Book Review: Hauntingly Good Spirits

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ As a horror fan and a whiskey author, I’m slightly disappointed every year when autumn never brings together my two interests, this despite the two being firmly rooted in the season. As it happens, Halloween lands in the middle of the time of year when all the most ardently sought …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B+

As a horror fan and a whiskey author, I’m slightly disappointed every year when autumn never brings together my two interests, this despite the two being firmly rooted in the season. As it happens, Halloween lands in the middle of the time of year when all the most ardently sought annual limited edition whiskeys come out. Disappointed until now.

Mother-daughter team and New Orleans residents Sharon Keating and Christi Keating Sumich have addressed that longing with Hauntingly Good Spirits. A cocktail guide that is rooted in the lore of America’s most macabre city, the cover itself speaks to a book that should be left perched on the front of the bar cart as soon as the Halloween decor goes up. It looks that much as part of the spooky season.

I have only had the book long enough to spin up one whiskey cocktail to accompany my Halloween season (that starts as soon as the haunted houses and forests open at my house, and that was this week) thus far, but I was already pleased: The Spooky Smoked Sazerac. I had all the ingredients on hand, and was especially pleased to use some fresh rosemary cut from my own garden.

Perusing the books contents offers me some gin ideas that I may apply this weekend (it promises to be steamy and calls for something chilled or on the rocks), as well as encourages me to up my absinthe game. The latter has been on my to-do list for some time. But this is a whiskey website, so here are some other ghastly whiskey-based cocktails from the book: the Soggy Grave, the Cemetery Angel, the hybridized City of the Dead (Scotch and Irish in that one!), and the Night Tripper. There are many more. I’m looking forward to trying out some more as my horror movie season marches on, either this year or the next.

The book also makes good reading, delving into a surface-level exploration of New Orleans’ haunted history, as well as offering a primer on the city’s craft spirits. It’s a solid book for anyone who finds October brings them to a moonlit crossroads of loving a good drink while waiting for the devil.

New Uncle Nearest Whiskey Ties To New Nathan Green Book

Uncle Nearest, the whiskey brand named for Jack Daniel mentor and enslaved distillery worker Nathan Green, is set to launch its ‘Lost Chapter’ series. The collection of limited edition whiskeys will give fans access to unreleased chapters of Uncle Nearest Founder and CEO Fawn Weaver’s acclaimed book, Love & Whiskey: The Remarkable True Story of Jack …

Uncle Nearest, the whiskey brand named for Jack Daniel mentor and enslaved distillery worker Nathan Green, is set to launch its ‘Lost Chapter’ series. The collection of limited edition whiskeys will give fans access to unreleased chapters of Uncle Nearest Founder and CEO Fawn Weaver’s acclaimed book, Love & Whiskey: The Remarkable True Story of Jack Daniel, His Master Distiller Nearest Green, and the Improbable Rise of Uncle Nearest. 

The first bottle in the series, ‘Lost Chapter 1 – 777’ (SRP: $139), will be released on Friday, July 19. A 7-year-old barrel strength whiskey between 110-120 proof, the bottle celebrates the seventh anniversary of Uncle Nearest’s launch, with only 7,000 bottles available. Those who purchase ‘Lost Chapter 1 – 777’ – which will be available at Nearest Green Distillery in Shelbyville, TN, in select markets throughout the U.S., and online via Reservebar.com – will have access to a copy of Love & Whiskey and an exclusive link to download the first lost chapter.

“I’ve been absolutely floored by the reception of Love & Whiskey – grateful doesn’t even begin to cover it,” says Fawn Weaver. “We’ve sold out tour stops across the country, and bookstores can’t seem to keep it stocked as the book continues to fly off the shelves. So, I’m thrilled to be sharing another piece of the Uncle Nearest story as we celebrate seven years.”

