Improving Your Whisky Tasting Skills 1
The Double Pour Comparison (DPC)
Those new to whisky appreciation usually want to know how they can sharpen their tasting skills and tease out more subtle detail in their dram.
Our prevailing habits can make tasting skills development difficult. For most of us, when it is “dram night” it would be rare that we stop at a single pour. We often find ourselves pouring a second dram, and even a third. If in the company of our whisky mates, we might go further.
Something interesting happens as we head down this path. We may think that the drams keep tasting better and better the further we go, but our senses may be deceiving us. It turns out that at a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of just 0.2% (after the consumption of just one standard drink) most of us start to experience a reduction in our ability to taste and smell, as well as reduced vigilance and deterioration in various cognitive functions. This tendency increases the more alcohol we consume. (1)
The physiological reality is that our best tasting is done early on. If we want to learn more about our drams, then instead of consuming one full dram and then another, it makes far greater sense that we taste several whiskies simultaneously early on, preferably in smaller quantities.
In recent years I have developed the technique which I call the Double Pour Comparison (DPC). I choose two whiskies that may be fairly similar in their cask influence and age, and taste them side by side. A sip of one, then a sip of the other. How do they change with the addition of a few drops of water? If one is higher ABV than the other, add a little water to the higher ABV expression so that they are at comparable strengths. Look at a whisky flavour wheel and consider what specific flavours dominate in each of the drams being tasted. How do they each feel in the mouth, and do they stop short or leave a long lingering flavour taste?
As a great lover of “sherry bombs” (ex-sherry cask expressions), I have learned a great deal using the DPC technique, comparing Glenfarclas against Glendronach, against Aberlour, against Macallan. We all know the lovely flavours of a traditional sherry cask – Christmas pudding, dried autumnal fruits, cinnamon, orange peel, dark chocolate. It is remarkable, however, just how much difference there is between these seemingly similar expressions when we apply this comparative technique. Some are significantly sweeter than others, some more peppery. As we make more comparisons, we begin to understand the differing cask influences of the many types of sherry – dry and astringent aperitif styles (such as Fino), right through to sweet unctuous desert styles (such as PX). What type of cask (or casks) has your favourite sherried whisky been produced in?
Given that our capacity to discern nuances in flavour declines as we consume a succession of drams, it is a real shame that we often hold back our very best whisky to the end of the night. Being aware of this principle should also serve as an encouragement to each of us to prefer pouring smaller drams. Quite literally, less is more.
JG Wigmore, “Breath Alcohol”, 2013, Elsevier Ltd
