The Water of Life

Welcome, folks, to Nose Palate Finish. I’ve enjoyed whiskey for some time now, but I’ve only recently gotten into really tasting it. I started keeping track of my tasting notes in an Excel spreadsheet, but I just had the sudden, random urge to put it in a blog, instead, Dr. Whisky style. I’m not sure why I had this urge, given that I generally suck at blogging, but, hey, blogs are free, so why not?

This blog is, at least for now, primarily directed at my personal friends and family members who enjoy whiskey. However, if some random soul wandering the Web stumbles across it and finds it entertaining or useful, that’s awesome, too.

So, yes – this blog is mostly going to be about tasting. Occasionally I may pass on some bit of news I’ve read about in the whiskey world, if I find it interesting or important enough. I’ll do my best to keep my tags and such organized to make it easy for people to follow what they like. (And to make it easy for me to find stuff later!)

A few disclaimers:

1. I’m very new to tasting. I also often have a hard time picking out aromas from whiskeys, and an even harder time picking out flavors, particularly during the “palate” stage of tasting. Not only that, but I don’t think I’ve ever smelled a lot of things the pros talk about detecting in whiskey aromas. What this means is that my tasting notes may be of limited use to you; I might be making stuff up, for all I know, and I may use rather…unscientific terms for scents and flavors. I’ll probably end up lumping aromas and flavors together in the “nose” category, keep the “palate” to dealing with texture and mouth-feel, and use the “finish” stage to describe the length of the finish and any interesting aftertastes I may happen to detect.


2. Spelling. I know that it’s generally spelled “whiskey” only when referring to American or Irish whiskey, while Canada, Scotland, and Japan spell it “whisky.” Rather than worry about which is right or wrong, I’ll just spell it however I feel like spelling it at the time; I tend to prefer it with an “e.” You spell it however you like; I won’t complain. Scout’s honor.

Thanks for reading. Now…Sláinte!