Expert: Paul Wagner - 4/13/2007

Question
Two questions here.  I have been enjoying Woodford reserve and just ordered a bottle of 1792 reserve.  As a novice will I notice any difference between the two?  Also Dalmore scotch makes a cigar single malt that is aged in spanish cedar barrels VRS the oak barrels that the othe schoch that they bottle is aged in.  Which one would have a smoother finish and would have a lighter peaty and smokey taste?....

Answer
Hi Vinni

I can't tell you what YOU will be able to taste, but I can certainly tell you what to look for.  Remember that most of our sense of flavor is actually a sense of smell.  Smelling these will tell you a lot more than tasting them.  Once you put ONE of them in your mouth, it will color how you perceive the rest of them.  

So start by smelling them--maybe two or three or four times.  Look at the color, and try to get a sense of what they are like without putting them in your mouth.  

THEN taste them.  I bet you will be able to note some differences.

As for the barrels, oak barrels normally smell like vanilla, but those used for whiskey are also charred with fire on the inside.  This gives them a smoky taste. Cedar has a small like a cigar box--or even a cedar closet--a bit pine-y.  But that character will disappear over time as the barrels get older.  I would guess that the smokier one is the oak aged one...but the level of peat flavor comes from the water and other production elements as well.

Hope that helps you make sense of a very complicated subject!

Paul Wagner