We are very excited to present this month’s August Whisky club release!

Our heavy char sherry, bottled at 55% abv, sits outside the classic Old Kempton style and is a great example of the importance of picking the right cask to match the right spirit. The heavy toast and char on the sherry cask has provided a beautifully balanced sweetness and spice, however to get the finish we wanted on this whisky we married it with the oldest Pinot cask in our bond store - this cask contributed berry and fruit elements only found in a Pinot cask and the perfect finish to our whisky.

Follow this link to watch our video of Rob, our Head Distiller, and Emma, our Assistant Distiller, talk about our August whisky release.

Rob Tyson, our Head Distiller, has provided a bit more detail about the toasting & charring process for you:

The toasting of the cask is usually done by sitting the partially built cask over a brazier for 30-45 minutes. This toasting of oak breaks down compounds in the oak like hemicellulose, lignin, and cellulose and, if there is residual fortified still in the wood, can create a fortified toffee like layer that imparts some intense and delicious flavour into the final whisky – although too much of this fortified wine toffee leads to an astringent and one dimensional whisky. The break down of these compounds makes them more soluble so that the flavours produced (vanilla, nuts, caramel, spice) can be more readily integrated into the whisky.

The toasting element is usually added at the end of the charring process by spraying compressed air onto the brazier, increasing the heat, and charring the inside of the cask. Depending on the distillery style you can select everything from light to heavy+ or ‘alligator skin’ char. The charcoal layer acts as a filter which picks out heavier congeners in the whisky spirit. These congeners are part of what gives whisky its flavour, but are made up of good and bad flavour – so matching the style of spirit to the char of the cask is critical to getting the most out of your maturation.