I’m a fairly private guy. I use this blog to promote whisky. I’m on Twitter, but only to “tweet” about whisky. I joined Facebook, but only so I can keep up with all the activities that everyone else is doing (business and pleasure). I don’t talk about me or what I’m doing.
Still, I don’t want to come across as being non-social. My friends and those of you who have seen me socially know I’m not that way. I just don’t think that what I do outside of whisky is so important to blab about it every three hours on Facebook (or Twittter or this blog, for that matter).
Having said this, I do think of you as a friend and I want you to know this. We are all just fellow whisky enthusiasts, right? And I realize that a key part to any friendship is opening up and sharing your personal life. So, for those of you who would actually like to know more about me and my life (outside of the whisky world), keep reading.This is the only time I will blog about it.
If you only care about what I know about whisky (which I would completely understand), you can stop reading right now and move on to something else. Otherwise, enter at your own risk. (It’s a bit long too.)
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I grew up in a broken family. My parents were divorced before I went to grade school. Put simply, it was hell: many years of physical and emotional abuse. Somehow I survived it. I really don’t know how.
My older step brothers were alcoholics. One died while driving drunk and took a couple others with him. I don’t know where the other one is. He calls my parents every so often when he needs money.
My parents who I lived with (mother and stepfather) found religion in a big way when I was in my teens. It saved their marriage, but suddenly I was spending most nights of every week being dragged to countless prayer meetings, bible studies, church, Sunday school, etc. Alcohol was now the work of the devil. By the time I was a sophomore at Penn State, my parents became missionaries. I was taking out loans to pay for college–and drinking Jim Beam!
So, I think it is fair to say that my introduction to beer and whisky was for the wrong reason–to rebel. But I gradually began to embrace all things malt because because I developed a passion for it–first beer, then whisky.
I am a scientist by trade. I have a BS in Environmental Science from Penn State and a MS in Occupational Health at Drexel University. I enjoyed a very successful career as a scientist for 13 years before quitting, taking my passion for beer and whisky and making a living out of it. It was very risky, and happened at the same time our daughter Shannon was born. There were a few years of overlap in my careers. I worked as a scientist during the day, and did the beer and whisky stuff at night and on weekends. I had no free time.
As some of you long-time followers know, Malt Advocate was initially called “On Tap” and it was a beer publication. There were several years of transition in the mid 1990s where Malt Advocate evolved into a whisky magazine. I did this because there were many other beer publications on the market, but none devoted to whisky at the time. And I was really into whisky! This was another very risky move, since I didn’t know if the consumer–or whisky industry–would embrace it. There were many sleepless nights.
There were even more sleepless nights when we decided to host our first WhiskyFest in 1998 in New York. A whisky festival of this magnitude had never been done before. We had to sign a contract with a hotel committing to a lot of money, and we didn’t know if the whisky companies–or consumers–would attend. As you know, it ended up being a success.
Having said this, my business is not the most important thing in my life. My family is. I have no desire to be the #1 whisky expert, dominate the world with whisky festivals or have the largest circulation whisky magazine. The sacrifice is too great.
I am an entrepreneur. But first and foremost I’m just a whisky enthusiast, like you, who worked hard enough (and was lucky enough?) to make a living out of it. I just love whisky. Malt Advocate and WhiskyFest are just ways I express my passion.
Many of you have met my wife Amy (quite possibly at WhiskyFest). She’s my business partner. More importantly Amy is my best friend. She is the most important thing that has ever happened to me. I’m a lucky guy. I have a great wife and daughter, and I never take it for granted.
I’ve dealt with a lot of physical challenges throughout the years. I’ve had both shoulders operated on, knee surgery, and a blog clot that went to my lungs and almost killed me.
Since 2004, I have been dealing with a nerve pain-related issue that started out with my foot during a long run training for a marathon, but eventually spread throughout my body. The diagnoses have been many: fibromyalgia, reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), chronic regional pain syndrome, an unidentified and unnamed neurological disease, etc.
Basically, if you imagine your nervous system having a volume control from 1 to 10, mine was a 12. Nerves are responsible for pain and muscle function. That means constant pain and tight muscles.
This is something I have learned to deal with. I have been able to manage the pain and work around some of the muscle tightness. I had to alter my hobbies a bit (no more running!) but other than chronic pain, I live my life just like you do. Hey, we all have our crosses to bear. This is mine. Fortunately, this has had no impact on my ability to review whiskies, run my business or travel.
I have many passions outside whisky and beer. I also love wine, and have a wine cellar of more than 300 bottles. I also write about, and enjoy, rum and tequila very much.
Outside of booze, my other hobbies include boating, fishing and biking. We have a boat that we take out to the ocean off the New Jersey coastline, usually going fishing. (I was, at one time, a semi-pro tournament freshwater bass fisherman before going to college.) Boating and fishing is is my escape from all the stress in my life. So is biking. I like to take off on trails that meander along the rivers or through the woods near where I live.
I follow Buddhism. It’s not as much a religion to me as it is a road map on how to spend my life and be happy. I try to live in the moment and appreciate every day as much as possible–even on the bad days. Life really is what happens while we’re planning for tomorrow.
I try to be honest in everything I do. I sleep better at night that way. Unfortunately, this often means saying that I don’t like a whisky (or whatever). But I also try to be fair. I would like to think that anyone who has had any business relationship with me knows that I was honest and fair with them. I hope you have seen this in my writing too here on this blog.
I look forward to promoting whisky for many years to come. I love whisky. I love the people in the whisky business, and I love interacting with you. After all, like I said earlier, we are just common whisky enthusiasts. I am fortunate enough to have access to some cool people and distilleries in this industry, and at the same time being able to create platforms (Malt Advocate, WhiskyFest, What Does John Know?) to share this information with you.
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I guess that’s about 1,400 more words about me than you really needed to know. But hopefully it will shed some light on who I am and how I arrived at where I am today. And maybe it will bring us a little closer together. Feel free to comment. Or not.
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