How to Evaluate Whisky?

Taste and smell are subjective, and will always be subjective. No one should ever be allowed to tell you otherwise. There is no correct way to taste and smell (or nose), but there are some techniques people use and some classifications that will help you enjoy and appreciate whisky just a little bit more. At the same time, evaluating whisky is easier with experience but I do not consider myself a great judge of whisky, I know some people have probably tried 15x the amount of whisky I have had, maybe 50x, and to date, I have had between 1200 and 1300 different whiskies. It is easier with experience because you build up a reference of patterns that you match to the flavours and fragrances you smell and taste. More on this later.

So what do we mean by nosing or tasting and evaluating whisky? Most people drink whisky, notice a pleasant flavour, or perhaps get some general directional notes and enjoyment. That is entirely good, I do not seek to convince people that they should do any more than that especially if they are happy. If you think you could get more enjoyment from some extra techniques and want to learn more, then read on. There is nothing pretentious about learning and knowledge, or just learning about your preferences, or being able to identify what you are tasting so that you can appreciate it more.

Anyways ... on with it.

Let's proceed down the yellow brick road together.

Personally, IMHO, the most important part of tasting whisky is not actually tasting it, it is describing the particular flavour because the ability to taste it is less useful (to me) if I don't know what I am tasting. If I cannot identify a flavour, it pulls at the edges of my mind, like an unsolved puzzle until I have that AHA moment where I can finally describe it. If you taste a pineapple for the first time without knowing what it is, without ever seeing a pineapple or without ever hearing the word "pineapple" you might think you're tasting something delicious, you might like what you taste, but without the ability to classify it, it loses something, some little enjoyment because you don't know what it is. If someone says "Try this" and holds out a spoon in front of you, if you like it ... also if you hate it your next words are undoubtedly "What is this?". Because, either you want to know what it is so you can seek it out or ensure you never try it again. That is not to say that whisky can't be enjoyed if you can't identify the flavours within. Often, flavours tickle the corners of my mind that I struggle to identify, of course, I still enjoy those whiskies, but for me, I enjoy them just a little more if I can identify all the flavours within.

Other people will disagree and suggest that the enjoyment of the thing and the classification of the thing after the enjoyment are unrelated, ultimately it doesn't matter.

Evaluating whisky is like measuring and communicating your enjoyment. And just like anything you get better at it with practice. A question I have struggled with is if you can't identify a flavour, do you enjoy that flavour any less? Or are you perhaps able to enjoy it more? I guess that's up to each person to decide for themselves.

Let's start with the process ... if you are going to describe a whisky you should know what you're looking for, so you can set yourself up. And it's not important but as the person on the other end of your description, it's certainly nice if your notes tell a story. What I mean by that, is that you identify the notes in the order that you smell them, or in the approximate amounts they show up in the whisky. One way to accomplish this is to start with top notes, then mid notes and finally base notes. Communicating what you smell first in the top notes, then the secondary and tertiary notes (mid notes), followed by notes that are behind those other more distant notes (base notes). These are the notes that you are reaching for not the obvious ones. The orange zest (base note) on the cherry coulis (mid note) on the cheesecake (top note). Please see the following great example of a nosing from this Lagavulin 30 year old review.

On the nose: You’re greeted with beautiful, mellow notes of smoke, red berries, and apples. Following that are notes of cedar, salted caramel, Apricot, peach rings, and a very subtle hint of sand. All of this is enveloped in leather.

Suggestion

If you want to partake in the enjoyment that is "suggestion", and both find notes of your own and have others say "oooh that's a good note" to your notes, as well as have others suggest notes like strawberry shortcake, with orange zest or cherrywood-smoked apricots, smoked turkey pie or coulis of wild berries on ice cream. I love that my mind is suggestible. It increases my enjoyment of whisky, because the more elaborate the note and if I can get behind it myself, the more it blows my mind.

Let's begin to get to the meat of it. I identify two types of "process" that you want to work through as you go about nosing and tasting. One is the physical process. This will pertain to the physical things that you do. How far away from your nose is the whisky? Is your mouth open while nosing? etc. The second process is your internal process. This will pertain to the questions you ask yourself as you decide what this whisky smells and tastes like, the mental model you use to determine the flavours you are tasting.

Nosing Physical Process

I don't prescribe a specific and detailed process here. For me, the more important word here is "varied". You should absolutely try to nose a whisky physically in as many ways as possible.

1. Nose at varying distances from the glass.

2. Tip the glass at different angles while nosing.

3. Nose in one nostril vs the other.

4. Put your nose right in the glass.

5. Pass the glass under your nose from right to left and from left to right.

6. Possibly perform steps 1-5 with your mouth closed and then again with your mouth open to engage your olfactory/retro-nasal receptors.

7. Try with different glass types. I enjoy a Glencairn, a Copita or a Highland glass for my nosings. But there is a wide array of glasses available for you to try.

8. I don't think you want to breathe too deeply through your nose when nosing, but you can and should try shorter inhales and longer/softer/slower breaths.

9. Roll the whisky around the glass, so that it coats the upper walls of the glass and makes it easier to smell. Don't swirl it around with fervour, as this could have the effect of exciting those very alcoholic/ethanol-like notes that nobody likes. Just a smooth roll of the glass on its side (without spilling) at an angle to coat more of the glass.

