Book Review: Scotch: The Balmoral Guide To Whisky
By Richard Thomas
Rating: B
The Balmoral Hotel has been with us for more and a fixture of Edinburgh than a century, but it’s whisky bar–approrpriately named SCOTCH–has only been around for a decade. Nonetheless, that is long enough for Head Whisky Ambassador and Bar Manager Cameron Ewen and Moa Reynolds, a Swede now writing about whisky from Edinburgh, to team up and pen a companion book for the bar. It’s a solid move when one stops to think about it, given that Edinburgh is going to be the entry point for many a whisky tourist and possibly the sole destination for the even larger number of whisky-curious tourists, and SCOTCH is one of a short list of bars that would sit on their drinker’s list.
The first third of the book tackles just what is Scotch whisky, how it is made, how it should be imbibed and offers up several cocktails based on Scotch. As a whiskey author myself, I appreciated how this opening third took the time to address several myth-bound subjects that come attached to Scotch whisky enthusiasm, such as the relationship between alcohol strength (ABV), color, age and how whisky’s flavor and quality. Keeping in mind that Reynolds is a write and content creator, while I can easily imagine Ewen spending part of any given work day explaining one or more of these things to patrons, it seems like taking the time to tell someone that no, older is not necessarily better, would be a given. Yet it is exactly the sort of thing that so many authors don’t touch on at all; mythbusting is always most welcome in any work of this kind.
The other part of the book, comprising the latter two thirds, is a joint distillery and expressions guide. It covers roughly four dozen malt and grain whisky distilleries, plus some negotiant firms like Compass Box and Gordan & MacPhail, and along side each of these entries are one or more key expressions. That is not comprehensive, and I don’t imagine it was intended to be. Remember this book is a bar’s companion work, so this index of distilleries, companies and bottles instead presents the backbone of SCOTCH’s menu.
I think the first thing to say in evaluating the book is that it is clearly and concisely written, and it touches on most of the topics I would want for a Scotch whisky guide. As for scope, it’s worth recalling that most books attempting a comprehensive review of all 151 distilleries in Scotland stop with just that subject, leaving the bottles aside and perhaps not even touching on the subjects of the major companies, their blended brands or the negotiant firms. There is no book that really does it all for Scotland anymore than there is one that does it all for America. It’s a companion for a prestigious bar, and as such, it’s a great primer for the newbie or casual drinker to get into the wide, deep world of Scotch whisky.
