Blurb:

101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die is a whisky guide with a difference. It is not an awards list. It is not a list of the 101 ‘best’ whiskies in the world in the opinion of a self-appointed whisky guru. It is simply a guide to the 101 whiskies that enthusiasts must seek out and try in order to complete their whisky education.

Avoiding the deliberately obscure, the ridiculously limited and the absurdly expensive, whisky expert Ian Buxton recommends an eclectic selection of old favourites, stellar newcomers and mystifyingly unknown drams that simply have to be drunk.

The book decodes the marketing hype and gets straight to the point; whether from Canada, India, America, Sweden, Ireland, Japan or the hills, glens and islands of Scotland, here are the 101 whiskies that you really want. Try them before you die – Slainte!

Review:

A while back, I caught an interview with author Ian Buxton on an episode of The Whiskey Cast, a podcast I listen to from time to time. He had just released the fifth edition of this book. I said why not, I’ve spent $20 on dumber stuff.

Instead of plowing through this, for the last several months, I’ve been reading one entry a day. It takes about two minutes to read one entry. I even started a To-Do list in my app with all the whiskeys in the book. Who says I’m not goal-oriented, right?

Ian is from the UK, so most of these whiskies are scotch, with a few American, Irish, Indian and a random odd country or two thrown in. Most of the scotch in the book is stuff I will likely not see on any shelf here in the midwest. That is not because Ian only picked high-end whiskies, in fact he tries to do exactly the opposite, but more of a whiskey desert I live in. Still, there were several in the book I have had, or have access to at least occasionally.

Most of my local friends are more bourbon than scotch drinkers, so I’ll let you know bourbon/American included in the list were: Michter’s US 1 KY Straight bourbon, New Riff, Old Forester 86, Westland American Oak, Buffalo Trace, Ezra Brooks Rye, Jefferson Very Small Batch, Maker’s Mark, Wild Turkey 101 and Woodford Reserve. Again, he did not go for high end or rare. He purposedly included available but still worth it whiskeys, with a few exceptions on the scotch side.

Some of the other inclusions that I can at least find on a shelf around me included: Ardbeg 10, Auchentoshan American Oak, Bowmore 15, Cutty Shark 12, Dewars Signature, Highland Park Viking Pride, Jameson 18, Lagavulin 8, Oban 14, Redbreast 12, Suntory Toki, Tullamore D.E.W., Monkey Shoulder, Teeling, Johnny Walker Black and a few others.

There are a few on the list I have had in the past, and 11 I have had since starting the list. Availability will keep me from ever finishing this list, but it won’t be for lack of effort.

Sláinte.