10. Sometimes you might lose the trail, as it were, or you might go nose blind because you've been smelling your whisky too much. If this does happen, you can reset your nose by smelling your arm, the inside of your elbow. Your own smell will help you recalibrate your sense of smell.

An array of glasses. All but one are suitable for whisky.

Each of the above techniques will engage your sense of smell differently and will help you get more varying notes from the whisky you are nosing.

Tasting Physical Process

1. First, take a small sip and swallow it. This is done to introduce your palate to the whisky.

2. Take a sip and let the whisky move around your tongue for a few seconds and then swallow. This is generally what I tend to do.

3. Some people say that you want to hold the whisky in your mouth 1 second for every year of age on this whisky. I suppose you can do that, but I tend to think that's a little silly and unnecessary. I would just do it for a few seconds or until your mouth is adequately coated.

4. Some people will swish the whisky around their mouth like mouthwash. I think people are trying to aerate the whisky when doing this though again I tend to think this is more silly and rude than beneficial. Also aerating whisky so roughly brings out the more alcoholic/ethanol-like notes. Again to each their own, I tend to move the whisky around my mouth lightly a few times, to coat my tongue and other parts of my mouth and then swallow and gauge how each part of my mouth feels and reacts.

5. When you take a sip ... concentrate on what you taste first at the front of your palate, then what you taste in the middle of your palate/tongue, and finally as it goes down your throat and transitions into a finish. This is part mental but also physical because you're tasting as the liquid moves over your tongue.

6. Some finishes are short but some are long and can change several times, so don't just stop after a few seconds, let it sit and see how long until you're no longer tasting the whisky.

A beautiful bottle of Whisky For Us. Image credit goes to a friend.

Mental process

Now that we've got the physical process out of the way ... for me, the physical process is less of a process and more of a series of things I can try to help me succeed at my goal of appreciating the whisky. My mental process is about figuring out what I'm nosing or tasting. It's about matching the flavours and aromas to the patterns stored in my brain. This is more difficult than you think and takes a lot of practice. The reason for this is explained by Davin De Kergommeaux in ... on page ... He explains, that the esters and congeners, the chemical compounds found in whisky taste like fruits etc. However a fruit is a complex set of flavors and textures but the reverse is not true. More than likely a Banana does not really taste like the banana note (the actual ester/congener/chemical compound) sometimes found in whisky. Because of this one-way relationship between these flavours, if you're new to whisky you still need to develop your own flavour bank for your palate. This is the reason why ... to most new drinkers whisky often just tastes like whisky and not the specific notes and flavours, it is because they haven't built up that pattern recognition yet.

So how do we go about this? Remember the concept of suggestion from earlier, how other people can artificially suggest or implant a flavour into your head. Then suddenly that flavour is undeniable, when a few moments ago, none of that was there, none of it was in your glass. Well, what you do is ... artificially ask yourself directional questions that will implant the suggestion of those notes in your head, that help you narrow flavours down until you're satisfied with your effort. Generally, most people start with a set of global flavour categories. I don't have them memorized (I don't think you need to), and for some people these categories have different classifications. The ones I generally consider are smoky, earthy, salty, sweet and savoury. Reece Simms from Sip Spirits has an interesting set of categories I have been considering recently. Check out her flavour camp tastings and courses. For example categories like roasted, golden and candy. The way you do this is you think of a particular flavour that you are tasting in the whisky and then you ask yourself which one of these categories does this flavour belong to? And then you do the same over and over until you're satisfied that you've gotten to your answer. I will do this twice below so that you can see and understand the process.

1. Is it smoky, earthy, salty, sweet or savoury?

   1. I am tasting something sweet.

2. Is it natural or artificial? Meaning, fruity or something like icing sugar?

   1. I am tasting something fruity.

3. Is it red fruits, green fruits or tropical fruits?

   1. I am tasting something like dark fruits or red fruits.

4. Is it plums, prunes, figs and dates or is it red apples or red grapes?

   1. I am tasting dates.

5. Is it dried dates, or is it slightly different are the dates part of something else?

   1. I am getting dried dates, but there is something else in there.

6. But now that I've decided on dates, it feels a little more complex than that. - Perhaps it's like an oatmeal cookie date square.

1. Is it smokey, earthy, salty, sweet, savoury?

   1. I am tasting something savoury.

2. I find savoury to be the most difficult category for me because it can incorporate a lot of different directions. Is it meat, vegetables, oriental or Asian flavours, ginger and fish?

   1. I am tasting roast beef.

3. Is it any more complicated than that? Is there any gravy? Or side of mashed potatoes? - Perhaps this time I can't decide on anything else and all I got is roast beef and that's good enough.

A glass showing some Scotch mist that often forms in a glass when left for some time.

Whisky tasting is a journey, and like all good journeys, it’s best enjoyed one step (or sip) at a time. Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to nose or taste whisky—it's about what you enjoy. The more you practice, the more confident you'll get, and before you know it, you'll be the one dropping notes of “smoked apricot” into your next tasting session. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and always trust your own palate.

So, grab a bottle you’ve never tried before, pour a dram, and see where your senses take you. Whether you're getting hints of campfire smoke or a full-on roast beef dinner, the important thing is that you're enjoying the experience. And who knows? You might even discover your next favourite whisky along the way.

If you found this helpful (or even if you just want to stay in the loop), don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter on the home page for more tips, tasting notes, and whisky adventures. After all, the world of whisky is always expanding—let’s explore it together, one dram at a time. Cheers!