WorkBook 2017

The effect of wood maturation on whiskey

F. Paul Pacult
Spirit Journal, Inc

thewhiskeyauthority.com

©
2017 SPIRIT JOURNAL, INC.

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 THE WHISKEY AUTHORITY (TWA) MISSION
Operated independently by New York-based Spirit Journal, Inc. and supported by brand mem-
bers, THE WHISKEY AUTHORITY provides unbiased, credible, and cutting-edge information
about all Whiskey categories directed at beverage trade audiences. THE WHISKEY AUTHORITY’s
dynamic, informative, and entertaining seminars include blind tastings of TWA’s members’
brands. Through seminars bolstered by three decades of Whiskey-tasting experience, award-
winning author, journalist, and educator F. Paul Pacult clears the clouds of confusion about Whis-
key. With clarity and humor Paul illustrates why Whiskey deserves its status as one of the world’s
most beloved distilled adult beverages.

F. PAUL PACULT 2017

Called “America’s foremost spirits authority” by Forbes.com, F. Paul Pacult has been the
publisher/editor of F. Paul Pacult’s Spirit Journal since 1991. Today, F. Paul Pacult’s Spirit Journal
is recognized as the premier independent source of spirits reviews and evaluations. He and
his wife/partner Sue Woodley are also the creators of the groundbreaking, highly successful
iWhiskey App. Through Spirit Journal, Inc., Paul and Sue consult for many of the beverage
alcohol industry’s largest international corporations as well as small artisinal companies.

Paul is the only journalist worldwide to concurrently be a life member and Master of Keepers
of the Quaich Whisky society (Edinburgh, Scotland), a life member of Kentucky’s Bourbon Hall of
Fame, and a life member of France’s Compagnie des Mouquetaires d’Armagnac (Company of Armag-
nac Musketeers). In September 2011, the Bureau National Interprofessional du Cognac (BNIC) in
France honored Paul as the Cognac Personality of the Year 2011. In January 2012, he was awarded the
Cheers Conference 2012 trophy for “Raising the Bar” in spirits education.

He is the author of five best-selling books: Kindred Spirits 2: 2,400 Reviews of Whiskey, Brandy,
Vodka, Tequila, Rum, Gin, and Liqueurs from F. Paul Pacult’s Spirit Journal 2000-2007 (Spirit Journal,
Inc., 2008); A Double Scotch: How Chivas Regal and The Glenlivet Became Global Icons (John Wiley,
2005), the best-selling American Still Life: The Jim Beam Story and the Making of the World’s #1
Bourbon (John Wiley, 2003), as well as Kindred Spirits (Hyperion, 1997) and The Beer Essentials
(Hyperion, 1997). He and Sue are currently writing Kindred Spirits 3: All One Needs to Know About
Spirits which will be available in 2019.

Paul is also a founding member of Beverage Alcohol Resource LLC (BAR) and Ultimate Bev-
erage Challenge LLC.

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 PRIMARY WHISKEY
All Whiskeys produced the world over are made up of a trio of fundamental base materials: grain, yeast, and
water. On the surface this sounds like the ingredients for baking bread. Or, for that matter, beer. For good
reason. Grain, which is sometimes malted, yeast, and water are the constituents of both bread and beer.
Maybe that’s why some Whiskeys own bread-like, doughy or yeasty aromatic and taste qualities.

But with just three primary ingredients, why is Whiskey such a complicated beverage category? That’s
the question that can cause the most confusion. The Whiskey category’s wide latitude of types from various
regions of the globe are best defined and preserved through the prism of a half-dozen pivotal factors that
affect telltale characteristics:

• First, the choice of grain(s), meaning that specific kinds of grains (rye, wheat, corn aka, maize, barley, oats,
spelt) create specific varieties of aromas and tastes that are considered germane to certain subcategories. To illus-
trate, straight Bourbon Whiskey is sweeter than, say, single malt Scotch Whisky because corn contains
more sugar in its makeup than barley.

• Second, the management and selection of oak barrels, in terms of barrel variety and the duration of
the maturation period. Most distillers will tell you that the period of oak barrel aging and the variety and
history of the barrel influence the aroma and taste of Whiskey by from 60% to 80%. (SEE APPENDIX A)

• Third, the origin, quality, and preservation of the water source. Yes, water is a key element, in that,
even though Whiskeys are fermented first then distilled, water can and does affect the final outcome
and is why so many distilleries fiercely protect their water source.

• Fourth, the terroir effect, if any, on the Whiskey, meaning the environmental influence of the Whiskey’s place
of origin. This is a controversial point, but there can be a strong case made for certain Whiskeys being
directly influenced by the location of the distillery or, more importantly, the aging warehouses.

• Fifth, the variety of distillation utilized, meaning customary, labor-intensive, batch-by-batch pot-still or
efficient column still distillation or even a blend of both. This key factor is often misunderstood not only by
the drinking public but by beverage tradespeople, as well. One method isn’t better than the other. They
merely provide different types of unaged spirit that eventually becomes Whiskey.

• And sixth, the Whiskey production laws and standards of the originating nation or region.

These half-dozen aspects are crucial to each Whiskey type’s underlying personality and degree of
quality. The best way to understand the centuries-old universe of Whiskey is to take a tour of the world’s
foremost Whiskey making nations. That’s the mission of THE WHISKEY AUTHORITY.

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 In addition to recognizing the six factors to quality, it’s likewise good to understand a few other funda-
mental facts. For instance, the word Whiskey is derived from the ancient Gaelic term for “water of life”, uisge
beatha (OOSH-kah bay-ah). Making matters somewhat confusing is how different nations prefer to spell
Whiskey. Ireland and the U.S., with some exceptions like Maker’s Mark Bourbon, prefer the employment of
the “e” while Canada, Japan, and Scotland drop the “e”. The plurals then become “Whiskeys” for Whiskey and
“Whiskies” for Whisky. When referring to the worldwide industry, THE WHISKEY AUTHORITY chooses to
use “Whiskey”.

Also, Whiskey is produced in many countries that grow grain. The “Big Five” are Scotland, United States,
Canada, Ireland, and Japan. Other Whiskey-making nations, to lesser degree, include England, France, India,
Australia, Taiwan, Belgium, South Africa, and Wales. Then there are the mushrooming “craft” distillers in
North America and Europe, who have Whiskey in their portfolios.

The reality is that imbibers inhabit the best time in history to be a Whiskey lover.

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 WHISKEY DOSSIER: WATER OF LIFE
Latin-speaking medieval Christian monks called them “aqua vitae”. The monks’ contemporaries in France
referred to them as “eau-de-vie”. Gaelic-speaking distillers in Ireland and Scotland identified them as “uisge
beatha”. Poles and Russians labeled them as “zhizennia voda”. All of these regional monikers meant one
thing: “water of life”.

These names were employed in direct reference to the fermented and distilled liquids that by the fif-
teenth century had become firmly rooted in societies from Russia, Poland, Scandinavia, Germany, and the
British Isles in Europe’s northern tier to France, Spain, Italy, and Greece in the south. But, what was meant by
“water of life”? Why use this evocative combination of terms? The meaning has to do with how distilled liq-
uids were viewed in the first place and how they evolved over two and a half millennia.

>> Fermentation First, Then Distillation

The beverages that we’re talking about come about through two necessary transformative processes: fermen-
tation and distillation. Well prior to the discovery of the process of distillation, which most likely occurred in
or around the region of what is today Pakistan and northern India in the second century B.C.E., Eurasian
farmers utilized fermentation to convert commonplace fruit juices, especially grape juice, and grain mashes
into low-alcohol (5 to 12 percent) beverages. Alcohol, carbon dioxide, and heat are generated when a univer-
sally available microorganism ― yeast ― consumes innate sugars in either fruit juices or mashes of grain.

Fermentation is a natural biochemical process that is triggered whenever sugary liquids come into
contact with either airborne or purposely injected yeasts. Because fruit juices are innately sugary, wines
can, under the right circumstances, virtually make themselves. A bit of human intervention, as the world has
observed for the past thousand years as wines have dramatically improved, helps.

With beer, the procedure is a bit more complicated, in that the starches in the grains must first be
converted to sugar through dampening which stimulates partial germination. Once the grain starches have
changed over to sugars, the resultant soupy mash starts to transform with the introduction of yeast cells.
Thus, beer really does need an assist from mankind in order to happen. And for at least 5,000 years,
mankind has been delighted to oblige. That, in rudimentary terms, is what happens in fermentation, the ini-
tial step in the process of making distilled liquids. Via fermentation, fruit juices become wines and grain
mashes become beers. Simple.

