“You’re not going to ruin that 30 year old whisky with water, are you?”
(sigh) I expect as long as there are people drinking whisky, there will be people with strong opinions on HOW to drink whisky. Whenever I’m asked this question in various formats (“Do you like water in your whisky?”, “Should I add water to my whisky?”, “Doesn’t adding water to whisky ruin it?”), I try to understand the context and include a disclaimer that what I think matters a sh!t-ton less than what they think.
There have been some extensive experiments on the topic (Bjorn Karlsson and Ran Friedman of the Linnaeus University Center for Biomaterials Chemistry published their results in Scientific Reports 7 in 2017; here’s a link if you’re interested). I won’t try to summarize their findings, other than to say it proves that adding water alters the flavor. In itself that isn’t news – anyone who had added water to whiskey could attest to that. Although I thought they nailed it with the following statement: “Overall, there is a fine balance between diluting the whisky to taste and diluting the whisky to waste.” Where that line is I believe varies by the individual.
In my experience, the perfect amount of water is entirely dependent upon the whisky drinker (first!) and the whisky. There are many whiskies where I find that adding water doesn’t improve it, and may negatively impact my enjoyment of the spirit. There are also many whiskies where I find the spirit speaks to me best at some proof lower than what it was bottled at. I personally prefer whisky bottled at cask strength as it gives me the opportunity to find that sweet spot. But even that sweet spot can be tricky – today I may prefer my 120 proof Knob Creek Single Barrel proofed down to 110ish (a 1 oz pour with a half-teaspoon of water added is just under 109 proof). Another day I may find it really hits me perfectly closer to 100 proof (a 1 oz pour with a teaspoon of water added is just under 100 proof).
Do I sit there with a teaspoon and measure it out? Nope – usually I have a bottle of water on hand, and will use the cap to measure out a few mL at a time. The proof itself isn’t that important – at least to me – since I know it may vary from one day to the next. If there was one specific proof where a bottle just nailed it, and that never changed it – I’d probably invest the time/energy to figuring that out initially, and then bringing the entire bottle down to that point. Thankfully, that isn’t how it works – at least for me.
If I could offer any advice, it would be this: Try adding water to see what you think – but do it slowly. If you find it isn’t helping – STOP! If it seems to be getting better, keep going. Or not. Ultimately – drink how you want to, and not how other people (me included) tell you.
Cheers!
Gary