Whisky Tasting Glasses and their Influence

It is now week 4 of John Lamonds Advanced Whisky Course and we are testing what influence a whisky tasting glass has on the nosing and the tasting experience.

We nosed and tasted whisky from:

• Riedel Whisky Glass
• Glencairn (loved this one)
• Regular Bar Tumbler
• ISO Tasting Glass (loved this one)

After trialling the whisky glasses with a few drams we concluded our favorites to be – Glencarin and ISO, which came out tops on nosing and also tasting.  We were all baffled as to what benefits Riedel would give to your whisky drinking experience, the glass was extremely hard to nose from, you had to really search for the aromas that the Glencairn and the ISO glass easily delivered direct to you.

As always we concluded the night with our weekly blind tasting, below are my notes:

Tomatin 15 | Aged 15 Years | 43% Vol
Nose: honey glaze, honey nut loops, cereal, breakfast honey + toast
Palate: lemon + honey lockets, eucalyptus, artificial sweetness, drying

Singleton 12 | Aged 15 Years | 40% Vol
Nose: toffee beeswax, pears, honey, walnut whip, butterscotch, hazelnut latte
Palate: nutty, toffee, honey, white pepper, syrup, treacle toffee, caramac chocolate, fudge, clotted cream scone, celery aftertaste

Glencadam 15 | Aged 15 Years | 46% Vol
Nose: light toffee, wood character, malty, peaty note, bourbon, vanilla, almonds, cherry, cooked apples, liquorice, aniseed
Palate: sweet vanilla, honey, cola float, bubblegum ice cream, tutti fruiti ice cream

Strathisla 12 | Aged 12 Years | 43% Vol
Nose: sweety perfumed, heavenly iced wedding cake, cherries, leather handbag, cosmetics, powder puff, talcum powder, minty
Palate: deep red wine, plums, cherries, vanilla, waxy, grapes, demerara suger, barley sugar

Talasker 10 | Aged 10 Years | 45.8% Vol
Nose: chared oak creasote, big smokey, metallic, incense, medical gauze
Palate: chocolate, pepper, peaty, salty, creosote (fence paint)

Dewars 12 | Aged 12 Years | 40% Vol
Nose: apple skins, newly painted house, wallpaper paste, cardboard, dried wood shavings
Palate: toffee lolly, vanilla sauce, peanut shell, toffee popcorn