My wife drinks wine and I do on occasion and have always found the descriptions written for various wines entertaining.. but now that this has moved over to Whiskey ... I'm not so sure:

I gave my wife a 12 year old bottle of Tullamore D.E.W. for Christmas.... this is some very fine Irish Whiskey... and was reading the description yesterday morning.... here is what they paid someone to write about their whiskey:

"TASTING NOTES"

NOSE:
Early Spice Accompanied by Red Wine while a nice nuttiness follows. A light woody note is also evident, bringing to mind the 12 years spent in oak cast.

TASTE:
A deep Robust Taste with spice and linseed oil given a creamy body and powerful chocolate flavour. (yep, that's how they spelled it) Dried fruits and nuts accompany the chocolate, giving a veritable praline note to the taste.

FINISH:
The Finish is long and rich with some Citrus, Chocolate, Raisins and Marzipan all lingering."

Luckily they put this inside the box it came in because I would have never bought the whiskey if I thought it even tasted half like what they described. It's damn good stuff, but to me it taste like whiskey.

Tasting notes for all alcohol are ridiculous.

quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
Tasting notes for all alcohol are ridiculous.

And pretentious.

And bullshit.

"Flavour" is the way Europeans spell it, so that's normal. Tullamore is a good introduction to Irish whiskey. Might want to try Redbreast 12 year old cask strength pot still Irish if you want to see what a more flavorful whiskey is like (the cask strengh Redbreast is better than their regular 12 year old non-cask version, IMHO).

In my price range there are pretty much three types of whiskey:

1.Hmm

2.Wow

3. SOB Wow!

The same writers describe real estate. Great fixer upper, executive home wonderful neighborhood etc.

Sigmonkey Bourbon tasting note

"I tasted the bourbon. All of it.
Took an Uber to the liquor store.
BRB...."

And the same writers also come up with the grandiose names for new housing subdivisions!

I've smoked several cigars with a nearly identical description.

quote:

Originally posted by Krazeehorse:
I've smoked several cigars with a nearly identical description.

It would be interesting to do a double blind test with several "experts" and see if they could independently come up with descriptions even remotely close to each other.

They do that with some fancier beer too but it's not nearly as long winded.
Agree that it's pretty much bullshit.

If I am at a bar, and see a new whiskey I have never tried, I pay the $6-$7 for a shot. Eliminates the guesswork and need to decipher absurd descriptions when its time to buy a nice bottle.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Collins:
And the same writers also come up with the grandiose names for new housing subdivisions!

"Morning Woode"

It's probably all J. Peterman's fault... in that his whole marketing plan was writing descriptive narratives about the items he was selling. (Which both the item and narratives were pretty darn good) But this whole thing with wine and whiskey has gotten... just little out of hand. (Maybe we need a law passed to fix it?) If I wanted to taste chocolate I'd buy it, same for fruit and who wants mystery spices added to their bourbon or scotch or what ever.... I think it is all directed towards folks that have to have a sweet 'mixed up' drink and don't understand the pleasure of sipping a really good whisky straight.

I have never tasted anything alcoholic that I thought tasted good. Same thing with cigars and cigarettes.

I realize this is heresy to some, but I also think Starbucks coffee tastes like sewage.

^^^^^

I completely agree, except that I have somewhat limited experience with the taste of sewage.

My long deceased grandmother used to say: "Beer tastes like urine smells".

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
If I am at a bar, and see a new whiskey I have never tried, I pay the $6-$7 for a shot. Eliminates the guesswork and need to decipher absurd descriptions when its time to buy a nice bottle.

Pretty much sums it up for me too. Never tried Tullimore but have been thinking about it, my standard is Bushmills. Also been thinking of trying some Black Bush.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Collins:
And the same writers also come up with the grandiose names for new housing subdivisions!

"Morning Woode"

"Whispering Neighbors"

One bottle of wine I had said to have a node of gooseberry.

You have to be kidding. Gooseberry! How about taste like fruit. Strawberry, orange, raspberry etc. but gooseberry!!