· Blenders International · Water Science
Why do professional tasting panels dilute whisky to 20% ABV before they nose it?
Before a quality panel judges a cask, the sample is cut to 20% ABV with purified water. It is not a house preference — it is the documented standard practice of the Scotch whisky industry, and the published evidence shows it is the strength at which a trained nose is most likely to catch the fault that would otherwise reach the bottle. At that dilution, the water is roughly half the sample being assessed.