

After aging the spirit in Kentucky, Jefferson’s founder Trey Zoeller loaded 720 barrels onto a ship bound for Singapore, where the barrels rested for 18 months. Recently, Jefferson’s unveiled a new expression - Jefferson’s Tropics - that takes things even further. And some new finishing techniques are also going beyond simply moving mature liquid to different casks (although there’s still plenty of that too). Since then, finishing has become more and more ubiquitous across not only Scotch brands, but also American whiskey.

That release (now the brand’s flagship) took matured scotch and finished it in sherry casks. The process was popularized relatively recently, with David Stewart MBE kicking things off when he launched The Balvenie Doublewood 12 in 1983. Whiskey finishing or “secondary maturation” is, traditionally, the process of moving fully matured whiskey to another barrel (there are no time restrictions on whiskey finishing). So how do whiskey-makers keep things fresh? Lately, a handful of adventurous whiskey brands like Jefferson’s Bourbon and Blackened have turned to the finishing process as a space for innovation.Īs finishing becomes more popular, all whiskey lovers - no matter how casual - should know about the process. Humans have been distilling whiskey for at least 600 years. If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.
