Did you know whisky is now matured in an expanding variety of casks?

It’s no secret that all kinds of casks are used for whisky and that good casks are hard to come by. Did you know the industry is turning to an ever-wider range of wine casks? Welcome to a new “Did you know?”

Any seasoned whisky drinker knows sherry casks are used for maturation and finishing. There are roughly seven styles of this fortified wine. In the whisky world, Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez are the best known, but finishes in Palo Cortado, Amontillado, or Fino sherry are increasingly common too.

With sherry, a finish is becoming the norm, largely due to the price of those casks, though some distilleries still go for full sherry maturation, Tamdhu being a prime example.

Beyond the various sherries, different styles of Port are showing up more frequently too, white, tawny, and ruby. Ruby finishes are typically the standard, as with Angel’s Envy Bourbon, or Arran’s famous black-labeled Port finish that always sells out in a flash.

Other Port casks are gaining ground as well, like the 12-year-old Glen Scotia finished in white Port, released for the Campbeltown Malts Festival. You can taste a blend of Port influences in the 2023 Special Release Talisker, which used white, tawny, and ruby Port casks.

Another fortified wine increasingly popping up in whisky is Málaga—a sweet style made from Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel grapes. Once predicted to fade from the market, it’s now being produced in sufficient quantities again to supply casks for the whisky industry.

Alongside fortified wine casks, non-fortified wine casks are also appearing more often in whisky. As fortified wines slowly lose popularity—making those casks scarcer—that’s not the case for regular wines.

There’s a broad spectrum of red and white wines aged in oak, and they can make for beautiful whisky finishes. Think Teeling with a Douro finish, Deanston 10 Year Old in Bordeaux, or Auchentoshan’s Sauvignon Blanc finish.

The true “wine master” of the whisky world, though, is Starward, the Australian distillery that matures all its whisky in wine casks. They’re blazing a bold new trail for the industry. Will European producers follow?