Ah, the year 1997... We remember that year very fondly...
And that's because it was in 1997 that the very first seeds of Malt Maniacs were planted.
Craig Daniels from Australia and Louis Perlman from the USA started responding to a few
articles on the old Malt Madness website, and I decided to publish their responses there.
So, this is a genuine falsification of history - the 1st issues of Malt Maniacs, 'avant la lettre'.

To tell you the truth, the Malt Maniacs E-zine was just a glint in our eyes in 1997, but
those responses to Malt Madness didn't stay as short and sweet as they initially were..
Over time they would grow bigger and bolder, evolving into our 'Malt Maniacs' E-zine.
However, as far as 1997 is concerned, we only managed to fill one measly issue.

That could have been 3 or 4 issues if a hard disk crash hadn't destroyed most of the
earlier contributions in the 'Vox Populi' section of Malt Madness. Fortunately, I have
managed to save most of the prE-pistles that were submitted by the very first certified
maniacs from different parts of the world, Louis from the USA and Craig from Australia.

I've added these prehistorical issues to offer you some historical perspective on the
development of the Malt Maniacs website over the years. Most of the whiskies that
are reviewed on these pages are not available anymore in regular stores. If you're
more interested in 'new' whiskies, skip a few years and hop to Part 2 of the archive.

>>> Malt Maniacs #001 - December 1997

 
My Purely Personal Top 10 for 1997
prE-pistle #1997/01 by Johannes v/d Heuvel, Holland
Together with my 'Liquid Log' and the 'Beginner's Guide', this was one of the first pages on the Malt Madness website.
In order to make the discussions that followed understandable I've included it here.

The Worst Whiskies in the World
prE-pistle #1997/02 by Johannes v/d Heuvel, Holland
My Top 10 deals with the 10 best whiskies I've discovered so far. Hardly surprising, they are all single malts.
But before I found them I had to struggle my way through loads of 'bottom shelf material'.

Public Whisky Warnings
prE-pistle #1997/03 by Johannes v/d Heuvel, Holland
Of course, my 'worst whiskies' list is purely personal. Fortunately, many visitors of MM sent me comments on their least favorite whiskies.
Most of those are blends, but a few single malts are on the list too.

Malt Madness, Glenmorangie & Scapa
prE-pistle #1997/04 by Louis Perlman, USA
The first 'prE-pistle' I managed to rescue from the old 'forum' on this website came from New York.
Louis Perlman's comments kicked off a discussion that kept developing into the third millennium.

My Thoughts on Glenmorangie
prE-pistle #1997/05 by Johannes v/d Heuvel, Holland
Since I had to 'reconstruct' the first issues of Malt Maniacs from our old forum, many prE-pistles in these first issues may feel a bit odd.
They are more like discussions that go back and forth than proper 'articles'...

Your Top 10
prE-pistle #1997/06 by Louis Perlman, USA
Some comments from Louis Perlman on my 'purely personal' Top 10. It seems that great minds do indeed think alike ;-)

My Top 10 Explained
prE-pistle #1997/07 by Johannes v/d Heuvel, Holland
After receiving Louis' comments on my Top 10 I felt it would be useful to add some more comments to my initial list.
Most important: I haven't tried anything from over half of all distilleries so far.

Bad Whisky
prE-pistle #1997/08 by Louis Perlman, USA
This time Louis sent some comments regarding my 'bad whisky' list. Needless to say, none of these 'bad whiskies' were single malts.

About Bad Whisky
prE-pistle #1997/09 by Johannes v/d Heuvel, Holland
The first few issues of Malt Maniacs may feel a bit like a 'turn based' adventure game.
That's because we only came up with the idea of an E-zine with proper 'articles' after our old forum had collapsed.

Earls of Zetland 1997 Roundup
prE-pistle #1997/10 by Craig Daniels, Australia
The second 'certified malt maniac' to join the team was Craig Daniels from Australia and his first prE-pistle is a whopper.
Craig spreads his knowledge with an overview of the monthly tastings in 1997 of the Earls of Zetland whisky club.

The Water of Life (Part 1)
prE-pistle #1997/11 by Louis Perlman, USA
Slowly the discussions between Louis and myself evolved beyond sending each other tips on good whiskies (and bad whiskies).
We eventually started to tackle more complex topics like 'quality' variation between different single casks.

Closing Comments for 1997
prE-pistle #1997/12 by Johannes v/d Heuvel, Holland
And here's the last '1997' entry I managed to save from our forum.
 

- - -

And that's already 'it' for the first issue of Malt Maniacs - but things would evolve quickly.
In 1998 we would publish three issues; MM#002, MM#003 and MM#004.