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01 April 2009
The Young Ones
By
Andrew Beach
The marketing mantras have always implied that younger whisky is inferior to its older cousins – but is the tide turning?
Age brings wisdom, maturity and understanding – or so the greybeards tell us. And for whiskies, it brings complexity, depth and taste – or so decades of marketing have told us. In fact, perhaps marketing is too kind a word – brainwashing might be more apt.
But that hasn’t stopped some of the Society’s most successful recent bottlings from being mere whippersnappers – just five years old in some cases. And, with several new or reopened distilleries releasing their first bottlings, there is now a range of young and no-age-given whiskies available on the market. Does this mean we are in the age of the young whisky?
Maybe so, says Jackie Thomson from Ardbeg, the Islay distillery that resumed production in 1997 and has released a series of whiskies with names like Very Young and Still Young. “Ten years ago, young whiskies were drunk behind closed doors,” she said. “The idea behind our very young ‘Peaty Path to Maturity’ bottlings was that there were all these preconceptions out there around whiskies having to be of a certain age, and we stepped outside of those parameters.”
On Islay, there’s a committee for everything, and Jackie is very involved in the Ardbeg Committee – a band of enthusiasts from around the world. Jackie says the first young Ardbeg bottling was produced for Committee members pretty much as a sample. “It was very strong and very young and the feedback we got was fantastic, and that led to the Very Young sequence. It was a means to an end as well, of course, because we wanted to get some whisky on the market and get people to taste what we were making.
“Young whisky, to me, equals young consumer, particularly in northern Europe, where people are very discerning in their taste and want something challenging. Ten or 12 years ago, whisky was perhaps an older man’s domain, there was a bit of snobbishness surrounding it. For such a long time people were hung up on age statements, but we are allowing the whisky to speak for itself.”
But others are keen to show support for older whiskies. Derek Sinclair, Distilleries general manager at Inver House – which produces a number of 20 to 30-year-old malts – is in no doubt about the enduring quality of older drams. “If they are aged in a good quality cask, the flavours do get more complex with age.” Of course, they are also more expensive. “Older whiskies are more of a limited edition product. We have a sampling regime, and only keep ageing whisky if it is clearly special. Others will be bottled earlier, so by the time you get to 30 or 40 years old, you have a very limited number of casks, so there is that appeal of a limited edition.”
But he is quick to agree that some younger whiskies have lots of character and flavour, with lighter, fruity and floral flavours that appeal to a younger market. Inver itself is moving to relaunch its 10-year-old Speyburn as a non-aged whisky, helping it to be marketed as an “entry level” single malt, targeting people who are currently drinking blended whiskies. “We are considering bringing in more non-age statement whiskies, there is definitely a market for it.”
Attitudes towards younger whiskies differ around the world. Ina Kraan, from the Society’s branch in Switzerland, says recent Society bottlings of younger whiskies – such as the five-year-old 121.24 – have proved less popular in Switzerland, but are going down a treat in Austria. “I suppose this shows how tastes and purchasing habits differ from one country to another,” she said. “The Swiss are very much into old whiskies and don’t mind paying the price.”
Ina says that, while the quality of younger whiskies has improved a lot over the last few years, many people are not aware of it. “In the past, young whiskies tended to be harsh and aggressive, but that is no longer necessarily true. If they have a high alcohol content they will still be quite feisty, but a bit of water easily fixes that.”
She adds that the “water question” does present a bit of a problem for young whiskies in Switzerland. “Despite our best efforts over the past 15 years, we still have a considerable number of members who never water their whiskies, and they then often find the young whiskies too fierce to drink.”
Isle of Arran is another new distillery that has had a lot of success with young whiskies. Managing director Euan Mitchell says that although the decision to release young whiskies was dictated by the fact it was a brand new distillery, It was clear even from five years of age that some of our casks were of exceptional quality.
He says there’s no great secret to producing a good young whisky – you put very good quality spirit into very good quality casks. “Arran is a fresh, fruity spirit which does mature quickly so it is very acceptable to the palate at a young age.”
He says that people have been led to believe that older whiskies are better and, as a result, are very surprised by the quality of Arran’s youngsters. “Over the years, people have spent a lot of money buying older whiskies which, quite frankly, are just malts that have lain in a cask for too long. Any real distillery character has disappeared under a tidal wave of sherry or just oak – after 30 years in some instances it could be rum, it could be cognac... they all start to merge in character.
“At the same time, the market has started to see that good, well-made spirit, well matured at a young age is full of distillery character, full of freshness and extremely good. It’s not just ourselves – what’s happened at Ardbeg as well has also grabbed people’s attention.
“Our plan at the moment is to bring in older expressions to the range as the whisky matures, with a core range of ten, 14 and 18-year-olds.” As chairman of the Society’s Tasting Panel, Robin Laing has sampled more whiskies than most, and he believes that young whiskies are benefiting from a greater understanding of maturation, and from increased experimentation, with new wood, unusual wine and spirit casks and the use of smaller casks, which tend to accelerate the process.
“The obvious advantage of younger whiskies is that they are cheaper,” he said. “There are good and rational reasons why old whisky is more expensive – the ‘Angels’ Share’, the cost of warehousing etc – but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is better.
“Are young whiskies now better than they used to be? I think people are more careful about maturation nowadays, and they are experimenting in ways that can improve the results. Generally, I would say that between 12 and 18 years is where you would expect to get an integrated whisky, with the right balance between wood and spirit. After that, you start to see the wood dominating the spirit, although it varies a lot – with some whiskies, the wood can dominate the spirit but it remains a fantastic whisky at 40, others at 30-plus might well be drinkable, but they are just not good enough for the price you would have to ask.
“The reality is, of course, that the rash of new and reopened distilleries that have come on stream in recent years need to get their whisky on the market as soon as possible, and so being able to produce high-quality, young whiskies is very important for them.”
Another veteran of many whisky tastings is Richard Joynson, proprietor of Loch Fyne Whiskies. “What we have been doing in the last few years is getting people to appreciate that young doesn’t necessarily mean bad, and there are some cracking whiskies coming through, with better cask use and understanding of maturation. Now, very few people would say, ‘Oh, it’s only eight years old’, and we have no trouble selling good quality five or six year olds.
“I don’t think that people believe a 30-year-old is necessarily better than a 12-year-old.”
He adds, however, that younger whiskies can be a hit-or-miss affair, sometimes – in ‘finishes’, for example – representing a ‘mark one’ version of the final product. “If you see a bottle on the shelf and it doesn’t have an age statement, you can infer it’s youthful, and you should be aware of that, though there are exceptions – you pays your money and you takes your choice.”
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