The Reverse of the Mirror

[Wryguy]

Water and crackers between rounds do the trick for me. Granted going from an Octomore to a Weller 12 is a bit daft, but in most cases if the profiles aren't too extreme and you've had enough time between pours all is well. It does depend on the host/pourer exercising good judgement in choosing the order of spirits.

[393foureyedfox]

ever notice in a blind tasting that one whiskey may throw off your taster for everything else?

I like both HH6BIB and Dickel 9, and you guys know how I love the Dickel 9 year. But, if Ive had anything from HH beforehand, I can not enjoy the Dickel the rest of the night. Cant explain it but it happens every time Ive done it. In such a case, I would not pick my favorite whiskey if the HH product came before it in a blind tasting.

of course, its not fair to do blind tastings in the scenario where you do one today, one tomorrow, etc, as your mood, or whatever could affect that.

[squire]

Well, I was with you until this part. Anything tasted after a peated Scotch, will taste like...peated Scotch

[portwood]

Not all Scottish whiskys are peated, in point of fact the biggest selling single malt in Scotland, Glenmorangie, contains no peat.

[squire]

The heavily peated (Island style) Scottish whiskys get press far out of proportion to their actual percentage of Scotch whisky as a whole.

The point of blind tasting is to approach the glass with an open mind and cross comparisons can be instructive. Put a Canadian such as Forty Creek Barrel Select in a tasting of Lowland or Speyside malts, or an 18 year old Sazerac Rye in a tasting of Highland Malts.

[Memphis]

^^Fully understood gents, as I've got more than a few SM's I enjoy. My point is more that identifying traits and flavors in aged spirits is better done when there isn't such an enormous range of flavor profiles that cloud and confound sips that follow. One of the things I enjoy is "taking a walk thru Scotland". I'll start with a Scapa or Old Pult, then maybe a Springbank, a sherried speyside, then something from Islay.

With Bourbon, mixing up the distillers, ages and bottlings provides great fun. I just don't think it should be done with such vastly different spirits. Maybe its cause I'm a little old school, don't mix the grain and the grape and such. When I sip at home I go with the same spirit, but different pours and bottlings. I find I can identify more flavor profile that way. That said, to each their own, and that IS the beauty of fine aged spirits!

[portwood]

The heavily peated (Island style) Scottish whiskys get press far out of proportion to their actual percentage of Scotch whisky as a whole.

Correct.

Plus, most people associate Scotch and smoke because the vast majority of blends (making up over 90% of the Scotch consumed) contain some quantity (albeit very usually a tiny %) of heavily peated island whiskies.

[squire]

For me peat in whisky is like hops in beer/ale or cayenne pepper in Cajun cuisine, easy to over do at which point it becomes a dominant flavor.

[Kpiz]

I wonder if organic, locally produced broccoli from your good couzin across the river is better than that gmo store bought stuff from California.

Is this what the rest of the country thinks of our CA produce? Apologies for getting hung up on the only non-whiskey comment in this thread...

Anyways, I think both blind tastings with many types of whiskeys (and non-whiskeys) and blind tastings focused within one category of whiskey can be instructive. The former allows the drinker to notice similarities and differences between types of spirits, while the latter highlights more nuanced differences. Perhaps Squire’s point is that if any part of the identity of a whiskey is given to the drinker, it is not truly blind.

I’ve started throwing blind tastings at guests recently. The first was Ritt1 vs Ritt354 (more on that in the Ritt thread soon), the other was of Armagnacs that were mistaken for bourbon (they taste a lot like bourbon). A good time has been had by all.

[Harry in WashDC]

. . . I’ve started throwing blind tastings at guests recently. The . . . other was of Armagnacs that were mistaken for bourbon (they taste a lot like bourbon). A good time has been had by all.

Rats! First it was the cognac people looking for a cheaper substitute that pushed up prices on my favorite Armagnac. Now the bourbon crowd will know about this secret. Is there no end to my misery? :banghead:

Sorry about being off-thread but what with the snow and all . . . but I guess sharing the secret here is ok. I'll leave it to the reader to find out which ones taste like bourbon. Happy tasting.

Edited February 13, 2014 by Harry in WashDC

[garbanzobean]

Rats! First it was the cognac people looking for a cheaper substitute that pushed up prices on my favorite Armagnac. Now the bourbon crowd will know about this secret. Is there no end to my misery? :banghead:

Sorry about being off-thread but what with the snow and all . . . but I guess sharing the secret here is ok. I'll leave it to the reader to find out which ones taste like bourbon. Happy tasting.

I saw a 40 year old Armanac on sale for around $300. This thread makes me want to see just how similar they are . . .

[Kpiz]

Sorry Harry, didn't mean to spill the booze.