A major element of whisky production is the maturation process. Whisky is often laid down for several years in a variety of different cask types. But what influences this process? What difference does it make exploring alternative wood types? Do you have to mature whisky for upwards of a decade to create deep and complex flavours?
Firstly, whisky maturation is an incredibly delicate process. The smallest difference between casks, spirit type, and maturation time can make a huge difference to the finished product.
For example, distillers deal with various substances like esters, tannins, and lactones in ppm (parts per million) and ppb (parts per billion). In comparison, this is the equivalent of 1 second in 31.7 years. This demonstrates that whisky production is an exact science built on hundreds of years of trial and error.
One of the goals of a Master Distillers is to try to develop the greatest flavour depth for the maturing spirit over the shortest period of time. Distillers have a lot of variables to play with from wood type, cask re-use, and spirit down to what type of warehouse the cask is matured in and even where the cask is stored in the warehouse.
How does whisky build flavour? In short, through contact with the wood, the spirit takes on specific flavours as it lies dormant during maturation. If this surface to wood contact is increased, the spirit will take more flavour over a much shorter period of time. This is something that Master Distillers, such as Isle of Raasay’s Alasdair Day, have been exploring in order to reduce maturation time and increase depth and complexity in their spirit.
As put by Sottish Field Food & Drink Magazine, “[CASKSHARE & ALASDAIR’S] 30 Litre Project deals with casks that have a much higher spirit-to-wood surface contact ratio means a much faster maturation process, cutting through the need for longer maturation and making the craft producer able to release a well-developed spirit in a shorter time frame.”
Now For The Maths:
Fuelled with a burning desire to create flavour intensive whisky over a short maturation time, Alasdair Day began looking for some tiny wee 30-litre casks. For reference, a standard Hogshead cask will hold upwards of 240 litres and port pipes can hold over 600 litres!
Alasdair acquired an array of 30-litre, custom made Speyside casks, filled them with peated and unpeated Isle of Raasay spirit, and launched The 30 Litre Project. This project began in 2019 when Alasdair laid down the first batch of 30-litre casks. These casks were bottled at the beginning of this year by which time they had reached three in age.
The result? Intensely flavour packed whisky that produces vibrate notes of orchard fruits, pear drops, honeycomb and almonds. This project went so well that Alasdair ordered another raft of custom made casks and started the whole process over again.
Where does Caskshare come in? In 2019, we sold out Caskshares in three of The 30 Litre Project casks to our beloved Caskshare customers. This is the only way to get your hands on bottles from this project without buying a full cask direct from the distillery.
With the first stage success of The 30-Litre Project, we are delighted to have six new 30-litre casks on the platform. The first three have already launched and are filled with peated spirit from the Isle of Raasay Distillery with the second three launching in the coming weeks.
So is there a downside to smaller casks? Unfortunately, there is. Although the finished product is mountains above its larger counterparts at three years, the out-turn of bottles reflects the smaller cask size. Bottling at cask strength, our 30-litre casks are only yielding around 3o bottles once matured.
Although this reduced supply leads to each bottle being a lot rarer, it does reduce the chance of securing a share before the casks sell out.