Book Review: Agatha Whiskey

By Richard Thomas Although I do make cocktails at home, I am not endowed with a well-equipped bar cart of all the odds and ends to truly call one’s self a home mixologist. However, what I am is a fan of the eternal queen of the whodunnit, Agatha Christie. I am such a sucker for …

By Richard Thomas

Although I do make cocktails at home, I am not endowed with a well-equipped bar cart of all the odds and ends to truly call one’s self a home mixologist. However, what I am is a fan of the eternal queen of the whodunnit, Agatha Christie. I am such a sucker for her work that even though I have been disappointed by Kenneth Brannagh’s takes of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, I am very much looking forward to seeing Haunting in Venice after the SAG-AFTRA strike concludes. I used to own the complete set of DVDs for David Suchet’s Poirot, which I lost in my divorce.

So, much like Bar Noir, I find the idea of a cocktail guide paired with an entertainment genre I greatly enjoy something worthwhile. This is even moreso because Christie’s detectives, like Poirot and Marple, were known to have a taste for a well-made cocktail. In fact, it’s a fair description to say alcohol infuses Christie’s work on a level similar to Ian Fleming’s Bond novels.

This is a whiskey website, so I perused the cocktail pairings for the whiskey cocktails and opportunities to use them. The Artist in Residence looks awesome, but I can’t go there for a while because the lady I’d like to share Five Little Pigs is celiac, and the recipe calls for wheat beer.

But Evil Under The Sun is a huge favorite of mine, in both the Suchet and Ustinov versions, so much so that I dream of staying at the Burgh Island Hotel one day. So next time I watch some version of that tale, with whatever company or lack thereof I have, I am absolutely going to make the Arlena’s Revenge, which looks like a very fruity riff on a single malt Manhattan.

Best of all, most recipes have a mocktail version. So, I can even bend this book to movie murder nights with my son.

Agatha Whiskey is a fun theme book for anyone who loves whodunnits and cocktails. I’m going to go thumb it before watching any Agatha Christie going forward. In fact, I wish I had it a few weeks ago, when I was watching the most recent production of And Then There Were None with my aforementioned little boy.

Andrew Braunberg Talks Whiskey (And Books)

By Richard Thomas More than a decade ago, I wondered in print that if Kentucky and Tennessee were America’s first and second whiskey states, who was the craft scene propelling to become number three. It took years for the issue to resolve itself, but by the time the Pandemic was clearing up, it had in …

By Richard Thomas

More than a decade ago, I wondered in print that if Kentucky and Tennessee were America’s first and second whiskey states, who was the craft scene propelling to become number three. It took years for the issue to resolve itself, but by the time the Pandemic was clearing up, it had in a way that would stick: Texas was America’s third whiskey state. One small part of the reason why was Still Austin Whiskey Company, and I’m still disappointed that I wasn’t able to travel to Austin this springtime to check them out.

The timing would have been propitious too, as Still Austin co-founder Andrew Braunberg right around the time his new book was coming out. Fires, Floods, Explosions and Bloodshed: The History of Texas Whiskey serves as the prologue to the Texas whiskeys we know today. That book plus Still Austin gave me two reasons to shoot some questions over to Braunberg, who was obliging.

RT: Your passion for whiskey speaks for itself. You not only helped start a whiskey distillery, but you also researched and wrote a book about a pretty obscure corner of American Whiskey history. So, do tell us about how you got bitten by the whiskey bug.

AB: I was a long-time whiskey consumer before I ever thought about trying my hand at distilling. I worked with some guys who had a very active whiskey club and went deep down the Scotch rabbit hole for about ten years. When I got introduced to the craft distilling movement in the US, I decided I really wanted to be a part of developing regional flavor profiles for American whiskey, like they have in Scotland.

RT: It’s my experience that many people in craft whiskey were white collar professionals, jumping over to start a second or third career. Looking over your LinkedIn, your career arc vis-a-vis the old professional job and a career in whiskey looks similar, but also different. Can you walk us through it?

