Interview with Ingvar Ronde, Editor of the Malt Whisky Yearbook. 

Paul McLean was talking to Ingvar Ronde in Finland, February 2014.

Ingvar, It was a pleasure to meet you at Helsinki, I have had the yearbook for a few years now, I never expected to meet you there! Like myself, I think that was your first Uisge fest? How did you find it?
A; I think it was a brilliant show. Not very big but a nice venue and the visitors were extremely interested and knew a lot about whisky.

Q; I was so happy that Helsinki had a “heat wave” while we were there, how does that compare to your weather in your part of Sweden?
A; Well, Helsinki is a wee bit colder than where I live in the south of Sweden but I did appreciate we didn´t have to force our way through a thick layer of snow because that happens from time to time.

Q; I don’t know about you, but after two days on our feet, I felt tired, how did you get on over the two days?
A; It wasn´t too bad. After all you and I were more or less stationed at our stand. I feel you get more tired when you´re walking around for 6 hours at some of the bigger whisky festivals in the world.

Q; The yearbook is a fantastic read, full of whisky information, facts and figures, something for everyone, How/why did you start it?
A; Thanks for the kind words Paul – never get tired of hearing that. I´ve been interested in whisky for a couple of decades now and the idea for the Yearbook actually sprung from my personal need for a decent annual update on the subject without having to surf the internet every time I needed to know something. There are Yearbooks for every subject nowadays and I was actually a bit surprised to see that whisky, and especially malt whisky, wasn´t covered. After my first couple of Yearbooks I found out that a lot of whisky enthusiasts out there must have felt the same way because sales have increased quite rapidly.

Q; Tell me more about the annual updates.
A; The book is divided into three parts. The first one is articles by some of the best known whisky writers in the world. Every year I send out topics to the authors to make sure there´s a nice mix of history, products, techy stuff etc. The second part of the book is the biggest where I cover all the malt whisky distilleries in the world. The Scottish ones get either a full spread or one page each, a chapter is reserved for the Japanese ones and then all the others from the rest of the world follow. The final part is a summary of the whisky year that was, a guide to independent bottlers, a list of good whisky shops and statistics and figures. Now for the annual updates, I always aim to have at least 70% new material in each new edition. Otherwise I feel I would be cheating the customer. Apart from visiting some of the distilleries in person I contact every distillery, as well as a lot of other people in the industry, every year to hear what´s new and what they have planned for the future. I have a list of around 500 people who either get a phone call or an email from me every year.

Q; Do you have any plans for other books or projects?
A; At the moment I´m working on a new whisky book in Swedish which may be translated into other languages later on. Can´t give you too many details at the moment but it is aimed at a broader audience than the Yearbook.

Q; How many copies are sold each year and in what countries?
A; Every year I sell somewhere between 15 and 20,000 copies – mostly in the UK and other European countries but there is also a healthy interest from USA, Canada, South Africa and The Far East.

Q; Where can people buy a copy?
A; You can always but it through my own website (www.maltwhiskyyearbook.com) but it´s also available at distillery visitor centres, whisky shops, book shops in the UK and of course Amazon.

Q; Finally, who writes the text, who does the research, the layout and who takes the photos?
A; Apart from the first 6-7 articles, I do all the work including research and layout. I wouldn´t say I´m a control freak (although my friends and family probably would) but I like to be involved in all stages of the production. I get some of the photos from the producers but I have also travelled a lot in Scotland with my friend Peter who is a photographer. Many thanks for giving me this interview, I hope to meet up again in the late summer over in Scotland, we are exploring the options of a whisky tour for you with friends.

Thank you Paul and I´m really looking forward to the tour and to see you again. Ingvar. 

Note; MCLEANSCOTLAND will be designing & hosting/guiding a whisky tour for Ingvar and friends in Scotland, 2015.

www.mcleanscotland.com    www.angelswhiskyclub.com