In the historical sense, these two beverages have very likely existed since before historical events were
formally recorded. Early agrarian communities from 3,000 B.C.E. and before have displayed indisputable
archeological evidence of winemaking and brewing. Pinpointing exactly when fermentation took flight
within the framework of an ancient community must be left to speculation.

Regarding distillation, historians now have a relatively clear sense of when this second step may have
first bubbled up to the surface. Archeological digs in the 1960s conducted in the ancient Greek-Indian city
of Shaikhan Dheri in Pakistan unearthed compelling evidence of earthen pot stills that suggested the
existence of small-scale distilleries. Similar findings near modern-day Peshawar, a city in northern Pakistan
located near the Khyber Pass, have been appeared in various reports. Adding to the debate are textural
interpretations in India’s Vedic literature that appear to support the archeological discoveries of the twentieth
century, drawing tantalizing attention to the period of around 300-200 B.C.E. as a possible launching date
for distillation.

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 So for the moment, history aside, how does distillation work?

Distillation, the word, is derived from destillare, the Latin verb meaning “to drip down”. At its most
fundamental, distillation is a purification process that utilizes concentrated heat to boil fermented liquids,
such as beer and wine, for the express purpose of separating the alcohol from the water and base materials.
Alcohol boils at precisely 173.1 degrees Fahrenheit while water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, so the alcohol
turns gaseous before the water turns to steam.

This procedure works best when carried out in a kettle or any variety of mechanical contraptions, in
which intense heat can be generated and sustained and in which vapors can be captured. These kettles are
referred to as “pot stills”. (More on pot stills and how they developed straight ahead.)

As the alcohol changes from liquid into vapor, it rises in the pot still’s chambers and is guided through
channels whereupon it cools and condenses (drips down) back into clear liquid form. The intense heat of
distillation strips away impurities in fermented liquids, thereby leaving behind the liquids’ essence, or, as the
Christian monks were inclined to describe it, the “spirit” or “water of life”. With each round of distillation, the
liquid gets less contaminated and the percentage of alcohol is elevated.

In the German book on distillation, ominously titled Das Buch zu Destilliern (1519), that was translated
into English in 1527, author Hieronymous Braunschweig defined distillation as “Distylling is none other
thynge, but onely a puryfyeng of the grosse from the subtyll and the subtyll from the grosse.”

The subtyll from the grosse. Those five words tidily sum up distillation better than any other long-
winded description.

>>Ancient roots
Interestingly, the ancient civilizations that became proficient in distilling didn’t use it for the making of
recreational libations as we do today. Dynastic Chinese distillers, for example, boiled fermented liquids to
make potions that purportedly enhanced sexuality, encouraged youthful behavior and reversed aging.
Wouldn’t you, if you could?

Indian physicians in the first millennium created medicines through distillation that were administered
for topical and internal ailments. Priests in Pharaonic Egypt used distillation to make their god-like royalty
more exotic perfumes out of flower oils and more effective cosmetics to deal with the blazing desert sun.
Alchemists in ancient Greece employed distillation in their futile pursuit of turning ordinary non-precious
metals into gold. It wasn’t until distillation became widespread in Europe by the fourteenth century A.D. that
spirits began to be consumed for pleasure as much as for medicinal reasons or to salve over the everyday
horrors of medieval life.

But before distillation debuted in Europe circa 1000-1100 A.D., its evolution took a dramatic turn in the
Middle East from its modest beginnings in central Asia. Two Arab scientists and alchemists forever changed
the process and the status of distillation. Abu Musa Jabir Ibn Haiyan, who resided in Kufa or present-day Iraq,
invented the pot still fashioned out of copper, a.k.a. alembic, in the last quarter of the eighth century A.D.
Jabir Ibn Haiyan, known later in Europe as “Geber”, realized that earthen or ceramic pot stills were neither
reliable conductors of heat nor were they as efficient as malleable metals, most specifically, copper. What
Jabir Ibn Haiyan created was nothing less than the modern, onion-shaped copper kettle, which is still in use
today around the entire world.

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 Two centuries later in Persia (today’s
Iran), Abu Ali al-Husain Ibn Abdullah Ibn
Sina, a noted physician, educator and author
of 450 books and essays, catapulted Jabir Ibn
Haiyan’s distillation methods further by ex-
tensively writing about the vital importance
of gathering, cooling and condensing the
alcoholic vapors to create the quintessence
of the process, the pure spirit. Abdullah Ibn
Sina, referred to in Europe as Avicenna, used
his prominence within Middle Eastern cul-
ture to establish distillation as a major social
phenomenon and process of the Arabic sci-
ences.

Little wonder, then, that the words alcohol and alembic are derived from Arabic terms. Al-koh’l is Arabic
for “antimony powder”, the powder utilized as a base for cosmetics and ordnance, and al-‘anbik translates to
“the still”.

Three centuries after the invasion of Europe’s Iberian Peninsula by the Islamic Moors in the eighth cen-
tury A.D., the instruction of distillation turned up in the Salerno School of Medicine in Italy. The Benedictine
Order operated the school, producing educated missionaries, physicians and clergy. Over the subsequent two
to three centuries, distillation spread throughout Western Europe along with the opening of Christian mon-
asteries, hospitals and abbeys.

Over time, the monks became highly skilled distillers as they routinely dispensed their soothing and
restorative homemade spirits packed with herbs, spices and honey to weary travelers and the infirm or
dying. Influential doctors of the period, most notably, Arnaldus de Villa Nova, the thirteenth century physi-
cian to popes and kings, advanced the cause of distillation even further through their espousal of the method.
Their water of life elixirs gained no small measure of fame with Europe’s aristocracy. Soon other schools of
medicine, like those at Avignon and Montpellier, France, taught the art of distillation.

The three-century period of 1000 to 1300 A.D. proved to be the dawn of the first Great Age of Distilled
Spirits. By the mid-sixteenth century Europe’s noble class swiped the baton from the monks and physicians
and using their influence and riches turned distillation and distilled spirits from a rustic abbey cellar hobby
into an increasingly sophisticated minor industry.

>>On the boil/Off the boil

For approximately twenty-three centuries there was but a solitary way to distill liquids: the pot still method.
For the last thirteen hundred years, as cited earlier, the pot-bellied, kettle-like pot still has been made of
metal, predominantly copper. Copper has been preferred because it is strong and is easier to shape than
other metals.

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 The concept of pot still distillation is direct in its simplicity. Here’s how it works, step-by-step:

1) The distiller pumps fermented liquid (beer or wine) into the chamber of the pot still.

2) The pot still is heated, gradually bringing the alcohol to the boil whereupon it vaporizes.

3) The vapors ascend into the upper region of the pot still chamber and flow through a “swan neck” pipe
at the top of the pot still. (The pipe is referred to as such for its resemblance to its namesake.)

4) The vapors move from the swan neck through to cooled coils where they condense, turning back into
liquid form (spirits), purer, clearer and higher in alcohol than when they started.

5) The distiller carefully selects the middle part of the distillation run, the best portion or so-called
“heart” (similar to the best cuts of meats, like the center cuts, tenderloins, filets, etc) and separates that
prime segment from the rest of the run.

6) The lesser, more impure parts of the distillation run, the “heads” and the “tails” are often put through
another distillation to purify them to the desired degree.

7) Many single-batch spirits are distilled again in other smaller pot stills to elevate levels of purity and
alcohol.

Once this basic sequence of “individual batch distilling” is completed, the pot still requires cleaning
before the next batch of fermented liquid can be placed into the pot still chamber. The resultant spirits
are typically high in quality and distinctive in character. Fresh, virgin spirits smelled right off a pot still are
pleasantly fragrant in a floral or fruity sense. They are also crystal clear in appearance.

This age-old method, while expensive and labor-intensive, remains an irreplaceable source for thou-
sands of the world’s finest distilled spirits. But even though it’s the original way of distilling liquids, the pot
still individual batch method isn’t the only way to produce quality spirits.

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Enter a more efficient way of distillation.

