Whisky Classified: Choosing Single Malts by Flavour

by David Wishart

This book on single malt whisky makes an excellent guide for all whisky drinkers, from the novice to the connoisseur. Single malt whisky is the fastest expanding sector of the booming whisky market. Over half of Scotland’s whisky distilleries are open to visitors and visitor numbers reached record numbers of over 1.7 million in 2016. Whisky Classified has revolutionized our appreciation of single malt whisky. David Wishart cuts through the confusing jargon often used to describe single malts and replaces it with an objective and easily applied guide to taste using his easy to understand system of flavour profiles. He identifies twelve dimensions to the aroma and taste of a single malt body, sweetness, smoky, medicinal, tobacco, honey, spicy, winey, nutty, malty, fruity, floral. In this fully revised and updated edition, David Wishart has included all new UK and Irish producers of single malt whisky. The author has also updated the taste profiles for each selected malt to ensure that this book remains the definitive guide to tasting malt whisky. Each entry includes a short description of the distillery, information for visitors, the author's own tasting notes and his flavour profiles according to this innovative classification. The history of whisky-making and production methods are clearly explained, and the author also explains how to organize a whisky tasting.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Historical crime writer David Wishart was born in Arbroath, Scotland. He studied Classics - Latin and Greek - at Edinburgh University and after graduation taught for four years in a secondary school.

He then retrained as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language and worked abroad for eleven years, in Kuwait, Greece and Saudi Arabia. He returned to Scotland in 1990 and now lives with his family in Carnoustie, mixing writing with teaching EFL and study skills at Dundee University.

Reviews

[Abibliofob · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book ok if you want an alphabetical list of distilleries in Scotland.
I have always liked whisky.

[Jorgen Lundgren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another whisky book you might say. Yes that is right another whisky book. But this one I find very useful since I go back to it again and again.

Why you might ask.

The reason is the different whisky types and their classification into cluster groups. You might disagree with some but also find new ones similar to the wee dram you just enjoyed.

The book start with the classic history of whisky then switch gear to the making of whisky then tasting and different types and cluster groups. A nice touch is the whisky maps of Scotland, UK and Ireland. Marked with or without visitor centres. 125 Scottish distilleries are included and comes next. Whisky classified finishes by naming and introducing the newest distilleries. This book was revised 2018 so the latest distilleries might not be included.

As I said this is a useful book which I will use through out my continuous exploration of aqua vitae. Happy reading and dramming to you all.

Slàinte mhath

[Pankaj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Wishart has done great service by providing a "go-to" reference book that is light on verbiage but packed with useful details on Single Malt whiskeys. It is a vast topic but the author has picked a few key pointers - history and ownership, location, processing highlights, tasting etiquettes, flavours and visitation information etc., which is most useful for newbies or those choosing to revisit their favourite brands.

Good reference material.