Cream Sherry & Irish Whiskey: An Historic Connection

Two Stacks Irish Whiskey recently announced the release of their inaugural “Pillars of Creation” expression which married whiskeys from Dingle Distillery, The Echlinville Distillery and Killowen Distillery, the first time three of the new guard of Irish whiskey distilleries have been brought together in a whiskey. The type of cask that the blend was further matured in, an ex-Cream Sherry butt, was of particular interest as it hasn’t made much of an appearance in Irish whiskey to date, despite its historic Irish connections.

There would be very few households in Ireland in the twentieth century that didn’t stock a bottle of Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry, its distinctive blue livery standing out among the Paddy’s, Powers and Cork Dry Gin bottles on shelves the length and breadth of the country.

Cream sherry is a type of fortified wine known for its sweet taste and smooth, creamy texture. It is made by blending different styles of sherry, such as Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez, and then sweetening the blend with grape must or other sweetening agents. The resulting wine has a rich, caramel-like flavor with notes of dried fruits, nuts, and sometimes spices.

In 1796, William Perry and Thomas Urch founded a wine-trading enterprise in the British port city of Bristol. Before long, they welcomed Urch’s nephew, John Harvey, as an apprentice. Rising swiftly through the ranks, John became the senior partner, leading to the renaming of the business as John Harvey & Sons in 1871.

During the 1860s, the company honed their Bristol Milk, a term commonly used for sweetened Oloroso sherry. They were working on crafting a new sherry blend that would surpass the richness of the original recipe.

Legend has it that during a visit to their offices, an aristocratic lady friend of the family sampled their Bristol Milk. After being offered a glass of the new blend, she remarked, “If that was Milk, then this surely must be Cream.” And so, Harvey’s Bristol Cream was born, trademarked in 1882, and rising to become the most well-known sherries in the world and singlehandedly creating the Cream Sherry category.

Harvey’s Bristol Cream is made today from four different styles of sherry – Pedro Ximenez, Oloroso, Amontillado, and Fino and remains a well-selling brand, found on supermarket shelves for less than 20 euros.

The days of shipping sherry in wooden butts ended in the 1980s, and under the current rules, all sherry is now bottled in Spain before export meaning that Sherry casks used in the maturation and finishing of our beloved Irish whiskey are now made to order, seasoned in Spain and shipped empty to Ireland for use.

Oloroso Sherry-seasoned Butts are the most used, maturing whiskeys such as Jameson, Black Bush, Dunville’s, the Redbreast range, the Spot whiskeys and many more.

We’re only beginning to see seasoned casks of the other Sherry styles, like Amontillado, PX and Fino making an appearance and even less so, Cream Sherry, the blend of several different Sherry styles and because of its blended nature we’re never likely to see many casks of it being made with blending happening more commonly in blending tanks today.

In December 2022, Midleton Distillery’s (now shuttered) Barrel Club announced the release of Redbreast Christmas Cake Edition to its members with ‘Cream Sherry Cask Inclusion’ indicating that a portion of the whiskey components had spent time in a Cream Sherry cask.

This was our first introduction to Cream Sherry into the world of Irish whiskey and with Two Stacks releasing a high profile whiskey with a long two and a half year Cream Sherry cask finishing, we may well see interest pique for future releases using this much beloved Sherry.