How do we find our way around in Germany’s booming whisky landscape? The latest Whisky Guide Deutschland 2026 (Christmas Edition) answers all my questions. It’s elaborate, surprising, and has an online counterpart.
Editor Heinfried Tacke and his team managed to fill this year’s guide with new insights and stories, but kept true to those who are the ambassadors and makers of whisky: the retailers, bars, and distillers.
It’s a true physical tasting guide (440 pages) to Germany’s many whisky venues. One that I would leaf through while enjoying my favourite dram. And afterwards leave in my car’s glove box like a whisky map. It’s certainly not a copy of other well-known whisky guides, although it does cover some popular whisky distilleries worldwide. All this makes it a real guide in the true sense of the word.
Quick whisky question
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This year’s dozen stories vary from a general introduction, ‘Craving for whisky’, to a deep dive into aromas and chemistry in ‘A journey through flavours and chemistry’ and from an abc to recognising and analysing your dram in ‘Taste, evaluate, describe’ to a culinary insight in food pairing in ‘When the whisky dances on your palate’. In doing so, the guide addresses a range of whisky lovers without excluding anyone.
During day time I might also use its online counterpart when traveling the country. Its finder-function equips me with ready-made, hands-on information as where to find my next whisky refuge in minutes.
You would say there’s a new kid on the block, but founder Heinfried Tacke (former editor-in-chief of Der Whisky-Botschafter) first introduced his Mercussini Guide ‘Die Besten Whisk(e)y-Bars in Deutschland’ in 2004. In it were 75 ‘Whisky Schecks’. Tacke remembers the shortcomings of this first edition. ‘It was an easy-tear coupon book. Many of the really good German whisky bars were not willing to participate in this voucher concept’. Three years later, he released the first very small edition of the Whisky Guide Deutschland 2008, which appeared annually from then on. During the years of the coronavirus pandemic, the book was only published once again in 2020 as Whisky Guide Deutschland 2021 and was then stopped by the publisher. Fortunately, Tacke managed to come back with a richly filled 2024 edition, since then self-published.
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READ THE STORYIt’s good to see that not only the German whisky industry itself is coming of age, but also the ecosystem around it is vibrant. This guide has earned its place in Germany’s whisky landscape and is definitely here to stay. Another fine example is the launch of Whisky Magazine Germany in late November 2025, initiated again by Heinfried Tacke and Christoph Kirsch (Kirsch Import GmbH).
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