One question that comes up occasionally is why Scotch distillers favor the ex-bourbon barrel so strongly. While many Scotches are finished in port, sherry, or wine barrels, the majority of Scotches spend the majority of their lives in barrels that once held bourbon. Why? Well, there’s quite a lot of history in the answer, so grab a dram and I’ll try to explain some of the reasoning behind it.

We’ll start with the people who have probably had the greatest effect on Scotch whisky: the English. For the better parts of the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, the United Kingdom…