Delivering centuries of experience in cask building, French forests are an essential part of the whisky story. Here are three whiskies with French flair

European oak grows more slowly than its American counterparts but with centuries of cask development behind them they have grown a global following. Even without the influence of using wine seasoned casks they’re really popular with distillers. And it’s a big industry. In Europe, French forests hold the lion’s share and manage this resource incredibly well.   

Woodland and forests there represents 40% of all of Europe’s forested land, with 14 million hectares of managed forests across France alone. Of this, one-third is oak, making France the largest supplier of oak wood to all industries. 

Not surprisingly, due to their world status in the wine industry, they have a long and illustrious history in oak cask manufacture. In addition, they also offer more diverse wood such as chestnut, acacia and cherrywood which are eagerly snapped up by experimental distillers in Scotland and Ireland.  

Here are three whiskies that use French casks in their finish to give a release a certain je ne sais quoi.

Loch Lomond 14 (French Limousine oak Finish)

This delicious single malt from the Loch Lomond Distillery is matured in American oak but finished in French Limousine oak. The French oak input helps round out the soft flavour of the spirit, giving it a more polished personality but also boosting the vanilla compounds. 

Limousine is a loose-grained wood that helps create a really balanced gold coloured whisky that carries gentle layers of spice and clove as well as caramel. Heavily charred Limousine delivers a relaxed smoky layer too. 

In this bottle you’ll feel the presence of the French oak when you encounter the warm spiced apple and vanilla fudge layers. It’s creamy and fruit forward having benefitted from building on the coconut and black pepper pulled from its time in the American oak.  

Method & Madness Single Pot Still (French Chestnut finish)

Unlike Scotland, Irish whiskey can be aged in wood other than oak. This opens the door for experimentation but, in fact, it’s quite rare for the makers of this whiskey, Irish Distillers, to veer away from an entirely oak maturation. For the finish of this 46% single pot still they settled for French Chestnut. 

The wood here is from the sweet chestnut tree, rather than the horse chestnut. It’s been used in winemaking for a long time in France, being favoured for its ability to round out wine (or in this case whiskey) with a sweeter and more aromatic effect. It’s particularly good at developing the body of the liquid, bringing a silky texture. 

In the Method & Madness bottle the single pot still already has a silky element from the green barley used, but this finish boosts the silk effect further. It also enriches the gold colour of the whiskey.

Glenallachie 10-year-old (French oak from Haute Garonne region)

Billy walker has always been first in line to try a new barrel finish, and so, this French oak 10-year-old is an obvious flavour-driven choice for him and his team at Glenallachie. They used oak from the Haute Garonne region in the southwest of France which has Toulouse as its main city. 

Its an oak type which has a fine-grain wood with a really consistent effect on spirit. For this bottling they used virgin oak so the full effect of the wood was felt on the whisky. First matured in ex-bourbon it got an 18-month finish which developed the sweet spices, silky tannins and fruit notes of the whisky. Bottled at 48%, the colour of the whisky also got a warm earthy boost from the rich fresh oak influence.  

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