Our story begins when we met in graduate school, both of us studying chemistry. After thirty years in the chemical industry, we happened to make a trip to Kentucky to see how whiskey was made. We had an idea about how to more efficiently treat white oak barrels, reclaiming used ones in the process. After two years of experiments to meet our own expectations, we arrived at Smiling Oak!
Mission
Sustainable and Handcrafted ! When we saw the massive rickhouses full of barrels which lose a high percentage of product to the atmosphere (the so-called “Angel’s Share"), we began to apply our expertise to find a better way. The process we designed is “dynamic barreling”. We can use spent whiskey barrels by taking them apart and flaming the barrel wood into segments. The segments are added to the barrel with conventional distillate to produce whiskey in a much shorter timeframe than is possible with conventional barreling. We also learned that we could re-use the wood even AFTER producing whiskey to produce yet another whiskey with different characteristics.
Vision
Leslie: "Make whiskey accessible and enjoyable to those who are not drinking it yet!"
Joe: "Smooth, delicious whiskey from our sustainable dynamic barreling process!"
