Book Review: The Japanese Way of Whisky

By Richard Thomas

Rating: A-

If you really are a whiskey enthusiast, Dave Broom should need no introduction. But on the off-chance that you’ve found your way to this review looking for books for an enthusiast loved one, here goes: he started writing about music, but ventured into scribbling about spirits while working as a pub landlord. He has been a freelance spirits writer since the mid-1990s, has been contributing editor or chief editor for prominent magazines and websites, and has authored several books about spirits, including whisky. He is arguably the most august writer in the field, but also modest (or self-aware) enough that he doesn’t feel the need to detail every single accomplishment and credit in his bio.

Broom’s latest is The Japanese Way of Whisky, and Broom must be keeping as busy as me, because it was only last year that I reviewed the latest update on his The World Atlas of Whisky. Japanese whisky is paradoxical, because it is at the same time the category that saw the most gain in raw buzz during the last decade, while also remaining relatively obscure because that buzz so vastly outstripped the actual supply of Japanese whiskies available. As I often wrote in criticizing the clickbaiting writers who promoted the myth of the bourbon shortage, anyone who wants to see what a real whisky shortage looks like should look at Japan. A ramification of that paradox is that while everyone who is really interested in whisky has heard of the great things coming from Japan, anyone who has come into that knowledge in the last decade has become acquainted with the specifics only at dear cost. That is where a solid, quality book on the subject is helpful: anything that makes that exploration easier is welcome.

Broom’s The Japanese Way of Whisky is 60% reference guide, 20% travel guide and 20% personal reflection. All the information is there, and well-illustrated at that. People, places, flavor profiles, some technical specifics. This is a handy book to have on the shelf, and one that is pretty to flip through as well. The travel guide part is how it is structured, because Broom’s organization is one of moving from place to place in Japan, and not necessarily demarcated as distillery to distillery. Reading it feels like a journey. And finally, there is his personal touch, much more present here than in some of the other things I’ve read by Broom. That latter part is what keeps the book from becoming just another dry reference tome and helps the reader get a feel for the subject itself.

This is not just a worth whisky book, but I think it is going to be the outstanding book about Japanese whisky for 2025 and probably 2026 as well. I find it hard to imagine what could come along in the next 12 months plus that could eclipse it.