Staving Grace

Back in 2010, Maker’s Mark launched Maker’s 46, its first new whiskey since the debut of its flagship in 1958. Maker’s 46 was also noteworthy for its use of a different maturation method: stave finishing. “Then-chairman Bill Samuels Jr. sought a bourbon that was a bolder Maker’s Mark, with more caramel, cinnamon, and a longer finish with no bitter aftertaste,” explains master distiller Dr. Blake Layfield. “The challenge was doing that without altering the mashbill, distillation parameters, or primary aging barrel. To achieve that, the team pioneered a finishing technique inspired by the wine industry.” That technique involved inserting 10 virgin French oak staves into mature barrels of Maker’s Mark for a 9-week secondary maturation at a cold temperature (less than 50°F), which is now found year-round in the distillery’s limestone cellar.

When Maker’s 46 was released, cask finishing itself, at least in American whiskey, had only just arrived, starting with Angel’s Envy in 2011. Putting the concept into practice took some ingenuity on the part of Maker’s, which has since conducted many other experiments involving staves for secondary maturation under its Wood Finishing Series.

Layfield says there’s good reason Maker’s has stuck solely with staves for its finished whiskeys, as opposed to cask finishes. “The primary benefit lies in its ability to offer precision, speed, and environmental advantages compared to traditional full-cask finishing,” he says. “The high surface area-to-volume contact accelerates flavor extraction and allows concentrated notes of caramel, spice, and oak to be achieved in a matter of weeks, far sooner than the many months required with a second full cask.”

Since the advent of Maker’s 46, other distillers and brands have adopted stave finishing, though barrel finishing remains the primary method. Among those who’ve used it are RD1 and Broken Barrel (previously Infuse Spirits), and both focus on stave-finished whiskeys. With their attention fully on staves, they’ve released some unusual iterations. RD1 has double-finished some of its releases with two kinds of staves, while Broken Barrel has used staves from coffee liqueur and Texas sotol barrels.

Some producers have taken to retooling the staves themselves. One of those is Dixon Dedman, master blender of 2XO (Two Times Oak). For the brand’s Oak Series, Dedman was seeking a more affordable way to introduce additional oak into the mix. “Over the last several years, the cost of a new barrel has almost doubled, and on top of that, the availability of new barrels has become more of an issue,” he says. “I wanted that secondary oak exposure, while still having a whiskey that was always available, and it was the insertion of oak that offered that.”

The method Dedman uses is an 8-foot-long stainless-steel chain threaded with charred cubes of wood, which is then inserted into the barrel. “[Developing the chain] was one of the coolest things I’ve had the opportunity to do; we were experimenting with different lengths of chain, different char levels, and the chain itself,” he says. From his perspective, the threaded chain insertion delivers about 60-75% of the impact that you’d get from a full secondary barrel maturation, acting as a more complementary element to a whiskey’s flavor profile, as opposed to overhauling it—a side effect of double barreling.

Stave-Finished Whiskeys to Try

93 points - RD1 Small Batch Brazilian Amburana Finished Straight Bourbon, 55%, $80

Floral spice, chai, vanilla frosting, basil, cloves, berry compote, and dried herbs Finished with amburana staves that have small holes drilled into them (to allow for even more interaction between the wood and the whiskey).

92 points - Whiskey Jypsi Explorer French and Appalachian Oak Stave Finished Bourbon, 51.5%, $70

Candied nuts, brown sugar, marshmallow fluff, overripe banana, and Cubano espresso Finished with a combination of French and American white oak staves for an undisclosed time.

91 points - 2XO Oak Series French Oak Straight Bourbon, 46%, $50

Cinnamon graham cracker, caramelized sugar, strawberries, and maple syrup French oak scraps sourced from cooperages across France were threaded through a stainless- steel chain that is then inserted into the barrel.

91 points - Broken Barrel Heresy Rye, 52.5%, $35

Baking spice, stewed fruit, pineapple, peach melba, and chocolate-covered espresso beans Broken Barrel uses what it calls an “Oak Bill” (now a trademarked term) that references the specific stave breakdown; Heresy’s oak bill is 40% bourbon barrel, 40% virgin French oak, and 20% sherry cask staves.

91 points - Maker’s Mark Wood Finishing Series: BEP (2023 Release) Straight Bourbon, 55.35%, $70

Whipped cream, lemon meringue, old leather, chocolate milkshake, pepper spice, and vanilla The distillery added 10 toasted virgin American oak staves to the barrel, in an effort to highlight the signature flavors it attributes to its barrel entry proof of 110.