Chronicles from the land of liquid bliss: 11 reasons why we will remember Whisky Live Paris 2025
After the celebratory 20th-anniversary edition, this year’s event organized by La Maison du Whisky was all about pride: despite a difficult time for the industry, attendance grew. And the treats for enthusiasts were endless.
We counted 25,000 daydreamers with a passion for cocktails and spirits, though we didn’t see Lucignolo.
There must have been a few Pinocchios with flexible truth skills - like those who, at the end of the night, swore “this is my last drink, then straight to bed, early start tomorrow…” - but the original one never showed up.
Still, we’re sure we spent three days in the most exhilarating Land of Alcoholic Toys in the world: Whisky Live Paris.
The twenty-first edition of the event organized by La Maison du Whisky, held last weekend at La Villette in Paris, was, if possible, even more memorable than usual. Not for prizes and trinkets, nor for sequins or a misplaced sense of grandeur; it was unique because no other event is such a perfectly oiled mechanism, with spaces designed on a human scale and a selection of products and experiences that are simply excellent, in the original Latin sense - superior to all others.
Moreover, if the 2024 edition was all about celebrating its 20th birthday, this year’s was a proud display of resilience from the global community of enthusiasts. Despite a dire situation in the beverage world - besieged by tariffs, declining consumption, and health crusades - they responded magnificently, filling the 20,000 square meters of the 19th-century Grande Halle (+2,500 attendees compared to the previous year).
In short, Whisky Live is increasingly the crown jewel of Thierry Bénitah’s LMDW - with which Velier established the joint venture La Maison & Velier in 2017 - and has by now become the global “place to be” for those who love single malts and all the other blessed fruits of the still, from rum to mezcal to cognac. At least once in a lifetime, one must make the pilgrimage.
There isn’t just one good reason to go - each visitor finds something that stays lodged in their sensory memory. So it’s only right to list the most exciting highlights and tastings among the countless previews, masterclasses, and gems we encountered. A labyrinth where every whisky Minotaur is happy to lose himself.
1. The Aroma of Trelawny: Hampden’s Photographic (and More) Soul
Our first encounter with Whisky Live Paris came Friday evening, while the gates were still closed. Literally on the Left Bank, at Quai de la Photo, with the opening of the photo exhibition “The Fragrance of Trelawny”, accompanying the third Magnum Series of rum bottlings selected by La Maison & Velier.
A project conceived by Luca Gargano in collaboration with the historic photographic agency of the same name.
We’ll leave to other, more artistically inclined pens the pleasure of describing Cristina De Middel’s evocative shots of the fascinating Jamaican distillery, and limit ourselves to the four bottlings - all from the same producer, for the first time.
Interesting and instructive was the decision to use lighter ester marks for the longer-aged rums: the 9-year-old Hampden is based on LROK (200–400 g esters per hectolitre, the distillery’s third-lightest mark), resulting in an enveloping, balanced rum where Trelawny’s DNA is present but made gentler by time; the 8-year-old, on the other hand, uses the <>H mark and is characterized by multiplied aromatic power, where wood and esters (900–1000 g) create an earthquake effect on the palate - Hampden lovers call it a masterpiece; the 7-year-old, based on HGML (1000–1100 g), is equally intense, with an even longer finish if possible; finally, the 4-year-old DOK, the legendary mark with 1500–1600 g esters that has made Hampden a fetish brand among rum geeks: a hymn to the distillery’s exotic character, its varnish and pineapple notes.
This writer loved most the two extremes of the series - one existentially comforting, the other philosophically extreme.
