After attending the Independent Spirits Festival in Leith, Edinburgh for the second time, I can say with full confidence that this is the greatest whisky event out there. I wasn’t originally planning to write about it. I didn’t take many usable photos, and between a 2 a.m. start and the sheer majesticness of the show, the whole day was something of a blur. A beautiful, beautiful blur. But people asked, so here it is: my account of what made this festival so extraordinary.
First, a giant cheers to David Stirk, the brains behind this behemoth of a festival, along with Roy, the Water of Life team, and all the brilliant volunteers who made it run so smoothly.
The event kicked off with a screening of this year’s documentary, “Field to Flavour,” which told the tale of brands that make whisky from the ground up, quite literally. A great Q&A followed with Joe from Spirit of Yorkshire and Francis from Daftmill. During the screening, we were treated to four drams, including a standout Daftmill summer release and liquid from Filey Bay. Banging stuff.
The pours came in quick succession, though, and I was grateful for the couple of hours we had afterwards to grab some much-needed food at Subsy, a fantastic North Indian spot down the road, where an international crew of whisky enthusiasts swapped stories and the best swear words in English, French, and Italian.
Once inside the festival halls, the experience was simply mindblowing. Leith Theatre brings such charm to an event like this, and the quality of liquid on offer was obscenely good. This is whisky enthusiasts pouring enthusiast whisky for whisky enthusiasts.
I worked my way through drams from Turntable, Little Brown Dog, Holyrood, Gordon & MacPhail, Uncharted Whisky Co., Finn Thompson, the Fragrant Drop, Wire Works, and more. Highlights included a wild 40-year-old Caol Ila that tasted like liquid Parma Violet sweets, a superb Highland Park 22-year-old from Uncharted, and a mystery pour that turned out to be a 50-year-old Signatory Bunnahabhain. You had whisky titans like Andrew Symington and Charles MacLean just milling about, chatting with us commoners. The Woodrow stand introduced me to their Jane Street smoky expression, which is wallet-friendly, fantastic, and supposedly Lagavulin. It still makes my knees weak.
What sets this festival apart from the likes of the London Whisky Show or Glasgow’s offerings is its intimacy and its spirit. No one was drunk. No one was stumbling around. It was top-tier whisky being poured for top-tier folk, all wrapped in an atmosphere of genuine warmth and camaraderie.
Edinburgh always seems easier and cheaper to get to, and the Independent Spirits Festival itself is bottled magic. I would 110% recommend it to anyone with even a passing love of whisky, and if I can, I will absolutely be back in 2027. To all the hugs, handshakes, and brilliant people I met along the way: cheers to the next one.
Have you been to the Independent Spirits Festival, or is it now on your list? I’d love to hear which whisky events have left a lasting impression on you.
To see how excited I really got about the Independent Spirits Festival, check out my YouTube video.
Read the full article at The Independent Spirits Festival in Edinburgh is Whisky Magic
