Most people’s formative jobs often shape what they end up doing and for whisky expert and author Dave Broom, working at Oddbins gave him the start and knowledge in drinks that’s led to a lifelong career writing about (mainly) whisky.
Dave Broom has, over the years, had many enviable jobs, not least writing many books on whisky that allow him to travel around Scotland and the world.
His latest is the third addition of his World Atlas of Whisky. Over the past decade, the landscape has changed drastically with many more distilleries opening globally. This completely rewritten new edition of The World Atlas of Whisky profiles more than 500 distilleries and considers more than 480 whiskies in detailed tasting notes.
“It was a labour of love,” said Mr Broom, “and hugely exciting because I was finding out new things about whisky and new distilleries that I hadn't heard of before. But, at times, it was a nightmare” he said laughing, “because there are simply so many distilleries in the world now.
"I was working with friends around the world who were on the ground in Australia or America to work out who the key players were, and who, of the new distilleries, were moving the category forward.”
The book is billed as the only guide both the connoisseur and newcomer will ever need to understand everything there is to know about the world of whisky. It’s an illustrated, in-depth and comprehensive journey through the history, process, distilleries and expressions of world whiskies, featuring 32 detailed full-colour maps.
Heritage, romance, flavour and craftsmanship are all celebrated in this complete study of this most versatile of drinks.
Mr Broom explained it simply as a ‘map of flavour,’ and that he found some surprising and interesting links.
He said: "It's a map of where distilleries are in the world, but it's also a map of flavour and how and why distilleries make the flavors of whisky that they do.I think the why is more interesting than the what they make.
"It's also a map of mindset and of looking at distilleries, and talking to distillers around the world, and finding out why they're making this whisky, and then seeing the links between a distillery in, say Finland, and one in Tasmania.
"They’ve never talked to each other, but the way they're thinking about whisky is actually very similar. It's all these threads of thinking as well as threads of flavour working their way through the book and that, for me, was the most exciting thing about it.”
Exciting is the word for world whisky just now, with many new distilleries opening, but where does Scotch fit into this ever evolving picture?
Mr Broom said: “It all comes back to Scotch. Single malt has taken over the world. I was speaking to a guy called Jeff Arnett who is the master distiller at Jack Daniels so he makes a lot of whiskey. I was asking him what he saw as the next big thing and he said American single malt.
"Single malt is a global thing but what’s interesting is that, although the seed was sown by Scotch single malt, every distiller outwith Scotland making single malt is saying, ‘we're not making Scotch’. They're finding their own way of making single malt. I think that's genuinely exciting.”
While Scotch has paved the way, is there a point where it could be overshadowed by all these new whiskies coming to market?
Mr Broom thinks that Scotch is under pressure but he sees this as a good thing. He explained: “Scotch had the world of whisky to itself for 100 years, and now you've got every country in the world making whisky.
"So it means that, yes, Scotch, I would say, is under pressure. But I think that's a good thing for Scotch, because - I'm not saying it got complacent - but by being the only player in the world, that was the way that whisky was being made.
"But because there's now all this competition out there, I think it spurred, especially new distillers in Scotland, to think about whisky in a new way. I think now, there is a real spirit of innovation, genuine innovation in Scotch going on at the moment.” Another positive in the industry is the number of women working in it, and how normalised that has become.
Mr Broom said that it’s so commonplace now that ‘you don’t bat an eyelid’. He said: “A really brilliant trend is the number of women who are now working in the whisky industry. It was fascinating to see because you inherently can understand that it's happening but it was only when I was talking to distillers and researching that you see there's women owned companies, women are also master distillers, blenders, marketing.
"They are in every single aspect of the whisky trade, to the extent of - and I think this is the most positive thing about it all - that you don't bat an eyelid, not that I ever would, but people won't now be batting an eyelid that there are women in whisky. I think that is such a heartening and positive move that it's now not even worthy of comment.”
With the new edition of World Atlas of Whisky coming out 10 years after the last one, where does Mr Broom see the industry in 10 years time? “I think there'll be fewer distilleries as we are over capacity globally. But the upside of it is, I think there'll be greater quality and greater diversity of flavour.”
The World Atlas of Whisky is out now priced at £45. You can buy a copy from an independent bookshop here.