Beginning in the first decades of the Industrial Revolution, an innovative, more efficient and less expen-
sive kind of distillation was introduced by a Scottish distiller, Robert Stein. Stein, who made spirits at the
Kilbagie Distillery in Clackmannanshire, devised the first patented (1827) model of the single-column method
in the form of a metal columnar still that ran continuously and didn’t need to be stopped and cleaned.

Shortly thereafter, another inventor-distiller, Irishman Aeneas Coffey, took Stein’s design and added
more height to the cylindrical column, thereby increasing the purity of the distillate as well as the volume of
the output.

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 Here’s how Coffey’s revolutionary still design worked: The base of the column was called the “analyzer”
and the top tier was known as the “rectifier”. Every section enclosed a series of chambers that were separated
by perforated metal plates. As alcohol vapors rose through each plate, more impurities (congeners, esters,
fusel oils) collided with the plates and fell back down the chamber, allowing purer vapors to advance up the
chamber. Coffey discovered that the taller the column, the cleaner the resultant spirit. Coffey patented his
design in 1830.

Within a decade, other distillers added another column to Coffey’s basic design and were soon making
ethereal spirits of remarkable purity, quality and lightness with a double-column system. Soon, this new-
fangled type of still was being referred to as “patent still”, “Coffey still”, or “column still”.

What was obvious to the distilling industry across the world by the 1870s was that this new, efficient, in-
dustrial, low-cost, continuously functioning process, the precise opposite of customary, stop-and-start, labor-
intensive pot still distillation, was the wave of the future for creating large volumes of spirits. Nowadays, the
process called “continuous distillation” is practiced in every nation that produces spirits and is the distillation
of choice for the majority of lighter, mostly unaged spirits like rum, gin, vodka and cachaça.

Many distillers use both methods, frequently in tandem, to produce high-grade spirits that contain ele-
ments of each system. A prime example of a world-class spirit with international acceptance that combines
both pot still and column still spirits is blended Scotch Whisky from Scotland. Master blenders from re-
nowned companies, such as Chivas Brothers, Dewar’s, Ballantine’s, Berry Brothers, Buchanan’s, Bell’s, The
Famous Grouse, and Johnnie Walker, to name only a few, marry multiple Whiskies from column stills made
in large industrial complexes and single malt Whiskies made in pot stills at smaller distilleries to arrive at a
highly palatable marriage of the two styles.

The near 150-year period of 1870 to the present day is what is considered to be the modern age of spirits.
Both distillation processes are vital components to the contemporary worldwide distilling industry. As the
world has supposed become “smaller”, the spirits industry has become larger and more influential than ever
before.

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 WHISKEY DOSSIER: SCOTLAND
Along with Christianity, Christian monks exported the
system of distillation from Ireland to Scotland by the 14th
century, possibly earlier. The initial substantiation of its exis-
tence on the island of Britain, however, didn’t occur until the
waning years of the 15th century. A Scottish Exchequer Roll
recorded in 1494 that a Benedictine cleric, Friar John Cor, of
the Lindores Abbey in Fife, made a rather sizable purchase
of barley malt in the amount of “viii bolls” for the purpose of
making “aquavitae”.
Since a boll amounted to 140 pounds, eight bolls of
malted barley (or 48 bushels) topped the scales at well over
half a ton and could produce approximately 13 to 15 hectoli-
ters of 7-8% abv ale. That’s from 343 to 396 U.S. gallons of
beer. As writer Michael Brander, author of The Original
Scotch (1975, p. 5) states, “…it is clear at once that this was no
small operation. Half a ton of malt producing probably in the
region of seventy gallons of spirit was not required for private
consumption. Obviously the monastic establishment…was dis-
tilling on no mean scale…”

By the middle of the 16th century public perceptions of

uisge beatha had begun to change. In addition to uisge beatha
being widely employed as a medicinal liquid it started likewise to be viewed as a social libation. Legislation
initiatives introduced in the Scottish Parliament in 1555 and 1579 suggest that the use of malted barley for the
production of uisge beatha had greatly accelerated across Scotland in the second half of the 16th century. The
two Acts each addressed, in part, the mandatory shifting of malted barley use for making bread and brown
ale and away from the distilling of uisge beatha. Poor harvests and subsequent food shortages were the
reasons given by Parliamentarians for the restrictive legislation.

Doubtless, the staunchly independent Highland and island Scots scoffed at the dictates of a governing
body with which they felt little, if any, connection. These initial 16th century Parliamentary edicts were the
first of what would eventually become an onerous litany of regulation and taxation measures concerning
distilling that would give rise to an unprecedented era of illegal distilling and smuggling.

The Scots’ first generations of uisge beathas were distant shadows of what was to come. After all, the
farmer-distillers were unschooled and the conditions, materials and equipment were unsophisticated and
untidy. Production was minute in comparison to modern times because the era’s pot stills ranged in size
from a scant four to five gallons only up to, if rarely, fifty gallons. At their finest, Scotland’s early Whiskies
were pungent, throat-grating spirits that provided a quick buzz and a brief respite from the day in, day out
hardships and tedium of Middle Ages Scotland. At their worst, they were bad tasting, fierce, skull-cracking
brews. Alcohol poisoning was common and sometimes resulted in unpleasant deaths.

Scotch Whisky’s authentic trendsetters, superstar personalities and innovators didn’t begin appearing
until the 1700s. Then, the hallmarks of the 18th and 19th centuries proved to be the technological advances
fed by a frenzy of ideas and a hunger for profitable gain.

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>>Scotch Whisky Production
Grain, water and yeast. At first blush, the value of this trio of commonplace substances seems modest.
Though humble in worth, these individual ordinary elements become complex and extraordinary once they
are carefully combined and processed.
Barley has customarily been the requisite grain for making Malt Whisky in Scotland. This is not because
barley was the only grain that grew well in Scotland’s difficult, sometimes atrocious, climate. Oats, rye and
wheat did as well. Farmer-distillers in the early period of distillation selected an ancient strain of barley that
had four rows of spikelets, called bere, as their grain of choice. An alternative variety was two-row barley,
which made smoother ales and Whiskies according to some distillers, but bere proved to be first among
equals.
This was for two reasons. Bere’s reliably large crop yields in poor soils and rainy climates and its early
ripening tendency accommodates farmers. Before being milled, the barley is allowed to partially germinate,
thereby, stimulating the grain’s natural starches. This partial germination breaks down the cell walls and is
called malting. Next, the malted barley is dried in kilns to halt the growth of the natural starches. The dried
malted barley is then ground into powdery grist.

Water from a trusted source, such as a burn (stream) or a spring, is boiled and mixed with the malted
barley grist in large metal vessels called mash tuns. Mashing converts the starches into maltose, a natural
sugar. The soupy result is a walnut-colored, sweet-smelling liquid called wort. The wort is pumped into
another metal tank, the washback, and yeast is injected. The introduction of yeast triggers fermentation. Over
48 hours the innate sugar, the maltose, is transformed into carbon dioxide and alcohol. Fermentation
changes the base materials into low-alcohol (7–8 percent), fragrant wash that is, for all intents and purposes,
beer.

The wash-beer is then moved to a kettle-like copper pot still, the wash still, and is set to boil. During the
tumultuous first distillation, the vapors are forced to pass through a cold, coiled pipe, or condenser, a.k.a.,
worm. Since alcohol boils at 173.1 degrees Fahrenheit and water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, the wash’s
alcohol vaporizes well before the water, causing a separation of properties. The alcohol vapors return to liq-
uid form while traveling through the icy cold worm. The moderate alcohol liquid (20-24 percent alcohol), or
low wines, is pumped into the spirits still for its second distillation for further purification and to elevate the
alcohol level. Following the second distillation, the condensed vapors become a high-alcohol (70–72 percent),
limpid distillate, the spirit.

After the second distillation, the bio-chemically altered base ingredients smell, feel and taste anything
but like simple water, grain and yeast. Through malting, mashing, fermentation and double distillation in pot
stills, the grain, water and yeast unite to become one liquid substance: pure grain alcohol.

This sequential series of events is how all Scotch Malt Whiskies are born. Made in small batches in pot
stills Malt Whiskies are the oldest type of Scotch Whisky and the sole variety of Whisky made in Scotland
prior to the 1830s when another kind of distillation, continuous distilling, introduced Grain Whiskies.
Modern era Scotch Whisky producers utilize both kinds of distillation.

