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01/09/2010 - The 'shipping season' for the next edition of the annual Malt Maniacs Awards has just started and we welcome two additional team members. Actually, we'll be welcoming BACK one of them: Thomas Lipka was a certified malt maniac until a few years ago. The new certified malt maniac is Rich Howard from the USA who posesses the skills we needed to help make our dream of the new MM Database (DEMO!) a reality. 15/07/2010 - Less than six months after the commercialised travesty of the 'Winter Olympics' we got to enjoy the FIFA games in South Africa - which seemed to be more about FIFA than about football. After the Dutch team (very deservedly) lost the final I thought the nationalistic circus was finally over. And then Joe Barry's 'Whisky & The World Cup' E-pistle dropped in my mail box so I could relive the whole horrible football ordeal again. 08/07/2010 - For many years the number of 'active' maniacs has hovered around the magical number '24' (what's so magical about it, you ask? Well, for one thing it's the highest number on a clock, smart-arse!) but now we felt we could use some more fresh blood. So, I'm happy to report that two more members have joined our band of merry madmen; Gordon Homer from the UK and Martin Diekmann from Germany. Now we're done inviting new members - at least for a few months ;-) 04/07/2010 - Pernod Ricard / Chivas Brothers have recently launched a campaign that seems to 'go against the grain' of a trend towards ever more malt whiskies without an age statement. Serge Valentin responds with a fine Does Whisky Age Matter? article, which he managed to back up with lots of statistics. 02/07/2010 - Hmmmph... I've just received a fresh E-pistle from Louis and I'm feeling a bit grumpy now. Well, perhaps that's just because whisky & grumpiness is the topic of the article ;-) 15/06/2010 - Woohooo! as part of the ongoing rejuvenationing process of Malt Maniacs (yep, that's right, I've just invented a new word; you're very welcome to use it free of charge...) we've just welcomed 2 new team members - Chris Bunting from Nonjatta and Tim Puett from The Ardbeg Project. Welcome fellows! Along with adding some fresh cannon fodder to the team we've started kicking butts again to get some maniacs writing again... 04/04/2010 - On this rainy and Eastery sunday I'm happy to present this slightly 'tweaked' design and structure of the Malt Maniacs site. So far, I've only changed this main page and the 'archive' page, but I intend to refurbish the rest of the web site as well over the coming months. Watch this space... 15/03/2010 - The second PDF E-pistle just dropped on our desktop. Just like the first E-pistle, it came from Canada; from Lawrence Graham this time. In his Laphroaig Quest E-pistle he describes his hardships on the desolate island of Hawaii. |
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Serge Valentin graciously offered to merge his brilliant Whiskyfun site
with these two sites to form an online trinity of whisky websites
that
has something fresh to offer virtually every day. And, we also have a 4th
branch with the Malt Maniacs & Friends group on Facebook. If you have
a question, just
drop it on the forum and you should receive a reply soon.
The buttons at the left lead to what we think are the most popular pages
and sections of Malt Maniacs - let us know if you can't find your favourites.
Meanwhile, Serge has instigated an action to promote the availability of spittoons at whisky festivals.
We hardly applaud the initiative! You may know that personally try to avoid
spitting out the single malts
I try,
but then again I don't own a car anymore. That means that I'm usually able to get home by bus, train, subway,
bicycle of my own feet after a tasting or festival. These are all modes of transportation that can be operated
or used with relatively limited danger to others - as opposed to motorised vehicles like cars and motorcycles.
If you DO attend a whisky festival, tasting (or any other 'alcoholic' event) by car, please
don't drink and drive.
I like to think that the single malts crowd is a far more civilised and considering bunch than, say, football fans or
alcoholic barflies. But the
consumption of excess quantities of alcohol can make even the most civilised person do
stupid things. So, please follow Serge's advice: 'Remember, don't drink and drive. If you
spot a friend who's been
drinking, don't let him drive. If you're attending a tasting session whilst being 'obliged' to drive, always spit out and/or
pour your glasses into mini-bottles for future enjoyment at home. Or
leave your car and overnight at a nearby hotel or
at friends. (...) Remember your own pleasure can become a lifelong nightmare to others. Please, enjoy whisky (and
other drinks) as much as you like, but never drive
while drunk.' Hear, hear!!!
The MaltMenu and the Specials page offer tasting notes on
a few hundred recently released Scotch malt whiskies as well.
