My mother-in-law and I were lucky enough to be in possession of four bottles of Macallan Scotch. We had one each of the:
Our idea was to conduct a blind taste test. What a wonderful opportunity to see the difference between these four bottlings. Even better, an opportunity to see just how much we were influenced by the "it costs more, so it must be better" factor. Before we begin I want to say that I am not a Scotch drinker. I enjoy it, but do not have an "educated nose".
Our test was to have somebody (my lovely wife) randomly fill our glasses with each year. We had eight glasses, four groups of four, each labeled A, B, C, and D. My wife's only job was to randomly fill each glass and record the year for each. The rest was up to us. We were not present when she pored the glasses, and she was not present when we did our sampling.
The general instructions were to rank each category from 1-10. The overall score was not necessarily supposed to be the sum of each column. The testee was to apply their own subjective weight to each attribute, and come up with their own overall score. Some of us applied equal weight (a summary), others decided our own weights.
Last names have been left off to protect the innocent.
| John | A (18) | B (12) | C (25) | D (15) |
| Smoothness | 5 | 8 | 4 | 8 |
| Fragrance (nose) | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| Flavor (depth) | 5 | 8 | 5 | 10 |
| Color | - | - | - | - |
| Overall | 14 | 21 | 12 | 20 |
Note: John considered color to be unimportant and not worth rating.
| Kit | A (15) | B (25) | C (12) | D (18) |
| Smoothness | 8 | 8 | 7 | 3 |
| Fragrance (nose) | 4 | 8 | 9 | 6 |
| Flavor (depth) | 3 | 4 | 10 | 9 |
| Color | 2 | 8 | 4 | 7 |
| Overall | 4 | 4 | 10 | 7 |
Note: Kit graded according to the guidelines
| Chris | A (15 | B (12) | C (25) | D (18) |
| Smoothness | 1 | 2 | 3.5 | 4 |
| Fragrance (nose) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Flavor (depth) | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Color | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Overall | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Note: Chris graded color, but did not factor it into the overall score
| Dianne | A (12) | B (25) | C (15) | D (18) |
| Smoothness | 5 | 8 | 4 | 10 |
| Fragrance (nose) | 4 | 5 | 5 | 10 |
| Flavor (depth) | 4 | 6 | 4 | 10 |
| Color | 8 | 8 | 8 | 10 |
| 21 | 21 | 27 | 21 | 40 |
Note: Dianne graded according to the guidelines
Here are the overall raw results
| 12 | 15 | 18 | 25 | |
| John | 21 | 20 | 14 | 12 |
| Kit | 10 | 4 | 7 | 4 |
| Chris | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Dianne | 21 | 21 | 40 | 27 |
The normalized results
| 12 | 15 | 18 | 25 | |
| John | 0.31 | 0.30 | 0.21 | 0.18 |
| Kit | 0.40 | 0.16 | 0.28 | 0.16 |
| Chris | 0.20 | 0.10 | 0.30 | 0.40 |
| Dianne | 0.19 | 0.19 | 0.37 | 0.25 |
Summary of overall results
| 12 | 15 | 18 | 25 |
| 1.11 | 0.75 | 1.16 | 0.99 |
After scientifically testing roughly $600 of Macallan Scotch we have drawn the following conclusions: