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The Macallan is kind of a special case of sherry barrel aging nowadays. Because of US laws that require aging bourbon in new, freshly charred, American oak bar

The Macallan is kind of a special case of sherry barrel aging nowadays. Because of US laws that require aging bourbon in new, freshly charred, American oak barrels, a large quantity of the barrels sold to distillers across the globe are "ex bourbon." So, now, an awful lot of booze out there -- and not just whiskey, but also American brandy and some Caribbean rums -- tastes sorta like bourbon.

hinkley 8y ago
Glenmorangie and Balvenie, off the top of my head.
tptacek 8y ago
It tastes sort of like American oak, but not so much like bourbon. To a first approximation, everything not aged in Sherry butts has basically always been aged in ex bourbon casks, and lots of Scotch varieties have never been sherried.
- HillaryBriss 8y ago
  > To a first approximation, everything not aged in Sherry butts has basically always been aged in ex bourbon casks ... What historical evidence supports the notion that rum and brandy were, even to a first approximation, basically always aged in ex bourbon casks?
  - tptacek 8y ago
    Scotch. All the scotches. I'm not talking about rum and brandy (I am however at this minute getting tipsy on a pretty amazing Plantation rum aged in cognac barrels, so I guess I could nerd out on rum a bit too --- though all I know about rum is "buy the Plantation rums that are aged in interesting barrels").
    - voltagex_ 8y ago
      Which Plantation rum?
dluan 8y ago
It's kind of crazy just how much cheap swill gets sloshed around at minimum time just so that it qualifies the bond - only then to ship the barrels around to other producers for re-aging. IIRC most of barrels from Beam and Brown-Forman? Lately it seems like there's so many sherry-aged whiskies and whiskey-aged something or other, or first-fill, second-fill, ends up traveling over three continents. Seems like the barrel coopers are the ones doing the best, but even then the wood itself is pretty contentious in terms of quality versus hype.

hinkley 8y ago

Glenmorangie and Balvenie, off the top of my head.

tptacek 8y ago

It tastes sort of like American oak, but not so much like bourbon. To a first approximation, everything not aged in Sherry butts has basically always been aged in ex bourbon casks, and lots of Scotch varieties have never been sherried.

HillaryBriss 8y ago
> To a first approximation, everything not aged in Sherry butts has basically always been aged in ex bourbon casks ... What historical evidence supports the notion that rum and brandy were, even to a first approximation, basically always aged in ex bourbon casks?
- tptacek 8y ago
  Scotch. All the scotches. I'm not talking about rum and brandy (I am however at this minute getting tipsy on a pretty amazing Plantation rum aged in cognac barrels, so I guess I could nerd out on rum a bit too --- though all I know about rum is "buy the Plantation rums that are aged in interesting barrels").
  - voltagex_ 8y ago
    Which Plantation rum?

dluan 8y ago

It's kind of crazy just how much cheap swill gets sloshed around at minimum time just so that it qualifies the bond - only then to ship the barrels around to other producers for re-aging. IIRC most of barrels from Beam and Brown-Forman? Lately it seems like there's so many sherry-aged whiskies and whiskey-aged something or other, or first-fill, second-fill, ends up traveling over three continents. Seems like the barrel coopers are the ones doing the best, but even then the wood itself is pretty contentious in terms of quality versus hype.