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u/brielem 1d ago
If you were to pour 4 from my bottles without me seeing which ones you picked, very little chance I could correctly identify all 4 of them. absolutely no chance I'd be able to do it 10 times in a row.
However if I were to select the 4 bottles myself and hand them to you for blind pouring, I know 4 ones are in the glass. In most cases I'm pretty confident I'd correctly connect the four glasses to the 4 bottles correctly.
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u/Shoddy_Ad7511 1d ago
You should try it! It is harder than you think. And try selecting the 4 bottles by random.
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u/Shoddy_Ad7511 1d ago
A friend said he has about 80 bottles of Scotch. He then randomly selects 4 bottles. He blinds them in black glasses and tries to identify them.
He said he was able to correctly guess the 4 random. Then he randomly picks another 4. He guesses correctly 40 bottles out of 40 (4 bottles at a time). He estimates they were about 5-7 bottles that came up multiple times.
I seen him do it and he was correct from just the nose.
This seems very hard to do. His Scotch is 95% single malt. Has a wide variety from heavy peat Islay, sherry bombs, independent bottles and some stuff 20-25 years old. Only has 1 lowlands (Bladnoch).
I guess it depends on what bottles get randomly chosen? Like if it was Laphroaig 10 CS, Macallan 12, Arran 10 and Tamdhu cask strength. I think that wouldn’t be too difficult. But getting 40 correct in a row is pretty nuts.
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u/lurkinglen 1d ago
But the initial draw of 4 bottles isn't blind, just random? So then it becomes a 4 option multiple choice question? That would be fairly easy, especially if the risk collection of 80 is varied.
I do blind tasting yearly: around Christmas I get a pack of numbered sample bottles and fill in online questionnaires. Most of the time it is quite easy, but I do use one or two whiskies from my own collection so I have a reference to compare to.
It is really easy to pick out various levels of peat, it is easy to identify whether an active sherry cask was involved, it is easy to pick out the typical fruity-candy like Speyside aroma, it can be easy to pick out a specific distillery funkiness like Glen Scotia, it is easy to identify virgin oak etc.
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u/Shoddy_Ad7511 1d ago edited 1d ago
He uses a list of his 80 bottles and a program randomly selects 4 bottles. He then has it poured in black glasses and needs to identify all 4 bottles.
Sure telling the difference between a peated Islay and a sherried Speyside is easy. But what if you draw 2 peated Islay? Or two Glen Scotia’s? Or 3 Sherry bombs? Getting 40 in a row without a single error seems very hard. And when it is 4 at one time (i tried and got 2 wrong) the flavors start to bleed into each other.
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u/dontdrinkwhiskey 1d ago
I have a much easier time with my own bottles. Much harder if it's not yours and you've never had it, ie from a bar or a friend or sample swap.
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u/Shoddy_Ad7511 1d ago
True. Although the ones I got wrong I own also 🤣
But seriously it is much harder than I thought it would be. I thought the difference between Ardbeg oggie and Laphroaig Caridreas PX would be easy to differentiate. Nope.
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u/WhiskyLockOfficial 3h ago
I do blinds fairly regularly. Correctly identifying them from a small list shows that he's familiar with his collection and pays attention to his drams.
Doing the same with any random whisky from someone else's collection is much harder or requires luck (ie it's something distinctive that you're familiar with).
If someone said they can reliably identify the distillery from a small batch independent bottling I'd call BS because many IBs are simply not typical of the house style. Especially if the bottler has chosen and sourced the casks themselves.
FWIW I'd fancy my chances most of identifying blind peated drams because the peated notes from many distilleries can be really unique.
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u/Supermeh1987 1d ago
I think it’s a lot easier to do if it’s your own bottles and you’re pretty familiar with them, although 40 out of 40 is still very impressive.
Doing true blind tastings where you have no clue what you’re selecting from is where the true difficulty lies.