Master of Malt, Whiskysamples.eu, DH17, Drinks & Gifts, SMWS, Whiskysite, Jurgen’s Whiskyhuis, ‘t Fust, Passie voor Whisky, Whiskysample.nl.
Those are the websites and shops selling whisky samples that I can think of off the top of my head. There’s probably a lot more that I haven’t found or already have forgotten.
What I’m getting at is that there are a LOT of samples available on the internet in a very wide range of prices, distilleries, casks, bottlers and even styles of booze. I was talking about this with Christof at Maltstock who inspired me to do bottle-shares in the first place. The market is full, he stated.
This got me thinking. About a year and a half ago I didn’t have any problems filling 30 spots on a list for a bottle-share. With the last few bottle-shares I barely got to one set of bottles in the end. People say they’re interested but cancel or I don’t even get up to 13 interested dudes (13 +1 = 14. 14 * 5cl = 70cl).
Add to that that doing a bottle-share is a lot (A LOT) of work and a financial hassle (people paying late, cancelling after everything has been ordered, getting sample bottles, filling and sending) and my conclusion can only be that it’s not really rewarding to do it on a regular basis.
I have decided that I am not going to quit doing Bottle-Shares all together, but I will be much more selective to what will be shared and when. I won’t be doing the Bladnoch stuff anymore, nor will I do random SMWS and Gordon & MacPhail samples. Things that are still viable options is, for example, the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection and such expensive and limited releases.
Another change that I’m going to make is that I’ll be trying to sell more 10cl samples instead of 5cl. This saves me heaps of work and the biggest/most often heard comment I got was that the samples were too small. With a good friend of mine I have been sharing bottles for a while now (each gets half a bottle) and this is a very nice way of doing things. A four to seven way split seems nicer than a 1/14th share.
Justed wanted to let you know!
Malt Fascination 
Another interesting idea would be a sort of membership. With 13 guys, pay 100 euro a year, you get a sample each month, the whisky is to be discussed by the group
I have been thinking about that too, and DH17 already does that kind of stuff with quarterly samples. Also, I want to do more tastings with actual people so I might be trying to do something like Whisky Squad (http://www.whiskysquad.com/) in/near Amsterdam next year.
you are doing the work of saints man, your place in heaven is promised (i hear they have amazing selection of single casks there, with emphasis on PE and other demolished distilleries) so…
Hope u will still do one or two interesting ones for the ones far far away 😉 * hint *
Thank you for the update on the sampleshop list. You mentioned one shop I didn’t know befor:-) Here some additions to the list of shops where I have good experience with:
Teun van Wel: http://bruichladdies.nl/index.php/2-uncategorised/5-samples-teun
The Whisky Cask: http://www.thewhiskycask.de/shpSR.php?p1=419
Rarewhiskysite: http://www.rarewhiskysite.com/
Whiskyvanzuylen: http://whiskyvanzuylen.nl/index.php?page=whiskys&verpakking=sample
Pats: http://www.patswine.com/whisky-samples-c-177.html
Uwtopwhisky: http://www.uwtopwhisky.nl/samples.html
Jelle
Some new ones for me. I didn’t know Van Zuylen and Leon sold samples! The other ones I know, but forgot. Thanks!