WHISKY

Is Whisky and Whiskey the same?
Whiskey (with an ‘e’) refers to Malt or Grain spirits distilled in Ireland, the United States, and other territories. Whisky (with no ‘e’) refers to Scottish (Also Canadian, or Japanese) Malt or Grain spirits.

What is a Malt Whisky?

Malt whisky is made in Scotland using an age-old process, beautiful in its simplicity. It uses natural, raw ingredients: malted barley, fresh spring water, yeast, and aging!

Scotch Whisky is normally matured in Charred American White Oak barrels. To qualify to be called a “Scotch”, the alcohol had to age at least 3 years in Charred American oak barrels.

The finishing (final Aging time) is sometimes completed in cherry or port casks for that added interesting taste.

Aging of Whisky

You may have noticed that most high-end Whisky bottle labels show the age of the whisky in years.

That means the whisky is age-defined!

The age definition on the label represents the number of YEARS the youngest whisky in the whisky mix (Blend) spent in the cask to age. That means, e.g. a 12 yo (Twelve-year-old) whisky is made up of predominantly whisky that spent 12 years in the cask to age, but during taste profiling, the master blender may have added some 13yo, maybe some 18yo, etc. to bring that batch up to the world known taste of that whisky as a 12-year-old whisky.

And no, whisky does NOT age further in the bottle, it only ages in the cask!

A non-age statement whisky is when the spirit has been bottled without its maturation age being marked on the label. Often, several ages of spirit are brought together in a vatting pre-bottling and this can be described as a multi-vintage whisky.

A non-age-defined whisky is not necessarily worse than an age-defined whisky.