There is a lot of ways to enjoy the whisky, yet only one way to truly appreciate the maturated distillate, to explore all the flavours that this liquor brings and to properly do the tasting as an enthusiast for the best whisky experience.

Beside my love for perfume exploration, history of whisky along with tasting and appreciation was parallel hobby that I enjoy as equaly as perfumes. I consider myself a true whisky enhtusiast for over a decade, who is exploring the different flavours and olfactory sensations from many distilleries mostly based in Scotland getting to know different tasting profiles and charactestics of every region.

Tasting experiance

Most of my interest and experience is based on Single Malt whisky, a type of distillate that is made 100% from malted barley at one distillery. The singularity of the whisky produced and bottled as Single Malt is what I highly appreciate in order to find differences between the styles and tasting profiles.

Nowadays single malts are far superior type of whisky compared to multinational corporate giant brands that are selling poor quality blended whisky, and here I will shortly explain why.

It might sound harsh - I am not an expert, just a well informed and experienced enthusiast and I don’t spend much time due to disappointment with cosmetically over-proccessed and flavour engineered brand products made to appeal to as many people as possible and distributed for massive consumption, for passive consumers with lack awerness of true calibre of good whisky and customers who could accept that without challenging the quality of the spirit. Most of these popular blended whiskies had lack of flavour, which is already toned down to the bottom constantly over the years. Also producers are using large amount of added industrial colorant for abysmal fake tan to amplify and create visual experience for choosing the drink based on fake rich color and that just doesn’t work for me. These products are just for lazy brand consumption, for mixing with sprakling drinks and tones of ice - which is fine if someone enjoys the whisky in this way, but those consumers will be missing out so much – they would not be into discovering this intense explorative journey of flavour and sensations in a glass. Don’t get me wrong there are some great blended whiskies from independent bottlers, but here I am talking about popular blended whiskies which prices are not very consumer friendly lately for the taste and smell they have to offer.

Back to the single malts - I would not dive much into the history, the proccess and the differences between the regions of Scotland, these are just my tips as a hobbist. Something like a guidelines for whisky appreciation and tasting to enjoy and learn more about the spirit.

Glassware

There is a variety of glassware when it comes to whisky, yet mostly common used are tumblers, tulip shape glasses or Glencairn glass.

I have tried all and love to have a whisky in different type of glass to experiment, although the best one for appreciations and whisky tasting is the Glencairn glass based on my experiance. It has specific shape and gets narrower on the top, so it could deliver the aromas to the nose best out of any type of spirit and it is worth investing in it.

Neat and with a splash of water

I enjoy whisky neat and of course with a splash of water. Few drops of water open up the aromas, especially in the older and higher strength whiskies. I never liked to add ice in the whisky and certainly not during the tasting. Addition of ice will toned down the aromas, making flavour rather dull, bland and uninteresting. Also, it will dilute the content in the glass due to melting.

Basics

Take into account basics:

1. Region

2. Type of maturation

3. Age statement

4. Chill-filtration

5. Natural color

6. %ABV

All of these combined makes my whisky experience clear about presentation of the spirit, about distillery, quality and integrity of their expressions.

Great example of label on integrity bottling from Aberlour - everything you need know is on the label

Region

In Scotland there are six regions with more than hunderd distilleries – Speyside, Island, Islay, Highland, Lowland, Campbeltown. They all have different climate and distinctive characteristics such as peat fire and smoke for an example, that they use for kilning the barley and due to different flavours it is wise to choose malts that suits personal taste. Every region is well worthy of exploration.

Type of maturation

Whisky is made in the cask they say, and in Scotland spirit is considered whisky after three years of legal minimum of the age spent in cask. Almost all whiskies are matured in used oak barrels. Maturation length and size of the barrels depends on several factors, including local regulations and regional climate. There is a variety of maturation types, but mostly common used are bourbon or sherry type of maturation, due to previous content of liquid that was in the barrels. Personaly I love both bourbon and sherry maturation depending on whisky.

Age statement

Legal minimum for whisky maturation is three years. There are whiskes with an age statement and non-age statement populary called NAS whiskies. Age statement on a label of whisky, expressed in numerical form, must reflect the age of the youngest whisky used in bottling. The years that count for maturation are only the ones when whisky was in the cask proactively maturing - the years spent in the bottle doesn’t count for an age statement. I always appreciate to know and to see an age statement on the label, but I love so many great NAS whiskies, so it is not mandatory when I am purchasing.

Chill-filtration

Chill-filtration is the process of removing esters and fatty acids from whisky. Those natural chemicals that whisky got during the maturation in the cask can cause haze and produce sediment known as scotch mist. Some of the producers are using this procces to cosmeticaly “enhance” the look of their product, but what are they really do is affecting the flavour by removing the chemicals and making the whisky less flavoured, thin, less olily with different mouthfeel, texture and short aftertaste.

Whisky enthusiasts as myself appreciate non chill-filtered whisky, although I love some non integrity bottlings from distilleries that are using this process, but asking myself sometimes how great it would be that these single malts are craftedly presented in original form without the chill-filtration.

Natural color

Whisky industry use a trick with colorant for a long time - adding the industrial caramel to change the pale whisky into the darker liquid to create visual illusion for fuller flavour of the darker drink with richer color. That is why I appreciate producers and distilleries that are not adding the caramel E150 in the whisky. I like to see and admire loveley natural color that whisky got from the wood during maturation.

%ABV

Higher % of ABV (alcohol by volume) is always welcome in my case. It delivers more flavour, but sometimes it is harder to handle for a beginners, especially the cask strength whisky. Legal minimum in Scotland is 40%, but I appreciate at least 43% and above. Cask strength whiskies are about 60% or more and they requires some experience for siping and tasting to be appreciated.

appreciating whisky

Pour your favourite whisky in the Glencairn glass and give it a little bit time for development - “A minute in a glass for a year in the cask”.

Appearance – consider color of the liquid. It could provide clue in what type of the cask the whisky has been matured. Swirl the spirit in the glass and look for the “legs” and “tears” – higher alcohol strength may throw slow running and thick tears, which indicates good body.

Aroma on the nose – take a gentle sniff and try to detect the aromas.

Taste – take a small sip and roll it in the mouth. Note the texture and weight or mouthfeel, consider the balans of the primary tastes. Try to find out last piece of the puzzle - how long is the finish and does whisky leaves long and pleasent aftertaste.

Try the whisky first neat and than with the splash of water. Enjoy!

I hope this guideline from an enthusiast could be really helpful for entering this realm of single malt whiskies, that are mostly named in gealic, which is original and ancient language of Scotland. Sláinte!

Whisky appreciation