Traditionally, Scotch whisky was matured either in Bourbon casks or Sherry casks. Couple of decades ago, some marketing guru might have advised to leading Single Malt distilleries to use Bourbon casks for the first period of the maturation, then Sherry casks for the last couple of years … then label the whisky as Sherry Cask Finish. To be honest, I don’t know who was the very first to play this card, but did it right. Since then distilleries marketed several variations of cask finish whiskies: Port wood finish, Madeira wood finish, Burgundy wood finish. Though, I want to highlight two variations: one, which is not yet available, and another one which is relatively new, unique and un-known yet.

Have you ever tasted a Cognac Cask Finish whisky? No? No wonder, because Cognac is hardly available for cask finishes. The reason is simple. Cognac itself is a trademark. Therefore Cognac producers do not intend to let anyone else to use and place the word ’Cognac’ on any bottle of spirits, except real Cognac from the French region of Cognac. So, even if any of the Scottish distilleries tried to finish its Scotch Malt whisky in ex-Cognac casks, they need to be tricky to be allowed to place the word "Cognac" onto their whisky label. Isle of Arran does many variations of cask finish whiskies. The way they do it is that they set a deal with Hardy Cognac, USA.

Have you ever tasted a Tokaji Cask Finish whisky? No? And have you ever tasted Tokaji wine? This is a special late harvest wine from the North-Eastern region of Hungary, called Tokaj. „Vinum Regum, Rex Vinorum” as we say it in Hungary, which means: The wine of Kings, the King of the wines. And it really is! There are even 3 distilleries which found it a good idea to put there Single Malt Scotch whiskies into ex-Tokaji wine casks for a couple of years: Isle of Arran, Benromach, Edradour. I heard once from Edradour that after one and a half year they had to take the whisky out of the Tokaji barrels as the wine itself is so characteristic and had so much influence in such a short time, that ageing longer in Tokaji wine casks might have ruined the whisky. As the Tokaji wine itself is very sweet, a wee bit spicy, but full of aromas of sundried fruits, the casks transfers these aromas into the whisky, too. So grab a bottle of a Tokaji Cask Finish next time you are in a whisky store, and taste it!