As Buffalo Trace's president, Mark Brown, points out, one of the distillery's distinctive bourbons, Blanton's, comes exclusively from casks matured in the firm's only metal-sided warehouse.
Some 82% of the spirit was matured in used bourbon barrels, 12% in new French oak ones, and 6% in former port casks, allowing the mingled compounds from the barrels' wood and from any previous liquid inhabitants each to make their particular contribution to the finished whisky.Maturation, too, differs between America and Scotland.
Nor will it surprise those familiar with the Scottish reputation of being, shall we say, careful with money, that Scotch whisky barrels are always second-hand.Traditionally, 500-litre sherry casks called butts have been used.
Some have taken to "finishing" their whisky in different casks for a year or two, to modify the flavour.
After that, the fuel will be moved to dry casks and remain on site for as long as necessary.
"I rushed down into the cellar and all ten barrels of Brunello from the 2007 to 2012 vintages were open and the wine had gone off down the drains".On the night of December 2nd someone broke into Mr Soldera's estate, emptied the massive oak casks of 62,600 litres of one of the world's great wines and left without stealing a thing.
The festival was organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), a 90,000-strong lobbying group promoting traditional, unpasteurised, unfiltered beer, stored and served from casks wherein, with live yeast, it continues to ferment.Sales of real ale have bucked beer's downward trend.
In December Adnams, a Suffolk brewer, will bottle whisky that has been sitting in casks for three years the time it takes for the European Union to recognise fermented cereal mash as whisky.
The NRC reckons that waste can be kept safely in dry-storage casks surrounded by inert gas for 100 years while a solution is pursued.Second, there is terrorism.
