Originally Posted by mithrilG60

Doublewood is a nice easy going whisky which I find tends to pair nicely with maduro's as the demerra sugar and spice from the sherry maturation seems to complement the maduro earth and dark chocolates. However it's important to note that the whisky is aged entirely in oak, as it must be by law. Sherry hogsheads are constructed of European White Oak, so it's not like Doublewood is introducing another wood to the whisky.

Sherry hogsheads were the primary barrel back in the 19th century when that was the drink of choice of the upper class and the spirit was shipped from Spain in the barrel and bottled on the English docks making the barrel a waste product. Now sherry consumption has dropped and it's bottled at the distillery so the sherry distillers can reuse their casks making them more expensive to buy and use in scotch maturation. As a result sherry casks are much less common and Macallan is the only distillery to still use exclusively sherry casks for most of their line, the Fine Oak range being the exception. Aberlour's a'bunadh is another amazing sherry monster.

Now almost all scotch is aged in ex-bourbon barrels as those barrels are always a waste product since bourbon must be aged in new wood by law. In fact, many scotch distillery's have agreements with the large bourbon distillery's by which the scotch distillery's wood master selects the casked used for a specific bourbon so that they will get the flavours they want in their scotch after the bourbon is drained.

Jack Daniel's and Glenmorangie are prime example of this kind of partnership. The wood master for Glenmorangie selected the wood from the Ozzarks to be made into casks for the a part of the Jack Daniels production and specifie
ds the wood origin, construction and char level used. After the bourbon was drained Glenmorangie refilled them and a couple decades later Glenmorangie Artisan Cask emerged.

"Finished" whisky's such as Doublewood are quite popular right now, and have been for a couple years, as it's an easy way for a new distillery manager to put his mark on a product that typically takes at least 10 years to reach market. The other typical finishes are port and various french wines, Bruichladdich and Glenmorangie are the distillery's that offer the largest number of "finished" whisky's. If you can find a maderia finish, Glenmorangie used to offer one and Benriach still does", it's also a very nice touch.

Glenfiddich's 21yr is a rum finish, used to be called the Havana Reserva as it was Cuban rum casks used but that prohibited it's sale in the US so they changed the cask to a "caribbean rum". Their 15yr uses the solera tun method from brandy makers to marry 3 separate sets of wood maturation; bourbon, sherry and new oak. Also a very nice whisky along the same vein as the Doublewood.