Over in California there’s a symbiotic relationship developing between distillers and vintners. Over the last few years you might have seen a variety of wine finished bourbons and ryes on the market, but, at the same time, the US wine industry is increasingly experimenting with the use of ex-bourbon barrels to boost the richness and flavour palate of their products too. Whilst bourbon, by law, has to be initially aged in virgin American oak (so unless the rules change you’ll never see a 100% wine aged expression – and I’m not sure you’d even want to), there’s still some flexibility to add additional flavour notes through re-racking into barrels with different predecessor liquids.