InterWhisky 2019, my thoughts

A weekend filled with Whisky

This year was my first time at InterWhisky in Frankfurt and it will certainly not be my last. Over the two days I attended, I visited booths, forums and masterclasses. And herein lie the big strengths of the InterWhisky. The booths aren't run by retailers but by the distilleries. This means that many brand ambassadors are attending and able to tell you all about their whisky and answer any question you can think of. 

The forums are another big plus. These are free to attend and the distilleries presenting themselves are offering one or two drams. This is a great way to find new distilleries, without them, I wouldn't have found Spey or Kilkerran. The places in the forums are limited so for the forums of the bigger brands (Like the Bruichladdich Black Art 7.1 forum) I'd advise to be there early. 

The wide range of Masterclasses by the brand ambassadors rounds of an already great experience you'll have. A word of warning though, they sell out very quickly.

Now to the few negative point I have. First one is, that on Saturday it gets very crowded especially on the second floor gallery. Getting through there is nearly impossible at times. Sunday was much better. The second point and that's a big one for me is that there was no clean up between Saturday and Sunday. When I arrived on Sunday to wait in line before the doors open, there were broken bottles, broken glasses, rubbish and rests from cigars all lying around outside. I find it very irresponsible to let these things lie around over night especially considering the location. The Palmengarten is visited by many families with small kids on Sunday. There is a real danger that kids or animals could get hurt. Broken glassware could not just be found outside but also inside. Many corners were littered with shards of glass. This is something that needs to be addressed an improved.

So all in all I had a great time and enjoyed the weekend a lot. I will try to go again next year and hopefully see some friends I made during those two day.