The VENAKKI DISTILLERY is The Pioneer of Portuguese Whisky - and the winner of the Liquid Gold Award by Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2021 - a small privately owned and independent label producing contemporary experimental spirits, and the house behind this exceptional VENAKKI WHISKY.
The VENAKKI WOODWORK Rare Portuguese Cask exemplifies craftsmanship, cooperage and wood management at its finest. Breaking ground through exploration, ingenuity, expertise, and curiosity, it is the result of a few unusual and even rather controversial experiments with Art & Heart infused throughout the process.
To quote Jim Murray (Whisky Bible 2021) “Venakki are not scared of going gung-ho on the flavour front and providing edge of seat, gripping entertainment….”, “… sit down, fasten your seatbelt…and hold on for dear life!”
When it comes to the flavour profile of a VENAKKI WOODWORK WHISKY, the Cask Maturation program may contribute up to 80% of the flavour and to 100% of its color, it’s both magic and science and we believe that blending these two is an art.
A word from the producer: As Independent Distillers we have the opportunity to make contemporary spirits while looking back to a time where things were simply done in the best possible way, the right way.
While based in an uncommon whisky provenance we rely on our terroir and long tradition of making and aging world renounced wines and of being the birthplace of some of the world’s most sought-after casks for aging and maturing whisky.
The Continental climate with Atlantic influence throughout the year; of warm days and cool nights (daily thermal variations ranging typically from 15º C to 40º C / 60º F to 105º F) drives our Whisky to extract from the cask all the goodness for which we’ve prepared them.
As The Pioneer of Portuguese Whisky we explore the endless possibilities of our traditional cooperage. Our BESPOKE OAK CASKS are naturally air seasoned oak up to 36 months, and can simultaneously be built combining staves of different toasts and provenance, such as American and European Oak.
While our RARE PORTUGUESE CASKS whose self-explanatory name announces its rarity, provenance and that typically these have previously contained fine wines such as Port, Madeira, Douro, Moscatel De Alexandria, or Brandy, to name a few, and are the backbone of the unique WOODWORK WHISKY expressions.
The type of wood, the making of the cask, new or first fills that contain the heritage of previous aging’s, and even the making of the cask aging warehouse, are all reasons for the unique expressions of our WOODWORK WHISKY. We dare to say that it is our very own soul; the distinctive expression of the Woodwork series.
