On the subject of whisky I admit that I’m biased. I have tasted some lovely drams from Japan and Ireland, but for better or worse, I’ll stick with Scotch. No such bias troubles the English whisky writer Jim Murray. “I treat Bourbon, Scotch, Irish and everything else as equals,” he told me, having anointed Canada’s Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye as the world’s best whisky this year.
The judgement came down from on high in Murray’s annual Whisky Bible. “I was shocked, I really didn’t see it coming,” he said, about his decision to give his top mark of 97.5% to the Canadians. I haven’t tried it so I cannot comment on his choice, but it beats me how anyone can judge something as subjective as booze as though it were a maths test.
Not many people score films, books or plays out of 100, so why whisky?
Or indeed wine like the American uber-critic Robert Parker, who is said to use a stopwatch to measure a wine’s length – how long its taste hangs around, as part of his 100 point scoring system.
Murray certainly doesn’t. “I don’t allow anything to disrupt my concentration,” he said. “I go to extraordinary lengths when I taste and make sure I’ve had absolutely no spices.” He claims to live on nothing but fish fingers and the like for the four months of whisky tasting his book entails.
Charlie MacLean, another leading whisky writer, agrees with me that percentage scores are absurd, and questions how you can declare an overall winner among different categories of whisky. “You should compare like with like,” he says. Murray disagrees, saying: “you’re judging a whisky on whether it’s a great example of what it’s meant to be.”
No Scotch whisky made it into his top five this year, or last year when he crowned a Japanese single malt as his top dram. This certainly provoked plenty of publicity, but woe betides anyone who suggests any cynical motives.
“There are one or two comments that are now in the hands of my solicitor,” Murray informed me. He swears he loves Scotch, but feels the industry has become complacent with all the praise heaped upon it, and therefore needs some friendly advice. “It takes your best friend to tell you if you’ve got BO or not,” he says.
I guess Scottish distillers will be discreetly sniffing their armpits.
Stonedance Roussanne 2014 Marks & Spencer (14%)
A well-made South African expression of a southern French grape – it is peachy, soft and almost off-dry until the finish.
Red on Black Nemea 2014 £9 Marks & Spencer (13.5%)
Crimson coloured and full of juicy plum fruit, this youthful Greek wine is made from the local Agiorgitiko variety.
Definition Chardonnay 2014 £9.74 Majestic Wines (13.5%)
With its floral, summery aroma and honeyed texture, this is a classic Limoux chardonnay and deliciously nutty.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here