The barrel has been around since the 3rd Millennium BC and most likely hunderds of years before. In medieval times, the barrel was worn by drunkards as a punishment for alcohol abuse and called a Drunkard's Cloak. Macallan "The Reach" 1940 is considered the oldest whiskey in terms of the time spent in a barrel. It was aged for 81 years and the first one was sold at Sotherby's acution for $340,000.