On January 20th, I attended my first event of 2024, the Jersey City Whiskey Festival.
Similar events including wine and beer are run by the same company and are held around the New York area in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Long Island with many of the same vendors and food stalls. These are consumer-oriented events that a wine/spirit geek might find not as intensive as they would like but they’re guaranteed to have a lively crowd. They held a day and evening session, and I attended the afternoon session.
The event was held at the Harborside Atrium, an event space just steps off the Exchange Place Path railway station in Jersey City. It’s on the waterfront and as a nice bonus, you get a killer view of the lower Manhattan skyline.
The event space itself was big and airy which made it feel less crowded than it was. Usually at these things, I concentrate on the brown spirits followed by rum, with an occasional stab at tequila/mezcal.
Surprisingly, I began the tasting with a shot of pickle juice infused vodka from the Original Pickle Shot brand which wasn’t half bad. American whiskey was well represented with Balcones, Penelope, Yellowstone and Uncle Nearest.
I had some interesting single malt Irish Whisky from Waterford which also poured their Agricole style rum from their Grenada distilled Renegade brand. Natterjack and Dead Rabbit were additional Irish Whisky being poured.
The most interesting bottle had the be the guitar shaped bottle of mango infused tequila from Rock n Roll.
I attended a seminar hosted by Old Line whiskey company based out of Baltimore. They poured their Double Oak Series, Flagship 95°, Navy Strength 114°, American Single Malt and a 7-year Caribbean rum.
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