The word on the street was that I needed to get my hands on a book called The Scottish Whisky Distilleries by Misako Udo.
Checked Amazon. 2 million books, but not this one. But Amazon DID lead me to Royal Mile Whiskies.
Getting to the Royal Mile Whiskies site, I was all set to finally order - only to discover that they are out of stock - the first edition has sold out.
Good sign for the quality of the book, bad sign for my chances of acquiring one.
A beaten man, I figured I'd just wait until my next trip to Scotland and I'd hopefully pick one up (and also save myself the cost of postage.)
But the description from Royal Mile made me want the book. Now.
A new book especially for the serious malt scholar and collector! Simply a list of every piece of minute information from a myriad distilleries, past and present.
Want to learn about Mucklewartle Distillery? Can't sleep without knowing the capacity of Caledonian Grain Distillery's underback? Then this is the book for you. Simply presented in list format, Misako Udo's book is a frighteningly comprehensive list of operational and closed distilleries and must represent years of determined work...well done!
In desperation, I figured I'd try eBay.
Knock me over with a feather - searching for "Misako Udo" indeed turned up a copy for sale. Two in fact. Obviously this eBayer "Distillery Cat" had a secret stash, and I wanted in.
I emailed "Distillery Cat" directly - "Let's cut to the chase - you have copies and I want one. How much?"
Imagine my surprise when I got an email back from Ms. Misako Udo. Whaddya know - Distillery Cat IS Misako! Turns out that Distillery Cat is the name of her publishing company and Misako offered to send me a copy, gratis.
The Scottish Whisky Distilleries is 477 pages of hard-core whisky research. An exhaustive list of active, closed, dismantled and lost distilleries. One review said:
It is meticulously researched and all-encompassing in its attention to
detail.
This is NOT an over-statement.
Each listing includes a mind-boggling amount of information: from email addresses and visiting times, to current owners, past owners, # of staff, PPM of peat content, water sources, peat sources, barley sources, volumes of washbacks, still volumes, the name of the distillery's cat, the angle of the Lyne arm, fermentation times, distillation time, distillation volumes - and that is a just a very abridged list of data for each active distillery. I am not kidding.
For a guy, like me, who dabbles on the edges of the industry, this book is a must have. For any Scotch geek out there - you'll want it as well. And if you are in the industry and say, needed to get the scoop on a competitor - this is definitely for you.
But who is Misako Udo? How does a Japanese woman come to be a repository for such an incredible amount of information?
This excerpt from "This is North Scotland" August 2005, gives us an insight:
Misako Udo was so smitten by the aura of Scotch whisky as a teenager in Japan
that she travelled halfway round the world to live in a strange country where
she didn't speak the language and in which she knew no one, just to be close to
its origin.
Misako's extraordinary knowledge has its roots in her native Nagasaki when, as
an 18 year-old, she tasted her first whisky - a dram of White Horse,
incidentally. It was a seminal moment and whisky has fascinated her ever since.
She says she always wanted to travel to Britain and to learn English, but that
first taste sent her on her way not to London, like so many of her compatriots,
but to Edinburgh.
She said: "When I arrived here in 1988, people were
very much better than I expected. I couldn't speak English, but everyone was
very friendly and helpful."
Undaunted by her strange environment, she
began to work as a tour guide and has now been a member of the Scottish Tourist
Guides Association for 15 years, working with Japanese visitors to Scotland. She
is not stupid; she chose that career knowing full well she would be paid to
visit many distilleries and have the opportunity to learn about whisky and its
manufacturing. Now, she has guided everyone from ordinary tourists to
whisky-industry professionals and got to know more whiskies than she ever
thought possible.
Working as a guide and taking people to distilleries,
she began to build up notes on the almost mystical processes behind the magic.
She was methodical in her approach, and her knowledge soon began to outstrip
even that of seasonal staff working in distilleries that welcome thousands of
visitors each year. They began to come to her for advice on technical matters
and she was often asked to photocopy her notes for others.
She has been here 17 years and cares so deeply for Scotland that she has
forsaken her Japanese passport and become a naturalised British citizen. She
will talk whisky at any hour, but there is one piece of information she will not
disclose - the name of her favourite malt.
She said: "My personal opinion
is not important; I am just an ordinary enthusiast.
A woman after my own heart. Thanks for the book Misako! And I don't just mean for the free copy.
