Finished Whiskey: the True Story of a New Classic
A Short History of Finished Whiskey in America
In the American whiskey world, finished whiskey wasn’t really a thing until Angel’s Envy came around. Before that there were a few one-offs of specifically Kentucky Bourbon that had been finished in some sort of wine barrel, but it was really rare and it was never, ever labeled as straight Bourbon — it was almost a sacred line that Kentucky Bourbon producers never crossed. That is, until Lincoln Henderson.
How Finished Whiskey Got Its Start
Lincoln Henderson
Lincoln Henderson is one of the three people largely responsible for starting the Woodford Reserve brand (the other two are Stephen Thompson and Dave Scheurich). After Henderson retired from Brown-Forman, his son, Wes Henderson, came to him with an idea to start a brand with the family. The elder Henderson had been toying with the idea of wine barrel finished Bourbons. As my friend and bourbon historian Michael Veach tells the story, Lincoln Henderson came to him one day and asked if Veach thought it would be proper to still call a bourbon finished in a wine barrel a bourbon. Veach, somewhat famously now, told him that to him it was no longer a bourbon, but if the TTB would let Henderson do it, he’d be crazy not to. And thus Angel’s Envy, named for the retained spirits in the barrel not evaporated in the angel’s share, was born in 2010.
Angel's Envy tasting room
“I'm comfortable with saying it now,” says Angel’s Envy co-founder and True Story Founder Wes Henderson. “Along the way, I'm like, yeah, we were kind of the first to do finishing. But I think now you've got an entire category that, you're right, we pioneered it!”
Finished whiskey falls into three distinct categories:
whiskeys finished in casks that formerly held another spirit
whiskeys finished in a second new oak container
whiskeys finished with staves
Defining Finished Whiskeys
According to Veach’s website, “Finished whiskeys are whiskeys that are placed in a secondary, used barrel that held other spirits, and used as flavoring agents for the whiskey. In the regulations, they are labeled as “Distilled Spirit Specialty,” and the label must have the name printed on the label in the same size font. This allows phonetic gymnastics such as labeling the whiskey “Straight Bourbon Finished in … Barrels”. The whiskey is no longer a bourbon, but started as a bourbon before finishing.”
Scotch has generally always been matured exclusively in these used barrels, including former bourbon barrels, wine barrels, cognac barrels, and more. But the Kentucky bourbon industry didn’t really look at barrel finishing seriously until the last decade plus after Angel’s Envy proved it would be well-received by consumers. Jim Beam had a wine barrel finished bourbon in the 1990s, says Veach, but it was not a common thing within the industry.
Notable Brands
Barrell Craft Spirits
Maker’s Mark
Distillery 291
Wine barrel finished whiskey
Barrell Craft Spirits has pioneered a brand built exclusively on mingling barrels from different states and finishing them with unique spirits barrels. American whiskey producers all over the country are experimenting with barrel finishes, and non-distiller producers are finding that well-done barrel finishes can set their sourced whiskey apart from the rest.
Secondary new barrels have even less historical relevance within the American whiskey industry. Historically, the regulation about single-use casks is rooted in the fact that before machine blown glass became economically feasible at the turn of the 20th century, whiskey was primarily sold by the barrel and distillers were unlikely to get that barrel back after it sold. The regulation on using a new, charred oak container came about in 1938 when a lawmaker from Arkansas introduced legislation aimed at creating jobs to get the country out of the Great Depression. However, because bourbon has to be aged only in new cooperage, in order to have a finished bourbon and still be able to call it bourbon, whiskey makers can rebarrel a bourbon in a brand new lightly charred toasted barrel and still call it bourbon, although putting the bourbon into a brand new secondary barrel that is only toasted would still fall under “Bourbon finished in a toasted barrel” similar to wine barrel finishes because it’s not charred.
Stave Finishing
Maker's Mark bottles
Stave finishing has even less historical relevance in American whiskey than secondary new barrels, but it is becoming popular with whiskey makers throughout the country. Maker’s Mark 46 is the product responsible for creating this category. It’s worth noting that the TTB’s public COLA registry shows that Maker’s Mark 46 is listed as a “whisky specialty,” as are the stave finishing series products including the FAE series, MR 1-3, and the SE4 x PR5, meaning that it’s not categorized as a straight Bourbon whiskey like its plain base spirit. Distillery 291 in Colorado Springs, Colorado uses aspen wood staves to finish the majority of its products, sourced from nearby land, giving the whiskey a regional flair.
Stave finished whiskey bottles
Stave finishing can use different types of wood, but most often you’ll see stave finishing done with various species of oak that have undergone different treatments, including infrared, wave cutting, and more. Andrew Wiehebrink at Independent Stave is probably the industry’s foremost expert on what different woods and treatments will do to whiskey and he advises distilleries across the country on unique and innovative barrel and stave finishing techniques.
Finished whiskey can be incredibly complex and unique, adding layers and depth to spirits and giving whiskey enthusiasts something new and different to sip on.