Why is “older” whiskey generally considered better than “newer” whiskey? And does this apply to all alcohol?
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The aging process allows the raw spirit to interact with the wood barrel imparting some of it’s flavor. Bourbon gets it’s vanilla flavor from heavily charred American oak barrels. Macalan gets some of its flavor from second hand sherry casks. Obviously the longer the spirit is in contact with the barrel the more flavor and color it acquires
Whiskey and other grain spirits do not age or improve once bottled
Whiskey is aged in oak barrels. The longer it sits there, the more flavors it picks up from the oak (good) and the more stinky volatile compounds (bad) have time to evaporate away. The down-side is that alcohol also evaporates away, so it’s wasting product for the distiller. That makes it more expensive, which some people also read as a signal that it’s better.
When alcohols in general are aged, they tend to lose some of the harsher flavors and absorb good flavor from the wooden barrels it’s aged in as well as it’s environment.
When done properly and intentionally, those are all good things. But all that stops once the alcohol is bottled; time in a bottle doesn’t add anything.
This applies to most alcohols that get “aged”. It’s not the same case for every alcohol, as different traditions and recipes exist. And being aged doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good, if the company making the alcohol did so improperly. But it’s a decent standard to say that an aged alcohol is more flavorful and therefore better than it’s younger counterpart.
When alcohols in general are aged, they tend to lose some of the harsher flavors and absorb good flavor from the wooden barrels it’s aged in as well as it’s environment.
When done properly and intentionally, those are all good things. But all that stops once the alcohol is bottled; time in a bottle doesn’t add anything.
This applies to most alcohols that get “aged”. It’s not the same case for every alcohol, as different traditions and recipes exist. And being aged doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good, if the company making the alcohol did so improperly. But it’s a decent standard to say that an aged alcohol is more flavorful and therefore better than it’s younger counterpart.
Two things happen to whiskey as it ages:
1) It picks up flavor from the casks. This…actually isn’t that hard to accelerate. Adding wood chips or a honey-comb type lattice greatly increases the exposed surface area and thus how quickly it acquires that favor.
2) Sulfates and a few other compounds are able to pass into and through the barrels, leaving the whiskey. These are responsible for a lot of the harsh/unpleasant flavor you get in cheap shooting whiskeys compare to nicer sipping ones and so far there has not been a reliable and cheap way to eliminate them discovered outside of time that doesn’t come with some other downside.
Okay and…3: you get to brag that it’s old and mark up the price. There are diminishing returns for both 1 and 2 as more time passes.
And no, it doesn’t apply to everything. It depends on what’s in the alcohol in the first place and whether you want that particular drink picking up flavors from its container.
Edit for spelling.
Second edit due to number of replies: Sorry y’all, I really should have said something like “two desirable things” or “two main things good for the taste”. There *is* more going on, significantly the evaporation several have mentioned and a small reduction in ABV that comes with it. I was trying to describe the two main reasons aging improves taste/desirability as opposed to things incidental to that effort like the evaporation loss.
Everyone has answered, it’s the time it spends in the barrel that makes the flavor unique.
IMPORTANT THOUGH: once it’s bottled, the flavor won’t change. An 18-year Macallan that was bottled 5 years ago is still an 18-year Macallan. Not a 23-year Macallan.
Also, older doesn’t mean better. It’s just different. I’ve had some old scotches and the old ones aren’t always better.
Everyone has answered, it’s the time it spends in the barrel that makes the flavor unique.
IMPORTANT THOUGH: once it’s bottled, the flavor won’t change. An 18-year Macallan that was bottled 5 years ago is still an 18-year Macallan. Not a 23-year Macallan.
Also, older doesn’t mean better. It’s just different. I’ve had some old scotches and the old ones aren’t always better.
Whiskey is aged in oak barrels. The longer it sits there, the more flavors it picks up from the oak (good) and the more stinky volatile compounds (bad) have time to evaporate away. The down-side is that alcohol also evaporates away, so it’s wasting product for the distiller. That makes it more expensive, which some people also read as a signal that it’s better.
Other people have answered the core question, that time in a barrel allows flavors to develop or for unwanted flavors to age out, but I just want to touch on the concept of an age statement and how useless it is in determining if you’ll like a whiskey (unless you have a bunch of other context about the whiskey).
The age statement refers to the youngest barrel added to the mix. It’s normal for blenders to pick several barrels and mix them to get the desired flavor, you can’t expect every barrel to all be the same. This means there could have been a 26, a 12, and a 6 year old whiskey mixed together and bottled, but the age statement can only say 6 years.
There are also diminishing returns on aging. It is incorrect to say that older is better, and after a while the “aging out” of flavors will start removing things you do want. Note that whiskey only ages in the barrel, the bottle of 10 year old whiskey you bought in ’87 and kept sealed is not now a 46 year old whiskey. Wine ages in the bottle because it isn’t distilled, so there are still bits in the wine which cause aging. Sunlight and oxygen do bad things to whiskey, but a sealed bottle kept out of the sun should basically be a time capsule for whiskey.
And finally, ageing is hugely dependent on climate. You can age a whiskey for years and years in Scotland. Try that in the southern US and you’ll have something completely undrinkable because the heat causes so much more interaction with the wood than the Scottish climate does.
So if someone offers you a 10 year old whiskey and they think they’re being impressive, just humor them, but also if their talking point is the age statement and not what went into the whiskey, or where it was made, or flavor notes, they probably don’t know what they’re talking about.
Some wines can be aged in the bottle. It will mellow the tannins or the harsh astringent taste. But not all wines. Some, particularly whites, can sit around too long and lose flavor or body.
One time I bought a wine from a small producer, and they were adamant that it had to be aged. When I finally opened it 5 years later, it was crap. The winery screwed up when they made it. I think they said that just so people wouldn’t taste it and to sell it.
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