Sherry barrels arrived from Andalusia

On a week-long "sherry trip" through Andalusia, Spain in late summer 2019, Master Distiller Mario Rudolf and Head Distiller Zoltán Fódi made numerous direct contacts on site at the cooperages and wineries.

Today, St. Kilian is happy about the wonderful development that came about because of this trip and the personal contacts.

Mario Rudolf reports on exciting new barrels:

"It is thanks to this personal commitment that we have numerous new barrel members and are proud of our contacts.

For example, "Ximenez Spinola" from the Jerez region, an organic sherry producer of the highest standard, has now become a regular supplier to St. Kilian.

We then had a bit of a hard time choosing other partners. The qualities and also the people on site were very impressive at many Andalusian "tonelerias" (cooperages) and bodegas (wineries/warehouses).

"Our St. Kilian Sherry Battle will remain exciting in the future".

Mario Rudolf, Master Distiller

Therefore, St. Kilian has decided to give many of them a chance. In this way, we are fuelling a small competition for the best barrels, so to speak, in order to always buy the best quality.

Sherry barrels delivery of five "Tonelerias" in Rüdenau

We recently received a truckload of great barrels directly from Andalusia from the following five tonelerias with their associated bodegas:

- Toneleria Tevasa Jerez - Bodegas Baron Sanlucar de Barrameda

- Toneleria Hudo Jerez - Bodegas Williams & Humbert Jerez

- Toneleria del Sur (Casknolia) Montilla - Bodegas Xeranthia Jerez and Bodega Malaga Virgen Malaga

- Toneleria Juan Pino Montilla - Bodegas Sanchez Romate Jerez

- Toneleria Rodriguez Montilla - Bodegas Navarro and Rodriguez Montilla

We have sourced ex-Oloroso and ex-Pedro Ximenez casks. From Tevasa also ex-Manzanilla casks. These are in the sizes 250l (= Hogshead) and 500l (= Puncheon or Butt).

The barrels from the bodegas in Jerez and Sanlucar de Barrameda may be called ex-sherry barrels. The barrels from outside the sherry triangle from the bodegas in Montilla and Malaga may not bear the name sherry. However, the qualities there can be at least as excellent. The PX from Malaga Virgen, for example, absolutely convinced us!

Mild and peated New Make matures in the sherry casks

Now the barrels are all full and are already maturing in our Bunker City. Half of them were filled with unpeated and the other half with heavily peated New Make.

We are looking forward to this "Sherry Battle" and we will be happy to keep you updated in a few months or a few years as to which of our Spanish partners did well! So it remains exciting at St. Kilian and further sherry projects are firmly planned.

We took away many great impressions and ideas from Andalusia!"