“Small Batch” has become a throw-away phrase.

When major distilleries are still allowed to allocate the term "small batch" to a release of up to 20,000 Litres of Whisky, I don’t know about you, but to us that doesn’t SOUND small…

We barrel 1 barrel per month, THAT IS 12 per year.

If we accumulated barrels for 8 years and released them all at the same time, it would still be considered small batch…So when we release one barrel at a tiME, WITHOUT any blending and hand label and number every single bottle, that’s a pretty tiny batch in the greater scheme of things. A pretty special one too.

A charred barrel HAS had its interior exposed with an open flame, in other words "burnt". The level of char is just the time you choose to let that fire burn the wood. And while the purpose of charring seems sort of intuitive — a charred surface yields a smokey flavour, right? The char has almost nothing to do with smokiness and its effects are far more complicated. And delicious.

Heavy Char

- Caramel Toffee
- Smokey Spice
- Mellow

The Heavier Char usually leads to a spirit with distinctive notes of caramel toffee, smoke and spice. 

Medium Char

- Oaky Tannin
- Coconut
- Floral

The Medium Char usually leads to fresher, more vibrant spirit with DISTINCTIVE notes of wood, coconut and pepper.

To understand “why char” — and to what extent — it’s useful to know what’s going on in the wood itself. Fortunately, as far as barrel science is concerned we only look at a small group of compounds.

There’s the cellulose, which creates a tight bond (but doesn’t react with the whiskey itself), hemicellulose, lignin, tannins, and oak lactones. And the extent to which you char a barrel will have an impact on those last four.

HEMICELLULOSE
The hemicellulose is one of the most important components of American oak. When exposed to high levels of heat (140°C and above), hemicellulose will break down into wood sugars, allowing for some caramelisation on the interior surface of the barrel. If you’ve ever enjoyed a bourbon with notes of brown sugar, caramel, or toffee, you’ve got hemicellulose to thank. Just don’t do it out loud. That’d be weird.

LIGNIN
Lignin is also very important since that’s where vanillin (aka vanilla flavour) and spice come from. The more a barrel is charred, the more the lignin yields flavours of spice and smoke.

TANNINS
Tannins should be a fairly familiar word to most by now (if only because we tend to blame them for our red wine headaches). Well before the oak barrel is charred, the oak itself is “seasoned,” allowed to dry out—often in the elements—to get rid of the harsher tannins. But those left over are essential for successful long-term maturation. The higher the char, the mellower the interaction between spirit and tannin.

OAK LACTONES
And then there are the oak lactones. Don’t let the term scare you. They’re compounds present in many species of oak tree, but in higher volume in American oak. And they’re responsible for the woody/coconut flavours you’ll find in many bourbons. The higher the char, the less the impact of the oak lactones.

Char levels aren’t dictated for every kind of spirit, certainly not worldwide, but the amount of fire you subject your barrel to (even if it’s a simple toasting) can have a significant impact on the way the wood interacts with, well, whatever the hell you put inside it.

We ship to the whole of South Africa.

Our lead time is normally 2 days to process and pack and 3 days to ship.

You are also able to collect your order at our distillery in Cape Town at Makers Landing, Cape Town Cruise Terminal.

We offer tastings at the distillery

Thursday: 10 am-5 pm
Friday - Sunday: 10 am-8 pm

Pienaar & Son Distilling Co.
Makers Landing
Cape Town Cruise Terminal
Cape Town
T. 0727599928