Customer Reviews

Appreciating Whiskey: The Connoisseur's Guide to Nosing, Tasting and Enjoying Scotch

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My only complaint about most scotch whisky books is the boring and often impenetrable discussions on distilling and the chemistry of scotch. Hills makes these subjects not just accessible, but fascinating. Phillip Hills' "Appreciating Whisky" proved not only to be the most informative book on scotch I've read, but also the most fun. I've long distrusted the view that single malts don't alter chemically after exposed to air. In demystifying whisky chemistry Hills confirms that once opened, spirits should be drunk rather than left to languish in the bottle. Bravo Mr. Hills!

Vastly increase your enjoyment of Scotlands' spirits with Pip Hills new book, Appreciating Whisky. The founder of the Single Malt Whisky Society takes the reader's knowledge well beyond the propaganda of marketeers and into the known sciences of Scotch history and production. An educational and amusing read, Mr. Hills inclusions on human taste and the chemistry of flavor take this book to a catagory of it's own--"knowing Scotch". I recommend this book prior to purchase of single malt scotch guides.

"Appreciating Whisky" is an excellent guide to doing just that, written for people who would like to understand how whisky is made, why it tastes as it does, and how to recognize and describe those flavors. Author Phillip Hills was a founding member of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society and writes extensively on Scotch, so the examples and tasting recommendations in this book are for Scotch whisky, although the principles of taste and production apply to all whiskies. "Appreciating Whisky" has two parts: The first 8 chapters provide knowledge necessary to make informed decisions about whiskies, specifically what it tastes like and why. The last 2 chapters explain how to taste whisky and describe some distilleries and their products for your consideration. Phillip Hills' prose is precise and witty throughout.

The book starts out with a lesson in the physiology of taste and goes on to describe the 15 flavors that you should be able to recognize in whisky and where they come from. Then we get a lesson in organic chemistry, as Hills explains the chemistry of whisky production, maturation, and the flavors discussed in the previous chapter. The properties, history, and origins of whisky's five materials -barley, water, yeast, peat, and wood- are described. The details of the five processes involved in whisky production -malting, mashing, brewing, distilling, maturing- are explained. Hills addresses the histories and characteristics of grain and blended whiskies as well as malts. And, finally, he explores how the social context -Scottish culture, corporate culture, and the drinker's culture- has influenced the taste, quality, and our perceptions of Scotch whisky, from its 15th century origins to the present.

Advice relevant to choosing and drinking whiskies is found in those chapters that address the question of why whisky tastes as it does. But the chapter on "Tasting Whisky" is a practical guide to whisky tasting that gets into the nitty gritty of what items you will need and what to do with them. The book's last chapter, "Appreciations", talks about 6 Scotch malt distilleries and their whiskies, as well as a grain whisky distillery, a blender, and some private bottlers. I think anyone who loves whisky but is not an expert on the subject will find "Appreciating Whisky" invaluable.

The book does exactly what it sets out to do - introduce readers to the appreciation of whisky - and provides a real education in the process. The chemistry and whisky production aspects are elucidated in an engaging and clear style, with tidbits that leave the reader with the distinct impression, sometimes made quite explicit by the author, that they are being informed of something ignored by other whisky books and lightly suppressed by the industry. His approach is at times iconoclastic, perhaps even contentious, as when he blithely explains why whiskies are generally at their peak at around 10 to 15 years of age and that people who spend large sums on older whiskies likely don't have any idea what they are talking about. Throughout he is happy to reveal trade "secrets" (many of which were unknown to me, and I have read dozens of mainstream books on this subject over the years) and never flinches from unmasking some bit of mystique or marketing as mere hokum (I learned a thing or two from this material as well). His approach to the flavor profiles of whisky is, like many of the other books out there, a tad complicated on first glance - but hang in there for a couple of pages, because his is actually much clearer and more useful than most. Sadly, this book is currently hard to find at all, much less at a decent price. One to keep an eye out for in used book shops, as it is the best introductory text on whisky to date, with a wonderfully refreshing tell-it-like-it-is approach.