From wine barrels, out pours Scotch

BEHOLD the eternal Scottish Highlands -- green woods, gray skies, a touch of mist. Glenmorangie Distillery is way out here, 40 miles north of Inverness, overlooking the lonesome waters of Dornoch Firth. And in one of its stone buildings, distillery director Graham Eunson is showing off four bottles labeled Port, Madeira, Sherry and Burgundy.

More precisely, Port, Madeira, Sherry and Burgundy Finish. The bottles actually hold single-malt Scotch, but the Glenmorangie in each has been “finished” for two years in barrels that once held wine, after aging 10 years in the traditional secondhand Bourbon barrels.

“We can’t reveal which wineries we get our barrels from,” Eunson says slyly, “but there are hints on the labels.”

The result is called wood-finished whisky, because it picks up distinctive flavors from the barrel wood. Wood-finishing has been the hottest trend in Scotch for the last few years. Often the results are sweeter and fruitier than traditional Scotch and more appealing to people who are new to its craggy style, but connoisseurs also are attracted by wood finishes because they can show a surprising new side to a well-known brand.

Some of the busiest experimenters are small distilleries such as Edradour and Isle of Arran. On the other hand, a lot of big names are doing wood finishes as well, including Glenfarclas, Bowmore, Macallan and Springbank. So far, at least 33 of the 80-odd malt distilleries in Scotland have issued one or more wood-finished whiskies.

The germ of the movement sprouted in the 1970s, when Scotch distillers had concluded that sherry barrels overpowered some of the natural flavors of Scotch, so they’d switched almost entirely to Bourbon barrels. “However,” recalls Glenmorangie master distiller Bill Lumsden, “it was still felt that some desirable flavors could be had from used ex-wine seasoned wood, so a series of experiments were tried.”

Glenmorangie spent three years studying the effects of different woods. “Eventually,” says Lumsden, “a pretty much full maturation in ex-Bourbons, followed by finishing the maturation in other wood gave the best results.” The first release was a 12-year-old Glenmorangie finished in Port barrels.

It was undeniably tasty, but Scotch lovers cherish tradition, so there was a fierce controversy. In the 2000 edition of his “Malt Whisky Companion,” spirits writer Michael Jackson reported that unnamed critics decried wine-finished Scotch as either a way of covering up flaws in whisky or a cheap gimmick aimed at unsophisticated people who like sweet, fruity drinks. But in the 2004 edition of his book, Jackson acknowledged that wood finishes had become an established part of the single-malt market.

American contribution

TO an American, this is a little disorienting. The Scots have always credited their noble spirit to peat smoke, sea air, water filtered through granite and heather and the like; in brief, to environmental factors that a French winemaker would consider terroir. We Americans have been the ones to dwell on the flavor whiskey picks up from the barrel.

American law spells out exactly what kind of barrel you have to use if you want to call your whiskey Bourbon. It has to be made of American white oak, charred on the inside, and brand-new. Once you’ve aged any whiskey in it, it can never again be used for Bourbon.

As a result, there are always a lot of used Bourbon barrels lying around. Scotch distilleries have long bought them up for aging their whisky. To anybody who asked, they’ve explained that the Bourbon has helpfully extracted all the barrel flavors that would obscure the subtleties of Scotch.

How things have changed. These days many Scottish distillers are exploring the effects of used wine barrels, which add unfamiliar fruity notes. Some are even experimenting with new Bourbon-type barrels, which contribute the familiar vanilla and caramel flavors of Bourbon.

Wood finishes are also spreading from single malts to blended Scotches such as Grant’s and the Famous Grouse. (The Grant’s aged in ale barrels has a very attractive roundness and fullness -- too bad we can’t yet get it in this country.)

About half the distilleries making wood finishes are in the area east of Inverness known as Speyside. Since Speyside is close to wood-finish pioneer Glenmorangie and known for the delicacy of its whiskies (compared with the smoky island malts), this area is an ideal place to explore the world of wood.

The Speyside most familiar to Americans is the Glenlivet, the top-selling single malt in the United States. Glenlivet is aboard for the idea of adding nuances from barrels, but strikes a classical tone, dubious about all these wine flavors.

At a table in the distillery’s lunchroom, Glenlivet’s beefy, jovial brand ambassador, Ian Logan, puts it this way: “We’re not interested in what’s been in the barrel but in the wood itself.”

What that means is there’s no Port-finished Glenlivet, but there is, for instance, a 15-year-old French Oak Reserve -- a mixture of straight 15-year-old Glenlivet with some 13-year-old that has spent two years in new French barrels of Limousin oak. The effect of the wood is dramatic. Just that proportion of Limousin-finished whisky gives an additional note of elegance and restraint to an already refined Scotch.

