Why is “older” whiskey generally considered better than “newer” whiskey? And does this apply to all alcohol?
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Some of it is people who don’t understand whiskey. They see advertising that older is better and just assume that is the case without knowing how it works.
Fresh unaged whiskey doesn’t have much taste to it. The containers you put it in help it develop flavor. So the time the whiskey is sitting in that charred oak barrel it is picking up flavor from the barrel. More time in the barrel lets it pick up more flavor and develop a more interesting taste.
However, more oak flavor isn’t necessarily a good thing. There are limits. Aging a whiskey 100 years wouldn’t make the best tasting whiskey in the world. It would taste like a mouthful of wood. Fortunately the distiller will be testing the flavor and put a stop to it long before that happens.
Sometimes you will prefer the flavor profile of a younger whiskey than an older whiskey.
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