Single Oak Project | The Journey

The Land

Kentucky isn’t the only place on earth to make bourbon whiskey, but it’s darn close. Kentucky is well known for fresh limestone water, fertile land for farming, temperate climate, and a history of bourbon making. But to make great tasting bourbon, distilling is only half the recipe. The other half is the unique flavors garnered from oak barrel aging – and not all oak comes from Kentucky.

Ronnie Eddins, former Warehouse Manager at Buffalo Trace Distillery, traveled over the Ohio River to get a look at some of the Midwest’s most prized white oak. His adventure starts in the Missouri Ozarks, where we learn a little about the land, the forests, and the people there who grow some of the world’s best trees for bourbon barrels.

The Tree

Handpicking each tree to be used in the Single Oak Project took some time. But not nearly as much time as our experts have spent learning about how oak type, growth patterns, and tree location can affect the quality of bourbon whiskey years down the road.

In this video, experts from Buffalo Trace Distillery, Salem Wood Products, and Independent Stave Company talk about the high-quality white oak trees that were chosen for the Single Oak Project. Watch as these pros reveal what wood makes the best barrel and how they find that wood on a lot with thousands of trees to chose from.

The Barrels

Once the specific trees were chosen from the best forest in the country, they were sent to a nearby lumberyard in order to be made into staves and air seasoned. The trees and subsequent staves were carefully tracked during seasoning. Those staves were fashioned into two unique barrels — one from the top half of the log, and one from the bottom half.

Thus, each barrel was created from a single oak tree. Watch the video to learn even more.

The Bourbon

After nearly a decade of aging, Buffalo Trace Distillery was finally ready to bottle these incredible bourbons. Meticulous care and attention has been paid to this process, resulting in 192 whiskeys, each remarkably different from one another. And not just remarkably different, but measurably different. Learn the unique make-up of each, including recipe, wood grain, warehouse location, and more. You can rate the bourbon and see how other drinkers feel those unique aspects affect the final whiskey.

It’s all part of the Single Oak Project — the biggest experimental undertaking of its kind.

The Land

The Tree

The Barrels

The Bourbon

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