Glenfiddich, the bestselling single-malt distiller in the world, was the second to start issuing wood-finished Scotches. Master Blender David Stewart, a quiet, serious man who’s been with the company 44 years, is the one who has extended the range of the Glenfiddich and its upscale sister distillery the Balvenie.

“I feel part of an awesome tradition,” he says, sitting in a clubby meeting room on the distillery’s extensive grounds. “There have only been five blenders in Glenfiddich’s history.

“It’s a big undertaking to develop a new whisky,” he adds. “You have to wait years to learn how it develops in the cask. I’ve learned to be patient.”

He has tried out limited editions of Glenfiddich in Cognac, Armagnac, Madeira, Port and various table wine finishes. One experiment has become a permanent member of Glenfiddich’s line: Solera, a blend of Bourbon and sherry-aged whiskies (some of the former finished in new oak) married in a large barrel in the manner of a sherry solera, or blending system. Surprisingly, the effect is to add neither a sherry nor a Bourbon note but something luscious like pears, as well as a silky-smooth texture.

As for Balvenie, Port and “double wood” (sherry-finished) versions are now permanent parts of its line. Balvenie is a Scotch for the sweet tooth to begin with, and the sherry finish underlines its plushness. The Port finish adds a range of berry-like fruit flavors to Balvenie’s characteristic orange-peel note.

Don’t get the idea that it’s just big distilleries that are messing with wood finishes in Speyside. Glen Moray has only four stills, compared with Glenfiddich’s 29, but devotes a portion of its output to experimental finishes. The smallest distillery in Speyside is Benromach, with just two stills, and it has used sherry, Bourbon, Port and even Tokaji (Hungarian Tokay) casks for aging and finishing. To master distiller Keith Cruickshank, this is not flavoring the whisky but achieving “a complementation of elements, a strong merge.” Certainly Benromach’s 22-year-old Port finish (about $150 a bottle) shows a complex layering of flavors.

Wood finishing’s roots

GLENMORANGIE, back at Dornoch Firth in the Highlands, has made wood finishes a specialty -- they now account for 20% of the distillery’s output. The sherry, Port, Madeira and Burgundy finishes are widely available, and the distillery has produced a dozen or more limited editions aged in Cognac, rum, Malaga and various table wine barrels. Recently it introduced a Chateau Margaux finish, and Eunson says he “has his eye” on other French chateaux. The 15-year-old Sauternes finish is gorgeous but sadly unavailable in the United States.

On top of that, the distillery has also done exhaustive experiments with oak barrels of various kinds. There have been limited editions finished in new burr oak, chinquapin oak and truffle oak barrels, all a little Bourbon-like and all extremely rare.

The argument over wood finishes goes on. Supporters point out that Scotch has been aged in all sorts of wood over the years. Starting in the 1820s, when systematic aging began, the Scots used any barrel on hand, probably wine or brandy casks for the most part.

In the 1880s, phylloxera, a vine louse, destroyed the Cognac vineyards, drying up the supply of the English upper crust’s traditional tipple. The English turned to sherry (and Scotch) in its place, so a lot of used sherry casks wound up in London, going cheap. “Any Scotsman can recognize a bargain,” Eunson points out. For decades, Scotch was aged in sherry barrels. Bourbon barrels became the new tradition when the price of sherry barrels rose sharply in the ‘50s.

If Bourbon aging was kind of an accident, it certainly worked out. Distilleries have spent many decades perfecting their particular styles, which are now colored by Bourbon aging.

There are many mysteries in whisky-making, and distillers are loathe to make changes, even tiny ones, that might affect their whisky. When a pot still wears out, a distillery always replaces it with an exact replica. One of the stills at Glenmorangie has a crook in the arm that leads down to the condenser. It reproduces one of the original stills, whose arm was bent because it had to fit under an eave. After a century and a half, Glenmorangie is afraid to substitute a straight arm because nobody knows what this might do to the flavor.

Nevertheless, the trend in whisky is plainly toward greater variety. In the last 15 years or so, “independent” bottlers have been producing idiosyncratic editions of single malts in competition with the “official” bottlings that the distilleries themselves put out. Typically an independent buys a cask from the distillery and bottles its contents as is, without blending or chill-filtering the whisky (to keep it from turning cloudy on ice).

These independents have been taking the spotlight away from the distilleries’ own bottlings. Recently some distilleries have responded by issuing un-chill-filtered, cask-strength editions of their own, such as Glenlivet’s Nadurra (Gaelic for “natural”). Perhaps the new wood finishes are another way for the distilleries to fight back.