2. The Art of Selection: The Artist Whisky Series
These were among the most remarkable tastings at WLP, which featured more than 2,500 references on pour. We didn’t try all of them, of course - but trust us, we covered some ground. Under the Artist label, LMDW releases its own barrel selections. This year, the 15th series was split into two sub-series: the first, “The Dark Side of the Moon”, focuses entirely on sherry cask aging and recalls Luca Gargano’s historic 1990s bottlings, with label art by South African artist Sthenjwa Luthuli; the second, “Something on the Water”, was created in collaboration with Sukhinder Singh (founder of The Whisky Exchange and now owner of Tormore and Portintruan distilleries) and includes only Islay single malts, with artwork by Radhika Surana. On the dark side of the moon, among a 10-year-old Ben Nevis, a 15-year-old Ardmore in Pedro Ximenez cask, an impressive 1997 Benrinnes, and an ancient 35-year-old Mortlach rich in umami and dried apricot, we pick two pearls: The 30-year-old Linkwood - a triumph of elegance, where pollen, chestnut honey and the spicy, nutty notes of sherry and malt dance on the palate; and the “Dark Side of the M”, a single malt from a famous distillery beginning with that consonant, aged 20 years in a sherry butt: dense, almost chewable, with an old-school concentration of semi-smoky chocolate, licorice, orange, and date notes, enhanced by mysterious cellar, cigar, and autumn nuances. All at 61%. Phenomenal. On Islay’s waters float fifty shades of peat: It starts with Symbiosis, a blended malt combining two vintages of Bunnahabhain and three of Caol Ila aged between 7 and 13 years; continues with a peated 2011 Bunnahabhain embodying the pure and wild spirit of Islay malt; then ascends to the empyrean with an elegant 20-year-old Laphroaig bursting with fruit and medicinal notes, a moving 30-year-old Bowmore where mango and minerality dance gracefully on the nose, a perfumed, oily, tropical 40-year-old Caol Ila, and finally a sherried 2000 Ardbeg - the most intense, woody and profound of a dream selection. A final note from the Ex Libris series, also by LMDW: a 2003 Hellyers Road single malt from Tasmania aged in ex-bourbon casks - fresh, spicy, with passion fruit notes, dry and gentle despite its full proof.
3. Pleasures of the Palate: Accord Parfaits
Because perfectionism reigns supreme at La Maison, Whisky Live adds another layer of pleasure every year. Last year, the food area lacked a gourmet option (though the chicken curry burger, Breton galettes, and Japanese sandwiches brought joy), so this year came the surprise: every day, a fine-dining chef and his team prepared a dish and dessert paired with spirits. Saturday featured Franco-American chef Thomas Chisholm of Chocho, serving amberjack and cucumber tartare with Tequila Ocho and a chocolate–bread cream dessert paired with Michter’s. Sunday was Wilfried Romain (Lava): veal tartare with green pepper cream and French single malt Domaine des Hautes Glaces, plus a dessert paired with Benromach - which we sadly missed due to a concurrent masterclass. Monday closed with Adrien Cachot (one Michelin star, Le Vaisseau): warm oyster with horseradish and watercress, and bitter chocolate mochi, both paired with Hampden.
Regular fairgoers are used to making do with fries that taste faintly of used oil. To punctuate tastings with bites like these is an unexpected joy for the heart - almost as much as admiring the typefaces and signage design around the venue. To each their own perversion; those of us in print take our pleasures where we can…
4. Kyoto Abroad: The Bee’s Knees Experience
For some years now, Whisky Live’s outdoor (but covered) area has hosted the Cocktail Street - a mixology zone open to the wider public too. What stands out, besides the refined design of the stands (forget the usual banal booths - these are creative masterpieces), is the cocktail quality.
Among the many highlights, we mention Hampden’s secret room, where alongside three drinks one could smell the various marks like in a perfumery; and Nikka’s masterpiece project, which astonishingly recreated in miniature one of the world’s best bars - Kyoto’s Bee’s Knees.
Limited counter seats, reservation required, 40-minute experience in total quiet and connection with Keisuke Yamamoto and Toru Ariyoshi and their six creations. Clean, elegant, minimalist in style but not in taste. Of these, we adored the Dirty Dashi Martini, where an olive infused in dashi gives a unique texture, and the +81 Highball, with Nikka Coffey Malt and sakura flower & lime kombucha - we’d have bathed in it. They had to drag us away from the counter…
5. Ready to serve: All Possible Daiquiris Neisson
Let’s stay in mixology, but step away from the bar - imagine a dinner or barbecue with friends. Aperitif time - why not try something other than the usual cheap prosecco? Why not a cocktail, without needing a speakeasy setup?
Enter All Possible Daiquiris, the ready-to-serve daiquiri line created by La Maison & Velier. The one launched at WLP 2025 is the fifth edition: after versions based on Clairin, Hampden, River Antoine, and Paranubes, comes the one made with Neisson Esprit Bio rum. Real organic lime juice, organic sugarcane juice - a product designed to transcend the much-maligned canned ready-to-drink category. Seven servings per bottle, to be kept refrigerated and with no expiration date.
