Wine

Wine is one of the world's oldest and most popular alcoholic beverages, tracing its origins as far back as 6000 BCE in the Caucasus region now known as Georgia. It is produced from the fermentation of grapes, with different varietals, yeast strains and various winemaking practices all producing a huge array of styles. The most basic categorisation splits wines into red, white, rosé, orange and sparkling. The world's top wine producing countries are Italy, France and Spain.

Oak is used in winemaking to vary the colour, flavour, tannin profile and texture of wine, however it is not a requirement as in whisky. Despite this, the sheer scale of global wine production means ex-wine casks are available in great numbers to distillers, who have increasingly experimented with their use in whisky maturation in the 21st century as an alternative to the climbing cost of traditional sherry casks. The most prevalent ex-wine casks are traditional barriques, however some new world producers will also use the slightly larger hogshead size as well.

Red wine casks are by far the most commonly used in whisky however white wine barrels are steadily increasing in popularity since the first Chardonnay-finished single malt Scotch was debuted by Glen Moray in 1999. Although still out-numbered by ex-bourbon and sherry casks, wine wood is now a staple in the wood policy of distillers across the world, even the US which has slowly incorporated an acceptance of cask-finishing into its practices. Comparatively modern, experimentation with wine casks is ongoing, with single malts aged in champagne barrels and Swedish mulled wine having been trialled over the years.

It should be noted that while wine can also be made from stone fruits other than grapes, the use of casks that have contained these is not permitted for the maturation of Scotch whisky but may be available to less restricted industries like Ireland and Japan.