Introduction
Tonight, I am posting information on Speyside Cooperage at Craigellachie in the Speyside region of the Scottish Highlands.
Information on Speyside Cooperage
This facility, now French owned, has been in operation since 1947. Here, oak casks play a vital role in the production of Scotch whisky. Maturation in oak casks is one of the key qualifications for the manufacture of the spirit.
Most of the casks at the Cooperage are made of American oak. They mainly emanate from Kentucky and Tennessee, having first been used in the manufacture of bourbon.
During each year about 100,000 casks are processed at Speyside Cooperage via a process of re-assembling and/or repair.
The professional coopers are employed on a piece-work basis and consequently are totally focused on their work. There is no chatting around the water cooler! However, job satisfaction must be high because the small team of coopers have accumulated many years of continuous service.
Speyside location is important because about half of Scotland’s working distilleries are located in the region. Only a handful of distilleries now have in-house cooperages. Most distilleries are reliant on Speyside and similar facilities for casks which are split into distinct sub-types, viz:
- Barrels
- Hogsheads
- Butts
- Puncheons.
There is a visitor centre with restaurant.
Video clip of coopers at work at Speyside Cooperage.
More information
The publication, Visitors’ Guide to Scotland includes sections on whisky distilleries and much more. The ISBN is 978-1-9161332-0-4. The book is also available via Kindle.