Everyone tastes everything in whisky. Or, with an open mind, they eventually will. In my experience, the main reason for whisky's rise in popularity in recent decades has everything to do with that one thing - the pursuit of delicious flavour. The problem is, only some of us get enjoyment from attempting to articulate it. Why is that?
So many folk just accept that they don't get all the things they hear other folk picking out and parsing from their glasses of whisky. Maybe they're happy just to enjoy the flavour, rather than put it into thoughts or words. That's fine. But just like discovering a new whisky, discovering new ways to enjoy whisky is something you can do, right now, without spending a penny more on it.
It really is great fun. When I'm in a group and we're sitting in a pub somewhere, we'll have a laugh at ourselves as we tease out fruit, food and tree bark from our drams. We'll often get the side-eye from other folks sitting close by, but that, to me, is just an invite to evangelise. You see, I remember what it was like to hear these tasting notes and I always thought it was pretentious as hell. It often was.
That vision of a gentlemanly type in a tweed waistcoat swirling a glass of liquid and pulling out scalpel-sharp notes of this and that really is a wee bit off-putting. It leaves you with the sense that it requires training, know-how and an exclusive skill set. Without those, don't bother, just listen. That's a barrier to enjoyment. That's not how it should be and I don't think that's how it is today.
We're becoming far more relaxed about saying what we find; whether it's an aroma, a memory, foodstuffs, chemicals or anything at all that helps us put the experience into shareable words. Truly, there are no rules and if we genuinely taste it, we should be able to say it. You truly can taste anything in whisky.
But what about shapes? What about frequencies? What about textures? Specifically, for this week - what about colours?
This week I'll be joined by the charismatic Mark Watt for a relaxed whisky chat. After an illustrious career here and there, most notably years at Cadenhead's, Mark is today at the helm of The Campbeltown Whisky Co. and Watt Whisky with his wife Kate. We'd spoken about an appearance a wee while back and all that was needed was a topic to bite into. Then I remembered the reason for all the different colours of Watt Whisky bottlings - one of Mark's descriptors is usually always a colour. He tastes… colour.
Now, I'm not saying that he has a diagnosed case of synesthesia, but it sounds a lot like that to me. I myself often find a whisky present as a certain colour, I know of others who feel the same way, specifically Dougie Crystal of Dramface fame. All of this made me think, let's run a wee test - for fun.
I've sent out some samples for this week. The Alchemists team did an amazing job at this year's Blind Challenge in Glasgow, blowing everyone away with a score that'll be tough to beat, ever. As a reward I sent them all a set of four samples for a play-along-sip-along. Mark has a set too. All I'm going to ask is that they taste through four random drams and, if possible, assign a colour to each. I'll do the same.
Will we find consensus? Of course not, but it's a fun way to draw attention to tasting notes, relax a bit and have fun with them as we hear from Mark and his whisky trials over the years.
If you like, bring along a dram and as you consider what's in the glass, don't just describe what colour it is - ask yourself if it tastes like a colour. I really hope to welcome you there!
0:00 - Opening
2:01 - Focus for tonight
8:32 - Welcoming in the lounge
14:12 - Consumption & Awareness
16:40 - Welcoming in Mark Watt
33:12 - Watt Whisky thus far
37:00 - Kate & Mark the team
41:55 - Macallan broke my house
47:56 - Sipping unicorns
55:05 - Marketing flannel?
1:03:52 - Blind set from Mark
1:23:16 - Synesthesia vs reference
1:37:01 - Blind 1 - Indri Drú
1:40:07 - Blind 2 - Tomatin 18yo
1:43:33 - Blind 3 - Port Charlotte 10yo
1:48:33 - Blind 4 - Glasgow PX/Peated CS
1:51:23 - Slowing down and tasting
2:05:58 - Any consensus?
2:20:40 - Quiz at the End
Link to slides and key: docs.google.com/presentation/...
5 авг 2024
