Whisky Tour of the World - advent calendar 2024
Winter is coming, and so is Christmas! Time to start thinking about what advent calendar to go for this year. Chocolate calendars used to be my favorite, but the last few years I have switched to whisky advent calendars. Several companies release such products now, and my review today is for the Whisky Tour of the World advent calendar for 2024, produced by Gravity Drinks in the UK.
This really is a premium package, weighing in at 9.13 kilograms, and made to fit perfectly into your living room or office space. The 24x 5cl samples come in a handmade and engraved wooden bookcase containing five linen-bound and gold foiled books. Four of the books hold six samples each, and the fifth book contains an illustrated book with two pages of details on each distillery and tasting notes, as well as two whisky tumbler glasses. Overall great attention to detail. It all comes across as very well made, and with a high WAF (wife acceptance factor), or HAF (husband acceptance factor) or SOAF (significant other acceptance factor) if you will.
In total you get 1.2 litres of whisky from distilleries around the world. This includes whisky from Scotland, Japan, Taiwan, India, Ireland, Peru, Germany, Denmark, Australia, Canada, England, Sweden, Austria, New Zealand, Mexico, Finland, USA, France and Italy.
I consider myself to be well-above averagely interested in world whisky, but even I had only tried whisky from 13 out of the 24 distilleries featured here. Here’s the complete list of distilleries (in order of appearance): Don Michael (Peru), Nc’nean (Scotland), Beverbach (Germany), Stauning (Denmark), Ballykeefe (Ireland), Archie Rose (Australia), Macaloney’s (Canada), Cotswolds (England), Mackmyra (Sweden), Indri (India), Distillery Krauss (Austria), Pokeno (New Zealand), Fielden (England), Abasolo (Mexico), The Helsinki Distilling Co. (Finland), Breckenridge (USA), M&H (Israel), Amorik (France), Green River (USA), Kavalan (Taiwan), Arbikie (Scotland), Puni (Italy), Lark (Tasmania, Australia), and Hatozaki (Japan).
A lot of these whiskies are hard to get your hands on, due to either limited quantities, or limited availability in whatever country you reside in, making this a great opportunity to truly expand your whisky horizons.
The Whisky Tour of the World advent calendar 2024 is available online directly from Gravity Drinks at GBP 195. You can also order it from their importer in Norway, Daracha, at NOK 3980 by sending an email to bestilling@daracha.no).
Here are fresh reviews of three of the samples included in this advent calendar:
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Puni Gold, 5 YO, 43% - Italy
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Archie Rose Single Malt Whisky, NAS, 46% - Australia
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Black Whiskey, 3 YO, 45% - Peru
Check out my unboxing images below.
In conclusion I find this to be a high quality product that really does an impressive job of introducing the consumer to the wide wonderous world of whisky. I will always love Scotch, and Scotland is very close to my heart, but it is good to also have great alternatives at hand.