Wood finished whiskies

Good question, @LeFrog. I have mixed feelings myself. I thoroughly enjoyed the Bushmill's Select Casks (Caribbean Rum), but disliked several 'wine finishes' (which shall not be named!). I believe the industry to actually experiment for our benefit, in hopes of creating a special expression for drammers. Wood is a hot topic in the industry and many distilleries are experimenting beyond belief.

Your description "Wood finished" is a bit strange, in the end all whisky is wood finished. What you mean is "wine finished" (Sherry, Sauternes, Port, Madeira...) i.e. wood that previously contained other things than Bourbon whiskey.

The sweeter wines are usually quite good (sherry, Sauternes...). A port finish is usually less interesting. Regular wines (French or Italian red wines) are to be avoided - much more bad ones than good ones around.

@markjedi1 Did you try your Auchentoshan MoS yet? That's what I call a really bad wine finish.

@WhiskyNotes I think I'm right in saying that a "wood finished" whisky is one that has been "finished" in a second or even third cask as opposed to a single cask. Wine is not necessarily involved. Correct me if I'm wrong. But if I'm right LeFrog is using a widely accepted term which is not at all strange and contrary to what you say not all whiskies are wood "finished".

'Wood Finished' is the generally accepted term, not matter who accurate it actually is. This is not recent experimentation - it's been going on for years (I saw a page from a turn of the century whisky catalogue listing what casks had been used with the whiskies, so it may be some refinement over the last 30 years but the idea's been around a while).

It's yet another technique for changing the flavour of whisky and you can't really generalise - I've had some excellent whiskies coming from similarly described wood, it just depends on the whisky, length of time, type of wood, phase of moon, number of chickens sacrficed, just the same as usual.

@WhiskyNotes Yeah fair point, it is a strange term, but I've heard it used a fair bit. Like you say, technically all whisky is aged in wooden casks - but 'finishing' obviously refers to the practice of transferring the whisky into another cask for its final period of maturation.

The wood bit doesn't really make sense unless it is prefixed by the name its former tenant: Port, Sherry Madeira, Rum or whatever. But you get what I mean.

The semantics of it interest me as much as the the process itself. How long does a whisky have to be aged in said wood for it to be labeled as 'xxx wood finished'?

I don't think there are rules, so technically one day in another cask would be enough. I've seen finishes of just a few months so it doesn't have to be long at all.

@cowfish I do think most connoisseurs agree that (red) wine finishes rarely work. For the others, indeed some are better and some are worse.

@WhiskyNotes, truth be told, I was aware of the bad rep the Malts of Scotland Auchentoshan Wine Finish had, so I must admit I purchased the MoS bottle for collection purposes only. I have another Toshan, the 1988 Bordeaux Wine Finish (OB) that I do plan to open one day soon (it's a Father's Day Gift from Dearly Beloved, so I'll have to wait until early June to let you know).

Does anyone know how far back this symbiosis between the whisky and wine trades goes? I'd be interested to know more about the cultural/trade history.

I think it all comes down to the sherry / Port wine business which was booming in the years 1800-1850. The major consumers of sherry and port wines have always been the English. The casks were transported by boat to the UK, full of wine, but they never went back because it was more interesting to transport commercial goods to the South rather than just empty casks (in that era, there was no shortage of decent wood). So the UK had a big stock of casks which they started to use to mature their whisky. I think the other casks (rum, wine, etc.) came much later, and they were specifically bought, just for experimentation.

Wood/wine finishing seems to be a major part of The Balvenie's repertoire.

Rules-wise I've heard from a couple of whisky reps that there are none - I proposed making a funnel out of sherry barrel staves to help decant the whisky and add a 'sherry wood finished' to the bottle, but for some reason was given a dodgy look :)

@WhiskyNotes It varies from whisky to whisky, as ever - the Glenmorangie Claret finish went for rather a high price (although it seems to have dropped down to 'just' £300 a bottle these days) and was rather praised from what I heard. Is it that red wine finishes don't work, or that we don't get many of them so there aren't many that work..?