By law in the United States, bourbon must be aged for a minimum of two years in new American White Oak barrels.
Yet a single White Oak tree, which can take up to 80 years to reach full maturity, might only yield enough wood to make one to three barrels, each oaken vessel capable of holding 53 gallons of bourbon. With demand growing for the spirit, sourcing enough raw wood can impact the sustainability of forests.
In Kentucky, there are now more than 10 million barrels of bourbon aging, a growing market driven by “brands that mainly rely on charred White Oak barrels to give bourbon its color and flavor,” states a 2021 report developed in part by the American Forest Foundation and the University of Kentucky. “Without swift intervention today, the American White Oak population will begin to decline significantly within the next 10 to 15 years, with more extreme declines over the next several decades.”
With these concerns, whiskey-making may not seem like a sustainable practice. Yet, in the right hands, bourbon may be just what the forest ordered. At Angel’s Envy, one of the nation’s ultra premium spirit brand, the company’s Toast to the Trees initiative is helping to replenish White Oak to ensure the long-term health of forests around the country—not to mention a steady supply of bourbon for generations to come.
The Burning Secret Behind Aging Bourbon
Bourbon begins as a mix of cereal grains, called a mash bill, that includes at least 51 percent corn, with the remainder made up of barley and perhaps rye and wheat, which lend peppery and smooth attributes, respectively. The grains are then crushed, simmered in hot water, strained, fermented, and distilled into a clear, white spirit.
The white whiskey is perfectly drinkable, but most distilleries turn to the transformative powers of oak and fire to create a fine aged whiskey. This is done by exposing the insides of the wooden barrels to flames until they’re charred to a range of intensities, typically from Level 1 char (15 seconds) to Level 4 char (55 seconds). The intense heat causes the oak to expand, readying the wood to absorb the spirits, and breaks down the lignin—an organic polymer that lends wood its rigid strength—into vanillin, celebrated for supplying vanilla with its warm and inviting aroma and flavor. The fiery technique also converts hemicellulose, a polysaccharide found in plant cell walls, into wood sugars.
Each barrel’s resident spirit slowly absorbs vanillin and sugars that can contribute tastes of toffee and caramel. A barrel’s charred, essentially charcoal lining helps impart a rich brown hue and filters out undesirable flavor compounds like sulfur.
Distillery workers sample and assess whiskey until it’s deemed ready to exit a barrel, completing its spirited metamorphosis into bourbon. For many bourbon distilleries, a barrel’s job is done. Angel’s Envy, however, adds additional flavorful complexity by aging its Kentucky straight bourbon in ruby port wine casks, a secondary finishing that adds a nuanced yet approachable flavor profile.
Once a bourbon batch is finished, it’s back to the forest to harvest wood for another new barrel.
The Power of Oak in Biodiversity
In addition to aging bourbon, oak trees play an outsize role in supporting the biodiversity of forests. There are some 500 species of the genus Quercus, a leafy member of the beech family, and oak trees can grow more than 100 feet tall and survive for several centuries.
The trees’ height and longevity help them mitigate soil erosion, offer shelter for nesting birds, and provide food for a diverse ecosystem of living creatures. During a reproductive season, an oak tree can produce thousands of acorns that serve as a food source for deer, squirrels, blue jays, and other mammals. Rabbits are known to snack on oak leaves, twigs, and young shoots, and birds like woodpeckers, crows, and wild turkeys will eat oak leaves as well as insects.
Numerous species of butterflies and moths lay eggs on oak foliage, which serves as sustenance for larvae. On a microscopic level, oak trees also have a symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi that inhabit the root system and provide the trees with nutrients, boost water intake, and fend off bacteria and other fungi that can cause diseases.
In short, oak trees are towering pillars that help support a wider forest ecosystem—a key driver of woodland biodiversity.
Creating Change with “Toast the Trees”
To ensure the future health and viability of both forests and distilleries, Angel’s Envy created the progressive Toast the Trees program, a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. Since starting the initiative in 2014, Angel’s Envy has planted more than 200,000 trees. During 2021 alone, the program planted enough White Oak to sequester an estimated 55,000 metric tons of carbon and prevent millions of gallons of water runoff. Those numbers will only grow as the program continues. (Bourbon drinkers can even help in the effort by toasting with Angel’s Envy and using the hashtag #ToastTheTrees on their photos; for each tag, Angel’s Envy and the Arbor Day Foundation will help plant another tree, up to 75,000 this year.)
Angel’s Envy, working with the Arbor Day Foundation, focuses its reforestation efforts based on where the replanting is needed, and in this past year, worked with three main regions. First is the Appalachian Mountains’ Cumberland Plateau, a 450-mile stretch of forest that extends from West Virginia to Alabama. The region is rich in biodiversity and coal, which led to invasive surface mining in states such as Kentucky, where Toast the Trees is helping regenerate former mine sites.
The Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia is also pockmarked with reclaimed mine and logging lands that suffer from invasive plant species, compacted soil, and a lack of native trees. In their most recent efforts, Toast the Trees has focused on restoring stands of red spruce in the forest that will benefit wildlife species such as the northern flying squirrel and Cheat Mountain salamander.
This year’s project is also focused on Missouri forests filled with stands of White Oak, many of which will become bourbon barrels. Southern Missouri’s verdant Salem Plateau, for instance, is home to the 2,400-acre Hart Farm, which supplies oak trees to the Independent Stave Company. They, in turn, craft them into some of the barrels destined for Kentucky distilleries, including Angel’s Envy.
To help build a sustainable supply chain, Toast the Trees, this past year, planted 3,400 White Oak trees on the Hart Farm. One day, decades from now, some of those White Oak trees will be turned into bourbon barrels. In the meantime, the iconic trees will safeguard the health of the forestland and nearby Meramec River watershed. It’s a delicate balancing act that benefits ecosystems and bourbon drinkers everywhere.
Ultimately, the distillery aims to keep growing Toast the Trees to ensure the health of White Oak forests, as well as its premium craft bourbon, for future decades—a spirit of innovation worth celebrating with a glass of Angel’s Envy.
This story was produced by WIRED Brand Lab for Advertiser.