AB: Yes, I agree with this assessment. I think most craft movements start with early crazy visionaries and attract serious, competent crafts people; next to arrive on the scene are folks looking for something new, and finally those just looking to make a buck, like the current flood of celebrities introducing products.

I consider myself an average smart guy who picks up on things fairy quickly. I have a knack for assimilating and consolidating new information. After high school, I bounced around a bit in construction work and decided I would make a decent engineer, so I got an Engineering Physics, undergrad. Go RPI! But growing up in the DC area, I was a bit of a politics nerd, so I then decided to get my graduate degree in Science, Technology, and Public Policy. I was in science/technology journalism for a while before settling in as an industry analyst covering cybersecurity.

RT: Please, tell me about getting Still Austin off the ground and developing its initial products?

AB: My wife and I co-founded Still Austin Whiskey Co. with two other families. About the only thing all three families ever agreed on was the decision not to source whiskey initially. We wanted to make it from scratch. Now, starting from scratch in Texas is not as hard as it is in other places. We were able to put out an acceptable 1 year old bourbon with help from Nancy Fraley.

Texas is a strong agricultural state, particularly for corn, wheat, and rye. So, it’s pretty natural to want to make bourbon. The co-founders were all fond of wheat, so we started laying down wheated bourbons. Soon, we discovered that they were going to take a while to mature even in the Central Texas climate. So, we started laying down more bourbon with rye as our flavor grain primarily because Nancy convinced us it matures much more quickly – and of course, she was right.

The tasting room was an important part of our early business model, so we needed to have products we could sell while waiting for aged whiskey and bourbon. I ran production at the distillery initially and decided to focus on Gin as our early clear spirit. I set up an R&D team that spent a good six months soley focused on product development. We didn’t want to source GNS, so my wife Lisa suggested we make a light rye whiskey base for the gin, and I think that is one of the reasons it turned out to be unique and successful.

We also decided to produce naturally flavored New Makes (e.g., white whiskeys) that we could use in cocktails to serve in the tasting room. No one ever expected these to be long term products for us but they made decent cocktails and allowed for additional revenue to come into the tasting room during those early years. Starting a distillery, particularly a whiskey distillery, is a huge money sink. You have to be prepared make some tough choices and compromises.

RT: Although it doesn’t surprise me to learn people had stills and were making spirits in Texas, pre-Prohibition Texas whiskey-making isn’t something one hears very much about. It hasn’t even come up in conversations with people making whiskey in Texas today. Without giving too much of your book away, what was the picture like for whiskey-making in World War One era Texas? What were they making and how big of a deal was it, compared to what was going on Back East?

AB: Many states had thriving distilling histories right up until national Prohibition. While a couple states industrialized their distilleries, particularly Ohio and Illinois, most states remained active but at craft scale. I suspect pre-Prohibition Texas distillers made corn whiskey and wheat-bourbons. New oak barrels were probably very difficult to come by and so used cooperage was likely the norm. There were Texas distilleries that operated for 40 or more years, and so I have every reason to believe they made pretty good booze.

What’s interesting in Texas is that the people that did most of the distilling were primarily Southern evangelicals that migrated from Southern and Appalachian states into north-eastern Texas. These were also the first groups in Texas to take up Prohibition and therefore distillery-rich counties started drying out as early as the 1890s. By the time national Prohibition became law most Texas counties had been dry for years.

RT: During Prohibition, a great many folks in the distilling industry took their skills underground and into varying degrees of criminal enterprise. How much of that went on in the Lone Star State?

AB: Texas famously has a frontier ethos and so it is no surprise that there was a good deal of bootlegging going on in Texas. Of course, moonshiners were a problem in the South long before national Prohibition arrived, particularly in the 1870s and 1890s. Texas was called out by the IRS as a state with an active moonshining problem, but it was never a state that saw the violence against revenuers as was the case in much of the mountain South during those decades. And with respect to whiskey, most Texans drank more like westerners than southerners in the sense that aged whiskey was much preferred over moonshine.

