On Thursday and Friday, 8 and 9 October, we invited lovers of fine drinks to Warsaw's Forteca for the seventeenth time. Over two days we were visited by 3,000 guests, and at the stands we opened 725 wines and 600 spirits. The programme was rounded off by five masterclass tastings and festival premieres.

Wine Day and Spirits Day

Thursday belonged to wine, Friday to spirits. At 160 stands representatives of vineyards and distilleries from all over the world were waiting, and alongside them our specialists, so you could ask about every bottle in your glass straight from the source.

Among the wines there were as many as 9 brands that we presented for the first time: Château Dauzac, Château Fonroque and Château de Reignac from Bordeaux, Cà Lojera from Lugana, Chiorri from Umbria, Adega Ponte de Lima and Parras Wines from Portugal, Michael David from California and Pałac Mała Wieś from Poland. Beside them stood: champagnes and other sparkling wines, wines from Europe and the New World, whiskies from Scotland, Ireland, Japan and the USA, rums, cognacs, armagnacs, calvados, gins, liqueurs and many more.

We are proud that during Spirits Day we were able to present as many as four single cask whiskies bottled especially for M&P as part of the M&P Cask Collection Club series. Among them were: Murray McDavid Glen Spey 18 YO Murca Tawny Port Finish, 52.5%, Murray McDavid Mull’s Finest 11 YO Madeira Finish, 55.6%, Meikle Toir 2019 Single Cask Pedro Ximénez Hogshead, 64.2%, Benromach 15 YO Single Cask M&P Polish Oak, 57.8%.

For those interested in cigars, separate cigar zones were open, each staffed by our cigar experts.

Three whisky masterclass tastings

All three whisky sessions took place on Friday and all of them sold out before the festival even began.

New releases from Campbeltown – Mariusz Masiak, our whisky ambassador, led a tasting that has become a permanent fixture in the festival's autumn calendar. In the glasses: this year's editions of Springbank 18 and 21, Springbank Vintage 1994, Kilkerran 16 – for the first time matured entirely in sherry casks – and a 17-year-old Speyside whisky from Cadenhead’s Enigma series, whose origin remains a mystery.

Limited editions and premieres of the M&P Cask Collection Club – Mariusz Masiak's second session was a review of new releases. Two whiskies from the Aberargie distillery showed how the barley variety influences flavour – Golden Promise versus Laureate – and both had their Polish premiere with us. In addition, a 19-year-old GlenAllachie from casks that had been part of a solera system for over half a century, and three single casks bottled for the festival in the M&P Cask Collection Club series: an 18-year-old Glen Spey from a port cask and an 11-year-old Mull’s Finest, i.e. Ledaig, with a final maturation in a Madeira cask – both from the Murray McDavid warehouses – and finally the peated Meikle Toir 2019 from a Pedro Ximénez sherry cask.

Gordon & MacPhail – the tasting was led in English by Juliette Buchan from Gordon & MacPhail, one of the oldest independent bottlers of Scotch whisky. On the table stood a 39-year-old Talisker 1987 – the last independent Talisker edition the company has released on the market, and one of the oldest whiskies from this distillery ever to go on sale – and a 25-year-old single cask whisky from the Macallan distillery, one of 556 bottles. Benromach 15 Single Cask Polish Oak had its premiere – a whisky matured entirely in a cask made of Polish oak and bottled for M&P. The line-up was completed by Macphail’s 21 and Benromach 22.

Two cigar masterclass tastings

Marcin Lewandowski, our cigar specialist, led two sessions in a cigar pairing format.

CigarKings × Quinta da Alorna (Thursday) – we paired CigarKings cigars with Portuguese wines from the Tejo region. For the first time at M&P we presented the CigarKings COY 26 Aero Lancero – a limited Colour of the Year 2026 edition. Alongside it the Robusto SunGrown, and in the glasses Quinta da Alorna Marquesa Gran Reserva 2019 and the fortified Licoroso Abafado.

Don Palomón × Bocatheva × Matsui (Friday) – we explored how the character of Don Palomón cigars – Merchant Mariscal Gordito and Domain Signature Belicoso – changes when paired with 15- and 20-year-old Bocatheva rum and Japanese Matsui whisky in the Mizunara and Double Cask versions.

Festival price list until the end of October

As every year, the festival price list applies on the occasion of the festival – the prices we had at the stands stay with us until 31 October, in M&P stores and at wina-mp.pl. It covers over 3,000 products, so it's a good moment to go back to the bottles you enjoyed most at the Forteca – including the single cask festival premieres.

Thank you!

We would like to thank all our guests for these two days, and the representatives of brands, vineyards and distilleries for coming to Warsaw and for hours of conversation at the stands. It was great fun and we are already planning the 18th edition – we will announce the date soon, so it's worth leaving your e-mail address at festival.pavlina.pl and following our calendar of events. There you will also find the dates of tastings in M&P stores, which take place all year round.

You will find photos from the festival in the gallery below.