Ex-bourbon casks are the mainstay of the Scotch whisky industry, and are more used than any other type of cask. They are particularly suited to the light, fruity Kingsbarns spirit as they compliment rather than mask the flavours, imparting predominantly sweetness and vanilla.
In selecting our bourbon cask supplier, we were looking both for quality and consistency. We decided to buy directly from one distillery in Kentucky rather than through an intermediary who would give us casks from a range of different distilleries. As we journey down the path of learning how Kingsbarns matures, we are constantly delighted by the quality of product this choice has given us as well as having the assurance that each cask will continue to perform at least as well as its neighbour!
This also means that in blending we have an idea of what other maturation cask types the bourbons will compliment, and allows us to choose our casks appropriately. One example of this is our “Bell Rock” release where the light sweet bourbon character is perfectly complimented by the “Christmas cake” flavours of ex-solera sherry Oloroso casks.
Each successive use of a cask will impart different flavours to the product, and over time the influence of the cask gets less and less. We think that bourbon is so important to the sweet and light character of our spirit that we never use our bourbon cask more than once for any Kingsbarns product.
A great example of this expert use of the Bourbon casks is our new Cask Strength release!