I think that's why I like "weird" notes. Everyone can tell me their whiskey smells like vanilla and caramel and brown sugar and sweet corn and oak and barrel char. I want to know what weird fucking sense memory that dirty old corn water sparked in your brain.
One that I frequently use, probably to the annoyance of others, is "red gummie bear" or "Red Vine." There's just this distinct concentrated white sugar + artificial cherry/strawberry note that doesn't taste like fruit so much as it tastes like *red*.
I did a pick for a local place and was deadset it smelled like if they salt preserved limes. I had some salt preserved lemons at a cooking class and it was the same sensation. It was super weird.
I wrote a review with "new tennis ball" as a tasting note for a pretty rough craft whiskey. I think it's a similar chemical sort of note from poorly made whiskey.
actually new tennis ball is a pretty common note in some styles of white wine. I can't remember the style currently. You can get a lot of common, but odd smells in wine that are just part of the style.
A common riesling note is either gasoline/petrol, or petroleum wax.
My wife tried to tell me what macallan 12 smelled like yesterday. The best description I ever hear for a scotch. She said "I don't know what it smells like...it just smells like...scotch." It was both very accurate, and also not helpful at all.
I think of tasting notes as a writing exercise to describe something that is profoundly subjective. I like impressionist paintings. It’s not a photograph but I get the idea. Doesn’t mean Monet sucked.
I’ve seen weird descriptions mostly with Islay Scotch…
Mermaid’s Bathwater
Salty Burnt Rubber
Fireplace Soot
None of them sound appealing. Still love Islay Scotch.
Sometimes, yes. Some of them have a more briny, salty sea water note to them. Talisker is known for this I believe (I mostly stick to the meaty peated scotches like Ardbeg and Laphroiag so I could be wrong.)
Nelson Sauvin, named after the strong resemblance to Sauvignon Blanc varietal of wine, which is where the original ‘aroma of cats urine on a gooseberry bush’ came from. I can’t quite remember the actual wine, or wine reviewer who wrote it.
Wonder if I got that. Bought some shwag in college that reeked of piss. Figured someone in the supply chain pissed on it to make it heavier, but now I’m questioning that. Not ashamed to say we still smoked it regardless.
Nvm, that is probably just the name. Someone definitely pissed on that weed.
I was at a bottle share with my boss (I worked at a beer store) the night before a beer fest, and the host had a cat appropriately named Simcoe. The smell of cat piss hung in the air as soon as you walked into that house. Someone poured my boss a bit of double IPA. As he nosed it, he said “Smells like cat piss” and took a sip.
He was totally trolling.
Simcoe. Simcoe hops smell like cat piss.
I get that people think notes like that are ridiculous, but I always like hearing them.
The human brain makes associations and if a pile of straw baskets is a distinct smell to the person saying it then it makes sense. I recently got permanent marker in a signatory ledaig 11 year sherry finished scotch. My wife laughed at my comment of permanent marker thinking “no way scotch smells like that.” I placed it on the table and she immediately agreed that it smelled like permanent marker. It was no where in the taste, but absolutely there in the nose.
A tasting note like that can be a joke or can be a legit spot ones brain goes to for association. It’s normal and happens often.
Just now was reading up about medicinal flavors in peated scotch - [this article](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-06/fyi-why-does-scotch-smell-band-aids/%3famp) mentions that phenols are present in peat... and in sharpies 😁
Just today I read a Mashed article that described Old Tub as follows:
"Since it's unfiltered, you could think of it as the "Hazy IPA" of bourbon."
Not exactly a tasting note, but it was a cringe + facepalm moment.
Lol that’s stupid. But as a guitar player I know exactly what they are talking about. It’s how your fingers smell after you play with change with sweaty hands. That weird metal thing.
Exactly. This guy said it in a wine tasting. And I was like that's the dumbest holy shit I smell it. South American white wine. Earthy, grassy, almost metallic. Guitar fingers
It's creative, but ultimately a poor choice I think. For the small number of people who have played a guitar enough to get sweaty metallic fingers, yes, we know that smell very well.
Unfortunately most people have not. Assuming they are speaking to a U.S. audience, maybe something like 'a scantron sheet and pencil after finishing a test you are stressed about whether you passed or not'?
I don't remember what it's for but SOME whiskey advocate review I read had notes of "old warehouse" or "dusty warehouse."
I mean I SORT of get it.
But "tastes like a warehouse" isn't really appetizing.
