Single Malt

Was given as a gift, but looks well put together and of good quality.

Fabulous

Informative easy to use and good reference pictures

I learned to drink scotch back in college, and had my first single malt in the mid-80s when a friend was given a bottle of Glen Grant by his uncle who worked for Seagrams (Glen Grant’s owner at the time). That first taste has led to a lifetime of enjoyment and a small 50+ bottle collection.Going from Chivas and Dewar’s to single malts is like going from learning to drive a car to driving a manual transmission. You simply have a greater feel and control of the entire experience. While you would certainly never try to learn to drive with just a user’s manual, a guide can be very helpful place to start.Over the years I have acquired many whisky guides, several from Michael Jackson and every one of the annual Malt Whisky Yearbooks. This guide however stands out. Risen’s writing is not only informative, but highly entertaining. His descriptions of the various expressions make reading each one a pleasure, “This whisky is richer, and more balanced - like the difference between a high school junior and a college freshman” (please note, this was under general comments, and not his description of Nose or Palate). His distillery descriptions are concise and often include references to the famous blends to which the single malts contribute - a nice map to use when moving from blends to singles.As he states at the beginning of the guide, there is an attempt to provide tasting notes on malts typically available in the American market. This is highly appreciated as the reader can actually find many of these to try and compare tasting notes. Of course Risen resides in New York so his availability to these various expressions is much greater than I have in NC, where I am limited to the meager offerings of the local ABC store (a bit of jealousy).I would highly recommend this book to any whisky lover, both as an informative guide and an all around fun read.

I really like this book. My only issue with it is that it is recent but somehow, it feels dated. Despite the book only being about two years old, I find myself missing whiskies that are regular releases from major distilleries. Also, I feel like there is missing information. For example, I would like to have more insight about why the scores are what they are. I get it that this is kind of a "small" guide and so not everything should be included. But, I often find myself puzzled about why a whisky was rated as, say, a 1-star whisky when the descriptors note nothing negative about the whisky. I can infer (e.g. lack of complexity or length or something like that) but I just wish there was more clarity transparency about the ratings system in this book. Overall though, I am simply being nit-picky about an already great reference book.