The questions
Answered concisely
Chill haze, the flavour wheel, sherry casks, STR, and the rest, answered concisely.
- What is an STR cask?STR stands for shave, toast, rechar. It is a way of preparing a cask that has already held something else, usually red wine, so that it can mature whisky. Jim Swan developed it from 2008, working with experienced coopers.
- Who created the whisky flavour wheel?It was devised in 1979 by Jim Swan and Sheila Burtles at Pentlands Scotch Whisky Research, working with the master blenders Paul Rickards of Robertson and Baxter and George Shortreed of Justerini and Brooks.
- What is chill haze in whisky?It is the clouding that appears when a whisky is chilled or diluted. It is not a fault. The compounds responsible were identified in 1968 at Inveresk, and they come from fermentation.
- Can good malt whisky be made in a hot climate?Yes. Advances in science and technology have made it possible to make good malt whisky whatever the climate, and distilleries in India, Taiwan and Israel have been doing so since the 1990s.
- What is a sherry cask?A sherry cask is one that has held sherry. The name describes the contents rather than the wood, and the two have been confused for generations.
- What was the research laboratory at Inveresk?A contract research organisation at Musselburgh, a market town on the coast east of Edinburgh, working across food, industry and consumer products. Jim Swan joined in the autumn of 1965, at a point when sensory science was a growing field.
Last reviewed 3 August 2026