Sherry Cask Whisk(e)y: History & Misconceptions!
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- Опубликовано: 10 июл 2023
- Let's discuss the history of Sherry Casks and their usage in Scotch!
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* Disclaimer: I will ALWAYS disclose if bottles were provided or purchased myself, and I will NEVER under any circumstances give a positive review or impression of a bottle that I don’t legitimately enjoy, regardless of whether or not a distillery provides that product for free. * 
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Hi gents! Great video!
I’m a Brand Ambassador for Ian Macleod Distillers (also a family owned distillery company in Scotland)
We have Glengoyne, Tamdhu , Smokehead and now Rosebank in our Portfolio.
I would love to help clear a few things up regarding the history and production of Sherry Cask’s.
Back in the 1700’s Whisky was often unaged, which makes sense if your making Whisky illegally then you want to sell it rather than have a huge warehouse of evidence to get caught by a tax man. one of the earliest written references to Maturation we have of Scotch is in a book with a small passage in the memoirs of Lady Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus, the daughter of a Scottish Member of Parliament, when the king was arriving in Scotland in 1822:
"Lord Conyngham, the Chamberlain, was looking everywhere for pure Glenlivet whisky; the King drank nothing else. It was not to be had out of the Highlands. My father sent word to me - I was the cellarer - to empty my pet bin, where was whisky long in wood, long in uncorked bottles, mild as milk”
But it’s important to note that in the 1700’s and 1800’s, everything was stored in barrels. Gun Powder, Fish, Whale Fat, grease, food…ect. So at the same time, the Sherry industry is shipping Sherry to the U.K in European Oak Transportation casks.
Now if you ship the whisky or store it in a barrel that’s had Gun Powder or Fish, it doesn’t taste so great, but if you find these Sherry transport casks the whisky tastes a lot better.
Interesting to note: the Sherry would take several months to be transported from Jerez to Glasgow or Leith Docks, but on a rocking ship that would increase the maturation due to the agitation of the contents of the barrel, and the increase of surface area for liquid to wood contact.
The Solera System used to make Sherry uses American Oak, as they do not want to age the sherry but it’s a fermentation and oxidation vessel, with the casks normally being up-to 100 years old.
With the changing in the law regarding Virgin cask usage in America, an influx of American ex bourbon casks caused some distillery’s to switch to cheaper sources.
Then in 1981, the Spanish regulations of sherry required all sherry to be bottled in Spain.
As early as the 1950’s, The Macallan began paying directly for the bodegas to season the casks.
So Edrington (owners of macallan) paved the way to continue having sherry casks seasoned with more control over how long, how big the casks and what type of oak.
The sherry that is produced from this season period is often turned into Sherry Vinegar and used for cooking.
Our Distillery Tamdhu, was Mothballed in 2010 from Edrington and Ian Macleod purchased it and rebranded as a Single Malt, but as the only Single Malt that’s entirely dedicated to Oloroso Sherry cask Maturation.
We are very transparent with the entire process, having produced a Film called “From Spain To Speyside” which i will post as a link on your comments under this.
Our Sherry casks take the longest time to produce in the industry, as long as 6 years for some.
Fun facts regarding Sherried Scotch:
* 90% of Scotch is Ex-Bourbon Cask
* only 5% of scotch is Sherry cask matured
* up-to 60% of the flavour of scotch is attributed to the Wood it is matured in.
* many Scotsman from 1600/1700 actually owned sherry bodegas, and the first instance of sherry
As I said, great video, but you had a few questions regarding the first fill/re fill and if Whisky producers could put more sherry into it and call it a first fill again. Fortunately this cannot happen, as Sherry must be produced in Jerez, it is a geographically protected Wine.
What does happen with Whisky Producers are things like STR casks, where a Cooperage will Shave, Toast and Re-char to make it more active.
One more thing to note regarding 1st fill/re fill. If that previous spirit was a Sherried Whisky than by its nature the refill will also have a Sherried flavour, but with more of the Distillery’s house style coming through.
Then of-course there is more than just Oloroso Sherry, there is Fino, Pedro Ximenez, Paolo Cortado, Amontillado, Manzanilla to name a few.
And for Peated Sherry matured Whisky, Check out Smokehead Sherry Cask.
ruclips.net/video/blROgH-f1K4/видео.htmlsi=v2m4w7X4N0bJbfoj
I learned something today. I quess there is a higher demand for sherry finished whiskey, than the sherry itself.
There’s a lot of demand for sherry, but not as a ‘sipping beverage’ so much anymore. By comparison a lot of whiskey makers like sherry casks. I don’t know if it’s ‘more’ exactly since it’s just the barrels they desire.
Glenfarclas 25 has the disadvantage of being 43% and CF but I agree it's probably a mix of sherry and ex-bourbon. Or, these are tired casks.
Sherry casks seems to be a lesser quality these days. Less time and younger trees.
Cheers,
Mike
That’s a good point. We didn’t really touch on the possibility of wood quality itself (since I’d presume that would affect ALL cask types equally).
You know- if you're not sure what the whiskeynis adding to the flavor in a sherry finished product- whay not do a 3 way tasting with the normal unfinished expression of the whiskey, a bottle of sherry, and the sherry-finished dram. Maybe you could pick out what is adding to certain parts of the palate.
No distillery that I’m aware of offers this or else I would. The point I was making is that there are a lot of layers to flavors in whiskey and not all sherry tastes the same. So when a whiskey may or may not have a subtle influence of sherry casks, especially if they’re 2nd fill, it’s impossible to ascertain on taste alone. Glenfiddich 12 is a prime example of this. No one blind tasting it would know that it is around 20% sherry cask because it simply doesn’t taste like a sherried whiskey and there’s no such thing as Glenfiddich 12 ex-bourbon only edition to taste side by side and compare. Certainly they taste different, but the sherry influence is very subtle. You wouldn’t know it was there if they didn’t tell you.
There are some situations where you can get close like Balvenie 12 single Barrel vs Doublewood, but again, distillery character and specific casks types play into it a lot. This is why the best you can say when a distillery doesn’t disclose the information is “taste like”. But sometimes whiskey flavors can be misleading due to American vs Spanish vs French oak or a wine cask vs a sherry cask. Then is it a cab barrel or Pinot ? Is it oloroso or Pedro ximenez or amontillado sherry. So many variations that you can’t possible say categorically “this flavor is bc of x cask type” especially when it’s a %, a worn out cask, a light finishing, etc.
That Glenfarclas is no longer $150 scotch. I remember it being $130 like before COVID. It’s now closer to $250. Bidenomics at it’s best. I never got it although I do have a 21 yr old.
Yeah I bought like 4 before the prices went up because I knew it was 'underpriced' relative to the competition at the time