When You Can't Sleep... Blog

I've been lying in bed unable to sleep, and as per most people in these situations, it is undoubtedly my mind keeping me awake, while endlessly running over the things I need to do over the coming days, weeks, months, even years. One of these items is to (re)start the WhiskyBrother blog... so, in my state of delirium, I've slumped out of bed and poured a generous dram.

(RE)START?

For those of you who may not know, the humble origin story of your favourite neighbourhood WhiskyBrother, very much lies in a blog. Back in 2009 (is that 10 years ago already? Shutuppayourface!) when I was but a short distance along my whisky journey, I created the WhiskyBrother Twitter account to share and learn with fellow whisky-lovers across the world. Shortly thereafter, I created a blog, and it was a mere 3 years later, that the WhiskyBrother store opened it's doors. Since then, I've always missed blogging (I'm really not a fan of that word), but due to the nature of "going pro" it's been hard to find time (and energy) to write while establishing and growing a new business. 

WHY BLOG?

WhiskyBrother started, and continues to this very day, to be about whisky as a passion, and sharing that passion with a like-minded community. We are built on passion, and should that ever end, that will be it for us. (I'm completely comfortable saying this, as I've dedicated my life to whisky and my passion will only cease when I do.) The blog, is a channel for my team and I to share our passion, engage with other interested whisky folk, teach a thing or two, learn a thing or two, and hopefully inspire some new whisky drinkers while providing a relateable chuckle to the whisky veterans.

ANY OTHER REASON?

In the South African whisky landscape, I believe what WhiskyBrother does is unique (I'm 100% bias, so feel free to brush my ramblings aside): We are singularly focused on whisky and only whisky. This is no easy feat, particularly for a market where the majority of drinkers just want their dearest name-brand dram at the best wholesale price. But because whisky is all we do, we do a lot of it: tasting/drinking, travelling, meeting whisky-makers and industry people, reading and in general being close to the whisky kiln fire. Because of this, we have a lot of information, experiences, insights and musings, we think would be interesting to share with other whisky-lovers. 

SO WHAT'S NEXT?

Well, my generous cask strength dram is rapidly draining any coherent thoughts I had on this whole blogging matter, so I will be succinct in wrapping this up. From today, consider the blog (re)started. I will commit endeavor to post something at least every 2 weeks. Hopefully, some of these posts will interest you in the most mildest fashion, and best case scenario we grow the whisky community just that little bit more by attracting/inspiring/welcoming new drinkers. The truth is, this will probably fail, but people love a tragedy, so if nothing else, stay tuned for this slo-mo car crash in all it's whisky glory.

If I can ask just one favour in exchange for your entertainment? Please engage (i.e. comment below), even if it's just a thumbs up (or down, whatever, you do you) so we know you are out there. Whisky is always better shared, so pour a dram and come along with us as we continue on our whisky journey.

Thanks for reading,
Marc