So there I was in the Vaults, the fabled Leith clubhouse of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, enjoying a dram. It was a warm, sunny day – an extreme rarity in Leith – and the whisky, too, was warm and sunny, being a large 58.6 per cent vol measure of 16-year-old single malt from SMWS Cask No. 35.392.
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There were hints of treacle, toffee, fudge and even tiramisu. It was saline, herbal, nutty and redolent of, well, fine sherry. And that, I realised, was the key: it might have been a Speyside malt (from a much-lauded distillery in Elgin), but it had begun its journey thousands of miles away in Spain, in the forests of Galicia and the bodegas of Andalusia, having spent 16 years in Spanish oak casks that had once held oloroso sherry. No wonder it was so warm and sunny.
Eighty-year-old Quercus robur trees had been felled, cut into staves and air-dried for more than two years. Sent to a cooperage, the staves had then been hand-raised into casks, heated, shaped and toasted with scorching flames.
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The finished casks travelled to Jerez to be filled with sherry (in this case it was oloroso, but manzanilla, amontillado, fino and PX might also be used) and, after three or four years soaking in the wine, to Speyside to be filled with new make spirit. After three years, this officially became single malt whisky, and after another 13 it had become the gloriously fruity, gingery, leathery, marmaladey, salty, treacly treat that I was now enjoying.
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And how appropriate to be knocking back this nectar in sun-dappled Leith. Known as Whiskyopolis in the late 1800s, the town was home to hundreds of blenders, bonded warehouses and cooperages. It reeked of whisky. Indeed, it reeked of all manner of alcohol because casks of claret, port, cognac and sherry arrived in the port, too. The contents were bottled, and the empty casks sold to distilleries and blenders. The sherry casks proved by far the most popular, thanks to the inimitable nutty, toffee, dried fruit, spicy notes they gave to the spirit, and consumers couldn’t get enough.
There’s scarcely a distillery, blender or bottler today that doesn’t mature or ‘extra-mature’ its single malt in former sherry casks. So, when you ponder what links your favourite drams – your Dalmore 15 YO, say, Glenfarclas 12 YO, Glenmorangie Lasanta 12 YO or Macallan 30 YO – just sit back and think of Spain.
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Three of the best single malts from sherry casks
Heaven in a Leather Hammock, Cask No. 12.80, 59.2% vol
(£895; Scotch Malt Whisky Society)
Part of the SMWS Vaults Selection, this 34-year-old Speyside single malt has been aged in both American and Spanish oak casks previously used for oloroso and P sherries. With spice, coconut, tobacco and hints of rum-like raisins, it’s a wonderful, intense, multi-layered dram, bottled at a heady strength.
The Balvenie 50, First Edition, 52.3% vol
(£42,500; Harrods)
Balvenie is the only Scottish distillery still to grow its own barley, use traditional floor maltings and have its own cooper and coppersmith on site, and this is its initial release of a remarkable trilogy of single malt whiskies, laid in a European oak refill sherry butt in 1973, before being bottled last year. 125 bottles each of the second and third editions will follow in 2025 and 2026.
Glenturret ‘Eight Decades by James Turrell’, 41.5% vol
(£80,000; theglenturret.com)
From Scotland’s oldest working distillery, an exceptional whisky drawn from eight separate casks – the oldest of whichdates from 1987 – presented in a limited-edition Lalique decanter of just 80, produced in collaboration with – and in tribute to – Californian artist James Turrell. Spicy, fruity, honeyed and mellow, it’s an investment-worthy dram that’s impossible to resist.
This feature first appeared in Spear’s Magazine Issue 93. Click here to subscribe.
