Whiskey tasting glasses: which one, and does it really matter?

Because you smell far more than you taste, and the glass decides how much of the smell reaches you.

Whiskey sitting in a glass is constantly evaporating. Aromatic compounds leave the surface and rise. A wide bowl gives a large surface for that to happen from; a narrow rim then funnels what has risen into a small opening instead of letting it spread into the room. Put your nose over that opening and you are receiving a concentrated sample of everything the whiskey is giving off.

A rocks glass does the opposite at the second step. The rim is as wide as the base, so the aromatics disperse the moment they leave the liquid. You still taste the whiskey, but you have thrown away most of what your nose would have told you — which, at a tasting, is most of the point.

The Glencairn shape did not come out of a marketing department. It is derived from the nosing copita that Scottish blending laboratories had been using for decades, and the final design was selected with help from master blenders at five of the largest whisky companies in Scotland. It went into production in 2001 and won the Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2006.

One per whiskey, which is the part people underestimate. The whole method depends on comparing, and comparing means going back to glass two after glass four — which you cannot do if there is only one glass and it now has something else in it.

Four is the practical minimum for a proper flight and six is comfortable. A set of six Glencairns costs about as much as one good bottle, and it is the better purchase of the two if you are starting from nothing.

You also want a small jug of still water and something to add drops with. A pipette is ideal; a clean teaspoon works; a straw with your finger over the end works too, and is what half the tastings in Edinburgh actually use.

The watch glass or cap. A small lid that sits on the rim between nosings. It traps what has evaporated so the next nose is more concentrated, and several Edinburgh tastings hand you one. Genuinely useful, and about two dollars.

The long stem. A copita has one, a Glencairn barely does. The argument for it is that it keeps your hand away from the bowl, which matters more than people think — body heat pushes alcohol vapour up and buries everything under it.

The heavy base. A tumbler with a thick bottom feels expensive and does nothing for nosing. It is a glass designed for ice and for the sound it makes on a table, both of which are legitimate pleasures and neither of which is tasting.

The tasting set in a box. Usually two or four glasses, sometimes with a mat and a pipette. Reasonable value and a genuinely good gift, and the only thing to check is that the glasses are a proper tulip rather than decorative tumblers.