When the A83 took a gentle left from the west side of Kintyre to its east side just before Machrihanish Dunes I started to feel oddly fluttery all of a sudden… The very same feeling I remember as a child holding my father’s hand when starting to hear the chants from the stadium while we were walking closer.
It was two years ago and it was a beautiful morning. My buddy Jens was on the driver seat on my right, which I still have trouble to get used to even after countless visits to UK, and my girlfriend Teresa in the back was giving a last look to Islay on her right. Soon we would be in Campbeltown, drop our bags in our rooms and rush to the distilleries to see our dear friends.
Campbeltown Malts Festival is not a whisky festival for most of us, it is more like a family gathering. I am not traveling 5,100 miles to taste whisky… Seriously, I am doing that on a daily basis anyway. I am traveling to Campbeltown to see my friends, spend the week with them, listen to their stories and yes eventually share a few drams. In the end whisky is what introduced us to each other.
I have been always a big fan of Campbeltown whiskies but especially after spending a week attending the Springbank whisky school in 2014 I feel like I bonded with the town. I met so many people there throughout the years including locals and visitors who I proudly call friends now and to be honest I miss them every year.
As we speak we are getting ready to travel thousands of miles again very soon and we are insanely excited… We simply cannot wait for the never ending pub crawls, spontaneous fish and chips stops, to listen to the bands on the malt floor and dance till we drop, to share drams with people I never met before and to promise each other to meet there again next year. It will be another beautiful week of old and new friendships, endless laughter and plenty of best whisky the world can offer.
* “Mull of Kintyre” by Paul McCartney
