Anyone blind taste different years?

[timelinex]

I've been amassing my collection of Whiskys and getting a taste of many different brands,years & labels.

Whenever I drink a specific bottle I usually look at other reviews first to see what flavors to look for. I'm still a beginner but have been getting better at picking out tastes. However just this weekend, my world was rocked. I tried doing an unbiased blind test on different vintages from the same brand and came up severely disappointed.

When I have the bottles in front of me I can tell the difference and I sound like an up and coming connoisseur (haha). However as soon as you close my eyes and hand me different vintages from the same manufacturer, it all tastes almost the same!

For the life of me, I could not tell the difference between the Glenlivet 12/15/18 and the difference between Jameson standard and Gold Reserve. It blew my mind. I kept on trying over and over, alternating between nosing & tasting them with my eyes open and then closed. My eye closed results would not get any better.

To be honest, while I did get it right every time, I had a tough time even differentiating between a Glenlivet and a Jameson. 2 Whiskys that are in different genres.With my eyes open it is night and day. With my eyes closed, I definitely knew one from the other because of a specific signature taste in one or the other. However it was ALOT harder than I would have imagined. I had to really nose it and taste it out.

My wife and I both shared this experience and agreed that it was very humbling. I am going to try this with my Macallans & Laphroaigs next.

Anyone else ever do an HONEST blind tasting that surprised you?

[sorren]

If it was easy then everyone would be experts... I do a few blind tastings and have different results, the hardest ones are when you blind taste a few age groups that are all bourbon, but usually different ages in the same distillery can be made up of different vattings eg bourbon.. Bourbon/ sherry and so on...

[timelinex]

[sorren]

The thing is, it will all depend on the malts your tasting.. I recently did another Glenfarclas core range tasting 10,15,17,21,25,30yo and although this was done in order it really was very noticeable and easy to detect the differences.. There may only be subtle differences but they will be there..

[TheWM]

It takes time. And even then time isn't really the key factor, it's the amount of whisky you will drink and the range that you will try to get your taste variances in tune. I often ask my missus to 'pour me something' to see whether I can guess what she has poured from a selection of 15 bottles. I sometimes get it wrong first time although have put that down to her not rinsing the glass or what I may have recently eaten (which makes a difference).

I think you have the right idea in terms of not going out and spending big bucks on bottles that you acknowledge may be 'wasted' on you currently. Wise decision. There are still great bottles out there around the £50 and under mark where you should be able to train your pallette to pick out various notes.

Whilst I don't do it now, I did used to keep a little tasting diary and write down my thoughts. I found that it helped. And when I tried the same whisky a few weeks later see whether I could pick out the notes I first found and whether there were more notes I picked up and/or how the whisky had developed.

I would also add that given that your sight is probably the single biggest sense that people have, don't be too disheartened that you can't tell differences yet. You take away sight from most people and see how they struggle! Spend more time nosing, adding smaller drops of water, tasting then nosing again and write down your thoughts.

I'm 6 years into my whisky journey and it's only recently that I've felt comfortable enough to do some tastings and write about them fairly confidently (which incidentally has coincided with me drinking other spirits and getting a bigger range of flavours).

Do enjoy your journey.

[dramblersanonymous]

On top of what TheWM says, diversify your palate - try tasting and nosing other stuff. Gins are a useful place to start because they often tell you what botanicals are used for the flavouring, so you can learn to pick out each spice or fruit individually. Vodkas are great to learn about the base spirit rye/corn/grapes/etc.

If you can get along to a group tasting session it might help as different people will taste and smell different things. This is especially useful as there might be a particular flavour in there that you recognise but can't pinpoint - someone else might suggest it and boom! Gotcha.

For me, making sure the spirit is not cold is the most important thing. I also always try mine with a tiny drop of water (a pipette drop or so) because it breaks the surface oils and releases a slightly different profile.

Something else to think about is the shape of the still. Short dumpy stills produce longer, more complex congeners which leads to a more oily, 'dirty' spirit. Whereas a tall still is much lighter. You might find it easier to pick out the nuisances of one type of still.

There are lots of other cool things to try, but I learnt by smelling absolutely everything. And thinking about it. Tying products to styles, blind tastings, diversifying the palette in food, etc - it all helps!

Hopefully something of use up there ^^

Cheers
John