About

Malt

Malt is one of the largest drinks websites in the world, read by well over 100,000 unique users each month.

We cover mostly whisky, but have over the years added many other spirits to our repertoire. And even, somewhat surprisingly, cider. (No we didn’t see that one coming either.)

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 criticism in the sense that we critique – or at least try to.

Founded in 2012 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, Malt seeks to provide readers with a personally honest critique of drinks, no matter who is writing it, and maybe question certain aspects of practices in the industry.

Honest(l)y?

People actually buy whisky off the back of what’s said online, and we know whisky isn’t cheap. So it’s important that we tell it how it is, based on each individual’s experience and feeling, so you don’t waste your money on what we believe are not necessarily worth the money. 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 a medal for taking part.

Many people disagree with that, the poor lambs, but that’s okay too.

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, well, not very much at all. Which means the main Maltster is editor Jason, or JJ to those that know him personally. He runs the show.