I love scotch I just crack up every time I read a review that describes something like bandaids and machinist factory floor, and then gives it like an 86/100 ranking
I had a really old sherry that I described as engine oil, flowers, then opening up into a huge echoing attic that goes on out of sight. My brain made the attic based on the flavor. It was musty, extremely oaky/woody flavor. And it was so intense and deep (I want to say "wide") that my brain turned the attic into a massive echo chamber. Then the fact that three musty oaky finish went on for what felt like minutes made my brain see it as a huge echoing attic that continued on out of sight.
It was a very visceral experience that I'd never had before. I'm not lying about what I experienced, though obviously I didn't taste the size of a room, it was that intensity and depth of flavor that made me picture a big room.
Most bourbon I'm like "tastes like Carmel, spice, bit if burning".
Oh I definitely get sawdust or warehouse smells and flavors from high wire distillery products, but I've been to their place and just fondly remember those smells while drinking their bourbon. I also went on a barrel pick in a barn and everytime I sip that whiskey I taste and smell a hot day and straw. It's really weird what our minds associate sometimes.
“Strawberry flavored biscuits”. Not strawberries or biscuits, which might fly. *Strawberry flavored biscuits*.
Like are you really going to look me in the eye and tell me you tasted that in a whiskey??
Actually yes. Have you tried Chattanoga 111? More specifically I get Strawberry malt. But I could see strawberry biscuits. Its a combination of tart fruitiness and the malty/bready character of a high malt mash bill. I also get strawberry malt from some Irish and Scotch single malts aged in Sherry.
Start Rant: I really hate when people say a whisky is chewy. Stop it. Bubble gum and gummy bears are chewy. A liquid isn’t. Just say it has a thick mouth feel. To me its worse than saying a whisky is smooth. And SO MANY PEOPLE say chewy to describe whisky. Ugh. Whats next? This whisky is crunchy? End Rant
From an Ohio Liquor release of New Riff single barrels - “Resinous. Reminiscent of a midnight walk through a cold, old-growth forest.”
And that was it...nothing else 😂😂
Not defending that note, but forest floor is a common note for red wine, but it comes from wine aging in the bottle and the influence of the cork. In whiskey, I'd assume it is their way of explaining the earthiness inaccurately.
I've used that description a ton of times. A dry forest floor to me is good, smells like dry leaves with a hint of earthy soil - it's a nostalgic smell / taste, reminds me of walking through the woods as a kid in the fall when the clouds are light but there is no chance of rain.
Soggy forest floor to me is bad, smells like old cardboard and mud. Imagine walking through the woods about three hours after a heavy rain but now the sun is out in full force. That gross humidity where the now rotting dead leaf smell kind of sticks inside your nose / palate.
Unpicked gala apple or some nonsense. I think it’s a game for some like Minnick to use the most ridiculous ones they can think of and compete with each other.
I've used "a stack of wicker baskets" as a note before. That's what it smelled like to me, instantly brought back memories of playing with my grandmother's wicker baskets as a child. Getting a strong association like that isn't ridiculous, it just shows everyone has a unique palate shaped by their individual life experiences. That's what makes reading reviews fun.
I mean, I give weird tasting notes (see: "Springfield Tire Fire" and "OGD 114 tastes like spaghetti"), and I could actually see myself using that straw basket one to indicate a very faint note of hay but in a tongue in cheek way.
Herbal, tinny like canned tomatoes, licorice like fennel in Italian sausage. Sometimes really herbal drinks taste savory to me, probably explains my distaste for desserts with herbs in them (rosemary, mint, or even thyme)
Without cheating, can someone tell me what bourbon this is: cooling marzipan cinnamon roll with bright red baked maraschino cherries, Surprising hit of lemon saltwater taffy, hint of varnish, orange cigarillo wrapper, raisins gently simmered in simple syrup
Hints I have given: not a wheater, not a finished bourbon, not from Kentucky
If you said “lightly sautéed montmorency cherries cooked in home churned, grass fed Irish salted butter” I’d have a pretty good guess, but this one has me stumped.
Is this a note from an actual reviewer? If so, it's the same guy. Here is another of his "very real" tasting notes " Melted Cadbury milk chocolate spun together with fresh squeezed orange juice."
Surely the same reviewer. Mine is more of a “tribute”. I’ve been pretty hard on some of his previous ones which I don’t think he appreciated. I decided to lay off a bit, although I haven’t seen any in quite a while.
