Recommended Reviewer: Jan van den Ende, Brazil

[Capn Jimbo]

There seems to be just two kinds of reviewers... or maybe three:

1. The ego-maniac: on most sites you'll run into the alpha posters. These are a kind of self-designated "inner circle". They are the drunken sailors, the captains who take over the end of the bar, dominant know it alls. On a site like the Ministry, they defer only to the head monkey. If they graduate (and a few did from the Ministry), they end up starting their own sites, typically review sites where they can hold forth. Most of them do NOT buy their own product. Their reviews are soft balls, and as you'll see at the head of the Scuttlebutt section, their reviews are heavily weighted to 4 and 5 Stars.

2. The semi-pros: these dudes (and formerly one dudette) are in the business. They write books, organize festivals, run seminars, et al. They pretend to know it all, but in the end its all business. If it sells, it's swell. Only a very, very few - think Jim Murray - ever get big enough to be able to afford the hundreds of spirits they taste. Most don't, and remain prejudiced.

3. The real reviewers: are like me. Or think Ralfy. Perhaps The Fat Rum Pirate. These are individuals who fell in love with fine spirits, and were driven to truly explore, learn and improve. They insist on the kind of complete honesty that can only come when - like their readers - they have to part with their own hard-earned pesos to buy their own spirits. Because they are not professional, because it's a labor of love, because their funds are limited - because of these and more they research carefully and buy carefully and trust me, if that bottle is a loser you're going to hear about it.


Ergo, allow me to recommend:

Mr. Jan van den Ende, currently of Sao Paulo, Brazil. His site: Best Shot Whisky Reviews & Tasting Notes. He obtains his own spirits, many in miniatures, with just a very few gifts from readers/friends. Now while I may disagree here and there, I'm sure he would disagree with me. That's right and fair. He started with a growing love for whisky (and spells it correctly). Before he actually started publishing, he took the time to actually gather and smell/taste the descriptors he uses. Very, very few reviewers have ever really done that. I'll speak more to his reviews later, but for now I highly recommend you stop by his site. Tasted: over 800 spirits. Bravo!

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Link: Best Shot: Whisky Reviews & Tasting Notes
http://www.bestshotwhiskyreviews.com/se ... t%20Whisky