There is one funny Texas prohibition story, however, the man considered by many to be the father of US Prohibition, Texas Senator Morris Sheppard. He had a ranch in Texas and during the height of Prohibition, a moonshining operation was discovered on his property. It’s unlikely he knew about it, but probably not a good look for Senator Sheppard.

RT: I imagine you had to do a lot of spade work to pull this book together. What were your most valuable resources?

AB: A great thing about Texas is how very seriously Texans take their history. The State Archives are an amazing and valuable resource and every county in Texas has its own historical societies, many of which are quite active. There is also a national archive facility in Fort Worth where I had good luck.

Natalie Bovis Talks Whiskey (And Dogs!)

By Richard Thomas That I’m a devoted dog lover will probably come as a surprise to you, despite that devotion rising to such a level that I jokingly affirm my “dog nut” status is a minor mental illness. The only time whiskey and dogs have ever crossed paths in such a way as I could …

By Richard Thomas

Author and consultant Natalie Bovis
(Credit: Natalie Bovis)

That I’m a devoted dog lover will probably come as a surprise to you, despite that devotion rising to such a level that I jokingly affirm my “dog nut” status is a minor mental illness. The only time whiskey and dogs have ever crossed paths in such a way as I could write about it was the publication of Bourbon Tails a few years ago, that being a coffee table photography book dedicated to the pets of folks in the bourbon industry.

But here we are again, with a new book bringing together man’s best friend and drink: Drinking With My Dog, by Natalie Bovis. Better still in terms of talking whiskey, Bovis is a drinks consultant and educator with her own liqueur brand.

RT: Let’s start with why we’re here, because while you are a fixture in the drinks and hospitality circuit, you have a new book out that brings two subjects that are near and dear to my heart together: dogs and booze. Not only that, I’ve seen you have a similar book about cats and booze slated for 2024.

What specifically inspired you to pull these threads together, and how does one practically go about making a work about cocktail ideas paired with pets?

NB: I’m so glad you asked this question because it is my whole “why” in writing this book!

I have three previous cocktail / mocktail books, and my niche is upbeat gifty books with cocktail recipes related to a particular topic. In my own personal life, I am a devoted animal advocate. I foster, volunteer, and fundraise for animal groups including my local animal shelters. I have managed to acquire 7 rescue pets – two dogs and five cats – as well as 13 goldfish which came with my house in the backyard pond. One of those is a goldfish I rescued from someone who posted on Facebook about finding him abandoned – no food and filthy water – in a classroom during summer break. That little guy now lives a great life!

Writing Drinking With My Dog (and Cocktails With My Cat) gave me a chance to further research the companion animals we so adore, and throughout the book you’ll have no doubt that I am cheerleading for animal rescue and wild habitat protection. I’ve been writing about cocktails since I founded The Liquid Muse as a mixology blog back in 2006. So, I thought that a cocktail book geared toward toasting our furry friends would be a fun way to encourage people to think about the other species with whom we share this magical planet, and raise a glass to helping them out. I have book signings coming up in various cities and will donate a portion of the book sales from those specific events to a local rescue in each place. I’m really excited about that. In a nutshell, these books give more meaning to my booze writing career.

 

RT: We’re an all-things whiskey website, and so for us the natural question is pairing whiskey with pets. Your book is full of cocktail ideas for particular circumstances, but in a more general and neat drinking sense… is a dog person likely to be a bourbon person? Or a Weimeraner lover going to get really into Japanese Whisky?

NB: Well, I certainly hope that dogs will draw folks in, and the recipes will raise the bar in their own home bartending! The section on how to create a signature cocktail in honor of one’s own dog encourages people to start with a spirit they love. So, whether that is bourbon, rye, Scotch, Japanese, Irish, Canadian whiskies, or any other spirit, the idea is to create their own concoction based on love – love of spirits and love of dogs!

To answer your question more directly, I tend to think of “dog people” as outdoorsy, active, and adventurous, so I think that whiskey is a wonderful spirit for someone with those qualities because if whiskey were a person, that’s how I’d picture their personality!

