vPub Live - Blind Tasting Whisky: Why We're Rubbish (and great)

Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve attended joyously good fun events. All at whisky’s side; celebrations of great whiskies and the people around it. It’s been a brilliant time with positivity and energy running throughout. But there’s another thing that connects all of these events - they were all enjoyed blind, or at least semi-blind. What I’m about to state is from a personal perspective only, but perhaps you’ll agree that in recent times tasting whisky blind - without fear - has become far more common and widely practiced. We’re often encouraged in tastings to express our opinions before the dram is revealed, and I think that’s a good thing. Now I know that there are swathes of groups and folk out there that have been doing this forever, but when I started out on YouTube back in 2017, it was almost non-existent. It was simply not common to see anyone on camera trying anything blind. These days, with the proliferation of enthusiast and whisky fan content out there on YouTube and beyond, it’s very common. In fact many channels, such as the Scotch 4 Dummies, Scotch Test Dummies and more weave it into their content regularly. Some channels, such as the (now silent) Whisky Mystery channel made it their sole focus. It’s very easy - and interesting - when you bring humility and a genuine desire to learn more to the tasting table. While the Aqvavitae channel started out on blind tasting and continued it through various projects, it’s not been at the core of everything. I wonder how differently I might’ve felt about certain bottles and brands if I’d encountered every one blind, for the first time. Don’t worry, I don’t see a need to change what we’re doing, in fact I think there’s a genuine ‘ceremony’ of opening a bottle we’ve been anticipating and absorbing it fully in the knowledge of what it is - it’s one of life’s true pleasures. But I think it’s fun to, once in a while, draw attention and focus back to some objectivity, fun and, of course, jeopardy. But there’s more than one way to taste blind, and many more reasons to do it. So, let’s get the blue glasses out, the coloured dots, the blindfolds (no, not really), identical glassware and try some pours while not exactly sure what they are. Let’s work at it a little but also - ask the whisky to work too. While we do so we’ll ask - why bother in the first place? If you’d like to play along for one of the experiments in the live vPub session this week: grab three Glencairns, mark them in some way (on the base is best) and add three whiskies of a similar profile that you’ve particularly enjoyed over the last while, and mix them up to taste along blind. We can do this together. I can practically guarantee you’ll do better than me! Leave your ego at the door, bring curiosity and an open mind and let the whisky lead you. Probably, if you’re like me, to a red face. Still, worth it if we learn though, right? I’d love to welcome you there!