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Nurture: Welcome to this two-part series investigating the roles of distillation and maturation in the creation of the uisge beatha.
In this section I'll be discussing the impact that the wood has in the process. In summary whisky barrels come from the following sources:
- American White Oak barrels previously containing bourbon
- Virgin American White Oak which has never previously contained whisky
- European Oak barrels of the type that wines are casked in
- European Oak barrels that previously contained wines included sherry's, port's, etc.
Additionally the size of the barrel is important. There isn't time to go into details here, but essentially the smaller the barrel, the more contact the whisky has with the wood, the faster the flavours will be extracted leading to the maturation process.
The colour of whisky can give you an idea of what type of wood has been in contact with the whisky as well as how long the barrels have previously been used. The whisky's you see here are all naturally coloured from the wood, but unfortunately distillers will alter their product with caramel colourant.
Why do this? Simple. Because people expect whisky to be brown like a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black! The sound reasoning behind this is that in many ways (as you will see) colour from the wood equates to flavour from the wood.
American White Oak Ex Bourbon (9 yr Old): Firstly is a Bunnahabhain 9 yr Old which has been casked on a refill hogshead. This is an American White Oak barrel of approximately 250 to 300 litres. It would have previously been used to mature bourbon and several litres of the liquid will remain soaked into the wood. However as the cask was previously used; the effect of this will be reduced.
This type of wood should empart a vanilla sweetness to the liquid of the type often associated with whisky. Remember wood contains sugars (think of maple syrup). The distillers char the inside of the barrels with fire to start the process and then let time do the rest.
The colour is a classically white wine esque; although this particular bottling is lightly coloured even for that. This is the colour I look for from a young-ish American Oak barrelled whisky. These brown colours from a 10 to 12 year old whisky you find on supermarket shelves are often faked with colourant. If you have seen the colour of Ardbeg 10 (uncoloured and unchilfiltered) beneath its dark green bottle is a highly flavoured but very pale liquid. Despite the colour this single cask whisky packs alot of flavour.
Although the true colour of the whisky has a strong correlation with the flavour profile, it doesn't have that impact on its quality; and there is so much artificial colouring going on in the industry that you should not make assumptions about the whisky based on the colour unless you know that it hasn't had colourant added. Another example that colour does not reflect quality is my recommendation for the best value Standard bottle of Single Malt Whisky in my article on whisky bargains.
Link: Whisky Bargains: Single Malt Whisky that Delivers
The newer the barrel of course and the longer that the whisky has been in there, the darker the colour and the more intense the flavour is likely to be. This is because the liquid extracts more flavour over time. Clearly this whisky has been stored in a refill hogshead; which means it has previously been used to store whisky (as well as bourbon). The opposite effect too this can be seen with Virgin Oak casks; the colour can quickly become dark from all the sugars in the barrel. Use of virgin American White Oak is still rare in the industry however.
European Oak Pedro Ximiez Sherry Butt (13 yr Old): Next is a Glendronach 13 yr Old which has spent all of its life in a sherry butt previously used to mature Pédro Ximenez (PX). PX sherry is a rich, sweet, fruity sherry from Antalucia in southern Spain. This is what has caused the significantly darker computation of the whisky, although a butt is much larger than a hogshead (450-600 litres) and as such the whisky has had less contact with the wood.
The Glendronach colour is entirely natural, but also entirely consistent with expectations (given the wood it has been in contact with). PX casked whisky is often rich and syrupy with rich fruity flavours such as dates and figs. It is more popular than ever right now and I thoroughly recommend seeking some out to sample. The Glendronach 12 is a great place too start which can be bought for around £40 and has used a combination of Oloroso and PX butts to mature the whisky.
Natural Variation: This bottle of Glendronach from one single cask is a great example of how natural variation in the wood effects a whisky's colour and along with it, its taste. Below are different single cask bottlings from Glendronach. Both of which are PX sherry casks, both of which yielded over 650 bottles, both of which were distilled in 2003.
The older whisky is much lighter in colour and its flavour reflects this. Theoretically the older whisky should be darker and the flavour more intense; however any number of reasons could be responsible for what has happened.
European Oak Oloroso Sherry Butt (28 yr Old): Next is a 28 yr Old Glen Marnoch (Probably from Glenfarclas), bottled from a handful of Oloroso sherry butts. The whisky is dark in colour; in particular the Glenfarclas with its deep colour and resist Amber tinge, shows how the combination of age and the type of wood can effect the whisky. Oloroso casks will tend to bring out Christmas cake style fruits, cherries, sultana's, juicy raisins, and are often complimented by richer vanilla flavours, especially if a bottle contains whisky from both an Oloroso and American Oak casks.
European Oak Port Pipe Finish (2 yr out of 17): Finally is a BenRiach 17 yr Old whisky which spent 15 years in American White Oak before spending two years in port pipes (the name for barrels previously containing that liquid). With Port being such a rich, dark liquid, Port pipes have a significant effect on the colour and flavour of whisky, even after a relatively short period of time. The Balvenie in their 21 year old Port Finish whisky for example only transfers their precious 21 year old American Oak matured liquid into the finest Port pipes that they can acquire for two to three weeks.
This has been a basic summary into the nuances of the maturation process. I hope that this has been informative and helped you to have an idea of how important the wood, the type of wood and what the wood has previously been in contact with is to the maturation process.
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