Last week saw Piping [...]
Visit to Jerez
By Ian
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Last week we visited our European oak supplier in Jerez, Spain with a few of our global media friends.
The idea was to view the production at the Cooperage and then take them through a tasting of the new Glenfiddich Rich Oak, a new Glenfiddich expression we shared with you earlier this year.
The Cooperage is family owned and run by a father and his two sons, one to manage the cooperage and one the winery. We were all very impressed with the pride they take in the production of their casks from air dried wood to finished cask.
European oak has been used to mature Malt Whisky for more than a hundred years, probably as far back as the 1860`s. With sales of sherry falling back and whisky on the rise we can no longer access the sherry oak casks ex the sherry process.
We now have cooperages producing casks from new european oak, maturing a sherry for 18 to 24 months to season the cask before they are then sent to Scotland for use in the whisky industry, very costly but necessary for Glenfiddich as much of the complexity of flavour comes from the European oak.
Below are a series of pictures taken on my visit.
Staves being chosen and fitted into a building hoop.
It takes two Coopers to assemble the first stage of the cask
Casks being Toasted over open fires fuelled by leftover oak
Once soaked in water the casks are then slowly bent into shape and hooped
Their new cutting device used to form the groove within which the cask end comes to rest
The final galvanised hoops are applied by one of the Coopers
A final sanding of the cask
1 Jul 10