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Best sherry-cask whiskies: how to compare the styles

Sherry-cask whiskies grouped by how the sherry cask was used, full maturation or finish, oloroso or PX, with what the label does and doesn't tell you.

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For a whisky that tastes strongly of sherry casks, choose one matured entirely in them: GlenDronach 12 Year Old, Tamdhu 12 Year Old or Glenfarclas. For a lighter sherry note, choose a finish such as Balvenie 12 Year Old DoubleWood. Oloroso casks tend to give nutty, dried-fruit notes; Pedro Ximénez (PX) casks tend to be sweeter. The label usually tells you which, and how the cask was used.

What “sherry cask” means on a label

A sherry cask held sherry before it held whisky. Today almost all of them are seasoned casks: new or reused oak filled with sherry in Spain for a period, often a year or two, to prepare it for the whisky trade. They are not the old solera casks of a sherry bodega. Until the early 1980s, sherry was shipped to Britain in transport casks, and distillers reused those. Then the sherry Consejo Regulador required sherry to be bottled in the Jerez region (Whiskipedia dates it to 1981), and the transport casks ended. Whiskipedia’s truth about sherry casks covers the history.

Three things on a label tell you most:

Reading a sherry-cask label: three things on a label tell you most. First, full maturation or finish. 'Matured in sherry casks' means the whole time, as with Tamdhu 12 Year Old. 'Finished' or 'extra matured' means a final period, often months, after ex-bourbon casks, as with Balvenie 12 Year Old DoubleWood. Second, the sherry. Oloroso is dry and oxidative, and tends to give nutty, dried-fruit notes. Pedro Ximénez, or PX, is very sweet and tends to give a sweeter raisin and treacle character. Fino and manzanilla are lighter and drier, and rarer as whisky casks. Third, the oak. Sherry casks can be American or European oak, and European oak tends to add more tannin and colour.

The usual sherry cask is a butt of about 500 litres; sherry hogsheads of about 250 litres are also used. Whiskipedia explains sherry casks and the types of sherry.

Fully matured in sherry casks

GlenDronach 12 Year Old: £49.95 at Hard To Find Whisky. A Highland single malt at 43% ABV, matured in PX and oloroso sherry casks.

Tamdhu 12 Year Old: £49.95 at Hard To Find Whisky. A Speyside single malt at 43% ABV, matured only in sherry-seasoned oak casks.

Tamdhu 15 Year Old: £90.95 at The Whisky Barrel. The older version at 46% ABV, from oloroso-seasoned casks.

Glenfarclas 12 Year Old: £51.48 at Master of Malt. A family-owned Speyside distillery whose house style is built on sherry casks, bottled at 43% ABV.

The Macallan 18 Year Old Sherry Oak: currently unavailable. A Speyside single malt at 43% ABV, matured in sherry-seasoned oak casks from Jerez.

Part sherry, part bourbon cask

These combine ex-bourbon whisky with a sherry cask, as a finish or by marrying the two. The sherry note is usually lighter.

Balvenie 12 Year Old DoubleWood: £50.28 at Master of Malt. A Speyside single malt at 40% ABV, aged in ex-bourbon casks and finished in oloroso sherry casks.

Aberlour 12 Year Old: £45.00 at The Whisky Shop. A Speyside single malt at 40% ABV from traditional oak and sherry casks.

Dalmore 12 Year Old: £59.00 at Loch Fyne Whiskies. A Highland single malt at 40% ABV. It starts in ex-bourbon casks, and part of it then moves to oloroso sherry casks.

Redbreast Lustau Edition: £62.99 at Master of Malt. An Irish single pot still whiskey at 46% ABV, finished in oloroso casks from the Lustau sherry bodega.

Cask strength sherry-cask whisky

These are bottled at the strength they came out of the cask, so add water to taste. See cask strength whisky for more.

Glenfarclas 105: £69.95 at Hard To Find Whisky. NAS, 60% ABV. The name is its strength in old British proof: 105 degrees is 60% ABV.

Arran Sherry Cask The Bodega: £58.90 at Master of Malt. Matured in sherry casks and bottled at 55.8% ABV.

Peated whisky from sherry casks

Peated spirit in a sherry cask is a common pairing on Islay. Ardbeg An Oa uses PX casks among others, and Bowmore 15 Year Old spends its last years in oloroso casks. The smoky whisky guide covers both.

For every sherry-cask bottle on the site, see sherry-cask whisky, or narrow it to oloroso or Pedro Ximénez.

Sources and review

Questions

What is a sherry bomb whisky?
An informal name, not a legal term, for a whisky with heavy sherry-cask influence, usually from full maturation in oloroso or Pedro Ximénez casks. Examples often given are GlenDronach, Aberlour A’bunadh and Glenfarclas 105.
What is the difference between a finish and full maturation?
A finish is a shorter final period in a second cask after the whisky has aged elsewhere: Balvenie 12 Year Old DoubleWood spends its last months in oloroso casks after ex-bourbon maturation. Full maturation means the whisky spent its whole time in sherry casks, as with Tamdhu 12 Year Old.
Is sherry-cask whisky sweet?
Not always: it varies with the sherry. Oloroso is a dry sherry and tends to give nutty, dried-fruit and spice notes. Pedro Ximénez (PX) is a very sweet sherry made from sun-dried grapes and tends to give a sweeter raisin and treacle character. Labels often say which was used (Whiskipedia on types of sherry).
What is oloroso?
Oloroso is a dry sherry from the Jerez region of Spain, fortified to about 17% to 22% ABV and aged in contact with air (oxidatively) rather than under a layer of flor yeast. Oloroso-seasoned casks are generally the most common sherry casks in Scotch (Whiskipedia on oloroso casks).
Why is sherry-cask whisky expensive?
Mostly because of the cask. A sherry butt is a large oak cask, often European oak, that has to be filled with sherry for months or years in Spain before it reaches a distillery, so it costs several times as much as an ex-bourbon barrel. Older sherry-cask malts also carry the costs of long ageing; see why old whisky is expensive.

About the author

Tom Gregan

· Writer

Tom came to whisky by way of cocktails and rum. As the mind behind CocktailDB.com he spent years on citrus balance, bitters and modifiers before John dragged him over to neat spirits.