BUXTON —  River Drive Cooperage and Millwork is giving used whiskey barrels new life.

The company, located in an unassuming location in rural Buxton, transforms oak whiskey barrels into a wide variety of products including flooring, game boards, coasters and furniture. 

“It all came out of this little place in Buxton,” said company founder Matt Albrecht.

Hints of whiskey and wood scent the millwork shop, located at 600 Narragansett Trail, as barrels are dismantled and rebirthed into new creations.

From his desk on the second floor of the shop, Albrecht recently sat down with the Journal Tribune and spoke about the history of shop and his plans for the future. 

The 30-year-old transplant from Connecticut began the company in 2008. Albrecht comes from a family of woodworkers, and was fascinated by the history of logging in Maine. He began his business by making products from sunken wood found in rivers. 

After exploring the reclaimed wood industry, Albrecht began focusing on whiskey barrels in 2012, and the company has evolved into an international business.

Wooden barrels have been used for thousands of years, and not much has changed over the years except now they are bound by metal hoops instead of wood hoops. 

“It’s kind of fascinating to me that in such a digital age with so many products mass produced and cheaply made, you just can’t beat a good old-fashioned wooden barrel,” said Albrecht.

In addition to making products, River Drive also provides resourced whiskey barrels to breweries and distilleries across the state and across the globe.  

Albrecht said they heard from beer breweries regarding the challenges they faced obtaining barrels including the logistics of shipping, finding barrels that were of good quality, and the expense of repairing them.

Albrecht gets barrels from all over the world, and through word of mouth and the internet, his company has become a known source of barrels for brewers.

River Drive also makes custom items for restaurants and brew pubs, including beer tap handles and beer sampler trays. The company partnered with Jack Daniels and a snow board company to make a snowboard and with Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to make guitar amplifiers.

The company will be expanding its Buxton facility in the next couple of years and is working on a partnership with a company in France that will use River Drive’s patented form of processing barrels in France and California. 

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or [email protected].