Experiment: Whiskies side by side

With my starting line-up complete, it makes for an interesting experiment to smell and taste two different whiskies side by side. One thing you notice when working your way through a bottle of whisky is that it does not give you the same experience (in terms of smell and taste) every time. In fact, one thing I think is a fact, is that whisky starts to oxidize in the bottle, once the filling level goes down and air enters the bottle in greater amounts. This changes the aromas coming from the liquid noticably. However, I also noticed that from day to day within certain limits I get different impressions off a dram, and these seem at first to be random instead of following a clear trend as that due to oxidization. I attribute this to my personal "form of the day", meaning that my environment, my mood, what I previously had to eat or drink, or possibly medication I took, all have an effect on my senses of smell and taste and thus on how I perceive a whisky.

This led me to the following experiment, which I think is a quite educational one. I am going to smell and taste two whiskies of different style side by side, and compare what I experience to what I wrote down when focusing only on a single one.

Round 1: Glenfiddich 12 yo vs. Highland Park 12 yo
First I smell the Glenfiddich. The familiar aroma of green apples, slightly pungent from the alcohol. Then I switch to the Highland Park. Huge amounts of sherry! I remember it being sherry-dominated, but not that extreme. What I described before as dark ripe fruit, now smells almost a bit like fermented fruit. Switch back to the Glenfiddich. What happened there? Is this still the same dram I smelled just a few moments ago? The green apples have gone completely artificial! What this reminds me of is the taste of apple-flavored chewing gum.
The taste does not bring such extreme differences, but the trend is the same. The Glenfiddich is reminiscent of artificial sour-sweet aromas, while the Highland Park is overloaden with heavy sherry. Interestingly, I cannot find any hints of peat smoke in the Highland Park, although that was unmistakably present in the solo tasting.

Round 2: Macallan 12 yo vs. Highland Park 12 yo
When contrasted with the Glenfiddich, the Highland Park turned out its sherry side. So this time (another day), I am going to compare it with my extreme sherry representative, the Macallan 12 yo. First I smell the Macallan. Sweet sherry, just like expected. Time to turn to the Highland Park. Bam! This is a completely different whisky from the one in Round 1. Now, I don't smell any sherry at all, but dry, cold smoke! On the first sniff, it actually smells a bit disgusting like an ashtry full of recently smoked cigarette butts, but luckily recovers quite quickly to give more appealing images like a bonfire. However, the sherry stays hidden. Turning back to the Macallan, it smells even sweeter now.
Again, the taste continues this path. The sweet sherry in the Macallan is maybe a bit emphasized, but in general unchanged. The Highland Park, however, tastes like a smoke bomb.

Round 3: Highland Park 12 yo vs. Laphroaig Quarter Cask
Yes, I actually tried this combination as well. My findings in short: don't do it! Laphroaig writes on their bottles "The most richly flavoured of all Scotch whiskies" - and this is no kidding. Once you have a whiff or even a sip of Laphroaig, you can't go back to anything else. The Laphroaig is just overpowering, and whenever I tried to conduct such a duell, the experience is quite disappointing. In my opinion, the Laphroaig can be a great finish of the evening after having sampled other whiskies, but it can't stand in a side-by-side comparison like this.

Conclusion: I actually tried a few more combinations, and it most of the times turned out to be quite interesing. What I have written down here are the "duells" that impressed me the most. Such experiments instructively show you how the predisposition of your senses affect how you experience a whisky, and that this happens not always in a predictable manner. I recommend to anyone who is interested in whisky to try something like this him/herself.

Slàinte mhath!