The resultant transparent-as-rainwater liquid is deceptively compelling. When drawn fresh off the still,
virgin spirit smells strikingly similar to a damp garden in June. Dewy scents of fresh flowers, green vegetation
and pine rush at you one moment, then yeasty odors of bread dough or dry breakfast cereal tickle your
attention the next.

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 The potent, 70-72 percent alcohol, immature fluid burns the tongue initially if tasted undiluted. But as
the taste buds adjust to the virgin alcohol’s racy nature, layers of ripe fruit and grain flavors emerge. Even at
this nascent stage, one can project how the razor-edged charms of the spirit can with maturation, mellowing
and time be transformed into an alcoholic beverage of unusual virtuosity, nuance and complexity.

The raw spirits are next placed in oak barrels for maturation and mellowing for a legal minimum of
three years. Scots have traditionally preferred used barrels, in particular those from heartland America that
once held Bourbon (Kentucky) or Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey, and southern Spain that formerly aged
sherry, Spain’s fabled fortified wine. In recent years, experimentation with different varieties have used
barrels has led some distillers to include barrels that once held port and assorted wines in their cooperage
inventories. Barrels are rarely refilled more than three times because at that advanced point much of their
acids (lignin, tannin, vanillin) have been leached out, rendering them useless. Barrel selection is an extremely
important job, one that affects a Whisky many years down the pike.

>> Scotch Whisky Varieties & Official Classifications

Since the invention of the continuous still in the 1820s-1830s, there have been two distinct varieties of raw
Whisky made in Scotland: Single Malt Whisky, or Whisky made in small individual batches only from
malted barley at a single distillery using the traditional pot still method; and Grain Whisky, or Whisky made
in enormous volumes from corn or wheat via the continuous distillation process in tall, metal column stills.
Typically, Single Malt Whiskies display deeper character and individual tastes than Grain Whiskies. These
two fundamental Whisky types create the five legal classifications of Scotch, as defined in 2009.

• Single Malt Whisky. This is the 100 percent malted barley Whisky of one distillery distilled by indi-
vidual batch in a pot still, labeled under the originating distillery name. Some Single Malt Whiskies
are labeled under the names of independent merchants who purchase barrels from single malt distill-
eries than bottle them under their own name.

• Single Grain Whisky. A Whisky made at one distillery from malted barley with or without whole
grains of other malted or unmalted cereals, like wheat or corn, but which does not comply with the
definition of Single Malt Whisky.

• Blended Malt Whisky (a. k. a., vatted malt, pure malt). A 100 percent malted barley Whisky that is
produced from the Malt Whiskies of at least two malt distilleries and labeled under a brand name.

• Blended Whisky. A Whisky that is comprised of one or more Single Malt Whiskies and one or more
Single Grain Whiskies and labeled under a brand name rather than a distillery name.

• Blended Grain Whisky. A blend of Single Grain Whiskies that have been distilled at more than one
grain distillery.

Also, when a Scotch Whisky label declares an age, like “15 Years Old”, that indicates that the youngest
Whisky used in the creation of that Whisky was aged for no less than 15 years. There may be older Whiskies
in the final product.

Many spirits authorities believe that the Whiskies of Scotland, especially the Single Malt variety, own the
widest latitude and roster of smells, tastes, and textures of any spirits category. This is so for two reasons.
One, the Single Malt Whiskies of Scotland are at this time in history the finest grain distillates produced,
possibly ever.

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 Two, Single Malts accurately reflect their places of origin like no other type of distillate, with the
possible exception of Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, and Borderies cognacs, and as such display
remarkably vivid and precise personalities.

With regard to this second point, much has been made of the so-called “Whisky Regions”, which were
initially defined in the 1980s as Highlands, Lowlands, Campbeltown, and Islay. These were refined in the
1990s to nine or ten regions, depending on who was doing the defining. A much better way to look at
Scotland’s Single Malt Whiskies is either as an inland Whisky or as a maritime Whisky. Inland Whiskies
(Speyside, Northern Highlands, Central Highlands, Lowlands, Western Highlands) are those that offer floral,
oaky, grainy, and softly smoky qualities. While maritime Whiskies (distilleries on Islay, Orkney Islands, Isles
of Skye, Mull, Arran, Campbeltown or seaside locations) are salty and briny to varying degrees, reflecting the
distillery’s nearness to the sea. This singularity and authenticity are what makes Scotland’s Single Malts so
attractive and distinctive.

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 WHISKEY DOSSIER: IRELAND
The First Millennium Scots-Gaels who inhab-
ited Ireland were known to be avid and adept
brewers of dark ales made from oats and
barley. Once distillation was introduced to the
island, circa 1050-1100 A.D., some brewers
became distillers as well. There exists a vague if
tantalizing passage from the reports of English
soldiers who occupied parts of 12th century
Ireland under the command of England’s King
Henry II. The reports spoke of the Scots-Gaels
producing a strong beverage made from
“boiling”, implying distillation. It stands to
reason that the Scots-Gaels were likely boiling
their ales in crude pot stills to produce crystal-
line uisge beathas.

Whatever the situation, by the 1500s

distilling was widespread in Ireland. By the
mid-18th century, there were as many as two
thousand pot stills operating throughout the
island. During the 1800s, Irish Whiskey was
considered the international gold standard and
was admired worldwide. North America
evolved into Ireland’s prime export destination as drinkers of Irish descent in Canada and America yearned
for a taste of their beloved Eire.

Trouble for the Irish distilling industry began first with the outbreak of World War I, which closed down
shipping lanes in the northern Atlantic Ocean because of U-boat activity, and then came the Irish War of
Independence and the Irish Civil War. Once the domestic hostilities abated in 1923, America was in the
throes of Prohibition as dictated by the 18th Amendment, which made the production, sale, and transporta-
tion of alcohol illegal within the U.S. Prohibition ran from 1919 to 1933 when it was repealed by the 21st
Amendment. This infamous “double whammy” effectively shut down Ireland’s main Whiskey export market
and virtually destroyed the entire Irish Whiskey trade in the process.

Then came the Great Depression followed by World War II. By the end of the Second World
War, Americans had largely forgotten about Irish Whiskey and turned instead to American-made blended
Whiskeys and Bourbon, as well as Scotch Whisky.

At present, there are 16 distilleries on the island, with as many as an additional 13 under plan right now.
The good news is that Irish Whiskey is currently on the rebound as sales increased 538 percent just in the U.S.
market from 2002 to 2014. Not bad.

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>> Irish Whiskey Varieties
There are four basic types of Irish Whiskey.

• Single Pot Still Whiskey. Made from 100 percent barley, which is both malted and unmalted, and
distilled in one pot still. A variety that is unique to Ireland, Single Pot Still Whiskey is very potent and
robust.

• Single Malt Whiskey. This type is made from 100 percent malted barley in a pot still in a single distill-
ery and is known for its distinctive flavors.

• Single Grain Whiskey. Produced in column stills, Grain Whiskey is made from wheat or corn and is
normally lighter than Single Malt or Pure Pot Still Whiskeys.

• Blended Whiskey. This variety is a combination of at least one Grain and at least one Single Malt
Whiskey.

All Irish Whiskeys by law must be aged for a minimum of three years in barrels. A distinguishing charac-
teristic of Irish Whiskeys is that most are distilled three times to promote extra smoothness and
drinkability.

>> Irish Whiskey Production

To be legally labelled as Irish Whiskey, the Whiskey must be distilled and matured in the Republic of Ireland
or Northern Ireland.

The Whiskey must be distilled from a yeast-fermented mash of cereal grains to an alcohol by volume
degree of lesss than 94.8%.

Irish Whiskey must be matured in wooden casks not exceeding 185 gallons for a minumum of three
years.

If the spirits are made up of a marriage of two or more such distillates, the product must be referred to
as Blended Irish Whiskey.

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 WHISKEY DOSSIER: USA
In colonial America before the Revolutionary War (April 1775 - September 1783), the colonists’ alcoholic
beverages of choice were Madeira (the majestic fortified wine from the Atlantic Ocean Island of Madeira that
lies off Portugal), rum that was produced from sugarcane grown in the Caribbean but distilled and aged in
Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Applejack (apple brandy) and perry (pear brandy) from the orchards of New
York, Virginia, and New Jersey, and ale/beer.

