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The Festival 2014
We thought a whisky festival of magnitude needed its own recurring festival edition. Something that comes in a very limited amount and can only be purchased if you visit our whisky festival in person. Before the 2014 festival we got to work and our legendary Festival series was born.
The goal of a Festival bottling is to always create a unique bottling that stands out and maintains high quality. To Festival 2014 we tried something new. When we buy freshly made barrels, we normally prime these with spirits for 5-6 months to extract some of the powerful aromas we get from new oak. It creates some extra work and planning but it is necessary to get a harmonious maturation during the first filling. 16 Ankare (40 liter casks) of American oak were filled with 34-35 months old spirits from 100 liter bourbon barrels for just over five months. The American oak was air-dried for 24 months and roasted medium plus before charring. A rather unique combination that resulted in a deeper and sweeter spice than you normally get from charred American oak. The combination of bourbon barrels and new American oak gave both exciting aromas and a very nice colour to our first festival edition. Festival 2014, like all bottlings from High Coast, is neither coloured or chill filtered.