Need help with connecting WP site to external database

I’m in the process of migrating my existing website to WordPress, but have not been able to find a resource that will help me solve a major problem with my existing site. I want to take the 700+ tasting notes for various whiskies that exist on the current site in straight HTML and make my users happy by creating a searchable database. I also have them in a .csv file that can be used as the basis for this database…however, I haven’t been able to figure out what is needed to create search options within a WordPress page. Is there a plug-in that would allow me to connect the page to an external database (in Filemaker, MySQL, etc.), or can I create the notes as a separate category and create a search function to parse just that category?

Thanks in advance!

Mark
https://www.whiskycast.com