Another barrel head from my trip to KY

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Another barrel head from my trip to KY

Unread postby MikeK » Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:06 pm

One of my missions while down in KY earlier this year was to bring home a couple barrel heads to hang on the wall. I thought it would add just that right amount of high class tastefulness to my dining room :)

Most distilleries don't sell such a creature, but I did mange to score 2. I bought a brandy-new unfinished barrel head at WR and simply sanded and polyed it. I previously posted pictures of that one at: http://bourbonenthusiast.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1297

I finally finished my second one. While at Wild Turkey I was told that the distillery did not sell barrels but if I wandered up behind the more distant ironclads there was a barrel "boneyard" where I might find something.

Well wander I did, and what a mess. I found barrels and heads that had been weathering in the fields for who knows how long. Braving the risk of snakes and unsympathetic distillery workers I finally found the pieces of a barrel head I thought I could do something with. The head was weathered to the color of driftwood and had fallen apart into slats, but I realized that this would make the perfect contrast to my shiney new WR barrel head.

I cleaned it up and burned in the existing stenciling. Then it got a good soaking of tung oil to re-hydrate the wood and seal in the remaining char on the backside. I hung it on the wall so that the individual slats are still loose, held together merely by the original dowels and the inward clamping presure of the picture hanging wire.

I couldn't get enough light in the room for a clear picture, but at least you can get the idea. The pictures are clockwise, from top left: Four Roses column still, Heaven Hill ironclad farm, Old Taylor Distillery, and inside a BT rickhouse. I'll pre-empt the obvious question, why no WT pictures? Wild Turkey does not allow pictures at the distillery. (the tour guide got a bit crankey even when I tried to take an exterior shot of the ironclads)
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MikeK
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Unread postby kbuzbee » Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:46 pm

Nice job Mike! It came out really good. It was worth the snake nibbles.

Ken
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Unread postby Mark » Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:09 pm

Way cool Mike, your house must be full of neat bourbon trinkets and beautiful shrines like the WR and now WT ones. I have the barrel head from the barrel we all bought at BT about 2 years ago at work still. It has many of our sigs on it, now I just need to finish sealing it and get that hung here!
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Unread postby Strayed » Sun Oct 23, 2005 10:54 pm

Really nice, Mike!

You might already know this, but not everyone does... The "92E05" means that the whiskey was put into the barrel on Tuesday May 5, 1992 (spring). If they were still bottling at 8 years old then, that means it was dumped in 2000. Of course, it might have been dumped this year if your particular barrel was one of those chosen for 15-year-old Jimmy Russell's Tribute. Lacking any evidence to the contrary, I think I'd go with that estimate!
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