Are we finished with "finishes"?

[Davin de Kergommeaux]

Hi All,

Just a few random thoughts stimulated by this discussion:

I agree with John and others; if the whisky tastes great who cares if
it is finished or not.

At Bruichladdich this summer I tasted an already exquisite malt that I
was told was bound for brief enhancing in a wine cask before bottling,
so finishing is used for more than just covering up flaws.

A flight of finished Edradours I tasted blind a few years ago were
really good.  I would not have guessed they were from Edradour, and
whatever flavours came from the wine casks were really nicely
integrated.  I enjoyed them and was glad to have tasted them.

We can't fault Arran for doing whatever they have to to maintain
short-term cash flow while they wait for their whisky to mature.  The
recently released 10yo is really quite nice which tells us that Arran
will be quite a fine whisky in a few more years and we'll be glad they
did what they had to to stay alive.

If we want to go back to 'traditional' whisky, we'll have to figure
out when whisky was traditional.  Was it before they started using
bourbon casks, for instance?  At one time it was all wine casks,
mostly sherry, madeira, and so on.

Certainly there are some really clumsy finishes out there, but there
are also some really enjoyable ones as well.  Also, some specific ones
have changed a lot over the years.

My two cents . . .

Davin



On 11/10/06, Maltman999 at aol.com <Maltman999 at aol.com> wrote:
>
> My thoughts on finishes is pretty simple:
>
> I'[m okay with it if the whisky tastes good. After all, that's the ultimate
> goal, right? But to put out a slew of finishes just to get more expressions
> out on the market quickly or to create a diversion to mask the fact that you
> are struggling with a gap in production ultimately does no good for the
> consumer or producer.
>
> John
>
> John Hansell
> Publisher & Editor
> Malt Advocate magazine
> 3416 Oak Hill Rd.
> Emmaus, PA 18049
> www.maltadvocate.com
> (610) 967-1083 (Phone)
> (610) 965-2995 (Fax)
>
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