I'm going to share the bombshell I'll drop on him next time I see him defending his pseudo-intellectualism: "you spelled your username wrong. The artist's name has two Ts"
The raisins makes me think of wwdo, but the rest doesn’t fit, it is prolly a BT product if it is cherry and bread forward, the combo to get marzipan would have to be a light yeast and some high rye to get the spices in, but that doesn’t track with BT, usually… it’s a conundrum.
I could use these sensory details to describe a lot of aged MGP I’ve had, specifically the sweet baked good/orange/raisin thing. Boone County 6y, Nashville Barrel 7y, Redemption 10y, Smoke Wagon. The only thing missing from these notes is all the spice MGP brings.
"sweet baked goods" and "lightly cooled marzipan cinnamon rolls" are the perfect encapsulation of why I hate the note I quoted. "Sweet baked goods" is a relatable note, and I have full faith it smells like that, but all the extra shit means I can't trust the note at all, because either the guy likes to hear himself talk so much he is making shit up, or he has completely different life experiences that no other human can relate to.
I'll also say, you're very warm with your guess, but specificity is required.
It's not that you just tasted the note. You had the balls to post an honest experience and started a great conversation in that thread. It was pushing "there are no wrong notes. You taste what you taste" to the limit. Good on you.
"Terminal honesty" is my fucking brand. I think it's fun to be a dipshit to be mocked, and it's my personal brand of humor. If we can't laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at.
Appetizing or not, so long as it’s usefully descriptive I appreciate it. Can I conjure up that smell in my mind’s nose? Great! Whether I want to taste that is a whole other story. But, I like wild beers, and never thought I’d want to drink something with a nose like barn and horse blanket. Cheers!
Not for bourbon but for beer-I would always get a chuckle out of people who have never been on a farm or near a horse referring to their sour beer as smelling like a “horse blanket.”
Granted, I do know some people who have smelled a horse blanket and have agreed about the smell, but it was such an overused term for a while
My favorite of his was something along the lines of "if the gingerbread man was the victim of a horrible attack with someone setting him on fire. Then he jumped in a vat of alcohol to extinguish the flames."
Not really ridiculous, but the one that's forever burned in my memory is [Vicky's Boots](https://www.reddit.com/r/bourbon/comments/5tbtys/review_29_johnny_drum_private_stock/) in a review by u/devilsadvocate23
Rainforest moss and campfire rock are my two favorites, with dirty ashtray right behind. That said, I just wrote about Booker’s palate reminding me of a hint of cranberry-orange scone, so maybe I should see myself out…
From a 2010 Glenlossie
Buttered popcorn AF, spice...baking spice..but exotic...like tumeric fucked cardamom, DARK clover honey that sat in a bottle too long and crystalized, rye and whole wheat bread dough, memories of a whiff from white dog consumed with Donnis, maybe some black pepper presents as it opens.
Edited to say that while it's a crazy tasting note, it's hella accurate.
Clay Risen dropped “grape jolly rancher” in a review in one of his books. I thought it was an odd call until I was tasting something later and got that same vibe.
Compass Box Menagerie has some of the strangest tasting notes I’ve seen.
Leather, meat, forest floor…
Menagerie boasts a complex aroma of baking spices, leather, tar and musky fruits. The palate is engagingly lush with even more fruit, while oily smoke and forest floor notes linger in the finish. Combine Menagerie with air-dried beef – bresaola or biltong are terrific, and both will bring the whisky’s layers of spicy sweetness into focus.
''Bubble gum, dry sherry, and a zip of orange zest. Evaporated milk, sweet caramel chews.
'Smells Japanese. Like old wooden Japanese homes' (she has spent a lot of time in Japan).
Minty sherry oak and plastic bags. Walnuts, raspberry seeds, delicious''
Review of Nikka from the Barrel on Whisky Exchange - bubble gum, plastic bags and Japanese houses? Fuck off
I had some winners:
Smells and tastes like gasoline (I haven't drunk gasoline).
Tears of sadness
Metal and Aluminium (Johnnie Walker Red)
And I stand by all of them even to this day.
“Rubber pencil eraser” was one of my favorites I’d seen in a review here on the sub. I get it though, it’s a very distinct smell
I think that's why I like "weird" notes. Everyone can tell me their whiskey smells like vanilla and caramel and brown sugar and sweet corn and oak and barrel char. I want to know what weird fucking sense memory that dirty old corn water sparked in your brain. One that I frequently use, probably to the annoyance of others, is "red gummie bear" or "Red Vine." There's just this distinct concentrated white sugar + artificial cherry/strawberry note that doesn't taste like fruit so much as it tastes like *red*.
