Whisk(e)y Apostle Goings On
Some of my content may have seemed a little screwy lately. I started off on run of Irish whiskey reviews and a review of the Old Jameson Distillery coming off of my trip to Ireland. From there I was quiet for a while and then Four Roses, Spicebox, SoCo, and rum reviews popped up. Well, believe it or not I do have a plan in mind respective of when and what I review and what other content gets posted. That grand plan gets a little derailed when I have new product come in. I feel personally obligated to move up reviews of anything I received from producers. They don’t hound me (well some of the PR folks might 🙂 ) but I just feel it’s proper etiquette. That’s what caused the pause in my Ireland segment.
Along those same lines I was invited to be part of a unique program recently and that might delay the rest of my Ireland content just a little longer. Last week I was invited to be a part of the Blogger Sample Program for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America. Was does that mean? Well, plainly put they want me to take a stab at most of the casks they release to their members. For those not familiar with the SMWSA it’s a member’s only organization that sources and privately bottles unique casks at cask strength for their members. For the record I am not a member and I am not pimping for them. Believe it or not I was conflicted about whether or not to accept the offer and if I did what kind of coverage I could provide. Up until now I haven’t reviewed any independent bottlings of single malt scotch. Partially this was because they weren’t as widely available and therefore most of the Whisk(e)y Apostle family might not be able try them. There is also the problem that I lived in Atlanta and now live in Columbia. Georgia and South Carolina aren’t exactly on the short list for most independent bottlers’ distribution. There’s also just so much scotch out there that I haven’t needed to expand into independent bottlings. Really, I’ve still got plenty of the standard line up to review.
So why did I decide to do it? Free whiskey is always hard to turn down. That’s a given. However, it also gives me the opportunity to share part of the wider world of independently bottled scotch with all of you. I’m sure the SMWSA hopes it will drive membership and it probably will. They aren’t known for selecting crap casks. But even with the decision to participate made I was still unsure about what to say. I first considered just reviewing them with tasting notes but giving no rating but that just seemed kind of silly. I want all of you to know what I think about the whiskies and how they stack up to some of the regular stuff you are already drinking. I will however, be tagging the SMWSA reviews as such and giving them their own section in the Review Archive. It would be hard to miss them even if I didn’t. The SMWSA only gives you cask numbers and region of origin by which to distinguish them.
Hopefully, all of you will enjoy the additional content as much as I will. It’s going to keep me on my toes. They release 3 to 5 new whiskies every 3 to 4 weeks. Let’s hope I can keep up! Based on the limited quantities of each cask and frequency of new releases the SMWSA releases will jump ahead of whatever else I’m reviewing unless it is product sent to me by another producer. The first review will post later today and the next three will follow in the next couple of days. I hope you all enjoy!
Drink wisely my friends,
Richard
