I've been asking around about this, but noone has yet to come out with a sensible answer
I reckon most distilleries doesn't really distuinguish between if an ex-american whiskey barrel held bourbon or rye, or distuingish between barrels that held bourbon with or without rye. High rye bourbons are more similar to low rye ryes than no-rye bourbons in my opinion.
You can see bottles of whisky from all kind of casks: sherry, red wine, white wine, port, marsala, tokaji, muscat, name it, if something has been on wood, they will use it for whisky at some point. Even herings.
But you don't really see anyone mentioning the type of american bourbon or rye that was in a barrel before malt whisky went in.
You can see bottles of whisky from all kind of casks: sherry, red wine, white wine, port, marsala, tokaji, muscat, name it, if something has been on wood, they will use it for whisky at some point. Even herings.
But you don't really see anyone mentioning the type of american bourbon or rye that was in a barrel before malt whisky went in.
Maybe it doesn't really matter, who knows? I don't.
There is a few examples of whisky where the provenance of the bourbon barrel is mentioned. One is the Glenglassaugh Ex-Tennessee. Could be Dickel or Jack Daniels. Almost same mashbill by the way. Mackmyra is known to use exclusively JD barrels. The danish distillery Stauning has an ex-rye finish malt whisky out. It's finished on casks that was used to mature Stauning rye. End of the day, attention to this matter is not very huge.
So here is what I really would like to taste:
Imagine a distillery making three batches of casks. One is whisky matured on ex-bourbon - Wheated bourbon that is. The other is whisky matured on ex-rye casks. Normal rye whiskey. Most ryes have a rye content not much larger than 51%. The third batch of barrels should be matured on some of the extreme rye barrels out thee. I am specifically thinking of the LDI 95/5 rye-barley ryes.
After at least 10 years each variant is vatted with casks matured in the same type to filter out single cask variations. A vertical of these three whiskies. Just to satisfy my curiosity That is something I would really like to taste. I don't think any distilleries has done anything like that, but who knows, a lot is happening behind closed doors.
2. Japanese Bourbon
No, this is not an april's fool
Bourbon has to be made in USA, otherwise it's not allowed to be labeled as bourbon. It's a protected name.
But Fuji-Gotemba in Japan is actually producing bourbon. It's used as a flavour part of their blends. I would really like to taste a proper aged version of this. Fuji-Gotemba is owned by Kirin. Their other distillery is Four Roses, one of the leading producers of bourbon today.
There is a few examples of whisky where the provenance of the bourbon barrel is mentioned. One is the Glenglassaugh Ex-Tennessee. Could be Dickel or Jack Daniels. Almost same mashbill by the way. Mackmyra is known to use exclusively JD barrels. The danish distillery Stauning has an ex-rye finish malt whisky out. It's finished on casks that was used to mature Stauning rye. End of the day, attention to this matter is not very huge.
So here is what I really would like to taste:
Imagine a distillery making three batches of casks. One is whisky matured on ex-bourbon - Wheated bourbon that is. The other is whisky matured on ex-rye casks. Normal rye whiskey. Most ryes have a rye content not much larger than 51%. The third batch of barrels should be matured on some of the extreme rye barrels out thee. I am specifically thinking of the LDI 95/5 rye-barley ryes.
After at least 10 years each variant is vatted with casks matured in the same type to filter out single cask variations. A vertical of these three whiskies. Just to satisfy my curiosity That is something I would really like to taste. I don't think any distilleries has done anything like that, but who knows, a lot is happening behind closed doors.
2. Japanese Bourbon
No, this is not an april's fool
Bourbon has to be made in USA, otherwise it's not allowed to be labeled as bourbon. It's a protected name.
But Fuji-Gotemba in Japan is actually producing bourbon. It's used as a flavour part of their blends. I would really like to taste a proper aged version of this. Fuji-Gotemba is owned by Kirin. Their other distillery is Four Roses, one of the leading producers of bourbon today.
Fuji-Gotemba
A wheated bourbon cask is totally doable - I saw a bunch of Buffalo Trace wheated bourbon barrels at Bruichladdich and Kilchoman. Must be plenty of others floating around Scotland. Also saw some Old Grand Dad barrels from Jim Beam, so you could get high rye bourbon as well. Can't say I saw any barrels that were specifically labeled as rye, though.
ReplyDeleteThe only distiller that has a certain amount of exclusivity to their ex-bourbon barrels is probably Laphroaig, since they mostly use ex-Maker's Mark barrels, though the smoke is going to make picking out the difference pretty tricky. I think Kilchoman is mostly ex-BT, but they had a variety of different recipes from them.
Your geekiness is showing...and I like it!
ReplyDeleteThe Glenglassaugh you mention is George Dickel, was told by the distillery.
ReplyDeleteAh OK. I would had guessed JD if I had to pick one as it seems logical if Dickel barrels went to Diageo...
ReplyDelete