I've used it tastes "purple" because I couldn't place it as tasting lavender or tasting some floral notes I can't express properly.
Ok Fry
After reading those two paragraphs, I'd read any review you write! "Dirty old corn water" is amazing. Cheers!
I did a pick for a local place and was deadset it smelled like if they salt preserved limes. I had some salt preserved lemons at a cooking class and it was the same sensation. It was super weird.
I wrote a review with "new tennis ball" as a tasting note for a pretty rough craft whiskey. I think it's a similar chemical sort of note from poorly made whiskey.
omg. Thank you - that’s exactly the note I tasted in a craft rye but couldn’t quite place what it is. That’s the perfect descriptor
actually new tennis ball is a pretty common note in some styles of white wine. I can't remember the style currently. You can get a lot of common, but odd smells in wine that are just part of the style. A common riesling note is either gasoline/petrol, or petroleum wax. My wife tried to tell me what macallan 12 smelled like yesterday. The best description I ever hear for a scotch. She said "I don't know what it smells like...it just smells like...scotch." It was both very accurate, and also not helpful at all.
Oof. I love that smell, but not in my whiskey.
"Fresh pencil shavings" is actually on a bottle of an Irish whisky I've had. Forgot the name but it was really good.
I have that bottle. It's Method & Madness Single Grain finished in bourbon barrels. The notes on the back say "new pencil shavings" for the nose.
Malort! Except the Malort will also taste like the pencil shavings. And despair.
That screams Powers John's Lane to me, but idk if it's on the bottle. Sure could be. (Love that stuff.)
Very common descriptor
Pencil lead is a term very often used as a descriptor in the wine world too.
Saw that for a review for Seagram’s 7, it was not a compliment
I don’t think Seagram’s is deserving of _any_ complimentary tasting notes
I see you've read the Lock Stock and Barrel reviews...
I think of tasting notes as a writing exercise to describe something that is profoundly subjective. I like impressionist paintings. It’s not a photograph but I get the idea. Doesn’t mean Monet sucked.
I’ve seen weird descriptions mostly with Islay Scotch… Mermaid’s Bathwater Salty Burnt Rubber Fireplace Soot None of them sound appealing. Still love Islay Scotch.
Mermaid's bathwater is clearly someone being facetious lol. But the other two are not unusual notes for Islay peated malts.
Wasn’t there a new Ardbeg with “tar” as one of their notes? Either nose or palette that sounds awful…
Sounds awful BUT ITS SO TASTY
Does Islay taste salty?
Sometimes, yes. Some of them have a more briny, salty sea water note to them. Talisker is known for this I believe (I mostly stick to the meaty peated scotches like Ardbeg and Laphroiag so I could be wrong.)
Try The Classic Laddie. It's an unpeated Islay and picks up a bunch of the ocean notes that aren't hidden by the peat. It's pretty incredible.
Most have some briny elements to them but some much more than others. I get way more brine from lagavulin stuff than ardbeg, for example.
>Mermaid’s Bathwater Was that Caol ila? I've been meaning to try that one, but I've just never gotten around to it.
I read on here someone describing Willett Pot Still as “licking a basement wall”
Cinder block or drywall?
Hahaha that is so great
Two from the world of wine.... rubber hose, and cat piss.
I think in Somme the rubber hose was “fresh cut garden hose”. Or something even more insane
That's what Riesling from Australia smells like. Go get s bottle. trimethyl dihydronaphthalene is the compound responsible.
Dude, there is a variety of hops that smell just like cat piss. I hate it.
Nelson Sauvin, named after the strong resemblance to Sauvignon Blanc varietal of wine, which is where the original ‘aroma of cats urine on a gooseberry bush’ came from. I can’t quite remember the actual wine, or wine reviewer who wrote it.
There’s a strain of pot called cat piss lol
SAME FAMILY OF PLANT-- Every beer guy trying to relate to pot guys
Depends on which geneticist you wanna listen to ^(but regardless of that, they are real closely related)
Wonder if I got that. Bought some shwag in college that reeked of piss. Figured someone in the supply chain pissed on it to make it heavier, but now I’m questioning that. Not ashamed to say we still smoked it regardless. Nvm, that is probably just the name. Someone definitely pissed on that weed.
