Like many bloggers I followed the recent furur, forur, furora excitement around the announcements by Maker’s Mark with great interest. For those of you interested enough in whisky to be reading this rather obscure whisky blog but who do not know what I am talking about I can only assume you spent the last few weeks sealed inside a sherry butt. For your benefit the short version is, based on sales growth, Maker’s Mark announced they were going to cut the alcohol by volume (ABV) of their whisky from the traditional 45% to 42% to allow them increase output by about 6% and better meet the demand for their product. The uproar that resulted from the announcement led to Maker’s Mark changing their mind and hastily reversing that decision.

I am on the record as big Maker’s Mark fan so I was certainly interested but hardly alarmed. I felt like I should hold off until I had tried both samples side by side. I immediately acquired a 45% ABV bottle and stood by for my 42% bottle. I thought it would be fun to do, a nice test of my palate and an objective way to assess the change. Could I tell the difference?  Fun times.

Others took a different approach (hysteria might be a good word) based on what I can only assume is the  desire to have a higher ABV product. Apparently what it tasted like was irrelevant because not one of them ever tried the slightly lower ABV product.   This "higher ABV is better" is a phenomenon I see manifested in Scotch as well where something is often annointed desirable because it is “cask strength”. There is a subtle (but definitely tangible) culture around strong whisky being better whisky. I also see (with the help of Ding’s Beer Blog) similar behaviors in the beer world… higher ABV means better beer... more alcohol is good. FrankIy I can do without this immaturity and lack of understanding infecting the whisky scene like noro virus.

Occasionally I have 'humbly' suggested that bottling whiskies at 60%+ ABV doesn’t help the product and I end up having to dilute anyway. Someone will often try and argue that is a good thing because I can “dilute to my personal taste”. I can hear them now chanting the mantra of the ABV obsessed “you can put water in but you can’t take it out, you can put water in but you can’t take it out”. But it is a silly argument. This is whisky, usually expensive whisky, not orange squash. I don’t want to buy concentrate of whisky that I can easily screw up. I want to buy the product presented to me by the people who created it at the ABV they feel best showcases their product. Many chefs don’t have salt on their restaurant tables because they want the diner to enjoy the food as they think it is best seasoned. They want the food to be judged that way and I feel whisky should be the same. I am not saying a few drops of water to open up a dram aren’t necessary, they often are, but presenting me with 60% ABV spirit (often at cost of $100 or more a bottle) and then expecting me to guess the right water content to add to their whisky is a little asinine.  I dont care what the ABV of a whisky is.... I just want it to taste good.  if it does, then I am happy.

This is a first... a wine review on a whisky blog.  On recent trip to Texas wine country (yes there really is one!) near San Antonio we visited Bending Branch Winery in Comfort, Texas. This annual special edition is a picpoul (picpoul is french for lip stinger) based white that is finished in an ex-bourbon cask.  The lady who poured this for me at their very nice vistors center insisted that it was not finished in just any bourbon barrel, but a Pappy Van Winkle barrel!  Apparently they do this one special bottling every year for their Kentucky Derby party.  These are my kind of wine people.  I have come across lots of whisky finished in wine casks (Glenmorangie like to do this with expressions like Artein and Nectar D'Or), but this was the first time I have seen a wine finished in a whisky cask.  The nose was at first crisp green apples, tart, but some sweetness as well (the bourbon influence perhaps).  The taste has the first same clean fresh and tart notes from the nose (the reason this grape variatel is called lip stinger).  As wine warms in the glass the sweetness comes through as creamy marshmallow and even taffy.  The finish has some vanilla, oak and even creme brulee.  Very interesting, I can't say for sure if I would have picked this as "whisky finished wine" if I don't know, but some very familiar elements were definately on display. 

I am writing this entry whilst in the middle of a long business trip. I am very fortunate because these trips always provide some opportunities to find and try new whiskies. This can take many forms including airline lounges, duty free shops, whisky shops and bars, hotel bars and even hotel mini bars (See my Cardhu review). It rare that I come home from a trip without making a new friend or two along the way and this trip, so far, is no different. I was delighted to find behind the bar of anonymous city center chain hotel a bottle of the recently reproduced Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt. Even better they were down to last dram and when he went to pour my double (50 ml to exact; don’t get me started in standard UK measure of 25 ml!) the barman rather than put back an almost empty bottle (I don’t think was a big seller for him) generously topped my glass up.  

However I have to say such finds are becoming rarer for me now, it is getting harder to find whiskies that I haven’t tried and make these new liquid friends. So instead on this trip I took the time to reintroduce myself to some old friends; Glenfiddich 12 year old and Dalwhinnie 15 year old. I am glad I did. I have a real soft spot for Glenfiddich and have always felt it was overlooked and underrated in the whisky community. I know it isn’t trendy but, I tell you what, it is bloody good. If you don’t believe me PLEASE go back and try it again. As for the Dalwhinnie, I spent a lovely evening at the house of an old friend, in snowy Scotland catching up and doing severe damage to his only bottle of single malt. Context is of course everything, but at that moment, in that place, the Dalwhinnie was the perfect dram.

