Tag: Maturation

The complete guide to oak, casks, & whisky maturation

Whisky maturation is both a simple and, yet, incredibly complex process.  Let’s look at the subject in detail; explore what the distilleries are doing; address a few myths; and explain all the beautiful things that happen when we age whisky in oak casks…

One of the quintessential images associated with whisky these days is the classic “action shot” inside the warehouse.  Think of those old-school, dunnage style, dimly-lit warehouses with earth floors and casks racked just two or three tiers high.  It’s an evocative image, showcasing the majestic oak casks quietly slumbering, doing their part to mature the spirit that will one day give us delicious whisky. 

Oak casks maturing in warehouses - Whisky maturation

But it wasn’t always this way.  Whisky – uisge beatha, or the water of life – was originally an unaged spirit, taken off the still and flavoured with additives such as honey or heather to quell the drink’s aggressive nature and to make it more palatable.   Tradition, or perhaps just a convenient story for the distillery tour guides, tells us that the maturation and aging of whisky was a happy accident.  Variations on the story abound, but the crux of it is that some unfortunate person had more uisge beatha than he could immediately consume, and so he put it in an oak cask to store it until he was ready for it.  The cask was left alone or forgotten about for some time, and when it was finally retrieved, he made the happy discovery that the spirit had mellowed, improved, and taken on new characteristics.  Maturation, as we know it today, was born.

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Australian whisky – It’s got an image problem

What does Australian whisky taste like? One of the biggest problems for the Australian whisky industry – actually, it’s not a problem, it’s simply a mistake – is that a lot of people try to pigeonhole Australian whisky with a crude, base descriptor. To be fair, other whisky categories have the same problem: According to “the rules”, Scotch whisky is peaty; Irish whiskey is light; American whiskey is sweet; Japanese whisky is expensive, etc, etc. You get the idea.

Of course, such generalisations and stereotypes can often be wide of the mark, but the reality is that both consumers and marketers rely on such pigeonholes, and once these things stick, they become incredibly hard to shift.

So how do you describe Australian whisky? What does Australian whisky taste like? What’s a one-size-fits-all, catch-all statement that’s vaguely applicable? I’ll answer that in just a moment, but first some preceding comments to soften the blow…

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Age is just a number: The truth about young whisky

You’ve probably heard the saying, “You’re only as old as you feel.”   It’s often accompanied by its well-worn colleague, “Age is just a number”.   And when it comes to whisky, never a truer word was said!

In the context of whisky, your perspective on a bottling’s age is probably a function of when you started drinking the stuff.  If you got into whisky more than 30 years ago, then a whisky’s age statement wasn’t much of a big deal to you.  The vast majority of whisky available and being consumed was blends without age statements, and for the enlightened few who had discovered and preferred single malts, the small number of distilleries available showcased their whiskies with humble age statements typically between 8 to 12 years.

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Glenfarclas Distillery – a family affair

What follows is a full and detailed profile of the Glenfarclas distillery.  I’ve prepared and written up similar distillery profiles and feature pieces for many different publications and outlets in the past, and this feature piece will be no different.  But, in the interests of full disclosure, let’s declare all interests:  Glenfarclas is my favourite distillery.  There.  I’ve said it…

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Whisky’s key ingredient

How do you make good whisky? In fact, what are the ingredients of whisky?  If you answered barley, water, and yeast, then you were correct.  And yet, there’s so much more…

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