Malt
Malt is now one of the largest whisky sites in the world, read by up to 100,000 people each month. There is no one ‘Malt’, and no one opinion – there’s very little editorial ‘interference’ on that front. We’re a collective of diverse writers from diverse places and with diverse thoughts on what makes a good whisky. We argue with others, we argue among ourselves. There is passion, both ways. There is criticism in the sense that we critique – or at least try to.
Founded years ago by a former reviewer of Whisky Magazine UK, and now spearheaded by the man formerly known as the Whisky Rover, its aim is simple: to write about whisky with intelligence, a bit of fun, whilst occasionally asking questions that few people seem to want to ask. Ultimately, it’s to provide readers with an honest critique of whisky and some of the questionable products or practices in the industry.
Honest(l)y?
People actually buy whisky off the back of what’s said online, and whisky isn’t cheap. So it’s important that we tell it how it is so you don’t waste your money on what we believe are poor products. Also, we want to point out to newcomers to whisky the poor practices – things that mean you’re not getting value for money.
So if something is just flavourless, like Haig Club, we’ll say so. If something is a whisky disaster like Fujikai, we’ll openly tell you. Whether we like it or not, it’s not possible for every whisky to be made of magic. We believe that some producers are better than others; that some people are trying harder to make a better product than others; that not everyone should get at medal. Many people disagree with that, the poor lambs.
Editors
Malt-review.com was initially founded as a weekly blog in 2012 by Mark, who’s since written about whisky in publications such as Whisky Magazine, where he was one of the two lead tasters in 2017, Whisky Quarterly, Fieldsports Magazine and The Scottish Sporting Gazette, has been a whisky judge for a number of years.
For the sake of full transparency, Mark’s now the Head of Communications at Waterford Distillery and Renegade Rum. He had no intention of ever working in the industry, but some opportunities are just too good to resist… But it also means he now writes for Malt far less than he would like to. Which means… the main Maltster is editor Jason, or JJ to those that know him personally.
Heralding from a family well versed in whisky, particularly Bushmills, he was formerly known as the artist Whisky Rover. The website unleashed his own unique style of honest whisky critique articles, with a sense of humour since 2010 until the merger in 2017. You can reach out via Instagram.
Being based in Scotland means that Jason is able to enjoy a wealth of distillery trips and whiskies, although it’s more than likely you’ll find him in the Edinburgh Cadenhead shop by choice. Recently, Jason has used his experience and passion for whisky history, to write for websites and offer the Fife Firsts tastings during the Fife Whisky Festival.
Joining our editorial team in 2019, is Abby.
Abigail (Abby to whiskey lovers) grew up in the southeastern US, graduated from UGA with wanderlust after studying Spanish in Buenos Aires, discovered wine, whiskey and other fun living in Las Vegas, and finally settled (psych!) for living abroad, first in Beijing, next in Kuwait, and for now, near Shanghai, China.
While originally and always a bourbon fan, she claims no alliance to the current administration and is an equal opportunity learner when it comes to whisk(e)y. Her day job is teaching English to teens in China while enjoying the country’s nascent whiskey market, where limited-edition, Europe- and international-only releases go unnoticed by the public in favour of Jack Daniel’s and Johnnie Walker. In Abby’s mind, that = #winning. She also writes for the Bourbon Zeppelin.
Who the hell reads Malt?
Currently, each month Malt gets anything up to 100,000 visitors reading from all over the world – mainly the UK and US, with a decent proportion in Germany and France too. In the past year, we’ve had about 600,000 unique visitors on the site, with well over 1,250,000 page views in all.
If you’re really into stats, our biggest demographic is 25-34 year olds, followed closely by 35-44 year olds. (Yes, millennials are all over this joint.)
New to whisky?
Just bookmark the site, or subscribe to our posts. Though the subject might be intimidating at first, there’s no substitute to just throwing yourself into whisky (figuratively, not literally, although that may help too) and learn a little each week. Our posts don’t assume you know everything, so you’ll easily be able to pick things up as you go along. And if you’re a whisky geek, may you enjoy the ride.