Whisky Vocabulary: Every Term Explained

Walk into any distillery or tasting room and you'll hear a language of its own: wort, angels' share, first-fill, dram. Here is your complete translation guide — every essential whisky term, explained simply. Bookmark this page; it grows as the Society asks new questions.

Raw Materials & Fermentation

Malt / Malted barley — Barley that has been soaked, allowed to germinate, and then dried. Germination unlocks the enzymes that convert starch into fermentable sugar.

Malting — The process above. Traditionally done on a malting floor, today mostly at specialist maltsters.

Peat — Compressed, ancient vegetation cut from bogs. Burned to dry malt, it gives whisky its smoky character.

Phenols / PPM — The smoky compounds absorbed by malt from peat smoke, measured in parts per million. Islay malts often sit at 30-50+ ppm.

Grist — Milled malt, ready for mashing.

Mashing — Mixing grist with hot water in a mash tun to dissolve the sugars.

Wort — The sweet, sugary liquid drawn off the mash tun.

Wash — Wort after fermentation with yeast: essentially a strong, unhopped beer of 7-10% ABV, ready for distillation.

Washback — The large vessel (wooden or stainless steel) where fermentation happens.

Distillation

Pot still — The traditional copper kettle-shaped still, used in batches. Produces heavier, more characterful spirit. All Scotch single malt is pot-distilled.

Column still (Coffey still / continuous still) — A tall still that runs continuously, producing lighter, higher-strength spirit. Used for grain whisky and most bourbon.

Spirit still / Wash still — In Scotch distilleries, the wash still performs the first distillation; the spirit still the second.

Cut / Cut points — The distiller's decision about which part of the spirit run to keep. The heart is kept; the foreshots (heads) and feints (tails) are redistilled.

New make spirit — The clear spirit straight off the still, before it touches oak.

Condenser — Turns alcohol vapour back into liquid. Shell-and-tube condensers give a lighter spirit; traditional worm tubs give a heavier, meatier one. (Read my full deep-dive: Worm Tubs vs Shell & Tube Condensers.)

Lyne arm — The pipe carrying vapour from the still to the condenser. Its angle influences how much vapour falls back for redistillation — and therefore the spirit's weight.

Reflux — Vapour condensing inside the still and being redistilled. More reflux = lighter, cleaner spirit.

Maturation & Casks

Cask / Barrel — The oak container where whisky matures. Sizes matter: barrel (~200L), hogshead (~250L), butt (~500L).

First-fill / Refill — A first-fill cask is being used for whisky for the first time after holding sherry or bourbon; it gives more flavour. Refill casks are gentler.

Ex-bourbon cask — American oak that previously held bourbon. Gives vanilla, coconut, honey.

Sherry cask (butt) — European (or American) oak that held sherry. Gives dried fruit, spice, richness.

Charring / Toasting — Heat treatment of the cask interior, unlocking flavour compounds in the oak. Bourbon requires new charred oak.

Angels' share — The whisky lost to evaporation during ageing — roughly 2% per year in Scotland, far more in hot climates.

Finish (cask finishing) — Transferring matured whisky into a different cask for a final period, e.g. "port finish."

Age statement — The number on the label — always the YOUNGEST whisky in the bottle.

Mizunara — Rare Japanese oak, prized for sandalwood and incense notes.

Styles & Categories

Single malt — Whisky from one distillery, made from 100% malted barley, pot-distilled.

Single grain — Whisky from one distillery, made from other grains (wheat, corn), usually column-distilled.

Blended whisky — A marriage of malt and grain whiskies from multiple distilleries. Most of the world's whisky is blended.

Blended malt — A blend of single malts only, no grain whisky.

Single cask — Bottled from one individual cask. No two are identical.

Bourbon — American whiskey from at least 51% corn, aged in new charred oak.

Rye — American whiskey from at least 51% rye grain; spicier and drier than bourbon.

Single pot still — A uniquely Irish style using both malted and unmalted barley in a pot still.

Bottling & Label Terms

ABV — Alcohol by volume. Legal minimum for Scotch is 40%.

Cask strength — Bottled undiluted, straight from the cask, typically 55-65% ABV.

Chill filtration — Cooling and filtering whisky to remove compounds that cause cloudiness. "Non-chill filtered" whiskies keep more texture and flavour.

E150 / Caramel colouring — Permitted colour added for batch consistency. Natural-colour whiskies state it proudly.

Dram — A pour of whisky. The most useful word in this list.

Tasting Terms

Nose / Nosing — Smelling the whisky; where most of tasting actually happens.

Palate — The flavours perceived in the mouth.

Finish — What remains after swallowing: short or long, warming, spicy, smoky.

Legs / Tears — The streaks whisky leaves on the glass wall; a hint about texture and strength, not quality.

Ester — Fruity aromatic compounds created during fermentation — think pear, apple, banana.

Now put the vocabulary to work: read How to Taste Whisky Like a Professional, then test yourself against my latest tasting notes. Missing a term? Ask the Society — I'll add it to this page.