You're the proud owner of a cute little cask.

Whisky likely has its roots in ancient Babylonian civilisation, where some evidence of distillation activity as far back as 2000 BC has been found. Its introduction into Scotland and Ireland in the 15th Century eventually cemented whisky’s status as a well regarded drink. In these regions, barley was a readily available resource, and as a result barley based spirits (i.e. malt whisky) flourished.

Knowledge of whisky distilling soon spread to the new world. White settlers in America, many whom emigrated from Ireland and Scotland, soon started to distill whisky using old methods. But the warmer American climate tended to favour other cereals like corn and rye, so the distillers followed suit. Bourbon whiskies (mostly corn based) and rye whiskies emerged as distinctive styles. Australian distillers today have the luxury of a range of locally grown cereals, and so there’s no single distinct ingredient that represents ‘Australian whisky’.

Of course, the distilled grain or malted barley is only half of the whisky making process. The humble wooden cask, used for hundreds of years to store and transport goods, is the silent second craftsman. It’s hard to definitively rule out the possibility that someone simply had an epiphany one day and intentionally put un-aged whisky into casks and waited a few years before consuming it. But in all likelihood, the result was discovered by accident. It turns out that storing a spirit in a cask for some time can improve its palatability, round out the ‘rough edges’ and impart a golden hue.

Nowadays, people have come to appreciate an aged whisky, and so despite the irrelevance of wooden casks in modern society, various pieces of legislation in most countries mean that a spirit must be aged in a wooden cask for some time before it can be legally called whisky. In Australia, the minimum time is two years.

Most Scotch whiskies on the market today are aged for eight or more years in an oak cask, with most being aged in ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry casks. The use of these two types of casks isn‘t exactly random. American Bourbon whisky is aged in virgin oak casks (brand new casks which haven’t previously been used to store any other liquids) as this is a legal requirement. Afterwards, the spent casks are useless to Bourbon distillers, and are therefore sold to other distilleries as ex-Bourbon casks. Similarly, Spanish Sherry makers eventually retire their casks and sell these on as ex-Sherry casks. These casks are now in very short supply because the number of Sherry drinkers in the world continues to dwindle while whisky aged in ex-Sherry casks is increasingly popular.

In Australia, distilleries have also embraced the ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry cask movement that has given Scotch whisky its reputation. Some distilleries also collaborate closely with local wine makers to use their spent casks, releasing whiskies aged in ex-Shiraz, ex-Pinot Noir and other such casks.