Whisky
Every bottle I review, drawn as the shape of its flavour. Pick a flavour on the key to sort the shelf by it.
Flowers and blossom: heather, rose, violet, perfume. Common in Speyside and Lowland malts.
Fresh and dried fruit: apple, pear, citrus, raisin, fig.
Honey, vanilla, toffee and caramel, much of it from American oak.
Sherry and wine casks: dried fruit, nuts, chocolate, red wine.
Weight and texture in the mouth, from light and thin to oily and chewy.
The barley itself: cereal, biscuit, bread and nuts.
Pepper, clove, cinnamon and ginger, often from the oak.
Peat smoke, iodine, ash and tar, from malt dried over peat fires. The Islay signature.
How to read a shape
Each wedge is one flavour, scored 0 to 4, and its area grows with the score. The rings mark 1 to 4.
- Dots for the light side: floral, fruity, sweet
- Asterisks for cask and grain: winey (wine and sherry casks), body, malty (malt and nuts), spicy
- Crosses for smoky (smoke and peat)
