Split Spirits in Middlebury, Vermont is flipping traditional aging techniques on their head. They abandon the use of a barrel for an all-new aging vessel. The bottle. The resulting bottles of their craft grain spirits are as unique as the regions they come from.

Split Spirits’ owner Will Drucker has long been fascinated with how barrels affect the aging process, color and flavors of whiskey. The traditional usage of white oak barrels was purely a practical decision. The wood is watertight. So Will began to wonder, with over 1,000 species of trees growing in North America, what other flavors are out there?

Split Spirits’ craft grain spirits get their flavor from the different types of wood resting inside the spirit. They currently offer three different craft grain spirits. Vermont, infused with Sugar Maple; New York, made with Black Cherry; And Illinois, made with White Oak. Because the wood stays in the bottle, the spirit continues to age, mature and develop the longer it sits on your bar cart.