ABV

ABV stands for ‘Alcohol By Volume’ which is the standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in any given volume.

Angel’s Share

Sometimes a little bit of whisky gets lost to the open air, and we call that the Angel’s Share. It’s caused by whisky evaporating through the wooden cask and it can account for up to 2% per year.

Blended Whisky

A whisky made from a variety of different types of whisky (malts / grains) from different distilleries.

Bulk Litres

Bulk litres refer to the entire litres of liquid in a cask, the combined total of pure alcohol and liquid. A cask filled with 200 bulk litres at 64% ABV would have 128 litres of pure alcohol (64% of 200).

Cask Strength

Whisky that has been bottled from a cask without dilution. Generally, this would make the abv anywhere from 55% – 70%.

Charring

This is when we burn the insides of the casks to add more to the flavour.

Duty Suspension

When your cask is being stored or transported between bonded warehouses, it is held and transported under duty suspension. This means you don’t have to pay duty on your cask, which is the tax levied by HMRC on alcohol (currently £28.74 per litre of pure alcohol) until the cask is removed from bond.

First Fill

Casks used for the first time in Scotland after their original use.

OLA / RLA

OLA stands for ‘Original Litres of Alcohol’ and RLA stands for ‘Regauged Litres of Alcohol’.
OLA refers to the number of litres of pure alcohol which were initially placed into the cask and RLA represents the litres of pure alcohol remaining in the cask after a regauge has been implemented, checking the health, contents and value of your cask.

Pot Stills

This is a copper distillation apparatus which is used to heat the mash (fermented grain/barley etc.).

Reguage

A reguage is where a distillery or warehouse measures the cask to establish the volume of liquid and ABV of the cask.

Single Malt

This term which we are all familiar with simply refers to whisky made from malted barley from a single distillery.

WOWGR

A WOWGR licence (Warehouse owners and keepers of Warehoused Goods Regulations) is a certificate that companies can obtain when they meet the strict requirements set by HMRC.