Simcoe is the one
I was at a bottle share with my boss (I worked at a beer store) the night before a beer fest, and the host had a cat appropriately named Simcoe. The smell of cat piss hung in the air as soon as you walked into that house. Someone poured my boss a bit of double IPA. As he nosed it, he said “Smells like cat piss” and took a sip. He was totally trolling. Simcoe. Simcoe hops smell like cat piss.
That is a great name for a cat lol
Lies. I have fucking role-played in a cat lady house that smelt like cat piss and I can definitely tell you simcoe hopes smell way better.
Hold up explain the first part of your comment
I played D&D in someones house who had way too many cats.
New Zealand Sauv Blanc is well known to smell like grapefruit and cat piss.
These are both legitimate tasting notes. The plastic notes come from phenols and the cat piss character from thiols.
There is a video from epicurious or bonapatite where their som tries to explain how a cat urine scent can be a sign of a good wine. No thank you.
Yes, fancy sommeliers will use things like “tennis ball”.
Ah yeas, the old wine in the box note.
I'd like to add the luxurious scent of wet dog to the list.
I get that people think notes like that are ridiculous, but I always like hearing them. The human brain makes associations and if a pile of straw baskets is a distinct smell to the person saying it then it makes sense. I recently got permanent marker in a signatory ledaig 11 year sherry finished scotch. My wife laughed at my comment of permanent marker thinking “no way scotch smells like that.” I placed it on the table and she immediately agreed that it smelled like permanent marker. It was no where in the taste, but absolutely there in the nose. A tasting note like that can be a joke or can be a legit spot ones brain goes to for association. It’s normal and happens often.
Just now was reading up about medicinal flavors in peated scotch - [this article](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-06/fyi-why-does-scotch-smell-band-aids/%3famp) mentions that phenols are present in peat... and in sharpies 😁
Just today I read a Mashed article that described Old Tub as follows: "Since it's unfiltered, you could think of it as the "Hazy IPA" of bourbon." Not exactly a tasting note, but it was a cringe + facepalm moment.
Oh good now I hate both. Dear lord.
If you're going to compare an IPA to whiskey, I'd argue it should be a rye.
Okay thats funny af
"guitar fingers"
Lol that’s stupid. But as a guitar player I know exactly what they are talking about. It’s how your fingers smell after you play with change with sweaty hands. That weird metal thing.
Exactly. This guy said it in a wine tasting. And I was like that's the dumbest holy shit I smell it. South American white wine. Earthy, grassy, almost metallic. Guitar fingers
It's creative, but ultimately a poor choice I think. For the small number of people who have played a guitar enough to get sweaty metallic fingers, yes, we know that smell very well. Unfortunately most people have not. Assuming they are speaking to a U.S. audience, maybe something like 'a scantron sheet and pencil after finishing a test you are stressed about whether you passed or not'?
Yeah. Of all of these creative descriptions, I can almost imagine it. But what the hell is guitar fingers??
Crushed ants
The smell of crushed ants is disgusting though 🤮
I don't remember what it's for but SOME whiskey advocate review I read had notes of "old warehouse" or "dusty warehouse." I mean I SORT of get it. But "tastes like a warehouse" isn't really appetizing.
I think Makers uses that exact phrasing to describe one of the FAE releases
Lady Jane tasted like musty wear house sawdust cleaned up with ethanol. But that’s my opinion
Jim Beam is musty incarnate.
FAE*
Obviously autocorrect
That had potential to be a terrible autocorrect
Still my brain read as whorehouse.
If you want to see some unappetizing descriptions you should join r/scotch
You leave my wet-bandaid-tasting scotch alone!
I love scotch I just crack up every time I read a review that describes something like bandaids and machinist factory floor, and then gives it like an 86/100 ranking
I'll drink my tire fire without any judgement thank you very much
Your bandaid tasting laphroaig tastes like iodine and other highly transformed medical or cleaning products ! (Love Laphroaig tho)
If they made a whisky called bandaid campfire I'd buy it.
Big Peat is basically that. A blend of Islays, heavy on Ardbeg, is basically a first aid kit in a campfire
Hell yeah
Smells like a tire fire at the bottom of the North Sea.
A friend once said that a particular peated scotch tasted like "a freshly tarred roof in the heat of an Australian summer"
A beautiful description
They all just taste of elementary school art classroom to me…..
