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About Me

When not nosing, tasting, drinking and reading about malt whisky, I own one of Israel's premiere boutique coaching practices, specializing in small businesses and executive teams.
Trained in the law, I was an international law attorney and took part in Israel's peace negotiations with the Palestinians, as well as representing my country at the UN for parts of the negotiations on the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Later I was appointed to the military bench.
My favorite thing, other than whisky, is teaching.
You can contact me through the social media buttons above or by email: michael(at)maltandoak.com, replacing the (at) with an @.

Statement of Integrity and Guidelines

Malt and Oak is an independent whisky blog, offering my own views, opinions and news from the world of malt whisky.
These are my guidelines:

1. All whisky reviews published are of whiskies I have personally tasted and noted. Guest bloggers only write about their own personal tastings.

2. With the exception of official whisky samples, I accept no consideration whatsoever from any distillery, bottler, distributor, drink company or store for my opinions.

3. I maintain strict impartiality and objectivity in tasting all whiskies, not least when tasting official samples. Any review of official whisky samples sent to me will be so noted in the post.

4. I will accept invitations to tastings, events and official visits, and full disclosure will be made on any tasting notes and articles resulting from these events or visits.

5. Any sample received over 30 ml in volume is shared with fellow whisky bloggers. In any event, no sample larger than 100 ml will be accepted.

6. No advertisements promoting specific brands will be accepted.

7. I will answer any inquiry by my readers as quickly and as fully as possible.

8. Should I give a link purchase the reviewed whisky, it will be given free of any commercial interest. The link given will always point to cheapest selling price I found on the web. No commission is paid, nor any other consideration given, for such link.

9. As of July 2017, I serve as Douglas Laing’s Israel brand ambassasdor. As such, I will obviously not be posting reviews of Douglas Laing products.

Kilchoman Cask 217/2013 Calvados Finish for the Omef (55.8%)

By Michael Bendavid | March 14, 2021

Kilchoman Cask 217/2013 Calvados Finish for the Omef (55.8%)

Kilchoman is one of a growing number of distilleries who do not sell casks for independent bottlers, and keep the bottling of all casks within the distillery. Nevertheless, Kilchoman is happy to do private bottlings, so long as they’re bottled by them. For many distilleries, single casks are the way to get the interesting stuff….

Kilchoman, Official Bottling, Scotch Single Malt, Single CaskCalvados , Islay , Kilchoman , Linger , Nose , Palate , Peat , Scotch Whisky , Single Malt , Tasting Note , Tasting Notes , Whiskey , Whisky , Whisky Blog , Whisky Guide , Whisky Tasting Notes

From ‘Project Overlord’ to Compass Box Affinity (46%)

By Michael Bendavid | May 15, 2019

From ‘Project Overlord’ to Compass Box Affinity (46%)

I’ve been waiting for over a year and a half to write this post, although I had no idea back then it would be called Affinity. The beginning of the story is at the 2017 Whisky Show in London, where I took part in a great masterclass led by Becky Peskin bringing whisky makers to…

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