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Fahrenheit 173 - Whisky
"The king o' drinks, as I conceive it, Talisker, Isla or Glenlivit" (R.L. Stevenson)
A review of "Whiskey & Philosophy" | 20 Jan 2010 | ||
Whiskey & Philosophy, edited by Fritz Allhof and Marcus P. Adams, contains twenty essays by different authors and on various whisky-related subjects. "A must read for anyone interested in whisk(e)y" and "a thought-provoking and thirst-inducing read" according to Jim McEwan and Chris Morris. Personally, I found it quite uneven and a bit of a mixed bag. Not too surprising perhaps, because of the many authors and subjects.
The whisky-heavy essays are good (some of them very good) but most of the philosophy-heavy ones I found too abstract. I was curious about philosophy and I hoped this book could whet my appetite for learning more about it (but it didn't).
The introduction recommends the reader to have a dram or a cocktail while reading but I didn't take that advice - perhaps a mistake, since a few of the essays are the driest stuff I've read since I graduated from university.
That said, the best essays in the book are excellent: Andrew Jefford's, Ian Buxton's and David Wishart's essays on whisky's history, provenance and authenticity as well as the essays by Ian Dove and Burnham/Skilleås on whisky tasting notes and Chris Bunting on Japanese whisky.
To sum up, I'd say that the several good essays in the book outweigh the few uninteresting ones. I do agree that the book is thought-provoking and it makes several points that aren't widely known.
Whiskey & Philosophy - a small batch of spirited ideas
edited by Fritz Allhof and Marcus P. Adams
Wiley, ISBN 978-0-470-43121-4
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