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There’s definitely an element of horseshit involved anytime people start identifying super-specific flavors like toffee or “leather” or fucking soil or whatever. Maybe there are people on this earth with incredibly highly refined palates who can detect those things, but it’s of no use to the other 99.9% of us who can’t.
That said, I find scotch can be just as complex as red wine, if not more so. I may not have a name or a identifier for all of the flavors I’m tasting and rarely to a describe the “nose” of scotch as anything other than “scotch-y,” but I can always pick out one or two strong flavors that many good single malts have; things like vanilla, smoke, peat moss, or oak. Can I tell the difference between french and American oak? No, and I raise an eyebrow to anyone who says they can. But drink enough and you’ll know oak when you taste oak.
I bought tequila in a little jug that was made out of a tree trunk in the shadiest little Mexican border town of all-time once. Tequila was literally cheaper than gasoline in this town. You could also get a boob job or some dental work done in the back of some of the liquor shops. It was horrifying and awesome all at once.