by Yello to Mello » 11 May 2012, 00:39
This is a good book that will likely hold significant relevance over the next 10 years.
The targeted readership was made to be broad ranging from people that are already savvy with Canadian whisky, people that have more experience with bourbon or single malts, and others that dont know much at all.
Structurally, it is made to be read through and has very nice reading font and spacing (no, not the really huge font) and I like how the tasting notes takes a back seat and can be referred upon later as a 'portable expert'. For a wine and spirits book, publishing tasting notes is almost a must and they are on placed on every few pages where they are mostly relevant. I just dont appreciate the whisky books where majority of the book is about tasting notes or distillery facts, I think every scotch OB and distillery has been written about a million times and I don't think it needs to be done with Canadian whisky.
There was a lot more research in this book then I first thought there would be. A reference to Okrent's book was made (I read last year) which made me flip through the bibliography to see where else Davin drew from. A few small town local public libraries it seems.
The first few sections frequently introduce brief scientific concepts and sometimes there was enough room to introduce some humor. My favourite part is probably the technical tasting section. When discussing how some conduct whisky tastings, "Others will have you tilt your head back and gasp for air like a carp in a summer pond", hahaha.
“I'm a simple man. All I want is enough sleep for two normal men, enough whiskey for three, and enough women for four.” -Joel Rosenberg