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How to write whisky tasting notes

Good tasting notes aren't poetry for an audience — they're a note to your future self. Done well, they let you recall a whiskey you tasted a year ago, compare bottles fairly, and watch your own palate sharpen. Here's a practical way to write notes that are genuinely useful.

A simple template

Stick to the three-part structure and you'll never face a blank page:

Nose — what you smell. Start broad (fruity? smoky? sweet?) then get specific (green apple, vanilla, sea salt, leather).
Palate — flavour and texture. Is it oily or light? Sweet then spicy? Note how it changes from first sip to mid-palate.
Finish — what lingers, and for how long. Short or long? Drying, warming, smoky, bittersweet?

Add the basics too: bottle name, ABV, the date, and whether you added water. Context matters — the same dram reads differently after a meal than first thing in the evening.

Build a flavour vocabulary

You don't need to invent words; you need anchors. Most whisky flavours fall into families — fruity, floral, malty/cereal, woody, smoky/peaty, spicy, nutty, sweet (vanilla/caramel/honey). Pick the family first, then reach for the specific. A flavour wheel is a great training aid. The trick is honesty: write what you actually smell, not what the bottle's marketing told you to find.

Be concrete and personal

"Nice and smooth" tells you nothing in six months. "Soft, oily mouthfeel; honey and toasted oak; a long, gently smoky finish" is something you can recognise again. Reference real, everyday smells — your future self will thank you. And note the verdict that matters most: would I buy this again?

How scoring works

The whisky world mostly uses a 100-point scale, popularised by reviewers and communities. In practice almost everything drinkable lands between 70 and 95, so the scale is more compressed than it looks. A rough guide many use:

60–74 — flawed or unremarkable
75–84 — solid, enjoyable everyday whisky
85–89 — very good; worth seeking out
90–94 — excellent
95+ — exceptional, rare

Whatever scale you use, be consistent with yourself. Your scores only need to mean something to you — a personal, comparable record beats any critic's number.

The hardest part of tasting notes is simply keeping them in one place. Log each dram's nose, palate, finish and score against the bottle, and your history builds itself.

Open WhiskeyLog — start your notes →

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