commerce
Single cask
No legal definition
A bottling drawn from one individual cask rather than a vatting of several, normally identified by cask number and yielding a finite outturn.
Not a legal term
No whisky regulation in Scotland, Ireland, the United States, the EU or Japan defines this. It is a trade or marketing term, so it is only actionable if its use is actively misleading.
Often confused with single malt
Single malt means one distillery; single cask means one cask. Almost all single malt is multi-cask.
Worth knowing
No jurisdiction defines it. Nothing prevents reducing a 'single cask' bottling with water, filtering it, or splitting one cask across two 'single cask' releases at different strengths. 'Single barrel' in the US is equally undefined.
Related terms
Last reviewed 2026-07-30 · All glossary terms