Keeping up the book review theme for the moment and keeping with Michael Jackson (no not that one) the Companion book is perhaps the most successful book he wrote.

A real pocket friendly reference book for the range of whiskies each distillery produces with notes and scores. Think of this like *that* book currently self published but without the over the top references and unsavory personality. A book written by a grown up if you will.

My copy is the updated second edition from 1991 and in the light of today it makes for a fascinating read. Whereas modern copies will not age well or I guess have no ages at all. The 1991 scene was packed full of mid teen and twenty odd year old bottles. Where this book references Balblairs distilled in 1964 with a handful of tasting notes and a middle of the pack score. Today to get something that old you would have to consider selling a car or a kidney.

In 30 years time will history look back on us as completely bonkers for the 5 figure price tags and 6 figure barn finds at auction? I really hope so and perhaps the cooling off on the auction market is the first signs of that. Equally I have noticed the really old Bruichladdich bottles from 5 years ago are still sitting on shelves at the distillery. There just isn’t a market for laddie from 1984 at 750 sterling. Although actually I just had to look that price up and in today’s valuation of a pound vs a dollar 750 almost feels if not cheap at least reasonable.

Anyway, of much more interest would be the later version published after the author’s death in 2015 with update details added by Dominic Roskrow and Gavin D. Smith. Dominic sadly also has now passed. The latest version is available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Malt-Whisky-Companion-Michael-Jackson/dp/1409348601