Samples... A Blessing or a Burden?

What to say? Samples from friends are a great blessing. They do accumulate, though, when one is that blessed. That accumulation can sometimes feel like work needing to be done and overdue.

Bottom line: I remain very happy and grateful to all who have contributed and allowed me to have the samples.

Oh, absolutely a blessing. The exchange of samples is the best and cheapest way to determine what you like and don’t like.

I like giving out samples as much as I like receiving them. Especially when I give out mystery samples to those who like to try them blind.

I like to review most of the new whiskies I taste. A group tasting is fine to try new things, but not ideal to really get to know a whisky. So the sample may serve 2 purposes. A second chance (sometimes a first chance) to try something, and a chance to taste it without palate fatigue.

The more broadly we expand our horizons, it becomes less feasible to buy a whole bottle of every expression we want to try. Samples (and miniatures) are an elegant solution.

Getting to all of them poses the same challenges as getting to all my open bottles (and my sealed bottles). It may never happen.

I may devote one month next year to samples only. That may reduce the number of times I have to order sample bottles as I free many of them up.

Samples are definitely a blessing. I’m incredibly fortunate to have a large collection of samples. The difficulty, at least for me, is finding a quiet hour (or more) to properly sample and evaluate what others have given me. If I’m sipping from one of my own bottles, I can do it casually, enjoying the moment, but not always dissecting every nuance. With samples, I feel a responsibility to make sure I’m not rushing through it. I enjoy it, but it’s almost impossible to “keep current” with the samples.