If you are lucky enough to have traveled through the hills of Kentucky near their amazing distilleries, you might have noticed a wonderful smell of grain and oak.  Or if you have had a chance to dive into a winery’s aging cellar in California, you would have smelled a wonderful toasty and fruity aroma.  At that time you may have asked yourself why does it smell so great and where do these smells come from? 

If you were in a barrel warehouse and can smell bourbon and oak make no mistake you are smelling is what they call “the angel’s share”.  Since wood is semi-porous, wine and spirits aging in barrels, slowly seep back and forth into the wood with the seasonal temperature changes.  Warm weather causes the barrels to open and breathe allowing them to take whiskey into the wood like a sponge.  When winter comes the barrels will then contract and force the whiskey back into the barrel.  A small amount of the wine or spirit actually escapes the barrel entirely due to this process.  This lost whiskey or wine is called “the angels share”. As the whiskey is flushed in and out of the oak barrel this will cause the spirit to change from a colorless spirit to a brownish amber gaining a darker color the longer it gets aged.  A large part of the flavor for whiskey comes from the barrel and helps to mellow out the products rough edge.  The next time you taste a whiskey you may notice a vanilla, caramel or toffee flavor.  This flavor is largely impart to the charred oak which toasts the natural sugars of the wood and leaving a pleasant candy-like smell.  White American oak is known for having a large amount of wood sugar that imparts a pleasant taste to the final spirit or wine, helping give it flavor and helps mellow the harsh undertone of the alcohol.

This is a barrel that I am now aging my whiskey in to help gain a better flavor and color.  I bought this 2 liter barrel online at www.oakbarrelsltd.com a very good quality barrel for half the price of other sites.  If you plan on aging your own wine or spirits at home I recommend these smaller barrels but do intend on losing some your product to the angels, after all they do deserve it.