I almost hesitate to critique this book, since it is so old and so clearly revered by whisky fans.

I can see why it is such a classic of the field. It's beautifully made, and must have been trying comprehensive for its day. It goes without saying, of course, that the whisky world has changed immensely over the last 15 or so years. That is no fault of the book.

The intense reverence for Scotland is inevitable, I suppose, but there are clear factual errors and exaggerations that are simply eye roll inducing. No, Scotland is not the world's biggest barley producer...

The rest of the world is treated largely as a footnote, or as an exercise in tired cliche (American pioneer spirit, or "losing face, a fate worse than death" in Japan).

There may not be more beautiful whisky books, but there are plenty of ones with all the same information, without the outdated attitudes. ( )

Good enough for me to pull off the shelf every so often to read through again. The overview of the history and distilling process is good but I wish that more bottles were described and rated. In most cases, each distillery will only have one or two bottles of their whiskey mentioned. ( )

Michael Jackson's a whiskey & beer master, there simply isn't any other way to put it. This is a huge compilation of just about every sliver information you could possibly ever want to know about the of making and distributing whiskey the world over. Easily the best source of whiskey I've ever come across. A coffee table style book that you'll read cover to cover. Particularly interesting was stories about some of the older style American Whiskey makers who've since gone belly up and about the numerous Japanese Whiskey Distillers. ( )

Great book on the history of whiskey and one that you actually want to read rather than just have on the table for show. ( )