Tag Archive for: Whisky Festival

DFS Whisky Festival 2019 Special Releases

May 5, 2019/in Events, Reviews/by Hong Fu Teo

For 4th Edition of the DFS Whisky Festival, DFS Changi has its first pop-up bar in T3! If you are travelling anytime between 1st May to 10th June, the bar is opened from 8am to 12 midnight so be sure to check it out! Travellers can expect to enjoy their whisky with live jazz performances. You can find out more about the event here! The DFS Whisky Festival brings about some new releases as well! And I got to try some of these exciting drams, here are some of my opinions on it!

Glenmorangie 14 year old 2004 (#1399)

This single cask Glenmorangie is a Changi exclusive! It spent the first 10 years in ‘slow-growth’ American White Oak, and then spent the next 4 years partying in an oloroso sherry cask!

Nose: The smell is initially sweet but reserved. Vanilla, Confectionary sweetness, unripe strawberries, notes of milk chocolate With water: Strong notes of milk chocolate, lemon zest and green apples with that sweet Glenmorangie spirit character

Palate: Citrus notes on arrival with vanilla. The dram had good texture, bringing hints of cinnamon spice, vegetal note and whiff of chocolate With water: Initially a burst of lemon zest, then stronger cinnamon notes, more chocolate-y this time round, alongside honey and vanilla, hints of dried fruits and figs.

Finish: Citrus, brioche and vanilla notes still lingers on With water: It’s much sweeter, with a stronger cinnamon spice

Chivas 21 year old The Lost Blend

This is a rather “rare and ghostly” version of the Chivas 21yo, but with an age statement! This Chivas 21 Royal Salute blend features some silent distilleries in the mix! Of the information I could get, there were two malt distilleries and one grain distillery: Imperial (mothballed in 1998), Caperdonich (closed in 2002), and Dumbarton (shut down in 2002). Although I didn’t have as many flavour notes to write about for this dram, I really enjoy the luxuriously high calibre of maturation. This is the best Chivas blend I have had! If only it was at cask strength……

Nose: The smell is full of musk, leather, old books, and slightly waxy notes. Some hints of citrus gets through, with time it is more old and elegant oak

Palate: Musk somewhat reminiscent of the “old bottle effect”, earthy notes, mineral notes, scent of stone walls from a dunnage warehouse, old libraries! <3

Finish: Leather, old books, and limestone.The finish is surprisingly long and musky!

Compass Box No Name No. 2

One of my favourite blending companies coming with a strong blend! As usual, Compass Box has been very transparent with his recipe. This blend is made of:

75.5% Caol Ila matured in refill sherry butts

13.5% Clynelish matured in rejuvenated white oakhogsheads

10.5% Talisker matured in rejuvenated white oak hogsheads

The remaining 0.5% is a vat of 3 highland single malts finished in French oak barrels! This dram is a peaty beast initially, but the Clynelish sweetness slowly emerges with time.

Nose: A strong initial peatsmoke, like a tight and warm embrace! bonfires, lemon zest, earthy vegetal notes, hints of yuzu. With water: more of that honey and vanilla appears and fruity sweetness and more citrus fragrances.

Palate: A strong arrival of peat smoke, smoky, earthy, BBQ grilled meat and honey sweetness With water: more vegetal note, and hints of apples, With time, plums, unripe strawberries, green apples

Finish: Earthy, and long lingering peatsmoke finish With water: The smoke stays, but lingers alongside sweet fruity notes, and waxy candle notes!

Jura 20 year old One and All

FIVE cask types! 5!!! 2 more cask types and I would be telling you the different casks types to the tune of Mambo No. 5! That is the work of none other than Jura’s Master Blender Richard Patterson. This dram has in it a bit of ex-bourbon, sherry oak, Pinot Noir barriques, Sparkling Cabernet Franc casks, and Cabernet Sauvignon casks. This Jura bottled at 51% works well. Due to its age and calibre of maturation, some people could not tell that it was peated!

Nose: Cherries, cherry stones, soft hints of smoke like a extinguished campfire in the morning, eucalyptus, coastal notes. With water: The european oak shows as whiffs of roasted coffee, almonds and cinnamon come into play

Palate: A balanced cinnamon arrival with musky and earthy notes. Cherries, lemon zest, old oak and old books. With water: The chocolate becomes more apparent

Finish: The strong cherry note lingers with hints of cinnamon and musky earthiness.

Royal Brackla 20 year old 1998 Exceptional Cask

This mahogany beauty spent 9 years in an American white oak cask before spending 11 years in a Tuscany (Italian Red Wine) cask! Luckily, this is bottled at a higher strength of 50.6% to showcase its complexity. This for me was definitely more oak focused from the start but with water, the personality started to shine through!

Nose: Treacle, chocolate, mellow cinnamon notes, walnuts, followed by notes of raisins, dried prunes With water: Floral notes appear, like a desert flower in the rain! This is soon followed by spicy cinnamon, strawberries and cranberries!

Palate: Cinnamon arrival with this savoury note, coffee note, dark chocolate bitters With water: A bit more sweetness and the flavours are a bit more balanced

Finish: Cinnamon chocolate and coffee finish With water: The dark chocolate note got more intense!

A 1L version of the Port Charlotte 10 year old is also available, so if you fancy a bigger PC10, you can get the upsized version at DFS!

Hope you get to visit the bar! Slainté!

