The Red Wine Cask is the third panel of Glenfiddich's Age of Discovery triptych, completing a trilogy whose other members look to North America and Madeira. The wine cask finish has become almost ubiquitous in Scotch whisky over the past two decades, but in 2013 the practice was still novel enough at Glenfiddich's level to feel like a genuine experiment, and the choice of nineteen-year-old stock for the trial was a serious one.
Glenfiddich's house style — light, fruit-forward Speyside malt of orchard-fruit and vanilla character — is not an obvious partner for red wine wood. The risk in such a finish is that the tannin and red-fruit influence overwhelms the underlying spirit, leaving a whisky that tastes of neither. This bottling negotiates the danger by leaning on the long bourbon-cask maturation that precedes the finish, allowing the malt to arrive at the wine wood already mature and confident.
The nose is bright with crushed red berries, dark cherry and a polished oak warmth, with a flicker of cocoa beneath. The palate carries cherry compote and cranberry, soft tannin and a thread of vanilla running quietly under the fruit. At 40% it is, like its siblings, a restrained whisky rather than a powerful one, and one wishes for a few extra degrees of strength to push the character forward. The finish is medium and fruit-led, drying gently into oak and a faint herbal note.
It is the most exploratory of the trilogy and the least conservative, and for that reason the most interesting as a record of Glenfiddich's willingness to step outside its own conventions.
