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The Terroir of Whiskey

Engineered Spirits - A view across the fields of Second Intention Farm in early spring

You’ve probably heard the term “terroir,” especially if you like to drink wine. But, while many whiskey distilleries like to talk about the terroir of their products, there’s actually quite a big debate around whether whiskey has terroir or not. Let’s dig into that debate, but, first, let’s talk about what terroir actually means.

The concept of terroir originated in France, and it’s the idea that the climate, soil, and landscape of a region imbue crops grown there with a unique flavor character, specific to that location. Generally, this concept is mostly linked to alcoholic beverages made from grapes, such as wine or brandy, but in France it’s also applied to dairy products, such as milk and cheese, single malt, and tea and coffee. Terroir is so specific to an area, that Cognac brandy, which is only produced in the Cognac region of France following a very specifically defined process anyway, is subdivided into six classifications based on specific locales. (Interestingly, in the case of Cognac, the highest value Cognac comes from the locales with the highest amount of limestone in the soil.)

In terms of the debate around whiskey, some pundits posit that distillation removes whatever terroir the beer or wine might have had. But that argument is the easiest to dismiss in our opinion, since brandy and single malt are both distilled products. If the French think those still have terroir, who’s to argue?

There are five main factors that DO influence the flavor of whiskey: the water it’s made with, the grain recipe (a.k.a. the mash bill), fermentation (which includes the yeast that drives that fermentation), distillation, and – if it’s an aged product, such as bourbon – maturing the spirit in oak.

Those who doubt whiskey has terroir often point out that most distilleries use treated municipal water for their products. That includes such giants as Brown-Foreman, which produces Old Forester and Woodford Reserve. In response, the other side’s counterargument is that there are many distilleries in Kentucky, Tennessee, and elsewhere that do use local limestone springwater to make their products. Limestone water has a high PH, which improves fermentation, but it also needs to be low in iron for good flavor. So, whichever side you agree with on this point really depends on how much you, as a drinker, think water influences the flavor of a spirit. (Full disclosure. We at Engineered Spirits happen to think it’s very important, which is why we plan to supply our tasting room with plenty of the farm’s springwater.)

Those who disagree that whiskey can have terroir will also point out that the majority of distilleries source their grain in bulk and because of that have no knowledge of the terroir of the place where the grain was grown. That’s a great point and we agree with it. But we also know of a number of craft distilleries – not just in Tennessee, but also in other states – who are sourcing locally-grown grains, or even growing them themselves, as we are.

A second argument goes something like this. “But, No. 2 yellow corn can be grown anywhere and tastes the same no matter where it’s grown, that’s the whole point. And everyone buys their seed from the same suppliers.” That is another fair point and it’s why we think growing heirloom Jimmy Red dent corn on the farm is supremely important to the flavor of the whiskey we are producing. We’re keeping our supply chain as local as possible. That doesn’t make us unique, but it does put us in the company of a very short list of like-minded craft distilleries.

The strain of yeast used in fermentation can make a difference in the flavor of whiskey, too, and, if it’s a local “wild yeast” that would definitely support the existence of terroir in whiskey. Like most distilleries, we currently buy yeast for the products we’re experimenting with, but we have collected wild strains of yeast from the farm in the past so we could have them tested by a lab for analysis. One day, we hope to find a viable local strain that we can use exclusively in our products. But for now, we’ll have to keep working on that one.

The equipment you use and your distillation process definitely does influence the flavor of whiskey, just like the mash bill does. But the equipment and process can scarcely be tied to a specific location, nor the concept of terroir.

That brings us to the final – and arguably most important component of the whiskey-making process: aging the spirit in wood to enhance its flavor and color. For bourbon, that wood is a new, white oak barrel and the spirit must remain in that barrel for four years. Most distilleries source their barrels from one of a number of cooperages, but we’ve done things a little differently, which you’ll know if you’ve been following our blog. We sent white oak harvested here on the farm to a stave company in Kentucky almost three years ago. From there it will soon go to a nearby cooperage to be made into barrels for our products. As far as we know, we’re the only craft distillery who will be able to point to one of our barrels and say, “That barrel was grown right here.”

But, of course, more important than the wood itself for whiskey is the climate it’s aged in. The temperature variations across the seasons and the weather itself are what draw the spirit in and out of the wood. We’ll be barreling our products here and aging them in the farm’s repurposed trench silo. Seeing how our whiskey will mature in that structure is something we’re really looking forward to learning. In theory, since it’s partially underground, the barrels should stay warmer in winter and cooler in summer, allowing us to age our spirits longer. But, really, we have no idea until we do it. So, that’s exciting.

Our corn, our water, our wood. I guess we should add to that list “our weather,” and hopefully, eventually, “our yeast.” That’s our goal. “100% our whiskey.” Other craft distilleries that we admire are actively addressing some or several of these things, but we don’t know of anyone else who is actively addressing all of the elements required to achieve true terroir in a whiskey. (Although there may well be; there are a lot of craft distilleries out there.) Still, we think we’ve got a solid chance at achieving it right here on the farm.

