January 2013 update – I’ve taken into account the newer bottlings that have been released since 2007, both officials and independents and updated the list accordingly. The influence of 'the great old bottlings' (from Ardbeg, Macallan and such) became much lower. Some distilleries went up, some other went down, but remember all that remains purely related to my own tastes! It seems that globally, we have less and less 'tird rate' whiskies. Oh, and I've added my favourite Japanese.

Significant ups: Clynelish because the standards remained very high in the 1990s after the great early 1970s and 1980s. My style! Karuizawa goes straight into the grand cru category, with many fabulous new bottlings in 2012. Amongst the Premiers Crus, Balvenie is a newcomer mainly because of the stunning ‘Tun 1401s’. No mean feat without any significant independent bottlings. Bowmore’s up as well, as the strange  1980s are becoming rarer. Glendronach did a great job as well with both their new affordable bottlings (15yo, CS) and their stunning old casks. Glenfarclas and Highland Park now belong to the same category, more because of their admirable consistency. Longrow and Springbank rather moved up because of their wonderful recent distillates and because of less unlikely wine finishings than before :-). Other notable ups: Benriach since the distillery was taken over, Caol Ila, Caperdonich (but that may not last), or former ‘shakier names’ Glenfiddich, Glenglassaugh or Jura, great work all.
Significant downs: former glory Ardbeg because the stunning old casks are now all gone (funny stories are maybe not enough), Laphroaig because I believe it’s lost a little subtlety, maybe because of too much active wood/wine, as well as hyper-marketed names such as Dalmore and Macallan that seem to only think 'Asia', 'branding' and 'ueber-premiumisation', without the whiskies to prove they deserve that, in my humble opinion. Now, only balance sheets and sales figures are right...