The Influence of Michael Jackson // The Whiskey Writer of the 1990's

Send a textBefore Michael Jackson (yes, that Michael Jackson—but a different one), whiskey was described with words like smooth, strong, or fine. Then he came along and changed everything. Thanks to him, we now talk about whiskey the way we do wine, using terms like honeyed, leathery, coastal, peaty, and Sherry-rich, and debating whether something leans more Islay than Speyside.This week, Sarah and Kurt dive into how Jackson created the shared vocabulary, tasting structure, and 0–100 rating system that shaped whiskey culture as we know it. They explore how he turned distilleries into characters, helped elevate single malts globally, and even put Japanese whisky on the map long before it became a collector’s craze.Pour a dram and tune in as Sarah and Kurt reveal how one writer’s words rewired the whiskey world.