If a 12-year bottling is good, then a spirit that’s rested for 20 years must be even better, right?
With age comes wisdom and character, or so the people who make up clichéd sayings would have us believe. That’s definitely true when it comes to whisky: most people are of the opinion that older is better. If a 12-year bottling is good, then a spirit that’s rested for 20 years must be even better, right?
Maybe not. With more young releases or even “no age statement” whiskies coming on the market, it might just be time to rethink how we look at aged whiskies.
Time to Rest
Producing whisky demands time as much as it does water and grain; every whisky requires a period of maturation to soften the harshness and refine the rawness of the new spirit through the chemical process of adsorption.
But how long must this maturation period last? Distillation is a costly endeavor, and small-scale distilleries cannot afford to wait 12 years before introducing their inaugural product to the market. Consequently, many have begun bottling young whiskies while reserving other barrels for future release.
However, young whisky differs significantly from white whisky or straight-up moonshine. Unlike these clear spirits, which are sharp and fiery—some liken the experience of consuming pure moonshine to being struck in the palate by an old bootlegger—young whisky possesses its own array of nuances and subtle pleasures, even if it lacks the full complexity of an 18-year-old bottle.
The Charms of Youth
While the smooth character of top-tier sipping whiskies is often attributed to lengthy ageing, young spirits offer distinct advantages—depending on the qualities you seek.
Through some spreadsheet wizardry applied to the Malt Maniacs Awards results, where a panel of seasoned judges conducted blind tastings, we’ve organized the whiskies into age and price categories, revealing any correlations.
Among the standouts were a few remarkably young bottles, particularly from Taiwan and India, which excel with significantly shorter maturation times compared to Scotch.
Young whisky exhibits less oak influence, having spent minimal time in the barrel—allowing the grain flavors to shine through. Sampling young whiskies provides an educational journey into discerning the disparities between wheat-heavy, corn, and rye-influenced whiskies.
As an unadulterated expression of the spirit without the tempering effect of ageing, each glass reflects the distiller’s expertise. While ageing can mask flaws in a mediocre whisky, a remarkable young whisky showcases the pure talent of the distiller.
Moreover, young whiskies offer a sip with fewer tannins and less astringency, as prolonged contact with oak is minimized. Additionally, they may exhibit more pronounced smoke or peatiness, characteristics that may mellow over time.
While some may consider it sacrilege, young whisky shines brightest in cocktails. Its lighter profile harmonizes seamlessly with other ingredients, making it an ideal base for classics like the old fashioned or Manhattan.
Brash Spirits
Of course, young whiskys have their disadvantages, too. Remember that “less astringency” quality? Well, that might not be a good thing for you, depending on your tastes! The bracing, tongue-tingling sensation you get from a good aged whisky is something to be cherished, and young spirits have less of that. They can seem a little flat or insipid by comparison, especially if you’re looking for that jolt.
They do give you a jolt in another way, though—with less time in the barrel, young whiskys are more fiery than their older counterparts, with what’s called a brash character. Basically, think of a teenager. They’re cocky, self-assured, and don’t quite get all the social niceties you use at a dinner party. They won’t outright punch you in the face, but you may get some sneers.
How Old Is Young?
So how old is young anyway?
Like so much in the whisky world, that depends. You’ll never see something straight out of the still branded as proper whisky—that’s moonshine, white lightning, or whatever you want to call it. Some age is still necessary. In fact, in Australia anything that calls itself “whisky” must be aged at least two years by law; in the UK, it’s three.
But some young whiskys in the US and India can be bottled as quickly as six months on, while others across the world range all the way up to eight years. Though some traditionalists consider it young, 12 years is usually pushing well into “normally aged” territory.
Try It
Ready to take the plunge? There’s plenty of fantastic options to try—and the good news is that even the best young offerings are often much cheaper than their older counterparts, for obvious reasons. So go ahead and try a few!
Starward Solera Whisky by New World Whisky in Melbourne is an amazing place to start. It’s the technique rather than the time that makes this malt whisky interesting—it’s made with 100% Australian barley and aged using a technique more often applied to port wine that involves continually rotating and blending different ages of spirits right in the barrels. That gives the final product a far more complex character than you’d expect from a three-year-old liquor, with hints of raisin and caramel starting to appear.
Low Gap from California’s American Craft Whiskey Distillery is aged for two years in new and used oak barrels. It’s a great expression of hard wheat character that shows some of the best of what an incredibly well-made young whisky can offer, with a light taste and feel but distinctive buttery tones.
The English Whisky Company’s Chapter 6 Unpeated whisky showcases smooth barley after the minimum 3 years of ageing under English law. It doesn’t have any of the vegetable, funky notes of smoke and peat that are often associated with UK spirits, but that lets the light, pastry-like flavours shine. The distillery is releasing ‘chapters’ of its whisky as it continues to age and blend, so consider picking up a few different ones to sample for yourself how a particular spirit changes with age and oaking.
Tomatin Legacy is a no-age-statement (NAS) whisky, meaning it’s not legally bound to a certain age and can be blended (though it’s still single-malt). It is aged, though, in a combination of virgin (that is, unused) oak barrels and used bourbon barrels. So there’s a complexity there you don’t get with many young whiskys. It’s citrusy and piney, but with vanilla and pepper tucked in there, too.
Wasmund’s Single Malt from Copper Fox in Virginia is ‘rapid oaked’, which is a bit of a different beast (we’ll discuss that voodoo in another article), but still turns out an incredibly respectable, nuanced spirit after only a year or so.
If you’re visiting the New England, USA, Spirits of Old Bennington Kilted Wheat is an excellent young wheat whisky bottled at only six months, but with the character and smoothness of a much older spirit—the hint of caramel plays out nicely. It’s only available in limited bottlings direct from the distillery in Bennington, Vermont, but it’s well worth the trip.
With all these offerings and more a pour away, there’s no reason not to give youth a chance!