I’ve been thinking long and hard about this for a while and have finally come to the conclusion that my current rating system of marking whiskies out of 100 has started to limit my scoring.

I have essentially a 20 point scale (largely) from 80 to 100 which I feel doesn’t accurately represent what I really want to mark. I began using my current system based on connosr.com who in turn, I believe, borrowed from Jim Murray. I have realized now that system is flawed.

I will, therefore, now adopt the scotchwhisky.com scoring scale preferred by Dave Broom which marks whiskies out of 10 and includes decimal points. However, that system does not individually account for scoring the nose, palate and finish instead awarding an over all score to the whisky. I feel it’s important to score each facet of a whisky.

Henceforth, I will now rate the Nose, Palate & Finish each on a scale of 1 – 10 (including decimal points) and award the whisky an average score out of 10 based on the total of the three scores.

This will allow me the luxury of having a greater spread of scores and a more distinct demarcation across my tastings.

Here’s the scale (taken from scotchwhisky.com)

0-3+ Appalling/Faulty = Are you kidding me?
4+ Poor = What’s the point?
5+ Average = Meh
6+ Good = Hmmmm, not bad
7+ Really good = Now we’re talking
8+ Great = I could get used to this
9+ Outstanding = You complete me

I think I’m going to like this system better. Here’s a link to my older system in case you’re looking.