There’s something about a barrel room in a winery. On the surface, it’s just a giant room filled with a bunch of identical wooden barrels stacked in rows. That alone can be an impressive sight, but ...

Bourbon wouldn’t be bourbon without new, charred American oak barrels — that’s actually written into U.S. law, and that’s where bourbon gets its signature flavor and deep amber color. Oak barrels are ...

Oak barrels have been associated with transporting and aging wine for thousands of years, but for all their ubiquity, not all oak is the same. In fact, the choice of barrel, depending on how long a ...

LAST AUGUST, sweet, toasty aromas reminiscent of burning leaves wafted through the air at the Northwest Wine Academy in South Seattle. While members of the Fidelitas Red Mountain wine club looked on, ...

Say the word "winery" and many people may envision a cool, dimly lit space filled with wooden barrels - each holding 800 gallons or so - giving the liquid inside time to mellow, develop complexity and ...

Wine and spirits are complex mixtures of flavor and aroma compounds, some of which arise during aging in wooden barrels. Among other compounds, oak wood releases coumarins, but how they affect wine's ...

Talk about oak in wine, and one might picture rows of barrels, each cask snuggled into the two below. Go on a winery tour, and you'll march past walls of barrel tops decorated with coopers' stylized ...

Rioja’s identity has long been tied to American oak. Now French oak, concrete, and amphorae are reshaping the region.

Oak barrels are more than storage—they actively shape wine and whiskey by adding flavor, texture, and structure through slow oxygen exchange and the release of tannins. Winemakers favor oak for its ...