What words come to mind when one considers the prospect of being fortunate enough to walk into a room that contains over 200 blends of distilled spirits from some of the most prestigious and innovative distilleries in the world? Glorious? Superlative? Magnificent? For myself, the sheer giddiness of the moment resulted in a limited ability to only utter two simple words: "Holy S***!"

The festival was held at The Union League of Philadelphia, which translated into business casual being the minimum attire for attendees. I fought the temptation to wear a tuxedo and just went with the suit. Entry to the Union League was off the side door on Sansom Street..a slight disappointment...I bet I could have gone in the front with the tux. Next year. Once inside I was directed in circles and eventually up a flight of stairs where I waited in line for roughly 10 minutes to leave my umbrella at the coat check. Thank goodness there was a whiskey festival going on upstairs because at this point I needed a drink.

Once upstairs and officially wrist-banded, I had free reign of the festival and all of its magnificent spoils. I took a moment to listen to what sounded like a jazz trio when I was making my way upstairs, but it turned out to be a jazz pianist with backing tracks...interesting. Resisting the temptation to immediately grab an empty glass and run to my favorite distillers, I decided to pace myself and do a quick survey of the booths and how things were organized. The spirit vendor booths were in three separate rooms: the smaller Library Lounge and Lincoln Memorial rooms housed non-whiskey spirits like Vodka, Gin, Rum, and Tequila. Down the hall from those two rooms was the much larger Lincoln Hall where the stars of tonight's show were: Whiskey, Scotch Whiskey, and Bourbon vendors. Beyond Lincoln Hall was a lounge for eating complimentary food attached to a smaller room for smoking complimentary cigars.

After familiarizing myself with the layout, I was ready get down to business and sample some whiskey. Upon making my way back through Lincoln Hall to obtain a sampling glass, I realized the room had become noticeably more congested than earlier. Actually congested isn't the right term here, more like full on sardines in a can packed. The last time I was in a crowd this thick I was on the floor at a Foo Fighters concert. When I finally wedged my way through the crowd to where the sampling glasses were supposed to be, I was horrified to see an empty table. Looking around I saw others with similar dumbfounded expressions of "but...where are the...how am I supposed to...drink?"

After what felt like an eternity, but in reality was probably only two minutes, a new tray of glasses arrived, huzzah! Newly armed with a fancy tulip-shaped spirit-sampling tool, I was ready squeeze my way back into the action. Being a single-malt scotch fan, I had initially planned on starting somewhere on the oaky highlands and eventually ending up in the smoky peat bogs of Islay. Unfortunately, that plan went out the window due to the restrictiveness of the dense crowd. This tasting was going to have to be based on what was close, especially since at this point after all of the crowd maneuvering, I REALLY needed a drink!

The nearest booth featured The Macallan single malt, which was a convenient place to start. I began to think I might actually be able to follow through with my initial plan because The Macallan is a great introductory single-malt. Personally, I keep at least one bottle of Macallan 12 in my liquor cabinet at all times for when company is over since I know it's not necessarily going to offend anyone's palate. I ended up sampling the 18-year, which is a shade darker than the 12 that I am used to. I was surprised that the 18 had noticeably less smoke in the nose compared to the 12. The taste of it also offered a more dense character than I expected...spiciness, clove, and citrus.

Right next to The Macallan was one of my all-time favorite single-malts, Highland Park. Coincidentally, the 12-year is what I typically use to introduce friends and colleagues to the more intense peaty side of Scotch whisky. The peat isn't overwhelming, but it is definitely present in both the nose and palate. Upon sampling the 18-year I found the peat was still there, but the body was richer and more round, with more sweetness than spice compared to the 12.

Moving briefly away from the single-malts, I discovered an artisan blended scotch company that has some innovative products available: Compass Box Whisky Company. I was initially attracted to their booth because of the giant popup display that said "The Peat Monster." With a name like that it has to be good...or terrifying, but I was willing to risk it. Turns out the Monster was delicious, and the kind gent manning the booth gave me a fantastic education on their products that I could write an entirely separate piece on.

I could honestly go on for another 20 paragraphs detailing all of my tastings that night, and I will say that it was a good thing they had pour buckets and food readily available...though it was quite obvious that some did not take advantage of these features towards the end of the night. For those who are interested, I have listed all of the spirits I tried and enjoyed at the festival. I will admit, there were some that were uninteresting and borderline offensive, but that may be due to the fact that I started with some of the best spirits known to man.

For a whiskey advocate like myself, this festival is a no-brainer. Eighty-five bucks for unlimited tastings, free food, and access to a swanky club I'd normally be thrown out of on any other day of the week. In reality the event was well worth the cash, but there were some things that could definitely be improved upon for next year like a larger venue or a more restrictive supply of tickets. Also, a live jazz group would be preferable to the one-man-band and pre-recorded stuff, but maybe that's just a matter of personal taste. All things considered, Philadelphia Magazine and the PLCB did a great job making this event enjoyable and well worth attending!