SOLARES: Dhavall Gandhi’s game-changer for Indian whisky maturation

Whisky maturation in tropical climates has a new contender. Former Macallan and Lakes whiskymaker Dhavall Gandhi has introduced SOLARES, a cask created in collaboration with Spanish cooperage and winemakers José y Miguel Martín.

SOLARES is a custom barrel. But it also represents a fundamental rethink of how whisky matures in heat. It is designed for use in India and promises distillers greater consistency and control over their whisky’s character.

According to Gandhi, traditional methods fall short in these climates. So he set out to create a system that respects flavour, supports quality, and scales effectively.

SOLARES is his solution. In an exclusive interview with Master of Malt, he breaks down exactly how it works.

What Is SOLARES?

SOLARES is a 225-litre barrique, a type of oak barrel traditionally used in winemaking. It’s made from American oak and originally matured Rioja or Ribera del Duero wine. From there, it undergoes a proprietary transformation and seasoning process in Puerto de Santa María.

Gandhi has been developing the project for over five years with Spanish cooperage José y Miguel Martín, widely recognised as a leading authority on sherry cask maturation. “I admire him because he invests heavily in technology and has deep knowledge of seasoning and coopering,” says Gandhi. “I wanted to combine what I’d learned with his expertise to create a cask purpose-built for the Indian market.”

To look at, SOLARES is just another cask. That’s because Gandhi hasn’t reinvented the wheel, but he has fitted it with better treads for India’s climate. Just as a sherry cask delivers a different profile to a bourbon cask, SOLARES brings its own distinctive character.

How SOLARES casks are made

Gandhi chose American oak for SOLARES because its tighter grain makes it better suited to hot climates. It’s less extractive than European oak, which helps slow down the interaction between spirit and wood.

A specific heating process is central to how these casks work. Gandhi explains that different layers form within each stave, with fresh oak at the core, wine-saturated layers above. By adjusting the temperature during toasting, they control the distance between those layers. If the spirit takes longer to reach the fresh oak, extraction slows down, leading to a more balanced profile. Reduce that distance, and you increase intensity. In India, the goal is to delay that contact. SOLARES is engineered to do exactly that.

Producing the casks in Spain brings further advantages. Using local wine varieties supports a vertical supply chain. There are no middlemen or agents. Good relationships with wineries mean they can buy barrels in bulk, sulphur-free. Many cask buyers don’t have the luxury of purchasing barrels as soon as they are empty, so wineries often sulphur their casks to prevent bacterial spoilage. The SOLARES process avoids this completely, allowing for a seamless and scalable supply.

“There’s no point saying I’ve created a great cask if you can only have a hundred,” says Gandhi. “If you want 10,000, we can do it. If you want 20,000, we can do it.”

The styles of SOLARES

SOLARES is available in three distinct styles:

DULCE – Rich and sweet
MEDIO – Balanced and rounded, with layered spice and vanillin.
SECO – Dry and complex

Remember, these are all red wine-seasoned American oak barrels, so the sliding scale of dry to sweet occurs within the flavour structures those two elements bring. 

Gandhi says the system simplifies flavour creation in countries like India by building blending potential into the cask itself. Each one contains three layers that can be adjusted to shape the final profile. 

Instead of ordering a mixed batch of barrels and blending after maturation, distillers can work with pre-defined flavour variables that are ready to be fine-tuned from the outset.

The story of SOLARES

Gandhi’s route into whisky came via corporate finance, specialising in strategy and analytics, before moving into brewing with Heineken. His first actual whisky role came at The Macallan, where he developed a fascination with maturation, especially the way sherry casks could transform a spirit’s character.

He was later recruited by The Lakes Distillery, which at the time lacked a clear maturation strategy. Most of the stock sat in bourbon casks. Gandhi redirected the profile, introducing structure and purpose. Along the way, he deepened his ties with Spanish cooperages and cask producers.

When he left Lakes in 2022 to launch his own strategy consultancy, he built it around this concept of transformation, turning underperforming stock into something with identity and direction. His work now involves helping mid to large-scale producers reimagine their ageing programmes.

“People didn’t have a strategy,” he says. “They’d fill a cask and wait. But that’s not how you build a brand.”

The challenges to overcome

Gandhi’s consulting work took him frequently to Asia, where he found a common issue: a lack of long-term data and understanding around maturation. While India has a strong spirits industry, until relatively recently (in whisky terms, anyway), much of it has centred on Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) blended with a proportion of malt whisky. Single malt, he says, requires a different mindset entirely.

