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The thing is that the age-thing is pure marketing, if someone's making whisky that tastes the same and has the same amount of alcohol I don't really think it's

• _ph_ 7y ago
  No, as long as you prepare whisky in the traditional way, as in aging in barrels, aging is not marketing. Older whiskys tend to be smoother and have more complexity in their taste. While there are good younger ones, 12 years is the default for a good whisky with 15-20 years adding quite a bit quality to that on average. There are alternative ways to create a whisky, I recently had quite an interesting burbon, where the barrels would be subjected to pressure cycles quickly - seems a huge factor in aging is the seasonal changes to the barrel, with the pressure cycles they emulated seasons in a fraction of the time. They got the equivalent of a 12 year old burbon in a couple of months. Also, quite a few large distilleries started whisky editions without a stated age on the label. There they use a mix of barrels, old and young to achieve the taste. But, they either don't state an age or the age of the youngest barrel involved. In any case, stating the wrong age on the label, is plain fraud.