The day before yesterday, when I wasn’t paying attention, a huge discussion started on Twitter about my rating of the Glenfarclas 175th. Everybody disagrees with me and is a lot more positive about it. All nice and dandy of course, I don’t really care about people disagreeing. Tasting stuff is very subjective, after all.

What I do care about is that people think my 6/10 rating is very low, while it still results in 3 stars. My point is that you can’t compare the points I give to a whisky with the Dutch public school system. Its not a ‘just acceptable’ whisky. Most reviewers give 3 stars for a whisky that scores about 80 points and no stars for anything from 1 to 59 points, which seems odd to me.

I posted here what each star rating means in my view, and since its in Dutch, I’ll post it in English here:

0 stars: This is a dram I really don’t like. One that I won’t even finish. If I have a full bottle of this, I’ll make it into a sauce, or give it away to someone who does like it (0 to 4 points).

1 stars: A whisky that is not good and/or very uninteresting. One that I can drink, but not one that I enjoy (5 to 11 points).

2 stars: An average whisky, not much very wrong with it, I just don’t care too much about it (12 to 19 points).

3 stars: A little above average. A well-made whisky that I enjoy, but I wouldn’t buy a bottle of it. Its not bad at all, but I’ve had many better drams (20 to 27 points).

4 stars: A very good whisky that I recommend anyone to try. It has a lot to offer when nosing and tasting it. In short: A whisky that makes me happy and I wouldn’t mind owning a bottle (or two) (28 to 35 points).

5 stars: This is great stuff. These drams belongs on the list of drams that make me a very happy camper. I’d like to order a bottle of this stuff right away, if I can afford it at that moment (36 and more points).

I hope this clarifies some reviews and odd ratings. I am thinking of ditching the point system all together and just use the stars, but that doesn’t seem right to me. There is still an order of preference within 5-star-rated drams, which would be lost then.

Still, it is very dependent on the moment and my mood. Also, the expectation is critical. I gave a Tullibardine that I didn’t really like 3 stars, and the Glenfarclas that I did like as well. The point is that the Tullibardine was above expectations, and the Glenfarclas below. 2 and 3 stars is a bit of a grey area…