Start Here

Whisky Scholar® is designed to give you an in-depth (and fun) education on whisky.

If you’re new here, start with the primers, which are free to everyone.

When you’re ready for a bit more, upgrade to paid to get access to more focused articles, which dig into the science, history, and culture of the dram.

As a paid subscriber, you’ll also get access to a growing archive of tasting notes in the Tasting Lab. These are deep dives into a particular dram, providing you with the full production information, chemical compounds of the flavour profile, detailed tasting notes, and a final score…so you can decide if it’s worth your pocket money.

For the thirsty, we’ve created the Whisky Scholar® Society. This exclusive tier, reserved for Founding Members, is a private community with extra content, live tastings, spirited conversations, and a one-of-a-kind Society pin badge.

Upgrade to paid to become a bonafide Whisky Scholar®.

Free Subscribers get…

  • Primers: monthly overviews and basic whisky information for the beginner (plus the archive of all primers!).

  • Occasional free posts: tasters here and there to entice and whet the palate.

Paid Subscribers get…

  • Tasting Labs: a deep dive into a dram, complete with scoring table, flavour profile, chemical compound breakdown, explanation of flavour origin, historical and cultural overview, food pairs, score out of 100.

  • Scholarly articles: an in-depth article about the science and/or history of whisky—like a grad school education to help you to become an expert.

  • Culture + Commentary Articles: from conversations with experts in the field to interviews with all manor of people in the process and hot takes on whisky news, get a peek into the cultural world of whisky.

  • Quarterly Study Packs: for the true nerds amongst us, we’ll package up the info from the last quarter into study tables for flashcards and cram sessions. (Think: chemical compounds that contribute to flavour, temps needed for distillation, and a glossary of whisky lingo.

If you’re a major whisky nerd and room for more friends in your life, we’d love for you to join the Whisky Scholar® Society.

Whisky Scholar® Society members get:

  • access to exclusive posts and articles

  • a spot in our private Slack community, where chat (nerd out!) on a daily basis

  • a society pin badge and certificate of membership!

  • monthly live chats and tastings

Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.