Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/735312
october 2016 / the tasting panel / 57 1963 was a good year for whisky. It was the year that Sandy Grant Gordon, grandson of Glenfiddich's founder, first brought single malt as we know it today to the United States. It was also the year that Ed McLoughlin founded a new cooperage on the banks of the River Kelvin in Glasgow, naming it, aptly, the Kelvin Cooperage. What no one could have foreseen at the time was that these two family businesses would come together to collaborate on the Glenfiddich 14 Year Bourbon Barrel Reserve, the first Glenfiddich single malt to be aged in two different types of American oak—14 years in used bourbon barrels and three to four months in charred new oak barrels, specially made by the Kelvin cooperage according to the specifications of Glenfiddich's Malt Master, Brian Kinsman. The release of the Glenfiddich 14 Year Bourbon Barrel Reserve last year made it very clear that the combination of mature Glenfiddich and the charred casks from Kelvin produces a delicious whisky—enveloping vanilla sweetness on the front, evolving into the classic Glenfiddich notes of oak sweetness on the palate and on the finish. In September, I visited Kelvin Cooperage. It is now run by Ed's sons Kevin and Paul and has relocated to Louisville, Kentucky, to be closer to the bourbon makers whose barrels the McLoughlins inspect and, where necessary, repair and rejuvenate before sending them over to Scotland, where they age Scotch whisky for another 50 years or longer. I wanted to talk with them about how their barrels contribute to the unique flavors of the Glenfiddich 14 Year. PHOTO COURTESY OF GLENFIDDICH GLENFIDDICH WHISKY COLLABORATES WITH KELVIN COOPERAGE TO CREATE THE WORLD-CLASS GLENFIDDICH 14 YEAR BOURBON BARREL RESERVE PHOTO: JAMES MILLER PHOTO: JAMES MILLER "Everyone always thinks it's about the char," says Paul McLoughlin, who runs Kelvin Cooperage, which collaborated with Glenfiddich to create its 14 Year Bourbon Barrel Reserve. "But it's really about the toast. The barrels that we make for Glenfiddich get their flavor from an extra-long toast." Glenfiddich 14 Year Bourbon Barrel Reserve at the Kelvin Cooperage in Louisville, Kentucky.