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Introducing
a perfect blend of style, functionality, and convenience that's bound to leave your guests in awe!
So much choice...
Fruity, Floral, Spicy or Earthy, whatever your preference there is an aroma for you.
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How Flavour Develops in Barrel Aged Spirits and How to Pair those Flavours in Cocktails.
Several factors affect the flavour of spirits that are sold as aged. Usually, ageing happens in barrels. They are not airtight, they are porous, and they're positively brimming with their own set of unique flavour compounds. Distilleries are often looking for new barrel and spirit pairings. They have experimented with charring, different woods, used barrels from other industries like sherry or port, and ageing in different environments. For example, rotating barrels around warehouses, messing with storage temperatures, even taking barrels out to sea on a worldwide boat trip, or forging them under ultrasonic sound waves. But ageing doesn't happen neatly. Organic compounds are volatile and can change even when stored in the shop-ready bottle.
Chemical Reactions in Maturation
Your spirit is a collection of flavours made by the original material, the fermentation, the still and the distiller, and any additives once the spirit is ready to mature. The main factors that affect ageing are; temperature, light, interplay with the air, and interplay with the storage vessel. The most notable effects on taste are the contact the spirit has with other chemicals and the concentration rate. The maturation process is how these all interact.
Barrel ageing happens in three stages.
If you want a spirit to get to stage three, that spirit better have some serious stand-alone qualities, or the wood will totally take over. The aim in all distilleries is to find balance and harmony between the liquid off their stills and the vessel they have chosen to house it.
How quickly these three stages pass through is changed by the contraction rate. Both the warehouse environment and the barrel affect that rate. The spirit contracts when it gets cold and expands when it heats up. Over time, this movement creates liquid loss, namely evaporation of the ‘angel's share' which concentrates the flavour compounds in the leftover spirit. It's a slow reduction.
No Age |
Young Age |
Middle Age |
Old Age |
Esters
Green apple Solvent Soap Pear drops |
Woody
Caramel Smokey Medicinal (iodine, root beer, TCP) |
Woody
Leather Tobacco Waxy |
Woody
Spicy (hot, chilli) Wood spices (cinnamon, clove, allspice) |
Floral
Natural (roses, violets) Perfume (potpourri, incense) Soapy |
Cereal
Malty Toast Beer |
Nutty
Marzipan Cocoa Nuts (hazelnut, walnut etc) |
Fatty
Chocolate Coconut Butter Cheese |
Green
Vegetables (peas,cabbage)
Grass (lemongrass, cut grass)
Herbal (chives, coriander) |
Sweet
Vanilla Honey Treacle |
Fruit
Pitted Fruit (plums, apricots) Dried Fruits (raisins, candied peel) |
Fruit
Tropical fruit (pineapple, papaya, lychee) Pungent berries or roots (coffee, ginger) |
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Meaty
Mushroom Marmite/Bovril Red meat (blood) Wet leaves |
Light aromas pair well with younger spirits. They tend to be oily, grassy, herbal and floral. Try:
The roundness of younger aged spirits works well with many aromas. Try cutting through the sweetness with a spicy or jammy aroma.
There's a lot more influence from the wood in middle-aged spirits. Try pairing these woody tones with woodland aromas, or tart, fragrant fruits and spices.
The new flavours that develop in much older spirits are much more savoury. Fatty flavours like butter, cream or coconut come forward, and umami develops too. Try pairing these unusual and complex flavours with tropical fruit flavours and pungent scents like coffee or ginger.
Try working out where a three year old rum barrel-aged in the Caribbean compares in maturation to a three year old Scotch whisky. Find out where you think they sit on the spectrum of developing flavours. Not all age statements equal the same flavour profile, which is why there are so many variants to try. Try out aroma pairings and let us know what you think works!
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