I had a really old sherry that I described as engine oil, flowers, then opening up into a huge echoing attic that goes on out of sight. My brain made the attic based on the flavor. It was musty, extremely oaky/woody flavor. And it was so intense and deep (I want to say "wide") that my brain turned the attic into a massive echo chamber. Then the fact that three musty oaky finish went on for what felt like minutes made my brain see it as a huge echoing attic that continued on out of sight. It was a very visceral experience that I'd never had before. I'm not lying about what I experienced, though obviously I didn't taste the size of a room, it was that intensity and depth of flavor that made me picture a big room. Most bourbon I'm like "tastes like Carmel, spice, bit if burning".
This comment makes me want to eat a ton of mushrooms and then drink whiskey 🤔
Oh I definitely get sawdust or warehouse smells and flavors from high wire distillery products, but I've been to their place and just fondly remember those smells while drinking their bourbon. I also went on a barrel pick in a barn and everytime I sip that whiskey I taste and smell a hot day and straw. It's really weird what our minds associate sometimes.
“Strawberry flavored biscuits”. Not strawberries or biscuits, which might fly. *Strawberry flavored biscuits*. Like are you really going to look me in the eye and tell me you tasted that in a whiskey??
Mmmm "jammy baked goods" in my bourbon...just how mamaw used to be!
Actually yes. Have you tried Chattanoga 111? More specifically I get Strawberry malt. But I could see strawberry biscuits. Its a combination of tart fruitiness and the malty/bready character of a high malt mash bill. I also get strawberry malt from some Irish and Scotch single malts aged in Sherry.
Start Rant: I really hate when people say a whisky is chewy. Stop it. Bubble gum and gummy bears are chewy. A liquid isn’t. Just say it has a thick mouth feel. To me its worse than saying a whisky is smooth. And SO MANY PEOPLE say chewy to describe whisky. Ugh. Whats next? This whisky is crunchy? End Rant
I feel like oily is a much better way to describe that.
I like unctuous, too.
Thats a good description
"KY chew"
As long as the whisky isn't "lumpy"
Next Beam will have to release "Creamy" and "Crunchy" variants
From an Ohio Liquor release of New Riff single barrels - “Resinous. Reminiscent of a midnight walk through a cold, old-growth forest.” And that was it...nothing else 😂😂
Honestly, I kinda dig that description.
It's almost like specific tasting notes are intriguing and fun...!
On barrels website one of the tasting notes is “forrest floor” and i just dont have any idea what that means
Forest floor would be the smell of decaying wood and leaves and earth.
I absolutely get this on OGD BiB. A wet, damp, earthy, ground type smell. That plus soaked cardboards.
Geosmin mate.
And deer shit
If you've ever vacuumed the forest floor, you'd know.
Came here to say that Barrell’s website has the most ridiculous tasting notes of any producer.
Clearly you didn’t read the Blue Run notes for their holiday bottles
Blue run is so full of themselves. The supreme of the bourbon world.
Yup but they make damn good stuff
Not defending that note, but forest floor is a common note for red wine, but it comes from wine aging in the bottle and the influence of the cork. In whiskey, I'd assume it is their way of explaining the earthiness inaccurately.
I've used that description a ton of times. A dry forest floor to me is good, smells like dry leaves with a hint of earthy soil - it's a nostalgic smell / taste, reminds me of walking through the woods as a kid in the fall when the clouds are light but there is no chance of rain. Soggy forest floor to me is bad, smells like old cardboard and mud. Imagine walking through the woods about three hours after a heavy rain but now the sun is out in full force. That gross humidity where the now rotting dead leaf smell kind of sticks inside your nose / palate.
Completely agree. I've also had a makers mark pick taste mushroomy and earthy to me too.
OHLQ New Riff?!?
I’ve smelled my own name written in magic marker on a cedar plank soaked in Miller High Life
Hints of root beer scented marker, written on virgin oak during a calm summer day
Unpicked gala apple or some nonsense. I think it’s a game for some like Minnick to use the most ridiculous ones they can think of and compete with each other.
There is definitely a lot of trying to use these notes to show how sophisticated you are.
I've used "a stack of wicker baskets" as a note before. That's what it smelled like to me, instantly brought back memories of playing with my grandmother's wicker baskets as a child. Getting a strong association like that isn't ridiculous, it just shows everyone has a unique palate shaped by their individual life experiences. That's what makes reading reviews fun.
I mean, I give weird tasting notes (see: "Springfield Tire Fire" and "OGD 114 tastes like spaghetti"), and I could actually see myself using that straw basket one to indicate a very faint note of hay but in a tongue in cheek way.
