Whisky Descriptions.....how pretentious

[Dave7]

Our son bought me a 12 months sub to "Whisky Me" and I get a different 5 CL sample each month.
Yesterdays is 25 year old Glenfarclas which (and I condense this) they describe as......
Seeded toast
Cherry liqueur
Ginger bread man (ehh?)
Honey
Double cream
And to finish........remnants of cut grass in a dry, musty finish.
Who the hell writes this drivel ?

 

[ianrauk]

Our son bought me a 12 months sub to "Whisky Me" and I get a different 5 CL sample each month.
Yesterdays is 25 year old Glenfarclas which (and I condense this) they describe as......
Seeded toast
Cherry liqueur
Ginger bread man (ehh?)
Honey
Double cream
And to finish........remnants of cut grass in a dry, musty finish.
Who the hell writes this drivel ?

The same people who write the same for wine

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Well they are not going to say it whiffs of peat bog and stagnant water are they?

 

[MichaelW2]

Whoever they are, they are wearing red trousers.

 

[Mburton1993]

All you need to know about alcohol is the price and percentage.

 

[Dave7]

All you need to know about alcohol is the price and percentage.

Its 43 % and retails at approx £120 a bottle.
@YukonBoy for that price I would want a bit better than peat bog.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

There's some truth in some tasting notes but as with many things, there's always an opportunity for some pretentious winker to take it too far.

Different wines / whiskies / teas / coffees / allsorts do have different elements that you can genuinely taste. I'm not that discerning with alcohol but I can definitely taste honey in Highland Park for example, and I can taste and smell burning peat fire in Laphroig. I can also taste grassy tones and citrus fruit notes in some beers. Those characteristics were pointed out to me, I think I'd have struggled to pin down exactly what that element was otherwise, but once identified it's clear. So tasting notes have at least some merit.

Seeded toast and double cream in whisky though? Someone's had three too many I'd suggest.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

At at whisky tasting I went to with a friend, we were asked to make notes on what flavours/smells we could identify for each nip.
On each one the host would go around the table and ask each taster to call out what s/he had noted.

On the first one were comments like, fresh straw, burnt grass, apple skins. He came to me and I said, "It evokes memories of the smell in primary school toilets in the '60s with undertones of carbolic soap."

The host appeared a little taken aback.

On the second one the comments were suggestions of vanilla, warm toffee, oak. I said, "It reminds me of the clean smell of the close after my mum had finished washing the stairs with bleach and a deck brush."

The host never asked me again.

The thing is, my reactions were genuine, I wasn't trying to be funny. Everyone's taste buds are different and how you perceive a flavour or scent is very personal. My carbolic soap and bleached stairs memories were of good times and were smells I liked. However, I can understand that it did come across as if I was taking the mickey.

 

[Dave7]

There's some truth in some tasting notes but as with many things, there's always an opportunity for some pretentious winker to take it too far.

Different wines / whiskies / teas / coffees / allsorts do have different elements that you can genuinely taste. I'm not that discerning with alcohol but I can definitely taste honey in Highland Park for example, and I can taste and smell burning peat fire in Laphroig. I can also taste grassy tones and citrus fruit notes in some beers. Those characteristics were pointed out to me, I think I'd have struggled to pin down exactly what that element was otherwise, but once identified it's clear. So tasting notes have at least some merit.

Seeded toast and double cream in whisky though? Someone's had three too many I'd suggest.

Now, in part, that is my point.
You said you could "taste grassy tones". When have you ever eaten grass ??

 

[HobbesOnTour]

......And somewhere on a whisk(e)y forum there's a few folks having a laugh about a description they saw for the new bike from Company ABC "You won't believe the detail they go into about tyres!"

What can seem pretentious at first starts to make sense with a bit of experience and knowledge. But it's an entirely personal experience. Your vocabulary will be different to mine, neither is more correct than another.
Don't forget too, that there are people who make a living writing about these things. They have to justify their wages!

