Oh my God! The Japanese make better whisky than the Scots!

A year of firsts for whiskey. For instance, it's the first time in the 12-year history of the World Whisky Bible's rankings that a Scottish malt has failed to make the top five. Depressing news for the Scots. And it gets worse. Much, much worse—it is also the first time the top whisky was distilled in Japan.

The grand accolade was taken by Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013, from the Suntory company's Yamazaki distillery near Kyoto. The next three spots were taken by American bourbons. And then, to add insult to injury, the prize for best European whisky went to Chapter 14 Not Peated from the English Whisky Company (take that you Scottish separatists).

The Whisky Bible is produced by Jim Murray, arguably the world's foremost expert on whisky. According to Murray (yes, he's English), the winning dram possesses "a nose of exquisite boldness” and is as “thick, dry, [and] as rounded as a snooker ball," whatever the hell all that means.

I'm not a whisky drinker myself, but I wouldn't mind trying a sip of that Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013. And a sip is about all I could afford. It's priced at $180 a bottle, a tad out of my price range, and in any case only 18,000 bottles have been made so not much chance of one coming my way. I will have to resort to my own favourite brew, Big Rock Brewery's Traditional Ale, to help me commiserate with the Scots.