Non-Oak

The idea of non-oak casks being used to mature whisky may sound strange, and this is because the practice is not permitted in the ageing of Scotch, bourbon or Tennessee whiskey, the three most voluminous categories of the spirit in terms of global production. In Scotland, whisky must be aged exclusively in containers made from oak, whereas in America, its bourbon, Tennessee and rye whiskies are even stricter, requiring ageing only in new charred American oak.

Not all distillers are under such tight regulation however, and notably those in the rest of the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Ireland and the rest of the European Union are bound only to the use of wooden casks, opening up a world of possibilities in their maturation policies. Despite this, the preference for ex-bourbon and sherry casks for whisky ageing means the majority only or mostly still use oak vessels and any examples to the contrary tend to amount to little more than experimentation.

Just as not all oak is suitable for coopering, so too are many alternative species of wood unusable as whisky barrels. Of those that have successfully been trialled however are acacia, cherry, chestnut and maple.