Triple Distilled Peated Malt 25PPM Oloroso Butt

497.4 litres | Cask 395126 | Distilled 19.12.2022 | Bond Code CW000810

About Our Oloroso Sherry Casks

These 500L casks were used to mature high-quality Oloroso Sherry. 

Oloroso sherry casks have been the most prized cask type by whiskey producers through the years. The selection for which wines will be suitable for becoming Oloroso starts after the Palomino wine is fermented. The heavier wines are considered more desirable for oxidative ageing and are fortified to 17 or 18% abv which stops the flor yeasts surviving in the cask. As the wine matures in cask, evaporation can increase the alcohol level to 21-22%. The oxidative maturation produces a richly coloured & flavoured sherry that can age for many years. Oloroso will often display flavours of tobacco, walnuts, dried fruits, leather & spices.

Ireland might not have had many peated whiskeys for a number of decades but with the main fuel source in Ireland going back centuries being turf it only seems natural that a number of Irish Whiskeys would have been peated in style. Already, there have been a number of peated single malts released from the Great Northern Distillery including our very own Celtic Cask Fiche A Cuig. Despite its youth, it's an excellent whiskey. In our opinion, young peated whiskey is better at masking its youth over unpeated equivalents. The malt used is 25ppm Phenol (lower than the 55PPM previously used at Great Northern), but this gets reduced by the Triple Distillation in the final spirit.

Triple Distilled Peated Single Malt Production

Great Northern Distillery source Irish barley which is malted in Ireland with the barley being dried by turf/peat smoke. The PPM level is 25 at this stage. The grains are wet milled, breaking open the grains to form a grist. Mashing is when this grist is mixed with hot water in the lauter tun which then turns the starch into a sugary liquid called wort. The wort is then converted into a beer-like liquid once yeast is added. The yeast converts the sugar into alcohol and it's now called wash. The wash is then triple distilled in Great Northern’s giant copper pot stills. The spirit is put into cask at 63% ABV and on this occasion will be casked in a first fill American Bourbon barrel.