Read stories about Tasting of A Wardrobe of Whisky blog.

Each tasting note of this blog has a score that ease you comparing bottles. Any whisky or bourbon above 90 is really good. Do your best to taste it!.

[UPDATE: This article has been replaced by new content at Whisky ratings, my own personal view]

For some people scoring whisky is like saying who of your sons do you prefer. They don’t like to do it.

I think it is a fact of life that some whiskies are in my like and others are in my don’t like lists so I like to sort them using some quantitative measure. There are also whiskies that although not really great in score are great in quality vs price relation and so I do recommend them too but it score keeps unchanged.

The Godfather I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse

How the numbers works in score

It is just the addition of the nose, tasting, finish and balance. Each score goes from 0 to 25.

Nose, tasting and finish has little discussion. We can agree or not but there they are.
Balance on the other way is how the whisky as a whole works. You can have a whisky that although fails on the finish overall does good so balance tries to show that.

Scores are a bit misleading. There is nothing so nasty and bad that is allowed to be placed on the market and has a score beyond 40.
Just try some whisky that you know it is bad, really bad, and smell, taste and look at the finish. It is really hard for it to go beyond 50.

Score scale

So my score guidelines are something like:
95-100: Awesome, great whisky. Get it no matter what!: Family, money, whatever!
90-95: A great whisky. A masterpiece. If you can, try it. Owning a bottle or two won’t damage you.
85-90: A good whisky. If you can, try it, just to know how good are the above whiskies.
80-85: A good whisky that miss that something to be a great one. Give it a try and get your own opinion.
70-80: Not my kind of whisky but not so bad that it would hurt your liver.
60-70: Avoid it.
<60: Really really avoid it. Bioharzard!. Poisonous.

[UPDATE: This article has been replaced by new content at Whisky ratings, my own personal view]

Share your thoughts! comments written.

A tasting session has several important steps that are fundamental. It is a kind of cult, almost a religion! Done correctly, it will enhance your appreciation of the drink and you will enjoy it most.

UPDATE: Read the new article about which one is the best way of tasting whisky.

These are the steps I believe are best. Do you do tasting in this way? What do you do?

Setup the tasting session

1) Find the mood. If you are depressed, sad, stressed, angry or in a hurry. Don’t do it.

2) Try to find a calm place without heavy olours. Someone smoking, a campfire, heavy perfumes, food. The more olours the room already have the harder for your nose to find something.

3) Choose the time. Just after eating is not usually a good idea. I prefer to do it just before dinner or long after dinner. Foods with a strong flavours will make your time harder too: chili, curry, garlic, paprika, barbecues, …

Choose your whiskies

4) Choose the whiskies. I usually do five at a time. Just keep in mind that even a sip of each of them will mean that you have drunk a good amount of alcohol at the end. Be careful.
My preferences for choosing are:
- The similar the whiskies the better.
- Order them from youngest to oldest.
- From worst to best if you know something about them.
- From lightest to peatiest whisky.
Usually the more whisky you drink the better it becomes but on the other hand if you try the good one at the beginning the rest will look like bullshit.

5) Now get the glasses you need plus one more of whatever size. Do your best so that the glasses are all the same. The shape of the glass affects the way your nose perceive the aromas.

6) Get a bottle of mineral water near you and a few pieces of crackers or bread to clean the palate.

7) Now, fill each glass with a generous measure of whisky. Around 2-3cl should be enough. If you put less the whisky doesn’t really open in the glass ( give it a try! ) and if you put more you will end up throwing it as you can’t really drink so much ( and keep doing a tasting ). Just after filling it, place something on the top of the glass so nothing of the aroma left the glass ( a small cardboard does the work ).

Finally get enough tasting sheets or get a blank sheets of paper.

Tasting session

So now your situation is like this one:

Tasting a whisky

So let’s begin the tasting.
1) Get a tasting sheet ( from here ) or get a blank piece of paper.

2) Write name, graduation and whatever other info that identify what you are drinking.

Nosing

3) Now approach the glass to your nose and smell. Fast! Write down whatever comes to your mind.
4) Smell again.
5) And again. Try to disturb the less possible the glass during the process. Write down as much things as come to your mind.

6) Look the color and how the whisky falls on the walls of the glass when you move it.

Tasting

7) Now let’s taste it.
8 ) Drink a sip of it and move it around your mouth. How is it? Light, hot, oily. Write down!.
9) Concentrate on what does it remind you of.

Finish

10) Now swallow the whisky ( or spit it, I prefer to swallow as whisky was done for drinking! ) and listen it going away. What taste is left on your mouth?
11) Keep thinking about that taste? Does it long? or it is already gone?

12) What impression does the whisky leave on you? Do you want another sip? Perhaps need another sip to think more about it?

Now with water

13) Ok, relax a bit. Wait. Drink a bit of water and clean your mouth.
14) Add a drops of water to the whisky. Let it settle down for a moment and repeat the whole process.
15) Which effect does the water have on the whisky? Is it better? Does you find anything new with water?

Scoring a whisky

16) Now the hard part, set an score for nose, taste, finish and balance. Think about the whisky. Look how the score you have written compares to previous tasting sessions.

17) Drink a bit of water and take a cracker. Relax. Now move to the next whisky.

Review the tastings notes

18) When you are done, check your scores, do really show which whisky do you like most? Congratulations so, if that’s not the case nose again and again until both results agree.

Material

Get the Whisky Tasting paper from http://awardrobeofwhisky.com/content/files/whisky-tasting-paper.pdf

Share your thoughts! comments written.