In The Mood For Wood

In The Mood For Wood

Back that Cask Up

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Character Goatson
  • coffee
  • spicy
  • ginger
  • milk chocolate
  • caramel
  • peach

Back that Cask Up

Light the candles and throw on some 90s R&B… ‘cause we’re about to get frisky with our Whisky, baby. 

These bottles aren’t the typical "wham, bam, stick me in some oak, ma’am" types. Oh no. Experimentation is the name of the game here, and these Whiskies like to spice things up by marinating in casks that’ve been places and seen some things… if you know what we mean. 

The question is: are you ready to take your palate for a walk on the wild side? There’s only one way to find out. Let’s get weird.

While Bourbon’s legally required to use new (but charred) American oak barrels for its finish, other types of Whiskies are exempt from having to play by that rule. While the typical drop is aged in a cask that once held Bourbon or Sherry, distilleries are getting crazy with their finishing casks, opting to put their juice in barrels that once held Wine, Rum, Cognac and even Beer. And because the barrel has a huge influence on the color and taste of the Whisky inside (it’s estimated that a cask contributes 60% of a Whisky’s flavor!), this new experimentation is producing some pretty insane results that promise your palate a pretty wild ride.

Case in point: Auchentoshan Three Wood, a Lowlands Scotch with an affinity for three-way finishes involving Bourbon, Sherry and Pedro Ximenez casks. Then there’s Slane Triple Casked, a blended Irish Whiskey that spends its time in the warm embrace of Virgin American Oak, Aged Bourbon Oak and Oloroso Sherry casks. Think those two know how to get freaky? The Isle of Jura Seven Wood says "hold my Beer." This Single Malt Scotch uses seven (yes, seven) different kinds of casks to arrive at its infinitely complex taste.

Lookin’ for a good time? It’s all right here in this very box. So slip into something comfortable, yeah? ‘Cause these Whiskies know all about a good finish.

Smartass Corner:

1) Finishing, double matured, wood-finishing — they’re all the same thing. It’s a process that involves moving a Whisky from one cask to another for more complexity in aroma and taste.

2) That’s a slightly different thing from aging, which simply refers to the process of Whisky getting older.

3) Recently, The Scotch Whiskey Association clarified their stance on aging. Scotch can be matured in new oak casks and/or in oak casks which have only been used to mature Wine and/or Beer, and/or Spirits.

4) But there are a few exceptions to that rule: no barrels that housed alcohol made from stone fruits, and no barrels that had fruit, flavoring or sweetener added after fermentation or distillation. Them’s the breaks, fruit fans. 

5) Coming soon to a Scotch near you: barrel-aging using Tequila casks. Ay dios!

6) Who in the heck is Pedro Ximenez? It’s not so much of a "who" but a "what." Pedro Ximenez is a white Spanish grape that’s typically used to produce a very sweet Sherry. Barrels that held its Wine usually give the Whisky a darker color and lend it a nutty and fruity taste.

7) Whisky isn’t the only one who gets to have all the fun when it comes to finishing, breweries are putting their Beer "to sleep" in Whiskey barrels to add more depth and character to the taste profile.

What's in the box

  • 2 Scotches
  • 1 Irish Whiskey
  • sherry
  • fruit
  • marshmallow
  • syrup
  • malty
  • dates
  • oak
  • toffee
  • nutty
Auchentoshan Scotch
  • dark honey
  • oak
  • spicy
  • orange peel
  • cinnamon
  • burnt
  • port
  • sweet
  • green apple
Slane Irish Whiskey
  • coffee
  • ginger
  • spicy
  • milk chocolate
  • caramel
  • peach
  • liquorice
  • orange zest
  • smoky
Isle of Jura Scotch
The Flaviar tasting box
Dog Dogson's Smartass corner
Character Dogson

An un-aged American Whisky is often called “white dog.”

'Small Isles Distillery' was the name for the distillery when it was first founded in 1810.
Auchentoshan uses three-part distillation process that is pretty rare in the world of Scotch Whiskies. Also, each still is a little different, so they have three stills -- an odd number of stills is rare too.
The number of stills in the Jura distillery were expanded from two to four, in 1978.
The future visitor center will be in the historic stables complex adjacent to Slane Castle.
There is some debate about the origin date for Auchentoshan. the various dates include 1800,1817, and 1823. But most sources use the 1823 date, so we rely on that.
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