One third of October is already behind us. It means we’re closer to X-mas, the Whisky Exchange Show is behind us and a new a new Malt Whisky Yearbook was released. I got my signed copy of the 2016 edition (Thanks Micheal!) just in time to accompany me during the weekend.

This year, the book have a new layout, making it feels fresher but the content is mostly unchanged. Like every edition, the book is generally divided into four sections:

• The first section contains different articles – new ones every year, yeah? 🙂
• The second and the largest one is  the distilleries information section which is divided into four subsections:
  • Scottish distilleries list with info and tasting notes
  • Japanese distilleries
  • World distilleries
  • New distilleries
• Industry overview
• shops and websites references.

The articles section this year is diversified, ranging from an article on the peat phenomenon around the world, a great article on Whisky Terroir by Neil Ridley (who tends to pick up a hot and interesting subject every year, like last year article on methods of serving whisky) and like last year contains yet another informative and educating article by Charles Maclean on Casks and their usage for Whisky maturation.

Of all the articles, there were two that I found standing above the others: The Whisky Terroir one for its thought provoking nature and the “Whisky and food” article by Martine Nouet. The food/whisky pairing art is usually not too familiar to the crowd of whisky drinkers and in most cases goes only as far as whisky and chocolate pairing but here Martine takes it further with explanations and suggestions which I intend to print and keep close by in my kitchen cabinet. In fact, I’d love to see an entire book in English on food/whisky pairing with recipes – It would be a must buy/read for every whisky aficionado.

The distilleries section went through a bit of overhaul with fresh tasting notes, added phonetic scripts on how to pronounce the distilleries names – a source for heated conversations and debates if it’s correct or not (with a dram at hand of course).

Also new in this section are 7 Scotch whisky milestones that helped shaping the industry and I hope to see more of those in next year edition for they teach the readers a lot on what happened in different points along the way.

Again, another excellent work from Ingvar Ronde and the team. I did squirm a bit while reading some statements from industry people on their activity and connectivity with the public via social networks. I, as a very social animal, believes otherwise. But hey, it’s not the writer or the editor fault – they just merely reported on the other side opinions.

What would I like to see in next year edition? Like last year I wish to see more technical articles and more technical information on distilleries – but that’s me and my technical/geeky wishes. What about you? What would YOU like to see in next year edition?