Resource Round-up
I've been threatening to do this for a while, and I finally have time.
Below are links to some of the best resources I've come across for the bon-vivant, whisky connoisseur and premium-liquor newbie.
Liquor Snob - All the news that's fit to drink
This is a site in the mold of Gizmodo and Luxist (2 of my favorite, non-Scotch sites) - multiple posts per day on a variety of alcoholic beverage related topics. Good stuff - not specific to Scotch, but good stuff.
This is the official site for Dr, David Wishart's excellent book "Whisky Classified - Choosing Single Malts by Flavour" The site is just a sampling of Dr. Wishart's research, you really need to get the book to fully appreciate the concept.
Whisky Magazine is a great magazine. Dave Broom and Michael Jackson are regular contributors along with Charles Cowdery, who in my estimation, is America's foremost Bourbon expert. The site allows you to search on any of the published stories, but you'll only get a taste - to read the full article, you'll need to get the hard copy. Still, there's a lot of information on this site. They just released their 50th issue and sponsor the international Whisky Live events.
Malt Advocate is the foremost barley-focused magazine in the US. Covering Whisky, Whiskey, and Beer, it's a great read. As a matter of fact, my issues of Malt Advocate and Whisky Magazine generally come in the same day (or darn close), and I read them cover-to-cover that night. Jim Murray, Maichael Jackson, and Charles Cowdery are frequent contributors to Malt Advocate.
Malt Advocate sponsors the Chicago and New York-based WhiskyFest events (New York is coming up on November 9th, 2005). The Malt Advocate web site doesn't have as much information as Whisky Magazine, but Malt Advocate offers a weekly e-Mail based newsletter called WhiskyNotes.
The amount of information on Johannes van den Heuvel's Malt Madness site is almost overwhelming. They have a nice beginner's guide, profiles of numerous distilleries, and extensive tasting notes. Johannes also adds a weird Dutch sense-of-humor to the whole thing, never taking himself, or the subject completely seriously. Good reading, good fun.
The world's first whisky-related podcast comes to us from the great northwest. Washingtonian Tony Dirksen offers up whisky appreciation in short, easily digestible, 3-4 minute segments. I subscribe to the show via iTunes, and enjoy each new episode.
One to keep your eye on...
I know that Jim Murray has a good man working on a new version of The Whisky Bible site. There's not much there now, but I expect it to be one hell of a resource once it is completed. Jim's Whisky Bible series of books are a must-have resource.
That should get you started. Have fun...
Please send me some of your favorite whisky resources for future postings.
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