Perthshire hosts first live whisky festival of year
A new Perthshire festival toasting the joys of whisky took over Castle Menzies at the weekend.
The Spirit of Perthshire proudly claimed to be the first live whisky festival of the year.
Co-founders Sandy Fraser and Ewan McIlwraith put on this event in the historic castle near Aberfeldy.
The festival follows last year’s activities for discerning whisky fans, when during lockdown they held the first fully online whisky festival, with samples arriving in the post to try as experts spoke to participants live on screen.
On Friday at Castle Menzies there was a dinner attended by 72 guests who enjoyed a fantastic meal and selection of drams.
Tony Reeman-Clark entertained as an after dinner speaker.
There followed a charity auction with Finlay McIntyre of the BBC TV programme‘The Mart’ managing the bidding with over £1100 raised for the Castle Menzies Trust.
Then on Saturday, one hundred people came to two separate festival tasting sessions featuring 22 of the newest distilleries and bottlers.
Sandy Fraser said:“Although we had a lower number than many of the established whisky festivals, the smaller numbers made the Spirit of Perthshire Festival event more enjoyable for exhibitors and public alike, giving both the opportunity to discuss the whiskies in great depth.”
One of the non distillery exhibitors Birkentree from Dunkeld - featured their newly-launched birch water sourced from the birch trees of local estates. This was received very well by those who enjoy a splash of water in their dram.