Whiskey, by comparison, was relegated to lowly status because grains, with the exception of rye, failed
to grow abundantly throughout the thirteen colonies that abutted each other along the eastern seaboard from
the Carolinas to New England. Whiskey-making, in actuality, didn’t occur in the New World to any signifi-
cant degree until Scots-Irish and German settlers migrated into Pennsylvania and Maryland, places where
rye grew relatively well. In those outposts, American Whiskey in the spicy form of Rye Whiskey came alive.

In post-Revolutionary War America, the government was up to its eyeballs in war debt. After the English
were expelled, the fledgling United States owed a gargantuan total of $50,000,000, virtually all of it
borrowed from France and Spain. As these loans were coming due, Alexander Hamilton, the U.S. Treasury
Secretary, and President George Washington decided to stiffly tax distilling and distilled spirits to raise
revenue. In flagrant response, the farmer-distillers of Pennsylvania and Maryland vociferously revolted. In
response, Washington sent 13,000 militiamen to Pittsburgh to quell the revolt, which they largely did with-
out bloodshed. But, in the meantime, to escape the new lofty taxes on distillation many hundreds of farmer-
distillers packed up and sailed down the nearby Ohio River to the virgin territory of Kentucke as the native
Americans called it. We know it as Kentucky.

What the early 1790s settlers discovered was a fertile region where the Native Americans were few (four
regional tribes used Kentucky as a hunting ground without ever building permanent settlements in it), the
hunting was bountiful, and one grain grew especially well: corn. By 1810, 2,000 stills were estimated to be
operating in Kentucky, dealing smartly with the bumper crops of corn by distilling it. The area that experi-
enced the biggest explosion of distilling was Bourbon County, so named in honor of the French aristocracy
that helped underwrite the Revolutionary War. The name stuck, as consumers yearned for more “Bourbon
Whiskey”.

But the biggest boost to Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey was when it started being shipped downriver to the
bustling port of New Orleans. From there Bourbon traveled along the east coast to Philadelphia, New York
and Boston. Soon, Bourbon Whiskey was here to stay. Another pivotal development occurred in Kentucky in
the 1820s when two innovative distillers by the names of Catherine Carpenter and Dr. James Crow devised a
system, called “sour mash”, in which a portion of the fermentation, known as the “backset”, is held back and
added to the next and on and on. This procedure promotes continuity from mash to mash. With this innova-
tion, Bourbon’s quality soared.

After the Civil War (1861-1865) reduced stocks, the distilling industries of Kentucky and Tennessee
geared up once again, supplying the newly opening territories west of the Mississippi with “red eye”
Whiskey. Beer and wine didn’t travel as well as Bourbon did. Consequently, Bourbon and Tennessee Sour
Mash Whiskey were the prime lubricants of the Wild West. Whiskey, thus, became a staple libation in the
final third of the nineteenth century as it flowed freely in all major U.S. cities and became the base of many
classic cocktails.

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 Then, like their peers in the British Isles and Canada,
the four-headed monster of World War I, Prohibition, the
Great Depression, and World War II devastated American
Whiskey distillers. Distillery closings riddled the industry
as sales slumped badly from 1915 to 1950. The markets
rebounded somewhat in the 1950s. Then Whiskey distillers
were adversely hit again by the dramatic growth of vodka
in the 1960s and 1970s. One positive development from the
1960s was the recognition by the U.S. Congress of Bour-
bon’s importance to America. In 1964, a congressional reso-
lution named Bourbon “America’s native spirit”, but even that was cold comfort to a once robust industry.

In the 1980s, things picked up once again for American Whiskey with the release of high-end, more
expensive bottlings made from small lots of barrels (so-called “Small Batch Whiskeys”) or even more exotic,
Whiskeys that came from a single barrel. Today, the American Whiskey industry, thanks in large measure to
the popularity of Small Batch, Rye, Barrel Strength, and Single Barrel Whiskeys, is thriving and healthy.

>>Straight Whiskey
Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits state that Straight Whiskey (Straight Bourbon, Straight Rye) in the
U.S. means that the “mashbill”, or grain recipe, of the Whiskey must contain at least 51% of one type of grain,
i.e. corn, rye, wheat. The grain may be malted or unmalted. Straight Whiskey, by law, must also be aged for
at least 24 months in new, charred barrels at no higher than 62.5% alcohol.

>>Straight Bourbon Whiskey

While Kentucky is the traditional epicenter of the Bourbon industry, in truth and by law, any state in the
Union can produce Bourbon. Virginia remains a significant distilling center for Bourbon in America. And,
scores of craft distillers (producers making 40,000 9-liter cases or less) are making Bourbon in a multitude of
states. Bourbon as a straight Whiskey (a Whiskey made from at least 51 percent of one grain) is an interna-
tional symbol and is acknowledged by most experts as being America’s benchmark distillate.

The American Whiskey industry is a tightly regulated business, whose rules must be adhered to. In order
for a Whiskey to become properly labeled as a straight Bourbon Whiskey, it must meet a set of production
standards. Those include:

1) Straight Bourbon’s grain mash must be made from at least 51 percent corn.

2) Straight Bourbon must be matured in new, charred barrels for a minimum of two years.

3) Straight Bourbon cannot be distilled at higher than 80 percent alcohol by volume, or 160-proof.

4) Straight Bourbon Whiskey can be reduced in alcoholic strength only with distilled water.

5) Straight Bourbon Whiskey must be bottled at least 40 percent alcohol by volume, or 80-proof.

6) As a straight Whiskey, it is unlawful to add any color or flavor enhancements.

Bourbon distillation usually involves an initial distillation in a column still and a second pass in a
pot still-like kettle called a “doubler” or a “thumper” (because of the pounding noises these stills make during
distillation). So, America’s foremost Whiskeys are double distilled, for all intents and purposes.

18 thewhiskeyauthority.com
 Unlike Ireland, Canada and Scotland, Bourbon distillers must by law employ new, unused barrels in
which to age their Whiskeys. Barrels must also be charred on the inside. Charring levels of one-to-four are
the norm, with level four being the deepest char. The deeper char levels (three and four) impact the new
spirit more than lighter char levels (one and two), imparting smells and tastes of caramel, maple or vanilla.

Bourbon warehouses are known as “rickhouses” and populate north-central Kentucky by the scores.
The aging period in Kentucky is generally much shorter than in cooler climates, like those of Ireland and
Scotland. Spirits mature much faster in warm, humid conditions than in cool, damp climates and so can be
bottled sooner.

>>Tennessee Whiskey
Tennessee Whiskey is very close in production methods to straight Bourbon except for a filtration process,
called the Lincoln County process, in which the Whiskey is dripped through of maple charcoal chunks in
huge vats. This happens after distillation and prior to the spirit being placed in new, charred barrels for a
minimum of two years. Ten feet deep, the charcoal is so densely packed that it takes each drip many hours to
make it to the bottom. The procedure is designed to leach out impurities not stripped away by distillation.
The result is a smoky type of Whiskey that is reminiscent of campfire smoke.

Because of the inclusion of the Lincoln County process step, law does not allow Tennessee Whiskeys, to
be identified as “Bourbon”. This is no hardship for the Tennessee distillers who prefer to be known as makers
of fine Tennessee Whiskey. For half a century, only two distilleries co-existed in Tennessee, Jack Daniel’s and
George Dickel. Now, there are small, artisanal distilleries popping up across the state as the regeneration of
Tennessee Whiskey happens with vigor and purpose.

>>Rye Whiskey
Aside from being America’s first important marketable variety of Whiskey, Rye Whiskey is an admired vari-
ety among distillers. Once corn-based straight Bourbon was crowned “America’s Whiskey” in the expansive
19th century, Rye Whiskey faded from sight. After the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, a handful of Rye Whis-
key brands reappeared, but again the category flagged against the unstoppable tide of Bourbon. By the 1970s
and 1980s, Rye Whiskey was scarcely seen, except for one or two brands.

Then, following the turn of the Third Millennium, more Rye Whiskeys became available as word spread
about this variety’s pedigree, historical importance, mixability in classic cocktails, and status within the
American distilling industry. At present, there are more straight Rye Whiskeys in the marketplace than at any
time since the early 20th century as the style has become a bartenders’ favorite.

