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Whiskeria Spring 2022
A Time in History
A dram on the Danube Brian Wilson travels down the Danube to Budapest and takes us inside one of Europe’s most popular Whisky trade shows. F EATU R E IL LU STR ATION: K AT IE SMIT H
Knowledge Bar Budapest
E U ROP E HUNGARY Budapest
Budapest was the result of the merger of three cities, not two. Most know about Buda and Pest, but it was not until these were united with the town of Óbuda that Budapest was officially unified in 1873. Budapest has the only metro system in the world that is a UNESCO Site. Budapest has more thermal water springs than any other capital city in the world. On top of monikers such as ‘Paris of the East’, or the ‘Pearl of the Danube’, it is fondly known also as the ‘City of Spas’.
I had other reasons to be in Budapest recently – football, since you ask – and took a couple of days extra to chill in one of the great European capitals, complete with a wee cruise on the Danube. This proved to be a good call as it allowed me to stumble upon the fact that the Budapest Whisky Show was taking place that weekend. The clincher was that the Budapest Highlanders Pipe Band was to perform, so a visit to the suitably grand surroundings of the Corinthia Hotel seemed essential. Whisky and the pipes in Budapest on a Saturday afternoon? How could one resist? Entry proved less straightforward than might have been expected and the name of Whiskeria had to be invoked. This was because the show was a complete sell-out with 3000 tickets sold in advance. The sheer scale of the event and the degree of interest it attracted in a city which would not normally spring to mind as a whisky stronghold surprised me and pointed to an important truth. Shows like this across Europe play an important part not only in the marketing of whisky but also in educating the vast audience it attracts. Many of the people who queued for entry in Budapest were not there to do business, at least in the short term, but to expand their knowledge and discover brands and techniques that were new to them. They wanted to talk whisky as well as consume it. David Kovacs, business development director of the organisers, WhiskyNet, told me: “The reason we started this show in 2010 was mainly to improve the drinking culture in this country. There was a demand from people with
spending power to be educated in what they were drinking and to be introduced to premium brands by those who could talk knowledgeably about them – how it is made, how it is aged, what makes it different. This is what WhiskyNet does. We focus 90 per cent on premium brands. Hungary is a small market but the same applies to other countries in the region. Some of them have their own shows and it is also easy to travel into Budapest. These shows introduce consumers to small brands as well as the global giants and gives them the chance to show their products on an equal footing.” That is a key point about the importance of these shows for the growing number of small, independent distilleries. Few have the resources to be directly represented, particularly in the more niche international markets. However, companies like WhiskyNet – who both run the show and also represent a wide range of brands in Hungary – can give them both the initial platform and also a relationship as agents that maintains their presence. There were 73 exhibition stands in the Corinthia Hotel, ranging from the very large like Johnnie Walker down to the less venerable, but each in its own way very interesting and enterprising, new kids on the block looking for export outlets. In every industry, the relationship between manufacturers and in-country agents is crucial. The good ones work hard to promote the brand. The bad ones do next to nothing and are soon ditched. Everyone seemed to agree that WhiskyNet is a good one. One of the newer Scottish brands at the
