We love sherry cask whisky here at The Dram Team. In this article we take a close look at how sherry cask whiskies are made.
Do you think the secret to whisky ageing is science, or is it an art? We think: maybe, it's a little bit magic...
Welcome back to our mini-series of how whisky is made, The Art of the Cask! Today’s post is all about unusual barrels - think red wine casks, port casks, even tea-seasoned casks… Sometimes we just want a little excitement in our whisky. And the best way to get that is with something a little outside the norm.
If you’ve ever been to a Scotch whisky distillery, you’ll know how proud they are of their stills. Distillers will tell you that each still has a personality, and that has a huge impact on the style of spirit it creates. Our Loch Lomond tasting box inspired us to explore how and why a still has a huge influence on the resulting whisky.
Blending, simply put, is the process of mixing whiskies from certain casks together. Blending happens at every distillery, and not just to blended whisky. Today's post is all about whisky blending - a crucial step in production of whisky.
Both a category of whisky and an ingredient, rye is going through somewhat of a resurgence (or a rye-naissance?). A lot of Scotch fans might also be fans of rye, being generally drier and more complex than a sweeter bourbon. But what exactly is rye whiskey? And why should you try it, if you haven’t already?
Technically, all whisky is grain whisky. Some countries have specific designations for the type of grain used, or ageing process, that make it a specific type of whisky. For example, all bourbons are grain whiskies, but they have strict regulations that make it into a bourbon. For this article, we're mostly just going to look at Scotch grain whisky.
Historically England was a big whisky producing country, with several large distilleries operating between the 17th and 19th centuries, before it all went quiet. As of 2020, there are now 24 distilleries around England registered to produce whisky. Here's our introduction to the renaissance of English Whisky.
As you might expect, there can be a huge range of flavours present in Irish whiskey, depending on how it’s made. Irish whiskey shares similar categories to Scotch - single grain, single malt, and blended - but also includes the “single pot still” denomination, which is a historically significant category using both malted and unmalted barley. Here's our introduction to Irish Whiskey, one of the oldest whisky-making countries.
There are quite a few persistent myths around bourbon, rye, and other American whiskey styles, which can contribute to some Scotch-heads dismissing the category. For this introduction to American whiskey, we'll break down five of our favourite American whiskeys by flavour category, or the main characteristic of the dram. Some of these have featured in past tasting boxes, and others are ones we hope to get on board in the future!
As part of our “World Whisky” series, this post is dedicated to a category massively on the rise in recent years - Japanese whisky. With its history deeply entwined with Scotch whisky, Japan’s whisky industry has captivated global drinkers and carved out a niche in its own right. This is a quick introduction to Japanese whiskies.