Taste Guide: Virgin Oak

As is well known, casks in which other spirits, wines or beers have previously been matured are almost invariably used for the maturation of Scotch whisky. In recent years, some Scottish distilleries have experimented with new “virgin oak” casks and have released a few bottlings.

Virgin oak casks quickly impart very spicy notes to the maturing distillate, but tannins and resin notes quickly take over, so virgin oak casks are mostly used for finishing.

Anthony Wills also considers virgin oak casks to be unsuitable for the maturation of the very light-bodied and fruity Kilchoman spirit, as the wood notes that quickly take over would “destroy” the Kilchoman whisky.

Always open to experimentation, Kilchoman nevertheless used a few Virgin Oak casks for finishing at the beginning of 2023. After an initial maturation in STR casks and a good year of finishing in virgin oak, the whisky proved to be clearly tannic at a joint tasting of these casks with Anthony Wills and Robin Bignal on 11 June 2024, meaning that it will be bottled shortly.

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Cask sample from 11 June 2024 of a 2018 Kilchoman, which was decanted from a STR into a virgin oak cask in March 2023. The whisky has a rich brown colour, with spicy wood notes dominating the nose and taste.