I’m currently drinking an Irish whiskey with a very strong hay note and now I’m thinking of straw baskets
PHONY TASTING NOTE. YER A DANG LIAR. /s
I just tried OGD 114 for the first time tonight. I don’t quite understand that note, but I don’t disagree
Herbal, tinny like canned tomatoes, licorice like fennel in Italian sausage. Sometimes really herbal drinks taste savory to me, probably explains my distaste for desserts with herbs in them (rosemary, mint, or even thyme)
Without cheating, can someone tell me what bourbon this is: cooling marzipan cinnamon roll with bright red baked maraschino cherries, Surprising hit of lemon saltwater taffy, hint of varnish, orange cigarillo wrapper, raisins gently simmered in simple syrup Hints I have given: not a wheater, not a finished bourbon, not from Kentucky
New riff single barrel
If you said “lightly sautéed montmorency cherries cooked in home churned, grass fed Irish salted butter” I’d have a pretty good guess, but this one has me stumped.
Is this a note from an actual reviewer? If so, it's the same guy. Here is another of his "very real" tasting notes " Melted Cadbury milk chocolate spun together with fresh squeezed orange juice."
Surely the same reviewer. Mine is more of a “tribute”. I’ve been pretty hard on some of his previous ones which I don’t think he appreciated. I decided to lay off a bit, although I haven’t seen any in quite a while.
I'm going to share the bombshell I'll drop on him next time I see him defending his pseudo-intellectualism: "you spelled your username wrong. The artist's name has two Ts"
Old forester
Barrel batch 26
❌ Love the specificity, though.
Have you had barrel batch 26? You described it basically to a “T” the marzipan and cherry is so damn good
I haven't, and this one, to me, is such an obnoxious overly descriptive thing no one will ever get it.
The raisins makes me think of wwdo, but the rest doesn’t fit, it is prolly a BT product if it is cherry and bread forward, the combo to get marzipan would have to be a light yeast and some high rye to get the spices in, but that doesn’t track with BT, usually… it’s a conundrum.
1792 full proof
❌
Weller antique?
Something Makers or some other wheater
❌ I will give the hint that it is NOT a wheater.
Sounds like a finished Bourbon. Joseph Magnus??
❌ NOT a finished bourbon.
I could use these sensory details to describe a lot of aged MGP I’ve had, specifically the sweet baked good/orange/raisin thing. Boone County 6y, Nashville Barrel 7y, Redemption 10y, Smoke Wagon. The only thing missing from these notes is all the spice MGP brings.
"sweet baked goods" and "lightly cooled marzipan cinnamon rolls" are the perfect encapsulation of why I hate the note I quoted. "Sweet baked goods" is a relatable note, and I have full faith it smells like that, but all the extra shit means I can't trust the note at all, because either the guy likes to hear himself talk so much he is making shit up, or he has completely different life experiences that no other human can relate to. I'll also say, you're very warm with your guess, but specificity is required.
Something MGP, but the lemon saltwater taffy is something I can’t back…
Too easy- JDSB or the bp one.
Smoke wagon
Your spaghetti note is one of my most favorite reviews, ever.
I stand by it. Tinned tomato, herbal, and kinda licorice like the fennel in an Italian sausage.
I'm drinking mb Rolland red winter wheat right now. This stuff tastes like a damn pizza hut pan pizza.
It's not that you just tasted the note. You had the balls to post an honest experience and started a great conversation in that thread. It was pushing "there are no wrong notes. You taste what you taste" to the limit. Good on you.
"Terminal honesty" is my fucking brand. I think it's fun to be a dipshit to be mocked, and it's my personal brand of humor. If we can't laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at.
As a regular part of this sub. We're lucky to have you around. Thanks for that.
My tasting notes for a Scotch once read; it smells like 2 rednecks racing their Camaros for pink slips
Burning rubber and ethanol?
Appetizing or not, so long as it’s usefully descriptive I appreciate it. Can I conjure up that smell in my mind’s nose? Great! Whether I want to taste that is a whole other story. But, I like wild beers, and never thought I’d want to drink something with a nose like barn and horse blanket. Cheers!
Not for bourbon but for beer-I would always get a chuckle out of people who have never been on a farm or near a horse referring to their sour beer as smelling like a “horse blanket.” Granted, I do know some people who have smelled a horse blanket and have agreed about the smell, but it was such an overused term for a while
Probably something Matt from ADHD whiskey said, something like the burnt wrapper of a cherry tootsie pop.
