Sherry IS wine, dumbass.

Today's story comes from the inimitable Mark Reynier of Bruichladdich. This is a response to purists who decry the use of wine casks for additional maturation.

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There is a school of opinion that objects to the use of wine casks for single malt whisky. This raises several controversial issues. True, wine casks have indeed been exploited by some bottlers for outright marketing reasons but I argue that this subject is a much more complex one than just marketing.

Firstly I confess, guilty as charged, that at Bruichladdich we have been using wine casks er…since 1881. Wine casks for whisky are not new - sherry, after all, is a wine.

“I have noticed, in the forty-five years since I began to study whisky, that the general style of most if not all kinds has changed…The older whiskies were darker in colour, from being kept in golden Sherry or Madeira casks, rather sweeter in taste, and rather heavier in texture; the newer are lighter in both the first and the last aspect, and much drier in taste.” This was the introduction of Bourbon casks (made from Quercus Alba, or white oak) and was written in 1920.

Unless there is full long term maturation, a wine’s influence is minimal. It is the oak that really makes the major taste contribution. And French oak is very flavoursome.

Quercus Robur provides an entirely different flavour profile to the vanilla-rich Quercus Alba of the US. The whisky matured within tastes of neither wine nor of bourbon.

Subtly used, as in our ACE programme led by production director Jim McEwan – incidentally a cooper for over 45 years - we find that French wood (always in conjunction with American oak) provides an extra dimension - a greater complexity and length of flavour - as anyone lucky enough to try the landmark 125 bottling of the 1970 Bruichladdich knows.

The wood can release a hint of a red wine’s colour, even a nuance of fruit but, it is patently absurd to believe that wine will ‘pollute’ the whisky, it being essential that the casks are empty and steam-cleaned before use.

Unsurprisingly, the finest quality oak is used by the greatest wine estates in the world. They pay top dollar for hand-made casks with oak from the forests of Troncais, Allier and Vosges where staves have been weathered for 4 years to refine the tannins.

After 25 years in the fine wine world, I have witnessed at first hand what these oaks can achieve. We are fortunate to have unrivaled access to those legendary wineries where we are able to purchase scrupulously well maintained second-hand casks. New ones would be excessively tannic, and besides, being Scots, they are too expensive.

Personally, I am against making prominent, clumsy label declarations boasting about this wine or that as if the whisky is actually directly associated with it. Reviews of our whiskies rarely mention the cask types – as when the Fifteen 2nd Edition won “Best Islay” in the World Whisky Awards – which in my view is as it should be.

Influential whisky writers, including Pacult and Murray, have lately undergone an epiphany. Previously vehemently anti wine cask, they now recognise the quality and benefits to the more enlightened consumer.

In our range of bottlings we offer whiskies that have never seen a wine cask (XVII, Legacy, 10, Vintage 1970, 1973, 1984 etc.) and others that have (Fifteen 1st & 2nd, Twenty 2nd , Rocks, Infinity, Yellow Submarine, 125 etc.). It’s called consumer choice.

Remember of the 17 million casks maturing all over Scotland, about 95% are American oak – and that’s a price thing. The majority of our cask requirements continue to come from Buffalo Trace. We love the effect that their Quercus Alba casks have on our maturing spirit.

But Quercus Alba is not the only show in town – it never used to be. Our horizons have expanded. Perhaps we are becoming slightly bored of it’s one trick, vanilla hit. I am not advocating the exclusive use of Quercus Robur but the two allied together can make for some pretty exciting possibilities.

The Anti Wine Cask Brigade, with their puritanical wine inferiority complex should wake up and smell the oak rather than E150.

Comments

[kallaskander]

Hi there,

great rubbish Mr Renier. Sherry is made from wine but it is a fortified wine, having an alcohol strength that you do only seldom find in natural wines. It is a topped up wine using brandy from the grapes the topped up wine is made from. Sherry is made from wine but it is a terrible oversimplification to say that sherry is just wine so that there is no difference between using wine or sherry casks. There is a difference and everybody with a sensitive nose and palate will know that. Seldom have I found the winey and often sour feinty aromas of a wine finished whisky in a sherry matured or sherry finished whisky. Only a wine finishing can bring the oily bitterness of fusel oils into a whisky. Should I say back into a whisky?
Too many wine finishings I tried taste like the still man cut the feints a moment to late.
With the wine finishings you bring flavours into a whisky that do not belong there. Any still man cutting it so bad would be out of a job if his whisky tasted like that. Take a grip!

Greetings
kallaskander