Barrel Aged Neutral for thrills and spills

[tchib]

I have to share a wee experiment I have been running the past 12 months. I got hold of a 220l former French red wine barrel and it was a-stinking of cabernet. Not much good for the amount of whisky I make so I decided to age neutral in it at 45%abv.

My theory was that it will strip the wine flavors and not as much oak so I can make a cheeky gin for Christmas. So a year later I cooked up a couple of batches of concentrated gin with all sorts of Christmas spices. Orange peel, cloves, cinnamon, pepper, a little star anise etc. And blended it with the aged neutral and watered it back down to 45% Ended up with 300l of amber-red contemporary gin. Lots of Christmas presents and party tricks.

It did as I suspected and kept this fantastic wine taste and color with a hint of the French oak for kicks. The spices complimented it so well, it tastes like Christmas pudding. I like that it's completely dry but it would probably lend itself well to a little molasses or brown sugar.

If I did it again I would probably leave it about 6 months instead of 12 as the tanin was quite strong. I saved a little to mix with some white whisky but that wasn't a great success. I have it aging on white oak chips to bring back the balance.

Anyone else curious? I can recommend it for sure!

[jonnys_spirit]

The low'ish barrel proof ABV might have let it to extracting more tannins. Next time might try in the 110-125pf range and see how that extracts?

Cheers,
j

[subbrew]

that is a lot of distilling to fill a 220l barrel. I am impressed. I feel I put in a lot of time to get 40 liters over a winter.

[SaltyStaves]

Have a google search for petites eaux dilution.