What's With the Different Cuts in Whisky? This is How it Works

Sunday, 24 August 2025 at 15:03

When discussing whisky, you'll often hear the term 'the cut.' The cut is significant in the distilling process as it determines some of the character of your drink. We delve into the cut and tell you everything about it.

FAQ

What are cuts in whisky?
They are simply moments, specifically the moments when the distiller decides what to keep and what to separate: the heads, hearts, and tails.

How does a distiller know when to make the cut?
Using his or her nose, tongue, and experience.

Which part ends up in the whisky?
The part that is called hearts ultimately ends up in your glass. The rest is either discarded or put back into the still.

Not everything that comes out of a kettle is tasty

Distilling whisky is an extensive process that always begins in the field. Eventually, the distiller reaches the point where a spirit must be distilled, slowly flowing from the spirit safe out of the still.

Not everything that comes out of the distillery's copper workhorse is equally tasty. Some of it is downright unpleasant. As such, distillers have to sharpen their senses to make the so-called cut.

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What is the Cut?

To get the pure spirit, the distiller makes so-called cuts: separating the heads, hearts, and tails. This cut is made by smelling, looking, tasting, and relying on pure experience.

Only the hearts end up in your glass, the rest is set aside or put back into the still. What exactly are these parts? We dive in to the heads, hearts, and tails, below.

What are the Heads?

The first thing to come out of the distillation kettle is the heads, or the foreshots. These contain volatile substances such as methanol and acetone. What does this smell like? Think of nail polish remover and oily scents.

Distillers choose to cut this part because it is simply undrinkable. Sometimes the end of the heads is included to blend with the hearts, but most of it is discarded.

What is the Hearts section in whisky?

After the heads come the magic from the kettle: the hearts. This is the essence of whisky: clean, grain-rich aromas, and perfect for aging in barrels. Everything you appreciate as a whisky fan, from fruity and fresh to rich and complex, begins with this part of the new make spirit.

The importance of this part of the whisky is clear from the name of this independent bottler: The Heart Cut.

The size of the hearts varies with each distillation and recipe. Moreover, distillers themselves have a choice to make a cut, so it could be that the hearts of one whisky are very different from those of another whisky.

What are the Tails?

As the temperature continues to rise, the tails or the feints emerge. They contain fusel oils, butanol, and acids.

While the heads smell like nail polish remover, the smell here is different. Wet dog, old socks, sometimes a bit of vinegar. It's not pleasant in a glass, but it is useful: distillers often collect this part and redistill it in the next batch.

There is no Cut Manual

When a distiller makes the cuts is not recorded in any books. That would be a slim book with a text like 'make a cut when the drink starts to taste, make another when it gets nasty again.'

Cuts are made based on feeling and experience. Some distillers cut leanly for a clean, light whisky. Others intentionally include some heads or tails because they transform into complexity and depth during years of aging in wood.

The next time you taste your whisky, try to discover if there is a piece of the heads or tails in the glass. Then, try to taste what it does to the rest of your whisky.