As an independent whiskey news and information website, The Whiskey Wash strives to adhere to certain editorial guidelines in the face of a spirits industry with the capability of having great influence on what is written on it. We therefore aim to follow the Drink Blog Code as set forth by a pioneering group of drink bloggers back in 2007:

1. Respects other people’s copyright.
2. Strives to offer original content. Content sourced from other people is attributed to those people. The following exceptions are sometimes made: marketing material which is clearly intended for publicity purposes and content which carries a Creative Commons or other license which explicitly permits its use without attribution.
3. Tries to be honest with its readers. We clearly demarcate paid for advertising from normal editorial content.
4. Works to maintain its independence and integrity. We try not to allow advertising revenue or the receipt of samples for review to influence what we write about and how we write about it. For example, if a product for review is sent to us, we may decide to review it but we will not give it undue prominence and will state our honest opinion of the product.
5. Tries to be thorough. We attempt to verify the accuracy of the information we are offering.
6. Strives to be fair. Parties who have been factually misrepresented will be given an opportunity to have the record corrected on the blog. The publication of readers’ comments, however, is at our discretion.

As part of aiming to be as transparent as possible to our readers, we provide below a list of ways in which we could potentially generate revenue to fund operations. Note, however, we do not let this influence editorial decisions:

• Affiliate code links in suggestions on where to go to buy a bottle of something we write about
• Affiliate code links to things we reference in buying guides, including items up on Amazon
• Traditional web advertising via banner ads on the site
• Sponsored content (i.e. advertorials), which will be clearly spelled out as such when posted
• Sponsored portions of the site, such as specific categories, articles or topics

With regards to how we review whiskeys, we both buy bottles for our reviewers and source samples from distilleries and brands. When sourcing occurs we will indicate as such in the review, and it should be noted we will always remain independent editorial control of what is tasted and written.

Review scores are obviously subjective  – we often field comments from folks who disagree with our scores or who find they don’t get the same flavor notes our reviewers did. That makes sense – everybody’s palate is difference. Our mission with reviews is to offer our educated opinion on why we think a given whiskey is good or bad, and let you, the reader, ultimately decide whether or not it is worth spending your dollars on.