Refining Your Palate with Barrel Picks

What’s your immediate reaction when someone asks you for tasting notes? If you are like me, I used to cringe when I got asked this because I didn’t trust my palate. I always felt that everyone else was better at doing this. How does oak taste? Tobacco? Leather?

One of ways that I refined my palate was by comparing barrel picks to the original. For this example, I compared 5 Elijah Craig barrel picks to the original, off-the-shelf Elijah Craig Small Batch. I did not score or rank these, I did this simply to work on my palate.

I usually start off by looking for what’s different in the nose, taste and finish. I also like to use a tasting wheel because they usually have a primary and secondary breakdown. This can help pinpoint what you are picking up. For example, on some tasting wheels, if you pick up spice, it breaks it down to brown or savory spice, and then from black pepper, clove and cinnamon to anise and herbal.

If the sample has a sweet component, is it honey, caramel, brown sugar, burnt sugar, butterscotch? For me, I pulled out stuff from my baking cabinet for comparison. Same thing with spices. Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and anise all smell and taste different.

Does the sample have a fruity component? If so, try to identify it. Is it citrusy, like oranges? Does it smell like apples? If so, red apples, green apples, granny smith apples? Are you picking up stone fruits? Is it peach, plum or pear? What about grapes or raisins?

For the finish, it is hot? Peppery? Taste like cinnamon? Minty or spicy? Does it last long or is short? Make sure to compare it to the original bottle to see the difference.

What I’ve learned is that tasting notes are personal. What you taste and what I taste can be different and we are both right. Also, what you taste today can be different than what you taste a year from now as your palate expands and the bourbon opens up.

If you haven’t posted tasting notes before, I challenge you to give it a try!