I was asked a rather innocuous question in a survey following my recent attendance at World of Whiskies in Austin. I was asked to describe myself in relation to whiskey; ie was I a novice, a connoisseur, in the trade etc. That question got me thinking, what am I?

Let’s start with what I am not. I am not a connoisseur. Aside from the unavoidable snobby and pretentious aspect of calling myself that I simply don’t have the palate or experience to make that claim. I have described my palate, on a good day, as not awful, but comparing my notes to some others I admire and aspire to, I still have a long way to go before I regularly taste kumquat notes in my whisky. To be honest I rarely find kumquat notes in a kumquat. I also refuse to call myself an “aficionado”. I would give up whisky before I imposed that title on myself. However I can also hardly call myself a novice. While I know my depth of knowledge does not begin to compare to so many others I have had the pleasure of meeting since entering the global whisky club it would be rather silly for someone who maintains a blog dedicated to the subject, has reviewed over 300 whiskies, taken family vacations around distillery visits, completed the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, marries whiskies he has blended himself in a tiny oak barrel at his home and personally invested in a new distillery in London to call himself a novice. So novice doesn’t work but I doubt my 1% interest in a tiny craft distillery counts as “trade” either. Finally I am not a collector. I do not collect whisky. I drink it. My goal is that I force down my last dram on my deathbed and turn the empty glass upside on my head and make a note on the finish before expiring. Leaving anything behind will mean I lost. My will contains the explicit instruction that if I die suddenly all the bottles I have must be vatted together (in a Michael Jackson-esque fashion) and drunk at my wake. No-one can leave until it is all gone.

By the way, if you just read the last paragraph and don’t understand the reference to an eighties pop idol this probably isn’t the blog for you and I suggest you hit the “Back” button on your browser. Do it. Now.

So what am I? I thought of whisky fan, but I find that name too non-participatory. I think of a football fans as someone who watches a game but does not play it. A whisky fan to me feels like someone who stands around cheering me on drinking whisky. A great idea now I think of it and something I will suggest to my wife. What about whisky lover? I find that slightly odd on many levels. I don’t love whisky (I really don’t). I am fascinated by it but to put in same context as my family and friends is overstating its importance to me.   It also sounds to me if you to me you “love whisky” I suspect you also have also deep feelings for vodka and will occasionally make out with rum.   Another phrase I occasionally see is whisky geek, or the closely related whisky nerd. I do have some affinity for these titles and have, occasionally, on a distillery tour asked one too many questions about fermentation time or yeast strains, but in general the minutia is not what I am about and when it gets into the rare and hard to find bottling type “geekiness” I tune out altogether. Why get excited about a rare bottling that I will never find, probably can’t afford and possibly isn’t that good anyway or they would have made more of it, because sometimes the reason something is rare is it is rubbish.   So what am I? A whisky blogger or perhaps an enthusiast (ironically a name I am not enthusiastic about). Both of those options leave me, like the UK standard 25 ml measure in pubs, a little unsatisfied. So I will throw this open and ask what are you? Perhaps we are the same thing.

It has been a little over one year since I started my website and blogs so I thought I would take the time to review what has happened in my first year as a committed whisky blogger.   I have posted over 300 whisky reviews and 40 blog entries, not bad (but short of my target of one blog per week). The standard has been variable (I am a generous self-critic) but I hope at times it has been interesting. I am also very happy with the Whisky Timeline I have created and that went online a couple of weeks ago as well. As far as I can tell it is unique at least.

My whisky related adventures in last twelve months go beyond just the online world. I attended three whisky shows; Victoria in January, The SMWS Extravaganza in Houston in April and the World of Whiskies in Austin last week. My favorite….? It’s not even close. Victoria is a great event and I would be there again in 2013 but I have a work commitment. At these shows and some other events I met some of the great people in the whisky industry including, but not limited to, Mark Gillespie (Whiskycast), Jim Murray (The Whisky Bible), John Hall (Founder of Forty Creek), George Grant (Glenfarclas), Dr Bill Lumsden (Glenmorangie), Dan Garrison (Garrison Bros), Mark McDavid (Ranger Creek), Michael Urquhart (Gordon and MacPhail) and Darren Rook (London Distillery Company). I also participated in the January Whiskycast Virtual tasting that was conducted at Victoria.

