I came home from Whisky Live London with a stick. About six inches long and made of Mongolian oak, it was given to me by Chinese barrel company Junhe. I stuck it in a bottle of Buffalo Trace white dog to see what it would do. After four weeks I had my own unique Mongolian oak aged spirit. The noticeable colour shift and more tannic flavour contrasts well with the sweet corn of the new make.

For me, Whisky Live London was a bit of an adventure and a chance to try some new things. However, my enjoyment is unfortunately the pain of others. There was  plenty of interesting fringe content for someone like myself who writes about it, but a dip in variety and volume was noticeable with the whisky.

Whisky Live is an ancient and venerable show that is held globally and has been going on for longer than I’ve been legally able to drink. Whisky Live Warsaw’s website has a great history of the show for the curious. This legacy and globality at first made me reluctant to throw criticism at the show but after attending in 2023 also it’s clear that not all of the changes made for 2024 are on point.

I paid £58.65 for my early-bird standard ticket which puts it in an awkward middle ground between shows like Harrow and Croydon that are closer to £30 and the big shows like The Whisky Event and The Whisky Exchange Show at ~£100+. There is a slightly cheaper ticket for a shorter slot if you want it but the show is already short as is. Where Whisky Live has impressed me with tickets is with their offer of non-drinkers tickets at a discount which most shows will not offer as it requires a big degree of trust and is otherwise unenforceable. 

The move from Moorgate to Woolwich is inconvenient, but a better space is a better space and it was nice not to be rammed into a stuffy hall but have a bright and airy environment to enjoy. I love the history of the arsenal and the ex-industrial vibe too. Yes it’s more of a trek but if it allows the show to expand I think we can all get on board. Only, there was obviously too much space. 

The Whisky Speaker has a great little panorama video that shows the show layout before the crowds arrived.

You can see how spread out the whole venue was. It’s unfortunate then that Whisky Live London still managed to feel crowded despite all this new space because it uses pop-up stands even though it is a 2 day show. This is of course easier and more flexible for exhibitors with less resource but it results in a much less visually thrilling show than other Whisky Live events around the world and gives the event teams less creative flex. This evens the playing field in terms of show presence and marketing but we were seeing mostly larger brands in attendance anyway. The stands that had the whisky and weren’t promoting another product (liqueurs, barrels, books, mixers, etc) drew big crowds several rows deep and some stands had run out entirely before the show ended.

Whisky Live still has a USP in a market that’s getting more competitive and that’s the Awards stand. This used to be a “dream dram” affair where you received a token and could pick from a huge range of whiskies that either won or were entered into the World Whiskies Awards. Now it is split into a premium bar for the premium ticket holders with two tokens and a free-pouring bar in the main hall with the less rare and expensive entries. For me this was an improvement, as someone who likes to try interesting world whiskies it was great to try nearly a dozen over the course of the show rather than being forced to pick one. However, for the single malt crowd who didn’t want to front up the extra cash I can see it being an additional annoyance.

The food trucks available at the show were okay but still a tough thing to swallow as previous years included a decent cold buffet spread in the ticket price. This meal was always a great time to chat and meet new people to talk about whisky. It’s a shame to have it taken out with no real savings passed on. Some credit is due to the bar. The Milroy’s team knows how to make a cocktail and getting one included in the ticket on what was a warm March day was a refreshing treat.

All of this criticism I am giving is overshadowed by the tiny corner that was Gin Live. That show has been relegated to a tent in previous years but, oh boy, was it a fun tent. Even as someone who dislikes gin it was a delight to hang out in and had a real range. Gin Live at this show was just 5 exhibitors and the World Gin Awards stands. Given the two shows exist on an integrated ticket, if you came for the gin you got far less value for money than the already questionable return for whisky fans.

Whisky Live is a licensed show, meaning that different organisers do the legwork in different regions. However, the unified branding means that if someone were to go to Whisky Live Paris they may well expect the same experience in London and be disappointed. Paris is a multi-day show at a similar price with vastly more content, the same goes for Dublin too. There are well over 200 brands at Paris 2024 and 100 at Dublin 2024 vs London’s 40. Why things have gone this way isn’t known to me as a consumer. Previous years were clearly restricted by venue size but there was a lot of unused space in the Woolwich venue. I did hear rumblings from exhibitors about high costs vs other shows in England. I always make an effort to ask exhibitors which shows they are going to and what they think of them. If they are having a good time and getting value, that will translate to a good time for all us drinkers too.

In each All But Drams review we like to call out the exhibitors that impressed us with the experience they provided and their knowledge. Here the non-distillers really shone. Junhe and their aforementioned Mongolian oak stick was one of the most unique freebies I’ve ever received. We loved speaking with Birkentree who had brought their highland birchwater product. The claim with birchwater is that it lets you dilute whisky to lower abv but retain the same mouthfeel. We aim to do a full review to see if Birkentree is worth it but from an exhibiting point of view they did an excellent job telling us all about the science and their goals within the whisky space. What made it the most fun was their encouragement to bring all the whiskies we really enjoyed over from other stands to try with the birchwater to compare and contrast.

To conclude, it is hard to recommend Whisky Live London. It hasn’t done anything wrong but the competition has grown substantially in the last few years and overtaken it. For seasoned enthusiasts my recommendation would be to wait until very close to the show and see if any must-see exhibitors are announced for you (tickets did not sell out in 2023 or 2024). Or, you can front up the extra money for The Whisky Event and The Whisky Exchange Show for a vastly bigger experience. Newcomers to whisky who don’t happen to live near Woolwich should check out Harrow Whisky Festival and Croydon Whisky Festival for North/South London mini-events that will be easy on the budget and present a stellar selection despite their size.