Barrels - They're Magic

I'm a reasonably well-educated person, but the more I learn about all the elegant nuances that barrels perform in shaping flavors, well I just want to think of it as magic. But here goes with some technical detail in case you're curious. First, we distillers only use charred oak. Oak is strong, and reasonably pliant. It doesn't have resin channels (like pine) but it does have naturally occurring sugars. Charring was found to create a number of effects.

1) Burned wood is basically charcoal (think activated charcoal filter), so it scrubs out the off-flavors in the otherwise unruly new-make spirit.
2) Just outside the layer of burned wood is a ring that got hot, but didn't burn. Here, the sugars caramelized forming brown coloring and intensified sugar flavors of caramel, butterscotch, and vanilla.
3) Over longer aging periods (think 10 year scotch), the alcohol reacts chemically with the wood creating "organoleptically desirable elements", which is how a chemist says "it tastes good."

Here's a good link if you want more details. It is fun to educate yourself, but sometimes, I still like to believe in magic!