 

Natalie and the subject canine
(Credit: Natalie Bovis)

RT: Of all the cocktail recipes in your book, which one is actually the staple of your spend the evening on the couch with your pets time?

NB: My favorite drink is a Manhattan. Usually with rye but sometimes with bourbon. It just depends on my mood. And, I co-founded OM Chocolate Liqueur. So, naturally, I created a chocolate Manhattan called “Brown Eyed Girl” in honor of my own dog, Lula who is also the cover girl for my book.

At home, I make several variations of this drink – sometimes I add some spicy bitters, sometimes I add a little cream which pulls it away from a classic Manhattan, of course. But, the thing I teach in all my cocktail classes is that mixology is FUN so as long as the drink is balanced and tastes great to you, it’s a winner. I also love chocolate covered cherries as a garnish!

 

RT: You also penned a book called Garden to Glass, which was about taking things you can grow in your garden and freshening up your cocktails. Any recommendations on herbs I can put in my garden that are ideal for riffs on classic whiskey cocktails?

NB: Yes, Edible Cocktails: Garden to Glass is very much a home-cook’s guide to bartending. Obviously, mint and bourbon are a match made in heaven as we know from those lovely little Juleps. However, I’m also a fan of sage with rye whiskey. The sage has an earthiness that plays really nicely with the spicy notes of rye whiskey. A little homemade sage syrup in an Old Fashioned is pretty darn interesting!

 

RT: New Mexico is your stomping ground, and the signatures of whiskey-making in the Southwest have become: whiskeys utilizing blue corn; and mesquite-smoking. What are your thoughts on these two trends?

NB: I’m all for experimentation as long as the end result is a quality, well-made spirit. I love smoky flavors – I adore smokey and rubber-tire smelling Scotches, for example. If it smells like a camp-fire, I will love it! And, I think it’s cool to use blue corn as a base for local spirits in New Mexico. It’s a kind of homage to the people who lived here before the European settlers arrived. And, both food and drink is best when it reflects where it comes from, in my opinion. That’s what makes it unique.

 

RT: Speaking of your stomping ground, what bars can you recommend in your New Mexico scene for whiskey fans looking for a noteworthy pour and/or a good whiskey cocktail? With or without dogs.

NB: Rather than singling out any one particular bar, I would just give a general note that this is whiskey country. This is also tequila country. Those two spirits outsell all the others combined. (Vodka aside, of course.) This is the landscape of cowboys, and women who historically have lived every bit as boldly as the men. Whiskey is the drink of dream chasers who aren’t afraid to get up and at ‘em. And, I think that vibe, along with plenty of the brown stuff, is found at pretty much any bar worth its salt here in New Mexico.

Amanda Schuster Talks “Drink Like A Local”

By Kurt Maitland Today, we talk to friend and fellow author, Amanda Schuster about her latest book–Drink Like a Local: New York. As cities have opened up and we continue to venture out, we are finding that the drinking landscape has changed. Some old favorites are now gone, and new places have sprouted up. Here …

By Kurt Maitland

(Credit: Amanda Schuster)

Today, we talk to friend and fellow author, Amanda Schuster about her latest book–Drink Like a Local: New York. As cities have opened up and we continue to venture out, we are finding that the drinking landscape has changed. Some old favorites are now gone, and new places have sprouted up. Here in NYC, there couldn’t be a better time for this book and conversation than now.

KM: So how was it different working on this book versus your first book, New York City Cocktails?

AS: I had only 6 weeks to write New York Cocktails. Drink Like a Local was commissioned in late 2019, with a deadline in early spring of 2020. With only a few weeks to go, I begged Cider Mill Press to put a pause on the project until we could assess what would happen to the NYC bar scene. As I say in my introduction, the book is supposed to be about where New Yorkers GO, not where they went. Luckily science prevailed and we can drink at bars again. The project was picked up in late 2021. I had the unique opportunity to appreciate the scope of it even more, and truly understand what it means to have a local in the Big Apple. I didn’t have to rush. I could really think it through.

