Head for Speyside and take part in Spirit of Speyside: Distilled – one region under one roof offering a slice of heaven for food and drink lovers.
Take a dram of whisky, a measure of gin and a wee taste of beer; add together with some of the finest produce that Scotland has to offer and you have the recipe for a mouth-watering new event for food and drink lovers.
Spirit of Speyside: Distilled takes place for the first time next week in the heart of Scotland’s best-known whisky-producing region. But the event, which is staged at Elgin Town Hall from September 9-11, will have more to whet the appetite than the nation’s top tipple. Visitors will be able to sample products from over a dozen different distilleries, along with locally produced gin, beer and food. And there will be a series of masterclasses focusing on everything from mixology to food pairing with the best-known names in the business.
Spirit of Speyside: Distilled is an offshoot of the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival, which takes place every year over the May Day bank holiday weekend and draws thousands of international visitors to the region. It has more than 500 events over multiple sites, and organisers felt there was scope to introduce a second, more intimate event which gave visitors the chance to try products and meet the people behind them, in a single location.
Festival manager Pery Zakeri said: “Many people are passionate about whisky and want to visit its true heartland in Speyside to learn more, but planning a very busy itinerary over several days just isn’t an option for them. Distilled is about bringing everyone together – one region under one roof – while still offering the fantastic, friendly atmosphere for which the main festival is so renowned. Elgin is an ideal location for this because it is central in the Speyside area and easily accessible because of very good transport links.”
The event is split into four separate sessions – Friday evening, Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon – and will bring together more than 30 of Speyside’s food and drink producers. Among the distilleries in the line-up are The Glenlivet, Benromach, Aberlour, Cardhu, Glen Moray, Glen Grant, Gordon and MacPhail, Glenfiddich, Cragganmore and The Macallan.
The globally recognised brands will share the spotlight with smaller producers, including locally produced El-Gin, Berry Good, Carounn and Gordon Castle Gin, as well as Speyside Craft Brewery, Windswept Brewing Co and Spey Valley Brewery. International powerhouses Walkers Shortbread and Baxters will head-up the food element, and they will be joined by other producers operating on a much smaller scale, including Balvenie St Ice Cream, Cairngorm Leaf and Bean and Aunt Marie’s Kitchen.
Tickets for each session are £20 and the entry fee includes a lanyard, vouchers for five 10ml tasting samples of gin or whisky, a voucher for a tasting measure of a beer, a Glencairn crystal nosing and tasting glass, and a snack using local produce prepared by event caterers Good Highland Food. Group bookings are also available, with 10 tickets priced at £18 each.
There is also a series of masterclasses – tickets for which need to be booked separately – where visitors will get the chance to sample rare and vintage malts, learn more about distillation and brewing, discover mixology tricks, and get a taste for pairing whisky with sweets. Many of the stands will be manned by master distillers, global brand ambassadors and producers, ensuring visitors get to meet the real stars of Speyside’s food and drink industry. And there will also be an on-site retail store run by The Whisky Shop Dufftown.
Pery said: “We are very excited to stage this event with such a fantastic line-up of exhibitors. Although our whisky brands take part in international trade shows regularly, believe it or not, this is the first time that our distilleries have exhibited together under one roof on their own doorstep.”
Tickets are available to buy in advance through the website www.distilled.scot and will also be available on the door. And there is a VIP invitation for anyone who shares their name with one of Speyside’s distilleries – any Glen Grants, Ben Romachs or Glen Murrays will be entitled to free entry if they can prove their identity.
