Henstone Red Wine Cask

As you probably saw a few drams were tried at Southport Whisky Winter Festival, one I wasn't able to try was @HenstoneDistill's new Red Wine Cask release

Luckily Chris gave me a sample to try at home!

Henstone Distillery was established in Oswestry, Shropshire, United Kingdom in 2017. The name Henstone originates from the family homes of the original co-founders.

As well as whisky, they also produce a range of gins, vodka, rum and brandy. A German Kother 1000 litre pot/column hybrid, known as Hilda, does the batch distillation.

Chris joined in Ibon's Masterclass before the Festival and told us about his plans to build a new larger distillery on a farm which crosses the English / Welsh border. Once the purpose built English distillery is complete he plans to move the initial, temporary, distillery set up to the same field but on the other side of the border!

This release has been fully matured, for 3 years and a day, in Australian Red Wine Casks

Distillery notes:

The latest in our portfolio of whiskies is our Single Malt English Whisky – Red Wine Cask Matured.

Aged in a new world ex-red wine cask for its full maturation this whisky has developed a beautiful mouthfeel with an incredible depth of flavour!

This first batch is limited to just 215 bottles, so we expect it to be around for long.

Bottled at 46% this whisky is not chill filtered or coloured.

My thoughts:

Appearance: Mid gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thick line, take an age to bead up before falling as slow thin legs.

Nose: berry notes jump out of the glass to start with - strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries; there's a little honey and a hint of salinity. The Henstone character toffee, milk chocolate, vanilla and malt are here too.

Palate: thick sweet arrival, the berries from the nose are here along with some malty Hovis biscuits. Strawberries and blueberries dominate but there are some tropical fruit hints too. There's an immediate tannin dryness and a little milk chocolate note. A lovely gingery spice left on the tongue as the liquid disappears. 

Finish: medium length berries, sweet honey, a little spice and gentle dry tannin notes.

Overall: I've been on a bit of a wine cask maturation journey these last 18 months or so and was really looking forward to trying this - I didn't spot it at the festival, John asked me if I'd tried it as the festival was about to close, I rushed over to Chris and manged to obtain a sample! This dram doesn't disappoint, the Henstone distillery character is there with a blanket of berries, gentle tannin dryness and a lovely gingery spice. It's great at 46%, I wonder how good a cask strength release would be?