KM: As a writer who had to write a book during Covid, what was the hardest part of that period for you?

AS: The hardest part was watching my friends in hospitality suffer and feeling powerless to help them. There were moments I really thought we were never going to be able to socialize again. Ever. And that meant never going to bars the way they are meant to be enjoyed again ever. There were moments I truly felt the world had ended. All the sirens didn’t help enliven the mood.

KM: How much did you need to rework your book as Covid ravaged the NYC bar world?

AS: I’m honestly shocked, amazed, and thrilled that a good 2/3 of the bars I had originally chosen to profile survived. New Yorkers are a resilient bunch! Fuhgeddaboudit! I had waited to write the intro until the end anyway (never begin writing a book with the introduction), so I took particular care to detail what the bar industry had to endure, and why it needs to be appreciated even more. Obviously I had to change a few things about bars I had already written about, like Amor y Amargo, which went through some of the most intense “pivots” to re-open. And, sadly, because this is not a history book, some of the writings about bars that later closed had to be scrapped. That’s why it was important for me to have the In Memoriam section.

(Credit: Gabi Porter)

KM: What places/areas did you find that ended up being a surprise to even you, a long-time NYC resident?

AS: Darlin’, NOTHING surprises me about NYC bars!

KM: I’m sure you had a favorite borough to drink in before you started the book but did any other borough get close to challenging that favorite?

AS: I still prefer drinking in my Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill neighborhood more than any other. However, I really wish I could spend more time in Astoria, especially at Diamond Dogs and Kelly’s, which I never get to visit enough.

KM: What bars that we lost do you think you will miss the most?

AS: As I write about in the intro, and no spoilers here, there was a particularly charismatic bar wayyy deep in the Bronx, a place you couldn’t even get to directly on the subway. Even farther away from any train line than Red Hook. It was beyond worth the schlep. It was special. And it’s history. I’m truly devastated. Not only is the bar gone, but there’s a whole community of people who relied on it and now have nowhere to go. It was the purest essence of a local.

KM: Looking to the future, are there any new bars that have caught your eye or have become a favorite?

AS: Oh so many! I can’t even begin to list them right now. Basically, if anything opened in the past 6 months I probably haven’t been there yet. That has to change. I will say I loved finally visiting Sunken Harbor earlier this year and can’t wait to go back. I am looking forward to the reboot of Milady’s from the Clover Club team. I’m so thrilled one of my old, beloved locals from the way back is re-opening in good hands!

KM: Finally, do you have any feeling/thoughts on how the NYC bar scene is recovering/moving on to its next phase?

AS: I am in awe of what the NYC bar scene has had to endure. New bars have a unique template to work from now, precedents in all aspects of hospitality and public health that were set by the bars who survived. This does not mean the new ones have it easy. I honestly don’t know how anyone can own a bar in the city and stay sane. I am especially gobsmacked by rude customers in this phase of our lives now. I think everyone should spend a few days, weeks even, working in the service industry to truly appreciate what people go through for them just to place a glass or a plate in front of them.

 

How to Taste Bookish Notes in Whisky

From leather bound tomes to antique pages, learn how to pick up on notes otherwise found in your local library or book store.

The post How to Taste Bookish Notes in Whisky appeared first on Whisky Advocate.

Many whisky lovers enjoy having their nose in a good book almost as much as a glass of whisky, and there are deeply evocative aromas common to both pleasures. The bouquet of some whiskies call to mind the antique scent of rows of books inside a library, in the cabinets of antiquarian book dealers, or along the miles of shelving stretching around enormous bookstores from Powell’s in Portland to the Strand in New York. Sales of print books rose during the pandemic as more people picked up a good read. (According to publishing industry tracker NPD Group, U.S. print book sales were up 8.2% in 2020 to 750 million books, while more than 200 million print books were sold in the UK last year—passing that mark for the first time since 2012, according to Nielsen BookScan.)

