IFoundations

Tasting spirits

A method for tasting at 40%, and what to ask.

5 min read

Everything in Part II is a claim about how something tastes. You can't check any of it without a way of tasting that gives the same answer twice, and at 40% alcohol that's harder than with wine, because the ethanol arrives first and burns the rest of the information off. The method below looks pretentious, and it's the best way to taste.

The method

  1. Use a glass that narrows at the top - a copita, a small wine glass, a snifter at a push. A tumbler throws everything straight up your nose at full strength.
  2. Pour a small measure and leave it a minute. Room temperature, not chilled: cold shuts down aroma, which is why vodka out of the freezer tastes of nothing.
  3. Look at the colour. At most it tells you about wood, and it may not even be that: caramel colouring is legal nearly everywhere. It tells you the least of anything on this list.
  4. Nose it with your mouth slightly open, holding the glass below your chin and bringing it up gently. Do not stick your nose in the glass. Short sniffs, then rest. Your nose stops picking things up within seconds at this strength.
  5. Take a small sip and let it coat everything before you swallow. The first sip mostly registers as heat; that's normal, and the second and third sips are where the flavour is.
  6. Then add a few drops of water and go again. This is the step people skip - water drops the strength, breaks the surface tension and releases aromatics the alcohol was holding down. A cask-strength whisky can change completely.

What to taste out of

CopitaSmall wineSnifterTumblerrim narrower than the bowlrim as wide as the bowl
The rim has to be narrower than the bowl. Three shapes that do that, and the one that does not.

Flavour wheel

Pick one

Place what you are smelling in a family first, then reach for a specific word. Getting to “wood” is a judgement most people can make; getting to “toasted oak with a little coconut” is a different skill and it comes second.

What to ask

Naming fruits is what everyone reaches for first, and it's the least useful. Better questions, in order:

  • How sweet is it? Most spirits are technically dry. If it reads sweet, either sugar was added or wood is faking it with vanilla.
  • Where does the heat sit? Front of the tongue, back of the throat, or all the way down. Rough heat usually means young.
  • Is there wood? Vanilla, coconut, toffee, spice, smoke. All of it came out of a barrel, none of it out of the raw material.
  • How long does it last? Count after swallowing. A spirit that vanishes at three seconds and one that's still going at twenty are different products.
  • Would it survive a mixer? The practical question. Some bottles are for sipping and disappear in a highball; others only make sense mixed.