How time flies when you're having fun! Today, Best Shot Whisky Reviews is on the Internet for exactly 2 years. It started on November 30, 2011 as Jan's Whisky Paradise with a very simple review of Johnnie Walker Black if I remember correctly. Many things have changed since then. I have tasted around 275 different Whiskies, Whiskeys and Bourbons and it's much easier now to write down what I smell and taste. Or at least what I think I smell and taste. I try to be as objective as possible when tasting the Whisky although I fully realise that taste is something completely personal in the end. I do think however I'm now reasonably able to separate the Good, the Bad and the Ugly even without considering my personal preferences. And apparently that's appreciated. I was really very honoured to see Best Shot Whisky Reviews recommended in the Malt Whisky Yearbook 2014 edited by Ingvar Ronde:
I was particularly happy to read why the editor included Best Shot Whisky Reviews. Because I write on a regular basis, review anything from cheap Super Market Blends to some of the finest Single Malts and last, but certainly not least, because I'm " refreshingly honest". It's great to read that because that was exactly one of the main reasons I started writing about whisky. There are lots of Whisky Reviews out there on the Internet but many of them seem to praise all whiskies! I fully respect their opinion of course but I just don't agree with that. There's a lot of indifferent stuff around in my opinion and some products are just not good enough. So I was very glad indeed to see that my efforts are appreciated. And it's my firm intention to continue in the same way in 2014.
Although I truly enjoy writing about whisky, it would make little sense if nobody would read it. But fortunately that's not the case at all. Since November 2011, I received more than 718.000 Page Views from literally all over the world. More than a third of the visitors are from the United States, followed by Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, Poland, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Singapore, India, Australia, Sweden and Taiwan. Thanks a lot for your kind interest and always feel free to leave requests, comments and critics in the Comments Section. It was because of those comments that the site got a complete face-lift in the beginning of this year to make it more user-friendly, including for cell phones. I also changed the font to Verdana. In 2014 two readers wrote Guest Reviews. Thanks Joerg and Terry! If you would like to write a Guest Review, you are more than welcome to do so. Please leave it in the Comments section or write me an e-mail: janende@uol.com.br.
Mainly during 2013 I started to receive Whisky Samples from all over the world. With one exception all these samples were send by private persons that have have become friends via Reddit or Facebook.
Especially I would like to thank Detlef, Marcus, Marlie, Derek, Robert, Toby, Craig, Jan and Tom for their kind efforts. I can assure you it's really appreciated as it is impossible to buy samples in Brazil.
So here's my toast to all of you:
Thanks to everybody for visiting the site, reading the reviews, leaving the highly appreciated comments and showing interest in any other kind of way. Let's continue together and make 2014 a great Whisky Year. I'm already sure that one of the main highlights will be my trip to Speyside and Islay coming May. I'm really looking forward to that as you can imagine.
Have a nice Sunday and we'll see each other tomorrow when I post the Review of the Tullamore Dew!
Cheers!
Jan
