Who should I listen to?

It struck me as irony when I was sitting down watching a YouTube video of a whiskey geek tasting a whiskey and describing what he was tasting, and the thought that occurred to me was I used to marvel at my kids who would sit and watch YouTube videos of other people playing video games. Irony it seems is non-discriminatory.

It seems like just about anyone now days can share their opinion and profess to be an expert. Whether that be a YouTube video, Podcast, or blog post (and yes, I get the irony here as well). The medium for communication now is huge.

Let me be clear. I’m no expert. I like drinking whiskey (so do my friends who work on the show with me), but none of us are so-called experts.

So, who should you listen to? You can find all sorts of videos on YouTube from people either giving a review of a bourbon or telling you the top 10 or top 5 whiskey’s you “must” have on your bar. Or the top 5 whiskey’s never to buy. There’s even a thread that’s been going around on YouTube about “you only need these 5 whiskeys’”.

And guess what? They are almost all different. That’s the thing. It’s a personal preference. What one person thinks is the 5 whiskey’s you need, another might think are a total waste.

And they will have passionate opinions to explain their rationale (see the post about Passionate Opinions).

There isn’t a right or wrong person to listen to. If you are going to listen to others review bourbon and give their impressions, keep in mind that it’s “their” impressions. Not yours. If they are describing flavor notes that make you scratch your head, then maybe, just maybe they aren’t the person to help you find the whiskey’s that will suit your palate. You must work to find someone or several someone’s that seem to have a similar palette as yours.

The more you drink Whiskey, the more your pallet will change, and evolve and start to pick up different flavor notes. Your pallet will mature, and you will develop a

sense of what you like in a whiskey.

Now, that said, you can find several people on YouTube and Podcasts who will tell you what they are tasting. But remember, that is their opinion of what “they” are tasting. It might be totally different from what you taste. I’ve tasted several whiskey’s after looking at tasting notes from someone and thought to myself “what the hell are they talking about? I don’t get that at all. How in the world does someone taste cotton candy or granny smith apple in this whiskey?!?”

However, over time, my pallet has changed, and I now detect all sorts of flavors. Yours will too.

Find some people on YouTube or some podcasters, listen to them describe the whiskey they are tasting, and try the same whiskey yourself. If you can’t pick up some of the same flavors as them, move on to someone else. Try your local liquor store who does barrel picks, and see if you can identify the same flavors they describe about their barrel picks. Once you start to hone in on your palate, you will know who you need to listen to.

The best part…you will get to taste a lot of whiskey.