Gandhi identified two core problems. First, there was no consistent strategy behind cask procurement, which meant producers lacked a dependable flavour foundation when it came time to build a product range. Second, the quality of available casks varied wildly.

“There was no reliable source that could deliver consistent maturation,” he says. “If I’m working on a product that will need 30,000 cases in three or four years, I have to know I can get there. But what I saw was some casks performing well, others failing entirely, and no way to balance the results.”

Like wearing a cashmere sweater in Mumbai

The bigger issue was that the casks being used weren’t suited to the environment. Most were the same styles used in Scotland or Kentucky. European oak, often used for oloroso-seasoned casks, might thrive in Scotland’s mild climate, but in India, its porous nature and the high humidity can create excessive extraction and bitterness. The result is often an over-matured spirit with little room for nuance.

The project is rooted in India, a place of particular importance for Gandhi as it’s where he was born. But more than that, it presents a unique maturation challenge. “People talk about a tropical climate, but India isn’t just one thing,” he says. “There are tropical, subtropical, and even Alpine conditions. You get four or five different climatic zones across the country.”

Rapid maturation may sound like a win, but it can push extraction too far. The oft-repeated idea that seven years in India equals 21 in Scotland oversimplifies the reality. Too much interaction between spirit and wood can lead to imbalance and major batch inconsistency.

For Gandhi, whisky makers must respond to their environment. What works in Speyside or Kentucky doesn’t necessarily apply in Goa or Uttarakhand. “We used to make whisky in just a few countries. Now it’s being made everywhere. You can’t just apply the same rules across the board. It’s like wearing a cashmere sweater in Mumbai.”

Where SOLARES comes into the equation

To be a solution to this problem, SOLARES had to be sustainable in two ways: it needed to support consistent flavour development and work within the environmental realities of modern whisky production.

Like any other barrel, performance depends on variables such as spirit character or whether it’s used for maturation or finishing. It’s not an insulated cask either. Evaporation in India can reach 18 to 25% annually. SOLARES isn’t built to fight the Angel’s Share. If a quarter of the spirit disappears each year, the clock is ticking no matter what you’re maturing it in.

But what it does deliver is control. Years of trials have led to consistent results in colour, extraction, and flavour, making life far easier for blenders. The cost per litre is also competitive, critical when you’re working with volumes of 10,000 casks or more. One distillery Gandhi works with requires 24,000 barrels a year. He says hundreds more like it are either under construction or soon will be across India.

Sustainability built in

Of course, whisky innovation can no longer focus solely on flavour. It has to consider impact. SOLARES was designed with sustainability at its core, transforming wine casks rather than relying on new oak.

“If I had to construct a new cask, that means tree felling in America, transporting logs, building the cask, seasoning – all that energy,” says Gandhi. “We use casks already in circulation from the wine industry.”

Every barrel is made from repurposed wood, reducing deforestation and waste. The cooperage runs entirely on renewable energy. The goal is to cut the carbon footprint without compromising on quality or consistency.

Field-tested, future-proof, and personal

SOLARES isn’t a concept or a prototype. It’s already in use across India by whisky makers looking to bring structure and control to tropical maturation. Gandhi has also trialled it with Fiji rum, showing its versatility. 

But he’s clear: SOLARES was designed specifically for India. We’ll have to wait and see if this project extends beyond those borders and if there’s any appetite for them in more traditional whisky maturation climates. There will certainly be intrigue. 

“I’m not saying we need a new cask or new tech for every scenario,” Gandhi summarises. “But we do need to pay attention to microclimates and think about how to tweak maturation to suit them. This isn’t about offering a quick-fix finish. It’s about solving a deeper problem. Consistency, flavour, and scalable sustainability.”

SOLARES: Gandhi’s game-changer for Indian whisky maturation?

This is a personal project as much as a professional one. Gandhi’s passion lies in maturation, and SOLARES reflects that. While he respects distilleries that focus on flavour through fermentation or distillation, his heart is in the cask. On visits to his parents in India, he can tell them that the cask he helped create is shaping the future of whisky in his home country.

A new kind of cask for a new kind of whisky frontier. Built for consistency, sustainability, and flavour in hot climates. Designed by Dhavall Gandhi, crafted in Spain, and created to rethink how Indian distilleries approach maturation.

This is SOLARES. Not just a cask, but a welcome challenge to the status quo.

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