DuckDrams

I’ve spilt much time and ink on developing a non-standard grading system.

What I’ve held onto for some time now is a hierarchy of Bad (❌), Unfulfilling (➖), Rewarding (✔️), Personal Favourite (❤️). I’m finding that almost everything I try ends up in the Rewarding category (because I’m spending my own money, and will rarely buy poor-quality stuff). I need some more distinction. But rather than dividing the hierarchy into finer consecutive levels, I want to bring back the original idea I had of considering different “dimensions of quality” — but in a much more simplified way.

It seems to me that the most important aspect of a dram is how pleasant, nice, tasty, or simply delicious it is. In a Compass Box tasting I attended with John Glaser, I remember him tasking about “deliciousness” as something ephemeral that what he was striving for in their blended whiskies.

But whether or not something is really delicious, it can be a fun experience. For example, a really crisp summer dram may be super delicious, but not very fun because of a lack of complexity. A really unusual dram may be super fun, but too unfamiliar to be the most delicious. This is the fun factor.

And then there’s value for money. In judging the quality of a whisky the question what would I be willing to pay for this? is a good one. Or, with the actual price as a reference, is it worth that money?

For each of these categories I will grade according to a “stop light system”

What I like about this is that I’m essentially taking a simple thee-level system 🔴/🟡/🟢 (the blacks are just for visual symmetry) and adding two rather ambiguous intermediate grades 🔴🟡 and 🟡🟢 . They are not simply 2 and 3 on a 5-point scale, but state that it’s better (worse) than average, but perhaps not quite good (bad) enough to be the top (bottom) category. It may be very clearly in between, or be more fuzzy such that 🟡🟢 would become 🟡 on another occasions (or 🟢).

Example of a full “grade matrix” for a whisky like a an 18yo CS official Glen Elgin that I adore, but Diageo special pricing is bonkers:

In comparison with the earlier system, Bad (❌) is essentially 🔴 in Deliciousness. Unfulfilling (➖) lies in the 🔴🟡 territory of Deliciousness and Fun Factor. Rewarding (✔️) spans 🟡, 🟡🟢, 🟢 in Deliciousness and Fun Factor. Let me be clear that “average” is not a bad mark, because it’s average with respect to my expectation of a decent whisky, based mostly on drinking quality single malt (and mostly CS versions from reputable bottlers). Jack Daniels is nowhere near average on this scale.

I will reserve Personal Favourite (❤️) as an additional holistic mark, with the same meaning as before.

Let’s see how long this system sticks around!