>> North American Blended Whiskey

After World War II, the North American Whiskey category, led a genuine Whiskey revolution in inexpensive
blended American and blended Canadian Whiskeys, made mostly from neutral grain spirits. Spurred by the
legendary Sam Bronfman, CEO of Canada-based drinks giant Joseph E. Seagram, a pair of Seagram brands ―
Seagram’s 7 Crown from the U.S. and Seagram’s VO from Canada ― ruled supreme from the late 1940s
through to the mid-1970s. These ubiquitous Whiskeys were blends of 20 percent straight Whiskey and 80
percent neutral grain spirits. Both are wood-aged. While they lack the depth of character and elegance of
straight Bourbon, Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey, and straight Rye Whiskey, they nonetheless serve a noble
purpose as excellent mixers.

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 WHISKEY DOSSIER: CANADA
Canada’s first licensed distillery opened in 1769. Large numbers of Scottish and Irish immigrants who en-
tered Canada in the 19th century brought with them a natural thirst and skill for producing good Whisky.
Column still distillation is the driving force in Canada, as is a philosophy that focuses on the art of blending.
The acknowledged thumbprint character of almost all Canadian Whiskies is their delightful drinkability.
Canadian Whiskies are designed, first and foremost, to be smooth and approachable. In light of the 200+
million bottles that are produced each year, one would have to draw the conclusion that this approach has
worked out.

Canadian Whiskies are typically made from a majority of corn and lesser portions of rye and barley.
Canadian Whiskies are matured in barrels for a legal minimum of three years. Interestingly, as opposed to
the rigors of governmentally imposed production regulations south of the border in the U.S., Canada’s
Whisky industry is largely self-regulated and is thus a significant departure from other Whiskey making
nations. This liberal system has triumphed for more than a century and a half as Canadian Whiskies have
flourished globally and have come to be viewed as reliable and welcome libations. On top of having first-
class entrée on an international scale, the gentle, mildly sweet nature of Canadian Whiskies makes them
prime ingredients in scores of Whiskey cocktails.

Two pivotal companies, Hiram Walker and Joseph E. Seagram, led the charge in the 19th century and
some of their brands still resonate to this day. In recent years, however, smaller distilleries, like Forty Creek
in Ontario, Glenora in Nova Scotia and Urban, The Liberty and Okanagan in British Columbia, have raised
the bar in terms of offering more idiosyncratic Whiskies that reflect their region. Whisky now represents
25% of all spirits produced in Canada, being produced in 18 distilleries sprinkled around the vast Canadian
nation from Nova Scotia to British Columbia. Whisky is the only category that has an “appellation pro-
tected” status, meaning that Canadian Whisky can only be produced in Canada.

WHISKEY DOSSIER: JAPAN

Two large and ambitious firms dominate the Japanese Whisky trade, Suntory and Nikka. In terms of style,
Japanese Whiskies tend to resemble those produced in Scotland due to their dryness and the use of malted
barley. That said, they have developed style of their own that is currently recognized as classical and
elegant.

Production of Whisky on a small, local scale began in Japan in the 1870s, but the first commercial dis-
tillery proved to be Yamazaki, which opened in 1924. The guiding light of Yamazaki was a visionary named
Shinjiro Torii, whose day job was as a pharmaceutical wholesaler and the founder of Kotobukiya that later
evolved into the beverage giant Suntory.

Torii had a favorite employee, Masataka Taketsuru, who with gusto took on the study of Whisky by
traveling to Scotland after World War I. He returned to Japan and helped Torii to establish Yamazaki in
1924. Ten years later, he left Yamazaki to start his own company in Hokkaido, which he called Dainnppon-
kaju that later became Nikka, Yamazaki’s main rival. Today, there are nine Whisky distilleries – Yamazaki
and Hakushu (Suntory), Yoichi and Miyagiko (Nikka), Fuji Gotemba (Kirin), Chichibu, Shinshu (Hombo),
Eigashima, and White Oak.

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 Japanese Whiskies, comprised of malted barley, are distilled twice in pot-stills. To distinguish their
Whiskies from those of Scotland to whom they are often compared, the Japanese sometimes utilize indige-
nous oaks, such as minzunara that is high in vanillins. Minzunara oak imparts unique flavors that cannot be
duplicated elsewhere.

While single malt Whiskies, like Yoichi and Yamazaki, are the primary calling card of Japanese distiller-
ies, blended Whiskies, such as Hibiki, are becoming more prevalent and admired by discerning Whisky
lovers. The fact that Japanese Whiskies have risen to the ranks of the world’s foremost Whiskies in the last
generation speaks well of the dedication to quality of the distillers of Japan.

WHISKEY DOSSIER: THE WORLD

Thriving Whiskey industries are firmly planted in Australia, New Zealand, France, England, Wales, Belgium,
Taiwan and India. After World War II, the spread of western culture in Asia triggered keen interest in Whis-
key. New Zealand’s, England’s, France’s, Belgium’s, and Welsh offerings are more modest while India has de-
veloped one of the most vigorous and successful Whiskey industries in the world, pumping out tens of
brands, some of which are similar to Scotland’s and America’s Whiskeys.

Whiskey has evolved into an authentic global industry of the first rank.

12 WHISKEY BOOKS WORTH READING

• A Double Scotch: How Chivas Regal and The Glenlivet Became Global Icons
by F. Paul Pacult
• American Whiskey, Bourbon & Rye: A Guide to the Nation’s Favorite Spirit
by Clay Risen
• American Still Life: The Jim Beam Story and the Making of the World’s #1 Bourbon
by F. Paul Pacult
• Bourbon At Its Best: The Lore & Allure of America’s Finest Spirits
by Ron Givens
• Bourbon Curious: A Simple Tasting Guide for the Savvy Drinker
by Fred Minnick
• Bourbon Empire: The Past and Future of America’s Whiskey
by Reid Mitenbuler
• Jim Murray’s Whiskey Bible 2016
by Jim Murray
• MacLean’s Miscellany of Whisky
by Charles MacLean
• Spirit of Place: Scotland’s Great Whisky Distilleries
by Charles MacLean
• Tasting Whiskey: An Insider’s Guide
by Lew Bryson
• The World Atlas of Whisky: New Edition
by Dave Broom
• Whiskey Cocktails: Rediscovered Classics
by Warren Bobrow

thewhiskeyauthority.com 21
 MEMORABLE WHISKEY QUOTES
• “Never cry over spilt milk. It could’ve been whiskey.”
— Maverick television show from the early 1960s

• “Bourbon!”
— Reputedly the last word of actress Tallulah Bankhead

• “What whiskey will not cure, there is no cure for.”

— Irish proverb

• “Whiskey is by far the most popular of all remedies that won’t cure a cold.”
— Singer Jerry Vale

• “The water was not fit to drink. To make it palatable, we had to add whiskey. By diligent effort, I learned
to like it.”
— Winston Churchill, former British Prime Minister

• “I should never have switched from Scotch to martinis.”

— Dying words of actor Humphrey Bogart

• “I like my whiskey old and my women young.”

— Actor Errol Flynn

• “Them good old boys was drinkin’ whiskey and rye, singin’ this’ll be the day that I die.”
— Don McLean, American Pie lyrics

• “Freedom and whisky gang thegither!”

— Robert Burns, Scottish poet

• “Whenever someone asks me if I want water with my Scotch, I say I’m thirsty, not dirty.”
— Actor Joe E. Lewis

• “Anyone who hates dogs and loves whiskey can’t be all bad.”
— Actor W.C. Fields

• “You can die from drinking too much of anything – coffee, water, milk, soft drinks and all such stuff as
that. And so long as the presence of death lurks with anyone who goes through the simple act of swallow-
ing, I will make mine whisky.”
— Actor W.C. Fields

• “Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake.”
— Actor W.C. Fields

• “I wish I knew what brand of whiskey he drinks. I’d send a barrel or so to some of my other generals.”
— Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President, on being warned of U.S. Grant’s drinking habit

• “I wish to live to 150 years old, but the day I die, I wish it to be with a cigarette in one hand and
a glass of whiskey in the other.”
— Actress Ava Gardner

• “The light music of whiskey falling into a glass – an agreeable interlude.”

— Writer James Joyce

• “My own experience has been that the tools I need for my trade are paper, tobacco, food, and
a little whisky.”
— Writer William Faulkner

• “I have never in my life seen a Kentuckian who didn’t have a gun, a pack of cards, and a jug of whiskey.”
— Andrew Jackson, 7th U.S. President

22 thewhiskeyauthority.com
 APPENDIX A:
ORIGINS OF BARRELS AND COOPERAGE
I. IMPACT OF TRADE:
TRADE by definition: “Goods and/or services exchange economy between different regions and/or cultures, using
markets as the trade arena.” Earliest known trade occurred 150,000 years ago in Stone Age New Guinea. Trade
became commonplace by 12,000 BCE, mostly for obsidian, for making cutting tools/utensils used for hunting,
building, cooking, ship building, clothing.

