EVERYTHING STARTS WITH THE COMMUNITY.
You could argue that everything about Aqvavitae revolves around the YouTube channel and, while that’s true - it is my chosen platform for sharing whisky after all - it’s the community that gives it life.
In all my roles and hobbies throughout life I have never found a gathering of positively minded people so willing to support and help each other. They are kind, enthusiastic, curious, knowledgable and generous. They help create a space where, away from the daily grind, we can take a little time out and maybe discover that we can become better versions of ourselves .
As a community, we are completely focused not on what divides us, but what unites us. Our enjoyment of whisky.
I hope as you engage with the channel and the livestreams you encounter the community and perhaps witness that it has to be one of the most important things to preserve. The world has enough complexity and division, in whisky we find wonder even in the things in which we disagree.
Whisky demands it.
Some community-focused content
Scott & Bart are from Kansas, USA. They front the YouTube channel The Scotch Test Dummies, and they’re great fun. It was a dream for them to realise a trip to Scotland. In 2019 I was lucky to be a part of that. These are the first two semi-documentary type road trip-esque reviews of their time here. Part one is Glasgow, Edinburgh and Islay, while Part 2 focuses fully on Islay. Part 3 is W.I.P. You’ll find lots of things take that position over here. It’ll arrive, eventually.
“A glass of whisky is like a first date. buying a bottle is a relationship.”
— the concept behind Recycled Reviews
RECYCLED REVIEWS.
In 2017 I was staring at a basket of empty bottles and I considered my time with each of them. I realised I’d be sad departing with some, like old friends they had stories and moments. Some of the bottles I was keen to replace - to continue the “relationship”.
I decided I’d get value out of the empty bottles and review them before their demise towards the recycling.
People would like to see me make more of these. However, these take a while, as I need to have 15 empties on hand for each episode, bottles I known intimately, and I simply don’t have the liver to increase the pace.
THE AQVAVITAE BLIND CHALLENGE.
It’s fair to say I have an obsession with blind tasting. Yet I remain terrible at it.
The challenge came from a desire to help people realise that blind tasting isn’t always focused on testing the reviewer/appraiser. Sipping blind, it is often the whisky on test. Stripped of preconception and branding while fully relying on your own senses - at that particular moment in time of course - is always a curious, fun, always surprising and sometimes humbling activity.
To take things further, I reached out to Vin at No Nonsense Whisky for a potentially dangerous collaboration. I was right to guess he’d be up for it.
HOW IT WORKS
I send a set of samples completely blind and he ranks them favourite to least.
He then goes on to complete set of challenges which will test his knowledge, palate and preconceptions about whisky. Comparisons such as mature vs young, vintage vs contemporary, premium vs budget, scotch vs world whisky; these and more are compared blind. He then has to complete a match up of a semi-blind reveal before nominating the next channel/reviewer to receive the next set.
To further complicate the dynamic and heighten the integrity, it is shot in one take and sent, unedited to me for editing and release on the recipient’s channel. As you can imagine, it takes a kind of trust and humility that we’re fortunate exists in our whisky community for such a thing to happen.
There’s a playlist on the channel. You’ll find everyone who’s taken it so far. I was even sent my own blind challenge by Aeror MacPhault, a friend and member of the community. Meanwhile here’s a link to that first blind challenge:
“AFTER A COUPLE OF YEARS EXPLORING WHISKY, I HAD IT ALL FIGURED OUT. I KNEW THE BEST DISTILLERIES AND I KNEW WHERE THE QUALITY WAS. THEN MY WIFE STARTED PoURING THEM for me, BLIND. EVERYTHING CHANGED. MOSTLY ME.”
— me discovering Dunning-Kruger effect, perhaps not for the first time.