I recently found myself in a conversation with William C. Meyers, Scotch Enthusiast. (That’s what the card he handed me said.) And enthusiastic about scotch he is. As we chatted he mentioned with some amusement that he’d been looking for rare bottles on Ebay and he came across one unopened bottle of scotch that was declared to be 32 years old. But, he told me, the label clearly said that it was 12 years old so he emailed the seller for clarification. The bottle was bought 20 years ago so 12+20=32 reasoned the seller.

Scotch and other spirits don’t age in the bottle like wine or good beer. When a bottle of whisky declared that it is 9, 12, 20 or whatever number of years old that means that the liquor sat in the barrel that long.

There’s not a lot in whisky when you come right down to it. In fact there’s little more than water and alcohol. One of the primary contributors of the characteristics of whisky that lovers and enthusiasts cherish such as color, aroma, character and flavor is the barrel and it happens during this aging process.

Generally speaking the longer the whisky sits in the barrel the more it will pick up from the barrel and the more it will mellow in flavor and character. But once it is removed from the barrel and bottled this process stops. So, even though the bottle in question was well over thirty years old, the whisky was still only twelve years old.