Ask Away: Have You Ever Tasted a Whisky Before Buying the Bottle?

A whisky enthusiast tastes many whiskies in their lifetime, but are all whiskies actually tasted before a bottle is purchased? We posed this question to the editorial team in a brand new Ask Away.

I have bought a number of whiskies after tasting them and finding them very tasty. It may have been a sample from someone, or at a festival. For example, I once tasted a Burnside from Cane and Grain at Whisky and Rum by the Sea and knew I wanted a bottle.

Yet there are plenty of whiskies on the shelf that I have bought on the advice of a liquor store or simply because they appealed to me. A good example of this is a 14-year-old Mortlach bottled by an independent bottles. For a very fair price, I found this to be a no-brainer and, as expected, it is very tasty.

This might sound strange, but I have bought most of the whisky in my stock without tasting it. With whisky, the curious monkey is unleashed on a journey of discovery to new taste and scent sensations.

That doesn't mean I don’t do preliminary research by asking friends or gathering information on the world wide web. And with a bit of luck, I can taste before buying, but this doesn't apply to most of my purchases. Until now, this hasn't disappointed me.

It happens both ways for me. When I was working at a local whisky shop, I would sometimes buy something after I had tasted it. And even now, when I go to a good liquor store where there are tasting bottles, I sometimes request one.

But often I buy without tasting, using online reviews, Whiskybase or my own sound judgement. If you're browsing in a UK off-license and come across an interesting limited edition/festival bottle, you can't just ask for a sample, of course.

Not always do I buy a whisky that I have tasted first. If I subscribe to a part of a cask at an independent bottler or have a certificate for a whisky still maturing, it’s not possible to taste it in advance.

Sometimes during the whisky's maturation process you can taste with the other participants to determine if the whisky can be bottled. Majority votes count in that case. Also, I always buy the next edition of the Glenmorangie the Tale of series without tasting it, just to complete the series.

No, certainly not. Often, not even. There aren't many bad whiskies, at most something you don't quite like. If a whisky isn’t your thing: oh well, you can always make someone else happy with it.