Friends,

We’re going to make this short and sweet. We get it that there are people who get paid for reviews or might let brands have an outsized influence on what they write. That isn’t for us. We want to make sure anything we do is fully above board with you, our readers, and so we are very proud to present this ethics statement – our promise to you.

From time to time, you will see a review in which we state that the sample came from the producer or distributor free of charge. In cases like these, Malt Runners and its staff receive NO compensation from the producer/distributor outside of the sample itself.

In addition, there are no expectations tied to said sample. We are free to review at our pace and score however we want to score. We aim to give our honest opinions no matter where the bottle or sample comes from. As such, producers/distributors will not be given editorial approval or early previews of our reviews, though they may provide us with additional information about a bottle beyond what is already publicly available.

The vast majority of spirits we review were paid for by the writers of Malt Runners and we fully intend that self-sourced reviews will far outnumber those of samples we receive from industry sources. We are publishing this statement, however, to make our position very clear to you, our readers.

If you have any questions or concerns about content we create or would simply like to reach out to us, please feel free to drop us an email and we will be more than happy to address it.