Bourbons from the Same Line: (Blind) Comparative Tastings and Thoughts

[WAINWRIGHT]

In a similar vein, every night my wife selects a blind shot and I have to guess what it is. I have around 100 open bottles in three groups: pre-govt warning, post-govt warning, and special stuff. Sometimes she will tell me which group but I must say my correct guess ratio is dismal. It is very humbling.

My wife and I do this also and it is amazing and humbling it can be,I often get the type and profile identified correctly but label,well not so much.I will also have to say that it is amazing that with nose alone I am about as accurate with the palate.BTW 100 open bottles,you are my hero that would be half of my bunker alone!

[peb]

I have tried several blind tastings with Elmer T. Lee, Hancocks, Blantons, and Rock Hill Farms, and I cannot consistently identify which is which even though they range in price from $25 to $50.

I did the same thing, minus Hancocks and insert AAA10. I thought the ETL easily held its own with the Blanton's and RHF, and the AAA10 was no slouch either.

[Meruck]

Really there are so many comparisons to me made. What ever the number of bourbons there ate times two or three. Weather it blind, double blind or eyes wide open its really hard to narrow down to one or two of the favorite bourbons from all that is out there. I maintain that pallet condition has as much or more to do with momentary preference than anything else.

A few days ago I tried VSO Fitz for the first time and was disappointed as compared to HHs' other contributions to the line. Today I tried it again and found it quite pleasing. Then I was smoking a batch of BBQ sauce and got to the point where I liked everything and could not tell them apart. Your favorite today may only be third or fourth tomorrow. You are the sum of your experiences and that affects the way bourbon tastes.

if you want to try it for your self, have a Tate's of something you do not particularly care for, and then have a coup,e teaspoons of a hot BBQ sauce and then try it again.

Pallet conditioning, more important that air conditioning.

[CoMobourbon]

Right. Taste is not a positive discovery of an absolute truth but rather a constructed composite of sensations and context.

That I think is what makes blind comparisons of whiskeys from the same line so interesting. Obviously, there are always tons of variables. But when you blindly taste whiskeys from the same distillery, mashbill, and even brand profile (i.e. barrels selected for certain flavor profile), and you do so at about the same time, you control for lots of those variables. Maybe enough of those variables that you can start to make (rough) generalizations about what you tend to like.

[Meruck]

Wow, I really like that first sentence. Makes you sound edumacated. Seriously. But you are right on. In the end the best part about tasting different and or similar whiskeys at the same time is tasting different of similar whiskeys at the same time.

To your point I have for d that when I like one over another one day, I alway do. Maybe not to the same extent but it remains consistent.

[CoMobourbon]

Wow, I really like that first sentence. Makes you sound edumacated. Seriously. But you are right on. In the end the best part about tasting different and or similar whiskeys at the same time is tasting different of similar whiskeys at the same time.

To your point I have for d that when I like one over another one day, I alway do. Maybe not to the same extent but it remains consistent.

I get extra lucid after the first pour. Then...

[squire]

For me the blind tastings bring the differences into focus and allow me to think about what I like in a specific whisky and why.

[Meruck]

But then you're a "Guru".