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Anton Plehov: It was a pleasure to see how festivals are organized outside the FSU countries.

It was a pleasure to see how festivals are organized outside the FSU countries. My last Whisky Live in London was in early 2014. Much time has passed since then, and I was curious to see how the world of whisky exhibitions has evolved. Well, anticipating your questions, not much has changed.

The exhibition featured 29 stands. Some were huge, like The Macallan and The Glenlivet, while others were much smaller but very appealing in terms of variety.

At the entrance, each attendee was given three coupons for tastings and a beautiful Glencairn Glass snifter. However, most exhibitors offered tasting samples without requiring the coupons. Erkin Tuzmukhamedov and I used ours for a Macallan tasting of their NAS (No Age Statement) Single Malt. The line for the closed tasting session was long, and I was expecting an exceptional experience. But, as is often the case with big brands, the atmosphere and storytelling were excellent, though the sample itself was much like the Macallan you can find in most Duty-Free shops.

What I really enjoyed was the impressive number of local Israeli distilleries. Despite the ongoing conflict, with some distillers having relocated to the center of the country, there were plenty of malts to taste and savor. I didn’t get to try them all, but I particularly loved Yerushalmi Distillery מזקקת ירושלמי, The Drunken Owl Distillery מזקקת הינשוף השיכור, The M&H Distillery, Olgar Distillery, and, of course, Ruach Distillery.

I arrived right when the event opened at 14:15 (in true Israeli style, it couldn’t start at 14:00 as advertised—liat liat). It was quiet at first, but by 17:00, it was nearly impossible to move due to the crowd. Even the stands for Citroen’s new crossover and Kilian perfume, which didn’t serve any whisky, were packed with people.

Overall, it was a great experience. I found:

11 stands from local producers,
7 multinationals,
5 local distributors, and
6 stands from related brands—whisky investments, glass producers, and cigars.
Here’s hoping that by 2025, we’ll see a bigger venue and at least double the number of stands compared to this challenging year, 2024.