For those of you who do not know, ISC provides the barrels for most distillery's. The exception would be Brown Forman who actually have their own cooperage formerly called Blue Grass Cooperage but changed to Brown Forman Cooperage a couple years ago. 
Jim Rutledge at Four Roses is faced with either shutting down, reducing output which means also cutting employee hours. Not a good situation to be in. Small micro distillers are pretty much shut out completely. For the time being, Four Roses is operating on reduced production. What this means in the short term is not much in my opinion but some years down the road...maybe something. ISC also produces barrels for the other big guns like Jim Beam, Buffalo Trace and Heaven Hill.
Let's hope the sourcing of American White Oak is only a temporary glitch for ISC and things get back on track soon.
On a more positive note, Four Roses has submitted their 2014 Limited Edition label to TTB noting the recipe as OESF and aged 11 years. Rumor has it that aged whiskey is in limited supply at Four Roses but to be honest, I prefer their whiskey in the 8-12 year range.
Thanks for the heads up Greg. I have some private selection OESF (10yr. 3 months) already...I may not seek out this year's SBLE. Especially, with the crazy mark up some places are slapping on these LEs. I hope the barrel shortage doesn't impede my ability to get the PS bottlings though!
ReplyDeleteJoe
Do they air dry or kiln dry?
ReplyDeleteI believe IS season's their wood, e.g. air dry. There's also a practice that some distiller use of doing a short kiln dry before toasting/charring the barrel.
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