FAQ: Aftertaste

bedlamborn · October 2 2016 at 9:19PM

I have one question regarding the aftertaste since I very much enjoy a whisky with a long good aftertaste.

What in the whisky causes the aftertaste. Is it the long storage on the oak barrel or does also some come from the distillation at the distillery?

Once I tried a 14 year Clynelish and a 34 yo Clynelish and one could see the similarities between them but one big difference were that the 34yo had such a long aftertaste. It lasted so long that one didn't have to sip so much whisky for the evening. This aftertaste must have been due to the oak barrel it was stored in. I think it was a Hogshead.

horst_s_2 · October 4 2016 at 10:12AM

You are completely right. Most of the aftertase comes from the casks used. The cask flavours are much more intense than the distillery character. There is one exception. The smoke from the barley. This is tastable in the aftertaste as well.

bedlamborn · October 9 2016 at 5:10PM

I have been thinking more about the aftertaste. I know that European oak gives more oak flavour to the whisky than the American oak. Will this also mean that for example whisky stored in European oak have a longer aftertaste than whisky stored in American oak?