Possibly metal barrels could be air tight, but even a master cooper wouldn’t be able to make a wooden one that good. The wood itself is slightly permeable. When making eg. whiskies, the fraction of the alcohol that soaks through the wood and evaporates is known as the “angel’s share”. Makes distilleries smell amazing, of course, but all the barrels would be wooden in Shakespeare’s day.
Possibly metal barrels could be air tight, but even a master cooper wouldn’t be able to make a wooden one that good. The wood itself is slightly permeable. When making eg. whiskies, the fraction of the alcohol that soaks through the wood and evaporates is known as the “angel’s share”. Makes distilleries smell amazing, of course, but all the barrels would be wooden in Shakespeare’s day.
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/angels'_share