. i'll be in the Manager's Dram early masterclass, then out on the floor for the rest of the evening. will be great fun, no doubt!

@thecyclingyogi looking forward to seeing you there. We should come up with some sort of a CONNOSR text signal whenever we discover a rare bottle like Port Ellen Popping up...

@Nozinan

Apologies for the late response - will be in attendance and not sure which master classes my buddy picked up (I was interested in the Rum one but believe that was sold out).

Nozinan - I have Rum Master class ticket, willing to trade for some other Master class?

Yup. 5th year running. Only 400KM away...

@JustOneDram

I'm in the Caol Ila MC and am happy with that. You might check with @jayrain who was looking for the Rum class.

@JayRain I have Rum Master class, Perhaps willing to trade?

@JustOneDram

I would like to but my buddy picked up two tickets to a MasterClass (to be honest not sure which one) so have to stick w that

@Nozinan

Thanks for thinking of me Nozinan...

I will be attending SPIRIT of Toronto. Always a great time. Doing an early MC and the bourbon MC later in the evening. Otherwise on the floor (figuratively). Would love to meet up with fellow Connosr posters.

I will be there as well. My gf and I are doing the Glenlivet 7pm class.

@BARutledge - I hope to see you there.

@paddockjudge - likewise. Only a week away! We love Toronto, cannot wait.

Let the Spirit of Toronto 2015 pre-parties begin!!!

@Victor

I think that was Collingwood and Toronto last week.

Actually, I wonder if, after the assortment we sampled, SOT will be a disappointment...

@Nozinan, as you well know, these one-night big whisky events are almost always great fun. For my money, the pre and post parties are 60% of the total package. You may be at a disadvantage if you wish to compete only in the well-ordered sprint portion of the event and not in the full multi-event marathon. I say "you" referring to the whisky-well-controlled @Nozinan. Cheers, friend!

Lots of fun tonight. Great seeing everyone I did, and sorry to miss those I didn't.

I tasted about 26 different things. The variety and rarity was less than last year. i only hope that next year will be back to last year's standards.

@Nozinan I felt the same in the beginning - a lot of the booths were carrying the 'can get at the LCBO' product.

The rye station started to change my perspective, Whisltepig, WIllett 4 Year, the Wiser from the 1980's (which I did not appreciate - probably needed more time to air out), et al.

The rum station also had some nice variety and appreciated the rums that I tried from like a little to liked a lot.

The Japanese station was the feather in the hat as I got to try the Yamazaki 18 Sherry Malt and it was quite the dram.

From the pictures on the Scotchblog, the Manager's Dram seemed to have quite the selection. That (or its equivalent is a must attend for next year.

Solid but not spectacular but enjoyed a bit more than last year (was a rookie last year so did not have a gameplan) as got to try the more rare scotches.

@JayRain

The Japanese whisky station was a farce from beginning to end. First, no one knew where it was . By the time we figured it out there was no way to even get near to try any of the whiskies, some of which I heard were interesting.

Second, the way they managed the onslaught of people, arms stretched out in the hopes of getting a taste of this holy grail best whisky in the world nonsense was horrible. They didn't handle it well, the hordes of whisky crazed people were even less well-behaved. He's, I did get a sample. I was pushed to the front by people bigger and taller than me. I was happy to share with 4 others. It was nice, but in that atmosphere impossible to appreciate fully, and no better than a great A'Bunadh, Bladnoch 10' or Amrut (name your cask strength version).

I missed out on a lot too last year because I didn't know to look. But this year, aside from the Yamazaki fiasco, there was little to surprise. I had a much better experience tasting with @victor and @paddockjudge et al in Collingwood, and with a bunch of Connosrs in Toronto last week.

In fact, I probably have a better selection of things to taste than I could find at SOT this year. I obviously don't have the volume for the hundreds that came, but for a dozen drinkers I am sure I could supply 2 dozen samples each of which were as goo or better than What was available last night.

No Ardbeg, Amrut, Lagavulin. 2 selections of Aberlour and nothing that wasn't at LCBO?gimme a break!

The bourbons all standard. Not a Stagg to be seen or a Booker's anniversary, or pappy like last year.

I agree the Canadian Whisky station, featuring an ancient (drop of history) Wiser's oldest and the rest all Canadian distillate that for the most part you can only get outside Canada, that was interesting. Never had Whistlepig before. But the servers were really not to knowledgeable. And the AP 30 was a little flatter than the last time I tried it.

I could go on...

The even WAS fun, and good as a social event, but the quality and variety was definitely not there. I hope next year they ramp up the quality instead of the price, because they did exactly the opposite this year.

@Nozinan No dispute that it was chaotic and not well managed and I too questioned why certain distilleries were not present this year. Also agree that personal collections could rival the rare stuff presented last night.

however...

Relative to last year's experience and not having the recent benefit of epic tastings, I still enjoyed more than 2014. Criteria also includes who you are with and this time I was with a party of 8 that had lively and knowledgeable conversation vs last year when there was 4 of us that were Alicia Silverstone.

In closing, your last statement is the truest one of all...jr

the whiskies poured in the manager's dram masterclass were all fantastic: cragganmore 17y/o 62% abv, oban 19y/o 59.8% abv, clynelish 17y/o 61.8% abv, aberfeldy 19y/o 61.3% abv, and ord 16y/o 66.2% abv. the clynelish and the ord were truly wonderful - all bottled decades ago, truly liquid history...

my plan was to hit up the japanese station straight away since i knew it would be popular. having an early admittance masterclass ticket, i had an advantage over the hundreds of people waiting outside with general admission tickets. you're right, @Nozinan, it wasn't easy to find. this year was the first time the mezzanine level was used, and i accidentally stumbled upon the way to get there after using the washroom facilities. when i arrived, only a dozen or so people were around and i spent at least 45 minutes chatting with the gents at the booth and sampling everything that was available. within an hour of the doors being opened, it was an absolute zoo - that's when i left. i was able to get a taste of the yamazaki sherry cask that was opened later in the evening from a friend, but i wasn't around to witness the madness....

a hugely pleasant surprise for me was blind tasting booth where you were poured 3 mystery whiskies (out of a rotation of about 12 or so) and you had to guess their age. other than the 15y/o glenfiddich distillery edition, i was poured a 1971 14y/o cragganmore g&m connoisseurs choice brown label and a 1971 22y/o benromach g&m connoisseurs choice old map label. two whiskies distilled in the 70's for a blind tasting! i thought for certain they would just be using standard recent offerings - boy was i wrong. the guys at the booth told me that the bottles were from the organizer's personal collection. earlier in the night they were using a 30y/o caol ila (the new diageo release, if i'm not mistaken), pretty cool if you ask me...

the only other whiskies i drank at the show were cask samples from benromach. a 9y/o bourbon cask, a 9 y/o sherry cask, and a 10y/o combo of the two that had been finished for a year in an oloroso sherry butt. the bourbon cask was very nice, but the sherry cask was extremely sulphured. the marriage of the two was decent, but the sulphur was still noticeable....

the price of admission has gone up every year since i started attending, this is true, but prices across the whole industry have skyrocketed. i reckon my night could be summed up by the expression "right place at the right time". i had a blast and definitely think the event was worth the price of admission - but i'm not certain i would feel the same without the epic masterclass and some dumb luck....

my $0.02 on the whole experience....

@thecyclingyogi, you have been pretty darn good over time at making your own luck. As the Moody Blues said, "Just what you want to be, you will be in the end."

Spirit of Toronto 2015 looks just like life: 1,000 different people at the event, 1,000 different experiences.