What a great gift you have for the winter! It's a pity it's only 5cl. I'd suggest holding some back and trying it again a few months down the road. You might surprise yourself!
Do you have a proper tasting glass? Well worth an investment!
You can also help train your palate with.....anything. Taking a moment to consider the taste, layers of flavour, the texture....good for the palate and the mind!
There's also an opportunity to do a bit of research into the history of the distilleries and the whiskies. That gets really interesting and gives a perspective to cut through the bullcrap! Prohibition era Mafia connections (Laphroaig), modern day Mafia connections (Macallan), terrorist suspicions (Bruichladdich), breaking the mould (Glenfiddich).

On a side note, Glenfarclas is one of the least pretentious whisky makers out there! I recall reading an hilarious interview with the current GM who was railing against some of the marketing language used to promote his whisky.
Last time I checked they were the only Scottish distillery that gave us the option to try a whisky at different ages - the only difference being the age. The 25 year old is interesting, and complex but like many a cyclist, experienced and past its peak

Finally - what a great theme for a cycle tour!

Good luck and I hope you enjoy your gift and where it can take you!

 

[Profpointy]

There's a rather good, if now rather old, little book by the late Michael Jackson ( no, not that one ! ) where the facing page has a picture of the bottle, and the text includes a few facts and figures, his rating, then a sentence of tasting notes. Some of the whiskies are no longer available and many of more recent entrants are after the book was written, and yet his terse unpretentious descriptions give you a good idea if the whisky is up your street before buying a bottle. And all the ones he rates 90% are pretty damned good providing you like that style of whisky.

 

[TheDoctor]

I sort-of have some sympathy with wine and whisky writers, in that you're trying to describe the indescribable.
Kiwi Savs, frinstance, are often said to be 'grassy'. Now, I've never eaten grass, but I know what cut grass smells like, and the wine reminds me of it. Laphroiag, and Islay malts in general, always smell of the seaside and burning peat, in a way that Irish whiskey doesn't.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

......And somewhere on a whisk(e)y forum there's a few folks having a laugh about a description they saw for the new bike from Company ABC "You won't believe the detail they go into about tyres!"

What can seem pretentious at first starts to make sense with a bit of experience and knowledge. But it's an entirely personal experience. Your vocabulary will be different to mine, neither is more correct than another.
Don't forget too, that there are people who make a living writing about these things. They have to justify their wages!

What a great gift you have for the winter! It's a pity it's only 5cl. I'd suggest holding some back and trying it again a few months down the road. You might surprise yourself!
Do you have a proper tasting glass? Well worth an investment!
You can also help train your palate with.....anything. Taking a moment to consider the taste, layers of flavour, the texture....good for the palate and the mind!
There's also an opportunity to do a bit of research into the history of the distilleries and the whiskies. That gets really interesting and gives a perspective to cut through the bullcrap! Prohibition era Mafia connections (Laphroaig), modern day Mafia connections (Macallan), terrorist suspicions (Bruichladdich), breaking the mould (Glenfiddich).

On a side note, Glenfarclas is one of the least pretentious whisky makers out there! I recall reading an hilarious interview with the current GM who was railing against some of the marketing language used to promote his whisky.
Last time I checked they were the only Scottish distillery that gave us the option to try a whisky at different ages - the only difference being the age. The 25 year old is interesting, and complex but like many a cyclist, experienced and past its peak

Finally - what a great theme for a cycle tour!

Good luck and I hope you enjoy your gift and where it can take you!

The trouble with educating your palate in the finer points of whisky is that it gets very expensive ! I reckon I’m better off as an uneducated philistine, this allows me to enjoy plenty that are under £50 so there’s no point in me trying anything “better”.
Re cycle tours, in some parts of Speyside they would be very short tours ! Dufftown alone has 6 of them

 

[fossyant]

My description of how Whisky tastes:-

 

[MichaelW2]

Could it be that super-tasters with synthesia are detecting things beyond your imagining. Are you but a small dog baffled by descriptions of many coloured flowers when they are all shades of grey to you.