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SGP
explanations |
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We
introduced the SGP
system on November 2, 2007. It’s
meant to be a quick and very easy
way of ‘reading’ a whisky’s
aromatic profile, and was inspired
by Diaego’s new Single Malt
Flavour Map. |
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Any malt’s SGP
is expressed using only 3 figures,
each ranging from 0 (minimum) to 9
(maximum): |
S
for the Sweet/Fruity
scale (honey, fruits, candy, raisins,
vanilla, flowers...)
G
for the Grainy/Grassy
scale (porridge, yeast, grass, malt,
wax, beer...)
P
for the Phenolic/Smoky
scale (farm, peat, sea, tar, spices,
liquorice, meat...) |
Of
course any dedicated whisky freak
will notice that we grouped aromas
and flavours that shouldn't really
be in the same clusters (such as peat
and meat, or porridge and grass) and
immediately feel the need to subdivide
these three simplistic scales into
dozens of subscales but I thought
it was better to have a simple system
that works rather than a huge labyrinthine
system that we’ll never manage
to handle properly since what we always
lack is time (no, not whisky).
With this SGP system, plain water
would get an SGP of 000 whilst a careful
vatting of young cask strength Ardbeg,
Macallan and, say Clynelish would
possibly get an SGP of 999. |
Anyway,
Whiskyfun’s tasting notes are
now presented like this:
Glenwhatever
10 yo 1997/2007 (46%, OB, cask #1234,
456 bottles) 
Colour: blah, blah, blah. Nose: blah,
blah, blah. Mouth: blah, blah, blah.
Finish: blah, blah, blah. SGP:123
- 90 points. |
| Here's
a real life example using two Benriachs: |
| Benriach
22 yo 1984/2007 (53.2%, The Single
Malts of Scotland)
Blah, blah, blah. SGP:438
– 91 points. |
| Benriach
30 yo 1976/2006 (53%, OB for LMDW,
cask #3557, 222 bottles)
Blah, blah, blah.
SGP:932 – 92 points. |
| The
first figure (S) clearly indicates
that the 1976 is extremely fruity
(S=9). Both are mildly grainy/grassy
(G=3) whilst the 1984 is very phenolic/smoky
(P=8) and the 1976 displays just hints
of such notes (P=2). A quick glance
at both SGP's should clearly indicate
to any of our distinguished readers
how different these two malts are,
even if they both come from the very
same distillery. |
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