Why Age is Important?
In the realms of whiskey connessuers...the rule of thumb is that 'Older is generally better!' but what really is aging?
The whiskey aging process first starts with it's contact with wood. In the USA even if a whisky has contact with wood for a moment it still qualifies as whisky but not straight whiskey, other whiskey countries have their own rules.
For example, bourbon must be aged in new, charred oak barrels. Straight bourbon must do so for a minimum of two years. In Scotland, it can't be labeled "whisky" until it has aged for three years and a day. The wooden barrel is important because it is the main source of flavour, at least by the time it's bottled.
Whiskey penetrates the wood fibers, breaks down compounds like wood sugars, and then pulls them out of the wood into the whiskey. Temperature plays a major part in this: When wood gets warm, it expands, letting more liquid in. When it gets cold, it contracts, pushing whiskey (and color, sugars, and other flavors) back into the liquid. It's very much like steeping tea.
But what's fascinating is if you have a 14 year old bottle of whisky in your cabinet. It will remain a 14 year old whisky even if you keep it in the bottle for 25 years, because whisky does not age in a bottle.
Assuming it is correctly stored it won't change much unless it has excess exposure to light or heat or something that is bad for it.
So when you read on the label a whisky is 30 years old the aging was done in the barrel. Legally, it will be the age of the youngest whiskey in the bottle, at the time of bottling.
Age statements can also be reductive. Many of the bottles labeled 14 years old could contain a blend of whiskeys aged from 14 to sometimes 15-16 years of age or more, depending on the brand. With the exception of single barrel or single cask whiskeys (a bottle labeled single barrel or single cask can only contain whiskey from one barrel), some bottles are the product of a master blender using a variety of whiskeys to achieve the desired final result.
Barrels mature differently, and no two are the same. Even with upwards of 15 million casks in warehouses across Scotland, every single one as unique. The art of maturing whisky really is a waiting game that relies on time and patience. Samples have to be drawn from casks on a regular basis and shared with the Malt Master to then determine when that whisky has hit the sweet spot in maturation.