You’ll read a lot of poetic descriptions of whisky on the web. Some you’ll agree with and others will downright baffle you. It can leave you wondering if what’s being described is a drink, a piece of upholstery, or a Martha Stewart Christmas fruitcake.
Taste and smell are subjective, so there will always be agreement and disagreement on smell or flavour. Those who have only tried a couple scotches, will claim that all scotch tastes the same. That may be true to them, but incomprehensible to those who have learned to identify the nuances of the scotch world. Oddly enough, both perspectives are correct… from their perspective.
To appreciate the full range of scotch expressions, one needs to “train” by trying a lot of scotch varieties — that’s the easy part — and by learning new vocabulary with which you can talk about the nuances. A good way to do this is to pick a word from the list below, cinnamon for example, and compare that flavour or aroma in three different scotch tastings. It’s even better if you do this with a group of friends so you can see what others are finding. Then it’s a matter of how you explain the cinnamon. Is it spicy or is it gentle like you’d find in an apple pie? Is it bold cinnamon flavour you find or is it subtle? Are there other complimentary flavours you find with it, like vanilla, honey, or chocolate?
The best thing about this is that there is no right or wrong. You find what you find, but the broader your word list is for describing flavours and aromas, the more you’ll be able to define differences between scotches for yourself and others. You may even discover some of your own ways to express the things you experience with your scotch.
So here’s a list of palette and nose terms that you may encounter or you can look for when you share your next bottle with your buddies. See what your tastebuds can identify and compare your ideas to what fellow scotchguys find in the same expression. You will hone your tastebuds by trying a variety of scotches and you’ll find that your enjoyment of the whole range increases the more deeply you delve into the world of flavour and aroma words out there.
Enjoy the list and taste away…
- fruit, dried fruit, fresh fruit, citrus, melon, lemon, lime, orange, peach, fruit cake, plum, cherry, berry, currant, dates, dried apricots, apple, green apple, pear, bananas, figs,
- flowers, fragrance, mint, meadows, herb, savoury, sap, grass, leaf, perfume, clover, laurel, eucalyptus, esters, violets,
- peat, earth, heath, heather, moor, fen, cedar, silage, hay, grass, cut grass, must, moss,
- butter, sweet butter, big butter,
- chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate,
- smoke, char, charcoal, barrel char, bonfire, campfire,
- wood, oak, cask,
- spice, warmth, heat, zest,
- cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, vanilla, liquorice,
- tea, coffee,
- pine, resin, sap,
- sherry, wine, rum, port, Madeira, Oloroso, liqueur, Pedro Ximenez, solera
- malt, mash, grain, cereal, bread, shortbread, cookies, biscuits, oatmeal, wheat, grass, hay, silage
- nut, almond, walnuts, coconut,
- candy, toffee, butterscotch, caramel, marshmallow,
- seaside, seaweed, salt, kelp, kippers, brine,
- tobacco, pipe tobacco, cigar box,
- honey, syrup, maple syrup, molasses,
- linen, leather, leather couch,
- raisins, plump raisins, concentrated raisins, sultanas,
- burn, alcohol burn, alcohol hit, ethanol, spirits,
- medicine, solvent, turpentine, iodine,
- sulphur, creosote, tar, phenolic,
- bitterness, astringency, dryness, tartness
- balance, nuance, complexity, cleanness, subtlety,
- heaviness, smoothness, creaminess, body, richness,
- lasting, long, short,
