Blown out palate?

I set up a head to head comparison of Chivas Regal 12 and Johnny Walker Black last night and found that my palate for these delicate drams was gone.  I literally couldn't get a read on them at all.  Why not?  Earlier I had had a social dram with a co-worker - a dram of Port Charlotte 7.  PC7 is bottled at a searing 61% abv - but more than that, it is a peat monster with a mammoth flavor profile.  Hours later, my palate was totally skinned. 

Keep this kind of thing in mind if you go to whiskey fests or are assembling flights.  Keep cask strength and peated expressions last.  If it's a cask strength AND peated expression - put it dead last.