The Importance of a Barrel

The two elements that concern, and need to be maintained, in the distillation process in order to ensure consistency and quality are grain character and wood character. Now in the barrel, the clear distilled spirit will pick up it's final flavors over the years inside barrels that meet the distillery's strict standards. Outside the barreling room stand the lonely rejects, those barrels that have the slightest imperfections and have not made the grade to be deemed worthy of holding the bourbon. David Pudlo, Bourbon Specialist, points out one imperfection after another: this one has sapling wood in it, this a knot and that one has a compromised seam. Coopers, or barrel makers, work in a difficult, perfectionist trade and even if a barrel can pass the test to hold a liquid without leaking, they have many returned for repair because of the slightest abnormality. It is understandable, however because these barrels need to be able to hold their precious cargo for years and a leak of any kind is unacceptable. On average Maker's Mark rejects 10-25 barrels per load.