Small spoiler: it’s far better than some daiquiris we’ve had in high-end Milan bars.
6. Velier, the rum treasure island
Not exactly news - last year it would have taken lion tamers with stools and whips to manage the crowds storming the Velier stand whenever a Caroni was opened. This year again, the VIP area devoted to rums selected or distributed by Luca Gargano was besieged - and rightly so.
We’ll try to be brief, focusing on those tastings still lodged in our memory and capable of triggering salivation at the mere thought. Let’s start with two heavyweights:
The first, Cabeza Llena, a Cuban rum distilled in 1948 - the ideal sequel to Hoy Como Ayer (1968). Nothing is known of its origin or specs, only that it’s surprisingly full and delicately floral despite its venerable age, with unexpected tension and a divine finish of coffee and wood.
The second, Caroni Paradise #12, one of the last barrels discovered by Gargano in Trinidad. Distilled in 1996, marvellously alive, with that characteristic diesel note blending with papaya, tamarind, chocolate, Timur pepper, asphalt, and charred fruit - a journey.
From the Habitation series, dedicated to pot still rums, two new releases: Rainforest, a 14-month-old Filipino rum with curious herbal and pollen notes, and Chamarel from Mauritius molasses - sharp and complex, somewhat reminiscent of Hampden for its ester liveliness.
Speaking of Hampden, WLP also saw the debut of the distillery’s first official 15-year-old, fewer than 10,000 bottles. Lushly tropical and soft on the nose, drier and more masculine on the palate - a sort of Pokémon evolution of Hampden: familiar traits still visible, but complexity elevated.
We close with two more: Nine Leaves 5YO 2020, aged in ex-Pedro Ximenez cask - a visionary gem by Yoshiharu Takeuchi from Okinawa sugar syrup (umami and funky, with extraordinary interplay of acidity, sweetness and astringency); and Luca Gargano’s new selections. Quick impressions:
Vale Royal (Cambridge 2006), a Jamaican single cask - massive in body and aroma, fit for epic nights; Guyana 2004, a small batch blending several vintages, marks and stills - rounder, jammy, chocolatey, wood-thickened; and perhaps our favorite: Clarendon 14YO MBS, from Monymusk distillery, Jamaica - simply one of the three best rums we tasted in 2025, balancing tropical exuberance and tertiary depth almost miraculously.
7. Like an Off-Salon: The Golden Promise
A short break from the main reportage for an extra-report. When Whisky Live closes, visitors, professionals and bon vivants gather for dinner somewhere - and then end the night… Watching Netflix and detoxing with herbal syrup, you’d think. Wrong. They end up at The Golden Promise - La Maison’s own whisky bar, belonging to that sacred circle of malt temples.
Located in the Montorgueil district on rue Tiquetonne, reverence begins even before descending the stairs, framed by showcases of improbable Japanese bottlings. But it’s downstairs, in a crypt jaw-dropping in its beauty, that the most secret rites occur. Presiding over the sacraments of choice, pouring, and tasting is Salvatore Mannino, refined cardinal camerlengo of this church where hundreds of bottles - “rare” being an understatement - line the walls.
The menu rivals the Old Testament in length, though here the prophets are less Aramaic and more Scottish: Brora and Port Ellen, Imperial and Rosebank, but also Pappy Van Winkle and Karuizawa. Unfindable vintages, Samaroli selections, bicentennial Bowmores. Impossible to list- it’s everything a connoisseur can’t even dream of. And Salvatore advises every guest with saintly omniscience:
“That Mortlach? Charming.”
“That Talisker? Quite sherried.”
“That Clynelish? Lovely - I had a bottle at home, used it to deglaze a kidney dish…”
We’ll make you a golden promise too: you’ll walk out of here with a grin wider than the smiling forks in those ‘90s cheese-filled ravioli commercials.
8. The Tasting of Friendship
Put like that, it sounds like a communal drinking ritual, but it was one of the most anticipated masterclasses. On one side, Sukhinder Singh; on the other, Thierry Bénitah of LMDW. Moderating, the moustachioed legend Serge Valentin, creator of the WhiskyFun blog, collector and whisky nerd par excellence.
Five samples on the table: a whisky and a rum from Sukhinder, a whisky and a rum from Thierry, and their joint bottling celebrating thirty years of friendship (while we mortals take our spouses to pizza at best).
