Wonderful World of Whiskey' in Cornwall a Success

A first for the city of Cornwall, the Wonderful World of Whiskey’s inaugural event proved to be a roaring success. On March 25 this year, around 400 whiskey lovers gathered together to sample over a 100 whiskies from vendors from across US and Canada.

The festival was organized by Ian Bentley, Director of Conference Services and Food and Beverage for the NAV Centre, who had been dreaming of organizing this for ten years. Thrilled with its success, he hopes to expand its scope further. He said, “There’s a lot of opportunity for growth with an event like this. I’m just excited to be a part of it and give people more opportunities to discover what Cornwall has to offer.”

Besides the staggering spectrum of whiskies on offer, guests could also opt for classes from Davin de Kergommeaux, a whiskey connoisseur and trained sommelier. Kergommeaux believes that whiskey should not be intimidating.“What’s interesting about an event like this is that guests will have knowledgeable people telling them all about what they’re tasting,” he explained, prior to the event.

He also extolled Canadian whiskey and appreciated an opportunity to showcase it to a wider audience. “I think that people are looking for something new, and they’re only now discovering how much high-quality Canadian whisky is available. We’ve always had great whisky in Canada, but now people are now starting to taste the more expensive stuff and realizing that for five dollars more, they can get a really nice whisky.”

Also on the list was Peter Bradford’s class about Canadian oak barrel. He recognized the fact that most tend not to consider the barrel as an important factor. “The barrel is an ingredient, and the Average Joe wouldn’t tend to think much past the date on the bottle,” he said. He also mentioned Canadian oak to be a fairly new trend.

A gourmet feast along with some of the finest whiskies was served which included delicacies, such as smoked whole hog and Scotland’s national dish, haggis. The menu was catered by NAV Center’s Chef Luc McCabe.

Bentley revealed that plans for the next Wonderful World of Whiskey event are underway, with dates set for March 23-24 of next year.