Or there is no such thing as wine. There, of course, is such a thing as wine, broken down by color (red, white, rose), by grape (or, techinucally, even other ingrediant). by region, by winery, by year.
And frankly, for someone who doesn’t like scotch, there isn’t much difference between a peaty glass of lighter fluid and an oaky one. Much more difference between an eiswein and a merlot, or a port and a Chardonnay. Or a champaigne and a tempernillio.
It is kind of interesting trying to describe the flavors of these beverages to someone who doesn’t drink. The best thing to do would be to take a swig, swirl it around your mouth and spit it out, as different people seem to have different impressions of the drinks and pick up on different flavors. For example, the peaty Islay malts to me have a very distinct Listerine taste to them (and I love the peaty malts.) Others may not key on on that flavor and describe it more like smoke or dirt or similar. If you’re fine with rinsing your mouth with a bit of alcohol, that’s what I’d recommend.
You really won’t get a good appreciation from just a taste or two. The alcohol can defitely be overpowering at first, especially for non-drinker. You need to sip on it for a bit so you can get over the initial harsh taste and pick out the more subtle flavors.
Same here. The HUGE ALCOHOL TASTE overwhelms everything. Yeah, I can taste the hint of apple, wood and smoke, etc… But these folks are completely ignoring the 99% of the taste experience. It’s like they’re hitting each other on the head with clubs and remarking on the subtle differences between the types of wood: “Yes, the hickory definitely has a lighter feel. Less ‘thud’ and more ‘bounce’ than the oak.”
Not to be pedantic, but I believe the correct adjective is “Scottish.” “Scotch” as a synonym for “Scottish” is an English thing that dates back to the 16th century:
SCOTCH Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com *
*Scroll down to the bottom and expand. 
It’s a kind of taste acclimation thing. When I first started drinking beer, it was mostly to get fucked up back in high school. Taste-wise, it tasted a lot like I imagined a tea made from moldy bread would taste like. Over time, it lost that funky moldy flavor, and started being pretty decent. After more time passed, the bitterness didn’t seem so pronounced.
The same kind of thing happens with spirits. At first, you just taste the alcohol and that’s it. After you drink for a while, it quits bothering you so much and you start tasting the spirit itself. You never really ignore the alcohol, but it does become a background flavor.
Especially since juniper is, like pine, a conifer.
Adding a “me too”.
To someone who isn’t a regular drinker, anything with a lower alcohol content (e.g, wine or beer) will taste incredibly bitter. Even so-called “sweet” wine will taste like vinegar.
Anything with a high alcohol content, you won’t taste a thing because of the BURNING! I can’t even begin to understand people talking about whisky’s subtle hints of oak and what-not, because to me, it just scorches off my tastebuds and the lining of my throat.
That’s the part I LIKE about whiskey. That burn in your throat when you take a shot, and then that warmth in your chest.
I remember when I was little, my cousins and I were allowed to ask for a sip of beer from the adults (just a tiny one). Mostly because it made us feel grown-up.
Some of you non-drinkers might like Mike’s Lemonade – you don’t taste the alcohol that much.
(Or you could just do what I do and mix stuff at random. That’s how I found out that Amarhetto tastes good with Pepsi)