TASTING PANEL
More than words
The Society’s Tasting Panel is fundamentally unchanged since it first formed in founder Pip Hills’s kitchen in Edinburgh in the early 1980s, but more rigorous than ever. Its mission – to assess every sample before it can make it into a Society bottle, to create a name and tasting note and to uphold the Society’s mission: to leave no nose upturned
MAIN PHOTO: MIKE WILKINSON
PICTURED: You never know where the Tasting Panel’s nose for aromas might transport you...
“It would be a shame to describe such lovely whisky in mere words. Perhaps a pibroch* would do.”
If a literary great such as Hamish Henderson struggled to find the right language to capture the complexity and depth of the whisky in his tasting glass, what hope for us mere mortals?
Hamish was a poet, songwriter, soldier – he personally oversaw the formal surrender of Italy in 1945 – folklorist, co-founder of Edinburgh University’s School of Scottish Studies and passionate whisky enthusiast.
*Pibroch: an extended solo composition played on the bagpipes
He was also an acquaintance of SMWS founder Pip Hills, who invited him to participate in an early incarnation of what would become the Society’s revered Tasting Panel.
The primary intention was around quality control – with the Panel’s main purpose to sample various whiskies before deciding whether they were worthy enough to make it into a green Society bottle and offered up to members. More than that, though, the Tasting Panel set out to actually describe the stuff.
We might take that for granted nowadays, but in the early 1980s the language to talk about whisky barely existed, although an early version of the whisky ‘flavour wheel’ had recently been created by scientists at Pentlands Research, now The Scotch Whisky Research Institute. At the time, whisky was invariably described only in basic terms of how old it was or where it came from, but with little reference or even interest in its actual flavour. All that was about to change, with or without Hamish Henderson’s input.
PICTURED: Early Tasting Panel member and long-serving chair Charlie MacLean
Whisky writer Charlie MacLean was an early member of the Tasting Panel and a subsequent long-serving chair. He recalls the Society’s groundbreaking role in defining how we discuss whisky and flavour.
“The SMWS was the first organisation to focus on flavour, and really invented a new language to talk about whisky,” he says. “The whole point of the Society’s single cask bottlings is in their variety, they can be so extraordinarily different, and the Tasting Notes need to reflect that.
“For example, the descriptor ‘fruity’ is very common, for Speyside whiskies in particular, but I tried to get the Panel to narrow that down – are we talking dry fruit, fresh fruit, citric fruit, tinned fruit, cooked fruit – baked apples? That’s all part of the fun. But we’re not just plucking words out of the air – there was a great example when the Panel described an Islay whisky as being like ‘wetsuits and charcoal’. A member came into The Vaults and said our Tasting Notes were getting absurd. He produced a neoprene booty from his bag, and then we got a sample of this particular whisky.
“A random group of members nosed it, nosed the neoprene booty, then tasted the whisky, and it was exactly as described. So bingo!”
Poet and songwriter Robin Laing is another mainstay of the Tasting Panel, having racked up 25 years of sampling whiskies and creating bottle names and tasting notes. He brings his own poetic sensibility to the task.
“People say they can tell my notes because there’s an element of humour or wordiness in them,” he says. “First and foremost I’m a songwriter and a poet, so I do things with words that other people maybe don’t, or bring in odd words or different figures of speech. Words are my living and my craft – although I’ve also had people ask me, ‘Who writes this nonsense?’
“People like Charlie and me are guys of a certain age who grew up in Edinburgh and a lot of time when you are nosing and tasting whiskies, it brings back childhood memories,” says Robin.
“Those memories can be specific, often to do with medicines that you had as a child, or Scottish sweeties.”
Not all the references are particular to Scotland, however. The Tasting Panel has always been multinational and includes both women and men – so everyone brings their own points of reference to the whiskies. “The main thing is that the Tasting Notes have to be informative, relevant and accurate,” says Robin. “But it’s also good to have a bit of fun.”
PICTURED: Poet and songwriter Robin Laing brings his own poetic sensibility to the task of writing tasting notes
THE PANEL’S SIX STEPS
Observe: Start tasting with your eyes – the colour comes from the wood and can provide a clue to the whisky’s maturation. Swirl the whisky to gauge its texture and how voluptuous it might feel on the palate.
Nose it neat: Remember most Society whisky is cask strength, so take a gentle sniff, close your eyes and see where the whisky’s aromas take you.
Sip it neat: Let the whisky glide onto your palate. Breathe through your nose with the whisky in your mouth to get an impression of texture and flavour.
Nose diluted: Adding a drop of water can radically change the character of your whisky. Give it a try to see how it might transform.
Taste diluted: Take another sip and see where the whisky now takes you in terms of primary tastes. Is it sweet, sour, salty, bitter or umami (savoury)?
Take stock: Summarise your overall impressions.
Find a flavour: Which of the Society’s 12 flavour profiles best describes your dram?
Naming ceremony: Have a go at choosing your own name and editing your tasting notes into a succinct couple of paragraphs.
Yes, a bit of fun. But a discerning nose and the ability to judge a whisky are key attributes for any panellist, as well as impartiality in their opinions.
“People come in and they don’t necessarily know the history of the cask or what project it’s a result of, like we do in the Whisky Team,” says the Society’s head of whisky creation, Euan Campbell. “That gives us a chance to put whiskies in front of other expert noses for their opinion. It also means we can cast our net wide because everyone has different sensory abilities, so we’re utilising that across a wider pool of people.
“I think our Tasting Panel is unique in the sense that while we’re looking at it from a quality point of view, we also look at it from the point of view of a member sitting in their armchair pouring a dram. So we have this balance between the technical quality factor and the enjoyment factor, which perhaps some other panels don’t have as much focus on.”
Angus MacRaild is another long-serving Panel chair, now with a decade’s experience collating tasting notes and writing bottle names. For him, the Panel needs a range of voices and contributions to be successful.
“The makeup of each Panel is varied and diverse,” he says.
ABOVE: Angus MacRaild says variety and diversity is key to the Tasting Panel’s success
“There are tasters with years of industry experience, who bring uniquely authoritative and technical insight. There are also younger enthusiasts, people who might just be starting out on their whisky journey or career, who bring a fresh perspective and interrogate whiskies in ways those of us with more experience might not think to. But any prospective panellist has to pass a sensory evaluation test and is then given a period of ‘probation’ before they are fully signed up.”
PICTURED: An early incarnation of the Tasting Panel at The Vaults, with Society founder Pip Hills at the centre
Julien Willems from the Whisky Team co-ordinates the Tasting Panel and arranges each session and who will be participating in each one from the wider pool.
“Having a multicultural Panel and different experiences brings a lot of wealth into what we can put forward,” he says. “Not everything is to everyone’s palate, but the Society aims to satisfy the widest number of members across different cultures and around the world.
“There’s no guarantee that members in Germany, Sweden, China or Japan will like the same types of whisky. That’s why we offer such a wealth of different flavours.”
So whether your Society whisky inspires a poetic flight of the imagination or a pibroch, let’s celebrate the work of the Tasting Panel and the outstanding quality of the whiskies they allow to pass under their scrupulous noses and into our bottles.
ABOVE: Julien Willems co-ordinates the Tasting Panel
If you’re feeling adventurous, why not set up your own informal Tasting Panel with some friends and try the experience for yourselves? It might just inspire you to some whisky-related poetry – or maybe even a pibroch.