From a whisky nosing perspective, bookish aromas typically conjure up images of a gilt-edged tome bound in calfskin leather, perhaps with raised bands on the spine and archaic gold lettering, or a cloth-bound volume inside a slightly chipped dust jacket, its pages falling open to reveal gorgeous marbled endpapers, releasing the scents locked between the slightly tanned pages. Then again, other people like nothing better than cracking the spine on a freshly printed book or magazine and sniffing the modern chemicals in the paper, inks, and binding adhesives. So how can a whisky remind us of the smell of a good book?

The answer is right before you: paper in old books is made from wood pulp, which gradually decays over decades, releasing many of the same aromatic compounds found in oak casks. Scientists have even developed an odor wheel for describing and categorizing these old book smells, similar to whisky flavor wheels, deducing that the more prominent chemicals, such as vanillin, benzaldehyde, ethyl benzene, and the biscuit-like aroma of furfural come from the degradation of the wood compounds in the paper. Combined with the bindings and covering materials, they produce that curiously sweet mixture of vanilla, almond, dry leaves, and grassy notes, along with reassuring scents of polished antique bookcases, mustiness, and worn leather. To many, this attractive constellation is a signifier of a well-matured whisky.

Start your hunt with some of the less rambunctious single malt scotches and grain whiskies matured in second and third-fill bourbon barrels, move on to older single malt whiskies that rely on a contribution of refill sherry casks, and nose some bourbons and ryes to find those more mature leather, nut, and woody characteristics.

Whether your bookshelves are full of precious whiskies or pristine first editions, both have the power to transport you to other worlds.

Shelf Aware: These whiskies want to get into your good books

New Riff Backsetter Peated Backset Bottled in Bond Rye
Antiquarian Book: Old books, polished oak, sweet nuttiness

Kanosuke New Born
New Book: Peapod, bookbinding glue, Belgian chocolate

Deanston 12 year old
Leather Bound: Figs, polished calfskin covers, tobacco

The post How to Taste Bookish Notes in Whisky appeared first on Whisky Advocate.

Everything You Need To Know About Whisky (but are too afraid to ask)

After more than a year of planning, months of writing and weeks of proofreading, we are very proud to announce the launch of a very special project: our first-ever book – Everything You Need To…

Originally published on The Whisky Exchange Blog – Everything You Need To Know About Whisky (but are too afraid to ask)

Everything You Need To Know About Whisky

After more than a year of planning, months of writing and weeks of proofreading, we are very proud to announce the launch of a very special project: our first-ever book – Everything You Need To Know About Whisky (but are too afraid to ask), by Nicholas Morgan.

At The Whisky Exchange, we’ve been talking about writing a book about whisky for years, but could never find the right person to take up the mantle of actually writing it. However, when Dr Nicholas Morgan announced his retirement from Diageo – where he had been working in whisky communication for decades – the perfect author became available.

We didn’t want the same sort of whisky book that others have written in the past, instead wanting to head away from that well-trodden path with something that both looked and sounded different, with new viewpoints that aren’t often explored in whisky writing. With three decades of working in the industry for the largest producer of Scotch whisky, Nick certainly has a unique take on the whisky world compared to most whisky writers.

Working with Nick, publisher Ebury Press (a non-fiction division of Penguin) and illustrator Jonny Wan, we have created something quite different from other whisky books. It’s beautifully presented and packed with information you won’t find anywhere else. It’s not a book of whisky recommendations and it won’t give you a still-by-still breakdown of different distilleries, but is full of whisky and the people who love it.

I managed to grab Nick Morgan for a quick chat last week, and we talked about him, how he came to be involved with the project, and all about the book itself.

Everything You Need To Know About Whisky (but are too afraid to ask) is available now exclusively from The Whisky Exchange, and will appear in book stores in September.

Originally published on The Whisky Exchange Blog – Everything You Need To Know About Whisky (but are too afraid to ask)