Women and whisky

It's very hard to come up with an applicable answer for all cases, but in my limited personal experience it's got to do with the introduction to whisky being cheap blends mixed with coke, then being forced on to monstrous Islays by well-meanting enthusiasts.

A handy thing I've found is to hand over a whisky like a Rosebank, Glenrothes, or Dalwhinnie to a female friend and say "This smells like something, but I can't put my finger on what... can you get it?". Essentially it's cheating them into smelling something that doesn't smell like Scotch-and-Coke scotch. Meh... works sometimes.

There's also the image thing too - that whisky's the preserve of old men with large bookcases and arcane knowledge of the minutiae of everything to do with it, rather than something you can relax & drink on your own terms.

The proper introduction makes all of the difference in getting a woman interested in whisky. You do need to start with a woman who is taste and 'food and beverage' oriented, though. A lot of women actually look past the taste and are more oriented to the alcohol effects associated with alcoholic beverages. Why else would vodka be so popular with women?

Associations with harsh flavours and losing control through intoxication can be overcome, gradually, by conducting controlled tastings with small amounts of high quality products. Women don't want to have bad intense experiences, so just be careful that their experiences start out well and then involve more of the same. It is also easiest to get women interested in whisky by starting with something which they know and like already. That sweet spot is usually sherried malts. Gradually then, the universe of their acquaintaince can be expanded through exposure and experimentation.

@Victor and @jasonbstanding, very good thoughts in your posts. To build on these ideas, I would add the opinion that with vodka (esp mixed with something familiar, like juice), women (and some men too) are looking for the buzz, but without having to taste anything whiskey-like. They are likely ignorant of the rewards that whiskey has to offer.

Moreover, most people (men too!) have no idea of how to drink and to appreciate whiskey. So before you waste a dram and alienate a newbie, it is important to offer some instruction and training. Many women have some wine experience, but few hold the taste more than a secord before swallowing; they then sample whiskey in the same way, and get a big surprise ! Finally, I would suggest starting someone new with a 40%, and maybe with a bit of water.

Maybe I misunderstood the question - my response wasn't strictly limited to women I guess, more a general approach I sometimes use to trick people into trying whisky which doesn't necessarily smell or taste like their pre-suppositions about what whisky is.

Maybe it's a total misassumption on my part, but it's always seemed useful to me to get someone to regard the liquid in the glass in front of them and work out if they like it or not. Women on average (in my limited but enthusiastic experience) have a better developed sense of smell than blokes (other than you finely honed whisky cognoscenti, of course), so if you wave a glass around saying "This smells like peach mousse, don't you think?", then that provides room for engaging with the substance, and leading to things like, "No, it's more of a baked cheesecake with stewed apricot smell... what is it?" / "Single malt whisky" / "What?! Whisky doesn't smell like that?!" / "Well, this one does...", and so on. Much more welcoming & fun than sitting someone (anyone, really) down and giving them the tired old "four regions" lecture and making them think that to enjoy this world they're going to have to know a lot before they even start.

@jasonbstanding, actually I think you were right on regarding the question ... I'm the one who started generalizing :-) And I have to emphasize that I really like your approach in discussing and comparing the perceived smells of whisky.

And, one more thought that has just come to mind is that I feel it is a good idea to let the novice know that it is going to be WARM ... but that this is a good thing, and that via the finish, the warmth contributes to a third of the overall experience. It's always good to develop new whisky friends :)

Judging by the reaction of my wife and daughters, it's probably a case of women being introduced to very intensely scented/flavoured whisky too quickly, i.e. before they've had a chance to "get their noses in". Presented with Talisker 10 yo or Laphraoig QC the inevitable reaction was "TCP" or "disinfectant", but asked to nose a Glengoyne 10 yo my 18 year old daughter immediately said "mmmm green apples", text book stuff. Therefore in my opinion (and as had previously been observed) a gentle introduction is the secret to a lasting friendship.

@Victor I disagree regarding Vodka. As with any drink, if vodka is properly it can be very tasty.

The reason why anyone drink shall we say Heineken (which is a crap beer) is because it is easy. Drinking, enjoying and analyzing whisky is more time consuming and difficult. It is the same with food. If it were not, microwave meals would not be so popular.

@Donough, I don't disagree that vodka can be tasty. What I am saying is that women typically want vodka as a mixer, which is to say, as the relatively tasteless alcohol component of a drink which features primarily the flavours of the mixers. What the vodka contributes to these cocktails is, in my opinion, almost exclusively alcohol sought out for the effects of alcohol.

