I love finding a superstar whisky from an underdog distillery. Do you? It's like watching a guy in a wheel chair beat the best full-legged sprinters at the Olympics (many of whom are hopped up on undetectable steroids).
Every once in a while, a low ranked distillery comes out with an absolutely amazingly good whisky and that tends to boggle people's minds. They snatch it up, of course, as an aberration, but usually the whisky sits quite long on the shelf until people overcome their numbers/rating handicap in regard to the distillery. I'm always on the lookout for this type of thing.
That's where the Internet really shines as a tool to help ferret diamonds from the rough, so to speak. For instance, the latest G&M offering of Benromach 10 100 proof is a perfect example. It wasn't horrible before GM took over, but it wasn't all that great either, at least judging by my age-old tasting notes. This said, I can become obsessed with surfing and buying things, as well. The Internet makes it all too easy. Without the physical act of "going somewhere" to make a purchase, one can overspend quite easily with a click of the mouse, sometimes impulsively, and sometimes after deliberation that would never have occurred without such easy access to so many great pictures, and, alas, very little in the way of tasters (at least in the USA). I envy those who live within the range of reasonable shipment from Masters of Malt. What a great website that is! So many samples available at, well, yes, a fairly stiff price, but still, wunderbar!!!
As for ranking distilleries, I do it certainly, but I do it knowing that, in a way, it's kind of like a charm or a hex. Here's why I feel this way: I don't like glancing a lot at clocks, counting things obsessively, the precise weight of my body, worrying overly much about temperature outdoors, sports that obsess about time, cops that pull people over for small speeding infractions, society's obsession with math-based science by which to gauge ourselves, our world and the alleged "universe," et al.
Whisky is an antidote to me for such pressures, which, as I grow older, I am beginning to see through as a numbers racket that drains my energy and vitality. And all of the above disdain goes double for numerology. I realized that I have been brainwashed by our society's deliberate pushing of numbers as measurement when I found myself counting strokes in each lap I swim in my pool. If I don't try to suppress this urge, I do it silently in my head when I swim.
Theoretically, the numerical rating system is my least favorite part of Connosr, although I do certainly pay way too much attention to the rating numbers and sometimes I pass by a sterling review without reading it because the number is not high enough to catch my interest.
If we are not careful, numbers become our masters. As an American with a social security number attached to my identity and my body, I know all too well how this identity can be stolen. My car was broken into a few years ago, and some sort of document was in there that revealed my SS number (another unfortunate abbreviation that faintly reminds one of "Schutzstaffel" aka "storm trouper"). The petty thief sold this info to a career criminal who walked into a bank and stole my identity while taking out a six thousand dollar loan. It took me years to wipe that from my record.
Long after the man was in prison for his crime (yes, I pressed charges and yes the bank had ample video cameras that captured his identity) I was still fighting to clean up my credit score and to avoid paying back the obviously fraudulent loan. US Bank, where the loan originated, operated like a vampire octopus. As soon as one tentacle was successfully straightened out, another swept down and took up all of my time, ignoring the progress I'd made with the first one. And so on. What a nightmare. Ironically, the same ultra rich family that has controlling ownership in US Bank also owns one of the major credit rating agencies that is making money hand over fist from "identity theft." And this trend will grow much more worse over time, I'm afraid. I would hazard a guess that the same type of scam will extend into the creation and spreading of computer viruses, which, in turn, will create a "need" for greater restrictions on Internet freedoms. I'm sure numbers will figure in there somewhere, along with passwords (which are a combination of letters and numbers oftentimes).
I think perhaps the biggest limitation that numbers hold over us, is our birthdays. Today happens to be mine. I resist the urge to label myself by a number and the limitations associated with that number. I feel it can mentally set one back and even can invite illnesses and other problems.
So I deliberately downplay the number in my mind. This said, a bunch of friends and I are doing a pub crawl from three new German pubs in town with exclusively German biers. I love German and UK beers. American beers, eh, generally speaking . . . not so much. And, yes, I have already sipped a glass of Scotch whisky today.
