It’s that time of year, and it’s time for this year’s MWYB 2013, I reviewed the 2012 edition, and this one walks the well trodden path, but as always, never fails to deliver. A lovely bunch of talented whisky writers at the top of their game, have contributed some great pieces: starting with Gavin Smith illustrating “Secondary Malts taking center stage” about some lesser known and small distilleries which lay obscured and have made great progress in recent years, off to Charles Maclean (after a memorable appearance in Ken Loach’s ‘Angel’s Share’) dealing with “The creation of an industry” with some whisky history. If that was not enough another whisky luminary Ian Buxton (Author of the popular : 101 whiskies to try before you die”) discussing The scientific approach to whisky, then Ian W. discusses new approaches and methods in search of new flavors.If you love world whisky as much as I do, you will be delighted to read Dominic Roskrow’s piece about world whiskies: “A world in motion” with some better and lesser known world distilleries such as Mackmyra, Kavalan, Sulivan’s Cove, Amrut and more… I was also thrilled to read Neil Ridley’s (The better half, or is it the worse half? of the CaskStrength.net blog) piece dealing with Brand Identity, and when you thought you’ve just read all a nice piece about cask regeneration. Whisky Geeks rejoice!
In addition to all those great writers you also get the regular whisky distilleries index, with every single distillery in Scotland and then world wide. a nice addition is page 83 with an introduction to whisky based cocktails. as always, my favorite is page 99 of course with the yearly whisky websites to watch and a nice wee mention of Whisky Israel and your humble servant *Blush*. check it out for great sites you need to read if you are a real whisky lover /geek.
Another lovely addition is “Whisky Tapas” in p.125 detailing some great recommendations for whisky pairing with dishes, according to whisky style given by German cook Chris Pepper from WhiskyKoch. Whisky and food are a match made in heaven, and it’s time it gets the full attention it deserves. A nice mention to fine whisky books is found in page 133 where some great favorites of mine are found : 101 whiskies before you die, Canadian whisky (which I reviewed only last week) and the new Whisky Opus I am about to review shortly, indeed worthy choices, you should get to know if you have not done so yet…
Whisky from Japan which is growing more and more popular gets mentioned too with a nice article about the new Japanese distilleries , followed by whiskies from the world which are also turning to be better and better and fascinate more and more whisky drinkers.
The last bit of the book deals with whisky facts, charts and very interesting figures about the whisky world and scotch world in particular, such as Consumption by region, type, Global exports, 30 leading whiskies worldwide, market share, and distillery capacity By category by owner etc. Lovely stuff for a whisky geek like me, and some very surprising statistics.
Another year, and another issue which continues to be relevant, interesting and great reading material. If you like whisky, this should be on your bedside. no doubt.