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until we catch this Kelpie!
It’s proof of how ubiquitous kelpies must be in Scotland that no sooner had a distillery opened in Ardnamurchan than within 6 months a kelpie had run (and/or swam) off with an inaugural cask.
She was seen sliding into Loch Sunart at the end of 2014 but we should have the cask back from the scaly scoundrel in 2025.
Witnesses say it was an American oak, Oloroso sherry cask, filled with peated spirit.
This is what we expect;
The cask used is an “ex-sherry hogshead”… but what does this mean? Well, a hogshead or “hoggie” is a standard size of cask used in scotch whisky production. It usually measures 54 gallons (UK), however, barrels for different liquids and from different countries are different shapes and sizes. Typically a “Sherry Butt”, is about 108 gallons and much longer and thinner than a whisky cask. So how do you get 54 gallons of scotch to fit snuggly into a big Spanish 108 gallon barrel?
The secret is “cooperage”, or the art of cask making. A Scottish cooper will take the individual staves from a sherry butt and make a “new”, smaller cask. This new cask is now the right size for whisky but retains the subtle aromas of Oloroso which will imbue the whisky with a deep amber colour and nutty, fruitcake notes.
Sherry is a type of fortified wine made with a variety of of white grapes (but mainly Palomino) from near the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain. This area of Spain is dry and hot in the summer with temperatures reaching in excess of 40ºC. This would normally kill most grape vines, but the rich clay soil and moist sea breezes, help the vines to retain moisture.
“Sherry” is an anglicisation of Xeres or Jerez and the British love affair with this wine started in 1587 when Sir Francis Drake sacked Cadiz and stole 2,900 butts of sherry. In subsequent centuries a more peaceful and vibrant trade started between Jerez and Britain with bottling taking place in the port cities of London, Bristol and Glasgow. Whisky distillers quickly realised the potential of the leftover sherry butts and started to use them make whisky casks. Most good quality sherry casks used American oak for ageing Sherry because it is strong and imparts less tannin and colour to the wine.
Until the 1930s the use of sherry casks was commonplace in Scottish whisky production, but due to the limited availability of casks during the Spanish civil war, whisky distilleries switched to using more American bourbon casks instead. Today well over 90% of Scottish whisky casks are American bourbon, which means many people have never had the chance to taste a “sherry cask single malt”.
Sherry casks are now very rare, and very expensive. To get around this, until recently, some distilleries would “cheat” and use a concentrated wine called “paxarette” and apply it under pressure to a cask to make it a “sherry cask” but this was recently banned. Another lesser “cheat” that is still widely used today is the “envinado” process which uses cheaper Spanish oak and inferior quality sherry to make “sherry casks”.
Our whisky uses a traditional first-fill, American oak, Olosroso sherry cask. These are the rarest and most valuable sherry casks available. Typically they’re used to “finish” a whisky, but this whisky is being left for 10 years in the same sherry cask to help take up the wonderfully rich taste of figs, raisins, prunes, nuts and chocolate that the Olorosso imparts.
As rare as these casks are, they tend to be used predominantly by Speyside distillers with unpeated spirit, but to add another world of taste and flavour this whisky is using peated spirit in the tradition of the west of Scotland. This adds all the saline, smoky, earthy, floral flavours you’d expect, which coupled with the unctuous, raisiny Olorosso and the fact it’s from the newest of distilleries make this a very special whisky indeed.
We expect to have less than 600 numbered bottles available at cask strength in 35cl bottles.