The guy nodding along at the tasting
A few years ago, Sandro stood at a whisky tasting while a man in an actual tweed jacket described the dram as “wet forest floor with a whisper of pipe tobacco.” Sandro nodded. Sandro tasted caramel and, honestly, whisky. Everyone else nodded too. It occurred to him that possibly all of us were bluffing.
That night he went home, tried to look up what “cask strength” meant, and fell into a swamp of jargon, gatekeeping, and 40-minute videos. The information existed. It was just wearing tweed.
So Whiskey Mess is the newsletter he wishes someone had sent him: one 5-minute email a week that explains whiskey like a friend who’s two bottles ahead of you, not a sommelier grading your palate. Along the way his partner in crime Marko, aka Mes, joined, and the two resident hedonists have been messily working through shelves ever since.
The name is the mission. Whiskey is allowed to be fun, spilled, mispronounced, and enjoyed with cola if that’s your thing. The mess is the point.
What we promise
- ✓Plain English, always. Every fancy word gets translated on the spot.
- ✓Honest scores. We buy our own bottles, so nobody can tell us what to think.
- ✓Five minutes a week. Time-boxed, every Thursday, no homework.
What this will never be
- ✗A sponsored shill. If money ever changes hands, it'll say so in big letters.
- ✗Snob content. Nobody here will ever taste 'forgotten library.'
- ✗A gate-kept club. The only requirement is curiosity.
