WHISKY'S HIDDEN DEPTHS
Throw off the bowlines
A journey with The Scotch Malt Whisky Society can take you well off the beaten path when it comes to different forms of maturation, says Julien Willems
PHOTOS: PETER SANDGROUND
PICTURED: SMWS head of whisky creation Euan Campbell leaves his mark in a Jerez bodega
At heart, I’ve always yearned for adventure. My teenage years got me into a fair few journeys in the realm of role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons.
It is something I have retained an appreciation for to this day. Later in adult life, as I settled down in bonnie Scotland, I traded in my dice and miniatures for sturdy boots. The trails and wilderness were calling: it was time to start living the adventures, not just dreaming them. But what does any of this have to do with whisky?
Well, believe it or not, everything. As far back as we can see in humanity’s records, adventurous souls have shunned the yoke of sedentary life and favoured the freedom, dangers and rewards that came with roaming the trade routes. Along the Silk Road and across the Mediterranean, wherever traders wandered, wealth and industry followed, giving rise to some of the largest empires in history.
Around the Mediterranean, Rome eventually rose to prominence and one of the reasons for the expansion of the empire was its exceptional investment in a vast road system, supporting military logistics and trade. Long before the first whisky stills had arrived in Scotland, Roman wines, olive oil and garum (ancient Roman fish sauce) were already being shipped all the way to the British Isles, along with other products from across the Roman empire.
A RELIABLE SUPPLY
Fast forward to the late 15th century, and the first written record showing that uisge beatha was being distilled at Lindores Abbey in Fife. Despite successive wars between or with European countries, wine also kept flowing in by the barrique.
And it’s almost certain that those casks would be re-used. As time passed and shipbuilding dramatically increased our capacity to ship more barrels, these became a reliable supply of wood for the budding whisky industry.
Of course, coopering was a big trade in Scotland and there would have been a steady supply of casks for beers and other endemic drinks, but wine casks would have then been a reasonably accessible and desirable commodity for distillers.
This likely remained the case until the repeal of Prohibition and the implementation of the New Deal in the US, which introduced the single use of new oak casks for bourbon whiskey. One of the by-products of this new standard was felt within just a few years, as relatively young, charred, American oak casks became increasingly available en masse for a competitive price.
Sherry casks were still around but other wine casks had long-since declined. But even prized sherry butts became rarer for whisky maturation as Spanish laws established in 1981 caused sherry to be shipped in bottles rather than casks. This progressively led to the near complete supremacy of the bourbon cask over any other type of wood in the whisky industry’s inventories.
A RETURNING TIDE
History can be like the tides though, and it looks like there might be some change afoot again. Bourbon cask prices have been rising dramatically in the last few years, to the point where wine casks are becoming a much more enticing option for whisky makers. But this comes with its own set of challenges that we need to adapt to.
Though sometimes generous in flavours and quite stunning in appearance, if you remember Cask No. 48.104: Punnets of pink, not all wine casks are always a good fit. This has to do with the nature of the drink. Wine is alive and can quickly turn in its barrel during transport, generating off notes of an utterly undesirable nature lying in wait for anything that might come into the barrel next.
This is, as you can imagine, something we are keen to avoid. So, once emptied, unfortified wine casks tend to head back to the cooperage where their inside gets shaved, toasted and recharred – you’ll usually see this abbreviated to ‘STR’ – to improve extraction and avoid spoilage and off-notes.
Since 2019, besides the huge rise in our offerings of sherry cask-matured whisky, the Society has also been exploring casks from white wine through to various styles of port, Australian muscat and shiraz. The Society’s Whisky Team are sparing no effort to find new and interesting casks for members to discover and enjoy.
This includes some travelling, to explore cooperages, and meet wine makers, but mostly it requires patience, to see which experiments pan out and which yield the high quality thresholds we set ourselves.
As a result, in recent years some of these unusual releases have started cropping up on the menu. Australian muscat, for example, is a fortified wine from Down Under that is both delicious and rich, used with releases such as Batch 16 Full Bloom from our ‘Heresy’ range.
More recently Australian shiraz also joined the party with Cask No. 80.54 Ruby hues day. Don’t worry if you have missed these releases, it’s not the last time you will come across these cask types.
PICTURED: Charring casks at Speyside Cooperage
CASTING THE NET
Beyond sherry, the Iberian Peninsula offers a wide variety of fortified wines such as moscatel, which we have had for some time. Indeed, we are now seeing the second generation of whisky matured in these casks. And the good news is, second fills have been exciting so far, with for instance Cask No. 122.72: Warm-reekin’ sausages...! exhibiting some wine-driven aromas and a kick of Islay smoke from the previous whisky. The cask itself is not all there is to it – as this experiment suggests, the whisky used in the first fill can have a significant impact on what comes next.
Still among Iberian fortified wines, closer to the Atlantic and along the Douro valley, Portugal’s most famous wine matures into a sweet and indulgent treat. There’s been a substantial increase in interest for port casks, either of the seasoned variety or barriques and pipes used for long-term wine ageing. Some recent additions to this range are Cask No. 73.165: Fruit jellies and soft pistachio nougat and Cask No. 88.33: Think pink.
With very different styles of port available, either white, tawny or ruby, there is still much ground to cover for the Society. This is certainly an area of interest, and you can look forward to much more to discover in that category before long.
Among other Portuguese liquid delicacies, Madeira is also a rather under-represented region in the whisky industry. It nevertheless has made a space for itself with releases like the stunning Cask No. 4.343: Analytical allure or our award-winning Cask No. 37.127: Coconut curry down the Douro valley. Here again, there’s cause to be optimistic for the future, with different varieties of these casks currently slumbering in our warehouses.
Closer to home, France produces vast quantities of casks to age its wines and spirits. All the better for us, as many are looking for potential replacements for the now somewhat pricey bourbon casks. The Whisky Team undertook a supply trip to France last year to reinforce cooperation with some choice cooperages and build on relationships with suppliers working with a mind-boggling number of quality wineries. It feels like we have only scraped the surface with so much potential to discover and harness to deliver new and exciting flavours for Society members all around the world. Beyond sauternes and with spirits like cognac and armagnac, the future is looking very bright indeed.
There is an ever-expanding variety of wine and fortified wine casks, and many experiments beyond wine in our warehouses, where we’re currently maturing some tried and tested combinations as well as some truly new and rare expressions. Some may take longer than others to reach you, but when they eventually land, I hope you will emulate the historic traders – and even those captivated by role-playing games – and boldly dare to venture off the beaten track, where your taste buds have not trodden before.
Julien Willems is whisky quality manager with the SMWS Whisky Team
PICTURED: A new arrival at the Society’s maturation warehouse