Whisky Abbey moves to a bigger room for its 2026 'Destinations' edition

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Whisky Abbey details in Melbourne in 2026 poster.

Melbourne's largest whisky event has a new home. Whisky Abbey shifts to The Timber Yard in Port Melbourne on 14–15 November, trading up to an industrial warehouse space minutes from the CBD. This year's theme, Destinations, frames the weekend as a world tour – more than 50 distilleries and importers and upwards of 700 whiskies from Scotland, Japan, Australia, the United States and beyond, poured across two full-day sessions. The format is deliberately farmers'-market: 15ml nips, buy direct, meet the makers, with masterclasses, a beer garden, food trucks and festival-exclusive bottlings alongside. Each day carries its own lineup, so the two-day ticket is the one for the completists. But any amount of time spent at this event, for whisky enthusiasts, is bound to be rewarding plus plus.

More details: Whisky Abbey.

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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