White Peak Wire Works Up’ards & Down’ards

@whitepeakwhisky have just released a pair of bottlings, both near identical Ex-Red Wine STR casks both matured in slightly different ways.

Lets try them!

Wire Works  suggested:

"A horizontal bottling of two ‘identical’ ex-red wine casks, filled the same month but matured in different locations; the upper and lower dunnages. Explores the maturational differences of warehouse location (temperature, humidity, air flow)."

and of course I had to try them!

The whisky names come from a mob football match:

"These unique bottlings of Wire Works single malt single cask whisky’s are named after the two teams who compete in the centuries old, local annual mob football match in the Derbyshire market town of Ashbourne. The match takes place over Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday between the Up’ards, (traditionally those from north of the Henmore brook), and the Down’ards (from south of the brook). The game is played throughout the town of Ashbourne and surrounding areas between two goals 3 miles apart. Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football."

White Peak have 3 core dunnage style warehouses where the casks are stacked on their sides, supported by wooden rails (or dunnage); the Lower Dunnage, the Upper Dunnage and Warehouse 6 (which was formerly the main wire drawing shed, dating back to the 1870’s).

Distillery thoughts:

We’re curious about the potential role the different warehouse locations at the Wire Works can play in the development of flavour, and how we might use this knowledge in future plans.  For this bottling, we tried to control as many variables as possible (see below), with the warehouse location then being the key point of difference. (NB. due to being made of natural materials and made by hand, no two casks are exactly identical).

Date casks filled: March 2019

Malt batch: identical

Spirit distillation cut points: identical

Casking strength: identical (63.5% abv)

STR casks specification and batch: identical (STR G2C AO/FO)

Up'ards was matured in the Upper Dunnage UD3A: raised mezzanine with higher temperatures in the summer months/ higher annual temperature variation / higher air flow across the seasons

Down'ards was matured in the Lower Dunnage LD5B; partially sub-terranean with lower annual temperatures across seasons / low annual temperature variation / reduced airflow and increased humidity.

The lower dunnage is subterranean, so cooler ambient temperatures year round, lower temperature volatility, lower humidity and airflow. The upper dunnage is at the same level as the stills, and not far from them, with a metal roof, so temperatures are dramatically different. 

My thoughts:

Dram	Wire Works Up'ards	Wire Works Down'ards
Characteristics	Single Cask 2019-085 Ex-Red Wine STR cask (American Oak with French Oak heads) Level 2 Char Location code UD3A (Upper Dunnage) 52.7% ABV 330 bottles	Single Cask 2019-052 Ex-Red Wine STR cask (American Oak with French Oak heads) Level 2 Char Location code LD5B (Lower Dunnage) 52.7% ABV 330 bottles
Distillery notes	Drier, spicier nose. Aromas of fresh coffee beans, with liquorice on the palate. A touch more tannic, with some nice rich spice on the finish. The flavour profile is in line with expectations due to the higher ambient temperatures, and temperature volatility, leading to a higher extraction of polyphenols (flavour compounds in the oak, of which tannins are an example).	Fruitier, sweeter nose. Light biscuity, and floral notes on the palate. Vanilla fudge to finish. The flavour profile makes sense, with ambient factors being the inverse of the Up'ards bottling. Slightly lower tannin extraction paves way for the sweeter, and more delicate flavours.
My thoughts:
Appearance
	Light bronze in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thin oily legs.	Light bronze in the glass, swirls cling as a thin line, bead up slowly and fall as slow thin oily legs.
Nose	A medley of berries and currants to start: raspberries, blackberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and strawberries. There's a hint of smoke or char, some milk chocolate, liquorice and a little stewed apple.	Similar berry and currant notes, the smoke is a little more obvious on this one. There's a little more sweetness with honey and penny toffees.
Palate	Thick sweet arrival, loads of berry and cherry notes, mouth coating chewiness and a bite of oak spice. Milk chocolate is very dominant on the tongue, a little stewed apple and some caramel sauce. Very drying and spicy as the liquid disappears.	Again a thick sweet arrival, honey and golden syrup dominate on this one. The berry and cherry notes follow, reminding me a lot of the previous Full Port release. There is a little milk chocolate, not as dominant this time, some liquorice and toffee notes. The smoke on the nose has all but gone too. Slightly drying and a little spice as the liquid disappears.
Finish	Lingering sweet berry notes, very dry oak spice and a hint of smoke.	Lingering sweet berry notes, a little liquorice, dry oak spice and a hint of smoke.
Overall	I'd been drying to try these 'geeky' bottles as soon as they were announced and was lucky enough to buy them before they sold out - got matching bottles numbers too which was nice! So distilled a couple of weeks apart, from the same batch of barley, the same peat level, same mash method, same fermentation length, same distillation cut points, same casking abv., in similar casks, but different warehouse locations... we all know that casks can never be exactly the same and you'll get different flavours from each but these also had very different maturation locations allowing the elements to have a part in forming flavours. The two casks were only around 20 foot apart for their entire maturation, but separated by a steel floor, which made all the difference. The Up'ards gave a typical peated wine cask profile, loads of berry and cherry fruit, tannins, spice and a little sweetness - reminiscent of last years Loch Lomond Rioja Golf Release. The Down'ards was quite different: there was much more sweetness and fruit, reminiscent of a port cask maturation, the gentle smoke adding a lovely complexity. It seems being left to mature in a cool damp warehouse with a narrow temperature range gives a better dram!

Matching bottle numbers!