In May I wrote about my trials and tribulations with inventing a custom scoring system. In short, it’s gone from rather complicated to rather simple. Now, it’s about to get even simpler. Perhaps as simple as it will ever get. And then maybe I’ll start to make it complicated again. Until I change my mind again. And on and on it goes in cycles… We’ll see.
To recapitulate, I had converged from a complicated system of assessing a number of somewhat abstract and independent “dimensions of quality” to a simple scoring hierarchy:
❓— Inconclusive: a fair review was not possible, e.g. due to tainted sample
❌— bad: from mildly unpleasant to completely undrinkable
💤— boring: of very little interest for a seasoned palate (most entry-level blends and malts)
✔️— decent: enjoyable in its own right, but either lacks some character or has notable flaws
⭐— high quality: well-crafted, worthwhile, stimulating, with few if any flaws
❤️— personal favourite: of high quality and exceptionally appealing to my personal
In addition to a judgement I noted some contextual information:
🍷 — sherry or wine cask: notable influence of sherry or wine cask
🔥 — peated: anything more than a very light peat influence
💰— expensive: standard price at least €120 at the time of purchase
🍀— rarity: especially hard to come by or exclusive, e.g. from a closed or hyped distillery, or
Going forward, instead of assigning a whisky precisely one of the six labels, I’ve decided to fall back on an approach I had earlier, where only the presence of an especially good or bad quality is indicated with a symbol. Firstly, this allows me to replace boring 💤 and decent ✔️ with… nothing! These are not such interesting qualities that they need to be draw attention to with a special symbol in the review index. Of course, the review text states it if I found the whisky to be boring or decent. I’m saved from dealing with the ambiguity of precisely when a decent but unremarkable whisky slips into boredom. Maybe one can learn how to judge this consistently, but it’s by definition not particularly exciting work!
Second, I will generalize ❌ from meaning bad to not recommended. This broadens its use. It will still be given to an untasty whisky, but now also, for example, to
- a whisky that is ridiculously overpriced for what it is, say an expensive, 30yo that has many good qualities but some flaws that are simply not acceptable at that price point and age.
- a whisky that’s really hyped, hard to get, and expensive, but the taste is far from motivating this.
- a whisky that’s so bland, although not untasty, that I don’t see why anyone should ever buy a bottle of it, given how much good whisky exists, even on a budget.
- a really young whisky from a new distillery, that shows great potential, but there is every reason to wait for a future, older batch than to buy a bottle right now.
One will have to read the review to find out precisely why I specifically do not recommend that product at that time.
Thirdly, instead of ❤️ > ⭐, these two symbols will be awarded separately. ⭐ will now be named Enthusiast’s Choice. It’s awarded to a whisky made with high quality and does not disappoint for what it is and has few or any outright flaws. In short, anyone who appreciates whisky for its diversity of smell and taste, and has some amount of experience in exploring it, should find the dram worthwhile. It doesn’t have to be a really fancy dram. At least in Scotland, every distillery can produce great whisky if it’s treated to good casks and maturation, and, ideally, is bottled with integrity (higher than 40% ABV, non chillfiltered, natural colour). In general, I’d expect a single casks from a reputable independent bottler to earn a ⭐ most of the time, and commercialized blends and single malts rather rarely.
Now, the ❤️ is where I become much more selective, as my particular fancy needs to be tickled. I like tropical fruits. I like oily and waxy. I like delicate and subtly floral. I like salted caramel. I like zesty, minerally, in combination with peat. I like petrichor and being transported out into nature. I like the complex, interesting, unexpected. I like all these things, although not at the same time. And I don’t like sulphur! Whereas ⭐is not meant to inherently promote old over young whisky, unpeated over peated, and bourbon over sherry or wine casks, my preferences do. I guess in principle there could be some whisky that is not an “enthusiast’s choice”, but still a personal favourite, but I can’t think of an example.
What can be noticed in my new descriptions, is that I now explicitly take into account whether the dram delivers relative to an expectation based on its age, cost, origin, and alternatives. I had tried to avoid this before, but presently I don’t see the reason anymore. Whether I taste blind or not, at the end I must learn what it was I drunk, and the positive surprise or disappointment of the reveal of the contextual information might as well e allowed to influence the marks, now that they are so simplified.
Lastly, I will modify the contextual information somewhat. I will replace rarity 🍀and expensive💰with premium💎, having a somewhat combined meaning (see below). I will also add 💀 for closed distillery.
With these updates, the summary I will put on the review index page is:
Warnings
❓— Inconclusive: a fair review was not possible, e.g. due to tainted sample.
❌— Not Recommended: given the alternatives, there is little reason to buy or try this other than curiosity.
Awards
⭐— Enthusiast’s Choice: great for its category; well-crafted, worthwhile, stimulating; with few if any flaws.
❤️— Personal Favourite: speaks to my personal preferences; stands outs among the many things I try as particularly memorable and enjoyable.
Context
🍷 — Sherry or Wine cask: more than a very light influence
🔥 — Peated: more than a very light influence
💎— Premium: very expensive (€250+), very old (30yo+ for malt), or rare
💀— Closed Distillery
It’s convenient for me that I’m updating the marks in such a way that the old ones are easily translated:
❓→❓
❌→❌
💤,✔️→ <empty> in general, or ❌ in some cases
⭐→⭐
❤️→⭐+❤️
I don’t have the patience to go in and edit past reviews, apart from draft reviews that I haven’t published yet. I will update all entries in the review index, though, and perhaps mark reviews prior to this update with an asterisk *.
Let’s see how long I last until my next modifications. Perhaps I will just have one symbol in the end: duck drunk dis dram 🦆
DuckDrams 
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