Wonderful 
cheers
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I was there 3 times and every time I heard that the bottle was empty and they’d open a new one in 2 hours. I thought that was really stupid and felt pretty taken for a ride.
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That sounds super exciting!
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Same thing happened to me at first, «looks like we won’t be opening a new bottle today». But then the nice lady from CoR showed up with an open bottle after all.
In my opinion, another successful Savanna that I might have to try as a sample sometime when I have the leisure. But nothing I’d personally hunt for either. Given the hype around Savanna at apparently 150 bucks, quite fair.
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Here are my personal impressions from today (and my final verdict, since I won’t be back tomorrow):
The clear highlight for me personally was the Bottleshop stand, where I probably spent most of my time. Whether Calvados, Armagnac or rum, only bangers on offer, even though I’d already tried one or two bottlings. I immediately grabbed the new '94 REV (and others did too, it probably won’t last long). Great value for money! I had to take the Montebello home at the end (unfortunately for my wallet).
Also really awesome was the Nobilis bottling selected by Stefan and Kevin, unfortunately above my budget.
I found the Rum Punch by @JamRock at the Warehouse 1 stand really, really delicious — a nice change from the high-proof stuff and it gets my recommendation. The 4y New Yarmouth from Legendary Marques also impressed me a lot and at 50€ seems fairly priced in my view.
The new HGML from RdL with around 85 rpm also ripped, if you’re into that kind of brutal stuff you’ll get good offerings here.
The Catawiki and Rhumauction stands also had a nice selection.
Sascha again with a great selection of excellent Armagnac and a new bottling under the Distilled Grapes label that I really liked.
Also Vagabond Spirits with a nice range, though I’d already tried most of those bottlings before.
Matt Pietrek’s tasting, on the other hand, fell a bit short of my expectations given my taste and the higher price compared to the other tastings. While I found the presentation on GIs quite interesting, it was over rather suddenly and didn’t quite hit the mark for my liking. Plus there were only two rums to taste — Hampden 8 and Mount Gay 15 cask strength — and they weren’t particularly exciting.
The Dictador stand did quite a few things right from a marketing perspective and was always well-visited, but I saved my capacity for elsewhere.
The Kirsch stand unfortunately didn’t have any exciting new bottlings on offer.
Otherwise there was old familiar stuff and some new additions at the Colours of Rum stand, including the 5th Anniversary Absolutely Nuts 2010 TDL, which certainly isn’t a complexity monster, but in my taste is very round and well-balanced and at 46% is a nice easy sipper if you feel like the profile in a more relaxed version. The new Savanna Eternal Summer 2026, which apparently launches next week, also impressed me and seems fairly priced to me given the hype around Savanna at probably 150 euros. But you don’t necessarily have to chase after it in my opinion.
I would have liked to visit the El Ron del Artesano stand, but I ran out of time (and capacity) by the end.
Otherwise it was really nice to run into one or two familiar faces again. I’m already looking forward to next year, and maybe we’ll see each other at the Whisky Live in Hamburg in October.
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Is anyone on-site today?
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I still have half a bottle of RX26495 to distribute. Just ask me 
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I was there again today and gave it another try, and I got a blunt response telling me to come to the tasting. That’s not marketing, that’s cheeky and rude, and I’ve never experienced such arrogant behavior from any exhibitor in 9 years.
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I’m happy to take the rest home 
And that’s saying something
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Who was it with then?
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I guess it’s about the colours of rum savanna…
Really a shame that kind of behavior, but it’s not the first time I’ve noticed something like that with them… They’re a bit peculiar, those two.
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Exactly. This is about colors of Rum / Savanna
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