Originally published in Unfiltered #96
Words: Kami Newton
As an SMWS Tasting Panel Chair, Kami Newton understands the need to assess each whisky as objectively as possible, while also embracing the flights of imagination and wonder that they can provoke. As he explains, it’s a fine line between sensory science and the poetry of flavour hedonism – all while celebrating the curveballs, unpredictabilities and unchartered territories that come from our single casks.
I closed my eyes as the aromas from the glass in my hand gently introduced themselves to my nose. And then there I was. In a moment of tranquillity. Perched beside a rockpool, watching seaweed sway this way and that as the smoke from a beach bonfire danced over barnacle-blanketed rocks.
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. But herein lies the problem.
Allowing whisky to guide us through technicolour voyages of fantasy, discovery, and expression is the glue that bonds us together. However, behind closed doors the professional process of analysing whisky is far from emotional. In fact, great lengths are taken to reduce biases, partialities, or artistic license altogether.
Striking a balance between the cold objectivity of scientific rigour and the warm subjectivity of the human experience is therefore a dilemma that requires a unique set of skills. Allow me to explain further by prising open the door into the world of professional sensory analysis.
Sensory stoicism
When creating whisky, it’s crucial to quantify quality, consistency, and off-notes, faults or flaws. Technology such as Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry can dissect a spirit into its many chemical parts. Yet despite such advances, nothing can analyse the quality of whisky quite like the human nose.
However, a nose cannot work in isolation. We rely on a labyrinth of nerves and neural pathways to take whisky vapours and translate them into recognisable odours, aromas and pre-determined terminology. As such, the process is undeniably subjective and susceptible to emotional bias, fatigue and what you’ve last had to eat.
Hence, for sensory analysis, try to control the tasting circumstances. Nothing but water beforehand, special lighting, set temperatures and absolutely no noise or erroneous aromas. Everything is prescribed, from dilution with water, to sipping the sample and even the time between one sample and the next.
Like a sniffer dog at an airport, it takes training to calibrate one’s sense of smell as a professional sensory analyst. The nose (and the brain) must be finely tuned to know what to look for. Sensitive enough to detect the faintest whiff of boiled cabbage, rancid butter, or bath soap in a sea of cereals, fruits, and flowers. Banished from this world are any emotive notions of orchard trees, honeybees or coal scuttles full of treacle.
Fantastical hedonism
Studying whisky with lab coats and stethoscopes plays a central role in the integrity of Scotch whisky. Its very purpose is to remove the colour and calligraphy from the tasting note in the interest of acquiring data. However, from a Society member’s vantage point, such tasting notes are like touring Scotland with your face buried in the travel guide. Interesting and informative, but ultimately missing the view.
Therefore, the task of the SMWS Tasting Panel is a tricky one. 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.
The middle way is always the hardest. Sitting between the binary code of sensory science and the poetry of flavour hedonism is where the SMWS Panel strikes a balance. It’s the Panel’s role to throw away your travel guide and replace it with a kaleidoscope to enjoy the view through the lens of magical wonder.
We simply ask one question – where would you like to go? Because whisky is a vehicle that takes you places. Places from your past. Places in the present. And places out of this world. It’s an exciting whirlwind adventure that never visits the same place twice. Which is largely due to the imperfections of single-cask whiskies.
Imperfections make whisky perfect
Sensory analysis and tasting whisky serve two separate purposes. Sensory analysis exists to iron out the wrinkles and spot the imperfections, largely before the new-make spirit has even peeked inside an oak cask. In the opposite corner, tasting whisky is hedonism in action. The purity of enjoyment, gratification and emotional connection.
The joy of single-cask whisky lies in the foibles, blemishes and eccentricities that slip through the scientific net. Those curveballs, unpredictabilities and unchartered territories that come without instructions or a map. Such imperfections stimulate the emotions and excite the senses in ways that are hard to explain.
What is it about the Deep, Rich & Dried Fruit intensity of a sherry cask that’s so appealing? Or what’s the big attraction to the sooty, ashy, and downright mucky mounds of coal dust that excite us from our Peated flavour profile? Certain other flavours are even harder to explain.
Why would anyone want to drink a spirit that tasted meaty, oily or even cheesy? How about a glass of smoked kippers or a bottle of old ship’s tar? Yet it’s often such idiosyncrasies that excite us the most. It’s these imperfections that make a whisky perfect by bringing back childhood memories and flooding us with waves of emotions and feelings.
It’s a personal adventure
Whatever your own subjective foibles for flavour, a Society single cask whisky will take you on a journey. Sometimes you discover something new. Other times you rediscover something old. But it’s always an adventure that explores a different path to others before it.
While such journeys are often shared, it’s important to understand that the experience of whisky flavour is unique for each of us. We all have our own emotions, memories and lives packed with individual experiences.
It’s the Society’s mission to straddle both the scientific and the emotional. To embellish the binary code of sensory analysis with enough colour and magic to awaken your imagination and electrify your emotions with each outturn. It’s a tough job, but someone must do it.
Unfiltered Magazine is The Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s premium whisky knowledge magazine delivering quality content exclusively to members in an immersive multimedia format monthly. To view all issues of Unfiltered, log in and access the members’ portal or join The SMWS today — the world’s most colourful whisky club.
