Smoked Cask: Peat-Smoked Oak

< SPIRIT SPECIFICS LIBRARY | CASK SERIES | AUTUMN 2025 | SINGLE MALT WHISKY

 

RELEASE NOTE

Welcome to the Cask Series of whiskies; a collection of unique expressions, each celebrating the marriage of our distinctive spirit with specially selected, individual casks.

For this expression, we collaborated with Master Cooper Alastair Simms to craft a distillery first: a peated single malt whisky matured in peat-smoked bourbon casks. Interestingly, this has been made with un-peated barley - all the smoke has been derived from cold-smoking the casks themselves.

We selected three first-fill bourbon casks: one left unsmoked as a control, one smoked for one hour, and one smoked for four hours. After maturing for three years and three months, the casks were married together to produce an intensely smoky whisky - unlike any other peated whisky we’ve encountered.

We’re particularly excited about this as a potential path forward for the wider whisky industry, as we start to move away from peat. Cold-smoking casks opens the door to new, more sustainable approaches to achieving smokiness in whisky, by making use of alternative fuels that are readily available on our doorstep.

The whisky has been bottled at 56.1%, without chill-filtration or colouring. Each bottle has been hand-filled and individually numbered.

Positive Impact. £1 from every bottle sold is donated to our charity partner, Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, to fund life-changing apprenticeships for young people in rural areas, to help protect vital UK habitats (YDMT Registered Charity No. 1061687).

DISTILLER’S COMMENTS

“This distinctive release showcases a new direction for us, with a noticeably savoury smoke reminiscent of a wood-fired feast. I bloody love how the cold-smoked casks have brought a full spectrum of smouldering aromas, from smoked paprika and chipotle, through to the rich and heavy smoke of an open coal fire. This is the perfect autumnal dram to savour as the nights draw in.” - Will Dobson, Distiller

TASTING NOTES

  • Nose: smoked paprika, toasted nuts and grilled pineapple.

  • Taste: coal fire, salted caramel and dark chocolate.

  • Finish: long and lingering with smoky chipotle and pine forest.

SUGGESTED SERVE

  • Short: neat, with a dash of water, or in a Penicillin cocktail.

RELEASE DETAILS

  • 56.1% ABV

  • 700ml

  • 206 bottles

  • Natural colour

  • Non-chill filtered

 

SPIRIT SPECIFICS

  • Cask profile: a marriage of 3 casks: 35% ex-bourbon (unsmoked) / 35% ex-bourbon (1 hour smoked) / 30% ex-bourbon (4 hour smoked)

  • Wood profile: 100% American oak

  • Cask size: 100 litres

  • Casks filled: May 2022

  • Maturation time: 3 years, 3 months

  • Maturation location: Cooper King Distillery

  • Grain: 100% floor-malted English Maris Otter barley

  • Yeast: distiller’s yeast

  • Fermentation time: 5 to 7 days (120-168 hrs)

  • Distillation: double distilled on a 900 litre copper pot (‘Neilson’), with a ceramic bead insulative coating and internal heating elements.

  • Batch number: 2506

 

Explore further:

Chris Jaumesingle malt whisky, york whisky, yorkshire whisky, charity whisky, net zero energy whisky, net zero whisky