What else? Well I completed my self-inflicted challenge to find and review all 101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die and I am well into the next book, 101 World Whiskies to Try Before You Die. Thirty three down at time of writing, seventy eight yet to find. I also found some great new whisky bars. My two stand outs were The Avenue Pub in New Orleans (great night with Ding and Polly) and Reserve 101 in Houston. Reserve has also been the venue for a number of great tasting events this year including Ardbeg Day and High West (and an enjoyable evening with Jeff).  I made it to a few distilleries this year as well. The highlight was certainly the Kentucky Bourbon Trail (8 distilleries in 2 days!!) but I also really enjoyed my visit to Garrison Bros in Hye, Texas at Easter and my trip to Highland Park in September as well.

In short, I think it was a pretty productive whisky year and one that will be hard to beat. What am I looking forward to in the next year? Well a few things in particular are trying the new make spirit from the London Distillery Company, a visit to Ranger Creek and perhaps a weekend trip to Tennessee. Finally this will be the year of my debut as a host at whisky tasting, not sure yet when or where, but it will happen sometime this year I am sure. The only slightly down note is the “online silence” since March 2012 of Jim Martin, aka The Malted Muse. I miss him and his at times quirky podcasts. Come back to us Jim.

Well I have finally completed my website "upgrade" and if you are reading this then it has gone live.  So what's new?  Well as I mentioned in an earlier blog I removed all "scores" from my whisky reviews.  I won't repeat my reasons here but if you are interested you can read it at http://www.somanywhiskies.com/blog/item/379-whisky-in-the-wild-why-i-won’t-be-scoring-whiskies-anymore.

I made three other changes.  First I added a Whisky Timeline which is pretty self explanatory but I don't just cover whisky events as I feel to understand the development and history of whisky it is important to see it in context of other events.  I have focussed on the history of UK, Ireland and the USA and their whiskies (apologies to Canada and Japan) but I am sure over time I will be able to build out a global timeline.  I have used several references in building the timeline and from time to time applied some of my own subjectivity, but if you have suggestions, corrections or questions please reach out to me through the Contact Us link and we can discuss.   I still have much to add but wanted to draw a line under it and "go live" so you can expect it to develop further over next few weeks.

I have also decided to try and review all 101 whiskies from Ian Buxton's latest book "101 World Whiskies to Try Before you Die" and I will track that on the So Many Whiskies web page as well.  I really enjoyed the challenge of finding all 101 from his first book and so I have taken on the next book.  I suspect this will be a lot harder to complete (I guess it will take at least 18 months) and in some cases finding the exact expression from the book may also be difficult but where I have to make a judgement call,  as I am sure I will from time to time, I will be transparant in the review and I may also go to the source itself, Ian Buxton who has been very gracious to me in his communications, and get his "official approval" that I did indeed complete the list.  I am also going to enlist some help from my whisky buddy Jeff, whom I met on WhiskyCast Virtual tastings, and will share our thoughts on these whiskies.

Finally I added a Tastings tab.  I hope to start running whisky tasting events, maybe a club, in Houston (and who knows where else) going forward and will post pictures and details of these events on this page.  Nothing is firm or scheduled yet but if you are interested please get in touch.

I would guess if you asked many whisky enthusiasts what their ultimate whisky dream would be, I am pretty sure owning a distillery would be very high on the list.  It certainly was at the top of mine.  The reason for this is, in part, that as someone who has worked in the oil and gas industry for over 20 years there is something more than a little familiar about the chemistry, tanks, pumps, heating equipment, condensers and even the use of barrels as a unit of measure.

This is why I am so excited about being one of the original 18 or so “A” shareholders in the exciting (forgive my enthusiasm) and new (that at least is very accurate) London Distillery Company.  I may not own a distillery, but thanks to the rather cool innovation called crowd funding I do now own a bit of one at least.  The UK’s first true “craft” distillery is now being built literally as I type this entry, in a former dairy cold room in Battersea, London and will start producing whisky (and gin) in next few weeks.  Interestingly TLDC is not only the UK’s first craft distillery, London’s first distillery in over 100 years but also one of the first 200 or so companies of any kind founded by internet crowd funding.

