Martin Eber
Chief Whisky Bloke at TimeforWhisky.com (Hong Kong)
What’s your favourite bottle at the moment?
My favourite bottle I have open is a 1995 23 year old single cask Ben Nevis selected by Hong Kong whisky lovers Derek Chan and Jeremy Ma. Mid-1990s Ben Nevis can be absolutely fantastic and this one really stands out. It’s got a little bit of funk, a lot of orchard fruits, clean sherry notes – magic! I bought a second bottle and am keeping an eye out for a third! My favourite bottle of all time is probably the Black Bowmore 3rd Release, which I sampled at an amazing bar called Rogin’s Tavern on the outskirts of Osaka a few years ago. An incredible mix of tropical 1964 Bowmore with clean, rich sherry notes, and still the most memorable whisky I’ve had.
What’s your view on the current state of the whisky world?
Funnily enough I wrote a whole article on this exact topic recently. As with any industry that’s experienced a massive increase in popularity, you’re going to get the good: more choice, greater range, new/unique/varied market entrants, a bigger fanbase, and the bad: flippers, fraudsters, supply crunches and price increases. On balance though, I think things are great. Once you realise you can’t buy every bottle and just enjoy the industry for what it is – full of awesome people and mostly awesome products – there’s a good chance you’re going to have fun. I do wish Black Bowmore didn’t cost over HKD$120,000 though!
What are your thoughts on the regulation changes in Japan and New Zealand?
Sensible and a great big leap forward, especially in Japan where too many companies were taking advantage of the lax regulation for too long. It won’t solve everything, but it’s a huge and much-needed step forward.
What’s your favourite whisky bar?
Club Qing in Hong Kong. The city has some fantastic and varied whisky bars such as Casky, House Welley Bar and Tiffany’s New York Bar, but Club Qing stands out for it’s ever-changing, enormous range of vintage Scotch, Japanese whisky and independent bottlings.
Which region’s whisky star is ascending?
I’m possibly a bit biased, but I’ll say Australia. Australia has a rich history of distilling that goes back almost 200 years, but the last 30 years – and really the last 10 – which have seen a huge growth in the number of small but really high quality distilleries. They’re not trying to replicate Scotch – many of them are going about things in a distinctly Aussie way, for example using Aussie red wine casks, often filled “wet” just hours after the wine has been emptied. Starward in Melbourne is really flying the flag for Aussie whisky being uniquely Aussie, and Archie Rose in Sydney are doing some really interesting things, and just recently opened a new distillery. On the smaller end of the spectrum, Fleurieu Distillery are making whisky which is tasty beyond its years.
