CRAFT by Under My Host® Issue No. 16 Made in America: Part I | Page 90

W W W. C R A F T BY U M H . C O M C R A I G J O H N S T O N E COMING TO OUR SENSE S It’s been a while since we last spoke and the whisky world has continued to turn. Last summer we looked at the influence of all of the people and generations on every drop of your favourite whisky. This time we turn our attention towards flavour. Not neces- sarily where it comes from, but how we interpret it and if the system needs a tweak. Seven and a half billion human beings inhabit the planet, and each and every one of us has a unique way of sensing our surroundings, including whisky. Our memories are personal havens filled with our experiences invoked by aromas, flavours, and images. I am drafting this article on a flight back from Kuala Lumpur after an intensive two- week tour of Asia where I’ve been training trade staff and entertaining whisky lovers about single malt Scotch whisky. It was this trip in particular that renewed my in- trigue into the world of flavour and the way our brains connect it with our memo- ries and emotions. Discussions with local whisky lovers have drawn me down a path where I’m questioning if we are connecting properly with our many drinkers around the world. Almost every whisky on the market these days comes with a set of tasting notes. More often than not these will be written by the whisky making team at any given distillery. These are extremely useful in helping us decide which whisky to buy. The flavours described can be processed by us and may well remind us of whiskies we have en- joyed in the past. I would also argue they give us a peek into the mindset, vocabulary, and style of the whisky making team. Are they a clinical series of one word adjectives suggesting a whisky compiled to be precise, layered and built by someone of scientific mindset, passionate about the technicalities of their role or are they a series of flow-