If that wasn’t exciting enough (and believe me it probably is) my enthusiasm was actually increased by my recent to see the site and meet the team of founder Darren, distiller Andrew and intern Marco.  They actually have an intern and he took the photo so he is not in the picture above.  As well as their exciting plans for gin and whisky I also learned about Ralph Dodd (1756 - 1822) who founded the original London Distillery Company.   I can’t wait until I return in December and see spirit running off the still.  I have a feeling this is going to be a very fun ride…

I have been considering my whisky reviews on my website recently and have dubbed them in a recent conversation as "whisky in the wild" reviews.  That is to say I taste the whiskey and write my notes wherever I happen to find the drink ... that can be in a bar, restaurant, sat in my living room or at a whiskey promotion or tasting event.  I am certainly not trying to write notes in a controlled environment where no "outside" factors can have an influence.  Instead I choose to write reviews at the time and place I encountered it and there is no doubt that has an impact on my notes.    I would argue that I am enjoying that whisky in its natural environment, experiencing it as it is meant to be experienced.  That is what I mean by "whisky in the wild".  It is the difference between taking a picture of a tiger in a zoo and seeing one in their natural habitat.  Is this how you are supposed to do it?  Well almost every guide to tasting and nosing whisky says no, but this is my website so I can do it if I want to and I happen to feel my approach does have some validity. 

In addition to location the sample size can vary.  Sometimes I get just a dram at a bar or a pouring at a tasting event, while other times I may have full bottle and take a couple of drams to formulate my notes and opinions.  I am not writing these reviews for anyone else and they are 100% my opinion, however as I have chosen to make them public I realized that it might not be fair to rate or score a whisky under these circumstances, even with my rather simplistic "4 star" scoring system as some situations will be more conducive to higher scores than others.   It has recently occurred to me you don't actually have to give a whisky a score, for example  www.thewhiskywire.com  has taken (or perhaps even started) this scoreless approach to reviews and having watched Aberdeen Football Club for two seasons I am actually very comfortable and familiar with the concept of "scoreless".

So as I am working on an upgrade of the webpage this month I have decided to remove all grades from existing reviews and from all future ones... I think a written review is good enough.  I believe my writing (usually) will leave you in no doubt as to whether I liked a whisky or not, and if it doesn't then that is OK too.  After all sometimes you are in the mood for a certain whisky, sometimes not and sometimes you feel like a mango margarita and so "scoring" them becomes irrelevant at that point, you want what you want.  Something so emotional does not lend itself to being scored and when coupled with my lack of consistency in how I review, I feel my ratings are meaningless.   I have much admiration for people have the discipline to taste whisky "properly" and assign scores based on a well structured system, and find those notes very useful when I am trying to identify a flavor or taste, but I prefer to experience the tiger running wild, not behind bars at a zoo.

This is the way business and free market works.    If you have issues with capitalism and the free market (and many people do with some good reasons) but you also consider yourself a whisky person then I urge you to send me an email with all the quality brands and products (anything at all, I am not limiting this to just whisky) that have been developed in a non-free market economy.  Soviet Union, Cuba, China, North Korea... it's your call.   I am more than willing to entertain an argument that the free market does not, without fail, produce the best consumer products.  However it won't last long and you will lose and look rather silly, but I am willing to entertain it.    This is the system that produces the products and brands we love at work in all it's glory, and we should celebrate it, not moan about it.

It is not as if Bruichladdich is going anywhere, in fact we can expect more of their product over coming years due to an agreed investment program so you would think the 'laddich lovers would be thrilled. 

More good news is the gap perhaps left in some people's hearts will be quickly filled by next new distiller to open up an old site (my money is on Glenglassaugh to be next "darling" of the malt whisky world) and that we can all fall in love with and idolize.  I have no doubt we will all collectively agree to overlook the inevitable "rushed to market", cash flow driven products and expressions that Bruichladdich were more than guilty of in their rise (they possibly even took that to new levels).  If we are being honest Bruichladdich have had more inconsistency and variation in their expressions than an Angel Hernandez strike zone!  (Holy cow did I just make a very obscure baseball umpire joke...  I rather think I did).  It seems likely to me that some stewardship and steady cash flow under a global quality brand will likely produce a better product and the mantle of "innovator" will quickly pass onto someone else.  This isn't the end of anything, there is nothing to lament or mourn here, the circle of life continues.  Hakuna Matata.  Can we move on now?