Barter was the original form of trade, which included:

1) exchanging goods for other goods (for example: oil/liniments for timber; linens for grain; beans/produce/grain
for tools).

2) exchanging goods for services (for instance: lamp oil for architectural expertise; livestock for road builders).

Obsidian, hard and sharp, was the initial trade superstar commodity and was exchanged for centuries for flint, which
helped make fire. Later, precious and semiprecious stones like lapis lazuli became highly coveted for jewelry and
was widely traded between Afghanistan, Babylonia, and Egypt. By 1000 BCE the Silk Road stretched over 6,000
miles bringing herbs, gems, livestock, horses, spices and ideas from China to Near East and Mediterranean cultures.
The Silk Road linked the Orient with Europe, not just trade-wise, but also socially, religiously, economically.

Later, the concept of trade gradually rose in Europe and Near East, as agriculture took hold and organized and
planned communities grew into metropolitan centers and cities, eventually becoming city-states. The great rivers
of the ancient world became the primary trade highways. Those great waterways included the Nile, Tigris, Eu-
phrates, Ganges, Indus, Yellow, Mekong, and Yangtze.

II. MEDITERRANEAN REGION TRADE:

For two millennia from 1500 BCE to 500 CE Phoenicians – Carthaginians – Greeks – Romans – Egyptians, all
practiced trade and commercial shipping throughout the Mediterranean region and Near East until the collapse of
Rome in 5th century CE. The Mediterranean Sea was an accommodating waterway for commercial shipping be-
cause trade vessels could hug the coastline for long distances, stopping port-by-port to sell wares and pick up
cargo. The Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Mesopotamians especially all utilized clay/earthenware jugs with handles,
called AMPHORAE to transport goods.

Items commonly traded in the Mediterranean region: Olives, olive oil, salted fish, nails, timber, coins, perfumes,
palm oil, lamp oil, liniments, medicines, cloth (especially cloth that was dyed purple), linen, cotton, wine, mustard,
pickled foods, vinegar, beans/legumes, wheat, flour, precious metals and gems, powders, sulfur.

The father of history, Herodotus, 5th century BCE Greek historian, reported that the Sumerians in Mesopotamia
used barrels made from PALM WOOD to transport trade goods (oils, herbs, dried fruits, olives) to the Harappan
civilization of Indus River Valley, 3rd millennium BCE.

Barrel makers were called COOPERS due to the early barrel makers of Illyria and Cisalpine in ancient Gaul, an
area that developed during the Iron Age and lasted through the Roman Era. Gaul encompassed present-day Lux-
embourg, Belgium, France, northern Italy and most of Switzerland. In Gaul, the cylindrical wood vessels that
stored wine and other common goods were called CUPALS. A barrel maker was thus known as a CUPARIUS. To-
day, anyone named COOPER or HOOPER is likely descended from this ancient line of craftsmen.

Coopers formed one of western civilization’s first guilds in Rome, decades before the birth of Christ. The guilds
flourished deep into the 19th century CE before dwindling following World War One, when resources became
scarce and many coopers were either killed or maimed in the hostilities.

thewhiskeyauthority.com 23
III. AMPHORAE VS WOOD BARREL DEBATE
BARRELS by definition: Barrels are cylindrical and hollow containers formed from wood planks, known as staves
that are fastened together by metal, twine or wooden hoops, making them watertight. Barrels are shaped like
wheels for a simple and practical reason: ease of movement when they are filled. Barrels are round so that one or
two workers could fill the hold of a commercial ship simply by rolling the barrels up the plank and onto the ship.
Barrels were also preferred over amphorae by shippers because if the vessel sank, barrels were more likely to float,
thereby saving at least some of the cargo. Amphorae, made from baked clay, invariably sank like stones.

Disadvantages of Clay AMPHORAE:

• Crack and break easily
• Awkward to handle/heavy to move & transport
• Weight: when filled, make heavy cargo on ships
• Sink easily
• Clay/earth negatively affected aroma/taste of oils/olives/wines

Advantages of WOOD BARRELS:

• Strong and do not break easily
• Larger interior storage area than amphorae (3 to 10x larger)
• Weight: Rolls, turn easily with skilled workman
• Float (cargo salvage)
• Can impart beneficial properties to some goods, especially wine

Wood barrels largely replaced clay amphorae by the second century BCE. As trade exploded from Asia to Europe
and as shipping lanes became crowded with commercial vessels in the Mediterranean Sea and major rivers, barrel
making grew in accordance.

IV. WHY OAK?

Storing beverages in wood barrels accomplishes two biochemical things:

1) Affords gradual, steady contact with oxygen, which aids mellowing.

2) Imparts various chemical compounds to the stored liquid that alters the character, often for the better
(softening, rounding, coloring, deepening of aromatic properties).

Palm wood, the first wood variety used for cooperage, was very hard and not easy to bend. It was also loaded with
resins/oils/sap/fats/lipids. Oak is essentially PURE WOOD, relatively free of resins. Resins are more prevalent in
the northern Hemisphere genera, such as pine/cedar, rubber, palm, maple, redwood, elm, birch, acacia, chestnut.

Oak, a hard wood, became the wood of choice for coopers who, perhaps influenced by shipbuilders, could easily
bend oak when the staves were heated over open pit fires. Curved planks were used to form the hulls of boats.
Oak’s major biochemical aspects are:

A.) CELLULOSE is the Earth’s most abundant polymer (a chemical compound that is made up of small molecular
units that are bonded together in one large molecule). Examples of polymers are plastics, resins, latex, rubber. Cel-
lulose, however, has little or no direct effect on liquids aging in oak barrels.

B.) HEMICELLULOSE is a 2-dimensional polymer that consists of simple sugars, like glucose, xylose, mannose,
rhamnose, galactose. Hemicellulose is less abundant and less stable than cellulose. Heating and charring breaks
down hemicellulose, creating caramelization of oak’s sugars. Heating condenses the sugars, producing toasty fla-
vor and color deepening. Hemicellulose cells are basically wood’s SUGARS that affect a liquid’s body/texture.

C.) LIGNINS are 3-dimensional polymers that are widely abundant. Lignin effects:
• Maturing liquids’s color • Promotes oxidation
• Stimulates the production of vanillin • Heating lignin creates phenolic aldehydes
• Increases complexity • Intense heat creates volatile phenols or smoky flavors

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D.) TANNINS
Tannins form in growing oak trees for the purpose of food and energy storage. Ellag tannins are formed when
glucose mixes with ellagic and gallic acids. The resulting compounds are both bitter and astringent, which wards
off predators of the oak. Tannins promote oxidation, produce astringency, and remove “off” odors in the barrel.

E.) LIPIDS comprise the fats, waxes and other esters make up, with other properties like proteins and carbohy-
drates, the primary structures of cells. They are organic compounds that are fatty, greasy to the touch that are in-
soluble in water but are soluble in alcohol and ether.

V. TYPES OF OAK
A.) AMERICAN WHITE OAK:
• Quercus Garryana Field: Oregon (not preferred by winemakers/distillers)
• Quercus Alba Field: Minnesota, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin. Quercus Alba is the much preferred oak by wine-
makers and distillers.

Character of white oak: Dense, yet wide grain, fast growing, and a low degree of tannins. Imparts attributes of high
sweetness, vanilla, coconut, dill, spice. American oak is more intensely flavored, denser than French oak because
they have four times the amount of lactones, but less tannins.

B.) FRENCH OAK:

• Quercus Petraea (white)
• Quercus Robur (common)
French oak is more forest “defined” than American oak.
Forests of central France: Allier, Nevers, Tronçais (Quercus Petraea)
Forest of northeast France: Vosges (Quercus Petraea)
Forest southwest/central France: east of Cognac — Limousin (Quercus Robur)

QP & QR Character: Tight grain, medium fast growing, relatively low degree of tannins, and less dense than
American oak. Imparts attributes of medium sweetness, lots of vanilla, silky texture, toasted almond, peaches, kiwi,
and jasmine.

French oak is tighter grained and therefore less watertight than American oak.

