Wood, Wood, Wood & Whiskey: Lock-in Livestream

This week’s Lock-in focused on one important aspect of whiskey production – maturation and wood, wood, wood.

We were very lucky to be joined by Mark Quick, one of the founders of Nephin Irish Whiskey from County Mayo in Ireland’s North West, which consists of a distillery in development and uniquely, an on-site cooperage where barrels are made and repaired.

The Nephin Cooperage is Ireland’s only service cooperage meeting the barrel and wood needs of Irish distilleries and brands. It’s a uniquely sustainable operation that involves no artificial products and little to no machinery — just traditional tools and highly skilled hands.

We all know that wood plays a huge role in the final whiskey product and we were eager to learn more about this fascinating element of whiskey production.

We sipped on four different whiskeys this week to get an understanding of the impact of different wood types and their contents on the final product:
— Dingle Single Malt Batch 5 (Matured in American oak & European oak)
—  Method & Madness Single Pot Still French Chestnut (Finished in French Chestnut)
—  Midleton Very Rare Dair Ghaelach Knockrath Forest Tree 6 (Finished in Irish oak)
—  The Cooper – a unique 12 yr old Single Malt Scotch released to commemorate the late Master Cooper John Neilly

It was a rare chance to ask questions about cask types, trees, and the process of maturing whiskey from an expert in the field.

So gather your whiskeys, cancel the rest of your plans for the night and catch up on the Lock-in replay for craic, chat and lots of talk of wood and whiskey.

Sláinte,