Bourbon Tasting 101 - How To Improve Tasting & Nosing

Рет қаралды 49,992

10 ай бұрын

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Пікірлер: 225

@lfd_eng9219

On a couple of tours in Louisville, they suggest that the first taste gives you that "Kentucky Hug"...so it basically shocks the senses to know whiskey is coming. The second sip...let it sit in the mouth for about 10 seconds, and then the 3rd and 4th sips are where you will discover the flavors.

@AnAbortiveRomance

For me, it's 4 metrics -- Nose, palate, mouthfeel and finish. I think spending time with a bottle helps too. The first bottle I really connected with was Woodford Reserve Double Oaked, which I didn't like at first. After a around 2 weeks of having a small pour of it several evening a week, all of sudden i was hit over the head with a cherry coke note on the nose. After that I started falling in love with that bottle.

@dakodasteele123

When smelling the whiskey, if you smell the back of your hand it will tend to reset your sense of smell and allow you to pick up things you may have missed previously. I also like to let my glass sit after I finish the whiskey for a few minutes and then smell again. The aromas will be so much more prominent.

@POPPAsmurf-ic9vk

I think taking smaller sips will help with tasting different flavors. Bigger sips tend to cause a burn and all you taste is alcohol

@msspi764

Really good advice. I started with wine. There was a group of us during Covid who did zoom calls with the same wine. At first I couldn't find what others were. When I stopped trying to do that and started trusting my palate it all changed for me. There are two others in the group who have similar palates, not identical, and that reinforced my trust in my palate. I learned a lot about my own ability to smell and taste. I learned that things change as they open up with time in a glass. So when I moved on to bourbons I trusted my palate enough to accept what it was telling me. It helped that I took part in a tasting that included water and ice. That helped me understand how that relationship changes the whiskey for me. So now I trust my sense of smell and taste enough to understand what I enjoy. A month ago we gave an informal tasting to a friend who was new to bourbon. Same thing, helped him trust his palate and understand how water and ice change things. His palate is dramatically different from mine. That's OK.

@meursault.1984 21 күн бұрын

wow, the breathing out of the nose is really life changing for me, seriously. Because sometimes I wonder how I get some good finish from some sips yet sometimes I don't - the breathing out of the nose really helped in getting a good and consistent finish! Thanks guys!

@louiss6788

It's for videos like this that I follow your channel. I really appreciate your honesty. Thank you very much for your teachings. Hugs from Portugal.

@rrkaminski9

Glad Trenton mentioned sommeliers - I was going to mention them as a good source of inspiration and "training" your nose and palate techniques! There's a good book called "Cork Dork" by Bianca Bosker. She's a journalist who was never into wine, but decided to take it very seriously and train to take a sommelier exam and really get to know the world of wine. Since the point of the book is to really dig deep into the process and experience, she describes what her and the people she "trains" with do to improve their ability to pick our scents and flavors (which is something sommelier documentaries I've watched before don't touch on enough). It might provide some inspiration.

@umami0247

Most whiskies have the primary notes a vanilla brown sugar and a fruity sweet smell. It’s the individual palate that takes it in various directions from there. I found it helpful to get different spices and herbs and smell them. I’m a retired chef and had the opportunity to make many different types of dishes which truly helped me with my understanding of how tasting and smelling effects one’s enjoyment of food. For me with rye’s on some not all I get a buttered popcorn smell. But I still just spend a little time smelling for me it’s about the taste that determines if I’m going to continue to enjoy what I’m drinking. Enjoy!!

@johng5710

I learned a neat trick when tasting bourbon (or any other spirit). This is a bit tricky, but when you take a small sip, try to let it sit in your mouth while quickly inhaling a small amount of air through your mouth, without accidentally inhaling the bourbon. The inhaled air passing over the bourbon carries the vapors of the bourbon all up into your olfactory system and greatly intensifies the smell, taste, and overall experience.

@davidsommerfeld2955

I appreciate your nosing and tasting notes in your videos. A traumatic head injury severed my of olfactory nerve 22 years ago. Absolutely no sense of smell and my taste is diminished by about 25 percent. I can still taste a good bourbon or single malt Scotch. Just can’t enjoy the nose. Your videos help me appreciate the tastes I should be finding or tasting.

@DaveNorton-yi5ix

Many years ago I was fortunate enough to be introduced to single malts while in Scotland by someone who knew what they were doing, and was able to go to several distilleries with him, which was an amazing experience. I'll never forget smelling Highland Park at the distillery and having it remind me of the sea oats at Edisto Beach in South Carolina when I was a kid. My friend grinned at me and said that the sea oats were all around in the Orkneys. It was the beginning of my own whiskey journey.

@michaelwyatt665

I was turned onto bourbon maybe a year and a half to two years ago. Didn’t know what I was doing or looking for. Luckily I found your channel and I watched you guys taste and describe different bourbons and I picked and chose the profiles I liked. I now have a decent understanding of what I want and what I’m doing and it’s thanks to Kurt and Trenton. Now I have a list of my favorites and a list of bourbons I want to try. And for the most part I’ve spent under $80 a bottle. I joined Patreon this year and will continue to be a member.

@Ron46143

When it comes to smell I discovered one thing that has really helped me. I have always measured my pours with a shot glass. The thought process was to always have equal amounts in pours when comparing bourbons. What I noticed is if you smell the shot glass over time the smell goes through a progression that really helps picking out different notes.

@billsnyder1067

Thanks guys! I have never seen you specifically cover the topic but for those of us who set our MWF clocks by the SLB video release I was able to pickup on most of this. My favorite is letting the sip breath for 15 to 20 minutes before you sip. I did this for the first time with a glass of 4 Roses Small Batch Select. I opened the bottle and poured a glass and began sipping. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. It was AWFUL. I was kicking myself for wasting 65.00. Then I watched one of your videos and Trenton mentioned that he poured the glasses about 15 minutes before filming started. I went back to my 4 Roses and Wow what a difference. I will say that it doesn’t work every time but it has never made it worse. Thank for all you guys do.

@Guy_GuyGuy

I find the best way to notice and isolate notes in whiskey is to always have a standard to compare it to. Whenever I buy and try a new bourbon, I pour a glass of Jim Beam White to compare it to. I get almost nothing besides some dry peanut shells and acetone from Beam. It's so much easier to notice what glass #2 has when you have a glass #1 first that has none of it.

@TheSpiritoftheCocktail

KURT!!! TRENTON!!! Very seldom do I take notes while watching a video. This is one!! Lots of great tips in here!!! The human palate is a fickle thing!!! CHEERS family!!