But what do you think? Does whiskey have terroir? And what do you think is the most important factor in producing  that?

Let us know in the comments.

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Making Whiskey

Prichard's distillery utilizes two beautiful, old Vendome stills, one for stripping runs, the other for final distillation runs.

Hey, all. April here again.

In the last blog, I mentioned that we were eager to get started using Second Intention Farm’s Jimmy Red corn and springwater to make our own craft whiskey. But we haven’t built our building yet, and without a bonded premise, we can’t yet get our DSP (Distilled Spirits Permit). But there IS another option that fledgling distillery’s use all the time to get products in the queue before they have their own setup. That option is contract distilling.

Last fall, knowing we still had an abundance of corn from the previous year that was literally in the way of the critical project of building our distillery, Chip came up with an excellent way to solve both problems at once. We’d get someone else to turn the farm’s corn and springwater into whiskey and barrel it for us until we could legally store it ourselves on our own premises. It takes four years to age a bourbon and contract distilling would allow us to start that process at least two years sooner.

When it comes to contract distilling there are a whole lot of options. Some distilleries will buy a spirit outright that has already been aged and just put it in a bottle with their label on it (one distillery we know of famously won awards for their bought whiskey before they’d even put a shovel in the ground to build their own). Others will supply the contract distillery with a mash bill they want made to order. In that case, the contract distillery will usually use whatever suppliers they are accustomed to using for their own products.

There are many distilleries that offer contract distilling, since a still that isn’t running isn’t making any money. But for what we had in mind, we knew it would have to be someone local. It was our plan to not only use the mash bill we’ve been testing out for a while now, but to provide the farm’s springwater and heirloom Jimmy Red corn to make it. And we didn’t want to have to transport those materials very far, since we’d be doing it ourselves.

There are several distilleries not too far away from our farm. One of those is Prichard’s Distillery in Fayetteville. We’d met with Mr. Prichard earlier in the year to discuss buying some equipment from him he no longer needed. So we reached out to him about our contract distilling plans. After a little back and forth, a deal was struck and we signed the contract last November.

Now, we just had to finish shucking, shelling, cleaning and milling about 3 ½ tons of corn!

By early December, we had processed and milled – using the hammer mill our miller loaned us – enough corn for the first run, 1500 pounds. We were still in the midst of a severe drought, so collecting the springwater we needed took much longer than we’d anticipated. But by mid December, everything we needed was at Prichard’s, including the barley and wheat we’d purchased from Middle Tennessee’s sole malt barn, Batey Farms, near Murfreesboro. We were ready to cook.

A look down into the interior of the beer still after the first stripping run of our corn whiskey.
A look down into the interior of the beer still after the first stripping run of our corn whiskey.

We’ve covered that whole process extensively on our socials. The first day we cook the corn, add all the other grains, cook all of those, add yeast and then put the finished mash into a fermenter. After about a week, it’s a corn beer, which is siphoned off into a beer still for the stripping run, during which it goes through three stages of distillation. After that, it’s siphoned off into a “spirits” still for the final distillations, which remove any remaining compounds that could negatively impact the flavor of the whiskey.

Distillate from the stripping run is monitored constantly with a hydrometer.
Distillate from the stripping run is monitored constantly with a hydrometer.

With that first run done just before Christmas, January saw us back at the farm getting more corn processed for the second run, which we completed in mid-March. Now, we’re almost finished with the components for the third run, which we plan to send to Prichard’s in the next week or two. Going forward, we’re optimistic that we’ll be able to run another batch each month during the warmer, dryer summer months, hopefully finishing before harvest time comes around again.

The final proofs of Batch 1 and Batch 2 from our first two runs were almost identical.
The final proofs of Batch 1 and Batch 2 from our first two runs were almost identical.

We had enough distillate after that first run to fill a few barrels, but, since we are making multiple runs, Seth Kimball, Prichard’s production manager, plans to wait until all or most of those runs are finished, since we’re making the same recipe every time. Then, we can sample all of the runs and blend them accordingly before we put them into barrels to age.

We’re very happy so far with the product we have (and very eager to see it barrelled). Prichard’s has been an excellent partner to work with. And while this won’t be the bourbon we plan to produce in the future, which will be distilled by us and aged in our own white oak barrels from the farm, we think it will have a distinct and delicious flavor, thanks to the farm’s springwater and Jimmy Red corn.

In the meantime, we have a lot of work in front of us. Thank you for joining us on this journey as we move closer to opening the doors of our uniquely local, farm distillery.

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The Farm’s White Oak

Stacks of white oak staves ready to be put out into the yard for aging

Hello, everyone. It’s me, April, again, with another blog to bring you all up to date on the big things that have been going on #downonthefarm over the last two years. In my last two blogs, I caught you up on the story of the corn and the springwater we’re using for our products. Now, it’s time to talk about the wood we plan to age our whiskey in.

But to do that we’re going to have to step back a little further in time, back to the fall of 2020.