If you have a few hours to spare, check out the Malt Maniacs Matrix and the
Malt Maniacs Monitor for scores for over 10,000 Scotch malt whiskies by more than a dozen different certified malt maniacs. Not all malt maniacs participate in scoring, though. There are circa 25 malt maniacs who are located in 14 different countries around the world. You can find an overview with some basic information about each of the maniacs in the 'locals' section. Clicking on the name of one of the maniacs will take you directly to his 'Facebook Profile'
- which should give you some idea about the background of that maniac. Most of the maniacs are a little bit weird but fairly sociable, so they won't mind too much if you drop them a message. Alternatively, you could consult the Malt Maniacs & Friends group on Facebook.
If you're looking for tasting notes for Scotch whisky, Facebook is probably not your best bet.
The largest collection of whisky tasting notes is arguably the archive which contains the results of more
than a decade worth of dramming by circa two dozen maniacs. However, although
the old ADHD section
and the archive contain the largest number of tasting notes, they were written by many different authors.
As I mentioned earlier, the reconstruction of this website isn't quite finished yet. The ADHD section that contains most of the old pages of the site; everything we've written from 1997 to 2006. In this particular case 'we' means not only the circa 25 certified malt maniacs listed in the 'locals' section, but quite a few 'foreign correspondents' as well. Would you like to become a foreign correspondent too? Just write an article about your whisky experiences and/or opinions (ideally between 1500 and 2500 words) and drop us an e-mail at the address below. Alternatively, you can join the Malt Maniacs & Friends group on Facebook and post your questions & thoughts on the discussion board.
Everybody is unique, so it can be difficult to compare one person's tasting notes to another one's.
If you're looking for the largest number of whisky tasting notes
by a single author, I'd like to point you to Serge Valentin's Whiskyfun site, which offers fresh tasting notes almost every day. By the end of 2009, Serge had already sampled
circa 6,000 different single malt whiskies. Around the same time, my own 'malt mileage' was just 3,000 Scotches - but on the other hand the Distillery Data section of Malt Madness also provides additional details about the distillery, if you'd like to dig a little deeper.
With these wise words I'd like to wrap up this introduction to the phenomenon that is the Malt Maniacs website.
Just follow one of the links on this page if you understood what I was talking
about, but you were eager to hear more.
If you didn't have a clue, you probably were never properly introduced to single malt whisky. In that case, I'd like to invite you to check out
my Malt Madness web site - especially the Beginner's Guide to Scotch malt whisky. Alternatively, you may be a connoisseur
of fine spirits
and find yourself slightly bored by the level of discource on this Malt Maniacs site. In that case I'd like to direct you to the WhiskyFun website
by Serge Valentin for a more experienced perspective on
'the water of life'.
Sweet drams,
Johannes van den Heuvel
Editor Malt Madness / Malt Maniacs
The archive of our E-zine is by far the
largest section
of Malt Maniacs, but that's
also the reason that it's not completely
reconstructed yet. So, if you'd like to read
the hundreds of articles about whisky
we've written over the years, you'll have
to divide your attention between the old
ADHD section (covering 1997 to 2006)
and the new E-pistles written since 2007.
< Malt Maniacs Calendar of Events >
Most of the articles that we've written over
the years are available on this web site, but
these days we are active on Facebook and
twitter as well. So, if you're interested in our
irregular updates & random observations
it's
easy to track us on-line. You might even be able
to observe the natural behaviour of some of the
malt maniacs at one of these whisky festivals
...
Welcome to the site of 'Malt Maniacs' - the international collective of malt whisky lovers that has
evolved around the Malt Madness whisky website since 1997. That was when a few of those
whisky lovers started sharing their
thoughts about Scotch whisky with the rest of the world.
During a decade of heavy dramming (1997-2006) we have been frantically spreading the
gospel of single malt whisky via the world wide whisky web. However, by 2006 the old
site had grown to hundreds of pages, and it finally collapsed under its own weight.
So, I
decided to develop two brand new sites - Malt Madness (my personal site, focusing on
whisky and distillery information) and Malt Maniacs, sharing various perspectives on malt.
The 'Google Calendar' of noteworthy whisky events in the world
is maintained by our 'bar crier' Konstantin Grigoriadis.
Drop him a
note at the address below if a major whisky event in your area is
not included on our calendar of whisky festivals world wide.