If so, two (or more) can play at that game: Some independent bottlers have issued wood finishes. For instance, Gordon & MacPhail has been aging the smoky Islay whisky Caol Isla in Calvados barrels. Ultimately, it’s all good news for the customer who’s curious about the wilder possibilities of Scotch.

charles.perry@latimes.com

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Tasting of distinctive single malts

THE TIMES’ tasting panel sampled nine wood-finished single malts alongside standard Bourbon-aged releases of the same whiskies. We were impressed by how different some of the wood finishes were. In some cases, we preferred the standard edition, but usually wood-finishing added an attractive new dimension. The panel’s clear favorite was Glenmorangie Port Finish, then Glenmorangie Madeira Finish, with three others nipping closely at its heels: Balvenie Doublewood, Glenmorangie Sherry Finish and Glenmorangie American Oak.

The tasting panel consisted of Food Section editor Leslie Brenner, deputy features editor Michalene Busico and staff writer Charles Perry. Notes on the Scotches are listed in alphabetical order.

Aberlour, Sherry Wood Finish, 15 years. Dessert flavors -- vanilla, caramel, pear Tatin -- with a faintly abrasive note of wine or perhaps the sea. Available at Beverages & More stores, www.bevmo.com, $58; Beverage Warehouse in Los Angeles, (310) 306-2822, $60; Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa, (949) 650-8463, $45; Mission Liquor & Wines in Pasadena, (626) 797-0500, $55; Red Carpet Wine in Glendale, (818) 247-5544, $56; and Wine and Liquor Depot in Van Nuys, (818) 996-1414, $45.

Balvenie Doublewood, 12 years. Finished for 6 to 12 months in Oloroso sherry casks. Beautiful: rich, concentrated and berry-like. A splash of water makes it decidedly more plush and aromatic. At Beverages & More, $34; Beverage Warehouse, $45; Hi-Time Wine Cellars, $34; Mission Liquor & Wines, $38; Wine and Liquor Depot, $34; and Wine House in West Los Angeles, (310) 479-3731, $33.

Balvenie New Wood, 17 years. Finished for four months in unused Bourbon-type barrels. There’s little aroma at first, then oak and a hint of smoke. With water, it’s less nuanced than the Doublewood, more like a faintly sarcastic Bourbon. Available at Hi-Time Wine Cellars, $82; Mission Liquor & Wines, $80; and Wally’s Wine & Spirits in West Los Angeles, (310) 475-0606, $96.

The Glenlivet French Oak Reserve, 15 years. Very elegant but not as plush or well-defined as a standard Glenlivet; hint of spice (nutmeg, allspice?). At Beverages & More, $36; Beverage Warehouse, $41; Hi-Time Wine Cellars, $33; Mission Liquor & Wines, $40; Red Carpet Wine, $42; Wine and Liquor Depot, $33.

Glenmorangie American Oak Finish, 15 years. Sweet and round aromas, vanilla and caramel, an herbal note; velvety and sophisticated. With water, a caramel-y Bourbon-like effect in the mouth, but the nose becomes more like Scotch. At Beverages & More, $58; Beverage Warehouse, $59; Mission Liquor & Wines, $65; Wine and Liquor Depot, $50.

Glenmorangie Burgundy Wood Finish, 12 years. Grapey, winy nose, a little harsh on the palate. At Wine and Liquor Depot, $39; Beverages & More, $42; Mission Liquor & Wines, $43; Beverage Warehouse, $45; Hi-Time Wine Cellars, $46; and Wine House, $50.

Glenmorangie Madeira Wood Finish, 12 years. Rich and deep but fresh and grassy at the same time. The aroma doesn’t hint at the rich and complex effect in the mouth. At Beverages & More stores, $42; Beverage Warehouse, $45; Hi-Time Wine Cellars, $46; Mission Liquor & Wines, $43; Red Carpet Wine, $47; and Wine and Liquor Depot, $39.

Glenmorangie Port Wood Finish, 12 years. Pretty pink tinge. Rose and cedar aromas; Port flavor more noticeable in the mouth than in the nose. Beautifully easy to drink. At Beverages & More, $42; Beverage Warehouse, $45; Hi-Time Wine Cellars, $46; Mission Liquor & Wines, $43; Wine and Liquor Depot, $39; and the Wine Country in Signal Hill, (562) 597-8303, $54.

Glenmorangie Sherry Wood Finish, 12 years. Water brings out sherry, then a touch of peat. Dry, elegant, serious finish. At Beverages & More, $42; Beverage Warehouse, $45; Hi-Time Wine Cellars, $46; Mission Liquor & Wines, $43; Wine and Liquor Depot, $39.

-- Charles Perry