We have just returned from an ambitious 9 days of spirits tasting which included two major cityies, eight French producers, three distributors and a hurricane. So we are happy to report that in addition to surviving a grueling work schedule, we managed to connect with quite a few consumers and we also had a pretty good time.
Our adventures began with a drive to New York to work at the New York Whisky Fest. This was a great opportunity to introduce the Armorik Whisky line, the only French made single malt available in the US to a dedicated group of consumers. It was a real pleasure to talk with individuals who were so well informed about whisky, many of them devout members of whisky clubs. The Wall Street Journal had impeccable timing by publishing "Eau de Malt," a full page article on Frenchwhiskys during the Festival. Started by a phone call we recieved over the summer, writer John Forsyth did an admiral job of sorting through the collection of emerging French producers dabbling in the production of whisky and rightfully singled out Armorik as the most developed and most scotch like of the group. While the emphasis of the piece was on French Whisky, the emerging catagory of "world whiskyies" was mentioned and several producers were discussed.
Even before the Whisky Fest was finished we had received news that our flight to Chicago was canceled due to the approach of hurricane Sandy. If we had any hope to be there for our week long Chicago tasting tour, our only choice was to drive back to MA, rent a vehicle and drive the 1,000 miles to Chicago and do our best to stay ahead of the storm. That is what we did, stopping for a short nap only twice. Once we arrived at our hotel in Chicago, we were back on schedule and a jam packed schedule it was. While consumer tastings punctuated our week, we also had time for a trade tasting, an informative visit to an exciting local distllery, a lesson on Chicago Blues, some stops at trendy drinking establishments, and visits with our distributors to some of our top retail and on premise accounts. For a photographic tour of our adventures click the following link. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bnhcywb5d47f6rc/3GVwHCUaY4