How to host a whisky tasting - setting up a flight and what to look for
Whisky drunk one at a time, evening after evening, is pleasant - but it teaches you little. Only when you put several side by side and compare them in a single session do you suddenly hear the differences: smoke, fruit, cask, sweetness. This is called a flight, and it is the best way to build your palate fast. You can do it at home with three or four bottles or small samples.
Pick a theme
A flight works when the samples have something in common - then you can see what sets them apart. Good themes to start with:
- One region, different distilleries - say three Islay whiskies. You will hear how differently peat can sound.
- Different casks - the same or a similar whisky from an ex-bourbon and an ex-sherry cask. The cleanest lesson in what the wood does - we expand on it in how the cask shapes whisky.
- A trip around the world - Scotland, Ireland, the US, Japan side by side. A great companion to whisky around the world.
- A vertical by age - 10, 12, 15 years from the same distillery, if you can get them.
Setting it up step by step
- 3-4 samples is the maximum before alcohol dulls your senses. Less is more.
- The same glasses - ideally tulip-shaped (Glencairn), which focus the aroma. Identical glassware for each, so the comparison is fair.
- 15-20 ml per sample is plenty.
- Order: lightest to strongest and unpeated to peated. A smoky Islay first will kill a delicate Speyside after it.
- Water alongside - both to drink and to add a drop to the whisky.
How to taste without frying your nose
Whisky is not wine - the high alcohol tires the senses fast, so pacing is key:
- Colour and legs first, then the nose - but smell with your mouth slightly open and gently, do not inhale like coffee or the alcohol will block your nose.
- A small sip, spread it across the tongue, wait for the finish.
- Add a drop of water and smell again - the aroma opens up. Why, we explain in does water or ice ruin whisky.
- Go back to earlier samples - a comparison lives in jumping between glasses.
- Water and something neutral (bread, a cracker) between whiskies.
What to look for
Compare the samples in turn on the same axes: smoke and peat, fruit, sweetness, cask notes (vanilla, dried fruit), spice, body and length of finish. It is not about „better/worse” but about how they differ - and about what you enjoy. If you are just starting, you will find a gentle way in at how to fall in love with whisky.
Note and overlay the radars
After three whiskies side by side it is easy to mix up which was which. So note as you go. In GustoNote you record each whisky separately on a 13-axis flavour radar, then overlay their profiles on one chart - smoke, fruit, cask and finish line up side by side and the contrast is instantly visible. The aroma wheel suggests words, and after a flight like that you walk away with a concrete map of flavour, not a feeling that „they were all good”.