The Malt Whisky File: The Essential Guide for the Connoisseur of Malt Whiskies and Their Distilleries

The customer reviews of this book thus far prove one should not believe everything they read. This book is, without question, the best book available on Scotch whisky. The chief reasons for this assessment are: 1. The authors of the Malt Whisky File do not give an overall rating as if each brand of whisky is in competition with all others. The authors do not presume to have a monopoly on taste and do not try to tell the reader what to think. 2. The tasting notes have a number rating for Sweetness, Peatiness and Availability. This is followed by brief but descriptive notes on Colour, Nose, Flavour and Finish. The two whisky tasting groups I have been involved with over the years find the Malt Whisky File notes to be uncanny in their accuracy, down to the minutiae of the heather, spice and wood in the pallet. 3. The Whisky is listed alphabetically, so one does not have to rummage for Islays vs. Highland vs. Campbelltown. The Wallace Milroy book is a keeper and great fun to read. The Michael Jackson book has valuable information. If you are the kind of person who needs an "expert" to think for you and tell you which scotch is better than another, get Jackson's book. But other than cross reference material neither do the job of The Malt Whisky File. Milroy comes up with memorial lines, like comparing Laphroig's taste to "licking castle walls". Jackson includes a vast number of special bottlings and interesting tidbits about the distilleries. However, both Milroy and Jackson are paid consultants who happen to give high ratings to the same brands who employed them. Their sweeping judgments are but two men's opinions and nothing more. Jackson is particularly bad in saying Brand X is superior to Brands Y or Z. He clearly favors tame, Speyside varieties over robust island spirits. For anyone to assume such lofty know-it-all posturing while pronouncing arbitrary and suspiciously bias ratings is absurd. Such people do disservice to many great malts and to their readers. If you only buy one book on Malt Whisky, make it this one.

This is a very informative book, covering both the history and making of Scotch as well as the many brands. Each distillery is given a brief history and overview which helps the reader understand the many brands better. Within the text of each distillery are the many varieties that have been produced over the many years, which ultimately means the Scotch connoisseur will likely never run out of opportunities to sample something new.The rating system for sweetness and peatiness is a bit confusing, especially since the author specifically attempts to stay away from subjective numbers. The availability rating is somewhat less misleading, though the reader must keep in mind this catagory is limited to the United Kingdom. Americans will have an even more difficult time in finding many of these brands. Aside from question on the ratings, there seem to be few brands of Scotch (or Irish) single malts that are not covered. This book is a handy guide any fan of Scotch should want to consider.