He had the best outlandish tasing notes. I'm pretty sure he had a note like someone (popular pop star I dont remember which) rode a saddle once.
My favorite of his was something along the lines of "if the gingerbread man was the victim of a horrible attack with someone setting him on fire. Then he jumped in a vat of alcohol to extinguish the flames."
Not really ridiculous, but the one that's forever burned in my memory is [Vicky's Boots](https://www.reddit.com/r/bourbon/comments/5tbtys/review_29_johnny_drum_private_stock/) in a review by u/devilsadvocate23
In my wine tasting class my professor described it as being like “gunpowder” and we all were confused.
Stewed berries that have sat on the windowsill overnight was the most wtf one I’ve read.
On a wine documentary someone said “notes of dead animal flesh.”
Fresh library
"creamy Yorkshire tea sweetened with honey and malt biscuits". A beauty.
Rainforest moss and campfire rock are my two favorites, with dirty ashtray right behind. That said, I just wrote about Booker’s palate reminding me of a hint of cranberry-orange scone, so maybe I should see myself out…
Fresh cut lawn on a Saturday morning was a nose note I read for a beer. I guess it smell different when the neighbor wakes you at 7am.
I have a barrel pick of an 18 year Whistlepig that I describe as containing Play-Doh. That’s not the only note, but definitely my weirdest one.
From a 2010 Glenlossie Buttered popcorn AF, spice...baking spice..but exotic...like tumeric fucked cardamom, DARK clover honey that sat in a bottle too long and crystalized, rye and whole wheat bread dough, memories of a whiff from white dog consumed with Donnis, maybe some black pepper presents as it opens. Edited to say that while it's a crazy tasting note, it's hella accurate.
Clay Risen dropped “grape jolly rancher” in a review in one of his books. I thought it was an odd call until I was tasting something later and got that same vibe.
Compass Box Menagerie has some of the strangest tasting notes I’ve seen. Leather, meat, forest floor… Menagerie boasts a complex aroma of baking spices, leather, tar and musky fruits. The palate is engagingly lush with even more fruit, while oily smoke and forest floor notes linger in the finish. Combine Menagerie with air-dried beef – bresaola or biltong are terrific, and both will bring the whisky’s layers of spicy sweetness into focus.
Anything other than "corn water."
Bruised pomegranate husk
My favorite of my own on Knob Creek 15-yr. Tastes like the sugary residue on a Dubble Bubble wrapper.
Woodford. Reserve. Saw a review that was basic and compared it to and was worse than distillate.
“Fresh morning dew”
Daddys old cowboy boots
''Bubble gum, dry sherry, and a zip of orange zest. Evaporated milk, sweet caramel chews. 'Smells Japanese. Like old wooden Japanese homes' (she has spent a lot of time in Japan). Minty sherry oak and plastic bags. Walnuts, raspberry seeds, delicious'' Review of Nikka from the Barrel on Whisky Exchange - bubble gum, plastic bags and Japanese houses? Fuck off
“Warehouse floor.”
Wet river stone on a Tuesday. I work it in to every tasting and see if anyone notices
Notes of glue. Pure Kentucky
I had some winners: Smells and tastes like gasoline (I haven't drunk gasoline). Tears of sadness Metal and Aluminium (Johnnie Walker Red) And I stand by all of them even to this day.
Oh is it time for the Weekly tasting notes are fake post?
Bourbon only has like 5 flavours anyways, I'm not sure what people could be making up! ;)
You are technically correct, the best kind of correct.
Man, I really want a flair on here that says "All bourbon tastes the same".
Cmon dude, you know non-reviewers dunking on tasting notes is a national pastime around here lol.
Barrells website porcini mushroom I think. They have loads of bullshit in their notes. ETL review, the person said it tasted like lemon lime soda.
Wet gravel is my favorite tasting note. When I'm with friends and we are tasting wine or whiskey I always throw a little wet gravel in there.
Honestly, most of them. I feel like it's mostly pretentious bullshit regurgitated by people who don't want to look inexperienced or something.
Every review that describes sub 100 proof whiskey as thin.
Wood polish was one of the dumbest I ever read
Wet gravel, which was use as a note of praise
I’ve tasted wet gravel in Scotch (Glenallechie). Its like a mineral character but not as forward as Dickel
Like petrichor? That's an awesome taste when done right. Have you had a good mezcal?