Whisky Casks Glossary

ABV or Alcohol By Volume is expressed as a percentage. For example a cask filled at 63.5%ABV has liquid that is 63.5% alcohol and 16.5% of the liquid is water and a few other bits and pieces that are 0% alcohol.

The AYS, or age of the youngest spirit, tells when the cask was filled with new make spirit.

Mamal with a large body with stocky legs, long snout, small rounded ears, shaggy hair, big paws with five non-retractile claws, and a short tail. In Wisgy 's Cask Broker Food Chain 'bears' represent the traditional old school cask brokers, a trophic level near the top of the cask broker pyramid.

Bulk litres refers to the total amount of liquid in the cask 

It's more of a cask broker food web actually.

The Cask Broker Pyramid is a model that depicts the structure of the cask brokering ecosystem in humorous metaphorical terms of the trophic levels of a food chain.

Decomposers occupy a unique role in the trophic structure of ecosystems. While not assigned a specific trophic level in the traditional sense, they break down dead organisms and organic waste from all other trophic levels, effectively recycling throughout the ecosystem. Decomposers don't fit neatly into the hierarchical structure of Wisgy's Cask Broker Food Chain but the decomposers represent the 'SCIVs' whos activity runs parallel to all other trophic levels.

A delivery order, or 'DO' is a transfer document that contains instructions for a warehouse to transfer casks from the ownership of one company to another.

A factory that is devoted to distilling. Sometimes beer is distilled as part of the process to make whisky.

The fictionalised names of three competing SCIVs referenced in an anecdote in The Secret Cask Broker.

A small to medium sized omnivorous mammal with a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail.  In Wisgy's Cask Broker Food Chain 'foxes' represent the brokers at the middle of the cask broker pyramid.

Independent bottlings are companies that buy casks from distilleries, brokers and individuals and then 'bottle' and sell them under their own brand labels.

It has a muscular, broad-chested body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the tip of its tail. In Wisgy's Cask Broker Food Chain 'lions' represent the distilleries, these apex predators are in the trophic level at the top of the cask broker pyramid.

The wild-living parakeet population is mostly concentrated in suburban areas of London and the Home Counties of South-East England. The parakeets breed rapidly and have spread beyond these areas; flocks have been sighted in other parts of Britain. Separate populations exist in and around other world cities. 

In Wisgy's Cask Broker Food Chain 'London Parakeets' represent the private investors, they are not represented in the cask broker pyramid. They compete with with other species for whisky casks, further increasing competition and disrupting local ecosystems. The effect of competitive exclusion has not been extensively studied but there is concern amongst some observers that the rapidly growing parakeet population could have unforeseen environmental impacts.

Distilled spirit that has not yet been aged in cask

OLA or 'original litres of alcohol' tells you the original litres of pure alcohol as a volume.

Some offers just give you a total amount of OLA available for say, a parcel of 30 casks.

The trade price is normally expressed as price per OLA (for young casks) and price per RLA (for more mature casks).

At any point between filling a cask and it being bottled, the cask will be re-gauged to establish its current fill level, alcohol strength.

‘Re-racking’ means to take a whisky out of the cask it's currently in and put it into a different cask. Normally this is done if there is a problem with the way the whisky is maturing in the original cask.

See 'Sheep'

See 'Foxes'

At a certain point before bottling, the cask will be re-gauged to establish its current fill level. The  RLA, or re-gauged litres of alcohol tells you the current amount of pure alcohol in that cask.

Speculative Cask Investment Vehicles appear to trade casks the same way as the Bear brokers, Fox brokers and Sheep brokers, but with a different purpose.

The Secret Cask Broker self identifies as a sheep in Wisgy's Cask Broker Food Chain.

See 'Rabbits'

A single malt whisky is a whisky made from malted barley from a single distillery. There are specific rules around what whisky can be called a 'single malt'.

A single cask whisky has unique characteristics because it have been drawn from one individual cask. Not to be confused with vatted whisky.

See 'Bears'

If a cask of single malt has a ‘teaspoon’ of another single malt in it, it's technically a blended malt. The idea being that a teaspoon of another whisky stops Glenmorangie, for example, being sold as ‘Glenmorangie’ to third parties. now it's Westport blended malt. It tastes exactly the same so it’s got the same value for blending stock but no value as a replica brand. 

A tea spooned whisky doesn't even need to be tea spooned at all as long as a distiller claims that there is a teaspoon of something else in it, it automatically becomes a 'blended malt' rather than a 'single malt'.

In Wisgy's Cask Broker Food Chain each trophic level represents step in the cask broker pyramid ecosystem.

Vatting is where two or more casks are mixed together to make a vatted whisky.

Casks of single malt Scotch whisky must be stored in a licenced bonded warehouse within Scotland.

WOWGR stands for 'Warehousekeepers and Owners of Warehoused Goods Regulations'. The regulations were established in 1999 and revoked in 2025. They were never necessary, or indeed created years of unforeseen problems. They were never properly understood by administrators, but often referenced as a shorthand  for sounding well versed in cask trading.