OPINION • 7 No Half Measures JIM MURRAY


The magic formula that creates an exceptional malt whisky goes way beyond the limits of traditional regional classifications


in the making of whisky. But then an email popped in from a Whisky


I


Bible reader... A good 95 per cent of such communications I receive are highly positive and very kind. This was one of the fi ve per cent which wasn’t. It started pleasantly enough, yet from the very fi rst sentence one could feel the “but” forming the crest of the swell. In a nutshell, the reader’s point was this:


how could the Whisky Bible – or myself, come to that – be taken seriously as it is absolutely impossible to compare a Scotch whisky against a bourbon, rye or Irish and so on? And when I was handing out gongs, surely it made much more sense that there should be a Speyside of the Year, as well as a Highland, Island, Islay and so on. In eff ect, my thinking was entirely fl awed. And it struck me that here was an excellent topic for a column. For this was by no means a unique point of view from readers – and non-readers – of my books. Every year, at least a dozen people take the time to make this very point, which suggests that there must be hundreds, if not thousands, of people out there sharing the same viewpoint. How could I tackle this criticism most


eff ectively? Possibly by getting a hundred or so of these people together in a room and asking them a simple question: what, apart, from where it is made, defi nes a Speyside whisky? Or an Islay? Or a Highland? Or a Lowland? I would get them to write their answers on a piece of paper. And then I would read them out. It would be surprising if, Islay apart, any two answers were the same. The fact is, every region has such a diverse


array of whisky styles being produced that the overlap makes the regionalisation of a whisky virtually a pointless exercise. For years, the biggest-selling malt sold on Islay was Bruichladdich 10 year old – then an unpeated whisky. When giving whisky tastings around the world, the Speysider that occasionally appears to get the biggest vote of confi dence from my audience is a heavily peated Benriach.


was poised to slaughter a few sacred cows on the subject of water this issue and specifically the part it plays – or perhaps, more signifi cantly, doesn’t –


It has for generations been the case that senior Scotch blenders think of regions only in style, rather than specifi c distilleries. In other words, when putting a whisky together, or perhaps replacing a malt for which there is no longer stock, they will think in terms of qualities required. So they might be looking for something fresh and mouth-watering or sweet and honeyed or earthy or spicy and so on. When you are searching for a malty, mouth-watering, grassy style, it is natural to think of Speyside. Yet they might have an exact match required from a young Lowlander or Highlander. It is just that they require that style. Teacher’s has historically been one of the smokier blends, yet for years not a drop of Islay went into it. So what is the point of giving an award to


a Speyside whisky when I can find a malt which ticks all the boxes equally as well from a region elsewhere?


And as for the old chestnut about comparing Scotch against bourbon or Irish… One of the most common questions I am asked – and


I swear not a single week goes by in my life without me hearing it – is: which is the better: Scotch or Irish? Or Scotch or bourbon? Or malt or blends? The answer, of course, is that a great Irish


is better than a very good Scotch. And a great Scotch beats a decent Irish every time. Ditto blends etc. Everyone can compare any whisky against


any other type. Because no matter what grain, still or cask is used, irrespective of whether an “e” is involved, high quality whisky is unmistakable. And will always sparkle against the dullard. While the great will, in turn, be eclipsed by the exceptional. It is, in eff ect, a universal law of whisky. And


why there can be picked above all others one that is, as far as you can tell from the thousand or so before you, the fi nest of them all.


Jim Murray became the world’s fi rst full- time whisky writer in 1992. Since then, sales of his books, including the ‘Whisky Bible’, have reached over half-a-million copies.


THE SCOTCH MALT WHISKY SOCIETY


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