Wood ultimately accounts for somewhere in the neighborhood of 60% of a whiskey’s flavor. There are many variables at play here, including

The size of the barrels used Whether the barrels have been toasted or charred, and to what degree If they’re new or if they’ve been used, and, if the latter, what they previously held Where those barrels were stored in what type of warehouse

All of that and we haven’t even gotten to the wood itself, which is where we’ll focus today’s conversation. Different types of oak from the genus Quercus,have widely divergent characteristics. There are approximately…