Samples

A waveform, a sample, I am sorry

I guess this might be a controversial topic, but it's just me and no-one really, I think, reads these blogs, apart from the most awesome select few absolute diamonds, but I thought I would blog today about samples and what I think of them, specifically in reviews and look, from the outset, I'll just say that if we stopped reviewing whisky from samples then the whole whisky reviewing thing goes to shit and I know that applies to drams from bars too, but I just wanted to say something, from my own experience, and from other reviewers who review from bottles rather than samples, and also, you know, from reviewers who review from samples, which, from the outset, from the outset here, is fine and good and there is nothing wrong with that, but, and I'll just say this from the outset here, right from the off, that reviewing a whisky from a bottle is better than reviewing from a sample, in my most humble of opinions, and always will be, how could it not be, in my opinion of course, and I really like reading a review from someone who has been drinking from the bottle, not from a sample, although, and I have said this, reviewing from a sample is fine and we need it, it has to happen and I love reading reviews of samples as well, I just prefer a bottle review, I am sorry to say this, and this blog goes out with the standard love and respect and I'm not going to joke about anyone passing away when they haven't or anything like that, this is a sample vs bottle blog, it's just me, blogging away please let me blog come on, please, I just want to say my piece please let me do at least that, come on now, please, I am begging you here, it's six in the morning and I can't sleep and it's raining very loud, come on, come on but please do read on, what you read, might surprise you!

My timeline, yesterday, oh boy

Now, my most stark realisation that a sample is not a bottle was when I had a taste of a really bad whisky, IMHO of course, the Raasay While We Wait. Now, when I had the sample, I thought it tasted unique, different, interesting, and I bought a bottle on the spot, it wasn't that much. To this day, I wonder what made it taste so different than what I ended up getting in the bottle. I mean, it was the same liquid, but in the shop, in that little plastic cup, I was intrigued. In the bottle, back home in the glass, I was appalled. That whisky stayed with me for years, I'll never throw a whisky away, but it was finished, eventually, in a sour if I recall. And it wasn't the best sour. That was one of my wake up moments, never trust a dram. Of course, that's nonsense, that one was a particular one off, but you never know, you never know. Because maybe that day my taste buds were off, or I was affected by the surroundings, a mood, or the moon might have just been in the right quadrant, aligned with Mercury, and of course Venus rising. I've found it's always a good idea to check your horoscopes before a tasting, sample or otherwise. I will say that I am hearing great things about Raasay, and will be looking to try some soon, the 'While we wait' series, I believe, was not distilled at their distillery.

Look into my eyes

Now, I want to talk about how a whisky changes when you are drinking it from the bottle. There are people who will tell you the science of that, one way or another, but my experience from the SMWS has taught me one thing, and one thing only, and that's never, ever judge a bottle from it's first few drams. It could be that the alcohol is high on these bottles, and that they 'calm' down after a while, or something to do with Neptune aligning with Mars, but as these bottles go down, they usually get better. And it's not just me who says that, I am sure, I have seen others say it too, but that might have been a dream or a combination of fevered dreams but I don't think so. I swear to you, maybe it's dreams, but whisky changes as the bottle goes down I swear this is true, I have just opened a SMWS bottle, as I do, and I am sure it will taste better as the weeks pass on. I had this very very sharply brought home to me with Glen Scotia's festival dram from 2021, a fantastic whisky for me, but only for the last 5 drams or so. So when I see someone reviewing a whisky from the bottle, and tasting it over a period of weeks, then I do prefer that, because that's how I drink my whiskies. And I like to know how that is. Ralfy, for all his faults, he is merely a human, reviews from the bottle, and that's one of the things I love about him, for all his faults, that he reviews from a bottle is good, it is.

The SMWS again come on come on

Now yesterday, it feels like so long ago, there was an absolute deluge of reviews from samples of two whiskies from Lux Row Whisky, if you think about it, quite an interesting marketing strategy, to send samples out to a lot of whisky reviewers in something called #WhiskyFlashBlog. Two Kentucky Straight bourbons were sent out for review to, it seemed, everyone in the UK with a blog, and I could not see almost anything else but reviews for these whiskies by people I like and respect. And this 'got me thinking' and is the reason I am blogging today. I have to find something to write about, it's a blog a day, and this seemed like something I had opinions on. And yes, it got me thinking. Of course, I didn't like it at first, it felt forced and cheap and just everywhere. BUT WAIT, it got me thinking, and that was, based on what I said earlier, all that sample vs bottle talk, this was actually quite a good way to counteract that. If you give enough people a sample, you kind of remove the issues I brought up, and you actually get an interesting view from a lot of people on the whisky itself. There is a very 'acceptable in the eighties' quote from the Lost Boys that I want to use, but removing the racial side of it, it simply was 'how could a billion people be wrong'? And it did feel like a billion people yesterday reviewing those whiskies. But that was, on reflection, quite interesting, it gave a good, and broad, view of those two whiskies. Not whiskies I would buy, because of that marketing (I don't like my timeline flooded), and because although they were reviewed with grace and charm by bloggers who I love reading, they didn't appear to be suited to my specific taste, but, it was very interesting and something I probably would be less against in the future I guess. And this blog has even generated some discussion on the topic of impartiality with regards to free samples being sent out. However, I will say that everything I saw yesterday did appear to seem 'impartial' to me.

A happy coupling

So then, what am I saying here? I am saying that I have no problems with sample reviews but I do prefer reviews from bottles, and that having loads of people try the same sample is actually a good thing, although it can lead to a messy Twitter timeline, which is OK, worse things have happened to me recently than that. In fact, it's also a good way to see where peoples palates are and I actually learned a lot yesterday about that. I have said before, I would love to see a load of people, specifically MALT, review Johnnie Walker Black Label so I could find out exactly that. So really, if there was a nice way were everyone's views on a whisky could be 'condensed' into one handy to read article that would be ideal. But the world isn't ideal, or made for me, or in anyway condensed, so in the words of the legendary Bachman Turner Overdrive, 'acceptable in the seventies', 'I'll take what I can get'

There should probably be some words between two images, I think that's something I have been aiming to do in this blog, but I wanted to finish with a he-man meme like usual but I also wanted to finish on that song because it's cool but it looks like I might have fucked it now oh well, these are just some words you really don't have to read them they are adding nothing to the blog at all apart from being words oh dear oh dear anyway, the he-man meme, which I also think is important, but not these words, these words are not important at all please pay them no need you ain't seen nothing yet, the next blog post will be poor