How Long Did It Take To Start Tasting Subtle Flavors?

[Zak]

So i have been into scotch (and other whisk(e)ys for a few months now, and i have been doing my best to start picking up on the subtle flavors, but at this point i cant quite put my finger on them. I can taste the differences between whiskies clearly, but cant necessarily pick the flavors out. Aside from picking up peat from some, and general sweetness from others, i can only compare them to each other, not to common things like apples, or brown sugar, heather honey, and all these other "tastes" that people list tasting notes. How long did you find that it took you to start being able to identify these flavors?