Whisky Round Table – a new notion – Round #1

Jason of the Guid scotch drink blog (formerly known from the WHISKYhost blog) came up with a brilliant idea : Why not set up a ‘Round Table’ forum of international leading whisky blogs and bloggers, to discuss once a month a different topic.  Each month one of us will post an issue/ question to the group and each blogger will respond to that same questions. Then, every month a different blog/site will host the discussion and posting.

The table consists of 12 leading blogs which deal with whisky (i am sure you are familiar with all, if not most) :

Needless to say i was very much honored to be joining this amazing group of passionate,taltented whisky bloggers. Thanks , Jason!

This month’s question posted by Jason was :

“What rules have you set for yourself in your whisky lives and how have you rationalized breaking them? “

my answer was:

When i am thinking about rules and whisky there are 3 main issues that need to be dealt:

1.Whisky budget

2.Time spent on drinking,reading,sampling,trading,dreaming,twitting and living whisky.

3.Consumption , and staying sober 😉

Whisky Budget

Damn it! It’s so hard to set a whisky budget. Let’s face it, we’re addicted. We hear of a new Ardbeg release and we start drooling. A new Single Cask edition by Kilchoman, and we imagine that baby sitting there on our bar all shiny and golden colored. Feis Ile and all those amazing releases, we just need to have them. The distilleries know this, and they not making our lives any easier, with those sexy shiny designs, names and many many expressions.

As for my rule: when i started building my whisky bar I did buy a lot. I needed to have everything! But then the monthly credit card bill came in, and it was a lot of $$$. Since then I set up a rule to buy a new bottle each month, not more. Needless to say I’ve not really succeeded in doing so. There are months where so many new releases come out, I can not have only one. I need two, but I do have a limit on the amount I do spend. I never spend more than 80 GBP on a single bottle. Mind you, since the Israeli customs are very high, I need to mail order most of my drams, and the shipping charges are also quite high. Some months I do get to keep the rules, or even not buy anything, but the months afterwards will “make up for ” the lost time. 🙂

I did find that with a lot of sample trading/ordering I can cut down on my shopping, and also not make any shopping errors (try before you buy) and not get stuck with a full bottle of a whisky I seem not to like.

Time spent daily on whisky activities

The other problem with whisky (if we have the $$$ issues covered) is time it consumes out of your life. We’re all busy people: working hard, some raising children (i have 2 cute kids I love, but boy they demand their share of time) keeping a family etc. When you get sucked into the whisky world, it’s not easy to balance it with all the other things you need to get done. So many blogs, sites, Twitter, emails, sample trading, and so on. It’s a wonderful world, but man it can get you sitting in front of your PC and iPhone all day, reading commenting and researching and of course: blogging.

Like some of you I am also a twitter addict, and tweeting 24/7 can be quite destructive in terms of family time… so, I did make a rule : Do not tweet or read whisky related emails when i am with the kids, or at the dinner table. All whisky events usually happen at the end of the day, when i have some free time to myself. The other “unwritten” rule is, do not go to sleep damn late!  So easy to lose track of time and see it’s about midnight! Not a good time if your 4 month old is about to wake up in 5 hour’s time and want some TLC.

Consumption

I am not the type that easily gets addicted or hooked on something (god bless) but, in addition to my love of whisky, I am very keen on good wine, and beer. I usually drink those when I come from work, with dinner, or as a refresher and never more than 1 cup or so. Then of course comes the whisky, some of which is Cask strength mind you! So, it’s really important not to cross that line, and become too fond of the booze.

I do try to sample new whisky I am reviewing for the blog in small quantities, never more than 30 ml. per sample, and most of the time even less than that. Also, when i’m taking a night “off” from sampling and just want to relax with my favorite Islay malt, or my beloved sherry monster I will not exceed 2 wee drams.

Each of us responded and the entire responses are detailed in the following post .

Again, there are some great ideas and answeres by all those great whisky people. well worth a read !

next month’s question will be posted later on this month by Josh. (who’s blog will be hosting the 2nd round of the round table.)

Slainte!