Spirits critic, educator and author F. Paul Pacult has released his annual list of the world's top 115 distilled spirits. Topping the list for the ninth consecutive year is Highland Park 18 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky, made in the Orkney Islands off Scotland's north coast. Said Pacult, "I've yet to taste anything to top Highland Park 18, though I keep trying."
Pacult tastes hundreds of spirits each year as editor of the quarterly, advertising-free, subscription-only newsletter that he started in 1991, F. Paul Pacult's Spirit Journal. A yearly subscription costs $55US and can be obtained directly from the SJ web site www.spiritjournal.com.