October Outturn 2024 Feature Article
One of the most frequent comments we receive from newcomers and the ‘uninitiated’ is in reference to the bottle names, and the tasting notes. “Who writes them?” “What do they mean?” “How can a whisky taste like a ’67 Merc Cabriolet’s upholstery?”
The answer to the first question is of course our expert Tasting Panel in the UK — they write the tasting notes (the final notes of which are an amalgamation of each panellist’s notes) and name the whisky. Now, early on in my whisky journey my answer to the others would’ve been “people with far more experience and better palates can detect these notes”. However, after a few years of doing this 9 – 5 every (business) day, I can say with some confidence that I do completely understand some of the ludicrous tasting notes that our Tasting Panel come up with. Can I detect most of them? Absolutely not. But, I can identify some of my own which just a few years ago I would’ve found confusing and potentially a tad ridiculous.
Anyone who has read our tasting notes will understand that some of the time it’s not just a list of flavours that make up the actual notes; sometimes, the tasting notes are descriptions of places, weather, experiences, and all sorts of things that you can’t particularly taste. This begs the question: how does one balance the flourished tasting notes designed to set the scene for the reader (much like a descriptive paragraph intended to immerse the reader), and the listicles of flavours we all know that just straight-up tell us what we could be tasting or nosing in a particular dram?
SMWS Tasting Panel Chair Kami Newton recently said in an Unfiltered piece:
“Scotch whisky is evocative, immersive, and emotive in equal measure. It has the power to transport us to places that we have buried so deep within the brain bank that they have been all but forgotten. It’s wondrous. It’s a delight.
On the one hand, the Panel must assess each whisky as objectively as possible. On the other hand, it must embrace a sprinkling of imagination, fantasy and playful visualisation. Like speed-dating for the senses, the Society Tasting Panel introduces each month’s malt-derived molecules to Society members.”
Kami Newton, SMWS Tasting Panel Chair
Now, in this article (available on our site’s blog Whiskywise) Kami speaks of the fine line between letting the imagination run wild with tasting notes and remaining absolutely unbiased on a sensory level; the tasting notes may be fun and wacky, but each whisky is still assessed scrupulously and objectively (as well as anonymously). Why the flourishing? Why can whisky transport you? Because it’s not just about a dram that tastes like Woolies’ chocolate mud cake, it’s about a dram that tastes like the Woolies chocolate mud cake you had at a friend’s birthday two decades ago after a big promotion. That tasting note might then evolve into the smell of a flower you walked past whilst on your way to said party. Maybe there was fresh linen being hung up in the garden on the clothesline as you went up to the front door.
See how a simple tasting note grew into much more? It set the scene and transformed the surrounding space, it took you back in time.; all of that simply from a sip. This is the power of flavour and part of what makes whisky so special; it’s not just the great taste or the smell, but where those two can take you back to — the memories that can be evoked. This is why some of the Society’s tasting notes, and other people’s individual tasting notes, can be so incredibly long-winded and occasionally have little to do with flavours. Sometimes a whisky is more than what it appears to be on the surface.
We’re running a lovely little competition this month (details of which can be found further along in this Outturn), I encourage you to try your hand at some honest and transportive tasting notes. Remember, there’s flourishing for the sake of sounding complex (anyone can pick up a thesaurus), and then there’s being truthful to your own emotions and memories; if you do the latter, the flourishes might just come naturally, you’ll find.
Cheers,
Adam Ioannidis
This article is featured in October 2024 Outturn — bottles will be available to purchase on Friday the 4th of October at midday AEST exclusively to members of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Not a member? Click here to learn more about the world’s most colourful whisky club.