I love finding a superstar whisky from an underdog distillery. Do you? It's like watching a guy in a wheel chair beat the best full-legged sprinters at the Olympics (many of whom are hopped up on undetectable steroids).
Every once in a while, a low ranked distillery comes out with an absolutely amazingly good whisky and that tends to boggle people's minds. They snatch it up, of course, as an aberration, but usually the whisky sits quite long on the shelf until people overcome their numbers/rating handicap in regard to the distillery. I'm always on the lookout for this type of thing.
That's where the Internet really shines as a tool to help ferret diamonds from the rough, so to speak. For instance, the latest G&M offering of Benromach 10 100 proof is a perfect example. It wasn't horrible before GM took over, but it wasn't all that great either, at least judging by my age-old tasting notes. This said, I can become obsessed with surfing and buying things, as well. The Internet makes it all too easy. Without the physical act of "going somewhere" to make a purchase, one can overspend quite easily with a click of the mouse, sometimes impulsively, and sometimes after deliberation that would never have occurred without such easy access to so many great pictures, and, alas, very little in the way of tasters (at least in the USA). I envy those who live within the range of reasonable shipment from Masters of Malt. What a great website that is! So many samples available at, well, yes, a fairly stiff price, but still, wunderbar!!!
As for ranking distilleries, I do it certainly, but I do it knowing that, in a way, it's kind of like a charm or a hex. Here's why I feel this way: I don't like glancing a lot at clocks, counting things obsessively, the precise weight of my body, worrying overly much about temperature outdoors, sports that obsess about time, cops that pull people over for small speeding infractions, society's obsession with math-based science by which to gauge ourselves, our world and the alleged "universe," et al.
Whisky is an antidote to me for such pressures, which, as I grow older, I am beginning to see through as a numbers racket that drains my energy and vitality. And all of the above disdain goes double for numerology. I realized that I have been brainwashed by our society's deliberate pushing of numbers as measurement when I found myself counting strokes in each lap I swim in my pool. If I don't try to suppress this urge, I do it silently in my head when I swim.
Theoretically, the numerical rating system is my least favorite part of Connosr, although I do certainly pay way too much attention to the rating numbers and sometimes I pass by a sterling review without reading it because the number is not high enough to catch my interest.
If we are not careful, numbers become our masters. As an American with a social security number attached to my identity and my body, I know all too well how this identity can be stolen. My car was broken into a few years ago, and some sort of document was in there that revealed my SS number (another unfortunate abbreviation that faintly reminds one of "Schutzstaffel" aka "storm trouper"). The petty thief sold this info to a career criminal who walked into a bank and stole my identity while taking out a six thousand dollar loan. It took me years to wipe that from my record.
Long after the man was in prison for his crime (yes, I pressed charges and yes the bank had ample video cameras that captured his identity) I was still fighting to clean up my credit score and to avoid paying back the obviously fraudulent loan. US Bank, where the loan originated, operated like a vampire octopus. As soon as one tentacle was successfully straightened out, another swept down and took up all of my time, ignoring the progress I'd made with the first one. And so on. What a nightmare. Ironically, the same ultra rich family that has controlling ownership in US Bank also owns one of the major credit rating agencies that is making money hand over fist from "identity theft." And this trend will grow much more worse over time, I'm afraid. I would hazard a guess that the same type of scam will extend into the creation and spreading of computer viruses, which, in turn, will create a "need" for greater restrictions on Internet freedoms. I'm sure numbers will figure in there somewhere, along with passwords (which are a combination of letters and numbers oftentimes).
I think perhaps the biggest limitation that numbers hold over us, is our birthdays. Today happens to be mine. I resist the urge to label myself by a number and the limitations associated with that number. I feel it can mentally set one back and even can invite illnesses and other problems.
So I deliberately downplay the number in my mind. This said, a bunch of friends and I are doing a pub crawl from three new German pubs in town with exclusively German biers. I love German and UK beers. American beers, eh, generally speaking . . . not so much. And, yes, I have already sipped a glass of Scotch whisky today.