Just before I left for this trip I found myself in the Container Store in Houston and spotted the JetBag™ in the photo. What I love about this bottle protector (apart from fact it pretty cheap at just $3.99) is that not only does it protect the bottle but it also contains an interior that will absorb the full 750 ml of fluid if bottle does break. Touch wood, I have never had a bottle break in my luggage but I can travel with a little more confidence because one day I know it will happen! So I guess that makes JetBag my first official www.somanywhiskies.com product endorsement. Right now, as I write this, it is protecting the bottle of Longmorn 16 year old I bought in Scotland, another one of the 101 World Whiskies To Try Before You Die and so I need to get on with posting that review (and the Mackinlay’s).

As a confirmed blend-o-phile I often find myself explaining (or at least trying to explain) why I like blends and the differences in style between blended and single malt whiskies.  People like to use analogies when they are describing complex or difficult concepts and one that I have heard many times, and I know Mark Gillespie of WhiskyCast uses, is to compare great blended whisky to an orchestra and single malts to a jazz soloist.  Both produce complex and often brilliant music, but of course in entirely different ways.  But I have never really liked this analogy for the one, rather pedantic, reason. I love single malt and I hate jazz.  There I said it.  I can't stand jazz.  I find it to be extremely self-indulgent and I confess to calling jazz in the past “musical masturbation” (but without the rhythm).  When it comes to music I have always been a Beatle fan (to the extent my daughter is named, in part at least, after the song Eleanor Rigby) and I think there is a great analogy for blended whisky in the songwriters John Lennon and Paul McCartney and their music. 

I think of John Lennon as the malt whisky.  His song writing is usually more powerful and stern and his melancholy reflects the maturity of single malt.  Single malts provide the depth, complexity and richness of a great blend just as John Lennon provided those qualities to the Beatles music. Paul is of course the grain whisky. His songwriting tends to be more positive and upbeat. He brings an air of lightness and freshness to Beatles songs just as grain whisky brings to a great blend.

At its best, the music of The Beatles often (but not always) captured and harmonized both of those elements.  Their singing was often so closely harmonized it could create a new voice, just as a great blend captures and builds upon the best of the component whiskies to create a new product, not just a composite.   I think it is also interesting that while single malts (and to a much lesser degree grain whisky) are still incredibly popular, just as John was and Paul still is as solo artists, blended whisky is still by far the most popular in the world (still 95% of global whisky sales perhaps) and the Beatles still remain the pinnacle of their musical careers, certainly from a commercial success aspect anyway.

As with many analogies you can take them too far and the obvious weakness in my argument is of course Paul McCartney has had great success as a solo artist and yet grain whisky remains by far, the least developed of the whiskies, while single malts have grown in popularity (ironically since the time of the Beatles first single in 1962).   However we will know what John’s true potential as a solo artist as we were robbed of his talent in 1980.  As I said; no analogy can stand too much scrutiny and mine is getting stretched beyond breaking point now so I will, like Ardbeg's latest release, call it a day.  

Welcome to what will be my final blog entry of 2012, my first full year of www.somanywhiskies.com.  If you are reading this then the world did not end on December 21st 2012 and I now have to rush out and buy all my Christmas presents (in the event of world destruction I had hoped to save a few bucks, afterall every cloud has a silver lining).  So this entry, like a 25ml measure of Drambuie will be short and sweet.   I am writing this sitting in the excellent Great Scots Bar of the Cameron House Hotel (a bar that will help me cross off at least 3 more scotch whiskies off my list of 101 World Whiskies to Try later today) overlooking the bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond.  The weather?  As the seasonal song goes... "the weather outside is frightful" but there is no snow, just a constant dreich of rain.    So with the scene set (the world did not end and it is raining in Scotland - no big surprises here) I wanted to do some end of year housekeeping and post the obligatory and cliched  "best drams of 2012" and with a shocking twist, I will also point out some of the less sucessful drams as well.   These are not necessarily my "favorite" drams  but those that really exceeded expectations and / or delivered really good value that I tried for the first time in 2012.  I apologise to those many fine products that I did not include in list below, all omissions and errors are entirely fault of author.   Cheers!

My first Australian single malt... blew me away: http://www.somanywhiskies.com/reviews/item/449-sullivans-cove-port-barrel

Number 2 is a rum... yes a rum. That's how good it is: http://www.somanywhiskies.com/reviews/item/405-brugal-1888-gran-reserva-familiar

Close to whisky perfection: http://www.somanywhiskies.com/reviews/item/263-highland-park-40-year-old

I thought I knew Red Breast... then I tried Cask Strength: http://www.somanywhiskies.com/reviews/item/353-red-breast-12-year-old-cask-strength

Great people making a very good Texas whisky: http://www.somanywhiskies.com/reviews/item/364-ranger-creek-36-texas-bourbon

One of my highlights on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail: http://www.somanywhiskies.com/reviews/item/218-wild-turkey-rare-breed

And now some memorable for all the wrong reasons...

Please Mayan gods, even if world doesn't end, please at least end the white whisky fad: http://www.somanywhiskies.com/reviews/item/363-georgia-moon

I bought in a gas station, say no more: http://www.somanywhiskies.com/reviews/item/408-heaven-hill-kentucky-blended-whisky

Really Canada... I know you can do so much better: http://www.somanywhiskies.com/reviews/item/268-seagrams-seven-crown

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.