5 Pretentious Whisky Nosing Tips From Experts (That Actually Work)

Forbes

5 hours ago

When it comes to properly appreciating whisky, it is no secret that your sense of smell is most important. Though the percentage levels vary, science says that your sense of taste deeply relies on what you smell.
Further illustrating the point, when it comes to whisky, the top master blenders in the business (who are the closest thing to rock star celebrities in our industry) do almost all their work with their noses. This doesn't just apply to whisky but most luxury-oriented alcoholic beverages and beyond.
This means that when dealing with your whisky in a glass, it's good to be able to have a few tricks available to try to get as much as possible from your glass.
So I figured I'd share some truly pretentious nosing techniques that might help you appreciate your whisky. I asked a bunch of whisky pals how they like to go about their nosing and if they have methods that are both silly, pretentious and effective that they've found that work for them and have shared their thoughts below.
It's not an exhaustive list - in the whisky world there's so many different ways to approach what's in the glass but hopefully helps you find your own way of getting to grips with the whisky you have the pleasure of nosing and tasting.
I also guarantee at least one of these nosing tips will actually work. You will look absolutely ridiculous trying these, but trust me - it's worth it. And you won't know if it works or not until you give it a shot.
So I'll start things off with a method I like using myself, which I like to call:
1. The Chipmunk
Look at me taking my job seriously.
Step 1. Begin by creating an awkward distance between nose and glass (an inch or two is good) and then go for a series of little gentle sniffs, thus warming up your nose.
Step 2. Proceed to open your mouth slightly and continue to sniff lightly and gently, aiming for a mix of 80% nose breath/20% mouth breath as you keep going. This allows the aromas in the whisky to circulate throughout your nose and mouth, allowing you to 'taste' the smell.
Step 3 (the best bit): As a grand finale, open and close your mouth in short rapid bursts as you continue sniffing, like a chipmunk. A classy, whisky-sniffing chipmunk. This gives a lot of control of the circulation of the whisky aromas.
2. The Nose Peg
From Blair Bowman - Whisky consultant and author
Blair Bowman's preferred method for nosing in action.
I love highlighting how crucial our sense of smell is when enjoying whisky. One way I do this is by handing out medical-grade nose pegs at the very start of a tasting - before anyone's even touched a dram. I give each guest a jelly bean and tell them to chew it with the nose peg on. At first, they get nothing - just sweetness and texture. Then I tell them to remove the peg.
BOOM. A flavour explosion hits. That's retronasal olfaction in action: aroma travelling from the back of the mouth to the nose. It's a ridiculous party trick but it proves that what we think of as 'taste' is mostly smell. Does it make the guest feel a bit silly wearing a nose peg? Absolutely. But it blows people's minds every time.
3. Meet Your New Friend
From Kristiane Westray - Whisky writer and educator
Drinks writer and educator Kristiane Westray
What I often say when I do tastings, particularly if it's the first whisky of the day, is to not treat it like a best friend because you don't know it. You need to get familiar with it, like meeting a stranger. If you meet a new person in the street, you don't run up to them and give them a hug, because stranger danger.
You might do a handshake first and then once you get to know them, then you might give them a brief hug, and then as time goes by and you get to know each other maybe a bigger hug. It's the same with like nosing whisky for the first time. Approach it from afar. Hold it at a distance from your nose and see what you get. And then get closer and closer when you're working out how pronounced it is, or how loudly it's 'shouting'.
And then take the same approach when you are taking sips. Always take a tiny sip at first. I often say to people it's not a beer or a wine, this has got four times the ABV of wine, so go slow. And once you have a couple tiny sips, you can take in more if you like.
4. The Nose Bomb
From Paul Archibald - Co-Founder of Rhythm and Booze Records
Rhythm and Booze Records co-founder Paul Archibald
When swirling the whisky around the glass to get more aromas isn't enough, create the 'nose bomb'. Place your left hand on top of the glass, sealing it, while swirling the glass vigorously with your right (meaning that both hands are now swirling together). This creates extra aromas that are getting trapped in the glass. Do this for approximately ten seconds. Then, carefully move this loaded weapon close to your nose, and release your left hand, dive in, and get ready for a full-on assault of the nostrils. Exercise with caution.
5. Miss the Glass
From Sean Murphy - Drinks author and journalist
Drinks journalist Sean Murphy.
So many whiskies are served in a glencairn glass but because of how it's shaped it can really emphasise the alcohol on the nose, it makes the whisky really peppery. So to deal with that, hold the top rim of the glencairn under your nose, so your nose is over and beyond the glass. It almost looks like you're 'missing' the glass.
So in theory, what that does is you're catching fewer alcohol vapors and more compounds that provide some nice aromas. I don't know what the science is but I really like doing it and it works quite well. Of course, every time I do, someone takes a picture of me and it makes me look drunk because my nose is missing the glass. But in reality, I'm told the science on this checks out.