Gallery: The Wood, That Makes The Whisky

Arguably the single most important contribution to the character of Scotch whisky as we know it comes from the maturation. Here is a tribute to the often overlooked oak cask…

Whisky casks inside one of the warehouses at the Tomatin Distillery

Warehouseman rolling casks, Deanston Distillery

Old whisky casks, Coleburn Distillery

Cooper working on a whisky cask, Speyside Cooperage

Bourbon barrels in the fill store, Tomatin Distillery

Praying to the whisky god! Visitors sniffing empty whisky casks

Discarded Sherry butts outside the dismantled Convalmore distillery

Old marks on a Bordeaux wine cask used for whisky maturation

Bung and bung cloth in a disused whisky cask

Empty Bordeaux wine casks waiting to be filled with Edradour spirit

Fill store at the Edradour Distillery with a Bordeaux wine cask waiting to be filled

Cooper’s tools in the fill store at the Glen Moray Distillery

Reflection of a sign at the Tomatin Distillery

Bung with bung cloth

Discarded marrying vats, Convalmore Distillery

Malt Kiln reflected in the water on the head of a discarded whisky cask

Discarded whisky casks, Convalmore Distillery

(All images Copyright Johann Brandstaetter, for terms image use please click here)

Before the middle of the 19th century whisky was by and large drunk unaged. Later, wine merchants began storing their precious booze in just about any available empty cask which happened to be mostly Sherry butts. Don’t forget that back then the British Empire was the largest consumer of Spanish Sherry.

Then the 1930s saw the first Bourbon barrels from the United States getting shipped to Scotland as an alternative to the increasingly precious butts. Afterwards it took another fifty years before the Scotch whisky industry started using anything else for the maturation, but nowadays all the stops are out! From Port wine pipes to Caribbean rum casks every imaginable type of cask has been tried for its suitability as a vessel for whisky maturation.

While a number of Scotch whisky distilleries remain fiercely traditional and are only using either Sherry or Bourbon casks for maturation, many others continue to explore new ways to create new expressions of ‘Water of Life’. Some of the new and wild independent bottlers even go so far as to experiment with treating casks with infusions of tea or coffee, a concept that will make the traditionalists cringe in disgust, I am sure…

However, the cask made from European or American oak will remain one of the core elements in the production of Scotch whisky for decades if not centuries to come.