Whisky enthusiasts, like myself, more often than we would like, get really frustrated by some brands or producers in Scotch whisky industry, specifically by the lack of transparency;

that is, the very minimum of information about a bottle or specifics about its production is quite often the norm, be it the type of grain or the specific varieties used or mash times. Maybe geeky details about each stage of the spirit production, the type of wood used for maturation (some just state American Oak or worse still "Oak Casks") and the length of time in each type of cask.

Or more to the point facts such as whether the bottled whisky has been coloured or indeed chill filtered.

However, this could be seen as quite an unfair request or opinion when it is analysed a little further.

The Scotch Whisky industry is regulated by acts of parliament, the most recent being;

The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 (link)

This replaced the previous; Scotch Whisky Act 1988 and the Scotch Whisky Order 1990.

Should you wish to read the Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 (If you haven't already) then this is the link;

UK Statutory Instrument: 2009 No. 2890 The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 (link)

The act is protected and enforced by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) which has produced guidance for producers and bottlers, this can be read via the following link;

The Scotch Whisky Regulation 2009 by the SWA (link)

OK, so now the nerdy reading has been provided, I will attempt to summarise in layman's terms, (actually more basic than that) what it all means.

A producer need only provide the information that they are legally required by the above referenced regulations, anything above and beyond this is voluntary, either as part of a brand image, openness / transparency or because they feel they have no specific trade secrets to hide.

(The brand for example, may be targeting those who occasionally buy whisky where detailed information about the whisky is not wanted or needed, this is an entirely different rabbit hole to go down and should be left for another day or indeed blog post.)

A Scotch whisky producer need only tell you:

The category of Scotch whisky  - Malt or Grain or a Blend. Specifically “Single Malt Scotch Whisky”, “Single Grain Scotch Whisky”, “Blended Scotch Whisky”, “Blended Malt Scotch Whisky” or “Blended Grain Scotch Whisky”

The age of the whisky in whole years with the age being the youngest component whisky in the bottle.
The Alcoholic strength of the whisky, together with the volume of liquid in the bottle.
That the label meets the regulations - We won't go any further into this as you can read the regulations.

What the producers DO NOT need to state is the specific type of cask the whisky was matured in;
you could buy a bottle of whisky that has been wholly matured in Oloroso Sherry and the minimum the producer needs to state is that it is Scotch Whisky, they don't even need to mention the type of cask or anything about the oak, indeed if like me, you want to explore all kinds of whisky, you may have a bottle in your collection that will confirm this.

A producer doesn't need to state anything about filtration - They don't need to confirm it has or hasn't been filtered.

A producer doesn't need to state anything around the colour of the whisky; they don't need to give the whisky colour a description such as 'Amber' or 'Pale gold with hues of rose' and they don't need to confirm it is either natural colour or has E150a Caramel added, however, some import countries, such as Germany require this for the labelling to conform with their own laws.

There are other whisky facts that you as a consumer / customer possibly assume should be on a bottle label, but aren't, but for now, I won't go into them, otherwise this overly long post will become 'War and Peace'.

But as a whisky enthusiast, YOU know what to look out for and that helps you to focus your buying habits; for example some people will not ever buy a whisky bottled at 40%, some never below 46%, others even boycott specific brands/distilleries because of who the owner is and/or what corporate doctrine is imposed on the distilleries producing the whisky. - Are you truly getting a whisky that is as good as it can be, if the ownership dictate it has to be bottled at 40% meaning chill filtered (more often than not) and probably coloured? another future blog discussion perhaps?

The point is, a whisky producer (brand, distillery, independent bottler etc) doesn't need to be transparent, in fact a lot of producers would rather build a brand off the back of story (true or fabricated) and hope their product entices someone into purchasing than by being transparent and letting the whisky detail printed on the label tell the story.

There are of course lots of brands that provide more information than even the SWA would like, for example, Bruichladdich or the blender Compass Box.

Take a look at this website for the Classic Laddie (link new window), its the core range introduction whisky to the Bruichladdich, they provide so much information on just the product page for all their whiskies, but if you buy the bottle, you get a unique code for your bottle batch, when you enter the code onto the website, you get even more information but specific to your bottle - the exact component malts, what cask types and years the whisky was distilled, this is a truly transparent distillery and one who are demonstrating true passion for their craft, but more importantly, know that whisky enthusiasts love this level of detail, they know who their audience are.

Of course not all whisky enthusiasts want this level of detail, however, the majority want the bare minimum of a chill filtration statement, a colour statement and accurate cask information, if for any other reason than to help train their palate or be better informed about their purchase.

BUT

How can we ask the Whisky Industry to change when reviewers, bloggers, Influencers etc of whisky aren't themselves transparent?

Think about it, you can go online and visit companies house (or the Scottish Equivalent) and you can find financial statements for a brand / distillery / retailer or other Limited Company associated with Scotch Whisky.
But what do you truly know about the reviewer / blogger / influencer that you read / follow / listen too?

