In a couple of weeks, the brand-new Malt Whisky Yearbook 2015 will be available in most book stores and whisky shops. This yearly overview of the whisky industry is an essential read for dedicated whisky lovers.
Obviously it is still the most accurate list of new releases that appeared over the last year, an overview of distillery profiles and at least 200 pages of data and statistics. I’d say this is the reference part.
Like other years, there’s also a reading part with in-depth articles by renowned writers like Charlie McLean, Gavin D Smith, Ian Buxton, Dom Roskrow and Neil Ridley.
Here are the themes that are discussed this year:
- The microcosmic view on maturation, investigating the physical, biological and chemical laws of ageing whisky, warehouse characteristics, etc.
- Pimp my whisky, an article about serving trends (highballs, specific waters and other things that may be a little shocking to purists)
- Proud to be Irish, a look into the Irish whiskey market and why it is the fastest growing category in the world.
- The last decade in Scotch, an interesting view on a decade of roaring sales, premiumisation, super-distilleries, micro-distilleries, small batches and NAS expressions.
- Whisky’s next decade, the crystal ball… with special attention to the growing wealth and the growing lack of aged whisky.
- The tyranny of twelve, a comparison of views on age statements since the 1930s.
- What’s another year, another article about age statements and NAS.
Malt Whisky Yearbook 2015 – 10th anniversary
This is the tenth release of the Malt Whisky Yearbook, so looking back on the last decade and looking forward to the next is an obvious choice. On top of this, it’s not a big surprise that age statements and the NAS trend are featured in several articles. The book provide a good insight into the problems of today’s whisky industry.
I will keep repeating this: if you’re interested in whisky, whatever your level of knowledge, this should be considered your yearly bible. It’s more up-to-date than any other book and it is fed by articles from the best writers. It’s an interesting era for whisky, and it shows.
The Malt Whisky Yearbook 2015 is sold through whisky shops all over Europe, distillery visitor centres or you can buy it online for £ 14.