Bowmore 7 yo experiment

[Par]

Well, sometimes the madness takes hold and gets the better of one - but not without its good results, at times.

I've purchased a few small casks and have filled one 3 litre fresh Hungarian oak (basically European oak, just from Hungary) with Oloroso and a little Pedro Ximenez sherries. Filled it in August 2007. Dumped the sherry and re-filled it with four bottles, of three varieties of SMWS bottlings of Bowmore, two of them 7 yo from ex Bourbon and one 10 yo that had received a bit of a finish in a Sherry butt.

This has now been allowed to stew in this miniature cask for a little over two months. And I used the resulting whisky at a tasting last week - where around a quarter of the attendants held it as their favourite, despite at least two very good Laphroaigs and Port Ellens, considerably older.

Some notes on this Bowmore 7 yo are...

Nose: vey obvious sherry, but not cloying in any way, rather like Seville oranges and orange marmalade; clean and fresh oak, a hint of smoke and it gets more medicinal (lightly) as it develops in the glass. Heavy but very enticing stuff, actually.

Palate: sweetness and a balancing oak astringency coming up from oak and Sherry, bit of smoke, barbecued orange rinds and a most salivating peat/fudge/medicinal combo that is not unlike the sensation one gets from very fresh winegums...

Finish: not hugely complex but very well balanced between sweetness from the Sherry and the oak, with some light peat and malt to boot.

Balance etc: Not vey complex, but certainly most well balanced and surprisingly good for a wacky experiment. I will now consier what to refill the cask with and for how long it should be allowed to sit...suggestions?

And has anyone else tried this?

/ Pär

[Peat]

And has anyone else tried this?

Just today i started soaking my 5 liter barrel, first with water for a day, just to check that there are no leaks.
After that its going to be filled with a mix of Oloroso and PX and after that it´s going to be filled with Laphroaig Cask Strength....

For how long did you soak your barrel with sherry?

[mr_fox]

Guys
Just out of curiosity, where do you get these casks? Presumably you could go for a 'new oak' finish rather than waiting 3 years for your cask to soak in sherry? Sounds fun to me....

[Peat]

Guys
Just out of curiosity, where do you get these casks? Presumably you could go for a 'new oak' finish rather than waiting 3 years for your cask to soak in sherry? Sounds fun to me....

Well i got my cask from a finnish producer. http://www.tynnyri.net/tynnyrit.html , all text is in finnish and not updated.
Here is another one from the states,http://www.1000oaksbarrel.com/,
and one from the UK,http://www.oak-barrel.com/barrels_and_ornaments/.

Such a small cask has an advantage ,over the normal size cask, thus maturing happens much faster, due to the wood surface being larger for the amount of spirit in it than in a normal size cask.
Roughly: 1 month = 1 year ?
Some distilleries have used quarter casks(smaller) to get the same result. Maybe they should build warehouses in India instead?

[mr_fox]

Thanks! The UK oak-barrel site has 5L NEW oak barrels for £54 (inc delivery). I think I have enough Ardbeg 10 to fill that.... Anyone know cheaper barrels?

PS. Sorry I just noticed this is off topic! Stop me if you want it somewhere else.

[Peat]

Thanks! The UK oak-barrel site has 5L NEW oak barrels for £54 (inc delivery). I think I have enough Ardbeg 10 to fill that....

I strongly suggest that you use cask strength whisky to fill your barrel. In the case of Ardbeg Ten, use Renaissance...

[Gordon]

I cannot figure out for the life of me why anyone would want to pour perfectly good whisky into one of these casks .
Put Renaissance in ? I think i just heard Willie collapse.......