As a London based site we are spoilt for choice when it comes to whisky festivals and 2025’s calendar is so packed there’s sometimes multiple on a single weekend. Being a major whisky maker means Scotland has its many local shows too and even Birmingham manages three a year. However, most of England’s cities are lucky if they get one show a year. For Bristol things are about to change for the better as Exploring Whisky Bristol arrives. This is the latest outing from Exploring Whisky who run The English Whisky Festival and our 2024 favourite: Croydon Whisky Festival.  

These Croydon and Bristol events are sister shows and act like the Reading and Leeds festival of the whisky world, albeit around a month apart. The exhibitor lists for 2025 are mostly identical, the venues are similar and the goal is the same. Bringing small makers, independent bottlers and boutique distributors into the limelight in areas that are full of potential customers but perhaps not served by existing whisky events.

Exploring Whisky Bristol took place at Paintworks, a previously derelict industrial area that’s 20 minutes walk from Bristol Temple Meads station. The journey isn’t an aesthetically pleasant walk and from the outside the venue still looks like a warehouse. However, the interior is lovingly done with fairy light wrapped girders, exposed bricks and polished wood floors. It’s bright and airy – perhaps too airy. All the empty space means that sound carries and this is the loudest festival I’ve ever been to with many brand ambassadors being completely inaudible. I’m sure there were plenty of sore throats Sunday morning. This is something that’s down to the venue rather than the organization and to Exploring English Whisky’s credit there was a seating area and outdoor space available away from the noise. The venue even had a snug seating area built into an old industrial chimney which was a fun feature of the space.

Thankfully you don’t need to hear to enjoy the smell and taste, and the selection here was great for a small show. Anyone with an open mind to whisky will find plenty to love. The only area of weakness across the distillers, independent bottlers and world whisky distributors is Bourbon but even then we’re picking at little flaws in a generous and balanced selection. The level of exhibitor knowledge across the show was great to see too. Like all other Exploring Whisky events you can absolutely get a judgement-free crash course in the brown stuff in an afternoon. This is as newbie friendly as it gets.

Whilst we don’t review whisky we love to call out exhibitors that impressed us the most with the experience they provided at a festival. Until Exploring Whisky Bristol none of us at All But Drams had met The Heart Cut team. Perhaps that’s not surprising, they’ve been around less than two years, yet they already have one of the most unique world whisky line-ups we’ve seen from an independent bottler. Georgie walked us through each one we tried in detail with not just the story of the spirit but their rationale behind bottling it. There’s a lot of delicious but unusual things to try including an English chocolate stout cask rye, experimental whisky made from distilled beer, and the only independent bottling of Westward American Single Malt you can get in the UK. The price of these smaller 50cl bottlings may throw some people off at first but after tasting them it’s clear why The Heart Cut has received so much love.

Eventbrite pages often disappear from the internet so for posterity here’s the full list of brands that attended Exploring Whisky Bristol:

• Uncle Nearest
• Glendalough
• Bearface
• Yamazakura
• Akashi
• Stauning
• The English Distillery
• Aber Falls
• Adelphi / Ardnamurchan
• Adnams Distillery
• Artful Dodger
• Berry Brothers & Rudd
• Cadenheads
• Caskshare
• Circumstance Distillery
• Claxtons
• Compass Box
• Cooper King
• East London Liquor Company
• Exploring English Whisky
• Fielden
• Glasgow Distillery
• Henstone Distillery
• Isle of Raasay Distillery
• Larkfire
• Lindores Abbey Distillery
• Lochlea Distillery
• Ludlow Distillery
• Milk & Honey Distillery
• Nickolls & Perks
• Retribution Distilling co.
• Sacred
• Saltire
• Slanjj
• Speciality Brands (Nikka / Chichibu)
• Spirit of Birmingham Distillery
• The Heart Cut
• Welsh Whisky Society
• White Peak Distillery (Wireworks)

For anyone that loves products from the British Isles the list above is exceptional for a small show. I can’t frankly think of a better small festival lineup except Croydon last year which won our festival of the year for this reason among many. Overall the drams on offer were at the affordable end of things (for craft whisky) with only a few being over £100. There’s no “dream drams” and the things that might be stashed under the table are more curiosities and experiments rather than high-priced malts. 

The lack of high-end bottles is a by-product of making the show accessible and focused on independents. The pricing is designed to attract the whisky curious, those who want to go beyond what you’d find in the supermarket or a local pub. Super Early Bird tickets started as low as £27.50 and full price £37.50. This is a bargain compared to every other Whisky festival in the south of England, especially with the six hour run time.

There’s a catch to the incredible value of the run time, the festival is long. Whilst everyone seemed to be on their feet at the end, having that much drinking is always a risk at a show that’s aiming to convert newbies as well as satisfying enthusiasts. Exploring Whisky takes all the necessary steps with food options, plenty of water available and spittoons on every stand. What really set them apart as organisers is how often they jumped in to give exhibitors much needed breaks. Even with this support the exhibitors we spoke to had cracked voices and very sore feet by the end of the afternoon.

Exploring Whisky Bristol is already planned for 2026, but is it going to be worth your time next year? It depends on where you live. If you’re from the East of England the exhibitor overlap with Croydon makes going to both worth it only for hardened enthusiasts, though that is always subject to change. However, If you’re out in Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire, or even over the Severn in South Wales – this is probably the best festival you’re going to get. So if you want to keep an eye out for next year’s tickets you should follow Exploring Whisky for all their festival updates.

[Complimentary festival tickets were provided by Exploring English Whisky. All other costs were covered by All But Drams.]