Cork’s Whiskey Festival 2017
Never a dull moment in Cork (or in Ireland in general). I’ve only just recovered from the Cork Burger Festival: January 30th – February 5th 2017 we had back at the end of January – beginning of February and where I enjoyed not one but two fantastic nights filled with mouthwatering burgers in Yellow Sub and Electric but now it’s time for the next festival: Cork’s Whiskey Festival 2017!
Celebrating Irish Whiskeys
As home of the best selling Irish whiskey in the world, it only seemed right that Cork had it’s very own Whiskey Festival.
To celebrate whiskeys from Ireland and across the world, the festival is working with some top producers such as Hyde, West Cork Distillers, St Patricks Distillery, Teelings Whiskey, Dingle Whiskey, Jack Ryan Whiskey, Knappogue Castle, Jameson, Single Pot Still, Bulleit Bourbon, Nikka and The Irishman Whiskey to ensure you get to experience the best whiskeys available in Cork.
Festival Cork will be working alongside some of the city’s and county’s best know bars and restaurants on April 3rd – 9th 2017. Throughout the weekend you can experience tastings, talks, tours, treats and more in participating venues including Arthur Mayne’s, Sober Lane, Electric, The White Rabbit, The Oliver Plunkett, Deep South, An Brog, BDSM, Suas, BarBarella, Costigans Bar, The Cornstore, Cask, Cavanaghs, Bodega, Goldbergs, Soho, The Raven, The Woodford, The Stave and Chime, The Shelbourne Bar, Tom Barry’s, BarBarossa, Coqbull, Yellow Sub, Rising Sons, Mutton Lane, Huckleberry’s, Pigalle, Cork Airport Hotel, The Commons Inn, The Montenotte Hotel, Celtic Ross Hotel, Midleton Park Hotel, The Commodore Hotel, and Kudos Bar @ The Clayton Hotel.
What can you expect
There’s plenty on offer in the city and county, Ballymaloe house for example will be creating a Whiskey Cocktail using ingredients foraged from gardens in Ballymaloe. In what will have to be a festival highlight they have a Ballymaloe Whiskey Experience – this package includes Dinner Bed & Breakfast in Ballymaloe House, a Midleton Very Rare on arrival, an Irish Coffee following dinner and a tour of the Jameson Experience in Midleton after breakfast. Surely their “Glazed Ballymaloe Ham with Irish Whiskey Sauce” will be a contender for whiskey dish of the festival!
If you’re a fan of both chocolate and whiskey then have a look at Electric as they’ll be pairing whiskey and chocolate. Enjoying different aged/flavoured whiskeys paired with different chocolates – what better way to spend a Saturday afternoon! If chocolate’s not your thing maybe you’re up for the blind whiskey tasting? You’ll taste 3 whiskeys and have to try and identify them. Electric will give you a list of 12 from which to guess to make it a little bit easier. It costs 10 euros per go, every penny of which will go Corks Penny Dinners. If you guess correctly you’ll get a 100 euro Electric voucher and enter a raffle for a bottle of Midleton Rare. Last but not least the Bar/Restaurant is working with Bumblebee Flower Farm Ireland and Tipperary Boutique Distillery, one of the cocktails they created together is called ‘Bluetique’ and the ingredients are:
• Tipperary Boutique Whiskey
• Homemade rosemary syrup
• Blueberry puree
• Lime juice
• Rosemary and flower garnish (if you can tell them what the flower is called you can win some cocktails on the house!)
Cornstore Cork for their part,have come up with ‘A sensory journey through Irish Whiskey History’ The journey will begin with a recreation of an early 17th century Irish Usquebaugh recipe. From there we will meander through the history of Irish whiskey, whilst sampling vintage expressions, modern interpretations and recreations of old recipe’s that will bring life to that story through your unique sense of taste and smell:
• 17th century unaged “Usquebaugh” (recreation)
• 18th century aged Usquebaugh (recreation)
• Early 19th century Poitin (recreation)
• “The Golden Age” – 1865 Pure Pot Still Recipe
• Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition (interpretation)
• 2nd World War era Scotch blend – Haig Gold
• Finally some innovation – 1950’s era Irish Mist
• A Lifeline – 1950’s Irish Coffee
• Fighting Back – 60’s/70’s Jameson Red Seal blend
•A Contemporary Fine Art – Powers Single Pot Still
For more info have a look at Festival Cork’s Website or Facebook page
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