Ian Buxton (1)

Honestly, I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. I love whiskey. I like lists. What went wrong?

Most of it was misplaced expectations. I thought this would be a book of whiskies you might, with a few exceptions, endeavor to try in your life...sort of like bucket list items. Maybe you'd have to work at it, maybe you'd have to save a lot, but you could get there. Unfortunately, the word "possibly" in the title should be "almost certainly" for most of the contents.

Of the 101 show more whiskies, only 31 are designated Living, which means they are "readily available". I'm a bit skeptical of that designation in some cases since the availability notes might say "rare" which, in my mind, is sort of an antonym for "readily available".

The remaining 70 are unavailable or virtually so unless you have 5-6 figures to spend on a bottle of whiskey plus some exceedingly good contacts to find that bottle.

So, I was disappointed in what I found. I admit that this is as much me as the book.

What you do get is a listing of a bunch of whiskeys Mr. Buxton has heard about, most of which he's never tasted. The definition of "legendary" stretches to "famous" and you find a $23 bottle of Johnnie Walker Black in the same list as a $189,000 bottle of Dalmore. Each entry contains a short anecdote or history, some of which are amusing or interesting, others blandly factual.

I have a minor quibble. There's no index and the table of contents has four entries: Introduction, Acknowledgements, Picture Credits and everything else. An index is easy to create for a book like this and would be useful to find a particular brand without a linear search through the book, or to find all the whiskeys labelled Lost.

It was a Christmas present, so no harm done but I'd be hard pressed to justify spending $20 for something like this unless I had a passion for lists of unobtainable bottles. show less

The opening lines of the introduction say it all:

[This] is not an awards list.

It is not a list of the 101 'best' whiskies in the world.

It is simply, as it says in the title, a guide to 101 whiskies that enthusiasts really should seek out and try—love them or hate them—to complete their whisky education.

The author has selected 101 whiskies from around the world representing a range of tastes and styles. There are single malts and blended whiskies, bourbons and ryes, whiskies from major show more producers (Scotland, Ireland, the US), and from places you wouldn't expect (India, Sweden).

Buxton comes across as straight-foward and honest. He tells you what he likes about the whiskies, and also what he doesn't like. Not all of these drinks are his personal favorites. He also includes a bit of history and local color about many of the items, as well as the to-be-expected descriptions of their taste.

Buxton also wants you to actually have a chance of trying these whiskies, so he avoids limited bottlings and other hard-to-find items. And most of the items are affordable, too (although he does include a small number of whiskies that will set you back $500 - $1000 per bottle---such as a 40 year old Highland Park).

By my count I've had 16 of the whiskies described here. This book has given me a number of ideas for new things to try. Only 85 more to go! show less

In the introduction “101 whiskies to try before you die” the author describes this book as a list with a difference

“It is not an awards list

It is not a list of the 101 “best” whiskies in the world

It is simply,(as it says in the title) a guide to 101 whiskies that an enthusiast should seek out and try- love them or hate them- to complete their whisky education, what’s more it’s practical and realistic.”

But, I think it’s a lot more than this. Forget the enthusiasts, they show more already have an array of books, and a veritable cacophony of experts clamouring for your last shilling. This little book deliberately avoids the obscure malt, deliberately shies away from any pseudo holy grail of the whisky aficionado, and by narrowing its vision to Single Malts, Blends, and Vatted Malts, that, with a little effort it is possible to track down. The author has produced one cracking little book, suited to any one with an interest no matter how slight.

This is a book that cuts through the clutter, decodes the marketing hype and gets straight to the point; whether from India, America, Sweden, Ireland, Japan or the hills, glens and islands of Scotland, here are the 101 whiskies that you really want to taste.

http://parrishlantern.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/ian-buxton.html show less