This site

It might sound strange to begin a whisky-newsletter with some information about a whisky site, rather than with other and important news about the whisky world. In fact the pretendtion of this newsletter is not to provide the whole world with exclusive first-hand information. This is the job of some professional journalists. I'm just a whisky lover trying to share the information I gather with other enthousiast whisky lovers around the world. And the way to do this is my website... For this reason, I consider information about what is happening on and around the site as potentially important.

The site

As you subscribed to this newsletter, I imagine you have a good idea of the content of whisky-distilleries.info, but sometimes people not really realize the huge amont of information they can find on this site, which remains just one site amongst so many others.

First of all, it's important to know that it is just an informational site, with not link at all with the whisky industry, nor the whisky distribution circuits. I sell just nothing...

As a whisky lover, I tried to find out where my favorite drink is coming from and how it is made. And I wanted also to have a good idea of the bottles I own, even months after I tasted it for the last time.

The site whisky-distilleries.info is divided into 2 mains parts and hosts also a forum.

• General information

The general secion on the site includes information about the way whisky is made , the history of whisky (this section will be completed soon), some tips for drinking whisky, informations about independant bottlers, who owns the distilleries, the producing areas, a time-table putting the creation of disitlleries in their historical context, a short glossary, and even more...

• Distillery specific information

The site reflects the bottles I own in my collection, and the tasting notes are personal and do not have any pretention, even if they are very carefully written.
This section is organised by distillery, with some general information about the distillery itself and a description of each of the bottles, as far as I tasted them... It might be interesting to notice I never drink more than one dram a day, as I consider whisky as a pleasure but I am fully aware of danger of alcoholic beverages... One of those dangers being the fact that discovering pleasure lowers from the second dram already...
Tasting notes and comments from anybody are welcome and will be published. The French section is rather active, and lots of visitors notes are published.
Beside the individual pages, the 100 last tasted bottles, a table raking the bottles by level of pleasure I experienced and another table listing the bottles by pleasure/price ratio.

• Forum

Last but not least, a forum is associated with the site. This forum is very active in French (as has been recognized as being the most active of all Frenchspeaking forums about whisky by the French Whisky Magazine).

The few last months, there were about 1000 messages a month on the forum, exclusively dedicated to single malt (and in fact, to Scotch single malt, even if there is a section dedicated to the other malts around the world).

If there is any interest for opening an English version of it, please let me know. On the other hand, there are plenty of good whisky forums around...

This site

The site is originally in French, but is entirely translated in English since a few months, and each new page is systematically added in both languages. The site is made up from about 300 pages per language.

Some figures

Number of described distilleries

111 distilleries covering all the producing areas in Scotland are described by now.

Number of described bottles

305 bottles are described by now.

Visitors statistics

Between 4 and 500 visitors a day reading between 2 and 3000 pages.

A new whisky country: Belgium

Belgium is renowned all around the world for the quality of its special beers. But untill recently, nobody dared making whisky in that country.

In fact, whisky and beer are made with the same raw materials, and it is rather surprising Belgium waited untill end 2004 to produce its first whisky. In fact, I should say "its first New Make Spirit", as there are about 2 other years to go before it will deserve the whisky denomination.

A very promising and interesting experience. Please read more about this new distillery on the site.

Belgian whisky

The first Belgian single malt is produced by Etienne Bouillon in its distillery in Grâce Hollogne, not far away from Liège.

For more information about this nice small-scale and traditional distillery, please visit its website. This site is not yet translated in English, but the intention is to achieve this translation in the near future.

The SWA proposes a new nomenclature for Scotch whisky

What does the appellation "Pure Malt" which is sometimes seen on a whisky bottle mean? In fact, there is no legal definition for this naming, nor there is any legal definition for other indications commonly used.

In order to create a kind of legal framework to clarify the different notions in the mind of consumers, the SWA (Scotch Whisky Association) launched a great debate with the major actors of the whisky industry and consumer protection associations. The confusion resulting from the current denominations has often served the whisky vendors.

The aim of the SWA is not to write a "code of good practices", but to prepare a new law which will apply to everybody and which will rule the trade of Scotch whisky.

After more than one year of discussion, the adopted terminology is:

• Single Malt Scotch Whisky: designates a whisky exclusively made from malted barley, and coming from one single distillery.
• Single Grain Scotch Whisky: designates a whisky made from non malted grain, and coming from one single distillery.
• Blended Scotch Whisky: designates a whisky made from a mix of malted whisky and grain whisky.
• Blended Malt Scotch Whisky: designates a whisky exclusively made from malted barley, but being a mix of the production from several distilleries.
• Blended Grain Scotch Whisky: designates a whisky made from non malted grain, being a mix of the production of several distilleries.

All other namings will disappear:

• vatted malt: The term "vatted" has never been correctly understood by the consumers, and could suggest a second rate whisky (just think of VAT69), even if it is meant for mixes of "single malts"
• pure malt: Some people think "Pure Malt" is the same as "Single Malt", and others think "Pure Malt" designates another (higher) quality and others guess the name covers blends (mix of malted and grain whisky). Lot of people consider it means a mix of several malted whiskies (vatted). Because of this confusion, the term will be banned from the labels.

But these denominations designating the type of whisky are not the only items where the SWA wants to see some changes. The name of the whisky itself draws its attention too. So, in the future, it will be forbidden to give a whisky the name of a distillery, unless it has been entirely produced by that distillery. However, this last point could conflict with existing trademark rights, and will take existing rights into consideration.

A greater protection for the traditional producing areas (Lowlands, Highlands, Speyside, Campbeltown and Islay) is also proposed.

The future will learn is if this changes will actually contribute to a clarification in the mind of consumers. For people who know the word "blended" means a mix of malt and grain whisky, it will not be so easy to see this name used for single malt mixes too.

This new denominations are proposed also because of some European regulations, where the term "blend" is accepted for any kind of whisky mixes, including single malt mixes. A recent example of this is the Ardbeg "Serendipity" accidentaly born from an accident in the warehouses, where Ardbeg and Glen Moray habe been mixed.

Current denominations, and their meaning.

• Single Malt: Whisky exclusively made from malted barley, coming from a single distillery.
• Vatted Malt: Whisky exclusively made from malted barley, being a mix of produces from several distilleries.
• Grain whisky: Whisky made from non malted grains.
• Blend whisky: a mix of malt whisky (from one or more distilleries) and grain whisky.
• Pure malt : unclear denomination, sometimes used for vatted malts, for single malts or even for blends.

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Explanation of the terms used in the new denomination

• Whisky:

  A spirit drink produced by the distillation of a mash of cereals

1. saccharified by the diastase of the malt contained therein, with or without other natural enzymes,
2. fermented by the action of yeast,
3. distilled at less than 94,8 % vol, so that the distillate has an aroma and taste derived from the raw materials used,
4. and matured for at least three years in wooden casks not exceeding 700 litres capacity.

• Scotch: whisky corresponding to the above definition, but distilled and matured for at least 3 years in Scotland.
• Malt: Grain, usually barley, that has been allowed to sprout, used chiefly in brewing and distilling (see on the site)
• Grain: non malted grains
• Blended: mixed.