Serge Valentin is a leading authority in the world of spirits, he is particularly influential within the Whisky industry, however he also dabbles in reviewing a number of other spirits including Cognac.

Serge shares his thoughts on spirits on his long-running blog, which he first established in 2002 and which visually, looks almost identical today. His website has an almost anarchistic and yet endearing quality to it.

Unlike the vast majority of other blogs that have become globally popular (Serge’s blog receives a few million visits a year and has a few tens of thousands of very loyal readers), his platform remains ‘low-tech, handcrafted, ad-free and without any cookies’.

Valentin reviews all spirits in a strikingly honest, informal, and often amusing tone. It is clear once you have read a number of his reviews that Serge’s palate is a consistent one, and there are certain qualities to spirits that will earn it a higher score on his scale of 100. Indeed Serge warns the readers of his blog that what he writes about spirits is “not the gospel, but is based on personal experience and feelings, with no pretensions to be ‘the truth.” Nevertheless, his opinion is a highly regarded one and goes a long way in impacting both the sales and price of spirits.