Uploaded November 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Hoard; verb; accumulate (money or valued objects) and hide or store away.
Botherer; noun; agent noun of bother; one who bothers.
I think we know the answer to this. Even if we, ourselves, are not hoarding, we know that as a community we must be. Consumption of alcohol probably increased during the darkest days of the pandemic, but it remains on a downward trend generally. There are lots of factors at play of course, but for the sake of keeping things light and simple, let's play a game of confession.
For me, personally, I think reasons of price, availability, FOMO and shared experience are all driving our purchasing habits. Perhaps it's more accurate to say; have driven our purchasing habits. Because for me - they have slowed down. I also believe they'll slow down further. So, what about everyone else?
Well, I believe that the best way to ponder would be to take a (small sample - non-scientific) snapshot to build on what the OSWAs told us through their short survey on purchasing habits. At the close of the ceremony earlier in the month we shared the responses to questions about how much the community bought and how much they consumed. Not surprisingly, there was quite a disconnect; suggesting creaking shelves across the nations.
We further asked what the intentions were for 2023 and the responses were, if you're looking on from the side of the producer, grim. Of course, we remain but a sliver of the buying public, we are perhaps not representative. Yet, while we'll shy away from the ugly discussions of actual 'investment', we also remain the most invested in the product, and the most enthusiastic, perhaps the most experienced and certainly the most on-the-ball when it comes to handing over our dollars, euros, shekels, kroner, sterlings, yen or what-have-you for the next favourite flavour hit, or perhaps reassurance of repeat hits from favourites.
Many of us have reached a point of awareness. We are hoarding. If we stopped buying whisky immediately, we'd have plenty to keep us happy for years ahead.
Or maybe I'm speaking only about me.
Enter the community. To celebrate five years of the vPub (not the channel - these weekly Thursday live streams that I'm grateful you seem to endure) I'll reach out to well known names, many of which have been around so long you'll know their names well from the live chat. We'll ask them some very simple questions - the same that were asked during the OSWAs - and ask their honest opinion about the scale of their accumulation, their attitude to it and their intentions for the future. Of course, that means - in the true style of a confessional - I'll need to admit my own.
Deal.
What have I accumulated in five years of broadcasting as a whisky botherer? A lot. More details Thursday.
That, and hopefully some raising of glasses to mark me sticking at five years of anything.
0:00 - Opening
1:57 - Going live since 2017
3:33 - One size does not fit all
4:20 - A perfect storm for spending habits?
7:41 - Welcoming in the whisky folk
15:22 - What's a 'whisky botherer'?
18:10 - Hoarding triggers: Reassurance
21:49 - Hoarding triggers: Discontinuation
23:56 - Hoarding triggers: Imminent price hikes
25:23 - Hoarding triggers: Hyped/celebrated bottles
27:00 - Hoarding triggers: One-off releases?
28:30 - Anti-hoarding dynamics
36:16 - Community confessions: Seve The Alchemist
53:37 - Community confessions: Jez from LWC
1:12:47 - Community confessions: Maxx Kreitner
1:24:30 - Community confessions: Luna Arran
1:37:12 - Community confessions - Rolfy - Ebbhead
1:49:29 - Cù Bòcan 15yo Uncorking
2:02:48 - Welcoming in Menno
2:04:10 - My confession on hoarding
2:08:55 - Quiz at the End
Hoard; verb; accumulate (money or valued objects) and hide or store away.
Botherer; noun; agent noun of bother; one who bothers.
I think we know the answer to this. Even if we, ourselves, are not hoarding, we know that as a community we must be. Consumption of alcohol probably increased during the darkest days of the pandemic, but it remains on a downward trend generally. There are lots of factors at play of course, but for the sake of keeping things light and simple, let's play a game of confession.
For me, personally, I think reasons of price, availability, FOMO and shared experience are all driving our purchasing habits. Perhaps it's more accurate to say; have driven our purchasing habits. Because for me - they have slowed down. I also believe they'll slow down further. So, what about everyone else?
Well, I believe that the best way to ponder would be to take a (small sample - non-scientific) snapshot to build on what the OSWAs told us through their short survey on purchasing habits. At the close of the ceremony earlier in the month we shared the responses to questions about how much the community bought and how much they consumed. Not surprisingly, there was quite a disconnect; suggesting creaking shelves across the nations.
We further asked what the intentions were for 2023 and the responses were, if you're looking on from the side of the producer, grim. Of course, we remain but a sliver of the buying public, we are perhaps not representative. Yet, while we'll shy away from the ugly discussions of actual 'investment', we also remain the most invested in the product, and the most enthusiastic, perhaps the most experienced and certainly the most on-the-ball when it comes to handing over our dollars, euros, shekels, kroner, sterlings, yen or what-have-you for the next favourite flavour hit, or perhaps reassurance of repeat hits from favourites.
Many of us have reached a point of awareness. We are hoarding. If we stopped buying whisky immediately, we'd have plenty to keep us happy for years ahead.
Or maybe I'm speaking only about me.
Enter the community. To celebrate five years of the vPub (not the channel - these weekly Thursday live streams that I'm grateful you seem to endure) I'll reach out to well known names, many of which have been around so long you'll know their names well from the live chat. We'll ask them some very simple questions - the same that were asked during the OSWAs - and ask their honest opinion about the scale of their accumulation, their attitude to it and their intentions for the future. Of course, that means - in the true style of a confessional - I'll need to admit my own.
Deal.
What have I accumulated in five years of broadcasting as a whisky botherer? A lot. More details Thursday.
That, and hopefully some raising of glasses to mark me sticking at five years of anything.
0:00 - Opening
1:57 - Going live since 2017
3:33 - One size does not fit all
4:20 - A perfect storm for spending habits?
7:41 - Welcoming in the whisky folk
15:22 - What's a 'whisky botherer'?
18:10 - Hoarding triggers: Reassurance
21:49 - Hoarding triggers: Discontinuation
23:56 - Hoarding triggers: Imminent price hikes
25:23 - Hoarding triggers: Hyped/celebrated bottles
27:00 - Hoarding triggers: One-off releases?
28:30 - Anti-hoarding dynamics
36:16 - Community confessions: Seve The Alchemist
53:37 - Community confessions: Jez from LWC
1:12:47 - Community confessions: Maxx Kreitner
1:24:30 - Community confessions: Luna Arran
1:37:12 - Community confessions - Rolfy - Ebbhead
1:49:29 - Cù Bòcan 15yo Uncorking
2:02:48 - Welcoming in Menno
2:04:10 - My confession on hoarding
2:08:55 - Quiz at the End
