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    The Whisky Tasting Guide: A beginner's guide to the single malts of the UK and Ireland
    The Whisky Tasting Guide: A beginner's guide to the single malts of the UK and Ireland
    The Whisky Tasting Guide: A beginner's guide to the single malts of the UK and Ireland
    Ebook167 pages1 hour

    The Whisky Tasting Guide: A beginner's guide to the single malts of the UK and Ireland

    By Graham Moore

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    About this ebook

    Why should you buy this book? Easy: I’ve written a straightforward and easy-to-follow guide to malt whiskies which will point you straight in the direction of malts which will be to your taste, based on whiskies you’ll probably be familiar with and which are readily available to try out in many pubs. Based on those malts I’ll show you which are similar in character so you’ll know that if you like such and such a whisky then you’ll probably like these also. The tasting notes give an overall guide to each malt, and I’ve concentrated on the distillers’ standard, readily available bottlings, without trying to confuse you with details of other variants. If you find a malt which invites further investigation you’ll probably find a number of bottlings, and knowing it’s to your taste your explorations will be well founded. Many people stick to the same brands, or don’t know what else to look for. There are hundreds of malts out there, all crying out to be tried, and this guide will point you in the direction of malts to try, based on your established tastes. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAUK Authors
    Release dateJun 12, 2014
    ISBN9781849896535
    The Whisky Tasting Guide: A beginner's guide to the single malts of the UK and Ireland
    Author

    Graham Moore

    Graham Moore is a New York Times bestselling novelist and Oscar-winning screenwriter. His screenplay for The Imitation Game won the Oscar in 2015. His first novel, The Sherlockian, was published in 16 countries and translated into 13 languages. Graham was born in Chicago and now lives in Los Angeles.

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      Book preview

      The Whisky Tasting Guide - Graham Moore

      1988.

      Introduction

      Why should you buy this book? Easy: I’ve written a straightforward and easy-to-follow guide to malt whiskies which will point you straight in the direction of malts which will be to your taste, based on whiskies you’ll probably be familiar with and which are readily available to try out in many pubs; and I don’t intend to blind you with excessive detail and irrelevant scores and star ratings before you spend the best part of £30-40 on a bottle.

      Many people stick to the same brands, or don’t know what else to look for, and some distillers are getting fat on the proceeds from people who never try anything different. There are hundreds of malts out there, all crying out to be tried. The vast majority are well worth it; there are very few ‘duffers’. If you’ve tried and liked the odd whisky, be it a blend or a malt, I’ll point you in the direction of malts to try, based on your established tastes. Some malts are rare outside Scotland itself, but if the chance should present itself you’ll find here ones to try of which you may never have heard, and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

      A number of malts are easily found: you can try them in many a pub for a couple of pounds. Based on those malts I’ll show you which are similar in character so you’ll know that if you like such and such a whisky then you’ll probably like these also. The distillery pages give an overall guide to each malt, and I’ve concentrated on the distillers’ standard bottlings, those readily available, without trying to confuse you with details of other variants by the same, or independent, companies. If you find a malt which invites further investigation you’ll probably find a number of bottlings, and knowing it’s to your taste your explorations will be well founded.

      A History Of Distilling

      Distilling is an extremely ancient art which it has been suggested originated in China and made its way through various Middle Eastern and European cultures who used it to make medicines, perfumes and even poisons. In Europe it would have been discovered by Irish missionary monks who would have brought it back to Ireland, and in particular to the court of the clan O’Donnell, a prince of which clan would later become St Columba. Columba’s position made him an important figure in the Celtic church and he established his abbey on Iona in AD563, and so distilling arrived in Scotland.

      Distilling started out in Scotland as a Celtic craft, unknown to other Britons, and was spread through the offices of the church. The first written record of whisky, or aqua vitae (water of life) as it was then known, appeared in the Exchequer Rolls of 1494: ‘eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aqua vitae’. Friar Cor was certainly no novice; eight bolls is over half a ton of malt. Monasteries have always made their own alcoholic beverages but the Scottish climate would have precluded the growing of grapes to make wine, as those in the south would have done. Conditions would have encouraged the growing of barley, the raw fuel of aqua vitae.

      The first Excise tax was imposed on whisky by Charles I in 1644. People were going short of food due to the amount of barley being used for distilling and the government had to pass legislation to redress the balance. After the Act of Union the government introduced the Malt Tax which affected the price of ale as well as whisky. Riots ensued in Glasgow and Edinburgh and one MP had his house burnt down by the protesters! The Lowland distillers began to mix unmalted barley with their malt to offset the tax and their whisky suffered as a result. The Highland distillers could not generally afford to pay for a distilling licence and since they were already working illicitly the new law had little effect on them. Once the government realised this a new Act was passed in an effort to account for the Lowlanders’ economic advantage. The Wash Act set a licence fee based on the still capacity, which in theory favoured the Highlanders and the small stills they tended to use. The Lowlanders reacted by developing special shallow stills which could be worked and recharged very rapidly, and families such as the Haigs and Steins became extremely wealthy and powerful as the industrial revolution took hold.

      The Highlanders’ refusal to submit to the government’s legislation had the Excise ‘watchers’ combing the region in an attempt to confiscate the illicit stills. They were not helped by King George IV’s

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