Episode 316 - S.C.U.B.A (Submerging Casks Under Bodies Aquatic)

Before I get into the underwater side of things, though, I want to cover some of the stuff that immediately precedes that, which is, of course, the longstanding history of putting booze on boats, right? very long-standing international and domestic history of this, just go back to one of the foundational stories of American whiskey, right? We have barrels that have the word bourbon written on them being transported down the Mississippi River on barges.

And whether you are sympathetic to that bourbon referencing the origins or perhaps the destination of those barrels, it doesn't really matter.

That may be up for debate, but one thing that's not up for debate is the fact that those casks and their contents matured, changed, and somehow became definitive of what American whiskey is.

Then of course we also have the rum running tradition during Prohibition.

Bill McCoy has a famous rum brand named after him to this day, the real McCoy.

But importantly, it would be incorrect to assume that sticking booze on boats is only something that happened in the past.

We have a number of great examples of maturation on water to this day.

If you were at the conference last year, you heard Alexandre Gabriel from Ferrand and Plantere talk about his Barge 166 on the Seine in Paris, where they're aging not only Ferrand Cognac, but also Plantere rums, probably some other fun experiments.

And he's using this mostly as a research vessel and for special events and tastings.

He can compare what's going on on this barge with what's going on in his terrestrial warehouses.

And then, of course, we have a newer bourbon brand called O.H. Ingram.

Their tagline is mellowed on the Mississippi.

And you see a picture of their floating warehouse here.

Looks pretty cool to me.

Personally, I would not mind a tour of that facility.

But it's not just freshwater, right? We're not just talking about rivers where presumably there's not a whole ton of agitation happening, maybe some gentle rocking.

We're also talking about putting barrels on larger cargo ships and setting them loose on the high seas.

So we have, of course, Jefferson's Ocean.

Everyone's probably familiar with this.

We also, you may be interested to know, have Gosling's Spirited Seas product.

And this is matured on the primary cargo ship that goes back and forth between Bermuda and, I believe, New Jersey.

David was also kind enough to turn me on to a subcategory of spirits called Leni Aquavit.

And this is a Norwegian product, goes on a boat in Norway, traverses the world to Australia, then comes back again, and the term Linné refers to the equator line.

So it crosses the equator line twice, and so we have an entire subcategory of spirits that is defined by what happens to it on a boat.

But why are we doing this and what stories are we telling about it? Well, the obvious one is that we're telling a story about rocking and oak extraction, right? And it might be difficult to make the case to a consumer that more extraction is happening more aggressive extraction or faster extraction.