Category: Whiskey Festival

Jersey City Whiskey Festival 2025

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On February 1st, I attended the Jersey City Whiskey Festival. The event was open to the public.

The festival was one of a series of similar events that are held in the tri state area and are run by the same company. This one was held at the Harborside event space located at 210 Hudson Street, New Jersey. The venue is just steps from the Exchange Place PATH rail station which is the first stop into New Jersey from the World Trade Center rail hub. It’s along the New Jersey waterfront so you get an exceptional view of the Manhattan skyline.

They advertised over “100 styles of whiskey and spirits” with whiskies from the U.S., Canada, Ireland, Scotland, Japan and India. For the non purists, they did have vodka, rum, tequila and cordials on hand to sample.

Most of the producers bottled more than one type of whiskey with variations depending on the mash bill, aging, proof, type of barrels, etc. I’m partial to Rye whiskey and many of the producers had a Rye or high Rye whiskey to sample.

The event was open to the consumer. In the past they had two sessions, but at this time there was only one evening session which made for a crowded venue, especially at the popular whiskey producers, though the space was large enough to get away from the crowd.

Some producers I sampled:

Asbury Park Distilling Co.Yellowstone
BardstownBulleit
Uncle NearestDoc Holliday
All Points WestSyndicate
Crown RoyalLiberties
Dead RabbitFighting 69th
GlencadamUsquaebach
Buchanan’s DeluxeTomintoul
BoondocksMartingale
Veja de CaldasBronx Bull

Whisky Advocate’s New York Whisky Fest 2024

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Last November 20th, Whisky Advocate magazine held their annual New York Whisky Fest which was held at the Marriott Marquis hotel located at 1535 Broadway in Times Square, Manhattan.

It was a night of over 280 whiskies from the United States, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, Japan and India with a couple of tables of tequila thrown in for good measure.

Simply put, whisky is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Every country has its own regulations for how its whisky is labeled.

This was a huge event taking up a whole floor in the hotel. So as usual in these mega tastings, I focused my efforts. When I have a whiskey cocktail such as a Manhattan or an Old Fashioned, I prefer Rye whisky, so I prioritized sampling rye whisky at the start of the tasting.

I’m always on the lookout for a new product so I kept my eye out for any label that I wasn’t familiar with. Since the distillers had more than one than one version of their whiskey on hand to pour, even the usual mass market distillers showed something new or rare since they experimented with different alcohol levels, mash bills and with the type of barrels that the whiskies were aged in.

With a Glencairn in hand, these were some of the brands I sampled:

Heaven HillJacob’s Pardon
WestlandBalcones
AmadorMiddlewest
Bookers Minden Mill
Little RestSagamore
Basil HaydenJefferson’s
Jim BeamKnob Creek
RedemptionOld Grand Dad
BulletRabbit Hole
PraedictumRedbreast
BuskerDrumshanbo

The WOW Tasting Experience

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On August 10th, I attended the WOW (Wonders of Whisky) tasting experience.

It was a curated, “journey around the world through spirits” tasting of over 100 whiskies and spirits.

The event was held at The Bordone event space located in an industrial section of Long Island City, New York at 43-10 9th Street. The building was a couple of blocks from the east river and the event was held on the rooftop terrace of the building which gave us a magnificent view of the Queensborough bridge and the Manhattan skyline, even more so when the sun went down, and the lights of the city turned on.

There were mostly brown spirits being poured but gin, rum and tequila were available to sample as well.

With the brown spirits, there was a strong presence of single malt Scotch on hand but there were still plenty of Bourbon and Rye as well as Irish whiskey, Japanese whisky, Cognac and brown rum to sample.

Scotch is not usually my go to spirit but if you’re pouring a Johhny Walker Blue Label or some other nicely aged single malt, I’ll give it a try. But I do like a nice cognac, so I was happy that they poured Hennessy XO to sample.

They had two sets of live music with all women musicians performing on string instruments.

