Brian's Malt Musings: Blind Tasting Consortium

Saturday, 6 June 2020

Blind Tasting Consortium

You may have followed one of my #BlindTasting or #MiniTasting sessions over the last few years - a group of friends who swap samples and try to discover what they are - sharing their thoughts on social media.

The Blind Tasting Consortium is the logical next step in expanding our #BlindTasting group, we've always struggled to think of a way of expanding it and this seems like a good way of doing it.

It's basically a bottle buying consortium to do Blind Tastings - we each put in £35 and get 5 x 50ml samples. This is a consortium buy not a business, no profit being made by anyone and no charges being made - we each pay an equal share of the overall costs, remaining funds are carried over to the next session.

Those regulars who want to take turns to organise a session, choosing and buying the whisky, bottling it and sending it out - about 4 hours work.

The organiser will use the £980 to buy sample bottles, boxes, labels and postage leaving around £830 to buy 10 bottles of whisky, 2 bottles each of 5 different whiskies. They then fill 140 sample bottles - that's 5 for each of the 28 of us, label them 1 to 5 and parcel them up - and send them out.

We put a date in the diary to do a Twitter based tasting, 28 of us blind taste 5 drams and give our honest opinions knowing nothing about the whiskies - no preconceived ideas, no marketing, just the liquid.

After the final dram the bottles will be revealed! There is a optional Zoom session running alongside and as an after party!

It's all about having a fun evening, enjoying whisky with mates! The idea is that each person in the consortium can take it in turn to organise a session, so we all have a go at guessing the drams!

Sorry if you haven't been asked to join but we had to limit it to UK people I'd swapped samples with before, there is a reserve list for substitutions when someone in the gang can't make it, so let me know if you are interested.

You can read my tasting notes from the #BlindDrams here: BTC1, BTC2, BTC3, BTC4, BTC5, BTC6, BTC7, BTC8, BTC9, BTC10, BTC11, BTC12, BTC13, BTC14, BTC15, BTC16, BTC17, BTC18, BTC19, BTC20, BTC21, BTC22, BTC23, BTC24, BTC25, BTC26, BTC27, BTC28, BTC29, BTC30, BTC31, #BTC32, #BTC33, #BTC34, #BTC35, #BTC36, #BTC37, #BTC38, #BTC39, #BTC40, #BTC41, #BTC42, #BTC43, #BTC44, #BTC45, #BTC46, #BTC47, #BTC48, #BTC49

Our scoring system measure each dram 0-5:

0 – I would smile graciously if given a bottle of this then promptly deliver it to the local Primary School charity raffle.
1 – I’d drink it if given to me as a gift, but wouldn’t waste my own money on a bottle
2 – At a decent price I’d buy a glass of this, but wouldn’t invest in a whole bottle.
3 – Damn drinkable and if within my price range, I’d happily buy (or have bought) one of these and enjoy it.
4 – I’d be over the moon if given a bottle of this, and would probably drink it fairly quickly.
5 – I’d suck the sweaty toes of a senior brand executive for the opportunity to have a single drop more of this.

Overall Score so far (since BTC11 new scoring system) with the latest set of 5 drams highlighted:

Our Top 15 scoring drams:

Our Bottom 15 scoring drams:

Where the latest tasting's drams fit in the overall scores.

Tasting by tasting scores (latest on the left).

Average score of each dram in a tasting and the with min and max ranges.

How the latest tasting's total scores line up against the previous tastings.

#BTC50 is being picked by Brian @MaltMusings & John @jwbassman_

#BTC49 was picked by Cliff @KingsofYearron

#BTC48 was picked by Damian @newdramrising

#BTC47 was picked by Matt @thedramble

#BTC46 was picked by me Brian @MaltMusings

#BTC45 was picked by Ben @WhiskyWithMolly

#BTC44 was picked by Callum @glen_scotia & Kate @kccjf

#BTC43 was picked by John @jwbassman_

#BTC42 was picked by Patrick @LeaskPatrick

#BTC41 was picked by Billy @BillyCowan

#BTC40 was picked by Sam @ReviewsWhisky and Mike @whiskyrover

#BTC39 was picked by Paul @pswhisky

#BTC38 was picked by Andy @PadWhisky

#BTC37 was picked by John @jwbassman_

#BTC36 was picked by Brian @MaltMusings

#BTC35 was picked by Damian @newdramrising

#BTC34 was picked by Mike @WhiskyWings

#BTC33 was picked by Ben @WhiskyWithMolly

#BTC32 was picked by Duncan @whiskytip

#BTC31 was picked by Patrick @LeaskPatrick

#BTC30 was picked by Sam @ReviewsWhisky and Mike @whiskyrover

#BTC29 was picked by Paul @pswhisky

#BTC28 was picked by Brian @MaltMusings

#BTC27 was being picked by Duncan @whiskytip

#BTC26 was picked by Paul @Newckie

#BTC25 was picked by Billy @BillyCowan

#BTC24 was picked by Mike @WhiskyWings

#BTC23 was picked by Duncan @socialdrammer

#BTC22 was picked by Ben @WhiskyWithMolly

#BTC21 was picked by John @jwbassman_

#BTC20 was picked by @ReviewsWhisky and @whiskyrover

#BTC19 was picked by Callum @glen_scotia & Kate @kccjf

#BTC18 was picked by Damian @newdramrising

#BTC17 was picked by Billy @BillyCowan

#BTC16 was picked by Ben @WhiskyWithMolly

#BTC15 was picked by John @jwbassman_

#BTC14 was picked by Callum @glen_scotia & Kate @kccjf

#BTC13 was picked by @derekcuster

#BTC12 was picked by @thedramble

#BTC11 was picked by @MaltMusings

The scoring system is changing from #BTC11 to make it easier to compare across different tastings.

Rather than the 5 whiskies being ranked, each person will rate each whisky, before it's revealed, on a simple 0-5 scale:

0 – I would smile graciously if given a bottle of this then promptly deliver it to the local Primary School charity raffle.

1 – I’d drink it if given to me as a gift, but wouldn’t waste my own money on a bottle

2 – At a decent price I’d buy a glass of this, but wouldn’t invest in a whole bottle.

3 – Damn drinkable and within my price range, I’d happily buy (or have bought) one of these and enjoy it.

4 – I’d be over the moon if given a bottle of this, and would probably drink it fairly quickly.

5 – I’d suck the sweaty toes of a senior brand executive for the opportunity to have a single drop more of this.