We take pride in offering 48-month air-seasoned American White Oak. Due to the scarcity of White Oak in recent times, we've partnered with a family-run stave mill in Missouri to ensure a consistent supply. However, our commitment to crafting exceptional barrels remains with our no-shortcuts approach.

We discovered a small stash of Oregon White Oak (Q.garryana) that had been air-seasoned for an astonishing 120 months. This oak was purchased from a local cooperage. Once this stack is gone, we don’t expect to find more again.

My French Oak Ex-Wine wood comes from a barrel reconditioning company in Oregon. Here are a few photos of some of the heads, the inside of a head, and the inside of a couple of my barrels after removing tartrate and wine stain.

My Ex-Bourbon wood is from a barrel broker on the East Coast, so detailed information is often limited. I usually rely on stamps and markings for identification. Here are some photos of the heads, the inside of a head, and the inside of a couple of my barrels after removing some of the original char. The original char gums up my tools, so I remove any loose char while keeping as much toasted wood and char as possible.

Curious about the science of oak used for wine and spirits? Here are some papers to look over:

  • Martínez, J., Cadahía, E., Fernández de Simón, B., Ojeda, S., & Rubio, P. (2008). Effect of the Seasoning Method on the Chemical Composition of Oak Heartwood to Cooperage. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 56(9), 3089–3096. doi:10.1021/jf0728698 (https://sci-hub.se/10.1021/jf0728698)
  • A Review of Polyphenolics in Oak Woods https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4425000/
  • Real-Time Mass Spectrometry Monitoring of Oak Wood Toasting: Elucidating Aroma Development Relevant to Oak-aged Wine Quality Ross R. Farrell, Marco Wellinger, Alexia N. Gloess, David S. Nichols, Michael C. Breadmore, Robert A. Shellie & Chahan Yeretzian https://sci-hub.se/10.1038/srep17334