About

Hello! Welcome to The Right Spirit, a blog about the water of life.

Having grown up in a small California wine country, north of the more famous Napa Valley, and having then spent a good deal of time living in Germany where beer flows supreme, it was to my great surprise that I eventually became a full-fledged whiskey enthusiast and certified bourbon steward.

I’ve spent most of my life as a freelance theater maker and teacher. When I’m not doing something or another related to that, I can often be found somewhere along my whiskey journey—meeting new people, gaining new perspectives, making new memories, enjoying a ray of sunlight in a glass!

Along the way I’ve noticed a few things theater and whiskey share. They are handmade. They are a craft and an art. They can only be experienced live, in person. They offer something for everyone who wishes to partake in them. Some people find them intimidating, others frivolous. Theater and whiskey aren’t always easy, sometimes even dangerous. But at their best, they encourage a spirit of community, curiosity, and contemplation.

This blog is an evolving map, exploring whiskey as a journey and where whiskey and culture sometimes meet. The notion of leaving politics at the door when it comes to whiskey is not a thing here. Whiskey connects us to place, to history, to who we are and who other people are—all things very worth talking about over a glass of whiskey.

Posts include notes on whiskeys poured at my kitchen’s red table, informational reports, and various points of view. There is also a page for Current Faves if you’re looking for a quick rec, and an eclectic Resources page. You can follow the blog on Instagram, Threads and Bluesky for updates and frequent photo fun.

Last thing. I make no money from this blog. No donations, no Patreon account. It does cost me money—the website itself and the whiskey too of course. But I’m not here for money. I’m here for curiosity. And I hope you will be too.

I hope you enjoy following The Right Spirit.

Mark J

And what is the “right” spirit?

That name, The Right Spirit, courts a judgement between “right” and “wrong.” However, you’ll find here a recurring advocacy against such binaries and the limitations they promote. What the right spirit might be is left up to question. But here are a handful of ideas:

1. The right spirit welcomes everyone who believes in welcoming everyone.

2. The right spirit welcomes people new to whiskey as well as those who have been appreciating it for quite some time now.

3. The right spirit is open, curious, and values a shared love of whiskey over the sorts of things that tend to make social media unpleasant: nasty comments, bickering, crude “humor,” or other lacks of kindness and consideration.

4. Though what exactly is “the right spirit” cannot ultimately be nailed down within strict confines, still one might say it is honest, lives and lets live, enjoys contrasting points of view, and most of all loves to savor a nice glass of sunlight distilled from grain…!