Welcome to the latest Summerton ClubWHISKY REVEALED
Dan Humphrey (Summerton Whisky Club founder) poses the question to fellow whisky enthusiast Toby Field (Whisky Shared whisky reviewer):
How do you prepare for a whisky review?
“I start thinking at least a month in advance about the whisky reviews I want to do. I release one video a week on a Friday. As there are four or five Fridays in a month, and the last one is always a blind tasting, that means I need three or four whisky reviews each month. They tend to have a theme but not always. If using a theme, it tends to be a style, country brand or distillery.
My YouTube whisky reviews consist of two parts: my tasting notes and some background about the brand or bottle.
For the tasting notes, I start by pouring at least 25ml of whisky and leaving it in the glass for a few minutes. I prefer a Glencairn, but any tulip-shaped glass will do. I used to write my notes down by hand, but these days I type them directly into Whiskybase. I sit in the same seat, and having thought about it, it’s always in the evening. I also try to nose and sip a whisky I am very familiar with to make sure my palate is calibrated. Having a cold or eating strong food can throw your senses off, and a calibration dram will highlight this.
Meet the expert
Toby Field, Whisky Shared
My tasting notes have four categories: colour, nose, palate, and finish. For the colour, I use a whisky colour chart for reference and hold the glass against a white screen or piece of paper.
For the nose, I take my time. I try to spend 20-30 minutes nosing the whisky and getting the most comprehensive notes I can. I like to feel there are no more flavours coming from the glass before I move on to the palate.
With the palate, I take small sips. If the whisky is high strength, I don’t add any water at this stage. It’s not until I have run out of tasting notes that I start adding water to see if further notes develop.
I note the finish while tasting but complete this once I have no further tasting notes.
The second part of the process starts with printing off the tasting notes. I think about what might interest the viewer regarding the bottle. Sometimes it’s the history of the brand or distillery; sometimes it’s the bottle itself. I go to the brand website and start looking for useful information. At the same time, I look through the Malt Whisky Yearbook for any interesting statistics. If it’s a brand I’ve covered before, I might keep the history to a minimum or exclude it altogether. This is usually the case if I’m reviewing several whiskies from the same brand over a number of weeks.
I write these notes directly onto the printout of the notes just before recording so they are fresh in my mind. I then have them in front of me during recording for reference.
If I’m recording a blind tasting, the only preparation I do is a calibration dram.“
