title_body: Using barrels for aging Whisk(e)y - preparing the barrel?
upvoted_answer: The barrels are pumped out at the winery. The barrels are probably rinsed with hot water until it's free of the gunk from the wine making process. Then left to drip dry for a while for a few days. If they are going to be used for spirits, the barrel head has to be taken off and then the barrel is charred on the inside. Otherwise, you won't get any of that smokey flavor. Wine barrels are toasted, not charred. Wine barrels go easy on the toasted oak flavor, where as whisky/scotch barrels go completely burned to almost charcoal on the inside that's how the flavor gets in there. If they just used wine barrels without doing anything, it would have a fairly weak flavor profile.