We had known since before we took ownership of the farm it was long overdue for a trim. By that I mean, no timber had been taken off the property in decades. An old forest is majestic, and we love ours, but you can’t keep an oak-hickory forest healthy if young trees aren’t able to grow up to replace those that are near the end of their lives. Some of the older trees have to go in order for the new ones to have a chance. And we wanted to be able to pick and choose those trees, rather than have some natural event take down a large area of old trees en masse.

Oak and other hardwood trees growing on the northern ridge of the farm in 2021.
April 2021: Oak and other hardwood trees growing on the northern ridge of the farm.

So, in the fall or 2020, we hired The Woodlands Solution, a forestry consultant, to help us choose. That very next spring, I hiked the farm with our forester over the course of three days. He showed me what to look for when selectively cutting timber and I personally marked around 200 trees to harvest.

About 70 of those were ash trees, most of which were growing in an area behind the main house at the farm. With the green ash borer just a county away, we wanted to go ahead and take the largest of those while they still had some value as timber. And the last thing we wanted was a huge expanse of large, dead trees towering just behind the house.

The remainder of the trees I selected were a mixture of large, old, hardwood trees, such as maple, basswood, cherry, elm, hickory, poplar, chestnut oak, walnut, red oak, black oak, and white oak.

You probably know that in order to make bourbon whiskey, you have to age it in brand new, white oak barrels. But you may not know that America is consuming white oak trees much faster than they can grow. A white oak big enough to make barrels needs to be at least 15” in diameter, and those don’t just spring up overnight. That amount of growth takes decades, which creates a supply problem for distilleries.

We first learned about this problem from the White Oak Initiative, an organization made up of private landowners, industry leaders, and government agencies who are working together to advocate for sustainable white oak forest management. Engineered Spirits believes very strongly in producing our products sustainably, so we knew right away this was something we cared about and would advocate for ourselves.

Our loggers collected all the white oaks they had harvested and brought them down to the farm's front lot.
January 2022: Our loggers collected all the white oaks they had harvested and brought them down to the farm’s front lot.

Which brings us back to the trees that we selectively cut at the farm in early 2022. We harvested 15 white oaks, a couple up to 32 inches in diameter at the base. Some were just very old, others too crowded together to remain healthy. But none of those were the best white oak we had on the farm.

That honor was reserved for a single, tall, straight tree, in the prime of its life. Our forester told us it was the most valuable tree on our property, with 12 feet of trunk or more that would produce premium, veneer-quality boards.

We decided to leave that highly valuable white oak tree as our seed tree. Instead we removed the black and red oaks around it that were keeping it from getting enough sunlight. We dubbed this tree the “Queen of the Forest” and, sure enough, the next year she showered the area with acorns, which will hopefully yield the next generation of white oaks.

But we still had those 15 that we had harvested. And we really wanted those to become our distillery’s first barrels. Our loggers had even agreed to reserve those logs for us and bring them down to the front lot. But we didn’t know exactly how or even where we were going to take them. That part was up to us. And, as it turned out, it wasn’t at all simple to do.

White Oak logs from Second Intention Farm laid out in the front lot for transportation to Kentucky.
February 2022: White Oak logs from the farm laid out in the front lot for transportation to Kentucky.

This was not the first time someone told us “no one ever does that,” and it’s certainly not going to be the last. But it was one of the first times we heard so many people say it. Chip called for weeks trying to locate a stave mill that would give us our own staves back after they had aged, and a cooperage that would give us our own barrels back. At last he located a stave mill in Kentucky that said they could do it. We just had to find a commercial driver who could take the logs to them.

You wouldn’t think this would be that complicated either – at least we didn’t – but it turned out it was. Weeks passed again before he finally found someone who would do it and they demanded a very hefty fee. Finally, though, our logs made it to Kentucky.

These pallets of staves made from the farm's white oaks will age here at the stave mill for the next few years.
October 2022: These pallets of staves made from the farm’s white oaks will age here at the stave mill for the next few years.

A few months later we watched the stave mill cut them into staves. Then, they were loaded onto pallets and set aside in the stave yard to age. White oak barrel staves must age a minimum of two years. This past October they passed that mark. Hopefully, sometime in the next year or so, we can have them sent to the cooperage, where they’ll be turned into barrels for our whiskey.

Back at the farm, we still have one major roadblock: we don’t yet have our building. Until that’s done, we can’t apply for our DSP (Distilled Spirits Permit). Therefore, we can’t distill our whiskey, let alone put it in a barrel. So, our next big project is salvaging and rebuilding Papa’s workshop to transform it into the Engineered Spirits Distillery. We expect that to take up this whole next year. In the meantime, it won’t hurt our staves to age a while longer at the stave mill while the distillery is getting built.

But we already have corn and springwater. We want to be making some whiskey right now, so it can be aging in a barrel over the next four years. We also want to get some more hands-on experience distilling at scale.

To address both of those things, we reached out to some folks in the next county over. But I’ll tell you the rest of that story in the next blog.

See you then!

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