Last night the fledgling bourbon appreciation society, The Gentle Spirits, had our first tasting. It was an evaluation and comparison of four 10 yr olds. We had seven tasters. We knew in advance what four whiskies would be tasted but sampled them blind.
Not surprisingly, the most obvious finding was that our vocabularies were woefully inadequate to describe what we were tasting. The lesson learned was WRITE IT DOWN. No matter how fleeting or silly an impression or association might be, there's no wrong answer so just put it down.
By far our most successful taster was a bourbon novice (though he did have Irish whiskey experience) who filled his tasting sheet with notes. Even if you didn't agree with him, it was not only informative but hugely entertaining to read what he had to say.
Despite differences in the tasting impressions, four people listed the whiskies in the exact same order of preference. Six of seven had the same #1 choice and six of seven had the same #2 choice. This is striking because the conversation was wide ranging at the table, and there was nothing systematic about the whiskey talk and little or no discussion of ranking.
The overwhelming #1 preference was for the Eagle Rare 101, which is one of my favorite whiskies. This was a Frankfort bottle. It produced thick legs in the glass and was lighter in color than I expected it to be. It had some citrus in the nose which was followed up in the taste. As it sat, I picked up chocolatey notes which I have always thought to be one of the key features of this one. I'm not sure if this is just suggested by the chocolate colored label and the deep color imparted by the barrel bottle, but there it was. I noted that it had a lingering finish, but then added "fairly short". I translate these contradictions to mean a medium finish. I correctly guessed what this one was. This one was the best balanced, IMO.
The overwhelming #2 was Weller Centennial. Again a Frankfort bottling. Interestingly, I found this one to have the longest finish. I would expect a wheater to be shorter than the ryed bourbons, but not last night. I kept comparing it to my #3 which turned out to be WT RR 101, and it seemed to last longer. I also found a lot of sharpness to the nose which surprised me. Tony, our volublest taster, noted the nose as "toffee, nutty, lighter than A (the ER) but a brother to it". Well spotted, I think. I got saltiness on the taste, but thought it was very well balanced. Tony: "Licorice!? Back of the tongue buttery warmth". He also noted "cedar" in the "medium finish". His overall note was "Straight w/o a lot of varied overtones but pure". I also correctly identified this one as Weller.
The #3 choice was Wild Turkey Russell's Reserve 101. I thought this had the darkest color. Tony picked up darkness in the taste, "leathery with hints of molasses and orange". In the past, I've found this one very citrusy, but didn't notice that last night. I was really torn between this one and the Weller, but gave the nod to the Weller on the strength of the finish and what I thought was better balance. I incorrectly identified this as Very Rare Old Heaven Hill 10 which is a whiskey I had never tasted until last night.
And #4 was the VROHH which I think suffered as it was tasted second, right after everyone's favorite Eagle Rare. I got quite a bit of leather off the nose. And in the glass the whiskey seemed thinner than the ER. The taste was much sharper leading Tony to note "possible paint removing capabilities, sour, lemony, less full bodied". Tony found the finish, "Peaty, dirty, pleasant, charred wood". I felt it was the shortest of the four. I misidentified this as WT.
A lot was learned and a LOT of fun was had. The best notes were those that were descriptive without being wantonly judgmental. Case in point, Tony's overall impression of his last place whiskey, "Lighter, simpler, less of a complex punch but distinctive in its own way." I think I got way too caught up in seeing if I could tell which was which and as a result I was slighting tasting impressions in favor of "name that bourbon".
Next time, I think we will taste one at a time with the bottles in front of us and share impressions as we go. Maybe 12 yr olds.
Dinner followed the tasting and was Lamb Chili, Cheddar Cornbread, and Bull's Eye Cheese Cake. One guest provided bourbon balls, which were conincidentally, and fittingly, made with Rip Van Winkle 10 yr. A good time was had by all.
-Mike