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08/01/2010 - There was some confusion amongst some certified malt maniacs (and even some ex malt maniacs) when a website announced that they would be judges on a different whisky competition than the Malt Maniacs Awards. We'd like to stress that no malt maniac was involved in organising this event, and none of our team members was approached to judge the event until after their names had been posted and industry representatives contacted us to see if it was legitimate. 31/12/2009 - We've just published Malt Maniacs #115. 21/12/2009 - We've welcomed two new members to our team of maniacal maltheads; Paul DeJong from Belgium and Patrick de Schulthess from Switzerland. 01/12/2009 - The results of the Malt Maniacs Awards 2009 have been published on this website - and via a PDF score card that shows the scores of all the jurors this year. |
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Welcome to the website of 'Malt Maniacs' - the international collective of malt whisky lovers that has been
spreading the gospel of
single malt whisky since 1997. After a decade of heavy dramming the original
website had grown into hundreds of pages, so after the old website collapsed under its own weight in
2006 I decided to develop two brand new sites; Malt Madness (my purely personal website, focusing
on general whisky and distillery information) and Malt Maniacs, sharing various perspectives on malt.
Serge Valentin's Whiskyfun site (with fresh notes every day) is the third branch on our family tree.
And, in a way we now sort of have a 4th branch with the Malt Maniacs & Friends Facebook group.
If you have a question, just drop it on the discussion board and you should receive a reply soon.
Our virtual madhouse on the world wide web has five sections that are open to the public...
THE ARCHIVE contains all 'reconstructed' and fresh issues of our E-zine - but you'll have to
visit the ADHD section for E-pistles written between 2001 and 2006. THE LIBRARY is a place
for study and reflection with items like our manifesto, book reviews and the Whisky Lex-icon.
In THE OFFICE you can find everything that has to do with numbers; the Malt Maniacs Matrix
(scores on over 3,000 whiskies), the Malt Maniacs Monitor (details on over 10,000 whiskies)
and the Malt Maniacs Awards competition. You can find tasting notes in THE BAR - notes on
most official bottlings on the MaltMenu and recent releases and IB's in 'the Specials' section.
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. Enjoy whisky (and other drinks)
as much as you like, but never drive while
drunk.' Hear, hear!!!
In 2005 we reached 'critical malt mass'; 24 certified malt maniacs 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, consult the Malt Maniacs & Friends group on Facebook.
Other sources for tasting notes are the Distillery Data section of Malt Madness, older issue of our E-zine in the archive and the discussion board of Malt Maniacs & Friends. It's free, it's fun - and you might get to participate in a few interesting 'ask an anorak' discussions. If you have a few hours to spare, check out the Malt Maniacs Matrix and the Malt Maniacs Monitor for scores on more than 10,000 Scotch whiskies.
At the right you can find a 'Google Calendar' with an
overview of all noteworthy whisky events
in the world,
maintained by our 'bar crier' Konstantin Grigoriadis. Drop
him a note if a major whisky event in your area isn't listed.
As I mentioned earlier, the reconstruction of this website
isn't quite finished yet. The ADHD section that contains all
the old pages of MManiacs; everything we've written from
1997 to 2006. In this particular case 'we' means not only
the
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 700 and 1000 words) and drop
me 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.
If
you're looking for tasting notes, check out the Specials
section on the MaltMenu - featuring a few dozen recently
released Scotch malt whiskies. Serge Valentin publishes
fresh tasting notes on Whiskyfun almost every day.
Push the BOB (Big Orange Button) to jump
directly to the latest issue of Malt Maniacs.
Older issues of our E-zine can be found
in the ARCHIVE section. If you feel a tad
overwhelmed by recent issues, just start
at the beginning; that's what we did as well.
Please note that part of this site is still 'under reconstruction'.
Most older stuff can be found in the ADHD section (1997-2006).
Check out the 'Good News / Bad News' column at the left for news
and updates, or use one of the big buttons below to jump
directly
to one of the main items on the brand new Malt Maniacs website;
The Big Red Button opens the Monitor - a complete
overview of the more than 10,000 whiskies
we've
collectively sampled and scored until now. The last
time I checked the monitor had over 30,000 scores.
Beware! It's a massive PDF of circa 3 Megabytes.
The Big Yellow Button opens the Matrix - a list of
over 3,000 whiskies
that were sampled & scored
by at least four certified malt maniacs. It offers a
more 'distilled' perspective on the whiskies we've
sampled - MORE information on LESS whiskies.
The Big Green Button opens the MaltMenu. That's
an even more condensed expression of our whisky
impressions. Apart from scores & 'thumbs up
' or
'thumbs down' advice on +/- 250 widely available
single malts, the menu also contains some specials.
The Big Aquamarine Button leads to the section
dedicated to the annual MM Awards competition.
Details about our annual whisky competition
can
be found on the webpages dedicated to the 2003,
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 editions.
The Big Blue Button leads to the Lex-icon - our list
of all malt whisky distilleries in the world
(or at least
the ones we know about). We have identified malt
whisky distilleries on all continents and provide the
essential details like name, type, country, URL, etc.
The Big Purple Button links to the Distillery Data on
Malt Madness; details about almost 100 distilleries
in Scotland
that are either active or recently closed.
In each distillery profile you can find statistics and
tasting notes on at least half a dozen expressions.
