Making my own Whisky in 1-2-3 :)

I'm old enough to remember when there were just a couple of IB's around, mostly G&M, Signatory and Cadenhead's. Nowadays it seems there's hundreds of IB's trying to make you purchase their expressions. And I'm all for it as I think that there are huge differences in styles, choice of casks and desired bottling ages when it comes to the different IB's. But sometimes when tasting some IB's I think to myself: "Why wouldn't they just give this one a year or two more.. oh it would be so much better..." Of course that's my personal opinion and surely not always right, but it has brought me to this. A DIY of whisky. I have not a spirit still at home, but when it comes to maturation I have now bought myself some new-make, wooden casks and sweet wine to help myself try make my own IB whisky and bottle it at the exact moment of which I find it to hold the best standard it can get. Maybe it'll all go pear-shaped after a while, but at least I may get a glimpse of what sort of challenges and difficulties the IB employees faces. This is what I have and how far I've come in the process.

First of all, purchase a good cask or two, make sure they doesn't leak or have other defuncts. Make sure that you have enough spirit to fill the casks as evaporation happens easier the more oxygen is in the casks while maturing.

Get hold of some wine that you, or in this case I, find enjoyable, but also has some stamina what flavor is concerned. A light & fruity wine needs more time to make impact on the oak than a strong and drier one. I decided to go for a sherry wine similar like the one you see on the left, and a cherry dessert wine which I've unfortunately have no bottle left of. I have instead placed a meatpackers wine on the right side of the photo, a wine that I feel could be useful in a pre whisky cask. I have left the sherry wine in for 3 months and now there's Glenglassaugh spirit inside of it, I will try some of it when the spirit has reach about a year in cask. The other one is still keeping sherry and I will leave it for at least a year or two before filling it with newmake.

Get hold of some new-make to put in the barrels. I have decided on filling one with high strength undiluted peated new-make from Bladnoch, and putting it in the barrel that previously have contained sweet cherry wine, as I think port wine, cherry wine and other sweet wines combines better with peat than sherry does. The other barrel now holding sweet Luiz Paes Cream Sherry will be filled with Glenglassaugh newmake, also known as the spirit that dare not speak its name.