Putting impressions into words is always a challenge. What place should we give to subjectivity? At Monsieur Baco, or mission to map the production of spirits in France coupled with our requirement for transparency command us to keep subjectivity at bay as far as possible and to deliver as much of information as possible (provided that we have that information ourselves). In that regard, tasting French spirits requires a protocol that includes:
- The type of container of the sample.
- The type of glass used for the tasting.
- The presence and levels of sweeteners and/or colouring.
- The type of container used to age the spirit.
- The length of the aging process and age of the spirit.
- The ABV, with or without reduction.
- A visual, olfactory and gustatory evaluation of the sample.
Finally, each French spirits tasting is followed by a personal (and thus biased) observation. At this point, we do not wish to give any marks to the tasted spirits.