Yesterday I changed my ‘currently reading’ thingy to this book, and today I post a review. I knew I had started reading this some months ago, but I didn’t remember almost finishing it, but I did.

The Malt Whisky Yearbook is an annual release of interesting facts and figures on all malt whisky distilleries in Scotland and the rest of the world. The book always starts with a few articles on the current affairs in the whisky world followed by a rather complete description of how whisky distillation is done.

The good
The book is a must have if you want to keep up to date with current affairs. All distilleries, new, planned and some closed one of which whisky is still available are in there. The articles are in depth and writting by some of the world’s leading experts on the subjects. The information on the distilleries itself is interesting to prepare for a whisky tasting or so, and the interviews with distillery managers are very interesting.

The bad
While the articles have loads of information, they are not always an accomodating read. Some of the articles are quite lengthy and at a few moments I thought they were a little repetitive. Also, the interviews with the people in the industry are a little monotonous. They use the same questionnaire time and again, with many answers being the same every time (people injured or killed in accidents is the worst fear of almost all distillery managers).

Conclusion
This is a book for the whisky enthousiasts. I think most people that are not really into it are scared off by the statistics and figures. For a fun read I’d recommend a different book, but if you’re up to it, GET THIS BOOK! Loads of information nicely bundled into a complete read. If I want to know something about a distillery, this is the book I pick up. Every time.

The book is available at most whisky specialist retailers and online book sellers for about €15.