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Palo cortado cask whisky

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

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Questions

What is the cheapest palo cortado cask whisky?
The cheapest palo cortado cask whisky is Glenallachie 11 Year Old Palo Cortado Sherry Cask Finish Limited Edition Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky 70cl (11 years old, 70cl), at £54.95 from Hard To Find Whisky. That is £60.90 delivered to the UK mainland for one bottle. Next cheapest: Old Perth Palo Cortado Limited Edition Blended Malt Whisky (£58.95) and GlenAllachie 11 Year Old Palo Cortado Sherry Cask Finish - The Wood Co Single Malt Whisky (£59.95).
How much does palo cortado cask whisky cost?
Palo cortado cask whisky costs from £54.95 to £149.95, with a median of £79.95 for a full-size bottle. The dearest is Lagg Palo Cortado Cask Matured Small Batch Single Malt Whisky.
What is the oldest palo cortado cask whisky you can buy?
Royal Brackla 18 Year Old, at 18 years old, from £137.95.
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 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.
What is palo cortado?
Palo cortado is a rare dry Sherry that begins like a fino, fortified to 15% to age under flor, until the tasters decide some casks have a different character. Those casks are refortified to 17% or more, ending biological ageing, and the wine then ages oxidatively. It combines the delicate bouquet of an amontillado with the body of an oloroso, at 17 to 22% alcohol, and Whiskipedia puts it at only 1 to 2% of Sherry production.
Why is it called palo cortado?
The name comes from the marks on the butt. A young wine destined for flor ageing is marked with a “palo”, a single stroke, and when tasters spot a cask that should become palo cortado they draw a horizontal line across it, “cutting” the stroke. The wine is then refortified and redirected to oxidative ageing.