Ardbeg 'Uigeadail' (54.2%, OB)
Ardbeg 10yo (46%, OB, 1990's)
Ardbeg 17yo (46%, OB, +/- 2000)
Ardbeg 25yo 1975 (50%, D. Laing)
Ardbeg 30yo (40%, OB, Allied, 1997?)
Glendronach 15yo '100%' (40%, OB)
Glenfarclas 1983 (46%, OB, FR #4)
Glenglassaugh 1973 (OB, Silver Cap)
Lagavulin 16yo (43%, OB, +/- 2004)
St. Magdalene 1979 (63.8%, UDRM)
Talisker 10yo (45.8%, OB, 1990's)
Talisker 1986 DE (45.8%, OB)

Aberlour A'bunadh (59.6%, OB)
Aberlour A'bunadh #9 (60.9%, OB)
Auchroisk 1981 (43%, OB)
Balvenie 15yo SB (50.4%, OB)
Caol Ila Cask Strength (55%, OB)
Glenallachie 13yo '89 (Cadenhead's)
Glen Spey 15yo 1985 (Cadenhead's)
Macallan 10yo (OB, late 1990's)
Macallan 12yo (OB, late 1990's)
Macallan 12yo 1989 (Cadenhead's)
Mortlach 20yo 1979 (62,2%, UDRM)
Tomintoul 12yo (43%, OB, 1990's)

Initially, my bottom shelf was
reserved for my (relatively) least
favourite bottles. However, as I
started swapping more and more
samples with other whisky lovers,
it gradually evolved into my little
'blending & swapping' shelf.
These days, there are not quite
as many sub-par malt whiskies
on the shelves of liquor stores
as there used to be, but the fine
art of blending remains useful.
 

As you may have gathered from the contents of my shelves as depicted above (the contents around the winter of 2004, to be precise), the original " shelf system" broke down eventually due to an overload of sample traffic. Nevertheless, the system in itself worked very well for me for many years. So, if you would like to experiment with a logistical system for yourself, I can heartily recommend it. You'd just have to tailor the numbers to fit your own need. Just calculate your average drinking speed (say, 3 bottles of whisky a month) and multiply that with the number of months you'd need to empty the average bottle of whisky. If you want to empty the average bottle in 6 months, you'd need to find or build a cabinet with room for 18 bottles - and you're ready to get drunk much more systematically from now on ;-)

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.

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. That's right - I used to save my 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.

I may keep a few 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 some of my attention to other
beverages and spirits - a.k.a. deviant drams (I'm a tad bored by some modern bourbon matured malts.)
 
When I started this website in 1997, it often took me up to three years to empty a bottle.
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 whisky inside a bottle changes (sometimes quite dramatically) once the bottle is opened. Some bottles stand the test of time better than others (and some 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).

Even though I rarely buy fresh whiskies anymore, my dwindling malt whisky collection
is still a source of entertainment and intoxication to me. Besides, it's comforting to know
that I still have more than enough bottles in the house to drink myself into oblivion when
the situation calls for it... I don't want to brag, but even with my diminished stock 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 realities life; Old Smuggler's
or Johnnie Walker Red Label for example. My "malt whisky collection" started out as a
more serious matter - even though it was never intended as a collection as such, just a
"stock" of bottles that I planned to consume in the foreseeable future. My Scotch malt
whisky stock was divided into three sections; a DRINKING STOCK of 24 or 36 opened
bottles, a RESERVE STOCK of unopened bottles & a TRADING STOCK of a few bottles
I might be willing to swap or sell.
 
The picture higher up on the page shows my main drinks cabinet, as it looked at the end
of 2004. The upper two shelves hold my 'drinking stock' (each of the shelves holds a
dozen bottles); depending on my cash flow situation I used either two or three shelves.

First of all, I should stress that it was never my intention to build a COLLECTION of
whisky bottles. Whisky was made to get drunk and to get people drunk - so  it always
seemed somewhat unnatural to me to put the bottles in a cabinet, just to be winked
and wanked at... Nevertheless, after I discovered that batches of malt whisky can be
quite different from one another, I decided to build a modest "reserve stock".

Besides, the practice of whisky collecting in itself drives whisky prices upwards.
It represents a rise in demand (though not a rise of consumption yet at that
moment), which generally leads to higher prices in free markets. So, very much
like the housing bubble of the first decade of the new millennium, the malt
whisky market inflated quite a bit beyond its 'natural' size as well - into some
kind of whisky bubble. I really didn't feel like contributing to the inflation of that
particular bubble, so a few years ago, I gradually decreased my investments in
bottles of whisky. Instead, I slowly started working my way through my "reserve stock" of bottles from the 1990's - and I'm happy that I'm still not finished...

with a few of my favourite bottles of single malt whisky. For a couple of years, that
stock kept growing slowly - until the 'premiumisation' trend started to push many
single malt whiskies out of my financial comfort zone. When I write this, a nice
glass of Lagavulin 16yo (from a bottle that was obtained at a liquorist) still costs
me somewhere in the general neighbourhood of 3 Euros. To me, that seems like a
reasonable price. However, when the whisky industry expects me to pay more
than 10 Euro's for a dram, it becomes a very different story...

For one thing, my conscience isn't too bothered with me spending a modest portion
of my discretionary income on luxuries like malt whisky. However, when I have to
reserve a significant amount of money that could be spent considerably wiser (and
on worthier causes too), my pesky conscience will surely rear its ugly head again.

The lower shelves of my malt whisky cabinet (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 of the bottles can 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'.
 
It's a distinct spicy trait that combines especially well with the juicy fruits and tannins that can
often be found in an oldfashioned sherried whisky.