An Exploration of Wood Used to Age Cachaça

For the previous six weeks or so, I’ve spent time outlining how cachaça is made. In the last part of the series, I outlined the aging process. In that piece and other places, I’ve pointed out the various types of wood used to create barrels in which producers age cachaça.

I want to dive deeper into this now because I think it’s time to get into why I believe cachaça is the most diverse spirit on the planet. Remember, producers use more than thirty different types of wood. Here, I probably will not get a chance to examine EVERY single type. However, I have found 27 different wood types used to age cachaca currently for sale on several Brazilian domestic sites.

I plan to show where the wood comes from and how the wood influences the taste of the cachaça. At least in theory, if not in practice, I have not had the pleasure of sampling cachaça aged in each of these 27 types of wood.

So be prepared. I will likely do more than one type of wood per week, but probably not more than two or three. And if you would like other information, which I’m not providing, please let me know. I can likely do a bit more research and hopefully answer your questions.

See you all next week!