I was always amazded how with alcohol the older it gets the better. So paculiar. Can anyone explain to me why that is?
There are two phases to aging Scotch. The length of time it ages in a barrel and the length of time it ages in the bottle. The important one, the one that determines the "age" of a good Scotch, is the time it spends in the barrel.
Scotch is aged in wooden barrels, and as it sits it absorbs flavors from the wood. For example, the bottle I am currently drinking contains hints of raisins, coffee, fresh malt, light cream, vanilla, honey, rich fruits, and a trace of smoke. This means every vintage of Scotch has it's own distinctive flavor, and no two Scotches will taste exactly the same, unless they were both bottled from the same barrel. The aging process is important as the longer it sits in the barrel, the more flavor is absorbed.
Once Scotch is bottled it no longer matures. The age of the Scotch is actually the number of years from when it was first distilled until it was bottled. So, for example, if my bottle was distilled in 1985 and bottled in 2003, it is considered an 18 year old Scotch, even though it was distilled 25 years ago.
The reason that so many older Scotches demand such a high price has more to do with rarity than anything else. For example, the Black Bowmore I referenced earlier was distilled in the 1920s and bottled in the 1980s. It is a 63 year old Scotch, and is very rare due to its age. Since every vintage has a distinct flavor (even more distinct when you talk about blended malts) buying an older Scotch like that represents a limited opportunity to experience a flavor that will likely never be duplicated.
And finally, by Scottish law, for a whiskey to be called a Scotch it
must contain a minimum of 40% abv, so no matter what vintage you get, if you drink enough it will fuck you up...
I told you not to let her out of the basement.