Special thanks to DFS Singapore for the invite to the media launch 😀

DFS Whisky Festival 2019: The 4th Edition

May 5, 2019/in Events/by Hong Fu Teo

The DFS Whisky Festival is back, this time with their first-ever pop-up bar at Terminal 3. The beautiful pop-up bar features some new DFS whisky releases so that you can drink that travel anxiety away with the ambience of live jazz performances. If you are travelling anytime between 1st May to 10th June, you can visit the bar from 8 am to 12 midnight. The bar is located at T3 in the concourse space near Gucci and Burberry. Alternatively, you could just follow the sound of live jazz~

This pop-up bar is inspired by a whisky’s maturation journey in its cask. The oak used in the decor of the bar were ex-whisky staves to provide the bar with its aesthetics. The jazz is layered and sophisticated just like whisky, creating a comfortable ambience for any whisky drinker.

In the 4th Edition of the Whisky Festival features some very exciting whiskies and some surprisingly good drams! Some new releases include Glenmorangie 14-year-old Single Cask #1399, Chivas 21-year-old The Lost Blend, and Compass Box No Name No. 2! You can read some of my thoughts about the drams and tasting notes here!

The DFS Whisky Festival itself will last till 30th June, and brand ambassadors will be invited down to talk about their products! Travellers can get a complimentary whisky tasting as well!

Whisky Festival Promotions

There will also be festival exclusive promotions at T2’s Whiskey House Duplex, The T3 Raffles Long Bar and The Whiskey House at T4. During the festival, a minimum purchase of S$250 on any whisky from the Departure store will come with a branded Glencairn whisky nosing glass. As for the Arrival stores, from 8th May to 30th June, spend a minimum of S$140 per passport that includes any whisky product(s) to receive a pair of ferry tickets and city tour to Batam (worth S$70).

But the Festival isn’t just happening in Singapore, check out this information released by DFS Singapore:

DFS Whisky Festival around the world:

1st May to 30th June:

Singapore Changi Airport
Hanoi Noi Bai International Airport
Ho Chi Minh Tan Son Nhat Airport
John F Kennedy International Airport
Tom Bradley International Terminal

1st June to 31st July:

Hawaii Honolulu International Airport
San Francisco International Airport

1st July 1 to 31st August:

Abu Dhabi International Airport

Travellers planning their vacation in May or June might want to allocate some extra time at the pop-up bar to savour that sweet liquid gold! Special thanks to DFS Singapore for the invite to this event 😀

Upcoming Event – Spirits of Speyside Whisky Festival 2018

August 1, 2017/in Events/by Zerlina Zhuang

If you are planning to attend whisky events in 2018, here’s one which you can start making plans for. The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival is going to be held from 3 to 7 May 2018 in Speyside, Scotland. This iconic whisky festival is one of its kind where the distilleries in Speyside will be open to visitors through special booking tours. The difficult to reach distilleries will also be accessible during this period as buses will be deployed to ply two different routes to the various distilleries located along the river Spey.

Speyside Distilleries

Speyside plays host to more than half of all distilleries in Scotland. With the highest concentration of malt whisky producers located in Speyside, you can expect a wide variety of whiskies in the region. We can broadly classify Speyside whiskies into two camps – the light, grassy “lunchtime” whiskies such as Glenlivet, and the rich and flavourful sherry whiskies of Macallan. While not all whiskies in Speyside fall into either one of the categories, most of the whiskies produced in this region can be loosely classified as such.

Distilleries in Speyside

The map above shows all the whisky distilleries in Speyside and where each of them are located. The map has also marked out the key routes that you can take if you are driving, as well as the route that the buses will be plying if you intend to make use of the buses. On top of that, the Spirit of Speyside whisky festival will also be engaging local taxi companies to fetch visitors to distilleries that are not on the bus routes. If you have budget to spare and want to have a customised whisky distillery tour to your favourite distilleries, you can even engage local private hire companies to bring you for a first class experience!

Accommodation in Speyside

Accommodation in Speyside is not a problem due to its large number of accommodations. You can choose to stay in quaint little cottages, historic hotels, beautiful castles turned hotels, quirky DIY hotels, B&Bs or even camp in the great outdoors. A world class experience awaits you regardless of the type of accommodation you choose.

Dining Choices in Speyside

Food is just as important as the whiskies in Speyside, and visitors can expect a great variety of cuisines made with the best ingredients that are home-grown in Scotland. You can choose from fine-dining to rustic bites from the list here but we will recommend that you do your own research for more food options.

What to do in Speyside after the whisky festival is over

Well, visitors from Singapore and Asia in general are not going to travel all the way to Speyside and stay for just that few days, aren’t we? There are more to explore in Speyside besides first-class whiskies. For the nature lovers, there are beautiful beaches, hiking, kayaking down the River Spey and mountain biking on famous trails. For the shopaholics, Speyside has a great shopping culture that involves exploring beautiful towns and quaint little villages for the best buys in Scotland.

How to travel to Speyside

The easiest way for Singaporeans and people living in Asia is to fly to either Glasgow Airport or Edinburgh Airport before making your way to Speyside. Access to Speyside can be by air – flying to Inverness Airport or Aberdeen International Airport. Once there, you can easily navigate by taxi, bus or private hire car as mentioned above.

If you are keen to take in the beauty of the countryside, the best way to travel to Speyside is to by rail, bus or car from Edinburgh or Glasgow. You can check out ScotRail, Scotland’s National Railway, for the time table and prices. Citylink bus service provides safe passage from Edinburgh or Glasgow to Inverness and Aberdeen as well. If you prefer to travel in style, rent a car from Edinburgh or Glasgow and drive down to Speyside in your own leisure.

We hope that this article have given you enough information to start planning your trip to Scotland! The research has certainly pip our curiosity to head down to Scotland next May! Happy planning!

Like what you have just read?