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Fino cask whisky

6 bottles in stock, with the best current price from the UK retailers we check.

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Questions

What is the cheapest fino cask whisky?
The cheapest fino cask whisky is Famous Grouse Blended Whisky Litre 100cl (40% ABV, 1l), at £25.50 from Master of Malt. That is £30.45 delivered to the UK mainland for one bottle. Next cheapest: Kilchoman Fino Sherry Cask Matured 2023 (£85.95) and Tomatin Fino Sherry Cask Finish Highland Single Malt Scotc 2006 13 year old Whisky (£99.95).
How much does fino cask whisky cost?
Fino cask whisky costs from £25.50 to £399.95, with a median of £299.95 for a full-size bottle. The dearest is Kavalan Solist Fino Sherry Cask #028A (2010) 56.3%.
What is the oldest fino cask whisky you can buy?
Tomatin Fino Sherry Cask Finish Highland Single Malt Scotc 2006 13 year old Whisky, at 13 years old, from £99.95.
Where do sherry casks come from?
Sherry casks are seasoned in the Sherry region of Andalusia in the far south of Spain, the “Jerez-Xérès-Sherry” Denomination of Origin around Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Cooperages build the butts and Sherry bodegas season them before they are shipped to distilleries. Since 2015 the Consejo Regulador has offered a “Sherry Cask” seal, a tag whose QR code records the bodega, the cask’s capacity, the type of Sherry used and the minimum months of seasoning.
How big is a sherry cask?
The classic sherry cask in whisky is the butt, about 500 litres (the old Jerez export butt of 30 arrobas), though bodega butts run about 567 to 600 litres and a half butt or sherry hogshead holds about 250 litres. Puncheons range from about 450 to 700 litres, and Scotch law caps casks at 700 litres. For comparison, a bourbon barrel is about 200 litres, a Bordeaux barrique 225 litres, a port pipe about 550 to 650 litres, a quarter cask about 125 litres and an octave about 50 litres.
What is a fino cask?
A fino cask has been seasoned with fino, a dry, pale Sherry made from Palomino grapes. The wine is fortified to about 15% so that a layer of flor yeast can grow on it, and it ages biologically for at least two years in American oak butts in the solera system of the bodegas of Jerez de la Frontera and El Puerto de Santa María. Fino has almond, fresh dough and herb aromas, and casks seasoned with it give whisky subtler character than oloroso.
How is fino different from oloroso?
Both are dry Sherries from Palomino grapes, but they age in opposite ways. Fino is fortified to about 15% and ages under a protective veil of flor yeast, staying pale and fresh, while oloroso is fortified to 17%, which prevents flor, and ages oxidatively, turning amber to mahogany. In whisky, fino casks tend to give nutty, fresh and citrus notes and oloroso casks richer dried fruit and spice.
What is flor?
Flor is a film of living yeast that grows on the surface of fino and manzanilla in the butt, shielding the wine from oxygen and giving it its sharp, almond-like character. It survives at about 15% alcohol and is fed by the young wine added as the solera is refreshed. Amontillado starts under flor and then loses it, and palo cortado begins like a fino before being refortified, so all four styles owe part of their character to it.