Some of what I sampled:


Wyoming Whiskey Bourbon

Brother’s Bond Rye/Bourbon
Woodinville Rye/Bourbon, 8yrWhistlepig 10yr Rye, 12yr Rye
Hakata Japanese 10yrKeeper’s Hand Irish/Am Whiskey
Glenmorangie 18yrJohhny Walker Green, 18yr
Rum Clement VSOPBarcelo Rum Anejo, Imperial

Brooklyn Whiskey Fest 2023

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On October 7th, I attended the Brooklyn Whiskey Festival which was held in the Brooklyn Navy Yard at 141 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn.

It was a consumer event with an afternoon and an evening session, I attended the evening session.

It was mostly Whiskey from the United States but there were a few from Ireland and India as well as some vodka, gin and tequila.

As far as whiskey events go, this event wasn’t very comprehensive in the selection that was available. Many of the well-known whiskey producers that usually go to these events were not on hand, I’m not sure if they were around during the afternoon session or just didn’t attend.

I had some nice whiskey from Yellowstone, Remus, Boondocks and Hudson Whiskey. Barrel Smith poured a trio of premixed cocktails, Manhattan, Boulevardier and Negroni. Mendel poured a vodka made from garden peas.

Irish Whiskey Fest NYC 2023

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On March 11th I attended the third annual New York Irish Whiskey Festival. The festival was established back in 2019 and after a two-year pandemic break, returned to New York City in 2022.

At one time, Irish Whiskey was the most popular style of whiskey in this country, Prohibition and politics brought that all to a halt and for decades less than a handful of distilleries remained in the country. In the past couple of decades, the industry in Ireland has been infused with innovators and new startups that has expanded the industry greatly making it a one of the fastest growing categories in the U.S. with sales of $1.3 billion in 2021.

The basic regulations for Irish Whiskey are that the spirit has to be distilled in Ireland from a mash of malt and cereals, triple distilled and aged for a minimum of three years. Most (90%) are blended whiskeys, but they also produce single malt, single grain, single pot still and potcheen (unaged) whiskeys that have been aged different types of barrels. There is much more diversity than the usual Bushmills/Jameson pours available at the local pub.

At the well-attended event I, and the rest of the crowd was able to try a wide range of over 25 Irish whiskeys, The blended whiskeys in general were smooth and drinkable while I found the aged single malts the most interesting.

The event was held at The View at the Battery, an event space at 1 Battery Place at the southern tip of Manhattan overlooking New York Harbor.

Some of what I sampled:

Keeper’s Heart American and Irish blendBushmills 10, 12, 16, 21, 25, 30yr old single malt
Powers Irish ryeRedBreast 12yr single pot still
Croithli single maltTeeling single pot still
J J Corry The GaelThe Quiet Man blended
Roe & Co blendedProper Twelve blended
Proclamation blendedDrumshanbro single malt
The Tyrconnell blendedNaterjack blended
UAIS blended

The Whisky X

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The Whisky X is a Whisky “experience” promoting “whisky, music, food and style”. It’s a traveling whiskey and concert event stopping in Chicago, Austin, Denver and Las Vegas.

On September 10th the tour stopped in Brooklyn. It was held at Industry City which is a huge arts and entertainment center near the waterfront in Sunset Park featuring “eats, drinks and play”.

There were 60+ whiskies and cocktails to sample at the outdoor courtyard and indoors with a good selection of American whiskies, Irish whiskies, Scotch whiskies and for some reason, a table of rum. If you were in the mood for haircut with your whisky, there were a couple of barbers on hand to give you one.

Unlike most of these events there was a live band performing later in the evening. That band that evening was “Guster” and while I didn’t stick around for the concert, they did have an impressive collection of musical instruments on stage.

Some whiskies (and an outlier rum) that I sampled:

Calumet: small batch blend, straight bourbon, 15yr bourbonHudson Whiskey NY: Do the rye thing, bright lights big bourbon
Blackened: Kentucky straight rye, whisky blendWoodinville: 100% Rye, straight bourbon
Roe & Co: Irish whiskeyThe Irishman: Single malt
Busker: Single grain Irish whiskeyTeeling: Single batch Irish whiskey
McConnel“s: Irish WhiskeyJim Beam: Kentucky straight bourbon
Basi Hayden’s: Kentucky straight bourbonKnob Creek: Kentucky straight bourbon
Whistle Pig: Piggy back 6yrClyde May’s: Straight rye, straight bourbon
Gosling’s: Old rum, papa sealLegent: Bourbon