I started this website as I began to explore the world of whisky and I wanted to document that exploration. It turned out to be very large world and a daunting undertaking. I felt I needed some structure to my journey, a goal or destination, or I would risk wandering aimlessly. I needed a guide, ideally someone who shared some of my increasingly strongly held opinions about whisky. I first heard Ian Buxton talk about 101 Whiskies To Try Before you Die on Whisky Cast (see Links) and immediately many of the themes in his book resonated with me. The book was not about the 101 best whiskies, but instead celebrated and enjoyed whisky in all its many forms and styles. Importantly it was 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.

I then attended a book festival event in Aberdeen in May 2011 where I met Ian and he led a tasting of the whiskies from his book (not all 101 of them obviously as that would have been a memorable day but possibly fatal) and that event further reinforced in me a belief that great whisky was not limited to a particular style like single malt, or special releases so rare that it would be easier to find a Scotsman drinking English whisky on Burn's Night or even aged whisky so old that that it could remember when fax machines were considered cool technology and when Division 1 football was not the third best league in England. Great whisky can come in all shapes, sizes and prices.

So I set myself a goal, to find and try all 101 of them and then write what I think about them and in June 2012 I completed that goal It turns out my timing was good because in July 2012 Ian released a second book; "101 World Whiskies to Try Before You Die". This was a little trickier to complete, and it took me until September 2014 to complete that book. But complete it I did (with a great deal of help from the online whisky community and some of the distilleries). In the interim Ian also released an updated version of “101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die” with thirteen changes from the original. Of course I also tracked down the thirteen from “Version 2” as well. So I believe I am the only person, except of course the Jedi Master Buxton himself, to have tried all “215 whiskies to try before you die” and my 2011 goal was achieved and my destination reached.

Now I feel like a native in the world of whisky thanks in part to my trusty guide and his excellent guidebooks.

To purchase a copy of 101 Whiskies To Try Before you Die for yourself, click here.

To purchase a copy of 101 World Whiskies To Try Before you Die for yourself, click here.