My Whisky Adventure So Far

Dear malt mates

I hope you have all had a good start into the New Year. In the last two weeks I had plenty to celebrate. First I finished my bachelor thesis and handed it in. 3 Days later was my 22^nd birthday and the day after we celebrated Christmas Eve and a week later New Year’s Eve. As you may already have expected this was a whisky loaded few days for me. I hope you have all had some nice drinks over this time and that there maybe were a few interesting bottles under the tree for Christmas.
As had to go to the library again today to study for my exams it got really boring so I thought it was about time to write a new blogpost. Being the egocentric prick that I am I couldn’t think of a better topic to write about than myself. Therefore I will tell you my whisky adventure so far.
As you may already know I started to drink whisky shortly after my 18^th birthday. I’ve already stated in the last post that first me and my mates only drank some cheap blends on Ice to look though rather than because we genuinely enjoyed it. After my first taste of a Glenfiddich 12 years old I got more into it and after the first few sips of a Lagavulin 16 years old I got very serious about all things whisky.

I enjoyed the rest of the Lagavulin that me and my friends had left in the weeks after but I didn’t really know a lot about Scotch or whisky in general and I started to read a lot about the topic. I read blogs and watched video tastings and the more I got to know whisky the more I got curious.

A few months after that eye opening experience me and my friends went to our first whisky event. In Zurich there is an annual whisky event that is called “the whisky ships”. The event is located on 5 little ships that are anchoring on Lake Zurich and you can taste a lot of whisky that are presented by distilleries or whisky retailers from all parts of Switzerland. Shortly after that event I bought my second bottle of whisky which was a Cragganmore Distiller’s Edition port wood finish (I will post a review of it in the future).

Over the next two years I got to taste some very nice whiskies and I always kept on informing me about the topic and keeping up to date with news from the industry. It was in the spring of 2015 when I discovered that my neighbour was also into whisky (He is 40 years older than me so we haven’t been in contact a lot). It was my mom’s birthday and I enjoyed a dram of Ardmore Traditional Cask after dinner and we got to talk about whisky and he invited me to visit a Collector’s house with him and his friends. The whisky collector that we visited possesses a whopping 1900 bottles of whisky and it was a fantastic experience to listen to his many stories about some bottles (I am planning to visit him again in the future to write about him on the blog if possible).

Me with whisky collector Hans Peter Salim (middle), my neighbour and two of his friends

It was when I got to talk about whisky with my neighbour and his friends when I noticed that over the last 2 years I had become quite knowledgeable about the topic. 

Since I was looking for a part time job to work besides my studies I decided to apply in whisky specialist shops in Zurich. After some negative responses I noticed a tiny little shop in the old town of Zurich that is only open on Friday and Saturday. Despite thinking that there won’t be a chance that this shop really needs another vendor I entered and talked to the owner nevertheless. Surprisingly he was just looking for someone who could work on Friday (talk about fate, right?) and 2 weeks later I started working there. The Shop is really small and you can say that it is more of a hobby because my boss is working a full time job too.

So now that you know my whisky adventure so far I hope you will stay tuned to what is still to come.

Have a great new year and make it a whisky fuelled one.

Cheers from Zurich, Julian