When I read Ian's first book in this series (I guess it is now a series) called 101 Whiskies To Try Before You Die I was immediately impressed by Ian's approach as it seemed so at odds with other whisky publications. The book was not about the 101 "best" whiskies, but instead celebrated and enjoyed whisky in all its many forms and styles and as a relative new comer to whisky that was exactly what I wanted to do.   Importantly for me it was also about accessible whisky, whisky you could buy in your local bar, shop or absolute worst case specialist retailer, and some, but not all, of it was even cheap.  Ian clearly believes that great whisky is not limited to a particular style like single malt or bourbon... and in 101 World Whiskies To Try Before You Die he not only explores the many different styles but also the many different whisky producing countries.  In fact there are whiskies from 21 different countries reviewed in the book.

Ian's writing style is engaging, often funny, and it makes a refreshing change from some of the pomposity that creeps into a little too much whisky writing today. He manages to keep the pace moving along and interest level high without delving too much in to the techy stuff but still shows a depth of knowledge in his subject. That is a hard trick pull off sometimes.  His previous book inspired me enough to find, taste and review all 101 over the last year or so and his 202 suggestions so far have also helped me with one of the major drawbacks of being a whisky fanatic.... the tyranny of choice. Sometimes standing in that store or bar you just don’t know where to start, but his books solve that problem (if you want to call that a problem and I admit as problems go that is not the worse). 

I don’t want to ruin the surprise too much but  I will say there are some choices I agree wholeheartedly with like Black Bush and Jim Beam Black, some I didn’t quite as much (there  are some flavored whiskies and whisky liqueurs in the lists) and one or two what  I feel are glaring omissions….for example still nothing from Forty Creek!  But these types of arguments are exactly what makes these lists so enjoyable!  Any complaints or niggles? Only that I did originally buy this book for my Kindle, but because I know I will reference it over and over again I don't think that Kindle is the best format for that and so I have now bought a hard back copy as well.  I am sure Ian didn’t mind that. 

I have already reviewed 26 of the whiskies in this book, that just leaves me 75 to find… I suggest you get a copy and start crossing off your list too.  Trust me, it's fun!

After trying all 101 whiskies from Ian Buxton's book I have compiled the list of my favorites based on my admitedly unsophisticated 4 star rating system.  The best whiskies, in no particular order, were Mortlach 16, Highland Park 21 and 40, Wild Turkey Rare Breed, Macallan 18, Chivas Regal 25, Jameson 18 Limited Reserve, Maker's Mark and Ardbeg Uigeadail.  Some of these were favorites before I read the book (Macallan 18 and Maker's Mark) so that leaves six whiskies that stood out for me.  

The Mortlach 16 may have been the biggest surprise in the book, a delicious example sherried Speyside whisky that could compete "toe to toe" with anything from Macallan and Glenfarclas.  I expected great things from Highland Park and Ardbeg and they delivered in a big way.  It was also no surprise to me that a Jameson blend was one of my favorites, my interest in whisky was sparked by a visit to Jameson's Midelton distillery in 2006.  Chivas 25 was the other big surprise.  I like premium Scottish blends however the Chivas family hasn't always been something I have loved.   The Chivas 25 year old was great though and I can still remember the taste of oranges.  That leaves the Wild Turkey Rare Breed as my favorite bourbon and again I can still recall the black cherry fruit notes.

I won't dwell on my two least favorites (this blog is just a personal opinion) and my feelings about Johnnie Walker Black need no further comment (you can look up review if interested) and the Glenglassaugh spirit was a "new make" that had some novelty value and never produced as a drink in it's own right.

There were some other tremendous whiskies that for various reasons, perhaps price or rarity, that I did not rate as 4 star but deserve an honorable mention, including Hibiki 30, Blue Hanger, Glen Rothes Select Reserve, Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye 13 old, Old Pulteney 17 and Thomas H Handy Sazerac Rye. 

My project to taste all “101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die” began and ended in the UK, so it was nicely bookended geographically.  It started with a tasting event hosted by Ian Buxton in Aberdeen in May 2011 and ended in June 2012 at my parent’s home in Devon sharing the last bottle with my father who introduced me to scotch in the first place.  Fittingly the last whisky was also perhaps the hardest to find in the book as you can’t buy it at any whisky shop or online retailer.  I had to join the Wine Society in the UK and order a society “members only” bottling.  The year also included some rather hefty bar bills in Singapore, San Antonio (very hefty as I bought a round of Balvenie 30 year old’s without checking the price first), London and Las Vegas, as well as bars closer to home like the excellent Reserve 101 in Houston.  Some big bills for sure but that was still a much more cost efficient way to sample them all than actually buying the 101 bottles.  I also owe the @masterofmalt website with its award winning Drinks by the Dram offering a debt of thanks as well. 

