101 World Whiskies to Try Before You Die

The media could not be loaded.  First published back in July of 2012, '101 World Whiskies To Try Before You Die' was whisky connoisseur and enthusiast Ian Buxton's follow-on to his excellent first book ' 101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die ' (2010).Like with the first '101 Whiskies Book', this second volume is a same sized compact book (measuring approximately 12cm x 18.5cm) offering advice, guidance and tips on a range of important and particularly tasty whiskies from all around the world that Buxton himself has compiled. Like with the first book, again this is not aimed at the whisky collector or those with vast wads of cash rolling around their home. Instead this is a book for everyday folk who simply enjoy a good whisky.In the first book Buxton included a good range of whiskies from across the globe. However, being simply '101 Whiskies To Dry Before You Die', as one would expect, the vast majority of the whiskies were from Scotland (in fact 70 of the 101 whiskies were Scottish).However, in this second book there's far more of an eye on bringing the reader whiskies from all across the globe - mentioning the obscure, the unheard of and the often overlooked. The whiskies are listed in alphabetical order by the country that they're from. And Buxton brings you whiskies from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, England, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, India, Ireland, Japan, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, USA, Wales and finally a World Whisky.In the exact same format as his first book, two pages have been allocated to each respective whisky. On the first of these two pages you have a large colour photograph of the whisky bottle, together with the name of the producer, the location of the distillery (not applicable if it's a blend), whether or not there is a visitor centre, the general availability (e.g. specialists, supermarkets, duty free etc) and a rough guide to the price.Again, as with the first book the pricing guide is broken into five categories. These are:(1) Under £25, (2) £25-39, (3) £40-69, (4) £70-£150, (5) Over £150.Once again, Buxton has flat-out ignored any whisky that ventures over the £1,000 barrier. Indeed, you'll find most of the whiskies in the book coming in to around £40, which is far more accessible and realistic for most people's price range.On the second page of each entry, Buxton again gives the reader a brief description of the whisky and its producer, with a little background information on its history etc. Then he gives some very readable tasting notes that don't fall into the trap of being too meandering and obscure (as is so often the case with whisky tasting notes). Indeed, Buxton gives very honest, understandable, identifiable and most importantly unpretentious points on the whiskies taste, flavour and depth. No nonsense whatsoever!Buxton has purposefully avoided using any scoring or ranking of the whiskies detailed in the book. After all, what one person thinks is an utterly divide whisky, the next may find near undrinkable. It's subjective - therefore making scoring a nonsense. Instead, he details each ones merits, their own uniqueness and where they fit in (or not) within the greater picture of whiskies of the world.Finally, at the very bottom of each listing the book offers up two blank lines for you to write your own verdict (and/or very brief notes) on the whisky. In fact, this is one of the biggest delights about these books - it makes for a 'whisky enthusiast's project' of sorts. I for one have utterly enjoyed slowly working my way through the first volume, writing my own personal notes as I go (I'm still a long way off sampling them all though). And now I have another 101 whiskies to start to work through!Once again Buxton has delivered another truly invaluable and thoroughly interesting book on whiskies. Flicking through the pages, it's amazing how many whiskies there are out there in the far reaches of the world (as well as much closer to home) which you probably had no idea about the existence of. Take the Finish 8 year old 'Teerenpeli', or the German 'Blaue Maus', or indeed the Spanish 'Embrujo de Granada' for three such prime examples. If anything, flicking through the book is an eye opener for most amateur whisky enthusiasts.Even though the books is called '101 World Whiskies To Try Before You Die', Buxton has slipped in an additional 'Special Bonus Whisky' at position number 102. It's a whisky that well-and-truly breaks the 'Accessible whisky for real people' rule that the rest of the book has followed. Priced at over £100,000, the Johnnie Walker Diamond Jubilee is not a whisky you'll likely be hunting down anytime soon. But the cheeky inclusion of it just shows Buxton's sense of humour.To be honest, since getting the book holidays abroad now have a whole new scope to them. It's now a case of flick through Buxton's '101 World Whiskies To Try Before You Die' before setting off, and if there's a good number in there from the country you're visiting (such as the USA, Ireland or Japan) then my advice would be to pop the book into your hand luggage before you go!The book runs for a total of 224 pages, which includes a six page introduction by Ian Buxton, a basic and down-to-earth one page 'How to Taste Whisky and Use This Book', a 'Further Resources' page, and a final page on 'Where to Buy'. Finally, the book itself is a high quality hardback, with full colour glossy pages throughout.

Presumably working on the basis that "if it's not broken, why fix it", whisky writer Ian Buxton has just published the follow-up to his best seller "101 Whiskies To Try Before You Die". His new volume now broadens our horizons to take in "101 World Whiskies To Try Before You Die" and must be the result of a great deal of. research and dogged detective work to track down what I presume are some of the more obscure offerings, say from Tasmania or South Africa.As before, Mr Buxton provides helpful accompanying background information on the people and enterprises producing the whiskies alongwith brief tasting notes, all contained comfortably and clearly within a single page format opposite a picture of the whisky itself.While I would be more than happy attempting to try all of the 101 World Whiskies he suggests before I died, it probably is (almost) a viable proposition. I'm aware however of other whisky tomes that have jumped on the "Try Before You Die Bandwagon". Some have gone as far as suggesting a mind numbing, bankruptcy inducing 1001 Whiskies to try. That's all very well, but Mr Buxton. has presumably taken his time to select a varied and representative sample of what's on offer from around the world and brought them together in this, concise, gem of a book.As before, some will argue that their favourite tipple of such and such should have been included, just as I did when the original book was published. However that's part of the joy - coming across new whiskies that may be worth a try and being prepared for a few surprises along the way.The book is again a handy "pocket size", useful for taking along to tasting sessions with friends or to pick up and read at the end of a hard day with a dram in hand.This is a little "Aladdin's Cave" of a book that contains a wealth of information in it's pages and is a serious contender when searching for information on what's on offer these days in the World of Whiskies that extends beyond Scotch and Rye.I can highly recommend this book and it's predecessor.

Unable to rate as I haven't read it.

Got this for my dads Christmas, had to tear him away from it to eat his dinner!

nothing interesting in this book is a technical list

While the coverage of each individual whisky is, as in the volume before, excellent, as I see it the book does not really deal exclusively with 'World Whiskies'.32 of the world whiskies in this book are from Scotland, which I consider a bit of a cop out in light of the title of the prevoius book; so much so that when Buxton's '101 best whiskies in the universe' comes out I will not be buying it.There are reputed to be more than a thousand different whiskies out there; can Mr Buxton really not make two unique and individual set selections?Sadly, it appears not.

The whisky wizard writes again! As if the first book was not enough to last a lifetime for most of us, here is another even more tantalising glimpse into whiskies you have never tasted. But once you have read Ian Buxton's forthright explanation of them, curiosity and intrigue are aroused, along with your taste buds. This book makes you want to taste even more whiskies you had never heard of before, from places you never knew made whisky. Now we've all got 202 whiskies on the list, we had better get to work before the next book comes out.

A well written book which is easy to read and entices you along the way. The compact format means that you can easily slip it into your pocket, just to make sure that you are ordering the right dram! or as I have done, take it on your phone in the Kindle format - brilliant.I have only, so far, tried a small number of the whiskies listed but am looking forward to completing the journey and finishing all 101 of them - slange