Whisky...

Interesting whisky tasting last night. We (the Durham University Whisky Appreciation Society) have started doing an annual blind tasting. Essentially we get 4 cheap (under £15) whiskies, and one well-known "expensive" one (around £20-£25). We then get members to taste each whisky and score them out of 10. At the end we total up the scores to see which was the favourite of the night, and also if anyone can spot the "expensive" one.

This year we had a bottle of Macallan 10 Y/O Fine Oak (bought last June, and can't remember how much we paid for it), a Great Glen (£8.99 from Tesco), Sainbury Sherry Wood Finished single Highland malt (£12.49), Waitrose Irish Whiskey (£11.49) and a bottle of Highland Earl (£7.49 from Aldi)

It has to be said, the Great Glen was universally disliked, and unsurprising distant 5th placed whisky. Surprisingly, the Macallan was a disapointing 4th, once again some way off the top 3, and not one person managed to spot it or have it as their highest scoring whisky!

We had a tiee for 2nd place. Joint runners-up were last year's winner the Waitrose Irish Whiskey and the Sainsbury Sherry wood finish. Of the 12 people who didn't know what the whiskies were, 4 places each of these as their highest scoring whisky.

Our winner, also placed highest by 4 people, was also the cheapest whisky of the night - the Highland Earl. One interesting comment from the night was the member who said she was tryng to decide which of whiskies B and C she liked most. As I later revealed, B was the Macallan and C was the Highland Earl; so a real difficulty in distinguishing between the 2 extreme costs.

So I suppose this raises an interesting question... Can you really base your opinion of a whisky on its cost? It's hard to give a good answer to this. Yes, the cheapest was the favourite and the well-known whisky 4th of 5 tasted; but we also saw the 2nd cheapest come last with the 2 mid-price come 2nd and 3rd.

I suppose at the end of the day a lot comes down to personal tastes, and wha you want the whisky for. The remains on the Great Glen were sold to someone who was going to use it purely as a cooking whisky. Given it will be mostly overpowered my the main part of the dish, you may be willing to spend a little less, even if the whisky itself does not taste as nice. But for that special dram... Well I guess you may be willing to pay a little more for quality, or you may accidentally find a hidden bargain.

It would be nice if more whisky outlets, and in fact alcohol in general, were more open to the idea of having tastings of their products before you buy. When you choose a whisky there's a good chance you've not had it before, so there is a gamble on whether or not you'll even like it! I wonder if the £14,000 bottle of Springbank in Caddenhead's is really worth that much when tasted?

Well, unless I win the lottery; I guess I'll never know!