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| THE SCOTCH WHISKY DIRECTORYCHAPTER 4 THE FLAVOUR OF WHISKYWhat matters about whisky is that it tastes nice, and the Directory is a guide to how different whiskies taste. It is possible to classify the most significant of the flavours found in a Scotch whisky under fifteen different heads. The Directory tasters have analysed each of the whiskies included in the Directory for the presence and strength of each of those fifteen flavours. The fifteen flavours fall into three main categories: nice ones, nasty ones, and those which may be nice or nasty, depending on concentration and/or on the individual's preference. The nice ones are easy: they are flavours whose presence is always desirable, no matter how high the concentration. This is not to say that they could never be displeasing, merely that they never occur in whisky at concentrations sufficiently high to render them so. There are five flavours in this class: floral, fruity, vanilla, caramel and nutty. Ambiguous flavours form by far the largest category: smoky, sweet, cereal, aldehydic, woody, resinous, sulphurous and sour. Of these, smoky flavours will be the most easily recognised - and the most controversial, for some people love them and others can't abide them. All of the other flavours in the group may or may not be pleasing, depending on how strong the flavour is and how it relates to other flavours present. Soapy and musty flavours are almost always disagreeable in other than very low concentrations. It helps to think of the flavours arranged in three columns.
This arrangement is to some extent subjective. People who are fond of smoky whiskies will of course list smokiness in the first column. Ditto for folk who like their whisky sweet or woody. Lovers of old whisky will probably put woodiness at the head of the first column, for such people appear to prize the tannins which make old whisky bitter above all other flavours. |