Anyone blind taste different years?

[timelinex]

I've been amassing my collection of Whiskys and getting a taste of many different brands,years & labels.

Whenever I drink a specific bottle I usually look at other reviews first to see what flavors to look for. I'm still a beginner but have been getting better at picking out tastes. However just this weekend, my world was rocked. I tried doing an unbiased blind test on different vintages from the same brand and came up severely disappointed.

When I have the bottles in front of me I can tell the difference and I sound like an up and coming connoisseur (haha). However as soon as you close my eyes and hand me different vintages from the same manufacturer, it all tastes almost the same!

For the life of me, I could not tell the difference between the Glenlivet 12/15/18 and the difference between Jameson standard and Gold Reserve. It blew my mind. I kept on trying over and over, alternating between nosing & tasting them with my eyes open and then closed. My eye closed results would not get any better.

To be honest, while I did get it right every time, I had a tough time even differentiating between a Glenlivet and a Jameson. 2 Whiskys that are in different genres.With my eyes open it is night and day. With my eyes closed, I definitely knew one from the other because of a specific signature taste in one or the other. However it was ALOT harder than I would have imagined. I had to really nose it and taste it out.

My wife and I both shared this experience and agreed that it was very humbling. I am going to try this with my Macallans & Laphroaigs next.

Anyone else ever do an HONEST blind tasting that surprised you?

[Islay Peat]

I think there's probably a few here who could do pretty well but I'm not one of them. LoL!

Couple the eyes closed with how your palate changes day to day and I'd have little confidence at all. If you want a couple Laphroaig's that are easy to tell apart get any Laphroaig and compare against their own Cairdeas!