Put your hand up if you found a quarantine boyfriend or girlfriend during this pandemic?
No? Good answer, being safe and socially distant has been key to getting back to whatever ‘normal’ was before.
Today we’re going to be talking about the single life. Well … the single barrel life that is. As you have probably noticed, I really like having a duality to all of the haikus. For one, if you want to be single — good on you — you are perfect alone.
But what we’re really talking about in today’s #whiskyhaiku are single barrel whiskies.
Whenever a new batch of whisk(e)y is released, each bottle is typically made up of a number of barrels that have been mixed together. Distilleries like to call this ‘mingling’. A number of barrels are mixed together to create consistency year over year and to achieve the desired flavour profile for that specific whisk(e)y.
Throughout the maturation period the Master Blender is constantly tasting and testing barrels to check on their progress. Once in awhile, there is a special barrel that is just absolutely exceptional. So much so that it is not mixed with any other barrels, rather the contents of the barrel are bottled solo. And this is what we call a ‘single barrel’ whisk(e)y. Because it comes from a… single barrel (shocking, I know).
As you can imagine single barrel whiskies are considered premium and therefore tend to be a bit more expensive but they are WORTH IT! That’s right, single and WORTH IT!
Some of the highlights of getting a single barrel whisk(e)y are:
- Each edition is unique and limited edition — they are typically dated and numbered with the specific barrel that they’re from
- Year over year, that whisky will have a different flavour profile that will never be repeated
- Many single barrel whiskies will also be cask strength (or a higher ABV). I’m personally a huge fan of higher ABV whiskies because you can try it in its true form and dilute it down as you wish
Question of the Day
Whether you’re single or in a relationship, what’s one hobby you identify with that makes you uniquely you? Did you spend a lot of time on it during quarantine? If so, how did you refine it? If not, is it still something that you identify with?
Definitions
Mingling: When a single distillery mixes together multiple barrels of whisk(e)y to produce a final product.
Marrying: After the whiskies have been ‘mingled’ they are sometimes left in a vat for a period of time (could be days or even months) to rest and integrate. So essentially, first you mingle, then marry. Then are bottled together, FOREVER (or… until drunk).
Single Barrel: A premium category of whisk(e)y where the bottles come from a single cask versus a mix of many casks (or casks from multiple distilleries).
Chat with you next week!
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