April 07, 2004

200 Bottles of Plans

My friend Mike and I are going to Whiskyfest at the Hyatt Regency downtown tonight. Mike's about to have a baby -- like, any day now -- so this is kind of his last hurrah as a non-father. What do we have ahead of us? The potential to taste more than 200 scotches, Irish whiskies, bourbons and other adult beverages.

While I will certainly enjoy myself, part of the reason I'm going is to make some contacts for a new project. I've registered another domain (yes, another -- that makes something like seven, including Danny's site), caskstrength.com, at which I'll be starting a scotch blog. Well, mostly scotch -- it'll probably include other forms of liquor from time to time, too. I'll consolidate news about scotch, post reviews and conduct taste tests. Ideally, I'll be able to find a couple people to join Mike and me in a tasting panel, with the results to appear on the site.

I plan for it to be a for-profit blog, or at least one that doesn't cost me anything. I'll have GoogleAds and, if any appropriate ones exist, affiliate links. I'm going to use TypePad, so it shouldn't be too tough to earn enough to pay for hosting. I'm hoping to meet some of the local distributors at Whiskyfest to arrange some tastings and/or samples throughout the year. It'll also be a good place to collect a depth of material to get the site off the ground.

Posted by Andrew Huff at April 7, 2004 06:48 AM
Comments

Sounds like a great project, Andrew. Best of luck. I wish I could make some smarmy joke about you mailing me samples, but I just don't drink a whole lot of whiskey. I did, however, get my wife turned onto Sapphire and tonic, thanks to you.

Posted by: unmute at April 7, 2004 09:01 AM

anytime you need a whiskey taster, you just call me up, doll.

oh, and have the expectant parents been properly preparing their unborn child by rubbing scotch on the burgeoning belly? ach!

Posted by: heather at April 7, 2004 09:25 AM

Awesome idea. I'd help, but I drink alone.

Posted by: Paul at April 7, 2004 09:40 AM

unmute: Cool! My enjoyment for gin will most likely appear on the site, too -- man cannot survive imbibe on scotch alone.

Heather: I planned on it. So far the fetus hasn't been exposed to scotch, but no doubt it will come into play to soothe the gums of the poor teething child.

Paul: I can't imagine you'd turn down a free snifter.

Posted by: Andrew at April 7, 2004 10:39 AM

I'd offer to help, but all scotch tastes like shoe leather and Ambesol to me.

Posted by: bran at April 7, 2004 11:46 AM

If you need someone to review cigars to go with that scotch (and we all know the two are inseparable)-- I'm your girl!

Posted by: Brenda at April 7, 2004 11:57 AM

You're right, and I was pressured into a Dalwhinnie just last night.

By the way the May Issue of Bon Appetit is a special Scotland edition, with an article describing about 20 of the 300 single malts available.

Posted by: Paul at April 7, 2004 02:08 PM