Their gift to themselves: a 30-year-old 1994 Imperial, a blend of two refill hogsheads from a closed distillery - the Platonic ideal of tropical fruit. Pollen, beeswax, papaya, with sensual butteriness and a pastry-like delicacy.
Equally remarkable: a 38-year-old 1967 Glen Keith by Gordon & MacPhail - stern, old-school, where wood turns to panforte and dried apricot - and a 1968 Longmorn from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society - deeply sherried, intense, fig jam merging with cocoa, dates and tobacco leaves. With drams like these, friendship lasts longer than bronze.
9. The Importance of the Flâneur - Wandering Between Stands
Yes, you need method - otherwise, you risk paralysis by choice. But it’s also beautiful to wander aimlessly, letting curiosity guide you. Start in the Rum Gallery, hop between new French distilleries with perfumery-style packaging (we recommend Uberach 20YO, from LMDW’s La Version Française series - an Alsatian single malt aged in ex-Banyuls casks: a yuzu-and-mandarin-oil bomb), and end up gazing at cacti beside a recreated Mexican fountain in the Patio des Agaves…
Anything can happen at Whisky Live - like Vegas, but with Bacchus as the only vice. You might get blessed with vials of Hampden; meet visitors in kilts (fair enough) or dressed as Where’s Wally (less so); spot Sukhinder’s turban or Dave Broom’s increasingly Rasputin-like beard; sip the new Chichibu II, first single malt from the brand’s new distillery; end up trying sake without really understanding it; eye Thai (Prakaan) or Romanian (Carpathian) whiskies with suspicion before discovering Agot, a Basque single malt aged in ex-Rioja wine casks. You might grow bored queuing for Diageo’s Special Releases, give up and eat bread for digestive recovery, seemingly soaked in spirits…
Scientific tasting is fine - but don’t deny yourself the joy of adventure and the semi-serious art of wandering.
10. Japan Between Past and Future (with a Regret)
La Maison du Whisky has been bound to Japanese whisky since it pioneered bringing Nikka and other brands to Europe. Unsurprisingly, WLP always devotes great attention to whiskies from the Land of the Rising Sun.
This year saw an unprecedented round table moderated by Dave Broom, with representatives of Nikka, Suntory, Chichibu, Akkeshi, Mars, Kirin and Kanosuke - exchanging views on Japan’s whisky market, its stricter new regulations and the evolving global role of Japanese whisky.
Meanwhile, a few meters away, the past was glorified at the Karuizawa Bar: eight references from the legendary closed distillery, split into two flights of four 1cl samples - one at €150, the other €300, both bookable online and both, alas, sold out.
Vintages ’68 and ’75, Karuizawa Geisha and White Warrior… We’ve drunk worse in worse bars, let’s be honest.
11. The Oldest Whisky in the World: Glenlivet 85YO Gordon & MacPhail
As in football, Sunday night was reserved for the main event - the grand finale. Thus, on Sunday, in the Grande Halle auditorium, came the official presentation of the oldest single malt ever released: Glenlivet 85 Years Old, bottled by historic independent label Gordon & MacPhail for its “Artistry in Oak” series.
Cask #336 (a first-fill American oak sherry butt) was distilled in February 1940, as Reich Messerschmitts threatened Churchill’s skies, and bottled in February 2025. The vessel - a sculptural decanter - was designed by architect Jeanne Gang. 125 bottles, priced at £125,000 each.
Before tasting it, G&M kindly served two other liquid Methuselahs from their endless stock: first, a 57-year-old Longmorn 1968, not yet bottled - a symphony of cola, tamarind, dark chocolate and pink grapefruit, with assertive winey-woody tones; then a 67-year-old Glen Grant 1955 - less intense but extraordinarily elegant, a melody of red fruits and polished wood veering into tea and even citrus hints, rare in such old whiskies.
And rarer still, the Glenlivet 85: freshness that stuns even experts. Aromas of refined parlours, noble florals, wax, exotic fruit and tobacco - a flying tapestry. On the palate, fruit again prevails over wood, framed by wax and oiliness, never tired, always lively - perhaps thanks to the American oak. Something epic. Something unforgettable.
Just like this edition of Whisky Live Paris - the true Land of Plenty for malt lovers.
