Taste Guide: New Oak / Virgin Oak

As is well known, casks in which other spirits, wines or beers have previously been matured are almost invariably used for the maturation of Scotch whisky. In recent years, some Scottish distilleries have experimented with new “Virgin Oak” casks and have released a few bottlings.

Tasting the New Oak Finish casks on 11 June 2024: Hans-Peter Neumann, Anthony Wills, Robin Bignal (left to right)

New Oak Casks, as these may only be called from now on, quickly impart very spicy notes to the maturing distillate, but tannins and resin notes quickly take over, so these casks are mostly used for finishing.

Anthony Wills also considers New Oak Casks to be unsuitable for the maturation of the very light-bodied and fruity Kilchoman spirit, as the wood notes that quickly take over would “destroy” the Kilchoman whisky.

Always keen to experiment, he has nevertheless been trying out finishing in New Oak on a few casks since March 2023, interestingly not with whisky that had previously been aged in bourbon barrels but in STR casks (shaved, toasted & re-charred ex-red wine hogsheads). 

Anthony Wills and Robin Bignal first selected two rows of STR casks, one row filled on 27 March 2018 and the other, one and a half years younger, filled on 7 August 2019, and decanted them into New Oak casks on 12 March 2023.

Kilchoman sourced the New Oak casks from NAO, a cooperage founded in 2001 in the Cognac region of France, which has been selling its handmade oak casks for the wine, beer and spirits industry since 2019 under the brand name “Giraud-Galiana”. NAO offers standard oak casks from specific regions, such as ‘Carpathian Oak’, ‘Caucasian Oak’ and ‘Iberian Oak’.

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Pictures by NAO

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Kilchoman opted for casks made from ‘Carpathian oak’, i.e. European oak (Quercus petraea / Quercus robur) from the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. The trees in the Carpathians grow slowly, resulting in a dense wood grain that ensures a consistent, controlled release of aromas during whisky maturation. Carpathian oak contains more tannins than American oak but less than French oak – ideal for adding structure without overpowering the spirit. Thanks to the rocky soil, the wood absorbs minerals that give the distillate earthy, terroir-driven undertones that are unique to Carpathian oak casks.

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The New Oak Finish Single Cask Release for The Distillery Shop

When I had the opportunity to taste these casks, along with Anthony Wills and Robin Bignal, on 11 June 2024, after more than five years of maturation in fresh STR casks and a good year of maturation in New Oak, the whisky proved to be wonderfully spicy but already quite tannic. Anthony therefore decided to bottle the casks shortly afterwards.

The first of these casks was bottled on 8 July 2024 and released as a distillery exclusive for the Kilchoman distillery shop on 19 September 2024.

As a result of the warehouse tasting in June – I was very enthusiastic about the whisky and was able to convince the Kilchomania Tasting Panel of this with a cask sample – the second Kilchoman New Oak Finish was released as a Kilchomania.com release in December 2024. The whisky for our Kilchomania bottling had been finished in the New Oak Cask for another four months, which made it even spicier than the Distillery Shop Exclusive Release.

In March 2025, the Japanese Kilchoman importer Whisk-e Ltd released a third New Oak Finish. This one had been bottled two weeks before the Kilchomania release.

The New Oak Finish Single Cask Release for Kilchomania.com

From spring 2025, a release for the so-called ‘smaller markets’ appeared, which had already been bottled at the end of August 2024. Kilchoman occasionally releases bottlings that are not intended for a specific country, but for smaller markets where demand for single cask bottlings is too low. To enable these countries to also enjoy a wider range of Kilchoman whiskies, the bottlings are delivered in partial quantities to different countries.

With one bottling each for the British and American markets, and with finishing periods of two years (!), the STR Cask Matured / New Oak Finish Experiment came to an end, at least for the time being, in spring/summer 2025. The remaining casks were re-racked, i.e. transferred to neutral casks, due to the oak character becoming too strong. But here too, Anthony Wills surprised us again by transferring the casks not to refill bourbon barrels but to ‘fairly neutral’ port wine casks. We are eagerly awaiting the results of this measure!

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Kilchoman New Oak Finish Releases:

Cask No. 1038/2019 – one of the 2019 STR casks, photographed four months after decanting in New Oak. Only one of the 2019 casks was bottled before re-racking.
ReleaseCask No.Date FilledDate BottledFinish
New Oak Single Cask Finish for The Distillery Shop234/201827.03.201808.07.2024Finish: over 1 year
New Oak Single Cask Finish [for Smaller Markets]233/201827.03.201822.08.2024Finish: 15 months
New Oak Single Cask Finish for Japan239/201827.03.201809.10.2024Finish: 18 months
New Oak Single Cask Finish for Kilchomania.com237/201827.03.201823.10.2024Finish: 18 months
UK Exclusive STR / New French Oak Single Cask238/201827.03.201816.04.2025Finish: 2 years
Islay Series: STR / New Oak Finish Single Cask for the 5th Anniversary of the Vineyard Series1041/201907.08.201904.06.2025Finish: over 2 years

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