Our first introduction to the work of Richard Betts and Crystal English Sacca came through listening to podcasts of the Tim Ferriss Show. Although he may not know it (or drink craft spirits), Ferriss embodies our definition of a “microshiner”, someone attempting to distill the human experience to its most essential elements, and visiting his body of work is a must for anyone seeking to lead a deliberate life.
One recent podcast visited Betts, a wine maker and Master Sommelier, and his book, The Essential Scratch & Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert, which, while incredibly innovative and certainly interesting, didn’t exactly fit the lens of craft spirits. It wasn’t until after listening to Ferriss’ interview with Chris Sacca and some follow-up research on Twitter that we discovered the product of their most recent efforts, the perfectly suited The Essential Scratch & Sniff Guide to Becoming a Whiskey Know-It-All.
The concept behind this book, if you are not familiar with the first, is to provide users with tools that allow them to deconstruct the different elements that comprise the various whiskey flavor profiles and how that particular profile is arrived at. Working through various smells and associated anecdotal information on each spread builds a template against which future comparisons can be made, providing the reader an opportunity to discover what they like, why they like it, and what analogues they may want to look for when buying that next bottle.
While it might not be the perfect primer for an aspiring whiskey snob, the book is, above all, fun. Its design is sublime, walking the line between childish ridicule and modern admiration. Looking like a kid's book yet somehow still remaining effective, it goes a long way in making whiskey appreciation approachable by infusing some levity into a practice that can often exude a rather magniloquent manner.
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