We taste whisky blind at Devon Dram Club for a simple reason: whisky labels can be very persuasive.
Most of us have distilleries we love, styles we think we know, and bottles we’re sure we could recognise anywhere.
But when you take the label away, things get interesting.
At our latest Devon Dram Club tasting in Exeter, we poured five whiskies blind. Two of them came from the same distillery and used the same cask approach, and one was a bottle that some people in the room already knew well.
Surely we’d spot them?
Not quite.
Whisky One: Deanston Vigin Oak
We started with Deanston Virgin Oak.
Deanston is a Highland distillery that people sometimes miss because of the bigger names in Scotch whisky. Virgin Oak is one of its easier-to-find releases, first matured in ex-bourbon casks and then finished in new American oak.
It has an ABV of 46.3%, is non-chill filtered, and has no added colour. It’s a good way to get to know Deanston.
But there was a reason we’d chosen it.
The next glass made things even more interesting.
Whisky Two: Deanston Virgin Oak – The Distillery Edition
Next came Deanston Virgin Oak – The Distillery Edition.
It’s from the same distillery and uses the same process, with ex-bourbon maturation followed by virgin American oak. This version, though, was bottled at a much stronger 55% ABV.
We’d essentially put two versions of the same whisky next to each other.
And almost nobody picked it up.
There were similarities between the glasses if you knew what to look for, but without the labels, nobody immediately said, “these must be related.”
That’s exactly what makes blind tasting so much fun.
We often talk confidently about “distillery character,” cask types, and the flavours we expect from certain whiskies. But when you put two similar whiskies side by side without telling anyone what they are, those certainties quickly fade.
It’s something we’ve seen before at DDC.
At a previous tasting, we asked if you can really taste a grain whisky. Almost nobody identified the Cameronbridge as grain whisky, and it ended up being one of the favourites of the night.
Once again, the whisky didn’t always match what the label suggested.
Whisky Three: Blair Athol 2014 11 Year Old — Signatory 100 Proof
For the third whisky, we switched things up with a .
Bottled at 57.1%, this was comfortably one of the bigger whiskies of the evening.
It was matured in refill Oloroso sherry butts, giving us another variable to explore after the American oak influence of the first two whiskies.
This is where a DDC lineup gets really interesting. You’re no longer tasting a whisky on its own, but comparing it to everything that came before.
Does the higher ABV make it taste older? Does the sherry influence remind you of a certain region? Does the previous dram affect what you notice in this one?
There’s rarely one correct answer.
And that’s rather the point.
Whisky Four: Campbeltown Loch
Then came the best trick of the evening.
Campbeltown Loch is hardly an unknown bottle among whisky drinkers.
It’s a blended malt made with whisky from Campbeltown’s five malt distilleries, combining bourbon- and sherry-matured whisky into something that’s become a favourite for many whisky fans.
Including some of the people sitting around the table.
There were people at this tasting known to love Campbeltown Loch.
Did they immediately recognise it?
No.
And that’s brilliant.
If there’s any whisky you’d expect someone to recognise blind, it’s probably one they already buy, drink, and enjoy.
But if you take away the bottle, the Campbeltown name, and everything you associate with it, you’re left with just what’s in the glass.
It turns out that’s a much harder test.
That’s also why our whisky tastings in Exeter are blind. We’re not really trying to test people’s whisky knowledge. We want to see what happens when you take away everything except the whisky itself.
Sometimes you discover something new.
Sometimes you find out that something you thought you didn’t like is actually pretty good.
And sometimes you discover that you can’t recognise one of your favourite bottles.
Whisky Five: Kilchoman Rockside 11 Year Old
We finished on Islay with Kilchoman Rockside 11-Year-Old, 100% Islay.
This is a particularly interesting release from Kilchoman.
Rockside is an 11-year-old whisky made with barley grown at Rockside Farm, right next to the distillery on Islay. It’s part of Kilchoman’s ongoing effort to make whisky with as much of the process as possible happening on the island.
At 46%, it also brought us back down from the higher strengths of the Deanston Distillery Edition and Blair Athol.
Being Kilchoman, it gave us peat!
After four very different whiskies, finishing with an Islay malt provided another useful reminder that context matters enormously when tasting whisky. What came before it, what you’re expecting and what you think might be in the glass can all influence what you find.
So, do we actually know the whisky we like?
Probably not as well as we’d like to think.
And that’s absolutely fine.
The first two whiskies demonstrated how difficult it can be to recognise a common thread even when two drams come from the same distillery and use the same broad maturation approach.
Campbeltown Loch showed us something slightly different.
Knowing a whisky doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll recognise it.
That’s why we keep coming back to blind tasting at Devon Dram Club.
There are no points for identifying the distillery. Nobody wins anything for guessing the cask. And you certainly don’t need an encyclopaedic knowledge of Scotch whisky to join in.
Instead, we pour five whiskies, hide the bottles and talk about what’s actually in the glass.
Sometimes the results confirm exactly what you thought.
More often, they don’t.
And that’s where things get interesting.
