Whisky matured on oloroso sherry casks and color / coloring

[Paul Dejong]

>From Jerez?
I believe you Luc, but how does this oloroso comes to it¹s colour? Since in
Jerez oloroso is made from white grapes (palomino)
Different grapes? Different production method? What makes it different?

Paul


On 6/14/06 6:20 PM, "Luc Timmermans (LWS)" <luc.timmermans at LINDORES.BE>
wrote:

> Paul,
> 
> I can only say that your friend should buy for example Lustau Dry Oloroso
> sherry, or some of the Lustau Almacenista Oloroso versions and you'll see
> while pooring your glass how dark this Oloroso sherry is.....and that is where
> are precious sherried whiskies get their color from.  I'm no sherry
> specialist, but buy a bottle of that one, and you'll see how dark it is......
> 
> Luc
> www.lindores.be <http://www.lindores.be>
> 
> Paul Dejong wrote:
>>  
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> Since Ralf posted his question on American bourbon casks...
>> I would like to post a question regarding a nagging problem that has been
>> err...nagging me and a friend of mine for a couple of weeks now.
>> A friend of mine -who imports some whisky into belgium- wanted to take
>> things a bit further, and wanted to supply some of his own casks, to be
>> filled with new-make, to his friends in the industry. Since there have been
>> a couple of problems in getting good sherry-butts, he decided to go and
>> visit a number of bodega's in spain, in order to buy some casks.
>> Naturally he tasted some of the sherry produced in those bodega's...
>> When he asked for dark oloroso casks...the only thing he got, was raised
>> eyebrows... Seems that oloroso from Jerez, gets no darker (no matter how old
>> it gets) than  our "average" 40% (caramelised) marked house whisky (such as
>> the 10yo standard Macallan...)...thus, nowhere near as dark as the "dark
>> oloroso Ardbeg's" we know, or the black bowmore, or....
>> 
>> Before his trip, Our (hopefully) logical assumption was that the oloroso,
>> which this naturally very dark whisky, matured on... Had to be even
>> darker... Because we would find it very hard to understand that the maturing
>> whisky could end up being "mahogany" if the original oloroso was -at best- a
>> darkish brown...?
>> 
>> If there is no oloroso that is virtually black (in Jerez)... What type of
>> casks did that dark whisky mature on?
>> (mind you, all the bodega's that were visited gave us the same answer...and
>> proved it! Jerez Oloroso is far from "almost black"  !! )
>> 
>> So that leads to my question: How can "oloroso" matured whisky end up being
>> nearly black, if the originating sherry is even lighter in colour than a
>> thorougly matured single barrel bourbon such as George T. Stagg...(and that
>> irrespective of age, and the sherry matured in a solera system)...
>> 
>> Possible answers:
>> 1. since the names of the different types of sherry are a little bit
>> confusing... Could it be just a case of mistaken identity? The only 'black'
>> sherry he found in Jerez was Pedro Ximinez... Could oloroso be actually
>> Pedro X?
>> 2. since Jerez is the only region my friend visited (the most logical choice
>> since sherry got its name from the region) ...and i assume sherry is not
>> exclusively made in Jerez, could it be that oloroso sherry is made elswhere
>> 
>> in spain (from different grapes?) to a much darker colour? And that those
>> butts did not originate in Jerez, but a different region?
>> 3. somebody suggested it may have somethig to do with the evaporation...
>> (although I find that very unlikely, because i cannot believe it would
>> become that dark...)
>> 4. maybe it has to do with the wood? Quercus alba is much lighter then
>> Quercus robur...  But nowadays most sherry is matured on quercus alba...and
>> my friend saw with his own eyes that european oak gives no more colour to
>> the sherry than the American white oak... So that seems unlikely to.
>> 5 Could it be that the higher alcohol% extracts more colour from the wood?
>> I think so...but I doubt it would make that much difference...
>> 
>> Questions, questions, questions... Who can provide the answers?
>> 
>> Paul
>> 
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