Different Kind of Tasting

[gillmang]

Only rarely do I drink whiskey without knowing what brand it is. Recently in a restaurant I ordered bourbon on the rocks. I didn't ask what types were available and the waitress didn't volunteer the names. I found the whiskey very good but could not "place" it. I knew it wasn't Jack Daniel (since too often here that is served when bourbon is requested). It seemed like rye recipe whiskey but apart from that I couldn't tell. It was very intensely bourbon with no seeming rough edges, I had it on the rocks. Later they showed me what was served: Booker's. In some ways the failure of my taste memory was understandable since I have only had Booker's once or twice before this evening. But I couldn't identify it even as a Beam product, which I "should" have been able to do. I think I know the Trace profile, the HH profile, wheat-recipe profile and I though I knew the Beam profile but I couldn't pick it out. I think blind tasting can be instructive and while it doesn't invalidate the kind of detailed notes you form when tasting a known brand it can offer a new take on things.

Gary

[bunghole]

Gary,

Blind tasting is always a humbling experience. Booker's is quite a pleasent surprise. Around here you'd get something like Kentucky Gentleman or Old Crow.

ima

[gillmang]

Yes Linn, very humbling, and kind of strange. When you taste, say, Triple A or Elmer Lee or Knob Creek you say, I know that taste, I remember it from many times before. But when you taste it blind you can't always summon the taste memory. I think with enough practice at blind tasting it would be possible to pick the brands, but it is something I rarely think of doing and also, I don't drink some brands very frequently. Booker's is a bourbon that I only had twice before this particular evening. I couldn't even identify its high proof, usually I feel I am sensitive to high proof but it just tasted really good, that's all. I was going to have another but I am glad I didn't because we drank lots of wine after (and I had a pint of Rickard's Red and nachos before the whiskey) and soon I'm going out on a long bike ride and if I'd have had the second Booker's I'd be looking for aspirin at present but as it is I feel fine.

Gary

[Brewer]

I can attest to the humbling experience of blind tasting. Some time ago, at Linn's urging, I did just that with Old Charter's Proprietor's Reserve, against the OC 12 YO, Classic. I thought for sure I could tell the difference. I couldn't. I think that blind tasting can certainly challenge our preconceptions of what we think we know.

[bunghole]

Professional tasters in their daily work of choosing barrels for established flavor profiles always have a standard sample to reference to refresh their memories; noses, & taste buds.

In one particularly embarrassing blind tasting I couldn't even get the distillery correct, but we had been drinking all damn day, so that is my lame defense.

ima