Fortified wines like sherry and port have long been an important part of the whisky industry. Casks previously filled with these wines impart rich, sweet flavours of dried fruit, spices and nuts when used for ageing. Read on to hear about the history of fortified wine casks in the whisky industry, and how Sullivans Cove uses them in our whisky making process.
Loved by drinkers the world over, whiskies aged in fortified wine casks represent many of the most popular and highly awarded styles in the category. Fortified wines were particularly popular in the UK during the boom years of Scotch whisky production in the 19th century, so the casks were in plentiful and cheap supply. Scottish distillers would age their whiskies in the casks used to transport sherry and port from Spain and Portugal. Sherry and port cask-aged whiskies became the defining style of Speyside in particular, a region which still produces more than half of the single malt whisky in Scotland. Today, the world is in the middle of a malt whisky explosion, and the sherry and port influenced style popular in Scotland is now widely imitated by producers around the globe.
In Japan, Taiwan, Australia and elsewhere, modern distillers frequently employ fortified wine casks to create this style of single malt that whisky drinkers love.
But there’s a problem. These days, not as many people drink sherry and port, so there are less new casks of those wines being produced. Also, due to more modern transport methods, barrels are no longer used to move wines from one country to another. These factors mean that there are not nearly as many used port and sherry casks available for the booming whisky industry to use. As such, many casks are now “seasoned” with fortified wines specifically for the purpose of ageing whisky. This means that cheap sherry or port is stored in the casks for a short period of time, or in some cases is forced into the wood grain with high-pressure steam.
Many producers now also employ “finishing” to impart fortified wine character to their whiskies. This means the whisky is aged in another kind of cask (usually ex-bourbon) for the majority of its maturation, then transferred to a fortified wine cask for a short period of time before bottling. It’s also worth noting that even historically, the sherry and port casks used in Scotland for ageing whisky were not generally the casks actually used to age those wines, which would stay in Spain and Portugal to be used again, but were instead the casks used for storage and transportation on their way to the thirsty drinkers of the UK.
In Australia, our developing whisky industry is supported by the excellent fortified and other styles of wine produced here, which gives us access to a range of high-quality local wine casks.
One of the best things about Australian whisky is that when we use fortified wine casks, they are often the actual casks used for ageing those wines, sometimes for decades. Australian whiskies like Sullivans Cove French Oak have made big waves both at home an internationally partly on the basis of these excellent casks. However, some Australian cooperages are now experimenting with seasoning casks, and as the local whisky industry continues to grow, genuine fortified wine ageing casks will be harder and harder to come by.
So if you like Australian whisky aged in fortified wine casks, get out there and drink some of these excellent Australian products. They’re great in a cocktail, after dinner, or with cured meats and cheeses. And if you don’t drink the wine, we won’t have the casks to make the whisky. Look at the bottom of this page for a list of some excellent Australian fortified wine producers to try.
What’s in a name?
Due to relatively new labelling laws, there’s also a bit of confusion around Australian whisky styles and the casks they’re aged in. The terms “port” and “sherry” are actually protected as specific geographic denominations of origin, like “Champagne”. This means that the term sherry can only be used for fortified wines from a specific area of Spain, and port can only be used for the sweet wines produced in the Douro valley of Portugal. In Australia, wine producers must now legally use the term “Apera” for sherry style wines, and “Tawny” for port style wines.
Sullivans Cove was the first distillery in Australia to label our whisky (specifically our French Oak Single Cask) as being aged in Tawny casks. It’s a recent change, so there are still some “port cask” labels floating around, but our newer labels will always say “tawny cask” where appropriate. At Sullivans Cove we always aim to be as transparent and accurate as possible with our labels, and we’re proud of the excellent Australian fortified wines that lend depth and character to our award-winning whiskies.At Sullivans Cove Distillery we never use seasoned or conditioned casks. Instead, we work with the best coopers in the country to find us only genuine ageing casks that have held Australian fortified wines for many years, infusing rich flavours deep into the oak. Furthermore, we very rarely finish our whiskies, choosing instead to use fortified wine casks for the entire duration of our whisky’s maturation.
So, when you see “Tawny”, “Apera” or some other fortified wine on a Sullivans Cove label, you can be sure that whisky has spent its whole ageing time in that kind of cask (on the rare occasions we do employ finishing, we’ll say so clearly on the label or in the cask descriptions online).
In the coming days, we’ll be releasing the latest single cask bottling from our Cask Variations series, American Oak Tawny Cask #TD0199. This whisky was aged in a single, 300 litre American Oak ex-tawny cask for 12 years, lending it the fresh oak, caramel and vanilla flavours generally associated with American oak, along with the rich, dark fruit of beautiful Australian tawny fortified wine.
Here’s a list of some great Australian fortified wine producers to try:
Pennyweight Winery makes outstanding certified bio dynamic fortified wines including fino, oloroso, manzanilla, and ruby styles.
Stanton & Killeen has a range of prestige fortified wines including muscat, tawny and topaque, as well as less expensive white and ruby tawnies.
Buller Wines focuses on sweeter style premium fortified like muscat, tawny and Pedro Ximenez
McWilliams produces a wide range of fortified wines from flagons of cheap cream apera to premium 25yo muscat.
Penfold’s makes a range of premium tawny wines aged up to fifty years for a really special occasion.
Seppeltsfield Winery produces premium fortified wines ranging from dry aperas to rich, sweet tawny.
