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I have often said on our YouTube videos and in the Mike and Matt Taste blogs, that I like a fruity whiskey. But what does that mean? I thought I would look at whiskey profiles and what they entail with this blog. 

I will start with describing what I mean by a profile. When I talk about a whiskey that has a certain type of taste profile, I mean that flavor is the predominant flavor. It does not mean that there are not other flavors in the whiskey, it just means that a certain flavor is the most forward flavor. A good whiskey will be well balanced in the flavors. Now let’s look at the individual taste profiles. I will look at the types of flavor found in my six sources of flavor blog.

Fruit forward: These whiskeys will have lots of fruit flavors in the whiskey. These flavors usually come from the yeast stain used to make the whiskey. Four Roses has two strains of yeast that create fruit flavors in their whiskey. Other great fruit forward whiskeys include Leiper’s Fork rye with its plum\apricot flavors and Old Grand Dad with its cherry flavor.

Candy store: another of my favorite flavors in a whiskey, the candy store will have a lot of vanilla, caramel, chocolate and mint flavors. These flavors come from the maturation process and are the results of the charred barrel and the caramelized sugars found in the wood.

Spice rack: Spicy whiskeys will get these flavors from both the yeast and the wood. Four Roses has a spicy yeast strain, but the spice also comes from the wood tannins and oxidation of the whiskey during the aging process.

Floral shop: This is a flavor profile that is rare, but it still happens. I remember drinking a Twisted Spoke Bourbon at D’Marie’s Bourbon Bar in the 1990s that had a very floral forward flavor. John Lipman described it as heavy lilacs. 

Wood shop: This is one of the hardest flavor profiles to get right. Wood includes oak, pine, cedar and other woods, but also includes nutty flavors such as pecan, hazelnut and walnut. These flavors come mostly from the wood and can quickly become bitter and tannic. However, a whiskey that gets the right balance can be an excellent whiskey.

These are the most common flavor profiles in whiskey. They each have their own merits and whiskeys should not be completely dominated by these flavors. A fruity whiskey can have a nice spice and wood note as well as fruit note, for example. I hope this helps explain what I mean when I say for example, “a fruity whiskey.”

Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller