Understanding Whisky Colours: What That Amber Hue Really Tells You
When you pour a dram, one of the first things you notice is the colour. That beautiful amber glow in the glass promises richness, age, quality. Or does it? The truth about whisky colour is more complicated — and more interesting — than most people realise. Let me explain.
What gives whisky its colour?
New-make spirit coming off the still is completely clear. All the colour in whisky comes from its time in oak casks. During maturation, the spirit extracts colour compounds from the wood, along with flavour and aroma. The longer it sits, and the more active the cask, the darker it gets. Simple, right?
Well, not quite.
The colour you see depends on several factors:
Type of oak: American oak tends to give whisky a more reddish or golden hue, while European oak leans toward deeper amber and brown tones. Some Japanese whiskies also use Mizunara oak, which tends to impart a paler colour.
Previous contents of the cask: Ex-bourbon barrels typically produce lighter, golden colours. Ex-sherry casks — especially those that held Oloroso or PX sherry — create much darker, mahogany tones. Port casks add reddish hues. Wine casks can go either way depending on the type of wine.
Age and cask activity: A 10-year-old whisky in a first-fill sherry cask will be much darker than a 20-year-old in a tired refill bourbon barrel. The cask's previous use matters more than the years.
Virgin vs used casks: Virgin oak (new casks) impart colour much more aggressively, which is why American bourbon, which must use new oak, tends to be quite dark even when young.
The problem with colour: artificial additives
Here's the uncomfortable truth that the whisky industry doesn't always like to talk about: most whisky has artificial colour added. In Scotland, distillers are permitted to add E150a (spirit caramel) to their whisky to create a consistent colour across batches. And many, many do.
Why? Consistency. If you're bottling thousands of cases from different casks, you want them all to look the same. Consumers expect their favourite whisky to look identical every time they buy it. Natural colour varies wildly between casks, so adding caramel colouring solves that problem.
The result? You can't trust colour to tell you anything about the whisky in many cases. That rich mahogany hue might be from decades in sherry casks, or it might be from a splash of caramel added just before bottling. There's often no way to tell just by looking.
Take Aberlour 16 as an example. It's bottled with added colouring, chill-filtered, and at 40% ABV. The mahogany colour is certainly attractive, but as I noted in my review, it's "sadly meaningless given its artificial nature." For a whisky that retails north of £100, that feels like a missed opportunity for transparency.
When colour actually means something
The good news? There's a growing movement toward natural colour, and when you find a whisky that's genuinely naturally coloured, the colour becomes meaningful again.
Benriach 12 is a perfect example. It's naturally coloured, and you can see the port cask influence in its darker, tawny hue. That colour is real — it tells you something about the cask types used and how they've shaped the whisky.
Generally, distilleries that avoid artificial colouring will proudly state "natural colour" or "no added colour" on the label. If it doesn't say it, assume colour has been added. That's the safest bet.
Why Use a colour chart?
Despite all these caveats, colour charts can still be useful — you just need to know their limitations. These charts, originally developed by whisky legend Charlie Maclean, categorise whisky colours into ranges from pale straw through to deep mahogany or even treacle.
They're helpful for:
Describing what you see in the glass
Comparing naturally coloured whiskies
Understanding general cask influence trends
Adding another dimension to your tasting notes
But they're not reliable for:
Judging quality or age
Determining value
Predicting flavour (unless you know the whisky is naturally coloured)
How to properly assess whisky colour
If you want to look at whisky colour properly, here's what I do:
1. Check the label first: Does it say "natural colour" or "no added colour"? If not, take the colour with a pinch of salt.
2. Use good lighting and a white background: Natural daylight is best. Hold the glass against something white — a piece of paper, a wall, whatever's handy.
3. Look for consistency: If every bottle of a particular whisky looks identical, that's a clue that colour might be standardised artificially.
4. Compare similar whiskies: If two 12-year-old Speyside whiskies look radically different and both claim to be naturally coloured, that tells you something about their different cask regimes.
5. Don't overthink it: Colour is interesting, but it's just one small part of the whole picture. I've had pale whiskies that were incredible and dark ones that were disappointing.
My take on colour
After trying dozens of whiskies for this site, I've learned that colour is probably the least reliable indicator of quality. I've been disappointed by rich, dark drams and blown away by pale ones. Age statements, cask types, ABV, and whether it's chill-filtered all matter far more.
That said, I do prefer naturally coloured whisky on principle. It's honest. It shows the distillery trusts their product and values transparency over cosmetic consistency. When I see "natural colour" on a label, it's a small tick in that whisky's favour.
And yes, there's something undeniably satisfying about holding a naturally coloured dram up to the light and knowing that what you're seeing is real — the genuine result of years in oak, not a marketing department's idea of what whisky should look like.
The bottom line
Whisky colour can tell you interesting things about maturation and cask types, but only if it's natural. Since most whisky has colour added, treat it as decoration rather than information. Focus on what the whisky actually tastes like, and use colour as just one small piece of a much bigger picture.
If you want to dive deeper into understanding what you're drinking, check out my posts on chill filtration and the whisky tasting wheel — both will give you more reliable tools for evaluating what's in your glass.