Le Pape a parlé

Pour son 15000 ème whisky testé sur whiskyfun, Serge nous donne sa vision du monde du whisky et de son futur en 2019. Intéressant à lire si vous avez 5 min

"As far as the whisky world is concerned, I do not spot many changes either, the trend that consisted in replacing time with hyperactive casks is going on, some prices are getting ridiculous (but remember, high prices for genuinely small batches mean nothing statistically), and even more new distilleries are being built all over the world, while anyone who’s got a wee still in a corner of an old barn has started making ‘whisky’ as well. Or antifreeze. Mind you, whisky is the current golden goose. Is it not?
Time
What’s sure is that very few whisky makers are still talking about their distillates, nowadays everyone’s busy with ‘wood technologies’ that would almost erase any spirit character anyway, unless it’s really big and fat. PX-treated wood, shaving/toasting/recharring, or using unlikely (they say innovative) wines from just anywhere - with whisky you can now really learn a lot about the various wine regions ad grape varietals -, all methods that would allow most distillers to produce relatively acceptable whisky within a much shorter period of time.
PX
And time is still money.
But do not get me wrong, while I still prefer distillate-driven spirits and refill wood, by far, I have found quite a lot of ‘new-method’, or ‘modern’, or ‘flavour-led’ whiskies that I really enjoyed, even if I would not be able to accurately identify the distilleries most of the times. And between us, in many cases the distillery is not that important anyway. Who could tell between two young ex-refill Speysiders, after some re-racking in very heavy PX or STR casks (the equivalent to quartz in watch-making)? Certainly not this humble taster, who believes that only very characterful distillates would manage to keep their say under such loud circumstances. You know, some peaters (not even sure), Ben Nevis, Springbank, Clynelish, HP, Benromach and a few others… But indeed, I shan’t complain and I need to admit that I’ve tried many a revamped Aultmore, Glen Moray, Aberfeldy or Glen Spey that I’ve found pretty palatable, if not totally otherworldly.
What is also sure – well that’s a personal opinion - is that there’s less and less bad malt whisky around, at least in Scotland. The only fear I keep having is that some folks would do more and more pre-blending, while keeping the single malt denomination. Like, finishing some weakish Glenwhatever in ‘Laphroaig casks’ to botch it up, without saying anything. Beyond what’s legally allowed or not, is the end result a blended or a single malt? What do you say?
Anyway, as I said all is fine at WF, we’re having many very good (if not always stellar) whiskies, whilst most greater distillates seem to remain in full form, unless a little over-wooded or buried under cheap PX. Sorry if I’m rambling."