Searching for a quality whisky can take timeand effort. There are a lot of things that go into the taste and scent profileof a whisky. Its flavour comes from the distillery, its water source, the grainrecipe, how the barley is dried, how it’s distilled, and so on. However, giventhat the age of the whisky is often featured on the bottle, it’s only naturalto wonder how time changes it as well.
So, with that in mind, we’re asking thequestion: does whisky get better with age? How does time affect the taste of whisky,and does this continue in the bottle itself?
Whisky and the Aging Process
It takes about a week to distil whisky in itsoriginal form, but the majority of time spent making whisky is the ageingprocess, which happens in barrels. At a minimum, most whiskys are aged for 3years, but you can get bottles aged up to 25 years or even more before they’rebottled. Charred or toasted oak is used for the barrels and this helps to drawout butanol and methanol, making the taste smoother. The whisky also gainsflavour from the cask itself, and the casks are often treated with spices andother flavourings to enrich the whisky further.
So, Older Is Better?
It’s not as simple saying that older whisky isbetter, but there is definitely going to be a change in flavour depending onhow long it has been barrelled. Whisky that is aged for very long in a barrel(over 25 years) can start to lose the taste of the grain. However, in mostcases, more years in the barrel means a more sophisticated taste with morenotes to savour.
Blending And Age
The way that the whisky is made will have abig impact on how it tastes. When it comes to a single malt whisky, the tastetends to remain fairly similar whether it’s a 3-year, 8-year, 12-year orotherwise. It’s just that the longer it’s in the barrel, the smoother it getsand the more it gets the hints of the barrel’s flavour as well. For blends,different grains can tend to “dominate” the taste depending on how long it’sbeen left to age for. While single malts get more sophisticated but keep mostlythe same kind of flavour profile, blends can change a lot.
Does Being In The Bottle ChangeThe Taste?
A lot of people will say that having whiskyage “in the bottle” doesn’t change the taste. It’s true that it doesn’t worklike wine, people don’t leave whisky in the bottle to improve its taste.However, factors such as oxidation and exposure to sunlight can change thetaste of whisky that has been sitting on the shelf. Most enthusiasts will agreethat the change is not for the better, however.
Hopefully, the information above has youfeeling more informed about whisky and how the ageing process can affect itstaste. It’s not always a simple answer, but time, especially spent in thebarrel, will have a big impact on the taste of whisky.
2022 Jun 2nd
