Whisky Tasting

Can you give me some tips about organising a successful whisky tasting?

There is more to this than you might think, but I’ll do my best. Broadly, the factors which influence how we assess flavour might be described as ‘physical’ and ‘psychological’.

My list of physical factors owes much to Pentlands Scotch Whisky Research Ltd. (now the Scotch Whisky Research Institute) by which I was trained in ‘The Sensory Evaluation of Potable Spirits’ in 1992. Many of the factors they identify are common sense, but some are surprising and others will only apply in a ‘professional tasting’ context. The sentences in inverted commas below are direct quotes from Pentlands’ guidelines.

The tasting room should be quiet, comfortable, well ventilated, uncluttered (“so assessors do not feel shut in”) , at around 20C, well lit with neutral light (for assessing colour), free from extraneous odours including fresh paint, smoke (from fire or tobacco), perfume, aftershave, scented hand-soap and cooking.

In relation to the last, I was once assessing a venerable Glenrothes for Berry Bros. with Ronnie Cox in London’s famous Scottish-inspired restaurant, Boisdale of Belgravia. It smelt distinctly gamey, then I realised that the people at an adjacent table were eating roast pheasant…

Glasses should be washed with odour-free detergents and not dried with a cloth. They should be sniffed before being filled to make sure they are odour free. They must be tulip-shaped copita spirits nosing glasses or Glencairn glasses, both designed with a bowl for swirling the liquid and a rim which narrows in order to direct the aroma up your nose. “The use of perfumed soap, hand creams, cosmetics, after shave, etc. immediately before handling sample glasses can leave lingering odours on the glasses”.

At the press launch of a 50YO malt some years ago two colleagues asked for fresh glasses because the glasses they had just nosed had clearly been washed with scented detergent. They were brought and checked to be odour-free before the previous liquid was transferred to them. But the soapy scent was still present. It was in the whisky! On another occasion, I was tasting informally with panel members from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, passing glasses round and sharing them. I couldn’t understand why all the samples seemed to be perfumed, until I discovered that a girl at the other end of the table was wearing scent which had made its way into every glass.

In professional tastings, assessors should inform the organiser if they are ‘below par’ - women’s hormonal cycles, testing positive for Covid, colds, hay fever, rich or spicy food the night before – so that their assessments can be interpreted accordingly. The time of day plays an important part: ideally assessments should take place before lunch - tasting soon after a meal should be avoided. “As far as possible important tastings should not be carried out on Mondays. No significant differences in panel performance normally occur during Tuesdays-Fridays, but variability is frequently observed on Mondays”!

It may surprise you to know that smoking does not affect your ability to assess whisky - indeed two of the best assessors I know are heavy smokers – although there should be “no smoking for 30 minutes before undertaking assessment”. This is to allow your olfactory epithelium to return to normal after being temporarily numbed by tobacco smoke. And, of course, no smoking during the assessment.

Turning to the ‘psychological’ factors, many of these relate more to enjoyment than strict objective assessment – your mood, the occasion, the surroundings, the situation and the company may all influence your judgement. My colleague, Vikki Bruce, is generally not keen on peaty whiskies, but remembers with fondness being handed a flask of Caol Ila while on a very wet walk on Islay. The taste of the whisky seemed to be a perfect corrective to the dismal weather. She reminds me that although the whisky in the glass might be identical, but the experience of tasting it is rarely the same twice. “We change every day and this is reflected in our reaction to whisky”.

Some years ago I was invited to fish for salmon on the River Tweed. Before leaving Edinburgh I dropped into a small licensed grocer and bought a bottle of whisky for my host. The only whisky in the shop was a sub-standard blend unknown to me. It was late November; the day was clear and brilliant, but extremely cold and by the time the light faded around 4 pm we were glad to head for the fishing hut and light the stove and tilly lamp. There were six of us and one of them had caught a fresh-run fish, so morale was high as we thawed out. Our host opened the whisky and divided the whole bottle into six large glasses. Everyone present pronounced it to be the finest whisky they had ever tasted and several noted its name on their chequebooks. I held my tongue: in truth the whisky was horrible, but in the circumstances it was ambrosia!

Autosuggestion can distort objective assessment, but the experienced assessor will be aware of this and not be beguiled into automatic agreement. However, it is especially influential if you are told what to expect before nosing and tasting – even comments like “this is rare and expensive” or “this is disappointing”. Related to this is being told what the whisky is prior to tasting: how we perceive a particular brand can play a part in how we describe it. With the best will in the world, preconceptions frame what we think we’re experiencing. In some circumstances it is better and more fun to taste blind.

It can also be fun to combine tasting whisky with listening to music and exploring what images come to mind. Quite a bit of work has been done in this area, both scientific/psychological and subjective/hedonic – purely for pleasure. One could go further and consider the role that synaesthesia might play in assessing the flavour of whisky.

Synaesthesia is an involuntary neurological condition where stimulation of one sense automatically triggers another sense. In other words, the brain ‘cross-wires’ sensory experiences, so smells and tastes may have colours, shapes or patterns for some people, and in extreme cases memories can trigger vivid sensory imagery, or vice versa. Given the close relationship between smell and long-term memory in the subjective analysis of whisky, this can be highly influential.

Quote from The Mind of a Mnemonist (by Alexander Luria) ? I need to order this but at the moment Abe Books does not recognise my password.

Finally, Pentlands’ guidelines stress the importance of motivation: “A genuine interest in sensory work is important. Skill without interest does not produce a good assessor”. People sometimes envy me, as in “You must have the best job in the world, tasting whisky. How do you get a job like that?” To which I reply, simply: “Practise”!