The tenth annual New York WhiskeyFest is happening at the end of this month while the first annual San Francisco WhiskeyFest is next week. By my count, a dozen Irish brands will be represented on the floor (Bushmills, Connemara, Clontarf, Greenore, Jameson, Kilbeggan, Knappogue Castle, Michael Collins, Midleton Very Rare, Redbreast, Tullamore Dew and Tyrconnell).
Chicago is also honoured with a WhiskeyFest, at another time of the year. There are similar events outside the US, for example those organised under the banner Whisky Live. I see that Toronto, Cape Town, Glasgow, Johannesburg and Leiden all have major whiskey shows over the next month.
I wonder why this doesn't happen in Dublin. It's not that we Irish have no taste for foreign whiskeys. According to an article in The Irish Mail on Sunday today, we drink more Scotch in this country than Irish whiskey (4.1m bottles of Scotch, 3.8m bottles of Irish). Which is, frankly, disgraceful. But there should at least be interest in a whiskey-tasting event similar to those that happen elsewhere in the world.
