What Is a Dunnage Warehouse?

Published 01/02/2024

A dunnage warehouse is the old-school, traditional type of whisky warehouse. The kind that appears on every distillery tour as if it were a living museum exhibit entitled “How Whisky Used to Be Stored Back Before Anyone Invented Practicality.” You may even have sipped a glass in one, feeling very authentic and slightly chilly. They are charming, atmospheric, and largely abandoned in favour of something less poetic and more sensible, because they are about as efficient as a Glasgow pub lock-in on a Monday morning. Whisky, as any sensible person knows, does not spring fully formed from the head of a distiller like some sort of alcoholic Athena. No, it has to age, which is a polite way of saying it spends several years sitting quietly in a wooden barrel while mysterious chemical wizardry takes place in the dark. Seventy percent of its flavour appears during this waiting period, which is why whisky is not stored in plastic tubs next to last night’s leftovers.