How to taste whisky – by an expert

Happy International Whisky Day!

To mark this celebratory occasion (and yes, it is a real thing), I wanted to share some expert tips I was given a while ago on how to properly taste whisky.

Before we start, two things to know: International Whisk(e)y Day was announced in 2008 and launched in 2009 and it falls on the birthday of whisky writer Michael Jackson. Secondly, and because my former editor Colette Doyle would not forgive me if I didn’t clarify this, the two spellings of whisk(e)y depend on whether you are discussing Scottish whisky or whiskey, the latter being what is made anywhere outside Scotland.

So if you are looking to mark today with a dram, or any other measure of whisk(e)y, how should you do it?

Well, a few months ago, I was lucky enough to be on a yacht in Cannes, in the south of France, listening to Martin Markvardsen, the Senior Brand Ambassador for Highland Park, introducing the new look for the brand.

As we launched into a tasting of the 12 Year Old expression, Martin shared his insights on what to do when tasting whisky. I’ll leave the guidance to the expert.

The first think we do, and this is very, very important, is we take a good look at the colour. the colour in a whisky is very, very important, because it tells you…absolutely nothing.
But it looks very professional to do this. If you look in a magazine, or you look at a film about a whisky reviewer, you always see the whisky maker doing this and I always wonder what they are looking at.

Martin went on to clarify that colour is a key issue for whisky. Some brands today add caramel to increase the colour of their spirit.

We have 145 distilleries in Scotland right now. Most of the distilleries in Scotland today will not be owned by Scottish companies; there are Italian, Japanese, American, and so on.
These companies will add caramel and artifical colour to the whisky. Highland Park is owned by Scottish people and caramel costs money. We don’t add it. It’s a natural colour.

He then added that is is key to smell, or “nose” the whisky.

This is very important. Use your nose. you can find at least 32 different things in a whisky by using your nose. That’s the first impression. You can only taste four. It’s very important to use your nose. How you do it is up to you.

Finally, Martin guided us, let the whisky sit on your palate.

My mentor said if it’s a 12 Year Old, keep it in your mouth for 12 seconds. If it’s an 18 Year Old, it’s 18 seconds, and so on. I followed the rule for many years, until I tasted a 68 Year Old and couldn’t feel my mouth for a week.
Just give it a few seconds in your mouth and see what happens.

So there you go, everything you need to know about tasting whisky, as directed by an expert.

Slàinte Mhath!