Table Of ContentMICHAEL JACKSON’S
MALT WHISKY
Companion
THE WORLD’S BEST-SELLING
BOOK ON MALT WHISKY
UPDATED BY DOMINIC ROSKROW
AND GAVIN D. SMITH
Y RE
L V
L I
7
LT • BLENDED MALT • SINGLE CASK U t h S E• SINGLE BARREL • CASK STRENGTH
BARRELS • FINISHED IN SHERRY BUTTS • DOUBLE WOOD • THREE WOODS
F D
TTISH OAK • JAPANESE OAK • LOWLAND MALT • ISLAND MALT • HIGHLAND MALT
LIGHTLY PEATED • HEAVILY PEATED • • DOUBLE DISTILLED • TRIPLE DIST
•
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DIT I
MICHAEL JACKSON’S
M W
ALT HISKY
C
OMPANION
MICHAEL JACKSON’S
M W
ALT HISKY
C
OMPANION
UPDATED BY DOMINIC ROSKROW
AND GAVIN D. SMITH
DK INDIA
Senior Editor Dorothy Kikon
Senior Art Editor Balwant Singh
Deputy Managing Editor Bushra Ahmed
Managing Editor Alicia Ingty
Managing Art Editor Navidita Thapa
Senior DTP Designer Neeraj Bhatia
DTP Designer Manish Chandra Upreti
Pre-production Manager Sunil Sharma
DK UK
Managing Editor Dawn Henderson
Managing Art Editor Christine Keilty
Senior Jacket Creative Nicola Powling
Producer, Pre-production Rebecca Fallowfield
First published in Great Britain in 1989 by Dorling Kindersley
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
A Penguin Random House Company
This revised edition published in Great Britain in 2015 by
Dorling Kindersley Limited
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
001-193006-September/2015
Copyright © 1989, 1991, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2010, 2015
Dorling Kindersley Limited
Text copyright © 1989, 1991, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2010, 2015
Michael Jackson, 2015 The Estate of Michael Jackson
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permissions of the copyright owners
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library
ISBN 978-1-4093-4860-3
Printed and bound in China
A WORLD OF IDEAS:
SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW
www.dk.com
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: MICHAEL JACKSON’S LEGACY 6
WHY MALTS?: AN INSTANT GUIDE
TO THE PLEASURES OF THE PURSUIT 12
THE ORIGINS OF MALT WHISKY 16
THE LANGUAGE OF THE LABEL 22
FLAVOURS: THE INFLUENCE OF THE LANDSCAPE 28
REGIONAL VARIATIONS SCOTLAND 46
EVOLUTION OF WORLD WHISKIES 56
AGED TO PERFECTION 60
THE PERFECT WOOD 64
A–Z
OF SINGLE MALTS 70–351
UNSPECIFIED MALTS 352
BLENDED MALTS 355
CLOSED DISTILLERIES 366
NEW WORLD WHISKY 392
FURTHER READING & RESOURCES 442
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 443
INDEX 444
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
MICHAEL JACKSON’S
LEGACY
THE SEVENTH EDITION of this Companion, first published more
than a quarter of a century ago, coincides with what is arguably
the most dynamic, diverse, and purely exciting time in the history of
whisky. The Scotch whisky industry is booming, with many existing
distilleries being expanded, and a plethora of fledgling and start-up
distilling ventures being developed, in a wide variety of locations.
The youthful ‘‘make’’ of some of these distilleries will no doubt make
its way into the eighth edition.
There have, however, been boom times for Scotch whisky in the
past, just as there has for Irish, bourbon, and rye. What makes the
present situation so different is the increasing number of countries
6
MICHAEL JACKSON’S LEGACY
around the world that have little or no tradition of whisky-making,
but which are now developing whisky industries of their own on
varying scales. In the past, consumers in these countries might have
drunk whisky, but now they are making their own. And when it
comes to single malts, this edition embraces the best and most
interesting, just as it does with Scotch malts.
The aim throughout is not to be inclusive, as there are now simply
too many expressions of malt whisky available, but to be selective
and representative, and feature whiskies that readers should be able
to locate and sample for themselves. Due attention has been paid to
malt whiskies exclusive to the burgeoning travel retail sector.
Were Michael Jackson with us today, it seems certain that he
would have embraced the ‘‘world of whisky’’ with his customary
thirst for knowledge and new experiences, boarding planes for
Tasmania or Taiwan, just as he once did for Aberdeen and the
distilling delights of nearby Speyside or Louisville, and the whiskey
jewels of Kentucky.
THE MAN HIMSELF
Nothing remains the same for very long, and as time passes a new
generation is discovering Michael’s work for the first time. So it
seems appropriate to offer for their benefit, some brief biographical
information on the man whose name graces this book. As cold,
hard facts rarely do anyone full justice, we have also invited a
number of people professionally associated with whisky and
whisky-making, who knew Michael well, to offer some personal
reminiscences about him.
To begin with the cold, hard facts, Michael was born in Leeds,
Yorkshire, on 27 March 1942, and brought up in nearby Wetherby.
His father was a Lithuanian Jew who had changed his name from
Jakowitz after the family migrated to Yorkshire following the Second
World War. Michael began his career in journalism on the
Huddersfield Examiner, and as the beer writer Roger Protz noted in
his Guardian obituary of Michael in September 2007, “Jackson’s
writing style was deeply influenced by his early journalism – short
sentences shorn of adornment.”
Moving to London, Michael wrote his first book, The English Pub,
published in 1976, followed a year later by The World Guide to Beer,
which set a benchmark for the subject and became a much reprinted
classic. Turning to whisky, the first edition of this best-selling
Companion was published in 1989, and since then, various other
titles followed.
7
INTRODUCTION
The whisky legend
THE WHISKY INDUSTRY is full of wonderful characters whose talents are matched only
by their modesty. Michael, as unpretentious and unassuming as the characters he met
and interviewed, was the perfect person to bring their talents to a wider audience. He
built bridges within the industry, linking whisky makers and whisky devotees around the
world. He gave us access to the world's great distilleries, and the people who create
great whisky within them.
AT HEART, MICHAEL was a traditionalist. His values harked back to a time when the pace
of life was slower and more considered. He fought with quiet determination to preserve
the things he loved, and saw as under threat. He wrote for Slowfood magazine,
eschewed marketing terms such as “brand” and “product”, and had little time for the
insincerity and disposability of modern consumerism.
On the subjects of both beer and whisky, Michael was one of the
first commentators to really address issues of flavour and diversity,
and paved the way for so much that has subsequently been written
about drink. He was responsible for developing and refining
regional classifications for malt whiskies, and wrote extensively and
perceptively for the first time about the distilleries within those
classifications. His reputation and influence were truly global. He
died of a heart attack on 30 August 2007, having suffered from
Parkinson’s disease for the previous 10 years.
THIS EDITION
As in the sixth edition, we have attempted to remain faithful to
Michael’s traditional values, modesty, and positivity. He was
respectful and careful about what he said and how he said it. He
held the view that there were very few bad malt whiskies, and
sought to find something positive about all of them, or to say
nothing at all. He set about his tasting notes with almost scientific
precision, describing the flavours he encountered while avoiding
subjective indulgences.
We have also tried to be as true to Michael’s precise and frugal
writing style as possible, and to score whiskies in the same way as
he did. This hasn’t been easy because scoring is highly subjective,
and each of us found malts in the old editions that we would
have scored differently to Michael. When scoring other malts from
the same distillery, were we to give them the score we felt they
justified, or align them with Michael’s other scores? We went with
the latter approach.
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