Book Review : Malt Whisky Yearbook 2012

Before I start reviewing this excellent book,Let’s set one thing clear. It’s true that Whisky Israel is featured this year’s edition as part of the “New Blogs to watch” (p.103), but this is clearly not the reason i am posting this review. I am

mentioning this just for the sake of transparency,to be 100% true to you readers.

Oh gosh, i’ve been meaning to post about this one for so long, and somehow it got forgotten in the midst of 100’s of samples, bottles and tasting notes which get posted here on a weekly and sometimes daily basis.

The current edition (2012) was released some months ago (November 2011) and keeps up with the excellent level of whisky writing we’re been used to from the MWYB. Last year’s edition was very good, and this year i think it’s even a notch up.If you are not familiar with the Malt Whisky Yearbook, or if you are new to the whisky world , in short this is THE resource when it comes to whisky. Forget about tasting notes and scores (this is not the whisky bible), this book deals with actual whisky, and information about distilleries, how whisky is made, and of course wonderfully written articles by top notch whisky writers, the best you can find.really.

Again, for the newcomers and those who want to learn more about whisky, there is an entire section named “ Barley to bottle” which illustrates in detail each and every step in whisky making from barley, to malting mashing, fermentation, wash still, distillation and aging.  The second part of the book, is a reference of ALL operating and non operating scotch whisky distilleries, each distillery with its history, production capacity, and then a brief history and land marks in the history of that distillery , followed by OB expressions and a few tasting notes of the core range. very helpful, and an excellent resource if you are digging information about a distillery, or just sheer fun for reading and expanding your knowledge.

In addition, between those are some interviews with many whisky industry people such as distillery managers, and production managers of quite a few distilleries,very interesting stuff.

If you are looking for information about world whisky distilleries (outside Scotland / Ireland), you will find those in the last part of the book, with short passages about each and every distillery out there, be it in the USA,India,Germany and many more countries.

The first part of the book is the most exciting in my opinion, and is essentially a series of well written articles by leading whisky writers : Charles Maclean writes about the ‘dry years’ as we call them, the prohibition in the USA in the 1920’s an exciting period which shaped the whisky industry as we know it, for good and for bad. Gavin Smith Discusses the “future of blended malts’, while Ian Buxton writes about “world whisky conference”. We continue also with Dominique Roskrow writing about the new wave of blenders,  Chris Bunting about Single malts from japan , and there are a few others. All written professionally, and frankly are enlightening. Shear pleasure reading those essays from all those well known writers.

You can also find recommended whisky blog and sites broken into “new” and “old” as well as a reference to whisky shops. A true wealth of information, worth every penny if you ask me. I really enjoy reading the book, and do find myself looking up information about distilleries or whisky figures from time to time. If you do buy one whisky book this year, frankly, this is the one you should opt for.

Great job by Ingvar Ronder the editor, as always.

Gal.