Episode 260: Scratch & Sniff Whiskey with Richard Betts

On today’s episode of THE FOOD SEEN, we scratch & sniff with Richard Betts, literally. His second edition this olfactory series, The Essential Scratch & Sniff Guide to Becoming a Whiskey Know-It-All: Know Your Booze Before You Choose, exemplifies Betts background as a master sommelier at the Little Nell in Aspen. It’s all about objective and deductive reasoning, which will lead you to your_spirit_ spirt (kind of like a power animal). Broken down by GRAIN (corn, wheat, rye, barley, rice, millet, quinoa ...), WOOD (new vs. used barrels), and PLACE (Scotland uses sherry from Spain and bourbon from USA, whereas Japan uses oak called mizunara), it’s only a matter of time until you too have mastered whiskey. Betts, now a producer of My Essential Wine varietals, and Sombra mezcal, will have you turning your drinking data into a dogma soon enough.