By law, scotch has to be aged at least 3 years. Whisky this young apparently sells well in Italy (oddly enough), but the vast majority of single malt scotch whiskys sold in Virginia will be much older. Many single malt labels will include an age statement, a guarantee that the whisky inside was aged in casks for no less than the specified date from distillation to bottling (unlike wine, whisky does not continue to age once bottled).
Generally speaking, the longer a single malt whisky ages in oak casks, the more it matures, the more sublime it will taste (this is not necessarily true for Islay malts, as aging tends to mellow the powerful peat funk so many maltheads know and love). The more it will cost too, exponentially increasing in price with its relative rarity and increased storage costs. Every year a cask is aged, it can lose to evaporation up to 2.5% of its ABV, affectionately known as the 'angel's share'. After so many years, this leads to diminishing returns as it may endanger the legality of the product if it drops below the requisite 40%.
Some of those single malts reserved for public consumption go through two equally unfortunate extra steps. Chill-filtering is a means of clarifying the haziness of some finished scotches, but many argue the process robs the malt of many of many of the flavors it has worked so hard to develop. Lastly, there is one more ingredient allowable in scotch whisky besides malted barley, water, and yeast - caramel coloring. The new make spirit from the Swan's Neck comes out clear, it's the oak casks that determine the color. However, at their discretion, a little help is needed to nail that gorgeous golden tint before finally filling up the bottle you've been waiting for.
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
You went to the store, picked out a 10 year old Glenmorangie that was on sale (decent choice, but wait'll you try the 18), and you brought it home in its packaging sleeve. Wait a minute, that's weird... All the scotches are covered in those cardboard sleeves, even some of the airplane bottles. Exposure to light and extreme temperature fluctuations are the two main enemies scotch has after bottling. Just keep the sleeve on or keep the bottle in a cabinet, and maybe don't keep it in the attic. There is a fascinating tale about the rediscovery of Sir Ernest Shackleton's stash of scotch that survived 100 years in Antarctica, but I'll save that for another time. But in the meantime, keep your scotch out of the freezer. You'll need that space for that bacon-flavored vodka your brother-in-law brought over to make Bloody Marys.
Once opened, oxidation will slowly alter the taste over a long period of time, more so when you get near the bottom. Less whisky, more oxygen. Rule of thumb, don't buy ten bottles at a time and sip on them over the next decade. Buy one or two, I usually just have one Speyside or Highland malt on hand and one Islay peat monster sitting in my liquor cabinet (I wonder how long that cranberry rum has been hiding in the back, yikes). A decent bottle will run you $40-60 or more anyway. Anything pricier, I just keep an eye out for it at bars and restaurants. I'd gladly splurge on a top shelf $12 dram at a bar rather than drop $80 on a bottle of something that may not float my boat.
So for those of you keeping score at home, there are at least 16 key factors that ultimately affect the quality and complexity of flavors in your scotch:
1. Barley selection
2. Water source (added three times - malting, mashing, and bottling, 4 if you add it yourself)
3. Method drying the malt (peat smoke, hot air, etc.)
4. Mash rest (length and type of mash tun vessel)
5. Yeast selection
6. Length of fermentation in washback vessel
7. Shape of Swan's Necks of the two pot stills
8. Master Distiller's selection of the Heart of the Run/Middle Cut
9. Cask selection(s)
10. Storage climate
11. Length of aging
12. Cask strength ABV or dilution for bottling
13. Chill filtering (or thinking better of it)
14. Proper bottle storage
15. Drinking glass selection
16. Neat, rocks, or water
WRAP IT UP, I'LL TAKE IT
Phew! That was way more background information than I thought I'd have to lay down, and I've barely scratched the surface of the history, manufacturing, and appreciation of scotch. Now that we've had our scotch 'primer', maybe some of the stuff I say in future posts will make more sense.
To me, there is a fundamental difference between enjoyment and appreciation. You can enjoy something without necessarily appreciating its finer points (watching soccer), or even appreciate something without enjoying it (a root canal). A lot of time, effort, and expertise goes into making a single malt scotch. I had already enjoyed drinking it for years, but once I really started to think about it, the more important it became to me to try to appreciate the inner workings of my whisky.
I'll offer up my reviews of the single malts I have tried and enjoyed (or not), delve into some other scotch-related topics, and wherever possible try to relate to my fellow scotch drinkers here around Richmond or elsewhere in Virginia. That last part is really the only twist I can offer that's not all over the internet already and far more sophisticated than my amateur blog can offer. If you managed to read all this so far, I at least hope you learned something about scotch. After all that typing, I could use a drink!
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