Discovering Flaws and Faults and identifying the sources of spirit flaws that affect the quality of spirits often begs the question “What’s that horrible smell? Nail polish, kerosene, tri-chlor, dead rodent, rotten eggs, vomit?” These are just a few comments heard over the years from spirits tasters. In this presentation, we will examine the source …
Which spirit scoring and rating system is best is controversial to say the least, as there are literally hundreds of scoring systems, and which one to use is largely a matter of utility and personal preference. In spirits, the scoring system idea was first borrowed from wine, whose commercial business cycle began earlier than that …
For the past decade we have been on the track to improving evaluation and establishing a diagnostics discipline to create a universal language providing clear and uniform views of spirits’ character and descriptions for all who taste, evaluate, enjoy and collect spirits. Our efforts in this Evaluation Academy are echoed by a few others, worldwide. …
This is the most controversial presentation from the NEAT Spirits Evaluation Academy. Why? Gender equity is not a well-understood subject, is often confused with gender equality. Discussion of the subject always raises the ire of a few of those who belong to the “fraternal order of macho whisky drinkers,” and cannot open-mindedly distinguish the difference …
Much of this presentation contains information from an “adding water” article we published on Linked-in on February 10, 2016. To date the Linked-in article has 59,818 views. Many whisk(e)y drinkers add a little water to their spirit when tasting, some add a lot of water, and some get very peculiar about counting drops with an …
This presentation may seem like a departure from the main theme of evaluation education, yet identifying and understanding the misconceptions and myths that pervade evaluation is key to developing a fine respect for science, building confidence and excellence in spirits evaluation, and changing the gross misinformation accepted as truth. Gaining useful knowledge involves looking past …
Effective nosing, tasting, and evaluation is dependent on the accuracy of descriptors in written and oral communication. Comments and tasting notes become much more useful when evaluators and those who read the evaluator’s notes can “visualize” flavors in a similar perception. Careful use of descriptors is key to maintaining the commonality of definitions and …
One final discussion regarding the choice of an evaluation glass before we address more key issues important to being a competent evaluator and bust a few more myths along the way. The approach taken with this academy is an “in-between” approach which provides the practical, useable knowledge necessary to get a personal, competent, and confident …
Within the spirits industry, particularly in scotch whisky, game-changing personalities emerged to make major contributions to the tasting and evaluation of spirits: Michael Jackson and Jim Murray may be the most definitive of the early pioneers in scotch, and certainly, Richard Paterson takes the lead in providing widespread scotch whisky education. Much of the present …
Choosing the Best Glass: How did the three most common glasses ever become popular? This story is the classic example of what happens when industries that evolve from craft suddenly meet science and are not prepared for a major but necessary change. Within the spirits industry, known olfactory science has never been a major consideration, …