Try This at Home: Barrel-Finished Whisky

Even when a whisky is already fully mature and perfectly delicious, some distillers decide to give it extra time in a different barrel. The practice is called finishing, also sometimes known as secondary maturation. While it’s commonly done today in Scotland, Ireland, the U.S., and elsewhere, it first began in 1983 when Balvenie master distiller David Stewart put some fully-aged whisky into sherry butts for around a year. The result was Balvenie Classic, now known as DoubleWood. Starting in the 1998 at Glenmorangie, Dr. Bill Lumsden used his love of wine to become one of the biggest innovators in finishing:...