20% factor

[bourbonv]

Gary,
I think Lew might have gotten things confused at L&G about the barrels. I do believe that everybody toasts their barrels because that is part of the coopering process that creates the red layer. What Chris says on his tours in the late winter when we do the Bourbon Academy programs is that L&G is the only bourbon with the barrel heads toasted. Most barrels made are not made with toasted heads. Chris says that Brown-Forman believe that this will add additional contact with a red layer, thus aiding the aging process.
It is all quite a bit to take in and I can see Lew getting confused as to what had been said when he looked at his notes later, thus confusing barrel heads with simply barrels.
Mike Veach

[Gillman]

Thanks Mike, maybe, but Lew makes a clear distinction between toasting and charring, implying possibly WR uses a preliminary step of aging whiskey in toasted barrels (before aging in new charred barrels). Sam Cecil states that around the Second World War distillers experimented with aging whiskey partly in new charred wood and partly in reused charred barrels, but the results did not impart the necessary palate, so everyone went back to using new charred barrels only. When I read Lew's comments I wondered if WR might be reprising the wartime-era experiments, except this time using new toasted wood aging, followed by charred wood aging.

Gary