Sir Jim is an English writer journalist, and a well known whisky critic. He is best known for his observations on whisky and his annually updated book on the subject, Jim Murray's Whisky Bible.
The Murray Method of Whisky Tasting -
- Drink a black, unsweetened, coffee or chew on 90% minimum cocoa chocolate to cleanse the palate, especially of sugar.
- Find a room free from distracting noises as well as aromas.
- Make sure you have not recently washed your hands using heavily scented soap.
- Use a tulip shaped glass with a stem.
- Never add ice. This tightens the molecules and prevents flavours and aromas form being released. It also makes your whisky taste bitter.
- Don't add water ! Whatever anyone tells you. It releases aromas but can mean the whisky falls below 40% .. so it is no longer whisky.
- Warm the undiluted whisky in the glass to body temperature before nosing or tasting.
- Never sick your nose in the glass. Or breathe in deeply.
- Take no notice of your first mouthful. This is a marker for your palate.
- On second, bigger mouthful, close your eyes to concentrate on the flavour and chew the whisky - moving it continuously around the palate.
- Look for the balance of the whisky.
- Never make your final assessment until you have tasted it a third or fourth time.
- Be honest with your assessment : don't like a whisky because someone has tried to convince you how good it is.
- When you cannot discriminate between one whisky and another, stop immediately.
Source - Whisky Bible 2018 Jim Murray's Whisky Bible is a compact guide containing every whisky that Murray and a team of researchers are able to source from the worldwide market. Each whisky is tasted by Murray alone and graded out of an overall score of 100. This total is reflective of the four key criteria: nose,taste, finish and balance, each awarded marks out of 25. With every new edition of The Whisky Bible, Murray provides tasting notes and ratings for around 1,000 newly released or previously undiscovered whiskies, with nearly 4,000 brands being reviewed overall.Mr. Jim’s not a man to mince words, with his press release hailing the whiskey’s ‘sheer undiluted beauty’.‘Nothing could match the astonishing beauty of its surprisingly delicate weight and complexity combined. It was though time stood still in the tasting room; I just knew…’2018 World Whisky of the Year
- Colonel E.H Taylor 4 Grain Bottled in Bond aged 12 Years
- Redbreast aged 21 Years
- Glen Grand aged 18 Years
