Downfall of Civilization???

There seems to be a debate regarding how Compass Box Whisky's newest creation,  The Spice Tree, is finished. To refresh your memory, from The Spice Tree article:

John's taken a different approach with this one. He starts with single malt Scotch from four different Highland distilleries, including Teaninich and Dailuaine, all of which have been aged at least 10 years.

He then puts most of the whisky through a second maturation in casks that use new oak staves. The special thing about these staves is that they are made of 195 yer old Sessile Oak, which has been air-dried for two years after felling. The oak is sourced directly from a mill in France that has expertise in providing oak for barrels used to age some of the world's finest wines.

Many people wrongfully assume that The Spice Tree is finished in new Oak barrels. Actually, Compass Box uses an "inner-stave"  method, in which a flat stave of new, but seasoned, sessile wood is secured inside the standard cask. Some traditionalists seem to believe that doing this somehow will lead to the downfall of Western civilization - or at least the Scotch industry. Bull crap.

Mark Gillespie has a nice interview with John Glaser on the latest episode (11) of Whisky Cast, where John explains the concept.

I talked to John about this as well,

Regarding the wood and Spice Tree, I'll say it again: We are using cooperage staves that are higher quality oak than you can achieve in the oak of a cask.  This is a good thing.

We are simply taking advantage of advances in cooperage techniques that the wine industry is way ahead on. And I believe that it is in the best interests of the Scotch whisky industry to constantly challenge how we make our whiskies so that we can continue to make the best stuff possible.  What we are doing is no different in principle than wine cask finishing, except for two things:

1. We're using much, much higher quality Oak, and
2. We're not flavouring the whisky with wine!

Listen, if you are a traditionalist, then you may want to stay away from Compass Box. But that would be a mistake, as you will miss out on some very interesting whisky.

Scotch drinkers need to be open-minded and need look to Compass Box, Bruichladdich, Glenmorangie, JMR and even Laphroaig to see where the future of Scotch is going - and I don't mean the future of Scotch Marketing, I mean the future of production, vatting and maturation.

John knows a lot about wood -  which you'll see later in the month, in a new article which examines the impact wood has on whisky. Stay Tuned.