The Wine Society has announced the latest release of its Reserve Cask series, the fifth release in the range of malts selected from stock built up over the past 30 years.
Up to 1992, The Wine Society sent empty sherry casks to distillers across Scotland, including Lagavulin, Tamdhu, Ardbeg, Mortlach, Glenrothes, Bowmore and Glengoyne, to fill with first-fill malt and grain spirit to mature and form the basis of Society whiskies.
As sales of these blended whiskies slowed, coinciding with new EU legislation preventing The Wine Society from bottling sherry at its Stevenage headquarters, commissions of first fills were stopped. It is from this first fill stock that the Reserve Cask Selection has been sourced.
In 2019, Master of Wine, Sarah Knowles, and a team tasted through samples from the remaining barrels and hogsheads and selected those rated as outstanding. These were blended and bottled to offer as an exclusive series of cask releases to Society members.
Sarah Knowles said, “With the passing of the years, these precious stocks of whisky located in distilleries across Scotland had become too good to be blended into obscurity, and I knew when we tasted them, we had to share them. By offering these exclusive releases from our cask series to members at an accessible price, we hope they will open and enjoy the whisky.”