Polls

To be honest, I had almost forgot this poll because so few people answered it. The 14 votes cast are not really good to do any statistics, but still they show a trend:

1. Online shop: 7 votes
2. Specialist whisky retailer offline: 3 votes
3. Wine/spirits retailer offline: 3 votes
4. Online auctions: 1 vote

Conclusion: Online shopping seems to be very attractive to whisky blog readers which is not really a surprise, but the strongly prefer online shops. Buying whisky on eBay or other auction sites obvioulsy is seen too risky.

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Time for another whisky poll. This time, the question is straightforward: Where do you buy your booze?

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After somewhat more than a month, 21 visitors have cast their votes about that controversial issue. Here are the results:

I support colouring and filtering: 1 vote

I reject colouring and filtering: 13 votes

I reject colouring, don’t care about filtering: 2 votes

I reject filtering, don’t care about colouring: 3 votes

I don’t care about neither: 2 votes

About 60% of the voters are opposed to both chill filtering and caramel colouring, almost 25% reject one of the two. Only 15% support it or don’t care.

Of course, this poll is by no means representative. But nevertheless these results speak a clear language. Due to the character of this site, it is fair to assume that the average visitor is a single malt afficionado. And it seems quite obvious that a majority of these whisky lovers wants to enjoy their whisky as pure as possible, without something added or removed.

My personal conclusion is that colouring and chill filtering should be restricted to blended whisky where achieving consistency among large batches is a legitimate goal. But for single malt whisky the industry should head for as much authenticity as possible.

There are already positive signs, as quite a few distillieries have started to bottle even their standard drams without colouring and filtering and with an appropriate ABV. And so far I have not heard any reports about negative impacts on sales after the introduction of these measures. I am convinced that very little single malt drinkers would feel repelled if their whisky turned a bit cloudy after adding water, or about slight colour variations between batches. In contrary, I think that a larger number of happy customers will outweigh those who might be put off.

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Two things have always been the source of heated debates:

1. Should a whisky be coloured with caramel (E 150a) to maintain uniformity of colour among batches?

2. Should a whisky be chillfiltered to avoid clouding?

With this new poll (to be found under the tag cloud) I would like to do a survey how consumers think about this topic. I have included five options to choose from.

1. I support colouring and filtering
2. I reject colouring and filtering
3. I reject colouring, don’t care about filtering
4. I reject filtering, don’t care about colouring
5. I don’t care about neither

Of course there can be many more possible “shadings” in personal opinions like “I usually recject both but sometimes I buy coloured whiskies” or “I will never buy a filtered and coloured whisky. Period.”

If you feel your opinion is not quite matched by one of the options, please choose the closest option and feel free to add a comment. My personal view is that I don’t care about colouring but I prefer unchillfiltered whiskies.

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After a more than a month, I decided to close the poll about your favorite whisky regions. Participation was a bit reluctant, but 14 people actually did cast their votes. Every voter was allowed to choose two regions from the list

The result does not have much of a statistical value, but nevertheless the winner is not really a surprise:

1. Islay (10 votes)
2. Highlands (6 votes)
3. Speyside (3 votes)
4. Islands (1 vote)
4. Rest of World (1 vote)

Islay is the clear winner of the poll. This is evidence for a certain singularity of Islay among the scotch whisky regions, even though at least Talsiker from the Isle of Skye is actually not too different from the classic Islay character.

There has been a lot going on on Islay lately with the restless release policy of Bruichladdich, innnvations of Ardbeg after the re-opening, the new Laphroaigs after years of stagnation and the face-lift for Bowmore. Even Bunnahabhain seem to have come out of the closet a bit with interesting new bottlings, not to mention the new Kilchoman distillery that has just bottled its first proper whisky. So there is definitely a reason to focus on Islay. And Islay really is the place to go, if you like peated whisky, regardless of all the recent peat experiments on the Scottish mainland. Only the Diageo distlleries of Lagavulin and Caol Ila seem strangely untouched by all the hustle, and I think you can count in Talisker here as well again.

One thing that surprised me a bit was that Speyside lags behind the Highlands. I would have expected a closer result here, given the strong following for some key Speysiders like Macallan or Glenfarclas. The Lowlands seem to be left behind, as could be expected. Too many distilleries had to close in the 1980s, and there is still an lot to be done to revive old glory of lowland distilleries signified for example by St. Magdalene.

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I think it is quite interesting to get a little information about the demogarphics of whisky lovers.

I have just added a poll about favourite whisky regions. You can mark up to two of your favorite regions. I will post an evaluation when enough votes have accumulated.

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