Half of the judgement at a tasting is already made in the mind before tasting.
However, we have to concentrate solely on the appearance, smell and taste.
So the eyes, nose and mouth are challenged. Without further narrowing down clues - such as distillery - it becomes really difficult!
Here is how to proceed with a Blind Tasting
First we look at the colour of the whisky and can make initial assessments about age and cask ageing. Normally, the lighter a whisky is, the younger it is, and the darker it is, the older it is. However, it must be taken into account that a certain cask ageing also produces a darker whisky.
A possible chill-filtering can also be perceived by looking at the whisky. Without chill-filtering, streaks or floating particles may appear in the whisky. We can easily determine the alcohol content of the whisky in the alcohol meter . To do this, pour the whisky into the spindle and read off the alcohol content. This also shows whether we need water to dilute the whisky.
Then the nose comes into play ... take a nose! Smoke and spiciness are probably smelled the quickest and best. Other notes such as wood, fresh fruit, ripe fruit, vanilla, spices and so on are certainly more difficult to perceive and require some practice. If we smell notes of sherry, rum or wine, we can conclude that the wine has been aged in a cask.
Next comes the taste ... take a sip! The taste gives us further clues. Here we pay attention to the alcohol sharpness to get closer to the age of the whisky. The taste of fruit, wood, vanilla and spices helps us to find the whisky in the glass. And then the guesswork begins. In a group, guessing is certainly great fun. Without clues, however, you can't determine exactly which whisky it is, only the direction. A blind tasting can be enhanced by mixing an 'outlier', for example a rum, among the whiskies. Or you can use a coloured glass so that you can't see the colour of the whisky.
Whether 'blind' or not - have fun tasting!