French oak composition obliges French coopers to split oak along the grain. Since French oak must be split by hand,
only 20-25% of oak tree can be utilized. American oak trees use twice as much oak volume and are therefore less
costly. French oak is normally “open air seasoned” for at least 24 months and as long as 36 months in “wood yards”.

C.) SLAVONIAN OAK: northeast Croatia (Quercus Robur & Quercus Petraea)
D.) HUNGARIAN OAK: (Quercus Robur & Quercus Petraea)
E.) RUSSIAN OAK: (Quercus Robur & Quercus Petraea)
These varieties are used for larger storage vessels, vats, tanks that can be used many times. Tight grain, low tan-
nins, low aromatics.

VI. COOPERING: THE ‘RAISING” OF BARRELS

A.) BEST OAK FOR BARREL-MAKING:
• Comes from slow-maturing trees, 80 years or older, from a dense forest in a cool climate, where trees are not
densely spaced and from trees with a trunk diameter of at least 5 feet.

B.) SEASONING OF STAVES:

• French oak logs are hand split to ensure the integrity of the grain
• American oak logs can be serrated split, or sawn
• Stave wood is then planed and stored in tiers, exposed to air and weather
• Staves are naturally aged and purged of odors, harshest tannins and impurities by elements
Seasoning takes years, typically 24-36 months, sometimes longer

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C.) COOPERS LIKE TO WORK WITH OAK THAT IS:
• Straight
• Void of burrs or knots
• Has little sap wood and regular rings/the grain pattern
Oak’s radial rays give strength when shaped into barrel.

Raising the barrels/(French: Mise en rose):

• Coopers then cut staves to proper length, tapered at each end, beveled, planed on the outside and slightly hollowed
on the inside.
• Coopers select best staves, gathering them inside a metal hoop that acts as a jig, meaning, a device that holds a piece
of work and guides tools in operation.
• Three hoops are then fitted over the staves and the staves are dampened.
• Partially raised barrel is then moved to open fire and placed on its end over the fire to sear/toast/char the inside of
the staves.
• Some coopers prefer to steam staves to bend them.
• Winemakers/Distillers select which degree of charring they want: Light, Medium, Heavy Toast
• Coopers who produce barrels in which to mature Bourbon utilize a slightly different scale that utilizes deeper char-
ring than for wine barrels; Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, the higher the degree, the deeper the char
• Heating the staves makes the wood fibers flexible so that they can be bent using a winch to slowly arch the staves,
tightening them to achieve the traditional, watertight barrel shape
• Ends of the staves must be trimmed and grooved so that each end can have a barrelhead fitted onto it.
• Barrelheads are custom cut to fit the groove and assembled using dowels and river reed to create a watertight seal.
• After searing, more hoops are fitted over the exterior, the bung hole is cut and the barrel is tested for watertight-ness.
D.) TODAY, OAK BARRELS ARE USED FOR AGING:
− Common foodstuffs: Balsamic vinegar; Tabasco sauce: 3 years in old whiskey barrels; Gerkins/pickles.
− Fermented beverages: Beer/ales; Wine; Sherry; Port; Madeira.
Fermented & distilled beverages:
− Whiskey/Bourbon, Tennessee, Irish largely American white oak
− Whisky /Scotch, Canadian, Japanese largely American white oak
− Cognac/Armagnac/Calvados 100% French oak
− Tequila largely American white oak
− Rum largely American white oak
− Aquavit largely American white oak
− Cachaça – Brazil in indigenous woods

VII. WHAT OCCURS INSIDE THE OAK BARREL

A.) BARREL SIZES
Size: surface area to volume ratio: smaller barrels have higher SA-to-VR and vice versa. Storage or maturation of a potable
liquid in oak is all about making sure that the liquid has direct contact with the oak surface. Smaller barrels “convert”
liquids quicker due entirely to higher Surface Area to Volume Ratio, meaning aging and conversion to matured liquids
happens faster.

• Typical wine barrel is 55-59 gallons/225 liters US and Europe. 46 Imperial gallons/208/210 liters.
• Bordeaux variety: Originally French government taxed wine producers on all barrels over 59 gallons.
• Cognac variety: 300 liters/79 gallons
• Beer barrel: 31 US gallons
Names for various barrels/casks: Firkin, Kilderkin, Hogshead, Butt, Tun.

B.) EVAPORATION/CLIMATIC ISSUES/ABSORPTION

Angel’s Share: natural evaporation amount of barreled liquid per annum. Meaning, the percentage of loss due to natural
evaporation. In low humidity climates, angel’s share may be mostly water. In high humidity climates, angel’s share may
be mostly alcohol.

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>> Difference between aging in the tropics as opposed to Scotland or Ireland.
Evaporation in Scotland is 2-3% per year. In Dominican Republic and other tropical climates it’s 10-12% per year. Alcohol
expands in heat/humidity; contracts in cool temperatures. In expansion the alcohol invades the wood to deeper levels;
when cooler, the alcohol contracts, withdrawing from the wood. The release of alcohol/ethanol into the environment
causes a dark colored fungus to grow on walls, doors, ceilings, all exterior surfaces. The fungus is Baudoinia compniacensis.

C.) PLACEMENT IN WAREHOUSE/RICKHOUSE/AGING CELLAR

Rows of barrels closer to the warehouse floor are generally in a cooler zone than higher rows closer to the ceiling be-
cause heat rises. Beverages in the higher reaches of the warehouse tend to mature faster than ones in the lower reaches.

Open warehouses’ barrels have cyclical aging sequences dictated by climatic phases while those in controlled-climates
mature evenly. Is one placement better than the other? No. Just different. Dirt floors are preferred because dirt floors
help maintain steadier humidity levels and are frequently watered down to promote more humidity which keeps the
barrels more water tight.

D.) DURATION OF TIME IN BARREL

First year of maturation in new oak barrel: 33% of chemical properties are leeched out. By end of second year, 50% are
leeched out. Every year of usage means a lessening of oak impact until barrels just become storage vessels after roughly
15 years of continuous maturation.

E.) BOURBON BARRELS are plentiful because by law they are utilized only once. Ex-Bourbon barrels are in use from
Ireland and Scotland to the Caribbean to Mexico. Advantages: They are pre-seasoned and therefore the roughest com-
pounds are already leeched out. Plentiful and therefore reasonably priced. Because Bourbon and Tennessee oak barrels
have a huge yearly turnover, they are plentiful. They impart tastes of maple, vanilla, spice.

F.) BARREL REUSAGE

Scraping interior to dispense with deposits/rejuvenate interior. Re-toasting or recharring interior to rejuvenate and pro-
long usage time.

VIII. TOASTING & CHARRING

Toasting barrels probably started by accident in some ancient cooperage in Rome. The idea was likely to either soften
the staves for bending or to rid the wood of pests. When the resultant wine was tasted by the received on the other end
of the commercial transaction, they were likely startled at how much better the aged wine was in a toasted barrel than a
non-toasted barrel. Wine barrels are usually toasted while many barrels used for aging spirits, like whiskey, are more
deeply charred.

A.) WINE:
• Toast 1: Moderate surface toast/barely seared
• Toast 2: Heavy toast/Light Char: 1/64th” depth

B.) BOURBON WHISKEY US:

• Level 1: Medium char 1/32nd” depth/20-25 seconds over fire pit
• Level 2: Medium Plus Char 1/16th” depth/30-35 seconds over fire pit
• Level 3: Char/Heavy Char 1/16th” depth/alligator cracking starts/45 seconds over fire pit
• Level 4: Char 1/8th” depth/wide-spaced alligator cracking/sugars caramelize (aka red layer)/55 seconds over fire pit
• Level 5: Craft Distillers Char 1/8th” peeling of alligator skin
Toasting effects heighten lactones/1+ minute over fire pit.

C.) CHEMICAL EFFECTS OF TOASTING/CHARRING

• Vanillin = beany aroma of vanilla, coconut
• Eugenol and Isoeugenol = baking spice, i.e. clove, nutmeg, allspice cinnamon
• Furfural and 5-methylfurfural = sweet, caramel, toffee (red layer)
• Guaiacol and 4-methulguaiacol = charred, smoky, toasted

D.) COLOR
Color change is NOT oxidation; it is affect of natural oak chemicals/acids/fats/oil as well as influence of toasting /char-
ring. Caramel adjustment is also legal in some nations.
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 NOTES

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