My wife is not fond of drinking whisky however, she is fond of the aroma and always wants to sniff my glass when I have a dram. (She does like a dram of Lagavulin 16 on occasion). This suits me just fine; I let her sniff the dram, but I get to drink it! :)

First, thank you all for your interest and the reponses on this discussion. I hope that I don't misuderstand the meanings since I am not an English speaker. So don't get upset if I ever misundertood them. :) @jasonbstanding I like the way you trick people by giving them different choices of whisky first than giving them hard lessons despite you were talking more on general cases in men/women. I didn't know that women on average have better developed sense of smell, do we? But it sounds really encouraging for me. Actually my question is more focused on possible reasons why most of women dislike whisky, yet I know it's quite difficult to draw a clear line to differentiate why men dislike or why women dislike.

@Victor As far as I know, many female friends of mine and I are enjoying good stories or nice introductions of course, which I assume it also works on men. In this way, a good story teller can be very important in intriguing people to get to know of whisky as well as to like it. I doubt a lot of women are more oriented to alcohol effect associated with alcoholic beverages. Does it happen more to men?! What I found is most of my female friends and my sisters are afraid of the strong smell and the harsh or spicy taste from whisky however it's only my obsvervation.

@AboutChoice Yes, it is a lot of fun to develop new whisky friends. I agree with the idea of adding some water in it. When you mentioned the warm feeling that sometimes may become a reason to scare away of some female tasters though. :P

@TracerBullet Yeah, no wonder people say 80% of tasting is in the nose, from the sense of smell. For me it is smiliar to the coffee tasting. Like a coffee shop in day time and tuns into a whisky bar at night time, haha.

@Col I appreicate your good perpective and practical introduction that I have tried to some ppl b/4. I am thinking your daugter might have learned much related whisky knowledge before she could actually drink them and I am sure there's a big chance she would be a fan of whisky since some of the smells may recall her memories.

Hi @Janerenoir, thanks for the interesting post. I just want to clarify my feelings and experience about learning to taste whisky ... and I'm assuming we have some good whisky. First you take a sip ( no more than a teaspoon, or even less!! ). Then you hold that sip in your mouth (as if you were sucking on some hard candy) for 10 seconds or more ... notice all the different flavors ... this should NOT burn if you do it right. Finally ... never rushing, allow yourself to slowly swallow; this is called the "finish", in which you feel a varying warmth (not a burn) as it goes down. This is usually a quite satisfying experience, with additional and different flavors appearing in the finish ... and if done correctly, it will NOT be HOT or burning. Others may have other ideas, but this is my experience. You may need to experiment for some time ... but then after you get it right, there will be no holding you back ! :-)
Let us know of your results !

@Victor and @Donough, I have a modest collection of vodka, distilled from potatoes, grains, grapes, etc., and from my experience, vodka may vary in taste character and smoothness and mouthfeel, but I can't say it is tasty in its own right. After all, vodka is pretty much a neutral spirit, like corn liquor. And when comparing vodka to other spirits, such as bourbon or scotch, we have to exclude flavored vodka and mixed drinks. I was just trying to see if we are all on the same page, especially using the word "tasty" :-)

@AboutChoice, compared to almost any other spirit, there isn't a lot of flavour in unflavoured (ie no added flavouring) vodka, for sure. I am with you there. That said, there are a few vodkas which I would consider "sippable" neat. I DO, for example, consider Luksusowa vodka to be 'tasty'. Also, even though vodka is theoretically "tasteless", when I do vodka tastings (and I do, occasionally) I find that people have fiercely strong opinions about which ones they prefer. In their minds they are definitely tasting something.

Thats like men drinking vodka, (I'm not knocking it) there are a few that do, but most don't.

@Donough My wife used to think that Crown Royal is about as good as whiskey gets while I am a bourbon drinker. When we toured the half dozen distilleries on the Bourbon Trail (plus a couple that are not), she gained an appreciation for what goes into making a fine bourbon. More importantly, the guidance provided by the tasting room staffs about how to taste and what to look for piqued her interest. Before long, she had developed a more discriminating nose and palate than I possess. She loves Very Old Barton, Ancient Ancient Age 10 YO, Eagle Rare, Evan Williams Single Barrel 18 YO, Weller Antique 107, Four Roses Single Barrel, and Knob Creek. The key, I think, is to make the transition from "drinking" whiskey to "tasting" whiskey. Once she learned to slow down and sniff carefully and sip slowly, her appreciation for bourbon began to grow exponentially.

@Victor I like that you mention Luksusowa as a tasty vodka. It is a very underrated one. I've been using it for a while now in mixed drinks. It's much smoother than all of the high end vodkas that are twice the price.

I'd kind of agree with @jasonbstanding's point on women having better sense of smell, although I'm not sure I'd put it that way. Very broadly speaking, I find men tend to be a bit less enthusiastic in their smelling, whereas women are often (not always) much more excited when they realise there are all these crazy smells in the glass. A women-only whisky tasting would probably be a lot more fun than a men-only one... ;)

(Can't shake the feeling this post will sound horribly sexist. But seriously. Men get far too hung up on identifying the "right" flavours most of the time.)