Take me for example, if you follow my socials, you may know some more personal information about me, you might even know my name and address, for some of you reading this, I am just another anonymous entity with something to say about whisky.

How can you trust what I or any other person doing what I do, have to say, how do you know we aren't just in it for the money or aren't a PR person working for another organisation?

I'm not saying there needs to be regulation in the reviewer / influencer whisky space, but maybe a charter, as standard to which we agree we will work, overseen by an organisation that confirms our profiles and integrity and gives a validation identifier - maybe like the Twitter or Meta blue tick.

There has been talk in recent weeks about Ofcom (The UKs Office for communication) looking to bring influencers above a certain follower count into their area of jurisdiction (20K followers and more then you are classed as a celebrity! Go figure) - after all an influencer is a private advertiser promoting a product for some form of reward, however since they are often individuals who may not be registered as a business, the area of regulation becomes very grey.

So back to Whisky, how do you know that the review you have just read or watched, wasn't influenced by an informal agreement by a brand and the reviewer? Im not going to get into honesty and trust, but this is what it does boils down too.

So I will be open and honest, since that is what I am preaching.

Whisky Resource is run by me, Mark Smith, an individual, I am not (currently) registered as a business, the .COM domain is registered as a private individual with my personal details marked as private - So that unscrupulous scammers can't use such information for their own ill gotten gains. But as some of you in Twitterland (I won't be calling it X BTW) know, Im happy to do dram swaps and therefore I do share my address.

I am 47, a child of 1976.

I have never been approached by or sent a bottle of whisky or any other whisky related item by any producer from any country with the exception of a Bottle of Glencadam Reserva Andulucia which I won in a social media contest - I have never reviewed the whisky and a bottle of Master of Malt 40 Year Old 1976 blended Scotch Whisky which I won on Christmas Eve 2022 in the Whisky Santa promotion that Master of Malt run, I have opened and mentioned the whisky a few time on my socials. 
The only times I have reviewed whisky that I haven't paid for, that was sent to me by a producer, are as part of free organised whisky tastings such as The Whisky Wires Tweet Tastings, I always mention the source of the whisky and this includes if the whisky came from a dram swap from a friend or fellow whisky enthusiast.

Lets talk money.

This website currently costs me £6 + VAT (20%) a month in hosting fees.
I pay a further £2 + VAT for the mid level performance tier - As the site is a database it can be resource heavy and this has impacted performance and caused downtimes.

The Whisky Resource .COM domain has an additional fee of £15 + VAT a year.

There are several plugin modules on this site which I pay for which currently total £80 a year, but some of them are on introductory pricing since I rebuilt the site this year and will cost more when or IF I renew them.
I also have a couple of other Whisky Resource branded domain names such as the .CO.UK and Backforthewhisky.com which cost £20 + VAT (2 years) & £15 + VAT a year respectively.

So my outgoings for this site is over £200 a year.

I receive no funding, no financial assistance, no advertiser fees.

However what I do get is affiliate sales commission on any referral purchases via the links I share on this site or my social posts.

I use two affiliate companies, AWIN and Affiliate Future.

They allow me to signup as an advertiser for whisky related sites such as Master of Malt or The Whisky Exchange etc, if I (remember) to put a link to their websites on my pages, then when you click the link a cookie should be placed (if you allow cookies) tracking your spend on the site, if you do make a purchase from following my link then I get a small percentage of the sale.

I have been running affiliate links for 3 years and I received my very first payment of £28 from AWIN in September 2023, this included refunding my initial £5 signup. I am still waiting to receive my first payment from Affiliate Future as the time of writing I still hadn't hit the £25 payment trigger. So you can see, I don't run this site for money or for any gain.

I don't run google ads (or other equivalent) as they look unsightly and so don't generate any funds from any other source.

In the approaching 4 years this site has been up, I have made £23, but probably paid close to £800 in that time.

I have tried to generate an income to cover the costs of running the site, however, ALL attempts have failed.

I have tried introducing a small signup fee of £5 (twice now) to access some reserved features, however registrations stopped when I tried to charge and then resumed when I stopped charging!

More recently I have tried to sell a branded pin badge and brander vinyl sticker, however to date, I still haven't sold any.

It would appear that I have fallen fowl of a common mistake, not realising that people want something for nothing and are unwilling to pay to keep that thing going, look at Scotchwhisky.com the cries when they announced (link new window) that they were stopping, while the site is still up (and currently owned by the Whisky Exchange Sawhney Brothers) there has been no new content since 2019, at some point the site could go dark.

I am not a Scotchwhisky.com nor am I a whiskybase.com or anywhere near being as good or as successful or as needed by the whisky community as any of those or other sites. I am just a guy who realised that there wasn't a website which allowed you to search and filter through scotch whisky to find something new.

But... In June 2024 my hosting contract is due for renewal and I don't know If I can keep paying to keep this site going as a database, after all no one except me asked for it!

Transparency! It can suck, especially when you are on the other side of the discussion.