[Leica] OT: What about England NOW: Scotch barrels! ;-)

[puff11 at comcast.net (Norm Aubin)]

Adam, Ted, 

Alas and alack, it's true - some scoundrel has taken to putting perfectly
good single malt scotch into barrels used for wine or port aging, as an
attempt to do a second finish on the spirit.  Unfortunately what they have
created is a candy scotch - scotch that tastes of wine or a sugary blending.

There is a timely article in this months edition of Scottish Life, in the
monthly column titled "In the Parish of the Peats", by Charles MacLean,
wherein he talks about this process of Double Maturation.

He gives credit (blame) to David Stewart of Balvenie for starting this
process with Sherry casks in 1982, and following this with the Balvenie
DoubleWood bottling of '93.   

There are bottles finished in Port, Sherry and Madeira available, as well as
other finishes, such as Chablis and Chardonnay.  Auchentoshan has a three
wood available, there's a Bordeaux finish, and apparently Glenfiddich went
and used Islay malt casks to try and eek out a better whisky.  

M. Jackson addresses these fairly well in his encyclopedic books on scotch
as well.

If you are the kind of person who doesn't really like the taste of scotch,
you might want to try one of these.  If you're the kind of person who would
use a candy cane as a swizzle stick, you might want to try one of these.

Personally, they don't work for me - you lose the flavor of the peat, the
flavor of the wood.  The briny iodine flavor of a good Islay scotch is the
magic of that land, as the heather and honey of a good Speyside is its own
unique signature.  

To each his own; there are folks out there who think drinks made with
ingredients other than Gin and a whiff of vermouth are appropriate to call a
Martini, if only because of the glass.  Philistines!

Best of light,
Norm  





> Message: 29
> Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 17:42:14 -0800
> From: Ted Grant <tedgrant@shaw.ca>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] OT: What about England  NOW: Scotch barrels! ;-)
> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Message-ID: <001e01c5ff86$71872530$2ee76c18@ted>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=iso-8859-1;
>       reply-type=original
> 
> Adam Bridge asked:
> >>An aside: Has anyone tried the McCallan Scotch that's aged in oak wine
> barrels? It sure sounds mellow to me. Read about it in the Wall Street
> Journal's article on Scotch that was out this weekend.<<<
> 
> Hi Adam,
> In the case of single malt scotch it was and is aged in oak barrels.
> 
> In the early days when Sherry imported into England came from Spain there
> was a bountiful number of ex-sherry casks available to fill the shortage
of
> plain Oak barrels. So the Sherry barrels began to add their "mellow" to
the
> finer selections of single malt scotch.
> 
> However, when the Brit's lost their taste for the volumes of Sherry, it
> imported it seems the "Bourbon barrels" of the eastern USA. Those barrels
> became known as "American Oak" barrels. I believe some distilleries still
> import them from the USA.
> 
> Your quoted article from the "Wall Street Journal?"  Heaven forbid I
should
> suggest the writer might be wrong and meant " aged in Sherry barrels, not
> wine ?" Sherry barrels it's a known fact to single malt drinkers?  Or
users
> for medicinal purposes, ;-) we know the best comes from aging in Sherry
> barrels!"
> 
> Yes your, "It sure sounds mellow to me." is exactly where the mellow comes
> from, the Sherry barrels.
> 
> However, if it truly is a "wine barrel"  then I stand corrected in the
case
> of the McCallan and will be flogged at sunrise of this following day! :-(
> The good part?... I get an extra ration of single malt to off set the
pain!"
> ;-) Therefore without question... "medicinal purpose as you can
understand!"
> Thank you sir. ;-)
> 
> ted
> 
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