Whisky Forum - Recognizing Whiskies Blind

gambler · Double Malt Member Joined: 13 Jan 2012 Posts: 129

So, I was curious how good my taste discrimination of the whiskies I currently have open would be after about 10 months of drinking Scotch (and Bourbons and other world whiskies). My girlfriend poured a dram while I was in another room and I focused on trying to determine which one it was. The options were a variety of single malts, plus Amrut Cask Strength or Redbreast 12 Cask Strength. Pretty sure if she'd picked either of the latter two I would have guessed immediately. There was no strong smoke/peat in the smell or taste so it wasn't any of the smoky Islay or Taliskers. I also could tell it wasn't my Bunnahabhain 18. So I'd eliminated 6 and that left an Auchentoshan 3 Wood, Tomintoul 12 YO Oloroso, Balvenie Golden Cask and Glenmorangie Finealta. I added a touch of water, tried to narrow it down and said I didn't think it was the Tomintoul... which it was, and therefore the attempt was over.

I'm curious as to how others think they might do in similar taste tests with whiskies they've had at least a few drams from over a couple of months...

Grant M · Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2012 5:33 pm Post subject:

I am pretty confident i would be able to identify a whisky i am familiar with but i cant say i have tried to do a taste test myself but i may get my wife to pour me a few different drams perhaps at the weekend to see how i get on.

Incidentally i thoght the Redbreast 12 Cask Strength was outstanding.

gambler · Double Malt Member Joined: 13 Jan 2012 Posts: 129

The Redbreast 12 Cask Strength is really a nice whisky. I will also note that - other than the Auchentoshan 3 Wood - I'm less than 1/4 of the way done with the whiskies I wasn't sure of (and had never had them previously), so I didn't feel too bad at missing the Tomintoul - though it was the most heavily tried of the remaining ones other than the Auchentoshan.

I may put a few out side by side tonight to try to start to discriminate between them better.

Archer · Master Of Malts Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 1520

A difficult one would be to discriminate between 2 very similar style/age whiskies, i suppose some whiskies would take a lot of familiarity to recognise blind first guess. For instance some An Cnoc expressions and Auchentoshan expressions can be very similar in style and taste.

Quaich1 · Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2012 8:24 pm Post subject:

Interesting demonstration. I have never tried a blind taste testing myself. I think I would be able to distinguish many of the Islay single malts but distinguishing all the other exact names of drams from other regions from a choice of let's say 25 different bottles would be difficult for me I believe.
_________________
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Blakey · Master Of Malts Joined: 07 Sep 2009 Posts: 263

I will have to get my wife to pour me 2 or 3 whiskies at the weekend when i normally enjoy a few and see how i fare.

Alexppp · Master Of Malts Joined: 16 Jul 2010 Posts: 1791

I've tried that with my girlfriend a few times, with her pouring two drams for me blind. So far I have 100% success rate, but only because she happened to pick really distinctive whiskies - Laphroaig 10 and Lagavulin 16 the first time, and Talisker 57 North and Highland Park 18 another.

A few times friends have bought me whisky in pubs without me looking - most recently I misidentified a Jura 10 for a Glenlivet 12.

Alastair · Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2012 11:15 am Post subject:

I have tested myself with the 3 big hitting Islay drams Ardbeg 10, Laphroaig 10 and Lagavulin 16 and was able to identify each without a problem. I would imagine some of the the Speyside drams may be a lot harder to identify as some have very similar profiles.

Alexppp · Master Of Malts Joined: 16 Jul 2010 Posts: 1791

Yeah the 3 big Islay ones are pretty easy to identify - not least because they don't have the same alcohol content. There's no way a Laphroaig 10 at 40% can be mistaken for an Ardbeg at 46%. Speysides are indeed tricky - if I know that I'm having a Glenlivet 12 and a Glenfiddich 12, I can tell which is which, but if I'm given a Speyside dram completely blind I can mix them up pretty easily.

nitram · Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2012 2:30 pm Post subject:

Tried this a few times. I'd say the success rate was usually around 75% depending on how distinctive the whisky is. It plummets rapidly after I have had a few though!

One that had me and my nephew stumped was when the wife poured us a Benriach Curiositas which I forgot I had opened. We guessed our way through the 4 or 5 islay whiskies I had opened then gave up.