Like a complete unknown

There is a fairly simple rule that dictates how most of us live our lives - if we do something that makes us feel good then, given the chance, we will do it again. However, if something leaves us feeling sad, angry, depressed or disappointed, then it is likely we will try our best to avoid repeating this activity. I like learning and I love it when I discover something that interests me. Everybody should enjoy learning as this lust for discovery is another very human characteristic. If everybody felt the same way as I do then we would all be constantly and proactively feeding our thirst for knowledge and perhaps the world would be a better place.

Many of us start learning about things seriously when we enter the education system, in which it is not always the case that learning is fun. Too much of what we teach children in schools is neither of interest, nor enjoyable to learn. I once had a brief stint as a teacher. In many of my lessons I tried my hardest to make subject matter interesting but I must admit that, when a child asked me the dreaded question: “Sir, why do I even need to know this?”, it was often a struggle to give an honest answer.

Gaining knowledge should follow a natural progression over time. This happens when we study a subject at our own pace over a number of years. But sometimes we can suddenly decide, for some reason, that we should, or must, be interested in something that we previously knew little about. This can cause huge frustration, as we convince ourselves that we need to know everything immediately. Imagine, for example, you are listening to the radio and you hear a nice song by a brand new band you had previously not heard of. You would find out about them, learn a few of their songs and maybe go to see them play live. You become a fan of the band and every time they release new music you listen to it, learn the songs and see it played live. You were there from the start and your knowledge and expertise in their music has developed naturally over time. One day you find out that one of their influences is Bob Dylan. You’ve heard of him but you don’t really know much about him. Suddenly you are convinced you need to know everything about him and his songs, as he is an influence of your new favourite band. But you discover he has released 39 studio albums, 95 singles, 26 notable extended plays, 52 music videos, 12 live albums, 15 volumes comprising The Bootleg Series, 20 compilation albums, 16 box sets, seven soundtracks as main contributor, five music home videos and two non-music home videos. Where do you begin?

This is how I felt getting into whisky. I made a decision that I wanted to start drinking it but, when I found out just how much there was out there, it was a little overwhelming and a bit of a barrier for me at the beginning. I really didn’t know where to begin. I would go to my local whisky shop and see hundreds of bottles on shelves. I would spend 15 minutes reading labels and getting a bit overwhelmed. What did it all mean? Would I like it? How much money was I willing to spend? I’d see names of distilleries I’d heard of, like Laphroaig or Glenfiddich, and wondered if the fact they were well-known meant that the whisky must be good. But then I’d see that there were different ages, different finishes, and various special editions. Simply picking a bottle in the hope I would like it could, of course, have turned into an expensive mistake if the contents tasted like shit. And obviously I didn’t want to buy anything too cheap because then it would be very likely the contents did actually taste like shit. Eventually someone would notice that I’d been browsing for some time and would ask if I needed any help. I’d always panic and say the classic “no thanks, I’m just looking at the moment”. To be honest I was scared as I didn’t know what I was looking for and didn’t know the right questions to ask. I didn’t want to embarrass myself and I’d always come away empty-handed. I realised I needed to improve my knowledge but, in order to work out what I liked, I’d need to taste some whiskies and, judging by the prices on some of those bottles, that could be expensive. I’m not a particularly stingy person but I like to fully consider what I’m going to spend my money on. Those miniature tasting bottles of whisky seemed like a good idea but they are just so expensive for the volume of whisky they contain that I wasn’t going to start buying them.

So I faced a conundrum: I wanted to learn about whisky but to really learn about whisky I’d have to drink a fair bit of whisky, and that could be expensive. I needed to develop some strategies to increase my knowledge without having to waste too much money along the way.

A good way to start is by doing a little ‘dry’ research. Whisky, just like Bob Dylan, has been around for a long time and many people have written about it over the years. There are more books, films, documentaries, blogs and reviews on this subject than any one person could ever hope to get through. It’s beneficial to do some background reading when you get the chance, to help give you more of an idea of what you’re talking about. As with most subjects, lots of information is written by people with strong opinions about certain things. As a beginner, I found it more helpful to stick to factual stuff, like the science, the history and the geography. After all, one of the best parts of becoming passionate about a subject is developing your own opinions, so you don’t need to worry too much about what the experts think - at least not at the start.

One of the most valuable things to learn about is what all the information on the label of a bottle of whisky actually tells you. I had no idea there was so much variety in whisky so I wanted to at least be able to work out what was in the bottle. Obviously I already ‘knew' that if it says ‘single malt’ then it must be good and if it says ‘blended’ then it must be bad and may only be enjoyed when mixed with cola or ginger ale. But I soon came to realise that this is all just part of the bullshit and snobbery that we must challenge as we learn more. I will elaborate on this in articles to come. It really is worth breaking down everything that it says on the labels. If you have a bottle of whisky to hand then try this: read the label, word by word, and ask yourself if you really know what each word or number is telling you (if you don’t have a bottle to hand then I’m sure you can find a picture of one with the help of Google). Once you are confident doing this then you should be able to make a well-informed choice next time you go to the whisky shop.

This information-gathering exercise will definitely help you to have an intelligent guess as to what you might like but, at the end of the day, you can’t work out what you actually like until you do some tasting.

I’d enjoyed the whisky tasting evening that my wife had arranged for me for my birthday, but I don’t think I could get her permission to attend one every week. Whisky tasting events will normally involve sampling five or six whiskies. At a beginner session there is usually a fairly wide choice of styles, from a few different regions, and this will give you a feel for what you like. Shortly after my first whisky-tasting experience, my fellow taster, Morten, and I were both so enthused that we separately went out and bought a bottle. Morten went for the Tomatin 18 year old and I bought a bottle of Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban. One evening we had our own whisky tasting session at home, albeit with just two different whiskies. Drinking like this is really good fun and helps you start to be able to compare different whiskies with one another. If you are lucky enough to have more than one bottle at home then I recommend, rather than drinking a large glass of one whisky, that you pour a smaller glass of each of two or three whiskies.

Drinking socially really does make the whisky taste better and it’s great being able to talk about it with someone who shares your interest. I’m lucky enough to have a few friends who also became interested in whisky around the same time as me so we can drink together and chat about it without worrying that the person we’re talking to has never been so bored. It’s also good to know people who have been drinking whisky a little longer than you as they will likely have a decent bottle or two at home so that when you pop round to see them, they may be generous enough to offer you a little drink.

Another friend of mine has a nice selection of whiskies in his flat. His wife had once lived and studied for a year in Scotland where she became keen on whisky. She must have told her friends about this as they apparently received a number of these pretty decent bottles as wedding gifts. When my wife and I pop round to see them they are always nice enough to offer me a generous glass of whisky from their collection. When they told me about this, it gave me another idea: if you mention your new-found interest to friends and family as much as possible, some of them might remember this on special occasions and you may find yourself in possession of a nice bottle of whisky (or a book, or a set of tumblers, or the “I love whisky” t-shirt).

The main thing to take away from all this is that you should enjoy your learning experience and try not to get too overwhelmed by it all. Get rid of those preconceptions and ignore all of those people telling you what they think you should like. The fun of learning is finding things out for yourself. You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. Bob Dylan said that.

Written by Peter on 05 May 2021