The rest of my reserve stock is spread across various closets and cabinets in Amsterdam
and in 'the woods'. There were still a few full 'reserve' bottles in between the dozens of
empty bottles in the cabinet shown at the right when I took the picture in december 2004,
but by now it only contains empty bottles. Yeah, that's right - I save empty bottles. Well,
some of them anyway. When the cabinet shown at the right was full I could have bought
another cabinet for my 'historical stock' but that would have been mad even by my
standards. So, now I just keep roughly a hundred favourite empty bottles.

So, over the years I've been forced to trim down my drinking collection and my 'historical
stock' of my personal favourite empty bottles. So, what about my reserve stock, you ask?
Well, I've had to get rid of some excess bottles of whisky there as well. In the good old
days I regularly got carried away during one of my shopping sprees and at some point
there were well over 250 bottles of malt whisky scattered throughout my living room.
Not a pretty picture...

It's hard enough posing as a responsible citizen as it is, so I've been working (which in
this case means "drinking") very hard to bring the number of bottles in my reserve stock
back to around a hundred, not counting the trading stock bottles meant for swapping. So,
without further ado I proudly present to you: my 'reserve stock' as it looked at the end of
2004. As I've mentioned at the top of this page I've stopped maintaining the list at the
en of 2004 because I felt my time would be better spent on the pages of the mAlmanac,
(sort of a shopping guide to single malt whisky), the Beginner's Guide and my Liquid Log.

When I started this website in 1997 it often took me up to three years to empty a bottle and I opened most bottles as soon as I purchased them. (Well, after I got home from the liquor store, of course...) So, around 1999 I had well over a hundred open bottles in my collection. However, I rationalised my approach soon after I discovered that the malt whisky inside a bottle changes (sometimes quite dramatically) once the bottle has been opened. Some bottles stand the test of time better than others and some bottles keep improving after being opened, but generally speaking it's best to finish a bottle within a year after opening it (after allowing it to 'break in' for a couple of days). I first pruned my drinking collection back to 48 bottles, but at an average drinking speed of 2 bottles a month that was still far too ambitious. I bought myself a brand new cabinet (see picture above) with room for 3 x 12 = 36 bottles. That seems to work for me at the moment...

The picture at the top of this page shows my 'drinking collection' on the first three shelves
of my new cabinet and part of my reserve stock of bottles that I planned to open at some
point in the distant future when I'm old and too feeble to make my way to the liquorist.

[PLEASE NOTE: This page hasn't been updated after 2004 - it provides 'a look into the past'.]
My (relatively modest) malt whisky collection is a source of comfort and entertainment to
me. It's comforting to know that I have more than enough bottles in the house to drink
myself into oblivion whenever the situation calls for it... I don't want to brag, but I could
easily remain in a state of perpetual intoxication for at least three months if I wanted to.

But even if I wanted to, it would be a waste to use my single malts just to get drunk.
After all, there are far cheaper ways of escaping the harsh reality of everyday life; Old
Smuggler's or Johnnie Walker Red Label for example. My 'collection' of malt whiskies
is a more serious matter - even though it's not really a collection as such, just a 'stock'
of bottles I plan to consume in the foreseeable future. My stock was divided into three
sections; a DRINKING STOCK of 24 or 36 opened bottles, a RESERVE STOCK of circa
150 unopened bottles & a TRADING STOCK of a dozen bottles I was willing to swap.
 
The picture at the right shows my main drinks cabinet as it looked at the end of 2004.
The upper two or three shelves hold my 'drinking stock' - each shelf holds a dozen
bottles and depending on my cash flow situation I use either two or three shelves.

The lower shelves of the cabinet at the right (as well as a bunch of other shelves around my apartment
and in 'the woods') are reserved for my 'reserve stock' - a few other bottles of whisky that I intend to
consume within the foreseeable future. I had originally intended to save them for my retirement days, but
after I discovered that the corks of some bottles become brittle after a few years I've decided to speed up
my consumption of past purchases. Part of me wants to wait as long as possible with opening the bottles,
because over time they could pick up a nice trait known amongst the maniacs as OBE; 'Old Bottle Effect'.
 
I may keep a few dozen bottles long enough for them to develop the praised OBE, but I'll probably finish
most bottles over the next few years. By the time I'm forced to replenish the contents of my shelves I
may turn my attention to deviant drams - I'm a tad bored by some modern bourbon matured malt whiskies.