Distillery Release August 17th
National Release September 1st
Over a decade ago Woodinville founders Brett Carlile and Orlin Sorensen set out to establish, once and for all, what kind of barrel would make the best bourbon in the world. Attainable goals, right?
This would not be a quick or typical process. Methods? Everything on the table. Industry norms? Goodbye. Budget? What budget? Woodinville was still a young distillery then, hardly printing money, but Brett and Orlin saw this quest as an investment. Since it’s generally accepted that over 70% of the flavor and character of a bourbon comes from its barrel, it seemed to them they’d need the best barrel in the world if they wanted to make the best bourbon in the world.
Woodinville’s partners at Independent Stave Company, the foremost barrel cooper in America, were game. Let’s run a test, they suggested, and see what happens. ISC presented eight different barrel types:
- #1 Char Standard Kiln-Dried
- #2 Char Standard Kiln-Dried
- #3 Char Standard Kiln-Dried
- #4 Char Standard Kiln-Dried
- #3 Char 18-Month Open-Air Seasoned
- #5 Char 18-Month Open-Air Seasoned
- Heavy Toast/Light Char 24-Month Open-Air Seasoned
- Thin-Stave Barrel
Whiskey industry standard is a kiln-dried barrel at #3 or #4 char. Chars #1 and #2 are rarely used in bourbon, and because of the extra time it takes, “open-air seasoning” costs way more than a kiln-dried barrel. Extra time is on-brand for Woodinville, a distillery that refused to sell its flagship bourbon until it was a minimum of five years old, so this open-air method seemed promising. It involves exposing the staves (the planks used to build a barrel) to rain, sun, wind, everything the elements can throw at them. This process promotes a deterioration of the wood polymers, creating smaller molecules that can be more efficiently transformed during charring and toasting. (Non-scientific translation: It basically gives you more of the good stuff, and who doesn’t want more good stuff?)
After ISC’s coopers turn those seasoned staves into a barrel, the careful art of toasting and charring begins. Toasting is the process of setting the barrel cylinder over a fire for 30 to 45 minutes without the fire ever actually touching the wood. During toasting, the inside of the barrel is heated, which caramelizes the natural sugars and creates a “red layer” in the wood. When you take a sip of whiskey and detect notes of vanilla, caramel, and toffee, what you’re tasting is the result of the toasting process.
Charring, on the other, is done by lighting the inside of the barrel on fire for 20 to 60 seconds. This creates a layer of char on the surface of the wood, which acts as a filter for the young whiskey, as well as adding color and notes of dried fruit, oak, and spice.
Brett and Orlin filled the eight test barrels with new-make whiskey and waited. And waited. And waited. Four-and-a-half-years later, the whiskies were ready for analysis by gas chromatograph at ISC. The heavily toasted, lightly charred barrel made from 24-month open-air seasoned staves was found to have significantly higher amounts of whiskey’s favorite core compounds: furfural (sweetness, almond, baked bread), vanillin (vanilla, creaminess), and phenols, namely guaiacol (smoky, spicy) and 4-methyl guaiacol (sweet, candy, clove, leather). But they couldn’t declare their mission complete just yet.
Brett and Orlin noted the whiskey from this barrel had a slight “graininess,” attributed to its light char. (Think of the carbon filter in your fridge’s water dispenser.) They decided if the barrel could be aged a little longer, that grain character would soften and transform into desirable flavor compounds. A little longer meant four more years. For all those who aren’t tracking the math, that’s two years of stave aging, four and a half years of initial aging, and four additional years in the barrel. 2 + 4½ + 4 = 10½ years of work, patience, and hope represented in this liquid, one of the most balanced, complex, refined bourbons you will ever taste.
Brett and Orlin call it Woodinville Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged 8 Years, rounding down a bit because they don’t like to brag. They’ve left that to the judges at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, who in April awarded this bourbon their highest honor, a double gold medal. The American Spirits Council of Tasters by Fred Minnick, meanwhile, bestowed 8 Year with double platinum status, noting how its “mint and aloe on the nose turns to a floral and soft palate featuring caramel, cinnamon sugar, and apple notes.” Get the bourbon ASCOT called “unique and pleasing” at woodinvillewhiskeyco.com/pages/product-locator.