I think there are some not bad pieces of writing (from someone who was accurately described by his English teacher in a 1982 school report as having a “tendency to make basic mistakes”) but that is not to say there isn’t plenty of banal, repetitive and other poor writing for which I apologize. 

There was certainly some good whisky… some I knew about, some I didn’t and some that better be good for the price I had to pay.  There was also some that should have been a lot better for the price they charged.  I will write about particular favorites (and the disappointments) in a later blog.  I also learned a lot about value.  I learned there is some good, even great, whisky at low prices, and that paying a lot will almost always get you a very good whisky.  The problem for me usually lies in the middle, overpriced and over hyped brands and products.  People want to charge more than the whisky is really worth and try position their perfectly good whisky as premium product, often simply by putting the average whisky in fancy packaging and charging accordingly.

It’s a cliché but people always ask so I will answer…. no I don’t have a favorite whisky so far.  This has always been a journey and an education so even the bad ones were good in that respect and therefore I answer the cliché question with a cliché answer, my favorite whisky is always “the next one”.

Will I try to taste everything in Ian’s latest book, “101 World Whiskies to Try Before You Die”?  The answer is I don’t know.  I want to look at the list, see how many I have already reviewed, and think about it what I would gain from that.  I will need to also try and determine how much it might cost and if I have the budget and my wife has the patience to continue this.   

I haven't changed the focus of this website to UK street dancing troops (for that see the website www.somanyukstreetdancingtroops.com) and I have not been sent to a series of classes after work following an unfortunate miscommunication with a colleague.  But I have now reviewed over 250 whiskies, as well the 101 I originally went in search of, and as I look back on those reviews something becomes very clear.   The diversity of tasting notes is much greater in scotch than in bourbon.  There seems to be many more flavor types that can be found in a typical scotch, or to put it another way there is no such thing as "typical scotch".  In fact that phrase is an oxymoron, like saying "happy Scotrail employee".

Various rules and regulations define what can be a called a scotch, as do similar standards in the USA and yet Scotland seems to produce more varied final product.   At first this seemed a little counter intuitive to me, after all bourbon has the advantage of more ingredient options.  It must contain 51% corn as a minimum, but rye, wheat and barley can all be used, where scotch is limited to just good ole John Barleycorn.  Surely a chef with four ingredients can make a wider range of dishes than a chef with just one?

The use of peat certainly helps create variety and as yet a bourbon made with peated barley (which I believe would still be perfectly acceptable under the definition) does not exist, and upon further reflection perhaps that is a good thing.  However it's not as simple as does the whisky has smoke or not.  The differences, in my opinion, are due to the wood options available to scotch producers.

I have been told by various sources that the cask will account for 60 – 70% of the final flavor, while the spirit will be 40% - 30% depending on age of spirit (longer maturation of course means more wood influence).   The bourbon rules are very specific on wood and barrel.  Bourbons must be aged for 2 years in American white oak, charred and of course most importantly, they have to be NEW barrels. On the other hand scotch regulations just requires the spirit to be aged in oak for 3 years.  And so the maturation, blending, finishing and vatting options for scotch are really endless.  American or European oak? Used or new? Charred or uncharred? Before being used to mature scotch they may have contained wine, bourbon, rum, beer, sherry, port and madeira and they can be reused and re-used (often filled 3 times before being retired as garden center planters).

This simple difference (new barrels versus used barrels) can explain the variety in the taste profile, scotch having the widest variety of flavors while bourbon has a much tighter grouping.  The scotch producer, while limited in ingredients, has more flexibility in wood and therefore can influence the "70%".  The bourbon producer has few options regarding wood but has more variety in the spirit production, but that spirit may only account for the "30%".  This is not to say more variety is good, or that the broad range in anyway reflects on quality, just think supermarket cola and Pepsi Cola... same basic  flavors but vastly different quality.   Quality is a whole different subject.

So considering the massive the impact on the final product I think it is clear that wood is an "ingredient" in whisky and the standard Scottish distillery tour should perhaps tone down the magical water source and location of warehouse rhetoric and other routinely spouted tourist babble and perhaps just say scotch whisky has four ingredients... barley, water, yeast and wood.