MyWhiskyVault Object Model

MyWhiskyVault has a fairly simple object model, but familiarizing yourself with it will help you understand and navigate the application much better. The application uses five main objects described below. These descriptions are probably laughably obvious, but it's important to understand how they relate to each other.

Distiller

A distiller is a company that produces whisky. Each distiller has a physical location which usually determines the style of whisky they produce. The attributes associated with a distiller include:

• name

• location (an address or city)

• region

• country

• website address

• image / logo

Each whisky that a distiller produces is called an "expression". A distiller can have multiple expressions, but an expression can have only one distiller.

Bottler

A bottler (aka "independent bottler") is a company, independent from a distiller, that takes whisky from distillers and creates their own expressions of it, either by selecting single casks, finishing the whisky in different barrel woods, or blending different single malts together.

Most whisky expressions are bottled by distillers, so they will not have a bottler linked to them. Whenever a whisky expression is displayed without any bottler information, it is assumed that it is a "distillery bottling".

Bottlers have very basic information, similar to distillers:

• name

• location (an address or city)

• country

• website address

• image / logo

Expression

The expression object is the heart of the MyWhiskyVault model. Expressions are created by distillers or bottlers. They have the richest set of attributes in the model, including:

• name

• distiller

• bottler (optional)

• whisky type

• age (in years)

• ABV (alcohol by volume)

• maturation barrel types

• finishing barrel types

• distillation year

• bottling year

• distiller's notes (the flowery stuff they put on the back of the label or box)

Each expression produces multiple bottles.

Bottle

This might sound really obvious, but a bottle is the thing that holds the whisky before you put it in your glass. A bottle is the thing you buy at the store, the thing you put on your shelf, the thing that you uncork (or God forbid, unscrew). We distinguish a bottle as an object because although each bottle contains an expression of whisky, each bottle can have unique information such as its price, where you obtained it, or perhaps a story surrounding how it came into your collection.

Some of the attributes of a bottle include:

• Where you purchased it and what you paid

• If it has been appraised, what the value of the appraisal is and when it was done.

• The bottle's status: Unopened, Opened, Empty

Tasting Note

You can add one or more Tasting Notes to each of your bottles. A Tasting Note records for posterity a single event of you tasting one of your bottles. Each note contains general data, scoring data, and flavor profile data.

General Data

This tracks the basic information about the tasting:

• Date

• Location

• Occasion

• Distiller / Expression names

Scoring Data

A lot of people have expressed interest in keeping a relative score of their enjoyment of particular expressions. Following a somewhat standardized tasting model, we offer the following elements:

• Appearance / Color / Legs description

  • This is a non-scored field that simply offers you a chance to record the physical characteristics of the whisky.

• Nose Description

• Nose Score

• Palate Description

• Palate Score

• Finish Description

• Finish Score

• Total Score (not editable)

  • The total score is determined using a weighted scale.

    • 25% Nose

    • 50% Palate

    • 25% Finish

Flavor Profile

Our flavor profile is based on the World Whisky Council's "Whisky Tasting Wheel". You can find more information about that here.

This is a very important set of data. Using the flavor profile data across multiple whiskies, we get a feeling of what flavor elements stand out in the whiskies you are tasting. Using this data, we can find similar whiskies for you to explore. Combining the flavor profile with the scores from different whiskies, we get an idea of which flavor profiles you prefer. Following on, we can take that preference data to find the styles of whiskies you prefer, and then provide you with more intelligent recommendations for whiskies to add to your collection.

Here are the elements of the flavor profile. When you record the flavor profile of a whisky, remember it's not a "score" of how much you like each element. It's a recording of how intense you sense each element of the whisky. Flavor profile intensity values are recorded on a scale from 0 to 5.

• Cereal

  • These flavors are related to malted barley or other grain types.

• Fruity

  • Appealing aspects from the production process, sweet & fragrant.

• Floral

  • Scents associated to fresh grass and hay, or leaves.

• Peaty

  • In Scotch, peat flavors join the malt during the kilning process. Mainly medicinal or iodine-lie flavors.

• Feinty

  • Feints enter the picture in the middle the spirits run, and they become milder during wood maturation.

• Sulphery

  • Mostly developing during distillation, these problematic flavors are moderated through the fluid interaction with copper.

• Woody

  • Partially directly from the oak, partially related to aging, wood maturation increases complexity and balance, and adds color.

• Winey

  • If casks were filled with a type of wine before using them for whisky, some of the wine flavors can become part of the whisky profile.