2017 | Vilnius Whisky Festival

On the 1st of April 2017, „Vilnius Whisky Festival“ took place for a second time in “Crowne Plaza Vilnius” hotel. Once more, it justified its title “the biggest in the Baltic States” and grew up from the last year even more.

After a successful debut in 2016, we expected it to be bigger this year. We had only highest goals and were doing our best, to maintain the highest quality, make it professional, cozy and friendly. Like last year, the amount of guests attending the festival exceeded our expectations and objectives. In 2016 we had 500 guests. We were hoping to have 700 this year, but had 800 people in total. We are happy, that the festival tickets were sold out a day before the event. Because of the limited space in the festival area, we had to limit the amount of people inside, to maintain the high quality and comfort for everyone.

Participants

This year we had more participants than last year. In 38 exhibition stands, you could find almost all the whiskies, distributed in Lithuania. Only few importers refused to participate in the event.

We are very happy, that this year we had many guests from different whisky distilleries and brand ambassadors from other countries. There were more than 10 of them.

The same as last year, selection of whiskies available in the festival was largest of any other events of that kind, hosted in the Baltic States. There were more than 250 whiskies present. The area of the festival was larger this year. It took the entire “Crowne Plaza Vilnius” hotel’s conference center.

In the main hall, one could find all the whisky stands, also barbers from “Barzdaskučiai – Barbershops Vilnius” and “Seva The Gentleman” – modern gentleman’s shop representatives.

In the area before the main hall, all whisky related attractions were based. This year we had more of these, than last year. “Say Cheese” cheese company was offering whisky – cheese parings, cocktail bar “Apoteka” was taking care of the festival’s cocktails, “Strange Love” coffee company was preparing Irish coffee, “Dione” ice cream company was offering whisky and ice cream pairings, Šiauliai sweets factory “Rūta” was making whisky – chocolate pairing and the hotel’s chef, was offering to try oysters with peaty whisky.

Also, „W.Grant‘s Blending Room“ was working during the festival, were guests had a chance to get to know the art of whisky blending and to make a personal blend for themselves.

One of the main goals of the festival is to educate Lithuanian market. For this reason, during the festival 4 masterclasses were held and it was hosted by guests from whisky distilleries or brand ambassadors. „Kavalan“, „Deanston“, „Teeling“ and „Glengoyne“ masterclasses were fully booked. In these masterclasses rare and interesting whiskies were introduced. More than 120 guests attended it.

Guests

There were 800 people attending the „Vilnius Whisky Festival 2017“. Most of them were Lithuanian. Mostly from Vilnius, but also many from Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and other cities. This year we had more guests from neighboring countries. Many Latvians, also some Estonians, Polish, Ukrainians and Russians.