The Virginia Bourbon Invitational and the Pursuit of the Perfect Whiskey Fest
Photos via The Cavalier Hotel, Lucky Break PR, Hilton VA Beach
In roughly a decade of covering the beer industry, I’ve watched the conception of the “beer festival” go through some fairly pronounced periods of evolution.
Back in the 2000s, the mere phrase “beer festival” typically implied a very specific style of event, characterized by a smattering of haphazard tables, manned by volunteers or distributor representatives, pouring beer they weren’t particularly familiar with, to crowds that simply wanted to try everything they could get their hands on (and get mildly wasted in the process). Over time, however, as the community of beer drinkers went through a sort of maturation, the desire for that kind of festival seemed to cool. People wanted more intimate experiences. They wanted to be able to speak with the people who made the beer, rather than hired guns who happened to be pouring it. They didn’t just want any beer, either—they wanted thoughtfully curated festivals with interesting experiences, gourmet food options and an overall more premium experience. This was the state of mind that led to the creation of modern festivals like the Firestone Walker Invitational, or Other Half Brewing’s Green City —gatherings focused not just on consumption, but on elevating the entire experience.
And now, I see the same thing happening in the whiskey world as well.
To be certain, there have always been “whiskey festivals,” although the beer fest-style concept of unlimited tastings is a bit harder to pull off in the spirits world, thanks to the obvious danger of over-consumption. Even moreso than beer fests, a whiskey fest sort of needs to instill some degree of gravitas to promote responsible consumption and an air of “we’re all here for a casual good time,” rather than an atmosphere of “let’s party.” In the last few years, I’ve seen this concept done well, and I’ve seen it done pretty poorly. But recently, in Virginia Beach, I saw perhaps the best version of a “whiskey fest” I’ve yet attended.
That was the Virginia Bourbon Invitational, which celebrated its second year at The Historic Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach, pulling out all the stops to create a festival that made upscale enjoyment its primary concern. Organizers were wise to structure the festival around high-priced general admission tickets ($125), which discouraged what you might call “casual” attendance, while simultaneously creating enough of a plush and premiumized atmosphere to make that ticket price not seem excessive. It’s very much the same gameplan of festivals such as the Firestone Walker Invitational: Charge more, but deliver the premium experience to match, and everyone goes home happy.
In terms of those elements that help set a festival apart, one of the most often overlooked is food. In a “single, unlimited ticket” format, as employed by Firestone Walker or the Virginia Bourbon Invitational, you are plunking down your cash with the expectation that the food you’re paying for will be coming from top-of-the-line restaurateurs or caterers, and access to that food (especially as a means of offsetting all the alcohol consumption) is a major part of justifying the ticket price. At the VBI, organizers wisely expressed a desire to get away from the cliched association of “bourbon and BBQ,” opting instead for an upscale menu of tapas, served at a bevy of stations, including everything from pork belly or duck bao to an irresistible, never-ending supply of jumbo, butterflied fried shrimp. Pictured below: Braised beef and tiny fondant potatoes, dishes that should be a barometer for upscale festivals looking to build themselves in this image.
Of course, the festival’s location is also a major asset, in and of itself. The Cavalier Hotel is an entry on the National Register of Historic Places, a grand old neoclassical, palatial structure that once played host to U.S. presidents and stars of stage and screen in its mid-century heyday—including Richard Nixon, who is legendarily rumored to have burned documents in the expansive fireplace of Cavalier “social club” and restaurant The Hunt Room. Shuttered for years and falling into disrepair, the hotel was revived by its current ownership, renovated for several years, and reopened as a boutique destination hotel in 2018, while simultaneously playing host to the newly founded Tarnished Truth Distilling Co., which operates its gleaming distillery (I’ve literally never seen one so spotless) in full view of the public. Together, they’ve forged a shared identity: Luxurious hotel, complete with homemade bourbon. It’s an obvious place to host a whiskey festival, and I must say they did a bang-up job of it.
Allow me, then, to list off a few of the best and most notable Virginia whiskeys I sampled that afternoon.