When we as cask participants consider the cask to be ready 😉
Okay, that’s perhaps a bit short of an answer. So let’s dive into this a bit more.
It starts with an estimate
When a cask is added to the casQ shop then an (initial) estimate is given based on the sample tasted by Willem and Adri.
That could be a single year or it’s a range of years and as mentioned, it’s an estimate.
When will it really be bottled?
That really depends on the outcome of the consultation after tasting the cask sample. It could be decided that we leave it longer in the cask as it still needs to mature further or that we think that we can get an even better dram with some more time, that we need to re-rack the cast, or that it’s ready to be bottled.
So the chance is there that it will not be bottled in the year / range of years that was initially mentioned on the casQ shop, and which is also visible in the cask topic on the casQ forum.
The cask is ready, when do I get my share?
After the decision to bottle has been made it will still take some time before we have the bottles available for distribution.
Here is a high level list of actions that will need to pass:
- The bottle order needs to be given by Willem and Adri.
- Will be done swiftly after the decison.
- The warehouse need to schedule the work to retrieve the cask from the warehouse and to empty it.
- Delays are no exception in this area.
- The label needs to be completed with the final details like ABV and end date of the maturation.
- Has a swift turn around so the labels can go to the printer.
- The actual bottling needs to be done.
- This also need to be planned and depends on the labels to be available at the bottle facility.
- Followed by transportation to The Netherlands.
- Post Brexit transport issues still persists, unfortunately.
- Transportation can also be delayed to save costs, e.g. by combining the shipment with another bottling from ourselves or another bottler / importer.
- Once delivered in The Netherlands, all invoices for the cask need to be received so the final payment can be calculated.
- This can take some weeks when a party is a bit slow with their invoicing.
- casQueteers.com will contact the participants for the final payment, with additional costs for shipping them to you or without additional costs when you do a pickup in e.g. Rotterdam or Heerle.
- The turn around on this is typically 2 weeks.
- And when that all has passed – then the bottles will be available to you.
So as you can imagine this will take some time and typically takes some months to complete rather than weeks.
How do I know the latest status?
To get hold of the latest status of the cask, you can start by checking the cask topic on the casQ forum as well as the recent tasting sessions. Also your downloadable personal order overview can tell you the answer (in the near future as we have started work to add this to the product attributes in the casQ shop).
If that all not helped you, then you can of course ask for an update on the forum or send a message via our contact form or directly via email.
The bottom line is that it will get to you at some point, so in the meantime relax and enjoy another wonderful dram in your glass.