A gentleman’s drinks cabinet should be a thing of pride. It can tell a story of travels, landmark anniversaries and ill-judged late-night purchases, but at the core of it all should be whisky. Always whisky. Whisky to round off a day, whisky to celebrate, or whisky to sit back and pontificate. As Paul Newman playing pool hustler and liquor salesman Fast Eddie Felson said in the opening sequence to Scorsese’s The Color of Money, “It does something to you nothing else can. You just want to lay back and have it roll all over you.”

There’s a time and a place for almost any incarnation of the amber liquid and it pays to know a little about it. You might have lived by the epitaph ‘the older the better’, which is a fair (and often expensive) place to start, but there are as many nuances to quality as there are tasting notes in the glass. Let’s start by drinking down some of the basics.

How To Drink Whisky

It’s all very well ordering up a dram or two of the best whisky you can afford, but if you don’t know how to taste it, you can’t fully appreciate it. Once you learn the basics, it’s easier to determine what you do and don’t like, which is key in evolving your taste.

“Make sure you have a clean palate – so take a sip of chilled water before you taste,” says Georgie Bell, global brand ambassador for Craigellachie. “I enjoy tasting from a tulip-shaped nosing glass, although a rocks glass also works. Bring the liquid up to your nose and take short, sharp little sniffs and keep your mouth open while you’re smelling as it creates a circulation.

“Let your mind focus on the flavours you’re getting and have a think about the clues given away on the bottle. If it’s been matured in a bourbon cask you’ll probably pick up notes of vanilla, toffee, fudge and coconut. If it’s been matured in a sherry cask, you’re likely to get chocolate and rich fruit notes.