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Best whisky for wine lovers

Which whiskies suit red, sweet and white wine drinkers, from port and Sauternes cask finishes to sherry-cask malts, and how to read a wine-cask label.

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The closest whiskies to wine are those aged in wine casks. Red wine drinkers usually get on best with port-cask and sherry-cask malts such as Glenmorangie The Quinta Ruban 14 Year Old and GlenDronach 12 Year Old. Drinkers of sweet wine can try a Sauternes cask finish. White wine drinkers often prefer lighter, unpeated malts from ex-bourbon casks. None of these tastes like wine, but they share the fruit, oak and tannin you already know how to describe.

Which wine do you drink? If you drink red wine, try port and sherry casks, which give dried fruit, red berry and grip: Glenmorangie The Quinta Ruban 14 Year Old, GlenDronach 12 Year Old, Balvenie 12 Year Old DoubleWood or Red Spot 15 Year Old. If you drink sweet or fortified wine, try a Sauternes, Tokaji or port cask, which gives a sweeter, honeyed or jammy note: Arran Sauternes Cask Finish, Arran Port Cask Finish or Ardnamurchan AD/ Tokaji Cask Release. If you drink white wine, the bridge is style rather than cask: fresh, unpeated malts from ex-bourbon casks, such as Glenmorangie The Original 12 Year Old or Glenkinchie 12 Year Old.

Why casks are the bridge

Most Scotch is matured in ex-bourbon barrels. Some distilleries then move it into casks that held sherry, port or table wine, either for its whole maturation or for a final period called a finish. The wood holds some of the wine, and the whisky picks up colour, fruit and tannin from it. A finish usually lasts months rather than years, so the original spirit and bourbon cask still show. Whiskipedia’s guide to wood types explains how different oaks and previous contents change the whisky.

Strength is the other difference. Scotch whisky must be bottled at 40% ABV or more, roughly three times the strength of table wine. Nose it gently, take a small sip and add a few drops of water if the alcohol gets in the way.

If you drink red wine

Port and sherry casks give the dried fruit, red berry and grip that red wine drinkers recognise.

Glenmorangie The Quinta Ruban 14 Year Old: £49.95 at Hard To Find Whisky. A Highland single malt at 46% ABV, aged in ex-bourbon casks and finished in ruby port casks.

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

Balvenie 12 Year Old DoubleWood: £50.28 at Master of Malt. A Speyside single malt at 40% ABV, moved from ex-bourbon casks into oloroso sherry casks for its last months.

Red Spot 15 Year Old: £110.00 at The Whisky Shop. An Irish single pot still whiskey at 46% ABV, matured in ex-bourbon and oloroso sherry casks and Marsala wine casks.

If you drink sweet or fortified wine

Sauternes, Tokaji and port casks give a sweeter, honeyed or jammy note. Most of these are finishes on an otherwise conventional malt.

Arran Sauternes Cask Finish: £64.95 at Hard To Find Whisky. An Arran single malt at 50% ABV, finished in casks that held Sauternes, the sweet white wine of Bordeaux.

Arran Port Cask Finish: £59.95 at Hard To Find Whisky. The same distillery’s malt finished in port casks, also at 50% ABV.

Ardnamurchan AD/ Tokaji Cask Release: £68.00 at The Whisky Shop. A Highland single malt at 52% ABV from casks that held Tokaji, Hungary’s sweet wine.

If you drink white wine

There are few white-wine casks in Scotch, so the bridge is style rather than cask: fresh, unpeated malts at 40% to 43% ABV from ex-bourbon casks, which tend towards fruit, vanilla and cereal.

Glenmorangie The Original 12 Year Old: £39.00 at The Whisky Shop. A Highland single malt at 40% ABV, matured in ex-bourbon casks.

Glenkinchie 12 Year Old: £47.95 at Hard To Find Whisky. A Lowland single malt from East Lothian at 43% ABV.

Reading a wine-cask label

For more, see every wine-cask whisky and port-cask whisky on the site.

Sources and review

Questions

What is a wine-cask whisky?
A whisky matured or finished in a cask that previously held wine. Glenmorangie The Quinta Ruban 14 Year Old is finished in ruby port casks and Arran’s Sauternes Cask Finish in casks that held the sweet Bordeaux wine. Labels say ‘finish’ or ’extra matured’ when the wine cask was only the last stage.
Which whisky suits a red wine drinker?
Try a sherry or port cask. GlenDronach 12 Year Old is matured in Pedro Ximénez and oloroso sherry casks, Balvenie 12 Year Old DoubleWood spends its last months in oloroso casks and Glenmorangie The Quinta Ruban is finished in ruby port casks. These casks tend to add dried fruit, red berry and tannin notes familiar from red wine.
Should I add water to whisky?
If it helps, yes. Scotch is bottled at 40% ABV or more against roughly 12% to 15% for most wine, so a few drops of water reduce the alcohol on the nose and make it easier to taste, much like letting a wine open up. A tulip-shaped nosing glass helps in the same way (Whiskipedia on water in whisky).
Does terroir mean the same thing in whisky and wine?
Not quite. Whisky barley is usually bought on the grain market, so its origin is rarely stated, and distilling and cask ageing shape the flavour far more than the field does. A few distilleries do publish barley origin: Bruichladdich’s Islay Barley range names the Islay farms that grew it.

About the author

John Fegan

· Editor

Hailing from the land of haggis and deep-fried Mars bars, John was always going to find his way to whisky. He has run Uisge Beatha since 2015 and Whiskipedia.com since 2020.