Mouthfeel Overall Taste Finish

Fill your mouth
Take a large enough sip to fill your mouth, then roll it over your tongue. First you want to register the 'texture’ of the whisky. It may be smooth and viscous, spirity and vapourous or astringent and dry.

Then you want to identify the primary tastes - the immediate flavours your tongue collects. There are only four: sweet (on the tip of the tongue) salty and sour (at the sides) and dry/bitter (at the back). Most whiskies will present a mixture of these flavours, sometimes beautifully balanced, sometimes less so. If you are being really analytical you should measure the intensity of these flavours on a 1-5 scale.