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Old 11-04-2009, 04:46 PM   #1
Black Plague
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Southern Indiana
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A Scientific Whisky Tasting: Johnnie Walker Black Label

Having been inspired by great whisky-tasters like Doug (jazznut) and others here, I decided to do some tastings of my own, but with a slightly different approach.

Much has been made of the effect of different glassware on the detectable aromas of a whisky, but I swear that different glasses lend different mouth-feels and tastes. I've noticed many times in the past that certain libations just seemed to taste "better" or at least different in a certain type of glass.

With that in mind, I decided to conduct a little taste test with three different types of glassware:

  • The venerable Old Fashioned, or Rocks, Glass
  • The elegant Brandy Snifter
  • The special Glencairn Glass, modeled after distillers' nosing copitas, made especially for nosing and tasting Scotch whisky
For the guinea pig whisky, I chose an old favorite. The world's best selling de luxe blended whisky. Hell, if you look up "Scotch" in the dictionary, you'll probably see the Striding Man smiling back at you. Johnnie Walker Black Label.

Though I call this tasting scientific, I'm not going to get as anal-retentive and analytical as to take exact measures of water used, temperature of the beverage, etc.



The Laboratory, pre-pour...

In each glass, I poured just a small measure of Johnnie Walker Black Label. The idea is that I will take note of the color, nosing, and taste of the whisky in the three different glasses, first without a small amount of water, and then with a small amount of water added. Considering the small quantities of whisky consumed, just a few little drops of water will do.

Between testing glasses, I had a glass of chilled water (not too cold, as I don't want to numb my tongue) as a palate cleanser. Though I thought of it too late, I wished I'd used some coffee beans to sniff on as a nose cleanser between nosings.


...and post-pour

In the bottle, JW Black has a very distinctive bronze, burnt-orange, dark amber color to it. In the glass, it lightens down to a honey-hued amber tone. I gave each glass a minute or so to aerate will I made not of the color and prepped the test.

Nose (Without Water)
  • Glencairn - Sweet aroma, vanilla and honey, sweet breakfast cereal in the background, a little tingly medicinal alcohol and salt in the nose, with the faintest hint of smoke. Perhaps the influence of Talisker said to be, along with Cardhu, a key component in most all the Johnnie Walker blends?
  • Snifter - The alcohol was much more assertive in the nose. With the Glencairn glass, I could sniff straight through my nostrils, but with this one, I had to hold my nose in the glass and breathe through my mouth to smell. Cereal grains (the smell of Scotch grain whisky) much more assertive but less sweet-smelling, smoke was more apparent, like burning coal and peat.
  • Rocks - Not surprizingly, due to the wide open mouth, the nose was much less focused than the other two, mostly just alcohol vapors.
Taste (Without Water)
  • Glencairn - Good smoky base to it, spicy and malty with a dry woody finish.
  • Snifter - Tasted softer and less spicy. I could detect more of the sherry-influenced sweetness lurking in the finish, but still much more dry than sweet.
  • Rocks - Also soft, but this time I tasted more of the peat smoke in the finish.


Nose (With Water)
  • Glencairn - Even sweeter and more honeyed than before, opened up much better. I could now smell almost a maple syrup sweetness in the nose, more than honey or vanilla, with a nice hint of orange zest.
  • Snifter - Seems to have intensified the alcohol vapors even more!
  • Rocks - Finally has a nose above the alcohol vapors, also of thick maple syrup.
Taste (With Water)
  • Glencairn - The dryness of the grain whiskies was a tad more apparent, subduing the smokiness a bit. Can taste more of the nuances of peat phenols in the background. Finish is semi-dry, mouth-coating, and smoky.
  • Snifter - Relatively unchanged, maybe a touch more aggressive and not as smooth.
  • Rocks - Thin in the mouth but somehow more viscous and oily, sweet cereal grains and a drop of sherry, detected some saltiness with the peat and smoke.

You can see how glassware had very different effects on the taste and especially aroma. It was no real surprize that the rocks glass was a loser in the aroma department, but I admit I was surprized how the snifter only seemed to intensify the alcohol vapors, almost to the point of completely masking any odors beneath it.

This test did reconfirm my preferred method of consuming Johnnie Walker Black Label, which is in a snifter without any added water. I admit I don't nose my whisky as much as some, since I get more enjoyment out of the palate and taste, and the snifter provides the best balance between the smoothness of the sherried malts and the smoky dryness of the island malts in the blend. On the other hand, these results do show that the Glencairn was the best glass for probing the aroma, in the case of this whisky.

The lesson learned here is: you should definitely try your whiskies in different types of glasses. I'm sure Doug will agree with me. I've had whiskies before that I've absolutely hated in one form of glassware, yet loved in others. Perhaps I'll test some of them in the future.

Thanks for reading and happy drinking!
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