Help needed - Laphroaig

[Peter Wood]

Thanks Lads

I guess I'll go for the 1/4 cask even though I will get less bang for my
bucks. Still, I like to try different drams, and this way I won't die
wondering. I'm glad no one tried to tell me one was more salty than the
other. I have some cask strength still left so I'll do a comparative
tasting in a couple of weeks time.

Ulf, I'm with you on sacks of oak chips, but what really can you have
against stainless steel bins and fermenter tanks? Clean, consistent wines
with bags of fresh fruity flavours, and still the opportunity to add
complexity with months in an oak cask. No wonder  Euro wine sales are
plummeting in favour of New World and Down Under quality! I've often
wondered if so-called Old World elegance was simply a cop-out word when it
seemed a good pedigree wine was simply light, tasteless and very boring.

The idea of using small casks to speed up maturation has been around for a
long time of course, and it undoubtedly does yield a different product from
a large cask. Whether better or not really depends on personal preference.
There was a study published by Uni. Strathclyde researchers back in 1995
that compared sensory and chemical attributes of Longmorn distillate
matured in uncharred American barrels and in tiny 6L casks of the same
wood. OK, 6L is a puny wee caskette, but in experimental terms would
enhance differences in a workable time frame (up to 24 months).

They concluded that cask size did make a significant difference. The spirit
from the mini casks was sweeter and free from sour and pungent notes cf.
the barrel-matured spirit. However, they also said "Maturation of Scotch
malt distillate in miniature casks did not enhance the sensory quality of
the final product, nor did miniature casks provide a suitable model of an
accelerated whisky maturation process."

Peter Wood

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