Rows of sample bottles
On a sampling day, the team draws from a set of casks, fills small bottles and writes cask numbers on them. Back in the lab, strengths are measured and noted. The master distiller or blender noses and tastes, and writes notes in a personal notebook. Some regauge readings are taken where needed and go on another sheet. A year later, when you are choosing casks for a release, the notes for cask 812 are in a notebook that has moved desks twice.
Why sampling knowledge scatters
Sampling involves the warehouse, the lab and the tasting bench, and each keeps its own records. The link between them is the cask number written on a bottle. Tasting notes are personal and often informal. Readings are in spreadsheets that are not joined to the cask list. Over years, the history of a single cask is spread across all of them.
- Sample bottles are labelled by hand.
- Strength and volume readings go into a lab sheet, not the cask record.
- Tasting notes live in personal notebooks.
- Photos of colour are on someone's phone.
- A cask's history cannot be seen in one place.
What scattered notes cost
Selection for a release takes longer and depends on who remembers what. Casks that were promising at one sampling are overlooked later. Private cask owners asking for an update get a thinner answer than they deserve. And if your blender moves on, much of the knowledge goes with them.
How often to sample, and what readings your records need, are for your own procedures and adviser. We make sure what you do record stays with the cask.
Every sample on the cask record
- A sampling session is planned from the cask register: which casks, by location, with printed labels carrying each cask's code.
- Scanning the cask and the sample label links the bottle to the cask at the point of drawing.
- In the lab, strength and any volume or regauge readings are entered by scanning the sample, so they go straight to the cask record.
- Tasting notes are entered on a short form with a few scored attributes and free text, plus a photo of the colour.
- Each cask shows a timeline: fill, every sample, readings and notes, re-racks and moves.
- Searching and filtering casks by age, cask type, strength and tasting score gives a shortlist for a release.
- Private owner casks can have a summary produced for the owner from the same record, if you choose.
| Information | Where it was | Where it is now |
|---|---|---|
| Sample to cask link | Hand label | Scanned at drawing |
| Strength and regauge | Lab sheet | Cask timeline |
| Tasting notes | Personal notebook | Scored form on the cask |
| Colour | Phone photo | Photo on the cask |
| Re-racks and moves | Warehouse plan | Cask timeline |
Choosing casks with the full history
When you plan a release, you filter casks and read each one's history in a minute: how it tasted at three years, five and seven, how its strength moved, what it was re-racked into. The blender's knowledge is kept with the casks. Private owners can get a clearer picture of their cask. And new team members can learn the warehouse by reading it.
Sampling days also get quicker. The list is printed in walking order, labels are ready before anyone opens a bung, and nothing has to be copied from a bottle into a spreadsheet afterwards, which is where most numbers used to get transposed.
Is this your sampling?
- Sample bottles are labelled by hand.
- Tasting notes are in personal notebooks.
- Readings are in lab sheets not joined to casks.
- Choosing casks for a release depends on memory.
- A cask's full history cannot be seen in one place.