Scotland: Single malt whisky through the producing distilleries: history, making and tasting
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About this site

Birth of this site dedicated to Scotch whisky

Scotland

Some people could think this site is much more than the single reflection of the private whisky collection of a whisky lover.
And yet, it is nothing other than the result of a passion for Scotch Whisky
Nothing about me suggests I would ever build a web site about whisky...
During a trip in Scotland, intended to show the Loch Ness and if possible its monster to my children, I visited a whisky distillery, because it is also part of the tourist package of Scotland.
It was not the first time I went there, but it was my first distillery visit. Like anybody, I chose the most known and the most visited of all of them: Glenfiddich.
Before visiting the distillery, I visited some shops belonging to "Whisky World", and discovered lots of mysterious whiskies: Glenmorangie, Macallan, Bowmore... I just knew J&B, Chivas Regal (which I considered being an expensive whisky), Cardhu (this one was really expensive) I used to see in the airports, with its characteristic bottle. To cut a long story short, I just was an ignorant.

 

Back home

I was really surprised after being home again by a little retailer just round the corner, who sells nearly everything I saw in Scotland during my holiday.  And cheaper, even cheaper than bottles I bought directly at the distillery.
I had bought half a dozen of bottles in Scotland, and the adventure was just starting.
The rot had already set in.
One thing leading to another, the collection grew up to 20 bottles, and the collectors mania will begin soon. I had to have a bottle of each area. Then one of each island.
As the number of bottles was growing, I began making a database to manage the collection. I had to have a bottle by alphabet letter (fortunately, for the distilleries of Scotland, the alphabet ends with a U...), and now I have to have one of each distillery.

Birth of this site

Since my passion for whisky began in a distillery, I always liked know something about the distillery from  which I bought a bottle. Of course there are books. Michael Jackson has written very important ones, and a Dutch passionate, called Robin Brilleman wrote a kind of bible about each running distillery. The book is called"Schotse Malt Whisky", and I guess it has not been translated from Dutch.
Internet was also an important source of information, but it was very fragmented, and a complete site, covering all my bottles did not exist. Of course, sites like "Maison du Whisky" are very nice, but their aim is to sell the bottlings they have in their shop. I was looking for an informational site.
Since it did not exist, I decided to create it. We are in august 2003.
It took me hundreds of hours, and it will take me another hundreds of hours. It looks like Hercule's works. An endless work.
My goal is to share my experiences and the knowledge I gathered during the last years with as many people as possible.
Aware of my chance (an excellent retailer round the corner, and I can buy some bottles without being obliged to ask money to the bank), I tried to go further.
Giving my opinion about all my bottles -this in order to help those who are looking for nice bottles- and I had the idea to rank them by quality-price ratio. The formula takes the price per litre and the quotation I gave into account. Other factors, like rarity -due to the closing of the distillery- are also taken into account.
After a few months, I realized I had to translate the site in English, if I wanted to be read by a maximum of people. This is done now, even if there are language mistakes in the text....

Jean-Marie Putz chez Laing

Back to Scotland

Aware of the gaps in my knowledge of the Whisky industry, I decided to spend two weeks for visiting distilleries and discussing with major actors of the scotch whisky industry in the spring of 2004.  
The information I gathered during this journey and the pictures of distilleries I took will be published on this site. As it represents lots of work, this information will be added gradually.
I am very proud to publish a picture of myself drinking a Brechin (North Port) of about 30 years in the tasting lounge of the Laing Brothers in Glasgow.

The bottle collection where this site is based on counts currently (december 2004) about 275 bottles. The pictures below represent a great deal of the collection. This can give an idea of what it represents(even if the pictures are of poor quality) .

Collection de bouteilles de whisky collection de bouteilles de whisky