Casks
Buying Casks
We are constantly looking to source casks of excellent whisky, as well as other high quality spirits, for whisky lovers and other lovers of quality products. We consider both casks for immediate bottling and casks for further long-term aging.
We are open to all different styles, but the quality of both the cask itself as well as the spirit must be top tier, while the prices must be reasonable. We refuse to bottle OK whisky at high prices. If the spirit is too young or imature, but of great quality, we will consider purchasing the cask for further aging. If the spirit has flaws or has passed its peak, the cask loses its appeal to us.
If you have a cask that you think may be of interest to us, feel free to reach out to us using the below link:
Selling Casks
We have a good stock of excellent whisky and cognac, as well as access to thousands of other casks.
If you are looking for a cask for yourself, your shop, or your whisky club, either to bottle now or to age further, feel free to reach out to us. If we do not have what you are looking for, we are happy to help you to try to source it.
Our Selection Process: Mature Casks
We regularly travel to Scotland and France to seek out casks of mature spirit. We try hundreds of samples per year in order to find a handfull of casks that we consider to be special enough to bottle ourselves. We want to provide value to the whisky world, so we want to find and bottle whiskies and spirits that are truly special, for a great price.
This treasure hunt begins with reaching out to producers or bottlers whom we know to have great products. We tend to focus on smaller producers who may be overlooked, but we will consider larger producers as well.
We will then visit the producers to discuss the styles of spirit that we are looking for, and will frequently taste a range of the newest or upcoming releases to get an idea of what the producers consider to be good at that moment.
We will then visit their warehouses to try to find the most special casks. If a cask appears to have potential, based on our own taste and experience, we try the spirit in the warehouse, straight from the cask. We will then take samples home to try them again in comparitive tastings under different conditions. If we continue to believe that the spirit is excellent, we enquire about the price.
The whole process is very time consuming, but we believe the end result to be worth it.
Our Process: New Make
New Make Selection
For casks that we plan to age ourselves, the process is very diferent.
We begin by determining which distilleries produce distillate that is both of the highest quality and most likely to provide us with the flavour profiles that we prefer after an anticipated period of aging.
As the whisky we put in cask now will not be drunk for many years, or even decades, we need to make this decision based on our own experience of tasting whiskies as they mature and knowing which current distillate will yield the aged character that we hope to achieve.
Rather than simply chasing the market and looking for new make from distilleries whose old whiskies are popular now, we like to fill our casks with distillate that we think is underrated and whose quality will be apparent in the coming years.
2. Cask Selection
We then handpick individual casks to age our spirit in long-term. This means bourbon casks from the best bourbon distilleries, as well as sherry casks that contained high quality sherry, with no trace of sulphur.
We match the casks to the spirit that we plan to age in them, and already have an idea of how long we want to age the spirit when choosing the casks, though time and fortune ultimately determine when the whisky is mature, no matter what we plan.
After choosing our casks, we have them filled with what we believe to be some of the best new make spirit on the market.
3. Constant Monitoring of the Spirit
Once the spirit has been filled into the hand-selected casks, it needs many years of maturing in the right conditions.
During this time, it must be constantly monitored to ensure that it is aging as desired.
Though our casks are chosen with care, it is impossible to tell how a particular cask will turn out without closely monitoring it through regular tasting. We have samples drawn from our casks at least once a year to gain insight into how they are maturing, and to take corrective action, such as reracking the spirit into a different cask, if need be.
4. Constant Monitoring of the Cask
In addition to monitoring the spirit inside the cask, the cask must also be regularly checked for cracks and bent heads, which, if left unattended, could cause the cask to leak out its precious content.
