How to taste whisky

1. Glasses

When tasting whisky, the main thing is to prepare a good enough glass.

ISO tasting glass

It is best to use the ISO standard tasting glass (ISOStandardWineTastingGlass), which was designed by France in 1974, it does notwhisky course highlight any characteristics of the wine, directly present the original taste of the wine, and is recommended and chosen by every tasting organization in the world. The ISO glass, which resembles a budding tulip, is also known as the Tulip Glass. The narrow mouth helps to bring together the flavors and guide the liquor to the best position on the tongue. Whether it is wine, whiskey or brandy, it can be tasted in an ISO glass.

Glencairn Smelling Glasses

Another proposed glass that can be used is the GlencairnGlass, a favorite of many Scotch whisky lovers. These glasses are designed for the top whisky bartenders and tasters to develop aromatic glasses, shaped like a whisky pot still, has become the specific glass of many professional events. Is invented by the Grand Caine company to let professional whisky enthusiasts drink the glass, the same is also applied similar to the tulip shape, but it cup mouth than the ISO cup tighter, smell the aroma will be more concentrated some, naturally, the sense of ethanol will be more obvious some, drink, please also pay attention to it.

2. Flavor wheel

For whisky beginners, the most difficult thing is how to make taste descriptions, originally these flavors know a lot, but can not write. At this point, the flavor wheel is very important. Flavor wheel can help the taster to identify the flavors, but also to help the taster to sort out these flavors.

In WhiskyMagazineTastingWheel in the whisky taste into eight categories, namely cereal (Cereal), fruit or ester aroma (Fruityorestery), floral or aldehyde aroma (Floraldihydic), peat or phenol (Peatyorphenolic), the end of the wine ( Feinty), sulfur flavor (Sulphuryfromorganosulphurcompounds), oakcarpet and hard floor steam cleaner barrels (Woody), wine or extract release (Wineyorextractives).

These eight categories have long reflected the possible sources of these flavors, such as the aroma of vanilla is from oak barrels, the aroma of red grapes is from previously soaked wine, the taste of disinfection potion is from peat, etc.

3. Notebook

If possible, try to keep all your tasting records in the same notebook, partly to keep track of them, and partly because if you ever drink a similarKids21 wine, you can quickly look up the old records and check them to see if it was your own tasting experience that caused the change, or if the wine really tasted different.