BENDING TIME
Where would whisky be without the humble wooden cask? Probably stuck in the dark ages of clandestine moonshine and mountain dew rather than the amberdappled drams of modernity.
The cask is undoubtedly one of the most important contributors of character to a whisky, with some folks even arguing the wood accounts for up to 70 per cent of a whisky’s final flavour. It doesn’t matter if it’s bourbon, single malt, or rye – the cask is king. And a distillery’s wood policy can make or break the spirit it produces.
Coming off the still at somewhere between 60–90% ABV, new-make whisky, no matter the style, is often powerful stuff. Put the liquid inside an oak cask and after a few months the hard edges have softened, and the fiery new-make heat is slightly quenched. Come back a few years later and the whisky has taken on a
