Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2016

Some may call it controversial, others enlightening, but few can argue its comprehensiveness. Jim Murray's Whisky Bible is an ongoing project, with the first of the series having been published in 2003. It is a compact guide containing every whisky that Murray and a team of researchers are able to source from the worldwide market.

The 2016 edition contains detailed taste notes for around 4,600 whiskies – including more than 1,000 new labels. For the first time, Murray has awarded the whisky of the year to a Canadian- Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye. Scoring it 97.5pts he added, ‘Rye, that most eloquent of grains, not just turning up to charm and enthral but to also take us through a routine which reaches new heights of beauty and complexity,’ he said. ‘To say this is a masterpiece is barely doing it justice.’