F - like barrel no. 1
How many types of barrels are there at St. Kilian?
We currently have over 370 different cask sizes and types in which our St. Kilian single malt whisky is matured.
Is there a special barrel?
We have many special barrels. But the barrel with the highest emotionality is the one with the number 1.
What is behind barrel no. 1?
We number all barrels consecutively, starting with the number 1, so the barrel with the number one was the very first barrel at St. Kilian to be filled. It contains the very first spirit that was distilled using our two Scottish copper pot stills on St. Patrick's Day in March 2016.
Which wood is barrel no. 1 made of?
The barrel was made especially for us by the Wilhelm Eder cooperage in Bad Dürkheim in the Rhineland-Palatinate. It has the maximum permitted volume of 700 liters for the maturation of German whisky and is made from Johanniskreuz oak. Johanniskreuz is a regional growing area in the Palatinate Forest around the Kaiserslautern region and offers ideal conditions for slow and fine-pored growth of the oak trees. Our cask no. 1 was given a special, very strong toasting for the maturation of our spirit.
What happens to the contents of barrel no. 1?
The original idea at St. Kilian was not to touch the contents of this first cask and to leave it to mature for as long as possible. However, a sensory test after five years led to the decision to bottle parts of this barrel and offer it to our fans.
How was the whisky bottled from cask no. 1?
Five years after filling, around two thirds of the contents were removed from the cask in April 2021 and bottled as "Cask No. 1 - First Cut after 5 years" with an alcohol content of 58.7% vol. in a total of 760 bottles (0.5 liter pot still bottle). Naturally - as always with St. Kilian - neither colored nor chill-filtered.
What happened to the rest in barrel no. 1?
The rest remained in the cask. We refilled the removed quantity of whisky with fresh, mild St. Kilian New Make and allowed the mixture to mature further. This is somewhat reminiscent of the famous sherry solera process. In our case, you could even call it a "single cask solera".
Will barrel no. 1 be emptied again?
Our plan is to bottle around two thirds of the contents again as five-year-old single malt whisky five years after the first partial bottling, i.e. in 2026, and to make up the missing volume with fresh new make.
Why is only part of barrel no. 1 ever bottled?
This special approach of only removing two thirds of the cask at a time and refilling it with fresh new make ensures that the whisky is not overly dominated by oak. On the other hand, each bottling from cask no. 1 still contains a drop of the very first distillate from March 2016. In addition, parts of the first distillation still remain in the cask and are therefore allowed to mature forever.