Back To Finishing School

Ace your taste test on final whisky flavor.

- Jonny McCormick

Finishing is the popular term for transferring a mature whisky to a second cask, perhaps one that previously held port or rum, a first-growth Bordeaux, or is crafted from uncommon oaks like mizunara or Irish oak to give a different flavor profile. The purpose of finishing is to create a new whisky that complements the house style. Think of finishing like the secondary boosters on a space rocket, helping it to achieve a higher orbit, or like precious sapphires set around a diamond by a nimble-fingered jeweler to enhance the sparkle. When done well, finishing adds shades of color and flavor, swaddling the whisky with complementary tones and imbuing the spirit with extra personality. Come with us, back to finishing school!

Lesson 1

Start at the Finish

For starters, Scotch whisky must be matured for a minimum of 3 years in an oak cask. After that, there is a range of different finishing possibilities open to the distiller if they choose to transfer the whisky into a second cask to enhance the flavor. Maturation continues, but the alternative cask can bend the flavor in a spectrum of new directions, like white light shining through a glass prism. Here is where the skill lies: choosing a malleable style of whisky that can be paired with a quality finishing cask ready to impart its flavors under close supervision.

Finishing has galvanized distillers and blenders to attain new heights of creativity as they strive for new flavor combinations. So how is it done? Andy MacDonald joined the whisky industry in 1990 and has one of the most enviable jobs on the planet: he has been