WHISKY BREWING PROCESS: EVERYTHING REVOLVES AROUND THE BARREL

How many different methods of maturing wine with barrels are there?

“You need to understand the difference between selective finishing and selective maturation during the whisky ageing process. When we selectively age a product, we take a portion of the whisky and put it in a container that has just been used to age other wines, such as tequila or rye wine. After that, the wine inside the barrel will be monitored regularly to check for flavor changes. Due to the different properties of each barrel, the change as well as the time to awaken the flavor in each barrel are also very different. This is a process that needs to be customized manually in the bartending room.

“With selective maturation, the wine is completely aged in maturation barrels – so with Chivas Extra 13 Sherry Cask, a blend of Scotch whisky blends aged for the first 13 years in Oloroso Sherry oak barrels.

“When choosing a finished brewing bin, we need to consider the steeping history of that barrel. When using the barrel for maturation for a long period of time (15 years or more), the second or third use of the cask will provide an excellent taste, balancing the characteristic flavor that comes from the cask and the distillation (strong whisky before maturation). If the distillate is aged for a long time in the fermentation barrel for the first time, the flavor coming from the fermentation barrel will be very strong and completely overwhelm the other flavors. However, with wines that are aged for a shorter period of time, first-time aging barrels are ideal for quickly awakening the flavor of the wine.”

Why is the finishing bin important to Chivas?

“Whether selectively aged or selectively matured, I want every finished product to enhance the famous flavor of Chivas whisky rather than contrast or overwhelm that signature flavor. With the Chivas Extra 13 product line alone, I want to create a product with Chivas characteristics, but more multi-dimensional.

“Each product in the Chivas Extra 13 series has a background of wine blended with a characteristic flavor to enhance and revive the flavor from the finished barrel. We choose selective finishing or selective maturation for whisky based on the intensity of the flavours coming from the barrels. For example, you can’t fully mature whiskey in rum or tequila barrels because the flavor is too strong and overwhelms the flavor of the whiskey. Many people think that whiskey is a high-end and strong drink, but in fact, whiskey is more delicate than people think! Whiskey can be overwhelmed by stronger spirits.

“By using different types of finished barrels, we wanted to add flavor nuances and help the wine products blend more richly while retaining the classic style of Chivas. Chivas are famous for their sweetness and fruity aromas. While it takes a bit of oak flavor to enhance those flavors, you don’t want the flavor of Chivas to be completely overwhelmed by the flavor that comes from the barrel. So balance is extremely important.”

How do brew barrels affect flavor and why?

“The flavor that comes from the barrel depends on the age of the whisky. The longer the aging time in the barrel, the more flavors the wine aged inside will absorb from the barrel. When the aging process is longer than 15 years, almost 50% of the wine’s flavor will come from the barrel. The taste of the wine also depends on the number of times the barrel is used. If the barrel is used for the third, fourth or fifth time, the flavor it brings to the wine will not be as much as the barrel used for the first time.

“But that’s completely different from the selectively aged products in the Chivas Extra 13 range, such as the Chivas Extra 13 Tequila Cask, because the whiskies of this range are aged in traditional oak barrels for 13 years. This portion of the wine is then selectively matured in another aging barrel to bring a multi-dimensional flavor to the finished product. Speculation is that about 35–40% of the flavor comes from the original wine aged for 13 years and then added 10–20% of the flavor from other used barrels. It’s a two-stage process.”

How is scotch soaking different from bourbon soaking?

“Bourbon is always aged in oak barrels or new American oak barrels; Bourbon barrels are those that have never been used to age spirits before. In other words, the flavors from the barrels and wood will have a huge influence on the Bourbon. Scotch, on the other hand, uses barrels that were once used to age other wines. It is as if the barrels were born for us to use and to remove some of the intense flavor of dry oak, so that the distilled wine becomes more complete when it is aged. In addition, these barrels will also contain layers of vanilla and sweet candies that pair perfectly with the signature sweetness of the famous Speyside whisky in our blends.

“With Chivas Extra 13 Bourbon Cask, a portion of Chivas blend is matured in barrels that have been used to age bourbon for 13 years. Aging in this barrel will not give the whiskey the flavor of bourbon. Instead, it will help to bring up the sweet honey flavor inherent in the distilled spirit.”