The taste differences that 5% can bring are astonishing. It is hard to believe that all the samples are from the same base spirit. In most cases, you could bottle them separately and convince anyone they are completely different spirits. I'll copy in our tasting notes, in order of sampling.
Char, 50% - highly smoky, almost tar-like on the nose. Harsh overtones. very rough on the tongue, especially on the back of the palate.
Char, 55% - Noticeably smoother and lighter in flavour, and a bit more texture (tannin) to it. more approachable. a little less smoke on the nose and not tar-like, but smoke is still the overriding characteristic.
Char, 60% - smooth smoke on the nose followed by sweet fruitiness, much more complex, full. Stone fruits on the palate, with the smokiness becoming more of a background taste. lots of frontal palate stuff, noticeably sweeter.
Char, 65% - Much lighter nose. Extremely approachable. Much less smoke. still full and fruity on the palate though, if a little lighter. vanilla background.
Char, 70% - Rougher nose. lack of fruit. lots of vanilla and not much else. spirit is noticeably less smooth in the mouth with more burn, but taste is VERY light, not much flavour. just vanilla. no fruits.
Toast, 50% - Extremely dry. a touch of grass / hay on the nose, and a touch of fruitiness on the palate. No vanilla.
Toast, 55% - Extremely harsh. Almost undrinkable. Possibly we thought something has gone wrong with this sample. checked the oak and it was indistinguishable from the other toasted samples, so we think that maybe this is a genuine result. VERY woody, lack of vanilla, an almost saltly mid-palate taste through the burn. seriously nasty.
Toast, 60% - Completely different from the 55%. A light nose with no smoke to speak of, and VERY fruity, stone fruits with hints of berry. faint vanilla coming through on the nose. a very bold taste, excellent character. We were spitting the samples back out but I couldn't resist this one... just slips down. Very smooth.
Toast, 65% - Reminds us of the 55% a bit... getting rough again. Less fruit, a lot mor tannins with a bit more vanilla.
Toast, 70% - VERY vanilla nose, but quite harsh and burning. A HUGE tannin hit, heaps of texture right to the back of the throat. sort of like chewing on sawdust. Nasty.
Right so there you have it. My conclusions are that on toasted I'll try to put it in at ~62ish and try to have it out by not too far under 60. that 55% sample was just nasty. For charred, I think that the approachability of the 65% warrants me putting it down at 65%, and then if it isn't sleeping for years, giving it a dilution to 60-61% after a spell and then leaving it for an equivalent amount of time to get that fruity hit.
I'll also add that tasting 10 samples of whisky is bloody hard work.
Cheers,
Kiwi
Three sheets to the wind!
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