Inside the Hyatt Regency in River North on Friday, I was sitting at a table eating some buffet food when I was joined by some fellow attendees of WhiskyFest Chicago. One woman noticed the notes I was taking, so I explained that I was planning to write about the annual booze-tasting extravaganza. I didn’t mention that exhaustion had already started to set in, but maybe she saw it in my face.
By then we were about 20 minutes in, and I decided to see what was left at the Old Rip Van Winkle table. Amazingly, they were still pouring the much-sought-after 23-year-old Pappy van Winkle (though the first bottle had apparently been finished off in seven minutes, and the second was also close to gone). It’s easy to see why people go crazy for it—aside from its rarity, which is admittedly a big part of the appeal, the toffee and vanilla come through like a punch in the face, followed by more refined notes of apricot. I went back for a taste of 20-year-old Pappy, curious about the difference, and found it spicier and more peppery, though still very elegant.
I’d planned to go to one or two of the seminars, but they seemed to be more popular this year than in the past, and despite waiting in line for two different sessions I didn’t get into either. I wandered around the floor one more time to make sure I hadn’t missed anything important, and noticed that MGP had a table. Last fall they released a bourbon called Metze’s Select, their first whiskey ever under their own label—though of course, MGP has been making good whiskey for years and selling it to other labels. It’s not cheap, retailing for around $75, but I do remember it being a pretty damn fine whiskey (sorry for the lack of detail, but I was pretty much done taking notes by that point).
